The various state laws against "bucket shops", together with the New Deal's Glass-Steagall Act, had been nullified by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, the brainchild of former Senator Phil Gramm, one of John McCain's top economic advisers. In flagrant disregard of their professed position on "states rights," the Republican majority (with strong Democratic support) overrode the states' laws baring this practice.
And Bill Clinton, to his shame, signed it.
We have been taken on a wild ride for the last twenty-eight years, as our legal, physical, and economic protections we once enjoyed have been stripped from us; first one at a time, then over the last eight years in wholesale lots. It is time to educate ourselves so we can properly use the most powerful word in the English language, when politicians of every stripe listen to the rich and powerful, and not to We the People.
That word is "No!"
1. N, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations Book V, Chapter II, Part 2. (The original says "subjects," not citizens. 2. S, George Bernard Shaw, Getting Married, Preface. 3. S, George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Preface, "The Revolutionist's Handbook". 4. N, Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress, 3 Dec. 1861. 5. N, Theodore Roosevelt, Speech, 14 Oct. 1912, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 6. S, Karl Marx, Das Kapital, volume 2, chapter 13. 7. N, Benjamin Disraeli, Speech, 3 April 1872, Manchester, England. 8. S, Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Preface (first edition, 1867). 9. N, Benjamin Franklin, Letter, 27 July 1783, to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, after the American War of Independence. It should be noted that Dwight Eisenhower expressed a similar sentiment in an April 1953 speech in Washington D.C. 10. N, John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776. 11. S, George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara, Preface. 12. N, Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison, 1785. 13. S, George Bernard Shaw, Speech, 11 April 1933, New York City. 14. S, Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State, 1871. 15. N, Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Spencer Roane, 1821.
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