Merchants of Death, Swaps, and Shake-ups
Plus: The editors briefly celebrate a noteworthy shake-up in the Senate.

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie discuss the Brittney Griner prisoner swap and the Twitter Files 2.0.
0:27: Brittney Griner released
9:46: New Twitter Files drop
32:43: Weekly Listener Question:
Should Libertarian candidates throw the election one way or the other in exchange for a public pledge by one of the two large-party candidates? For example, adopting an official public policy and/or naming them to a Cabinet position? Obviously, the candidate couldn't force voters to cooperate, but with the large number of libertarians in excess of the number needed suggests that enough would go along with the scheme to make it work… and of course, no one could prove that it didn't. Whaddya think?
42:55: Kyrsten Sinema leaves the Democratic party.
48:58: This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Brittney Griner Has Finally Been Released," by Emma Camp
"The Brutality of Brittney Griner's New Home," by Emma Camp
"Twitter Files: FBI, DHS Reported Tweets for Election Misinformation," by Robby Soave
"Bari Weiss Twitter Files Reveal Systematic 'Blacklisting' of Disfavored Content," by Robby Soave
"Sinema's Defection from Democrats Sows Welcome Chaos Among the Political Class," by J.D. Tuccille
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsor:
- Unfortunately, life doesn't come with a user manual. So when it's not working for you, it's normal to feel stuck. Navigating any of life's challenges can make you feel unsure, whether it's a career change, a new relationship, or becoming a parent. Therapists are trained to help you figure out the cause of challenging emotions and learn productive coping skills, which makes therapy the closest thing to a guided tour of the complex engine called you. As the world's largest therapy service, BetterHelp has matched 3 million people with professionally licensed and vetted therapists available 100 percent online. Plus, it's affordable. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a therapist. If things aren't clicking, you can easily switch to a new therapist anytime. It couldn't be simpler. No waiting rooms. No traffic. No endless searching for the right therapist. Learn more and save 10 percent on your first month at BetterHelp.com/roundtable today.
Audio production by Ian Keyser
Assistant production by Hunt Beaty
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Imagine how the other 12 Americans there for the exact same offense must be doing right now.
They're probably thinking to themselves "if only I was a 6'9" African-American lesbo."
Triple intersection score!
Great article, Mike. I appreciate your work, I'm now creating over $35,000 dollars each month simply by doing a simple job online! I do know You currently making a lot of greenbacks online from $28,000 dollars, its simple online operating jobs.
.
.
Just open the link------------------------------->>> http://Www.RichApp1.Com
Google pay 200$ per hour my last pay check was $8500 working 1o hours a week online. My younger brother friend has been averaging 12000 for months now and he works about 22 hours a week. I cant believe how easy it was once I tried it outit..
🙂 AND GOOD LUCK. 🙂
HERE====)> http://WWW.WORKSFUL.COM
A case where being higher on the intersectionality pyramid is actually a benefit.
I get paid over 190$ per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I’d be able to do it but my best friend earns over 10k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I’ve been doing..
HERE====)> http://WWW.RICHSALARIES.COM
Almost perfect - you forgot “who despises the US”.
I am making $92 an hour working from home. I never imagined that it was honest to goodness yet my closest companion is earning $16,000 a month by working on a laptop, that was truly astounding for me, she prescribed for me to attempt it simply.
Everybody must try this job now by just using this website. http://www.LiveJob247.com
As much as she despises the US, imagine how badly one must despise the US to call for the termination of the Constitution.
he's living rent free still I see….
Sᴛᴀʀᴛ ᴡᴏʀᴋɪɴɢ ғʀᴏᴍ ʜᴏᴍᴇ! Gʀᴇᴀᴛ ᴊᴏʙ ғᴏʀ sᴛᴜᴅᴇɴᴛs, sᴛᴀʏ-ᴀᴛ-ʜᴏᴍᴇ ᴍᴏᴍs ᴏʀ ᴀɴʏᴏɴᴇ ɴᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴀɴ ᴇxᴛʀᴀ ɪɴᴄᴏᴍᴇ… Yᴏᴜ ᴏɴʟʏ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴀ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴜᴛᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀ ʀᴇʟɪᴀʙʟᴇ ɪɴᴛᴇʀɴᴇᴛ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ… Mᴀᴋᴇ $80 ʜᴏᴜʀʟʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴜᴘ ᴛᴏ $13000 ᴀ ᴍᴏɴᴛʜ ʙʏ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡɪɴɢ ʟɪɴᴋ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ ᴀɴᴅ sɪɢɴɪɴɢ ᴜᴘ… Yᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ғɪʀsᴛ ᴄʜᴇᴄᴋ ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ᴛʜɪs ᴡᴇᴇᴋ:) GOOD LUCK.:)
Just open the link————————————–>>OPEN>> USA JOBS ONLINE
Who also hates America!
Hitler?
She's a role model, supposedly.
Wife beating. Transporting drugs. All my kids look up to her.
That is according to the Biden Administration's mouthpiece.
All my kids look up to her.
At 5'8", I approve of this joke.
They’re probably thinking to themselves “if only I was a 6’9″ African-American lesbo.”
Well, heck! I’ve never even been arrested and that’s pretty much my first waking every morning!
Imagine the J6 bon violent paraders denied medical care that Reason doesn't give a shit about because they don't have the proper amount of intersectionality.
I think only one is there for the same offense - a 60 year old white male history teacher who brought medical marijuana into Russia for spinal pain. Sentenced to 14 years hard labor.
"The Brutality of Brittney Griner's New Home," by Emma Camp
Yes, so brutal to be home and free even though she stupidly brought in a substance that the country she was visiting considers highly illegal. She's luckier than hell and should buy a lotto ticket.
Now, Emma, can we talk about Viktor Bout instead of this two-bit basketball player?
Heads up: We are beginning to phase in a number of changes to the commenting system at Reason.com. Registered users can now see an enhanced profile page - accessible from the link near the top right of any page - which allows you to manage your muted commenter list and to see a complete listing of comments. Also, commenters are now able to edit comments during the first 5 minutes after posting. These initial changes also include new registration and password recovery forms. Stay tuned for bigger and better changes coming soon! Please send any trouble reports to webmaster@reason.com and submit any feedback through our site feedback form.
What's the lady in pigtails doing in the playpen?
Showing pictures of her life on the plantation.
Just got done reading the responses to ENBs tweet. Man the liberal gatekeeping they want imposed and the outrage hate for Dave Smith and the MC caucus is very telling. So many calls for censorship in support of ENB. Was amazing.
I thought ENB moved to Mastodon.
Mike follows her around like a puppy apparently and noticed it has been a few weeks. She is instead complaining about Dave Smith and commentary on the site that isn’t approved by her intellectual bubble.
abortion, open borders and sexually mutilating kids for the denial of reality "T" fringe. Yep that is ENB and the cosmo wokes who run Reason. I first learned about Reason when I was working at a consulting firm trying to privatize LA county assets. The Reason foundation was very helpful, smart as hell and introduced this newly minted MBA whose only economic classes I had was keynsian crap about the Austrian School. Now it has come down to this..abortion, open borders and making excuses for pedos...and selling out to host the Volokh site and some of the should we say politely...somewhat energetic Zionists..
cosmo woke types....they have infested all institutions...media, academia, govt, corporate HR departments, non profits and yes even Reason. Thank god for the Mises Caucus. Now can we get the Reason Foundation to fire the entire group of writers and editors and hire some Ron Paul folks? Some diversity would be nice. Heterosexuals, European American Ethnic Christians...you know look like America.
Wonder why she hates Dave...
https://twitter.com/ComicDaveSmith/status/1602382524327632896?t=T-0d-EcT-xhx4MJKAz3YPg&s=19
I see people calling the outrage about this stuff ‘a moral panic’ or claiming that it isn’t happening or happens very rarely. I don’t actually know exactly how prevalent this is, but it blows my mind that we can’t all agree that it’s disgusting and intolerable.
[Link]
It's called normalization of deviance. And normalization precedes entitlement, at which point you will have a quota for drag queens.
How natural that a blog that attracts plenty of antisocial, disaffected malcontents and delusional, right-wing culture war casualties is sponsored by a group of therapists.
I think it is nice that Reason.com attracts this audience. It provides society's losers a place at which they can huddle together for warmth and maybe feel normal for a moment, while concentrating the faux libertarian clingers in one spot for those who wish to mock them and get a sense of their misfit thinking.
Carry on, clingers.
Fuck off and die, asshole bigot.
Convulsing over your irrelevance again, Reverend?
Arty, given the current state of affairs, there is likely to be a large scale uprising that will end up culling the left and its supporters. Given that you are an idiot leftist fanatic, it’s going to get real fucking bad for you.
Be afraid Arty.
The deplorable, half-educated, superstitious bigots concentrated in our can't-keep-up backwaters haven't accomplished much or stuck with anything worthwhile throughout their desolate, pathetic lives. That is not likely to change. The culture war is not quite over but has been settled, and the liberal-libertarian mainstream will continue to shape our national progress against the wishes and efforts of slack-jawed right-wing malcontents.
The incel malcontents on the right should try to be nicer, lest their betters stop being such gracious victors. You can whimper about it as much as you, but you will continue to comply with the preferences of the liberal-libertarian American mainstream, clingers.
Fuck off and die, asshole bigot.
Ooh, forecasting another J6...or just calling for mass killings?
You keep inadvertently describing yourself. Parody or lack of self awareness?
It just struck me that he could well be the ‘bad-cop’ parody account partner to the former OLB ‘good-cop’ parody account.
He so consistently opens in a predictably belligerent and token manner and is almost never on topic – I know he is a troll but I think he must be the spiritual twin to the former obl to be so blatantly stereotypical.
OBL's evil Captain Kirk?
Occasionally I get bored and unmute him; nothing ever changes with the guy, same schtick, exuding the same misery.
No, according to the post in the Volokh Conspiracy, the steaming pile of lefty shit has been there for quite a while, copy/pasting the same, boring whines.
When they moved over to Reason, we got infected like people getting the plague.
"Obviously, the candidate couldn't force voters to cooperate, but with the large number of libertarians in excess of the number needed suggests that enough would go along with the scheme to make it work"
So the large number of Libertarians who are gonna force the repubicrats to give their candidate a cabinet post are where exactly? Would that be the 3% that voted for Johnson in 2016 (I was one by the way)? Or the under 1% that voted L in every other election in the party's history (and yeah I was around for most of those too)? We know there's a Libertarian majority out there somewhere. But no one knows where.
Someone from the MC could be good. Most of those that reason promotes is no different than supporting someone on the current cabinet.
There is no such thing as a libertarian. There are only good guys and leftists. If you disagree then you're a leftist. If you disagree with leftists you're still a leftist.
Hey tough guy, when can I expect you in Spokane?
Lol. Sarc leaving the 50 miles he grew up around? He may be exposed to scary things like Cuban sandwiches.
“The Brutality of Brittney Griner’s New Home,” by Emma Camp"
Who the fuck cares?
Few "news" stories are less relevant to Americans' lives and freedom than Griner's incarceration or release.
Surprising! I’ve been making 100 Dollars an hour since I started freelance on the Internet six months ago. I work long hours a day from home and do the basic work that I get from the business I met online. share this work for you opportunity This is definitely the best job I have ever done.
Go to this link................>>> onlinecareer1
ENB wonders why the commentary are unhappy with Reason editors. Exhibit A. Seriously, nobody here cares about this story, except the fact that the Biden administration gave up a notorious arms dealer to get her released, while giving zero fucks for any of the other Americans being held in Russian jails. Such as, a Marine vet.
But yeah, 100% solid Libertarian story about Brittney Griner's tragic life where she faces the consequences of her poor choices.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1602387025855885312?t=qkEf-5eoKsAqjvZdV_S9DA&s=19
Under pressure from hundreds of activist employees, Twitter deplatforms Trump, a sitting US President, even though they themselves acknowledge that he didn’t violate the rules:
[Link]
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1602390475851300867?t=rK4SzcHincBsNlkRcoHF6g&s=19
BREAKING: Immediately after suspending Trump they discussed suspending people for saying they should take vitamins to reduce Covid risk
[Link]
Slippery slopes aren't real.
Surprising! I’ve been making 100 Dollars an hour since I started freelance on the Internet six months ago. I work long hours a day from home and do the basic work that I get from the business I met online. share this work for you opportunity This is definitely the best job I have ever done.
Go to this link................>>> onlinecareer1
"Should Libertarian candidates throw the election one way or the other in exchange for a public pledge by one of the two large-party candidates?" That might work better on a local level by threatening to enter the Republican primary which could cost the endorsed candidate time, effort and money to campaign. And would risk the (ha,ha) "good name" of the GOP if all those crazy libertarian positions came to be thought of as Republican positions.
Huh, DNC, Biden administration must have finally gotten their talking points prepared, lawyers hired because SBF just got arrested.
^ you get it
"Should Libertarian candidates throw the election one way or the other in exchange for a public pledge by one of the two large-party candidates?”
A pledge by any politician becomes worthless immediately upon said politician taking office.
So: no.
Agreed. Unless the pledge provides something tangible, like a cabinet position, it's a useless idea.
https://twitter.com/AbrahamHamadeh/status/1602501692272123904?t=0w9ErkjoxB4mnOP2AyhNxA&s=19
Sam Bankman-Fried was scheduled to testify to the House Financial Services Committee in Washington tomorrow. Instead, the US District for the Southern District of New York arrested him in the Bahamas.
As a former prosecutor this doesn’t make much sense. You want him to talk…
https://twitter.com/LibertyLockPod/status/1602531809455181824?t=aVV4q9cQWjhtPJ0FfPt1Ww&s=19
Now that Dr. McCullough & Dr. Malone are back, let's remember how absolutely sinister it was to unperson the two most important voices in their respective fields during a pandemic
If you didn't realize it at the time, I certainly hope you can recognize now that a psyop was afoot
"But they wanted to kill grandma! LITERALLY HITLERS!!!" - Still, many progressives.
https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1602490533586378755?t=A79b6eXgFWWOx_2SAHiHTA&s=19
Elon Musk is now explicitly encouraging his 120 million followers to start following QAnon.
Put differently, Elon Musk is encouraging his 120 million followers to join a domestic terrorism movement.
[Link]
LMAO! Progressives are idiots. QAnon is a CIA psyop. And, please refresh my memory, what terrorism has QAnon participated in?
QAnon is a CIA psyop.
If so, the degree to which all the Twits are attuned to QAnon dogwhistles make it probably the most successful thing the CIA has ever done.
Goddamn, I've heard quite a few bad take on this podcast over the years--though never from Suderman's cultural recs--but that "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is more of a Halloween movie has to take the cake. That is the least informed opinion I've heard. I am disgisted with Gillespie and his status as the True Libertarian is in question.
https://twitter.com/JeremyTate41/status/1602382601578217478?t=aV_MEOGpmPNXpMmBxx3WOA&s=19
Harvard Law professor, Elizabeth Bartholet, is calling for a ban on homeschooling. Bartholet writes “from early on our law recognized that the state has a role to play in child rearing, and that parents have responsibilities and not just rights.”
Are you waking up yet?
[Link]
Perhaps Bartholet would like to explain precisely where in our Constitution the state/government role comes from?
Man, the communists aren't even pretending any more. Straight up lies and government dictates all the way down. It's not hard to understand why they'd like to disarm us.
And, no doubt, Bartholet would send her children to a private school; not public education. But you plebs, do as I say. Eat cake!