Where some things go from the ridiculous to the sublime, this week the news items generally go from the horrifying to the ludicrous. Not to beat a live horse, but adopting the Economic Democracy Act would go a long way toward making news items like these a thing of the past:
"Politicians sittin'; in a tree, S-A-W-I-N-G"
• Jim Aulenti on the Just Third Way. Early this week we got the following note from Mr. Jim Aulenti, one of the participants in the most recent series of Justice University classes: “The most astonishing realization, in my study of The Just Third Way, is the inescapable conclusion that political leaders do not embrace this immediately. The fact they do not is an absolute indictment of their entire careers and their persons. If I, a common man, can find something as Just and Elevating as The Just Third Way, then anybody can, and if anybody can, then our political leaders absolutely can. That they ignore this cannot be overlooked or condoned or excused away. The Just Third Way of Economic Personalism as applied in the Economic Democracy Act is such a beautiful, enlightening, simple, pure, honest, selfless, virtuous, noble, and elevating concept, I am convinced that, at one certain mystical moment, it was a divinely inspired realization. God does not err, God Always Wins, God speaks to us, and when we listen, our actions are guided always to Goodness.”
"You're in 'Zee' Army now!"
• Cannon Fodder Consolation Prize. To console people for losing their sons, fathers, and husbands to Putler’s greed and lust for power, one mayor of a Russian town is giving servicemen’s families a free, one-time bag of vegetables! In compensation for the hardship of losing the head of a family, they get a head of cabbage! To replace the couch potato husband, a wife gets a real potato! For losing a son to beat the Ukrainians, a mother gets some beets! What could be better? Well . . . how about stopping the war and adopting the Economic Democracy Act?
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| New Russian military uniforms |
• To the Losers Go the Spoils? As one commentator pointed out recently, Russia may be the first country in world history ever to “annex” territory from which it’s retreating. In another ironic or surreal twist (take your pick), the aphorism “to the victors go the spoils” has been turned into “to the losers goes the loot.” From the very first day of the current phase of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which started in 2014, the Russians have stolen everything that wasn’t nailed down and quite a few things that were. The whole idea is clearly that if they can’t beat the Ukrainians at being productive, they can certainly steal what Ukraine has, including lives, liberty, and property. Of course, if they really wanted to become prosperous, they could adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but then they’d actually have to work for what they wanted.
• The Russian Demographic Bomb. While Putler’s war against Ukraine and everybody else who looks funny at him is escalating (and causing serious problems not only in Ukraine but in Russia itself), one thing that Putler didn’t think about is the fact that during economic downturns and wars people have fewer children. Russia has a demographic bomb ticking away. When young people flee your country, it makes the problem worse. Yes, Russia has nearly 150 million people, but the male to female ratio is skewing badly, young men are either getting killed in Ukraine or fleeing the country to avoid getting killed in Ukraine, people don’t want to have children for Putler to use as cannon fodder, and so on. The obvious solution is to get rid of Putler, stop the war, and adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but nobody in Russia seems to want to do the obvious.
• A New Great [Fill in the Blank]. Just when you thought it was safe to make scads of money from the fluctuations in the stock market, the so-called experts are telling you not to , , , no doubt to keep all the goodies for themselves. Of course, gambling in the market is a rich person’s game anyway; as the old joke has it, to make a small fortune in the market, start with a large one. What is better for the rest of us is the Economic Democracy Act. . . . as if you didn’t know.
• Bank of England Follies. As if the British didn’t have enough problems, the venerable Bank of England, the world’s first true central bank, continues to act like a money machine for politicians instead of providing adequate liquidity and reserves for commercial (mercantile) banks as originally intended. What Great Britain should do (as if you didn’t see this coming) is adopt the Economic Democracy Act to stabilize the economy and put things back in order, and stop the government from trying to control the economy.
• Social Security Redux. As Social Security approaches its 100th birthday, people are still looking to it as the answer to all retirement needs, even though it was never intended in reality as anything other than an emergency backup to private sector and individual preparation for retirement. That is why all the discussion about the Social Security system is wrongheaded from the start; they are asking the wrong questions and getting the wrong answers. The real way to think about Social Security is not as a retirement plan, per se, but as a backup when retirement plans fail. A better option would be the Economic Democracy Act, with Social Security maintained as a need-based, pay-as-you-go backup funded out of general revenues. This would allow benefits to be increased across the board for those who need it, but cut out those who clearly don’t.
• DIYCF, Russian Style. One of the problems with being the world’s richest thief is that to maintain and increase your loot pile, you do things on the cheap. Thus, while one of Putin’s primary goals in his wars of conquest is to gather more money than any one person has ever had in human history, he stints on spending money on anything other than himself directly. It’s a sort of game all misers and the über-greedy play with themselves and others: let someone else pick up the tab for everything. Thus, Putin starts a war in Ukraine to increase his wealth, but at the same time steals the money necessary to modernize the army or even equip soldiers adequately. The massive army of reservists in Putin’s recent call-up (his failed “partial mobilization”), in addition to inspiring hordes of people to get out of Dodge asap, are receiving at most a few days of training and have to buy their own equipment if they want something other than outdated and worm out Soviet equipment that is older than they are. Consistent with the laws of supply and demand, even the price of thermal underwear for the upcoming winter campaign (Russians, by the way, have a lousy record in winter campaigns) has gone through the roof. As a result, instead of patriotic “Minutemen” straining at the leash to get at those dirty Ukrainians and conquer all for Putin and Mother Russia, what Putin has created is a Do-It-Yourself Cannon Fodder.
• Greater Reset “Book Trailers”. We have produced two ninety-second “Book Trailers” for distribution (by whoever wants to distribute them), essentially a minute and a half commercials for The Greater Reset. There are two versions of the videos, one for “general audiences” and the other for “Catholic audiences”. Take your pick.
• The Greater Reset. CESJ’s new book by members of CESJ’s core group, The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law is, of course, available from the publisher, TAN Books, an imprint of Saint Benedict Press, and has already gotten a top review on that website. It can also be obtained from Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon, or by special order from your local “bricks and mortar” bookstore. The Greater Reset is the only book of which we’re aware on “the Great Reset” that presents an alternative instead of simply warning of the dangers inherent in a proposal that is contrary to natural law. It describes reality, rather than a Keynesian fantasy world. Please note that The Greater Reset is NOT a CESJ publication as such, and enquiries about quantity discounts and wholesale orders for resale must be sent to the publisher, Saint Benedict Press, NOT to CESJ.
• 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.
• 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 persons 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 26 different countries and 30 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, India, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “News from the Network, Vol. 15, No., 39,” “Orestes Brownson and Socialism, III: The Constitution,” “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property,” “Social Justice, IV: The Characteristics of Social Justice,” and “Standards, X: The Federal Reserve Made Easy.”
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 well see that it gets into the next “issue.” Due to imprudent and intemperate language on the part of some commentators, we removed temptation and disabled comments.
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