Protestors clashed with Emory & Atlanta police and Georgia State Patrol officers yesterday leaving us with some awful optics - two professors among the 28 arrested - and lingering concerns about the electoral ramifications. Even in the Emory aftermath, divisions persisted.

Between pushback from younger voters on the U.S. support of Israel at the expense of Gaza citizens, a looming TikTok ban and financial and civil rights angst, prospects for high turnout this cycle are dimming. President Biden's upcoming Morehouse commencement isn't going over well on that campus in Atlanta, either.

Joining me to discuss that is Dom Kelly, CEO & founder of New Disabled South and New Disabled South Rising. He's not only an under-30 voter, he's a Jewish American who's outspoken against Israel's aggression in Gaza. We discuss a host of issues on the minds of younger voters.

Huzzah - most the Atlanta Beltline will be done in time for the World Cup in 2026. And?

Most soccer fans will be nowhere near it, so forgive me if I don't understand the celebratory tone over that milestone.

Aid to Ukraine - tied to aid to Israel and Taiwan AND a potential TIkTok ban - may have damning effects on support for the incumbent President from the under-30 voter. I discuss that and more with Andrew Heaton, political consultant with Sagamore Hill Consulting.

Yesterday we glossed over Friday's "Politically Georgia" podcast featuring a Thursday Q&A - recorded before an audience - with Governor Brian Kemp. Today, we hone in on his hardline stance on Medicaid expansion. The man is stubborn(ly refusing to admit his 'Pathways' program is failing & costs Georgia taxpayers more than outright expansion would). Jay Bookman writes an op-ed in the Georgia Recorder that surmises the political calculus Kemp's employing for his future ambitions.

Then, get this: my car got booted over the weekend while shopping at a Kroger on Ponce. I admit it: I parked where a space doesn't exist. My beef is how it had become so common for people to park exactly as I had that it became routine only for the property owner to suddenly & without warning (or glaring signage) to begin booting people.

Stay with me here ... the property owner is obviously trying to combat folks parking there to hang for hours on the Beltline, too. The property owner?

Invest Atlanta - the city of Atlanta Development Authority. The same city of Atlanta whose mayor is now waffling on rail transit on said Beltline.

You can't make this stuff up!

Georgia governor Brian Kemp did a wide-ranging interview with the "Politically Georgia" podcast hosts last Thursday, which aired last Friday morning on WABE-FM and via podcast (listen here).

In it, Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Bill Nigut grilled the governor to figure out where his support for the GOP presidential nominee is (we know where wife, Marty, stands, for now), his views on immigration, his stance on abortion rights in the face of 'dog catches car' backlash and where he is on Medicaid expansion should the 2025 General Assembly put it on his desk.

Stubbornly, he's holding out (slim) hopes that his 'Pathways' project - thus far an abject failure - will work to insure hundreds of thousands of uninsured Georgians.

Hear a good bit of the conversation and some "seasoning" of points I add to the dialogue.

We've been hearing a lot of guff lately over dueling development proposals - one in Forsyth, the other in Alpharetta - with professional hockey arenas as centerpieces. Well, there seems to have been movement (literally) putting either or both on hold or providing some doubt for the near term.

Governor Brian Kemp is getting ahead of everyone and crapping on any notion of potential Medicaid expansion in 2025, despite his alternative program spending most of its $26 million (so far) on administrative bloat and covering less than 1% of eligible Georgians. They don't get more stubborn than that guy.

Private equity firms are (and have been) snapping up homes in Georgia in big chunks. In fact, a study showed that the peach state is the most "at-risk" for such investment purchases, and that's putting a pinch on individuals and families looking to buy. How can these "i-buyers" be tamed?

Folks on the left and right are crediting Speaker Mike Johnson for rebuffing right wing radicals and finally funding Ukrainian war efforts, but his hypocritical gamesmanship months ago puts blood on his hands, too. Rep. Rose DeLauro (D-Connecticut) gave 'em all hell, and I'm a bigger DeLauro fan today than I already was before.

Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens & police chief Darin Schierbaum held a press conference in the aftermath of recent vandalism allegedly at the hands of anti-public safety training facility. In this presser, the mayor and chief made the case that protestors were shirking peaceful and democratic means, but isn't actually true that those opposed to "Cop City" tried the peaceful & democratic route only to be obstructed at every turn?

Housing starts are down somewhat significantly, year over year, and that certainly doesn't help cool rising home prices. Hear me read an email I got from a local mortgage lender about that and why I believe it's becoming pretty urgent for action from Washington.

Lastly, former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich shared a plum video earlier this week breaking down the root causes of inflation - de-regulation and monopolies.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr joined Tuesday's "Politically Georgia" podcast and had strong thoughts about enjoining a lawsuit against the Biden administration's efforts to ramp up student loan forgiveness but not much to say about why he chose (seemingly unilaterally) not to pursue that "rule of law" preening posture when attempts to overturn the 2020 election were on his desk.

Marge Greene seems to be (nearly) alone on an island (and backtracking) over her latest calls to remove Rep. Mike Johnson from the House Speaker's seat. One opinion? She's just looking for (even more) attention but is instead, becoming "irrelevant."

Y'all know me ... as dyed-in-the-wool a liberal as I am, I'm also not timid about saying what needs to be said within our camp, too, even when it's not popular or towing the "party line." Occasionally, thought, it's good to get a "pep talk" and "Politics Girl," - aka Leigh McGowan - has provided some solid doses of political 'hot takes' of late. One touting VP Kamala Harris in ways not many others have, and another where she only wonders if Republicans are more interested in their party prevailing than the nation surviving (I'm paraphrasing, of course).

The former President swooped in last week for some Buckhead bucks-grabbing but made an impromptu (or was it?) stop in Vine City to close the deal on an astroturfed photo op. That's right, it was staged. Dr. Jason Johnson and podcast host Clay Cane autopsied the whole thing, and while I take issue with Dr. Johnson casting aspersions on the Chick Fil-A franchise owner for not going all "Joe the Plumber" on Trump, the conversation otherwise properly frames the set-up for what it was: theatre.

Meanwhile Senator Jon Ossoff teamed up with Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) to bring to light abuses & neglect of children in the custody of state agencies like Georgia's Department of Family & Children's Services (DFACS). The agency took umbrage for some reason, crying "politics" despite the fact the Senate committee investigating them wa a bipartisan effort.

It had been a minute since 'Atlanta Voice' editor-in-chief Donnell Suggs had been on the show, so I reached out to him last night to see if he had some time today and, fortunate for me, he did!

We covered a range of topics - from the Mets getting the better of the Braves this week (what?!?) to OJ Simpson's passing and social media making light of it to Trump's Atlanta visit and polling data for black voters, comedienne Dulce Sloan's love for Atlanta, to the shouting match at a recent Fulton County Commission meeting to Hawks' point guards. That's what I like about Donnell ... he can cover a lot of ground!

Plus, it turns out the prosecution of Lt. Governor Burt Jones had problems landing a prosecutor for much the same reason Fani Willis said she wound up "having" to go with Nathan Wade: the pay. Lastly, mayor Andre Dickens announced the MARTA in-fill stops he dangled over us last month, but still hasn't explained where the money's coming from.

Former president Donald Trump swooped into metro Atlanta Wednesday (that explains the traffic ... ) for a Buckhead fundraiser but made a Vine City Chick Fil-A stop where he ordered "30 milkshakes and some chicken" (Strips? Nuggies? Sandwiches? Wraps?) which went viral, as did his taking photos with mostly black patrons. We call this "astro-turfing" because the truth is, it was all a set-up. More on that on Monday's show.

He also regurgitated the lie that he "saved HBCU's" - something Medium author Walter M. Kimbraugh eviscerates in a March 2023 piece he wrote.

Ya gotta credit him for at least try(lie)ing, though. I mean, the RNC itself (the one his sister-in-law runs, now) is pulling up stakes from having set up shop in neighborhoods of color.

Meanwhile, as the GOP hardly makes up any ground in the voter of color gap, there does seem to be some waffling for President Biden's and Donald Trump's numbers. I speak to that & more here.