The US Constitution is dead and buried. However, a Constitutional Convention alone, as proposed by some notable scholars, is not likely to provide the desired outcome. You cannot dismiss and/or prosecute the entire class of US and state judges and clerks, banking regulators and banking executives at once. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be instituted in the United States, such as have been established in other nations that have emerged from under various types of tyrannies. In fact, what is sore needed in the United States is probably some “Nation Building”.
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Reader's Comment #1
To have a "truth and reconciliation commission" it is first necessary for the establishment to lose in a revolution. That is a very long way from happening. Our support is still only in the low single digits.
While they have been guilty of many crimes, few of them rise to the level of mass slaughter, except in a few isolated cases. You get a TRC when there have been hundreds of thousands dead or missing. That may yet come, but as Claire Wolfe so cleverly said, "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
Response on Reader's Comment #1
I differ on several points:
1) Our support is still only in the low single digits.
If you combine the various movements that imply illegitimacy of the US government today, you will probably find a large portion of the population, and polls regarding support of these movement, even by those who don't participate show the same:
- Tea Party
- Occupy Wall Street
- Constitutional Convention
- Jail4Judges
- Freemen
- Sovereign People
- De Jure Grand Juries
- County Assemblies
- The County Sheriffs' movement (or whatever you would call that area of resistance)
- Unions (both as supporters of OWS, and as opposition to the limits on union bargaining)
- Various other groups that I probably forgot.
The number of such "movements" that have popped up over the past several years, in itself, shows you that there is tacit consensus regarding the illegitimacy of the current US government.
2) To have a "truth and reconciliation commission" it is first necessary for the establishment to lose in a revolution.
Not sure where you got that from. I assume that you refer to revolution as a massive violent conflict. However, the cases of South Africa, Chile, and Germany, which were provided as examples for the employment of TRCs following regime change, were all relatively non-violent regime changes.
3) You get a TRC when there have been hundreds of thousands dead or missing... While they have been guilty of many crimes, few of them rise to the level of mass slaughter
Not sure where you got that either. In the years that preceded the collapse of communism in East Germany, or even collapse of Apartheid in South Africa, for example (albeit, I don't have the exact numbers), the number of executions and the scope of imprisonment did not come close to what is taking place in the United States today through the corrupt justice system. And in Chile, the disappearances took place years before the collapse of the dictatorship. In all these cases, economic conditions, the robbing of the People, were the major driving force. That is the obvious situation in the United States today as well.
Reader's Comment #2
The mechanisms for a constitutional revolution, such as occurred in the English Revolution of 1688-1689, are described in my book, A Constitutional History of Secession, Pelican Pub. Co, Gretna (New Orleans, 1st edition 2002, 2nd edition 2005. It can be ordered online at www.pelicanpub.com. Why not rely on legal tradition as a source of wisdom.
Response on Reader's Comment #2
Not being a history expert, I read quickly some background material. It appears to me that the "Glorious Revolution" was a violent revolution, accomplished through invasion by a foreign army (albeit, at Parliament's invitation). I realize that relative to that period, it was a "Bloodless Revolution". However, I still wonder how you see anything similar taking place in the United States.
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Joseph Zernik, PhDHuman Rights Alert (NGO)
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Comments on: Constitutional Convention? Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Nation Building?
Reader's Comment #1:I'm not sure what a TRC would remotely accomplish in the United States. In other nations, the TRC approach has had mixed results. It was very effective in South Africa in getting many people who held power under Apartheid to come forward and tell their stories of how they abused power and committed crimes. In the U.S., however, many in the ruling class would dispute that they have committed crimes. After all, they have passed the laws to make whatever they are doing legal, so why confess to something as a crime if it is, in fact, legal? ...
Reader's Comment 2:...very complex... The progressives are growing collaborations of private interests on the government take and which more and more control government... I think to judge it, we have to be able to examine the alternatives, if any there are, short of revolution...
Response:
Much of what we observe today is criminal in nature, even under current law.
In fact, the situation is much simpler that it appears. However, the People have to go through a conceptual transformation, recognize the criminality of what is going on, instead of buying the official versions:
"changing market conditions", "gridlock in DC", "very complex situation", "War on Terror", "Homeland Security", etc, etc...
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission will have to help in sorting out, who of the culprits will be prosecuted, who would be dismissed, and who would be permitted to remain in government service.
See for example:
1) Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, former Bank of America President Kenneth Lewis - report sent by NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to the United States Senate, in re: investigation into the merger of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch; [1]
2) Former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, Bank of America President Brian Moynihan and others - evidence of conduct of corrupt organizations and racketeering; [2]
3) Numerous US Judges - see for example, US Judge Jed Rakoff - his conduct in re: settlements through simulated litigation in the US District Court, Manhattan. [3]
4) Numerous state judges - see for example, the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles - indisputable evidence of racketeering in collusion with Countrywide, Bank of America, and others. [4]
LINKS:[1] 11-02-11 Press Release: US Congress Fails to Perform Its Oversight Duties and Impeach Bernanke
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[4] 11-08-01 Zernik, J: Los Angeles Superior Court - widespread corruption and refusal of US government to take action, 16th World Criminology Congress presentation
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Boycott the vote! It only legitimizes the illegitimate... 11-12-10 Where Should #Occupy Go Next? Civil Disobedience in the Footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi!
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Joseph Zernik, PhDHuman Rights Alert (NGO)
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All comments are welcome... especially any tips regarding corruption of the courts in Los Angeles. Anonymous tips are fine. One simple way to do it is from internet cafes, etc.