What is so fascinating about the world situation these days is that a great many people are convinced that Russia has lost its war of conquest in Ukraine, yet Russia (or Russia’s insane dictator Putin) refuses to admit it has lost horribly and continues to sacrifice everything to save Putin’s face and gratify his ego. The same goes for Putin’s worshipers in other countries who simply refuse to see the writing on the wall. Is it, however, so crazy? After all, governments still insist on implementing Keynesian economics as if it hadn’t failed nearly a century ago. Keep on doing what has never worked and refuse to implement the Economic Democracy Act:
Robert Kiyosaki
• Big Crash Coming. At least according to Robert Kiyosaki. How accurate is Kiyosaki’s prediction? We have no idea of knowing, but he at least acknowledges that there must be something behind economic growth besides government fantasies about what is going to happen to bail them out governments from the massive amounts of funny money they insist on issuing. If Kiyosaki is right, there is still a way to avoid an economic meltdown, which is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Why Don’t People Go to Church? This past week yet another study showed that attendance at religious services is falling, and greater numbers of people are becoming “unchurched,” as they say. All kinds of reasons are put forward to explain this except one: what many religious leaders are teaching has little or no relevance to reality. In the Catholic Church as in other Christian denominations, there is a misguided effort to conform religious teachings and practice to what is popular at the moment instead of what is eternally true. The single most influential fantasy today is, believe it or not, socialism, which was originally touted as “the Democratic Religion,” a “religion of humanity” to replace all that pie in the sky garbage that had no relevance to people’s lives . . . except that it did and still does. By bringing God down to Earth and creating the Kingdom of God on Earth (or trying to), all that has been accomplished is to create a living hell for many and convince many people that religion is either a useless or dangerous fantasy, or something that simply has no relevance for them. What’s the answer? We don’t have one, but if we want to put things back in their proper places so that religion can be judged fairly, on its own terms, along with civil society and marriage and family. It may be that the Economic Democracy Act has the potential to do that and bring people back to religion as well as strengthen marriage and family. Will it definitely do it? We can’t answer that, but it certainly won’t hurt to try and is better than wringing your hands helplessly or blaming others.
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| Looking good is vital. |
• When They Look Good . . . They Still Suck. Putin’s new commander in chief of his Ukrainian Special Military Operation (i.e., gangland hit) seems to have decided that what Russia’s military needs is a little sprucing up to get the job done if not well, at least with style. In the meantime, the Wagner Group and the regular Russian military are increasingly at odds with one another, which is a very dangerous situation for Russia, as we have noted before, and is inherent in relying on mercenaries as your most effective fighting force. There is also now the problem of Ukraine obtaining battle tanks from their allies, which has evidently scared the Russians so much that they’ve stepped up attacks on civilian targets in the hope that this will stop the new tanks. Yet another indication of Russian military genius.
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| Politicians and tax theory |
• Stupid Politician Tricks. According to reports, Republicans are starting to push again on a national sales tax. This is wrongheaded, even given the incredible mess that the U.S. tax system is in today. The worst part, of course, is that a sales tax is extraordinarily regressive, falling heaviest on those least able to pay. Yes, there is always some blather about how there will be rebates for people in the lower income brackets, but exactly how do they expect to administer such a rebate program fairly? Is every transaction to be registered and recorded at time of purchase? That is certainly going to make everyone behind you in line at the grocery store extremely happy. Is everyone to save sales receipts? That means that every transaction, regardless how small, must also be recorded, and assumes that no one will make up fake receipts to claim more than they paid. There are many, many more problems with such a program, of whih having multiple tax systems in place is only one major headache. Frankly, a national sales tax is a Keynesian dream come true. It’s so complicated that no one will understand it or its implementation, thereby creating thousands of jobs for people expert in manipulating such complicated systems, and it lets the rich keep their wealth untaxed. The Keynesian rationale, of course, is that the rich need to be rich to create jobs for the rest of us, which doesn’t actually happen, or the richer some people get, the more jobs would be created, but what we’re seeing is jobs disappearing as some people become ultra-rich. What’s the answer? A straightforward income tax as the only tax, with a generous exemption to meet ordinary living expenses. This is the program recommended in the Economic Democracy Act.
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| "ME ARE A JEAN-YUS!! I THUNKED IT UP!!" |
• Russian Military Genius. The news that Ukraine will be getting top of the line battle tanks to repel the Russian invasion has (not unexpectedly) driven the Russians into yet another homicidal frenzy. Instead of saving their best weapons for use against the new tanks or mounting an offensive to take as much territory before the tanks are delivered and in use . . . they kill more civilians! Sheer genius! Why didn’t Hitler think of that? Oh, right . . . he did . . . and lost the war thereby when it was within his grasp to make the UK surrender during the Battle of Britain. In September of 1940, the RAF bases were being bombed relentlessly by the Luftwaffe, and the British generals were within two weeks of recommending surrender. Then Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to switch from military targets to civilian targets, thereby giving the RAF time to regroup and recover, which ultimately cost Germany the war.
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| Guess Mr. T's favorite vegetable. . . |
• Not Mrs. T’s, But So What? The downside is that so many people are losing their cultural identities as they become absorbed into the Great Mass of Wage and Welfare Slaves. The good news is that there are still people holding on . . . although they’d have an easier time of it with the Economic Democracy Act. Even then, they are finding time and resources to help those whose culture (n lives) are in danger, as this tiny parish in Scranton, Pennsylvania, works to help Ukraine as much as they can.
• 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.
• 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 18 different countries and 26 states, provinces, and territories in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, India, Kenya, the Philippines, and Brazil. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 03,” “Neo-Colonialist Keynes,” “The Purpose of Production,” “Social Justice, IV: The Characteristics of Social Justice,” and “News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 2.”
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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