This whole Vatican thing has been hilarious

[hellofromreddit]

Bernie confirms he will visit the Vatican.

HE WASN'T INVITED!

Vatican confirms he was invited.

HE ASKED TO BE INVITED!

Vatican confirms he did not ask.

WELL, HE ISN'T GOING TO EVEN SPEAK!

Vatican confirms he's going to speak.

BUT IT'S ONLY TEN MINUTES!

Vatican schedule lists multiple attendees who don't even speak.

HA! HE ISN'T EVEN MEETING THE POPE!

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/bernie-sander-meets-pope-francis-during-visit-vatican-city-n556991

YEAH, WELL...THE POPE'S AN ASSHOLE!

I don't understand how people think this behavior translates into support of Hillary. She simply had nothing to do with it and all the screaming around here, if anything, makes her look bad by implication. Honest discussion of issues would go a lot further and not suffer any blowback.

[Capt. Obvious]

1. Typical Hillarybro behavior

[Betty Karlson]

14. Let's call them Hill-bullies. "-bro" is a sexist suffix. They may sink to that level, but we

We know better, don't we?

[pdsimdars]

31. I think that term is perfect but I actually got hidden for using it a few days ago.

Maybe they've lightened up since then.
They shouldn't be allowed to use BernieBro if we can't use that.

[Betty Karlson]

41. Have the standards doubled again?

We are soon going to need quantum mechanics to calculate the number of standards applicable to the difference between Hillary's supporters on this site and the 99% that doesn't.

[riderinthestorm]

2. Better update with the latest - Bernie ambushed the Pope!!1! It wasn't planned!!!1!

ROME — U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders says he met privately with Pope Francis during his overnight trip here, his spokesman said.  

The meeting took place at the papal residence early Saturday, according Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs.  

A Vatican source said the meeting was not a chance encounter and had been planned.  

The Sanders campaign had been vague about the senator's itinerary here following his address Friday to a Vatican conference. Francis left Rome later Saturday for Greece, where he is visiting migrants stuck on the island of Lesbos. The reticence about a Sanders meeting may be an attempt to avoid the perception that Francis is endorsing Sanders or otherwise involving himself in American politics.  

Sanders was invited to address a Vatican seminar on income inequality and economic justice, and took an unusual break from the Democratic primary campaign trail to attend. He had said in a Washington Post interview last week that he admired Francis and hoped to meet him, but that nothing was set.  

Sanders quotes Francis frequently in his address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, and told reporters afterward that the pope has had enormous influence in airing issues of wealth disparity and climate change.  


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/16/italian-media-sanders-met-privately-with-pope-francis/ 

[Capt. Obvious]

4. "He ambushed the Pope at breakfast."

That person doesn't know what he's talking about. Sanders actually grabbed the stall next to the Pope while the Holy See was doing his business.

[riderinthestorm]

7. !!!!!

[beam me up scottie]

8. Now they want pictures! No selfie, it never happened!

[lostnfound]

23. You're not kidding! There's even a thread with five Rec's claiming he never met with the Pope

Omg some really are like the wacky conspiratorial right wing!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1107103297

It's right up there with "Obama was born in Kenya"!

[beam me up scottie]

24. Derp! Pictures aren't allowed in the private residence.

Wow they are delusional, aren't they?

[panader0]

25. Thanks for that link.

Now I too will be banned the Hillarity group. I haven't been banned there yet because I never go there.

[cui bono]

50. OMFG!!! It's up to 14 recs!

What idiots! So, are they Popers? We must find a name for them, like "birthers".

That thread looks like it was copied and pasted from Freeperville! Today has been the funniest day on DU in a long time. But then I've been working so much I've missed a lot so I could be wrong... but it's been fantastically Hillaryous.

.

[HereSince1628]

3. Support of a candidate had no degrees of freedom...a ding on one is support for the other.

It may not make rational sense, but nothing requires supporters to be rational.

[polly7]

5. What I can't get over is that when one rumour/lie is disproven, they

just come up with another one and play it for days even knowing they're wrong.

[hellofromreddit]

20. Some are paid to post here

Here's their pattern:

Their responses are all garbage--either smug comments, repetition of outright lies, or occasionally graphics (though that's uncommon on this board). If you try to engage in conversation with them they'll either be intentionally obtuse or just drop it and move on.

They generally move as a group and stick to one another's threads. So you'll see a swarm of similar posts in a short window, all full of activity to keep them at the top.

They generally stick to their own threads. You'll see them all over one another's threads, but authentic threads generally get ignored. For example, none have bothered with these: 1 2 3

If one pops into an authentic thread, the rest tend to swarm in and smear themselves all over it.

It's the same pattern in discussion boards all over the internet. They're like cancer--looks kinda like the normal content, but if you take a little longer view then the edges of the tumor become apparent. I keep a list of repeat offenders handy and it's always a small number of "users" posting massive volumes and sticking to the pattern. Super PACs buy this sort of behavior. reddit's /r/HillaryClinton sub is really infested and the spillover from there has ruined /r/PoliticalDiscussion.

Try it yourself: see who around here fits that pattern and start making a list. Draw a digraph of who replies to whose threads and the cancer will become obvious very quickly.

[polly7]

22. I see your point. Thanks for those links, there weren't a lot

of comments from Clinton supporters on some very important issues. But, that's what I've been noticing about her whole campaign - issues get ignored while drama and straw-man (and usually, bogus) 'but look at this thing Sanders did!' attempts are played out for days and days. I personally think a meme is sent out every morning, or the night before, as damage control for whatever happened to question her credibility or any of Bill or Chelsea's misspeaks.

It's really dirty tactics, imo.

[pdsimdars]

32. Shouldn't they get sued for copyright infringement -- by wack-a-mole?

[CharlotteVale]

6. That about sums it up! I think it's been hilarious.

[FlatBaroque]

17. SpellChecker: Hillarious

[cui bono]

51. DU SpellChecker: Hillaryous

[beam me up scottie]

9. They're serving crow for breakfast at Camp Weathervane and it's not going down too well.

[pdsimdars]

33. I thought I saw smoke coming out of their group.

[beam me up scottie]

36. White smoke!

[Fumesucker]

44. With just a hint of sulphur

[djean111]

10. The latest? In that five minutes that the Pope spoke with him, Bernie was supposed to reverse the

church's stand on LGBT issues. Or something like that.

I am sure that is exactly what Hillary and bill had in mind when they invited him to that Clinton Foundation gala. An invitation that the Pope turned down. Actually, I think they just wanted bragging rights, a photo op, and what would look like the Pope's endorsement of Hillary. I could be wrong, but the level of sheer nasty ugliness over this makes me suspect I am correct.

The weather-vane constantly shifts between "Bernie can't get anything done" to "Why doesn't Bernie fix everything wrong in this world - years ago?". Like, IMO, Hillary doesn't try and profit and/or pander from everything wrong in this world. Oh, and - does this sound familiar? - Bernie could have run for president and started a movement his whole life, but ISN'T IT STRANGE THAT HE WAITED UNTIL OBAMA WAS PRESIDENT?????? Echoes of Snowden. Nothing about what they are trying to do, just surety that one president is the center of the fucking universe.

[skepticscott]

47. Reverse it? Of course not

The rcc is far too entrenched in their bigoted doctrine for that to happen. Speak to it? Yes, absolutely. Why not speak the truth to power about such a critical issue when he had the chance?

And as far as "weathervanes", how about the switch from "It's only impossible if you don't try" to "He couldn't have accomplished anything, so why even bother making the effort?"

[mainer]

11. You summed it up perfectly.

It's far more revealing of them than of Bernie.

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. And not a word of discussion about what the conference was about

A moral economy? That's out of our intellectual league, but did Bernie get a selfie with Francis? Now we're talking!

[brewens]

13. What's funny is that the Pope may not have intended to meet with Bernie until he found

out how the Hillarians were trying to make hay with that one. So he decides to feed them a shit sandwich and puts Bernie on the schedule!

[monmouth4]

15. I think you are absolutely correct. As I stated before the Pope is a very savvy guy. I love it!.nt

[pdsimdars]

38. I don't think it was that, I don't think it was about Hillary,

I think it was about the ISSUE.

They both care strongly about this issue and meeting with Bernie is a way to bring international attention to that message. It served them both because they both care more about the message than they do about the election.

If Bernie was focused more on the election than the issue he would never have taken the time out of this very important primary to leave the country. He cares more about how to help the poor than the election. He just proved that.

MAN OF INTEGRITY

[AlbertCat]

42. I don't think it was about Hillary,

B-b-but everything is about "The most admired woman in the world!" (with a "trustworthy" problem), isn't it?

Someone upthread said it: this has nothing to do with Hillary.

[2banon]

40. ding.ding. ding.ding. Thread Winner!

Exactly!

[FlatBaroque]

16. Someone else has summed this up quite well.

[hellofromreddit]

21. I'm stealing that.

[winter is coming]

37. There's a card game, called Poo, featuring monkeys that look like that.

Fun game.

[QC]

43. Thank you for that. n/t

[Lone_Wolf]

18. Pro-Hillary pundits and the gullible MSM picking up their talking points

Hillary supporters are too quick to believe everything negative about Sanders. It's scary how fast they pick up on the Hillary campaign's talking points.

[dsc]

19. given what he thinks of gays he is an asshole

and he would be if he met with Hillary and personally blessed her campaign going forward.

[apcalc]

26. This trip,

Like the speeches and taxes, means nothing.

[HooptieWagon]

27. They're desparately seeking poutrage.

Between dismal internal polling and a looming indictment, the Republican Lite Brigade must be really feeling the heat.

[vintx]

30. This. nt

[PufPuf23]

28. More like pathetic and a waste by the Clinton campaign. kr

[Cassiopeia]

29. When you support Hillary

all you have is hate, vitriol, and lies.

When it comes to Hillary and supporting her you must completely abandon the Democratic platform of the last century and attack the only other candidate running on that platform.

[Mike__M]

55. Hate vitriol and lies

that explains the weird Gallup poll that showed them as the most enthusiastic. Makes sense now.

[ScreamingMeemie]

34. I have seen a lot of people get very, very angry this season over ridiculous things.

It's gotten out of control.

[Faux pas]

35. They can't stand that he's

getting world wide attention! That's my take on it.

[beedle]

39. "The Candidate of Walmart, Wall St and War"

Sums up Hillary quite succinctly.

[mhatrw]

45. Sanders was just playing pope-a-dope with the Hillarians. nt

[MisterP]

46. it's not every day I get to bust this out, but we're gonna be needing it soon if

they decide to compete with Trump in the "Pope's the Antichrist!" department

http://www.historyversusthedavincicode.com/

[dana_b]

48. now evidently he's a stalker who jumps out of bushes at the Pope

Jealousy is an ugly thing.

[cui bono]

49. People who are posting like that are ugly, nasty, pathetic excuses for human beings.

They don't care about facts, truth, honesty, integrity, principles... nothing. Just win, win, win at any cost. They MUST be being paid because who would willingly look and act like such a fool for free?

They used to have to keep this sort of shit over at their Clinton Cave, but now they are allowed to act like Freepers here all the time thanks to the no more time out policy by Skinner. This is what he wanted I guess... brings DU down a few more levels if you ask me. It's only good for comedy any more. If I want news I go elsewhere. This is just for shits and giggles at this point. I must say, it was pretty funny on here today!

.

[beam me up scottie]

56. Yep, I think they have issues with Bernie that go beyond politics.

And that's a healthy attitude, they want to disrupt, we shouldn't let them.

Point and laugh and laugh some more.

[DemocracyDirect]

52. You forgot the poutrage on how he would pay for it.

This has been the sickest show of spinning excrement that I have ever seen.

And there have been a lot of that going on.

[HassleCat]

53. Yep. Full circle.

When it looked like the Pope was a credible figure, the goal was to make it look like Bernie was faking the details of his visit to the Vatican. Now that those attempts have fallen short, the Pope is a woman hating, gay bashing, war mongering... whatever.

[CoffeeCat]

54. This is the BEST and clearly explains the batshit meltdown

that has truly painted Hillary supporters as a bunch of sour-grapes babies whining in their height chairs.

The Pope story for me will forever be remembered as the time that Bernie was invited to the Vatican, gave a speech, met the Pope--and Hillary supporters melted down day after day after day--with bizarre talking points that were all debunked and exposed as lies.

I think their reaction to the Bernie's Vatican visit sets a new high water mark for depravity. I've never seen anything like it on DU.

I don't know what is going on with them. Is it the Pope situation, per se? Is it New York? Is Hillary's internal polling not so great?

What THE hell.

[Xyzse]

57. Personally, I'd rather meet the Dalai Lama...

But the Pope thing was great!

I never quite understood all the ado about this visit.
He was invited to talk in a conference on issues he has held fast throughout the years.

I thought of it as an overwhelmingly positive matter.

It was never a political endorsement, it was an acknowledgement of some shared ideals and hopes in moving forward.

[silvershadow]

58. Beats talking about her milquetoast campaign. nt