According to GoFundMe’s Most Raised page, the fund benefiting Memories Pizza is the second highest-funded project in the website’s history, raising more money than funds for a woman dying from a rare cancer, victims disfigured by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and a disabled man brutally beaten outside his home.
I first read this post yesterday, and since then the Most Raised page has removed Memories Pizza's account from their list. However if you click the link above, and compare the top earners to Memories Pizza's GoFundMe page, it will still demonstrate that they have indeed raised more money than everybody else except an account for a young girl dying of cancer.
And that includes more money than two victims of the Boston Bombing, the family of a priest killed in a car accident, and a woman dying of a rare form of cancer.
Maybe it's just me but it seems that if closing your store after a few threatening phone calls, makes you a bigger victim in the eyes of the eyes of the public than losing your limbs or dying of cancer, then there is something truly fucked up about this country.
Oh and by the way Memories Pizza is reopening. Which must be a snap when you have $842,000 for remodeling, advertising, and of course security to keep teh gays out.
This sickens me to my core. Sad example if how hate profits over human decency.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't say much about some people in our country and it feels shitty that these idiots get rewarded for their ignorance and bigotry, but every time something like this happens, the Americans who care about equal rights for everyone also get fired up.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like this pizza joint wasn't exactly thriving before this happened. And they don't exactly seem very bright, even beyond their ignorant opinions. It won't be long before they plow through the money, crash their business, and look for another handout.
ReplyDeleteunfortunately this country is indeed truly fucked up ..
ReplyDeletegod, but America is one fucked up nation! Giving funds to these pizza owners who will discriminate and have admitted it publically? Our only hope is that the folks that say they will provide said funds, don't! I understand that often occurs.
ReplyDeleteThat's disgusting fundie TeaNazi's for you.Their bigotry and hatred is more importartant to them than anything.
ReplyDeleteFundie christians. One giant cult!
I should set up a GoFundMe page for my friend in Minnesota.
ReplyDeleteShe is a teacher who worked with at risk students at an At Will charter school.
A few years ago in May they told her her contract wouldn't be renewed in the fall. After over 10 years they gave her a few weeks notice of termination.
She was 56.
She is an English teacher and no one wanted to hire her because...she was 56.
She ended up losing her house and all of her savings.
She is now living in her mother's basement on disability. She will finally qualify for her retirement next January.
The only thing she wants in the world is her own home. Not the one she had. Something very modest. Bedroom on the ground floor and an attached garage.
Once she retires payments would be possible but she has no down payment and no hopes of saving enough on disability.
She donates her time at an after school program for disadvantaged kids and tutors for free in the evenings.
If anyone deserved a GoFundMe she does.
I have no idea how to do it as I don't do Twitter or Facebook either.
With a fraction of that pizza place money my friend would be able to buy a house free and clear. I've checked home prices in Minnesota. She could get a ranch with attached garage for $109,000.
Thanks for expressing my thoughts on this whole situation, G. When a place like that can generate that kind of money spewing hate and cancer patients and bombing victims can't, this is a very twisted country we live in.
The 800-lb. question is:
ReplyDeletewhat couple, gay or straight, would serve pizza at a wedding reception? Or is that a thing out in the middle of nowhere?
www.gofundme.com/Pizza4Equality
ReplyDeleteI watched the contributions flow in for the beginning of the Easter weekend. They were coming in as fast as the site could take them, about 7 per minute. Blaze TV stopped the campaign at the $842442 mark, probably so that the amount wouldn't be rounded off to $1 million in news stories which wouldn't look good for the poor victimized pizza makers. I am so curious as to what motivates a donor once the pizza makers are clearly receiving vast amounts of money far exceeding any financial duress experienced.
ReplyDeleteFacepalm.
ReplyDeleteWe are a very, very sick country, with very, very wrong priorities.
Here's to hoping, that the IRS will go after them. (But, of course, in their teabagger-eyes, that would only prove even more that they are being persecuted.)
Everything about this fundraiser smacks of fraud. First...it was started by a guy who works for the Blaze who also has dealings with James O'Keefe. Second....all of the names are listed as ANONYMOUS. I went through hundreds of GoFundMe accounts...and NONE of them have everyone listed anonymously. In fact, when you make a contribution, you have an option to either list your name or to be listed anonymously. But...no matter how you selected to be listed on this campaign (and the other Blaze involved campaign for Baronelle flowers)..you would be anonymous by default. This decision is made by the organizer of the fundraiser. So much for transparency when you deal with Glen Beck.
ReplyDeleteThird...the contributions came in too quickly day and night and ended too abruptly with contributions still pouring in..not to arouse suspicions.
I am convinced a good part of the donations were funded by the right wing machine who saw this as their chance to make a political point.
I suggest everyone write to GoFundMe and ask for clarification on this campaign. Pertinent questions are: can the same person/organization make multiple, separate contributions? Why are these the only campaigns that automatically list all donors as anonymous? Can one find out how many separate donors there are rather than the number of donations?
There is nothing on the Memories or Barronelle campaign sights that tell the donors they will not be able to list their name. Deceptive and suspicious.
Good points and an investigative reporter ought to be checking into this. Go Fund Me in this case may be the tool of a political Action Committee.
DeleteCould they somehow be fake contributions?
DeleteI don't think the contributions are fake, but I do believe many were made by the same organization who bankrolled the fund. GoFundMe likes to be perceived as a true grassroots fundraising organization with individuals making their small or large contributions to help others. But if, in fact, they are allowing a corporation or political entity to make multiple anonymous contributions (maybe hundreds or thousands of contributions), then something is wrong.
DeleteHmm. Sounds exactly like an episode of Breaking Bad -- where Walt Jr. set up an account and Walt Sr's attorney filtered drug money through it. The whole "woe is me" crap with christians is getting on my last nerves.
DeleteMemories Pizza. Sounds like heartburn and lots and lots of TUMS.
ReplyDeleteRJ in BBistan
I googled Walkerton, Indiana to read their city profile:
ReplyDeletePopulation 2200 (not exact figure)
Percentage of gay men: 0.0%
Percentage of Lesbian women: something like 0.046%
Teh Gay is not exactly a big issue in Walkerton. Somehow, I don't believe they would receive too many requests to cater gay weddings. Perdue and Notre Dame are both within 20 - 25 miles but even so, I wouldn't think too many college kids come to Walkerton for their pizza.
Ma and Pa Fundie capitalized on fears and propaganda: "We ain'ta gonna cater no gay weddin's and they're acomin', they're takin' over the country".
Indeed. And I'm inclined to think that fundie pizza is about as tasty as the box it comes in.
DeleteMy eyes read that as Wankerton, Indiana.
DeleteI read somewhere that this pizza joint doesn't cater, has never catered any wedding.
I wonder if that silly girl has ever heard of thou shalt not lie? It doesn't seem like the bible spewers have EVER read that one.
I worked at a so called religious place once. Biggest bunch of goddamn liars I ever met.
Yes, that was pretty stunning. I agree, we are a F’k Up country. When one can engage in hate speech and be awarded it says a lot about US.
ReplyDeleteLess money for sarah because her paint chip eaters donated to the pizza place this month.
ReplyDeleteVicinity to those universities is an issue. Having lived in a logging community with a university the anger from those who didn’t attend was palpable. And this was in the 1970s. I think it is a lot worse today. Even in my family, those who didn’t have a higher eduction experience are angry and more likely to listen to hate radio and FOX. Economic conditions in the lower and middle classes and opportunity for upward mobility has stagnated in the last 40 years. Hanging on without a degree has become harder with the erosion of a union-protected manufacturing base. I think a lot of divisive conservative social values we see coming out of this angry population are not as much believed as a way to protest the breakdown of families that suffer from economic collapse.
ReplyDelete"..there is something truly fucked up about this country." Are you just figuring that out now?
ReplyDeleteThis country has been fucked up since the first white European stepped foot on these shores and looted and murdered and raped and stole and lied and tortured their way across. It has never stopped. CONTROL!! Must control at any cost.
DeleteBilly Graham, "you think I'm stupid? I got 3 Lincoln Continentals, that's how goddamn stupid I am". Lenny Bruce, 1961, Live at Carnegie Hall in his routine of "Religion's Incorporated". I first heard it in 1969. Get it! Nothing new about any of this phony religious grifting. I bet that family didn't give a penny to charity.
ReplyDeleteThe Civil War ended at Appomattox 150 years ago today, when Generals Grant and Lee met to sign the terms of peace.
ReplyDeleteGrant said later that day: "“The war is over,” he told his staff. “The rebels are our countrymen again.”
For all this time, we have struggled with the fact that the United States was briefly torn asunder, and after four years and 600,000 lives, was made whole again.
One hundred and fifty years later a black man was shot in the back in South Carolina, and only with this incident is a national discussion beginning again. We are one nation; the Confederates should accept it. General Lee did.
I hope there is a God, and that He is as angry about these "christian" grifters as I think He would be.
ReplyDeleteWhat happen to "Frozen Justice" lady blogger. Is she alright?
ReplyDeleteGryphen, I think I've found the perfect way to exploit this situation.
ReplyDeleteI am announcing officially today that under no circumstances will I agree to cater ANY gay weddings with my world-famous patented award-winning CRUSTLESS PB&J sammich served with a super cold delicious glass of whole milk!!
(yes, that's the homogenized milk that used to feature the large label reading "HOMO MILK", but I digress...)
That's right, Geys! If you call me to prepare and then serve your friends and families my delicious comfort food YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK!!! IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!! FUGGETABOUTIT!!!
To misquote Seinfield's Soup Nazi "NO PB&J FOR YOU!!!
Ok, right wing fundies, you know what to do now....
I'll be posting the link to my GoFundMe page shortly.
(And I'm also donating 50% of the proceeds to gender and reproductive freedom rights groups)
......Ma and Pa Fundie capitalized on fears and propaganda.....
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin should be proud and supporting her people with editorials about the ways of grifting.
Someone woke Nanny French from her slumber... It’s nice to see a person with liberal views who actually believes in tolerance and love. April 9, 2015 Nancy French as Bristol Palin. WARNING!
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/bristolpalin/2015/04/gay-woman-apologizes-to-christian-owned-indiana-pizzeria-sends-donation/
Sarah Palin and Chuck Heath Jr. Facebooks are stuck April 5.
That kind of shit is so easy for the RW to make up, they do much worse than that every day. Glenn Freakface is a perfect example.
DeleteIf it came via the Palins there's no reason I should believe a word of it. Remember how the useless lazy Bitchy Bristol tried (weeks later) to rewrite the Palin Family Brawl even in face of her recorded evidence?
Lying and the Palin family were made for each other.
Hey, look at the bright side. It would have probably gone a lot higher if it hadn't been capped at that ridiculous point.
ReplyDeleteAnnnnnd:
http://time.com/3815249/walter-scott-slager-campaign-gofundme/
The crowd-funding website GoFundMe rejected a campaign to raise funds for Michael Slager, the police officer accused of shooting and killing an unarmed black man in South Carolina.
A representative for GoFundMe, marketed as the No. 1 fundraising site for personal causes, confirmed that it had removed the campaign because of unspecified violations to its terms and conditions.
I assume they found another site for that one. It's interesting that these sites have become one of the new front-lines in our culture war.
I'm involved in planning two weddings four years from now (after College) and possibly another. Since when do pizza parlours cater weddings? Is it an Indiana thing or just me?
ReplyDeleteI live in the northeast pennsylvania, and have seen a lot of people planning same sex weddings at the places my daughters are planning theirs, with no problems whatsoever.
I'm calling BS on this whole fundraising angle, over eight hundred grand for a pizza wedding? Something smells fishy, and it ain't anchovy.