The Think Tank with Mike O'Neil

In this week’s Think Tank, we discuss trade relations between the United States and Mexico with an expert panel: Patrick Welch (attorney with Jennings Strouss), Tara Jackson (President of the Arizona Town Hall), and Hector Placencia (a businessman with interests on both sides of the border).

Then, in the final segment, host Mike O’Neil takes on the “OK, Boomer!” meme.

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Decades after the murder of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, long forgotten tape recordings and documents were recently uncovered. Longtime Arizona Republic reporter Richard Ruellas has spent months listening to old cassette tapes made by Bolles as well as reviewing his notes and other documents as well as interviewing some of the surviving players, and has produced a series that has been running in the Republic over the last several weeks as well as a fascinating six-part podcast series. Richard is our sole guest in this week’s Think Tank to discuss the case and his recent work on it.

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The Think Tank is joined by world-traveler Francine Hardaway to discuss Cuba. We begin with a primer on Cuban history, then cover which aspects of society are under government control, some things that Cuba does well, and the island's relationship with America.

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The Think Tank had to double-up on politics this week, and nothing less than the Think Tank’s “A Team” is required to sort through this volume of activity. Tom Ryan and Chuck Coughlin join host Mike O’Neil to sort through the impeachment probe and another ten-candidate Democratic debate. 

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The word “socialist” is thrown around in our politics as an epithet, reflecting a grade school level (“socialism=bad”) understanding intended to end a discussion rather than to further it. Mike and returning guest Francine Hardaway have both spent a lot of time traveling to countries with a wide array of economic and political forms. In this week’s Think Tank we discuss some of these, with an emphasis on how these countries actually function, not just what they say they are.

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The Think Tank is joined by world-traveler Francine Hardaway to discuss Cuba. We begin with a primer on Cuban history, then cover which aspects of society are under government control, some things that Cuba does well, and the island's relationship with America.

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Joining The Think Tank this week is Snowden Bishop, a radio host on a program that is widely broadcast in rural America. We discuss friction between people in rural and metropolitan areas and the hostility towards both education and government involvement in economic development that may affect the way people from rural backgrounds vote. 

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Daniel Rothenberg is Senior Fellow with New America, and Co-direcor on the Center on the Future of War and Professor of Practice at ASU’s School of Politics and Global Studies. Dr. Rothenberg has designed and managed rule of law and human rights projects in Afghanistan, Iraq, Central Africa and throughout Latin America, including programs to train human rights NGOs.

In this week’s Think Tank, we engage Dr. Rothenberg in a wide-ranging discussion of the world’s current hotspots including the likely impact of the precipitous removal of American troops from Syria, and the impact on recent allies against ISIS, the Kurds. We devote an extensive discussion to the impact of this and other recent developments on the stability of the Mideast in general. Other topics include the status of NATO, and relations with hostile states like North Korea and Iran and well competitors like China and Russia.

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The Think Tank assembles a high-powered brain trust of politicos to dissect this week’s Presidential Debate. Political consultants Tony Cani, Rodd McLeod, and Chuck Coughlin join host Mike O’Neil to discuss how this debate could affect the race in the coming months. 

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Paul Bender is probably Arizona’s foremost expert on The Supreme Court.  Professor Bender sat down with the Think Tank and reviewed last term’s decisions and gave us a preview of the cases most likely to dominate our headlines this year.

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