Kim Davis won't be getting Rich because GoFundMe has changed its policy

[eridani]

I suspect there might be other options, though.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/04/1418212/-Kim-Davis-won-t-be-getting-rich-because-GoFundMe-has-changed-it-policy

As we’ve seen a dizzying amount of times, conservatives have used the popular fundraising site GoFundMe to enrich and support people who they believe are on their side of the “culture war” – including officers who have killed unarmed black teenagers, Tea Partiers who got sick after refusing to sign up for Obamacare, and an endless number of bakeries run by Christians who want to discriminate against gay people. Watching these bakers and cops make fortunes (literally) just by “standing up” for conservative values has had the effect that anyone with a conservative point of view and a desire to be flooded with money can milk the conservative GoFundMe cash cow.

On GoFundMe’s end, this has been a PR nightmare. It’s not clear exactly what the site’s creators expected when they set up the page, but it’s hard to imagine they thought they would be faced with dozens of new campaigns set up for killers, racists, and homophobes on a weekly basis. After watching several high-profile conservative faux-victims become millions from exploiting their site, the creators finally announced that enough was enough. In April, they announced that they would no longer certain types of disgusting campaigns from thriving on GoFundMe. More specifically – and this is where Davis gets screwed out of the millions surely waiting for her – the site has a specific policy about criminals:

Campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts.

The jailed Davis, held on contempt of court charges, surely fits the bill. (And Davis technically pulls off a rare double disqualification because it’s also a “discriminatory act.”)
Would conservatives have really given Davis millions just for not doing her job? It seems pretty clear that the answer is yes when one looks at how they’ve positioned her as a Christian martyr.

I'm gratified that GoFundMe is no longer helping to incentivise these kind of bigoted and or illegal behaviors. GoFundMe has returned to its intended mission, and not helping Right Wing cranks hit the notoriety jackpot.

[PoliticAverse]

1. Some conservative individual or group hasn't set up a mechanism for donating

in situations like this so they could profit rather than sites like gofundme?

[Midnight Writer]

2. Yes, there are other options

First, I would expect a book deal, ghost written by a conservative-fundamentalist shill.

Second, a paid speaking tour to Christian and conservative groups. There is a quite profitable circuit available in even small churches.

And third, a nationwide fund raising effort to fight the "War Against Christians", which will pay her legal expenses and "living expenses".

Davis will make out very well, and the more time she spends being imprisoned under conditions "worse than John Wayne Gacy or Jefferey Dahmer", as Huckabee puts it, the higher her profit margin.

[hollysmom]

3. there will not be enough interest to even pretend to have the books sell, plus

she does not look bright enough - as far as writing they do it ghost written, but you still have to make some tv appearances, she is not young and pretty enough for republicans. I think she will die poor and live to regret losing her 80 K a year thought being removed (unlikely) or not being re-elected. - right now, probably almost no one votes in that category, to have such a cushy job in such a small area, well, keep your head down and hope no one notices you. Now people know the job is there and how much more it pays than anything else around there for very little work, there will be competition in the future.

Now in my area the County clerk makes more than 80K, but there are almost a million people here and and not the 23,000 of Rowan county.
from their web site These duties include general categories of clerical duties of the fiscal court: issuing and registering, recording and keeping various legal records, registering and purging voter rolls, and conducting election duties and tax duties.
Nice that she is in charge of purging the voter roles. They don't seem to feature passports maybe people in that county don't travel much but here they do.

[mnhtnbb]

5. She apparently had a very close primary race when she ran.

I suspect she's toast in that cushy job. I also suspect hubby #4 will depart
when she's no longer pulling in that kind of $.

My opinion? She's not a very bright bulb to begin with and has a very low opinion
of herself, which is why she was attracted to a fundamentalist sect that
demeans women (tells them how to dress, what to wear, how to style hair, etc).
My guess also is that she has authority issues--having worked for her mother
for 20 some years--and only came to Jesus because her mother in law pushed
her to it on her deathbed.

[hollysmom]

13. oh yeah, her life is about to go to shit and she doesn't even see that she

is losing everything. the people pushing her have no soul (good christians that they are) and will just chew her up an spit her out. I bet the money and a good job was a draw by husband 4. Heck The median income for a man is 29K in that county, I bet she was making over that working for her mother, I can't believe the county pays that much to someone who sounds like they don't have much education. Now if she were young and pretty and blonde or a good speaker, the republicans would support her more but since she is neither - bye bye when they are done with her.

[Vinca]

4. I read another DU post yesterday that linked to a funding page on a religious site.

She'll be rolling in dough before she's out of jail. I imagine that was the plan.

[mnhtnbb]

6. I just checked it--the guy who put it up has now changed its goal

from $10,000 to $2500. and has raised all of a $140.

[Vinca]

12. Well that's not going to buy a holy condo on the beach, is it? LOL.

[jberryhill]

7. ...because before GoFundMe, nobody ever raised money

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. How hard would it be to seize those funds for the impending fines a judgments if they were raised?

Assuming the funds aren't sent over seas immediately?

One of my office mates (mortgage business) had a client involved in a wrongful death or maybe severe injury (I forget) who was trying to suck a million dollars in equity out of their home before judgment. As I recall, it didn't fly and the defendant ended up signing the house over after her own death (she was elderly).

I thought it would be sweet justice if the troll raised a million dollars and it went to the ACLU and punitive damages.

I still want take a weekend trip to Kentucky and apply for a marriage license with my partner.

[Takket]

8. Aren't there also laws in the books

That keep criminals from profiting from their crimes?

We were all horrified when the bigot pizza place raised 800k but they hadn't really committed a crime.

Kim Davis is different. She is a straight up criminal and has already been jailed for it. I would think the laws about not making money off your crimes would apply to her.

[CBGLuthier]

9. I think the author is making some seriously flawed assumptions here.

One of those seeing it through only their own eyes and assuming that this policy would apply to this case.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

11. The policy was set up in backlash for the pizza bigots et al and they weren't even violating laws.

How could anyone think the policy wouldn't apply for someone cooling their heels in the joint over willful and blatant violation of now established law and court order?

No way gofundme touches this one. That's not to say no one else will.

[mnhtnbb]

14. GoFundMe not an option, but a very connected fundy site--Samaritan's Purse--

run by Billy Graham's nasty son--Franklin Graham--has a dedicated fundraising
portion of its site for...wait for it...Persecuted Christians--USA.

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/donation-items/persecuted-christians-usa/

I kid you not. I found it when I was checking on the amount raised by someone who
put up a specific fundraising page for Kim Davis hosted by the Samaritan's Purse site.

I have forward the info to Americans United for Separation of Church and State--which
is following the Kim Davis thing pretty closely--because neither Franklin Graham nor
the Samaritan's Purse site is listed on AU as one of the right wing groups they routinely monitor.
So, I don't know if this "Persecuted Christians-USA" is something new or whether AU is aware
of it. Samaritan's Purse has a separate section for raising funds for Christians Persecuted International
(presumably in countries where some other religion is dominant and protected by law).

Good grief. These people are really bat shit nuts to think Christians are persecuted in this country
just because they aren't allowed to discriminate against anybody they don't like because of some
peculiar notion they hold.