195

Sneak inta
Posted on May 30, 2022 by David M Willis

195 thoughts on “Sneak inta”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    I was half expecting a discussion about the one with Peter Cushing

    1. RassilonTDavros

      …which one?

      1. Clif

        Tarkin discusses exit strategy with Anakin and Obi-Wan
        https://rebelcels.com/866-2/

      2. Ana Chronistic

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_(1968_film)

  2. The Wellerman

    Political corruption…. there was a lot of friction here yesterday and something tells me it’s only gonna continue. ?

    For those who want a little break from hard discussion:

    1. There are lots of things that mustard goes better on than perfesser outfits. Let me know your favorite below!

    2. If you haven’t yet already, please fill out the survey to help me find a voice actor for Dina!!!

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCOysG-mfoxbNbDuxAvQMGKcI9xUggVAb15IkJM8fp7e6QKw/viewform

    1. jackiedu46k

      Yeah I got something mustard goes good with. The trash can! ????

    2. Bruceski

      Cold roast beef sandwich, it’s a far superior condiment than mayo.

      1. StClair

        Cold roast beef or hot cheeseburger (with ketchup et al, of course).

    3. Opus the Poet

      I’m gonna go out on a limb and say Potato Salad. I love mustard potato salad.

    4. Hof1991

      Made Cuban sandwiches yesterday and mustard is a key ingredient.

    5. Blue

      Soft Pretzels!

    6. Andy

      Bratwurst is my favorite for spicy brown mustard. There’s a turkey wrap with apple butter, bacon, and herb mayo that a local deli does that’s my favorite for honey mustard.

    7. Decidedly Orthogonal

      I really enjoy mustard on a classic jumbo beef and pork hotdog with cheese and onions. Maybe a little relish and sauerkraut.

      Alt: go top shelf and get an italian roll, german sausage, brie and caramelized onions with a nice french dijon. Large gherkin on the side.

      Ham or turkey sammich.

  3. jackiedu46k

    MAN archive binging feels very different from actually waiting for day to day updates! How did you guys do this for 10 ol years? It’s been two months and now I’m biting my own fingers off waiting for so many shoes to drop.

    1. Sunday

      me having just caught up like 2 days ago, i am VERY aware of how agonizing the wait is

      1. True Survivor

        At least we have the comment section to spiral into madness together in.

        One of Us.
        One of Us.
        One of Us.
        One of Us.
        One of Us.
        ONE OF US!
        ONE OF US!
        ONE OF US!
        ONE OF US!!!!

      2. jackiedu46k

        Oof that has got to hurt. Like before you’d spot something incoming and BAM you got to see it fall but now you’ve got to sit on your hands, vibrating with nervous energy.

      3. Decidedly Orthogonal

        Go catch up on a once a week or sporadic comic and get back to us. I’ve been following web-comics from the beginning, before 2.0 was almost a chapter 11 apple in a marketer’s eye. When people were making comics in hand written html on whatever free hosting they could find. Comics that I remember in fog, but vanished with a buyout, amalgamation and consolidation of services in the host company. Maybe they still exist on a dusty tape, or in a forgotten server harddrive, pulled for some error and forgot in the bottom of some tech’s filing cabinet. Authors unknown, unreachable. The jokes in the machine.

    2. True Survivor

      I know I only caught up in the last year and it is agonizing. Even at the frankly insane rate of a strip a day, it takes like what a year to go through two days of in world time.
      You can’t do this to us Willis. The Achieve gave us an undeserved sense of entightlemeant. You gave us a feast so that we would understand the depths of our starvation.

      1. jackiedu46k

        I constantly look at the little buffer watch thing on the side of the site with incredible jealousy.

        1. The Wellerman

          Seeing you all starving….

          Would a Dumbing of Age video game do any good to satisfy the craving?

        2. jackiedu46k

          I hope so! I did see your post but cannot voice act Dina.
          What kind of gameplay are you going for?

        3. The Wellerman

          Spoilers! ?

          But i actually did make a game with Joyce a while back:

          https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/830313

          Enjoy! ? ?

        4. jackiedu46k

          I did play it! It’s pretty neat!

        5. The Wellerman

          Actually, I’m actively looking for help with my next DOA fan game,

          If you or someone you know can help with sound or voice acting or anything else, don’t hesitate to message me!

          My discord can be found by clicking my name! ?

        6. jackiedu46k

          Hmm. I could be ineplicably french Danny, inexplicabily french and small joe or inexplicably male ruth. Your choice!

        7. The Wellerman

          Huh. Not a lot of French rep in the comic is there?

          Awe well. You good with audio engineering or art?

          If not, thanks anyway and spred the word to friends and family who you think might be interested! I’d very much appreciate that! ?

        8. jackiedu46k

          Hah, I don’t know anyone online into DoA!
          Anyways i can give repressing the accent a shot. I apparently don’t actually sound that french.

    3. RassilonTDavros

      Speaking as someone who’s currently a little over a year post-initial-binge:

      One good thing to do is to comment a lot and, in the process of interacting, realize how many things you fundamentally misread the first time. There were several, in my case.

      If it’s binging you’re after, I’d say your best bet is to dig into the extra-curricular Willis material outside of the required class reading– the four comics in the previous “Walkyverse” continuity that collectively ran from 1997-2015 (with the caveat that some parts of it have aged a lot worse than others). They’re set in a completely separate continuity from Dumbing of Age, but starring alternate versions of most of its cast.

      1. jackiedu46k

        I read all of Shortpacked! but the Joyce and Walky! site just has a kinda weird layout.
        Also the Head Alien thing came out of left field so hard I don’t know if ill be able to mentally prepare hard enough to read Roomies!
        I also like being unaware of the possibility of Joyce being involved with Danny or something.

        1. Needfuldoer

          The site layout isn’t that different from this one. They’re both running ComicPress.

          https://www.itswalky.com/comic/and-now/

    4. Thag Simmons

      Eh, you get used to it.

      At least Dumbing of Age updates daily. Order of the Stick is like, twice a month

      1. PirateTawnee

        Is it that many? I don’t know how fast my browser settings for “forget you ever visited this page, it was so long ago” are, but there are only six links on the index page currently a different colour.

        1. Rose Red

          some months there are many updates

          many months there are none

      2. AbacusWizard

        “At least Dumbing of Age updates daily. Order of the Stick is like, twice a month”

        *laughs in Dresden Codak*

        1. Opus the Poet

          Laughs in Sidekick Girl, Everyday Heroes, Atomic Laundromat, Kiwi Blitz…

        2. Clif

          That reminds me that it’s time for my monthly check on Basileus, a charming rougue with a penchant for philosophy. http://www.basileuscomic.com/ It gets updated when it’s creator is between projects.

        3. foamy

          Hey, KB updated regularly for a long time. It just fell off given Cube’s other (and, TBH, better) regular comic, Sleepless Domain.

      3. justin8448

        I see you all have yet to be introduced to the bittersweet joy that is Cassiopia Quinn.

    5. powerpowerpow

      I can relate. I started reading in late 2019. Welcome to the present!

    6. Kaiyalai

      DOA is my balm for when I’m waiting on 3-a-week comics to update.

      Also the Patreon bonus comics help.

    7. jonrock411

      As someone who started reading this day one, it can be a bit anxiety-inducing, but honestly I’m just used to it at this point.

    8. Deathjavu

      I always get withdrawal after finishing an archive binge. But as many people have noted, DoA updates more frequently than…basically any other comic? So that’s nice.

    9. Mravac Kid

      10 years? much closer to 20… 🙂

  4. RassilonTDavros

    …so does this mean that Robin perceives what corruption she did get up to during her time in office as not “on purpose”? To the extent that she even realizes she was corrupt at all, anyway.

    1. True Survivor

      I don’t know. I’m just surprised there were lines she wasn’t willing to cross.

      1. C.T. Phipps

        Well we know she wasn’t willing to let Ryan go quietly. So, yes, she is in fact not great about covering up for sexual predators.

        …

        Man, no wonder her career failed with the GOP.

        1. C.T. Phipps

          I feel disgusted that’s not even a joke.

      2. drs

        Or lines she didn’t have the means to cross.

    2. Thag Simmons

      I think she’s saying she was bad at it.

    3. thejeff

      Do we have any reason to think she was corrupt? Or at least the kind of corruption that gets you in legal/political trouble rather than more routine campaign contribution/access stuff.

      This strip on its own kind of implies she got in trouble for some such, but we know that what got her in political trouble had nothing to do with corruption.

      1. JBento

        Robin saying “I did not do that kind” sorta suggests she did other kinds, but I’m always leery of attributing much meaning to the last line or panel of a strip (depending), because they so often have no other purpose than being the punchline.

        1. Needfuldoer

          I read that as an “as you can see, I do not have a cushy multi-million-dollar lobbying job, so I didn’t do that kind of corruption”.

        2. thejeff

          Yeah, literally all she says is that she didn’t do that particular kind of corruption which literally says nothing about other kinds, but the phrasing implies she did other kinds and some people here are definitely reading it that way.

          Honestly, from what we know, if Robin did any corruption it was that kind – the routine seek campaign contributions and vote and advocate accordingly kind. It’s just that her career blew up in a scandal that wasn’t politically useful to going on to a lobbying or commentary gig.

        3. JBento

          OTOH, I can totally see people just stop bribing Robin after the first couple of times because she kept forgetting what she was supposed to do in exchange for the money.

        4. thejeff

          Bribe her staffers instead – they’re the ones who told her what to do.

          Got a little harder when she only had “Aide” left and he was a lamp.

        5. JBento

          On the upside, he brightened up at the flick of switch.

    4. Mturtle7

      No, she just means she didn’t get a cushy multi-millionaire job in the private sector. Instead, she got a middling job as a poli-sci lecturer for a local university, which is absurdly underwhelming if you think about it.

  5. BBCC

    And what did you learn from that, Robin?

    ….DO “THE RIGHT KIND” IS NOT WHAT WE LEARNED.

    1. StClair

      IMO Robin’s life goals include learning as little as possible.
      From everything.

  6. Yotomoe

    It’s pretty hard to work in government or any sorta high influence job and NOT end up corrupt. Just sorta comes with the territory. I don’t even mean this as a jab at all politicians. The system basically DEMANDS it.

    1. Rose by Any Other Name

      CGP Grey even did a video on it. It’s super depressing.

      1. Needfuldoer

        “The Rules for Rulers”? That’s a good one!

        TL;DW: Everyone wants their piece of the pie. If you’re in charge, you’d better give them theirs because if you don’t they’ll replace you with someone who will.

  7. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    Dumbing of Age Book 12: Corruption! Don’t do it!

    1. Clif

      You left out the unless clause.

  8. Sunday

    The jacket and the pipe were a package deal. All or nothin’ baby!!

    1. Needfuldoer

      The pipe was getting all crusty with bubble juice residue so it’s in her dishwasher.

      1. SeanR

        Which means she’s probably going to get back to her apartment to find the kitchen floor is covered with the suds that escaped the dishwasher.

  9. True Survivor

    This has been bothering me. In yesterday’s strip, there is word in the background we never see in full (at least clearly). At first I thought it was Poli-Science misspelled with a ‘Y’ but looking closer it looks closer to Poly-Psych maybe. However I don’t think that is a word. Does anyone know what that word is?

    1. jackiedu46k

      The full word appears to be poly-psyched.
      Most likely part of a slogan of some description.

    2. Sunday

      Look like it says “Poly-Psyched” so just some cheeky wordplay. You can see the end of the word in the first panel

      1. True Survivor

        Thanks guys. That makes sense.

  10. Bagge

    It aint a crime if most of the people who decide what’s a crime really want to do it.

    1. PirateTawnee

      It ain’t a crime if the guy who wrote the law apologises for breaking the law he wrote, then breaks the code his job requires him to honour, on pain of resignation, in his denials of breaking the law he wrote, then rewrites the code his job requires him to honour, on pain of resignation, so that breaking the code no longer requires him to resign when he breaks it.

      Tldr Boris Johnson can go die in a fire.

      1. JBento

        Who knew that letting people make the rules for themselves wasn’t a great move?

        (Everyone. Everyone knew.)

  11. Dean

    “If you DON’T do that kind of corruption, ya might wind up in a classroom teachin’ poli-sci to a buncha nerds. So be warned!”

  12. C.T. Phipps

    How bad of a GOP politician do you have to be not to have millions waiting for you after your career ends?

    Apparently, someone not completely reprehensible.

    1. Agemegos

      Or so reprehensible that they don’t have to be bribed.

      1. JBento

        Someone published the bribe amounts a couple of years ago. It was ridiculously low for what it gets you, like a couple of thousand dollars.

  13. Yotomoe

    Still decompressing after the con so no comic. So have this quick 5 or so minute doodle of jennifer and Joyce
    https://imgur.com/a/4dehODn

    1. Sirksome

      Isn’t it great how canonically they are the closest friends in the entire cast?

      1. Yotomoe

        hm. I guess for the time being they are! At least the best friends that aren’t dating right now. Billie’s kinda wrestling for that title with Dotty and Sarah but is winning since they’re both kinda at odds with Joyce right now for different reasons.
        Kinda makes me sad it’s not Walky n’ Billie

    2. StClair

      boobs

      cute!

      1. Yotomoe

        You were right the first time 😀

    3. jackiedu46k

      This is so cute! I love how the Joyciffer friendship is on the rise again. Standing through the tests of time! Becky & Dotty could never.

    4. EpochFlame

      very cute!

  14. Sirksome

    I mean corruption is kind of an open ended term. I need specifics. What if I’m just willing to except bribes in exchange for voting on a few things I don’t really care about? Then when anyone asks I just say I gotta be loyal to my constituents.

    1. Sunday

      “My very heavily gerrymandered and loyal constituents!”

    2. deathjavu

      Whoa whoa whoa. They’re not “bribes”, they’re “campaign contributions”. Just because they aren’t required to account for the money basically at all doesn’t make it a bribe! Totally different things, somehow.

    3. JBento

      Fuck, who let Susan Collins in here?

  15. Bicycle Bill

    Just to refresh my memory – Robin was supposed to be a Republican in the Indiana legislature, right?

    1. Taffy

      Pretty sure she was supposed to be more of a punchline.

      1. Sombrero

        I heard Punchline Republicans are the current rage in the primaries.

    2. jackiedu46k

      Yes but in order to not get “ratioed” on twitter she had to adopt whatever left wing policies her twitter talked about.

      1. Thag Simmons

        It was less about not being ratioed and more about being cut off from party support, she really didn’t have much to lose

        1. Yotomoe

          I’ve always seen Robin’s Republican run just being more of playing to her audience than anything. Like “oh, wanna be in a leadership position in Indiana. You’re probably gonna wanna go red.” Considering how she always seemed to act like all of the stuff she did was just a “oh I have to do this as part of the job. Lame.”

          Then again I’m probably just reading her like that cuz I know Robin from Shortpacked.

        2. Needfuldoer

          Yup. It seems like she let her aides and advisors set a lot of her policy and just went along with their guidance, trusting them to keep her popular. The whole point of getting elected is to keep getting elected, right?

    3. Agemegos

      Was she? I thought she was in the US Congress.

      1. King Daniel

        Yes, Robin was part of the Federal-level government, specifically a member of the House of Representatives.

      2. Bicycle Bill

        I thought she had been a state senator, although I’ll admit I didn’t do a whole lot of archive-diving to try to find the answer myself.

    4. Needfuldoer

      She was a Representative in Congress, not a state rep.

    5. Opus the Poet

      AFAIK she represented IU and other people in Congress. And got dumped when IU voted for the Democrat. IRL Indiana responded by putting IU dorms in 2 or 3 different districts.

      1. thejeff

        IU and a lot of other people – plenty of rural whites to offset the liberal college kids. As she said in her first arc “an allll down here live all the peeps who think yer a hellbound slut and those peeps are what keep me in office.”

        She didn’t get dumped though – the scandal with Leslie (and Becky’s twitter sabotage) got her dumped from the Republican Party and basically killed her chances until she got a big sympathy bump after the kidnapping. Then she conceded.

  16. Reltzik

    Alt-text: It’s less of an exit strategy and more of a revolving-door strategy.

  17. C.T. Phipps

    I still think Robin giving up her job in Congress was a mistake. I think she could have done more good as an independent than her opponent who only won because she sabotaged the Republican campaign. Becky could have been a powerful force with her puppet.

    1. Slarstorm

      People with good intentions in politics don’t last.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Maybe that would work in an election system that isn’t first-past-the-post.

      Robin staying in the race as an independent would have mostly just split the Republican votes between her and whoever the GOP decided to throw money at. Problem for them is, they were invested in getting her reelected and she dropped out too late in the race for them to spin someone else up, so they probably just wrote her seat off and looked ahead to the next primary.

      That’s why third parties aren’t viable in the US: they just siphon votes from whichever of the big two they more closely align with. Throw in decades of “voting is a binary decision” marketing, and a country full of voters who can’t understand anything more complicated than a “simple” either-or decision, and you end up where we are today.

      1. Opus the Poet

        Actually that’s the natural outcome of any “first past the post” election system. There’s a YouTube video that explains it and even used the early US as an example of how that works. I don’t remember how many parties there were in 1787 but there were a lot more than we have now, but by the time of the 1812 war we only had 2, and the most recent successful 3rd party was the Republicans around the start of the Civil War. Turns out having an extremely polarizing debate that one party kinda dropped out from will kick a 3rd party into promenence

        1. thejeff

          Even in the late 1700s it quickly settled into 2 parties. There have always been a few more floating around and they’ve occasionally had the occasional governor or Congresscritter, but Presidents and Congress have always been dominated by the 2 major parties at the time. The only real exception being Washington himself who avoided being linked to either the Federalists or the Democratic-Republicans, though the former largely supported him.

          Changes in party systems tended to be driven by the collapse of one of the major parties rather then the rise of a 3rd party – prior to the Civil War the Whigs collapsed and split apart making space for the rise of the Republicans (and the Know-Nothings and some other less successful groups, but the Republicans won out.) A lot of prominent Republicans had previously been Whigs.

        2. JBento

          Wait, was that their official name? Someone actually formed a political party called “the Know-Nothings”?

        3. thejeff

          Not officially. Officially it was first the Native American Party and later the American Party, but it was the political wing of an anti-Catholic populist movement. The movement was secretive and members were supposed to answer “I know nothing” to any questions about it.
          They were actually progressive in economic terms – labor rights and regulation of industry and even in the rights of women, but xenophobic.

        4. JBento

          “it was first the Native American Party”

          I cannot facepalm enough.

      2. thejeff

        In the race as a Independent sure, but that wouldn’t have applied in this election, since it was too late. She was on the ballot as a Republican and there was no way to replace her. Even if she’d declared herself an Independent, no Republican could have swooped in to compete. (Maybe as a write in, but this late that’s practically doomed.)

        She could certainly have declared herself independent after winning. Then she’d want to make a deal with one of the major parties – basically functioning as an unofficial member in exchange for committee seats and the like. Probably the Democrats, since Republicans had already cut her off. Or she could just join the Democratic party – it fits what she campaigned on better than the GOP does. There were definitely routes for Robin to stay in office and still do good work.

        As for third parties more generally: The first-past-the-post system along with the direction election of the President rather than a Prime Minister kind of executive pretty much makes them irrelevant. Far more than the “binary decision marketing” and “voters who can’t understand”. When it comes to voters, a lot of what makes it not work is voters who ignore the primaries and then lament the choices they get.
        One way to look at the difference between a multi-party parliamentary system and the US version is that in one you elect politicians and then they form coalitions to form a majority, while in ours the politicians form coalitions first and then we elect one of them. Primaries are how you try to boost your viewpoint within the coalition.

    3. Johan

      She didn’t give up she wasn’t voted in.

  18. Sirksome

    Robin shouldn’t sell herself to short here. She’s done a good enough job she can easily transition to being an alt right mouthpiece for Fox or OAN. I’m sure she’s imaginative enough to create enough bullshit conspiracies to fill the time slot. From there she can leverage that into a podcast and make even more money using the platform to shill worthless multi-vitamins and supplements! Next thing you know she’s a guest speaker at the next RNC and shaking hands with what could be the future president!

    1. thejeff

      I think she’s basically burned her bridges with that crowd, but then I don’t really get how her political journey is supposed to have worked.

      1. Sirksome

        She apparently ran for congress at age 25 but why she did or how she won are still mysteries. Based on her implied political career I assume she just took the path of least resistance. She just doesn’t seem very passionate about political activism.

        It could be that she just had the right look at the right time, for instance her district could have a lot of Latino families so the bland and boring white dude running on the democrat ballot lost some key minority votes.

        It would be interesting to know more details on that but I don’t really care about Robin much and she’s not hugely focused on unless Becky is involved.

      2. C.T. Phipps

        Yes, I think some fans have missed that Robin went through a redemption arc.

        1. thejeff

          Partly. She’s still a nightmare to deal with, but she’s no longer a Republican politician.

  19. Reed

    Sure, when Robin does a corruption she gets a job she isn’t qualified for, but when I do it all of a sudden it’s “Sir, please stop torturing the souls of the many and darkening our lands with your foul blight.”

    1. Sirksome

      See the problem is that you’re being too obvious with your corruption. You need to spin it better. The “many” you’re torturing…they’re “illegal immigrants” and actually they deserve to be tortured because they and not you are the cause of the blight. Also you’re creating jobs by training people in the art of torture, that isn’t even “torture” which is just a liberal buzz word for government sponsored, corporal, rehabilitation! You’re actually a hero!

      1. JBento

        No, no, you do it like this:

        I tortured all those people, but they’re only complaining because they’re weak. I mean, who cries because of a little torture, am I right? *crowd laughs* Actually, I prefer people who don’t let themselves get tortured. Like you guys, you guys would never let yourselves get tortured, right? *crowd cheers* And with your help, I’ll have another four years to torture these people and own the libs some more! *crowd erupts in applause*

        And then you get elected PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, WOOOOO!

  20. Heather

    Didn’t Robin say she’d die in the private sector when they were negotiating her soul for accommodations and tuition money? I mean Becky’s position as campaign manager?

    (I mean a part of me gets why Becky did it and all, student loans in the US sound like a special kind of hell that even she’d have troubles accessing and it half sounds like the military is half served by people making similar decisions).

    But it does make me wonder how Becky hasn’t run into anyone outside of Roz mad at her for doing that. I mean I doubt we will now: that plot point is now well past and back in the time skip period but like has Becky tried to join an LGBT+ group? Have any of the reactions to her been… mixed based on her brief political career? Couldn’t blame them for being angry at her either at the time or still shortly after Robin finally dipped because that was too close for comfort.

    Eh. Might make for a good fanfic idea.

    1. Wraithy2773

      She wasn’t in congress for long enough to do enough corruption to secure her exit strategy.

    2. C.T. Phipps

      I mean, Becky got Robin to become incredibly Left Wing and then resign.

      Who would be mad at her?

      1. Heather

        It was established when making the deal Robin wasn’t actually changing policies. The ‘pick two’ option and all that so when it started it was all hot air and any idea she would change would be seen as ridiculously naive: frankly Becky got incredibly lucky that Robin can actually feel something like guilt. It so easily could have blown up in her face given the fact Robin supported a bill which was to discriminate against them more easily.

        Robin if she was real would have been part of an environment which definitely killed people in the past by embolding bigoted parents and other communities because of her support for such policies. There shall always be people who will despise Robin in universe and they have every right to. She will have done damage: and at least some of that can’t ever be taken back. So there will be people who will never forgive her. But it’s really more people hating her *while* she was the campaign manager or at least giving a snide ‘wow you are so lucky that did not blow up in our faces’ soon afterwards before moving on. Like I could see people seething at her if she’d tried to join a group at the time. Like I said: it’s a dead plot point now really.

        Though actually: would be interesting to see Robin go through this. It would be pretty dark though this comic tends not to be a stranger to that. Like Becky I feel could be forgiven by now for it by most but Robin herself? Ehhhh. Up in the air.

        1. C.T. Phipps

          I mean didn’t that arc actually happen? Dorothy called Robin out for all of her evil policies (which she absolutely did vote for) and Robin freaked the hell out at the fact they had consequences. It was in Leslie’s class no less and helped remind her that Robin was awful.

        2. thejeff

          But if she was real, then hiring a 18 year old lesbian campaign manager who had her campaign on a hard left agenda would just have sunk her career without a trace. Everything Becky did for her campaign should have cost her base Republican votes without picking up more than a handful of very naive leftists.
          Before she was hired as campaign manager, Becky was sabotaging Robin’s career by hijacking her phone and tweeting left ideas. After she was hired, that’s what she continued doing.

          If it had worked, if that was somehow actually a winning campaign strategy in Indiana as a Republican, why wouldn’t Robin have continued it? She’s not ideologically attached to any Republican positions, she was just trying to get elected. If Becky’s policies get her elected, continuing them only makes sense.

        3. C.T. Phipps

          Robin was going to win, that was canon.

          And Robin gave up the position because she wanted Becky’s respect more.

        4. thejeff

          IIRC, it was only canon after the kidnapping incident. Which I can kind of believe – a massive sympathy boost over the attack on her campaign manager.
          Before that, the last word we had was that she was way behind. I can’t really blame Becky for not anticipating that her dad kidnapping her friends would boost Robin to victory.

          If people want to blame Becky’s job for Robin coming close to victory, they’ve got to acknowledge that it was her advocacy for left (or at least very liberal) positions that did it. Which makes no sense to me, but if so it seems like that would push Robin to keep up those popular ideas that had kept her in office.

        5. Opus the Poet

          Robin gave Becky the job because Robin’s campaign experienced a bump in polling after Becky swiped her phone. The hope was she could continue that through the election and re-elect Robin.

        6. thejeff

          I don’t think that’s quite true. She was getting likes on Twitter for it. I might have forgotten, but I don’t remember anything about polling.

          Becky swiped her phone while she was at Leslie’s in the midst of the lesbian scandal. Any polling wouldn’t have been able to separate the effects.

        7. Ed Callahan

          Becky took the job because Robin had blown up her campaign and lost GOP endorsement. And Becky was such a rank amateur she could only make things worse, and that’s what she was counting on. She wanted a place to live and tuition, but she didn’t want Robin to win.
          Becky, however, failed at failing and Robin’s campaign started turning around. And then the kidnapping made Becky a hero and the reflected glory was going to put Robin back in Congress. And Becky was horrified. And she told Robin all about it. And Robin was horrified Becky had such a low opinion of her that she withdrew from the race to try and win at least a little respect from Becky.

        8. thejeff

          Source for the campaign turning around before the kidnapping? To be fair, I could have blocked it out since it makes no sense at all to me that some 18 year old tweeting about leftist policies would get a Republican elected in Indiana, but I don’t remember it. I remember Roz panicking about it, but that wasn’t based on data, just Robin-related trauma.

  21. eh, whatever

    Ah, America, where schoolchildren are called “students” and students are treated like children.

    1. StClair

      and sometimes they get shot. 🙁

      1. Taffy

        “Sometimes”

        1. Clif

          If they would just institute storm trooper style mandatory markmanship training, the problem would be solved.

        2. Taffy

          I’m not sure if giving every child a gun and teaching them how to use it is a good way to reduce problems, but I’m also not a weirdo.

        3. Reaver

          But Stormtroopers cant hit anything…

        4. deathjavu

          Exactly, once the shooters have storm trooper training they won’t be able to hit anyone! It’s foolproof /s

        5. SeanR

          I saw a nice video that debated that. It pointed out that the stormtroopers were plenty deadly, when they were ordered to be. R2D2 and C3PO got away by the skin of their teeth. The jawas were slaughtered with precision. It’s only when the Empire WANTED the Millenium Falcon to escape, because it had a tracking device on it, that the stormtroopers couldn’t seem to hit the broad side of a medium cargo hauler.

        6. Agemegos

          Unfortunately the writers of the later productions seem to have missed the point (in the original Star Wars) that when the storm troopers missed the heroes it was because Darth Vader’s plan was for the heroes to escape in their ship with the tracer on it. Like so many others.

    2. Cerusee

      Kinda depends on the class and instructor, at the college level. I had professors who did rigorously track attendance and would even dock your grade if you skipped X number of times (without a doctor’s note or some other official excuse). And I’ve had professors who dngaf who showed up. Sometimes it’s about the size of the class, too—missing class when it’s a massive lecture-style class with 80 students is a much less big deal than skipping an eight-person discussion seminar, or even a mid-size class with a lot of discussion and group exercises. Given the crowd for this class (it’s supposed to be a very popular class, thanks to previously being taught by a prominent, in-demand professor, before Robin took over), I doubt Robin would even have noticed Joyce coming in, if she’d been able to come in via the back.

      1. Agemegos

        “a massive lecture-style class with 80 students”

        The lectures for my first-year Economics class at ANU in 1986 had 650 students in the lecture theatre.

        1. Cerusee

          I may have been lowballing. I went to a smaller school!

  22. Eldritchy

    Ha! You don’t know corruption unless you have bribed a doctor with a package of eggs to get any kind of good treatment at the hospital.

    1. Amós Batista

      what? Where? Is it possible??

      1. Eldritchy

        That’s how we rolled in Communist (and a bit Post-Communist) Poland. Westerners can’t imagine the level of corruption in that system. Everyone stole and everyone took bribes. Shop workers would accept bribes to inform people when new good would arrive and factory workers would steal shit from the factory.

        1. deathjavu

          This is also what I have heard from a good friends parents, who escaped from communist Romania – it was effectively impossible to do *anything* without bribing someone. That was just how the system “worked”, insofar as it could be said to be working at all.

        2. StClair

          a barter economy existing alongside one that pretends it’s not.

        3. thejeff

          Or still in Russia – See reports of massive military corruption at all levels crippling the army.
          You can see it, maybe in a lesser degree, in a underdeveloped countries.

          It’s really common in the West, or at least the US, to see the corruption we have and not being able to conceive of how much worse it can be. Or has been.

        4. Eldritchy

          Yup, corruption and stealing on all levels is said to be a large part of why the Russians are doing so badly in Ukraine.

        5. thejeff

          Yeah, but I’ve had arguments with people in the US claiming that our military (and defense contractor companies) are just as corrupt. Which is absurd, but tricky to argue, because there certainly is corruption, it’s just not on anything like the same kind of level.

        6. Opus the Poet

          Our corruption is a different flavor than Russian, in that our armed forces have real weapons and not just parade props. They cost too much, but at least we know they work before we send troops to fight with them.

        7. Eldritchy

          Pretty much, yeah, in US it’s more of a skimming off of the top of the money pile to line your pockets, it doesn’t have all That much effect on the quality of stuff soldiers receive but drastically increases costs, which US can pay because of its ludicrous Defence budget. Meanwhile in Russia the corruption is on all levels and people are too focused on lining their own pockets and securing their livelihood (especially on the lower levels) to even care if the system functions.

        8. Agemegos

          As one example among hundreds, the Russians lost a $25 000 000 air defence battery because some sergeant sold $200 worth of diesel fuel for $100 to buy food and vodka.

  23. Rabisch

    I wonder if Robin regret to not have done that or she’s happy with being a professor in her sister university. Anyway, Robin has a wonderful smile, she seems so proud of Joyce ♡.

    1. Daibhid C

      Does Robin regret doing the thing she says you should totally do because she didn’t? Who can say?

  24. Darkoneko

    …what about other kinds ?

    1. Daibhid C

      The kind where you just lose your political career and end up in a poorly-paid teaching you know you’ll be exposed as completely unqualified for eventually? Yeah, don’t do that kind.

      1. thejeff

        Except it wasn’t corruption that led to that.

        1. C.T. Phipps

          Technically, Robin said her entire career was corruption until she turned around at the last second. Robin was solely motivated by financial success versus ideology until Becky made it clear she was hurting people.

        2. thejeff

          Source for that?

        3. Opus the Poet

          Books nine and ten?

        4. C.T. Phipps

          Which part are you disputing, thejeff?

          I mean, it’s Robin’s character arc she was never a true believer before Becky made her choose between her career and doing the right thing. Which Robin did the latter of.

        5. thejeff

          “Corruption”. Unless you’re talking the “anyone in politics is corrupt” version, which you probably were looking back on it, but which wasn’t really the topic.

        6. C.T. Phipps

          Her sister talked at length about how Robin had multiple houses and other money from it.

  25. Stephen Nedland

    Corruption is bad, until it is not.

  26. Katherine

    wait, we got to see a full multi-page freakout over Joyce being subject to a physically disturbing test that is routine only in the US when she went to get GLASSES, and now we get NOTHING when she sees a gynocologist, where in the US they also regularly do unnecessary physical exams that aren’t routine in other countries (here they don’t make you get your cervical smear until you are sexually active and they certainly don’t look at your junk just cause u want relief from cramps)

    1. David M Willis

      well one of those things I can visually depict without getting kicked off Google Adsense

      1. JBento

        OTOH, think of all the effort you’ll save making a couple of strips that are just the closed door to the OBGYN office viewed from the outside as speech bubbles come out.

      2. C.T. Phipps

        *Willis does a mike drop*

        You did do a mike drop, didn’t you?

        Wait, was Mike’s death a visual pun?

    2. Needfuldoer

      Joyce just saw a general practitioner, not an OB/GYN yet.

      I’m sure there will be more drama when she fills her prescription and calls in that referral.

      Which “physically disturbing test” did she get at the optometrist? The glaucoma check? Do they just not do that in other countries, or do they still use the gauge thing they press against your numbed eyeball? If anything, the slit lamp is worse than the air puff machine. That thing sears a trench in your retina.

      1. ischemgeek

        They do air puff in my country and I greatly prefer the slit lamp test to it. Mind you I have a strong startle reflex so it usually takes like 12 tries before they get me to not blink.

        Slit lamp might make my eyes water but it hasn’t ever made me startle hard enough to make me give myself a bruise on the thing you rest your chin on.

        1. Needfuldoer

          My optometrist replaced the slit lamp with this thing that takes a one-shot flash photo. It’s another machine you stick your head into, but at least you’re just left with the afterimage of a big green circle for a bit, not staring into a miniature sun.

  27. Juanoku

    I still can’t understand how she landed this gig, in all honesty

    1. JBento

      She has a big name. I don’t know if you noticed, but pretty much the only staff member in this college that is both professional and competent is Asma. Possibly Vivian.

    2. JBento

      Oh, and New Alex.

      1. Needfuldoer

        And the life drawing teacher.

        Professor Brock is jaded and probably counting the days to retirement, but he seems competent and professional (from what we’ve seen).

        1. JBento

          I dunno, calling it “ANNOYINGLY correct” when a student successfully completes the assignment you gave them doesn’t really scream professional to me.

    3. vulcanodon

      In academia, professors often retire at the end of Spring semester. The department is a ghost town during the Summer, and the chair has to get someone in that podium by Fall. You do a search, get few responses, lose a few because you can’t pay them enough, and Fall is coming up fast.

  28. Hof1991

    My exit strategy was to be 67 when I pissed off my bosses. Not worth the trouble to fire someone who is retiring.

    1. Reaver

      Not gonna wait till the fun number of 69?

      1. Needfuldoer

        It would be nice if you did.

  29. Keulen

    It’s pretty hard to be a politician in the US and not become corrupt, especially at the federal level.

  30. Lucky Winner

    I read Robin’s response as being to the doctor note: she recognized Professor Outfit as the campus gynecologist, then was doing some very folksy idiom about mustard to say how shocked she was Joyce had visited her … but eventually it didn’t make sense, even for Robin. Particularly Joyce’s “Where’s the …?”. And I had to reread it and eventually I got the correct perspective.

  31. Mo

    Now I want to figure out how to put that second panel in my syllabus under “attendance.”

  32. Reaver

    Iron on patches exist Robin, goodness… also BBQ sauce would smell better.

  33. Deviant

    Why is Robin talking like that?

    Did she always?

  34. Daniel M Ball

    She clearly didn’t do a LOT of the common forms of corruption. Some of the highlights include entering congress with an average net-worth, and becoming a Multimillionaire (too many to count these days).

    One of the most common forms, is to, using a spouse or relative’s name/identity, insider trading. Congress controls appropriations, a congressman is therefore ideally situated to profit off of government contracts through the stock market, and they’re immune to SEC investigation and exempt from insider trading rules that would put the average person in prison for doing what (It’s provable) they do.

  35. JBento

    In that last panel, is Robin suggesting there’s ACCIDENTAL corruption, or does that “on purpose” mean “with the goal of”?

  36. thumb

    Also, it’s university. You don’t need to give any reason for showing up late or never to a lecture.

    1. Eldritchy

      Now I wonder, Joyce has been homeschooled all her life, how does she know about doctor notes and the like?

  37. Needfuldoer

    Isn’t that one of Robin’s default outfit shirts from Shortpacked!? (She also had a green version when she was on shift at the store.)

    Has Dumbiverse!Robin actually been Walkyverse!Robin, mid-Cadbury bender, this whole time?

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