As Michael Goodspeed of thunderbolts.info points out, you can't have a magnetic field without an electric current. The term "magnetic rope" reveals a deep confusion on the part of astronomers. Magnetic fields by themselves cannot have a beginning and end, but those induced from electric current can. In other words, "magnetic ropes" don't just form out of nothing; they suggest a vortex of moving electric charge - in this case between the Earth and the Sun.

Now McCanney discusses the sunward spike of comets in a similar way and posits that these visible spikes are due to electric charge moving from the Sun towards the comet. This sounds like another example of "magnetic ropes" to me, but McCanney refers to it as "discharging the Solar Capacitor." And likely all planets discharge the Solar Capacitor or remain connected via magnetic ropes (pick your favorite), but comets appear to be a much more visible display of this process.

It's not just magnetic ropes connecting the planets, comets, and other large objects to the Sun, there's also what occurs in the opposite direction too. Comets have an obvious plasma 'tail', and planets have a plasma 'tail' too, it's just that in the planet's case the 'tail' is invisible. Every planet has what is referred to as a magnetotail. According to Wikipedia:

A magnetic tail or magnetotail is formed by pressure from the solar wind on a planet's magnetosphere. The magnetotail can extend great distances away from its originating planet. Earth's magnetic tail extends at least 200 Earth radii in the anti-sunward direction well beyond the orbit of the Moon at about 60 Earth radii, while Jupiter's magnetic tail extends beyond the orbit of Saturn. On occasion Saturn is immersed inside the Jovian magnetosphere.

So these magnetotails have the potential to extend from planet to planet, and perhaps with more sensitive detection abilities we'd see them extend even further.

Scientists studying Jupiter's magnetotail made some surprising discoveries during their research. They discovered plasmoid bubbles traveling through Jupiter's magnetotail in the direction of the solar wind. They also discovered that unlike Earth's magnetotail, Jupiter's is surprisingly structured with clear boundaries consisting of differing plasma density. They also noted intermittent extensions of Earth's magnetotail where it would suddenly jump out to around 1000 Earth radii, extending much further than what the above Wikipedia quote describes. There's clearly some interesting things going on behind the planets as they travel around the Sun.

© Science
Shows a cross section of plasmoid bubbles traveling down Jupiter's magnetotail.

So if we combine the magnetic ropes with the magnetotail, it appears that planets and comets are like electrical conduits for moving charge from the Sun to the outer-reaches of the Solar System - an electrical pathway, or wire, of sorts. Remember, according to the NASA article, these magnetic ropes are responsible for delivering the energy displayed during geomagnetic activity, which can sometimes equal the power of an earthquake. (Note to readers: this may be more than an analogy.)