Doonesbury - Visual Reminder

[JHB]

And if you missed it, check out Weekend TOONs - "Losers and Suckers"

[empedocles]

1. Doones very astute. I heard a trumper dismiss the US 5% population - 25% of

world deaths stats, as HAVING to be fake. trumper argument was that there was no way US could be down with India, with very crowded, etc. conditions and minimal or no healthcare - therefore the US 5% - 25% stats had to be wrong.

Doones chart neatly cancels that out by comparing 'the European Union'.

[Suspect that kind of trumper will stay a trumper, . . . until Covid or economy hits close enough to him].

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

7. well, i've been to india, and ppl do indeed live i close quarters.

even the rich section of mumbai is crowded by american standards. the apts are small.
but the homeless there, who live under corrugated tin roofs if they are lucky, look just like the tent camps here in chi.

and here in chi lots of folks, rich and poor, live in big buildings, w common elevators and other spaces. and it is another order of magnitude in nyc.

healthcare there, tho, i better than here in many ways. ppl go there for joint replacements. even w the plane ticket, it is cheaper than having it here w no insurance.
cheap enough that middle class ppl can do fundraisers to get care when they need it.

they also have a far more educated populous, in general, than we do. that's why we import so many of them here on 'eintsein' visas.

[empedocles]

9. Hmmm. Interesting post to learn from

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

11. it was an interesting trip.

when we got back, ppl asked if we had fun. um. no. not much fun to be had when ppl keep warning not to eat the food. and it was a biz trip for the ex.
but interesting is exactly what i said about it, then and now.

[empedocles]

12. A friend of mine got caught in a bad human traffic jam - said it was scary

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

13. there are almost zero traffic lights.

a few in dehli, and one on the road to agra/the taj.
if you hit one, you are mobbed by beggars. the women lend each other their babies. i saw one that i swear was dead.

the traffic is amazing. like a school of fish. never saw an accident while we were there. even w ox and camel carts sharing the road.

we wanted to take a train ride. the old train laid under the raj still run. they are huge. like cattle cars. there was a station across from our hotel in mumbai.
but we had minders, and they put their feet down.

they also wouldnt let us try the street food. it was almost funny the bland shit they served us. where i live there is a big 'little india', and we know the food. and the ex is a heat seeker. we kept begging for spicy. we even had a guide that took us to his cousin's restaurant, and after a 15 min convo in hindi, couldnt get us anything good. now, they have been exchanging family gossip, i dont know.
but we kept telling them about devon ave. it is the center of the indian district. the cousin had heard of it, but still no.
how we could have gotten sick from something that was hot off the fire, i will never know, but...

we got 2 meals that we enjoyed. 1 was at the cafeteria at the place of the business that brought us there. free meals are part of the package. they do a family day when they are done w the business talk. it was GREAT FOOD. stuff we had never seen.
the other was at the home of one of the contractors that had been under the ex here in chi. he had a new baby and insisted we come and see his home, and meet his family. his wife and mil cooked for us. it was great, but bland.

yup. interesting in every way. but the fear almost never left us.

[empedocles]

15. I should have specifiied, 'human pedestrian traffic jam'.

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

23. oh, i knew what you meant.

getting in and out of he taj mahal was like getting in and out of a rolling stones concert.
and those trains. just watching them fill up and empty out left me slack jawed.

[tblue37]

31. Welcome to DU. Your user name is great. nt

[calimary]

20. Welcome to DU, ihas2stinkyfeet!

Seems to me the availability of healthcare to the public is the one key difference between America and just about every other more-evolved country than we 200+-year-old upstarts have.

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

26. why thank you kindly.

you are the 1st to say that. i wish i could send you a prize. long time lurker, and a fan of yours.

and yes it is. even tho there is little insurance and no guarantee in india, their diet is so much better there. fat ppl are rare, and i dont think i saw a single obese indian person in the 10 day we were there.
plus, they are old masters at herbal medicine. and yoga WILL keep you young and fit.
in spite of the fact that they can barely feed their ppl, they are probably healthier than we are by a factor of 100.

i was so struck by the absolutely worn out environment there, tho. soils so used up they dont even grow weeds. just bleak. and horribly sad.

the lack of public spaces is a real sin, too. i saw 2 public parks. a darling little playlot in mumbai. rly darling. right on the bay. what a view.
but it sat on a cliff right above the spot where the janes sect does sky burials. place was full of crows and ravens waiting for a dead body, passing the time harassing the park goers and rooting in the trash.

the other was at the ashram of the bahgwan shri rashneesh. (spelling? sorry)
there is a little stream that runs through it that is the output of the onsite water treatment. and there is a huge black marble statue of himself.
was about the only place i saw any birds. i think i added all of 4 to my life list. that, and some huge day time bats. fortunately no snakes.

also saw the grow space of a small conservatory. it is open to the public, but it was closed when we went there. but the guide knew somebody, so i got to see the back end. which was more interesting to me anyway.

i didnt have any desire to go back, and thought my traveling days were over. but everyone told us that if we wanted to see the natural beauty of india, we should come back and see chenai.
then i saw what happened there when kamal harris was announced as vp. now i think i will save up for a cruise and go some winter.
you can get by on pennies a day in most places, but chenai is a tourist mecca.
no doubt tho that there are hostiles and such outside the city, which is were i want to go.
after being sicky most of my life, i am pretty healthy these days so i could go that route. esp as this is 2 yrs away at best. already have this winter's trip planned. the olde sod.

[Hekate]

25. Welcome to DU, & thanks for these posts

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

27. thanks much.

like i told calimary, long time lurker and fan of yours.

now i am starting to feel at home. like a member.
just what i need right now, too.

[Hekate]

29. My blushes -- thank you

It’s a little crazy here right now, but we’ve had worse times & lived through them, so we will this time too.

India interests me very much, as my undergrad major was Asian & Pacific history (long long ago), but I’ve never been there, and at my age probably won’t. We have a few Indian friends from prior companies my husband was at, and some of the best meals of my life have been at Suniti’s house.

My husband works for a point of sales computer system company now run by an Indian CEO — he brought a dowry (so to speak) of 300 workers in his home town. I honestly didn’t think there’d be any US workers left by now, but so far nobody seems to really know what my husband’s unit does and so far so good. In any case, there was a moment my husband wondered if he could get contracted out to train some of those workers, because hey, a free trip to India is not to be sneezed at — but alas, no.

Cheers.

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

32. bummer.

my ex worked for a financial exchange. they wrote all their code in house.
he was the architect. they started hiring these ppl, the cogs, short for cognizant, aka rebranded arthur anderson, to do testing. could only be done in the middle of the night, and took a weeks planning. so, w the time diff, they were perfect.
ex had run those tests earlier in his career, and i still dont know how we stayed together.
but they were rly good, it saved a boodle, and it made sense to hand the grunt level coding over to them. they were smart, and always wanted the execs to visit. we went w another veep and her hubby, but they didnt come early. they treated us like precious cargo.

but where i rly want to go is japan. i am a student of zen, and planning to learn the language. seems like a cruise around that half of the ring of fire would work out just right.

[lastlib]

14. If tRumpers could be reasoned with, they wouldn't be tRumpers.

They have very little to no sense of how numbers or facts relate to one another, so they are easily confused by facts.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. That's how he'll be remembered.

A mass murdering moron, lunatic and traitor.

[Gothmog]

3. Great Doonesbury strip

Bloody hands are a great addition

[planetc]

4. Let Doonesbury be kicked.

[Paladin]

5. "...for as long as he appears in this strip"

Hats off to "Doonesbury" for this kick-ass move.

[Hekate]

24. Doones has been covering Trump for over 30 years now, & always bitingly insightful

As a Californian (ie nowhere near NYC & not a fan of reality TV) nearly everything I learned about Trump was from Doonesbury.

[2naSalit]

6. Thank you!

[NoRoadUntravelled]

8. My visceral reaction to the final frame surprised me.

I am appalled, saddened, and infuriated anew by Trump's incompetence, manipulations and preference for lies over truth, foolish hunches over science, and profit above all else. Blood on his hands. Whether he takes responsibility for any of it or not, the blood will be forever on his hands.

[Hekate]

21. Don't forget the dethroned foreign dictator in his employ

[Greybnk48]

16. Perfect! n/t

[H2O Man]

17. Recommended.

[tavernier]

18. Wow!

That’s pretty powerful.

[Hekate]

19. Kicktoons for Doonesbury

I miss his daily strip

[murielm99]

22. Thank you.

[gristy]

28. The symbolism here hits its target dead center.

Quite dramatic. And to be told by Trudeau up front that this blood will not leave his hands for as long as he appears in the strip is really something.

[electric_blue68]

30. Wow! Shocking AND Brutally Accurate! Thx!