The 'Terminator' References Shall Flow.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Mystery Ship.

It's kind of amazing how much of this comic is now just references to two movies, over and over and over...

Even Muir Has To Admit The Hoped For Purge Probably Isn't Coming.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Trey O' Hearts.

There's something so quietly pathetic in the inner lives of people who essentially pay so Muir can draw them--badly--visiting his redneck Legion of Doom, sucking up to the cast, getting to fire imaginary hi-tech guns, and fantasize about essentially being SS guards at a concentration camp.

The Mystery Business(TM) Era; Part 13: Lo, A Captain Mitty Approacheth.

 So now that we've looked at how Jan's character, measly as it had been, was sent into a destructive tailspin by the combination of an ill-considered retcon to her ethnicity, accompanied by the sudden transformation of her background to being ultra-wealthy, and a somehow even more ill-considered relationship with Damon, it's time to move on. Because as significant as all that was, it was small beer next what would wind up the most significant retcon in DbD history, the one which changed Zed and Sam from mere members of an ensemble into the strip's de facto protagonists.

Early in 2005, Zed and Sam went on a date. They were randomly mugged by a knife-wielding thug, as happens in fiction, and most especially conservative fiction, and Zed drew a gun on the mugger, followed, of course, by Sam also drawing a gun. What followed was the stereotypical 'good guy with a gun' story, with Sam and Zed reveling in their mighty power. This moment has been called by others the birth of the new Zed, the figure I like to call 'Captain Mitty'. However, I argue that would actually come later. This was more the moment when the embryonic form of that character, who'd lurked around the edges of Zed in his schlub days, became sharply defined. Captain Mitty would be truly born nearly a year later.

That event would occur in a later mini-storyline, Zed, Sam, Damon and Jan go out to practice their shooting, and Sam notes that the various military guys are saluting Zed. Zed burbles out an explanation, Sam notes that Zed has scars on his back, Zed burbles out more explanation, and in aside panel, two of the military guys reveal that Zed is a former special ops sniper.

And just like that... we had Captain Mitty, Zed not as a dopey aging office worker, but as a patriotic deadly badass. And because she was ultimately defined by her relationship with Zed, Sam would change too, to become the worthy helpmate of this vir maximus. Indeed, we see some of it in that first story I mentioned, where Sam, in that mugging, drew her gun as quickly as Zed did. The woman who'd been defined as Zed's counterpart as a snarky, aging urban professional was going to become, well, his counterpart in a very different way.

Now, this is the start of Zed and Sam's becoming figures of more or less total wish fulfillment, not the end, so we will be talking about this more in the future, especially once we hit the Transition Era. But what we need to shift to in the next installment is how the changing politics of the world changed the tone of DbD in very subtle ways.

At first.

This Would Be Such An Inconvenience For Them, Personally.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Son of the Guardsman.

It's a good example of the moral wretchedness of this fictional universe that Sam and Zed clearly feel the only morally objectionable part of this proposed death camp is that they, a family of good volk would be near it. 

And that they overcome this objection by thinking that, well, hey, they'd be guys doing some of the murdering.

He Dares Consider Anything To Stop Sacred Gun Violence!

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Adventures of Tarzan.

Muir's always been prone to grumble whenever Trump's shown any openness to gun control. But the grumbling seems a bit nastier these days, and his faith in the man much much shoddier.

"This Is All Totally True! Internet Randos Would Never Lie To Me!"

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Jungle Girl.

Muir has apparently finally worked out that he can publish a cartoon later, and have it show up on the day he would have liked to have it been published originally. I guess crisis can give birth to creativity.

Which is about the only creative thing in this strip, which is the standard Muir awfulness, racism and pushing conspiracy theories.

Zed Bids The Secretary To Ogle His Wife.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Zorro Rides Again.

I'm suddenly flashing back to the days of Muir's mancrush on Cruz, when we got Muir's... *ahem* highly fanciful version of the man.

It's Astonishing To Realize In How Many Many Ways He's Having Them Violate Security Here.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because S.O.S. Coast Guard.

...Man, that weird traced version of Kegsbreath looks like he just parachuted in from an episode of Clutch Cargo.

Only An Hour? Does He Know Who He's Dealing With?

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Painted Stallion.

As I nodded at yesterday, there's something so pathetic in Muir's insistence in treating his cast as these redneck Secret Master movers-and-shakers.

Muir Knows True Patriotism Is Gun-Humping And Wanting The Troops To Be Fascist Thugs.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island.

The classic example of Muir casually demonstrating what a repugnant little fascist thug he is at heart, while imagining that he's somehow proving that he's the plain-talking man of the people. As usual, he not only demonstrates that his supposed patriotism is a fucking lie, but he doesn't understand the real McCoy, and wants the cheap counterfeit he's put up to be taken for it. 

In the end, he's just fascist scum. Sometimes, he really rubs your face in it.

See? It's Like The Old Coca-Cola Ads! Only Terrible!

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because all God's children got to scream and shout.

Won't lie, every time I look at this thing, it strikes me as worse. 

The Enemy--Always Strong, Yet Weak.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Dark Lochnagar.

And this underlines the problem shared by all Muir's baddies, but which his immigrant hordes have extra-bad--the inability to be a true threat. They may bluster, but Muir will always write them as cowardly incompetents who are no match for his cast. And yet Muir will continuously insist that they are a major threat that justify all his cast's actions.

A Mind Stuck In Third-Rate 1980s Sex Comedies.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because a gun of the long-ass variety.

At this point, "Muir's mind is stuck at the age of twelve" isn't a thesis, it's the essential key to understanding a good 3/4s of the strip.

I Thought Zed Was The Mayor Now.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because when the stars start to align, I hope you take it as a sign that you will be okay.

It's astonishing how much of the strip now are these bizarre battles in pseudo-law which have in their root Muir not knowing what the fuck he's talking about but imagining he does.

Back To 'Just Normal Father Stuff'.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because skull ring.

A reminder that the entire Nazi-esque interval we just suffered through was supposed to be a logical outgrowth of Captain Mitty grumbling about his daughter wanting to screw someone he doesn't approve of.

"They Are Benighted Peasants, Who Do Not Understand The Glory Of Right Thought!"

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because News of the World.

This smug nonsense coming from a man who has to pretend reality isn't happening.

Muir Saying "Isn't Captain Mitty Coooool?" In A Whiny Voice.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Red Harvest--The 19th Murder.

I've said it before, but sometimes the extent to which Zed and his vast network of imaginary ex-special forces asshole buddies wind up illustrating how very pathetic Muir's fantasy of masculine power is just... gets you.

Remember, Their Guns Are Bad Guns!

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because One Hour.

...In so much as this strip is intelligible, it is Muir's putting a brave face on his deep terror on the realization that guns work for whoever pulls the trigger.

The Societal Equivalent Of Taking A Bath With Plugged-In Appliances.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Simple Art of Murder (1950).

...

When reality hits Florida, it will hit it hard.

One Hopes She Wears Sunscreen.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Curtain.

First off of course, this is op piece that is in fact an interview that with one particular leftist, so not the opinion of the NYT, much less the Left as a whole.

Second it's both a bit rich and utterly typical that the guy who's proposed and backed coups when he loses insists that talking about making changes that range from 'utterly justifiable' to 'fairly well-reasoned' legally is some sort of insane woo-woo. But that's the thing--Muir is both ignorant and arrogant as regards the Constitution. It is both sacred writ that must never be changed, and ignore the fact that it has been changed, but also, window-dressing for the real Constitution that lets Muir do whatever he wants and sets all power at the county level, except when there's a Fascist running the show.