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Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Trump's

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Speaker 1: losing streak has hit twenty seven days, his latest losing streak.

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Speaker 1: MAGA knows it. The head of the Republican National Committee

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Speaker 1: knows it. The Wall Street Journal knows it. The Indiana

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Speaker 1: GOP knows it. The Ukrainians know it. Anybody who saw

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Speaker 1: his pathetic, credit grabbing, disinformational tweet Saturday night after the

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Speaker 1: Brown shooting knows it. His own economists know it, the

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Speaker 1: terrorists know it. Even Trump knows it. Since the House

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Speaker 1: passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November nineteenth, Trump

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Speaker 1: has been sinking in quicksand sinking, and not more than

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Speaker 1: one or two of his more insane, more desperate colleagues

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Speaker 1: have even gotten close enough to hand him a rope

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Speaker 1: for fear of being pulled down with him. His losing

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Speaker 1: streak is today twenty seven days long, his latest losing streak,

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Speaker 1: and they are beginning to blame him. We are facing

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Speaker 1: almost certain defeats, says the purulent face of the RNC

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Speaker 1: Joe Gruders about the midterms. Then, quote, this is an

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Speaker 1: absolute disaster. Then if that wasn't clear enough, quote there's

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Speaker 1: no sugarcoating it. This is a pending, looming disaster headed

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Speaker 1: our way. And then I think, quoting me, quoting the

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Speaker 1: late football owner Al Davis Gruters, says, the chances are

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Speaker 1: Republicans will go down, and will go down. Hod just lose, baby,

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Speaker 1: and boy has Trump been losing. He called affordability a hoax,

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Speaker 1: got his arm twisted by his economists who know the

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Speaker 1: last thing it is is a hoax. Tried to give

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Speaker 1: a speech saying he will fix affordability rather than being

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Speaker 1: crush under its weight politically, and still could not stop himself.

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Speaker 1: Could not not mock those advisors, and not mock America,

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Speaker 1: and not mock his own speech, and not mock affordability again,

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Speaker 1: and even not mock the charts they gave him, and

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Speaker 1: not mock Christmas presents. Quote you don't need thirty seven

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Speaker 1: dollars for your daughter two or three? Is nice, she thinks,

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Speaker 1: santi the results the next day, the Democrat Eileen Higgins

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Speaker 1: swamped the MAGA loser in the election for mayor of Miami,

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Speaker 1: and the Republicans coughed up what was thought to be

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Speaker 1: a permanently red seat in the state House in Georgia,

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Speaker 1: and Trump still kept mocking affordability, and Trump even mocked

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Speaker 1: Trump twenty eighteen, twenty eighteen when he was caught saying

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Speaker 1: shithole countries, and he denied he said shithole countries, and

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Speaker 1: he lied and said he didn't say it, and his

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Speaker 1: people who there and heard him say it, they lied

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Speaker 1: and said he didn't say it. And now he says

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Speaker 1: he did say it, and he said it again, and

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Speaker 1: he said it about Somalia. And I don't know what

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Speaker 1: it is, but somehow this group he has attacked seems

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Speaker 1: to have been respected in this country, even by Republicans.

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Speaker 1: And the shithole in question looks like Trump's mouth. And

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Speaker 1: then there's nearby Indiana. Indiana is not a hot prospect

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Speaker 1: to join the new Left, and it never has been.

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Speaker 1: And yet Mike Pence was from there. And the Indiana

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Speaker 1: Republicans who stared Trump down when he threatened to cut

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Speaker 1: off all federal funding if they didn't readdistrict the way

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Speaker 1: he wanted him to there from there, and they told

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Speaker 1: him to go f himself. And then the Maga lieutenant governor,

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Speaker 1: whose name is Micah Beckwith and is exactly as dumb

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Speaker 1: as that sounds, first posted that threat online then deleted

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Speaker 1: the post, and then, when confronted by reporters, repeated the

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Speaker 1: threat almost word for word. Quote, Yes, these conversations happened.

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Speaker 1: Beckwith said this to Politico. But it's not a threat,

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Speaker 1: it's an honest conversation about who does the White House

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Speaker 1: want to partner with. There are forty nine other states

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Speaker 1: competing for all kinds of projects. Indianatol the White House today.

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Speaker 1: They don't want to be a good partner to the

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Speaker 1: Trump administration. And I suspect the White House will look

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Speaker 1: to partner with other states before US. But did they

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Speaker 1: actually say, here are projects you could lose out on

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Speaker 1: if you do not deliver for us. Political Politico asked

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Speaker 1: them that question, and mister Beckwith answered, quote, yes, unbelievable. Hey, Becky, One,

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Speaker 1: don't blackmail. Two, don't blackmail people who aren't going to

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Speaker 1: give in to blackmail. Three, when your blackmail fails, don't

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Speaker 1: advertise that it's failed. And four, when you realize the

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Speaker 1: validity of point three and you try to bury your advertisement,

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Speaker 1: don't go back and advertise it again. Indiana thus becomes

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Speaker 1: multiple Trump losses. He loses there like three times, and

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Speaker 1: he also loses wherever he decides the next Indiana is

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Speaker 1: and he looks, well, what's the opposite of impregnable? He

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Speaker 1: looks pregnable. And there are multiple, multiple l's, not just Indiana,

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Speaker 1: these beauty pageant also rans. He's tried to dress up

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Speaker 1: as US attorneys Julianne Murray in Delaware Gone, the slimy

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Speaker 1: Elina Haba Gone, Miss Uncongeniality, Lindsay Halligan going seven of them,

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Speaker 1: by Trump's own admission going. And Trump's replacement evil plan

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Speaker 1: is to eliminate blue slips in the Senate the way

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Speaker 1: home state senators keep unqualified nominees from being qualified by

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Speaker 1: the whores still working for the would be dictator. And

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Speaker 1: John has responded to this by saying no, and Chuck

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Speaker 1: Grassley has responded to this by saying, no, that's two

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Speaker 1: more els in one game. No three l's in one game.

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Speaker 1: He'd already tried to get them to eliminate the filibuster too,

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Speaker 1: els el's els marching into the White House just in

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Speaker 1: time for the construction permits to be denied for the

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Speaker 1: new combination ballroom and Trump egos storage Hangar, I don't

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Speaker 1: know what's going to happen to Obamacare, but He's not

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Speaker 1: gonna gut it or replace it with the latest lame

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Speaker 1: brained idea for a new scheme. Ran Paul's brilliant plan

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Speaker 1: for you to buy your insurance on Amazon or at

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Speaker 1: Sam's Club or at Costco. He Randy, maybe I can

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Speaker 1: buy my insurance from your neighbor. He seemed to come

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Speaker 1: out of his problems. Okay, Trump's healthcare plan fell in

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Speaker 1: the Senate. Maybe he can find a new one on Amazon.

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Speaker 1: Rdreie Taylor Green remains under the influence of a possibly

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Speaker 1: transient but definitely tertiary stage case of conscience in open rebellion,

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Speaker 1: planning one final bid to unseat Speaker Johnson before she

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Speaker 1: leaves the House. The two thousand dollars tariff checks are gone,

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Speaker 1: The Doge checks never happened. Buy your own insurance checks

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Speaker 1: have apparently been replaced by Domino's new avoid thenoid insurance.

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Speaker 1: Trump's approval numbers are frozen Pizza economy approvals down to

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Speaker 1: thirty one percent, and if the Obamacare subsidies expire, that

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Speaker 1: approval will drop below thirty and maybe take his overall

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Speaker 1: approval with it. Because even his people realize he is

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Speaker 1: turning this place into a shithole country. The Trump ells

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Speaker 1: are everywhere. You can't spell kilmar Abrego, Garcia without a

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Speaker 1: Trump l. The courts have ordered him to let go

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Speaker 1: of the LA National Guard troops. He's losing in wars.

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Speaker 1: He said he'd already settled, or would settle in twenty

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Speaker 1: four hours or twenty four days or twenty four weeks.

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Speaker 1: Ukraine is further from peace than ever. The Thailand Cambodia war,

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Speaker 1: Trump said he ended on Friday, resumed on Saturday. His

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Speaker 1: peace in the Middle East saw the Israelis kill a

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Speaker 1: top Hamas commander over the weekend. An attack in Syria

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Speaker 1: three Americans dead, including two service members, and he promised

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Speaker 1: serious retaliation. And he would have sounded tougher if he'd said,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to hit you real hard, like I said

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Speaker 1: at the top. There are so many els, And for

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Speaker 1: twenty seven days at least, there have been nothing but

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Speaker 1: els that even Trump has begun to notice. So add

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Speaker 1: that to the list of els. His ability to believe

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Speaker 1: his own bullshit is showing holes. He still clings to

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Speaker 1: this financial imbecility that tariffs will turn the economy into

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Speaker 1: a money printing machine, even for people not named Trump

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Speaker 1: or Musk or Bezos. But even he has now told

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Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal, Yeah, he doesn't know when that

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Speaker 1: money printing machine will actually turn on. The Journal interviewed

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Speaker 1: him Friday in the Oval, and he must have stepped

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Speaker 1: in some reality and couldn't get it off his shoes,

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Speaker 1: quoting them. Quoting him, he acknowledged that he couldn't predict

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Speaker 1: if that would translate into political gains for Republicans next fall.

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Speaker 1: Asked whether Republicans would lose the House in November, Trump

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Speaker 1: said quote, I can't tell you. I don't know when

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Speaker 1: all of this money is going to kick in narrator,

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Speaker 1: It didn't kick in. Wait, there's more. Quote. I've created

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Speaker 1: the greatest economy in history, but it may take people

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Speaker 1: a while to figure all these things out. Oh they've

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Speaker 1: figured it out, Donald, They figured it out. Saturday night,

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Speaker 1: when rushing, stumbling, waddling to grab at it, almost literally

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Speaker 1: climbing over the bodies of dead students to claim he

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Speaker 1: had found their killer, Trump posted this quote, I have

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Speaker 1: been briefed on the shooting that took place at Brown

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Speaker 1: University in Rhode Island. The FBI is on the scene,

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Speaker 1: the suspect is in custody. God bless the victims and

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Speaker 1: the families of the victim's exclamation point, F you, buddy,

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Speaker 1: you've stepped on your dick again. You've stepped on your

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Speaker 1: tiny dick again. While millions mourned and questioned, what is

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Speaker 1: wrong with this goddamn country that we throw school kids,

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Speaker 1: whether toddlers or teenagers, into the volcano like we were

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Speaker 1: practicing the human sacrifice madness of the Aztecs, just to

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Speaker 1: protect your right to walk around with a gun. Sure,

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Speaker 1: what's another bunch of human hearts? What's another bunch of kids?

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Speaker 1: As long as people know that Trump alone has found

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Speaker 1: the real killer. Way, what's that you're saying? They haven't

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Speaker 1: found the real killer. Hadn't found the real killer when

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Speaker 1: he posted that. So now in just three months, Trump's

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Speaker 1: bubbleheaded FBI director who didn't know the job meant work.

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Speaker 1: He thought it only met a free jet. He wrongly

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Speaker 1: said they'd caught the Charlie Kirk assassin. And now Trump

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Speaker 1: has made the same mistake and tried to blame his

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Speaker 1: mistake on others. And when you do that, and when

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Speaker 1: you post that, you open yourself up to attacks from

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Speaker 1: the other side, like Chris Murphy attacked on State of

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Speaker 1: the Union yesterday. He said it opaquely, he said it

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Speaker 1: with nuance. But make no mistake, this is a US

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Speaker 1: senator blaming the President of the United States for this

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Speaker 1: gun attack and the next gun attack quote. Right now,

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Speaker 1: we don't have the leadership in Washington to do anything

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Speaker 1: anything to respond to the shooting this weekend. Trump has

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Speaker 1: been engaged in a pretty deliberate campaign to try to

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Speaker 1: make violence more likely in this country, and I think

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Speaker 1: you're unfortunately going to see the results of that on

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Speaker 1: the streets of America. He's knowingly restoring gun rights to

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Speaker 1: dangerous people. He is cutting off grants that have bipartisan

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Speaker 1: support to try to interrupt violence in our cities or

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Speaker 1: to try to get necessary mental health resources to families

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Speaker 1: and children in need unquote. As I said earlier, this

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Speaker 1: has been going on all of these els since at

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Speaker 1: least the nineteenth of November, when enough MAGA congressmen realized

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Speaker 1: that only one of these things could happen. They could

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Speaker 1: continue to help Trump hide the Epstein files, or they

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Speaker 1: could get re elected. That's why, of all these els,

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Speaker 1: the biggest Trump loss in the last twenty seven days

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Speaker 1: may have been the release of those four pictures of

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Speaker 1: him with Jeffrey Epstein. The photos show nothing. The photos

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Speaker 1: would therefore normally mean nothing, but they serve as a

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Speaker 1: reminder that Trump tried to stop you from seeing photos

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Speaker 1: of him with Epstein, that those photos that were released

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Speaker 1: weren't part of that tranch in the files. That doesn't matter.

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Speaker 1: It only raises a kind of instinctive speculation about how

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Speaker 1: much worse those other Epstein Trump photos might be. It

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Speaker 1: keeps the Epstein story alive when Trump could have killed

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Speaker 1: it weeks ago, months ago, even if there was stuff

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Speaker 1: more incriminating about him than say, a drawn of the

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Speaker 1: naked woman made out to Epstein that he may or

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Speaker 1: may not have drawn. But he's sure as shit signed

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Speaker 1: right over the naughty bits. Instead of moving Epstein off

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Speaker 1: the table and out of the picture, he's letting it

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Speaker 1: drip drip drip on him. The photos mean nothing, yet

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Speaker 1: here they are just another element that says this is

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Speaker 1: Trump's scandal. The way the constant coverage of Clinton Lewinsky,

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Speaker 1: even when there was no actual news for days, for weeks,

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Speaker 1: kept that front of mind for all of the year

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight. I'll tell you something at MSNBC in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight the promo. But used to ask our

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Speaker 1: staffers every day to give them something, anything, a news

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Speaker 1: morsel that could turn into a thirty second promo for

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Speaker 1: tomorrow's show. And on Thursday they used to have to

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Speaker 1: turn something into a promo for Monday's show. Monday on

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Speaker 1: the White House in crisis, we were locking in the

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Speaker 1: crisis four days in advance. We were programming the crisis.

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Speaker 1: And when we hit Friday, and those files are by

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Speaker 1: law required to be released, whatever is released will be

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Speaker 1: another Trump L. And whatever isn't released will be another

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Speaker 1: Trump L. And lord knows how many l's there will

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Speaker 1: be if there's something actually startling in the files. And

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Speaker 1: that's the point. It doesn't have to be a good

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Speaker 1: scandal to be a gripping scandal. It just has to

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Speaker 1: have new stories every day. That's what Clinton Lewinsky's true

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Speaker 1: meaning was. And as Philip Bump pointed out, Trump basically

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Speaker 1: got elected by knowing this. There wasn't crap actually in

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Speaker 1: wiki leaks or her emails, except that there was only

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Speaker 1: something new in them. So in some more losses than

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Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty two New York mets, or if you

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Speaker 1: are a current New York Mets fan more losses than

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Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five twenty six offseason New York Mets.

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Speaker 1: And maybe it's only one hour a week, but even

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Speaker 1: Trump knows it. During that hour, and way more than

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Speaker 1: one hour a week, the Trump media industrial complex knows it.

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Speaker 1: It's not my habit to quote the insufferable, inexhaustible phony

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Speaker 1: Peggy Noonan. But when there's a column in the goddamned

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Speaker 1: Rupert Murdoch goddamned Wall Street Journal titled quote Trump may

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Speaker 1: be losing his touch, Yeah, I'm quoting it. One hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty six words. I swear that's it for this year.

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Speaker 1: Just one hundred and thirty six words. And don't be

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Speaker 1: thrown by the imaginary world in which Peggy Noonan lives.

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Speaker 1: She still thinks Ronald Reagan isn't in hell, and now

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Speaker 1: she thinks Charlie Kirk was a mediating force inside the

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Speaker 1: Trump cult. Okay, just go with that, But the other

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Speaker 1: points she makes are salient and deadly. Quote outside Washington,

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Speaker 1: mister Trump's base is fighting with itself. America first is

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Speaker 1: saying I'm not maga conspiracies all over Israel killed Charlie

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Speaker 1: the assassination of Charlie Kirk, she writes, looks increasingly like

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Speaker 1: an epical event. Did he understand how much he was

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Speaker 1: holding together the Trumpian right Without the force of his

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Speaker 1: mediating presence, they are cracking up percolating below unseen is

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Speaker 1: the price you pay in time for success? The President's

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Speaker 1: border triumph, sorry what? The president's border triumph will likely

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Speaker 1: weaken his and maga's political position. He shut down illegal

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Speaker 1: immigration on the southern border, which had been more less

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Speaker 1: open for decades. But it was anger at illegal immigration

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Speaker 1: noonan rights that kept his base cleaved to him and

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Speaker 1: allied with each other. Remove the issue that made you,

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Speaker 1: and you can no longer use it to gain votes

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Speaker 1: or maintain unity. Unquote Oh no, oh, dear Trump's lost

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Speaker 1: his touch. God damn shame not going to affect those

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Speaker 1: midterms and give us enough Democratic congressman to impeach him

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Speaker 1: and enough Democratic senators to remove him. Is it? Oh?

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Speaker 1: Really you think so wow? That'll be fun? Let me

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Speaker 1: quote this RNC blob gruters again, quoting me again, quoting

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Speaker 1: al Davis again. Republicans will go down and will go

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Speaker 1: down hobb okay. Two quick media notes The CBS evening

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Speaker 1: news about Barry Weiss, edited by Barry Weiss, anchored by

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Speaker 1: Barry Weiss, starring Barry Weiss, is not going so well.

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Speaker 1: If she had not been put there to do something

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Speaker 1: bad like this, her stay on this job might be

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Speaker 1: as long as RONA. Romney's glorious hour and a half

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Speaker 1: as an MSNBC commentator. It was Brian Steinberg and Variety

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Speaker 1: who noticed this, and to whom all credit goes, And I'm

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Speaker 1: just going to quote him and read his story from

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Speaker 1: Variety that Barry Weiss town hall with Erica Kirk, the

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Speaker 1: merry widow, the woman who used all the eyeliner left

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Speaker 1: over after jd Vance got done. No real advertiser was

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Speaker 1: willing to buy time on it. No real advertiser was

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Speaker 1: willing to buy time on the CBS television network. Mister

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Speaker 1: Steinberg writes headline, Big advertisers appear wary of CBS News's

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Speaker 1: Barryweiss town Hall format during a Saturday night town hall

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Speaker 1: led by Barry Weiss, the recently named editor in chief

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Speaker 1: of CBS News, and I believe she liked the article

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Speaker 1: so far most of Madison Avenue sought an off ramp.

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Speaker 1: Steinberg writes the News special aired at eight pm on Saturday,

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Speaker 1: one of the least watch hours in broadcast TV, and

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Speaker 1: that may have contributed to a relative dearth of top

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Speaker 1: advertisers appearing to support the show during the hour. Commercial

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Speaker 1: breaks were largely filled with spots from direct response advertisers,

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Speaker 1: including the taietary supplement super Beats, the home repair service

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Speaker 1: HomeServe dot com, and Carfax, a supplier of auto ownership data.

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Speaker 1: Viewers of the telecast on WCBS, CBS's flagship station in

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Speaker 1: New York even saw a commercial for Giampet, the terra

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Speaker 1: cotta figure that sprouts plant life after a few weeks.

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Speaker 1: I wonder if CBS will still sprout plant life after

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Speaker 1: a two weeks, continuing the article quote. A more moneyed

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Speaker 1: class of sponsors was evident during the first commercial break,

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Speaker 1: appearing in the nine pm hour on CBS a rebroadcast

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Speaker 1: of a twenty twenty four episode of forty eight Hours.

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Speaker 1: Marketers appearing included Amazon, Ferrero Group, and Procter and Gamble. Unquote,

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Speaker 1: uh oh, Congratsbery Weiss and the Ellisons. You've turned CBS

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Speaker 1: News into overnights. On superstation WTBS in nineteen seventy six,

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Speaker 1: got a Ginsu knife collection for sale Airberry. But wait,

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Speaker 1: what was that again about chiapets? Viewers of the telecast

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Speaker 1: on WCBS. CBS was flagship station in New York even

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Speaker 1: saw commercial for Chiapet the terracotta figure that sprout's plant

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Speaker 1: life after a few weeks. Oh my god, Chia Pet Company,

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Speaker 1: I'll give you one thousand dollars if you make a

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Speaker 1: Barry Weiss chia pet. Please, oh please, please, please please please. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: something that a week ago would have outdrawn the Barry

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Speaker 1: Weiss town Hall with Tammy fay Baker Kirk may now

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Speaker 1: belong to the Ages as well as Vivid as parts

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Speaker 1: of the latest Ryan Lizzer response to Olivia Newsy may

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Speaker 1: have been the whole thing has collapsed under the realization

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Speaker 1: that actually the only guaranteed audience for Lizz's segments have

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Speaker 1: been Olivia's other exes. Hey her book first week out,

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Speaker 1: first publication week, maximum visibility. As you probably have not heard,

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Speaker 1: her book, the first week sold. With all that publicity,

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Speaker 1: including the most thorough job of The New York Times

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Speaker 1: ever missing the lead and the next twenty off leads

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Speaker 1: in its history, that book sold and sixty five copies

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Speaker 1: a book that sold five thousand copies the same week,

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Speaker 1: placed fiftieth among nonfiction sellers. Not great, Bob. So, barring

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Speaker 1: anything else that might come up later on in this

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Speaker 1: to which I could add something that is either relevant

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Speaker 1: or true, I'll bow out here. But I do want

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Speaker 1: to read one last paragraph, because this is the easiest

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Speaker 1: way for me to get mister lendsa an answer he

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Speaker 1: apparently needs. Let me quote him. Quote Olivia, this person

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Speaker 1: said was starting to tell people that I might kill her.

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Speaker 1: I tried to explain that Olivia watched a lot of

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Speaker 1: Law and Order growing up and has an active imagination,

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Speaker 1: especially when it comes to being killed. She feared that

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Speaker 1: her mother would kill her. She had told me that

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Speaker 1: she thought Keith might kill her, and now I have

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Speaker 1: to assume she told Keith the same thing about me.

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Speaker 1: Of course, she repeatedly told me that she feared Bobby

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Speaker 1: would kill her. Now she was saying that I might

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Speaker 1: kill her. I never heard her say one way or

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Speaker 1: the other about Mark Sandford's level of interest in killing her.

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Speaker 1: That's a good line. So many people were out to

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Speaker 1: kill her, and yet here she was, at thirty one,

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Speaker 1: somehow very much alive. End quote. Okay, Ryan. I haven't

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Speaker 1: talked to her since twenty fifteen, and by the way,

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Speaker 1: every contact I've had with her since twenty fifteen was

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Speaker 1: about what to do with her clothes or about the

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Speaker 1: health of what had been our dogs, about which she

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Speaker 1: had no interest, for which I will never forgive her,

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Speaker 1: and which I think summarizes her. Once I did post

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Speaker 1: on Facebook twenty eighteen, maybe that the place in Central

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Speaker 1: Park that you two guys like to hang out at

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Speaker 1: was my utter coincidence, right on the path I walked

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Speaker 1: the dogs every day, and way too near my home,

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Speaker 1: and it was a miracle we hadn't run into each

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Speaker 1: other already. So maybe we should all make that our DMZ.

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Speaker 1: But about the killing her question, exhale Ryan, she never

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Speaker 1: told me she thought you might kill her. She only

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Speaker 1: told me she thought you were stalking her. Also of interest,

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Speaker 1: here a top governor tries to insist Democrats have a

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Speaker 1: hand in political violence in this country. And this would

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Speaker 1: just be stupid if this governor weren't a Democrat, and

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Speaker 1: if he weren't the democratic governor whose fascist haters tried

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Speaker 1: to burn him and his family alive in their own

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Speaker 1: home during passover. Worst Persons is next This is Countdown.

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Speaker 1: This is Countdown with Keith Oberman still ahead on this

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Speaker 1: edition of Countdown. Sixty five years ago this month, a

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Speaker 1: little boy named Theo Dall was hit by a New

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Speaker 1: York City cab while being pushed across the street in

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Speaker 1: his baby carriage. He was never the same, nor was

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Speaker 1: his father, who, in part to entertain his stricken son,

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Speaker 1: wrote a book called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And

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Speaker 1: although the next development was not quite on that level

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Speaker 1: of importance, the writing of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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Speaker 1: led me to write to Theo's dad, who was the

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Speaker 1: legendary both good and bad legendary Roal Doll, to write

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Speaker 1: him a fan letter, and he wrote back, and he

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Speaker 1: wrote back again, And these letters are referenced somehow in

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Speaker 1: Roald Dahl's official biography. This very strange story ahead in

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Speaker 1: things I promised not to tell first of believe it

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Speaker 1: or not, there's still more new idiots to talk about.

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Speaker 1: The roundup of the disagreants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects

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Speaker 1: specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in the world.

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Speaker 1: The runner up to the runner up Bronze, Anna Paulina

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Speaker 1: Luna the congresswoman from Smolensk. I know, I'm sorry, I

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Speaker 1: got that wrong from Florida. Problem is she might as

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Speaker 1: well be and it might as well be Smolensk. The

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Speaker 1: Russian Embassy in the US social media account has posted

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Speaker 1: her photo and quote at the invitation by at Rep. Luna,

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Speaker 1: Ambassador Dartkiev visited her Christmas reception on Capitol Hill. Wonderful

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Speaker 1: event with warm atmosphere and exceptional hospitality. Continue working to

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Speaker 1: make Russian American relations great again. Yeah. Sorry, anybody who

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Speaker 1: thinks we should have great relations with Russia before the

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Speaker 1: Russians overthrow the Putent dictatorship is to totally loyal to

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Speaker 1: this country, but really dumb. Not loyal and dumb. Sorry,

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Speaker 1: Russia is our enemy, but there are degrees of how

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Speaker 1: truly not you can be. And from the Twitter ex

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Speaker 1: account of the gadfly Jay in Kiev comes this addendum

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Speaker 1: to that photo of Luna to whom the Russians gave

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Speaker 1: their JFK quote files unquote, because why would they ever

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Speaker 1: give America fake historical records or disinformation? Jay in Kiev

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Speaker 1: notes and quoting him since August when her and Steve

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Speaker 1: Whitcoff met some of Putin's representatives at a Miami hotel

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Speaker 1: owned by Russian business partner of Witcoff. US Congresswoman Anna

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Speaker 1: Paulina Luna has been a prolific member of the Russian

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Speaker 1: government's Paid Influencers program, turning her ex timeline into display

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Speaker 1: case of NonStop Kremlin talking points. Jay in Kiev writes

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Speaker 1: and continues, what she does isn't illegal. Today she gleefully

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Speaker 1: met her handler unquote yikes. I don't know if she's

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Speaker 1: a paid influencer or a paid Influencer's program member. That's

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Speaker 1: Jay's assertion. I do know she operates under an adopted name.

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Speaker 1: She was born Anna Paulina Meyerhoffer. Right, your arm is Meyerhoffer,

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Speaker 1: and she has the IQ of a goldfish on a

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Speaker 1: good day to goldfish. The runner up worser, Governor Josh

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Speaker 1: Shapiro of Pennsylvania. Now, look, I get what he's trying

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Speaker 1: to do here, but it's Pollyanna to the point of ridiculousness. Worse,

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Speaker 1: it's Pollyanna to the point of John fetterman esque. Remember

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Speaker 1: that they tried to burn the governor and his family

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Speaker 1: alive and burn them to death in his home in

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Speaker 1: the Governor's residence just last April during the holidays, and

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Speaker 1: he is still both sides political violence in America. Governor

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Speaker 1: Shapiro writes, quote, it shouldn't be hard to mourn the

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Speaker 1: loss of the Minnesota Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman,

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00:29:02,835 --> 00:29:05,875
Speaker 1: after she was gunned down in her bed. It shouldn't

425
00:29:05,915 --> 00:29:09,555
Speaker 1: be hard to follow Erica Kirk's eulogy with an amen

426
00:29:09,955 --> 00:29:12,355
Speaker 1: and a prayer for her and her family. We have

427
00:29:12,395 --> 00:29:15,315
Speaker 1: a crisis of political violence in this country and it

428
00:29:15,395 --> 00:29:19,915
Speaker 1: requires all of us to do better every time. No,

429
00:29:19,995 --> 00:29:24,315
Speaker 1: we don't. We have a crisis of conservative, fascist, maga

430
00:29:24,355 --> 00:29:27,395
Speaker 1: republican political violence in this country. And I will say

431
00:29:27,435 --> 00:29:31,875
Speaker 1: this again, the assassination of Charlie Kirk was and is indefensible,

432
00:29:32,715 --> 00:29:36,835
Speaker 1: But so was Charlie Kirk. He was a terrible destructive force.

433
00:29:37,235 --> 00:29:40,995
Speaker 1: And the sane washing of him calls for the execution

434
00:29:41,115 --> 00:29:44,875
Speaker 1: of President Biden. Things like that that he did forcing

435
00:29:44,995 --> 00:29:48,155
Speaker 1: kids to watch public hangings, that he called for putting

436
00:29:48,235 --> 00:29:52,675
Speaker 1: public hangings on TV. Charlie Kirk called for that Saine washing.

437
00:29:52,795 --> 00:29:56,515
Speaker 1: All that is appalling, And I get what Josh Shapiro

438
00:29:56,675 --> 00:29:59,075
Speaker 1: is trying to do, but my god, man, the right

439
00:29:59,115 --> 00:30:02,035
Speaker 1: wingers tried to burn you to death, and you are

440
00:30:02,075 --> 00:30:05,235
Speaker 1: acting like this guy was Saint Charlie of Kirk and

441
00:30:05,275 --> 00:30:09,835
Speaker 1: his rage filled wife is Jackie Kennedy. Preach all the

442
00:30:09,955 --> 00:30:13,715
Speaker 1: condemn all political violence sermons you want, Governor, but the

443
00:30:13,835 --> 00:30:18,035
Speaker 1: right is going to continue to attack physically Democrats and

444
00:30:18,155 --> 00:30:21,955
Speaker 1: liberals and you know, our form of government, and as

445
00:30:21,995 --> 00:30:25,235
Speaker 1: it turns out, any Republican who disagrees with them, like

446
00:30:25,275 --> 00:30:28,115
Speaker 1: the ones in Indiana, and then they will insist that

447
00:30:28,155 --> 00:30:32,075
Speaker 1: it's only the liberals who do all the political violence. Governor,

448
00:30:32,515 --> 00:30:35,475
Speaker 1: They're gonna do that as they have now for twenty years.

449
00:30:35,955 --> 00:30:39,395
Speaker 1: You should not help them. They are doing fine on

450
00:30:39,435 --> 00:30:44,555
Speaker 1: this by themselves. Do not join the both sides in parade, Governor,

451
00:30:45,315 --> 00:30:47,875
Speaker 1: especially since these are the people who tried to kill you.

452
00:30:48,635 --> 00:30:53,075
Speaker 1: But our winner is Howard Lutnik, chief bullshit advisor to Trump.

453
00:30:53,395 --> 00:30:55,235
Speaker 1: I mean, there are lots of toadies and there are

454
00:30:55,275 --> 00:30:58,195
Speaker 1: lots of liars around Trump, but this guy may be

455
00:30:58,355 --> 00:31:02,075
Speaker 1: the champion. I am indebted to my former NBC colleague

456
00:31:02,115 --> 00:31:06,275
Speaker 1: Carl Kintenia on this one. It's priceless. As Carl noted

457
00:31:06,355 --> 00:31:08,915
Speaker 1: on Face the Nation on April sixth of this year,

458
00:31:09,395 --> 00:31:13,635
Speaker 1: Lutnik said, quote, the army of millions and millions of

459
00:31:13,715 --> 00:31:18,075
Speaker 1: human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones, That

460
00:31:18,195 --> 00:31:20,875
Speaker 1: kind of thing is going to come to America. The

461
00:31:21,155 --> 00:31:24,435
Speaker 1: army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in

462
00:31:24,435 --> 00:31:27,435
Speaker 1: little screws to make iPhones, That kind of thing is

463
00:31:27,635 --> 00:31:34,875
Speaker 1: going to come to America. Then Lutnick, same guy, same topic,

464
00:31:35,355 --> 00:31:39,315
Speaker 1: goes on CNBC last Thursday, and he says, quote, Remember

465
00:31:39,475 --> 00:31:42,995
Speaker 1: Americans don't have millions of people to screw in little

466
00:31:43,035 --> 00:31:47,275
Speaker 1: screws in iPhones, but we do have capacity to run robotics.

467
00:31:48,195 --> 00:31:51,395
Speaker 1: Remember Americans don't have millions of people to screw in

468
00:31:51,435 --> 00:31:54,715
Speaker 1: little screws in iPhones, but we do have capacity to

469
00:31:54,755 --> 00:31:59,355
Speaker 1: run robot So Trump's ass kissing bullshit artist is bullshitting

470
00:31:59,475 --> 00:32:03,995
Speaker 1: us in both directions. In April, Howard Lutnik promised that

471
00:32:04,035 --> 00:32:07,195
Speaker 1: Trump's America would be where millions of us would be

472
00:32:07,395 --> 00:32:11,515
Speaker 1: screwing in the little screws to make iPhones. By December,

473
00:32:11,595 --> 00:32:14,715
Speaker 1: he is promising that Trump's America will be where millions

474
00:32:14,755 --> 00:32:17,475
Speaker 1: of us will not be screwing in the little screws

475
00:32:17,515 --> 00:32:21,435
Speaker 1: to make iPhones. The arrogance and the degree to which

476
00:32:21,475 --> 00:32:24,755
Speaker 1: this man will say anything to try to make it

477
00:32:24,835 --> 00:32:29,355
Speaker 1: seem like Trump isn't screwing this economy into the ground

478
00:32:30,035 --> 00:32:34,275
Speaker 1: is seriously astonishing, even in the context of the world

479
00:32:34,355 --> 00:32:38,555
Speaker 1: in which we live today. Howard, may I suggest you

480
00:32:38,715 --> 00:32:44,475
Speaker 1: screw your little screws in yourself, Lutnik Today's other worst

481
00:32:45,275 --> 00:33:15,955
Speaker 1: person in the world. If the name Royal Dahl does

482
00:33:15,995 --> 00:33:18,155
Speaker 1: not immediately ring a bell for you. He was the

483
00:33:18,195 --> 00:33:21,235
Speaker 1: author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and thus the

484
00:33:21,315 --> 00:33:24,315
Speaker 1: creator of Willy Wonka, and he wrote James and the

485
00:33:24,355 --> 00:33:27,995
Speaker 1: Giant Peach, and all of his kids books combined have

486
00:33:28,155 --> 00:33:32,555
Speaker 1: sold about a quarter of a billion copies Dead since

487
00:33:32,635 --> 00:33:36,275
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety. Two years ago, Forbes placed Dall first on

488
00:33:36,355 --> 00:33:39,395
Speaker 1: its list of the top earning dead celebrities, ahead of

489
00:33:39,475 --> 00:33:43,915
Speaker 1: Prince and Michael Jackson. Royal Dahl made about five hundred

490
00:33:43,915 --> 00:33:47,515
Speaker 1: and thirteen million dollars in twenty twenty one, compared to

491
00:33:47,795 --> 00:33:51,795
Speaker 1: thirteen million by the late John Lennon. And that is

492
00:33:51,835 --> 00:33:54,395
Speaker 1: where the problems began. And if you have not heard

493
00:33:54,395 --> 00:33:57,315
Speaker 1: about the problems, the first is Royal Dahl was often,

494
00:33:57,355 --> 00:34:00,235
Speaker 1: as somebody on Twitter put it succinctly, he was often

495
00:34:00,275 --> 00:34:05,955
Speaker 1: the C word. He was at times anti Semitic, racist, misogynistic,

496
00:34:06,035 --> 00:34:11,355
Speaker 1: and cruel, and his writing was at times anti Semitic, racist, misogynistic,

497
00:34:11,395 --> 00:34:14,955
Speaker 1: and cruel. None of that has ever really slowed down

498
00:34:14,955 --> 00:34:18,075
Speaker 1: his book sales, though, largely because first, kids who read

499
00:34:18,115 --> 00:34:21,515
Speaker 1: books are actually smarter than nearly every adult thinks they are.

500
00:34:21,955 --> 00:34:25,675
Speaker 1: And second, it seemed then and now that the more

501
00:34:25,795 --> 00:34:29,875
Speaker 1: problematic a lot of Doll's characters were, the smarter he

502
00:34:29,955 --> 00:34:34,875
Speaker 1: made them. The Umphilumpas of Willy Wonka are not Doll's

503
00:34:34,955 --> 00:34:38,355
Speaker 1: finest moments. On the other hand, they do run everything

504
00:34:38,435 --> 00:34:41,715
Speaker 1: in the chocolate factory. They know everything about the ticket

505
00:34:41,755 --> 00:34:45,195
Speaker 1: winning kids and their foibles. And when Violet turns into

506
00:34:45,235 --> 00:34:49,515
Speaker 1: a giant blueberry, and when Veruka gets devoured by squirrels,

507
00:34:50,115 --> 00:34:53,075
Speaker 1: it is the Umphilumpas who know how to save them.

508
00:34:53,515 --> 00:34:59,555
Speaker 1: So apparently the Umphluopas are doctors, or at least paramedics. Anyway,

509
00:34:59,595 --> 00:35:02,435
Speaker 1: the reason Royal Dahl made five hundred and thirteen million

510
00:35:02,515 --> 00:35:05,355
Speaker 1: dollars thirty one years after he died was that his

511
00:35:05,515 --> 00:35:09,075
Speaker 1: estate sold the rights to the books to Netflix. By then,

512
00:35:09,115 --> 00:35:11,315
Speaker 1: the book publishers had already brought in a company of

513
00:35:11,355 --> 00:35:16,275
Speaker 1: so called sensitivity readers to rewrite the more troublesome parts

514
00:35:16,315 --> 00:35:19,515
Speaker 1: of Dol's work. We're seeing the first results of this now,

515
00:35:19,555 --> 00:35:22,675
Speaker 1: and it is literally what George Orwell described in his

516
00:35:22,835 --> 00:35:26,995
Speaker 1: novel nineteen eighty four, erasing the past, replacing it with

517
00:35:27,035 --> 00:35:30,635
Speaker 1: a new past, and leaving no indication that any editing

518
00:35:30,755 --> 00:35:34,475
Speaker 1: or changing was done. While I'm assuming it still says

519
00:35:34,475 --> 00:35:36,835
Speaker 1: that in nineteen eighty four, presumably all of that could

520
00:35:36,875 --> 00:35:39,275
Speaker 1: be edited out of Orwell and we'd never know, right.

521
00:35:40,995 --> 00:35:43,355
Speaker 1: But it's even worse than that, because the edits are

522
00:35:43,395 --> 00:35:47,515
Speaker 1: being made not because of some pure if misguided desire

523
00:35:47,555 --> 00:35:50,715
Speaker 1: to make changes reflecting the changes in morays and respect

524
00:35:50,835 --> 00:35:54,115
Speaker 1: changes even the author might want to make. They're being

525
00:35:54,195 --> 00:35:56,555
Speaker 1: done so that the books, according to the publisher, can

526
00:35:56,595 --> 00:36:00,675
Speaker 1: continue to be enjoyed by all today, meaning they did

527
00:36:00,675 --> 00:36:04,115
Speaker 1: this to literally sell more books. This is not even

528
00:36:04,155 --> 00:36:09,035
Speaker 1: about why intentioned censorship. It's about profit. And if all

529
00:36:09,115 --> 00:36:11,835
Speaker 1: that were not bad enough, the rewriting of ro al

530
00:36:11,995 --> 00:36:15,075
Speaker 1: Dahl has from a quality viewpoint, gone about as well

531
00:36:15,075 --> 00:36:18,755
Speaker 1: as the so called restoration of the painting of Jesus

532
00:36:18,835 --> 00:36:22,275
Speaker 1: in Spain in twenty twelve. The painting is now known

533
00:36:22,355 --> 00:36:27,635
Speaker 1: as monkey Christ or potato Jesus. Apart from the wholesale

534
00:36:27,675 --> 00:36:30,755
Speaker 1: elimination of words like fat and ugly, the publishers have

535
00:36:30,795 --> 00:36:35,275
Speaker 1: decided to take out references that no kid would ever notice.

536
00:36:35,355 --> 00:36:39,875
Speaker 1: She went to India with Rudyard Kipling becomes she went

537
00:36:39,915 --> 00:36:47,955
Speaker 1: to California with John Steinbeck. Why. In his story The Witches,

538
00:36:48,155 --> 00:36:51,035
Speaker 1: Roul Dahl has the hero believe that all witches are

539
00:36:51,235 --> 00:36:54,075
Speaker 1: bald and wear wigs and gloves, and that's a way

540
00:36:54,115 --> 00:36:58,075
Speaker 1: to check. Don't be foolish, my grandmother said. You can't

541
00:36:58,075 --> 00:37:00,315
Speaker 1: go around pulling the hair of every lady you meet,

542
00:37:00,355 --> 00:37:02,995
Speaker 1: even if she is wearing gloves. Just you try it

543
00:37:03,035 --> 00:37:06,395
Speaker 1: and see what happens. That would be an admonition not

544
00:37:06,515 --> 00:37:09,195
Speaker 1: to believe that everybody with a wig is a witch.

545
00:37:09,835 --> 00:37:12,635
Speaker 1: It has now been changed to don't be foolish, my

546
00:37:12,715 --> 00:37:16,115
Speaker 1: grandmother said. Besides, there are plenty of other reasons why

547
00:37:16,155 --> 00:37:19,315
Speaker 1: women might wear wigs, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that.

548
00:37:22,515 --> 00:37:25,795
Speaker 1: It's like Shakespeare. Now. Look, it is one thing if

549
00:37:25,835 --> 00:37:28,315
Speaker 1: you are giving a public reading of Tom Sawyer, and

550
00:37:28,355 --> 00:37:30,595
Speaker 1: you may want to drop a couple of words here

551
00:37:30,675 --> 00:37:35,595
Speaker 1: and there. I have performed James Thurber's stories since twenty

552
00:37:35,715 --> 00:37:40,155
Speaker 1: ten on TV on radio on this podcast in Person,

553
00:37:40,715 --> 00:37:43,995
Speaker 1: his epic story by the way, forecasting Trump the greatest

554
00:37:44,035 --> 00:37:47,315
Speaker 1: man in the World, is coming up shortly. Thurber's daughter

555
00:37:47,435 --> 00:37:50,835
Speaker 1: Rosie offered me the right to edit anything I felt

556
00:37:50,915 --> 00:37:54,235
Speaker 1: I needed to edit for time or for taste, and

557
00:37:54,315 --> 00:37:56,355
Speaker 1: said there was plenty in there. Her dad would be

558
00:37:56,395 --> 00:38:00,675
Speaker 1: mortified by today that he wrote. Letting me edit it, though,

559
00:38:00,835 --> 00:38:03,675
Speaker 1: is like saying, hey, you have a heart, so that

560
00:38:03,715 --> 00:38:07,195
Speaker 1: means you can perform heart surgery. But the goal in

561
00:38:07,275 --> 00:38:10,515
Speaker 1: doing that is to change as little as possible. There

562
00:38:10,555 --> 00:38:14,395
Speaker 1: are adjectives that were once perfectly normal and seemingly liberal,

563
00:38:14,395 --> 00:38:17,355
Speaker 1: and once thought even to be complimentary that you really

564
00:38:17,395 --> 00:38:20,795
Speaker 1: need to just skip, So when you're reading them aloud,

565
00:38:20,955 --> 00:38:26,475
Speaker 1: just skip them, but erase them permanently forever from Thurber's books,

566
00:38:26,915 --> 00:38:31,715
Speaker 1: when maybe a note to new readers would be sufficient warning. Plus,

567
00:38:31,795 --> 00:38:35,475
Speaker 1: if I'm changing anything about Thurber while transforming his work

568
00:38:35,515 --> 00:38:39,675
Speaker 1: into a different medium like podcasts, I am necessarily going

569
00:38:39,715 --> 00:38:44,235
Speaker 1: to edit things. A movie might leave out nine tenths

570
00:38:44,235 --> 00:38:47,635
Speaker 1: of any novel, but just reading a novel aloud might

571
00:38:47,795 --> 00:38:51,075
Speaker 1: change something as important as the emphasis on the way

572
00:38:51,195 --> 00:38:55,435
Speaker 1: certain words were said from the way the author intended

573
00:38:55,435 --> 00:38:58,835
Speaker 1: that emphasis to be. Besides which, all those changes are temporary.

574
00:38:59,235 --> 00:39:04,035
Speaker 1: I'm not altering Thurber's text. I'm altering my reading of

575
00:39:04,115 --> 00:39:07,675
Speaker 1: his text next. And the same goes for Royal Dahl.

576
00:39:08,315 --> 00:39:09,955
Speaker 1: And a lot of people saying this are people who

577
00:39:09,955 --> 00:39:13,515
Speaker 1: do not like Royal Dall. Sir Solomon rushed. He wrote,

578
00:39:13,675 --> 00:39:17,635
Speaker 1: he was a self confessed anti Semite with pronounced racist leanings,

579
00:39:17,835 --> 00:39:19,955
Speaker 1: and he joined in the attack on me back in

580
00:39:20,035 --> 00:39:23,995
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine. Royal Dahl was no angel. But this

581
00:39:24,195 --> 00:39:28,915
Speaker 1: is absurd censorship, puffin books and the doll estate should

582
00:39:28,915 --> 00:39:32,835
Speaker 1: be ashamed, because that's the point. If we're going to

583
00:39:32,995 --> 00:39:37,395
Speaker 1: edit or otherwise circumscribe every book or author, or film

584
00:39:37,595 --> 00:39:40,315
Speaker 1: or producer with a significant problem, we're going to wind

585
00:39:40,395 --> 00:39:42,875
Speaker 1: up with a world library of about fifty books and

586
00:39:42,955 --> 00:39:47,595
Speaker 1: ten films. I mean, this isn't Florida. And artists, like people,

587
00:39:47,675 --> 00:39:50,875
Speaker 1: are rarely all good or all bad, and often they

588
00:39:50,915 --> 00:39:55,715
Speaker 1: have huge disturbing flaws which can, in their own way,

589
00:39:55,835 --> 00:40:00,115
Speaker 1: teach you what not to do or be in life.

590
00:40:00,235 --> 00:40:02,915
Speaker 1: The publishers defended doing this on the premise that Roald

591
00:40:02,955 --> 00:40:06,595
Speaker 1: Dahl's works have always been edited and modified, that he

592
00:40:07,435 --> 00:40:11,235
Speaker 1: permanently changed the description of those umpah lumpas several times

593
00:40:11,395 --> 00:40:14,475
Speaker 1: to make it less offensive. And again that misses the

594
00:40:14,515 --> 00:40:18,875
Speaker 1: point he made those changes, not his publishers, not his

595
00:40:18,955 --> 00:40:23,035
Speaker 1: literary estate, not you, not me, him. And if you're

596
00:40:23,035 --> 00:40:25,595
Speaker 1: wondering why I'm going on so long about this, it's

597
00:40:25,595 --> 00:40:28,955
Speaker 1: because this is personal for me. I think I learned

598
00:40:28,995 --> 00:40:31,755
Speaker 1: that truth that almost everybody is a mix of good

599
00:40:31,755 --> 00:40:35,075
Speaker 1: and bad, often in big, bright, ugly letters, often with

600
00:40:35,195 --> 00:40:40,675
Speaker 1: extraordinary self contradictions. I learned all that from Royal Dahl.

601
00:40:42,035 --> 00:40:45,035
Speaker 1: Sometime in the second half of March nineteen sixty six,

602
00:40:45,155 --> 00:40:48,395
Speaker 1: a letter unlike any other I had seen before arrived

603
00:40:48,435 --> 00:40:50,955
Speaker 1: at our little house in the suburbs of New York City,

604
00:40:51,595 --> 00:40:53,955
Speaker 1: where my parents packed me off each morning to the

605
00:40:53,995 --> 00:40:58,995
Speaker 1: third grade. The words par Avian were printed in the

606
00:40:59,075 --> 00:41:03,195
Speaker 1: upper left, and the postmark was from somewhere called Great Missenden,

607
00:41:04,035 --> 00:41:08,115
Speaker 1: and the address see was me. It was a letter

608
00:41:08,275 --> 00:41:12,835
Speaker 1: from Royal Dahl. I had a number of very special

609
00:41:12,875 --> 00:41:15,275
Speaker 1: teachers in my life, but the first of them was

610
00:41:15,315 --> 00:41:19,835
Speaker 1: Missus Marjorie Plant, who survived an entire school year of me.

611
00:41:20,035 --> 00:41:24,275
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty five and nineteen sixty six, we sidled

612
00:41:24,275 --> 00:41:26,555
Speaker 1: down the hallway to miss Ritz for an hour or

613
00:41:26,635 --> 00:41:28,475
Speaker 1: so of math every day, but the rest of the

614
00:41:28,515 --> 00:41:32,035
Speaker 1: time we were Missus Plant's class. And when she was

615
00:41:32,035 --> 00:41:34,795
Speaker 1: not leading us out to the glorious natural meadow in

616
00:41:34,835 --> 00:41:37,955
Speaker 1: the pond just behind the elementary school and teaching us

617
00:41:37,955 --> 00:41:41,035
Speaker 1: the name of every plant and every tree and every bird,

618
00:41:41,435 --> 00:41:43,835
Speaker 1: she was reading to us, or getting us to read

619
00:41:43,875 --> 00:41:46,395
Speaker 1: to her, or one day asking each of us to

620
00:41:46,515 --> 00:41:50,235
Speaker 1: name our favorite author. Well, I didn't hesitate. My dad

621
00:41:50,275 --> 00:41:53,115
Speaker 1: read to me each night, and it's probable somebody else's

622
00:41:53,195 --> 00:41:55,475
Speaker 1: book was first. And I know he later read me

623
00:41:55,595 --> 00:41:58,675
Speaker 1: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming, But the first

624
00:41:58,915 --> 00:42:02,755
Speaker 1: books for me were Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and

625
00:42:02,875 --> 00:42:05,235
Speaker 1: James and the Giant Peach by Royl Doll. And I

626
00:42:05,275 --> 00:42:08,275
Speaker 1: don't know how many times Dad read each of them

627
00:42:08,315 --> 00:42:11,075
Speaker 1: to me, but I now do know that somehow those

628
00:42:11,115 --> 00:42:14,715
Speaker 1: books conveyed to me that books didn't just happen, That

629
00:42:14,835 --> 00:42:18,475
Speaker 1: a grown up like my dad had written them deliberately

630
00:42:18,875 --> 00:42:23,155
Speaker 1: for kids to read and to listen to. And this

631
00:42:23,275 --> 00:42:27,035
Speaker 1: man had clearly included jokes that the kids would get,

632
00:42:27,555 --> 00:42:31,835
Speaker 1: but the grown ups didn't seem to notice, and This

633
00:42:32,075 --> 00:42:35,835
Speaker 1: was this man's job, the way being a draftsman and

634
00:42:35,915 --> 00:42:39,755
Speaker 1: later an architect was my dad's job. That you could

635
00:42:39,995 --> 00:42:43,275
Speaker 1: do this and people would pay you. This is how

636
00:42:43,315 --> 00:42:47,275
Speaker 1: I understood about this. A thousand other writers and broadcasters

637
00:42:47,315 --> 00:42:49,955
Speaker 1: flashed out the details and the specifics for me. But

638
00:42:49,995 --> 00:42:52,955
Speaker 1: the man who opened the first door into the world

639
00:42:52,955 --> 00:42:56,195
Speaker 1: in which perhaps I could write for a living was

640
00:42:56,275 --> 00:43:00,355
Speaker 1: ro Al Dahl. So, Keith, who's your favorite author, Missus Plant,

641
00:43:00,355 --> 00:43:04,155
Speaker 1: asked ro Al Dahl. Missus Plant, knowing her and knowing me,

642
00:43:04,195 --> 00:43:07,595
Speaker 1: she probably said I knew it, and soon after she

643
00:43:07,675 --> 00:43:09,795
Speaker 1: explained that we had an assignment that day. We were

644
00:43:09,835 --> 00:43:13,595
Speaker 1: all going to write. Great. I thought, I'll write another book.

645
00:43:14,235 --> 00:43:16,635
Speaker 1: I had already written something like forty books in Missus

646
00:43:16,715 --> 00:43:22,195
Speaker 1: Plant's class, two or three pages with illustrations, with construction paper, covers,

647
00:43:22,195 --> 00:43:25,275
Speaker 1: with staples, with titles. I wasn't just going to be

648
00:43:25,315 --> 00:43:29,475
Speaker 1: a writer like Royal Dahl. I already was one. Not

649
00:43:29,555 --> 00:43:32,035
Speaker 1: a book today, Keith, she said, I want you all

650
00:43:32,115 --> 00:43:34,795
Speaker 1: to write a letter to your favorite author. I know

651
00:43:34,875 --> 00:43:37,195
Speaker 1: how to get your letters to your author, so you

652
00:43:37,235 --> 00:43:39,595
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about that part. You can ask

653
00:43:39,635 --> 00:43:41,675
Speaker 1: them anything you want in the letter you can tell

654
00:43:41,675 --> 00:43:44,395
Speaker 1: them anything about yourself, but I especially want you to

655
00:43:44,435 --> 00:43:47,235
Speaker 1: tell them why you like their books, and who you

656
00:43:47,315 --> 00:43:51,355
Speaker 1: are and how old you are. And on that day

657
00:43:51,435 --> 00:43:55,595
Speaker 1: in March nineteen sixty six, my favorite author had written

658
00:43:55,715 --> 00:43:59,795
Speaker 1: me back. I had a sense immediately of it being

659
00:43:59,835 --> 00:44:04,595
Speaker 1: a special occasion. I believe only one author besides Royal Dahl,

660
00:44:04,755 --> 00:44:07,435
Speaker 1: replied to anybody in our class. I do know the

661
00:44:07,475 --> 00:44:09,595
Speaker 1: school thought it was a big enough deal to call

662
00:44:09,675 --> 00:44:13,395
Speaker 1: the town newspaper to do a story on it. It's

663
00:44:13,435 --> 00:44:15,555
Speaker 1: not as if I forgot the story, or the letter

664
00:44:15,675 --> 00:44:18,275
Speaker 1: or the sense of wonder at its arrival, either. But

665
00:44:18,395 --> 00:44:22,075
Speaker 1: despite the coverage in the weekly Hastings News, it still

666
00:44:22,115 --> 00:44:24,755
Speaker 1: seemed like a very private family kind of thing. And

667
00:44:24,795 --> 00:44:28,115
Speaker 1: then in twenty ten, somebody told me, maybe it was

668
00:44:28,155 --> 00:44:32,355
Speaker 1: the publisher, that the private family thing had made it

669
00:44:32,395 --> 00:44:36,435
Speaker 1: into the authorized biography of roy Al Dahl, a book

670
00:44:36,475 --> 00:44:41,235
Speaker 1: called Storyteller by Donald Sturrock. He wrote this next part,

671
00:44:41,315 --> 00:44:43,075
Speaker 1: I did not. I think it's okay for me to

672
00:44:43,155 --> 00:44:47,555
Speaker 1: bother it here, quoting mister Sturrock, his stories were encouraging

673
00:44:47,635 --> 00:44:50,195
Speaker 1: children the world over to read books, and that many

674
00:44:50,235 --> 00:44:52,795
Speaker 1: of them loved his stories so much that they felt

675
00:44:52,795 --> 00:44:56,475
Speaker 1: impelled to write and tell him so. The current rate

676
00:44:56,555 --> 00:44:59,155
Speaker 1: of letters from children in the US is between fifty

677
00:44:59,195 --> 00:45:01,875
Speaker 1: and sixty a week. He had written to Mike Watkins

678
00:45:01,915 --> 00:45:04,915
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six. I try to answer them all

679
00:45:04,955 --> 00:45:09,595
Speaker 1: with a postcard. Roald was always a diligent and engaging correspondent,

680
00:45:09,635 --> 00:45:11,595
Speaker 1: and if he was in the right mood and thought

681
00:45:11,595 --> 00:45:15,595
Speaker 1: a child's letter particularly imaginative, he or she would receive

682
00:45:15,635 --> 00:45:19,475
Speaker 1: a fuller and more memorable response. When the sports journalist

683
00:45:19,555 --> 00:45:23,075
Speaker 1: and television anchorman Keith Olberman was seven years old and

684
00:45:23,435 --> 00:45:26,715
Speaker 1: head of maps in his class at school, he wrote

685
00:45:26,755 --> 00:45:29,275
Speaker 1: to Dahl from Hastings on Hudson in New York and

686
00:45:29,355 --> 00:45:31,875
Speaker 1: told him at some length about his own writing ambitions

687
00:45:31,875 --> 00:45:36,475
Speaker 1: and successes. Roald's reply was thoughtful, generous, and full of

688
00:45:36,595 --> 00:45:41,875
Speaker 1: gentle ironic humor. My dear Keith, he began, It was

689
00:45:41,955 --> 00:45:45,715
Speaker 1: wonderful to receive a letter from a fellow author. It

690
00:45:45,835 --> 00:45:48,955
Speaker 1: meant so much more than the usual ordinary message from

691
00:45:48,995 --> 00:45:51,955
Speaker 1: a mere reader. As head of maps, you will be

692
00:45:51,995 --> 00:45:54,995
Speaker 1: able to calculate very easily what a long way your

693
00:45:55,075 --> 00:45:57,035
Speaker 1: letter had to travel in order to reach me in

694
00:45:57,075 --> 00:46:01,675
Speaker 1: this little village, thousands of miles The postman, an elderly

695
00:46:01,715 --> 00:46:04,475
Speaker 1: fellow who comes on foot, knocked on the door this morning,

696
00:46:04,835 --> 00:46:08,315
Speaker 1: said I have a letter from you, from Kay Ulderman

697
00:46:08,395 --> 00:46:12,355
Speaker 1: of Hastings, USA. I said, how do you know? He said,

698
00:46:12,675 --> 00:46:15,595
Speaker 1: it says so on the envelope. He is a very

699
00:46:15,635 --> 00:46:18,475
Speaker 1: inquisitive postman, and he likes to know who is writing

700
00:46:18,515 --> 00:46:22,875
Speaker 1: to me. Who is Ulberman, asked the postman. I opened

701
00:46:22,875 --> 00:46:25,915
Speaker 1: the letter and read it. He is a writer, I said,

702
00:46:26,435 --> 00:46:30,995
Speaker 1: he has written more books than me. Oldraman's parents later

703
00:46:31,075 --> 00:46:33,755
Speaker 1: told the local newspaper that the letter had given the

704
00:46:33,795 --> 00:46:37,755
Speaker 1: boy the kick of his young life. Missus Ulriman added

705
00:46:37,755 --> 00:46:39,875
Speaker 1: that it just about proves that there are still some

706
00:46:40,035 --> 00:46:42,275
Speaker 1: very nice people left in this old, beat up world.

707
00:46:42,595 --> 00:46:45,595
Speaker 1: If all adults acted with such loving attention to children,

708
00:46:45,795 --> 00:46:49,675
Speaker 1: would it not be wonderful? Dahl was quite sincere when

709
00:46:49,715 --> 00:46:52,595
Speaker 1: he argued that he thought children alone were decent judges

710
00:46:52,595 --> 00:46:55,075
Speaker 1: of whether a book written for them was any good

711
00:46:55,195 --> 00:46:57,595
Speaker 1: or not. In nineteen sixty two, he had written to

712
00:46:57,635 --> 00:46:59,995
Speaker 1: a child critic of James and the Giant Peach to

713
00:47:00,115 --> 00:47:02,315
Speaker 1: tell him that up to now, a whole lot of

714
00:47:02,355 --> 00:47:04,795
Speaker 1: grown ups have written reviews, but none of them have

715
00:47:04,915 --> 00:47:07,435
Speaker 1: really known what they were talking about, because a grown

716
00:47:07,515 --> 00:47:10,155
Speaker 1: up talking about a children's book is like a man

717
00:47:10,715 --> 00:47:16,435
Speaker 1: talking about a woman's hat. The author, mister Sterrock not

718
00:47:16,475 --> 00:47:19,435
Speaker 1: only put me in the authorized biography of Royal Dall,

719
00:47:19,475 --> 00:47:22,195
Speaker 1: he also put me in the index there. I am

720
00:47:22,675 --> 00:47:27,795
Speaker 1: right between David Ogilvie, the advertising legend, and Sir Laurence Olivier.

721
00:47:29,915 --> 00:47:32,275
Speaker 1: Left out of Sterrock's account and the quotes from my

722
00:47:32,395 --> 00:47:34,355
Speaker 1: mother was the fact that mom was a fan of

723
00:47:34,395 --> 00:47:38,555
Speaker 1: the actress Patricia Neil, Royal Dahl's wife, and she had

724
00:47:38,595 --> 00:47:42,795
Speaker 1: read horror stories about their marriage and about Neil's stroke

725
00:47:42,915 --> 00:47:46,835
Speaker 1: and Dol's tough love during her recovery. As I began

726
00:47:46,915 --> 00:47:49,555
Speaker 1: to appreciate her point of view and Dall's books at

727
00:47:49,555 --> 00:47:51,995
Speaker 1: the same time and his letter to me, I began

728
00:47:52,075 --> 00:47:56,075
Speaker 1: to formulate a theory that not everybody was just one thing,

729
00:47:56,275 --> 00:47:58,835
Speaker 1: that you could be good and bad and shouldn't be

730
00:47:58,915 --> 00:48:03,195
Speaker 1: judged on just half of yourself. Naturally, I wrote my

731
00:48:03,275 --> 00:48:06,035
Speaker 1: new pen pal back he had mentioned having a son

732
00:48:06,075 --> 00:48:09,475
Speaker 1: about my age. In fact, Theo Dahl had been born

733
00:48:09,595 --> 00:48:11,875
Speaker 1: in New York just like I was, but at the

734
00:48:11,915 --> 00:48:15,355
Speaker 1: age of four months in his baby carriage, Theo was

735
00:48:15,435 --> 00:48:18,915
Speaker 1: hit by a cab, and his injuries were so profound

736
00:48:19,355 --> 00:48:22,595
Speaker 1: that for a while he was blind and Royal Dahl

737
00:48:22,715 --> 00:48:26,395
Speaker 1: himself had helped to develop a shunt used to drain

738
00:48:26,595 --> 00:48:30,355
Speaker 1: swelling in Theo's brain to make his life better and

739
00:48:30,435 --> 00:48:33,395
Speaker 1: more worthwhile I did not know any of this when

740
00:48:33,395 --> 00:48:36,115
Speaker 1: I mentioned, among other mundating details, that a seven year

741
00:48:36,155 --> 00:48:38,435
Speaker 1: old was likely to tell an adult in a letter

742
00:48:38,635 --> 00:48:42,715
Speaker 1: that my middle name was Theodore. I also apparently included

743
00:48:42,715 --> 00:48:45,875
Speaker 1: some poems I had written. And I know this because

744
00:48:45,915 --> 00:48:50,875
Speaker 1: sure enough Rol Dahl wrote back again. This next letter

745
00:48:50,915 --> 00:48:53,675
Speaker 1: did not come for nearly a year. My dear Keith.

746
00:48:53,755 --> 00:48:57,995
Speaker 1: It begins dated February second, nineteen sixty seven. Your last

747
00:48:58,075 --> 00:49:01,715
Speaker 1: letter was a very good one, So were the poems.

748
00:49:03,115 --> 00:49:08,395
Speaker 1: Imagine the impact of that from your favorite writer right

749
00:49:08,435 --> 00:49:12,555
Speaker 1: after your eighth birthday. But Doll went on, I hope

750
00:49:12,555 --> 00:49:14,635
Speaker 1: you will not become a poet when you grow up,

751
00:49:14,795 --> 00:49:17,795
Speaker 1: because poets have a terribly hard time earning a living.

752
00:49:19,075 --> 00:49:21,715
Speaker 1: I am writing a musical film, he went on, for

753
00:49:21,795 --> 00:49:24,875
Speaker 1: Dick van Dyke, based roughly on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

754
00:49:25,075 --> 00:49:29,275
Speaker 1: the Flying Motor Car. Could I have mentioned liking this

755
00:49:29,315 --> 00:49:31,675
Speaker 1: book by a different author in my letter to him

756
00:49:31,795 --> 00:49:33,995
Speaker 1: or did he just decide to announce it to me.

757
00:49:35,035 --> 00:49:37,235
Speaker 1: We'll be making it here in England next summer, and

758
00:49:37,275 --> 00:49:39,235
Speaker 1: you can go and see it in nineteen sixty eight,

759
00:49:39,235 --> 00:49:41,875
Speaker 1: when you are nine years old. You will be impressed

760
00:49:41,915 --> 00:49:44,435
Speaker 1: at the things this car is going to do. With

761
00:49:44,635 --> 00:49:50,115
Speaker 1: love from Roal Dahl, I'm sure I wrote again. I

762
00:49:50,115 --> 00:49:54,355
Speaker 1: can almost remember he did not write back. I do

763
00:49:54,435 --> 00:49:57,675
Speaker 1: not recall holding it against him, nor do I now.

764
00:49:58,075 --> 00:50:00,355
Speaker 1: I do recall that when I followed his instructions and

765
00:50:00,355 --> 00:50:02,555
Speaker 1: went to see his movie. I think, in fact it

766
00:50:02,635 --> 00:50:05,395
Speaker 1: was my tenth birthday party in early nineteen sixty nine.

767
00:50:05,595 --> 00:50:10,075
Speaker 1: I was disappointed. Too much girl chasing, not enough car flying.

768
00:50:11,235 --> 00:50:14,635
Speaker 1: Still almost no one is all good or all bad,

769
00:50:14,675 --> 00:50:17,795
Speaker 1: And every new reissue of every Royal Doll book could

770
00:50:17,795 --> 00:50:20,995
Speaker 1: include a twenty page treatise about what was bad about

771
00:50:21,035 --> 00:50:24,195
Speaker 1: him and the negativities in that book and his other writings,

772
00:50:24,755 --> 00:50:29,795
Speaker 1: just so long as it is included instead of rather

773
00:50:29,875 --> 00:50:34,715
Speaker 1: than in addition to the nonsensical rewrites that Puffin publishing

774
00:50:34,795 --> 00:50:38,155
Speaker 1: is produced. Also, I think it might be appropriate to

775
00:50:38,235 --> 00:50:40,995
Speaker 1: mention that though the letters from kids just in the

776
00:50:41,075 --> 00:50:46,555
Speaker 1: US just in nineteen sixty six totaled around what twenty

777
00:50:46,595 --> 00:50:50,755
Speaker 1: five hundred, he tried to answer them all with a postcard,

778
00:50:51,795 --> 00:50:56,995
Speaker 1: or if you were very lucky, a letter, or if

779
00:50:56,995 --> 00:51:01,395
Speaker 1: you were very very lucky, two letters, and to mention

780
00:51:01,755 --> 00:51:19,475
Speaker 1: forty three years later in his official biography, I've done

781
00:51:19,515 --> 00:51:21,675
Speaker 1: all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.

782
00:51:21,715 --> 00:51:24,755
Speaker 1: Most of our countdown music was arranged, produced, and performed

783
00:51:24,755 --> 00:51:28,155
Speaker 1: by Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanel, our musical directors

784
00:51:28,115 --> 00:51:31,475
Speaker 1: who Countdown, and it was produced by TKO Brothers. Mister

785
00:51:31,595 --> 00:51:33,755
Speaker 1: Ray was on the guitars, the bass, and the drums.

786
00:51:33,795 --> 00:51:37,795
Speaker 1: Mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. Our satirical and pithy

787
00:51:37,875 --> 00:51:40,795
Speaker 1: musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever,

788
00:51:40,875 --> 00:51:44,955
Speaker 1: Nancy Faust. The Olderman theme from ESPN two by Mitch

789
00:51:44,995 --> 00:51:48,835
Speaker 1: Warren Davis appears courtesy of ESPN, Inc. And is our

790
00:51:48,995 --> 00:51:52,675
Speaker 1: sports music. And some other music arranged and performed by

791
00:51:52,715 --> 00:51:55,715
Speaker 1: the group No Horns Allowed. My announcer today is my

792
00:51:55,755 --> 00:51:59,795
Speaker 1: friend Dennis Leary. Everything else was, as always my fault.

793
00:52:00,475 --> 00:52:03,155
Speaker 1: So that's countdown for today. Day three hundred and thirty

794
00:52:03,195 --> 00:52:07,075
Speaker 1: of America held hostage again about just one and thirty

795
00:52:07,115 --> 00:52:09,395
Speaker 1: three days until the scheduled end of his lame duck

796
00:52:09,435 --> 00:52:12,955
Speaker 1: and lame brain term unless he is removed sooner by

797
00:52:13,075 --> 00:52:18,235
Speaker 1: Maga and Epstein or Indiana or Anosagnosia or Taile and

798
00:52:18,355 --> 00:52:23,475
Speaker 1: All or affordability or the second Strike video. The next

799
00:52:23,515 --> 00:52:27,235
Speaker 1: scheduled edition of Countdown is Thursday. Until then, I'm Keith Olberman.

800
00:52:27,315 --> 00:52:36,235
Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with

801
00:52:36,355 --> 00:52:40,675
Speaker 1: Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

802
00:52:40,675 --> 00:52:45,435
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

803
00:52:45,475 --> 00:52:46,835
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts