I must salute the strip of 15 years ago where Zonker tells B.D. that weed will not be legalized until after, 20 years minimum, he has retired from the CHP. For long-term predictions, that's about as good as it gets, and the reason I read the strip daily.

So sad to see Mr. Crow making his reappearance, and showing up in places that used not to be his native habitat. Sigh. Democracy was nice while it lasted. Wisconsin used to be a lovely place to live before Walker and the GOP Destruction Crew got a hold of it — we thought Tommy Thompson was conservative, but these Tea Party types won't be satisfied till they get us back to the original Gilded Age (which name they don't understand wasn't a compliment).

Perfect timing for the Jimmy Crow comeback tour. The question now is how long the DoJ will need to create a new preclearance list using what is left of the VRA, and whether we can get northern states like Ohio and Pennsylvania on it. We still have the "bail-in" process for getting states and counties on the list when they lose in court and get put under injunction. I wonder why we aren't hearing about that from DoJ. Well, it might make sense for them to lay low until the South gets all of its feet stuck on the tarbaby.

Mr. Crow needs to come to Wisconsin and see our new voting laws and redistricting.

Thanks for the excellent reruns. I fear that Jimmy Crow will now make appearances all over the country, with SCOTUS having gutted the Voting Rights Act. Such a sad day for our country. I was very happy with the DOMA and Prop 8 rulings the next day, but still sad for the VRA. Texas, in particular, is so out of control. Please have a nice vacation and then come back! I usually read my paper when I get home at night, but have to read Doonesbury on Slate during the day because I can't wait to hear what you've got to say. Keep up the good work!

I'm from the South. I fear the resurrection of "Jimmy Crow" after the SCOTUS Decision re: VRA. However, let's not ignore the fact that he's also present in Ohio and other parts of the country. History has shown for thousands of years that the lust for political power brings out the worst in all humans regardless of their geographic location. It's fixing to get ugly in the South and in other parts of the country. It already has in States with Republican governors and legislatures that were not under VRA.

Thanks for bringing back "James Crow"! We need to find a way to eradicate him forever. Unfortunately, our Supreme Court no longer has any honor or memory of history. I used to believe the Supreme Court was full of the most wisdom and honor, but even that balance has all gone down the drain!

"From the courthouses of Alabama to the polls of Pennsylvania..." and now from the chambers of the Supreme Court. Perfect timing on today's Flashback!

I hear the Car Talk guys are thinking it's time to retire, so they'll run replays of past shows for a while. That's sad. I like Car Talk. And now, when I see a flashback in Doonesbury, my heart takes a flip, breathing comes slow, sweat pours from pores. What if GBT were to retire, too? Oh, no! Right now, I'm patiently waiting for the end of summer vacation, but how could I go on if there were no more Doonesburys in the future? How could I go on ...

Oh man, I don't know if I can take a hiatus this long. But congratulations, Garry! "Trudeau’s 'Alpha House,' a streaming video program (like a TV show except not on TV but available through the online Amazon Prime streaming service) was picked by viewers from 14 series pilots for development into a full series. The show, starring John Goodman as one of four Republican congressmen sharing a house in Washington, D.C., is expected to be out in November. That means Trudeau will need to devote his summer to the show... And that means no new 'Doonesbury' strips in the News Tribune — or anywhere else — until at least about Labor Day..."

Thanks, on behalf of our men and women still serving in Afghanistan, for the repeat of Mel's phone call home. The passage of time has made it even more powerful, profound and sad than it was originally.

I noted something in this week's sequence that I had not noticed before. There was a moment when Rick could have possibly saved Jeff from himself; when Jeff asked about setting up a charity foundation. Granted, the moment was a bad one (Jeff unfortunately caught Rick at a really really stressful time) but had he talked to his dad before he received the phone call with the insulting offer to write for free for the Huffington Post, who knows what might have happened. Maybe Jeff could have been put straight by his father. That and Alex's subtle shaming of him in last week's strips in regards to putting his time and energy into a legit good cause might have changed the entire trajectory of his impending downward spiral, and led him to finally grow as a human being.

How incredibly prescient today's strip is, seeing as it was penned before the Trayvon Martin shooting; and apropos since the Zimmerman trial is in full swing right now.

Wow, "Most Improved Trier, Second Grade" -- and everyone got it!! GBT approaches his best, most broadly appealing work when he pillories the self-esteem school of education (and the corresponding college-student-as-consumer ethos of too many American universities). Try a Google seach on "everyone is special" and you'll get a deluge of material employing that motto -- with no hint of irony whatsoever.

Whenever I hear the word "rascal", I think of Horace Greeley's 1872 campaign slogan against Grant, "Turn the rascals out." Since we have never succeeded in doing that, it is a good thing that the Founders gave a lot of thought to using the Balance of Powers to set the rascals against each other, and put at least some limits on their opportunities for tyranny, graft, and the rest.

The many different interpretations of Jeff's trajectory show that his story exemplifies important processes in modern U.S. life. My interpretation is that it shows the frightening way in which many Americans believe fantasies about U.S. actions in the world, whereas few have interest in actual facts. So Jeff takes the easy road while his "reality-based" father struggles.

I've been living and teaching in a mostly Arab country on the south side of the Persian Gulf for almost a year. It really points out how the vast majority of M.E. people are just trying to live their lives. I have met, worked with, and taught people from Syria (usually well-educated and articulate), Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Oman, Yemen, and the U.A.E. Over and over I hear that they all were very positive to the US -- its TV, freedom, opportunities, and fashions -- until U.S. forces began killing their friends and neighbours. So many students are just sad that the U.S. media portrays them all as terrorists. They are always so happy when I truthfully say I like their country and Arab people. I've seen several parades of Disney and Warner Brothers characters in an area popular with families, sent through to entertain the children.

Snowden needs to contact Duke to negotiate a refuge.

Reading these Flashbacks is similar to reading the Song of Ice and Fire books with the Game of Thrones TV series still fresh in my mind. I know of Jeff's impending doom and yet I can't look away. It's too compelling to watch for the small signs of what is to come and wonder if things might just turn out differently this time.

It's slowly occurring to me that Edward Snowden is a real life version of Jeff Redfern. Life truly imitating art.

Re the current Poll: I still can't believe we thought putting people in jail for pot would help. I have always told my kids that pot will ruin your life -- if you get caught. Prison is much more harmful than smoking pot.