Given the fact that the GOP currently contains Stubby McBonespurs (a man who thinks you can cure viral infections by chugging a pint of bleach), Moscow Mitch (a man who has almost single handed destroyed any sense of bipartisanship in Washington), Steve King (well known for making racist remarks), Mike Pence (who thought you could “pray away the gay”), and Devin Nunes (who tried to sue a cow), I don’t really think Robin can really do that much to hurt it.
Paradox
I had to look up that last one, and found out it wasn’t even a real cow he tried to sue, it was a fictional cow
I honestly don’t know if that makes it better or worse
Felix
Why not both?
HeySo
Honestly, the bleach thing stops sounding quite as insane after a while of suffering through all the nonsense.. thank goodness we’ve got alcohol as a less lethal alternative. Lots, and lots of alcohol.. Okay, but it’s still somewhat less lethal, right?
Or, when corona finally stops delaying new releases, mindless TV shows [and other activities suspended or made more difficult by quarantine]! (Seriously though, when am I going to get my Cobra Kai season 3? 🙁 )
..let’s see, what else.. Hmm, I wonder if death by chocolate is a literal thing..
Regalli
Nah, the bleach thing started as an antivax thing that could ‘cure’ autism, so it’s still bonkers. Particularly its jump over to viruses.
HeySo
Hey, I wasn’t saying we were going along with the original premise, nor the incoherent “logic” that indicated that drinking bleach would leave you A-OK afterward. I was saying that melting your insides in a particularily gruesome death scene is definitely the sort of culmination this era seems to be aiming for- what with us being caught in some sort of horror-genre apocalyptic narrative and all.
Side-note, why do the people who recommend these things never actually test them themselves? I mean, aside from the fact that the scientific method is entirely foreign to them. Rather, it’s like they’re fully aware that it’s a bad idea, despite their rather dim cognizance, and they’re just throwing it out to see who is stupid enough to fall for it (all for the sake of a few schadenfreude-derived laughs, I’d assume), after which they’ll just take their usual approach, and absolve themselves of any responsability on the grounds of “I never have to take responsability”.
..ugh, the head-pain is back to encourage further indulgence in reasonable bleach substitutes. Okay, guess it’s time for a shotbottle of Scotch!
Geneseepaws
“Moscow Mitch (a man who has almost single handed destroyed any sense of bipartisanship in Washington)…”
I b’lieve that process was started by Newt (The Newt) Gingrich.
Needfuldoer
Don’t forget the erosion of executive standards and rampant spending that both kicked into high gear around 1981.
thejeff
And the GOP’s Southern Strategy turn towards racism. It’s been going on for a long time. You can look at each step in the process and see it as a start or just another step.
Deanatay
Honestly, a vote for Robin would bring a voice of normalcy back to the party, at this point.
Kleineorma
Us folk from Northwestern Indiana like to refer to him as Mike “The Electric Fence” Pence since he is largely believed to support conversion therapy which used to use electroshock treatments.
Roborat
I have never understood the Moscow Mitch nickname, considering his wife’s family connections, shouldn’t it be Peking Mitch?
He Who Abides
His in-laws gave him the title “Cocaine Mitch” (drug smugglers, among other things). “Moscow Mitch” comes from his shameless indifference to foreign interference in American elections, leading to people referring to him as a Russian asset.
Plus, calling him Moscow Mitch pisses him off no end.
Segnosaur
Back in 2016, the intelligence agencies had deduced that Russia was interfering in the election. Obama wanted to put out a joint statement with the congressional Republicans to tell Putin to knock it off, but Moscow Mitch said no. It’s almost like he wanted Russia to interfere. Can’t understand why…
More recently, there have been several bills passed in the house to try to make the 2020 election more secure… But Moscow Mitch blocked some of them. There is also a conflict of interest… A Russian oligarch opened up a business in Kentucky, about the same time Moscow Mitch was pushing for certain sanctions to be lifted on Russia.
I mean, it could be both? She may be surging but may also want to be nice so is going to hope the surge lasts through election so Becky can take a break?
Robin knows Becky doesn’t like her policies. Robin bribed Becky with lots of money so Robin would not have to promise to change her policies. Thus, Robin knows Becky doesn’t want her to win – and didn’t think she could.
Robin was probably hoping Becky would take enough of a break, starting soon enough, that Becky wouldn’t check the polls and realize that Robin was going to win. Because if Becky does realize that, Robin – who has seen firsthand how incredibly effective Becky can be – is afraid that Becky will find some way to sabotage her.
I wonder if Robin has changed her Twitter password yet?
Geneseepaws
Don’t think Robin is that smart.
Not in the class with Linda and Carole, but yeah, but not the sharpest crayon in the box. (No offense Intended to any wax or paraffin in the Commenters)
Deanatay
As a third-generation CrayolAmerican, I take offense to this remark.
Geneseepaws
I sorry, didn’t mean to offend, some of my friends are CrayolAmerican. My sister dated Grass-Green in high school! Just like people, some Crayons are sharper than others.
Roborat
I am disappointed, I was expected a bunch of Marine jokes.
Is she really that bad of a person? Yes she’s lazy, and not that smart (and doesn’t really have a great voting record in congress, although I figure that’s more due to her laziness in just voting along with the herd.)
But, in other strips, she did seem to have genuine concern over Becky’s well being (even is she wasn’t that good at showing it). Given that DoA had ToeDad and Blaine, I find it hard to consider her a truly bad person.
HeySo
She has absolutely zero consideration for the consequences of her actions unless it involves someone she has a pre-established relationship to, who is in her immediate proximity.
..honestly, I’d say that still makes her better than average, woefully enough.
Reltzik
Additionally, she has trouble separating “makes me happy” from “makes you happy”, and even when she does consider other people she horrifically misjudges whether they will like or hate what she does for them.
Regalli
For instance, her planting herself in Leslie’s place and refusing to leave, bringing a media storm on the poor woman and just generally being stalkery.
Sam
Maybe at heart she isn’t a bad person, but many of her actions have been hurtful to a lot of people in ways she hasn’t apologised for or recognised and grown away from yet. Her traits might explain some of her choices and chosen behaviours, but they don’t excuse them. She has always known some of these things were fucked up and wrong too considering she froze when Joyce asked her a question in class before.
This is her, I think, taking a step in the right direction though because from her facial expressions, she seems to genuinely care about putting Becky’s well-being first and keeping her promises. She bought Becky fruit. She made her get off her phone and stop working at getting her elected. She got Dina around to comfort her, because Dina’s pretty dang good at it.
Even if she’s not being the *best* at it, she is showing her more caring side and being selfless, which she doesn’t do often, but when she does, she doesn’t do it in half measures. I mean, she got rid of her entire campaign team for suggesting something she thought was a bridge too immoral for her liking. How many real people do you think would do that? Because I’ll tell you, there are a lot of people that say they don’t condone X that then continue hanging out with people that do X implying they are fine with X as long as the person is nice enough to hang out with.
Robin’s still got a lot of growth to do but she’s taking some of the right steps here.
Becky wouldn’t have to try very hard if Robin cut her loose. Just the news that Robin had cut and run on a campaign manager who just went through what Becky did (not to mention did so much for her campaign) likely would have sunk her chances without Becky having to so much as lift a finger.
Could she though? It would have certainly made the news that she had cut her campaign manager whose dad had just died. That probably would have fairly quickly erased that bump Becky had gotten her. I don’t see kindness here, and I think Robin’s reaction shows pretty effectively that even she doesn’t believe she’s being kind.
At this point, it can be both, and it really wouldn’t make a material difference which it was. She could probably get more out of Becky by trotting her out there and wringing blood out of that stone, so if she was just being cynical and using Becky, she’s not exactly using her to her fullest.
I think Robin is trying to be as close to altruistic as we’ve seen her, but that’s obviously relative.
I’d love to believe that Robin is just doing this out of the good of her heart but my instincts tell me otherwise. Becky seems to generally be of the same mind.
So what gave Robin the sudden surge; was it Becky’s thing about Blaine that caused it?
Since Robin is still Robin, my view is that she’s a genuinely good person. It’s just that her entire career is based on the belief politics is meaningless and it was all for the perks.
Becky and people like Dorothy confuse her as they believe it is actually VERY important.
I’ve known plenty of people who believe like Robin in RL, sadly.
It’s more than that though and not just politics. The whole breaking into Leslie’s house and refusing to leave thing was creepy, even though much of it was played for humor.
She’s incredibly unaware of other people’s feelings or wants and runs roughshod over them, apparently without even noticing. I don’t think it’s malevolent, but it can still be damaging.
Regalli
It seemed more to me like Robin was being played for humor, but Leslie was reacting to it with distress and horror most of the time. Which just reinforces the ‘not malevolent but still damaging’ – Robin thought she was in an entirely different genre than Leslie.
thejeff
But just resignation much of the time too. It was weird for me. If I squinted I could see how those actions with different emphasis would be horrible and some people were taking them that way, but the emotional impact of “stalker” wasn’t there.
The surge is caused by people being conspiratal about whether the whole kidnapping events happened or not because people love drama and telling people their stories are fake and didn’t happen based on nothing.
193 thoughts on “Vision”
SpookyFox
Sounds about right
C.T Phipps
Becky should acknowledge Robin is so incompetent that she’s likely to run the GOP into the ground.
Agemegos
The damage would not be confined to the GOP.
/me gestures vaguely in every direction around.
Needfuldoer
Not if they can do anything about it.
elebenty
Consider yourself upvoted.
segnosaur
Given the fact that the GOP currently contains Stubby McBonespurs (a man who thinks you can cure viral infections by chugging a pint of bleach), Moscow Mitch (a man who has almost single handed destroyed any sense of bipartisanship in Washington), Steve King (well known for making racist remarks), Mike Pence (who thought you could “pray away the gay”), and Devin Nunes (who tried to sue a cow), I don’t really think Robin can really do that much to hurt it.
Paradox
I had to look up that last one, and found out it wasn’t even a real cow he tried to sue, it was a fictional cow
I honestly don’t know if that makes it better or worse
Felix
Why not both?
HeySo
Honestly, the bleach thing stops sounding quite as insane after a while of suffering through all the nonsense.. thank goodness we’ve got alcohol as a less lethal alternative. Lots, and lots of alcohol.. Okay, but it’s still somewhat less lethal, right?
Or, when corona finally stops delaying new releases, mindless TV shows [and other activities suspended or made more difficult by quarantine]! (Seriously though, when am I going to get my Cobra Kai season 3? 🙁 )
..let’s see, what else.. Hmm, I wonder if death by chocolate is a literal thing..
Regalli
Nah, the bleach thing started as an antivax thing that could ‘cure’ autism, so it’s still bonkers. Particularly its jump over to viruses.
HeySo
Hey, I wasn’t saying we were going along with the original premise, nor the incoherent “logic” that indicated that drinking bleach would leave you A-OK afterward. I was saying that melting your insides in a particularily gruesome death scene is definitely the sort of culmination this era seems to be aiming for- what with us being caught in some sort of horror-genre apocalyptic narrative and all.
Side-note, why do the people who recommend these things never actually test them themselves? I mean, aside from the fact that the scientific method is entirely foreign to them. Rather, it’s like they’re fully aware that it’s a bad idea, despite their rather dim cognizance, and they’re just throwing it out to see who is stupid enough to fall for it (all for the sake of a few schadenfreude-derived laughs, I’d assume), after which they’ll just take their usual approach, and absolve themselves of any responsability on the grounds of “I never have to take responsability”.
..ugh, the head-pain is back to encourage further indulgence in reasonable bleach substitutes. Okay, guess it’s time for a
shotbottle of Scotch!Geneseepaws
“Moscow Mitch (a man who has almost single handed destroyed any sense of bipartisanship in Washington)…”
I b’lieve that process was started by Newt (The Newt) Gingrich.
Needfuldoer
Don’t forget the erosion of executive standards and rampant spending that both kicked into high gear around 1981.
thejeff
And the GOP’s Southern Strategy turn towards racism. It’s been going on for a long time. You can look at each step in the process and see it as a start or just another step.
Deanatay
Honestly, a vote for Robin would bring a voice of normalcy back to the party, at this point.
Kleineorma
Us folk from Northwestern Indiana like to refer to him as Mike “The Electric Fence” Pence since he is largely believed to support conversion therapy which used to use electroshock treatments.
Roborat
I have never understood the Moscow Mitch nickname, considering his wife’s family connections, shouldn’t it be Peking Mitch?
He Who Abides
His in-laws gave him the title “Cocaine Mitch” (drug smugglers, among other things). “Moscow Mitch” comes from his shameless indifference to foreign interference in American elections, leading to people referring to him as a Russian asset.
Plus, calling him Moscow Mitch pisses him off no end.
Segnosaur
Back in 2016, the intelligence agencies had deduced that Russia was interfering in the election. Obama wanted to put out a joint statement with the congressional Republicans to tell Putin to knock it off, but Moscow Mitch said no. It’s almost like he wanted Russia to interfere. Can’t understand why…
More recently, there have been several bills passed in the house to try to make the 2020 election more secure… But Moscow Mitch blocked some of them. There is also a conflict of interest… A Russian oligarch opened up a business in Kentucky, about the same time Moscow Mitch was pushing for certain sanctions to be lifted on Russia.
Jim
Has it been established yet in Dumbiverse if Robin can achieve superhuman achievements if she consumes mass amounts of sugar?
DarkoNeko
reality proved otherwise
nobodybasically
Ooh, up early tonight.
Anthony Paoli
Por que no los dos?
Ana Chronistic
SureJan.gif
Cholma
😀
Kheldarson
I mean, it could be both? She may be surging but may also want to be nice so is going to hope the surge lasts through election so Becky can take a break?
Rose by Any Other Name
True.
The real problem is that Robin could have just said that, and didn’t.
“Yeah! I know! But… well, you already won it for me. Huge surge, no way I’m gonna lose now. You did good kid – take a break. You earned it.”
Same sentiment, but it acknowledges Becky’s contribution, however accidental.
But then, this is DoA Robin so… **vague shruggy motions**
C.T Phipps
Well Becky hates the idea she’s helped Robin because she doesn’t have the commitment to supervillainy she needs.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
She needs to unleash her hate before her journey to the Dark Side can be complete.
Roborat
At least then she can get cookies.
Chris Phoenix
Robin knows Becky doesn’t like her policies. Robin bribed Becky with lots of money so Robin would not have to promise to change her policies. Thus, Robin knows Becky doesn’t want her to win – and didn’t think she could.
Robin was probably hoping Becky would take enough of a break, starting soon enough, that Becky wouldn’t check the polls and realize that Robin was going to win. Because if Becky does realize that, Robin – who has seen firsthand how incredibly effective Becky can be – is afraid that Becky will find some way to sabotage her.
I wonder if Robin has changed her Twitter password yet?
Geneseepaws
Don’t think Robin is that smart.
Not in the class with Linda and Carole, but yeah, but not the sharpest crayon in the box. (No offense Intended to any wax or paraffin in the Commenters)
Deanatay
As a third-generation CrayolAmerican, I take offense to this remark.
Geneseepaws
I sorry, didn’t mean to offend, some of my friends are CrayolAmerican. My sister dated Grass-Green in high school! Just like people, some Crayons are sharper than others.
Roborat
I am disappointed, I was expected a bunch of Marine jokes.
He Who Abides
Aquamarine, maybe.
CMasta1992
I mean she could’ve been a sleaze and cut Becky the second she didn’t need her anymore so I’m not gonna tolerate any Robin slander.
SuperZero
She’s still a very not-good person who’s done a lot of not-goodness.
segnosaur
Is she really that bad of a person? Yes she’s lazy, and not that smart (and doesn’t really have a great voting record in congress, although I figure that’s more due to her laziness in just voting along with the herd.)
But, in other strips, she did seem to have genuine concern over Becky’s well being (even is she wasn’t that good at showing it). Given that DoA had ToeDad and Blaine, I find it hard to consider her a truly bad person.
HeySo
She has absolutely zero consideration for the consequences of her actions unless it involves someone she has a pre-established relationship to, who is in her immediate proximity.
..honestly, I’d say that still makes her better than average, woefully enough.
Reltzik
Additionally, she has trouble separating “makes me happy” from “makes you happy”, and even when she does consider other people she horrifically misjudges whether they will like or hate what she does for them.
Regalli
For instance, her planting herself in Leslie’s place and refusing to leave, bringing a media storm on the poor woman and just generally being stalkery.
Sam
Maybe at heart she isn’t a bad person, but many of her actions have been hurtful to a lot of people in ways she hasn’t apologised for or recognised and grown away from yet. Her traits might explain some of her choices and chosen behaviours, but they don’t excuse them. She has always known some of these things were fucked up and wrong too considering she froze when Joyce asked her a question in class before.
This is her, I think, taking a step in the right direction though because from her facial expressions, she seems to genuinely care about putting Becky’s well-being first and keeping her promises. She bought Becky fruit. She made her get off her phone and stop working at getting her elected. She got Dina around to comfort her, because Dina’s pretty dang good at it.
Even if she’s not being the *best* at it, she is showing her more caring side and being selfless, which she doesn’t do often, but when she does, she doesn’t do it in half measures. I mean, she got rid of her entire campaign team for suggesting something she thought was a bridge too immoral for her liking. How many real people do you think would do that? Because I’ll tell you, there are a lot of people that say they don’t condone X that then continue hanging out with people that do X implying they are fine with X as long as the person is nice enough to hang out with.
Robin’s still got a lot of growth to do but she’s taking some of the right steps here.
Chris Phoenix
If she cut Becky loose, Becky would definitely find a way to make her lose.
Even if she keeps Becky on but Becky thinks it looks like Robin’s going to win, Becky might try to sabotage it, and Robin knows this.
She’s hoping Becky will stay on the payroll and take such a break that she does not check the polls till after the election.
Becky is too smart for that.
Devin
Becky wouldn’t have to try very hard if Robin cut her loose. Just the news that Robin had cut and run on a campaign manager who just went through what Becky did (not to mention did so much for her campaign) likely would have sunk her chances without Becky having to so much as lift a finger.
Devin
Could she though? It would have certainly made the news that she had cut her campaign manager whose dad had just died. That probably would have fairly quickly erased that bump Becky had gotten her. I don’t see kindness here, and I think Robin’s reaction shows pretty effectively that even she doesn’t believe she’s being kind.
BBCC
GOD I hope she’s just being nice but I’ve learned that with Willis, hope is a filthy lie he made up to keep us from rioting. 😛
Kyrik Michalowski
That’s an excellent way to describe hopes associated with this comic.
DailyBrad
At this point, it can be both, and it really wouldn’t make a material difference which it was. She could probably get more out of Becky by trotting her out there and wringing blood out of that stone, so if she was just being cynical and using Becky, she’s not exactly using her to her fullest.
I think Robin is trying to be as close to altruistic as we’ve seen her, but that’s obviously relative.
Chris
Congratulations, you’re fired!
Kyrik Michalowski
I’d love to believe that Robin is just doing this out of the good of her heart but my instincts tell me otherwise. Becky seems to generally be of the same mind.
So what gave Robin the sudden surge; was it Becky’s thing about Blaine that caused it?
C.T Phipps
Since Robin is still Robin, my view is that she’s a genuinely good person. It’s just that her entire career is based on the belief politics is meaningless and it was all for the perks.
Becky and people like Dorothy confuse her as they believe it is actually VERY important.
I’ve known plenty of people who believe like Robin in RL, sadly.
thejeff
It’s more than that though and not just politics. The whole breaking into Leslie’s house and refusing to leave thing was creepy, even though much of it was played for humor.
She’s incredibly unaware of other people’s feelings or wants and runs roughshod over them, apparently without even noticing. I don’t think it’s malevolent, but it can still be damaging.
Regalli
It seemed more to me like Robin was being played for humor, but Leslie was reacting to it with distress and horror most of the time. Which just reinforces the ‘not malevolent but still damaging’ – Robin thought she was in an entirely different genre than Leslie.
thejeff
But just resignation much of the time too. It was weird for me. If I squinted I could see how those actions with different emphasis would be horrible and some people were taking them that way, but the emotional impact of “stalker” wasn’t there.
Sam
The surge is caused by people being conspiratal about whether the whole kidnapping events happened or not because people love drama and telling people their stories are fake and didn’t happen based on nothing.
Berlioz
The alternative, or course, is Robin doesn’t change.
Please stop killing character development in favor of goofy things like “realpolitik”, Becky.
Cattleprod
Yeah, I accept that Robin literally can’t fully see Amber because she’s partially out of frame.
Deanatay
Being Genre Savvy isn’t always an advantage.
Roe
ugh
Stephen Bierce
I told
You twice
I was only trying to be nice
Only trying to be nice–oh
I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On
Octopus Ink
Robin is Robin is Robin.
Flame Warp
I dunno, just looking at Robin’s expressions here I legitimately believe that she’s actually just trying to help.
Zor
She is pretty bad at hiding her real intentions, huh…?
thejeff
But she also got a poll surge.
Rainhat
Between the near-fourth-wall thing in the first panel and Becky’s expression in the last… this one’s one of my favorite strips, right now.
Mra
._.
Bagge
Honestly, despite what Robin may or may not gain, this is a pretty sweet deal for Becky.
goki
In this comic, weirder things have happened.
tim gueguen
I really like Becky’s expressions in the last two panels. Just a little bit different from what we usually see from her.
DT
Unimpressed Becky is new best facial expression of Dumbing Of Age.
Dr T
Clearly Blaine and Toedad have done the most heinous thing they could have done; gotten Robin re-elected.
C.T Phipps
I’m hoping that Robin will be reinvented as not Palin or Trump or even Rubio but the Indiana AOC.
She can convert to Democrat after being elected.
Mind you, the requirement is to toss Mitch McConnell down a reactor shaft.