Erick Erickson HR 2 7/15/26

Boys and girls, welcome. It is Eric Erikson here. Across the United States of America. I am delighted to have you with me, the phone number 877-977-3-7-4-25. I have to move on from the data centers because I have a far more controversial topic to talk about. It's dead. I know many of you want it, particularly those of you in Florida. You want it. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has killed it. Now, I need someone to tell Tom Cotton. My wife very much likes him. She thinks the world of Senator Cotton, but he may get taken off the Christmas card list for killing the legislation. I'm talking about the time change legislation. Vote occurred in the House of Representatives yesterday to end standard time and make permanent daylight saving time. We are currently in daylight saving time. And notice, you snobs, I'm saying daylight saving time, not daylight savings time, because some jerk's going to at me. You're saying savings and it's saving. I don't really care. Daylight saving time. It is that time when we spring forward in the spring, and we do not fall back until the fall, that window of time from spring to fall, where we advance the clock by an hour, lose an hour of sleep, and our kids can't get us to church that Sunday or the Sunday thereafter because they haven't adapted yet to the stupid losing an hour of sleep. But we will make it permanent, and we will not fall back. Ladies and gentlemen, we have tried this before. And it was an unmitigated disaster which prompted the Congress to undo what it had done. When have you ever known a Congress to reverse itself? Now, I want you to know, full disclosure, you need to know this. I am time change agnostic. I believe we should not change the time. I just don't care which one we pick. I will be fine. The problem is this. This is not a Republican versus Democrat issue. This is a Yankee versus Confederacy issue. This is a North versus South issue. This is a Deep South versus Far North issue. If... If... We stick with daylight saving time, which we're on right now, where it is lighter in the evening and darker in the morning. There will be children who will stand outside waiting for buses in the morning in the pitch black dark of day because it will say seven or eight o'clock in the morning, but it will still be dark out. And when I say dark out, I mean the sun ain't even rising in the middle of winter. Like in New York City, 9 a.m. the sun will rise. And when I say the sun will rise, that is when it comes over the horizon. That is when the light first bursts forth. It is not like you can read a newspaper outside light. That is the it's just becoming light part of the day. 9 o'clock in the morning in the wintertime.

In the south, it will be the same, not as bad as in the north, but it will be dark until after 8 a.m. in the south, here in Georgia where I am, it will still be dark around 8 o'clock in the morning. My sister drives a school bus, or did. She's giving it up for a while now, dealing with my parents in life, but she loved to drive her school bus. I don't know why. But she did. My sister, for some reason, is one of those odd people who likes children. I don't understand it. But she does. And she's a great school bus driver and took care of those kids. And she's very concerned as a school bus driver that even in Tennessee, in the wintertime, she would be picking kids up. And there's already a moment of time in the spring when you spring forward. where it's still dark in the morning and kids are standing outside of the dark waiting for the bus, and she's worried about those kids being in the streets. Now, I have never had that worry. Full disclosure of my sister is a better person than me. She's actually meaner. My sister is mean. She's one of those redheads. I love her, but she's a redhead, and she's bossy because she's my oldest sister. I love her, but sometimes begrudgingly. She's listening to me right now. I know she is, and she will lecture me this afternoon. Nonetheless, my sister worries about those kids standing outside. I have never worried about the kids standing outside. If you were a child who is standing outside waiting for the bus and you wander out into traffic, it is natural selection, I think. Now, don't help. Come on. Come on. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's a tragedy. It is a tragedy. And it does happen. It actually does happen. Happens more than I would like to think about, actually, kids waiting for buses and the groggy drivers in the morning or the DUI driver. My wife and kids got behind a DUI driver on the way to school a while back before the end of the year. Yep, my wife was my son, I guess this is a year or so ago. He hadn't started driving yet. My wife was driving to school, and they were behind a guy with the DUI. Philip was on his way to the office a couple weeks ago. There was a guy driving had an iPad on his steering wheel watching a movie. Natural selection should be that those are the ones who die, and instead it's the kids waiting for the school bus who get hit by those people. They just go to jail. It's not going to happen because northern states are concerned. Tom Cotton is not from a northern state. He's just from Arkansas, which last I checked was a southern state, but he's got the same concerns. And Tom Cotton's point is this. We tried this in the 70s, and it didn't work out well. And so we changed it back to what we have now. In the Bush administration to save power, we extended daylight saving time and we shortened the standard time window of fallback. I don't know why we don't try. We've tried, we have tried daylight saving time. We literally did. I was not alive for it. I have no memory of it in the 1970s. It was apparently an unmitigated disaster. Made a lot of people very angry. Why don't we try standard time? See, here's the thing with standard time. In standard time, you have light in the morning, and as the summer advances, you still have enough light in the evening to still get 18 holes of golf in in the afternoon in the evening. Now, I typically will go out on the golf course at four in the wintertime, and I can get nine holes in. I can get 18 holes in the summer. I can get nine holes in in the winter. If I can make it there by four.

I'm still on the waiting list for my new golf course. They haven't announced me yet. You know I'm going to get objected to. When my name shows up as a potential member of this particular golf course, some lib is going to object to me. But I haven't even made it that I'm waiting. I'm desperate to go play that golf course. Nonetheless, I digress. I want to be able to go play in the after. I like to play late in the after. I like to be the last person on the golf course. I go up to my beloved Barnsley resort, and I always schedule the last tea time of the day. And I can be out there and have a cigar and a few beers or glass of bourbon. And there's no one to rush me behind me because I take my time and try to find all the millions of golf balls that I have lost. But nonetheless, I do like... A late evening. I am a night owl. I'd rather stay up all night than wake up in the morning. But having sunshine in the morning is a useful thing. And I don't know that we actually need it to be sunlight at 9 p.m. During the 4th of July, that's the thing that's always gotten me. I would come home in the summer from Dubai. We would say my grandparents in Louisiana. You've always been able to buy fireworks. We would buy fireworks, and some of our cousins were town marshals, and the fireworks stand was down the street. They'd shoot fireworks with us. My wife came to visit one time and was horrified that we were outside shooting fireworks at New Year's with the police. I was like, we're all related around here. And it's Louisiana. That's not an Alabama Mississippi joke. It's just we were all related. Not inbred. In any event. I just never liked it during the summertime. We would come home in the summer, and it's sunlight until like 9 or 10 o'clock at night, and you can't really enjoy the fireworks. I've never really seen the need for daylight saving time to cast the light as late as it does in the evening, particularly when you're trying to get small kids to sleep and the sun's still up. If you stayed on standard time, it would get dark at a reasonable time of day, regardless of summer or winter. It would still give you extended light in the evening time so that you could play golf late. your kids would still have a little bit of sunlight left to play outside, drink for the water hose, but this isn't going to pass. It's not going to pass. It's not just Tom Cotton. It's not just Tom Cotton. Tom Cotton is standing in as a proxy. This is the thing you need to understand. And this goes to the filibuster as well.

That is why this isn't going to pass. People don't want to wait for the sunrise until 9 o'clock in the morning. And by the way, it's not just those areas. New York City is the same way that the sun would rise in New York in January. It wouldn't rise until after 9 a.m. in New York City. If you want to go for standard time, I'm willing to try it. But this just isn't going to pass. And I just, and again, maybe we've had a lot of caller say, can we just split the difference and do a 30 minute swap out and just stop changing time? That's not a bad idea. That's not a bad idea. Just do that compromise. But staying on permanent standard, permanent daylight saving time, it's not going to pass the Senate. Surely there's a compromise. I just, again, I'm agnostic on this. I will be fine either way. I see the virtue of doing standard time, though, because we've tried daylight saving time. It was a disaster in Congress. I did it. I just split the difference. Do something like that. Just stop changing the time. I'm exhausted by changing the time. Let's just stop changing the time. and be done with it. Those who love him, listen to find out what he's going to say next. Those who disagree with him also listen to see what he's going to say next. It's the Eric Erickson Show.

the information without this spin. It's the Eric Erickson Show. Hello, welcome. It is Eric Erickson here. Phil in Jacksonville, Florida. Let me go to you next. Welcome, sir. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you for Jake McCall. Love your show, brother. Appreciate all you do. You already hit on it. I kind of thought I was the only person in the country that thought of the... splitting the difference halfway, but obviously I'm not now after talking with your answer version on the phone. What would we have to do to make that happen? Could we do a nationwide petition? I mean, what will we have to do to split the difference? Yeah, you know, that one seems to be the most reasonable issue here. Because if you did that, for example, so let me go back to the data I pointed to earlier in Alaska, for example, the time, the sunrise is 11.15 a.m. if we stick with with... with saving time. If we do standard time, it would be 10 a.m. If you did split the difference, it'd be 10.45 a.m., just 30, I mean, 30 minutes less than the one, 30 minutes more than the other. That's manageable, I think. Boy, that just makes a whole lot of sense to me if we just did a 30 minutes. And it does. Instead of other people deciding our fate, what will we have to do to make that happen? Phil, well, you and I are talking, a buddy of mine from D.C., who's in the House just texted, apparently listening to you and me talk, and he says, I'm going to propose legislation that actually just gets rid of spring and fall instead. Yeah, that's what we need to do. Get rid of summer and winter. Let's just have, yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. You're right. At least they're listening to us. Listen, I appreciate the sentiment. Maybe that makes the most sense is do a 30-minute split the difference and call it a day and move on. It'll be a little darker in the fall. You know what the thing that really gets peaceful is seasonal affected disorder. I got friends and family who really get affected. by it getting so dark, so early in the evening. It kind of affects me, too, although not as bad as many of my friends who are affected by it. And that it really is a thing. It really is. Now, I'll tell you what is also really a thing is having hot water that doesn't run out. Because, you know, when it is, it's dark outside and it's cold in the wintertime, you just get in a hot shower. A friend of mine convinced me that a shower beer is a great thing, and I've decided it's true, and you just stand in there with an ice, cold, Miller, light, and you hang out, and you never run out of hot water. And your kid can take a shower, and you don't have to worry about the hot water turnout. You can have a tankless water heater. If you go to Talkingtankless.com and get one from Renai, because the Renai tankless water here is the best. It is the best. I have always wondered one of these since I was a kid, and Paul Harvey started talking about having hot water forever.

I'm like, when I grow old, I'm going to build a house and have one, and I got one. I yanked the tank out of my house. I put in the Reney tankless water heater. Never looked back. My kids fighting went away over shower time and who was going to have hot water and who wasn't. Our power bill went down because we weren't paying to keep a tank of water heated all the time. Glorious. You can have the same experience. They are reasonably priced. They are so great. Talkingtankless.com. Yank your tank. Get a... Tankless water heater. There's no reason to pay the power to keep a tank of water heated at all times. The tankless water heater just turns on when you need it and you get hot water forever. Talkingtankless.com. Get one from Rani today. Hello, America. It is Eric Erikson. The full number is 87797975. Should you wish to be on the program, I would be very, very, very happy to help you, have you, I guess. I can help you out, too, if you're calling and asking questions. Now, I want to bring up an issue. What of the... Things were seen in Michigan. Abdullah al-Sahid, there's some new polling out. Bat Younger Sargon has pointed this out that what's his name? Abdul El-Sayed, the Muslim terrorist apologizing candidate who wishes to be the senator from Michigan is trailing Haley Stevens. The race consolidated, and Haley Stevens is a bit of a nut job herself, but Abdul El-Sayed is losing black voters and working class voters. Working class voters have no appetite for the socialism that the socialists are selling. Get this. According to this data right now, Abdul El-Sayed is behind the white, Haley's, very white, Haley Stevens, with black voters by 46 points and with working class voters by 22 points. And this is a pattern we continue to see in a lot of areas of the country with these socialist candidates. Black voters and working class voters reject them. And the black voters... They don't like him in part because he is, well, he's attacked Barack Obama. And they really don't like his attacks on Barack Obama for being too moderate, by the way. The working class voters don't like him because the working class voters don't like socialism. And what we are learning more and more about these situations is that, well, the more of these people come out and about and engage, the less and less people find out about them and like them. And the more and more we learn that they don't actually know the way the world works. That they really don't have any appreciable concept for the way the world works.

None. In fact, I want to play you a clip. This is, oh, what is the guy's name now? Hang on a second. Let me, let me, I got to blow this up. I'm, it is, yeah, Ash, Sadiqi, he is the, one of the leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America. And I want you to listen to this clip. This is very important for you to understand. This is Ash Ashik Siddiqui. He is one of the national leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America talking about one of the things that they want to do. He was on C-SPAN. Cool. What in this country? So would you like to abolish the Senate? That's part of our platform. And we don't think that's extreme. We think it's a change that would help make this country more democratic. You got that? He says it would make it more democratic in this country if you got rid of the Senate. We'd make it more democratic. Ladies and gentlemen, did you know that there is only one section of the United States Constitution that is not amendable? There is one section. of the United States Constitution, you cannot change no matter what. According to the Constitution, you can amend the Constitution of the United States with a two-thirds vote of both houses of the United States and three-quarters of the states. You can do that. Or you could do a national constitutional convention. If two-thirds of the states say they want through application of the legislatures a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution, and then three-quarters of the states approve, you can change the Constitution that way. But there is one provision of the United States Constitution that is not amendable in any way, shape, or form. You cannot do it. Think about that. You can change the taxation power. You can change how war is declared. You can change the representation of the House of Representatives. But you cannot change or abolish the United States Senate. You can add seats. to the United States Senate. You cannot abolish the United States Senate. This is Article 5 of the Constitution. The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses, shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which in either case shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed.

by the Congress, provided that no amendment, which may be made prior to the year 1,808, shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article that's about slavery, and that no state, no state without its consent. shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. No state without its consent shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. Now, you can say, well, if we get rid of the Senate, well, then that means no one has suffrage in the Senate. That's a creative interpretation of this. Except it violates the very structure of the United States Constitution in that the states are semi-sovereign nations. And this is what everyone left, right and center, likes to forget. The states of the United States are not subdivisions of the United States. The United States is a subdivision of the states. It's superior, but submissive. The states have ceded limited powers. to Washington, D.C. My daughter is taking a poli-side class right now during the summer, and she was having to write in on her state constitution, what's her preference, state constitution or a federal constitution? Her position was there are different things for different reasons with different purposes. And the states all have unlimited powers, minus the things that were submitted to Congress under Article 1, Section 8. Article 1, Section 8, the Constitution is the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposed, and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States, but all duties imposed and excises shall be uniformed throughout the United States, though that has been amended to include an income tax. Why can the United States Congress not tax property? Because it is prohibited under the United States Constitution. How is that? Well, because the Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposed, and excises to pay debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. But all duties, imposed and excises shall be uniform. throughout the United States. There is no provision there for the taxation of property by the United States Congress. That's why the income tax had to be added to the United States Congress. There are prohibitions in Section 9 and 10 related to taxation that Congress can't impose. Congress has the power to borrow money on the credit of the United States to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and Indian tribes to establish rules of naturalization and laws of bankruptcy to coin money.

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and coin of the United States, to establish post offices and post roads, to promote the progress of science and useful arts, through letters of patent and trademarks and copyright, to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and offenses against the laws of nations, to declare war, letters of market reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water, to raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money. to that use shall be for a longer term than two years, which is why there's the National Defense Authorization Act every two years, to provide and maintain a Navy, to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces, to provide for calling forth the militia, to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over the District of Columbia, and to make all laws which are necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers. That's it. That's all Congress has. We think of Congress as plenary, and it's wild to me that we spend all of our days obsessing about what happens in Washington, D.C. with the real power is in the states. The states have the police power. The states have the health care power. The states have the education power. The states have the power to build most of the roads and bridges and the schools. The states have plenary power except for those limited powers. that have been seated to Washington, D.C. In fact, by and large, when Congress wants to do something at the state level, what Congress has to do is pass a law that says, hey, states, here's what we want you to do, and if you do it, we'll give you the money, because Congress can't do it itself. COVID is a prime example. The President of the United States did not have the power to shut your state down. The president of the United States did not have the power to shut your state down. The president of the United States did not have the power to shut your businesses down. And the president of the United States did not have the power to shut your churches down. Only the governor. And the state legislatures did. And some of them wielded it ruthlessly. Some of them did not. It depended on their partisan composition. But the president, when Brian Kemp was the first governor in the nation to reopen his state. Hi, Florida. It was us, not you, that reopened first. When Brian Kemp reopened the state of Georgia, he got unmitigated hell from the national press of the President of the United States. Donald Trump attacked him for opening the state of Georgia. The Atlantic published a piece, Georgia's experiment in human sacrifice. And the fallout was not as bad as people claimed. And in fact, a lot of businesses were saved that would have gone under. The expanse of COVID did not overwhelm the state. All of those things. All the bad stuff didn't happen. And Georgia got its state open before any other state, including Florida, got kids back to school faster than almost anyone, never closed churches. And the state was pilloried by the national press and the president. And at the time it was Donald Trump. And none of them could stop Brian Kemp. In fact, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was running for Governor Georgia now, she was the mayor of Atlanta. And Keisha Lance Bottoms, as Mayor of Atlanta, tried to keep the city of Atlanta shut down. Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was in the mayor of Atlanta, tried to keep the schools closed, tried to keep the barbershops, tried to do everything she could to close down churches and barbershops and small businesses and keep kids out of school. And the governor of Georgia preempted her with his state power to reopen those businesses and force them open.

He was attacked by Stacey Abrams, who was running for governor again in 2022 against him, claiming that he was going to cause people to die and all sorts of things. And he held firm and he proved right. And he was rewarded handily with a major re-election against Stacey Abrams. And by the way, Keisha Lance Bottoms running for governor now was undercounted her vote in the metro Atlanta area where people who knew her best trusted her the least. In her Democratic primary, she underperformed there compared to the rest of the state. The people who didn't know her voted for her in stronger numbers than the people who did vote for, which is why I don't believe she can win the governor's race in Georgia this year. People remember her legacy from George Floyd to the riots, and people remember how she handed the city over to criminals and gangs, and people remember how she wanted to keep everybody closed down during COVID. Terrible leadership. But she didn't have the power to keep things closed down because the governor of Georgia is the governor of Georgia. He preempted her power. And the president of the United States had no power to stop him because the police power and the health care power are powers of the states, not the federal government. The Democratic Socialists of America believe very much of what is not true. They believe the states are subsidiaries of the federal government, which is not true. They believe they can abolish the United States Senate, which is not true. And to even try would take two thirds of the House, two thirds of the Senate, three quarters of the states. There's no way that would happen. And even then they'd run into the clause of the Constitution. The states without their consent don't give up their representation of the Senate. So the blue states, perfectly willing, if you blue states want to get rid of your representation, the Senate have at it, just you get rid of your senators, and the rest of us will be glad to continue legislating in Washington and approving judges even for your states without you. The guy also wants to get rid of capitalism. Our goal is to reframe politics around class lines in the United States, which is what the ruling class has been doing forever. We want to transfer power from the 1% to the working class and to replace capitalism with socialism, which means expanding democracy in every part of our lives. And that's how we're organizing people together. In other countries that got more expansive things like universal health care, it happened with class struggle, and that's with organized workers with the majorities of the population. Power is not conceded without struggle, and that means people have to organize in our own interests to win these things. You know, none of these people look like they're willing to take up arms. Most of them probably couldn't even shoot a gun. You know that Freddie guy? He's gotten back on Twitter, and he has been spending his time making his way through the South. he spent his time in Tennessee shooting guns and blowing up Tannerite.

and doesn't want to move back to Germany now. I swear to you, we could have a major tourism industry boon if we brought that guy back over for SEC football in the fall. Some Chamber of Commerce in the South should sponsor that guy and his friends coming back over in the fall to just watch a football game at the University of Georgia. Go up to the University of Michigan. Watch a football game at the University of Michigan. Go down to Georgia. Go over to Texas. Go to Death Valley at LSU. Go over to Auburn and see what. Now he's been to Auburn, so maybe not sitting there. But go watch some college football in the South and Michigan. You've got to go to Ohio State as well. Them some football-loving people and check that out. These people want to wage class warfare. They never want to get their hands dirty. They want you to get your hands dirty. They simply do not know the way the nation works. They have no respect for the Constitution, which ultimately is why they're not going to win. They're just going to get more and more angry at their losses. Truth seems hazy. Eric will clear the way. It's the Eric Erickson Show. Get Eric's daily show prep email. Text data to 33777, and you'll be in the know.

a couple of pieces out there today on the economy that are a little bit troublesome. You get all the information in the show notes. If you text Eric to 33777, click that first link. That gets you to the show notes. Inflation is driving Americans to cash in credit card rewards for essentials. I mentioned this earlier when I was talking about American financing. A pile of credit card reward points can take you business class to Bali or cover a few days stay at a London Boutique Hotel. But these days, as inflation strains American budgets, more people are using points for essentials like gasoline and even cat litter. In a survey of more than 1,000 people, over 35% said they redeem rewards points for everyday expenses, according to USAA. Federal Savings Bank. Statement credits also are popular with 79% of respondents say they've used points. That way, at least once in the past six months. My buddy Paul Teller was on Fox News talking about what's happening in the economy right now. Labor force participation among Americans in their prime working years remains near its highest level in decades. Yet younger adults are buying homes later, delaying marriage and putting off having kids as housing prices, elevated interest rates and other household expenses. outpace wage growth. The economic backdrop has come under renewed scrutiny after press secretary Carolyn Levin of the White House suggested Gen Z's frustration stem in part from laziness. Once her comments drew backlash, Levitt said critics had taken remarks in a context, arguing she was referring to young people embracing socialism and communism, not a blanket condemnation of Gen Z. Now, my buddy Paul Teller has noted that Part of the reason that prices have gone up so much is because of the tariffs. And the president has cut a number of tariffs that have made a real impact on people, and we've got to cut more tariffs and lower costs to really get Gin Z in the economic game without embracing socialism. Technology prices have gone up. And if you want to get a great price on a new computer, you probably want to deal with somebody like Vision Computers that can work with you on what you actually need. Instead of giving you the one-size-fits-all big box computer that's built on the pie in the sky expectations, they're going to get you what you want, laptop or desktop. And they can give you their incredible managed IT support. All you have to do is call them at 404 compute or go to Vision Computers.com. Talk to Vision Computers. Let them build you the dream machine that you need. You get their world-class tech support, where if you ever have a question or a problem, You get a phone number, 15 text or less. A real human bee, not an AI chatbot, answers the phone and helps you. They can even a remote end. They can do this for your whole business even, and you don't have to buy a computer to get the managed IT support. 404 compute or visioncom. Talk to Vision Computers.