thefuuuucomics:

by iamderp

i always wanted to do this #istilldo

The IRS should waive the 10% early withdrawal penalty on the use of Traditional and Roth IRA funds for cases of chronic unemployment and under-employment until the economy reaches a recovery level (suggested here at 6% unemployment for 12 month rolling period) where saving for retirement can continue again.  Ideally, this waiver should have started in 2008 or 2009 to be fair to all US citizens impacted by the financial crisis, but it should at least start with the 2011 tax filing.

US unemployment and under-employment is estimated at 15-16% of the workforce or approximately 23 million US citizens based on current Census and Bureau of Labor statistics.  Since those filing for unemployment benefits is currently estimated at 3% this leaves roughly 13% or nearly 19 million individuals who while trying to meet their current expenses are going into debt, selling all possessions, finding other unconventional resources, retirement resources or with all that failing becoming homeless and falling to reliance on charity.  If any of these 19 million individuals are using their retirement funds to meet expenses and are under the age of 59 1/2, they are required by the IRS to pay a penalty of 10% on early withdrawal.  This penalty is an unnecessary artifact of a time when the government believed these funds could accumulate tax-free for future use and represented a possible tax loophole.  Under current conditions, when the government is looking for easy ways to assist US citizens under financial stress, this is one simple fix to the tax code to assist.  It is important to note that due to the financial markets sustaining multiple episodes of stock market and securities losses since 2000, many of these IRA accounts have been and are experiencing losses.  Some have lost as much as 100% of their accounts.  With the current volatility in the market, it is not certain that funds will be available for future retirement purposes.  Withdrawing funds that remain in these accounts from the financial markets could be a better use than gambling on the current market instability.

for more discussion and explanation see THIS and please consider signing the petition HERE

Troian Bellisario and Olivia Wilde by Photographer Andrey Korotich

sharonvanetten:

She Keeps Bees & Sharon Van Etten - Cuddle Alone

At Monday’s 352nd Republican presidential debate, the remaining candidates for the GOP Presidential nomination tackled the tough issues, like whether or not felons should be allowed to vote and what in the sam hill is going on with black people being poor all the time.

thedailywhat:

Internet Blackout of the Day: The Great Wikipedia Blackout of 2012 has begun.

Reddit, TwitPic, Mozilla, Mojang, and thousands of others will soon follow suit. The Internet is officially on strike! Why? Because the House and Senate are conspiring with the entertainment industry to break the Internet.

Make no mistake: SOPA has not been shelved. And a vote on PIPA is just around the corner. Luckily, hundreds of companies, charities, and notable individuals with strong moral character have joined forces to stop these dangerous Big Brother bills from moving forward.

The fight is far from over, but hopefully today’s blackout will help bring this important matter to the attention of folks who rely on the Internet for entertainment and education, but have so far remained oblivious to SOPA and PIPA and their harmful consequences.

Do your part. Take action. Stop SOPA and PIPA and put an end to threat of Internet censorship.

If you absolutely must scab, here are a few useful links: 

• Five ways to survive the Wikipedia Blackout.

• Wikipedia Blackout: Survive with these 12 alternatives.

• #altwiki: A collaborative crowd-sourcing alternative to Wikipedia.

• How to access Wikipedia during the blackout.

[wikipedia.]

sinidentidades:

Dylan Ratigan: Racism was rebranded ‘the war on drugs’

MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan on Monday highlighted the concerning racial disparities that existed within America’s war against illegal drugs.

“Our big story on this Martin Luther King holiday is the new math of racism in America,” he said. “The greedy bastards have rebranded racism, calling it ‘the war on drugs.’ They’ve made it both acceptable and profitable. While the concerns of racism from the 1950s and 60s have improved in this country, if you look at the numbers the war on drugs has become a racist war.”

He noted that African Americans are ten times more likely than white Americans to be imprisoned for the same drug charges. He also noted there were more African Americans in prison or on probation today than there were slaves in America before the civil war.

Dylan added that American taxpayers spent $74 billion on prisons in 2007, with a growing percentage of that money going to private prisons.

“And yes, publicly traded for profit prison companies exist,” he said. “These companies have massive political and lobbying wings to keep the war on drugs alive, as they also happen to use the very prisoners as cheap labor.”

pencil-crayons:

In 1996, Tracey Emin lived in a locked room in a gallery for fourteen days, with nothing but a lot of empty canvases and art materials, in an attempt to reconcile herself with paintings. Viewed through a series of wide-angle lenses embedded in the walls, Emin could be watched, stark naked, shaking off her painting demons. Starting by making images like the artists she really admired (i.e. Egon Schiele, Edvard Munch, Yves Klein), Emin’s two-week art-therapy session resulted in a massive outpouring of autobiographical images, and the discovery of a style all her own. The room was extracted in its entirety, and now exists as an installation work.

mswyrr:

…is that he’s a domestic violence committing, female co-star intimidating asshole. You can read the details of what he did to his female partner at the link. Regarding his treatment of female costars: Kiera Knightly didn’t want him spanking her during one of their scenes in a…

ryanlintelman:

nprmusic:

‘Why?’: Remembering Nina Simone’s Tribute To The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Three days after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, performer Nina Simone and her band played at the Westbury Music Festival on Long Island, N.Y. They performed “Why? (The King of Love is Dead),” a song they had just learned, written by their bass player Gene Taylor in reaction to King’s death.

How is it I never heard this song until today? I think every American History course covering the 1960s should include it as required reading.

noapologiesregrets:

Omfg