The Ron Show

Today, ⁠Georgia's early voting window opened⁠ (more than 200,000 folks participated, shattering a previous record) while the state's election board got smote by a superior court judge. The Coalition for Good Governance ⁠seeks compromise⁠, but fat chance that happening at this late hour. As if that wasn't enough to pore over, John Oliver's most recent episode of ⁠'Last Week Tonight"⁠ had "Georgia o...

Listen in as former President Barak Obama gives a scorching speech - ⁠at a Harris/Walz rally⁠ - in an effort to make sense of the senseless (in another former President Donald Trump), Julia Roberts phone banking (so effectively!) and Kamala Harris flexing her compassion and empathy at her ⁠Univision town hal⁠l.

Julia Roberts making the rounds in metro Atlanta yesterday and today, along with Sen. Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams, something she said⁠ in Canton last night⁠ stood out: "It is the UNITED States of America, and we've been lacking in the 'united' part for so long." The right usually responds with a dismissive "Hollywood elite liberal" swipe - but COUSIN Julia (who says we might not be related?)...

Tina Peters is going to prison⁠ for trying to have a hand in overturning election results. Tuesday afternoon, two organizations - ⁠Free Speech for People⁠ and the ⁠Coalition for Good Governance⁠ - held a virtual press briefing where they and experts like Georgia Tech's Dr. ⁠Rich DeMillo⁠ and Cal-Berkley's Dr. Richard Stark made the irrefutable case that there was (and still is!) a multi-state plot...

House Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC) - who's running for the state's attorney general's office - has ⁠taken to social media⁠ to clear up much of the disinformation surrounding the damage done to western North Carolina and the coordinated federal, state and local response. Oh, and sadly, he had to rebuke Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, ⁠who asserts that government controls the weather⁠ to target hurricanes...

Georgia Recorder columnist Jay Bookman reminded readers the many and varied ways Donald Trump injected pettiness into federal disaster response efforts while President. The headline: ⁠"Trump’s lie that Biden didn’t offer Georgia storm relief a disastrous pattern."⁠ Because it's so difficult to keep up with the sheer volume of things we ought remember about his presidency, it was a necessary remind...

President Joe Biden ⁠visited South Georgia yesterday⁠, addressing locals and the media on a farm outside Valdosta. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump will be stumping with (awkkkkkkwarrrrrd) Governor Brian Kemp - who had to set the record straight after Trump insinuated he and Biden hadn't spoke (they had, and continue to). With that in the backdrop, my guest today was ⁠Dr. Genevieve Guenthe...

Atlanta Voice⁠ editor-in-chief ⁠Donnell Suggs⁠ checked in to recap VP Kamala Harris' visit to Augusta. We ⁠eavesdrop on her drop-ins⁠, too. As Harris dropped in on Augusta, ⁠Jack Smith lowered the boom on Donald Trump ⁠with a 'January 6' evidentiary dump that included some jaw-dropping testimony. The thing is, the Trump/GOP judicial gum-up means WE'RE the seated jury who'll decide if he faves any...

Tuesday night's vice presidential debate, moderated by CBS, doesn't seem to have moved the needle much with voters. "Do no harm" seems to be the clear winner - which, on the surface should benefit J.D. Vance more. I happen to think the soundbites leave more "meat on the bone" for Harris/Walz to make use of for "leftovers," though. Joining me to discuss is local Democratic consultant Andrew Heaton....

⁠Judge Robert McBurney put abortion back⁠ on the minds of Georgia voters, parking the state's six-week ban yesterday. ⁠Georgia WIN List executive director Melita Easters⁠ joined me to explain what that means (for now) for women seeking reproductive care, and the ramifications on Election Day and the 2025 legislative session too. She also spent a few minutes commemorating the ⁠100th birthday of Pre...

It's far worse a scene in the western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee region, no doubt, and Asheville, NC has been ravaged by the tropical storm forces of Helene last week, but I wanted to start my discussion this week with my good friend, an old radio buddy of mine, and the guy who essentially provided me the tools and know-how to even launch this show and podcast:⁠ Robb Thomas - "aka 'Big R...

Unsure if Hurricane Helene was going to trounce Atlanta and render me unavailable this morning, I caught up with ⁠Lawfare⁠'s newest ⁠senior editor, Anna Bower⁠, to discuss her latest piece: ⁠Will Georgia's New Election Rules Allow Trump to Steal The Presidency?⁠ Quite the headline, no? I won't spoil it for you and blurt out the answer but ... eh. Enjoy the conversation between me and my pedestrian...

Georgia's 11th Congressional district has a unique general election scenario awaiting its voters. First, GOP incumbent Barry Loudermilk has spent much of the last two terms shilling for Donald Trump's "big lie" and whitewashing the January 6th insurrection. He's on the ballot, ⁠as is Katy Stamper⁠ - a former Libertarian candidate whose birth name is Karen Sacandy - who ran as a Democrat in the pri...

While the right howls with indignation that VP Kamala Harris is going to do her first network TV interview with MSNBC'S Stephanie Ruhle, they seem to forget her opponent, Donald Trump, never wanders far off the OANN/NewsMax/Fox News reservation himself. The few times he has, of course, he's stormed off set (ask Leslie Stahl and '60 Minutes'). I dove into that double-standard a bit, focusing on NYT...

Today saw the ⁠return of most Apalachee HS students⁠ to most of their school's campus. With ⁠"The Rock" welcoming football players ⁠and a talented student ⁠musician going viral on TikTok⁠ just for emoting over the loss of his teacher and classmates, there's no shortage of courage on display. Republicans in a position to do something on the senselessness of near-unfettered access to weapons designe...

The now two-day Georgia Elections Board September hearing - stretching from ⁠Friday⁠ to ⁠today⁠ - has been a drama-filled doozie - and I've plenty of audio to share with you, so get your popcorn and settle in for a wild ride. Remember when this board as a boring, "mostly-ministerial acts" sort of body? Ahh, good times. Instead, now, our state's board wants to further gum up Election Day/night cert...

What a contrast: as Donald Trump ⁠stumped before the Israeli-America Council pre-blaming Jewish voters⁠ for not fawning over him, ⁠Kamala Harris sat down with Oprah Winfrey⁠ for what was essentially an hour-plus long infomercial, reminiscent of the 1992 Ross Perot run. Part of that Kammie/Oprah sit-down included the family or Amber Thurman, ⁠featured in recent days by ProPublica⁠ as among the firs...

New polling in battleground states ⁠Georgia,⁠ ⁠Pennsylvania and nationally⁠ offer some mixed messaging - but the consensus is: 1. Kamala Harris has either ⁠made up ground⁠ or surpassed Trump and 2. this race is a dead heat But what are yard signs (or lack thereof) and local TV, radio and social influencer vibes telling us? Friend of the show ⁠King Williams tweeted⁠ earlier this week his concerns a...

I do get a kick out of Senator JD Vance howling with indignation that folks on the left need to dial down the divisive rhetoric as if we're all unaware who his running mate is. As a matter of fact, before my day got away from me yesterday, I'd planned to splice together a batch of clips of one Donald John Trump and his many years of heated rancor. Fortunately, ⁠the Daily Show has a staff capable o...

New ProPublica reporting details an unintended consequence of Georgia's six-week abortion ban: it's killed at least one (so far) pregnant woman - and likely more. Amber Nicole Thurman's story is one likely repeating since her passing in 2022, but we won't know until further data gets released by the state. There's a political distinction to this, too: conservative white men don't seem to care, nor...

Sure, I could spend time today handwringing over a second Trump assassination, but I've become desensitized since they just keep happening - much the way America is desensitized to gun violence. So, since the GOP says there's nothing we can do about curbing access to weapons for nuts, why bother? Instead, there's more to know about that goings on in Springfield, Ohio, where a rust belt city's rena...

Okay, we've all had a few good laughs over the whole "eating dogs and cats" quip from the Tuesday night debate (what IS it with JD Vance and cats?) but in all seriousness, Donald Trump's continued reliance of "hearsay" and "TV" for information - particularly anti-immigrant rhetoric - is dangerous and reckless. Kudos to ⁠Ana Navarro for calling it out⁠. And to ⁠Kaitlan Collins for holding a Trump s...

The headline for today's podcast came from the lips of Brit Hume on Fox News, and if that doesn't set the table for the conversation today, maybe it was the handshake she charged towards Donald to give well past midway on the stage to pronounce her name correctly for him. He never said her name; he invoked Joe Biden several times, but never once said her name. George Chidi from ⁠The Atlanta Object...

American University Professor Alan Lichtman has made a near-flawless science of correctly predicting presidential elections since 1984 - having only been wrong once. Well, his 2024 call was announced - and ... well tune in (or get past the ⁠NYT paywall here⁠). While more than half the ⁠Georgia GOP Congressional representation still peddles "big lie"⁠ fodder, MAGA nuts like ⁠Nick Fuentes are FURIOU...

Georgia ⁠House Democrats Friday urged a special session⁠ from Governor Brian Kemp (R - NRA) ⁠to address what they believe are needed legislative reforms⁠ in the aftermath of the Apalachee High School mass shooting. They won't get one, because problem-solving isn't big on Kemp's "to do" list, but proposed legislation like Dr. Michelle Au's "Pediatric Health Safe Storage Act" deserve more than a "co...