This weekend, the two Democratic candidates for President were hobnobbing with some VERY swanky company. Bernie Sanders was in Rome meeting with academics associated with the Vatican and got a chance to shake the Pope’s hand before he left. Hillary Clinton headed out to the West Coast to have dinner with George and Amal Clooney, who were hosting a fundraiser for Clinton and other Democratic candidates for office. Tickets for the event started at $34,000. (Probably worth it to get a chance to talk to Hillary Clinton and Amal Clooney in the same night. OMG, the brains!)
Not everyone on the Clooney’s block was “With Her,” however. Howard Gold, whose family founded the 99 Cents Only store chain — and who lives next door to the event — decided to show how he was feelin’ the Bern by hosting an event for Sanders that started at $27 per ticket, in an effort to delineate the candidates’ different attitudes toward campaign funding. He called his soiree the the 99% Party.
Attendees of the Sanders event stood along the street when Clinton’s motorcade arrived and threw 1,000 $1 bills at her vehicle. Twitter was alight with notices about “making it rain” on Hillary’s car.
I have questions.
Whose money was that? Did the host provide bills for guests to throw? Did the guests get to keep the money after the motorcade passed? Why use real money? Wouldn’t, like, movie prop money or Monopoly money or even custom designed fake money with a catchy slogan have worked? And, if we’re being honest, isn’t that a big waste of money that could have been donated to a food bank, or to support refugees or something?
The Sanders event turned into a pool party that was probably really fun.
