The Think Tank with Mike O'Neil

We all need a break from the endless (though important) discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, this week, we take a look back at the incredible, true story of how, once upon a time, a radio station, politics, and rock and roll changed everything.

"WBCN and The American Revolution" is an award-winning, feature documentary that tells the previously untold story of the early days of the underground, radical Boston radio station, WBCN-FM, set against the dazzling and profound social, political, and cultural changes starting in the late-1960s.

The production is directed by Peabody Award-winning journalist Bill Lichtenstein who began working at the radio station at the age of 14 in 1970. Bill is our guest on this week’s Think Tank.  He tells the story, not only about that era, but how he went about creating the documentary.

The story is told through the extraordinary history of WBCN, which in its early days called itself “The American Revolution,” and the personal and political journeys of a compelling cast of characters who connect and intersect through the radio station and exploding music and counterculture scenes, militant anti-war activism, civil rights struggles, and the emerging women’s and gay liberation movements. Women DJ’s?  Openly gay people? These were entirely new concepts.  One reviewer called the film  “possibly the first film to tell the true story of the 1960s.” 

The film includes first-person accounts from the station’s staff and newly filmed and archival material featuring the leading political, social, and musical figures of the day, who crossed paths with the radio station, including Noam Chomsky, David Bowie, Abbie Hoffman, Jane Fonda, Jerry Garcia and Duane Allman, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, (in his first radio interview), and Patti Smith, performing with her band in her first live radio broadcast.

For a taste, take a look at the film’s theatrical trailer: tinyurl.com/WBCNtrailer

 

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This week’s Think Tank brings in two of the state’s leading economists, ASU Economics Professor Dennis Hoffman and Jim Rounds of Rounds Consulting. We discuss current economic conditions and how to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Then, in our final segment, Mike makes some observations about economic fallacies of both the Left and the Right.

 

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Wisconsin had an election this week. Republican legislators refused to either expand vote by mail or delay the election as every other state with an April primary did.  Due to a lack of willing poll workers, many polling stations closed (175 of 180 polling stations in Milwaukee, for example) and lines were sometimes several hours long.  As one Wisconsin voter wrote: “I voted. In mask and gloves, putting myself, the poll workers, and my community at risk, I voted. Because I decided the only thing more dangerous than voting today was allowing the people who did this to Wisconsin to get away with this.” Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is our first guest. We discuss Arizona’s readiness to implement vote-by-mail elections and other reactions to the Wisconsin voting fiasco.

In the second half of the show, Chuck Coughlin returns and we discuss Presidential politics in the midst of a pandemic and the impact of Bernie Sanders withdrawal from the race this week. Because we are all ready to think about something other than the pandemic, at least for a few minutes.

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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.     

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The Corona virus is sweeping the world, and it looks like the United States is destined to be the hardest hit country in the world in the next two or three weeks. Patients with symptoms are being advised to “call your doctor” and NOT to “go see your doctor” due to the danger of infection. That’s telemedicine. But in the USA doctors have traditionally had difficulty in getting reimbursed by insurance companies for work not performed “in person.”

A panel of four experts discuss related issues:

Paul Johnson is a former mayor of Phoenix and is President of Redirect Health, which has made extensive use of telemedicine. Dr. Doug Jenkinson is a British Family physician who practiced in Nottingham England for 37 years working for the National Health Service (that’s “socialized medicine” to Americans). Brandi Conner, is CEO of Nod Specialists who provides telemedicine services using Board Certified Infectious Disease physicians; they are experts in treating infections, including Coronaviruses. Megan Crosser is a board certified infection preventionist with Nod Specialists.

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What is it actually like to be physically quarantined with the Corona virus?  We speak with someone quarantined in Spain. Mike Sweeney was on vacation in Spain when he was diagnosed with the Corona virus. He was, and still is, quarantined there. We call him and get a first-hand account of his experiences: how was his virus discovered, what did Spanish health authorities do once it was discovered, how has the disease impacted him, and what has his life been like in actual physical quarantine?

THen, what is the real deal on the U.S. Census? We speak with a former Director of the United States Census. Census Director. Most of us got Census notices this week. Why should we respond?  Are responses confidential?  Who will see our responses? What is the data used for? Our second guest, John Thompson, had a 30 year career with the U.S. Census and was director from 2013 until 2017. He answers the above questions and more. Including, how people like Mike Sweeney, who is currently quarantined in Spain will be counted in the Census.

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Steve Roberts has worked as a journalist and author for more than forty years and appears regularly as a political analyst on ABC News Radio and NPR. Steve and his wife, the late Cokie Roberts, wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column and were contributing writers for USA Weekend, a Sunday magazine that appears in 500 newspapers nationwide. Since 1997 he has been the Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.

Based on his decades of covering politics, the Think Tank explores his observations about the American politics including the status of the Democratic nomination, the November election, the potential impact of the Corona virus on the dynamics of the election and related topics.

 

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In a controversial 5-4 vote, the Phoenix City Council voted to establish a Civilian Review Board to investigate cases of potential police misconduct. The issue is polarizing. One side says the police are out of control and need to be reigned in by civilian oversight. The other side says the police cannot be fairly judged by civilians. And neither side seems ready to compromise.

Our guests take on this challenging topic. Samuel Stone is Chief of Staff to Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio and a longtime political consultant. Julie Erfle is a former journalist and a columnist for the Arizona Mirror. Julie also speaks with unique moral authority on police topics; her husband was a Phoenix police officer killed in the line of duty.

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The South Carolina primary is underway and a Super-Tuesday-on-Steroids will follow in 72 hours. And Bernie Sanders has emerged as the leading Democratic contender. There seem to be two prevailing theories of the upcoming Presidential election:

1. Traditional left/right. Each party moderates their instinctive positions and plays for the votes in the center. Whichever party captures more of the center wins the election.

2. There is no center. It’s all about enthusiasm. Draw large crowds, and motivate your base voters. Trump did this in 2016 and Sanders’ supporters think their guy can do this in 2020.

Bennet Kelley has been active in Democratic politics for over 40 years. He was national co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Young Professional fundraising and outreach arm during the Clinton era and is an award-winning political columnist. Bennett and Mike will discuss which of these theories seems to fit and discuss the status of the Democratic nomination process.

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The Grand Canyon Institute is an independent centrist think tank that does research on issues of public policy, and our guest is the GCI’s Research Director, Dr. David Wells.

We discuss several recent GCI research projects that have dealt with aspects of Charter Schools in Arizona as well as the GCI’s research on the subject of Unemployment Insurance and the extent to which Arizona has lagged its regional peers in providing unemployment benefits.

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