No. I really think the whole “Make America Great Again” slogan was a direct rebuke of Obama’s less than cheerleader attitude toward the state of the nation.
ReFlex76
“Yes We Can” is literally what cheerleaders say.
brute
^^^
SeanR
Point, but I still remember him as the president who apologized for America. Who quibbled on America being great.
Otl1973
If you are really great, you don’t need to keep telling people that – they know. And you can afford to point out the times you were less than great, with the promise you’ll be better in the future – rather than insisting all was perfect in the past (against all evidence to the contrary), so your goal is to return to that past.
Reltzik
And “Make America Great AGAIN” wasn’t an implication that America wasn’t great at that moment?
Needfuldoer
Its use as a re-election slogan would imply “I did a shit job, let me do it some more!”, wouldn’t it?
begbert2
It’s very clear to me that “Make America Great Again” means, explicitly, one of two things:
1) Remember how people used to be able to support a family one one job, which was pretty secure? And how that was mostly because unions and a high marginal tax rate kept income inequality down, social support high, and worker compensation reasonable? We’re certainly not going to bring those things back, and instead we’re going to lie and tell you that the whole reason you’re poor and broke now is because Mexicans somehow took your jobs! Go racism!
2) Meh, forget those complicated reasons – remember how you used to be able to get away with being racist as hell? Go racism!
Seriously – MAGA stands for Make America Racist Again. Period. It’s incredibly blatant in how the slogan and associated red-hat symbolism is used in practice.
Geneseepaws
Red hat, red shirt, brown shirt,…meh – it’s all symbolism. “Let’s oppress somebody (or a bunch of bodies)” is not a platform that makes me comfortable.
thejeff
IIRC, during the 2016 campaign they did some studies that showed that the only strong correlation for when people thought America used to be great was when they were young. Nostalgia for their lost youth.
Leo
You may have felt that way internally, but as a non-American a lot of us felt Obama to be a great president.
We know you have a powerful and strong country. Obama being a little more humble didn’t come across as apologetic, it came across as being more human and relatable. The ‘USA #1’ attitude can sometimes get a little tiring and is undoubtedly the cause of a lot of the American based jokes online.
Seeing someone being more humble about the US made lots of us think more of you, rather than less. It definitely didn’t make us view you as any weaker than a president whose insistence on how great America is, which comes over more like overcompensation than believable reality.
Arianod
This. All of it.
thejeff
Obama also followed a President who’d trashed America’s reputation in the world – hard as that is to remember in our current shit-show.
I do think SeanR’s right. There was a segment of the population that reacted badly to the more humble approach and wanted the full on “rah rah! America is the greatest!”. They formed much of the Tea Party and now the MAGAs.
That this attitude appeals to some people and that they were upset at Obama’s “apology tour” doesn’t mean there actually was an apology tour or that their attitude is right. But it could well be tied into the grievances they feel.
In 2009 we got a president who pretended to care about the people during the election but really mostly helped the rich and the big corporations once he was in office.
In 2017 we got a president who pretended to care about the people during the election but really mostly helped the rich and the big corporations once he was in office.
In 2021, I’m expecting we’re gonna get more of the same.
Can we not draw false equivalencies between Obama/Biden and T****, of all people? Obama and Biden had/have their flaws, but they’re nowhere near equivalent to the current resident of the White House.
Keulen
All of them have done way more to help the rich and the big corporations than anyone else in this country. It’s not a false equivalency to say that.
Hannah
Yes, But trump is a LITERALFUCKINGFASCIST. Obama wasn’t perfect, and I’ll never forgive him for the amount of drone strikes he did, but he didn’t say WHITE SUPREMACIST SLOGANS when asked if he would disavow white supremacists. What Obama mostly did was keep the rather shitty status quo the same beCause the republicans had a lot of power at the time so they could vetoe pretty much any improvements he wanted to make, though he did manage some good things like freeing most of Guantanamo’s prisoners. And Obama care, which saved a ton of lives. What trump did was ACTIVELY WORK TO MAKE THE STATUS QUO WORSE. He tried to ban Muslim immigration into the us. He fired people who tried to investigate him. He PUT CHILDREN IN CAGES.
Needfuldoer
But muh both sides!
Regalli
This. I expect very little from Biden (especially if the Senate races in Georgia don’t end in a double Democrat win,) but ‘treats a deadly pandemic as something worth taking seriously’ was not a standard I considered it necessary to have four years ago. Biden can be pressured to be less shitty. (We know this, because he was the LAST candidate to put out a planned policy set for disability and his interactions with disabled people asking about his policies tended to be… awful. People called him on that. A LOT. His released plan? Actually pretty good once it existed, and clearly made with consultation from our community.) I intend to do so when I feel even remotely safe enough to attend a protest. Trump is a literal fucking fascist who’s threatening a coup. Not even losing the election has made him even remotely less shitty.
That’s a really reductive way to frame it. One of the two actively worked to make things worse for everyone who’s not a cishet white guy. I don’t need to say which one.
I think you mean the early 40’s. You know, before Trump was born…and we were in the middle of WW2. Um, Ok, the 30’s…when we had the great depression. Er…the 20’s? Yeah. The roaring 20’s where the worst thing we had was classic style gangsters…until the stock market crash. When exactly were the good ol’ days again?
Ours were never really big enough to shove someone inside unless they were very short and very skinny. Even then you might only get someone halfway in, they weren’t very deep.
My high school had a smaller student body, and we had lockers large enough to fit an average-sized teenager.
I don’t regret locking my friend in hers, she’s the one who decided to tell us that she was going to hide in there instead of participating in gym class.
High school locker in the 60’s. Most of us could have forced fit inside, but it wouldn’t have been at all comfortable and you’d sure better not suffer from claustrophobia.
Maybe Billy was a master of Tetris and managed to make him fit. To be fair Walky’s not all that big so you’d only have to Feng Shui him in there a little bit.
The last time I had a full-length locker in the hallway was in middle school. My high school was big, and we had narrow lockers stacked two high.
However, two of the sizes of lockers in the band hall would fit a person…the baritone/euphonium/mellophone size, and the ones meant for tubas (which might fit *several* people standing up). One day when some of us were hanging out in the band hall while the directors were hiding in their offices, one of the freshmen asked me if I’d let him crawl into my locker (I had the euphonium size then). It was big enough that a smaller adult could sit in it and stretch a bit, although way too short for anyone to stand up. He then asked me to shut the door and put the lock on it, then happily sat in my locked locker for several minutes. I bet that guy is into some seriously freaky stuff as an adult.
I’m convinced American schools in pop culture are stuck in the idealized 1950s worlds of Archie, Grease, and American Graffiti. Sure, the trappings may change, fashions come and go, and computers appear, but they’re all cut from the same cloth. Giant lockers, homecoming, letterman jackets, jocks vs nerds, seemingly unlimited time between classes, malts at the local diner named after the guy who sold it to the guy who runs it now…
On the one hand, he did help deal with Blaine to a degree, on the other hand he helped Blaine. So I think given that and his past actions, it is fair not to trust him.
In fairness, I can see why he felt like he didn’t have a good option.
Option 1 – he helps Blaine and most likely worst case scenario, he goes to jail. Absolute worst case scenario, Grandpa decides he’s a liability too and has him shot as well.
Option 2 – he refuses to help Blaine. Either he reports Blaine or he doesn’t. Regardless, Blaine outs him as having stolen his grandpa’s money (to Lester if nobody else). A couple days later, the police find Asher’s body in a ditch.
Sirksome
I’m not sure on option 2. Not knowing anything about Asher’s family dynamic or their criminal activities I find it really hard to think Asher would get killed for stealing some money. There’s just a lot we don’t know about that. Such as Asher’s parents. Are they still in the picture? I assume one of them would be his grandpa’s child. Would that parent be okay with Grandpa mob boss killing their son?
I think the threat would be more that Asher would be back into association with his grandpa’s business which he wanted to escape but it also seems like that happened anyway since he was contacted for the hit on Blaine.
My personal theory is that Asher’s life was never in danger but he didn’t much like Blaine’s threat and decided to go to his grandpa on his own terms and control the narrative instead of risking Blaine putting him in a compromised bargaining position. Probably from a change of heart after selling some students out in the first place.
This is just a theory though. I have no idea what’s going on with the whole Asher/mob subplot.
BBCC
His grandpa is a mobster and Asher stole a significant amount of money if he stole enough to cover tuition. Grandkid or no, there’s only one way that story goes.
Sirksome
My heart really wants to say it’s a reach, but also Blaine existed in this world and he’s more than proven people are willing to kill over tuition money so I guess we’ll have to see how this shakes out. Fair point though.
BBCC
Domestic but non local tuition at their school is $36, 512 currently. Multiply that by at least four, plus whatever he needs for supplies, and Asher did not steal an insignificant amount of money that could be brushed off or solved by making him come back.
BBCC
Okay, apparently local means Indiana. So more like $22,426 just for tuition and room and board. That times four, plus whatever else is needed. Still ‘dead in a ditch’ money.
Rotunda
I don’t recall anything from the comic that states that Asher stole money for tuition. My impression is that his grandfather doesn’t like his retreat from the family business, not that he’s going to college.
The threat was very likely real. And that very likely ties in to his involvement in getting Blaine killed. Removes the threat of Blaine carrying through with his blackmail.
I wonder if she EVER went to therapy. She lied about quitting drinking, why not lie about that as well?
thejeff
She lied about quitting drinking once very early on. After that she never even pretended.
Until the last Ruth/Billie arc, where she was quite clearly quitting since she was shown going through withdrawal. That’s when she said she was going to go to therapy. Since that was only a day or two before the timeskip, I’m not sure if she went before the skip or not. It makes no sense in terms of character development for her to have been lying about it then, while she was clearly serious about stopping the drinking.
Which doesn’t mean she hasn’t relapsed since, of course.
Hey, BBCC, you think if we both went on Patreon and yelled loud enough we’d get some timeskip comics concerning Sal and Asher? Because right about now I’d like some timeskip comics concerning Sal and Asher.
188 thoughts on “Spending”
Ana Chronistic
sounds like the old days when America was “great again”
you know, the 1950s
Kyrik Michalowski
Clearly we need to bring back everything from the 50’s, it’ll go great./s
Demoted Oblivious
Well I mean it was worth bringing *some* things back. Where would we be if Marty never came back? Hell, it was so good we brought him back twice!
Reltzik
When Segregation was a thing and being gay could get you things like Stonewall without enough people being pissed off about it to riot.
SUCH GREATNESS!
Lumino
You mean like a 90% top tax rate? Or are we just going for the “When women and blacks couldn’t vote” angle?
clif
Irony?
SeanR
No. I really think the whole “Make America Great Again” slogan was a direct rebuke of Obama’s less than cheerleader attitude toward the state of the nation.
ReFlex76
“Yes We Can” is literally what cheerleaders say.
brute
^^^
SeanR
Point, but I still remember him as the president who apologized for America. Who quibbled on America being great.
Otl1973
If you are really great, you don’t need to keep telling people that – they know. And you can afford to point out the times you were less than great, with the promise you’ll be better in the future – rather than insisting all was perfect in the past (against all evidence to the contrary), so your goal is to return to that past.
Reltzik
And “Make America Great AGAIN” wasn’t an implication that America wasn’t great at that moment?
Needfuldoer
Its use as a re-election slogan would imply “I did a shit job, let me do it some more!”, wouldn’t it?
begbert2
It’s very clear to me that “Make America Great Again” means, explicitly, one of two things:
1) Remember how people used to be able to support a family one one job, which was pretty secure? And how that was mostly because unions and a high marginal tax rate kept income inequality down, social support high, and worker compensation reasonable? We’re certainly not going to bring those things back, and instead we’re going to lie and tell you that the whole reason you’re poor and broke now is because Mexicans somehow took your jobs! Go racism!
2) Meh, forget those complicated reasons – remember how you used to be able to get away with being racist as hell? Go racism!
Seriously – MAGA stands for Make America Racist Again. Period. It’s incredibly blatant in how the slogan and associated red-hat symbolism is used in practice.
Geneseepaws
Red hat, red shirt, brown shirt,…meh – it’s all symbolism. “Let’s oppress somebody (or a bunch of bodies)” is not a platform that makes me comfortable.
thejeff
IIRC, during the 2016 campaign they did some studies that showed that the only strong correlation for when people thought America used to be great was when they were young. Nostalgia for their lost youth.
Leo
You may have felt that way internally, but as a non-American a lot of us felt Obama to be a great president.
We know you have a powerful and strong country. Obama being a little more humble didn’t come across as apologetic, it came across as being more human and relatable. The ‘USA #1’ attitude can sometimes get a little tiring and is undoubtedly the cause of a lot of the American based jokes online.
Seeing someone being more humble about the US made lots of us think more of you, rather than less. It definitely didn’t make us view you as any weaker than a president whose insistence on how great America is, which comes over more like overcompensation than believable reality.
Arianod
This. All of it.
thejeff
Obama also followed a President who’d trashed America’s reputation in the world – hard as that is to remember in our current shit-show.
I do think SeanR’s right. There was a segment of the population that reacted badly to the more humble approach and wanted the full on “rah rah! America is the greatest!”. They formed much of the Tea Party and now the MAGAs.
That this attitude appeals to some people and that they were upset at Obama’s “apology tour” doesn’t mean there actually was an apology tour or that their attitude is right. But it could well be tied into the grievances they feel.
Keulen
In 2009 we got a president who pretended to care about the people during the election but really mostly helped the rich and the big corporations once he was in office.
In 2017 we got a president who pretended to care about the people during the election but really mostly helped the rich and the big corporations once he was in office.
In 2021, I’m expecting we’re gonna get more of the same.
King Daniel
Can we not draw false equivalencies between Obama/Biden and T****, of all people? Obama and Biden had/have their flaws, but they’re nowhere near equivalent to the current resident of the White House.
Keulen
All of them have done way more to help the rich and the big corporations than anyone else in this country. It’s not a false equivalency to say that.
Hannah
Yes, But trump is a LITERALFUCKINGFASCIST. Obama wasn’t perfect, and I’ll never forgive him for the amount of drone strikes he did, but he didn’t say WHITE SUPREMACIST SLOGANS when asked if he would disavow white supremacists. What Obama mostly did was keep the rather shitty status quo the same beCause the republicans had a lot of power at the time so they could vetoe pretty much any improvements he wanted to make, though he did manage some good things like freeing most of Guantanamo’s prisoners. And Obama care, which saved a ton of lives. What trump did was ACTIVELY WORK TO MAKE THE STATUS QUO WORSE. He tried to ban Muslim immigration into the us. He fired people who tried to investigate him. He PUT CHILDREN IN CAGES.
Needfuldoer
But muh both sides!
Regalli
This. I expect very little from Biden (especially if the Senate races in Georgia don’t end in a double Democrat win,) but ‘treats a deadly pandemic as something worth taking seriously’ was not a standard I considered it necessary to have four years ago. Biden can be pressured to be less shitty. (We know this, because he was the LAST candidate to put out a planned policy set for disability and his interactions with disabled people asking about his policies tended to be… awful. People called him on that. A LOT. His released plan? Actually pretty good once it existed, and clearly made with consultation from our community.) I intend to do so when I feel even remotely safe enough to attend a protest. Trump is a literal fucking fascist who’s threatening a coup. Not even losing the election has made him even remotely less shitty.
Delicious Taffy
That’s a really reductive way to frame it. One of the two actively worked to make things worse for everyone who’s not a cishet white guy. I don’t need to say which one.
Deanatay
A specifically curated subset of things from the ’50s would be nice.
-The price of gas. The price of everything, really.
-The tax rates on the wealthy.
-The makeup of the Supreme Court (I think?).
sidehack
Yeah we basically just need to bring back everything that made life awesome for white men, and extend it to everyone else.
ValdVin
Those sort are specifically in thrall to the version of America telecast in the ’50s.
Kaidah
I think you mean the early 40’s. You know, before Trump was born…and we were in the middle of WW2. Um, Ok, the 30’s…when we had the great depression. Er…the 20’s? Yeah. The roaring 20’s where the worst thing we had was classic style gangsters…until the stock market crash. When exactly were the good ol’ days again?
clif
Specifically curated good old days.
Ryek Hvek
you mean when ‘great’ was spelled ‘w-h-i-t-e’
JBento
That’s not America, that’s a shark.
He Who Abides
And a Batman villain.
davidbreslin101
I remember the good old days! Both of them: that one Tuesday and that Saturday 23 years later. Good times!
Doctor_Who
Did people actually have lockers roomy enough to do this? Ours were like 8 inches wide, tops.
Jay
I used to sit in my locker because it was comfortable and people left me alone
Kyrik Michalowski
Ours were never really big enough to shove someone inside unless they were very short and very skinny. Even then you might only get someone halfway in, they weren’t very deep.
Rose by Any Other Name
Same. Tiny skinny lockers far too small for a human body to fit in.
Johan
My locker was a cube. Only fit books.
He Who Abides
My high school had a smaller student body, and we had lockers large enough to fit an average-sized teenager.
I don’t regret locking my friend in hers, she’s the one who decided to tell us that she was going to hide in there instead of participating in gym class.
clif
High school locker in the 60’s. Most of us could have forced fit inside, but it wouldn’t have been at all comfortable and you’d sure better not suffer from claustrophobia.
Kernanator
At my high school, the lockers were only large enough to fit a pet; maybe a hobbit, if they curled up into a ball.
Yotomoe
Maybe Billy was a master of Tetris and managed to make him fit. To be fair Walky’s not all that big so you’d only have to Feng Shui him in there a little bit.
Tawdry Quirks
The last time I had a full-length locker in the hallway was in middle school. My high school was big, and we had narrow lockers stacked two high.
However, two of the sizes of lockers in the band hall would fit a person…the baritone/euphonium/mellophone size, and the ones meant for tubas (which might fit *several* people standing up). One day when some of us were hanging out in the band hall while the directors were hiding in their offices, one of the freshmen asked me if I’d let him crawl into my locker (I had the euphonium size then). It was big enough that a smaller adult could sit in it and stretch a bit, although way too short for anyone to stand up. He then asked me to shut the door and put the lock on it, then happily sat in my locked locker for several minutes. I bet that guy is into some seriously freaky stuff as an adult.
a/snow/mous/e
?
Needfuldoer
I’m convinced American schools in pop culture are stuck in the idealized 1950s worlds of Archie, Grease, and American Graffiti. Sure, the trappings may change, fashions come and go, and computers appear, but they’re all cut from the same cloth. Giant lockers, homecoming, letterman jackets, jocks vs nerds, seemingly unlimited time between classes, malts at the local diner named after the guy who sold it to the guy who runs it now…
Roborat
Don’t forget the kids that all looked they were in there mid-twenties.
Jim
I guess I was the only one who interpreted this sentence as “shoved you and you bounced off a row of closed lockers.”
Sirksome
I don’t trust Asher. That is all.
Kyrik Michalowski
On the one hand, he did help deal with Blaine to a degree, on the other hand he helped Blaine. So I think given that and his past actions, it is fair not to trust him.
Doctor_Who
Interesting how making a deal with Blaine and dealing with Blaine have very different meanings. Language is fun.
SeanR
The way you can tell he made a deal with Blaine is that he no longer has a shadow. Or Pupils.
BBCC
In fairness, I can see why he felt like he didn’t have a good option.
Option 1 – he helps Blaine and most likely worst case scenario, he goes to jail. Absolute worst case scenario, Grandpa decides he’s a liability too and has him shot as well.
Option 2 – he refuses to help Blaine. Either he reports Blaine or he doesn’t. Regardless, Blaine outs him as having stolen his grandpa’s money (to Lester if nobody else). A couple days later, the police find Asher’s body in a ditch.
Sirksome
I’m not sure on option 2. Not knowing anything about Asher’s family dynamic or their criminal activities I find it really hard to think Asher would get killed for stealing some money. There’s just a lot we don’t know about that. Such as Asher’s parents. Are they still in the picture? I assume one of them would be his grandpa’s child. Would that parent be okay with Grandpa mob boss killing their son?
I think the threat would be more that Asher would be back into association with his grandpa’s business which he wanted to escape but it also seems like that happened anyway since he was contacted for the hit on Blaine.
My personal theory is that Asher’s life was never in danger but he didn’t much like Blaine’s threat and decided to go to his grandpa on his own terms and control the narrative instead of risking Blaine putting him in a compromised bargaining position. Probably from a change of heart after selling some students out in the first place.
This is just a theory though. I have no idea what’s going on with the whole Asher/mob subplot.
BBCC
His grandpa is a mobster and Asher stole a significant amount of money if he stole enough to cover tuition. Grandkid or no, there’s only one way that story goes.
Sirksome
My heart really wants to say it’s a reach, but also Blaine existed in this world and he’s more than proven people are willing to kill over tuition money so I guess we’ll have to see how this shakes out. Fair point though.
BBCC
Domestic but non local tuition at their school is $36, 512 currently. Multiply that by at least four, plus whatever he needs for supplies, and Asher did not steal an insignificant amount of money that could be brushed off or solved by making him come back.
BBCC
Okay, apparently local means Indiana. So more like $22,426 just for tuition and room and board. That times four, plus whatever else is needed. Still ‘dead in a ditch’ money.
Rotunda
I don’t recall anything from the comic that states that Asher stole money for tuition. My impression is that his grandfather doesn’t like his retreat from the family business, not that he’s going to college.
Agemegos
I do: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/wiggly/
thejeff
The threat was very likely real. And that very likely ties in to his involvement in getting Blaine killed. Removes the threat of Blaine carrying through with his blackmail.
Kyrik Michalowski
Well at least Billie isn’t totally ignoring Walky, she’s just being Billie.
Now the question is, is “being Billie” a good thing or not?
Peter
*shakes Magic 8-Ball*
“Signs point to No.”
Bryy
Given that what we know and have SEEN of Old Billie, plus what we have seen of New Billie….
no.
I honestly hope Billie is still going to therapy. But she probably ditched that the minute she broke up with Ruth.
Deanatay
I wonder if she EVER went to therapy. She lied about quitting drinking, why not lie about that as well?
thejeff
She lied about quitting drinking once very early on. After that she never even pretended.
Until the last Ruth/Billie arc, where she was quite clearly quitting since she was shown going through withdrawal. That’s when she said she was going to go to therapy. Since that was only a day or two before the timeskip, I’m not sure if she went before the skip or not. It makes no sense in terms of character development for her to have been lying about it then, while she was clearly serious about stopping the drinking.
Which doesn’t mean she hasn’t relapsed since, of course.
Yotomoe
I mean I wouldn’t mind being billy. It’d be a market upgrade from being yoto.
Plus she’s hotKeulen
She’s being the Billie that pretends to not know Walky around most people because he’s not “cool”. So not really a good thing.
Schpoonman
Hey, BBCC, you think if we both went on Patreon and yelled loud enough we’d get some timeskip comics concerning Sal and Asher? Because right about now I’d like some timeskip comics concerning Sal and Asher.
BBCC
We might have to wait for next month’s vote, but I would vote with you on that!
Mr D
*gasp* VOTER COLLUSION!