Erick Erickson 3-31-26 HR 3

Hello America, it's Eric Erikson here across the United States. The full number is 877937425. Should you wish to be on the program, would be delighted to have you text Eric, E-R-I-C-K to 33777. You can get the live stream, the show notes, the podcast. Get everything you need to stay on top of the program. Now, we've got to talk about the Russians for a moment. Every afternoon, I, after the show, cover all the headlines that broke towards in the show that I didn't have time to get to and four things you need to know this afternoon. Separate podcasts, about five, six minutes. Yesterday, I noted that a word came towards the end of yesterday's show that the Iranians were able to hit a number of American assets in Saudi Arabia because the Russians... gave the Iranians the intelligence and satellite information to target the American assets. For reasons that I don't understand, and I really don't think it's blackmail or anything like that, the president of the United States has refused to recognize the Russians are not our friends. And I think what the reason is is because there are people inside the Trump administration who have believed that they can bring the Russians back into the Western Alliance. Bear with me here, and let me explain this briefly to you. After the fall of the Soviet Union into the rise of the Bush administration, there began to be a group of people on the isolationist right who thought we could accommodate the Russian desire for territory. and persuade them to turn to the West. If we allowed the Russian expansionist tendency to spread into East Block, former East Block nations in Europe again, that we could cede the Russians some territory, even if they didn't acquire it completely, but took over governments, and that they would then become Western allies. They were convinced we needed the Russians to ally with us, because if they didn't, they would ally with the Chinese, which they have now done. That thinking pervades a segment of the Defense Department and the vice president's office. A number of those around JD Vance have bought into this idea. Even some of the president's direct advisors have really bought into the idea that the Russians could be part of the Western Alliance. This idea is like so many progressives have no sense of history. These people have no sense of history. It is staggering ignorance to think the Russians would be part of the Western alliance. The Russians have always wanted a Russian sphere of influence.

And there was some just moronic thinking that still pervades portions of the right that if you give the Russians their sphere of influence, they'll be with the West. And that's utterly nonsensical. The Russians want their own sphere of influence. They do not want to be a part of the Western Alliance. They want to be able to play everybody off everybody while the Russians grow their sphere of influence. The Russians don't want to be our allies. The Russians rejected an alliance with the European powers during the time of Catherine the Great, after Peter the Great, and the Russian Soviets embraced that thinking. Catherine the Great was not from Russia. She went to Russia, and she embraced a Russian worldview, invaded Crimea, and took it over. and established a Russian sphere of influence and go into World War I and the fall of the Tsar and the rise of the Soviets. And the Russian and then Soviet thinking was always their own sphere of influence, separate and apart from a Western alliance. But that view has pervaded the policymaking and thinking inside this White House. And I think that not some supposed P-Tape or whatever. The left is always rumor-mongered about Donald Trump. I think that idea that they could become part of the Western Alliance has pervaded the thinking of the intellectual elite within this White House to the peril of the United States. The Russians are not our friends. They do not want to be our friends. The Russians want a sphere of influence, and they want their own alliance structure, and that includes an alliance with the Iranians. Volodymyr Zelensky is pointing out that the Russians have been helping the Iranians, and he's a man who would know. We know that if they make images once, they are preparing. If they make images the second time, it's like simulation. The sore time, it's been that one, two days, they will attack. Do they help Iranians? Of course. How many percent? 100%. But just so I'm clear what you were saying, you believe Russia is actively helping Iran target American forces in the Middle East right now? I think that in Russian interest to help Iranians. not believe. I know that they share information. He knows they share information. Y'all, it's not just the Ukrainians who know the Russians are shared information, it's our own intelligence, have advised the President and the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense that the Russians are selling intelligence or sharing intelligence with the Iranians. The Iranians were able to successfully strike American military assets, including a number of planes by the United States with low-cost drones successfully.

They have injured American service members in Saudi Arabia with some successful attacks, all because the Russians gave them intelligence to pinpoint their strikes. This isn't made up. This isn't fantasy. This isn't opinion. This is fact. And this president, Donald Trump, needs to understand the Russians are not our friends. The Ukrainians are. All of the people who on the right who have been singing the praises of Russia and trying to divide us from the Ukrainian, some of them frankly are bought off, I think, but a lot of them really did have this naive nonsense that the president could build an alliance with the Russians if we just coddled Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin has outlasted multiple U.S. presidents. He intends to outlast this president as well. If this president wants to get the better of Vladimir Putin, unlike his predecessors in office from George W. Bush all the way through Joe Biden, this president should recognize the Russians are trying to build a Russian sphere of influence, allying themselves with the Iranians and with the Chinese. and with the North Koreans, and they tried the Venezuelans and the Cubans are faltering and the Venezuelans are gone, and the Russians are desperate. Vladimir Putin has more and more dissension in the ranks. There are more and more rumors of military instability in Russia. There have been multiple senior leaders of the Russian military and political establishment who have accidentally fallen out of windows or drowned in bathtubs in the past few months. Vladimir Putin is getting desperate to hold on to power. He's getting desperate to hold onto power because he poured his regime into a war in Ukraine he thought would be easily won, and it has not been won. The Ukrainians have proven themselves savvy. And the Ukrainians, by the way, are now helping the Saudis and the Emirates and the Kuwaitis combat against Iranian drones. Think about that. The Ukrainians are in Saudi Arabia. They're in the United Arab Emirates, and they're in... in Kuwait and Bahrain, by the way, and Qatar. Right now, helping those nations with strategic advisors. They've taken off the battlefield in Ukraine to help the Arab partners. A Jewish president of Ukraine is helping the Arab nations defend against Iranian drones, and the Russians are supplying parts to the Iranians. There is a level of willful, blind ignorance in the Trump administration towards the Russians. I don't know why other than some of the advisors think somehow they could coddle the Russians into a Western alliance because they are naive with no real sense of history. It's time to recognize the Russians are getting our soldiers injured in the Middle East and would be fine if our soldiers died in the Middle East. It's time to recognize Ukraine is a natural ally of the United States. It's time to recognize that Ukraine's fight and our fight are roughly the same fight. We are fighting against a growing Eastern Axis alliance between Russia, China, Iran, and the worst rogue terror states on planet Earth. We are.

Iran has supplied weapons to Russia and oil to China, and now China and Russia are supplying weapons and intelligence to Iran to come after us. The President of the United States needs to wake up and grow up to the realization that the Russians are not our friends, and he's not going to be able to head pat Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin has him on a dog leash and thinks that he can walk Donald Trump, and thus far, Donald Trump has appeared to be led by Vladimir Putin. As opposed to leading the free world, our president has wanted to accommodate Vladimir Putin. Our president has done a great thing trying to annihilate the Iranian regime. He needs to now recognize the Russians are in combat against us, whether we want to believe it or not. Mr. President, you've got to wake up on this. The Russians are not your friend. You're not going to accommodate him. You're not going to move them to the West. You're not going to be able to find them. You need to take them literally and seriously. The Russians want to be their own sphere of influence in opposition to us. The Russians do not want an American-led order. They don't want a Russian-American alliance-led world order. They want a Russian world order. And they're willing to accommodate the Chinese and part of the world so the Russians have a part of the world they can control in opposition to the United States of America. That is the reality President Trump. Wake up to it, please, sir, before our American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines really start getting slaughtered in the Middle East by the Russians sharing intelligence and technology with the Iranians. They've done a trial run in Saudi Arabia at an air base. They have wounded multiple Americans, some critically. They have destroyed our aircraft. The Russians giving the intelligence and the means to Iran to blow up Americans. We got to pay attention to this. We have to pay attention to what's happening. We have to be realists in what's happening. We have to recognize, despite the naive claims of some in this White House, we need to stand against Russia with Ukraine. And we have the capacity to destabilize the Russian regime. The Russians are growing weary of their war. More and more Russians are dying. The Russian people are tired. They've acquired no land in Ukraine. I'll tell you again, this is the statistic that blew my mind, and it's absolutely true. I'm not making this up. If you take the average pace of a snail, And you put a snail on the border of Russia and Ukraine, and you send it straight in as a crow flies into Ukraine. Over the last number of years since the war in Ukraine started, the snail would have gotten further into Ukraine than the Russians have gotten into Ukraine. That's how badly things have gone for the Russians. Over a million Russian conscripts killed or wounded in Ukraine and unable to fight. And now the Russians have turned to fight us through Iran as a proxy. They have provided Iran the intelligence and means to kill our soldiers, and they came very close to doing so the other day as they destroyed American assets in Saudi Arabia. The Russians are not our friends. The Russians are not our allies. They do not want to be our friends. They do not want to be our allies. They want a sphere of influence, and they want an alliance with Cuba.

and China and Iran. We've deprived them of Venezuela. We're depriving them of Cuba. They're getting desperate for their alliance to hold. They have Iran right now. They want to hold Iran and protect Iran. You want to undermine Iran. You've got to recognize that the Russians are not our friends. You've got to recognize the fact that the Russians want our soldiers dead. You've got to recognize the fact, Mr. President, you're not going to be able to get favorable terms with Vladimir Putin. He has outlasted and outfoxed every prior American president. And you're going to be the next one unless you wake up and realize what's going on. Follow Eric on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Rumble. Search E.W. Erickson. Hello and welcome back. It is Eric Erickson here across the United States. I am very delighted to have you guys with me today. Don't forget to text Eric to 33777. Y'all, I am really, really disturbed and bothered by a segment of people who have insisted on perpetuating a conspiracy theory about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The headline in the Daily Mail today is bullet used to kill Charlie Gert did not match rifle, allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson, new court filing claims. It's actually an extremely dishonest headline, and its dishonesty within the press recirculating headlines like this. The report actually showed that it was inconclusive, and it was inconclusive because the bullet had shattered. It was impossible to tie the bullet to the rifle when the bullet had shattered. And by the way, the science behind bullet matching is not a precise science. It's not really a science. Tyler Robinson's parents are going to testify for the prosecution. Tyler Robinson's trans partner is going to testify for the prosecution. They're going to testify that Tyler Robinson admitted to them that he killed Charlie Kirk. But Candace Owens and Joe Kent, and I think even Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, or continue to question the account. Essentially the people who do not want to believe. that Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk want you to believe that a mother and a father and a partner of a suspect are going to collude with the state on behalf of the Jews to send an innocent man to prison. That's essentially what they want you to believe without putting it in those words. The level of poison and brain rot from people over this, and they're doing it, just so you understand, they're doing it for clicks because the clicks generate revenue. They're willing to sell you lies to line their pockets, and they're using the assassination of a young man and the torment of his wife to do it. This is deeply depraved stuff, and if they're not held accountable in this lifetime, they certainly will in the next, and that should at least give us some comfort.

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Welcome back. Eric Erickson here across the nation. Text golf to 3377 and get a link to Van Allen Golf and also to the golfers journal. You can use my referral. And if any of you want to get me and my kid into Berkman's next week at Augusta, I would sure appreciate it. We're going next Friday. It's the tradition unlike any other. I get rejected 27 years straight for Masters tickets. I have been rejected for 27 straight years in the Masters lottery. And, well, I mean, and I've tried like two tickets and four tickets. And I just, I don't know. I think I'm on a blacklist. Meanwhile, a buddy of mine has like won three times. But then in the last several years, different people have graciously given me some tickets to take my son. And it has become a father-son thing. He is going to have wisdom teeth taken out on Monday. He could have done it this Friday because he's out of school for a good Friday, but he didn't want to miss church on Sunday for Easter. So he's going to do it on Monday and hope to be recovered enough to make it to the Masters on Friday with me. I really hope so. And yes, I've already got a long list of people already ahead of you who want to go if he can't go. But he's basically willing himself to be able to go with me. It should be a good time. Birkman's would make it a little easier given his he could sit somewhere in the air conditioning. But nonetheless, we're going to go and we're going to have a great time. There was a big, big decision today at the United States Supreme Court. And it was a First Amendment decision. And you would never know it was a First Amendment decision if you listened to the commentary out there from the news. In fact, someone did the breaking news push alerts to the iPhone. And I actually, I want to, let me track these down, because I think this is... Very notable if I can find these. Also, by the way, in oral arguments today on a death penalty case, Amy Coney Barrett referenced air dropping files. And the attorney who she was talking to had no idea what she was talking about, air dropping files. She says, you're an Android user, aren't you? Yes. Yep. She's not slumming it with the pores with your green chat bubbles. Let me read you these push alerts. And credit where this is due, this is Gabe Fleischer, who put this up. He's a Georgetown alum, St. Louis native. This is from the New York Times. Supreme Court rejects the Colorado law banning sexual orientation or gender identity conversion therapy for minors. Fox News, Supreme Court rules on quote-unquote conversion therapy ban challenged by Christian counselor. Breaking news from NBC, Supreme Court rules against Colorado's ban on conversion therapy aimed at LGBTQ youth. The Associated Press, the Supreme Court ruled against a law banning quote-unquote conversion therapy for LGBTQ-plus kids in Colorado, one of about two dozen states that banned the discredited practice. What the case was actually about was a freedom of speech case. Those are the headlines. Let me read for you now from the Supreme Court in an eight to one decision written by Justice Gorsuch. Kaylee Childs is a mental health counselor in Colorado. In the case, we consider her First Amendment challenge to a state law regulating what she may say when speaking with her client.

According to Ms. Child's verified complaint, she holds a master's degree in clinical mental health and a state counseling license. Clients seek her help on a wide variety of mental health issues, including trauma, addiction, eating disorders, ginda dysphoria, and sexuality. Ms. Childs does not begin counseling on any topic with any predetermined goal, nor does she seek to impose her values or beliefs on clients. Instead, she sits down and talks to them about their goals. Only after clients have identified their own aspirations does Ms. Childs begin formulated methods of counseling that will most benefit them. In any counseling that follows as well, Ms. Child seeks to respect her client's fundamental right of self-determination. On matters of sexuality and gender, Ms. Child's clients, including minors, come to her with different goals and minds. Some are content with their sexual orientation and gender identity and seek assistance only with social issues and family relationships and the like. In cases like those, Ms. Childs does not try to persuade her clients to change their attractions, behavior, or identity, but aims instead to help them address their stated goals. Other clients, however, come to her hoping to reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions, change sexual behaviors, or grow in the experience of harmony with their bodies. And in those cases, too, Ms. Childs seeks to help her clients reach their own stated objectives. In doing so, she does not prescribe any medicines, perform any physical treatments, or engage in any coercive or adverse practices. All Ms. Child's offers is talk therapy. In 2019, Colorado adopted a law prohibiting licensed counselors from engaging in conversion therapy with minors. The state reports that it adopted the law in response to a growing mental health crisis among Colorado teenagers and mounting evidence that conversion therapy is associated with increased depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts. Any Coloran who thinks a licensed counselor is engaged in conversion therapy may file a complaint. A complaint in turn triggers a disciplinary review process that can yield a fine probation or even the loss of their license. The term conversion therapy may evoke physical techniques such as electric shock therapy aimed at change in an individual sexual orientation or gender identity, but Colorado's ban on conversion therapy reaches further, forbidding any practice or treatment that attempts to change at individual sexual orientation or gender identity. The law forbids as well any effort to change behaviors or gender expression or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings towards individuals of the same sex. At the same time, The law explicitly allows counselors to engage in practices that provide acceptance, support, and understanding for the facilitation of an individual's identity exploration and development. Likewise, the laws allows counselors to assist a person undergoing a gender transition. After Colorado adopted its law, Ms. Childs filed suit in federal court and sought to a preliminary injunction prohibiting the state from enforcing it against her.

Ms. Child's challenge ran this way. With respect to gender identity, she claimed the law permits her to speak in ways that encourage clients undergoing gender identity transition, but the law prohibits her for speaking in ways to help a client realign his identity with his sex. With respect to sexual orientation, Ms. Child's continued, Colorado's law similarly allows her to affirm a client's sexual orientation, but prohibits her from speaking in any way that helps the client change sexual attraction or behavior. Even though Colorado's law surely has other constitutional applications, she insists, those constraints strip her of her fundamental right to speak freely with her client. The district court and the Tenth Circuit determined Ms. Childs had Article III standing. to pursue their case. And on it goes from there. Essentially, the lower courts denied Ms. Child's ruling or determination that this violated her free speech. You understand this. The psychiatrist is suing Colorado. Because Colorado tells her if a client comes in and says, I need your help getting my family to embrace my sexual orientation or my gender transition, she's allowed to help them. But if a client comes in and says, I am attracted to people of my sex and don't want to be, how can I change? She's not allowed to help them. If someone comes to Ms. Childs under Colorado law and says, I'm born male, but I think I'm female, she is allowed under Colorado law to help them transition to female, even though they're biological male. But if someone comes in who's a biological male and says, my brain is telling me I'm a girl, and I know that's not right because I'm biologically a boy, she is prohibited by law from helping them conform their mind to their body. Today, in an eight to one decision, the United States Supreme Court said that violates her free speech rights. If she's allowed to talk to a client in one direction, but not allowed to talk to a client in another direction, she does no physical therapy. It's all talk therapy. It's all counseling. That that violates her speech rights. That violates her ability to engage honestly and openly with the client, particularly when the client has come to her with the problem. This is how Justice Scorses writing for an 8 to 1 Supreme Court ends this. We do not doubt that the question before us, the question how best to help minors struggling with issues of gender identity or sexual orientation is presented as subject to fierce public debate. But Colorado's law addressing conversion therapy does not just ban physical interventions. In cases like this, it censors speech. Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same. But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country. It reflects instead a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas is the best means of discovering truth. However well-intentioned, any law that suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an agreed

That's a pretty damning indictment on the intelligence of Ketanji Brown Jackson. That's not me being a racist. That's Elena Kagan saying Ketanji Brown Jackson's an idiot. Sonia Sotomayor has written concurrences saying Ketanji Brown Jackson is an idiot. And here comes Ketanji Brown Jackson saying that the... The right to practice medicine is subordinate to the police power. When last year in the Tennessee case involving gender transition, she said that the right to practice medicine must be superior to the police power of the state, the relationship between a doctor and a patient. She's an idiot. Side note, we're now 3-0 for religious liberty against the state of Colorado. The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Jack Phillips with masterpiece cake against an infringement on his religious practice over trans and gay stuff at a bakery. They ruled in 303 creative against the state forcing someone against their will to create a website for a gay marriage. They have now ruled 8 to 1. On behalf of a therapist being able to talk to their clients about matters of gender transition and the like on free speech. So on free speech and free religion, the state of Colorado has tried to suppress people's First Amendment rights. And the Supreme Court has now batted Colorado aside. There may be no state in the country more hostile to speech and religion than Colorado. And it is the Supreme Court that has protected us from that state. For those of you who ask yourselves, what has conservatism conserved? They have conserved your free speech rights at the Supreme Court today, as the Supreme Court has regularly preserved conservatives around the country and protected conservatives from the left. What has conservatism conserved a great deal in this country in large part, thanks to the Supreme Court, including, I might add, Justices Amy Coney Barrett. and Gorsuch, which the populace regularly assail for being too non-deferential to Donald Trump. They continue to prove themselves reliably conservative. You're at the intersection of politics, news, culture, and current events. It's the Eric Erickson Show.

Get the podcast, live stream, email, and social media links by texting Eric to 33777. Now. So just to give you a heads up on Friday, I have three distinguished guests on the Good Friday show coming up. Many of you know, in fact, the media would say controversial. He's not really that controversial. He's a very nice guy and a great pastor. Doug Wilson of Christchurch out in Moscow, Idaho is going to be joining me. on Friday. In fact, so we actually had to record the call yesterday to accommodate his preaching schedule this week. And so I recorded it on my phone, and I did not realize that when you use the Apple feature, it makes a ring. So twice during our conversation, this sound goes off on the phone. I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm recording this. And it turns out that the actual recording doesn't record the ding, but both parties on both ends here. And I'm like, well... Here I am talking about this ring, and then people aren't even going to hear it. Matt Smether is the pastor up in, he's, I think, River Bend Baptist Church up in Richmond, Virginia. He's the author of a book on Tim Keller's ministry, writes for the gospel coalition. And then because I always, always, always, this always happens, have people who flood the shows that this was a great show, but are you ever going to have a Catholic priest on the show? I had Father Gadbury. from Mount Arkansas two years ago on the show, but Bishop Robert Barron is joining me on Friday as well. Bishop Barron was able to accommodate his schedule. This week, we're actually going to have the chat before Good Friday. He's obviously going to be very busy on Good Friday. But Bishop Barron, Doug Wilson, and Matt Smotherthall joining me on Friday for the Good Friday show nationwide. Please tune in. You can text Eric to 33777 to get the live stream of the podcast, case you missed it, although the podcast will be somewhat abridged by necessity. Also, I'm going to interview John Deloney. Now, let me tell you, where are we going, Kobe? You told me, and then I forgot Old Glory Bank. If you go to Old Glorybank.com. Eric, you can sign up with them today. So they really are my bank. I got a checking account. I've got a savings account. I've got a savings. I've got the no fee, no frills checking and savings. You can get the interest-bearing accounts if you want. If you're active duty military, they will waive the fees on those interest-bearing accounts. If you're a veteran or first responder, they really take care of you. In fact, they work with charities around the country to get homeless veterans checking accounts so they're able to get their pensions and payments that they are owed from the government. Old Glory Bank is very hands-on with businesses. as well. They want to protect your right to do business as you see fit. If you've got a legal business, they want to legally protect your right to bank, how you see fit. Go to old glorybank.com slash Eric today. Old glory bank.com slash ErycK. Do business with Old GloryBank. Old Glory Bank would love to have your business. They'll treat you right just as they've treated me right. Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender, Terms and Conditions apply. OldGlorybank.com slash Eric.