Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. We
Speaker 1: joined the Trump dictatorship already in progress. He has attacked Iran,
Speaker 1: declared undeclared war on Iran, proposed regime change in Iran
Speaker 1: after insisting he did not want regime change in Iran
Speaker 1: and that was not our goal in Iran. He has
Speaker 1: done all this because he has lost America. D mentioned.
Speaker 1: Trump briefed Sean Hannity in advance about starting his war
Speaker 1: against Iran. He briefed Met and Yahoo in advance about
Speaker 1: starting his war against Iran. He briefed Fox News in
Speaker 1: advance about starting his war against Iran. That's how their
Speaker 1: anchor was sitting in the student on a Saturday night,
Speaker 1: as he revealed it. He briefed Iran about starting his
Speaker 1: war against Iran. He briefed Russia about starting his war
Speaker 1: against Iran based on what Russian state media reported Friday.
Speaker 1: He decided last Wednesday and spent the rest of the
Speaker 1: time lying to this country about it. He did not
Speaker 1: brief this country about it. He did not brief nearly
Speaker 1: any Republican congressional leaders. He did not brief any Democratic leaders.
Speaker 1: He did not brief the nation a nation, which polling
Speaker 1: suggests only twenty one percent of US supported bombing Iran.
Speaker 1: He did not brief the only one of his cabinet
Speaker 1: of idiots who managed to recognize how dangerous to us
Speaker 1: this is. He didn't even let her in the situation
Speaker 1: room as it happened. He ignored the uniform unanimous advice
Speaker 1: of the intelligence community that a Iran was nowhere near
Speaker 1: a nuclear weapon and b bombing these sites would not
Speaker 1: eradicate their nuclear program and see any bombing of for
Speaker 1: Dow and the other locations would then require thirty days
Speaker 1: of intensive follow up bombing to have any long term impact.
Speaker 1: He ignored reality. He lied to America. He did everything
Speaker 1: he had campaigned against. He might as well be a neocon.
Speaker 1: This is a forever war and we are now in it.
Speaker 1: And he told his pals in advance so they would
Speaker 1: have their praise ready. And he did this to benefit
Speaker 1: one person, and one person only himself. So we joined
Speaker 1: the Trump dictatorship already in progress. Not that any of
Speaker 1: this should be a surprise. Long term planning for Donald
Speaker 1: Trump has always been about three hours, maybe three and
Speaker 1: a half on one of his low insanity days. There
Speaker 1: is no doubt he had seen the polling. Most polsters
Speaker 1: buried or at least did not emphasize that the ham
Speaker 1: handed attack on Los Angeles using ice Let's call it
Speaker 1: what it is, isis that that was incredibly unpopular. When
Speaker 1: even CNN's polster Harry Enton says, I think we can
Speaker 1: say Trump has lost the political battle when it comes
Speaker 1: to what has happened in Los Angeles. It must be
Speaker 1: way worse than that. CNN has him fifteen points underwater
Speaker 1: on the ISIS raids, twenty four underwater on the ISIS raids,
Speaker 1: with independence on his top issue, the one that got
Speaker 1: him elected. Imgray shun even Trump, in the haze of
Speaker 1: confusion and denial that is at one of its peaks
Speaker 1: in his life, understands he is losing his grip on
Speaker 1: his own cult. Sees the huge majority saying he's gone
Speaker 1: too far. Sees the huge majority opposing more ice ISIS
Speaker 1: raids at workplaces. Sees the economist pulling that his overall
Speaker 1: approval is underwater in fifteen states that he won last year.
Speaker 1: He's seven under in Pennsylvania, four under in Georgia, four
Speaker 1: under in North Carolina, eight under in Michigan, eight under
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania underwater in fifteen states Trump won last November.
Speaker 1: Trump attacked Iran because he has lost America. And of course,
Speaker 1: as I said here Thursday morning, because the baseline reason
Speaker 1: to have a war, a war against Iran as good
Speaker 1: as any other, is the same as the baseline reason
Speaker 1: to have had a war against Iraq, to have a war,
Speaker 1: to waste ordnance, to blow up your own bombs and
Speaker 1: then have to buy new bombs to feed the military
Speaker 1: industrial complex. Then magnify this by the distraction element. As
Speaker 1: one political observer wrote on January seventeenth, twenty twelve, quote
Speaker 1: Obama will attack Iran in order to get re elected.
Speaker 1: The same political observer wrote on October ninth, twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: now that Obama's poll numbers are in tailspin, watch for
Speaker 1: him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He
Speaker 1: is desperate. And the same political observer then wrote on
Speaker 1: September sixteenth, twenty thirteen, I predict that President Obama will
Speaker 1: at some point attack Iran in order to save face.
Speaker 1: And as the same political observer wrote on September twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, remember what I previously said, Obama will someday
Speaker 1: attack Iran. In order to show how tough he is.
Speaker 1: And finally, that same political observer wrote on November tenth,
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, remember that I predicted a long time ago
Speaker 1: that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability
Speaker 1: to negotiate properly, not skilled, and that political observer in
Speaker 1: all five cases this was Donald J.
Speaker 2: Trump. Case closed.
Speaker 1: Trump attacked Iran because he's lost American Now to the
Speaker 1: sequel one, this is not about regime change. They emphasize
Speaker 1: this repeated. Oh wait, maybe maybe, maybe that's the it's
Speaker 1: not politically correct to use the term regime change. He
Speaker 1: wrote at four fifty five pm Eastern Standard no daylight
Speaker 1: time yesterday. But if the current Iranian regime is unable
Speaker 1: to make Iran great again, why wouldn't there be a
Speaker 1: regime change? Miga, Hey, I have an idea that could
Speaker 1: please everybody. Why don't you go supervise that yourself, Trump
Speaker 1: move to Iran. You have all the insanity and self
Speaker 1: absorption required to be a Mullah. Two for the first
Speaker 1: time in history, AOC and Congress and Thomas Massey are
Speaker 1: right at the same time about the same thing. This
Speaker 1: is unconstitutional, says Massy. It is absolutely and clearly grounds
Speaker 1: for impeachment, says Okasio Cortes.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 1: Even Bush sought a form of congressional approval, feeble and
Speaker 1: fraudulently induced as it was, it is impeachable. Impeach the
Speaker 1: son of a bitch. Three. Trump says the nuclear sites
Speaker 1: were destroyed. Trump is lying as usual. Even his own
Speaker 1: generals acknowledged they can have no idea if the bombing
Speaker 1: was effective, and they can have no idea if the
Speaker 1: bombing was effective because the stuff was underground. He's lying.
Speaker 1: Four He's pissed off the Russians. Iran's foreign minister meets
Speaker 1: with Putin today in Moscow. Here, in fun City, the
Speaker 1: Russian ambassador to the UN says he's got deja vu
Speaker 1: about the US and Iraq. Because of the US and Iran,
Speaker 1: whatever Putin told Trump to do here, Putin lied to
Speaker 1: Trump about supporting it, and Trump fell for it. Five
Speaker 1: And as usual, the entire event is overflowing like a
Speaker 1: backed up toilet, with more proof that every Republican accusation
Speaker 1: is actually just a confession. They called this mission Midnight Hammer.
Speaker 1: If this is not an intentional reference to the head
Speaker 1: of DUI, I'm sorry. The head of DoD heg seth,
Speaker 1: it will sure do. In his briefing yesterday, Pete hegseeth
Speaker 1: got the target of the bombing run wrong. RB two's
Speaker 1: went in and out of downtown Tehran, Tehran. Excuse me
Speaker 1: of these nuclear sites in and out and back without
Speaker 1: the world knowing at all? Ah Hell Tehran, downtown Tehran
Speaker 1: and suburbs of Tehran, North Tehran. For dow Iran Iraq,
Speaker 1: it's over there in that sort of direction. Check with
Speaker 1: me on the chat later. I'm just here enjoying Operation Midnight.
Speaker 1: Hammered more Republican admissions. JD. Vance. You know the guy
Speaker 1: who is on his second alias already in his life,
Speaker 1: but he got the name of a sitting US senator wrong,
Speaker 1: and he and his pals are boastful about his own
Speaker 1: stupidity and getting the name of the sitting US senator wrong.
Speaker 1: Who's who's a now, all right, Jimmy Vance, Jimmy Donalds,
Speaker 1: and Jimmy whatever your name is. JV. JV said this
Speaker 1: on Meet the Press. This is the toilet overflowing with
Speaker 1: accusations that are actually confession.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 1: I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after twenty
Speaker 1: five years Afar and entanglements Middle East. I understand the concern,
Speaker 1: but the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents.
Speaker 1: Now we have a president who actually knows how to
Speaker 1: accomplish America's national security objective. Well, he's right, except that
Speaker 1: this accomplished none of our national security objectives. It has
Speaker 1: made us weaker. We are more entangled now in the
Speaker 1: Middle East than we were on Saturday morning. We do
Speaker 1: not yet know how much more entangled. This president does
Speaker 1: not know how to accomplish anything for this country, especially
Speaker 1: international And of course we've had dumb presidents, but nobody
Speaker 1: is dumb as this guy. It is hilarious that Vance
Speaker 1: used the phrase dumb presidents. It must be impossible to
Speaker 1: be near Trump these days without that impression. Dumb presidents
Speaker 1: being so vivid, it must seem as if it is
Speaker 1: about to form itself in gold letters in the sky
Speaker 1: above your head, dumb President, you will of course see
Speaker 1: naked genuistic support for this misadventure if we're lucky, not
Speaker 1: support if we're lucky, but that it's only a misadventure
Speaker 1: if we're lucky. CNN still somehow thinking it will keep
Speaker 1: itself from disappearing by drawing some kind of right wing audience.
Speaker 1: Posted this within minutes of the bombing by Stephen Collinson.
Speaker 1: Analysis US strikes mark a stunning demonstration of military might
Speaker 1: and presidential power. Analysis from CNN Stephen Collinson. President Trump's
Speaker 1: attack on Iran's nuclear sites is both a stunning demonstration
Speaker 1: of US military might and unilateral presidential power. Other presidents
Speaker 1: chose not to take this step in the belief that
Speaker 1: such action could ignite a full on war with Iran.
Speaker 1: But the Middle East has changed. Israel has dismantled many
Speaker 1: of the Iranian proxies that it would have used to
Speaker 1: fight back by attacking Iran's no nuclear sites, the president
Speaker 1: has attempted to fully eradicate Tehran's nuclear pro ran for good.
Speaker 1: So Collinson thinks it's in Tehran too. This is with
Speaker 1: a few letters, not even whole words, changed exactly what
Speaker 1: CNN and all the other major news organizations wrote about Iraq.
Speaker 1: And this man Collinson. You have to compliment him. You
Speaker 1: really can't get more bullshit into a space that's small
Speaker 1: than he has. Collinson, incidentally, is the man who wrote
Speaker 1: for CNN in November twenty twenty two that the election
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four would be defined by quote, dueling
Speaker 1: probes into Trump and Biden thirty two paragraphs of both
Speaker 1: sides ism designed to trivialize Trump's treason. Now to the
Speaker 1: serious consequence to all this, the further and further we
Speaker 1: let Trump get away from any constraints, any fear of
Speaker 1: the Constitution, any fear that anyone will stop him by
Speaker 1: whatever means, the further he will go. Ten years ago,
Speaker 1: if a president bombed anywhere and a senior Congressman from
Speaker 1: his own party remarked simply, quote, this is unconstitutional, it
Speaker 1: would be the beginning of the end of that man's presidency.
Speaker 1: Thomas Massey remarked that Saturday night, and he was mocked
Speaker 1: by his own party, and he is hardly a reasonable Republican.
Speaker 1: What ultimately reverses the course towards self destruction of those
Speaker 1: countries where it's not that the concept of right and
Speaker 1: wrong has vanished, but where it is the fear of
Speaker 1: getting caught and stopped that has vanished. What saves those countries? Sadly,
Speaker 1: the answer is universal and eternal. Germany learned it in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty five. The Soviet Union learned it in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety Napoleonic France learned it, Ancient Rome learned it, Cambodia
Speaker 1: learned it. The answer is always the same. Those countries
Speaker 1: are saved from destroying themselves by calamity, by part martial
Speaker 1: self destruction or total destruction from outside nations, or revolution
Speaker 1: or upheaval dissolution. It is not that our concept of
Speaker 1: what America has always been at its worst even is
Speaker 1: incompatible with Trump, cannot continue long with Trump, cannot survive Trump.
Speaker 1: It's now approaching the point where America in any form
Speaker 1: is virtually incompatible with Trump. This path is not solely
Speaker 1: Trump destroying democracy or perverting the electoral process or jailing
Speaker 1: democrats or god knows what else. It's not what he's
Speaker 1: already done. It elevated itself. The path is now America
Speaker 1: becoming so disconnected from its own reality that we will
Speaker 1: implode because this idiot thinks he's doing great things when
Speaker 1: he is pushing us off an effing cliff implosion. The
Speaker 1: good guys, the bad guys, the maga, and the humans,
Speaker 1: all of us over the cliff. But happily now Trump
Speaker 1: thinks God is directing all this, even if he doesn't
Speaker 1: really understand what everybody else means by the word God,
Speaker 1: an omnipotent, an omnipotent individual, You mean me. What's somebody
Speaker 1: more omnipotent than me? This has never occurred to him before.
Speaker 1: He thinks of God as some sort of brand name.
Speaker 1: And I want to just thank everybody, and in particular God.
Speaker 1: I want to just say, we love you God, We
Speaker 1: love you God, rad Oh, yes we do. And if
Speaker 1: that reference to the musical Bye Bye Birdie is too
Speaker 1: old for you, I get it. How about I just
Speaker 1: want to dedicate this bombing of Iran to God. We
Speaker 1: know you're watching us here on Fox, so I just
Speaker 1: want to say two things to God. You know I
Speaker 1: won the twenty twenty election, and God, this wars for you.
Speaker 2: This God's for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Nancy Faust. I'm sorry. I just did not
Speaker 1: have it in me to do an entire song based
Speaker 1: on the Budweiser jingle called this Wars for You. I
Speaker 1: am flashed back to the B two bombers. In the
Speaker 1: early eighties, there was a joke at CNN Washington. We
Speaker 1: had a reporter named Charles Bierbauer who covered this sort
Speaker 1: of stuff, and somebody actually yelled in the middle of
Speaker 1: the newsroom, get that Berbauer b one, bomber b Roll
Speaker 1: a few other actual news notes. Trump will continue to
Speaker 1: lie about the Iraq Iran comparison, especially when it comes
Speaker 1: to himself. For twenty plus years he has insisted he
Speaker 1: was a vocal opponent of going into Iraq. He was not.
Speaker 1: He is lying. There is nothing, nothing on the record
Speaker 1: of him opposing the Iraq disaster before it happened. His
Speaker 1: support was brief, tepid, disinterested, but he did not oppose
Speaker 1: it publicly. You want to know who opposed it publicly.
Speaker 1: I demanded that we go to the UN and present
Speaker 1: all all of our evidence on ABC Radio in two
Speaker 1: thousand and two. I had healthy skepticism, followed by let's
Speaker 1: do what we did with Adle Stevenson and the Cuban
Speaker 1: missile crisis. I didn't even think they were decrepit and
Speaker 1: morally bankrupt enough to fake the evidence to the UN,
Speaker 1: which is exactly that Bush and Cheney and the late
Speaker 1: Colin Powell did. Trump meanwhile, has lied about this anew
Speaker 1: as recently as Friday Friday went. As we now know,
Speaker 1: he had already chosen to launch his own private war
Speaker 1: against Iran while lying to his own nation that somehow
Speaker 1: elected him to lie to it. From the Pool report
Speaker 1: from Friday question twenty years ago, you were skeptical of
Speaker 1: a Republican administration that attacked the Middle East country on
Speaker 1: the idea of questionable intelligence of weapons of mass destruction.
Speaker 1: How is this moment different with Iran? That's not entirely true.
Speaker 1: It's almost close enough that the reporter shouldn't be fired. Trump. Well,
Speaker 1: there were no weapons of mass destruction. I never thought
Speaker 1: there were, and that was something somewhat pre nuclear you know,
Speaker 1: it was a nuclear age, but nothing like it is today.
Speaker 1: That's entirely false. And it looked like I'm right about
Speaker 1: the material that they've gathered already. It's a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of material, and I think within a matter of weeks
Speaker 1: or certainly within a matter of months, they were going
Speaker 1: to be able to have a nuclear weapon. We can't
Speaker 1: let that happen. I was very much opposed to Iraq,
Speaker 1: all right. There's two lies in there. He was not
Speaker 1: very much opposed to a RAQ, or if he was,
Speaker 1: he never said anything about it. And number one, he's
Speaker 1: wrong about the nuclear weapon. Matter of months, not a chance.
Speaker 1: I was very much opposed to a RAQ I was.
Speaker 1: I said it loud and clear.
Speaker 2: He didn't.
Speaker 1: He may have said it to his invisible friend. He
Speaker 1: may have said it in his inside his head voice.
Speaker 1: It may have been one of the other voices in
Speaker 1: his head and said, Donnie, do you like Iraq or
Speaker 1: do you not like Iraq? I don't like Iraq, Ronnie,
Speaker 1: what does Lonnie think? I said it loud and clear.
Speaker 1: But I was a civilian. But I guess I got
Speaker 1: a lot of publicity. But I was very much opposed
Speaker 1: to the Iraq war. Nope, never said it, but I said,
Speaker 1: if you're going to go in, keep the oil. I
Speaker 1: actually did say don't go in, don't go in, don't
Speaker 1: go in. But I said, if you're going to go in,
Speaker 1: keep the oil. He said the part about the oil
Speaker 1: about eight years later, but they didn't do that. Also
Speaker 1: missing in all this just before while he had already
Speaker 1: decided to attack Iran and that whole end of times,
Speaker 1: Jesus is coming back if you get all the Jews
Speaker 1: back to Israel, so we have to protect Israel, so
Speaker 1: we can destroy Israel instead, the fundamentalist evangelical position about Israel.
Speaker 1: While that was happening, Trump posted reposted on his website
Speaker 1: a meme with three different q Andon cult phrases, trust
Speaker 1: the plan, nothing can stop what is coming, and I
Speaker 1: was the hunted and now I'm the hunter all over.
Speaker 1: A picture of him reposted this three QAnon cult phrases
Speaker 1: in one meme. There are two bits of good news.
Speaker 1: The budget bill, the moronically named Big Beautiful Bill because
Speaker 1: Trump thinks gaudy ristolium gold is beautiful. It's being reviewed
Speaker 1: by the Senate Parliamentarian and one of its heinous add
Speaker 1: ons has been ruled in violation of the Bird rule
Speaker 1: about tacking on unrelated heinous add ons illegally to budget bills.
Speaker 1: The Republicans do not legally have to strip out these
Speaker 1: add ons, but they likely will. The Senate Parliamentarian says
Speaker 1: the provision limiting the ability of federal courts to restrain
Speaker 1: Trump is not permissible. It has to be removed from
Speaker 1: the bill before the Senate can vote to approve the
Speaker 1: bill to remain in compliance with Senate rules. And despite
Speaker 1: Trump's instance, since that he won the court battle over
Speaker 1: the National Guard, it is a pyrrhic victory at best.
Speaker 1: The court ruled he could usurp the National Guard in
Speaker 1: Southern California. It also ruled that every time he tries
Speaker 1: to usurp the National Guard somewhere else, the governor involved
Speaker 1: can sue to stop it. Newsom may stop his effort.
Speaker 1: Now take the big picture win here, because if you
Speaker 1: take this current ruling to the Supreme Court, the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court could easily rule that future governors cannot sue to
Speaker 1: stop the usurpation of the National Guard, and that would
Speaker 1: be ultimately disastrous and ultimately a blank check to Trump.
Speaker 1: And Trump's brain is blank enough without a blank check
Speaker 1: lost in Trump's unconstitutional war against Iran. That is for
Speaker 1: regime change. Oh no, it's not for regime change. Oh
Speaker 1: maybe it is for regime is the next stage of
Speaker 1: the perversion of the media in this country. First it
Speaker 1: was cites like CNN and Politico altering the news, literally
Speaker 1: shading it, not fact checking in debates, firing all the
Speaker 1: liberals to favor Trump and the GOP and the Conservatives
Speaker 1: and the corporations which are by their nature and their
Speaker 1: construction conservative. The next stage now is well underway, to
Speaker 1: make sure only Democrats approved by Republicans get any kind
Speaker 1: of public media support. The current target is Andrew Cuomo,
Speaker 1: much of national media is trying to stave off this
Speaker 1: city's revulsion to Andrew Cuomo. The primary for mayor. For
Speaker 1: all intents and purposes, the election for mayor is now.
Speaker 1: Trump wants Cuomo. He wants Cuomo to be there so
Speaker 1: he can blackmail Quomo with a threat of prosecution. That
Speaker 1: little shit Mike Bloomberg wants Cuomo. He's at least eight
Speaker 1: million dollar into it. Bloomberg has donated eight million dollars
Speaker 1: to the Cuomo campaign. Bill Clinton endorsed Cuomo. And understand
Speaker 1: that here in New York Bill Clinton is remembered and
Speaker 1: I hate to say this, if at all as a
Speaker 1: guy who lives way out in the suburbs and used
Speaker 1: to be in politics. Here is the Financial Times analysis
Speaker 1: of the money in this race, the super packs fundraising
Speaker 1: by New York City mayoral campaigns and allied superpacks. Andrew
Speaker 1: Cuomo thirty five point six million dollars. Zorn Mamdani nine
Speaker 1: point one million dollars. Brad Lander, who is the comptroller,
Speaker 1: got arrested last week seven and a half million. Scott Stringer,
Speaker 1: who has been running from mayor since before I was born,
Speaker 1: five million, good man, but he's not going to be
Speaker 1: Mayor Eric Adams, who is the mayor at the moment
Speaker 1: who does not show up to work, and every time
Speaker 1: he gets close to the office something terrible happens, usually
Speaker 1: to him four point eight million, Zellner Meyrie four point two,
Speaker 1: Adrian Adams two point eight. She has refused to cross
Speaker 1: endorse in this ranked choice primary, so it's Cuomo versus
Speaker 1: Mam Danny, with Lander as the outside possibility. The latest
Speaker 1: polls are all over the place. It is ranked voting,
Speaker 1: so even when the polls are accurate, they are all
Speaker 1: over the place. Because you go on to a final round,
Speaker 1: your second choice may count more than your first choice.
Speaker 1: This month you have everything from Cuomo plus twelve to
Speaker 1: Mamdani plus five. Mamdanny is a Democratic socialist. I have
Speaker 1: pointed out before that he has my endorsement because primarily,
Speaker 1: while we align on almost all political issues, my primary
Speaker 1: interest is this guy appears to be ready to show
Speaker 1: up to the effing office every day and work, unlike
Speaker 1: the last four mayors of New York. What a streak
Speaker 1: we are on here, Juliani, that little shit Bloomberg, Bill
Speaker 1: de Bossio, and this moron Adams who says God put
Speaker 1: him there. Apparently God has forsaken you, Eric Adams. But
Speaker 1: the coup de gras in all this is being applied
Speaker 1: by such corrupt organizations as Third Way and Politico. I'll
Speaker 1: just read this from Politico's newsletter on Saturday morning. This
Speaker 1: was the lead item before the bombing of Iran Empire.
Speaker 1: State of mind.
Speaker 2: They're very clever.
Speaker 1: Centrist Democrats are sounding the alarm that are surging Democratic
Speaker 1: socialist mayoral candidate in New York City's Tuesday primary could
Speaker 1: further set back the party's already beleaguered national brand. You
Speaker 1: know why the brand is beleaguered nationally because most Democrats
Speaker 1: are saying, when are you assholes going to do something
Speaker 1: about Trump. The dissatisfaction with Democrats is from arch democrats.
Speaker 1: We want all of the leadership removed. We want hunt
Speaker 1: the Mandanis of this world and the aocs of this
Speaker 1: world running the Democratic Party. To use a phrase I
Speaker 1: remember from my youth, trust no one over thirty maybe forty.
Speaker 1: Third Way, the center left democratic think tank well viewed
Speaker 1: from the Republican Party. Third Way would be center left,
Speaker 1: wrote in a memo Friday that they are deeply alarmed
Speaker 1: by Zoron Mamdani, whom they argue holds positions that border
Speaker 1: on anti Semitism. He's about as close to anti Semitism
Speaker 1: as Third Way is to Nazism, and scan as if
Speaker 1: they were cooked up in the offices of a Trump
Speaker 1: aligned ad maker. No, actually, that's a Cuomo aligned ad
Speaker 1: maker who's used all these same phrases in the pro
Speaker 1: Cuomo ads. Isn't that a coincidence at a time when
Speaker 1: the Democrats are searching for a way out of the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Moderates in the part f the moderates in the party.
Speaker 1: The moderates in the party got Trump elected. Moderates in
Speaker 1: the party say that given New York City mayor's outsized
Speaker 1: role in national politics, three of the last four have
Speaker 1: run for president, they gained two delicate delegates among them,
Speaker 1: and they were delicate delegates, weren't they Freudian slip? Given
Speaker 1: the New York City's mayor's outsized role in national politics
Speaker 1: three of the last four have run for president, Republicans
Speaker 1: could exploit Mandaney's positions for their gain up and down
Speaker 1: the ballot.
Speaker 2: Oh no, oh no, we're going to have oh socialism
Speaker 2: in a country that's been socialists for eighty five years,
Speaker 2: no no socialism, which allows the Red states not to
Speaker 2: starve because the Blue states send the money.
Speaker 1: We've seen the MAGA rights ability and eagerness to weaponize
Speaker 1: over step by the left. Third Way's executive vice president
Speaker 1: Matt Bennett tells Playbook, if you just think about the
Speaker 1: way the Trump campaign attacked former Vice President Harris, the
Speaker 1: way the MAGA right has attacked Democrats generally, it is
Speaker 1: by attaching them to ideas that are outside of the mainstream,
Speaker 1: flipping Tim Walls on its head. It turns out they
Speaker 1: made us into the weird ones. And nothing's weirder than
Speaker 1: the stuff that's in the DSA platform. And we just
Speaker 1: cannot hand that to Republicans. Trump is underwater on overall
Speaker 1: approval in fifteen states he won last year. You efing idiot,
Speaker 1: press push and go loudly, and you will defeat MAGA forever.
Speaker 1: But we can't have anything outside of what we think
Speaker 1: is the mainstream. What of the banks think is the mainstream?
Speaker 1: The Third Way memo highlights defunding the police, closing jails,
Speaker 1: panning private healthcare, and operating city owned grocery stores as
Speaker 1: positions American voters would find beyond the pale Oh, no
Speaker 1: food America is against food. Mam Danny has repeatedly pushed
Speaker 1: back against the anti semitism label. I've said at every opportunity,
Speaker 1: there's no room for anti semitism in this city, in
Speaker 1: this country. In point of fact, they asked him a
Speaker 1: question and he did not explode at them, so they
Speaker 1: called that adjacent to anti Semitism. At a post election
Speaker 1: retreat for Democrats in Virginia earlier this year, Third Way
Speaker 1: concluded in a memo that the party needs your own
Speaker 1: failures of democratic governance in large cities and commit to
Speaker 1: improving local government, start with the ones in Virginia. It's
Speaker 1: also a proxy battle political note political notes in this
Speaker 1: advertisement for the Third Way people, Mamdanny has not just
Speaker 1: the endorsements of Senator Bernie Sanders and AOC Jim Clyburn
Speaker 1: back to Cuomo on Friday, It's also a proxy battle
Speaker 1: in the sense that Israel and anti Semitism have come
Speaker 1: up again and again, which Cuomo wants to keep in
Speaker 1: the spotlight on the topic, says their reporter. Cuomo has
Speaker 1: focused on Mandani's response to a podcast question on whether
Speaker 1: the phrase globalize the Intifada makes him uncomfortable. Mandani did
Speaker 1: not reject or condemn the phrase. He has said it
Speaker 1: means different things to different people, and reiterated that he
Speaker 1: would protect Jewish New Yorkers and combat anti Semitism. I'm
Speaker 1: waiting for somebody to get onto the fact that Andrew Cuomo,
Speaker 1: when asked about whether or not he killed people during
Speaker 1: COVID or, was found liable for constant sexual pestering while
Speaker 1: governor and had to resign. If he's condemned any of that,
Speaker 1: did he condemn it enough? I don't think so. The
Speaker 1: key issue here is this Third Way is a trojan horse.
Speaker 1: It has worked on legislation introduced into the Senate by
Speaker 1: Lindsey Graham. It was accused of suppressing anything that its
Speaker 1: own research found suggested that Democratic voters actually are enraged
Speaker 1: by Trump and maga that this is philosophical, that this
Speaker 1: is about democratic failure to act. Third Way is accused
Speaker 1: of deep tized banking. It is this close to being
Speaker 1: one of those groups that refers to the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: as the Democrat Party. It does not have the motto,
Speaker 1: but I think it might have considered it remember only
Speaker 1: support Democrats approved by Republicans. Also of interest hearing this
Speaker 1: all new edition of Countdown? Who can destroy himself faster?
Speaker 1: Jake Tapper or Stephen A. Smith. Every time I think
Speaker 1: we have a clear winner, the other one starts talking again.
Speaker 1: That's next. This is Countdown. This is Countdown. Thilberman, my
Speaker 1: crazy friend still ahead on this all new edition of Countdown.
Speaker 1: I ain't freud exactly, but for an amateur, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: good on the interpretation of dreams, and this subject came
Speaker 1: up yesterday as I was writing this show on of
Speaker 1: all things, the Fan Dual Sports Network telecast. That's a
Speaker 1: plug I work for them now of the Detroit Tigers
Speaker 1: at the Tampa Bay Rays. What does it mean when
Speaker 1: a baseball pitcher who pitched his last game in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety three keeps having this dream where he's supposed to
Speaker 1: get onto the mound to pitch the game right now,
Speaker 1: except the shoelaces on his spikes have been tied together
Speaker 1: and he can't move. It is the standard old dude
Speaker 1: stress dream. I have them too, but there is an
Speaker 1: amazing twist which explains why keep having them. It's nostalgia.
Speaker 1: It's memories of being young. I'll explain next in Things,
Speaker 1: I promise not to tell the Dreamscape edition first. Believe
Speaker 1: it or not, there's still more new idiots to talk about.
Speaker 1: The roundup of the miscreants, morons and Dunning Krueger effect
Speaker 1: specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in the world.
Speaker 1: And this is like Champions week on Jeopardy. These are
Speaker 1: three of the most frequent worst persons in the world
Speaker 1: in this incarnation of the program, The Brons. The mayor
Speaker 1: of New York mister soon to be seventh place finisher,
Speaker 1: Eric Adams. He has now said he could have done
Speaker 1: a better job vetting the internet personality known for his
Speaker 1: anti Semitic views. Sneak O promised he didn't know his
Speaker 1: history before meeting with him over cigars. Maybe I'm just
Speaker 1: too optimistic, the mayor said that I believe there's something
Speaker 1: good in everyone and we should try to find that. Yes,
Speaker 1: maybe I should have reached out to the team late
Speaker 1: at night said hey, can you vet this person? But
Speaker 1: this is a challenge for me because everyone comes to me.
Speaker 1: Adams told reporters about sneak O. The mayor, who has
Speaker 1: made fighting anti Semitism and support for Israel key focuses
Speaker 1: of his re election effort, said he was sitting on
Speaker 1: the porch of Gracie Mansion smoking his cigar Saturday, and
Speaker 1: then other people came and joined me, and they brought
Speaker 1: people with them, and they started engaging in the conversation,
Speaker 1: and he was one of the people people that engage
Speaker 1: in that conversation. Adam said about mister sneak O, I
Speaker 1: didn't know his history. I don't support anything that is
Speaker 1: criticizing any group in this city. He's close with Nick
Speaker 1: Fuentes and Kanye West. Sneak O. But the mayor didn't
Speaker 1: know anything about him. He just thought he was a
Speaker 1: guy who liked cigars and sitting on the mayor's porch.
Speaker 1: Because anybody can just walk up to the mayor's house
Speaker 1: and go sit on the porch with him, That's not
Speaker 1: how it works. You have to be invited and you
Speaker 1: have to get a security check. So somebody looked this
Speaker 1: guy up and went mayor's running on an anti Semitism campaign. Well,
Speaker 1: this guy Sneako and the word anti Semitism they come
Speaker 1: up a lot in our Google search. Come on down here,
Speaker 1: have a cigar. It would befit this city and all
Speaker 1: the bad things we've done back when we used to
Speaker 1: finance the slave trade and other terrible things that we
Speaker 1: did in the nineteenth century and earlier and later. It
Speaker 1: would befit this city if we got this idiot Cuomo
Speaker 1: as our mayor, because we had this idiot Adams is
Speaker 1: our mayor, who succeeded this idiot Deblasio as our mayor,
Speaker 1: who is going to get back and deal with the
Speaker 1: crisis here except he needed a ride to the airport
Speaker 1: in Iowa and couldn't get one, and he, of course
Speaker 1: succeeded this idiot. Bloomberg is our mayor, who of course
Speaker 1: succeeded the original gangster idiot Rudy Giuliani. I think we
Speaker 1: shouldn't have an election. I should stay on as mayor
Speaker 1: forever because who could possibly replace me anybody, and anybody
Speaker 1: did replace you moving on the runner up. As I said,
Speaker 1: some people are satisfied with destroying their careers and others
Speaker 1: just have to keep on going and making sure it
Speaker 1: will never move again. It's been dead already for months.
Speaker 1: Jake hit it again. Wait, I'll do it, Tapper on
Speaker 1: c Span Now, what do you think he's talking about?
Speaker 1: As you hear the start of this quote, I feel
Speaker 1: this way about the weapons of mass destruction on Iraq story.
Speaker 1: I was a reporter of that was skeptical of the
Speaker 1: WMD claim, but certainly, in hindsight I wish I had
Speaker 1: been more skeptical. Was he talking about the build up
Speaker 1: to Trump's war against Iran? The oh, never go for
Speaker 1: regime change. Let's have regime change, Lindsey Graham says, what
Speaker 1: a good idea, Trump, Let's have regime change. Let's just
Speaker 1: drop bombs on a country with no congressional authorization and
Speaker 1: tell the nation, We're going to give it another two weeks.
Speaker 1: This nation, not their nation. Who gives a damn what
Speaker 1: you told that nation? You think Jake Tapper's talking about that.
Speaker 1: I was a reporter that was skeptical of the wn
Speaker 1: D claim, but certainly, in hindsight, I wish I had
Speaker 1: been more skeptical. I feel this way about the weapons
Speaker 1: of mass destruction in rack story. Certainly when it comes
Speaker 1: to President Biden's acuity, I wish I had covered it
Speaker 1: more aggressively. Jake, Actually, this is my actual belief. At
Speaker 1: this point, you need a cat scan. You are no
Speaker 1: longer connected to reality. They're selling a book, selling your
Speaker 1: soul for a book. And then there's what you're doing now,
Speaker 1: which is ignoring all the reality when everybody around you
Speaker 1: is saying stop, lay down, stay down. Dude. You've humiliated
Speaker 1: yourself and destroyed whatever reputation you had, and you just
Speaker 1: hear you're doing great, Jake, from invisible men who may
Speaker 1: live inside your cat scan. Seriously, let's hope it's just
Speaker 1: like an inner ear problem that can be fixed with medication.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm rooting for, Jake. I don't have anything
Speaker 1: personally against you. I don't want to see terrible things
Speaker 1: happen to you. Apparently you do. You're doing them to
Speaker 1: yourself right now. But the winner, Jake Tapper, is not
Speaker 1: content with his own self destruct and is now doing
Speaker 1: it for the seventeenth time. Stephen A. Smith says, hold
Speaker 1: my anti semitism adjacent beer. That is the new term
Speaker 1: right that's there using this against Mam Danny. It's anti
Speaker 1: semitism adjacent. He has come back for a second helping
Speaker 1: of let me tell you how great Candace Owens is.
Speaker 1: Smith and I'm reading from Mediaite addressed the recent controversy
Speaker 1: over his interview with right wing smear merchant Candace Owens
Speaker 1: on his show on YouTube, insisting that she quote knows
Speaker 1: what she's talking about. Stop Stephen, stop, unplug everything. Mute
Speaker 1: the microphone claim it was a glitch. Claim you've been hacked.
Speaker 1: Stop right there. She knows what she's talking about. She
Speaker 1: doesn't know what she's talking about. She's an insane woman
Speaker 1: who was fired by people who are already insane by themselves.
Speaker 1: She was fired by Ben Shapiro. Look him up. Owens
Speaker 1: has been a vocal critic of Israel, going so far
Speaker 1: as to suggest, in a not so veiled anti Semitic trope,
Speaker 1: according to media, that the Jewish state is controlling US
Speaker 1: foreign policy. She posted recently on x this was a
Speaker 1: week ago recently, our foreign policy is dictated by Israel.
Speaker 1: Trump will continue to do as he is told by
Speaker 1: Nettan Yahoo. If you want to know what America will do,
Speaker 1: spare yourself the fake White House press briefings and start
Speaker 1: listening to bb We are a colony of Israel. Your
Speaker 1: politicians are bought and paid for. Candace Owens, she knows
Speaker 1: what she's talking about, says Stephen A.
Speaker 2: Smith.
Speaker 1: I know this is the whole Stephen A. Smith rant.
Speaker 1: I will not do my Stephen A. Smith impression. It's
Speaker 1: bad enough that Stephen A. Smith does a Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith impression. I know that some of you out there
Speaker 1: may not have wanted to hear a damn thing that
Speaker 1: Candace Owens had to say, but four plus millions subscribed
Speaker 1: to her listen to every chance they get. You know,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of cannibals in the world too.
Speaker 1: You could say that we need to listen to the
Speaker 1: cannibals as well. Not everybody in America or this world
Speaker 1: for that matter, can say that what she says matters.
Speaker 1: And a lot more often than not, she seems to
Speaker 1: know what the hell she's talking about. It's very rare
Speaker 1: you hear somebody says she's clueless. She doesn't know what
Speaker 1: she's saying. She's clueless, Steve, she doesn't know what she's saying.
Speaker 1: She could not. I would not bet on her passing
Speaker 1: a Saturday test. She does not. You do not have
Speaker 1: to hand it to her to borrow the wind expression.
Speaker 1: She seems to know what the hell she's talking about.
Speaker 1: It's very rare you hear somebody says she's clueless, she
Speaker 1: don't know what she's saying. You don't hear that about her.
Speaker 1: You want to refute what she has to say and
Speaker 1: defy her positions. You better know what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: because she certainly does usually, if not always. That's why
Speaker 1: I had on the show, Stephen, this is who you
Speaker 1: keep endorsing the time. She discussed Adolf Hitler's nationalism at
Speaker 1: the Turning Point USA event in London in February twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen and said quote, I actually don't have any problems
Speaker 1: at all with the word nationalism. I think that the
Speaker 1: definition gets poisoned by elitists that actually want globalism. Globalism
Speaker 1: is what I don't want. Whenever we say nationalism, the
Speaker 1: first thing people think about, at least in America is Hitler.
Speaker 1: This is the woman Stephen A. Smith what says knows
Speaker 1: what she's talking about. Owens went on Hitler was a
Speaker 1: national socialist, adding quote, but if Hitler just wanted to
Speaker 1: make Germany great and have things run well, okay, fine.
Speaker 1: The problem is that he wanted he had dreams outside
Speaker 1: of Germany. He wanted to globalize. He wanted everybody to
Speaker 1: be German, everybody to be speaking German, everybody to look
Speaker 1: a different way. To me, that's not nationalism, simple, I
Speaker 1: think acceptable admittable translation. Owens thought that whatever Hitler did
Speaker 1: inside Germany was great. The word she was great. Just
Speaker 1: wanted to make Germany great by killing everybody. Well, ok, fine, ok, fine,
Speaker 1: she said. Last March, Candace Owens liked a post on
Speaker 1: x in which a user asked a rabbi if he
Speaker 1: was quote drunk on Christian blood. This is who stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith says. She seems to know what the hell she's
Speaker 1: talking about. In fact, she does not seem to know
Speaker 1: what the hell she's talking about. It's the exact opposite,
Speaker 1: stephen A.
Speaker 2: Smith.
Speaker 1: You are aligning yourself with a woman who was fired
Speaker 1: by some of the worst people in the Fascist rite
Speaker 1: for but they called her disgraceful language about Jewish people.
Speaker 1: Even the Anti Defamation League said she has been pushing
Speaker 1: a quote anti Semitic agenda. This, Steven, is who you
Speaker 1: are gradually gluing yourself to. Candace Owens will destroy your career,
Speaker 1: not just your political aspirations or your political commentary aspirations,
Speaker 1: or your idea that there should be a Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith's store in every city or whatever is next. This
Speaker 1: is going to destroy what you already have. Flee, Please flee,
Speaker 1: get away from Candace Owens. Get away from politics. You
Speaker 1: have an innate instinct as strong as your instinct for
Speaker 1: what makes good TV sports. You have an innate instinct
Speaker 1: for picking exactly the wrong person to sidle up to
Speaker 1: and to join yourself to glue to at your hip.
Speaker 1: You are going to destroy yourself, and if you don't,
Speaker 1: she will destroy you for you. This ends with ESPN
Speaker 1: having no choice but to fire you and nobody else
Speaker 1: being willing to hire you. Flea get away from candae
Speaker 1: Owns as fast as you possibly can. Steven A. Smith,
Speaker 1: Today's other God help us, worst person in the world.
Speaker 2: Please, please please.
Speaker 1: So let's conclude this all new edition of Countdown on
Speaker 1: Iran Day with an all new edition of Things I
Speaker 1: Promised Not to Tell, And I'll give you the background
Speaker 1: to this first. I was as I prepared this episode,
Speaker 1: listening to a baseball game telecast, an unsurprising event if
Speaker 1: this is later than the year nineteen sixty seven, and
Speaker 1: I just checked the calendar and it is. So this
Speaker 1: is what was going on in the background as I
Speaker 1: tried to make some sense of what Trump has done
Speaker 1: in Iran to the number one story on the Countdown
Speaker 1: and Things I Promised Not to Tell, my favorite topic
Speaker 1: me and general knowledge that it turns out, is not
Speaker 1: general knowledge, but should be about dreams, particularly anxiety dreams.
Speaker 1: Trust me on this, because I've spent a good deal
Speaker 1: of money on this in the relentless pursuit of what's
Speaker 1: going on inside my head between my ears by legions
Speaker 1: of analysts over the years. They have come up with
Speaker 1: very few correct answers, or very few answers at all.
Speaker 1: You can imagine the travails involved in trying to do
Speaker 1: this in any event, one of the things that they
Speaker 1: won in particular, and I have come up with something
Speaker 1: about these dreams, recurring anxiety dreams. I'm listening to my
Speaker 1: friend Jason Bennetti, one of the best baseball broadcasters there is,
Speaker 1: doing the Detroit Tigers game with his partner on the broadcast,
Speaker 1: Dan Petrie. Jason's also very good, apparently among the best
Speaker 1: in other sports like basketball and football, But I don't
Speaker 1: get paid to watch basketball or football, and those are
Speaker 1: the only circumstances under which I will watch them. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to have to take his word for it
Speaker 1: that he's good at those two. But I know he's
Speaker 1: excellent in baseball, and I will always watch again. He
Speaker 1: is doing, and Dan Petrie is excellent too. And I
Speaker 1: happen to know Dan Petrie since the late seventies when
Speaker 1: he was a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. Not very well,
Speaker 1: but enough probably that he might remember if I told
Speaker 1: the story of when we met. And I know of
Speaker 1: his son, National Hockey League defenseman. He had a niece
Speaker 1: I knew, who was a swimmer at UCLA, A big
Speaker 1: athletic family from southern California, and roughly my contemporary. I
Speaker 1: think Dan is like two months older than I am,
Speaker 1: So when I met him, I was a fledgling reporter
Speaker 1: and photographer who posed him for some baseball card photos
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty something like that. In any event, Dan
Speaker 1: revealed towards the end of his broadcast, as I was
Speaker 1: preparing this edition of Countdown, he revealed that he has
Speaker 1: had a recurring dream that he still has even though
Speaker 1: his last game in the major leagues was more than
Speaker 1: thirty years ago. And he has this dream in which
Speaker 1: the anthem is playing. He is at his cubicle, his locker,
Speaker 1: somewhere in the clubhouse. He's not sure where he is.
Speaker 1: It may be in Detroit. He's not sure he's playing
Speaker 1: for the Tigers. He's not sure where the stadium is.
Speaker 1: He's not sure of anything except he is just starting
Speaker 1: to get dressed and they are playing the anthem, and
Speaker 1: he is the starting pitcher. You do not have to
Speaker 1: understand anything about baseball to understand that this is the
Speaker 1: standard I'm late dream, and to have it again and
Speaker 1: again and again references one thing in particular, which is
Speaker 1: the number of times that you have had to go
Speaker 1: through one thousand deadlines to get to your job. The
Speaker 1: first deadline is to be there when your job starts.
Speaker 1: So if you have a dream in which something keeps
Speaker 1: you from getting to the store part of your job,
Speaker 1: it is essentially PTSD light. You have had this actual
Speaker 1: experience of worrying. Boy, I hope I get to the
Speaker 1: ballpark in time, four hours before the game. Boy, I
Speaker 1: hope I get my bullpen routine done, thirty five minutes
Speaker 1: before the game. Boy, I hope we get the game
Speaker 1: started at in time. Boy, I hope I'm out there
Speaker 1: for the anthem. Boy, I hope I don't have to
Speaker 1: go to the bathroom. Boy, I hope I haven't misplaced
Speaker 1: my glove. Well, in the dream, of course, all of
Speaker 1: these things happen Petrie relates that in the dream, he
Speaker 1: can't find his spikes. All he has is a shirt
Speaker 1: and maybe some baseball pants. There's no uniform, he doesn't
Speaker 1: have his glove, he hasn't warmed up there playing the anthem,
Speaker 1: and there's no way he's going to get onto the
Speaker 1: field for his first pitch, let alone warm up or
Speaker 1: any of the other rituals beforehand. It is straight, strict anxiety.
Speaker 1: But there's a twist to it, as I'm trying to
Speaker 1: explain to this by text, this whole story about how
Speaker 1: I have had similar dreams about college graduation. It's college
Speaker 1: graduation morning, it's five minutes to graduation. I have forgotten
Speaker 1: an entire course which almost actually happened. So there's a
Speaker 1: real reason for it. There's a reason it's burned into
Speaker 1: my mind since nineteen seventy nine. There's a real reason
Speaker 1: for it. But it doesn't have to have that reason.
Speaker 1: Most people have a dream just like this. You're going
Speaker 1: to do something normal or planned, or something you've done
Speaker 1: a thousand times, and for some reason you can't get there.
Speaker 1: One of the reporters in the Tiger broadcast then related
Speaker 1: that she has the dream in which she's hitting a baseball,
Speaker 1: and then she hits the baseball successfully, but can't move
Speaker 1: her legs. She can't run. Everybody's had the can't run dream,
Speaker 1: they can't move dream. It's all of the same core
Speaker 1: with a twist. As I am relating this and Jason
Speaker 1: Bennette says, do you mind if I mention this on
Speaker 1: the air to me by text because it'll make Dan
Speaker 1: feel a little less shaken by recounting his own dream,
Speaker 1: I say, sure, go ahead, he says. Frank Tanana, who
Speaker 1: was a contemporary of both mine as a photographer and
Speaker 1: reporter and Petres as a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers,
Speaker 1: and was a very famous pitcher in the American League
Speaker 1: for a good long time, possibly the hardest thrower, certainly
Speaker 1: among left handed pitchers in the American League in the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. Frank Tanana texts Dan Petrie in the booth
Speaker 1: and says, I have the same dream, only my shoes.
Speaker 1: The shoelaces on my shoes are tied together, and I
Speaker 1: can't stand. And I would suspect every athlete has had
Speaker 1: a dream in which something incredibly mundane prevents you from
Speaker 1: starting the game. Never mind the thousand things you have
Speaker 1: to do that only you can do that had propelled
Speaker 1: you to fame and fortune, or at least fortune. Never
Speaker 1: mind those tough things. The easy one, like getting there
Speaker 1: when it's supposed to start, has failed you or you
Speaker 1: have been prevented by by reasons you don't fully understand.
Speaker 1: And you have this dream while you're playing, and then
Speaker 1: in the years afterwards, and it makes perfect sense, because
Speaker 1: these rituals are burned into your mind and they're so
Speaker 1: heart of the structure that deadlines, that rules everybody's life,
Speaker 1: that you don't even think of them anymore, and they
Speaker 1: come out in dreams because you worry. You worry unconsciously,
Speaker 1: which is what a dream is, after all. You worry
Speaker 1: unconsciously about not getting it done on time. So now
Speaker 1: we have two Detroit Tigers pictures of the nineteen eighties
Speaker 1: telling essentially of the same dream that they've had, and
Speaker 1: me with the I'm not going to graduate on time
Speaker 1: or the more recent version which I had two days
Speaker 1: before this broadcast that I'm hearing. When they're talking about
Speaker 1: Dan Petrie not being able to find his shoes, they're
Speaker 1: playing the anthem I had. The Sports Center is starting
Speaker 1: in five minutes. Dream and you have at least half
Speaker 1: an hour worth of writing to do, and you're not
Speaker 1: in the studio, or you have a stage manager from
Speaker 1: any one of a million different broadcasts, and in the dream,
Speaker 1: it's always the real person. It's Jackie from MSNBC. It's
Speaker 1: one of the guys from Fox. It's one of the
Speaker 1: guys from ESPN, it's one of the guys from Channel
Speaker 1: two in Los Angeles, it's one of the guys from
Speaker 1: Channel five in Boston. And suddenly they point at you
Speaker 1: and go five four three, two one, and you don't
Speaker 1: even know what the broadcast is. I once had the dream,
Speaker 1: and it was the inauguration of President Obama in the dream,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know where I was, what network I
Speaker 1: was on, And only because I saw the graphic over
Speaker 1: this guy's shoulder did I know it was the inauguration
Speaker 1: of a president. And I was not prepared. It is
Speaker 1: the you're late, You're being prevented, You're not prepared. It's
Speaker 1: all of the standard issue anxieties that you actually we
Speaker 1: go through and try to prevent with an ordinary checklist
Speaker 1: in the back of your mind every time you do
Speaker 1: whatever you do, every time you ever did it, even
Speaker 1: if you're not doing it anymore, even if you're thirty
Speaker 1: years removed from having done it the last time. But
Speaker 1: there's a twist to it, which I tried to convey
Speaker 1: to mister Petrie and through him to mister Tanana, who,
Speaker 1: by the way, Frank Tanana was probably the nicest guy
Speaker 1: to the Scrubini reporters and photographers of nineteen seventy six
Speaker 1: to nineteen eighty two that we ever knew. Everybody said
Speaker 1: the same thing. Didn't matter if he was pitching that day,
Speaker 1: when most pitchers just go into this semi psychotic state.
Speaker 1: This fugue, don't talk to me, don't look at me.
Speaker 1: You're interrupting my rituals. If you don't get out of
Speaker 1: my way, I'll be stuck in my locker and they'll be
Speaker 1: playing the anthem and my shoes will be tied together.
Speaker 1: They gave off that kind of vibe. Frank Tanana never
Speaker 1: did that. Frank Tanana once asked me about the camera
Speaker 1: I was using, and I looked at him, and it
Speaker 1: was half an hour before the game was supposed to
Speaker 1: start at Yankee Stadium, and he was pitching for the
Speaker 1: California Angels, and I said, aren't you pitching today. He went, yeah,
Speaker 1: half an hour or so. I said, what about He goes, Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't go for any of that. Don't talk to
Speaker 1: the pitcherer thing. He asked me about the camera and
Speaker 1: then he posed for me and he went out and
Speaker 1: he threw eight innings of two hit baseball against Catfish
Speaker 1: Hunter and the Yankees same day. So that's another psychological issue.
Speaker 1: But the thing that twists this. Frank Tanana is about
Speaker 1: five years my elder. Dan Petrie is about two months
Speaker 1: my elder. We are more or less, although it would
Speaker 1: have been different then because they were Major League baseball
Speaker 1: players and I was a rookie radio reporter or a
Speaker 1: trivial figure in sportscasting, or a photographer completely fungible those days.
Speaker 1: There was a big difference then. Now we are all
Speaker 1: in the same demographic. We are contemporaries, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to explain to them and to anybody else who has
Speaker 1: this dream or a dream like it, the I can't
Speaker 1: get to what I'm supposed to do dream, Even though
Speaker 1: I haven't had to do this for thirty years or
Speaker 1: ten years or whatever. I have an added bit of insight,
Speaker 1: particularly the dream about not graduating on time lingered with
Speaker 1: me on at best a once a month basis till
Speaker 1: about a year and a half two years ago. It
Speaker 1: would always be updated. I would have to quit whatever
Speaker 1: job I had and go back to school because I
Speaker 1: had forgotten a course. I didn't make it to graduation.
Speaker 1: Something something, something happened. Under the worst pressure and stress
Speaker 1: of my career, I had this dream and I was
Speaker 1: sent back, not to start college all over again, or
Speaker 1: high school. I was sent back to the fourth grade.
Speaker 1: I was now going to have to do eight years
Speaker 1: of grammar and high school and then go back to college.
Speaker 1: I had sixteen years penalty against me. I was being
Speaker 1: sent back to the fourth grade as an adult. I
Speaker 1: went into the classroom and had to sit in one
Speaker 1: of the little kids chairs, and I didn't fit into
Speaker 1: the little kids chairs. When I was in the fourth grade,
Speaker 1: I finally thought when I had this dream, and I
Speaker 1: suggested to my therapist, wait a minute, this dream doesn't
Speaker 1: bother me the way it used to. It used to
Speaker 1: really upset me and wake me, and I'd say, why
Speaker 1: am I still having this dream. I graduated and in
Speaker 1: the one dream, this one time when it didn't bother me,
Speaker 1: I went back to the registrar's office and said, no,
Speaker 1: I graduated, what's wrong with you people? And then I
Speaker 1: had the dream again and it was kind of kind
Speaker 1: of nostalgic and pleasant. And that's when it dawned on
Speaker 1: me when I almost didn't graduate on time. And in
Speaker 1: the dreams, every one of the dreams, I'm twenty years old,
Speaker 1: or at worse, it's I'm forty years old, and for
Speaker 1: some reason we're replaying graduation day. And the point ultimately
Speaker 1: is this, and it may be the point for every
Speaker 1: Dan Petrie and Frank Tanana out there who's having the
Speaker 1: My shoelaces are tied. Oh good, in your dream, you
Speaker 1: have shoelaces. In my dream, I can't find my shoes
Speaker 1: at all. I don't know what broadcast I'm doing. I
Speaker 1: don't know how I'm going to get to graduation. The
Speaker 1: point is when you did this, when it actually happened
Speaker 1: in real life, when this pressure was on you, you
Speaker 1: were thirty years old, twenty five years old, twenty years old.
Speaker 1: If you comb down into the baseline of your life, yes,
Speaker 1: there are things that have been accomplished in the ensuing
Speaker 1: thirty forty fifty years since the occasion of the reality
Speaker 1: that is at the heart of this dream. There are
Speaker 1: many things you would never trade for anything in the world,
Speaker 1: or anything impossible in the world. You would not trade
Speaker 1: these things for eternal life, family experiences, loved ones, whatever.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, if you had a dream, and
Speaker 1: in that dream you were offered the opportunity to be
Speaker 1: twenty years old again, or thirty years old again, or hell,
Speaker 1: by the time you get to my age, fifty years
Speaker 1: old again, guess what you'd take it, especially if you
Speaker 1: could bring all the good stuff of today with you
Speaker 1: back to your new second shot at twenty years old.
Speaker 1: A very simple reason, you're now no longer that close.
Speaker 1: You are thirty years less close to the end. It's
Speaker 1: not more complicated than that. At some point, the dream
Speaker 1: stops being a terror dream full of life's ordinary, poisonous,
Speaker 1: mind blowing, disastrous, terrifying, mundane deadlines. At some point it
Speaker 1: becomes a nostalgic dream. Oh, I'd love to go back
Speaker 1: to Cornell and spend another semester there and be twenty.
Speaker 1: I'd go to the worst college in the world and
Speaker 1: be twenty. I wouldn't be in college at all, I'd
Speaker 1: be in high school at twenty and be twenty. It's
Speaker 1: not complicated.
Speaker 2: It's not an.
Speaker 1: Indictment of your current life. It's part of that hope
Speaker 1: and survival instinct we all need to keep going every day,
Speaker 1: especially now. So if you have this dream, you know,
Speaker 1: just roll with it. Enjoy the idea that you're twenty
Speaker 1: again or thirty, or you're still pitching in the major
Speaker 1: leagues and you can't find your shoes, because trust me,
Speaker 1: pitching in the major leagues without being able to find
Speaker 1: your shoes or finding your shoelaces tied together is better
Speaker 1: than A never pitching in the major leagues or b
Speaker 1: having pitched in the major leagues thirty five years ago.
Speaker 1: Just as not graduating on time but coming close today
Speaker 1: is better than not graduating on time but coming close.
Speaker 1: Oh you did grad wait on time? Whoa fifty years ago?
Speaker 1: And I have one PostScript to this. Frank Tanana, the
Speaker 1: second baseball pitcher, as I said, did not go in
Speaker 1: for any of you. Do not talk to the pitcher
Speaker 1: the day that I talked to him now twenty minutes
Speaker 1: before his start, and he's just sitting there tossing the
Speaker 1: baseball in the air, and said, sure, I'll pose for you.
Speaker 1: That day he was facing the future Hall of Famer
Speaker 1: Jim Catfish Hunter the New York Yankees, and he went
Speaker 1: out and threw two hit ball over eight innings and
Speaker 1: totally mesmerized the New York Yankees. There was one out
Speaker 1: in the bottom of the ninth inning. I stayed for
Speaker 1: the game and was watching it. The California Angels, behind
Speaker 1: Frank Tanana's flaw was pitching, were leading eight to nothing,
Speaker 1: eight to nothing with one out in the bottom of
Speaker 1: the ninth inning, Frank Tanana mesmerizing the Yankees. The stadium
Speaker 1: half empty from fans who gave up in disgust, and
Speaker 1: I just kept thinking, boy, oh boy, pictures really don't
Speaker 1: need to be sequestered before a start. He's absolutely right.
Speaker 1: One out in the bottom of the ninth inning, two
Speaker 1: outs to go for a two hit shutout, and Frank
Speaker 1: Tinana proceeded to give up eight runs and did not
Speaker 1: win the ballgame, and the game went to extra innings.
Speaker 1: Because as I always thought thereafter, not only to starting
Speaker 1: pitchers wisely not talk to anybody before the game, but
Speaker 1: certainly if they're really smart, they don't talk to some
Speaker 1: wise ass seventeen year old photographer who asks them to
Speaker 1: pose for bubblegum card pictures. The Angels, by the way,
Speaker 1: won that game and like the eleventh inning anyway, So
Speaker 1: the Yankee comeback came to nought. But boy, oh boy,
Speaker 1: was that an instructional evidence story for me at seven.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I'll be fine. I can talk to you
Speaker 1: before the game. He gave up eight runs in the
Speaker 1: bottom of the ninth inning. For you youngsters, this is
Speaker 1: when a starting pitcher would still be pitching in the
Speaker 1: bottom of the ninth inning. I know it's like before electricity.
Speaker 1: In fact, everything was still in black and white in
Speaker 1: those days nineteen seventy six. So the gist of this is,
Speaker 1: at some point, your worst fears, in your worst dreams
Speaker 1: simply become nostalgia for the idea that it was better
Speaker 1: when you were twenty years old. I've done all the
Speaker 1: damage I can do here. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: an old man complaining about being an old man. Most
Speaker 1: of our Countdown music was arranged, produced, and performed by
Speaker 1: Brian Ray and John Phillip Shanel, our musical directors of Countdown.
Speaker 1: It was produced by Tko Brothers. Mister Ray on guitars,
Speaker 1: bass and drums, Mister Chaneale handling, orchestration and keyboards. Our
Speaker 1: satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball
Speaker 1: stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The Olberman theme from ESPN
Speaker 1: two was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
Speaker 1: That is the sports music. Other music arranged and performed
Speaker 1: by the group No Horns Allowed. My announcer today is
Speaker 1: my friend Tony Kornheiser. The dream sequence was orchestrated by
Speaker 1: Jason Bennetti and Dan Petrie. Everything else was, as always
Speaker 1: my fault. I hope that provided some levity under the circumstances.
Speaker 1: That's countdown for today, day one hundred and fifty four.
Speaker 1: If America held hostage just three hundred and ten days
Speaker 1: until the scheduled end of Trump's lame duck lame brained term,
Speaker 1: unless Putin or Musk remove him sooner, or the actuarial
Speaker 1: tables do, or we do. Remember he did it ran
Speaker 1: because he thinks it will help him politically. Any strategic result,
Speaker 1: good or bad, is an accident of coincidence. The next
Speaker 1: scheduled countdown is Thursday. Until the next one. I'm Keith Olberman.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Good afternoon, good Night, and good Luck. Countdown
Speaker 1: with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.