The Ron Show

Senator Max Burns grew up attending segregated schools, but deems himself something of an expert on the necessity of deiversity, equity and inclusion in public schools and colleges in the state of Georgia. The fact that he can't even enunciate the word "ethnicity" should already be a 'red flag,' but here we are. ⁠Thursday, while struggling to say "ethnicity" correctly⁠ (never did), he promoted his...

Outgoing state senator Brandon Beach - because he can fog a mirror - knows Donald Trump and Trump's seventeen co-defendatns were all guilty as hell in conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. How he sleeps at night after ⁠filing a bill to allow Trump to recoup legal fees from Fulton County taxpayers⁠ is beyond me, frankly. The ironic twist on it being that he was recentl...

Jason Cecil - like all of us - is defined by more than just a job; he's a husband, ⁠Dekalb County Ethics Board alternate⁠, President of the LGBTQ+ recovery community-serving ⁠GALANO Club⁠, to name a few of his attribuets. His job at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) was really important, too, though. Until yesterday, he had been a Public Health Analyst in Global Immu...

Remember the four years of noise from the right about Joe Biden being the doddering, senile old man who wasn't really "in charge" of his presidency? So now that we're all aware of the Signal app "klatch" (read the dialogue ⁠here) ruminating ⁠⁠over clearly classified information⁠ (except, "nuh-uh!") the question that came up for me, mostly recently is "where was the President?" Images of Presidents...

Group texts are the scourge of modern communication technology, sure, but when you find yourself somehow looped in on a juicy conversation you know you're not meant to be privy to, who wouldn't stick around to see how it continues? That's the ⁠situation Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg ⁠(likely "JG" in Mike Waltz' phone or Signal app contacts) found himself in two weekends ago when he was...

A Georgia legislator hailing from a county of less than 15,000 people thinks it's a perfectly fine idea to ⁠limit early voting to one day and one centralized location per county⁠. Voting rights advocates and Democrats, notably potential gubernatorial candidate Jason Esteves, made a lot of noise in opposition - and dozens more ⁠spoke out this afternoon⁠ at a Senate subcommittee hearing on the bill...

Governor Brian Kemp ⁠got the 'tort reform'⁠ he wanted this legislative session, and there were ⁠three House Democrats among the 91 votes ⁠he can thank for it. One of those votes came from Rep. Dr. Michelle Au (GA 50) , who penned a two-page letter-explanation to share on ⁠her social media⁠. She's catching a lot of heat from her base for it. So are the handful of Republicans - including ⁠one who lo...

George Chidi, journalist with The Guardian, Rolling Stone and the man behind⁠ The Atlanta Objective⁠, sat in on ⁠recent town halls hosted by Reps. Nikema Willilams and Hank Johnson⁠ and came away with more questions than answers - not unlike their constituents. He and I had a free-wheeling conversation about a lot of what's going on, politically. Preparing the American population for Medicaid cuts...

Governor Brian Kemp got what he (⁠and his 'dark money' donors)⁠ sought:⁠ legislation to try and limit lawsuits and suppress massive jury verdicts⁠ (⁠rare as they actually are⁠, actually) . On today to discuss the kinds of impact this bill will have on everyday Georgians and particularly plaintiffs seeking damages, my good friend ⁠Nick Utley⁠ with ⁠Utley Law Firm⁠ took my call. ------ Columnist Jay...

When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth carried out President Donald Trump's will to end "the tyranny of so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies " one initiative in particular - a ⁠planned two-day workshop nd performance with gifted high school musicians of color and the U.S. Marine Corps Band ⁠- got whacked. The workshop & concert was salvaged, somewhat, thanks in large part to the same...

Senator Nabila Islam Parkes joined me today to talk 'tort reform' with me, and actually has personal background.on the matter. While she was in high school, her mother was injured at a warehouse job. She saw, firsthand, the failures of both the American healthcare system and the challenges in getting justice in the legal system when taking on 'big business.' We discussed Governor Brian Kemp's fixa...

Yesterday's ⁠'Meet the Press' ⁠was DE-pressing for "D" party folks. When Steve Kornacki rolled out the latest NBC News poll, it showed the party with a meager 27% approval rating. It's a three-decades long low, and after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rallied enough Democrat Senate votes to pass a continuing resolution to keep the federal government (somewhat) churning, there's every likelih...

The chilling detainment of green card holder ⁠Mahmoud Khalil⁠, a Syrian national and recent Columbia graduate, raises a lot of questions about the rights of permanent residents, most ⁠notably freedom of speech⁠. To answer the sort of questions that came to my mind, immigration specialist ⁠Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, managing partner at Lincoln-Goldfinch Law⁠ in Austin, TX, graciously took the call. We...

Mayor Andre Dickens surprised (sort of) many when he and his staffers announced a c⁠hange in priority for the Atlanta Beltline's transit future⁠. They made this news at ⁠Thursday's MARTA board meeting⁠ and reaction was swift. Among the ⁠sharpest critics, the Beltline rail advocates at Beltline Rail Now!⁠ Matthew Raoe, chair of BRN, joined me today at C⁠ondesa Coffee⁠ in Old Fourth Ward for a spiri...

Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens gave his⁠ "state of the city" address ⁠in a typically "Atlanta Way" ... a flashy high society pep rally of sorts, with civic leaders and local music icons both in the wings and on the stage, too. While he touched on (of course) all his perceived high marks (and there are enough, for sure), leave it to me to douse a little reality on the feting, too. Oddly enough, though...

The Zoom call dust-up between state Senator Elena Parent and the mother of a trans child continues to catch the attention of local media and the political consultant class; the latest to chime in being the ⁠Atlanta Journal Constitution's Bill Torpy⁠, who zeroed in on an angle: that Parent is one of four Democrats who voted for a GOP-led bill (four others skipped the vote altogether) to limit taxpa...

Always a joy to have Melita Easters - executive director at the Georgia WIN List - on the show, and today was no exception. As of this episode posting she's interviewing author Elaine Weiss, whose latest book, "Spell Freedom," looks back at the underground schools that built the civil rights movement, The discussion is one previously scheduled at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. Jennifer Sch...

The now-infamous (somewhat) personal ⁠Zoom Q&A state senator Elena Parent (D) and one of her constituents - Lena Kotler - got a lot of attention ⁠because of but a few minutes of the dialogue. Like most people, I heard it and focused just on that portion because of the mushy messaging Senator Parent exhibited with regards to the rights of the imprisoned who are trans. It's a party problem more than...

State Senator Elena Parent - someone who's been on this show on two occasions; someone I'm awful fond of, politically - didn't have her best moment ⁠on a live Instagram Q&A with a trans parent and constituent recently⁠. With me to discuss, another trans parent and activist, Clare Schexnyder., founder/CEO of ⁠Oh Baby! Fitness⁠. It's not that I don't get what Sen. Parent is saying - that the party's...

Back from my week-long Puerto Rican birthday vacation only to step back into the booth and have to tee off on arguably one of the most shocking and embarrassing displays of foreign diplomacy in American history. ⁠You can't tell me my eyes didn't see what they saw and ears heard what they did:⁠ Donald Trump and JD Vance are Russian assets. There's no other explanation for their revolting pivot on U...

Author (and physical therapist) Michelle Stiles wrote a book a few years ago that seemed worthy of review now, more than ever. "⁠One Idea To Rule Them All: Reverse Engineering American Propaganda⁠" isn't strictly a political book, per se, but it does offer a lot of clues leading us to realizing why we're in the political state we're in currently. Oner particular excerpt caught my at the start of c...

Tad Stoermer is a public history lecturer in the Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies program at Johns Hopkins University. He is also the Film and Digital Media Editor of The Public Historian. He caught my eye on Instagram with a ⁠9-plus minute diatribe ⁠insisting we're not "approaching" a Constitutional crisis; we're already in one and have been for awhile. Can it be fixed? Is there hope in midte...

MAGA may not care that their heroes, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, keep getting caught in lies, but for the sake of history, the rest of us will just have to keep chronicling it, anyway. The latest: claims that 150+ year old people are getting Social Security checks; well, that the Social Security Administration (SSA) is sending check to people born that long ago (and longer) who are obviously not a...

Another Republican-backed bill to ⁠get rid of school zone speeding ticket-generating cameras⁠ is having a better go of it in the Georgia General Assembly this session, and as someone who's been the recipient of one of their tickets, I'm not not so sure I'm for or against this ban. On the one hand, I definitely support safety for pedestrian kids near schools (and anywhere), but there've been ⁠a lot...

Hearing J.D. Vance have the audacity to go not just to Europe but to Munich, GERMANY to finger-wag about a "threat from within" was just too stunning to let glide by. Today I started with my disdain (I was a⁠ctually outraged upon first glance)⁠ for ⁠a social media post by a longtime radio friend ⁠taking delight in a purported spike in home listings in the DC metro - along with a pretty wicked comm...