What Did Libertarians Learn from the Mueller Report?

Reason editors discuss Russia, Biden, Moulton (?), and that television show with the dragons.

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What Did Libertarians Learn from the Mueller Report?

Now that the smoke has cleared from the Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump's suspected (and now-disregarded) criminal conspiracy with Russia and his potential obstruction of the investigation thereof, there are many questions that still remain, including: Should we be alarmed by the role that counterterrorism-investigation leaks played in kickstarting this investigation? Are there specific trims to government power that this whole episode suggests, and if so why aren't they being discussed? Is it useful to have conversations about having conversations about conversations?

All of these riddles and more are hotly debated on this week's Editors' Roundtable edition of the Reason Podcast, betwixt Katherine Mangu-Ward,  Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman, and Matt Welch. The episode also features a name-that-Democratic-candidate pop quiz, a quick round of Biden-kicking, and—yes, nerds (sigh)—some discussion of that television show from last night.

Subscribe, rate, and review our podcast at iTunes.

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

'Lies Rise' by Cullah is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Relevant links from the show:

"What's Really in the Mueller Report," by Scott Shackford

"Trump May Not Be Guilty of Obstruction, but He Is Guilty of Arrogant Stupidity," by Jacob Sullum

"Trump May Not Have Obstructed the Mueller Investigation, but It Sure Looks Like He Tried," by Peter Suderman

"In Defense of Trump Obstructing Justice (When There's No Underlying Crime)," by Nick Gillespie

"If Either Party Cared About Limiting Executive Power, Trump's Presidency Would Be Toast," by Eric Boehm

"Standing on the Shoulders of Tyrants," by Gene Healy

"The CBO Was Created to Provide a Check on Executive Power," by Peter Suderman

"Joe Biden Is Probably Running for President. He's Got a Lot of Baggage." by Christian Britschgi

"Joe Biden Says He Didn't Do Anything Wrong, Will Do Better From Now On," by Christian Britschgi

"Hair-Sniffer Joe Biden Should Apologize for His Whole Career," by Matt Welch

"All the Top Democrats Running for President Favor Legalizing Marijuana," by Matt Welch

"Elizabeth Warren Wants You To Know She Totally Loves Game of Thrones. Especially Daenerys. Yay, Women!" by Robby Soave

What are we consuming this week?

Matt Welch

• Went to the Morgan Library in Manhattan, NY (J.R.R. Tolkien exhibit)

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Our Planet
• Snoop Dogg Voiceover of Planet Earth

Nick Gillespie

• The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley(2019)
• Game of Thrones

Peter Suderman

• "Morrowind: An Oral History"

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Comments

[Rockabilly]

What Did Libertarians Learn from the Mueller Report?

That the goober mint totally blows. It's like a high school, you got the jocks, the nerds and the cool kids and they're always fighting about stupid shit.

[IceTrey]

I think I went to the lamest high school ever because that never happened. I played football but I also did theater. My senior year some of the other players joined me to do "Damn Yankees". It was really fun and everyone got along.

[$park¥ is the Worst]

My high school class was only about 200 people and my experience was the same. Maybe it’s just bigger schools where the real cliques form.

[Overt]

As I reflect on my high school, I think a lot of these schticks are an invention of people who were outsiders in High School. My school experience was about the same, however I started out as a pretty shy guy. I perceived all these cliques of kids around me hanging out with their circle. And every now and again, there would be a feud between two kids, and it would lead to the indication that these cliques were all very insular.

However, after a few years, I realized how artificial this was. Every one of the kids would happily have a conversation with any of the other kids. They would go to parties at one anothers' house, and they would work together on homework. Sure, their natural resting state was hanging out with kids that shared their interests, but these were the ties that held them together, not kept them apart from others.

[Dillinger]

>>>bigger schools where the real cliques form

coastal too maybe, my large east coast school much more Kavanaghy than my large west coast school

[Chipper Morning Wood]

That libertarians are just dusting the balls of those in power?

[$park¥ is the Worst]

You’ll have to let us know after you talk to some real libertarians. ZING!

[John]

Why does anyone care what Mary Katherine Ham thinks about anything? She is not even a working "journolist". As far as I can tell she is not employed by any publication or network. Why not just get some random guy off the street for these podcasts?

[SIV]

She's hot.

[John]

She is cute but hardly a raving beauty.

[Dillinger]

wasn't she the uber-catholic @NR years ago or something?

[John]

I think so. She is the one who married the Obama staffer (because Washington has more inbreeding than the Hapsburgs) who was then killed in some kind of bizzare cycling accident.

[Dillinger]

oof that shouldn't happen to anybody

[John]

I never understood why anyone cared what she had to say but her losing her husband, I believe while she was pregnant, is a horrible tragedy.

[SIV]

It wasn't bizarre, it was recklessly stupid. He was riding downhill fast using both lanes of a public road as if it was a closed course and hit a car head on.

[John]

Typical dickhead cyclists. What a waste but what a dumbass

[SIV]

I think it was some sort of charity ride/race thing where part of the course was on a little-traveled route but not closed to traffic. If he was wearing earphones he really had it coming.

[Juice]

I don't think I really learned anything. The whole Russia hacked our democracy thing was so stupid that it was obviously bullshit from the get go. Everything that followed from it was equally bullshit and equally worthy of being ignored. The whole affair taught me nothing I didn't already know about the government, politicians, the media, so-called journalists, and the idiot public. They all acted very predictably to this massive pile of nothing.

[John]

I can't say that you are wrong here. I at least did learn something in that even I didn't think the media was that willing to just parrot whatever the IC and federal LEO communities fed them. I always knew they were partisan hacks but I never thought they were just shills for the government to the extent they seem to be.

The only person in the media who isn't pro Trump and comes out of this with their integrity and dignity in tact is Glen Greenwald. Greenwald rightfully called this bullshit what it was from day one.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""Greenwald rightfully called this bullshit what it was from day one."'

Chomsky didn't think there was much about it either.

[John]

I didn't know that. Well, good for him.

[Brett Bellmore]

The key point you'd missed is that they're only shills for the government when it is run by Democrats, or at least somebody working against Republicans.

Swap the parties in all this, and the media would have been almost pathologically skeptical.

[John]

No question about that.

[Kyfho Myoba]

You mean like they were skeptical about the (Republican) Bush-Cheney led Iraq war?

Check out the Church Committee hearings on YouTube. The CIA has spent over 40% of its budget influencing media. Since the massive media consolidation in the 80s and 90s, it's only gotten more efficient.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

For once, I agree with you, John.

[OpenBordersLiberal-tarian]

Analysis: Sri Lanka church bombings stoke far-right anger in the West

Some people did something to Easter worshipers, and now the Islamophobic bigots in the alt-right are even more dangerous than before.

#LibertariansAgainstIslamophobia

[Dillinger]

>>>#LibertariansAgainstIslamophobia

call me when #islamheartslibertarianism

[IceTrey]

Hell yeah we're Islamophobic. Their holy scripture says to kill all non believers.

[BearOdinson]

Fuck yes. My gods are war gods. But one doesn't get into Valhalla by blowing up women and children.
These Islamists are going to be in for a very rude awakening when they realize that rather than getting 70 virgins in the afterlife, they are merely practice dummies in Valhalla.

[Ryan (formally HFTO)]

In this podcast Suderman recommends we impeach the president. My google must be broken, could someone help me find the Suderman articles on impeaching Obama for illegal wars? Seems like an easy impeachment argument compared to "Trump is mean"

But what do I know?

[John]

Or assassination of an American citizen? Sudderman is just an embarrassment.

[Nemo Aequalis]

What Did Libertarians Learn from the Mueller Report?

Apparently the same thing they learn from anything else. Nothing.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

I learned that they say something was done, but we won't charge because we can't determine intent.

Wait, I learned that from the investigation into Hillary's mishandling of classified information.