Erick Erickson HR 1

Three, two, one, zero, all engine running. Lift-off, we have a lifetown. It is Eric Erikson here across the United States of America. Delighted it to have you with me, the full number 8779773-725. This just in the United States is urging non-essential military personnel to leave bases in the Middle East, particularly in the Qatar region, where we have a significant military presence in the run-up to possible action against Iran. No action has been taken. But it appears that we may be on the verge of some military action. We will keep our eye on this story. We've got to begin actually today with the Supreme Court yesterday. I didn't have the audio handy at the time. And now I do. And it's just kind of mind-blowing what happened in the Supreme Court yesterday.

You could be forgiven for thinking the American Civil Liberties Union, a far-left organization now that no longer even supports free speech, used to, be the biggest free speech advocacy group in the country. Now it will silence anyone who disagrees with left-wing orthodoxy. The American Civil Liberties Union, you would be forgiven for thinking it is a shadow operation of the Christian right. Given how badly the ACLU has sabotaged transgender rights cases before the United States Supreme Court, it's just bad. Last year was the Scrimetti case. If you will recall in Scrimetti, it's the Tennessee case where the state legislature, they drafted legislation that would prohibit puberty blockers from being given to girls and boys who wanted to transition and other hormone therapy. So, for example, girls could not be given testosterone supplements to convert to being boys. The lawyer in the case was named Chase Strangio. She has transitioned to be a he. has grown out facial hair and done a high fade crop cut, hair cut, dresses in suits, and wants to be identified as a male. And she butchered the case before the United States Supreme Court. In fact, at one point, Clarence Thomas asked her about giving testosterone to girls to become boys and said, isn't that then discriminatory? Because boys can't be given testosterone. We don't give boys testosterone. But we'll give girls testosterone. That's discriminatory, isn't it? And Strangeo had no answer for it. The problem for the trans community is that the logic is self-defeating because it's the logic of the insane asylum. Boys can become girls, but if they don't do as much as the trans community says they should do, then they're not actually doing it. We must respect their pronouns, but not give them the credibility of transitioning if they're not going to go all the way or a way that the trans community, it makes no sense. It is radicalized individualism, self-styling of one's gender. with a level of conformity that is insane, and Chase Strangio botched the case. In fact, there was a massive takedown of the New York Times about how badly Strangio had handled the litigation all the way up to the Supreme Court. And now you've got a new lawyer for the ACLU, who, by the way, clerked for John Paul Stevens and Merrick Garland is a noted Supreme Court litigator, and she, an actual she, Kathleen Hartnett, I think her name is,

absolutely botched the case in part because she was asked a very straightforward question by Samuel Alito and had no answer. for what should be a presuppositional question in the case. For a category of students classified as boys and a category of students classified as girls. Yes, Your Honor. If it does that, then is it not necessary for there to be for equal protection purposes, if that is challenged under the Equal Protection Clause, an understanding of what it means to be a boy or a girl or a man or a woman? Yes, Your Honor. And what is that definition for equal protection purposes? What does it mean to be a boy or a girl or a man or a woman? Sorry, I just understood your question. I think that the underlying enactment, whatever it was, the policy, the law, we'd have to have to have an understanding of how the state or the government was just understanding that term to figure out whether or not someone was excluded. We do not have a definition for the court. And we don't take issue with the, we're not disputing the definition here. What we're saying is that the way it applies in practice is to exclude. birth sex males categorically from women's teams and that there's a subset of those birth sex males where it doesn't make sense to do so according to the state's own interest. Well, how can a court determine whether there's discrimination on the basis of sex without knowing what sex means for equal protection purposes? I think here we just know that they've identified pursuant to their own statute. Lindsay qualifies as a birth sex male, and she's being excluded categorically from the women's teams as the statute. So we're taking the statute's definitions as we find them and we don't dispute them. We're just trying to figure out do they create an equal protection problem. You got that? The ACLU couldn't offer a definition to the United States Supreme Court for what a male and a female are, what a boy and a girl are. went into a case on transgender rights and couldn't define what a boy and a girl are. By the way, you should note that the national media uses the phrase sex assigned at birth. That's from a trans rights organization style guide. And the New York Times of the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the others, they've adopted the phrase, sex assigned at birth. And it suggests that someone laid their hands upon a child and said, I pronounce you male. But the lawyer for the ACLU actually uses birth sex. Within the court record, it's not disputed that you are born male or female. Only in the national press corps is it disputed that you are born male or female. You are assigned to sex at birth.

That's a bridge too far for even the American Civil Liberties Union, which is now twice defended trans rights in the United States Supreme Court. But because CBS News has now decided to go with biological sex at birth, CBS News is being excoriated by the left and partisans in the press for daring to use the term that essentially even the ACLU uses, birth sex, biological sex. But the ACLU can't tell you. Now, you need to understand why. Because a lot of people missed the point. They were flummoxed and just floored. These people don't know what the definition of a boy or girl is. They can't. And here's why. Because when Title IX was written in, what, the 1960s, 70s, they just, everybody knew what a boy and a girl was. There was no reason to define boy and girl because it was obvious what a boy and a girl are. So it's not actually defined in the law. Because everyone knew until now. Only now in postmodern America do people have doubts about what a boy or girl are. Male and female at birth are determined by the first two chromosome pairs, the XX, the X, Y. There are people who have mutations that are born with additional pairings, but it's always the first two. Is your body capable of producing sperm or an egg? That's the determination for the basic biological determination. It has been and always will be. And every biologist except the Wackadoons will acknowledge it. And even the Wackadoons acknowledged it 10 years ago. It's only now they're up with the latest craze. But the ACO, you can't acknowledge that because the law doesn't have the specific definition because the law presumed we all knew what a boy and a girl were. And that's the loophole the ACLU walks into. But then it also causes a problem for them because the law presupposes we know what a boy and a girl are and the ACLU can't tell us. So it leaves it to the court to define it. And they really don't want the court to define it. But then the logic breaks down of the insane asylum under further probing. This is Samuel Alito again with the same lawyer, Kathleen Harnett, who is representing the plaintiffs in the case, the trans students in the case. that has a boys, let's say, track team and a girls track team. school has that. And a student who has the genes and the reproductive system of a male and had those at birth and has never taken puberty blockers, never taken female hormones, never had any gender altering or affirming. Surgery says, nevertheless, I am a woman. That's who I am. Can the school say, no, you cannot participate on the girls' team?

Sorry, so you're just a birth sex male who has all the advantages of birth sex male hormones and can the school borrow him from the woman's team? Yes, they can. But that person, is that person not a woman in your understanding? If the person says, I sincerely believe I a woman, I am in fact a woman. Is that person not a woman? I would respect their self-identity in addressing the person, but in terms of the statute, I think the question is, does that person have a sex-based biological advantage that's going to make it unfair for that person to be part of the women's team? And that's the rationale for the regulation, and so that's the way we would be testing that hypothetical. Well, the reason I'm asking has to do with discrimination on the basis of transgender status. So what you seem to be saying is, yes, it is permissible for the school to... discriminate on the basis of transgender status. Because if this person is a trans woman, a trans girl, and is barred from the team, from the girl's team, then that person is being subjected to differential treatment based on transgender status, right? Well, that would be, then the question would be whether the scrutiny would be satisfied. So from our perspective, that would be a transgender classification. Now, what's going on here, for those of you don't understand the subtext here, is she can't answer the question the way she should be able to answer the question. The question from Samuel Alito is you have a male who identifies as female. has not taken hormone suppressants, has not taken estrogen, has not done these things, is male, but identifies as female, wants to use pronouns, is sincere in this belief. Can this person be barred? And what does she say? Well, under the regulation as written, yes, they could. That's not what Samuel Alito is asking her, and she knows that's not what he's asking her. He's asking her if, as presented, she and her position would allow this person to play. Sports and under her position, the answer is obviously yes. If they have a sincere belief that they are trans, even though they haven't gone through all the hormone replacement. then yes, her definition is yes, but she can't argue that because it immediately undercuts her case. So she's got to say, well, under the regulation is drafted, we would look at this and say, no, you couldn't under this regulation. And even Lino points out to say, so you could discriminate against this person. Well, under the regulation, yes, but she then can't say, and that's what we're arguing against because it undermines her case. So the logic of the trans community is the logic of the insane asylum. And the logic of the insane asylum, when confronted with actual logic falls apart. Boys, and you know, Amy Coney Barrett is under attack because she used the phrase cisgendered.

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He's got the courage to tell you the truth, even when it isn't popular. You're listening to The Eric Erickson Show. Greetings to Eric Erickson here. Glad to have you with me. The other day, I... You referenced a piece in the Wall Street Journal about the number of right-wing social media influencers who are getting a lot of money under the table. You would not even know it. I have been approached on several occasions to put things on social media or say things on radio and get paid. In fact, it happened to me this morning. was offered a couple thousand dollars to do something. And just so you understand, being on radio, I'm actually bound to by a law, plugola payola. If I say anything to you on the radio that I'm getting paid to say, I've got to disclose it. If I'm plugging anything, I have an ownership interest in, I got to tell you about it. If people are giving me freebies to say stuff, I've got to disclose it. Now, I'm sure there are people who don't, but it's a real law. It applies to me. And technically, there is federal law that applies to these social media influencers that they've got to be able to designate and show clearly that they are getting paid. But the law is rarely, if ever, enforced and people don't do it. I say that because we now know that Qatar and Iran have been funding voices online to be sympathetic to them. In fact, there is a major pro-independent, Scottish independence movement Twitter account that has lots of followers that when Iran cut off its internet, it went dark. Isn't that funny? A Scottish independence movement, social media account went dark when Iran turned its media off. We now know that the Chinese Xi Jinping's government is scaling back the money they've been spending on social media influence around the world. There was a report out yesterday that Xi Jinping decided it's not worth it paying so many of these social media influencers. The pro-China accounts out there have been something, you know, maybe it's not a coincidence that when the Democrats the other day, they all came out against anti-Semitism in Hamas. Maybe they stopped getting checks from President Xi Jinping. Who knows? There are a lot of voices. that are getting paid under the table and they're telling you not what they believe, they're telling you what they're getting paid to say. And I also find it notable the number of people who have come out in favor of the Iranian regime lately. The young Turk guys are all in defense of Iran. Now, you do need to understand. The Iranian regime really is evil.

And if you're a longtime listener of this program, you have to understand, I don't drop the word evil lightly. I think we do it too often in society. Our political opponents are evil. People we don't like are evil. People do things who sin. They're evil. The Iranian regime is really evil. They murder dissidents. They fund terrorism around the world. They starve their people so that they can instead kill Jews, Americans, and others. They are an evil regime, and it's very interesting to me how these young Turk guys have come out, attacking their resistance, a lot of them claiming it staged. Glenn Greenwald, who apparently was involved in some sexual foot-sucking incident. Yeah, bizarre. He is, I don't have an opinion. The man who has opinions on everything, suddenly has no opinions on what's happening in Iran. And then, of course, I've got this clip to play you of Candace Owens. Listen to this. So many people. Oh, my gosh, you won't believe what these radicals are doing. And of course, it just seems to be that whenever Benjamin Netanyahu is around the corner, like, hey, I want that piece of land, suddenly our media starts telling us, you wouldn't believe how free these people are trying to get in Iran. These people are really, we need to free the Iranians. Oh, they've been living in oppression. BB is over here like, oh, land. Oh, no, really. It's about spreading democracy. Code word, that's military code word for dropping bombs and stealing. This nut job believes that... There's actually not riots in Iran that it's a Jewish operation for Benjamin Netanyahu to steal the Iranian land. I don't know if she's just malevolently crazy or she's on the take. I don't know, but it's a wild position, and she's not alone. There are a lot of people who are coming out who are defending the Iranian regime right now. CNN, which regularly regurgitated the death toll claims of Hamas in Gaza, is now being careful in the death toll claims in Iran. There are rivers of blood in the street. Last night, someone was able to smuggle out video via Starlink of Iranian jeeps with machine guns on the back, and they were spraying bullets into the protest crowd. They're aiming for people's heads.

They're killing tens of thousands of people. They're beginning to hang people. This is the president of the United States in his very good, by the way, CBS News interview. By the many thousands, according to reports. Well, we'll see what that is. I've heard two numbers, but we'll see what that is. Well, now we're hearing that they're going to start hanging protesters tomorrow. So it comes back to the question, have they crossed your red line or as the line moved? I haven't heard about the hanging. If they hang them, you're going to see some things that, I don't know where you come from and what your thought process is, but you'll perhaps be very happy. What do you mean about that? We will take very strong action. If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action. And this strong action you're talking about, what's the end game? The end game is to win. I like winning. How do you define that in Iran? Well, let's define it in Venezuela. Let's define it with al-Baghdadi. He was wiped out. Let's define it with Soleimani. And let's define it in Iran, where it wiped out there Iran nuclear threat in a period of about 15 minutes once the... B-2's got there. And that was a complete obliteration, as it turns out, which is what I said initially. Then some questioned it, and they said, you know, Trump was right. So we've been right about everything. We don't want to see what's happening in Iran happened. And, you know, if they want to have protests, that's one thing. When they start killing thousands of people, and now you're telling me about hanging, we'll see how that works out for them. It shouldn't be the anchor of the CBS evening news telling Donald Trump that they're starting to hang the protesters. That should be his national security team. We are, again, following the story that Americans are being told to move themselves out of bases in Qatar and elsewhere in the Middle East. I sounds like something's going to happen. The New York Times, by the way, it's a very big story today is China's trade surplus and a stroller for dogs. There's nothing on their front page right now about what's happening in Iran, which is interesting.

They've now updated it. They're actually, I'm looking right now. There now is stories there after people called them out on social media. Wow. So what are the options in Iran? I got to say, first of all, have you noticed how so many of the experts got it wrong? Remember they said if Donald Trump killed Qasem Soleimani, it would start a world war or at least a regional war and it didn't? Then they told Donald Trump if he wiped out their nuclear capacity, it would start a war, and it didn't. And now they're telling Donald Trump, if he wipes out the regime, it'll start a war. The people who keep saying that we're going to start wars by tackling Iran, they keep getting it wrong, and yet they keep coming back for more with the same talking point. You're going to start a war. You're going to start a war. They're already trying to kill us. And they're killing their citizens. There's a guy I follow. I don't want to say his name on Instagram. He's actually a fitness influencer in Canada. He is Iranian. And he has family in Iran. They can't communicate. except phone lines came back open the other day, and he was talking about how his family's in hiding. They have not participated in the protests. They're older, but they have friends and family who have been killed in the streets. The president has the ability to act, and I want you to know something that the economist did a poll in Venezuela. Over the last couple days. And, you know, in Venezuela, a lot of people, they still have landlines. It's accessible. Cell phones are more accessible. It's easier to poll people in Venezuela, frankly, than it is in the United States. Smaller country, more accessible by phone than we are. Only 18% oppose American governance of Venezuela. A majority of Venezuelans support President Trump. We live in a world where progressives tell us we live in a brutal dictatorship and the people who actually live in brutal dictatorship support Donald Trump. This right here should put in perspective everything in the world for you. Progressives in the United States believe we live in a brutal dictatorship, but the people who actually live in brutal dictatorships support Donald Trump. That should tell you everything you need to know. Is the man perfect? No. Do I have criticisms? Yes. Am I willing to criticize? Yes. And guess what? I can criticize the president of the United States and not be gunned down in the street, unlike people who live in Venezuela or Iran. Hollywood can get on stage, bash the president, claim as a dictator, and then go about their lives. They can start their car without ever worrying about it blowing up. In Iran, you can't do that. Up until, what, last week in Venezuela, you couldn't do that. Even today, though, in Venezuela, there are armed gangs going through the cities looking for people who support Donald Trump, and yet it turns out a majority people do.

Only 18% are opposed to U.S. governance of Venezuela. We're not even governing Venezuela, and yet a majority of that country would prefer it to what they have. And you have American progressives whining about the state of this country, whining about Donald Trump. Do I think he's having hit it sometimes? Yes, I criticized him for the Jerome Powell investigation, which, by the way, it turns out there is news here that the Department of Justice in the U.S. Attorney's Office did not begin pushing for a Jerome Powell investigation until after the president's press conference a few weeks ago in which he said he wanted Jerome Powell investigated. The timing is very important for the people who were suggesting some legitimacy here. So, yeah, I absolutely do think that the president can be heavy-handed. I absolutely do think that there are things he does he shouldn't do. But are we in a dictatorship? No, the people in Iran are literally being murdered in the streets by their government. And in this country, the very same progressives who accuse Donald Trump of state-sponsored terrorism are the ones on the side of the Iranian regime. I want to spend a little bit of time with this later, but it's wild to see predictably progressives in this country, whether on the left or the right, Tucker Carlson's of the world? Or the crazy wackadoo Antifa progressives. They're on the side of Maduro. They're on the side of the Iranian regime. They're on the side of Hamas. They're on the side of Hezbollah. They're on the side of Russia. They're on the side of China. They blame America first. They hate America. We have liberated the people of Venezuela from Maduro. And the president now has the opportunity to do the same thing in Iran. Trey Yance on Fox News has his friend and source who lives in Iran who said Donald Trump is the most popular man in Iran right now, and they hope he responds brutally to the dictator. He should. There are voices inside the White House who want diplomacy. They don't want to engage. They're isolationists. The president ignored them when it came to Venezuela. He ignored them when dropping the bomb on Iran. He should ignore them now. There are things the American government can do and can engage with us. Heck, we ought to just fly over to Iran and drop loaded weapons. Let the crowd get them and see what they can do. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, armed the people in the streets against the dictators who are trying to gun them down. Fight fire with fire. What's notable here is it wasn't, contrary to what the nut jobs on social media say, it wasn't an American or Israeli operation. The start of this, you know what it was, a bank collapse. A bank collapse in Tehran to more banks have collapsed. People can't get their money out. They're furious with the regime. The regime has done nothing. It's an economic crisis that led to this. And every government on planet Earth right now should be noticing just how destabilizing economic problems can be, including in this country, where people still are upset about inflation. Did you know grocery prices soared the highest in a month in December since 2022?

The Republicans need to pay attention to that, but we all need to pay attention to Iran today. What is happening in Iran has the makings of the destabilization of a regime that has funded terrorism around the world, and President Trump has a bold opportunity to stamp out the terror masters. Honest. Putting your trust in me to tell you what's going on. Transparent. I need you to know this from the bottom of my heart. Giving you the information without the noise. My job isn't to tell you what you want to hear. It's to tell you the truth. It's the Eric Erickson Show. Giving you the truth, not the talking points. It's the Eric Erickson Show. Hello, America. You should know this just in from the Department of Homeland Security. The ice agent who was struck by Renee Good did have internal bleeding in his hip from the force of the impact. Internal bleeding. We've got the medical records. This is not mythology.

I know a lot of people who just simply refuse to believe the ice agent was hit by Renee Good. They simply refuse to believe it. He wasn't run over, like the president said, and that's what they glommed on to, but he was hit by her car. We now have the medical records internal bleeding and injury to him. Will the people who insisted that she never hit him, will they reconsider? Maybe he was hit, given the medical records, and if so, are they willing to reconsider anything else or not? Are they just so dogmatically dug their heels in they can't even be reasoned with? I don't know. This hour of the program is brought to you by Van Allen Golf. Y'all, I was actually at my golf club this morning having breakfast, and Will from Van Allen was in there. And gosh, the putters incredible. I'm trying to get them to spread some around my golf club so people can get hands on with them. They are incredible. You can find out more at Van Allen Golf.com. Van Allen is A-L-A-N. Van Allen Golf.com. You can text golf to 33-777-7. Find out more about this putter. They make great gifts. I love my. I really actually do love mine. The weight is just perfect. And, you know, the putter is the one piece of golf equipment that actually does most of the work. Your swing does most to work on everything else. But the weight of the putter and how it operates is very important on the golf course to end the three putt. At least get it into. I still suck, but it's made my putting even better. Okay, we got to move on to other stuff. When we come back. I do need to tell you about, well, the new dangerous game, progressives are playing in this country. When it comes to ICE, it appears the Democrats have hit on their major campaign issue for 2026 is to rain in ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. In fact, they're now saying they may want to shut down the government again. instead of funding the Department of Homeland Security. We may be on the verge of another government shutdown. I've got the details for you when we come back. But first, I've been telling you about the secret war on cash, and it's happening behind the scenes right now while people are distracted with other stuff. And I want to get you the free report for my friends at Swiss America. They're the trusted leader in precious metals in this country. Have been for 40 years. I've bought gold coins from them added to my portfolio. The report breaks down what's really going on with global currency, with debt, why hard assets like gold and silver, back and focus. I don't know if you've seen the prices are going up again today. All you have to do is call or text 800, 289, 2646 to get your free copy. There's something else I want you to recommend to you, by the way. If you subscribe to the Swiss America Trading Podcast on YouTube, it's a great source for a lot of details on what the Brick Nations are doing, how they're trying to get a gold instead of using the dollar as reserve currency, global power shifts. It keeps you up to speed, the Swiss America Trading podcast on YouTube.

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