Bernie Sanders & AOC Rally in Detroit Ahead of Michigan Senate Primary | AC15

 

Bernie Sanders PANICS After His Wife's SHADY Burlington College Fraud Gets EXPOSED Felmon Talks News Felmon Talks News

 

Schumer Shutdown Showed Vermont Democrats are Warped By Washington

VTGOP Monday Message for 11/17/2025

VT Republican Party

Nov 17, 2025

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Schumer Shutdown Showed Vermont Democrats are Warped by Washington


The Schumer shutdown has ended. While many are rejoicing that hundreds of Vermonters who are federal employees now have certainty that their paycheck is coming, and thousands on SNAP know they can buy groceries, some people are still upset. Most notably, Vermont’s three federal delegates have each made public statements indicating that reopening the government—and ensuring workers and families got paid—was not the outcome they wanted.

Vermont’s sole Congressional Representative, Becca Balint, called reopening “a mistake” and insisted her party needs to “hold the damn line,” suggesting she believed it would have been better to continue depriving federal workers of their salary and low-income Vermonters of their food assistance to score political points. She also said “this whole thing stinks” and, in another interview, called it “B.S.”

Senator Welch, once viewed as a moderate voice and consensus builder, had been rumored as someone who might cross over to help Republicans reopen the government. But when the roll was called, he was not among them. Despite admitting that “a shutdown is a failure” and has “negative impacts” on federal workers, he continued to obstruct even when it served no practical purpose.

Ex-AOC chief of staff going after the most powerful woman in Congress

Saikat Chakrabarti hopes his tech experience and work with iconic progressives can vault him over Pelosi and into Washington, D.C




Saikat Chakrabarti hosts a Zoom call with potential voters and supporters from his campaign office in San Francisco on April 21, 2025.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

By Anabel Sosa, Senior California politics reporter

May 1, 2025


All at once, Saikat Chakrabarti is a nobody, a Silicon Valley millionaire and a humble job applicant.

“I’m not choosing to challenge the most powerful woman in Congress. I am just choosing to challenge my congressional representative in San Francisco,” he said last month at Manny’s, the famous political venue in San Francisco’s Mission District. He was speaking to roughly 120 people during his first public event since announcing he would challenge Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emerita who has represented San Francisco in Congress since 1987, in a primary election next year.

This is the first time the 39-year-old, who spent the last decade helping recruit and elect progressives to Congress, is running on his own.

“I think we can’t just have this anti-Trump movement,” he said at the panel. “Right now, the Democrats are going to have a choice: They continue standing for slow, iterative change and the status quo … or are we going to present an actual vision for rebuilding society?”

During an hourlong panel hosted at the iconic community cafe, Chakrabarti argued that a change is needed. He said repeatedly, with conviction, that there is a “real coup going on in D.C.” and that Democrats aren’t doing enough to stop it. He believes established Democrats like Pelosi are ignoring the bigger problems facing Americans, which have led to the “authoritarian” rise of President Donald Trump.

Saikat Chakrabarti responds to a question during an interview in San Francisco on April 21, 2025.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE


That’s the bulk of Chakrabarti’s pitch to voters as he works to establish himself as a viable challenger to Pelosi, over a year before Californians will cast their ballots. Pelosi has filed paperwork to run in 2026 but has not publicly shared her plans. Regardless, Chakrabarti is positioning himself as a fresh-faced candidate who is in a rush for change.

Andrew Dupree, a 35-year-old San Francisco resident, came away from the Manny’s event with a sense that Chakrabarti understands the grievances of San Franciscans.

“He made a great point that people are feeling economic pain. The cost of living is going up. Even in San Francisco, people are struggling,” he said. “My question is, how are you going to build a coalition of liberals?”

Sen. Sanders speaks at 'Fighting Oligarchy' rally in Shrevep...

‘This Is Not A Radical Idea’: Bernie Sanders Promotes Benefits Of A 32-H...

#ClimateForum2020 - Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders' Democratic Socialism Speech at Georgetown University 11-...

Watch: Bernie Sanders Speech To Kick Off His 2020 Campaign

February 19, 2019 12:58 pm







Brothers and Sisters–

I am writing to let you know I have decided to run for president of the United States. I am asking you today to join me as part of an unprecedented and historic grassroots campaign that will begin with at least a million people from across the country.

Please join our campaign for president on day one and commit to doing what it takes to win this election.

Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history. It is not only about winning the Democratic nomination and the general election.

Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.

Our campaign is about taking on the powerful special interests that dominate our economic and political life. I’m talking about Wall Street, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex, the private-prison industry and the large multi-national corporations that exert such an enormous influence over our lives.

Our campaign is about redoubling our efforts to end racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and all forms of discrimination.

Our campaign is about creating a vibrant democracy with the highest voter turnout of any major country while we end voter suppression, Citizens United and outrageous levels of gerrymandering.

Our campaign is about creating a government and economy that works for the many, not just the few. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. We should not have grotesque levels of wealth inequality in which three billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the country.

Bernie Sanders Talks About Meeting With Pope Francis While At The Vatican

wwwMOXNEWScom

Published on Apr 16, 2016


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Bernie Sanders Describes Pope Francis' 'Radiance' After Vatican Meeting

Green News

Published on Apr 16, 2016

Sanders and the pontiff discussed foreign policy and climate change during a meeting in Rome.

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* Breaking * Bernie Arrives at the Vatican & Meets The Pope /
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6:14


Bernie Sanders Talks About Meeting With Pope Francis While At The Vatican
NEW

5:46
Pope Francis Writes Personal Note To Vatican Conference | MSNBC
NEW

3:01
Bernie Sanders: Pope Playing 'Historical' Role In World Economy | MSNBC

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Bernie to meet Pope: Sunday Law solves poverty; New Inquisition here; F.Graham: Put God back into Gov.

ProphesyAgainTV

Published on Apr 10, 2016

Subjects Addressed: (1) Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you…Matthew 5:11,12. Why is this the final beatitude?
(2) Franklin Graham: We’ve taken God out of government, schools and everything else and we need to use our vote to get God back into it. (14:02)
(3) Pope Francis one by one reclaiming Protestants; he recently joined forces with Methodists to heal wounds. (16:33)
(4) Pope Francis’ “Amoris Laetitia” places culture and tradition above God’s moral law; he states that Sunday Law will solve moral crisis. (21:28)
(5) Bernie Sanders to meet Pope Francis. Both men call for Sunday Law to solve global economic crisis. (38:49)
(6) 16 Democrat Attorney Generals Begin Inquisition Against ‘Climate Change Disbelievers. (47:14)
(7) Hans von Spakovsky: A new Spanish Inquisition is here for Climate Change Deniers and rejecters of solutions for Climate Change. The Jesuits were behind the Spanish Inquisition and their fingerprints are all over the Climate Change movement. (48:09)


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Bernie Sanders’s campaign trail hits the Vatican

US Democratic presidential candidate not expected to meet Pope Francis in Rome


53 minutes ago

Paddy Agnew In Rome



US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders: He is expected to attend a small, invitation-only conference at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters






If US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders thought that a trip to the Vatican tomorrow would result in a campaign boosting photo opportunity with Pope Francis, he may have to think again.

Sanders is expected to attend a small, invitation-only conference at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Called “Centesimus Annus 25 Years Later”, the conference is intended to be a reflection on the 1991 encyclical by Pope John Paul II, in which the Polish pope was critical of capitalism. Among those due to address the conference are Honduran cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, economist Jeffrey Sachs, and the Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa and his Peruvian counterpart Evo Morales.

The conference will not be attended, however, by Pope Francis, so there will be no chance of a photograph with the pontiff. And the Holy See says no meeting between the pope and Sanders is scheduled.

So then, what is Bernie Sanders, a man who calls himself a “not particularly religious” secular Jew, doing in the Holy See?

On the conference programme itself, he is scheduled to give a ten-minute address on Friday afternoon.

One senior, Rome-based diplomat suggests that his campaign advisors want to use his day in the Vatican to project the image of someone who, contrary to criticism, is comfortable on the world stage. Vatican insiders suggest that maybe the academy chancellor, Argentine bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, will, in the end, set up an encounter between the presidential candidate and the pope.
Spat Adding intrigue is a spat between Sanchez Sorondo and the academy’s president, British professor Margaret Archer.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Archer, appointed by Pope Francis in 2014, said Sanders had invited himself, “for obvious [electoral] reasons”, adding: “He may be going for the Catholic vote but this is not the Catholic vote and he should remember that and act accordingly – not that he will.”

Sanchez Sorondo contradicted Archer, saying that he had invited Sanders, telling CNN that the invitation should not be seen as an endorsement of the senator’s nomination. “We want to establish a dialogue between North America and South America so we thought to invite a [US] politician. The president of Bolivia will also be there,” he said.

Sanders has in the past praised Pope Francis, giving the impression that the two men might be on the same wavelength with regard to social justice and re-distribution of the world’s wealth.

Last autumn in a TV interview, he told Vatican press officer Fr Tom Rosica that Pope Francis “has come along in history at exactly the right moment . . . [because] we are living in a world where greed has become, for the wealthiest people, their own religion.”


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No, Bernie Sanders, Scandinavia is not a socialist utopia

LINDA KASTRUP/AFP/Getty Images

 

Kristian Thulesen Dahl, party leader of the Danish Peoples Party, celebrated after the election in Copenhagen in June.

 

 

 

By Jeff Jacoby Globe Columnist October 15, 2015


When Bernie Sanders was asked during CNN’s Democratic presidential debate how a self-proclaimed socialist could hope to be elected to the White House, he gave the answer he usually gives: Socialism has been wonderful for the countries of Scandinavia, and America should emulate their example.

“We should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people,” Sanders said. When the moderator turned to Hillary Clinton, she agreed that America has to “save capitalism from itself” and that, yes, Scandinavia is great. “I love Denmark,” declared Clinton. It was the only time in the debate a candidate uttered the verb “love.”

Liberals have had a crush on Scandinavia for decades. “It is a country whose very name has become a synonym for a materialist paradise,” observed Time magazine in a 1976 story on Sweden. “Its citizens enjoy one of the world’s highest living standards. . . . Neither ill health, unemployment nor old age pose the terror of financial hardship. [Sweden’s] cradle-to-grave benefits are unmatched in any other free society outside Scandinavia.” In 2010, a National Public Radio story marveled at the way “Denmark Thrives Despite High Taxes.” The small Nordic nation, said NPR, “seems to violate the laws of the economic universe,” improbably balancing low poverty and unemployment rates with stratospheric taxes that were among the world’s highest.

Such paeans may inspire Clinton’s love and Sanders’ faith in America’s socialist future. As with most urban legends, however, the reality of Scandinavia’s welfare-state utopia doesn’t match the hype.

To begin with, explains Swedish scholar Nima Sanandaji, the affluence and cultural norms upon which Scandinavia’s social-democratic policies rest are not the product of socialism. In “Scandinavian Unexceptionalism,” a penetrating new book published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, Sanandaji shows that the Nordic nations’ prosperity “developed during periods characterized by free-market policies, low or moderate taxes, and limited state involvement in the economy.”

 

 

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 Truth and consequences of Denmark’s ‘socialism’

Senator Bernie Sanders has long been a champion of the Scandinavian country’s health care system, tuition-free colleges, and decent wages.

For example, Sweden was a poor nation for most of the 19th century (which helps explain the great wave of Swedish emigration to the United States in the 1800s). That began to change as Stockholm, starting around 1870, turned to free-enterprise reforms. Robust capitalism replaced the formerly agrarian system, and Sweden grew rich. “Property rights, free markets, and the rule of law combined with large numbers of well-educated engineers and entrepreneurs,” Sanandaji writes. The result was an environment in which Swedes experienced “an unprecedented period of sustained and rapid economic development.” In fact, between 1870 and 1936, Sweden had the highest growth rate in the industrialized world.

Scandinavia’s hard-left turn didn’t come about until much later. It was in the late 1960s and early 1970s that taxes soared, welfare payments expanded, and entrepreneurship was discouraged.

But what emerged wasn’t heaven on earth.

That 1976 story in Time, for example, went on to report that Sweden found itself struggling with crime, drug addiction, welfare dependency, and a plague of red tape. Successful Swedes — most famously, Ingmar Bergman — were fleeing the country to avoid its killing taxes. “Growing numbers are plagued by a persistent, gnawing question: Is their Utopia going sour?”

Sweden’s world-beating growth rate dried up. In 1975, it had been the fourth-wealthiest nation on earth (as measured by GDP per capita); by 1993, it had dropped to 14th. By then, Swedes had begun to regard their experiment with socialism as, in Sanandaji’s phrase, “a colossal failure.”

Denmark has come to a similar conclusion. Its lavish subsidies are being rolled back amid sharp concerns about welfare abuse and an eroding work ethic. In the last general election, Danes replaced a left-leaning government with one tilted to the right. Loving Denmark doesn’t mean loving big-government welfarism.

The real key to Scandinavia’s unique successes isn’t socialism, it’s culture. Social trust and cohesion, a broad egalitarian ethic, a strong emphasis on work and responsibility, commitment to the rule of law — these are healthy attributes of a Nordic culture that was ingrained over centuries. In the region’s small and homogeneous countries (overwhelmingly white, Protestant, and native-born), those norms took deep root. The good outcomes and high living standards they produced antedated the socialist nostrums of the 1970s. Scandinavia’s quality of life didn’t spring from leftist policies. It survived them.

Sanandaji makes the acute observation that when Scandinavian emigrants left for the United States, those cultural attributes went with them and produced the same good effects. Scandinavian-Americans have higher incomes and lower poverty rates than the US average. Indeed, Danish-Americans economically outperform Danes still living in Denmark, as do Swedish-Americans compared with Swedes and Finnish-Americans compared with Finns. Scandinavian culture has been a blessing for native Scandinavians — and even more of one for their cousins across the ocean.

No, Scandinavia doesn’t “violate the laws of the economic universe.” It confirms them. With free markets and healthy values, almost any society will thrive. Socialism only makes things worse.

Jeff Jacoby can be reached at jacoby@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeff_jacoby.

 

 

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Sanders Exposes Himself on National TV

Cliff Kincaid — March 10, 2016





Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Bernie Sanders has finally been exposed as the hard-core communist he is. It happened at the debate in Miami on Wednesday night, hosted by Univision and The Washington Post, and broadcast on CNN. On Thursday, CNN trumpeted the news from the debate that Sanders had refused to disavow his previous support for the Castro dictatorship in Cuba. Instead, he had reverted to anti-American nonsense while smearing a Democratic president named John F. Kennedy in the process.

As we have been saying for months, “democratic socialism” is just another name for communism.

Until that point, Sanders had been riding a wave of support from foolish Democrats who thought socialism was somehow different than communism, and that Sanders didn’t favor a dictatorship of any kind. He had spoken of socialism in places like Denmark. He was seen as the friendly face of “democratic socialism” with a powerful message of taking it to the so-called “one percent.”

But on Wednesday night, the real Bernie Sanders came through loud and clear.

Hard-core Marxists had been rallying around the Sanders campaign for months. Alan Maass, the editor of SocialistWorker.org, had said,“…the Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination has done more than anything else to bring the discussion of socialism into the mainstream.” Maass was ecstatic that “the opinion polls tell us that more and more people are identifying with socialism, or at least preferring socialism over capitalism…”

It was true. A poll of 1,000 likely Democratic voters by the American Action Forum (AAF) found that 57 percent answered “positive” to the question, “Do you think socialism has a positive or negative impact on society?”

This was happening because news organizations had not explained how socialism makes people poor and dependent on government—and murders those who get in the way of the Marxist planners. Hence, in the Fox News Democratic presidential town hall on Monday night, even moderator Bret Baier highlighted how Sanders is considered “honest and trustworthy” in opinion polls. This followed Sanders’ claims that he would control the national debt by giving people free health care and college.

During that town hall, when asked how he would get his proposals enacted into law, Sanders said, “I was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Working with people like John McCain, Jeff Miller over in the House—he was chairman in the House Republican. We put together the most comprehensive veterans’ health care bill in the modern history of America, okay?”

A new health care bill was needed because the socialist VA health care system failed veterans. We have pointed out that Sanders’ pitiful performance as chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee came under serious scrutiny by CNN and other media for defending the VA bureaucrats, putting their interests above the veterans they are supposed to serve.

It’s true that Sanders, who had become chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee in 2013, had worked with Republicans to craft a bill designed to fix the problems. But after playing down the serious nature of the scandal, Sanders was forced to recognize, under pressure from Republicans, that the government-run VA health care system could only be saved by giving patients a private health care option.

We had previously reported how Fox News groveled to Sanders to get him to appear on the town hall. It took several more weeks to get Hillary Clinton to agree to appear. While Baier asked Mrs. Clinton some tough questions, the appeasement of Sanders continued. Baier failed to ask about such topics as Sanders’ membership in a communist Israeli kibbutz called Shaar Haamakim that was dedicated to mass murderer Joseph Stalin, and whose members celebrated May Day with red flags.

But during Wednesday night’s debate in Miami, the issue of Sanders’ support for communist totalitarian regimes was brought up. It will prove to be a major turning point in the campaign. Univision anchor María Elena Salinas said to Sanders: “In 1985, you praised the Sandinista government and you said that Daniel Ortega was an impressive guy. This is what you said about Fidel Castro. Let’s listen:”


Sanders: You may recall way back in, when was it, 1961, they invaded Cuba, and everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world. All the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro. They forgot that he educated their kids, gave them health care, totally transformed their society.

The “they” Sanders was referring to was the anti-communist U.S. presidency of Democrat John F. Kennedy, who was determined to overthrow Castro. The evidence shows that Kennedy was killed by a Soviet-Cuban conspiracy involving Marxist “Fair Play for Cuba” member Lee Harvey Oswald. A Palestinian Marxist Killed JFK’s brother Robert.

Sanders, the independent-turned-Democrat, had shown callous indifference to the anti-communism that used to dominate the national Democratic Party. He seems oblivious to the evidence that Castro was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.

Salinas asked, “In South Florida there are still open wounds among some exiles regarding socialism and communism. So please explain what is the difference between the socialism that you profess and the socialism in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.” Socialism is so successful in Venezuela that the currency is worth less than toilet paper, which is in short supply.

When Sanders failed to answer the question, Salinas shot back: “Senator, in retrospect, have you ever regretted the characterizations that you made of Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro that way?”

This exchange then took place:


Sanders: I’m sorry. Please say that…

Salinas: In retrospect, have you ever regretted the characterizations of Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro that you made in 1985?

Sanders: The key issue here was whether the United States should go around overthrowing small Latin American countries. I think that that was a mistake…

Salinas: You didn’t answer the question.

Sanders: …both in Nicaragua and Cuba. Look, let’s look at the facts here. Cuba is, of course, an authoritarian undemocratic country, and I hope very much as soon as possible it becomes a democratic country. But on the other hand… it would be wrong not to state that in Cuba they have made some good advances in health care. They are sending doctors all over the world. They have made some progress in education.

Except for the rather vague and misleading reference to Cuba being “an authoritarian undemocratic country,” it was noteworthy that Sanders had not one word of criticism for the Castro dictatorship.

Sanders talks a lot about non-intervention. In fact, however, Sanders supported NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, an illegal and unconstitutional war waged by President Clinton.

On the matter of Cuba, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was prepared, coming back during the debate to say, “I just want to add one thing to the question you were asking Senator Sanders. I think in that same interview, he praised what he called the revolution of values in Cuba and talked about how people were working for the common good, not for themselves. I just couldn’t disagree more. You know, if the values are that you oppress people, you disappear people, you imprison people or even kill people for expressing their opinions, for expressing freedom of speech, that is not the kind of revolution of values that I ever want to see anywhere.”

An anti-communist Hillary had suddenly emerged on the scene. We all know it’s about getting votes in Florida, but it was a decisive moment nonetheless.

The day after the debate, the Hillary Clinton campaign let loose, noting that Sanders “has a troubling history of admiration for the Castros.” The headline over the item on the Clinton-for-president website blared, “Bernie Sanders just refused to disavow his past support for Fidel Castro.” Among other things, Sanders had called Cuba “a model of what a society could be.”

Referring to the poll on Democratic Party support for socialism cited earlier, an editorial in Investor’s Business Daily asked, “How could average Americans of a supposedly mainstream political party throw their lot in with a creed that’s responsible for more human misery and poverty in the world than any other? It boggles the mind. Socialism, and its evil twin, communism, murdered well over 100 million people during the last century, a scale of slaughter unmatched in human history.”

The answer is that some people, like Sanders, deliberately try to separate socialism from communism, despite the fact that the father of both is Karl Marx. Analyst Trevor Loudon notes that so-called “democratic socialism,” as preached by Sanders, is simply a euphemism for socialism. “Socialism is the last stop on the road to Communism,” he notes. The Marxist dialectic is said to produce the final stage of communism through struggle or conflict.

Some people get confused because they think that Communist China has abandoned both socialism and communism in favor of capitalism. Those who doubt that China is still communist should take a look at the recent Wall Street Journal article entitled, “China’s Xi Jinping Puts Loyalty to the Test at Congress.” It’s all about enforcing loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. The communists are using capitalism to strengthen communism. They consider it another phase the country has to go through to achieve the highest stage of communism.

One of Ronald Reagan’s favorite jokes was about two Russians walking down the street, and one asks, “Comrade, have we reached the highest state of Communism?” The other replies, “Oh, no, I think things are going to get a lot worse.”

This is the brutal and bloody record of socialism and communism.

Yet our media let Sanders run around the country talking about socialism being “democratic.”

Our media have tried to get around this question by framing the issue as one of “income inequality.” It’s just another term for Marxist class warfare.

Now we know that when Sanders talks about imposing socialism on the American people, he’s talking about a dictatorship. Thanks to Univision and anchor María Elena Salinas for bringing out the facts in this case.


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Sanders: Pope Francis is a socialist like me

David Gibson | February 22, 2016




U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders delivers remarks to supporters at an arena in Greenville, South Carolina on February 21, 2016. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst *Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-SANDERS-POPE, originally transmitted on Feb. 22, 2016.

This image is available for web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

(RNS) Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been a longtime fan of Pope Francis’ positions on social justice and income inequality, and now he says the pontiff is in fact a socialist – just like himself.

“(W)hat it means to be a socialist, in the sense of what the pope is talking about, what I’m talking about, is to say that we have got to do our best and live our lives in a way that alleviates human suffering, that does not accelerate the disparities of income and wealth,” Sanders tells the Rev. Thomas Rosica, head of the Toronto-based Catholic network Salt and Light in an interview to be broadcast Tuesday evening (Feb. 23).

Rosica, who also works as an English-language attache for the Vatican press office, had asked Sanders if he thought Francis was in fact a socialist, as many of the Argentine-born pope’s conservative critics in the U.S. have claimed. Sanders said yes.

“When (the pope) talks about wealth being used to serve people, not as an end in itself, I agree with that,” Sanders says.

The interview was taped last September on the eve of Francis’ closely-watched visit to the U.S., his first ever, but Rosica told RNS that “the timing was right now” to run it.

Sanders has endured through the early primaries this year as the only threat to Hillary Clinton, the other Democratic candidate, and the warm embrace of Francis by Sanders – a Jewish agnostic – is an intriguing counterpoint to the recent spat between the pope and the leading Republican candidate, Donald Trump, a professed Presbyterian.

RELATED STORY: Vatican to Trump: It’s not ‘personal,’ it’s religion

But Sanders’ candidacy has also raised questions for Catholics who wonder if they can support a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” like Sanders.

In the interview, Sanders again blasts the world’s “massive income wealth inequality” and says that for the rich, greed has become “their own religion, and they make no apologies for it.” He praises Francis for critiquing this “idolatry of money” and the pope’s “very, very radical critique of the hypercapitalist system.”

Sanders’ latest comments are consistent with his previous praise of the pope’s views, though his comments labeling the pope a socialist were a step further than he has gone before – and are most likely beyond anything the pope himself would say.

RELATED STORY: Yes, Catholics may vote for Bernie Sanders

Francis has said Marxism is wrong, though he has many friends who are Marxists. And speaking to reporters flying with him from Cuba to Washington last September, he rejected the frequent criticism from the right that he is a communist or left-winger.

“I am certain I have never said anything more than what is in the social doctrine of the church,”Francis said. “I follow the church and in this I do not think I am wrong.

“Maybe I have given an impression of being a little bit to the left,” the pope conceded. “But if they want me to recite the creed, I can!”

RELATED STORY: How Pope Francis makes Bernie Sanders look as “Catholic” as John Boehner

A greater concern to many Catholic voters in the U.S. may be the fact that Sanders is a strong supporter of abortion rights and gay rights.

Questioned by Rosica on his support for abortion rights, in contrast to Francis’ strong opposition, Sanders said “this is an area we just have to disagree.” The same goes for gay marriage, he said.

“(T)he best that I can say on those issues is let’s respect each other when we disagree, and let’s work together on those areas that we do agree on.”

Sanders also cautioned many of his own liberal supporters who he said are “not quite comfortable with the church” because of the teachings on abortion and marriage, for example.

His own approach, he said, “has been that I will be very clear about my disagreements with the (Catholic) Church, but I think that the pope is playing an historical role coming at exactly the right moment in human history, where his voice is having a profound impact, not only on our country, but all over the world.”

Consequently, he continued, “I embrace those areas, and I embrace very strongly, those areas where we agree. And again, it’s not just, oh, isn’t it important to talk about poor, and the homeless, and the unemployed.

“Yeah it is, but he goes deeper than that. And he talks about how we should not simply be spending our lives trying to make more and more money, and turning our backs on those people most in need, and that strikes me very deeply,” the candidate said.

Sanders noted in particular his common cause with the pope on battling climate change. In the interview, he also strongly endorses religious freedom and the separation of church and state, issues that GOP candidates say the Democratic are weak.

(David Gibson is a national reporter for RNS)

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New Data Show Extent of Fed’s Free Money Programs

Posted on Dec 1, 2010

Wikimedia Commons / Robert Mihaly (CC-BY-SA)
Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke as king of Central Banking.


Thanks to Bernie Sanders and the new financial regulation passed by Congress, we’re learning more about the Federal Reserve’s $3.3 trillion bailout of Wall Street in 2008. It turns out the Fed lent money not just to the likes of Goldman Sachs (which desperately needed it) but also to companies such as Verizon and Toyota, as well as to foreign financial institutions.

Essentially the Fed lent money at almost zero interest to, well, just about everybody.

Bernie Sanders, take it away… —PZS

The Washington Post:

But the extent of the lending to major banks—and the generous terms of some of those deals—heighten the political peril for a central bank that is already under the gun for a wide range of actions, including a recent decision to try to stimulate the economy by buying $600 billion of U.S. bonds.

“The American people are finally learning the incredible and jaw-dropping details of the Fed’s multitrillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street and corporate America,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime Fed critic whose provision in the Wall Street regulatory overhaul required the new disclosures. “Perhaps most surprising is the huge sum that went to bail out foreign private banks and corporations. As a result of this disclosure, other members of Congress and I will be taking a very extensive look at all aspects of how the Federal Reserve functions.”

Read more

Related

By eir, December 2 at 1:40 pm Link to this comment
Eliot Spitzer: “The Federal Reserve Is A Ponzi Scheme” (Inside The Fed’s Secret Pile Of Trash With Ratigan, Spitzer & Toure)
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Bernanke will you tell American people to whom Fed Res lent $2.2 trillion of their dollars?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyl8c91qPbwhttp://



VoiceofAmericans2008

March 3, 2009
Senate Budget Committee Sanders (I-VT) Bernanke Chairman Federal Reserve

In a testy exchange at a hearing before the Senate Budget Committee, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who usually votes with the Democrats, said he found it "unacceptable" that the central bank risked taxpayer money without detailing where the funds went."My question to you is, will you tell the American people to whom you lent $2.2 trillion of their dollars?" Sanders asked, referring to the size of the Fed's balance sheet.Bernanke responded that the Fed explains the various lending programs on its website, and details the terms and collateral requirements.When Sanders pressed on whether he would name the firms that borrowed from the Fed, the central bank chairman replied, "No," and started to say that doing so risked stigmatizing banks and discouraging them from borrowing from the central bank."Isn't that too bad," Sanders interrupted, cutting off Bernanke's answer. "They took the money but they don't want to be public about the fact that they received it."He said businesses in his state were in trouble and needed loans, but were not permitted to borrow from the Fed."Do you have to be a large, greedy, reckless financial institution to apply for this money?" he asked.Bernanke said the Fed's lending programs were not gifts or subsidies but rather over-collateralized loans. He said the law restricted the types of firms to which the central bank can lend."We have never lost a penny doing it," he said.Sanders responded: "Let me just say this, Mr. Chairman. I have a hard time understanding how you have put $2.2 trillion at risk without making those names available, those institutions public.""We are going to introduce legislation today, by the way, to demand that you do that. It is unacceptable to me that that this goes on," he added. (Reporting by Emily Kaiser, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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P.S. Notice the swastika design directly behind the left side of Mr. sanders head. Carving symbol with complex swastika motif. ................. Arsenio.
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