Erick Erickson HR 1

Welcome It is Eric Erickson here across the nation from Jacksonville, Florida, WOKV. My affiliate down here had a great night last night honoring various veterans groups, got a bourbon tasting this afternoon, and then I go home. The phone number is 877-97-9-37-47-4-25. We've got to begin with the situation in Venezuela. It's actually a developing situation down there as we have seized an oil tanker. In Venezuela. Now, I want to actually play for you out of the gate this conversation between Jake Tapper and their national security analyst at CNN. It's an important conversation in large part because you're actually going to hear the CNN security analyst. Say it's actually normal. Well, hang on a second. Got to reroute the audio here. Here we go. And. A lot of people don't understand the basic idea of what's going on here. Nicholas Maduro, who is in charge of Venezuela, President of Venezuela, he's there because of fraud. Like, he should not be the leader of Venezuela. He lost the election. He lost the election, and he kept power instead. President Trump is my larger point is that President Trump is, it's not wild for people in the West. to think Mador is not there legitimately. Right. And there has been this pressure campaign from President Trump for him to step down. Seizing an oil tanker. Yeah. That's a much bigger deal and a much bigger than these narco-terrorist boats, as the president calls them, people shooting them, seizing a tanker. How... Could this escalate the conflict with Venezuela? Well, you know, we've had sanctions on Venezuelan oil since the first Trump administration. And Biden kept them. So to me, this is absolutely normal. I mean... Seizing an oil tanker? Yeah. Yeah, we've been seizing Iranian oil tankers in the past. We also, according to the law that I've read, we can, that oil is up forfeiture. So we could keep that. We've kept Iranian oil in the past. So I actually think that this is less controversial in terms of law and sanctions and what has been disputed or not disputed. Like, I think this is actually a pretty...

know, check the box case. Now, you know, what will this mean in terms of escalation? You know, what is he going to do? What is Maduro going to do? Is he going to step aside because we're sanctioning this oil? I mean, you know, we pick up this oil tanker. It's one oil tanker. Probably not. Now, this actually is a significant issue. We do have sanctions on Venezuela. We've got a lot of sanctions on Venezuela. The left overnight got really hyperbolic about seizing a Venezuelan oil tanker. How dare the president do this on which justification does the president have? We've done it before. As CNN's own national security analysts said, we've done it to the Iranians, the Iranians. We're doing it to the Venezuelans. The sale of the oil goes to fund a dangerous communist regime that refuses to give up power despite having lost an election. We are trying to build pressure on Maduro to leave. The opposition leader was able to escape the country, Maria Corina Machado. escaped Venezuela and made it to Norway to get her Nobel Peace Prize. She's now going to embark on a tour of Europe to build support for aligning the world against Maduro. His days appear to be numbered. There are a couple of questions, though. This is continuing to go on. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. Here's my concern. It is, I think, a legitimate and well-founded concern. If you, the President of the United States, and by the way, I support him doing this, if you drag this out too long, Maduro is going to kill all the opposition leaders. They're in hiding. She was in hiding. Let me read you part of this of Maria Corina Machado Maria Corina Machado's Escape. The Venezuelan opposition leader was trying to make it to Norway by Wednesday in time to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Over the course of 10 nerve-wracking hours, Maria Corina Machado and two people helping her escape hit 10 military checkpoints, avoiding capture each time before she reached the coast by midnight. She rested for a few hours before the next leg of her journey, a perilous trip across the open Caribbean Sea to Krasau. She and her two companions set out on a typical wooden fishing skiff at 5 a.m. with strong winds and choppy seas slowing them down. She had almost completed an escape that had been in the works for two months and was carried out by a Venezuelan network that helped help other people flee the country. The group said it made an important call to the U.S. military before they set out to sea warning American forces in the region. The vessel's occupants.

would be her to avoid any kind of airstrike. We coordinated that she was going to leave by a specific area so they would not blow up the ship. The Trump administration was aware of the operation. The U.S. Navy and Pentagon refused to comment around the same time as the crossing. U.S. Navy F-18s flew into the Gulf of Venezuela and spent roughly 40 minutes flying in tight circles nearing the route that would lead from the coast to Kursal. Maria Corina Machado arrived in Curacao around 3 p.m. Tuesday. She was met by a private contractor who specializes in extractions and was supplied by the Trump administration. She boarded a private jet and made it to Norway. Stopping in Bangor, Maine to refuel the jet. She was able to get out with a network of people helping her. What about the others? If this drags out for a long time, what's to stop Maduro from aggressively hunting these people and killing all the opposition? Because here's what's happened. We've war-gamed going in and just assassinating Maduro and what we found in the wargaming is that the country descends into violence and chaos. You've got to have a ready political group to come in and take power. Otherwise, we know it descends into chaos. So if we keep dragging this out, he goes in and he kills all the opposition. So there's no opposition left standing to be able to put in a government the moment he's gone. and to help rebuild. So at some point we have to do something, but if the president of the United States attempts to go to war, he doesn't have authorization from Congress to go to war, and only Congress can authorize that sort of military intervention. Remember, the president can take defensive actions as commander-in-chief to protect the United States. He's not allowed to take offensive actions without... the Congress agreeing first. This requires a debate of the Congress. It requires an authorization for the use of force. And if he doesn't get it, you know and I know, Dernwell, you're going to have a progressive judge in the United States, probably Boseberg. The moment we land troops in Venezuela, issue an injunction, say, you don't have authorization from Congress. Any troop that fires a shot is a war criminal. Oh, you know what's going to happen. Now, I think the course would move very quickly to stop it, but it could put soldiers in legal limbo. There would be outrage from Congress. You got Rand Paul out there already upset about the bombings of the narco-terrorist boats saying Congress hasn't authorized this. All I'm saying is it would behoove the president, even if not in public, but in private. to outline a game plan. If he's afraid of leaks, bring in the chairman and ranking member of the intelligence committees of the House and Senate and talk to them.

But bringing Congress in on the conversation sooner rather than later will pay dividends for the president because if he decides to assign troops to Venezuela for any reason whatsoever, he needs some level of congressional authorization because the Constitution still matters. And the Constitution requires that the Congress has to authorize the use of force. Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act that's moving through right now for voting has just repealed the use of authorizations of force for the Middle East. from both the Gulf War and from the Iraq War. They've repealed those things now. There are no authorizations for force active right now. The president should probably consider a structuring one. I know this White House thinks it does not need Congress. I know this White House and many Trump supporters think that the Republicans in Congress just have to be his yes men. He's becoming a lame duck and that matters because they don't have to be his yes men. Many of them will outlast him. So he has to rope them in all the conversation. I would hate for our troops to be placed in harm's way and then have a federal judge say, y'all can't do this. Congress hasn't authorized it. And the judge, by the way, would be right. What's the game plan scenario to get Maduro out? We are told in the press the Cubans reached out and asked what that scenario would be like. And our public conversation was to the Cubans, F-A-F-O, if you know, you know. And privately to the Cubans was we might be able to come to terms. They can't publicly say anything about leaving the Cuban regime along because Cubans in Miami really would like to go home one day. They'd like to go back to a non-communist Cuba. And frankly, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, would like to oversee the operation of purging the Cuban regime. There are lots of people that think doing what they're doing to Maduro is a compromise solution with Marco Rubio because he really doesn't want to give up on the Russians either. And there are rumors floating in Washington that this was a JD Vance orchestrated compromise that will give you Maduro in Cuba. You just let us get out, extract ourselves from the Ukrainian situation. That is a rumor. It is unsubstantiated. It's the chattering classes in Washington talking about it. But we know Marco Rubio would like to get rid of the Cuban regime. We know he'd like to get rid of the Maduro regime. Marco Rubio rallied opposition to Maduro in the first Trump term with Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo. And when Biden came in, Biden scuttled the whole effort. And they're having to make up ground again. We've now seized an oil tanker. The president suggests we might just keep the oil. He's not wrong. This is Maria Bartaromo and Senator James Langford of Oklahoma talking about this issue this morning.

on television. I like foreign policy, Senator, because President Trump has made his boldest move yet against Venezuela and Nicolas Maduro, confirming that the U.S. forces have seized an oil tanker off the country's coast. I believe the president said it was the largest seizure of this oil tanker ever, he said yesterday. A.G. Pambandi said, quote, for multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the U.S. due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network which supports foreign terrorist organizations. What do you want to say about this? this, sir. Yeah, this was an oil tanker that was actually sanctioned under the Biden administration, but the Biden administration did nothing about it other than just announce a sanction on it. So this is an oil tanker that has been sanctioned for years. They've actually changed names on it. They're flying under an unregistered flag from a different country. They were altering their GPS to be able to hide their locations on it, and they were removing oil for terrorists. Other than that, everything seemed to be fine. So the administration looked at this, identified it, and said, this is a major issue. We're going to stop this. then just ignore it. And that's a good thing to do. It does put more pressure on Maduro and his illegitimate regime that's there. But it really speaks out for everyone, moving oil for terrorist organizations, hiding their location in GPS and such to say the United States sees you and we will stop this. Yeah. That's James Langford of Oklahoma talking to Maria Bartaromo. And again, an important point he raised. The Biden administration sanctioned this particular tanker as well. This tanker is known for turning off its transponders on the sea and showing up in different locations. It does appear that it is selling illegal oil and funding terrorism, not just Maduro's. Trump's showing an aggression on the world stage that some of his supporters didn't expect to see, didn't want to see. They wanted more isolationism. I think it's a good thing. But the question is, what's the endgame? What is the endgame? The president seems to have something in his head. Maybe he is talking to Congress, but my sense from talking to certain members of Congress who would know is that he hasn't filled them in on the conversation yet. And the longer this goes on, showing that he's actually engaged on the issue in a way Biden wasn't, buys Maduro time to kill off all the opposition so you can't have a regime change in Venezuela because the opposition's dead. So the clock is ticking on the Trump administration, but they appear to be headed in the right direction. A right direction. He hit the wrong button. Sorry, folks. That scared me. He appears to be headed in the right direction. The problem is that it's a right direction that no one seems to know where it's actually headed. And he's got to start letting people in on this. If he doesn't want to send in troops to get rid of Maduro, He needs to start building even more intensive pressure. Maybe having Maria Corina Machado now in Europe rallying the Europeans helps bring that pressure. But something's got to happen before Maduro starts wiping out everyone who can stand against him because we know from the war game scenarios that if that happens, this country descends into gangland warfare violence and that's just going to increase the illegal immigration wave headed to this country.

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 tree. It's the Eric Erickson Show. Want to be on the show? Come on, be on the show. Call Eric now at 877973-725. The show notes today have, you know, everything that I talk about on the show, come out on the show notes, and they come out as the show goes live, and therefore paid subscribers. It's seven bucks a month. Today they're not behind the paywall, so anybody can get them so you can see. There's even a gift option if you want to subscribe your friends to it so that you can give it as a holiday gift to your friends. You can actually gift your friends, the show notes. You can subscribe yourself. And again, it's seven bucks a month to get all of the show prep that I do for you. Makes it super easy. Just go to text the word Eric, E-R-I-C-K. to 3377. Text Eric to 33777. And the very first link is the show notes. You go follow that link. The very top link is the actual show notes today that you see the top story. Escape, Tanker, Michigan, Disney, Overmatch, Jasmine Crockett, and Jerome Powell is the headline. By the way, speaking of that one story in the title. The Michigan football coach. Have you all heard about this? Dude went nuts. Threatened to kill himself in a staffer he was sleeping with. Absolutely insane. Intercepted at a local church after his wife provided his phone location to authorities now in protective custody. That's a dude that needs a lot of prayer. My goodness gracious. Now, let me tell you about Hillsdale College because they want to get you smarter. Speaking of schools out there, they're one of the best. You go to Eric for Hillsdale.com and you sign up. They have 40 classes to choose from. They are with Hillsdale's fine faculty. Their video lectures, each one is a 30-minute lecture by Hillsdale's faculty. Depending on the class, depends on the number of those 30-minute lectures. They're engaging, they're entertaining, they are not boring, and they're mentally stimulating. You go to Eric for Hillsdale.com. You don't have to pay a penny, by the way. You get a free great education from Hillsdale College and you get a certificate of completion at the end of the course from Hillsdale. You do it at your own pace. You take your time. You enjoy the subjects from economics to math to chemistry to political science to history to philosophy, to literature. They got it all.

You get a sense of what makes Hillsdale unique as well. It's harder to get into Hillsdale now than much of the Kay Ivey League. It's an incredible campus up in Michigan with great people. Larry Arne is tremendous what he's done for the conservative movement and for academia. Go to Ericforhillsdale.com and sign up today at Hillsdale College. Hello, welcome. The phone number, 877, 973, 7425, should you wish to be on the program, I want to go to Arlene. Colin, welcome to the show. Arlene, how are you? I'm doing great. Eric, thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. Eric, I'm really, I love what you're discussing about the Venezuelan situation, but there is an egregiously overlooked issue that is a national security issue to the United States. And it is this. For years, the Islamic regime has been turning Venezuela into a weapons depot. so much so that they have a factory of drones. And I think certainly you and a lot of your listeners understand that the Islamic regime is the largest terror entity in the world. And not only is Israel in their crosshairs, but we are a bigger target for the Islamic regime. And now they have been operating in Venezuela for decades. I'm glad you brought it up because I don't think people realize that. I want to read for you. This is from August of September 2023 from the Heritage Foundation. On July 20th of 2023, Iranian state media reported a new bilateral defense agreement between Bolivia and Iran. The same day, a sanctioned Iranian cargo ship arrived in the Venezuelan port city of La Guayara. to reportedly deliver hundreds of automobiles to the Maduro regime. A few days later, Iran made fast attack craft and anti-ship missiles on full display at the Venezuel Navy's bicentennial celebration, while Bolivia's defense minister confirmed that their agreement with Iran includes the transfer of drones to the landlacked Andean nation. After more than four decades of persistent, systematic penetration of Latin America, Iran is reaching its full geopolitical attention in the Western Hemisphere, pre-positioning military assets. and armaments in the region to bring the fight to the United States. Venezuela and Bolivia are at the top of the list. Not only that, as Arlene says, there is a lot of evidence that Iran has built drone manufacturing capabilities in Venezuela and that the Maduro regime is manufacturing drones for Iran. Not only that, we know that last year, Iran, China, and Russia all showed up to do military war games, naval war. games with Venezuela. All of that is documented. All of that is there. Venezuela has picked a side, and it's the side we're going to have to deal with. We might as well start by dealing with Venezuela. That doesn't necessarily mean we need an armed conflict.

But there does need to be a strategy to oust Maduro building international pressure is a great way to do it, but we've got to act fast. Now, while all of this is happening, we need to turn domestically because there's a big story in the Wall Street Journal today you need to know about. The Federal Reserve yesterday during the program, I announced to you the breaking news that the Federal Reserve had cut interest rates again. A quarter point. What's notable about that quarter point cut, His three members of the Fed publicly descended. It's the most dissension they've had in a federal rate cut in quite a while. One of the members was a Trump guy, and he wanted a full half-point cut. And he voted against a quarter-point cut because he wanted a half-point cut. My read on that, honestly, is that he didn't want to cut. Otherwise, he could have said, I wanted a half-rate, but in not getting it, I'll still do the quarter rate. And then two Democratic appointees said they're worried about inflation and they didn't want a rate cut. But they cut the rate by a quarter point. Why? Because inflation is still high, and the Fed acknowledged inflation is still higher than what they want. But I want to read this to you from the Wall Street Journal. Fed Chair Jerome Powell pointed out Wednesday to a job market risk that economists have been worried about for months. Official statistics could be drastically overstating recent hiring. Jerome Powell said the Fed staffers believed the federal data could be overestimating job creation by up to 60,000 jobs a month. Given the figures published so far show that the economy has added about 40,000 jobs a month since April, the real number could be something more like a loss of 20,000 jobs a month, Jerome Powell said. We think there's an overestimation of these numbers, Jerome Powell said in a press conference. Published data already show that labor market has slowed significantly this year down from rapid hiring after the COVID pandemic. This slower pace means big data revisions can more easily reveal the economy is shedding jobs, not adding them. It's a complicated, unusual, and difficult situation where the labor market is also under pressure where job creation may actually be negative. The concern provided some of the backing for the Fed's decision to cut interest rates at a third straight meeting. Jerome Powell said, despite a labor market that still looks healthy on the surface with unemployment at a relatively modest 4.4% in September and a net gain of 119,000 jobs. that month. Next week, the Labor Department will report fresh jobs numbers for October and November, as well as possible revisions for previous months. Jerome Powell's concern involves a quandary that the Labor Department faces when measuring hiring. How do you judge the number of jobs added or destroyed when new businesses are created or closed down? Those jobs can't be surveyed directly because it's difficult for the government to reach out to brand new companies or companies no longer hiring. Instead, Labor's data arm, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, must use a statistical model to make a guess. In the past few years, that technique called the birth-death model, referred to the births and deaths of businesses, has contributed to estimates that have overstated job creation by hundreds of thousands of jobs a year.

forcing significant downward revision later. Last month, the BLS laid out a plan to change how it uses the birth-death model, which could make the real-time numbers more accurate starting in February. But for now, Jerome Powell said, the Fed's concerned that monthly employment stats have been too good to be true. Now, you know that's true the case because you don't feel like the economy is good, and you're hearing about layoffs too. There have been massive numbers of layoffs over the past few months. We should not, in theory, be seen as many jobs created in this country when so many companies are laying people off. And yet that's what we've been seen. And again, the point is when a business is brand new or a business closes down, they can't get the data. Here's what happens just so you understand how the process works, and this is why there are always revisions. The process works by the Bureau of Labor Statistics sending out surveys that companies are legally required to fill out. If you have a taxpayer ID number, you are legally required to fill out the information. I occasionally get it. And... I don't reply until I get a nasty letter certified in the mail telling me I'm legally obligated to. When I get the email, I don't worry about the email. I wait for a certified email, certified letter in the mail telling me I got to go to this website within the next 30 days or else. It's not worth my time. My business isn't changing. They don't seem to understand what my business is. I've tried to explain to them that my business is not like the businesses. They're trying to survey. I don't have, like I'm not selling goods, things like that. It's very odd. It's very frustrating. A lot of businesses are in the same boat. They're essentially getting bullied to give data. That's really not that accurate because it doesn't actually frame our business. But when a business starts... It takes six months to get them into the system to be able to start surveying them. And when a business closes down, no certified letter is going to get a closed down business to respond. So how do you know they've lost all their jobs? They closed down already. They're not going to reply to tell you we've fired everybody. That's the birth-death data. They do statistical sampling. But, you know, we can cross-reference this with the private sector. That's one of the great things about how you can't really cook the books in this country. So many people are under this elaborate conspiracy theory that you can really cook the books in this country. The way China does, the way some other countries do, you can't because this country has private sector data, not just public sector data. Most companies in the United States use ADP for payroll. ADP releases its numbers, and for years, economists have said it's not as good as the federal data. Why? Because not every company uses ADP. Most do, but not all do. So the federal data has been considered the gold standard. But you can look at ADP. ADP handles the payroll for most businesses, particularly small businesses, and ADP's been seeing an increase in layoffs and business shutdowns.

And ADP for several months now has been saying the public sector data is overstating how good the economy is because we handle the payroll for the bulk of companies in this country and we're seeing layoffs. We're seeing businesses shut down and the federal government can be six months behind in this. And then you had October where the Bureau of Labor Statistics did nothing and wasn't even sure they could get out any data. They just canceled the inflation report, saying they're not going to be able to get it done. They're canceling it. They're not even putting it off anymore. First they said they'd put it off. Then they said they were canceling it. Trump ousted the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hasn't been able to get someone to replace that person, yet his pick got rejected by Congress and pulled back. The Democrats are suggesting that he's cooking the books. Here's the thing. Jerome Powell is not suggesting that the Trump administration is cooking the books to make the economy look good. That's not his allegation. Some on the right are accusing him of doing that. That's not his allegation. His allegation. is that it is taking so long for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find the closed down businesses and the new startup businesses and survey them in addition to the picture everywhere else that they are missing a lot of data. And the private sector data has been very consistent over the last several months that... Jobs are being lost. This is from Bloomberg News this morning. Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week by the most since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring the volatile nature of claims at this time of year. Initial claims increased by $44,000 to $236,000 in the week ending December 6th, according to the Labor Department data released Thursday. This was the biggest jump since March 2020 and followed the lowest. level of applications of more than three years in the previous week, which included Thanksgiving. The figure exceeded all but one estimate in the Bloomberg survey of economists. Weekly initial claims tend to be choppy around the holidays and will likely continue to fluctuate through the end of the year, but Thursday's figures are towards the higher end of reading seen in 2025. Companies like Pepsi and Hewlett-Packard have laid out plans to reduce head counts in recent weeks, and nationwide layoffs in October where the highest since early 2023. Pantheon microeconomics said the jump in claims suggest layoffs are picking up. Others like high-frequency economics disagreed, noting that the claims figure is still quite low over a longer period of time. Either way, it's too hard to make a real judgment about the labor market. You can't read too much into this. The four-week moving average of new applications, which helps diffuse the volatility, ranted in a range of 216,750.

While all of this is happening, tariffs are closing the trade deficit. That's right. We've got great trade deficit numbers. For the president, he'll be very happy with this. This is CNBC's Rick Santelli. Minus 52.8 billion. That's a better, lower trade deficit than we expected. We are looking for number closer to 62 billion, and that follows a revised minus 59 billion. Minus 52 billion would be the lightest going back to, wow, we're really going back. Well, my records go back to 1992, and to find a smaller number, the minus 52 billion, we're all the way back to June of 2020. But what does that, what does that mean? The trade deficit has reduced. That means that fewer companies are selling products in the United States. That means the tariffs are working, but that means prices are going up. So we've got prices going up. We have companies laying people off. We have the Federal Reserve saying we have overstated how many jobs are being created. And now you want your deeply wild and completely unsympathetic story of the day in this? Americans now believe it takes an average of $2.3 million to be considered wealthy. That's a 21% increase since 2021, reflecting the way inflation and soaring costs have changed perceptions of wealth. While definitions of wealth vary by generations, most agree it's not just about the money, but also about security, well-being, and quality of life. In 1988, the bare-necked lady is saying, if I had a million dollars, I'd be rich. Now people think you need $2.3 million.

By the way, that's a perception number. So few people are at that number. What it actually is telling you is that more and more Americans feel like being wealthy is escaping from them. When you combine all of this data together, it does not paint a good picture of the economy, and it's one that the Republicans are going to have to deal with as we head into the midterms. The Republicans have got to find a way to convince people that it's not their fault, give them time, We'll be headed in the right direction. But they're going to have to make that case because right now the case is not actually being made. And because it's not actually being made, well, Americans are getting upset at Republicans. How they articulate the argument matters. 877-97-973-745. It's Eric Erickson coming to you from my affiliate WOKV in Jacksonville, Florida. We'll be right back. To 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. On the go, take Eric's podcasts with you, available wherever you stream your favorite podcast. Search Eric Erickson. Hello there. I would like to answer a question for a listener who did not want to call in and ask the question. Yes, my kids had Santa Claus visit them. I know that there are some families that are uncomfortable with Santa Claus visiting their kids. My wife wasn't sure she wanted it. Kids, if you're listening in the car. And you're wondering what I'm talking about. It's very simple. There are some people who do not like the idea of a very fat man sliding down their chimney in the middle of the night with a bag full of presence. Afraid they'll set off the security alarm, afraid of all sorts of things. They just, they don't want Santa Claus in their house. It creeps them out. My family, we had Santa Claus in our house. I with my kids had Santa Claus in the house. There are some people who really struggle with it. I was not what my wife did. I did not. I was fine having the jolly old elf come to our house and think my kids turned out just fine in their faith in life and walk with the Lord while having a fat man from the North Pole come down the chimney into the house. It was actually my son several years younger than my daughter. who concluded at a certain point in his life that he did not really wasn't down with the whole Santa Claus thing.

took my daughter who's older than him a little while longer to arrive at that position. Kids over time, I think, they age out of the tradition. But some families really struggle with it. And I got asked by listener what I think about it. And I'm mindful of the kids listening right now. And I just want to say, I was a kid and believed in Santa Claus. My kids do. I understand for those of you who are kids listening right now, who you're excited about Santa Claus coming to your house, I was too. And I just want you to understand that there are some grownups kids who aren't sure they want this man coming down their chimney with this bag of presents, leaving them under a tree. The whole idea bothers them. And so I just, I need you to know that it never bothered me. Because he was bringing presents. And I was totally fine with it. And I'm fine with people inviting Santa Claus into their house. And I don't have the concerns that some people do. Now. I want to tell you about Swiss America. They would love to have you do business with them. They have been leading this country for 40 years in precious metals. I have bought gold from them. They would love to give you their report, The Secret War on Cash, about how the government is trying to steer people away from cash and into plastic purchases so that the government can, in fact, control and monitor what you're doing. This applies to crypto as well. It's a secret war on cash. Swiss America can get you their report completely free. You just call or text my name. name Eric to 800 289, 2646. The LA war on cash can include digital forms of currency. Their report can help you with your retirement and your savings. Call them or text my name Eric to 800, 289, 2646. You can also go to swissamerica.com slash Eric. Swissamerica.com or E-R-I-C or call or text Eric to 800, 289, 26-46. Message and data rates may apply.