Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for October 15, 2024

That’s one way to solve the housing crisis. With fewer people, homes with land should be cheaper.

Social Media would be sooooo much nicer if those folks were gone or at least quiet.

I can just imagine all those people taking turns yelling, “No, you’re Hitler!”

Better yet, add a door across the alley. Put the people in, close the door and walk away. Far away. Far enough so you can’t hear the cries for food, or what happens when they realize where their next meal is coming from.

Don’t forget to include the people that follow the extreme right and left nuts.

Come to think of it, does the Pied Piper handle that kind of rat also?

Didn’t trump say something like?

Sound reasoning.

The central myth of US politics is “the vital centre”!

As a non American I’m a little curious about where the line for “far left” is drawn. Mostly it seems to be what we could call “centrist.”

This is such a great idea!

Education level determines your political affiliation hence the look of sheer ignorance and ignominy by Trump supporters.

Normaltopia sounds great!

That would be an uneven fight since there are a LOT of far right wingers….

But, if you throw all the people from the far right and far left into the alley, who will be president?

We can dream, can’t we?

Don’t make this political, or the GoComics nanny will chastise you.

For once I agree with Rat

Actually, it’s the Far Right and all the rest of Normaltopia versus the LeftoMarxoGlobalists that want to complete the “fundamental change” of America into part of some tyrannical planetwide collectivism, with unchecked centralized power squashing individual liberty and self determination.

At least Rat included Goat in this vision.

Pay-per-view for the extremists cage matches?

Love the Jaws reference!

I’m sorry, I didn’t get it… who in the US far left is as toxic as the regular facers of the mainstream right? Including those on the presidential ticket?

WEAK-A$$ FALSE EQUIVALENCY ALERT!!!!!!

Extremism may be wrecking our sensibilities. It is on both ends of the political spectrum. Compromise seems harder to come by. The media sucks it up and spits it all out at us. Things are not likely to settle down any time soon. So, what to do? Each of us can settle down as best we can, vote, and get on with our lives… as best we can.

This is a pretty bad take. What is considered “far left” in this country is pretty mainstream in most of the world.

According to the media, anyone who is not on board as a leftist is “FAR” right.

How about we just build a huge mental institution in every state and put them in it.

Take out all of the people on The Right and it would be a Peaceful Protest with arson, assaults, looting, shootings and all the other fun stuff blaming it on The Right. God Bless America!

Rat and The Count and other Right Wing American Patriots would be in Normaltopia. No Commies allowed. God Bless America!

That’s not a bad idea.

this is sounding better and better…

The strip brought out some potential alley dwellers, I see.

In the same way that one definition of an alcoholic is ‘someone who drinks more than you do’ … the loony left would be all those with more liberal opinions and the wacko rightwing nutjobs would be those with more conservative views. So ‘outside the alley’ is going to be an awfully lonely place.

Anybody remember Al Capp? Li’l Abner?

In one weekend strip General Bullmoose had the more obstreperous world leaders brought together on a desert island to work out their differences. The general, of course, insisted these fine world statesmen be unarmed.

On the island, one leader pulled out a knife to ensure his “perfectly reasonable propositions” were accepted by all. Another leader drew his pistol. A third carried a rifle. Then a bazooka ………………

The strip ended with a nuclear explosion erasing the island from existence.

Sorry- but the ‘extreme left’ wants food, housing, medical care, and shelter for everyone. The ‘extreme right’ wants an ethnically pure white Christo-fascist state. They are not equivalent.

This actually sounds like a good idea, although a third part up-the-middle would be just as good.

Except there hasn’t been a functional left, let alone a “far” left, in US politics since the 1930s.

We’d be much better off if there were.

Don’t downplay allies. As Kurt Vonnegut said, Chicago is a better city than New York, because it has allies – and thus the sidewalks aren’t constantly blocked by delivery trucks and piles of garbage.

I immediately flashed on the marching band in Animal House.

The far right has completely taken over a party. The far left is a fringe that hates both candidates.

Another BM from the king of false equivalency.

I would support that!!! VOTE RAT FOR FOREVER!!!

You could blame 90% of the worlds’ problems on one thing, Too. Many. People.

It wouldn’t be a fair fight, one side wouldn’t know how to use sticks

Amen!

Sounds like a good plan, Rat.

“We’re gonna need a bigger alley” … The Marianas trench should suffice.

There are so few far left people they would be murdered in the first few minutes by the right and we would still have to deal with the far right.

I miss the humorous comics he used to do.

Given another month and all this tension will die down. People will go about their business and all will be normal…

…Then again, we could be facing civil war if one side politically doesn’t win. Which side that is, don’t ask me. People out there will be full of sour grapes and have had enough with the way things are. They’ll want to just nuke and repave the country to start over.

It’s a nice thought, but “the far right” seems to include anybody who doesn’t want to go along with no limits on or regulation of abortion, teachers teaching all kinds of things to kids without their parents’ consent or knowledge and even likewise “helping” kids make drastic life-changing decisions (with medical treatments), letting people who came from foreign countries without going through proper channels have driver’s licenses, vote and have all the other benefits of citizens, forcing auto companies to make a drastic switch to EVs, shooting Trump and a few members of the Supreme Court… okay, those last two might not be on the list.

The political thinking of this strip is getting dully repetitive and juvenile—the latter term may be a compliment.

What “far left?”

If you can’t find a big enough alley, put them all on a huge cruise ship, and name it the Bipartisan Ship.

As for me, I choose Ally Sheedy.

Sure, that’s what we need-More Violence-Civil War!Not funny, Pastis.

The far left is the Communist Party USA.

The far right is MAGA.

if only

Strong evidence here that politics turns brains into goo….

Trump says he’s going to send the National Guard and maybe the Army after the “far-left lunatics” he doesn’t like. He also wants the police to be exempt from prosecution for attacking people and wants them to have “one violent hour” in which they could get rid of the people they don’t like.

Take that, all those who assume Rat is far right in any way. He just wants “Normal” like the rest of us. And I think he has a great idea. Both of these fringe groups get waaay too much airtime. We need to get back to the center and stop fighting amongst ourselves as a nation.

FWIW the Left lost the electoral college accounting while winning the popular vote in two recent elections but did not try to overturn those elections. But it was the Right who acted in a violent manner to overturn the election of 2020, having lost both the popular vote and the electoral college vote.

Interesting how most all of the comments here went off about housing prices and availability. As I read this, only 2 people out of dozens have commented on the comic strip theme, a sentiment which I wholeheartedly agree with. I just finished my mail-in ballot. I voted for local offices and issues. For the first time ever, I did not vote for president. If the extremists in this country are going to run their respective parties and decide which idiot will be their choice, I want to be able to say I had nothing to do with it.

Actually I think both-sides-itis is very close to the heart of our problems. Let’s stop with the false equivalency that normalizes creeping fascism.

Sure, because it’s really a “both sides” kind of problem. Sure.

Hot dog! Rats idea could be a real profit maker! Weapons makers could try out new equipment, health insurers could jack up prices and make a bundle. We could get gang bosses to do commentaries like baseball and football stars….this could be huge!

The Democrats aren’t moving to the left, they’re just moving the the right slower than the Republicans.

Divide and conquer

reddit.Com/r/goodboomerhumor/comments/1d5zzjb/how_politics_works/

GoComics would be a great place to start culling. The screechers are pretty easy to identify.

The far right Republican/conservatives have managed so far to align 23 states for a constitutional convention. Constitutional conventions are held to make new constitutions. Until the majority number is reached to have the convention, far right Republican/conservatives attack, restrict, use trickery and take away rights we have now. Project 2025 is the blueprint for conservatives to overthrow the U.S.

But the idea of sequestering both sides in an alley to fight it out is interesting. Historically, conservatives always get someone else’s kids to fight their battles for them, never having the guts to fight themselves. conservatives opposed our independence in 1774. conservatives quit the U.S. in 1860. conservatives sent those brave boys to invade, make war and kill U.S. soldiers from 1861 to 1865. And those boys died. They manipulated the brave poor Southerners to fight for “their way of life” which was the plantation and the owner’s slave property that those brave boys would never have. Yes, put them in an alley and a fair fight. It wouldn’t take long for conservatives to quit and run again, looking for the cheating, lying, sneaky way to get their own. conservatives are the enemy of the United States of America, and have been since 1774.

it’s not very often, but every once in awhile Rat comes up with a genius idea…

Here we go with the equivalencies again…

most amusing (not so much) is how pastis didn’t have to draw any alley, aand still drew more than a hundred comments

His logic is impeccable. Only one shall remain.

Please don’t bothsides this. One group wants equality for all, the other wants privilege for a few. There’s no comparison.

If you remove the 10% farthest left and right you just change the names of the 10% farthest to the left and the right.

Fighting it out is one of the all-time WORST methods of resolving disagreements ever invented! (On 2nd thot, cancel that “one of” bit.)

Stephan, I like the way you think ♥

there is only one person in Normaltopia … me

I like it!

can i get directions to that alley, please?

About 50% are either far left or far right, who is left over?

Wasn’t this part of trumps secret project/doctrine? And I think his normaltopia is larger than it really is.

But everybody knows that the far ________ are the ones trying to save the country, and it’s other side that’s the problem

That boat has already sailed…

Wouldn’t Rat belong in the alley?

Our ballots are arriving today – for the office of president we have 10 candidates – 8 of them we’ve either never heard of, or would never consider. Two of them are really in contention (for some unfathomable reason):

D – for the Democratic Party, and the smiling lady who wants to bring joy, equality, and pride back into the United States of America.

R – for the Raving Looney Party, and the scowling, noisy, authoritarian, felonious, arrogant old fool who’s trying to stay out of prison.

OK, I know I borrowed one of those party names from the British, but it’s clearly apropos.