Mitt Romney not running for Senate in 2024

[Jersey Girl]

I suspect he won't be the last of the GOP moderates to leave during the 2024-28 Senate cycle. If you want a great read the Atlantic has a piece out (preview to a full biography) about Romney's time in the Senate from election to 1/6 and retirement.

1/6th of what?

You're doing it again.

[Dr. Shades]

1/6th of what?

The attack on the capitol on January 6,2021.

Ahh, that makes sense. Thank you.

[Dwight]

I've heard Tim Ballard is eyeing the seat. God save us if he gets the seat.

[Philo Sofee]

Utah will offer up a hardline conservative Trump supporter. Someone without an ounce of Philosopher King.

But with a ton of corporate Mormonerica making sure they continue getting all the tax and religion breaks, so as to remain untouchable on their journey to trillionairedom. Oh... and they will continue talking about Jesus... not TO Jesus, but just about him.

[High Spy]

I shudder to think what type of person will replace him.

Hopefully the guy in the linked photo.

[Dr Moore]

Looks like the church has made sure Ballard won’t take the seat.

[I Have Questions]

Looks like the church has made sure Ballard won’t take the seat.

The Church is claiming to have not endorsed Tim Ballard/OUR.

In addition, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints never endorsed, supported or represented OUR, Tim Ballard or any projects associated with them.

https://kutv.com/news/local/church-issu ... of-freedom
However, they did just that in March 2015...

Church of Jesus Christ
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org › inspiration › sav...
17 Mar 2015 — Tim Ballard and his company run undercover sting operations all over the world with the intent of saving innocent children from the perils ...

This^ came up on a Google search for "LDS Church Operation Underground Railroad" but the Church has moved to take it down so the link to the piece doesn't work.

Here https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/sea ... &facet=all the Church links to Just Serve funding efforts for OUR and faith promoting stories that mention involvement with OUR.

Here is one example that is linked to from the official Church Website...

We are looking for volunteers to help with various tasks for a 5k that benefits Operation Underground Railroad (a non-profit that helps prevent and fight sex-trafficking).

Tasks would be advertising the race (social media, word of mouth, and putting up yard signs around Davis County), and volunteer help with packet pickup and race day!

The whole 5k is ran 100% by volunteers, we just need some extra hands!

Race is September 17th in Farmington, Utah.

https://www.justserve.org/projects/488f ... 922a31a556

It is worth noting that "JustServe.org is provided as a service by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

The Church statement "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints never endorsed, supported or represented OUR" is a lie.

(I'm sure the Church is now acting fast to remove all mentions of OUR from its website)

[I Have Questions]

Looks like the church has made sure Ballard won’t take the seat.

Russell Ballard October 2019...

In the wake of European discovery, Nephi saw the Gentiles settle the Americas and establish a form of government that provided liberty and freedom for many of the Anglo-American inhabitants. Eventually, through a civil war, struggle, and determination, the freedom and liberty they planted continued to bless many others.
This past summer, I visited Plimoth Plantation, about 80 miles from here, with my son Craig, son-in-law Brad, and family friend, Tim Ballard.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... script.pdf
I'm guessing the spirit of discernment and seership was having a day off that day...

[I Have Questions]

Looks like the church has made sure Ballard won’t take the seat.

This story was under the "Global Histories" "Haiti" section of the Church website. It's still in the index, but the links has been broken to the actual story...

In my personal studies, I am going over the global histories and stories of faith. I love to listen to these while I workout. Yesterday while running I listened to the stories from Haiti. The stories of faith from Haiti detailed the stories of faith and overcoming of the pioneers in that land, they were awesome stories that I've never heard before, but then it came to a story I knew. The story of Gardy...As I heard his story again I started to cry for what he and his family have gone through. For those of you who do not know this story, here it is:
“We Had to Seek God”
On Sunday, December 6, 2009, Guesno and Majorie Mardy, members of the Fontamara Ward outside Port-au-Prince, took their six children to church as usual. That day, however, their youngest son, two-year-old Gardy, refused to leave Guesno’s side. “I had to teach classes and administer meetings,” Guesno recalled later, “and he just hung on to my neck, holding me as tightly as possible.”
After the meetings, Guesno sent Gardy to find his mother while he attended to some business. That was the last time anyone in the Mardy family saw Gardy. In just a few minutes, Gardy was abducted by a gang of human traffickers. In the weeks that followed, Guesno did not sleep but walked the streets of Port-au-Prince, hoping to hear Gardy cry out to him.
Just five weeks after Gardy’s abduction, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated the area. More than 200,000 were killed, and thousands of children were orphaned. The orphan home Guesno and Majorie operated survived the quake, but the building housing their administrative offices collapsed. In the aftermath, the investigation into Gardy’s abduction halted, and all leads evaporated. As they helped to clear the rubble, buried loved ones, and took newly orphaned children into their care, Guesno and Majorie, however, did not abandon hope of finding Gardy. “We prayed every day. It was one of the moments when we had to seek God,” Guesno said. “I have read the scripture and I have understood that the ... disciples of God—they have been through trials, they have suffered.”
Eventually, Guesno found information about an orphanage operating as a front for human trafficking where he believed Gardy might be. He passed this information to Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), a nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing children from human trafficking that had pledged to help find Gardy. Working with Haitian authorities, OUR infiltrated the orphanage, arrested the operators, and freed 28 children from the traffickers.
During the operation, Guesno waited in the lobby of a nearby hotel awaiting news. “I was praying very hard that a happy ending could come,” Guesno said. That evening when OUR founder Timothy Ballard arrived at the hotel alone, Guesno knew Gardy had not been found. Guesno wept. After a few moments, he slapped the table.
“But you rescued the twenty-eight kids, right?’ he asked.
“Yes. Of course,” Ballard responded.
“Don’t you see what happened?” Guesno asked. “If I have to give up my son so that these twenty-eight kids can be set free,” he explained, “I will make that sacrifice.”
Although Gardy remains missing, Guesno and Majorie continue to search for him and to work to eradicate child slavery in Haiti. “I feel that it is my duty to get him back,” Guesno said. “I’ll find him. One day something will happen, and I’ll find him.”
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... d?lang=eng

I know yesterday was #GivingTuesday and that for #LightTheWorld we were encouraged to support a charity. So if you have not yet, I encourage you to support Operation Underground Railroad, as this story is what started their quest to end human trafficking.

https://m.Facebook.com/MyLifeByGogoGoff ... 388832055/

This link in the above no longer works. The Church is moving quickly to cover up its endorsing and promoting of OUR and Tim Ballard.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Hrm. I think I might've bumped into one of those O.U.R. guys way back in 2014. We were in route to Korea for what was to be my last assignment, and we're were checking out homes and condos in Daybreak, and a salesman was showing a condo when he was talking about "his charity" while talking about saving children from sex trafficking. I asked him if Utah had that big of a problem, and he said they operated throughout the world and the work with former members of SOF, the CIA, and the FBI to break trafficking rings - he talked about something they did in Haiti he was proud of.

Anyway, he gave a us a bracelet. I got the 'bads' when talking to him, so I never took him up on the offer to work with them; I don't really know fi they ever actually saved people and broke trafficking rings, or if it was all a scam.

- Doc