Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 06, 2022

Good morning™, everyone!

Does Mr. Paultry manage the paltry sums of the city? The bankers are leaving it up to the mayor. Can she get more action from Tracy?

I guess that “Barbera” already had that very strange spelling the last time we saw her, but I can’t remember when that was. She has a very impressive office with her own guard in front! She’s looking a big pudgy in the cheeks.

Bailout time! Mr. Clark figures the banks are too big to fail!

Good morning™, harried Hannas !

Her first name beckons another… Mayor Armstrong needs to get Wendy on the case where she will publicly berate Tracy for not putting a stop to all these sneaky pete withdrawals, all this without shots being fired. I wonder what Memory’s master plan is.

Isn’t Tracy already on this case? I figured the mayor would already know about this. Is the wagon behind the horse here?

The mayor sorta looks like a pigeon! The shape of her face I mean.

The only exposition here is that now the mayor knows. Everything else, we all pretty much knew already.

So much for keeping the robberies under wraps….if you want to keep something secret one of the last people you’d want to tell it is a politician.

You can bet the bank heists will be front and center on the news reports by the end of the week.

In all reality what can a mayor do to help out the banks? That would be the Feds I think..!

I thought the banks were keeping this a secret?

I’m sorry but this is just ( boring ) : (

Oh, no! My Tahiti vaca, err, fact finding mission!

I don’t understand the technology as well as I should (my field is history). Not a single dollar bill was taken out of a bank. Of course banks actually have very little currency in the vaults, compared with their assets. Money is loaned out, payments are made, etc. and most of it is all done electronically (in fact, since the bank creates records of even the person physically bringing in a check to deposit or for cash you can say there is an electronic record of everything).

So, by hacking the system the bank records could say there was five million dollars less in assets? That would sound like a job for computer forensics rather than Tracy. Wouldn’t it be possible to say where the electronic five million went (I ask in my ignorance)? And while you don’t want the bank you took five million from to know who you are, won’t the bank where you deposit the five million be curious where it came from? You sure want them to know it is your account. Would you trust a bank’s security after taking five million out of one? And you need to put it somewhere. You haven’t taken a single dollar bill. You can’t take your computer to the car dealership and take electric money off your hard drive to put on their hard drive.

Other than giving her the courtesy of letting her know how is this any of Mayor Armstrong’s business? Isn’t there a state Attorney General? With subordinate District Attorneys?

This sounds like a case for the FBI, and I expect to see a visit from Sam’s friend from the Bureau soon.

And, what do they expect the maypr to do about it? Trscy is already on it.

OFF TOPIC: Oh, (rummages for a non-offensive word) heck no! This week is going to be tie of untold and unwanted wonders. To the dentist today to have a cap pulled and a nasty spot underneath gouged out as the man giggles like Peter Lorre on a sugar high, then the doctor tomorrow to have the minor surgery. Icing this particularly noxious little fruit cake of a week, I woke up today to discover I like a transitory character I inserted into the current book so much I don’t want to make him a one-pager.

And, HEY, reality! Get those four guys off my lawn! I’m not ready for the apocalypse, and I sure ain’t cleaning THAT off the lawn!

Somebody at “Dick Tracy” needs to learn how this really works in the real world!

Uh, why are these (overpaid) CEOs coming to a Mayor who’s more interested in her phony-baloney job? This is a Secret Service/FBI/ Dick Tracy job.

“And I need an unmarked city car and extended use of the city’s condo in Cannes. There’ll be a little something IN it for you for your trouble.”

And the mayor, scramrbling desperately for a quick fix, fires Tracy and brings in Major Hoople. Same claims Tracy’s desk. Bigger drawers to hold ‘missing’ evidence.

EGAD!

Haven’t they heard of the FDIC? Plus, this would not be a local matter. The FBI would be in on it from the start.

“Did you call the police?”

“Umm… no.”

A pattern of five banks would surely be a matter that should come to the notice of the FBI who has jurisdictions over bank robberies. However, for many instances of bank robberies, the FBI has ceded their authority over to local police because the priority of the FBI since 9/11 has been terrorism and counterterrorism.

https://oig.justice.gov/reports/FBI/a0537/chapter8.htm#:~:text=The%20FBI%20has%20sole%20jurisdiction,agencies%20to%20investigate%20bank%20robberies.&text=In%20addition%2C%20the%20offense%20can,by%20local%20law%20enforcement%20agencies.

1-MAYOR STRETCH ARMSTRONG: Send in the vultures…

2-…So you done went and got your money stole. Well… ♪♫ Ima tell you, like Wu told me – Cash Rules Everything Around Me, singing dolla dolla bill y’all ♪♫ And you ain’t got none so beat feet.

3-CLARK: Awh mayor… ♪♫ You used to be the sweetest girl ever. Now you like sour Amaretto. All you wanna know is where my money at ♪♫

MAYOR: Yeah well, ♪♫ Pimpin’ got harder cause you hos got smarter. So I got my mind on my money and my money on my mind, my finger on the trigger and my hand on my 9. Singin’ dolla dolla bill y’all…♪♫ One last word of advice – don’t let my PoPo catch you ridin’ dirty. CLARK: Let’s go, bruhs…

Editor’s Note: I needed a day off so Wyclef Jean wrote today’s edition in his rap, Sweetest Girl

If he’s looking for a bail out I’d be hesitant to give money to banks who seem to be really easy to hack right now. I’d also be looking to protect city funds from a similar attack. We’ll see what Mayor Barbera does.

It just keeps getting dumber. A bank’s reserves are the physical cash retained on site. As in stacks of paper bills, mostly kept in the vault. You can’t HACK that no matter how fast you type on your keyboard.

MOVIE QUOTE—-“He’ll dynamite this place.And I have very sensitive ears!”

Ruby Keeler—-GO INTO YOUR DANCE 1935

Oh,great.We need Mayor Armstrong butting in like we need a case of the shingles.

Mr. Clark has gotten that right; the banks are in crisis as will be the city. What happens when city employees are paid, and they try to cash their checks? When companies whom the city does business with start submitting invoices for services rendered, what will the city do? Send them I.O.U.’s?

I hope for Mayor Armstrong’s, the city treasurer’s, and Mr. Clark’s sakes news media in Tracy land won’t get wind (no pun intended) of this crisis. It would behoove them not report it. Stations and newspapers could shut down. Their employees could encounter cash flow challenges.

And as soon as the banks get their money back,somebody starts playing “Tubthumping”.

Not exactly news to us from Banker Clark, but now Mayor Armstrong and her Paultry, City Treasurer, are in on the score. And being politicians either or both the mayor and the treasurer will leak the dire news to political and/or journalist friends. And, naturally, the diggers and dirt-slingers, such as Wendy Wichel, will spread the sordid and scary news far and wide; Tracyville may be headed to a financial panic. Tracy and the MCU will have to be at their best, or Armstrong, not much liking Tracy and team to begin with, will be strong-arming them!