DONARUDO
WEEK 522 / 583 — Day 61
Vol. 8 ·  Chapter 54 — The Pause · Jun 10 – Jun 16, 2025
Manga panel 1 of 6, Week 522 “Day 61”: On a parade ground at dusk he tells the soldiers what the last sound their enemies will hear is going to be, and describes it in detail.
JUNE 10. THE ARMY IS TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THIS WEEK. SO, NEARLY, IS HE.
From June 1775 to June 2025, those foolish enough to challenge America’s Army have been met with unyielding strength, unbreakable spirit, and unstoppable, overwhelming force.…
Manga panel 2 of 6, Week 522 “Day 61”: Wednesday morning the deal with Beijing is declared done in capital letters: fifty-five percent against ten, relationship excellent.
“OUR DEAL WITH CHINA IS DONE, SUBJECT TO FINAL APPROVAL WITH PRESIDENT XI AND ME.…”
Manga panel 3 of 6, Week 522 “Day 61”: Overnight the strikes begin. By half past seven he has posted the only frame he intends to use for it, and it is a calendar.
Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to “make a deal.” They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn’t get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!
Manga panel 4 of 6, Week 522 “Day 61”: It rains on the parade, on his birthday, and he decides in public that a rainy day parade brings good luck.
“OUR GREAT MILITARY PARADE IS ON, RAIN OR SHINE. REMEMBER, A RAINY DAY PARADE BRINGS GOOD LUCK. I’LL SEE YOU ALL IN D.C.”
Manga panel 5 of 6, Week 522 “Day 61”: Eleven minutes past midnight, the tanks already loading onto their flatbeds, and six words of thanks from a dark room.
(What a GREAT Parade. THANK YOU, ARMY!)
Manga panel 6 of 6, Week 522 “Day 61”: The sentence he has been posting since the winter, with one new line at the end of it: an instruction to nine million people to leave the city they live in.
HE SPENT FOUR MONTHS ORDERING THE WORLD AROUND. THIS ONE HE DID NOT SCHEDULE.
“Iran should have signed the “deal” I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
TO BE CONTINUED →

This week in the saga

The army turns two hundred and fifty on the same Saturday he turns seventy-nine, and the week is built around that coincidence. Tuesday at Fort Bragg he tells the soldiers that the last sound their enemies will ever hear is the howl of helicopters in the dead of night. Wednesday morning the deal with Beijing is declared done in capital letters, fifty-five percent against ten, relationship excellent. Then Thursday night, while the tanks are already on their flatbeds, Israel opens on Iran, and by half past seven Friday morning he has posted the only frame he intends to use for it: two months ago he gave them sixty days, and today is day sixty-one. Saturday it rains on the parade and he says a rainy day parade brings good luck. Sixty-eight hours later, and forty-eight after two state lawmakers are shot in their homes in Minnesota, he posts the sentence he has been posting since the winter — but this time the last line of it is an instruction to nine million people to leave the city they live in. That is where the chapter stops.

Readers' Corner

Letters from the readership on Week 522. Pick a pen name — no account needed.

Opening the mailbag…