No "society" wants you to become wise? No "society" wants people to be free?

No "society" wants you to become wise? No "society" wants people to be free?

Greg Krasovsky 

July 29, 2023

Who wants knowledgeable, educated, enlightened, wise and independent

- citizens
- voters
- tax payers
- consumers?

How about

- soldiers
- state security & foreign intelligence personnel
- diplomats
- law enforcement personnel
- prosecutors
- judges
- prison guards, probation & parole officers?

Certainly not "The Man" / "The Establishment" -- i.e. those who own & control "The System" (Big Business & Government)

Why?

Because people like that (wise & in the know)

- are hard to exploit, manipulate, fool, brainwash (through private & public media) and control.

- could get some ideas about

-- true democracy,

-- true freedom of speech & a free press

-- true government for the people & by the people

-- true nature of evil*

---

* Evil is when you do something that brings you pleasure and/or benefit ("power," material gain, financial, political, legal etc.) despite the fact (while disregarding) that your actions cause another living being(s) pain, suffering, loss (material, legal, spiritual), injury and even death.

Evil is pure egoism.

Examples:

1. A Rapist rapes because it brings him pleasure while disregarding the fact that his act causes the victim pain and suffering and loss of freedom.

2. A Robber or a thief robs & steals because it brings him material benefit 9and sometimes pleasure & sense of power) while disregarding the fact that his act causes the victim(s) pain and suffering and loss of freedom.

3. A corrupt businessman or a group of wealthy businessmen (e.g. billionaires) -- hereinafter "Wealthy Controllers" -- who "legally" buy, control or illegally bribe / corrupt

- political parties,
- politicians,
- elected & appointed government officials, and/or
- senior civil servants

- law enforcement,
- prosecutors,
- judges
- intelligence personnel
- diplomats

- other key personnel in all three branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial)

- journalists, managers and stakeholders of media companies
-- news media
-- social media
-- entertainment media (TV, Movies, Radio, Music, Theater, etc.)

in order to

- have the government give them preferential treatment
-- government contracts,
-- government subsidies,

-- government protection & promotion in foreign markets,

-- favorable laws & regulations,

- prevent government regulators, law enforcement and prosecutors from investigating such arrangements (conspiracies?)

-- turning a blind eye on wrongdoing (civil or criminal)
-- giving them only a slap on the wrist when caught

- keep the public unaware or misinformed of the arrangement through

-- favorable media coverage,
-- media misinformation, fake news and etc.
-- media censorship,

while disregarding the fact that their arrangement causes

1. losses to tax payers through

- higher taxes: someone has to pay for all that
-- government debt,
-- government programs,
-- tax breaks & government subsidies
that favor the Wealthy Controllers.

- less or lower quality government services: more spent on programs that favor the Wealthy controllers = less money left in the government budget for other programs.

- potential forced sale of government assets to fund budget deficits or repay government debt.

2. takes away from voters true value of their votes

- the ability to elect officials
-- based on unbiased (objective), and comprehensive independent media coverage of the candidate
-- who will be accountable to and will serve for the benefit of their voters (the electorate), nit their Wealthy Controllers.

3. deprives citizens of true control over their government and democracy

- when political parties, politicians, government branches & agencies and government officials act in the best interest of their Wealthy Controllers and NOT the ordinary people, the citizens who elected them.

4. deprives citizens of having a free press and freedom of speech (from media censorship)

- when Wealthy Controllers manipulate the media resources that they own / control to steer media content & coverage in order to protect & promote the Controllers' interests (financial, legal, political, etc.)

5. Subjects citizens & military personnel to risk of injury and death

- When governments, acting in the interests of Wealthy Controllers, promote, organize, facilitate, manage or conduct in foreign countries through

-- interference in the foreign country's domestic politics and elections,

-- regime change operations,

-- civil unrest and civil wars,

-- ethnic, racial and/or religious conflicts, persecution and even cleansing,

-- material support to groups (opposition, pro-government, paramilitary) that engage in extremism or terrorism,

-- political and military conflicts with neighboring countries, involving

i. War crimes,
ii. Crimes against humanity,
-- Promotion of xenophobia, racism and religious persecution.
iii. Prohibited weapons of war, such as conventional weapons (like mines, cluster and incendiary munitions)
iv. Weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, biological and climate)

resulting in military conflicts in which U.S. citizens (civilian & military) can get injured, kidnapped or killed, not to mention the civilians of country(ies) in question, including vulnerable women, children and the elderly.

Now, if that's not evil, then I don't know what evil is.

And the first step in fighting such evil is exposing it to the people who are knowledgeable and wise enough to understand it -- so that they can make a stand against it before it's too late: 

before it has done irreparable harm to America and has irreversibly morphed / corrupted a declared democracy into a corporate oligarchy or a corporate-controlled authoritarian / fascist state.

What do you think?

What are you willing to do about?

If you want to KNOW MORE, then please don't forget to follow read The Ukrainian-Russian-American Observer at:

Blog: https://ura-observer.blogspot.com/

Telegram: https://t.me/URA_Observer_2022

Twitter: https://twitter.com/URA_Observer

***

Osho - No Society wants You to become Wise!

TikTok video: https://www.tiktok.com/@themindhub/video/7019379603026251010

Facebook video: https://www.facebook.com/reel/293138713104391

Instagram video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CtxjLzBO-TI/

***

No society wants people to be free.

Discourses
Excerpts
July 9, 2020

Osho states, “In fact, a wise man is afire, alive, aflame. He would like rather to die than to be enslaved.”

Osho discourse

No society wants you to become wise: it is against the investment of all societies.

If people are wise they cannot be exploited.

If they are intelligent they cannot be subjugated, they cannot be forced into a mechanical life, to live like robots.

They will assert themselves – they will assert their individuality.

They will have the fragrance of rebellion around them; they will want to live in freedom.

Freedom comes with wisdom, intrinsically. They are inseparable, and no society wants people to be free.

The communist society, the fascist society, the capitalist society, the Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Christian

– no society likes people to use their own intelligence because the moment they start using their intelligence they become dangerous -

dangerous to the establishment,
dangerous to the people who are in power,
dangerous to the “haves”;
dangerous to all kinds of oppression, exploitation, suppression;
dangerous to the churches,
dangerous to the states,
dangerous to the nations.

In fact, a wise man is afire, alive, aflame.

He would like rather to die than to be enslaved.

Death will not matter much to him, but he cannot sell his life to all kinds of stupidities, to all kinds of stupid people.

He cannot serve them. Hence, the societies down the ages have been supplying you with false knowing.

That’s the very function of your schools, colleges, universities.

They don’t serve you, remember, they serve the past, they serve the vested interests.

Of course, they go on puffing your ego up bigger and bigger, they go on giving you more and more degrees.

Your name becomes longer and longer, but only the name – you go on becoming shorter and shorter.

A point comes where there are only certificates and the man has disappeared.

First the man carries the certificates, then the certificates carry the man.

The man is long dead.

Osho, The Goose Is Out, Ch 6, Q 1 (excerpt)

https://www.oshonews.com/2020/07/09/no-society-wants-people-to-be-free/

***

Osho: No Society Wants you to Become Wise

Posted by Enrique Raul Suarez
March 6, 2017 at 4:46

Source: Under the Blue Door

“No society wants you to become wise: it is against the investment of all societies.

If people are wise they cannot be exploited.

If they are intelligent they cannot be subjugated, they cannot be forced in a mechanical life, to live like robots.

They will assert their individuality.

They will have the fragrance of rebellion around them.

They will like to live in freedom.

Freedom comes with wisdom, intrinsically.

They are inseparable, and no society wants people to be free.

The communist society, the fascist society, the capitalist society, the Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Christian — no society 

— would like people to use their own intelligence because the moment they start using their intelligence they become dangerous —

    dangerous to the establishment,
    dangerous to the people who are in power,
    dangerous to the ‘haves’;
    dangerous to all kinds of oppression, exploitation, suppression;
    dangerous to the churches,
    dangerous to the states,
    dangerous to the nations.

In fact, a wise man is afire, alive, aflame.

But he cannot sell his life, he cannot serve them.

He would like rather to die than to be enslaved.”

~Osho

https://globalriskcommunity.com/profiles/blogs/osho-no-society-wants-you-to-become-wise

***

OSHO English Library

The Goose Is Out - by Osho

[Chapter] 6. I exalt the Ordinary

The first question:

"Osho, I have got all the degrees that a university can offer.
Why am I still ignorant?"

Knowledge has no capacity to dispel ignorance.

Knowledge is a false phenomenon; it is not wisdom at all, it is just the opposite of wisdom.

Knowledge is borrowed; wisdom is the flowering of your innermost being. 

You can borrow a plastic flower, but if you want real roses then you will have to grow them in your innermost being.

No university can offer it, no scripture can offer it, no scholarship is capable of doing it.

They are all impotent efforts, but they have been deceiving millions of people for thousands of years.

Yes, they can make you knowledgeable.

To be knowledgeable is one thing, and to know is totally different.

A blind man can be knowledgeable about light, but he knows nothing of light; he has not experienced it.

He can collect all kinds of information about light, he can argue, philosophize, systematize;

he can write great treatises on light, but he has not tasted the joy of light – he has not seen even a single ray of light.

He has not seen the rainbow, the colors of the flowers, the wings of a butterfly.

He has not seen the green trees, he has not seen the stars, the sun, the moon. He has missed all that.

And what he has accumulated is simply rubbish.

It is better to be ignorant and have eyes than to be very knowledgeable about light and be blind.

The universities exist for that purpose specifically. 

No society wants you to become wise – it is against the investment of all societies.

If people are wise they cannot be exploited. If they are intelligent they cannot be subjugated; they cannot be forced into a mechanical life, to live like a robot.

They will assert themselves – they will assert their individuality.

They will have the fragrance of rebellion around them; they would like to live in freedom.

Freedom comes with wisdom, intrinsically – they are inseparable – and no society wants people to be free.

The communist society, the fascist society, the capitalist society, the Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Christian

– no society would like people to use their own intelligence because the moment they start using their intelligence they become dangerous,

    dangerous to the establishment,
    dangerous to the people who are in power,
    dangerous to the “haves,”
    dangerous to all kinds of oppression, exploitation, suppression;
    dangerous to the churches,
    dangerous to the states,
    dangerous to the nations.

In fact, a wise man is afire, alive, aflame. He would prefer to die than to be enslaved.

Death will not matter much, but he cannot sell his life to any kind of stupidity, to any kind of stupid people.

He cannot serve them. Hence, societies down the ages have been supplying you with false knowing.

That’s the very function of your schools, colleges, universities.

https://www.osho.com/osho-online-library/osho-talks/wisdom-innermost-inseparable-7dd37805-b4f?p=d49cb628babf03e33b6391a6ce77ed62

***

Thoughts of Osho on Why no society wants you to become wise.

"No society likes people to use their own intelligence because the moment they start using their intelligence they become dangerous.

Freedom comes with wisdom, intrinsically.

They are inseparable, and no society wants people to be free.

And true intelligence arises from Wisdom.

"Wisdom and intelligence are against the investment of all societies" - Osho

Wisdom and intelligence are against the investment of all societies. If people are wise, they cannot be exploited.

If they are intelligent, they cannot be subjugated, they cannot be forced into a mechanical life, to live like robots.

They will assert themselves – they will assert their individuality.

They will have the fragrance of rebellion around them;

they will want to live in freedom."

...

Osho (born Chandra Mohan Jain; 1931 –1990), also known as Acharya Rajneesh, was an Indian godman, mystic, and founder of the Rajneesh movement.

During his lifetime, he was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader and a mystic guru.

He rejected institutional religions.

Rajneesh emphasized the importance of free thought, meditation, mindfulness, love, celebration, courage, creativity, and humor

— qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious dogmas, and societal traditions.

https://stevenmonahan.com/thoughts-of-osho-on-why-no-society-wants-you-to-become-wise/

***

VOTE EARLY! VOTE OFTEN! VOTE FOR DEMOCRACY, FREEDOM, PEACE AND PROSPERITY!

VOTE EARLY! VOTE OFTEN! VOTE FOR DEMOCRACY, FREEDOM, PEACE AND PROSPERITY!
 
Greg Krasovsky

November 8, 2022
 
To all my American readers, on today's Election Day please read this post and think about the quotes listed below before and/or after you vote!

FYI, since I turned 18 in 1986 in Philadelphia, I considered myself a Southern Democrat.

After coming back to Philadelphia from Moscow, Russia in 2004 -- I lived & worked there from 1993 to 2004 -- I realized that the Republican and Democratic Parties were just the left and right wing on one bird, the American Eagle.  

When one wing swung stronger as the dominant one, our Bald Eagle flew more in its direction. For a time...

Having lived and worked in Wild-West Russia of the 1990s and come back to the U.S. after Al Gore's loss to George Bush in 2000, the "Al-Qaeda" terrorist attacks on  9/11/2001, the subsequent U.S. invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2033, I learned some things along the way that I'd like to share with you to help you become a better voter:
  
1. Once wealthy people / families / groups accumulate enough wealth (Billions & Trillions of Dollars, EUROs, etc.), they start to own Financial-Industrial Groups (FIGs) that have cross-holdings domestically and internationally.
 
2. These FIGs (which include many Fortune 500 companies) are owned by either very rich families, trusts or investments funds. Regardless, these FIGs are controlled by a small group of people either directly or indirectly.  

3. The FIGs' wealthy owners & decision-makers know from the beginning that the only power big enough to take away their wealth & power or to safeguard them is the government with its tax agencies, regulators (securities, monopoly, labor, environmental, intellectual property, etc.) prosecutors, courts, law enforcement, security/intelligence agencies and military.
 
So these wealthy folks make sure that the government is on their side -- i.e. under their direction & control!
 
4. As such, the vast majority of governments, elected government officials and their political appointees, senior government officials who rose up the ranks of civil service, politicians and political parties are  owned, controlled and directed by certain FIGs, some just domestic, others transnational (global in reach, i.e. globalist)
 
This includes control over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.
 
5. This includes control over non-government / non-profit and even community organizations ranging in size from behemoths like the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund to small NGOs on a local level.
    
6. This is includes control over think tanks and consulting groups that draw-up both corporate and government strategy & tactics (policies) and help implement them as well as major government contractors, including in the Intelligence-Military-Industrial Complex.
    
7. This includes control over the 4th estate - Mass / Main-Stream Media (MSM) that are either owned by FIGs or funded/controlled by the government.

Once you control Mass / Main-Stream Media (MSM), you control the narrative and gave great propaganda tools at your disposal. This is even more than corporate Public Relations on Steroids!
 
Now, the public will see, hear and read -- on TV, Radio, printed press and internet!

8. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the reach of government & corporate propaganda has extended beyond MSM to
 
   - Internet Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, Mail.ru)
 
   - Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, etc.)
 
   - Instant Messengers (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, Signal IM, Lime)
 
through control of search results, censorship, banning, shadow-banning and etc.  

The control of MSM, Search Engines, Social Media and Instant Messengers allows FIGs to hide their control over governments from the public, many of who still naively believe that they live in a genuine democracy where they get to vote (without any outside influence) for independent candidates of their choice who will be beholden only to their electorate and while in public  office will serve their electorate and country with integrity, competence, honesty and loyalty.

9. This includes control over Entertainment Media - Movies, TV, Music, Performing arts, Literature and etc..
 
10. This includes control over organized religion, which is extremely important since religious fundamentalists (in any faith) represent a potential threat to egoistic and often atheistic capitalists that own & run FIGs.
 
11. This includes control over Education -- through government funding & regulations as well as ownership, grants and tenure of leading educational institutions, include those of higher learning (both civil and military), like the Ivy League and Military Academies.
   
12. Aside from controlling governments, media and other important institutions, FIGs control key industries that are vital to modern life, such as

   - Water, Food & Agriculture

          -- Clean & plentiful water sources for human consumption, agriculture & industry

          -- Arable land (good soil)

          -- Fertilizers & Pesticides

   - Medicine:
        -- Medical Treatment & Research Centers, publications, boards & organizations
        -- Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices & Vaccines

   - Transportation (Air, Sea, Land)

   - Communications (Air, Sea, Land, Space)

   - IT Equipment

   - Energy (Oil, Gas, Electrical, Hydro, Nuclear, Solar, Wind & etc.)

   - Construction supplies & Construction

   - Waste Management & recycling 

   - Consumer Finance (mortgages, consumer loans, credit cards, student loans, credit bureaus & ratings)

   - Private Security Industry

   - Private Prisons & control of those on pre-trial release, probation and parole
 
If necessary, any of the above industries can be used for political purposes (including controlling populations) by controlling supply & demand through pricing and access.

Do you see the potential for abuse if there is not independent, competent and effective government regulation & oversight?

But how can there be any "effective government regulation & oversight" if the government regulators are also controlled by the same FIGs that own the industrial giants which need to be regulated?  
 
13. On top of all this in today's world ALL of the following organizations of any substantial size & power (domestic and international) are controlled by at least one country's law enforcement, security/intelligence agencies or specialized government regulators (either directly or indirectly through FIGs):
 
a. Terrorist Organizations;
 
b. Sellers and traffickers of Weaponry & other military supplies;
 
c. Major organizations that grow, manufacture, transport and distribute illegal "Street" drugs, legal prescription & even legal alcohol;
   
d. Major Prostitution, Human Trafficking and Pedophile rings;
 
e. Major cyber-hackers, including groups that specialize in ransom-ware, extortion-ware, theft and resale of card, bank & payments system information, theft of cyber-currency and other personal information that's sold to identity thieves.
 
f. Major hate organizations (based on ethnicity, nationality (citizenship), race, religion or other socioeconomic status.
 
g. Poaching rings that hunt & sell endangered animals.
   
14. So please remember: in today's world, at least since the end of World War II in 1945, there have been NO large (meaningful) organizations on either the domestic or international level that were independent of state/government control with all ensuing moral and legal ramifications.
 
So all the horrific evil acts evil that you have seen done in our world  since 1945 by any and all of the above types of organizations, including

   a. wars (civil & foreign),

   b. Ethnic/religious cleansing, persecution and discrimination  

   c. Major terrorist acts,

   d. War crimes,

   e. Crimes against humanity, and

   f. Other large-scale human rights violations,
        -- e.g. testing (experimentation) & use of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons,
 
have been planned, organized and/or committed not just by the above criminal groups but also by state/government controllers and allied FIGs for what they consider rational & justifiable reasons:

   a. profit

   b. national security interests 

        - political interests
        - economic interests
        - military interests
        - social & cultural agendas   

   c. control of criminal groups for (a) & (b) above.

   d. control of local, ethnic, racial, nationalist, religious groups for (a) & (b) above.
 
14. With all this in mind, do you think that the president, senators, congressmen, heads of federal departments & agencies and even federal judges (all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court) are moral & independent actors who're in office to help the American people -- the 99% of regular Americans living paycheck to paycheck (unless unemployed)?
 
Is it any different on the state, county or city/municipal level?
 
Do you think that it's any different in the United  Nations or the European Union's Commission?
 
15. Sure, elected, appointed & promoted government officials get some leeway -- but only on non-critical issues, such as some social issues.

But when it comes to BIG money (we're talking about millions on local level and billions on federal & international levels), any and every official WILL obey the party line. 

 
BIG Money includes activities listed in sections 1 to 14 above, especially

   - War,
   - Energy,
   - Weapons sales,
   - Medicine / Pharmaceuticals,
   - Food & Agriculture,
   - Transportation,
   - Communications, and
   - Other large-scale billion-dollar government contracts
 

So here's what happens to you mess with BIG money without the FIGs express prior permission:

   - kicked out of office, fired, 

   - demonized, reputation destroyed, 

   - blacklisted,

   - sued, 

   - impoverished, bankrupted,

   - prosecuted (selective prosecution), 

   - incarcerated (taxes evasion & bank fraud are easy to establish), 

   - dies of heart attack, stroke, rapid & rare cancer, etc.

   - street crime victim, 

   - death from a car/airplane/boat accident or 

   - death by suicide 

        -- if necessary, suicide only after killing your own family and/or shooting yourself in the head twice (just to be sure).

 
16. After accepting all the premises listed above (what a lucky number!), in 2005 i chose to become an independent voter, although independent candidates generally don't win, especially on the national level.
 
So in most municipal, state and federal elections, I get to chose the "lesser of two evils" among Democratic and Republican candidates.

17. Once you understand and accept all the premises list above -- basically take the RED pill in our current political matrix -- then you will have a choice on whether to participate in the ordinary law-abiding, tax-paying, church-going people's struggle to regain control of their governments and countries from the current FIG-controlled oligarchy.
  

But before you make that choice, you'll need to ask some questions and get some honest & accurate answers:

Why do we need to regain control of our governments in order to restore genuine democracy?

Why do we need to limit the participation of FIGs & big business in the political process, including by prohibiting any funding of political parties, candidates, PACs and political advertising by legal entities (companies, corporations, partnerships, trusts, non-profits [funded by business] and business associations)?

Why do we need to limit & tightly control the ownership of MSM, Social Media and other key industries in order to protect our freedoms and a people's democracy?

Why do we need to limit the influence of our Intelligence-Military-Industrial Complex (defense & intelligence contractors) in our political process to prevent our involvement in wars and military conflicts abroad, including in Ukraine?

Why do we need to tightly control the influence of FIGs and Big Pharma in our government medical policies, including containment, treatment and prevention of pathogens that cause pandemics like COVID-19?

Why do we need to limit the influence of FIGS and their involvement in government regulation of our water and food supplies?

Why do we need to limit the influence of FIGS and their involvement in government regulation of our children's education?

18. Who's the lesser of two evils in these mid-term elections - Democratic or Republican candidates?
 
Honestly, I don't know long term, but short term -- after the last two years of Biden's presidency and Democratic control of congress -- I'm leaning toward the Republican Party.
 
Why?
 
That's another story for another article.
 
So stay tuned.

But in the meantime, please don't forget to vote based on your own research, on independent alternative press articles, based on your conscience and ONLY AFTER READING & UNDERSTANDING ALL OF THE QUOTES AND ARTICLES LISTED BELOW!
 
***
 
Vote early and vote often! [1]
― Al Capone[?]
 
I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how. [2]
― Joseph Stalin 1879–1953, Soviet dictator, said in 1923

 
“To permit irresponsible authority is to sell disaster.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

“Voting the wrong ones to rule and expecting the incredible and fertile outcome, shows idiocy and wrong choice.”
― Ehsan Sehgal
 
 “People will say with a straight face that having one choice for dear leader is tyranny – but having two is freedom.”
― Michael Malice, The Anarchist Handbook
 
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.”
― H.L. Mencken

“Presidents are selected, not elected.”
― Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“_They_ believe that the Ballot will rob them of their Power and Privileges, whereas _I_ am sure that, by the exercise of even such little Prudence and Cunning as parsimonious Nature has endowed them with, they can with ease maintain themselves in their present pre-eminence.
This being so, let the Rabble amuse itself by voting.
An Election is no more than a gratuitous Punch and Judy Show, offered by the Rulers in order to distract the attention of the Ruled.”
― Aldous Huxley, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan

***
 
“Capitalism is the means by which the elite rule.

Democracy is the charade that pretends the people are in charge.

The people are so dumb they don’t understand that to apply rich man’s capitalism to non-rich-man’s democracy is a category error.

There is no democracy in capitalism.

How many capitalist businesses are run as democracies?

If democracy is so great, why haven’t all capitalists adopted it ... rather than making sure it makes no appearance at all in the corridors of capitalist power?

Capitalists never subject their capital to public scrutiny.

They never require public approval.

They never make themselves accountable to the people.

They never subject themselves to the vote, to election.

Yet they all proclaim themselves the champions of Freedom and Democracy (aka Freedumb and Dumbocracy).

They are the Pinocchio Class, with the longest noses you could ever conceive.”

― Ranty McRanterson, Planet Stupid: How Earth Got Dumber and Dumber
 
***

“The Republican and Democratic parties both feed out of the same bag provided by the monied system, and where the list frequently differs the same interests are represented.”
― George Seldes
 
“General Motors, General Mills, General Foods, general ignorance, general apathy, and general cussedness elect presidents and Congressmen and maintain them in power.”
― Herbert M Shelton

“Representative government is artifice, a political myth, designed to conceal from the masses the dominance of a self-selected, self-perpetuating, and self-serving traditional ruling class.”
― Giuseppe Prezzolini
 
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I’m a moron. Fool me three or more times consecutively, and I’m a VOTER. Not even ducks are that dumb.”
― Jarod Kintz, Music is fluid, and my saxophone overflows when my ducks slosh in the sounds I make in elevators.
 
“Pops added,"you know, they say if you don't vote, you get the government you deserve."
"And if you do, you never get the results you expected," (Katherine) replied.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly,
 
“You know your vote doesn't count, but you go through the motions, because it's been drummed into your head that you might be the one person who makes a difference.”
― Marshall Karp, The Rabbit Factory
 
18. "If you don’t vote, you lose the right to complain.” George Carlin, American Comedian
 
32. "If we don’t vote, we are ignoring history and giving away the future." Pat Michell, American Businesswoman

“I would rather be ruled by people who think they're going to fry in Hell forever if they rule me poorly, than by people for whom I'm merely a convenient economic siphon who can be milked like a cow.”
― Charles A. Coulombe
 
33. "Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting." Franklin D. Roosevelt, Former U.S. President

34. "Elections belong to the people.” Abraham Lincoln, Former U.S. President

“Elections aren't a matter of who wins. They are about who best represent our values. Voting is not only about exercising our democratic right and expressing the will of the people but also a way of demanding for the services that we deserve from those that we can trust”
― Njau Kihia
   
“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
 
“The job facing American voters… in the days and years to come is to determine which hearts, minds and souls command those qualities best suited to unify a country rather than further divide it, to heal the wounds of a nation as opposed to aggravate its injuries, and to secure for the next generation a legacy of choices based on informed awareness rather than one of reactions based on unknowing fear.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“Some people vote for the party, some for the candidate, while there are some that vote for their belief or believing in the ideology. They all believe these are different choices, and that they have chosen wisely.”
― Ashutosh Joshi

“The preacher who casts a vote for conscience' sake, runs the risk of starving.”
― Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1, Reader's Edition
 
“The American Negro saw, in the land from which he had been snatched and thrown into slavery, a great pageant of political progress. He realized that just thirty years ago there were only three independent nations in the whole of Africa. He knew that by 1963 more than thirty-four African nations had risen from colonial bondage. The Negro saw black statesmen voting on vital issues in the United Nations—and knew that in many cities of his own land he was not permitted to take that significant walk to the ballot box. He saw black kings and potentates ruling from palaces—and knew he had been condemned to move from small ghettos to larger ones. Witnessing the drama of Negro progress elsewhere in the world, witnessing a level of conspicuous consumption at home exceeding anything in our history, it was natural that by 1963 Negroes would rise with resolution and demand a share of governing power, and living conditions measured by American standards rather than by the standards of colonial impoverishment.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can't Wait
 
“are you not slaves to the money power as much as were the black slaves to the Southern slaveholders? Then we ask you again: What are you going to do about it? You had the ballot then. Could you have voted away black slavery? You know you could not because the slaveholders would not hear of such a thing for the same reason you can’t vote yourselves out of wage-slavery.”
― Lucy Parsons

“the only true vote we have (and have retained for the entirety of modern American history) is spending power. The almighty dollar is still more influential than speeches and campaigns.”
― Jessica Marie Baumgartner
 

“The business of voting your conscience is: Do you really care just about how you feel? or, Do you care about what happens to the world? If you care about what you feel you don't have any conscience, you're not a moral agent at all, so stop talking about conscience, you don't have any.”
― Noam Chomsky, Global Discontents: Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy

Lesser evil voting should be simply called elementary rationality and elementary morality.”
― Noam Chomsky, Global Discontents: Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy

***
 
Selected Quotes by James Thomas Kesterson Jr:
 
“Voting for a politician in a corrupted political system is no different than giving a set of keys to your home to a criminal just because everyone says that if you don't do it then you can't complain about crime.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr
 
“America has ceased to be a democracy as early as 1913.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“If voting made a difference then how come America is no better off today than is was 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago and will not be any better off 5 years from today?”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“Voting today makes about as much sense as choosing which poison you'd rather drink. The wise choice, is not to make any choice.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“I would never be allowed to become president of the United States of America because I'm patriotic, I love my country, I hate government, I hate secret societies, I believe in family values, education, and equality for everyone. All these beliefs are a threat to the establishment and anyone who opposes their beliefs will not be allowed to become a leader in this country.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“The president has absolutely no choice in who he has in his cabinet. Those choices are made by the same people who chose him to become president.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“Throughout history, the majority of the population has been wrong..”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“Democrats versus Republicans is a huge scam designed to make you angry towards other Americans, specifically, your family, friends, and co-workers.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“The founding fathers of America, if alive today, would be thrown in prison and be charged as domestic terrorist by todays government.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/voting?page=5
 
***
 
Sources for quotes:
 
https://parade.com/1084647/stephanieosmanski/election-voting-quotes/

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/voting

***

[1] Vote early and vote often!

Vote early and vote often is a generally tongue-in-cheek phrase used in relation to elections and the voting process.

Though rarely considered a serious suggestion, the phrase theoretically encourages corrupt electoral activity, but is used mostly to suggest the occurrence of such corruption.[1]

The phrase had its origins in the United States in the mid-19th century, and had an early appearance in Britain when a newspaper reprinted correspondence from an American solicitor.

The phrase, however, did not find widespread use until the early 1900s when it was used in relation to the activities of organized crime figures in Chicago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote_early_and_vote_often

***

[2] Stalin Quotes:

"I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how. [2]"

― Joseph Stalin 1879–1953, Soviet dictator, said in 1923; Boris Bazhanov The Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary (1992); 

 https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00010383

...

Says Joseph Stalin said, "It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."

No, Joseph Stalin didn't say this statement about elections!

By Ciara O'Rourke
March 27, 2019

"Many things that are attributed to Stalin are false," he said. "I would not attribute this to him."
 
But Mark Kramer, director of the Cold War studies program at Harvard University, pointed us to something close.

In memoirs written after his retirement, Boris Bazhanov, Stalin’s former personal secretary, claimed that Stalin said:

"Я считаю, что совершенно неважно, кто и как будет в партии голосовать; но вот что чрезвычайно важно, это кто и как будет считать голоса."

It translates to: "I regard it as completely unimportant who in the party will vote and how, but it is extremely important who will count the votes and how."

Bazhanov said Stalin was talking about the voting procedures for higher organs of the Communist Party, according to Kramer.

"There is no way to know for sure whether he is accurately recounting Stalin’s words, if Stalin in fact said such a thing," Kramer said.

"Hence, I regard this as a statement attributed to Stalin by his former secretary Boris Bazhanov."

David Brandenberger, an associate history professor at the University of Richmond, said Bazhanov fled the Soviet Union in 1928 and then published his "rather unreliable muckraking memoir in 1930."

"Most experts consider Bazhanov’s Stalin quotation to be apocryphal," he said.

Another version of this so-called Stalin quote, as Brandenberger called it, is: "In the bourgeois countries, it is not important how they vote, but how they do the counting."

Some say Stalin was quoting Napoleon III, Brandenberger said, but there’s no authentic record showing this.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/mar/27/viral-image/no-joseph-stalin-didnt-say-statement-about-electio/

***

Are people who vote healthier than those who don’t?
Better individual and community health may be related to voting habits, UCLA study shows

 Elaiza Torralba | September 17, 2020

A new policy brief by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research shows that California adults who in are good health with little psychological distress are more likely to consistently vote in local, state and national elections than those with physical or psychological health issues.

https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/connection-between-voting-and-health

***

 

Voting Rights Milestones in America: A Timeline
Through the decades, the right to vote in U.S. elections has seen massive change and expansion.

    Lesley Kennedy
    Apr 19, 2021

Since America’s founding days, when voting was limited to white male property owners, to the transformative Voting Rights Act of 1965, to sweeping voting process reform introduced in the early 2000s, the right to vote in U.S. elections has seen massive change.

https://www.history.com/news/voting-rights-timeline

***

Timeline of voting rights in the United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_voting_rights_in_the_United_States

***

Voting rights in the United States

Voting rights in the United States, specifically the enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups, has been a moral and political issue throughout United States history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_States
 
***

Voter suppression in the United States

Voter suppression in the United States is various legal and illegal efforts to prevent eligible voters from exercising their right to vote. Where found, such voter suppression efforts vary by state, local government, precinct, and election. Voter suppression has historically been used for racial, economic, gender, age and disability discrimination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_United_States

***

Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.[7][8] 

It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections.[7]

Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act sought to secure the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. 

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.[9] 

It is also "one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history."[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965

***

The Empire Files: Abby Martin Exposes John Podesta.

Greg Krasovsky: When you see the level of corruption and pay-to-play that Wikileaks exposed by publishing DNC, Clinton and Podesta emails, it's no wonder that the Clinton camp and its allies in mass media have tried to shift the blame from their exposed corrupt misconduct by blaming the messenger as "Russian State Actors" working with Russian Hackers!
  
Don't fall for this blame game using Russia as the boogeyman. 
  
This type of reaction is well-known and typical of exposed white-collar criminals - they immediately try to discredit the victims, witnesses and whistle-blowers as being criminals themselves.
   
Even the FBI has refused to confirm allegations that Russian Hackers or security services are responsible for obtaining these Clinton/DNC/Podesta emails and forwarding them to WikiLeaks. 

What's more important is the type, depth and pervasiveness of corruption that these emails have exposed in the Clinton camp.

Do we want these people in The White House?  This may be worse for America that electing President Frank Underwood from "House of Cards" Netflix series! Talk about life being scarier than fiction!

Should anyone be surprised why the Clinton campaign has been demonizing Donald Trump in every possible way? 

This is simply a part of the rigged two-party "We have to vote for the lesser of two evils!" charade. 

Unless Donald Trump is the Devil incarnate, how would any rational, intelligent and honest American vote for Hillary Clinton after all that Wikileaks have exposed? 

This presidential election has confirmed the need for Americans to stop falling for corporate main-stream media propaganda paid for by special interests (who often own major media outlets).
  
Given the 20 Trillion dollar federal debt and similarly disturbing debts and ongoing budget deficits on state, county and municipal levels, Americans cannot afford to keep the pay-to-play politicians that are bankrupting our country for the sake of special interests that fund their election campaigns and also bribe them through jobs and other sweetheart deals for the politicians and their families. 

Especially when these corrupt politicians are supported and paid (i.e. owned) by the military-industrial complex which makes billions from our defense & intelligence budgets that are justified by never-ending military & political interventions abroad.

These interventions and undeclared wars -- always conducted in the name of spreading freedom & democracy and ensuring security -- not only create terrorists who will kill American citizens but also kill, injure and ruin the lives of millions of innocent civilians abroad (women, children and senior citizens who we conveniently call collateral damage).
    
So when you go to the voting booth today, please think about whether your still want to be a hostage viewer in the current American political puppet theater. 

Not only have the producers  and puppet-masters of this show have gotten you to buy the tickets to this truly "Greatest Show on Earth", but they also expect you to leave the theater satisfied with the performance that the actors, directors and producers have put on just to keep you a satisfied, obedient and docile voter, tax-payer and consumer. 

As a result, many Americans will grudgingly pay for this show about 40% of their income in taxes (federal, state & municipal income, property and sales taxes), will continue to tolerate poor-quality  public education, expensive higher education, high medical costs (even with insurance) and some true patriots will lose their lives trying to protect our country in foreign wars primarily waged to protect economic interests of major US corporations and financial-industrial groups.
     
Is this what we want? Is this what honest, hard-working and patriotic Americans deserve?
  
The only way out of this political circus is to boycott the existing major parties (both Democratic and Republican) as hopelessly corrupted and to support honest, competent and independent candidates for elected positions in our three branches of government (executive, legislative and judiciary) on all levels - municipal/county, state and federal.

Any other suggestions?
    
See https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1513454918668642

*******

The Empire Files: Abby Martin Exposes John Podesta.

"With the Wikileaks release of thousands of emails belonging to John Podesta, very little is known in US society about Podesta himself. 

While he’s maintained a low profile, John Podesta is actually considered one of Washington’s biggest players, and one of the most powerful corporate lobbyists in the world. 

In this episode of The Empire Files, Abby Martin explores John Podesta’s political rise, his vast network of corporate connections and his think tank "Center for American Progress." 

Learn why the Podestas and the Clintons are a match made in ruling class heaven."

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fat63bqvG8
  
*******
  
Secret World of US Election: Julian Assange talks to John Pilger (FULL INTERVIEW)

Whistleblower Julian Assange has given one of his most incendiary interviews ever in a John Pilger Special, courtesy of Dartmouth Films, in which he summarizes what can be gleaned from the tens of thousands of Clinton emails released by WikiLeaks this year.  
  
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbT3_9dJY4
  
*******
  
The Podesta Emails.

"WikiLeaks series on deals involving Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. 

Mr Podesta is a long-term associate of the Clintons and was President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1998 until 2001. 

Mr Podesta also owns the Podesta Group with his brother Tony, a major lobbying firm and is the Chair of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a Washington DC-based think tank."

See https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/  

"Meet The Grifters In Chief" - The Cold Clinton Reality & The Clinton System.

Greg Krasovsky: I agree that "This is how the Clintons operate. They don’t change. Any one who pulls the lever for Mrs. Clinton takes responsibility for setting up the nation for all the blatant corruption that will follow."

But what's more dangerous is a corrupt public official who can make more money for himself and his sponsors from war and regime change around the world. After all, war is one of the most profitable ventures, aside from illegal drugs, prostitution and slavery.

So please don't fall for the demonization of Donald Trump and don't believe the outright lies, innuendo and scaremongering that the Clinton camp has put out there through mainstream media outlets controlled by The Clintons' supporters about Trump's supposed ally/spymaster V.Putin and Russia's alleged secret involvement in this presidential campaign.
 
This is not an endorsement for Donald Trump - he has lots of issues on his own.

This is a pre-election last warning to all voters: don't fall for the "I have to vote for the lesser of the two evils" junk or the "a vote for an independent is a vote for the enemy" spiel.

Please consider voting for an independent, competent and honest candidate that's not an egoist, madman or on the payroll of scary domestic & foreign special interests.

  

*******

"Meet The Grifters In Chief" - WSJ Lashes Out At Hillary Scandals

"In an election season that has been full of surprises, let’s hope the electorate understands that there is at least one thing of which it can be certain: A Hillary Clinton presidency will be built, from the ground up, on self-dealing, crony favors, and an utter disregard for the law.

This isn’t a guess. It is spelled out, in black and white, in the latest bombshell revelation from WikiLeaks. It comes in the form of a memo written in 2011 by longtime Clinton errand boy Doug Band, who for years worked simultaneously at the Clinton Foundation and at the head of his lucrative consulting business, Teneo.

It is astonishingly detailed proof that the Clintons do not draw any lines between their “charitable” work, their political activity, their government jobs or (and most important) their personal enrichment. Every other American is expected to keep these pursuits separate, as required by tax law, anticorruption law and campaign-finance law. For the Clintons, it is all one and the same—the rules be damned.
...
The obvious question is where are the prosecutors? (For that matter, where is Lois Lerner when you need her?) Any nonprofit lawyer in America knows the ironclad rule of keeping private enrichment away from tax-exempt activity, for the simple reason that mixing the two involves ripping off taxpayers. Every election lawyer in the country lives in fear of stepping over the lines governing fundraising and election vehicles. The Clintons recognize no lines.

Here’s the lasting takeaway: The Clintons spent their White House years explaining endless sleazy financial deals, and even capping their exit with a scandal over whether Bill was paid to pardon financier Marc Rich. They know the risks. And yet they geared up the foundation and these seedy practices even as Mrs. Clinton was making her first bid for the presidency. They continued them as she sat as secretary of state. They continue them still, as she nears the White House.

This is how the Clintons operate. They don’t change. Any one who pulls the lever for Mrs. Clinton takes responsibility for setting up the nation for all the blatant corruption that will follow.
...

Hillary and Bill Clinton are asking for a third term in the White House, and voters who want to know what this portends should examine the 12-page memo written by a Clinton insider that was hacked and published Wednesday by WikiLeaks. This is the cold, hard reality of the Clinton political-business model.
...
The Band memo reveals exactly what critics of the Clintons have long said: They make little distinction between the private and public aspects of their lives, between the pursuit of personal enrichment, the operation of a nonprofit, and participation in U.S. politics."

To Read the Full Story: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-28/meet-grifters-chief-wsj-lashes-out-hillary-scandals


The Cold Clinton Reality
Why isn’t the IRS investigating the Clinton Foundation?

Main Street Columnist Bill McGurn on how the former president used his foundation as a vehicle for personal enrichment.

"Hillary and Bill Clinton are asking for a third term in the White House, and voters who want to know what this portends should examine the 12-page memo written by a Clinton insider that was hacked and published Wednesday by WikiLeaks. This is the cold, hard reality of the Clinton political-business model.

Longtime Clinton aide Doug Band wrote the memo in 2011 to justify himself to lawyers at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett who were reviewing his role and conducting a governance review of the Clinton Foundation at the..."

To Read the Full Story: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cold-clinton-reality-1477608696


The Clinton System

"On January 17, in the final Democratic debate before the primary season begins, Bernie Sanders attacked Hillary Clinton for her close financial ties to Wall Street, something he had avoided in his campaigning up to that moment: “I don’t take money from big banks….You’ve received over $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in one year,” he said.

Sanders’s criticisms coincided with recent reports that the FBI might be expanding its inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails to include her ties to big donors while serving as secretary of state. But a larger question concerns how Hillary and Bill Clinton have built their powerful donor machine, and what its existence might mean for Hillary Clinton’s future conduct as American president.
...
Among the most striking and troubling aspects of the Clinton System are the large contributions corporations and foreign governments have made to the Clinton Foundation, along with Bill Clinton’s readiness to accept six-figure speaking fees from some of them, at times when the donors themselves had a potential financial interest in decisions being made at Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

An investigation published in April 2015 by Andrew Perez, David Sirota and Matthew Cunningham-Cook at International Business Times shows that during the three-year period from October 2009 through December 2012, when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, there were at least thirteen occasions—collectively worth $2.5 million—when Bill Clinton received a six-figure speaking fee from corporations or trade groups that, according to Federal Government records, were at the time engaged in lobbying at the State Department.
...
The record of the Clinton System raises deep questions about whether a Hillary Clinton presidency would take on the growing political influence of large corporate interests and Wall Street banks.

The next president will need to address critical economic and social issues, including the stagnating incomes of the middle class, the tax loopholes that allow hedge-funders and other members of the super-rich to be taxed at lower rates than many average Americans, and the runaway costs of higher education. Above all is the question of further reform of Wall Street and the banking system to prevent a recurrence of the behavior that brought about the Great Recession of 2007-2008."

To Read the Full Story:  http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/01/30/clinton-system-donor-machine-2016-election/

Dethroning Ukraine’s Oligarchs: A How-To Guide...

Greg Krasovsky's comments on Foreign Policy's "Dethroning Ukraine’s Oligarchs: A How-To Guide":

- I agree, It's bad news when an oligarchy controls the government and even the fourth estate (journalists and news media) in a country where opposition groups can be persecuted under the guise of fighting terrorism, separatism and foreign aggression.

- How can you talk about dethroning oligarchs when an oligarch is the president of Ukraine?

- the recent anti-offshore media coverage, including that on the Panama Papers, already has demonstrated the selective nature of Western "deoffshorization" anti-money laundering and anti-corruption efforts,

- For decades, if not centuries, America and its allies have supported friendly oligarchs and dictators throughout the world -- oligarchs who opposed American policy have been vilified and undermined.

If the current anti-corruption/oligarch drive is aimed primarily or exclusively at pro-Russian or anti-US/EU/NATO oligarchs, then the Ukrainian people may end up with a truly untouchable new class of oligarchs who will enjoy Western protection and indulgences.

   

- If the present breed of Ukrainian oligarchs is replaced by transnational financial groups who will benefit from privatization and government contracts (to spend moneys borrowed from foreign creditors like the IMF, World Bank and etc.) while avoiding domestic taxation by using formally legal tax avoidance schemes, then the Ukrainian people -- who at the end will be end up repaying those foreign loans from their taxes and social benefits just like the citizens of Greece -- will have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. 

- As long as Ukrainian oligarchs have a "get out of jail card," refuge and a place to stash their wealth either in the West (US/Europe), North (Russia) or even the rising East, any Ukrainian domestic anti-corruption/tax evasion/money laundering efforts will have very limited effect, especially when foreign money is allowed to seep into Ukraine's political system and buy corrupt politicians and civil servants. 

  

- Given to the reality of today's geopolitics concerning Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens, voters and taxpayers are forced to choose the lesser of two evils: supporting either pro-US/EU/NATO oligarchs and their pocket politicians or the pro-Russian variety. 

  

What is the true lesser evil is not something that Ukrainians should expect to learn from domestic and foreign establishment media or so-called think-tanks -- including Foreign Policy (a self-proclaimed "Trusted Advisor for Global Leaders When the Stakes are Highest") -- sources of information that are controlled by their own transnational oligarchs and financial-industrial groups who have their own agenda and ulterior motives for Ukraine and whatever wealth it still has.

         

Selected Excerpts:

"None of the country’s reforms can succeed while the oligarchs still rule. Here’s how to take them out.

  

Ukraine’s oligarchs are its biggest problem. If there is a single obstacle to establishing a functioning state, a sound economy, and true democratic accountability, it is the tycoons who control the country.

The oligarchs first emerged in the years following Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. They grew rich by gaining privileged access to the gas market, expropriating companies from private owners, trading with state enterprises on advantageous terms, and privatizing those same firms at pennies on the dollar. The crooked dealings that lie at the root of their fortunes give them a vital interest in keeping state officials corruptible, the economy rigged, and the rule of law weak. A world in which regulators abide by the rules, prosecutors and judges behave scrupulously, democratic procedures hold leaders accountable, and market competition works as intended is one in which the oligarchs cannot live and work.

Calls to finally stamp out their influence are growing ever louder and more numerous. But few observers have offered workable plans for doing so. With that in mind, we present a roadmap for how it can be done.

...

Western countries can help. First, they can deny Ukraine’s reprobate political class access to the billions in aid that enable it to stay in power. Far from supporting reforms, Western aid has propped up the country’s rulers and freed them from the need to build a functioning state and market economy. Continued aid will only prolong the elite’s hold on power. Assistance that bypasses the government and supports civil society should continue. And all aid could resume once genuine reformers come to power and install a government free of oligarchs and their hirelings.

Second, the West is home to the world’s two biggest offshore tax and secrecy jurisdictions, the United Kingdom and the United States. These and a slew of other tax havens in Western Europe shelter the fortunes of oligarchs and kleptocrats from Ukraine and elsewhere. If the plea-bargain strategy is to work, Ukrainian prosecutors must gain access to information about the oligarchs’ offshore holdings.Ukrainian prosecutors must gain access to information about the oligarchs’ offshore holdings. Western law enforcement agencies can assist their Ukrainian counterparts in this task.

But the first step is for the people of Ukraine to eject their political masters and replace them with competent outsiders and professional technocrats. Without this, none of the other measures we propose can succeed. It won’t happen this year. But Ukrainians are seeing as never before the necessity of replacing rather than just reshuffling their rulers. With the right leaders, a few good policies, and a little help from the West, Ukraine’s interminable reign of rot may yet come to an end."

  

Please read rest of the article at: 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/13/dethroning-ukraines-oligarchs-a-how-to-guide/

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How Western aid enables graft addiction in Ukraine.

How Western aid enables graft addiction in Ukraine.

Greg Krasovsky: If Ukraine's foreign benefactors and well-wishers want to help reduce corruption in Ukraine, then the only way to do so is to stop turning a blind eye on corrupt politicians who are loyal to you.

Russia ignored the corruption of President Kuchma and Yanukovich's regime because he was considered pro-Russian. 

The U.S. and its allies have ignored the corruption in the administrations and governments of Presidents Yuschenko and Poroshenko because they are pro-U.S.

The result? Continued raiding of the Ukrainian government budget by politicians who know that their indiscretions will be overlooked abroad by their supporters. 

Playing musical chairs with Ukraine's government and cabinet of ministers will not help unless these folks are afraid of being detained and prosecuted abroad and their foreign assets (bank accounts, businesses and real estate) frozen.

But as long as these corrupt, albeit pro-US/EU/NATO politicians know that the United States and its allies will prefer their corruption to neutral or, heaven forbid, pro-Russian politicians, then you won't be able to tear them away from the Ukrainian state budget feeding troth - just like pigs.

In the meantime, ordinary Ukrainians remain poor and powerless. 
   
Selected excerpts:

"Over the past 25 years, Western donors have funneled billions of dollars into post-communist Ukraine, with two main goals: helping the country build a self-sustaining, competitive market economy, and laying the legal and regulatory groundwork for a law-governed state.

April 14 saw the appointment of yet another government dominated by insiders from Ukraine’s discredited post-communist establishment. This ended a political crisis sparked in February when Aivaras Abromavičius, the respected minister of the economy, resigned over persistent graft among his underlings.

Abromavičius’s resignation was just the latest confirmation that the hopes that accompanied the EuroMaidan movement of 2014 have crashed on the rocks of renewed asset-grabbing (see here, here and here). The gains from modest successes in economic reform have been washed out by impunity at the top along with a lack of progress in civil service reform and movement toward a law-based state.

These developments prompt the question: Can Western aid actually support the cause of reform in Ukraine? Or is Western assistance enabling an entrenched elite to continue stealing and avoid building a functioning state? 

...

Ukraine’s elites deploy the courts and police to raid companies they covet. Extortion, not public service, is the primary activity of state regulatory agencies. Even more damaging is the plundering of state assets. To be sure, the current government ended the practice by which private intermediaries reaped illicit billions from the exploitation of gas subsidies — at least for now. A previous government eliminated such intermediaries in 2009 only for the scheme to return under the next administration.

The looting of state-owned companies by oligarchs and state officials, including figures close to the president and former prime minister, remains very much alive (see here and here). Privatizing these enterprises is no solution; if history is any guide, they will be sold to government cronies for a song (seehere, here and here). Tax and customs fraud along with myriad subsidies have further enriched powerful insiders, hollowing out the state in the process.

Ukraine’s leaders might have constructed effective state institutions capable of preventing such plundering and fostered a market economy that can maximize tax revenue. But their virtually unlimited access to Western assistance has freed them from the need to do so. It has also heightened their interest in maintaining the status quo.

...

How to make sure that the aid will not continue enabling Ukraine’s acquisitive elite? How to ensure that the results will be different this time around? These questions rightly occupy the attention of the donor community.

Ukraine’s benefactors face two options. The first is to resume assistance in the event that the new government puts forward a reform plan and passes some legislation recommended by donors. This is the approach the West has followed in the past.

The other option is to refrain from resuming aid until the coming to power of a truly new leadership that excludes most people with previous high-level government experience..."

Please read rest of the Article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/05/how-western-aid-enables-graft-addiction-in-ukraine/


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