The Ron Show

Unions are quite popular⁠ so why are ⁠Georgia Republicans attacking ⁠their right to form? Well, obviously they represent business before the working class. Nothing new there. In real estate we call it "buyer beware," or "caveat emptor;" the concept that it's up to the buyer to know of issues with a home or property ahead of purchase. That's why those who live along the Belt Line in Atlanta who mig...

The hastily-passed SB63 bill awaiting Governor Brian Kemp's signature ⁠will then be met by litigation⁠; at least that's ⁠what the American Civil Liberties' Union (ACLU) says⁠. That tracks; because the bill almost directly target protest (and thus, free speech). In other legislative action, the state's ⁠mid-year budget came with additional infrastructure spending⁠. No, not the kind that improves qu...

Despite the state of Georgia being unnecessarily deadly for anyone in jails or prisons, Georgia Republican legislators ⁠still felt the need to make it harder for the poor and working class to bail themselves out of jail⁠ for a larger number of alleged crimes - some of them misdemeanors. Senate bill 63 (SB63) awaits Governor Brian Kemp's signature, but not before ⁠advocates for the poor bemoan the...

While Atlanta's mayor and city council are ⁠doing all they can to sour progressive grassroots activists on the Democratic Party⁠, the Fani Willis revelations are seeming to create ⁠a snowball effect of chicanery from Trump co-defendants ⁠seeking to derail her body of work. If her acknowledging the relationship she's involved in with special prosecutor Nathan Wade isn't enough, her MLK Day speech a...

The latest ⁠NBC News/Wall Street Journal polling data⁠ paints a bleak picture, nine months out, for President Joe Biden. Realizing we're still nine months out is small comfort when you look back at 2020 and 2016 polls from he same point in those races, too, and there are perplexing and somewhat shocking subsets to discuss, too. So is there (or will there be) a contingency plan for Democrats? Detai...

Matt Scott joined me today from the ⁠Atlanta Community Press Collective⁠ to speak to the Georgia Senate bill⁠ (SB63)⁠aiming to ⁠expand the list of offenses requiring cash bail and to limit bail funds' ability to post⁠. Can you imagine a law like this and the impact it would've had on the civil rights movement in the 1960s? ⁠Fani 'fessed up.⁠ So now what? First, let's let the "I'll be damned" wash...

Outside of some random arson incidents targeting construction equipment and some demonstrations, it's been pretty quiet on the "Cop City" front - and to hear my guest, Alex Joseph, tell it - that's by design. There's palpable frustration in a movement implored to go about their opposition in a lawful manner when overwhelming turnout at council forums were brushed aside and a petition effort has be...

⁠Fani may have caught a bit of a break⁠. A ⁠GOP run at property tax relief⁠ (again) leaves tenants on the hook for making it up. Right wingers are losing their minds over ...⁠ Taylor Swift?⁠ Well, I suppose it beats them pearl-clutching over "the border;" suddenly, that issue no longer needs to be dealt with right away, if ⁠their inaction in the House⁠ on immigration reform passed in the Senate an...

Georgia's lone Palestinian-American elected official - ⁠Rep. Ruwa Romman ⁠(D), representing the 97th House District in Gwinnett County, offered insights on a range of issues: Georgia's antisemitism definition bill soon to be signed into law and attached to its current hate crime law, Biden's disfavor within the Arab American community, what UNRWA is, does, and why defunding it is particularly crue...

The vultures are circling around Fani Willis - and to hear columnist Jay Bookman put it - ⁠maybe she brought it on herself.⁠ Then again, ⁠maybe there's a way out of this⁠ that protects the case against Donald Trump. There'll be plenty more to discuss about all this tomorrow with so many late headlines dropping today. Locally, some good news after Decatur city schools announced plans to serve kids...

America's unhoused population is disdained even by those on the left inconvenienced by them. There; I said it. The problem is, like most of this country's major issues, the right chooses demonizing and finger-pointing, leaving the left with few options for political collaboration. This hit close to home for me, literally, so I felt like venting a little. Atlanta's pro-public training facility fact...

It's so delicio-awkward watching as the remaining two GOP presidential candidate contradict one another. In particular, as Nikki Haley blithely spouts nonsense about the U.S. never being a racist nation, her opponent - the former U.S. President, with his noted civil rights mis-steps, ⁠refers to her by her ethnic birth name in a not-so-subtle dogwhistle⁠ to his base. He's also gone "birther" in her...

Fulton district attorney Fani Willis has twice tried to respond to ⁠allegations of impropriety⁠ levied against her and special prosecutor Nathan Wade ... except ⁠she's yet to respond to the most salacious part of the allegations⁠ ... that she and Wade are (allegedly) in a romantic relationship. Illegal? No. Improper? Debatable. A bad look? Indisputable. Also, how are two of the brightest legal min...

So we've been waiting (and waiting) for Fani Willis to respond to those 'salacious' allegations a Trump co-defendant's attorney dropped last week, and whew, today ⁠we got a (filed) response.⁠ First, it turns out Nathan Wade's marriage is coming apart because his wife (not he, with Fani) had strayed from the marriage. Bomb. Shell. Okay, so that answers to Fani needing (she doesn't) to testify in th...

Governor Brian Kemp has been in Davos, Switzerland, looking to score some business action for the state, and had a somewhat awkward Q&A with the Bloomberg crew, so naturally I'm all for eavesdropping and chiming in. He loves to tout that $16 billion surplus, for example, but wouldn't ya know, the same Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) he openly dismisses, along with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (...

I am not a religious person, but I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church, so it's not as if I don't have a decent grasp of the values of the white evangelical voting bloc. So how do we square Donald Trump taking 53% of Iowa's white evangelical voter support last night - and since that's actually being a dip from his 2020 and 2016 numbers, is that a harbinger for his prospects this November? That go...

With the latest ("salacious") allegations levied at Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Atlanta-Journal Constitution scribe Patricia Murphy ⁠makes a compelling case to wonder ⁠what the embattled DA is thinking. Buckle up if you've not already ready this. It's not an easy listen, either. Eavesdropping on Judge McAfee's hearing, in the aftermath, however, all we got was Trump's attorney Ste...

Governor Brian Kemp gave his annual "State of the State" address before a joint session of the general assembly today, and I chose to replay and annotate.

Busy news day but it can all wait til tomorrow, yeah? Today I got to speak with producer, award-winning screenwriter and actress from Gillian Rabin, along with ⁠Georgia WIN List⁠ executive director Melita Easters today about the premiere of Gillian's thought-provoking short film, "L-8." ⁠ You can watch it at RonShowATL.com.⁠ Quite the thought-starter! The premise: "Set in a not-so-distant future w...

Admittedly, with little else on but football, I've been binging 'Suits,' and I'm through seven full seasons - just the sort of prep I apparently needed for covering local, state & American politics, because - wow - the courtroom drama! So we have a Fani Willis affair allegation - from a Trump ally attorney - tying the Fulton D.A. to a special prosecutor who's not (yet) divorced. Then we have Trump...

If it isn't yet abundantly clear to you by now that Donald Trump fullly intends to stretch out his legal woes long enough to pardon himself, today's legal maneuvers in Fulton County pretty much leave no doubt as to how desperate his team is. I can disagree agreeably with the likes of Martha Zoller, but I can (and do) also point out doublespeak on districts belonging to voters when her preferred po...

JenChan's, a Cabbagetown/Atlanta dining GEM, has been charging patrons a 4% healthcare line-item surcharge for more than a year. Recently, however, some grousers have groused on social media about it - despite it being easily removable if asked - and it brings healthcare again to discussion. I spoke with co-owner Emily. She and her wife and child have even been physically threatened over it on soc...

I don't always know when I set up an interview if it's going to be an agreeable conversation, and when I set up today's talk with Alan Holmes, host of the podcast "Hidden Lynchings" and staunch reparations advocate, I wasn't actually sure we'd vibe like we did. See, Alan and I had gone back & forth a time or two on Twitter/X over reparations, the mechanics of it, the priority (or lack of) Democrat...

Enjoyed catching up with political consultant Andrew Heaton from Sagamore Hill Consulting. We bantered on Georgia's redrawn maps, the upcoming legislative session and did some 2024 predicting. Good times. Second half of the show, I ceded some time to "Politics Girl" to review her mid-December "impeachment" retort, and then I somehow wound up railing on the GOP's preening about immigration at the s...

So over the holidays, judge Steve Jones took the just-as-partisan, even more racist (but not towards black people, at least as much as before) redrawn Georgia legislative maps and said "eh, this will do." Stunned a lot of folks who predicted at least two of three would need special master re-draws. Oh well; while there's still litigious pushes to alter that, most of the Georgia political community...