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The Politics Guys

Trump/Putin Meeting, MPD Takeover, Redistricting Wars

The Politics Guys

Michael Baranowski

News, Politics

4.4783 Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mike and Joey open with a discussion of President Trump’s meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Mike sees it as a weak Trump being once again played by alpha-dog Putin, while Joey believes it’s Trump who is cleverly playing to Putin’s ego. They both agree that we won’t know which interpretation is closer to right until we know the details of any potential peace deal. Next, it’s a look at the Trump administration’s efforts to combat crime in Washington, D.C.. Joey argues that the President is well within his rights to do what he’s doing, while Mike believes that there are some potential legal issues. Mike also raises the issue of the authoritarian feel of what’s going on and the lack of a clear exit strategy. They’re both hoping that in the longer run, the MPD gets the resources it needs to keep the Capitol safe.  They close with a consideration of the California redistricting effort announced by Governor Newsom. Joey points out that California already seems very gerrymandered, which Mike argues has much more to do with geography than politics. Mike finds himself torn between his good-government instinct to preserve California’s independent redistricting commission and his concern about Democrats ceding seats to Republicans willing to engage in more aggressive gerrymanders. The Politics Guys on Facebook | X Mike’s Substack: What Fresh Hell is This? Check out the excellent Sustainable Planet podcast. Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys. The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

atheists agnostics long-haired widows short-haired widows vandal, hooligans.

0:05.1

I love the government hug the government, hug the government, love the government, hug the government.

0:12.0

Welcome to the politics, guys, a place for bipartisan, rational, and civil debate on American

0:17.0

politics and policy. I'm Northern Kentucky University political scientist Michael

0:21.4

Barronowski. I'm joined today by my conservative counterpart, Cincinnati area attorney, Joey Ashbrook.

0:27.4

Hey, Mike, great to be with you this morning. Yeah, I am looking forward to doing the show with you.

0:31.1

We haven't had a chance to do the show between just the two of us. And so I am eager to get at it and see how it goes.

0:38.4

I expect we're going to have an interesting time.

0:40.3

But before we do, I want to thank a few new supporters.

0:44.3

There's Chris.

0:45.0

It's not really a new supporter.

0:46.3

Chris has been with us for years.

0:48.0

Recently increased his level of support on Patreon.

0:50.7

So thank you very much.

0:52.2

Also, Lon, who recently sent us a very generous donation,

0:56.7

and Lon went old school with it. We got to check through the mail, which is really a cool

1:01.2

thing to see. It really brightened my day. So thank you, Lon. As well, we also have two new

1:06.6

trial Patreon supporters, Harlan Ray, and Kenny. thanks to both of you for taking that step.

1:12.9

We really do appreciate it because as a scrappy independent show, not some big media podcast,

1:18.7

your donation, your support really does make a big difference and helps us keep going.

1:23.2

So thanks very much for that.

1:24.9

And as always, if you want to support us or increase your level

...

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