Erick Erickson HR 3 10-13-25

here the phone number 8779373-725 if you want to be on the program thanks for the emails on a car for my son including Joe yours on the on the Toyota and it's the redesigned four cylinder that's good to know welcome welcome okay so I want to actually start this hour with a phone call Jim has been waiting pretty patiently. It's where I wanted to head with the show anyway. And so let me just start this off with Jim's vocal. Jim, thanks for being patient. How are you? Oh, Jim, just fine. I'm really fascinated by the fact that Hillary Clinton is thrilled with Donald Trump's peace plan, and the squad is totally quiet. And for a lot of reasons, that's a blessing. But that leads me to wonder, what could this possibly mean for the Democratic Party? Could this possibly – I don't want to get ahead of myself, but could this possibly strengthen the moderates and start easing out the old folks?

Okay, that's a really, really good question, Jim. And I got thoughts. I'm glad you were there because that's exactly where I was hoping you would go. I didn't know for sure, but I knew Jim wanted to talk about the future of the Democratic Party. Let me just reset for everybody for this hour of the program. We have a government shutdown right now. In Washington, D.C., nothing is happening. In fact, the Democrats have left Washington. The Senate's not even meeting. The Democrats have a fundraiser in wine country in California. And where's the president? Commanding the stage in the Middle East with a peace deal. Remarkable. The Democratic Party is largely held hostage. by the progressive donor class and base. So. There's a Swiss billionaire. I can't remember his name. He's kind of the next George Soros. He is funding a lot of progressive causes in the United States. I think one of the worst things to happen to the Democratic Party is the rise of Alex Soros and George Soros. And by the way, I'm going to talk about Alex now. And you know, allegedly could get me in trouble because the Soros is now on some of the radio stations I'm on. But, I mean, it's just the truth here. And Alex, I think, should probably listen and he can learn something. Whether he likes it or not, Alex Soros is a billionaire, son of a billionaire. Whether they like it or not, they don't live in the real world. I want to pivot to Taylor Swift. My kid would be proud of me. So Taylor Swift has a new album out. I have listened to the album. My daughter, who is 20, is a little bit put off by some of the sexual innuendo in it. But also what I noticed listening to it is that Taylor Swift no longer writes music that is very relatable to your average. person. She talks way more about the fancy drinks and the private jets. And I mean, I want to talk about the private jets. I'm not in that league. And I'm not a billionaire. But she's living a life now that is not as relatable. And her songs just seem less relatable. And my daughter has commented on that that given the people who grew up with Taylor Swift, they're very happy for her success. But at the same time, her music, though this album is better than the last album, which badly needed an editor, it's not. as good as some of her older stuff, not because it's a change of style, but because it's less relatable. As she's become exceedingly wealthy, and she now, by necessity, lives in a bubble. I don't actually want to be a billionaire. I would love to have like $100 million and live off the interest.

One of you wants to die and give me all your money. I will gladly take it. I don't want to be a billionaire, though. I think it would be deeply corrupting to my soul to be a billionaire. A hundred millionaire. Could buy land, build a house, take my family to Hilton Head to the sea pines, to the beach, what I wanted and not have to go through airports anymore. I'd be totally fine with that. We'll see what the lottery brings, the good lord, and long-lost, dead, rich relatives. But... Even I, I'm not an exceedingly wealthy person, have more and more had to get into a bubble. I get a couple thousand emails a day. I get over 100 text messages a day. I have, in fact, Philip was laughing at this the other day. I have 719 voicemails on my phone right now. Good luck leaving me a voicemail. I mean, I read the transcript now that they read the transcript, but it's, it's, it's, it's called me these days. By now, so I get my inbox just so you know to zero, every morning, I delete every spam, every email I've checked. I have 201 messages, emails right now. I have 191 voicemail, or I'm sorry, text messages. Right now, today. A lot of people flood the zone. And when I travel now, more and more, I have to have security with me. So I know I'm in a bubble. I still do my grocery shopping. I still check my mail. I still do yard work. I still do all that stuff. I still drive my kid to school. I still cook for my family. I don't have anybody who cooks for us. I don't live in that world. But I can also see how isolating it can become. I have friends who are billionaires. and they live in a completely different world. And their kids are in a world unlike anything you and I will relate to. And they think they relate to you and me and they don't. One of the worst things to happen to the Democratic Party is to come under the influence of Alex Soros and now the Swiss billionaire because they don't live in a world that is relatable. It is perfectly fine for Alex Soros to think America needs to rethink crime and hire more social workers than police officers, but the reality on the ground is it makes towns and cities war zones. And Alex Soros never has to worry about it because he can afford the private security and the fancy penthouse suite. that he lives in and the private jet where he doesn't have to go through the airport. He doesn't have to see the homeless people asleep on the benches. He can alienate himself from society by design, and you can't. And one of the worst things to happen to the Democratic Party is it became such a party of the wealthy, even though as they blasted the Republicans as the party of the rich, the wealthy Democratic donors from Hollywood and New York and Miami and Chicago and Los Angeles, that they don't live.

in the world that you and I inhabit. They haven't been to the grocery store in a very long time. They haven't had to send their kid to a public school in forever. They haven't had to drive on the highways far. They've never had to take a family road trip where they loaded people up in the minivan and drove to Gulf Shores, Alabama. They don't know what it's like. And so they set the policies and advocate for the policies in a Democratic Party that is more and more removed from the life you lead. Those of you out in Sacramento listening right now on KSTE, the Democratic Party is convening north of you. Let me pull up my map here. So if you go look on a map, Sacramento is to the northeast of San Francisco. And you got, so I guess actually they're not north of you. They're south of you. They're somewhere around Yountville. I don't know how you pronounce it, north of Napa and Sonoma. So that's south. west of Sacramento, they're in the Sonoma Mountains. That's where the Democrats are going to be meeting right now. It's a very, very wealthy, wealthy area. They're going to be at a very fancy winery that is backed by a billionaire. And they have nothing in common with those of you who live around Sacramento. They don't have anything in common with you. Those of you up in Rio Linda, which is actually a real place just north of Sacramento, the Democrats are going to be at a winery in the Sonoma Mountains, surrounded by billionaires, eating fancy stuff, completely, clueless about your daily life. They don't really live your life. Many of them, they don't even fly through your airports anymore. They don't know anything about it. You know, I go through when I'm in Atlanta, everywhere else I still go through because I can't afford to fly private. But when I go through Atlanta, I go through this fancy private security terminal. You know what they always offer me when I get their caviar? I don't want to eat fish eggs. Only rich people think that fish eggs is something normal. No, I have no desire to eat a fish egg. I just, I'd like my egg scrambled with bacon, please. No crudite. It's just, it's a different world. I mean, you go to this place in the most like 8 a.m. and they want to know if I want champagne and caviar. I was like, who the hell lives like this? Well, the super wealthy people in charge of the Democratic Party live like that. That's not something you and I get up in the morning and have coffee. Maybe I'll have oatmeal or scrambled eggs. Like normal people do. Normal people aren't up with caviar and crudette and mimosas. But the Democratic Party is hijacked by a bunch of very wealthy people. And the problem for the Democratic Party is the more they open their mouths now, the less they actually sound like normal people. The less they actually sound like they're relatable to anyone.

The Republican Party is more of the working class party. But here's the problem for the GOP. There is a problem for the GOP. As the Republican Party embraces policies pushed by the working class, they alienate more people in suburbs. Because a lot of the policies the working class like are policies that actually alienate even conservative suburban voters who are much more into Wall Street and investments and making their own money and they don't need an expansive government. An expansive government hurts them. hurts their bottom line, and a lot of those people start shifting to the Democrats. There is a balance, and I don't frankly think the Republicans have found the right balance yet to balance the interests of suburbia in the working class, but the Democrats have lost it all together. The Democrats literally want the government shutdown to expand health care benefits the Democrats themselves voted to get rid of. That's where the Democratic Party is right now. In addition to funding health care for illegal immigrants, what the Democrats are actually fighting for in this government shutdown is to give people health care benefits back that the Democrats themselves voted to get rid of. And the irony is that Donald Trump is going to cut a deal with him. Donald Trump is 100% going to cut a deal with the Democrats in order for the Democratic Party to reopen the government. Because Donald Trump really doesn't particularly care. This isn't an insult to Donald Trump. It's just Trump wants the government reopen. And if Donald Trump gets to take credit... for expanding health care in the United States, he's willing to do it. He's willing to cut the deal. Marjorie Taylor Greene is now out complaining about the deportations that we don't need to deport everybody. I actually tend to agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene on this one, but it's kind of wild to see. She's come out for expanding health care benefits and now to be less harsh on the deportations. I mean, there are like the local gardeners and stuff who are being deported who happen to be illegal aliens. They don't necessarily need to be deported. Go for the gangbangers first, and then we can figure out the rest. It's just an interesting dichotomy to see her now out saying these sorts of things. The Democratic Party, however, can't distinguish between the workers and the criminals because they're surrounded by people like Alex Soros and the Swiss billionaire. I forget his name. The guys in Hollywood in San Francisco, the tech billionaires. Mark Benioff, interestingly enough, has now come out. Having been opposed to Donald Trump, having been opposed to Trump actually taking on crime, is now like, yeah, okay, bring the National Guard to San Francisco. I've had enough. People mugged by reality suddenly becoming Trump voters. It's a very interesting thing to watch. But the problem for the Democrats is the massive disconnect that they have, the massive disconnect between their lives and your lives. And the people who help them set the policy are the people who live in the biggest, tightest bubble of them all.

which gives Trump and the GOP so many more openings to pursue so many more voters than the Democratic Party can attract right now. Follow Eric on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Rumble. Search EW. Erickson. Hello there, welcome. It is Eric Erickson here across the United States. The phone number is 877-973-725. Should you wish to be on the program, I would be delighted to have you. Now, I got to play you a little bit of audio here. This is the president. He was on the way to Israel talking on board. Air Force, what about the China situation? When you saw the statement I put out that he had a band-day. And I think we're going to be fine with China. Look, I have a great relationship with President Xi Jinping. He's a very tough man. He's a very smart man. He's a great leader for their country. He's a great leader. And I have a great relationship with him. I think we'll get it said. I know what happened. I really understand what happened. I'm not even saying he's wrong, but then we met him with something much tougher than what he did to us. Again, because of the tariffs, it's much tougher. It appears there may be some misunderstanding now that China was imposing export controls on rare earth minerals, and now there is some suggestion that there was bad translation that they're still going to allow the American military and American companies to have access to the rare earth minerals. They just wanted to oversee the export instead of allowing the export unfettered by... regulation so the whole stock market decline on Friday might have been related to a misunderstanding we'll see clarity's coming I will say there's actually some data out there on China that is raising alarm bells the fastest population decline of any country on the planet right now That data and more when we come back. First, I got to tell you about Swiss America. They've been warning people about a secret war on cash for some time, and they want to help you protect your hard-earned assets right now. What you can do is you can go to swissamerica.com slash Eric, Swissamerica.com slash E-R-I-C-K, or you can call them at 800-289-2646 and get... the completely free report, the secret war on cash. The all-out war on cash includes digital forms of currency. It's spreading as the government tries to control your spending.

Call them at 800-289-26-46 and tell them Eric Erickson sent you. They'll get you the report completely for free. Or you can also go call them, text them, rather, at 800-28-9-26-46. Just text them, Eric, E-R-I-C-K. That's 800-289-26-46. Text them, Eric, to that number, 800-289-26-46. They'll send you a link. You follow the link. And you can get this report completely for free from Swiss America or go to Swissamerica.com slash E-R-I-C-K. Swiss America can help you protect your finances and save on your retirement. Message and data rates may apply. When we come back at this new data that's out there on China and its population decline and the real concerns. that are showing up in the data. I've got it for you. It should kind of worry the people in China. Welcome. It is Eric Erickson here across the nation. I'm going to go to the foams before I move on. And I'm going to go to Ponca City, Oklahoma. where my dad's company used to be years ago. My dad worked for Conoco Oil for years. I guess they've been bought by Philip 66 now, headquartered in Ponca City. John, you're up. Welcome. My father was senior computer analyst at Conoco. Oh, wow. That's what I was here. Small world. My dad is a production foreman for years for Conoco. Small world, indeed. I met you in Tulsa at a really nice pub and grill overlooking an ice skating race. Oh, yeah. I've got our pictures. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'm an attorney in Oklahoma. I moved back to hometown punk. Dad passed away, so I came to help mom. But, you know, life happens. Yeah. But I wanted to comment on the rich part of it, the Nancy Pelosi, the Soros, all these people that make so much money. One of the scriptures that's most misinterpreted is money is not evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. Right. Okay, well, if you look at Father Abraham, oh, wait, wait, Trump taught me something today. It's Abraham. Avraham. Now I know. You know, he learned something new every day. But I always said the Abert. He said, it's not the Avery in the Accords. It's the Averham Accord. All of Rahm. All of Rahm. We got it. But the love of money is. Those people, they make other people suffer so they can have money. Abraham gave his money to everybody everywhere he went. He was the richest guy around. But it's the benevolence. The love of money wasn't the deal. He was blessed. Right. So he gave that blessing on to others. That's the Democrats problem.

you know, individually representing the rest of our country. How do those individuals have so much power? That is a great question, Michael. I happen to know the answer. The rules of the House and the Senate allow it. So under Article 1, Section 3. The House, I think it's Section 3, and the House and the Senate get to set their own rules. That's why the filibuster is a thing. It's in the rules of the Senate. And so because of those in the House, it's so crazy in the House. It really is majority rule. And with the Republicans in charge, the Republicans can get anything done as long as all the Republicans stick together and get something done. In the Senate, every senator is technically equal. The difference, however, is that by tradition, it's not a rule. This is a tradition in the Senate. By tradition in the Senate, the leader of the majority, in this case, John Thune, is recognized above every other senator. When he stands, he gets called on first. And by tradition, the second person to be called on is the leader of the minority. It's not a rule. It's a tradition. Any senator technically can be called on in the Senate at any time and make any motion and do anything, but by tradition, both sides delegate. And it is that tradition that governs in the Senate. Now, in this particular case, the reason that Chuck Schumer is so powerful is that by rule, not by tradition, but by rule in the United States Senate, you have to have 60 senators vote to close debate. Remember the design of the United States Senate. This is, this is, it drives everybody crazy when they don't get their way, but actually works well. It slows things down, which is actually, I think, what we should actually want as a society. Under the rules of the United States Senate, every senator gets to speak once before debate can be closed. Closing debate off in the Senate is called cloture, or calling the question under a basic parliamentary procedure. Under the rules of civil procedure for a, for parliamentary rules under Robert's Rules of Orders, to invoke cloture, to call the question, you've got to have two-thirds of the people agree to close it, or there just be no objection. And you can close debate in the Senate. You have to have 60 out of 100 people, a three-fifths majority. The Democrats are refusing to give their consent to close off debate. To get that debate closed, you've got to get 60 votes. Or remember what I said? Every senator gets to speak once. So what happens if every senator gets to speak once? If every senator gets to speak once, the Senate can then close off debate by majority vote. But here's the catch. When a senator speaks, they get to speak as long as they want. There are, what, 47 Democratic senators? Each of them could speak for as long as they wanted. And when they get tired of speaking, other senators can ask them questions.

Now, the rule is you have to stand the entire time. You can't lean on your desk. You got to stand. And you keep speaking. So the Senate Republicans could force the Democrats to filibuster, real filibuster. That's a Mr. Smith goes to Washington rule. And in doing so... they could drag this out. But think about what the Senate has done in the last two weeks. It's gone under the radar, but the Senate has confirmed a record number of Trump appointments. The Senate has passed regulatory reform for permits, for drilling. The Senate's done all of these things over the last two weeks. If John Thune forces the Democrats to do a real filibuster, the Senate can't do anything except let the Democrats talk. And they can talk as long as they want, they can drag it out for weeks. Now, I personally favor this strategy, force a real filibuster, but this is actually hard on the majority, and it's hard on the majority, why? Because they have to be present the entire time, because if they slip into the minority, suddenly the Democrats can scuttle the agenda. So the majority has to be present the entire time. Now, interestingly enough, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has now sided with the Democrats on health care and is now siding with the Democrats on deportations, is now putting up this, quote, the Republican-controlled Senate uses the nuclear option today to override the 60-vote rule in order to confirm over 100 Trump nominees, yet continues to claim Democrats are causing the shutdown. Spoiler alert. The Republicans in the Senate can also use the nuclear option to reopen the government and override the... the Democrats, just like they literally did today, to confirm Trump nominees. That's not true, though. What the Democrats, Harry Reid, got rid of the filibuster for Supreme Court justices, or rather for federal court, just except the Supreme Court. The Mitch McConnell Republicans applied it to the Supreme Court and has now killed off the nuclear, killed off the filibuster for nominees altogether. But the nomination's filibuster and the legislative filibuster are two separate things. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is yet again echoing the Democrats that the Republicans can kill the shutdown by getting rid of the filibuster. This is what Chuck Schumer has said. This is what Hakeem Jeffries has said. This is what Ted Liu of California has said. This is what Nancy Pelosi has said. Marjorie Taylor Greene is yet again echoing the Democrats saying they can get rid of the filibuster. To do this, that's what the Democrats want. Marjorie Taylor Greene is yet again advocating for what the Democrats want. It's kind of wild. Speaking of the filibuster, let's go to Bart. Welcome to the show. Bart, how are you? Yeah, hey, Eric. Happy Columbus Day, by the way. Thank you, too. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of the filibus, for perfect segue, I've been thinking about this. Could they tweak the filibuster, the Senate Republicans, so that... A clean bill to keep the government open and be allowed to have cloture with 51 votes. I know that's kind of a slippery slope potentially, but nonetheless, it's not changing any laws. It's just continuing the same laws. What's your thoughts? So tweet the filibuster to keep the government open. You'll need 51 votes for closure.

Right, exactly. That would, I mean, that would be the end of the filibuster. Because if you're changing it for any piece of legislation, the Democrats would next say, well, we also need to do it for gun control, too. I mean, I know it's a slippery slope, but, you know, down the road, it would help both parties, you know, in the majority, but, you know, if it kept it that way, but, well, I mean, the problem, like, I see what you're saying, Bart. If we get rid of the filibuster, though, the Senate is just the House of Representatives. If you get rid of the filibuster, the Senate is just the House Representatives. The whole purpose of the Senate of the Senate is to slow things down. That's why the Senate has had the filibuster rule for over 200 years. It's to force debate and to slow things down. Now, at this point in our country's history where we have such partisan divide. Virtually nothing gets through the United States Senate of significance, which actually is not a bad thing because it keeps things from swinging back and forth. Think what would happen if we got rid of the filibuster. The Democrats would enact gun control. The Republicans would come in, and some of the Republicans would actually suddenly support gun control, and we wouldn't be able to get rid of gun control. The Democrats would come in and they would legislate transgenderism. Every school has to accept transgender kids. The GOPP would get elected and it would go and you'd have the whip saw back forth, back forth, back forth. On and on, this would go. constantly, constantly. It would destabilize the business environment. It would destabilize the political environment. The Senate filibuster actually is a good thing. As much as it frustrates us when we're in the majority, it frustrates the Democrats when they're in the majority as well. And for all the people who say, well, the Democrats are just going to get rid of the filibuster. When Joe Biden was president of the United States, the Democrats for two years controlled the United States Senate and the House, and they did not get rid of the filibuster. All the people who say this want you to ignore the history, the Democrats didn't get rid of it. They're not going to get rid of it. Both sides understand the radical swinging back and forth that would happen if you get rid of the filibuster. And Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican in air quotes at this point from Georgia, is now saying what Hakeem Jeffries has said and Ted Lou has said and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said and Nancy Pelosi has said and Chuck Schumer has said and Dick Durbin has said and Bernie Sanders has said to get rid of the filibuster. She wants the Republicans to get rid of the filibuster, which is what every Democrat in Washington is saying right now, which again, what... the heck has happened to this lady. She's just become a Democrat. You're at the intersection of politics, news, culture, and current events. It's the Eric Erickson Show.

Text Eric to 33777 and get the four things you need to know podcast. Eric tells you the four things to pay attention to after the show. Also available on YouTube and your favorite podcast app. Hello, America. So I want to at least get to this story a little bit, and I'll spend some more time with it. This was in the Washington Post. John Ellis and his great daily newsletter called my attention to it. Just listen to this. The biggest challenge China faces right now isn't the Trump administration and its campaign to decouple the world's two biggest economies. It comes from within. China is experiencing population decline on a scale and at a speed the world has never seen. This will create ripples that will be felt across China and the world for decades to come. The impact on China's long-term growth rate could imperil Beijing's mission to become a global power to rival or replace the United States. And the huge shortage of labor will potentially affect supply chains of products from Barbie dolls to shoes to mobile phones to electric vehicles. It's almost impossible to reverse a demographic decline, says Louise Liu, the head of Asia Economics at the research firm Oxford Economics. She estimates China's shrinking workforce could shave a half a... percent off its gross domestic product over the next decade. That's a lot. It's becoming a massive bit of decline in China. In 1990, the median age in China was 23.7. The average Chinese woman had 2.51 kids, well above replacement rate of 2.1, needed to keep the population stable. But by 2023, the median age is 39.1, and women are having on average one child. China's population peaked at 1.4 billion and is in rapid decline. By 2050, China's population will fall to 1.26 billion, and the age distribution will be even worse. Only 10% will be under 15 years old, 40% of the population. will be over 60. By 2,100, China's population will be 633 million. A mere 49 million people will be under the age of 15, and 52% will be over the age of 60. It's...

Bad for them and good for us. Why? Because we have Taylor Swift. Is she and Travis Kelsey get married and have kids? We're going to have a population boom in our country. You know it's true. Good Lord. Taylor Swift is going to be the solution to our population decline in this country. She gets married. All these other young women are going to get married and have kids too. You know it's true. In China, however, they are so despondent because of the state of their government that they've just given up. It's sad to see, but also good for us, frankly, except it makes them dangerous right now. Your computer could be a danger to you. If it's not Windows compliant, tomorrow is the day that they stop updating Windows 10 for security patches. So go to VisionComputers.com today, and they can help take care of you. They can get you a new machine. They can build it for you. They can upgrade your existing machine. They can do a whole lot for you. Visioncomputers.com is the website or call them at 404 compute. Tell them Eric sent you. They'll save even more money. If you just need their managed IT for your individual computer, it's $1.99 a year that, listen, if you're in the gig economy and you've got to have your computer for your livelihood, you need vision. They can keep you... online, they can keep you up and operating, and you talk to real people, not to AI chatbots. You call them at 404 compute and talk to them. If you want their managed IT, if you buy a computer, by the way, it comes with it, you get a special full number. You can call 24-7-365. Someone will answer and help you with your computer. Call them at 404 compute. Tell them Eric since you saved some money. Visioncomputers.com. They can help you grow your computer system. They help you with your business. They can do so much for you. Visioncom. Talk to you guys tomorrow.