Blowback


Blowback
A clean, well-lit place to vent
Please feel free to contribute to this frequently-updated forum, which posts selected commentary on our favorite comic strip. If you'd like your critique to be posted, please note that civility, if not approbation, counts. Click here to submit a comment.
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NO SOCIAL DISTANCING
Another update on our favorite call-center employee, Austin! I suspect that he is still living at home, still in student debt. Thankfully Trump never did own the company so the paychecks never bounced. Note that the dividers are long gone, resulting in more people packed into the room, with no social distancing and no impractical masks. But Austin will survive. In the last panel, seated behind him, is his future self. (Full disclosure: I worked in a call center and was fired for "failure to meet metrics.")
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APOCALYPSE
A July apocalypse? Really? Wow, that was some kind of prescience on GBT's part, as I know he prepares these Sunday strips weeks in advance. Just this week, President Biden announced that Americans might be safe to hold small gatherings by July 4. Hell yeah, I'll be ready!
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LOVE THEIR COUNTRY
Re today's Say What?: Yes, indeed; people who love their country. They were only looking to hang Pence by the neck until he stopped being treasonous.
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HISTORY
The Trump apologists’ flirtation with reason turned out to be sadly short-lived, as they have since been tripping over each other to get back in line. The real thing to be afraid of is not that they do not read history. It’s that they know their history and expect it to repeat for them in just the way it transpired for Hitler and the Nazis.
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SENATORS' COMMENTS
I read all those comments from the senators in Sunday's strip and thought, "Wait, weren't those made after the first impeachment?" Learned his lesson, my ass.
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MY BEST FRIEND IS 94
Great piece today, timely, and right on. My best friend is 94 now, went through the whole rise and fall of Hitler, and says daily how parallel this all feels. Despite cancer, he is trying to hold on long enough to see how it turns out this time...We need to read history such as this. or we will surely repeat the entire sad story.
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DUKE
Since when do they still allow smoking in bars? Or is Duke still one of those guys who does what he wants and no one messes with him? And note the bartender...pretending to not hear a fascinating conversation behind her.
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BERNIE
I love it when things come together on the Flashbacks page. This week we are introduced to Bernie as he first "appeared" 50 years ago, and then 25 years ago, and Mike and Kim get together while working for him. Bernie doesn't show up often, but he plays a key role.
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SLOTH
Re yesterday's five-years-ago-today Flashback strip: Turns out the man who visited his golf resorts once every five days while President and spent up to seven hours a day watching cable TV had the market on sloth, too. Zero for seven on the Deadly Sins!
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PRICELESS
Roland B. Hedley's rueful look back at the frenetic bygone times superbly captures the essence of apologies pouring forth. The grade in the seventh panel of the strip — priceless!
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FLASHBACKS PAGE
Reading the Flashbacks page for years confirms that this adage has never been truer than it is right now: The more things change the more they stay the same.
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NOTHING WRONG
Prevagen? Bah! Humbug! Don’t need it at all. Nothing wrong with me, except for very minor short-term memory loss. Doesn’t inconvenience me at all. Oh - did I mention that I have short-memory loss?
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EARL
I have been reading Doonesbury since the Minnesota Daily began publishing it when I was a senior at the University of Minnesota. It was only today that I realized Earl was named Earl because Duke was a Duke. I will die having missed 80% of the subtleties, won't I...
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FUNDRAISER
After reading the Prevagen strip on Sunday, I thought about a massive fundraiser to purchase the product for all Republicans. After reading the rest of the news, I sadly realized it was too late.
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PREVAGEN
Yesterday's Prevagen strip deserves to be honored with a public service award. This septuagenarian had seen and heard the ads, but, having little need for the product, also had little grounds to doubt the claims. The ridicule you heaped on them made me do some looking up. That the FTC and NYS Attorney General were charging its purveyors — four years ago — for deceptive claims and fraudulent practices was quite a revelation.
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PLACEBO
Today's "Prevagen placebo" strip is a grand slam. The FDA should never have permitted their outrageous TV ad claims without any apparent clinicals for Prevagen efficacy. Keep up the good work.
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HAVE BEEN MEANING TO
I've been meaning to pick up some Prevagen for some time now...but I keep forgetting. Twice I had it on a shopping list but left my list at home.
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PREVAGEN STRIP
I am in middle school. I loved your Prevagen strip today. I’ve seen the old and new versions of the Prevagen ad and I really liked your take on the original. The current version of the ad isn’t as good because it doesn’t have the jellyfish! They also changed their slogan from “Prevagen. The name to remember” to “Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better Life.” The old slogan was funnier. I wrote to my grandparents to see if they had seen this comic strip, but I’m not sure if they will remember the ads that we watched together. I haven’t seen them since last summer, and this comic strip brought back good memories.
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ZOOM SESSION
Today's Zoom session still has me chuckling! Brilliant!
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YOU LOOK MARVELOUS
Oh! Joanie I so am with you, sister. Every Zoom call is a reminder of how long it's been since 1972, while forgetting all the wonderful and cool we've been and done. You look marvelous. We all do.