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Photo Op: Romney Campaign Bought Supplies To Give To Red Cross Which Only Accepts Money

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With all due respect to the people personally impacted by Hurricane Sandy, allow me to explain why this event is the perfect symbol of what a Mitt Romney presidency would look like.

Mitt Romney, desperate to maintain some form of relevance during a national disaster that killed dozens of people, put millions out of their homes, plunged millions more into darkness and plunged hundreds of towns under water, decided to rename his “victory rally” slated for today in Ohio, and dress it up as a World War II “relief effort,” complete with a canned goods drive.

READ: Romney Donating Sandy Supplies To GOP Swing States — Not NY

Team Romney didn’t want to be caught making the same mistake they have made throughout his campaign — shoot first and don’t even bother to ask questions or correct the record later — as they did on September 11 this year when we were attacked in Egypt and Libya. As someone on Twitter today aptly wrote, this time, team Romney didn’t want to release a statement in the middle of the night attacking President Obama for ignoring and then apologizing to Mother Nature.

Anyone who has ever donated to the Red Cross, or any one of dozens of charities over the past decade’s worth of natural disasters, like the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, or the 2010 Haiti earthquake, know that it’s cash — or credit — charities ask for. (Or, in the case of the Red Cross, blood.)

You cannot send the Red Cross blankets. Or canned goods. Or bottled water.

Why would you?

For what it would cost to go to the store, buy those items, and ship them to the Red Cross or drop them at a local office, and then have the Red Cross spend countless man hours (person hours!) sorting and packaging them, then sending them to victims would take days or weeks and cost a small fortune.

A $50 donation of supplies could easily cost $50 to process.

Thanks. So. Much.

So, of course, that’s exactly what candidate Romney did.

Romney personally asked people to bring blankets, bottled water, and canned goods — just like they did in World War II — to his victory rally, or, now, “relief effort.”

The Red Cross does not accept supplies. They accept cash (and blood.)

So the Romney camp had to pressure the Red Cross to accept their supplies, which they finally did, after the campaign had asked supporters to bring them to the rally-cum-relief effort, after the campaign made donors stand in line until candidate Romney came to be photographed, rolled up sleeves and all, behind a table, accepting bags of beans and blankets.

But now news comes that Team Romney not only collected Poland Spring, they went out and bought it.

Yes.

And that’s the point.

Team Romney took campaign contributions and used them to buy supplies — water, canned goods, and blankets — to use as photo op props, then forced the Red Cross to take them, rather than just taking that cash and giving it to the Red Cross.

Romney today “spoke while standing in front of a bank of tables where campaign volunteers had neatly lined up toothpaste, diapers, canned food and fleece blankets, among other goods,” an AP story at Salon.com reports:

A spokesman later confirmed that Romney’s campaign had purchased some of the supplies. Though it was billed as a “storm relief event,” the candidate’s trademark campaign video was broadcast on large screens set up for the supporters who gathered inside the arena before Romney arrived.

“I will devote every waking hour of my energy to getting America strong again. That’s what an American president has to do,” Romney says in the video.

After he spoke, he stood behind a table full of relief supplies and shook hands with attendees one at a time, taking bags full of relief supplies from many of them. Romney later loaded more relief supplies into a waiting truck as a handful of reporters watched. He loaded bottled water, boxes of diapers and pallets of canned food into the truck, and was joined by Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.

Buying supplies, rather than providing the structure and support — rather than directing supporters to donate to the Red Cross — is what Team Romney chose to do to appear relevant.

How would a President Romney, who has said it would be “immoral” to keep FEMA, handle our nation’s next natural disaster?

Sometimes, as the New York Times editors eloquently wrote yesterday, “A Big Storm Requires Big Government.”

FEMA, the Times notes, “was put back in working order by President Obama, but ideology still blinds Republicans to its value. Many don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people, or they think people should pay for their bad decisions, which this week includes living on the East Coast.”

The East Coast, especially the northern East Coast, isn’t “real America,” to the GOP.

And sometimes — despite what the mind and machinations of Mitt Romney would hope for — big business doesn’t trump big government.

Republicans are so fond of attacking government, so keen on exposing how government “doesn’t work,” how government, to quote Reagan, “is the problem,”  that they trip over themselves to ensure their thesis is correct. Republicans spend their time in government — or campaigning for the opportunity — making sure government doesn’t work so they can tell you how much government doesn’t work.

Like FEMA under George W. Bush, who put in charge of it Michael Brown, who today was caught berating President Obama for “jumping on” Hurricane Sandy “so quickly.” Michael Brown, the man who was forced to resign as the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association — his job immediately before coming to head FEMA. Michael Brown, who, as Katrina beared down on New Orleans, told his staff he needed more time for dinner before he would respond. Michael Brown, who made sure the cameras caught him standing with the president, pretending everything was being taken care of as people, ultimately, at least 1833 people, were dying in Katrina’s wake. Michael Brown, who made FEMA into such a disgrace.

Mitt Romney would do the same.

Doubt it?

Look what he just did.

 

You can donate to the American Red Cross at their website.


Images: Top: Part_Deux, Bottom, Think Progress, which has an excellent Timeline Of Katrina

Editor’s note: This article was updated at 9:00 PM to include the Michael Brown paragraph.

Related:

Trump Using Hurricane Sandy Deaths To Promote $5 Million Obama Challenge

Romney Campaigning Off Storm: Holding ‘Relief Event’ With NASCAR’s Petty

Romney Attempts To Use Hurricane For Campaign, Impede Emergency Response

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Project 2025 Is the Trump Agenda, Republicans Are Gleefully Declaring

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Donald Trump and his presidential campaign have repeatedly denied any connection to Project 2025, a radical blueprint created by the far-right Heritage Foundation to entirely rebuild the executive branch of the federal government on a Christian nationalist foundation. But now that the election is over and Trump has won the White House, several far-right influencers allege that Project 2025 is Trump’s agenda.

Project 2025 is so toxic its creator, Paul Dans, was eliminated from the project. Public opinion gives Project 2025 a single-digit approval rating, according to NBC News:

“It was the least popular of all the subjects tested in the September NBC News poll — a battery that included socialism, capitalism, both presidential and vice presidential candidates, the Republican and Democratic parties, Taylor Swift and Elon Musk.”

The Project 2025 blueprint, a 900-page “manifesto,” according to The Guardian, “describes an America poisoned by ‘wokeness’ and overtaken by lawlessness and chaos, where conservatives need to seize power immediately – and for as long as possible – to right a sinking ship.”

READ MORE: Day One: Trump Planning ‘Largest Mass Deportation Operation’

Project 2025 would effectively make abortion and contraception extremely difficult to obtain, would make pornography illegal, and elevate Christian nationalism throughout the government. It would eliminate the Dept. of Education. It would create a massive forced deportation program, removing possibly millions of undocumented immigrants from the U.S. And it would reduce efforts to improve diversity, while restricting and reducing LGBTQ rights and protections.

“Republicans are now comfortable openly admitting that Project 2025 was the plan all along,” Rolling Stone reports after Trump won the election. “Sure enough, less than 24 hours after the election was called for Trump, his allies, advisers, and prominent supporters were celebrating the now-open road to Project 2025’s implementation.”

Mother Jones notes that after Trump won the White House, some of his “favorite fans finally felt comfortable joking about what the next president has long denied: Project 2025 has always been the plan for a second Trump term.”

READ MORE: The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

Matt Walsh, the far-right podcaster with millions of followers on several platforms, wrote: “Now that the election is over I think we can finally say that yeah actually Project 2025 is the agenda. Lol.”

The New Republic reports, “Project 2025 has begun. And Donald Trump’s allies are now openly celebrating it.”

“Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who was recently released from prison, responded on his live War Room podcast with one word: ‘Fabulous,'” TNR added. “Later during the livestream, Bannon could be seen holding a hard copy of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 ‘Mandate For Leadership’ up to the camera in celebration. On election night, Bannon had vowed to eliminate Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, MSNBC, and the Justice Department in an unhinged rant.”

“Now, you’re going to pay the price,” Bannon said.

READ MORE: ‘Be the Guardrails of Democracy’: Liz Cheney and Other Never-Trumpers Suggest Path Forward

 

 

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Day One: Trump Planning ‘Largest Mass Deportation Operation’

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Donald Trump has called immigrants “animals,” “monsters,” and “murderers,” and said they are “poisoning the blood of our country.” He falsely claimed they are responsible for a “surge in crime,” because “it’s in their genes,” and claimed they’re “eating the pets.”

Trump, now the president-elect, reportedly plans to conduct a massive deportation operation of undocumented immigrants on his first day in office.

“The American people delivered a resounding victory for President Trump, and it gives him a mandate to govern as he campaigned, to deliver on the promises that he made,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, told Fox News Wednesday, Newsweek reports. “Which include, on Day 1, launching the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants that Kamala Harris has allowed into this country.”

Axios reports Leavitt says that “mass deportation operation” includes “millions of undocumented immigrants.”

READ MORE: The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

Back in September, Trump infamously had attacked President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and immigrants.

“What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country,” Trump said. “And look at what’s happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don’t want to talk — not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.”

That same month Trump called for “remigration,” the forceful deportation of immigrants, including those in the U.S. under lawful and unlawful circumstances. He vowed to “end the migrant invasion of America,” and falsely characterized some programs that allow legal entry to the U.S. under law.

READ MORE: ‘Be the Guardrails of Democracy’: Liz Cheney and Other Never-Trumpers Suggest Path Forward

“We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration).”

Remigration, as NCRM reported at the time, is advocated by some in the European far-right, nationalist, and fascist movements.

Marine Le Pen, the French far-right nationalist who promotes anti-immigration and anti-Islam positions, viewed remigration as so extreme she broke with her allies over it. Earlier this year Politico Europe reported Le Pen said “that she was in ‘total disagreement’ with the reported discussions on ‘remigration.’” Those discussions included the forced deportation of some French citizens, who were described as “unassimilated citizens.”

The Washington Post reports Trump “has made 41 distinct promises for his first day in office, including mass deportations and banning transgender women from sports.”

READ MORE: Trump Closes Campaign With Misogynistic Slur, Violent Rhetoric Against Women

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The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

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Vice President Kamala Harris, now the former Democratic presidential nominee, frequently said on the campaign trail: “On day one if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemy’s list. When elected, I will walk in with a to do list.”

Donald Trump is now President-elect and, according to Politico, he has “a lengthy inventory of people he’s pledged to punish.”

“For years, Trump has peppered his speeches and social media posts with vengeful calls for his political opponents, his critics and members of the media to be prosecuted, locked up, deported and even executed. In the waning weeks of the 2024 campaign, he escalated those promises of retaliation to a fever pitch,” Politico reports Wednesday. “Now that he’s won, he has both a popular mandate — and the power — to begin implementing his platform of punishment.”

Trump “will be emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling that grants presidents broad immunity from criminal accountability after they leave office. And he is expected to be surrounded by aides more willing to dispense with norms to carry out his wishes.”

READ MORE: ‘Be the Guardrails of Democracy’: Liz Cheney and Other Never-Trumpers Suggest Path Forward

Back in March of 2023, Trump declared, “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”

Who’s on his list? According to Politico, nearly two dozen individuals, largely in the legal and political spectrum, along with dozens of intelligence specialists, and unnamed journalists:

President Joe Biden
Vice President Kamala Harris
Former President Barack Obama
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi
New York Attorney General Letitia James
Manhattan Justice Arthur Engoron
Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney
Special Counsel Jack Smith
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
Former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley
Former FBI Director James Comey
Hunter Biden and the rest of the Biden family
Former FBI special agent Peter Strzok
Former FBI attorney Lisa Page
Rep. Adam Schiff (Now Senator-elect Schiff)
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen
U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd
Rep. Jamaal Bowman
51 intelligence professionals who signed letter about Hunter Biden laptop
Members of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack
Unspecified people engaged in election fraud
POLITICO reporters, editors and publisher

It’s not just Politico.

Trump has often called the mainstream media, the “enemy of the people.”

In his victory speech early Wednesday morning, Trump referred to the press as, “the enemy camp,” according to The Guardian.

“Introducing his running mate, the Ohio senator JD Vance, Trump said: “I told JD to go into the enemy camp. He just goes: OK. Which one? CNN? MSNBC? He’s like the only guy who looks forward to going on, and then just absolutely obliterates them.”

READ MORE: Trump Closes Campaign With Misogynistic Slur, Violent Rhetoric Against Women

 

 

 

 

 

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