The Erick Erickson Show

Erick makes the case that the AI safety panic is regulatory capture dressed up as the apocalypse: Anthropic, racing toward an IPO and burning cash on GPUs and data centers, wants Washington to freeze its competitors in place before open source models from Meta catch up. He plays Kara Swisher's nuclear nonproliferation analogy on CNN and dismantles it with the history of the China Syndrome, Three Mile Island, and the 100 nuclear plants America never built, then plays David Sacks calling Dario Amodei's bluff. The back half is a full teardown of effective altruism, the Sam Bankman Fried utilitarian cult now running AI safety, complete with shrimp welfare and a Beth Barnes TED talk. AI as a math equation, not a god: why the doomers keep building what they claim will kill us Anthropic's IPO, GPU costs, closed models versus Meta's open source, and regulation as a moat Kara Swisher's nuclear analogy, the China Syndrome, Three Mile Island, and the Soviet funded anti nuclear pivot to climate change David Sacks and JD Vance on the AI Trojan horse: if you believe it ends humanity, why are you running the company Effective altruism, Sam Bankman Fried, William MacAskill, Beth Barnes, and shrimp welfare as moral math, plus a preview of tomorrow's newsletter naming names on the right

Erick returns to Beau French and the Indian American Longhorns fans in Stetsons to argue that a legitimate grievance about H-1B visa abuse is being allowed to rot into racism, and he warns that America is walking the same road that produced the AfD and Europe's far right. Then a hard look at the numbers: the New York Times and Siena College poll has Democrats up 51 to 43 on the generic ballot, President Trump at 38 percent approval, 31 percent on the war in Iran and 28 percent on cost of living, with Nate Cohn drawing the 2006 comparison. The bond market is doing its own voting, with the 10 year Treasury yield at a 19 year high, the Dow off more than 400 points, and crude at 106 dollars a barrel. Beau French, the University of Texas, and why assimilated American kids became a target for the anti DEI right Europe's far right, no go zones, the British rape gangs, and what happens when elites refuse to fix immigration Real H-1B visa abuse: the Disney layoffs, universities importing cheap labor, the "unique skills" dodge, and Erick's own immigration law practice stories The New York Times and Siena poll, Nate Cohn's 2006 parallel, JD Vance campaigning in Kansas, and why Erick still says do not panic James Talarico on parents and gender transition, Ken Paxton, Susan Collins, John Sununu, and the redistricting red wall The bond market rejecting Washington, the 10 year Treasury at a 19 year high, and Anduril's drone challenge to Lockheed Martin and Raytheon

Erick opens on a religious liberty case the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear, and it is one he says he could not believe was real: University Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, threatened Daniel Grand with jail, sent police to monitor his house, and encouraged neighbors to report "unauthorized prayer activity" after he tried to gather ten Orthodox Jews for a minyan on the Sabbath, with neighbors telling him "we don't want your kind here" because they feared the neighborhood would be labeled Jewish. He walks it back through Kelvin Cochran, the Atlanta fire chief fired over his Sunday school book, Jack Phillips and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and RLUIPA. The second half is the Supreme Court blocking the Trump administration's Postal Service ballot mail rule, with Erick taking the side of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett against Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, and asking Republicans a simple question: do you want Barack Obama's Postal Service holding a barcode that says this ballot belongs to this Republican? Daniel Grand, University Heights, Ohio, and a city using its police force to watch an Orthodox Jewish family for unauthorized prayer, now headed to the Supreme Court Kelvin Cochran, Jack Phillips, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Charlie Hebdo, and the argument from "You Will Be Made to Care" that the difference between the two persecutions is the sword The Postal Service ballot rule struck down: Alito and Thomas in dissent, four conservatives in the majority, and Erick's Lois Lerner and IRS warning about who controls the machinery next time A preview of tomorrow's newsletter naming the money behind the anti-Semitic turn on the right, the Franco admirers, and the effort to capture the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church in America John Kennedy grilling FBI Director Kash Patel over a hiring rule change on bestiality, plus breaking news: a Kansas man charged over threats to kill Ben Shapiro, a Russian murder for hire indictment in the Southern District of New York, and a disrupted ISIS plot in Philadelphia

Erick walks through regulatory capture in real time: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's "We Must Pace the Frontier" essay, the coordinated Jacob Coxson resignation rollout in the Wall Street Journal, and the Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar bill to create a cabinet level AI agency. He traces the money from Dustin Moskovitz, Open Philanthropy, and the Survival and Flourishing Fund back to the same people who own Anthropic, then explains why Meta and Mark Zuckerberg's open source models are the real competitive threat and why nobody is asking for strict liability. In the second half he takes apart Texas Railroad Commission candidate Beau French for a racist tweet about Indian American students at the University of Texas, and argues the right is repeating the identity politics mistake that cost the left two elections. Regulatory capture explained through AT&T and the FCC, the railroads and the Interstate Commerce Commission, the airlines and the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the insurance industry writing the Affordable Care Act The Jacob Coxson resignation, the Hugging Face incident, Anthropic, OpenAI, METR, and the donor network funding both the doomers and the companies demanding regulation Why Meta and Mark Zuckerberg's open models are the actual target, the Anthropic IPO, and why Anthropic and OpenAI want regulation instead of Hammurabi style strict liability Beau French, the Texas Railroad Commission, and the University of Texas photo: the real UT Austin demographic numbers, Greg Abbott's response, and the H-1B visa abuse that has a kernel of truth inside the race baiting Tropic Thunder, Kirk Lazarus, and the warning to Republicans chasing algorithm revenue, plus Tom Tiffany's plane crash landing in Lake Wausau and the Cowboys losing to the Giants

Erick opens with a progressive tech writer's essay about neighbors named Bob and Van, men whose politics never came up because politics was not the whole of life, and turns it into an argument that social media has catechized both parties out of normalcy. He plays Bill Maher's Real Time monologue on radical Islamism, Osama bin Laden's polling among young Americans, and the parallel between 2020 stolen election claims and Gaza genocide claims as tribal loyalty tests, then walks the Senate Leadership Fund's $25 million ad buy across seven states and explains what the missing Georgia money says about Mike Collins, Jon Ossoff, and the AI generated attack ad nobody asked for. He closes on Ken Paxton's AI generated James Talarico ad, Abdul El-Sayed's refusal to answer for Hasan Piker in Michigan, and President Trump lifting tariffs on Irish whiskey as a favor. TOPICS Where have all the normal people gone: the Bob and Van essay, Lindsay Clancy defenders on TikTok, Beau French and the University of Texas photo, and why normal people who work, watch football, and skip conventions still decide elections Bill Maher on Real Time: radical Islamism versus Western liberalism, one in five young Americans with a favorable view of Osama bin Laden, Luigi Mangione, and the stolen election and Gaza genocide as matching tribal loyalty tests Senate Leadership Fund drops $25 million across Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Alaska, with nothing for Mike Collins in Georgia and the Trump super PAC covering Texas instead The AI generated ad problem: the Ossoff ad calling him too pretty for office, Ken Paxton's AI James Talarico bible spot, and why using fake video when real video exists is political malpractice Abdul El-Sayed dodges on Hasan Piker in Michigan, John Sununu versus Chris Pappas puts New Hampshire in play, plus Irish whiskey tariff favors, the 10 year Treasury yield at 5%, Speaker Mike Johnson and David Sacks on AI regulation, and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson's step by step progress on crime

Erick Erickson takes a caller's tale of two Georgia ad campaigns, Rick Jackson's brutal and effective spots against Keisha Lance Bottoms versus the One Nation tax ads carrying Mike Collins against Jon Ossoff, and turns it into the central question of the 2026 midterms: a blue wave is coming, but is the red wall the GOP built taller than the wave? He stakes out his own call of a 10 to 15 seat Democratic House pickup with the Senate holding, walks through New Hampshire, Michigan, North Carolina, Maine, Texas, Iowa, and Kansas, and plays the Roger Marshall town hall where Republicans in the crowd, not just the progressive hecklers, start booing the moment he defends tariffs. In the back half he digs into the ProPublica report that a Russian oligarch quietly bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding, then explains in plain language why a $5,000 tariff dividend check would pour fuel on inflation right as the Federal Reserve decides whether to raise interest rates. The Georgia ad war: Rick Jackson defining Keisha Lance Bottoms on crime while she has no money to answer, the One Nation $2,100 tax increase ad against Jon Ossoff, why the Mike Collins makeup attack is political malpractice, and the Trafalgar poll showing Ossoff up 49 to 43 Blue wave versus red wall: Erick's 10 to 15 seat House call against Mark Halperin's 25, why the Senate map still favors Republicans in New Hampshire, Michigan, Iowa, Alaska, Nebraska, and Florida, and what a Democratic Senate would mean for JD Vance in 2028 Roger Marshall gets booed in Kansas by his own voters over tariffs, JD Vance campaigning in a state Republicans should not have to defend, the Real Clear Politics average showing a 50-50 Senate, and the 6.7 point Democratic generic ballot lead ProPublica reports Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev secretly bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding, Eric Trump says he has no idea who the man is, and why Erick still rejects the Russian stooge theory while calling this an unforced gift to Democrats Affordability is the number one issue: data center construction propping up the economy while driving concrete, aluminum, and chip prices up, the 50% tariff on Canadian lumber, nine straight months of wages trailing inflation, and why Erick says the $5,000 check is a Diocletian style mistake the Federal Reserve will have to clean up

On the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, Erick Erickson opens not with the news but with Welles Crowther, the 24 year old equities trader on the 104th floor of the South Tower who tied a red bandana around his face, carried an injured woman down 17 floors, and went back up the stairs again and again until he died alongside firefighters in the lobby. Prompted by a question from his daughter Evelyn about whether Americans have turned misery into a way of honoring the day, Erick draws a hard line between grieving and honoring, reads the names of the 2,977 dead, and argues that the unity of September 12 was cheap unity because fear is free. He revisits Todd Beamer and Flight 93, the 343 firefighters and 71 police officers, Article 5 of NATO, Cantor Fitzgerald's 658 employees, President Trump's posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for Crowther, and the algorithmic outrage industry that now profits from keeping Americans sorted into factions. Welles Crowther, the red bandana, the 78th floor sky lobby, and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation touring the South Tower stairwell as Trump awards him the Presidential Medal of Freedom Erick's answer to his daughter Evelyn: grief fades with time and is private, honor is public and chosen, and a country that only knows how to grieve on September 11 has made an idol of the day Why the post 9/11 unity was cheap: Gettysburg 1913, British poppies, the 2000 Florida recount, Jim Jeffords, and unity that only shows up when a building falls on your neighbors Todd Beamer, Flight 93, "let's roll," the Pentagon, Article 5 of NATO, and the 2,977 names Erick challenges listeners to scroll through Caller Mark in Jacksonville on why America came together after 9/11 and tore itself apart over COVID, plus Erick on Albany Georgia, the conspiracy theorists who still claim controlled demolition, and the algorithm that pays people to divide us Erick's own September 11 memory in a middle Georgia law office, the out of town lawyer who insisted the deposition go forward, Adam Milani and Oklahoma City, and the moment he stopped wanting to be a lawyer

Erick Erickson takes apart the Politico story out of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas claiming panic over the Senate map, siding with Chris LaCivita and walking through why a five point Democratic polling bias in September means Republicans in Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Maine, Alaska, and Texas are actually ahead, not drowning. Then the August consumer price index lands at 3.4 percent, Mark Zandi and Thomas Ryan warn the Federal Reserve may raise rates next week, the 30 year mortgage hits 6.76 percent, and Erick issues a direct challenge to President Trump: take every tariff to zero between now and Election Day and run the experiment. TOPICS The Politico "doom in Dallas" story, Meredith Lee Hill and Aaron Daugherty, and why Erick sides with Chris LaCivita over the anonymous Republican strategists The 2020 comparison: Lindsey Graham, Joni Ernst, Roger Marshall, and John Cornyn were all "toss ups" at this exact point and all won comfortably Erick's forecast: the GOP loses the House, loses Georgia and North Carolina, but holds the Senate, with Ken Paxton surviving in Texas and Susan Collins preferable to the unvetted alternative August CPI at 3.4 percent, gas up 27.4 percent, airline fares up 23 percent, and the Iran war as the energy shock economists including Joe Siedel at JP Morgan blame for it The tariff challenge to President Trump, wages running beneath inflation, the 10 year Treasury pushing mortgages to 6.76 percent, and why used car and auto insurance prices are the only things falling Caller Alan on broken trust, forty trillion in debt, and a country that has not felt this pulled apart since the Civil War

Erick Erickson closes the 25th anniversary of September 11 by playing the sound a camera crew heard at the World Trade Center that afternoon, more than 300 firefighter PASS device alarms sounding under the rubble, then turns the overwhelming weight of the news into practical advice out of Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Babylon: seek the welfare of the city in which you live, because Washington is not coming to help you. From there it is an Open Line Friday run through the Lindsay Clancy trial twist, where juror Paula Devlin told Gayle King on CBS that the lone holdout who wanted a guilty verdict was the only black man on the panel, plus Ted Cruz and Dave McCormick warning about a red green alliance of communists and Islamists at the Republican convention, President Trump's wardrobe jab at Ken Paxton, and the $5,000 Trump dividend that landed like a lead balloon with congressional Republicans. Erick ends where he began, with Welles Crowther, the red bandana, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The PASS device audio from Ground Zero, the 300 plus firefighters lost, and Erick's answer to feeling overwhelmed by inflation, China, Russia, Iran, the Sahel, and fentanyl all at once Jeremiah 29 and the Babylonian exile as practical living rather than theology: volunteer at the food bank, read to kids at the elementary school, spend money locally, know your city councilman, because Washington did not storm the towers and is not coming for you The Lindsay Clancy jury twist: juror Paula Devlin, Gayle King saying she has to sit with that, the white jurors who wanted not guilty by reason of insanity, and Erick's shot at the online racists who assumed the opposite Ted Cruz on the red green alliance, Dave McCormick on socialism returning from the dustbin of history, Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez laughing during the reading of the names, and the al Qaeda volunteer headed to Congress from New Jersey Why Israel has not finished the job in Iran: Erdogan, the Turks, the Kurds in northern Iraq, and a president who took his friend's phone call over the war plan President Trump on Ken Paxton's wardrobe, the $5,000 Trump dividend Congress does not want, caller Jim at 80 on his schizophrenic brother-in-law and the case for reopening Milledgeville and the mental institutions, and Welles Crowther climbing back up the stairs

Erick opens on President Trump's Dallas convention promise of a $5,000 "Trump dividend" to every adult citizen if Republicans hold the House and Senate, and calls it what it is: a bribe funded by the tariffs listeners are already paying, with JD Vance out on Fox News defending it. His counteroffer is zero income tax for married couples with kids earning under $200,000, money people keep instead of money the government prints and hands back. Then the real story of the hour, the Republican midterm message of common sense versus crazy, as James Talarico scrambles to walk back six genders and a non-binary God, Abdul El-Sayed runs from his 9/11 problem, John Fetterman cuts an ad for Dave McCormick, and a new Tony Fabrizio poll shows Talarico beating Ken Paxton in Texas by four. Trump's $5,000 dividend pitch in Dallas, the never-delivered $5,000 DOGE check, and why Erick calls it bribery and "unicorn farts" JD Vance on Brett Baier defending tariffs as the funding source, and Erick's rebuttal that American workers pay tariffs through flat wages and higher prices on beef, coffee and bananas The better plan: zero income tax on married couples with children under $200,000 instead of a Biden-style $2,000 COVID check that reignites inflation Common sense versus crazy: James Talarico backpedaling on SB 14, transgender surgeries for minors and "God is non-binary," plus his Charlie Kirk dodge Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed and the 9/11 attack line in Michigan, John Fetterman's ad for Dave McCormick, Jake Tapper on tied Senate races, and the Fabrizio poll red flag with Talarico up four on Ken Paxton

Erick opens with the hard economic numbers Republicans keep trying to spin past: the Atlanta Fed says a household now needs $124,674 a year to afford a median priced home against a median income just over $80,000, wholesale prices rose 0.4 percent in August with the producer price index running 5.4 percent annually, diesel surged 24.1 percent, and West Texas crude sits above $101 a barrel with Brent at $106. His argument is that President Trump should stop spinning and level with people, because Iran is deliberately wrecking the American economy to elect weak Democrats and win a nuclear weapon. Then the story of the hour: Erick walks through the case that Jacob Coxon's dramatic resignation from Anthropic after six weeks is not organic at all, but a funded operation to regulate American AI into oblivion. The Atlanta Fed housing math, the August producer price index, 24.1 percent diesel, oil over $100 a barrel, and why the Federal Reserve interest rate decision next week still points to a hike Trump's claim that the war ends immediately after the election, and Erick's case that Iran is holding the American economy hostage to install Democrats who will let them go nuclear Erick's frustration with the tariffs and the Canada trade war, and his pitch to blame Joe Biden's economy while running on common sense versus crazy The Jacob Coxon story: six weeks at Anthropic, a Wall Street Journal exclusive, a Twitter post 18 minutes later with 149 million views, and Anderson Cooper and Brett Baier interviews demanding an international body to control AI Following the money, from Extinction Rebellion and Newspeak to Jan Tallinn, the Survival and Flourishing Fund, Encode AI, the AI Policy Network, the AI Futures Project, Dustin Moskovitz and Bernie Sanders' bill to ban artificial superintelligence, with Elon Musk, Dylan Loomis and Parker Thayer questioning whether any of it is organic

Erick opens the final hour on Eva Moskowitz's Washington Post op-ed and the Success Academy lawsuit against New York education commissioner Betty Rosa, filed after the state blocked US News and World Report from reporting aggregate AP exam results, dropping one Success Academy high school from 11th in New York to 196th overnight. Then the news of the hour: the United Kingdom has formally requested the extradition of Andrew and Tristan Tate on 59 charges, including 15 counts of rape, and Erick names the right wing influencers who elevated them anyway. He closes on the eve of the 25th anniversary of September 11 with George W. Bush at Ground Zero, the 537 votes in Florida, the USA Today recount that would have cost Bush the presidency under his own hanging chad standard, and a hard argument about Islam, Charlie Hebdo, and the post liberal right. Eva Moskowitz, Success Academy charter schools and the federal lawsuit against Betty Rosa over New York hiding AP exam data, plus regents exams curved down to 29 of 82 raw points Teachers unions, whole word reading versus phonics as a revenue play, Mississippi outperforming California and New York, and the Georgia speaker pushing the Mississippi plan School choice, Bibb County school closings decided by race instead of academics, and Erick's defense of good teachers stuck babysitting kids the state forces through the door The United Kingdom's extradition request for Andrew and Tristan Tate, 42 charges against Andrew and 17 against Tristan, and the Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson wing that promoted them The 25th anniversary of September 11, George W. Bush's bullhorn moment and Yankee Stadium pitch, Bush versus Al Gore and the 537 votes, Saxby Chambliss beating Max Cleland, and why Erick says Islam as practiced is incompatible with Western free speech The post liberal right, Patrick Deneen, JD Vance's advisers, and Erick's case that attacking classical liberalism is socialism with a church pew

Erick opens the midterm stretch run by dismantling the Republican panic over Senate polling, using Patrick Ruffini's study of 3,312 polls showing Democrats are overstated by an average of 3.7 points, with the high water mark landing right at Labor Day. Then, as the Republican convention opens on the week of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, he argues the GOP should embrace the nationalized election and run on it, pointing to the Great Lakes PAC ad hitting Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race. Plus Trump's Presidential Medal of Freedom for the Man in the Red Bandana, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declaring "I am the house now." Patrick Ruffini's polling error data: Democrats overstated 3.7 points on average, 73 percent of polls, peaking at 5.9 in late July The 2020 echo: Lindsey Graham, Steve Bullock, Cal Cunningham, Roger Marshall, John Cornyn, Joni Ernst, Cindy Hyde-Smith, and every panic that fizzled Race by race averages in Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, with Ken Paxton and Michael Whatley the real trouble spots 9/11 at 25: Erick's daughter Evelyn on remembrance versus a macabre idol, TSA opening gate access again, and the Man in the Red Bandana Medal of Freedom Mike Rogers versus Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, the Great Lakes PAC ad, and Erick's case for nationalizing the election on 9/11 Scott Bessent at SMU: "I am the house now," the yen intervention, and the tripled Treasury buyback of 10 and 20 year notes

Erick opens hour two with survivors calling in on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, including Robert, who was on the 101st floor of the South Tower, and Greg, who listened over a squawk box as Cantor Fitzgerald went silent. Then he tears into the Trump administration's trade war of choice with Canada and the move to ban Bombardier jets, warning it puts Roger Marshall in Kansas, Susan Collins in Maine and Mike Rogers in Michigan at real risk two months before the election. He closes with a nuanced defense of Flock cameras paired with a hard line on facial recognition, and a blistering take on Anthropic researchers publicly claiming AI could kill humanity. Callers Robert and Greg on surviving 9/11, Aon's 176 dead, Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and a generation of kids with no memory of the world before Zohran-style progressives who say America deserved 9/11: Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, the "hurt people hurt people" line, and Erick's case for nationalizing the midterms on 9/11 The Canada trade war: the Bombardier ban, 2,000 Kansas jobs, Howard Lutnick sabotaging a done deal, Jamieson Greer, oil over $100 a barrel and the Dow down 300 Flock cameras defended and limited: no right to privacy in your license plate, but ban facial recognition in the public right of way and ban proactive alerts, with WSB TV's Brookhaven case of a family ticketed over stale insurance data Anthropic's Evan Hubinger and a departing researcher saying AI could kill all humans, and why Erick is not buying it: "I read the end of the book"

Erick opens hour three with the Wall Street Journal story on why returning online orders got hard, Lane Bryant restocking fees, shortened Macy's and Home Depot return windows, McDonald's killing free refills, and argues none of it is corporate penny pinching. It is what a low trust society looks like when a post Christian America abandons the ethics that made cheap trust possible. He then takes a caller on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, and delivers his sharpest attack yet on the JD Vance welfare proposal, calling it a plan to turn stay at home moms into welfare queens, before objecting to the Attorney General speaking at the Republican convention in Dallas. The Wall Street Journal on return fees: Lane Bryant, Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, TJ Maxx, Macy's cut from a year to 30 days, Home Depot's seven day window, and 68 percent of retailers now charging Why the low trust society explains it all: shoplifting, locked up razor blades at Target, dashcams, drivers in the left lane, Roman lawsuits as spectator sport, and Ross Douthat's post Christian right Caller Kathleen in Jacksonville on the 9/11 25th anniversary, never forget, and Erick on his daughter's question about where remembering ends and idolatry begins JD Vance and the Trump administration draft rule extending child care welfare to married couples: the $9,000 per child benefit, the $75,000 benefit cliff, and why dad cannot take the promotion and mom cannot take the part time job The Republican convention in Dallas: Erick's objection to the Attorney General and cabinet secretaries speaking at a partisan convention, plus LIV Golf filing Chapter 11

The post Labor Day panic has arrived, and Erick Erickson says the bad news is actually good news. He walks through the Real Clear Politics generic ballot average, Donald Trump's 36 to 39 percent approval, the two point Democratic polling bias, and the Senate map from Ken Paxton in Texas to Susan Collins in Maine, Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Mike Collins in Georgia. His verdict: Republicans probably lose seats, but there is no blue tsunami coming, and the billion dollars Trump is finally spending changes the math. Why Democrats always peak in summer polling, and why the averages settle after Labor Day Trump approval at 36 percent, the Iran war drag, and the AI worry numbers from Steve Kornacki Ken Paxton, the $10 million Texas rescue ad, and the Republican convention nobody may watch Susan Collins in Maine, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Michael Whatley in North Carolina, and national money pulling out of Georgia over Mike Collins The DSA conference, "the Democrats must be destroyed," and the GOP's 9/11 twenty fifth anniversary messaging opportunity

Erick Erickson takes apart the Trump administration's draft rule, championed by JD Vance, that would let married couples with a stay at home spouse collect roughly $9,000 per child from a Health and Human Services child care fund built in the 1990s to move single working mothers off welfare. His verdict: it is the Diet Coke of socialism, and you cannot beat the real thing. He walks the $75,000 income cliff, the promotions dad will never take, the marketable skills mom will never rebuild, and offers his own alternative: a $15,000 per child tax deduction with no cap, plus deducting local school property taxes for homeschool and private school families. The New York Times report on the JD Vance child care subsidy, the 870,000 families now on the program, and why redirecting money from single working mothers guts the whole point of 1996 welfare reform Congress never voted on it: Article I Section 8, the Necessary and Proper Clause, US v. Butler, and why judges will probably stop the end run around the legislature The $75,000 hard cap trap: two kids, $18,000 a year, a 10 percent raise dad cannot accept, and a couple stranded at 50 with no promotions and no marketable skills Erick's alternative to turning parents into welfare queens: a $15,000 per child tax deduction through age 18 (21 in college), no cap, plus deducting school property taxes for private and homeschool families Kevin Roberts and the post liberal Heritage Foundation, Lawrence Jones on Fox and Friends, the EBT card nanny state hypocrisy, and Reagan's "a choice, not an echo" Plus the Rams and 49ers flying 15,000 miles for a 10:35 a.m. Friday game in Melbourne, and the NFL's bet on supersonic travel  

Erick Erickson walks through the Wall Street Journal report that Iran's oil dollars are drying up, with no Iranian crude crossing the US Navy blockade since mid July and offshore stockpiles feeding China down from 90 million barrels to 29 million. His tell that the regime itself is cracking: the Ayatollah has had two London houses foreclosed on for missed mortgage payments, and the Iranian army is going unpaid and hungry. He also unpacks the new OECD PISA study showing a worldwide learning recession, and keeps taking apart the JD Vance stay at home parent child care subsidy. Wall Street Journal on the Strait of Hormuz blockade, Kpler tanker tracking, the collapsing Iranian rial, and the Ayatollah's two foreclosed London houses Victoria Coates on Fox, Scott Bessent on Operation Economic Outcast, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on nine million barrels a day still transiting the Strait Why the IRGC and the regular Iranian army are different animals, and why hungry, armed, unpaid soldiers are how the Shah fell to Khomeini The OECD PISA study: reading down 28 points, math down 22 points since 2015, kids using AI to cheat rather than learn, and a Dark Ages comparison from Rome to the monasteries to the Renaissance More on the JD Vance child care plan turning stay at home moms into welfare queens while punishing married moms who work, plus callers on property tax exemptions for modest homes and whether Vance or Marco Rubio gets 2028 China's deflation, mortgage and real estate crisis, the sanctioned Turkish bank, and Canada helping on Iran even in the middle of a trade war

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