The Erick Erickson Show

Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with the cleanest explanation yet of why Americans hate data centers: it is not the water, the power bills, or the fake claim that vibrations cause miscarriages, it is that the arguments against fracking failed while the arguments against data centers are landing, and the only difference is the messengers. The oil men who fracked lived in the community, went to the local church, sent kids to the local schools, and fixed what their neighbors complained about. The AI CEOs are coastal creeps who tell you on camera that the machines will take your job and you will love it, with Dario Amodei's wife and Jeffrey Epstein and The Economist's "labradors for the machines" piece as exhibits. He also takes callers on seniors getting crushed on fixed incomes, Social Security reform and the George W. Bush plan Republicans were too scared to pass, and the Justice Department's new rule restoring gun rights to rehabilitated nonviolent felons.

Topics:

• Fracking versus data centers: the same earthquake and flaming tap water playbook, why the fracking industry beat it, and why Meta is the only AI company that understands communities
• Dario Amodei of Anthropic, the reported Jeffrey Epstein investment pitch, The Economist arguing humans could become pets to superintelligent AI, and Erick's answer that AI is iterative, not creative, because it has no soul
• Nuclear power in the 1970s as the cautionary tale: engineers made terrible spokesmen, the fear won, and other countries passed us
• Caller Ron in Tulsa on the senior squeeze: 2.5 and 2.8 percent Social Security increases, gutted Medicare dental, a $5,000 dental bill, and why Erick cannot insure three full time employees after Obamacare
• Caller David in Jacksonville on the Social Security trust fund's 2.6 percent return, and Erick on George W. Bush's 2001 and 2005 reform plans that would have doubled benefits if Republicans had not lost their nerve
• Angie Nixon says for profit prisons are modern day slavery, and Simone Sanders tries to hand her an exit ramp on the Democratic Socialists of America that she refuses to take
• The GOP wipeout warning: Patrick Ruffini on the five point Democratic bias in pre Labor Day polling, Ken Paxton losing the money race to James Talarico, and why the DSCC abandoning Florida is bad news for Texas Republicans
• Caller George on the Justice Department final rule restoring Second Amendment rights to nonviolent felons, and why the left wants your vote restored but not your rifle
• Scott Bessent on 6.5 percent nominal growth, Atlanta Fed GDPNow at 4 percent, tankers running dark through the Strait of Hormuz, and tariffs coming off beef and probably Canada
• Penn State's fraternity cocaine ring, the pledges assigned to bag it, the ringleader they call Pablo Pledgescobar, and what the whiteout is going to look like this year

The national debt just crossed $40 trillion, and it took only 95 days to add the last trillion, so Erick Erickson opens with the math nobody in Washington wants: our debt now exceeds our GDP, Social Security and Medicare are the engine, and neither party will touch it. He plays Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC defending the bond buybacks, promising fiscal consolidation with Russ Vought, and laying out what he calls the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world against Iran, with the strait under American control and Iranian oil exports at zero for 72 hours straight. Then a blunt message to President Trump: get off the White House lawn, stop showing off the new helicopter pad and the gold leaf, kill every tariff today, and go make the case against Abdul El-Sayed and the Democratic Socialists before the midterms.

• The $40 trillion debt, 95 days per trillion, and why JD Vance's "common good conservatives" want to stop talking about GDP
• Scott Bessent on CNBC: Treasury buybacks, the 10 year yield and your mortgage rate, poor liquidity at the 30 year, and the fiscal consolidation plan coming with Russ Vought
• Bessent on Iran: maximum economic pressure, the blockade, the toughest sanctions in history, the Venezuela precedent, and zero Iranian oil exported in 72 hours squeezing China
• Mandatory spending, the 2032 Social Security trust fund cliff, and why confiscating every American billionaire's wealth would not fund the government for a year
• Tariffs are a tax: Trump waiving steel, aluminum and car tariffs, Walmart's billions in tariff refunds, and Erick's pitch to drop all of them right now and put them back after the election
• Trump's Sikorsky Marine One helicopter pad, the gold leaf renovations, and Republicans begging him to get back on message while people cannot afford groceries
• Federal agents seize Eric Swalwell's devices, Max Miller stays in the race, and the DNC snubs Atlanta for Boston, Philadelphia or Denver in 2028
• Charitable giving maps to church attendance: the South and Utah give the most, DeKalb County and the coasts give the least
• Abdul El-Sayed says he is African too, plus American oil production now beating the rest of the world combined and new evidence China is lying about its economy

Erick Erickson plays the moment CNN's Boris Sanchez confronts Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Ashik Siddiqui over the DSA celebrating Fidel Castro, telling him on live television that his own grandfather fought in the Cuban revolution and was then locked up by Castro for 20 years for speaking his mind. He stacks it with Abdul El-Sayed answering black voters by saying he is African too, Hasan Piker promising to be Angie Nixon's loyal soldier while she insists she has no idea who he is, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee quietly writing off Florida to move money into Texas, where Republicans are panicking that Ken Paxton is a lazy, corrupt candidate who could hand the seat to James Talarico. Then the heart of the hour: a Ben Domenech speech on the earned collapse of trust in American elites, and Erick's argument that the Flock camera fight, the data center backlash, and local governments signing secret non disclosure agreements are all the same trust problem.

• Boris Sanchez versus DSA co-chair Ashik Siddiqui on Cuba, Fidel Castro, Fulgencio Batista, and the grandfather Castro jailed for 20 years for wanting democracy
• Abdul El-Sayed's "I am African too" answer to black voters, and the Democratic Socialists of America as pampered rich kids, including the Brooklyn co-chair in a $1.5 million townhome who owes his union money
• Angie Nixon, Hasan Piker's "loyal soldiers" pledge, his threatened lawsuit against Scott Jennings, and the DSCC telling donors Florida is gone
• Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas: Republican alarm over a lazy, corrupt nominee, Talarico's Karmelo Anthony jury pander, and why Erick Erickson is rooting for injuries in that race
• Ben Domenech on Donald Trump as a beta test for a cure, single digit trust in Congress, the media and big business, and Erick's fix for Flock cameras and data centers: transparency, mandatory minimums for officers who abuse the data, and the ShotSpotter repeal that cost Xavier Batista his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Breaking news lands mid hour: Jessica Bowie, 35, arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS after plotting to blow up the New York State Capitol in Albany, and Erick Erickson walks through the federal complaint, the FBI confidential source posing as an ISIS facilitator, and why progressives who instantly guessed MAGA guessed wrong. The heart of the hour is Erick's argument that everyone quoting George Orwell has the wrong book: we are not living in 1984, we are living in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, sedated by soma and screens and manufactured anxiety, which is why he changed his mind on Flock cameras once he noticed the Communist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America are their loudest opponents. Then Iran, with David Rohde on MS Now conceding Trump's economic pressure campaign could actually work, Trey Yingst on the UAE cutting off all trade with Iran, and satellite evidence that the Iranians are dumping oil into the desert because their tanks are full.

Topics:

• Breaking: Jessica Bowie, 35, charged over an ISIS inspired plot to bomb the New York State Capitol in Albany, the FBI confidential source, her conversion five years ago, and the standing Islamist threat Erick ties to Abdul El-Sayed's bookshelf and family connections
• Brave New World versus 1984: Aldous Huxley, soma, Henry Ford and the alpha to epsilon caste system, and why the phone in your pocket tracks you better than any Flock camera ever could
• Tucker Carlson claiming nuclear weapons were made by entities rather than men, the demon that supposedly attacked him, and Erick's Dorian Gray line about how fast he has aged
• Callers Jim and Craig on Ozzie Guillen praising Fidel Castro in Miami in 2012, the Cuban and Venezuelan communities pushing Florida right, and the grandfather's rule to vote for the guy who angers both sides
• The postpartum depression case: women in pink rallying outside a courthouse for a mother who strangled her three children, Erick's break with Matt Walsh on whether postpartum depression is real, and his position that it is real and she still deserves the death penalty
• Iran under economic siege: David Rohde on MS Now, Trey Yingst on Iranian missiles hitting the UAE, the Emirates cutting off trade and closing the dirham and Dubai crypto laundering route, China rationing gasoline and diesel, and Kharg Island backing up
• Tomahawk production, Raytheon in Tucson and 3,000 new jobs, the Pentagon acquisitions push to rebuild the defense industrial base, and the $40 trillion debt problem Erick illustrates with a Butts County speed trap
• Median Strategies and the fake poll: Karen Bass and Fox 11 Los Angeles took the bait, the New York Times, RealClearPolitics and 50 plus one all refused it, and why RealClearPolitics averages are still the ones to trust

Florida's primary blew up both parties overnight: Democratic Socialist Angie Nixon beat impeachment hero Alexander Vindman for the Senate nomination while spending 13 times less, and Republicans took out the trash, dumping Cory Mills in Florida 7 and burying anti-Israel candidates James Fishback and Dan Bilzerian in single digits. Erick Erickson breaks down what the DSA surge means for Texas, Ohio and Alaska money, plays Darlene Graham telling a South Carolina debate audience she is "not that informed on national security," and exposes the trust fund hypocrisy of Democratic Socialist leaders in New York and the terror ties trailing Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

• Angie Nixon, the Democratic Socialists of America, and how Alexander Vindman lost Florida's Senate primary 13 to 1 on money
• Republicans purge their own: Cory Mills loses Florida 7, James Fishback and Dan Bilzerian rejected, Jared Moskowitz and Randy Fine hold on
• South Carolina Senate runoff: Ralph Norman versus Darlene Graham on Taiwan, China, and peace through strength, with Greta Van Susteren asking
• Harry Enten's CNN map of DSA primary wins from New York and Michigan to Colorado, Pennsylvania and now Florida
• Trust fund commies exposed: Grace Ryan's noblesse oblige tweet, Gustavo Gordillo's $1.5 million Brooklyn row home, and Abdul El-Sayed's family ties to the Islamic American Relief Agency
• David Jolly rejects socialism, Vernon Jones forces a Georgia runoff against Tim Fleming, and the demons of Mark 5 explain Twitter

The AI data center revolt is now a live midterm threat, and Erick Erickson argues the real problem is not the data centers, it is that Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and the rest of the AI CEOs are their own worst salesmen, the charming movie villains you were warned about, while Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are the only ones who figured out how to sell a community on jobs, tax relief, and skills training. He reads the Axios scoop on the NRSC's private memo warning that Senator Jon Husted is losing Ohio to Sherrod Brown over data centers, walks through Vivek Ramaswamy's property tax plan and Jason Kelce's Garage Beer ad, then turns to Ukraine, where drone crews are burning Wildberries distribution centers outside Moscow to make the Russian public finally feel the war while JD Vance begs Kyiv to pull its punches. He closes on the fuel crisis behind it all: a record diesel crack spread, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on why American fracking is the only thing keeping this from being a catastrophe.

TOPICS

• Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and why Erick Erickson says the AI CEOs are the evil villains from the movies, with Mark Zuckerberg and Meta as the lone exception that knows how to work with a community
• The Axios and NRSC memo: data centers polling as popular as nuclear waste, Jon Husted versus Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Josh Shapiro and other Democrats racing to crack down
• Vivek Ramaswamy's plan to make data centers pay the community's property taxes, Jason Kelce's Garage Beer water ad, and the Google data center near Erick that is lowering local property taxes
• Ukraine's 413th unmanned systems regiment, 600 drones, and the Wildberries warehouse fires meant to make Moscow feel the war, plus JD Vance asking Ukraine to hold its fire and the Middle East allies who took Kyiv's help
• Record diesel crack spreads over $100, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, Chris Wright on the Permian Basin, and the fracking fights that look exactly like today's data center fights
• Notus on Cory Mills' downfall: Mike Haridopolos quietly recruiting Ryan Elijah while House Republican leadership backed Mills in public

Moderna and Merck just posted the first successful late stage trial of a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran paired with Keytruda, cutting the return and spread of high risk melanoma, and Erick Erickson spends the hour singing the praises of Big Pharma and taking apart the conspiracy that drug companies are hiding the cure for cancer. He talks about his wife's stage 4 lung cancer, why a lung transplant was never an option for her, and why the people most certain a cure is being suppressed are the loneliest and most isolated people in America. Then a full turn to the loneliness data: Brad Wilcox on unmarried young men outnumbering married men two to one, Rosaria Butterfield on why your messy house is an excuse and not a reason, and why going to church is the cheapest mental health treatment in the country even if you do not believe.

• Moderna, Merck, intismeran and Keytruda: the first late stage win for a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, a $50 billion market cap swing, and Merck's Jane Healy on a whole new field of medicine
• Why the "Big Pharma is hiding the cure" conspiracy is really about envy, covetousness and isolation, with Erick's account of his wife's incurable lung cancer and the genetic protein behind it
• Caller Allen, an oncology pharmacist who worked with Emory, on why cures do not sit on a shelf, how small companies and private equity bring niche drugs to market, and the new mRNA flu vaccine approved under RFK's FDA
• Modern monetary theory, grocery prices, Publix milk and beef, and why the answer to a bad economy is not the vice president's plan to dump the dollar as the world's reserve currency
• Brad Wilcox, the Institute for Family Studies and "Get Married": unmarried men 20 to 39 up 47 percent, Gen Z and Gen Alpha social trust at record lows, and the COVID isolation hangover
• Rosaria Butterfield on hospitality, what Christians could learn from their gay and lesbian neighbors, and the atheist who goes to church every Sunday for the friends
• Personal color: Alan Ritchson and season four of Reacher, a kitchen renovation, Sunday nights on the porch, a camera crew coming to film the cinnamon roll recipe, and two hours in the orthodontist chair

Florida goes to the polls and Erick Erickson makes the case that Republicans should fire Cory Mills in Florida's 7th, where former Orlando news anchor Ryan Elijah is polling ahead of a congressman under investigation for steering contracts plus revenge porn and abuse allegations. He coins "Podcastistan" for the circle of podcasters (Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens, Thomas Massie, James Fishback) who interview each other about hating the Jews, and asks whether Dan Bilzerian's anti Israel campaign against Randy Fine gets any traction. Then the story almost nobody is covering: the diesel crack has hit a record $102 as Iran hammers refineries and the Strait of Hormuz, Russia is shipping TNT and drone parts across the Caspian, and NBC News, the Wall Street Journal, and Al Jazeera all report Iran now believes war is inevitable and is weighing a first strike.

• Cory Mills versus Ryan Elijah in Florida 7, and why Erick Erickson says the GOP loses the seat in November if Mills survives the primary
• Podcastistan: Dan Bilzerian versus Randy Fine, James Fishback for governor, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene's Jewish space lasers and her claim Trump will nuke Iran, plus Byron Donalds cruising
• The double standard: Democrats forced out Eric Swalwell (the Fang Fang confession) and Graham Platner, while Trump wrapped his arms around Max Miller in Ohio
• Troy Jackson's Maine problem, Donna Brazile calling it salacious gossip, and the fake Dan Sullivan ballot trick in Alaska
• The Atlanta Dream, the national anthem, and a mother and daughter in XX XY shirts forced to change while a trans fan got the jumbotron, plus Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and the WNBA subsidy
• The diesel crack at a record $102, distillate stockpiles at 1996 lows, Russia rearming Iran across the Caspian, the UAE missile alert, Dana Perino on a communications reset, and Erick's case for striking Iran first and fomenting a civil war there

Jon Ossoff dragged Natalie Harp, a bone cancer survivor who lives because Donald Trump signed the Right to Try Act, into a campaign speech to imply an affair with the president, and Erick Erickson takes apart the smear and the hyper online staff behind it. He also answers Matt Walsh's claim that postpartum depression is not real, celebrates the Mississippi Miracle that has Mississippi fourth graders number one in the nation in reading and math, and defends Flock license plate cameras while calling for hard prison time for cops who abuse them.

• Jon Ossoff, Natalie Harp, the Right to Try Act, and the damage control interview with Jen Psaki on MS Now
• Matt Walsh, postpartum depression, Carl Schmitt, JD Vance, and how social media works like the portrait of Dorian Gray
• The Mississippi Miracle: phonics, retention, and why Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee are copying it
• Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed, and a campaign manager comparing a 1947 Ford F100 at the Woodward Dream Cruise to a Klan rally
• Fake polls from Median Strategies on Karen Bass, Bill de Blasio on Medicare for All, and why the Affordable Care Act priced out small business
• Flock cameras, the Conyers hit and run arrest, and mandatory minimums for police who abuse the data

Erick Erickson closes out the Flock camera fight with three callers, including a Metro Atlanta police officer, a listener whose cousin was killed by a hit and run driver the cameras identified, and a caller who wants a warrant requirement, and lands on a middle ground: keep the cameras, and give police who abuse the data mandatory prison time, like the Haines City, Florida officer charged with tracking his estranged wife's car 717 times in 21 months. Then Abdul El-Sayed and Florida DSA candidate Oliver Larkin make the Democratic Socialist case for abolishing private insurance, and Erick answers with the story of a healthy sole proprietor whose post Obamacare plan only works if he goes to the emergency room. The heart of the hour is debt and deficit: the 30 year treasury hit 5.323 percent, a 19 year high, the diesel crack is over $100 for the first time ever, and American families are now taking out buy now pay later loans to cover rent, power bills, and tax bills.

TOPICS

• Flock cameras and civil liberties: callers David, Tom, and Jeremy, the City Journal numbers (24 homicides, 17 hit and runs, 31 shootings, and more than 50 children recovered this year), Haines City officer Christopher Anthony Goodson charged after 717 searches on his estranged wife, and why the Democratic Socialists of America started the campaign against the cameras
• Abdul El-Sayed on single payer, DSA candidate Oliver Larkin versus Jared Moskowitz in Florida's new District 25 from Boca Raton to Miami Beach, and the friend whose Obamacare plan covers only the emergency room
• Debt versus deficit explained: the 30 year treasury at 5.323 percent, the 10 year above 4.7 percent, July CPI at 3.4 percent against a 2.4 percent rate before the Iran war, and the record diesel crack that is about to raise your grocery bill
• Buy now pay later comes for the middle class: Affirm financing monthly rent, Intuit pitching file now pay later to TurboTax users, and Erick's beans and rice answer to the Washington think tank class that calls him an elitist
• California Energy Commission votes to phase out cheap replacement tires, eliminating 70 percent of tires sold in the state by 2033, with Goodyear's Brett Gladfelty warning about cost, plus the DeKalb County "tag applied for" loophole and the Atlanta man with a street legal pink Barbie Jeep