The prosperity gospel tradition is explicitly open about what it intends to do with its tithes.
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As someone who is both fairly pro-gun and more-or-less left-leaning: I’m real happy about this.
I’m not even sure how much of a groundswell of support the NRA will get from the usual suspects, even among the politically active pro-gun venues I read, people are pretty done with the NRA leadership, and have been for some time. See this TTAG piece about the internal class-action suit from a year ago for an example.
My annual ‘The ACLU counts “Sometimes 1, 3, 4…”’ supplementary donation on that front goes to the SAF. They’re not exactly a great match for me politically either, but unlike the NRA, they’ve actually been effective, and are at least not spending most of their resources on self-enrichment and rankly partan campaigning on unrelated matters. SRA and associates are still too flaky to treat as a credible lobby, but I’m excited for a less unnecessarily-partisan gun rights landscape, with fewer parasites.
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I still think that the most effective way to dismantle the NRA is to flood their ranks with the exact undesirables they hate.
You can’t tell me that a flood of non-white, non-male, LGBTQA+ members wouldn’t include at least one competent accountant who became a real pain in the ass about their official finances.
They’d tear themselves apart fairly quickly, I think, once they realize that their entire existence is pointless because white men aren’t the loudest voice.
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Minorities are not cannon fodder, though.
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In the end, it was even easier than that. They just had to hire a famous greedy crook as their president. It was only a matter of time before Ollie got peeved that Wayne and his cronies were getting more of the take from the suckers than he was and started raising a stink about the finances.
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And I didn’t suggest they were. At least I sincerely hope I didn’t.
My aim was to make a point that if the membership of the NRA were more representative of the country in which we all live, then we might actually have a chance to dismantle one of the most insidious supporters of institutional racism.
All too often, such suggestions don’t take into account the real life risk/cost involved for the marginalized people whom they are volunteering up…
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The NRA is a thoroughly corrupt organization run by crooks for crooks. Their leadership has been lying to and cheating the members for decades. The organization really used to be about shooting sports and training people in safe handling. Now it’s degenerated into a pack of carnival barkers dedicated to helping gun and ammo makers keep up sales, and howling about 2A rights to distract the members from realize how badly they’re being robbed. It has knowingly conspired with Russia to launder money for Trump’s 2016 campaign, an action just barely one step removed from treason. The NRA deserves to be gutted and its larcenous leaders punished, and its members deserve to see the men who have stolen from them jailed for their crimes.
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The very existence of this suit is definitely a bit of political grandstanding bullshit. There are many ways in which the crimes of the NRA leaders could be punished; dissolving the organization instead of indicting individuals does not punish them and is a bad parody of justice. If the NY AG is going to follow this line of “logic”, then when is she going to apply it to other national or international organizations that are every bit as corrupt? When is she going to file suit to dissolve the IOC or NASCAR or the NFL? When is she going to file suit to dissolve damn near every commercial corporation in America? The NRA leaders are a pack of lying, thieving scum, that is true, but they are right about this “lawsuit” - this is flagrant political manure of the rankest kind.
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SCOTUS has ruled that corporations with sincerely held religious beliefs are completely exempt from having to obey laws.
You can thank trump and mcconell for that one.
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Yeah. I send them the thought that they are a pack of liars, thieves, and nuts, and the prayers that Wayne LaPierre and all the other NRA board members end their lives in prison.
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It’s always a good idea to go by more than the brief summary.
The NY AG wants LaPierre and the other top officials to repay all of the money they diverted.
They are accused of taking $64 million. Whether they are on the hook for all of that, I don’t know, but LaPierre is a huge spender and there is a strong chance this could bankrupt him. His legal fees alone would be enormous if he doesn’t cut a deal. And there is so much division in the NRA over his leadership – Oliver North has been leading a revolt – it is not clear whether donors will bail him out.
There is a double standard that benefits white collar criminals which will no doubt help LaPierre, but as these things go this is a big deal.
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If the only thing that comes across is literally the word “malfeasance” then yes, the NY AG has a problem.
But I’m not aware of any reason the AG will stick to a one word description of the ripoffs they committed. She might for some reason, some crazy reason, actually give details of the $64,000,000 they are accused of ripping off over just the past three years. The $250,000 in trips to Italy and the Bahamas, the million dollar fee for a girlriend, the country club memberships, the $275,000 for designer wear, the $13,800 to rent a place for a summer for an intern, the $5 million Dallas mansion LaPierretried to get the NRA’s ad agency to buy for him…
And it is, of course, possible nobody in the NRA will hear this, although it is worth noting that Oliver North has been the top ex-NRA dissident and has been hammering the press to get these details out. It’s always possible NRA members know the difference between him and Rachel Maddow. But maybe they will only hear “malfeasance.”
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from that Reuters piece:
(This story corrects to say Rifle not Rife in paragraph 1)
Once they correct “attorney generals” to “attorneys general”, paragraph 1 will be in good shape.
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I think the NY AG would love for the NRA attorneys to claim that, as a non-profit charitable organization, it donates millions of dollars to Republican campaigns. “Your honor, the claim that all the NRA does is to illegally funnel money to LaPierre and his cronies is patently false. The NRA does many other things, like illegally donate money to political campaigns.”
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I think part of the plan is to completely drain the NRA coffers fighting multiple suits originating from several state AGs. Bankrupt them and the ‘leadership’ can’t keep sucking money from the organization.
Edit: Drain the NRA’s accounts with legal battles and they won’t have any cash to bribe politicians with, either.
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I’m pretty sure Mr. Trololo is a twin of the Landru guy from Star Trek - separated at birth
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The issue is her assertion that “effectively served no purpose other than to support the abuses.”
I don’t think there’s any way to believably argue that.
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I thought the conservatives would be unified in opposition to this but the NY AG’s action is getting support from some unexpected places.
Also, how messed up does a timeline have to be for OLIVER FUCKING NORTH to be one of the “good guys” in the story?
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Yeah, I don’t quite get it. If the organization is effectively dead and it’s just siphoning the funds of its members, isn’t it up to the members to dissolve it - either by ending donations or an AGM resolution? If NRA members are dumb enough to keep donating with all of the recent revelations, it’s really on them.
Criminal charges would make more sense because, well, misappropriating funds and defrauding people is actually illegal.
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