News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 15

 

 

Not unexpectedly, the news items this week have mostly to do with the war in Ukraine:

Can Distributism Rebuild Ukraine?

 

The quick and easy answer to the question as to whether distributism can be used to rebuild Ukraine is yes — if the current keepers of the flame can either be convinced that their understanding of distributism might be a little off (or others can see it for themselves), some of the flaws in distributism as it has often been presented are corrected, and the authentic vision of G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc is implemented.  To do that, of course, we need to know what distributism really is, not what it was transformed into even before Chesterton’s death.

JTW Podcast: The Focusing Way, Part III

Today we present Part III of III of David Battistella’s interview on The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law from TAN Books, featuring co-authors Michael D. Greaney and Dawn K. Brohawn.  While the book was not written with Putin’s War in mind, the solution given in it to counter the “Great Reset” of Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum applies just as well — if not better — to the problems created by Putin’s insane lust for power:

News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 14

 

We think it might have something to do with the fact that we consistently give a Just Third Way perspective on the current situation in Ukraine — and advocate a proposal that would help resolve things in the immediate, short, mid, and long-term, viz., the Economic Democracy Act — but this blog has experienced an extreme rise in readership this past week, with the number of “visits” by separate individuals increasing by roughly 4,250% (yes, 4,250%) above our weekly average, and the number of different countries represented rising by roughly 250%, with Russia and Ukraine (more from Ukraine) being a significant chunk of that.

The Definition of Insanity

 

One rule-of-thumb definition of insanity people use is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.  In light of that, one has to question the sanity of what appears to be a new Russian offensive in Ukraine.  The Russian armed forces appear to be making the same mistakes they did in their drive for Kiev in the first offensive.  Now, with demoralized troops and an increasingly stiff resistance from Ukraine, they seem to be attempting the same thing all over again.

JTW Podcast: The Focusing Way, Part II

As David Battistella states in the subtitle of his podcast, The Focusing Way, “The Way is Love.”  Is love just a feel-good emotion, or is there something more involved?  Is there a way to turn economics from “the dismal science” into something that can deliver hope and a better life for all consistent with the demands of justice and charity?  Is this question answered in The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law from TAN Books.  Tune in and see the second part of the interview with Dawn K. Brohawn and Michael D. Greaney:

News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 13

To give you an idea of the sort of news we’ve been getting since Putin’s War started, the latest weirdity (to coin a term) is that Putin is threatening Finland and Sweden to deploy nuclear weapons in the region . . . which has already been done.  In other news:

“Why Are You Here?”

 

Watching the news reports and videos coming out of Ukraine, one thing that strikes the observer is the utterly baffled response of the people of Ukraine: “Why are you here?” they say to the Russians.  “What have we done to you?”  Our personal contacts in that country say the same thing: Why did the Russians invade?  What do they really want?  Why are they killing people indiscriminately?

JTW Podcast: The Focusing Way, Part I

 

As David Battistella states in the subtitle of his podcast, The Focusing Way, “The Way is Love.”  Is love just a feel-good emotion, or is there something more involved?  Is there a way to turn economics from “the dismal science” into something that can deliver hope and a better life for all consistent with the demands of justice and charity?  Is this question answered in The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law from TAN Books.  Tune in and see:

News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 12

 

It’s still too early to talk about financing the rebuilding of Ukraine (although plenty of other places in the world need it as well, albeit to a somewhat lesser degree . . . such as all of it), but it’s probably a good idea to get a place at the table before the usual thing starts to get discussed and then implemented.  With that in mind, here are this week’s news items:

Focusing on Ukraine

 

Just as individual sovereignty requires that someone have control over what he or she and his or her dependents needs to live in a manner befitting the demands of human dignity, each country needs to secure the means to secure national sovereignty.  In crude terms, as Henry C. Adams pointed out in 1898, that means not getting into debt to other countries, just as at the individual level indebtedness destroys personal sovereignty.

JTW Podcast: Reagan and Economic Justice

It seems that President Zelenskyy of Ukraine admires U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paull II . . . both of whom spoke very favorably of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.  This is interesting, as the program is probably the very best proposal for how to rebuild Ukraine ·or anywhere else, including Russia) once Putin’s War has been brought to an end.  Today we feature President Reagan’s speech to the Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice:

News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 11

 

At the top of this week’s news, of course, is Putin’s War, and how Just Third Way principles might have prevented it, and offer a better way of rebuilding Ukraine (and even Russia) once this “special military operation” is brought to a close:

A Suggestion for Zelenskyy

On Sunday, March 27, 2022, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine gave an interview to Russian journalists . . . which the Kremlin has banned from viewing in Russia.  From the Just Third Way point of view, the most interesting part of the interview was when Zelenskyy invited Russians to bring themselves (and their money) to Ukraine to help them rebuild.

JTW Podcast: The Terry and Jesse Show

This week we have an interview by Jesse Romero — the Jesse half of the Terry and Jesse Show — of the authors of The Greater Reset, the new book by Dawn K. Brohawn, Director of Communications of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), and Michael D. Greaney, CESJ’s Director of Research.  If you’re not Catholic (or even if you are) you might find the first quarter hour a little outside your area of interest, but either hang in there or fast forward, whatever suits your mood at the moment:

News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 10

Depending on who you’re talking to, President Biden and other world leaders are either doing ’way too much or nowhere near enough about Ukraine and one or two . . . million other problems.  Of course, from our perspective, world leaders don’t lack the goodwill and the resources so much as the right framework of analysis, an obvious reference to the fact that few if any world leaders seem to be aware of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.  President Zelensky would, we believe, be enthusiastic about it if we could get it to him, while Putin would (in our opinion) view it as an even greater threat to his wealth and power than NATO, as you can see from the first of today’s news items:

Rebirth of a Nation

It will soon (we hope) become a pastime of armchair generals and amateur historians to discuss endlessly whether there has ever been a more vicious, psychotic, or incompetent military operation — special or otherwise — in the history of the world than Putin’s War.  If the current president of Russia wanted to ensure that his name would always be remembered as a byword for pure evil, he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

JTW Podcast: Zelenskyy’s Speech to Congress (Graphic)

This week we present Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s speech to the United States Congress:

News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 09

In Fiddler on the Roof, someone asks the village Rabbi if there is a proper blessing for the Tzar.  He replies, “Of course . . . ‘May God bless and keep the Tzar . . . far away from us!’”  Many people, and not just Russians, are no doubt invoking a similar blessing for Putin.  An old prayer goes, “Savior of the world, save Russia!” to which we might add, “and everyone else from Russia.”

Russian Moral and Financial Default

What happens when a country cannot or will not pay its sovereign debt (government bonds and other obligations of the State) or even the interest on it?  Similarly, what happens if a government pays off its debts with its own worthless currency, despite the fact that the debt is denominated in that of another country?