A View from the Left Side

In early August, a friend of mine invited me to like the Facebook group entitled “Stand Against Barstool Sports Rape Culture.” It didn’t take much digging to figure out why my friend Kat Stratford had created this group. Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy has quite Internet rap sheet when it comes to sexist behavior and raunchy, misogynist comments about women. With boobs, butts, beers, and blackout parties, Portnoy built the “Bro Culture” and Barstool Sports. What started as a Boston fantasy sports and gambling newsletter and blog has become a multimillion-dollar, multimedia sports, pop-culture and gaming conglomerate. 

What’s the Tucson angle to this story, you may ask. 

On July 27, 2021, Portnoy announced on Twitter that the University of Arizona had offered him a “unicorn deal” by choosing Barstool Sports as the new naming sponsor of the heretofore lackluster Arizona Bowl, which is played at Arizona Stadium on New Year’s Eve. They will not only get multi-year naming privileges and notoriety through the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl, the deal with the University also gives Barstool exclusive broadcast rights to the game. Bye, bye, CBS TV. 

Exactly one month later on August 27, 2021 the Arizona Department of Gaming announced 18 of the state’s sports betting licenses and their corporate sportsbook partners. Phoenix Raceway was awarded an online sports betting license, and Barstool Sports is their partner. This contract allows Barstool Sports to run bets on the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl during the game. 

This is not a simple story about Portnoy, the feisty, shock jock blogger who made it big by using sex and social media to sell the bro culture and his business. The Barstool Sports story is much bigger than this.

Buckle up for a wide-ranging discussion about sexism and misogyny in sports, the bro culture, and the looming explosion of gambling in Arizona when online sports betting begins.

My guest is Kat Stratford. She’s a single mom and local activist who has spent the past two years working to promote policies that benefit survivors of sexual and domestic violence.

If you're having trouble understanding the audio on the interview, check out the YouTube version with subtitles. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxbPgKLLxl8

As predicted many times by the House Democrats, the people of Arizona are fighting back against bad government and unconstitutional laws passed by Republican Legislators during the 2021 session, which ended on June 30. There are six referenda, a few citizens initiatives, and some lawsuits at play two months after the session ended. Signature drives are happening statewide to stop several bills from becoming law and sending them to the ballot box. This is a huge undertaking, but well worth the effort.

This episode features interviews with David Lujan, President and CEO of Children's Action Alliance, talking about the three education-related referenda that are being proposed to stop an automatic annual $2 billion in tax cuts from going into law and Eric Kramer from Arizona Deserves Better talking about the three referenda aimed at stopping a collection of voter suppression bills from becoming law.

All six referenda need more than 118,000 valid signatures by September 28, 2021 to put these bad Republican ideas on the ballot for the citizens to decide. Nobody asked the Republicans to suppress the vote and crush public education funding for the foreseeable future in Arizona.

According to Lujan and Kramer, the groups are working together on signatures. All six referenda petitions and some citizens initiatives should be available at these locations.  The Arizona Education Association and Arizona Deserves Better websites have lists of events where people can sign all of the petitions.

Fifteen months out from the 2022 election, the US is awash with conspiracy theories about the results of the 2020 election and the COVID19 pandemic. Arizona Senate's infamous audit of Maricopa County's 2020 ballots is rumored to be winding down, finally. What can we expect from the so-called "fraudit" report? Thanks to low vaccination rates, the COVID19 delta variant is running rampant in red states like Arizona and filling hospital beds. Unhappy voters are fighting back against the Arizona Legislature with multiple referenda, lawsuits and citizens initiatives. 

My guests are Michael Bryan and Larry Bodine from Blog for Arizona help me break down the crazy state of politics in Arizona in Episode 1 of a View from the Left Side.