Obviously the Ukraine situation is at the top of the news this week. Instead of trying to justify what cannot be justified, however, we prefer to suggest what may be a peaceful way to resolve the situation:
• Help Joe Walk Again for Economic Justice. Just a reminder, if you haven’t already done so, to visit the GoFundMe campaign and consider making a contribution and spreading word out among your social media networks. It’s off to a good start, but it’s still just a start.
Ukraine's attack on Russia
• A Possible Peaceful Resolution. As we have repeatedly stated on this blog, a reorganization of the global financial system from the current government debt-backed money supply (which gives immense power to the state), an all-out program of expanded capital ownership financed by a country’s own commercial and central banking system (which would break the power of the current oligarchies and kleptocracies without confiscating their wealth except when it can be proven to have been gained illegally) and a concerted effort to develop alternative energy sources, with an emphasis on hydrogen fuel and fusion power (which would break Russia’s stranglehold on European fuel) would undermine Putin’s war of conquest and show a peaceful way to grow economically without having to engage in imperialist aggression. Of course, this would suggest that Russia as well as Ukraine adopt such a program, which may not be consistent with Putin’s dreams of glory, but Putin is (in theory) a democratically elected head of state, and can be voted out of office or impeached.
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| Putin's billion dollar dacha |
• Putin’s Palace. How likely is Russia under Putin’s leadership to seek a peaceful resolution to something? It might depend on the size of the bribe. It would have to be hefty, to compete with the palace Putin built with a more than $1 billion bribe using funds earmarked to improve Russia’s healthcare system. Of course, the reparations Russia owes to Ukraine are going to come to much more than a measly $1 billion, but with a reformed financial system and a program of expanded capital ownership that benefits every Russian through active and direct participation, the country could easily foot the bill and rebuild its own government after removing Putin.
• Not Our Fight? There seems to be a slight disconnect from reality among some commentators on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some people seem to think that it is not a concern of the United States if something happens in Europe, such as the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand or the annexation of the Sudetenland by the Third Reich. Others are claiming that Russia has every right to march into Ukraine and take over the country in order to defend itself from aggression. Of course, it seems obvious from past statements from Putin that‚ similar to the bizarre and flimsy rationale used by the Ottoman Turks to justify the invasion of Cyprus in 1570 that eventually resulted in the formation of the Holy League and the defeat of the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 (Cyprus had traded with Muslim countries in North Africa and therefore belonged to the Turkish Sultan in Asia Minor), he intends to take over all territory to which Russia at any time laid claim . . . such as Eastern Europe and Alaska. And let’s not forget that Russia at one time had colonies in California. Not the U.S.’s fight? Not according to Putin.
• A Few Specifics (Again). The best financial aid that Ukraine could receive — aside from the immediate needs to survive — would be to abandon the failed Keynesian policies that back the currency with government debt, destabilize the currency, and rely on foreign investment capital to finance economic growth. Central banking was originally intended to provide the private sector with a stable, asset-backed, “elastic” and uniform currency and adequate money supply without inflation or deflation. It is only an accident of history (and politicians’ greed) that central banks began funding government operations. By implementing a monetary policy whereby commercial banks accept bills of exchange to finance sound capital investment and rediscounting the bills at the central bank, using open market operations as intended to monetize existing inventories, phasing out dealing in government securities, and financing growth in ways that create new owners as recommended in § 46 of Rerum Novarum, Ukraine will be in a better position to resist any foreign domination and rebuild in a way that benefits every citizen once Putin and his puppets have been dealt with.
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| Is it time for a new Holy League? |
• Audio Book. We have received word that the audio version of The Greater Reset has been completed and will be available for download from Amazon “in a couple of days” — probably meaning as soon as the Amazon system posts the latest changes to their website. In the meantime, the hardcopy can still be pre-ordered, with the books being sent out March 15.
• New Blogging Schedule. Beginning next week, we will experiment with a new blogging schedule. On Monday we will post a “podcast” or reasonable facsimile thereof. On Wednesday we will have an article. On Friday we will post news items of interest to the Just Third Way network. If you have an article of 800-1,500 words on a Just Third Way subject, please feel free to submit it for consideration. Special articles may appear on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but a number of people have noted that they don’t have time to read every blog posting, so we decided to try reducing the frequency somewhat to give people a chance to keep up.
• Hortense and Her Whos. In case you’ve been wondering how you might advance the Just Third Way by introducing it to legislators at any and all levels of government, we’ve made it easy for you, with the “Hortense Hears Three Whos“ initiative. Visit the explanatory website, and consider downloading the postcard to send to people in government. Don’t worry if you think they won’t be open to it, as the postcard is intended to get them to open their eyes.
• Economic Personalism Landing Page. A landing page for CESJ’s latest publication, Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, has been created and can be accessed by clicking on this link. Everyone is encouraged to visit the page and send the link out to their networks.
• Economic Personalism. When you purchase a copy of Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, be sure you post a review after you’ve read it. It is available on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble at the cover price of $10 per copy. You can also download the free copy in .pdf available from the CESJ website. If you’d like to order in bulk (i.e., ten or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to publications@cesj.org for details. CESJ members get a $2 rebate per copy on submission of proof of purchase. Wholesale case lots of 52 copies are available at $350, plus shipping (whole case lots ONLY). Prices are in U.S. dollars.
• Sensus Fidelium Videos, Update. CESJ’s series of videos for Sensus Fidelium are doing very well, with over 155,000 total views. The latest Sensus Fidelium video is “The Five Levers of Change.” The video is part of the series on the book, Economic Personalism. The latest completed series on “the Great Reset” can be found on the “Playlist” for the series. The previous series of sixteen videos on socialism is available by clicking on the link: “Socialism, Modernism, and the New Age,” along with some book reviews and other selected topics. For “interfaith” presentations to a Catholic audience they’ve proved to be popular, edging up to 150,000 views to date. They aren’t really “Just Third Way videos,” but they do incorporate a Just Third Way perspective. You can access the playlist for the entire series The point of the videos is to explain how socialism and socialist assumptions got such a stranglehold on the understanding of the role of the State and thus the interpretation of Catholic social teaching, and even the way non-Catholics and even non-Christians understand the roles of Church, State, and Family, and the human person’s place in society.
• Shop online and support CESJ’s work! Did you know that by making your purchases through the Amazon Smile program, Amazon will make a contribution to CESJ? Here’s how: First, go to https://smile.amazon.com/. Next, sign in to your Amazon account. (If you don’t have an account with Amazon, you can create one by clicking on the tiny little link below the “Sign in using our secure server” button.) Once you have signed into your account, you need to select CESJ as your charity — and you have to be careful to do it exactly this way: in the space provided for “Or select your own charitable organization” type “Center for Economic and Social Justice Arlington.” If you type anything else, you will either get no results or more than you want to sift through. Once you’ve typed (or copied and pasted) “Center for Economic and Social Justice Arlington” into the space provided, hit “Select” — and you will be taken to the Amazon shopping site, all ready to go.
• Blog Readership. We have had visitors from 34 different countries and 38 states, provinces, and territories in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, and Ghana. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “Russia’s Difficulty,” “The Purpose of Production,” “Can You Imagine?” “Ukraine’s Opportunity,” and “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property.”
Those are the happenings for this week, at least those that we know about. If you have an accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and we’ll see that it gets into the next “issue.” Due to imprudent language on the part of some commentators, we removed temptation and disabled comments.
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