Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 2265

The Republic Becomes the Empire

We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire. If you ask when, the answer is that you cannot make a single stroke between day and night. The precise moment does not matter. There was no painted sign to say, “You now are entering Imperium.” Yet it was a very old road and the voice of history was saying: “Whether you know it or not, the act of crossing may be irreversible.” And now, not far ahead, is a sign that reads: “No U Turns.”

If you say there were no frightening ome...

The Fate of Rome

Nothing stays the same in dynamic systems, and it’s inevitable that the current glut of low costs / cheap stuff will give way to scarcities that cannot be filled at current low prices.

One of the books I just finished reading is The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire. The thesis of the book is fascinating to those of us interested in the rise and fall of empires: Rome expanded for many reasons, but one that is overlooked was the good fortune of an era of moderate weather...

Worse Than Marxism?

Whatever else may be said about Marxism, it provided (for those who needed it) an eschatological philosophy in a post-religious world. It served more than one psychological purpose: It gave those who adhered to it the comforting feeling that they understood the inner or hidden workings of the world; that they were far superior in this understanding to those who did not adhere to it; and that they were participating in something far bigger than themselves. In short it gave them a sense, or ill...

14 questions for London

Russia’s Embassy in London has sent a list of 14 questions to the UK Foreign Ministry, demanding that it reveals details of the investigation into the nerve-agent poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

The questions, provided in full below, include a demand to clarify whether samples of the nerve agent А-234 (also known as “Novichok”) have ever been developed in the UK. The embassy’s statement calls the incident that started the recent diplomatic row a “fabricated c...

No Arms Control

John Bolton’s appointment as national security adviser to President Donald Trump is the latest blow to hopes for a less confrontational U.S.-Russia relationship that would include new talks on arms control. Mutual trust is now hanging by a very thin thread.

One wag suggested to me that the Bolton appointment should not really come as a surprise, since it fits the recent Washington pattern — if White House chaos can be considered a pattern. For Kremlin leaders, though, White House zig-zags are...

Beyond Cynicism

Nobody knows, from sea to shining sea, why we are having all this trouble with our republic. — Tom McGuane

Can a people recover from an excursion into unreality? The USA’s sojourn into an alternative universe of the mind accelerated sharply after Wall Street nearly detonated the global financial system in 2008. That debacle was only one manifestation of an array of accumulating threats to the postmodern order, which include the burdens of empire, onerous debt, population overshoot, fracturing...

The Jeep You Can Buy

I’ve written before about low-cost, simple vehicles the car companies aren’t allowed to sell here because they don’t conform to the various edicts issued by the federal government regarding emissions (defensible, within reason) and saaaaaaaaaaaaaafety (indefensible, period – as the government has no legitimate basis dictating such a thing to supposedly “free” adults).

Well, here’s one you can at least buy – and it’s legal to own it, too. No government SWAT teams will descend for having one in...

Concerned About the Stock Market?

Renowned global investor Marc Faber predicts that more money will be made in Indian stock markets in the next 10 years that equities in the United States. In an interview to ET Now, Dr Doom on Monday said that Indian markets are still attractive as compared to peers. Further, the veteran investor said that he will not sell stocks on the back of the PNB scandal. While the ongoing turmoil has affected the Indian stock markets as well, Marc Faber says that the market correction is not very serio...

Stephen Hawking May Have Been a Polio Victim

One of the world’s better-known atheists is having his ashes interred at one of the world’s great churches, Westminster Abbey.  It appears science has replaced God in some religious circles.

Stephen Hawking, theoretic physicist and cosmologist literally became the Oracle at Cambridge –  he spoke through a voice generator due to his paralytic condition that confined him to a wheelchair. Professor Hawking described how his voice synthesizer worked to produce his spellbinding machine-like voice....

Sarkozy’s Hand in the French Cookie Jar?

There was something refreshing about watching former French president Nicholas Sarkozy being interrogated in a French jail.   Particularly since he may soon be accused of conspiracy in the murder of my old friend, Col. Muammar Khadaffi of Libya.

Sarkozy and his former chief of staff, Claude Guéant, are being investigated for secretly accepting at least fifty million Euros from Khadaffi for his 2007 electoral campaign.  Such a payment violated France’s maximum permissible limit for political d...