Updates: From Taxes to Reproductive Rights & COVID … What’s the Latest? (podcast)

One of my pet peeves is reading a cliff-hanger news story, only to be left hanging when there is no follow up. Several stories reported in my previous podcasts have had newsworthy developments since those episodes aired.

To catch you up on the details, Episode 8 is a compilation of updates.

Many of my podcasts referred to petition drives and court cases that were trying to stop bad Republican bills from being enacted. These issues were decided last week. Why last week? Because September 29, 2021 is the 91st day after June 30, 2021, which was the end of the Legislative session. Unless passed with an emergency clause or stopped by the courts or the voters, bills passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor are enacted 90 days after the end of session.

Three previous guests return to discuss the status of the contested laws – particularly the flat tax, the alternative tax to get around Prop 208, the voter suppression bills, the bills attacking the power of the Secretary of State and the power of the governor, Arizona’s latest radical anti-choice bill SB1457, and mandated COVID public health protections.

The good news is that progressives had some wins in the courts. We also had some disappointments. Needless to say, the struggle to beat back oppressive legislation continues. Of course, Governor Doug Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich are appealing cases that the state lost. Brnovich is even appealing the court’s ruling that Republican Legislators acted unconstitutionally when they stuff dozens of unrelated failed bills into the budget. Who is paying for these unnecessary lawsuits generated by unconstitutional or burdensome laws enacted by Republicans? You are. The taxpayer.

Every year, Democrats and the Legislature’s nonpartisan staff lawyers warn Republicans that the state will be over multiple bills. Every year, Republicans cavalierly pass those questionable bills with the purpose being sued just to make a political point. Creating and fighting ideological court cases all the way to the Supreme Court is a badge of honor for red state legislatures nationwide and an enormous misuse of taxpayer funds – particularly when the states are defending suppression of voting rights, reproductive rights, civil rights and public health precautions. Besides the unnecessary court cases, does Arizona really need more than 300 new laws every year? I don’t think so, but that’s how many the Republicans pass each year. Thanks to Ducey, “small government” Republicans, and special interest groups including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Goldwater Institute, Americans for Prosperity, the Institute for Justice, the Arizona Tax Research Association (ATRA) and the Center for Arizona Policy (Cathi Herrod), hundreds of new laws were in the queue to go into effect last week. Which ones were the people able to stop? Not enough.

Interviews

For Episode 8, three previous podcast guests joined me to provide updates on the lawsuits and petition drives that Arizona voters used in an attempt to stop bad Republican bills from becoming law. Children’s Action Alliance President and CEO David Lujan talks about the three Invest in Arizona referenda. Civil rights lawyer Dianne Post discusses Arizona’s new anti-abortion law. Arizona Public Health Association Executive Director Will Humble reports back on COVID19 in Arizona. There’s also news about sports betting, the filibuster and what’s going on with labor. [Spoiler alert: Arizona was #4 nationwide in online sports gambling during the first weekend of the NFL season.]

Time Stamp

My py podcast, A View from the Left Side, is available on YouTube and in podcast format via Spotify, Stitcher Radio, I Heart Radio, Deezer, Listen Notes, Podcast Index and RSS Feed. If you like what you hear, please click “like” and “subscribe”.

23,000 Turn Out for Bernie/AOC Fight Oligarchy Rally in Tucson – A View from the Left Side

Fight Oligarchy rallies are setting attendance records in swing states and Republican-controlled Congressional districts across the country. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Texas Congressman Greg Casar … and Calexico rocked the house in Tucson on May 22, 2025.Event organizers estimated 3000 for the Tucson rally at Catalina High School. The Midtown neighborhood association warned residents that as many as 7000 people may attend the March 22, 2025 rally. More that 23,000 people filled the football field and bleachers. The beginning of the program was delayed because so many people were still in line, and still streaming in as AOC began to speak. The lines snaked around the neighborhood, and eventually everyone got in. Time Stamps | Power to the People [Music]  | 0:00 | Episode Introduction Segment 1: Change Is Gonna Come  | 1:09 | Four Speeches Included in this Podcast  | 2:35 | AOC & Casar Are Progressive Leaders for the Future  | 3:03 | End Big Money Politics with Nationwide Clean Elections  | 3:52 | Segment 2: Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva  | 4:44 | Segment 3: Texas Congressional Rep. Greg Casar  | 9:04 | Segment 4: NY Congressional Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez  | 19:55 | What Congress Should Be Doing       | 30:14 | When the System Is Stacked Against You …  | 32:23 | Trump Is Selling Our Country for Parts & Kickbacks  | 33:43 | Benefits WE Paid into Are Being Stolen  | 34:32 | Common Sense Isn't Radical  | 36:40:00 | I Believe in These Things Because I was a WAITRESS!'  | 38:21 | AOC Thanks AZ for Electing Grijalva & Getting Rid of Sinema  | 39:20 | AOC Calls Out Schweikert But SoAZ Wants to Oust Ciscomani  | 40:46 | This Fascist Administration Didn't Come Out of Nowhere …  | 41:26 |  'Beyond Elections Our Task Is to Build Community'  |  42:08  | No Act Is Too Small'  | 43:17 | In this House We Stand Together'  | 44:46 | We Can't Go Back'  | 45:29 | Segment 5: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders  | 46:22 | Sanders Praises AOC & Casar  | 47:21 | Bernie Remembers His Friend Raul  | 51:12 | Bernie Talks Crowd Size  | 52:10 | The American Oligarchy  | 52:45 | The Rich Have Never Had It So Good  | 56:20 | Too Many Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck  | 58:19 | Stand Up! Fight Back!  | 1:01 | Segment 6: Calexcio [Music]  | 1:14 | Closing  | 1:15One correction to AOC's speech … she confused the Tucson audience when she rallied support for booting Maricopa County Rep. David Schweikert out of Congress. YES! Let's get rid of Schweikert, but in Tucson, we want to boot Rep. Juan Ciscomani out of Congress.The full transcript and the video of this podcast can be found at PowersForThePeople on Substack.com.

1. 23,000 Turn Out for Bernie/AOC Fight Oligarchy Rally in Tucson 01:16:23
2. Grijalva Speaks Truth to Power … a Retrospective 52:37
3. New Strategies for a New World Order 01:32:55
4. Buying Power, Fighting Back & Diagnosing Donald 41:24
5. The Storm Before the Calm 28:49