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Did Bernie Sanders' wife negotiate a questionable land deal while she was president of now-defunct Burlington College?

2 Answers

+2 votes
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Hi O'Tink,

I looked at the link...its source is Vermont Public Radio, which may convey a sense of reliability. 

So, it sounds like some prospective donations may have been over-represented - plus bequests for future time-of-death represented as current donations, also, to make up the required collateral for the bank loan. And Jane Sanders as college president, sounds as if she would be the one filling out those forms.

And soon afterward, she was forced to resign in an atmosphere of contention with the college board, and then a few years later the college closed in financial troubles....nutshell overview.

* * *

On the other hand, in the year since the college closed, the FBI has still not contacted Jane Sanders, she says she has heard nothing from them...?

I guess my first impression would be that military word we recently learned from Rooster... FUBAR...

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That word seems to fit in a lot of places! :D 

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Hi Virginia,

The FBI has been conducting an investigation of the land deal for over a year, and STILL has not tried to speak to the person who brokered the deal and who was president of the college at the time the deal was made?  :ermm:

Um... that hardly seems credible, unless of course the FBI is as FUBAR as that college was. :D

And of course Bernie, he ain't a-sayin' nothin' ("A spokesman for Sen. Sanders did not respond to request for comment Tuesday."), or is he Br'er Fox, a-lyin' low?  :ermm:


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@ Rooster,

It's ironic that FUBAR and SNAFU should have originated in the military, when it is the civil government that is far more so.

It's an example of soldiers telling it like it is, and politicians trying to hide it with every lie they can think of.

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Hi O'Tink, I went back and looked again at the link, and - to me - it appears likely there are things that have not come out, not been told to the news. I thought maybe the FBI came into the fray only just now but no, they were (apparently) asking questions early 2016, even before the college closed.

* Full disclosure: I really like Bernie Sanders (gasp, ikr?) but know nothing about the wife...

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Hi Virginia:

I was just hired as Bernie Sanders' press secretary. :D

I have prepared a statement for the press on this issue:

"This is all a ridiculous canard, fostered and perpetrated by a cabal of right-wing millionaires and billionaires, who are not only trying to besmirch me, an honest voice for the little people, but who are also trying to keep the little people oppressed under the heel of the large corporations."

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Geez Tink! You almost sound like Rosie G on A.M. LOL  :D :D

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@ Rooster:

OMG, my cover has been blown!  :D :D

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Hi O'Tink, you know...your press release...I tend to be open to its possibility, because I myself have been too often the recipient of that corporate heel...a heel with the status of personhood.

* Not to say Mrs. Sanders is granted immunity, imo...the link you posted does NOT sound good. And, aren't the public radio stations typically liberal-leaning? 


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Hi Virginia,

Despite my press release parody, I don't deny that there are PLENTY of corporate abuses, but then I also think of Henry Ford and Bill Gates and Apple and IBM, who made cars, computers and the internet available to people of modest means.

Where would we have been without them? With horses and buggies and snail mail.

As for Bernie, I liked him better than Hillary, but I didn't believe much of what he said. :ermm:

http://www.ihavesolved.com/7121/bernie-sanders-becomes-president-obliterate-billionaires?show=15519#a15519

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O'Tink, I have a seven-decade history of gullibility, and I did believe Bernie...but you know? One Q I have to ask myself...Bernie mayor of Burlington (city) 1980's...fifteen years later, wife gets presidency of Burlington College, where she operates with marginal competency...um?

* * *

I may post a Q soon, about capitalism; for now, apparently Henry Ford famously showed it IS possible to become wealthy and treat employees well; $5 per day, unheard of at the time. And in Andrew Carnegie's little GOSPEL OF WEALTH, he makes the case that great wealth makes possible the great collections of art, architecture, plus other beauteous human refinements.

So, given human proclivities notoriously unreliable, could this really be the best of all possible worlds? 

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@ Virginia,

Well, Leibniz thought so, and he was a pretty sharp cookie, though more in mathematics than in philosophy. :D

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I have loved Leibniz for his calculus kinda scooping Newton, but his theodicy? I certainly agree with your assessment!

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@Virginia and T(h)ink

That looks much like EU clashes,
as intrigues lead to backlashes;
scandals breed tremendous crashes,
ruining lives to scraps and trashes -
caught by cameras and flashes -
also here, the press spreads splashes!

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@ Marianne,

This gives the phrase, "all ears" new meaning.  :D :D :D

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@T(h)ink

Lol - yes indeed - and we could add a long list of high ranking, more and less known people, who were and are "all ears".

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+3 votes
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Marianne I looked at a couple of your links, including Fillon's wife...amazing! 

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@ Marianne,

To first approximation, I think all politicians are crooks, perhaps especially the ones that claim to be friends of the people.  :ermm:

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O'Tink, I keep asking your opinion of politicians...what do you think of Angela Merkel? Crook also, or is she a possible exception?

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@ Virginia,

Well, as far as I know, she hasn't stashed away any money in Panama, like ex-PM Cameron of the UK did.

On the other hand, her immigration policy has been characterized by blatant self-contradictions (presumably for political purposes before elections), and most importantly, those policies have led to murders, rapes and mass molestations (the latter of which the German authorities disgracefully tried to cover up) that otherwise need not have happened.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/14/angela-merkel-multiculturalism-is-a-sham/?utm_term=.6a728d428629

So is she a liar and a deceiver? Yes.

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Very interesting article, O'Tink...I am putting the Washington Post onto my news feed.

The cover-ups are bad.

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@T(h)ink

Yes, including big business.

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:ermm::O:ermm::)

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@Virginia

It might be amazing, but favouritism is still very widespread - very much like in the feudal and imperial past.

:O:ermm::)

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@ Marianne,

No doubt about it, for example, Volkswagen cheating on many of its cars' computers, so that they would pass the emissions tests.

But it is a difficult issue, whether it is government scandals or business scandals. Who pays in the end? The taxpayers or the consumers.

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Marianne, as I go through life and see more and more of our situation...favouritism, etc., as you mention. 

Well, you mention also the feudal and imperial past, and sometimes I think our current socioeconomic system is just another kind of feudalism-in-disguise, brought forward from our feudal past... :O

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Yes, Virginia, that is what I tend to think - although there is too much confusion; even "insiders" are often fooled, and many people think to do the right things, but err, because they are blinded by propaganda, fashion and fake.

There is also this constant criticism and too much interference into or with private life.



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:dizzy::O:D



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Oops - there was an accident. I must have messed up with something.
:O:blush::ermm::angel::D



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I would agree, Marianne...and it is very easy to get fooled...one of the "gifts" (if you could call it that) of getting older at least for me, I am somehow better able now to step back and see more clearly my own blinding from 'propaganda, fashion and fake.'

And still  somehow, we cannot let ourselves become bitter and disillusioned...that's not the answer, either.

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I agree with you, Virginia. I saw too many people become bitter and desillusioned by hardship, but on the other hand, there have always been some, who, in spite of their burden, kept their sunny nature. And that is why humour and empathy are so vital.

Experience is very important - as much as knowledge - even if neither does automatically provide wisdom. And: evolution is a constant learning process at all ages. 




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I also think we humankind are still evolving, Marianne...at all ages.

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Yes - we are evolving - and I hope that this evolution does not follow a crash course - lol.

:ermm::angel::D:D

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Well Marianne, yes our evolution appears somewhat touch-and-go, at present!

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@T(h)ink

Yes, indeed, there were also all these repeated meat and food scandals, toxic substances in everyday products, flawed materials, unfair competition, housing bubbles and market manipulations, salary dumping, moonlighting, child labour, outsourcing, polluting, animal abuse, "restructuring", closing down viable production sites, dismantling public services, cheating or rigging and many other dubious practices - not to forget certain "snowball" and gambling systems, more or less linked to organised crime.

There's much more "dirty laundry" to deal with regarding business, which is too closely linked with politics, as a large part of the leading political class is involved in business.

As you say it, in the end, the taxpayers from the middle and lower working classes pay for the damages.


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@Virginia

Yes, and often, one has to wander, ride or drive through thick fog.

So, some elementary, but efficient safety rules are important:

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No need to exaggerate, though:

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:ermm::angel::D


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