The Ron Show

I've been tough on Georgia Democrats not doing better waging a proper offensive in the war for information over disinformation, but they've gotten way better at it in recent months. Between ⁠Sen. Jason Esteves ⁠and ⁠Sen. Elena Parent⁠, House ⁠Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook⁠, the messaging is organic and yet still well-produced - and that's a big pivot from the recent past. And it's more necessary than...

I've long said Republicans were unserious about addressing shortcomings in our immigration situation because they spend way more time seeking to demonize migrant (you know, "illegals") and not the real "illegals" (employers & human traffickers) menacing (⁠in some cases abusing, exploiting, threatning and even killing)⁠ well-meaning migrant laborers. ⁠A recent sentencing of a human trafficking king...

Greg Bluestein's reporting that ⁠Democrats are "fracturing" over Trump's "hardline" immigration agenda⁠ (literally the headline) included a nugget that - to me - was the story. "...a poll published this month by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ⁠showed⁠ that roughly 60% believe there should be a way for most people who have come to the U.S. unlawfully to “stay in the country legally if certain req...

Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance has certainly sparked a conversation, and honestly the timing couldn't be better considering conservatives' breathless zeal for suppressing a true reckoning on race and its role in our nation's history. Surely you understand that's why the white nationalist-in-chief wants to ⁠dismantle the federal Department of Education⁠ so MAGA states can get back...

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a MAGA radical, but there appears to be an effort to 'mainstream' her, anyway. She did a l⁠ive taping for WABE-FM's "Politically Georgia" podcast⁠ with Atlanta Journal Constitution reporters Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell and Patricia Murphy last week and waffled on her "America First" hardlining (when it equivocates on Gaza but less so on Ukraine), gave her "business" spin...

Pardon me while I close a few "open tabs" on the laptop heading into the weekend. A ruby-red, Trump-adoring Georgia county ⁠"found out" about 700 "green energy" jobs planned for at a new battery plant south of Newnan aren't coming⁠, after all. While the Norwegian company spoke of ⁠inflation and costs⁠, it's hard not to connect the "drill baby, drill" dots. The Georgia Senate ⁠passed SB-1⁠, banning...

Good news, y'all; I have it on good authority (a mid-market conservative talk radio parrot) that Donald Trump''s rhetoric whereby the U.S. would "take over" Gaza were "sidebar remarks were casual and not intended as anything other than speculative inquiries." Oh good; for a minute there I thought the press briefing on a dais with the Israeli Prime Minister beside POTUS - both behind podiums and on...

Sometimes when I launch into a topic I have no idea where the stream of consciousness is going to take me, but damned if this isn't a good one, y'all, if I do say so myself. Georgia ⁠Republicans want to make Georgia a "closed primary" state⁠, and that's (spoiler alert) ⁠bad for democracy⁠. If Republicans are for something, when it comes to elections, you can be sure it's "bad for democracy." Now,...

Sometimes you just have to laugh; credit to Senator Josh McLaurin (D-14) for taking his time on the floor at the state Senate ⁠to review all the nuttiness from the Trump administration's takeover⁠ in Washington. His xompatriot Senator Nikki Merritt ⁠took another tact yesterday⁠, invoking Black History Month to remind folks to "⁠walk carefully..⁠" She noted the military trying to ⁠bury the story of...

Super grateful that GA-6 ⁠Senator Jason Esteves ⁠joined me today to share some optimism (and some stark reality, too) on the likelihood some form of full Medicaid expansion is even a possibility this legislative session. There's at least a glimmer of hope ⁠with four rural Republican lawmakers joining with Democrats⁠ on the idea, anyway. Meanwhile, as Donald Trump keeps imperiling our economy with...

In the aftermath of the deadly plane/army helicopter crash, President Donald Trump almost immediately cited "D.E.I." as a factor - without evidence. ⁠Listen as USC law professor Jody Armour ⁠weigh in on Trump's missed opportunity to unite the nation after such a tragedy and his "incongruous" rationalization that D.E.I. has to have played a role. Why? Is he kneejerk reacting to deflect culpability...

Rev. Senator Raphael Warnock was among those who ⁠got to pepper DHHS secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr⁠., yesterday, and he zeroed in on comparisons RFK of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Nazi camps and Catholic child sex abuse. ⁠Senator Ron Wyden also cornered RFK ⁠on his role in the deadly Samoean measles outbreak and Hawaii Governor Josh Green later dubbed RFK a lia...

The White House federal funding "freeze" mandate on Monday through a lot of the nation for a loop - just another chaotic day in a Trump presidency - before a federal judge put the brakes on it. I 'm trying to figure out why Republicans in Congress are just rolling over and ceding the legislative branch's equal power to this particular President. They're just ... letting him do as he wishes, even ⁠...

Dr. Anthony (Tony) Lemieux is a ⁠professor at Georgia State University⁠ in Atlanta and ⁠an investigator with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism (START)⁠. He joined me today to discuss the very real, very stark dangers that exist in the aftermath of the sweeping pardons of violent insurrectionists - fomented by by President Donald Trump - by Trump himself....

The avalanche of Trump-related egregious acts are seemingy too numerous to keep tabs on, but there seems to be bipartisan agreement on his pardoning J6ers ... that it was a bridge too far. Don't get it twisted - Republicans won't actually do anything about it, but they do seem to agree it sends an awful message. On Sunday's ⁠'Meet The Press,' ⁠Senators Adam Schiff (D) and Lindsey Graham (R) vocali...

Jay Bookman is a gem of a journalist and opinion writer, and Georgia Recorder is lucky to have him - as am I, on occasion and today is such an occasion. He joined me to discuss his latest - "Stacey Abrams’ political aspirations bookended by bad timing" - to discuss the 2026 Georgia gubernatorial field as it may (or may not) shape up to look like, along with a few other topics - like Donald Trump's...

By now many have seen the "two-minutes" version of Bishop Mariann Budde's ⁠fourteen-plus minute homily ⁠at Washington's National Cathedral yesterday. You know, the one where she spoke directly to President Donald Trump, pleading for mercy towards the LGBTQIA+ and the undocumented immigrant. She later explained further the intent ⁠to CNN's Erin Burnett.⁠ First, there's the audacity of a godless man...

The second Donald Trump term began as the made-for-TV event you know the former reality TV star sought it out to be, and while "reality TV" is largely fictitious scripting, Trump's inauguration day was very real - with real-life consequences for justice, law & order and both undocumented and DACA status immigrants. To help e understand how real (or not) a threat Trump's focused executive orders ar...

What a confluence of events to dwell on today, of all days. Late last week, a ⁠homeless Atlanta man was crushed to death ⁠by a bulldozer clearing an encampment. I spoke with Sylvia Broome, a program lead/instructor with⁠ Remerge⁠, who knew Cornelius personally, to ⁠learn more about him⁠ and his plight, his future and how this could have gone so horribly wrong. On this, the Martin Luther King Jr. h...

It's easy to not notice the routine ⁠'state of the state'⁠ address Georgia Governor Brian Kemp gave, and t⁠he response from state Democrats⁠'- by Senate minority leader Harold Jones Jr., when a MAGA hissy goes down in the hallway just outside the House chamber before the joint session. Naturally, ⁠that tantrum - and subsequent arrest -⁠ of state Senator Colton Moore got all the media oxygen and so...

President Joe Biden's final address ⁠from the Oval Office was - of coruse - bittersweet, but also came with warnings similar to Dwight D. Eisenhower's "industrial complex" foreshadowing, only for Biden, it was ⁠attached to oligarchs and "big tech."⁠ Doing a little "open tab" cleanup, I realized I hadn't gotten around to sharing this (too late now) narrative buster: as is the case in Texas, ⁠in Geo...

With just five days before the inauguration of a second Donald Trump term, the trans community in Georgia (and throughout the U.S.) has had to weather a storm of antir-trans sentiment; some of it put to use by the Trump campaign. I checked in with Jeff Graham, executive director for ⁠Georgia Equality⁠, to get a sense what their activism can accomplish with a decidely-conservative state legislature...

Jay Bookman ⁠wrote a blistering-yet-sobering piece ⁠last week for the Georgia Recorder where he spells it out plainly: Republicans pick on the trans community because 'it works," writing "Because transgender Americans are an unpopular, powerless and almost friendless subgroup, which makes them the perfect target for politicians willing to leverage that unpopularity into votes." See, legislating fo...

Clearly, the blame for California's current, deadly (perhaps worst-ever) wildfire lies at the feet of (checks notes) ⁠Governor Gavin Newsom, L.A. mayor Karen Bass and D.E.I. ⁠and not wild climate shifts, (aka ⁠'hydroclimate whiplash'⁠) parched dry vegetation and hurricane-force winds fomenting a wildfire out of ⁠New Year's Eve fireworks⁠. Oh, or ⁠20th century sprawl and a water system not designed...

A mid-December ⁠article in the New York Times ⁠focused on a Rome, Georgia family soon to be ripped apart by a looming second Trump presidency and the promies of mass deportations. Jaime Cachua has lived in the U.S. all but the first ten months of his life, and yet because he wasn't born here and because three-plus decades of politicial futility in Washington has led to no permanent solution for DA...