What a confluence of events to dwell on today, of all days.

Late last week, as Atlanta prepped for the influx of visitors for tonight's College Football Playoff Championship game, 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. holiday, it's inescapable to me that such a tragedy occurred blocks from where Dr. King gave dozens of sermons. King spoke often about poverty and inequality of wealth, as did the recently departed former Georgian, President Jimmy Carter.

So on the day the most unethical man to ever hold the office of President got sworn in again, just weeks after the most ethical President in modern history passed, a piece I'd had an open tab for finally came to use for me on the show.

In his New York Times piece, Ron Lieber deftly reviews Carters' "Crisis of Confidence" speech .... noting that Carter was right about growing materialism in our society, but over-estimated our ability to have the self-awareness - let alone the discipline - to act on it in a responsible way.

Lieber noted our inability to rise to the challenge during the COVID sheltering and mask era, and I point out how the past weekend's TikTok freakout exemplified what our scoiety's become, despite Jimmy's forewarnings.

All part of my discussion on the day a grifter returned to the Oval Office on the crest of empty promises and American exceptionalism.