What's trending suddenly is the theme Democrats are hammering - that Donald Trump and JD Vance are, in a word "weird." Goodness knows they cough up all the examples to bolster the argument - and you know I've a few to share just from the weekend.

New polling and favorability data is out and, to be sure, Vice President Kamala Harris has momentum - startlingly so given her prior disapproval numbers. Turns out even President Joe Biden benefits from his stepping aside this campaign. It's wild.

Lastly, I think I've decided who I'd like to be Harris' VP choice - it's Governor Tim Walz from Minnesota. Sure his state's not likely in play but this guy and his rhetoric should travel well to states Democrats don't fare as well in. Plus, he may have been the one to spearhead "weirdergate."

Earlier this week, Georgia's state schools superintendent Richard Woods put his foot in his mouth when he announced the state would no longer be funding AP African American Studies. Folks were outraged. Folks (the Republican governor included) wanted to know why he made that decision.

Well, he reversed course (somewhat) but activists were still outraged, so I reached out to Atlanta-based public education policy advocate Mikayla Arciaga so she could explain why Woods' about-face isn't good enough.

Donald Trump's gone from "anytime, anywhere" to "not gonna debate her" using "we can't even be sure she's the nominee" as their excuse. And it definitely is that - an excuse. One that makes no sense to use to back out of a date in mid-September and well after the DNC convention when whomever the nominee is will be known by then.

Meanwhile, former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan - a Republican - again considered who he'd choose between Donald Trump and whomever else was on the ballot and went away from his party to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. Hear why.

President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office last night, with his family literally alongside him out of camera shot, to explain why he chose to exit the 2024 Presidential race. The speech? Flawless. The execution? Nearly so, minus one thing I'd have personally enjoyed seeing from POTUS.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris has hit the ground running with pitch-perfect campaign rhetoric and her first video commercial, too, while the right seeks to pin her to woes at the southern border. The problem with that is, despite their insistence, she was never a "border czar."

What she was, however, was the person tasked with dealing with "root causation" of migration from the 'northern triangle' region of Central America - where it turns out, her and the Biden administration's work is actually succeeding.

Spread. The. Word.

Atlanta-based Delta Airlines is having a harder time than most overcoming the 'Crowdstrike' update glitch, and now the Department of Transportation wants answers after some intense passenger struggles this past week. All this has me exasperated as to why we (you and I) let ourselves get to this point. Folks are sleeping on Atlanta's airport floors - in a travel "hub" with no real meaningful rail options to speak of.

Which brings me to the Georgia Department of Transportation pitching toll lanes for the top-end of I-285, from Dunwoody to Vinings eventually. Displacing homes and businesses for "just one more lane; that'll fix it!" Why? We need the traffic relief years ago, so if/when complete, it'll be ineffective when complete. Why are we not looking at $9.5 billion for mass transit, again?

Kamala Harris gave her first speech as "the" candidate atop the party ticket. Meanwhile, Republicans are busy holding "emergency" oversight hearings into her being President Biden's "border czar," when she never actually was.

What must it have been like for a Democratic Party delegate to keep a brave face outwardly while stressing the "known unknowns" internally?

I spoke with Seth Taylor, a Georgia DNC delegate - proudly, he'll tell you, a delegate on the spectrum - who took the rollercoaster ride of uncertainty the past month. Hear how he weathered the debate debacle, its aftermath and the inevitable transition from "Joe" to "Kamala."

Georgia NAACP chapter President Gerald Griggs also joined me today to weigh in on the magnitude of there being a black woman as a major political party's presumptive nominee, as well as Georgia's superintendent of schools' decision to pull state funding for AP African American studies.

Lastly, I've been so focused on the insanity of the 2024 Presidential cycle that I've kept this "open tab" in my mind (and laptop) on the brewing Georgia Elections Board scandal: did they hold a meeting and pass policy in violation of Georgia law? One watchdog group believes so.

With Sunday afternoon's jaw-dropping announcement by President Joe Biden that he'd be bowing out of the presidential race, reporters, cable news shows and pundits (along with us podcast hosts) were scrambling for details and folks to discuss the ramifications.

I had two of the best today - Melita Easters with the Georgia WIN List and Andrew Heaton of Sagamore Hill Political Consulting. Hear Melita and I discuss this important moment in women's and minority women's history, then Andrew and I discuss the peculiarity of Kamala's 100-ish day campaign.

Then you'll have to hear how righties are "flabbergasting" all over themselves - the tell that they know their "sure thing" is anything but, now. ' There's CNN's resident conservative Scott Jennings unsure why we aren't seeing the COVID-addled President, and former Trump lackey Stephen Miller pissy because Trump's spent money smearing Biden already. I haven't even gotten to the "greatest hits" from Newt Gingrich and Kellyanne Conway or Donald's instant reaction.

When the fact-checkers use the words "remarkably long and remarkably dishonest" to describe a speech, it's not hard to figure out who gave the speech these days.

We spent a week bemoaning "inflammatory rhetoric" - despite mounting evidence the 20-year would-be assassin wasn't motivated by the term "existential threat to democracy" (or anything like it) ... only to continue hearing the word "invasion" when we did have evidence such rhetoric drove a nut to slaughter innocent Walmart shoppers in El Paso in 2019.

I finally got around to watching "Hillbilly Elegy," and while I want to just enjoy how good the biopic was, I can't review it in a vacuum now that JD Vance is a known political commodity.

The GOP has its vice presidential nominee in JD Vance, he of the "Hillbilly Elegy" memoir and Netflix movie. It is really quizzical to note his grievances borne out in that book and film when coupled with the political party he chose to align with. I'll dive in on that, but there's a LOT of fact-checking to do, too. Chris Hayes and Lawrence O'Donnell did their part, too.

Meanwhile, the number of calls for President Biden to drop out keeps growing, as does the volume of whispers that he's actually considering it. Okay, sure, I'll speculate what'll come of it some more.

Of course, he's still publicly running for re-election and announced, earlier this week, his intention to bring reform to the Supreme Court - and the American people are behind him on that. Hear what I'd do to fix SCOTUS.

Tuesday's RNC highlights included a small (I mean SMALL) gathering of a handful of black GOP mayors comprising the near-entirety of the Black Republican Mayors Association and an ultra-cringey hip-hop video to a mostly-white arena of convention-goers.

On to discuss his covering of both - and the GOP's convention in general is Atlanta Voice editor-in-chief Donnell Suggs.

Then - hear me out - what if Trump's shooter was motivated by Alex Jones? I mean, it's not like Alex hasn't opined about it six months ago, and then again after the attempt in some pretty alarming tones. British journalists, incidentally, have it on good authority the shooter's yard rocked Trump signs. But remember, it's Democrats' fiery rhetoric. ;)

The selection of JD Vance to be Donald Trump's second running mate (why won't the first one do?) is a curious one. First, the obvious: Vance didn't care much for Trump before the insurrection and multiple indictments and convictions (but now all's well!), and said so publicly and privately on numerous occasions. I have a 'Game of Thrones' theory about this, though.

Then there's the Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon - who frankly ought to have recused herself (but who needs judicial ethics, right Clarence?) but didn't and instead has given a masterclass in judicial bootlicking. Eh it's just as well - let it be motivation for voters to do what has to be done.

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, sat down with Lester Holt for nearly half an hour and I've more to say to Lester than to Joe on this latest performance for uneasy Democratic voters and donors.

Finally, when do we talk about young, white, male nuts and their ability to purchase an AR-15 without a waiting period? Some Georgia Democrats are launching into that conversation. Finally!