Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Politics
Eugene Volokh | 10.3.2025 3:00 AM
Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.
NEXT: Fifth Circuit Will Rehear Alien Enemies Act Case En Banc
Hide Comments (149)
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they 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 for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Has anyone noticed anything different with a "shut down" federal government? Asking for a friend.
Has it happened before in the middle of the baseball playoffs?
Hard to concentrate on much else besides the 49ers upsetting the Rams.
An article reviewing past shutdowns observes that October is a popular time because it is the start of a new fiscal year.
Wait, wait, wait....The world has not ended? We've been told by Team D that a shutdown would be the end of the world.
I'm told pink slips start going out today.
The only thing saving the stupid Democrats here is that Republicans are even more stupid... by celebrating the shutdown they're going to end up owning it. They need to at least pretend like they didn't want it to happen if they want people to think that they didn't want it to happen.
Are you daft? "45/47" has literally said he's not happy about the Shutdown, while the DemoKKKrats are "Doing the Macarena" (My lame attempt to imitate his great "Deep Fake" of a Sombrero wearing Hakim Jefferson, and Chuck the Schmuck Shumer saying how everyone hates the DemoKKKrats)
Frank
No, he literally said that the shutdown is an "unprecedented opportunity." And apparently Vought has been dreaming about a shutdown "since puberty."
That's the messaging coming out of the administration. Sorry penis-of-ugly-man, here's the reality:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/early-polls-trump-republicans-taking-blame-government-shutdown-rcna235141
And Schmuck Schumer said everyone hates DemoKKKrats because they support Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants (including "Sexual Reassignment Surgery" no doubt)
Is that any different than Rahm Emanuel or whomever it was saying to never let a crisis go to waste?
I like Rahm, ruthless, mean, he’d be a good Conservative (or Moe-Saad Interogator)
LOL, LOL, LOL = Team R owns it.
Well, Ok.
Team R will 'own' getting rid of thousands and thousands of non-essential DC bureaucrats. Oh, the horror. 🙂
So this will be a reply in two parts-
1. We don't actually know how bad the economy is (government shutdown is keeping the BLS numbers from keeping out), but ... it's not great. More unemployed people searching for jobs (and not spending money) is ... not great. That's not an argument for government waste, but it is a reminder that mass indiscriminate mass layoffs at this time aren't good for the economy.
2. This is a near-daily reminder to you that these "thousands and thousands" of bureaucrats ... the ones that you are delighting in their firing of? They're people. People with families. Mortgages. Bills. It's one thing to discuss, rationally, policy issues. It's quite another to continually delight in the suffering of actual people. It's unpleasant enough when you do it regarding undocumented immigrants, or Palestinians, or ... whomever. But the sheer delight you seem to take in the actual suffering of fellow Americans who have done nothing wrong simply because you identify with "Team R" is something you might want to reflect on.
Sucks to be them -- some of us have the wrong skin color or body parts and haven't spent 40 years enjoying the largess and I say Firetruck them. Welcome to our world.
I hear there's an opening for school district superintendent in Iowa.
1. If federal government employees are a large enough part of the economy that laying them off for a week amounts to serious economic damage, they're too large a part of the economy.
2. Yes, they're people, with families, mortgages, bills. If you were paying them to dig holes and refill them, they'd be people with families, mortgages, bills. If you were paying them to set fire to houses so that there'd be more economic activity in terms of insurance companies and building contractors, they'd be people with families, mortgages, bills.
EVERYBODY is people with families, mortgages, bills. Doesn't mean that everybody is doing something that should be done, or is worth paying them to do.
Fuck you.
I’m out and about figuring out mutual aid options for a fellow in our office that can’t afford to miss a paycheck.
But fuck Commenter note for gloating. Such hate.
He's back.
Well Fuck YOU And the Horse you rode in on! Oh, that was no Filly that’s your Wife? No Offense! Well maybe a little offense Maybe you should pay the guys in “Your” Office more? See, then they wouldn’t be dependent on Government handouts.
Loki - Are we the taxpayers supposed to care about overpaid, underworked government employees losing their jobs? Shouldnt we care about the government being good stewards of taxpayer money?
"We've been told by Team D that a shutdown would be the end of the world."
You guys spend a remarkable amount of time arguing with the liberals in your head.
Uh, Team D (and their fellow travelers like yourself) are the ones crying to the MSM hourly. The caterwauling will increase exponentially by sundown today.
Yes, it's definitely the Democrat "travelers" bringing it up all the time. You can tell this by who started the discussions on the topic today (Bumble) or on Wednesday (you, Kaz, Armchair).
FU jb. It's been the only thing that team D has talked about, except it isn't gaining much traction outside of the echo chamber.
Seems to be gaining a lot of traction since you guys keep bringing it up and the Trump administration is doing stuff like altering National Park websites to try to bring attention to it.
Maybe you're thinking about the wrong echo chamber?
"... is doing stuff like altering National Park websites to try to bring attention to it." ???
As of yesterday, the IRS was still answering the phone. Normally the IRS shuts down during government shutdowns
The IRS contingency plan is using funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to maintain normal operations through October 7th.
And I'm calling bullshit. The IRS wasn't answering the phone even before the shutdown. I have an issue regarding my father in law's estate and it's the last thing that needs to happen before the estate can be closed down. I called the IRS customer service line, only to be bounced around from one recorded menu to another for five minutes before being hung up on. I called back and tried every single menu option; same drill. After spending five minutes going from one menu item to another, it hung up on me. There was literally no way to talk to a live person. I actually had to involve my congressional representative to get someone from the IRS on the phone.
I attribute this to the Elon Musk layoffs. It's fine for conservatives to say hooray, let's lay off the federal government, up until you need someone from the federal government and they're no longer there.
You ever talked to some one at the IRS? They make Mortimer Snerd look like Einstein.
Poor you.
Are we going to see some variation on "the shutdown is a good thing but it's the Democrats' fault"?
The shutdown is the result of the failure of Congress (no matter which party had the majority) to do it's job and pass the appropriation bills necessary to fund the government.
They need a real Gallows on Capitol Hill. Not saying it would be used, but like Kipling said (or was it Churchill? I think it was Churchill) nothing like the prospect of being hanged in a week to focus your mind. And if Kipling/Churchill didn’t say it, they should have)
Fetus fetishists are kvetching because the Food and Drug Administration has approved a second generic version of the mifepristone abortion pill. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/02/trump-fda-abortion-pill/
Associate Press reports:
Approval of generic drugs is typically a rote process at the FDA, with multiple copycat versions usually approved after the patent on the original drug expires. In most cases, generic drugmakers only need to show that their drug matches the ingredients and formula used in the original medication.
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-pill-mifepristone-generic-fda-trump-kennedy-7eb833cb867bc0f2fbf3c7af2ffe4bc3
As Hank Williams, Sr. famously sang:
Mindin' other people's business seems to be high-toned I got all that I can do just to mind my own Why don't you mind your own business? Mind your own business If you mind your own business You'll stay busy all the time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZH2bmbUTl4&list=RDRZH2bmbUTl4&start_radio=1
In other abortion pill news, the litigation that hit the Supreme Court last year is still alive. The Supreme Court said the original plaintiffs who sued in Texas lacked standing. While the case was still alive Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas intervened. This week judge Kacsmaryk ruled that their complaint was to be treated as a new action and transferred to the Eastern District of Missouri because venue was not proper in Texas. (My take: Idaho and Kansas are in more liberal circuits. Why Eastern rather than Western Missouri I don't know.) He rejected the late attempt of Texas, Florida, and Louisiana to interevene.
There are two exercises of discretion in his order:
1. Intervention in a case over which the court is later found to lack subject matter jurisdiction is treated as a new action. 2. The case is transferred rather than dismissed for improper venue.
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65768749/alliance-for-hippocratic-medicine-v-us-food-and-drug-administration/?page=2
If Trump didn't want the generic approved the FDA would have found an excuse not to approve it.
And then there is this: https://stateline.org/2025/09/30/louisiana-issues-arrest-warrant-for-california-doctor-who-allegedly-sent-abortion-pills/
What this is going to do is put an end to reciprocity agreements on licenses.
Did the OB pinch your Umbilical Cord for a few minutes or do you come about your Stupidity naturally? There's no "Reciprocity" with Medical Licenses, you gotta apply for each State's separately, and that Old Wifes Tale (have an Old Wife? consider yourself lucky) that Docs can go from State to State is just that, they've only had this "National Practitioner Data Bank" for the last 40 years or so. OK, if a Hospital decides to keep any Mal-fee-zence (HT Chief M. Gunderson) under wraps, they're just following the great tradition of the Catholic Church. (went all the way to Rome for that reference) Seriously, I'm beginning to think you ARE the guy shaving Pubic Hair off Cadavers (well someone has to do it)
They might have overlooked it. I wouldn't be surprised if the person(s) who approved it get fired.
You Yankees should have "Minded your own business" in 1861, NYC, Detroit, Chicago might not have a higher murder rate than Caracas.
The question you really should ask yourself NG is : Why do you hate unborn human life? Just mildly curious.
Riva - that is a good question Why would a defense attorney be against the rights of the innocent, but defend the rights of the guilty?
Ask Pope Leo Light in the Loafers
He's too busy blessing ice cubes.
https://jewishinsider.com/2025/10/fbis-kash-patel-attacks-adl-as-extreme-group-functioning-like-a-terrorist-organization/
Ah hahahahahahahaha lol.
It's all fun and fascism until you're the one in the gas chamber (again).
Apparently the problem is that James Comey thinks that hate crimes against Jews are bad, and we all know that James Comey is evil because he refused to go along with Trump’s every whim. MAGA won’t have to pretend to believe that anti-Semitism is wrong any more.
Here is a speech that Comey gave at an ADL conference (starting at the 3:20 mark). It’s pretty good.
https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/anti-defamation-league-conference-fbi-director-james-comey/477840
HaHa! Yeah, I've been reading about MAGA's all out attack on the ADL.
For the benefit of you hayseeds that don't read, the ADL has - for years - labelled Charlie Kirk's Turning Point as an extremist group. MAGA finally noticed and have turned on them. In response, ADL removed the page on Turning Point. I went ahead and looked at the deleted page on the Wayback Machine (www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/turning-point-usa)
It is a massive dossier of all the avowed antisemites and neo-nazis that occupy the highest echelons of Turning Point chapters across the nation. It chronicles Turning Point's bent toward white Christian nationalism and the the threat that has historically posed towards the world's jewry. So the ADL squawked, and now MAGA has turned on them, and the prosemitic masquerader is over.
I've been telling all the Jewish frogs here that giving that MAGA scorpion a ride is going to backfire. Now you've been stung and are croaking, 'But you promised me!'. And the MAGA scorpion says, 'Yet you knew I was a white Christian nationalist all along.'
The ADL has been under fire for a couple decades at least, over their habit of labeling anybody who doesn't share their politics as a "hate group".
"their habit of labeling anybody who doesn't share their politics as a "hate group"."
Why does that sound familiar, Brett?
Because it's been going on for a couple decades at least, like I said.
Be that as it may, what exactly did the ADL get wrong about all the neo-nazis in the Turning Point organization?
Ummm, that there are any????
Why don't you go and read the ADL's dossier. It has all the receipts
Because the SPLC does something similar?
Edit: I could have scrolled one reply down.
And they spent the last few years cozying up to MAGA and alienating everyone else, only for this to happen. Now they have no one.
The ADL is not as bad about that as the SPLC.
That they're remotely close is a bad reflection on the ADL.
That's true, the ADL is a legit organization with some bad habits, the SPLC is just an extortion ring at this point.
Y'all are are obviously angry that both organizations hold up the mirror of hate and MAGA's ugly reflection appears. But I don't understand why you'd be angry about being labelled white Christian nationalists? Isn't that exactly what you proudly are?
Hobie, the SPLC's "Hatewatch" had an online directory of 'hate groups'. At one time that list literally included a guy who sold dried beans on it, because he'd had the nerve to advertise in a survivalist magazine.
I don't know why the Jews at the ADL are all bent out of shape over white Christian nationalism. I mean, every Christian nationalist movement since the Dark Ages has always turned out peachy for Jews.
A liberal Jewish lesbian is taking over as chief editor of CBS news, and you would think the Nazi's are marching into Paris all over again.
They aren't?
Well, they're A-rabs, they haven't really got that "Marching" thing down yet.
LEFTIST -- that Delta Charlie is way to closed minded to be considered "liberal".
Wasn't it you who chastised someone for using "dumb cunt"? You think expressing the same thought by using the phonetic alphabet is OK?
Well Dr. Ed didn't go into Ed-jew-ma-cation because he's intelligent. Seriously, after the "Incident" in his previous job of shaving off the Pubic Hair of Cadavers, he's lucky to be working anywhere.
President Trump has fulfilled his duty to notify Congress when he starts a war. The NYT broke the story in a paywalled article. Here is the AP's report:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-cartels-armed-conflict-cb57804807e55a00ace60ad5f4d4f24d
"The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations"
A California jury ruled for Uber in a bellwether case for thousands of similar sexual assault claims. The plaintiff testified she had PTSD after an apparent rape attempt in an Uber. The driver groped her but couldn't get her pants off.
Plaintiff's lawyer suggested Uber should have had video surveillance or assigned female drivers to female passengers. The jury found Uber was negligent but Uber's negligence was not the cause of the woman's injury. A quote in the Bloomberg law article suggests comparative negligence was in play. Plaintiff's lawyer complained "the court allowed evidence into the trial that let Uber blame [plaintiff] for the harm she faced."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/technology/uber-sexual-assualt-bellwether-lawsuit.html https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/uber-defeats-passenger-sexual-assault-case-in-bellwether-trial
Mr. Bumble 36 minutes ago
E. Jean Carroll takes Uber? Mistakenly posted below.
In a non-precedential order the Second Circuit ruled that Italian-American plaintiffs have standing to sue over not seeing a statue of Columbus that used to stand in Wooster Square Park, New Haven. Environmental plaintiffs can sue over not seeing a swamp that looks the way they think a swamp can look. The same principle applies here.
But Italian-Americans do not have a property interest in seeing the statue. The City of New Haven was allowed to remove the statue without giving residents notice or opportunity to be heard. It looks like city officials wanted to present a fait accompli. And they succeeded. Judgment for the city on the merits.
https://secondcircuitcivilrights.blogspot.com/2025/09/italian-american-organization-cannot.html
Are we fighting an undeclared war = cartel druggies in the Caribbean
I don't have too much of an issue with our military sending druggies and their boats to Davey Jones' locker in int'l waters. Provided, the boats are really full of drugs and thugs.
Suppose Venezuela or Colombia decide to send naval escorts with the druggie boats. Are the escorts fair game? What does the law say?
FWIW, I don't think we can legally sink the escorts absent an attack on US military.
Why would we be able to legally sink the alleged drug boats but not their escorts?
You tell me. Make the case that we can sink the druggie boats but not foreign military escorts.
Why should I make that case? You're the one who thinks it. I don't think we can legally sink either.
Be flexible intellectually, and make the case. That is what I am asking.
I don't think the US can go after the escorts unless fired upon.
The druggie boats are a different matter. They're in Int'l waters, carrying illegal drugs to the US. After the druggies are warned to heave to, and refuse, they become fair game. Tough luck, fellas. Seems legal, too - waxing the druggies.
If I were Sarcastr0 I'd say your legal opinions are vibe-based, but I think that's too generous. Really they're based on your sense of whose lives have value and whose don't. Alleged drug traffickers, kill em, no questions asked or warranted. But somehow you hold out respect for the officials on the escorts and want to extend some grace to them, even though they're corruptly aiding said traffickers. What a weirdly misplaced respect for authority you have. I guess it explains your Trump-worship.
One day someone will have power and no respect for your life. I guess they just get to legally kill you.
XY is suffering from a case of Dutertism by Proxy.
The Trump administration's position is that we are in an armed conflict not of an international nature. If the Navy starts blowing up Venezuelan naval vessels then the armed conflict becomes international.
It is my understanding that the alleged drug boats have not made a claim of nationality. If the alleged drug boats were flying Venezuelan flags and Venezuela acknowledged them, Venezuela would have more right to protest. Also, under U.S. domestic law vessels in international waters are not subject to drug enforcement action without the consent of the country of registry.
E. Jean Carroll takes Uber?
Wrong place. Moved.
"Also, under U.S. domestic law vessels in international waters are not subject to drug enforcement action without the consent of the country of registry."
The US has agreements with most (but not all) countries consenting to interdiction of drug (and to some extent people) smuggling by the US in international waters. The basis for these agreements is the Maritime Law Enforcement Agreements (MLEAs). Some notable countries declining to sign are Venezuela, Guyana, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago in the Atlantic/Caribbean with the usual suspects like China, Iran, North Korea also not signing on. There are also some minor countries that have not signed but at times will grand ad hoc permission to interdict.
Under the MLEAs and the Treaty of San Jose there is no need to declare war for interdiction. A key point is drug/people smugglers seldom fly a flag identifying the country of origin and more to the point refuse to allow boarding and flee instead.
Not for the first I am invoking the 72 hour Trump rule; to wit: ignore anything Trump says for 72 hours. Specific to this topic while Trump may say loudly and longly he is declaring war on drug smugglers if push comes to shove in court a MLEA defense would be used and be a winner.
The law says that declaring war is a prerogative reserved to Congress.
Missing the Declaration of Wah when Barry Hussain re-invaded Afghanistan.
Therein lies the problem. I agree with you, NG.
Congress must address this. It would be better to address it now, before there are US casualties.
I think it's already moot -- the KC-135 tankers have gone across the pond. Were gonna be bombing Iran and then Venezuela.
And that will make all the Venezuelan illegals POWs....
Obligatory Bomb, Bomb Iran with apologies to the Beach Boys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D9LxjV3uWI
Thank you Dr Chickenhawk. Will you be seeking a waiver for age and enlisting?
You heard Secretary Hedge-Sex, "No more Dudes in Dresses"
War with Venezuela will make them enemy aliens, not POWs.
I think someone spiked Dr. Ed's coffee this morning (more so than usual).
Anyone know how many inches of global warming fell yesterday?
Probably not as much as what’s left of your IQ
It seems to me that states with strict abortion aws have standng to challenge the FDA approval of geneneric mefipristone on two very obvious groonds.
1. The FD&C act requires drugs to he safe for humans in order to be approvable. Fobbs makes clear that fetuses are humans, but merely don’t have the constitutional rights of persons (just as extraterritorial aliens are humans but don’t have the constitutional rights of persons). Because abortifacients are not safe for them, they are prohibited by the FD&C Act.
Indeed, the fact that the FDA protects experimental subjects outside the US yet allows abortifacients represents aa anomaly in its interpretation of the act that has no legitimate legal basis after Dobbs and Agency for International development.. If its authority is limited to esuring the safety of persons, it has no authority to concern itself with the safety of experimental subjects outside the US. If its authority encompasses the safety of humans generally, it has no authority to approve abortifacients.
2. The Comstock Act restricts interstate commerce in a abortifacients, and the FD&C Act must be interpreted in harmony with it.
In the GenBioPro lawsuit, West Virginia chose not to challenge federal approval but simply argue that its abortion laws were not inconsistent with it. But a more aggressive state could. Standing would be obvious. Federal approval together with non-enforcement of the Comstock Act tends to result in abortifacients entering the state by mail and interferes with its ability to enforce its laws.
It helps to look at the fetus as an occupant of a womb boat, and mefipristone as the drone missile. When we cheapen our concept of life in that way, we can proverbially get away with murder.
I think the states have standing simply because their laws are preempted or otherwise interfered with. You can have standing and still have a losing argument on the merits.
"The FD&C act requires drugs to he safe for humans in order to be approvable."
Not quite.
The FD&C act requires drugs to be safe for humans - FOR THEIR INTENDED USE - in order to be approvable.
That's why abortion and execution drugs still go through the approval process.
Why are states issuing commercial drivers licenses with "no name given" or FNU/LNU (first/last name unknown) placeholders? Very few of the given names are characteristic of the places where it's common to have just one name.
https://x.com/maybedanielleee/status/1973427108153012331
It's the slippery slope. Why are states issuing DLs to illegal aliens?
Doesn't that Tweet say that they have visas (how else would there be a visa expiration date)?
The old regulations required a person to be legally present when issued a license. Come here on a 90 day visa and get a 10 year license. The recent emergency regulations require the license to expire when the documents do.
So now a Tweet by an internet rando is authoritative. Visas are issued without names? Asking for a friend.
Tweets by randos on the Internet are indeed not authoritative. But since that's the tweet we seem to be basing this whole discussion on, not sure where else you're getting the idea that CDLs are being issued to undocumented immigrants.
Like the fantasy that dems are trying to give healthcare to immigrants, just let these people work out these phantoms they keep creating. Our job is to observe and giggle.
That's not a fantasy at all, it's the truth. You guys think that if you keep lying about it that people will believe what you say.
Because they're killing the Americans that Americans won't kill. Washington state is investigating why they gave this guy a CDL before Cali did:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/illegal-immigrant-trucker-accused-killing-three-people-failed-english-road-sign-tests-dot
It's not clear whether this guy is an illegal immigrant or just absolutely unqualified.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/i-35-deadly-multi-vehicle-crash-solomun-weldekeal-araya-indictment
It's a problem that is closely linked to the original Twit:
https://ocpathink.org/post/independent-journalism/no-name-given-oklahoma-nabs-125-illegal-immigrant-drivers
1. The current government shutdown is shaping up as a paradoxically boring interval of political stasis, amidst a chaotically active spree of political crime. A backlog of political crimes is building for re-consideration by a new D Justice Department, operated on milder principles than Bondi/Patel, but perhaps slightly reminiscent.
2. Democratic Party leaders are desperate to find some way not to be tagged the authors of yet more national decline, but they seem actually so politically indolent that the tag fits.
3. Time to change the shutdown subject.
4. Forget blaming Trump/MAGA for wrecking the national healthcare system. That will make itself evident to everyone in due course. It does not need empty, tedious, shut-down speech-making to help it along. What it does need is political reversal, and now is a fine moment to begin.
5. What Ds should be doing is using the shut-down to announce re-focused effort on behalf of medical payments reform. Think that's ridiculous overreach? Think again. How bad will it look later, when Trump/MAGA's intended wrecking ball is on its second or third swing through the health system rubble?
6. How in pity's name can the Ds achieve anything, without political majorities to back action? Help the Rs get what they so desperately want. Ds should hand the R political majority an opportunity to blow itself up.
What the Ds ought to do now is negotiate, capitulate, and hand Trump/MAGA a gigantic poison pill, decorated to look like a huge fiscal win. Ds should solemnly hand that over as a concession, with solemn looks on their faces, with tears in their eyes, while deploying the hang-dog body language of utter defeat.
7. Thus, Ds should announce a campaign to use the shutdown, however long it lasts—pray for intransigence and durable grid-lock on negotiations—to campaign at the grass roots level, throughout states blue and red, to end Federal reimbursements for unpaid emergency room treatments. End them nationwide. Forever.
That's the proposal. Excoriate federal emergency room reimbursements as handouts to the undeserving poor. Encourage Trump/MAGA to blame illegal immigrants and poor black folks for scandalously undermining family fiscal morality, while bankrupting the nation to the tune of tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions, annually (strict accuracy on numbers never required in modern context). Mention multi-trillions over a disastrously short future interval.
Almost instantly, Trump/MAGA red state acolytes will find themselves impaled. Their choice? Actively campaign to hand big money to the undeserving poor back home, or give in to the D proposal, cut emergency room reimbursements, and court home-state political disaster. The Ds will be there to guide their R colleagues, as they struggle valiently to decide.
As for the Ds, they will get criticized too, as uncharacteristically harsh. They will have incurred the cruel political obligation to make conspicuous amends. They will have to fix in the most humiliating manner possible the damage their erstwhile leaders' cowardly capitulation to Trump/MAGA inflicted on the nation.
And so they will. By sacking their old, failed leaders, and rolling out new leadership which backs Medicare for all—a single payer solution for everyone in the nation, funded by taxes targeted with precision on the Trump/MAGA rich.
Whatever it takes to avoid making those taxes actually confiscatory can be made up by repeal of the Big Beautiful Bill's handouts to the rich. And maybe also a slight increase in deficit spending. How big the deficit increase must be will be up to Trump/MAGA politics to decide, once they get that the demand is coming from inside their own House.
They will enjoy reassurance that a foregoing partial repeal of BBB opened up plenty of budget room to work with. That will show by their own style of reckoning that no deficit increase at all will be necessary to make single payer happen for their desperate red state constituents, the actually deserving poor.
This all assumes that "red state constituents" vote according to their interests. That hypothesis has been proven false innumerable times.
If they want to be cut loose, let's cut 'em loose. I'd love to see 90% of my federal taxes go to my state instead. Why in the world are we still subsidizing the red states?
"What the Ds ought to do now is negotiate, capitulate, and hand Trump/MAGA a gigantic poison pill, decorated to look like a huge fiscal win."
Happy to rain on your parade. The real issue is (depending on how you do accounting) America is borrowing 42 cents of every dollar the federal government spends (and some states, especially the big blue ones, are in similar positions) to pay for things like medical care and other social programs. There is no way this is sustainable. Projections are servicing the federal debt will be one of the largest buckets in federal spending. Even before that happens the spaghetti will likely hit the fan.
At least twice in my lifetime the federal government has altered the way inflation is calculated with the intent of making the numbers look better than the reality they are measuring. Bottom line is unless there are drastic cuts in spending (read pols giving money to poor peeps for votes) there is no happy ending to this story.
....cool story, bruh. Seriously. Where were you when I was repeatedly trying to explain this when the GOP was ramming through the "Big Beautiful Bill?"
Let's go through this again. Shall we?
1. The "BBB" has made our disastrous finances so much worse with no hope of getting better. All the problems you are talking about? The GOP (which has all the power) specifically made them ALL WORSE.
2. I would add that the concomitant policies and the market's reaction to Trump makes the mid- and long-term outlook ... even more dire, given the rising issues with Treasuries and interest rates on the national debt.
3. 1 & 2 are why it's impossible to take this type of messaging seriously. Over and over again the GOP uses it power to make the deficit problem so much worse, and then we hear, "Oh, this actual good thing? You can't have it because of the deficit. No, this is nothing compared to what we literally just did to the deficit, and we have no desire to fix the problem or take any accountability, because we don't care about the problem- just about what we want, when we want it."
It's rinse, repeat. The last REAL opportunity that we had to do something was Obama's Grand Bargain- and do you remember what happened with that? Boehner got torpedoed because it was more important to prevent the perception of an Obama "win" (????) than to bend the curve on entitlements- you know, the thing you claim you are interested in.
All you young whippersnappers FAIL to note that Nixon (maybe the worst president in history) put deficit spending in full speed mode when he started full fiat money in America by ending silver certificates. Of course FDR started the ball rolling by eliminating the gold standard. And who can forget the Hamilton/Burr fight over the need (or lack of need) for a central bank.
It is rinse and repeat but your Obama story shows just how fashionably late you are to the party.
I've read nothing the mainstream media on the changes to the H1B Visa lottery. Crickets from Somins blog, too.
The announcement about the 100K fee sucked up all the oxygen. Even in yesterday's wapo article about the H-1B, they neglected to mention changes in the lottery.
Curious. It's almost as if the announcement about the 100K fee was a decoy. No I don't think the 100K fee is going to happen. I do expect the changes to the visa lottery to happen.
The administration will also clamp down on offshoring of IT, finance, and legal services. It's only a question of how. I personally have grave concerns about material non-public information and private customer data being leaked offshores, where the environment is lax and it's impossible to prosecute people. Banks will tell you they have great controls around this. But I work for a bank and I know that's bullshit.
The "All In" podcast had some of the best coverage of this, along with some other sources. Off the top of my head the average salary of an HB1 guy was a tad over $US100,000 a year. On the other hand, one of the "All In" guys noted his HB1 peeps were averaging $US600,000 a year so the fee was a nothing burger to him. One of the temp employment services was providing HB1 drones with an average salary of $US40,000 a year. The "All In" podcast also covered other abuses of the HB1 system.
If the purpose of HB1 visas is to attract exceptional talent a $US100,000 fee to apply (important to note the fee is only to apply with no assurance the application will be granted) is a nothing burger if the visa is for someone being paid in the high six figures but is a nonstarter for someone only making five figures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEaAR0AqMlk
So why aren't we touching H-2B visas? Oh yeah...
"As visa use grows at Mar-a-Lago, what is the future of H-2B program in Palm Beach?
As President Donald Trump's administration continues its immigration crackdown, his Mar-a-Lago Club employed the highest number of temporary foreign workers sought by the private club in the past decade, according to the latest federal data.
Mar-a-Lago brought in 170 foreign temporary workers for the current fiscal year"
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2025/09/23/as-mar-a-lago-visa-use-grows-what-is-the-future-of-h-2b-program/86295192007/
So? It's being done legally, no? What's your problem with that?
hobie, did you even read the article you linked to. There were two links in the article that claimed supporters of H-2B were worried Trump would place more limits on H-2B. Sounds to me like that is "touching H-2B". If you have a different definition of "touching H-2B" feel free to post it.
I wonder if EV regrets this now four day a week exercise in free speech.
Why?
The Open Threads are the most popular item on the VC which means lots of "hits" on the website, so lots of visibility on advertising, etc..
What ads?
Basically free of effort, they divert people from using the actual subject matter posts to chat. What's the downside?
"...they divert people from using the actual subject matter posts to chat." That seems to be counter to the purposes of the blog in general.
Since when has there ever been a purpose of the blog.
Editorial Independence
We're a group blog, cofounded by Eugene Volokh and Alexander ("Sasha") Volokh in 2002. Almost all of us are law professors, teaching at various law schools throughout the country. We write mostly about law and public policy, though we feel free to blog about whatever else strikes our fancy.
We're generally libertarian, conservative, centrist, or some mixture of these, though we don't toe any party line, and sometimes disagree even with each other.
We are not Reason employees, and we have sole editorial control over the blog. We are very pleased to be working with the Reason people, but please don't ascribe our views to them, or vice versa. Naturally, you shouldn't ascribe our views to our employers, either, or even to the other cobloggers. Each blogger speaks only for himself or herself.
You'll also note that the tone of our posts is at times different from that of most traditional newspaper or magazine writing; this too stems from our long history as independent bloggers. Some posts are quite technical, and aimed at our lawyer readers. Many posts are more traditional news analysis, or pass along interesting new legal developments.
And some are humorous, or focus on our hobbies or cultural items that we like. You can expect the blog, as a whole, to be substantive, but individual posts sometimes won't be.
Actually Gene was the moving force in the usenet group alt.cyberia that started in the 1990s and only migrated to reason once full featured browsers took over the internet. I had some great back and froths with Godwin about Euclid v Ambler back when it was the go to for this type of discussion.
EV wants to demonstrate that his commitment to free speech is sincere.
The open threads are Exhibit #2. Josh Blackman is Exhibit #1.
Eugene must be a pretty important guy, everywhere I go I see signs that say "EV Parking."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/far-left-devastating-portland-childless-164729149.html
Portland probably had it coming. No city better epitomises the increasingly radical spirit of the progressive Left. This has devastated its once vibrant downtown; liberal long-time Congressman for the area, Earl Blumenauer, has suggested that parts of it look “like Dresden in World War II”. In 2023, downtown Portland suffered the highest office vacancy rate in the nation.
LOL
I was just in Portland a few weeks ago.
It looks like...a city. The fact you guys believe this schlock (and in your case despite the fact you work with someone who lives there and tells you the opposite!) says a lot about your (in)ability to engage with reality
You must be kidding. Don't you read the news? The city ICE detention center has been under violent siege for 100 days, and the police are doing nothing about it.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ice-director-says-portland-facility-faces-violence-little-help-from-local-police
There is violence in the streets! A machete thrown at officers, officers being attacked, nightly(!), ....
You're the one unable to engage with reality.
Once again, ThePublius searches for, and believes, only things that validate what he WANTS TO BE TRUE!
Did you know that gullible isn't in the dictionary?
ThePublius is intellectually incurious. He has the whole internet at his fingers. Now, he could do something really basic. He could say to himself, "Self, I don't live in Portland. I don't have friends ... any friends, and certainly not friends in Portland, that I can ask about what it's like. I genuinely do not know what it's currently like there! How would I find out if I actually wanted to know?"
And there are a number of ways he could do that. He could do some research and find reputable people in Portland that don't post about politics, and look at their websites / youtube / instagram feeds. He could find local Portland media sources that aren't political. If he had a hobby (ummm...) maybe he could reach out to a fellow person in his hobby that lived in Portland and ask them about it.
He could easily find out for himself. Or, you know, he could lecture other people that live in Portland or go to Portland or have friends in Portland that Portland has been "under violent siege for 100 days" because he's ThePublius, and while he might not live there or know anyone that lives there, he has a 100% track records of relaying accurate and credible information from trustworthy sources....
I almost was able to type that without spitting out my coffee. Hey, ThePublius, you ever going to give us the source quote for that admission? Still waiting.
You attack me because you have nothing. You can't refute anything I've said. So you go on the personal attack. Pitiful.
Still don't have that quote, do you? So that's the best you can do.
And no, I am not attacking you. I am trying to get you to ... what's the phrase ... BE BEST.
Do better. As I keep trying to point out- people can have reasonable policy disagreements. But you can't actually get to those reasonable disagreements when you can't even agree on the facts.
If you persist in living in a fantasyland, then you're not worth listening to, because you're not worth engaging with. Your choice.
Please, go right ahead and don't listen to me, don't engage with me.
My coworker said he avoids the downtown area. Between having lived there a while and his politics, I think he's not able to admit that the city has problems. It's like the mayor of Seattle claiming that the city was having a "summer of love" at the height of the CHAZ insurrection.
"No city better epitomises the increasingly radical spirit of the progressive Left. This has devastated its once vibrant downtown; liberal long-time Congressman for the area, Earl Blumenauer, has suggested that parts of it look “like Dresden in World War II”. In 2023, downtown Portland suffered the highest office vacancy rate in the nation."
Someone has the power to google to prove what they want to be true(tm) but not the ability to understand what they are reading.
True story- I was in downtown Portland in 2023. Um, you know that's the year of that article, right? 2023, not ... 2025.
Anyway, it was rough. I admit, I was a little shocked. Was it because of RIOTS and ANTIFA and IMMIGRANTS, OH MY!
Nope. It was because of two things- a massive homeless population (you might remember that there was a Ninth Circuit case, blah blah blah) that was bad on the West Coast and particularly acute in Portland. And a drug problem, caused by Oregon's legalizing (mostly kinda) all drugs.
I was actually traveling the West Coast that summer a lot, so I'd observe that the problems I saw in Portland were of the same kind that I saw in other places.
That article is dated yesterday, not 2023, dude. Seek help.
Article: Joel Kotkin Thu, October 2, 2025 at 12:47 PM EDT
New Army recruitment ads have hit the airways:
"Your grandfather fought the Nazis. Your father fought the Viet Kong. Now your country is calling you. If you have zero percent body fat, America needs you in its fight with our greatest enemy yet: Portland."
"Your father fought the Viet Kong". Is this a joke?
Yes, hobie is a joke. Cue Dan Akroyd: hobie, you ignorant slut!
Its not over yet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI
English spelling is hard. Our friends from Saint Petersburg don't always get the details right.
It's the Department of War's words, not mine. Also, to make things more manly, I hear they're changing the name Pentagon to The Polygon of Doom
The day after Yom Kippur
Snuck up on me this year (you’d think after 10-7, 1973 War, we’d have better “Situational Awareness”) Of course I’m working anyway, I’m “Essential”!!!!
It's sad that New York is losing businesses because its politicians are too corrupt in their official actions.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-fannie-mae-freddie-macs-ny-offices-shutter-response-ag-james-corrupt-practices
Am I the only one who bought Gold 10 yrs ago? (Not really as an Investment, I just like the look of Gold Coins, not rare ones, just the Walking Liberty, Buffalo Nickle, Wiener Philharmonic, Panda, Krugerand, Australian Kangaroo, I like having a “Coin Collection” I can carry in my pocket and worth more than my Dads hundreds of “Mercury” Dimes, “Wheat Pennies”(OK I do have dibs on that 55” Double Date/SF), Jefferson Nickles (“look! Monticello’s crooked! It’s worth a dollar!!!!!)
Scrooge McDuck lives.
Under 200 comments so far, still marginally readable.
NYT this morning has a guest essay by an astrophysicist "How the Manosphere Hijacks Young Men"s Interest in Science". Having just come from here I was struck by one line, "But the male tendency to view debates as adversarial contests that must be won at all costs is what may help to create a more alarming antiscience dynamic in the manosphere." This would also seem to explain a lot of blog comments, especially in these Volokh Open Threads.
Please log in to post comments
Mute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?
J.D. Tuccille | 10.3.2025 7:00 AM
Eric Boehm | From the November 2025 issue
Peter Suderman | From the November 2025 issue
Charles Oliver | 10.3.2025 4:00 AM
Jeff Luse | 10.2.2025 5:04 PM
