TRUMP BOMBED IRAN BECAUSE HE'S LOST AMERICA - 6.23.25

SEASON 3 EPISODE 140: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: We join the Trump Dictatorship, already in progress.

He has attacked Iran, declared undeclared war on Iran, denied he wanted regime change there and is now insisting there should be regime change. And it's all because he has lost America. The Economist polling that has his OVERALL approval underwater in FIFTEEN states… that HE WON LAST YEAR. SEVEN under in Pennsylvania, FOUR under in Georgia, FOUR under in North Carolina, eight under in Michigan, eight under in Pennsylvania. Even CNN’s pollster Harry Enten says “I think we can say Trump has lost the political battle when it comes to what has happened in Los Angeles." CNN has Trump at -15 approval on his key issue: immigration, and -24 among independents.

Trump attacked Iran because he has lost America.

As a political observer wrote on January 17, 2012, “Obama will attack Iran in order to get re-elected.” And the SAME political observer wrote on October 9, 2012, “Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.” And the SAME political observer then wrote on September 16 2013 “I predict that President Obama will at some point attack Iran in order to save face,” and as the SAME political observer wrote on September 25, 2013 “Remember what I previously said, Obama will some day attack Iran in order to show how tough he is,” and how finally that SAME political observer wrote on November 10 2013 “Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly – not skilled” – and that political observer was… Donald J. Trump.

I'll analyze the consequences of Trump's unconstitutional act - including angering Putin - and the hilarious moment when Pete Hegseth got the location of the target wrong. Plus Trump's nonsensical "I'd especially like to thank God," his lies about being opposed to Iraq, and the small victory: the Senate parliamentarian says they have to strip from the budget bill the move to limit the courts' ability to restrain Trump.

B-Block (37:32) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: It's like Champions Week on Jeopardy: Mayor Eric Adams keeps digging, Jake Tapper keeps digging, and Stephen A. Smith is digging so hard to align himself with the reprehensible Candace Owens that at this rate Smith will be forcing ESPN to fire him.

C-Block (50:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Of all the things you don't expect to come up on Jason Benetti's Detroit Tigers telecast is not one but two ex-pitchers confessing they still have dreams - thirty years later - that the anthem is playing, they are supposed to be pitching, but they cannot find their uniforms or that their shoelaces have been tied together. I'll explain why the mini-PTSD dream has become a nostalgic dream for these guys from my cohort: Frank Tanana, Dan Petry, and me.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. We

(00:24):
joined the Trump dictatorship already in progress. He has attacked Iran,
declared undeclared war on Iran, proposed regime change in Iran
after insisting he did not want regime change in Iran
and that was not our goal in Iran. He has
done all this because he has lost America. D mentioned.

(00:50):
Trump briefed Sean Hannity in advance about starting his war
against Iran. He briefed Met and Yahoo in advance about
starting his war against Iran. He briefed Fox News in
advance about starting his war against Iran. That's how their
anchor was sitting in the student on a Saturday night,
as he revealed it. He briefed Iran about starting his
war against Iran. He briefed Russia about starting his war

(01:12):
against Iran based on what Russian state media reported Friday.
He decided last Wednesday and spent the rest of the
time lying to this country about it. He did not
brief this country about it. He did not brief nearly
any Republican congressional leaders. He did not brief any Democratic leaders.

(01:36):
He did not brief the nation a nation, which polling
suggests only twenty one percent of US supported bombing Iran.
He did not brief the only one of his cabinet
of idiots who managed to recognize how dangerous to us
this is. He didn't even let her in the situation
room as it happened. He ignored the uniform unanimous advice

(01:58):
of the intelligence community that a Iran was nowhere near
a nuclear weapon and b bombing these sites would not
eradicate their nuclear program and see any bombing of for
Dow and the other locations would then require thirty days
of intensive follow up bombing to have any long term impact.

(02:20):
He ignored reality. He lied to America. He did everything
he had campaigned against. He might as well be a neocon.
This is a forever war and we are now in it.
And he told his pals in advance so they would
have their praise ready. And he did this to benefit
one person, and one person only himself. So we joined

(02:47):
the Trump dictatorship already in progress. Not that any of
this should be a surprise. Long term planning for Donald
Trump has always been about three hours, maybe three and
a half on one of his low insanity days. There
is no doubt he had seen the polling. Most polsters
buried or at least did not emphasize that the ham

(03:09):
handed attack on Los Angeles using ice Let's call it
what it is, isis that that was incredibly unpopular. When
even CNN's polster Harry Enton says, I think we can
say Trump has lost the political battle when it comes
to what has happened in Los Angeles. It must be
way worse than that. CNN has him fifteen points underwater

(03:32):
on the ISIS raids, twenty four underwater on the ISIS raids,
with independence on his top issue, the one that got
him elected. Imgray shun even Trump, in the haze of
confusion and denial that is at one of its peaks

(03:53):
in his life, understands he is losing his grip on
his own cult. Sees the huge majority saying he's gone
too far. Sees the huge majority opposing more ice ISIS
raids at workplaces. Sees the economist pulling that his overall
approval is underwater in fifteen states that he won last year.

(04:17):
He's seven under in Pennsylvania, four under in Georgia, four
under in North Carolina, eight under in Michigan, eight under
in Pennsylvania underwater in fifteen states Trump won last November.
Trump attacked Iran because he has lost America. And of course,

(04:38):
as I said here Thursday morning, because the baseline reason
to have a war, a war against Iran as good
as any other, is the same as the baseline reason
to have had a war against Iraq, to have a war,
to waste ordnance, to blow up your own bombs and
then have to buy new bombs to feed the military
industrial complex. Then magnify this by the distraction element. As

(05:06):
one political observer wrote on January seventeenth, twenty twelve, quote
Obama will attack Iran in order to get re elected.
The same political observer wrote on October ninth, twenty twelve,
now that Obama's poll numbers are in tailspin, watch for
him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He
is desperate. And the same political observer then wrote on

(05:29):
September sixteenth, twenty thirteen, I predict that President Obama will
at some point attack Iran in order to save face.
And as the same political observer wrote on September twenty fifth,
twenty thirteen, remember what I previously said, Obama will someday
attack Iran. In order to show how tough he is.
And finally, that same political observer wrote on November tenth,

(05:51):
twenty thirteen, remember that I predicted a long time ago
that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability
to negotiate properly, not skilled, and that political observer in
all five cases this was Donald J.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Trump. Case closed.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Trump attacked Iran because he's lost American Now to the
sequel one, this is not about regime change. They emphasize
this repeated. Oh wait, maybe maybe, maybe that's the it's
not politically correct to use the term regime change. He
wrote at four fifty five pm Eastern Standard no daylight
time yesterday. But if the current Iranian regime is unable

(06:36):
to make Iran great again, why wouldn't there be a
regime change? Miga, Hey, I have an idea that could
please everybody. Why don't you go supervise that yourself, Trump
move to Iran. You have all the insanity and self
absorption required to be a Mullah. Two for the first

(07:02):
time in history, AOC and Congress and Thomas Massey are
right at the same time about the same thing. This
is unconstitutional, says Massy. It is absolutely and clearly grounds
for impeachment, says Okasio Cortes.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Even Bush sought a form of congressional approval, feeble and
fraudulently induced as it was, it is impeachable. Impeach the
son of a bitch. Three. Trump says the nuclear sites
were destroyed. Trump is lying as usual. Even his own
generals acknowledged they can have no idea if the bombing

(07:39):
was effective, and they can have no idea if the
bombing was effective because the stuff was underground. He's lying.
Four He's pissed off the Russians. Iran's foreign minister meets
with Putin today in Moscow. Here, in fun City, the
Russian ambassador to the UN says he's got deja vu

(08:01):
about the US and Iraq. Because of the US and Iran,
whatever Putin told Trump to do here, Putin lied to
Trump about supporting it, and Trump fell for it. Five
And as usual, the entire event is overflowing like a
backed up toilet, with more proof that every Republican accusation

(08:25):
is actually just a confession. They called this mission Midnight Hammer.
If this is not an intentional reference to the head
of DUI, I'm sorry. The head of DoD heg seth,
it will sure do. In his briefing yesterday, Pete hegseeth

(08:49):
got the target of the bombing run wrong. RB two's
went in and out of downtown Tehran, Tehran. Excuse me
of these nuclear sites in and out and back without
the world knowing at all? Ah Hell Tehran, downtown Tehran
and suburbs of Tehran, North Tehran. For dow Iran Iraq,

(09:14):
it's over there in that sort of direction. Check with
me on the chat later. I'm just here enjoying Operation Midnight.
Hammered more Republican admissions. JD. Vance. You know the guy
who is on his second alias already in his life,
but he got the name of a sitting US senator wrong,

(09:36):
and he and his pals are boastful about his own
stupidity and getting the name of the sitting US senator wrong.
Who's who's a now, all right, Jimmy Vance, Jimmy Donalds,
and Jimmy whatever your name is. JV. JV said this
on Meet the Press. This is the toilet overflowing with

(09:57):
accusations that are actually confession.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Quote.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after twenty
five years Afar and entanglements Middle East. I understand the concern,
but the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents.
Now we have a president who actually knows how to
accomplish America's national security objective. Well, he's right, except that
this accomplished none of our national security objectives. It has

(10:22):
made us weaker. We are more entangled now in the
Middle East than we were on Saturday morning. We do
not yet know how much more entangled. This president does
not know how to accomplish anything for this country, especially
international And of course we've had dumb presidents, but nobody
is dumb as this guy. It is hilarious that Vance

(10:43):
used the phrase dumb presidents. It must be impossible to
be near Trump these days without that impression. Dumb presidents
being so vivid, it must seem as if it is
about to form itself in gold letters in the sky
above your head, dumb President, you will of course see

(11:06):
naked genuistic support for this misadventure if we're lucky, not
support if we're lucky, but that it's only a misadventure
if we're lucky. CNN still somehow thinking it will keep
itself from disappearing by drawing some kind of right wing audience.
Posted this within minutes of the bombing by Stephen Collinson.

(11:28):
Analysis US strikes mark a stunning demonstration of military might
and presidential power. Analysis from CNN Stephen Collinson. President Trump's
attack on Iran's nuclear sites is both a stunning demonstration
of US military might and unilateral presidential power. Other presidents
chose not to take this step in the belief that

(11:49):
such action could ignite a full on war with Iran.
But the Middle East has changed. Israel has dismantled many
of the Iranian proxies that it would have used to
fight back by attacking Iran's no nuclear sites, the president
has attempted to fully eradicate Tehran's nuclear pro ran for good.
So Collinson thinks it's in Tehran too. This is with

(12:12):
a few letters, not even whole words, changed exactly what
CNN and all the other major news organizations wrote about Iraq.
And this man Collinson. You have to compliment him. You
really can't get more bullshit into a space that's small
than he has. Collinson, incidentally, is the man who wrote

(12:33):
for CNN in November twenty twenty two that the election
of twenty twenty four would be defined by quote, dueling
probes into Trump and Biden thirty two paragraphs of both
sides ism designed to trivialize Trump's treason. Now to the
serious consequence to all this, the further and further we

(12:54):
let Trump get away from any constraints, any fear of
the Constitution, any fear that anyone will stop him by
whatever means, the further he will go. Ten years ago,
if a president bombed anywhere and a senior Congressman from
his own party remarked simply, quote, this is unconstitutional, it

(13:16):
would be the beginning of the end of that man's presidency.
Thomas Massey remarked that Saturday night, and he was mocked
by his own party, and he is hardly a reasonable Republican.
What ultimately reverses the course towards self destruction of those
countries where it's not that the concept of right and
wrong has vanished, but where it is the fear of

(13:38):
getting caught and stopped that has vanished. What saves those countries? Sadly,
the answer is universal and eternal. Germany learned it in
nineteen forty five. The Soviet Union learned it in nineteen
ninety Napoleonic France learned it, Ancient Rome learned it, Cambodia
learned it. The answer is always the same. Those countries

(13:59):
are saved from destroying themselves by calamity, by part martial
self destruction or total destruction from outside nations, or revolution
or upheaval dissolution. It is not that our concept of
what America has always been at its worst even is

(14:19):
incompatible with Trump, cannot continue long with Trump, cannot survive Trump.
It's now approaching the point where America in any form
is virtually incompatible with Trump. This path is not solely
Trump destroying democracy or perverting the electoral process or jailing

(14:41):
democrats or god knows what else. It's not what he's
already done. It elevated itself. The path is now America
becoming so disconnected from its own reality that we will
implode because this idiot thinks he's doing great things when
he is pushing us off an effing cliff implosion. The

(15:06):
good guys, the bad guys, the maga, and the humans,
all of us over the cliff. But happily now Trump
thinks God is directing all this, even if he doesn't
really understand what everybody else means by the word God,

(15:26):
an omnipotent, an omnipotent individual, You mean me. What's somebody
more omnipotent than me? This has never occurred to him before.
He thinks of God as some sort of brand name.
And I want to just thank everybody, and in particular God.

(15:50):
I want to just say, we love you God, We
love you God, rad Oh, yes we do. And if
that reference to the musical Bye Bye Birdie is too
old for you, I get it. How about I just
want to dedicate this bombing of Iran to God. We
know you're watching us here on Fox, so I just

(16:11):
want to say two things to God. You know I
won the twenty twenty election, and God, this wars for you.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
This God's for you.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Thank you, Nancy Faust. I'm sorry. I just did not

(17:07):
have it in me to do an entire song based
on the Budweiser jingle called this Wars for You. I
am flashed back to the B two bombers. In the
early eighties, there was a joke at CNN Washington. We
had a reporter named Charles Bierbauer who covered this sort
of stuff, and somebody actually yelled in the middle of

(17:29):
the newsroom, get that Berbauer b one, bomber b Roll
a few other actual news notes. Trump will continue to
lie about the Iraq Iran comparison, especially when it comes
to himself. For twenty plus years he has insisted he
was a vocal opponent of going into Iraq. He was not.

(17:49):
He is lying. There is nothing, nothing on the record
of him opposing the Iraq disaster before it happened. His
support was brief, tepid, disinterested, but he did not oppose
it publicly. You want to know who opposed it publicly.
I demanded that we go to the UN and present
all all of our evidence on ABC Radio in two
thousand and two. I had healthy skepticism, followed by let's

(18:14):
do what we did with Adle Stevenson and the Cuban
missile crisis. I didn't even think they were decrepit and
morally bankrupt enough to fake the evidence to the UN,
which is exactly that Bush and Cheney and the late
Colin Powell did. Trump meanwhile, has lied about this anew
as recently as Friday Friday went. As we now know,

(18:37):
he had already chosen to launch his own private war
against Iran while lying to his own nation that somehow
elected him to lie to it. From the Pool report
from Friday question twenty years ago, you were skeptical of
a Republican administration that attacked the Middle East country on
the idea of questionable intelligence of weapons of mass destruction.
How is this moment different with Iran? That's not entirely true.

(19:01):
It's almost close enough that the reporter shouldn't be fired. Trump. Well,
there were no weapons of mass destruction. I never thought
there were, and that was something somewhat pre nuclear you know,
it was a nuclear age, but nothing like it is today.
That's entirely false. And it looked like I'm right about
the material that they've gathered already. It's a tremendous amount

(19:22):
of material, and I think within a matter of weeks
or certainly within a matter of months, they were going
to be able to have a nuclear weapon. We can't
let that happen. I was very much opposed to Iraq,
all right. There's two lies in there. He was not
very much opposed to a RAQ, or if he was,
he never said anything about it. And number one, he's
wrong about the nuclear weapon. Matter of months, not a chance.

(19:44):
I was very much opposed to a RAQ I was.
I said it loud and clear.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
He didn't.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
He may have said it to his invisible friend. He
may have said it in his inside his head voice.
It may have been one of the other voices in
his head and said, Donnie, do you like Iraq or
do you not like Iraq? I don't like Iraq, Ronnie,
what does Lonnie think? I said it loud and clear.
But I was a civilian. But I guess I got
a lot of publicity. But I was very much opposed

(20:10):
to the Iraq war. Nope, never said it, but I said,
if you're going to go in, keep the oil. I
actually did say don't go in, don't go in, don't
go in. But I said, if you're going to go in,
keep the oil. He said the part about the oil
about eight years later, but they didn't do that. Also

(20:31):
missing in all this just before while he had already
decided to attack Iran and that whole end of times,
Jesus is coming back if you get all the Jews
back to Israel, so we have to protect Israel, so
we can destroy Israel instead, the fundamentalist evangelical position about Israel.

(20:53):
While that was happening, Trump posted reposted on his website
a meme with three different q Andon cult phrases, trust
the plan, nothing can stop what is coming, and I
was the hunted and now I'm the hunter all over.
A picture of him reposted this three QAnon cult phrases

(21:16):
in one meme. There are two bits of good news.
The budget bill, the moronically named Big Beautiful Bill because
Trump thinks gaudy ristolium gold is beautiful. It's being reviewed
by the Senate Parliamentarian and one of its heinous add
ons has been ruled in violation of the Bird rule
about tacking on unrelated heinous add ons illegally to budget bills.

(21:40):
The Republicans do not legally have to strip out these
add ons, but they likely will. The Senate Parliamentarian says
the provision limiting the ability of federal courts to restrain
Trump is not permissible. It has to be removed from
the bill before the Senate can vote to approve the
bill to remain in compliance with Senate rules. And despite

(22:04):
Trump's instance, since that he won the court battle over
the National Guard, it is a pyrrhic victory at best.
The court ruled he could usurp the National Guard in
Southern California. It also ruled that every time he tries
to usurp the National Guard somewhere else, the governor involved
can sue to stop it. Newsom may stop his effort.

(22:25):
Now take the big picture win here, because if you
take this current ruling to the Supreme Court, the Supreme
Court could easily rule that future governors cannot sue to
stop the usurpation of the National Guard, and that would
be ultimately disastrous and ultimately a blank check to Trump.
And Trump's brain is blank enough without a blank check

(22:57):
lost in Trump's unconstitutional war against Iran. That is for
regime change. Oh no, it's not for regime change. Oh
maybe it is for regime is the next stage of
the perversion of the media in this country. First it
was cites like CNN and Politico altering the news, literally
shading it, not fact checking in debates, firing all the

(23:18):
liberals to favor Trump and the GOP and the Conservatives
and the corporations which are by their nature and their
construction conservative. The next stage now is well underway, to
make sure only Democrats approved by Republicans get any kind
of public media support. The current target is Andrew Cuomo,

(23:38):
much of national media is trying to stave off this
city's revulsion to Andrew Cuomo. The primary for mayor. For
all intents and purposes, the election for mayor is now.
Trump wants Cuomo. He wants Cuomo to be there so
he can blackmail Quomo with a threat of prosecution. That

(24:00):
little shit Mike Bloomberg wants Cuomo. He's at least eight
million dollar into it. Bloomberg has donated eight million dollars
to the Cuomo campaign. Bill Clinton endorsed Cuomo. And understand
that here in New York Bill Clinton is remembered and
I hate to say this, if at all as a
guy who lives way out in the suburbs and used

(24:21):
to be in politics. Here is the Financial Times analysis
of the money in this race, the super packs fundraising
by New York City mayoral campaigns and allied superpacks. Andrew
Cuomo thirty five point six million dollars. Zorn Mamdani nine

(24:43):
point one million dollars. Brad Lander, who is the comptroller,
got arrested last week seven and a half million. Scott Stringer,
who has been running from mayor since before I was born,
five million, good man, but he's not going to be
Mayor Eric Adams, who is the mayor at the moment
who does not show up to work, and every time
he gets close to the office something terrible happens, usually

(25:03):
to him four point eight million, Zellner Meyrie four point two,
Adrian Adams two point eight. She has refused to cross
endorse in this ranked choice primary, so it's Cuomo versus
Mam Danny, with Lander as the outside possibility. The latest
polls are all over the place. It is ranked voting,

(25:26):
so even when the polls are accurate, they are all
over the place. Because you go on to a final round,
your second choice may count more than your first choice.
This month you have everything from Cuomo plus twelve to
Mamdani plus five. Mamdanny is a Democratic socialist. I have
pointed out before that he has my endorsement because primarily,

(25:46):
while we align on almost all political issues, my primary
interest is this guy appears to be ready to show
up to the effing office every day and work, unlike
the last four mayors of New York. What a streak
we are on here, Juliani, that little shit Bloomberg, Bill
de Bossio, and this moron Adams who says God put

(26:10):
him there. Apparently God has forsaken you, Eric Adams. But
the coup de gras in all this is being applied
by such corrupt organizations as Third Way and Politico. I'll
just read this from Politico's newsletter on Saturday morning. This
was the lead item before the bombing of Iran Empire.

(26:32):
State of mind.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
They're very clever.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Centrist Democrats are sounding the alarm that are surging Democratic
socialist mayoral candidate in New York City's Tuesday primary could
further set back the party's already beleaguered national brand. You
know why the brand is beleaguered nationally because most Democrats
are saying, when are you assholes going to do something
about Trump. The dissatisfaction with Democrats is from arch democrats.

(27:00):
We want all of the leadership removed. We want hunt
the Mandanis of this world and the aocs of this
world running the Democratic Party. To use a phrase I
remember from my youth, trust no one over thirty maybe forty.
Third Way, the center left democratic think tank well viewed

(27:26):
from the Republican Party. Third Way would be center left,
wrote in a memo Friday that they are deeply alarmed
by Zoron Mamdani, whom they argue holds positions that border
on anti Semitism. He's about as close to anti Semitism
as Third Way is to Nazism, and scan as if

(27:48):
they were cooked up in the offices of a Trump
aligned ad maker. No, actually, that's a Cuomo aligned ad
maker who's used all these same phrases in the pro
Cuomo ads. Isn't that a coincidence at a time when
the Democrats are searching for a way out of the wilderness.
Moderates in the part f the moderates in the party.

(28:09):
The moderates in the party got Trump elected. Moderates in
the party say that given New York City mayor's outsized
role in national politics, three of the last four have
run for president, they gained two delicate delegates among them,
and they were delicate delegates, weren't they Freudian slip? Given

(28:31):
the New York City's mayor's outsized role in national politics
three of the last four have run for president, Republicans
could exploit Mandaney's positions for their gain up and down
the ballot.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
Oh no, oh no, we're going to have oh socialism
in a country that's been socialists for eighty five years,
no no socialism, which allows the Red states not to
starve because the Blue states send the money.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
We've seen the MAGA rights ability and eagerness to weaponize
over step by the left. Third Way's executive vice president
Matt Bennett tells Playbook, if you just think about the
way the Trump campaign attacked former Vice President Harris, the
way the MAGA right has attacked Democrats generally, it is
by attaching them to ideas that are outside of the mainstream,
flipping Tim Walls on its head. It turns out they

(29:21):
made us into the weird ones. And nothing's weirder than
the stuff that's in the DSA platform. And we just
cannot hand that to Republicans. Trump is underwater on overall
approval in fifteen states he won last year. You efing idiot,
press push and go loudly, and you will defeat MAGA forever.

(29:45):
But we can't have anything outside of what we think
is the mainstream. What of the banks think is the mainstream?
The Third Way memo highlights defunding the police, closing jails,
panning private healthcare, and operating city owned grocery stores as
positions American voters would find beyond the pale Oh, no

(30:05):
food America is against food. Mam Danny has repeatedly pushed
back against the anti semitism label. I've said at every opportunity,
there's no room for anti semitism in this city, in
this country. In point of fact, they asked him a
question and he did not explode at them, so they

(30:29):
called that adjacent to anti Semitism. At a post election
retreat for Democrats in Virginia earlier this year, Third Way
concluded in a memo that the party needs your own
failures of democratic governance in large cities and commit to
improving local government, start with the ones in Virginia. It's

(30:54):
also a proxy battle political note political notes in this
advertisement for the Third Way people, Mamdanny has not just
the endorsements of Senator Bernie Sanders and AOC Jim Clyburn
back to Cuomo on Friday, It's also a proxy battle
in the sense that Israel and anti Semitism have come
up again and again, which Cuomo wants to keep in
the spotlight on the topic, says their reporter. Cuomo has

(31:17):
focused on Mandani's response to a podcast question on whether
the phrase globalize the Intifada makes him uncomfortable. Mandani did
not reject or condemn the phrase. He has said it
means different things to different people, and reiterated that he
would protect Jewish New Yorkers and combat anti Semitism. I'm
waiting for somebody to get onto the fact that Andrew Cuomo,
when asked about whether or not he killed people during

(31:40):
COVID or, was found liable for constant sexual pestering while
governor and had to resign. If he's condemned any of that,
did he condemn it enough? I don't think so. The
key issue here is this Third Way is a trojan horse.
It has worked on legislation introduced into the Senate by

(32:03):
Lindsey Graham. It was accused of suppressing anything that its
own research found suggested that Democratic voters actually are enraged
by Trump and maga that this is philosophical, that this
is about democratic failure to act. Third Way is accused
of deep tized banking. It is this close to being
one of those groups that refers to the Democratic Party

(32:26):
as the Democrat Party. It does not have the motto,
but I think it might have considered it remember only
support Democrats approved by Republicans. Also of interest hearing this
all new edition of Countdown? Who can destroy himself faster?

(32:48):
Jake Tapper or Stephen A. Smith. Every time I think
we have a clear winner, the other one starts talking again.
That's next. This is Countdown. This is Countdown. Thilberman, my
crazy friend still ahead on this all new edition of Countdown.

(33:30):
I ain't freud exactly, but for an amateur, I'm pretty
good on the interpretation of dreams, and this subject came
up yesterday as I was writing this show on of
all things, the Fan Dual Sports Network telecast. That's a
plug I work for them now of the Detroit Tigers

(33:51):
at the Tampa Bay Rays. What does it mean when
a baseball pitcher who pitched his last game in nineteen
ninety three keeps having this dream where he's supposed to
get onto the mound to pitch the game right now,
except the shoelaces on his spikes have been tied together

(34:11):
and he can't move. It is the standard old dude
stress dream. I have them too, but there is an
amazing twist which explains why keep having them. It's nostalgia.
It's memories of being young. I'll explain next in Things,

(34:34):
I promise not to tell the Dreamscape edition first. Believe
it or not, there's still more new idiots to talk about.
The roundup of the miscreants, morons and Dunning Krueger effect
specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in the world.
And this is like Champions week on Jeopardy. These are

(34:56):
three of the most frequent worst persons in the world
in this incarnation of the program, The Brons. The mayor
of New York mister soon to be seventh place finisher,
Eric Adams. He has now said he could have done
a better job vetting the internet personality known for his

(35:20):
anti Semitic views. Sneak O promised he didn't know his
history before meeting with him over cigars. Maybe I'm just
too optimistic, the mayor said that I believe there's something
good in everyone and we should try to find that. Yes,
maybe I should have reached out to the team late
at night said hey, can you vet this person? But
this is a challenge for me because everyone comes to me.

(35:43):
Adams told reporters about sneak O. The mayor, who has
made fighting anti Semitism and support for Israel key focuses
of his re election effort, said he was sitting on
the porch of Gracie Mansion smoking his cigar Saturday, and
then other people came and joined me, and they brought
people with them, and they started engaging in the conversation,

(36:03):
and he was one of the people people that engage
in that conversation. Adam said about mister sneak O, I
didn't know his history. I don't support anything that is
criticizing any group in this city. He's close with Nick
Fuentes and Kanye West. Sneak O. But the mayor didn't
know anything about him. He just thought he was a

(36:24):
guy who liked cigars and sitting on the mayor's porch.
Because anybody can just walk up to the mayor's house
and go sit on the porch with him, That's not
how it works. You have to be invited and you
have to get a security check. So somebody looked this
guy up and went mayor's running on an anti Semitism campaign. Well,

(36:45):
this guy Sneako and the word anti Semitism they come
up a lot in our Google search. Come on down here,
have a cigar. It would befit this city and all
the bad things we've done back when we used to
finance the slave trade and other terrible things that we
did in the nineteenth century and earlier and later. It

(37:08):
would befit this city if we got this idiot Cuomo
as our mayor, because we had this idiot Adams is
our mayor, who succeeded this idiot Deblasio as our mayor,
who is going to get back and deal with the
crisis here except he needed a ride to the airport
in Iowa and couldn't get one, and he, of course

(37:29):
succeeded this idiot. Bloomberg is our mayor, who of course
succeeded the original gangster idiot Rudy Giuliani. I think we
shouldn't have an election. I should stay on as mayor
forever because who could possibly replace me anybody, and anybody
did replace you moving on the runner up. As I said,

(37:50):
some people are satisfied with destroying their careers and others
just have to keep on going and making sure it
will never move again. It's been dead already for months.
Jake hit it again. Wait, I'll do it, Tapper on
c Span Now, what do you think he's talking about?
As you hear the start of this quote, I feel

(38:12):
this way about the weapons of mass destruction on Iraq story.
I was a reporter of that was skeptical of the
WMD claim, but certainly, in hindsight I wish I had
been more skeptical. Was he talking about the build up
to Trump's war against Iran? The oh, never go for
regime change. Let's have regime change, Lindsey Graham says, what

(38:33):
a good idea, Trump, Let's have regime change. Let's just
drop bombs on a country with no congressional authorization and
tell the nation, We're going to give it another two weeks.
This nation, not their nation. Who gives a damn what
you told that nation? You think Jake Tapper's talking about that.
I was a reporter that was skeptical of the wn

(38:54):
D claim, but certainly, in hindsight, I wish I had
been more skeptical. I feel this way about the weapons
of mass destruction in rack story. Certainly when it comes
to President Biden's acuity, I wish I had covered it
more aggressively. Jake, Actually, this is my actual belief. At
this point, you need a cat scan. You are no
longer connected to reality. They're selling a book, selling your

(39:17):
soul for a book. And then there's what you're doing now,
which is ignoring all the reality when everybody around you
is saying stop, lay down, stay down. Dude. You've humiliated
yourself and destroyed whatever reputation you had, and you just
hear you're doing great, Jake, from invisible men who may

(39:40):
live inside your cat scan. Seriously, let's hope it's just
like an inner ear problem that can be fixed with medication.
That's what I'm rooting for, Jake. I don't have anything
personally against you. I don't want to see terrible things
happen to you. Apparently you do. You're doing them to
yourself right now. But the winner, Jake Tapper, is not

(40:03):
content with his own self destruct and is now doing
it for the seventeenth time. Stephen A. Smith says, hold
my anti semitism adjacent beer. That is the new term
right that's there using this against Mam Danny. It's anti
semitism adjacent. He has come back for a second helping

(40:26):
of let me tell you how great Candace Owens is.
Smith and I'm reading from Mediaite addressed the recent controversy
over his interview with right wing smear merchant Candace Owens
on his show on YouTube, insisting that she quote knows
what she's talking about. Stop Stephen, stop, unplug everything. Mute

(40:49):
the microphone claim it was a glitch. Claim you've been hacked.
Stop right there. She knows what she's talking about. She
doesn't know what she's talking about. She's an insane woman
who was fired by people who are already insane by themselves.
She was fired by Ben Shapiro. Look him up. Owens

(41:10):
has been a vocal critic of Israel, going so far
as to suggest, in a not so veiled anti Semitic trope,
according to media, that the Jewish state is controlling US
foreign policy. She posted recently on x this was a
week ago recently, our foreign policy is dictated by Israel.
Trump will continue to do as he is told by
Nettan Yahoo. If you want to know what America will do,

(41:31):
spare yourself the fake White House press briefings and start
listening to bb We are a colony of Israel. Your
politicians are bought and paid for. Candace Owens, she knows
what she's talking about, says Stephen A.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Smith.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
I know this is the whole Stephen A. Smith rant.
I will not do my Stephen A. Smith impression. It's
bad enough that Stephen A. Smith does a Stephen A.
Smith impression. I know that some of you out there
may not have wanted to hear a damn thing that
Candace Owens had to say, but four plus millions subscribed
to her listen to every chance they get. You know,

(42:08):
there are a lot of cannibals in the world too.
You could say that we need to listen to the
cannibals as well. Not everybody in America or this world
for that matter, can say that what she says matters.
And a lot more often than not, she seems to
know what the hell she's talking about. It's very rare
you hear somebody says she's clueless. She doesn't know what

(42:31):
she's saying. She's clueless, Steve, she doesn't know what she's saying.
She could not. I would not bet on her passing
a Saturday test. She does not. You do not have
to hand it to her to borrow the wind expression.
She seems to know what the hell she's talking about.

(42:56):
It's very rare you hear somebody says she's clueless, she
don't know what she's saying. You don't hear that about her.
You want to refute what she has to say and
defy her positions. You better know what you're talking about,
because she certainly does usually, if not always. That's why
I had on the show, Stephen, this is who you
keep endorsing the time. She discussed Adolf Hitler's nationalism at

(43:22):
the Turning Point USA event in London in February twenty
nineteen and said quote, I actually don't have any problems
at all with the word nationalism. I think that the
definition gets poisoned by elitists that actually want globalism. Globalism
is what I don't want. Whenever we say nationalism, the
first thing people think about, at least in America is Hitler.

(43:42):
This is the woman Stephen A. Smith what says knows
what she's talking about. Owens went on Hitler was a
national socialist, adding quote, but if Hitler just wanted to
make Germany great and have things run well, okay, fine.
The problem is that he wanted he had dreams outside
of Germany. He wanted to globalize. He wanted everybody to

(44:03):
be German, everybody to be speaking German, everybody to look
a different way. To me, that's not nationalism, simple, I
think acceptable admittable translation. Owens thought that whatever Hitler did
inside Germany was great. The word she was great. Just
wanted to make Germany great by killing everybody. Well, ok, fine, ok, fine,

(44:29):
she said. Last March, Candace Owens liked a post on
x in which a user asked a rabbi if he
was quote drunk on Christian blood. This is who stephen A.
Smith says. She seems to know what the hell she's

(44:50):
talking about. In fact, she does not seem to know
what the hell she's talking about. It's the exact opposite,
stephen A.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Smith.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
You are aligning yourself with a woman who was fired
by some of the worst people in the Fascist rite
for but they called her disgraceful language about Jewish people.
Even the Anti Defamation League said she has been pushing
a quote anti Semitic agenda. This, Steven, is who you
are gradually gluing yourself to. Candace Owens will destroy your career,

(45:26):
not just your political aspirations or your political commentary aspirations,
or your idea that there should be a Stephen A.
Smith's store in every city or whatever is next. This
is going to destroy what you already have. Flee, Please flee,
get away from Candace Owens. Get away from politics. You

(45:46):
have an innate instinct as strong as your instinct for
what makes good TV sports. You have an innate instinct
for picking exactly the wrong person to sidle up to
and to join yourself to glue to at your hip.
You are going to destroy yourself, and if you don't,
she will destroy you for you. This ends with ESPN

(46:10):
having no choice but to fire you and nobody else
being willing to hire you. Flea get away from candae
Owns as fast as you possibly can. Steven A. Smith,
Today's other God help us, worst person in the world.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Please, please please.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
So let's conclude this all new edition of Countdown on
Iran Day with an all new edition of Things I
Promised Not to Tell, And I'll give you the background
to this first. I was as I prepared this episode,
listening to a baseball game telecast, an unsurprising event if
this is later than the year nineteen sixty seven, and
I just checked the calendar and it is. So this

(47:06):
is what was going on in the background as I
tried to make some sense of what Trump has done
in Iran to the number one story on the Countdown
and Things I Promised Not to Tell, my favorite topic
me and general knowledge that it turns out, is not
general knowledge, but should be about dreams, particularly anxiety dreams.
Trust me on this, because I've spent a good deal

(47:28):
of money on this in the relentless pursuit of what's
going on inside my head between my ears by legions
of analysts over the years. They have come up with
very few correct answers, or very few answers at all.
You can imagine the travails involved in trying to do
this in any event, one of the things that they

(47:49):
won in particular, and I have come up with something
about these dreams, recurring anxiety dreams. I'm listening to my
friend Jason Bennetti, one of the best baseball broadcasters there is,
doing the Detroit Tigers game with his partner on the broadcast,
Dan Petrie. Jason's also very good, apparently among the best
in other sports like basketball and football, But I don't

(48:12):
get paid to watch basketball or football, and those are
the only circumstances under which I will watch them. So
I'm going to have to take his word for it
that he's good at those two. But I know he's
excellent in baseball, and I will always watch again. He
is doing, and Dan Petrie is excellent too. And I
happen to know Dan Petrie since the late seventies when
he was a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. Not very well,

(48:32):
but enough probably that he might remember if I told
the story of when we met. And I know of
his son, National Hockey League defenseman. He had a niece
I knew, who was a swimmer at UCLA, A big
athletic family from southern California, and roughly my contemporary. I
think Dan is like two months older than I am,
So when I met him, I was a fledgling reporter
and photographer who posed him for some baseball card photos

(48:56):
in nineteen eighty something like that. In any event, Dan
revealed towards the end of his broadcast, as I was
preparing this edition of Countdown, he revealed that he has
had a recurring dream that he still has even though
his last game in the major leagues was more than
thirty years ago. And he has this dream in which

(49:18):
the anthem is playing. He is at his cubicle, his locker,
somewhere in the clubhouse. He's not sure where he is.
It may be in Detroit. He's not sure he's playing
for the Tigers. He's not sure where the stadium is.
He's not sure of anything except he is just starting
to get dressed and they are playing the anthem, and
he is the starting pitcher. You do not have to

(49:39):
understand anything about baseball to understand that this is the
standard I'm late dream, and to have it again and
again and again references one thing in particular, which is
the number of times that you have had to go
through one thousand deadlines to get to your job. The
first deadline is to be there when your job starts.

(50:00):
So if you have a dream in which something keeps
you from getting to the store part of your job,
it is essentially PTSD light. You have had this actual
experience of worrying. Boy, I hope I get to the
ballpark in time, four hours before the game. Boy, I
hope I get my bullpen routine done, thirty five minutes
before the game. Boy, I hope we get the game

(50:23):
started at in time. Boy, I hope I'm out there
for the anthem. Boy, I hope I don't have to
go to the bathroom. Boy, I hope I haven't misplaced
my glove. Well, in the dream, of course, all of
these things happen Petrie relates that in the dream, he
can't find his spikes. All he has is a shirt
and maybe some baseball pants. There's no uniform, he doesn't

(50:47):
have his glove, he hasn't warmed up there playing the anthem,
and there's no way he's going to get onto the
field for his first pitch, let alone warm up or
any of the other rituals beforehand. It is straight, strict anxiety.
But there's a twist to it, as I'm trying to
explain to this by text, this whole story about how

(51:08):
I have had similar dreams about college graduation. It's college
graduation morning, it's five minutes to graduation. I have forgotten
an entire course which almost actually happened. So there's a
real reason for it. There's a reason it's burned into
my mind since nineteen seventy nine. There's a real reason
for it. But it doesn't have to have that reason.

(51:29):
Most people have a dream just like this. You're going
to do something normal or planned, or something you've done
a thousand times, and for some reason you can't get there.
One of the reporters in the Tiger broadcast then related
that she has the dream in which she's hitting a baseball,

(51:50):
and then she hits the baseball successfully, but can't move
her legs. She can't run. Everybody's had the can't run dream,
they can't move dream. It's all of the same core
with a twist. As I am relating this and Jason
Bennette says, do you mind if I mention this on
the air to me by text because it'll make Dan

(52:12):
feel a little less shaken by recounting his own dream,
I say, sure, go ahead, he says. Frank Tanana, who
was a contemporary of both mine as a photographer and
reporter and Petres as a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers,
and was a very famous pitcher in the American League
for a good long time, possibly the hardest thrower, certainly
among left handed pitchers in the American League in the
nineteen seventies. Frank Tanana texts Dan Petrie in the booth

(52:36):
and says, I have the same dream, only my shoes.
The shoelaces on my shoes are tied together, and I
can't stand. And I would suspect every athlete has had
a dream in which something incredibly mundane prevents you from
starting the game. Never mind the thousand things you have
to do that only you can do that had propelled

(52:58):
you to fame and fortune, or at least fortune. Never
mind those tough things. The easy one, like getting there
when it's supposed to start, has failed you or you
have been prevented by by reasons you don't fully understand.
And you have this dream while you're playing, and then
in the years afterwards, and it makes perfect sense, because

(53:20):
these rituals are burned into your mind and they're so
heart of the structure that deadlines, that rules everybody's life,
that you don't even think of them anymore, and they
come out in dreams because you worry. You worry unconsciously,
which is what a dream is, after all. You worry
unconsciously about not getting it done on time. So now

(53:43):
we have two Detroit Tigers pictures of the nineteen eighties
telling essentially of the same dream that they've had, and
me with the I'm not going to graduate on time
or the more recent version which I had two days
before this broadcast that I'm hearing. When they're talking about
Dan Petrie not being able to find his shoes, they're

(54:04):
playing the anthem I had. The Sports Center is starting
in five minutes. Dream and you have at least half
an hour worth of writing to do, and you're not
in the studio, or you have a stage manager from
any one of a million different broadcasts, and in the dream,
it's always the real person. It's Jackie from MSNBC. It's

(54:25):
one of the guys from Fox. It's one of the
guys from ESPN, it's one of the guys from Channel
two in Los Angeles, it's one of the guys from
Channel five in Boston. And suddenly they point at you
and go five four three, two one, and you don't
even know what the broadcast is. I once had the dream,
and it was the inauguration of President Obama in the dream,

(54:47):
and I didn't know where I was, what network I
was on, And only because I saw the graphic over
this guy's shoulder did I know it was the inauguration
of a president. And I was not prepared. It is
the you're late, You're being prevented, You're not prepared. It's
all of the standard issue anxieties that you actually we
go through and try to prevent with an ordinary checklist

(55:08):
in the back of your mind every time you do
whatever you do, every time you ever did it, even
if you're not doing it anymore, even if you're thirty
years removed from having done it the last time. But
there's a twist to it, which I tried to convey
to mister Petrie and through him to mister Tanana, who,
by the way, Frank Tanana was probably the nicest guy

(55:29):
to the Scrubini reporters and photographers of nineteen seventy six
to nineteen eighty two that we ever knew. Everybody said
the same thing. Didn't matter if he was pitching that day,
when most pitchers just go into this semi psychotic state.
This fugue, don't talk to me, don't look at me.
You're interrupting my rituals. If you don't get out of

(55:52):
my way, I'll be stuck in my locker and they'll be
playing the anthem and my shoes will be tied together.
They gave off that kind of vibe. Frank Tanana never
did that. Frank Tanana once asked me about the camera
I was using, and I looked at him, and it
was half an hour before the game was supposed to
start at Yankee Stadium, and he was pitching for the
California Angels, and I said, aren't you pitching today. He went, yeah,

(56:13):
half an hour or so. I said, what about He goes, Oh,
I don't go for any of that. Don't talk to
the pitcherer thing. He asked me about the camera and
then he posed for me and he went out and
he threw eight innings of two hit baseball against Catfish
Hunter and the Yankees same day. So that's another psychological issue.
But the thing that twists this. Frank Tanana is about

(56:34):
five years my elder. Dan Petrie is about two months
my elder. We are more or less, although it would
have been different then because they were Major League baseball
players and I was a rookie radio reporter or a
trivial figure in sportscasting, or a photographer completely fungible those days.
There was a big difference then. Now we are all

(56:55):
in the same demographic. We are contemporaries, and I wanted
to explain to them and to anybody else who has
this dream or a dream like it, the I can't
get to what I'm supposed to do dream, Even though
I haven't had to do this for thirty years or
ten years or whatever. I have an added bit of insight,

(57:15):
particularly the dream about not graduating on time lingered with
me on at best a once a month basis till
about a year and a half two years ago. It
would always be updated. I would have to quit whatever
job I had and go back to school because I

(57:38):
had forgotten a course. I didn't make it to graduation.
Something something, something happened. Under the worst pressure and stress
of my career, I had this dream and I was
sent back, not to start college all over again, or
high school. I was sent back to the fourth grade.
I was now going to have to do eight years

(57:58):
of grammar and high school and then go back to college.
I had sixteen years penalty against me. I was being
sent back to the fourth grade as an adult. I
went into the classroom and had to sit in one
of the little kids chairs, and I didn't fit into
the little kids chairs. When I was in the fourth grade,
I finally thought when I had this dream, and I

(58:21):
suggested to my therapist, wait a minute, this dream doesn't
bother me the way it used to. It used to
really upset me and wake me, and I'd say, why
am I still having this dream. I graduated and in
the one dream, this one time when it didn't bother me,
I went back to the registrar's office and said, no,

(58:42):
I graduated, what's wrong with you people? And then I
had the dream again and it was kind of kind
of nostalgic and pleasant. And that's when it dawned on
me when I almost didn't graduate on time. And in
the dreams, every one of the dreams, I'm twenty years old,
or at worse, it's I'm forty years old, and for
some reason we're replaying graduation day. And the point ultimately

(59:07):
is this, and it may be the point for every
Dan Petrie and Frank Tanana out there who's having the
My shoelaces are tied. Oh good, in your dream, you
have shoelaces. In my dream, I can't find my shoes
at all. I don't know what broadcast I'm doing. I
don't know how I'm going to get to graduation. The
point is when you did this, when it actually happened

(59:29):
in real life, when this pressure was on you, you
were thirty years old, twenty five years old, twenty years old.
If you comb down into the baseline of your life, yes,
there are things that have been accomplished in the ensuing
thirty forty fifty years since the occasion of the reality

(59:50):
that is at the heart of this dream. There are
many things you would never trade for anything in the world,
or anything impossible in the world. You would not trade
these things for eternal life, family experiences, loved ones, whatever.
On the other hand, if you had a dream, and

(01:00:10):
in that dream you were offered the opportunity to be
twenty years old again, or thirty years old again, or hell,
by the time you get to my age, fifty years
old again, guess what you'd take it, especially if you
could bring all the good stuff of today with you
back to your new second shot at twenty years old.

(01:00:30):
A very simple reason, you're now no longer that close.
You are thirty years less close to the end. It's
not more complicated than that. At some point, the dream
stops being a terror dream full of life's ordinary, poisonous,
mind blowing, disastrous, terrifying, mundane deadlines. At some point it

(01:00:55):
becomes a nostalgic dream. Oh, I'd love to go back
to Cornell and spend another semester there and be twenty.
I'd go to the worst college in the world and
be twenty. I wouldn't be in college at all, I'd
be in high school at twenty and be twenty. It's

(01:01:15):
not complicated.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
It's not an.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Indictment of your current life. It's part of that hope
and survival instinct we all need to keep going every day,
especially now. So if you have this dream, you know,
just roll with it. Enjoy the idea that you're twenty
again or thirty, or you're still pitching in the major

(01:01:38):
leagues and you can't find your shoes, because trust me,
pitching in the major leagues without being able to find
your shoes or finding your shoelaces tied together is better
than A never pitching in the major leagues or b
having pitched in the major leagues thirty five years ago.
Just as not graduating on time but coming close today

(01:02:01):
is better than not graduating on time but coming close.
Oh you did grad wait on time? Whoa fifty years ago?
And I have one PostScript to this. Frank Tanana, the
second baseball pitcher, as I said, did not go in
for any of you. Do not talk to the pitcher

(01:02:22):
the day that I talked to him now twenty minutes
before his start, and he's just sitting there tossing the
baseball in the air, and said, sure, I'll pose for you.
That day he was facing the future Hall of Famer
Jim Catfish Hunter the New York Yankees, and he went
out and threw two hit ball over eight innings and

(01:02:42):
totally mesmerized the New York Yankees. There was one out
in the bottom of the ninth inning. I stayed for
the game and was watching it. The California Angels, behind
Frank Tanana's flaw was pitching, were leading eight to nothing,
eight to nothing with one out in the bottom of
the ninth inning, Frank Tanana mesmerizing the Yankees. The stadium
half empty from fans who gave up in disgust, and

(01:03:03):
I just kept thinking, boy, oh boy, pictures really don't
need to be sequestered before a start. He's absolutely right.
One out in the bottom of the ninth inning, two
outs to go for a two hit shutout, and Frank
Tinana proceeded to give up eight runs and did not
win the ballgame, and the game went to extra innings.
Because as I always thought thereafter, not only to starting

(01:03:27):
pitchers wisely not talk to anybody before the game, but
certainly if they're really smart, they don't talk to some
wise ass seventeen year old photographer who asks them to
pose for bubblegum card pictures. The Angels, by the way,

(01:03:55):
won that game and like the eleventh inning anyway, So
the Yankee comeback came to nought. But boy, oh boy,
was that an instructional evidence story for me at seven.
Oh no, I'll be fine. I can talk to you
before the game. He gave up eight runs in the
bottom of the ninth inning. For you youngsters, this is
when a starting pitcher would still be pitching in the
bottom of the ninth inning. I know it's like before electricity.

(01:04:20):
In fact, everything was still in black and white in
those days nineteen seventy six. So the gist of this is,
at some point, your worst fears, in your worst dreams
simply become nostalgia for the idea that it was better
when you were twenty years old. I've done all the
damage I can do here. Thank you for listening to

(01:04:41):
an old man complaining about being an old man. Most
of our Countdown music was arranged, produced, and performed by
Brian Ray and John Phillip Shanel, our musical directors of Countdown.
It was produced by Tko Brothers. Mister Ray on guitars,
bass and drums, Mister Chaneale handling, orchestration and keyboards. Our
satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball

(01:05:02):
stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The Olberman theme from ESPN
two was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
That is the sports music. Other music arranged and performed
by the group No Horns Allowed. My announcer today is
my friend Tony Kornheiser. The dream sequence was orchestrated by
Jason Bennetti and Dan Petrie. Everything else was, as always

(01:05:26):
my fault. I hope that provided some levity under the circumstances.
That's countdown for today, day one hundred and fifty four.
If America held hostage just three hundred and ten days
until the scheduled end of Trump's lame duck lame brained term,
unless Putin or Musk remove him sooner, or the actuarial
tables do, or we do. Remember he did it ran

(01:05:49):
because he thinks it will help him politically. Any strategic result,
good or bad, is an accident of coincidence. The next
scheduled countdown is Thursday. Until the next one. I'm Keith Olberman.
Good morning, Good afternoon, good Night, and good Luck. Countdown

(01:06:24):
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