This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
Mac Hall
Matt Boyd
The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Slightly Damned
Chu
Rhea Snaketail returns from the dead, befriending a Demon who falls in love with an Angel. The afterlife ain't what it used to be!
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Fantomestein
Beka Duke
Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Countdown to Countdown
Velinxi
Iris Black is a self-proclaimed inventor with the curious ability to bring his drawings to life, and yearns to find a space where he can use his powers freely.
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
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It’s all good, I think most of us are angry at how certain individuals are choosing re-election over health and lives at this point. I hope that their choice to focus on their profits and re-election gets them neither.
I want to know the cannon president for the Dumbiverse. I sure would like for it to be Obama but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it were Bush. Although I would like to see an OC president too.
I’m pretty sure the sliding timescale of this comic means the president in DoA is whoever is president at the time of the most recent strip. Which means during strips posted before 2017 it was Obama, now it’s Trump.
It’s got to be confusing for them. I mean, can you imagine going to the polls and voting for someone only to have that person serve all 8 years by the time you get home?
Yep, Willis confirmed this back in 2017 when Joe made a Trump joke at Dorothy. Until (hopefully) 2021, or 2025 if not, Trump is unfortunately president in the DoAverse.
Impostor syndrome? I got a big “Oh, that’s an actual thing with a name and everything? Aaah… Well, that helps explain how and why I messed that up… Look at my depression demon, learning a new way of sabotaging me!” moment when zi learnt about it.
It doesn’t have to be an expert or someone quantifiable “success.”
It’s pretty common in college/university students. It’s that feeling when you pull an all-nighter and put out a paper that you know isn’t your best work but you get high praise for it anyways.
I feel like that a lot of the time at work, and I’m actually both qualified for and good at my job. I think everyone at a certain level of professional success feels that way. Especially if you’re good at your job, because then you understand how much you still don’t know.
LET ME TELL YOU so this one time Neil Gaiman was at some big Hollywood party or something, with a whole lot of, you know, actual, important, famous people and he’s standing there hiding in a corner cuz what the heck is he doing there (he says, telling this story); he’s just some guy who writes a bit, whatever, who cares, and he gets chatting with the other guy in the corner cuz it ends up both their names are Neil and then the other guy says exactly what he’s already thinking, which is, “Jesus, what the hell am I doing here? I’m nobody special!! This place is full of A-listers!” And Neil turns to him, mouth agape, and goes, “Are you freaking kidding me?! You’re Neil Armstrong!! The first man on the moon!!” And Neil Armstrong turns to him and says, “Yeah, but so what? I was just doing my job! I mean, look at you! You’re super creative; you write; you create stuff! I’m just a guy who went to work!”
TL;DR: Neil Gaiman and Neil Armstrong both have imposter syndrome too, and neither thinks the other has any reason for it. And neither does.
The irony of “Imposter Syndrome” is its inevitable corollary, the person (usually someone in authority over the victim of the syndrome) is exactly the opposite: Believing themselves to be surpemely competent and intelligent while being abysmally and willfully ignorant and incompetent.
Mike has said – based on facts personally known to him – that some police are under control of the Mafia. There’s a major chance that at least some of the police who show up will be corrupt, unreliable, and dangerous.
If you think it’s a good idea to call in armed uncontrollable authority figures who are likely in league with your enemies, then you are fooling yourself.
The superhero alter-ego of a teenager with undiagnosed, untreated mental instability who’s running on empty after pulling an all-nighter to keep said superhero alter-ego at bay.
Something tell some outside force or another will have to intervene to save Amber from herself, again. Last time it was Sal and Joyce on the motorcycle. Who will it be this time?
Some of the cops are mobsters which creates the possibility of these things:
1) Get called, go, see it is Blaine doing a thing, pretend it was a prank, Blaine threatens to or does kill a hostage/multiple hostages.
2) Know Blaine was doing a thing, tell Blaine, say it was a prank, Blaine proceeds to threaten to or does kill a hostage/multiple hostages.
3) Know Blaine is doing a thing, hear other cops taking the call, tell Blaine, Blaine gets away and all the hostages are dead.
How likely are these scenarios? I don’t know. I don’t know if it is 3 guys or if it is 90% of the police station. Lacking this information, makes it very difficult, even more so in a sleep-deprived state, to weigh up the risks of calling vs not calling them. Especially when Sarah has added racism concerns onto her mind as well, because a trigger-happy racist cop could lead to Walky and Sarah being killed for very little reason, this is not impossible.
It isn’t technically right or wrong, it is in a tricky spot where it is right if it goes right, it is wrong if it goes wrong. Amber is erring on caution that any possibility of mobster cops is too much of a possibility. We don’t know how big that possibility is as we don’t know how much of the police force is corrupted and we also don’t know how willing they are to do favours for Blaine either.
That said, Amber knows Blaine and his habits better than we do, and just might be a better judge than us of how likely it is for him to have crooked cops wrapped around his finger, and how many.
I’d say of those, 3 is the most likely. Crooked people are generally crooked because they are self-serving. That means that the police will try to avoid placing themselves in positions that directly point back to themselves. They wouldn’t want to show up to actively cover it up because there is too much that could go wrong with that. If he kids survive, they tell all and the cop gets caught either being incompetent or covering things up. If they die, their bodies will be found, same outcome but probably with more attention. Calling to warn Blaine would be likely if they are connected directly to him. If they are connected to another mobster and if Blaine is low enough level, they may be encouraged to stay out of it and cut losses. If they go to the scene, they would likely do their job and arrest the identified criminal (possibly find a way to let him go “accidentally”) and possibly bring in he kids to be questioned and see if they can influence the kids to say something that ruins the case against Blaine. Blaine would have to have some pretty heavy dirt on the cops to get them to stretch their necks out far enough to get involved in the kidnapping and possible murder of a bunch of Freshman age kids (I think Sarah is the only one older than that) who would absolutely be missed by their families .
And he’s very clearly uncomfortable with what he’s doing, Blaine trying to actually murder the hostages might be the thing that makes him say “no, enough is enough” resulting in possibility number 4
Toedad fights Blaine, gets shot in the struggle, but the distraction was ling enough for the cops to arrive
There is another factor, which is: how high up in the mob hierarchy is Blaine? And if he isn’t basically the Don himself, would they really waste precious police resources on some mid-level thug off on a personal vendetta against his daughter? Cause, correct me if I’m wrong, but Blaine’s plan seems to involve using mob resources but not in any way that actually benefits the mob. Seems to me that if this thing goes wrong, his bosses will let him go down on his own. Also seems to me like all this shit is being done very much without their permission or knowledge, and he might actually be in a lot more danger than the kids if his bosses find out about what he’s doing.
Which is why the basic theory for most of us isn’t “Blaine will have the police kill the kids if anyone calls them”, but “Blaine will get a tip off from the crooked cop when the department starts mounting its anti-kidnapping operation and he’ll flee, possibly killing some hostages along the way.”
4) You’ve got a US senator with FBI dudes guarding her right there. Albeit they don’t seem too competent, they are armed adult authority figures, and might be able to call in more armed adult authority figures whose presence would not only trump that of the local cops (kidnapping is a federal offence, isn’t it? Meaning FBI, not the local precinct?), but also be (a) less likely (one hopes) to be corrupt; (b) more likely to have enough training and experience to not just automatically shoot the first PoC they see cuz “self-defence” or some such bullshit; and (c) are unlikely to be tied to the particular mobster Blaine is involved with in the area. Hell, they might even be after the mob guy locally, and therefore have additional interest in going after Blaine. Who, hopefully, will end up bleeding out face down in dog poo while Amber moons him while getting high-fived by all her friends. Toedad, meanwhile, as he breathes his last himself, hallucinates Jesus looking sternly down at him and telling him he’s very disappointed in him and that he didn’t listen to his teachings at all, and now is bound for Hell.
Quite aside from Mike’s claim in-universe that a significant number of cops are mobbed up, Willis has established a track record in this strip of the titular authorities and other people in positions of power and trust are malevolent or, at best, ineffectual.
“Especially my phone with GPS because you don’t know where I’m going but once you tell everyone that will include people with the ability to track my whereabouts”?
The likely racist, likely mobster cops? You’re living in a different America than the one Sarah and Mike are living in. Theirs is closer to real life than yours is.
They’re a bunch of cops so yeah probably one or two are bent, one or two are racist but to says that most are suggests that your cheese has well and truly slid off your cracker (being that Mike and Sarah are fictional)
Only a few microbes out there are coronavirus. You willing to go out without a mask and gloves?
The number or proportion of crooked officers is not as important as you may think; only one is necessary to overhear the call and alert Blaine, or to be the one RECEIVING the call and dismissing it to the others as a prank (and then alert Blaine anyway). Each additional crooked officer vastly increases the odds that one will overhear or be somewhere in the chain of command between the phone line and the dispatch radio.
I don’t go out with gloves or a mask but I practice social distancing, I wear gloves and a mask at work (I’m a Corrections Officer) however thats to protect the prisoners from anything I might have. I’m from NZ so so we know what we’re doing down here.
Ruth/Becky contact a cop Becky already has been in contact with or they contact the media (you don’t think the media would love to hear about a gun-totin’, religious fundamentalist, homophobic Trump voter thats just kidnapped their kid?) or maybe they don’t listen to scared, mentally ill, naive, teenagers and do the right thing and contact the police anyway
I don’t know where this is set so I’m working it off Bloomington (if I’m wrong let me know) and the Indiana University Police Department has 45 sworn police officers (whom I’m assuming probably have some familiarity with what happened previously) and the Bloomington Police Department has just over 100 so yeah the odds are certainly in your favor if you were to call the police that you wouldn’t get a cop paid off by Blaine
Yes before you ask if it was me in there I’d expect my wife to call the police and vice versa
But, whatever cop you call is going to report it to their chain of command and they’re going to organize a response to a mass kidnapping and that’s going to get around the entire department, including whoever’s on the mob payroll and thus it’ll get back to Blaine.
As for the racism angle – “one or two are racist” vastly understates the problem: the system itself is racist. It trains racism and protects it. The danger Sarah worries about is very real. We have a very serious problem with policing in the US. That said, in this case, I think the risk from the kidnappers is higher
Yes, there is a systematic problem of racism and bias among cops. However, Sarah’s assumption is she believes that she and Walky will be killed deliberately more likely at the hands of the cops than the actual mobsters that kidnapped her as well as know the identities of their attackers. You have to believe they’re overtly the goons from the Galactic Empire for that to be the case.
Or, think the risk of the kidnappers actually killing them is lower than you or I do. Some here have explicitly said they don’t think Blaine would kill them.
Sarah will probably be OK, even if some of the cops are mobbed up or racist. But Walky is headed for problems. When the cops show up, they WILL arrest the kid dressed like a superhero. Bring them in for questioning about all the vigilante reports on campus, maybe? Now David Walkerton is going to be arrested. Do you think Walky will be able to resist being a smart-ass towards the cops? I do not. Cops do not like it when suspects are smart asses. I cannot imagine Linda reacting well, probably going “Full Karen” on the situation. If the police are anything like the cops I know, a white woman going Full Karen means they’ll be even more indifferent towards her black son… who might confess to the vigilante attacks to either defend his Garbage Roof girlfriend or because it makes him seem cooler or is somehow Spartacus Honor? And even if it all gets worked out, and he’s declared “not guilty?” He’s another young black male with an arrest record for assault, vandalism, and other crimes, even if there were no convictions…
God no. Black people don’t get 2nd Amendment rights. They get shot for cops even thinking they have guns.
Actually trying to use their 2nd Amendment rights to defend themselves would just prove the cop was right.
Let’s not start comparing who has it worse here. Ruth you were in a near catatonic state of depression just a few weeks ago. Amber’s got her share of junk but so does like half the cast. For instance Mike might be dead and Becky’s dad is arguably worse than Blaine.
Presumably as RA she had to check everyone off her list as safe following the fire drill, and sober she’d be more alert to notice who vanished before heading back in.
Hey, I can sorta relate to Ruth in this strip. Not in the having depression since I don’t have that, but in the feeling that the problems I do have don’t matter all that much since lots of people have way worse problems.
See, that’s why I hate people constantly try to cheer others up by telling them to “look on the bright side,” because others “have it so much worse!” And the flip side of that, of course, is either implying or saying outright that because someone else has it worse than you do, that your issues don’t matter. Why are you complaining, huh? You only lost one leg! That guy lost both! So what if you lost your job and your home? That guy over there never even had his own place, or a job as good as yours!
Or else they just tell you to stop fussing about it because “why worry about something that hasn’t even happened yet?”
And the danger with that, of course, is that as well as actually making the person feel like shit instead of better (because now they don’t just have whatever was making them sad in the first place, now they also don’t even feel like they’re permitted to feel bad about it, let alone complain)– as well as that, it prevents people from seeking the help they need. Why would you? You don’t actually have it that bad, after all.
And then our brains also repeat that and lie to us, the jerks.
Damn, that was a waste of coffee. Computer’s o.k. though! Yay!
Imma need a trigger warning for jokes that good,… hmmm, or else a spray screen for mah keyboard…
Surprise twist: Ruth’s grandpa is Asher’s grandpa’s deadliest foe. In going after kids under Ruth’s care, Blaine accidentally ignites a mob war. Asher’s gramps isn’t very happy about this. Buh-bye, Blaine.
No offense to Dorothy here but I’m finding it kinda hard to trust in Amber right now. I’m pretty sure if she keeps going like this without at least asking for help from someone she’s gonna get herself killed. I’m not talking about calling the cops or anything cause that ship has sailed. I mean just asking for help from people who can help you! Like Ruth…right now. It’s like she wants her apparently not friends to remain tied up indefinitely and maybe get killed possibly. I’m putting my trust in Becky who might have a plan it remains to be seen or even Dina or maybe Ross will have some miracle change of heart. But I can’t trust Amber on this…Not now.
I feel this so hard. I’ve been battling depression so hard for most of my life, so often teetering on the edge of ending it all. I’ve had my share of rough crap to deal with that I don’t care to go into.
A couple days ago, someone who I was friend with like 12 years ago and then dropped off that face of the earth suddenly reached out to me. Apparently for like 8 of those years she’d been homeless. For like a year I drove over a bridge almost every day that she was apparently living under. I honestly had assumed she’d died or something.
I’d be lying if I said it made me feel any better about my crap, but when I compare it to hers, just… wow.
Meanwhile, Blaine and Ball-Peen(tm), who really ARE pieces of shit, high-five each other for how awesome they are, completely oblivious to the fact that they are pieces of shit.
I mean, I guess I show some signs of having imposter syndrome wrt how screwed up I am. But not if you compare me to someone with real impostyer syndrome.
Me if I ever see Tony Hawk: Hey you’re Tony Hawk the famous skateboarder. That’s right I recognise you. Won’t be able to get any content out of this will you, you piece of shit
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
Hot Toys Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 1/6 Scale Darth Vader Deluxe ($495) & Standard ($315) is up for preorder at Sideshow - shrsl.com/4wcx6 #ad
If you preorder make sure to hit the Exclusive versions since they include a commemorative plaque and cost the same.
btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 2d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 12d
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“I USED TO BE THE BIGGEST LOSER, WHAT HAPPENED”
“well, we elected the worst possible president”
“THAT’S JUST IT, HOW CAN I HAVE IMPOSTOR SYNDROME WITH THAT IN CHARGE, A GOLD TOILET ACCOMPLISHES MORE”
sorry, just feisty from sheltering in place and all my friends maybe dying and also me if I get even a small exposure bc I’m on immunosuppressants
It’s all good, I think most of us are angry at how certain individuals are choosing re-election over health and lives at this point. I hope that their choice to focus on their profits and re-election gets them neither.
I want to know the cannon president for the Dumbiverse. I sure would like for it to be Obama but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it were Bush. Although I would like to see an OC president too.
I’m pretty sure the sliding timescale of this comic means the president in DoA is whoever is president at the time of the most recent strip. Which means during strips posted before 2017 it was Obama, now it’s Trump.
Yes exactly
It’s got to be confusing for them. I mean, can you imagine going to the polls and voting for someone only to have that person serve all 8 years by the time you get home?
HAhahahahajaja I love it so much I’m laughing bilingually
Yep, Willis confirmed this back in 2017 when Joe made a Trump joke at Dorothy. Until (hopefully) 2021, or 2025 if not, Trump is unfortunately president in the DoAverse.
I thought Joe Ethan Grey was the President in DoA. You know, Julia’s husband?
Also on immunosuppressants here. It’s fine. We’re fine. It’s fine.
This is fine.
All is fine {ignore the tweeting tire fire in the White House}
Everything is fine, nothing is the matter.
Also he’s trying to fire me, not a worry, getting paid to help brown people come to the worst “greatest” country isn’t a thing I need, nope
now I have to look that up….
Impostor syndrome? I got a big “Oh, that’s an actual thing with a name and everything? Aaah… Well, that helps explain how and why I messed that up… Look at my depression demon, learning a new way of sabotaging me!” moment when zi learnt about it.
Imposter Syndrome?
It’s basically when an expert or a successful person they’re not actually an expert/etc and are afraid everyone else will find out.
*…successful person [thinks] they’re not…
It doesn’t have to be an expert or someone quantifiable “success.”
It’s pretty common in college/university students. It’s that feeling when you pull an all-nighter and put out a paper that you know isn’t your best work but you get high praise for it anyways.
I feel like that a lot of the time at work, and I’m actually both qualified for and good at my job. I think everyone at a certain level of professional success feels that way. Especially if you’re good at your job, because then you understand how much you still don’t know.
Honestly, at this point, I’m starting to suspect that it’s universal to all humans, and some are just better at hiding it.
Nah. it’s just what you get once you’re over the Dunning-Kruger hump.
The Dunning-Kruger “hump” isn’t a real thing. Pleas look up the actual study not the internets interpretation of it.
Ah, but see, by claiming that it is a real thing as if I know what I’m talking about, I prove that it does exist.
*taps forehead*
LET ME TELL YOU so this one time Neil Gaiman was at some big Hollywood party or something, with a whole lot of, you know, actual, important, famous people and he’s standing there hiding in a corner cuz what the heck is he doing there (he says, telling this story); he’s just some guy who writes a bit, whatever, who cares, and he gets chatting with the other guy in the corner cuz it ends up both their names are Neil and then the other guy says exactly what he’s already thinking, which is, “Jesus, what the hell am I doing here? I’m nobody special!! This place is full of A-listers!” And Neil turns to him, mouth agape, and goes, “Are you freaking kidding me?! You’re Neil Armstrong!! The first man on the moon!!” And Neil Armstrong turns to him and says, “Yeah, but so what? I was just doing my job! I mean, look at you! You’re super creative; you write; you create stuff! I’m just a guy who went to work!”
TL;DR: Neil Gaiman and Neil Armstrong both have imposter syndrome too, and neither thinks the other has any reason for it. And neither does.
Maybe we don’t, either.
Imposter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHU67s5tOSA
The irony of “Imposter Syndrome” is its inevitable corollary, the person (usually someone in authority over the victim of the syndrome) is exactly the opposite: Believing themselves to be surpemely competent and intelligent while being abysmally and willfully ignorant and incompetent.
I feel those last 3 panels too hard.
Impostor is some of Gary Sinise’s best work
…really? I’ll be honest, just watching the trailer made it obvious what the big twist was, which says something about what a boring twist it was.
More recently “Last Christmas” did the same. I mean guys, your “twist” is literally the first line of the song.
Your depression is valid, Ruth.
Yay.
It almost feels like you’re being sarcastic there.
Validity is yay, but depression is not yay
Yay, your feelings are valid.
Yay, it’s really sad that you have those feelings.
I love Ruth.
Ruth, no, there’s enough fucked up kids in the world for you to count, I promise.
Only one square away from Dysfunction BINGO.
–and Bingo was his name-o.
Would calling the cops not be the right thing to do?
I really messed the formatting up on that one. I meant to just italicize the ‘not’.
I think the comic dipped a little into the world of fantastic fiction and Shortpacked. It’s not a perfect fit despite still being very entertaining.
Because, yes, the police should be called no matter what Mike has said.
Mike has said – based on facts personally known to him – that some police are under control of the Mafia. There’s a major chance that at least some of the police who show up will be corrupt, unreliable, and dangerous.
If you think it’s a good idea to call in armed uncontrollable authority figures who are likely in league with your enemies, then you are fooling yourself.
Far better to leave it to a delusional teenager instead eh
The alternative being leaving half-a-dozen lives in the hands of a mentally unstable teenager.
In the hands of a super-hero.
The superhero alter-ego of a teenager with undiagnosed, untreated mental instability who’s running on empty after pulling an all-nighter to keep said superhero alter-ego at bay.
Something tell some outside force or another will have to intervene to save Amber from herself, again. Last time it was Sal and Joyce on the motorcycle. Who will it be this time?
All true. But still a super-hero.
Some of the cops are mobsters which creates the possibility of these things:
1) Get called, go, see it is Blaine doing a thing, pretend it was a prank, Blaine threatens to or does kill a hostage/multiple hostages.
2) Know Blaine was doing a thing, tell Blaine, say it was a prank, Blaine proceeds to threaten to or does kill a hostage/multiple hostages.
3) Know Blaine is doing a thing, hear other cops taking the call, tell Blaine, Blaine gets away and all the hostages are dead.
How likely are these scenarios? I don’t know. I don’t know if it is 3 guys or if it is 90% of the police station. Lacking this information, makes it very difficult, even more so in a sleep-deprived state, to weigh up the risks of calling vs not calling them. Especially when Sarah has added racism concerns onto her mind as well, because a trigger-happy racist cop could lead to Walky and Sarah being killed for very little reason, this is not impossible.
It isn’t technically right or wrong, it is in a tricky spot where it is right if it goes right, it is wrong if it goes wrong. Amber is erring on caution that any possibility of mobster cops is too much of a possibility. We don’t know how big that possibility is as we don’t know how much of the police force is corrupted and we also don’t know how willing they are to do favours for Blaine either.
^^^sam gets it
That said, Amber knows Blaine and his habits better than we do, and just might be a better judge than us of how likely it is for him to have crooked cops wrapped around his finger, and how many.
I’d say of those, 3 is the most likely. Crooked people are generally crooked because they are self-serving. That means that the police will try to avoid placing themselves in positions that directly point back to themselves. They wouldn’t want to show up to actively cover it up because there is too much that could go wrong with that. If he kids survive, they tell all and the cop gets caught either being incompetent or covering things up. If they die, their bodies will be found, same outcome but probably with more attention. Calling to warn Blaine would be likely if they are connected directly to him. If they are connected to another mobster and if Blaine is low enough level, they may be encouraged to stay out of it and cut losses. If they go to the scene, they would likely do their job and arrest the identified criminal (possibly find a way to let him go “accidentally”) and possibly bring in he kids to be questioned and see if they can influence the kids to say something that ruins the case against Blaine. Blaine would have to have some pretty heavy dirt on the cops to get them to stretch their necks out far enough to get involved in the kidnapping and possible murder of a bunch of Freshman age kids (I think Sarah is the only one older than that) who would absolutely be missed by their families .
You are forgetting that Toedad is their too
And he’s very clearly uncomfortable with what he’s doing, Blaine trying to actually murder the hostages might be the thing that makes him say “no, enough is enough” resulting in possibility number 4
Toedad fights Blaine, gets shot in the struggle, but the distraction was ling enough for the cops to arrive
There is another factor, which is: how high up in the mob hierarchy is Blaine? And if he isn’t basically the Don himself, would they really waste precious police resources on some mid-level thug off on a personal vendetta against his daughter? Cause, correct me if I’m wrong, but Blaine’s plan seems to involve using mob resources but not in any way that actually benefits the mob. Seems to me that if this thing goes wrong, his bosses will let him go down on his own. Also seems to me like all this shit is being done very much without their permission or knowledge, and he might actually be in a lot more danger than the kids if his bosses find out about what he’s doing.
Which is why the basic theory for most of us isn’t “Blaine will have the police kill the kids if anyone calls them”, but “Blaine will get a tip off from the crooked cop when the department starts mounting its anti-kidnapping operation and he’ll flee, possibly killing some hostages along the way.”
Ooh!
4) You’ve got a US senator with FBI dudes guarding her right there. Albeit they don’t seem too competent, they are armed adult authority figures, and might be able to call in more armed adult authority figures whose presence would not only trump that of the local cops (kidnapping is a federal offence, isn’t it? Meaning FBI, not the local precinct?), but also be (a) less likely (one hopes) to be corrupt; (b) more likely to have enough training and experience to not just automatically shoot the first PoC they see cuz “self-defence” or some such bullshit; and (c) are unlikely to be tied to the particular mobster Blaine is involved with in the area. Hell, they might even be after the mob guy locally, and therefore have additional interest in going after Blaine. Who, hopefully, will end up bleeding out face down in dog poo while Amber moons him while getting high-fived by all her friends. Toedad, meanwhile, as he breathes his last himself, hallucinates Jesus looking sternly down at him and telling him he’s very disappointed in him and that he didn’t listen to his teachings at all, and now is bound for Hell.
Look, I can hope, okay?
Quite aside from Mike’s claim in-universe that a significant number of cops are mobbed up, Willis has established a track record in this strip of the titular authorities and other people in positions of power and trust are malevolent or, at best, ineffectual.
“Especially my phone with GPS because you don’t know where I’m going but once you tell everyone that will include people with the ability to track my whereabouts”?
Yes, CALL THE COPS.
The likely racist, likely mobster cops? You’re living in a different America than the one Sarah and Mike are living in. Theirs is closer to real life than yours is.
The cops (or at least this fellow) seemed pretty understanding of Becky’s situation, though – if her name and/or Representative DeSanto’s came up…?
They’re a bunch of cops so yeah probably one or two are bent, one or two are racist but to says that most are suggests that your cheese has well and truly slid off your cracker (being that Mike and Sarah are fictional)
Only a few microbes out there are coronavirus. You willing to go out without a mask and gloves?
The number or proportion of crooked officers is not as important as you may think; only one is necessary to overhear the call and alert Blaine, or to be the one RECEIVING the call and dismissing it to the others as a prank (and then alert Blaine anyway). Each additional crooked officer vastly increases the odds that one will overhear or be somewhere in the chain of command between the phone line and the dispatch radio.
I don’t go out with gloves or a mask but I practice social distancing, I wear gloves and a mask at work (I’m a Corrections Officer) however thats to protect the prisoners from anything I might have. I’m from NZ so so we know what we’re doing down here.
Ruth/Becky contact a cop Becky already has been in contact with or they contact the media (you don’t think the media would love to hear about a gun-totin’, religious fundamentalist, homophobic Trump voter thats just kidnapped their kid?) or maybe they don’t listen to scared, mentally ill, naive, teenagers and do the right thing and contact the police anyway
I don’t know where this is set so I’m working it off Bloomington (if I’m wrong let me know) and the Indiana University Police Department has 45 sworn police officers (whom I’m assuming probably have some familiarity with what happened previously) and the Bloomington Police Department has just over 100 so yeah the odds are certainly in your favor if you were to call the police that you wouldn’t get a cop paid off by Blaine
Yes before you ask if it was me in there I’d expect my wife to call the police and vice versa
But, whatever cop you call is going to report it to their chain of command and they’re going to organize a response to a mass kidnapping and that’s going to get around the entire department, including whoever’s on the mob payroll and thus it’ll get back to Blaine.
As for the racism angle – “one or two are racist” vastly understates the problem: the system itself is racist. It trains racism and protects it. The danger Sarah worries about is very real. We have a very serious problem with policing in the US. That said, in this case, I think the risk from the kidnappers is higher
Yes, there is a systematic problem of racism and bias among cops. However, Sarah’s assumption is she believes that she and Walky will be killed deliberately more likely at the hands of the cops than the actual mobsters that kidnapped her as well as know the identities of their attackers. You have to believe they’re overtly the goons from the Galactic Empire for that to be the case.
Or, think the risk of the kidnappers actually killing them is lower than you or I do. Some here have explicitly said they don’t think Blaine would kill them.
Sarah will probably be OK, even if some of the cops are mobbed up or racist. But Walky is headed for problems. When the cops show up, they WILL arrest the kid dressed like a superhero. Bring them in for questioning about all the vigilante reports on campus, maybe? Now David Walkerton is going to be arrested. Do you think Walky will be able to resist being a smart-ass towards the cops? I do not. Cops do not like it when suspects are smart asses. I cannot imagine Linda reacting well, probably going “Full Karen” on the situation. If the police are anything like the cops I know, a white woman going Full Karen means they’ll be even more indifferent towards her black son… who might confess to the vigilante attacks to either defend his Garbage Roof girlfriend or because it makes him seem cooler or is somehow Spartacus Honor? And even if it all gets worked out, and he’s declared “not guilty?” He’s another young black male with an arrest record for assault, vandalism, and other crimes, even if there were no convictions…
The cops Ruth would call have no jurisdiction in Indiana (also, they ride horses).
If the cops are that bad, it means our 2nd Amendment rights would be even more important.
That arms be well-regulated? Yes, you’re right. That is important.
God no. Black people don’t get 2nd Amendment rights. They get shot for cops even thinking they have guns.
Actually trying to use their 2nd Amendment rights to defend themselves would just prove the cop was right.
Let’s not start comparing who has it worse here. Ruth you were in a near catatonic state of depression just a few weeks ago. Amber’s got her share of junk but so does like half the cast. For instance Mike might be dead and Becky’s dad is arguably worse than Blaine.
Wait, who’s missing that Amber hasn’t accounted for? How would Ruth even know who’s ‘kidnapped’?
Hmm, who would Amber consider as ‘friends’…. Sal’s a weird frenemy, and then there’s… uh… Danny.
Presumably as RA she had to check everyone off her list as safe following the fire drill, and sober she’d be more alert to notice who vanished before heading back in.
Technically Amber hasn’t accounted for anyone. She never said who was kidnapped specifically nor acknowledged any of them as friends.
Hey, I can sorta relate to Ruth in this strip. Not in the having depression since I don’t have that, but in the feeling that the problems I do have don’t matter all that much since lots of people have way worse problems.
See, that’s why I hate people constantly try to cheer others up by telling them to “look on the bright side,” because others “have it so much worse!” And the flip side of that, of course, is either implying or saying outright that because someone else has it worse than you do, that your issues don’t matter. Why are you complaining, huh? You only lost one leg! That guy lost both! So what if you lost your job and your home? That guy over there never even had his own place, or a job as good as yours!
Or else they just tell you to stop fussing about it because “why worry about something that hasn’t even happened yet?”
And the danger with that, of course, is that as well as actually making the person feel like shit instead of better (because now they don’t just have whatever was making them sad in the first place, now they also don’t even feel like they’re permitted to feel bad about it, let alone complain)– as well as that, it prevents people from seeking the help they need. Why would you? You don’t actually have it that bad, after all.
And then our brains also repeat that and lie to us, the jerks.
It occurs to me that Ruth’s asshole grandpa could be weaponized and used against Amber’s asshole dad….
Anyone can be weaponized if you throw them hard enough
A Hufflepuff’s bones can be sharpened and used as weapons.
I understood that reference.gif
I do not. Please share?
It’s from an amazing fanfic called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
Damn, that was a waste of coffee. Computer’s o.k. though! Yay!
Imma need a trigger warning for jokes that good,… hmmm, or else a spray screen for mah keyboard…
Surprise twist: Ruth’s grandpa is Asher’s grandpa’s deadliest foe. In going after kids under Ruth’s care, Blaine accidentally ignites a mob war. Asher’s gramps isn’t very happy about this. Buh-bye, Blaine.
What does the sign in the background say?
“Clark
We have fun
Or Else”
Which is the core difference to Forrest hall.
In Forrest hall there is no ‘Else’. There is only Fun. Forever, and ever and ever
Amber can handle this situation better with a little help.
No offense to Dorothy here but I’m finding it kinda hard to trust in Amber right now. I’m pretty sure if she keeps going like this without at least asking for help from someone she’s gonna get herself killed. I’m not talking about calling the cops or anything cause that ship has sailed. I mean just asking for help from people who can help you! Like Ruth…right now. It’s like she wants her apparently not friends to remain tied up indefinitely and maybe get killed possibly. I’m putting my trust in Becky who might have a plan it remains to be seen or even Dina or maybe Ross will have some miracle change of heart. But I can’t trust Amber on this…Not now.
The problem isn’t that Amber’s the wrong person to trust.
The problem is that no one is trustworthy at this point.
I kinda think Dorothy was just trying to keep people calm.
Sirksome: Not friends, like Clifford and Oscar? Oooops, wrong comic.
Been there, Ruth. Been there.
ok willis you didnt have to murder me in cold blood good lord
I feel this so hard. I’ve been battling depression so hard for most of my life, so often teetering on the edge of ending it all. I’ve had my share of rough crap to deal with that I don’t care to go into.
A couple days ago, someone who I was friend with like 12 years ago and then dropped off that face of the earth suddenly reached out to me. Apparently for like 8 of those years she’d been homeless. For like a year I drove over a bridge almost every day that she was apparently living under. I honestly had assumed she’d died or something.
I’d be lying if I said it made me feel any better about my crap, but when I compare it to hers, just… wow.
Amber, you are going to fall on the way to your room and sleep for the rest of the story arc.
Pft. Amber has two impostor syndromes. One for each personality!
And one for internal Mike.
Meanwhile, Blaine and Ball-Peen(tm), who really ARE pieces of shit, high-five each other for how awesome they are, completely oblivious to the fact that they are pieces of shit.
When you have a “Worst Scar” contest, it’s generally bad form to include mental scars.
http://tiny.cc/jlvinz
…. so apparently I’m not the only one who got that stuck in my head.
NOPE
#BestScar
“You don’t even know where I’m going”
That kinda feels like forshadowing.
after all, BECKY knows where she is going and has far fewer hangups about getting backup
Next strip: Imaginary Mike carefully deconstructs Imposter Syndrome while Amber/AG sleeps on the floor and Ruth is oblivious to him.
This hurt way too much. But I doubt that will stop Ruth too.
I feel a lot like Ruth sometimes.
Same, Ruth, same.
Everybody has Impostor Syndrome.
If you don’t then you’re just an impostor.
I used to think I had Impostor Syndrome, back when I was trying to learn more about the person who I’d murdered and replaced.
the best trick I’ve found to get over that is real fine stitching on the skin suit.
“I don’t even know where I’m going” was my first read.
( thats how sleep deprived amber is )
I don’t think I identify with Ruth here.
I mean, I guess I show some signs of having imposter syndrome wrt how screwed up I am. But not if you compare me to someone with real impostyer syndrome.
Last panel, holy shit. I have never felt more Seen.
Is it weird that I really like how Ruth is drawn in the last panel? I can’t put my finger on why but it’s really good.
ooooooof. I HATE impostor syndrome. Aaaah! If you read this: yes, you are [ …] enough! Mental Health is NOT a competition!