Ring of Fire is a podcast hosted by Farron Cousins that began as a radio show in 2004 by Mike Papantonio. The show focuses on exposing corporate fat cats, polluters and media spinmeisters.

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  • Episode 735: (M) The Return of George Santos? Kellyanne the Tik Tok Lobbyist? Trump to Cut Social Security and Medicare?
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    34:14

    This week on Ring of Fire!

    George Santos isn't worried about the prospect of spending the next few decades in prison, and he's already making plans for the next few years. Santos announced just a few days ago that he is once again running for Congress, this time trying to unseat Republican Represenative Nick LaLota for New York's First Congressional district seat. Santos has more important things to worry about, but he would rather get media attention than fret over his upcoming criminal trial.

    Kellyanne Conway is taking a break from her role of teaching Republicans how to talk about women's issues to take on a new task: Preventing the government from banning TikTok. And her conservative peers are furious about her new crusade. Fox News host Mark Levin lashed out at Conway over the weekend, saying that it wasn't just "appalling" that she's being paid to protect TikTok, but also that it was "shocking." For once, Conway might be on the correct side of an issue, and that's making conservatives very angry.

    During an interview on CNBC this week, Donald Trump decided to torpedo his presidential campaign by saying that there are lots of things you can do in terms of cutting "entitlement" programs, which means Social Security and Medicare. If this is what Trump is going to campaign on, he is going to lose the largest voting demographic for Republicans, which happens to be people on Social Security and Medicare.

    Donald Trump's cronies that are now in charge of the Republican National Committee have begun purging employees, with dozens let go so far this week. These people are being let go because the new leadership wants to make sure that they have people who are loyal only to Trump, and that's not going to end well for the Party.

    All that, and much more, on this week's Ring of Fire!

  • Episode 734: SCOTUS Disappoints in Trump Ruling; Ted Cruz in Trouble in Texas; Boebert's Family Drama Continues
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    This week on Ring of Fire!

    The United States Supreme Court handed down their predictable ruling on Monday that allows Donald Trump to stay on the ballot this year. This is what was widely expected, but it certainly flies in the face of the language of the Constitution. However, their unanimous ruling did leave the door open for potential challenges in the future.

    The latest polling out of the state of Texas has some horrific news for Ted Cruz. The poll shows that Cruz is in a dead heat with his Democratic opponent Colin Allred, with both men recording 41% of the vote right now. While these numbers are bad for Cruz, they do leave a LOT of room for undecided voters to give one candidate an edge to win in a landslide, and there's a good chance many of these voters break for Cruz by election day.

    According to reports, Lauren Boebert had to skip a recent campaign event - instead sending her campaign manager to speak - as she was busy dealing with more family drama. The reports say that Boebert's ex husband had been threatening to throw all of her belongings into a pond, so Boebert had to skip the event to make sure this didn't happen. Is this really what the people in Colorado want to have to deal with with their elected officials?

    And Donald Trump's lawyers begged Judge Lewis Kaplan for a third time to postpone the due date of the $83 million judgement against Trump for another 30 days, but Kaplan doesn't appear to be ready to give Trump any kind of extension. The former President is freaking out, and his panicked motions to the judge are all the proof that we need of that fact. If the judge doesn't grant the delay, E. Jean Carroll's lawyers might move to start seizing his properties next week.

    All that, and much more, on this week's Ring of Fire Podcast!

  • Episode 733: RNC Now Under Trump Rule; Haley In or Out? Is Shut Down Inevitable
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    37:17

    This week on Ring of Fire!

    Donald Trump is getting everything that he wanted from the Republican Party with Ronna McDaniel announcing her retirement on Monday. McDaniel had played coy about media reports saying she was retiring after the South Carolina primary for weeks, but ultimately did exactly what was predicted. Now Trump will have the ability to completely take over the Party, and that could be the beginning of the end of the GOP forever.

    On Monday, Donald Trump's lawyers filed a notice of appeal for the ruling against him in the New York fraud trial. However, in order to actually appeal the ruling, the defendant - Trump - has to put a sizable portion of the judgement against him into an escrow account for the court, and reports do not mention that this has been one. If Trump doesn't put up the money, the appeal cannot actually begin.

    Donald Trump may have beaten Nikki Haley in the South Carolina primary this past weekend, but that doesn't mean that things are going well for his campaign. In fact, things are going worse than ever behind the scenes. Not only is his campaign being drained of cash because of his legal fees, but he's also suffering from a severe lack of enthusiasm as the crowds showing up to his rallies continue to get smaller.

    And hard-line Republican extremists in the House are pushing the US towards a government shutdown this Friday if their terrorist-like demands aren't met. With a deadline of Friday, March 1st, quickly approaching, negotiations for a budget deal have once again stalled because the extremist GOP members in the House want to gut Biden's climate initiatives, cut the salaries of cabinet officials, and enact a slew of anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion measures.

    All that, and much more, on this week's Ring of Fire Podcast!

  • Episode 732: Trump Makes Excuses for Gaffes; Nepotism is a Trump Family Affair; Giuliani's Bankruptcy Recap
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    This week on Ring of Fire!

    During a rally last week, Donald Trump attacked the media for reporting on all of his mental gaffes, and then he told the cult-like audience that he's actually doing all of those things (making constant mistakes) on purpose. This man is incapable of telling the truth, and his followers are incapable of believing the truth, so this really is a match made in heaven for Trump. But for those of us in reality, this claim is just another lie that Trump tells to make himself feel better.

    Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes quipped last week that Donald Trump may end up picking one of his sons to be his running mate due to his penchant for nepotism. While the comment was meant to be humorous, it also presents a very real possibility for Trump. If he wants to create a political dynasty with staying power, he'll have to get his idiot sons into the game - and he knows that they can't succeed on their own.

    Donald Trump has been successful in getting Judge Aileen Cannon to delay his documents trial, and he's hoping that she will continue to delay it indefinitely so that he doesn't have to face the music before the election. But this could come back to bite him, as it could clear the calendar in a way that allows Judge Tanya Chutkan to move his January 6th trial up, causing that conclusion to be reached before the election. Cannon's continued interference is now on track to hurt the man she's trying to protect.

    The judge overseeing Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy proceeding has ordered the former New York City mayor to reveal every one of his donors that is paying his legal fees. Giuliani will also have to reveal how the money is being disbursed and what it is being used for in an itemized list. This is not good news for Rudy, as it could shame his donors to the point where they no longer wish to fund his legal problems, leaving him with no lawyers for the cases that he still faces.

    Republicans in the House successfully impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last week, but that was the easy part. They now have to hold a trial in the Senate in order to convict and remove him from office, and that's not going to happen. In fact, there's a good chance that the articles of impeachment are dismissed straight away without a trial being held. Ted Cruz is begging Mitch McConnell to prevent that from happening, but dismissing the charges will save Republicans a LOT of embarrassment during an election year.

    All that, and much more, on this week's Ring of Fire!

  • Episode 731: Trump Keeping RNC Leadership in the Family; NATO Comments Insane; Will SCOTUS Bail Out Donald?
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    This week on Ring of Fire!

    The RNC is about to get a leadership makeover, and somehow it looks like it'll be even worse than the leadership they have today. Donald Trump has put forth a list of people that he wants to run the Party, and he'll almost certainly get his way. One of the people is his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who Trump has endorsed as being the co-chair of the Party. When this happens, it'll solidify Trump's hold over the entire Party and that could be the beginning of the end.

    Most Americans with either a brain or a conscience were shocked at Donald Trump's comments over the weekend when he suggested that he would encourage Russia to attack our allies in NATO if they were "delinquent" in paying their dues. One CNN host, Christiane Amanpour, went as far as to say that the comments were "literally insane." But Trump's allies in Washington, D.C. thought nothing of it, and some actually suggested it was a great idea.

    Republicans in the House of Representatives seem to have a humiliation kink, as they continue to get embarrassed by the witnesses that they are calling in the Hunter Biden and President Biden impeachment investigations. This week, they called the CEO of a lobbying group to talk about President Biden's connection to Burisma, but their fishing expedition was quickly ended when the witness told them that the former Vice President never got any kickbacks nor did he do Burisma any favors while in office. So far, every single witness has said the same thing, leaving Republicans with absolutely nothing.

    Donald Trump has officially asked the Supreme Court to bail him out once again. Last week he was begging the court to NOT allow him to be kicked off ballots, and this week his legal team sent a filing to SCOTUS asking them to both stay the lower court's decision in order to postpone the trial, as well as to take up the overall immunity issue. The court has several options for what they could do here, and most of them are not good for the country.

    All that, and much more, on this week's Ring of Fire Podcast!