Reply #17: Empire America's Bread and Circuses

[livvy]

02/09/08
Empire America's Bread and Circuses
Richard L. Franklin

Back in the first century, the Roman poet Juvenal, in his 'Satire X', wrote a poem with lines which have forever remained famous and have been endlessly repeated. His satirical poem ridiculed the Roman people for letting their freedoms dwindle and slip away as they contented themselves with the free grain that was given to them in addition to the free circuses held in the Coliseum.

From Juvenal's 'Satire'

Already long ago,
from when we sold our vote to no man,
the People have abdicated our duties;
for the People who once upon a time
handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything,
now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:
bread and circuses

As I watched and listened to the electoral circus being presented to the people of America, and I took note of their extreme excitement over the ongoing contests, I was simultaneously saddened and angered. I saw the entire huge ritual as a great waste of time and wealth. It is obvious to me that it has been no more than a spectacular diversion for the media and the people of America. I say 'diversion' because the ongoing electoral circus takes the minds of the people off an ongoing dramatic erosion of their liberties, clear hints of a pending national economic collapse, and most significantly, clear signs that a corrupt electoral system has been installed in so-called 'key states'.

Since the last election, which was won by Kerry, but was blatantly fixed to give Bush still another undeserved four years in the White House, America's electronic electoral system has been left untouched by significant reform or the imposition of any rational governmental control over it. There is no federal oversight whatsoever over the new electronic voting systems! Not only that, state after state continues buying huge numbers of corruptible Diebold and ES & S voting machines from the infamous Bob Urosevich and his brother Todd.

Bob once publicly declared that he 'would do anything to elect George Bush'. Amazingly, the media ignored his brazen pledge, and Bob went ahead to fix his Diebold programs with switch levers. In the Ohio elections, his machines performed such manipulations as giving Bush two votes and Kerry one vote every time somebody voted for Kerry. Todd most likely managed to do the same with the ES & S machines in other locales.

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