1 00:00:04,795 --> 00:00:21,875 Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Trump 2 00:00:22,235 --> 00:00:26,075 Speaker 1: has docked a second figure in his New York fraud trial. 3 00:00:26,595 --> 00:00:30,275 Speaker 1: And I start here because the Nightmare in Gaza is 4 00:00:30,315 --> 00:00:34,155 Speaker 1: actually just the story of the Trump Delusion, only writ larger, 5 00:00:34,835 --> 00:00:37,075 Speaker 1: and only for the fact that Gaza is a few 6 00:00:37,115 --> 00:00:40,555 Speaker 1: decades later in the narrative. I will get to Gaza presently. 7 00:00:41,355 --> 00:00:44,355 Speaker 1: The Midas touch people. I believe it was who caught this. 8 00:00:44,515 --> 00:00:48,835 Speaker 1: First Monday night, Trump reposted a substack piece by the 9 00:00:48,875 --> 00:00:53,955 Speaker 1: appalling Laura Lumer, which, with typical imbecility, asserts Trump can't 10 00:00:53,955 --> 00:00:57,675 Speaker 1: be wrong because New York Attorney General Letitia James allegedly 11 00:00:57,715 --> 00:01:03,435 Speaker 1: had unauthorized or hazardous restorations done at a residence here 12 00:01:03,635 --> 00:01:08,195 Speaker 1: in New York City. And of course Lumer reproduced a 13 00:01:08,235 --> 00:01:11,035 Speaker 1: city document that supposedly supports that claim, and she just 14 00:01:11,155 --> 00:01:15,075 Speaker 1: happened to not blank out the street address for what 15 00:01:15,235 --> 00:01:18,715 Speaker 1: may be the Attorney General's home, and Trump just happened 16 00:01:18,755 --> 00:01:22,115 Speaker 1: to repost that piece and repost that address. And oh look, 17 00:01:22,435 --> 00:01:25,675 Speaker 1: Judge Arthur anger On didn't specifically gag Trump and forbid 18 00:01:25,715 --> 00:01:29,275 Speaker 1: him from posting anything about Letitia James or himself. The 19 00:01:29,395 --> 00:01:32,875 Speaker 1: judge or anybody else, just about members of the judge's 20 00:01:32,915 --> 00:01:37,875 Speaker 1: courtroom staff. After Trump had posted an innocuous selfie that 21 00:01:37,955 --> 00:01:40,755 Speaker 1: the court clerk had taken with Chuck Schumer, and Trump 22 00:01:40,795 --> 00:01:44,275 Speaker 1: insisted that made her Schumer's girlfriend, and thus Schumer was 23 00:01:44,355 --> 00:01:46,915 Speaker 1: running the case, and thus it had to be dismissed immediately. 24 00:01:47,035 --> 00:01:50,515 Speaker 1: And then, of course Trump also attacked anger On, And 25 00:01:50,755 --> 00:01:53,595 Speaker 1: just when Judge anger On should be broadening the gag 26 00:01:53,715 --> 00:01:55,835 Speaker 1: order on Trump in the New York fraud case, it 27 00:01:55,915 --> 00:01:59,835 Speaker 1: turns out to be too woefully narrow to protect the 28 00:01:59,875 --> 00:02:04,635 Speaker 1: Attorney General against doxing. And now it looks like another 29 00:02:04,875 --> 00:02:08,875 Speaker 1: judge and another gag order are falling into the same trap. 30 00:02:09,435 --> 00:02:13,235 Speaker 1: To little fanfare, Judge Chutkin released the written version of 31 00:02:13,315 --> 00:02:17,315 Speaker 1: her Trump gag order, and it barely limps onto a 32 00:02:17,355 --> 00:02:20,875 Speaker 1: third page, and it is unspecific, and in particular, it 33 00:02:20,915 --> 00:02:25,635 Speaker 1: emphasizes only what Trump can do, like Trump can attack 34 00:02:25,755 --> 00:02:30,275 Speaker 1: Mike Pence, Trump can insist this is political persecution, and 35 00:02:30,355 --> 00:02:32,515 Speaker 1: Trump can insist he's not gonna be able to get 36 00:02:32,515 --> 00:02:35,195 Speaker 1: a fair trial in Washington. Not once does it make 37 00:02:35,235 --> 00:02:39,875 Speaker 1: any references to the sanctions the judge warned him against 38 00:02:40,115 --> 00:02:42,835 Speaker 1: when she issued her gag order against him in court 39 00:02:42,835 --> 00:02:46,155 Speaker 1: on Monday afternoon. We are left to guess if she 40 00:02:46,195 --> 00:02:49,675 Speaker 1: would find him or find him for the first couple 41 00:02:49,715 --> 00:02:52,835 Speaker 1: of offenses and then move on to permanently or temporarily 42 00:02:52,875 --> 00:02:56,075 Speaker 1: revoking his bail and putting him behind bars, or if 43 00:02:56,075 --> 00:02:58,875 Speaker 1: she jumped to that bail revocation first, or if she 44 00:02:58,915 --> 00:03:01,155 Speaker 1: has some other idea, or if somehow she is not 45 00:03:01,235 --> 00:03:04,115 Speaker 1: even seriously considering doing to him what would be done 46 00:03:04,115 --> 00:03:07,955 Speaker 1: to any defendant who had attacked every principle in a case, 47 00:03:08,195 --> 00:03:11,155 Speaker 1: and just in case he might miss somebody had threatened 48 00:03:11,635 --> 00:03:14,555 Speaker 1: while the entire universe with if you go after me, 49 00:03:14,635 --> 00:03:19,995 Speaker 1: I'm coming after you. Neither Judge Chuckkin nor Judge Angron 50 00:03:20,195 --> 00:03:23,995 Speaker 1: seems to be a shrinking violet. And I hope I 51 00:03:24,035 --> 00:03:26,835 Speaker 1: am not impugning either of them, because I am confident 52 00:03:26,915 --> 00:03:30,235 Speaker 1: they think they are just bending over backwards to respect 53 00:03:30,515 --> 00:03:34,275 Speaker 1: the office of President of the United States, even if 54 00:03:34,355 --> 00:03:39,075 Speaker 1: this creature who once held it is provably and objectively 55 00:03:39,235 --> 00:03:42,795 Speaker 1: dedicated to the overthrow of the courts and of representative 56 00:03:42,795 --> 00:03:47,075 Speaker 1: government in this nation. But both Judge Chuckkin and Judge 57 00:03:47,075 --> 00:03:50,475 Speaker 1: Andngern are on the cusp of becoming the worst thing 58 00:03:50,635 --> 00:03:53,795 Speaker 1: I can think to call someone. In these years of 59 00:03:53,835 --> 00:03:57,955 Speaker 1: our democracy's existential crisis, they are both on the cusp 60 00:03:58,075 --> 00:04:04,435 Speaker 1: of becoming judicial versions of Chuck Todd. I state this 61 00:04:04,515 --> 00:04:07,755 Speaker 1: so so often it exhausts me. And yet I wonder 62 00:04:07,835 --> 00:04:11,195 Speaker 1: if somehow I have not stated it often enough. Trump's 63 00:04:11,315 --> 00:04:17,155 Speaker 1: only true genius is his ability to find the line, 64 00:04:17,235 --> 00:04:20,235 Speaker 1: whatever it is, wherever it is, whatever it's about. He 65 00:04:20,275 --> 00:04:22,755 Speaker 1: can find the line and dance right along the line, 66 00:04:22,795 --> 00:04:27,635 Speaker 1: so that whoever would act against him self edits self, 67 00:04:27,675 --> 00:04:36,875 Speaker 1: doubts self, hesitates, self, delays, self, overthinks self, both sides it. 68 00:04:39,155 --> 00:04:43,435 Speaker 1: Trump's guilt is truly greater than the sum of his 69 00:04:43,595 --> 00:04:48,435 Speaker 1: crimes in doxing Letitia James. He has not defied anger 70 00:04:48,515 --> 00:04:51,595 Speaker 1: On's gag order in this machine gun spray of threats. 71 00:04:51,635 --> 00:04:54,675 Speaker 1: In the insurrection case, he has not defied Chutkin's gag order, 72 00:04:54,715 --> 00:04:58,195 Speaker 1: not yet anyway, And Chutkins suddenly seems hesitant to even 73 00:04:58,275 --> 00:05:01,395 Speaker 1: tell him or us what the penalty will be when 74 00:05:01,435 --> 00:05:06,075 Speaker 1: he does. And yet, cumulatively, is there any question Trump 75 00:05:06,155 --> 00:05:08,955 Speaker 1: has violated what each judge has told him to do 76 00:05:09,115 --> 00:05:12,315 Speaker 1: and not to do. Is there any need to ever 77 00:05:12,395 --> 00:05:15,315 Speaker 1: tell a sane man to not try to whip up 78 00:05:15,355 --> 00:05:19,035 Speaker 1: public hatred against the prosecutors or the judges or the 79 00:05:19,075 --> 00:05:22,355 Speaker 1: witnesses solely to somehow get that public to interfere with 80 00:05:22,395 --> 00:05:26,595 Speaker 1: that prosecution. Is there any doubt that Trump is threatening 81 00:05:26,915 --> 00:05:31,715 Speaker 1: and attacking these figures of the legal establishment solely for 82 00:05:31,795 --> 00:05:36,435 Speaker 1: the inevitable day when they act violently, or he summons 83 00:05:36,475 --> 00:05:41,315 Speaker 1: them explicitly to act violently in order to stop his prosecution. 84 00:05:42,235 --> 00:05:45,595 Speaker 1: Is there any question that the outcome Trump wants in 85 00:05:45,715 --> 00:05:50,155 Speaker 1: each of these cases is another January sixth, only with 86 00:05:50,275 --> 00:05:54,795 Speaker 1: Jack Smith or Letitia James or somebody else as the 87 00:05:54,875 --> 00:06:00,035 Speaker 1: sole victims of the respective mobs. We are running out 88 00:06:00,075 --> 00:06:04,355 Speaker 1: of time for the judges to continue to bend over backwards. 89 00:06:05,075 --> 00:06:07,715 Speaker 1: They should be, in fact bending in the opposite direction. 90 00:06:08,035 --> 00:06:10,675 Speaker 1: And if you begin to think we cannot exceed the 91 00:06:10,795 --> 00:06:17,715 Speaker 1: law or the constitution and still preserve both, firstly, each 92 00:06:18,115 --> 00:06:23,035 Speaker 1: is done every day by conservative judges and conservative governors 93 00:06:23,315 --> 00:06:29,995 Speaker 1: and conservative police. Secondly, this nation still exists because in 94 00:06:30,035 --> 00:06:34,635 Speaker 1: the grimmest and grandest of forms, President Lincoln exceeded the 95 00:06:34,715 --> 00:06:38,715 Speaker 1: law and the constitution to preserve both. The nation survived 96 00:06:38,835 --> 00:06:41,875 Speaker 1: and the Constitution survived. And if we do not test 97 00:06:41,915 --> 00:06:45,275 Speaker 1: the elasticity of both in some small ways. Right now, 98 00:06:45,315 --> 00:06:48,715 Speaker 1: regarding Trump, we will, as we did in eighteen sixty one, 99 00:06:48,875 --> 00:06:51,435 Speaker 1: find those among us who are willing to test its 100 00:06:51,595 --> 00:06:55,235 Speaker 1: elasticity on Trump's behalf at the point of a knife 101 00:06:55,235 --> 00:06:58,475 Speaker 1: and the barrel of a gun. And no, I am 102 00:06:58,795 --> 00:07:05,275 Speaker 1: not asking Judge Chutkin to suspend habeas corpus and lock 103 00:07:05,475 --> 00:07:10,835 Speaker 1: Trump away this afternoon without charge or bail. Delightful of 104 00:07:10,955 --> 00:07:14,875 Speaker 1: prospect as that might be, But I now think our 105 00:07:14,955 --> 00:07:19,355 Speaker 1: survival as a nation with a representative government may depend 106 00:07:19,755 --> 00:07:24,515 Speaker 1: on some imaginative and creative interpretations of extant law by 107 00:07:24,515 --> 00:07:28,275 Speaker 1: that judge or by Angron in New York to broaden 108 00:07:28,635 --> 00:07:33,635 Speaker 1: what their gag order applies to one of them, presumably 109 00:07:33,715 --> 00:07:37,275 Speaker 1: Chutkin should suggest that the Federal Insurrection trial can only 110 00:07:37,315 --> 00:07:40,635 Speaker 1: proceed fairly and safely if Trump is prohibited from any 111 00:07:40,675 --> 00:07:44,635 Speaker 1: attacks on any legal institutions in this country and the 112 00:07:44,675 --> 00:07:50,075 Speaker 1: principles in any case being conducted against him. Under a 113 00:07:50,155 --> 00:07:54,915 Speaker 1: proactive and justifiable gag order, Trump would be before Judge 114 00:07:54,995 --> 00:08:00,555 Speaker 1: Chutkin today for having docks Attorney General James two nights 115 00:08:00,555 --> 00:08:05,955 Speaker 1: ago in New York, because otherwise, if you let him 116 00:08:05,995 --> 00:08:11,515 Speaker 1: commit crimes twenty six through fifty in the jurisdiction where 117 00:08:11,555 --> 00:08:16,475 Speaker 1: there are only crimes one through twenty five. He will. 118 00:08:16,595 --> 00:08:19,995 Speaker 1: It is how he has survived until this age without 119 00:08:20,035 --> 00:08:23,275 Speaker 1: having already been sent to prison. It is his only 120 00:08:23,475 --> 00:08:28,755 Speaker 1: true skill. And because of what else happened yesterday, I 121 00:08:28,955 --> 00:08:32,155 Speaker 1: today have significantly less faith that this nation will do 122 00:08:32,195 --> 00:08:35,795 Speaker 1: what is necessary to stop Donald Trump before it is 123 00:08:35,835 --> 00:08:40,595 Speaker 1: too late. Because the other thing that happened yesterday underscores 124 00:08:40,635 --> 00:08:46,275 Speaker 1: how far delusion and denial have overtaken twenty first century mankind. 125 00:08:47,475 --> 00:08:52,355 Speaker 1: Because the gases strip and our marrilago of the mind 126 00:08:52,875 --> 00:09:01,235 Speaker 1: are closer than they might at first appear. It is 127 00:09:01,355 --> 00:09:06,795 Speaker 1: an extraordinary feeling of helplessness somehow overshadows the elemental horror 128 00:09:06,835 --> 00:09:11,075 Speaker 1: on the ground, because the debate over what actually happened 129 00:09:11,115 --> 00:09:15,595 Speaker 1: there yesterday illuminates for you and I where America also 130 00:09:15,835 --> 00:09:20,435 Speaker 1: is as a society. Three hundred dead at a hospital 131 00:09:21,235 --> 00:09:26,635 Speaker 1: in Gaza, or five hundred or one thousand, and we 132 00:09:26,755 --> 00:09:30,155 Speaker 1: know this much and only this much. Whoever made it 133 00:09:30,235 --> 00:09:34,435 Speaker 1: happen not only committed a war crime, but created an 134 00:09:34,435 --> 00:09:39,915 Speaker 1: alternative world in which they did not do it. They 135 00:09:39,995 --> 00:09:44,555 Speaker 1: are the victims of it, and both sides, the actual 136 00:09:44,595 --> 00:09:48,515 Speaker 1: perpetrators and the actual victims, have convinced their own supporters 137 00:09:48,515 --> 00:09:52,395 Speaker 1: that they are being lied about. Each has video, each 138 00:09:52,435 --> 00:09:56,475 Speaker 1: has witnesses, each has evidence, and one side has manufactured 139 00:09:56,515 --> 00:09:59,475 Speaker 1: all of it and slandered the other and killed truth 140 00:09:59,595 --> 00:10:02,795 Speaker 1: as surely as it killed the people at the hospital, 141 00:10:04,835 --> 00:10:09,675 Speaker 1: And thus the real truth. Here there are human beings 142 00:10:10,475 --> 00:10:14,955 Speaker 1: out a place dedicated to saving human beings dead because 143 00:10:14,955 --> 00:10:18,195 Speaker 1: of hatred and dogma and religion and political ambition and 144 00:10:18,315 --> 00:10:22,675 Speaker 1: institutionalized lying. That real truth is secondary to not merely 145 00:10:22,715 --> 00:10:25,835 Speaker 1: the fog of war, but to the deliberate fog of war, 146 00:10:26,395 --> 00:10:29,875 Speaker 1: and the truth that, for nearly everyone interpreting this horror, 147 00:10:30,195 --> 00:10:36,475 Speaker 1: what you think happened still depends on which side you 148 00:10:36,555 --> 00:10:41,875 Speaker 1: think is right. Thus reality becomes a litmus test, not 149 00:10:41,995 --> 00:10:45,435 Speaker 1: of a series of facts, not of a bunch of evidence. 150 00:10:45,995 --> 00:10:48,475 Speaker 1: It becomes a litmus test of your political correctness within 151 00:10:48,515 --> 00:10:52,075 Speaker 1: your own world, or your region, or your religion or 152 00:10:52,075 --> 00:10:54,555 Speaker 1: your group. And so we are left not only with 153 00:10:54,635 --> 00:10:57,355 Speaker 1: this nightmare, but the realization that the zenith of the 154 00:10:57,395 --> 00:11:03,315 Speaker 1: governmental lie, the zenith so far is merely a more physical, 155 00:11:03,355 --> 00:11:07,035 Speaker 1: more tangible version of the destabilization of reality that has 156 00:11:07,075 --> 00:11:10,915 Speaker 1: been poisoning this country for forty years. That is the 157 00:11:10,955 --> 00:11:14,155 Speaker 1: new essence of one of our two leading political parties 158 00:11:14,275 --> 00:11:17,195 Speaker 1: that is being exploited at this moment by its leading 159 00:11:17,235 --> 00:11:22,555 Speaker 1: candidate for the presidential nomination. In the desperation and the 160 00:11:22,595 --> 00:11:26,195 Speaker 1: horror in Gaza City, we can for a moment step 161 00:11:26,235 --> 00:11:30,515 Speaker 1: away from ourselves and see our crisis from a detached 162 00:11:30,595 --> 00:11:34,315 Speaker 1: point of view. Whatever you and I know to be 163 00:11:34,435 --> 00:11:40,435 Speaker 1: true about January sixth, about Trump, about Russian election interference, 164 00:11:42,195 --> 00:11:45,035 Speaker 1: many of our neighbors just as assuredly know to be 165 00:11:45,155 --> 00:11:50,755 Speaker 1: true that Trump won, that he is being persecuted, that 166 00:11:50,915 --> 00:11:53,915 Speaker 1: January sixth was a false flag. And then come the 167 00:11:53,915 --> 00:11:57,795 Speaker 1: splinter groups with secondary and tertiary versions of the disease, 168 00:11:57,995 --> 00:12:01,035 Speaker 1: who believe things like Pizzagate, or believe in herds of 169 00:12:01,075 --> 00:12:04,555 Speaker 1: body doubles, or of former leaders coming back from the 170 00:12:04,995 --> 00:12:08,515 Speaker 1: dead for no apparent reason other than to change their 171 00:12:08,515 --> 00:12:13,795 Speaker 1: political affiliations. I always think at times like these of 172 00:12:13,835 --> 00:12:16,515 Speaker 1: two of the nightmares within the nightmare of our invasion 173 00:12:16,555 --> 00:12:19,035 Speaker 1: of Iraq twenty years ago, when our government did what 174 00:12:19,155 --> 00:12:23,035 Speaker 1: either Hamas or Israel is doing right now. It used 175 00:12:23,115 --> 00:12:25,515 Speaker 1: all of its influence to sell its own people a 176 00:12:25,555 --> 00:12:28,715 Speaker 1: heinous lie about a connection to nine to eleven in 177 00:12:28,875 --> 00:12:32,435 Speaker 1: order to get them to support, in some cases enact 178 00:12:32,995 --> 00:12:37,035 Speaker 1: further violence in the form of war. And as the 179 00:12:37,075 --> 00:12:40,675 Speaker 1: madness of the culture of Iraq became front of mind 180 00:12:40,755 --> 00:12:43,955 Speaker 1: here twenty years ago, we discovered that some huge percentage 181 00:12:43,955 --> 00:12:49,395 Speaker 1: of Iraqis believed that Sadam Hussein owned and war or 182 00:12:49,435 --> 00:12:53,715 Speaker 1: had had implanted under the skin in one arm a 183 00:12:53,795 --> 00:13:02,035 Speaker 1: magic stone that protected him from death. Or maybe they 184 00:13:02,035 --> 00:13:03,955 Speaker 1: didn't believe that, and we were just being told that 185 00:13:07,235 --> 00:13:09,795 Speaker 1: would Hamas have done that to its own people yesterday, 186 00:13:11,315 --> 00:13:14,115 Speaker 1: given the juxtaposition of weapons of war and a densely 187 00:13:14,155 --> 00:13:18,635 Speaker 1: packed urban population. Unintentionally? Certainly, yes, anybody can harm their 188 00:13:18,635 --> 00:13:23,195 Speaker 1: own side by accident in any conflict deliberately. The Israelis 189 00:13:23,195 --> 00:13:24,715 Speaker 1: claim they have a list as long as your arm 190 00:13:24,755 --> 00:13:28,875 Speaker 1: of Hamas sacrificing its own people deliberately. Could Israel have 191 00:13:28,955 --> 00:13:34,995 Speaker 1: done this? Again? Unintentionally? A target missed easily. Surgical air 192 00:13:35,035 --> 00:13:42,235 Speaker 1: strikes are fiction. Could Israel have done this deliberately? At 193 00:13:42,315 --> 00:13:46,595 Speaker 1: least twenty one emergency hospitals and a medical college were bombed, 194 00:13:47,075 --> 00:13:49,355 Speaker 1: and in one group of two hundred and ninety eight 195 00:13:49,435 --> 00:13:52,435 Speaker 1: medical doctors. Two hundred and seventy of them were killed 196 00:13:52,595 --> 00:13:57,595 Speaker 1: or maimed in the bombings. This was in Nagasaki and Hiroshiba. 197 00:13:58,155 --> 00:14:02,555 Speaker 1: We did that for reasons. We could defend then, and 198 00:14:02,675 --> 00:14:06,795 Speaker 1: we still defend now. We defend mostly by the magic 199 00:14:06,875 --> 00:14:09,315 Speaker 1: wand of a simple assertion that was to be met 200 00:14:09,315 --> 00:14:11,755 Speaker 1: with the same kind of unquestioning belief playing out in 201 00:14:11,835 --> 00:14:16,115 Speaker 1: Gaza today. On both sides. Well, we had to. We 202 00:14:16,115 --> 00:14:22,315 Speaker 1: were defending ourselves, which is what the Japanese originally believed, 203 00:14:22,395 --> 00:14:27,635 Speaker 1: just as fervently and just as religiously. The irony is 204 00:14:27,955 --> 00:14:32,835 Speaker 1: that the wired world, even in the Gaza strip, is 205 00:14:32,875 --> 00:14:36,115 Speaker 1: so inescapable that we will probably be able to figure 206 00:14:36,155 --> 00:14:40,075 Speaker 1: out maybe an hour's days, maybe in a year, who 207 00:14:40,115 --> 00:14:44,795 Speaker 1: committed this and then lied about it. There will be 208 00:14:44,915 --> 00:14:49,955 Speaker 1: time stamped satellite imagery of rockets being launched or not 209 00:14:50,155 --> 00:14:54,635 Speaker 1: being launched. There will be video of missiles leaving the 210 00:14:54,675 --> 00:15:01,435 Speaker 1: ground or leaving an airplane, but not both. The revelations 211 00:15:01,475 --> 00:15:03,915 Speaker 1: will not convince the ones who want to believe, even 212 00:15:04,075 --> 00:15:06,275 Speaker 1: if what they believe is proved to be a lie, 213 00:15:06,715 --> 00:15:08,835 Speaker 1: just as no revelation will convince the ones who want 214 00:15:08,835 --> 00:15:13,675 Speaker 1: to believe in this country I don't know how we 215 00:15:13,755 --> 00:15:18,195 Speaker 1: fix this. I don't know how we fix this because 216 00:15:18,235 --> 00:15:22,475 Speaker 1: now it is also being wrapped up in religion, which 217 00:15:22,635 --> 00:15:27,075 Speaker 1: is itself a fantasy. And don't start. Religion is a fantasy, 218 00:15:27,115 --> 00:15:30,595 Speaker 1: not because of the faith nor the spirituality. Those are 219 00:15:30,635 --> 00:15:34,435 Speaker 1: truly intangible things about which every human on this planet 220 00:15:34,435 --> 00:15:37,835 Speaker 1: could believe something different, and we could all still live 221 00:15:37,875 --> 00:15:41,635 Speaker 1: together in peace and probably more productively than we do now, 222 00:15:41,995 --> 00:15:44,915 Speaker 1: provided that we all agreed not to try to convince 223 00:15:44,955 --> 00:15:48,235 Speaker 1: anybody else that their belief in the same intangible things 224 00:15:48,675 --> 00:15:54,075 Speaker 1: is provably wrong compared to our own. The faith is 225 00:15:54,155 --> 00:15:56,835 Speaker 1: not the added problem here. It's the fact that you 226 00:15:56,875 --> 00:16:01,555 Speaker 1: can stuff any prerequisites and hatreds and prophecies and magic 227 00:16:01,595 --> 00:16:07,155 Speaker 1: stones and catch phrases like Jesus this sent Trump into 228 00:16:07,835 --> 00:16:12,075 Speaker 1: your religion and pretend that the result is sacro sanct 229 00:16:12,315 --> 00:16:19,195 Speaker 1: That's the magnifying problem. We will figure out the Gaza 230 00:16:19,235 --> 00:16:23,355 Speaker 1: hospital in all probability. How we will figure out the 231 00:16:23,475 --> 00:16:28,915 Speaker 1: mutually exclusive beliefs abroad in our land, which will in 232 00:16:29,035 --> 00:16:32,635 Speaker 1: large part decide the future of representative government in our land. 233 00:16:34,475 --> 00:16:44,075 Speaker 1: How we will figure that out. I don't have any idea, 234 00:16:44,275 --> 00:16:46,835 Speaker 1: by the way, on the third big news story of 235 00:16:46,875 --> 00:16:49,635 Speaker 1: the day. It is of some small comfort, I suppose, 236 00:16:49,715 --> 00:16:53,915 Speaker 1: some small victory for reality over brainless belief in a 237 00:16:53,955 --> 00:16:58,115 Speaker 1: reality that may or may not be real. That when 238 00:16:58,275 --> 00:17:03,595 Speaker 1: Jim Jordan lost, his response this time was not that 239 00:17:03,675 --> 00:17:06,755 Speaker 1: they should go on storm the Capitol and overturn the election. 240 00:17:08,755 --> 00:17:12,075 Speaker 1: Can't imagine how Jim Jordan didn't get elected speaker when 241 00:17:12,155 --> 00:17:16,075 Speaker 1: idiots like a least Stephanic got up and said this, 242 00:17:16,955 --> 00:17:20,315 Speaker 1: and we're stupid enough to think this was going to 243 00:17:20,395 --> 00:17:20,955 Speaker 1: help him. 244 00:17:21,235 --> 00:17:23,435 Speaker 2: Jim is the voice of the American people who have 245 00:17:23,475 --> 00:17:27,675 Speaker 2: felt voiceless for far too long. Whether on the wrestling 246 00:17:27,715 --> 00:17:32,315 Speaker 2: matt or in the committee room, Jim Jordan is strategic, scrappy, tough, 247 00:17:32,395 --> 00:17:35,435 Speaker 2: and principled wrestling matt. 248 00:17:36,195 --> 00:17:41,075 Speaker 1: You say, well, at least Stephanic is the child of 249 00:17:41,115 --> 00:17:46,355 Speaker 1: the biggest wholesale plywood distributors in the entire Schenectady water 250 00:17:46,435 --> 00:17:55,635 Speaker 1: Volite Metroplex. The name Stephanic means plywood. Also of interest here, 251 00:17:55,635 --> 00:17:57,715 Speaker 1: I'll circle back to the Middle East, and unhappily, I 252 00:17:57,755 --> 00:18:00,555 Speaker 1: will have to invoke my alma mater, where a professor 253 00:18:00,595 --> 00:18:05,555 Speaker 1: has said something so cold, so startling, so inhuman, that 254 00:18:05,635 --> 00:18:09,795 Speaker 1: it does not matter whether you support Israel or Hamas, 255 00:18:11,675 --> 00:18:15,235 Speaker 1: you will be offended to the depths of your soul 256 00:18:16,475 --> 00:18:20,555 Speaker 1: and this professor should lose his job. That's next. This 257 00:18:20,595 --> 00:18:48,475 Speaker 1: is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead 258 00:18:48,475 --> 00:18:51,475 Speaker 1: on an all new edition of Countdown October fifteenth, nineteen 259 00:18:51,595 --> 00:18:55,635 Speaker 1: sixty nine, before the exact anniversary of that date slides 260 00:18:55,715 --> 00:18:57,755 Speaker 1: too far into the distance. Let me tell you about 261 00:18:57,755 --> 00:19:01,595 Speaker 1: that day. My first sort of adult suit, my dad 262 00:19:01,635 --> 00:19:04,675 Speaker 1: and I dodging the moratorium date protesters in the time 263 00:19:04,675 --> 00:19:09,515 Speaker 1: I'm square subway station and the first World Series game 264 00:19:09,555 --> 00:19:12,395 Speaker 1: I ever got to go to. The first item I 265 00:19:12,435 --> 00:19:16,075 Speaker 1: crossed off my bucket list. I was ten, and it 266 00:19:16,115 --> 00:19:18,555 Speaker 1: was thirty years before anybody called it a bucket list. 267 00:19:19,035 --> 00:19:21,155 Speaker 1: Things I promised not to tell. Coming up first time 268 00:19:21,155 --> 00:19:23,475 Speaker 1: for the daily roundup of the miss Grants, morons and 269 00:19:23,515 --> 00:19:28,635 Speaker 1: Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst persons in 270 00:19:28,675 --> 00:19:33,395 Speaker 1: the world. The Bronze the British Conservative Party, now celebrating 271 00:19:33,555 --> 00:19:38,515 Speaker 1: nearly one whole year without having thrown out its own 272 00:19:38,555 --> 00:19:40,955 Speaker 1: prime minister out of office, and now being able to 273 00:19:40,955 --> 00:19:44,515 Speaker 1: claim it's only had five different prime ministers in the 274 00:19:44,595 --> 00:19:48,875 Speaker 1: last seven years. The party has in essence suspended and 275 00:19:48,955 --> 00:19:55,115 Speaker 1: expelled Member of Parliament Peter Bone. Just a year ago 276 00:19:55,195 --> 00:19:59,835 Speaker 1: they made Peter Bone Deputy Leader of the House, seven 277 00:19:59,915 --> 00:20:03,515 Speaker 1: years after Peter Bone was accused of bullying a female 278 00:20:03,595 --> 00:20:08,115 Speaker 1: staffer and exposed his genitals near her face. This allegedly 279 00:20:08,155 --> 00:20:12,075 Speaker 1: happened in twenty twelve, and just as importantly, his name 280 00:20:12,755 --> 00:20:17,835 Speaker 1: is Peter Bone. How the hell do you not see 281 00:20:17,835 --> 00:20:22,435 Speaker 1: this coming? The runner up the Washington Post. You're wondering 282 00:20:22,475 --> 00:20:24,995 Speaker 1: how and why it has seemed to have fallen apart 283 00:20:24,995 --> 00:20:27,715 Speaker 1: in the last few months. Here is an answer. Yesterday 284 00:20:27,715 --> 00:20:30,115 Speaker 1: the Post did one of those what to Know about 285 00:20:30,195 --> 00:20:34,795 Speaker 1: Jim Jordan, the Republican House Speaker nominee, deals by Marissa 286 00:20:34,915 --> 00:20:38,995 Speaker 1: Ayati and Megan Vazquez, and not once in the peace 287 00:20:39,075 --> 00:20:42,115 Speaker 1: does it ever mention that Jordan talked to Trump for 288 00:20:42,155 --> 00:20:45,315 Speaker 1: ten minutes the morning of January sixth and voted to 289 00:20:45,355 --> 00:20:48,995 Speaker 1: not ratify and blew off the subpoena from the January 290 00:20:49,035 --> 00:20:53,315 Speaker 1: sixth committee left all those little details out. It mentions 291 00:20:53,355 --> 00:20:55,995 Speaker 1: that Trump gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, though, 292 00:20:57,395 --> 00:21:01,315 Speaker 1: but the winner, Professor Russell Rickford of the history department 293 00:21:01,315 --> 00:21:04,395 Speaker 1: at my alma mater Cornell University, and we're going to 294 00:21:04,475 --> 00:21:07,115 Speaker 1: kill the music for this because his words have now 295 00:21:07,155 --> 00:21:11,235 Speaker 1: been condemned by the university's president and many other aspects 296 00:21:11,235 --> 00:21:14,715 Speaker 1: of Cornell. But it's not enough. On the fifteenth, Professor 297 00:21:14,795 --> 00:21:17,355 Speaker 1: Rickford told a crowd on the Cornell campus that while 298 00:21:17,395 --> 00:21:21,675 Speaker 1: he abhorred violence and they abhorred violence, the Hamas attack 299 00:21:21,755 --> 00:21:27,355 Speaker 1: on Israel was quote exhilarating unquote end quote energizing unquote, 300 00:21:27,435 --> 00:21:32,555 Speaker 1: and he personally was exhilarated. I cannot imagine what is 301 00:21:32,635 --> 00:21:37,755 Speaker 1: wrong with Russell Rickford. This transcends the actual attack, It 302 00:21:37,835 --> 00:21:42,355 Speaker 1: transcends the war, It transcends the Israeli response. It transcends 303 00:21:42,355 --> 00:21:45,795 Speaker 1: what happened before and what has happened since. It transcends 304 00:21:45,835 --> 00:21:48,155 Speaker 1: who you think is right and who you think is wrong. 305 00:21:48,795 --> 00:21:53,515 Speaker 1: Russell Rickford is wrong to respond to the Hamas terrorism, 306 00:21:54,275 --> 00:21:57,435 Speaker 1: to respond to, perhaps to the hundreds of the dead 307 00:21:57,555 --> 00:22:02,395 Speaker 1: at the hospital in Gaza yesterday, by claiming to be exhilarated, 308 00:22:03,035 --> 00:22:07,835 Speaker 1: to be exhilarating by mass death is to lack not 309 00:22:07,995 --> 00:22:13,115 Speaker 1: just intelligence, but humanity. I'm not one of those dewey 310 00:22:13,155 --> 00:22:16,595 Speaker 1: eyed sing the song alumni. I went to the homecoming 311 00:22:17,195 --> 00:22:20,035 Speaker 1: once it was, in fact to cover a pretty good 312 00:22:20,075 --> 00:22:23,275 Speaker 1: football game that year, and the year was nineteen seventy nine. 313 00:22:23,715 --> 00:22:26,515 Speaker 1: But neither have I ever before been ashamed of my 314 00:22:26,635 --> 00:22:31,715 Speaker 1: alma mater. I am now Professor Rickford has no place there, 315 00:22:32,035 --> 00:22:34,635 Speaker 1: not because of who he supports in this, nor who 316 00:22:34,675 --> 00:22:38,795 Speaker 1: he condemns in this, but because he could be exhilarated 317 00:22:39,395 --> 00:22:45,115 Speaker 1: by mass death. Russell Rickford, get him the hell out 318 00:22:45,115 --> 00:22:55,515 Speaker 1: of Cornell, today's worst person in the world. I flashed 319 00:22:55,515 --> 00:22:57,715 Speaker 1: back to this the other night as I switched away 320 00:22:57,715 --> 00:23:00,355 Speaker 1: from the baseball playoffs, and I wondered where the teams 321 00:23:00,395 --> 00:23:03,155 Speaker 1: with the top records had gone, and what the point 322 00:23:03,155 --> 00:23:06,915 Speaker 1: of the regular season, the playoffs and the World Series is? 323 00:23:08,035 --> 00:23:09,835 Speaker 1: And I flashed back to a time when you didn't 324 00:23:09,875 --> 00:23:12,435 Speaker 1: have to ask that question or any variant of it. 325 00:23:12,435 --> 00:23:17,235 Speaker 1: It was the World Series and everything else stopped for 326 00:23:17,315 --> 00:23:20,475 Speaker 1: it in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle 327 00:23:20,475 --> 00:23:24,035 Speaker 1: of the week, even though by then football was already 328 00:23:24,075 --> 00:23:27,235 Speaker 1: the most popular sport. There was nothing football, or any 329 00:23:27,235 --> 00:23:30,115 Speaker 1: other sport or anything else in American culture had to 330 00:23:30,155 --> 00:23:34,875 Speaker 1: offer that was comparable to the World Series. The number 331 00:23:34,915 --> 00:23:37,595 Speaker 1: one story on the Countdown now, and it's my favorite topic. 332 00:23:37,715 --> 00:23:39,795 Speaker 1: Me and things I promised not to tell. I was 333 00:23:39,875 --> 00:23:44,035 Speaker 1: ten years old, and I'm not sure that this was 334 00:23:44,195 --> 00:23:46,955 Speaker 1: the last week that baseball was more important than nearly 335 00:23:46,995 --> 00:23:49,315 Speaker 1: everything else in this country. But if not, the chronology 336 00:23:49,355 --> 00:23:53,675 Speaker 1: is pretty close by legend. In my hometown, Miss Barton 337 00:23:54,315 --> 00:23:57,635 Speaker 1: had been standing on Farragut Parkway when they decided to 338 00:23:57,635 --> 00:24:00,675 Speaker 1: put the school there in nineteen oh five, so they 339 00:24:00,755 --> 00:24:03,835 Speaker 1: just built it around her. In fact, she had only 340 00:24:03,875 --> 00:24:07,835 Speaker 1: been at the head of her homeroom since nineteen forty two, 341 00:24:07,955 --> 00:24:10,875 Speaker 1: but for US seventh graders of the year nineteen sixty nine, 342 00:24:11,475 --> 00:24:13,755 Speaker 1: the year nineteen forty two might as well have been 343 00:24:13,795 --> 00:24:18,075 Speaker 1: a date from the reign of Julius Caesar. Miss Barton 344 00:24:18,155 --> 00:24:22,315 Speaker 1: was friendly, but formidable, and what if any connection she 345 00:24:22,395 --> 00:24:26,555 Speaker 1: had to the world outside school eluded us In retrospect, 346 00:24:26,595 --> 00:24:28,435 Speaker 1: it took a good deal of courage for me to 347 00:24:28,515 --> 00:24:31,875 Speaker 1: have handed her the note my mother had scribbled asking 348 00:24:31,915 --> 00:24:35,595 Speaker 1: her permission for me to miss school on October fifteenth, 349 00:24:35,675 --> 00:24:39,795 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. She read it, and she looked up 350 00:24:39,835 --> 00:24:44,835 Speaker 1: at me with unalloyed shock, and I knew my plans 351 00:24:44,875 --> 00:24:50,435 Speaker 1: were doomed. And then she smiled broadly and warmly. It 352 00:24:50,475 --> 00:24:52,995 Speaker 1: was not the last time any of us sought, but 353 00:24:53,035 --> 00:24:55,795 Speaker 1: it probably was the first time we had seen her smile. 354 00:24:56,675 --> 00:24:59,755 Speaker 1: You're going to the World Series? Have you got an 355 00:24:59,795 --> 00:25:06,115 Speaker 1: extra ticket? They were all like that. Madelinski, the science 356 00:25:06,155 --> 00:25:09,515 Speaker 1: teacher who looked like nothing less than a proto Nathan Lane, 357 00:25:10,115 --> 00:25:13,795 Speaker 1: had not only accepted my carrying a transistor radio and 358 00:25:13,875 --> 00:25:17,555 Speaker 1: an earphone into class, but he had periodically called on 359 00:25:17,675 --> 00:25:23,235 Speaker 1: me during science class for the score. Mister bub the 360 00:25:23,395 --> 00:25:26,715 Speaker 1: hard assed, phized teacher who once fended off twenty seven 361 00:25:26,795 --> 00:25:28,915 Speaker 1: kids who tried to force him into the showers on 362 00:25:28,955 --> 00:25:31,675 Speaker 1: the last day of school, suggested that when I went 363 00:25:31,675 --> 00:25:33,875 Speaker 1: to Game four, I should bring a movie camera with 364 00:25:33,955 --> 00:25:37,595 Speaker 1: me and we could watch the highlights instead of Jim 365 00:25:38,075 --> 00:25:42,275 Speaker 1: whenever the film got back from the developers. The social 366 00:25:42,315 --> 00:25:47,155 Speaker 1: studies teacher, my favorite missus Rice, the first love of 367 00:25:47,195 --> 00:25:51,595 Speaker 1: my life, out did them all. She moved my chair 368 00:25:51,755 --> 00:25:55,155 Speaker 1: up next to the blackboard and turned a corner of 369 00:25:55,155 --> 00:26:00,075 Speaker 1: that blackboard into a makeshift scoreboard. Every half inning, and 370 00:26:00,155 --> 00:26:02,035 Speaker 1: in those days, you could cram a lot of half 371 00:26:02,035 --> 00:26:05,115 Speaker 1: innings into your average seventh grade social studies class, not 372 00:26:05,355 --> 00:26:08,435 Speaker 1: just like one or two half innings. I would add 373 00:26:08,475 --> 00:26:12,355 Speaker 1: a digit to the line score Baltimore zero zero three, 374 00:26:12,555 --> 00:26:19,235 Speaker 1: Mets zero zero zero. My dad got somewhere two tickets 375 00:26:19,555 --> 00:26:22,595 Speaker 1: for Game four. It turned out to be the Tom 376 00:26:22,755 --> 00:26:27,355 Speaker 1: Seaver game. It ended in JC Martin's bunt thrown away 377 00:26:27,435 --> 00:26:30,875 Speaker 1: down the first baseline by relief fitcher Pete Rickard of Baltimore, 378 00:26:30,995 --> 00:26:33,315 Speaker 1: with pinch runner Rod Gasbar of the Mets scoring the 379 00:26:33,315 --> 00:26:35,075 Speaker 1: winning run in the tenth. I got to know all 380 00:26:35,075 --> 00:26:39,235 Speaker 1: those guys. I sent Rod Gasbar some previously unseen photos 381 00:26:39,235 --> 00:26:42,955 Speaker 1: of him crossing the plate. He sent one back, autographed, 382 00:26:42,955 --> 00:26:46,355 Speaker 1: inscribed Keith, thanks for attending Game four of the nineteen 383 00:26:46,475 --> 00:26:52,195 Speaker 1: sixty nine World Series, Please drive home safely. My dad 384 00:26:52,195 --> 00:26:54,675 Speaker 1: and I in fact took the train in from Westchester. 385 00:26:55,235 --> 00:26:58,755 Speaker 1: I think we went first, at his insistence, to Barney's, 386 00:26:59,035 --> 00:27:02,475 Speaker 1: which was then exclusively a men's clothing store in Union Square. 387 00:27:02,835 --> 00:27:05,555 Speaker 1: That's where I got my first adult dial suit with 388 00:27:05,595 --> 00:27:09,515 Speaker 1: a tailor and everything, and then up to Times Square 389 00:27:09,555 --> 00:27:12,995 Speaker 1: to change trains, where we were nearly run over by 390 00:27:13,035 --> 00:27:17,475 Speaker 1: the Moratorium Day protesters. That was Moratorium Day, the first 391 00:27:17,515 --> 00:27:21,955 Speaker 1: big nationwide protest against the Vietnam War, October fifteenth, nineteen 392 00:27:22,035 --> 00:27:24,915 Speaker 1: sixty nine. We changed trains and then out to Chase 393 00:27:24,915 --> 00:27:29,235 Speaker 1: Stadium by the number seven. The seats on that perfect 394 00:27:29,675 --> 00:27:33,075 Speaker 1: crystal day were in distant left field, but I had 395 00:27:33,075 --> 00:27:36,675 Speaker 1: brought my binoculars, really my dad's, and they brought me 396 00:27:36,755 --> 00:27:40,115 Speaker 1: into the game. I could see the Commissioner of Baseball clearly, 397 00:27:40,315 --> 00:27:43,515 Speaker 1: and stand Musials sitting next to him, and sitting next 398 00:27:43,515 --> 00:27:45,955 Speaker 1: to the Mets dugout, and I could see the sweat 399 00:27:45,995 --> 00:27:49,795 Speaker 1: on Tom Sever's face as he delivered strike after strike, 400 00:27:50,635 --> 00:27:53,275 Speaker 1: and the emotion I had when I got home that night, 401 00:27:53,835 --> 00:27:56,955 Speaker 1: a temporary Mets fan because the Orioles always beat up 402 00:27:56,995 --> 00:28:01,475 Speaker 1: my Yankees, that emotion was simple. Whatever else would happen 403 00:28:01,715 --> 00:28:05,755 Speaker 1: in my life, I had done it. I had been 404 00:28:06,475 --> 00:28:12,155 Speaker 1: to a World Series game. I was the envy of 405 00:28:12,195 --> 00:28:16,715 Speaker 1: my classmates for months. The previous school year, they had 406 00:28:16,795 --> 00:28:20,035 Speaker 1: herded us all into the vast cobwebby auditorium at the 407 00:28:20,035 --> 00:28:23,675 Speaker 1: top of the school to watch Richard Nixon's first inauguration. 408 00:28:24,155 --> 00:28:26,995 Speaker 1: Several times. They had done the same thing for Gemini 409 00:28:27,155 --> 00:28:32,795 Speaker 1: and the Pollo space launches, but those had tangible, albeit 410 00:28:32,875 --> 00:28:37,035 Speaker 1: to us, vague connections, to you know, actual school work. 411 00:28:38,435 --> 00:28:42,475 Speaker 1: The World Series, however, was apparently more important than school work. 412 00:28:42,595 --> 00:28:45,355 Speaker 1: It was more important than school. I don't remember anything 413 00:28:45,355 --> 00:28:48,035 Speaker 1: else that adults would admit was more important than school. 414 00:28:49,315 --> 00:28:53,195 Speaker 1: All these years later, and hearing those words world and 415 00:28:53,475 --> 00:28:57,355 Speaker 1: series still sends a chill through me as reflexively as 416 00:28:57,355 --> 00:29:01,715 Speaker 1: the loudest Pavlovian bell. I could not have known then 417 00:29:02,315 --> 00:29:05,755 Speaker 1: I was part of the last generation to be so indoctrinated. 418 00:29:05,795 --> 00:29:08,235 Speaker 1: I assumed it had always been that way, and it 419 00:29:08,275 --> 00:29:13,715 Speaker 1: always would be, and it no longer is. The twenty 420 00:29:13,835 --> 00:29:17,355 Speaker 1: twenty two World Series was the third worst rated in 421 00:29:17,395 --> 00:29:20,435 Speaker 1: television history, not quite as bad as twenty twenty one, 422 00:29:20,835 --> 00:29:23,195 Speaker 1: which itself was not quite as bad as twenty twenty. 423 00:29:24,195 --> 00:29:28,195 Speaker 1: There's a myriad of causes. I have about five hundred 424 00:29:28,195 --> 00:29:31,955 Speaker 1: and seventeen more television and streaming channels to choose from 425 00:29:32,075 --> 00:29:35,315 Speaker 1: than I did in October nineteen sixty nine. I mean, 426 00:29:35,355 --> 00:29:37,795 Speaker 1: we didn't even have the color TV yet in October 427 00:29:37,915 --> 00:29:40,755 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, at least not an our house. I 428 00:29:40,795 --> 00:29:43,675 Speaker 1: have at least five times more TV channels than I 429 00:29:43,715 --> 00:29:47,155 Speaker 1: did in October two thousand and one. And similarly, baseball 430 00:29:47,235 --> 00:29:50,315 Speaker 1: no longer dwarfs the sports landscape, even just for the 431 00:29:50,315 --> 00:29:55,475 Speaker 1: World Series. The de nationalizing of baseball was symbolized by 432 00:29:55,475 --> 00:30:01,675 Speaker 1: the presence of two geographically homogeneous teams, formerly a boon 433 00:30:01,995 --> 00:30:08,555 Speaker 1: to ratings, now curse. This was the two thousand World Series, 434 00:30:08,755 --> 00:30:12,155 Speaker 1: the Mets and the Yankees, the dream of every New 435 00:30:12,235 --> 00:30:17,435 Speaker 1: York sports fan, and nobody cared outside of New York 436 00:30:17,755 --> 00:30:21,435 Speaker 1: the beginning of the end. Yet the underlying cost of 437 00:30:21,475 --> 00:30:24,435 Speaker 1: baseball's malaise is that, like me, the owners just assumed 438 00:30:24,435 --> 00:30:26,635 Speaker 1: it would always be the way it was in nineteen 439 00:30:26,675 --> 00:30:29,355 Speaker 1: sixty nine. I had an excuse for believing that I 440 00:30:29,395 --> 00:30:34,515 Speaker 1: was ten. Their excuse that mentally they're all ten is insufficient. 441 00:30:35,555 --> 00:30:37,275 Speaker 1: All but a few of the owners have failed to 442 00:30:37,355 --> 00:30:40,795 Speaker 1: understand television in any way other than as a revenue source. 443 00:30:40,955 --> 00:30:45,555 Speaker 1: They have never recognized its function as merchandising, even as 444 00:30:45,795 --> 00:30:50,395 Speaker 1: a mechanism for proselytizing. They didn't know about Miss Barton 445 00:30:50,435 --> 00:30:52,675 Speaker 1: and mister Madolinsky and missus Rice, and they did not 446 00:30:52,795 --> 00:30:54,715 Speaker 1: care about them. They didn't know about the kids with 447 00:30:54,795 --> 00:30:59,155 Speaker 1: their cheesy white plastic earplugs and their scratchy transistor radios. 448 00:30:59,275 --> 00:31:02,475 Speaker 1: They didn't cultivate the tradition they had been given by 449 00:31:02,515 --> 00:31:05,235 Speaker 1: their forebearers. In the first half of the twenty century, 450 00:31:05,315 --> 00:31:08,675 Speaker 1: they let the World Series become less important than schools, 451 00:31:09,835 --> 00:31:14,355 Speaker 1: and less important than the NBA, and less important than 452 00:31:16,595 --> 00:31:20,995 Speaker 1: Taylor Swift. That's what they needed. They needed to get 453 00:31:21,035 --> 00:31:24,515 Speaker 1: Taylor Swift to go with Travis Kelcey to that playoff game. 454 00:31:26,755 --> 00:31:30,995 Speaker 1: It takes a certain foresight to say to a television executive, No, 455 00:31:31,075 --> 00:31:33,315 Speaker 1: we can't play the whole World Series at night because 456 00:31:33,355 --> 00:31:36,515 Speaker 1: the kids won't be able to watch. We can't bend 457 00:31:36,675 --> 00:31:41,475 Speaker 1: to society and prime time and the other sports and demographics, 458 00:31:41,475 --> 00:31:45,395 Speaker 1: because to do that is to lessen the obligation to 459 00:31:45,515 --> 00:31:49,115 Speaker 1: watch the World Series. We have to play some day games. 460 00:31:49,275 --> 00:31:53,915 Speaker 1: Here's some of the money back. It would take a 461 00:31:53,915 --> 00:31:59,435 Speaker 1: certain foresight and reproductive organs the size of I don't know, 462 00:32:01,195 --> 00:32:07,235 Speaker 1: fill in the analogy yourself, as by well everything. Baseball 463 00:32:07,275 --> 00:32:10,555 Speaker 1: owners don't have them or the foresight to plan for 464 00:32:10,675 --> 00:32:13,315 Speaker 1: the twelve inning of a game, let alone twelve years 465 00:32:13,315 --> 00:32:15,635 Speaker 1: from now. They did not write off the few million 466 00:32:15,755 --> 00:32:19,275 Speaker 1: less NBC would have paid them as seed money for this. Instead, 467 00:32:19,595 --> 00:32:22,995 Speaker 1: it's the World Series that has gone to seed, sometimes 468 00:32:23,035 --> 00:32:27,155 Speaker 1: being reduced to being the symbolic filler between Fox's next 469 00:32:27,275 --> 00:32:31,755 Speaker 1: two promos for this year's implausible sitcom as I've discussed 470 00:32:31,755 --> 00:32:35,195 Speaker 1: here previously, Baseball's owners never noticed that the separation and 471 00:32:35,275 --> 00:32:38,155 Speaker 1: isolation of the two leagues had assured that while the 472 00:32:38,195 --> 00:32:42,315 Speaker 1: audience might be divided among the fans of sixteen, then twenty, 473 00:32:42,675 --> 00:32:46,515 Speaker 1: then twenty four, then twenty six different teams, it also 474 00:32:46,555 --> 00:32:50,355 Speaker 1: meant that nearly all of them also divided into two groups, 475 00:32:50,875 --> 00:32:55,155 Speaker 1: American League fans and National League fans, so that even 476 00:32:55,195 --> 00:32:58,315 Speaker 1: if their quote own team unquote was not in the 477 00:32:58,355 --> 00:33:00,595 Speaker 1: World Series, they still had a rooting interest in the 478 00:33:00,595 --> 00:33:03,355 Speaker 1: World Series and a reason to watch to see their 479 00:33:03,435 --> 00:33:06,435 Speaker 1: league win or is, in my case, as an American 480 00:33:06,515 --> 00:33:08,435 Speaker 1: League fan when I was ten years old, to see 481 00:33:08,475 --> 00:33:10,955 Speaker 1: their league lose because it was the Baltimore Orioles and 482 00:33:10,995 --> 00:33:13,515 Speaker 1: they beat the crap out of my Yankees. I was 483 00:33:13,555 --> 00:33:15,675 Speaker 1: not rooting for the Mets in the nineteen sixty nine 484 00:33:15,715 --> 00:33:19,795 Speaker 1: World Series. I was rooting against the hated Baltimore Orioles. 485 00:33:22,075 --> 00:33:25,915 Speaker 1: TV usually takes the sole blame when this subject is introduced, 486 00:33:25,915 --> 00:33:28,355 Speaker 1: but I know from my own experience when the executives 487 00:33:28,355 --> 00:33:33,155 Speaker 1: who make the nuts and bolts decisions about televising Baseball 488 00:33:33,395 --> 00:33:36,595 Speaker 1: seeing them actually do it, that they have done everything 489 00:33:36,715 --> 00:33:41,395 Speaker 1: but beg the owners to return daylight to the series, 490 00:33:41,915 --> 00:33:44,435 Speaker 1: and not just when the games have to start at 491 00:33:44,475 --> 00:33:47,995 Speaker 1: five pm Pacific for the sake of the East Coast audience. 492 00:33:48,355 --> 00:33:52,675 Speaker 1: One of my bosses, Dick Eversoll, the head of NBC Sports, 493 00:33:53,355 --> 00:33:58,115 Speaker 1: sat there rejiggering the first pitch times for one series. No, no, 494 00:33:58,955 --> 00:34:02,155 Speaker 1: tell buddy, he has to start Wednesday at eight thirty seven, 495 00:34:02,235 --> 00:34:04,755 Speaker 1: not eight o seven. He knows that we've got a 496 00:34:04,795 --> 00:34:08,915 Speaker 1: sitcom premiering on Wednesday. He told me about offering to 497 00:34:09,075 --> 00:34:11,955 Speaker 1: split the difference in the revenue lost because of a 498 00:34:12,035 --> 00:34:15,395 Speaker 1: late afternoon start on a Saturday. I told buddy, think 499 00:34:15,435 --> 00:34:19,475 Speaker 1: of the future. He kept saying, think of the money. 500 00:34:20,515 --> 00:34:22,635 Speaker 1: It isn't just the sizzle, of course, there are now 501 00:34:22,715 --> 00:34:26,075 Speaker 1: severe problems with the stake as well. In Bob Costas's 502 00:34:26,115 --> 00:34:29,195 Speaker 1: memorable phrase, as my friend put it, the wild card 503 00:34:29,195 --> 00:34:34,195 Speaker 1: has indeed turned the series into the MLB Finals. The 504 00:34:34,315 --> 00:34:37,075 Speaker 1: viewers were way ahead of the cognacenti on this celebration 505 00:34:37,115 --> 00:34:40,635 Speaker 1: of mediocrity. Amid all the explanations for the ever plummeting ratings, 506 00:34:40,675 --> 00:34:44,795 Speaker 1: the simplest one inevitably gets bypassed. If you're scoring at home, 507 00:34:44,915 --> 00:34:48,035 Speaker 1: or even if you're just by yourself. This just isn't 508 00:34:48,235 --> 00:34:52,875 Speaker 1: very good baseball played by not really that good baseball teams. 509 00:34:53,955 --> 00:34:58,235 Speaker 1: Five hundred foot homers and no hitters with multiple pitchers 510 00:34:58,235 --> 00:35:02,355 Speaker 1: in them and seventeen strikeout games. They are impressive, but 511 00:35:02,435 --> 00:35:04,595 Speaker 1: if they happen every night, they take on the false 512 00:35:04,915 --> 00:35:08,475 Speaker 1: of the plot twists in pro wrestling, and in a 513 00:35:08,515 --> 00:35:13,435 Speaker 1: sports world full to overflowing with last second touchdowns, buzzer 514 00:35:13,475 --> 00:35:17,035 Speaker 1: beaters from the popcorn stand, all offense, all the time, 515 00:35:17,155 --> 00:35:19,075 Speaker 1: is no longer enough to hide the fact that to 516 00:35:19,075 --> 00:35:22,595 Speaker 1: be watchable baseball has to be a balance of hitting 517 00:35:22,635 --> 00:35:28,035 Speaker 1: and pitching. In one year, the number of World Series 518 00:35:28,075 --> 00:35:32,275 Speaker 1: starting pitchers who lasted seven innings or more dropped from 519 00:35:32,395 --> 00:35:38,475 Speaker 1: nine to none. One day, all the runs in the world. 520 00:35:38,515 --> 00:35:41,515 Speaker 1: Next day, a no hitter, same two teams, same two lineups. 521 00:35:43,115 --> 00:35:46,155 Speaker 1: In the old days, the pretenders, one dimensional teams like 522 00:35:46,275 --> 00:35:49,395 Speaker 1: last year's Phillies, were eliminated in the slow but fair 523 00:35:49,435 --> 00:35:52,195 Speaker 1: crucible of the regular season. If the best team in 524 00:35:52,235 --> 00:35:55,315 Speaker 1: baseball occasionally had a bad week and undeservedly lost the 525 00:35:55,355 --> 00:35:58,595 Speaker 1: World Series, that merely served to create endless spodder for 526 00:35:58,675 --> 00:36:03,115 Speaker 1: the off season, something for people to talk about until March. Now, 527 00:36:03,435 --> 00:36:06,715 Speaker 1: the candidates were best team in twenty twenty two. That 528 00:36:06,875 --> 00:36:09,235 Speaker 1: was the Braves, the Dodgers, even the Mets. They can 529 00:36:09,275 --> 00:36:13,755 Speaker 1: be eliminated almost by chance at two levels, even before 530 00:36:13,795 --> 00:36:20,115 Speaker 1: they stagger into a sometimes anti climactic World Series. There 531 00:36:20,155 --> 00:36:23,595 Speaker 1: are now two nightmare scenarios for the television ratings. If 532 00:36:23,595 --> 00:36:26,115 Speaker 1: they had continued to decline at the rate they did 533 00:36:26,155 --> 00:36:29,275 Speaker 1: in the ten years after nineteen ninety one, ratings for 534 00:36:29,315 --> 00:36:32,795 Speaker 1: the World Series of twenty twenty five would be about 535 00:36:32,795 --> 00:36:35,715 Speaker 1: a tenth of what they were in nineteen ninety one. 536 00:36:36,555 --> 00:36:42,515 Speaker 1: The collapse slowed, however, great news twenty twenty two ratings 537 00:36:42,555 --> 00:36:46,715 Speaker 1: were one quarter what they had been in nineteen ninety one. 538 00:36:46,995 --> 00:36:51,995 Speaker 1: That they weren't one tenth is the good news. It 539 00:36:52,115 --> 00:36:54,835 Speaker 1: is no coincidence that the three worst rated World Series 540 00:36:54,875 --> 00:37:00,235 Speaker 1: of all times have all occurred since twenty twenty. The 541 00:37:00,275 --> 00:37:03,515 Speaker 1: regular season has already been neutered. Even the teams given 542 00:37:03,595 --> 00:37:08,635 Speaker 1: new free stadiums are beginning to fail. The owners know this, 543 00:37:10,875 --> 00:37:16,515 Speaker 1: and they floated obvious solution. They added more wildcard teams. 544 00:37:18,755 --> 00:37:22,915 Speaker 1: Throughout the eighteen eighties, the nascent World Series it was 545 00:37:22,955 --> 00:37:26,035 Speaker 1: called the World Championship Series. It was the World Series 546 00:37:26,475 --> 00:37:31,035 Speaker 1: was mismanaged completely from an instant attention grabber in eighteen 547 00:37:31,075 --> 00:37:33,755 Speaker 1: eighty four where the winners of the American Association and 548 00:37:33,795 --> 00:37:36,115 Speaker 1: the National League said, hey, we should have a series 549 00:37:36,235 --> 00:37:40,595 Speaker 1: to determine which of us is best. From that explosive 550 00:37:40,755 --> 00:37:44,555 Speaker 1: big bang berth, it was turned into an endless traveling 551 00:37:44,755 --> 00:37:47,995 Speaker 1: freak show by eighteen eighty seven. In eighteen eighty seven, 552 00:37:48,035 --> 00:37:52,435 Speaker 1: they played best eight out of fifteen, and they kept 553 00:37:53,035 --> 00:37:55,715 Speaker 1: playing it in different cities. It wasn't just the two 554 00:37:55,755 --> 00:37:57,995 Speaker 1: cities of the two teams in a Detroit and Saint Louis. 555 00:37:58,075 --> 00:38:00,475 Speaker 1: The eighteen eighty seven World Series was played in ten 556 00:38:00,595 --> 00:38:06,555 Speaker 1: different cities, and the danumont of labor wars and over 557 00:38:06,635 --> 00:38:10,715 Speaker 1: expansion came in eighteen ninety. The eighteen ninety World Series 558 00:38:11,315 --> 00:38:14,835 Speaker 1: pitted the Louisville Cyclones, who had risen from worst to 559 00:38:14,875 --> 00:38:17,995 Speaker 1: first in the American Association, which was a major League, 560 00:38:18,155 --> 00:38:22,155 Speaker 1: against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, who had won the American Association 561 00:38:22,235 --> 00:38:24,595 Speaker 1: pennant the year before eighteen eighty nine, and then the 562 00:38:24,635 --> 00:38:28,195 Speaker 1: franchise just jumped into the National League for eighteen ninety 563 00:38:28,315 --> 00:38:32,235 Speaker 1: and won that pennant. There were storylines of plenty, but 564 00:38:32,395 --> 00:38:36,075 Speaker 1: so full of rancor and devoid of talent. Was the 565 00:38:36,115 --> 00:38:39,555 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety World Series that, even though the host, Brooklyn Bridegrooms, 566 00:38:39,875 --> 00:38:43,155 Speaker 1: entered Game seven leading Louisville three games to two, game 567 00:38:43,155 --> 00:38:45,555 Speaker 1: three had been a tie, they needed just two more 568 00:38:45,595 --> 00:38:52,195 Speaker 1: wins for the title. The crowd, the crowd for that game, 569 00:38:52,795 --> 00:38:58,635 Speaker 1: Game seven of the World Series in Brooklyn, three hundred fans. 570 00:39:00,195 --> 00:39:02,915 Speaker 1: Louisville then tied the series in that game three wins 571 00:39:02,955 --> 00:39:05,915 Speaker 1: apiece and a tie, and they need a decisive eighth 572 00:39:05,955 --> 00:39:09,595 Speaker 1: game and the rest of the series, and they never 573 00:39:09,595 --> 00:39:14,675 Speaker 1: played it. They abandoned the World Series tied three and 574 00:39:14,835 --> 00:39:20,275 Speaker 1: three and one quote there is scarcely enough interest in 575 00:39:20,315 --> 00:39:24,275 Speaker 1: the series, noted a writer for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 576 00:39:25,315 --> 00:39:35,875 Speaker 1: to induce the people to read the scores. The most 577 00:39:35,875 --> 00:39:41,475 Speaker 1: frightening part about that quote that's from eighteen ninety. I 578 00:39:41,555 --> 00:39:45,075 Speaker 1: felt that way the last three Octobers during the World Series. 579 00:39:47,115 --> 00:39:49,755 Speaker 1: The world has made itself over a thousand times. Since 580 00:39:49,795 --> 00:39:55,555 Speaker 1: that sobering revolt by the board against the boring baseball's 581 00:39:55,595 --> 00:39:58,675 Speaker 1: resiliency reminds us that the World Series broadcast might still 582 00:39:58,675 --> 00:40:03,435 Speaker 1: inspire another generation wearing not transistor earplugs but buds hooked 583 00:40:03,475 --> 00:40:08,795 Speaker 1: up to a live stream or like that unhappy eighteen 584 00:40:08,915 --> 00:40:13,075 Speaker 1: ninety classic, the whole thing could wind up getting canceled, 585 00:40:13,875 --> 00:40:31,715 Speaker 1: And this time it'll be canceled by TV executives. I've 586 00:40:31,715 --> 00:40:33,355 Speaker 1: done all the damage I can do here. Thank you 587 00:40:33,395 --> 00:40:35,235 Speaker 1: for listening. Countdown has come to you from the Vin 588 00:40:35,275 --> 00:40:38,795 Speaker 1: Scully Studios at the Elderman Broadcasting Empire in New York. 589 00:40:39,555 --> 00:40:41,995 Speaker 1: The music you heard was for the most part, arranged, produced, 590 00:40:41,995 --> 00:40:45,235 Speaker 1: and performed by Countdown musical directors Brian Ray and John 591 00:40:45,275 --> 00:40:48,715 Speaker 1: Phillip Shanel. Brian Ray handled the guitars, bass and drums. 592 00:40:48,955 --> 00:40:51,915 Speaker 1: John Phillip Shaneil did the orchestration and keyboards, and it 593 00:40:51,995 --> 00:40:56,195 Speaker 1: was produced by Tko Brothers. Other music, including other Beethoven music, 594 00:40:56,835 --> 00:41:00,395 Speaker 1: was arranged and performed by No Horns Allowed. The sports 595 00:41:00,475 --> 00:41:03,275 Speaker 1: music is courtesy of ESPN, Inc. And it was written 596 00:41:03,275 --> 00:41:05,715 Speaker 1: by Mitch Warren Davis. We call the Olderman theme from 597 00:41:05,915 --> 00:41:09,835 Speaker 1: ESPN two. Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by 598 00:41:09,955 --> 00:41:12,995 Speaker 1: Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium organist ever, and I 599 00:41:12,995 --> 00:41:16,235 Speaker 1: our announcer today is my friend Stevie van Zant. Everything 600 00:41:16,235 --> 00:41:19,275 Speaker 1: else was pretty much my fault. That's countdown for this 601 00:41:19,355 --> 00:41:22,675 Speaker 1: the one thousand and sixteenth day since Donald Trump's first 602 00:41:22,675 --> 00:41:25,795 Speaker 1: attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States. 603 00:41:26,355 --> 00:41:30,515 Speaker 1: Convict him now while we still can. The next scheduled 604 00:41:30,515 --> 00:41:33,515 Speaker 1: countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins has the news warrants till then. 605 00:41:34,075 --> 00:41:38,075 Speaker 1: I'm Keith Olremman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and 606 00:41:38,315 --> 00:41:58,115 Speaker 1: good luck. Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio. 607 00:41:58,395 --> 00:42:03,555 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 608 00:42:03,835 --> 00:42:05,795 Speaker 1: or wherever you get at your podcasts.