By Tom McMahan
In addition to being a “roundup,” this weekly feature highlights new sources of political news as we attempt to piece together a “news ecosystem” in which people on the center-left can communicate our ideas to one another and the broader world. We also want to strengthen our local news sources and develop a rural Democratic “voice” to improve our party’s performance in our county and across the state.
To that end, I have a few things I would like to spotlight:
Our Georgia Democratic Rural Council, a part of the Democratic Party of Georgia and a group that I am Vice-Chair of, is expanding our reach into social media and communication this year. So I’ll be adding links to groups dedicated to improving rural outreach by the Democratic Party. Our Chair, Len Fatica, was kind enough to pass along this link to “Barnraiser,” a progressive rural organization focused on this very thing. If you’re interested, subscribe to their newsletter.
We’ve developed a Georgia county map with links to local news sources. I’m going to add more news sources to this work in progress before the month is out.
Of course, we don’t need to simply “match” the right-wing news machine, we need to be better than that. Better as in more accurate, more fact-based. Ground News is a great news aggregator that helps us do just that, and it’s an affordable subscription for anyone interested. For example, how did our grifting state senator’s theatrics (below) play out this week in the media? With Ground News, you can monitor how left-wing, right-wing, and more centrist media sources reported it.
Republican-on-Republican Violence
·You guessed it, it’s our own state senator at the middle of it all
LOCAL NEWS
Our Dade County School Board has decided to opt out of the HB 581 homestead exemption, and the Dade County Democratic Committee supports their stance.
STATE NEWS
From the AJC (via the Chattanooga Times Free Press), Governor Brian Kemp has left the residents of Rockdale County in the lurch following a September fire at the local Biolab plant.
GOOD TAKES ON TODAY, INAUGURATION DAY

As always, Ron Filipkowski’s daily MAGA/political updates are priceless.
Tomorrow, I’ll do the first of an almost infinite number of updates on Trump lies. Lord help me! LOL
Looking forward to your update on Trump lies!
Great News Round Up! Thanx for all your hard work. I would love to do a newsletter regarding the general assembly and specifically my opponent but I am finding I will not have the time or personal band width for it. I will be promoting your work FOR SURE. I am doing some legis watch for League of Women Voters and may be able to share it with you if your interested.
As another GREAT news source regarding the general assembly is the “Under the Gold Dome” news letter from the League. They are non-partisan but all their interests line up with Dems at this time.
Thanx Again~Cathy