All Forum Posts by: Susan Maneck

I'm sorry it is not the Dems who are banning books, but since you think the problem that led to communism was the spread of ideas, I can see why you would find books dangerous. It is not the Dems who destroyed academic freedom in Florida.  It is not the Dems engaging in voter suppression.  It is not the Dems who are depriving women of control over their own bodies. It is not the Dems who violently attempted to destroy our Democracy on J6. Anyone who think it is Dems who want dictatorial control over our government has not read Project 2025. 

You are too young to remember how Russia became communist. There was no creeping socialism. There was a coalition government that lasted only a few months. After that the communist victory was total and complete. Cuba, likewise was the result of an armed revolution. China became communist because they stayed and fought the Japanese while the nationalists fled. I'm a historian, I know what why and how certain countries fell to Communism. 

Every country on the face of the earth nowadays has a mixed economy, none more so than so-called communist China. The only question is what kind of balance is best. But when it comes to government what we should be most afraid of is totalitarianism and that can come from the right or the left. Russia is not a better country today because it gave up communism. Just ask the Ukrainians. 

One of my tenants was an assistant manager at Family Dollar. She made $8 an hour. People who work at the Nissan Plant in Canton, Mississippi start out at less than $11 an hour. When I say it's a 'right to starve' state I'm not kidding. The politicians here stole food stamp money to fund things like a volleyball court. They refused to provide food for low-income students during the summer even though the federal government was paying for it. 

By inflation being down, I don't mean it rolled back. The rare times when that happens our economy is in deep do-do. What I mean is it is only 2.9% above what it was last year. 

Absolutely not. I've never known a "brown nationalist" but there are black nationalists like Louis Farrakhan and Marcus Garvey and movements like the NOI and the Black Hebrew Israelites. I oppose their mentality.

 I'm glad to see you finally admit your opposition to Democracy. Yes, we started as a republic of property-owning white males. We have become increasingly more democratic over time and those changes are reflected in our Constitution. That's why MAGA supporters are so eager to turn back things like the 14th Amendment and women's right to vote. And yes, they are doing this even though Republicans wrote the 14th Amendment. Lincoln would not recognize today's Republican Party. Gone is the party of Earl Warren, Edwin Brooke, George Romney, and Everett Dirksen. What happened is the Southern Strategy wherein the Dixiecrats moved over to the GOP. I've lived in the South for the last 35 years and watched it happen. 

I think $15 an hour would be about right for most areas of the country. Paying wait staff $2.13 an hour as they do in Mississippi is an abomination. Right now burger flippers in California are making $20 an hour. I can still get value meals for $5. If people are paid a living wage, we wouldn't need programs like food stamps, Section 8, etc. We are subsidizing Walmart! 

<sigh> Like I said you have no idea what a communist is. Sam Alinsky the author of Rules for Radicals was no communist. He was a community organizer. It's a blue print about how to organize people from the bottom up, in other words how to be *democratic* (which you admitted in another post yu don't really support.) One of the things he championed was the use of religious bodies for that purpose, something no Marxist would have permitted. The Tea Party and MAGA Movements owe as much Alinsky as do those on the left. 

Spending has brought about growth, but growth is not our problem right now. If anything the economy is overheated which is why lowering taxes would not be a good idea either. When Trump did it we ended up with the biggest deficit of all time, well before the pandemic. As for drilling, we are already drilling enough oil to meet our domestic needs and more than we ever have in our history. But oil is sold on a global market and it's the oil companies, not the government that is holding back. They don't want the price to go down. As for lower interest rates, those are coming.