Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 27

The Gerrymandering War and International Peace

For ages, if there was a way to subvert the law for electoral advantage, the Democrats would do it, but under new leadership Republicans are fighting back. If you accurately read the Democrats’ nonsense about “saving our democracy” as a plaint about saving their party, you wouldn’t be wrong. Just as these domestic outrages are being undone, the President has brokered a series of seven international peace agreements and is negotiating for an eighth (between Russia and Ukraine) this week in Alaska...

Equality Under the Hayekian Rule of Law

Friedrich von Hayek considered the rule of law to be essential in minimizing coercion and enhancing individual liberty. In this context, he regarded “equality before the law” (formal equality) as essential to the rule of law. However, he emphasized that formal equality is the only concept of equality that is compatible with the rule of law. He criticized socialist and progressive attempts to theorize further notions of equality, which they package as “social justice,” as disguised attacks on lib...

Trump’s Trade Tantrums and Bullying Hit a Wall of Solid BRICS

U.S. power has become increasingly redundant and indeed something to repudiate.

President Donald Trump’s estimation of American power, like that of his own abilities, is increasingly seen to be badly overblown. This week, he threatened some 90 nations with tough trade penalties in the form of double-digit tariffs on their exports to the United States. It remains to be seen if he will actually implement the measures. Trump already cancelled a plan to impose worldwide tariffs back in April – his s...

Great Unsung Composers of Christendom

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Palestrina, the great composer of sacred polyphony, whose masterful compositions for the sacred liturgy have been described by Catholic musicologist Susan Treacy as “a cathedral in music.” Palestrina was so much the musical voice of the Catholic Reformation in the sixteenth century that he is rightly revered as one of the most important composers of all time.

He is buried at St. John Lateran Cathedral, one of the four major basilicas of Rome,...

Boundaries on Spending and Regulating

Spending and regulating are simple to limit. Enough government people just need to support and protect the Constitution by limiting themselves and other government people to within constitutional boundaries.

Congressmen have the most power, so spending and regulating are simplest for congressmen to limit:

First, a lower overall-total appropriation can be passed in both houses by simple majorities. Senate filibuster/cloture must never be respected. It unconstitutionally gives more weight to mino...

Israel Is Beginning To Choke on Its Own Lies

Netanyahu has confirmed reports that Israel plans an extreme escalation in Gaza which will entail the total military occupation of the entire enclave and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, which the Israeli spin machine has termed “voluntary migration”.

To be clear, anyone who says the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza would be “voluntary” is lying. Starving a population and deliberately making their land uninhabitable is exactly the same as forcing them out at gunpoint. Saying “leave or yo...

Rothbard on ‘Civil Rights’

There is a dangerous view that threatens to derail the anti-woke movement. According to many people, unfortunately including some “libertarians,” the trouble with Woke programs is that they are untrue to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law was intended to ban discrimination against people because of their race. You couldn’t refuse to hire someone, or rent an apartment to hm, because, say, you don’t like black people. The law said we should be “colorblind” and treat everybody the same. But now...

PG&E Starts Draining Lake Pillsbury. Shuts off Water to Farmers & Ranchers

Tim McGraw wrote:

Without the Scot Dam and Lake Pillsbury supplying water to the upper Russian River, the Russian River will go dry in late summer (August and September). This means Healdsburg won’t be getting any Russian River water in late summer.

I’ve asked the Water Department of Healdsburg and the Mayor a few times about what the hell they are going to do about this. They reply that they are negotiating with Sonoma Water for water from Lake Sonoma, just north of town on Dry Creek. Also, wat...

Re: How Ron Paul Changed the World

Tim McGraw wrote:

Hi Daniel,

I just read your article on LRC. You did a great job of writing. The article is very well done, and oh, so true. Ron Paul changed my life. I was always anti-government, but I didn’t understand the economics of it all. Dr. Paul taught me about the Fed and Austrian economics. His two presidential campaigns as a Republican transformed politics. Dr. Paul showed that there were many Americans who were pro-peace, for liberty, and wanted to be left alone by the state. Dr. P...

Lawfare Unbound

Brian Dunaway wrote:

Mr. Trump certainly has a right to take a victory lap. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against US District Judge James Boasberg, who “said he found probable cause to hold the administration in contempt because it purportedly violated his orders to halt deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.” In strong language, the Court of Appeals responded that “the government’s initial implementation of the proclamation clearly and indisputably was ...