Grifters gotta grift: The Wall edition [and more!]

[pdq]

The Daily Beast:

Back in December, Washington state Trump supporter Joshua Greene donated a small amount of money to the crowdfunding effort to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. He wasn’t alone. The GoFundMe page to build the wall, to which he’d donated, was a sensation on the right in late 2018 and raised more than $20 million.

Organized by triple-amputee veteran Brian Kolfage, the campaign eventually morphed into a nonprofit called We Build the Wall, which promised to build portions of the wall on private land using the money it raised.

You see where this is going, right?

Months later, there’s no evidence that any construction has started, despite claims from Kolfage and his allies that construction would start in April...In February, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach—who is a member of We Build the Wall’s board of directors—claimed that the group was “getting ready to break ground, probably in April.”

The Phoenix New Times reported in March that the “vast majority” of land on the border in the state is owned by the federal government. Meanwhile, many of the people who actually own land on the border told the New Times that they hadn’t been contacted by We Build the Wall.

So, it's a slow start?

Umm...

Making donors more nervous is that Kolfage has a history of participating in questionable endeavors. He was a prolific operator of hoax pages on Facebook, and money he raised in the past to help veterans’ programs in hospitals never actually went to those hospitals.

:eye:

[Speedy]

Shocked, I tells you I'm shocked.

[pdq]

Here's another one from today:

The leader of a right-wing militia known as the Stevens County Assembly will soon travel from West Virginia to Washington State — in law enforcement custody...

According to court documents, beginning in late February several militia members found identical letters near their homes threatening physical harm and demanding sums ranging from $10,000 to $250,000.

“The author of the letters claimed to be an organization from outside of the United States and insinuated that it was likely from [a] Mexican cartel,”

It's those darn messican druggies agin!

Tony Donnelly...found a threatening letter on his girlfriend Gayle Collins’ gate, [but] failed to follow his extorter’s advice to put the demanded money in the mailbox. Instead, Donnelly “set up a hidden camera..."

Donnelly [later] provided authorities a grainy video and a picture of a white SUV driving away from the scene, one that authorities later determined looked “very similar” to Bolton’s.

In what the piece's author rightfully describes as a Coen-brothers-esque series of unfortunate events, Bolton also tried to kill a fellow militia member at Bolton's home, and also claimed that his wife had been kidnapped, convincing a friend to pitch in $100K.

...After Etchieson heard from Bolton that the kidnappers had released Bolton’s wife — yet, per Bolton, were still demanding money — Etchieson “began to question the validity of Bolton’s story.”

...In a subsequent email to all militia members, Bolton wrote that the group would no longer be holding their monthly meeting in the town of Chewelah [WA], population 2,600.

“WA state is being overrun by socialist/liberals and there doesn’t seem to be any organized force to stop them,” he explained, adding: “I am not deterred, just relocated.”

He's...umm...currently being "re-relocated" back to WA to face charges...

:RollingEyesSmiley5:

[Speedy]

Left-wing militias do the same thing. I’m having trouble finding a left-wing militia at the moment in order to back up my assertion but I will keep trying.