Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Timing
Speaker 1: is everything. Steve Bannon has been ordered to go to prison,
Speaker 1: ordered on June sixth, ordered on D Day, D Day
Speaker 1: when we destroyed everything Steve Bannon's predecessors stood for. He
Speaker 1: doesn't get it yet. We will destroy him and what
Speaker 1: he stands for, and all who stand with him and
Speaker 1: Trump we will, We will, we will because timing is everything,
Speaker 1: and the timing will come and after the ruling sending
Speaker 1: him to prison by the first of next month for
Speaker 1: contempt of Congress. As Bannon was boasting to the vapid
Speaker 1: press that know he will destroy us and his fascism
Speaker 1: will subsume America. As he boasted, as he bleeded, as
Speaker 1: he sweated, as he reveled in his perfidy, He learned personally,
Speaker 1: one to always look behind you, because Satchel Page was right,
Speaker 1: something maybe gaining on you. And two that timing is everything.
Speaker 1: There is nothing that can shove me up and nothing
Speaker 1: that will shove me up.
Speaker 2: You're for you fail.
Speaker 3: You're going to jail.
Speaker 1: Is not a person, Bill or jail Bill Delaware will
Speaker 1: show me up.
Speaker 3: Pluck him what damn time.
Speaker 4: You're a cutter.
Speaker 1: No one will ever shut you up, Steve Mannon, except
Speaker 1: that ubiquitous protesting conscience of the nation, Bill Christensen and
Speaker 1: the United States of America. Bannon will make emergency appeals.
Speaker 1: So this is not a one hundred percent lead pipe cinch,
Speaker 1: not yet. But the reason we can say it's a
Speaker 1: ninety nine point nine percent lead pipe cinch is that
Speaker 1: an appeals would have to find fault with the judge
Speaker 1: Judge Carl Nichols, formerly Clerk Carl Nichols at the Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: to a justice Justice Thomas nominated to the DC District
Speaker 1: Court six years ago today by a president. To well,
Speaker 1: cheer up inmate Bannon. At least your prison garb will
Speaker 1: be an upgrade from your usual street attire. So Bannon
Speaker 1: will be in the big House at the same time
Speaker 1: Peter Navarro is and at the same time is still
Speaker 1: no movement towards postponing. Sentencing still scheduled for four weeks
Speaker 1: from yesterday, and the polls continue to drip drip, indicators
Speaker 1: that as much as they threaten, as much as they lie,
Speaker 1: as much as they fabricate, the conviction bump the Trumpsts
Speaker 1: still insist is imminent is not only not happening, but
Speaker 1: it will turn out to be another hole in Trump's
Speaker 1: titanic hull. The only question is how big and how
Speaker 1: much of a seemingly self contradicting mc escher like drawing
Speaker 1: the results, and the hole will turn out to be.
Speaker 1: The Washington Post analyzing Reuter's IPSOS polling from January and
Speaker 1: this week and April and its confusing but encouraging. In April,
Speaker 1: the respondence to that Reuter's poll predicted their responses. If
Speaker 1: Trump were to be convicted, nine percent of Trump voters
Speaker 1: said they would abandon him, and there'd be a two
Speaker 1: point swing to Biden. The early polling in the wake
Speaker 1: of the actual conviction suggests that is low. It's closer
Speaker 1: to a four point swing, and it may grow and
Speaker 1: then presumably inevitably weane with time. But the April Ruter's
Speaker 1: polling also suggested that the numbers for convicted and then
Speaker 1: imprisoned that was an entirely different ballgame. All voters were
Speaker 1: opposed sending him to jail by fifty one to forty six,
Speaker 1: but if he goes, twenty percent of his voters said
Speaker 1: they would abandon Trump. Now the conviction is real and
Speaker 1: the jail time is a tangible possibility probability we don't know,
Speaker 1: and a new Reuter's IPSOS poll shows it's worse for Trump.
Speaker 1: His voter hemorrhage is fourteen percent for the conviction. It
Speaker 1: would be twenty three percent if he gets actual jail time. Again,
Speaker 1: the numbers are fluid, and polls in April and polls
Speaker 1: in June are not votes in November, and people asked
Speaker 1: vaguely about jail time probably are thinking the worst jail
Speaker 1: time ten to twenty breaking rocks, gonna send you to
Speaker 1: sing sing, Getty, sing sing, And they're not thinking the
Speaker 1: likelier outcome of six weeks, and most of that for
Speaker 1: the repeated violations of the gag order. But if Trump
Speaker 1: loses twenty three percent of his support, he could literally
Speaker 1: wind up with less than one hundred electoral votes. If
Speaker 1: Trump loses less than half of that, if he loses
Speaker 1: eleven percent of his support, he still loses in a landslide.
Speaker 1: If Trump loses a quarter of this number, if he
Speaker 1: loses only six percent, that's four million, three hundred and
Speaker 1: twelve thousand votes. And if space correctly even, that is
Speaker 1: a comparative landslide for half a century now I have
Speaker 1: never read numbers aloud without remembering my mentor in college,
Speaker 1: the general manager of the Cornell owned radio station, one
Speaker 1: of the great underrated broadcasters of all time, who lived
Speaker 1: his life happily in a small market because he loved
Speaker 1: the place. Don Martin was his name. He never told,
Speaker 1: he always asked. I was his teaching assistant. We were
Speaker 1: killing time before class, sitting out on the steps of
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century university building, and he said, close your
Speaker 1: eyes a second. I heard you on the air the
Speaker 1: other day. I'm going to read you a piece of
Speaker 1: radio copy. Raise your hand when you feel like you've
Speaker 1: forgotten what the point was. Whatever he read to me
Speaker 1: was full of numbers and percentages and divisions and subtractions,
Speaker 1: and I think my hand went up at about the
Speaker 1: fourth percentage. He then asked, you get my point. The
Speaker 1: point is the numbers read aloud turn the brain to fog.
Speaker 1: The numbers are themselves vague and eminently changeable. The reason
Speaker 1: I have subjected you to so many of them since
Speaker 1: they started coming out a week ago tonight in the
Speaker 1: polls is that they are not as so many have predicted,
Speaker 1: favorable to Trump. They are not Trump martyrdom points. They
Speaker 1: have not had no effect. They have not as news
Speaker 1: outlet after news outlet has stupidly parroted, barely moved the needle.
Speaker 1: Reporters see one percent or two percent, and they say
Speaker 1: two is a really small number. Take this number with you.
Speaker 1: The Reuter's poll says, if Trump actually goes to jail,
Speaker 1: he loses somewhere between four million votes and seventeen million votes.
Speaker 1: Either of those numbers cannot be described as barely moving
Speaker 1: the needle. Even reporters would recognize that four million is
Speaker 1: not a small number, and the lower of the two
Speaker 1: numbers between four million and seventeen million, as we saw
Speaker 1: four years ago and Biden won Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin
Speaker 1: by a total of forty three thousand votes, The smaller
Speaker 1: number does what we used to call on radio, pinning
Speaker 1: the needle. The higher number breaks the needle breaks, the glass,
Speaker 1: breaks the VU meter, and it breaks. Convicted fellon Donald
Speaker 1: Trump speaking of broken temperatures at the Live Trump Words
Speaker 1: Salad Festival in Phoenix yesterday. One hundred and ten at
Speaker 1: least a dozen in line for the fascist rally had
Speaker 1: to be transported to hospitals because of heat exhaustion. It
Speaker 1: may have been dozens heat exhaustion, or maybe because the
Speaker 1: Democratic National Committee put up a billboard across for the
Speaker 1: street there reading in two different languages, convicted felon Donald
Speaker 1: Trump not fit to serve. And these billboards are not
Speaker 1: to be confused with other groups of billboards reading I
Speaker 1: am a former Trump voter, I won't vote for a
Speaker 1: convicted felon, which have been put up there in Phoenix
Speaker 1: and in three other states so far by a group
Speaker 1: called Republican Voters Against Trump. To Trump's fans who did
Speaker 1: not die outside in Phoenix because of the climate change
Speaker 1: he is demanding, he reminded them that whether or not
Speaker 1: he fulfills his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act on
Speaker 1: inauguration day, he will break the Posse Comitatis Act and
Speaker 1: he will send thousands of active troops to serve illegally
Speaker 1: domestically at the border and god knows where else. Oh
Speaker 1: and even though he was indoors, Yeah, he glitched again.
Speaker 4: When I'm president, I will use Title forty two to
Speaker 4: end the trial.
Speaker 1: And we have to do this, Sure we do, goober,
Speaker 1: And before we leave convicted FDT for the moment. This
Speaker 1: is not new, but I had not heard this before,
Speaker 1: and maybe you have not either. And this is from
Speaker 1: that sit down from the weekend Fox Show, and right now,
Speaker 1: if I had to submit one piece of evidence to
Speaker 1: conclusively prove he's nuts, it would be this question and
Speaker 1: this answer. The host reads him an inquiry from a
Speaker 1: viewer in Alabama who is asking about how he prays, prays,
Speaker 1: and how his relationship with God is and what it's like.
Speaker 1: And he cannot stop himself long enough to even give
Speaker 1: a good phony answer. He cannot stop himself long enough
Speaker 1: to be fake, reverential, not for a second. His answer
Speaker 1: is immediate and it's insane, and it's about his relationship
Speaker 1: with God, as proven by poll numbers.
Speaker 4: What's your relationship with God like? And how do you pray?
Speaker 4: That's Sharon from Alabama. Okay, so I think it's good.
Speaker 4: I do very well with the evangelicals. I love the evangelicals.
Speaker 4: And I have more people saying they pray for me.
Speaker 4: I can't even believe it.
Speaker 3: And they are so.
Speaker 4: Committed and they're so believing. They say, sir, you're going
Speaker 4: to be okay. I pray for you every night. I
Speaker 4: mean everybody almost. I can't say everybody, but almost everybody
Speaker 4: that sees me, they say it. It's such a beautiful thing.
Speaker 4: You know. What's a beautiful thing too, when you look
Speaker 4: at all of this bad stuff going on. They have
Speaker 4: nothing to look up to. They have no God, they
Speaker 4: have no anything. They kill people, they beat people, push
Speaker 4: people into subways.
Speaker 1: Asked about his relationship with God, and your or my
Speaker 1: belief or non belief is irrelevant for the moment here.
Speaker 1: Asked about his relationship with God, Trump explains, there is
Speaker 1: no God and he doesn't have a relationship with one.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see Reuter's hipsos to a new poll,
Speaker 1: asking his voters if they'll still vote for him if
Speaker 1: he goes to jail. And oh, by the way, if
Speaker 1: he goes to jail and he only talks about God
Speaker 1: to impact his own polling numbers. And here's another clip
Speaker 1: that slipped through the cracks, but only for a moment.
Speaker 1: This was Newsmax. This was the interview where Trump just
Speaker 1: kept talking and talking and talking, and even poor dumb
Speaker 1: Greg Kelly glazed over as he listened. And Trump said
Speaker 1: his big takeaway from the New York trial was that
Speaker 1: none of the jurors smiled at him. The light bulb
Speaker 1: went off over my head. This is far more important
Speaker 1: than it could possibly seem at first Blush.
Speaker 2: I never saw a glimmer of a from the jury. No,
Speaker 2: this was a venue that was very unfair. It's a
Speaker 2: tiny fraction of the people are Republicans, and it's very unfair.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, did I have a flashback there. I
Speaker 1: have had the misfortune to meet Trump in person four times,
Speaker 1: the first late in nineteen eighty three, and each time
Speaker 1: I saw the exact moment that his face went from
Speaker 1: an emotionless, almost lifeless, certainly non human mask to a beaming,
Speaker 1: phony smile. That's who he is, That's what he thinks
Speaker 1: is his asset, an irresistible smile. You and I look
Speaker 1: at him and see a face of evil and debauchery,
Speaker 1: and mostly a guy who claims to be rich and
Speaker 1: yet clearly buys his makeup at the cheap end of
Speaker 1: the notions department at Filin's basement. But he really thinks
Speaker 1: he can sell anybody anything, and somewhere early in life
Speaker 1: he decided his means of doing that was to mimic
Speaker 1: a human smile and really make it as big and
Speaker 1: as preposterous as possible. And he's done this now for
Speaker 1: at least seventy years, from his childhood dementia to this dementia.
Speaker 1: And the way he registers a sail with people, His
Speaker 1: receipt for convincing them to do his bidding is their
Speaker 1: smile in return. So the jury didn't smile at him,
Speaker 1: so the jury was biased against him. So the jury
Speaker 1: was corrupt, so the trial was rigged. So when he
Speaker 1: says these crazy things, there is a part of him
Speaker 1: that truly believes it is rigged because they are, as
Speaker 1: the kids say, not buying what he's selling. He believes
Speaker 1: life is a transaction, and when he gives you his smile,
Speaker 1: you have to give him yours, and then he owns you.
Speaker 1: I met him in the lobby of the apartment building
Speaker 1: I used to live at here, the no longer Trump
Speaker 1: Palace US. I saw him first, then he saw me.
Speaker 1: Then he whispered to one of his flunkies. I'm guessing
Speaker 1: he was double checking it was me. Then he stared
Speaker 1: at me for a moment. Then when he thought I
Speaker 1: was first looking at him, his dead face turned immediately
Speaker 1: into that fake smile. Remember the Cinco de Mayo Taco
Speaker 1: Bowl tweet from twenty sixteen where he says, I love Hispanics,
Speaker 1: like there were actual Hispanics in the Taco Bowl and
Speaker 1: he was eating them that fake smile. But his eyesight
Speaker 1: is not as good as he lets on, so he
Speaker 1: doesn't know that you have seen him first. He had
Speaker 1: done the same thing twice in the lobbies of thirty
Speaker 1: Rock at NBC, once stopping just to shake hands, once
Speaker 1: actually stopping to tell me how good countdown was, and
Speaker 1: how pissed off his buddy Bill O'Reilly would get whenever
Speaker 1: he told him how good countdown was, and then striding off.
Speaker 1: And I watched to see if I could see that
Speaker 1: fake smile that had appeared so suddenly Van Justice suddenly,
Speaker 1: but his back was turned to me. However, December fifteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, CNN sends me to cover a New
Speaker 1: York Post sports forum where owner George Steinbrenner of the
Speaker 1: New York Yankees, owner Fred Wilpond of the New York Mets,
Speaker 1: Sonny Werblin of the New York Rangers, and Nixon, this
Speaker 1: real estate hump Trump who owned the sort of pro
Speaker 1: football team in New Jersey. They would speak and do
Speaker 1: interviews and meet fans and whatever, and I interviewed them
Speaker 1: all briefly, and when it came time to interview this
Speaker 1: Trump guy, he stood there and looked at me like
Speaker 1: he was trying to guess my weight. Then we put
Speaker 1: the camera light on and there it was this big
Speaker 1: fake smile out of nowhere, and I asked some questions
Speaker 1: about the new Jersey generals, and he boasted he was
Speaker 1: hiring a new name coach who used to coach the Jets.
Speaker 1: Only turned out he hadn't hired him yet, and he
Speaker 1: spent a week cleaning up that mess. And when I
Speaker 1: said thank you, when we turned the light off, he
Speaker 1: turned off the big fake smile zap. It was gone,
Speaker 1: and the blank look repeat it in his eyes. A
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, on a cold night, I turned
Speaker 1: a corner here and a familiar but older face shouted Keith,
Speaker 1: And suddenly I realized it's a CNN cameraman I haven't
Speaker 1: seen in thirty years. Remember when we covered Trump with
Speaker 1: that sports thing, he says, And I realized he was
Speaker 1: the cameraman that day at the post thing. Remember what
Speaker 1: you said about him? And I didn't, And he laughs
Speaker 1: and he says, we were walking back to the truck
Speaker 1: and you didn't say anything, and that worried us, because
Speaker 1: when have you ever shut up for five minutes? And
Speaker 1: so finally I say, what's bothering you? And you stopped,
Speaker 1: and you turning, You looked at me and Jimmy, and
Speaker 1: you said that last guy we interviewed Trump, what the
Speaker 1: f is wrong with that guy? All right, let's go
Speaker 1: back to the Supreme Court again, and that old boss
Speaker 1: of that judge who just sent Steve Bannon too the slammer.
Speaker 1: A couple more numbers too. But the mind reels at
Speaker 1: these numbers. And I do not think you will go
Speaker 1: blanket the sound of them. In fact, you may just
Speaker 1: hit that little rewind thirty seconds thing. There is a
Speaker 1: watchdog group called Fix the Court, and it has now
Speaker 1: hung a price tag off the corruption that has befouled
Speaker 1: the Supreme Course. And guess which fish stinks the most expensively.
Speaker 1: Total number of verified gifts to Supreme Court justices, confirmed
Speaker 1: hard evidence reported gifts in cash or in items of
Speaker 1: value since January first, two thousand and four is just
Speaker 1: under three million dollars. Three million dollars in gifts to
Speaker 1: Supreme Court justices. And who got eighty percent of all
Speaker 1: of them? Who got two million, four hundred and two thousand,
Speaker 1: three hundred and ten dollars worth of gifts. Well, you
Speaker 1: already knew the answer in your heart, didn't you, Clarence,
Speaker 1: Man of the people. Thomas two million, four hundred and
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars worth of gifts. And those are just
Speaker 1: the confirmed ones. Fix the Court said there are ninety
Speaker 1: more likely gifts Thomas Scott worth another million, eight and
Speaker 1: one more number. The number of subpoenas by the Democratic
Speaker 1: controlled Senate Judiciary Committee relating to the Supreme Court. Why
Speaker 1: that's still stuck at zero. And just to infuriate you
Speaker 1: a little bit more, I'd like to pass along a
Speaker 1: suggestion somebody made. Not only should Dick Durban be subpoenaing
Speaker 1: Samuel Alito right now, he should also be subpoenaing Martha
Speaker 1: and Alito. Apparently, Dick and the Senate Judiciary Democrats met
Speaker 1: again Monday night. That's punch Bowl News reporting that, and
Speaker 1: basically they gave up and they said they would do nothing,
Speaker 1: but they would do it with stern looks on their face,
Speaker 1: quoting the report. For now, Democrats strategy is to continue
Speaker 1: to raise public awareness while at the same time tempering expectations. Quote,
Speaker 1: there are precedents as to what we can and cannot do.
Speaker 1: But I think I think the American people have a
Speaker 1: clear understanding of some of the unethical conduct of several justices.
Speaker 1: Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said, sure,
Speaker 1: it's front of mind, clear understanding nationwide of unethical conduct.
Speaker 1: This is a country that elected Trump. Good work, Dick. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: here's somebody else they should subpoena, but won't. Brett Kavanaugh,
Speaker 1: who yesterday had somebody leaked to Axios that he is
Speaker 1: writing his memoirs. His memoirs are they about assaulting women?
Speaker 1: Asking for a democracy? Also of interest here, there are
Speaker 1: hints contained in legal documents that there is video or
Speaker 1: audio tape of Fox News hosts sounds like the fired
Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson, probably maybe Hannity as well, maybe Ingram, maybe others,
Speaker 1: absolutely vivisecting Trump and the entirety of Trump's claim that
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty election was rigged tapes. Imagine the impact
Speaker 1: of actual video of Sean Hannity saying, of course Trump
Speaker 1: lost in twenty twenty. Wow. And what is the Biden
Speaker 1: Department of Justice trying to do with this video. It's
Speaker 1: trying to return it to Fox because at least when
Speaker 1: we're all Trump's slave labor, we can take heart that
Speaker 1: Merrick Garland followed all the effing rules. That's next. This
Speaker 1: is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead
Speaker 1: on this initiative countdown. Hey, did you notice I've been
Speaker 1: talking about fake news and bad news reporting today? Just
Speaker 1: like every other day. Well it's not like every other day.
Speaker 1: It's Friday, so it's time for Fridays with Thurber and naturally,
Speaker 1: one of his greatest stories is about how fast things
Speaker 1: can go to hell in a handbasket when you believe
Speaker 1: news that isn't true and could not be true, and
Speaker 1: comes from a source you know is never true. Next,
Speaker 1: but first, as ever, there are still more new idiots
Speaker 1: to talk about. The daily roundup of the miss grants, morons,
Speaker 1: dunning Kruger Effect specimens who constitute today's worst persons in
Speaker 1: the world the runner up worse. We may have finally
Speaker 1: hit the basement on sports team names. After nearly three
Speaker 1: decades of abject failure in Phoenix, the National Hockey League
Speaker 1: yanked its franchise out of there gave the owner an
Speaker 1: expansion team to be named later if he can ever
Speaker 1: build an arena and move the extant Arizona team to
Speaker 1: Salta Laca City, where they have been running a Name
Speaker 1: that Team contest. And they have now reached the final
Speaker 1: stage with six final choices, and they are terrible. They
Speaker 1: are the Utah Mammoth just the one, just the one,
Speaker 1: mammoth mammoth something mammoth elephant. The Utah Outlaws ooh, original
Speaker 1: first sports team in history called the Outlaws, except for
Speaker 1: the other thirty eight. The Utah Venom. Hey, the Utah Venom.
Speaker 1: They suck Get somebody to suck out the venom. The
Speaker 1: Utah Yetti in Seattle, the Seattle Kraken are very annoyed
Speaker 1: by this idea, The Utah Blizzard in Denver, the Colorado
Speaker 1: Avalanche must be considering legal action, and the Carolina Hurricanes
Speaker 1: are going what come on what? And worst of all,
Speaker 1: Utah HC. The HC is supposed to stand for hockey club.
Speaker 1: And if that construction sounds vaguely familiar to you, it's
Speaker 1: because that's what the cheesier pro soccer teams in this
Speaker 1: country call themselves. Here FC Kansas City the FC being
Speaker 1: for football club, so they can pretend there the famous
Speaker 1: Spanish team FC Barcelona or FC. I don't know, FC, FCU,
Speaker 1: I don't know, except hey, guess what Utah HC. You
Speaker 1: aren't a football club and you aren't in Barcelona. And
Speaker 1: HC for hockey club means the Montreal Canadians hockey club,
Speaker 1: the Canadian What about the Utah marbles tall marbles? Anybody? No, Well, look,
Speaker 1: it's not as dumb as Utah YETI or Utah HC,
Speaker 1: I mean the prospects for subbing in what Utah HC
Speaker 1: stands for? What's HC stand for? House of Commons? Hi colonic?
Speaker 1: Don't do any of those names. Don't call them, call
Speaker 1: them the Arizona Coyotes again. The runner up worser Senators
Speaker 1: Marco Rubio, Tim Scott and JD. Vance and Governor Doug Bergham.
Speaker 1: They and maybe Ben Carson, Byron Donald's and Elise Stefanic
Speaker 1: have reportedly received vetting forms to fill out to be
Speaker 1: considered as Trump's running mate. Why them, because Charles Manson
Speaker 1: is dead. I mean, I've known a lot of politicians
Speaker 1: in the last twenty six, twenty seven years, and I
Speaker 1: get it. They have a few extra weird split chromosome
Speaker 1: homes that control their bodies whenever the prospect of being
Speaker 1: one heart beat away from the presidency is pitched to them.
Speaker 1: But honest to God, they almost hanged the last guy
Speaker 1: with Trump's encouragement. I mean, if I'm Marco Rubio, I'm
Speaker 1: thinking I'm so small and I weigh so little that
Speaker 1: i don't even have the off chance of surviving because
Speaker 1: the makeshift gallows breaks. Holy cow, but the winner the
Speaker 1: worst your United States Department of Justice. I'll just read
Speaker 1: this as is from Puck News the Fox News files.
Speaker 1: As strange as it may be for the Biden administration
Speaker 1: to protect Fox News, that's exactly what's happening in the
Speaker 1: case of Tim Burke, a freelance journalist who faces charges
Speaker 1: under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Burke surreptitiously accessed
Speaker 1: a live Fox stream and leaked Tucker Carlson's unedited anti
Speaker 1: Semitic rant leaden interview with Kanye West. The government is
Speaker 1: currently seeking Puck News reports to return materials it took
Speaker 1: from Burke when the FBI raided his house last year,
Speaker 1: including presumably more unaired Fox footage, but prosecutors want a
Speaker 1: protective order to ensure Burke doesn't release them the other items,
Speaker 1: quoting again, Burke has objected that such restrictions would hinder
Speaker 1: his ability to publish stories of significant public interest, including
Speaker 1: the possibility of quote candid on air but unbroadcast conversations
Speaker 1: regarding Fox News commentator's opinions about the twenty twenty allegations
Speaker 1: of election fraud. A hearing is slated for June twenty
Speaker 1: sixth in Tampa, Florida, and puck News quote, Okay, he
Speaker 1: used to work for dead Spin. I've corresponded with Tim Burke.
Speaker 1: I think I helped him on a story or two.
Speaker 1: And this is prosecution of a journalist for disseminating news
Speaker 1: that benefited the public and the nation and revealed Kanye
Speaker 1: West to be the anti semi schmuck that he is.
Speaker 1: And more importantly that last part, Burke is coyly hinting
Speaker 1: that he might just have candid on air but unbroadcast
Speaker 1: conversations regarding Fox News commentator's opinions about the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: allegations of election fraud what they knew was true and
Speaker 1: wouldn't say on the air, presumably Ingram and Moore, Tucker,
Speaker 1: Carlson and Hannity and all of them, and the Biden
Speaker 1: doj is prosecuting him and hoping to suppress that news.
Speaker 1: Are we at least giving him on June twenty sixth
Speaker 1: in Tampa, Florida, the Eileen Canon treatment so that it
Speaker 1: takes like eight to ten lifetimes before he actually winds
Speaker 1: up in court. I mean, I appreciate the fact that
Speaker 1: the bureaucracy always self protects, but this, President Biden, this
Speaker 1: is insane. The stuff on that tape could win you
Speaker 1: the election. Just pretend for once that this is a
Speaker 1: war as serious as the Second World War. Only the
Speaker 1: Nazis are here in the country, use the weapons at hand.
Speaker 1: Nobody's gonna get killed as a result of this. It's
Speaker 1: a freaking piece of videotape. And Tim Burke has it,
Speaker 1: Grandam a pardon the Department of Justice. Okay, now there
Speaker 1: are two seventeen reasons we need to fire Merrick Garland
Speaker 1: today the Department of Justice. Today's worst persons in.
Speaker 3: The world release the type.
Speaker 1: Not every James Thurber's story still holds up, but for
Speaker 1: a surprisingly large percentage of them, the point of the
Speaker 1: story is as topical now as it was when he
Speaker 1: wrote it, or when it happened. When it happened, which
Speaker 1: in this case is the year nineteen thirteen. The Day
Speaker 1: the Dam Broke is from his essential masterpiece, My Life
Speaker 1: in Hard Times, And if it is about anything, it
Speaker 1: is about people believing and acting upon nonsense in the
Speaker 1: face of science, in the face of common sense, in
Speaker 1: the face of you could just ask somebody, they will
Speaker 1: almost always avoid those solutions and choose instead to believe
Speaker 1: whatever the hell they want to believe, which results in
Speaker 1: things like The Day the Dam Broke by James Thurber.
Speaker 1: My memories of what my family and I went through
Speaker 1: during the nineteen thirteen flood in Ohio I would gladly forget.
Speaker 1: And yet neither the hardships we endured, nor the turmoil
Speaker 1: and confusion we experienced, can alter my feeling toward my
Speaker 1: native state and city. I am having a fine time
Speaker 1: now and wish Columbus were here. But if anyone ever
Speaker 1: wished a city was in hell, it was during that
Speaker 1: frightful and peril afternoon in nineteen thirteen when the dam broke,
Speaker 1: or to be more exact, when everybody in town thought
Speaker 1: the dam broke. We were both ennobled and demoralized by
Speaker 1: the experience. Grandfather especially rose two magnificent heights which can
Speaker 1: never lose their splendor for me, even though his reactions
Speaker 1: to the flood were based upon a profound misconception, namely
Speaker 1: that Nathan Bedford Forest's cavalry was the menace we were
Speaker 1: called upon to face. The only possible means of escape
Speaker 1: for us was to flee the house, a step which
Speaker 1: Grandfather sternly forbade, brandishing his old army saber in his hand.
Speaker 1: Let the sungevil ver come, he roared. Meanwhile, hundreds of
Speaker 1: people were streaming by our house in wild panics, screaming,
Speaker 1: go east, Go east. We had to stun Grandfather with
Speaker 1: the ironing board, impeded as we were by the inert
Speaker 1: form of the old gentleman. He was taller than six
Speaker 1: feet and weighed almost one hundred and seventy pounds. Were
Speaker 1: passed in the first half mile by practically everybody else
Speaker 1: in the city. Had Grandfather not come too at the
Speaker 1: corner of Parsons Avenue in Town Street, we would unquestionably
Speaker 1: have been overtaken and engulfed by the roaring waters. That is,
Speaker 1: if there had been any roaring waters. Later, when the
Speaker 1: panic had died down and people had gone rather sheepishly
Speaker 1: back to their homes and their offices, minimizing the distances
Speaker 1: they had run, and offering various reasons for running, City
Speaker 1: engineers pointed out that even if the dam had broken,
Speaker 1: the water level would not have risen more than two
Speaker 1: additional inches in the west side. The west side was
Speaker 1: at the time of the dam scare under thirty feet
Speaker 1: of water, as indeed were all Ohio River towns during
Speaker 1: the Great Spring floods of twenty years ago. The east side,
Speaker 1: where we lived and where all the running occurred, had
Speaker 1: never been in any danger at all. Only a rise
Speaker 1: of some ninety five feet could have caused the floodwaters
Speaker 1: to flow over High Street, the thoroughfare that divided the
Speaker 1: east side of town from the west and engulfed the
Speaker 1: east side. The fact that we were all as safe
Speaker 1: as kittens under a cookstove did not, however, assuage in
Speaker 1: the least the fine despair and the grotesque desperation which
Speaker 1: seized upon the residents of the east Side when the
Speaker 1: cry spread like a grass fire that the dam had
Speaker 1: given way. Some of the most dignified staid cynical and
Speaker 1: clear thinking men in town abandoned their wives, stenographers, homes,
Speaker 1: and offices, and ran east. There are few alarms in
Speaker 1: the world more terrifying than the dam has broken. There
Speaker 1: are few persons capable of stopping to reason when that
Speaker 1: clarion cry strikes upon their ears, even persons who live
Speaker 1: in towns no nearer than five hundred miles to a dam.
Speaker 1: The Columbus, Ohio Broken Dam room began, as I recalled,
Speaker 1: about noon of March twelfth, nineteen thirteen. High Street, the
Speaker 1: main canyon of trade was loud, with the placid hum
Speaker 1: of business and the buzzing of placid businessmen arguing, computing, wheedling, offering, refusing, compromising.
Speaker 1: Darius Cunningway, one of the foremost corporation lawyers in the
Speaker 1: Middle West, was telling the Public Utilities Commission in the
Speaker 1: language of Julius Caesar, that they might as well try
Speaker 1: to move the northern star as to move him. Other
Speaker 1: men were making their little boasts and their little gestures.
Speaker 1: Suddenly somebody began to run. It may be that he
Speaker 1: had simply remembered, all of a moment, an engagement to
Speaker 1: meet his wife, for which he was now frightfully late.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was, he ran east on Broad Street, probably
Speaker 1: toward the Marramoor Restaurant, a favorite place for a man
Speaker 1: to meet his wife. Somebody else began to run, perhaps
Speaker 1: a newsboy in high spirits, another man, a portly gentleman
Speaker 1: of affairs broken. Inside of ten minutes, everybody on High Street,
Speaker 1: from the Union Depot to the courthouse was running a
Speaker 1: loud mumble, gradually crystallized into the dread word dam. The
Speaker 1: dam has broke. The fear was put into words by
Speaker 1: a little old lady in an electric or by a
Speaker 1: traffic cop, or by a small boy. Nobody knows who,
Speaker 1: nor does it now really matter. Two thousand people were
Speaker 1: abruptly in full flight. Go east, was the cry that
Speaker 1: arosed east, away from the river, east to safety. Go east,
Speaker 1: Go east, Go east. Black streams of people flowed eastward
Speaker 1: down all the streets leading in that direction. These streams,
Speaker 1: whose headwaters were in the dry goods stores, office buildings,
Speaker 1: harnessed shops, movie theaters, were fed by trickles of housewives,
Speaker 1: children's cripples, servants, dogs and cats slipping out of the
Speaker 1: houses past which the main streams flowed, shouting and screaming.
Speaker 1: People ran out of homes, leaving fire burning and food cooking,
Speaker 1: and doors wide open. I remember, however, that my mother
Speaker 1: turned out all the fires, and that she took with
Speaker 1: her a dozen eggs and two loaves of bread. It
Speaker 1: was her plan to make Memorial Haul just two blocks
Speaker 1: away and take refuge somewhere in the top of it,
Speaker 1: in one of the dusty rooms where war veterans met,
Speaker 1: and where old battle flags and stage scenery were stored.
Speaker 1: But the seething throngs shouting go east, drew her along,
Speaker 1: and the rest of us with her. When Grandfather regained
Speaker 1: full consciousness at Parsons Avenue, he turned upon the retreating
Speaker 1: mob like a vengeful prophet, and exhorted the men to
Speaker 1: form ranks and stand off the rebel dogs. But at
Speaker 1: length he too got the idea that the dam had broken,
Speaker 1: and roaring go east in his powerful voice, he caught
Speaker 1: up in one arm a small child and in the
Speaker 1: other a slight clerkish man of perhaps forty two, and
Speaker 1: we slowly began to gain on those ahead of us,
Speaker 1: a scattering of ironmen, policemen, and army officers in dress uniforms.
Speaker 1: There had been a review at Fort Hayes in the
Speaker 1: northern part of town added color to the surging billows
Speaker 1: of people. Go east, cried a little child in a
Speaker 1: piping voice as she ran past a porch on which
Speaker 1: drowsed A lieutenant colonel of infantry. Used to quick decisions,
Speaker 1: trained to immediate obedience, the officer bounded off the porch, and,
Speaker 1: running at full tilt, soon past the child, bawling, Go east.
Speaker 1: The two of them emptied rapidly the houses of the
Speaker 1: little street they were on. What is it, What is it?
Speaker 1: Demanded a fat waddling man, who intercepted the colonel. The
Speaker 1: officer dropped behind and asked the little child what it was.
Speaker 1: The damn has broke, gasped the girl. The damn has broke,
Speaker 1: roared the colonel. Go east, Go east, Go east. He
Speaker 1: was soon leading, with the exhausted child in his arms,
Speaker 1: a fleeing company of three hundred persons who had gathered
Speaker 1: around him from living rooms, shops, garages, backyards and basements.
Speaker 1: Nobody has ever been able to compute with any exactness
Speaker 1: how many people took part in the Great Route of
Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen for the panic, which extended from the Winslow
Speaker 1: bottling works in the south end to Clintonville, six miles north.
Speaker 1: Ended as abruptly as it began, and the bobtail and
Speaker 1: ragtag and velvet gowned groups of refugees melted away and
Speaker 1: slunk home, leaving the streets peaceful and deserted. The shouting, weeping,
Speaker 1: tangled evacuation of the city lasted not more than two hours.
Speaker 1: In all. Some few people got as far east as
Speaker 1: Reynoldsburg twelve miles away. Fifty or more reached the Country
Speaker 1: Club eight miles away. Most of the others gave up,
Speaker 1: exhausted or climbed trees in Franklin Park, four miles out.
Speaker 1: Order was restored and fear dispelled finally by means of
Speaker 1: militia men riding about in motor lorries bawling through megaphones.
Speaker 1: The dam has not broken. At first, this tended only
Speaker 1: to add to the confusion and increase the panic from
Speaker 1: many stampeders thought the soldiers were bellowing. The dam has
Speaker 1: now broken, thus setting an official seal of authentication on
Speaker 1: the calamity. All the time, the sun shone quietly, and
Speaker 1: there was nowhere any sign of oncoming waters. A visitor
Speaker 1: in an airplane looking down on the straggling, agitated masses
Speaker 1: of people below would have been hard put to it.
Speaker 1: To divine a reason for the phenomenon, it must have
Speaker 1: inspired in such an observer a peculiar kind of terror,
Speaker 1: like the sight of the Marie Celeste abandoned at sea,
Speaker 1: its galley fires peacefully burning, its tranquil decks bright in
Speaker 1: the sunlight. An aunt of mine, Aunt Edith Taylor, was
Speaker 1: in a movie theater on High Street. Went over and
Speaker 1: above the sound of the piano in the pit, a
Speaker 1: william S Hart Cowboy picture was being shown. There arose
Speaker 1: the steadily increasing tramp of running feet. Persistent shaft rose
Speaker 1: above the trumping. An elderly man sitting near my aunt
Speaker 1: mumbled something, got out of his seat and went up
Speaker 1: the aisle to a dog trot. This started everybody. In
Speaker 1: an instant. The audience was jamming the aisles. Fire shouted
Speaker 1: a woman who always expected to be burned up in
Speaker 1: a theater, but now the shouts outside were louder and coherent.
Speaker 1: The damn has broke, pried somebody, go east, screamed a
Speaker 1: small woman in front of my aunt. And east they went,
Speaker 1: pushing and shoving and clawing, knocking women and children, down,
Speaker 1: emerging finally into the street, torn and sprawling. Inside the theater,
Speaker 1: Bill Hart was calmly calling some desperadoes bluff, and the
Speaker 1: brave girl at the piano played Row Row row loudly,
Speaker 1: and then in my harem. Outside, men were streaming across
Speaker 1: the State House yard. Others were climbing trees. A woman
Speaker 1: managed to get up onto These are My Jewels statue,
Speaker 1: whose bronze figures of Sherman Stanton Grant Sheridan watched with
Speaker 1: cold unconcern the going to pieces of the capital city.
Speaker 1: I ran south to State Street, east on State to Third,
Speaker 1: south on Third to Town, and out east on Town.
Speaker 1: My aunt Edith has written me. A tall, spare woman
Speaker 1: with grim eyes and a determined chin ran past me
Speaker 1: down the middle of the street. I was still uncertain
Speaker 1: as to what was the matter. In spite of all
Speaker 1: the shouting. I drew up alongside the woman with some effort,
Speaker 1: for although she was in her late fifties, she had
Speaker 1: a beautiful easy running for him and seemed to be
Speaker 1: an excellent condition. What is it? I puffed. She gave
Speaker 1: me a quick glance and then looked ahead again, stepping
Speaker 1: up her pace a trifle don't ask me, ask God,
Speaker 1: she said. When I reached Grant Avenue, I was so spent.
Speaker 1: The doctor h R. Mallory. You remember doctor Mallory, the
Speaker 1: man with the white beard. It looks like Robert Browning. Well,
Speaker 1: Doctor Mallory, whom I had drawn away from at the
Speaker 1: corner of Fifth in Town passed me. It's got us,
Speaker 1: he shouted, and I felt sure that whatever it was,
Speaker 1: it did have us for you know what conviction, doctor
Speaker 1: Mallory statements always carried. I didn't know at the time
Speaker 1: what he meant, but I found out later. There was
Speaker 1: a boy behind him on roller skates, and doctor Mallory
Speaker 1: mistook the swishing of the skates for the sound of
Speaker 1: rushing water. He eventually reached the Columbus School for Girls
Speaker 1: at the corner of Parsons Avenue in Town Street, where
Speaker 1: he collapsed, expecting the cold, frothing waters of the Sciota
Speaker 1: to sweep him into oblivion. The boy on skates swirled
Speaker 1: past him, and doctor Mallory realized for the first time
Speaker 1: what he had been running from. Looking back up the street,
Speaker 1: he could see no signs of water, but nevertheless, after
Speaker 1: resting a few minutes, he jogged on east again, he
Speaker 1: caught up with me at Ohio Avenue, where we rested together.
Speaker 1: I should say that about seven hundred people past us.
Speaker 1: A funny thing was that all of them were on foot.
Speaker 1: Nobody seemed to have had the courage to stop and
Speaker 1: start his car. But as I remember it, all cars
Speaker 1: had to be cranked in those days, which is probably
Speaker 1: the reason. The next day the city went about its
Speaker 1: business as if nothing had happened. But there was no joking.
Speaker 1: It was two years or more before you dare to
Speaker 1: treat the breaking of the dam lightly, and even now
Speaker 1: twenty years after, there are a few persons like doctor
Speaker 1: Mallory who will shut up like a clam if you
Speaker 1: mentioned the afternoon of the Great Run, the day the
Speaker 1: dam broke by James Thurber. When QAnon is your source
Speaker 1: for damn break news, or when Fox is your source,
Speaker 1: I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening again. Please send your link or a
Speaker 1: copy of this or a copy of the video or
Speaker 1: something to somebody who does not listen to this podcast.
Speaker 1: They might need it. Countown. Musical directors Brian Ray and
Speaker 1: John Phillip Schanel arranged, produced, and performed most of our music.
Speaker 1: Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums. Mister
Speaker 1: Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. It was produced by Tko Brothers.
Speaker 1: Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and
Speaker 1: performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music
Speaker 1: is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch
Speaker 1: Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Our satirical and pithy
Speaker 1: musical comments are by Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium
Speaker 1: organist ever. Our announcer was my friend Dennis Leary, and
Speaker 1: everything else was pretty much my fault. So that's countdown
Speaker 1: for this the one hundred and fifty third day until
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four presidential election and the two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty eighth day since convicted fellon Donald Trump's first
Speaker 1: attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Speaker 1: Use the July eleventh sentencing hearing, use mental health system,
Speaker 1: use presidential immunity, use the Tim Burke tapes to stop
Speaker 1: him from doing it again while we still can. The
Speaker 1: next scheduled countdown is Tuesday. Bulletins as the news warrants
Speaker 1: till then I'm Keith Alderman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night,
Speaker 1: and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.