Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 159

Western Classical Music: The Ultimate in Human Creation

I had an atypical relationship with music for a middle class kid growing up in America in the 60s and 70s in that I never purchased a recording of rock & roll, or any other popular music of the day. My mother tried to get me drawn to music through guitar lessons. I might have made it through two of them. I was too interested in sports. She knew how to play the piano to such an extent that we had a lovely baby grand piano in our house. But I only remember her playing one piece, very rarely, the C...

Trump’s Treatment of Zelensky Mirrors the Genet Affair

President Trump confirmed a major foreign policy shift in dramatic fashion on Friday when he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to leave the White House after a heated public argument that included both presidents and U.S. Vice President Vance. Zelensky was in Washington to sign a mineral deal with the U.S that was aborted, at least for the moment, after both Trump and Vance took exception to Zelensky’s criticism of the Trump administration’s position regarding negotiations with Russia...

Trump, Vance, and the New New World Order

This past week, the venerable Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator for The Financial Times, used his column to declare the Trump administration and, by extension, the United States “the enemy of the West.” “Today,” Wolf wrote, “autocracies [are] increasingly confident,” and “the United States is moving to their side.” According to the subhead on the column, “Washington has decided to abandon…its postwar role in the world.” Meanwhile, Wolf cites the (in his estimation) august Franklin Rooseve...

Trump Sends Netanyahu Weapons While Talking Tough to Zelensky

Israeli media are now reporting that Benjamin Netanyahu is considering “a brief resumption” of the onslaught in Gaza in order to pressure Hamas to make concessions and change the terms of the ceasefire agreement which was signed on the 19th of January.

The Times of Israel reports:

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a brief resumption of fighting against Hamas to pressure the terror group into making further concessions, according to an Israeli television report aired Saturday as h...

Trump Cards

This is for you poker players out there: Trump appears to be conceding far too much to Russia, but it could be part of a plan. In poker, the strong hand plays it cool at the start. The weak one bluffs, pretending to be strong. Trump could be bluffing giving away too much, but perhaps that’s the only way to get Vlad involved and talking. Let’s face it: Ukraine has no cards to play with, and Europe is a busted flush. So why not make sure you deal with the only player in the room? If Europe, especi...

The Guessing Game Over Trump’s Real Aims in Ukraine

The guessing game about President Donald Trump’s real position on peace in Ukraine continues.

Some commentators, including yours truly, think that Trump has blown it by becoming too committed to Ukraine. Others believe that Trump is deceiving the public while working on peace in the backroom.

The last two blog post were part of the guessing game:

Does Trump Really Have A Plan For Ukraine?Ukraine – Minerals Deal Agreement, Lavrov Rejects Peacekeepers, War Destined To Become Trump’s Vietnam

To ...

NATO Is the Big Obstacle to Peace in Ukraine

During his recent campaign for president, Donald Trump repeatedly stated that he had a secret plan for settling the war in Ukraine. He suggested that he would be able to resolve the conflict within a day of so of taking office. That obviously was political hyperbole because the war is still going on. Trump and people in his administration are now talking to Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian officials in an effort to find a way to end the war and possibly even normalize relations betwe...

The Press Falls to Another Record Low in Public Trust

We have previously discussed polling showing the media at record lows in public trust. Well, the latest survey from Gallup shows that the media hit another all-time low. What is most impressive is that plummeting readers, revenues, and layoffs have done little to convince the mainstream media that the problem is not the public but themselves. The only institution with a  lower level of public trust is Congress, and that says a lot. It is like beating Ebola as the preferred communicable disease.S...

Be the Friend With Something Worthy To Say

The book of Job is a pretty cool book.

Some people say all kinds of woeful things about Job. They might even call him a “woe is me,” kind of guy. But there are 42 chapters to that book and Job goes through some phases of change in those 42 chapters. So, it can be hard to characterize Job by the end of it as a “woe is me,” kind of guy.

The “o” in Job, by the way, tends to be pronounced in American English as a long o, like the name Joe. And Job is the kind of story that can happen to a regular Jo...

The Great Joe Sobran

Joe Sobran was one of my greatest friends, and I often  thought about him over this past week, because February 23 was the anniversary of his death. He was a man of courage and of the utmost integrity. He began writing about politics for National Review, but he broke with the editor, CIA agent William F. Buckley, Jr., over his refusal to support Israel. Additionally, his own penetrating intellect had led him to find attractive the thought of Murray Rothbard, and this too Buckley could not abide,...