Bernie's In

@revelette2,

I don't really understand where the concern is. Presidential candidates often make trips to meet with foreign heads of state both to get a better understanding of the world and to burnish their credentials for the office. Of course Sanders would try to meet with an extremely popular Pope and of course he would advertise it. Likewise I would expect Clinton to mention that she has met with 50 heads of state (made up number, I don't know how many she has met) to point out her experience.

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@Olivier5,

You are making assumptions, this secretary has been pushing this meeting with Bernie and the Pope from the beginning. I just don't buy the Pope who has much more important work to do really wanted to take time out to meet the with Sanders and get mixed up with the US elections which are always ugly.

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@engineer,

It is the false narrative that gets in my craw. I found the article which I posted of how the meeting took place just added another layer to the drama being played out.

On Pope Francis, I just want to add, I admire the man so much, he is reminding me of Mother Teresa another I admired for her humanity for the world's unfortunates. I don't like seeing him being taken advantage of in this way or to see him being mixed up with our election squabbles. Meeting with heads of States are not the same as the head of the Catholic Church during an election.

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@revelette2,

You are naive and misinformed, rev, and you are shutting your mind down these days, closing your eyes, pressing your hands to your ears. It's not a beautiful sight. Open up again, and you might learn something.

The whole world is interested by this race, including Francis. And the Pope's job description includes meeting with pretty much anyone who wants to, including criminals, transexuals, whores and politicians.

In fact, every year before Xmas, the Pope accords an audience to people from my very company who put up their name for it. I could meet him if I wanted to. Now that I think of it, I'll ask for the fridgin' papal audience this year, just to meet with the dude.

Now if the pope can find time to meet with my co-workers, he can find time for Bernie Sanders. Especially of he likes him.

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@Olivier5,

Whatever, I still have my opinion on the matter, there is no evidence to support the Pope himself set up the meeting or wanted it. His secretary could have very well set it up without his knowledge.

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@revelette2,

Tell you what happened. The Pope really really wanted to meet with Hillary so he asked his secretary to set up a meeting, but the evil secretary set up the meeting with Bernie instead... :-)

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@Olivier5,

Olivier5 wrote:

...the Pope's job description includes meeting with pretty much anyone who wants to, including criminals, transexuals, whores and politicians.

... I could meet him if I wanted to....just to meet with the dude.

Now if the pope can find time to meet with my co-workers, he can find time for Bernie Sanders.

All of this is true.

My problem with the Sanders visit, is that in light of all this being true, meeting with Bernie is supposed to somehow be something special and indicative of some tacit support for him. We should all be impressed that Sanders met the pope. It made a bunch of news here. Some Sanders supporters took this as the ultimate blessing of their candidate.

Now, when one considers the truth of your statement, that the pope literally will meet with anybody, why should/does this meeting mean so much to people?

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@Olivier5,

You can be sarcastic all you want. I know Hillary and Pope Francis probably little if anything in common. I doubt she would go to the refugees except for anything other than a political reason. I know she is a partisan political candidate, I have no delusions of benevolence about her.

I also know Bernie is sincere in wanting to help the unequal advantage the rich have over the poor. I just think through this process he has been buying his own adulation from his admires. I also think while the visit may have started out with an honest desire to discuss his views on the moral economy, his campaign and Bernie supporters have turned the whole thing into something perhaps it was not.

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@Olivier5,

The Pope was probably just trying to be fair. New York's Jews favor Hillary by 2 to 1, so the Pope thought he'd throw Bernie a few Catholics to make up for it.

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@Blickers,

There's chemistry between those two. Bernie likes Francis and Francis likes Bernie... :-)

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@revelette2,

You're thinking too much about this. Pope wanted to meet Bernie, Bernie wanted to meet Pope, they had to find some excuse to not make it look like the Pope mingling in US politics too much... That's all there is to it. Fantacize away.

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@Olivier5,

I see it more as "celebrity politician from the US is coming to speak at our event, can you spare time for a hand shake?" type of meeting.

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@engineer,

I doubt it. Francis is not a fool. He knows that he is not expected to mingle in any country's elections. He is on record saying he doesn't want to lean on Italian politics, for instance. In spite of that, an invitation was sent to Sanders to come to Rome, and while assuaging words were fed to the press ("the Pope will not attend the conference"), arrangements were quietly made so that those two meet in a corridor... all this during a primary in New York, one of the most catholic states in the US. The writing is on the wall. Francis votes for Bernie Sanders.

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An interesting article from the Huffington Post on the Sanders/Pope issue written by someone who actually understands the Vatican and Catholic history VERY well.

He also calls out how much Bernie has misunderstood and mischaracterized this entire meeting.

Bernie Sanders And The Invitation Pope Francis Never Sent
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/massimo-faggioli/bernie-sanders-and-the-in_1_b_9721400.html

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Without a shred of evidence the Bernie campaign now accuses Clinton of illegal fundraising. She should sue the pants off him, the low down desperate sore loser. He can't stand the fact that not everyone is feeling the bern, such a idiotic saying.

Sanders Campaign Accuses Clinton and DNC of Violating Campaign Finance Rules

Quote:

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign is accusing his rival Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Convention (DNC) of “serious apparent violations of campaign finance laws” by improperly allocating money obtained through joint fundraising.

In joint fundraising, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) allows two or more political committees (in the case of HVF, the DNC and Hillary for America) to fundraise together. These agreements are not uncommon and allow the two parties to split the cost of hosting the fundraiser and sharing the proceeds. Sanders also signed a joint fundraiser agreement with the DNC in 2015.

FEC rules states that the two participants should divide the money raised from a fundraiser based on an “agreed upon allocation formula.” But if the allocation formula results in an “excessive contribution” for either party involved, the excessive portion has to be split among the other participants.

“It is of grave concern that the Clinton joint fundraising committee appears to be using funds raised by 'big dollar' donors to fund activities that yield contributions and support that only provide benefit only to HFA,” Brad Deutsch, the attorney for Sanders' campaign, wrote in a letter addressed to DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and mailed Monday.

“The letter questioned whether the Clinton presidential campaign violated legal limits on donations by improperly subsidizing Clinton’s campaign bid by paying Clinton staffers with funds from the joint DNC-Clinton committee,” the statement declares regarding the letter sent by Deutsch.

This accusation is in addition to the lawsuit the Sanders campaign filed in March against the DNC over access to voter data files.

Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, argued that the Sanders’ campaign is “resorting to baseless accusations” and called the move “shameful.”

"The Sanders campaign's false attacks have gotten out of hand,” Mook said in a statement released Monday in response to the accusations. “As Senator Sanders faces nearly insurmountable odds, he is resorting to baseless accusations of illegal actions and poisoning the well for Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. It is shameful that Senator Sanders has resorted to irresponsible and misleading attacks just to raise money for himself.”

The statement continued: “Furthermore, we call on Senator Sanders to end his frivolous and cynical lawsuit against the DNC....”

Mark Paustenbach, national press secretary for the DNC, responded to the campaign's accusations Monday, saying: “The DNC offered to engage in the same joint fundraising efforts with all the major presidential candidates early in the cycle and we welcome the efforts of the candidates to help raise money for the DNC and state parties now to ensure we can build out the infrastructure to win in November.”

According to the DNC, the Sanders campaign could use the joint fundraising agreement to their benefit. The organization argued that the Clinton campaign paid a proportional part of the cost all fundraisers and that it is not subsidizing the Clinton fundraising effort.

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@revelette2,

This just shows that they're grasping at straws as this election quickly (especially after today) goes out of reach.

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@revelette2,

Yes, I didn't see any evidence there, and it would probably take a team of accountants and lawyers six months to figure out who got how much of what.

Has Sanders done any Sanders-DNC joint fundraisers?

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@Blickers,

Blickers wrote:

Yes, I didn't see any evidence there, and it would probably take a team of accountants and lawyers six months to figure out who got how much of what.

They also won't point out that Clinton only received $2700 x 2 = $5400 from this $350,000 fundraiser.

Clinton has done more to help push progressive agendas and politicians to congress and the house than Sanders has ever done.

One candidate in this primary walks the walk...the other, well he can get young people to a rally...getting them to vote, or getting them to elect other like minded politicians, not so much.

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@Blickers,

I don't know if he has, but he could have, it is not against the rules. Sander's accusation is a baseless charge.

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Nate Silvers has a positive article out concerning Sander's. Just thought I would throw it out as the accusation has been made that 538 never writes positive articles about Sanders.

More Democrats Are Feeling The Bern, Probably

He says a lot of stuff, I frankly don't really grasp, but, I think he is saying, Bernie has been catching up to Hillary in the polls really close to just a couple percentage points. He has been doing better than expected in some places in primaries and caucuses. However, I think Nate Silver thinks in the end, it is too little too late to be able to overtake Hillary's lead in the delegates and popular votes.

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