Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 2463

Pentagram Study Declares American Empire ‘Collapsing’

In the first of a series, we report on stunning new evidence that the U.S. Department of Defense is waking up to the collapse of American primacy, and the rapid unraveling of the international order created by U.S. power after the Second World War. But the Pentagon’s emerging vision of what comes next hardly inspires confidence. We breakdown both the insights and cognitive flaws in this vision. In future pieces we will ask the questions: What is really driving the end of the American empire?...

Slavery Was Always and Everywhere

Too many people believe that slavery is a “peculiar institution.” That’s what Kenneth Stampp called slavery in his book, “Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South.” But slavery is by no means peculiar, odd or unusual. It was common among ancient peoples such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Greeks, Persians, Armenians and many others. Large numbers of Christians were enslaved during the Ottoman wars in Europe. White slaves were common in Europe from the Dark A...

Let’s Have More Death and Destruction

On Friday the House overwhelmingly approved a massive increase in military spending, passing a $696 billion National Defense Authorization bill for 2018. President Trump’s request already included a huge fifty or so billion dollar spending increase, but the Republican-led House found even that to be far too small. They added another $30 billion to the bill for good measure. Even President Trump, in his official statement, expressed some concern over spending in the House-passed bill.

Accordin...

Contemplating the Bloody 4th Turning

Several weeks ago I had to drive west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to pick up my son after his sophomore year at Penn State. I’ve made this trip a dozen times over the last few years, since this is my second son attending Penn State, with a third starting in the Fall. It’s a tedious, boring, protracted, four-hour trek through the rural countryside of the Keystone State. During these trips my mind wanders, making connections between the landscape and the pressing issues facing the world. I can...

Making Up for a Genetic Flaw

Over a decade ago I wrote an article at LewRockwell.com entitled Can Humans Live Longer?  The Missing Anti-Aging Hormone.

I explained the biological predicament of humans, that a gene mutation occurring long ago in human history shortened the human lifespan.  Gulonolactone oxidase is among four liver enzymes most animals utilize to internally convert sugar to ascorbate (vitamin C).  A mutation in the GULO gene for this enzyme also occurs in fruit bats, guinea pigs and primate monkeys and has...

The Intelligence Test That’s Sweeping Facebook

Think your maths is up to scratch? You might want to peruse the below test and think again.

A bizarre intelligence test, which involves adding up a sequence of numbers, is sweeping the internet – and leaving users dumbfounded in the process.

The test, created by Go Tumble and shared on Wikr, asks users to ‘think outside the box’ by working out two different but correct answers to a series of equations.

Makers write: ‘Firstly, think outside the box! This maths riddle is not that simple. Even t...

Russiagate

According to an insider account, the Clinton team, put together the Russia Gate narrative within 24 hours of her defeat. The Clinton account explained that Russian hacking and election meddling caused her unexpected loss. Her opponent, Donald Trump, was a puppet of Putin. Trump, they said, “encourages espionage against our people.” The scurrilous Trump dossier, prepared by a London opposition research firm, Orbis, and paid for by unidentified Democrat donors, formed a key part of the Clinton...

The Lunacy of the Left

A useful way to experience the lunacy of Progressives is to discuss guns with your local lefty. Most people understand that gun control is worthless as a tool to control crime or even reduce gun accidents. The people using guns in crime are by definition not the sort to obey gun laws. Similarly, the people inclined to shoot themselves or friends while playing William Tell will find some way to off themselves, no matter what you do. The only result of gun control is to harass honest citizens e...

The Latest Progressive Smearbook

Book Review: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean, New York: Viking Press, 2017, 334 pp.

The primary theme of Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean, a Duke University history professor, is that participation in American democracy by conservatives or libertarians threatens the destruction of American democracy by imposing restraints on the unlimited growth of government. She claims to have only realized this dire threat in “the e...

Tax Deductions

I recently wrote about the Trump administration’s plan to eliminate the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes paid—the SALT deduction. I concluded that the SALT deduction was a good thing because it keeps almost $100 billion a year out of the hands of Uncle Sam.

Not everyone agreed that this was a good thing.

Okay, one guy—a blogger at the True Dollar Journal—did not think that this was a good thing:

Residents of states with no income taxes or low marginal rates actually subsidize t...