Maybe I’m just tired, being I’m on the road, at work — on my rest break — but this debate is getting boring.
Oh, but good, finally Gwen Ifill, a black news anchor, asks about the plight of poor white people. Well that is a little more interesting. I was thinking of turning it off and catching the news in the morning, and still may, but finally a good question. I have always wondered why we pretend that only so-called minorities suffer from poverty. And in some cases whites suffer reverse discrimination.
Bernie Sanders says the problem is that jobs have moved overseas and wages are falling behind.
Well anyway, we certainly have a major social problem in this nation, of which racial strife is only one problem, not to diminish it in any way.
Sanders is talking about a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Oh, good, more folks to add to the labor pool to keep wages down. But, by the way, I have sympathy for undocumented workers if they are honest workers trying to earn a living for their families. We should fix our immigration system but that is too much for this post right now.
We can’t deport the estimated 12 million people. But we need to somehow control our borders but not with the absurd idea of the Great Wall of Trump.
Maybe we need to put out information in other parts of the world that you are not to come here unless you follow the rules and that you will be subject to deportation.
People already here who somehow come into contact with authorities might be required to take some steps toward citizenship or some kind of permit and the requirements might be made somewhat difficult to discourage others from sneaking in. I mean the word would get out. Also we should offer amnesty — and I know that was done before and led to even more coming. It is a difficult problem for sure.
One thing that bothers me about Sanders is that I see higher taxes. I don’t think simply “taxing the rich” will do the job and I also think we would see higher taxes for all working people under Sanders. Sanders likes Scandinavian socialism. Well those folks pay a lot of taxes. Americans are not so much into that. We do of course have to pay for things. That is another thing about Sanders. He talks about free college. Two things: who pays for the “free college” and is it not true that free things are often worth what you pay for them?
Hillary Clinton talks about taxing the wealthiest too. Sure that is not going to hurt me directly, but somewhere down the line it may hurt all of us.
Not sure I will be able to stay with this debate. But I hope to follow up on it in a future post. I mean whether I watch it all or not, I can catch the after-debate news reports.
It’ an hour into the debate and so far if one was trying to determine a winner, I would say it is a tie. They seem to agree on most things. Hillary would go for the more traditional methods, while Sanders wants more of a revolutionary approach — a move to European socialism, my words, not his.
The European Union is having a rough time and is in danger of falling apart from reports I have read. Life is not perfect anywhere.
They are talking about defense now.
Sanders’ main claim to competency in the defense area is that he voted against the war in Iraq and Clinton voted for it.
Also, he says we can get rid of dictators everywhere but then the nations become unstable and our troubles begin. “Unintended consequences” he says.
Clinton for her part says a vote years ago is not a plan for defense now (I guess that could go two ways).
It’s getting duplicative here from the last debate — actually this whole debate is a repeat so far.
Whoops! A biggie! Sanders just slammed Henry Kissinger and said he was the “worst secretary of state” ever. He noted that Clinton said she consulted him in the past. For her part she said she consults a wide range of people and noted Sanders has yet to name defense consultants.
Sanders once again acknowledged Clinton’s experience as secretary of state but questioned her judgment.
Well I watched it all after all.
I’ll just call it a tie.
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Posted by Tony Walther 
Tony Walther's Weblog 