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 732: Trump Makes Excuses for Gaffes; Nepotism is a Trump Family Affair; Giuliani's Bankruptcy Recap
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    33:28

    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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    37:26

    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!

  • Episode 730: No Immunity for Trump; Who will be VP for GOP?; Document Case Update
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    37:58

    This week on Ring of Fire!

    The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a unanimous decision on Tuesday that Donald Trump does NOT have immunity from prosecution, and therefore the election subversion case against him can, and will, go to trial. But that doesn't mean that the immunity fight is over. Trump still has the option to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, which has already been put into motion. But the Appeals Court's ruling might be written in a way that already bypasses the Supreme Court.

    During an interview with Fox News this week, Kellyanne Conway was asked about Donald Trump's potential vice presidential picks, and she may have let it slip who Trump is leaning towards. After rattling off a few names, Conway then focused in on Republican Senator Tim Scott, praising him for dropping out and actively campaigning for Trump before adding that he "checks all of the boxes." That's not really the case, but if Trump thinks so then he's likely made his pick already.

    Jack Smith spent 15 pages of a new court filing debunking the lies that Donald Trump has been telling about the charges against him in the documents case. Trump has claimed repeatedly - including in court filings - that he was allowed to take the documents and that he had been given special security clearances to do so. Smith argued that this actually never happened, and claimed that Trump's statements to the contrary were provably false.

    Jim Jordan's House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Fulton County DA Fani Willis (again). This time, Jordan is seeking information about how Fulton County used a federal grant from the Department of Justice, as well as answers about an alleged whistleblower who claims that they were demoted after pointing out the misuse of federal funds by a district employee. Additionally, Willis came out over the weekend and admitted to having a romantic relationship with her fellow prosecutor.

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

  • Episode 729:(M) Boebert is Looking at Fifth Place After Switching Districts; Immigration Idiocracy for Trump; OAN and Powell Have Shady Exchange
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    32:10

    This week on Ring of Fire!

    Lauren Boebert has a little over one month before the primary in Colorado for her new district, and things are off to a horrible start for her. A new straw poll taken after the first primary debate last week puts her squarely in fifth place, meaning she's actually doing worse in her new district than she was in her old district. The window of opportunity is closing on Boebert, but it should have closed years ago.

    Republicans are up in arms - almost quite literally - over illegal immigration, but they are still refusing to work out a border deal with Democrats in Congress. The biggest reason why a deal isn't happening is because Donald Trump is telling Republicans to shoot down any deal because it will help President Biden politically. If they solve the problem then they'll have nothing to campaign on, and that's a bigger threat than anything.

    The conservative outlet One America News may have given Trump lawyer Sidney Powell a spreadsheet that contained the login data for Smartmatic's voting systems. According to the defamation lawsuit that Smartmatic filed against One America, the network somehow obtained a spreadsheet containing the login data for certain employees, and they proceeded to hand it over to Sidney Powell (and possibly even to Mike Lindell, according to the suit.)

    And Republicans in the House had yet another witness testify that President Joe Biden was NOT involved in any way in any of his son's business deals, a statement that blows yet another hole in their efforts to impeach him. The Republican Party has consistently come up short with their impeachment effort to the point that even Republicans in the Senate are telling their House counterparts that this whole thing is a waste of time because they have no evidence of anything.

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

  • Episode 728: Trump's VP Pick Revealed? DeSantis Ends Run; Trump Rants After New Hampshire Victory
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    32:52

    This week on Ring of Fire!

    The hunt for Donald Trump's running mate is on, and a former aide to the ex-president believes that Trump has already made up his mind. On a recent episode of The View, Alyssa Farah Griffin said that she believes he'll pick Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders as his running mate, even as speculation swirls around Elise Stefanik. Huckabee Sanders has proven herself to be a loyal Trump stooge, but she doesn't bring much else to the table.

    Ron DeSantis announced on Sunday that he was dropping out of the presidential race, and both the Left and the Right are thrilled about this announcement. Both sides came together in a rare moment of harmony to mock DeSantis for running one of the worst campaigns that we've seen in modern American politics. His fall from grace was truly a sight to behold.

    Even if Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis engaged in an improper relationship with a fellow prosecutor, most legal experts agree that it will have no actual impact on the criminal charges against Donald Trump or any of his co-defendants. That doesn't mean that the allegations and investigation aren't going to have an impact on the case - the experts also agree that this is likely going to cause delays and possibly even a change in venue and prosecutors, depending on the results of the investigation.

    At a recent campaign event in New Hampshire, Donald Trump confused the crowd by going on an awkward rant about forts. It wasn't just that he was off-topic, it was the fact that he literally kept repeating the same few sentences over and over again. This could be a symptom of something seriously wrong with the former president, especially in the context of all of his other recent mental flubs. The media needs to pay more attention to Trump's obvious cognitive decline.

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