Ring Of Fire Radio With Sam Seder, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And Mike Papantonio

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

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 i

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

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 o

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 pr

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 Ne

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 N

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

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. Com

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 A

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 w

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 decl

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

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

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 eve

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 ch

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

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 co

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