The Erick Erickson Show

Erick Erickson defends the Lindsay Clancy jury against the online mob, walking through the one quirk of Massachusetts law that almost nobody on social media understands: Massachusetts is the only state where the prosecution must prove a defendant was sane beyond a reasonable doubt. Then the August jobs report lands at 162,000 new jobs, roughly three times what economists expected, and Erick explains why the good news may force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates instead of cutting them. Plus the Politico scoop on Republicans who do not want Donald Trump campaigning in their districts, and the CNN KFile dig on democratic socialist candidate Will Lawrence. Lindsay Clancy verdict: why the Massachusetts insanity standard, not jury solidarity, drove the outcome, and why Erick expects a mistrial and a retrial on manslaughter alone The exact Massachusetts model jury instruction on criminal responsibility, read on air, and why Erick says the Commonwealth could not meet it August jobs report: 162,000 jobs against expectations of 53,000, unemployment steady at 4.1 percent, upward revisions to June and July, and Kevin Hassett calling it four standard deviations above the mean The catch nobody is touting: wage growth still trails inflation, gas and diesel prices keep climbing, and tariffs are eating the raises Why maximum employment frees the Federal Reserve to fight inflation, and why the Dow, NASDAQ and S&P all fell on good news Politico beats the Journal, Post, Axios and Fox to the story: battleground Republicans telling Trump's team to stay out of their districts, and Erick's fix, run against the Democratic socialists instead

Erick Erickson opens football season with Ben Sasse's Wall Street Journal case for high school football as one of the last institutions still forming young men, then makes his own argument for keeping politics out of sports, out of movies, and out of your hamburger. He plays the viral supercut of the words Candace Owens cannot pronounce, takes a caller on Reza Pahlavi and whether the exiled Shah's son can actually lead a post-theocratic Iran, and reads new intelligence reporting that a more confident Iran is preparing to escalate around the Strait of Hormuz. Plus the Rick Jackson ad out of Georgia that Erick says shows Republicans exactly how to win this year. Ben Sasse in the Wall Street Journal: family, religion, work and war have faded, and why football is the character forming institution boys have left Why the NFL recovered from the Colin Kaepernick years and the NBA and WNBA did not, plus Steak n Shake MAGA meals and the politicization of the Odyssey movie, restaurants and food The Candace Owens mispronunciation account: bureaucracy, monstrosity, caricature, statute of limitations, price gouging, and the cream of the crop Caller question on Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Shah's son, his coalition of Iranian democratic parties, and why he still needs Washington and Israel to destabilize the regime first New York Times and Politico intelligence reporting on a more confident Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, 30 to 40 boats a night, 300 percent inflation, Patriot missile shortages, and unconfirmed reports of new launches Rick Jackson's Georgia governor ad: 800 foster kids whose college tuition he paid, why Erick was told not to raise it in the primary, and why running on your own record beats running on an endorsement

Erick Erickson tells the online right the hard truth about the SAVE Act: most Americans have no idea what it is, and no election bill is what stands between Republicans and November. He argues gas prices, wages trailing inflation and grocery bills are the real problem, then plays James Talarico on white privilege and blinders, Abdul El-Sayed telling Stephen A. Smith he wants a secure border while he abolishes ICE, and Michigan's Will Lawrence on ending heterosexual households. Plus the Missouri Supreme Court blowing up the state's congressional map 60 days out, Paul Ryan and Andrew Ross Sorkin on the debt, Social Security and the retirement age, and Mark Thiessen's plan to let Ukraine build its own Patriot interceptors. Why the SAVE Act is not a silver bullet: Erick's blunt case that voters have never heard of it, and that the midterm damage is about gas prices, wages beneath inflation and groceries, not election law The mitigation strategy for November: play the Democrats' own words back at them, James Talarico on blinders and white privilege, Abdul El-Sayed refusing to disavow Hassan Piker, and the "he's for you, they're for they/them" ad Erick wants resurrected Abolish ICE, explained: El-Sayed says ICE did not exist before this century, and Erick's answer that ICE is INS with a new name and a Homeland Security address Missouri Supreme Court redistricting mess: primaries already run on a 7 to 1 map, the general ordered back to the old 6 to 2 map, and Erick's equal protection argument for taking it to the US Supreme Court Entitlement reform as a second term legacy: Paul Ryan and Andrew Ross Sorkin on populism killing debt reduction, the automatic cuts coming by 2032, raising the retirement age, and a lame duck window after the midterms Ukraine, Iran and one privacy warning: Mark Thiessen's PAC-2 and PAC-3 co-production plan for Ukraine, "go finish Iran," and the Krebs on Security report that scans of 153 million driver's licenses are for sale on a Russian forum

Erick opens with a hot dog stand anecdote from New Way Weiners in Macon that matches the polling data: a Trump voter who is not angry, just disappointed, with diesel over six dollars a gallon. He walks through Karl Rove's Wall Street Journal warning that a Trump rally a day in October and an ad blitz built on the president himself will sink Republicans at 39.6 percent approval, then takes apart Joe Rogan's claim that ending poverty would end crime. Also: Sam Altman and Howard Lutnick at the G20 Asheville summit, the vitamin K shot panic, and the death of Gloria Steinem. Karl Rove's midterm warning: make 2026 about the Democrats, not Donald Trump Trump at 39.6 percent approval, the "they/them" ad, Troy Jackson in Maine and James Talarico in Texas Joe Rogan's poverty and crime take, and why the data does not back it Sam Altman and Howard Lutnick at the G20 Asheville statement on light touch AI regulation The algorithm versus AI: vitamin K shots, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Gloria Steinem's death

Erick tracks the Iran war as Brent hits 95 dollars and West Texas crude hits 91, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claiming the Strait of Hormuz is flowing and the regime is finished, while Iranian missiles hit Kuwait and possibly a hotel in Jordan. He then reports the growing revolt inside the Pentagon against Pete Hegseth after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation, and lays out his full theory of why the Republican Party keeps nominating the runner up, which points to Ted Cruz in 2028 if JD Vance stumbles. Breaking at the end of the hour: Maria Bartiromo is out at Fox Business after 12 years. Iran escalation, the Strait of Hormuz, Chris Wright on 17 million barrels a day, Scott Bessent on the iron wall blockade Brent at 95 dollars, West Texas crude at 91, diesel over 6 dollars a gallon, and Howard Lutnick on tariffs and GDP Pete Hegseth losing the officer corps: Dan Driscoll resigns, Sean Parnell responds, House and Senate Republicans prepare tough questions Erick's theory of everything on the GOP: Dick Cheney, Reagan, Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and why Ted Cruz should be the 2028 nominee JD Vance, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and the anti-Semitism problem with southern evangelicals and the donor class Breaking: Maria Bartiromo out at Fox Business, speculation about White House Press Secretary  

Erick knocks down the viral photos of the rusted USS Abraham Lincoln as left wing propaganda, pointing to the HMS Hermes coming back from the Falklands in 1982 in worse shape, then takes a call from Tom, a Navy pilot's father who says the fleet is simply broken and that 62 percent of jet pilots and 58 percent of helicopter pilots will not re-up under Pete Hegseth. The hour turns to Tom Homan on Fox laying out three straight record breaking months of ICE arrests and the national security case against birth tourism from Russia and China, Marco Rubio sanctioning Raul Castro's grandson and Banco Exterior de Cuba, and Erick's question about why the ICE protests vanished exactly when Cuban money in American shell accounts got frozen. USS Abraham Lincoln rust photos debunked: HMS Hermes, the Falklands, and why every ship at sea corrodes Caller Tom on the broken Navy: General Dynamics maintenance contracts, MH-60 helicopters, and pilot attrition under Pete Hegseth Dan Driscoll out, General Randy George purged, and the Army drone program Hegseth sidelined without telling Donald Trump Tom Homan on record ICE deportation arrests in June, July and August, plus 25,000 to 30,000 birth tourism cases a year from Russia and China Marco Rubio sanctions the Castro financial network as the ICE protests quietly disappear Ayanna Pressley calls birth tourism enforcement great replacement theory, and the Michigan land acknowledgement that set Erick off

Erick returns from break with good scan news for his wife, then breaks down why Army Secretary Dan Driscoll walked into the White House, told President Trump how many generals and admirals Pete Hegseth had quietly purged, and resigned on the spot. He also takes on Laura Ingraham by name over her "never Trump" attack, walks through Harry Enten's numbers showing Republicans running ahead of Trump's own 37 percent approval, and explains why the first Secure America PAC ads are aimed at exactly the wrong voters. Dan Driscoll out at the Pentagon, the Washington Post readiness leak, and how many officers Pete Hegseth fired without telling the president Why the president's super PAC ads fail: Harry Enten's data on Trump's 37 percent approval, the generic ballot, and the Republicans who are not motivated Erick versus Laura Ingraham, the Dominion discovery text messages, and why he will never say privately what he will not say on air Ken Paxton, James Talarico, and the Texas Senate race: run on the opponent's own words, not on your own record Max Miller, Brian Poindexter, and the best campaign ad of 2026, plus Ann Richards' 1996 warning to Bill Clinton about campaigning on the past Post Labor Day polling shifts, summer's Democratic bias, and the case against leaving the mentally ill on the streets

Erick Erickson opens by answering Laura Ingraham's Twitter attack over his Ken Paxton column, then defends Amy Coney Barrett for siding with Clarence Thomas and Donald Trump in the 5 to 4 White House ballroom ruling while tearing apart John Roberts and his "aesthetic injury" dissent. The hour closes on the deadlocked Lindsay Clancy jury in Massachusetts, with Erick and attorney Chad from Montgomery arguing the prosecution overcharged the case and that jurors, not social media, should decide it. Ken Paxton trails James Talarico in Texas, outraised 10 to 1, and Erick answers Laura Ingraham's "never Trumper" attack with the 2020 Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani text messages Amy Coney Barrett sides with Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to let White House ballroom construction continue in National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation John Roberts dissents on "aesthetic injury" standing, and Erick argues the Chief Justice keeps making the Supreme Court more political every time he tries to keep it out of politics Every president since World War II wanted a ballroom: Erick calls it overbuilt and gaudy, but says it is the president's house and the historic preservation crowd has no standing to stop it Lindsay Clancy jury deadlocks after 80 witnesses and 300 exhibits, and Erick refuses to attack the nine women and three men, defending American juries and the insanity and manslaughter questions in play

Erick Erickson breaks with much of the right on Flock cameras, taking apart Ron DeSantis and his move to pull every license plate reader off Florida's state highways, and laying out three fixes he says beat an outright ban: prohibit facial recognition in public rights of way, mandatory prison sentences for police who abuse the system, and a private right to sue Flock Safety when it shares data a city told it to keep local. Caller Troy asks what "papers" actually means in the Fourth Amendment, and Erick walks through persons, houses, papers and effects, the Supreme Court holding that a license plate carries no expectation of privacy, and how the FBI already used cell phone tower data to build the January 6 cases without a single camera. The hour then turns to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shutting down 110 driving schools over English proficiency violations, illegal aliens holding commercial driver's licenses in California and New York, Ken Paxton, Lake America, and a personal update on ten years of a drug keeping Erick's wife alive with stage four lung cancer. Ron DeSantis moves to strip Flock cameras from Florida rights of way, and Erick argues the license plate readers have solved hundreds of thousands of crimes and recovered kidnapped kids and wandering dementia patients, while wondering aloud whether DeSantis is grabbing a populist libertarian lane ahead of JD Vance and Marco Rubio for 2028 Three fixes instead of a ban: ban facial recognition in the public right of way, mandatory minimum prison sentences for officers who abuse Flock Safety data, and a private right of action against Flock when it shares data across jurisdictions that opted out Caller Troy on the Fourth Amendment and the word "papers," with Erick explaining persons, houses, papers and effects, the Ben Franklin liberty and security quote everyone misuses, and why anyone can legally photograph your license plate from the roadside Sean Duffy shuts down 110 driving schools tied to 5,000 English proficiency violations, and Erick credits the Transportation Secretary on air traffic controller hiring and FAA GPS upgrades that Pete Buttigieg never delivered, while calling the new FAA ban on pre flight drinks pure nanny state Erick on Ken Paxton, James Talarico and being handed crap sandwiches by both parties, on Lake America as bot bait, on his Swedish grandfather learning English in Coral Gables, and on his wife hitting ten years on a stage four lung cancer drug she was given two years to survive

Erick Erickson walks the whole 2026 Senate map, refusing to back off his warning that Ken Paxton is a bad general election candidate against James Talarico in Texas, then breaks live news that Donald Trump has launched new strikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz after Iran tried to mine the strait and fired eight missiles at an American base in Jordan. He takes apart Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan campaign, the Hasan Piker problem, the Charlamagne tha God appearance and the fireworks and asthma clip, and closes the hour explaining why he has changed his mind on whether Islam as it is being imported by groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR is compatible with the Western world. Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas: Erick says he called this race months ago, that independent voters decide Texas, and that Republicans should not drain the national budget saving Paxton when Michigan, New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Alaska are all in play Breaking during the hour: Trump announces strikes near the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Iranian sea mines and eight missiles fired at a base in Jordan, with a warning that a much larger attack is waiting in the wings and "very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran" Abdul El-Sayed's campaign in trouble: Mike Rogers on offense, Debbie Wasserman Schultz refusing to clear him, the Hasan Piker campaign appearance he now calls "a streamer in California," a Jewish consultant hired for damage control, and his claim that fireworks cause asthma attacks and heart attacks Scott Jennings versus Abby Phillip on CNN over Laura Loomer, and Erick's answer: draw Jesus and nothing happens, draw Muhammad and people lose their heads, plus MEMRI clips of imams saying "Islam is the solution for the whole world" and "we will build America on Islam" Why Erick changed his mind, credited to Muslim friends who fled the Middle East and to Dr. Michael Youssef's book on the unholy alliance between progressivism and Islamism, with Hamtramck, Dearborn, the British rape gangs and El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood ties as the evidence, and a Jimmy Carr bit and a Jewish necktie joke as the illustration

Erick Erickson opens by explaining why the Iran war cannot be negotiated like a normal conflict: the Islamic Republic's Mahdiism means the Ayatollahs believe they must bring about the apocalypse. He then walks through Brett McGurk's argument that Iran is actually losing its leverage in the Strait of Hormuz, with oil flows back to two thirds of pre war levels and Iran's economy contracting more than 5 percent. The hour turns on the Washington Post leak of the Secretary of Defense orders book, in which Pete Hegseth was told by the Navy, European Command, Pacific Command and Southern Command that a prolonged Iran deployment cannot be sustained, and on why Erick believes the leak is a 2028 hit job aimed at Hegseth from inside JD Vance's orbit. Mahdiism explained: why Iran's rational belief in the apocalypse makes negotiation impossible Brett McGurk on the Strait of Hormuz blockade working, oil flows recovering, Iran's economy contracting more than 5 percent with 70 percent inflation The Washington Post orders book leak: Admiral Daryl Caudle says only one fourth of the Navy's destroyer fleet is ready to deploy Three leaks in a row (Patriot missiles, surface to surface missiles, the non concur) and how Iran reads American weakness Erick's 2028 read: JD Vance's team, Pete Hegseth eyeing a run, and a White House source insisting the leakers are civilians, not the military Scottie Scheffler wins at East Lake, and why Trump cannot remove a sitting vice president

Erick Erickson reads President Trump's Truth Social post warning that communities rejecting data centers will end up "backwards and poor," then explains why that is the wrong message and why JD Vance's more nuanced version is the right one. He walks through the history of populist movements from Huey Long to Zell Miller to argue that MAGA likely does not survive Trump intact, and he points out the irony that TikTok, which Trump still refuses to shut down, is the original vector for nearly every viral anti data center complaint about water usage, land use, and noise. In the second half he breaks down Trump's Venezuela oil deal in full, giving the President real credit for removing Nicolas Maduro and reopening the fields to Chevron and Halliburton while calling the Pentagon equity structure exactly what it is: socialism. Trump's Truth Social data centers post, "let data rain," and why "backwards and poor" is the wrong pitch to a skeptical country Populism's arc from Huey Long and Rose Long to Zell Miller, and why JD Vance may not hold the MAGA coalition together TikTok as the vector: how data center water usage, noise, and land use fears went viral, and why Trump could shut it down tomorrow Caller Mark in Jacksonville on Eisenhower's interstate highway system as the model for embracing data centers, plus Georgia power bills going down The Venezuela oil deal: 17 fields, 65 billion barrels, Delcy Rodriguez, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and a Pentagon 35 percent equity stake Erick calls rotten Why Hugo Chavez taking Exxon and ConocoPhillips fields at gunpoint in 2007 makes the colonialism complaint absurd, and why paperwork beats rifles

Erick discusses the progressive dystopia that is America as the Handmaid's Tale even as progressives like Kathy Hochul are willing to cover their heads to go talk to muslim men who'd deny them rights.  He also points out how the same standard the media is focused on between Hasan Piker and Abdul El-Sayed is playing out between Tucker Carson and J.D. Vance.  Erick also discussed Milo Yiannopoulos's deportation and how independent voters say they support the President's deportation of all illegal aliens, but, when rubber meets the road, they do not.

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday on President Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America" and asks the obvious question: who exactly is switching their midterm vote over a lake? He then reports the real story behind the Canada trade war, that Jamieson Greer negotiated a deal both sides liked before Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sabotaged it over French language packaging, and warns it could cost Susan Collins in Maine and Mike Rogers in Michigan. Plus Trump's Arthur Schlesinger presidential rankings blunder, the data center backlash to the backlash, and 200,000 Chinese accounts shut down on Twitter. Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario, why no president should have that power, and the Iroquoian history of the name Jamieson Greer's Canada deal, Howard Lutnick's last minute sabotage, and the House and Senate races the trade war could sink Inside the White House: worry about a lame duck president, a Congress with no reconciliation message, and life after the midterms Trump's Truth Social presidential rankings, actually a 1940s Arthur Schlesinger Sr. list, with Woodrow Wilson "great" and Ulysses S. Grant a "failure" Data centers, unions like Steamfitters Local 602 breaking with Democrats over jobs, Greg Abbott's new ad, and China's 200,000 fake Twitter accounts Personal: Erick's daughter Evelyn turns 21, born the night Hurricane Katrina hit, and his AJC column on bringing back mental institutions

Erick Erickson uses the Callaway Golf and Good Good Golf blowup, a bad driver ad, a public apology, and a canceled partnership, to make a much bigger point about a country with no adults in the room, and he tells his own story of the tweet that nearly cost him CNN and how Rush Limbaugh became the mentor nobody else gave him. Then caller Randy asks why data centers do not go into empty strip malls and factories, and Erick gives the zoning and contamination answer from his Macon City Council days, plus the Effingham County build that is actually pushing Georgia Power rates down. He closes with hard advice for Flock Safety on license plate readers, facial recognition, and the abuse stories piling up. Callaway Golf, Good Good Golf, Matt Kendrick, and the Obsession themed driver ad that blew up, with Dude Perfect as the counterexample of growing up right Where the adults went: Erick on his own infamous tweet, apologizing for years, and emailing Rush Limbaugh at three in the morning for advice Caller Randy from Macon on repurposing empty big box stores for data centers, and why blank slate land at three to four thousand an acre always wins The Effingham County, Georgia mega data center, reportedly for OpenAI, and Georgia Power cutting rates because the facility pays its own way Flock Safety under fire: the Texas town that voted the cameras out, license plates versus facial recognition, and the mandatory minimum Erick would write into law Personal: daughter Evelyn's 21st birthday, his parents' 62nd wedding anniversary, Leif Erickson, and the great kitchen hardware negotiation

Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with major Iran news, reporting from Axios and Barak Ravid that the United States has broken Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz, plus the full CENTCOM update from Admiral Brad Cooper on the minesweeping operation, the naval blockade, and the 750 million barrels of crude the Navy has escorted through. He breaks news live that Chevron and Halliburton are investing billions in Venezuela's oil fields and directing that flow to the United States, a huge win he credits to President Trump, then covers Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh at Jackson Hole warning that rates could go up in September. The hour ends with a long, moving tribute to Dolly Parton, the only American with 80 percent approval from both Republicans and Democrats, and a hard word for the Christians online claiming she is in hell. Topics: Iran and the Strait of Hormuz: Alireza Tangsiri's mine order, the US and UAE reopening the shipping lanes, and only 11 real mines out of 200 objects swept Admiral Brad Cooper's CENTCOM update in full: 50,000 troops, 20 warships, 1,500 commercial vessels escorted, zero Iranian oil exported since the July blockade resumed Why Erick does not believe Xi Jinping or the Russians will cut Iran loose, and the theology of why secular communists and radical Islamists ally against America Breaking: Chevron, Halliburton, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips circling Venezuela's oil fields, with all flows directed to the United States Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh at Jackson Hole, inflation still above target, and markets falling on the odds of a September rate increase The Dolly Parton tribute: Appalachia, the literacy programs, turning down the Presidential Medal of Freedom from both Trump and Biden, Tressie McMillan Cottom and Peggy Noonan on her legacy, and the Hitler exception Callers Al in Oklahoma on pulling data center water out of the air, and Jim in Orlando telling the president to stop acting like an idiot before November

CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise trip to Moscow to warn Vladimir Putin off any attack on NATO, and hours later Latvia declared a border emergency and sent troops to its frontier with Russia and Belarus. Erick Erickson walks through the Wall Street Journal exclusive, the near extinction of America's Patriot missile batteries, and why the Pentagon never told Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman to ramp up production. Then a blistering segment on Mike Collins, the Georgia Senate race, and a Republican campaign staffed by white nationalists and Holocaust deniers while John Ossoff cruises. John Ratcliffe in Moscow, the Wall Street Journal exclusive, Steve Witkoff, Dmitry Peskov, and the NATO warning to Vladimir Putin Latvia declares a border emergency as Russia probes the Baltics, with Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden all watching The missile shortfall: Patriot batteries nearly gone, the defense primes never told to ramp up, and Ukraine outproducing all of NATO on drones five million to under one hundred thousand Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea learning how to learn from each other, with Ukraine as the axis test bed Mike Collins, the Nazi twink consultant, the Holocaust denier group chat, and why Erick says the GOP handed John Ossoff a second term Ben Domenech on GOP infighting, plus Ken Paxton, James Talarico, Rick Jackson, and Keisha Lance Bottoms

Erick Erickson maps the midterm Senate landscape after President Trump tells voters to "pretend I'm on the ballot," with Karoline Leavitt's last day as press secretary, a $400,000 a head Houston fundraiser for Ken Paxton, Abdul El-Sayed scrambling to distance himself from Hassan Piker in Michigan, and a democratic socialist surging against Chris Pappas in the New Hampshire primary while the GOP sleeps through it. Then a raw, emotional hour on the Lindsay Clancy trial, where Erick refuses both the men who deny postpartum depression is real and the women online insisting a mother could never strangle her three children. Callers Carol, Dwayne, Liz, and Krista weigh in on Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, and where mitigation ends and responsibility begins. Trump's "pretend I'm on the ballot" plea to Trey Gowdy, Karoline Leavitt's exit, and the Houston money chase for Ken Paxton The Senate map: Republicans confident on Michigan, Iowa, Susan Collins in Maine, and Florida against Angie Nixon, worried about Ken Paxton, Michael Whatley in North Carolina, and Mike Collins in Georgia Abdul El-Sayed versus Hassan Piker, Mike Rogers, and why Democratic strategists are telling donors to stop funding Florida and Texas New Hampshire's overlooked opening: Chris Pappas collapsing against John E. Sununu as a democratic socialist rises, plus Mark Short on Trump's absence from the trail and the Dallas midterm convention The Lindsay Clancy verdict, postpartum psychosis as mitigation and not excuse, Matt Walsh, Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, and Jonathan Hamby in Atlanta as the case for reopening mental health institutions CNN's rough week, from misspelling Erick's name on air to apologizing for running a Vegas impersonator's photo as Dolly Parton, plus Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America"

Erick Erickson closes the show with the most personal monologue of the day, previewing his Atlanta Journal Constitution column on Johnathan Hamby, the psychotic man who stabbed a stranger to death on the Atlanta Beltline, and arguing that deinstitutionalization was cruelty dressed up as compassion. He walks listeners from his hometown of Jackson, Louisiana, where the state mental hospital's steam whistle set the town clock, to Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, once the largest mental institution in the world with 12,000 patients, and asks what is actually more humane: a bed, three meals, and enforced treatment, or a bridge in Atlanta. Callers Linda, Susan, Sharon, Pat, Lynn, Tony, and Kathleen close out the Lindsay Clancy conversation with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the timed errand entered into evidence, and the over medication of patients by non medical prescribers. Topics: Johnathan Hamby, the Atlanta Beltline stabbing, and Erick's Atlanta Journal Constitution piece on how we failed him, plus anosognosia and why you cannot force a schizophrenic man to accept treatment he does not believe he needs Growing up in Jackson, Louisiana, in the shadow of the state mental hospital, Dixon Correctional Institute, and the case for reopening Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia The death penalty, abortion on demand, and euthanasia: Erick's argument that a society that stopped punishing the willful taking of life has itself stopped valuing life, with Genesis and the fare gate jumpers in Los Angeles as evidence Lindsay Clancy callers: retired pediatric nurse Linda on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and DFCS calls, ABC News reporting that Clancy timed her husband Patrick's errand, and retired clinical psychologist Kathleen on non medical therapists stacking psychiatric medications Defending Patrick Clancy against the online mob, and Erick's mass psychosis thread: COVID isolation, doom scrolling, screens rotting brains, and why breaking bread with an actual human being is the fix Erick's cooking videos, touching grass, and why real world friends beat social media friends

Erick Erickson opens with the Coldstream Guards playing "9 to 5" at Buckingham Palace and turns the death of Dolly Parton into a sermon on the second great commandment: she died with $650 million after giving away $600 million, refused the Presidential Medal of Freedom from both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and told Tennessee to feed the poor instead of building her a statue. Then Erick breaks down Meta's $18 billion settlement with 48 state attorneys general, calling it a shakedown that makes Mark Zuckerberg your child's mommy and daddy. Also, the death of Tim Curry, and a night at the Braves and Dodgers game at Truist Park. Dolly Parton dies at 80, the Buckingham Palace tribute, and loving your neighbor without carve outs or caveats The River Phoenix photographer Dolly Parton flew to Nashville, the anonymous band uniforms, and the Helene rebuilds in Western North Carolina Tim Curry, Clue, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Muppet Treasure Island Meta's $18 billion settlement with 48 attorneys general: night mode, school mode, and real age verification on Facebook and Instagram Why TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat are next, and how the tobacco settlement playbook hands Meta a competitive advantage Erick on parenting, screen time, and the parental override that guts the whole deal

Erick Erickson reads the extraordinary public apology from the family of Jonathan Hamby, the mentally ill man with more than thirty arrests who stabbed a stranger to death on the Atlanta Beltline, and turns it into a hard argument that closing the mental institutions was never compassion. Then billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller goes to the Wall Street Journal to tell his own protege, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, that doubling long dated bond buybacks is price management, not liquidity management, with the national debt crossing $40 trillion and net interest passing $1.1 trillion. Plus the SEC follows the Big Ten on NFL players returning to college, and Apple sets September 9, which sends Erick into Rush Limbaugh memories. The Jonathan Hamby family statement, anosognosia, the three foot samurai sword in a Chamblee elementary school, and why thirty arrest cycles ended in a killing on the Atlanta Beltline Milledgeville, Jackson, Louisiana, and the case for reopening long term mental health facilities: homelessness as a drug and mental illness problem, not a housing problem Dolly Parton, loving your neighbor, and Erick on how society perverted love into leaving the sick on the street Stanley Druckenmiller versus Scott Bessent in the Wall Street Journal: $4 billion buybacks, the 30 year yield at a 19 year high, $40 trillion in debt, and letting the bond market speak Entitlement reform, means testing, and the two bucket argument for why a growing government bucket strangles the private sector The SPLC prosecution and Todd Blanche, the SEC and Big Ten barring NFL returns, and Apple's September 9 event

Charles Barkley goes on Michael Smerconish and says he supports his gay and transgender friends but that men have no business competing against women, and Erick Erickson explains why an 80/20 issue still gets covered as though the girls defending girls sports are the villains, with Sophie Cunningham, Enes Kanter Freedom, Adam Silver, and Cathy Engelbert all in the mix. Then Darline Graham beats Ralph Norman by roughly thirteen to one in spending to win the South Carolina Senate nomination, and Heather Long of Navy Federal Credit Union flags a 3 percent personal savings rate even as Bloomberg reports hobby spending at a record share of American consumption. Plus a caller on free enterprise versus capitalism, Calvin Coolidge, the Meta settlement, tariff carve outs, and the cinnamon roll recipe finally getting filmed. TOPICS The 3 percent savings rate, the Bloomberg hobby spending boom, and Erick's argument that Americans have quietly gone fatalistic about tomorrow A Monchhichi doll, Penang, and the older sister who shaved it bald and threw it in the Persian Gulf Darline Graham defeats Ralph Norman in the South Carolina Senate runoff, why both parties keep nominating kooks in states they have written off, and the Colorado governor's race Charles Barkley, Michael Smerconish, Adam Silver, Cathy Engelbert, Sophie Cunningham, and Enes Kanter Freedom exposing the logic trap in gender identity Free enterprise versus capitalism with caller Steve, Calvin Coolidge as the level playing field president, corporatism, lobbyists, tariff carve outs, and the Meta settlement with 52 attorneys general Small business as the third largest GDP on earth, NFIB, and why the cinnamon roll recipe is finally being filmed for YouTube

Erick Erickson takes apart Abdul El-Sayed's disastrous Jesse Watters interview on Fox News, the Hassan Piker problem now swallowing his Michigan Senate campaign, and why the overwhelmingly white Democratic Socialists of America keep recruiting non-white candidates who cannot stop talking. Then the breaking story of the day: CIA Director John Ratcliffe lands unannounced in Moscow after flying in from Riga, and Erick explains why the most pro-Ukraine official in the Trump administration was the one sent to tell Vladimir Putin that NATO is not going anywhere. Plus Target's Halloween costume apology and the Big Ten shutting the door on NFL washouts. Abdul El-Sayed vs. Jesse Watters: circumcision, reparations, ICE, and a Democratic strategist admitting the party likes its odds in Texas better than Michigan The Hassan Piker problem: Politico's playbook lead, El-Sayed's statement on Jewish safety, and his refusal to condemn Piker by name Inside the Democratic Socialists of America: college educated, white, downwardly mobile, and coveting, with intersectionality and allyship as the recruiting tool John Ratcliffe's unannounced Moscow trip, the pause in Ukrainian strikes, and Russia touching the wires like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park across Poland, the Baltics, and Scandinavia Why Putin covets Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, plus Target's blackface-looking Halloween costume apology and the Big Ten banning NFL players from returning to college

Erick Erickson confesses he has been an original, card-carrying Canada hater since a French teacher at his school in Dubai told the class that real Americans should call themselves "United Statesians," then turns hard on President Trump for launching a trade war with America's largest trading partner 70 days before the midterms, explaining that the entire trade deficit with Canada is heavy crude oil and lumber and that Howard Lutnick reportedly blew up a finished deal from trade representative Jamieson Greer. Then Erick, an elections lawyer by trade, cuts through the panic over the Supreme Court and Trump's mail-in ballot executive order, showing that all the Court allowed was Homeland Security and the Postal Service to build citizenship lists while the lower court injunction blocking enforcement stays fully in place. The hour ends with breaking news from Variety that Dolly Parton has died at 80. Topics: Why the U.S. trade deficit with Canada is really about oil: American fracking produces light sweet crude our heavy crude refineries cannot process, so we import Canadian oil and now gas prices go up Howard Lutnick blows up the Jamieson Greer trade deal per the New York Times, Steve Moore concedes on Fox that the pain is not worth the gain, and Trump spends the day trying to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America" Canadian lumber, electricity, and the housing affordability crisis, plus the political cost to Mike Rogers in Michigan and Susan Collins in Maine 70 days before the midterms What the Supreme Court actually ruled on the mail-in ballot executive order: DHS and USPS may compile lists, but the injunction barring the Postal Service from blocking absentee ballots was never touched Erick's elections-lawyer verdict: Article 1, Section 4 gives the president no role whatsoever in election law, and why American federalism is exactly why China's much-hyped election-shaping AI got the swing states wrong

Erick Erickson plays the Parton family's official video announcement from Brian Seaver, Dolly's longtime head of security and the son of Cassie Parton, and then spends the hour on the life of Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, dead at 80, reunited with her husband Carl Dean, the woman who wrote "I Will Always Love You," "Jolene," and "Coat of Many Colors," sold more than 100 million records, played nine instruments, and quietly gave away books and money for decades. Erick calls her the last American icon everyone loved regardless of politics, and warns that the demons Jesus cast into the pigs eventually invented social media, so the haters are coming. Then a rare guest: National Federation of Independent Business president Brad Close joins Erick to explain why Obamacare made it nearly impossible for small employers to insure their people, and a caller from Jacksonville gets an elections-lawyer answer on mail-in ballots and non-citizen voting. Brian Seaver's family announcement, the plush cotton bed Dolly asked for, and Erick's favorite story: Dolly Parton entering a drag queen Dolly Parton look-alike contest and losing The staggering resume: 26 number one Billboard country singles, 110 charted singles, 3,000 songs written, 11 Grammys, 55 Grammy nominations, an asteroid, "9 to 5," "Steel Magnolias," the Imagination Library, and the Dolly Parton travel stops built to take on Buc-ee's Wikipedia crashes as Dolly's entry becomes the most read page in the world, plus the Trio cut of "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow Tree" with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris NFIB president Brad Close on small business health care: coverage fell from half of small employers to about a third after Obamacare, why multi-employer pools are strangled by regulation, and the case for HSAs and buying insurance across state lines The beneficial ownership reporting rule killed by the Trump administration, the $120 billion in compliance costs saved, and why Congress still has to repeal the law, plus caller Dave in Jacksonville on whether the Postal Service can be charged with mail fraud for delivering ballots to non-citizens

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent takes to the Financial Times to declare an "economic D-Day" against Iran, promising secondary sanctions on every nation, bank, and shadow fleet propping up Tehran, with China the name he pointedly never writes. Erick Erickson explains why none of it is possible without the dollar as the world's reserve currency, and why Vice President JD Vance's push to abandon that status would hand the world to China, Russia, and Iran. Then the story swallowing the news cycle instead: Donald Trump's 50% tariff threat against Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney refusing to wait and firing back the day after Labor Day, Jamieson Greer's version of the collapse, and Argentine beef versus furious American ranchers. Scott Bessent's Financial Times op-ed, the Tehran conference framing, Pascal's wager, and the 1 p.m. Treasury announcement broadening secondary sanctions Why the reserve currency is the whole weapon, and why JD Vance's worldview would leave America helpless against Iran and its allies Trump's Canada tariff post, the January 1, 2027 delay, and why Mark Carney is retaliating on $20 billion of US goods right before the midterms The Alberta secession myth, Canadian median income versus Mississippi, and the lumber and steel squeeze on American homebuilding Argentine beef imports, the smallest US cattle herd since World War II, and Jamieson Greer on CNBC blaming Canada for a fight Trump's tariffs started

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent goes live to open the sanctions campaign against Iran, with OFAC hitting more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels, new sectoral determinations on digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping, a promise that every branch of Bank Melli goes dark, and a hint that a major financial institution gets sanctioned by the end of the week. Erick Erickson translates it (the UAE and Dubai have already cut Iran off, and China will tell us to pound sand), then laughs at the San Diego City Council opening its meeting with a Kumeyaay Nation land acknowledgment and takes a caller from Dayton, Ohio on Canada, Ohio HR 194, and a Charter of Rights whose freedoms are subject to "reasonable limits." The hour's centerpiece is a full accounting of why Americans no longer trust the people asking them to accept Flock cameras and data centers, told through sand dumped in skate parks, an arrested paddle boarder, and five years of experts who lied. Scott Bessent's live Treasury press conference: secondary sanctions, OFAC sanctioning more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels, Bank Melli shuttered, a deliberate cure period rather than an immediate hammer, and a hint at a big bank by week's end Why the UAE and Dubai closing the Iranian crypto and oil laundering route matters, why Erick Erickson expects China to refuse, and Bessent's swipe at Mark Carney when a reporter asked about Canada The San Diego City Council's Kumeyaay Nation land acknowledgment, plus Amanda in Dayton, Ohio on Ohio HR 194, the push to add Canada to the Religious Freedom Special Watch List, and pastors jailed under the Charter's "reasonable limits" clause The trust monologue: San Clemente's sand filled skate park, the arrested paddle boarder, unbolted basketball rims, Gavin Newsom at the French Laundry, Brian Kemp and The Atlantic's "experiment in human sacrifice," Chris and Andrew Cuomo, Daniel Uhlfelder's grim reaper, Rachel Maddow's vaccine promise, the Wuhan lab emails, and the Hunter Biden laptop Why Erick still backs Flock cameras and data centers with restrictions and a facial recognition ban, why the 2000 Mules retraction and the Mark Andrews settlement prove character is not a partisan issue, and why Delta, Coca-Cola, Amazon, and JP Morgan taught Americans to fear AI  

Erick Erickson opens on the Georgia governor's race, where Keisha Lance Bottoms, running against his friend Rick Jackson, told a C-SPAN audience she was proud to end Atlanta's multimillion dollar agreement with ICE because "all money ain't good money," and Erick answers with Laken Riley and with a 29 year old named Ramon Harris stabbed to death on the Atlanta Beltline by Jonathan Hamby, a man arrested more than thirty times since 2011 and turned loose every time. That becomes the hour's argument: three strikes laws, reopened mental institutions, and a hard rewriting of what loving your neighbor actually requires. Then the Iran block, with Scott Bessent's economic D-Day, the Strait of Hormuz dark fleet data, and the Straits of Malacca chokepoint the United States and Indonesia are now closing on China. Keisha Lance Bottoms on C-SPAN bragging about ending Atlanta's ICE agreement, Rick Jackson, the 2020 sacking of Atlanta, Laken Riley, and Athens, Georgia operating as a sanctuary city while denying it The Atlanta Beltline murder of Ramon Harris by Jonathan Hamby, thirty plus arrests since 2011, charges dismissed, suspended, and reduced to time served, and Erick Erickson's case for three strikes laws, no parole, no pardon, and reviving forced mental health commitment Why 2 percent of the population commits almost all the crime, and why turning a mentally ill man loose thirty times was not loving to Jonathan Hamby, to Ramon Harris, or to anyone else Flock cameras under fire in Bloomingdale, Illinois and Kenosha County, Wisconsin, a million crimes solved against seventy breaches of trust, the real meaning of the Ben Franklin quote, and Erick's terms: keep the cameras, ban facial recognition, jail the cops who abuse them Iran's ghost fleet mapped: tankers stacked off Singapore and Mumbai, the new United States and Indonesia deal over the Straits of Malacca and Timor, Kpler data showing more than 80 percent of Hormuz oil traffic going dark, Trey Yingst on Fox, Scott Bessent promising China is not exempt, the UAE and Dubai closing the dirham and crypto backdoor, and whether Tehran shoots first Abdul El-Sayed telling an interviewer that American collateral damage and rule breaking help explain terrorism, and Erick Erickson's blunt verdict on it

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday with Isaac Newton's laws of motion and argues that American politics now runs on the third one: every action produces an equal and opposite reaction, and nothing is left to slow either side down. He reads The Economist's warning that superintelligent AI with legal rights could turn humans into "labradors for the machines," calls it nonsense from Silicon Valley weirdos who do not believe in God and think they can build one, and tells the story of ChatGPT refusing to help him cut a lock off his own office door while Claude just told him where to saw. Then the backlash roll call: the Toronto Tempo's non-binary she/they snapping turtle mascot, Seattle Times columnist Matt Calkins resigning after 11 years over spiked columns featuring female athletes, the European hunt for everyone who exposed Jason Arday, Flock cameras being chopped down, and the data center revolt. The hour closes with the fiscal argument of the day: with a guaranteed five to six percent return in the government bucket, nobody has a reason to put a dollar in the private sector bucket, which is exactly why Scott Bessent is wrong that we can grow our way out of the debt. Topics: Newton's three laws applied to politics: the AI backlash, the transgender backlash, and why no intervening force exists when both parties profit from the crisis The Economist on giving AI legal rights, humans as pets, and Erick's rebuttal that a large language model is a random probability machine, not a sentient one The Toronto Tempo's Des and Dot, a Borealis blue non-binary she/they snapping turtle mascot for a women's league that cannot define a woman Matt Calkins quits the Seattle Times over female student athletes, and the European campaign to fire everyone who exposed Cambridge plagiarist Jason Arday The government bucket versus the private sector bucket: guaranteed returns, bond issuance crowding out private investment, and why Scott Bessent's growth answer does not work Confiscating every American billionaire's $8.3 trillion would fund one year of a $7.4 trillion government, and San Francisco Democrats now oppose California's wealth tax The Republican turn to "the common good," Rush Limbaugh on why you cannot beat the real thing, and the case for shrinking Washington instead Trump's Education Department moves to strip the American Bar Association of law school accreditation power Congress still forces the Federal Reserve to file an annual report on a presidential dollar coin that stopped being minted in 2011

Erick Erickson turns the second law of thermodynamics into an economics lesson and lands it on Seattle: Starbucks is cutting 224 corporate jobs, including 120 employees who refused to move to Nashville, and between Brian Niccol's restructuring and Amazon's exodus, Washington State's progressives have taxed and regulated their own economy cold while Nashville takes 1,500 to 2,000 new residents a week. Then he refuses to let the tariff argument go, noting that President Trump just suspended the 25 percent tariff on imported beef and guaranteed the beef will now sell 25 percent below market, which is exactly the number his own listeners insisted had nothing to do with prices. The hour ends with Oreo Gate, the viral elementary school mom group chat that another mother ran through AI and turned into gospel music, and Erick is fully emotionally invested. Starbucks lays off 224 in Seattle, 120 of them for refusing Nashville, as Brian Niccol chases $2 billion in cuts and the "Back to Starbucks" plan while Amazon and The Daily Wire also head for Tennessee Economic thermodynamics: heat moves to cold, but capital moves cold to hot, and Erick's warning to the Tennessee legislature that Nashville is becoming Austin Trump drops the 25 percent beef tariff on 300,000 metric tons for 90 days and promises 25 percent lower prices, and Erick collects on being right about tariffs, mercantilism, and lobbyist carve outs for electronics while grocery stores got none Caller Marty on who actually holds the $40 trillion national debt, why it is Americans and not foreign governments, the 2032 Social Security cliff, and George W. Bush's 2005 reform that everyone scoffed at Oreo Gate: Michelle, Ava, Charlotte, Isla, and the mom who searched a five year old's lunchbox for contraband Oreos, plus Erick's own four Oreo lunchroom scandal Caller Dave on the Strait of Hormuz, the vetoed Security Council resolutions, and why Erick would walk away from the United Nations and sell the real estate

Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with the cleanest explanation yet of why Americans hate data centers: it is not the water, the power bills, or the fake claim that vibrations cause miscarriages, it is that the arguments against fracking failed while the arguments against data centers are landing, and the only difference is the messengers. The oil men who fracked lived in the community, went to the local church, sent kids to the local schools, and fixed what their neighbors complained about. The AI CEOs are coastal creeps who tell you on camera that the machines will take your job and you will love it, with Dario Amodei's wife and Jeffrey Epstein and The Economist's "labradors for the machines" piece as exhibits. He also takes callers on seniors getting crushed on fixed incomes, Social Security reform and the George W. Bush plan Republicans were too scared to pass, and the Justice Department's new rule restoring gun rights to rehabilitated nonviolent felons. Topics: Fracking versus data centers: the same earthquake and flaming tap water playbook, why the fracking industry beat it, and why Meta is the only AI company that understands communities Dario Amodei of Anthropic, the reported Jeffrey Epstein investment pitch, The Economist arguing humans could become pets to superintelligent AI, and Erick's answer that AI is iterative, not creative, because it has no soul Nuclear power in the 1970s as the cautionary tale: engineers made terrible spokesmen, the fear won, and other countries passed us Caller Ron in Tulsa on the senior squeeze: 2.5 and 2.8 percent Social Security increases, gutted Medicare dental, a $5,000 dental bill, and why Erick cannot insure three full time employees after Obamacare Caller David in Jacksonville on the Social Security trust fund's 2.6 percent return, and Erick on George W. Bush's 2001 and 2005 reform plans that would have doubled benefits if Republicans had not lost their nerve Angie Nixon says for profit prisons are modern day slavery, and Simone Sanders tries to hand her an exit ramp on the Democratic Socialists of America that she refuses to take The GOP wipeout warning: Patrick Ruffini on the five point Democratic bias in pre Labor Day polling, Ken Paxton losing the money race to James Talarico, and why the DSCC abandoning Florida is bad news for Texas Republicans Caller George on the Justice Department final rule restoring Second Amendment rights to nonviolent felons, and why the left wants your vote restored but not your rifle Scott Bessent on 6.5 percent nominal growth, Atlanta Fed GDPNow at 4 percent, tankers running dark through the Strait of Hormuz, and tariffs coming off beef and probably Canada Penn State's fraternity cocaine ring, the pledges assigned to bag it, the ringleader they call Pablo Pledgescobar, and what the whiteout is going to look like this year

The national debt just crossed $40 trillion, and it took only 95 days to add the last trillion, so Erick Erickson opens with the math nobody in Washington wants: our debt now exceeds our GDP, Social Security and Medicare are the engine, and neither party will touch it. He plays Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC defending the bond buybacks, promising fiscal consolidation with Russ Vought, and laying out what he calls the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world against Iran, with the strait under American control and Iranian oil exports at zero for 72 hours straight. Then a blunt message to President Trump: get off the White House lawn, stop showing off the new helicopter pad and the gold leaf, kill every tariff today, and go make the case against Abdul El-Sayed and the Democratic Socialists before the midterms. The $40 trillion debt, 95 days per trillion, and why JD Vance's "common good conservatives" want to stop talking about GDP Scott Bessent on CNBC: Treasury buybacks, the 10 year yield and your mortgage rate, poor liquidity at the 30 year, and the fiscal consolidation plan coming with Russ Vought Bessent on Iran: maximum economic pressure, the blockade, the toughest sanctions in history, the Venezuela precedent, and zero Iranian oil exported in 72 hours squeezing China Mandatory spending, the 2032 Social Security trust fund cliff, and why confiscating every American billionaire's wealth would not fund the government for a year Tariffs are a tax: Trump waiving steel, aluminum and car tariffs, Walmart's billions in tariff refunds, and Erick's pitch to drop all of them right now and put them back after the election Trump's Sikorsky Marine One helicopter pad, the gold leaf renovations, and Republicans begging him to get back on message while people cannot afford groceries Federal agents seize Eric Swalwell's devices, Max Miller stays in the race, and the DNC snubs Atlanta for Boston, Philadelphia or Denver in 2028 Charitable giving maps to church attendance: the South and Utah give the most, DeKalb County and the coasts give the least Abdul El-Sayed says he is African too, plus American oil production now beating the rest of the world combined and new evidence China is lying about its economy

Erick Erickson plays the moment CNN's Boris Sanchez confronts Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Ashik Siddiqui over the DSA celebrating Fidel Castro, telling him on live television that his own grandfather fought in the Cuban revolution and was then locked up by Castro for 20 years for speaking his mind. He stacks it with Abdul El-Sayed answering black voters by saying he is African too, Hasan Piker promising to be Angie Nixon's loyal soldier while she insists she has no idea who he is, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee quietly writing off Florida to move money into Texas, where Republicans are panicking that Ken Paxton is a lazy, corrupt candidate who could hand the seat to James Talarico. Then the heart of the hour: a Ben Domenech speech on the earned collapse of trust in American elites, and Erick's argument that the Flock camera fight, the data center backlash, and local governments signing secret non disclosure agreements are all the same trust problem. Boris Sanchez versus DSA co-chair Ashik Siddiqui on Cuba, Fidel Castro, Fulgencio Batista, and the grandfather Castro jailed for 20 years for wanting democracy Abdul El-Sayed's "I am African too" answer to black voters, and the Democratic Socialists of America as pampered rich kids, including the Brooklyn co-chair in a $1.5 million townhome who owes his union money Angie Nixon, Hasan Piker's "loyal soldiers" pledge, his threatened lawsuit against Scott Jennings, and the DSCC telling donors Florida is gone Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas: Republican alarm over a lazy, corrupt nominee, Talarico's Karmelo Anthony jury pander, and why Erick Erickson is rooting for injuries in that race Ben Domenech on Donald Trump as a beta test for a cure, single digit trust in Congress, the media and big business, and Erick's fix for Flock cameras and data centers: transparency, mandatory minimums for officers who abuse the data, and the ShotSpotter repeal that cost Xavier Batista his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Breaking news lands mid hour: Jessica Bowie, 35, arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS after plotting to blow up the New York State Capitol in Albany, and Erick Erickson walks through the federal complaint, the FBI confidential source posing as an ISIS facilitator, and why progressives who instantly guessed MAGA guessed wrong. The heart of the hour is Erick's argument that everyone quoting George Orwell has the wrong book: we are not living in 1984, we are living in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, sedated by soma and screens and manufactured anxiety, which is why he changed his mind on Flock cameras once he noticed the Communist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America are their loudest opponents. Then Iran, with David Rohde on MS Now conceding Trump's economic pressure campaign could actually work, Trey Yingst on the UAE cutting off all trade with Iran, and satellite evidence that the Iranians are dumping oil into the desert because their tanks are full. Topics: Breaking: Jessica Bowie, 35, charged over an ISIS inspired plot to bomb the New York State Capitol in Albany, the FBI confidential source, her conversion five years ago, and the standing Islamist threat Erick ties to Abdul El-Sayed's bookshelf and family connections Brave New World versus 1984: Aldous Huxley, soma, Henry Ford and the alpha to epsilon caste system, and why the phone in your pocket tracks you better than any Flock camera ever could Tucker Carlson claiming nuclear weapons were made by entities rather than men, the demon that supposedly attacked him, and Erick's Dorian Gray line about how fast he has aged Callers Jim and Craig on Ozzie Guillen praising Fidel Castro in Miami in 2012, the Cuban and Venezuelan communities pushing Florida right, and the grandfather's rule to vote for the guy who angers both sides The postpartum depression case: women in pink rallying outside a courthouse for a mother who strangled her three children, Erick's break with Matt Walsh on whether postpartum depression is real, and his position that it is real and she still deserves the death penalty Iran under economic siege: David Rohde on MS Now, Trey Yingst on Iranian missiles hitting the UAE, the Emirates cutting off trade and closing the dirham and Dubai crypto laundering route, China rationing gasoline and diesel, and Kharg Island backing up Tomahawk production, Raytheon in Tucson and 3,000 new jobs, the Pentagon acquisitions push to rebuild the defense industrial base, and the $40 trillion debt problem Erick illustrates with a Butts County speed trap Median Strategies and the fake poll: Karen Bass and Fox 11 Los Angeles took the bait, the New York Times, RealClearPolitics and 50 plus one all refused it, and why RealClearPolitics averages are still the ones to trust

Florida's primary blew up both parties overnight: Democratic Socialist Angie Nixon beat impeachment hero Alexander Vindman for the Senate nomination while spending 13 times less, and Republicans took out the trash, dumping Cory Mills in Florida 7 and burying anti-Israel candidates James Fishback and Dan Bilzerian in single digits. Erick Erickson breaks down what the DSA surge means for Texas, Ohio and Alaska money, plays Darlene Graham telling a South Carolina debate audience she is "not that informed on national security," and exposes the trust fund hypocrisy of Democratic Socialist leaders in New York and the terror ties trailing Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. Angie Nixon, the Democratic Socialists of America, and how Alexander Vindman lost Florida's Senate primary 13 to 1 on money Republicans purge their own: Cory Mills loses Florida 7, James Fishback and Dan Bilzerian rejected, Jared Moskowitz and Randy Fine hold on South Carolina Senate runoff: Ralph Norman versus Darlene Graham on Taiwan, China, and peace through strength, with Greta Van Susteren asking Harry Enten's CNN map of DSA primary wins from New York and Michigan to Colorado, Pennsylvania and now Florida Trust fund commies exposed: Grace Ryan's noblesse oblige tweet, Gustavo Gordillo's $1.5 million Brooklyn row home, and Abdul El-Sayed's family ties to the Islamic American Relief Agency David Jolly rejects socialism, Vernon Jones forces a Georgia runoff against Tim Fleming, and the demons of Mark 5 explain Twitter

The AI data center revolt is now a live midterm threat, and Erick Erickson argues the real problem is not the data centers, it is that Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and the rest of the AI CEOs are their own worst salesmen, the charming movie villains you were warned about, while Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are the only ones who figured out how to sell a community on jobs, tax relief, and skills training. He reads the Axios scoop on the NRSC's private memo warning that Senator Jon Husted is losing Ohio to Sherrod Brown over data centers, walks through Vivek Ramaswamy's property tax plan and Jason Kelce's Garage Beer ad, then turns to Ukraine, where drone crews are burning Wildberries distribution centers outside Moscow to make the Russian public finally feel the war while JD Vance begs Kyiv to pull its punches. He closes on the fuel crisis behind it all: a record diesel crack spread, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on why American fracking is the only thing keeping this from being a catastrophe. TOPICS Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and why Erick Erickson says the AI CEOs are the evil villains from the movies, with Mark Zuckerberg and Meta as the lone exception that knows how to work with a community The Axios and NRSC memo: data centers polling as popular as nuclear waste, Jon Husted versus Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Josh Shapiro and other Democrats racing to crack down Vivek Ramaswamy's plan to make data centers pay the community's property taxes, Jason Kelce's Garage Beer water ad, and the Google data center near Erick that is lowering local property taxes Ukraine's 413th unmanned systems regiment, 600 drones, and the Wildberries warehouse fires meant to make Moscow feel the war, plus JD Vance asking Ukraine to hold its fire and the Middle East allies who took Kyiv's help Record diesel crack spreads over $100, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, Chris Wright on the Permian Basin, and the fracking fights that look exactly like today's data center fights Notus on Cory Mills' downfall: Mike Haridopolos quietly recruiting Ryan Elijah while House Republican leadership backed Mills in public

Moderna and Merck just posted the first successful late stage trial of a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran paired with Keytruda, cutting the return and spread of high risk melanoma, and Erick Erickson spends the hour singing the praises of Big Pharma and taking apart the conspiracy that drug companies are hiding the cure for cancer. He talks about his wife's stage 4 lung cancer, why a lung transplant was never an option for her, and why the people most certain a cure is being suppressed are the loneliest and most isolated people in America. Then a full turn to the loneliness data: Brad Wilcox on unmarried young men outnumbering married men two to one, Rosaria Butterfield on why your messy house is an excuse and not a reason, and why going to church is the cheapest mental health treatment in the country even if you do not believe. Moderna, Merck, intismeran and Keytruda: the first late stage win for a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, a $50 billion market cap swing, and Merck's Jane Healy on a whole new field of medicine Why the "Big Pharma is hiding the cure" conspiracy is really about envy, covetousness and isolation, with Erick's account of his wife's incurable lung cancer and the genetic protein behind it Caller Allen, an oncology pharmacist who worked with Emory, on why cures do not sit on a shelf, how small companies and private equity bring niche drugs to market, and the new mRNA flu vaccine approved under RFK's FDA Modern monetary theory, grocery prices, Publix milk and beef, and why the answer to a bad economy is not the vice president's plan to dump the dollar as the world's reserve currency Brad Wilcox, the Institute for Family Studies and "Get Married": unmarried men 20 to 39 up 47 percent, Gen Z and Gen Alpha social trust at record lows, and the COVID isolation hangover Rosaria Butterfield on hospitality, what Christians could learn from their gay and lesbian neighbors, and the atheist who goes to church every Sunday for the friends Personal color: Alan Ritchson and season four of Reacher, a kitchen renovation, Sunday nights on the porch, a camera crew coming to film the cinnamon roll recipe, and two hours in the orthodontist chair

Florida goes to the polls and Erick Erickson makes the case that Republicans should fire Cory Mills in Florida's 7th, where former Orlando news anchor Ryan Elijah is polling ahead of a congressman under investigation for steering contracts plus revenge porn and abuse allegations. He coins "Podcastistan" for the circle of podcasters (Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens, Thomas Massie, James Fishback) who interview each other about hating the Jews, and asks whether Dan Bilzerian's anti Israel campaign against Randy Fine gets any traction. Then the story almost nobody is covering: the diesel crack has hit a record $102 as Iran hammers refineries and the Strait of Hormuz, Russia is shipping TNT and drone parts across the Caspian, and NBC News, the Wall Street Journal, and Al Jazeera all report Iran now believes war is inevitable and is weighing a first strike. Cory Mills versus Ryan Elijah in Florida 7, and why Erick Erickson says the GOP loses the seat in November if Mills survives the primary Podcastistan: Dan Bilzerian versus Randy Fine, James Fishback for governor, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene's Jewish space lasers and her claim Trump will nuke Iran, plus Byron Donalds cruising The double standard: Democrats forced out Eric Swalwell (the Fang Fang confession) and Graham Platner, while Trump wrapped his arms around Max Miller in Ohio Troy Jackson's Maine problem, Donna Brazile calling it salacious gossip, and the fake Dan Sullivan ballot trick in Alaska The Atlanta Dream, the national anthem, and a mother and daughter in XX XY shirts forced to change while a trans fan got the jumbotron, plus Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and the WNBA subsidy The diesel crack at a record $102, distillate stockpiles at 1996 lows, Russia rearming Iran across the Caspian, the UAE missile alert, Dana Perino on a communications reset, and Erick's case for striking Iran first and fomenting a civil war there

Jon Ossoff dragged Natalie Harp, a bone cancer survivor who lives because Donald Trump signed the Right to Try Act, into a campaign speech to imply an affair with the president, and Erick Erickson takes apart the smear and the hyper online staff behind it. He also answers Matt Walsh's claim that postpartum depression is not real, celebrates the Mississippi Miracle that has Mississippi fourth graders number one in the nation in reading and math, and defends Flock license plate cameras while calling for hard prison time for cops who abuse them. Jon Ossoff, Natalie Harp, the Right to Try Act, and the damage control interview with Jen Psaki on MS Now Matt Walsh, postpartum depression, Carl Schmitt, JD Vance, and how social media works like the portrait of Dorian Gray The Mississippi Miracle: phonics, retention, and why Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee are copying it Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed, and a campaign manager comparing a 1947 Ford F100 at the Woodward Dream Cruise to a Klan rally Fake polls from Median Strategies on Karen Bass, Bill de Blasio on Medicare for All, and why the Affordable Care Act priced out small business Flock cameras, the Conyers hit and run arrest, and mandatory minimums for police who abuse the data

Erick Erickson closes out the Flock camera fight with three callers, including a Metro Atlanta police officer, a listener whose cousin was killed by a hit and run driver the cameras identified, and a caller who wants a warrant requirement, and lands on a middle ground: keep the cameras, and give police who abuse the data mandatory prison time, like the Haines City, Florida officer charged with tracking his estranged wife's car 717 times in 21 months. Then Abdul El-Sayed and Florida DSA candidate Oliver Larkin make the Democratic Socialist case for abolishing private insurance, and Erick answers with the story of a healthy sole proprietor whose post Obamacare plan only works if he goes to the emergency room. The heart of the hour is debt and deficit: the 30 year treasury hit 5.323 percent, a 19 year high, the diesel crack is over $100 for the first time ever, and American families are now taking out buy now pay later loans to cover rent, power bills, and tax bills. TOPICS Flock cameras and civil liberties: callers David, Tom, and Jeremy, the City Journal numbers (24 homicides, 17 hit and runs, 31 shootings, and more than 50 children recovered this year), Haines City officer Christopher Anthony Goodson charged after 717 searches on his estranged wife, and why the Democratic Socialists of America started the campaign against the cameras Abdul El-Sayed on single payer, DSA candidate Oliver Larkin versus Jared Moskowitz in Florida's new District 25 from Boca Raton to Miami Beach, and the friend whose Obamacare plan covers only the emergency room Debt versus deficit explained: the 30 year treasury at 5.323 percent, the 10 year above 4.7 percent, July CPI at 3.4 percent against a 2.4 percent rate before the Iran war, and the record diesel crack that is about to raise your grocery bill Buy now pay later comes for the middle class: Affirm financing monthly rent, Intuit pitching file now pay later to TurboTax users, and Erick's beans and rice answer to the Washington think tank class that calls him an elitist California Energy Commission votes to phase out cheap replacement tires, eliminating 70 percent of tires sold in the state by 2033, with Goodyear's Brett Gladfelty warning about cost, plus the DeKalb County "tag applied for" loophole and the Atlanta man with a street legal pink Barbie Jeep

Erick Erickson explains what the media is getting wrong about President Trump cutting back joint military exercises with South Korea: the real driver is a Seoul government drifting toward China, not an attempt to woo Kim Jong-un, and Trump keeps undermining a defensible decision with his own social media. He walks through Peggy Noonan's Wall Street Journal column on Trump's collapsing approval numbers and lame duck status, the JD Vance camp's "America in decline" argument against Marco Rubio's case for American strength, and why Ronald Reagan beat Henry Kissinger and Jimmy Carter's politics of managed decline. Then the story he refused to chase until now: Admiral Brad Cooper's Wall Street Journal piece on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the fake videos seeded by Iranian propaganda, and the planned rotation of the USS George Washington that the press recast as a crisis. Trump, Kim Jong-un, and the South Korea drills: the China concerns inside the US military and intelligence community that nobody is reporting Peggy Noonan on Trump's 39 percent approval, The Economist's 34 to 61 poll, and a president who is now a lame duck JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and the fight over whether America is in decline or should lead again, with Reagan versus Kissinger, Carter, and Brzezinski Terry McAuliffe and Rahm Emanuel tell Democrats to stop fighting the socialists as the DSA wears the party like a skin suit USS Abraham Lincoln: Admiral Brad Cooper's report, Iranian propaganda videos, the crippled Bahrain base, and Erick's childhood hosting the Fifth Fleet in Dubai

Erick Erickson makes his sharpest case yet against Vice President JD Vance, arguing that Vance is to economics what Candace Owens is to the Charlie Kirk assassination: a professional contrarian who lands on the fringe answer and calls it heterodoxy. Erick plays three separate Vance clips (a think tank, the Senate floor, and Fox News) in which the vice president calls America's reserve currency status a "resource curse" that lets American consumers buy things too cheaply, then walks through the Heritage Foundation research on what the dollar actually buys you: cheaper mortgages, cheaper car loans, cheaper groceries, lower inflation and lower interest rates than anywhere else on earth. He notes that China, Russia, the Democratic Socialists of America, Tucker Carlson, and Vladimir Putin's favorite philosopher Alexander Dugin all want the dollar dethroned, and plays President Trump saying flatly that losing it means third world status. Then a Wall Street Journal scoop that should terrify Republicans: Iran is preparing to widen the war on purpose to spike gas prices and cost the GOP the midterms. TOPICS JD Vance, the "resource curse," and why Erick Erickson says abandoning reserve currency status would turn America into a third world country Candace Owens, Hasan Piker, and the "it was the Jews" conspiracy that erased Tyler Robinson's confession in the Charlie Kirk murder Heritage Foundation research on the dollar: Charles de Gaulle, the BRICS nations, seigniorage, cheap borrowing, and exports up tenfold in 50 years The resource curse Vance misunderstands: Nigeria, Venezuela, and Botswana versus Norway's two trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund Iran's plan to escalate before the midterms: the IRGC, the Houthis, Bab al-Mandeb, Masoud Pezeshkian, and the Pentagon's missing demand signal to Raytheon and Lockheed Dianne Feinstein's pseudoephedrine ban as the perfect parable, plus Mark Thiessen, the $20 burrito, and cheap toasters

Erick Erickson devotes the first half of the hour to a story he says you should know even if you do not want to: Jason Arday, the Cambridge University sociology professor and serial fabulist who took his own life after the Guardian, the Times Higher Education, and the Daily Telegraph unraveled a biography that was almost entirely invented. Erick walks the whole record, the plagiarized Liverpool John Moores thesis, the harassment complaints filed against the academics who caught him, the masked knifeman and the pig's head that closed circuit television and the Metropolitan Police could never find, the visiting professorships that Glasgow and Ohio State say never happened, and argues the real culprits are the white progressive elites who elevated an unqualified man to prove their own allyship, then blamed his critics when it collapsed. He runs the same pattern through Elizabeth Warren at Harvard, Ibram Kendi, Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Duke lacrosse case, and the Rolling Stone hoax at the University of Virginia. The back half turns to a Democratic Party in a panic, with Hakeem Jeffries, Ro Khanna, and Rahm Emanuel all scrambling to put distance between themselves and the Democratic Socialists of America. Jason Arday, Cambridge, and Liverpool John Moores: the plagiarism, the fabricated marathons and charity millions, and the police reports filed against the professors who exposed him Why Erick Erickson says the villains are the white academic elites who graded a man on a curve, from Elizabeth Warren and Ibram Kendi to Nikole Hannah-Jones, with Thomas Sowell as the counterexample Harry Enten on CNN: Donald Trump at 79 percent disapproval on gas prices, worse than Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush, with gas still above $4 Hakeem Jeffries, Ro Khanna, and Rahm Emanuel run from the DSA, plus why the Democratic Socialists really want the flock cameras gone The 2026 map: Mike Rogers up in Michigan, Ken Paxton in trouble in Texas, Susan Collins tied in Maine, and Republican sore spots in Ohio, North Carolina, and Georgia Cory Mills in Florida's 7th and Max Miller in Ohio's 7th: two scandal plagued incumbents who could cost Republicans Vivek Ramaswamy, Jon Husted, and the House Trump's slipping grip on his own party in the Axios polling, the lame duck problem, and why the courts are what Republicans are really fighting for

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promises unprecedented economic measures and a blockade of Iranian ports as $4 gas and $80 oil collide with the midterms, and Erick Erickson says the hard part out loud: we are losing a war against a country we could beat because there was never a plan. Then the case Republicans do not want to hear, that Ken Paxton is lazy, corrupt, and putting Texas in play for James Talarico, with Mark Halperin agreeing on tape. Plus Max Miller in Ohio, Cory Mills and Ron DeSantis in Florida, Mike Collins in Georgia, and Abdul El-Sayed's Detroit animal shelter record in Michigan. Scott Bessent's Iranian port blockade and sanctions, the Strait of Hormuz, and the highest pre-election August gas prices on record Why the Pentagon never sent the demand signal for missile production, Admiral Cooper's stop and start problem, and the drones and F-5s Iran actually got through Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas, the donor class walking away, and Mark Halperin's warning that Paxton loses if nothing changes Herschel Walker, Mike Collins, Max Miller, and Cory Mills: how the GOP keeps nominating its weakest links while Democrats force theirs out Abdul El-Sayed, Sharia and dogs, and the 74 percent kill rate at Detroit's animal shelter, plus Luigi Mangione's admission in the Brian Thompson murder

Erick Erickson wades into the fight between Ben Shapiro and the Federalist's John Daniel Davidson over whether the American dream still works, and answers with a date: ten years ago his wife would be dead, because the lung cancer treatment that saved her did not exist yet. Using C.S. Lewis and the fifteenth Screwtape letter, he takes apart the professional pessimism spreading across the online right and makes the case for contentment. Then CNN's Harry Enten says he is running scared for Republicans as Democratic primary turnout blows past 25 million, and Erick argues over whether culture or the economy decides November, from Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota and Ken Paxton in Texas. Ben Shapiro versus John Daniel Davidson on whether hard work and virtue still pay off, and Erick's precise rebuttal: his wife's lung cancer drug, next day delivery, the end of Roe v. Wade, and the Supreme Court on trans care for minors C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, and the fifteenth letter: why idealizing the past or fearing the future makes idols, why misery is increasingly a choice, and why contentment is the answer Harry Enten's CNN data: over 25 million Democratic primary votes so far, ahead of 2018, against a Michigan Senate poll that is the weakest Democratic showing of the century Culture versus the economy in November: Mike Rogers versus Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan's ICE answer in Minnesota, Ken Paxton's character problem in Texas, and why Erick thinks the GOP is making a bad gamble Callers on populism versus conservatism, a Star Trek fan page turning on Noa Tishby while a barbecue board showed nothing but love, and a gearhead's case against letting Washington design Detroit's cars

Stacey Abrams sits down with Kamala Harris and declares that the South has lived under soft authoritarianism since 1776 and that America has backdoored its way to a new Jim Crow, and Erick Erickson, who served on the city council in Macon, Georgia, answers with the Jim Crow signage still hanging in his city's terminal station and the people who actually want it kept up. From there he reads his "trust fund commies" piece in full, the argument that from Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx to Fidel Castro, Xi Jinping, Zohran Mamdani and Graham Platner, socialism has always been the insurance policy of the well born against the creative destruction of a free market. Plus a caller on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, and why Luigi Mangione's zealous defense and life sentence prove the system worked. Stacey Abrams and Kamala Harris on "soft authoritarianism" in the South, Georgia's voter ID law she called Jim Crow 2.0, and the black voter turnout that went up instead of down Macon's terminal station and its whites only water fountains: why northern transplants want the signs torn down and native black residents want them kept Luxury beliefs and the harm they do: defunding the police, blocking school choice, decriminalized drug use, and a near wreck with a driver high on marijuana on Erick's morning commute The trust fund commies essay: Friedrich Engels' textile mill, Karl Marx, Fidel Castro, Xi Jinping's princelings, Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, Zohran Mamdani, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, and Graham Platner's oysterman cosplay Roy in Jacksonville on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Pentagon that has not been candid about Iran, and George on Luigi Mangione's guilty plea, the border wall, and why defense lawyers deserve respect

Erick opens on the Wall Street Journal's tariff refund story (over 40 S&P 500 companies reporting some $9.6 billion, with Apple near $2.2 billion, Nike at $986 million, FedEx at $800 million, Amazon at $640 million, and GM at $500 million after the Supreme Court struck the tariffs) and skewers the populists who swore tariffs would not raise prices yet now demand a cut of the refunds. He then turns to the Tyler Robinson trial in the Charlie Kirk assassination, the Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson conspiracy theories, and the debunked Anthony Fauci mRNA miscarriage claim, arguing that information overload is pulling Americans away from reality itself and undermining the truth claims, most of all the resurrection, that society needs to survive. Tariff refunds pour into Apple, Nike, FedEx, Amazon, and GM; Erick's warning to the Fortune 500 to raise wages and reinvest or face bipartisan backlash Why prices rose less than feared because companies held back wages and investment, and how populist economics runs on emotion, not coherent policy (the $20 burrito, the cheaper Chipotle, "expensive toasters") Data centers and AI: Mark Zuckerberg, Mike Rowe, and a saved Washington State town versus Anthropic's Dario Amodei doom messaging, plus Flock camera CEO Garrett's new data limits The Tyler Robinson trial, Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, and the "it was the Jews" conspiracy, alongside the transgender-shooter pattern the theorists ignore Anthony Fauci and the debunked COVID vaccine miscarriage claim, the DSA and PSL socialism clip on canceling mortgages, and Erick's faith close on truth, reality, and not fearing tomorrow

Erick argues that precedent matters, tracing how Democrats spent decades using lawsuits and court settlements (California's Proposition 8, the state's refusal to defend it, Bill Clinton's illegal immigration consent decree, and Anthony Kennedy's Obergefell ruling) to bind future governments, and how the Trump Justice Department has now learned the same trick by declining to appeal Judge James Wesley Hendricks' Northern District of Texas ruling that struck down the National Firearms Act permit and $200 tax on suppressors and short barreled rifles. From Palmetto State Armory buyers skipping the paperwork to the Fifth Circuit tossing Biden's gas stove limits, Erick says "we learned it by watching you." He then celebrates the V8's comeback (the Wall Street Journal on Ram scrapping the Hurricane six for the Hemi, Stellantis, and GM), skewers the Cybertruck and Ford Lightning, and warns Republicans that Ken Paxton could actually lose to Democrat James Talarico, citing Mark Halperin's blunt on air alarm. The National Firearms Act ruled unconstitutional in North Texas: Judge Hendricks, the Trump DOJ declining to appeal, suppressors and short barreled rifles going permit free, and Palmetto State Armory buyers lining up in South Carolina "We learned it by watching you": Proposition 8, the unenforced California marriage law, Bill Clinton's immigration settlement, Obergefell, and Republicans now winning settlements on gas stoves and dishwashers Suppressor myths versus reality, the James Bond pillow trick debunked, and Erick's own range day at Bullets and Burgers near Las Vegas Cliff calls from southwest Georgia on data centers and water, the DSA's misleading El Paso video, fracking water recycling, and a Washington State town funded 57 percent by one data center Americans and the V8: the Wall Street Journal on Ram's Hemi comeback, Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, GM expanding V8 output, the Cybertruck and Ford Lightning as cautionary tales, plus Ken Paxton versus James Talarico with Mark Halperin sounding the alarm

Erick digs into a troubling defense story: in the Combined Resolve war games in Germany, Ukrainian drone operators wiped out a US armored brigade every single time, exposing how far behind America has fallen even as Reaper drones run low and Iran picks off the rest. He ties it to a missile production problem (the Pentagon never sent Lockheed Martin and Raytheon the demand signal, dating back to the 1993 "last supper" consolidation dinner) and to a Trump class battleship the Navy openly says it does not need, calling it a jobs program instead of a warfighting force. Then he pivots to Luigi Mangione's expected federal guilty plea in the Brian Thompson murder, Abdul El-Sayed and Sharia's view of dogs behind Detroit's 74 percent shelter kill rate, and a full throated case for tort reform built around the dismissed Hershey Reese's peanut butter pumpkin lawsuit. Topics: US drone vulnerability: the Combined Resolve exercise in Germany, Ukraine's 412th unmanned systems regiment routing the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, dwindling Reaper drones, and Iran's F-5s slipping into Kuwait Missile and shipbuilding dysfunction: the missing Pentagon demand signal, the 1993 "last supper," Lockheed Martin's thin 8 to 9 percent margins, continuing resolutions since Obama, and the Trump class battleship the Navy says it does not want Luigi Mangione expected to plead guilty to federal charges in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and Tyler Robinson's lawyers fighting the death penalty in the Charlie Kirk assassination case Abdul El-Sayed, Sharia law and dogs, and Detroit's 74 percent animal shelter kill rate, plus Erick's own dog Max and the South Georgia dog whisperer Tort and lawsuit reform: the trial lawyer billboard economy (Morgan and Morgan, Morris Bart, Ken Nugent), the dismissed Hershey Reese's pumpkin lawsuit, and Scott Bessent scrapping the Biden small business registration rule

Erick breaks down a wild primary night: Democratic socialist Francesca Hong loses Wisconsin after Governor Tony Evers talked David Crowley back into the race, the polls badly oversampled white progressives, and Mike Lindell gets crushed in Minnesota's GOP governor primary. Then he warns Republicans that college-educated suburban voters are the new turnout machine, that Ken Paxton is dragging down Texas against James Talarico, and delivers a signature monologue arguing progressivism is a religion, complete with a viral clip of a reporter insisting you "can't be racist against white people." Wisconsin fallout: Francesca Hong's loss, David Crowley, Tony Evers, and why polling oversampled white progressives The GOP's midterm problem: college degrees as the new turnout predictor, and suburban Republicans running behind in Georgia and Texas Ken Paxton dragging down the Texas ticket against James Talarico, plus Trump's losing streak of endorsed candidates and lame-duck status Minnesota primary: Lisa DeMuth wins as Mike Lindell flops, with Michelle Tafoya and Peggy Flanagan setting up the Senate race The big monologue: intersectionality, allyship, and DEI as religion, illustrated by a reporter's "you can't be racist against white people" meltdown

On the seventh anniversary of his syndicated show, Erick Erickson tells the untold story of how Rush Limbaugh "lied through his teeth" to launch his radio career and later fought behind the scenes to let him talk faith on the air. He then turns to the "progressive madrasas": how Stanford University let Marxists write the capitalism entry in its Encyclopedia of Philosophy and butchered Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek. Along the way he unpacks critical theory, intersectionality, the "you can't be racist against white people" clip, and the "Yankee invasion of the SEC." Seven years in syndication: the Rush Limbaugh origin story, Bo Snerdley, the 2016 near-death from blood clots, and the faith that reshaped his voice The "progressive madrasas": critical theory, intersectionality, and the viral "you can't be racist against white people" clip explained through Tim Keller Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy lets Marxists define capitalism and misrepresents Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism," Stanford's land acknowledgments before frat parties, and a call for parents to exercise real college discernment The "Yankee invasion of the SEC": surging Northern enrollment at Alabama, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Tennessee, plus caller David on Trump fatigue and the Marxist war on a free press

Erick walks through a sobering Washington Post editorial on America's fiscal reckoning: with Social Security projected insolvent by 2032 and the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by 2033, demographics and mandatory spending are driving the country toward a debt cliff that no war or recession created. He revisits Mitch McConnell's "we will not fix it until we hit the cliff" prediction, George W. Bush's rejected 2005 Social Security privatization, cooling July inflation, and even floats Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce sparking a baby boom, before turning to John Larson's Connecticut primary loss, the Anthony Fauci diaries, and the AI resume filters auto-rejecting qualified applicants. The 2030s fiscal cliff: CBO projections, Social Security insolvency in 2032, the Medicare trust fund in 2033, and the collapsing worker-to-retiree ratio from six-to-one in 1952 to 2.7 today Why Washington will not act until crisis hits: Mitch McConnell's warning, George W. Bush's 2005 privatization plan, raising the retirement age, and the left's treatment of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, and Travis Kelce July inflation and the Fed: cooling CPI, core prices at 2.5 percent, and whether a September rate hike is coming John Larson's Connecticut primary loss to former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin after his viral House-floor freeze, the seventh House Democrat ousted in a primary this year The Anthony Fauci diaries, the debunked mRNA vaccine miscarriage claim, Alex Berenson, AI job-application filters rejecting qualified candidates, and the case for reactive over proactive government

Erick opens on the Washington Post's exclusive that President Donald Trump secretly slipped out of Turkey after the NATO summit in Ankara, boarding the old Air Force One as a decoy and then being shuttled by catering truck onto a smaller Air Force jet, all because of a credible Iranian assassination threat. The White House press corps is melting down that it was left "expendable" on the decoy plane, and Erick unloads on that self-obsession while asking the bigger question: why has Trump still not taken out the Iranian regime that keeps trying to kill him. He then turns to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's boyfriend and his suspicious stock trades, Tucker Carlson interviewing Hunter Biden, and whether Trump even wants to win in November given his backing of scandal-plagued candidates Max Miller and Corey Mills. Washington Post exclusive: Trump's decoy Air Force One, the catering-truck switch to a C-32A, and the credible Iranian assassination threat leaving Turkey The press corps calling itself "expendable," Ned Price, and Erick's case that the president comes first, plus the missile shortage and the Ukraine angle AOC's unmarried boyfriend trading stocks tied to her committees (Washington Free Beacon), two-tiered justice, and Tucker Carlson's long friendship with Hunter Biden Does Trump want to win? How keeping Max Miller in Ohio and Corey Mills in Florida's 7th could cost the GOP a governor's race, a Senate seat, and House seats The Doggy Bear and Pink Bear monologue set against Max Miller withholding his daughter's blue bunny, and the Wall Street Journal chicken glut lowering grocery prices

Erick tears into Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed after CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and the KFile surface old clips of the democratic socialist calling football "toxically masculine" and tied to slavery, demanding an end to Fourth of July fireworks, floating a repeal of the Second Amendment, and promoting "feminist prison abolition," all now disowned as "cherry picked" comments from just two and three years ago. He then turns to Wisconsin, where on election day far-left gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong (one of only six votes against a bipartisan law making teacher grooming a felony, signed by Tony Evers) sits atop the Marquette poll and the Kalshi prediction markets, and to New York, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani is caught on a Turkish American podcast describing the red-green "validator" playbook. A caller pushes Erick on Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians, and he makes the case for extending it while Russia bombs Kyiv. Abdul El-Sayed's resurfaced clips (CNN, Andrew Kaczynski, the KFile): football as "toxically masculine" and linked to slavery, banning Fourth of July fireworks, replacing the Second Amendment, over 100 deleted YouTube videos from 2022 to 2024, and "feminist prison abolition" on his America Dissected podcast Francesca Hong on Wisconsin election day: her lone-dissent vote against the bipartisan teacher-grooming felony law, the Marquette poll (Hong 38, Crowley 7, Barnes 16), Mandela Barnes dropping out, David Crowley, and a 94.9% Kalshi win probability Zohran Mamdani's Turkish American podcast interview on the identity-versus-ideology "validator" strategy, Cynthia Nixon, Tiffany Caban, Hassan Piker, and Erick's red-green alliance and Iran ayatollah playbook warning President Donald Trump on jihadists and communists winning elections and third-worldism, plus a Democratic Socialists of America leader dodging on police and prison abolition Caller James on TPS for Ukrainians, the August 19 deadline, Pete Hegseth's "temporary means temporary," the Patriot missile shortage, and Russian strikes destroying 17 buildings in Kyiv

Erick pivots from Zohran Mamdani to the Flock camera fight, using the Manhattan Institute's Stu Smith to trace the organized opposition to license plate readers back not to civil libertarians but to the Democratic Socialists of America, the Communist Party USA, and the defund the police and abolish prisons movements. He walks through Columbus, Ohio police chief Elaine Bryant's real case files where Flock helped solve double homicides, arrest a 15 year old murder suspect within 18 hours, recover a kidnapped three year old, and locate missing elderly people with dementia, while conceding the genuine privacy concerns raised by a listener in Jacksonville and callers from Oklahoma City and Forsyth County. He closes by dismantling Mamdani's slick anti Amazon ad as an attack on the small delivery businesses Amazon created, framing it as the politics of envy and covetousness. Flock license plate readers on trial: Stu Smith and the Manhattan Institute tie the anti Flock push to the DSA, the Communist Party USA, and the abolish police and prisons left, not to civil libertarians Columbus police chief Elaine Bryant's Flock case files: a double homicide solved, a 15 year old murder suspect charged within 18 hours, a kidnapped three year old recovered, an armed robbery tracked to Chicago, and two dementia patients with silver alerts found safe The privacy versus safety balance: Flock is a private company, the Supreme Court's no expectation of privacy on a public roadway, the built in audit tool that flags misuse, and the reality that police already pull cell phone data and gas station and bank security footage Callers Linda from Oklahoma City, Andrew on his stolen Forsyth County minivan found in 30 seconds, and Bart on the Shanghai and Great Britain surveillance state Zohran Mamdani's anti Amazon delivery ad, the Delivery Protection Act, and Erick's case that it targets small subcontractor businesses, plus a Silo and Slow Horses dystopia tangent and Trump's dubious Strait of Hormuz claim

Erick Erickson opens on the fight to let Ukraine build its own Patriot missiles and the Lockheed and Raytheon protectionism blocking it, as Ukraine out-produces all of NATO with five million drones this year while America makes fewer than 100,000. He ties a "sclerotic" defense industry and a stumbling Boeing to why the United States cannot reopen the Strait of Hormuz or finish the job in Iran, where Tehran keeps raising its price and the promised Bessent and Rubio deal never came. Then a Milton Friedman defense of the free market against tariffs, the imaginary $20 burrito, populism as covetousness, and a surprising rethink on the Flock camera backlash. Topics: Patriot missile production, Ukraine's five million drones versus America's under 100,000, and the Lockheed and Raytheon IP fight reported by The Atlantic Iran on edge: Trey Yingst on Fox, the questioned Mostafa Khamenei "proof of life" video, unpaid IRGC soldiers, and why Tehran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz despite the collapsed deal Boeing versus Airbus, bean counters over engineers, and how government protectionism kills innovation Milton Friedman, tariffs as a tax on working families, the phony $20 burrito, and populism as "covetousness organized as a governing principle" (JD Vance, Patrick Deneen, American Compass) The Flock camera backlash: license plate readers that solve murders and find missing kids, weighed against police abuse and left and right fears of a surveillance state

Erick Erickson breaks down Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's first big TV interview in two years, a soft sit-down with ABC's Jonathan Karl, and argues "Woke 2.0" is just the old defund-the-police, abolish-ICE agenda with the honesty stripped out. He contrasts Brian Kemp's early COVID reopening of Georgia, and the "human sacrifice" smear from The Atlantic and Anthony Fauci, with the credit Ron DeSantis got for running for president, then turns to Todd Blanche's narrow 50-vote confirmation as Attorney General. He closes on the new FIRE college free speech rankings, where 166 of 257 schools earn an F and Barnard finishes dead last. AOC's Jonathan Karl interview: "Woke 2.0," the dodged defund-the-police question, abolish ICE, open borders, and boys in girls' sports and locker rooms Brian Kemp reopened Georgia first: The Atlantic's "human sacrifice" story, Anthony Fauci, Ron DeSantis, Stacey Abrams, and Georgia's fast economic recovery Todd Blanche confirmed Attorney General on a 50-vote margin with Bill Cassidy's swing vote, and why Erick rates him over Pam Bondi at running the Justice Department Francesca Hong, Graham Platner, and Abdul El-Sayed: the Republican super PAC secretly boosting the far-left in Wisconsin, plus Scott Jennings and Ben Domenech on Hassan Piker, inflation, and moral hazard FIRE's 2026 college free speech rankings: Claremont McKenna, Purdue, and the University of Chicago on top, Barnard last, Hassan Piker canceled at the University of Washington, and Samford, Mercer, and the coming enrollment cliff

Erick Erickson takes apart the left's redefinition of violence, playing James Talarico's claim that poverty, pollution, and prison are all "violence," then walks through a Savannah, Georgia case where a man arrested 27 times attempted to rape a homeless woman in a public restroom while Judge Claire Williams kept releasing him. He argues prisons exist to punish, not to rehabilitate, and that homelessness is really a drug addiction and mental health crisis the left refuses to treat. Then Zohran Mamdani's FDR and LaGuardia nostalgia, CNN's Harry Enten on Trump's underwater jobs approval, a DSA co-chair's word salad to David Remnick of The New Yorker, and a long monologue on why AI, Common Core, and the algorithm are making Americans less imaginative. James Talarico's "poverty is violence, pollution is violence, prison is violence" clip, and Erick's case that prisons exist to punish, not to rehabilitate The Savannah, Georgia restroom attack: a repeat offender arrested 27 times, Judge Claire Williams, Alderman Nick Palumbo, Daffin Park, and homelessness reframed as a drug and mental health crisis Zohran Mamdani's FDR and LaGuardia pitch, rising New York costs and vacant apartments, and CNN's Harry Enten on Trump's jobs approval sinking 22 points underwater The DSA co-chair's interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker: word salad on taxing millionaires, blaming NATO for Ukraine, calling Putin a capitalist, and defending October 7 as "inevitable" Erick on AI and data centers: supportive but worried, Grammarly versus Claude, JD Vance's toaster line, the $20 burrito, Elon Musk's "woke" Odyssey claim, Common Core, and his kids' classical Christian school

Erick opens Open Line Friday on the ugly July jobs report: the economy lost 23,000 jobs, average wages rose just two cents while inflation outran them, and labor force participation fell to a five-year low, with middle-aged men and young workers struggling most to get hired. He argues the sectors government controls most (housing, healthcare, education, and food) are the ones driving prices up, then turns to Donald Trump endorsing Charlie Hatcher over Andy Ogles in Tennessee, Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan Senate win, David Hogg's war on moderate Democrats, and Patrick Ruffini's data on the Democrats' summer polling mirage. The July jobs report: 23,000 jobs lost, wages up two pennies against a five-penny inflation bite, and why middle-aged white men and young workers cannot get hired Copper, aluminum, and steel prices spiking from data center demand and tariffs, plus why government-run housing, healthcare, and education lead inflation while clothing and cars fall Trump endorses former Ag Commissioner Charlie Hatcher after Andy Ogles runs a terrible campaign, and how clean energy money picked off Andy Ogles and Chip Roy Trump's "communist" framing, Abdul El-Sayed, David Hogg on CNN, Hassan Piker, and the anti-westernism Erick says is breaking the Democratic Party Patrick Ruffini's summer polling bias data, Mike Rogers versus El-Sayed in Michigan, Sherrod Brown, James Talarico, and why Max Miller and Corey Mills could cost the GOP seats

Erick breaks down Donald Trump's Punchbowl News interview with Jake Sherman, where the president insists voters are angry at other Republicans and not at him, defends tariffs and the Save America Act, wants to terminate the filibuster, and warns he could be "the last Republican president." Erick lays out the Axios warning from Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen that Trump is trapped by a war, tariffs, and monuments he never should have chased, plus a Quinnipiac record-low approval and a sub-40 percent polling average, then offers his own Labor Day fix: scrap the tariffs, finish the war with Iran, and drop the gaudy gold-leaf White House makeover. Then Open Line Friday callers on New York's $30 minimum wage, the restaurant tip credit, Milton Friedman and the free market, and why Cory Mills and Max Miller have to go. Trump's Punchbowl News interview with Jake Sherman: "they're not angry at me, they're angry at Republicans," terminating the filibuster, the Save America Act, and the "last Republican president" line Axios (Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen) on Trump trapped by the Iran war, tariffs, and monuments, Quinnipiac's all-time-low approval, and why summer polling still inflates the Democrats before Labor Day Erick's turnaround plan: scrap the tariffs to lower prices and lift wages, pour resources into finishing the Iran war for a quick military win, and stop the gaudy gold White House and paved-over Rose Garden remodel Caller David in Oklahoma City, a 38-year restaurant veteran, on New York's $30 minimum wage, the tip credit fight, union wage scales, fast-food automation, and young workers priced out of starter jobs Free markets versus "socialist light": Milton Friedman, the government taking ownership stakes in 30 companies, a Woodstock Georgia listener's housing squeeze, and why Cory Mills (Florida 7th, back Ryan Elijah) and Max Miller (Ohio 7th) must exit

Erick makes the case for Florida voters to throw scandal-plagued Congressman Cory Mills out of Florida's 7th District, walking through the House Ethics investigation into Mills' federal weapons contracts, the assault allegations, and the restraining order, then urging support for challenger Ryan Elijah, who trails Mills by just three points in the primary. He warns Republicans that if they will not clean up their own side, the voters will do it for them, invoking the 2006 wave that swept out Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert. Then a pair of Open Line Friday standouts: Enes Kanter Freedom declaring himself a WNBA prospect under the league's own self-identification rules, and a long free-market debate with caller Alan on why the government taking equity stakes in Intel, U.S. Steel, and IBM cannot beat China. Cory Mills (Florida 7th) under House Ethics investigation for steered weapons contracts, assault allegations, and a restraining order, and why Ryan Elijah, three points back in the primary, is the clean alternative in a perfect three-way swing district once held by John Mica and Stephanie Murphy The 2006 lesson for Republicans: Tom DeLay, Denny Hastert, and how refusing to police your own side hands seats to the Democrats Enes Kanter Freedom declares for the WNBA under the league's self-identification standard, Clay Travis and his "Nashville Balls" bit, and Sophie Cunningham on boys in girls' sports Caller Alan and the government's equity stakes in 30 companies: Intel's 10 percent CHIPS Act stake, U.S. Steel and Nippon golden shares, IBM and Watson, Kelly Loeffler, moral hazard, and Erick's "you cannot out-China China" argument Caller Michael on international law and the Iran strikes (the Geneva Convention on civilian versus military infrastructure), caller Emily on Zohran Mamdani's New York grocery stores versus food stamps, and the United Auto Workers now counting more academics than autoworkers

Erick takes on the viral "$20 burrito" affordability debate that lit up the right after a Turning Point USA student's tweet, arguing that tariffs, Fannie and Freddie loan guarantees, and the Jones Act (not lazy consumers) are what really drive prices up. He walks through Trump scrapping tariffs on coffee, bananas, beef, and eggs, and tells the story of his Rev Coffee habit and Jura machine to show tariffs in real life. Then he pivots to the Georgia governor's race, contrasting Keisha Lance Bottoms' "we don't have the facts" dodge on data centers with Rick Jackson's local-control answer, and points to Meta's El Paso project and the Hyundai plant in Bryan County as proof of the economic upside. Topics: The "$20 burrito" affordability firestorm, Turning Point USA, and why tariffs undercut the right's own complaints Trump reversing tariffs on coffee, bananas, beef, and eggs, plus Erick's Rev Coffee, Community Coffee, and Jura machine story Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, student loan guarantees, and the Jones Act waiver that lowered prices after the Iran war Keisha Lance Bottoms versus Rick Jackson on data centers in the Georgia governor's race Meta's El Paso data center, Hyundai in Bryan County, and the case for local control, property tax relief, and rural jobs

Erick catches the Democratic Socialists contradicting themselves in their own words: Bernie Sanders on Pod Save America swears no serious Democrat wants to defund the police, abolish ICE, or open the borders, while Ro Khanna openly calls to abolish ICE, pack the Supreme Court from 9 to 13, and tax billionaires. He plays Wisconsin governor candidate Francesca Hong refusing on CNN to disavow her deleted 2021 "cancel Thanksgiving" tweet, then a Politico jump-cut interview where she suddenly calls Thanksgiving her favorite holiday. Add a Mike Bloomberg and Jones Act tariff callback, BMW hijacking customers' screens for a Spider-Man promo, and a caller-fueled deep dive on data center cooling and immigration. Bernie Sanders (Pod Save America) versus Ro Khanna: the Democratic Socialist lie on defunding police, abolishing ICE, and open borders Francesca Hong's deleted "cancel Thanksgiving" and "original super spreader" tweet, her CNN dodge with Kaitlan Collins, and the scripted Politico jump-cut Mike Bloomberg, the Jones Act waiver, and a one-year tariff callback: why prices fell in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and California BMW calls its Spider-Man screen takeover a "special surprise," not an advertisement, and Erick calls it what it is Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan map (0 of 15 lowest-degree counties, 13 of 15 highest), colleges as "progressive madrasas," killing the student loan system, plus caller talk on closed-loop data center cooling and comprehensive immigration reform

Erick tracks the fast-collapsing Max Miller scandal as both Ohio Republican senators, his father-in-law Bernie Moreno and John Husted, now publicly call on the OH-7 congressman to quit over domestic violence and child-abuse allegations, including the bizarre "bunny" standoff and a daughter's untreated broken collarbone. He lays out the brutal math: an R+5 district against a D+8 generic ballot, where Miller staying on the ballot could sink Vivek Ramaswamy's run for governor and cost John Husted his Senate seat against Sherrod Brown, and he demands Trump push Miller out the way Democrats forced Graham Platner out in Maine. Then the blockbuster: Erick confirms a CNBC report that the Army has burned through nearly all of its ATACMS and precision-strike missiles in the five-month Iran war, walks back a false Washington Post claim of a Camp David blowup between Trump and Pete Hegseth, and warns that a China-Taiwan war is coming while Congress and the defense industrial base stall. Max Miller's OH-7 meltdown: Bernie Moreno and John Husted both say quit, the "bunny" story, the broken collarbone, and Scott Jennings and Katie Britt on CNN with Jake Tapper The electoral math: R+5 district, D+8 generic ballot, and how Miller could cost Vivek Ramaswamy the governor's mansion and John Husted his Senate seat versus Sherrod Brown Moderate Democrats launch a $15 million effort to stop the Democratic Socialists, compared to the 2012 GOP autopsy report, the Trump takeover, and the left writing off Elon Musk The missile shortage: CNBC reports the Army is nearly out of ATACMS and precision-strike missiles after the Iran war, the false Washington Post Trump versus Pete Hegseth and Steven Feinberg story, and Trump crying "treason" on the leakers China, Xi Jinping, and Taiwan readiness, plus closing headlines on the stalled Iran deal, James Talarico's chief-of-staff scandal, and Ken Paxton slipping in Texas

Erick breaks down Abdul El-Sayed's Democratic Socialist win in the Michigan Senate primary over Haley Stevens, his Morning Joe damage control on Israel, foreign aid, and abolishing ICE, and why the polls oversampled urban white voters and nearly blew the call. Then a blistering hour on Ohio Republican Max Miller, the abuse and drug allegations, father-in-law Senator Bernie Moreno calling him unfit, and how Democrats force their damaged candidates out while Republicans will not. Erick's warning: if Max Miller stays on the ballot, the GOP could lose the Ohio Senate and governor's races too. Abdul El-Sayed beats Haley Stevens for the Michigan Democratic Senate nomination and will face Republican Mike Rogers, with Erick warning the GOP not to get cocky El-Sayed on Morning Joe: calling Israel's conduct "genocide" and "apartheid," cutting military aid, abolishing ICE, and saying America's founding was flawed The polling failure: low rated and Democratic pollsters oversampled urban white voters in Michigan (and the same risk for Francesca Hong in Wisconsin), so trust the averages, not individual polls Ohio's Max Miller: three women allege abuse and violence, he admits past illegal drug use to Jake Tapper, and Senator Bernie Moreno calls him damaged goods who needs help The double standard: Democrats forced out Graham Platner, Eric Swalwell, Joe Biden, and Mandela Barnes, while Trump, Mike Johnson, and Richard Hudson refuse to move Max Miller, risking Vivek Ramaswamy and John Husted in Ohio

Erick makes the case that the United States simply does not have the electrical capacity to repatriate manufacturing or feed the AI boom, walking through Scott Lincicum's Cato piece on the 1886 Hall-Heroult aluminum cell and why a single smelter needs a permanent, enormous block of base load power that nuclear, coal, and natural gas provide and solar and wind cannot. He then turns to Ross Douthat's interview with Yale Law professor Samuel Moyn, who floats overweighting young voters and handing children's proxy votes to random 20-somethings instead of their own parents, and builds it into a sweeping monologue on college educated white progressives, the 1619 Project, and universities as "progressive madrasas." Plus the Max Miller "permission structure" play and a caller on the coming generational wealth transfer. The power crisis: Scott Lincicum (Cato Institute), the 1886 Hall-Heroult smelting cell, why aluminum smelters can never power down, and Erick's call for nuclear, coal, and natural gas base load plus small modular reactors How Trump's aluminum tariffs backfired by raising the cost of homes, cars, and electronics, and the case for ally-shoring to Javier Milei's Argentina and to Vietnam instead of China The natural gas pipeline in Erick's own backyard, Sierra Club opposition, and degrowth activists using blue-state regulators to sabotage pipelines and power plants Ross Douthat interviews Yale Law's Samuel Moyn on stripping parents of proxy votes for their children, answered with the Phil Gramm "what are my kids' names" story The college monologue: Nikole Hannah-Jones and the 1619 Project, self-loathing white progressives, and the four schools a prominent theologian recommends (Samford, Auburn, Texas A&M, Clemson) versus Erick's alma mater Mercer

Erick tears into the right's $20 burrito panic and the affordability fight between Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, and the Turning Point USA crowd, calling out the writers in JD Vance's orbit who blame corporate greed while refusing to admit Trump's tariffs and the Iran war (not just Joe Biden) drove up grocery, beef, and gas prices, with a Reuters poll now showing Americans blame Republicans. A caller pitches a Pacific Ocean to Lake Mead desalination mega-project with nuclear-powered AI hubs, reviving Erick's Ukraine drones and precision-missile shortage capacity argument. The hour closes with a monologue on democratic socialism as a secular religion, built on Lansing socialist William Lawrence saying non-white voters "defang the white left" and Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan coalition, and Erick's answer: churchgoers should go be their isolated neighbors' friend and bring them Jesus. The $20 burrito debate: Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Mark Thiessen, and the Turning Point USA affordability fight, Erick's "learn to cook" pushback, his coming cookbook, and his own story of food assistance, formula, and the power getting shut off Why the right keeps circling the wagons around JD Vance, and Erick's charge that tariffs and Trump's half-baked Iran war (not just Biden) raised grocery, beef, and gas prices while a Reuters poll blames Republicans Caller Paul in Pinehurst: a Pacific Ocean to Lake Mead desalination mega-project with five nuclear-powered AI hubs run by Google, Amazon, and X, tied to Ukraine building 5 million drones and America running low on precision-strike missiles Caller Walter in Ponca City on Saul Alinsky, the book "After the Ball," and the Marxist language war over statues and history The secular-religion monologue: William Lawrence's "defang the white left" comment and Meet the Press apology, Abdul El-Sayed losing black, Hispanic, and non-college white voters, and Erick's call for believers to befriend isolated progressives who worship politics instead of God

Back early from vacation, Erick pulls back the curtain on what Republican pollsters, focus groupers, strategists, donors, and corporate money men are all telling him: James Talarico is leading Ken Paxton in Texas right now, and the fortune the GOP must spend to rescue Paxton could cost them Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed, Haley Stevens, and Mike Rogers set up a nervous primary night. He argues the one thing saving Republicans is a Democratic Party that has lost its mind, from Wisconsin governor hopeful Francesca Hong wanting to cancel Thanksgiving as colonialism to the socialist surge terrifying the party's own establishment. Then a signature comic monologue on the Washington Post dragging JD Vance for raising backyard chickens, complete with a they/them source in Utah and a hen named Karen. Texas Senate reality check: James Talarico leading Ken Paxton, three nonpartisan pollsters, the Ted Cruz versus Beto O'Rourke comparison, and the "suicide plot" that could hand Democrats the Senate Michigan primary night: Abdul El-Sayed versus Haley Stevens, Bernie Sanders and AOC versus Gretchen Whitmer, Gary Peters retiring, and Mike Rogers hunting a rematch after nearly beating Elissa Slotkin The corruption problem on the right: Democrats now trusted more on the economy, anger at the Trump family getting rich, tariffs, and why Erick says "I told you so" Francesca Hong, Zohran Mamdani, and the socialist meltdown: the deleted "cancel Thanksgiving" tweet, her "proximity to whiteness" CNN interview, and why the far left keeps rescuing Republicans The Washington Post versus JD Vance's chicken coop: Tim Carman, Carolina Coops, a $100,000 donated hen house, a they/them named Danny Bowers in Utah, a chicken named Karen, plus 86 percent of new jobs going to women

Erick argues the United States is losing to Iran by choice, driven by an isolationist wing embedded around President Trump and Vice President JD Vance that wants a "tripartite" world carved up with Russia and China, even as war torn Ukraine out builds all of NATO with 5 million drones a year while America cannot manufacture a single Patriot missile. He then hammers Ohio Republican Max Miller to drop out over the Daily Mail's syringe and marijuana gummy photos (with Senator Bernie Moreno calling it a "seventh level of hell") and calls on Florida to primary Cory Mills. The centerpiece is a deep dive into a $5 billion foreign dark money machine: Hansjorg Wyss, Christopher Hohn, the Oak and Hewlett Foundations, Indivisible, and Oren Cass funneling left wing cash into groups on both the left and a co opted "right." Iran "losing by choice": the isolationist right around Trump and JD Vance, Pat Buchanan's multipolarity, Catherine the Great and Putin's Soviet nostalgia, the China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba axis learning to coordinate, and Turkey, Pakistan, and Qatar quietly backing Tehran The manufacturing collapse: war torn Ukraine building 5 million drones this year (more than all of NATO combined) versus a U.S. arsenal under 100,000, plus Erick's new piece on handing the profit motive back to the private sector to build missiles, refine oil, and desalinate water Max Miller's scandal and Ohio's 7th District: Daily Mail syringe and 150mg gummy photos, Bernie Moreno's "seventh level of hell," the Graham Platner contrast, Trump defending Miller as "a good guy," and a call to primary Florida's Cory Mills The $5 billion foreign back door: Hansjorg Wyss, Christopher Hohn, the Oak Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Indivisible and the No Kings protests, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, Code Pink and China, and 19 state attorneys general pushing a FARA investigation The captured "right": how Hewlett Foundation and American Compass money reaches Oren Cass, Sohrab Ahmari, and Compact to sell social conservatism with socialist economics, plus Ireland's anti Israel jet that can no longer land in fog  

Erick makes a full throated defense of America's data center boom, playing a Mike Rowe clip about Plano, Texas electricians under 30 making north of $240,000 debt free, debunking the Erin Brockovich water panic from Bill Maher's show, and explaining why Caterpillar is suddenly the hottest stock in the Dow. Callers Keith, Max, Chet the Jet, and Ed dig into the skilled trades gold rush, canteen empanada six figure incomes, and the non-disclosure agreements that are breeding data center conspiracy theories. He closes with breaking Iran news as Trump, Scott Bessent, and Marco Rubio claim progress on reopening the Strait of Hormuz while Tehran denies any talks and a cargo ship is struck off the coast of Oman. Mike Rowe's viral clip: Plano, Texas data center electricians under 30 earning $240,000, debt free, poached three times in 18 months Erin Brockovich, Bill Maher, and the data center water myth: golf courses, Permian Basin water recycling, and West Texas selling cleaned water to data centers The degrowth movement, Chinese funded left wing groups, solar panels on farmland, cobalt mining in Africa, and the case for nuclear base load power Caterpillar's Dow surge on gas turbine generators, plus callers Keith, Max, Chet the Jet, and Ed on the skilled trades boom, antifreeze cooling, and data center NDAs Breaking Iran news: Trump, Scott Bessent, and Marco Rubio claim progress reopening the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran denies talks and a ship is hit off Oman

Erick returns from a week at Lake Burton to a world still in chaos: Iran spurns peace as Trump halts strikes, the democratic socialists surge with Texas suddenly in play (James Talarico leading Ken Paxton), and New York's Zohran Mamdani demands a photo ID to buy subsidized groceries but not to vote. He connects the dots to JD Vance's post-liberal advisor Patrick Deneen, a Wall Street Journal corporate shakedown story, and a signature monologue framing socialism as a violation of the Tenth Commandment. Iran refuses peace as Trump halts strikes: the Strait of Hormuz leverage, Ukraine's runaway drone production, and the U.S. Patriot missile and munitions shortage Democratic socialists surging: Texas in play with James Talarico leading Ken Paxton, Sherrod Brown rising in Ohio, Jon Ossoff, Mike Collins, and Ben Domenech's Texas alarm Zohran Mamdani's government grocery store and the photo ID double standard, Cory Booker on New Jersey noncitizen voters, and the SAVE Act JD Vance, Patrick Deneen, and post-liberalism: socialism on the right, the Hewlett Foundation, American Compass, and tariff corruption Socialism as coveting: the Tenth Commandment, mandated self-checkout discounts, plastic bag bans, Scott Bessent buying Japanese yen, and Colorado's Mila Kiro dodging the communist label

Back from Lake Burton, Erick breaks down Marco Rubio's Fox News interview on the funded, organized protest network tied to Cuba, China, Neville Roy Singham, and a Cox Enterprises heir, then makes the grown-up case that the left is both astroturf and real grassroots, just as the Tea Party was in 2010. He hammers Ohio's Max Miller and Florida's Cory Mills over abuse and revenge-porn allegations and demands the GOP force them out, then turns to Mike Turner on Patriot missiles for Ukraine, America's broken missile production, and a big-ideas argument for desalinating Pacific water to save Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. Marco Rubio on Fox News: the funded and organized protest machine, Cuba, China, Neville Roy Singham, the Cox Enterprises heir, Antifa, Code Pink, and the 2020-riots-to-pro-Hamas-to-anti-ICE pipeline the national media refuses to cover Astroturf versus grassroots: the 2010 Tea Party wipeout, the Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity, Russia and Alexander Dugin funding both the left and the post-liberal right, plus Laura Loomer's Ukraine reversal and Mike Flynn's attack Caller Paula on the language war: gender-affirming care versus child castration, reproductive rights versus abortion, unhoused versus homeless, and the Marxist strategy of controlling the vocabulary to control the country Get them out: Max Miller in Ohio and Cory Mills in Florida, the police report, Ed Martin's blocked arrest warrant, and how Democrats pushed damaged candidates like Graham Platner out while Republicans shrug Mike Turner on Patriots and Tomahawks for Ukraine, why our military industrial complex cannot build enough missiles to protect Israel from Iran, Ukraine's drone output, and the case for desalination, aqueducts, and big ideas to refill Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam

Back from vacation, Erick sounds the alarm on a confirmed Wall Street Journal story about a Trump fundraiser pressing corporations like Apple for cash and doling out tariff carve-outs, warning his own side is now perceived like the Biden crime family while wages slip behind inflation and independents may just stay home in November. He then walks through his friend Josh Trevino's National Review essay on why we abandon the lessons of World War II at our peril, taking on Tucker Carlson, Darryl Cooper, R.R. Reno, and the post-liberalism of Patrick Deneen and JD Vance, and closes with the RedState origin story, an Apple lockout vacation saga, and a Tomahawk steak cookout. The Wall Street Journal corruption story: a Trump fundraiser soliciting Apple and other corporations for donations and library money, insane tariff carve-outs for lobbyists, the "Trump crime family" perception versus Hunter Biden's paintings, and why a stay-home electorate hands the democratic socialists November The economy people actually feel: wages slipping behind inflation, a 600-point market pop after Trump called off strikes on Iran, high beef and grocery and gas prices, and the 1992 George H.W. Bush versus Bill Clinton "good man out of touch" warning Ron Fournier, James Carville, and Doug Jones in Alabama: why the DSA malignancy and the corruption issue could flip even Texas Josh Trevino's National Review essay on World War II: Alec Ryrie, R.R. Reno at First Things, Tucker Carlson and Darryl Cooper's Third Reich revisionism, Winston Churchill, and who owns the memory of the war Post-liberalism and American leadership: Patrick Deneen whispering to JD Vance, the liberal world order, China laying roots in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Brazil, Russia near collapse, and why our military industrial complex cannot build a Patriot missile while Ukraine floods the field with drones Personal color: the RedState origin story with Josh Trevino, Ben Domenech, and Mike Krempasky, an Apple account lockout after a Gainesville login, the wrong-theater Odyssey IMAX dad moment, and a Tomahawk steak and front-porch bourbon cookout

Erick opens with a raw, personal plea for his annual childhood cancer Care-a-thon benefiting Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, sharing his wife's stage four lung cancer and the reality that some of the kids he will interview over the next 48 hours may not survive the year. He then unloads on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the progressive squad for falsely claiming the National Defense Authorization Act merges the U.S. and Israeli militaries, mounts a long defense of Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark against a hostile WNBA press, and closes by branding "post-liberalism" as socialism made cute, tracing it to Harvard's Adrian Vermeule and Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt. Topics: Childhood cancer Care-a-thon for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta: Erick's wife's stage four lung cancer, the emotional toll of interviewing sick kids, and a heartfelt donor plea (text donate to 33777) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the progressive squad lie about the National Defense Authorization Act, claiming a U.S. and Israel "military merger" that is really a joint technology fund modeled on Ukraine's drone program Sophie Cunningham defends girls' sports against biological men, Caitlin Clark gets ganged up on, and the hyper-progressive WNBA press pile-on Nancy Armour's USA Today column, the Caitlin Clark race narrative, the Emmett Till geography error, ESPN layoffs, Pat McAfee's $60 million show, and Clay Travis Post-liberalism as "communism made cute": Adrian Vermeule, Carl Schmitt, J.D. Vance, and the push for one-man executive government

Erick builds a full monologue on Nate Silver's Cooperative Election Study data showing the Democratic Socialists of America are not the poor but downwardly mobile rich kids with prestige degrees, invoking Peter Turchin's elite overproduction, Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, Graham Platner's fake oyster fisherman act, and Dan McLaughlin's Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass contrast. His free market fix for Republicans is blunt: scrap the Trump and Peter Navarro tariffs, stop the government from taking ownership stakes in companies, expand school choice to gut the "progressive madrasas," and defund victimization degrees. He then pivots to the Colorado River crisis at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, arguing for water pipelines and desalination the way America builds oil and gas pipelines, before mocking the left's new conspiracy theory that Mitch McConnell is secretly dead. Nate Silver, the Cooperative Election Study, and the DSA as highly educated, downwardly mobile "rich kids": 80 percent with bachelor's degrees, 45 percent under 60,000 dollars, 85 percent white, clustered in teaching, nonprofits, and public sector work Peter Turchin's elite overproduction, Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, Graham Platner's oyster fisherman pose, and Dan McLaughlin's Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass framing The free market prescription: kill the Trump and Peter Navarro tariffs, end government ownership stakes in tech companies, expand school choice in Georgia and beyond, and defund gender studies and queer theory degrees Lake Mead, Lake Powell, and the Colorado River crisis: build water pipelines and desalination plants, harness the Permian Basin's billion gallons of daily produced water, and stop the "de-growth" left from blocking energy and water infrastructure (Energy Transfer, Western Midstream, Enterprise Products) The Mitch McConnell "death hoax": why the left now attacks Kentucky Governor Andy Beshir over a conspiracy theory, and Erick's warning that the internet is rotting brains on both sides

Erick argues Iran is deliberately holding the American economy hostage as Brent crude tops 100 dollars after the Houthi strike Saudi ships in the Red Sea, warning that high gas prices could sink Republicans in midterms now barely 100 days out and calling on President Trump to unleash Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israelis to end the Iranian regime and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He then turns to longevity guru Brian Johnson, who announced he is cloning himself to harvest organs while battling autoimmune gastritis, a plan Erick calls demonic and answers with "God is not mocked" and a nod to Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige." He closes the hour backing Scott Perry's No Kill Switches in Cars Act against Joe Biden era mandates, then makes one more emotional plea for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta childhood cancer Care-a-thon. Topics: Oil prices skyrocket: Brent crude over 100 dollars after Houthi strikes on Saudi ships in the Red Sea, Iran holding the economy hostage, and Erick's demand that Trump unleash Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel to end the regime and free the Strait of Hormuz The economy is the midterm issue: Albertsons stock sinks nearly 15 percent, CEO Susan Morris cites a cautious consumer, and Erick ties food, beef, and grocery inflation straight back to gas prices with a culinary school cost breakdown Brian Johnson, the longevity guru, clones himself to grow organs while fighting autoimmune gastritis: "God is not mocked," a demonic vanity project, and echoes of Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige" Scott Perry's No Kill Switches in Cars Act: repealing the Joe Biden infrastructure mandate for drunk driving detection, and nanny state safety features (backup cameras, pedestrian braking, GM Super Cruise) that price the poor and middle class out of cars Closing childhood cancer plea for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (text donate to 33777), the nation's second largest childhood cancer research facility after St. Jude

Erick opens the week's big theme, a full diagnosis of the Democratic Socialists of America, arguing the movement is not the poor but downwardly mobile rich kids using Nate Silver's Cooperative Election Study data on elite overproduction. He hands Republicans a free market battle plan (kill the tariffs, expand school choice, end the nonsense college degrees), then turns to Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on arresting Benjamin Netanyahu and now admits he has no legal power to do it, with a hard monologue on October 7th, Hamas, and the Gaza "genocide" claim. Topics: The DSA diagnosis: highly educated, downwardly mobile, 85% white, earning $30,000 to $60,000, and resentful, with Graham Platner "cosplaying" as an oyster farmer Erick's Republican playbook: drop the Trump and Peter Navarro tariffs on Canada and Mexico, expand school choice against the "progressive madrasas," and cut gender studies, queer theory, and puppetry arts degrees Why Trump taking government stakes in tech companies is "diet coke socialism," and the anti-tariff case for lower prices and higher wages Zohran Mamdani's sinister campaign video walking back his promise to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, the ICC warrant, and why the U.S. never joined the ICC The October 7th case: Hamas atrocities, Mamdani's refusal to condemn them, and Erick's "daddy issues" analogy for socialists who distrust leaders who overpromise A personal appeal for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Carathon, fighting childhood cancer and sickle cell anemia (text donate to 33777)

Erick breaks down New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill's admission that a motor vehicle software glitch registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens to vote (about 400 actually cast ballots) under former Governor Phil Murphy, using it to indict the 1990s motor voter law that the late Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell warned against, while pushing back on both Michael Steele's spin and the conspiracy theorists who cry mass fraud. He plays Congressman David Schweikert's warning that Washington now borrows $93,000 every second and ties fiscal recklessness to the rise of socialism, then wonders aloud, prompted by a retired Air Force caller, whether America's reluctance to unleash on Iran signals a real munitions shortage. In the hour's most personal stretch, Erick shares his wife's stage four lung cancer battle and a gut wrenching story of a young cancer patient to make the case for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta fight against childhood cancer. Topics: New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill: 6,600 noncitizens registered to vote by an MVC software error under Phil Murphy, roughly 400 actually voted, and why the margins cannot overturn an election The motor voter fight: Michael Steele's MS Now spin, the late Senator Paul Coverdell's 1990s warnings, prosecuting the ineligible voters, and Erick's call for bipartisan election integrity reform Congressman David Schweikert on the fiscal calamity: borrowing $93,000 every second, the 10 year yield, the SAVE Act, and how deficits and inflation feed socialism The Iran question: a retired Air Force officer caller on hazard pay versus housing duty pay, missile and drone costs, and Erick's growing suspicion of a U.S. munitions shortage A father's appeal: his wife's stage four lung cancer, the Tagrisso chemo pill, and the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta fight against childhood cancer and sickle cell anemia (text donate to 33777) Caller wisdom on work ethic, entitlement, and marriage: Erick's own story of struggle, student loans, RedState, and why married people earn more than single people

Erick makes the case for letting Israel off the chain against Iran, reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a face to face with Donald Trump at Lindsey Graham's funeral but is being blocked by isolationists in Vice President JD Vance's office, and that America's slow, tit for tat response to Iran may be hiding a real Patriot and Tomahawk munitions shortage. He weighs the new US Saudi Arabia civilian nuclear deal with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (reported by the New York Times from Riyadh), warning that letting an Arab nation enrich uranium will only push Iran to double down, while defending MBS as a pro Western ally and delivering a fiery Pinochet versus the communists monologue. Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine warns the Senate that the character of war is changing, Senator John Kennedy doubts the Pentagon is being straight with Congress about Pickaxe Mountain, and President Trump lands in Atlanta to tout Trump accounts at Wheeler High School in Cobb County. Iran strategy: Netanyahu blocked from meeting Trump by Vice President JD Vance's isolationist staff, a suspected US munitions shortage on Patriots and Tomahawks, and Erick's demand to let Israel and the armed Kurds finish the job without American boots on the ground The US Saudi Arabia nuclear deal with Mohammed bin Salman, the uranium enrichment danger, tying any deal to Saudi recognition of Israel, and Erick's defense of MBS as a pro Western partner over China The Pinochet, Ortega, and Castro communism monologue, plus Erick's AIPAC donation and a shot at Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and antisemitic conspiracy theorists; Laura Loomer's apology after seeing Ukraine firsthand Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine's Senate testimony on funding, the NDAA, Article I Section 8, AI and drone warfare, and lessons from Ukraine; Senator John Kennedy's doubts about the Secretary of Defense and Pickaxe Mountain President Trump in Atlanta at Wheeler High School promoting Trump accounts with Mike Collins and Rick Jackson, threats to hit Iranian civilian infrastructure and the Houthi Red Sea blockade

Erick opens with Van Jones breaking ranks and calling the far left's ideas "insane, nutty, moronic, dangerous, bigoted," then walks through the Tim Walz pardon of an illegal alien child rapist in Minnesota, DSA nominee Darlisa Chevalier's Gaza "genocide" claims, and Hassan Piker praising Mao Zedong to the College Democrats of America. He argues the Democratic Socialists are running an internal coup of the Democratic Party while elected Democrats applaud politely, and he refuses to give the racists on the right a pass either, naming the Patriot Front and Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins. Plus the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Carathon, and the Smithsonian calling politeness a feature of white supremacy culture. Topics Van Jones on CNN with Erin Burnett: governors and senators from both parties thanking him for saying the far left has gone too far Tim Walz pardons an illegal alien convicted of raping a child to try to block his deportation, and the Bluesky reaction that stunned Erick Erickson Darlisa Chevalier, the Block the Bombs Act, and why Erick Erickson says the Gaza "genocide" claim is living by lies Hassan Piker calling Mao Zedong "one of the great leaders of this world," plus Milit Kiroz on electing more Global South immigrants Al Green, James Talarico, and Keisha Lance Bottoms playing the race card as black and Hispanic voters drift right Erick Erickson polices his own side: the Patriot Front, "Christian nationalists," and Mike Collins's anti-Semitic son-in-law Peter Drucker, Robert Heinlein, Brandon Gill, and the Smithsonian toolkit calling politeness white supremacy culture Bernie Sanders helped elect Daniel Ortega, who has now canceled all future elections in Nicaragua

Erick connects lost American institutional knowledge (nobody can build an IMAX 70 millimeter projector anymore, and Plant Vogtle had to reteach the country how to build a nuclear power plant) to the bigger story: China is building 39 nuclear reactors and 100 coal plants while the United States builds zero. He argues Joe Biden wrecked the economy with modern monetary theory over Larry Summers's warnings, and Donald Trump wrecked it further by resurrecting failed 1950s tariff policy on aluminum, steel, and lumber. Plus Dan McLaughlin on Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass, Nate Silver's data on who the Democratic Socialists really are, and why China funds the AstroTurf groups fighting AI data centers. TOPICS The largest IMAX screen in America is in Pooler, Georgia, and why only 25 IMAX theaters exist: the engineers who built the 70 millimeter projectors retired or died Plant Vogtle, Westinghouse's bankruptcy, and why Erick Erickson says the nation owes Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission a debt of gratitude Joe Biden, Larry Summers, modern monetary theory, and how the COVID bailout broke the economy Donald Trump's aluminum tariff proclamation, J.D. Vance, the isolationists, and the C.S. Lewis "Screwtape Letters" warning about idealizing the past China building 39 nuclear reactors and 100 coal plants while the United States builds none, plus the $1.65 trillion in hidden data center debt at Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle Base load power explained, the Texas ice storm failure, and why Georgia, Kansas, Idaho, and Wyoming are seeing rates fall Dan McLaughlin on Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass, and Nate Silver's data on affluent, educated, resentful Democratic Socialists Callers Jim and John on policing our own side, Christine O'Donnell, Antifa, and the Patriot Front, plus Van Jones calling the far left regressive

Erick Erickson builds the hour around a theological indictment of socialism: the Democratic Socialists have taken the one commandment that lives entirely in the heart, thou shalt not covet, and organized it into a governing philosophy, citing Nate Silver's data showing the most liberal Americans are high education, low income kids from wealthy families. He walks through Abdul El-Sayed's defund the police reversal after Manu Raju confronted him with the audio, James Talarico's border flip, Zohran Mamdani's rent freeze war on New York landlords, and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's careers built on tearing down the rich. Then Mamdani's threat to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, Elie Honig's takedown of that claim on CNN, Mark Warner dodging on Israel, anti-Semitism festering on both the left and the online right including the vice president, plus new ICE deportation numbers, the New Jersey motor voter error, and a raw closing monologue on itching ears, the Charlie Kirk conspiracy theories, "The Odyssey" review wars, and why Erick believes we are in the end times. TOPICS The tenth commandment as the seed of every other sin, and socialism as covetousness organized into a governing philosophy: "to lift up the poor is charity, to tear down the rich is covetousness with a press secretary" Nate Silver's data on the Democratic Socialists: wealthy families, expensive useless degrees, $30,000 to $60,000 incomes, and deep resentment, versus the successful non-college voters least likely to embrace socialism Abdul El-Sayed caught by Manu Raju on his defund the police record, James Talarico's border security reinvention, and El-Sayed's own top 1% Michigan tax returns Zohran Mamdani's rent freeze and war on New York landlords, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's personal fortunes, and the progressive donor class (Alex Soros) exempted from the moral fury Mamdani's vow to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, Elie Honig on CNN explaining the ICC warrant has zero legal effect, and Mark Warner's non-answer on Bibi and the Hague Anti-Semitism on the right, the vice president's Joe Rogan comments, reported White House staff obstruction of a Netanyahu meeting, and Bernie Sanders's own former policy director accusing him of spreading anti-Semitism Bill Melugin's ICE data: 356,389 deportations in fiscal year 2026, 1,260 per day, 65,765 in detention, Tom Homan's record June arrests, plus 6,000 non-citizens on New Jersey voter rolls and the case against motor voter End times monologue: itching ears, earthquakes and the ring of fire, the Charlie Kirk cover-up conspiracy theory, Candace Owens and Bret Weinstein, "The Odyssey" and Rotten Tomatoes, right-wing progressives, and Erick's answer: seek the welfare of your community, love God, love your neighbor The lighter close: 29 straight years of losing the Masters lottery, and a plea to get Charlie back to Augusta

Erick opens on a detained suspect and an incendiary device outside New York's 26 Federal Plaza, then builds his signature monologue on "the outrage machine" breaking brains on the left and the right. He defends theologian John Piper over a misread automated Leviticus 19:34 tweet, dismantles the woke-right meltdown over Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" (a Black actress as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page as the deceiver Sinon), and blasts the left for tearing down Flock cameras and ShotSpotter as a Cambridge park attendant bleeds out. He closes on socialist Senate hopefuls Abdul El-Sayed, Troy Jackson, and Graham Platner, plus fresh Iran danger. Incendiary device and a detained suspect at 26 Federal Plaza as the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigates John Piper preaches Erick's church's 200th anniversary, and the automated Leviticus 19:34 tweet the right wrongly attacked The "Odyssey" defense: Christopher Nolan, a Black Helen of Troy, and Elliot Page cast as Sinon the deceiver The left's outrage: Flock cameras and ShotSpotter scrapped as a Cambridge, Massachusetts park attendant dies waiting for help Iran heats up (US service members killed in Jordan, rumors of a ground incursion into Kuwait) and socialists Abdul El-Sayed, Bernie Sanders, Troy Jackson, and the DSA

Erick races through the day's biggest headlines: an anti-ICE activist who poured gasoline and set a fire outside New York's 26 Federal Plaza immigration court, and the Justice Department confirming acting Attorney General Todd Blanche personally approved the arrest of the Tate brothers, contradicting their lawyer Joseph McBride. He turns to Iran, where the Pentagon named fallen soldiers First Lieutenant Tyler James Frean and Private Isabella Gonzalez while the New York Times alleges the Pentagon hid earlier casualties, and he argues America needs a real strategy (letting Israel back in for regime change) instead of an endless tit for tat. Then a full-throated defense of Flock license-plate cameras and an unforgettable Taco Bell and Taylor Farms cyclospora segment that doubles as his infamous Mercer law school "fungible elephant" tale. Anti-ICE activist sets a gasoline fire outside 26 Federal Plaza as New York's mayor responds and a suspect is taken into custody Tate brothers arrested: DOJ confirms acting Attorney General Todd Blanche approved it, contradicting lawyer Joseph McBride Iran escalation: Pentagon names Lt. Tyler James Frean and Pvt. Isabella Gonzalez, the NYT alleges hidden casualties, John Kirby warns on the Strait of Hormuz, and Erick makes the case for letting Israel pursue regime change Flock cameras and ShotSpotter defended as crime-solving, kidnapping-recovery, and dementia-rescue tools the left wrongly panics over Taco Bell and Taylor Farms cyclospora outbreak, the FDA's false-positive lettuce walk-back, and Erick's legendary law school "fungible elephant" projectile-vomit story

Erick closes the day with his capstone thesis that America already knows what works and the left, joined by part of the right, is choosing decline: Photo ID for election integrity, phonics and memorized multiplication tables for education, the free market over "capitalism," and the two-parent household for stability. He contrasts Mississippi's back-to-basics reading and math turnaround (rejecting Common Core and Singapore math) with California's "gender unicorn" classrooms, plays Mark Warner dodging Jonathan Karl on Virginia Photo ID and the California Federation of Teachers president calling teachers into the streets, then pivots to Abdul El-Sayed's "abolish ICE" clip with Bernie Sanders, Tom Homan defending ICE on Face the Nation, and a new State Department report tying a 60-plus group Cuba protest network to Havana. Topics: "We know what works" monologue: Photo ID and Georgia's law, phonics, memorized multiplication tables, Mississippi's reading gains, and rejecting Common Core and Singapore math Free market versus "capitalism," Norway's oil-funded sovereign wealth fund, Iceland's geothermal energy, two-parent households, and Chesterton's "democracy of the dead" against a new Dark Ages Mark Warner spars with Jonathan Karl over Virginia Photo ID while the California Federation of Teachers president wants protests instead of teaching Abdul El-Sayed's "abolish ICE" rally with Bernie Sanders, Tom Homan on Face the Nation, the secured border, and the "creedal nation" versus colonizer debate over Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Zohran Mamdani School choice and "zip code discrimination," a candid local charter school decline story, plus a State Department report linking the National Network on Cuba and ICAP to the Cuban regime

Erick opens Open Line Friday by dissecting President Donald Trump's prime-time address on election interference, including the DHS claim that roughly 278,000 non-citizens are registered to vote and that China accessed the voter rolls of 270 million Americans. Drawing on his years as an election lawyer and political consultant, Erick argues China does not need to hack anything because voter files are public and resold by data brokers, and he keeps pressing the real question: where are the indictments? He then delivers a two-sided monologue on the scolds of left and right, the progressive meltdown over the Blue Angels beach flyover in Pensacola and the "woke right" outrage over Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey." Topics: Trump's prime-time speech: 278,000 non-citizens on the voter rolls, China, DHS cyber-vulnerability claims, and the missing indictments Why data brokers, motor-voter registration, and publicly available voter files undercut the "China hacked us" panic, with the Incogni angle California's broken, slow-count elections and Trump's more measured tone that avoided relitigating 2020 and the Warnock and Ossoff seats The Blue Angels low-pass flyover in Pensacola: progressive online outrage vs. a beloved annual beach tradition, and Pete Hegseth The "woke right" vs. Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey": Elliot Page's casting, a Black Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and the two-million-feet Kodak film shoot

On Open Line Friday, Erick Erickson breaks down why China's Kimi K3 model just seized the number one spot on the front-end code arena, shoving Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Elon Musk's Grok down the leaderboard, and he reads David Sacks's warning that permitting delays and over-regulation are how America loses the AI race. Erick unloads on Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and the AI leaders who "creep people out" with talk of mass job losses and doom instead of selling the promise of the technology, then connects the fight to data centers, six-figure trades like welding and plumbing, and the moral foundation of the free market versus private equity. He opens the hour skewering the Maine Democratic Senate primary debate, from trans candidate Ashley Webb to a climate activist and a candidate tied to Graham Platner, before a two-sided monologue on how the left and the right both let the other side control their emotions. Topics: China's Kimi K3 tops the front-end code arena, David Sacks on permissionless innovation, and why U.S. regulation is stalling Claude, ChatGPT, and Grok Erick's blistering critique of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and AI executives who scare the public about job losses, enslavement, and doom The AI economy: data centers, six-figure blue-collar trades (welders, electricians, plumbers), free market morality, and the problem with private equity Maine Democratic Senate debate breakdown: Ashley Webb, Dan Kleban, a climate-focused candidate, the Graham Platner connection, and moderate Susan Collins Living free of outrage: the DJT airport boycott, Greta Thunberg's pivot to Palestinians, Elliot Page and Nolan's "Odyssey," and Colin Kaepernick and the NFL

On Open Line Friday, Erick Erickson opens with a personal Rush Limbaugh memory: how Rush secretly went to bat for him as the only guest host allowed to talk about guns and religion on the EIB Network, the black microphone Rush bought him, and the rare phone calls asking for prayer. He turns that into a hard look at gun rights and the debanking fight, reading CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin's own past columns urging Visa, Mastercard, JP Morgan Chase, and Lloyds of London to choke off firearms sales, then explaining why the House-passed Protecting Privacy and Purchases Act and Old Glory Bank exist to stop it. The hour's centerpiece is a warm interview with Kelly Paul, wife of Senator Rand Paul, on her Irish immigrant grandmother and her patriotic children's books "Good Night Little American" and "Good Night Young American." Rush Limbaugh behind the scenes: the guns and faith rule for guest hosts, Kit Carson, Bo Snerdley, the microphone Rush bought Erick, and Catherine Limbaugh The debanking war: Andrew Ross Sorkin's CNBC and New York Times DealBook columns pushing Visa, Mastercard, JP Morgan Chase, PayPal, Square, and Lloyds of London to cut off gun sales The Protecting Privacy and Purchases Act, firearms merchant category codes, the backdoor gun registry fear, Old Glory Bank, True Precision, and Van Allen Golf Josh Hawley versus a former Biden lawyer over clemency for Dylann Roof, plus a caller on the Communist Control Act of 1954 and its First Amendment problems Kelly Paul, wife of Senator Rand Paul, on grandmother Julia Fitzpatrick O'Toole, America's 250th, and her books "Good Night Little American" and "Good Night Young American," with the Mexico 7.3 earthquake and dead daylight saving time bill

Erick argues candidate quality will decide 2026 and spares no one, ripping GOP picks like Mike Lindell in Minnesota (against Amy Klobuchar), Colorado's fabulist nominee Marx, and Georgia's Mike Collins, whose white nationalist son-in-law Alan Shear and huge cash gap against Jon Ossoff keep growing. He then turns on the Democrats' own wreckage: Michigan socialist Abdul El-Sayed and his Medicare-refusing wife Sharra Jakaku, Arizona's Joanna Mendoza against Juan Ciscomani, plus a New Jersey Al Qaeda volunteer and a Texas nominee tied to a sex offender. The hour closes with a blistering monologue on White House corruption, from Trump's teleprompter operator betting on his speeches to World Liberty crypto profits and Kalshi and Polymarket insider trading. Topics: Mike Lindell in the Minnesota governor's race, Amy Klobuchar, and Colorado's fabulist GOP nominee Marx Georgia's Mike Collins, son-in-law Alan Shear, the Patriot Front, and Jon Ossoff's $40 million to $2 million cash edge Abdul El-Sayed, Medicare for All, and wife Sharra Jakaku refusing Medicare patients in Michigan Joanna Mendoza versus Juan Ciscomani in Arizona, plus New Jersey and Bobby Pulido Texas Democrat scandals White House corruption: the teleprompter bettor, Kalshi, Polymarket, Trump World Liberty crypto, and Erick's Cassandra warning

Erick strings together breaking audio into a single alarm about rising left-wing political violence: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealing he survived an assassination attempt by a left-wing activist two hours after being sworn in, Justice Amy Coney Barrett's harrowing House Judiciary testimony about the bulletproof vest her 12 year old son found after Dobbs, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio naming the counterterrorism blind spot toward far-left extremism. He then turns the Democratic Socialists of America's own words against them, playing Ash Siddiqui and a leaked group chat pledging to abolish the Senate, the Supreme Court, and capitalism itself, before closing with Hunter Biden's collapsing 1.7 million dollar payday. Topics: Scott Bessent's assassination-attempt reveal, plus threats against Russ Vought, Brett Kavanaugh, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court security testimony, Clarence Thomas, and the post-Dobbs bulletproof vest her son found Marco Rubio on the counterterrorism blind spot, Antifa denial, the 2020 George Floyd riots, and the "mostly peaceful" chyron Democratic Socialists of America exposed: Ash Siddiqui, abolishing the Senate, ranked choice voting, and replacing capitalism with socialism John Adams, David McCullough, and the founders on fallen human nature, plus Hunter Biden's 1.7 million dollar judgment against Patrick Byrne

Erick makes the case that democratic socialism always ends the same way, opening with Zohran Mamdani's plan to bar New York landlords from checking creditworthiness or evicting non-paying tenants (the "violence of evictions" activist clip) and Ro Khanna dropping his wealth-tax threshold from $1 billion to $50 million. He walks through Mike Solana's Pirate Wires history of Detroit's collapse, the UAW, and the failed electric vehicle mandate as proof that attacks on private property destroy cities, then pivots to the left's ongoing war on history: Netflix and John Ridley branding Gone with the Wind racist even as Hattie McDaniel became the first black Oscar winner. He closes on Ruben Gallego's staffer sex scandal, JD Vance blaming Israel for the Iran deal fallout, and a warning against Trump relitigating 2020 instead of stopping the socialists in 2026. Zohran Mamdani's landlord and eviction ban, the "violence of evictions" clip, Kathy Hochul, and the New York City housing shortage Ro Khanna's $50 million wealth tax, private property rights, and Mike Solana's Pirate Wires case study on Detroit, the UAW, and the electric vehicle collapse Gone with the Wind, Netflix's "known for its racism" label, John Ridley, Hattie McDaniel's historic Oscar, and the left's war on history Ruben Gallego's sex scandal with two House staffers, Eric Swalwell, Graham Platner, and Democratic deviancy JD Vance blaming Israel on Joe Rogan, Trump's prime-time address, and why 2026 matters more than relitigating 2020

Erick unloads on the online right for attacking Justice Amy Coney Barrett after her House testimony about death threats, a bulletproof vest, and a swatting incident, reminding listeners the Supreme Court's security request is unanimous and backed by Clarence Thomas. Then he takes apart New York Governor Kathy Hochul's AI data center moratorium with hard numbers on power rates in Virginia, Texas, and Georgia, corrects a viral Georgia Power eminent domain claim, and defends Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" against the social media mob. Topics: Amy Coney Barrett's testimony on threats, the bulletproof vest, the swatting, and Judge Salas, plus why attacking her makes the right "the left" The unanimous Supreme Court security request, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and the Candace Owens comparison Kathy Hochul's data center moratorium debunked: Virginia, Texas, and Georgia rates falling while New York pays double Water, aquifers, the jobs myth, the SALT deduction, and China funded propaganda behind the data center panic Georgia Power corrects the viral eminent domain video, and Erick defends Nolan's 99 percent "The Odyssey"

Erick breaks down the House's bipartisan vote to make daylight saving time permanent and why Senator Tom Cotton and a bipartisan bloc from Alaska to the Dakotas are quietly killing it over dark 9 a.m. winter sunrises, floating a 30 minute split the difference compromise. Then he turns to Abdul El-Sayed collapsing against Haley Stevens in Michigan, plays a Democratic Socialists of America leader's C-SPAN clip calling to abolish the U.S. Senate, and delivers a sweeping Constitution lesson on Article 5, states as semi sovereign nations, and how Brian Kemp's COVID reopening proved the states, not Washington, hold the police power. Daylight saving time made permanent: Tom Cotton, John Thune, Roger Wicker, Amy Klobuchar, Tammy Duckworth, and the geographic North versus South divide, with a 30 minute compromise idea Winter sunrise data from Anchorage, Kalispell, and New York City, plus Burgess Everett's reporting on Senate opposition Abdul El-Sayed trailing Haley Stevens in Michigan, losing black voters by 46 points and working class voters by 22 points as voters reject socialism DSA leader Ash Siddiqui on C-SPAN wanting to abolish the Senate and replace capitalism, and why Article 5 makes equal Senate suffrage unamendable Brian Kemp, Keisha Lance Bottoms, and Stacey Abrams: how Georgia's COVID reopening proved states hold the police power, not the president

Erick Erickson delivers a candid monologue on the dangers of self-dealing in the Trump administration, warning that failing to police corruption risks handing Democrats ammunition and alienating independents ahead of the midterms. He contrasts the "drain the swamp" promise with reported foreign deals, crypto gains, and influence concerns. He also explores countercultural living in modern America: going to church, reading books, genuine socializing, and moderate drinking as antidotes to isolation, declining literacy, and AI cheating. Additional topics include Costco's employee model, free markets vs. profit-over-people pitfalls, the International Criminal Court, ranked-choice voting, and more.

War is back on the menu. Erick opens on the restart of the Iran conflict: a five hour U.S. bombing campaign, a full blockade of Iranian ports, and President Trump scrapping the 20% Strait of Hormuz toll in favor of Gulf state trade and investment deals. He presses the case that Trump should stop settling for simply keeping the strait open and finally back regime change, citing Iran's plots against Ivanka Trump and Air Force One. Then he pivots to a full-throated defense of AI data centers against what he calls a China-funded fear campaign, as New York becomes the first state to declare a data center moratorium. Iran war reignites: a five hour bombing campaign, a Strait of Hormuz blockade, and the killing of the IRGC chief with a bunker buster bomb Trump drops the 20% Hormuz ship fee for Gulf trade deals, while Saudi Arabia bombs the Houthis at Bab al-Mandeb with Trump's blessing and Israel waits on the sidelines The regime change debate: Iran's 47 year war on Americans, plots to kill Ivanka Trump and shoot down Air Force One, and reports of Iranian drones in Cuba June inflation cools to 2.6%: core CPI and headline CPI fall, the Dow dips while NASDAQ and the S&P climb, and oil ticks up (Brent near $84, West Texas near $78) Data centers defended: New York's moratorium, debunking the power and water panic, blue collar jobs for welders and electricians, property tax relief, and the race to beat China

Erick unloads on Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page of Juno) for calling the gender binary a myth, using it to argue that while the left's wokeism is fading, its mental health crisis and DSA violence keep growing. He then delivers an extended investigation of the Patriot Front, arguing it is not an FBI or Southern Poverty Law Center front but a real movement of online radicalized young men and white nationalist pastors tied to groups like American Reformer, and he warns conservatives to purge them before they infect the Republican Party. Plus the chip driven inflation behind the data center fight, a China funded lawsuit campaign against Micron and Arizona data centers, and a Taco Bell linked outbreak. Topics: The chip inflation problem: Brad's call on the Samsung and Micron memory lawsuit, RAM prices up 30%, and why Erick says the fix is deregulation and killing chip tariffs, not banning data centers (Georgia's rate cut vs. states that restricted power supply) Elliot Page (Ellen Page) calls the gender binary a myth: Juno's accidental pro-life legacy, her attacks on Chris Pratt, transgenderism as untreated mental illness, and Gertrude Himmelfarb on defining deviancy down Nicole Wallace, Jim Acosta, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders: the "high income progressive neurotic white woman" driving the Democratic Party off the cliff, and Erick's case for contentedness over rage The Patriot Front unmasked: not SPLC or FBI funded, the "Hitler Hated Christ" account, young men radicalized online (Evola, Mein Kampf, the Daily Stormer, QAnon), white nationalist pastors, American Reformer, the Baptist Leadership Institute, and Michael Spengler China's data center war: front "concerned citizen" groups suing Micron in New York and a data center in Arizona over water, the TikTok data stack fight, and a warning to build so China cannot control the stack

Erick pushes back hard on rumors that President Trump will use a Thursday national address to declare the 2020 Georgia election stolen and delegitimize Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, warning that branding Ossoff illegitimate would only elevate him against Mike Collins and drive independents his way. He lays out a smarter playbook for Trump: make the case against Iran and its regime, present real evidence of any foreign election interference, and quote the Democratic Socialists' own words rather than calling them communists. He then turns to Justice Amy Coney Barrett's raw House testimony about death threats, a bulletproof vest, and a swatting incident, sharing his own long history of being swatted, stalked, and harassed, before closing on Lindsey Graham's Atlantic quote, "there is no they, there is only we," and a call to save your own community. Trump's rumored Thursday address: claims of a stolen 2020 Georgia election, foreign interference, and an effort to delegitimize Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, with Erick's warning that the attack only boosts Ossoff against Mike Collins in 2026 The 2021 runoff reality check: roughly 524,000 Georgia Republicans who skipped the Ossoff and Warnock runoff after Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene told them it would be stolen, plus the Herschel Walker misfire and why re-litigating 2020 is a losing move Erick's alternative message for Trump: build the national case to dismantle the Iranian regime, name names and present real evidence on election threats, and hoist the Democratic Socialists (Abdul El-Sayed, the "bomb Los Angeles and New York" video) on their own words Amy Coney Barrett's testimony on threats, the bulletproof vest, and a swatting incident, alongside Erick's own swatting, pizza harassment, and family stalking stories, plus the Atlanta police training facility Antifa siege A theology of hope versus secular rage: why a loss of Christian hope fuels violence on the left and the Patriot Front right (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot), and Lindsey Graham's "there is no they, only we" charge to seek the welfare of your own community

In this powerful opening hour of The Erick Erickson Show, Erick pays tribute to the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who passed away at 71 from a tear in his aorta. Reflect on Graham's remarkable life — from raising his sister after losing both parents at 20, to his legendary defense of Brett Kavanaugh, tireless support for a strong American foreign policy, and his unmatched constituent service in South Carolina. Erick shares personal stories, Graham's famous humor, heartfelt reactions from President Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Senator Tim Scott, and addresses the wave of conspiracy theories following his sudden death. Plus, updates on Governor Henry McMaster appointing Darlene Graham to finish his Senate term. A must-listen tribute to a legendary senator and statesman.

Erick breaks down the escalating crisis with Iran as the U.S. conducts strikes and President Trump announces America will guard the Strait of Hormuz — and get paid for it. Erick also discusses Lindsey Graham's final days pushing for strong action on Iran and Ukraine, plus the imminent appointment of Graham's sister, Darlene Graham-Norden, to the U.S. Senate. Plus, a deep dive into radical left funding: the arrest and extradition of Fergie Chambers (Cox media heir), his feud with Neville Roy Singham, and how millionaire & billionaire donors are fueling militant communism within the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Erick explores the shift from democratic socialism to Marxist direct action and what it means for 2026 politics.

Erick discusses the appointment of Darlene Graham-Norden (Lindsey Graham's sister) to the U.S. Senate and reflects on Graham's legacy. He dives deep into the growing radical left influence in the Democratic Party, from Rashida Tlaib and Ro Khanna to the funding of militant groups by figures like Fergie Chambers and Neville Roy Singham. Erick explores President Trump's "communist or patriot" message, the incompatibility of communism and Christianity, rising antisemitism, and the ActBlue foreign donor scandal. Plus, listener calls on Israel, foreign policy, and why conspiracy theories about Mitch McConnell persist. A thought-provoking hour blending politics, faith, and current events.

Erick Erickson broadcasts live from Las Vegas and dives deep into the dramatic collapse of Graham Platner's Senate campaign in Maine. Platner officially drops out amid a flood of sexual misconduct allegations, unhinged rants, and media fallout — exposing the Democratic Party's poor vetting and desperate search for anti-establishment fighters. Erick discusses the broader anti-establishment wave on both sides of the aisle, why character still matters in politics, the disconnect between party elites and voters, and the dangers of the far-left's influence on the Democratic base. Plus, listener calls on an Open Line Thursday. Topics include: - Platner's pattern of behavior and media complicity - Democratic Socialists vs. establishment Democrats - Why good candidates sit on the sidelines - Lessons from Trump's 2016 rise and current party fractures

Erick Erickson takes listener calls on an Open Line Thursday, discussing the realities of immigration enforcement, ICE operations, and why Hispanic Americans strongly oppose illegal immigration. He defends law enforcement against left-wing attacks and contrasts postmodern emotional appeals with facts on the ground. Additional topics include: - Escalating U.S. actions against Iran, including strikes on infrastructure and economic pressure - Why Democrats keep elevating flawed, extreme candidates - James Talarico's "all paths to truth" religious pluralism and its disconnect with voters - Tax reform challenges and the limits of replacing the income tax

Erick Erickson makes the case that true counterculture today looks very different from the 1960s: going to church, reading physical books, socializing in person, and enjoying moderate drinking with friends. He ties this to rising social isolation, declining literacy, AI cheating in schools, and the health of American culture. Additional topics include: - Costco's employee-first model and why treating workers well drives long-term success - Free markets, morality, and the dangers of profit-over-people private equity - Update on Graham Platner's campaign - The Tyler Robinson case and wild conspiracy theories - Bonnie Tyler tribute A thoughtful hour on faith, culture, business, and rejecting modern isolation.

Erick Erickson breaks down the latest US strikes on Iranian coastal targets, the suspension of Iran's oil sales, and ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. He critiques the fragile ceasefire, JD Vance's comments, and Iran's rearmament efforts. He also delivers a strong defense of capitalism through the inspiring story of Driscoll's — the family company that made premium strawberries, blueberries, and berries available year-round worldwide through innovation. Erickson contrasts this with socialist resentment toward successful entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and highlights how working-class voters are rejecting candidates like Graham Plattner.

Erick Erickson breaks down the latest US strikes on Iranian coastal targets, the suspension of Iran's oil sales, and ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. He critiques the fragile ceasefire, JD Vance's comments, and Iran's rearmament efforts. He also delivers a strong defense of capitalism through the inspiring story of Driscoll's — the family company that made premium strawberries, blueberries, and berries available year-round worldwide through innovation. Erickson contrasts this with socialist resentment toward successful entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and highlights how working-class voters are rejecting candidates like Graham Plattner.

Erick Erickson exposes the Democratic Party's Biden-style cover-up of Graham Plattner's scandals in the Maine Senate race. From the Nazi death's head tattoo and Reddit rape fantasies to multiple sexual assault and rape allegations, Democrats and the media (including the New York Times' "catch and kill") defended him until polling shifted against Susan Collins. Erickson draws parallels to Biden's decline, party elites overriding voters, and selective belief in women based on politics. A must-listen breakdown of hypocrisy, media complicity, and threats to democracy from within the Democratic Party.

Graham Platner has finally gotten too problematic and now begins the Joe Biden treatment.

Government subsidies make everything more expensive and slow innovation.

Bryan Johnson while trying to defy aging finds himself with a life threatening issue plus the latest polling heading into the midterms.

In this post-Fourth of July week episode, Erick Erickson celebrates American exceptionalism, drawing from Ronald Reagan's "City Upon a Hill" and the unique success of the American Revolution compared to the failures of France, Russia, and China. He explores what truly makes America the greatest nation and why people vote with their feet to come here. Erick also breaks down the absurd soccer controversy: leftists rooting against the U.S. team after FIFA reversed an unfair red card — simply because they assume President Trump was involved. He calls out the self-loathing patriotism of critics who refuse to leave the country they claim to hate. A powerful, inspiring monologue on liberty, sacrifice, national character, and rejecting isolationism. Must-listen for Independence Day weekend reflections on what it means to be American.

Erick Erickson highlights a powerful signal of friendship from the United Arab Emirates: while other Middle Eastern nations attended the funeral of Ayatollah Khomeini with anti-American chants, the UAE skipped it entirely and instead sent its air force to perform flyovers for America's Fourth of July celebrations. Drawing from his childhood growing up in Dubai, Erick makes the case for a stronger U.S.-UAE alliance, noting the UAE's pro-Western stance, military cooperation against Iran, exit from OPEC, and willingness to stand with America and Israel. Plus, Erick dives into the wild, dysfunctional political drama in Louisiana, where New Orleans officials indicted the state Attorney General for simply warning them they were conducting an illegal election — complete with grand jury leaks, massive conflicts of interest, and a special prosecutor who didn't even know who she was prosecuting. Erick also touches on the U.S. soccer match vs. Belgium, Patriot Front/white nationalism concerns on the right, and more. A must-listen episode on foreign alliances, American exceptionalism, and government dysfunction.

Erick Erickson urges conservatives to stop blanket-labeling Democrats as "communists" and instead expose their actual radical positions: seizing the means of production, abolishing borders and prisons, defunding police and ICE, socialized healthcare, and overthrowing "American imperialism." He breaks down how Democratic Socialists are co-opting the Democratic Party through low-turnout urban primaries, charismatic messaging, and long-term institutional capture — especially in education. Topics include: Debate with a caller defending Patriot Front / white nationalism Rise of candidates like Abdul El-Sayed (Michigan), Zohran Mamdani, and others Indoctrination of Gen Alpha and the power of protest culture Why good Republican candidates are sitting on the sidelines (Trump endorsements, donor access, etc.) Graham Platner rumors in Maine and more A hard-hitting hour on political strategy, cultural decay, and the real battle for America's future. 

SCOTUS decided that words have actual meaning and not just the fulfillment of whatever schizophrenic emotion the left is currently suffering from.

Republicans in the senate can scream about the filibuster and SAVE act but they all bailed to go home for the July 4th holiday proving they are all full of it plus the communists are taking over the democrat party but will we let them take the country?

Vance is giving Iran everything it wants while lying to the American people so it begs the question, can he be trusted going forward.

Democrats have always played footsie with communists but they went too far and the communists are now getting elected and wearing the party as a skin suit plus Trump is great at convincing voters of his vision but can't seem to manage it with elected officials.

Holy cow is the Trump administration discovering a disturbing amount of healthcare fraud and you can probably guess who almost all the perps are in these cases plus the march back to the right in South America is a direct result of misery of socialism. A lesson we seem intent on ignoring here in America.

Sadly too many on the right want more to believe a lie than be confronted with the truth.

The woke right of podcastistan just loves themselves some Russian propaganda sprinkled with a heavy dose of drooling over the islamic dictatorship of Qatar plus democrats are going to really regret nominating Christianity hating James Talarico. 

SCOTUS released a handful of decisions today but not he biggest ones plus Christians in the US would rather cozy up to politicians they like than speak on Christian persecution in places like Lebanon.

It is such a deep and profound disappointment watching Trump and Vance gaslight Americans about their Iranian deal that is worse than Obama's plus Canada loves killing the innocent but not the criminal murderer.

SCOTUS releases a number of cases today so lets break them down plus we are going to try, albeit in vain, to put a rosey spin in the Iran deal.

Working from home is not bennefiting society not matter how much you personal love it plus more on the bad Iran deal.

The President isn't handling the latest criticism of his recent decisions.

As details emerge about the lengths british politicians went to cover up migrant rape gangs it's clear accountability needs to be the focus.

Events can always change things but democrats are not on good footing heading into the midterms.

Vance tries to sell the administrations capitulation to the Iranians.

The Iran deal is a huge US failure and there is no spinning this plus the right has become as performative as the left. 

The UFC fight at the White House might not have been for everyone but it was definitely pro-America unlike the left's embarrassing counter programing plus something very evil is trying to take over churches in the US.

To the surprise of no one the left continues to hate earned wealth. 

I give up trying to figure out what President Trump is doing in Iran, it's completely schizophrenic at this point plus the left hates everything but nothing more that success they don't control.

While foreigners continue to reveal in how amazing the US is the left continues to hate it…..be more like the foreigners plus Iran is just playing games and it's beyond time to end the charade.

The economics or this prolonged, whatever you want to call it, in Iran, don't look good for the President or the US plus the left, who went all in with the #MeToo movement, is bending over backwards to defend domestic violence now that it suits their needs.

The racial grievance crowd continues to perpetuate permanent victimhood to the point it's inescapable for those foolish enough to fall for it plus President Trump just said there is a deal but every country he named, including Iran and Israel, say they have no idea what he's talking about.

Europeans and other foreigners who are coming to the US for the world cup are discovering just how awesome the United States actually is plus with Graham Platner winning Maine democrats are trying to convince themselves they can take the Senate without Maine. Good luck.

Justice was served in Texas yesterday as it sent a murdered to prison for 35 years for stabbing a 17 year old to death plus Trump is really dithering on Iran and beyond time to crap or get off the pot.

Too many people have chosen to look outward, blaming the world, instead of their poor decisions as to why they are underachievers 

It's primary day and it looks like democrats are committed to going off the cliff plus President Trump is stuck in a bad news cycle he can't get out of if he doesn't pivot.

The Chinese have been very successful in their propaganda campaign to get Americans to turn against data centers plus an over reliance on tech is ruining student education.

The left continues its mission against having children.

Our only hope in Iran is that the Presidents public statements don't reflect what is going on behind closed doors plus a break down on LA's mayoral race and no, it wasn't stolen from Spencer Pratt.

The left has made it there mission to destroy anyone on the left if they don't toe the line.

The individuals who pushed Graham Platner have been revealed plus Scott Pelley goes full stolen valor on getting fired from CBS.

Democrats picked a doozy in Graham Platner and boy are they willing to go down with the ship as the drip, drip, drip of his insane behavior continues to come out in the media.

Some very good economic news came out recently that give some hope going forward plus Bernie Sanders is finally seeing his life long goal of taking over the democrat party.

We take look back and honor the anniversary of D-Day plus open line Friday calls.

Democrats don't and have never meant it when they talk about morals plus there is no way to sugar coat this but President Trump's action against Iran has been a complete failure.

The SPLC needed to fund racism in order to fight it….like almost all left wing causes, fund the thing you're fighting plus the left wants to go back to reeducation camps only this time for conservatives.

At some point President Trump is going to have to admit there is no negotiating with Iran as they have already breached whatever ceasefire they pretended was in place plus CBS is cleaning house and it's very telling how upset hard core progressives are about it.

Republicans in congress are not high on the idea of Pulte being the head of DNI plus democrats have a very easy and clear path to get rid of Graham Platner and their refusal to do so says everything you need to know about the left.

Covid and conspiracy killed the publics trust in health sciences plus California continues to ad fuel to the stolen election fire by taking weeks to count votes.

President Trump replaces Tulsi Gabbard with an absolute moron plus Mike Pence joins the program.

Rich kids are falling in love with communism in order to cement their social status and keep the poor in their place plus the drip, drip, drip of Graham Platner insanity continues with the worst yet to be revealed.

President Trump is having trouble sealing his vision in Congress because their loyalty largely lies with their constituents who vote for them and not the President.

Democrats are crashing out over their favorite nazi Graham Planter's latest scandal.

The fallout continues from Jill Biden's ill-timed interview about Joe's cognitive decline plus Iran has abandon all peace talks so that begs the question….will Trump man up and finish the job he started?

Iran says again, no deal, to Trump so who knows where we are in this plus the media continues to carry the water for the worst of democrat candidates.

AOC and pretty much ever other brain dead progressive feminist loves the Iranian Hands Maid Tale plus Mike Collins in Georgia has a huge personal problem.

Trump says we have a deal with Iran but Iran says we don't so who knows what is actually going on plus Jill Biden and the media finally feel safe to admit Joe Biden was a walking bowl of pudding.

The woke left and the woke right are all trying to shame Christians into voting for the heretic James Talarico plus progressive states are having a hard time making employees come back to work and do their jobs.

President Trump is handling the pressure campaign on Cuban brilliantly.

A lot of so-so and outright bad candidates won primaries last night so what does that mean for the general plus James Talarico is a grotesque heretic. 

Like we tried to warn people, Trump's tariff gambit is causing real harm to the US economy yet too many blind true believers still defend them plus more on the insane theology of James Talarico. 

Some new weight loss drugs are reducing cancer risks plus Jaxson Dart will be just fine no matter how much the liberal cranks cry.

One of the reasons the left keeps losing is because the media carries so much water for them they start be believe their own lies plus an update on some races in Texas and the Los Angeles mayoral race.

The left likes to abuse the court system by dragging innocent people through court proceedings in order to bankrupt them, DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard resigns plus a lets take a look at the lay of the midterm land.

Apparently poor people can't budget food anymore and it has nothing to do with their economic situation but their economic literacy plus Mike Collins is the GOP candidate we don't need unless you want six more years of Jon Ossoff.