February 3, 2025 • 55 mins
SEASON 3 EPISODE 94: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump and Musk are, at this moment, overthrowing our form of government.
And this is how to stop them: Yell. Keep yelling.
Government data about religious charities – private, if not necessarily secret – has wound up in the hands of Mike Flynn, the foreign asset, General Scumbag – and he’s posted it online, and mocked the Lutheran Church in doing so. Musk’s hatchet-men are literally inside the government right now demanding leaders of the U.S. Agency for International Development turn over classified documents inside restricted areas and those that have refused have been placed on leave. Trump has started a trade war with our closest allies just to have somebody for his morons to hate.
Quote: “It’s a coup. Elon Musk is running a palace coup. Musk is taking classified information. Musk has taken YOUR social security number. Everybody involved should be arrested, by local DA’s if that’s all we can do, and denied bail,” unquote. A Democratic Senator, Representative, Governor, Mayor, needs to stand in front of microphones today and say that today and say that THAT BLUNTLY today. And, quote: “Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump might as well have killed those teenaged skaters on American 5342 themselves. The DC crash was their fault. Period.” Some OTHER Democratic leader, maybe the head of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, elected Saturday, needs to say that. As it is, Martin says: “We’re taking the gloves off. I’m always viewed my role as a chair of the Democratic Party to take the low road, so my candidates and elected officials can take the high road. Meaning, I’m going to throw a punch.”Good. Start swinging.
Because the FIRST step towards stopping wrong is by publicly and loudly yelling, THIS is wrong.
A Minnesota colleague described the new DNC Chair: “Ken will cut you if he has to.” I’ll bring the metaphorical Ginsu set because right now where we actually ARE is: the nominal leading Democratic office-holder is Chuck Schumer and as Trump and Musk began to ransack your social security number and starting trade wars with our literally closest allies, Chuck Schumer’s social media Saturday afternoon was: “You’re worried about tomato prices…” and ten minutes later “You’re watching the Super Bowl…wait’ll Trump’s tariffs raise your guacamole and beer prices.” Useless. I need a thousand Ken Martins, throwing punches and metaphorically cutting a MAG-itch. I need them saying this is a coup, we will stop it, it will take time, we will beat them and jail them because bottom line is they are lazy and they leave half their lives to chance – just look at their haircuts.
B-Block (30:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: CBS, NPR, New York Times, Politico, NBC all tried to kiss Trump's ring. He just hurt them anyway. And this is not a joke: Semafor is hosting a "National Summit" on how to restore confidence in media. The speakers are Megyn Kelly, the idiot running CNN, the other idiot running NBC, and the idiot running The New York Times. No - seriously.
B-Block (37:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Chuck Todd gets scooped on his own firing. Chris Licht finally gets a new job. Free-lance. Temp. At scale. And Neto-Baby Peter Doocy asks Softball Scholarship Recipient Karoline Leavitt about DEI. Also you doubted she called Hitler "Hilter?" I'll show you.
C-Block (47:00) SPORTSBALL CENTER TONIGHT: A basketball trade deal so bad it must have been ordered by Trump. How many Petterssons? ALL the Petterssons. And for the last damn time: hockey's "Original 6?" They aren't original, and there aren't six of them.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.<
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Trump
and Musk are at this moment overthrowing our form of government,
(00:29):
and this is how to stop them. Yell and keep yelling.
Government data about religious charities, private, if not necessarily secret
data has wound up in the hands of Mike Flynn,
the foreign asset, you know, general scumbag, and he has
(00:51):
posted it online and mocked the Lutheran Church in doing
so and called it money laundering. Musk's hatchetmen are literally
inside the government right now demanding that leaders of the
US Agency for International Development turnover classified documents inside restricted areas,
and those that have refused have been placed on leave
(01:13):
by Elon effing Musk. Quote it's a coup. Elon Musk
is running a palace coup. Elon Musk is taking classified information.
Elon Musk has taken your social Security number. Everybody involved
should be arrested by local das if that's all we
(01:34):
can do, and denied bail. Unquote a Democratic senator, representative, governor,
mayor somebody needs to stand in front of microphones today
and say that quote today, and say that that bluntly
today and quote Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump might as
(01:55):
well have killed those teenage skaters on American five three
four to two themselves. The DC crash was their fault,
period unquote, some other Democratic leader, maybe the new head
of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, elected Saturday's got
to say that. What he has said is we're taking
the gloves off. I've always viewed my role as a
(02:16):
chair of the Democratic Party to take the low road
so my candidates, an elected official can take the high road,
meaning I'm going to throw a punch unquote. Good start swinging, Kenny,
because the first step towards stopping wrong is by publicly
and loudly yelling this is wrong. A Minnesota colleague described
(02:38):
the new DNC chair quote, Ken will cut you if
he has to. Well, I'll bring the metaphorical ginsu set
because right now where we actually are is the nominal
leading Democratic office holder is Senator Chuck Schumer. And as
Trump and Musk began to ransack your Social Security number
and starting trade wars with our literally closest allies, Chuck
(03:02):
Schumer social media Saturday afternoon was You're worried about tomato prices,
and ten minutes later you're watching the Super Bowl. Wait,
old Trump's tariffs, raise your guacamole and beer prices. Useless,
utterly useless. I need one thousand Ken Martins throwing punches
today and metaphorically cutting a maggi today. I need them
(03:26):
saying this is a coup. We will stop it. It
will take time, we will beat them and jail them though,
because bottom line is they are lazy and they leave
half their lives to chance. Just look at their goddamned haircuts.
And those thousand Ken Martins must also say. The crash
(03:48):
of the US Army helicopter and the death of the
service personnel on a continuity of government training exercise in
public space Thursday night was Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett's responsibility.
The crash of a medical flight in East Philadelphia Friday
night was Acting FAA Chief Chris Rochelo's responsibility. The FAA
(04:11):
warning system went down over the weekend, and that is
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy's responsibility. The cancelation of care
for two teenage transgender patients in New York was Health
and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Junior's responsibility.
Musk has been given access to your tax dollars and
(04:32):
your records, no supervision, no accountability. We don't even know
what he's taken. The deal maker did this. Your money
has been given away, Your privacy has been given away.
That is Trump's fault. And hegseeth incompetent, unstable, useless. Your
(04:52):
typical Trump employee is Trump's fault. And Rochalo plucked out
of an aviation industry lobbying firm because Trump hadn't put
anybody in charge of the FAA after Musk forced out
the last chief of the FAA. Rochlo is Trump's fault.
And Kennedy burned out by drugs, faithless, perverted, probably not
(05:16):
wearing pants is Trump's fault. And if you find holes
in any of these conclusions, if you see inconsistencies in
the assignment of blame like this, if you flinch it
saying heg sith might as well have killed the servicemen
and the ice skaters, bury all of your flinching, drop
(05:37):
the details, and negate the nuance. View all events as
Trump has viewed them, View them only in black and white,
as events he can falsely take credit for and exploit,
or as events he can falsely blame on others and
still exploit because that whatever form of government that is blameocracy, conspiratory, gotcha, authoritarian.
(06:05):
That is how the United States of America runs at
the moment, and the battle to restore democracy or at
least representative government with one or two checks and maybe
balances for an hour or two a week, that battle
begins in a symbolic knife fight for the simplest, most raw,
(06:28):
lowest common denominator discourse. Trump must be blamed every day
for everything, by every Democrat, by every still rational Republican,
by every patriotic American, With Trump dismantling the government as
(06:49):
we speak, with the actual bureaucrats who know how to
run the Office of Management and Budget being locked out
of their computers by Elon Musk's minions in a blatantly
illegal internal push, with the National Transportation Safety Board privatizing
its media interactions by putting them exclusively on the pro
(07:11):
Nazi social media site x and with Trump unilaterally flooding
central California so he can say he stopped the next
wildfires in southern California, hundreds of miles away, and with
all of them firing career prosecutors at dj and career
investigators at the FBI because they dared to investigate Trump
and Trump's criminals. With Trump's institution of tariffs so that
(07:35):
American manufacturers can take more money out of your pocket,
either at the cash register or in their irs returns,
with Trump's metaphorical serial killing spree against America in full swing,
he has declared war on us, and we must win
it by being more successful, more ruthless, more destructive towards
(08:00):
him than he is towards us. And it starts with yelling.
I want a dozen leading Democrats calling news conferences to
day around the country. I want them talking about the coup.
I want them talking about how Mike Flynn got sensitive
(08:21):
data about Lutheran charities. I want them stating Trump is
responsible for the sixty seven deaths on American Eagle five
three four to two and the Army Blackhawk. And I
want them saying heg Seth didn't announce the helicopter was
on a continuity of government training mission. He confessed it.
Heg Seth confessed that he put a chopper with trainees
in the path of a jet full of teenage girls
(08:43):
flying back from Kansas unqualified trainees under heg Set's own
umbrella and flying on behalf of the Trump administration. Heg
Seth put that helicopter above the busiest civilian runway in
the nation. That is Pete Hegsath's accident. And those are
Donald Trump's deaths. And if that seems brutal or cold,
(09:03):
or low or exploitative, just remind yourself what Trump tried
to do in the hours after the crash. He blamed Dei,
he blamed Biden, he blamed Obama. The Democrats have to
not just answer in kind, they have to symbolically break
Trump in half as they answer, this wasn't DEEI, it
(09:27):
was Doge, This wasn't Biden, This wasn't Lloyd Austin's helicopter,
it was Pete Hegseet's. I apologize to the families. You
are already being exploited in this. Then again, you have
been exploited by Trump before many of you were notified
(09:47):
of this tragedy. This is Donald Trump's America. We are
trying to stop him because this will become permanent and
uncontrollably evil if we do not stop him now. And
for further clarification, when I say Democrats have to do
and say these things. I mean individual democrats. I do
(10:07):
not mean leadership in the House and the Senate if any,
I mean Alexandria Acossio Cortez, I mean Adam Schiff, I
mean Gavin Newsom, I mean JB. Pritzker, I mean anybody
thinking of running for any office ever again. Because Chuck
Schumer and a Keen Jeffries had their chance, their response
as Trump strafes and carpet bombs America with American weapons
(10:30):
was to see him pardon his insurrectionist terrorists on the
night of his inauguration and to gather their rapid response
team and hold an emergency Senate Democrats news conference literally
only six effing days later. We need a Democrat with
name recognition to step up and take over. Appear online,
(10:58):
mega statement, take media questions within minutes of the next
atrocity Trumps off, call news conferences for an hour from now,
schedule a news conference weekly, preferably on Sunday, and then
find something to blame on Trump or Musk or both
(11:18):
of them, or all of them. I mean, how in
the hell do you think Chuck Schumer rose to prominence
in the first place. Chuck Schumer used to hold a
news conference every Sunday in New York on the street,
whether there was any news to conference about or not,
because he knew there was not enough news to fill
the local newscasts in New York or to put in
the local newspapers in New York every Monday. So every
(11:40):
Sunday there's Congressman Schumer, who said, there's Senator Schumer, who
said there's Leader Schumer, who said, there's Schumer who thought
guacamole was more important than a coup, which is why
we got rid of him. But use the early Schumer
as a template the twenty first century version of this.
(12:01):
Have you ever seen anything on one of the Sunday
shows that happened that day? Occasionally an interview of well
stenography of a fascist will take over the news cycle,
but usually it's Saturday's news on the Sunday shows or
Friday's news. It's almost as slow as the Democratic response
to anything. But the Democrat who begins to hold eight
(12:28):
am news conferences every Sunday morning, who metaphorically shives Trump
or the fascist of the week and metaphorically, like Ken
Martin cuts them, that would lead every Sunday show. It
would be carried live on the cable networks at least,
but it would lead every Sunday network show. It would
(12:50):
blow Trump right out of the tub in terms of
media attention. And it would not just lead the Sunday shows.
It would lead most of the Monday shows. It would
be most of the Monday columns. Columnists, and the Sunday
shows are still viable. They still drive the agenda, at
least for Sunday and Monday, because they operate in a vacuum.
(13:13):
Steal the goddamn vacuum from them. There is in life
nothing worse than getting up early on Sunday morning. But
I have faith in you, AOC. Get a good night's sleep,
get up early and nuke Trump every Sunday morning, live
(13:36):
at eight am, and help save the nation and help
get yourself a presidential nomination Democrats. Judgment cometh and that
right soon. Of course, it cannot stop there, and it
(14:18):
doesn't have to be AOC. Anybody willing to do this.
Gavin Newsom live at five am Pacific time, eight am
Eastern every Sunday with a news conference about whatever Trump
just did. Take over the news cycle. Force your way
past Trump, make him stand in back of you, make
(14:39):
him respond to you every Sunday. And it can't stop there,
whoever's doing it. It must be extended into the Senate
and into the House, and it requires an attitude adjustment
that the Democratic Party may or may not be able
to sustain. Senator Shift, showing signs of life, aptly declared
(15:03):
the purge at the DOJ and FBI the Friday Night massacre,
whereupon norm Ornstein told Schiff to have Senate Democrats unleash
the weapons in their arsenal blanket holds, no committee hearings.
When the Senate is in session, every bill read in
its entirety on the floor, denial of unanimous consent and
more the Senate hold. The Senate hold can create more
(15:30):
chaos than anything else currently in the Democrats quiver. The
standing rules of the Senate require unanimous consent before anything
comes to the floor. One senator or a small group
of them, or a bunch of them can literally stall
anything for years. The senator tells party leadership of intent
(15:51):
to object to a motion to consider a bill. They
don't even have to make it public. They can do
it anonymously. Republicans do it all the time, and it
works and it's wrong and it's evil, but it works,
and right now we need what works. In December twenty
twenty two, after Trump's Supreme Court killed Roe v. Wade,
(16:14):
the Pentagon guaranteed that pregnant service members would get leave
and reimbursement of travel for abortions where they were still
protected by law. The Dumbo, the elephant of the Senate,
Tubberville tantrumed. On February sixteenth, twenty twenty three, Tuberville announced
(16:36):
he was putting a hold on all new Pentagon nominees,
even as the Democratic majority railed against how much Tubby
was endangering the nation doing so, he dug in. On
only a few occasions could the majority overcome Tubberville. Via
cloture motions, one senator holding up every promotion inside the Pentagon,
(16:58):
three hundred nominations were blocked. One of the few that
was not, the Marine Corps Commandant Eric Smith, was confirmed,
but Tuberville blocked the nomination of his deputy, and five
weeks later Commandant Smith had a heart attack. Tuberville still
would not relent. Days later, Democrats, now with the help
of the Republicans, nominated sixty one more officers. Tuberville blocked
(17:21):
them all by partisan opposition, and the hold could not
be broken. Not until December did Tuberville give up, and
he still in giving up block the promotion of eleven
four star officers. One asshole did this. One asshole, failed
football coach, white supremacist, misogynistic moron bastard did this. There
(17:46):
are forty five Democratic Senators, plus Bernie Sanders and Angus King.
They all have pairs of shoes that are smarter than
Tommy Tuberville. They should be meeting today to decide if
they want to assign who puts the holds on what
based on their our own specific interests in a topic
(18:07):
or topics, or whether it should go rotational, or whether
it should go by seniority. But they must all put
a Senate hold on something all the effing time. Shut
the effing Senate down. Trump gets nothing through without pain
and grief and something to enrage him, something to slow
(18:28):
down the momentum of his mechanism of despotism. Nothing you
want to grind the government to a halt, Trump, you
ain't seen nothing yet. Our terms are give us musk
and then we will stop holding everything. The other elements
(18:51):
Ornstein mentioned to shift for just icing every bill read
in full, no committee hearings, no unanimous consent, no Democratic
support of anything, and inside the Democratic Senate Caucus, no bipartisanship.
The death penalty. If Fetterman wants to collaborate with the Nazis,
have fun. Senator Cannimate, you are expelled from the party.
(19:13):
I mean, we are down fifty three to forty seven
in the Senate right now. Fifty four forty six. Ain't
that much worse? And if Fetterman does not get the message.
If you think Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania is pretty popular,
how popular do you think Democratic Senate primary challenger Josh
Shapiro would be. As to the House, the assignment is
(19:38):
much simpler and easier. A. Is the House in session?
If so, then B is it a day of the
week ending in why? If so? Then C. Trump has
just done something impeachable. Introduce a motion to impeach, or inquire,
or inquire and impeach. He gave Musk, who is not
(19:59):
a government official, has been voted for by no one,
not even Republicans. He gave Musk, who is responsible to
no one, least of all himself, veto power over all
government payments and the computers with which to effect this.
There should be people arrested over this in the interim
(20:21):
move to impeach Trump because of what Musk is doing.
There are ninety nine weeks left until New Year's Day
twenty twenty seven. Give Trump ninety nine impeachment problems, and
publicity about his latest violation of his oath of office
should be one of them every week. The Democrats don't
(20:43):
like to use these weapons. One Congressional aid, carrying on
a valiant fight on social media, says a clenched fist
approach will firm up support for Trump in the Senate
among Republicans and drive away any Republicans in the House
looking for a way out. And who would they be?
(21:07):
Trump already killed them all off, all but a handful
in unique safe circumstances, like Senator Murkowski. I don't know
if there are any in the House. What is the
House doing? The House is trying to get Trump a
third term. Who is it that you are going to
(21:27):
negotiate with? Who is it that you expect is going
to stop Trump? It's been ten years. None of them
have had the balls to even stand up to him.
The Democrats need to understand that Trump is running not
just another January sixth right now, but a whole series
of them, only without the intermediaries and without hitting the
Capitol police with stun guns and bike racks. Democrats have
(21:53):
to understand and state Trump is the enemy. Trump is
the fifth column. Trump is destroying America. Trump has stolen
your Social Security number. Trump maybe next steal your Social
Security money. Apocalyptic terms, because it's an apocalypse. Trump is
(22:18):
the enemy. Republicans are his brown shirts, and the Democrats
are America's only chance. And if you are not willing
to accept this reality, Democrats, and accept this responsibility and
act in defense of the nation, Democrats, guess what we
are going to need? New Democrats and god damned fast.
(22:48):
One thing we must not have, not now, certainly, not immediately,
certainly though, is public protest. That is more than likely
what Trump is trying to instigate. The flood, the zone stuff,
in addition to overwhelming the media, have to try to
do that. He wants protests preferably large, preferably menacing, preferably
(23:14):
full of non white people warde protest he can either
incite to violence or if they remain peaceful, that he
can lie about and tell his gang that they were violent.
He wants to gas civilians. You you listening to this
right now. He wants to hit you with tear gas
(23:37):
to start with, he wants to do it the way
he did it on June first, twenty twenty outside of
the church. And then he wants to shoot you. And
then he wants over your prostrate body to help use
your carcass to invent an organized internal enemy. Because he
is following Hitler's playbook, there's no question of it. Now
(24:02):
threatened to invade your neighboring countries, the idea of his
opponents turning out to be part of a vast conspiracy
to burn down whatever his reichs dog is going to be.
That's the excuse he needs to convince any remaining reluctant
Republicans in government or out to embrace him as the
dictator saving white people from a manufactured threat. Trump's Goebbels
(24:32):
and Hesses and Borman's want nothing more than a new
Black Lives Matter movement to hit the streets, regardless of
the rightness of the cause, regardless of the peacefulness of
the protests. It would be a gift to Trump, and
it would accelerate the full implementation of his dictatorship. There
may be a time, and it may come soon when
we have nothing left but to take to the streets
(24:53):
and let the chips fall where there may. That is
not the time right now. This is, in fact, probably
the worst time right now. This is not even yet
the right time for the ten strike. This is not
yet the time for consumer goods boycott. This is not
yet the time to fully abandon the mechanisms available to
the Democrats within government and with media platforms. If we
(25:21):
want to protest, if we want to take to the streets,
we are better served right now going to Chuck Schumer's
office and protesting there in one desperate bid to see
if we can get him and Jeffries and others to
deal with today's crises today, And to start by declaring
that Musk and Trump are running another coup right now,
(25:44):
or a dozen of them, and that heg Seth and
Trump and the Republican Party killed the service members on
the black Hawk and killed the passengers on the American
Eagle flight. And I make no attempt to hide my
feeling of disgust just saying that, nor my sense of
it all being disgustingly unclean, and I wish there were
another way, but we have got to win this war.
And the other side it has all of these weapons,
(26:06):
and the only ones we have are those they have
stupidly handed us. Use them, and use them now, and
they begin with yelling. Also have interest here in an
(26:29):
all new edition because the other way is collaboration. And
five of the news organizations that did their best to
be VC media have gotten their reward. Trump has thrown
them all under the bus. Anyway. That and the sports
(26:51):
trade deals so bad it must have been ordered by Trump.
That's next. This is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith
Olberman coming up on an all new edition of Countdown
Worst Persons. Some listeners thought I was being hyperbolic when
(27:13):
I said Press Secretary Caroline Levitt had called Hitler hilter
like an amany Python sketch. I was not being hyperbolic.
Let's go to the videotape next. First, in an all
new edition of Countdown. Some headlines, some updates, some snark,
and some postscripts to the news. This is the Countdown podcast,
(27:39):
and these are the places where there's news, dateline capitulation nation.
So here's how it's going with all those erstwhile news
organizations that bent over backwards to try to appease Trump.
And remember that to truly bend over backwards, you have
to have no spine. CBS began internal discussions to settle
(28:02):
a bullshit lawsuit by Trump over the editing of an
interview with Kamala Harris, because if the point was to
chill journalism, CBS was the exact right spot to find
scaredy pat owners. So they began to talk at CBS
about paying fifteen million dollars to quote settle the lawsuit
(28:24):
and the goggles that Trump then appointed to run the
FCC decided to begin his tenure by announcing that he
wants the transcripts of the CBS Harris interview and is
investigating CBS because the Trump monsters are going to use
the laws to punish people who don't advocate for Trump,
and those monsters must be stopped. Next, the guy will
(28:48):
want the video of the CBS Harris interview turned over
to the FCC, and of course, way down there at
the end of this path to hell, this guy will
want Kamala Harris herself turned over to the FCC. Dateline
the Pentagon On Friday, Zach Stanton, writing the Politico Playbook
newsletter after Ryan Liza got the heave ho after the
(29:11):
whole thing with Miviy Muzi, wrote one of the suckiest
suck up things yet written about Trump. Quote. The prevailing
sense at the end of week one was that Trump
two point oh was altogether more polished and professional than
Trump one point oh. This time around, so the thinking went,
the administration would be able to execute on its goals
(29:33):
with strategic precision, an impression bolstered by the blitz of
well prepared executive actions that defined his initial days back
on the job. That's the long version of and thus
Donald Trump finally became president. Nice try Zack Stanton of Politico.
Later the same day, the Pentagon announced that there would
(29:56):
be some changes made in the press. Cubby holes provided
in the building for correspondence to work out of. The
TV ones even have little TV cameras in them. The
New York Post, breitbarta NN, and huff Post will be
getting spaces in the Pentagon. Huff Post really gonna move
(30:17):
a gossip columnist into the Pentagon. I mean, it's as
silly as oh Ann. Anyway, the spaces they will be
getting were the press spaces occupied by NPR, which has
been desperately trying to curry favor with the right for
at least a year, and the New York Times. That's
the New York Times. As in the New York Times,
we can both sides anything in our headlines department. And
(30:40):
NBC good call on giving Trump the free pass throughout
the campaign and that lightweight interview on Meet the Press,
and of course Politico. Politico space is now going to
like Breitbart. All four ousted news organizations tried to appease.
(31:00):
Politico tried three hours before they were thrown out. Do
not appease, Never appease, Do not bring a bouquet of
roses to a flame thrower fight. And Dateline Washington next up,
trying to prove it can be good little propagandists Semaphore News.
(31:21):
I'm going to read you it's very colorful, very unbelievable
press release as written at Semaphore. I beg you to
believe me. I beg you. This is not satire. I
am not that talented. I could never write nor conceive
of anything this tone death obviously wrong and completely stupid.
(31:47):
Semaphore innovating to restore trust in news a national summit.
Semaphore has set plans for a National Trust in News
Summit next month, with the focus on how the media
rebuilds public trust amid a Gallop poll showing record low approval.
The event to be held on February twenty seventh that
(32:07):
Gallup's headquarters in Washington, DC, is hosted by co founder
and CEO Justin Smith if that is your real name,
and co founder and editor in chief Ben Smith, if
that is your real name. Those confirmed to participate so far,
let me exit reading this press release to just remind
you I did not write this. This is not satire.
(32:29):
This is not somebody trying to write the dumbest thing
ever in terms of restoring trust in news. Okay, this
is this is real. Those confirmed to participate so far
include Mecckelly, CNN Worldwide Chairman and CEO, Mark Thompson, NBC
(32:51):
Universal Newsgroup Chairman, Sesar Conde. Fox News is Brettbear and
and he guesses it's worse than you think. It's really
worse than you think. Worse than Megan Kelly, worse than
Mark Thompson, who many people at CNN do not believe
(33:11):
actually exist, They've never seen him. Worse than Megan Kelly,
worse than Mark Thompson, worse than, saysar Conde, worse than
Brett Bhar. The last person participating in the Innovating to
Restore Trust in News national Summit, Joe Kahn, Executive editor
of The New York Times. Does he have to bring
somebody with him to offer a counterpoint to each of
(33:34):
his statements? Others participating will come from the worlds of news, entertainment,
technology and new media. Probably should add somebody from the
waterboarding division of the new administration. Megan Kelly, Mark Thompson,
says our Conte Brett Behar, Joe Kahn on restoring trust
(33:58):
in news, And you didn't invite Joe and Mika, Oh
my god? Are we f't go ahead on countdown the
(34:30):
Terrible Trade plus Hockey's Original Six. The term came up
again over the weekend. The original six. They're not original
and there aren't six of them. How this erroneous nonsense
has become the number one marketing device in the National
Hockey League, and how it is factually completely wrong and
(34:51):
has been now for eighty three years. Coming up next
in Sports First, Believe It or Not? There's still more
new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the
miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who co
constitute two Day's other worst persons in the world, the
bronze worse Chuck Todd. Friday, Chuck announced he's leaving NBC
(35:17):
News for once. I'm not going to focus here on
how Chuck once made up a quote and attributed it
to AOC. She said concentration camps, he said, she said
Nazi death camps. He still doesn't think he did anything wrong,
even though she never said Nazi, she didn't say death
and concentration camps began forty years before the Nazis used them.
(35:39):
They began in the Boer War in the nineteenth century. Also,
I'm not going to zoom in on Chuck saying more
recently that the Trump nominee confirmation hearings could just save
cable news in the short term, because obviously that's what
Chuck thinks the point of these confirmation hearings are. I'm
not going to mention any of that. I'm just going
to point out that about three weeks ago, each media
(36:01):
reporter and each political newsletter, including some done by high
school students reported that Chuck Todd was leaving NBC News.
Chuck reported it on Friday, Chuck was scooped on his
own firing, runner up worser, former chief CNN saboteur Chris Licked.
(36:23):
That's old timer's day here on worse persons Chris lickt
Chuck Todd. One of the media guys who scooped Chuck
Todd on his own firing was Oliver Darcy of Status
about my old MSNBC buddy lickt Darcy writes quote. When
wildfires tore through the Los Angeles area earlier this month,
Chris Lick found himself in the city, eager to lend
(36:44):
the hand for or against the wildfires. Licked. According to
a tipster, the former CNN boss reached out to knbct
TV chief Todd Muktari to see if the local station
needed any support with its coverage. As circumstances would have it,
Muktari did said he could use an extra field producer. Licked,
(37:08):
I'm told, volunteered his time to assist taking on field
producing duties for KNBC, the station where he launched his
career years ago. I would argue about the use of
the word career relative to Chris licked Krene is probably closer.
Darcy ads licked volunteered. His time volunteered implies he did
(37:30):
this for free, which is highly unlikely even under the
circumstances in a union shop like NBCLA. But he certainly
did work for the minimum, meaning Chris Lickt has finally
found a job and especially a salary commensurate with his
skills bought our winner. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt, who makes
(37:50):
Kaylee mcananey and Sarah Huckabee and Sean Spicer look like
they aren't morons. Levitt is not only stupid, but she
has swallowed all the kool aid and whatever else was
on the food table with the White House. Listen to
this exchange with Peter Doucey of Fox, another rocket scientist,
(38:11):
back when they were still trying to sell the Potomac
disaster as the fault of DEI instead of Pete. Hegsat's
DoD was the air traffic controller in the DCA tower
on Wednesday night, hired or not fired at some point
because of his or her race.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
That investigation is ongoing, and so when we have updates
on the exact individuals who were involved in the collision,
including the air traffic controller, also the pilots of the
helicopter and others. We will confirm those. I don't want
to confirm names from this podium today, We're not in
a position to do that, but I will say the
President has still rightfully pointed out that there has been
(38:50):
problems with the aviation industry over the past several years,
and this started under Barack Obama in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
So wait, Caroline, the DEI stuff you're whining about started
under Obama. And who is the president after Obama who
didn't do anything about it? Oh yeah, that's right, Trump,
and whose presidency was the one in which the helicopter
pilot was commissioned. Oh right, Trumps. The people talking, DEEI waited,
(39:20):
if you will, hiring practices unfair to white dudes, hiring
practices in that little clip there, those people are Peter Doocey,
whose dad just coincidentally has worked at Fox News since
it was created, born courtesy of Satan and Roger Ayles,
Peter Deucey, NEPO baby, and Caroline Levitt, who literally got
(39:44):
into college on a softball scholarship. The press secretary is
there to catch softballs from the NEPO babies only in America. Man,
while we are here on this topic, I mentioned last
week the just last summer, Caroline Levitt not revealed as
(40:06):
a Trump spokesperson that she thinks the word damming is
pronounced dammining, but that she at least once on the
air live on CNN, revealed she thought the Nazi monster's
name was Kilter. There was blowback to that. People who
believed everything else that I've said all this time believe
(40:26):
that was impossible. Nobody is that stupid. Nobody has gone
through life only reading a name and getting it wrong
all their lives, no matter if they're ten years old,
reading the name Hitler wrong and never being corrected on it.
It's not possible. Never Mind, somebody rose to the position
of I don't know, street sweeper outside the White House,
(40:49):
never mind Press secretary to the President of the United States.
But then again, we are living in a real time,
real life version of idiocracy in a time when Bobby
Kennedy Junior is not escorted out of the Senate and
directly into a straight jacket and some pants, it is
not only possible, it turns out it's likely that this
is what happens at the risk of pissing off CNN
(41:14):
like they care anymore. On June twenty fourth, last year,
on CNN This Morning with Casey Hunt, here's the clip
Levitt got Hitler's name wrong. It is late in this clip.
There's a lot of crosstalk at the end, but you
can play it again if you don't hear it the
first time. Levitt is bashing Jake Tapper, Casey Hunt is
defending Jake Tapper, and then boom goes the Hilter. Courtesy
(41:37):
and copyright CNN. And my justification is this is really
news that a lot of people didn't notice at the time,
courtesy CNN. And just one more time, this is courtesy CNN.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Well, first of all, it's it takes someone five minutes
to google Jake Tapper Donald Trump to see that Jake
Tapper has Sam canist Is offer his interview. Want to
call it ADELF.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Hilter, He'll ter. I assume as she said that Caroline
Levitt thought his name was Rodolfo Hilter, Ladolf Hilter, Caroline.
I want to know if the four thousand sports books
and other legal gambling companies that have sprung up in
Trump's America. Will let me bet on when she mispronounces
(42:23):
Trump's name like Chuck Grassley mispronounced Trump's name the other
day and called him dump Levitt two days other worse
person and the world. This is sports Senate. Wait check
(43:01):
that not anymore.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
This is countdown with Keith Ulberman from the sports Ball
Central Center news desk tonight dateline, Dallas, Texas, Hello, Dallas
Mavericks did indeed send superstar Luka Doncic to the Los
(43:24):
Angeles Lakers at the basketball swap deadline yesterday in and yes,
I am repeating this line because I like it that much.
A trade deal so bad it must have been ordered
by Trump. Doncic turns twenty six at the end of
this month, and in the worst of his six full
seasons in the league thus far, he finished only eighth
in the balloting for most Valuable Player. He was third
(43:47):
last year. He's been a first team All Star each
of the last five seasons. Dallas sent La Doncic and
well other guys for the Lakers first round draft choice
in twenty twenty nine. Max Christy, who has scored eight
hundred and two points over the entire arc of his career,
that is, and Anthony Davis, a thirty two year old,
(44:08):
much beligned, much injured player whose name you may recognize
from such headlines as Anthony Davis demands New Orleans trades him.
Anthony Davis will not return to Kentucky. Anthony Davis will
miss several games with another foot injury. Anthony Davis will
not play tonight due to load maintenance. Anthony Davis demands
(44:29):
Lakers trade him, and of course somebody needs to talk
to Anthony Davis about the brows. Congratulations to my friend
and one time date literally Lakers only earner Jeanie buss
on getting rid of this guy in exchange for one
of the greatest players in modern basketball history. It would
(44:50):
be like trading me for Babe Ruth. The trade is
so bad that several NBA insider reporters who reported it
on social media were contacted by fans and other reporters
and their their editors and employers to ask if their
computers had been hacked.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
No, only the governments. By the way, the best part
of the joke about the bad trade deal being Trump's
thing is that while most people who vaguely know sports
think that Mark Cuban still owns the Dallas Mavericks. They're
the idiots who made this deal. Even NBA fans think this.
Even some Mavericks fans think this. He has long since
sold the team to the Adelson family Miriam Addelson. Miriam
(45:31):
Addelson who got all of her late husband's fascist money
and gave most of it to Trump. Because well, now
they've gone and traded Luka Doncic because et TD state line, Vancouver,
British Columbia. While we're talking trades, please give a thought
(45:52):
today for my pal John Shorthouse, who does the Vancouver
Cannots hockey games on television and is very possibly the
best play by play man in sports, despite being a
total goofball. But even he will be challenged by the
new state of things in Vancouver. Friday night, the Canucks
solved a long standing problem by dumping center J. T. Miller,
(46:13):
a player of whom you could quote the Monty Python line,
it's people like you what causes unrest. He had been
unresting his own teammate, Elias Petterson. Miller was finally traded
to the New York Rangers, the third time in less
than seven years he has been traded, and how he
treated his teammates was part of the trade. Anyway, Elias
(46:35):
Petterson continues in Vancouver, which means Shorthouse's problem continues. The
Canucks recently promoted a defenseman from the Miners named Elias Petterson.
He spells his name exactly the same way Elias Petterson does,
but he pronounces it differently. Near as I can tell,
this is the first time any sports team has had this.
(46:56):
Two guys Elias Petterson and Elias Petterson with exactly the
same name, but they pronounce it differently. But after the
Canucks traded Miller, they made another deal for a deaf
veteran defenseman named Marcus Petterson. So it's Elias, Elias and
Marcus Petterson on the same team, conceivably on the ice
(47:18):
at the same time. Good Luck Shorty, on the other hand.
In September, the Canucks replaced their rinkside in game reporter.
The new person in the job is named Olivia McDonald.
The previous reporter was named Kate Peterson and dateline headquarters
(47:40):
of the New York Americans fan Club. I don't do
a lot of hockey, but while we're here, you may
enjoy this. At least you'll understand why marketing is not
what it could be. In the NHL, the traded J. T.
Millers first came back with the New York Rangers was
against the Boston Bruins Saturday afternoon. They will play again Wednesday.
The Bruins and the Rangers were in the National Hockey
(48:02):
League between nineteen forty two and nineteen sixty, the quarter
century when the whole league had only six teams and
none of them moved and none of them changed names,
and it was just the six of them. And then
they started doing the expansion thing. Starting in the early seventies,
hockey people began to refer to those half dozen clubs
in that twenty five year span erroneously as the original six.
(48:25):
You will hear this now every time Boston plays the Rangers,
or Montreal plays Detroit, or Toronto plays Chicago, or any
other mix of these six teams. Announcers say it, coaches
say it, players say it, The commissioner of the league
says it, and they are all wrong. For some of
us fans, the day will come when we will have
(48:46):
heard this ridiculously inaccurate phrase original fixth one time too many,
and we will either barricade ourselves somewhere, or we will
take hostages. The National Hockey League officially originated in nineteen seventeen,
although it was the direct successor to the National Hockey Association,
which started in nineteen oh nine. Each of those leagues
(49:09):
had in their first season their original season four original teams.
Each of them, the NHL and the NHL had an
original four. The number of the teams in the NHL
has varied. It's gone from four to six in nineteen
twenty four, to seven in nineteen twenty five, to ten
in nineteen twenty six, and then the Depression really took
(49:31):
its toll. The Ottawa Senators suspended operations and the Pittsburgh
Pirates went belly up, then moved to Philadelphia, then folded,
so in nineteen thirty one, the NHL was back down
to eight teams. Ottawa tried again, resumed operations in nineteen
thirty two, so they were back up to nine teams.
That didn't work, so Ottawa moved to Saint Louis in
nineteen thirty four, and that really didn't work, so Saint
(49:53):
Louis folded and in nineteen thirty five it was back
to eight teams again. By nineteen thirty eight, things were
so bad in the city of Montreal that the fabled
Montreal Canadians were going to move to Cleveland. Instead, they
bought out the other Montreal team, the Canadians bought the
Montreal Maroons. The Montreal Maroons, who had won the Stanley
(50:14):
Cup just three years earlier, folded went out of business,
So we're down to seven teams nineteen thirty eight, when
the war came, the original team in New York that
preceded the Rangers, the New York Americans, suspended operations when
the war ended. They never came back, and that's why
there were six NHL teams. There's nothing original about the
(50:35):
original six. They were just the ones that didn't go bankrupt. Moreover,
of the actual original four teams from the NHL of
nineteen seventeen, only the Montreal Canadians are still in the league.
The Toronto team of nineteen seventeen Sorda. They're sorta the
Maple Leafs. The original business went bankrupt, new owners took over,
(50:57):
changed the name of the team. Was a very shady deal.
But even if you consider the Toronto Maple Leafs as original,
THENA does not have an original six. It has an
original two. If the Canadians are playing the Maple Leafs
and you want to say it's an original two matchup,
go right ahead. I have no complaint with that. The
rest of it is bullshit. The Boston Bruins, the Chicago Blackhawks,
(51:21):
Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers. Nominally, the other four
of the original six are like every other one of
the thirty teams that are not Montreal or Toronto. They
are expansion franchises. There is no original six. Why do
I care about this? Why have I assumed that you
(51:43):
would care about this for you nine and a half
minutes of your day. I am the son of a
woman who attended National Hockey League games at Madison Square
Garden in New York, games of the NHL team called
the New York Americans. She and particularly her uncle Willie
were New York Americans. Fans own a replica New York
(52:06):
Americans jacket. If there is an original six teams nineteen
forty two to nineteen sixty seven, what were the New
York Americans who played in nineteen forty one forty two?
What are they? Chopped? Liver? More importantly, as I said,
the NHL Montreal Maroons won the Stanley Cup in nineteen
(52:27):
thirty five, then disappeared in nineteen thirty eight. Does that
Stanley Cup win not count if the Montreal Maroons are
not original or part of some sort of legacy that
you call the Original six who won the Stanley Cup
in nineteen thirty five. In fact, the Maroons won two
Stanley Cups, and the NHL Ottawa Senators the original ones
they won four Stanley Cups. If there is an NHL
(52:49):
Original six, what about those six Stanley Cup Championship NHL
winning teams that don't exist anymore. And lastly, just to
tie the whole thing together once again, just to make
this clear, the Stanley Cup has never been won by
(53:11):
a team with anybody on it who was named Peterson.
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening, and for the record, I may or
(53:33):
may not be an Original six, but I was once traded.
At least I was sold by NBC News to Fox
Sports late in nineteen ninety eight for a flat one dollars. Seriously,
not even draft choices, not even Anthony Davis, just cash.
Brian Ray and John Phillip Shanel. The musical directors have
(53:54):
countdown Arrange produced and performed most of our music. Mister
Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards, Mister Ray was on the guitars,
bass and drums, and it was produced by Tko Brothers.
Our set here Glen Fifthy. Musical comments are by the
best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The sports music
is the Olberman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch
Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Other music arranged and
(54:18):
performed by No Horns Aloud. Did I mention that clip
of Caroline Levitt was from CNN? My announswer today was
my friend Dennis Leary. Everything else was, as ever my fault.
That's countdown for today, just four and forty eight days
until the scheduled end of his lame duck, lame brained term.
Unless Musk removes him sooner. The next scheduled countdown is Thursday.
(54:43):
As always, boltons, as the news warrants remember in peach
trumpet will not work now. It will, however, win the
Democrats the mid terms until next time. I'm Keith Olberman.
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Ladell
(55:04):
Filter Countdown with Keith Olreman 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. Trump
and Musk are at this moment overthrowing our form of government,
(00:29):
and this is how to stop them. Yell and keep yelling.
Government data about religious charities, private, if not necessarily secret
data has wound up in the hands of Mike Flynn,
the foreign asset, you know, general scumbag, and he has
(00:51):
posted it online and mocked the Lutheran Church in doing
so and called it money laundering. Musk's hatchetmen are literally
inside the government right now demanding that leaders of the
US Agency for International Development turnover classified documents inside restricted areas,
and those that have refused have been placed on leave
(01:13):
by Elon effing Musk. Quote it's a coup. Elon Musk
is running a palace coup. Elon Musk is taking classified information.
Elon Musk has taken your social Security number. Everybody involved
should be arrested by local das if that's all we
(01:34):
can do, and denied bail. Unquote a Democratic senator, representative, governor,
mayor somebody needs to stand in front of microphones today
and say that quote today, and say that that bluntly
today and quote Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump might as
(01:55):
well have killed those teenage skaters on American five three
four to two themselves. The DC crash was their fault,
period unquote, some other Democratic leader, maybe the new head
of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, elected Saturday's got
to say that. What he has said is we're taking
the gloves off. I've always viewed my role as a
(02:16):
chair of the Democratic Party to take the low road
so my candidates, an elected official can take the high road,
meaning I'm going to throw a punch unquote. Good start swinging, Kenny,
because the first step towards stopping wrong is by publicly
and loudly yelling this is wrong. A Minnesota colleague described
(02:38):
the new DNC chair quote, Ken will cut you if
he has to. Well, I'll bring the metaphorical ginsu set
because right now where we actually are is the nominal
leading Democratic office holder is Senator Chuck Schumer. And as
Trump and Musk began to ransack your Social Security number
and starting trade wars with our literally closest allies, Chuck
(03:02):
Schumer social media Saturday afternoon was You're worried about tomato prices,
and ten minutes later you're watching the Super Bowl. Wait,
old Trump's tariffs, raise your guacamole and beer prices. Useless,
utterly useless. I need one thousand Ken Martins throwing punches
today and metaphorically cutting a maggi today. I need them
(03:26):
saying this is a coup. We will stop it. It
will take time, we will beat them and jail them though,
because bottom line is they are lazy and they leave
half their lives to chance. Just look at their goddamned haircuts.
And those thousand Ken Martins must also say. The crash
(03:48):
of the US Army helicopter and the death of the
service personnel on a continuity of government training exercise in
public space Thursday night was Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett's responsibility.
The crash of a medical flight in East Philadelphia Friday
night was Acting FAA Chief Chris Rochelo's responsibility. The FAA
(04:11):
warning system went down over the weekend, and that is
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy's responsibility. The cancelation of care
for two teenage transgender patients in New York was Health
and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Junior's responsibility.
Musk has been given access to your tax dollars and
(04:32):
your records, no supervision, no accountability. We don't even know
what he's taken. The deal maker did this. Your money
has been given away, Your privacy has been given away.
That is Trump's fault. And hegseeth incompetent, unstable, useless. Your
(04:52):
typical Trump employee is Trump's fault. And Rochalo plucked out
of an aviation industry lobbying firm because Trump hadn't put
anybody in charge of the FAA after Musk forced out
the last chief of the FAA. Rochlo is Trump's fault.
And Kennedy burned out by drugs, faithless, perverted, probably not
(05:16):
wearing pants is Trump's fault. And if you find holes
in any of these conclusions, if you see inconsistencies in
the assignment of blame like this, if you flinch it
saying heg sith might as well have killed the servicemen
and the ice skaters, bury all of your flinching, drop
(05:37):
the details, and negate the nuance. View all events as
Trump has viewed them, View them only in black and white,
as events he can falsely take credit for and exploit,
or as events he can falsely blame on others and
still exploit because that whatever form of government that is blameocracy, conspiratory, gotcha, authoritarian.
(06:05):
That is how the United States of America runs at
the moment, and the battle to restore democracy or at
least representative government with one or two checks and maybe
balances for an hour or two a week, that battle
begins in a symbolic knife fight for the simplest, most raw,
(06:28):
lowest common denominator discourse. Trump must be blamed every day
for everything, by every Democrat, by every still rational Republican,
by every patriotic American, With Trump dismantling the government as
(06:49):
we speak, with the actual bureaucrats who know how to
run the Office of Management and Budget being locked out
of their computers by Elon Musk's minions in a blatantly
illegal internal push, with the National Transportation Safety Board privatizing
its media interactions by putting them exclusively on the pro
(07:11):
Nazi social media site x and with Trump unilaterally flooding
central California so he can say he stopped the next
wildfires in southern California, hundreds of miles away, and with
all of them firing career prosecutors at dj and career
investigators at the FBI because they dared to investigate Trump
and Trump's criminals. With Trump's institution of tariffs so that
(07:35):
American manufacturers can take more money out of your pocket,
either at the cash register or in their irs returns,
with Trump's metaphorical serial killing spree against America in full swing,
he has declared war on us, and we must win
it by being more successful, more ruthless, more destructive towards
(08:00):
him than he is towards us. And it starts with yelling.
I want a dozen leading Democrats calling news conferences to
day around the country. I want them talking about the coup.
I want them talking about how Mike Flynn got sensitive
(08:21):
data about Lutheran charities. I want them stating Trump is
responsible for the sixty seven deaths on American Eagle five
three four to two and the Army Blackhawk. And I
want them saying heg Seth didn't announce the helicopter was
on a continuity of government training mission. He confessed it.
Heg Seth confessed that he put a chopper with trainees
in the path of a jet full of teenage girls
(08:43):
flying back from Kansas unqualified trainees under heg Set's own
umbrella and flying on behalf of the Trump administration. Heg
Seth put that helicopter above the busiest civilian runway in
the nation. That is Pete Hegsath's accident. And those are
Donald Trump's deaths. And if that seems brutal or cold,
(09:03):
or low or exploitative, just remind yourself what Trump tried
to do in the hours after the crash. He blamed Dei,
he blamed Biden, he blamed Obama. The Democrats have to
not just answer in kind, they have to symbolically break
Trump in half as they answer, this wasn't DEEI, it
(09:27):
was Doge, This wasn't Biden, This wasn't Lloyd Austin's helicopter,
it was Pete Hegseet's. I apologize to the families. You
are already being exploited in this. Then again, you have
been exploited by Trump before many of you were notified
(09:47):
of this tragedy. This is Donald Trump's America. We are
trying to stop him because this will become permanent and
uncontrollably evil if we do not stop him now. And
for further clarification, when I say Democrats have to do
and say these things. I mean individual democrats. I do
(10:07):
not mean leadership in the House and the Senate if any,
I mean Alexandria Acossio Cortez, I mean Adam Schiff, I
mean Gavin Newsom, I mean JB. Pritzker, I mean anybody
thinking of running for any office ever again. Because Chuck
Schumer and a Keen Jeffries had their chance, their response
as Trump strafes and carpet bombs America with American weapons
(10:30):
was to see him pardon his insurrectionist terrorists on the
night of his inauguration and to gather their rapid response
team and hold an emergency Senate Democrats news conference literally
only six effing days later. We need a Democrat with
name recognition to step up and take over. Appear online,
(10:58):
mega statement, take media questions within minutes of the next
atrocity Trumps off, call news conferences for an hour from now,
schedule a news conference weekly, preferably on Sunday, and then
find something to blame on Trump or Musk or both
(11:18):
of them, or all of them. I mean, how in
the hell do you think Chuck Schumer rose to prominence
in the first place. Chuck Schumer used to hold a
news conference every Sunday in New York on the street,
whether there was any news to conference about or not,
because he knew there was not enough news to fill
the local newscasts in New York or to put in
the local newspapers in New York every Monday. So every
(11:40):
Sunday there's Congressman Schumer, who said, there's Senator Schumer, who
said there's Leader Schumer, who said, there's Schumer who thought
guacamole was more important than a coup, which is why
we got rid of him. But use the early Schumer
as a template the twenty first century version of this.
(12:01):
Have you ever seen anything on one of the Sunday
shows that happened that day? Occasionally an interview of well
stenography of a fascist will take over the news cycle,
but usually it's Saturday's news on the Sunday shows or
Friday's news. It's almost as slow as the Democratic response
to anything. But the Democrat who begins to hold eight
(12:28):
am news conferences every Sunday morning, who metaphorically shives Trump
or the fascist of the week and metaphorically, like Ken
Martin cuts them, that would lead every Sunday show. It
would be carried live on the cable networks at least,
but it would lead every Sunday network show. It would
(12:50):
blow Trump right out of the tub in terms of
media attention. And it would not just lead the Sunday shows.
It would lead most of the Monday shows. It would
be most of the Monday columns. Columnists, and the Sunday
shows are still viable. They still drive the agenda, at
least for Sunday and Monday, because they operate in a vacuum.
(13:13):
Steal the goddamn vacuum from them. There is in life
nothing worse than getting up early on Sunday morning. But
I have faith in you, AOC. Get a good night's sleep,
get up early and nuke Trump every Sunday morning, live
(13:36):
at eight am, and help save the nation and help
get yourself a presidential nomination Democrats. Judgment cometh and that
right soon. Of course, it cannot stop there, and it
(14:18):
doesn't have to be AOC. Anybody willing to do this.
Gavin Newsom live at five am Pacific time, eight am
Eastern every Sunday with a news conference about whatever Trump
just did. Take over the news cycle. Force your way
past Trump, make him stand in back of you, make
(14:39):
him respond to you every Sunday. And it can't stop there,
whoever's doing it. It must be extended into the Senate
and into the House, and it requires an attitude adjustment
that the Democratic Party may or may not be able
to sustain. Senator Shift, showing signs of life, aptly declared
(15:03):
the purge at the DOJ and FBI the Friday Night massacre,
whereupon norm Ornstein told Schiff to have Senate Democrats unleash
the weapons in their arsenal blanket holds, no committee hearings.
When the Senate is in session, every bill read in
its entirety on the floor, denial of unanimous consent and
more the Senate hold. The Senate hold can create more
(15:30):
chaos than anything else currently in the Democrats quiver. The
standing rules of the Senate require unanimous consent before anything
comes to the floor. One senator or a small group
of them, or a bunch of them can literally stall
anything for years. The senator tells party leadership of intent
(15:51):
to object to a motion to consider a bill. They
don't even have to make it public. They can do
it anonymously. Republicans do it all the time, and it
works and it's wrong and it's evil, but it works,
and right now we need what works. In December twenty
twenty two, after Trump's Supreme Court killed Roe v. Wade,
(16:14):
the Pentagon guaranteed that pregnant service members would get leave
and reimbursement of travel for abortions where they were still
protected by law. The Dumbo, the elephant of the Senate,
Tubberville tantrumed. On February sixteenth, twenty twenty three, Tuberville announced
(16:36):
he was putting a hold on all new Pentagon nominees,
even as the Democratic majority railed against how much Tubby
was endangering the nation doing so, he dug in. On
only a few occasions could the majority overcome Tubberville. Via
cloture motions, one senator holding up every promotion inside the Pentagon,
(16:58):
three hundred nominations were blocked. One of the few that
was not, the Marine Corps Commandant Eric Smith, was confirmed,
but Tuberville blocked the nomination of his deputy, and five
weeks later Commandant Smith had a heart attack. Tuberville still
would not relent. Days later, Democrats, now with the help
of the Republicans, nominated sixty one more officers. Tuberville blocked
(17:21):
them all by partisan opposition, and the hold could not
be broken. Not until December did Tuberville give up, and
he still in giving up block the promotion of eleven
four star officers. One asshole did this. One asshole, failed
football coach, white supremacist, misogynistic moron bastard did this. There
(17:46):
are forty five Democratic Senators, plus Bernie Sanders and Angus King.
They all have pairs of shoes that are smarter than
Tommy Tuberville. They should be meeting today to decide if
they want to assign who puts the holds on what
based on their our own specific interests in a topic
(18:07):
or topics, or whether it should go rotational, or whether
it should go by seniority. But they must all put
a Senate hold on something all the effing time. Shut
the effing Senate down. Trump gets nothing through without pain
and grief and something to enrage him, something to slow
(18:28):
down the momentum of his mechanism of despotism. Nothing you
want to grind the government to a halt, Trump, you
ain't seen nothing yet. Our terms are give us musk
and then we will stop holding everything. The other elements
(18:51):
Ornstein mentioned to shift for just icing every bill read
in full, no committee hearings, no unanimous consent, no Democratic
support of anything, and inside the Democratic Senate Caucus, no bipartisanship.
The death penalty. If Fetterman wants to collaborate with the Nazis,
have fun. Senator Cannimate, you are expelled from the party.
(19:13):
I mean, we are down fifty three to forty seven
in the Senate right now. Fifty four forty six. Ain't
that much worse? And if Fetterman does not get the message.
If you think Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania is pretty popular,
how popular do you think Democratic Senate primary challenger Josh
Shapiro would be. As to the House, the assignment is
(19:38):
much simpler and easier. A. Is the House in session?
If so, then B is it a day of the
week ending in why? If so? Then C. Trump has
just done something impeachable. Introduce a motion to impeach, or inquire,
or inquire and impeach. He gave Musk, who is not
(19:59):
a government official, has been voted for by no one,
not even Republicans. He gave Musk, who is responsible to
no one, least of all himself, veto power over all
government payments and the computers with which to effect this.
There should be people arrested over this in the interim
(20:21):
move to impeach Trump because of what Musk is doing.
There are ninety nine weeks left until New Year's Day
twenty twenty seven. Give Trump ninety nine impeachment problems, and
publicity about his latest violation of his oath of office
should be one of them every week. The Democrats don't
(20:43):
like to use these weapons. One Congressional aid, carrying on
a valiant fight on social media, says a clenched fist
approach will firm up support for Trump in the Senate
among Republicans and drive away any Republicans in the House
looking for a way out. And who would they be?
(21:07):
Trump already killed them all off, all but a handful
in unique safe circumstances, like Senator Murkowski. I don't know
if there are any in the House. What is the
House doing? The House is trying to get Trump a
third term. Who is it that you are going to
(21:27):
negotiate with? Who is it that you expect is going
to stop Trump? It's been ten years. None of them
have had the balls to even stand up to him.
The Democrats need to understand that Trump is running not
just another January sixth right now, but a whole series
of them, only without the intermediaries and without hitting the
Capitol police with stun guns and bike racks. Democrats have
(21:53):
to understand and state Trump is the enemy. Trump is
the fifth column. Trump is destroying America. Trump has stolen
your Social Security number. Trump maybe next steal your Social
Security money. Apocalyptic terms, because it's an apocalypse. Trump is
(22:18):
the enemy. Republicans are his brown shirts, and the Democrats
are America's only chance. And if you are not willing
to accept this reality, Democrats, and accept this responsibility and
act in defense of the nation, Democrats, guess what we
are going to need? New Democrats and god damned fast.
(22:48):
One thing we must not have, not now, certainly, not immediately,
certainly though, is public protest. That is more than likely
what Trump is trying to instigate. The flood, the zone stuff,
in addition to overwhelming the media, have to try to
do that. He wants protests preferably large, preferably menacing, preferably
(23:14):
full of non white people warde protest he can either
incite to violence or if they remain peaceful, that he
can lie about and tell his gang that they were violent.
He wants to gas civilians. You you listening to this
right now. He wants to hit you with tear gas
(23:37):
to start with, he wants to do it the way
he did it on June first, twenty twenty outside of
the church. And then he wants to shoot you. And
then he wants over your prostrate body to help use
your carcass to invent an organized internal enemy. Because he
is following Hitler's playbook, there's no question of it. Now
(24:02):
threatened to invade your neighboring countries, the idea of his
opponents turning out to be part of a vast conspiracy
to burn down whatever his reichs dog is going to be.
That's the excuse he needs to convince any remaining reluctant
Republicans in government or out to embrace him as the
dictator saving white people from a manufactured threat. Trump's Goebbels
(24:32):
and Hesses and Borman's want nothing more than a new
Black Lives Matter movement to hit the streets, regardless of
the rightness of the cause, regardless of the peacefulness of
the protests. It would be a gift to Trump, and
it would accelerate the full implementation of his dictatorship. There
may be a time, and it may come soon when
we have nothing left but to take to the streets
(24:53):
and let the chips fall where there may. That is
not the time right now. This is, in fact, probably
the worst time right now. This is not even yet
the right time for the ten strike. This is not
yet the time for consumer goods boycott. This is not
yet the time to fully abandon the mechanisms available to
the Democrats within government and with media platforms. If we
(25:21):
want to protest, if we want to take to the streets,
we are better served right now going to Chuck Schumer's
office and protesting there in one desperate bid to see
if we can get him and Jeffries and others to
deal with today's crises today, And to start by declaring
that Musk and Trump are running another coup right now,
(25:44):
or a dozen of them, and that heg Seth and
Trump and the Republican Party killed the service members on
the black Hawk and killed the passengers on the American
Eagle flight. And I make no attempt to hide my
feeling of disgust just saying that, nor my sense of
it all being disgustingly unclean, and I wish there were
another way, but we have got to win this war.
And the other side it has all of these weapons,
(26:06):
and the only ones we have are those they have
stupidly handed us. Use them, and use them now, and
they begin with yelling. Also have interest here in an
(26:29):
all new edition because the other way is collaboration. And
five of the news organizations that did their best to
be VC media have gotten their reward. Trump has thrown
them all under the bus. Anyway. That and the sports
(26:51):
trade deals so bad it must have been ordered by Trump.
That's next. This is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith
Olberman coming up on an all new edition of Countdown
Worst Persons. Some listeners thought I was being hyperbolic when
(27:13):
I said Press Secretary Caroline Levitt had called Hitler hilter
like an amany Python sketch. I was not being hyperbolic.
Let's go to the videotape next. First, in an all
new edition of Countdown. Some headlines, some updates, some snark,
and some postscripts to the news. This is the Countdown podcast,
(27:39):
and these are the places where there's news, dateline capitulation nation.
So here's how it's going with all those erstwhile news
organizations that bent over backwards to try to appease Trump.
And remember that to truly bend over backwards, you have
to have no spine. CBS began internal discussions to settle
(28:02):
a bullshit lawsuit by Trump over the editing of an
interview with Kamala Harris, because if the point was to
chill journalism, CBS was the exact right spot to find
scaredy pat owners. So they began to talk at CBS
about paying fifteen million dollars to quote settle the lawsuit
(28:24):
and the goggles that Trump then appointed to run the
FCC decided to begin his tenure by announcing that he
wants the transcripts of the CBS Harris interview and is
investigating CBS because the Trump monsters are going to use
the laws to punish people who don't advocate for Trump,
and those monsters must be stopped. Next, the guy will
(28:48):
want the video of the CBS Harris interview turned over
to the FCC, and of course, way down there at
the end of this path to hell, this guy will
want Kamala Harris herself turned over to the FCC. Dateline
the Pentagon On Friday, Zach Stanton, writing the Politico Playbook
newsletter after Ryan Liza got the heave ho after the
(29:11):
whole thing with Miviy Muzi, wrote one of the suckiest
suck up things yet written about Trump. Quote. The prevailing
sense at the end of week one was that Trump
two point oh was altogether more polished and professional than
Trump one point oh. This time around, so the thinking went,
the administration would be able to execute on its goals
(29:33):
with strategic precision, an impression bolstered by the blitz of
well prepared executive actions that defined his initial days back
on the job. That's the long version of and thus
Donald Trump finally became president. Nice try Zack Stanton of Politico.
Later the same day, the Pentagon announced that there would
(29:56):
be some changes made in the press. Cubby holes provided
in the building for correspondence to work out of. The
TV ones even have little TV cameras in them. The
New York Post, breitbarta NN, and huff Post will be
getting spaces in the Pentagon. Huff Post really gonna move
(30:17):
a gossip columnist into the Pentagon. I mean, it's as
silly as oh Ann. Anyway, the spaces they will be
getting were the press spaces occupied by NPR, which has
been desperately trying to curry favor with the right for
at least a year, and the New York Times. That's
the New York Times. As in the New York Times,
we can both sides anything in our headlines department. And
(30:40):
NBC good call on giving Trump the free pass throughout
the campaign and that lightweight interview on Meet the Press,
and of course Politico. Politico space is now going to
like Breitbart. All four ousted news organizations tried to appease.
(31:00):
Politico tried three hours before they were thrown out. Do
not appease, Never appease, Do not bring a bouquet of
roses to a flame thrower fight. And Dateline Washington next up,
trying to prove it can be good little propagandists Semaphore News.
(31:21):
I'm going to read you it's very colorful, very unbelievable
press release as written at Semaphore. I beg you to
believe me. I beg you. This is not satire. I
am not that talented. I could never write nor conceive
of anything this tone death obviously wrong and completely stupid.
(31:47):
Semaphore innovating to restore trust in news a national summit.
Semaphore has set plans for a National Trust in News
Summit next month, with the focus on how the media
rebuilds public trust amid a Gallop poll showing record low approval.
The event to be held on February twenty seventh that
(32:07):
Gallup's headquarters in Washington, DC, is hosted by co founder
and CEO Justin Smith if that is your real name,
and co founder and editor in chief Ben Smith, if
that is your real name. Those confirmed to participate so far,
let me exit reading this press release to just remind
you I did not write this. This is not satire.
(32:29):
This is not somebody trying to write the dumbest thing
ever in terms of restoring trust in news. Okay, this
is this is real. Those confirmed to participate so far
include Mecckelly, CNN Worldwide Chairman and CEO, Mark Thompson, NBC
(32:51):
Universal Newsgroup Chairman, Sesar Conde. Fox News is Brettbear and
and he guesses it's worse than you think. It's really
worse than you think. Worse than Megan Kelly, worse than
Mark Thompson, who many people at CNN do not believe
(33:11):
actually exist, They've never seen him. Worse than Megan Kelly,
worse than Mark Thompson, worse than, saysar Conde, worse than
Brett Bhar. The last person participating in the Innovating to
Restore Trust in News national Summit, Joe Kahn, Executive editor
of The New York Times. Does he have to bring
somebody with him to offer a counterpoint to each of
(33:34):
his statements? Others participating will come from the worlds of news, entertainment,
technology and new media. Probably should add somebody from the
waterboarding division of the new administration. Megan Kelly, Mark Thompson,
says our Conte Brett Behar, Joe Kahn on restoring trust
(33:58):
in news, And you didn't invite Joe and Mika, Oh
my god? Are we f't go ahead on countdown the
(34:30):
Terrible Trade plus Hockey's Original Six. The term came up
again over the weekend. The original six. They're not original
and there aren't six of them. How this erroneous nonsense
has become the number one marketing device in the National
Hockey League, and how it is factually completely wrong and
(34:51):
has been now for eighty three years. Coming up next
in Sports First, Believe It or Not? There's still more
new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the
miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who co
constitute two Day's other worst persons in the world, the
bronze worse Chuck Todd. Friday, Chuck announced he's leaving NBC
(35:17):
News for once. I'm not going to focus here on
how Chuck once made up a quote and attributed it
to AOC. She said concentration camps, he said, she said
Nazi death camps. He still doesn't think he did anything wrong,
even though she never said Nazi, she didn't say death
and concentration camps began forty years before the Nazis used them.
(35:39):
They began in the Boer War in the nineteenth century. Also,
I'm not going to zoom in on Chuck saying more
recently that the Trump nominee confirmation hearings could just save
cable news in the short term, because obviously that's what
Chuck thinks the point of these confirmation hearings are. I'm
not going to mention any of that. I'm just going
to point out that about three weeks ago, each media
(36:01):
reporter and each political newsletter, including some done by high
school students reported that Chuck Todd was leaving NBC News.
Chuck reported it on Friday, Chuck was scooped on his
own firing, runner up worser, former chief CNN saboteur Chris Licked.
(36:23):
That's old timer's day here on worse persons Chris lickt
Chuck Todd. One of the media guys who scooped Chuck
Todd on his own firing was Oliver Darcy of Status
about my old MSNBC buddy lickt Darcy writes quote. When
wildfires tore through the Los Angeles area earlier this month,
Chris Lick found himself in the city, eager to lend
(36:44):
the hand for or against the wildfires. Licked. According to
a tipster, the former CNN boss reached out to knbct
TV chief Todd Muktari to see if the local station
needed any support with its coverage. As circumstances would have it,
Muktari did said he could use an extra field producer. Licked,
(37:08):
I'm told, volunteered his time to assist taking on field
producing duties for KNBC, the station where he launched his
career years ago. I would argue about the use of
the word career relative to Chris licked Krene is probably closer.
Darcy ads licked volunteered. His time volunteered implies he did
(37:30):
this for free, which is highly unlikely even under the
circumstances in a union shop like NBCLA. But he certainly
did work for the minimum, meaning Chris Lickt has finally
found a job and especially a salary commensurate with his
skills bought our winner. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt, who makes
(37:50):
Kaylee mcananey and Sarah Huckabee and Sean Spicer look like
they aren't morons. Levitt is not only stupid, but she
has swallowed all the kool aid and whatever else was
on the food table with the White House. Listen to
this exchange with Peter Doucey of Fox, another rocket scientist,
(38:11):
back when they were still trying to sell the Potomac
disaster as the fault of DEI instead of Pete. Hegsat's
DoD was the air traffic controller in the DCA tower
on Wednesday night, hired or not fired at some point
because of his or her race.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
That investigation is ongoing, and so when we have updates
on the exact individuals who were involved in the collision,
including the air traffic controller, also the pilots of the
helicopter and others. We will confirm those. I don't want
to confirm names from this podium today, We're not in
a position to do that, but I will say the
President has still rightfully pointed out that there has been
(38:50):
problems with the aviation industry over the past several years,
and this started under Barack Obama in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
So wait, Caroline, the DEI stuff you're whining about started
under Obama. And who is the president after Obama who
didn't do anything about it? Oh yeah, that's right, Trump,
and whose presidency was the one in which the helicopter
pilot was commissioned. Oh right, Trumps. The people talking, DEEI waited,
(39:20):
if you will, hiring practices unfair to white dudes, hiring
practices in that little clip there, those people are Peter Doocey,
whose dad just coincidentally has worked at Fox News since
it was created, born courtesy of Satan and Roger Ayles,
Peter Deucey, NEPO baby, and Caroline Levitt, who literally got
(39:44):
into college on a softball scholarship. The press secretary is
there to catch softballs from the NEPO babies only in America. Man,
while we are here on this topic, I mentioned last
week the just last summer, Caroline Levitt not revealed as
(40:06):
a Trump spokesperson that she thinks the word damming is
pronounced dammining, but that she at least once on the
air live on CNN, revealed she thought the Nazi monster's
name was Kilter. There was blowback to that. People who
believed everything else that I've said all this time believe
(40:26):
that was impossible. Nobody is that stupid. Nobody has gone
through life only reading a name and getting it wrong
all their lives, no matter if they're ten years old,
reading the name Hitler wrong and never being corrected on it.
It's not possible. Never Mind, somebody rose to the position
of I don't know, street sweeper outside the White House,
(40:49):
never mind Press secretary to the President of the United States.
But then again, we are living in a real time,
real life version of idiocracy in a time when Bobby
Kennedy Junior is not escorted out of the Senate and
directly into a straight jacket and some pants, it is
not only possible, it turns out it's likely that this
is what happens at the risk of pissing off CNN
(41:14):
like they care anymore. On June twenty fourth, last year,
on CNN This Morning with Casey Hunt, here's the clip
Levitt got Hitler's name wrong. It is late in this clip.
There's a lot of crosstalk at the end, but you
can play it again if you don't hear it the
first time. Levitt is bashing Jake Tapper, Casey Hunt is
defending Jake Tapper, and then boom goes the Hilter. Courtesy
(41:37):
and copyright CNN. And my justification is this is really
news that a lot of people didn't notice at the time,
courtesy CNN. And just one more time, this is courtesy CNN.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Well, first of all, it's it takes someone five minutes
to google Jake Tapper Donald Trump to see that Jake
Tapper has Sam canist Is offer his interview. Want to
call it ADELF.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Hilter, He'll ter. I assume as she said that Caroline
Levitt thought his name was Rodolfo Hilter, Ladolf Hilter, Caroline.
I want to know if the four thousand sports books
and other legal gambling companies that have sprung up in
Trump's America. Will let me bet on when she mispronounces
(42:23):
Trump's name like Chuck Grassley mispronounced Trump's name the other
day and called him dump Levitt two days other worse
person and the world. This is sports Senate. Wait check
(43:01):
that not anymore.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
This is countdown with Keith Ulberman from the sports Ball
Central Center news desk tonight dateline, Dallas, Texas, Hello, Dallas
Mavericks did indeed send superstar Luka Doncic to the Los
(43:24):
Angeles Lakers at the basketball swap deadline yesterday in and yes,
I am repeating this line because I like it that much.
A trade deal so bad it must have been ordered
by Trump. Doncic turns twenty six at the end of
this month, and in the worst of his six full
seasons in the league thus far, he finished only eighth
in the balloting for most Valuable Player. He was third
(43:47):
last year. He's been a first team All Star each
of the last five seasons. Dallas sent La Doncic and
well other guys for the Lakers first round draft choice
in twenty twenty nine. Max Christy, who has scored eight
hundred and two points over the entire arc of his career,
that is, and Anthony Davis, a thirty two year old,
(44:08):
much beligned, much injured player whose name you may recognize
from such headlines as Anthony Davis demands New Orleans trades him.
Anthony Davis will not return to Kentucky. Anthony Davis will
miss several games with another foot injury. Anthony Davis will
not play tonight due to load maintenance. Anthony Davis demands
(44:29):
Lakers trade him, and of course somebody needs to talk
to Anthony Davis about the brows. Congratulations to my friend
and one time date literally Lakers only earner Jeanie buss
on getting rid of this guy in exchange for one
of the greatest players in modern basketball history. It would
(44:50):
be like trading me for Babe Ruth. The trade is
so bad that several NBA insider reporters who reported it
on social media were contacted by fans and other reporters
and their their editors and employers to ask if their
computers had been hacked.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
No, only the governments. By the way, the best part
of the joke about the bad trade deal being Trump's
thing is that while most people who vaguely know sports
think that Mark Cuban still owns the Dallas Mavericks. They're
the idiots who made this deal. Even NBA fans think this.
Even some Mavericks fans think this. He has long since
sold the team to the Adelson family Miriam Addelson. Miriam
(45:31):
Addelson who got all of her late husband's fascist money
and gave most of it to Trump. Because well, now
they've gone and traded Luka Doncic because et TD state line, Vancouver,
British Columbia. While we're talking trades, please give a thought
(45:52):
today for my pal John Shorthouse, who does the Vancouver
Cannots hockey games on television and is very possibly the
best play by play man in sports, despite being a
total goofball. But even he will be challenged by the
new state of things in Vancouver. Friday night, the Canucks
solved a long standing problem by dumping center J. T. Miller,
(46:13):
a player of whom you could quote the Monty Python line,
it's people like you what causes unrest. He had been
unresting his own teammate, Elias Petterson. Miller was finally traded
to the New York Rangers, the third time in less
than seven years he has been traded, and how he
treated his teammates was part of the trade. Anyway, Elias
(46:35):
Petterson continues in Vancouver, which means Shorthouse's problem continues. The
Canucks recently promoted a defenseman from the Miners named Elias Petterson.
He spells his name exactly the same way Elias Petterson does,
but he pronounces it differently. Near as I can tell,
this is the first time any sports team has had this.
(46:56):
Two guys Elias Petterson and Elias Petterson with exactly the
same name, but they pronounce it differently. But after the
Canucks traded Miller, they made another deal for a deaf
veteran defenseman named Marcus Petterson. So it's Elias, Elias and
Marcus Petterson on the same team, conceivably on the ice
(47:18):
at the same time. Good Luck Shorty, on the other hand.
In September, the Canucks replaced their rinkside in game reporter.
The new person in the job is named Olivia McDonald.
The previous reporter was named Kate Peterson and dateline headquarters
(47:40):
of the New York Americans fan Club. I don't do
a lot of hockey, but while we're here, you may
enjoy this. At least you'll understand why marketing is not
what it could be. In the NHL, the traded J. T.
Millers first came back with the New York Rangers was
against the Boston Bruins Saturday afternoon. They will play again Wednesday.
The Bruins and the Rangers were in the National Hockey
(48:02):
League between nineteen forty two and nineteen sixty, the quarter
century when the whole league had only six teams and
none of them moved and none of them changed names,
and it was just the six of them. And then
they started doing the expansion thing. Starting in the early seventies,
hockey people began to refer to those half dozen clubs
in that twenty five year span erroneously as the original six.
(48:25):
You will hear this now every time Boston plays the Rangers,
or Montreal plays Detroit, or Toronto plays Chicago, or any
other mix of these six teams. Announcers say it, coaches
say it, players say it, The commissioner of the league
says it, and they are all wrong. For some of
us fans, the day will come when we will have
(48:46):
heard this ridiculously inaccurate phrase original fixth one time too many,
and we will either barricade ourselves somewhere, or we will
take hostages. The National Hockey League officially originated in nineteen seventeen,
although it was the direct successor to the National Hockey Association,
which started in nineteen oh nine. Each of those leagues
(49:09):
had in their first season their original season four original teams.
Each of them, the NHL and the NHL had an
original four. The number of the teams in the NHL
has varied. It's gone from four to six in nineteen
twenty four, to seven in nineteen twenty five, to ten
in nineteen twenty six, and then the Depression really took
(49:31):
its toll. The Ottawa Senators suspended operations and the Pittsburgh
Pirates went belly up, then moved to Philadelphia, then folded,
so in nineteen thirty one, the NHL was back down
to eight teams. Ottawa tried again, resumed operations in nineteen
thirty two, so they were back up to nine teams.
That didn't work, so Ottawa moved to Saint Louis in
nineteen thirty four, and that really didn't work, so Saint
(49:53):
Louis folded and in nineteen thirty five it was back
to eight teams again. By nineteen thirty eight, things were
so bad in the city of Montreal that the fabled
Montreal Canadians were going to move to Cleveland. Instead, they
bought out the other Montreal team, the Canadians bought the
Montreal Maroons. The Montreal Maroons, who had won the Stanley
(50:14):
Cup just three years earlier, folded went out of business,
So we're down to seven teams nineteen thirty eight, when
the war came, the original team in New York that
preceded the Rangers, the New York Americans, suspended operations when
the war ended. They never came back, and that's why
there were six NHL teams. There's nothing original about the
(50:35):
original six. They were just the ones that didn't go bankrupt. Moreover,
of the actual original four teams from the NHL of
nineteen seventeen, only the Montreal Canadians are still in the league.
The Toronto team of nineteen seventeen Sorda. They're sorta the
Maple Leafs. The original business went bankrupt, new owners took over,
(50:57):
changed the name of the team. Was a very shady deal.
But even if you consider the Toronto Maple Leafs as original,
THENA does not have an original six. It has an
original two. If the Canadians are playing the Maple Leafs
and you want to say it's an original two matchup,
go right ahead. I have no complaint with that. The
rest of it is bullshit. The Boston Bruins, the Chicago Blackhawks,
(51:21):
Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers. Nominally, the other four
of the original six are like every other one of
the thirty teams that are not Montreal or Toronto. They
are expansion franchises. There is no original six. Why do
I care about this? Why have I assumed that you
(51:43):
would care about this for you nine and a half
minutes of your day. I am the son of a
woman who attended National Hockey League games at Madison Square
Garden in New York, games of the NHL team called
the New York Americans. She and particularly her uncle Willie
were New York Americans. Fans own a replica New York
(52:06):
Americans jacket. If there is an original six teams nineteen
forty two to nineteen sixty seven, what were the New
York Americans who played in nineteen forty one forty two?
What are they? Chopped? Liver? More importantly, as I said,
the NHL Montreal Maroons won the Stanley Cup in nineteen
(52:27):
thirty five, then disappeared in nineteen thirty eight. Does that
Stanley Cup win not count if the Montreal Maroons are
not original or part of some sort of legacy that
you call the Original six who won the Stanley Cup
in nineteen thirty five. In fact, the Maroons won two
Stanley Cups, and the NHL Ottawa Senators the original ones
they won four Stanley Cups. If there is an NHL
(52:49):
Original six, what about those six Stanley Cup Championship NHL
winning teams that don't exist anymore. And lastly, just to
tie the whole thing together once again, just to make
this clear, the Stanley Cup has never been won by
(53:11):
a team with anybody on it who was named Peterson.
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening, and for the record, I may or
(53:33):
may not be an Original six, but I was once traded.
At least I was sold by NBC News to Fox
Sports late in nineteen ninety eight for a flat one dollars. Seriously,
not even draft choices, not even Anthony Davis, just cash.
Brian Ray and John Phillip Shanel. The musical directors have
(53:54):
countdown Arrange produced and performed most of our music. Mister
Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards, Mister Ray was on the guitars,
bass and drums, and it was produced by Tko Brothers.
Our set here Glen Fifthy. Musical comments are by the
best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The sports music
is the Olberman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch
Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Other music arranged and
(54:18):
performed by No Horns Aloud. Did I mention that clip
of Caroline Levitt was from CNN? My announswer today was
my friend Dennis Leary. Everything else was, as ever my fault.
That's countdown for today, just four and forty eight days
until the scheduled end of his lame duck, lame brained term.
Unless Musk removes him sooner. The next scheduled countdown is Thursday.
(54:43):
As always, boltons, as the news warrants remember in peach
trumpet will not work now. It will, however, win the
Democrats the mid terms until next time. I'm Keith Olberman.
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Ladell
(55:04):
Filter Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.