Cartoon Saturday

The election is over. And in other bad news ...

The GOP crushed the Democratic party in the midterm elections*, then raised the bar for political hypocrisy by demanding that the President cooperate with them ... something they had themselves previously and adamantly refused to do; Naturalist Paul Rosolie announced plans to be eaten by an anaconda on a Discovery Channel special called - appropriately enough - "Eaten Alive;" President Obama has announced plans to send 1,500 troops to Iraq to train Iraqi and Kurdish troops to fight the forces of the so-called "Islamic State" ... one hopes they'll try to train different Iraqis than we tried to train the last time, because we know how well that worked out; the Army has apologized for offending anyone by using the word "Negro" in some of its documents to refer to black troops ... someone should probably tell the United Negro College Fund; and according to the Mexican attorney general, the 43 students who disappeared in southern Mexico in September were abducted by police on order of a local mayor, and then turned over to a gang that killed them and burned their bodies before throwing the remains in a river.

The world is crazy. It's a good thing we still have the cartoons to help keep us sane.

One of the things the extreme right wing of the GOP wants to do now that it's in power is get rid of a lot of government agencies they don't like ... such as the IRS**. In honor of that beleaguered agency, our theme cartoons today deal with taxes - the topic everyone loves to hate.

One reason everyone hates the IRS is its power to levy huge fees and penalties for the smallest of infractions ...

Nothing is certain in this world except death and taxes, so why not make it simpler ...

Robin Hood meets the tax man ...

The huffing and puffing comes later ...

This is why I pay Pat at H&R Block to worry about all that for me ...

I wonder what line on the old 1040 "wishes" are supposed to be listed on ...

Turning to other topics, we have a twist on the old two-guys-lost-in-the-burning-desert gag ...

I vote for this approach ... 

This one is for my friend Marilyn ... she'll understand ...

And finally, we have some truth in fairy tales ...

And so it goes for another week, the first in November. Thanksgiving is coming up fast, and Christmas soon after that ... and then you'll have a whole new year to worry about. Oy.

As for this weekend, it's going to be very fall-like here in NoVa, with temperatures in the mid-50s and breezy conditions, but at least there's no rain in the forecast, which will help us get rid of some of the leaves that the wind has piled up to the second floor windows. I can hardly wait to get out there and start raking. Not.

Have a good day and a great weekend. See you back here tomorrow for Poetry Sunday.

Bilbo

* Greatly assisted by the strong support of people who are afraid, don't always think things through, and steadfastly vote against their own best interests ... 

** I believe the equivalent for my UK readers is "Inland Revenue," and for my German readers, it's the "Finanzamt." A rose by any other name ...