Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for September 22, 2024

Maybe their problem is that they really needed to beat someone up.

You should’ve stashed the cash before you gave them the answer, Rat.

Rat has the talent to benefit from other people’s anxieties. It’s a grift.

They found out Lucy Van Pelt only charges 5 cents!

Like the CALVIN & HOBBES episode where Calvin was peddling “Life: 5 cents.” Suzie: “Here’s my nickel. What do I get?” Calvin: “Nothing. I just ripped you off…. That’s life!” (Calvin got bashed too.)

For once, Rat is on the receiving end.

Always good to see that once in a while rat gets just what he deserves (just like Hyacinth Bucket oughtta).

Rat has discovered that truth hurts!

Rat shoulda advertised One Weird Trick To Solves All Yours Problems.

Another answer: Don’t trust somebody to be President who has bankrupted every company he started. (yes, that had to be said)

Surprising. I never took Rat to be a Democrat before this.

In a divided political year, beating up a Rat is something everybody can agree on!

Shortly after Election Day… maybe….

Giving your money to rat, would be as ignorant as giving your money to a “billionaire”.

You seem to have been persuaded to provide full and complete refunds to them all, Rat.

Rat, the dictum is “take the money and run”, not “take the money and tell people they’ve been taken.”

Rat needs to polish his grifting skills. He first must convince folks he’s one of them by making speeches that play upon their emotions and victimhood. Next, he’s then convinces them, through nefarious means, that if they give Rat money, he can make things better for them, because nobody understands these folks like Rat and nobody can fix things except Rat. By then the hard core believers will excuse anything Rat does because they’re convinced Rat is fighting for them.

Time to kick a rip-off artist in the shin!

That’s what you get for being so brutally honest, Rat.

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

That’s what Rat gets for trying to fleece the public again.

Particularly with no real support or ideas for doing so except to blame Climate Change and Donald Trump and then cackle. God Bless America!

What about the answer to your math problems?

This reminds me of the old gag/scam that some people allegedly pulled in the classified ads they used to put in the back of some pulp magazines. The ad would say “Make big money from classified ads! Send $1 to this address to find out how!”. If you sent the dollar to the address, they’d send a note telling you to take out an identical ad, but with your address instead of theirs.