Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 429

Social Security Entitlements – Broke: The Big Lie

Where oh where has our Social Security gone?   The Net Balance in the Fund is $2,699,365,000,000.   Total collections for FY 2023 were $2,735,301,000,000 on disbursements of $1,433,349,000,000.   Why is this notable?  Because the SS Administration does not recognize payments into Social Security as a loan or debt earning interest and payable to Taxpayers – The Big Lie.  

Our Government is claiming that Social Security is in fact – a Tax and accounting for it on that basis.  Technically, they sho...

Popular Nullification of the State’s Propaganda

Mass media technologies such as radio and television ushered in an era of State-engineered propaganda on a global scale.  Any lingering allegiance to objective truth was eclipsed by the allure of powerful narratives.  Narratives create false realities that incentivize humans to accept certain ideas or pursue certain actions that they would otherwise never accept or pursue if they were thinking clearly and confronting reality truthfully.

Over the last century, television and radio have operated a...

Targeting Trump

Back in the good old days when the Brits ruled the roost in the American colonies, the sneaky Brits used a system of their own to lord it over those who looked like them, spoke like them, and worshipped the same God as them, but called themselves American rather than British. It was very simple, really. The bad old Brits recalled an old British law passed by those whose knowledge of democracy was equal to mine of homosexuality, called the Bills of Attainder. If someone had displeased you, and if...

The Great Dispossession

Klaus Schwab tells us that in the Great Reset that the World Economic Forum is preparing for us “you will own nothing and you will be happy.” Well, we already own nothing. Our bank deposits and stocks and bonds, in the event the depository institution gets into trouble, belong to the depository institution’s creditors, not to us. All assets are pooled and serve as collateral whether or not labeled “segregated.”

You might remember that during the last financial crisis we were told that there woul...

An Open Letter to My Dear Palestinian Christian Brother Fares Abraham

Writing for Newsweek, Palestinian Christian Fares Abraham wrote an excellent opinion piece entitled Who Is This “Godly” Man Calling for Gaza’s Nuclear Incineration? He writes:

As a Palestinian-American Christian leading a ministry dedicated to sharing the hope of the gospel throughout the Middle East, I typically avoid discussing statements made by politicians. However, the recent abhorrent remarks made by an ordained pastor, now shamefully occupying a seat in Congress, have compelled me to brea...

The Fantasy of an Iranian Bomb

It remains a classic moment in United Nations history. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the dignified setting of a General Assembly speech in the fall of 2012 to raise the specter of an Iranian nuclear bomb. He displayed a cartoonish drawing of what he said was an Iranian bomb with a lighted fuse on top and asked: “How much enriched uranium do you need for a bomb? And how close is Iran to getting it?” He called his crude drawing a “diagram.”

The catcalls came immediately. Jon Stewa...

Going Viral

UPDATE 10APR24: as if viral boogymen weren’t silly enough, we now have “virus-like entities” called viroids and obelisks. Do we smell a narradigm forming?

I grew up on a farm with 400 head of cattle, a dozen goats, a half-dozen sheep, three horses, and uncountable chickens, guinea hens, rabbits, turtles, snakes, fish, and the occasional armadillo.

When the animals got sick, the vet didn’t recommend drugs. That would be outrageously expensive and a major undertaking to isolate and inject 400 cows...

The Virtuous Appeal of Fascism

This post is part of a series born out of my frustration over the sloppiness of our political discourse, a world where words mean not just what the speaker choses them to mean, but whatever meaning and implied intent is projected into them by the listener/reader.

Sidebar: you may have noticed that when I use the words ‘socialist’ and ‘communist’ as adjectives, describing ideas and policies, I tend to use them almost interchangeably.

The official doctrine (vision) of communism in the Soviet world...

What’s Behind the Soaring Gold Price?

I’m in Zurich speaking at a conference, and the hot topic is what’s behind the rise in the gold price. No one seems to have a clue and I have not been much help, but there does appear to be an answer to the question.

The most plausible explanation is from someone far closer to bullion markets than me, and that’s Ross Norman of Metals Daily (he’s not at the conference).

Understandably, he has addressed this question as well. He has concluded that the answer lies in the options market. I quote:

‘T...

NPR Editor Blasts the Public-Funded Company for Political Bias and Activism

In a scathing account from within National Public Radio (NPR), Senior Editor Uri Berliner blasted the company for open political bias and activism. Berliner, who says that he is liberal politically, wrote about how NPR went from a left-leaning media outlet to a virtual Democratic operation echoing narratives from figures like Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Cal.). The objections have long been voiced, including on this blog, but this account is coming from a long-standing and respected editor from within ...