Biden's Antitrust Case Against Apple Is Truly Stupid

Plus: A listener asks about the absurdity of Social Security entitlements.

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Biden's Antitrust Case Against Apple Is Truly Stupid

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In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman assess the Justice Department's nonsensical antitrust case against Apple before turning their attention to Donald Trump's $464 million bond payment deadline in his New York civil fraud case.

00:41—Bonkers antitrust suit against Apple

20:27—Congress passes $1.2 trillion spending package

29:54—Weekly Listener Question

42:20—Trump contests $464 million bond payment in New York civil fraud case

50:52—This week's cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

"The Absurd Apple Antitrust Lawsuit," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"European Union's AI Law Will Heavily Regulate a Technology Lawmakers Don't Understand," by Varad Raigaonkar

"Antitrust's Greatest Hits," by David B. Kopel and Joseph Bast

"Competition, Not Antitrust, Is Humbling the Tech Giants," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Don't Let E.U. Bureaucrats Design Americans' Tech," by Jennifer Huddleston

"Joe Biden's Endless River of Debt and Regulation," by Nick Gillespie

"Marjorie Taylor Greene Introduces Measure To Oust Mike Johnson as House Speaker," by Joe Lancaster

"A GOP Plan To Raise the Retirement Age Reveals How Unserious Washington Is About Social Security," by Eric Boehm

"The National Debt Is a National Security Issue," by Eric Boehm

"'Emergency' Spending Is Out of Control," by Eric Boehm

"3 Reasons To Abolish Social Security Now!" by Nick Gillespie

"3 Reasons to Fix Social Security Now!" by Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg

"Brian Riedl: Who Bankrupted Us More—Trump or Biden?" by Nick Gillespie

"Science Fiction Fans Are Fighting About Politics. It's Not the End of the Universe." by Peter Suderman

Nick Gillespie's take on X on Trump's latest award:

And yet I continue to place out of the money in the annual NICK GILLESPIE AWARDS held at the Nick Gillespie Apartment and voted on by Nick Gillespie. Kudos, Donald, kudos. pic.twitter.com/nF0tB1vac6

— Nick Gillespie (@nickgillespie) March 25, 2024

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsors:

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Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

• Producer: Hunt Beaty

What are we consuming this week?

Peter Suderman

• They Live

Nick Gillespie

• 3 Body Problem

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be by Timothy P Carney

Matt Welch

• Marlowe

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Comments

[MollyGodiva]

I chose Apple products because they are walled off. They are more stable, easier to use, and more secure than Android. I want to keep it that way. Android has a huge problem of dangerous apps in their store. Apple keeping a tight control over their store makes those apps almost absent from iPhones.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

That’s a bit credulous, don’t you think?

[Nachtwaechter Staater]

"keeping a tight control"
Progs love it on their iPhone and in their Gubmint.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

It's good to keep your head in the sand, Molly, with government especially, but also with companies which claim to do things for your benefit.

[I, Woodchipper]

the sheep speaks

[JesseAz]

Hasn't been true since 2018. But do you.

[I…….. Fudd]

Then you should stop voting democrat.

[KARtikeya]

For someone who golfs as much as Trump does he sure doesn’t know how golf tournaments work.

[A Cynical Asshole]

FTFY:

Biden's Antitrust Case Against Apple Is Truly Stupid

[Don't look at me!]

Beat me to it.

[CE]

and me

[I…….. Fudd]

Me as well. Biden was a subnormal dullard on his best day. And that was at least 40 years ago.

[JeremyR]

What pisses me off most about iPhones is that you can't plug them into your PC and have it show up like a USB drive, like on Android.

As one of the few remaining people who listens to mp3s, it's a huge hassle to try to import them through iTunes

[Vernon Depner]

I have the opposite problem—Android phones and Apple computer.

[Ben of Houston]

How iTunes gradually went from a useful program to a bulky mess that noticeably slowed down my computer while barely interacting with my iPod, I never had any desire to get an iPhone. Once I got a no-name MP3 player and found it faster, bigger, and much cheaper, I never bought another apple product again.

[CE]

Simpler versions of the headline:

Biden 's Antitrust Case Against Apple Is Truly Stupid

Biden's Antitrust Case Against Apple "________" Is Truly Stupid

[R Mac]

Who knew Fascist Jeffy was a P Diddy fan?

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

No, Biden himself is and always has been truly stupid.
The "President" was bottom 10 in his law class : Syracuse!!

He had a "C" average overall for his four years, graduating with a class rank of 506 out of 688.

But as 40 years observijng him has clarified,he is mainly a LAZY person

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Sadly not even clever enough to write a mean Tweet. But still strategically if reluctantly....

[aarinsanity]

See here’s where I depart from Reason, but I don’t think that monopolies are very libertarian. I think some antitrust checks and balances are necessary in the market. Matt Stoller has some good takes on antitrust legislation on his Substack!

[MasterThief]

I'd say you're right even on libertarian grounds. A libertarian would say that in a free market monopolies either can't exist or won't exist for long. We don't have a free market and the government puts their thumbs on the scales to create monopolies or de facto monopolies where a few major players collude between eachother and the government. When the structure is more free then I'll be upset about breaking up monopolies. Until then, I'll see it as a hedge against fascistic corners in the marketplace

[Vernon Depner]

The government protects very large businesses by pushing the cost of regulatory compliance, legal ass-covering, and defense against liability beyond the means of all but the biggest players.

[Will Nonya]

I wish this myth that apply created the smart phone would just die already. Their biggest contributions to the industry have been in ways to exploit both customers and 3rd party developers. With few exceptions their tech is habitually outdated, offers less functionality and punishes users for choosing them. A trend that started with the original iphone.

[Mike Laursen]

My word, "Mind Garden" by The Byrds is awful. And I'm a Byrds fan in general.

[plusafdotcom]

Nick.. Spot on about "The Three-Body Problem" !
I think another season is in the offing for later this year or for '25, and we can't wait to see it.
The high concept of, as you put it, "you know an enemy is coming to annihilate you in 400 years... what do you do Now?" is a wonderful premise.
And, like so many other movies and series on Netflix recently, my wife and I keep saying "ripped from the headlines" when the allusions to current-day topics and concerns resonate.

[Arthur Knaus]

NASA, in collaboration with Howe Industries, is working on a novel propulsion system - a pulsed plasma rocket, https://orbitaltoday.com/2024/05/09/nasas-new-pulsed-plasma-rocket-will-deliver-people-to-mars-just-in-two-months/. This technology could revolutionize space travel by significantly reducing the transit time for crewed missions to Mars