S15 EP168: Hour 2 - The Lost Years and Broken Brains

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1:03Sin City, get ready. Cancon West, presented by Dad Air. It's Boulder Rifle and Pistol Club, this October 22nd through 24th, just outside Las Vegas. It's two full days of unlimited fully-suppressed shooting, and ammunition is free with ticket purchase. Test hundreds of firearms and suppressors. From giants like Maxim Defense, SIG can rugged challenge the pros head to head or shoot all day long. For just 50 bucks a day or 85 for both. Unlimited ammo. Unlimited suppressors. Lock in your tickets right now at canconevent.com. That's canconevent.com. I'm Kiana, and I leveled up my business with Shopify. Once I figured out that Shopify was a thing, I never turned back. I can create a site with my eyes closed. Shopify thinks ahead of us, you know, and it thinks about the customer more than anything. Every day I'm thinking about some other new business. But Shopify is doing it to me because it's so easy to use. It's like I can't stop on my dick did. Start your free trial at Shopify.com.

2:03Every afternoon there are four things you need to know about. They tend to happen after about 3pm Eastern, and before you get home, you might as well learn about them before you head on the evening news. That's my job. I'm Eric Erikson, 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 Erikson or go to EricErikson.com forward slash four things to know for the links. Be more informed than your family and friends. Welcome to the Eric Erikson Show podcast, our two. Hello, my people. It is Eric Erikson here, this open line Friday. The phone number is 877-973-745. If you want to be on the program, I'll allow it if you can get through my call screener. Some of you are calling in and recognizing the voice on the other end of the phone is blended. It is not your time for family reunion, however.

3:04It's about getting on the show, not calling to chat up a little bit. By the way, I do need to tell you as a housekeeping note that Charlie told me yesterday. He's on a plane to Montana right now. He told me that somebody called me yesterday wanted to get on the show and called in and stumbled their point. He hung up on them because there's like 15 seconds they couldn't get out of their mouth. Then that person texted him and it was a friend of his and mine trying to get on the show. Charlie's like, you know, maybe you should lead with that. Then texty bagger said, but I still wouldn't let you on because we weren't talking about that. So I'm just saying be kind to the call screener that they are your connection point to the program. I had to warn Belinda we may get some crazy Nazis today, Colin, because they're still out to get me. By the way, so I wrote that expose the free press has now picked it up. It is the top story at the free press, all these white supremacists, white nationalists, they're Nazi sympathizers. And now they're all like Eric Erickson's trying to get us murdered. We're getting death rich. You all want to see some death threats? I got some of the last 48 hours and I'm not online whining about it.

4:06These trans Christians out there claiming to be Christians and they want to bring white nationalism in anything. No one should get death threats in the United States and the irony is that these are the people who advocate a philosophy that says you can kill your enemies. It's just absolutely wild and saying whiny people, whiny, whiny people. They said, no one has really come after them before I think. And I'm like, you know what? I'm going to use my platform to call you racist out and they don't like it. They're like, you should be on our side. I'm not on the side of racists. I don't care who you vote for. I am not on the side of racist. And if you are a racist, you deserve to be defeated. And you may have an R next to your name, but if you're a bigot, you should be defeated. We must move on from racial hostility into this country. I would rather that Haitian immigrant from, or the guy he's actually an American born, but Haitian immigrant who was on the Lindsey Clancy jury. I'd rather get that guy elected than some of these white nationalists people.

5:06It's not actually what I want to talk about right now, though. I will get to your phone calls. Be patient. First, we must talk about this guest essay in the New York Times, Miriam Powell. Is the author of the forthcoming California dreams, the making and remaking of the University of California? She says this California educational juggernaut does not need the SAT. This is one of the most mind numbingly our worded things I've ever seen. This woman's got to be 30 feet over the runway. For those of you who do not know, when you were flying on an Airbus plane, made in France, and you get 30 feet over the runway, the plane informs the pilot. It's essentially time to pull back on the thrust and it says, right, Todd, right, Todd. And the joke for the pilots is that if it says it a third time, it's talking about you. So because people don't like the use of the R word, and I understand why,

6:06I won't say the R word. I'll just say the 30 feet over the runway. This is from this insane woman. When the University of California limited the SAT testing requirements for admission in 2021, UCLA saw a significant jump in applications for high achieving black and Latino students, for whom the standardized tests had been a barrier. We are enrolling one of the most academically accomplished and diverse classes in our history, the admissions director wrote. Since then, applications have risen at all nine undergraduate campuses. The most prestigious have become increasingly selective, and the university retains and graduates students at a record rate. Just five years later, the University of California is embroiled again in a very public battle over whether to reinstate the SAT faculty, whose 2020 recommendation to retain the test was overruled, have led the charge. In a widely circulated letter, an opinion piece of math professor who organized the campaign,

7:07blamed the test-blind admissions policy for a troubling increase in undergraduates who lack basic skills. Math literacy is a real issue, and not just since the elimination of the SAT. The argument that reinstituting the standardized tests will rectify the math crisis. However, obscures a more fundamental debate about missions of the elite public university, and the long-standing tension between its twin goals of excellence and access. Now, this woman is opposed to a standardized test, the SAT, because she says it discriminates against black and Latino students. And she says that actually, they're still able to graduate top notch kids, and they're having just phenomenal graduations at record rates.

8:11And I want to read you one more key paragraph here. This is the way this paragraph starts. What has made the University of California exceptional is its commitment to increase access without sacrificing excellence. In recent years, California has proudly defied a national trend on average, about 40% of its students are the first in their families to attend to four-year college. More than half qualify for free tuition. The percentages of underrepresented students have crept up through a variety of initiatives. The California Dream Act gave undocumented students access to financial aid, as well as in-state tuition. Students on University of California campuses may struggle with basic math but they're graduating at record rates. Do you get this? Let me get in. This is one paragraph, opening sentence. What has made the University of California exceptional is its commitment to increasing access without sacrificing excellence, and this is the last sentence. Students on University of California campuses may struggle with basic math but they're graduating at record rates.

9:14Hello. So they're not sacrificing excellence, and yet their kids are struggling with basic math. She wants to get rid of the national at the standardized tests, because she says the standardized tests are excluding too many black and Latino students. Now let's jump over to the state of Mississippi, where black and Hispanic students are outperforming the black and Hispanic students of California. Do you know someone pointed out the other day in a study that there is actually a correlation? The more powerful the teachers union is in a state, the worse students perform academically. In Mississippi, they don't really have teachers unions. It's a right to work state. They have them, but they're not really influential. The state completely changed how they do reading. They've gone back to phonics.

10:15The teachers unions in the nation actually have financial interests in a lot of the publishing companies that publish whole-word reading, because that's where the nation went for so long. They've been pushing their curriculum that they profit off of, that is whole-word reading. Mississippi said, nope, we're going to do phonics. These teachers unions nationally have been pressuring California, New York, Illinois, and others not to go down that road. So Tennessee has gone down the road of Mississippi, and it's showing success. Alabama has gone down the road of Mississippi, and it's showing success. Louisiana, my home state of Louisiana, y'all, I grew up overseas. I got home. I started off at a private school. Was there for half a year, and then the Gulf War broke out, and gas prices went up to the unbelievably high price of $1.25 a gallon. And my parents liked too far for you to drive every day. The 30 minutes each way to go to the school. We're going to send you to public school now. So I moved in second semester, my 10th grade year, my very first day in class, my very first day in class.

11:16Kid raises his hand. There's a word, and he doesn't know what it means. L-I-B-E-R-T-Y. L-I-B-E-R-T-Y Liberty. He had no idea. Blue, my mind. Someone could be in 10th grade, and I never heard that word before. Now, if you understood who the civics teacher was, you would understand why no one or this woman, apparently at one point, had thrown herself down a stairwell to get workers comp, and she was perfectly fine until she saw someone on the hallway, and all of a sudden, she'd get a hunch over and have to have to limp. It's just absolute, not unsensical insane crazy lady who was a terrible teacher. I got up and walked out of her class, went to the principal one day and said, I'm not going back to that lady's class. You can fail me if you want. He did not. I got to go sit in his office and do my work. But yeah, I mean, it was just, it was wild. Louisiana at the time, not great. Louisiana is now in like third place for literacy for elementary school. Third place, behind Mississippi and Alabama.

12:19Y'all, I love you people in Alabama and Mississippi. Y'all know y'all are the butts of jokes, right? Yeah, I mean, y'all get the jokes. Y'all get them. One of the very first jokes I ever heard about Alabama is that they had bought a bunch of septic tanks, and as soon as they learned how to drive them, they were going to invade Georgia. And I mean, I, you hear these jokes, you hear the jokes about Mississippi. I mean, only place in the nation where the family tree is a single branch, and it's a straight line. You hear these jokes. They're the butt of jokes, and they get the jokes. And they're kicking your butt. If you're listening in California right now, a poor black kid in Mississippi who goes to a public school is getting better standardized test scores than a rich black kid in California who goes to a public school. The poor black kids in Mississippi are kicking your butts. They're doing better than the white kids in California and in math, and they're doing better than the white kids in California and reading. Why? Because the state decided to do accountability issues. And it's working. And now you got this woman in the New York Times who writes a piece that California doesn't need to go back to the SAT because they will deprive black and Latino students of getting into college.

13:23And she acknowledges that they're following behind. They can't do basic math. And she's like college is so much more than math. No, it's not. You're supposed to get an education, not an education when you go to college. You're supposed to get an education. You're not there to be indoctrinated. You're not there to be challenged on your faith. You're there to learn to think critically. You're there to learn the basics. So you can go into the world and you can get a J-O-B, which for those of you who went to school in public schools in California, that's called a job. J-O-B. The black kid in Mississippi in second grade knows that word because he can sound it out unlike you rich kids in California. I got a lot of listeners on Kogo down in San Diego. I don't mean to put you guys down. Y'all are singing the A-Man chorus out there. You understand what I'm talking about. Your teachers unions and your public schools have ruined your state to the point. Then now you've got people saying we can't have standardized tests for college because it'll deprive the poor, the blacks, the Latinos of getting into college.

14:24Why will it do that? It's not discriminating against them. This is what they say because they disproportionately perform poorly that it's discrimination. It's not discrimination. You know what the discrimination is. The discrimination is the teachers unions deciding that the poor black kids and Latino kids in California need to be indoctrinated into the gender theory of the unicorn rather than taught how to do math and read. The great discrimination of our times are the people who believe that black and Latino kids need to somehow be told their victims instead of being told that they can get a job. The people who believe that this society is systemically racist and can't be improved have put down these kids and essentially told them you're a perpetual victim. Why even bother? And in the Southern Confederate states of America that these people look down on because they were once part of something that no longer exists and have committed to improving the status of the non-white kids in their states and they're doing it.

15:24They're still put down on. They're still made the butt of jokes and you still have people denying the success. You're not going to be able to deny the success for much longer because those kids in Mississippi and Tennessee and Alabama and Louisiana are headed into the job force in the next few years and they no longer see themselves as victims. They're educated. They can do the math and they can do the reading and they have the critical thinking skills because they learned how to read and they were challenged to actually read books and they've been reading the books and they've been getting the knowledge and they're headed off to college where your kids in your blue states where your teachers valued indoctrination more than education. They have made your children into perpetual victims and you know what one day your kid is going to have a poor black kid from Mississippi who grew up to be your white kids boss. Because the black kid from Mississippi had a state that actually cared about his mind and not about the gender unicorn. This podcast is supported by your Southern California key of dealers. Living in Southern California your SUV needs to do a little bit of everything.

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17:37Hello Eric, how are you doing? Great, how are you? Pretty good. You almost made me change my subject to that university in California. It sounds like they're going to hand out participation and diplomas. Yes, that's exactly right. But anyway, I was going to call to ask you about them. You know, see the democratic socialists of America get in some sort of a power or the general Democrats take over the house and they just like impeach. They'll be trying to impeach Trump and focusing on things like that. Your knowledge of the oil, it's beyond me. I don't know the difference between sweet, green, sour and breadcruise. But if they get elected, are they going to affect the oil prices? Or is Trump getting impeach going to affect the oil prices? No, so no, it's not. And you know, they're actually now that they want to impeach Hegsith. They want to impeach Lutnik. They want to impeach Trump.

18:43That's all they want to do. In fact, this is the one reason why I actually hope the Republicans are able to keep the Senate to stop some of the Democrats craziness. And what they want to do, they don't really have an agenda. It's all about restrained Trump and fight Trump. They don't want to do anything positive for the country. They just want to stop Trump. And you know, that's a persuasive message. I think for some voters right now, we feel like there need to be more checks and balances. But nothing they do is going to bring down the price of oil and gas. In fact, remember, it's the Democrats who don't want you using oil and gas. They're being quiet on the issue to a degree because they don't want you using oil and gas anyway. They don't want you buying a Tesla, mind you, but they don't want you buying oil and gas. The environmentalists actually love what's happening right now with the price of oil and gas. But the economic ramifications of it are bad for all of us. It is, it's the economic ramifications of what is happening right now in the country is just not good. And the president says it's all going to be okay. And I actually do think it is all going to be okay. But I think it'd be even better if we went in and finished off the Iranian regime so they can't keep blowing up pipelines of what not. I did see in the newspaper this morning, China has told the Iranians they need to knock it off because China is worried about its own economy and access to oil.

19:58I used to be worried about access to banking, which is why I moved old glory bank because old glory bank is a fantastic bank that is pro conservative pro freedom pro banking started by conservatives who were worried about the debanking trends where you might not have access to a bank if you were conservative. Now you don't have to worry about it with Donald Trump as president, but you'll got to worry about having a bank that shares your values and they do not only that, they're super innovative. So they're an online bank, they don't have branches. And so what they've done is they've tried to use their app as like a bank branch in your pocket. You can deposit cash, you can deposit checks, you can use a geolocation field on your debit card. So if your phone is with you, your phone knows where you are so old glory bank knows where you are. So when you swipe your debit card, it goes through and if someone steals it and swipes it elsewhere, well, your phone's not there. So your old debit card doesn't work. It's actually an ingenious feature for people if you're worried about bank security. Somebody steals your bank account number and they're trying to do a debit card purchase across the country for you and the old glory apps is he's not I'm not in California. I'm in Georgia. And so the transaction doesn't go through. It's so well thought out. It's so well done. Check them out at old glory bank.com slash Eric old glory bank.com slash E.R. ICK member FD IC equal housing lender terms and conditions apply old glory bank.com slash Eric.

21:16Hey, it's Kelly Rowland. You may not know this, but I have eczema. So I get how it can steal your time. But why let eczema take over when you can talk to your doctor about epglyce? Epglyce, lubricism app, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older, who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe axima. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. Epglyce can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to epglyce. A allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. I problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with epglyce. Before starting epglyce, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Pay partnership with Lily. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about epglyce and visit epglyce.com or call 1-800-LilyRX or 1-800-545-5979.

22:16I said on Twitter that I was going to make my debut on this week on ABC and a buddy of mine said, do they know it or just one of the streaker things. You are going to have to tune in to find out. Let's just say I am going to have my running shoes on. Frank Lutz is going to be on the panel. I don't have to wear dress shoes because he always wears his sneakers. I will be in my comfortable shoes instead of my, I got to find better dress shoes. Mine are not comfortable. My heels bother me and I need super, super patting in my shoes and my good dress shoes. I messed them up by accident. Now I need new dress shoes. None of you care about that. Okay, before I get to your phone calls, I didn't die into talk about the story. I had to put it off because there's real news that needed to be talked about first, but I had to talk about this story. Do you recall when sports illustrated really began its decline was about that moment they decided that the swimsuit models we needed to see needed to be fat women.

23:24Do you remember that we were in the ultra woke era and we didn't need to see the hot women in the swimsuits we needed to see the fat women with the folds. I mean, it gave centerfold a whole new meaning with the what they did. She had a centerfold a trifold a forward fold a backfold. She had a lot of folds. And nobody wanted that. Nobody wanted it. They didn't want it. And Nike did the same thing. They went from featuring Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan to the fat acrobat. And the woman who could do do rolling on the floor nonsense and the leotard that was stretched too thin. And nobody wanted that. Nike is out of the S&P 100 after 18 years. It has wiped out 200 billion dollars. It has been one of the most mismanaged companies over the last 18 years. And it has a lot to do with Nike embracing woke politics.

24:34They brought in Colin Kaepernick to lecture Americans. They brought in the fat models to shame Americans. They did everything they possibly could to be in your face political. And now they've been wiped out. You know the hilarious punchline of all of this is that everybody in business is looking at what they did. And they don't want to discuss Nike's politics that caused the wipe out. They want to say, well, they started a direct to consumer model. And they got out of the sporting goods stores. And that backfired on them because other brands came up and caught them off guard. Yeah, that had something to do with it. But what also had something to do with it is them hiring Colin Kaepernick to lecture Americans and putting the fat models on. We don't need Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan. We need some fat chick. Nobody's ever heard of. If Nike wanted to recover tomorrow, it would put a naked Sydney sweetie and comfortable running shoes and just show her legs. Everything else would be implied. Their market cap would skyrocket. All the angry feminists of America upset about Sydney, sweetie. She's ruining sports appearing for a sports company naked. I think what's ruining sports is the fat loaks who've decided that we need to see people like them.

25:51And we need to we need to have boys and girls sports. People want to see the athletes. Nike's got not a golf Nike golf Tiger Woods at the start zone brand. They abandoned it. I just a what this company has made some of the worst business decisions. And now today, Kylian and Bobby has decided to leave Nike for on cloud. After months of rumors that overshadowed the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the news is official global superstar Kylian and Bobby is left Nike and signed a contract with on the Swiss sportswear brand announced its entry into football alongside one of the biggest names in the sport. They mean soccer just so you know, they mean soccer. Theory Henry has been working behind the scenes with the brand on every aspect of its entry and product approach since late 2025 was announced as the director of football. He is one of the most accomplished players of his generation. Henry was a French World Cup winner, Arsenal FC legend working with the brand on its entry since 2025. And now they've got in Bobby coming on.

26:57He'll be on the heart of on soccer journey United United one of soccer's defining players with one of sportswear's most innovative brands. I have to say I am so soccer illiterate that I knew the guys name Kylian, Bobby. I had no idea what football team he played for. And then I looked at this as I bet it there, I bet it's soccer sure enough soccer. Yeah, I knew the guys that he's famous enough. I knew his name. I just wasn't sure baseball football soccer the soccer. So of course I didn't really know because I don't keep up with soccer. But the fact that they're moving in on Nike's territory and that Nike has lost him to them actually says something significant about the Nike brand. It's in decline. This is from the Yahoo from Fortune. One of the largest sports and athletic wear companies. So modern day is disappointing. It's namesake Nike, the sportswear company named after the Greek goddess of victory is losing a spot on the top 100 US companies for the first time in nearly two decades. The athletic apparel giant lost over $200 billion in market caps. Since his all time high in 2021, a near 80% drop in just the five years that have passed and a plummet so severe that the once mighty company no longer is listed in the S&P 100.

28:10From the company's 264 billion dollar peak in November 2021 when Nike shares traded at $179 and 10 cents a share, the company is currently worth roughly $57 billion today down 78% as shares for the company are currently trading at around $38 a piece. After almost 18 years, Nike will exit. It was a slow burn. The reshuffling is a consequence of a multi year decline for the company. Nike will stay in the S&P 500. According to Nike's investor report, the company's underlying business deteriorated as it reported $46.4 billion in fiscal 2026 revenue down 2% greater China remains a problem for the company sales fail 17% on a constant currency basis. The company's direct to consumer business has struggled with fiscal year 2026 direct to consumer revenue falling 6%. The company's turnaround under CEO Elliott Hill is increasingly focused on rebuilding wholesale relationships, reducing excessive inventory and returning the brand's emphasis on performance products.

29:16I don't know Elliott Hill, the CEO of Nike. If I could give Elliott Hill a piece of advice, get back to the great Elliott Hill. Abandoned the approach, which it looks like you have done because I got to tell you, Nike has said some really impressive ads in the last couple of years, Scotty Shuffler's wins and and Roy McElroy's wins both of them wear Nike products that they've highlighted those wins in the sporting world, but you got to get some better. There are athletes out there too, Nike, you got to get you got to start promoting some of the greats. Get Josh Hallen in there for you. Go find the next great basketball player. Get people people know and stop trying to lecture Americans about politics that the Nike calling cappardic stuff was insufferable. And a lot of people you just you burn bridges with them get Sydney, sweetie in there find some right coded celebrities because what you've done Nike is you waited into into the political mind field of the day intentionally and you planted your flag with the left.

30:23And a lot of people who aren't really even political got annoyed so go find some people who aren't political but might be right coded and get them in your shoes and show people your back. And it's what Bud Light did with Shane Gillison what not after the the Dylan Mulvaney nonsense and Nike is too prideful to do that. Nike you can't be prideful when you've gotten booted from the S&P 100. You can't be prideful when you're in decline. You disrupted your relationship with retailers. You decided to direct to consumer approach as someone who tried to buy shoes with Nike's direct to consumer repote show a while back. It was one of the most convoluted processes ever. Do you want this color in this color in this color in this color in this pattern in this pattern. It was so confusing. It's one of the geniuses of Apple Steve Jobs for a very long time talked about how too many choices kills a relationship with a consumer. Give unlimited choices and guess what my iPhone arrives this afternoon. It's Nike itself screwed up the relationship. Nike itself made poor business decisions but those poor business decisions can't overshadow the fact that Nike made poor political decisions.

31:29The local decisions from Nike had ramifications that Nike may not want to acknowledge and the business community that covers Nike may not want to acknowledge but the truth of the matter is that Nike destroyed its relationship with half the country by deciding that it would go woke. And it did and now it's going broke because Nike waited into controversial cultural issues convinced of its righteousness. And it wasn't just convinced of its righteousness. It was really snobby how Nike decided to weigh into it. It was lecturing and it was cajoling and it was belittling and that was their approach. And they got rid of the cool people that we could all root for. They got rid of the Michael Jordan's and they got rid of the tiger woods and they brought in the fat models and they brought in the Colin Kaepernick's who was politically tinged and left coated and they specifically said we're not with this half of America. And we don't want to feature cool people. And then they got themselves into this direct marketing approach and they told store shelves well we don't need you anymore. So they didn't need half of America and then they didn't need retail space because they were going to be direct to consumer.

32:37The retailer said well you know what it's an innovative era. We've got all these other cool brands. We've got on we've got Brooks. We've got a deedus resurgent of deedus. We've got Reebok still we've got Hoka by the way Hoka please stop putting a billboard on the board. Back of your shoes I hear your shoes are comfortable but I refuse to wear a brand where everyone knows always wearing Hocus because I can see the letters from five miles away. I have no desire to wear shoes that everyone tells me I would love because I don't want to be a billboard for your brand every time I put on your shoes. I've got on my Brooks. You can't tell what I'm wearing unless you get up close and they're super comfortable shoes and that's the other thing Nike your shoes wore out too fast. I couldn't keep Nike's because your quality control sucked on top everything else. You wanted to lecture me with Colin Kaepernick and you couldn't even make a pair of shoes that would last me six months without falling apart. The whole brand should be rebuilt. I feel like with Michael Dell back in the day said that if Apple wanted to be a good steward of its money it should shut down and give the money back to the shareholders. Now I'm glad I pulled it and listen because Apple is now a three trillion dollar company and Dell is barely there.

33:45It's a blip on the tech radar. Have you ever been speaking of just giving consumers too many choices. Have you ever ordered a computer from Apple. It's like here you're two GPU up is here's your two RAM options and here's your single color. You go to Dell it's like here's your five million GPU options and do you want this and this and this is why you go to vision computers isn't a commercial for them but it's true. They make it you go to vision and they they just what do you need. Okay, here's what we recommend you go to Dell and you try to build a computer on Dell's website. You get a five billion options and that's per question. Not five billion total options but per question meanwhile Apple's kicking their butt now. Nike used to kind to be the apple of shoes. Here are your five shoes and here are your five colors and now it's I mean do you want the light cushion. Do you want the thick cushion. Do you want the dark red. Do you want the light red. Do you want the red that's going to fade in the washing machine. Turn all your clothes white. What do you want. They told us they told the retailers we don't need you. They told conservative Americans. We don't need you. They tried to invest in China. They got in good with the communists.

34:51They had Colin Kaepernick lecturers and now they're out of the S&P 100. They have wiped out shareholder value. They have been badly mismanaged. They finally brought in this guy Elliott Hill who was focused on building rebuilding wholesale relationships. Elliott Hill I would tell you you don't just need to rebuild wholesale relationships. You need to rebuild wholesome relationships with half the people of this country that your prior CEO decided a lecture and alienate. You could make Nike cool again. You actually could. You have one heck of an ad team. I mean just look at the ads for for Shephard and for McElroy and for some of these people who have won these great things but goodness gracious my goodness. You people have just screwed up of iconic American brand by going woke. You don't have to it's a choice to stay woke, but you're going to go broke if you do. In cognizant to protect you online. I y'all I'm still flocks and I've told this one. They're like you got to tell other stories, but no, I think you need to hear the story one more time.

35:57In Batavia, Illinois at 240 in the morning, a woman woke up. Someone was shining a flashlight through her window from her backyard. It was a sex predator who had become obsessed with her on the internet and had gone online, put in her name, knew the city where she lived and found her home address with a data broker paid two bucks to get a report on this woman and showed up at her house at 240 the morning. It turns out he had been in the military and had done this to women in the Navy had gone into their backs. He was thrown out of the Navy for it. And he was able to get this woman's information from a data broker. That's why I use in cogn because I've had people do this to me, not not shine a window flashlight it to it, but show up at my house to threaten my family. They got my information from a data broker. And in cognizant makes the data brokers take your information down and they follow up because sometimes the data brokers they'll comply with the notice to take down your information and then they'll put it right back up after they think people stop watching in cognizant legal representative that sends the take down notices and then they follow up again and again and again to make sure your information is deleted.

37:01You go to in cognizant.com slash Eric I NCO G N I you know there's telemarketers who call and offer you the home loans and the car loans and the extended warranty stuff. They get your information from the data brokers. They know when you bought the new car from the data brokers. You get the data brokers to leave your information. They can't find you to harass you in cognizant.com slash Eric I NCO G N I N cognizant.com slash Eric you save 60% in cognizant.com slash Eric. This podcast is supported by your Southern California Kia dealers. It's hard not to notice how many electric vehicles are on the 405 101 and 10 freeways these days. Better technology, convenient charging and longer driving range are making the switch to electric more practical than ever. Kia offers three all electric models that combine performance, technology and capability. With compatible DC fast chargers, they can charge to 80% in less than 30 minutes, making it easier to get back on the road. One model that really stands out is the 2026 Kia EV9.

38:06It's an all electric SUV with three rows of seating over 300 miles of all electric driving range and the capability and technology you'd expect from a modern SUV. Whether it's your daily commute to Burbank or a weekend drive to Ohio, the EV9 is built to fit the way you live. If you're ready to make the move to electric, Kia has an EV designed to fit your needs. Learn more at Kia.com or visit your Southern California Kia dealer. My fellow Americans, it is an open line Friday. It is time to go back to Florida to Orlando to Tim. Welcome to the show Tim. How are you? I'm very glad I have fantastic. Thank you so much for doing what you're doing your show. Nike may be going down to this show is going to the top maybe. Thank you. You're great. Love it. Anyway, I got a question. I've been trying to new list out. Why is it that we cannot decouple petroleum prices in the United States. These are either rest of the world. Why can't we have our own market?

39:11I mean, I know it's all one world market, but there's got to be some way where we can. We produce so much. Where have we produced more than anybody else now? Okay, I believe it. I don't even have to lie. I know the answer. So here's why in a this kind of broken record. I mentioned the other day we produce more oil than all other countries on the planet at this point. I mean, we produce more than Venezuela. We produce more than Saudi Arabia. We produce more than OPEC combined right now. We are pumping out so much oil. The problem is that we can't refine the oil that comes out of the ground in the United States. We converted our refineries to refine heavy oil heavy crude years ago. Heavy crude and sweet crude sweet crude is a lighter oil. It takes less to refine it. It's less intensive. It cannot be refined in the same refineries as heavy crude. Because of the chemical composition of heavy crude. In the 90s, we had sacked basically all of the oil out of our ground that we could get because fracking hadn't been invented.

40:14So we switched all of our refineries over to heavy crude. We put a bunch of regulations in place over time that makes it hard to switch the refineries back. In addition, they would have to be shut down to convert to go back to sweet crude. So we import all of our oil. The oil that you get in Florida is oil that has been imported from Canada, from Venezuela and from Mexico more likely than not, and not from oil in the United States. And the oil that the people in the United Kingdom get and the people in Morocco get is oil that has been imported from the United States because they do sweet crude refining there. It is one of the most screwed up systems on planet earth and the environmentalists have made it even more screwed up. And that's why it's all a global market. And we can actually do the sweet crude refining that we would love to do. Fast food stops with your family have gotten out of control. What used to be a $20 meal is now $40 or $50 meal. Keep it up with household expenses getting harder. If you're a homeowner sitting on storing credit card balances, you probably consider green financing, but then you've been hesitating thinking that the loan mortgage rate you currently have, you don't want to mess it up. Well, here's the reality.

41:18Hang it on to a low rate doesn't help if your credit card interest is 20, 25, 28%. That's why the numbers shift in your favor. American financing can help you use your hard earned equity to wipe out high interest credit card debt. Instead of making minimum payments on restaurant tabs for years, you could join thousands of homeowners saving an average of $800 a month with American financing. No upfront fees, no pressure, no costs to find out your potential monthly savings plus starting new could mean delay in two mortgage payments. Give them a call 866 886 92 62. That's 866 886 92 or American financing dot net slash Eric. I started or not in 2013 and we make bike apparel. The best part of Shopify for me is our ability to run the business as essentially non technical people were able to admin everything on the back end front end and sell things online easily. If Shopify were a bike accessory, I think it would actually be the bicycle. It's the thing that you do the thing on. We run the business on Shopify. Start your free trial on Shopify.com.

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