Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for February 14, 2016

Mr. Moneybags is just exercising his first amendment right of freedom of speech.

Beat Rat up within an inch of his misbegotten life.

Using this logic, you could shoot someone and then say that you’re innocent — the bullet did the killing, not you.

We had campaign finance reform before it was killed by the right wing elements of the Supreme Court and the GOP. Money isn’t free speech. Money is money.

Rat’s too on the mark here. And if there had been another panel in this instance I’m betting Goat would say “You’re right, maybe we should repair the system.”

Today’s strip has me hearing this song, particularly a specific line in the second verse.

Jeb! will fix it!

@elisem4. You got it backasswards. The NRA logic is that it is the fault of the person who pulled the trigger. It is the anti-gun nuts view that the bullet (gun) is responsible for killing someone so we should get rid of all guns everywhere regardless of how responsible the owner of the gun may be.

The trick is to get around the Constitution enough to have enough power to make it worth selling.

As long as campaign finance laws are written by incumbent politicians, they’ll only accomplish two things:

1) Protect the incumbents. Turnover in Congress is now far less than it was before they passed the first campaign finance laws.

2) Define how to legally accept bribes.

I’m surprised the stefan didn’t make a valentines comic, I’m glad he didn’t though

it is indeed fixed.

Or grossly overpay someone “speaking” fees. That’s bribery.

(See ‘way above) Mmmm. I’m pretty sure the bullet and the gunpowder had a common agenda. I smell conspiracy!!

I think Stephen Pastis is “Feeling the Bern!”

The reason this occurs is that businesses cannot voteso how else can their concerns be addressed

And this only happens here? Welcome to human nature, which can’t be legislated.

Trump is the first to self-finance, so he is not indebted to billionaire donors, special interest groups and lobbyists.

Well, to be stickler, you can’t give the senator the money for a superPAC. They are prohibited ftom coordinating with pacs, which is why JEB? Waited so long to become a “candidate”, so he could get it set up and know who gave what, and what they wanted, before officially declaring. Although he had said he was running, but we can ignore that.

The cure for getting money out of politics is to eliminate bureaucrat control over the economy. But the uneducated believe – one cannot truly use “think” here – a better solution is less freedom, more laws. No regulator is cost-effective; that sentence is true with any inflection..

In more sensible countries, the donation would be to the senator HIMSELF, not to a PAC. What sets this country apart is that we are deeply committed to the idea of democracy, but at the same time we believe (on the basis of good evidence) that voters are morons who will pretty much elect whoever spends the most money on campaign ads. Of course, if voter are really that stupid, democracy is fundamentally broken and simply cannot work.

We really do need a political revolution in this country. Electing Bernie Sanders as our next president would be a great start, but if we do, a lot of people are going to be just like Pig here and say “the problem is fixed!”

We can’t let that happen; we need to keep the pressure up on every level of government by voting out the corrupt and voting in candidates who speak for the people, not corporations and not the 1%.

Easier said than done, I know, but if we don’t at least try then we can never succeed. We have to start by trying.

or you could donate to my “Global Foundation”

Rat pronounced it wrong. it’s pronounced “Goobermint”

If I had a million, I’d pay for funnier strips :)

I live for the days that Stephan actually gets it

It was both branches of the Money Party. Are you familiar with the Citizen’s United decision? It was made by a conservative Supreme Court.

Thank you Citizens United

Sorry, Can you repeat that, Pig? I didn’t hear it the first time!

xxx

nail on the head, Mr. Miller, nail on the head.

The best strip today. Punning taken to extraordinary heights. Very funny, yet sad at the same time.

Kudos, Stephen! Keep’em coming.

Bravo, Pastis, well done. Thank you!

Excellent, The strip is now on my frig,

i believe i do, i believe it’s true,i believe exactly what they tell me to…tom paxton

First I laughed, then I cried. The truth always hurts!

Stephan, you are a genius!. Unfortunately, looking at the comments suffering from Intellectual Myopia, you don’t have a chance in hell to be recognized as a genius.

Life is tough! It must be lonely at the top. I can only guess!

Guns don’t kill people. Bullets kill people. Ban bullets.

Succinct, perfect!

Well, of course the system is fixed, Pig. Greased, you might say. That’s why we have so many professional, lifelong politicians and need term limits!

It is now a government by the lobbiest, for the lobbiest

Who can fix this for us.

Maybe someone with a lot of money?

Business as usual in little Rhode Island.

The big government types assume all bills that come out of congress are good and accomplish what was intended. If it is bad and make things worse or more expensive it should be killed.

I will give my senator a crushed donut as Pig did. Is that illegal?

Goat may be the educated one, but Rat knows how the system really works

Good. It’s probably better that it doesn’t reproduce.