April 26, 2023 • 41 mins
EPISODE 187: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Corruption is coming down so heavy I feel like I need to wear a HAT. Now we have to indict a SECOND Supreme Court Justice. Nine days after he got onto the Court, Neil Gorsuch sold his part of a Colorado house for at least $250,000 to the head of a mega-law firm that has since been involved in 22 CASES before Gorsuch's court. Gorsuch has voted for their side in 7 of 10 cases.
And of course:THE DISCLOSURE FORM FOR THE SALE? GORSUCH LEFT THE BOX FOR THE NAME OF THE BUYER, BLANK.
The Senate Judiciary Committee can't subpoena Gorsuch or the buyer or Clarence Thomas or anybody because Dianne Feinstein is still MIA and can't provide the clinching vote. And John Roberts has finally replied to Chairman Dick Durbin's "invitation" to testify, and he said no way. He might as well have said "GOOD LUCK... DICK."
Meanwhile Ted Cruz confesses, on tape, to the Dueling Electoral Slates/Grand Commission/Let's Party Like It's 1876 Coup that he and other Senators and Congressmen started to run on January 6th before they were interrupted by the OTHER coup. And remember, as the trial begin, when Trump defends himself in the E. Jean Carroll rape case by saying "she's not my type" what he's really saying is "she's not my type TO RAPE."
B-BLOCK (19:44) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Biden is too old? He'll be 81 on Election Day and Trump will be 78. And he failed to do...what? And your younger choice who can keep the Serial Killer out of the White House is... who? And why Fox didn't collapse at 8 PM after firing Carlson, why he hasn't said anything, and why he seemingly turned from the moderate he appeared to be on CNN and MSNBC into the monster on Fox (Frankly: the success of Maddow, Scarborough and I broke him). THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD (28:13) Saluting Alito at Harvard; the far right host now hoping to ban books, trans, and "weird sex" did his own sex film just a decade ago; and the woman over whom NBC's Jeff Shell destroyed his career reportedly was also hooking up with the now 80-year old billionaire owner of Hockey's Seattle Kraken. Hey, Babe, wanna ride on my Zamboni?
C-BLOCK (34:40) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Titus, on death row in New York (35:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: My appendix burst and not only did I not know it for two days, but I kept working - AND beat CNN in the ratings (today, my burst appendix by itself could beat CNN in the ratings).
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. So
that's two Supreme Court justices. The Senate Judiciary Committee has
(00:26):
to subpoena and refer to the DOJ for criminal prosecution.
Oh right, they can't because Senator Feinstein has now had
shingles since the year eighteen eighty six. Well, at least
get John Roberts in to testify voluntarily, because oh right,
he says no. But here I've been closed to copy
of the statement of Ethics, Principles and Practices to which
all of the justices pretend to subscribe to. We have
(00:50):
to get Neil Gorsich off the Supreme Court immediately. He's
a crook. Another crook, another Republican theocratic religious bought and
paid for court crook. Politico revealing that from twenty fifteen
to twenty seventeen, this scumbag, Neil Gorsich was trying to
unload a three thousand square foot log house and forty
(01:13):
acres that he co owned in Granby, Colorado. No buyers,
no interest, and then suddenly, on April sixteenth, twenty seventeen,
Gorsich and his two partners managed to sell the place
and the price was one million, eight hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars, and the twenty percent of it gorsicch
owned brought him somewhere between a quarter of and a
(01:37):
half of a million dollars. What happened in the interim
was there a sudden run on log cabins in the
Colorado Mountains. No. On April seventh, twenty seventeen, Neil Gorsich's
nomination to the Supreme Court was confirmed, and nine days
(01:59):
later the sale was confirmed. And six years later the
buyer was also confirmed. And we now know the buyer
is Brian Duffy, the chief executive and head of the
litigation department of the law firm Greenberg Troig. And oh
what a shock this is. Since then, Greenberg Troreg has
(02:20):
been involved in at least twenty two cases brought to
the Supreme Court, and Neil Gorsich has voted on twelve
of them. And guess what the batting average of the
chairman of Greenberg Trarig, Brian Duffy before the guy he
paid at least a quarter of a million dollars to
that batting average is six sixty seven. No, actually he's
(02:42):
hitting seven hundred a Greenberg Trarig lawyer also represented North
Dakota in the state's bid to unroll the Clean Air
Act in Gorsicch and the Court ruled sixty three against
the EPA in that one. And this Brian Duffy, who
gave a sitting Supreme Court justice a brand new one
at least two hundred and fifty grand and maybe five
(03:04):
hundred grand nine days after the justice's robes came back
from the tailors quote, I've never spoken to Gorsich, I've
never met him, but surely there are ways for us
mere mortals to know about this. And why didn't we
know about this? Are there? No disclosure forms? Are there?
No prisons? Are there? No workhouses? Gorsich did not disclose
(03:28):
the identity of the purchaser. Politico reports that box was
left blank, blank blank as our collective mother blanking governmental ethic. Well,
shouldn't it be on the disclosure form under his income? Nope?
(03:51):
All he had to do is fill in who wrote
the check for his income? And Gorsch wrote in Walden
Group LLC, and who is Walden Group ls It is
the business name that Gorsich and his two parters gave
them sell a Supreme Court Justice does not have to
say who bought the house. He didn't even have to
say it was a house. He only has to say
(04:12):
who gave him money. In this case, the people who
gave him money was the corporate version of himself. Goddamn it,
Dick Durbin has to subpoena a coursich immediately. And h
oh no, Diane Feinstein is not taking calls and cannot
be disturbed. How dare you suggest that she should resign
so Senate Judiciary can approve judges again and get subpoenas
(04:35):
out anytime in this lifetime. Oh but thank god, Chairman
Durbin has saved the day by issuing another statement. We
have seen a steady stream of revelations regarding Supreme Court
justice's fallings. Sir. If the Court does not take adequate action,
(04:55):
Congress must committee closely examine it. Oh sorry, no, it's
the same statement. Dick Durbin is rapidly turning into Susan Collins. No, well,
that's not fair. When Susan Collins expresses her meaningless concern,
the people she's concerned about respond to her personally. When
Durbin wrote to Chief Justice Roberts, Roberts had a judicial
(05:17):
conference committee. Flunky right back to say the letter had
been referred to a committee. And now Roberts has finally
condescended to send Durbin a note saying, no, guess what,
I'm not stopping by. Why don't you subpoenamy? All right,
Feinstein is not currently in this plane of consciousness. Best
of luck in your investigations, Dick. Corruption in this country
(05:41):
is working twenty four to seven, and checks and Balances
has checked out, quote the fact that he was going
to be a Supreme Court justice. The buyer of the
Gorsich property, Duffy told Politico with a straight face and
with the condescension of somebody who not only knows he's
going to get away with it, but knows he's going
(06:01):
to make money later from getting away with it, was
absolutely irrelevant to the purchase of that property. It's a
wonderful piece of property, and we're so glad we bought
it unquote, and Duffy might as well have added, ps
f you, the corruption does not stop there. And you
may notice that this is the invisible thread in today's news.
(06:26):
Harlan Crow, we found out yesterday did have family business
in front of the Clarence Thomas Court. Despite that fig Leaf,
all the fascists have been hiding behind that he didn't.
He has done something startling. And when you say that
somebody who has his own wing of Nazi memorabilia in
his house has done something startling, it's goddamned startling. The
(06:51):
Intercept and the Project on Government Oversight Pogo reporting that
Harlan Crowe and his brother Trammel and his family quote
bought citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis, the notorious home
for tax dodging and the avoidance of you know laws.
(07:13):
I mean they have a leaked document from the Office
of the Prime Minister of Saint Kitts to the Crow attorney,
reading quote ray application for citizenship by investment on behalf
of mister Harlan Rogers Crowe and family. We are pleased
to advise you at the application for citizenship by investment
(07:34):
on behalf of the above named applicant has been approved.
In short, Harlan Crowe, Clarence Thomas's quote friend unquote bought
so called golden passports at a cost of hundreds of
thousands of dollars I mean more than the Colorado lawyer
paid Justice Gorsich that's how expensive they are. So now,
(07:56):
just in case Diane Feinstein ever returns to the Senate
one of the planet or resigns where the Democrats find
one set of balls among them, Harlan Crow can always
flee to Saint KITT's. I mean, right now, the Supreme
Court is so bad that Brett the money Star, Well,
(08:18):
we can help make your dreams come true. Use the
money for anything you desire, Imagine anything you desire. Kavanaugh
would only be the third or fourth justice that you
would choose in a Supreme Court corruption fantasy league. Draft
Jesus H. Christ. And now, because I feel like collectively
(08:43):
as a nation, we have not been corrupt enough today,
Nikki Hayley, who is running for the Republican nomination for
president even though nobody knows why, received stock options last
month apparently worth nearly three hundred thousand dollars just weeks
after declaring her candidacy. She is on the board of
directors of Great Southern Homes, and even though presidential can
(09:04):
eight traditionally quit directorships, Nikki has not had a job
since she quit being un ambassador, and so there she
was minding her own business when Great Southern merged with
Diamond Head Holdings, and what plops out of the sky
but twenty six, seven hundred and three shares of the
new company in her name. Ah, And this couldn't possibly
(09:25):
have anything to do with Haley packing the South Carolina
building codes councils seven years ago. And what do you know,
suddenly requirements for sprinklers vanished from new homes there. And
this is a fundamental crisis. If if you're the head
of a massive Colorado law firm who just paid a
Supreme Court justice at least a quarter of a million
dollars for his little gray home in the West Hope,
(09:46):
he's got sprinklers out there in the gorstch Log cabin.
I'm really worried about this guy. And speaking of presidential candidates,
it's been four weeks since we heard from the hearings
that were supposed to be starting in Tallahassee and the
bi annual efforts by the Republicans in Flow to take
their law requiring any state officer to resign before running
(10:09):
for a federal office and suspend those laws until there
are no state officers considering running for a federal office,
and then when the law could not affect anybody, then
you reinstitute the law. This time, this would be the
DeSantis version of this three card Monty scam. There's a
law against this. Okay, suspend it. Okay, nobody's trying to
(10:30):
break this law. Okay, put the law back and force. Well,
now we do have an update on the DeSantis let's
suspend the law gambit. Charles Gasparino X Wall Street Journal,
XCNBC formerly pushed the fact that he was a Pulitzer
Prize nominee until everybody said, wait, anybody can be nominated
for a Pulitzer Prize. Now he's still at Fox Business.
(10:51):
In the New York Post and reporting, quote my GOP
sources with ties to Florida's GOP leadership say, the rumor
is Trump plans to go to Tallahassee and kill this
bill to totally derayl DeSantis. Oh great, the local version
(11:11):
of January sixth. January sixth, the sequel January sixth to
Electric Bugaloo. Because we just haven't had a good coup
attempt lately in this country, and of course it always
circles back to Trump and the first Republican attempt to
overthrow the government. And you've probably by now heard the
Abby Grosberg tape of Ted Cruz trying to spell it
(11:34):
out to that idiot Maria Bartiromo that the way to
inaugurate Trump instead of Biden is to throw the slates
of electors of several different states into doubt, and then
you create a Grand Commission, just like they did after
the corrupt Hayes Tilden presidential election of eighteen seventy six,
and the commission could find profound voter fraud over there
(11:56):
in that sort of direction one of them states and
declare that the electors supporting Trump should be counted by
the Electoral College instead of the electors supporting Biden, and
thus you could use the constitution to kill democracy. We
think Maria understood, but it's hard to tell. There were
gasps when this tape was played yesterday, except that's what
(12:20):
the objections by the Senators and the congressmen, the Republican conspirators,
that's what they were about. That's what those guys were
doing on January sixth when they were interrupted by a
different coup coming down the street. And I'm not saying
Ted Cruz should not be arrested, tried, and at least imprisoned,
I'm just saying there's no gasping required here. The Republicans,
(12:46):
not the mob outside the Capitol, but the mob inside
the capitol. They tried to overthrow the government in January
twenty twenty one, remember, and they will try it again.
The leaders of our nation are so corrupt or complacent
about corruption that the various rival gangs of corruption are
(13:07):
now blaming each other for all the corruption. It was
Donald Trump's words, the man said yesterday. It was his motivation.
It was his anchor that caused what occurred, who said
that the lawyer for Enrique Tario, the former leader of
the Proud Boys, you know, the stand back and stand
by Proud Boys. And Tario has turned on Trump because,
(13:29):
to repurpose the words of Jane Adams, the cure for
the ills of corruption is more corruption. And speaking of
trials and corruption and Trump, the e Jen Carrol case
went before the jury yesterday as the trial opened, and
her attorney Sean Crowley said in her opening statement that
(13:50):
Carol and two other alleged victims will testify. Quote three women,
one clear pattern. Pounce, kiss, grab, grope, don't wait. When
you're a star, you can do anything you want. Well played,
and when they speak up about what happened, attack, humiliate them,
(14:10):
call them liars, call them too ugly to assault. Unquote.
I hope she now follows this up with Trump's infamous
quote about Carol. That quote, She's not my type, which
it just dawns on me now, is actually short for
and Carol's attorney should say this, it's short for. Well,
(14:30):
what else could he be saying here? She's not my type.
What he's saying here is she's not my type to rape.
Trump was saying that he would choose different women to rape. Yeah,
(15:00):
the country has always been this corrupt, but a long
time ago people used to be afraid of getting caught. Well,
we just subpoena of them all. But oh, Diane Feinstein
still ahead on this edition of Countdown. For those of
you who do not like corruption, there's more corruption. The
woman Jeff Schell got fired over at NBC is now
(15:21):
linked to an eighty year old buy out tycoon and
part owner of the National Hockey League, Seattle Kraken eighty
I'm doing something wrong over here. Plus the Tucker Carlson
doomsday plan and the fascist radio host who says it's
American tradition to ban books and quote weird sexual behaviors
(15:44):
and such and so forth. Oh yeah, why is that important?
Because this is the guy who was in a gay
sex scene in a movie. And I felt a little
twinge in my side yesterday might have been all that
corruption I ate just above the belt. And all of
you who have been through what I have been through
knows what happens when you feel that twinge in that spot.
(16:06):
You flash back to the day they told you the
appendix is first run for the hills only. I kept
working for two days. I didn't know my appendix at first.
That was interesting things I promised not to tell ahead.
That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith
(16:32):
Olboomen coming up. So the reporter who helped Jeff Shell
lose his job as CEO of NBC. She was reportedly
also hooking up with the owner of the National Hockey
League's Seattle Kraken, the eighty year old owner. First postscripts
(16:54):
to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions.
Dateline Washington and for some reason, President Biden is too
old to run for reelection at the age of eighty
eighty one. On election Day, I mean Trump will be
seventy eight on election day. But go on, honestly, what
has Biden not done as president? I mean I wanted
Trump in jail by now. On the other hand, no
(17:16):
second coup. We're functioning internationally again. We've got the stain
of Trump wiped off, nearly all the government Ukraine has
gone extraordinarily well. He attacked Maga by name. He's treating
them as terrorists. Only the crooked Supreme Court has held
back his domestic policy. He did defeat Trump and humiliated
him repeatedly since, and he can do it again. And
(17:36):
your younger choice with a better chance of keeping that
Republican with the mindset of a serial killer from getting
back into the White House is who the Vice President.
Gavin newsom Me who Dateline New York lots of follow
up to the firing of the Mother Tucker, saw a
(17:58):
lot of people across the political spectrum asking why he
has not said anything yet, And once again, pay attention
to this. Please, if they are paying him out and
he says anything without their permission, they can fire him
for cause. And you want him to say something for
which he then has to forfeit like forty million dollars
(18:19):
Aren't we enjoying this time when he's not saying anything.
Aren't we enjoying this interval in which he says nothing?
This is the good days. This is the first time
I've ever been in agreement with Tucker Carlson. Shut up
and stay shut up. This nugget from Vanity Fair. Monday morning,
as the phone rang at the Carlson house and CEO
(18:39):
Suzanne Scott said, Hi, you're fired. Tucker Carlson was expecting
an update on his contract negotiations. He was expecting to
hear about his new deal that would go through the
year twenty twenty nine. Thank you, Nancy Faust. Instead, Tucker
(19:15):
Carlson got the sack and Rolling Stone's report that Fox
has kept a file of dirt on him, ready to
leak if he does try to get out an anti
Fox message now or in the future. Eight sources telling
that magazine say that the infamous Arena Bragante is the
keeper at Fox of the tuck muck. No indication what's
(19:36):
in there that isn't also in the Abbey Grosberg suit
or in the Dominion revelations. Lots of people recoiled at
this news, even seem to have a little empathy for Carlson.
This is standard operating procedure in high price TV. NBC
kept a file like that on me, and even after
we negotiated a settlement that saved me the trouble of
(19:57):
suing them when they preached my contract twice in twenty ten,
they still leaked a lot of it, right down to
a story that I occasionally used to wear five toed
running shoes in the office at thirty Rock. When I
left Current TV and I had to sue them for
the fifty million they owed me and stopped paying me
because they didn't want to anymore, they released a story
(20:20):
that I was so haughty and arrogant that I demanded
that Current replace my car service because the driver smelled bad. Well,
of course the driver smelled bad he was smoking cigarettes
in the car. Then the reason he was smoking cigarettes
in his car was that Current TV had stopped paying
its bills, including for the car service they were contractually
(20:42):
obligated to provide for me, and for the insurance they
had on me. So like six different services understandably refused
to pick me up anymore because we weren't paying them.
We were now down to the car service where the
drivers were allowed to smoke. Okay, a couple of numbers. No,
Fox quote news unquote did not collapse with the firing
(21:03):
of Tucker Carlson. Eight v one percent of his usual
audience showed up for the first post firing show. Anyway,
that's two point six million compared to the one and
a half million on MSNBC. There was a boost at
Fox rival Newsmax. It had averaged one hundred and ninety
two thousand viewers the previous three Mondays. It had five
(21:23):
hundred and thirty one thousand this Monday. Lastly, I have
been asked a couple of times what made Tucker Carlson,
who had seemed like a kind of rational, albeit foppily
dressed conservative at CNN and then MSNBC, turning into this flaming, raging, racist,
maniacal conspiracy theorist at Fox. Well, there's a mistaken assumption here.
(21:46):
I worked with him. My impression of him, and this
is two thousand and five, six seven eight. My impression
of Tucker Carlson was he was a flaming, raging, racist,
maniacal conspiracy theorist who thought that the best way to
make money in television was to pretend he wasn't any
of that and was instead just Joe College in a
bow tie. Here, in brief is what I think happened.
(22:09):
His MSNBC show, The Situation with Tucker Carlson, premiered on
June thirteenth, two thousand and five. Unfortunately for him, at
just about the same time The Situation Room with Wolf
Blitzer appeared on CNN, well the day that Tucker started.
The other shows on MSNBC included Dan Abrams Reports, Hardball
(22:30):
with Chris Matthews, Countdown with Your Friend and Mine, Tucson
at nine, and one of his regular liberal foils on
that show being Rachel Meadow, and then it was Scarborough
Country at ten. The Situation with Tucker Carlson was panned
so quickly and so uniformly, that critics were calling for
its cancelation in newspapers the next week. In fact, I
(22:52):
swear this is true. I started the Worst Persons in
the World segment to defend Tucker Carlson from one of
the newspaper critics, because these were the same idiots who
kept saying msn NBC change shows too frequently, and here
she was demanding that Carlson should be canceled. After episode
seven or something. Well, soon enough, they moved the show
(23:14):
to six pm, and then in two thousand and eight
they canceled Tucker outright. And this is what happened to
the other people that Carlson saw while he was failing
at MSNBC. I was doing well in two thousand and five,
but by two thousand and six I had the top
rated cable news show that wasn't on Fox, and a
new contract for very many dollars and a bidding war
(23:35):
between NBC and CNN. After Don Imis got fired and
the original choice to replace him in the mornings, David Gregory,
did not work out, Scarborough was asked to try it,
and while he sucks, he has achieved success in the
morning that he did not have at night, and he
managed to marry somebody else's wife, so I guess this
worked out for him. Matthews got a syndicated political show
(23:56):
on NBC lasted about ten years before they finally fired him.
Carlson's sidekick, Mattow became my backup host, and then I
got her her own show in his old time slot,
and she promptly went out and beat Larry King in
the ratings and in the other old time slot that
Tucker had MSNBC put on at six o'clock, Ed Schultz,
(24:17):
even Dan Abrams became general manager of the network for
a while. Anyway, In short, everybody at MSNBC except Tarker
Carlson succeeded. I think it broke his brain. I know
it broke his ability to conceal his evil and bluntly, look,
I hate the guy as much as anybody else in
the world. He's made a lot of money being evil.
(24:40):
Even now his shame and his shock are slightly blunted
by the forty million or more, Fox will still wind
up paying him still ahead on countdown. Back to that
(25:07):
era two thousand and seven, not only did I work
two days after I burst my appendix, but I beat
CNN in the ratings. And that was back when that
was difficult. Today, my first appendix could beat CNN in
the ratings by itself first time. For the daily round
up of the miss Grants, morons and Dunning Krueger effects
specimens who constitute the segment started to defend Tucker Carlson
(25:30):
Today's worst persons in the world. The Bronze the Harvard
Journal of Law and Public Policy, bunch of conservative Harvard
law students, and you know what conservative law students are
learning to do. That's right, overturn democracy. They posted an
online symposium, the Jurisprudence of Justice Samuel Alito. Now, if
you don't want to read it, or you don't have
(25:51):
a computer, don't worry. Alito will be happy to leak
it to you himself. The Bronze host Michael Knowles from
The Daily Wire, the guy who threatened to eliminate transgenderism
entirely from the United States entirely would include all the
transgender people too. Now Knowles is defending well, basically every
(26:12):
other fascist idea all wants. Quote. Banning books is very American.
Banning drag shows is obviously very American. All sorts of
weird sexual behaviors were illegal in the United States until
the Supreme Court invented some right to do weird sex
stuff unquote. This is not just fascism by this guy, Knowles,
it's masochism. As a failed actor, Knowles starred in a
(26:35):
twenty twelve student movie called The House of Shades, in
which he performed a gay sex scene. Not that there's
anything wrong with a gay sex scene, except twenty twenty
three Michael Knowles would obviously be saying that twenty twelve,
Michael Knowles was breaking the law by performing a gay
sex scene. There's a lot going on inside this guy.
(26:58):
But our winner, well, a lot of moving parts in
this one. Let's just include all of them. The win,
Jeff Shell, Hadley Gamble, and David Bonderman. Let me see
if I can sort through all this for you. Clear
picture coming in now in the relationship with Hadley Gamble
that got my lying ex friend Jeff Shell fired for
(27:18):
cause as chairman of NBC Universal on Sunday, as we
refer to it around here, schadenfreud to Sunday and he
got no dollars on the way out. CNN reporting that
Hadley gambles CNBC contract was expiring and she had been
told CNBC was not renewing her. This seems to have
been concurrent with her filing harassment complaint against Shell. It's
(27:42):
not clear which was first, or if perhaps Shell offered
to give her a new deal if she gave him
a new deal. But now The New York Post has
a new twist to this. While she was still in
the relationship with Shell, who was one of her bosses
throughout the whole thing. A whistleblower at a company called
TPG Equity, one of its managing directors, filed a complain
(28:04):
to the Securities in Exchange Security is and Exchange Commission.
I've got a complain here about this Hadley Gamble from CNBC.
The complaint to the SEC said the buyout firms eighty
year old owner David Bonderman was also in a relationship
with Hadley Gamble, and he was billing investors in the
(28:25):
company for the costs of this relationship. Bondermanworth they reported
six billion dollars and known to spend some of it
by bringing in the stones to play at his private parties. Quote,
according to the whistleblower complaint, is known within the company
to have regular female companions on which he lavishes gifts
or to whom he otherwise provides benefits, often brings them
(28:48):
with him on business trips. Miss Gamble especially is known
to fly with him regularly on TPG's planes. Apparently there
was something to this complaint. The company settled the complaint
with the SEC for thirteen million dollars. Since this viole,
mister Bonderman, who was eighty and his daughter became the
(29:09):
co majority owners of the National Hockey League team, the
Seattle Kracking. So this scandal now includes a gamble, some cracking,
and a Shell Hadley gamble, Jeff Shell and David Hey.
Now I own a hockey team, want to come ride
on my Zamboni Bonderman two days? I like that one
(29:32):
Worse persons and the Zamboni world still ahead on Countdown.
It blowed up good. It blowed up real good. In
(29:54):
this case, it was my appendix. And when I finally
found out about it two days later, I was completely
surprised and almost dead things I promise not to tell
coming up first. In each tradition of Countdown, we feature
a dog in need you can help. Every dog has
its day. This time it is Titus. Here in New York.
(30:17):
Titus is a big, smiling, shy, but unusually affectionate, sixty
pound brown pity mix. He was three years old and
he was low maintenance, and his quote unquote humans dumped
him because they didn't have time anymore. They took him
to a kill shelter. Titus is okay with dogs. He
loves toys and fetch and walks. He's never bitten anybody.
(30:38):
He's never been worse than shy to anybody, and yet
he is on the kill list. He needs an adopter
or foster or our pledges to help defray the cost
of a rescue to save his life. You can find
Titus on my Twitter feeds. Please help if you can,
and our team may help too. I thank you, and
Titus thanks you. Sometime on Wednesday, September twelfth, two thousand
(31:12):
and seven, I began to feel bad, all strained on
my right side. But my girlfriend at the time, Katie Turr,
and I had just moved only a few weeks before
into our new apartment, and I was still pushing boxes
around and I thought I'd just strained something. The next morning,
the thirteenth, I was still feeling like crap, but now
my stomach also hurt, and I thought I was bloated
(31:34):
or constipated or something, and maybe some sit ups would help.
And actually they felt like they had relieved some of
the pressure. And Katie's father, who was among many many
things in emt happened to be in town. He gave
me a vic it in or something, and I took
a nap and went into work a little later than
usual at MSNBC, which I could get away with that
day because President Bush was speaking that night, and almost
(31:55):
all of my work that night would be ad libbed
before his speech and then after his speech. I wrote
what I needed to write quickly, and at about seven
fifteen and I went out to the show line producer
Greg Kordick, who sat in exactly the right place that
he could make certain that I had left tour makeup
and was going to the studio on time. I had
to walk right past him, and I said, I'm exhausted.
(32:17):
I'm just going to close my eyes at my desk
for a couple of minutes. If you don't see me
go pass by like seven forty, come in and wake
me up. And I sat down and put my legs
up on my desk. I folded my hands behind my head,
and I just closed my eyes, more to rest my
eyes than in any real hope of sleeping. I am
a fickle sleeper. There's not a chance I could snooze
like that. Next day, I know it's seven forty and
(32:38):
I'm feeling somebody shaking me and seriously, a hand on
each shoulder. Apparently it took mister Cordick a little while
to wake me up, and I thanked Greg and staggered
to the makeup room, and I realized now I had
a little fever, but it was too late to do
anything about it. So I got my makeup, went to
the set, did the lead into Bush's speech, took some
notes during it, did the post speech wrap up with
(32:59):
the analysts, and after two hours on the air, I
got in the car that they sent for me to
go home to New York from New Jersey, and I
fell asleep again in the car. I still thought, this
is some weird stomach flu and I'm bloated beyond belief,
and I really don't feel good. But I bet that's
just from listening to George W. Bush one time too many.
(33:19):
I'll just go to bed. I found it was too
difficult to lie on my stomach or my side, which
presented a problem because rarely can I fall asleep on
my back. But I had to try, and the next
thing I knew it was morning. I slept like a stone.
But I still felt really bad, in fact, a little
bit worse. On top of all which, Katie was yelling
(33:43):
at me about something, and I had a check up
for something unrelated at my doctor's office, and I left
early so I could go buy something for the constipation.
And then when my doctor called me and he said,
you look terrible. Are you okay? And I said no,
I got this really sore stomach and the last time
I had this fever for a while he kind of gasped,
and now he looked terrible, and he said, who was
(34:04):
the last time you ate? I said, you know, funny,
I haven't thought about food for a couple of days.
And then he asked me when was the last time
that happened? And I said when I was in the womb,
and he had me stand up and he pushed his
finger into my stomach about five inches to the right
of my navel, and holding the finger there, he said,
does this hurt? And I said not at all, And
(34:26):
then he said does it hurt now? As I take
my finger away, And I don't remember if I said
anything or not, because I saw the proverbial stars in
front of my eyes and I let out a scream.
So he said, get back in your car, and you
go to our other office at fifty ninth and tenth
and go see our gastro specialist. And I said, sure,
just don't poke me again. And when I got there,
they showed me right in and she taps me and
she says, why are you hunched over like that? And
(34:48):
I said, I'm hunched over and she says, if you
haven't eaten in two days, how come your stomach is
heard is a rock? And I said, is this a
medical quiz? Because you're the doctor, And she says, I
want you to go across the street to the hospital
emergency room. I'll call them while you're walking. Just go
write in and tell them you're the one doctor Lou
called about. Because boy, your appendix burst. And although I
(35:10):
think you'll be fine, technically you've got about oh eight,
ten twelve hours to live. Well, that got my attention.
And as I'm grabbing my jacket my bag, I say, wait,
if this isn't just constipation, how come it felt better
when I did the sit ups? And she says, because
when you did the sit ups, you only had an
infected appendix that was going to burst. When you did
(35:33):
the sit ups, dummy, that's when the appendix burst, you
burst it. So I said, wait, I went on TV
for two hours after my appendix burst. Shut up. She explained,
she was right. The our people saw me immediately, they
ran a bunch of tests and reminded me that if
I hadn't already, I should probably call in sick for
(35:54):
a couple days. And I said, wait, what day is today?
And they helped out and they said Friday. So I
called MSNBC and I called the producer of Football Night
in America, which I was doing for NBC on Sunday days,
and I said, hey, sorry, looks like I'm technically dying
from a burst appendix and they're going to operate on
me as soon as they can get a surgeon in here.
And they say it's real unlikely I'll be out of
(36:15):
the hospital by Sunday or Monday. Have a nice day.
I called Katie, who had already gotten to her job
in local cable news in Brooklyn, and she turned around
to come help me out at the hospital. And then
I just waited and got Goofyer and Goofier and Goofier
and Goofier. I think they operated around seven or eight pm.
The surgeon introduced himself. He was a big sports fan,
(36:37):
Fred Kimmelsteel, the surgeon named by prophetic parents. And I
went to the anesthesiologist and I warned him. I said,
I'd once woken up from anesthesia during an endoscopy, and
could he make sure that that didn't happen again. In fact,
I said that the other day when I had my
knee operated on, and this guy did the same thing.
They both of these anesthesiologists just laughed when I challenged
(36:59):
them to knock me out a little bit harder. So
doctor Kimmel Steele asked me about the latest met choke job.
This is the one in two thousand and seven, not
the one in twenty twenty two, and I started to
talk about David Wright, and the next thing I knew,
I was freezing cold and trying to open my eyes.
And it was three hours later and the surgery was over.
What a mess, said doctor Kimmel Steel. Never had one
that bad before. Thank god it absesss you'll be here
(37:20):
all weekend, And I was. The next day. They made
me get out of bed, and I think it took
me half an hour to walk about twenty feet down
the hallway and back, and there was a morphine drip
and a new bag of intravenous antibiotics every two hours,
and at one point the phone rang and I really
did have to go back the following weekend. Ask the
producer if this actually happened, or I merely hallucinated it.
(37:44):
But the phone rang and it was the football night
in America people and they said they were going to
shoot video of the hospital I was in. And I said,
I don't think you can see me from the street,
and they said, right, we know that. We're just pretty
much doing this for a laugh at your expense while
you're in the hospital and we're on TV. And then
finally my appetite came back on Monday and I was
able to eat some pancakes and they sent me home
(38:04):
in the air afternoon. And for two days after that,
I was still sweating out the poisons and the antibiotics
and the painkillers, and I mean I was so warm
I could not bear to have a shirt on. But
by Thursday I was able to go back to work,
and just to show off, I wrote a special comment
about Bush from my first show back. I was extremely
pleased with myself. Now there are three postscripts to this. Now,
(38:28):
obviously I learned, and I've just taught you the test
for appendicitis or a burst appendix. If you poke it
and it doesn't hurt until you stop poking it, it's
your appendix. Fat lot of good. That'll do me now
I don't have an appendix. Second weeks later, I was
at dinner with my friend John Clees from Monty Python's
(38:49):
Flying Circus, and he said he'd heard the story about
my appendix and he was very upset with me. I
did the exact same thing. John said, it blew up,
and for two days I had no idea how serious
it was. Thought it was a cold. But don't kill
people that don't underset and call it a burst appendix.
You and I we were both dying of septacemia. Never
(39:12):
let anybody forget that, and I haven't. And the last
and best PostScript was, while I'm lying there recovering after
the surgery, the phone rings and it's my executive producer
and she says, good news. When you anchored before and
after Bush's speech and you got sick or after you
got sick, you beat CNN in the ratings by like
(39:35):
twenty five percent, and as stone on them painkillers as
I might have been, I was still able to say
to her, I beat CNN. I beat CNN with one
appendix tied behind my back. I've done all the damage
(40:01):
I can do. Here Here are the credits, most of
The music arrange produced and performed by Brian Ray and
John Phillip Shanelle, who are the Countdown musical directors. All
orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanelle, Guitars, bass and
drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven
selections have been arranged and performed by the group No
Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Olberman theme from
(40:22):
ESPN two. It was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy
of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments from Nancy Faust, the best
baseball stadium organist ever, and our announcer today was Jonathan Banks.
Everything else is pretty much my fault. So that's countdown
for this the eight hundred and forty first day since
Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government
(40:43):
of the United States with the assistance of Ted Cruz.
Don't forget to keep arresting him while we still can.
The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Olderman.
Good Morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
(41:04):
with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. So
that's two Supreme Court justices. The Senate Judiciary Committee has
(00:26):
to subpoena and refer to the DOJ for criminal prosecution.
Oh right, they can't because Senator Feinstein has now had
shingles since the year eighteen eighty six. Well, at least
get John Roberts in to testify voluntarily, because oh right,
he says no. But here I've been closed to copy
of the statement of Ethics, Principles and Practices to which
all of the justices pretend to subscribe to. We have
(00:50):
to get Neil Gorsich off the Supreme Court immediately. He's
a crook. Another crook, another Republican theocratic religious bought and
paid for court crook. Politico revealing that from twenty fifteen
to twenty seventeen, this scumbag, Neil Gorsich was trying to
unload a three thousand square foot log house and forty
(01:13):
acres that he co owned in Granby, Colorado. No buyers,
no interest, and then suddenly, on April sixteenth, twenty seventeen,
Gorsich and his two partners managed to sell the place
and the price was one million, eight hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars, and the twenty percent of it gorsicch
owned brought him somewhere between a quarter of and a
(01:37):
half of a million dollars. What happened in the interim
was there a sudden run on log cabins in the
Colorado Mountains. No. On April seventh, twenty seventeen, Neil Gorsich's
nomination to the Supreme Court was confirmed, and nine days
(01:59):
later the sale was confirmed. And six years later the
buyer was also confirmed. And we now know the buyer
is Brian Duffy, the chief executive and head of the
litigation department of the law firm Greenberg Troig. And oh
what a shock this is. Since then, Greenberg Troreg has
(02:20):
been involved in at least twenty two cases brought to
the Supreme Court, and Neil Gorsich has voted on twelve
of them. And guess what the batting average of the
chairman of Greenberg Trarig, Brian Duffy before the guy he
paid at least a quarter of a million dollars to
that batting average is six sixty seven. No, actually he's
(02:42):
hitting seven hundred a Greenberg Trarig lawyer also represented North
Dakota in the state's bid to unroll the Clean Air
Act in Gorsicch and the Court ruled sixty three against
the EPA in that one. And this Brian Duffy, who
gave a sitting Supreme Court justice a brand new one
at least two hundred and fifty grand and maybe five
(03:04):
hundred grand nine days after the justice's robes came back
from the tailors quote, I've never spoken to Gorsich, I've
never met him, but surely there are ways for us
mere mortals to know about this. And why didn't we
know about this? Are there? No disclosure forms? Are there?
No prisons? Are there? No workhouses? Gorsich did not disclose
(03:28):
the identity of the purchaser. Politico reports that box was
left blank, blank blank as our collective mother blanking governmental ethic. Well,
shouldn't it be on the disclosure form under his income? Nope?
(03:51):
All he had to do is fill in who wrote
the check for his income? And Gorsch wrote in Walden
Group LLC, and who is Walden Group ls It is
the business name that Gorsich and his two parters gave
them sell a Supreme Court Justice does not have to
say who bought the house. He didn't even have to
say it was a house. He only has to say
(04:12):
who gave him money. In this case, the people who
gave him money was the corporate version of himself. Goddamn it,
Dick Durbin has to subpoena a coursich immediately. And h
oh no, Diane Feinstein is not taking calls and cannot
be disturbed. How dare you suggest that she should resign
so Senate Judiciary can approve judges again and get subpoenas
(04:35):
out anytime in this lifetime. Oh but thank god, Chairman
Durbin has saved the day by issuing another statement. We
have seen a steady stream of revelations regarding Supreme Court
justice's fallings. Sir. If the Court does not take adequate action,
(04:55):
Congress must committee closely examine it. Oh sorry, no, it's
the same statement. Dick Durbin is rapidly turning into Susan Collins. No, well,
that's not fair. When Susan Collins expresses her meaningless concern,
the people she's concerned about respond to her personally. When
Durbin wrote to Chief Justice Roberts, Roberts had a judicial
(05:17):
conference committee. Flunky right back to say the letter had
been referred to a committee. And now Roberts has finally
condescended to send Durbin a note saying, no, guess what,
I'm not stopping by. Why don't you subpoenamy? All right,
Feinstein is not currently in this plane of consciousness. Best
of luck in your investigations, Dick. Corruption in this country
(05:41):
is working twenty four to seven, and checks and Balances
has checked out, quote the fact that he was going
to be a Supreme Court justice. The buyer of the
Gorsich property, Duffy told Politico with a straight face and
with the condescension of somebody who not only knows he's
going to get away with it, but knows he's going
(06:01):
to make money later from getting away with it, was
absolutely irrelevant to the purchase of that property. It's a
wonderful piece of property, and we're so glad we bought
it unquote, and Duffy might as well have added, ps
f you, the corruption does not stop there. And you
may notice that this is the invisible thread in today's news.
(06:26):
Harlan Crow, we found out yesterday did have family business
in front of the Clarence Thomas Court. Despite that fig Leaf,
all the fascists have been hiding behind that he didn't.
He has done something startling. And when you say that
somebody who has his own wing of Nazi memorabilia in
his house has done something startling, it's goddamned startling. The
(06:51):
Intercept and the Project on Government Oversight Pogo reporting that
Harlan Crowe and his brother Trammel and his family quote
bought citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis, the notorious home
for tax dodging and the avoidance of you know laws.
(07:13):
I mean they have a leaked document from the Office
of the Prime Minister of Saint Kitts to the Crow attorney,
reading quote ray application for citizenship by investment on behalf
of mister Harlan Rogers Crowe and family. We are pleased
to advise you at the application for citizenship by investment
(07:34):
on behalf of the above named applicant has been approved.
In short, Harlan Crowe, Clarence Thomas's quote friend unquote bought
so called golden passports at a cost of hundreds of
thousands of dollars I mean more than the Colorado lawyer
paid Justice Gorsich that's how expensive they are. So now,
(07:56):
just in case Diane Feinstein ever returns to the Senate
one of the planet or resigns where the Democrats find
one set of balls among them, Harlan Crow can always
flee to Saint KITT's. I mean, right now, the Supreme
Court is so bad that Brett the money Star, Well,
(08:18):
we can help make your dreams come true. Use the
money for anything you desire, Imagine anything you desire. Kavanaugh
would only be the third or fourth justice that you
would choose in a Supreme Court corruption fantasy league. Draft
Jesus H. Christ. And now, because I feel like collectively
(08:43):
as a nation, we have not been corrupt enough today,
Nikki Hayley, who is running for the Republican nomination for
president even though nobody knows why, received stock options last
month apparently worth nearly three hundred thousand dollars just weeks
after declaring her candidacy. She is on the board of
directors of Great Southern Homes, and even though presidential can
(09:04):
eight traditionally quit directorships, Nikki has not had a job
since she quit being un ambassador, and so there she
was minding her own business when Great Southern merged with
Diamond Head Holdings, and what plops out of the sky
but twenty six, seven hundred and three shares of the
new company in her name. Ah, And this couldn't possibly
(09:25):
have anything to do with Haley packing the South Carolina
building codes councils seven years ago. And what do you know,
suddenly requirements for sprinklers vanished from new homes there. And
this is a fundamental crisis. If if you're the head
of a massive Colorado law firm who just paid a
Supreme Court justice at least a quarter of a million
dollars for his little gray home in the West Hope,
(09:46):
he's got sprinklers out there in the gorstch Log cabin.
I'm really worried about this guy. And speaking of presidential candidates,
it's been four weeks since we heard from the hearings
that were supposed to be starting in Tallahassee and the
bi annual efforts by the Republicans in Flow to take
their law requiring any state officer to resign before running
(10:09):
for a federal office and suspend those laws until there
are no state officers considering running for a federal office,
and then when the law could not affect anybody, then
you reinstitute the law. This time, this would be the
DeSantis version of this three card Monty scam. There's a
law against this. Okay, suspend it. Okay, nobody's trying to
(10:30):
break this law. Okay, put the law back and force. Well,
now we do have an update on the DeSantis let's
suspend the law gambit. Charles Gasparino X Wall Street Journal,
XCNBC formerly pushed the fact that he was a Pulitzer
Prize nominee until everybody said, wait, anybody can be nominated
for a Pulitzer Prize. Now he's still at Fox Business.
(10:51):
In the New York Post and reporting, quote my GOP
sources with ties to Florida's GOP leadership say, the rumor
is Trump plans to go to Tallahassee and kill this
bill to totally derayl DeSantis. Oh great, the local version
(11:11):
of January sixth. January sixth, the sequel January sixth to
Electric Bugaloo. Because we just haven't had a good coup
attempt lately in this country, and of course it always
circles back to Trump and the first Republican attempt to
overthrow the government. And you've probably by now heard the
Abby Grosberg tape of Ted Cruz trying to spell it
(11:34):
out to that idiot Maria Bartiromo that the way to
inaugurate Trump instead of Biden is to throw the slates
of electors of several different states into doubt, and then
you create a Grand Commission, just like they did after
the corrupt Hayes Tilden presidential election of eighteen seventy six,
and the commission could find profound voter fraud over there
(11:56):
in that sort of direction one of them states and
declare that the electors supporting Trump should be counted by
the Electoral College instead of the electors supporting Biden, and
thus you could use the constitution to kill democracy. We
think Maria understood, but it's hard to tell. There were
gasps when this tape was played yesterday, except that's what
(12:20):
the objections by the Senators and the congressmen, the Republican conspirators,
that's what they were about. That's what those guys were
doing on January sixth when they were interrupted by a
different coup coming down the street. And I'm not saying
Ted Cruz should not be arrested, tried, and at least imprisoned,
I'm just saying there's no gasping required here. The Republicans,
(12:46):
not the mob outside the Capitol, but the mob inside
the capitol. They tried to overthrow the government in January
twenty twenty one, remember, and they will try it again.
The leaders of our nation are so corrupt or complacent
about corruption that the various rival gangs of corruption are
(13:07):
now blaming each other for all the corruption. It was
Donald Trump's words, the man said yesterday. It was his motivation.
It was his anchor that caused what occurred, who said
that the lawyer for Enrique Tario, the former leader of
the Proud Boys, you know, the stand back and stand
by Proud Boys. And Tario has turned on Trump because,
(13:29):
to repurpose the words of Jane Adams, the cure for
the ills of corruption is more corruption. And speaking of
trials and corruption and Trump, the e Jen Carrol case
went before the jury yesterday as the trial opened, and
her attorney Sean Crowley said in her opening statement that
(13:50):
Carol and two other alleged victims will testify. Quote three women,
one clear pattern. Pounce, kiss, grab, grope, don't wait. When
you're a star, you can do anything you want. Well played,
and when they speak up about what happened, attack, humiliate them,
(14:10):
call them liars, call them too ugly to assault. Unquote.
I hope she now follows this up with Trump's infamous
quote about Carol. That quote, She's not my type, which
it just dawns on me now, is actually short for
and Carol's attorney should say this, it's short for. Well,
(14:30):
what else could he be saying here? She's not my type.
What he's saying here is she's not my type to rape.
Trump was saying that he would choose different women to rape. Yeah,
(15:00):
the country has always been this corrupt, but a long
time ago people used to be afraid of getting caught. Well,
we just subpoena of them all. But oh, Diane Feinstein
still ahead on this edition of Countdown. For those of
you who do not like corruption, there's more corruption. The
woman Jeff Schell got fired over at NBC is now
(15:21):
linked to an eighty year old buy out tycoon and
part owner of the National Hockey League, Seattle Kraken eighty
I'm doing something wrong over here. Plus the Tucker Carlson
doomsday plan and the fascist radio host who says it's
American tradition to ban books and quote weird sexual behaviors
(15:44):
and such and so forth. Oh yeah, why is that important?
Because this is the guy who was in a gay
sex scene in a movie. And I felt a little
twinge in my side yesterday might have been all that
corruption I ate just above the belt. And all of
you who have been through what I have been through
knows what happens when you feel that twinge in that spot.
(16:06):
You flash back to the day they told you the
appendix is first run for the hills only. I kept
working for two days. I didn't know my appendix at first.
That was interesting things I promised not to tell ahead.
That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith
(16:32):
Olboomen coming up. So the reporter who helped Jeff Shell
lose his job as CEO of NBC. She was reportedly
also hooking up with the owner of the National Hockey
League's Seattle Kraken, the eighty year old owner. First postscripts
(16:54):
to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions.
Dateline Washington and for some reason, President Biden is too
old to run for reelection at the age of eighty
eighty one. On election Day, I mean Trump will be
seventy eight on election day. But go on, honestly, what
has Biden not done as president? I mean I wanted
Trump in jail by now. On the other hand, no
(17:16):
second coup. We're functioning internationally again. We've got the stain
of Trump wiped off, nearly all the government Ukraine has
gone extraordinarily well. He attacked Maga by name. He's treating
them as terrorists. Only the crooked Supreme Court has held
back his domestic policy. He did defeat Trump and humiliated
him repeatedly since, and he can do it again. And
(17:36):
your younger choice with a better chance of keeping that
Republican with the mindset of a serial killer from getting
back into the White House is who the Vice President.
Gavin newsom Me who Dateline New York lots of follow
up to the firing of the Mother Tucker, saw a
(17:58):
lot of people across the political spectrum asking why he
has not said anything yet, And once again, pay attention
to this. Please, if they are paying him out and
he says anything without their permission, they can fire him
for cause. And you want him to say something for
which he then has to forfeit like forty million dollars
(18:19):
Aren't we enjoying this time when he's not saying anything.
Aren't we enjoying this interval in which he says nothing?
This is the good days. This is the first time
I've ever been in agreement with Tucker Carlson. Shut up
and stay shut up. This nugget from Vanity Fair. Monday morning,
as the phone rang at the Carlson house and CEO
(18:39):
Suzanne Scott said, Hi, you're fired. Tucker Carlson was expecting
an update on his contract negotiations. He was expecting to
hear about his new deal that would go through the
year twenty twenty nine. Thank you, Nancy Faust. Instead, Tucker
(19:15):
Carlson got the sack and Rolling Stone's report that Fox
has kept a file of dirt on him, ready to
leak if he does try to get out an anti
Fox message now or in the future. Eight sources telling
that magazine say that the infamous Arena Bragante is the
keeper at Fox of the tuck muck. No indication what's
(19:36):
in there that isn't also in the Abbey Grosberg suit
or in the Dominion revelations. Lots of people recoiled at
this news, even seem to have a little empathy for Carlson.
This is standard operating procedure in high price TV. NBC
kept a file like that on me, and even after
we negotiated a settlement that saved me the trouble of
(19:57):
suing them when they preached my contract twice in twenty ten,
they still leaked a lot of it, right down to
a story that I occasionally used to wear five toed
running shoes in the office at thirty Rock. When I
left Current TV and I had to sue them for
the fifty million they owed me and stopped paying me
because they didn't want to anymore, they released a story
(20:20):
that I was so haughty and arrogant that I demanded
that Current replace my car service because the driver smelled bad. Well,
of course the driver smelled bad he was smoking cigarettes
in the car. Then the reason he was smoking cigarettes
in his car was that Current TV had stopped paying
its bills, including for the car service they were contractually
(20:42):
obligated to provide for me, and for the insurance they
had on me. So like six different services understandably refused
to pick me up anymore because we weren't paying them.
We were now down to the car service where the
drivers were allowed to smoke. Okay, a couple of numbers. No,
Fox quote news unquote did not collapse with the firing
(21:03):
of Tucker Carlson. Eight v one percent of his usual
audience showed up for the first post firing show. Anyway,
that's two point six million compared to the one and
a half million on MSNBC. There was a boost at
Fox rival Newsmax. It had averaged one hundred and ninety
two thousand viewers the previous three Mondays. It had five
(21:23):
hundred and thirty one thousand this Monday. Lastly, I have
been asked a couple of times what made Tucker Carlson,
who had seemed like a kind of rational, albeit foppily
dressed conservative at CNN and then MSNBC, turning into this flaming, raging, racist,
maniacal conspiracy theorist at Fox. Well, there's a mistaken assumption here.
(21:46):
I worked with him. My impression of him, and this
is two thousand and five, six seven eight. My impression
of Tucker Carlson was he was a flaming, raging, racist,
maniacal conspiracy theorist who thought that the best way to
make money in television was to pretend he wasn't any
of that and was instead just Joe College in a
bow tie. Here, in brief is what I think happened.
(22:09):
His MSNBC show, The Situation with Tucker Carlson, premiered on
June thirteenth, two thousand and five. Unfortunately for him, at
just about the same time The Situation Room with Wolf
Blitzer appeared on CNN, well the day that Tucker started.
The other shows on MSNBC included Dan Abrams Reports, Hardball
(22:30):
with Chris Matthews, Countdown with Your Friend and Mine, Tucson
at nine, and one of his regular liberal foils on
that show being Rachel Meadow, and then it was Scarborough
Country at ten. The Situation with Tucker Carlson was panned
so quickly and so uniformly, that critics were calling for
its cancelation in newspapers the next week. In fact, I
(22:52):
swear this is true. I started the Worst Persons in
the World segment to defend Tucker Carlson from one of
the newspaper critics, because these were the same idiots who
kept saying msn NBC change shows too frequently, and here
she was demanding that Carlson should be canceled. After episode
seven or something. Well, soon enough, they moved the show
(23:14):
to six pm, and then in two thousand and eight
they canceled Tucker outright. And this is what happened to
the other people that Carlson saw while he was failing
at MSNBC. I was doing well in two thousand and five,
but by two thousand and six I had the top
rated cable news show that wasn't on Fox, and a
new contract for very many dollars and a bidding war
(23:35):
between NBC and CNN. After Don Imis got fired and
the original choice to replace him in the mornings, David Gregory,
did not work out, Scarborough was asked to try it,
and while he sucks, he has achieved success in the
morning that he did not have at night, and he
managed to marry somebody else's wife, so I guess this
worked out for him. Matthews got a syndicated political show
(23:56):
on NBC lasted about ten years before they finally fired him.
Carlson's sidekick, Mattow became my backup host, and then I
got her her own show in his old time slot,
and she promptly went out and beat Larry King in
the ratings and in the other old time slot that
Tucker had MSNBC put on at six o'clock, Ed Schultz,
(24:17):
even Dan Abrams became general manager of the network for
a while. Anyway, In short, everybody at MSNBC except Tarker
Carlson succeeded. I think it broke his brain. I know
it broke his ability to conceal his evil and bluntly, look,
I hate the guy as much as anybody else in
the world. He's made a lot of money being evil.
(24:40):
Even now his shame and his shock are slightly blunted
by the forty million or more, Fox will still wind
up paying him still ahead on countdown. Back to that
(25:07):
era two thousand and seven, not only did I work
two days after I burst my appendix, but I beat
CNN in the ratings. And that was back when that
was difficult. Today, my first appendix could beat CNN in
the ratings by itself first time. For the daily round
up of the miss Grants, morons and Dunning Krueger effects
specimens who constitute the segment started to defend Tucker Carlson
(25:30):
Today's worst persons in the world. The Bronze the Harvard
Journal of Law and Public Policy, bunch of conservative Harvard
law students, and you know what conservative law students are
learning to do. That's right, overturn democracy. They posted an
online symposium, the Jurisprudence of Justice Samuel Alito. Now, if
you don't want to read it, or you don't have
(25:51):
a computer, don't worry. Alito will be happy to leak
it to you himself. The Bronze host Michael Knowles from
The Daily Wire, the guy who threatened to eliminate transgenderism
entirely from the United States entirely would include all the
transgender people too. Now Knowles is defending well, basically every
(26:12):
other fascist idea all wants. Quote. Banning books is very American.
Banning drag shows is obviously very American. All sorts of
weird sexual behaviors were illegal in the United States until
the Supreme Court invented some right to do weird sex
stuff unquote. This is not just fascism by this guy, Knowles,
it's masochism. As a failed actor, Knowles starred in a
(26:35):
twenty twelve student movie called The House of Shades, in
which he performed a gay sex scene. Not that there's
anything wrong with a gay sex scene, except twenty twenty
three Michael Knowles would obviously be saying that twenty twelve,
Michael Knowles was breaking the law by performing a gay
sex scene. There's a lot going on inside this guy.
(26:58):
But our winner, well, a lot of moving parts in
this one. Let's just include all of them. The win,
Jeff Shell, Hadley Gamble, and David Bonderman. Let me see
if I can sort through all this for you. Clear
picture coming in now in the relationship with Hadley Gamble
that got my lying ex friend Jeff Shell fired for
(27:18):
cause as chairman of NBC Universal on Sunday, as we
refer to it around here, schadenfreud to Sunday and he
got no dollars on the way out. CNN reporting that
Hadley gambles CNBC contract was expiring and she had been
told CNBC was not renewing her. This seems to have
been concurrent with her filing harassment complaint against Shell. It's
(27:42):
not clear which was first, or if perhaps Shell offered
to give her a new deal if she gave him
a new deal. But now The New York Post has
a new twist to this. While she was still in
the relationship with Shell, who was one of her bosses
throughout the whole thing. A whistleblower at a company called
TPG Equity, one of its managing directors, filed a complain
(28:04):
to the Securities in Exchange Security is and Exchange Commission.
I've got a complain here about this Hadley Gamble from CNBC.
The complaint to the SEC said the buyout firms eighty
year old owner David Bonderman was also in a relationship
with Hadley Gamble, and he was billing investors in the
(28:25):
company for the costs of this relationship. Bondermanworth they reported
six billion dollars and known to spend some of it
by bringing in the stones to play at his private parties. Quote,
according to the whistleblower complaint, is known within the company
to have regular female companions on which he lavishes gifts
or to whom he otherwise provides benefits, often brings them
(28:48):
with him on business trips. Miss Gamble especially is known
to fly with him regularly on TPG's planes. Apparently there
was something to this complaint. The company settled the complaint
with the SEC for thirteen million dollars. Since this viole,
mister Bonderman, who was eighty and his daughter became the
(29:09):
co majority owners of the National Hockey League team, the
Seattle Kracking. So this scandal now includes a gamble, some cracking,
and a Shell Hadley gamble, Jeff Shell and David Hey.
Now I own a hockey team, want to come ride
on my Zamboni Bonderman two days? I like that one
(29:32):
Worse persons and the Zamboni world still ahead on Countdown.
It blowed up good. It blowed up real good. In
(29:54):
this case, it was my appendix. And when I finally
found out about it two days later, I was completely
surprised and almost dead things I promise not to tell
coming up first. In each tradition of Countdown, we feature
a dog in need you can help. Every dog has
its day. This time it is Titus. Here in New York.
(30:17):
Titus is a big, smiling, shy, but unusually affectionate, sixty
pound brown pity mix. He was three years old and
he was low maintenance, and his quote unquote humans dumped
him because they didn't have time anymore. They took him
to a kill shelter. Titus is okay with dogs. He
loves toys and fetch and walks. He's never bitten anybody.
(30:38):
He's never been worse than shy to anybody, and yet
he is on the kill list. He needs an adopter
or foster or our pledges to help defray the cost
of a rescue to save his life. You can find
Titus on my Twitter feeds. Please help if you can,
and our team may help too. I thank you, and
Titus thanks you. Sometime on Wednesday, September twelfth, two thousand
(31:12):
and seven, I began to feel bad, all strained on
my right side. But my girlfriend at the time, Katie Turr,
and I had just moved only a few weeks before
into our new apartment, and I was still pushing boxes
around and I thought I'd just strained something. The next morning,
the thirteenth, I was still feeling like crap, but now
my stomach also hurt, and I thought I was bloated
(31:34):
or constipated or something, and maybe some sit ups would help.
And actually they felt like they had relieved some of
the pressure. And Katie's father, who was among many many
things in emt happened to be in town. He gave
me a vic it in or something, and I took
a nap and went into work a little later than
usual at MSNBC, which I could get away with that
day because President Bush was speaking that night, and almost
(31:55):
all of my work that night would be ad libbed
before his speech and then after his speech. I wrote
what I needed to write quickly, and at about seven
fifteen and I went out to the show line producer
Greg Kordick, who sat in exactly the right place that
he could make certain that I had left tour makeup
and was going to the studio on time. I had
to walk right past him, and I said, I'm exhausted.
(32:17):
I'm just going to close my eyes at my desk
for a couple of minutes. If you don't see me
go pass by like seven forty, come in and wake
me up. And I sat down and put my legs
up on my desk. I folded my hands behind my head,
and I just closed my eyes, more to rest my
eyes than in any real hope of sleeping. I am
a fickle sleeper. There's not a chance I could snooze
like that. Next day, I know it's seven forty and
(32:38):
I'm feeling somebody shaking me and seriously, a hand on
each shoulder. Apparently it took mister Cordick a little while
to wake me up, and I thanked Greg and staggered
to the makeup room, and I realized now I had
a little fever, but it was too late to do
anything about it. So I got my makeup, went to
the set, did the lead into Bush's speech, took some
notes during it, did the post speech wrap up with
(32:59):
the analysts, and after two hours on the air, I
got in the car that they sent for me to
go home to New York from New Jersey, and I
fell asleep again in the car. I still thought, this
is some weird stomach flu and I'm bloated beyond belief,
and I really don't feel good. But I bet that's
just from listening to George W. Bush one time too many.
(33:19):
I'll just go to bed. I found it was too
difficult to lie on my stomach or my side, which
presented a problem because rarely can I fall asleep on
my back. But I had to try, and the next
thing I knew it was morning. I slept like a stone.
But I still felt really bad, in fact, a little
bit worse. On top of all which, Katie was yelling
(33:43):
at me about something, and I had a check up
for something unrelated at my doctor's office, and I left
early so I could go buy something for the constipation.
And then when my doctor called me and he said,
you look terrible. Are you okay? And I said no,
I got this really sore stomach and the last time
I had this fever for a while he kind of gasped,
and now he looked terrible, and he said, who was
(34:04):
the last time you ate? I said, you know, funny,
I haven't thought about food for a couple of days.
And then he asked me when was the last time
that happened? And I said when I was in the womb,
and he had me stand up and he pushed his
finger into my stomach about five inches to the right
of my navel, and holding the finger there, he said,
does this hurt? And I said not at all, And
(34:26):
then he said does it hurt now? As I take
my finger away, And I don't remember if I said
anything or not, because I saw the proverbial stars in
front of my eyes and I let out a scream.
So he said, get back in your car, and you
go to our other office at fifty ninth and tenth
and go see our gastro specialist. And I said, sure,
just don't poke me again. And when I got there,
they showed me right in and she taps me and
she says, why are you hunched over like that? And
(34:48):
I said, I'm hunched over and she says, if you
haven't eaten in two days, how come your stomach is
heard is a rock? And I said, is this a
medical quiz? Because you're the doctor, And she says, I
want you to go across the street to the hospital
emergency room. I'll call them while you're walking. Just go
write in and tell them you're the one doctor Lou
called about. Because boy, your appendix burst. And although I
(35:10):
think you'll be fine, technically you've got about oh eight,
ten twelve hours to live. Well, that got my attention.
And as I'm grabbing my jacket my bag, I say, wait,
if this isn't just constipation, how come it felt better
when I did the sit ups? And she says, because
when you did the sit ups, you only had an
infected appendix that was going to burst. When you did
(35:33):
the sit ups, dummy, that's when the appendix burst, you
burst it. So I said, wait, I went on TV
for two hours after my appendix burst. Shut up. She explained,
she was right. The our people saw me immediately, they
ran a bunch of tests and reminded me that if
I hadn't already, I should probably call in sick for
(35:54):
a couple days. And I said, wait, what day is today?
And they helped out and they said Friday. So I
called MSNBC and I called the producer of Football Night
in America, which I was doing for NBC on Sunday days,
and I said, hey, sorry, looks like I'm technically dying
from a burst appendix and they're going to operate on
me as soon as they can get a surgeon in here.
And they say it's real unlikely I'll be out of
(36:15):
the hospital by Sunday or Monday. Have a nice day.
I called Katie, who had already gotten to her job
in local cable news in Brooklyn, and she turned around
to come help me out at the hospital. And then
I just waited and got Goofyer and Goofier and Goofier
and Goofier. I think they operated around seven or eight pm.
The surgeon introduced himself. He was a big sports fan,
(36:37):
Fred Kimmelsteel, the surgeon named by prophetic parents. And I
went to the anesthesiologist and I warned him. I said,
I'd once woken up from anesthesia during an endoscopy, and
could he make sure that that didn't happen again. In fact,
I said that the other day when I had my
knee operated on, and this guy did the same thing.
They both of these anesthesiologists just laughed when I challenged
(36:59):
them to knock me out a little bit harder. So
doctor Kimmel Steele asked me about the latest met choke job.
This is the one in two thousand and seven, not
the one in twenty twenty two, and I started to
talk about David Wright, and the next thing I knew,
I was freezing cold and trying to open my eyes.
And it was three hours later and the surgery was over.
What a mess, said doctor Kimmel Steel. Never had one
that bad before. Thank god it absesss you'll be here
(37:20):
all weekend, And I was. The next day. They made
me get out of bed, and I think it took
me half an hour to walk about twenty feet down
the hallway and back, and there was a morphine drip
and a new bag of intravenous antibiotics every two hours,
and at one point the phone rang and I really
did have to go back the following weekend. Ask the
producer if this actually happened, or I merely hallucinated it.
(37:44):
But the phone rang and it was the football night
in America people and they said they were going to
shoot video of the hospital I was in. And I said,
I don't think you can see me from the street,
and they said, right, we know that. We're just pretty
much doing this for a laugh at your expense while
you're in the hospital and we're on TV. And then
finally my appetite came back on Monday and I was
able to eat some pancakes and they sent me home
(38:04):
in the air afternoon. And for two days after that,
I was still sweating out the poisons and the antibiotics
and the painkillers, and I mean I was so warm
I could not bear to have a shirt on. But
by Thursday I was able to go back to work,
and just to show off, I wrote a special comment
about Bush from my first show back. I was extremely
pleased with myself. Now there are three postscripts to this. Now,
(38:28):
obviously I learned, and I've just taught you the test
for appendicitis or a burst appendix. If you poke it
and it doesn't hurt until you stop poking it, it's
your appendix. Fat lot of good. That'll do me now
I don't have an appendix. Second weeks later, I was
at dinner with my friend John Clees from Monty Python's
(38:49):
Flying Circus, and he said he'd heard the story about
my appendix and he was very upset with me. I
did the exact same thing. John said, it blew up,
and for two days I had no idea how serious
it was. Thought it was a cold. But don't kill
people that don't underset and call it a burst appendix.
You and I we were both dying of septacemia. Never
(39:12):
let anybody forget that, and I haven't. And the last
and best PostScript was, while I'm lying there recovering after
the surgery, the phone rings and it's my executive producer
and she says, good news. When you anchored before and
after Bush's speech and you got sick or after you
got sick, you beat CNN in the ratings by like
(39:35):
twenty five percent, and as stone on them painkillers as
I might have been, I was still able to say
to her, I beat CNN. I beat CNN with one
appendix tied behind my back. I've done all the damage
(40:01):
I can do. Here Here are the credits, most of
The music arrange produced and performed by Brian Ray and
John Phillip Shanelle, who are the Countdown musical directors. All
orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanelle, Guitars, bass and
drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven
selections have been arranged and performed by the group No
Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Olberman theme from
(40:22):
ESPN two. It was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy
of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments from Nancy Faust, the best
baseball stadium organist ever, and our announcer today was Jonathan Banks.
Everything else is pretty much my fault. So that's countdown
for this the eight hundred and forty first day since
Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government
(40:43):
of the United States with the assistance of Ted Cruz.
Don't forget to keep arresting him while we still can.
The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Olderman.
Good Morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
(41:04):
with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.