54 Happy Memories Upon Turning 54
1.) Every moment I ever spent with my grandparents. They are gone now, but I had all four of them when I graduated college and three of them when I turned 30. I am blessed.
2.) January 9, 1977 — The Oakland Raiders won the Super Bowl on my fifth birthday. I saw the logo and became a Raider for life.
3.) August 15, 1980 — Smokey and the Bandit II came out. I saw the original and the sequel and became a lifelong fan of the Bandit and the Snowman.
4.) January 22, 1984 — The Raiders won their third Super Bowl. I still remember telling the kids at school the next day one simple message. “Just win baby!”
5.) January 21, 1985 — I had my Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish passage into manhood. My Orthodox Rabbi grandfather led the ceremony.
6.) July 13, 1990 — I watched Bill Murray in “Quick Change” for the first of over 100 times. This movie is true New York, and Murray remains a national hero.
7.) August 26, 1990 — I flew from New York to Los Angeles for college. I immediately fell in love with this city and never left.
8.) September 26, 1990 — I joined the campus radio station and developed my lifelong love of radio.
9.) May 10, 1992 — I wrote my first song. 70 more would follow.
10.) January 9, 1994 — The Raiders won a playoff game over arch rival Denver on my 22nd birthday. We all had a big party to celebrate afterward at 1950s Cafe Ed Debevic’s.
11.) June 14, 1994 — The New York Rangers won the NHL Stanley Cup and ended the 54 year curse.
12.) September 13, 1994 — I passed the Series 7 stockbroker’s exam. At that moment I was now a professional.
13.) June 1, 1997 — I saw my friend doing something on a computer that seemed different. He was in a chat room. It was my first time using the Internet.
14.) July 4, 1999 — My friends and I crashed an Independence Day party on the beach and escaped moments before police busted up the party.
15.) September 23, 1999 — I finally got my driver’s license. I never needed one before.
16.) December 31, 1999 — Ringing in the Millennium in Las Vegas.
17.) March 1, 2000 — I flew from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras 2000. I still have my Calvin and Hobbes t-shirt, “Life is short. Party naked. Mardi Gras 2000.”
18.) February 13, 2003 — I watched the movie “Old School.” I will forever thank Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell and “The Godfather” Luke Wilson for inspiring me at age 31 to finally start going to Florida for Spring Break. Years of South Beach, Miami revelry ensued at the Clevelander and Ocean’s 10.
19.) March 14, 2003 — I flew to Singapore and Thailand and got to experience five days of beauty in each country. I met the Jewish communities of both nations.
20.) November 4, 2003 — NFL Network was born. Finally, a television channel worth watching existed.
21.) November 2, 2004 — Enjoying the 2004 election with my closest friends.
22.) February 12, 2006 — I flew from Los Angeles to Hawaii. I met the Jewish community of Honolulu and attended my first NFL Pro Bowl. I met ESPN’s Chris Berman.
23.) April 28, 2006 — I flew from Los Angeles to New York and went to Radio City Music Hall. For the first time, I got to attend the NFL Draft and meet a bunch of great football heroes.
24.) August 4, 2006 — I flew from Los Angeles to Ohio and drove to Canton. I visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame, saw the induction ceremony featuring John Madden, and attended the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.
25.) March 11, 2007 — I Started a blog called the Tygrrrr Express. That column somehow turned into five books and a national speaking career.
26.) September 11, 2007 — On the sixth anniversary of the attacks, I flew from Los Angeles to New York and then drove to Great Adventure in New Jersey. I attended Sean Hannity’s Freedom Concert and saw New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani light up the crowd.
27.) October 17, 2007 — I joined Facebook. Between that and Twitter, I have met many good people, increased book sales, and built my business.
28.) February 2, 2008 — I flew from Los Angeles to Phoenix and attended my first Super Bowl. The New York Giants shocked the previously unbeaten New England Patriots.
29.) March 30, 2008 — My friend adopted a child from Guatemala. On this day “the boy” turned one. Being “Unca Eric” is the best job in the world.
30.) May 13, 2008 — I flew from Los Angeles to Washington, DC. I attended the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership Conference and met Dr. Charles Krauthammer.
31.) August 6, 2008 — I flew from Los Angeles to Israel and spent a week in the Holy Land.
32.) August 30, 2008 — I flew from Los Angeles to Minneapolis for my first Republican Convention. For a week, friends and I slept in a sports bar. It was like being Norm Peterson from “Cheers.”
33.) April 5, 2009 — My first book “Ideological Bigotry” was published.
34.) September 1, 2009 — I left Wall Street after 15 years and began my career as a full-time professional speaker.
35.) November 11, 2009 — I flew from Los Angeles to Galveston and spoke at the Texas Federation of Republican Women Convention. I made TFRW and other lifelong friends in the Lone Star State.
36.) March 11, 2010 — I flew from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City to speak at the National Federation of Republican Women Spring Conference. That launched me nationally since the NFRW run the world.
37.) May 1, 2011 — In Aiken, South Carolina, I saw the news that Osama bin Laden was killed. That night I told my very best political joke. “Osama bin Laden is now burning underground with 72 Helen Thomases.” It was the bookend to my very first political joke. “Never rely on a Palestinian GPS tracker. I took one wrong turn, ended up at a cemetery, and a sinister voice said, ‘You have reached your final destination!’ I got so angry I threw the thing out the window, which was good because 5 seconds later it exploded.”
38.) February 9, 2013 — I met Vice President Dick Cheney and spoke in front of him at a dinner.
39.) September 25, 2013 — I spoke to a Tea Party group in Hays, Kansas. At that moment, I had officially spoken in all 50 states.
40.) November 4, 2014 — I spoke at an election night party in New Jersey.
41.) March 20, 2015 — After writing four political comedy books, I finished my first religious comedy book “Jewish Lunacy.” This allowed me to move beyond political speaking into religious speaking.
42.) May 12, 2015 — I met President George W. Bush and shook his hand.
43.) November 8, 2016 — Enjoyed a raucous election night party in Raleigh, North Carolina. I knocked on a bunch of doors and got to know the Chabad community of Raleigh.
44.) Any woman whoever let me play with her yummy bouncies or at least was nice enough to send me pictures of them.
45.) January 9, 2018 — On my 46th birthday, the return of Chucky as Jon Gruden returns to the Black Hole to rejoin the Raiders. Like me, Gruden has unfinished business.
46.) November 9, 2018 — I met Angela Lansbury in Beverly Hills and got my picture taken with her. She remains one of the most talented people in the history of entertainment.
47.) 2019 was the year I branch out beyond books and into t-shirts. I started with 2 or 3 designs in 2017 and 2018. By the end of 2019 I had 49 mostly original t-shirt designs. Now I have over 250 mostly original designs. My best seller remains “Stop judging women by their tops. #BackSidesMatter!”
48.) 2020 was a brutal year for so many people because of a global pandemic. Yet thank God I was healthy and in better financial condition than previous years. On January 9, 2021, I watched the NFL Wildcard playoffs with friends. Normally there would be 2 games as has been the case for the last 30 years. Yet for the first time, there were 3 games, with 3 more to occur on January 10th. I watched football all day and had a great day with people who matter to me. I was besieged with well-wishes from hundreds of people by text, phone call and social media. My birthday evening capped with a special someone. I am blessed as can be to have had such a great birthday.
49.) August 9, 2021 — Rabbi Yaakov Perman of Chabad Leawood, Kansas helped me put on Tefillin. At that moment, I had finally put on Tefillin in all 50 states.
50.) On February 14, 2022, I achieved the American dream that I thought was forever beyond my reached. I finally bought a home. I own a condo in North Miami, Florida.
51.) On August 14, 2022, I achieved another dream that I thought would never happen. After a life of bachelorhood, I got married. She is a Republican Jewish brunette.
52.) On April 7, 2023, I purchased my second home, a condo in Aventura, 4 miles from the first home in North Miami in South Florida.
53) November 5, 2024 — History repeated itself. I worked hard in North Carolina to get President Trump reelected. This time I was in Charlotte. I got to know the Chabad community of the Carolinas. Their Chabad House in Charlotte has a kosher restaurant on site. I was able to knock on doors during the day, attend evening prayers and dinner in synagogue, and return to door knocking. The very last door I knocked on was next door to the Chabad House. The election afterparty was fantastic.
54) January 5, 2026 — Only 4 days ago, my seventh and newest book came out. “250 Reasons to Love America” is my heartfelt tribute to this beautiful red, white and blue beacon of freedom and exceptionalism. On my birthday, buy my book(s and t-shirts)!
I would like to thank my parents for raising me right and Angela Lansbury’s JB Fletcher of “Murder, She Wrote” for catching murderers and making the world safer. An honorable mention goes to Selwyn “The Commissioner” Patterson of “Death in Paradise,” a murder mystery show my parents introduced me to that I love watching with them.
Anything I could possibly wish for has already been granted. Between my parents, my wife, and the best friends a guy could possibly ask for, I am truly blessed.
eric @ Tygrrrr Express
January 1st, 2026
2026…We…can…do…this
What the heck is that beeping sound?
(Knocks the phone off the hook, keeps banging the snooze alarm)
A voice tells me it’s my pager. My pager is black, so finding it in the dark is the needle in the haystack equivalent. A lucky smack knocks it against the wall, where it may or may not have shattered. The beeping continues. Why does anyone need a pager anymore anyway?
Who the heck is texting me at this ungodly hour of…(either 7 a.m., 1 p.m., or 1 a.m. …it looks blurry)?
Oh, no. It is 5 a.m., and my first radio interview of the New Year is with the morning man of an East Coast station. Time to pretend to sound coherent and go back to sleep. Oh no, wait, that radio interview was several years ago.
Great, happy wishes for the new year. Thanks. Whoever you are, it is too early to talk to you.
One year the person on the telephone insisted it was 1 p.m. After explaining to them that they were on the East Coast, and that 1 p.m. EST is 10 a.m. in Los Angeles, they grew impatient. They knew how to tell time, and that it was 4 p.m. EST, hence 1 p.m. my time.
Sure, getting up and writing my column is an option. It’s a new year, and starting the year off with a flurry of brilliance might be helpful. Forget it. This column is recycled from years ago. It’s also hours late. That is what happens when people get no sleep because of stressful December football games followed by New Year’s Eve revelry.
Election 2026? The first person to talk politics gets blistered in my column … tomorrow.
Bowl games? There is DVR. Besides, does anybody care who wins the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl, the Lack of Insight.com Bowl, the Fishbowl, the RU486 Morning After Bowl, The California Metrosexual Pride Bowl, or any other game that may or may not be made up?
Speaking of the morning after, does anybody remember the David Byrne Talking Heads song from the movie “Less than Zero? (which the temperature feels like right now in some parts of the country. No wonder I live in this insane city of LA)” The song is called “Once In A Lifetime.”
“This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife. What have I done? How did I get here?”
It then occurs to me that the beeping sounds are the voices in my head telling me I am too old, even at 53, to stay out this late. Even without alcohol, exhaustion has set in.
Get out of bed? Work calls in (whenever) hours. Better rest up before my tyrant of a boss complains. Such is the life of the self-employed.
Get up now? Somehow stagger to the shower, get dressed, make it out of my condo to go … where?
The stores are closed. Maybe they are open. Too tired to find out.
My birthday is in just over a week. Time to pace myself.
Work on my website? All that takes is staggering to my couch. Oh, no. My IT guy has not finished it yet. Oh, wait, he did years ago. I clicked on the wrong site.
Go on Jdate and search for women? Not a bad idea, except it is too tiring to check their Adams Apples. This is not the year for a boyfriend, and am not sure that my eyes can tell the difference right now. Besides, Jdate is so 2014. Now it is Tinder, JSwipe and JCrush. Oh, wait. I got married in 2022. I don’t even know if Internet dating is stll a thing.
Shop on eBay? No. bad idea. Buying stuff when not at full capacity is problematic. Who needs another mountain goat? Dang creature gets his horns in my hide. Not a comfy way to wake up. Calm down boy, you’ll get some straw to graze on upon my waking up.
Work on my record album? Although again, world, just because my hair is long, that does not mean my band exists. The best instrument is the triangle, because that tells me lunch is ready. My hair is getting long again. I could work on that, although I didn’t do much. I sat. It grew.
Ahh, yes, lunch. Get up and eat something. My microwave is slow, and a five minute microwave dinner takes almost 15 minutes. Read the paper? It is cold outside my building where the stand is, and it only takes coins. Reading the paper online is tiring, and my printer is not working. At least the lifestyle section makes a great placemat for eating. Oh, wait. That stand does not exist anymore. Reading the paper online it is.
Staying in bed for only a couple more hours until (whatever the big and little hands say) would allow me to stay up all night and be totally exhausted for work tomorrow. Again, my boss is a tyrant.
Running errands … not gonna happen.
Every morning, a four word prayer starts my day. My elbows are used to try and leverage them against my bed to prop me up. Placing my alarm clock on the other side of the room failed, since ripping the cord out of the wall solved that problem.
As for the Jewish brunette who stole the covers, her voice was not a problem last night, although if she opens her trap today she will receive a more caustic reception than usual.
Oh wait, she already left. Here is a note. “Tried to wake you, but that was a losing battle. By the way, you have nothing but soda in your fridge. Talk to you soon.” oh, wait, I think that happened over a decade ago.
There are also potato chips in my fridge as well. Why they are there remains a mystery, but it saves having to remember which cabinet they are in. One-stop shopping is the way to go.
Besides, combing my hair for her was enough. Not doing it this morning, proud “retrosexual” that is me.
At least having the decency to say some morning prayers would be appropriate.
“Hey God…those people I pray for every night…yeah those people, the same ones…look after them again.”
Back to sleep, despite every attempt to wake up. The home phone is turned off, the cell is off as well, and the pager is still shattered, in addition to being disconnected years ago.
There may have been a car crash outside my building followed by 911 calls and sirens, but telling everybody to “keep it down,” solved that problem. A brief nightmare of me being late for work was averted when I realized my location to me was known if necessary.
Four televisions in the living room, and none in the bedroom. Who thought that up? Oh yeah, a television in the bedroom would promote laziness. Besides, trying to figure out which remote to use would cause me to break them all as if they were my pager.
Ok, here it is. Come on, elbows, do your stuff. Rise, young lad, rise! Awaken thy exhausted tired eyes!
Why is God shouting? Oh wait, that is my over-dramatization of God.
Time to set the alarm now to avoid missing work tomorrow. Where was it thrown? Threw it? Oh, screw it.
Ok, time for my four word prayer. It has gotten me this incredibly terribly far. Time to contemplate getting out of bed.
“We…can…do…this.”
Happy 2026 all. Except for the person who woke me up earlier. Whoever you are, I still can’t stand you, even though you are doing me a favor.
Ten hours and 16 bowl games later, there is only one thing left to do.
Time for a nap. Happy 2026.
Zzzzz.
eric
The Top 10 Powerful Bald White Guys (PBWGs) of 2025
This list is dedicated to the late radio host Austin Hill. He was a great guy who left us far too soon. He loved this list and gave it more attention than it ever deserved. May he never be forgotten.
This list was inspired by Dann Florek, who played Police Captain Donald Cragen on the “Law & Order” franchises for nearly three decades.
Jeff Bezos did not make the list. He is no longer the richest man in the world or the CEO of Amazon. Being rich is not the same as being powerful. Bring powerful requires doing things.
Kevin O’Leary did not make the list. Mr. Wonderful is still wonderful, but he seems to be more interested in collecting designer watches than truly being a PBWG.
Prince William just missed the cut. While most of the Royal Family are useless dilettantes, Prince William and his wife seem to be in the tradition of the late Queen Elizabeth. William appears genuinely committed to public service. He seems to be a loyal husband and doting father. He ha stayed free of scandal. Nevertheless, with everything going on in the world, he cannot be a top PBWG until he becomes King.
With that, here are the Top 10 PBWGs of 2025
10.) Bruce Willis and Rob Reiner— This is a heartbreaking one to write. Both of these men had legions of fans and suffered cruel fates. Reiner and his wife were murdered on Hanukkah by their own drug-addicted son. Willis is still alive, but a shell of his former self. He is suffering from a cruel form of dementia called aphasia. He has largely retreated from public view. Willis was a lifelong Republican and Reiner was a die hard Democrat. Yet they both achieved international fame. They both succeeded as television actors before branching out. Willis became a movie star and musician who played the harmonica. Reiner became a movie director. For their respective bodies of work, they both deserve lifetime achievement awards. May their families take solace in their being PBWGs.
9.) Joe Rogan — He has the top podcast in America. People trust him because he is seen as a straight shooter. He asks questions that nobody else seems willing to ask. He is not politically ideological in either direction. He wants to hear arguments and let his listeners decide for themselves. He is truly one of the last open-minded hosts around. His interview with Donald Trump combined with Kamala Harris avoiding his program played a major role in Trump winning back the White House. Rogan has come a long way since Newsradio.
8.) Minnesota Governor Tim Walz — This Elmer Fudd doofus almost became Vice President. Now he is embroiled in a massive corruption scandal. Apparently Somali Muslims in Minneapolis fraudulently received taxpayer dollars and laundered that money to foreign terrorists overseas. Normally this would get a politician indicted, but being a PBWG has its privileges. So does being a liberal. For being a PBWG and having the politically correct leftist politics, Walz will get a free pass under the Jon Corzine doctrine. To be fair, Corzine worked at Goldman Sachs, which is an automatic free pass for all conduct. So he had 3 privilege cards while Walz has only two. Walz is determined to fail upward, and will skyrocket up this list if he wins the presidency.
7.) Howard Lutnick — The Trump administration’s Commerce Secretary was the former head of Cantor Fitzgerald. That was the firm that lost 658 employees on September 11th, 2001. Lutnick will is a unique Commerce secretary. Unlike previous Republican Commerce Secretaries, Lutnick is pro-tariff. Lutnick is the first Commerce Secretary who is navigating cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin. Lutnick is pro-crypto. He would rank higher, but he seems to be a symbolic figurehead who just follows presidential orders. Lutnick really wanted to be Treasury Secretary, and he seems less influential than Scott Bessent.
6.) Brendan Carr — Trump’s FCC Chair has turned the FCC from a leftist anti-freedom organization into one where all ideological viewpoints truly are allowed. Carr successfully repealed the purposely and dishonestly named net neutrality laws that were anything but neutral. Design to force liberal speech on everyone and suppress conservative speech, Carr defeated that anti-freedom scourge. Carr has waged war on DEI practices that allow talentless people to rise above their abilities solely due to their skin color or sexual orientation.
5.) Russell Vought — Trump’s OMB Director held the job in the first administration as well. He has kept his foot on the gas. Not one to shy away from a fight, Vought has taken sledgehammer to the Elizabeth Warren inspired and utterly useless Consumer Financial Protections Bureau. He also closed out the corrupt US Aid program. Vought has become a conservative hero for his dedication to trying to smash the bloated federal civil service bureaucracy and the increasingly corrupt and unconstitutional administrative state. With Elon Musk returning to Tesla full-time, Vought is also in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE
4.) David Solomon — Normally the Head Sled at Golden Sachs is the top PBWG because Goldman Sachs runs the world. Goldman Sachs has a history of flitting in between corporate power and government power. Jon Corzine, Hank Paulson, and Lloyd Blankfein are all former Goldman Sachs PBWG top dogs. Solomon initially missed out on the top spot due to tough economic times, war raging across the world, and an anti-Wall Street climate. Yet in 2024, happy days returned. That allowed Solomon to be last year’s Top PBWG.. In 2025, the stock market hit an all time high. Goldman Sachs now has its usual level of undue influence over the government. The company that is too big to fail with executives who are too big to jail escaped scrutiny during financial meltdowns. They are not going to lose power when Wall Street is making money hand over fist. Yet major political events prevented Solomon from winning the top PBWG spot back to back.
3.) Tom Homan — The Trump administration began with a promise a decade ago to crack down hard on illegal immigration. Homan came out of retirement to fulfill that promise. Despite threats to his family and himself, Homan has refused to back down. He has brought law and order to cities where crime was out of control. As Homan has reminded us, it did not take an act of Congress to restore public trust and safety. It only took a president firmly committed to those things. Trump has unleashed Homan, and Homan has unleashed the gates of hell on drug traffickers and other violent felons.
2.) Stephen Miller — As fantastic as Homan is, Trump’s deputy policy advisor Miller wants to go even further. Homan is dedicated to removing all violent felons in America illegally. Miller seeks to remove every single illegal immigrant. Illegal immigration is a crime. As the Minneapolis corruption scandal shows, the consequences of illegal immigration extend far beyond America’s recently porous borders. Miller and Trump have a mind meld just like former PBWG Ben Rhodes had with Barack Obama. Yet while Rhodes was dedicated to subverting the law, Miller is obsessed with enforcing it.
Normally, Homan and miller would be competing with Solomon for the top spot. Yet 2025 brought one event that up-ended the entire PBWG list.
As said every year, this list was inspired by Dann Forek’s Captain Donald Cragen. In the 27th season opener of Law & Order Special Victims Unit, it was revealed that Captain Cragen had died of natural causes.Since Actor Dann Florek is very much alive, it is time to give him the richly deserved lifetime achievement award. Unlike Willis and Reiner, it is not too late for shower praise on Florek for his lifetime contribution to PBWGs everywhere.
1.) Dann Florek — The man repeatedly barked that “One Police Plaza is all over my @ss!” His scenes with PBWG Superior Chief of Detectives were standard. He’d say “Chief.” The Chief would reply “Don.” That was enough to convey the messages without small talk. Every PBWG owes Florek’s Captain Cragen a debt of gratitude Guys who not only get the job done bu took authoritative while doing so are a treasure. If people saw Florek on the street, they would just assume he was in senior management somewhere getting things done and looking tough doing it.
While Florek inspired this list, the death of Cragen means Florek may never be on his own list again, much less topping it.Yet real men leave a legacy that lasts beyond their own life. Cragen’s subordinate Detective Elliott Stabler now has his own program, Law & Order Organized Crime. Just as Stabler made rage proud, folliclely challenged actor Chris Meloni will make Florek proud. May Stabler carry on Cragen’s PBWG legacy for years to come.
A toast to Captain Donald Cragen, who will be missed but forever a PBWG. Extend that toast to Dann Florek, who gave rage his stern PBWG personality.
Here are the Top 10 News Stories of 2025.
The Department of Government Efficiency did not make the list. DOGE got off to a great start, but they met resistance and the resistance won. The savings were a fraction of what was promised. Entrenched bureaucrats stymied DOGE at every turn. Additionally, violent leftists set Tesla dealerships on fire. Maybe in another quiet form, DOGE could make headway in 2026, but their 2025 accomplishments were not significant enough to make the list.
Pope Leo is the first ever American Pope. Other than being a devoted Chicago White Sox fan, the start to his tenure has been fairly benign. He has largely steered clear of politics. His tenure so far has been too short to make any kind of impression.
The Jeffrey Epstein saga did not make the list. Despite promises of accountability, nobody of note has been held accountable. To make a news list, actual news must occur. With the statute of limitations expiring in a few days, it seems many of the worst offenders will get away with it. The coverup appears to have succeeded. If America had a functioning news media, the truth would come out. We do not, so it did not.
With the exception of one notable policy, President Donald’s second term did not make the list. Simply put, it takes time for policies to take effect. While he took significant actions related to crime, taxes and the overall economy, the results are promising but far from complete. His big beautiful bill does not take effect on January 1st of 2026. Also, the Supreme Court in 2026 will either hamstring his efforts on several issues or unshackle him. On foreign policy, actions and results can be immediately felt. This is not how domestic policy works.
With that, here are the top 10 news stories of 2025.
10.) The collapse of the Kansas City Chiefs — Entering this season, the Chiefs had won the AFC West nine straight times. During that stretch, they had reached five Super Bowls, winning three of them. Yet after winning it all in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the end of the 2024 season was a nightmare. In January 2025, they were blown out in the Super Bowl, denying their quest for an unprecedented three-peat. Then in the 2025 season, the team cratered due to a combination of age, injuries, and the fatigue that comes with being the hunted. With one game left, the Chiefs are 6-10. Patrick Mahomes suffered a knee injury that with rehab could have him ready by the start of the 2026 season. Travis Kelce is likely to retire and marry his pop star girlfriend. Walrus Andy Reid may hang it up as well. After playing in Missouri for over 60 years, the Chiefs announced that in 2031 they will be crossing the border to a new stadium in Kansas City, Kansas.
9.) Artificial Intelligence powers the stock market — America’s fourth revolution is just getting started. First there was agriculture, then the industrial revolution, followed by the 1990s Internet information age. Now AI is everywhere and yet stallion its infancy. The Magnificent 7 tech stocks of Goggle, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Facebook and Nvidia have added several trillion dollars of wealth to the economy. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang has managed to create a 5 trillion dollar company without doing business in China. Entering that market will only expand his company, with the risks that brings about. Only 18 months after his Blackwell chips powered the AI world, he will replace them in 2026 with the Rubin chips. Like it or not, AI is here to stay. All companies will use it in some form to varying degrees. The companies that do AI best will thrive in the new era. Meanwhile, shareholders have celebrated as the stock market hit new all-time highs in December of 2025.
8.) California wildfires — California fires are nothing new, but the devastation from the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires were on a different scale. Wealthy neighborhoods including Pacific Palisades were ravaged. Tragically, these were not natural disasters caused by climate change. They were man-made disasters that were a direct result of government incompetence. Specifically, horrendous forestry policies created the problem. Controlled burns are a way of reducing the risk, size and scope of such fires. Yet California leaders were convinced that they knew more about property care than the local homeowners themselves. Rules and regulations restricting controlled burns led to much bigger conflagrations. Making matters worse, not one Pacific Palisades home has been rebuilt after an entire year. Promised funds have not arrived. Those convinced that government can be a force for good face a tough sell due to situations like this.
7.) Minneapolis Somali fraud — This is one of the most massive government corruption scandals in American history. Billions of Minnesota tax dollars were funneled into various social programs in Minneapolis. Those funds were misappropriated in ways worse than normal. Yes, there was the typical grift of recipients spending money on luxury personal items. Yet this scandal goes deeper. A significant amount of the funds were laundered overseas to various Islamist terrorist groups bent on America’s destruction. Normally, political heads would roll and people would go to prison over such shenanigans. Yet this scandal strikes at the heart of identity politics. Minneapolis Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is a black, female Muslim woman from Somalia. Any time a reporter tries to question her, she intimidates them with accusations of racism, sexism and islamophobia. So far this strategy has worked. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is also a Muslim. Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are both white leftists who desperately need Somali votes to stay in power. The Leiutenant Governor is a guilty white woman who put on a Hijab and pandered in Somali. While this scandal is completely about financial corruption, those trying to make it about bigotry have the upper hand. The truth will not come out until this changes.
6.) Bourbon Street Islamist attack — New Year’s Eve is supposed to be a time of joy and hope for a better year. Yet 2025 began with an act of evil. Just after midnight, Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana became a war zone. A radical Islamist terrorist deliberately rammed his car into pedestrians, killing several. As expected, the media was more concerned with a mythical Islamophobic backlash than the actual victims of a crazed Muslim zealot. This refusal to even say the words “radical Islam” effectively denies that the evil exists. Bourbon Street is the ultimate party city, and weeks after the attack Mardi Gras was in full swing. Yet the attack has brought about an uncomfortable truth. Unless massive numbers of illegal immigrants are deported, these attacks will continue. Democrats need the votes of communities connected to terrorism to remain in power. They will continue to choose preserving their own political power over public safety.
5.) Israel bombs Iran — After decades of hearing the mullahs chant “Death to Israel,” Israel had finally had enough. It was one thing for Israel to root out Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. This time Israel struck targets in Iran itself. Over 12 days, Israel took out every major imminent Iranian threat. President Donald Trump gave Israel the bunker busters it needed to set back Iran’s nuclear capabilities for years. Unfortunately, President Trump’s obsession with peace deals caused him to restrain Israel just as it was on the verge of total victory. Israel could have eliminated the mullahs and forced regime change in Iran. Trump prevented Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from doing this. The mullahs are weakened, but still alive to reconstitute themselves to fight another day. The Israeli Defense Forces did their jobs, but were prevented from eliminating the mullahs entirely.
4.) Australia Hanukkah attack and other Jew-hatred — The year began with one Islamist attack and ended with another one. Overt Jew-hatred exploded in America in 2025. For the most part, this was confined in America to the political left. Yet a new virulent strain of alt-right Jew-hatred has gained power. Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson seem to just support whatever ideology pays them money, while those on the left including Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are true-believing Jew-hating, Islamist-coddlers. Yet Carlson has the ear of Vice President J.D. Vance, which explains his weak responses to antisemitic questions. Much of these new young antisemites are the Ron Paul supporters who graduated from screaming about the Federal Reserve to ranting about Jewish global bankers. Yet the leftists and alt-right are amateurs compared to the Islamists. The Bondi Beach attack near Sydney, Australia was deliberate in terms of time and place. It was the first night of Hanukkah in Australia, and all events happen in Australia first before making their way across the world, with Hawaii being last. By disrupting the world’s first 2025 Hanukkah celebration, the murder of innocent Jews was designed to scare Jews worldwide. The father and son murderers had some success As expected, the perpetually cowardly France canceled their New Year’s Eve celebrations. Yet Jews are a tough people. Hanukkah continued. 2026 will tell if America is still a pro-Jewish nation. The people largely support Jews, but the younger generation is far from Philosemitic. Making matters worse, the leftist Australian Prime Minister decided to respond to the tragedy by further restricting private gun ownership. Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard would have deported every last Islamist zealot. The current leftist is part of the multicultural hug-a-terrorist crowd. The Islamists are evil, but their useful idiots on the left and alt-right are bad for Jews as well.
3.) Blowing up Venezuelan drug boats — While the Trump administration has been far too tolerant and gentle with Iran, they have gotten things totally right with Venezuela. President Nicholas madero runs an illegal government that for far too long has been shipping fentanyl and other deadly drugs into America. Americans are dying from fentanyl, and Trump cracked down hard. With secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth leading the charge, America is blowing up Venezuelan drug boats. As expected, the American left is grieving over dead terrorists. They are against these strikes only because a Republican President supports them. Former President Barack Obama aggressively targeted terrorists overseas with predator drones, and he was right to do so. Trump’s strikes are legal, ethical, moral, Constitutional, and perfectly within the bounds of international law. Finally, those who murder American citizens are facing real world consequences.
2.) The murder of Charlie Kirk — The left’s violent rage that began after the disputed 2000 election exploded with Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. Democrats have labeled pretty much every Republican a racist, sexist, bigoted homophobe who kicks puppies and kittens and eats babies. Then the left graduated to calling Republicans Nazis and fascists. With Trump, the left took things to a new level. He was deemed a threat to democracy. Americans were told there would never be another democratic election again if he won. Trump supporters were harassed at restaurants, doxxed, swatted, and terrorized at their homes in front of their children. Only one year after Trump himself had his ear blown off, Trump supporter and Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk was murdered in cold blood. At an outdoor rally in Utah, a trans activist shot him in the neck fatally. Naturally, the left was more concerned about a retaliation against transgender people than about the victims of trans violence. The left cries bigotry every time conservatives even question whether pumping young kids full of drugs and hormones is a good idea. Kirk’s murder led to a more young people trying to open up Turning Point chapters than ever before. Young people are attending conservative events and turning to Christianity in large numbers. Kirk’s movement could lead to the biggest inspiration for a Christian renewal since Tim Tebow. 2026 will tell if Turning Point and young conservatism becomes bigger than ever or collapses completely. Charlie was pro-Israel and pro-Jewish. Yet some alt-right antisemites are trying to hijack his movement.Erika Kirk, a model of grace and dignity, will be under tremendous pressure going forward to preserve what her husband built rather than let it get devoured by grifters. Either way, the liberal media is downplaying the horrendous fact that assassinating political opponents is not only justified, but chic, and cool.
1.) Ayatollah Mamdani — Less than 25 years after the 2001 September 11th attacks, New York City elected a Muslim as Mayor. Worse, Zohran Mamdani is a hardcore leftist and an Islamist. In 2009, presidential candidate Barack Obama vowed to fundamentally transform America. Mamdani is the proof of that plan’s success. Massive numbers of people from all over the globe flooded America’s border, changing the culture of the nation. These newer immigrants had no interest in assimilation. Zohran Mamdani came from Uganda. An openly avowed socialist, Mamdani blended the intersectional leftism and Islamism. His open hostility toward traditional American values and Israel fit in perfectly with New York elites. Like most powerful socialists, Mamdani hails from a wealthy family and has never held meaningful employment. Yet he spoke well, held a constant smile to disguise his rage, and appealed to the young people who dance on TikTok and eat Tide Pods. He vowed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and give free everything to everybody. His mask slipped at his fiery victory speech where he all but declared Jihad on those who disagree with him. He has refused to denounce Hamas or the terrorist calls to globalize the intifada. One of his first hires had to resign one day after being appointed due to flagrant antisemitism. Mayor-Elect Mamdani embraces the corrosive DEI movement. The woman he appointed as NYFD Fire Chief has never once been a firefighter. She was hired because she is a lesbian. Perhaps Sam Brinton was unavailable. It’s easy to be a liberal when it is someone else’s house that is burning to the ground. Police officers are already fleeing New York. Expect firefighters to follow. Jews in particular should be very afraid that a man with a rabid hatred for them controls the levers of power in America’s largest city with its largest American Jewish population.
With the potential to permanently destroy America’s largest city and an entire religion of people in that city, Mamdani’s election is definitely the biggest story of 2025. To those who love America and the Judeo-Christian values America was founded on, God help us all in 2026 if Mamdani succeeds. With a lapdog media and young campus idiots cheering him on, he just might. America survived Barack Obama because he was timid. We are surviving Ilhan Omar because Minneapolis is small by comparison. A leftist Islamist running New York City is scary and significant.
January 1st, 2025
2025…We…can…do…this
What the heck is that beeping sound?
(Knocks the phone off the hook, keeps banging the snooze alarm)
A voice tells me it’s my pager. My pager is black, so finding it in the dark is the needle in the haystack equivalent. A lucky smack knocks it against the wall, where it may or may not have shattered. The beeping continues. Why does anyone need a pager anymore anyway?
Who the heck is texting me at this ungodly hour of…(either 7 a.m., 1 p.m., or 1 a.m. …it looks blurry)?
Oh, no. It is 5 a.m., and my first radio interview of the New Year is with the morning man of an East Coast station. Time to pretend to sound coherent and go back to sleep. Oh no, wait, that radio interview was several years ago.
Great, happy wishes for the new year. Thanks. Whoever you are, it is too early to talk to you.
One year the person on the telephone insisted it was 1 p.m. After explaining to them that they were on the East Coast, and that 1 p.m. EST is 10 a.m. in Los Angeles, they grew impatient. They knew how to tell time, and that it was 4 p.m. EST, hence 1 p.m. my time.
Sure, getting up and writing my column is an option. It’s a new year, and starting the year off with a flurry of brilliance might be helpful. Forget it. This column is recycled from years ago. It’s also hours late. That is what happens when people get no sleep because of stressful December football games followed by New Year’s Eve revelry.
Election 2024? The first person to talk politics gets blistered in my column … tomorrow.
Bowl games? There is DVR. Besides, does anybody care who wins the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl, the Lack of Insight.com Bowl, the Fishbowl, the RU486 Morning After Bowl, The California Metrosexual Pride Bowl, or any other game that may or may not be made up?
Speaking of the morning after, does anybody remember the David Byrne Talking Heads song from the movie “Less than Zero? (which the temperature feels like right now in some parts of the country. No wonder I live in this insane city of LA)” The song is called “Once In A Lifetime.”
“This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife. What have I done? How did I get here?”
It then occurs to me that the beeping sounds are the voices in my head telling me I am too old, even at 52, to stay out this late. Even without alcohol, exhaustion has set in.
Get out of bed? Work calls in (whenever) hours. Better rest up before my tyrant of a boss complains. Such is the life of the self-employed.
Get up now? Somehow stagger to the shower, get dressed, make it out of my condo to go … where?
The stores are closed. Maybe they are open. Too tired to find out.
My birthday is in just over a week. Time to pace myself.
Work on my website? All that takes is staggering to my couch. Oh, no. My IT guy has not finished it yet. Oh, wait, he did years ago. I clicked on the wrong site.
Go on Jdate and search for women? Not a bad idea, except it is too tiring to check their Adams Apples. This is not the year for a boyfriend, and am not sure that my eyes can tell the difference right now. Besides, Jdate is so 2014. Now it is Tinder, JSwipe and JCrush. Oh, wait. I’m married. No more Internet dating.
Shop on eBay? No. bad idea. Buying stuff when not at full capacity is problematic. Who needs another mountain goat? Dang creature gets his horns in my hide. Not a comfy way to wake up. Calm down boy, you’ll get some straw to graze on upon my waking up.
Work on my record album? Although again, world, just because my hair is long, that does not mean my band exists. The best instrument is the triangle, because that tells me lunch is ready. Oh wait, my hair is not even that long anymore. I could work on that, although I didn’t do much. I sat. It grew.
Ahh, yes, lunch. Get up and eat something. My microwave is slow, and a five minute microwave dinner takes almost 15 minutes. Read the paper? It is cold outside my building where the stand is, and it only takes coins. Reading the paper online is tiring, and my printer is not working. At least the lifestyle section makes a great placemat for eating. Oh, wait. That stand does not exist anymore. Reading the paper online it is.
Staying in bed for only a couple more hours until (whatever the big and little hands say) would allow me to stay up all night and be totally exhausted for work tomorrow. Again, my boss is a tyrant.
Running errands … not gonna happen.
Every morning, a four word prayer starts my day. My elbows are used to try and leverage them against my bed to prop me up. Placing my alarm clock on the other side of the room failed, since ripping the cord out of the wall solved that problem.
As for the Jewish brunette who stole the covers, her voice was not a problem last night, although if she opens her trap today she will receive a more caustic reception than usual.
Oh wait, she already left. Here is a note. “Tried to wake you, but that was a losing battle. By the way, you have nothing but soda in your fridge. Talk to you soon.” oh, wait, I think that happened over a decade ago. My wife stocked the fridge.
There are also potato chips in my fridge as well. Why they are there remains a mystery, but it saves having to remember which cabinet they are in. One-stop shopping is the way to go.
Besides, combing my hair for her was enough. Not doing it this morning, proud “retrosexual” that is me.
At least having the decency to say some morning prayers would be appropriate.
“Hey God…those people I pray for every night…yeah those people, the same ones…look after them again.”
Back to sleep, despite every attempt to wake up. The home phone is turned off, the cell is off as well, and the pager is still shattered, in addition to being disconnected years ago.
There may have been a car crash outside my building followed by 911 calls and sirens, but telling everybody to “keep it down,” solved that problem. A brief nightmare of me being late for work was averted when I realized my location to me was known if necessary.
Four televisions in the living room, and none in the bedroom. Who thought that up? Oh yeah, a television in the bedroom would promote laziness. Besides, trying to figure out which remote to use would cause me to break them all as if they were my pager.
Ok, here it is. Come on, elbows, do your stuff. Rise, young lad, rise! Awaken thy exhausted tired eyes!
Why is God shouting? Oh wait, that is my over-dramatization of God.
Time to set the alarm now to avoid missing work tomorrow. Where was it thrown? Threw it? Oh, screw it.
Ok, time for my four word prayer. It has gotten me this incredibly terribly far. Time to contemplate getting out of bed.
“We…can…do…this.”
Happy 2025 all. Except for the person who woke me up earlier. Whoever you are, I still can’t stand you, even though you are doing me a favor.
Ten hours and 16 bowl games later, there is only one thing left to do.
Time for a nap. Happy 2025.
Zzzzz.
eric
Top 10 Powerful Bald White Guys (PBWGs) of 2024
This list is dedicated to the late radio host Austin Hill. He was a great guy who left us far too soon. He loved this list and gave it more attention than it ever deserved. May he never be forgotten.
This list was inspired by Dann Florek, who played Police Captain Donald Cragen on the “Law & Order” franchises for a couple decades.
A lot of people did not make the list. President Joe Biden is ineligible because he never admitted his baldness, choosing instead to hide behind hair plugs. Vladimir Putin is ineligible because he is a ruthless killer and I do not wish to die. If he asks, I think he has lovely hair. Congressmen Bob Good of Virginia and Chip Roy of Texas came up short. Let’s see if these House Freedom Caucus members do anything in 2025. If they get a conservative agenda passed, they will make the list.Rupert Murdoch seems to be retired. He was on this list for many years.
With that, here are the 2024 Austin Hill Awards dedicated to the Top 10 PBWGs of 2024.
10.) Jeff Bezos: He is no longer the richest man in the world or the CEO of Amazon. Being rich is not the same as being powerful. Bring powerful requires doing things. Bezos is now obsessed with space. He is determined to beat Elon Musk in the space race and retake his position atop the world’s wealthiest list. If he succeeds, he will move up the PBWG list as well.
9.) Kevin O’Leary: Shark Tank’s “Mr. Wonderful” is one of the sharpest investors around. He speaks plainly and with common sense. He actually ran to be the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party in 2017. He should have been on this list for years but 2023 was his breakout year in terms of exposure. He went from being almost everywhere to everywhere. His insights are valuable. He would rank higher except sometimes it is hard to figure out exactly what it is he does.
The next 4 guys are all incoming members of the Trump administration. Normally they would not make the list until they take office, but the Trump administration has gotten an unofficial early start. These guys are already up and running. If they succeed in passing the Trump agenda, they will rank much higher on the list.
8.) Stephen Miran: He is the incoming Charman of the Council of Economic Advisers. For those who have no idea what that even means, he is the head pontificator. Yet unlike many pontificators, he does real work. He is the senior strategist at asset management firm Hudson Bay Capital Management. This means that unlike the rest of the pontificators, he actually knows what he is talking about.
7.) Howard Lutnick: He is the incoming Commerce Secretary and the current head of Cantor Fitzgerald. That was the firm that lost 658 employees on September 11th, 2001. Lutnick will be a unique Commerce secretary. Unlike previous Republican Commerce Secretaries, Lutnick is pro-tariff. Lutnick will be the first Commerce Secretary who will have to navigate cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin. Lutnick is pro-crypto.
6.) Tom Homan: He is the incoming Border Czar. He has over 35 years of experience dealing with the Border. He came out of retirement to take this job. He has threatened to arrest elected officials who run illegal sanctuary cities. Time will tell if the Trump administration is truly willing to cross that bridge. That will drastically affect Homan’s position on the 2025 PBWG list.
5.) Steven Miller: He is the incoming Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. He is seen as an immigration hardliner, a badge he wars with honor. Like Homan, his fate on the 2025 PBWG list depends on whether or not his tough talk can be transferred into substantive actions.
It’s one thing to be a powerful incoming member of the government. It’s quite another to be a current member of the government. Biden administration officials have a ton of power until they leave office. They will not be on this list in 2025, but they absolutely deserve to top the list in 2024. Three of the top four spots including the top two spots are the same as last year.
4.) Gary Gensler: The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission is a political activist with a thirst for regulating everything in sight. With the stock market hitting all time highs, he again threw cold water on the party. Gensler implicitly mandated that corporations enact woke DEI policies. His calls to regulate cryptocurrencies gave Gensler even more power. He is a former Goldman Sachs guy, which propelled his access to power. Republicans will be firing him on January 20th, 2025. He would rank higher but most of what he has implemented is already being reversed, limiting his long-term impact.
3.) Alejandro Mayorkas: The current Border Czar will also be fired on January 20th, 2025, but he is implementing his border vision up until the last moment. Unlike Gensler, Mayorkas’s policies will have much longer lasting effects and be far more difficult to reverse. While he will not be on the 2025 PBWG list, he has the ability to completely derail Homan and Miller from the list as well. That is power. Until Inauguration Day, he is the highest ranking PBWG in the current Executive Branch.
2.) John Fetterman: The Pennsylvania Senator might be the most confounding member of Congress. He spent his early years as a rich white leftist doing hard drugs and leeching off of his parents. After getting elected, he was expected to vote leftist down the line. Then he shocked the political world by offering startlingly lucid thoughts that broke from leftist Orthodoxy. He came out as a staunch supporter of Israel in a Democrat Party with an increasingly influential and militant anti-Israel left wing. He also called for more border security. He even declared that he was not a progressive. When he was verbally accosted by an angry leftist who accused him of betrayal, he showed a surprising sense of humor. He pointed out his recent stroke and claimed that this left him unable to understand what the angry protester was saying. Senator Fetterman is less than two years into his term, and he has already angered people across the political spectrum. He has at least four more years to confound people without consequences. That is power. Yet for the third year in a row, Fetterman comes up one spot short.
1.) David Solomon: Normally the Head Sled at Golden Sachs is the top PBWG because Goldman Sachs runs the world. Goldman Sachs has a history of flitting in between corporate power and government power. Jon Corzine, Hank Paulson, and Lloyd Blankfein are all former Goldman Sachs PBWG top dogs. Solomon initially missed out on the top spot in recent years due to tough economic times, war raging across the world, and an anti-Wall Street climate. Yet in 2024, happy days are here again. The stock market hit an all time high. Goldman Sachs now has its usual level of undue influence over the government. The company that is too big to fail with executives who are too big to jail escaped scrutiny during financial meltdowns. They are not going to lose power when Wall Street is making money hand over fist.
For being the most powerful guy at the most powerful company, for the second consecutive year in a row, David Solomon is the Top Powerful Bald White Guy of 2024.
eric