Florida Triple-amputee Air Force veteran Starts Crowdfunding Site to Pay for Border Wall

[Sniper 6,372]

Triple-amputee Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage of Florida has decided that if the government isn’t going to do their job to keep America safe by securing the border, then he will.

But not alone, of course. Kolfage has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the U.S.-Mexico border wall that President Trump promised to build during his presidential campaign.

Kolfage created the campaign on Sunday, which is titled “We the People Will Fund the Wall.” The crowdfunding goal is $1 billion to help fund President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall — one of the president’s original campaign tent poles and a point of contention on both sides of the aisle.

Kolfage page states that "It’s up to Americans to help out and pitch in to get this project rolling.” “If the 63 million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall,” Kolfage continues. “That equates to roughly $5 billion, even if we get half, that’s half the wall. We can do this.”

https://www.gofundme.com/TheTrumpWall

 

[diamondd817 827]

In for $100.

 

[Sniper 6,372]

It was at 1 Million at dinner time, it's now up to 1.5 million.

This thing has legs!

 

[NJSigfan 218]

I just saw this.  

I hope they raise a significant amount to shame the scumbags in DC to fund the wall. 

[Scorpio64 5,154]

I'm e-mailing the link to friends and family.  This needs to go viral.

Donate, then propagate.

[Sniper 6,372]

Wow... up to $4.2 million in 3 days by 68,830 people...

Hmmmm, what would happen if 68,000 people marched on DC to take their country back?

 

[Fred2 367]

2 minutes ago, Sniper said:

Wow... up to $4.2 million in 3 days by 68,830 people...

Hmmmm, what would happen if 68,000 people marched on DC to take their country back?

 

Never going to happen, those 68,000 have jobs.

[1LtCAP 4,263]

so how do we tell if this is legit?

[Scorpio64 5,154]

Last night at 11:00pm it was about 1.6M, today at 11:00am it reached 4.2M.  That averages to roughly $200,000.00/hr in the 12 hour period.

Just now, 1LtCAP said:

so how do we tell if this is legit?

Go to the GFM page and read it.  you decide.

https://www.gofundme.com/TheTrumpWall

[Mrs. Peel 7,157]

Though the Democrats and most of the media will try to write this off as "look at how racist these terrible deplorables are"... the fact of the matter is, if this continues to build, it will be sending a very powerful message to our elected representatives that a good portion of the American populace feels that the government is FAILING in a critical aspect of national security.

I'm not a history buff like some of you... has something like this ever happened before...? I'm not talking about small pockets of people, but an actual wide-scale popular uprising around a national security failure?

Of course, we didn't have sites like "GoFundMe" in the past... but still, I think this is pretty stunning... I'm watching with great interest!

[SIGMan Freud 93]

Calm down everybody. At it's current rate of $1 Million/day, it would take 5,000 days or 13 YEARS to get the $5 Billion needed. Of course, GoFundMe will take a cut. Then there's the problem of getting the money into the Government, since it's their land. You can't give money to the IRS and earmark it for your pet projects. Think of what damage Soros could do if that were possible.

The organizer is legit, but it's going to amount to nothing more than a stunt. When the thing fizzles out, he's going to face some hard decisions - what to do with the money collected. And if he hasn't created a non-profit or charitable trust, he'll be in a world of tax hurt.

[Mrs. Peel 7,157]

@SIGMan Freud - I think your notes of caution all sound very reasonable. Frankly, they should have had all the legal agreements in place BEFORE the fundraising started.

Nonetheless, I wouldn't project doom or even start calculating a timeline quite yet... I'm guessing a vast majority of Americans don't even know about this campaign yet. I only just heard of it through this thread. The rate of collection could spike if this effort starts getting some major news coverage - or if Trump, for instance, started talking it up and made a personal donation (which would be an incredibly smart political move, I think - it would get him back into the good graces of many conservatives who feel he just CAVED to the Dems on funding the wall). We'll see!

[Sniper 6,372]

23 minutes ago, SIGMan Freud said:

Then there's the problem of getting the money into the Government, since it's their land. You can't give money to the IRS and earmark it for your pet projects. Think of what damage Soros could do if that were possible.

Did you go to the page and read any of the information posted:

The government has accepted large private donations before, most recently a billionaire donated $7.5 Million  to fund half of the Washington Monument repairs in 2012; this is no different. 

• How will we get the funds to the right place? We have contacted the Trump Administration to secure a point of contact where all the funds will go upon completion. When we get this information secured we will update. We have many very high level contacts already helping.

• Republican Representative Steven Palazzo of Mississippi is introducing legislation to direct the Treasury Department to issue government savings bonds which would allow us to fund the wall with this method. This is just one option, there are others on the table being discussed.

• 100% of your donations will go to the Trump Wall. 

• We are working with a law firm on a legal document that will bind the government to using the funds for the border wall itself, nothing else.
 

Picture of the guy pulling this together:

[SIGMan Freud 93]

Well, the fund is almost at $5M, which is impressive! Just need to repeat that 1,000 times. And don't forget the fees GoFundMe charges - that will soak up about $419 Million if it gets to the needed $5B. I imagine Pelosi is drooling thinking about taking the reins with this windfall coming her way. Any legislation would have to pass through her. 

It's a nice idea, just not well thought out. 

[Old Glock guy 1,127]

Just donated. 

[Zeke 5,504]

4 minutes ago, SIGMan Freud said:

Well, the fund is almost at $5M, which is impressive! Just need to repeat that 1,000 times. And don't forget the fees GoFundMe charges - that will soak up about $419 Million if it gets to the needed $5B. I imagine Pelosi is drooling thinking about taking the reins with this windfall coming her way. Any legislation would have to pass through her. 

It's a nice idea, just not well thought out. 

It’s more about a message...

[siderman 1,137]

I think Trump should put out a twitter saying he will dare the Congress to at least match what the American people want and have done here. One, it"ll  be more publicity for this campaign and two, will put the democrat controlled congress in the hot seat. They would look so bad trying to refute this effort.

[Rob0115 1,105]

Donated. 

[PK90 3,570]

Up to $5,222,832 

[Sniper 6,372]

1 hour ago, PK90 said:

Up to $5,222,832 

Now, $5,744,980 in just an hour. That's $500K an hour....

 

[Zeke 5,504]

1 hour ago, siderman said:

I think Trump should put out a twitter saying he will dare the Congress to at least match what the American people want and have done here. One, it"ll  be more publicity for this campaign and two, will put the democrat controlled congress in the hot seat. They would look so bad trying to refute this effort.

Looks like stop gap may not go through.

the game is afoot 

[Old Glock guy 1,127]

Now at $6,759,244.

Seems to be gaining momentum!

[Scorpio64 5,154]

3 hours ago, siderman said:

I think Trump should put out a twitter saying he will dare the Congress to at least match

That sounds like a bold move but it could backfire if the GFM campaign raises only like $2B.  That would be a win for the dems.

[Sniper 6,372]

27 minutes ago, Scorpio64 said:

That sounds like a bold move but it could backfire if the GFM campaign raises only like $2B.  That would be a win for the dems.

Could it possibly embarrass the Dems (not that they would care), that the people could raise $2B, but Congress is unwilling to do it? It will be interesting to see if this momentum keeps going, or if anyone with deep pockets (like @AVB-AMG) jumps in with some BIG donations.

 

[Scorpio64 5,154]

51 minutes ago, Sniper said:

Could it possibly embarrass the Dems (not that they would care), that the people could raise $2B,

I don't know of any donor based effort that raised $2B for a non-bonded government project.  Even if it only turns out to be $2B, it will be historic.  That itself should be enough to embarrass them, if not make them poo their pant's a lil bit. 

btw, $2B is enough to fund about 85 miles of wall.  Or one hell of a border militia.  Wall of steel, wall of lead, same same.

EDIT: btw, the largest GFM to date took in $21.5M.  That was the Times Up Legal Defense Fund. If fund the wall reaches $2B, that will be 95X Time's Up.

[SIGMan Freud 93]

4 hours ago, Zeke said:

It’s more about a message...

True, and despite my misgivings about the ultimate outcome, I've donated as well. It's up to $7.5M, which is less then 1% of the goal (and a little more than 1/1000th of the amount needed), but it's symbolic. If it fizzles or is blocked, maybe they can send the money to support the families of fallen LEOs, or the Kate Steinle Foundation.

[Scorpio64 5,154]

1 minute ago, SIGMan Freud said:

If it fizzles or is blocked,

Kolfage has promised to return all donations in the event the effort fails.

[maintenanceguy 510]

I just donated $50.

This money isn't going to go for a wall.  Lawyers, judges, and politicians will find a way to make sure this fails.

But, it sends a strong message that Americans want this badly enough to voluntarily reach into their own pockets to fund this.  Our elected "leaders" care about 1 thing:  Staying at the feeding trough.  They need campaign contribution to do this.  This go fund me campaign is a signal that indicates what positions we are willing to fund.  This can have influence.

[Zeke 5,504]

22 minutes ago, SIGMan Freud said:

True, and despite my misgivings about the ultimate outcome, I've donated as well. It's up to $7.5M, which is less then 1% of the goal (and a little more than 1/1000th of the amount needed), but it's symbolic. If it fizzles or is blocked, maybe they can send the money to support the families of fallen LEOs, or the Kate Steinle Foundation.

The will of the people..

 

[AVB-AMG 530]

This is just one more well-meaning but very ill-conceived and misguided attempt to play on people’s emotional fears and naivety.  @SIGMan Freud has pointed out a number of important issues that have not really been considered yet, that will affect this approach. 
Do any of you honestly think that this GFM effort will garner anything close to $1 BILLION, let alone $5 BILLION….??? 

I prefer to donate to charities whose causes I believe in and who have a proven historical track record of having a very high percentage of each dollar donated ACTUALLY going to that cause, and not to support an administrative bureaucracy. My preference is to give money to help people and not send messages.  Having said that,  I agree that this GFM effort, while will most likely fall far short of its monetary goal, will send a signal to politicians that a certain percentage of Americans want a border wall, or at least better enforcement of border security to deter illegal immigration.

Having followed this entire border wall episode since 2016, I have found it to be very enlightening.  Keep in mind that Trump’s insistence that Congress give him $5 billion to help pay for the wall is a departure from his vow throughout the 2016 presidential campaign and into his presidency, that we would build a new wall along our southern border and that Mexico would pay for it, not the American taxpayers.  Sane and intelligent people knew that would never happen.  Some politicians say that he is being so insistent now about funding for the wall in order to fulfill his campaign promise.  IMHO, it is not a campaign promise that is being broken, but was a lie from the very beginning…

The total length of the U.S.–Mexico border is 1,954 miles; as of August 2017, just 705 miles have at least one of four kinds of barriers: pedestrian primary fence, pedestrian secondary fence, pedestrian tertiary fence, and vehicle fence.

A very important question remains: How much would a border wall cost?
Cost estimates range from $8 billion to $67 billion or more, depending on whom you ask and the number of miles of wall that would be built. Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress have said they expect a wall to cost from $12 billion to $15 billion, based on the cost to rebuild existing border fencing covering a third of that distance, though those projections do not include the cost of buying non-government land. Based on Trump’s 2017 budget request for $2.6 billion to plan, design and build 75 miles of wall, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill’s office estimated the per-mile cost would be about $37 million, or nearly $67 billion for the entire 2,000-mile border.

A July 2018 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office warned that the wall might “cost more than projected, take longer than planned or not fully perform as expected.”

https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/693488.pdf

This report further concluded that the US Department of Homeland Security "faces an increased risk that the Border Wall System Program will cost more than projected, take longer than planned, or not fully perform as expected." Factors like a varying terrain and land ownership had not been taken fully into account, the report said, which drive up costs. The overall cost of the wall is unknown, so the report simply notes that the administration plans to spend "billions" on its construction and calls for Customs and Border Control to analyze the costs for future sections of the wall.

During the election campaign candidate Trump claimed that the wall would cost only $12 billion, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) internal report in February 2018 put the cost at $21.6 billion, but that may be a major underestimate.  The estimates vary so widely because of the lack of clarity about what the wall will actually consist of beyond the first meager Homeland Security specifications that it be either a solid concrete wall or a semi-transparent/open structure, “physically imposing in height,” ideally 30 feet high but no less than 18 feet, sunk at least 6 feet below ground level to hinder tunneling under it; that it should not be scalable with even sophisticated climbing aids; and that it should withstand prolonged attacks with impact tools, cutting tools, and torches. But that description doesn’t begin to cover questions about the details of its physical structure. Then there are the legal fees required to seize land on which to build the wall. The Trump administration can use eminent domain to acquire the land but will still have to negotiate compensation and often face lawsuits. More than 90 such lawsuits in southern Texas alone are still open from the 2008 effort to build a fence there.

I am not an expert in border security so I read and listen to and put a high value on the opinions of those who are.  In case you missed it, back in April 2017, Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council, the labor union that represents U.S. Border Patrol, testified before Congress and said: “I will not advocate for 2,000 miles’ worth of border. That is just not necessary. But what I will advocate for is a border wall in strategic locations, which helps us secure the border.  The building of barriers and large fences, a bipartisan effort, allowed agents in part to dictate where illegal crossings took place and doubled how effective I was able to be in apprehending illegal border crossers.”  He continued by saying in his written testimony: “A wall is not a panacea to illegal immigration and drug trafficking…illegal immigrants and drug traffickers routinely go over, under, and through the existing fencing that we already have in place. Fencing without the proper manpower to arrest those who penetrate it is not a prudent investment.”

AVB-AMG