Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 160

Stupor Mundi

President Donald Trump wants to be a modern ‘Stupor Mundi or wonder of the world. The last ‘stupor mundi’ was the celebrated German Holy Roman Emperor and crusader, Federick II, known as ‘Barbarossa.’

It appears that President Trump seems determined to become the most important and commented upon person on earth. So far, he has succeeded brilliantly. So far, that is. As of this writing, Trump’s tariff crusade has become a debacle, making him and the United States the objects of hatred and fury a...

Why Is the UK Government So Awful?

I’ve often thought that the UK hasn’t had any good leaders since Lord Salisbury, the last prime minister of Queen Victoria’s reign, who died in 1902.

Lord Salisbury (Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil) was a prudent and sensible man who understood that most ambitious schemes undertaken by people in government are likely to be ruinous. Recognizing the folly of getting into alliances with Europe’s Continental powers, he maintained the policy of “splendid isolation.” His pessimistic view of govern...

Donald Trump’s Looney Tunes Trade Policy

In an amusing display of British pride and solipsism, the venerable Times of London once ran the headline “Fog in Channel – Continent Cut Off.”

Overly arrogant individuals sometimes find it difficult to recognize that they are not the center of the universe, and that instead they might actually be considerably less large and powerful than those they intend to overawe, cut off, or isolate.

This sort of notion was also famously expressed in a Bugs Bunny and Road Runner cartoon I remember seeing du...

Trumpworld: Ready Player One!

We assume that Player One in the White House is having fun.  Between moments of boredom with the whole thing he appears to enjoy time playing a video game, one like SimCity in which players build their own communities.  But the game Donald Trump plays allows him to build his very own TrumpWorld.

So far, his world includes global mapmaking.  Nobody serious much cares or thinks that America is elevated and Mexico diminished by renaming the Gulf of Mexico, but for a dedicated gamer it is like calli...

The Dud Flu Shots

“Getting vaccinated every year is the best way to lower your chances of getting the flu.” That is the declaration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at its website’s page dedicated to immunization for flu. The problem is that actual medical investigation instead indicates the shots are a dud when it comes to protecting people from flu.

The latest study showing this comes from the Cleveland Clinic. The results show a 27 percent higher rate of flu in the 2024-25 flu...

Expect Them To Lie About China Just Like They Lied About Gaza

As Washington’s cold war with China escalates, we can expect to see a massively reinvigorated anti-China propaganda campaign in the west. As this unfolds, please know that everything you learned about the mass media’s dishonesty regarding Gaza is equally true of empire-targeted nations like China.

If your eyes were newly opened by the Gaza holocaust, the most important thing to understand is that Gaza isn’t some unusual aberration in the behavior of the mass media and the western war machine. Th...

Trade, Tariffs, Currencies, Colonialism, the Gold Watch, and Everything

The present-day tariff-trade-war conflicts boil down to Neocolonial strategies to gain control of markets for exports and resource extraction on terms that are only favorable to the Neocolonial power.

The title of today’s essay pays homage to the inimitable John D. MacDonald’s novel The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything in which the gold watch has the power to stop time.

In the context of today’s keening cries of tariff-trade-war agony, let’s use this imaginary power over time to return to the a...

What’s the Skinny on Raw Milk?

High on a mountaintop off one of Southern Vermont’s most treacherous roads stands a white farmhouse from 1780 and a charming barn, a place two Jersey cows, Jupiter and Rain, call home.

Every morning at 8 a.m., a farmer greets the pair to begin their daily milking routine, producing raw milk—a subject as polarizing as last year’s election.

Influencers are calling raw milk “liquid gold,” while the FDA continues to label it “dangerous.”

Where’s the truth?

Is raw milk the same as pasteurized milk? W...

10 Ways the Government Is Watching You and What You Can Do To Protect Your Privacy

Back in 1949 the world was still recovering from World War II. The Korean War wouldn’t start for another year, but George Orwell was already focused on the dangers of communism and the totalitarianist government it builds. World War II was started by totalitarian governments; but worse than that was how such governments treat the citizens living under their control.

In his book 1984, the government, encapsulated in the persona of “Big Brother,” knew everything about everyone; where they were, wh...

Alabama Reaffirms Gold and Silver as Legal Tender

(Montgomery, Alabama) – Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed Senate Bill 130 into law, reaffirming gold and silver as legal tender. This symbolic victory marks Alabama’s latest step toward promoting constitutional sound money in the state.

Sponsored by Sen. Tim Melson and Rep. Jamie Kiel, the Alabama Legal Tender Act recognizes “any refined gold or silver bullion, specie, or coin that has been stamped, marked, or imprinted with its weight and purity” as legal tender in the Yellowhammer State.

The la...