Brian Recker, a former Marine, former evangelical pastor, current theologian, speaker and writer, has developed a healthy social media following and solid presence on Substack. His focus? Deconstructing his faith to find a more inclusive spirituality - which often runs afoul of today's right-wing aligned American evangelical movement.

He's just the kind of guest to discuss the 'Ted Cruz v. Tucker Carlson' dust-up over Cruz' limp grasp on scripture he believes commands him (and the U.S. apparently) to support Israel unequivocally.

Recker and I discuss this at length, along with the use of religion as a tool of manipulation by pols like Cruz, and also religion's manipulation of politicians like Cruz, too. I also asked, is Trump using religion to manipulate Republicans or is he the one being manipulated by religion?

PS - you an pre-order his book "Hell Bent: How The Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love" HERE.

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Trump-era D.E.I. rollbacks aside, 'Juneteenth' is today, but corporate backing has - as with the case with June Pride month - retreated a bit. Georgia Recorder's Amber Rolden spoke with an Atlanta couple who go all-out decorating their home for the holiday. For many, it just means more than July 4th does, and that's understandable.

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The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors, assuredly keeping intact Georgia's similar ban.

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The chilling treatment of Spanish-speaking journalist Mario Guevara by local law enforcement, essentially ginning up charges that led to his being detained for (and taken away by) I.C.E. is troubling - for all foreign correspondents, you'd think. Of course, now Gwinnett County authorities today chose to pile on with some equally questionable charges.

Suddenly we're on our way to becoming North Korea with foreign journalists.

Maura Keller, a former Army lieutenant colonel with 26 years in service, is another Georgia Democrat (the third I've talked to on this show this month) who's taking another run at MAGA representation in Congress. Like Shawn Harris and Lexy Doherty, she, too, has a prodigious gap to close at the ballot box in her district (Georgia's 3rd). Wednesday, we discussed the ways to do that, the issues that matter most to her district's voters, her thoughts on sloppy military leadership at the Pentagon, the DOGE ruse (she also worked in government contracting, efficiency being a focus) and more.

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As of posting, the El Salvadoran journalist in the U.S. with legal protected status to do so - Mario Gueara - has been apprehended by ICE after being held in a Dekalb County jail. He was arrested while covering Saturday's 'No Kings Day' protests in that county with some (my opinion) some pretty flimsy charges. Listen to the exchange as you see how far from protestors and police he was prior to being confronted. His attorney, Giovanni Diaz, and daughter Katherine Guevara, addressed the media late Tuesday, as well.

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Lastly, what's gotten into Tucker Carlsoon? My hunch? Nothing new: he's a white nationalist but he's also exhibited antisemitic tendencies, too, so his needling of Ted Cruz in a one-on-one may not be so surprising. Still, it's enjoyable to watch a smug Cruz hem and haw, flailing and failing to give cogent responses to what had to feel like something of an ambush with an interviewer he expected soft glove treatment from.

In 2024, Lexy Doherty stepped up to walk into the MAGA buzzsaw and lost to Rep. Mike Collins by more than 26%. Undeterred, she's making another go of it in 2025, getting an early jump on fundraising and campaigning. Lexy joined me today to share her insights on how things can work in her favor in seventeen months.

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Lost in all the antics from Saturday was this: there's a trend, locally and nationally, to protests becoming chaotic. The introduction of short-tempered or overzealous police activity. Listen, no one can be more appreciative of the work officers do, day in, day out, and how working protest detail can really ramp up tensions. Anyhow, in all the uproar in Dekalb County was the arrest of the ICE-stalking journalist Mario Guivera, who could be deported by ICE now.

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Meanwhile, after the double murder (triple, if you count the family dog ... what scum Vance Boelter is) came the predictable debate as to his political leanings (made clear by his roommate). For Jon Stewart, however, the more pressing matter is that politicians who are usually quick to want to invade (checks notes) major cities run by Democrats, or draw a line when one American is felled by an immigrant. They're all-too eager to enactvlegislation and throwvhundreds of billions at anti-immigration measures, but have no response for gun-wielding assassins.

Also fck Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah).

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One of the funnier moments from Atlanta' 'No Kings Day' protest was the brass instrument-wielding heroes there to drown out the Proud Boys.

Loved. It.

So much to unwrap from Saturday, what with the thousands of 'No Kings Day' protests across the country - dozens just in Georgia - along with the Trump-coveted military parade and the shocking double-homicide in Minnesota.

In Atlanta, estimates of 8,000 - 10,000 protestors descended on Liberty Square near the state capitol where activists listened to impassioned speeches and brought their "a-game" in signage. As was the case in most of the nation, metro Atlanta and Georgia protests were peaceful, but in Dekalb Count's Brookhaven and Doraville, police utilized flash bangs and teargas to disperse protestors, leading to some injuries and chaos - plus the arrest of a well-known El Salvadoran influencer/journalist working legally in the U.S.

It seems there's a pattern: protests are largely peaceful and uneventful until tempers flare ... from behind the riot gear. Evidence of this on both MSNBC and CNN bears that out.

Georgia state representative Ruwa Romman, meanwhile, addressed a 'No Kings' gathering in Philadelphia and I shared that on this podcast.

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Unfortunately, a deadly double-homicide shocked the nation awake that same day, with a Minnesota Democratic state legislator and her husband being shot & killed, along with another legislator and his spouse shot, as well. A near-two day manhunt ensued while right wing media sought to cast the assassin as a "Walz-appointed Democrat." They were partially right in that Walz had re-appointed him to a bipartisan business board, but Vance Boelter was no Democrat; in fact, his roommate says he'd be insulted to be portrayed as such.

Thousands of protests (not protestors; protests, themselves) are planned across the United States and even in Europe, Saturday, with dozens just in the state of Georgia. The ACLU has 'protest ready' resources aplenty for demonstrators to be prepared for multiple contingencies - not the least of which include addressing interlopers who wish to escalate the situation for ill-intent.

It's going to be an interesting day, no doubt.

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This is all the more potentially a powder keg because Donald Trump 'invaded' California with its own National Guard troops and now hundreds of Marines, just a week prior to his military fetishist parade on the streets of the Nationa's Capitol to coincide with both his and the U.S. Army's birthday. It set a pretty toxic concoction on the counter.

For Politico, Jim Newton opines there are reasons Trump 'had' to attack California. Namely that its transition from GOP stronghold to "majority-minority" Democratic-led heartbeat of the American economy just doesn't sit well with him, for starters. But there's more meat on that bone, so that carried a good bit of today's conversation.

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I mean, this may be nothing, but some pretty jarring statistical anomalies in New York's Rockland County has folks nosing around wanting to investigate further that jurisdiction's 2024 election results. They defy logic, and a judge is allowing the inquiry to keep going.

Perhaps nothing there, but in the aftermath of the 'sour grapes' Elon tweets .... eh, we should keep an eye on this, no?

With thousands of National Guardsmen and Marines descending on Los Angeles because (checks notes) someone set a car on fire, the narrative from the right is predictable in the face of growing public resentment to them: send in the hammers all in riot gear with tear gas canisters, flash bombs and dressed in riot gear and foment chaos to create a spectacle for their base.

It's a trope as old (older, actually) than this 51-year old podcaster. It famously backfired in Selma, Alabama when the television brought the scene into living rooms across the country. In 2025, with divided media and a hyper-partisan political landscape, it's still becoming clear Americans actually are re-remembering they didn't care much for Trump's brand of chaos even before COVID-19. Pretty damning Quinnipiac poll numbers bear that out.

Back to the familiar "tough talk bravado" from empty suit Republicans: Tuesday it was Trump, himself, warning protestors of his military parade there'd be 'heavy force' used against them. Meanwhile, here in Georgia, both the governor and attorney general are (predictably) using loaded rhetoric - leading with it, even - to lay the foundation for the upcoming 'No Kings' and Juneteenth rallies to be potential powder kegs.

It's all they know; it's all conservatives going back to the Civil Rights era have ever known. It's also a sign that they're losing grip on narratives aplenty. Again, those Quinnipiac poll numbers.

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Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth - both clearly not white nationalists - got back to re-renaming military bases to undo the removal of names honoring Confederate leaders by finding other U.S. veterans with identical last names, even going so far as to find a last name starts with an "A" and a "P" so "A.P. Hill" could return as a base name.

The level of pettiness, mixed with backhanded honoring and slaps-in-the-face to the family of those who'd had bases re-named for them three years ago is ... astounding.

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Lastly, I have a new Instagram crush; an Arkansas poet named Robert Arnold who's calling out ICE raids and the L.A. 'theater' to questioning what became of the proud, hardworking 'southern men' that smalled BS from slick-haired northerner grifters like the Trumps, and I just felt the need to share his wisdom and biting commentary with y'all.

Quentin Pullen - aka "Coach Q" - has made a run at politics but currently hails as a fitness coach & movement therapist. I sense serving constituents isn't off the table for him, though, and he's spent a lot of time as an activist and organizer with the Georgia 50501 chapter. He joined me today to provide his perspective - as a former Marine and Californian - on all that's going on in Los Angeles - with Marines and National Guard troops there at the behest of President Trump and to get the gameplan for 'No Kings' protests and Juneteenth commemorations this weekend.

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Also hailing from Fayette County is state Representative Derrick Jackson, who last week announced he's jumping into the race to be the Georgia Democratic Party's nominee for Governor in 2026. I asked him what made him stand out amongst the current (and potential future) crop of candidates in the party and what his campaign's biggest issues are to focus on.

Marjorie Taylor Greene's revelation that she voted for something she's dead-set against is just another in a long line of self-inflicted face-plants by MAGA. The Trump-backed 'One Big Beautiful Bill' wouldn't have passed out ot the House were it not for her vote, so now she and other Republicans and Democrats against a ten-year moratorium on state A.I. regulations are scrambling to try and undo that damage.

But wait - there's more.

'Fearless leader' has such seething rage-hatred at the man who defeated him in 2020 that he and MAGA are doing all they can do undo green energy initiatives in the Inflation Reduction Act, but many of those initiatives led to (or are - or were - leading to) manufacturing jobs in red states and counties.

Say all you want (and we do) about Governor Brian Kemp in Georgia, but the clear delineation between he and MAGA is he knows the next American industrial revolution will be fueled by green energy, and the results keep revealing themselves in his state.

That's if A.I. doesn't get us all killed like in some 'Terminator' flick.

I remember telling myself in the lead-up and the aftermath of the 2024 November elections that it was apparent way too many American voters had forgotten about the first Donald Trump presidency, wrought with chaos, unrest, division, tensions, protests and 'tough talk' and bluster from the White House in the face of it, complete with threats of military use on domestic streets to respond.

That was all before the pandemic, which only made his and his administration's performances in their role more jaw-droppingly amateurish.

Well, here we are again. Los Angeles - like many American cities - has seen protestors taking to its streets in response to mask-donning ICE agents storming into homes and communities, shirking due process. In L.A., the anger has boiled over.

Closer to home, these illegal ICE raids are occurring in Marietta and in nearby Canton, whose Latino-populated Sunnyside neighborhood was stormed by masked ICE raiders. The Cherokee County Democratic Party released a statement with what little information was available (almost none from CBP or local law enforcement, by the way) in response, and party chair Nate Rich joined me to review those details along with touting two ICE protests his party and Indivisible: Woodstock will be leading in the coming weekends.

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Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is flirting with a gubernatorial bid, and says she's not impressed with the GOP field already in place. She doesn't stand a chance at winning a statewide race, but that isn't stopping some allies from seeing to it the field is less crowded, anyway, looking to do all they can to keep Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger from running.

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Back on ICE and the MAGA lesson of 'unintended consequences,' you'll hear the story of 'Carol' (actual name Ming Li Hui) and the rural Missouri community - overwhelmingly pro-Trump - that rallied to keep her in the U.S. anyway.

A month after securing the seat, new Georgia Democratic Party chair Charlie Bailey sat down with me today at Condesa Coffee in Old Fourth Ward Atlanta to discuss the state of the party he inherited from Rep. Nikema Williams.

I wanted to know what was 'right' about the party he took the reigns of on day one, the biggest glaring need for the party, then, too, and covered a lot of ground on candidate recruitment, support of those candidates by the party, and his hoping to see Democrats go on the "offensive" in taking the fight to Republicans and growing the voter base in "red' counties, too.

Nice to see some fight from this Georgia Bulldog alum and current Democratic party chair. Take a listen ...

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A couple of weeks ago, former Republican Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan was kind enough (note: sarcasm) to offer advice to Democrats on how to win their way back into power (spoiler alert: moving to the center - againnnnnn) and today, it was much the same in an AJC op/ed from former Alpharetta city councilman, businessman and Republican Ben Burnett. While it's refreshing to see an avowed Republican speak about common ground on automatic weapons and reproductive rights, I'd tell Ben the same thing I'd say to Geoff: go wrest control of your party back and we'll work on those areas of common ground and go from there.