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Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Let

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Speaker 1: me start, of course, with my best wishes to a

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Speaker 1: man I still love no matter what. President Joe Biden

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Speaker 1: after his diagnosis was revealed yesterday a prostate cancer which

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Speaker 1: has also appeared in his bones, quoting. While this represents

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Speaker 1: a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears

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Speaker 1: to be hormone sensitive, which allows for effective management. I

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Speaker 1: am anything but an expert on this subject, except like you,

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Speaker 1: probably a close witness, but as a man who is

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Speaker 1: himself moving exceptionally too rapidly into Joe's age cohort, I

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Speaker 1: will offer this I think hopeful insight. I cannot imagine

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Speaker 1: this isn't a new development, newly found, and that he

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Speaker 1: has not been frequently checked for this exact form of

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Speaker 1: this DIY. Because my mother had breast cancer and my

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Speaker 1: father had colon cancer, I get the entirety of that

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Speaker 1: department checked with amazing frequency without going into too much detail.

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Speaker 1: I have a urologist, so he necessarily has to check it.

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Speaker 1: This year, I actually had him write a note I

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Speaker 1: could carry with me to my GP, who weeks later

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Speaker 1: wanted to check it, and my internist, who wanted to

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Speaker 1: check it, and my Gastro who did check it before

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Speaker 1: I could stop him. It is the exam of the moment,

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Speaker 1: the long, unpleasant moment. Better safe than sorry. The concern here,

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Speaker 1: obviously is Joe Biden's health and comfort. I know him enough, however,

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Speaker 1: to believe that it has already occurred to him, that

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Speaker 1: the timing of this terrible news carries with it one

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Speaker 1: extraordinary irony. The car in which all of the Biden

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Speaker 1: acuity truthers and reporters and book writers and finger waggers

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Speaker 1: and editors in Washington has just stopped suddenly, and they

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Speaker 1: have all been ejected from the vehicle in which they

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Speaker 1: were climbing over each other in order to drive it

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Speaker 1: faster and faster. And you deserve it utterly, Jake Tapper

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Speaker 1: and Alex Thompson and Jonathan Allen and Robert her and

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Speaker 1: Politico and the Washington Post, The Washington Post which yesterday

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Speaker 1: morning printed a column which began, quote, the verdict is

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Speaker 1: in Joe Biden is to blame unquote, which is why

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Speaker 1: you never write a sentence like that more or later

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Speaker 1: in worse persons. Now to Joe Biden's evil, worthless successor

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Speaker 1: Trump has now descended to making threats against the Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court under his own name, indirectly and stochastically under the

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Speaker 1: names of others who's menacing. He reposts directly, directly and

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Speaker 1: specifically towards the justices he himself appointed. This country is

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Speaker 1: now in this frozen moment of madness in which its

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Speaker 1: president isn't just ignoring or trying to veto the Judiciary

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Speaker 1: and the Supreme Court, but actually encouraging violence against its justices.

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Speaker 1: Trump has also now amplified at least fourteen posts demanding

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Speaker 1: the arrest of the former FBI director James Comy, including

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Speaker 1: one which claims Coomy's dumb photo post proves the assassination

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Speaker 1: attempt against Trump last year was quote an inside job.

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Speaker 1: At another post calling for quote public military tribunals for

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Speaker 1: President Obama, a post that was actually captioned retruth if

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Speaker 1: you want public military tribunals, which Trump retruthed. The President

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Speaker 1: of the United States an asshole is actively endorsing or

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Speaker 1: acquiescing to violence against the former president of the United

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Speaker 1: States and the former FBI director, and most importantly against

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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court the current justices right now because they

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Speaker 1: endorse late last Friday, due process and the Constitution, rather

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Speaker 1: than his belief that he has a dictatorial right to

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Speaker 1: kidnap and rendition to other countries people off the streets

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Speaker 1: of America. The most dangerous of these threats are by

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Speaker 1: Mike Davis, the former Chuck Grassley Aid, the federalist hack

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Speaker 1: behind the Article three project, the online bully and troll.

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Speaker 1: Trump reposted them carefully, making sure not to comment in

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Speaker 1: any way, as ever, keeping space between him and his henchmen.

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Speaker 1: Davis on the ironically named quote truth unquote social Let's

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Speaker 1: get this straight. Obama can drone strikes Americans, but Trump

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Speaker 1: can't repel foreign terrorists. Biden can import over ten million

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Speaker 1: illegal aliens, but Trump can't send them home without years

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Speaker 1: of court process. Those are apparent hallucinations by mister Davis.

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Speaker 1: The American people never agreed to this, not at our founding,

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Speaker 1: not after the Civil War, not anytime since then, certainly

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Speaker 1: not in the last election. The Supreme Court is heading

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Speaker 1: down a perilous path. End of message, and note the

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Speaker 1: careful vague wording quote a perilous path. Note also Davis's

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Speaker 1: mischaracterization of the most recent election, in which Trump got

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Speaker 1: a minority of the total vote and in which those

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Speaker 1: suffering from MAGA disease have perverted into some kind of

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Speaker 1: magic wand well, you voted for him, therefore you authorized

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Speaker 1: him to break the law any way he damn well pleases.

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Speaker 1: Later in a separate post, Davis also questioned the basic

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Speaker 1: legitimacy of the Supreme Court's ruling and proposed subjecting its

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Speaker 1: justices to at least the threat of imminent violence. Davis

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Speaker 1: wants Trump to release those he and Davis claim are

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Speaker 1: foreign and violent and terrorists near where the justices and

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Speaker 1: their families and their presumed friends live. Quoting Davis again,

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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court still has an illegal injunction on the

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Speaker 1: President of the United States not possible preventing him from

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Speaker 1: commanding military operations to expel these foreign terrorists. The President

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Speaker 1: should have these terrorists near the Chevy Chase country Club

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Speaker 1: with daytime release unquote. Besides the threat there, taken at

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Speaker 1: face value, it is as cynical as any produced by

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Speaker 1: Maga disease. So far, either the Supreme Court lets Trump

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Speaker 1: kidnap and disappear people protected by law, or Trump should

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Speaker 1: sick them on the members of the court. Apart from that,

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Speaker 1: as the American Immigration Council Senior fellow Aaron Reichland Melnick

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Speaker 1: notes Mike Davis's second post is full of lies. Quote

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Speaker 1: the Alien Enemies Act. Deportations are not military operations, DHS

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Speaker 1: runs them. Reichland Melnick also notes the injunction isn't against Trump,

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Speaker 1: it's against DHS. A Supreme Court injunction, by definition, can't

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Speaker 1: be illegal. The order made clear DHS can deport people normally,

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Speaker 1: And of course mister Reichland Melnick is correct. But to

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Speaker 1: the others with MAGA disease, Davis has simply used all

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Speaker 1: the correct buzzwords. Invoke Obama and Biden, call the people

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Speaker 1: abducted and renditioned by Trump terrorists, falsely connect what Trump

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Speaker 1: is doing to his role as commander in chief, and

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Speaker 1: pretend it is authorized because he and you use the

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Speaker 1: phrase military operations vaguely suggest violence to be committed, of

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Speaker 1: course by others. And of course, the nonsensical ellipsis calling

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Speaker 1: a ruling of the Supreme Court illegal when the Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court exists to interpret the Constitution and the deciding votes

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Speaker 1: in this case were cast by justices Trump himself appointed.

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Speaker 1: If you're going to point back to the last election,

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Speaker 1: you have to point back to the election, so to speak,

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Speaker 1: of these justices by Trump himself, final vote total one

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Speaker 1: nothing on each of them. As to Trump himself, his

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Speaker 1: usual cowardly response, reposting both of Davis's stochastic threats, pointing

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Speaker 1: at those who have thwarted him, as he is always

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Speaker 1: pointed at judges, politicians, foreign leaders, presidents, presidential candidates, reporters,

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Speaker 1: anybody he thinks might be intimidated, and now the Supreme Court.

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Speaker 1: Hoping that the scum who follow him will act, Trump

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Speaker 1: wrote all caps, the Supreme Court won't allow us to

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Speaker 1: get criminals out of our country. Well, you're still here.

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Speaker 1: That was just the appetizer. This was the meal. The

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court of the United States. Thanks for letting me

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Speaker 1: know it's the United States rather than the United Kingdom.

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Speaker 1: The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing

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Speaker 1: me to do what I was elected to do, which

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Speaker 1: is bullshit. Sleepy Joe Biden allowed millions of criminal aliens

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Speaker 1: to come into our country without a quote capital letters

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Speaker 1: process also bullshit. But in order to get them out

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Speaker 1: of our country, we have to go through a long

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Speaker 1: and extended process capitals. In any event, Thank you to

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Speaker 1: Justice Alito and Justice Thomas for attempting to protect our country.

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Speaker 1: This is a bad and dangerous day for America. There

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Speaker 1: is another standard Trump ploy here, Thank you to Justice

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Speaker 1: Alito and Justice Thomas, thus reminding there would be vigilantes

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Speaker 1: that the others, the liberals on the Court and even

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Speaker 1: Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsich and Amy Cony Barrett, they are

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Speaker 1: to receive the blame and to receive god knows what else.

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Speaker 1: It is again, as ever with Trump, stochastic terrorism by Trump,

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Speaker 1: and in this context of the Komy farce, in the

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Speaker 1: context of how the fascists are still trying to turn

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Speaker 1: into a threat of assassination, a stupid Instagram post calling

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Speaker 1: for Trump to be fired or dumped or removed, by

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Speaker 1: every definition and interpretation of the terms used, a decidedly

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Speaker 1: non violent call for change. Non violent, not violent in

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Speaker 1: the context of what these belligerent yet always thin skinned

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Speaker 1: morons are pretending James Comy meant. If that context were accurate,

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Speaker 1: the Mike Davis and Trump posts would be menacing enough

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Speaker 1: that they both would have to be immediately arrested. Comy,

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Speaker 1: of course, posted a photo of some shells on sand

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Speaker 1: that he had formed either physically or dig into the

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Speaker 1: numbers eighty six and forty seven, and made a further

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Speaker 1: stupid joke that the numbers had to rayed themselves naturally. Somehow.

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Speaker 1: Eighty six believed to have originated in slang created by

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Speaker 1: Soda Fountain employees eighty and ninety years ago, meaning they

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Speaker 1: were out of a particular drink or food fanella egg creams.

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Speaker 1: Eighty six. That number supposedly selected because it rhymes with nicks.

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Speaker 1: Not violent, never violent, unlike a phrase like deep six

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Speaker 1: to throw something or somebody overboard literally or figuratively. Not

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Speaker 1: necessarily violent deep six, but it could be, unlike eighty six,

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Speaker 1: which is at its core about running out of milkshakes.

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Speaker 1: As they say usually about Trump, there's always a tweet.

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Speaker 1: This time it isn't one of his, but rather from

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Speaker 1: the right wing extremist Jack Posobic, who tweeted James Comy

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Speaker 1: should be arrested and to have to dismantle the FBI

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Speaker 1: building brick by brick. That tweet was on May sixteenth,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. On January twenty ninth, twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 1: the same facodic tweeted eighty six forty six. Unfortunately it

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Speaker 1: is not just the amateur right wing nuts who tried

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Speaker 1: to turn Comy's stupid post into the modern equivalent of

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Speaker 1: the crucifixion. The professional right wing nuts trampled each other

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Speaker 1: to try this. They proceeded with typical caution, and by

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Speaker 1: typical caution, I mean escalating hysteria. From the FBI Director Popeye,

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Speaker 1: we are aware of the recent social media post by

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Speaker 1: former FBI Director James Comy directed at President Trump. We

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Speaker 1: are in communication with the Secret Service and director. Current

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Speaker 1: primary jurisdiction is with the SS on these matters, and

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Speaker 1: we the FBI will provide all necessary support. Good call

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Speaker 1: on using SS. He's a genie cash Pattel from Secretary

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Speaker 1: Gnome quote. Disgraced former FBI Director James Comy just called

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Speaker 1: for the assassination of President Trump. He didn't. That doesn't

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Speaker 1: stop her. I think we should just be happy she

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Speaker 1: didn't drag him over to the gravel pit. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: DHS and Secret Services investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.

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Speaker 1: Here's how you should respond appropriately. Shove it, dn I,

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Speaker 1: Telsey Gabbard, James Comey just issued a call to action

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Speaker 1: to murder the President of the United States. Telsea Gabbart

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Speaker 1: is an incredibly stupid woman. But there is nothing in

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Speaker 1: that post that is a call to action or to murder.

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Speaker 1: Forty seven is a reference to the President of the

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Speaker 1: United States. You got one third of it right. This,

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Speaker 1: I believe is your personal best. He's a former FBI

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Speaker 1: director and someone who spent most of his career prosecuting

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Speaker 1: mobsters and gangsters. He knew exactly what he was doing

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Speaker 1: and must be held accountable. Doesn't say anything about prosecuting

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Speaker 1: soda jerks. Thank you, Madam d and I director of

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Speaker 1: No Intelligence Gabbard and Stephen Miller, as the former FBI

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Speaker 1: director and key leader of the deep state. Comy's call

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Speaker 1: for assassination while the president is abroad no less is

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Speaker 1: a chilling escalation of the war against our democracy by

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Speaker 1: a faction committed to its destruction. So Stephen Miller, you

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Speaker 1: sent Comy's post, and remember this is assassination by egg

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Speaker 1: cream and Trump still trying to portray strength and weakness,

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Speaker 1: invulnerability and imminent martyrdom and all at the same time

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Speaker 1: he said, comye knew exactly what that meant. A child

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Speaker 1: knows what that meant. That meant assassination unquote a child. Well,

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Speaker 1: every Trump accusation is a confession. Mercifully, half the MAGA

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Speaker 1: disease sufferers made idiots out of themselves, trying to make

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Speaker 1: Komy's gratuitous and frankly weak image and imagery into something serious.

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Speaker 1: Congressman James Comer, who may or may not have ever

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Speaker 1: realized that he and James Komy literally differ by exactly

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Speaker 1: one letter, confessed more than he accused when he went

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Speaker 1: on Fox and insisted he wouldn't be surprised if Komy's

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Speaker 1: Seashell arrangement meant quote they were trying to jizz up

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Speaker 1: some kind of coup or some kind of insurrection. One

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Speaker 1: presumes Comer was reaching for the phrase gin up, or

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Speaker 1: he was reaching for something else, perhaps something that Lauren

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Speaker 1: Bobert could help him with. Jesse Waters went into some

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Speaker 1: intricate explanation that somebody told him, or maybe he dreamed it.

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Speaker 1: Who knows of eighty six, the man who makes his

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Speaker 1: predecessors Tucker Carlson and Bill O'Reilly seem intelligent. Waters says, quote,

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Speaker 1: it's military slang, t O on a rotary phone. He

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Speaker 1: was a marine. He obviously knew what he was doing. Unquote.

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Speaker 1: Comy was not a marine you may be thinking of Mueller.

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Speaker 1: Comy wasn't a marine. He was never in the military.

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Speaker 1: His dad was a cop in the town next to

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Speaker 1: mine when I was a kid. If that'll help. Jesse

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Speaker 1: also to in military slang means throw out, which once

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Speaker 1: again does not imply violence among the randas. There was

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Speaker 1: the usual rate of ten to fifteen percent hilarious typos

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Speaker 1: from somebody identifying himself as Sean R. Larabee. Quote. As

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Speaker 1: the Left wages war against the people of the United

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Speaker 1: Stairs of American, they call for the assassination of their leader.

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Speaker 1: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Stairs

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Speaker 1: of American. But dumbest of all, as ever knew Gingrich,

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Speaker 1: who as ever will believe anything quote? Does anyone believe

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Speaker 1: the eighty six forty seven seashell arrangement Comy quote found

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Speaker 1: unquote occurred naturally? He clearly is in need of psychiatrist help.

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Speaker 1: Gingrich once tweeted that something was the fault of elites

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Speaker 1: in New York City who looked down on ordinary people

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Speaker 1: and showed their contempt and superiority by riding the New

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Speaker 1: York subway. The elites take the subway here that I

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Speaker 1: thought was untoppable for its Gingrichian stupidity, yet Newt has

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Speaker 1: now somehow exceeded it. He thinks he thinks Komy was

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Speaker 1: serious about this, just washed up on the beach like that.

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Speaker 1: It's still, though, is not the dumbest Thingnut Gingrich has

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Speaker 1: ever done in a fantastically dumb life filled not just

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Speaker 1: with an extraordinary volume of dumbness, but one with amazing

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Speaker 1: variety of dumb. Nut, of course, is the man who

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Speaker 1: twisted this country in knots for a year and forced

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Speaker 1: us to take our eyes off the gathering storm of

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Speaker 1: bin laden led terrorism in his insane attempt to impeach

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Speaker 1: and remove a president, then block the appointment of a

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Speaker 1: new vice president, then impeach and remove the new president,

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Speaker 1: and as Speaker of the House, automatically rise to take

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Speaker 1: the place of both of them in the White House.

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Speaker 1: You may recall how that turned out. The impeachment died

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Speaker 1: quickly in the Senate, the President's approval rate rose, and

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Speaker 1: the only person who lost his job was Newt Gingrich.

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Speaker 1: Who is it that's clearly in need of quote psychiatrist

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Speaker 1: help Newt Among reeler headlines, Trump supposedly on the phone

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Speaker 1: with Putin At ten am Monday, Trump making the call

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Speaker 1: for instructions from President Putin on how to destroy America.

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Speaker 1: Press one for instructions from President Putin on how to

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Speaker 1: destroy Ukraine. Press two for updates from President Putin about

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Speaker 1: your compromant. Press three. We're sorry, we're experiencing higher than

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Speaker 1: usual call volume. Please wait and a Putin will be

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Speaker 1: with you shortly. There are nine hundred and seventy four

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Speaker 1: calls ahead of you. Domestically, Trump's Secretary of the Treasury,

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Speaker 1: Scott Bessant, who doesn't actually exist. He's just a dim

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Speaker 1: witted character played to perfection by the great American character

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Speaker 1: actor Barry Bostwick, the mayor in Spin City, Scott Bessant,

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Speaker 1: if that is your real name, says Walmart will reply

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Speaker 1: to Trump's demand that it quote eat most of the

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Speaker 1: price increases Trump has created with his tariffs. Of course,

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Speaker 1: Bessant said this on Meet the Press, So Kristen Welker

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Speaker 1: did not follow up by asking the obvious question. Didn't

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Speaker 1: Trump say there wouldn't be any price increases because the

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Speaker 1: foreign countries pay the tariffs and thus eat the price increases. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: may I suggest something Trump can eat among the other

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Speaker 1: secretaries stuffed into the Trump cabinet circus clown car. Pro

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Speaker 1: Publica has intimated the Attorney General Blondie may have done

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Speaker 1: a Martha Stewart by selling more than a million dollars

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Speaker 1: in stock in Trump's social media site just before Trump

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Speaker 1: crashed the stock market with his tariff announcement. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: the Justice Department will get right on that. It is

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Speaker 1: now confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security, except if you're a

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Speaker 1: dog in her home. Christy Nome is vetting a reality

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Speaker 1: show proposed by a veteran of Duck dynasty that would

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Speaker 1: have immigrants compete for actual US citizenship papers and all

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Speaker 1: by proving they are the most American. The pitch Deck

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Speaker 1: reports The Wall Street Journal is thirty six slides long.

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Speaker 1: How about another reality series in which immigrants compete for

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Speaker 1: actual US citizenship by guessing how many plastic surgery procedures

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Speaker 1: Secretary Nome has had, you know, rounded off to the

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Speaker 1: nearest one hundred and as to either FCC Chairman Brendan

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Speaker 1: Carr or the Secretary of Blackmail, who is who is? Well,

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Speaker 1: Trump is his own secretary of blackmail, right. Guess what

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Speaker 1: submitting to blackmail gets you Bob Iger immunity, no, sir,

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Speaker 1: more blackmail quote from Trump. Why doesn't Chairman Bob Iger

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Speaker 1: do something about ABC fake news, especially since I just

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Speaker 1: won sixteen million dollars based on the fake and defamatory

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Speaker 1: reporting of little George Slopadopoulos. You didn't win anything that

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Speaker 1: was a bribe. He was given warnings but just couldn't

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Speaker 1: be restrained by management. Now I see they are at

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Speaker 1: it again, and I again give these sleeze bags fair warning.

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Speaker 1: The wonderful country of Katar, after agreeing to invest more

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Speaker 1: than one point four trillion dollars in the United States

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Speaker 1: of America, deserves much better than misleading fake news. Everyone,

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Speaker 1: including their lawyers, has been told that ABC must not

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Speaker 1: say that Katar is giving me a free Boeing set

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Speaker 1: and forty seven airplane because they are not. Instead, and

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Speaker 1: as fake news, ABC fully knows and understands, this highly

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Speaker 1: respected country is donating the plane to the United States

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Speaker 1: Air Force Defense Department and not to me. By so doing,

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Speaker 1: their saving our country and the American taxpayer hundreds of

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Speaker 1: millions of dollars. ABC fake news is one of the worst. Gee, Trump,

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Speaker 1: you left out the part about how it's a used plane.

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Speaker 1: That Katar wasn't able to sell One quote in there

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Speaker 1: that should tell Bob Iiger and all the rest of

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Speaker 1: media where Trump wants to take this. The quote is,

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Speaker 1: I again give these sleezebags fair warning. Everyone including their lawyers,

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Speaker 1: has been told that ABC must not say that's where

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Speaker 1: the government of this country is going, that's where America

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Speaker 1: is going. Where Trump tells you he is defending freedom

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Speaker 1: of the press, and then tell the press and television

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Speaker 1: and eventually you what you can and cannot say line

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Speaker 1: by line. Good call, Bob. Now more on Trump voters

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Speaker 1: and buyer's remorse. I mentioned Elliott Morris's excellent new website,

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Speaker 1: Strength in Numbers last week, which sure seems to be

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Speaker 1: polling about issues and news rather than just horse races.

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Speaker 1: Last week, he calculated, using his own polling, that Trump's

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Speaker 1: pulling is so bad in so many ways that if

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Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four election were to be conducted now,

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Speaker 1: Harris would win by five points. Morris, the last king

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Speaker 1: of five thirty eight dot com after Bob Iger got

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Speaker 1: rid of that, has now moved on to the issue

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Speaker 1: of actual regret by those who voted for Trump. CNN

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Speaker 1: did poll indicating that only four percent do only four

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Speaker 1: percent of Trump voters would rather have voted for somebody

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Speaker 1: else or not voted at all. After this start seems trivial,

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Speaker 1: except that four percent of Trump's vote total would be

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Speaker 1: three million, ninety two thousand votes, and Trump only best

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Speaker 1: at Harris by two million, two undred and eighty five

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Speaker 1: thousand votes. So I don't know what explains why they

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Speaker 1: would position that as trivial, except maybe for CNN's recent

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Speaker 1: lurch right word. Morris notes in a way few pollsters

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Speaker 1: I have ever met would even think of quote. The

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Speaker 1: first problem is that people are probably very unwilling to

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Speaker 1: tell a stranger that they regret an action they took.

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Speaker 1: More practically, Morris also writes this in a poll of

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Speaker 1: one thousand US adults, I find that if you ask

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Speaker 1: people simply how they would vote in a hypothetical election

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Speaker 1: not framed as regret, persistent voting for Trump is in

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Speaker 1: fact significantly lower than persistent support for Kamala Harris. The

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Speaker 1: percentage of Trump twenty twenty four voters who say they'd

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Speaker 1: vote for him again is just eighty six percent. In comparison,

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Speaker 1: Harris retains ninety two percent of her prior voters. Those

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Speaker 1: differences seem small, but in a close election, they absolutely

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Speaker 1: add up. Morris continues, what people tend to ignore is

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Speaker 1: the non voters. A meaningful number of people who set

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Speaker 1: out twenty twenty four now say they would participate, and

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Speaker 1: they lean towards Harris over Trump by fourteen points. While

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four voters are split forty three percent to

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Speaker 1: forty three percent for Trump and Harris, in the hypothetical rematch,

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Speaker 1: non voters go for Harris thirty six percent to twenty

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Speaker 1: two percent. Non voters represented about a third of US adults,

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Speaker 1: so that shift is large enough to tip the electoral

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Speaker 1: balance away from Trump. Overall. Unquote, the sum total is

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Speaker 1: the same sum total as is no numbers from last week.

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Speaker 1: If the election were held now, Trump would lose and

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Speaker 1: buy a large margin. I think you can tell. I

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Speaker 1: like Morris's site strength in numbers. His polling is done

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Speaker 1: by Verisite, and while I am plugging it, i'd add

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Speaker 1: Morris thinks Trump's interior numbers are now so bad they

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Speaker 1: are nearing blue wave territory. He has upgraded Trump's overall

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Speaker 1: disapproval to just net minus eight, which he calculates translates

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Speaker 1: to losing forty seats in the House next year nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty two. Except for the two thousand and two terror election,

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Speaker 1: every president has lost House seats. There is a predictable

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Speaker 1: correlation between how bad your NET approval is and how

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Speaker 1: many seats you lose in the House. In May twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two, Joe Biden was at net plus thirteen and

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Speaker 1: the Republicans gained nine seats. Twenty eighteen, Trump was about

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Speaker 1: where he was now, at about minus eight minus nine

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Speaker 1: minus ten net, and he lost forty House seats. So

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Speaker 1: the roadmap is in one sense simple for the next

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Speaker 1: nineteen months until they regain the House. The Democrat's most

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Speaker 1: important role is to hold, block, delay, stall, defer, and

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Speaker 1: throw their bodies in front of anything Trump wants, anything

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Speaker 1: and everything. Are we picking which Democrats have to throw

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Speaker 1: their bodies in front of this newsome first? Gretchen Whitmer,

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Speaker 1: Bill Maher are yeah? Bill Maher? Also of interest here,

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Speaker 1: Trump wonders if a new soccer stadium will be used

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Speaker 1: for the twenty twenty Los Angeles Olympics. The stadium is

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Speaker 1: in New York City. Apparently it has never occurred to

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Speaker 1: Trump that Los Angeles is not in New York City.

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Speaker 1: That's next. God bless Joe Biden. This is Countdown. This

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Speaker 1: is Countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead on this all

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Speaker 1: new edition of Countdown. Another baseball manager fired by an

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Speaker 1: underperforming team that had had hopes. That's one way of

403
00:31:08,115 --> 00:31:09,875
Speaker 1: looking at it. The other way of looking at it

404
00:31:09,915 --> 00:31:13,795
Speaker 1: is another baseball manager fired by a franchise desperately hoping

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Speaker 1: to make its fans think their team stinks because the

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00:31:18,075 --> 00:31:22,035
Speaker 1: players are greedy and it's worth locking them out and

407
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Speaker 1: maybe not having a season in twenty twenty seven instead.

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Speaker 1: Next in Sportsball Center First, believe it or not, there's

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Speaker 1: still more new idiots to talk about. The roundup of

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Speaker 1: the miscreants, morons and Dunning Krueger effects specimens who constitute

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Speaker 1: the latest other worse persons in the world, Thebrons worse

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Speaker 1: Trumpy again. On his bribery tour of the Middle East,

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Speaker 1: he was shown a presentation about a new soccer stadium

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Speaker 1: in New York City and the naming rights that will

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Speaker 1: go to an Abu Dhabi company, and Trump asked his host,

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Speaker 1: so where is it and the answer was Queen's And

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Speaker 1: Trump said, I know the area well. I grew up

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Speaker 1: in Queens. Will they be using that in the Olympics? Uh?

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Speaker 1: Using it in the What now? The Olympics Trump is

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00:32:14,795 --> 00:32:18,915
Speaker 1: referring to, presumably are the twenty twenty eight games in

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles, So naturally they'd use a queen's stadium three

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Speaker 1: thousand miles away for the soccer in the Los Angeles Olympics,

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Speaker 1: unless Trump meant the twenty twenty six Winter Games, which

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Speaker 1: are in Italy. Years ago, when I worked in Boston,

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Speaker 1: I was at the ABC station while we were carrying

426
00:32:41,755 --> 00:32:45,875
Speaker 1: the Olympics, the nineteen eighty four Olympics from coincidentally Los Angeles.

427
00:32:46,035 --> 00:32:48,915
Speaker 1: We got so many phone calls from viewers, most of

428
00:32:48,955 --> 00:32:52,075
Speaker 1: them complaining that we were preempting the soap operas in

429
00:32:52,115 --> 00:32:54,955
Speaker 1: the afternoon, that many of those calls were forwarded to

430
00:32:55,115 --> 00:33:01,915
Speaker 1: us in the sports department. One earnest, serene, intelligent sounding

431
00:33:02,035 --> 00:33:04,915
Speaker 1: viewer was on the phone explaining he'd never seen Bucker

432
00:33:04,995 --> 00:33:08,155
Speaker 1: before and was fascinated by this game and he wanted

433
00:33:08,155 --> 00:33:11,155
Speaker 1: to go watch some of it. Where are they playing

434
00:33:11,235 --> 00:33:14,635
Speaker 1: these soccer games, he asked me. I explained, in the

435
00:33:14,675 --> 00:33:18,875
Speaker 1: Los Angeles area, in a couple of stadiums. Oh, he replied, pleasantly.

436
00:33:19,075 --> 00:33:24,155
Speaker 1: What part of Boston is that. I survived that question

437
00:33:24,235 --> 00:33:27,755
Speaker 1: and explained it was in California. He hadn't heard me.

438
00:33:27,915 --> 00:33:29,475
Speaker 1: In fact, some of the games were at the Rose

439
00:33:29,515 --> 00:33:34,275
Speaker 1: Bowl in Pasadena, and he said, Passadena. Is that anywhere

440
00:33:34,315 --> 00:33:38,155
Speaker 1: near Gloucester. This went on for a while while I

441
00:33:38,195 --> 00:33:41,555
Speaker 1: got increasingly worried. It became quite clear the guy had

442
00:33:41,595 --> 00:33:45,395
Speaker 1: no idea that there were parts of the world that

443
00:33:45,555 --> 00:33:52,155
Speaker 1: weren't in or near Boston. Finally, he asked which tea

444
00:33:52,315 --> 00:33:56,635
Speaker 1: line the subway system, the trolley's green or blue he

445
00:33:56,675 --> 00:33:59,835
Speaker 1: should take to get to that game in Pasadena. So

446
00:33:59,915 --> 00:34:01,635
Speaker 1: I had to explain to him it was three thousand

447
00:34:01,635 --> 00:34:03,635
Speaker 1: miles away and it would take him a week or

448
00:34:03,635 --> 00:34:06,195
Speaker 1: so to get there, and he'd have to walk. After

449
00:34:06,235 --> 00:34:08,315
Speaker 1: he got to the farthest station on the Green line.

450
00:34:08,795 --> 00:34:13,235
Speaker 1: He laughed at me, Sorry, that's impossible. There's no place

451
00:34:13,275 --> 00:34:17,395
Speaker 1: that far away, and he hung up. I'm wondering now

452
00:34:17,755 --> 00:34:21,275
Speaker 1: if maybe my nineteen eighty four collar was actually Trump

453
00:34:22,235 --> 00:34:24,315
Speaker 1: the stadium in Queens, Will it be used for the

454
00:34:24,355 --> 00:34:28,475
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Olympics. No, he's not brain damaged at all.

455
00:34:29,715 --> 00:34:33,595
Speaker 1: The runner up worser is pal Musk talk about brain

456
00:34:33,675 --> 00:34:39,395
Speaker 1: damage Musk's AI chat bot on X GROC has gone

457
00:34:39,435 --> 00:34:42,155
Speaker 1: all Hal three thousand from the movie two thousand and

458
00:34:42,155 --> 00:34:44,795
Speaker 1: one on us. First, it started to bring up white

459
00:34:44,915 --> 00:34:50,435
Speaker 1: genocide in South Africa when asked about anything like, never

460
00:34:50,475 --> 00:34:52,875
Speaker 1: mind that, what about the white genocide in South Africa?

461
00:34:53,475 --> 00:34:58,195
Speaker 1: Human Then some questioner brought up the Holocaust and GROC

462
00:34:58,315 --> 00:35:03,115
Speaker 1: replied mentioning the six million Jews killed, and then without provocation,

463
00:35:03,355 --> 00:35:08,635
Speaker 1: GROC explained it was skeptical about that figure. This led

464
00:35:08,635 --> 00:35:11,435
Speaker 1: to a statement from the company on May fourteenth, at

465
00:35:11,435 --> 00:35:17,435
Speaker 1: approximately three point fifteen AMPST, an unauthorized modification was made

466
00:35:17,515 --> 00:35:23,675
Speaker 1: to the GROCK response bots prompt on X huh. An

467
00:35:23,755 --> 00:35:26,955
Speaker 1: unauthorized modification was made to GROC in the middle of

468
00:35:26,995 --> 00:35:31,555
Speaker 1: the night Pacific time by somebody who would know how

469
00:35:31,595 --> 00:35:36,915
Speaker 1: to get past all the X electronic firewalls and then

470
00:35:36,995 --> 00:35:40,515
Speaker 1: go in and actually alter the programming of the artificial

471
00:35:40,595 --> 00:35:46,275
Speaker 1: intelligence bot or tell one of his employees to do it. Hmmmm.

472
00:35:47,315 --> 00:35:51,875
Speaker 1: I wonder if there are any suspects but our winner

473
00:35:51,995 --> 00:35:57,195
Speaker 1: talking about artificial intelligence or artificial lack of intelligence the

474
00:35:57,235 --> 00:36:03,475
Speaker 1: worst again, Politico and Axios. They're not alone out here.

475
00:36:04,035 --> 00:36:09,035
Speaker 1: CNN also mistakenly decided This subject is click or viewer bait,

476
00:36:09,715 --> 00:36:12,595
Speaker 1: but one headline on politico site and the lead item

477
00:36:12,635 --> 00:36:16,715
Speaker 1: on some of its newsletters read the Biden question hanging

478
00:36:16,795 --> 00:36:20,035
Speaker 1: over the twenty twenty eight field. Some Democrats argue their

479
00:36:20,115 --> 00:36:22,915
Speaker 1: leaders aren't owning up to the truth about Biden and

480
00:36:23,035 --> 00:36:28,955
Speaker 1: risk keeping the issue alive indefinitely. Adam Wren and Holly

481
00:36:29,075 --> 00:36:32,715
Speaker 1: otter Bine then write something that might seem true to

482
00:36:32,755 --> 00:36:36,915
Speaker 1: them from inside the DC bubble, but is bluntly outright fiction.

483
00:36:37,475 --> 00:36:40,715
Speaker 1: I will quote it. Joe Biden may have cost Democrats

484
00:36:40,715 --> 00:36:43,835
Speaker 1: the White House in twenty twenty four. That's true. Their

485
00:36:43,875 --> 00:36:47,555
Speaker 1: inability to admit it, some Democrats fear could hobble them

486
00:36:47,555 --> 00:36:51,915
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty eight. Say what now? As a fresh

487
00:36:51,955 --> 00:36:55,515
Speaker 1: reckoning in the party unfolds around the former president's mental acuity,

488
00:36:57,235 --> 00:37:01,715
Speaker 1: what party is this happening at? Potential presidential contenders have

489
00:37:01,795 --> 00:37:05,875
Speaker 1: mostly dodged questions about his condition while in all office,

490
00:37:06,275 --> 00:37:10,435
Speaker 1: since since he's not in office anymore and that was resolved.

491
00:37:11,355 --> 00:37:14,155
Speaker 1: They also sidestepped whether the party should have more forcefully

492
00:37:14,155 --> 00:37:18,715
Speaker 1: called on him to abandon his re election bid earlier. Yeah,

493
00:37:19,115 --> 00:37:21,875
Speaker 1: that's a tough one to judge here. From after the

494
00:37:21,915 --> 00:37:24,595
Speaker 1: fact whether or not they should have done more get

495
00:37:24,635 --> 00:37:28,715
Speaker 1: them to leave. Maybe maybe that's be answered with the

496
00:37:29,075 --> 00:37:31,435
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of the people saying the same thing

497
00:37:31,475 --> 00:37:35,275
Speaker 1: to that that's a big controversy. They've also sidestepped whether

498
00:37:35,315 --> 00:37:37,435
Speaker 1: the party should have more forcellly called on him to

499
00:37:37,475 --> 00:37:40,955
Speaker 1: abandon his reelection bit earlier. I'm waiting for somebody to say, no,

500
00:37:41,675 --> 00:37:46,115
Speaker 1: we like the way it turned out. More from this

501
00:37:46,315 --> 00:37:50,515
Speaker 1: article by otter Bine and Wren. Why isn't the Grock

502
00:37:50,755 --> 00:37:54,595
Speaker 1: name of artificial intelligence? Otter Bine, That sounds like a

503
00:37:54,675 --> 00:37:58,475
Speaker 1: name of a chatbot. How are some of these national

504
00:37:58,475 --> 00:38:01,355
Speaker 1: front runners or people who are already barnstorming states like

505
00:38:01,435 --> 00:38:04,395
Speaker 1: South Carolina or Iowa expected to look voters in the

506
00:38:04,435 --> 00:38:07,275
Speaker 1: eye with a straight face and say, trust me, even

507
00:38:07,275 --> 00:38:10,275
Speaker 1: though I got the twenty twenty four election so terribly wrong,

508
00:38:10,835 --> 00:38:15,155
Speaker 1: asked the former Representative Joe Cunningham, Democrat of South Carolina,

509
00:38:15,235 --> 00:38:17,115
Speaker 1: who said he expects the issue to come up on

510
00:38:17,155 --> 00:38:19,155
Speaker 1: the trail in what is now the first in the

511
00:38:19,235 --> 00:38:22,435
Speaker 1: nation primary state. There's no courage on display by any

512
00:38:22,515 --> 00:38:25,515
Speaker 1: of the folks whose names are being circulated right now.

513
00:38:26,675 --> 00:38:31,995
Speaker 1: Speaking of names, who the hell is Joe Cunningham the

514
00:38:32,075 --> 00:38:37,275
Speaker 1: lead quote in this story, Joe Cunningham, the White Sox

515
00:38:37,315 --> 00:38:41,235
Speaker 1: and Cardinals first baseman from the fifties and sixties. The

516
00:38:41,355 --> 00:38:44,755
Speaker 1: lead quote, Joe Cunningham turns out to be a one

517
00:38:44,915 --> 00:38:52,835
Speaker 1: term congressman who lost to Nancy Mace. Joe, you lost

518
00:38:52,875 --> 00:39:00,235
Speaker 1: to a slightly animated box of plastic. I had literally

519
00:39:00,275 --> 00:39:04,395
Speaker 1: never heard of Joe Cunningham before the Politico story. If

520
00:39:04,395 --> 00:39:08,035
Speaker 1: he he is the lead item in your story, you

521
00:39:08,235 --> 00:39:13,955
Speaker 1: ain't got a story. Meanwhile, Axios under Mike Allen, another

522
00:39:13,995 --> 00:39:16,675
Speaker 1: guy who'll carry anybody's water and will go to his

523
00:39:16,755 --> 00:39:20,275
Speaker 1: grave having never really understood the meaning of any story

524
00:39:20,315 --> 00:39:24,715
Speaker 1: he ever covered, just its relative heat and maybe the

525
00:39:24,755 --> 00:39:27,715
Speaker 1: metrics of the audience it drew, and who thanked him

526
00:39:27,755 --> 00:39:31,115
Speaker 1: for it and said I owe you one. Mike Allen

527
00:39:31,235 --> 00:39:34,635
Speaker 1: published the audio of Trump Horror X special counsel Robert

528
00:39:34,715 --> 00:39:38,555
Speaker 1: Hurr's interview with Biden in Washington. This is all a

529
00:39:38,595 --> 00:39:43,395
Speaker 1: big deal. Like the way I get with baseball history,

530
00:39:43,955 --> 00:39:47,515
Speaker 1: nineteenth century World Series, break into programming. I just found

531
00:39:47,515 --> 00:39:49,955
Speaker 1: out something about the third inning of the seventh game

532
00:39:49,995 --> 00:39:53,635
Speaker 1: of the n eighteen eighty six World Series. I care

533
00:39:54,155 --> 00:39:58,035
Speaker 1: and two or three other people care outside Washington. If

534
00:39:58,035 --> 00:40:01,915
Speaker 1: this story registers, it registers as part of the Trump

535
00:40:01,955 --> 00:40:06,355
Speaker 1: and Republican attempt to overshadow his crashing of the economy,

536
00:40:06,635 --> 00:40:09,355
Speaker 1: his threatening of the Supreme Court, his attempt to turn

537
00:40:09,435 --> 00:40:12,715
Speaker 1: us into a dictatorship, and especially his attempt to change

538
00:40:12,755 --> 00:40:17,955
Speaker 1: the topic from Trump's panorama of psychological and mental capacity issues.

539
00:40:18,355 --> 00:40:22,675
Speaker 1: Trump's got a defective brain, and he isn't emotionally close

540
00:40:22,715 --> 00:40:26,915
Speaker 1: to being responsible, and he's getting worse. But let's talk

541
00:40:26,955 --> 00:40:30,755
Speaker 1: about Joe Biden and not talk about the key reality

542
00:40:30,795 --> 00:40:34,515
Speaker 1: in the Joe Biden acuity story, which is simply whatever

543
00:40:34,555 --> 00:40:38,315
Speaker 1: condition he was in and whatever point in his presidency

544
00:40:38,355 --> 00:40:42,315
Speaker 1: you want to fixate on. Ultimately, when push came to shove,

545
00:40:42,755 --> 00:40:45,955
Speaker 1: he was sharp enough to do something nobody had ever

546
00:40:46,115 --> 00:40:49,675
Speaker 1: done before in the history of this country, to withdraw

547
00:40:50,035 --> 00:40:53,555
Speaker 1: his nomination for re election and have the vice president

548
00:40:53,675 --> 00:40:58,715
Speaker 1: run in his place instead. When exactly did Trump, who

549
00:40:58,795 --> 00:41:03,075
Speaker 1: has both a diseased and a disordered mind and has

550
00:41:03,115 --> 00:41:05,475
Speaker 1: had them for the entire party of both of his

551
00:41:05,635 --> 00:41:09,115
Speaker 1: terms in office, when did he do that? When is

552
00:41:09,155 --> 00:41:12,515
Speaker 1: he likely to do that? When will Politico and Axios

553
00:41:12,635 --> 00:41:15,595
Speaker 1: call for him to do that? When will they question

554
00:41:15,755 --> 00:41:21,155
Speaker 1: those Republicans and those Republicans and those other Republicans and

555
00:41:21,235 --> 00:41:24,275
Speaker 1: the reporters, including some at Politico and Axios, who have

556
00:41:24,395 --> 00:41:29,315
Speaker 1: covered up for a Trumpian mentally incompetent man and allowed

557
00:41:29,395 --> 00:41:32,115
Speaker 1: him to push this country and this world towards the

558
00:41:32,155 --> 00:41:36,315
Speaker 1: brink of disaster. When you do that, you can then

559
00:41:36,315 --> 00:41:40,235
Speaker 1: write a story about Biden, who did the right thing,

560
00:41:40,715 --> 00:41:44,195
Speaker 1: quoting a guy who who you say was a congressman.

561
00:41:44,555 --> 00:41:47,595
Speaker 1: But none of us have ever heard of Politico and

562
00:41:47,755 --> 00:41:51,915
Speaker 1: Axios and Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson and all the

563
00:41:51,995 --> 00:41:58,635
Speaker 1: other eighth rate DC media prostitutes today's other worst persons

564
00:41:59,595 --> 00:42:18,835
Speaker 1: in the world. This is Sports Senate. Wait, check that,

565
00:42:19,995 --> 00:42:26,955
Speaker 1: not anymore. This is Countdown with Keith Ulberman still ahead.

566
00:42:27,035 --> 00:42:30,115
Speaker 1: Good luck to anybody out there trying to graduate, not

567
00:42:30,235 --> 00:42:34,275
Speaker 1: really being sure if you will. This month, forty six

568
00:42:34,355 --> 00:42:36,875
Speaker 1: years ago right now, I was right where you are

569
00:42:37,435 --> 00:42:40,155
Speaker 1: the Friday before graduation at Cornell, and I had to

570
00:42:40,155 --> 00:42:43,715
Speaker 1: call the registrar to find out and she said yes,

571
00:42:44,675 --> 00:42:50,355
Speaker 1: no next in things I promised not to tell. First

572
00:42:50,515 --> 00:42:56,195
Speaker 1: from the sports Balls Central Center newsdesk Tonight dateline, Baltimore,

573
00:42:56,355 --> 00:43:04,675
Speaker 1: Maryland on Saturday, the Baltimore Orioles. I'm sorry, Balmer oriol

574
00:43:04,715 --> 00:43:08,475
Speaker 1: Oils fired manager Brandon Hyde, meaning that in a span

575
00:43:08,515 --> 00:43:12,155
Speaker 1: of ten days, three big League Baseball managers were Cashiered

576
00:43:12,435 --> 00:43:15,955
Speaker 1: Derek Shelton and Pittsburgh my friend Bud Black in Colorado

577
00:43:16,075 --> 00:43:19,995
Speaker 1: and Hide managers, as the cliche goes, are hired to

578
00:43:20,155 --> 00:43:22,475
Speaker 1: be fired. So on the surface, this would not be

579
00:43:22,555 --> 00:43:25,915
Speaker 1: that big a big deal among them, The Pirates, Rockies,

580
00:43:25,915 --> 00:43:28,875
Speaker 1: and Orioles had won a combined thirty four games and

581
00:43:28,995 --> 00:43:32,315
Speaker 1: lost a combined eighty seven games this year. Colorado had

582
00:43:32,355 --> 00:43:35,675
Speaker 1: lost thirty three of its first forty. But there might

583
00:43:35,755 --> 00:43:38,435
Speaker 1: be more to this, and the timing will support your

584
00:43:38,475 --> 00:43:44,275
Speaker 1: local neighborhood baseball conspiracy theorist. Baseball's basic agreement, the labor

585
00:43:44,275 --> 00:43:47,555
Speaker 1: deal between the owners and the players, expires after next season.

586
00:43:48,035 --> 00:43:51,555
Speaker 1: As always, when these fraught times approach from the horizon,

587
00:43:51,835 --> 00:43:55,275
Speaker 1: there are owners who still dream that they can force

588
00:43:55,355 --> 00:44:00,235
Speaker 1: the players' union into giving back something essential, something the

589
00:44:00,275 --> 00:44:03,275
Speaker 1: owners gave them or had to give them in the waning,

590
00:44:03,435 --> 00:44:07,115
Speaker 1: stubborn days of their predecessors, who in the nineteen seventies

591
00:44:07,155 --> 00:44:10,315
Speaker 1: and eighties believed that nothing could really force them to

592
00:44:10,355 --> 00:44:14,755
Speaker 1: give up their almost literal ownership of the players. Then

593
00:44:14,835 --> 00:44:18,875
Speaker 1: came free agency and court decisions and mediation decisions and

594
00:44:18,955 --> 00:44:22,955
Speaker 1: salary arbitration and seven hundred and sixty five million dollar contracts.

595
00:44:22,955 --> 00:44:25,955
Speaker 1: And the owners want you to give them all that back.

596
00:44:26,395 --> 00:44:31,075
Speaker 1: We want it, we want it now. Sometimes, as the

597
00:44:31,155 --> 00:44:35,595
Speaker 1: labor negotiations approach the labor negotiations of oh only the

598
00:44:35,675 --> 00:44:39,955
Speaker 1: last half century, the owners dream of eliminating or restricting

599
00:44:40,075 --> 00:44:42,795
Speaker 1: free agency. They forced the players to strike over that

600
00:44:42,875 --> 00:44:45,635
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one. Other times they think they can

601
00:44:45,675 --> 00:44:49,475
Speaker 1: coerce the players into agreeing to a hard salary cap,

602
00:44:49,515 --> 00:44:53,675
Speaker 1: in which teams cannot, under any circumstances, spend more on

603
00:44:53,795 --> 00:44:57,235
Speaker 1: players than a certain given figure, like they haven't hockey.

604
00:44:57,955 --> 00:45:02,475
Speaker 1: They tried that in eighteen eighty nine. The players not

605
00:45:02,515 --> 00:45:05,195
Speaker 1: only went on strike in eighteen eighty nine, in eighteen

606
00:45:05,315 --> 00:45:09,275
Speaker 1: ninety they formed their own league and their own teams,

607
00:45:09,395 --> 00:45:14,235
Speaker 1: and total war ensued. Anyway, for the last twenty five years,

608
00:45:14,275 --> 00:45:16,755
Speaker 1: a bunch of owners have dreamed of a salary cap.

609
00:45:17,075 --> 00:45:19,195
Speaker 1: A friend of mine bought a big league ball club,

610
00:45:19,195 --> 00:45:21,395
Speaker 1: and I ran into him at a ballpark just after

611
00:45:21,435 --> 00:45:23,435
Speaker 1: he did. I'll leave his name out of it, but

612
00:45:23,475 --> 00:45:27,275
Speaker 1: he asked me seriously, So when do you think I'll

613
00:45:27,275 --> 00:45:29,875
Speaker 1: get that salary cap? The commissioner promised me when we

614
00:45:29,955 --> 00:45:34,755
Speaker 1: closed the purchase. I laughed. He did not laugh. He

615
00:45:34,835 --> 00:45:37,555
Speaker 1: really thought it was going to happen. I said, well,

616
00:45:38,195 --> 00:45:42,035
Speaker 1: not this lifetime, certainly, not next lifetime. Maybe the lifetime

617
00:45:42,075 --> 00:45:46,315
Speaker 1: after that. This was like twenty years ago. Many of

618
00:45:46,355 --> 00:45:49,275
Speaker 1: the owners are again now dreaming of a salary cap,

619
00:45:49,315 --> 00:45:53,115
Speaker 1: of making the players accept a salary cap by locking

620
00:45:53,155 --> 00:45:56,675
Speaker 1: them out by threatening to delay or cancel, or to

621
00:45:56,835 --> 00:46:01,475
Speaker 1: actually cancel the beginning of or the whole of the

622
00:46:01,515 --> 00:46:05,555
Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven season. This would be sold to the

623
00:46:05,595 --> 00:46:07,395
Speaker 1: fans as a way to make sure the teams in

624
00:46:07,475 --> 00:46:11,835
Speaker 1: the smaller markets can always be competitive and their stars

625
00:46:11,835 --> 00:46:14,315
Speaker 1: on their teams don't leave for the clubs with more

626
00:46:14,355 --> 00:46:17,715
Speaker 1: cash because they play in bigger cities. Even though those

627
00:46:17,755 --> 00:46:20,995
Speaker 1: two free agency mega deals, the ones for Shoheo Tani

628
00:46:21,035 --> 00:46:24,635
Speaker 1: and Juan Soto, they both saw the players leave for

629
00:46:24,755 --> 00:46:28,355
Speaker 1: the other team in the same market. It will be

630
00:46:28,395 --> 00:46:32,195
Speaker 1: pitched as a guarantee of balance and parody. Even though

631
00:46:32,195 --> 00:46:35,475
Speaker 1: no team has won consecutive World Series since the nineteen

632
00:46:35,595 --> 00:46:38,755
Speaker 1: ninety nine two thousand Yankees and the teams in the

633
00:46:38,795 --> 00:46:41,955
Speaker 1: biggest market, New York, have only been in a total

634
00:46:41,955 --> 00:46:45,555
Speaker 1: of five World Series since the two thousand Yankees. It

635
00:46:45,555 --> 00:46:48,395
Speaker 1: will be presented as a way to rein in ticket prices, when,

636
00:46:48,395 --> 00:46:52,115
Speaker 1: of course, the owners will keep raising them and will

637
00:46:52,155 --> 00:46:54,995
Speaker 1: keep any money they make from raising them and any

638
00:46:55,035 --> 00:46:57,355
Speaker 1: money they save under a salary cap, they'll just keep

639
00:46:57,395 --> 00:47:00,515
Speaker 1: that too, their owners. That's what they're supposed to do,

640
00:47:00,795 --> 00:47:05,475
Speaker 1: keep the money. What's interesting is that three of the

641
00:47:05,515 --> 00:47:09,555
Speaker 1: franchises that are pushing the hardest for a baseball salary

642
00:47:09,595 --> 00:47:12,675
Speaker 1: cap are the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Colorado Rockies, and the

643
00:47:12,675 --> 00:47:15,795
Speaker 1: Baltimore Orioles. And what a coincidence. Those are the ones

644
00:47:15,835 --> 00:47:18,955
Speaker 1: that just fired their managers after terrible starts, the ones

645
00:47:18,995 --> 00:47:22,155
Speaker 1: that spent almost nothing to obtain new players in free

646
00:47:22,155 --> 00:47:25,155
Speaker 1: agency last winter. The ones that could succeed on the

647
00:47:25,195 --> 00:47:28,435
Speaker 1: field and at the bank but have chosen not to

648
00:47:28,675 --> 00:47:32,675
Speaker 1: for some reason. It's as if they've decided to make

649
00:47:32,715 --> 00:47:37,555
Speaker 1: their teams bad, fire the managers as proof, and blame

650
00:47:37,675 --> 00:47:41,475
Speaker 1: the players for the lack of a salary cap, you know,

651
00:47:41,595 --> 00:47:44,675
Speaker 1: like the peribial guys who murder their parents then ask

652
00:47:44,795 --> 00:47:49,195
Speaker 1: the judge for mercy. Because they're orphans. Were the guys

653
00:47:49,235 --> 00:47:53,875
Speaker 1: who ask the fans to support a lockout to force

654
00:47:53,915 --> 00:48:02,315
Speaker 1: a salary cap on those greedy players? Dateline New York,

655
00:48:02,355 --> 00:48:05,475
Speaker 1: New York at a PostScript to Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred's

656
00:48:05,475 --> 00:48:08,595
Speaker 1: announcement last week that if you were on the permanently

657
00:48:08,795 --> 00:48:12,235
Speaker 1: ineligible list but you're dead now, you are no longer

658
00:48:12,315 --> 00:48:15,155
Speaker 1: on the permanently ineligible list, and thus you are now

659
00:48:15,195 --> 00:48:19,155
Speaker 1: eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pete Rose and Shulish,

660
00:48:19,195 --> 00:48:23,995
Speaker 1: Joe Jackson, and fifteen others. Manfred wrote to Rose's lawyer, quote,

661
00:48:24,195 --> 00:48:28,675
Speaker 1: I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing

662
00:48:28,755 --> 00:48:32,075
Speaker 1: of the disciplined individual. And they put out the press

663
00:48:32,075 --> 00:48:34,595
Speaker 1: release saying how this affected seventeen guys who were put

664
00:48:34,635 --> 00:48:38,195
Speaker 1: on that list by commissioners. I hadn't thought of this

665
00:48:38,355 --> 00:48:40,675
Speaker 1: at the time because the Rose and Jackson news was

666
00:48:40,715 --> 00:48:43,195
Speaker 1: the news. But what about the fifteen or sixteen people

667
00:48:43,715 --> 00:48:47,955
Speaker 1: banned from baseball before there was a commissioner. It's probably

668
00:48:48,035 --> 00:48:50,515
Speaker 1: unlikely that any of them would get elected to the

669
00:48:50,555 --> 00:48:52,995
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, but a couple of them might. The

670
00:48:53,035 --> 00:48:57,235
Speaker 1: gambler and game fixer and premier defensive first baseman hal

671
00:48:57,355 --> 00:49:00,555
Speaker 1: Chase was named on nine percent of the ballots in

672
00:49:00,595 --> 00:49:03,675
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirty seven Hall of Fame vote. Jim Devlin,

673
00:49:04,195 --> 00:49:07,435
Speaker 1: a game fixer from the Louisville team in eighteen seventy seven,

674
00:49:07,715 --> 00:49:10,875
Speaker 1: had a career ERA of one point nine to zero,

675
00:49:11,475 --> 00:49:14,275
Speaker 1: and he as a pitcher won thirty games twice before

676
00:49:14,275 --> 00:49:18,275
Speaker 1: they banned him. What about those guys, what should they do, Commissioner?

677
00:49:18,355 --> 00:49:20,915
Speaker 1: Do they have to die again? Do you have to

678
00:49:20,995 --> 00:49:25,115
Speaker 1: ban them officially so they die again and then they're unbanned?

679
00:49:26,315 --> 00:49:28,595
Speaker 1: More importantly, it also didn't dawn on me at first.

680
00:49:28,595 --> 00:49:32,515
Speaker 1: But these guys didn't all die last September like Charlie

681
00:49:32,555 --> 00:49:35,635
Speaker 1: Hussel Pete Rose did. This isn't some sort of new

682
00:49:35,715 --> 00:49:39,955
Speaker 1: ruling necessitated by some kind of mass casualty event. And

683
00:49:40,035 --> 00:49:43,915
Speaker 1: the phrasing from Manfred is not from now on, permanent

684
00:49:43,995 --> 00:49:48,275
Speaker 1: ineligibility ends upon the passing of the way Manfred and

685
00:49:48,315 --> 00:49:51,435
Speaker 1: Baseball have put it in that statement, All these other

686
00:49:51,635 --> 00:49:55,315
Speaker 1: banned players have been eligible for the Hall of Fame

687
00:49:56,235 --> 00:50:02,355
Speaker 1: since they died so shoeless Joe Jackson has been eligible

688
00:50:02,355 --> 00:50:07,195
Speaker 1: for the Hall of Fame since nineteen fifty one. And

689
00:50:07,235 --> 00:50:12,675
Speaker 1: what Commissioner you and your predecessors just didn't bother to

690
00:50:13,795 --> 00:50:25,115
Speaker 1: tell us a graduation time to the number one story

691
00:50:25,115 --> 00:50:29,435
Speaker 1: on the countdown, And every year the anniversary arises, and

692
00:50:29,515 --> 00:50:33,355
Speaker 1: my memory comes back to the same place, my college

693
00:50:33,435 --> 00:50:38,275
Speaker 1: graduation and how close it came to not happening, so

694
00:50:38,515 --> 00:50:44,115
Speaker 1: close that for literally forty years after I graduated, I

695
00:50:44,195 --> 00:50:48,315
Speaker 1: had the same dream that I think all graduates have,

696
00:50:49,275 --> 00:50:52,515
Speaker 1: of not graduating and not finding out until a few

697
00:50:52,555 --> 00:50:56,995
Speaker 1: hours before graduation, in which time you have maybe two

698
00:50:56,995 --> 00:50:59,915
Speaker 1: hours and fifteen minutes to read three thousand pages and

699
00:50:59,955 --> 00:51:02,235
Speaker 1: write a report on something, or you have to take

700
00:51:02,275 --> 00:51:07,435
Speaker 1: a chemistry lab exam or or or everybody has this dream.

701
00:51:08,075 --> 00:51:12,915
Speaker 1: I had this dream because I took twenty eight credits

702
00:51:12,955 --> 00:51:17,555
Speaker 1: in I believe, ten different courses in the second semester

703
00:51:17,675 --> 00:51:20,395
Speaker 1: of my senior year, and the dream in which you

704
00:51:20,435 --> 00:51:25,555
Speaker 1: have forgotten an entire class that was a literal possibility

705
00:51:25,595 --> 00:51:33,555
Speaker 1: for me. Happily, somehow I got out of it. As background,

706
00:51:33,675 --> 00:51:37,235
Speaker 1: I completed college in seven semesters. This was not some

707
00:51:37,555 --> 00:51:40,755
Speaker 1: attempted feat of strength. It just worked out that way.

708
00:51:41,795 --> 00:51:44,795
Speaker 1: I missed my second semester as a freshman. I was

709
00:51:44,875 --> 00:51:48,635
Speaker 1: sick and went home, and also in the fall of

710
00:51:48,715 --> 00:51:52,115
Speaker 1: each year. I had concluded that I would learn more

711
00:51:52,275 --> 00:51:56,275
Speaker 1: covering the Baseball Playoffs and World Series for our college

712
00:51:56,555 --> 00:52:00,715
Speaker 1: student operated commercial radio station than I would in the

713
00:52:01,795 --> 00:52:06,635
Speaker 1: wonderfully intended but not quite as sophisticated Cornell University Communication

714
00:52:06,835 --> 00:52:11,475
Speaker 1: Arts classes doing for a couple of weeks rather than

715
00:52:12,435 --> 00:52:15,875
Speaker 1: listening for a couple of weeks. Needless to say, this

716
00:52:16,355 --> 00:52:20,075
Speaker 1: washed me out of several courses, so as I entered

717
00:52:20,115 --> 00:52:22,835
Speaker 1: what I viewed as my senior year, which was actually

718
00:52:22,835 --> 00:52:26,635
Speaker 1: only my sixth semester at Cornell in nineteen seventy eight,

719
00:52:27,075 --> 00:52:31,555
Speaker 1: I needed forty two credits to get out on time

720
00:52:31,715 --> 00:52:35,995
Speaker 1: in May nineteen seventy nine. I don't to this day

721
00:52:36,635 --> 00:52:40,875
Speaker 1: know what I was thinking was going to happen. How

722
00:52:41,875 --> 00:52:45,955
Speaker 1: When the typical workload at a major university or an

723
00:52:46,275 --> 00:52:51,035
Speaker 1: ordinary college is fifteen credits, that's enough sixteen if you're

724
00:52:51,675 --> 00:52:55,475
Speaker 1: actually going for a feed of strength, and I needed

725
00:52:55,795 --> 00:52:59,235
Speaker 1: twenty one credits in the fall and twenty one credits

726
00:52:59,315 --> 00:53:02,355
Speaker 1: in the spring, and I had signed up for, if

727
00:53:02,395 --> 00:53:07,475
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, fifteen credits in the fall, thus leaving

728
00:53:07,515 --> 00:53:10,315
Speaker 1: me needing twenty seven in the spring, and then at

729
00:53:10,315 --> 00:53:13,475
Speaker 1: some point late in the summer of nineteen seventy eight,

730
00:53:13,555 --> 00:53:16,475
Speaker 1: before my senior year, or early in the fall semester,

731
00:53:16,595 --> 00:53:18,955
Speaker 1: my dad mentioned, you know, I'm not paying for anything

732
00:53:18,995 --> 00:53:22,475
Speaker 1: after next spring. So now it wasn't just a question

733
00:53:22,515 --> 00:53:25,675
Speaker 1: of graduating on time or not. It was a question

734
00:53:25,755 --> 00:53:29,635
Speaker 1: of graduating on time or having to pay for it myself.

735
00:53:30,195 --> 00:53:33,995
Speaker 1: At this point, I had never earned a dollar other

736
00:53:34,115 --> 00:53:39,515
Speaker 1: than in media as a teenager part time United pres International,

737
00:53:39,795 --> 00:53:44,035
Speaker 1: working on books, working on magazines, writing articles for money,

738
00:53:44,475 --> 00:53:47,635
Speaker 1: doing the commercials in the college radio station. The rest

739
00:53:47,635 --> 00:53:49,715
Speaker 1: of the money I had ever earned in my life

740
00:53:49,755 --> 00:53:55,315
Speaker 1: came from raking leaves. I was not prepared to being

741
00:53:55,475 --> 00:53:59,115
Speaker 1: a student who also worked on the side. If that

742
00:53:59,235 --> 00:54:02,155
Speaker 1: had befallen me, I would still be trying to complete

743
00:54:02,155 --> 00:54:07,915
Speaker 1: my last year somewhere working on the side. Thank goodness,

744
00:54:07,955 --> 00:54:10,515
Speaker 1: I went into broadcasting. I never had to work a

745
00:54:10,595 --> 00:54:14,515
Speaker 1: day in my life, a time commitment. Yes, work, not

746
00:54:14,675 --> 00:54:19,195
Speaker 1: really back to the story. So I needed all this

747
00:54:20,595 --> 00:54:24,355
Speaker 1: large amount of student work in the last two semesters

748
00:54:24,835 --> 00:54:27,795
Speaker 1: or now I was not going to graduate, and all

749
00:54:27,835 --> 00:54:31,195
Speaker 1: of my career moves, all of the preparation I had made,

750
00:54:31,355 --> 00:54:33,395
Speaker 1: had been with the idea that I would be exiting

751
00:54:33,475 --> 00:54:37,035
Speaker 1: school in May nineteen seventy nine and available for employment

752
00:54:37,115 --> 00:54:40,995
Speaker 1: in June nineteen seventy nine, or May, if it came

753
00:54:41,035 --> 00:54:46,795
Speaker 1: to that. But I don't know, and I can't recall

754
00:54:47,595 --> 00:54:49,635
Speaker 1: what I was thinking was going to happen, except that

755
00:54:49,675 --> 00:54:53,475
Speaker 1: I was utterly confident that I would be graduating on time,

756
00:54:54,435 --> 00:54:59,835
Speaker 1: not staying long, not dropping out of the university. I

757
00:54:59,915 --> 00:55:02,275
Speaker 1: did think about dropping out of the university because I

758
00:55:02,315 --> 00:55:03,955
Speaker 1: was up for a job that would have started in

759
00:55:03,995 --> 00:55:06,515
Speaker 1: March of nineteen seventy nine in New York. I didn't

760
00:55:06,515 --> 00:55:12,275
Speaker 1: get it, But I don't remember having a backup plan, Like,

761
00:55:13,155 --> 00:55:17,195
Speaker 1: you know, if you just take eighteen credits, which would

762
00:55:17,195 --> 00:55:19,355
Speaker 1: be a lot, you'd have to get special permission for it.

763
00:55:20,995 --> 00:55:24,115
Speaker 1: What would happen? Then? I'd still be way short, no

764
00:55:24,275 --> 00:55:28,755
Speaker 1: idea in that happy, go lucky manner that most teenagers had.

765
00:55:29,075 --> 00:55:31,315
Speaker 1: And I was still nineteen as this played out of

766
00:55:31,315 --> 00:55:34,315
Speaker 1: my mind in the summer and early fall of nineteen

767
00:55:34,355 --> 00:55:38,515
Speaker 1: seventy eight, I had no idea, no backup plan. I

768
00:55:38,555 --> 00:55:44,315
Speaker 1: was just gonna wing it. Yeah, So I did, in

769
00:55:44,355 --> 00:55:47,475
Speaker 1: fact get the fourteen credits completed or fifteen credits in

770
00:55:47,515 --> 00:55:51,155
Speaker 1: the fall of nineteen seventy eight, and that left me

771
00:55:51,195 --> 00:55:55,155
Speaker 1: with a mere twenty seven credits needed for the spring

772
00:55:55,475 --> 00:56:00,275
Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy nine. And I laid out my schedule

773
00:56:01,315 --> 00:56:06,755
Speaker 1: and realized that there were several shortcuts, let's put it

774
00:56:06,795 --> 00:56:10,635
Speaker 1: that way, shortcuts in which I could get a credit

775
00:56:10,675 --> 00:56:14,155
Speaker 1: for having done an internship the year before by writing

776
00:56:14,235 --> 00:56:17,075
Speaker 1: up a paper about the news gathering techniques at Channel

777
00:56:17,115 --> 00:56:21,475
Speaker 1: five News in New York, or another three credits for

778
00:56:22,315 --> 00:56:27,075
Speaker 1: writing an entire history of that internship, a thirty forty

779
00:56:27,075 --> 00:56:30,915
Speaker 1: page document. There were a couple of shortcuts, but that

780
00:56:30,995 --> 00:56:35,275
Speaker 1: still left me needing, you know, twenty three real credits.

781
00:56:36,195 --> 00:56:40,235
Speaker 1: So I went into my advisor with my proposed schedule

782
00:56:40,475 --> 00:56:45,355
Speaker 1: of ten courses might have been eleven worth twenty eight credits.

783
00:56:45,595 --> 00:56:47,715
Speaker 1: Every way I worked it out, I couldn't get it

784
00:56:47,715 --> 00:56:50,955
Speaker 1: to just be twenty seven. I needed twenty seven, and

785
00:56:51,035 --> 00:56:53,875
Speaker 1: it said twenty eight. And my advisor looked at this

786
00:56:53,955 --> 00:56:58,155
Speaker 1: and went, literally, are you out of your effing mind?

787
00:56:58,955 --> 00:57:01,595
Speaker 1: This was this was not just an advisor. He was

788
00:57:01,635 --> 00:57:06,035
Speaker 1: the professor of parliamentary Procedure in Communication Arts at Cornell

789
00:57:06,395 --> 00:57:08,475
Speaker 1: and he did other things too, but the whole idea

790
00:57:08,475 --> 00:57:11,195
Speaker 1: of parliamentary procedure was playing by the rules. And the

791
00:57:11,235 --> 00:57:15,035
Speaker 1: man just swore at me in astonishment, not in anger,

792
00:57:15,915 --> 00:57:17,715
Speaker 1: and I said, well, I've looked into it, and there

793
00:57:17,715 --> 00:57:21,755
Speaker 1: aren't any regulations that deny me the opportunity to take these.

794
00:57:21,915 --> 00:57:24,435
Speaker 1: I mean, many of these are freshman courses, because when

795
00:57:24,475 --> 00:57:26,875
Speaker 1: I was sick as a freshman, I had to bail

796
00:57:26,995 --> 00:57:31,195
Speaker 1: out on the second semester of freshman biology, freshman chemistry,

797
00:57:31,475 --> 00:57:34,715
Speaker 1: freshman physics. And my degree required a minimum number of

798
00:57:34,715 --> 00:57:38,595
Speaker 1: hours six I think in two science fields and nine

799
00:57:38,715 --> 00:57:41,715
Speaker 1: in one other science field, and I was going to

800
00:57:41,755 --> 00:57:44,515
Speaker 1: be taking each of those freshman classes and a freshman

801
00:57:44,555 --> 00:57:47,595
Speaker 1: English class, and these history classes over here are worth

802
00:57:47,635 --> 00:57:50,355
Speaker 1: four and a couple of communication arts classes and the

803
00:57:50,395 --> 00:57:53,355
Speaker 1: independent study classes that I mentioned. And he looked at

804
00:57:53,395 --> 00:57:55,755
Speaker 1: me like I was out of my mind. Of course,

805
00:57:55,795 --> 00:57:58,715
Speaker 1: there are rules against this. Why do you think nobody

806
00:57:58,755 --> 00:58:01,755
Speaker 1: tries this? It's too much. Nobody can do it. The

807
00:58:01,795 --> 00:58:04,675
Speaker 1: greatest scholar we've ever had here could not possibly graduate,

808
00:58:05,315 --> 00:58:08,195
Speaker 1: And think if you did, what your grades would look like.

809
00:58:09,835 --> 00:58:12,915
Speaker 1: I had long before ascertained that nobody would ever look

810
00:58:13,075 --> 00:58:15,915
Speaker 1: at my grade point average, which was to that point

811
00:58:16,315 --> 00:58:19,595
Speaker 1: probably about two point two. No one would ever know,

812
00:58:19,875 --> 00:58:22,275
Speaker 1: No one would ever care. They would care about my

813
00:58:22,435 --> 00:58:25,395
Speaker 1: voice and my ability to write, my ability to report,

814
00:58:25,475 --> 00:58:30,315
Speaker 1: and my ability to read, probably in that order. And

815
00:58:30,355 --> 00:58:32,315
Speaker 1: I said to him, I'm not worried about the grade point.

816
00:58:32,355 --> 00:58:34,715
Speaker 1: I just want to graduate. I'm not going to take

817
00:58:34,755 --> 00:58:37,595
Speaker 1: any classes pass fail. I'm not going to take any

818
00:58:37,595 --> 00:58:40,715
Speaker 1: classes in which I'm going to be really challenged by

819
00:58:40,795 --> 00:58:43,155
Speaker 1: these things. Ei, there's a four point history exam. I'm

820
00:58:43,195 --> 00:58:45,035
Speaker 1: pretty good at the history and I did pretty well

821
00:58:45,035 --> 00:58:49,435
Speaker 1: here in the first half of that course. Professor Pollenberg,

822
00:58:49,475 --> 00:58:52,995
Speaker 1: as I remember, in any event, he said, no, there's

823
00:58:52,995 --> 00:58:55,715
Speaker 1: a rule against it. And he called the university registrar

824
00:58:55,755 --> 00:58:59,555
Speaker 1: to confer this, the college registrar, the College of Agriculture

825
00:58:59,555 --> 00:59:02,715
Speaker 1: and Life Sciences at Cornell, and I heard this end

826
00:59:02,755 --> 00:59:09,035
Speaker 1: of this conversation with the RUSS Martin. Yeah, I have

827
00:59:09,075 --> 00:59:12,435
Speaker 1: a student here who's tried to register for twenty eight

828
00:59:12,515 --> 00:59:16,075
Speaker 1: credits for the spring semester. I know now he does

829
00:59:16,115 --> 00:59:19,315
Speaker 1: not appear to have a hole in his head. Now, Yes,

830
00:59:19,915 --> 00:59:23,475
Speaker 1: it's Olberman, that's right. How did you know? Yes, Well,

831
00:59:23,515 --> 00:59:25,795
Speaker 1: I'm just explaining to him that he can't because the rules.

832
00:59:26,835 --> 00:59:32,635
Speaker 1: What do you mean, But why aren't there any rules. Well,

833
00:59:32,675 --> 00:59:36,075
Speaker 1: this is ridiculous. You mean any of these students could

834
00:59:36,115 --> 00:59:39,035
Speaker 1: sign up for twenty eight credits? What's the limit? What

835
00:59:39,035 --> 00:59:42,475
Speaker 1: do you mean there's no limit. This went on with

836
00:59:42,595 --> 00:59:45,915
Speaker 1: him conveniently repeating everything that she said. He did everything

837
00:59:46,035 --> 00:59:49,195
Speaker 1: except in the comedy routine. Yes, I know, I'm repeating

838
00:59:49,475 --> 00:59:52,355
Speaker 1: everything you said. Yes I know, I'm still doing it.

839
00:59:53,115 --> 00:59:55,355
Speaker 1: He kept giving me what she was saying, and finally

840
00:59:55,675 --> 00:59:57,875
Speaker 1: he hung up the phone and went, well, there's no

841
00:59:57,995 --> 01:00:00,795
Speaker 1: college rule against it, but I'm confident there's a university

842
01:00:00,875 --> 01:00:03,915
Speaker 1: rule against it. So he called up the university registrar

843
01:00:04,155 --> 01:00:06,795
Speaker 1: and had this same conversation, only this woman was not

844
01:00:06,875 --> 01:00:10,315
Speaker 1: named Martha. She was named Marsha. Damn it, Marsha. We're

845
01:00:10,355 --> 01:00:12,675
Speaker 1: going to bring this up at the faculty meeting at

846
01:00:12,715 --> 01:00:17,395
Speaker 1: the Board of Cross College Heads of Faculties and Parliamentary

847
01:00:17,435 --> 01:00:21,635
Speaker 1: Procedure Professors. And he put the phone down. He went,

848
01:00:22,995 --> 01:00:25,115
Speaker 1: damn you, you can take the twenty eight credits. I

849
01:00:25,115 --> 01:00:26,955
Speaker 1: don't think you have a chance of doing it. And

850
01:00:26,995 --> 01:00:30,515
Speaker 1: I said, well, I'm not worried about it, and I

851
01:00:30,515 --> 01:00:32,635
Speaker 1: don't have a backup plan, and I'm going to leave

852
01:00:32,635 --> 01:00:35,515
Speaker 1: this school on May twenty eighth nineteen seventy nine, with

853
01:00:35,675 --> 01:00:39,275
Speaker 1: or without a degree. They let me take the twenty

854
01:00:39,315 --> 01:00:43,275
Speaker 1: eight credits. Somehow later in the semester, I found out

855
01:00:43,315 --> 01:00:45,915
Speaker 1: that the record, as near as they could ascertain at

856
01:00:45,955 --> 01:00:51,755
Speaker 1: Cornell was twenty eight credits in a semester. So I

857
01:00:51,835 --> 01:00:54,595
Speaker 1: was going to tie the all time record or not

858
01:00:54,715 --> 01:00:57,915
Speaker 1: graduate on time. And I was taking basically twice what

859
01:00:57,955 --> 01:01:00,075
Speaker 1: everybody else did. And it turned out that the guy

860
01:01:00,075 --> 01:01:03,275
Speaker 1: who had done twenty eight credits had in fact cheated

861
01:01:03,275 --> 01:01:05,875
Speaker 1: the system. He was read steered under his own name

862
01:01:05,915 --> 01:01:08,355
Speaker 1: for fifteen and in the days when you could still

863
01:01:08,355 --> 01:01:11,315
Speaker 1: get away with this, registered for thirteen credits for a

864
01:01:11,315 --> 01:01:13,675
Speaker 1: friend of his who'd already taken a job, and I

865
01:01:13,675 --> 01:01:16,875
Speaker 1: believe had moved to Portland, Oregon, which was a considerable

866
01:01:16,875 --> 01:01:19,515
Speaker 1: commute from Ithaca, New York. He didn't attend any of

867
01:01:19,515 --> 01:01:22,875
Speaker 1: the classes his friend did. He took exams as somebody

868
01:01:22,955 --> 01:01:26,075
Speaker 1: else and did this, which I think is a very

869
01:01:26,075 --> 01:01:29,475
Speaker 1: significant accomplishment and much more impressive than my own still

870
01:01:30,075 --> 01:01:34,475
Speaker 1: twenty eight under my own name. One schedule. Needless to say,

871
01:01:34,475 --> 01:01:38,875
Speaker 1: this involved a lot of laboratory meetings being scheduled at

872
01:01:38,915 --> 01:01:41,715
Speaker 1: the same time as three hour lectures, a lot of

873
01:01:41,755 --> 01:01:45,675
Speaker 1: courses that in this modern computer age would never ever

874
01:01:45,795 --> 01:01:48,915
Speaker 1: be scheduled for you because they conflicted. There were classes

875
01:01:49,035 --> 01:01:52,755
Speaker 1: I could not attend. There were teaching sections in which

876
01:01:52,755 --> 01:01:55,595
Speaker 1: they would hand out to the assembled two or three

877
01:01:55,675 --> 01:01:59,875
Speaker 1: hundred students in a biology class a written exam that

878
01:01:59,995 --> 01:02:02,835
Speaker 1: I had taken, or paper I had written, and they'd

879
01:02:03,395 --> 01:02:06,435
Speaker 1: just named everybody in the class here Oaks, and Oaks

880
01:02:06,475 --> 01:02:11,155
Speaker 1: would get his paper, and Ackerman would get his paper,

881
01:02:11,315 --> 01:02:13,955
Speaker 1: and then Oberman and the entire class would burst into

882
01:02:14,035 --> 01:02:17,555
Speaker 1: laughter because of course I wasn't there. Those who knew

883
01:02:17,595 --> 01:02:20,675
Speaker 1: me knew I was in the biology lab because I

884
01:02:20,715 --> 01:02:24,675
Speaker 1: had two classes scheduled at the same time. I do

885
01:02:24,755 --> 01:02:26,755
Speaker 1: remember that the thing that made me think I could

886
01:02:26,755 --> 01:02:28,955
Speaker 1: get away with this was something I experienced in my

887
01:02:29,035 --> 01:02:31,595
Speaker 1: first week at Cornell as a sixteen year old in

888
01:02:31,675 --> 01:02:35,235
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five. I had been pretty good at Shakespeare,

889
01:02:35,235 --> 01:02:37,835
Speaker 1: to the point where my high school teacher had me

890
01:02:37,995 --> 01:02:41,915
Speaker 1: teach a Shakespeare class to the high school juniors one day,

891
01:02:42,355 --> 01:02:45,595
Speaker 1: much to my shock and fear and much to their

892
01:02:46,235 --> 01:02:50,635
Speaker 1: rising rage and resentment. But he thought I should be

893
01:02:50,635 --> 01:02:54,755
Speaker 1: a Shakespeare teacher, so I took the second level Shakespeare

894
01:02:54,755 --> 01:02:57,435
Speaker 1: class and got special permission, as many freshmen did to

895
01:02:57,475 --> 01:03:00,395
Speaker 1: take that class. And in this class, the professor took

896
01:03:00,435 --> 01:03:03,595
Speaker 1: off his classes and started to yell at us, you're

897
01:03:03,635 --> 01:03:06,075
Speaker 1: not in goddamn high school anymore. You're going to be

898
01:03:06,115 --> 01:03:10,475
Speaker 1: expected to do college level work, and the volume of

899
01:03:10,555 --> 01:03:13,435
Speaker 1: college level work, and some of the other kids in

900
01:03:13,435 --> 01:03:16,355
Speaker 1: this class began to shake. I didn't know quite what

901
01:03:16,435 --> 01:03:19,875
Speaker 1: he meant. I knew that in high school, every week,

902
01:03:20,395 --> 01:03:23,595
Speaker 1: every Wednesday, depending on the year, or Thursday morning, the

903
01:03:23,635 --> 01:03:26,315
Speaker 1: first thing we did, from the ninth grade on was

904
01:03:26,355 --> 01:03:30,555
Speaker 1: come in, sit down, get our loose leaf or our

905
01:03:31,155 --> 01:03:34,435
Speaker 1: composition notebooks handed to us by the teacher, and a

906
01:03:34,515 --> 01:03:37,675
Speaker 1: topic would go up on the board. The anticipation is

907
01:03:37,715 --> 01:03:40,635
Speaker 1: greater than the event. We had fifty five pages at

908
01:03:40,635 --> 01:03:43,555
Speaker 1: fifty five minutes to write three to five pages on

909
01:03:43,635 --> 01:03:45,835
Speaker 1: the topic. Often it would have something to do with

910
01:03:45,875 --> 01:03:48,315
Speaker 1: the English class we were taking. Often it would be

911
01:03:48,315 --> 01:03:52,075
Speaker 1: something as generic as a catch phrase. I wrote about

912
01:03:52,115 --> 01:03:54,435
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl and how the lead up to the

913
01:03:54,475 --> 01:03:57,155
Speaker 1: Super Bowl was far more interesting than the game itself.

914
01:03:58,995 --> 01:04:03,675
Speaker 1: Once the sound of silence was the topic and one

915
01:04:03,675 --> 01:04:08,115
Speaker 1: of my friends. After the composition books were taken in

916
01:04:08,155 --> 01:04:11,915
Speaker 1: at fifty five minutes, said I was thinking of just

917
01:04:11,955 --> 01:04:14,395
Speaker 1: writing the silence of the pen and leaving it blank.

918
01:04:14,835 --> 01:04:17,395
Speaker 1: And our English teacher, mister mcmowen, said, I would have

919
01:04:17,435 --> 01:04:20,475
Speaker 1: given you an A plus on that. In any event,

920
01:04:21,035 --> 01:04:24,035
Speaker 1: We did this for five years so I could write

921
01:04:24,875 --> 01:04:27,595
Speaker 1: and organize in my head and hand write three to

922
01:04:27,675 --> 01:04:32,955
Speaker 1: five pages of an essay in fifty five minutes. That

923
01:04:33,115 --> 01:04:35,995
Speaker 1: was my level of work, like forty of those a year,

924
01:04:36,355 --> 01:04:38,315
Speaker 1: once a week, plus all the other work that high

925
01:04:38,315 --> 01:04:42,755
Speaker 1: school demanded. This teacher back at Cornell in my freshman

926
01:04:42,875 --> 01:04:45,755
Speaker 1: year in nineteen seventy five in the advanced Shakespeare class

927
01:04:45,755 --> 01:04:49,675
Speaker 1: with all the really smart people, and me said, I'm

928
01:04:49,675 --> 01:04:52,635
Speaker 1: going to be expecting college level work out of you idiots.

929
01:04:53,355 --> 01:04:57,395
Speaker 1: No more getting through on nothing. You will be expected,

930
01:04:57,915 --> 01:05:01,955
Speaker 1: in the course of this semester to produce three three

931
01:05:02,035 --> 01:05:07,035
Speaker 1: page papers. The girl across from me on the other

932
01:05:07,075 --> 01:05:10,915
Speaker 1: side of the boardroom table at which we sat let

933
01:05:10,915 --> 01:05:17,915
Speaker 1: out a cry like that and began to turn pale.

934
01:05:18,115 --> 01:05:21,315
Speaker 1: And I thought, three three page papers, so that's nine pages,

935
01:05:21,355 --> 01:05:25,195
Speaker 1: and you on it Thursday. It was nothing compared to

936
01:05:25,195 --> 01:05:28,355
Speaker 1: what I normally did, all right, Maybe it was the

937
01:05:28,395 --> 01:05:32,035
Speaker 1: equivalent of two of my weekly high school essays, but

938
01:05:32,235 --> 01:05:36,395
Speaker 1: nine pages was probably what I wrote every ten days

939
01:05:36,515 --> 01:05:40,235
Speaker 1: at Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York. I asked the

940
01:05:40,275 --> 01:05:44,275
Speaker 1: girl after the class if three pages was a lot

941
01:05:44,515 --> 01:05:47,275
Speaker 1: in her perspective. She had explained at some point that

942
01:05:47,315 --> 01:05:50,035
Speaker 1: she knew somebody from my school, because each year there

943
01:05:50,075 --> 01:05:54,475
Speaker 1: were two national scholars two presidential scholars, who were chosen

944
01:05:54,515 --> 01:05:57,555
Speaker 1: by various means, two from each state to a total

945
01:05:57,595 --> 01:06:00,315
Speaker 1: of one hundred that were then invited to Washington to

946
01:06:00,315 --> 01:06:02,635
Speaker 1: meet the President of the United States. And one of

947
01:06:02,635 --> 01:06:05,875
Speaker 1: the ones from New York had been my classmate, Billy Roberts,

948
01:06:05,995 --> 01:06:08,635
Speaker 1: and one from Ohio was this girl whose name has

949
01:06:08,715 --> 01:06:11,755
Speaker 1: long been lost in the cracks in the sidewalk of

950
01:06:12,155 --> 01:06:15,555
Speaker 1: my memory. Nice girl, and she had told me she

951
01:06:15,635 --> 01:06:20,355
Speaker 1: knew Billy Roberts, and Billy Roberts warned her about me,

952
01:06:21,355 --> 01:06:24,675
Speaker 1: not that I was a threat, just that I was unusual.

953
01:06:25,995 --> 01:06:28,875
Speaker 1: So we had a good friendship and it didn't amount

954
01:06:28,915 --> 01:06:31,075
Speaker 1: to anything of interest one way or the other, except

955
01:06:31,115 --> 01:06:34,355
Speaker 1: for this one interaction where I said to her, so

956
01:06:34,395 --> 01:06:37,955
Speaker 1: you were a national merit scholarship, is this a lot

957
01:06:38,035 --> 01:06:40,235
Speaker 1: of work for you? And she went, I have never

958
01:06:40,275 --> 01:06:44,955
Speaker 1: written anything in school longer than three paragraphs. I did

959
01:06:44,995 --> 01:06:46,955
Speaker 1: a quick survey of the other students in the class,

960
01:06:46,955 --> 01:06:50,435
Speaker 1: at about half of them, nine pages over the course

961
01:06:50,475 --> 01:06:52,675
Speaker 1: of three months was a lot of work to them,

962
01:06:53,475 --> 01:06:56,435
Speaker 1: or at least above average, and to me it was

963
01:06:57,275 --> 01:07:00,435
Speaker 1: the golden key. I knew that all I had to

964
01:07:00,435 --> 01:07:03,955
Speaker 1: do was find classes that allowed me to write, rather

965
01:07:04,075 --> 01:07:10,195
Speaker 1: than you know, mix chemicals or I don't know, take

966
01:07:10,555 --> 01:07:13,755
Speaker 1: tests with multiple choice. If it was an exam that

967
01:07:13,915 --> 01:07:17,275
Speaker 1: involved writing, I was going to do well in the course.

968
01:07:17,875 --> 01:07:22,115
Speaker 1: In my senior year, I took Ecology because there was

969
01:07:22,235 --> 01:07:24,515
Speaker 1: no lab work except a couple of marches through the

970
01:07:24,555 --> 01:07:28,835
Speaker 1: woods around Cornell, which were nice anyway, and there were

971
01:07:28,915 --> 01:07:32,875
Speaker 1: six papers and a written exam with some multiple choice questions.

972
01:07:32,955 --> 01:07:35,075
Speaker 1: But the majority of the work was writing, and I

973
01:07:35,075 --> 01:07:38,195
Speaker 1: could always write. I would start twenty five page papers

974
01:07:38,195 --> 01:07:41,195
Speaker 1: the night before they were due and do well on

975
01:07:41,235 --> 01:07:44,235
Speaker 1: them because I learned how to write in high school.

976
01:07:44,755 --> 01:07:47,875
Speaker 1: So now as my senior year with the twenty eight

977
01:07:47,915 --> 01:07:52,155
Speaker 1: credits in it a record a record tying performance. And

978
01:07:52,195 --> 01:07:55,275
Speaker 1: by the way, they changed the rules after I graduated,

979
01:07:55,275 --> 01:07:58,275
Speaker 1: so you can't take more than something like twenty one credits,

980
01:07:58,275 --> 01:08:03,715
Speaker 1: So my record is unbreakable, thank you very much as

981
01:08:03,955 --> 01:08:06,155
Speaker 1: the week's PA. And I was also working at the

982
01:08:06,235 --> 01:08:08,555
Speaker 1: radio station and also tried to get my first job.

983
01:08:08,675 --> 01:08:12,475
Speaker 1: As all this went on, I began to have the

984
01:08:12,555 --> 01:08:15,955
Speaker 1: dreams in which I would forget a class. Oh man,

985
01:08:15,995 --> 01:08:20,955
Speaker 1: I forgot physics completely. I didn't actually all of the

986
01:08:20,995 --> 01:08:23,235
Speaker 1: teachers who saw me and knew I was a senior

987
01:08:23,555 --> 01:08:27,075
Speaker 1: taking physics freshman physics, as one of them said, when

988
01:08:27,075 --> 01:08:29,515
Speaker 1: I didn't do too well on the lab, I'm giving

989
01:08:29,555 --> 01:08:31,235
Speaker 1: you an A on this. I'll be damned if I

990
01:08:31,355 --> 01:08:35,515
Speaker 1: keep a second semester senior from graduating because of freshman

991
01:08:35,955 --> 01:08:40,715
Speaker 1: physics a communications major. So they were all good to me,

992
01:08:40,795 --> 01:08:46,755
Speaker 1: and nobody padded my numbers that much. And then came

993
01:08:47,755 --> 01:08:53,515
Speaker 1: two events, the final in ecology and the phone call

994
01:08:53,555 --> 01:08:56,555
Speaker 1: from my father. And I don't remember the sequence of

995
01:08:56,555 --> 01:08:59,835
Speaker 1: these things. The exam must have been first. I had

996
01:08:59,875 --> 01:09:06,195
Speaker 1: written the final paper, which was about extinction, and the

997
01:09:06,235 --> 01:09:09,475
Speaker 1: professor had said, you can write about the philosophy extinction,

998
01:09:10,235 --> 01:09:17,195
Speaker 1: the moral implications of extinction, the theories of extinction, And

999
01:09:17,235 --> 01:09:19,635
Speaker 1: I went go back one and he said the moral

1000
01:09:19,715 --> 01:09:25,275
Speaker 1: implications or the theory or philosophy of extinctions or extrapolating

1001
01:09:25,315 --> 01:09:27,915
Speaker 1: from what we know about extinctions to possibly the meaning

1002
01:09:27,915 --> 01:09:29,675
Speaker 1: of it. I want I'll take that one because I

1003
01:09:29,755 --> 01:09:32,835
Speaker 1: knew if I could come up with one idea, I

1004
01:09:32,835 --> 01:09:36,275
Speaker 1: could turn it into twenty five pages. And the one

1005
01:09:36,315 --> 01:09:40,835
Speaker 1: idea was that perhaps extinction was a function of the

1006
01:09:40,875 --> 01:09:45,635
Speaker 1: growth of mankind from an advanced ape to our current

1007
01:09:45,675 --> 01:09:49,075
Speaker 1: state of not quite an advanced ape. That as we

1008
01:09:49,395 --> 01:09:53,355
Speaker 1: grew as our footprint in large, it would necessitate extinction

1009
01:09:53,395 --> 01:09:55,755
Speaker 1: of other species. It's not a bad idea, it's not

1010
01:09:55,795 --> 01:09:58,795
Speaker 1: a bad theory. It's not twenty five pages. And yet

1011
01:09:58,795 --> 01:10:01,395
Speaker 1: somehow there it was, and I handed it in. But

1012
01:10:01,515 --> 01:10:03,795
Speaker 1: most of my grade would depend on how that did

1013
01:10:04,235 --> 01:10:06,355
Speaker 1: and how I did on the exam, and in the

1014
01:10:06,395 --> 01:10:10,515
Speaker 1: final exam. In the middle of it, this guy, this

1015
01:10:10,635 --> 01:10:15,555
Speaker 1: teaching assistant or professor, whatever he was, hands back my paper,

1016
01:10:15,835 --> 01:10:22,995
Speaker 1: my theory of the societal and evolutionary implications of extinction,

1017
01:10:23,715 --> 01:10:29,075
Speaker 1: and at the top, in red he has written fourteen

1018
01:10:30,315 --> 01:10:42,355
Speaker 1: see me the world darkened, my blood ran cold, fourteen fourteen.

1019
01:10:43,155 --> 01:10:45,395
Speaker 1: This means that to graduate, I'm going to have to

1020
01:10:45,475 --> 01:10:48,075
Speaker 1: do one hundred on this final that's in front of me.

1021
01:10:48,355 --> 01:10:50,915
Speaker 1: I was the fastest test taker in the history of

1022
01:10:50,915 --> 01:10:55,555
Speaker 1: Cornell University. I believe fully, instinctively, your first answer is

1023
01:10:55,595 --> 01:10:59,835
Speaker 1: probably your best because that memory that moment is, you know,

1024
01:11:00,075 --> 01:11:02,875
Speaker 1: seven minutes fresher than the memory you're going to have

1025
01:11:02,955 --> 01:11:05,195
Speaker 1: seven minutes from now when you decide you got the

1026
01:11:05,235 --> 01:11:09,075
Speaker 1: first one wrong. So I would just do the exam,

1027
01:11:09,475 --> 01:11:12,675
Speaker 1: double check to see if I'd written in something by mistake,

1028
01:11:12,955 --> 01:11:15,835
Speaker 1: and then hand it in and leave. In this case,

1029
01:11:16,075 --> 01:11:19,035
Speaker 1: that's not how this worked. I had the exam in

1030
01:11:19,075 --> 01:11:23,115
Speaker 1: my hands when they said time, and I had changed

1031
01:11:23,395 --> 01:11:27,515
Speaker 1: countless answers, and they had to pull it out of

1032
01:11:27,515 --> 01:11:30,795
Speaker 1: my hands. And as I walked out into the spring

1033
01:11:31,035 --> 01:11:35,035
Speaker 1: sun of Cornell University and the AG campus in the

1034
01:11:35,115 --> 01:11:38,715
Speaker 1: spring of nineteen seventy nine, I did not know what

1035
01:11:38,795 --> 01:11:41,355
Speaker 1: I was going to do other than throttle this teaching

1036
01:11:41,355 --> 01:11:47,515
Speaker 1: assistant who suddenly appeared in front of me fourteen see

1037
01:11:47,555 --> 01:11:51,875
Speaker 1: me and read. There he was and he was smiling,

1038
01:11:51,915 --> 01:11:54,675
Speaker 1: and I thought I'd just deckham and I didn't do it,

1039
01:11:54,715 --> 01:11:56,675
Speaker 1: and he went, listen, I'm glad I ran into you.

1040
01:11:56,835 --> 01:11:59,035
Speaker 1: I wanted to explain the reason I didn't give you

1041
01:11:59,075 --> 01:12:01,875
Speaker 1: the fifteenth point was I loved your argument. I didn't

1042
01:12:01,915 --> 01:12:04,395
Speaker 1: hear the rest of it. It was fourteen out of

1043
01:12:04,435 --> 01:12:07,315
Speaker 1: pit fifteen. Who grades like that? At that point I

1044
01:12:07,355 --> 01:12:09,755
Speaker 1: was ready to say, why didn't you say fourteen out

1045
01:12:09,755 --> 01:12:11,835
Speaker 1: of fifteen? It just says fourteen, But I didn't. I

1046
01:12:11,875 --> 01:12:13,995
Speaker 1: just gave him a kiss on the cheek and then

1047
01:12:14,035 --> 01:12:18,795
Speaker 1: went and got drunk at nine or ten in the morning.

1048
01:12:19,795 --> 01:12:24,275
Speaker 1: So that hurdle was first off, it looked like it

1049
01:12:24,275 --> 01:12:26,515
Speaker 1: had wrapped itself around my neck, and then it turned

1050
01:12:26,515 --> 01:12:28,995
Speaker 1: out it had been vaulted. But at that point I

1051
01:12:29,035 --> 01:12:31,115
Speaker 1: thought I was not graduating. The job I was up

1052
01:12:31,115 --> 01:12:32,995
Speaker 1: for at United Press International was going to go to

1053
01:12:33,035 --> 01:12:35,115
Speaker 1: somebody else. I would either have to stay for the

1054
01:12:35,155 --> 01:12:38,395
Speaker 1: summer or leave Cornell without a degree and somehow come

1055
01:12:38,435 --> 01:12:42,115
Speaker 1: back later or something and probably never get the degree.

1056
01:12:43,435 --> 01:12:45,835
Speaker 1: And then I walked out into the sun and realized

1057
01:12:46,035 --> 01:12:48,635
Speaker 1: that there were like five of my other ten courses

1058
01:12:48,715 --> 01:12:50,915
Speaker 1: in which there was an excellent chance I might not graduate.

1059
01:12:51,115 --> 01:12:54,315
Speaker 1: And that final in history, I think it was going

1060
01:12:54,355 --> 01:12:57,235
Speaker 1: to come down maybe three or four points on a

1061
01:12:57,275 --> 01:12:59,755
Speaker 1: five point question and a fifteen point section on a

1062
01:12:59,795 --> 01:13:03,115
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty point exam. I hadn't done that

1063
01:13:03,155 --> 01:13:05,755
Speaker 1: well in the history exam. I knew it they'd hit

1064
01:13:05,795 --> 01:13:11,355
Speaker 1: all the topics I had not mastered, and so on

1065
01:13:11,395 --> 01:13:14,395
Speaker 1: the Friday before the graduation, on Monday, May twenty eighth,

1066
01:13:14,475 --> 01:13:17,155
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, my dad called and said, are you

1067
01:13:17,195 --> 01:13:19,995
Speaker 1: graduating or not? Because your mother and your sister and

1068
01:13:20,035 --> 01:13:22,475
Speaker 1: I are not coming up unless you're graduating. We're not

1069
01:13:22,555 --> 01:13:25,675
Speaker 1: taking that drive again. If you haven't graduated. You can

1070
01:13:25,675 --> 01:13:27,715
Speaker 1: get home on your own. I told you I'm not

1071
01:13:27,755 --> 01:13:29,995
Speaker 1: paying for anything that includes your ride home if you

1072
01:13:30,035 --> 01:13:33,315
Speaker 1: didn't graduate. I said, thank you for your support. He said,

1073
01:13:33,315 --> 01:13:34,955
Speaker 1: you know I love you and I'm supporting you the

1074
01:13:34,955 --> 01:13:38,315
Speaker 1: best I can. But you did miss a semester, and

1075
01:13:38,355 --> 01:13:40,315
Speaker 1: I went, well, I was sick. Yeah, you were sick.

1076
01:13:40,355 --> 01:13:42,115
Speaker 1: You were sick. After the day, I could have gotten

1077
01:13:42,155 --> 01:13:44,435
Speaker 1: the refund for the whole semester. My dad was very

1078
01:13:44,475 --> 01:13:50,435
Speaker 1: practical with money. So I called the registrar's office. I

1079
01:13:50,475 --> 01:13:53,715
Speaker 1: don't think I got Marcia or Martha, but I needed

1080
01:13:53,715 --> 01:13:56,195
Speaker 1: to know. It was Friday, graduation was Monday. I really

1081
01:13:56,235 --> 01:13:57,755
Speaker 1: needed to know whether or not I had to go

1082
01:13:57,835 --> 01:14:00,715
Speaker 1: to graduation on Monday morning or make a reservation to

1083
01:14:00,755 --> 01:14:04,475
Speaker 1: go home to New York on the back of the bus,

1084
01:14:04,755 --> 01:14:08,915
Speaker 1: perhaps as luggage, maybe ship myself through the post office.

1085
01:14:11,955 --> 01:14:15,275
Speaker 1: She said, Lank, let me check. Hold on. Okay, we

1086
01:14:15,315 --> 01:14:17,235
Speaker 1: have this one, saying okay, An you passed. That's a

1087
01:14:17,355 --> 01:14:19,595
Speaker 1: C minus in over here is and Dan, boy, you

1088
01:14:19,635 --> 01:14:22,475
Speaker 1: took a lot of classes Olderman. Yes, well, let me

1089
01:14:22,555 --> 01:14:25,555
Speaker 1: just hold on a second, puts her hand over the phone,

1090
01:14:25,595 --> 01:14:29,835
Speaker 1: and for some reason I could hear her even better. Gladys,

1091
01:14:30,395 --> 01:14:36,995
Speaker 1: I need to check. Did Olberman graduate? Now? Olberman? Oh

1092
01:14:37,155 --> 01:14:40,675
Speaker 1: l no, no, no, no, no, no, not's o b

1093
01:14:40,915 --> 01:14:44,635
Speaker 1: he's no I no, he's in the hotel school. Oh

1094
01:14:44,835 --> 01:14:52,115
Speaker 1: l b E R M A N. This is when

1095
01:14:52,155 --> 01:15:00,195
Speaker 1: I spoke two ends, two ends. Gladys, No, no he didn't.

1096
01:15:01,235 --> 01:15:06,675
Speaker 1: Oh that's too bad. No again, the world receded in

1097
01:15:06,715 --> 01:15:11,435
Speaker 1: front of my eyes. It got very dark and my

1098
01:15:11,515 --> 01:15:15,395
Speaker 1: blood got very cold. And then she came back onto

1099
01:15:15,595 --> 01:15:20,915
Speaker 1: removing her hand from the phone, onto full voice and said, yes,

1100
01:15:20,995 --> 01:15:24,835
Speaker 1: you graduated. We just couldn't find the history final congratulations.

1101
01:15:24,875 --> 01:15:26,875
Speaker 1: And I said to her, and I'm quoting myself, I

1102
01:15:26,955 --> 01:15:32,795
Speaker 1: think exactly I got and she went, yes, thank god,

1103
01:15:32,995 --> 01:15:35,715
Speaker 1: have a nice weekend, have fun at graduation. Don't drink

1104
01:15:35,755 --> 01:15:39,875
Speaker 1: too much. Click. She hadn't been able to find the

1105
01:15:39,995 --> 01:15:43,115
Speaker 1: history result which I passed. I think it was a

1106
01:15:43,155 --> 01:15:46,915
Speaker 1: CS or a D plus. I just passed those five points.

1107
01:15:46,915 --> 01:15:49,075
Speaker 1: I got four instead of three and the five point

1108
01:15:49,435 --> 01:15:51,315
Speaker 1: in the fifteen point section in the one hundred and

1109
01:15:51,355 --> 01:15:54,075
Speaker 1: fifty point history exam, and I graduated. And I got

1110
01:15:54,075 --> 01:15:57,755
Speaker 1: a C plus in the biology course ecology because of

1111
01:15:57,795 --> 01:16:01,315
Speaker 1: my one sentence theory that I turned into twenty five pages.

1112
01:16:01,395 --> 01:16:05,115
Speaker 1: And I graduated and graduated with twenty eight credits in

1113
01:16:05,155 --> 01:16:08,515
Speaker 1: my last semester when the average number of credits was fifteen,

1114
01:16:08,755 --> 01:16:11,315
Speaker 1: and then they changed the rules so nobody could take

1115
01:16:11,355 --> 01:16:13,035
Speaker 1: more than twenty one and they had to get special

1116
01:16:13,115 --> 01:16:16,395
Speaker 1: permission to do that. So I share the all time

1117
01:16:16,475 --> 01:16:20,395
Speaker 1: Cornell record for the most credits in one semester, and

1118
01:16:20,555 --> 01:16:25,235
Speaker 1: my grade point average would have led either the American

1119
01:16:25,355 --> 01:16:29,795
Speaker 1: or National leagues in earned run average for nineteen seventy nine.

1120
01:16:29,995 --> 01:16:32,955
Speaker 1: That's how bad I was. And to this day, no

1121
01:16:33,075 --> 01:16:35,875
Speaker 1: employer and nobody else I've ever known has asked to

1122
01:16:35,995 --> 01:16:41,835
Speaker 1: see any of these numbers. I graduated, Dad came up.

1123
01:16:42,155 --> 01:16:44,995
Speaker 1: We had a great time. I wore the suit, I

1124
01:16:45,075 --> 01:16:48,155
Speaker 1: wore the hat. They had to order a special size

1125
01:16:48,235 --> 01:16:52,475
Speaker 1: eight mortarboard for me, and as soon as it ended.

1126
01:16:52,955 --> 01:16:56,035
Speaker 1: I did the whole bit. I went over to Dad

1127
01:16:56,675 --> 01:16:59,795
Speaker 1: and I handed him my diploma and said, in the

1128
01:16:59,835 --> 01:17:04,235
Speaker 1: tradition of college graduates, then and I hope now here,

1129
01:17:05,955 --> 01:17:23,115
Speaker 1: here's your goddamned receipt. I've done all the damage I

1130
01:17:23,115 --> 01:17:26,075
Speaker 1: can do here. Thank you for listening. Occurs to me

1131
01:17:26,875 --> 01:17:28,715
Speaker 1: that I left something out of that story, which is

1132
01:17:28,755 --> 01:17:32,275
Speaker 1: the part about the dreams. The dream started about a

1133
01:17:32,275 --> 01:17:34,875
Speaker 1: month later that I didn't graduate on time, And obviously

1134
01:17:35,275 --> 01:17:38,635
Speaker 1: they were not terrifying dreams, but depending on how much

1135
01:17:38,675 --> 01:17:41,235
Speaker 1: stress there was in my life, often I would be

1136
01:17:41,275 --> 01:17:45,235
Speaker 1: required not just to redo the classes I failed, but

1137
01:17:45,315 --> 01:17:49,595
Speaker 1: to start college all over again, or start high school

1138
01:17:49,635 --> 01:17:52,355
Speaker 1: all over again. And once, at a particularly tense point

1139
01:17:52,395 --> 01:17:54,355
Speaker 1: in my life, at about the age of thirty five,

1140
01:17:55,075 --> 01:17:57,035
Speaker 1: I had a dream in which because I did not

1141
01:17:57,155 --> 01:17:59,915
Speaker 1: graduate college on time, they sent me back to the

1142
01:18:00,035 --> 01:18:04,235
Speaker 1: third grade as an adult to sit in those tiny chairs.

1143
01:18:04,995 --> 01:18:07,915
Speaker 1: That's how bad the dream was. And the dream continued,

1144
01:18:08,155 --> 01:18:10,715
Speaker 1: and most people who've graduated from school were gone through

1145
01:18:10,755 --> 01:18:12,995
Speaker 1: some similar Am I going to do this in time

1146
01:18:13,155 --> 01:18:15,515
Speaker 1: kind of thing? Have a dream like this? The dream

1147
01:18:15,555 --> 01:18:18,755
Speaker 1: continued in pretty much the same fashion for the next

1148
01:18:18,795 --> 01:18:22,035
Speaker 1: forty years. And I began to wonder if the theories

1149
01:18:22,075 --> 01:18:24,035
Speaker 1: about it, which is that it was just a stress

1150
01:18:24,195 --> 01:18:27,995
Speaker 1: based dream based on reality, had been replaced by something else.

1151
01:18:28,035 --> 01:18:30,475
Speaker 1: And finally it dawned on me as I hit sixty

1152
01:18:30,555 --> 01:18:33,435
Speaker 1: years old and was having this dream, that in fact

1153
01:18:33,435 --> 01:18:35,515
Speaker 1: I was still having the dream because in the dream

1154
01:18:35,675 --> 01:18:40,115
Speaker 1: I was twenty and almost anything, including having to take

1155
01:18:40,155 --> 01:18:44,315
Speaker 1: twenty eight credits in one semester and not really being

1156
01:18:44,315 --> 01:18:47,715
Speaker 1: sure you're going to graduate, is better if you're twenty

1157
01:18:48,235 --> 01:18:52,155
Speaker 1: than almost anything is if you're sixty. And the moment

1158
01:18:52,195 --> 01:18:54,915
Speaker 1: I realized that it had turned into a nostalgia dream

1159
01:18:55,235 --> 01:18:59,595
Speaker 1: for my now gone youth, the dream stopped. I haven't

1160
01:18:59,595 --> 01:19:04,435
Speaker 1: had it since. Something to think about twenty eight credits?

1161
01:19:05,195 --> 01:19:08,435
Speaker 1: Oh you can't. They changed their roles. Sorry, My academic

1162
01:19:08,475 --> 01:19:12,435
Speaker 1: career in terrible grade point average. However, I'll always have that.

1163
01:19:13,795 --> 01:19:17,635
Speaker 1: Brian Ray and John Phillip Schanel, the musical directors, have Countdown, arranged, produced,

1164
01:19:17,635 --> 01:19:20,555
Speaker 1: and performed most of our music. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration

1165
01:19:20,595 --> 01:19:23,915
Speaker 1: and keyboards. Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums,

1166
01:19:23,915 --> 01:19:27,035
Speaker 1: and it was produced by TKO Brothers. I should also

1167
01:19:27,075 --> 01:19:29,755
Speaker 1: add that upon graduation one of my dear friends who've

1168
01:19:29,795 --> 01:19:32,235
Speaker 1: been out looking for a job, came back and said,

1169
01:19:32,555 --> 01:19:36,035
Speaker 1: when she saw me in line in my mortarboard and

1170
01:19:36,115 --> 01:19:39,915
Speaker 1: my gown, you graduated. And I said yes. And she

1171
01:19:40,035 --> 01:19:42,355
Speaker 1: then asked me about another one of our friends who

1172
01:19:42,395 --> 01:19:44,555
Speaker 1: was also on the bubble, and I said, no, she

1173
01:19:44,635 --> 01:19:49,115
Speaker 1: didn't graduate. She failed sex roles. She took sex roles

1174
01:19:49,155 --> 01:19:52,595
Speaker 1: past fail and she failed it. And I burst into laughter,

1175
01:19:52,635 --> 01:19:55,435
Speaker 1: and I had this strange experience of looking into my

1176
01:19:55,475 --> 01:19:59,235
Speaker 1: friend's face. My friend said, you know, and this is

1177
01:19:59,275 --> 01:20:01,555
Speaker 1: the first time I ever heard this cliche. You know,

1178
01:20:01,675 --> 01:20:04,715
Speaker 1: she's standing right behind you. And I turned around and

1179
01:20:04,755 --> 01:20:08,315
Speaker 1: she said, you've deserved this for a long time. And

1180
01:20:08,435 --> 01:20:13,635
Speaker 1: on graduation morning she smacked me, and my glasses literally

1181
01:20:13,675 --> 01:20:16,635
Speaker 1: did fly off into the bushes. But I didn't care.

1182
01:20:16,915 --> 01:20:23,275
Speaker 1: I was graduating and she was not. Our satirical and

1183
01:20:23,275 --> 01:20:26,515
Speaker 1: fifthy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever,

1184
01:20:26,635 --> 01:20:30,235
Speaker 1: Nancy Faust, once again of the Chicago White Sox, the

1185
01:20:30,235 --> 01:20:33,595
Speaker 1: Papacy's team. The sports music is the Ulderman theme for

1186
01:20:33,715 --> 01:20:37,715
Speaker 1: Me ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc.

1187
01:20:38,115 --> 01:20:40,995
Speaker 1: Other music arranged and performed by the group no horns allowed,

1188
01:20:41,035 --> 01:20:43,715
Speaker 1: and my announcer today was my friend Dennis Leary. Everything

1189
01:20:43,755 --> 01:20:48,235
Speaker 1: else was, as ever, my fault. My friend Carol said

1190
01:20:48,275 --> 01:20:53,115
Speaker 1: of the Lady who shall remain nameless, after she wandered

1191
01:20:53,155 --> 01:20:57,835
Speaker 1: off not graduating on time, she said, Keith, you're a

1192
01:20:57,875 --> 01:21:00,675
Speaker 1: strange guy, and I like you very much. You're one

1193
01:21:00,675 --> 01:21:03,035
Speaker 1: of my best friends, and I hope that will always

1194
01:21:03,035 --> 01:21:05,875
Speaker 1: be the case. But I need you to know something.

1195
01:21:06,115 --> 01:21:09,875
Speaker 1: No matter how strange people might find you, how different

1196
01:21:09,955 --> 01:21:13,635
Speaker 1: in both good and bad ways you might be, just

1197
01:21:13,715 --> 01:21:20,315
Speaker 1: remember you'll never be as crazy as she is. I

1198
01:21:20,315 --> 01:21:23,115
Speaker 1: should have married Carol. In fact, I should have married

1199
01:21:23,155 --> 01:21:27,915
Speaker 1: Carol that morning. Based on that. That's countdown for today,

1200
01:21:27,995 --> 01:21:30,635
Speaker 1: Day one hundred and twenty of America held hostage, just

1201
01:21:31,275 --> 01:21:33,635
Speaker 1: three hundred and forty three days until the scheduled end

1202
01:21:33,635 --> 01:21:36,675
Speaker 1: of his lame duck and lame brained term, unless Musk

1203
01:21:36,715 --> 01:21:40,995
Speaker 1: removes him sooner. Where the actuarial tables do or we do?

1204
01:21:42,395 --> 01:21:45,795
Speaker 1: We all have regrets in life. But I graduated on

1205
01:21:45,875 --> 01:21:49,155
Speaker 1: time and started work a month later. The rest while

1206
01:21:49,195 --> 01:21:52,155
Speaker 1: you're listening to it. The next scheduled countdown is Monday.

1207
01:21:52,555 --> 01:21:56,555
Speaker 1: As always, bulletins as the news warrants. No, No, it's

1208
01:21:56,555 --> 01:22:00,435
Speaker 1: not next Monday. This is Monday. The next scheduled countdown

1209
01:22:00,555 --> 01:22:05,475
Speaker 1: is Thursday. As always, bulletins as the news warrants. I

1210
01:22:05,515 --> 01:22:08,115
Speaker 1: was too busy trying to graduate. I didn't learn anything

1211
01:22:08,555 --> 01:22:11,755
Speaker 1: as boldin's as the news warrants. And remember Trump is

1212
01:22:11,835 --> 01:22:15,475
Speaker 1: laying the groundwork now to not leave office later, to

1213
01:22:15,635 --> 01:22:20,075
Speaker 1: not graduate on time like he graduated on time. He

1214
01:22:20,195 --> 01:22:24,715
Speaker 1: must be stopped till next time. I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning,

1215
01:22:24,755 --> 01:22:46,355
Speaker 1: good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olberman

1216
01:22:46,555 --> 01:22:51,035
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

1217
01:22:51,195 --> 01:22:55,195
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

1218
01:22:55,235 --> 01:22:56,155
Speaker 1: your podcasts.