The Ron Show

No lie; I had to book time with Amir Farokhi weeks in advance, and I'll give him his due - he doesn't cheat you. Atlanta's district 2 city councilman (my councilman) gave me a good chunk of show time to talk about everything on my list - "cop city," MARTA audit, gentrification & housing, infrastructure & more. He's a "one to watch" kind of politician so...

From an optics standpoint, has there been a worse week for Republicans in recent memory? Between the Trump indictment, the Tennessee House shenanigans and now the Clarence (have a Coke & a smile) Thomas is outed for sopping up lavish travel freebies from a billionaire Republican donor named Harlan Crow. So we have paid-off porn stars & fraud, racist politicking over dealing with slaughtere...

Breathtaking to watch (as we produced today's show) the first of three Tennessee House representatives are being expelled from a majority - solely because they'd rather expel opposition than confront gun violence. This is democracy dying in Tennessee. Earlier today, I got to spend a good half an hour or so in conversation with Bobbie Paul from 'Regulate Guns Not Women.' I found it...

Are Cherokee County school system parents even aware their school board's vice-chairman was banned from a professional wrestling convention last weekend for verbally harassing a transgender woman ? I'm here to make sure they're aware. Then, Bill White (and uh, his husband? Who knew? ) are taking their ball and going to north Georgia, leaving the "Buckhead city" movement in ta...

Right off the bat, Craig Harrington, research director at Media Matters for America, joins to discuss the Trump arraignment spectacle, right wing media handling of it, Majorie's megaphone minute (or two) and more. We've some audio from Marge in Manhattan, along with their Representative, Jamaal Bowman hollering for her to get outta there, too. Ooh, stinging rebuke from civil rights activis...

Marge had her big primetime moment on 60 Minutes last night; did she get the soft treatment? Even worse - did they elevate her? A little pretext from Kadia Goba at Semafor.com , too. Let's talk about on-court antics in women's basketball and the disparate reactions we have, societally, based on their ethnicity. Then Rep. Ruwa Romman spent a good bit of time reflecting on her first General...

The "law & order" party isn't very fond of "the law" bringing "order" to their twice-impeached former president and current (and still) leader of the GOP. Their apoplectic reactions to his being indicted yesterday is predictably rich. Take a listen. Locally, the University of Georgia Athletic department could be in more legal hot water than we previously thoug...

Atlanta journalist, documentarian & podcast King Williams joined me on the show today to cover LOTS of Atlanta and Georgia political topics, including "Cop City Brian Kemp's political ambitions, Jon Ossoff's future & more. Oh, Ron DeSantis was in town today, too, and unfortunately the Donald Trump indictment came down after the show so - more tomorrow.

Wait, so now right wing pundits want to disarm trans people - meaning the Second Amendment they fawn over doesn't apply to trans people? Isn't this LITERALLY "second class citizenship?" But does this surprise anyone, anymore? Republicans are like bigotry locusts, moving from one marginalized minority to the next when the clock expires on their previous target. Picking just on gay...

I make it no secret I'm not a fan of Erick Erickson. The man's divisive and lacking in self-awareness on a grand scale - as most right wing pundits tend to be. Some of his most recent anti-trans rhetoric, however can't go unnoticed here. As we're learning more about the Nashville school shooting killer, Eric wants to play the false equivalency game while feigning innocence in doing...

Between severe weather rocking rural Mississippi, Alabama and even part of Georgia and today's mass school shooting in Nashville, Georgia legislative chicanery took a backseat for a bit. Last week, the United Nations IPCC report - a pretty conservative commission, by the way - gave us a dire outlook. Can we correlate these "historic" tornado events? Well, it's not easy to but it&...

Lots of 'Cop City' coverage today. New details coming out about the violent & deadly clash that killed an Atlanta forest defender, plus Dekalb County's shutting down nearby Entrenchment Creek Park , citing "traps." Re-sharing yesterday's interview with environmental journalist Adam Federman to discuss the curious FBI hyper-scrutiny of environmental advocacy orgs even LOOSELY connected (in any...

First, something fun: the folks at Wander North Georgia have their "March madness" bracket out - sixteen of the best state parks in North Georgia to visit. I cast my votes - and some were tough calls to make - so feel free to do the same. More importantly, try to visit as many of them as possible! We learned today that Governor Brian Kemp - now in his second and final term as governor and free of...

Believe it or not, as contentious as the rhetoric was between Republicans and Democrats in the SB140 (anti-trans "gender-affirming care" ban), a big group of legislators and staffers still thought it would be cool to leave that Senate vote for a kickball game between the House and Senate. Poor optics. I've an idea, though: how about we get these two teams to take on a couple of LGBTQ+ Atlanta-area...

After a vote last night to audit MARTA, Atlanta city council members went before the media today to explain why. MARTA released a jaw-dropping statement , by the way. This line in particular: "The best thing the politicians on council can do for their constituents in the City of Atlanta is to get out of the way ..." is audacious! We'll go over legislative measures SB 233 (school vouchers) and SB14...

Don't fall for the bait, liberal friends; don't cancel your plans and call out from work to sit around waiting to see video of DJT being cuffed and stuffed into the back of a squad car, just yet. Just because he says it's soon to happen doesn't mean it'll happen. For all we know, it's just another in a LONG line of campaign fundraising gambits. Lord knows his Truth Social timeline is FILLED with t...

I'm unsure how metro Augusta conservatives think their poorly-contrived de-annexation idea will fare better under the Gold Dome, but bless those idiots for dreaming. Speaking of, finally some hard data on public opinion and - lo and behold - the PEOPLE of Buckhead didn't want to leave Atlanta OR form their own city - oh and "cop city" isn't at or above 50% with respondents, either. Oops.  Our...

Professing to be "protecting kids" (just not from guns), Georgia legislative Republicans ignored medical consensus and rammed through SB-140, the bill limiting trans youth medical options. It heads back to the Senate for what's likely to be another party-line vote to the governor's desk.  Seems like a good time to revisit my conversation with Brock, a friend of mine who's "just a dude," but w...

SB-140, the anti-trans youth "gender affirming care" blocking legislation that made it out of the Senate, was before a House subcommittee today and we go through a big chunk of it.  Rest assured, Democrats, your team didn't win the vote, but they sure as heck came away looking knowledgeable on the subject, while their opposition looked completely befuddled and lacking in data. Shocking, right...

Allergies finally got me so today's sort of a half-show with a rerun of my IMPORTANT conversation with White Flag app founder Jonny McCoy on the back half. Sort of a "group project" mental health experience - totally free to download and use. Before then, we'll review some headlines - first the good news: Georgia Power is sending you some money back and all those voter eligibility queries were too...

There's a concerted effort, of late, to show the local involvement to at least ask questions about the future Atlanta Police Training Center - aka "Cop City." Between a local clergy organization and a Thursday night protest at the King Center , maybe now we can stop accepting that most of those against the use of the South River watershed land for the training facility are from "outside Georgia."...

Get your popcorn; that GOP "civil war" me be triggered by NewsMax aiming for Tucker Carlson, who - oh by the way - had some things to say ON January 6, 2021 that are worth revisiting, so I do.  I have FOOMO, or maybe it's FOYMO - and I don't want you to miss out on "The Problem with Jon Stewart." So subscribe to Apple TV+ so you can enjoy episodes like last week's. I'll review a bit.

Jeff Graham , executive director at Georgia Equality , leads off talking SB140 - a bill seeking to outlaw gender-affirming care for trans youth, along with some discussion about school voucher discrimination & the new Tennessee anti-drag law.  It's definitely not a good time to be Tucker Carlson these days, but then he and most Fox News opinion spinners seem to lack self-awareness anyhow....

Now that Georgia legislative "crossover day" is behind us, I'll take a look at what bills made it and which ones didn't. Notably, we'll be living "Final Destination" cosplay on state highways with heavier logging trucks, apparently, and Republicans just can't quit trying to starve public education funding by coughing up taxpayer dollars to private (mostly parochial) schools, either. Then there's t...

The Atlanta "cop city "argument" features two sides - both seemingly unaware of poor optics. Here's the thing: we're supposed to expect better of "the side of the law," and having cops with long-range rifles on their shoulders walking up to bounce-houses to point those rifles in and wave people out at an otherwise peaceful music festival at a public park is a bade look. That said, burning privatel...