Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for February 16, 2011

Has Duke ever rescued anyone before?

Like a doctor with a dying patient. Real smooth!!! Jeez!!

Now that’s a real emergency response team.

you gotta love these guys!!!

Same thing happened with the departing Tunisian ruler.

Paying for it is one thing, getting help out there before the mob gets him is another.

Good to see that in times of crises the Dukes still keep their priorities straight.

The shipping and handling charges are going to be pretty stiff.

Is there a home for retired dictators in South America?

Maybe, Lew, but there’s also a ranch in Texas for retired corrupt leaders.

American Express: Don’t escape your burning palace without it!

Briancrook, that fake ranch was abandoned In January 2009. I don’t know if it has been sold, perhaps it should go back to being a hog farm.

It never ceases to amaze me how liberals, who criticize others for spreading hate, are always saying hateful things.

Definitely a job for Red Rascal. Definitely.

roadrunner, once you learn where they really are, they will cease to amaze you. Ask Nietzsche.

Hopefully Bz’s credit card is the no-limit American Express, as he won’t be leaving home without it.

I’m thinking that Honey is getting ready to lead a parachutist commando raid on the palace. Or, it’s also possible that Duke will tap into the palace PA system and announce that Justin Bieber is appearing in person at the premier of his new movie down the street, and as the excited crowd surges in that direction Bz can sneak away. Stay tuned.

@ mrbribery

A very long time ago there was a sequence where Duke parachuted in somewhere. If I remember right it was a rescue mission where he was being paid a lot of money just like this. He was caught almost immediately of course. The last scene in the storyline had him blindfolded in front of a firing squad.

As the cry of “Ready, Aim” went out he said.

“$500,000 and that’s my final offer.” I forget the exact amount, but it was everything he was being paid for the rescue.

Different stories for several months the Zonker and company started trying to find out what happened to him. One day he shows up and explains, then says “Turns out that was the exact amount needed for a stay of execution.”

But to answer your question, no. I can’t recall him actually ever rescuing anyone. Just one failed attempt.

Kerovan - wasn’t that the Iranian hostage crisis? Duke was the 53rd hostage, known as The Bald One, IIRC.

I agree, RoadRun, that there is nothing amazing about conservatives & regressives saying hateful things.

Personally, I would prefer to endorse a political philosophy that is based on love & the commonweal, even if it occasionally fails, over a political philosophy based on hatred & self-interest, even if it always holds to such principles.

Kerovan, Jim Andrews, oil magnate, had paid Duke, just before the Iranian uprising of 1979, to deliver money to a lowly Iranian oil worker in order to ensure the supply to Andrews’s company.

Duke botched the work, was arrested and was abiout to be shot when the uprising distracted all, and he became the “53rd hostage”.

As far as this week’s story is concerned, I would love to read of the exile–or even execution–of President Brxymtrzkl (spelling?)

Yes, it was around ‘79-80. I thought he, being Duke, saw an opportunity for “achievement”. I forget if it was an opportunity to free the hostages (or secure their release) or the opportunities that freeing them would create for him.

Didn’t he parachute in somewhere with a knife and a molotov cocktail - or was that just the cover of one of the books?

IIRC, Trudeau then left Duke’s fate a mystery until after the hostages were freed.

I think Duke was eventually discovered by Rick Redfern to have been sold as a zombie to Baby Doc Duvalier. Or was that a later storyline?

Thirdguy: Ah no! Actually you’ve got to despise them.

These speculative comments and wishful scenarios are a clear sign that Doonesbury has momentarily lost touch with history. G.T.’s prophetic fantasy could take him only so far; to be exact, less than two weeks into the future.

We’re all hungry for news of the revolution, but no one can provide it—not even the players themselves such as the Army Council. Revolution is literally unthinkable. We have to wait for the will of the people to express itself in the form of a recognizable new order.

The new order could start with an act of justice: trying some of Mubarak’s thugs, for example, or punishing Lara Logan’s rapists.

@palin drome Lara Logan’s rapist? Heard she was sexually assaulted.

Has to use American Express, ‘cause he can’t get a Visa from anyone?

True, dtroutma. More People Go With Visa, and It’s Everywhere You Want To Be (anywhere other than this palace at the moment) but like many dictators, Bmz is used to having things Carte Blanche. It Pays to Discover that things have now changed, Bmz.

There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else there’s Duke and Son. What’s in YOUR wallet, Mr. President for Life?

Money talks, boolsheet walks.

Is someone here actually under the impression that rape is something OTHER than sexual assault?

Have you bought the Republican line that there’s “forcible” rape and, um, everything else?

Going back to the where-to-stow-the dictator line, France is really good for that. Bring the dictators on!

Duke was military governor general for life of somewhere, with Honey as chief of staff, & was himself deposed. He’s going to need her, & she knows not to trust him without cash in hand.

diggitt, I would imagine that all rape is sexual assault, but not all sexual assault is rape. It may be a legal distinction or it may just be a euphemism, but what I’ve heard is still “she was sexually assaulted” and not “she was raped.”

Has Duke sobered up? No buzz bubbles.

If Bmz… wants to save his priceless ɐss, he’ll need a Mastercard.

mrbribery said, about 19 hours ago

Has Duke ever rescued anyone before?

Yes, if you count him. He managed to escape from brainwashing and enslavement from Baby Doc.