The Think Tank with Mike O'Neil

Despite the COVID19 pandemic, three widely-discussed citizen initiatives seem likely to achieve ballot status this November.  They deal with Criminal Justice Reform, Legalization of Recreational Marijuana, and Education Funding.  Terry Goddard’s Dark Money prohibition initiative had been on track to achieve ballot status, but appears to be a casualty of the pandemic, although voters have petitioned the Governor to permit the 280,000 signatures collected to be applied towards the 2022 election ballot status.

Our guests are involved with each of these. We will discuss the status of signature gathering for each as well as what each initiative will do if enacted by the voters.

Caroline Issacs of the American Field Service Committee will discuss the Second Chances Rehabilitation and Public Safety Act, which will initiate several reforms in the criminal justice system. Chad Campbell, former state senator and principal with Strategies360 will discuss the Marijuana Legalization Initiative. And David Lujan, Director of Center for Economic Progress, will discuss the Invest in Education funding initiative.

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Following the widely televised murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago, there have been protest marches throughout the United States and, indeed, the world.

Two of those involved with these marches are guests on this week’s Think Tank: Redeem Robinson is the Pastor of Ebenezer Church, and Jamaar Williams is a public defender.

In our final segment Dawn Penich-Thacker and Mike will discuss the implications of some of the relevant phraseology (“Black Lives Matter”, “Defund the Police”).

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Following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, spontaneous protests have arisen in all 50 states.

Dave Tierney is one of the most respected attorneys in Arizona and is a sober and thoughtful voice. As a former participant in early civil rights activities in Mississippi in the early 1960s, he also has historical perspective on these issues.

We pose questions to Dave about how our current situation is different from that of 50 or 60 years ago.

In addition, we discuss three extraordinary written statements from military leaders, General Mark Milley (current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs), Admiral Mike Mullen (former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs), and Gen. James Mattis (former Secretary of Defense, appointed by President Trump). These unprecedented statements including the one from our current highest-ranking military officer demonstrate their concern about the possibility our military will be asked to intervene in peaceful protest or domestic affairs.

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The Arizona legislature finally adjourned its regular session this week. Howard Fischer has been reporting on state government and legal affairs in Arizona since 1982, the last 25 for Capitol Media Services which he founded in 1991. His reports have been widely disseminated in media throughout Arizona for decades.

Among other things, we discuss the most significant legislative accomplishment this session, what the state budget looked like, and how the legislature pivoted as a result of the COVID19 outbreak.

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Dr.  Lawrence Krauss is a world-renowned physicist, public intellectual and public advocate for science. He is also currently host of a video podcast, The Origins Podcast. He returns to the Think Tank to talk about several issues relating to science and the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. 

Among the topics we cover are how in times of crisis like this pandemic, we turn to scientists for a vaccines and instant cures for the virus. At the same time, funding for basic scientific research has been hard to sell in an era where the dominant political demand has been to cut taxes.We also discuss how the public seems all to ready to substitute its judgment for that of scientists when it hears reports of a potential cures for the pandemic. And politicians can be rewarded for “doing something” even where that “something” is based on scant scientific evidence.

The discussion is wide-ranging; Lawrence Krauss is always provocative and insightful.

This episode of The Think Tank originally aired on April 4th, 2020.

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Our guests in this week’s Think Tank are two of the most astute and informed observers of the American legal system: Paul Bender and Paul Charlton. They join Mike O'Neil to discuss several legal actions this week that have presented fundamental questions involving the even-handed administration of the law in this country.

 

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President Trump visits Arizona this week. Sen. Martha McSally gets a ride to Arizona on Air Force 1 with the President but does not get a speaking role at the event. Governor Ducey begins to loosen COVID19 restrictions. And COVID19 causes a halt to most citizen initiative petition gathering. Think Tank regulars Chuck Coughlin and Tom Ryan are our guests this week to discuss all these developments and their political implications. 

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Mike O'Neil looks back at the Kent State shooting that happened 50 years ago today. 

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Two stories this week. Our primary topic concerns something that happened last week, the other exactly 50 years ago. We’ll spend most of our time on the first. I can connect the dots between the two stories. Stick around till the end and see if you can as well.

This week the death toll from COVID19 over the last 6 weeks surpassed the total number of American deaths in the Vietnam war over a decade. Yet, there was a protest a week ago Monday against, not for, the Governor’s Stay Home Order. Four nurses, Brittany Schilling, Lauren Leander, Jasmine Bhatti, and Jade Juriansz decided to stage a counter protest. 

The first three of these join the Think Tank this week. The fourth, sent in a statement. Like the others, she works a heavy schedule. We talk with them about the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on their respective hospitals (Banner and the Mayo clinic), how why they decided to counter-protest, and what actually transpired at the protest. In addition, we also discuss the now iconic photo of Lauren Leander and a protester (reproduced in this post) that seemed to have captured the essence of the moment. And how these nurses have managed the media firestorm that engulfed them while continuing to work full-time schedules.

The story of these nurses gets most of this week’s show. For months, I had planned an entirely different topic for this week’s show but changed plans when these immediate events transpired. My original topic? I compressed that to five minutes. But you’ll have to listen in to hear what that was about.  I hope you will do that.

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Mike O'Neill discusses some economic fallacies on both sides regarding coronavirus. Originally from The Think Tank 4/18/20 show. 

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