Bernie Sanders visits Black community in Baltimore, talks education and society - December 8, 2015

[Cheese Sandwich]

"This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We can create a society in which all of our people have a decent standard of living, not a society in which almost all new income and wealth goes to the top 1%. That's what I'm dedicated to changing."

— Sen. Bernie Sanders 12/8/15

In response to question about why he didn't mention ISIS:

Of course I'll talk about ISIS. But today what we're talking about is a community in which half of the people don't have jobs. We're talking about a community in which there are hundreds of buildings that are uninhabitable. We're talking about a community where kids are unable to go to schools that are decent.

You want to ask me about ISIS? We will talk about ISIS. But what I said, and let me repeat, and you can agree with me or not, what I have said is that obviously ISIS and terrorism are a huge national issue that we've got to address. But so is poverty, so is unemployment, so is education, so is health care, so is the need to protect working families. And I will continue to talk about those issues.

— Sen. Bernie Sanders 12/8/15



Video & audio skips a little but overall brilliant

[JDPriestly]

1. Great statement about ISIS. Of course it is an issue, but

Republicans and the press use it to distract from the real issues affecting the lives of America and especially of our children.

The foreclosure crisis foreclosed not only on homes but on the hope of the accumulation of a reasonable amount of wealth for the many families and individuals who lost the homes they were buying to the banks.

And since many states require a foreclosed homeowner to pay m the deficiency, the amount that remains due on the mortgage loan after the house has been foreclosed, it pushed many Americans into bankruptcy.

Then there were the lost jobs -- lost years of earning plus people living off their savings, especially their retirement savings if they were lucky enough to have any.

All of those factors mean that many Americans lost precious years of potential savings.

Our economy is in much worse shape than the job figures suggest. We don't have savings. That means that when the next generation retires, they will have to pay rent and live on their Social Security checks, and that is not what those checks were intended to cover. They are just enough to keep an elderly person above the poverty rate if they have savings or own a home. Thanks to the highway robbery by our bankers of American equity and savings, taxpayers will have to subsidize the lives of seniors of a future generation far more than they do today.

We should be concerned about the poverty around us because that may well be our future.

Of course, in general, African-Americans suffer most in economic downturns. Not fair, but that is the way it had always worked.

Bernie is the one who can do the most to lift up all in poverty. Hillary is not going to do much because she would rather spend the money in foreign countries.

I have to agree with Bernie about the lack of good grocery stores and about the payday loan shops in poorer neighborhoods. I would like to add that in Los Angeles, the main streets of poorer neighborhoods have a lot of shabby looking mini-malls and older buildings that are terribly run-down. Businesses start up and disappear. Bars and liquor stores -- lots of those. And that is in spite of a huge effort to try to change that economic reality. Los Angeles is moving toward a $15 per hour minimum wage. The rents here are so high that you can't live on low wages in this city.

We do not need the TPP. It will hurt our economy even more, and that will make many of our towns and cities unlivable. We need industry right here in America. We should not be importing so many consumer goods.

All of these issues may seem unrelated to race, but these economic issues are at the very core of the racism in our country.

[Cheese Sandwich]

2. Thank you JDPriestly

Yes I think the economic situation is a war on working class people, especially on the black community. We have to get control of the economic situation. Thanks.