A national supermarket chain has its own foundation and sometimes runs fund rallies for it, which they collect through their store front.

What I stated comes from an explanation I was once given by an accountant. It works (or worked, hopefully) like that here, Portugal.

I don’t doubt your word. I paraphrased the explanation an accountant in my country (Portugal) gave me. It may work differently in other places and I sincerely hope so.

I stand corrected.

Never used it for personal ends. But I’m curious to see if all the companies using as a work tool will divert from it.

Signal.

And IF I learn how to run Jammi, it will be my default communication application.

Only in America.

No ballots, not the problem for the voter. If the voter wants to vote, get them a ballot, even if you have to order a transfer.

My country is on the fast lane for fascism as well but we still follow electoral law.

I wasn’t going to comment initially but, thinking again, I will.

According to what I was once explained, the scheme runs like this.

a) organization X starts a fund raising campaign

This alone can be deducted as an expense, as any amount of hours can be attributed to planning, preparing, etc, the entire thing.

As this time as no profitable end, it can be deducted.

b) You donate. But now it’s their money.

Your money is siphoned to a separate bank account or just tallied and earmarked as for charitable purpouses but this does not mean the entity needs to hand it over immediatly.

That money is held within the company’s vaults, figure of expression, and, as such, counts towards the overall financial assets of the company.

It still needs to be handed to the end recipient but until it does it can be used to leverage loans and be invested into short term investment products, like overnight deposits (with hundreds of thousands or even millions it does gain interest overnight).

c) the money gets donated eventually but not by you

Eventually, all that money gets handed over but it is now their money, not yours. And as such, they get the tax deduction. And, again, with hundreds of thousands to millions in donations, the deduction gets very high.

This deduction, on your expense, goes towards clearing more of their profits.

Want to do something good?

Volunteer. Help your neighbour. With your own efforts, actions and work. Don’t hand over money.

Hate eats away your soul.

I would like to use a different expression but I lack one at the moment.

Stupid, despicable, divisive, angry individuals are plentiful. Small minds that feel empowered through anonimity and the sense of security coming from attacking other from their own space.

I don’t need to tolerate them but you also don’t need to allow their vitriole to poison your mind and sap your well being. It is not worth it.

Have a nice one. Good to hear from you.

You do you. Have a nice day.

Is my poor domain of the english language that is most concerning to you? I’ll be losing my sleep, tonight.

I’m bothered with all the people abusing her consent.

Start by your own privacy.

I boarded that train about twenty years ago. I tried the evangelizing route. I failed miserably. Which led me to care for myself first and foremost.

I started by abandoning Windows. Not of my own volition; I bought a computer that had no OS. Enter Linux. None of my family, friends or acquaintances understood. It was all about the convinience. When my machines started outperforming while outliving theirs, it caused a ripple.

Then came the usual slew of questions: where can I get a free anti-virus, office, media reader, whatever? That was when I introduced FOSS. After the initial resistance, things just settled into place. LibreOffice works. VLC works. PeaZip works. Thunderbird works. Etc.

When smartphones became a thing, I started moving as fast as I could towards FOSS. This made things a bit more laughable as “free” android applications are ubiquous. But they fill your phone with junk and ads. While my apps provided me ease of use, safety, security and privacy.

But when push came to shove, I just refused to join. First I left FBMessenger. I never boarded Whatsapp. I never entered Instagram or any major social networks. I discovered Signal and remained there.

It’s my way or no way.

I’m not advocating for generalized violence. My original remark wasn’t about that.

I’m not pointing fingers at the woman.

What I am trying to convey is that the men taking part in whatever that was never stopped to consider they were enabling and enacting harm on another human being.

And that could be prevented, if any person could recognize the wrong in the situation. Something which, apparently, missed everyone.

Just because it’s legal, doesn’t make correct.

The same way, many of the dangerous and/or disgusting things some individuals are into are considered a disturb.

Following that, and remembering the spirit of my original reply, that by now has been removed, I would strongly - very strongly - disincentivize any friend or acquaintance if they told me they considered either taking part or were indifferent to the outcome of such a stunt. It would be one of those friendship ending situation.

This is a calous indiference to human suffering and an easily preventable and avoidable one. And exploitation of it. Which is extremely sad. It is a telling sign of the times we live in.

I am. And the very sad conclusion I’m forced to draw is that most people don’t care enough about others to prevent unnecessary and easily preventable suffering.

Like the case at hand.

The woman ended in a hospital. Maybe - just maybe! - the men participating in the stunt should had stopped for a fraction of a second to think if they were enabling and causing unnecessary suffering.

Maybe.

I might be wrong.

It is, isn’t?

Let me concern about the outcome of my actions.

Removed by mod

I, you, we and thou.

As in:

“What am I doing?!”

“You’re getting older, not younger.”

“Let’s not do this again.”

“Thou have lost the little bit of reasoning you had left.”

And it scares people.

Unfortunately, stupid heartless people are a dime a dozen.

A couple that lived near me had a little thai cat, a sweet of an animal. They would let the cat out daily.

At some point, they just decided to leave the country and abandoned the cat.

The creature became the neighbourhood boss. Killed several males in fights, some even larger, fought off dogs, became a ferouscious hunter and never agaim entered a house.

That cat was king of the street for three years until one of his own blood dethrowned him.