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Willard "Mitt" Romney

Trying to make sense of a crazy world, with limited success mostly
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#1

Post by Luke »

Gosh, with all the demand for content about Willard, it's shocking his topic hadn't made it to Fogbow 2.0.

It's insane this has to be said, and more insane that the Trumper trolls and Russian bots dispute it and get nasty.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#2

Post by RVInit »

Not sure how many of you are following the Tim Ballard/OUR stuff, but holey moley it's a doozie. When you dig in, you can see right from the beginning that OUR was always designed to catapult Tim Ballard to something big. Well, turns out he's going to run for Mitt Romney's Senate seat.

When he originally pitched OUR to Glenn Beck he presented a whiteboard that can only be interpreted as ultimately setting up Ballard with boatloads of money and boatloads of personal fame as a hero. His hardcore supporters are QAnon and other far right, and this whole thing is blowing up. It appears to me that the Mormon church is basically suffering the same fate as the Republican Party, and for the same reason. The powers that be (Mormon Church leaders and Republican Party leaders) need the support, money, votes, etc of the far right crazies, so they tolerated them in order to gain what they needed. And now, the far right that has eaten up the Republican Party is apparently doing the same with the Mormon Church.

Many of you know that I am an atheist. I hope that many of you know that I also endeavor to respect those of you who are believers, I don't post on any of the religious topics. Also I believe we do have members here who are members of LDS faith. And for those of you who are, I do feel bad for what you might be experiencing in this situation.

Vice has done several stories on OUR, and from the rumblings I am seeing it looks like the whole Tim Ballard/OUR scam might break into more mainstream media. Get ready for a wild ride. I have my fingers crossed that Mitt Romney's seat will not go to Tim Ballard, but it may very well go to some other far right, QAnon crazed weirdo.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#3

Post by Suranis »

I have read that Mormons seem to be particularly vulnerable to the Multi-Level Marketing scams for some reason.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#4

Post by bob »

"OUR"? :confuzzled:

* * *
Suranis wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:11 pm I have read that Mormons seem to be particularly vulnerable to the Multi-Level Marketing scams for some reason.
My WAG would be the implied vouching created by church membership.
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#5

Post by Suranis »

bob wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:16 pm "OUR"? :confuzzled:
Operation Underground Railroad, an anti-sex trafficking organization.

I think Tim Ballard was the guy who the "Sound of Freedom" movie was based on, and who has recently been accused of sexual harassment and attempted rape.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#6

Post by Maybenaut »

bob wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:16 pm "OUR"? :confuzzled:

* * *
Suranis wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:11 pm I have read that Mormons seem to be particularly vulnerable to the Multi-Level Marketing scams for some reason.
My WAG would be the implied vouching created by church membership.
Another term for it: affinity fraud.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#7

Post by RVInit »

Suranis wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:53 pm
bob wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:16 pm "OUR"? :confuzzled:
Operation Underground Railroad, an anti-sex trafficking organization.

I think Tim Ballard was the guy who the "Sound of Freedom" movie was based on, and who has recently been accused of sexual harassment and attempted rape.
He stepped down from running O.U.R (sorry, bob!) after an "internal investigation". Several women complained and there was an investigation. A lawyer (I forget her name) recently made a short statement from them. Right now they want to remain anonymous, but "in their own time and own way" more may be revealed. The LDS powers that be have stepped away from Ballard and there are rumors that he was excommunicated. The rumors give details about dates, etc, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's actually true.
Off Topic
O.U.R. had a "couples ruse" whereby they tried to pretend to be a tourist couple and the man would secretly whisper to a suspected "trafficker" that he wanted a child for sex. The "ruse" was so the trafficker wouldn't know they were actually "operatives". I'm putting these words mostly in quotes because O.U.R is turning out to be quite the scam. Several men who actually did have law enforcement background and got involved have come out and admitted they were troubled by the whole thing. Apparently there never were a whole team of actual experienced law enforcement involved, but every once in a a while someone from law enforcement would want to participate only to become "troubled" by the fact that they never really saw any child that was rescued and they had the distinct impression that most of what they actually did was bust into a brothel and stand by while Haitian law enforcement arrested the madam. This is not actually trafficking. This is run of the mill prostitution. With adult women usually voluntarily working as prostitutes. And they just go right back to working as prostitutes.

So, back to the "couples ruse". Apparently although Ballard wasn't the only man involved in the couples ruse, he allegedly groomed the well meaning women who played the part of his "wife" into believing that it was necessary to establish sexual chemistry between them to fool the "traffickers" and eventually would asked them "how far would you go to save these poor children" and had sex with them. The church distanced itself after these allegations came to light.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#8

Post by raison de arizona »

Maybenaut wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 3:19 pm
bob wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:16 pm "OUR"? :confuzzled:

* * *
Suranis wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:11 pm I have read that Mormons seem to be particularly vulnerable to the Multi-Level Marketing scams for some reason.
My WAG would be the implied vouching created by church membership.
Another term for it: affinity fraud.
My very Mormom relatives got ripped off so many times from church members they trusted, mostly tax scam stuff but they definitely fell for some MLM as well. FWIW. They never seemed to learn not to trust people just because they purported to be Mormons.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#9

Post by RVInit »

raison de arizona wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2023 3:37 pm
Maybenaut wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 3:19 pm
bob wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:16 pm "OUR"? :confuzzled:

* * *

My WAG would be the implied vouching created by church membership.
Another term for it: affinity fraud.
My very Mormom relatives got ripped off so many times from church members they trusted, mostly tax scam stuff but they definitely fell for some MLM as well. FWIW. They never seemed to learn not to trust people just because they purported to be Mormons.
I listened to a very interesting podcast last night that presented everything that is known about Tim Ballard's various nonprofit and profit LLC's. At one point when they were discussing M. Russell Ballard's* relationship to Tim Ballard's nonprofits, they presented allegations from several people who worked under M.R. Ballard who said they were strongly encouraged by him to invest in his son in law's business. That business produces some kind of powder for food and nutrition items that are sold in an MLM type business arrangement. They talked about the fact that he made them feel obligated to invest. They say he did this quite often and not with just his son in law's business but with other businesses of close friends and relatives.

This all came about when the couple that does the podcast did a deep dive into public records of the various non-profits that Tim Ballard set up to funnel money into his for profit LLC's. Turns out that some of the shared the same business address as M.R. Ballard's son in law. When he presented his idea of how all the different nonprofits would funnel money into his various for profit businesses and eventually right into his bank account, that is when several people who had been close to Tim Ballard in the beginning became disillusioned with his motives. Although they all had to sign NDA's to attend the meeting, at least one of them took a photo of his whiteboard showing all the funneling of money. Also showing that Sound of Freedom movie, income from speaking engagements, and several books were not associated by Ballard with O.U.R. and getting attention on the problem of child trafficking, but on his whiteboard all those things were associated with TimBallard.com and getting him personal fame and fortune. This is what shocked them, when they saw on his own diagram that all along the "save the children" was just a small part of various nonprofits that all have the final goal of making Tim Ballard wealthy and very famous.

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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#10

Post by northland10 »

raison de arizona wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2023 3:37 pm
Maybenaut wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 3:19 pm
bob wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 2:16 pm "OUR"? :confuzzled:

* * *

My WAG would be the implied vouching created by church membership.
Another term for it: affinity fraud.
My very Mormom relatives got ripped off so many times from church members they trusted, mostly tax scam stuff but they definitely fell for some MLM as well. FWIW. They never seemed to learn not to trust people just because they purported to be Mormons.
This is the same reason there has been issues with abuse in churches, scouts, school sports, with family friends, and even relatives. They perpetrator would be trusted and allowed contact that a drag queen library book reader stranger would not.

The same trust can protect the abuser even if the victim speaks up.

I would assume the the history of the LDS as a more outcast group from the mainstream would likely strengthen the internal trust factor. They have a history that leads them to trust on their own more as they were often outcasts. Bad players can take advantage of that easily, and they do.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#11

Post by raison de arizona »

Mitt Romney criticizes Fox News and right-wing media for warping Republican Party

Mitt Romney, once the Republican Party's standard-bearer, believes the right-wing media machine is at fault for much of the radicalization that has disfigured the GOP.

The Utah senator and one-time GOP presidential nominee unleashed a torrent of pointed criticism aimed squarely at the information universe in which most of his party's members consume their news, characterizing it in a new book as a dangerous propaganda factory detached from reality, poisoning the minds of its inhabitants.

Romney's blunt assessment of the right-wing media apparatus comes in "Romney: A Reckoning," the forthcoming book by McKay Coppins, a journalist with The Atlantic who was granted a series of exclusive interviews and unprecedented access to the outgoing senator.

"It's hard to imagine," Romney said in one excerpt of the book that Coppins shared with me, but Tucker Carlson is turning the GOP into "the pro-Russian, pro-authoritarian party."

"And that's not what it used to be," Romney added.

In another excerpt, Romney expressed alarm at how prominent storylines in the right-wing media space demonized people that he believed should have been celebrated, such as an Olympian struggling with mental health.

"It’s almost like you take what is praiseworthy and of good report and you say, 'Let’s attack that!'" Romney said.
:snippity:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/media/mi ... le-sources
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#12

Post by Suranis »

"It’s almost like you take what is praiseworthy and of good report and you say, 'Let’s attack that!'" Romney said.
You mean the Karl Rove tactics, which you have been an enthusiastic supporter of, you hypocritical quisling.

And I just saw this headline...
New Book Says Mitt Romney Considered Humiliating Himself To Stop Trump In 2016
Big fucking woop, even if it's actually true. Instead you humiliated yourself to help get his ass in the white house.
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#13

Post by AndyinPA »

Mitt Romney: too little, too late.
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#14

Post by chancery »

:yeahthat:

Just what I was going to say.
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#15

Post by noblepa »

Suranis wrote: Fri Oct 20, 2023 9:31 am
To be fair to Mitt, I think he bought into the fictional belief that Trump would change once he got in the WH, and that the old hands of the Republican party could influence him and keep his evil angels at bay. I'm sure that Romney also wanted to remain a loyal Republican.

Mitt found out what many of us knew before 2016: what you saw on the campaign trail was/is the real Donald Trump. No amount of influence from the old guard would change him.

Mitt also found out that loyalty is no longer existant in the Republican party. What little loyalty exists is entirely one directional; upwards toward Trump. There is no downward loyalty from the top.

In the current Republican party, the rank and file members exist only to sing the praises of Trump and to echo his lies. Any party member who thinks otherwise is a RINO.
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#16

Post by RVInit »

Mitt Romney and all the other old school Republicans fed the right wing media lies for year and years and years. They expected viewers to believe those lies "just enough" to continue voting for Republicans. They never stopped to think what was going to happen if they created a critical mass of true believers. And Sarah Palin's popularity after McCain's failed 2008 bid should have been a wakeup call and told them they needed to pull back sharply.

At least there are a couple of Republicans, like Steve Schmidt, that have been able to admit that they fed this monster and are trying to do something about it. Except it's too late and they are only preaching to choir at this point. But I still appreciate their honesty in admitting they caused this problem. If Romney is not willing to admit that he fed that very media for years, I have no use for him.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#17

Post by sad-cafe »

RVInit wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 5:59 pm Mitt Romney and all the other old school Republicans fed the right wing media lies for year and years and years. They expected viewers to believe those lies "just enough" to continue voting for Republicans. They never stopped to think what was going to happen if they created a critical mass of true believers. And Sarah Palin's popularity after McCain's failed 2008 bid should have been a wakeup call and told them they needed to pull back sharply.

At least there are a couple of Republicans, like Steve Schmidt, that have been able to admit that they fed this monster and are trying to do something about it. Except it's too late and they are only preaching to choir at this point. But I still appreciate their honesty in admitting they caused this problem. If Romney is not willing to admit that he fed that very media for years, I have no use for him.
:yeahthat:
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#18

Post by AndyinPA »

There are going to have to be a lot more Steve Schmidt's. Over the years, the republican players, with the help of faux noise, have chased the moderates, such as they were, out of the party. I don't know exactly what it will take to make that party whole again, but I think it may be too late, which is a real tragedy.
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#19

Post by RVInit »

AndyinPA wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 6:29 pm There are going to have to be a lot more Steve Schmidt's. Over the years, the republican players, with the help of faux noise, have chased the moderates, such as they were, out of the party. I don't know exactly what it will take to make that party whole again, but I think it may be too late, which is a real tragedy.
I believe it is too late. As long as these right wing media exist and continue the lies and conspiracy theories there is no hope to ever get back to anything approaching healthy political environment. Or even heathy society for that matter. This country is a festering boil with a deep well of pus.
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#20

Post by raison de arizona »

Republican Accountability @AccountableGOP wrote: .@MittRomney: “Donald Trump represents a failure of character, which is changing, I think in many respects, the psyche of our nation and the heart of our nation. And that's something which takes a long time, if ever, to repair.”
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#21

Post by Slim Cognito »

I agree with Andy and RV but I can only hope that still somewhat respected Rs like Romney and Schmidt, (Conway, Wilson, etc) can pick off a few confused, moderate Rs by being brave enough to stand up to the MAGAt machine. I know third parties don't have a snowball's chance in hell right now, but I don't think, sadly, the Party of Lincoln will ever again be the Party of Lincoln. We definitely need, at the very least, a functioning two party system. Sometimes I'm glad I'm old. My heart breaks for younger generations.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#22

Post by noblepa »

Slim Cognito wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2023 7:38 am I agree with Andy and RV but I can only hope that still somewhat respected Rs like Romney and Schmidt, (Conway, Wilson, etc) can pick off a few confused, moderate Rs by being brave enough to stand up to the MAGAt machine. I know third parties don't have a snowball's chance in hell right now, but I don't think, sadly, the Party of Lincoln will ever again be the Party of Lincoln. We definitely need, at the very least, a functioning two party system. Sometimes I'm glad I'm old. My heart breaks for younger generations.
It hasn't been the party of Lincoln for decades, at least since Richard Nixon devised the "Southern Strategy", to appeal to southerners pining for the antebellum south.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#23

Post by keith »

noblepa wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2023 1:31 pm
It hasn't been the party of Lincoln for decades, at least since Richard Nixon devised the "Southern Strategy", to appeal to southerners pining for the antebellum south.
Which coincided with the Dixiecrats leaving coalition with the Democrats over the Civil Rights Act and joining the Republicans. The 'Southern Strategy' could not have worked without the Dixiecrats on board.
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Willard "Mitt" Romney

#24

Post by Kendra »

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... be969&ei=6
Trump mixed up square miles and acres when he bragged to Romney about returning land to Utah, book says

Romney said former President Trump mixed up his unit of measurements during a 2018 talk about Utah.
Romney told author McKay Coppins that Trump gave an inaccurate picture of his restoration of land to the state.
But Trump went on to say that he was a "real estate guy" who fully understood metrics, per the book.
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#25

Post by Suranis »

Just a little reminder about how Romney's son Josh looked as Obama was eviscerating his father. One of the many reasons I think Rmoney's retirement conversion is bullshit. He was just as entitled would be Monarch as trump, just with 100 times the talent.

mitt-romney-son-josh-soon.jpg
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