July 11, 2024 • 45 mins
SERIES 2 EPISODE 211: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat," said Will Rogers.
I said in February that the worst outcome was the scenario in which this played out in public and Biden dug in and those who doubted him kept coming back every 48 hours and saying “what about NOW?” And yet here we are. In February, Axios reported, quote: “When White House aides appear on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," they're often booked between 7 and 7:40 AM ET. That's so they'll reach one crucial and loyal viewer: President Biden.” Guess who was on yesterday at exactly 7:39 AM? To speak to the proverbial audience of one? Nancy Pelosi.
And she soft-soaped him and urged him to make his decision. Obviously the point is: she said he should make a decision and of course he has not only insisted for ten days now that he’s MADE his decision but he PUT IT IN WRITING. Why? So it alarms him, without looking like she’s providing a platform or encouragement for the Joe-Must-Go’s – encouraging them YET anyway.
THE BEST THING SAID YESTERDAY was actually from Biden's former White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield: “I know first hand better than almost anyone,” Ms. Bedingfield writes “how smart the Biden team is about DATA and about ignoring the noise. They are right that the game here is to convince voters, not pundits. But when the battle over the public data is so overwhelmingly negative, it’s a good moment to put forward your theory of the case. If they have data that supports the path to victory that they see, they should put it out there now and help people who badly want to beat Trump, rally around it. People want to see the path.”
The thing is, there actually ARE indicators that there IS a path: a study suggesting that Biden retains 94% of the support he had before the debate while Trump only retains 85%.
And “Asked about the upcoming presidential election,” Warner Bros Discovery CEO and CNN Uber-boss David Zaslav, "said it mattered less to him which party wins, as long as the next president was friendly to business. ‘We just need an opportunity for de-regulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to, to be even better.”
Good morning fascism!
B-Block (26:14) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Yeah the Federalist Society sure is backing up Trump's contention he knows nothing about Project 2025. It is a SPONSOR of the Republican National Trump Fascist Convention. There's a new exoplanet in the neighbor and to put it bluntly it smells like Fart. And speaking of which, Trump whore Sebastian Gorka just called Kamala Harris "Colored."
C-Block (29:46) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since I'm trashing corporate media it's a good time to talk about how, in the span of a couple of minutes in 1905 or so, my great grandfather made a great observation and a terrible mistake that handed as much as $70,000,000 to a big American corporation.
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. I
am not a member of any organized political party. I
(00:26):
am a Democrat. Will Rogers, of course, first quoted in
nineteen thirty five, quoted posthumously in fact, which is completely
appropriate given how the rest of us feel right now.
I am afraid it is going to keep going exactly
like this until Joe Biden with jaws, or until all
(00:47):
doubts are erased. And as we contemplate the upcoming NATO
news conference, please tell me how all doubts would ever
be erased. First, in this sequence of events, this Sisyphus
and the hill and the rock jazz, the withdrawal will
have been tamped down, or those talking it will have
(01:07):
been bludgeoned and shamed, basically where we were on Monday.
Then it will rise up again courtesy of the amazed,
those who are amazed that it quieted down when the
thing seems so obvious to them. Then someone with actual
power here, like say Nancy Pelosi, will say something in
code indirectly to the President via television that sounds like
(01:31):
maybe you should think about getting out, But then she
will dilute her own words a few minutes later to
a different source. Then a few electeds will insist he leave,
or they will seem to insist. Then celebrity democrats like
say George Clooney will chime in, and everybody can make
the same joke about it, like huh, good night and
(01:52):
good luck Joe, and then somebody and yesterday it was
an uninformed candidate for the Senate from New Jersey will
wonder out loud and get into print if there is
some way to force Joe Biden off the ticket, and
there isn't, and the whole thing will calm down for
as long as a day, maybe thirty six hours, and
then a day or thirty six hours later, all start
(02:13):
up all over again, and the cycle will keep going
through the beginning of November. The only variety to the equation,
the equation of evasion, will be when we hit those
moments of existential dread like today, like mister Biden's scheduled
news conference at the NATO summit. Oh what's on his
schedule today?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Nothing much, just another bottomless pit he can fall into
and take us with him. Oh no, even if he
doesn't fall in, we'll get like twelve to twenty four
hours of every one of his words being parsed on
every news channel like they were from a newly discovered
parchment from the Dead Sea scrolls. Ah, you're right, but
don't use that Dead Sea Scrolls analogy where everybody can
(02:56):
hear you. We're trying to avoid talking about his age.
On February twenty eighth, twenty and twenty, Catherine Joan Bettingfield
retired as Joe Biden's White House communications director to become
head of the Environmental Defense Action Fund. She was once
campaigned spokesperson for John Edwards, which really means she was
(03:19):
campaign spokeswoman for the late Elizabeth Edwards, who should have
been president. She worked in the Obama administration. She worked
with Vice President Biden. She was deputy manager of his
twenty twenty campaign. And if you can imagine this, I
used to work for her father when he was an
executive at CNN in my second stint there about two
decades ago, and he very well might have been the
(03:40):
only sane one in management there. So she is not
a person of extremes or panic or indiscretion. And thus
what she said yesterday matters more to me, and I
hope more to you, than does what Nancy Pelosi said,
I know firsthand better than almost anyone. Miss Bettingfield writes
how smart the Biden team is about data at about
(04:04):
ignore the noise. They are right that the game here
is to convince voters, not pundits. But when the battle
over the public data is so overwhelmingly negative, it's a
good moment to put forward your theory of the case.
If they have data that supports the path to victory
that they see, they should put it out there now
(04:26):
and help people who badly want to beat Trump rally
around it. People want to see the path well exactly,
less hand ringing, less where's your loyalty? Less nobody gets
to tell Biden what to do. More data. The irony
(04:48):
is there is data supporting the go with Joe conclusion.
And again I remain agnostic about this, but Northeastern University
is experimenting with advanced data and putting it together with polling.
They call it Chip fifty, And the key to it
isn't that advanced. Actually, it's not ask bunches of people
several times a year. It's ask the same bunch of
(05:11):
people several times a year, and doing so before and
after the debate. To quote the Chip fifty report finds
that Biden held on to ninety four percent of the
people who said they would support him before the debate.
For Trump, eighty six percent of people who said they
would support him before the debate said they would do
so after the debate. Project leader Northeastern professor David Lazar says,
(05:34):
don't get too excited quoting him. What we see is
that there is some churn, maybe ten percent or so
of people change what they answer, but that the net
result is not a movement away from Biden. If anything,
it seems that Biden is holding on to his people
somewhat better than Trump. Now, this is not decisive, and
(05:55):
if it is relevant to the big question before the debate,
Biden needed to grow his voter support, not just maintain it.
If this is relevant to that, it's only and genturally so.
But where's the White House on this? Don't hit democrats
over the head with guilt or by pulling rank on them.
This is the president's decision. Hit them over the head
(06:16):
with retained support metrics weighted retained support ninety four percent
is a hell of a lot of percent. Tell people
about it, and tell people how the Biden campaign sees it.
As a starting point for winning the election and burying
(06:36):
Trump in the metaphorical Quicksand I said in February, and
I said the night of the debate, and I said
immediately after that that the worst outcome was the scenario
in which this all played out in public and Biden
dug in and those who doubted him kept coming back
(06:57):
every forty eight hours and saying, oh, what about now
are you leaving now? And yet here we are what
about now? You're going to leave now? And the most
powerful voices in the Democratic Party are themselves participating in this,
playing this game, except it's not a game, it's a
deadly dance. In February, Axios reported, quote, when White House
(07:24):
aids appear on MSNBC's Morning Joe, they're often booked between
seven and seven forty am ET. That's so they'll reach
one crucial and loyal viewer President Biden. Unquote, Well guess
what yesterday Nancy Pelosi went on that show at seven
(07:49):
thirty nine am ET.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
It's up to the president to sucide if he is
going to run. We're all encouraging him to make that
decision because time is running short. The I think overwhelming
support of the caucus. It's not for me to say.
I'm not the head of the caucus anymore. But he's beloved,
(08:14):
he is respected, and people want him to make that decision.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
He has me, he has said he has made the decision.
He has said firmly this week he is going to run.
Do you want him to run?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I want him to do whatever he decides to do.
And that's the way it is. Whatever he decides we
go with. I think it's really important and I would
hope everyone would join in. She let him deal with
this NATO conference. This is a very big deal. Thirty
heads of over, thirty heads of state are here. He
is the host of it, and that means not just hosting.
(08:49):
It means orchestrating the discussion and setting the agenda. And
he's doing so magnificently. And I've said everyone, let's just
hold off whatever you're thinking. Either tell somebody privately, but
you don't have to put that out on the table
until we see how we go this week.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
A clip from the best part of MSNBC's Morning Joe,
the part where there was no Joe Scarborough seven thirty
nine am to speak to the proverbial audience of one
and when Nancy Pelosi showed up at her office hours later,
she told ABC News, yes, she does think Biden can win,
and she told CBS, I think the president is great,
(09:32):
and there are some misrepresentations of what I have said.
I never said he should reconsider his decision. The decision
is the president's. I don't know what's happened in the
New York Times that they make up news, but if
that's why you're here, it isn't true. Unquote. So she
said one thing in a very specifically fuzzy way, if
you can forgive that contradiction in terms, presumably just to
(09:55):
get the president's eyebrows to raise. Obviously, the point is
she said he should make a decision, and of course
he has not only insisted for ten days now that
he's made his decision, but he put his decision in
writing and sent it to all the congressional Democrats on Monday.
And Nancy Pelosi is still a congressional Democrat. So why
(10:16):
did she ask him to make a decision he's already
made and then kind of walk that back while she
was not on his favorite television show. I guess we
should be happy this favorite television show is not the monsters,
so it alarms him. So it gets a message through
(10:37):
the bubble to Joe Biden without making it look like
Nancy Pelosi is providing a platform or encouragement for the
Joe must Go crowd, not encouraging them yet anyway, and
managing to do so before a meeting scheduled today between Biden,
aids and worried Democratic senators. Let's see how many of
(11:01):
them show up to that. Yes, all of a sudden,
the Democrats are doing exactly what the Republicans do when
they want to get a message to Trump, go on
TV and talk to the guy. And yes, there are
many comparisons between Sean Hannity and Joe Scarborough. There's one
other thing here, though, that Pelosi mentioned. If Biden were
(11:23):
to choose to go, he certainly would not have done
it before the NATO summit ended. He loves NATO. It's
kind of an obvious statement to say, well, he's not
going to do it before the NATO thing ends. Well,
the NATO thing ends today, He's not going to go
back in time and do it. I suppose the whole
thing is an informal attempt to soften Biden up, to
(11:44):
encourage him and him alone to bow out, or at
least to see if it's possible that he might do that.
I am comforted as an aside, really only by the
fact that this idea, the use TV to twist a phrase,
the medium is the messenger that it's not new. In fact,
(12:07):
you are alive today in no small part because of
the chief diplomatic correspondent of ABC News in nineteen sixty two,
a man named John Scally, and the fact that President
Kennedy watched Scali's reports, and the chief KGB hood in Washington,
Alexander Foeman, watched his reports, and when Premier Khrushchev needed
(12:31):
a back channel to Kennedy to find some other way
out of the nineteen sixty two Cuban missile crisis other
than you know, blowing the world up, Foeman told Khrushchev
they should just go use John Scally. So Foeman met
Scali at a diner and pitched the essence of the deal.
But ultimately, you know, saved the world from being blown up,
(12:54):
and they talked about it over a ham sandwich. A
service of ABC News, still using television newspeople to decide
the fate of humanity. What a way to run a
railroad or a nation. The White House, of course, is
(13:34):
proving the bromide that insanity is doing the same thing
over and over again and expecting different results. The taped
interview with George Stephanoppolis on ABC last week, which was
somehow supposed to address the President's failure in a live
group setting, one on one taped interview, which produced more
indistinct responses added to the confusion. One horrifying answer in
(13:59):
which Biden clearly accepted the idea of losing to Trump,
rather than saying over my day body or something similar,
and as if that fix it project had not resulted
in more damage that night, Stephanoppolis was then asked by
some rando with a camera phone rolling on the streets
of New York if he thought Biden should or could
serve for another four year term, and rather than saying
(14:20):
it's not my job to say that, George said no,
he didn't, and it had been uploaded to TMZ within hours.
The White House clearly thinks that all went well. They
have now booked something totally different, a pre taped interview
with NBC Lester Holtz, because that can't wind up like
(14:45):
the one with George. The one with George was on
ABC at eight pm. This one will be on at
nine on NBC. AH Honest to god, I do not
think the President of the United States has any you
in cognitive issues. None. I think he gets tired and
(15:08):
various speech problems are catching up with him at age
eighty one, like various speech problems are catching up with
me at age sixty five. I have only one doubt
about one corner of his sanity, which is that he
thinks Scarborough knows what he's talking about and is honest.
But I do have a series of questions about those
around him making decisions like this one about the NBC interview.
(15:32):
I mean, if this goes poorly too, if Holt on
a Friday is as bad as Stephanopoulos on the previous Friday.
If the Biden campaign then goes to brainstorm for hours
to figure out what to do next, and then somebody says, Fellas, Fellas,
I got it, CBS put him on CBS. That's gotta work.
(15:57):
This is simple news conferences one a week live, no
taped interviews or town halls live. If he does well,
this actually could all go away. If he doesn't well,
there's your answer right there. And while I understand that
(16:21):
the words of elected Democrats have to be restrained and
that a solution to this either with the President staying
on the ticket or leaving the ticket, that it rests
on a certain gentleness will everybody is tiptoeing around this,
and a king Jeffrey says, yes, Biden can win, but
these are family discussions. You can almost see him doing the
(16:42):
little button gesture with his lips. The rest of the
neighborhood is burning to the ground, and nobody is being
quiet about that. Clooney's obed in The Times begets more
concern trolling from goddamn David Axelrod, who is becoming the
mark pen of Pat Caddell's, and the genuine aspects of
this crisis beget anonymous quotes to places like NBC News,
(17:05):
in which sources close to the campaign say donations have
quote absolutely shut off. That's a problem. Journalism or whatever
our American system is, abhors a vacuum and celebrity op
eds and bad news and leaks become the only news
if you are quiet forever. Because while that Northeastern study
(17:28):
is really insightful and positive, Politico reported bad polling for
Biden here in New York just an eight point lead
in this state. And now for the independent journalist Jacqueline Suite,
Biden down in internal democratic polling in three swing congressional
districts now held by Republicans, districts that Biden won four
(17:48):
years ago, down by one point in the twenty second,
down by double digits in the seventeenth and the nineteenth.
And for God's sakes, please follow Kate Bettingfield's advice. I,
for one, do not object to President Biden trying to
hold onto the nomination like our lives depended on it.
(18:08):
I would like to see him recognize, though, that it
is actually the election upon which our lives depend And
as MS Bettingfield suggests, tell us what the plan is electorally.
One last piece of advice for the Biden campaign and
(18:30):
for they get rid of Biden campaign as well. You
are both moving towards the point of no return, and
in our environment, the easiest way to identify that moment
is the moment at which major news organizations, already corrupted
by their corporate masters, no longer feel the need to
make the slightest attempt to hide the fact that they
(18:52):
are in the tank partially or completely for Trump and
for fascism. And they are corporations. They don't even think
about the nation. They just think about their profits. We
are approaching that moment. In fact, we may have already
arrived at it. I will never back away from my
contention that the lead story the night of the CNN
(19:14):
debate was not Biden's failures, nor even Trump's fire hose
of lies, but the fact that CNN not only agreed
to but seemingly offered to not fact check anything, not
even occasionally. I have suggested here since this podcast began
two years and twenty days ago, that some upper echelon
(19:35):
of the companies that own every significant news organization in
this country have had the same meeting in which the
prospect of Trump seizing power again and thus this nation
going fully fascist, is addressed, and the true threat is
confronted in the boardrooms of our masters. So, of course,
(19:55):
to the people who own the New York Times and
the people who own the Washington Post, and the people
who own NBC, and especially the right wing who comparatively
newly own CNN, they will perceive the true threat as
the threat to their profits. Is that why Jake Tapper
(20:16):
and Dana Bash failed the minimum test of journalism. Now,
did the owner go to them and say you can't
say this? No, did the owner go to one of
their boss's bosses and say that you bet your ass.
When I was at NBC, the calls used to come
from the president of NBC, Bob Wright, directly to the
(20:41):
executive producer of My show, Phil Griffin. Asked about the
upcoming presidential election, writes Bloomberg News from the annual Sun
Valley Billionaires Retreat in Idaho. David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros.
Discovery the man who brought you Chris licked the man
(21:03):
who brought you the twenty two three CNN Live town
hall and Trump infomercial financed by the fascist John Malone.
David Zaslav quote said it mattered less to him which
party wins as long as the next president was friendly
to business. Quote. We just need an opportunity for deregulation
(21:27):
so companies can consolidate and do what we need to
to be even better. Unquote. Zaslav did not add Trump Land,
Trump Land uber Alees because he didn't need to. That
part can be safely assumed also of interest here well.
(21:51):
Of course, one of Trump's longest standing confidence finally said it.
One of them was going to just a question of
which one you ever wonder why we cannot let Trump
regain the controls no matter what. Remember that one of
his henchmen has now called the Vice President of the
United States the possible next president of the United States,
(22:12):
Kamala Harris quote colored unquote. It only remains to see
now if you can correctly choose from a few options
as to who it was. When I say a few options,
I mean like five or six thousand. That's next. This
is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead
(22:57):
of us on this ediative countdown. Since I just invoked
corporate greed and corporate fascism and corporate influence over the news,
it's a good time to tell again the story of
my great grandfather who accidentally gave away at least sixty
or seventy million dollars in about two minutes. But it's
okay because the money went to a major American corporation.
(23:21):
Things I promised not to tell coming up. But first
there's still more new idiots to talk about. The daily
roundup of the misgrants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens
who constitute today's worst persons in the world, The Brons
worse the Federalist Society and Project twenty twenty five. Trump
may be pretending he knows nothing of a document that
(23:42):
made me think of the Gestapo Black Book, which they
prepared for their invasion of London that never happened. It
had the names and addresses of three thousand British citizens
and organizations that were to be immediately rounded up or
just shot. And the black Book included everybody from Winston
Churchill to the Rotary Club. Well, the cat is kind
(24:03):
of out of the bag about who knows what about
Project twenty twenty five, let me quote. While former President
Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project twenty twenty five,
the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind the policy plan,
is on full display at the Republican National Convention. The
Heritage Foundation signed onto the RNC as a convention sponsor.
(24:26):
The group plans to host a policy fest in downtown
Milwaukee on Monday, which is the day Trump will become
the nominee of the Republican Party, and a following social
event at a nearby bar. Who's reporting that The Washington Examiner,
(24:50):
the right wing news outlet. Do they seem to be
hiding it at all?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
By the way, hey, can we get somebody to send
copy of Project twenty twenty five over to David Zaslavitt
Warner Bros.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Discovery.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
No, no, no, no, now tell him we want yeah,
tell him. I want to know if he has any notes,
any additions, anything he'd like, anything he doesn't like.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Zazz Lab again, z z as in Nazi the runners
up exo Planet HD one eight nine seven thirty three
B because it stinks. This may be the first time
I've made a planet, the entirety of a planet the
worst persons in the world, because of course they're not
(25:36):
in the world. They're in the universe, and they're an
entire planet, so they'd actually be the worst persons in
another world. AnyWho. Scientists made an exciting and pungent announcement
about a nearby exo planet this week. According to news reports,
planetary body with a likeness to Jupiter has one small problem.
(25:58):
It smells of rotten eggs. Analyzing data governed gathered rather
by the James Space Telescope, scientists discovered that exoplanet HD
one eighty nine seventy three three B contains hydrogen sulfide,
a colorless gas emitted by decaying organic matter with a
strong egg like odor. In addition to hydrogen sulfide, researchers
(26:22):
found carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and heavy metals in the
unique exoplanet's atmosphere. According to what was published in Nature
magazine on Monday, it was initially discovered in two thousand
and five. It is located approximately sixty five light years
from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula. So you just make here,
Just go out here, make a laught at the light,
(26:43):
and then go up b FDR for sixty five light years.
Some days that'll only get you to ninety sixth Street
near the constellation Velpecula. Thought there was a hockey player's name, Bopecula,
So a defenceman with the phoenix robe runners of the WHA.
Now the reports we're getting all quoting nature have been
(27:07):
cleaned up. They say that the place smells like rotten eggs.
The BBC World News report on this was a little
less coy. It noted in a priceless Eternal on screen
graphic that quote the hydrogen sulfide on HD one eight
nine seven three three B is also found in farts unquote.
(27:31):
This is the BBC Foughts, speaking of which the winner,
doctor Sebastian Gorka, the former advisor to the Hungarian fascist
Victor Orban, the former Steve Bannon ass kisser, the guy
who dyes his gray hair and gray beard with I
don't know some of Rudy Giuliani's leftover shoe polish. The scumbags,
(27:52):
so scumbag as she was actually fired by the Trump
White House eight months in last time. The human fart
who has still lingered around the fringes of the fascist
community as an online common who is there to make
sure the fascists continue to hate the right people. The
asshole who wore the Nazi related tunic medal to Trump's
inauguration in twenty sixteen. And he's the one who said it.
(28:16):
Listen to what he's called Kamala Harris. Do these donors
really think that Kamala Harris is going to do better
in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania than Joe Biden? Would?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I mean, that's siming because it can't it can't be anybody.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Rob, You're being logical. Stop it all right, she's a
Dei higher, right, she's a woman, she's colored, therefore she's
got to be good, That's right. Sebastian Gorka has called
the Vice President of the United States, whom he is
not as smart as nor as successful, a Dei hire,
and he has called her quote colored unquote. There are
(28:50):
several unpleasant aspects to the possible replacement of Joe Biden
on the Democratic ticket. When I say several, I mean
several hundred. But there is at least one absolute positive.
Making Kamala Harris the presidential nominee or better yet, the
president in the event of an actual Biden retirement, would
be irresistible to the stains of this world like Sebastian Gorka,
(29:11):
and they would out themselves as the stinking, oxygen wasting
human fart planets that they really are. In the interim,
he's just Sebastian the racist Gorka two days, worst person
in the world. Hey, maybe you'd like to Sebastian, you
(29:33):
want to take a quick trip to HD one eight
nine seven three three B. Yeah, it's sixty five light
years away, so it's going to be a one way trip.
Mother to the top of the countdown and the number
(30:02):
one story in my favorite topic me and what is
some much needed comic relief today. I think though my
late father would never have agreed with that statement, not
at all. My great grandfather told this story something like
every day until he died. It was legendary in the family.
There is considerable circumstantial evidence that it is all true,
(30:25):
and the last possible date that it could have happened
was one hundred and fourteen years ago, last Friday, September sixteenth,
nineteen oh eight. Anthony Zelenski was born in Crackoff in
Poland in eighteen sixty eight. My sister just found some
evidence that he changed the way his name was spelled,
that it was originally Zelenski with two ys or two
(30:48):
eyes at the end, just like the Ukrainian president. We're
kind of pleased with her discovery. Antony, or as my
father nicknamed him, the Great Financier, was a natural musician.
He could sing, play any instrument, He could compose music
and lyrics. He could teach you how to play. He
could build or repat hair anything from a kazoo to
a grand piano, and that from his late teens is
(31:10):
how he made his money. He traveled all around Europe
from maybe eighteen eighty six onwards, staying at rich people's
houses for several days, teaching the girls had to sing
and the boys how to play whatever was lying around
the house, fixing the family harpsichord, cobbling together the odd flute.
One day, we're guessing around eighteen eighty nine eighteen ninety,
(31:31):
he traveled to the home of well off merchants in Odessa,
then part of Russia, the Shevchenkos. He taught the boys
how to sing and the girls had to play the organ,
and then he fell in love with the youngest daughter, Matrona.
The Sheefchenkos were not happy when they discovered them in
love and chased my great grandfather and their daughter out
(31:54):
of the house, out of the city, and out of
the country. Antony went home to poland married his child bride,
returned to crack Off, where all of his family then
chased them out of that house, out of that city,
and out of that country. Get lost with you and
your Russian horror, he would later tell the nephew for
whom my father was named Teddy. Antony and Matrona had
(32:15):
to think fast it's eighteen eighty nine, eighteen ninety where's
a hard working guy thrown out of Russia and Poland
going to go? They arrived in New York City within weeks.
As I said, he was a natural musician. He picked
up English quickly, and supposedly within a month or two,
he was leaving his wife, my great grandmother, in an
apartment in the Bronx and getting on trains for distant
(32:35):
cities as far west as Chicago, going to the rich
people's homes and getting one hundred dollars to teach the music,
write music, repair musical instruments, and then get right back
on the train to New York. Though he earned a
very good income doing this, especially for an immigrant, Antony
and Matrona lived frugally, often without hot water in their home.
Because my great grandfather was now driven, driven to avenge
(33:00):
himself Teddy, he would tell his nephew, who told me, Dad,
I save every dollar I can save. I in West,
in the safest in westment in the world, the Polish
national bonds. For one day, I shall return to the Krackoff.
I shall buy the biggest house on top of the
biggest hill and stand outside all day waiving my money
at my relatives who made me and your aunt leave,
(33:22):
and saying to them, f you, this is my goal.
And on and on. This went for a decade and
more until he went to Flint, Michigan, to do his
usual routine to stay at the house of a prosperous American,
write a family song, repair the broken tuba, teach the
kids to play the guitar, and generally delight the family,
(33:42):
in this case the family of a businessman who he
remembered as mister Billy. Came the end of my great
grandfather stay with mister Billy in Michigan and his family
in Michigan, and mister Billy was so taken with Anthony
Zelenski that he took him personally to the train station
in Flint and went with him onto the platform to
(34:03):
wait for the train. Zelinsky, he said, we have been
delighted to have you here that I would be honored
if you would accept instead of the five hundred dollars
I owe you, please take one thousand dollars in stock
certificates from my business. My way of saying thanks and
hoping you can return and visit us again. My great
grandfather said he was almost moved to tears by the gesture.
(34:26):
But mister Billy, he explained, I live very inexpensively and
I invest all my money in the world's safest in Westment,
the Polish National Bonds. Mister Billy congratulated Antony on his prudence,
but said, I believe I am at the cusp of
the next great business in this country. I would again
offer you this stock. I think you will make so
much money that you could buy all the Polish National Bonds.
(34:51):
My great grandfather, standing there on the train station in Flint, Michigan,
fought for a moment. I know, mister Billy, you mentioned
you own a manufactory in town. What is this you manufactur?
Mister Billy said, we are in the automobile old business.
Mister Zelinsky, my great grandfather lit up is the streets
of New York are filled with automobiles. This is the
(35:12):
coming thing. But I will still take the cash and
in west in the world's safest in Westment the Polish
National Bonds. The train was late. There was an awkward
silence now between them, which my great grandfather finally broke.
Do I know the name of your company, mister Billy,
and mister Billy replied, well, that's the topic of the moment,
mister Zelensky, and I must say, having gotten to know
(35:34):
you a little bit, I'm not at all surprised you
brought this subject up. Currently, my company is called Buick
Motor Cars. My great grandfather said, Ah, yes, Buck, I've
heard of Buck. You're changing the name. Not exactly, said
mister Billy. I believe the automotive business is going to
grow exponentially. But we have one large company in the field, Ford,
(35:55):
and we have dozens of smaller ones like Buick. And
I'm about to buy up several of my competitors and
form one big company, bigger than Ford, and we will
dominate automobiles for decades to come. Ah yes, said my
great grandfather. And what will you call this behemoth? Mister
Billy laughed again. You cut to the heart of the matter,
(36:16):
mister Zelensky. We're debating that right now. We need a
name that expresses our national stature. My great grandfather shook
his head at the obviousness of this. The problem is
an easy one. No, you use National National Motor Cars.
Mister Billy laughed again. Your insight is extraordinary. That was
our first thought as well, but would you believe there
(36:38):
is a company in Indiana, of all places, they make
electric automobiles which will never work, and they're called National
Motor Vehicles. We need another name. American has also taken.
Continental has taken it. Damn it, mister Zelensky. We can't
think of a good name that isn't already taken. My
great grandfather, who had just turned down the stock and
(36:58):
a thousand dollars worth of the stock in this company,
thought for a second, you wish to express the national,
the American, the broadly available or available National? Continental? National?
What is the word in English? The general the general
availability of your vehiculars? Well, mister Billy, why not that?
(37:22):
Why not general? General automobiles, general automotive, general motor car,
maybe general motors. Now it was time for mister Billy
to become pensive. Finally he spoke general motors. Hmmm, does
(37:44):
have a certain ring to it, mister Zelinsky. Oh look
here's your train. Mister Billy was, of course Billy Durant,
and he owned Durant Dorge, and then he owned Buick,
and then he consolidated thirteen auto manufacturers and ten parts
and accessory companies together into as It was called the
(38:04):
day Billy and his partners opened the escrow account Wednesday,
September sixteenth, nineteen oh eight, General Motors Holding Company. My
great grandfather, having gotten another five hundred dollars to invest
in the world's safest investment instead of one thousand dollars
in stock in not General Motors in nineteen oh eight,
but the company that would become General Motors, and having
(38:27):
given its chairman the name General Motors for free, waved goodbye,
got on the train return to New York. He died
fifteen years later. And to his credit, we know of
the detail of this story because the person who told
it to everyone with a laugh, with a warning to
his relatives that none of them had the genes of
(38:47):
a businessman either, was my great grandfather himself. Needless to say,
this good self deprecating humor makes him my favorite of
all my ancestors, and I hope wherever he went when
he died in nineteen twenty three, his humor went with him.
Because there were several postscripts to this story that lend
(39:08):
it authenticity and induce further rage in his descendants. My
father was very much alive in nineteen forty. He was
an eleven year old boy with his uncle Teddy, Antony's nephew,
living with my dad and grandparents and my uncles in
the Bronx. My dad, who did not meet his grandfather,
Antony Zelensky, said, there was a knock on the apartment
(39:31):
door one day and he opened it to the site,
as he put it, of the two best suits of
clothing I had ever seen. The men wearing them asked
for my dad's uncle. He got him, and the men
began to speak Polish to Uncle Teddy. Gentlemen, we are
here in America. You will please speak English in front
of my family, mister Zelinsky. One of them said, we
(39:53):
know that your uncle left you his investments in Polish
national bonds. He was obviously a great patriot. We represent
the Polish government in exile when we run the Nazis
out of our homeland and freedom is again ours. I know, oh,
your uncle would have and you would want the free
Polish National state to not be burdened financially, to be unburdened.
(40:13):
In fact, to the greatest possible degree, mister Zelenski, your
uncle was the fourth largest private investor in Polish national
bonds in North America. In fact, he was just behind
the National Bank of Mexico. Will you retire his bonds
for a nominal fee as a great Polish patriot. My
(40:34):
dad was never sure how nominal the fee was, but
he was convinced his uncle got less than five hundred
dollars for what was at least one hundred thousand dollars
in bonds during the year nineteen fifty or later. My
dad did not spend his life wondering about his grandfather's
magnificent moment of investment stupidity, but it would occasionally wake
him in the middle of the night, and on his
(40:55):
nightly commutes from Manhattan to our little home in the suburbs,
he came to know the other regulars on the train,
just like Don Draper did on Mad Men. In fact,
and one of the regulars on the train turned out
to be a stock historian. Eventually Dad told him the
story of antony' Zelensky and Billy Durant and General Motors,
(41:16):
and the stock historian invited him to stop by the
office at lunch one day. Sit down, Ted, and I
mean sit down ted. The historian showed his math. This
was what one thousand dollars in buick in nineteen oh
eight turned into when Billy Durant created General Motors in
nineteen oh eight, and here's where it split, and see,
(41:36):
and here's where it split again, and here's where it quartered.
After they forced Durant out, and then he bought Chevrolet,
and he came back in and took over General Motors again,
and it split. And my father said, he started to sweat.
Just tell me already, ted the thousand dollars your great
grandfather turned down in General Motors in nineteen oh eight
would now be worth approximately sixty million dollars, my father said.
(42:02):
He struggled to not pass out his friend from the train,
then said, plus the value of the name. I can't
get that exactly, the stock historian said, but it's got
to be another couple million, five ten maybe, especially if
he'd taken stock in exchange for the name. There's one
more twist to the knife. Well, so far, there's still
(42:25):
plenty of time for more. When the Unions ran the
Soviets out of Poland and Lech Valsa became President of
the Free Poland in nineteen ninety, he gave a speech
establishing the new government. He spoke naturally in Polish until
that is, it was time to address one topic. The
President read that part of the speech in English. My
(42:45):
government will recognize and honor the following years of the
Polish national bonds. My father called me in Los Angeles
that night. He had spoken to his stock historian friend
again and gotten a new rough estimate. My great grandfather
had turned down sixty, maybe seventy million dollars in general
motor stock to keep, say, one hundred thousand dollars in
(43:08):
Polish bonds due in the year nineteen fifty, and lec
Falessa had just said, we'll pay on those bonds that
were doing nineteen fifty and so if great grandfather's nephew
Teddy had just sat on them, those bonds would have
been worth five or six million dollars. Keith, my father said, quietly,
(43:30):
let me remind you again what the great financier my
grandfather told everyone told all of us, none of us,
none of us have the genes of a businessman. I've
(43:59):
done all the damage I can do here. Thank you
for listening. Countdown. Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillips arranged, produced,
and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on
the guitars, based in drums. Mister Schanelle handled orchestration and keyboards,
produced by Tko Brothers, and it was not sponsored by
General Motors. Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions,
were arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed.
(44:22):
Sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, written
by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Our satirical
and fifthy musical comments are by Nancy Fauss. The best
baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today is my friend
Stevie van Zandt, and everything else was pretty much my fault,
except for the GM part, which was my great grandfather's.
(44:43):
That's countdown for this one hundred and eighteenth day until
the twenty twenty four presidential election and the two hundred
and eighty first day since convicted fellon Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the mental health
system you've got it, mister president. Use presidential immune against
(45:05):
him to stop him from doing it again while we
still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Bolton's as
the news requires. Till then, I'm Keith Olderman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith
(45:40):
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. I
am not a member of any organized political party. I
(00:26):
am a Democrat. Will Rogers, of course, first quoted in
nineteen thirty five, quoted posthumously in fact, which is completely
appropriate given how the rest of us feel right now.
I am afraid it is going to keep going exactly
like this until Joe Biden with jaws, or until all
(00:47):
doubts are erased. And as we contemplate the upcoming NATO
news conference, please tell me how all doubts would ever
be erased. First, in this sequence of events, this Sisyphus
and the hill and the rock jazz, the withdrawal will
have been tamped down, or those talking it will have
(01:07):
been bludgeoned and shamed, basically where we were on Monday.
Then it will rise up again courtesy of the amazed,
those who are amazed that it quieted down when the
thing seems so obvious to them. Then someone with actual
power here, like say Nancy Pelosi, will say something in
code indirectly to the President via television that sounds like
(01:31):
maybe you should think about getting out, But then she
will dilute her own words a few minutes later to
a different source. Then a few electeds will insist he leave,
or they will seem to insist. Then celebrity democrats like
say George Clooney will chime in, and everybody can make
the same joke about it, like huh, good night and
(01:52):
good luck Joe, and then somebody and yesterday it was
an uninformed candidate for the Senate from New Jersey will
wonder out loud and get into print if there is
some way to force Joe Biden off the ticket, and
there isn't, and the whole thing will calm down for
as long as a day, maybe thirty six hours, and
then a day or thirty six hours later, all start
(02:13):
up all over again, and the cycle will keep going
through the beginning of November. The only variety to the equation,
the equation of evasion, will be when we hit those
moments of existential dread like today, like mister Biden's scheduled
news conference at the NATO summit. Oh what's on his
schedule today?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Nothing much, just another bottomless pit he can fall into
and take us with him. Oh no, even if he
doesn't fall in, we'll get like twelve to twenty four
hours of every one of his words being parsed on
every news channel like they were from a newly discovered
parchment from the Dead Sea scrolls. Ah, you're right, but
don't use that Dead Sea Scrolls analogy where everybody can
(02:56):
hear you. We're trying to avoid talking about his age.
On February twenty eighth, twenty and twenty, Catherine Joan Bettingfield
retired as Joe Biden's White House communications director to become
head of the Environmental Defense Action Fund. She was once
campaigned spokesperson for John Edwards, which really means she was
(03:19):
campaign spokeswoman for the late Elizabeth Edwards, who should have
been president. She worked in the Obama administration. She worked
with Vice President Biden. She was deputy manager of his
twenty twenty campaign. And if you can imagine this, I
used to work for her father when he was an
executive at CNN in my second stint there about two
decades ago, and he very well might have been the
(03:40):
only sane one in management there. So she is not
a person of extremes or panic or indiscretion. And thus
what she said yesterday matters more to me, and I
hope more to you, than does what Nancy Pelosi said,
I know firsthand better than almost anyone. Miss Bettingfield writes
how smart the Biden team is about data at about
(04:04):
ignore the noise. They are right that the game here
is to convince voters, not pundits. But when the battle
over the public data is so overwhelmingly negative, it's a
good moment to put forward your theory of the case.
If they have data that supports the path to victory
that they see, they should put it out there now
(04:26):
and help people who badly want to beat Trump rally
around it. People want to see the path well exactly,
less hand ringing, less where's your loyalty? Less nobody gets
to tell Biden what to do. More data. The irony
(04:48):
is there is data supporting the go with Joe conclusion.
And again I remain agnostic about this, but Northeastern University
is experimenting with advanced data and putting it together with polling.
They call it Chip fifty, And the key to it
isn't that advanced. Actually, it's not ask bunches of people
several times a year. It's ask the same bunch of
(05:11):
people several times a year, and doing so before and
after the debate. To quote the Chip fifty report finds
that Biden held on to ninety four percent of the
people who said they would support him before the debate.
For Trump, eighty six percent of people who said they
would support him before the debate said they would do
so after the debate. Project leader Northeastern professor David Lazar says,
(05:34):
don't get too excited quoting him. What we see is
that there is some churn, maybe ten percent or so
of people change what they answer, but that the net
result is not a movement away from Biden. If anything,
it seems that Biden is holding on to his people
somewhat better than Trump. Now, this is not decisive, and
(05:55):
if it is relevant to the big question before the debate,
Biden needed to grow his voter support, not just maintain it.
If this is relevant to that, it's only and genturally so.
But where's the White House on this? Don't hit democrats
over the head with guilt or by pulling rank on them.
This is the president's decision. Hit them over the head
(06:16):
with retained support metrics weighted retained support ninety four percent
is a hell of a lot of percent. Tell people
about it, and tell people how the Biden campaign sees it.
As a starting point for winning the election and burying
(06:36):
Trump in the metaphorical Quicksand I said in February, and
I said the night of the debate, and I said
immediately after that that the worst outcome was the scenario
in which this all played out in public and Biden
dug in and those who doubted him kept coming back
(06:57):
every forty eight hours and saying, oh, what about now
are you leaving now? And yet here we are what
about now? You're going to leave now? And the most
powerful voices in the Democratic Party are themselves participating in this,
playing this game, except it's not a game, it's a
deadly dance. In February, Axios reported, quote, when White House
(07:24):
aids appear on MSNBC's Morning Joe, they're often booked between
seven and seven forty am ET. That's so they'll reach
one crucial and loyal viewer President Biden. Unquote, Well guess
what yesterday Nancy Pelosi went on that show at seven
(07:49):
thirty nine am ET.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
It's up to the president to sucide if he is
going to run. We're all encouraging him to make that
decision because time is running short. The I think overwhelming
support of the caucus. It's not for me to say.
I'm not the head of the caucus anymore. But he's beloved,
(08:14):
he is respected, and people want him to make that decision.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
He has me, he has said he has made the decision.
He has said firmly this week he is going to run.
Do you want him to run?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I want him to do whatever he decides to do.
And that's the way it is. Whatever he decides we
go with. I think it's really important and I would
hope everyone would join in. She let him deal with
this NATO conference. This is a very big deal. Thirty
heads of over, thirty heads of state are here. He
is the host of it, and that means not just hosting.
(08:49):
It means orchestrating the discussion and setting the agenda. And
he's doing so magnificently. And I've said everyone, let's just
hold off whatever you're thinking. Either tell somebody privately, but
you don't have to put that out on the table
until we see how we go this week.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
A clip from the best part of MSNBC's Morning Joe,
the part where there was no Joe Scarborough seven thirty
nine am to speak to the proverbial audience of one
and when Nancy Pelosi showed up at her office hours later,
she told ABC News, yes, she does think Biden can win,
and she told CBS, I think the president is great,
(09:32):
and there are some misrepresentations of what I have said.
I never said he should reconsider his decision. The decision
is the president's. I don't know what's happened in the
New York Times that they make up news, but if
that's why you're here, it isn't true. Unquote. So she
said one thing in a very specifically fuzzy way, if
you can forgive that contradiction in terms, presumably just to
(09:55):
get the president's eyebrows to raise. Obviously, the point is
she said he should make a decision, and of course
he has not only insisted for ten days now that
he's made his decision, but he put his decision in
writing and sent it to all the congressional Democrats on Monday.
And Nancy Pelosi is still a congressional Democrat. So why
(10:16):
did she ask him to make a decision he's already
made and then kind of walk that back while she
was not on his favorite television show. I guess we
should be happy this favorite television show is not the monsters,
so it alarms him. So it gets a message through
(10:37):
the bubble to Joe Biden without making it look like
Nancy Pelosi is providing a platform or encouragement for the
Joe must Go crowd, not encouraging them yet anyway, and
managing to do so before a meeting scheduled today between Biden,
aids and worried Democratic senators. Let's see how many of
(11:01):
them show up to that. Yes, all of a sudden,
the Democrats are doing exactly what the Republicans do when
they want to get a message to Trump, go on
TV and talk to the guy. And yes, there are
many comparisons between Sean Hannity and Joe Scarborough. There's one
other thing here, though, that Pelosi mentioned. If Biden were
(11:23):
to choose to go, he certainly would not have done
it before the NATO summit ended. He loves NATO. It's
kind of an obvious statement to say, well, he's not
going to do it before the NATO thing ends. Well,
the NATO thing ends today, He's not going to go
back in time and do it. I suppose the whole
thing is an informal attempt to soften Biden up, to
(11:44):
encourage him and him alone to bow out, or at
least to see if it's possible that he might do that.
I am comforted as an aside, really only by the
fact that this idea, the use TV to twist a phrase,
the medium is the messenger that it's not new. In fact,
(12:07):
you are alive today in no small part because of
the chief diplomatic correspondent of ABC News in nineteen sixty two,
a man named John Scally, and the fact that President
Kennedy watched Scali's reports, and the chief KGB hood in Washington,
Alexander Foeman, watched his reports, and when Premier Khrushchev needed
(12:31):
a back channel to Kennedy to find some other way
out of the nineteen sixty two Cuban missile crisis other
than you know, blowing the world up, Foeman told Khrushchev
they should just go use John Scally. So Foeman met
Scali at a diner and pitched the essence of the deal.
But ultimately, you know, saved the world from being blown up,
(12:54):
and they talked about it over a ham sandwich. A
service of ABC News, still using television newspeople to decide
the fate of humanity. What a way to run a
railroad or a nation. The White House, of course, is
(13:34):
proving the bromide that insanity is doing the same thing
over and over again and expecting different results. The taped
interview with George Stephanoppolis on ABC last week, which was
somehow supposed to address the President's failure in a live
group setting, one on one taped interview, which produced more
indistinct responses added to the confusion. One horrifying answer in
(13:59):
which Biden clearly accepted the idea of losing to Trump,
rather than saying over my day body or something similar,
and as if that fix it project had not resulted
in more damage that night, Stephanoppolis was then asked by
some rando with a camera phone rolling on the streets
of New York if he thought Biden should or could
serve for another four year term, and rather than saying
(14:20):
it's not my job to say that, George said no,
he didn't, and it had been uploaded to TMZ within hours.
The White House clearly thinks that all went well. They
have now booked something totally different, a pre taped interview
with NBC Lester Holtz, because that can't wind up like
(14:45):
the one with George. The one with George was on
ABC at eight pm. This one will be on at
nine on NBC. AH Honest to god, I do not
think the President of the United States has any you
in cognitive issues. None. I think he gets tired and
(15:08):
various speech problems are catching up with him at age
eighty one, like various speech problems are catching up with
me at age sixty five. I have only one doubt
about one corner of his sanity, which is that he
thinks Scarborough knows what he's talking about and is honest.
But I do have a series of questions about those
around him making decisions like this one about the NBC interview.
(15:32):
I mean, if this goes poorly too, if Holt on
a Friday is as bad as Stephanopoulos on the previous Friday.
If the Biden campaign then goes to brainstorm for hours
to figure out what to do next, and then somebody says, Fellas, Fellas,
I got it, CBS put him on CBS. That's gotta work.
(15:57):
This is simple news conferences one a week live, no
taped interviews or town halls live. If he does well,
this actually could all go away. If he doesn't well,
there's your answer right there. And while I understand that
(16:21):
the words of elected Democrats have to be restrained and
that a solution to this either with the President staying
on the ticket or leaving the ticket, that it rests
on a certain gentleness will everybody is tiptoeing around this,
and a king Jeffrey says, yes, Biden can win, but
these are family discussions. You can almost see him doing the
(16:42):
little button gesture with his lips. The rest of the
neighborhood is burning to the ground, and nobody is being
quiet about that. Clooney's obed in The Times begets more
concern trolling from goddamn David Axelrod, who is becoming the
mark pen of Pat Caddell's, and the genuine aspects of
this crisis beget anonymous quotes to places like NBC News,
(17:05):
in which sources close to the campaign say donations have
quote absolutely shut off. That's a problem. Journalism or whatever
our American system is, abhors a vacuum and celebrity op
eds and bad news and leaks become the only news
if you are quiet forever. Because while that Northeastern study
(17:28):
is really insightful and positive, Politico reported bad polling for
Biden here in New York just an eight point lead
in this state. And now for the independent journalist Jacqueline Suite,
Biden down in internal democratic polling in three swing congressional
districts now held by Republicans, districts that Biden won four
(17:48):
years ago, down by one point in the twenty second,
down by double digits in the seventeenth and the nineteenth.
And for God's sakes, please follow Kate Bettingfield's advice. I,
for one, do not object to President Biden trying to
hold onto the nomination like our lives depended on it.
(18:08):
I would like to see him recognize, though, that it
is actually the election upon which our lives depend And
as MS Bettingfield suggests, tell us what the plan is electorally.
One last piece of advice for the Biden campaign and
(18:30):
for they get rid of Biden campaign as well. You
are both moving towards the point of no return, and
in our environment, the easiest way to identify that moment
is the moment at which major news organizations, already corrupted
by their corporate masters, no longer feel the need to
make the slightest attempt to hide the fact that they
(18:52):
are in the tank partially or completely for Trump and
for fascism. And they are corporations. They don't even think
about the nation. They just think about their profits. We
are approaching that moment. In fact, we may have already
arrived at it. I will never back away from my
contention that the lead story the night of the CNN
(19:14):
debate was not Biden's failures, nor even Trump's fire hose
of lies, but the fact that CNN not only agreed
to but seemingly offered to not fact check anything, not
even occasionally. I have suggested here since this podcast began
two years and twenty days ago, that some upper echelon
(19:35):
of the companies that own every significant news organization in
this country have had the same meeting in which the
prospect of Trump seizing power again and thus this nation
going fully fascist, is addressed, and the true threat is
confronted in the boardrooms of our masters. So, of course,
(19:55):
to the people who own the New York Times and
the people who own the Washington Post, and the people
who own NBC, and especially the right wing who comparatively
newly own CNN, they will perceive the true threat as
the threat to their profits. Is that why Jake Tapper
(20:16):
and Dana Bash failed the minimum test of journalism. Now,
did the owner go to them and say you can't
say this? No, did the owner go to one of
their boss's bosses and say that you bet your ass.
When I was at NBC, the calls used to come
from the president of NBC, Bob Wright, directly to the
(20:41):
executive producer of My show, Phil Griffin. Asked about the
upcoming presidential election, writes Bloomberg News from the annual Sun
Valley Billionaires Retreat in Idaho. David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros.
Discovery the man who brought you Chris licked the man
(21:03):
who brought you the twenty two three CNN Live town
hall and Trump infomercial financed by the fascist John Malone.
David Zaslav quote said it mattered less to him which
party wins as long as the next president was friendly
to business. Quote. We just need an opportunity for deregulation
(21:27):
so companies can consolidate and do what we need to
to be even better. Unquote. Zaslav did not add Trump Land,
Trump Land uber Alees because he didn't need to. That
part can be safely assumed also of interest here well.
(21:51):
Of course, one of Trump's longest standing confidence finally said it.
One of them was going to just a question of
which one you ever wonder why we cannot let Trump
regain the controls no matter what. Remember that one of
his henchmen has now called the Vice President of the
United States the possible next president of the United States,
(22:12):
Kamala Harris quote colored unquote. It only remains to see
now if you can correctly choose from a few options
as to who it was. When I say a few options,
I mean like five or six thousand. That's next. This
is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead
(22:57):
of us on this ediative countdown. Since I just invoked
corporate greed and corporate fascism and corporate influence over the news,
it's a good time to tell again the story of
my great grandfather who accidentally gave away at least sixty
or seventy million dollars in about two minutes. But it's
okay because the money went to a major American corporation.
(23:21):
Things I promised not to tell coming up. But first
there's still more new idiots to talk about. The daily
roundup of the misgrants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens
who constitute today's worst persons in the world, The Brons
worse the Federalist Society and Project twenty twenty five. Trump
may be pretending he knows nothing of a document that
(23:42):
made me think of the Gestapo Black Book, which they
prepared for their invasion of London that never happened. It
had the names and addresses of three thousand British citizens
and organizations that were to be immediately rounded up or
just shot. And the black Book included everybody from Winston
Churchill to the Rotary Club. Well, the cat is kind
(24:03):
of out of the bag about who knows what about
Project twenty twenty five, let me quote. While former President
Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project twenty twenty five,
the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind the policy plan,
is on full display at the Republican National Convention. The
Heritage Foundation signed onto the RNC as a convention sponsor.
(24:26):
The group plans to host a policy fest in downtown
Milwaukee on Monday, which is the day Trump will become
the nominee of the Republican Party, and a following social
event at a nearby bar. Who's reporting that The Washington Examiner,
(24:50):
the right wing news outlet. Do they seem to be
hiding it at all?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
By the way, hey, can we get somebody to send
copy of Project twenty twenty five over to David Zaslavitt
Warner Bros.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Discovery.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
No, no, no, no, now tell him we want yeah,
tell him. I want to know if he has any notes,
any additions, anything he'd like, anything he doesn't like.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Zazz Lab again, z z as in Nazi the runners
up exo Planet HD one eight nine seven thirty three
B because it stinks. This may be the first time
I've made a planet, the entirety of a planet the
worst persons in the world, because of course they're not
(25:36):
in the world. They're in the universe, and they're an
entire planet, so they'd actually be the worst persons in
another world. AnyWho. Scientists made an exciting and pungent announcement
about a nearby exo planet this week. According to news reports,
planetary body with a likeness to Jupiter has one small problem.
(25:58):
It smells of rotten eggs. Analyzing data governed gathered rather
by the James Space Telescope, scientists discovered that exoplanet HD
one eighty nine seventy three three B contains hydrogen sulfide,
a colorless gas emitted by decaying organic matter with a
strong egg like odor. In addition to hydrogen sulfide, researchers
(26:22):
found carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and heavy metals in the
unique exoplanet's atmosphere. According to what was published in Nature
magazine on Monday, it was initially discovered in two thousand
and five. It is located approximately sixty five light years
from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula. So you just make here,
Just go out here, make a laught at the light,
(26:43):
and then go up b FDR for sixty five light years.
Some days that'll only get you to ninety sixth Street
near the constellation Velpecula. Thought there was a hockey player's name, Bopecula,
So a defenceman with the phoenix robe runners of the WHA.
Now the reports we're getting all quoting nature have been
(27:07):
cleaned up. They say that the place smells like rotten eggs.
The BBC World News report on this was a little
less coy. It noted in a priceless Eternal on screen
graphic that quote the hydrogen sulfide on HD one eight
nine seven three three B is also found in farts unquote.
(27:31):
This is the BBC Foughts, speaking of which the winner,
doctor Sebastian Gorka, the former advisor to the Hungarian fascist
Victor Orban, the former Steve Bannon ass kisser, the guy
who dyes his gray hair and gray beard with I
don't know some of Rudy Giuliani's leftover shoe polish. The scumbags,
(27:52):
so scumbag as she was actually fired by the Trump
White House eight months in last time. The human fart
who has still lingered around the fringes of the fascist
community as an online common who is there to make
sure the fascists continue to hate the right people. The
asshole who wore the Nazi related tunic medal to Trump's
inauguration in twenty sixteen. And he's the one who said it.
(28:16):
Listen to what he's called Kamala Harris. Do these donors
really think that Kamala Harris is going to do better
in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania than Joe Biden? Would?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I mean, that's siming because it can't it can't be anybody.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Rob, You're being logical. Stop it all right, she's a
Dei higher, right, she's a woman, she's colored, therefore she's
got to be good, That's right. Sebastian Gorka has called
the Vice President of the United States, whom he is
not as smart as nor as successful, a Dei hire,
and he has called her quote colored unquote. There are
(28:50):
several unpleasant aspects to the possible replacement of Joe Biden
on the Democratic ticket. When I say several, I mean
several hundred. But there is at least one absolute positive.
Making Kamala Harris the presidential nominee or better yet, the
president in the event of an actual Biden retirement, would
be irresistible to the stains of this world like Sebastian Gorka,
(29:11):
and they would out themselves as the stinking, oxygen wasting
human fart planets that they really are. In the interim,
he's just Sebastian the racist Gorka two days, worst person
in the world. Hey, maybe you'd like to Sebastian, you
(29:33):
want to take a quick trip to HD one eight
nine seven three three B. Yeah, it's sixty five light
years away, so it's going to be a one way trip.
Mother to the top of the countdown and the number
(30:02):
one story in my favorite topic me and what is
some much needed comic relief today. I think though my
late father would never have agreed with that statement, not
at all. My great grandfather told this story something like
every day until he died. It was legendary in the family.
There is considerable circumstantial evidence that it is all true,
(30:25):
and the last possible date that it could have happened
was one hundred and fourteen years ago, last Friday, September sixteenth,
nineteen oh eight. Anthony Zelenski was born in Crackoff in
Poland in eighteen sixty eight. My sister just found some
evidence that he changed the way his name was spelled,
that it was originally Zelenski with two ys or two
(30:48):
eyes at the end, just like the Ukrainian president. We're
kind of pleased with her discovery. Antony, or as my
father nicknamed him, the Great Financier, was a natural musician.
He could sing, play any instrument, He could compose music
and lyrics. He could teach you how to play. He
could build or repat hair anything from a kazoo to
a grand piano, and that from his late teens is
(31:10):
how he made his money. He traveled all around Europe
from maybe eighteen eighty six onwards, staying at rich people's
houses for several days, teaching the girls had to sing
and the boys how to play whatever was lying around
the house, fixing the family harpsichord, cobbling together the odd flute.
One day, we're guessing around eighteen eighty nine eighteen ninety,
(31:31):
he traveled to the home of well off merchants in Odessa,
then part of Russia, the Shevchenkos. He taught the boys
how to sing and the girls had to play the organ,
and then he fell in love with the youngest daughter, Matrona.
The Sheefchenkos were not happy when they discovered them in
love and chased my great grandfather and their daughter out
(31:54):
of the house, out of the city, and out of
the country. Antony went home to poland married his child bride,
returned to crack Off, where all of his family then
chased them out of that house, out of that city,
and out of that country. Get lost with you and
your Russian horror, he would later tell the nephew for
whom my father was named Teddy. Antony and Matrona had
(32:15):
to think fast it's eighteen eighty nine, eighteen ninety where's
a hard working guy thrown out of Russia and Poland
going to go? They arrived in New York City within weeks.
As I said, he was a natural musician. He picked
up English quickly, and supposedly within a month or two,
he was leaving his wife, my great grandmother, in an
apartment in the Bronx and getting on trains for distant
(32:35):
cities as far west as Chicago, going to the rich
people's homes and getting one hundred dollars to teach the music,
write music, repair musical instruments, and then get right back
on the train to New York. Though he earned a
very good income doing this, especially for an immigrant, Antony
and Matrona lived frugally, often without hot water in their home.
Because my great grandfather was now driven, driven to avenge
(33:00):
himself Teddy, he would tell his nephew, who told me, Dad,
I save every dollar I can save. I in West,
in the safest in westment in the world, the Polish
national bonds. For one day, I shall return to the Krackoff.
I shall buy the biggest house on top of the
biggest hill and stand outside all day waiving my money
at my relatives who made me and your aunt leave,
(33:22):
and saying to them, f you, this is my goal.
And on and on. This went for a decade and
more until he went to Flint, Michigan, to do his
usual routine to stay at the house of a prosperous American,
write a family song, repair the broken tuba, teach the
kids to play the guitar, and generally delight the family,
(33:42):
in this case the family of a businessman who he
remembered as mister Billy. Came the end of my great
grandfather stay with mister Billy in Michigan and his family
in Michigan, and mister Billy was so taken with Anthony
Zelenski that he took him personally to the train station
in Flint and went with him onto the platform to
(34:03):
wait for the train. Zelinsky, he said, we have been
delighted to have you here that I would be honored
if you would accept instead of the five hundred dollars
I owe you, please take one thousand dollars in stock
certificates from my business. My way of saying thanks and
hoping you can return and visit us again. My great
grandfather said he was almost moved to tears by the gesture.
(34:26):
But mister Billy, he explained, I live very inexpensively and
I invest all my money in the world's safest in Westment,
the Polish National Bonds. Mister Billy congratulated Antony on his prudence,
but said, I believe I am at the cusp of
the next great business in this country. I would again
offer you this stock. I think you will make so
much money that you could buy all the Polish National Bonds.
(34:51):
My great grandfather, standing there on the train station in Flint, Michigan,
fought for a moment. I know, mister Billy, you mentioned
you own a manufactory in town. What is this you manufactur?
Mister Billy said, we are in the automobile old business.
Mister Zelinsky, my great grandfather lit up is the streets
of New York are filled with automobiles. This is the
(35:12):
coming thing. But I will still take the cash and
in west in the world's safest in Westment the Polish
National Bonds. The train was late. There was an awkward
silence now between them, which my great grandfather finally broke.
Do I know the name of your company, mister Billy,
and mister Billy replied, well, that's the topic of the moment,
mister Zelensky, and I must say, having gotten to know
(35:34):
you a little bit, I'm not at all surprised you
brought this subject up. Currently, my company is called Buick
Motor Cars. My great grandfather said, Ah, yes, Buck, I've
heard of Buck. You're changing the name. Not exactly, said
mister Billy. I believe the automotive business is going to
grow exponentially. But we have one large company in the field, Ford,
(35:55):
and we have dozens of smaller ones like Buick. And
I'm about to buy up several of my competitors and
form one big company, bigger than Ford, and we will
dominate automobiles for decades to come. Ah yes, said my
great grandfather. And what will you call this behemoth? Mister
Billy laughed again. You cut to the heart of the matter,
(36:16):
mister Zelensky. We're debating that right now. We need a
name that expresses our national stature. My great grandfather shook
his head at the obviousness of this. The problem is
an easy one. No, you use National National Motor Cars.
Mister Billy laughed again. Your insight is extraordinary. That was
our first thought as well, but would you believe there
(36:38):
is a company in Indiana, of all places, they make
electric automobiles which will never work, and they're called National
Motor Vehicles. We need another name. American has also taken.
Continental has taken it. Damn it, mister Zelensky. We can't
think of a good name that isn't already taken. My
great grandfather, who had just turned down the stock and
(36:58):
a thousand dollars worth of the stock in this company,
thought for a second, you wish to express the national,
the American, the broadly available or available National? Continental? National?
What is the word in English? The general the general
availability of your vehiculars? Well, mister Billy, why not that?
(37:22):
Why not general? General automobiles, general automotive, general motor car,
maybe general motors. Now it was time for mister Billy
to become pensive. Finally he spoke general motors. Hmmm, does
(37:44):
have a certain ring to it, mister Zelinsky. Oh look
here's your train. Mister Billy was, of course Billy Durant,
and he owned Durant Dorge, and then he owned Buick,
and then he consolidated thirteen auto manufacturers and ten parts
and accessory companies together into as It was called the
(38:04):
day Billy and his partners opened the escrow account Wednesday,
September sixteenth, nineteen oh eight, General Motors Holding Company. My
great grandfather, having gotten another five hundred dollars to invest
in the world's safest investment instead of one thousand dollars
in stock in not General Motors in nineteen oh eight,
but the company that would become General Motors, and having
(38:27):
given its chairman the name General Motors for free, waved goodbye,
got on the train return to New York. He died
fifteen years later. And to his credit, we know of
the detail of this story because the person who told
it to everyone with a laugh, with a warning to
his relatives that none of them had the genes of
(38:47):
a businessman either, was my great grandfather himself. Needless to say,
this good self deprecating humor makes him my favorite of
all my ancestors, and I hope wherever he went when
he died in nineteen twenty three, his humor went with him.
Because there were several postscripts to this story that lend
(39:08):
it authenticity and induce further rage in his descendants. My
father was very much alive in nineteen forty. He was
an eleven year old boy with his uncle Teddy, Antony's nephew,
living with my dad and grandparents and my uncles in
the Bronx. My dad, who did not meet his grandfather,
Antony Zelensky, said, there was a knock on the apartment
(39:31):
door one day and he opened it to the site,
as he put it, of the two best suits of
clothing I had ever seen. The men wearing them asked
for my dad's uncle. He got him, and the men
began to speak Polish to Uncle Teddy. Gentlemen, we are
here in America. You will please speak English in front
of my family, mister Zelinsky. One of them said, we
(39:53):
know that your uncle left you his investments in Polish
national bonds. He was obviously a great patriot. We represent
the Polish government in exile when we run the Nazis
out of our homeland and freedom is again ours. I know, oh,
your uncle would have and you would want the free
Polish National state to not be burdened financially, to be unburdened.
(40:13):
In fact, to the greatest possible degree, mister Zelenski, your
uncle was the fourth largest private investor in Polish national
bonds in North America. In fact, he was just behind
the National Bank of Mexico. Will you retire his bonds
for a nominal fee as a great Polish patriot. My
(40:34):
dad was never sure how nominal the fee was, but
he was convinced his uncle got less than five hundred
dollars for what was at least one hundred thousand dollars
in bonds during the year nineteen fifty or later. My
dad did not spend his life wondering about his grandfather's
magnificent moment of investment stupidity, but it would occasionally wake
him in the middle of the night, and on his
(40:55):
nightly commutes from Manhattan to our little home in the suburbs,
he came to know the other regulars on the train,
just like Don Draper did on Mad Men. In fact,
and one of the regulars on the train turned out
to be a stock historian. Eventually Dad told him the
story of antony' Zelensky and Billy Durant and General Motors,
(41:16):
and the stock historian invited him to stop by the
office at lunch one day. Sit down, Ted, and I
mean sit down ted. The historian showed his math. This
was what one thousand dollars in buick in nineteen oh
eight turned into when Billy Durant created General Motors in
nineteen oh eight, and here's where it split, and see,
(41:36):
and here's where it split again, and here's where it quartered.
After they forced Durant out, and then he bought Chevrolet,
and he came back in and took over General Motors again,
and it split. And my father said, he started to sweat.
Just tell me already, ted the thousand dollars your great
grandfather turned down in General Motors in nineteen oh eight
would now be worth approximately sixty million dollars, my father said.
(42:02):
He struggled to not pass out his friend from the train,
then said, plus the value of the name. I can't
get that exactly, the stock historian said, but it's got
to be another couple million, five ten maybe, especially if
he'd taken stock in exchange for the name. There's one
more twist to the knife. Well, so far, there's still
(42:25):
plenty of time for more. When the Unions ran the
Soviets out of Poland and Lech Valsa became President of
the Free Poland in nineteen ninety, he gave a speech
establishing the new government. He spoke naturally in Polish until
that is, it was time to address one topic. The
President read that part of the speech in English. My
(42:45):
government will recognize and honor the following years of the
Polish national bonds. My father called me in Los Angeles
that night. He had spoken to his stock historian friend
again and gotten a new rough estimate. My great grandfather
had turned down sixty, maybe seventy million dollars in general
motor stock to keep, say, one hundred thousand dollars in
(43:08):
Polish bonds due in the year nineteen fifty, and lec
Falessa had just said, we'll pay on those bonds that
were doing nineteen fifty and so if great grandfather's nephew
Teddy had just sat on them, those bonds would have
been worth five or six million dollars. Keith, my father said, quietly,
(43:30):
let me remind you again what the great financier my
grandfather told everyone told all of us, none of us,
none of us have the genes of a businessman. I've
(43:59):
done all the damage I can do here. Thank you
for listening. Countdown. Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillips arranged, produced,
and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on
the guitars, based in drums. Mister Schanelle handled orchestration and keyboards,
produced by Tko Brothers, and it was not sponsored by
General Motors. Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions,
were arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed.
(44:22):
Sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, written
by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Our satirical
and fifthy musical comments are by Nancy Fauss. The best
baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today is my friend
Stevie van Zandt, and everything else was pretty much my fault,
except for the GM part, which was my great grandfather's.
(44:43):
That's countdown for this one hundred and eighteenth day until
the twenty twenty four presidential election and the two hundred
and eighty first day since convicted fellon Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the mental health
system you've got it, mister president. Use presidential immune against
(45:05):
him to stop him from doing it again while we
still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Bolton's as
the news requires. Till then, I'm Keith Olderman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith
(45:40):
Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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