Tag Archives: mormon church

Growing up Romney

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Grey Villet—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Caption from March, 1958, issue of LIFE. ”With ‘Mitt,’ 10, youngest of Romney children, [George Romney] inspects house at Bloomfield Hills which he and his wife designed.”


Grey Villet—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Not originally published in LIFE. George Romney with his son, Mitt, 1958


Francis Miller—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Caption from February, 1962, issue of LIFE. ”At end of a long day on the new state constitution — and after a quick change to pajamas — Romney falls asleep on fold-back seat of his car as the chauffeur begins the trip back to Bloomfield Hills.”


Francis Miller—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Caption from February, 1962, issue of LIFE. “After Sunday services the Romneys crowd onto a sofa in living room. Son Mitt and married daughters Jane and Lynn are at the rear. From left, grandchildren are Gregory (held by Lenore), Douglas, Susan, Brett and Jody. Another son, Scott, is in England with a mission group.“

**************My SIDE NOTE: U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned international borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. American involvement in the war peaked in 1968, at the time of the Tet Offensive. After this, U.S. ground forces were gradually withdrawn as part of a policy known as Vietnamization. Despite the Paris Peace Accords, signed by all parties in January 1973, fighting continued.***********

Mitt wasn’t the only fortunate son from that family — or the last.


Francis Miller—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Not originally published in LIFE. Lenore Romney, wife of Michigan governor George Romney, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1963


Francis Miller—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Not originally published in LIFE. George Romney officiates during a Mormon service, Michigan, 1962

Growing Up Romney: Mitt’s Early World | LIFE (see all photos) – Nevertheless, it remains clear that President Obama’s and Governor Romney’s backgrounds are part of the larger national conversation this fall. Electing a commander in chief solely on the basis of his experience of childhood would, of course, be absurd; but ignoring the public curiosity about where these men came from would be equally silly. Both candidates, after all, have proudly proclaimed that the people who raised them unquestionably shaped the way they see the world. These photos, ultimately, offer one, small window through which to view the world in which Mitt Romney was raised. His father (“lean, hard George Romney,” as LIFE put characterized the AMC chairman and president in 1958) is here, as are his mom and his siblings. Some of the pictures feel rather stagey; others seem genuinely informal and, as it were, intimate; all of them suggest a close-knit family defined, in large part, by its faith and by the pursuits of its dynamic patriarch. Taken as a whole, they’re one more piece to the puzzle that is the current Republican candidate for president. This is not an exhaustive portrait, but instead a glimpse into what it was sometimes like — at least when reporters and photographers were around — growing up Romney.

Are you a Mormon and critical of Mitt Romney? That might get you excommunicated

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Well this is an ugly story… imagine if Willard was elected president. He wouldn’t need the Secret Service with his Mormon Church Protective and Interrogation Service.

Mormons Want to Excommunicate Romney Critic
By Jamie Reno, thedailybeast.com

After writing negative articles about the Republican candidate, the managing editor of MormonThink.com says he faces excommunication. Is the Church on a witch hunt? Jamie Reno reports.

[...]  A Mormon in good standing, Twede has never been disciplined by Latter Day Saints leadership. But it now appears his days as a Mormon may be numbered because of a series of articles he wrote this past week that were critical of Mitt Romney.

On Sunday, Twede says his bishop, stake president, and two church executives brought him into Florida Mormon church offices in Orlando and interrogated him for nearly an hour about his writings, telling him, “Cease and desist, Brother Twede.”

On Tuesday I wondered out loud whether the Mormon Church would ever take Mitt to task for his Ayn Randian economic policies, like some Catholic Church leaders have with Paul Ryan. I concluded no, because of the steady river of money that the Romneys tithe to the LDS Church. It looks like I was right.

10 things Mitt Romney will not talk about: the “Just Trust Me” campaign

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“Unlike President Obama, you don’t have to wait until after the election to find out what I believe in — or what my plans are.” — Mitt Romney’s biggest lie so far

Mitt Romney says he wants to talk about issues but he refuses to talk about the following:

  1. his tax returns (and accounts in Bermuda, the Caymans, and Switzerland)
  2. his religion (which is now another excuse for not releasing tax returns)
  3. Bain Capital
  4. 2002 Olympics
  5. his Governorship of Massachusetts (and the wiped computers)
  6. his energy policy
  7. which tax deductions he’d eliminate
  8. Medicare benefits and how repealing ACA would impact them
  9. his big campaign donors
  10. and… the newest off-limits topics: abortion and Todd Akin

Romney is constantly attempting to change the conversation from Bain or his tax returns (or anything else he doesn’t want to talk about) with “issues,” as in, “we need to talk about the real issues!”  But paraphrasing Romney’s own campaign advisers, who revealed their strategy recently: details and specifics are for losers. So how exactly can you debate issues without specifics or details?

You don’t. You can’t. It’s obvious the Romney campaign isn’t trying to sway voters with Mitt’s ideas or plans — or even with Mitt himself as a “person.” They’re running a ‘just trust me’ campaign, as Greg Sargent explains:

Romney advisers are explicitly confirming that all of this is part of a grand strategy to only signal general direction to the American people. It’s a guiding idea that specifics are a political peril to be avoided. The campaign thinks sharing details about what he’d actually do as president would be politically suicidal. As Steve Benen asks: “what does it say about the merit of Romney’s policy agenda if voters are likely to recoil if they heard the whole truth?” And this is coming after the campaign touted the selection of Paul Ryan as proof that the GOP ticket is deeply serious about policy and committed to making the tough decisions Democrats won’t.

Just trust Mitt Romney — you’ll find out why after he wins the election. Really.

Does Romney think taxes are a form of “charity” and how much DOES he give the LDS Church?

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Rosalind S. Helderman at The Washington Post asks, because “…Romney seemed to suggest that he might think so last week, when he responded to questions about how much he pays in taxes by suggesting that people should take into account his total contributions to the government and charities.”

The comment was a quick one — a by-golly insistence that despite paying a relatively low tax rate on his vast income, the millions he has given to charity show that he’s not a greedy guy.

But experts who research public attitudes on philanthropy on both sides of the political spectrum said it was an inadvertently revealing moment, a brief window into the deep philosophical differences between how liberals and conservatives view government and society.

Another question raised here earlier is why are donations to the Mormon Church considered ‘charity’ and are therefore tax deductible — especially when such tithing is required by the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? We know the Romneys tithe the required 10% to the Church, so you’d presume that if their 2010 return says they gave 13% to charity, then 10% of that was to the LDS Church. In January (not followed up, ever heard about this?) ABC News found there may be even more contributions to the Church from the Romney family through Bain Capital (one wonders, with the associated tax deductions?):

Newly uncovered stock contributions made during Romney’s Bain days suggest there is another dimension to Romney’s support for the church — one that could involve millions more than has been previously disclosed.

As part of just one Bain transaction in 2008, involving its investment in Burger King Holdings, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that an unnamed Bain partner donated 65,326 shares of Burger King stock to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, holdings then worth nearly $1.9 million. And there were numerous others, giving the church a stake in other Bain properties, such as Domino’s Pizza, the electronics manufacturer DDi, the phosphates company Innophos Holdings, and Marquee Holdings, the parent to AMC Theaters.

The Republican presidential candidate’s campaign staff confirmed that some of the stock transactions were at Romney’s direction, but they would not say which ones. 

[...] In some cases the filings are vague about the way stocks are apportioned to the different recipients. In others, such as the 2000 stock sale involving DDi Corporation, the records show the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held 27,016 shares, worth $754,827 at the time of the sale. In a 2008 stock sale involving Innophos Holdings, the church’s 50,301 shares were worth nearly $1.4 million. SEC filings for Marquee Holdings note that “certain members and other employees of Bain and its affiliates may make a contribution of shares to one or more charities prior to this offering, including … The Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Charitable donations! You know what would actually be wonderfully karmic? If at some point, Bain Capital had given Stericycle stock to “The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Mitt Romney’s fortune combined with all the associated business dealings through Bain Capital — which can now be connected in unknown numerous ways with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – is like traveling down the rabbit hole without hope of returning anytime soon.

What Mitt Romney has on his side is American media: they don’t like to research such information or follow the money — it could get ‘uncomfortable’ with their pre-programmed formula of “both sides do it,” the GOP loves America, and Democrats are socialist hippies. Of course now the question becomes: how much of our mainstream media might be owned (by a one- to six-degree separation) by Kolob or the billionaires who are working behind the scenes to buy the White House?

Maybe people ought to start paying more attention.

WTF & TGIF: 9 interesting things

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1) How The GOP Went Back To The 1950s In Just One Day - So there you have it: modern women being told by Republicans that they’re not qualified to talk about their own sexual health, are dressed like “whores” and probably need birth control because they’re so slutty. And this is just in one day…

  • On Capitol Hill, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) held hearings on contraception and religious freedom that produced the now-famous picture of a table full of men called to weigh in on access to contraceptives. Democrats wanted a woman — a Georgetown law student with a friend who lost an ovary because the university doesn’t cover birth control — to say her piece at the hearing, but Issa wouldn’t let her on the panel. He said she wasn’t “appropriate or qualified” to discuss the topic at hand. Jaws dropped in the women’s rights community. “She didn’t have the right credentials?” NOW President Terry O’Neill scoffed. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘Buddy, you and your little panel over there don’t have the right anatomy to talk about birth control.’” - Back To The 1950s
  • Politico published a story about a right wing firestorm that had been burning for days: Did the young women who attended this year’s CPAC wear skirts that were too short? The days following the massive conservative conference, which closed Saturday, were filled with tweets and blog posts weighing in on what conservative pundit Melissa Clouthier called outfits that made the college-age women at CPAC look either “frumpish” or “like two-bit whores.” - Back To The 1950s

2) Foster Friess, the billionaire backer of Rick Santorum’s campaign, became an instant celebrity when he went on Andrea Mitchell’s MSNBC show and said, “Back in my day, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly.”  - Back To The 1950s [Watch Andrea Mitchell's reaction]:


…

Quote of the Day - For her part, Mitchell seemed rather stunned, which is the only appropriate reaction. This is, after all, the 21st century. Friess’ comments aren’t just offensive — did he really have to say “gals” while arguing against birth control? – they’re hopelessly ridiculous. That he seemed pleased with himself for saying this on national television only added insult to injury. Friess is not an official in the Santorum campaign, but given his role as the super PAC financier, it seems likely the former senator will be pressed for a reaction to the aspirin-as-contraception comments, as he should. Given Santorum’s anti-contraception agenda, his response should prove interesting.

Rick Santorum distances himself from supporter’s ‘aspirin’ comment on contraception - Santorum, a devout Catholic, has said he opposes contraception. But he’s calling Friess’ comment a “stupid joke.” And he says he’s not responsible for everything his supporters say. Speaking to reporters after a speech in Michigan, Santorum says the comment by Friess was “in bad taste.” Santorum later told Fox News that he considers Friess “a good man” and “a great philanthropist.”

3) Nancy Pelosi offers to ‘explain biology’ as Republicans deny birth control is a women’s health issue - “What else do you need to know about the subject? If you need to know more, tune in. I may, I may at some point be moved to explain biology to my colleagues.”  Watch Nancy P talk about the lack of women on Darrell Issa’s ‘Man Panel on Women’s Health’ —  “Five men are testifying on women’s health. Where are the women? Imagine having a panel on women’s health and they don’t have any women on the panel. Duh?”

…

4) McDonnell having second thoughts on ultrasound bill? “Virginia Governor McDonnell signaled his intent to sign one of the most despicable bills in the country that would force women to undergo a trans-vaginal ultrasound against her will in order to obtain an abortion. Or in other words, a bill authorizing state-sanctioned rape. But after speaking with Jeff Caldwell, McDonnell’s press secretary, it seems the Governor is not so eager to go on the record with his previously-held position.”

~ via: WWJD

5) The Nation’s Most Radical Abortion Bill? Iowa GOP Proposal Would Ban All Abortions, Sentence Doctors To Life In Prison - In the escalating war on women’s rights in statehouse across the country, Iowa state Rep. Kim Pearson (R) may have just dropped the biggest bomb yet. Pearson, a freshman Tea Party lawmaker so extreme that she’s already drawn scorn from fellow Republicans and decided not to run for re-election, introduced a bill yesterday morning that would completely outlaw all abortions. Among other things, the bill make it so a doctor that performs and abortion commits “feticide” — a Class A felony, which is punishable by life imprisonment without the chance for parole.

~ via: think4yourself

6) Given all the hopelessly unbelievable bullshit above, this should come as no surprise: New Poll Finds Republicans in ‘State of Collapse’ - A new survey from Democracy Corps finds Republicans in deep trouble at almost all levels, and new voter enthusiasm among Democrats — especially among unmarried women, oddly enough. A new Democracy Corps (D) survey finds the Republican brand “is in a state of collapse — over 50 percent of voters give the Republican Party a cool, negative rating. The presidential race and the congressional battles are interacting with each other to drive down their lead candidate, the party, and perceptions of the congressional Republicans.” … Most interesting: Voters who gave Democrats their victories in 2006 and 2008 “have returned in a big way” led by “a resurgence and re-engagement of unmarried women.” 

7) Bill Maher On Rick Santorum: ‘He Believes Life Begins at Erection’ – Watch:

…

8) Republican hate just keeps spreading - Despite the harm caused by a harsh immigration law in the neighboring state of Alabama, Mississippi State Rep. Becky Currie (R) filed a bill, HB 488, that would implement an Alabama-style law in Mississippi. Unlike anti-immigrant laws in states like Georgia and Arizona, Currie’s bill includes Alabama’s unconstitutional provisions driving the children of immigrants out of schools and potentially making it a felony for undocumented immigrants to take a shower.

9) Mormon Church Apologizes for Performing ‘Baptism For The Dead’ Ritual On Jews - An incredible story just hit the wires involving Mormons and their ‘baptism for the dead’ rituals via the LA Times The Mormon Church apologized Tuesday for a “serious breach of protocol” after it was discovered that the parents of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized as Mormons. The church also acknowledged that one of its members tried to baptize posthumously three relatives of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. The efforts, at least in Wiesenthal’s case, violated the terms of an agreement that the church signed in 1995, in which it agreed to stop baptizing Jewish victims of the Holocaust. [...] You may remember that the LDS Church posthumously baptized the late mother of President Obama into the Mormon faith.

Wednesday morning’s 9 interesting things

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Waking Up to Santorum - As David Axelrod notes, Mitt’s Super PAC is going to be banging away at Santorum, but I don’t think he’s as soft a target as Gingrich, at least for Republicans. His weakness as a general election candidate is his bigotry, but that’s a strength among the 27 percenters, so Romney can’t mention it. Instead, the Romney campaign will be attacking Santorum’s earmarks when he was in Congress. That’s a far cry from adultery and moon bases. Let’s face it: in their hearts, the Tea Party base has secretly wanted Santorum all along, but they held their nose and voted for Romney. With 11 caucuses in March, they can come out of the closet and wallow in it.

Diminishing Santorum’s victories: So tomorrow’s news reports will say it was a big win for Rick Santorum. The numbers, however, are so low as to be laughable: if the vote-per-precinct ratio holds up, a total of 65,000 people will have participated in the GOP caucuses [in Minnesota]. This compares with 1,275,409 Minnesotans who voted for John McCain in 2008, so something like 5% of Minnesota’s Republican voters participated tonight. That is hardly enough to give Santorum a ringing mandate, but, on the other hand, that’s how democracy works. You have to show up.

As a matter of fact, if you announce that there can exist no possible information that might change your mind about abortion, the death penalty, marijuana, same-sex marriage, and the inheritance tax, then yes you are an unreasonable person—or anyway, an unreasoning one. I’ve changed my mind about same-sex marriage as experience has dispelled my fears of the harms from same-sex marriage. If somebody could prove to me that marijuana was harmless or that legalization would not lead to an increase in marijuana use, I’d change my mind about marijuana legalization. And so on through the list. - David Frum 

Mitt Romney is on the Wrong Side of Every Issue - The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court struck down Proposition 9 in California today by declaring that it is unconstitutional and, right on queue, Mitt Romney immediately criticized the decision and blamed activist judges for denying the will of the people. [...] I don’t care what space-god Romney worships, but pledging to overturn same-sex marriage as president while also donating millions of dollars to the religious groups bankrolling anti-gay campaigns crosses a line that should not be crossed. 

Mormon Church ‘owns unregulated gun sale website’ - KSL.com was criticised by  Mayor [Bloomberg]‘s office for running classified adverts which allow individuals to buy and sell handguns and other firearms without proper background checks and no questions asked. The site is owned by Deseret Media, the for-profit arm of the Church of the Latter Day Saints – also known as the Mormons – which has come to prominence recently as a result of the presidential run of member Mitt Romney.

Mentioning Coffee In Romney’s Presence a Form of Grave Offense - Alan Reynolds showed up to a Mittens rally with a sign bearing the (mysterious?) collection of words, “Tea Party Includes Cuban Coffee Romney.” NOT COOL, said Romney campaign staff. Because Mitt Romney does not drink coffee. It is against his magick moon religion. Therefore this hilarious nonsense phrase must be kept away from Mitt AT ALL COSTS and Reynolds was told to leave. No, we don’t understand it, either! Does Mitt Romney melt away like the Wicked Witch if he so much as reads one of the special Mormon naughty words? That’s one theory. The other conclusion one might draw is that Mitt Romney’s campaign staff does not know how to properly interpret teabagger signage, ha ha.

Uh-oh, It’s Morning in America | Paul Krugman - Nobody does hissy fits like Karl Rove; the master of hardball, dirty-trick politics is constantly outraged, outraged, at his opponents’ underhanded tactics. And the latest hissy-target is the Chrysler ad during the Super Bowl, starring Clint Eastwood. Jon Cohn gets it: it’s actually a double-edged problem for the Republicans. They hate any reminder that they were dead wrong on the auto bailout; and they hate any thought that the Democrats are becoming the party of optimism. Hey, only Republicans are allowed to celebrate American success!

President Obama on Super PACs: We Will Not Play by Two Sets of Rules - This is rather unfortunate, but what other choice does Obama have? If he doesn’t deploy his own Super PACs (while never actually coordinating with them, wink), the gargantuan amounts of money the Republicans will throw into the race would give them an overwhelming advantage: We Will Not Play by Two Sets of Rules — Blog — Barack Obama.

Bachmann: ‘I was the perfect candidate’ - The Minnesota congresswoman was asked by Bloomberg TV’s Al Hunt which of the remaining candidates was the most conservative during an interview Friday, and said none of them measured up to her conservative credentials. “I was. I was the perfect candidate,” Bachmann said in response. [...] “America had their chance with the perfect candidate. But any of our candidates are going to be acceptable to the American people, and more than acceptable, because right now, if you look at the Gallup map that came out this week, President Obama is in big trouble all across the country…. Honestly, I don’t think endorsements make a lot of difference … I’m looking at November. I want to make sure that our nominee wins. And so my goal is to be a unifying person who brings the factions together, because now primaries produce factions within a party. And my goal is to bring the Tea Party, evangelicals, mainstream, establishment, and also independents and disaffected Democrats.“

The Book of Romney: the many ways Mitt increases his income and lowers his taxes

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How does the Mormon Church play into Romney’s income and taxes?

In Bain deals, Romney gave stock to Mormon church

A stock donation to the Mormon Church during the 1990s – when Romney was in charge at Bain Capital – shows how the donor might have booked significant tax savings.

In the transaction, the church received 93,668 shares of Wesley Jessen VisionCare Inc, a contact lens company.

The church sold the shares for $22.325 each, after an underwriting commission, according to a Wesley Jessen prospectus dated August 19, 1997. The shares had appreciated more than 50-fold since being acquired by Bain Capital Funds two years earlier at a cost of 43.4 cents a share, according to data in a Wesley Jessen prospectus filed with the SEC on February 13, 1997.

If Romney or another Bain partner or employee had cashed in the shares, they would have been taxed on the $21.89 per share gain, or $2.05 million.

Instead, the donor of the shares to the Mormon church avoided tax on the substantial capital gain and would have been able to count some or all of the $2.09 million of stock given to the church as a tax-deductible charitable contribution.

And how does Romney’s proposed ‘tax plan’ play into Romney’s income and taxes?

Romney’s tax plan would cut his own taxes by nearly half, new analysis finds

The revelation that Mitt Romney pays a tax rate of around 15 percent opens the door to another question: How much would his own taxes fall under the tax plan he would pass if elected president?

Here’s the answer, according to a new analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice that was provided to me this morning. Under his plan, Romney in 2013 would see his taxes cut by nearly half of what they would be if you use current law as a baseline.

Another way to put this: If Romney, whose wealth is estimated at as much as $250 million, is elected president and gets his way on tax policy, he would pay barely more than half as much in taxes than he would if Obama is reelected and gets his way — and the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy expire and an additional Medicare tax as part of the Affordable Care Act kicks in.

Mitt Romney 2012: Life begins at incorporation.