The Ron Show

Atlanta-based freelance journalist Zaid Jilani penned an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal Constitution that works to dispel the 'rags to riches' mythos erected to prop up a facade of who GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson was and is. In that piece, Jilani opines that it sends the wrong message about "the American Dream." He joined me to discuss.

Donald Trump stumping in Georgia is something of a "double-edged sword" writes Patricia Murphy at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution or could be "an anchor" writes Georgia Recorder scribes Ross Williams, Ignacio Perez and Alander Rocha. Trump wants his base to vote as if he were on the ballot; Georgia gubernatorial hopeful Keisha Lance Bottoms - alongside Rev. Senator Raphael War...

Plus, an important down-ballot race Democrats are poised to grasp in the Georgia legislature - why it's important they do. September's inflation data shows Donald Trump has failed (again) to reign in prices for goods & services - mostly because he keeps meddling in the fossil fuel business or sabotaging it altogether by going to war with Iran. Here's the thing no one's saying (...

If Georgia Democrats are going to flip the state Senate - and it's a daunting task given the gerrymandering - Democrats will need to win districts like SD 32. Democrat Michael Hettig is making a go of it in the Cherokee/Cobb-shared turf and I had the opportunity meet him for an extended one-on-one conversation on the issues shaping that race and are of importance for the voters he's meetin...

... though he also said in this episode that it feels like 2006, so ... He writes for The Guardian; he pens for his own Substack - The Atlanta Objective - and knows a lot of smart people to lean on for information on a whole host of issues globally to locally. He joined me Tuesday for a well-rounded discussion on the upcoming midterm elections and the impact the Trump era's had on our mental w...

Still more to digest from the (likely only) Georgia gubernatorial debate broadcast across the state Tuesday night. There's (at least) nine lies or distortions from Rick Jackson's lips to dissect , and whether it's telling supporters Brian Kemp will use the National Guard at polling places ( at a Jackson rally, August 13th ) or each candidate's roles in current or future data center...

Healthcare CEO Rick Jackson and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms squared off in what may likely be their only televised (or otherwise) debate. On Wednesday, I dove into a healthy chunk of that spectacle that not many Georgians watched - especially with the Atlanta Braves on primetime TV as well in playoff action.

... and America's biggest threat to democracy is America's President. Don't believe me; ask local & state election officials. Well that's odd; the same Rick Jackson who told primary voters he'd be Donald Trump's favorite governor and govern like Trump and be 'Trump with a southern accent' had his digital people take all mentions of Donald Trump off his website....

Ho hum; another mass shooting in the US takes the lives of two (hopefully that'll be all) and inuring nearly three dozen more in rural Vienna, Georgia over the weekend. The existence of a block party didn't cause it. The town not having a police department didn't cause it. That 'everybody's packing' in rural Dooly County (and throughout Georgia and the U.S., let's be ho...

PLUS: Rick Jackson's shadowy TX data center project is as shadowy as that PAC ad campaign he swears he wasn't tied to before he got into the GOP primary. The Georgia Elections Board thought now was the time to ⁠ invite the Trump Department of Justice to intervene on the state's use of touchscreen voting machines and QR codes to tabulate votes ⁠ -less than two weeks before early voting...

Also, why are Georgians pessimistic about the future? Could it be that the GOP's created a miserable 'current' for the middle class? Thank goodness there's still remnants of sanity in our legal system despite the flood of Trump-appointed ne'er do-wells. The latest Trump administration judicial loss being the rebuff of the Trump Department of Justice having access to sensitive v...

PLUS: Where's Geoff, Mike and ... Stacey? Former Biden DOJ special prosecutor Jack Smith was made to testify under oath before a Senate Judiciary committee hearing, and Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt (R) "outed" Smith ... as a Caitlin Clark fan ... while trying to "gotcha" Jack into confessing he'd been to Atlanta - because he was at a Hawks/Warriors game on February 3,...

Georgia Humanities' President Mary McCartin Wearn wrote a salient op-ed for the Atlanta Journal Constitution that fills in a lot of gaps in Rick Jackson's made-for-TV (ads) autobiography. From Team Jackson, you'd believe, he singularly overcame his broken family, alcoholic mother, being a foster child and living in Techwood Homes, without much mention of (as the AJC detailed in a 2015...

If you're like many Americans who spend the weekend absorbing football games on Saturday and Sunday, it was awful hard to miss that spray-tanned, purse-lipped face that won't let us escape his orbit anytime soon. Between his appearing at half the Texas-Tennessee college game Saturday (wreaking havoc on the coaches' communication equipment) to the Air Force One flyover at halftime (seri...

Upon review of my upbringing - between my Mom's almost all-black female staff of co-workers (who'd often babysit my sister and I) and some of my earliest educators in elementary school, to my college (and still) bestie Sonya - I've been influenced by African-American in ways that I have to conclude shaped my civil rights, political and sociological views over time. I'm not saying t...

It's a plan that worked for Donald Trump in 2024: when faced with the prospect of getting his debate clock cleaned by a more veteran politician (who I suppose just happens to be a black woman), Rick Jackson is making history in ditching debate after debate . Jackson said 'no' to WXIA-TV/Tegna, was a no-show at a Macon debate, and has now stiff-armed the Atlanta Press Club's debate...

Cathy Woolard is someone I've long admired - as a trailblazing out politician in Atlanta, one of the early believers in the Atlanta Beltline project and for just being a grounded and outspoken liberal in a sea of right wing nonsense (often appearing on FOX-5's "The Georgia Gang" having to smack down silliness from the likes of Phil Kent). That she's leaving a city she's p...

With less than 45 days to the midterm election, it was great catching up with metro Atlanta-based political consultant (Sagamore Hill Consulting) Andrew Heaton to talk Bottoms-Jackson, Collins-Ossoff, and down-ballot opportunities for Georgia Democrats, too.

I'm a diehard 'Bernie Sanders' progressive and yet I often find myself at odds with 'litmus test-driven' progressives who - in my opinion - poison their movement (whichever one it might be) by being unforgiving or intransigent purists. I happen to think that's playing out now with the whole Ed Sheeran / Macklemore flap and there's evidence of it when Sheeran can't g...

Being a former pop music radio exec, I know a lot about both Macklemore and Ed Sheeran; enough to know their character and a good bit about the business side of what they do. I mention that because I've seen a lot of vilification of both: Macklemore by pro-Israeli people who think that nation's military actions in Gaza are/were fully justified and can see no wrong done by anyone involved,...

The latest Rasmussen poll on the Georgia gubernatorial race seems a bit of a Jackson-leaning outlier , but its there are some unmistakable truths: 1) the early lead Keisha Lance Bottoms seemed to enjoy in most polls has shrunk and 2) Rick Jackson's campaign, its allies and party have WAY more to spend than Bottoms' campaign, allies and the Democratic Party of Georgia . The Georgia Senate p...

The Supreme Court, this week, pulled the reins on the Trump administration's intent to use the United States Postal Service - to curb mail-in voting this cycle. Good! Does this mean we're at the precipice of swinging momentum away from the dark Trump chapter in American history? Leave nothing to chance, I say, and underestimate that man and his minions at your own peril, but time is - and...

Adam Cleveland , husband, father, UGA alum, handyman-turned-lawyer is now also a politician - the Democratic nominee for state House District 48. He joined me Tuesday to explain why he felt he had to upend his ideal life to step into the fray to defend democracy in trying to help flip the Georgia House for the Democratic Party. His district (R+9 in 2024) is one of a handful in the state and among...

Ariel Hart, writing for the Georgia Recorder and States' Newsrooms, covered the rollout of GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson's healthcare coverage initiative in a piece Ron reviewed. Details are lacking while bluster and proclamations were offered in abundance. He did say he'd be 'Trump with a southern accent,' though, so that shouldn't be a surprise. On Trump, it&#3...

On the 25th anniversary of the horrific three-pronged terror attack on American soil, Ron assesses where the United States is, societally, diplomatically and politically. Are we any less Islamophobic a society? Ehh. As the mayor of New York City, ⁠ Zohran Mamdani gave remarks at Ground Zero ⁠ - which drew (Islamophobic) outrage. Okay, but are we less-prone to involving our military in a Middle Eas...