Tomorrow is April 15. It’s s double-whammy this year. Not only is it tax filing day, but it’s also the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. It’s easy to understand why I just want to crawl back in bed and pull the covers over my head.
This year, I got my taxes done early. Unfortunately, I owe the IRS a lot of money. The reason why is might surprise you. Due to financial hardship, I had to take my savings out of my IRA. Obviously, I saved that money fully intending to use it after I retired. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always work out as we plan.
When I withdrew the money, I made sure to set aside enough to pay the taxes, but didn’t think I’d get hit with a penalty. Boy was I wrong! Apparently, no such protections were ever put in place for us mere peasants after the 2008 financial crisis. So I’m looking at a $5750 penalty for taking my own money out of my own savings because we needed that money to pay the mortgage on this house that’s devastatingly underwater and for which we can’t get a loan modification because of lack of a steady income.
Welcome to Monday!
If you think you know what happened last year at the Boston marathon finish line, think again. Really. Think about the corporate mainstream media coverage of any big news story and consider how much of it is true, and how much of it is propaganda from either a government source or corporate influence.
Then head over to WhoWhatWhy.org, and read their coverage, and you’ll realize that there are at least enough inconsistencies in the official story we’ve been told to make you doubt everything. Russ Baker joined me on the show this morning to make us aware of some of the big question marks.
If it’s Monday, it’s Fools on the Hill© with Nicole Belle of Crooks & Liars (for one more week, any way) who brings us this:
I’m just going to put it out there bluntly: Republicans are delusional.
Tom Friedman actually thinks it would be a good thing for Putin to cut off gas and energy supplies to Europe. Hell, he thinks it such a good idea that he’ll even front Ukraine their electric bill. Because for an area on the precipice of all-out war and massive violence, having Putin withhold needed power would be taken really really well.
Marcia Blackburn, who appears to be vying with Michele Bachmann for cluelessness, insists that the party of the mandatory transvaginal ultrasound has led the fight for women’s equality.
Mark McKinnon, who is so ashamed of being a Republican that he’s re-dubbed himself a Third Way advisor, insists that there’s still a great deal of good will about the Bush family name. Uh huh.
George Will thinks that President Obama and AG Eric Holder suffer from a “race card” Tourette’s syndrome. Because the old white guy who never forgets that the President is black is the perfect person to judge who may or may not play the race card.
And Rand Paul has to be the least brave person hoping you’ll vote for him in 2016. He won’t even admit to what he’s been caught on tape saying.
And finally, this weekend was the 2nd annual Tortuga Music Festival, put together and benefiting the Rock the Ocean foundation. Although this year’s lineup was a little too country for my tastes, Ziggy Marley and Delta Rae’s performances were the highlights of my Saturday!
Ziggy made his dad’s fans proud with his renditions of “Is It Love?” and “Get Up Stand Up” while the country music fans who wandered over for some reggae seemed confused about what we were standing up for.
And Delta Rae blew me away. See why:
