Even after today's wild courtroom antics, I maintain Fani Willis erred in hiring (or continuing to work with) someone she was having a romantic relationship with, and I've been saying for days now her and her office's work thus far on the Trump election interference case is best served from she and Nathan Wade taking that "leave of absence" Georgia State University professor Clark Cunningham suggested.

Today, however, she may have salvaged that work; it'll come down to Scott McAfee after what may be another wild day of the embattled Fulton DA under oath.

The thing is, the plan here isn't much different than it was with Bill Clinton's impeachment: it isn't about the sex if you can get someone to perjure. Today, Nathan and Fani seem to come through unscathed.

Ho hum; American mass-shooting. PBS NewsHour gave it about sixty seconds of coverage. It's that common in our country. So we're learning the mass shooting in Kansas City was likely not terrorist-related but an outbreak of a personal disagreement between minors. MINORS in public with guns. Because, Missour and it's lax-as-hell gun laws.

Back at home - surprise - no-excuse absentee voting survived the new-fangled Georgia Election commission's vote. Huzzah!

Not long after passing a(nother) useless measure to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by a one-vote margin, Democrats picked up George Santos' old House seat in New York. Naturally, that loss, too, is Ronna McDaniel's fault and not the man atop the party since the 2016 GOP convention. Carry on.

Been a minute since we caught up with shenanigans in Cobb County's School system, and wouldn't ya know, now there's a lawsuit filed against the CCSD's superintendent and board by a recently fired teacher, a special education teach and the Georgia Association of Educators? Rebecca Gaunt writing for the Cobb County Courier tells all about it.

Oh so NOW Nikki Haley has words for Donald Trump attacking our servicemen and women? Okay, see, this is why you can't trust Republicans who silently allowed him to get away with the same vitriol last go 'round. Don't neglect, though, the long (and growing) list of former Trump officials who've sworn off voting for him at all.

Lastly, on Valentine's Day ... I take stock of all that I love - starting with my cats. Humans need to step it up.

Georgia Republicans continue flinging useless 'red meat" legislation on the grill, the latest being an empty proclamation condemning President Joe Biden's immigration policies, while of course leaving out the part where the former President coordinated with the current Speaker of the House to derail an historic bipartisan immigration bill Biden supported. Because of course.

Hey, good news - a grayer Jon Stewart returns to 'The Daily Show' - once a week through the 2024 election cycle. Bad news - his first target is the cookie-loving senior citizen President and his circle of advisors who think their anecdotal evidence is enough to convince the rest of us. Hey, he went after Trump, too, because it's fair game to, but Stewart didn't sugarcoat Biden's shortcomings.

A metro Atlanta attorney is taking another shot at Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones' ability to occupy elected office (now or ever after). I spoke with Wayne Kendall about his latest legal action, seeking action from a non-partisan prosecuting attorneys' council to ping Jones for his role in the 2020 fake elector campaign.

Lastly, a Georgia State University professor believes he has the solution for saving the Fulton D.A.'s office' work on the Trump cases - Fani should take a "leave of absence." Hear Rachel Maddow provide some perspective on that.

Still buzzing from the very "A-Town" Super Bowl halftime performance by Usher and cast, it was good to catch up with Donnell Suggs, editor in chief at the Atlanta Voice to about the big game, the halftime theatrics, and all things Atlanta/Fulton county politics & even a little football. :)

The flexing between "Stop Cop City" activists and city hall (and Atlanta PD) seems to be ramping up - with police vehicles now showing up torched and arrests being made. Take a listen to the disconnect. Is the frustration from demonstrators palpable after countless and overwhelming turnouts at public meetings and referendum petition drives go largely ignored and suppressed or are they going too far, destroying public and privately-owned property? Or, like me, are you somewhere in-between?

A Georgia state senator schooled Megyn Kelly as to why there even is a black national anthem, quite succinctly.

Lastly, as DC pundits and journalists bang pots and pans over President Joe Biden's memory and mental acuity, Donald Trump spent the weekend showing us he has neither, and it's time for Biden/Harris campaigners to start focusing on which administration has "the best people," and take the focus off just the names on the ticket. We've seen the G.O.P. is incapable of staffing up to insulate the world from Donald's insanity already. That's a point Democrats need to keep hammering home.

Unions are quite popular so why are Georgia Republicans attacking their right to form? Well, obviously they represent business before the working class. Nothing new there.

In real estate we call it "buyer beware," or "caveat emptor;" the concept that it's up to the buyer to know of issues with a home or property ahead of purchase. That's why those who live along the Belt Line in Atlanta who might be opposed to the "always part of the plan" to include light rail baffle me. Fortunately, MARTA and Belt Line officials are forging ahead despite the grousing.

It's not newsworthy to learn from a special counsel that Joe Biden's an elderly man. It's newsworthy it was even included in the report at all - but then the person in charge is a Republican and polls show Biden's age is a soft spot with 2024 voters. Why is his memory under scrutiny though, when his last (and likely future) opponent can't remember what his ex-wife looks like or when GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene couldn't recall much of anything while under oath?

The hastily-passed SB63 bill awaiting Governor Brian Kemp's signature will then be met by litigation; at least that's what the American Civil Liberties' Union (ACLU) says. That tracks; because the bill almost directly target protest (and thus, free speech). In other legislative action, the state's mid-year budget came with additional infrastructure spending. No, not the kind that improves quality of life - just more lanes and pay-to-cruise express lanes.

That doubling-down on what's not working for metro and state residents, transit-wise is sort of timely, given the World Cup's pending presence downtown in 2026. Naturally, those "economic boost" BSers are breathlessly telling us how this sporting event is going to transform the city. Ya know, the way the Super Bowls have(n't) and the way the 1996 Olympics did(n't really). So, maybe Atlanta should take another stab at an Olympics' bid to finally get the mass transit/rail needed?

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today, and the indications are most, if not all, of the bench seem to be inclined to think the 14th Amendment, Section 3, may not apply to the presidency. Okay, maybe, but it's sort of nuance and semantics, no? At worst, perhaps the framers of that amendment never dreamed of a scenario where a sitting president would incite an insurrection. Or, maybe they did and we're arguing over intent the way we nitpick the 2nd amendment. Either way, we're at a moment in American history where committing to doing what's right for a better future of this nation seems too daunting for those empowered to do so. Twice before - our independence era, and Reconstruction giving way to 'Jim Crow,' we've blinked instead of being steadfast.

Tucker and Vlad even spoke a bit about Trump's legal concerns, with Putin mocking American "democracy." The thing is, he's not wrong that our country has no moral authority to pitch "democracy" to the rest of the world when we don't embrace it here.

One last thought re: immigration reform. This isn't the only time Democrats have come to the bargaining table with reforms, only for the GOP to reject. MSNBC's Steve Benen cited several recent misses by Republicans.

Despite the state of Georgia being unnecessarily deadly for anyone in jails or prisons, Georgia Republican legislators still felt the need to make it harder for the poor and working class to bail themselves out of jail for a larger number of alleged crimes - some of them misdemeanors. Senate bill 63 (SB63) awaits Governor Brian Kemp's signature, but not before advocates for the poor bemoan the thoughtlessness and senselessness of the legislation.

Such a law - I believe - will have the unintended consequence of having cops have to decide the necessity of taking people in with jails & prisons already crowded throughout the state. The thing is, this new bill is a callous, cruel attack on not just the poor, but a suppression of free speech, as it targets protests and bail funds and non-profits (even churches) who raise funds to bail out more than three individuals in a year.

Fani Willis has had a bad string of weeks, so it's hard not to notice when a bipartisan batch of ethics experts filed a "friend of the court" brief Monday opining that nothing she (nor Nathan Wade, for that matter) has done warrants her being disqualified or acting improperly. Much of what they wrote in the brief you've heard from Willis' defenders (and me, though I still believe her actions were foolish) but it still had to feel good for the embattled Fulton County prosecutor after a barrage of bad press.

Back to legislative antics under the gold dome, Georgia Republicans can't help but to pander to gun fetishists with a sales tax holiday for gun & ammo purchases a week in October under the guise of being "pro-hunting." The problem is the tax holiday isn't limited to just hunting rifles & shotguns; because of course. Senator Jason Esteves was among those on the left who point that out. Hear his impassioned floor speech.

Lastly, forgive me; I had to savor yesterday's ridiculousness in the House as Marjorie Taylor Greene struggled with second grade math and got roasted by Rep. Jamie Raskin (againnnn) and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (againnnn). First, she and her MAGA crew failed to impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas, then they couldn't pass the Israel funding measure they once before said had to be tied to Ukraine and border funding - which they won't even put up for a vote.

While Atlanta's mayor and city council are doing all they can to sour progressive grassroots activists on the Democratic Party, the Fani Willis revelations are seeming to create a snowball effect of chicanery from Trump co-defendants seeking to derail her body of work. If her acknowledging the relationship she's involved in with special prosecutor Nathan Wade isn't enough, her MLK Day speech at an Atlanta church may have done the trick.

Alright, the big news of the day is the former President having (ho hum) another bad day in court, finding out the DC Circuit wasn't buying his "full immunity" quips. Don't worry; the pessimist in me believes somehow we'll learn something about Jack Smith that'll derail his case, too. Kidding; kinda.

In the midst of MTG's fever dream of impeaching DHS Secretary Alexander Mayorkas falling short (pesky math), so, too, has what was deemed impossible - a bipartisan immigration agreement that even the GOP couldn't pass when it controlled all of Congress and the White House. Never mind that Democrats went about it under Republicans' terms, that border patrol agents endorsed it or that the "border crisis" and the "fentanyl crisis" were so "crisis-y" something had to be done now; it turns out apparently, these crises can wait a year, because Donald said so.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal polling data paints a bleak picture, nine months out, for President Joe Biden. Realizing we're still nine months out is small comfort when you look back at 2020 and 2016 polls from he same point in those races, too, and there are perplexing and somewhat shocking subsets to discuss, too.

So is there (or will there be) a contingency plan for Democrats?

Details of the bipartisan Senate immigration bill came out, and while GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson said it's "dead on arrival," there's a lot for so-called "border hawks" to like ... and if you don't believe me (or Senator Chris Murphy), hear what a Fox News national correspondent said on X.

Matt Scott joined me today from the Atlanta Community Press Collective to speak to the Georgia Senate bill (SB63) aiming to expand the list of offenses requiring cash bail and to limit bail funds' ability to post. Can you imagine a law like this and the impact it would've had on the civil rights movement in the 1960s?

Fani 'fessed up. So now what? First, let's let the "I'll be damned" wash over us before getting back to the stark reality that the cries of "conflict of interest" needn't come from the Trump camp, but instead from Fulton County voters - if anyone's even going to run against her.

Sociologist Dr. Matt Wilkinson joined me to dive into the anti-Taylor Swift fervor, and the January jobs' report was fantastic, but I'm asking my "coastal elite" friends - like MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle - to stop acting like everything's fine for the average American when they're not, themselves, the "average American." Democrats need to better explain to consumers why grocery prices - for example - remain high.