Discussion (198) ¬
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Ph03n1x24 @ph03n1x24.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Sheryl Weikal (The Leftist Lawyer) @leftistlawyer.com ⋅ 7h
Polling USA @usapolling.bsky.social ⋅ 8h
onion person @junlper.beer ⋅ 12h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Ari Drennen @aridrennen.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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PAX East
Becky learned Hard Bargain
It’s Super Effective!
Robin used Unpaid Labor!
But it failed…
Unpaid labor only works if it leads to paid labor.
here’s a hot take: unpaid labor doesn’t work, ever, in any context, and even if it leads to paid labor it’s still taking advantage of a section of the workforce with no bargaining power
Totally agreed! Intership should always be paid. Unpaid internship is just slavery under disguise!
Um, no, actual slavery is a lot worse, and let’s not trivialize it.
Agreed. There’s no reason to go overboard, since there’s plenty to criticize about unpaid internships without going into overwrought comparisons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh2JyX9cxos
It’s not entirely clear to me what you’re talking about with “slaves in industrialized nations”, but if that’s meant to refer to the interns or to wage labor in general, it’s bullshit.
There are plenty of problems, but slavery is a giant step for the worse and it’s got damn little to do with “high standard of living due to cheap luxuries”. There is slave labor in the US, generally trafficked from other countries and even when it’s not sex slavery, it’s still not comparable to a McJob.
Well, that depends on what sort of slavery you are talking about. The trans-Atlantic slave trade where people were treated worse than animals? Sure. That’s a whole lot worse than what’s going on here. But that’s one of the most extreme examples of slavery the world has ever seen (thanks Colonialism!).
Compare an unpaid internship to, say, a sweatshop – something which meets the legal definition of slavery under modern international law. The internship has better working conditions, but the sweatshop has better pay. Neither really benefit the worker at all. Both are generally a genuine job that would normally have a fully paid employee, but instead the business is cutting costs by having someone do the job without getting proper pay, if they get anything at all.
So… how is an unpaid internship so much better than a sweatshop? Because they can leave if they want to?
What about volunteer work? Unpaid internships are awful, but not all unpaid labor is bad regardless of context. There’s also job shadowing, which is typically short-term and is more of a training thing than an exploitation thing.
Volunteer work is usually not coerced by the potential of actual paid work doing the exact same thing you’re doing right now later. You’re not going to be fired from volunteering except under relatively dire circumstances. Yes it stands as an exception to the pedantic reading of ‘unpaid labor’ in a discussion about unpaid internships, but the reasons it is an exception are a great illustration of exactly why internships shouldn’t be an exception.
But think of the exposure.
Exposure is something you DIE of.
Think of the glorious death from exposure!
You can’t be fired from a volunteer position
…asked to leave, sure
Unpaid internships can be a very good thing for the interns, at least in high end fields. The biggest problem with them from my point of view is that they’re a class filter. If you can afford to take the unpaid job because you’ve got family money, then you get your foot in the door and make the connections that the other student who needs to get paid doesn’t make.
Unpaid internships are NOT good for the intern
Interns are only about 1% more likely to get a job from their internships
And in the US, they are completely illegal unless some very specific conditions are met (must be genuinely educational; employer cannot directly benefit; cannot promise employment at a later date; cannot displace paid positions)
Most unpaid internships are illegal, but companies do it anyway because the interns don’t know
1% more likely than who? Paid interns? Or people who don’t get internships?
I think that latter is the difference.
Eh, I knew an upaid congressional intern and she did not have family money to support her. She did a lot of couch surfing (which is how I met her) and did babysitting on weekends/evenings to earn money for food and the bus.
Based on what she told me, her situation seemed to be a pretty common one, so no, don’t think congressional interns are all a bunch of rich kids who can afford to exist in an exploitative system.
I knew an unpaid congressional intern and she did not have family money to support her
Not sure about Congress, but in industry internships are often used to winnow out people who need money for their labor, so the “right sort of people” get the ins, the exposure, acquainted with the powerful people, and the juicy lines to put on their resumes.
Oops. I would like to edit my post, simply to what TheJeff said.
(laughs in graduate student)
Unpaid Labor has a stupidly low hit rate, unless you have “Exposure” or “Resume Builder” equipped.
couple it with “College Credit” and it takes a while to have any value overall.
Hella hustled
RIPobin
Desantowned.
you win an internet
I don’t want no damage
But how am I gonna manage…you?
You want a percentage
But I’m the one paying the dues!
Hold me hold me hold me me me…..
(come on and)
wow i can’t wait for Becky to start posting anti-propaganda propaganda memes on robin’s twitter.
you are not immune to cadbury cereal
Just say some dumbass shit about how immigrants used vaccines to cause 9/11 and you can get hired by Fox News. Rearrange those keywords and it makes no difference.
9/11 used immigrants to make vaccines?
No, the trick is to grind up the immigrants to turn them into the type of jet fuel that creates chem-trails that will turn the fricking twin towers gay.
There’s a very real possibility that somebody on Earth actually thinks like this.
That sounds more like Breitbart.
I was already impressed, but turning the twin towers gay makes this the best right-wing/IW parody I’ve ever seen.
Nah, you gotta use all the keywords. Like: Fox News said 9/11 used some dumbass shit to cause vaccines and hired immigrants.
You left out ‘Trump tweeted’ (goes after ‘Fox News said’), ‘Liberal Democrats’ (between ‘some’ and ‘dumbass’), and ‘Hillary’ (before ‘hired immigrants’).
Fox News said Trump tweeted 9/11 used some Liberal Democrats’ dumbass shit to cause vaccines and Hillary hired immigrants.
NEXT!
Hillary hired immigrants who used vaccines to turn the Twin Towers gay. That’s why they needed to be taken down.
(the towers not the vaccines)
She’d have better odds if she dyed her hair blonde.
But then she’d have a harder time being the token Latina Lady who agreed with them.
Split the difference and go “auburn.”
Is she actually Latina? Has it been established that she’s that and not Italian or Spanish or other European origin?
“DeSantos” isn’t exactly italian…
Yup – first in Walkyverse, then Becky knew right off the bat that Roz was Latina (calling her ‘that Mexican chick’ after only seeing her once) at least Roz is visibly Latina (which suggests to me she and Robin aren’t supposed to be white) and when Robin was trying distract her opponents in Patreon strips, one thing she did was pull out a sombrero.
when Robin was trying distract her opponents in Patreon strips, one thing she did was pull out a sombrero
Does noone remember Shortpacked? (and following strip).
Also it appears there is a new comic on the shortpacked-site (which i don’t link because it will get me into moderarion) every April 1st.
Or she could just “Arglebargle guns are more important than anything!” and get a job with NRATV. Especially if she wears “These glasses make me look smart” glasses like Dana Loesch sometimes does.
Someone should tell her that they don’t really make her look smart, or at least not smart enough to overcome the sheer vomitus stupidity flowing from her mouth
That’s okay. The United States doesn’t elect the smarter candidate anymore anyway.
We tried, dammit.
About fifty percent of our population tried, if I remember the numbers right. A lot of people didn’t bother to vote.
and we got eight years of Barack Obama, and then the DNC picked Hillary while the voters wanted Bernie, and thus, we have “Orange Man Bad”, political censorship on social media, congress chasing their tail over russians under the bed, and Feminists hating Trans people.
(Certain) Feminists hating trans people has been going on for decades and has little to do with the current political situation.
…also just to clear the record, Bernie would’ve lost the primary anyway, by sheer number of votes alone. The “DNC picked Hillary over the People’s Objections” myth needs to go.
Say 9/11 used immigrants to cause Fox News, and get a job making vaccines?
I doubt that’s how big pharma HR ticks, but I can’t rule it out completely either.
“…whatever you’re throwin’ at the wall seems to be sticking’.”
I love how Robin only cares that Becky’s posts are keeping her numbers up. She doesn’t know or seem interested in the content. Becky could be advocating for fat Klansmen in tutus clubbing baby seals in prime time but as long as it gets ‘Likes’, Robin’s good with it.
Yeah, it will be hard for Robin to run on a platform of conservative stuff that comes out of her mouth and very liberal stuff on the internet.
Politicians can lie all they want but they do need to have a story and more or less stick to it.
Honestly, I don’t see how she runs anyway.
She’s lost her GOP base and it’s hard to believe that Becky’s tweets are brilliant enough to convince Democratic voters that she’s completely changed and is serious about and it’s really going to stick, when there’s an actual reliable Democrat running against her.
“reliable Democrat”
Cited for ….
Well let your own imagination complete that sentence!
Wonder what Leslie is gonna think about that
Leslie: Are you helping Robin?!
Becky: I am making her a puppet of our left wing goals.
Leslie: okay, that is still evil but acceptable.
She’s attempting to redeem an evildoer. It fits her alignment.
Hmmm, I’d put Becky in the chaotic good box rather than lawful good (she’s more Elan than Roy).
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0489.html
Except smart.
Something along the line of
“Wow, life find yet ANOTHER way to make my life more complicated. I’m so very surprised.”
And of course
“Oooooh, maybe Becky can find a way to get us back toge… NO! BAD JESSICA, BAD!”
Who’s Jessica? I thought we were talking about Leslie?
I could be (by which I mean I probably am) wrong but did it occur to you that Bagge has an alternative identity? All the best superheros do you know.
Jessica is a very common name.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/huff/
(I joked a while back that Leslie’s actions were determined by the sensible ‘Leslie’ and the horny ‘Jessica’. This is just me valiantly trying to keep the gag going)
Becky’s a great negotiator. I can’t wait until she’s the head of Dorothy’s presidential campaign.
I think that’s still just a little ways off.
I expect it to be in the ‘where are they now’ I’m hoping will conclude DoA at some point.
If a “where are they now” sequence does ever actually happen I suspect Becky would become a scientist, since that’s the career she’s expressed interest in.
She can do both. We need more politically gifted scientists.
Besides, she’s basically been running Robin’s campaign from her phone – surely she can do the same while doing lab work for Dorothy.
How about scientifically grounded politicians? Seems like most of them slept through 6th grade science class.
Well she could do a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science like John Kerry?
It’s already planned as a strip written by Willis’ grandchildren…sometime in 2054 or so
I love how well you use their eyes to tell a
… html went wrong
– story ( https://i.imgur.com/AHiMe2z.png )
Boffo work by Willis and I like how you highlighted the looks bouncing back and forth here.
I couldn’t help but hear the siren from Kill Bill in my head when I looked at that!
Get that money.
How much would a campaign manager be paid? My knowledge of this is based on Parks and Rec, and that was a local city council election and Jennifer Barkley was canon overpaid and also it’s a TV show.
‘Bout 40K+ a year up in Canada. No clue about the US.
According to this : https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/political-consultant-campaign-manager-salary-SRCH_KO0,37.htm : 60k.
But I just picked the first thing that didn’t look wrong, so I might be off.
Yeah, I saw that one, and it looked reasonable. Of course, Becky would only be working for the campaign for less than a month, but that’d still be a few thousand.
“(salaries can run $2,000 to $15,000 a month… depending on the candidate and the size of the race)” according to this article: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-campaign-managers-wont-tell-you-1331565132459
I assume Robin’s on the lower end of that, at least in her current state, but that’s still some Taco Bell money.
Is she? Robin’s a US Representative – I’d imagine a federal race would rate higher than state and local ones.
Sure, but those numbers can go into races as high as the presidency, and I also imagine that US Senate races and gubernatorial elections might be above Reps. More than that, though, is the “in her current state” part of my comment. She’s struggling, and I imagine her funds at least somewhat represent that.
GET IT BECKS
That’s about what I expected.
Robin progresses but it takes baby steps and you have to deal with each of her issues separately.
Do it for the exposure!
Exposure is the worst kind of payment for artists!
And public exposure can get you arrested in some parts.
And exposure to the elements can get you dead!
Also, people die of exposure.
I don’t think I should be exposed to these jokes.
Your avatar is perfect for this comment.
Look on the bright side, at least you won’t die from them.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L7o7pfkxHp4/V5qgYQeneII/AAAAAAAAB5Y/gHQPYA2MgQIyW09HKFOWUnI6QhUid78lACLcB/s400/oregon-trail-exposure2.png
I hope that works…
Becky has proven to be a more competent person than Robin and most politicians. She has skills!
And Becks with the hard negotiatin’.
I friggin’ LOVE Becky. And THIS is her in a nutshell.
“Please, don’t send me to jail.”
(One breath later)
“Oh yeah? You better pay me what I’m worth”
Going to jail is a threat. Helping her get re-elected is a favour.
I don’t know, some might see getting her reelected as a threat as well
No, I mean, Robin is asking Becky to do her a favour as opposed to threatening jail.
But yes, every afab person, every LGBT+ person and anybody who gives a rat’s ass about immigration has a damn good reason to want her as far away from Washington as possible.
Mr. Willis, I am continually amazed by how these characters’ relationships twist, remix and rearrange. This new wrinkle is wonderful, potentially relieving one tension (Becky’s finances) while creating another (what will Leslie think? how will Robin react to Anna?) and providing a new space for two previously mostly-unrelated characters to bounce off each other. I don’t know how long you’ve been planning this beat, whether months or from the very beginning, but I’d believe either. You are telling a masterful story. Thank you for sharing it with us!
No, no. That’s not how it’s done! We express our honest gratitude for Willis’s masterful storytelling with “Damn You”s and snarky comments.
Some of us express it through 15-paragraph long posts that goes into immense detail about the full and complete meaning of a single word in a single panel.
Call it fate, call it luck, call it karma.
Call it the Space Cowboy. Call it the Gangster of Love. Call it Maurice.
Call her Ishmael.
Call on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Call on me
call me beep me if you wanna reach me
call me anything you want, just don’t call me late for dinner
Call me when you’re sober
Ya doesn’t hasta call me Johnston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1kcfTul2cU
I knew I would see reference.
I can call you Betty, and Betty when you call me, you can call me Al.
I am glad Becky’s haggling, especially when there’s the worry she’d be naive given her background. Not so, she’s gotten pretty savvy, pretty quick, and I’m proud of her.
Tough negotiation! I like!
Pretty sure she forgot about the lobbying sector. They pay you for the connections you’ve made, not the stuff you’ve said/say.
On the other hand, I kind of think none of the connections Robin had are gonna exactly be eager to hear from her after what’s been going on.
18 and she’s already being offered a second job as a congresswoman campaign manager, who would think Becky would take a step into the big stage World of politics before Dorothy.
If Dorothy finds out her head might explode.
No, she’ll just make a note to hire Becky when she herself runs for president.
I’ve worked in the private sector! They expect results.
I lived half-a-block from the black firehouse that was their headquarters in the movie. That black paint was some cheap shit that washed off in a few rainstorms. When the ambulance came out of the firehouse and went barrelling down the avenue, it was going the wrong way, and anyone who’d ever been downtown knew it.
And the interior was a completely DIFFERENT firehouse in Los Angeles! (Which was used as a garage in “The Mask!”)
GOD FUCKING DAMMIT BECKY IS SO FUCKING AMAZING RIP HER HEART OUT THROUGH HER CHEST FUCK YEAH.
Is that too extreme?
There are times when Becky drops all hints of clowning and the last one I can think of is when she told her dad he was gonna be a scientist and this is easily as badass, if not more.
I wish I were as cool as Becky.
Ripping out hearts in a restaurant is a health code violation.
On the other hand, it might get her a promotion fro Galasso.
The other major problem is that ripping her heart out would mean that she has no one to pay her.
Our two favorite redheads could go into business together – Ruth & Becky’s Heart & Femur Removal.
hey on the bright side becky you at least wouldn’t be fired at least until she lost an election
at the pace this comic goes, that’ll be approximately never
Nah, I’d bet it to be just another five-six years or so from now. Election’s in early November, it’s currently early-mid October in-comic (Dumbing of Age began at the end of August in-universe).
bold of you to assume i experience time in a linear fashion
Is it safe to assume that you experience time in a curvy fashion? The kind of curve that might lead one’s mind, if one is so inclined, to perhaps be reminded about a posterior part of the human anatomy?
Becky: Master Negotiator.
Fun job point.
Negotiate the pay once you have the job.
Living for that alt-text reference to an under-the-radar Ghostbusters’ joke.
YES BECKY!!!
You have her over a barrel, Becky. Drill her for every last red cent. I feel bad for Robin, though. She’s dumb enough to tell Becky she’s desperate to hire. She probably would die in the private sector. She’s adorable, but she has shit for brains.
Also, Becky, get the first month in advance.
Well, the counter-threat is “Hey enjoy prison for hacking a politician.”
But by the time you need some random pizza worker to save you, you’re already done for.
But Becky is hardly some random. The Force is definitely with her.
I wonder if Robin is actually dumb, or just scatter-brained?
Pourquoi pas tous les deux?
Yeah, I was pretty sure that Robin didn’t have anything to offer Becky except offers of future reward. She’s right not to accept it; I’m not sure of Robin’s chances and she strikes me as the sort of person who’d forget promises or attempt to kick the can down the road rather than pay up!
Don’t worry, Robin. For some reason I’m pretty sure that you can get a solid and long-term job as a clerk in a toy and hobby store!
Their minds are like Non-Newtonian fluids. They are usually gooey and messy, but become more solid when stressed.
Good on Becky for insisting that she gets paid for any work she does for Robin’s campaign.
Die? Politicians never die. They just become lobbyists.
Here in Europe, they tend to become members of the European Commission and exert power without democratic checks and balances (at least any meaningful ones).
Here in Poland, they get lofty positions in government-owned businesses…
And do not badmout EC, please – it’s one of the few things that might keep my country from sliding into full-blown authoritarianism.
Considering how the political climate is shaping up in Europe at the moment, PiS’ victory was merely a taste of things to come.
Please tell me you’re not a Brexiteer.
Cadbury would hire her.
Damn, Becky knows how to haggle.
That’s what I was gonna say. XD You’re in the wrong business, Becky! You need to go into professional arbitration!
Wow, Beckers is surprisingly good at negotiations
Also: regarding Robin and private sector employment, do we know what kind of qualifications / education she has? I wonder what job she could get…
Bluff. Called.
I don’t think that there was ever any ‘bluff’. Robin is too used to getting her way and having whatever she wants when she demands it. She’s not used to having to actually have a two-way relationship with people she needs on her side.
I may go on a tangent: AOC is being mentioned here in relation to Robin. I know that part of AOC’s popularity is her social media activity, openess to people, friendliness etc. But what if AOC is like Robin? What is she simply has her own Becky telling her to assemble IKEA furniture live while pretending to like her voters..?
To be perfectly honest that’s probably true for like 95% of the politicians. They don’t even write their speeches and just have the think tanks do all of that for them. The voters are just gullible sheep to be used to get into a position of power for them.
So what?
Does it matter whether they vote for the policies I support because of deep inner conviction or because they think it’ll get them enough votes to stay in office?
Bold of you to assume that they will vote for the policies you support instead of taking the cash from corporate lobbists.
But then again that’s probably my Central European Post-Communist bias talking since all our politicians are corrupt as hell.
Novel idea: they do both. Get all that lobbyist money, and then just enact good policies. For bonus points, record the calls/meetings where the lobbyists tell you what they want for their money, and then have them all arrested for attepted bribery of a public official.
And signal to all other potential lobbyists that This particular guy is untrustworthy and downright dangerous to deal with. Not to mention that you don’t really need to outright bribe them. The lobbyists might stop donating, stop their support, no longer invite them to various parties. It’s all being done in clean, white gloves.
So, pay attention to what they do. Vote them out when they don’t do what you want.
I don’t care whether they’re doing what I want because they genuinely share my views or in a cynical attempt to get my vote. I can’t read minds. I want them beholden to me and people like me for our votes.
Would it matter?
Politicians are what they do, not what they secretly think in their hearts.
It does matter to me. I can’t vote for something that lies to me and pretends to be someone he/she is not.
I think that dishonesty is one of the plagues of modern politics…
Ah, I see. You’re one of those people that, when Trump said “I’m gonna fuck over all those non-whites.”, went “That’s who gets my vote, cos he’s HONEST.”
Well, I wouldn’t vote for *that*. But it’d be awful to vote for a politician who seems nice and seems to have ideas, if that person was secretly hateful and only following on some advisor’s PR strategy…
Actions beat intent every time. Trump could have been the worst version ever of The Producers, the fact that he’s still here is terrible and completely overwrites any positive intentions that MAY have been had.
And really, that sort of “Well, they might REALLY be thinking something else,” could be applied to literally every human in history and it sounds reductive as shit.
I think intent does matter, but like…it’s the difference between stepping on someone’s foot on purpose and stepping on someone’s foot because its dark and you didn’t see it there. It determines how much of an asshole someone is and it can also determine how reliable a support someone is – someone who supports a good cause because they get something out of it is probably not going to stick when the going gets tough.
Fair, but someone whose political base is behind a cause is going to screw themselves out of a job if they bail on it. To a large extent a politician’s job is to represent their constituents. (In theory. I know. I know.)
And I don’t know their actual intent. I can’t. I know who they’re trying to appeal to based on their campaign messaging and I know what they’ve done in the past. That’s it.
To an extent this is true – you can only really cross the floor once if you want to be seen as reliable.
And you’re right – if someone is showing you who they are, believe them. If you don’t have reason to believe someone is lying/faking/etc. assuming so is unnecessary and often assholish because that tends to lead a lot of victims of abuse and oppression out to dry.
That being said, as readers, we can better ascertain ROBIN’S intent here and I’m not sure her intent is good.
Did she have this Becky in the years before she ran for office?
If AOC’s policies and public communications are the result of someone behind the scenes… okay. Effectively, that’s what her supporters want. So, I don’t see a problem, there.
Politicians should have policy staff, no?
Thank you for this Ghostbusters reference.
And after you die, we bury you and get a new dancefloor. See, everybody wins. Well, except you, but you’re trash, so who cares?
Panel 1: Robin looks like Robin.
Panel 4: Robin looks like Roz.
Panel 7: Robin looks like Riley.
Roz and Riley are good people, why you have to attack them like that?
That is probably the first honest thing Robin has said in a long, long, time. I am not saying that she is correct, as she could easily land a gig on some Cable/Satellite Radio News Channel, as a Talking Head (aka Political News Commentator), but that is what she truly believes.
Probably not. Not as an apostate Republican. They’ve got a propaganda line to push and it doesn’t include Robin’s new issues.
I have never fallen more in love with Becky then I have at this moment. Rock on sistah! Rock on!
Damn, she’s in a tight spot!
heh!
Maybe she shouldn’t even be a campaign manager. With those negotiating skills she could work corporate
I feel like that last panel can be twisted into a joke about the situation of the economy for anyone born in the early-mid 90s or later, but it’s too personally depressing for me to make.
Somehow Becky makes me love her even more.
Those 3 requests seem very reasonable. Don’t let Robin limit your ambition! She needs you!
Oops, wrong comment section. If there’s a way to delete this, please do!