January 3, 2023 • 34 mins
EPISODE 104: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) Of course, in the spirit of the candidate, and the entire Republican Party, when I say "I know who the secret candidate for speaker is," I might be lying. I am, however, telling the truth about the inevitability of the farce that must result if you run endless Political Purity Tests and try to use The Universal Solvent as a political tool. (6:20) Also ruining the Republicans' day, the George Santos saga. More lies - about Covid and Brain Tumors - and the Brazilians reviving their prosecution of Santos for fraud. (7:39) And were that not enough to spoil the coronation or schlock-blocking of McCarthy, there are the final Farewell Gifts from The House January 6th Committee, from Steve Bannon's plan for a January 21st Coup to Hope Hicks' breathless worry about her resume leading to the rhetorical question "Whaddya mean, NOW?"
B-Block (15:30) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Polo in New York (17:11) IN SPORTS: The health of Martina Navratilova, the self-defeating success of Outdoor Hockey games, Jim Harbaugh's latest NFL dalliance and the day I operated on his knee, and how in the hell was Trump claiming a 2015 tax deduction for a football team he bankrupted in 1985? (21:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: two New York politicos, one blocking measures to save shelter dogs, the other resigning for Election Fraud (guess his party?) compete with Sean Spicer who can't spell, Period.
C-Block (26:57) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Next Monday it'll be exactly 40 years since I looked out my apartment window just before bed, and looked down to the street and got a big surprise. The saga of Keith and the Molotov Cocktail.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
Oh I know who the Freedom Caucuses mystery secret speaker
(00:27):
candidate is. It's George Santos, right, It's gotta be who
better typifies, who better speaks for the Republican Party of
I mean, any Republican can lie to all of the
people some of the time and lie to some of
the people all of the time, But only George Santos
(00:49):
can lie to all of the people all of the time. Okay,
maybe not, but trust me, if George Santos survives without
going to prison here or abroad, and Brazil has just
revived its prosecute him, George Santos will become a Republican
leader of some kind, because electability and survival are the
(01:12):
only things that party values. For now, somebody else is
there to either jock block Kevin McCarthy or make McCarthy
prostitute himself utterly to the Matt Gates is of this world.
Think about it. Tuesday began with absolute certainty on the
part of McCarthy's supporters that he would somehow prevail, and
(01:34):
equally absolute certainty by at least nine and as many
as eighteen of his opponents that he would be thwarted.
It was insurrectionist Congressman Andy Biggs who tweeted yesterday the
left has taken control of our institutions. Leadership of both
parties have facilitated the takeover of them. And now when
America first, Republicans have a chance to effectuate change, even
(01:56):
our own are fighting that the Speaker's race tomorrow will
be revolutionary. One could infer that means the out of
the box nominee is from the ranks. I'm telling you
give Santos a chance. Or it could mean a nominee
who is not serving in the House and the speaker
does not have to be a House member. As much
(02:18):
as the Q and on types would like that to
be Trump, he would never accept the demotion, no matter
how desperate for attention. His recent behavior has confirmed he
really is. If there really is, a non serving candidate,
would have to be one of these jackasses who are
seen in the fun house mirror version of America that
Republicans collectively hallucinate to be a heroic leader, indefatigable fighter,
(02:41):
and political sage. You know, Tucker Carlson or Mike Lindell
or General Flynn or the dead body of Ronald Reagan
that would be revolutionary, or maybe by revolutionary, Biggs means
not the nominee, but the process, since these clowns have
(03:01):
proved again and again that they discern no difference between
failure and success as long as whatever happens is coded
with the fine marinade of chaos. For his part, Speaker
presumptive McCarthy Monday underscored the presumptive part moving his stuff
into the Speaker's office. One assumes he has never heard
that hackneyed political cliche about measuring the office curtains. But
(03:25):
then again, if he doesn't get elected Speaker, the image
of them moving all his furniture back out of the
office will be the least of his problems. Only McCarthy
and these Republicans could have turned their shocking triumphs of
s into the self destruction of and this inability to
coalesce and take the wine. They represent the twin problems
(03:50):
with endless ideological purity tests and politics. As the universal solvent,
administer enough purity tests to any group and eventually you
will have to expel everybody. The French Revolution should have
taught us that, and as much as the Universal solvent
is a political dream come true for the insurrectionists. Dissolved precedent,
(04:12):
dissolved seniority, dissolve hierarchy. Eventually, you come to realize that
once you pour the universal solvent out, you can never
stop it. It will keep on dissolving stuff, even the
things you don't want it to dissolve, Because of course,
you cannot store the universal solvent in anything. The universal
solvent will dissolve whatever you've stored it in. So that's
(04:36):
how Kevin McCarthy finds himself on the day the Republicans
take back the House, on the verge of not getting
elected Speaker, or at least not getting elected Speaker on
the first ballot or ballots, because he might lose to
a mystery candidate, the personification of none of the above.
I'm telling you Santos Speaker. Since we last discussed George Santos,
(05:03):
it turned out that the Brazilians had only abandoned their
prosecution of him fourteen years ago for allegedly stealing checkbooks
belonging to people for whom his mother was a caregiver
because they could not find him here again, another problem
with lying your way into Congress. There goes your anonymity.
The Prosecutor's office and Rio de Janeiro said yesterday it
(05:24):
will now revive its fraud charges against Santos and could
proceed with or without his presence in Brazil, which he
might be a citizen of, or a native of, or
for all we know, a senator of. There are new
lies to add to your Santos file. Collect the complete set.
He claimed to have gotten COVID before anybody else in
(05:46):
New York, and to have had a difficult recovery because
of a brain tumor he had. And he told a
boyfriend that he had bought them two tickets to Hawaii,
Only it turned out that there were no tickets to Hawaii.
Oh and the boyfriend's cell phone was suddenly missing, and
the boyfriend believed Santos had pawned it. Somebody suggested to me,
Santos has pretty much checked all the lying boxes possible,
(06:09):
except maybe for lying that he's trans I might add
he also has not yet lied that he was dead,
but he got better. Speaking of lying and neurosis, if
not psychosis, you may have missed Steve Bannon and the No. Really,
this is our last set of transcripts. We swear dump
from the January six Committee. There are several absolutely insane
(06:31):
revelations in these parting salvos from Benny Thompson and company,
and you have to admit that whatever the motive was
for holding them all till the last minute, they also
served to obscure the Republican takeover of the House today.
For my money, the craziest is, as usual Steve Bannon
and his plan for a second coup on January. Quote,
(06:54):
we must turn up the heat, Bannon texted to his spokesperson,
according to the committee's evidence. On January Trump, Bannon added
was quote not staying the White House after the twenty
but who says we don't have one million people the
next day, I'd surround the capital in total silence. You know,
(07:16):
Steve Bannon might not be the nihilist political genius a
lot of people still think he is. On the other hand,
he did get one thing right about Trump supporters. The
day after Joe Biden's inauguration. They did give Bannon that
total silence he was hoping for. And Katrina Pierson, also
not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, was nice
(07:39):
enough to write an email on January second with bullet
points on the original coup, and point number four helpfully
reads quote, potus expectations are to have something intimate at
the ellipse and call on everyone to march to the Capitol,
which blows the Trump spotaneity defense out of the water.
(08:01):
And of course Ron McDaniel helpfully notating that her Republican
National Committee was joining John Eastman and organizing the fake
electors scheme and told Trump personally directly twice that they
were doing so, and he replied to her, quote, just great.
So Trump is screwed about that as well. Tony Ornado
(08:22):
Secret Service agent turned Trump Administration Deputy chief of Staff
turned Secret Service again, somehow testified that the Service missed
that one of the guys on a White House tour
on December was none other than Enrique Terio, chairman of
the ironically named Proud Boys. And then there's Clida Mitchell.
(08:44):
By the way, when was the last time he actually
met anybody named Cleta. Clida Mitchell explained to the January
sixth Committee that quote, there's nothing in the Constitution about
allowing people citizens to vote on electors. And it's funny
none of them mentioned that in two thousand, right, and
the Committee's final info to UMP showed that Trump before
(09:06):
he began to hemorrhage GOP support in the waning days
of last year by railing against the Supreme Court's decision
on Roe v. Wade and by posting an arcle from
a fascist website for telling a Trump third party run in,
Trump had one last grift, according to the One six
Committee ready to Go in the days before election, he
(09:28):
wanted to trademark and own the rights to the phrase
rigged election. Yes, sir, it's coup incorporated a division of
the Trump organization. I am suddenly reminded of Terry Gilliams
Dark Dark, Dark satirical film Brazil ironic title at the
(09:50):
moment the future police state seizes the wrong man, tortures
that man to death, and then sends the widow a
bill rigged election trademark. But, of course, as the Speaker
Election and George Santos dramas play out to day and
perhaps for weeks to come if we're lucky, there is
one nugget from the January six committees list of parting
(10:11):
gifts to America that seems to resonate particularly strongly. I
guess it is noteworthy because it is the only glimmer
of self awareness in the bottomless pit of delusions of
grandeur that was the Trump administration. But it's still self
obsessed self awareness that knitwit Hope Hicks as they were
still sweeping up broken glass and sedating nervous Congressman on
(10:35):
the afternoon of January six, texting the chief of staff
to abanca Trump and realizing that this little try to
overthrow the government by attacking the capital thing was gonna
look bad on her resume. You've heard the quote, all
of us that didn't have jobs lined up will be
perpetually unemployed. I'm so mad and upset. We all look
(10:59):
like domestic terrorists. Now, yeah, say Hope, thinking about McCarthy
and the Freedom Caucus and Santos and Bannon and the
fake electors and Trump trying to trademark rigged election. When
you say we all look like domestic terrorists, now, what
(11:22):
do you mean? Now? Still ahead? Why did Trump try
to claim a deduction in two thousand fifteen for expenses
(11:45):
for a football team he bankrupted? Worse persons if I
told you a New York State County election commissioner had
pleaded guilty to voter fraud and absentee ballot harvesting. Could
you guess which party he belongs to? And in things
I promised not to tell? It worked out okay, But
(12:07):
next Monday it will be forty years since I had
one last look out my apartment window before going to sleep,
and that's when I noticed the building was on fire.
The story of Keith and the Molotov Cocktail. That's next.
Let's discountdown. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman still a
(12:38):
head on Countdown? How do you spell Delaware? More importantly,
how do you become White House Press Secretary if you
can't spell Delaware? Worse persons in a moment? First, in
each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need
you can help. Every dog has its day. Polo is
thirty eight pounds, excitable, not fixed, not trained, one year old,
(13:02):
a puppy who nipped a family member who needed a
band aid to fix the problem, so they took him
to the New York Pound to be killed, which could
happen as early as tomorrow because nobody taught him not
to do that. He looks like a Collie mix of
some kind of beautiful light brown, almost orange coat. He
needs pledges to help defray the costs for a rescue
(13:23):
organization to save his life. You can find Polo on
my Twitter feeds, and if you can't pledge, your retweet
can also help him out. I thank you, and Polo
thanks you. This is Sports Center. Wait, check that, not anymore.
(14:15):
This is Countdown with Keith Alberman in sports. We wish
the best to the great Martina Navratolova, who revealed yesterday
she has been diagnosed with both throat cancer and breast cancer.
The winner of eighteen Grand Slam singles championships and a
giving and cherished friend to my various programs for thirty
(14:36):
years now. She says her prognosis is good. Quote, It's
going to stink for a while, but I'll fight it
with all I've got, which is how she is here
in the first place. Boston Bruins to Pittsburgh Penguins one
in the annual outdoor hockey game at Fenway Park. As
much as I am a hockey fan and you probably
are not, I never see one of these without thinking
(14:57):
there's something fundamentally wrong with it. The National Hockey League
puts a game in a baseball stadium or a football stadium.
If you go, no matter how good your seats are.
You can't see a damn thing. It's a hockey rink
filling up like a third of the field, and there's
all this blank space, and it's freezing, and the lighting
is bad and ice is often bad. The league dresses up.
It's two teams in uniforms that look vaguely like they're
(15:19):
regular ones but not really, and vaguely like the ones
they wore decades ago, but not really. It's not like
a novelty anymore. There have been like three dozen of
these outdoor games. I mean, maybe play your All Star
game outdoors in a big stadium to try to give
it some heft. But regular season games still still making
(15:40):
a big deal about this. And the worst part is
the thing that always throws me. The National Hockey League
gets its biggest crowds only when it plays in the
stadiums of other sports. The Athletic reports that after it's
lost in the Fiesta Bowls Saturday, Michigan may now lose
its head coach. That if offered an NFL job, Jim
(16:03):
Harbaugh will take it, maybe at Denver, maybe with the Colts.
He went to the Super Bowl whe year coaching the
fort but to me. Jim Harbaugh will always be the
guy I operated on in a sports center commercial. It
was about anchors getting too close to the players, and
they started with Dan Patrick at Jim Harbaugh's knee surgery,
and he turned and says, let's take a look, and
(16:24):
he walks into the operating theater where the surgeon is
me and Hardball delivered his line perfectly. Shouldn't I be
asleep for this? And Dan and I then say you simultaneously,
and I say that that will happen, and that's the
end of it. So Dan has always insisted that he
saw hardballs carry bag sitting next to our set during
(16:45):
the making of this commercial. I didn't dances. It contained
a bunch of magazines that were devoted to uh, devoted
to m anatomy. That's it, anatomy. Thank you, Nancy Faust. Lastly,
(17:13):
this the nin most important thing gleaned from the release
of Donald Trump's tax returns in two thousand fifteen, Trump
claimed he spent twelve thousand dollars on expenses related to
the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League,
the league in which he Trump had herschel Walker playing
for him on the New Jersey generals. The league he
(17:36):
Trump personally killed because he insisted on moving it to
a fall schedule to compete with the NFL, even though
it had a chance to succeed in its original niche
in the spring. Anyway, I think I know at that
twelve grand that he tried to deduct in two thousand, fifteen,
thirty years after the league went out of business, was four.
I think it was the last payment on Herschel's leather helmet.
(18:13):
Thank you again, Nancy Faust still ahead, we near the
anniversary anniversary of the day I had a singular experience
looking out my apartment window and noticing the apartment building
was on fire. First the daily roundup of the miscreants,
(18:36):
morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst
persons in the world. Everybody was okay, by the way,
except the lobby le bronze to New York Assembly Member
Donna lou Pardo as the two thousand three Assembly session begins,
We'll see if she can work her way off this list,
or if she is still as dog advocate Nathan Winnigrad asserts,
(18:59):
blocking the Shelter Animal Rescue Act Sarah from even coming
to a vote in the New York as Son, but
the bill would make it illegal for shelters in New
York State to kill an animal if a qualified nonprofit
rescue was willing to save and take that animal. Similar
laws have been passed in California and Delaware, and in
many cities and counties. It is believed such a loss
(19:19):
saved eighty five thousand animals in California alone each year.
But Assemblywoman Lopardo is the chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee,
and she can bock such a bill and has. Apart
from the fact that New York Democrats are pretty much
lost in their own little world of incompetence, they are
also heavily lobbied by and Winnigrad says they even received
(19:42):
campaign funds from groups like the A s p c
A and the Humane Society. Those are brand names, by
the way, those two groups have repeatedly come out against
the no kill bill. Get to an assembly Woman, The
Bronze goes to why another New York State politico, Jason T. Scofield,
the Republican elections commissioner of Rensselaer County, whose attorney general
(20:06):
or whose attorney rather revealed that he is changing his
plea and Elections Commissioner Scofield will plead guilty to any
guesses hints Republican elections commissioner. That's right, Scofield will plead
guilty to federal felony charges of voter fraud an absentee
ballot harvesting, because when Republicans say there's voter fraud and
(20:28):
absentee ballot harvesting, it is not an accusation, it's a confession.
Scofield has flipped. He is helping the FBI try to
nail others in this case. And while it's unclear if
he will go to jail, it is clear that as
part of the plea he has to quit his job
as Elections Commissioner, Republican Elections Commissioner, Republican voter fraud, ballot harvesting,
(20:49):
elections commissioner. But our winners, Shawn's spicer. There are no
doubt worse worms in this country, and there are worse
scumbags from the Trump administration, but he was the first.
And despite the attempt to wash him clean by putting
on the Emmy's and putting them on Dancing with the
has beens, he's still exactly that bad as You know,
(21:13):
people like Spicer exists solely to find Republican crooks and
crookedness and then claim the Democrats did it worse see
Elections Commissioners Scofield of New York. Hence, Spicer yesterday retweeted
a story implying that Joe Biden is on vacation all
the time. G I wonder who they're trying to apply.
What about is um too? Their? Spicer added, quote, in
(21:34):
two thousand two, President Biden spent ninety two days at
one of his Delaware properties, and he misspelled Delaware. Spicer
spelled it d e l e as opposed to the way.
And you know everybody else spells it d e l
A where or at least how, everybody who was every
(21:56):
White House Press secretary spelled it, or at least everybody
who has any shred of concern for accuracy or at
least not being thought of as an uneducated, lovingly, sloppy, unqualified, moronic, bitter,
knitwitted schlub who was once referred to in his own
colleges newspaper as quote Sean sphincter, unquote Sean Delaware. You know,
(22:17):
the first state to approve the Constitution, the Constitution. My
boss tried to rip up Spicer two days. Worst person.
It's felled p R S O N M. Words to
(22:42):
the number one story on the countdown and my favorite topic,
me and things I've promised not to tell, and circumstances.
The other day took me past my first New York
City apartment, and as always when that happens in the winter,
I stopped and stood and stared, and I shook my head,
and again I saw in my mind the flames and
(23:03):
the glow and the blackened lobby. Because one night somebody
threw a Molotov cocktail into the building in which I
had my first New York City apartment. While I was
in my first New York City apartment. The address was
it is two and forty East fifty fifth Street, Apartment
ten F. It was two doors west of Second Avenue,
(23:27):
south side of the street. It was the center apartment
on the street side of the building, and I was
directly above the front entrance and above the only thing
of note in the whole place, a full fledged old
fashioned New York City apartment building canopy. You could get
out of a cab and a rainstorm and under that canopy,
and like a second and a half and pretty much
not get wet, no doorman, no amenities, rather dubious live
(23:51):
in super but it had that canopy. I moved in
on June. It was a big studio apartment. The view
was of a big video warehouse across the street, though
if you leaned out the westernmost window you could see
the City Corps Center, which was always an impressive site
on a foggy night. The neighborhood and the building were
(24:12):
safe and quiet, at least I thought they were safe.
It was a fifteen minute walk from my first job,
and then a twenty five minute walk from my second job.
And when I first rented there it was are you
ready four and eight three dollars a month, which sounds
unbelievable except that was about a third of my salary.
And I think when I moved out in the rent
(24:34):
had gone up to five dollars a month, And that
low price might have had something to do with the
fact that one night somebody threw a Molotov cocktail into
the building. You know how, once you've been in any
place for any length of time, you get used to
the physics of it, the feel of it, not just
someplace you live any place. You spend a lot of
(24:57):
time in an office, a classroom, a theater, or an apartment.
You know what it sounds like. You know what it
feels like in the summer or how it feels differently
in the winter. You know what it looks like, the building, noise,
the smells, if it's too hot, if it's too cold,
and especially, and think about this for a second, especially
(25:18):
what the light looks like at every hour of the day.
I don't know if there was a day when I
could have said, this is what the light looks like
in apartment ten f to forty East Street during a snowstorm,
or what the light looks like coming in through the
shades at eight in the morning or eight at night.
But it probably didn't take long. June was when I
(25:41):
moved in. I bet I knew the various lights of
the place by September. So by New Years of night three,
I knew it all instinctively, exactly, reflexing lye boringly. I
would go to my bed in the southeast corner of
my studio apartment. I'd get in sleeping north south, but
with my head at the south end, and as I
(26:01):
lay on my back, I could look out the windows
and see the faint arn g glow from a couple
of street lights that shone through the four windows that
opened to on either side of a kind of small
picture window in the middle. The light would be brightest
from the window on the farthest right, which was the
one closest to Second Avenue and the closest to one
of those street lights. So on Sunday, January nine three,
(26:25):
as that night turned into Monday, January, I hit the
sack around midnight, because I actually had one of those
rare nine to five jobs in television as a field
reporter for CNN. I shut off the light on my nightstand.
I laid down on my back. I stared out my
right hand window, and immediately I thought, boy, the light
(26:46):
is slightly more orange than it should be. What the
hell's wrong? I'm guessing it was no more than five
or ten percent different from usual. But as I've gone
to such lengths to point out, if you see the
same light through the same window in all conceivable conditions
almost every night for more than two years, five or
(27:06):
ten percent difference is a lot. I think. I lay
there trying to figure it out for a minute or
so when I realized it was now ten or fifteen
percent different. Cleverly, I got up and went to the
window and rolled up the shade and looked down to
that canopy ten floors below, and I must say, to
my credit, I quickly discerned that the canopy was on fire.
(27:32):
I reacted as almost everybody does matter of fact, we thinking,
maybe even saying out loud, hey, the canopy is on fire,
and then registering the fact that the fire had already
burned through the building end of that canopy, and it
was moving quickly outwards towards the street. Suggesting again, I
(27:53):
must say, I figured this out for myself, suggesting that
there was probably a fire in the lobby. Put a
robe on over my pajamas, I put on some shoes.
I grabbed my wallet and my keys, and I ventured
into the hallway. No smell of smoke, which I took
again intelligently, is a good sign. Two elevators were staring
(28:13):
me in the face, but I knew better than to
try them. I was, after all, the grandson of a firefighter.
So I opened the stairwell and then I smelled the smoke. Faint,
but it was there. I went down two floors, and
every step I took the smell got a little stronger.
I went back up, I went back into my apartment.
(28:33):
I did not really know what I was going to do.
Needless to say, ten floors is not jumpable. Also, there
was no outdoor fire escape like in many of the
New York City older apartment buildings, and even if I
went down the elevator or the stairs or the side
of the damned building, I would wind up right in
the middle of the fire. For a few seconds, I
(28:55):
really didn't know what to do next. Me, the grandson
of the man who was not only a firefighter, but
who drove the hook and ladder irony also fire. That's
when the sound of the fire engines broke me out
of self absorption and cheered me, I must say considerably.
They parked right near where that convenient canopy used to be,
(29:18):
but was now pretty much a charred hunk of the
metal framing and a little burned fabric. I'm sure you've
seen a fire. Maybe you've seen firefighters arrive at one
and get going with their amazing speed. But there is
something different in seeing it from the vantage point of
being above the fire. First, there is an extraordinary amount
(29:39):
of water, then a lot of smoke, then an almost
unstoppable instinct to say cool. And then you go and
check the stairwell again, and joyfully inhale the smell of
stuff that had been on fire but was now no
longer on fire and just inundated with water. Hallelujah. I
waited until after they left before I decided to go
(29:59):
back to my bed. I did not feel the need
to add to whatever loud chaos was going on in
the lobby or what had been the lobby, nor to
get any details about the fire, other than the key one,
which was it's out. But in the morning, since I
had to go to work anyway, I saw the elevator
door open onto the little linoleum covered landing in the lobby,
(30:22):
and saw that everything else but it in the lobby
was jet black. They were still hosing some of it down.
They were already pulling up burned carpet, installing new windows
and doors, and carting away what was left of the canopy.
And it was evident that as thorough a job as
had been done there, nothing else in the building had burned. Nothing.
(30:47):
In the days and weeks to come, the other residents
knowing I worked in news, clued me in on the
rumors and asked me to check them out. There was
a dispute, somebody said, involving the owner. There was something
about a woman. No, there was nothing about a woman.
But all of them, every story, every rumor, included the
obvious that was no voting accident. Somebody had thrown a
(31:10):
millet off cocktail into or against our front door. And
then there was the best of the stories, born out
or at least lent plausibility by the rapidity with which
the firefighters arrived, which thinking back on it was no
more than three or four minutes after I first saw
the extra orange glow. The best rumor was that the
(31:32):
fire department had been called by somebody before anybody in
the building had called. The implication was somebody called in
a fire and then started the fire. For forty years
plus I have been unable to find the truth. The fire,
(31:53):
doing superficial but ultimately not serious damage, did not make
the New York newspapers. Hell that year, I took a
subway to work in the morning and there was a
guy sprawled over three seats. And when I went home
that night, I happened to get on the exact same
train car, and there was the exact same guy sprawled
over the exact same three seats because he was dead.
And that didn't make the New York newspapers of three either.
(32:17):
We old timey New Yorkers, We lived on the edge. Baby.
All I know is that within weeks a doorman was hired.
His name was Geene, and he had a strong Irish accent,
and he was still there as of two thousand two.
And then the building suddenly went co op. All of
us renters were suddenly offered the chance to buy our apartments.
(32:41):
But I didn't want to take out a loan, and
I expected to be moving to Boston in the near future,
and I kept thinking about that Molotov cocktail. So I
turned down that apartment at the price of are you
lying down thirty six? Turned it down because yeah, there
(33:02):
was the fire and the loan and Boston. But ultimately
I turned it down, even just to keep his a
storage unit. I turned that apartment down because when it
comes to investments, I'm a moron. I've done all the
(33:33):
damage I can do here that is not meant literally obviously.
Thank you for listening. If you're not following or subscribing
to the podcast. Please do so. Don't make me come
over there with a you know. Here are the credits.
Most of the music, including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth,
was arranged, produced and performed by Brian Ray and John
Philip s Chanelle. They are the Countdown musical directors. All
(33:55):
orchestration and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitarist, bass and
drums by Brian Ray, produced by T k O Brothers
brother Beethoven selections have been arranged and perfore warmed by
No horns allowed. The sports music is the Alderman theme
from ESPN two, which was written by Mitch Warren Davis
and which appears courtesy of ESPN Incorporated musical comments from
(34:16):
Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer
today was John Dene. Everything else was pretty much my fault.
So that's countdown for this the seven day since Donald
Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States. Arrest him now while we still can.
New addition tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Alverman. Good morning,
(34:37):
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
Oh I know who the Freedom Caucuses mystery secret speaker
(00:27):
candidate is. It's George Santos, right, It's gotta be who
better typifies, who better speaks for the Republican Party of
I mean, any Republican can lie to all of the
people some of the time and lie to some of
the people all of the time, But only George Santos
(00:49):
can lie to all of the people all of the time. Okay,
maybe not, but trust me, if George Santos survives without
going to prison here or abroad, and Brazil has just
revived its prosecute him, George Santos will become a Republican
leader of some kind, because electability and survival are the
(01:12):
only things that party values. For now, somebody else is
there to either jock block Kevin McCarthy or make McCarthy
prostitute himself utterly to the Matt Gates is of this world.
Think about it. Tuesday began with absolute certainty on the
part of McCarthy's supporters that he would somehow prevail, and
(01:34):
equally absolute certainty by at least nine and as many
as eighteen of his opponents that he would be thwarted.
It was insurrectionist Congressman Andy Biggs who tweeted yesterday the
left has taken control of our institutions. Leadership of both
parties have facilitated the takeover of them. And now when
America first, Republicans have a chance to effectuate change, even
(01:56):
our own are fighting that the Speaker's race tomorrow will
be revolutionary. One could infer that means the out of
the box nominee is from the ranks. I'm telling you
give Santos a chance. Or it could mean a nominee
who is not serving in the House and the speaker
does not have to be a House member. As much
(02:18):
as the Q and on types would like that to
be Trump, he would never accept the demotion, no matter
how desperate for attention. His recent behavior has confirmed he
really is. If there really is, a non serving candidate,
would have to be one of these jackasses who are
seen in the fun house mirror version of America that
Republicans collectively hallucinate to be a heroic leader, indefatigable fighter,
(02:41):
and political sage. You know, Tucker Carlson or Mike Lindell
or General Flynn or the dead body of Ronald Reagan
that would be revolutionary, or maybe by revolutionary, Biggs means
not the nominee, but the process, since these clowns have
(03:01):
proved again and again that they discern no difference between
failure and success as long as whatever happens is coded
with the fine marinade of chaos. For his part, Speaker
presumptive McCarthy Monday underscored the presumptive part moving his stuff
into the Speaker's office. One assumes he has never heard
that hackneyed political cliche about measuring the office curtains. But
(03:25):
then again, if he doesn't get elected Speaker, the image
of them moving all his furniture back out of the
office will be the least of his problems. Only McCarthy
and these Republicans could have turned their shocking triumphs of
s into the self destruction of and this inability to
coalesce and take the wine. They represent the twin problems
(03:50):
with endless ideological purity tests and politics. As the universal solvent,
administer enough purity tests to any group and eventually you
will have to expel everybody. The French Revolution should have
taught us that, and as much as the Universal solvent
is a political dream come true for the insurrectionists. Dissolved precedent,
(04:12):
dissolved seniority, dissolve hierarchy. Eventually, you come to realize that
once you pour the universal solvent out, you can never
stop it. It will keep on dissolving stuff, even the
things you don't want it to dissolve, Because of course,
you cannot store the universal solvent in anything. The universal
solvent will dissolve whatever you've stored it in. So that's
(04:36):
how Kevin McCarthy finds himself on the day the Republicans
take back the House, on the verge of not getting
elected Speaker, or at least not getting elected Speaker on
the first ballot or ballots, because he might lose to
a mystery candidate, the personification of none of the above.
I'm telling you Santos Speaker. Since we last discussed George Santos,
(05:03):
it turned out that the Brazilians had only abandoned their
prosecution of him fourteen years ago for allegedly stealing checkbooks
belonging to people for whom his mother was a caregiver
because they could not find him here again, another problem
with lying your way into Congress. There goes your anonymity.
The Prosecutor's office and Rio de Janeiro said yesterday it
(05:24):
will now revive its fraud charges against Santos and could
proceed with or without his presence in Brazil, which he
might be a citizen of, or a native of, or
for all we know, a senator of. There are new
lies to add to your Santos file. Collect the complete set.
He claimed to have gotten COVID before anybody else in
(05:46):
New York, and to have had a difficult recovery because
of a brain tumor he had. And he told a
boyfriend that he had bought them two tickets to Hawaii,
Only it turned out that there were no tickets to Hawaii.
Oh and the boyfriend's cell phone was suddenly missing, and
the boyfriend believed Santos had pawned it. Somebody suggested to me,
Santos has pretty much checked all the lying boxes possible,
(06:09):
except maybe for lying that he's trans I might add
he also has not yet lied that he was dead,
but he got better. Speaking of lying and neurosis, if
not psychosis, you may have missed Steve Bannon and the No. Really,
this is our last set of transcripts. We swear dump
from the January six Committee. There are several absolutely insane
(06:31):
revelations in these parting salvos from Benny Thompson and company,
and you have to admit that whatever the motive was
for holding them all till the last minute, they also
served to obscure the Republican takeover of the House today.
For my money, the craziest is, as usual Steve Bannon
and his plan for a second coup on January. Quote,
(06:54):
we must turn up the heat, Bannon texted to his spokesperson,
according to the committee's evidence. On January Trump, Bannon added
was quote not staying the White House after the twenty
but who says we don't have one million people the
next day, I'd surround the capital in total silence. You know,
(07:16):
Steve Bannon might not be the nihilist political genius a
lot of people still think he is. On the other hand,
he did get one thing right about Trump supporters. The
day after Joe Biden's inauguration. They did give Bannon that
total silence he was hoping for. And Katrina Pierson, also
not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, was nice
(07:39):
enough to write an email on January second with bullet
points on the original coup, and point number four helpfully
reads quote, potus expectations are to have something intimate at
the ellipse and call on everyone to march to the Capitol,
which blows the Trump spotaneity defense out of the water.
(08:01):
And of course Ron McDaniel helpfully notating that her Republican
National Committee was joining John Eastman and organizing the fake
electors scheme and told Trump personally directly twice that they
were doing so, and he replied to her, quote, just great.
So Trump is screwed about that as well. Tony Ornado
(08:22):
Secret Service agent turned Trump Administration Deputy chief of Staff
turned Secret Service again, somehow testified that the Service missed
that one of the guys on a White House tour
on December was none other than Enrique Terio, chairman of
the ironically named Proud Boys. And then there's Clida Mitchell.
(08:44):
By the way, when was the last time he actually
met anybody named Cleta. Clida Mitchell explained to the January
sixth Committee that quote, there's nothing in the Constitution about
allowing people citizens to vote on electors. And it's funny
none of them mentioned that in two thousand, right, and
the Committee's final info to UMP showed that Trump before
(09:06):
he began to hemorrhage GOP support in the waning days
of last year by railing against the Supreme Court's decision
on Roe v. Wade and by posting an arcle from
a fascist website for telling a Trump third party run in,
Trump had one last grift, according to the One six
Committee ready to Go in the days before election, he
(09:28):
wanted to trademark and own the rights to the phrase
rigged election. Yes, sir, it's coup incorporated a division of
the Trump organization. I am suddenly reminded of Terry Gilliams
Dark Dark, Dark satirical film Brazil ironic title at the
(09:50):
moment the future police state seizes the wrong man, tortures
that man to death, and then sends the widow a
bill rigged election trademark. But, of course, as the Speaker
Election and George Santos dramas play out to day and
perhaps for weeks to come if we're lucky, there is
one nugget from the January six committees list of parting
(10:11):
gifts to America that seems to resonate particularly strongly. I
guess it is noteworthy because it is the only glimmer
of self awareness in the bottomless pit of delusions of
grandeur that was the Trump administration. But it's still self
obsessed self awareness that knitwit Hope Hicks as they were
still sweeping up broken glass and sedating nervous Congressman on
(10:35):
the afternoon of January six, texting the chief of staff
to abanca Trump and realizing that this little try to
overthrow the government by attacking the capital thing was gonna
look bad on her resume. You've heard the quote, all
of us that didn't have jobs lined up will be
perpetually unemployed. I'm so mad and upset. We all look
(10:59):
like domestic terrorists. Now, yeah, say Hope, thinking about McCarthy
and the Freedom Caucus and Santos and Bannon and the
fake electors and Trump trying to trademark rigged election. When
you say we all look like domestic terrorists, now, what
(11:22):
do you mean? Now? Still ahead? Why did Trump try
to claim a deduction in two thousand fifteen for expenses
(11:45):
for a football team he bankrupted? Worse persons if I
told you a New York State County election commissioner had
pleaded guilty to voter fraud and absentee ballot harvesting. Could
you guess which party he belongs to? And in things
I promised not to tell? It worked out okay, But
(12:07):
next Monday it will be forty years since I had
one last look out my apartment window before going to sleep,
and that's when I noticed the building was on fire.
The story of Keith and the Molotov Cocktail. That's next.
Let's discountdown. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman still a
(12:38):
head on Countdown? How do you spell Delaware? More importantly,
how do you become White House Press Secretary if you
can't spell Delaware? Worse persons in a moment? First, in
each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need
you can help. Every dog has its day. Polo is
thirty eight pounds, excitable, not fixed, not trained, one year old,
(13:02):
a puppy who nipped a family member who needed a
band aid to fix the problem, so they took him
to the New York Pound to be killed, which could
happen as early as tomorrow because nobody taught him not
to do that. He looks like a Collie mix of
some kind of beautiful light brown, almost orange coat. He
needs pledges to help defray the costs for a rescue
(13:23):
organization to save his life. You can find Polo on
my Twitter feeds, and if you can't pledge, your retweet
can also help him out. I thank you, and Polo
thanks you. This is Sports Center. Wait, check that, not anymore.
(14:15):
This is Countdown with Keith Alberman in sports. We wish
the best to the great Martina Navratolova, who revealed yesterday
she has been diagnosed with both throat cancer and breast cancer.
The winner of eighteen Grand Slam singles championships and a
giving and cherished friend to my various programs for thirty
(14:36):
years now. She says her prognosis is good. Quote, It's
going to stink for a while, but I'll fight it
with all I've got, which is how she is here
in the first place. Boston Bruins to Pittsburgh Penguins one
in the annual outdoor hockey game at Fenway Park. As
much as I am a hockey fan and you probably
are not, I never see one of these without thinking
(14:57):
there's something fundamentally wrong with it. The National Hockey League
puts a game in a baseball stadium or a football stadium.
If you go, no matter how good your seats are.
You can't see a damn thing. It's a hockey rink
filling up like a third of the field, and there's
all this blank space, and it's freezing, and the lighting
is bad and ice is often bad. The league dresses up.
It's two teams in uniforms that look vaguely like they're
(15:19):
regular ones but not really, and vaguely like the ones
they wore decades ago, but not really. It's not like
a novelty anymore. There have been like three dozen of
these outdoor games. I mean, maybe play your All Star
game outdoors in a big stadium to try to give
it some heft. But regular season games still still making
(15:40):
a big deal about this. And the worst part is
the thing that always throws me. The National Hockey League
gets its biggest crowds only when it plays in the
stadiums of other sports. The Athletic reports that after it's
lost in the Fiesta Bowls Saturday, Michigan may now lose
its head coach. That if offered an NFL job, Jim
(16:03):
Harbaugh will take it, maybe at Denver, maybe with the Colts.
He went to the Super Bowl whe year coaching the
fort but to me. Jim Harbaugh will always be the
guy I operated on in a sports center commercial. It
was about anchors getting too close to the players, and
they started with Dan Patrick at Jim Harbaugh's knee surgery,
and he turned and says, let's take a look, and
(16:24):
he walks into the operating theater where the surgeon is
me and Hardball delivered his line perfectly. Shouldn't I be
asleep for this? And Dan and I then say you simultaneously,
and I say that that will happen, and that's the
end of it. So Dan has always insisted that he
saw hardballs carry bag sitting next to our set during
(16:45):
the making of this commercial. I didn't dances. It contained
a bunch of magazines that were devoted to uh, devoted
to m anatomy. That's it, anatomy. Thank you, Nancy Faust. Lastly,
(17:13):
this the nin most important thing gleaned from the release
of Donald Trump's tax returns in two thousand fifteen, Trump
claimed he spent twelve thousand dollars on expenses related to
the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League,
the league in which he Trump had herschel Walker playing
for him on the New Jersey generals. The league he
(17:36):
Trump personally killed because he insisted on moving it to
a fall schedule to compete with the NFL, even though
it had a chance to succeed in its original niche
in the spring. Anyway, I think I know at that
twelve grand that he tried to deduct in two thousand, fifteen,
thirty years after the league went out of business, was four.
I think it was the last payment on Herschel's leather helmet.
(18:13):
Thank you again, Nancy Faust still ahead, we near the
anniversary anniversary of the day I had a singular experience
looking out my apartment window and noticing the apartment building
was on fire. First the daily roundup of the miscreants,
(18:36):
morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst
persons in the world. Everybody was okay, by the way,
except the lobby le bronze to New York Assembly Member
Donna lou Pardo as the two thousand three Assembly session begins,
We'll see if she can work her way off this list,
or if she is still as dog advocate Nathan Winnigrad asserts,
(18:59):
blocking the Shelter Animal Rescue Act Sarah from even coming
to a vote in the New York as Son, but
the bill would make it illegal for shelters in New
York State to kill an animal if a qualified nonprofit
rescue was willing to save and take that animal. Similar
laws have been passed in California and Delaware, and in
many cities and counties. It is believed such a loss
(19:19):
saved eighty five thousand animals in California alone each year.
But Assemblywoman Lopardo is the chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee,
and she can bock such a bill and has. Apart
from the fact that New York Democrats are pretty much
lost in their own little world of incompetence, they are
also heavily lobbied by and Winnigrad says they even received
(19:42):
campaign funds from groups like the A s p c
A and the Humane Society. Those are brand names, by
the way, those two groups have repeatedly come out against
the no kill bill. Get to an assembly Woman, The
Bronze goes to why another New York State politico, Jason T. Scofield,
the Republican elections commissioner of Rensselaer County, whose attorney general
(20:06):
or whose attorney rather revealed that he is changing his
plea and Elections Commissioner Scofield will plead guilty to any
guesses hints Republican elections commissioner. That's right, Scofield will plead
guilty to federal felony charges of voter fraud an absentee
ballot harvesting, because when Republicans say there's voter fraud and
(20:28):
absentee ballot harvesting, it is not an accusation, it's a confession.
Scofield has flipped. He is helping the FBI try to
nail others in this case. And while it's unclear if
he will go to jail, it is clear that as
part of the plea he has to quit his job
as Elections Commissioner, Republican Elections Commissioner, Republican voter fraud, ballot harvesting,
(20:49):
elections commissioner. But our winners, Shawn's spicer. There are no
doubt worse worms in this country, and there are worse
scumbags from the Trump administration, but he was the first.
And despite the attempt to wash him clean by putting
on the Emmy's and putting them on Dancing with the
has beens, he's still exactly that bad as You know,
(21:13):
people like Spicer exists solely to find Republican crooks and
crookedness and then claim the Democrats did it worse see
Elections Commissioners Scofield of New York. Hence, Spicer yesterday retweeted
a story implying that Joe Biden is on vacation all
the time. G I wonder who they're trying to apply.
What about is um too? Their? Spicer added, quote, in
(21:34):
two thousand two, President Biden spent ninety two days at
one of his Delaware properties, and he misspelled Delaware. Spicer
spelled it d e l e as opposed to the way.
And you know everybody else spells it d e l
A where or at least how, everybody who was every
(21:56):
White House Press secretary spelled it, or at least everybody
who has any shred of concern for accuracy or at
least not being thought of as an uneducated, lovingly, sloppy, unqualified, moronic, bitter,
knitwitted schlub who was once referred to in his own
colleges newspaper as quote Sean sphincter, unquote Sean Delaware. You know,
(22:17):
the first state to approve the Constitution, the Constitution. My
boss tried to rip up Spicer two days. Worst person.
It's felled p R S O N M. Words to
(22:42):
the number one story on the countdown and my favorite topic,
me and things I've promised not to tell, and circumstances.
The other day took me past my first New York
City apartment, and as always when that happens in the winter,
I stopped and stood and stared, and I shook my head,
and again I saw in my mind the flames and
(23:03):
the glow and the blackened lobby. Because one night somebody
threw a Molotov cocktail into the building in which I
had my first New York City apartment. While I was
in my first New York City apartment. The address was
it is two and forty East fifty fifth Street, Apartment
ten F. It was two doors west of Second Avenue,
(23:27):
south side of the street. It was the center apartment
on the street side of the building, and I was
directly above the front entrance and above the only thing
of note in the whole place, a full fledged old
fashioned New York City apartment building canopy. You could get
out of a cab and a rainstorm and under that canopy,
and like a second and a half and pretty much
not get wet, no doorman, no amenities, rather dubious live
(23:51):
in super but it had that canopy. I moved in
on June. It was a big studio apartment. The view
was of a big video warehouse across the street, though
if you leaned out the westernmost window you could see
the City Corps Center, which was always an impressive site
on a foggy night. The neighborhood and the building were
(24:12):
safe and quiet, at least I thought they were safe.
It was a fifteen minute walk from my first job,
and then a twenty five minute walk from my second job.
And when I first rented there it was are you
ready four and eight three dollars a month, which sounds
unbelievable except that was about a third of my salary.
And I think when I moved out in the rent
(24:34):
had gone up to five dollars a month, And that
low price might have had something to do with the
fact that one night somebody threw a Molotov cocktail into
the building. You know how, once you've been in any
place for any length of time, you get used to
the physics of it, the feel of it, not just
someplace you live any place. You spend a lot of
(24:57):
time in an office, a classroom, a theater, or an apartment.
You know what it sounds like. You know what it
feels like in the summer or how it feels differently
in the winter. You know what it looks like, the building, noise,
the smells, if it's too hot, if it's too cold,
and especially, and think about this for a second, especially
(25:18):
what the light looks like at every hour of the day.
I don't know if there was a day when I
could have said, this is what the light looks like
in apartment ten f to forty East Street during a snowstorm,
or what the light looks like coming in through the
shades at eight in the morning or eight at night.
But it probably didn't take long. June was when I
(25:41):
moved in. I bet I knew the various lights of
the place by September. So by New Years of night three,
I knew it all instinctively, exactly, reflexing lye boringly. I
would go to my bed in the southeast corner of
my studio apartment. I'd get in sleeping north south, but
with my head at the south end, and as I
(26:01):
lay on my back, I could look out the windows
and see the faint arn g glow from a couple
of street lights that shone through the four windows that
opened to on either side of a kind of small
picture window in the middle. The light would be brightest
from the window on the farthest right, which was the
one closest to Second Avenue and the closest to one
of those street lights. So on Sunday, January nine three,
(26:25):
as that night turned into Monday, January, I hit the
sack around midnight, because I actually had one of those
rare nine to five jobs in television as a field
reporter for CNN. I shut off the light on my nightstand.
I laid down on my back. I stared out my
right hand window, and immediately I thought, boy, the light
(26:46):
is slightly more orange than it should be. What the
hell's wrong? I'm guessing it was no more than five
or ten percent different from usual. But as I've gone
to such lengths to point out, if you see the
same light through the same window in all conceivable conditions
almost every night for more than two years, five or
(27:06):
ten percent difference is a lot. I think. I lay
there trying to figure it out for a minute or
so when I realized it was now ten or fifteen
percent different. Cleverly, I got up and went to the
window and rolled up the shade and looked down to
that canopy ten floors below, and I must say, to
my credit, I quickly discerned that the canopy was on fire.
(27:32):
I reacted as almost everybody does matter of fact, we thinking,
maybe even saying out loud, hey, the canopy is on fire,
and then registering the fact that the fire had already
burned through the building end of that canopy, and it
was moving quickly outwards towards the street. Suggesting again, I
(27:53):
must say, I figured this out for myself, suggesting that
there was probably a fire in the lobby. Put a
robe on over my pajamas, I put on some shoes.
I grabbed my wallet and my keys, and I ventured
into the hallway. No smell of smoke, which I took
again intelligently, is a good sign. Two elevators were staring
(28:13):
me in the face, but I knew better than to
try them. I was, after all, the grandson of a firefighter.
So I opened the stairwell and then I smelled the smoke. Faint,
but it was there. I went down two floors, and
every step I took the smell got a little stronger.
I went back up, I went back into my apartment.
(28:33):
I did not really know what I was going to do.
Needless to say, ten floors is not jumpable. Also, there
was no outdoor fire escape like in many of the
New York City older apartment buildings, and even if I
went down the elevator or the stairs or the side
of the damned building, I would wind up right in
the middle of the fire. For a few seconds, I
(28:55):
really didn't know what to do next. Me, the grandson
of the man who was not only a firefighter, but
who drove the hook and ladder irony also fire. That's
when the sound of the fire engines broke me out
of self absorption and cheered me, I must say considerably.
They parked right near where that convenient canopy used to be,
(29:18):
but was now pretty much a charred hunk of the
metal framing and a little burned fabric. I'm sure you've
seen a fire. Maybe you've seen firefighters arrive at one
and get going with their amazing speed. But there is
something different in seeing it from the vantage point of
being above the fire. First, there is an extraordinary amount
(29:39):
of water, then a lot of smoke, then an almost
unstoppable instinct to say cool. And then you go and
check the stairwell again, and joyfully inhale the smell of
stuff that had been on fire but was now no
longer on fire and just inundated with water. Hallelujah. I
waited until after they left before I decided to go
(29:59):
back to my bed. I did not feel the need
to add to whatever loud chaos was going on in
the lobby or what had been the lobby, nor to
get any details about the fire, other than the key one,
which was it's out. But in the morning, since I
had to go to work anyway, I saw the elevator
door open onto the little linoleum covered landing in the lobby,
(30:22):
and saw that everything else but it in the lobby
was jet black. They were still hosing some of it down.
They were already pulling up burned carpet, installing new windows
and doors, and carting away what was left of the canopy.
And it was evident that as thorough a job as
had been done there, nothing else in the building had burned. Nothing.
(30:47):
In the days and weeks to come, the other residents
knowing I worked in news, clued me in on the
rumors and asked me to check them out. There was
a dispute, somebody said, involving the owner. There was something
about a woman. No, there was nothing about a woman.
But all of them, every story, every rumor, included the
obvious that was no voting accident. Somebody had thrown a
(31:10):
millet off cocktail into or against our front door. And
then there was the best of the stories, born out
or at least lent plausibility by the rapidity with which
the firefighters arrived, which thinking back on it was no
more than three or four minutes after I first saw
the extra orange glow. The best rumor was that the
(31:32):
fire department had been called by somebody before anybody in
the building had called. The implication was somebody called in
a fire and then started the fire. For forty years
plus I have been unable to find the truth. The fire,
(31:53):
doing superficial but ultimately not serious damage, did not make
the New York newspapers. Hell that year, I took a
subway to work in the morning and there was a
guy sprawled over three seats. And when I went home
that night, I happened to get on the exact same
train car, and there was the exact same guy sprawled
over the exact same three seats because he was dead.
And that didn't make the New York newspapers of three either.
(32:17):
We old timey New Yorkers, We lived on the edge. Baby.
All I know is that within weeks a doorman was hired.
His name was Geene, and he had a strong Irish accent,
and he was still there as of two thousand two.
And then the building suddenly went co op. All of
us renters were suddenly offered the chance to buy our apartments.
(32:41):
But I didn't want to take out a loan, and
I expected to be moving to Boston in the near future,
and I kept thinking about that Molotov cocktail. So I
turned down that apartment at the price of are you
lying down thirty six? Turned it down because yeah, there
(33:02):
was the fire and the loan and Boston. But ultimately
I turned it down, even just to keep his a
storage unit. I turned that apartment down because when it
comes to investments, I'm a moron. I've done all the
(33:33):
damage I can do here that is not meant literally obviously.
Thank you for listening. If you're not following or subscribing
to the podcast. Please do so. Don't make me come
over there with a you know. Here are the credits.
Most of the music, including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth,
was arranged, produced and performed by Brian Ray and John
Philip s Chanelle. They are the Countdown musical directors. All
(33:55):
orchestration and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitarist, bass and
drums by Brian Ray, produced by T k O Brothers
brother Beethoven selections have been arranged and perfore warmed by
No horns allowed. The sports music is the Alderman theme
from ESPN two, which was written by Mitch Warren Davis
and which appears courtesy of ESPN Incorporated musical comments from
(34:16):
Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer
today was John Dene. Everything else was pretty much my fault.
So that's countdown for this the seven day since Donald
Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States. Arrest him now while we still can.
New addition tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Alverman. Good morning,
(34:37):
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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