View Full Version : #GoFundTheWall has raised over $5M in 3 days to privately fund building Trump's "wall"
68Charger
12-20-2018, 12:16
Up over $5M in 3 days... organizer is in Castle Rock
The government has accepted large private donations before, most recently a billionaire donated $7.5 Million (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46050494/ns/us_news-giving/t/billionaire-donates-washington-monument-repairs/#.XBqViVxKiUk) to fund half of the Washington Monument repairs in 2012; this is no different.
? My name is Brian Kolfage, (https://www.facebook.com/Brian.Kolfage.jr/) I have a verified blue check facebook page as a public figure and I?m a Purple Heart Recipient triple amputee veteran. (http://briankolfage.com/)
https://www.gofundme.com/thetrumpwall
StagLefty
12-20-2018, 13:32
I read the other day that Ted Cruz has come up with the best answer I've seen. Take "El Chapo's" assets to pay for the Wall.
Sent some $ in. Christmas present to myself.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5
Someone is always coming up with a way to separate people from their money. Kudos to those entrepreneurs.
Someone is always coming up with a way to separate people from their money. Kudos to those entrepreneurs.
So the triple amputee Vet Castle Rock just scammed millions from folks like me then huh?
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5
The millions aren't coming from individuals like you. Like most GoFundMe things that look successful, the money is arranged long before the fund is set-up, then it is quickly trickled in to look like the fund took off. It gains attraction and regular people start contributing and everything else is just a bonus over what was already a goal reaching amount.
Whether or not this guy has good intentions, this money is almost certainly gone into the void forever. Lack of money has never prevented the government from doing something, so personally funding this isn't going to help it along any. I came to post what I did, regardless of your post being there, so that wasn't intended to be directed at you. It's your money to spend however you want though, charity is charity and if it makes you happy, go for it.
So are there any legitimate go fund me campaigns? Or is it just ones seeking to raise this much money, or one?s attached to political goals that are scams. Real money went out, who?s collecting if not the person claiming to?
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5
DireWolf
12-20-2018, 16:26
The millions aren't coming from individuals like you. Like most GoFundMe things that look successful, the money is arranged long before the fund is set-up, then it is quickly trickled in to look like the fund took off. It gains attraction and regular people start contributing and everything else is just a bonus over what was already a goal reaching amount.
That's pure BS.
Sure, GFM is making some money off the deal, and you may be correct in the cases of scammers, scumbags, and some obvious political hit-jobs and resultant money-laundering payoffs (also obvious to anyone with a brain), but have seen too many 'regular' people use this for help with personal issues/loss to even begin buying into that (hint: none of them had mystery deep pocket benefactors waiting in the winds for the GFM to be set up...)
I think I'm not explaining well. Of course there are legitimate GoFundMe campaigns, I'd say most of them are, even the ones I was describing. They are legitimate, but campaigns with very high goals that get met often already have the backing and the entire thing is part of the marketing. Oh look, this company raised 2 million out of no where, it MUST be a good idea, I'll kick some in to. Those aren't scams, but the chances of random people constantly browsing those campaigns and funding ideas they think are great, then funding them into the millions is rare.
To DireWolf, of course people raise money for losses and medical issues, but it's usually not into the millions unless they have some celebrity backing or makes nationwide news or something.
Finally, I'm not even necessarily saying that this is some scam, I just can't picture how gathering a pile of money is going to translate into getting a wall built.
ScooterCO
12-20-2018, 17:34
A pile of money is how mountains are moved.
The idea is to donate it to any government program that will fund the wall, then ensure donated funds go only to building the wall.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5
Why not donate money to repeal the NFA?
On one hand I was trying to make the point that you can't just give the government money and expect them to do what you want. On the other hand, seems like that's what lobbyists and politicians do, so why not give it a shot?
I do, various Pro gun, gun rights groups.
But we?re discussing a different subject entirely, but since you brought it up, we could all have suppressed M2?s on MRAP?s and completely repeal every 2A infringement, yet if we have open, porous, unsecured borders and coasts, we will continue to pump untold millions of socialist rabble that will tear down the Republic from within.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5
DireWolf
12-20-2018, 18:25
To DireWolf, of course people raise money for losses and medical issues, but it's usually not into the millions unless they have some celebrity backing or makes nationwide news or something.
Finally, I'm not even necessarily saying that this is some scam, I just can't picture how gathering a pile of money is going to translate into getting a wall built.
Agreed, on both counts.
On the second point - ultimately, the money, while certainly helpful, only represents a small part of the issues/challenges involved. I actually think the dollar amount matters less than what the volume of donations is representative of, and the message it sends.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181221/4acd716dd8693c6b740f8d977b06aa0e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181221/83625555b75c53f9feaf2e052f16d994.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181221/1cd63a76eddae4bf9ae96f16945265be.jpg
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5
DireWolf
12-20-2018, 18:43
Well dang, up past $8.5M so far, and looks like the political sponsorship is in place. Will be interesting to see how this plays out...
Bailey Guns
12-20-2018, 21:42
I donate to building the border wall every two weeks thru payroll withholding. It's called "taxes" and that's what it's for. I would, however, donate to a GFM campaign to fund about 2 or 3 million people marching on DC to remind the public servants there who it is they serve. We could even take our modern-day pitchforks with bump-stocks on them.
I give enough to the guberment. Well actually I don't give, they take.
The guy that made the GoFund account is the same guy raised $600,000.00 for Kavanaugh but who knows what for or what he did with the money. FB shut him down for spreading fake news, consopiracy theories, making multiple fake accounts with inauthentic activity.
When he was asked about these issues, Kolfage told NBC News he didn’t want to mention his website Right Wing News or Fight4FreeSpeech because he “didn’t want it to be a distraction.” “I don’t wanna mix the two. That shouldn’t be the focus. My personal issues have nothing to do with building the wall,” he said.
Since this website https://fight4freespeech.com/ was shut down, he seems to have simply made a new website: http://iraq.trendolizer.com/2018/10/click-here-to-support-fight-4-free-speech-organized-by-brian-kolfage.html and guess what? You can donate money here as well.
Interesting.
Interesting, yes.
Very interesting.
Let's take each of these points.
"The Guy" that made this GoFund account is the same person that raised $600,00 for Judge Kavanaugh. Uh, NO. THAT particular account was started by John Hawkins, of North Carolina. It raised $488,500 of the $600,000 goal....and was not the only GoFundMe account that was started and raised money for Judge Kavanaugh. Many, many people felt that the despicable attacks dealt to him and his family were beyond the pale, and wished to show their support. The Judge's family could not ethically accept the funds, so they were donated to the Archdiocese of Washington, which runs the Catholic Youth Organization. There is no "who knows what for or what they did with the money"- a simple Google search and 30 second's time was all it took to shine the light on that aspersion.
Kolfage is a triple amputee lost both legs and his right hand, when a 107mm rocket landed 3 feet from him after his base was attacked in Iraq. He had worked with Facebook in the past, and FB collected $300,000 dollars in ads from him- and then scrubbed his site and 3 other FB sites without warning. His FB site was his primary income- he sold Military Grade Coffee and his Right Wing News site was 17 years old. And suddenly, FB deletes his site on October 11, 2018. No warnings.
Interesting, isn't it? How FB collected their money all this time, and THEN shut down the site?
His wife competed to be a Maxim Cover girl, in a campaign to donate money to Homes for the Wounded Warrior Foundation, too. Is that also 'Interesting'?
hurley842002
12-21-2018, 17:15
Relevant to the thread.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181221/962f37e4999ae689b7918081f87a8862.jpg
That's very interesting how you say "guy". As far as I know, he is a guy, right? Unless I missed something, male is indeed his gender. Are you saying Right Wing News was founded by John Hawkins & ran by Brian Kolfag? Facebook actually gave a statement to Breitbart confirming they had given this man multiple documented warnings about his content & inauthentic activity in regards to those specific pages. FB, just like this very website, has rules & guidelines about behavior & transactions. People get banned from forums & websites for many reasons including behavior & activity that violates the sites guidelines & rules. FB had their reasons for kicking him off after they warned him & he had the choice to follow the FB rules or not. If he paid FB to advertise his stuff & they did but he didn't follow their rules after multiple warning, then that was his choice. we all make choices. Mr. Kolfage ran a Facebook page titled Right Wing News and affiliated websites VeteranAF and FreedomDaily, according to an NBC News report. The sites promoted conspiracies & featured incendiary content. The websites were taken down after a man sued FreedomDaily and other sites for misidentifying him as the person who drove into a crowd and killed a protester at a 2017 rally involving white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia. I assume the judge in the suit prevented the pages from going back up. You said Right Wing News was 17 yrs old. Being 17 yrs old doesn't matter, If FB didn't want that page on their servers because it was violating their rules, age of page is not relevant. Why not just make another ad page on another site like he has before? What's stopping him from establishing a .com address for that site? And it wasn't Facebook didn't shut down his servers on this site: https://fight4freespeech.com. I am not sure who or what shut that down, but he seems to have simply made a new website: http://iraq.trendolizer.com/2018/10/...n-kolfage.html and guess what? You can donate money here as well. Facebook is not the only place to advertise his coffee or his donation requests, he is doing quite well on other social media. Facebook is not stopping you from buying his coffee or donating to the remaining active websites. Facebook still has his personal page up & running, just not the fake pages, conspiracy or hate pages. And FB did not scrub his site, look at him all happy on FB: https://www.facebook.com/Brian.Kolfage.jr/. If he thinks FB is so bad, why still be on it? Maybe it's just me but if I think a website is stealing my money & doing me dirty, I would leave said website, yet here he is all happy on FB, that's not interesting, that's just weird. Donate away if you feel his altruistic endeavors touch your heart. And you can do so from many sites, not just FB. Lots of chicks want to be models, not sure what his wives desire to be in Maxim has any relevance at all but it interesting trivia, I guess. Since you brought her up for no reason, I looked her up found her on FB. That's how he found her too! Cute right? She is so fit, her abs are amazing! I love Maxim, this was interesting!
I think you are being deliberately obtuse, and are seeking instead to obfuscate facts.
Yes, FreedomDaily was sued, as were several other sites, for misidentifying the driver in that awful incident. However, Kolfage was NOT named as a defendant. The wrongly-named man and his father sued the sites and the writers of the story, and settled $4990.00 to each man, in addition to the site GotNews paying $19,990 in settlement. GotNews was one of the alt-right sites.
17 years on FB IS relevant when it comes to a business relationship; that much money paid out certainly means something to a business owner. He had established thousands of followers, and groomed quite a following. Facebook had also given his Right Wing News page a blue check, which was maintained up until the day the site was taken down. We've seen just how trustworthy Facebook is when it comes to being brought to question as to privacy concerns and so on, so of course they're going to say that they warned him and warned him.
He does have another site, in addition to the one you have listed. He's had to shift his business to other platforms, which means that he could either start over (not a good idea for his situation) or maintain contact with his followers and his customers through his personal page. The fact that you would simply leave the website suggests to me that you don't have similar business structure that must be maintained.
I don't need you to tell me to go ahead and donate to his cause or buy his coffee. What I do or do not do is my own personal business, not yours. I responded to your post because it was inaccurate and the first sentence implied fraud.
Oh, and his site Fight4FreeSpeech.com comes up fine for me. https://www.fight4freespeech.com/
Sent some $ in. Christmas present to myself.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5
So are you getting a refund, or letting your money ride on the new company?
ETA: Actually, I read more into the article and it looks like refunds are automatic unless otherwise state by donors. So, it's really none of my business. I just wanted to draw attention to it for you so you could get your money back if that's what you wanted.
For context: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/01/13/border-wall-gofundme-refunds-checks-colorado-castle-rock/
Basically, the goFundMe organizer changed what he was going to do with the money, so GoFundMe is automatically refunding donations.
https://hillreporter.com/head-of-border-wall-crowdsourcing-campaign-allegedly-diverted-money-to-fund-his-own-lavish-lifestyle-35357
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP8sofAN4xc
The only time I have ever used GoFundMe was for this effort.
Got a bad feeling about the email I received when it was going to be transferred to start an "organization."
Glad I opted to get my money back.
Dick move.
He apparently has a habit: https://theweirdturnprofessional.wordpress.com/2019/03/25/brian-kolfage-a-scam-revealed/
Totally called this one. News flash, if an individual is privately soliciting donations for a public political cause, it will pretty much always be a scam. Normal people run their money through non profits and orgs with public accounting. Even if someone had (mild) intent to do "something good" that's just their rationalization for what they actually do when a couple million is deposited into their account. Next time, ask yourself: if your shady cousin started asking for everyone to give him money and then he would totaaaally donate it to another cause, would you do it? If no, then why the heck do you do it to a total stranger with the internet's biggest cardboard sign "need your money to help you donate to other stuff"
I'm shocked.
I'm not.
I didn't think the [Sarcasm2] was necessary, but apparently it was. Maybe I should have used the Sarcastica font?
I didn't think the [Sarcasm2] was necessary, but apparently it was. Maybe I should have used the Sarcastica font?
LOL - I missed that one
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