Ring of Fire Radio with Farron Cousins

This week on Ring of Fire! Over the past few days, Elon Musk – a man that was neither elected to serve in the government nor confirmed by a governing body – has made sweeping changes to the federal government, consolidating it under his control. He has locked civil servants out of their computer systems at some departments; the NTSB has announced that they will only be using Musk’s platform to make official announcements; And he has gained access to personal information, including pay, from the Treasury. This is both completely unprecedented and wildly dangerous. The Trump Administration authorized the release of billions of gallons of water onto California from several dams in order to fight the fires that have already bee declared “100% contained.” This decision was not only dangerous for the state – one official said that it nearly flooded them – but it also screws over farmers. That water was meant for summer crops, and now it is gone, which is going to wreak havoc on food availability and prices in just a few months. Donald Trump’s response to the deadly plane crash in Washington, D.C. last week is all the proof you need to know that he is insane. He blamed people with disabilities, “diversity” hires, people with missing limbs, and even “dwarfism” for the disaster, none of which played a role in what happened. But this type of response cannot be tolerated, normalized, or ignored. The man is mentally unwell. All that, and so much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! According to award-winning economist and columnist Paul Krugman, Donald Trump is creating a massive economic disaster for himself that he has no idea how to handle. Specifically, Krugman is warning about the looming economic crisis from Trump’s mass deportations which will likely send inflation and consumer prices back up. On top of that, we’re already seeing labor shortages spring up from the moves, so the economic impacts are already upon us. Following the late-evening confirmation of Pete Hegseth this past Friday, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to rehash one of his “greatest hits” by declaring certain media outlets to be “the enemy of the people.” But this time he took things a step further, and specifically mentioned MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow by name. Every time Trump does this, he puts a target on someone’s back, and we’ve seen his crazed supporters attempt violence from these “enemy of the people” comments in the past. Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s new “border czar,” says that he is considering conducting immigrants raids at schools in order to round up students and deport them. Homan had the audacity to say that these because these people “broke the law”, they shouldn’t be allowed in at all. This is coming from a man that is working for a convicted felon. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been trashing Bishop Mariann Budde all week after she called out his anti-Christian immigration policies at a Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday, and now a whole new group of Bishops is jumping in to pile on Trump’s plans. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter criticizing Trump’s deportation plans and called for mercy and compassion, just like the Bible calls for. Even when Republicans win, Steve Bannon can’t stop spreading conspiracy theories. As Donald Trump was set to be sworn in on Monday, Steve Bannon was on the scene spreading conspiracies about why the inauguration was moved indoors. According to Bannon, it wasn’t because the weather was too harsh to safely conduct the ceremony outside – instead, it was part of a plot to “nullify” Trump, which he didn’t elaborate on at all. In a post on Truth Social this week, Donald Trump said that MSNBC (or MSDNC, as he calls it) “shouldn’t even have a right to broadcast” in the United States, suggesting he could take their license away. This is the man that conservatives are heralding as the guy who is “saving free speech” and “doing away with censorship,” as The New York Post suggested this week. And Donald Trump spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, marking his first international appearance as the new President of the United States. And to absolutely no one’s surprise, he made a complete fool of himself and the country. He made countless false claims that were immediately called out by both US media and international outlets, which obviously is going to set the tone for the next 4 years. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! Marjorie Taylor Greene is back at it with her weather manipulation conspiracies, this time suggesting that the government should simply create rain by “cloud seeding” and then the problem of the California fires would be solved. It isn’t just that she’s crazy, it’s that she is so arrogant in her insanity to say something so crazy and yet so matter-of-factly. Republican politicians in both the House and Senate are threatening to withhold disaster aid to the victims of the California fires unless they agree to “certain concessions.” This is absolutely reprehensible, and it isn’t something that would ever happen to red states during disasters, regardless of which Party controlled the government. But this is how things work when a Blue State needs help. MAGA faithful are finding out very quickly that they are part of the actual club. Elon Musk continues to censor and silence his conservative critics on Twitter (X), and the MAGA crowd is furious that the “free speech absolutist” turned out to be a big fat liar on the issue of censorship. But there is little they can do about it since he owns the platform and can make the rules himself – just like conservatives do with politics. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Fox News this past weekend that he and his fellow Republicans in the House are aiming to push through a single bill that contains ALL of Donald Trump’s legislative priorities by Memorial Day, instead of passing multiple separate bills. This seems like an unusual move for someone like Johnson, and that’s because it isn’t his idea at all – It all came from Trump who is demanding that Republicans do it this way. This is a stupid plan that is destined to fail. President Biden now has less than 2 weeks in office, and he’s spent the past few days signing legislation and orders designed to help protect Americans from Donald Trump. One of the biggest achievements was the signing of legislation to increase Social Security payments to more than 3 million recipients, and that was followed by an order that forbids oil drilling along the coasts of the country. Trump ally Steve Bannon celebrated the anniversary of the Capitol Riot on Monday by proudly proclaiming “we almost pulled it off!” Bannon’s comments make it clear that there is absolutely no remorse for what happened that day – including the deaths – and that they would gladly do it again if they ever felt the need. All that, and so much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! Donald Trump has filed a brief with the Supreme Court calling for a stop to the banning of TikTok, but legal experts can’t seem to make sense of what he filed. In fact, the filing is so incomprehensible that they aren’t even sure what kind of filing it is supposed to be. One attorney compared it to the movie “Legally Blonde,” while also pointing out that the filing is nothing more than Trump bragging about winning the election. Steve Bannon has been one of the loudest voices in the ongoing MAGA civil war, but he insisted this week that there isn’t actually a civil war happening with Trump’s allies and supporters because the other side (Elon Musk) isn’t “tough enough” to actually fight back. As evidence, Bannon pointed to the fact that Musk has already backed down on his vow to “go to war” on the issue of the H-1B visas by now saying that maybe they should be reformed. Musk is a lot of things, but a fighter isn’t one of them. A Republican state lawmaker named Danielle Gallant from Nevada told a reporter this week that Elon Musk has now made it “cool” to be a Republican, going as far as claiming that it is now “punk rock” to be in the GOP. These people have absolutely no clue what it means to be counterculture as they suck up to the richest man on the planet – who also happens to be the biggest dork in the world. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! As he prepares to leave the Senate, and possibly American politics as a whole, Republican Senator Mitt Romney offered a warning to America: You don’t get to complain if Trump does what he said he will do. There is a lot of apprehension around the country right now as people reel from the thought of Trump’s economic policies, but Romney reminded us that Trump was very clear about what he was going to do, so we have no rooms to complain. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders urged President Biden to seriously consider issuing some preemptive pardons to the people that Donald Trump is threatening to go after once he returns to office. Sanders made the comments during an appearance on CNN this past Sunday, while adding that Trump’s rhetoric is making him sound like a “tinpot dictator.” Preemptive pardons could be risky, but it may be a risk worth taking. Judge Juan Merchan this week made the decision that Presidential immunity does NOT cover the crimes for which Donald Trump was convicted in New York. The day after the decision, Trump got on Truth Social and had the meltdown of all meltdowns, ranting that the judge was “psychotic” and throwing a massive tantrum. But Merchan made the right call on this matter. Marjorie Taylor Greene managed to unite both the Right and the Left this week when they joined forces to ridicule her relentlessly after she went full anti-vaxxer on Twitter. Greene proclaimed that she fully believes that vaccines cause autism in spite of the mountain of evidence that has not once found a single link between the two. She even earned a massive fact check from Twitter (X) itself on top of the ridicule that she experienced. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! Donald Trump has finally announced where his failed attorney Alina Habba is going to land in his new administration, and she will be serving as the new Counselor to the President. This position was previously held by Kellyanne Conway, meaning that Habba has officially become the new Kellyanne. Her job, just like Conway’s, will be to give Trump advice but most importantly to go out and do interviews about how awesome he is. During his interview with Meet The Press on Sunday, Donald Trump served up an incomprehensible word salad where he appeared to imply that he invented the word “groceries.” He was asked about prices and inflation, and instead of giving a coherent answer, he went on a long rant about “groceries” and then pivoted to how amazing tariffs are – but he still wouldn’t say that consumers will NOT pay higher prices under his policies. All hell broke loose during a recent city council meeting in the small town of Middleton, Ohio, when JD Vance’s mother demanded that the city honor her son and recognize the “role” that he played in Donald Trump’s reelection. The city plans to honor him, but they don’t want to rush to any conclusions just yet because he hasn’t even been sworn in. This is now the second time in as many weeks that a Republican had his mommy go out and advocate on his behalf. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! A new piece from The New Yorker has revealed some shocking allegations about Donald Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth. The report, which was based on a whistleblower’s report from Hegseth’s time in the military, claims that Hegseth was frequently intoxicated, made comments like “kill all Muslims,” and had complaints about misogynistic behavior. If these allegations are true, Senators need to make it clear right now that they won’t vote to confirm him. Donald Trump has issued a strong statement AGAINST President Biden’s pardon for his son, Hunter, even though Trump said that he was open to giving Biden’s son a pardon just a few months ago. The media played right into Trump’s “disgust,” and they are going to be the ones that weaponize the pardon long before Trump even has the chance to do so. Republican Congressman James Comer has spent the past 2 years investigating Hunter Biden to no avail, and now he’s apoplectic that Hunter has received a pardon from his father. Comer posted a scathing message on social media, accusing the President of lying for years about pardoning his son. The rest of the MAGA world is also furious, but it doesn’t matter. This whole thing is only a shock to people who have their fingers far removed from the pulse of American politics. Ted Cruz has emerged as one of the biggest butt-kissers of Donald Trump, and he’s apparently refusing to let anyone else take that mantle away from him. During an interview this week, the irony-proof Cruz actually criticized the Morning Joe crew on MSNBC for not just kissing up to Trump, but “kissing even lower” than anyone else. But the crude sexual innuendo completely ignores Cruz’s own history. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! It’s Thanksgiving week, so we’re doing another Ring of Fire Q&A session featuring questions from our YouTube Community members. Will Trump make it to the end of his term? How did Harris lose to Trump? Why won’t Farron run for public office? All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! According to “Trump whisperer” Maggie Haberman, Donald Trump isn’t harboring any delusions about Matt Gaetz’s chances of being confirmed as Attorney General, and she claims that he’s admitted in private that the odds are below 50% right now. But he’s not giving up, according to Haberman, and he is on the phone with Republican senators constantly begging them to get Gaetz through. A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump has blocked an overtime pay rule from the Biden Administration that would have guaranteed overtime pay for more than 4 million salaried workers across the country – and millions more would have been eligible next year. The rule has been stalled as employers were trying to prevent having to pay workers for their time, and now millions of people will be forced to work longer hours without any overtime. Members of the Trump transition team are currently discussing plans with Republican members of Congress to expand the 2017 tax cut package that mostly went to wealthy Americans. In order to pay for this extension, they are discussing cuts to social safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP benefits. To put that another way – They are going to take money AWAY from poor people so that they can give themselves and their donors a fat tax break. Marjorie Taylor Greene is bitter about the election for some reason, and she’s now at the point of saying that Democratic governors are possibly committing “treason” by enacting plans to protect their states from Trump’s policies. She said that she’s still open to the idea of a “national divorce,” which she claims would be horrible for Blue States. The stats don’t back that up, and Red States would be the ones to suffer the most. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! There are still a few House races that have yet to be called, but Republicans have already secured enough wins to maintain a majority of seats in the US House. With their flipping of the Senate and the White House, along with their control over the Supreme Court, this means that Republicans will control EVERY single branch of the federal government for at least the next two years. According to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, Donald Trump may already be breaking the law by refusing to sign an ethics pledge that was part of a legislative effort that Warren herself got through the Senate. The pledge is required by law, and it is intended to prevent conflicts of interest and profiteering off the presidency, something that became a hallmark of Trump’s first term in office. With every pick announced for Donald Trump’s cabinet, a lot of people are thinking “it can’t get any worse than that.” And then the next pick comes along shattering that idea. Trump is managing to pick worse and worse people with each passing day, from a Fox News host that was labeled an extremist to the world’s richest and most immature man, Trump’s picks are scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast.

This week on Ring of Fire! Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, shocking most of the country by tearing down the “Blue Wall” that was supposed to keep him from returning to power. But unlike 2016, Trump actually won the popular vote (as of right now) and he officially got his mandate to return to power. To make things worse, Republicans also retook control of the Senate, giving Trump a blank check on judicial appointments. From Elon Musk to Alina Habba, some of the dumbest and biggest crackpots in the country are going to wield a lot of power. In fact, Trump made sure to point that out during his victory speech on Tuesday evening. This is going to be a rough time for people with common sense, but this is what the people voted for. Donald Trump has been far more incoherent and unintelligible during this year’s campaign, and now that he’s heading back to The White House, one has to wonder what is going to happen to his mental faculties. The man was already unstable, but his increasing cognitive decline is going to present very real problems that he’s not prepared to face – and those around him aren’t prepared to handle. This is going to be rough. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! Donald Trump is falling apart with less than a week to go before the election. His Madison Square Garden hate rally is obviously getting most of the attention, but both before and after that his campaign was already descending into madness. He has called America a “garbage can,” fantasized about Marjorie Taylor Greene blowing up in a car accident, and even got called out by Joe Rogan for his lies. This is a campaign that is fumbling at the goal line. A financial analyst for Fox News said on the air this week that the idea of people investing in Donald Trump’s media company was “laughable.” Even the stock price has rebounded after bottoming out in the teens just a few weeks ago, the analyst believes that the company is still headed towards disaster because there is no real way for it to sustain itself. The revenue stream for the company is virtually non-existent, and their expenses are through the roof. During his rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Donald Trump teased that he and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had a “Secret” that they can’t share, but they would reveal it after the election. This led many to believe that Trump was suggesting that Johnson was going to vote to NOT certify the election results if Trump loses. Johnson is now in damage control mode, and he insists that this “secret” is just a “get out the vote effort.” That seems highly unbelievable. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! Cities across the country are struggling to pay their own bills after ponying up tens, and sometimes hundreds, of thousands of dollars to cover the added costs that Donald Trump’s rallies bring to their cities. And since Trump’s campaign is still refusing to pay the bills that they owe, these cities are often left with few options other than to just cut their losses and hope they can survive. The administration of Ron DeSantis was slammed during a recent hearing with a federal judge over their attempts to silence a political opposition group that was running ads on local TV stations across Florida. The judge told the defendants from the DeSantis administration, “It’s the First Amendment, stupid,” as he blasted their attempts to silence political opposition. This came as an official for the administration resigned last week and through DeSantis’s underlings under the bus as directing him to threaten the TV stations. A leaked “spoof” video that was sent out to workers with Elon Musk’s America PAC tells door knockers how they can get around the system and “fake” their jobs. In the video, that allegedly made its way to hundreds of PAC workers, they are shown how to use a GPS spoofing app to fool the door-knocking app they use, and then they were told how to fake the responses on the survey (but to make sure that they varied the responses so that they each seem unique.) Elon has a lot of answers to give about what’s happening at his group. During a recent interview, Donald Trump falsely claimed that “nobody” has ever been treated worse in this country than the hundreds of people that have been convicted for storming the Capitol on January 6th. He then amended that to say that MAYBE Japanese Americans that were forced into internment camps during WWII were treated as bad. This comment drew immediate backlash from people who understand the history of the United States. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! According to a new report from The New York Times, the Trump campaign colluded with Elon Musk to suppress the release of information that had been hacked from the Trump campaign. This is what led to the Twitter ban of investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein (who has since been reinstated on the platform.) But this is EXACTLY what Republicans accused the Biden campaign of doing four years ago, and now they are the ones who actually worked with social media companies to remove unflattering content. During a recent interview with The New York Times, Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance was asked five times in a row to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, and every time he deferred and changed the subject, or he engaged in attacks to deflect the question. This type of denial is incredibly dangerous to the safety of our elections, and it is further evidence of why Trump picked Vance to begin with. Ted Cruz went on Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News on Monday evening to beg viewers for more money. This pitch for cash was timed perfectly with the release of internal polling from a Republican Super PAC that shows that Cruz is flailing in his Senate race against Democrat Colin Allred, and the two remain in a statistical dead heat with three weeks to go before the election. Cruz is getting desperate, and his pitch for cash is proof of that. And Majorie Taylor Greene has spent more than a week trying to convince America that the government is creating hurricanes and sending them to attack Republican areas of the country. That’s why her recent post on social media made everyone laugh at her. Greene posted a picture of a man in a giant tinfoil hat that had the caption “everyone in America right now,” to which Greene added “Yep.” She didn’t realize the irony of her post and got immediately roasted by the internet. All that, and more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! The release of special prosecutor Jack Smith’s new evidence against Donald Trump made one thing absolutely clear: Rudy Giuliani’s incompetence may have been what saved the country. Giuliani, while working on Trump’s behalf to get Congress to NOT certify the election results, accidentally texted his plan for Congress to the wrong number, which then prevented Congress from getting the plan. Had this not happened, January 6th could have turned out very differently. Not long ago, Donald Trump promised to release his full medical records to prove that being the oldest presidential nominee in history wasn’t that big of a deal. And now that we’re a month away from the election, the media is calling him out for failing to do so. Voters have enormous concerns about Trump’s fitness – both physical and mental – and releasing those records could go a long way to easing fears – or confirming them. Tim Walz, without even doing anything, has managed to drive Republican House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer insane. Comer is abusing his power to launch an investigation into Walz’s connections to China, and right before the recent Vice Presidential Debate Comer sent a subpoena to the Department of Homeland Security for information about Walz. This investigation will end the same way that all of Comer’s other investigations ended, which means he’ll look like a complete fool again. Donald Trump’s dumpster fire of a campaign is now burning through cash faster than money can come in. For the past two months, the campaign has spent more than it brought in, dropping Trump’s total amount of cash on hand to a little over $230 million (which is still a lot, but not nearly as much as the Harris campaign has.) The biggest problem, however, is that Republicans have no idea where Trump is spending the money. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! Republican Senator JD Vance likely didn’t do himself any favors in the vice-presidential debate against Governor Tim Walz on Tuesday evening. Vance repeatedly refused to answer questions and lied throughout most of the debate. At one point, he was so angry about being fact checked that he attacked the moderators before they ended up cutting his microphone. But it was his refusal to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election that really raised eyebrows Donald Trump is getting absolutely trashed for spreading lies about the Biden Administration’s response to Hurricane Helene. And it isn’t just the Left that’s going after him – Republicans are having to come out and debunk his lies, too. Trump has claimed that the Biden administration is doing nothing and not even taking calls from Republican-controlled states, but the truth is that Biden has been on the phone constantly and offering whatever aid is needed for ALL states impacted. Sometimes it isn’t exactly clear if Kellyanne Conway wants Donald Trump to win the election or not. During an interview on Fox News this week, Conway said that she tried to taunt Trump into doing another debate with Kamala Harris, even though he completely botched it the first time. But if Trump can’t even convince his friends that he’s not a coward, then he has no hope of convincing the public. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! Republicans in the House are growing increasingly concerned that Donald Trump’s demands of them are going to lead to “galactically stupid” consequences for them in November’s election. Trump is still demanding that they shut down the government, and if they don’t, they fear that he’s going to go on the rampage against them – which could be just as costly in November! Republican Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer sunk to a new level during a recent interview on Fox News when he decided to go into an attack on Tim Walz’s family, including his children. Comer attacked the children as part of the justification for his investigation into Walz, whom Comer believes is being “groomed” by China. These kinds of attacks used to be completely off limits, but this one wasn’t even a blip on the media’s radar. Donald Trump only has a few days left before he can sell his shares of Truth Social (officially the Trump Media & Technology Group stock), but the whole thing could end up being completely worthless by Friday. The stock closed a little over $13 per share last week, then dropped even further during trading on Monday to close to $12. This is a sinking ship, and Trump won’t be the one left without a life preserver. All that, and much more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!

This week on Ring of Fire! There is absolutely no winning with Donald Trump. Following the incident at his golf course on Sunday, Trump told a rally crowd this week that both President Biden and Vice President Harris called him and were very nice, and then he said he wished that they hadn’t been so nice to him – apparently it makes him feel bad to be a jerk to them after that. But he continued on with his jerkish behavior nevertheless. Republican Senator John Kennedy made headlines this week when he went into a massively racist line of questioning with a Muslim woman who was testifying before a Senate Committee on racism on college campuses. Kennedy appeared to prove her point about rampant racism by repeatedly implying that she supported terrorist organizations, but he shocked the entire room and drew audible gasps from the audience when he concluded his time by telling the woman to “hide your head in a bag.” Republicans in the House failed to get a budget bill passed on Wednesday evening because they wouldn’t remove the SAVE Act that Donald Trump has been pushing for. Now Trump has gone ballistic and is demanding that Republicans shut down the federal government at the end of the month. Mitch McConnell had previously said that doing so would be “politically stupid,” but Trump is telling Republicans that now is the time to be stupid. All that, and more, on this week’s Ring of Fire Podcast!