The checks and balances only keep the government from sliding into totalitarianism, it doesn't stop the end of American status as a power. These childish tariffs more than tank American status and the economy and add thousands if dollars to the costs for every American. It'll be a nation of paupers ruled by a wealthy elite, but at least we won't lose the republic.

The problem is that the USA isn't really going down that much (yes maybe it is a bit less dominant than before, but is still dominant) and anyway even if it became, say, the second most powerful and rich nation on Earth instead than the first, it would still be quite a good place.
Also the reason the USA is less dominant is that other places like China are going up, not because the USA is actually becoming poorer.

However many people in the USA are sort of panicking and therefore they vote for the asshole in chief (something similar is happening in western Europe).

Perhaps it is psychological, or perhaps the internal problems like rising inequality are perceived as if caused from the outside.
My opinion is that most of this push towards rightwing authoritarianism is caused by increasing inequality, and the anxiety that comes from that, however actually inequality is high but it's not that much higer than in, say, 2008, so perhaps we are saying now the cultural and psychological effects of the increase in inequality that happened starting from the 90s, because it took some time to enter cultural consciousness.

Some voted for him, yes, but the entire election was mostly bought and paid for by Elongated Muskrat, and was sold by Russia and China and Iran. They kept insisting the 2020 election was stolen, but not one peep out of them about all of the illegal activity during the 2024 election, because it got them what they wanted, and the rules and laws of society clearly don't apply to them.

I've been enjoying a little comic called Cob and Swan

https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Cob_and_swan_/

by rmccool

anyone else reading it?

The other night, I had a most interesting dream. The VAMPIRE GIRL Production Bible had gone missing. Somebody I know found it, but they somehow seemed oblivious to the fact that it was my work (my name is even on top of the title), and decided they were going to sell it to whoever wanted to claim it. A couple of friends of mine distracted them while a couple of others stole it back so it could be returned to me and I wouldn't have to suffer any sort of financial loss.

As interesting as the dream was, it was not at all a random one, because I know exactly what prompted such a dream. Just before going to bed that night, I was engaged in a conversation about how a show like THE SIMPSONS is practically begging to be put out of its misery, and I added that even Seth MacFarlane has been wanting to end FAMILY GUY forever, but FOX won't let him because they own the show, not him; that called to mind a piece of advice that Walt Disney himself had said: “Never sell what you create.” (And yes, that is ironic, considering the company he left behind keeps buying out all of these other studios and IPs, and more often than not, does nothing with them, or ruins them). This is the exact reason why people like myself remain independent: so we can retain ownership of our own creations, and maintain the creative control, without having any sort of corporate influence compromise our vision.

I've had the exact opposite dream. Where I'm watching TV or something and on comes Saga of the Robofemoids and I say I created that and it's "nah, it's too good. You didn't do that.

And then pointing to my name in the credits. Like I did do it, I did sell it and it's grown past anything I could have imagined and I love that what I did inspired such creativity – but nobody cares.

It's not a Bible sitting in a desk drawer collecting dust, but a living franchise of creative magic and no one gives me any credit.

The dream often ends with the detractors in awe but usually not before I get very frustrated and have to do a lot of convincing. And sometimes one of my figures shows up as a person reminding me to go to a production meeting or that they need the creator's opinion on something.

In the end I do matter and I do get recognized and it is ultimately a part of me and I never will quite be done with it.

There's also a good argument for letting characters go so they can develop in new and interesting ways. Look at what happened to things like Batman for example? How many creators have had a shot there?

Pinky from my comic Pinky TA was created in about 1998, but the first time she was online was 2000 and almost right away I let her go for others to have a go at, doing the old idea of art trades: I'd draw their character in my style and they'd do Pinky.

From that I learned a lot and gained some new style tricks and fashion ideas for Pinky.

It's not the same as selling your IP but it IS letting in other creators, which is good.

4o ….

I love sharing my characters. Gives me insight into them.

But why do multiple things have to go wrong almost as if the universe is throwing every obstacle it can about something really simple? Slow leak in my tires.
Fine I have a few air compressors.
Both of them go down.
Okay, buy one on Amazon.
Card doesn't work. Forgot they replaced that card with another. That one doesn't work? WTF!
Go to the gas station and one of two air machines doesn't work.
What is it with this? Okay, I get it can it just stop over this one thing?
This is getting ridiculous. When did I go into a sitcom?
This happens in a comedy one would just say, nuh-uh, come on that would never happen.

lothar wrote:
4o ….

You're 40 now?

bravo1102 wrote:
But why do multiple things have to go wrong almost as if the universe is throwing every obstacle it can about something really simple? Slow leak in my tires.

Sometimes life is like that. Everything conspires to go wrong in the SAME way. Probability is a bitch. -_-

And the wife just bought a shed she saw online. I have so got to take away her internet. She keeps buying stuff! And I'm the one not allowed to have a credit card because I impulse buy?
But I buy useless stuff like hobby supplies or new stuff for producing my comic. But she bought a pile of diet stuff, Best Select meal service (lasted a month. That half hour prep time? Nuh-uh. The sauces are from scratch!) Some iffy vitamins supplements and I can't get her to invest in a VPN service or a Patreon for my comic work.

So open question.

I'd like to get some custom t-shirts made of some of my comic logos for my upcoming European trip. Where's a good place to get them? Not looking to do merch ( get your Robofemoids coffee mug and refrigerator magnet right here folks – uh. No) Just custom stuff for me to annoy people with. (Actually thinking of leaving in some near nudity for shock value)

Oh, and it's Danube up to Rhine. Budapest to central Germany. Let me know if you're free in May to meet for lunch or something you crazy European Ducks. Or not because it's a family trip and I might be stuck. Had to juggle some stuff to meet Tantz_Aerine in Athens.

4o is the new chat gpt image generator

bravo1102 wrote:
Oh, and it's Danube up to Rhine. Budapest to central Germany. Let me know if you're free in May to meet for lunch or something you crazy European Ducks. Or not because it's a family trip and I might be stuck. Had to juggle some stuff to meet Tantz_Aerine in Athens.

Sounds like an amazing trip!!
\OK… I work in that industry. Generally for all that sort of printing stuff it's cheaper by scale… But you're not going to be doing 500 T-shirts so we'll forget that, haha!
The other thing is it's cheaper to use some Chinese supplier as long as you have at least a couple of months lead time- if not you'll never get it on time.
The last good option is to look for a local printshop! They still might need at least 2 weeks lead time but you don't have to worry about delivery times and local people can do smaller runs usually. But yeah, look for locals! There will many many where you are.
The prices aren't great… but it's much more reliable and you have more control over the process. Plus, even if the order is as high as $40 for 4 shirts or something ($160), that's still better than $20 for a minimum 20 shirts ($400), 15 of which you'll never use :)

lothar wrote:
4o is the new chat gpt image generator

Ewwwww, smells like poop :(

Scientists have managed to meddle with nature in successfully bringing dire wolves out of extinction, and they say next on their agenda is to bring back the wooly mammoth. I guess it'll only be a matter before we will become Jurassic Park.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Scientists have managed to meddle with nature in successfully bringing dire wolves out of extinction

I haven't looked into it but I'm skeptical because there are more recently extinct creatures that people can't bring back yet.

It might be just that they're mimicking traits (like they did with Aurochs), or just turning on or off certain parts within existing wolf genomes because dog species really haven't changed that much in all the time they've existed…

Unlike the much bigger changes needed to get Tasmanian Tigers or Dodos back.
And mammoths are a bigger challenge because the gestation period in Elephants is much longer than canines and there just isn't nearly as much diversity in existing Elephants as dogs/wolves to resurrect old mammoth DNA.

After two years of being a failed business venture, I finally decided to close my Redbubble shop. It wasn't even so much because nobody would buy anything, but because Redbubble itself was screwing me over. First, they made changes to their payment policies where you have to make sales of at least $20 before the 15th of every month, and if you don't, you don't get paid anything . . . before, they if you made less than $20 in sales, they would keep a running total and pay it to you at the end of the year, but not anymore . . . I sold one t-shirt last year, made $15 in the sale, they never paid me, so I lost $15. Now, they've downgraded my account, which means even if I were to make any sales now, I'd have to pay them an additional fee, which basically means what was meant to be a little side hustle to actually make some extra money on my own original work has now become something in which I'm losing money, so I finally decided to close up shop altogether.

Redbubble emailed me and explained the reason why they downgraded my account was because, according to them, my artwork and designs wasn't up to their standards; they said they were low-quality and too simplistic-looking. I get so sick and tired of these people telling me that my content isn't up to whatever phony standards they set, because I actually put more time, effort, and quality into the content I create than most other Content Creators who get money for nothin' do, and the designs for my Redbubble merch were no exception. Even so-called YouTube “experts” tell me the quality of my content isn't up to their standards, and that I don't do things the right way, hence why I struggle to build and maintain an audience. No, it's because you jerk-offs stunt and hinder the growth of us little guys while you keep posturing all these reviewers/reactors/talking heads/vloggers/whoever who put no effort into the content they steal and don't actually create; I've been on YouTube longer than any of these so-called “experts” have, and my content did a lot better when it was community-driven and allowed for creators to grow and flourish with their original content.

J_Scarbrough wrote:

Its a bit off-putting when you only post rants and don't engage in any conversion, even when a person has responded to one of your posts :(

Love having you here but this isn't social media like Twitter or Facebook, we're not just yelling into the void, we're a community and we're interested in what others have to say, we share, we communicate.

It's give and take, unlike Redbubble which is a faceless corporation and doesn't care about you, it only wants to take from you.

Sorry. With all the shit going on lately, and not being able to do much about any of it, all I really can do is vent my frustrations. Also, I do check in on the forums at least daily, but it seems like conversations in general have been kinda dead lately - even Niccea said she's been in semi-hibernation from the site as a whole. I try to contribute to conversations if I feel I have my own two-cents worth to toss in . . . guess I've been bankrupt in that department lately.

On another note, I did see some bizarre and interestings sights while I was out running errands today. First, I saw an actual Tesla - yes, a for-real Tesla, driving down the road, with my own eyes. If you think those things look awful in the media, they look even more ridiculous in real life; like a tin-can baby Sherman tank without the cannon. It actually isn't the first time I've seen a Tesla with my own eyes, but I saw it in around the same area as I did the last time I saw such, so I'm guessing it's the same one, and whoever the owner is lives around the area (which would make sense, as this part of town is a lot more business and industrial, so really only white collar people could afford to live there). Secondly, I saw a nun checking out in a grocery store. Yep, a nun, in her full habit, and a Crucifix around her neck. Not that I've never seen actual nuns before, just not outside of a parish or a hospital . . . I guess it's like when you're a kid and you bump into one of your teachers or principal outside of school. Lastly, I saw a panhandler who was hanging out at a red light with a squeegee and spray bottle, cleaning people's windshields. Panhandling has been a huge problem in my town, and has only been increasing over the last decade or so (not to mention the panhandlers themselves have gotten younger and younger to the point that a lot of look to be my age), but I've only ever seen panhandlers who clean your windshields in big cities like NYC or LA . . . and only in movies.

Hey Bravo, remember when we were talking a while back about reproduction military uniforms and accessories, and the accuracy of such? Well, I finally recently was able to order an HBT coverall suit, and something about it has struck me as odd: even though it was the second pattern coverall (with the single breast pocket, the lower patch pockets, and exposed metal buttons), it was in the first pattern shade of OD #3 (aka “Sage Green”) as opposed to the darker/greener OD #7. I've read that when OD #7 was introduced, manufacturers and mills were permitted to use up whatever stock of OD #3 they had remaining, resulting in some military items that were hodgepodges of the two colors (usually items like bags, sacks, tool covers, etc). In this case, would it actually be possible for a wartime second pattern coverall to have been made in the first pattern color?

Also, we talked about the winter underwear typically being in an oatmeal/wheat color. I was able to also finally order a full set of winter underwear. Before, I was only able to order the bottoms, and that was years ago; the pair I ordered at the time was definitely a much browner color, like a dark khaki or mustard (like most of my jeep caps). The set I recently order (top and bottoms) is a noticably lighter color, more like a true khaki or a beige, but it appears to have the slightest little hint of green to it. Is this the oatmeal/wheat color you spoke of, or is this a different variation? Either way, it's still listed on the website I ordered them from as “OD”, but they also are available in off white (which I wasn't interested in). I do actually prefer this lighter color though.

I knew about the HBT color change because it's a neat feature to put into a mimiature figure. In mass manufacturing like in WW2 anything can happen and often does. I've been building some US WW2 bomber models lately and always checking references and the variation is incredible. Almost like so much variation it's impossible to document.

The wheat color is that ugly off white. Seems they standardized that after the war. Darn things were worthless in any kind of wind. After my first time up at Fort Indian Town Gap PA (Appalachian mountains with an icy mountain wind) I immediately went and got brown OD neoprene long johns sold in Army Clothing and Sales.

A lot of the younger squeegee bottle types are probably veterans especially in the American south. And now DOGE is cutting all the VA workers added under Biden who had almost gotten the VA working. Amazing how DOGE targets social programs. One could barely get help before and now all these cutbacks will make it impossible. Unless you're a billionaire making electric trucks that look like they're from a 1970s science fiction TV movie.

bravo1102 wrote:
A lot of the younger squeegee bottle types are probably veterans especially in the American south.

Well, this is the south, so I suppose that explains it.

bravo1102 wrote:
The wheat color is that ugly off white.

Hmm. Because they offer both, but also say (or previously said) that the “oatmeal shade” would be available in the future, so I didn't know if maybe what I ordered was indeed that. I noticed occasionally on HOGAN'S HEROES whenever a POW had a pair of long underwear casually drapped over their bunks, they also appeared to be in two different, yet distinct shades of green: one appears to be a dark minty sort of green (similar to DD's background color, but lighter), the other is a really weird-looking pale yellow-green (similar to tennis balls, but again, much lighter).

bravo1102 wrote:
One could barely get help before and now all these cutbacks will make it impossible.

You're telling me. When my dad died, VA said they'd reimburse my mom up to $1,000 in funeral expenses. After we had him cremated and his ashes put into a box (it was all we could afford) and they got him into a plot in a veteran's cemetery, they reneged - they said because he didn't die of any battle-related injuries or complications.

Even after his death, they refuse to provide my mom with any sort of spousal benefits to help her financially, and they pull all sorts of excuses out of their asses because of that: he wasn't in Vietnam (he was stationed in Okinawa); he wasn't a combat veteran (he was a desk jockey); he never saw his way up at the front (he was a supply sergeant). Didn't Colonel Potter once say it was the non-coms who were the real backbone of the service? Guess the military as a whole doesn't agree with that sentiment.

Only explanation I found is that long johns was supposed to be undyed natural color and that varied. That's why uniform regulations specified that issue long underwear was not supposed to be visible when wearing open collar uniforms. The exception was the five button sweater which was brown olive drab. There was thd issue scarf and head coverings like the jeep cap (replaced by a simple knit hat) but anything else was commander's discretion and how worn was dictated by tactical necessity.
Hogan's Heroes had some great uniforms but a lot of horrible gaffs too. The German uniforms were especially good and part of that was due to the German actors in the cast wanting it. (Though Gestopo stopped wearing the black uniforms for the war's duration but it was a classic Hollywood trope)

I've heard that the Gestapo wearing black uniforms like Major Hochstetter was something of an artistic license to make them all look all the more sinister and villainous, and it did work to an extent, as he was really the only German who posed any actual threat to Hogan and his operation - even General Burkhalter could easily be manipulated by them at times.

I also once read someone that you will notice the Germans wear their lids like most people might, whereas Hogan and his men like Kinch and Carter would wear theirs further back on their heads, or with the bills folded up - that apparently was another subtle touch, because the Germans wearing their caps low like that gave them a “shadier” look that was to be avoided with any of the Heroes (so that way, the bills of their caps wouldn't block the studio lights, and add unnecessary shadows to their faces.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
I've heard that the Gestapo wearing black uniforms like Major Hochstetter was something of an artistic license to make them all look all the more sinister and villainous

I think foreign wafffen SS troops who drove tanks and things still used black?

The whole SS black and silver thing was stolen from the Leib hussars, even the skull motif. Which was SOOOOOooo shiz because people think of it today as a “baddy” thing, or sinister, or even this fantasy that Hugo Boss designed it. But the reality was the style came about because of specific meanings that were ALL lost when the Nazis stole the context, and they really did steal it.
I mean there were German Jewish Leib Hussars that had proudly worn the uniform.

Ozoneocean wrote:
I mean there were German Jewish Leib Hussars that had proudly worn the uniform.

Just like down here in the American south, there were even some black soldiers who enlisted in the Confederate Army, and even to this day, although it is rare, I have seen a person of color or two with a Confederate flag decal on their car.

To a lot of American southerners, the Confederate flag is their equivalent of the rainbow flag.

The blacks in the Confederate army is a myth that has been thoroughly debunked. The few that served were following their masters to war. In April of 1865 there was finally a resolution to have blacks serve as free men but only a few thousand enlisted.

It's all part of the “lost cause ” mythology that is very pervasive throughout the USA not just the South. For example, what historical figure has the most monuments and markers? Nathan Bedford Forrest the founder of the original incarnation of the KKK. See the books Lies Across America and Confederates in the Attic .

The wear of the black SS uniform was actually suspended for the duration of the war. It only remains in the popular memory because of movie portrayals of Nazis beginning in the 1930s. The REAL heirs of the Leib hussars were the Panzer crews. Gudarian had been a Leib Hussar in his youth and adapted the chin less death's head for the new Panzer forces along with a short black double breasted jacket that could easily have been inspired by a hussar dolman. The panzer waffe more than lived up to the true tradition of the various Leib hussar regiments. The SS were always murderous monsters in whatever guise they appeared.

Not that it matters but the British army also had a deaths head regiment. The “death or glory boys ” of the 17th light dragoons who later became the 17th and the 17/21st lancers of WW2. Their skull insignia was worn throughout the American War for Independence and they often rode with some infamous Loyalist units as well as in Tarleton's legion. They were also part of the Light Brigade and their badge is still used for the Queen's Royal Lancers.

I wish that there was some way that I could be browsing the latest updates and not get the same comic taking up 4 slots…



Edited

lothar wrote:
I wish that there was some way that I could be browsing the latest updates and not get the same comic taking up 4 slots…



Edited

cant you expand the list of updates to see more comics? thats what i do

takoyama wrote:

lothar wrote:
I wish that there was some way that I could be browsing the latest updates and not get the same comic taking up 4 slots…



Edited

cant you expand the list of updates to see more comics? thats what i do

How you do that?