Month: August 2018

Subscribe:  iTunes | PocketCasts | Overcast | Stitcher | RSS

Mike and Jay open the show with a discussion of President Trump’s very rough week. First was the conviction of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on eight counts of bank and tax fraud, followed by a plea deal between federal prosecutors and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. The Guys discuss both the legal and political ramifications, as well as President Trump’s seeming inability to surround himself with ‘the best people’.

Next is a look at Senate Democrat arguments for delaying the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. One argument is that the Michael Cohen plea means that any new Justice could be essentially a juror in a potential case against President Trump, an argument both Mike and Jay don’t believe holds much water. The second argument has to do with Republicans trying to push through confirmation before the midterms without allowing for adequate time to fully review Kavanaugh’s paper trail, particularly from his time as White House Staff Secretary in the George W. Bush administration. This claim has more merit, but Jay and Mike see it more as a stalling tactic than a truly legitimate reason to delay confirmation proceedings.

After that, the Guys discuss the indictment of California Republican Duncan Hunter on multiple counts of misuse of campaign funds. Mike points out that Hunter is likely to keep his House seat due to the Democrats nominating a candidate who is a poor fit for Hunter’s district. Both Mike and Jay think that Hunter is exactly the sort of ‘grab what you can’ officeholder who offends the sensibilities of all small-r republicans.

The episode closes with a look at the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed ‘Affordable Clean Energy’ rule. Mike argues that it’s bad policy that puts corporate profits above public health, whereas Jay sees it as the federal government rightly giving more discretion to the states and the market to deal with power generation and pollution.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

Subscribe:  iTunes | PocketCasts | Overcast | Stitcher | RSS

Mike and Jay open the show with a look at the recent primary elections in Vermont, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kansas. Mike is pleased to see his Democrats nominating diverse candidates, while Jay points out that while diversity is a good thing, being well-qualified, regardless of race, creed, or color is what’s most important.

Next is a look at President Trump pulling former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance, with the administration planning more security clearance revocations in the future. Mike argues that this politicizing of security clearances is essentially unprecedented and is yet another example of how President Trump’s disregard for custom and unwritten law is damaging the United States. Jay doesn’t disagree, though he points out that what the president has done is not legally impermissible.

After that, the Guys discuss the sickening revelations concerning predator priests coming out of a Pennsylvania grand jury report. Mike hopes there will be similar investigations in every state that shake the Catholic Church to its core and force a change in what many say is a deeply corrupt culture of cover-up. Jay agrees that the Church’s culture needs to change, but he feels that some of the legislative proposals aimed at helping victims may have serious unintended consequences.

The show closes with a look at Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ plan to rescind a rule that forces for-profit colleges and vocational schools to demonstrate that graduates are able to get decent-paying jobs. Mike argues that this rule has gone a long way to cleaning up the fraudulent excesses of for-profit education and should be maintained. Jay counters that there should be one rule to cover both for-profit and not-for-profit schools.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

In this listener comment episode Trey and Mike discuss:

• Trey’s take on what a Libertarian is
• How Democrats could pay for Medicare for all
• Why the GOP has trouble with racism
• How Mike would run Trump and Trey would run a Democratic opponent
• Why 3rd Parties struggle in the U.S. even when people seemingly hate the two major political parties
• Why we  haven’t covered the Obama spying scandal

Listener Support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

Trey and Mike open this week’s show focusing on the recent Ohio 12th District’s special election. Both Trey and Mike agree that the 12th District looks like trouble for Republicans. This year, statistically, Democrats should do better and both agree the evidence suggests they might do a bit better than that. Specifically Trey points to the shifting demographics for Republicans where suburban voters are leaving Republicans as rural voters increase.

Next is a discussion of Missouri’s recent strike down of a “right to work” law. Trey and Mike disagree over whether such laws — which do not allow employment to be dependent on union membership — help or hurt workers. They do agree that the law’s failure to pass is evidence that there is a structural shift taking place in American politics.

After that Trey and Mike return to the trial of Paul Manafort — again — and investigate how this might or might not effect President Trump. At this point it doesn’t seem there is much connection to Trump and Mike takes the depressing view that nothing seems to shake Trump supporters.

Then it is time to discuss Representative Collins and his alleged insider trading. In a broader take on the issue Mike offers that members of Congress ought to be paid more and not allowed to sit on publicly traded boards.

Mike and Trey finish the show by putting Nunes’ comments in context. Mike thinks it shows the widening gap between discourse communities and Trey contextualizes the issue by suggesting such comments are not too far from par in private fundraising situations.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

In this listener comment episode Mike and Jay discuss:

• Google and antitrust
• Mike’s inconsistent use of Occam’s Razor
• Why there aren’t more good candidates
• Jay’s ‘line in the sand’ on Trump
• The $12 billion in payments to U.S. farmers hurt by the trade war
• The information release fight between the Department of Justice and House Republicans
• President Trump’s calls to halt the Mueller investigation

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.