The Ron Show

"A movement driven by prosperity preachers, extremist politicians, and right-wing power brokers laid the groundwork for Trump’s presidency and is now advancing its agenda under his second administration. This multipronged effort against our national institutions is being led by millennial “kingmaker” Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and the new face of Christian Nationalism."

That's the book pitch for "S...

I've known Clay & Shelly since 2019; they're an active younger couple with two kids. Both are realtors - in fact they're a married "team" - who have to shell out the full cost of health insurance as small business owners. Clay took to social media to spell out what the federal government shutdown and Democrats' posturing to save ACA credits (and claw back Medicare/Medicaid cuts) is about: the cost incr...

There's an ask, since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, for a return to "civility" in our political discourse. I'm here to tell you that "civility" is a luxury for only the privileged, and it's more obvious now than ever.

When Elon Musk is calling for the shuttering of the Southern Poverty Law Center and he and FBI director Kash Patel see the Anti-Defamation League as a hate group, they're looki...

Go figure, a dysfunctional, MAGA-controlled federal government has ground to a halt; while there's a cynical explanation as to why the Trump White House and his Congressional bootlickers are okay with this, courtesy of 'Politics Girl' Leigh McGowan, a New York Times op/ed puts it plainly: "The American people deserve and ought to demand better options."

I'm actually not so sure; the American people voted fo...

Admittedly, I've been a little distracted the last couple weeks, caring for an ailing cat and being a part of a caretaking team for a dear friend. Both passed away over the weekend so I'm just diving back into some things I've missed of late, one of them being the Tom Homan sit down on "Real Time With Bill Maher."

On the one hand, I'm a little baffled by Maher's recent display of anti-wokeness, and on t...

Author ("Southern. Gay. Teacher." and "Gay Arab American and Middle Eastern Men") and former Fulton County educator Randy Fair joined the show today to share with me what prompted him to write an op/ed in the South Florida Sun Sentinel (paywall ... wah wahhh) defending teachers' free speech rights. I read the op/ed for the audience prior to the conversation, so you won't need to pay to read it.

In the aft...

Atlanta Journal Constitution op/ed columnist Bill Torpy penned a piece in early September finger-wagging at progressives over word choice and his perceiving them to be 'haughty and arrogant,' owing to their 'moral superiority' as a reason the Democratic Party is losing elections and the voter registration game, lately.

He cited the recently resigned CDC official Dr. Demetre Daskalakis' resignation letter and his...

Sterling Hill - aka "Sterling Thrill" - is a dear friend of mine. We go back to 2009 when he entered a contest to be a radio deejay and came in second place (though he eventually got the gig).

Sterling and I not only worked together, we've been friends from the jump. One thing we once had in common was a comfortable ability to discuss our atheism. Here's the thing: Sterling found Jesus and has been a strong, passi...

Well, Georgia Democrats didn't snatch a state Senate seat from the GOP last night, despite their candidate - Debra Shigley - outpacing 2024 numbers, but liberals needn't dismay. Her 9-point improvement on 2024 results for her party bode well for 2026, and with the majority of the GOP seeming to be in no hurry to release the Epstein files and with the economy in malaise - and by MAGA's own admission not expecting to impr...

Geoff Duncan's entry into the Georgia Democratic Party's gubernatorial field for 2026 has drawn a lot ... of criticism, skeptics, and yes, some signs of support. Former Gwinnett County Democratic Party chair Bianca Keaton isn't having it. The founder and chief strategist at The Center of Mass, now a candidate consultant, likens Duncan's entry and those who support him to 'electoral white flight.'

She joined m...

It's election day in Georgia's 21st Senate district and Democrat Debra Shigley has enjoyed a lot of support for her campaign to wrest a red-leaning suburban Atlanta enclave from the GOP.

High-profile names like Senator Jon Ossoff, Representative Lucy McBath, former gubernatorial (at least we believe she's still 'just' a former candidate, for now) Stacey Abrams, DNC chair Ken Martin, current (Democrat and ...) gub...

My roommate and I are pretty different people in a number of ways, not the least of which is his grasp of (and my indifference to) things like DragonCon, cosplay, online gameplay and social interaction outside of traditional social media. His interest in a lot of that, along with is being a regular listener of the LawFare podcast "Rational Security" lead him to recommending a recent episode: "The 'Ten Years, Stil...

A Lavonia, Georgia hospital getting out of the 'labor and delivery' business leaves four counties and those pregnant living in them an hour or more away from a still-functioning L&D facility. This is largely the result of Medicaid funding cuts (and I'd argue, Georgia never accepting Medicaid expansion funding since 2010). This is where I mention all four counties going overwhelmingly for Trump in 2024, 2020 and 2016...

Chanel Haley, deputy executive director at Georgia Equality, is frankly one of the lucky few in the trans community. Despite the long odds for navigating adolescence, coming out, transitioning and finding her way towards earning an education and occupational success, Chanel still faced bias and oppression along the way.

She joined me today to weigh in on casually-made anti-trans statements made the Sunday before Charlie Kirk's a...

On Sunday's 'Meet the Press,' Utah governor Spencer Cox likened social media to a 'cancer' on society, putting a lot of blame on social networking for gun deaths in the U.S. Listen, I know the inherent ills social media can deliver with swiftness, but he's focusing on the "circulatory system" delivering the tumors (bigotry, homophobia, misogyny, racism) and not the hatred itself. That troubles me.

T...

Wednesday night, from the Oval Office, we were told "the left" is the source of all that's poisonous in our political discourse, ironically by one of the most venomous vitriolic pursed lips in American political history. Fast-forward to today when we awaken to those lips flapping on 'Fox & Friends' to reveal that "we have him," the shooting suspect in the Charlie Kirk assassination.

What's no...

Charlie Kirk was a lightning rod ... of energy for the conservative base at the younger demographic the GOP sorely needed help with ... of controversy for those he targeted with his rhetoric ... and now, his assassination has exposed deep rifts within our society, empathetically, morally, politically and religiously.

I, myself, didn't have a cogent response to share with anyone - for hours Wednesday afternoon.

What I knew before...

CNN's Victor Blackwell hosted a panel last week to discuss the canary in the coal mine - a notable rise in unemployment among not only black Americans, but black women. On that panel: Black Voters Matter Fund co-founder LaTosha Brown, former GOP Georgia Senate candidate Stephanie Donegan, and Capital B national editor Dalila Paul.

First, let's applaud that CNN fielded an all-black and female panel to discuss an issue impact...