robindch wrote: » Off the top of my head - the designation "non-profit" just means that surplus cash at the end of the year doesn't go to shareholders/directors/partners etc, but must be reinvested back into whatever it is that the organization does - whether it's a sports + social club, an apartment-management company, or a church and so on. A non-profit can apply for tax-exempt status in which case, it's got to work in a small number of areas which the US considers "charitable", which list includes religion, but there are dozens more too. Tax-exempt means that the organization doesn't pay things like sales tax (VAT here) or property taxes (LPT here), though they do pay payroll taxes (PRSI and income tax here). Where the organization is designated charitable - that's 501(3)(c) organizations in the US - then donations to the organization are tax-exempt on the donor's side. There are similar designations here in Ireland, though here, if the donation is more than €250, then the receiving charity can claim back the tax that you would have paid on that - this is why, for example, schools look for donations of more than €250.https://www.revenue.ie/en/companies-and-charities/charities-and-sports-bodies/charitable-donation-scheme/index.aspx
robindch wrote: » As the votes continue to dribble in, hopefully leading to a victory for Biden, let's take a moment to appreciate the special talents of Paula White, the lady tasked with being Trump's "Spiritual Advisor":
Nathan Poe's gonna have a hard time getting to sleep this evening when he learns that 60% of the people "auditing" the results from Arizona in the 2020 US presidential election have - unfortunately - come down with Covid-19.
The sad news was announced a short while ago by the President of the Arizona Senate, a Republican named Fann, first name Karen.
^^
Really important post. Vanilla sent me about 20 notifications for it!
I only got the four, still guess it must be a bit important! :)
Feeling very left out - didn't get a single notification!
I got 6.
Just saying like.
I got one for this. 😁
I've just received three.
This new version of boards is very strange indeed.
I got none for this.
It's existence was a complete surprise.
This doesn't really belong in "Funnies"...
Republican congressional candidate, Van Taylor, seems to have misinterpreted US policy to f*ck ISIS, and has withdrawn his candidacy, following revelations that he had a nine-month affair with Tania Joya, the ex-wife of an ISIS terrorist.
Mr Taylor's website continues to describe him as "a family man", without appearing to specify which family he's referring to.
https://www.vantaylor.com/about/
A meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy was suspended twice after a Senator was accused of being “disrespectful” towards witnesses.
Independent Senator Sharon Keogan told the witnesses that she “wholeheartedly objects to the commercialisation of the human child and the relegation of women to the status of simply incubator or wombs for hire irrespective of whether you are heterosexual, single, lesbian gay or trans”.
“Surrogacy I believe is harmful, it is exploitative and it is unethical. I don’t believe it is everyone’s right to have a child. It is a privilege to give birth and it can be dangerous even to those with the best medical attention.”
She said she did not want to see the birth mother “airbrushed” or “whitewashed” out of the process.
Elaine Cohalan, chairperson of the Assisted Human Reproduction Coalition, said committee members had a responsibility to lead the debate in a “dignified way”.
“Inflammatory language and using undefined terms don’t benefit the debate. Our members are ordinary people who have been in some cases through harrowing experiences. We are Irish citizens, your constituents, you are our representatives.”
Ciara Merrigan, a representative of Irish Families Through Surrogacy, said she talks to her children every day about their surrogate mother. “We honour her every day. She is part of our lives.” She said Ms Keogan’s comments could be “slightly insulting to me and to my colleagues”.
Senator Lynn Ruane said it took an emotional toll for the witnesses to tell their story.
“Outright opposing something because of a personal bigotry or belief is not critically engaging with a topic,” she said.
Ms Funchion said she would have to suspend the meeting despite the fact people had waited a long time for it to happen. She told Ms Keogan “you know yourself you have been disrespectful at times over the last number of meetings”.
Ms Keogan told Mr Gearoid Kenny Moore, the representative for Irish Gay Dads, “Gearoid, you are extremely lucky to be here today. You don’t know how lucky you are to be here today. I’ll tell you why.”
The meeting was then suspended.
After it was resumed, Ms Keogan said she wanted to finish her statement and she said there was a different group with 1,500 followers who wanted to appear but the “committee would not allow them...so when I made that comment, I was saying how lucky you are.”
Ms Keogan said she did not believe she had to apologise and believed she was the subject of “vicious personal attacks”. She was asked to leave and the meeting was again suspended.
Keogan made national headlines in January 2020, after she posted on her Facebook account asking whether disabled children should be microchipped following the death of Nóra Quoirin in Malaysia.
In September 2021 Keogan was criticised after she stated that there is "an organised takeover at every level in our society" by the LGBT community in response to the Katherine Zappone Affair. Keogan went on to indicate that she believed that "governments around the world" are trying to "catapult" LGBT people into high-level jobs. Former Leas-Chathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann Jerry Buttimer responded that "She is entitled to her own opinions but she can also be asked to explain herself and to be challenged" and criticised her statement as suggesting there is some kind of on-going conspiracy and for echoing far-right sentiments. The Meath branches of the Social Democrats and People before Profit also issued statements condemning Keogan's assertations, with the Meath-based President of Ógra Fianna Fáil Bryan Mallon stated that Keogh had looked at ZapponeGate and had “added 2 + 2 together and got 5, ridiculously using it as an opportunity to dismiss the issues that members of the LGBTQIA+ community suffer daily, not least fair representation in government". In a statement given to The Times, Keogan claimed she had "an established record in supporting and participating in LGBT education programmes within my community" but was "opposed to governments, whether the Biden administration or the Irish government, appointing personnel based on their sexual orientation".
Where do they get these people?
Christian fascism is coming on by leaps and bounds in the US - main thing to note here is the declaration that each branch of government must comply with the religion, and their blank assertion that they have the right to enforce it. No immediate sign that anybody is enforcing this right just now, but it can only a matter of time before some new slackjaw hick picks up a gun and starts shooting people to enforce this political view.
Wrote too soon - with a motive yet to be fully clarified, seems hammers might be the weapon of choice:
As normal people abandon religion in their droves, only the nutcases are left.
Given that this attacker was in the act of committing assault with a deadly weapon while the police arrived and he was not shot, I am presuming he is white!
I am presuming he is white!
White as the driven snow, your honor, and an antisemitic, qanon nutcase to boot:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/28/politics/pelosi-attack-suspect-conspiracy-theories-invs/index.html
According to CNN, conspiracy may run in the family:
“I really don’t know what to think,” the suspect’s uncle, Mark DePape, said of his nephew’s alleged attack on Pelosi. “Hopefully it’s a scam.”
Depressing stuff.
I can't help but feel that a significant chunk of the US media and political establishment badly needs some basic civics lessons.
Lesson 1: the First Amendment says that Congress can't make it illegal for you to laugh about an 82-year-old man being viciously attacked with a hammer. It doesn't mean that people aren't allowed to call you a dick for doing so.
the First Amendment says that Congress can't make it illegal for you to laugh about an 82-year-old man being viciously attacked with a hammer. It doesn't mean that people aren't allowed to call you a dick for doing so.
It's the usual "all rights and no responsibilities" schtick - perhaps call it "consequence-free speech"?
In a change from our usual programming, we learn here of one George Santos, an openly gay US Republican who forgot to come out with the fact that he was once married to a person of the female persuasion.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/openly-gay-rep-elect-george-santos-didnt-disclose-divorce-with-woman
[...] according to court records obtained by The Daily Beast, Santos appears to be the subject of a previously unacknowledged Sept. 2019 divorce with a woman in Queens County, New York. The divorce — which Santos has not discussed publicly — adds new uncertainty to his already shaky biographical and political claims. Less than two weeks after his divorce was finalized, Santos filed the official paperwork to launch his 2020 campaign. And while his 2022 campaign bio mentions his husband, who according to Santos lives with him and their four dogs on Long Island, he’s kept this previous marriage out of the public eye entirely.
