The Ron Show

Dan Vicuna with Common Cause joined me today to dive into the C.H.A.R.G.E. batch of report cards for each state's redistricting efforts , and - surprise - Georgia got a D . IN fact, 18 of the 20 failing states are GOP-controlled. I'm also joined today by Chris Dowd with Athens Politics Nerd to get a better understanding as to why Deborah Gonzalez, Athens-Clarke district attorney - is the t...

Georgia's only openly Jewish General Assembly representative, ⁠Esther Panitch⁠ , was certainly emotional over the weekend, on the heels of Hamas' deadly and often grisly terror attack on Israel. She admitted yesterday one of her tweets, targeting "The Squad," was "beneath" her and her office. I'm pleased she came to this realization. BREAKING NEWS that the ⁠ U.S. an...

Mayor Andre Dickens' recent appearance on a non-commercial radio station podcast warrants a little scrutiny ,and I have a little to give. :) Of course the public safety training facility is the topic he and the three hosts focus on, but he did make some news in the wake of the Johnny Hollman death & subsequent firing of the APD officer involved , so there's that. I was joined by Rev. J...

The officer who showed up to handle a fender bender, but wound up tasing Johnny Hollman shortly before Hollman died is now out of a job . That whole situation is somehow rationale for a $90 million police campus, according to Atlanta's mayor . Kinda not digging the use of a civilian casualty by one's own police officer for that. I'm also noticing a note of sympathy for the plight of th...

In the aftermath of the despicable attack by Hamas on Israel, the right wing "spin room" opted not to waste a second mourning the dead or keeping "politics at the waters edge;" instead, they coalesced on the false "$6 billion" narrative. Facts be damned. Well, now's a good time to remind them (and ourselves) that their last President likely shared Israeli intellig...

Mayor Andre Dickens still doesn't have any takers, it would seem, for the Atlanta Medical Center abandoned by Wellstar a year ago, so he's looking to stop any potential development for another six months to see if something might shake out. One councilmember has an idea - an idea similar in price tag to the public safety training facility. Interesting. Bernard Simelton checks in from the A...

The University of Georgia and it's athletic association had a pretty cringey day in court and Alabama got a new Congressional map . Nationally, Republicans are blaming Democrats for issues within the Republican party. Say what? Oh, also, what's up with Donald Trump's latest Nazi-esque "poisoning blood" rhetoric?

Governor Brian Kemp and his economic team took a victory lap presser earlier today to back-slap each other for again earning the distinction of being the "number one" state for business ; the problem is, what Georgia's really "number one" for is kowtowing to developers and doling out tax breaks, while key rankings for citizens languish. Stacey Abrams caught a lot of flak in...

It's been nearly two months since a 62-year old church deacon, John Hollman, died while in police custody at the site of a traffic accident HE called 911 about. To date, the police lapel and/or dash cam video has yet to be released, and Hollman's family wants it out. This, of course, is poor timing for pro-"public safety training facility" folks, but also quite damning if withhol...

Today marks one year since this show launched on AmericaOne Radio - and later via podcast. My first guest that day was Melita Easters from the Georgia WIN List , so she was kind enough to join me again for the full show to preview Heather Cox Richardson's appearances in Atlanta October 10th, along with Heather's new book, "Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America." Whil...

Every time in the last three decades we've arrived at a government shutdown, Republicans have held the House. That's no coincidence. Hell, the GOP can't get along with themselves but Democrats are supposed to work with enough of 'em to keep us afloat? In my opinion, the Atlanta Regional Planning Commission abdicated their responsibility earlier this week, rubber-stamping a proposal...

Without question, the winner of the second GOP debate last night was .... Joe Biden. Ron DeSantis gave his re-election campaign JUST the on-point soundbite needed, and Chris Christie gets the assist, too. In general, the squabbling and inability to have substantive policy discussion just put on display how irresponsible that party is when it comes to deciding which is more fit to lead this nation....

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Morehouse College Tuesday. Here's audio of that campus Q&A.

Why's the resignation of a rural Georgia county's elections board chairman a bigger deal than you might think? Well, it's Coffee County, and the "rot" is at least two people deep in just that one county, and yet there's no appetite at the Georgia Secretary of State's office to find out if the rot's even deeper (or in other counties). There's also no appetite f...

A back-n-forth text snit between Mayor Andre Dickens & Councilmember Keisha Sean Waites via a group text involving them and all of city council got leaked today, and for feedback, Councilmember Waites joined me. The mayor took umbrage with a statement she gave last week via the Saporta Report. Or maybe it was Capital B . Or both? A major city mayor announced he's a Republican over the week...

Ya know how ya feel when you're playing miniature golf and you manage to slip the ball between the two blades of the spinning windmill? Yeah, Jon Ossoff did that when he announced his support for "a" public training facility for the city of Atlanta, but not necessarily "the" proposed facility in unincorporated south Dekalb County. His presumed 2026 opponent, governor Brian...

Dr. Jackie Echols, president of the South River Watershed Alliance , joined me today to clear up any misconceptions given by Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens (on 'Politically Georgia' last week) that the city's answered environmental concerns when it comes to "Cop City." Spoiler alert: he wasn't being honest about that. She and I discuss that and review the many environment is...

Well, knock me over with a feather: Georgia is one of sixteen (almost all of them, southern) states that failed to equitably fund their HBCU land grant school(s) as they did their other(s). Well, the Department of Education (the one the right wants to abolish, of course) is awaiting word how Governor Brian Kemp will address that $603 million gulf. I've some ideas. Remember "tan suit-gate?...

Are we in "the upside down?" When I'm agreeing with Erick Erickson and Karl Rove on the same episode, you might think so. In this narrative I get to tie in the Lauren Boebert silliness, Trump's 'Meet The Press' disaster and mock 'fiscal conservatism' in a nice tidy two-segment arc. But I gotta get back to 'Cop City' a bit. Governor Brian Kemp appeared on a...

Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens' appearance on the Atlanta Journal Constitution's "Politically Georgia" podcast raised eyebrows - both for what he said and for the subtle refutations from those he name-dropped, such as Stacey Abrams and Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock . Hear as I spend some time going over about half of his Q&A with AJC reporters along with former "Politica...

Freelance journalist Becky Gaunt gave me the blow-by-blow (almost literally) from this week’s Cobb County School Board meeting. Then a little “hockey” (arena) talk before catching up with Cobb County Commissioner Jerica Richardson, who announced her bid for Congress vs Rep. Rich McCormick. Then I want to introduce you to “Politics Girl,” if you haven’t discovered her yet.

Pres. Joe Biden spoke at a Maryland community college earlier today, again taking ownership of the term "Bidenomics" and contrasting it against "MAGAnomics." You'll get the entire speech on today's show with some notes from yours truly. Then, when someone says "the quiet part out loud" they're telling you their intentions. Australian real estate mogul / bi...

Governor Brian Kemp's gas tax break is both a nice "little" break at the pump and also nothing more than a political stunt. I see it for what it is, and you should, too. A federal judge lashed out at the city of Atlanta for being the cause of the all the "Cop City Vote" confusion, but c'mon ... we know this is by design. A planned development along the Atlanta Beltline...

I began today by dissecting Kevin McCarthy's mealy-mouthed presser, and Marjorie Taylor Green's many "tells" too. Then - I know I've been worrying about grassroots blowback - it's real and it's being spoken into existence. WIth local and state Democrats thumbing their noses at the Cop City Vote movement, there may be some real resentment brewing from activists towards...

Where I was & what I was doing on 9/1 1 - TWENTY TWO years ago. Time flies, but how fleeting that "united" feeling was, too, no? Meanwhile, the city of Atlanta continues to lose "the narrative" on the Cop City Vote initiative, with another eyeroll-inducing legal stunt as petitioners turn in 116,000+ signatures - about TWICE the number needed. Speaking of 9/11, we didn't...