S15 EP157: Hour 2 - Dangers of the Algorithm

0:00Every afternoon, there are four things you need to know about. They tend to happen after about three PM Eastern. And before you get home, you might as well learn about them before you're on the evening news. That's my job. I'm Eric Erickson, tune in wherever your podcast are available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, whatever. You'll get the four things to know in the afternoon. Search Eric Erickson or go to EricEerickson.com, forward slash four things to know for the links. Be more informed than your family and friends. Welcome to the Eric Erickson Show Podcast, our two. Hello, America. I am glad to have you with me. The full number is 877-973-745. Should you wish to be on the program? I'll allow it. Perhaps maybe we have a... We got an opening for you listener, Barb. Who says she's not a bot. She insists she's not a bot.

1:00Says you're nothing but a wind chime. Blowing with the wind, I shall not be listening. We have an opening for one new listener, Barb, who describes herself as American flag, American flag, American flag, our vets and service men, women, rock, god bless our beautiful country, 945 followers. Otherwise, we have it. Barb is not going to be listening, but she won't stop following me on social media. So we got an opening. One new listener, only one. Well, only one. The bandwidth is almost maxed out. But it's okay. We must move to other topics. None. None. Political topics. But they are political. But they're not political. But they are political. What? Ericson? Bear with me here. I always forget seamafor exists. Seema for is what is Ben What's his name?

2:01He was at Ben Smith. He was at Buzzfeed. And then he left Buzzfeed and he went to the New York Times. And he was actually pretty good media critic at the New York Times. And then he left and he started seamafor. And it's like true. It's just side note bone to pick. So the Atlanta Braves, they used to play a Turner field. And then their parent company, Liberty Media, they essentially built, they turned the Braves into a real estate company with the pooped side of baseball team. The baseball team is the minor aspect of the real estate franchise and they have this massive thing they call the battery in Atlanta. And it's really, it is well done. In fact, it's so well done that now other baseball owners are trying to mimic what the Braves did. The Braves are a real estate company that kind of has a baseball team. And as long as the baseball team is kind of good, people are going to show up and they're going to eat. There's a burn. Rocky Patel, the cigar bar there is fantastic. Superica, best Mexican food in Atlanta, I think is there.

3:05They got several of those in the city. The park itself is great. It should be. If we are honest, it should be Hank Aaron Field. It should be Hank Aaron Stadium. It should be Hank or Bobby Cox. It should be the whole thing should be named for them. But instead, the baseball company real estate company allowed naming rights and the, it was SunTrust bank merge with BB and T bank. And they came up with perhaps the dumbest name in corporate America. Truist. It's not true. It's truest. It's just true enough. We're a bank. Trust us. We're true ish, true ish. It's a dumb name. But it's the Atlanta Braves. And I cannot, I cannot bring myself to say truest park.

4:07It's like saying truthy park. Truish park. It's not true park. It's not truth park. It's truish. No, I refuse to do it. So I call it the T.P. which is more fitting. They may have suppressed and tried to memory hole like Stalin and what's his name in that famous picture, Chief Nakahoma. But I remember Chief Nakahoma and I remember the Braves. And I know the Braves play at the T.P. You bank executives can call it truthy park, but I shall call it the T.P. And Ericsson. Ericsson, why did you even get on that subject Ericsson? Because of C.M.A. 4. I remember because the C.M.A. What the heck is C.M.A. 4? I'm assuming C.M.A. 4 is some sort of actual word that I just don't know because I'm an

5:07uneducated illiterate from South Louisiana. But that's not really true because we people in Louisiana are actually very smart. C.M.A. 4, a collection of newsletters plus a website aimed to, oh, it's derived from the word C.M.A. 4, which appears in similar form in many languages, often used in not a cool context. Oh, my gosh, really? That's like the, this is, they came up with the name because every other name they came up with was trademarked already. So they had to come up with C.M.A. 4, really. I forget it exists, but occasionally they actually do some good work. And they have this piece. Here's the headline, paid actors, AI writing, how a new kind of video business cashed in on America's political divide. William, a middle aged man and a blue short sleeve button down shirt whose YouTube videos have more than 14 million views looked straight into the camera at his kitchen table in

6:08August and read a script about New York City's mayor. His video, Mayor Mem Donnie Panics as Taylor Swift triggers a $2.3 billion celebrity Exodus quickly racked up 474,000 views. Omar, a shaggy, bearded creator who claimed to be based in New York read a report to viewers in June about representative Alexandria Cazio Cortez and her ex, AOC freaks out as Riley Roberts caught running her entire operation set to ominous music. It got more than 250,000 views. The same music played on a video socialist Seattle mayor cries as a beloved bookstore closes from a channel called Julian News report. It also registered a quarter million views to the casual YouTube viewer. These would look like unconnected videos from political news creators outraged by events happening in cities led by Democrats. The reality is more complicated. William and Omar are actors.

7:10Dream of forefound and a forensic accounting of their channels origins. They were reading formulaic repetitive scripts that appear to be generated or aided by large language models. Over the last several months, a new generation of YouTube growth hackers have flooded American politics with sensationalized low quality content reaching millions of viewers with nearly identical videos taking aim at progressive politicians, including Jordan Mandami, Colorado Governor Gavin Newsom, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Notably, while the videos are presented as lay people giving straight to camera ideological news recaps, they feature actors and spokespeople paid small amounts of money to read nearly identical scripts, laced with misleading claims and outright falsehoods. Viewers either didn't notice or didn't mind a single network of interconnected videos that are affiliated with a growth hacking company whose founder promises to be the strongest alternative to paid ads, gathered well over 45 million views and 90,000 comments on YouTube, as well as millions more impressions across social platforms like TikTok.

8:13With the level of viral videos, a small media organization can make tens or even hundreds of thousands a month. The algorithms appetite for news content and a growing audience of court cutters and older online users is fueling the rise of a new kind of clickbait built around sensationalized political stories. Turbocharged by AI, these ghost creator accounts appear to be run not by political operatives trying to win, or foreign intelligence efforts trying to seek to destabilize the US, but by engagement junkies detached from the stakes of politics, they closely monitor online trends and stories, churning out topical videos, hoping to ride YouTube's algorithmic wave to virality and a cut of advertising revenue. Right now, algorithms are rewarding lies and bad actors are taking advantage, particularly those who want to see a divided American brand and Richards of the Gavin Newsom campaign told C-M4.

9:13Unless there's a significant systemic change from all platforms, this issue will continue and is likely getting worse. Y'all, we spent a lot of time, and by the way, this story goes on in his highly documented. It is very well documented. We have AI actors that people don't realize are fake. We have a massive number of viral videos. We have shared scripts together by people. It is, it's wild. I have been solicited multiple times by different people who will go nameless. That if I would tweet certain things, I would get paid thousands of dollars a month. If I tweeted out certain topics, I could pick and choose the topics. It didn't have to be stuff I disagreed with. It could be the stuff I agreed with. If I would just circulate it, I would get paid thousands of dollars. I do not do that. My Twitter is not for sale. I do not put advertisers on my social media. If you see me on Instagram, for example, talking about a product, it's because I love the product. If you used to do my advertisers, there's me and by the way, there are some advertisers

10:16who won't work with me because I won't put it on social media. But again, this comes back to trust and truth. I think I should be telling you stuff that I actually believe in. It's one reason I like my advertisers because I'm customers of almost all of my advertisers before I was an advertiser of them, which is hard to get new advertisers in that way. But my point is not to pat myself on the head or raw raw me. It's to say a lot of people are so focused on the data centers and AI they've forgotten that the algorithm is more dangerous. The algorithm is way more dangerous. And we should be alarmed that so many people are being brainwashed by an algorithm of stuff that's not true. Oh, you don't believe me? People are actually being harmed by the algorithm at this point. And by the weirdos out there taking advantage of the algorithm. Do you know about the vitamin K shots? Do you know about the vitamin K shots?

11:18For decades now, doctors realize that if they give a newborn a shot of vitamin K after birth, it helps with their clotting. It can help save their lives. Infants who get vitamin K shots right after birth live longer than infants who don't. There are more, I shouldn't say that way. There are more likely to be harm to infants who do not get vitamin K shots than those who do. And there's a growing number of women who are refusing to give vitamin K shots. A single vitamin K shot is routinely recommended for all newborns within six hours of birth to prevent severe life-threatening bleeding disorders. Babies are born with very low levels of vitamin K because little crosses the placenta during pregnancy. Breast milk and infant formula have very little vitamin K. A newborns digestive tract lacks the helpful bacteria needed to produce vitamin K naturally until they're about six months old.

12:19Without the injection, infants are at risk of vitamin K deficiency bleeding, a dangerous condition that can cause sudden bleeding in the intestines or the brain. Infants who skip the shot are 81 times more likely to develop bleeding. It's not a vaccine. It's not a vaccine. And a growing number of mothers lured in by the algorithm on social media have demanded that doctors not give their children vitamin K shots. There's no harm. There are very rare side effects, very rare side effects. And they're mild. We have decades of knowledge. Think about the MMR. Vaccines, think about the kids who have died of measles. I'm not talking in Pennsylvania where they might have rigged the data, but in South Carolina, Texas elsewhere, kids who've not gotten vaccines, they think about, but think about the vitamin K. Those vitamin, vaccines may be controversial. Vitamin K should not be controversial. Vitamin K is well documented, well known and has saved lives of lots and lots of kids.

13:25But the algorithms have polluted people's brains on this stuff. It's poisoning them on the basic health of their children. It's poisoning them on the Lindsey Clancy stuff. Think about the women who have gone nuts and insisted that Lindsey Clancy isn't insane. She's just not guilty of killing her kids. Think about the people who have been indoctrinated by Candaceous Oens for the algorithm that Charlie Kirk is still alive or the juice-killed him. Think about the anti-Semitism. Think about these things. Y'all are so focused on the data centers. And it's actually AI. Not AI. It's the algorithm. That's the problem. It's the algorithm that is running people's brains. It's not the AI. The AI is being harnessed because the algorithm makes it beneficial to do. It's the algorithm that is indoctrinating people towards China. It is the algorithm that is indoctrinating people towards anti-Semitism. It is the algorithm that is indoctrinating people towards socialism. It is the algorithm that is indoctrinating people towards not doing things to take care

14:25of their children. It is the algorithm, not AI and not data centers that is poisoning our society. And people are so focused on the AI and the data center. They haven't realized it's the AI that is driving us apart and driving a lot of people into insanity. Greetings. Welcome. It's Eric Erikson here. Glad to have you with me. The phone number is 877-973-745. Should you wish to be on the program? I'll allow you to call in. We got to talk about capitalism when we come back. You know, one of the things that I have discovered. And now I'm going to play a great example of this when we come back. One of the things, by the way, Charlie is text me, yes. The book about radical Islam and progressive politics that I mentioned on the show yesterday by Michael Yusuf is called Unholy Alliance. Unholy Alliance, let me text him because of the delay. Yeah, Unholy Alliance by Michael Yusuf is the book

15:26I referenced yesterday about how essentially radical Islam has linked up with the secular progressive movement, the secular progressive movement because of Marxist critical theory and intersectionalism believes that they must be an ally to radical Islam because radical Islam is oppressed by the white Christians and Jews. And so radical Islam is taking advantage of this secular worldview to expand and grow in the West. And when it gets dominant, it will silence others. Remember, evil lurks in the shadows. And once it's dominant, seeks to silence good. That's what's coming. That's what's happening. So prepare yourself. But yeah, the book is called Unholy Alliance. So when we come back, I want to actually focus on not just capitalism generally, but what happens

16:29when the media elevates stupid people because of their skin color and chooses not to challenge them because of their skin color, rarely do you encounter a fool exposed, but that happened yesterday. And it was remarkable to watch. And I want to play for you the clip when we come back. You will marvel, marvel at it. Yes, it involves Jamel Hill. I mentioned earlier that so many of my advertisers were actually, I was a customer of theirs before I was an advertiser. When old glory banks started, I was concerned with the debanking trends at the time because as a conservative talk, right, you show host, getting targeted by the left was no brainer, particularly conservative radio show host talks about guns. And so I got an account with old glory bank when they launched. I was one of their very early customers and I've been with them ever since I have a no fee, checking no fee savings account, have it upgraded to the premium accounts. And it is my, it's one of my, we have our primary account

17:31was my wife's account that she has had since she was like five years old. Her father is still on. Excuse me, sneeze as father is still on the account, but I use old glory bank. I deposit checks, I deposit cash and it works. And their app is great. And if you're a business, particularly in a conservative oriented industry where you're worried about the debanking trends and harassment by the progressives, old glory bank is probably for you. They have great business lending. They have great lending for houses, for mortgages that they have great CD options. Go to old glory bank.com slash Eric today. Old glory bank.com slash ERICK. Old glory bank.com slash Eric. Member FDIC, equal housing lender terms and conditions apply. Howdy, welcome. Eric Erickson here. Glad to have you with me. When I, I've told you this story before, so let me just tell it briefly again. I got a scholarship to go to Duke. I am, I grew up in Dubai, but I want to graduate from public school in very rural Louisiana,

18:31East Louisiana Paris, Jackson, Louisiana. And with, I think according to a firm, I still hold the record for going further away from home to go to college, got the biggest academic scholarship. I got a scholarship to go to Duke and wound up being very uncomfortable at Duke. I mean, I'm from a small town. My class in Dubai was like 27 people. My graduating class in rural Louisiana, like 89 people. And my mom wanted me to see Mercy University and make in Georgia. It was Baptist, Baptist. And I really, I love Duke. I wanted to go to Duke and I got to Duke. And it was very much a, we, you need us. We don't need you. The people at Mercy were very friendly, very, very welcoming. And I wound up going to Mercy. It was more my speed. It was closer to home. It was a days drive from home and 10 hour drive. And I wound up liking it. And I got a good education, but I was a little bit uncomfortable when I ultimately got hired by CNN

19:31after helping start Red State and being there for a while. I was kind of uncomfortable because I was on television with people who went to Harvard and Yale. People who went to Duke. I was on, people who went to Columbia, Northwestern and University of Chicago. I mean, people who went to really big prestigious schools. And here I went to a regional Southern University. And I realized not long after that, my gosh, some of these people are not that bright. Some of them are not that bright. And I was very intimidated at first. And I knew a lot of the Democrats didn't like me. And my boss actually told me that at one point, David Gurg and God rest his soul. David Gurg and led a number of the people at CNN into the boss's office and said, this guy does not belong here. He doesn't fit. My academic pedigree, the things I had set online at the time, they were deeply uncomfortable. Even some of the Republicans were uncomfortable

20:32that it was beneath the dignity of the great CNN to hire me. And she told me they weren't gonna fire me, but I was gonna have to prove my worth very quickly. And I got on TV with these people and they realized I actually knew what I was talking about. You know, you get on Fox these days, you get on MSNBC or even CNN these days. And you'll have political strategist, political consultant. And basically, some kid, his dad had connections and he licked envelopes in the back of the office. He became a political strategist. One of my favorite stories I have a friend of mine who works for the Trump administration, a very, very prominent role in the Trump administration. We'll go nameless. But he worked back in the day for a presidential candidate. And he said he always thought it was funny. There's a prominent personality on CNN who got the job at CNN by being a political strategist. And his political strategist was the exact same campaign

21:33that my buddy worked on. And he said, you know what his political strategy is? Well, I can't say it the way he said it, but basically he said his political strategy was was sleeping with his girlfriend on the couch in the campaign office. That was it. That was his entire use on the campaign. He said they would refer to the guy as West Wing because whatever the episode of the West Wing was that night on TV the next day that guy would come in and his brilliant idea was whatever was on West Wing the night before that he's just absolute idiot. And that guy rose to significant prominence in television. So I'm on TV with these people who went to these prestigious universities. They worked for presidents. They did all this stuff. Some of these people were blithery natives. They didn't know a single thing about. Meanwhile, I had worked my way through college got into a law firm, was learned how to program computers for my law firm, worked in college doing computer programming and then get this job where I'm running campaigns, go to campaign management school. I have to learn how to design mail.

22:33I got to teach myself Photoshop. I got to learn how to do mail rates for bulk ad buys. I got to learn TV. I got to help shape campaign ads. I got to script ads. I got to do the ads. I got to find the people who can do the ads because I don't have the video equipment to be able to do it. Find the photographers, design the ads, design the radio ads, design the polling, shape the polling, do the polling, find the poster, learn how to read the polls, do all the stuff for campaigns. And I wound up becoming friends with Paul Begallon, James Carville and Donna Brazil on the left and Ari Fleischer and Alex Castellano, so the right among others. And it's like I was able to talk to them at their level as opposed to some of the people who went to the Ivy League schools who had connected daddies who did nothing on campaigns and I earned the respect to people on the left and the right at this network where none of them wanted me to be because they learned who I was. They knew my heart. They met my wife. They actually understood. I knew what I was talking about. I was not just some smart ally on the internet.

23:34I actually had a background in running campaigns and as a lawyer and could talk about these things. They people who were really hostile to me at first who gave me a very cold reception at first who would walk out of the room when I came in and made me feel very unloved. I had that reaction in radio actually. You know, my very first start, we do my flagship station, a kerathan every year. And we raise millions of dollars for the local children's hospital. For the first several years, I just would come up with an excuse to get out of it. Did not want to do it. And it had nothing to do with the anxiety of dealing with cancer patients. It was because the very first time I did it, I walked in, I had never been there before. It was in late July. I was doing an overnight by myself and had only been at the station for since the beginning of the year. And I walked in and there were two people who were there who one of whom came in from out of town who had a show no longer does.

24:34None of these people worked there anymore. And they were just talking trash about me. I am literally in the room and they don't even know what I look like and are just trashing me and laughing about me. And I'm just, it was so awkward. It was so awkward when they realized that it was me. And I just, I wanted nothing to do with it at first and proved myself over time. And I have outlasted them all. And this is a very long and roundabout way of saying that I have just been stunned in TV and radio. At the number of people who never had to do the work, they had the connections to get the jobs and they're lazy and they're ignorant. They are profoundly stupid people. And one of the things that I have learned and this one is the part that gets me in trouble. It is the part that is going to get me in trouble.

25:37But it is the God's honest truth. There are in the media a number of non-white voices on the left, never on the right. It's always on the left. If you are a black Republican and you get on TV, you have earned your way. But inevitably there are black voices, Hispanic voices, Asian voices, you name it, who the Democratic Party rise to the ranks, not because of what they know, but because of who they know and they are never challenged. They're never challenged by the left because to challenge a non-white person on their quote unquote lived experience is to be racist. And so really stupid people get elevated to prominence based on connections in the media who have never been challenged on their views to challenge them as is racism. What is it?

26:37Tanesh Kots however you say his first name. He was a far better writer before he rose to such a level of prominence that the white editors decided they couldn't edit the words of God because it would be racism. And he kind of fell off the cliff. I mean, there are still white people who read the guy, but he's not a very profound thinker. He's no longer challenged on his views. They're just to, is you're expected to just embrace his views. And that gets me to Jamal Hill. This was a woman who got onto ESPN who was not a bright person, but was a diversity pick. Who would say profoundly stupid things and politicize everything. And ultimately it got to be too much for ESPN, but the good white guilt employees of the Atlantic hired her to be a black voice so they no longer had to be suffering from white guilt. She says all the right things to all the right people and believes all the right things and no one can challenge her because if you do your racist and she was challenged by a different black voice

27:37on CNN last night and she very clearly was out of her depth. It's one thing to not think capitalism is working ideally. It's another thing entirely to insist that it is oppressive, that it is bound up with white supremacy. I've always preferred Adam Smith's description of capitalism as the natural system of liberty, the idea that people can own property, that they can exchange it freely with one another for profit, that they can find ways to put their resources to good use, those private property. And profit in a way that is actually beneficial to everyone else that there can be gains from trade that are mutually beneficial. These are foundational ideas that have created more wealth than any other system in human history. That is what capitalism is. That is not white supremacy. Work that way. Has all, I've just described the actual, I've actually just described the basic facts of the past. That ain't always always work. It's an institution that is older than writing.

28:38It predates capitalism. The notion that white supremacy and all these other things are bound up with capitalism and intrinsic and fundamental way is so absurd and laughable. How is it absurd? Barely needs to be defended. What do you mean if Barely needs to be defended? You actually have to articulate what the connection is. How are these two things the same? I'm talking about private property. The right to exchange and sell it with whoever you like. But you're talking about capitalism. What does that have to do with white supremacy? How it was intended to work versus how it was actually working? It's not how it's working right now today. What is the white supremacy? No cases? It's not working. I think that's the problem. I think the problem is it's not. So the white person's got to jump in to help Jamel Hill there. Jamel Hill. An American sports journalist, she worked for the Raleigh News Observer, the Detroit Free Press, and the Orlando sitinels. She joined ESPN in 2006 and worked various roles until 2013 where she succeeded. Jalen Rose, associate of ESPN 2's, numbers never lie. The show was rebranded as his and her, which she co-hosted with Michael Smith. She's part controversy in 2017 with a series of tweets,

29:38et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. She's founded a, uh, member, show she's written a memoir. She's no older than me and she's already got her memoir out. She's not particularly accomplished. She worked for some newspapers and got a job on ESPN and she's arguing with Mel Foster, an American telecommunications entrepreneur. He co-founded and was vice president of the telecommunications consultancy, uh, telco queue and curly host of podcasts, former chairman of America's Future Foundation, a nonprofit co-host of the Fox Business Network program, the independence law with reason magazine at her Met Welch. The guy actually got his start in the free market. He, he learned the free market. He can, can speak of the free market. Jamel Hill has worked in liberal institutions her whole life and been elevated not because of the knowledge that she has, but frankly, because she was a diversity pick. This guy had to work in the telecom industry, a very wide industry and raise himself up and he's not bitter about it.

30:41You'll forgive me for recognizing what this is and you will note when the people get mad at me and try to cancel me for telling you the painful truth that I'm telling you right now, they're, they want to cancel me and be mad at me for telling you the gods on us truth. There are a bunch of people in the media, Jamel Hill being one of them. You got a host of them at the New York Times on the editorial page who they're not that smart, but they tell white people who suffer from white guilt, what they want to hear. And the white people can say, I am an ally of the idiot person who we have elevated to this position of prominence. And they're only in that position of prominence, not because they earned it through their labor, but because of who they knew to get there. I have seen this play out time and time again. I have seen it my entire time in the media. The number of people who get elevated to positions because of who they know, because of their connections, not because of their, their quality of their content, not because of their work ethic.

31:43And the democratic party, it is, it's Achilles heel these days on the left is that they have elevated so many people to provision to positions of prominence, not because of what they know, but because of who they know, not because of the quality of their work, but because of the color of their skin that they are right for the beginning. If you can just engage with the proper arguments, you can defeat them. These people have never been confronted with actual arguments of dissent against their views until you saw this last night on CNN, Jamel Hill was actually incapable of, of arguing her position that white supremacy and capitalism were joined at the hip. She couldn't argue it when confronted with it because no one is willing to confront these people because they're afraid of being branded racist for confronting them with the idiocy of their ideas. You got to continue to confront these people with the idiocy of their ideas. And it's something the right has always been better at because the right has always been disadvantaged in the mainstream media. And so it's had to learn the arguments of the other side better than the other side ever has to learn about the right. The left can say stupid things like white supremacy is part of capitalism

32:44and never be challenged on it. And when they are challenged on it, they have no ability to defend it because they never had to do that before. I will also defend perfectly snug because it is a great well designed product. Again, customer before advertiser for this, this is a, I saw I'm not going to give the name of the product, but there is a, I tend to sleep hot and I don't like to sleep hot. And it's why I have the sheets that I have. And there's this thing you can put it on your bed and it is, it, it's a topper to your mattress and it circulates water and it chills the water. And I thought, maybe that would work, but will I get up in the light being because this thing is circulating water all night? I have no idea. And then I looked at it as thousands of dollars. It's like, I'm not fit. And the customer reviews actually suck the thing leaks. You can get mold. And then I found the perfectly snug and it uses fans and all it does is it circulates cool air with fans. Hey, can heat up you and your spouse can have separate zones. And I'm like this, this thing just works. It makes sense. It's a full mattress topper.

33:44You put on top of your match, put the fitted sheet on top. You can watch the fitted sheet inflate. It can generate so much cooler flow through. It's like an air conditioner. It just works. And you can save a great deal of money on getting one and sleep cool at night. Go to perfectly snug.com slash Erickson perfectly snug.com slash ER ICK so in perfectly snug.com slash Erickson. You save over $300 right now for labor. There's a great sale going on. You turn it on with your for you. Set it with your iPhone or your Android device. It can come on automatically, turn off automatically. You can adjust through the night automatically. It can be cool. It can be warm. It's got two zones. It just works. If you're sleeping hot at night or you want some warmth at night, you wanted to feel great on your back. Perfectly snug.com slash Erickson. I was a customer of this thing and told him I want to advertise your product and they took me up on it perfectly snug.com slash Erickson. My people, how are you? It's Eric Erickson. The war is heating up in Ukraine. The war is also heating up in the Persian Gulf.

34:49Two clips here from Tre Yintz to is on the ground in Tel Aviv. We are tracking these latest US strikes that appear to be on going right now against Southwestern Iran, according to US Central Command. These strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on vessels in the straight of Hormuz in addition to that attack earlier this week against US forces in Jordan. One more. Once again, but again, the latest information that we have, John, US strikes are ongoing against Iran hitting the Southwestern part of the country and the president once again in a call with Fox News, warning the Iranian regime if they respond to these strikes against the Southwestern part of Iran that they will be hit much harder. And again, he goes on to say if this goes for a third time, they will be wiped out as a country. We will see. We've got more to talk about with Iran gas prices and Lindsey Clancy when we come back, but first I need to tell you about in Kogni. If you want to take your privacy back, okay, so they gave me a bizarre story.

35:51I got to share this story with you all. I was completely floored with this. So a woman in Batavia, Illinois, thought somebody was in her yard and it turns out it was somebody in her yard. And this is a guy who had been kicked out of the military for sneaking into a women's barracks and just watching the women. And now he found some woman online and stalked her. And found where she was using a data broker, got her address and information and showed up at her house to watch her while she slept with in Kogni. Those data brokers have to delete your information. They keep you private. So weird people can't find you and stare at you while you sleep. You go to in Kogni.com slash Eric. I N C O G in I in Kogni in Kogni.com slash Eric is for 60% off. Your private life should not be someone else's to stare at while you sleep in Kogni.com. slash Eric. They can't harm you if they can't find you in Kogni.com slash Eric.