Reply #17: CAN the U.S. government do this? Absolutely. We are the sovereign people [View All]

[Peace Patriot]

of this land. The government is our servant, in theory. We are "king." We say who does business here, and under what conditions. We can pull corporate charters, break up monopolies, disband corporations and seize their assets, for the common good. We can ban--or, if we wish, heavily tax--foreign corporations, or U.S. corporations that move their headquarters elsewhere and/or outsource jobs. We can also keep a business operating, with many different ways to do it, including nationalization, seizure of assets and appointing management. Key industries--especially those that provide vital services, such as food production, water, energy (including gas), communications--but also, any big employer, should not be permitted to endanger the people and the nation, by mismanagement, looting, price-gouging, outsourcing, or any other profiteering practice. We are the sovereign. We are "the king." We, the people, own all the land and set up all the rules that permit land ownership, trade and the use of resources. And any laws that have been passed prior to now can be changed, including the U.S. Constitution, to insure the welfare and safety of our country and our people.

That is the system that our Founders set up. It has been pretty much hijacked by global corporate predators and war profiteers, some U.S.-based, some not. And this, of course, is our difficulty. Our sovereignty as a people has been viciously attacked and usurped.

One example: When ES&S voting machines 'disappeared' 18,000 Democratic votes for Congress, in FL-13, in 2006, and the election was 'won' by the Bushwhack by about 350 votes, the lawyers for the Democrat (Christine Jennings) took the matter to court and asked to review the 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY code in ES&S voting machines, to try to determine what happened to those 18,000 votes. ES&S refused, and argued that their "right" to profit from our election system, with their 'TRADE SECRET' code, trumps the right of the voters to know how their votes were counted. It is not surprising that a U.S. corporation would take such an arrogant, and unbelievably undemocratic, position. What was surprising, though, was that the judge agreed with ES&S. Voters have no right to know how their votes are counted. Corporate profits (not to mention the corporate ability to steal our elections) rule. And this tremendously important legal development was pretty much black-holed in the corpo/fascist 'news.'

Jennings took the matter to Congress (the final arbiter of who sits in Congress), and they did nothing, of course. They buried the issue with a lying scumbag GAO report. (And the head of the GAO resigned immediately afterward, complaining of Congressional interference.)

That's how things stand. Even our right to vote has been eaten by the global corporate predator monster.*

So, whether we, the people, can do what is best for us and for our country, or can successfully petition our government to do so, is highly in doubt, and has been for some time.

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*(ES&S manufactures their voting machines in sweatshops in the Philippines. See Dan Rather's "The Trouble With Touchscreens," www.HD.net.)