Hello from Georgia, ground zero in a massive US political battle.
Here I am in Atlanta, still smarting from a disconcerting national media glare since the recent kerfuffle about a new voting law passed by the Republican-controlled Georgia legislature. The force of the backlash and the counter-backlash is enough to give you vertigo.
It wasn't that long ago when Georgia was considered a dependably Republican sleepy Southern backwater. US President Joe Biden's victory in Georgia in the presidential elections last year and a shocking Democratic sweep of run-off elections this January have made Republicans sit up and take notice.
Biden was the first Democrat to win Georgia in 28 years, and Sen. Jon Ossoff and Sen. Raphael Warnock's victories in January were a stunning reversal for Republicans, who had expressly designed the run-off system to ensure a lopsided partisan advantage.