Month: November 2015

This week starts off as it has too many times before – with discussion of yet another mass shooting, the latest tragedy being at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Guys also talk about the recently passed defense authorization bill that keeps the Guantanamo Bay prison open and makes President Obama’s executive order banning ‘enhanced interrogation’ a law. (Meaning that if Donald Trump wants to torture prisoners there should he win the presidency, he’ll have to do it illegally – not that that would be much of a deterrent to him.) Mike and Jay also discuss Kentucky governor Steve Beshear’s executive order restoring voting rights to 140,000 nonviolent felons who have served their time, so-called greedy companies and the dysfunctional U.S. tax code, and the time FDR moved Thanksgiving and some Republicans went completely nuts in response.

This week, the Politics Guys lead off with the effort to halt the admission of Syrian refugees into the US. Both Jay and Mike believe that the US has a moral obligation to take in refugees and that the media has done its usual awful job explaining how the current process works. Donald Trump made news by suggesting that we should register all Muslims in the US, an idea that both Jay and Mike find not just stupid, but deeply offensive (in other words, typical Trump).The Guys also look at combating ISIS in the wake of calls from Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton to increase our military presence in Syria. On the domestic front, Jay and Mike discuss the first GMO animal product approved for human consumption, a legislative race in Mississippi decided by drawing straws, and Hillary Clinton’s sense of humor (or lack thereof).

This week, the Guys start things off by briefly commenting on the tragic terrorist attack in Paris – while it’s not directly an American politics story, it’s something that should deeply offend everyone who cares about Western Civilization. Next, they talk about why the federal courts are stopping President Obama from implementing his immigration reforms and the two big camps in the GOP on immigration (roughly, the Wing Nuts and the Not-So-Wing-Nutty). After that, Mike and Jay get into the week of student protests, particularly at the University of Missouri, before ending with Baby Hitler and, in honor of the Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans Day, a Medal of Honor awarded to a truly heroic Army Captain.

This week’s episode starts with a look at Tuesday’s elections, the latest in a series of disasters for the Democrats. Not only did Tea Party favorite Matt Bevin trounce Jack Conway to become Kentucky’s next governor, but Ohio voters decisively defeated a marijuana legalization measure. Mike and Jay survey the electoral landscape, where things look pretty bleak for the Democrats, especially at the state and local level. Next, the Guys talk about the increasing media scrutiny Ben Carson has been under and how much it matters, concluding that it really doesn’t matter much at all seeing as how Republicans are too smart to nominate a nut, regardless of what the polls say right now. Then they turn to domestic policy, where the big news was Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, despite analyses from Obama’s own State Department finding that it wouldn’t significantly contribute to climate change. Finally, they talk about the upcoming George H.W. Bush biography, in which the 91-year-old former president takes some well-deserved shots at Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

This week’s lead story is the multi-year budget deal Congress sent to President Obama. Both Mike and Jay agree that it’s nice to talk about something Congress actually managed to do for a change. Next is the third GOP debate, which Mike hated – but then again, Mike hates all political debates. After that is a look at what the future might hold in store for newly elected House Speaker Paul Ryan, more on Syria (things still look pretty bad) and the Army’s runaway blimp.