DONARUDO
WEEK 476 / 583 The Substitute
Vol. 7 ·  Chapter 51 The Comeback · Jul 23 – Jul 29, 2024
Manga panel 1 of 5, Week 476 “The Substitute”: The field resets in a morning: a new challenger takes the other podium, and the hall she inherits is already full.
The Comeback
JULY 23. THE PARTY THAT LOST ITS KING HAS A CHALLENGER BY MORNING.
SHE HAS NEVER RUN FOR THIS. THE NUMBERS MOVE ANYWAY.
Manga panel 2 of 5, Week 476 “The Substitute”: Past midnight he studies the substitute's numbers in the dark, looking for the seam in a candidate nobody voted for.
(NBC News Poll: Lyin’ Kamala Harris is the most unpopular Vice President in history. WOW, that is not a great sound bite!)
Manga panel 3 of 5, Week 476 “The Substitute”: Ten days after the fairground he decides what the shot meant: not luck, not survival — an honor, and a debt the country now owes him.
HE HAS DECIDED WHAT THE SHOT MEANT.
The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!
Manga panel 4 of 5, Week 476 “The Substitute”: Thursday the head of the national bureau tells Congress he is not sure it was even a bullet. The answer comes back the same night.
THE BUREAU TELLS CONGRESS IT IS NOT SURE THERE WAS A BULLET.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress yesterday that he wasn’t sure if I was hit by shrapnel, glass, or a bullet (the FBI never even checked!)
Manga panel 5 of 5, Week 476 “The Substitute”: By Friday he has chosen where he goes next: back to the same field in Pennsylvania, for the fire chief who died there.
HE ANNOUNCES HE WILL GO BACK TO THE FIELD WHERE THE RIFLE FOUND HIM.
I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO.
TO BE CONTINUED →

This week in the saga

CHAPTER 51 OPENS. The old king is gone and the field does not stay empty for a day: by Tuesday morning the party that lost him has a challenger who has never stood on a ballot for this office, and the halls she inherits are already full. From the dark he reads her numbers aloud to himself — the most unpopular deputy in history, he says, not a great sound bite. In daylight he decides what the graze at the fairground means: he was not lucky, he was chosen, and it was his great honor to take it. Thursday the director of the national bureau tells Congress he is not sure it was even a bullet, and the answer comes back within the day — no glass, no shrapnel, a wound to the ear, and a bureau that has lost the country. By Friday he has announced where he is going next: back to Butler, to the same field, for the fire chief who died there.

Readers' Corner

Letters from the readership on Week 476. Pick a pen name — no account needed.

Opening the mailbag…