Curt Doolittle

Category: Politics, Power, and Governance

  • UKRAINE : PUNISHMENT IS NOT AN ACHIEVEMENT – it’s housekeeping. It’s all well an

    UKRAINE : PUNISHMENT IS NOT AN ACHIEVEMENT – it’s housekeeping.

    It’s all well and good to punish the old guard that preyed upon the people. On the other hand, retribution is not a strategy for fixing Ukraine. Nothing will be different. In fact, obsession with the past is merely a foolish or lazy person’s way of failing to deal with the future.

    A new president and new parliament will do no good without reforming those aspects of life that directly affect the ability of Ukrainian people to prosper.

    1. Reform the judiciary. Add the Jury system. Look at the court data. Hire Ukrainian expatriates from German and English legal systems to audit the judiciary and to determine likely areas of corruption. Although most english and german speaking legal firms in Kiev have written extensively on how to cure Ukrainian judges’ notorious disrespect for the rule of law. This only requires honest effort. There is no secret here. Corruption in the judiciary is an open secret that everyone knows – and most people in western countries understand how to fix.

    2. Reform the Police on the Georgian or Russian model – pay the good one’s eliminate the others. Be merciless about reforming them. Any person can bring suit against an officer. Use citizen juries to try the police officers. If a policeman is fired by the jury, then he is permanently ineligible for service in any capacity in the government. This is sufficient incentive to protect the people from police corruption.

    3. “Universal Legal Standing Against Corruption” Treat corruption (even your own) as a crime against your people,and punish all of it, from the most political cheat, to the simplest credit thief, as a threat to the future of Ukraine and its people.

    4. Obtain the “universal right to bear arms” – it is the only source of freedom. Americans call this right “shall issue”. Meaning that the government must issue unless there is a reason not to. Do not settle for requiring a reason. Freedom from evil people in government is the only reason you need to bear arms. Ukraine is one of the only countries that understands the power of armed citizenry in securing its freedom from oppression. An armed society is not only a polite society but it is also a free society.

    5. Commit to a 10 year television and education campaign on ‘truth, trust and elimination of corruption in all walks of life.’ This is, believe it or not, one of the most important things that you can do in a low trust society like Ukraine. (If I spoke the language I’d drive initiative for it myself.) Ukrainians in my opinion are the best and most good people in the world. But trust is a technology. It can be taught like any other technology. And Ukrainians’ need to understand how to use that technology, rather than rely on centuries of experience without trust.

    GOOD ADVICE

    1. Try to get younger people into office who do not have adult experience under the Soviet model. It is very hard to change our intuitions about what we learn in our youth.

    2. Start teaching ‘rule of law’, ‘the common law’, commercial ethics, checkbook management, basic accounting, and basic economics to all students in all schools at an early age.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-24 06:30:00 UTC

  • CRIMEA I get that Crimea has the best of both worlds if it stays part of Ukraine

    CRIMEA

    I get that Crimea has the best of both worlds if it stays part of Ukraine, but has Russia’s backing. In effect it gets to play the Black Sea version of Hong Kong. If brought back into Russia directly it would have less autonomy that it does as a ‘leased territory’.

    (FWIW: stopping the Russians from taking over the Ottomans (the crimean war) was yet another stupid thing we did. Added to the list of many stupid things we did. Sigh…)

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-24 04:08:00 UTC

  • THERE ARE BUT THREE WAYS TO CONTROL A PEOPLE: 1) MORAL ARGUMENT i – Tools: Relig

    THERE ARE BUT THREE WAYS TO CONTROL A PEOPLE:

    1) MORAL ARGUMENT

    i – Tools: Religion. Shaming. Rallying. Deception. Obscurantism.

    ii – Threat:Inclusion and Exclusion from the benefit of group membership.

    iii – Our defense: Reason, Science, Propertarianism (the logic of cooperation)

    2) VIOLENCE

    i – Tools: War. Law. Police.

    ii – Threat: death, deprivation, takings.

    iii – Our defense: The Militia. Rule of law. Common Law. Constitution. Property Rights.

    3) REMUNERATION

    i – Tools : Fiat money. Fiat Credit. Taxation. (extraction)

    ii – Threat : deprivation. poverty.

    iii – Our Defense: Precious metals. private money. digital currency.

    A PEOPLE MUST POSSESS THESE DEFENSES TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM THE PREDATORY STATE.

    a) Reason. Science. Propertarianism.

    b) The Militia. Rule of Law. Common Law. Constitution. Property Rights.

    c) Natural Money. Private money. Digital Money.

    IT IS AFTER THE PEOPLE POSSESS THESE THINGS, AND ONLY AFTER, THAT IT IS SAFE TO USE THE STATE FOR MUTUAL INSURANCE AND CARE-TAKING.

    The government is a very dangerous thing. Like all dangerous things, it may have benefits. But only if the dangers are handled with the extreme caution that they deserve. Like all harmful things, the state will harm those who attempt to gain its benefits without paying the high cost of its careful handling.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 13:42:00 UTC

  • “That little militia did more for their freedom than democracy ever had. I think

    –“That little militia did more for their freedom than democracy ever had. I think that’s what I learned from watching Ukrainians revolt.”–

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 08:35:00 UTC

  • DEMOCRACIES ARE VOTE FARMS AND PARASITES ARE THE CHEAPEST PRODUCT TO RAISE

    DEMOCRACIES ARE VOTE FARMS AND PARASITES ARE THE CHEAPEST PRODUCT TO RAISE.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 07:15:00 UTC

  • FUTURE : RUSSIAN POWER AGAINST UKRAINE? (note: I am pro-russian and pro-ukrainia

    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/why-a-new-ukraine-is-the-kremlins-worst-nightmare-9146751.htmlTHE FUTURE : RUSSIAN POWER AGAINST UKRAINE?

    (note: I am pro-russian and pro-ukrainian both. My interest in this geopolitical rough and tumble is simple: I want a strong east that suppresses visible corruption so that people can economically prosper. )

    “Russia has talked a lot about its “soft power” in recent years. It isn’t particularly soft. The new Ukraine will pay more for gas, which will be regularly cut off for “technical reasons”. Russia’s crazy “food safety” agency will declare that everything that comes out of Ukraine is radioactive. Ukrainian migrant workers will be sent home now they have finished helping to rebuild Sochi.

    Worst of all, Russia will work hard to try to re-corrupt the political system. The Kremlin used to boast that it could exploit Ukraine’s old-style “democracy” – meaning that, just like Yanukovych, they could launch their own puppet parties and buy agents of influence in the honest ones. The Ukrainian Front, a bizarre alliance of hooligans and bikers with a vaguely pan-Slavist ideology that appeared in the eastern city of Kharkiv two weeks ago, was backed by the Russians. Skinheads and sportsmen with the money to spend on propaganda are not a natural combination. Similar groups may pop up in Crimea and elsewhere, where the last elements of the old regime may try and regroup.

    But Russia’s ultimate problem is the same as Yanukovych faced. The Kremlin simply can’t understand that protesters would be motivated by ideology rather than by money or foreign support. The Russians were good at manipulating the old system, but dealing with real revolutionaries is a different matter. Ukraine is starting a very bumpy ride.”

    THEY ARE NOT MOTIVATED BY IDEOLOGY BUT ECONOMIC SUFFERING AND FREEDOM FROM SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-22 23:15:00 UTC

  • UKRAINE. THE MILITIA : EVERY ABLE BODIED MAN Ukraine made a militia out of ad ho

    UKRAINE. THE MILITIA : EVERY ABLE BODIED MAN

    Ukraine made a militia out of ad hoc barricades, old tires, molotovs, custom made armor, surplus helmets and construction gear.

    Large groups of Ukrainians are patrolling the streets for troublemakers. The police are just ‘gone’. Invisible. They are wearing soviet era helmets, makeshift armor, and carrying baseball bats and lengths of pipe.

    No bravado. Just doing it.

    If every able bodied (and sane) man (and woman) is armed, and trained, then your government cannot oppress you. If your government does not want every able bodied (and sane) man (and woman) armed and trained, then you have to wonder why they would fear such a thing. If you aren’t willing to commit yourself to being armed and trained (if sane) then you cannot possibly claim that you have earned your property rights. ‘Cause you haven’t. You’re a parasite on the commitment, risk and effort of others.

    Pacifist libertarianism is just an excuse for free riding: parasitism.

    If you don’t have a militia, you don’t have freedom.

    You merely have permission.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-22 16:08:00 UTC

  • Meanwhile, in your home city of Seattle, Lenin’s statue, while not toppled, had

    Meanwhile, in your home city of Seattle, Lenin’s statue, while not toppled, had its hands painted red, to symbolize the bloodshed

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-22 13:06:00 UTC

  • LEARN FROM UKRAINE. UKRAINE IS A TUTORIAL. Overthrow a corrupt state

    LEARN FROM UKRAINE. UKRAINE IS A TUTORIAL.

    Overthrow a corrupt state.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-22 08:39:00 UTC

  • UKRAINE – UNITED, AND IN A CELEBRATORY MOOD!!!!

    UKRAINE – UNITED, AND IN A CELEBRATORY MOOD!!!!

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-22 08:16:00 UTC