Interview With Bernie Sanders

Written on May 7th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on NPR.org, by Steve Inskeep, May 5, 2016.

STEVE INSKEEP: How is West Virginia different, if at all, from anywhere else you campaigned?

  • SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Well, West Virginia has some pockets of the worst poverty in the United States of America.  
  • We’re going to McDowell County. And the reason we’re going there is that about half the people in that area are living in poverty — and that what is really astounding is that the life expectancy of people in that community is extraordinary low.
  • You know when we talk about poverty, Steve, we often think, well, it’s too bad somebody can’t afford a flat-screen TV, or go out to eat. But what poverty is really about is that we have millions of people who are living — who are dying at ages much, much younger than they should. In McDowell County, where we’re going tomorrow, the average life expectancy for men in that county is 64 years of age. Sixty-four years of age.
  • And yet you go a six-hour drive to Fairfax County, Va. — six-hour drive — a man can expect to live until the age of 82 years of age, 18 years longer than men in McDowell County…

INSKEEP: These are really compelling statistics, Senator. And you mention McDowell County — I believe the poverty rate there is something like 35 percent, and of course…

  • SANDERS: … I think it’s even higher than that actually.

INSKEEP: … a lot of people are certainly close to that. But there’s another statistic that’s on my mind, along with the poverty stats, and the life expectancy — shocking life-expectancy stats.
You’re going to a couple of counties — McDowell County, W.Va., is one of them — that voted for Barack Obama in 2008, and then voted against him, for Mitt Romney, in 2012. What has been happening to the Democratic Party in the region where you’re going? … //

… (full interview text).

Links:

Saudi Arabia plans stock market reforms to draw foreign money, on Daily Times, May 5, 2016;

Qu’est-ce qui manque, quand tout est là? dans Swiss Info SWI, par Sibilla Bondolfi, le 3 mai 2016;

Resilience  –  a decentralized taxation system for free market taxation, on The Merkle, May 3, 2016;

German labour minister cuts social assistance to EU immigrants, dans WSWS, by Martin, Kreickenbaum, May 3, 2016;

NATO in Zivil in der Ukraine, Russland und Medienpropaganda – Gabriele Krone-Schmalz, 14.25 min, uploaded by Don R. Wetter, May 14, 2014 … bei SWR, 3. Mai 2014, Menschen der Woche – Frank Elstner interviewt Prof. Dr. Gabriele Krone-Schmalz über Ukraine, Russland und Medien.

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