July 18, 2023 • 53 mins
EPISODE 249: BULLETIN COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:41) BULLETIN: The SECOND set of Trump Indictments by Special Counsel Jack Smith which will come as early as Thursday in Washington – the second in as many months -- may make the first ones look like a small stack of parking tickets. As news has broken this morning and this afternoon we are seeing the outline of a HUGE number of counts – dozens – the June 29th report by the British newspaper “The Independent” of 30 to 45 more charges being readied may actually be CONSERVATIVE – it could be FAR MORE than 45 counts. And just as breathtaking may be… the range of charges: those hazy details just coming into focus at the horizon could include everything from simple cheesy financial fraud, to the I-word: Insurrection. “A SPRAWLING case,” as it is phrased by the sources of Robert Costa of CBS News – and again quoting them -- “focused on how Trump acted after he was informed by many, that claiming the election was rigged, would be pushing fraud. AND, whether Trump criminally conspired to block certification.”
Trump is clearly going to be indicted by the Special Counsel – AGAIN – conceivably as early as this week – and THIS time there is reason to believe he will be indicted not just for premeditated fraud because he conned the gullible cultists for donations to cure a stolen election he knew WASN’T stolen, but also indicted both for the palace coup that was the phony electors scheme AND the violent coup he unleashed stochastically every day between his “it’ll be wild” tweet of December 19th and his speech on the Ellipse on January 6th. At 9:21 Eastern this morning Trump himself revealed he is the recipient of ANOTHER Jack Smith target letter: “stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation and giving me a very short four days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an arrest and indictment,”unquote. Well on the last part, Trump WOULD know.
And there is the one lingering little detail I spent so much of your time on, on Monday. WHY did he make that Freudian Slip on Saturday and refer to "The Insurrection Act"? Why did he kill the post half an hour later and replace it? When 24 hours later he would learn he is almost certainly to be indicted for the...insurrection?
NOTE: THE REST OF THIS PODCAST IS A REPEAT, IN ITS ENTIRETY, OF THIS MORNING'S EPISODE 248. IF YOU'VE HEARD IT, TURN IT OFF, I WON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY.
(12:00) SPECIAL COMMENT : Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon will now begin to decide whether we all live or die. This, sadly, is not hyperbole. A federal judge who has presided over a total of four trials for a total of fourteen days will today make the first of a series of decisions that will ultimately end with whether we all live or die. The forest really CAN never be seen because we’re next to the trees and how fitting the analogy is because while we are down here taking samples of the bark to check markings by Jack Smith, the big picture is: this judge, Aileen Cannon will at minimum help decide whether or not Donald Trump is kept out of the White House and that will at minimum help decide whether or not we have any chance of maintaining a president who will lead this nation and thus this world through climate change.
B-Block (29:25) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Flynn and Bannon are subpoenaed for the Smartmatic suit against Fox. So? Do they tell the truth, or lie? Harlan Crow tries to deduct the Good Ship Super-Yacht Clarence Thomas; Pink Beret Girl from 1/6 is finally found - and turned in by an EX. And the rule of thumb in cable news is: the first week of a new show is its ratings peak. Which means Kaitlin Collins soon will not be watching her own program. (34:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Megyn Kelly blasts RFK Jr's sister because Meg is too dumb to know what RFK Jr's sister DOES; The mayor betrays Atlanta over Cop City; and brilliant plan, Vivek Ramaswamy: on the Supreme Court, he wants: Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and the judge who protected a Beauty Pageant's right to discriminate against transgendered people.
C-Block (40:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: If Lionel Messi really is going to debut for the Miami MLS team Friday we have to welcome him in the only way Countdown can. Whatever your watch may say, it's always SOCCER BREAKDOWN O'CLOCK!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. The
second set of Trump indictments by Special counsel Jack Smith,
(00:24):
which will come as early as Thursday in Washington. The
second set in as many months may make the first
ones look like a small stack of parking tickets. As
news has broken this morning and this afternoon, we are
seeing the outline of a huge number of counts, literally
dozens more. The June twenty ninth report by the British
(00:45):
newspaper The Independent of thirty to forty five more charges
being readied may actually turn out to be conservative. It
could be far more than forty five counts, and just
as breathtaking may be the range of the charges. Those
hazy details just coming into focus at the horizon could
include every thing from simple cheesy financial fraud to the
(01:08):
I word insurrection quote a sprawling case as it is
phrased by the sources of Robert Costa of CBS News
and again quoting them focused on how Trump acted after
he was informed by many that claiming the election was
rigged would be pushing fraud, and CBS goes on whether
(01:30):
Trump criminally conspired to block certification. Trump is clearly going
to be indicted by the Special Council again, conceivably as
early as this week, and this time there is reason
to believe he will be indicted not just for premeditated
fraud because he conned the gullible cultists for donations to
(01:50):
cure a stolen election he knew was not stolen, but
also indicted both for the palace coup that was the
phony electors scheme and the violent coup he unleashed statastically
every day between his ill be wild tweet of December
nineteenth and his speech on the Ellipse of January sixth.
(02:11):
At nine twenty one Eastern, this morning, Trump himself revealed
he is the recipient of yet another Jack Smith target letter.
Trump is driven by compulsions to talk about himself, the
likes of which even the rest of us egomaniacs could
not possibly process. One imagines that under its spell he
would have to stop passers by to tell them he
(02:33):
had been diagnosed with a venereal disease. This morning, Trump
posted the proud news that on Sunday night, his attorneys
informed him interrupting his dinner, that Jack Smith had written
to them quote stating that I am a target of
the January sixth, grand jury investigation and giving me a
(02:54):
very short four days to report to the grand jury,
which almost always means an arrests and indictment en quote. Well,
on the last part, Trump would know, would he not?
But as ever, Trump has gotten some details wrong. The
implication that Smith has given him quote four days to
report to the grand jury unquote, makes it sound like
(03:17):
he has been ordered to do so. He has not.
He has, in fact, been offered the chance to do so.
The timeline of the target letter is ritualized and invariable.
As a prosecutor nears that time that he will ask
his grand jury for an indictment or indictments, he will
notify the individuals likely to be indicted. He will give
them a chance to face the grand jury before any
(03:40):
indictment votes are taken. Trump has also inexplicably fuzzed up
the timing letters Sunday, posting about it here on Tuesday.
When did that four day clock start Sunday? Yesterday? Today? Happily.
Hugo Lowell in The Guardian sorts it out, quoting people
(04:01):
familiar saying the Special Council gave Trump until Thursday after
tomorrow to testify to this January sixth grand jury, and
as presumed, it is the one in Washington, not Florida
or anywhere else. Smith may have them like it's a
chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises, as implied by the
CBS sources. Costa referred to them as conversations with sources
(04:23):
close to witnesses in recent days. The case is so
sprawling that at this hour no news organization seems to
have a handle on exactly what the indictments will or
will not include. Politico notes that, based on testimony we
know about from the last few weeks in Washington, Jack
Smith's January sixth menu includes are you ready? The assembly
(04:47):
of false elector slates, fundraising for the January sixth rally,
plans to seize voting machines, pressure campaign against states, pressure
campaign against Pence, Trump actions on January sixth, and actually
that last one could be two separate category Trump's actions
on January sixth, namely what Trump did to foment the
(05:09):
violence that day and the coup attempt at the Capitol,
and separately, his deliberate inaction the Nero fiddles while Capitol
Hill burns part while the violence unfolded. A lot of
reporting lately has indicated repeated questioning at the grand jury
about how Trump, as president sworn to uphold the constitution
(05:30):
deliberately remained in art when his later actions proved he
knew damn well that just a few words from him
at any point could have ended the chaos immediately. A
few news outlets today have proved a few minor negatives
on this story. CNN reports Rudy Giuliani did not receive
(05:51):
a target letter, per his lawyer. Nobody is saying this
this bluntly, but it's damned certain Mark Meadows didn't receive
one either. Britain's The Independent rights that it quote understands
that Meadows is also co operating in the Justice Department
probe into the ex president's efforts to overturn his twenty
twenty election loss, it adds, last month, The Independent reported
(06:13):
that mister Meadows had given evidence before a Washington DC
grand jury under Smith's supervision as part of an agreement
that would see him eventually plead guilty to lesser federal
charges in exchange for his testimony against mister Trump and
other figures. We also have a few negative ironies. The
beginning of Jack Smith's actual prosecution of Trump for the
(06:35):
stolen classified documents. Oh yeah, remember that that was the
story five hours ago, the first hearing in the Florida
courtroom of that ex Miami newspaper writer Judge Eileen Cannon,
well known and regarded for her features on yoga and
flamenco dancing. That hearing has been completely overshadowed. Republicans trying
(06:58):
to reinflate Jamie Comer's burst sex doll of a fantasy
that there is a hunter Biden's scandal are claiming they
have been deliberately overshadowed, and that word overshadowed hardly suffices
for what has now happened to one of Trump's rivals
for the Republican nomination. Ron DeSantis, was to be interviewed
(07:18):
live on CNN at four Eastern time today. I'll be
sure to set my DVR and watch it next century.
Please do not mistake this for empathy for Ron DeSantis
in the slightest, but I get the feeling that if
Donald Trump were to fall or jump out a window
(07:38):
or be pushed like a Russian oligarch, he would survive
unscathed because he would land on Ron DeSantis, all right,
back to the business. When will there be clarity on
what has happened on the scope or at least the
volume of the indictments before they are actually handed up
(08:02):
Like an estimate, Jack, could you just round it to
the nearest one hundred. Maybe it is possible that Trump
already has some of this clarity we seek. The New
York Times notes target letters often list at least some
of the possible violations of federal criminal laws that a
grand jury is investigating. If the January sixth related target
(08:24):
letter to Trump and his legal team followed that practice,
it is possible that word of any specific potential charges
it flags will surface before long unquote translation, we go
back to Trump's compulsion to talk. He may have some
of those details now. If he senses he needs the
publicity or the martyrdom points, he may dole those details
(08:48):
out later. Finally, I circle back to the always instructive
Trump Freudian slips. This is the one from last Saturday.
It fascinated me, then it fascinates me even more now.
Mind you, this would have gone up on his social
media site roughly twenty eight hours before he got the
(09:08):
new Jack Smith target letter and was told whatever was
in it, including those possible details he might not yet
have mentioned quote hidden his post. Whatever happened to the
Biden document's case? Twenty times more documents than I have,
and I'm allowed under the Presidential Records Act, and he's not.
(09:28):
What about the classified docs he had in Chinatown and
on his garage floor in Delaware? Is he being charged
under the Insurrection Act? The Insurrection Act? Within half an
hour of posting that, Trump or somebody had deleted that
(09:49):
post and replaced it with one that was identical, but
for one word. Insurrection Act had been replaced with Espionage Act.
I spent way too much of your time yesterday morning
trying to explain that there are no non Freudian Trumps.
They all reflect some obsession going on inside that semi
(10:09):
human brain of his. There could conceivably some non prosecutorial
part to this. Here he could have been reminded of
the word insurrection because somebody in his company wants to
build a nine hundred and seventeen story Trump Insurrection apartment
tower and above ground cemetery in Saudi Arabia or something.
(10:32):
But again, there are two different Insurrection Acts. One is
the disqualification clause inside the third paragraph of the fourteenth
Amendment of the Constitution. It's the Civil War law that
kept seditionists from again holding any state or national office.
There is also criminal insurrection, and it carries jail time.
(10:54):
It's something separate, and certainly Trump's refusal to stop his
remote control mob on the afternoon of January sixth qualifies
for prosecution under it. But the bigger detail is the
new detail on the timeline. Trump was thinking about the
Insurrection Act for whatever reason on Saturday. Somebody had to
(11:16):
have mentioned it to him in some context Saturday or earlier,
and around twenty eight hours later he was told he
was about to be indicted for the insurrection on January sixth. Coincidence,
I think not. I'll have the regular Wednesday podcast with
(11:43):
more on Trump's indictment, barring developments dropping at the usual hour.
We'll be here it just after midnight Eastern early Wednesday morning,
and I'll throw in whatever else I can put together
between now and then, and whatever else Trump says about this.
The rest of this podcast you're listening to now is
simply a replay of this morning's edition in its entirety.
(12:06):
As always, if you have already heard it, hit stop
now I will not take offense. Today, Eileen Mercedes Cannon
(12:29):
will begin to decide whether we all live or die. This,
sadly is not hyperbole. The federal judge, who has presided
over a total of four trials for a total of
fourteen days in the totality of her life, will today
make the first of a series of decisions that will
ultimately end with whether we all live or die. The
(12:54):
forest really can never be seen because we are next
to the trees. And how fitting the analogy is because
while we are down here taking samples of the bark
to check marking by Jack Smith, the big picture is
this Judge Eileen Cannon will at minimum help to decide
whether or not Donald Trump is kept out of the
(13:14):
White House, and that will at minimum help to decide
whether or not we have any chance of maintaining a
president who will lead this nation and thus this world
through climate change and the changes we must make in
response to it. It really is that stark, and I
think we forget about it, and then something snaps the
(13:34):
picture into focus, and in my case, it is two pictures.
The first is that one grinning idiot in the black
San Diego shirt and the black shorts and the black
cap and the black sunglasses in Death Valley, California, taking
selfies with a digital thermometer reading one hundred and thirty
one degrees, both as if that heat could not kill
(13:57):
him personally, and as if that one hundred and thirty
one degree temperature was temporary or transient or unique to
that locale or something he has to take a picture
of so he can preserve it for his grandchildren. And oh,
by the way, at the present rate of acceleration of
the climate catastrophe, don't worry about preserving it for your grandchildren,
because you're not going to have any nor is anybody else,
(14:20):
because the last words Donald Trump will ever speak on
this earth will be about how money is more important
than anything else, or how climate change is a hoax.
We're both. The other image was of this redneck Jason Aldean,
the pride of Maga New Year's Eve guest at marri Lago,
Trump kissed the top of his wife's head. She posted photos.
(14:41):
Trump is clearly staring down passed her head into her cleavage.
He is the yodeling darling of the climate denial crowd
and dropping a song last Friday, Daring Black protesters to
quote the title. Try that in a small town, and
then two days later he had to run off the
stage and get two ivs stuck in him so he
(15:03):
did not lose conscious while singing in the ferocious tropical
heat of Hartford, Connecticut in July at night. But there's
no man made climate change. Try that in a small town, Jason,
after the energy grid there has failed and your governor
(15:25):
has chased away all the hospitals and the doctors because
woke as I stared at the Canadian wildfire smoke out
my window. Yesterday, a baseball announcer on my TV was
complaining about the Canadian wildfire smoke out his window. In Cincinnati, Ohio.
It was one hundred and nine degrees in Rome, and
(15:46):
they were laughing about that in Miami, where the first
ever excessive heat warning predicted one hundred and ten degrees,
and they were laughing about that in Sanbao in China,
where it was one hundred and twenty six degrees. And no,
they were not laughing at Persian Gulf Airport, which is
in Iran but is actually close to Dubai than anywhere else.
And it didn't matter because it was one hundred and
(16:10):
fifty two one hundred and fifty two degrees at Persian
Golf Airport in Iran. The last actual safe temperature for
the average human is a wet bulb thermometer reading of
ninety five degrees. So if at one hundred and fifty
two the power had failed at Persian Golf Airport, I
(16:30):
mean again energy grid failure. As if this were Texas,
there would have been a mass casualty event. Judge Cannon
is to tell Trump's lawyers and Walton out his lawyers
and Jack Smith's team of lawyers. Some preliminary findings about
the process for handling classified information at the Trump trial,
(16:53):
and all the indications she gave yesterday suggested she would
be adding an item to the agenda, the planned trial
start date and timeline discuss history does not usually schedule
stuff this important in advance and tell us about it.
Everybody in Europe was not informed. On June fifteenth, Hey,
(17:15):
on the twenty eighth Archduke Ferdinand of Austro Hungary. He's
gonna make this damn fool trip anyway to Sarajevo, and
though the bomb they will throw at him at the
train station is gonna miss the Archduke will still be
too stupid to call off the trip at that point,
and his driver, who doesn't speak German, won't understand the
(17:36):
revised driving rout out of the city, so he'll take
the old one and he'll wind up on Franz Joseph
Street and he'll have to pull a U turn right
in front of where one of the bomb throwers co
conspirators happens to be standing despond it because the plot failed.
So the co conspirator can put bullets into the Archduke
and the arch Duchess and that will start the World
War and twenty million people will die. And because the
peace will resolve nothing, there'll be another World war in
(17:58):
twenty five years, seventy five million more people will die.
So don't make other plans for the twenty eighth that
doesn't happen. We were not forewarned about the day John
Brown decided, Yeah, okay, I'm doing this. I'm going to
Harper's Ferry, and nobody in ten sixty six told England
the Normans will be here Wednesday, and the media was
(18:20):
not alerted when Hitler was let out early because they
were convinced he po's no further threat, and nobody pointed
at that one rat scurrying off the ship just anchoring
at Messina and said that's the one bubonic plague right there.
And nobody ever said, hey, my feet hurt. Tomorrow, I'm
just going to try to live in one place and
(18:41):
raise the crops here rather than searching for them all day.
I'm going to call it a I'm still working on this,
but I'm going to call it a farm. And nobody
comes back from anywhere or any time to warn you
to save Sarah Connor. And yet here we are, at
some point today Eileen Cannon, who twenty years ago was
(19:05):
writing features for the Miami Spanish language newspaper El Nuevo
Herald about festivals and yoga and I swear to God
about flamenco dancing. She will make the first of a
series of decisions that will ultimately decide whether we all
live or die. And they're not ultimate decisions or final decisions,
(19:28):
but they are among the ones which will be. And
she could, if not today then soon literally knock all
the guard rails off the fight against climate change. Because
for those of you far more milletant about this topic
than I am, I will not insult you in say
America has led our magnificent worldwide struggle that has succeeded
(19:50):
in slowing down the catastrophe by a couple of weeks. Maybe,
but you and I still both know that if the
critical decisions about saving life on this planet are to
be made in the next five years, and Donald Trump
is president for any stretch of those five years, we're
all dead pinpoint. Whether one hundred and fifty two degrees
(20:11):
waves of climate refugees expected between noon and one pm
and the UV index on a scale of one to
eleven is I'm sorry the power grid failed again. There
was a piece in The New York Times yesterday about
the Trump roadmap towards authoritarianism if he gets a second term,
and most of it is a louder and scarier presentation
(20:33):
of Schedule F, the federalist fascist plan to eliminate career
employees in the government and give the president hiring and
firing power over everybody, like in Iran, where it's already
one hundred and fifty two degrees. And the article was
kind of summarized in one quote from a totalitarian named
Russell T. Vote, who ran omb during the defendant's regime
(20:58):
and is now dictator of the Center for Renewing America,
and the quote was, what we're trying to do is
identify by the pockets of independence and seize them. And
you can see that quote, and then the video in
your mind goes into high speed fast forward, and at
some point in the future, months, years, decades, you get
(21:18):
to there being absolutely nobody in the government, or in
the Congress or in the Supreme Court to even say
no when Trump decides it, no matter what the twenty
fifth Amendment says that because of whatever, because of whatever,
he deserves a third term and he's running for it. Critics,
(21:38):
including a lot on the left, thought that piece in
The Times was overripe and served basically as just thousands
of words of what we used to call institutional advertising
for MAGA and Trump and the Federalist Society, provided free
courtesy of The New York Times. Because while Trump's ability
to enact all this not federalism but feudalism would be
(22:00):
better than it was when he tried it in twenty seventeen,
it would still we'll be held up, delayed, at least
by courts and by bureaucrats, and especially by a democratic
Senate or House, to say nothing of citizen protests. We
ever do that again, like everybody in the Blue States
refusing to pay any more taxes to keep the Red
States from going bankrupt and everybody starving there inside of
(22:22):
a month. But other than a passing reference to the
Environmental Protection Agency being one of those units that would
be brought directly under Trump's control if he can get
away with it, there was not one word in there
about the much simpler path for Donald Trump to destroy
America this time around, and that is to regain the
White House and again roll back as many green initiatives
(22:45):
and climate efforts as he can. I mean, when he
can kill us all by just sitting around on his
lard ass for four years, accepting the cheers of fifty
million jason Al dens, just before they all keel over
because they could not stand the heat forty five minutes
away from check notes ESPN World Headquarters. What does Trump
(23:09):
need with schedule F and system overhauls and Project twenty
twenty five, project one hundred degrees every day in beautiful
downtown Bristol, Connecticut. That'll do the job. I just keep
thinking of that poor dumb f in the sunglasses, standing
(23:30):
next to that digital thermometer and death Valley and thinking
one hundred and thirty one degrees, Well, thank goodness, I
got a shot of it. It'll never be this hot again.
And now I'm starting to wonder if the dinosaurs stood
around taking selfies of that spectacular light show in the
sky when the big meteor hit. And I find myself
(23:51):
wondering also if, at any point before she settles in
for her fifteenth real day as a judge doing real
judge things today, Aileen Cannon will see the forest in
spite of the trees, or wonder what does happen if
don Trump gets another chance to kill all the trees,
or if it will even ever flit across the most
(24:13):
distant recesses of her mind for a fraction of a second, that,
my god, I really could be deciding whether we all
live or die. Also of interest here, like anything else
(24:36):
matters after that. And I haven't even really gotten into
the climate refugees thing yet or the new reports of
underground climate change beneath the cities, because there's too much
heat under Chicago and things may sink or fall over.
But I think you will agree with me about this.
(24:58):
I need to laugh out of that. Maybe you do too,
And the Daily Beasts Confighter Media News provides said laugh
today as if I had written this myself. A phone
photo snapped in a place called Becho on restaurant Row
on forty sixth Street here in Manhattan, and it is
(25:18):
from last Wednesday. And what the photo hastily shows could
be nothing, or it could be the absolute last thing
the twenty twenty four presidential campaign needs. And what it
shows is Chris Christy having a bottle of sparkling water
and maybe sharing a meal with Chris Licked. Does this
(25:46):
restaurant Becho now serve not just pasta but pace Chris
Licked and Chris Christy. Hell, if anybody could destroy the
planet faster than trumpet'd be those two. And there's also
will laugh from January sixth. If you can believe that
(26:06):
woman in a big pink beret, wildly overdressed wanted for
January sixth misdemeanors FBI has been looking for for two years.
They tweet out a photo over guy is in line
at a crafts store somewhere. The friend holds up his
phone and shows him the photo of the woman in
the pink beret and the guy gasps and he says,
(26:31):
that's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman.
Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some predictions. Dateline Willington, Delaware, smart Matic suing Fox for
(26:53):
two billion, seven hundred million dollars because it wasn't only
dominion which Fox slandered, has now subpoenaed Steve Bannon and
Mike Flynn to sit for depositions in this law suit.
CNN reporting those depositions were scheduled for this week and
may still happen this week. This puts Bannon and Flynn
in tough spots. First, have you ever sat for a deposition?
(27:16):
The nicest one in the history of the planet was
an ordeal. But more importantly, this would ordinarily be where
Bannon and Flynn might try to thumb their noses at
the system. But the entire trump axis they still serve
depends on Fox's defamations of Smartmatic to somehow be proved true,
(27:37):
or maybe more correctly, to not be proved untrue. So
they kind of have to go through with the depositions
and kind of have to defend Fox. They also have
to supply subpoena documents, which in Bannon's case would all
be in crayon, and of course both of them first
have to try to remember what that word truth means.
(28:14):
Thank you, Nancy Faust dateline the good Ship Clarence Thomas's lollipop.
Pro Publica back with even more about America's only Supreme
Court justice who has a for sale sign growing out
of his ass. Turns out that yacht Harland Crowe used
to take his friend Thomas around the world on perfectly legal,
not at all bribes, wreaking of more corruption than a
(28:36):
mountain of rotting fruit cruises for tax purposes. Harlan crow
has a company that charters his super yacht, and see
it's lost a lot of money because the chartering hasn't
been going so well. So all the money lost is
deductible from Harlan Crowe's other taxes, which is legal except
if you're not really chartering your boat. And the Pro
(28:58):
Publica investigation and Senator Ron Wide of Oregon say, oh, snap,
there's no evidence he's charter it out. Based on what
information is available, Senator Wide and told Pro Publica this
has the look of a textbook billionaire tax scam. No kidding,
dateline your Nearest, Joanne Fabric and Crafts store. That is
(29:20):
where an unnamed citizen was standing in line when the
FBI tweeted a photo of a woman's suspect still wanted
for January sixth. This happened in the spring. His buddy
in line with him at the fabric store showed him
the FBI tweet on the phone and the photo of
the woman they were looking for, And as the man
recalled the moment to NBC News quote, I stopped dead
(29:43):
in my tracks. I'm like, that's Jenny, his ex girlfriend
who married somebody else. And they both went to January sixth,
him and a parka and a Maga hat, and she
in a fetching white jacket with red eyeliner and just
(30:04):
the most darling pink beret that made her look like
Eloise at the Plaza or something, and it was visible
from space. Naturally, the ex turned her in. She turns
out to be Jennifer Vargas, now Jennifer Vargas Geller, and
he is Spencer Geller, and he they say, was one
(30:26):
of the first to reach police lines at the Capitol
and he pushed bike racks at cops and they are
apparently living in Asia somewhere with a baby. He faces
a felony, she a couple of misdemeanors. We don't know
what kind of breakup that was with mister Joanne Fabrics.
But if he got crushed, man, has he got enough
revenge to last him? Forty seven lifetimes and dateline Hudson Yards,
(30:50):
New York City. The first week's ratings are in for
the new Caitlin Collins nine PM show on CNN Monday,
last place, Tuesday, last place, Wednesday, last place, Thursday, last place, Friday,
last place. She did, however, get into triple digits in
(31:10):
the advertising demo, so she had more than one hundred
thousand viewers aged twenty five to fifty four on one
of the five nights next still Ahead on Countdown, I
(31:40):
mentioned the arrival of Leonel Messi to take the Goat
Emeritus chair annually provided by Major League Soccer in this
country for the superstar who just hit his expiration date
and came here to wear else but Miami. And whatever
time you mentioned soccer, that means it's soccer breakdown o'clock.
(32:03):
Next first time for the round up with the miss grants,
morons and Dunnan krug effc specimens who constitute today's worst
persons in the world. Three two one Bron's Megan Kelly,
who does the fastest growing conservative podcast which gets metrics
are tough here, but it looks like she gets about
half the audience of this podcast. Keep up the bad work, Meg.
(32:26):
Part of the failure over there, just like part of
her failure at NBC was that she's just dyspeptic all
the time, lines complains, blames sneers. Also, the six tons
of makeup doesn't help. RFK Junior's sister, Carrie condemned her
brother's crazy talk about the vaccine, as did his nephew Joe.
(32:49):
Megan Kelly. She writes, look at these terrible family members.
No one was asking how does RFK Junior's sister feel
about his latest remarks. She just felt the need to
kick him when he was down nice. Obviously, people had
been seeking Carrie Kennedy's response because she is the president
of the Robert F. Kennedy human rights nonprofit advocacy organization
(33:11):
and her brother is the one who's inadvertently besmirching their
late father's name and their group's name. But Megan Kelly
wouldn't know that, because, in addition to being lazy, and
in addition to acting like she's had gas pain continuously
since nineteen ninety seven, Megan Kelly is also a dope.
The runner up Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. You know about
(33:33):
Cop City in Atlanta, the proposed secret fascist police training
ground planned there. Opponents want a referendum. Mayor Dickens last
week said no one in his administration or law enforcement
would get in the way of that constitutional right to
have one. Yesterday, the City of Atlanta filed a motion
in federal court I stopped the referendum, called it invalid
(33:57):
and futile. Invalid and futile, two words which now might
also describe Mayor Dickens's chances of getting reelected. But the
winner this vibek Ramaswami guy, another man who has mistaken
his own financial luck for intelligence, the Republican presidential longshot
who is carefully positioned to grab the nomination if the
(34:18):
white supremacists first eight choices. All Die has revealed his
short list of Supreme Court nominees, and he's got he's
got Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee on it, and
He also likes a US Appeals Court judge named Lawrence Vandyke,
and Judge Van Dyke is the one who made the profound,
(34:38):
historic ruling that has made life better for hundreds of
millions and untold generations to come. Van Dyke was the
one who said, yes, people running a beauty pageant can
exclude participants who are transgender. Second in importance only to
Brown v. Board in Education. In my opinion, My god,
(35:01):
this country wasted taxpayer dollars on court rulings about beauty
patcheans Vivek, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for the Supreme Court.
Why not Robert F. Kennedy Junior and Kanye Ramaswami. Today's
worst person I know it was Brown BeBoard of Education.
(35:22):
I said it wrong in the word to the number
one story on the Countdown and my favorite topic, me
and things I promised not to tell. You may enjoy
(35:44):
this one enough to keep a copy. Soccer Breakdown. Gary
Miller was one of the backbones of Sports Center. I
had worked with him at CNN. He was strong, confident,
very loud, forceful, He hated mascots, and he had no filter.
He and Dan Patrick were great friends in Atlanta. And
(36:06):
then Gary and Dan left for ESPN within months of
each other nineteen eighty nine nineteen ninety This has been
said of me, and so I say it of Gary
with affection. He suffered no fools gladly, and though his
elbows were always up, he made sure that ninety nine
percent of the time when they bumped into somebody, that
somebody had well deserved it. As near as I can
(36:27):
piece together, Gary was doing the eleven PM Sports Center
on Friday night, June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four. Typically,
Dan and I did the eleven Sunday through Thursday. The
story of soccer's nineteen ninety four World Cup. At least
in the first week, was a preponderance of player ejections
red cards handed them by the referee. In those days,
(36:48):
the eleven PM Sports Center included a feature two or
three minutes long on a story that had drummed up
a lot of interest during the first show planning meeting
around three point thirty PM. It was a feature called Breakdown.
It provided long form analysis in today's when we didn't
have a lot of that. Could be a coach getting fired,
could be the relative credentials of Baseball Hall of fame
(37:08):
candidates could be one fantastic play in a game. Once
we did a deadpan, serious breakdown about injuries to mascots.
A producer or the anchor himself would write the script.
They would pre record the narration, and then the producer
would edit it. This is pre digital. It was done
tape to tape. It could take hours to edit it,
(37:30):
and the key was to track it to record that narration,
which was done in a tiny wood paneled room wreaking
of mildew that looked and smelled exactly like every suburban
basement wreck room in America October nineteen sixty five. That's
where Gary Miller found himself on the night of Friday,
(37:51):
June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four, reading a script about
soccer players from around the world, none of whose names
he had ever seen before, let alone tried to pronounce.
It was the Soccer break Down in all senses of
the word. The raw tape, the original version of his
(38:13):
tracking session for the script for Soccer Breakdown, is easily
the most beloved bootleg in ESPN's history. In fact, it
is so popular that there are several different cuts of
this bootleg. People have sat down with the original tape,
which runs nearly twenty minutes, and edited it down to
only the best or worst parts. Now, I'm not going
(38:36):
to say I have a copy of the original I'm
simply going to note that Dan Patrick ran it on
his radio show in twenty seventeen and posted the whole
segment to YouTube. So yeah, that's where I got my
copy of it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I'm going to annotate for you what happened, So let
(38:57):
me present this to you in three segments. It did
not start well for Gary, and it got worse from there. Hello,
mister Miller gave it its eternal title and life by
going sibilant on the s for the word soccer, I'll
note only one thing. The acronym of International Soccer's outfit
FIFA garriotts pronounced FIFA.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Soccer breakdown in three two one PIPHO Soccer's governing party
three two one PIPHA Soccer's.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Three two one.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
The red card has become the calling card for this
year's tournament. Seven ejections for the three two one witness
Romania's ian Bladu against the Swiss is or.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Through christ Ah. But that was the easy part. Now
in the script came the names of the World Cup
stars who had been given red card ejections in the
first week of the tournament. One was the seventeen year
old star of the Cameroon team, rigor Bert's Song, often
referred to by his full name, Rigobert's Song Maahanog, or
(40:10):
as it was said in the script, Riggerbird Bahanog song.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Three two one Cameroons Riggleberg Vanunjog three two what Cameroons
Riggelberg Byan gung Zang Zada da Yanyang's song three two
one Cameroon's Riggelberg Banyang Zong.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Bay Onyang song three two one three two one. By
the way, Rigobert's Song is now the manager of the
Cameroon team. He's gone from being the youngest player in
the World Cup history to get a red card to
running his nation's team. I'll interject here that at the
start of this final major clip, Gary Miller says, to
somebody who has currently entered that tracking room that smelled
(41:07):
of mildew, get out of here. Dan Patrick said that
was him. I think he's mistaken. It doesn't matter much,
but there was no reason for Dan to have been
there on a Friday night, especially if we were not
doing the show. And also there has never been a
microphone ever, but Dan has not spoken into anyway. We
have already met Rigobert Mahanog's song, Now meet my guy,
(41:32):
the Italian goalie John Luca Poaliuca two get out of here?
Two is guilted through two? How long is this tayed? Three?
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Two one one good Cameron's Wriggleberg Bunyan song, providing a
breakaway from Brazil's babetto a Foah God Almighty, I hate Sucker,
Cameron's Wrigglberg Banyanyung song, I'm better try that one last
lead time two one Cameron's Wriggelberg Bunjung Yong song, Oh
(42:09):
I hate this chocop Olivia's Luis Cristaldo for both on
three to one, But the most notable red card of
the tournament came an Italian goaltender, Jean Luca Palyuca Pauloca
Pauluca the Mother three to one.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
But the flurry of.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Red cards thus far has Todd coaches and players alike
to control their play. Is they'd like to control their
fate in this tournament?
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Holy Lee, that is all the pronunciation of Rigovert's song's
name is one thing. I was delighted by how furious
Gary got at Gianluca Palyuka of the Italian team, and
the expletive he used to describe him, which you may
have just heard. In the days that followed. In fact,
the Italian goalies' name became shorthand for me for that
(43:00):
expletive in question. So for the next three years on
Sports Center and after that on Fox Sports News, and
then on my ESPN two show, and on Football Night
in America, and then when I returned to Sports Center
in twenty eighteen, if you heard me say John Luca
Paluka while we were showing a player making an error
or arguing with an umpire or official, I was actually
(43:22):
implying that the player had just said John Luca Palyuka.
There's another punchline to this story, of course, the idea
to do this soccer breakdown that so bedeviled Gary Miller,
the story of red cards in the first week of
the nineteen ninety four World Cup. The idea to do
that came from Gary Miller, never volunteer. I've never been
(43:48):
convinced that Gary was really happy about his immortality certainly
not in the way my ESPN pal Steve Levy not
so secretly glorious in the day He once tried to
say that a New England Patriots player had a bulging disc,
but didn't quite get disc right. But Gary Miller has
been a good sport about this through the end of
his ESPN career in two thousand and four and afterwards
(44:11):
in his days at Channel two and Channel nine in
Los Angeles and most recently at Channel two in Cincinnati.
It isn't hard to understand why this tape is so
famous and the pleasure derived from it so enduring. As
John Cleese once said about the real life hotel manager
on whom he based his character from Faulty Towers, he
had this wonderful bad temper. But there are two more things. One,
(44:35):
this occurred exactly a week to the day after the
OJ Simpson car chase, and people forget now just how
disturbing that was in America, especially Sports America, like at ESPN,
that with the exception of a few of us who knew,
nobody knew how rotten a human being OJ Simpson was.
(44:55):
So even a week later, we all needed this laugh,
and Gary gave it to US and even larger. The
essence of pie in every country in which it is
played is that it always allows, and encourages and even
demands that its fans complain about it. And so while
(45:15):
we cherish Soccer Breakdown and three two one and Rigobert
Mahananng's song and bibbutto and John Luca Paluka, to me,
it is really about five words that anybody who hates
the game will say. But there are also five words
that any fan of the sport will certainly use at
(45:36):
some point in his life, possibly at some point today.
And they are the five words with which I will
leave you for now. A Foh God, almighty, I hate soccer.
Since I first told you this story, I have, as
I mentioned, rediscovered an artifact that I thought was gone forever.
(45:59):
Right after the Soccer Breakdown saga unfolded, an ESPN colleague
made me a copy of the original raw tape of
Gary and we put it on a cassette and I
couldn't find it. There were things on it that were
somehow lost from all subsequent copies of Soccer Breakdown. So
(46:21):
this is not as high depth, but I think it's
even more high comedy.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Soccer breakdown in three two one after a nineteen ninety
World Cup marked by physical play in low scores, Piphas
Soccer's three to one after a nineteen ninety World Cup
mark by three two one. After a nineteen ninety World
Cup marked by physical play and low scores, PEIFA Soccer's
(46:49):
governing body sent out a decree for the nineteen ninety
four Cup to be better police the results. The red
card has become the calling card for this year's tournament.
Seven ejections for the three two one. After aneen ninety
World Cup marked by physical play and low scores, Piphus
Soccer's governing body sent out the decree for the nineteen
(47:11):
ninety four Cup to be better police the result. The
red card has become the calling card for this year's tournament.
Seven ejections through the first twenty three matches and a
direct message that rough play will not be tolerated and
more teams will be playing a man down if it continues.
The goal, more goals, and a more palatable sell to
the American public. Three two one the results just over
(47:37):
two and a half goals of contests compared to two
point two per game at the nineteen ninety Cup in Italy.
Why does the red card come out? A fife A
rule book states a player shall be sent off the
field of play and shown the red card if, in
the opinion of the referee he won is guilty of
violent conduct witness Romania's ian Bladu against the Swiss is
(47:58):
or through christ three two one. Why does the red
card come out? The fight for rule book states the
players should be set off the field of play and
shown the red card if, in the opinion of the
referee he won is guilty of violent conduct witness Romania's
ian Bladyu against the Swiss. Two is guilty of serious
(48:19):
foul play. Cameroons Rigolberg vanumnjog Van and Young Song prevented
a breakaway from the betto three to what two is
guilty of serious foul play. Cameroons Rigelberg Bayan Gung Zang
(48:39):
Zada Da Bayangyang song three two one two is guilty
of serious foul play. Cameroon's Rigolberg Banyang zong Bayan Yang
(49:00):
song three two one two Get out of here two
is guilty Through two How long is this tape? Two
is guilty of serious foul play. Cameroon's Riggleberg Bunyang song
prevented a breakaway from Brazil's babbetto a Foh God Almighty,
(49:21):
I hate sucker. Two is guilty of serious foul play.
Cameroon's Riggoberg Bun Yung jung song provided a breakaway from
Brazil's Bavetto, a play both serious and foul, deserving of
a red card. I'm better try that one last time.
Two one two is guilty of serious foul play. Cameroon's
(49:44):
Rigglebird bun Yung yong song prevented a breakaway from Brazil's
babetto a play both serious and foul and deserving of
a red card. Free use his foul or abusive language.
Can't show you that? And four is guilty of a
second cautionable I hate this free use his foul or
abusive language. And four is guilty of a second cautionable
(50:07):
offense after having received the caution. Chalcop Bolivia's Luis Cristaldo
for both on three to one. Chocop Bolivia is Luis
Cristaldo for both on this case, as he receives a
yellow card and then uses on a foul or abusive
language to draw a second yellow and be ejected against
South Korea. A tone was set in the first match
(50:28):
of the tournament when Bolivia's Marco Antonio Etcheveri was ejected
for this illegal kick against the Germans, but the most
notable red card of the tournament came an Italian goal
under Jean Luca Paulucca on the mother three to one.
But the most notable red card of the tournament came
when Italian goaltunder John Luca Pauloca was ejected against Norway
(50:50):
for a handball outside the goal where the game was
still schoolless three two one. But the most notable red
card of the tournament came when Italian goal tutor John
Luca Pauluca was ejected against Norway for a handball outside
the go with the game still scoreless down a man.
A team's first instinct is defense an injured Roberto Baggio,
(51:11):
who is now a liability, even if he is one
of the world's most talented offensive players. The gamble paid
off Italy still alive in this year's World Cup, but
the flurry of red cars thus far has taught coaches
and players alike to control their play.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
If they'd like to, and with that we welcome Lionel
Messi or is it a Lionel Messiah Brebeto. I've done
(51:52):
all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.
Here are the credits. Most of the music arrange produced
and performed by Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanel, who
are the Countdown musical directors. Guitars based and drums by
Brian Ray, All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillips Chanel,
produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged
and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. Sports music
(52:13):
is the Olberman theme from ESPN two, and it was
written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Musical
comments by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever.
Our announcer today was my friend Kenny Maine. Everything else
is pretty much my fault. Don't forget. Countdown now also
available on YouTube for those of you who prefer a
small animated me to accompany my reading of this script.
(52:38):
That's countdown for this the nine hundred and twenty fourth
days since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States, arrest him again while
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow bulletins
as the news warrants till then, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Hey, dude, there's
(53:01):
no way you would have gotten away with that. I know.
Luckily I cocaine like it's not my thing. Countdown with
Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. The
second set of Trump indictments by Special counsel Jack Smith,
(00:24):
which will come as early as Thursday in Washington. The
second set in as many months may make the first
ones look like a small stack of parking tickets. As
news has broken this morning and this afternoon, we are
seeing the outline of a huge number of counts, literally
dozens more. The June twenty ninth report by the British
(00:45):
newspaper The Independent of thirty to forty five more charges
being readied may actually turn out to be conservative. It
could be far more than forty five counts, and just
as breathtaking may be the range of the charges. Those
hazy details just coming into focus at the horizon could
include every thing from simple cheesy financial fraud to the
(01:08):
I word insurrection quote a sprawling case as it is
phrased by the sources of Robert Costa of CBS News
and again quoting them focused on how Trump acted after
he was informed by many that claiming the election was
rigged would be pushing fraud, and CBS goes on whether
(01:30):
Trump criminally conspired to block certification. Trump is clearly going
to be indicted by the Special Council again, conceivably as
early as this week, and this time there is reason
to believe he will be indicted not just for premeditated
fraud because he conned the gullible cultists for donations to
(01:50):
cure a stolen election he knew was not stolen, but
also indicted both for the palace coup that was the
phony electors scheme and the violent coup he unleashed statastically
every day between his ill be wild tweet of December
nineteenth and his speech on the Ellipse of January sixth.
(02:11):
At nine twenty one Eastern, this morning, Trump himself revealed
he is the recipient of yet another Jack Smith target letter.
Trump is driven by compulsions to talk about himself, the
likes of which even the rest of us egomaniacs could
not possibly process. One imagines that under its spell he
would have to stop passers by to tell them he
(02:33):
had been diagnosed with a venereal disease. This morning, Trump
posted the proud news that on Sunday night, his attorneys
informed him interrupting his dinner, that Jack Smith had written
to them quote stating that I am a target of
the January sixth, grand jury investigation and giving me a
(02:54):
very short four days to report to the grand jury,
which almost always means an arrests and indictment en quote. Well,
on the last part, Trump would know, would he not?
But as ever, Trump has gotten some details wrong. The
implication that Smith has given him quote four days to
report to the grand jury unquote, makes it sound like
(03:17):
he has been ordered to do so. He has not.
He has, in fact, been offered the chance to do so.
The timeline of the target letter is ritualized and invariable.
As a prosecutor nears that time that he will ask
his grand jury for an indictment or indictments, he will
notify the individuals likely to be indicted. He will give
them a chance to face the grand jury before any
(03:40):
indictment votes are taken. Trump has also inexplicably fuzzed up
the timing letters Sunday, posting about it here on Tuesday.
When did that four day clock start Sunday? Yesterday? Today? Happily.
Hugo Lowell in The Guardian sorts it out, quoting people
(04:01):
familiar saying the Special Council gave Trump until Thursday after
tomorrow to testify to this January sixth grand jury, and
as presumed, it is the one in Washington, not Florida
or anywhere else. Smith may have them like it's a
chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises, as implied by the
CBS sources. Costa referred to them as conversations with sources
(04:23):
close to witnesses in recent days. The case is so
sprawling that at this hour no news organization seems to
have a handle on exactly what the indictments will or
will not include. Politico notes that, based on testimony we
know about from the last few weeks in Washington, Jack
Smith's January sixth menu includes are you ready? The assembly
(04:47):
of false elector slates, fundraising for the January sixth rally,
plans to seize voting machines, pressure campaign against states, pressure
campaign against Pence, Trump actions on January sixth, and actually
that last one could be two separate category Trump's actions
on January sixth, namely what Trump did to foment the
(05:09):
violence that day and the coup attempt at the Capitol,
and separately, his deliberate inaction the Nero fiddles while Capitol
Hill burns part while the violence unfolded. A lot of
reporting lately has indicated repeated questioning at the grand jury
about how Trump, as president sworn to uphold the constitution
(05:30):
deliberately remained in art when his later actions proved he
knew damn well that just a few words from him
at any point could have ended the chaos immediately. A
few news outlets today have proved a few minor negatives
on this story. CNN reports Rudy Giuliani did not receive
(05:51):
a target letter, per his lawyer. Nobody is saying this
this bluntly, but it's damned certain Mark Meadows didn't receive
one either. Britain's The Independent rights that it quote understands
that Meadows is also co operating in the Justice Department
probe into the ex president's efforts to overturn his twenty
twenty election loss, it adds, last month, The Independent reported
(06:13):
that mister Meadows had given evidence before a Washington DC
grand jury under Smith's supervision as part of an agreement
that would see him eventually plead guilty to lesser federal
charges in exchange for his testimony against mister Trump and
other figures. We also have a few negative ironies. The
beginning of Jack Smith's actual prosecution of Trump for the
(06:35):
stolen classified documents. Oh yeah, remember that that was the
story five hours ago, the first hearing in the Florida
courtroom of that ex Miami newspaper writer Judge Eileen Cannon,
well known and regarded for her features on yoga and
flamenco dancing. That hearing has been completely overshadowed. Republicans trying
(06:58):
to reinflate Jamie Comer's burst sex doll of a fantasy
that there is a hunter Biden's scandal are claiming they
have been deliberately overshadowed, and that word overshadowed hardly suffices
for what has now happened to one of Trump's rivals
for the Republican nomination. Ron DeSantis, was to be interviewed
(07:18):
live on CNN at four Eastern time today. I'll be
sure to set my DVR and watch it next century.
Please do not mistake this for empathy for Ron DeSantis
in the slightest, but I get the feeling that if
Donald Trump were to fall or jump out a window
(07:38):
or be pushed like a Russian oligarch, he would survive
unscathed because he would land on Ron DeSantis, all right,
back to the business. When will there be clarity on
what has happened on the scope or at least the
volume of the indictments before they are actually handed up
(08:02):
Like an estimate, Jack, could you just round it to
the nearest one hundred. Maybe it is possible that Trump
already has some of this clarity we seek. The New
York Times notes target letters often list at least some
of the possible violations of federal criminal laws that a
grand jury is investigating. If the January sixth related target
(08:24):
letter to Trump and his legal team followed that practice,
it is possible that word of any specific potential charges
it flags will surface before long unquote translation, we go
back to Trump's compulsion to talk. He may have some
of those details now. If he senses he needs the
publicity or the martyrdom points, he may dole those details
(08:48):
out later. Finally, I circle back to the always instructive
Trump Freudian slips. This is the one from last Saturday.
It fascinated me, then it fascinates me even more now.
Mind you, this would have gone up on his social
media site roughly twenty eight hours before he got the
(09:08):
new Jack Smith target letter and was told whatever was
in it, including those possible details he might not yet
have mentioned quote hidden his post. Whatever happened to the
Biden document's case? Twenty times more documents than I have,
and I'm allowed under the Presidential Records Act, and he's not.
(09:28):
What about the classified docs he had in Chinatown and
on his garage floor in Delaware? Is he being charged
under the Insurrection Act? The Insurrection Act? Within half an
hour of posting that, Trump or somebody had deleted that
(09:49):
post and replaced it with one that was identical, but
for one word. Insurrection Act had been replaced with Espionage Act.
I spent way too much of your time yesterday morning
trying to explain that there are no non Freudian Trumps.
They all reflect some obsession going on inside that semi
(10:09):
human brain of his. There could conceivably some non prosecutorial
part to this. Here he could have been reminded of
the word insurrection because somebody in his company wants to
build a nine hundred and seventeen story Trump Insurrection apartment
tower and above ground cemetery in Saudi Arabia or something.
(10:32):
But again, there are two different Insurrection Acts. One is
the disqualification clause inside the third paragraph of the fourteenth
Amendment of the Constitution. It's the Civil War law that
kept seditionists from again holding any state or national office.
There is also criminal insurrection, and it carries jail time.
(10:54):
It's something separate, and certainly Trump's refusal to stop his
remote control mob on the afternoon of January sixth qualifies
for prosecution under it. But the bigger detail is the
new detail on the timeline. Trump was thinking about the
Insurrection Act for whatever reason on Saturday. Somebody had to
(11:16):
have mentioned it to him in some context Saturday or earlier,
and around twenty eight hours later he was told he
was about to be indicted for the insurrection on January sixth. Coincidence,
I think not. I'll have the regular Wednesday podcast with
(11:43):
more on Trump's indictment, barring developments dropping at the usual hour.
We'll be here it just after midnight Eastern early Wednesday morning,
and I'll throw in whatever else I can put together
between now and then, and whatever else Trump says about this.
The rest of this podcast you're listening to now is
simply a replay of this morning's edition in its entirety.
(12:06):
As always, if you have already heard it, hit stop
now I will not take offense. Today, Eileen Mercedes Cannon
(12:29):
will begin to decide whether we all live or die. This,
sadly is not hyperbole. The federal judge, who has presided
over a total of four trials for a total of
fourteen days in the totality of her life, will today
make the first of a series of decisions that will
ultimately end with whether we all live or die. The
(12:54):
forest really can never be seen because we are next
to the trees. And how fitting the analogy is because
while we are down here taking samples of the bark
to check marking by Jack Smith, the big picture is
this Judge Eileen Cannon will at minimum help to decide
whether or not Donald Trump is kept out of the
(13:14):
White House, and that will at minimum help to decide
whether or not we have any chance of maintaining a
president who will lead this nation and thus this world
through climate change and the changes we must make in
response to it. It really is that stark, and I
think we forget about it, and then something snaps the
(13:34):
picture into focus, and in my case, it is two pictures.
The first is that one grinning idiot in the black
San Diego shirt and the black shorts and the black
cap and the black sunglasses in Death Valley, California, taking
selfies with a digital thermometer reading one hundred and thirty
one degrees, both as if that heat could not kill
(13:57):
him personally, and as if that one hundred and thirty
one degree temperature was temporary or transient or unique to
that locale or something he has to take a picture
of so he can preserve it for his grandchildren. And oh,
by the way, at the present rate of acceleration of
the climate catastrophe, don't worry about preserving it for your grandchildren,
because you're not going to have any nor is anybody else,
(14:20):
because the last words Donald Trump will ever speak on
this earth will be about how money is more important
than anything else, or how climate change is a hoax.
We're both. The other image was of this redneck Jason Aldean,
the pride of Maga New Year's Eve guest at marri Lago,
Trump kissed the top of his wife's head. She posted photos.
(14:41):
Trump is clearly staring down passed her head into her cleavage.
He is the yodeling darling of the climate denial crowd
and dropping a song last Friday, Daring Black protesters to
quote the title. Try that in a small town, and
then two days later he had to run off the
stage and get two ivs stuck in him so he
(15:03):
did not lose conscious while singing in the ferocious tropical
heat of Hartford, Connecticut in July at night. But there's
no man made climate change. Try that in a small town, Jason,
after the energy grid there has failed and your governor
(15:25):
has chased away all the hospitals and the doctors because
woke as I stared at the Canadian wildfire smoke out
my window. Yesterday, a baseball announcer on my TV was
complaining about the Canadian wildfire smoke out his window. In Cincinnati, Ohio.
It was one hundred and nine degrees in Rome, and
(15:46):
they were laughing about that in Miami, where the first
ever excessive heat warning predicted one hundred and ten degrees,
and they were laughing about that in Sanbao in China,
where it was one hundred and twenty six degrees. And no,
they were not laughing at Persian Gulf Airport, which is
in Iran but is actually close to Dubai than anywhere else.
And it didn't matter because it was one hundred and
(16:10):
fifty two one hundred and fifty two degrees at Persian
Golf Airport in Iran. The last actual safe temperature for
the average human is a wet bulb thermometer reading of
ninety five degrees. So if at one hundred and fifty
two the power had failed at Persian Golf Airport, I
(16:30):
mean again energy grid failure. As if this were Texas,
there would have been a mass casualty event. Judge Cannon
is to tell Trump's lawyers and Walton out his lawyers
and Jack Smith's team of lawyers. Some preliminary findings about
the process for handling classified information at the Trump trial,
(16:53):
and all the indications she gave yesterday suggested she would
be adding an item to the agenda, the planned trial
start date and timeline discuss history does not usually schedule
stuff this important in advance and tell us about it.
Everybody in Europe was not informed. On June fifteenth, Hey,
(17:15):
on the twenty eighth Archduke Ferdinand of Austro Hungary. He's
gonna make this damn fool trip anyway to Sarajevo, and
though the bomb they will throw at him at the
train station is gonna miss the Archduke will still be
too stupid to call off the trip at that point,
and his driver, who doesn't speak German, won't understand the
(17:36):
revised driving rout out of the city, so he'll take
the old one and he'll wind up on Franz Joseph
Street and he'll have to pull a U turn right
in front of where one of the bomb throwers co
conspirators happens to be standing despond it because the plot failed.
So the co conspirator can put bullets into the Archduke
and the arch Duchess and that will start the World
War and twenty million people will die. And because the
peace will resolve nothing, there'll be another World war in
(17:58):
twenty five years, seventy five million more people will die.
So don't make other plans for the twenty eighth that
doesn't happen. We were not forewarned about the day John
Brown decided, Yeah, okay, I'm doing this. I'm going to
Harper's Ferry, and nobody in ten sixty six told England
the Normans will be here Wednesday, and the media was
(18:20):
not alerted when Hitler was let out early because they
were convinced he po's no further threat, and nobody pointed
at that one rat scurrying off the ship just anchoring
at Messina and said that's the one bubonic plague right there.
And nobody ever said, hey, my feet hurt. Tomorrow, I'm
just going to try to live in one place and
(18:41):
raise the crops here rather than searching for them all day.
I'm going to call it a I'm still working on this,
but I'm going to call it a farm. And nobody
comes back from anywhere or any time to warn you
to save Sarah Connor. And yet here we are, at
some point today Eileen Cannon, who twenty years ago was
(19:05):
writing features for the Miami Spanish language newspaper El Nuevo
Herald about festivals and yoga and I swear to God
about flamenco dancing. She will make the first of a
series of decisions that will ultimately decide whether we all
live or die. And they're not ultimate decisions or final decisions,
(19:28):
but they are among the ones which will be. And
she could, if not today then soon literally knock all
the guard rails off the fight against climate change. Because
for those of you far more milletant about this topic
than I am, I will not insult you in say
America has led our magnificent worldwide struggle that has succeeded
(19:50):
in slowing down the catastrophe by a couple of weeks. Maybe,
but you and I still both know that if the
critical decisions about saving life on this planet are to
be made in the next five years, and Donald Trump
is president for any stretch of those five years, we're
all dead pinpoint. Whether one hundred and fifty two degrees
(20:11):
waves of climate refugees expected between noon and one pm
and the UV index on a scale of one to
eleven is I'm sorry the power grid failed again. There
was a piece in The New York Times yesterday about
the Trump roadmap towards authoritarianism if he gets a second term,
and most of it is a louder and scarier presentation
(20:33):
of Schedule F, the federalist fascist plan to eliminate career
employees in the government and give the president hiring and
firing power over everybody, like in Iran, where it's already
one hundred and fifty two degrees. And the article was
kind of summarized in one quote from a totalitarian named
Russell T. Vote, who ran omb during the defendant's regime
(20:58):
and is now dictator of the Center for Renewing America,
and the quote was, what we're trying to do is
identify by the pockets of independence and seize them. And
you can see that quote, and then the video in
your mind goes into high speed fast forward, and at
some point in the future, months, years, decades, you get
(21:18):
to there being absolutely nobody in the government, or in
the Congress or in the Supreme Court to even say
no when Trump decides it, no matter what the twenty
fifth Amendment says that because of whatever, because of whatever,
he deserves a third term and he's running for it. Critics,
(21:38):
including a lot on the left, thought that piece in
The Times was overripe and served basically as just thousands
of words of what we used to call institutional advertising
for MAGA and Trump and the Federalist Society, provided free
courtesy of The New York Times. Because while Trump's ability
to enact all this not federalism but feudalism would be
(22:00):
better than it was when he tried it in twenty seventeen,
it would still we'll be held up, delayed, at least
by courts and by bureaucrats, and especially by a democratic
Senate or House, to say nothing of citizen protests. We
ever do that again, like everybody in the Blue States
refusing to pay any more taxes to keep the Red
States from going bankrupt and everybody starving there inside of
(22:22):
a month. But other than a passing reference to the
Environmental Protection Agency being one of those units that would
be brought directly under Trump's control if he can get
away with it, there was not one word in there
about the much simpler path for Donald Trump to destroy
America this time around, and that is to regain the
White House and again roll back as many green initiatives
(22:45):
and climate efforts as he can. I mean, when he
can kill us all by just sitting around on his
lard ass for four years, accepting the cheers of fifty
million jason Al dens, just before they all keel over
because they could not stand the heat forty five minutes
away from check notes ESPN World Headquarters. What does Trump
(23:09):
need with schedule F and system overhauls and Project twenty
twenty five, project one hundred degrees every day in beautiful
downtown Bristol, Connecticut. That'll do the job. I just keep
thinking of that poor dumb f in the sunglasses, standing
(23:30):
next to that digital thermometer and death Valley and thinking
one hundred and thirty one degrees, Well, thank goodness, I
got a shot of it. It'll never be this hot again.
And now I'm starting to wonder if the dinosaurs stood
around taking selfies of that spectacular light show in the
sky when the big meteor hit. And I find myself
(23:51):
wondering also if, at any point before she settles in
for her fifteenth real day as a judge doing real
judge things today, Aileen Cannon will see the forest in
spite of the trees, or wonder what does happen if
don Trump gets another chance to kill all the trees,
or if it will even ever flit across the most
(24:13):
distant recesses of her mind for a fraction of a second, that,
my god, I really could be deciding whether we all
live or die. Also of interest here, like anything else
(24:36):
matters after that. And I haven't even really gotten into
the climate refugees thing yet or the new reports of
underground climate change beneath the cities, because there's too much
heat under Chicago and things may sink or fall over.
But I think you will agree with me about this.
(24:58):
I need to laugh out of that. Maybe you do too,
And the Daily Beasts Confighter Media News provides said laugh
today as if I had written this myself. A phone
photo snapped in a place called Becho on restaurant Row
on forty sixth Street here in Manhattan, and it is
(25:18):
from last Wednesday. And what the photo hastily shows could
be nothing, or it could be the absolute last thing
the twenty twenty four presidential campaign needs. And what it
shows is Chris Christy having a bottle of sparkling water
and maybe sharing a meal with Chris Licked. Does this
(25:46):
restaurant Becho now serve not just pasta but pace Chris
Licked and Chris Christy. Hell, if anybody could destroy the
planet faster than trumpet'd be those two. And there's also
will laugh from January sixth. If you can believe that
(26:06):
woman in a big pink beret, wildly overdressed wanted for
January sixth misdemeanors FBI has been looking for for two years.
They tweet out a photo over guy is in line
at a crafts store somewhere. The friend holds up his
phone and shows him the photo of the woman in
the pink beret and the guy gasps and he says,
(26:31):
that's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman.
Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some predictions. Dateline Willington, Delaware, smart Matic suing Fox for
(26:53):
two billion, seven hundred million dollars because it wasn't only
dominion which Fox slandered, has now subpoenaed Steve Bannon and
Mike Flynn to sit for depositions in this law suit.
CNN reporting those depositions were scheduled for this week and
may still happen this week. This puts Bannon and Flynn
in tough spots. First, have you ever sat for a deposition?
(27:16):
The nicest one in the history of the planet was
an ordeal. But more importantly, this would ordinarily be where
Bannon and Flynn might try to thumb their noses at
the system. But the entire trump axis they still serve
depends on Fox's defamations of Smartmatic to somehow be proved true,
(27:37):
or maybe more correctly, to not be proved untrue. So
they kind of have to go through with the depositions
and kind of have to defend Fox. They also have
to supply subpoena documents, which in Bannon's case would all
be in crayon, and of course both of them first
have to try to remember what that word truth means.
(28:14):
Thank you, Nancy Faust dateline the good Ship Clarence Thomas's lollipop.
Pro Publica back with even more about America's only Supreme
Court justice who has a for sale sign growing out
of his ass. Turns out that yacht Harland Crowe used
to take his friend Thomas around the world on perfectly legal,
not at all bribes, wreaking of more corruption than a
(28:36):
mountain of rotting fruit cruises for tax purposes. Harlan crow
has a company that charters his super yacht, and see
it's lost a lot of money because the chartering hasn't
been going so well. So all the money lost is
deductible from Harlan Crowe's other taxes, which is legal except
if you're not really chartering your boat. And the Pro
(28:58):
Publica investigation and Senator Ron Wide of Oregon say, oh, snap,
there's no evidence he's charter it out. Based on what
information is available, Senator Wide and told Pro Publica this
has the look of a textbook billionaire tax scam. No kidding,
dateline your Nearest, Joanne Fabric and Crafts store. That is
(29:20):
where an unnamed citizen was standing in line when the
FBI tweeted a photo of a woman's suspect still wanted
for January sixth. This happened in the spring. His buddy
in line with him at the fabric store showed him
the FBI tweet on the phone and the photo of
the woman they were looking for, And as the man
recalled the moment to NBC News quote, I stopped dead
(29:43):
in my tracks. I'm like, that's Jenny, his ex girlfriend
who married somebody else. And they both went to January sixth,
him and a parka and a Maga hat, and she
in a fetching white jacket with red eyeliner and just
(30:04):
the most darling pink beret that made her look like
Eloise at the Plaza or something, and it was visible
from space. Naturally, the ex turned her in. She turns
out to be Jennifer Vargas, now Jennifer Vargas Geller, and
he is Spencer Geller, and he they say, was one
(30:26):
of the first to reach police lines at the Capitol
and he pushed bike racks at cops and they are
apparently living in Asia somewhere with a baby. He faces
a felony, she a couple of misdemeanors. We don't know
what kind of breakup that was with mister Joanne Fabrics.
But if he got crushed, man, has he got enough
revenge to last him? Forty seven lifetimes and dateline Hudson Yards,
(30:50):
New York City. The first week's ratings are in for
the new Caitlin Collins nine PM show on CNN Monday,
last place, Tuesday, last place, Wednesday, last place, Thursday, last place, Friday,
last place. She did, however, get into triple digits in
(31:10):
the advertising demo, so she had more than one hundred
thousand viewers aged twenty five to fifty four on one
of the five nights next still Ahead on Countdown, I
(31:40):
mentioned the arrival of Leonel Messi to take the Goat
Emeritus chair annually provided by Major League Soccer in this
country for the superstar who just hit his expiration date
and came here to wear else but Miami. And whatever
time you mentioned soccer, that means it's soccer breakdown o'clock.
(32:03):
Next first time for the round up with the miss grants,
morons and Dunnan krug effc specimens who constitute today's worst
persons in the world. Three two one Bron's Megan Kelly,
who does the fastest growing conservative podcast which gets metrics
are tough here, but it looks like she gets about
half the audience of this podcast. Keep up the bad work, Meg.
(32:26):
Part of the failure over there, just like part of
her failure at NBC was that she's just dyspeptic all
the time, lines complains, blames sneers. Also, the six tons
of makeup doesn't help. RFK Junior's sister, Carrie condemned her
brother's crazy talk about the vaccine, as did his nephew Joe.
(32:49):
Megan Kelly. She writes, look at these terrible family members.
No one was asking how does RFK Junior's sister feel
about his latest remarks. She just felt the need to
kick him when he was down nice. Obviously, people had
been seeking Carrie Kennedy's response because she is the president
of the Robert F. Kennedy human rights nonprofit advocacy organization
(33:11):
and her brother is the one who's inadvertently besmirching their
late father's name and their group's name. But Megan Kelly
wouldn't know that, because, in addition to being lazy, and
in addition to acting like she's had gas pain continuously
since nineteen ninety seven, Megan Kelly is also a dope.
The runner up Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. You know about
(33:33):
Cop City in Atlanta, the proposed secret fascist police training
ground planned there. Opponents want a referendum. Mayor Dickens last
week said no one in his administration or law enforcement
would get in the way of that constitutional right to
have one. Yesterday, the City of Atlanta filed a motion
in federal court I stopped the referendum, called it invalid
(33:57):
and futile. Invalid and futile, two words which now might
also describe Mayor Dickens's chances of getting reelected. But the
winner this vibek Ramaswami guy, another man who has mistaken
his own financial luck for intelligence, the Republican presidential longshot
who is carefully positioned to grab the nomination if the
(34:18):
white supremacists first eight choices. All Die has revealed his
short list of Supreme Court nominees, and he's got he's
got Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee on it, and
He also likes a US Appeals Court judge named Lawrence Vandyke,
and Judge Van Dyke is the one who made the profound,
(34:38):
historic ruling that has made life better for hundreds of
millions and untold generations to come. Van Dyke was the
one who said, yes, people running a beauty pageant can
exclude participants who are transgender. Second in importance only to
Brown v. Board in Education. In my opinion, My god,
(35:01):
this country wasted taxpayer dollars on court rulings about beauty
patcheans Vivek, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for the Supreme Court.
Why not Robert F. Kennedy Junior and Kanye Ramaswami. Today's
worst person I know it was Brown BeBoard of Education.
(35:22):
I said it wrong in the word to the number
one story on the Countdown and my favorite topic, me
and things I promised not to tell. You may enjoy
(35:44):
this one enough to keep a copy. Soccer Breakdown. Gary
Miller was one of the backbones of Sports Center. I
had worked with him at CNN. He was strong, confident,
very loud, forceful, He hated mascots, and he had no filter.
He and Dan Patrick were great friends in Atlanta. And
(36:06):
then Gary and Dan left for ESPN within months of
each other nineteen eighty nine nineteen ninety This has been
said of me, and so I say it of Gary
with affection. He suffered no fools gladly, and though his
elbows were always up, he made sure that ninety nine
percent of the time when they bumped into somebody, that
somebody had well deserved it. As near as I can
(36:27):
piece together, Gary was doing the eleven PM Sports Center
on Friday night, June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four. Typically,
Dan and I did the eleven Sunday through Thursday. The
story of soccer's nineteen ninety four World Cup. At least
in the first week, was a preponderance of player ejections
red cards handed them by the referee. In those days,
(36:48):
the eleven PM Sports Center included a feature two or
three minutes long on a story that had drummed up
a lot of interest during the first show planning meeting
around three point thirty PM. It was a feature called Breakdown.
It provided long form analysis in today's when we didn't
have a lot of that. Could be a coach getting fired,
could be the relative credentials of Baseball Hall of fame
(37:08):
candidates could be one fantastic play in a game. Once
we did a deadpan, serious breakdown about injuries to mascots.
A producer or the anchor himself would write the script.
They would pre record the narration, and then the producer
would edit it. This is pre digital. It was done
tape to tape. It could take hours to edit it,
(37:30):
and the key was to track it to record that narration,
which was done in a tiny wood paneled room wreaking
of mildew that looked and smelled exactly like every suburban
basement wreck room in America October nineteen sixty five. That's
where Gary Miller found himself on the night of Friday,
(37:51):
June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four, reading a script about
soccer players from around the world, none of whose names
he had ever seen before, let alone tried to pronounce.
It was the Soccer break Down in all senses of
the word. The raw tape, the original version of his
(38:13):
tracking session for the script for Soccer Breakdown, is easily
the most beloved bootleg in ESPN's history. In fact, it
is so popular that there are several different cuts of
this bootleg. People have sat down with the original tape,
which runs nearly twenty minutes, and edited it down to
only the best or worst parts. Now, I'm not going
(38:36):
to say I have a copy of the original I'm
simply going to note that Dan Patrick ran it on
his radio show in twenty seventeen and posted the whole
segment to YouTube. So yeah, that's where I got my
copy of it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I'm going to annotate for you what happened, So let
(38:57):
me present this to you in three segments. It did
not start well for Gary, and it got worse from there. Hello,
mister Miller gave it its eternal title and life by
going sibilant on the s for the word soccer, I'll
note only one thing. The acronym of International Soccer's outfit
FIFA garriotts pronounced FIFA.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Soccer breakdown in three two one PIPHO Soccer's governing party
three two one PIPHA Soccer's.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Three two one.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
The red card has become the calling card for this
year's tournament. Seven ejections for the three two one witness
Romania's ian Bladu against the Swiss is or.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Through christ Ah. But that was the easy part. Now
in the script came the names of the World Cup
stars who had been given red card ejections in the
first week of the tournament. One was the seventeen year
old star of the Cameroon team, rigor Bert's Song, often
referred to by his full name, Rigobert's Song Maahanog, or
(40:10):
as it was said in the script, Riggerbird Bahanog song.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Three two one Cameroons Riggleberg Vanunjog three two what Cameroons
Riggelberg Byan gung Zang Zada da Yanyang's song three two
one Cameroon's Riggelberg Banyang Zong.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Bay Onyang song three two one three two one. By
the way, Rigobert's Song is now the manager of the
Cameroon team. He's gone from being the youngest player in
the World Cup history to get a red card to
running his nation's team. I'll interject here that at the
start of this final major clip, Gary Miller says, to
somebody who has currently entered that tracking room that smelled
(41:07):
of mildew, get out of here. Dan Patrick said that
was him. I think he's mistaken. It doesn't matter much,
but there was no reason for Dan to have been
there on a Friday night, especially if we were not
doing the show. And also there has never been a
microphone ever, but Dan has not spoken into anyway. We
have already met Rigobert Mahanog's song, Now meet my guy,
(41:32):
the Italian goalie John Luca Poaliuca two get out of here?
Two is guilted through two? How long is this tayed? Three?
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Two one one good Cameron's Wriggleberg Bunyan song, providing a
breakaway from Brazil's babetto a Foah God Almighty, I hate Sucker,
Cameron's Wrigglberg Banyanyung song, I'm better try that one last
lead time two one Cameron's Wriggelberg Bunjung Yong song, Oh
(42:09):
I hate this chocop Olivia's Luis Cristaldo for both on
three to one, But the most notable red card of
the tournament came an Italian goaltender, Jean Luca Palyuca Pauloca
Pauluca the Mother three to one.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
But the flurry of.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Red cards thus far has Todd coaches and players alike
to control their play. Is they'd like to control their
fate in this tournament?
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Holy Lee, that is all the pronunciation of Rigovert's song's
name is one thing. I was delighted by how furious
Gary got at Gianluca Palyuka of the Italian team, and
the expletive he used to describe him, which you may
have just heard. In the days that followed. In fact,
the Italian goalies' name became shorthand for me for that
(43:00):
expletive in question. So for the next three years on
Sports Center and after that on Fox Sports News, and
then on my ESPN two show, and on Football Night
in America, and then when I returned to Sports Center
in twenty eighteen, if you heard me say John Luca
Paluka while we were showing a player making an error
or arguing with an umpire or official, I was actually
(43:22):
implying that the player had just said John Luca Palyuka.
There's another punchline to this story, of course, the idea
to do this soccer breakdown that so bedeviled Gary Miller,
the story of red cards in the first week of
the nineteen ninety four World Cup. The idea to do
that came from Gary Miller, never volunteer. I've never been
(43:48):
convinced that Gary was really happy about his immortality certainly
not in the way my ESPN pal Steve Levy not
so secretly glorious in the day He once tried to
say that a New England Patriots player had a bulging disc,
but didn't quite get disc right. But Gary Miller has
been a good sport about this through the end of
his ESPN career in two thousand and four and afterwards
(44:11):
in his days at Channel two and Channel nine in
Los Angeles and most recently at Channel two in Cincinnati.
It isn't hard to understand why this tape is so
famous and the pleasure derived from it so enduring. As
John Cleese once said about the real life hotel manager
on whom he based his character from Faulty Towers, he
had this wonderful bad temper. But there are two more things. One,
(44:35):
this occurred exactly a week to the day after the
OJ Simpson car chase, and people forget now just how
disturbing that was in America, especially Sports America, like at ESPN,
that with the exception of a few of us who knew,
nobody knew how rotten a human being OJ Simpson was.
(44:55):
So even a week later, we all needed this laugh,
and Gary gave it to US and even larger. The
essence of pie in every country in which it is
played is that it always allows, and encourages and even
demands that its fans complain about it. And so while
(45:15):
we cherish Soccer Breakdown and three two one and Rigobert
Mahananng's song and bibbutto and John Luca Paluka, to me,
it is really about five words that anybody who hates
the game will say. But there are also five words
that any fan of the sport will certainly use at
(45:36):
some point in his life, possibly at some point today.
And they are the five words with which I will
leave you for now. A Foh God, almighty, I hate soccer.
Since I first told you this story, I have, as
I mentioned, rediscovered an artifact that I thought was gone forever.
(45:59):
Right after the Soccer Breakdown saga unfolded, an ESPN colleague
made me a copy of the original raw tape of
Gary and we put it on a cassette and I
couldn't find it. There were things on it that were
somehow lost from all subsequent copies of Soccer Breakdown. So
(46:21):
this is not as high depth, but I think it's
even more high comedy.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Soccer breakdown in three two one after a nineteen ninety
World Cup marked by physical play in low scores, Piphas
Soccer's three to one after a nineteen ninety World Cup
mark by three two one. After a nineteen ninety World
Cup marked by physical play and low scores, PEIFA Soccer's
(46:49):
governing body sent out a decree for the nineteen ninety
four Cup to be better police the results. The red
card has become the calling card for this year's tournament.
Seven ejections for the three two one. After aneen ninety
World Cup marked by physical play and low scores, Piphus
Soccer's governing body sent out the decree for the nineteen
(47:11):
ninety four Cup to be better police the result. The
red card has become the calling card for this year's tournament.
Seven ejections through the first twenty three matches and a
direct message that rough play will not be tolerated and
more teams will be playing a man down if it continues.
The goal, more goals, and a more palatable sell to
the American public. Three two one the results just over
(47:37):
two and a half goals of contests compared to two
point two per game at the nineteen ninety Cup in Italy.
Why does the red card come out? A fife A
rule book states a player shall be sent off the
field of play and shown the red card if, in
the opinion of the referee he won is guilty of
violent conduct witness Romania's ian Bladu against the Swiss is
(47:58):
or through christ three two one. Why does the red
card come out? The fight for rule book states the
players should be set off the field of play and
shown the red card if, in the opinion of the
referee he won is guilty of violent conduct witness Romania's
ian Bladyu against the Swiss. Two is guilty of serious
(48:19):
foul play. Cameroons Rigolberg vanumnjog Van and Young Song prevented
a breakaway from the betto three to what two is
guilty of serious foul play. Cameroons Rigelberg Bayan Gung Zang
(48:39):
Zada Da Bayangyang song three two one two is guilty
of serious foul play. Cameroon's Rigolberg Banyang zong Bayan Yang
(49:00):
song three two one two Get out of here two
is guilty Through two How long is this tape? Two
is guilty of serious foul play. Cameroon's Riggleberg Bunyang song
prevented a breakaway from Brazil's babbetto a Foh God Almighty,
(49:21):
I hate sucker. Two is guilty of serious foul play.
Cameroon's Riggoberg Bun Yung jung song provided a breakaway from
Brazil's Bavetto, a play both serious and foul, deserving of
a red card. I'm better try that one last time.
Two one two is guilty of serious foul play. Cameroon's
(49:44):
Rigglebird bun Yung yong song prevented a breakaway from Brazil's
babetto a play both serious and foul and deserving of
a red card. Free use his foul or abusive language.
Can't show you that? And four is guilty of a
second cautionable I hate this free use his foul or
abusive language. And four is guilty of a second cautionable
(50:07):
offense after having received the caution. Chalcop Bolivia's Luis Cristaldo
for both on three to one. Chocop Bolivia is Luis
Cristaldo for both on this case, as he receives a
yellow card and then uses on a foul or abusive
language to draw a second yellow and be ejected against
South Korea. A tone was set in the first match
(50:28):
of the tournament when Bolivia's Marco Antonio Etcheveri was ejected
for this illegal kick against the Germans, but the most
notable red card of the tournament came an Italian goal
under Jean Luca Paulucca on the mother three to one.
But the most notable red card of the tournament came
when Italian goaltunder John Luca Pauloca was ejected against Norway
(50:50):
for a handball outside the goal where the game was
still schoolless three two one. But the most notable red
card of the tournament came when Italian goal tutor John
Luca Pauluca was ejected against Norway for a handball outside
the go with the game still scoreless down a man.
A team's first instinct is defense an injured Roberto Baggio,
(51:11):
who is now a liability, even if he is one
of the world's most talented offensive players. The gamble paid
off Italy still alive in this year's World Cup, but
the flurry of red cars thus far has taught coaches
and players alike to control their play.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
If they'd like to, and with that we welcome Lionel
Messi or is it a Lionel Messiah Brebeto. I've done
(51:52):
all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.
Here are the credits. Most of the music arrange produced
and performed by Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanel, who
are the Countdown musical directors. Guitars based and drums by
Brian Ray, All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillips Chanel,
produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged
and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. Sports music
(52:13):
is the Olberman theme from ESPN two, and it was
written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Musical
comments by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever.
Our announcer today was my friend Kenny Maine. Everything else
is pretty much my fault. Don't forget. Countdown now also
available on YouTube for those of you who prefer a
small animated me to accompany my reading of this script.
(52:38):
That's countdown for this the nine hundred and twenty fourth
days since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States, arrest him again while
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow bulletins
as the news warrants till then, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Hey, dude, there's
(53:01):
no way you would have gotten away with that. I know.
Luckily I cocaine like it's not my thing. Countdown with
Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
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