NEWSOM'S "EFF IT' MOMENT - AND HOW IT COULD SAVE AMERICA - 6.12.25 - Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Gavin
Newsom has reached his effort moments, and it might be

(00:28):
the moment we begin to save the democracy. The effort
moment I will explain presently, But first there is an
immediate and urgent question, and it is less what made
Gavin Newsom step up than step up even higher the
second time. It is more why haven't any other democratic
so called leaders followed Newsom over the top into no

(00:52):
man's land, even though he went first and discovered there
are oh about one hundred two hundred million Americans just
standing there waiting for somebody to lead them against Trump.
If you missed Newsom's effort speech, and trust me I did,
its only failure was its roll out. I'm going to
play the whole thing at the end of this first

(01:14):
segment because it was that good eight minutes of escalating
but still suppressed righteous indignation bordering on rage, eight minutes
building towards effet of which I think I am still
the official East Coast exclusive distributor. I think I know
my eight minute suppressed righteous indignation effort speeches, and that

(01:37):
one was outstanding. But consider the larger context. Newsom's emergence,
and this is a stupid analogy, but somehow it works,
was like a caterpillar emerging as a gigantic butterfly, a
butterfly equipped with nukes, a stealth bomber butterfly. And that

(01:57):
was just last Friday, with his threat to crash Trump
by withholding all of California's federal taxes, all six of
ninety two billion dollars worth, the economic civil war game ender.
I've been advocating out here in the wilderness for a decade. Hey,
I have an idea. Only then the stealth bomber butterfly says, wait,

(02:21):
I'm not finished yet, and he goes back inside the
cocoon for a minute, and he comes out even larger
with more nukes. And now he is the resistance. He
is the Democratic Party. He is the hope to save America.
All of what has been missing in a Democratic party
that runs the gamut of political imagination lately from A

(02:42):
to B. All of that that is missing, the rest
of the alphabet has somehow wound up in Gavin Newsom.
A week ago, Gavin Newsom was posting a podcast in
which he interviewed seriously quote doctor, unquote Phil McGraw, doctor

(03:03):
Phil a week ago, Phil, who then rode along on
the ice Gestapo raids of civilians here in America a
week ago Gavin Newsom was platforming him. June four, glad
Hand interview that utter fraud Phil McGraw, after glad Hand
interviewing Gingrich, Michael Savage, Charlie Kirk, and Steve Effing Bannon.

(03:24):
Steve Effing Bannon June six, respond to Trump's threats to
kneecap California by threatening to lead a tax strike by itself,
the most liberal, progressive in your faced political protest proposed
in this century. June seven, June eight, June nine, come
back and top it, top the tax strike with calling

(03:45):
the bluff of these Halloween mask bullies like this idiot
dementia Jay Trump and Tom Homan, who's really tough now
that he has appeared. Then June ten, give this speech.
That's a hell of a week, Gavin. As an aside,

(04:05):
I cannot fathom a faster reversal, a faster steer out
from the both sides is let's negotiate with the Nazis.
Kumbay a bullshit skid than the one that constituted Gavin
Newsom's last week, nor a more successful one, nor a
more important one. As a second aside, I don't care

(04:26):
if the podcast and the both sides is bullshit where
political calculations or the tax strike idea is a political calculation,
or the speech is a political calculation, or the whole
thing is a political calculation. About twenty twenty eight, I
don't care to quote Lincoln about General Grant. I can't
spare this man. He fights and again. It's not as

(04:51):
if what he did was the daffy duck. First, drink
some nitroglycerin, a goodly amount of gunpowder, some uranium two
thirty eight, shake well, strike an ordinary match, and girls,
you'd better hold on near boyfriends. It's that Gavin Newsom
in five days did more practical damage to Trump, and
even more importantly, gave more practical encouragement to Democrats, big

(05:14):
D Democrats and small D Democrats alike, and our allies
and our friends around the world. He did more good
than the rest of the zombie Democratic Party has done
since Joe Biden was elected. That reality that the playing
field wasn't just tilted or stricken or empty, but completely

(05:38):
denuded of everything plays its part. Nothing makes you stand
out better, Nothing makes your courage an A plus, even
if it might really only be a B minus in
other circumstances. Nothing makes that stand out if there is
only a blank canvas behind you. Obama on Trump's dismantling

(05:58):
of democracy, Well, he put out a couple of tweets
defending Obamacare. Chuck Schumer, He's convinced Trump will destroy himself
and has apparently taken a year long vow of silence.
Kamala Harris. You can tell me you had forgotten about
Kamala Harris, hadn't you? I had Hillary Clinton a couple

(06:19):
of passable one liners. Pete boutajeedge Oh, he grew a
beard to a protest beard or a hockey playoff beard.
I'm not sure which, Josh Shapiro. The exception to this,
of course, is Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortes, who
went out there and rallied people and have fought the
good f at fight. But unlike Newsome, they bluntly were
not simultaneously blessed and cursed by the politician's worst enemy

(06:42):
and his best friend. Events you can't threaten to cut
off Trump's money genitals if he doesn't threaten yours first,
and you can't dare his himmler to arrest you, if
he doesn't threaten to arrest you, and you can't give
a speech condemning Trump if you aren't his target, and
you can't do any of that without the heft or

(07:04):
impact unless you are a governor, and not just a governor,
but the governor who happens to be in the eye
of that moment's storm. On the other hand, you can't
be any of those things if you are Chuck Schumer, useless, unimaginative,
self interested, insisted it is still really nineteen ninety six.
We're just going to get back to normal, and most

(07:25):
of all, inflexible. The background to Newsom's week was his
recognition that he had been going at the wrong speed,
in the wrong direction, on the wrong track. To get
to effort, you have to travel there first in your mind,
and you have to be willing to actually go there
and say, maybe maybe it's time to say the F word.

(07:48):
Chuck Schumer is twenty five meetings with consultants and ten
weeks of field research and at least one phone call
with Ezracline before he is in the same time zone
as the general vicinity of nearly within a day's ride
of the suburbs of Effet. I think, I think you

(08:10):
cannot reach Effet utterly, insincerely. There may be self interested elements,
there may be scenarios of success you see as possibilities,
unlikely and remote ones, but you really have to at
least three quarters of the way realistically believe, yeah, this
is it. You will say this, and then you will

(08:31):
get fired, arrested, renditioned, disappeared, or perhaps the worst scenario
that Gavin Newsom of last month could have envisioned. After
you say it, doctor Phil won't come back for a
second guest shot on the podcast. Instead, Gavin Newsom is

(08:52):
suddenly Charles de Gaulle and George Washington and Admiral Dan
the Torpedoes full speed ahead. Farragut historical trivia. When Admiral
Farragut joined the US Navy as the Civil War started,
he was living in Hastings on Hudson, New York, much

(09:15):
later my hometown. His house in my house about a
fifteen minute walk. He was a Southerner. He got so
pissed off at the Confederacy he moved to my hometown.
That is your effet moment. My only true frame of

(09:36):
reference on the subject of effet moments is naturally my
own small effort moment. I had done commentaries, I had
grown increasingly anti Bush, and then one day I read
something Donald Rumsfeldt said about us. His critics, Bush's critics,
IRAQS critics said we were suffering from quote moral or
intellectual confusion, compared us to those who appeased Hitler, and

(10:00):
I detonated, and the sound I heard was af I
fully expected the commentary I wrote would get me fired.
Instead it got me double the audience, and then there
was the YouTube thing, and then all the money to
my bosses, and then the luttle money to me. It
bought me five years of room to do such commentaries

(10:20):
before NBC found a more unprincipled and easier way to
make that money. By what a five years?

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Do not undervalue what Governor Newsom has done just the speech.
John Kerry told me that that rumsfeld commentary from two
thousand and six, and my rage at the manipulation of
the terror warnings by Bush at the same time was
what got democratic electeds to rage in the same way
just before the two thousand and six mid terms. Carry

(10:49):
said it won them the mid terms. I said, I
didn't believe him for a minute, and worshyet if I did.
What did that say about the Democrats who should have
been leading that not following me? It said, Carrie said
that we will always let somebody else run face first
into the brick wall and put the hole in it
for us. Gavin Newsom has run face first into the

(11:16):
brick wall and put the hole in it for us.
And then, by the way, just in case the hole
wasn't big enough or the noise wasn't loud enough, he
circled around the wall, came back to the beginning point
and ran face first into it again, and he put
a second hole in it. Everybody can get through it now,
even Schumer could. And the lesson from what Gavin Newsom

(11:40):
did is this, do not restrain yourself nor your language.
Do not pretend Trump is sane or can be negotiated with.
Do not try to tamp down the madness of Maga.
Confront it and dare them to fight about it. And
always be animated by that one guiding principle, the one
lesson first learned somewhere by one of our caveman ancestors

(12:04):
who hit the bully in the head with a rock,
the lesson that guided George Washington, the lesson that guided
Admiral David Farragut of Hastings on Hudson, New York, and
the lesson that clearly has guided Gavin Newsom, the one
guiding principle affet. Practically speaking, by the way, the LA disturbances,

(12:55):
and sadly, I think the number of arrests per day
has now exceeded the number of arrests at the last
Lakers victory celebration in twenty twenty. It is like eighty
per day compared to seventy six arrests at the Laker thing.
Practically speaking, the LA disturbances. After Trump's terrorist attack, his
domestic terror attack against La and the people who live there,

(13:20):
the LA disturbances pretty much ended, or became really really contained.
Where are all the riots over there on that one block? Ended?
When Mayor Karen Bass had her own effort moment and
imposed a curfew Tuesday night. I can't speak to last night.

(13:42):
I am recording this last night, but nearly all of
the arrests Tuesday were really like this. You're arrested. Now
get out of this neighborhood right here. Okay, you're not
arrested anymore. And nearly, and this is from all the
news reporters on the scene, nearly all of those who

(14:02):
were arrested for curfew violations did not know a curfew
had been imposed, per local all news radio my alma
mater KNX. The biggest clash with an LA citizen who
really did know there was a curfew and defied it
was a woman who lives near police headquarters and she

(14:23):
went out anyway after eight pm to walk her dog.
Officers LAPD, not Ice, not the guard, not the Marines,
not evil Batman. Lapd confronted her and she said, efitt,
my dog has to take a with Southern California practicality

(14:46):
an underrated thing, she says. A cordon of officers then
walked with her and her dog the breed name has
been changed to protect the innocent, until the dog stopped,
she says, She and the officers, all of them in
their riot gear. Then all all waited and watched and

(15:06):
stood around and looked until the dog pooped, and then
she gathered it up, and then they all escorted her
and the dog and the bag of dog poop back
to her apartment. This is not to say it won't
get worse. This is a domestic terror attack. Trump will

(15:28):
try it again. If not in Los Angeles, he will
try it again somewhere. He may try it again today.
He may have tried it again between the time I
recorded this in the time you listen to it. This
is to say, though, that nothing will make Trump look
more foolish than a situation that has been resolved by
a mayor with a curfew before his stormtroopers can get

(15:51):
off their transports, or nothing will make him look more
stupid that when those stormtroopers hit the streets of American cities,
they will find the biggest damage they have to deal
with is unauthor dog shit. And by the way, that
that phrase, which I won't repeat, that's what this all

(16:13):
looks like to America. Don't don't bother with what they're
telling you from the polling at CNN or ABC or
CBS or NBC talk about dog poop. You gov for
CBS News still alive, defiantly alive, pretending that Edward R.
Murrow is the president of News. Now you gov pulling

(16:37):
for CBS on this fascist wet dream of the last week.
Do you approve of deploying the National Guard to LA?
Approve thirty eight percent, disapprove forty five percent. That is
underwater by seven? Do you approve of deploying the Marines
to LA? Approved thirty four percent, disapprove forty seven that's

(16:57):
underwater by thirteen. I've said before Trump does not need
non MAGA support, and that remains true. What he's not
getting here is full magas support. You can't have a
thirty four percent approval on one of your policies and
not have a significant number of your supporters opposing it,

(17:19):
knowing it is wrong, knowing it won't work, knowing it
will not end well. One third approval on these moves
means there are Trump supporters who are backing away. The
first hearing today, incidentally, is on the Newsome suit to
rule the usurpation of his control of the California National Guard,

(17:39):
which is the law. The usurpation of that is illegal.
That is what he wants from the court. And he
wants them ordered to dispersed or returned to the governor's control,
which is what the law says. And there is a
hearing upcoming on the bid to stop guard Or Marines
from going along with the ice cruise. The Gestapo on raids.

(18:00):
Leave that to the professionals, doctor Phil. In the interim,
the other biggest news story in southern California the thing
they go to or yesterday anyway, went to after the
latest from the one block long protest. Quiet here, it's

(18:20):
been quiet for several hours. There's a guy over there standing.
Oh no, he's waiting for the bus. In the interim,
the other biggest news story in southern California appears to
be word the sewer taxaes, sewer taxes. It's serious stuff.
Sewer taxes are going up in Santa Monica. Oh no,

(18:44):
where will Stephen Miller stay when he goes back to
his hometown.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Who's gonna think of Stephen Miller's sewer? Won't somebody think
of Stephen Miller and the sewer he lives in? What
about Stephen Miller's sower? Mean me, that's Steven Miller.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Noise now more as promised about Newsom and the speech,
and before I play the whole thing, make no mistake
about it. Some of Trump's dumber slaves have now confirmed
Newsom is the new target Obama Hillary Biden. They'll always
have a villain role place in the Trump fantasphere. But
it is now about the governor of California. This has

(19:33):
been the watershed week. Listen to that stupid which Christy Nome.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
Governor Newsom has done a disservice to the status of
California for many years. The people there should never elect
him into a leadership position ever again.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Companies closely and competent when it comes.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
By the way, did you hear her through the deviated
septum there? Kind to know if I'm hernk nastayin sm California.
She called it a status. How many statuses do we have? Christy?
We have fifty danuses? Stayeth the United Stanuth, I'm America kan.
This is somebody else I would not vouch for passing

(20:13):
a drug test. Boys, she is just the worst, isn't she?
Don't ever get a botox injection right in your brain? Kids?
Worse than that the holier than now Speaker Mike Johnson,
you know, the man who always stops by and wants
to know how many closets there are in this house.

(20:35):
He actually and pretty obviously publicly tried to get somebody
to physically attack Gavin Newsom. That's not my lane. I'm
not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin
Newsom should be arrested. But he ought to be tart
and feathered, I'll say that. I mean, look, he's standing
in the way of when you are that deeply into
a completely fake life in which you tell yourself your

(20:57):
own personality reality is not real, and your religious fervor
is the true you, you can throw out terms like
he should be tired and feathered without worrying that you
are describing a form of torture and in fact public
murder on occasion. It is not a metaphor. It is
not a colorful Southern phrase like gumbo. It is a

(21:22):
stochastic call for violence against Gavin Newsom, and Speaker Johnson
should be prosecuted for it, because, of course, the entire
facade of the recent Maga anti violent rhetoric kick that
just has fallen apart. Incidentally, remember the screams to arrest
former FBI Director Comy or execute him for treason because

(21:47):
he wrote eighty six forty seven on Seashells, as if
that had been some sort of assassination call. As opposed
to the use of the colloquial term eighty six, which
means fire him or we're out of that product. Jesse
Waters Moron Hour, which is the title of the eight
PM show on Fox. Jesse Waters Moron Hour did the

(22:09):
story about the firing of Terry Moran by the cowards
at Bob Iger's ABC News the chiron over the Jesse
Waters screen. Terry Moran gets eighty six by ABC, so
they killed him. So if I say eighty six Trump's
small dick parade Saturday in DC, what did I just say?

(22:31):
Is that a cony eighty six or is that a
Jesse Water's eighty six? Or does it change depending on
the day? And please tell me, dear leader, where can
I get an accurate schedule or calendar? Every time? I
thank god how these people are stupid? I remember that
given the advantages baked into the American system for a
government in power, good or evil, to do whatever it wants,

(22:53):
I thank god these people are that stupid. A smart
Trump would be a real problem. And that brings us
full ser that perhaps was the reality behind Gavin Newsom's
effort moment. I'd like to ask him that reality that

(23:14):
Trump isn't that smart, that this one may look like
a great idea, but troops on the streets, that's not
a good idea. It's not a good look. The parade
may be worse than the invasion and the terrorist attack
by Trump in LA. All you have to do in

(23:35):
response to that is stop playing Trump's version of the
Trump Home Game and introduce him instead to a new
version in which Mike Tyson's first law applies. And when
you do that, Trump will have no chance long term anyway.
Mike Tyson's law, that's my seventh cousin. Mike Tyson's law

(23:59):
is that everybody has a plan until they get punched
in the face. As you listen to the whole of
Gavin Newsom's speech, and I'll return with worst persons after
it and after the commercial break that follows it. My
connoisseur's advice, as somebody who has built these kind of
public addresses designed to be given on TV, is to

(24:21):
listen for the slow burn. To listen how much differently
he sounds at the end that at that beginning, and
to see if you notice where he escalates and the
rapidly decreasing time he takes between each metaphorical punch in
the face or in the body, Gavin Newsom throws, this

(24:46):
is not just the first grown up speech responding to
Trump's evil, it is a really good one too, and
it ends with Trump getting metaphorically punched in the face
several times.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
I want to say words about the events of the
last few days. This past weekend, federal agents conducted large
scale workplace raids in and around Los Angeles. Those raids
continue as I speak. California is no stranger to immigration enforcement.
But instead of focusing on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal
records and people with final deportation orders, a strategy both

(25:27):
parties have long supported, this administration is pushing mass deportations indiscriminately,
targeting hardworking immigrant families, regardless of their roots or risk.
What's happening right now is very different than anything we've
seen before. On Saturday morning, when federal agents jumped out

(25:47):
of an unmarked van near a home depot parking lot,
they began grabbing people, a deliberate targeting of a heavily
Latino suburb. A similar scene played out when a clothing
company was raided downtown. In other actions, a US citizen
nine months pregnant was arrested, a four year old girl, taken, families, separated, friends,

(26:09):
quite literally disappearing. In response, every day, Angelino's came out
to exercise their constitutional right to free speech and assembly
to protest their government's actions. In turn, the state of
California and the City and County of Los Angeles sent
our police officers to help keep the peace, and with

(26:31):
some exceptions, they were successful. Like many states, California is
no stranger to this sort of unrest. We manage it
regularly and with our own law enforcement. But this again
was different. What then ensued was the use of tear gas,
flash bang grenades, rubber bullets, federal agents detaining people in

(26:54):
undermining their due process rights. Donald Trump, without consulting California
law enforcement leaders, commandeered two thousand of our state its
National Guard members to deploy on our streets illegally and
for no reason. This brazen abuse of power by a
sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers,

(27:18):
and even our National Guard at risk. That's when the
downward spiral began. He doubled down on his dangerous National
Guard deployment by fanning the flames even harder, and the
president he did it on purpose. As the news spread
throughout La, anxiety for family and friends ramped up. Protests

(27:39):
started again. By night, several dozen law breakers became violent
and destructive. They vandalized property, they tried to assault police officers.
Many of you have seen the video clips of cars
burning on cable news. If you incite violence, I want
to be clear about this, If you incite violence or
destroy our communities, you're going to be held to account.

(28:00):
That kind of criminal behavior will not be tolerated full stop. Already,
more than two hundred and twenty people have been arrested,
and we're reviewing tapes to build additional cases, and people
will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Again,
thanks to our law enforcement officers and the majority of
Angelinos who protested peacefully, the situation was winding down and

(28:24):
was concentrated in just a few square blocks downtown. But
that's not what Donald Trump wanted. He again chose escalation.
He chose more force, He chose theatrics over public safety.
He federalized another two thousand Guard members. He deployed more
than seven hundred active US Marines. These are the men

(28:47):
and women trained for foreign combat, not domestic law enforcement.
We honor their service, we honor their bravery, but we
do not want our streets militarized by our own armed forces.
Not in La not in California, not anywhere. We're seen
un marked cars, unmarked cars in school parking, lots kids

(29:09):
afraid of attending their own graduation. Trump is pulling a
military dragnet all across Los Angeles. Well beyond is stated
intent to just go after violent and serious criminals, his
agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers, and seamstresses. That's

(29:29):
just weakness, weakness masquerading as strength. Donald Trump's government isn't
protecting our communities. They're traumatizing our communities, and that seems
to be the entire point. California will keep fighting. We'll
keep fighting on behalf of our people, all of our people,
including in the courts. Just yesterday, we filed a legal

(29:51):
challenge to Donald Trump's reckless deployment of American troops to
a major American city. Today, we sought an emergency court
order to stop the use of the American military to
engage in law enforcement activities across US Los Angeles. If
some of us could be snatched off the streets without
a warrant based only on suspicion or skin color, then

(30:13):
none of us are safe. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting
people who are least able to defend themselves, but they
do not stop there. Trump and as loyalists, they thrive
on division because it allows them to take more power
and exert even more control. And by the way, Trump,
he's not opposed to lawlessness and violence as long as

(30:36):
it serves him. What more evidence do we need than
January sixth, ask everyone take time reflect on this perilous moment.
A president who wants to be bound by no law
or constitution perpetuating a unified assault on American traditions. This

(30:56):
is a president who, in just over one hundred and
forty days has fired government watchdogs that could hold him accountable,
accountable for corrupt and fraud. He's declared a war, a
war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself.
Databases quite literally are vanishing. He's delegitimizing news organizations, and

(31:18):
he's assaulting the First Amendment and the threat of defunding
them at threat. He's dictating what universities themselves can teach.
He's targeting law firms and the judicial brands that are
the foundations of an orderly in civil society. He's calling
for a sitting governor to be arrested for no other
reason than to, in his own words, for getting elected.

(31:42):
And we all know this Saturday, he's ordering our American heroes,
the United States military and forcing them to put on
a vulgar display to celebrate his birthday, just as other
failed dictators have done in the past. Look, this isn't
just about protests here in Los Angeles. When Donald Trump

(32:02):
sought blanket authority to commandeer the Nawational Guard, he made
that order apply to every state in this nation. This
is about all of us. This is about you. California
maybe first, but it clearly will not end here. Other
states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault

(32:22):
before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived.
He's taking a wrecking ball, a wrecking ball to our
founding father's historic project, three co equal branches of independent government.
They are no longer any checks and balances. Congress is
nowhere to be found. Speaker Johnson has completely abdicated that responsibility.

(32:45):
The rule of law has increasingly been given way to
the rule of Don the founding fathers. They didn't lived
and died to see this kind of moment. It's time
for all of us to stand up. Justice Brandeis he
said it best. In a democracy, the most important office,
with all due respect, mister president, is not the president Andy,

(33:05):
and it's certainly not governor. The most important office is
office of citizen. At this moment, at this moment, we
all need to stand up and be held to account
a higher level of accountability. If you exercise your First
Amendment rights, please please do it peacefully. I know many
of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress and fear, but

(33:27):
I want you to know that you are the antidote
to that fear and that anxiety. What Donald Trump wants
most is your fealty, your silence to be complicit in
this moment. Do not give in to him.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
This is Countdown with Keith Oberman still ahead on this

(34:09):
editionive Countdown. Yesterday was the anniversary of the day he
chose me, the third anniversary of that day. The day
before it was World Pet Memorial Day. As if you
needed a special day to remember the animals who have
blessed and then left your life, or as if there

(34:30):
should be only one such day. Good news. In fact,
there is a National Pet Memorial Day in September as well,
so this seems like the perfect time to remember again
the life of an extraordinary little dog cared for but
given up on because he had dementia or a stroke
or something or he was just shy of fifteen years old.

(34:54):
And it happens then and then his life turned around,
and for its last two years he was a puppy
again who spent much of his day literally jumping for joy,
and I was fortunate enough to be there with him.
Let me share with you this extraordinary guy, Minae and

(35:15):
his just extraordinary passing on an unforgettable Sunday in July
of last year for World Pet Memorial Day and mine
gotcha day, le mote deminee coming up first. Believe it
or not, there's still more new idiots to talk about.
The roundups of the miscrants, morons and doun in Kruger
effects specimens who constitute today's other worse persons in the world,

(35:41):
the brons worse Senator Kevin Kramer of North Dakota. There
are degrees of the devils who are infected with Maga disease.
It's kind of hard to believe, but Senator Josh you
go girl, January sixth, Insurrectionists Hawley wants the federal minimum salary,

(36:03):
the hourly wage raised to fifteen dollars an hour. It
has been at less than half. It has been at
seven dollars and twenty five cents since nineteen ten. I
think just a guess. So naturally, Senator Hawley had to
get brushed back on Fox by another Republican Senator Kramer,

(36:25):
who is, of course worse. Quote from Kramer, I don't
even know why we have a federal minimal wage. To
be honest, I think the market works really well. I
just think manipulating markets with mandatory wages doesn't make any sense.
Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? All right?

(36:47):
The last part of the quote was actually Ebenezer Scrooge.
But mister Kramer cannot conceive that the purpose of a
minimum wage is not to facilitate business, which is what
it sounds like. He thinks it's there for it's there
so people, can, you know, eat and live inside. Mister

(37:09):
Kramer himself has never actually worked for a living. Out
of grad school, he began to work for and then
manage political campaigns. He became chairman of the North Dakota
State Republican Party in nineteen ninety one, the youngest ever
to do it. And the only thing worse than being
chairman of the North Dakota State Republican Party is not

(37:30):
being chairman of the North Dakota State Republican Party age thirty.
That means he stopped doing any work the day after
his appointment in age thirty. So since then, Kevin Kramer
has managed to lose a string of elections for the
House of Representatives spanning two centuries. Finally, after sixteen years
of failure, he was elected in twenty twelve, and then

(37:53):
he made the Senate in twenty eighteen, where he is
now a prostitute. So of course he doesn't even know
why we have a federal minimum wage or minimum wage.
He's never had a job. He's a lifelong politician and
thus of no value to anyone. On top of which
he's a North Dakota politician. Nothing against North Dakota, but

(38:19):
the politicians there. Yeah, the runner up worser Tulsey Gabbard
speaking of being of no value to anyone, The Director
of National utter lack of intelligence. You know, skunkhead. For
some reason, Telsey Gabbard has decided to waste an unannounced
amount of taxpayer money on a kind of semi religious

(38:41):
snuff film about atomic war to scare everybody to argue
against Iran having nuclear camp I would It's not clear.
It makes no sense whatsoever. Maybe to her in it
she included one of the great pieces of bullshit ever designed,
the one designed long ago to satisfy morons like well,

(39:05):
like Telsey Gabbard. It's the idea that there are underground
bunkers so that the rich they can survive nuclear war.
So they're in favor of it for some reason because
property values will go up, or they never get around
to the reason why the elites want to have a
nuclear war.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
Political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear intensions between
nuclear powers. Perhaps it's because they are confident that they
will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for
their families that regular people won't have access to.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, sorry, tell us. If you aren't killed by the
impact of an ICBM or a nuclear blast, no matter
how close it was to you, or by the radiation
making its through way anyway into your bunker. You would
be stuck underground in your bunker for quite a few

(40:04):
decades till the radiation died down. In fact, you'd be
stuck there long past your own demise, and the children
you had would never have seen the sun. That's the point, Telsey.
There's nothing to survive, nothing to return to, and there
are no elites with secret bunkers designed to let them

(40:26):
pop back out next week. The only secret, large empty
bunkers are the ones between your ears. Dipshit, but the
winner worst. Jake Tapper of CNN, you may recall as
much as Bob Eiger and the whoores at Disney and

(40:47):
ABC News want you to forget that. ABC News suspended
their veteran reporter Terry Moran, who actually confronted Trump in
an interview just weeks ago. After Terry then wrote a clearheaded, calm,
but perhaps eh ill timed analysis of the difference between
how Donald Trump hates and how Stephen Miller hates. They

(41:10):
said he was suspended for editorial and whatever. They suspended
him because he called Trump and Miller what they are.
And Eiger doesn't want this. He's still trying to bribe
and appease Trump. Miran could easily remain suspended for ever.

(41:30):
ABC wants this to go away. ABC wants Terry Moran
to go away because the White House, which sells itself
on hatred and rage and revenge, is inexplicably objecting to
an incident in which a real news organization points this out,
objecting when a Terry Moran points out what Trump and

(41:51):
Miller feed themselves and their cult on what fuels their
monstrous attempt to overthrow our form of government. What they
boast about. The whole point of MAGA is the cruelty
and the hatred. Seems to me they should have pulled
lines from Terry Moran's tweet, like movie publicists who still
poll lines from good reviews and stick them on the

(42:14):
ads for the movies. Steven Miller is a hater Terry Moran,
ABC News. In any event, Terry Moran's fate is made
still more curious by the fact that an identical, albeit
briefer transgression of whatever rule ABC just made up that
they think Terry Moran transgressed, was also transgressed by Jake Tapper, who,

(42:37):
in the year's time since the Biden debate, has destroyed
his career and sent his reputation plummeting to Joe Scarborough
levels of non credibility and non relevance. I just don't
understand why CNN has not suspended Jake Tapper. If Moran
strayed into political opinion? What is this? Fox News posts Fetterman.

(43:00):
That would be Senator Fetterman from Pennsylvania and the cannimate planet.
Fetterman calls out quote anarchy in LA, noting that DEM's
forfeit moral high ground by failing to decry violence. This
was retweeted by Jonah Goldberg. Among other things, is the
daughter of the woman who was behind the Clinton Lewinsky scandal.

(43:21):
Jonah is proved to be kind of acceptable over the years.
His mother was a witch. Jonah Goldberg. Sometimes I think
Fetterman is the only Democrat who gets what annoys so
many people about Democrats. This all the retweet is now
reposted retweeted by Jake Tapper. There it is Jake Tapper

(43:41):
and his logo. I guess this is an American ball
to you go. It might be a profile of Jake's head.
I'm not sure. Jake Tapper reposted Jonah Goldberg reposting Fox
News quoting fedri So, this is reposted by Jake Tapper,
So it's political opinion by Senator Fetterman, posted by an
opinion network called Fox. Reposted by a political opinion writer

(44:04):
named Jonah Goldberg, re reposted by Jake Tapper, who isn't
supposed to do opinion, He's just supposed to do the news.
He boasts that he doesn't do opinion, He condescends, towards
and insults everybody who does do opinion, and yet here
he is posting an opinion. Why hasn't Jake Tapper been

(44:25):
suspended by CNN for that matter, after his journalistic malpractice
over Biden and over the sales of his own Biden book.
Why hasn't Jake Tapper been fired? The only thing I
can figure is the best punishment for somebody who transgresses
its CNN is to make them work more at CNN. Jake,

(44:47):
by the way, his Twitter account does not say retweets
do not equal endorsements. That's why you have that saying
in their Tapper two days other worst person end I

(45:34):
have joked previously, but contained within that joke is a
very sincere thought I would pay sometimes, I say five
thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars one hundred thousand dollars to
see a full length documentary program about the first fifteen
years of MiNet German Olderman's life. I know he was

(46:00):
born in New York on July fifteenth, two thousand and seven,
and that you helped me celebrate his seventeenth birthday just
a week and a day ago. And until I encountered
him in twenty twenty two, I knew nothing of him,
and all the records, all the anecdotes, almost all of

(46:21):
the verbal stories are gone because his human got sick
and sicker and began to lose much of her cognitive
function and declined and one day went to the hospital
and did not come back, and had made no arrangements
for what was to happen to Mene and other dogs.

(46:42):
She had at least two Malteses. We don't know what
happened to them. I've heard stories that suggested they were
left to fend for their own in an apartment for
a while. Happily, I know that the neighbor and a
former student of messer Man who taught French, a man
named Keith Peterson, came across Menee and knew of me

(47:04):
from the neighborhood and from his teacher and knew she
had gone away, and wondered what happened to the dogs,
and he began to feed them. And he was prepared
in the summer of twenty twenty two to adopt me Nee.
And then something changed in his life and he was
going to be traveling once a month or so, perhaps
more often, and the whole premise fell through. In addition

(47:27):
to the fact that he recognized that mine was not well,
something had happened to him. He kept bumping into things,
he didn't walk correctly, his back looked a little crooked.
It looked like something bad had happened to him neurologically,
and he did not know what would be next or
if he could care for me Nee. So he went
looking for an organization that might take care of Maltese.

(47:48):
Is there must be some sort of Maltese rescue association? Well,
there are two of them. One the one I would
recommend to you is American Maltese Association Rescue. It is
run by a dear friend of mine named Sue Levitt,
and we take care of MALTI That's where I got
my little boy Ted, who had a very bad heart

(48:10):
and was not really believed to be a likely candidate
to last ten months and Ted just turned six years old.
And where we got Mishu, whose story I've told you before,
who had tetrology of fullow, a disease barely treatable in
large dogs, let alone four or five pound malteses. And
he had a brilliant, happy brief life. And he died

(48:31):
in my arms at five and a half months old.
And that happened in November of twenty twenty one, which
is when I discovered I could handle four dogs at
the same time. And again I didn't have a dog
in my life until twenty twelve. I didn't know when
I broke up with my girlfriend in twenty fifteen if
I could take care of two dogs by myself. And

(48:51):
suddenly I had four, including one who was a hospice puppy.
So after that I was offered by the people who
had bred Mishu one of his brothers from a late litter,
and they came in here and they were monsters. Mishu

(49:12):
was a wonderful dog who liked to start fights, had
no energy, couldn't really oxygen eight he couldn't he could
breathe fine, He just could not. Once the oxygen got
into his bloodstream, he could not pass it anywhere around
his body or insufficiently, so he would start fights and
then sit back and watch the other dogs fight. On
the other hand, he also was communal. He brought the
dogs together literally and figuratively. He was a lovely boy,

(49:35):
and he just didn't live very long. But I was
offered his brothers. And his brothers had all the strength
in the world, and they were like something out of
a horror film. They could climb up walls. The first
one bit me, bit each of the other dogs, then
came back and bit us all in the genitals. The

(49:55):
next one was trouble. He was able to climb up
out of his cage. He had the most beautiful marbles
like blue eyes ever seen on a dog, and he
was a silent killer. These two dogs later found homes
in which they were either the only male or the
only dog, and they have had happy lives ever since.

(50:17):
They did not have the same heart disease that felled
poor Misho. In any event. After Mishu's passing and after
the failed two weeks with Kubush and Snowy, Mishu's brothers
there were three of us again here in the household,
three dogs and me. They're human. And one day my

(50:39):
friend Sue Levitt texted me and said, we've got a
terrible case. We had a woman in Hell's kitchen and
she died in her eighties and she didn't take care
of the dogs. And there's one dog left. And I mean,
he's fourteen, and he has dementia and he has bad teeth,
and who's going to adopt that? And I sent back
the raised hand emoji, because you know, as I've said previously,

(50:59):
you don't know till you have a dog that the
answer to the question what is the meaning of life?
Is not fully answered by the word dogs, but it's
partially answered by that word. One of the reasons of life,
one of the reasons for life, one of the reasons
for putting up with life, one of the reasons for
putting up with other humans is dogs. And honestly, the

(51:22):
only thing I can think of in the column of
what's good about mankind is we've lots of us taken
care of dogs and other pets too. Other than that,
I don't know what purpose we have. Other than that,
I don't know what good, what net good we have
done this planet, or where we would fit into some
sort of scheme, whether it is intentional, created or accidental.

(51:46):
The through line to all the theories about why we
are on Earth, from atheism to the most pure religious
doctrinaire theories, all have this one through line. As the
Great Bill Hicks said, people suck. I can prove it
on an etche sketch. In any event, I'm meandering on

(52:07):
this to try to avoid the topic of poor Mine.
So I raised my hand and the warning was Mine
is not going to interact with you. Something happened to him.
He has dementia. He really doesn't know where he is.
He's okay outside, but he's really confused. His human went
away after fourteen nearly fifteen years, and he doesn't know

(52:31):
what happened to her. And Maltese is particularly attached to
one human for life, and if something happens to that human,
something will happen to the Maltese. So came a day
in June of twenty twenty two when Keith Peterson brought Mine.

(52:52):
And it's a French name, m I n et. It
means kitty in French colloquial French. Mine is kitty and
as I said, right then, this must have led to
extraordinary confusion in his first fifteen years. Something else to
put in the documentary. Me Nay and Keith Peterson and
I met up outside one of the entryways into Central Park,

(53:15):
and I picked me May up and sat him on
my lap and noticed two things. One was his teeth
smelled from a distance from feet they were so bad
away from feet away, his teeth smelled. He was a
thin dog, but not scary thin. He just was very,
very wiry. And he was standing there on my lap,

(53:38):
and he decided he didn't want to do that anymore,
so he leaped to the pavement. And I thought to myself,
let's not leave him up on places where he can leap,
because he doesn't have any idea when not to leap,
which proved to be another through line in his existence.
So fingers crossed and hoping to improve his lot for
however many months or years he had left, in came

(54:02):
me Nay to join the rest of my pupps. They
really didn't know what to make of him. They didn't
interact much. Mine did a lot of sleeping. He was,
after all, a month shy of his fifteenth birthday, and
not in good health, and the rest of the time
was heartbreaking. Minee walked around the house always, this could

(54:23):
be said of him. He did his steps, and he
hydrated a lot. He must have walked every day a
mile or two miles indoors, and sadly, when he got here,
you could have traced the pattern, having watched him do
it once or twice, exactly where he would walk in
my apartment, where he would bump into walls. And it

(54:43):
became pretty evident to me that he was retracing the
steps at Madame Germain's house. That he could not adjust
to a new apartment, he could not adjust to new walls.
The other dogs, well, there were other dogs, but they
weren't the right dogs. And then there was the smell
of his teeth. My vet came to look at him,

(55:06):
and mine slept a lot and didn't really interact. He
ate pretty well, he ate okay, And then my vet
came in and said, I'm looking at his teeth, and
some of these teeth are in such bad shape that
I'm afraid they will begin to infect his airways. There's
no sign of this spreading. His heart is great, his

(55:28):
heart is extraordinary for a fourteen to fifteen year old dog.
It would be a good heart for a six year
old dog or a six month old dog. He's got
a strong ticker. He's going to live a while, but
these teeth will kill him if you don't do something
about it. I think you need to get a hold
to day of the veterinary dentists, the dental experts at

(55:51):
the Animal medical Center. In the interim. I think I
can take a few of these teeth out right now
with a little topical and maybe just my fingers. I've
been through a lot with my dogs, and I've been
prized at how much I have been willing to be
there for them when they have been in excruciating pain
or fear. This is the only time in twelve years

(56:13):
with dogs that I had to leave the room. The
noises Minee made when he had barely spoken before, when
he never barked, howls of incredible pain and fear. And
she only took out three or four of the teeth
that were literally loose to the touch, So she stopped
after I think six, and then we went into the

(56:33):
Animal medical center and all his teeth were removed. I
had my other dogs checked, some of them lost half
of their teeth. My little girl Rose had no symptoms
of it, but she had advanced periodontal disease. She was
very sick. She was about to have be in the

(56:53):
same situation Minee was. Without symptoms, it would have happened overnight.
We took out half of her teeth. She woke up
from the anesthesia, all of her allergies disappeared. Within weeks,
her curvy puppy figure was back, and she was eight
years old. I went into my dentist and I said, hey,
I need to be about twenty percent smarter. Can you

(57:14):
pull some of my teeth out? And the guy goes,
We've got very bad news for you. You have an
absolutely clean checkup, and I said, this is the first
one since nineteen sixty eight. Sorry me. Nay, having had
all of his teeth removed, woke up from the anesthesia,
came home to my house, fell asleep, woke up again.

(57:36):
Now it's about eight ten, twelve hours after we got
him back from the hospital, and he got up, left
the little bed in my bedroom next to my bed,
and wandered out and came over and started to stare
at me, like who the hell are you? Or Since
I always envisioned him speaking in a French accent, who
the hell are you? And he looked at the other dogs, like,

(58:00):
who the hell are you? Where am I? And where
did these other dogs come from? It was instantaneous me
Nay did not have dementia. He might have had a
little He was the equivalent then of a ninety five
year old man. He might have been a little slow.
I know this hasn't been a topic anywhere in public
discourse lately. He might have been a little slow. But

(58:22):
the problem he had was he had these terrible teeth,
and the moment they were out and the blood stopped,
which was pretty quick, he started to get younger. And
I mean he started to get younger every day. He
was a little sharper, a little bit more interactive, still
on his own, still sleeping sixteen eighteen hours a day
in a bed that I found for him by accident,

(58:42):
that he treated like the womb. He would curl up
in there, and the blissfulness of his sleeping experience made
me jealous. And then I took him out for the
first time because my last experience with him was he
jumped off onto the hard pavement outside Central Park. I
don't know if he's a good walker. His serenity upon

(59:05):
hearing the sounds of New York City is indescribable. A
look would come across his face, and whereas indoors, he
didn't really particularly like you picking him up or holding him,
and he certainly didn't like a vet prying at his
teeth or anything like that. If you wanted to pick
him up and sit him on your lap, as long
as you were on a park bench, he was the

(59:28):
happiest creature on this earth. He'd walk with you for
two hours, he'd sit with you for two hours. If
you were walking him with another dog, he would immediately
sink up with that dog's pace. If it was just
you and him, he would sync up with your pace.
I swear there were times when I had not stopped

(59:48):
or slowed down, and he was slowing down because he
knew I was going to And gradually through that winter
and into the spring of twenty twenty three, he got
more and more interactive. One tenth of one percent every
day other dogs walk to pee or to poop. Mine

(01:00:10):
walked to walk, and to walk with you or walk
with another dog. An extraordinary creature. And finally, not long
after his sixteenth birthday last year, the most extraordinary thing
I have ever experienced with my dogs, and the first
time Stevie ever relieved herself on a walk. It was

(01:00:34):
under a marquee that read Fox News, and I picked
her up and said, I will always love you. So
I've seen some extraordinary things even though I only have
twelve years in the world of dog. The most extraordinary
thing I ever saw began sometime in the late summer
last year, maybe about this time, right after mine turned sixteen.

(01:00:57):
I saw it briefly out of the corner of my
eye and didn't believe what I'd seen. The stripes on
the New York City streets are crosswalks. They're almost a
barber pole effect, usually white on the black tarmac surface,
and sometimes the stripes are two three inches thick. And
Menee was seeing them with his one really good eye

(01:01:19):
and leaping over them. Consider this for a second. Mine
had been a year before unable to negotiate his way
around a new apartment, half because of vision problems, half
because of neurological problems that were in fact dental problems,
almost one hundred percent, and now he was, for some

(01:01:41):
reason leaping in the air. I thought he was sick.
I thought there was some new neurological problem. And then
he did it again on a different stripe, and then
he did it again up onto a curb, and then
we went out on a walk and he did it
ten times. And I began to hear people laughing behind me,
and getting over my natural paranoia, thinking what's on the

(01:02:04):
back of my I realized people who were not expecting
this were seeing this tiny, skinny, eight pound dog who
sometimes had to wear a sweater in the summer, jumping
up in the air, sometimes reaching I would say, ten
inches off the ground. Last October, I ordered God help

(01:02:25):
me a selfie stick. I wanted to see from his
level what in the hell he was doing and try
to figure out why. I put the selfie stick and
put the phone on it, hung it down at his level,
and sometimes I shot in slow motion and sometimes in
full speed, and I recorded me nay, and I saw

(01:02:45):
something even more startling. There was no question that this
was premeditated and intentional, and he was enjoying it because
after each jump, he would locate the camera and look
at it and stare it down like James Harden, the
basketball player backing away after a successful shot. What do

(01:03:10):
you think of that? Pal Mena, of course without any teeth,
had a tongue that hung out of his mouth, adding
to his extraordinary cuteness and this leaping ability, which got
better and better the more he tried it, and it
was clear he must have done it before. You don't suddenly,
after years of neurological problems, decide to start becoming an

(01:03:34):
Olympic jumper at sixteen, at the equivalent of ninety five
now as a dog as a human years he would
do this forty or fifty times on a trip, sometimes
when there were no white stripes, when we weren't crossing anything,
when we were in the parking, to jump over the

(01:03:54):
grooves in the pavement. And I discovered from the videos
and from careful analysis that he had three different jumps.
He had your standard I'm running and moving fast and
I'm using my own propulsion to just spring upwards and
then down and stick the landing by the way each time.
And he had another one where he knew he was

(01:04:14):
going up onto a curb and he angled himself. His
launch angle, baseball fans, was about five percent higher. And
then he introduced the third one, the standing jump. He'd
be walking across the street and stop and see how
far he could go without any momentum. He did this

(01:04:37):
all of last winter. As spring approached, it became evident
he was beginning to slow down a little bit of
his own accord as his seventeenth birthday neared and he
didn't do as many jumps at first. His extraordinary longevity
and his extraordinary stamina on walks continued. If we wanted

(01:04:58):
to go to two hours in the park, sure, maybe
you could give me a lift? Gone up the hill
that was his only problem. And the leaps became fewer
and farther between, and sometimes a little shorter, And sometimes
when he wasn't quite in the mood, he'd just do
a little hop. He'd just clear it, basically to say yeah,

(01:05:19):
I can still do this, and then on he'd go.
The most extraordinary thing I have ever seen with a dog,
and I saw Stevie poop under the Fox News sign
me nay. We had him examined neurologically in March, just
to see if there was something to make whatever time

(01:05:40):
he had left more enjoyable easier to get through because
he bumped into things. He was beginning to lose control,
and he'd never had full control of his limbs, which
made these jumps even more extraordinary. It's not quite he
got up out of a wheelchair and did these leaps,
but neurologically speaking, was almost like that. The neurologist had

(01:06:00):
no explanation for this other than he liked it, very
good reason to keep doing it. But he would bump
into things, and we thought, well, maybe there's something that
would help him, and there wasn't. But they did determine.
They were confident that at some point in the past
he'd actually had a stroke. So he had a little
dementia and a stroke, and he was an Olympic level

(01:06:21):
hurdler and leaper. He began to bump into things a
lot more in the last few months, and I thought,
what do I do about this? Well, I'm the only person,
I think, in the city of New York whose walls
are baby proofed at a height of about four inches
or so. They worked wonderfully. Now when he would bump

(01:06:44):
into a wall, instead of maybe getting a concussion, he
would just bounce into some rubber foam. In fact, he
learned how too. When he didn't have full control of
his legs guide himself along by putting his head intentionally
against the rubber foam and just kind of pushing. He

(01:07:05):
ate like a horse without teeth. He loved the soft
meals that I got for him, and he thrived on them,
and he would still eat the hard treats that he liked.
The kibble, and often he would take a piece of
kibble and put it in the water bowl, let it
soak for a while, and come back for it later
and suck on it like a cough drop. Dementia, my ass,

(01:07:29):
it's one of the smartest beings I have ever met
in my life. I don't think I was honest with
myself about how mine began to slow down. Early in
the summer, we didn't get to walk that much because
we went directly from spring into hell. This year in
New York. As I'm sure you've experienced too, it got
really warm, really fast. He didn't like really warm, and

(01:07:50):
he didn't like really cold. Well. Hell, he was basically
one hundred years old now, and as his seventeenth birthday approached,
it began to be evident that he was slowing down
a little bit. I had to carry him a little
bit more. There were occasionally hops, but mostly it was
just a good forty minute walk was a delight for him.
We had one last Thursday. It didn't end that well.

(01:08:13):
He seemed to be having real trouble controlling his back legs.
Of course, when I got him home, the back legs
had gotten stiff and he was kind of folding over them.
I got him home, he was fine. He walked around
the house for two hours, but he didn't eat that night,

(01:08:33):
and he didn't eat Friday, and he was listless. I
will say this for him, in the last four or
five months, he had suddenly uniformly accepted all of us.
Where he was always hanging back in my bedroom in
his little womblike bed, now he would greet me with

(01:08:55):
the other dogs at the front door when I came home.
He would often give me a kiss with that big
hanging out tongue of his. And in the last few
months particularly, he stopped living in the bedroom and would
often just stagger out into the living room where the
dogs and I were working. I was working the dogs,

(01:09:15):
really weren't I have to confess that he would come out,
come over and give me a kiss on the ankle
if I wanted to pick him up, and he wanted
to be picked up. He'd come and sit with us
for a while, and then he'd sort of motion like
he wanted to get down back on the floor, and
he'd go over to his bed in the living room
and sleep out here with us for eight hours, just
out of a sense of community. So he was still

(01:09:38):
doing that and then wandering back in to sleep on
the floor next to the bed, because obviously I couldn't
keep him in the bed with the other dogs and me.
He tended to fall off things like that. No matter
how good a jumper you are, you're not a good
jumper if you don't know you're about to jump. And
then last Thursday he wasn't really eating, and last Friday

(01:10:00):
he was very listless, and I took him in my
arms and I went outside and sat on the balcony
a long conversation with him, and I said, you're just
wearing out. And the feeling I got back was yeah,
but I have some time. He didn't urinate at all,
and this was one of his major hobbies. He tried

(01:10:20):
so hard. He had been so good at the pad,
and he tried so hard, and I think he thought
he was doing real well. Unfortunately, his definition of what
the pad was became a little broader than it should
have been. Any soft surface became the pad. But he
wasn't peeing. He didn't pee Friday, and he didn't eat.
And you don't have to be a twelve year dog

(01:10:42):
owner or a one year dog owner to know if
your dog stops eating and he's old, he's checking out.
And so I envisioned this Friday night, having just celebrated
his seventeenth birthday, an extraordinary accomplishment for any dog, but
particularly wanted out a stroke and neurological problems and was

(01:11:04):
near well. He starved to death. At some point I
think he's done a great job. We'll let him go.
We don't have to do anything about it. He'll go
on his own, particularly if he's not eating. And then
Saturday morning he had getting up out of bed because
he was still sleeping. He called to me a couple

(01:11:26):
of times to come out and just hold him for
a little bit, and he had a surprisingly high little bark.
His I'm hungry bark was very French. His uh hello
was a puppy, a high pitched puppy bar. He barked

(01:11:50):
and got up to greet me and fell over and
wriggled like a dead bug on the floor for about
a minute. It was a miniature seizure, and given his
neurological history, I actually thought it was good news because
it suggested maybe there was some thing to fix here.
Maybe it wasn't just placidly saying okay, time you know it.

(01:12:12):
I know it. Took him into the Animal Medical Center,
took him, at the advice of all the people I
know over there, into the emergency room. Treated wonderfully. They said,
he's low on fluids. We can do this much for him.
Leave him here overnight, we'll assess in the morning. We'll
get him fluids. We'll get him a little shunt here

(01:12:33):
and take his blood work and see how his kidneys
are doing, because he had kidney problems his whole life,
apparently anecdotally. That's in the documentary. They won't let me
see about him kidding. Sunday morning, I got a phone
call saying he'd had a good night. Nothing had changed.

(01:12:55):
He wasn't any better, he wasn't any worse. He was alert.
An hour later I got a call from the internal
medicine people who had taken over his case from the
emergency room. They said, no not. Things have not gone well.
His kidney values are down to zero, his temperature is down,
He's developed a heart murmur, and his heart was his
strongest organ. He's not really responding. He's not standing on

(01:13:17):
his own. You ought to consider this is the end.
And you may want to hasten the end because there's
no evidence it hurts. But if your organs are going
to start shutting down, it may begin to hurt fairly
soon and in very very unpleasant ways, in addition to
the fear and the shock and the confusion. And so
I made the decision to do that. Sunday afternoon. I

(01:13:44):
went over, picked him up and thought, well, it's not
like there's a rush here or anything. What is it
he likes most in the world Outdoors in the city
near the Animal Medical Center is the fifty ninth Street Bridge,
or for you out of towner's Edward and Kotch Bridge, Queensboro.

(01:14:06):
We don't even like to call it the Queensboro Bridge.
That's for people in Queens US Manhattanites, we call it
the fifty ninth Street Bridge. There's a song, the fifty
ninth Street Song, fifty ninth Bridge strong song. So we
went and sat in the new park that they built
in some I don't know, I think abandoned exit from

(01:14:29):
the FDR drive. And the breeze was perfect. It was
a little warm, but the breeze was perfect. In me nay,
barely able to raise his head, sat there and took
little SIPs of water from water that I put on
his tongue with my finger, and he would stretch, stretching
like he was asleep and just stretching, getting comfortable and

(01:14:50):
sitting there with me and communing. Supposed to be there.
I think my plan was, I guess half an hour
or an hour, and then take him inside and give
him the medication that would end his life. Well, we
were there three and a half hours. Again, what's the
rush there is? I will say this for any dog

(01:15:15):
owner who worries about their dog, and I shouldn't say owner,
anybody owned by a dog who worries about their dog.
There is an extraordinary liberation to a time like that.
Make it three and a half hours. Take him out
of the hospital. What's the difference. Give him a cigarette.
You're not gonna hurt him, That's what I said. They said, Well,
if he begins to have it, he has another seizure,

(01:15:36):
bring him back. I was like, why, what's gonna harm him?
We want him to die painlessly. That's all I'm concerned about.
Is he in pain? Doesn't look like it. So we
sat out there for three and a half hours and
it was a period of time with no fear or
anxiety or stress or how can I screw this up?

(01:16:02):
And he seemed to enjoy it too. The breeze was wonderful.
He always loved the breeze in New York City. And
the sounds of the FDR drive and the river and
the bridge and the tram going overhead. My god. And
then I reached put some water on his tongue and
he didn't really respond to it, and he hadn't stretched

(01:16:24):
in probably twenty twenty five minutes. A couple of birds
flew by, and I thought, it's time. The rest of it.
If you've ever been through it fairly routine, me nay,
good to the last drop, gets the injection, And one last,

(01:16:49):
convinced moment that he was at the peapad, he peed
on my pants. I actually smiled. He broke the tension.

(01:17:12):
A wax philosophical at a later time about the value
of adopting they're being adopted by a geriatric dog. Not
just a senior dog, but a senior dog is okay too,
but a dog that needs a home. Nothing like it.
A wax philosophical and poetic about that at some future time,

(01:17:36):
spare me doing it now. I will give him credit
for extraordinary timing. I got to seventeen. Anything else you need,
all right? Check? Please Mine German Oberman July fifteenth, two

(01:18:00):
thousand and seven to July twenty first, twenty twenty four.
Thank you. My tattoo of mine here on just below

(01:18:35):
my right wrist shows him in the middle of one
of his leaps. And of course when I recorded the
story of his passing, I did not know that he
had a brother named Paul Ann, who was apparently a
lovely dog and passed away long before he did, and

(01:18:56):
a sister, Mimi Shah, who was Ah. She was Mine's sister.
We'll just be nice and say that I could not
have known when I recorded that that nearly two months earlier,
two months before mine died, a pup had been born
in Mississant, Massachusetts, another Maltese who needed extensive heart surgery

(01:19:18):
to survive, and had already been named Kit and would
shortly be sent to me for safe keeping and to
in effect take Manet's spot on the team. Mine, as
I mentioned, is colloquial French for kitty, as in kit.

(01:19:39):
I'm not a big one for deities and foregone conclusions
and unseen forces, but a dog named Kitty in French
dies and is replaced by a dog named Kit worked
for me. Thanks for listening. Most of our countdown music

(01:20:01):
was arranged, produced, and performed by Brian Ray and John
Phillip Shaneil our musical director's of Countdown and produced by
TKO Brothers. Mister Ray on the guitars, bass and drums,
Mister Chanelle handled the orchestration and the keyboards at our
satirical and fifthy musical comments are by the best baseball
stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The Olderman theme from ESPN two,
written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Is

(01:20:24):
the sports music. Other music, like in the intro to
this segment, was arranged and performed by the group No
Horns Allowed. So that's countdown for today. Day one hundred
and forty four of America held hostage just three d
and twenty days until the scheduled end of Trump's lame
duck and lame brained term unless Putin or Musk remove

(01:20:44):
him sooner, or the actuarial tables due, or we do
don't forget to enjoy his parade Sunday or is it Saturday?
Don't ask him till the next countdown. I'm Keith Alderman,
thanking you for your time this time too, all right,
I'll do the regular one good morning, good afternoon, good night,

(01:21:08):
and good luck. Countdown with Keith Oldreman is a production

(01:21:30):
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts

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NEWSOM'S "EFF IT' MOMENT - AND HOW IT COULD SAVE AMERICA - 6.12.25

Episode Transcript

Host

Keith Olbermann

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}NEWSOM'S "EFF IT' MOMENT - AND HOW IT COULD SAVE AMERICA - 6.12.25