Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 24, 2012
Transcript:
Mark: I wonder if people really understand this stuff... maybe I can help. Hi, kids! Ever wonder what the difference is between running the country and running a private equity firm like Bain Capital? Well, it's simple! Aide: Mr. President! Unemployment is down! President: That's great! Aide: Mr. President, unemployment is up! President: That's terrible! Aide: Mr. Romney! We created 10,000 jobs and made $100 million! Romney: That's great! Aide: Mr. Romney! We destroyed 10,000 jobs and made $100 million! Romney: That's great! Mark: See the difference? No? Read it again! Waging class warfare has never been easier! This is running the country... And this. And this is running Bain Capital... And this.
BE THIS GUY over 12 years ago
BINGO!!!
corzak over 12 years ago
oh-oh. I guess the wedding is over . . .
Linguist over 12 years ago
So much for peace and quiet. The TROLLS will be back, today!
Orion-13 over 12 years ago
LOLThis is a FUNNY strip! So TOTALLY opposite of the real world where the President spends multiple trillions of dollars by rewarding his cronies in failing firms, annihilates any possibility of job growth, illegally runs guns to Mexico, freely associates with terrorists, and blows millions on family vacations and private jets for the family dog while his Secret Service agents party with hookers and brawl in bars and he’s TOTALLY unaccountable…But Doonsebury pokes excellent fun by making it like the opposite! Hahaha! I LOVE this guy!
I wonder if he’ll deal with his ruling by fiat and promoting voter fraud next?
Orion
decimuscaelius over 12 years ago
Capitalism is was it is and will not become kinder and gentler by voting for the Democrats either. Like Malcolm said, “The difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is like the difference between the wolf and the fox. . .”Yes, the class struggle is simmering from below like never before in most of our lifetimes.
Moley over 12 years ago
A+ decimuscaeliusYou got it!
Dtroutma over 12 years ago
Orion: nothing like a little “honest” profit-taking on Iraq, or opening a few more plants, in China, to make patriotic conswervatives swoon, is there?
Doughfoot over 12 years ago
As venture-capitalist billionaire Nick Hanauer has pointed out, capitalists create jobs when no other easier way to make a profit is available. They take on more employees only when they have to, as a last resort. They are not job creators, they are just part of a complex system that depends as much on consumers as upon them. “I make a hundred times as much money as the average American, but I don’t buy a hundred times as much stuff, or use a hundred times more services.” The capitalists are invaluable and necessary to make the system work, just like the workers on the factory floor, just like the consumers buying in the stores. No one group is more responsible for creating jobs than the others. Of course, some people can’t bear the thought of complexity, and want to reduce everything to a stupid simplicity. “The American revolution was caused by British soldiers firing upon colonists at Lexington. It has nothing to do with the evolving nature of American society or British policy. The Civil War was caused by South Carolina firing on Fort Sumter, but had nothing to do with slavery or regional differences. The Second World War was caused by Germany invading Poland, it has nothing to do with Hitler or Nazism. And jobs are created when someone who controls money decides pay out some of it for another employee.” It is that kind of reductionist, mindless “thinking” that leads us to kowtow to people who are our equals and fellow citizens as though they were our lords and masters. Three cheers for a free market economy, where created goods and services are bought sold by principles of supply and demand. But we are in danger of becoming a free market society, where everything, rights, privileges, our common good, out common natural resources, our citizenship, our very souls, are all bought and sold.
WaitingMan over 12 years ago
Intelligent commentary from right-wingers in 21st Century America? Hah! More intelligence in a bag of hammers.
chazandru over 12 years ago
Hello Neighbors,Bain served its stockholders, not its workers or the communities in which businesses were closed or saved. Stockholders make money from the sale of a product, executives make money by paying themselves the maximum possible for making those profits happen. Workers, with their needs for pay, healthcare, & a desire for retirement are, frankly, a “bane” on the profits made by stockholders and executives. For this reason, we send so much money overseas to China and other countries willing to make our products for us cheaply, we are paying for them to strengthen their military, invest in other nations, and generally making them a more powerful nation than they would be were we to build and make things in our country with our people. NAFTA was supposed to allow US cars to be made in Canada & Mexico and ONLY sold in Mexico and Canada. Dems and Republicans alike bowed to the lobbyists and executives and loosened the law to allow countries to close US plants and deliver mexican made cars to US cities.Workers are the muscle and bone of this nation. Teachers, police, firemen, first responders are the immune system protecting us from the diseases of ignorance, crime, and natural disaster. Doctors, engineers, scientists are the talents of our nation- the skills gained by merging muscle and mind in a healthy body. Preachers, rabbis, immans, priests, philosophers/musicians, artists are the conscience of the nation pulling our ethics and sense of honor in one direction or another. But politicians, executives, and sadly-lobbyists- are the mind of our nation and in their ability to cause an action to occur or not occur, they guide us. I worry they are guiding us to a place we do not wish to see for reasons lacking honor, ethics, or those positive traits of religion and philosophy so many of us admire. To a place our ‘immune system’ cannot save us.Everytime I read the comments of my neighbors and see them become hateful and vindictive, I remember the farewell address of Geo. Washington who said political parties would divide and weaken the nation.Don’t let them turn you against each other. Find the issues you agree upon and build on those. We are Americans!Respectfully,C.
JosephBidenJr99 over 12 years ago
Obama defenders are having tough times these days.
marchman3354 over 12 years ago
@CDowns
Bain Capital has no stockholders, it is a partnership with partners and investors. It makes money for its partners first and investors second and answers to no one else. Corporate experience is nothing to political experience, witness the teaparty mess of no comprimise. An Illinois Republican congressman was asked if he would take $10 in feederal spending cuts for $! in revenue increase and his answer was NO!
And even more interesting is the fact that while Romney speaks of his background as Massachusetts Govenor he won’t talk of his accomplishments, is only one was Romneycare and he keeps backing away from it.
and @ Guard SGT Sarcasm is lost on you and fantasy has become reality in your loathing for the President of the United States.
corzak over 12 years ago
Are you kidding? You’re referring us to the ‘Drudge Report’ as a primary source?? Lol, lol!The Drudge is the First Secretary of Party Doctrine, assigned to guide Party Ideological Purity. Every morning it gets to set the Party Line for the entire echo chamber. It’s quite an honor!
hancel over 12 years ago
As usual we get the faux news view of the Presidency (Orion-13) Actually more hilarious than the comic. With the economy improving despite the republicans fighting him every step of the way can you imagine what could have been with a little cooperation.
transwarpmail-comics over 12 years ago
Of course the ignorant troll jumps on this strip like a fat kid on cake. How pathetic that it has no life, and just waits to use its ration of Fox News garbage on anything. It must be so lonely in its mother’s basement. Fortunately, it will never procreate.
RayThomas101 over 12 years ago
Doesn’t take long for the liberals to start calling names, does it? Never answer the question, just call names.
RayThomas101 over 12 years ago
I guess, according to the liberals in this group, you’re a “troll,” like me. They don’t recognize truth. They can’t handle it.
PlainBill over 12 years ago
I understand that Conservatives are necessary, and no, I don’t believe they are conceived as the result of sodomy, but why are so many of them incapable of the tiniest bit of logic? A healthy economy is created when businesses hire workers, who produce a marketable products that is bought by workers who are employed by many businesses.
Nearly a century ago Henry Ford figured out that the best way to sell cars was to produce them economically (the assembly line) and pay the workers well so they could afford to buy cars, houses, and other material goods. When a company has their product produced by slave labor (either here or overseas), they are cutting off part of their market. Yes, they will show a short term profit, but in the end it will destroy them.
Hufn over 12 years ago
As opposed to bush who didn’t actually win either election? The courts were never intended to pick a president….
Hufn over 12 years ago
That’s why I read this strip. The comments are far funnier than the strip more often than not :D
zenguyuno over 12 years ago
Some of you Doonsebury readers might like to read my blog at earthchurch.blogspot.com. It’s somewhat slanted toward realism as opposed to mythology. (meaning that republicans won’t like it)
goweeder over 12 years ago
“When Obama decided to destroy the coal industry, without any alternative job prospects, throwing thousands into unemployment….. Did he say “great”?”……………………………………...Yeah, and we all know how wonderful coal is for the environment …..
Dtroutma over 12 years ago
Capitalism IS a viable ECONOMIC system, when practiced. However, deregulation by “conservatives” has turned it into “crapitallism” in the United States, and in “multi-national” corporatizing of the WORLD economies. If regulation is “bad”, then why do the same folks who ban polygamy because too many would be getting screwed, NOT want to regulate banking and “investment” where WAY too many have been screwed?
rpmdbs over 12 years ago
To think that there are idiots who swallow these lies and base their votes upon a comic strip. Far easier than actually looking at what Bain did WHEN Romney was there as opposed to two years after he left.
rpmdbs over 12 years ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/business/global/18plane.html?pagewanted=all
kaffekup over 12 years ago
I’m happy that each comment is proceded with a handle; it lets me know whose comments I can skip (and they’re usually the long cut-and-paste garbage). You know who you are.
iced tea over 12 years ago
♫♪♫♪It’s the end of the world as we know it♫♪♫♪
Booklady1 Premium Member over 12 years ago
“Waging class warfare has never been easier” … or more useless.If no one will listen respectfully to another with differing opinions on a comic page, what hope is there in Congress?I fear that we have become a nation of political prima donnas, fit only for petty bickering and childish shows of temper.
t1warren over 12 years ago
How come Bain gets called on destroying jobs but when GE sends 1000’s of jobs over seas nothing is said? Or GE makes 5,000,000,000 and pays on taxes nothing is said either?
SeaDragon47 over 12 years ago
It is kind of funny to read the comments (better than the strip actually). Trudeau is so far left Everybody else looks right. I know that so mostly I read the comments. Trolls from both sides. Nobody is going to change anybody’s mind. The fun part is that the more angry they get the worse their spelling and grammar. Have at it folks, I need more laughs.
FriscoLou over 12 years ago
“Romney will not eat his dog …”
Yeah Tigger, but Obama won’t tie him to the top of Air Force One like you know who.
corzak over 12 years ago
“stop watching Fox News and watch my News Source, NBC News . . .” and “Funny how you supported Drudge when he was critical of Bush 43.”I never ‘supported’ anyone. As @Sharuniboy mentioned: The idea is NOT to have “my news source” or to “support a news source” or to “have a news source I agree with”.That’s how critical thinking works. Always question sources. Always look at other evidence. Always be prepared to change your mind. Look at the bait before you bite the hook.
corzak over 12 years ago
Oh, and to be fair . . . Guard SGT is somewhat correct when he says: “Barry now wants all weddings, birthdays, anniversary gifts converted to money and sent to his campaign!”This appears in numerous places, most especially from the Obama campaign itself! But of course ‘Barry" doesn’t want ‘all’ your gifts . . . the wording is “ask for a donation in lieu of a gift”.It’s a questionable tactic, but the Obama campaign is being starved of the billionaire donations that decide our elections.
Doughfoot over 12 years ago
Reading Tigger, who condemns every president from Washington onward. The problem is, folks, we’ve been thinking of Tigger and friends as Conservatives; they are nothing of the kind. They are hostile to ALL government, ALL restrictions on absolute liberty. A hundred years ago they were called Anarchists, and like the anarchists who set off a wagon full of dynamite on Wall Street in 1919, they have nothing to offer. They only have bombs to throw. As the Anti-Christ is supposed to put on the mantle of Christ to do his evil works, so the modern Anti-Patriot wraps himself in a flag, puts on a cocked hat, and joins the Tea Party to wreck the country. Forty years ago, I was rather an anarchist myself, so I can kind of understand. But then anarchy was thought to be the road to Love and Peace. Pretty soft-headed. Modern anarchism is only about fear, hate and jealousy. Sad, sad people.
Semper Fido over 12 years ago
Uhhh. Obama has never created a job in his life. Romney has, and most of them stayed inside the US. I’m sure someone will tell me what I’m missing.
3hourtour Premium Member over 12 years ago
…Come on,Trudeau.Just because they don’t care doesn’t mean they don’t care…
Drewdove over 12 years ago
So the white house has unemployment going up while Bain destroys jobs. Kind of like Romney flip flops while Obama evolves. And in other news the chocolate ration has been raised to 3 grams.
cheapgruntlabor over 12 years ago
guardia—now you’re pushing MY buttons, turkey. Legacy-boy bush couldn’t “figure” his way out of a paper (booze bottle) bag without his family connections. He was legacy’d into prep school, college AND graduate school. He was legacy’d and “head of the lined” into the Air Guard. IF he’d wanted to actually fly COMBAT missions, he COULD have reqested reassignment to appropriate aircraft…but he was fat dumb & happy with his hidey hole, eh?
And just WHERE is your (or ANY) PROOF to support those slanderous allegations about President Obama’s birth certificate, SSN, etc?
I’d suggest you could reap the benefit of hindsight, but that’d be the first thing you get AFTER you pull your head out your azz, and it don’t look like THAT is ever gonna happen.
Dtroutma over 12 years ago
“GuardREMF”: Just so you know, “W”, was, just like his dad, a pretty crummy pilot. He’d been downgraded from even the obsolete at the time F-102 when he decided to go “campaigning” and desert from the Guard. HIs “failures” as a pilot (but not as a drunk at the time) may have been the reason he decided NOT to come back for his mandatory physical.
DavyG over 12 years ago
Given the choice between
a) flying jets for the TX National Guard, living in the USA and training enough to be ready to defend against whoever invades Texas, with low likelihood of deployment overseas, and
b) getting sent halfway around the world to haul heavy packs through a sweaty jungle full of people trying to kill them,
how many young men of the day would have picked each option?
tech55 over 12 years ago
You get down on Romney about outsourcing jobs but I bet you own an Iphone or Ipad something apple which is all made over seas. I bet you all go to steven spielberg movies which are all made outside the US. How come they don’t bring these jobs here. They haven’t made any jobs for the US. How come you don’t complain about these Libs who support Obama. They could bring 1000’s of jobs to the US.
BE THIS GUY over 12 years ago
I posted the first comment and then did not bother to look at site for the remainder of the day. Beautiful day in NYC. Spent time with my nephews. Took a long walk. Came back to find 112 comments.
steelersneo over 12 years ago
Neither has starting class warfare.
morgana over 12 years ago
@orion-13dude you’re making no sense at all. Or maybe this is opposite day and no one mentioned it?
morgana over 12 years ago
@kiserthe coal industry should be dismantled.Would you like to crawl around in caves, breathing black dust, getting blown up or caved in on…..to dig crap out of the ground to burn and add to global warming?OOoo how about that special kind of mining they do where they take off the tops of mountains and put them in the valleys, blocking the rivers! Oh, that’s just too wonderful!
I suppose that you’re specifically talking about YOUR job?
pieterb Premium Member over 12 years ago
I am not making this up! Don’t believe me, just check out the Drudge Report
Good thing I’d swallowed my coffee before reading that. It hurts like hell when it passes through your nose