"The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.
-Ayn Rand
On June 14, 2017, I asked Deplorable Pride, the pro-gay Trump club based in Albemarle, a couple of questions about what they were going to do with the money they'd raised in a Gofundme.com campaign.
It was set up by co-founder Brian Talbert, in his own name. In early press interviews, he said the $100,000 sought was to file suit to force Charlotte Pride to revoke the denial of a permit for him to run a float praising President Trump in the Gay Pride Parade August 27.
I posted the questions to Deplorable Pride's Facebook page.
After a lot of parrying and evasion, the unidentified respondent refused to answer my questions. I was told to submit them via Deplorable Pride's "Official Website."
As I pointed out in our exchanges, Deplorable Pride's spokesperson could have answered my questions several times in the time taken to avoid answering them. But they were obdurate.
I saw no reason to pursue it further. To claim that questions couldn't be answered on one social media page because they had to be asked on another is- well, transparent.
By Brian Talbert's own admissions in the press, Deplorable Pride only has twelve members. It's not like they have a big press office where torrents of questions rush in by the minute.
Shortly thereafter, the exchange was taken down.
Luckily, I saved it, and posted it.
Then Deplorable Pride blocked me from commenting on their Facebook page.
More recently Talbert has posted that all posts and comments, everywhere, for Deplorable Pride are by him, so I assume he was the one who stonewalled me, then tried to erase the evidence.
Two days later, on June 16, Channel 46, the Fox News station, posted a story titled, "'Deplorable Pride' faces accusations."
The story included this:
"I'm going to be 100 percent truthful and transparent," Brian Talbert said, the leader of ‘Deplorable Pride'.
Though in that story Talbert was responding to Charlotte Pride's claim that he submitted his application for a Deplorable Pride float for the August 27 parade under the name of a Greensboro organization, Gays for Trump, he upped the ante on himself June 21:
I have been informed that I need to be more clear on who I am and what intentions for money are. Seems the only ones who are not clear are the one not donating a dime. Freedom loving Americans have full knowledge of what they are giving their money to. But to make things clear, here goes…
As of the time 12:54pm on 6/21/2017 not one single penny has been removed from this account. So for those who claim we are searching for some fast cash, there is your answer. We are depending on the freedom loving Americans who know what was done here in Charlotte was wrong. They are the ones that tell us everyday. They know that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. DeplorablePride.org has been on record as standing for honesty and 100% transparency. We also have a track record of keeping that goal. If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact us at DeplorablePride.org. We will be more than willing to do our best in answering your questions. Like I have I said from the beginning, if you just tell the truth, you have nothing to hide. I'm not hiding and I'm not going away.
The next day he added,
I have update our gofundme page to address the issues for all the liberals who have donated one penny. Yet they are the only ones making accusations and demanding questions to be answered. Please check out our story part of the profile and let me know what you think. Please feel free to go to the gofundme page and leave your comments to show the liberals what you think I should use your money for. Thank you so much for this chance to say what was one my mind. Brian Talbert co-founder DeplorablePride.org.
-Gofundme.com,"Story" for Brian Talbert's fundraiser for Brian Talbert (Update 3/Posted by Brian Talbert/15 days ago, June 22, 2017)
The day after that, Talbert added this:
Making another update as requested by Gofundme. Not sure what else it is they want me to update other than the fact that they are playing political games with your donations and making it difficult for us to withdraw. So to all the people who have donated please contact Gofundme an express your concerns for holding your donations hostage and hindering the work that you made your donation for. Thank you all for your continued support. Seems we are going to have to fight at every turn we take.
-Gofundme.com,"Story" for Brian Talbert's fundraiser for Brian Talbert (Update 3/Posted by Brian Talbert/14 days ago, June 23, 2017)
Despite promising to be 100% truthful and transparent, questions about what Talbert was planning to do with over $7500 in donated funds apparently irked him. The next day he posted this:
Just to satisfy the LIBERALS who are running Gofundme I am making the FOURTH update in two days. I WILL BE WITHDRAWING THIS MONEY AND DEPOSITING THE FUNDS INTO A PERSONAL ACCOUNT. Does this now satisfy you, gofundme to release our donors money?
-Gofundme.com,"Story" for Brian Talbert's fundraiser for Brian Talbert (Update 4/Posted by Brian Talbert/13 days ago, June 24, 2017)
The nerve of those Gofundme people, thinking just because they had the brains and capital to create a way to make money off the desperation and anger of others, they get to make the rules for it!
I can see how Deplorable Pride would be peeved. The President is above accountability, especially when it comes to money. So should be his fanboys.
QED.
The nerve of those Gofundme people, thinking just because they had the brains and capital to create a way to make money off the desperation and anger of others, they get to make the rules for it!
I can see how Deplorable Pride would be peeved. The President is above accountability, especially when it comes to money. So should be his fanboys.
QED.
After June 11, donations petered out. June 24- the day he wrote he was pulling the money out of Gofundme- was the day Talbert's account received its last major gift: $250.
Except for $5 donated on July 1, nothing has been gifted to Talbert's campaign since.
And now the money given by 210 donors is in his personal account. And as I learned, ask questions at Facebook and you get blocked. Your questions get erased.
I went back this week to try to pose some questions about the money and accountability for it on Deplorable Pride's "Official Website" as the projects undertaken by Deplorable Pride turned into an ever-lengthening trainwreck of failures.
I couldn't. It got hacked, along with DP's Twitter account, and turned into a conservative gay dating site. Now that is gone, but nothing else is there except a construction notice.
Nothing's been volunteered about the money on the Facebook page, either.
Much to my delight, both Deplorable Pride and Brian Talbert personally started stacking comments to these critiques, crossposted to a Facebook group called HB2Day, on July 6.
It's a nice irony, getting catechized by a man who brags about being 100% honest and transparent, but who blocks questions about his public fundraising while using the freedom others afford him to diss his questioner.
Meantime, all anyone knows about the $7530 is that Brian Talbert has it, and that he won't answer any questions about it.
But he has a track record of being 100% honest and transparent. He says so.
He says he has a track record of saying that he is, and that is, indeed, what he has said.
He says he has a track record of saying that he is, and that is, indeed, what he has said.
So he may well be.
It's also true that the Gofundme account says exactly what it is: "a fundraiser for Brian Talbert." He never specifically states, in his solicitation, what the money will go for, other than this vaporous nonsense,
We plan on using the money for any legal means neseccery to insure that the hypocrisy is exposed and finally corrected. I plan on the money being held in an accoun t until we need it for use in educating or legally demostrating our right to fix this wrong.
So, yeah, with common sense screaming "NOOOOOOOO!" to them, the donors to Talbert's fund gave away their money freely. It's for them to consider the wisdom of the choice as the weeks grind on and the only successes Deplorable Pride can show are the money- now in Talbert's pocket- and a lot of media interviews and stories about himself.
Economic historians might be forgiven for thinking this a variation on a Wall Street pump-and-dump IPO, where a speculator pumps up a stock offering with grand and fatuous claims, attracting buyers in droves, then sells his stake, reaps all the value, and leaves them with the dregs.
The longtime president of RCA put it succinctly:
To me, the scheme recalls one of the famous financial bubbles of Britain in the 1720s: get-rich-quick schemes built on pure blue sky. The best of them was organized by a London company that promised stock
For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is.If Deplorable Pride is really 100% honest and transparent, why don't they answer questions about their plans and what's doing with the donations?
Why do they block those who ask? The really truthful and transparent don't care if the questions come from skeptics, or even opponents. They're happy to answer them.
Deplorable Pride, it's increasingly apparent, is not that sort of organization.
As the President asked, in another context, last weekend:
Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017
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