May 21, 2024 • 51 mins
SERIES 2 EPISODE 179: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The FIRST item, letter A, on Trump's gag order: "Defendant is directed to refrain from making or directing others to make, public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses."
After the last time – after the last TEN times, to be exact – Justice Juan Merchan was explicit that, next time, he’d have to consider jailing Trump. Well Trump talked about witness Robert Costello – the one whom the judge metaphorically kicked in the gonads as the court day came to a roaring end. AND he talked about witness Michael Cohen and as the judge had ALSO explicitly stated, it didn’t matter if he was reading or quoting somebody else’s words. If there is any remaining doubt in Merchan’s mind that the premise of the Trump defense is not some kind of refutation of the charges but instead an all-out attack on the rule of law, on the judge, on the court, on its authority to dare to thwart Trump – the man who wants to put the “dick” in dictator – he must erase that doubt. This is why the outburst from the witness Robert Costello – an attorney - where he complained about Merchan’s rulings in real time – could be the last straw that sends Trump to the big house. That was Trump’s witness, the prosecution fought Merchan to keep him out, Merchan sided with the defense, the witness metaphorically spit in Merchan’s face.
MEANWHILE: Alito has NOT changed his story again and there is no Democratic politician with the guts to even conduct a hearing into his amazing corruption. But Brian Beutler has a suggestion that could at least illuminate reality and punish Alito and the fascists for his perfidy.
B-Block (33:23) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Politico is so corrupt that the boyfriend editor hyping the girlfriend's article doesn't even bother to put it third or fourth on its list. The guy who finished second to Larry Hogan in the GOP Maryland primary? Robin Ficker? Does that sound familiar? And RFK Jr, wrong about his residence and just three presidents of Iran behind the times.
C-Block (43:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The event was a couple of days ago but there's always time to celebrate not just the birthday of the immortal of Willie Mays but the day he gave a 20-year old me a radio interview that began with him doing a voice out of all the bigoted cliched movies of the 1930's.
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 beginning to suspect that Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche is
(00:25):
going to find it hard to get paid, so his
final defense witness so disrespected the judge that the judge
cleared the courtroom in order to scream at the man.
His gotcha moment from last week was disproved yesterday by
not just videotape, but c span videotape at his gotcha
(00:47):
moment from this week from yesterday that he got Michael
Cohen to admit he had stolen money from Trump's company,
turned out to have already been brought up in testimony
a week ago, and both times it underscores that either
Trump illegally listed that stolen money as a reimbursement to
Michael Cohen, which they deny, or Trump illegally listed the
(01:11):
stolen money as legal expenses, which is what he is
on trial for doing. And lawyer Todd Blanche also let
his client be caught not just dozing off like every
other day in court, but to quote the New York
Daily News, it appeared Trump was fully out and just
woke up. His head was tipped back so far that
(01:34):
he would have been looking at the ceiling when he
opened his eyes. In other words, Trump was this close
to drooling the drool of regret into the pillow of remorse,
and there was a little issue afterwards. The first item
letter A on the gag order against Trump defended is
(01:58):
directed to refrain from making or directing others to make
public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses. He talked
afterwards about a witness. Wait, this just in't I'm being told.
He talked afterwards about two witnesses.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And he saw what happened to a highly respected lawyer today,
Bob Costello. I've never seen anything like the highlight respect
the last five weeks, Andy Madara, to show he saw
from the Trump organization.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Even if they're structuring a DATO up.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And now I can't talk about it because again I
have a even he knows he just broke the gag
order after the last time, after the last ten times.
To be exact, Justice Wan Meershaan was explicit that next
time he would have to consider jailing Trump well. Trump
talked about witness Robert Costello, the one whom the judge
(03:00):
metaphorically kicked in the gonads as the day came to
a roaring end. And then as you heard, he talked
about witness Michael Cohen, and as the judge has also
explicitly stated, it doesn't matter if he's reading or quoting
somebody else's words, it's him talking about a witness. If
there is any remaining doubt in Mershon's mind that the
(03:21):
premise of the Trump defense is not some kind of
refutation of the charges, but is instead merely an all
out attack on the rule of law by any means available,
an all out attack on the judge, on the court,
on its authority to dare to thwart Trump, the man
who wants to put the dick back in dictator. If
(03:42):
there is any remaining doubt in Jan Merschan's mind about this,
he must erase it. This is why the outburst from
the witness, Robert Costello, who is an attorney, where he
complained about Mershon's rulings in real time as they happen,
This could be the last straw that finally sends Trump
to the Big House. That was Trump's witness. The prosecution
(04:04):
fought Merchon to keep him out. Merchon sided with the defense.
The witness then metaphorically spit in Mershon's face. Not good
on the old strategicy front, Bob. Regardless, I don't care
if it's for the rest of Trump's life or just
for the rest of the day. Mershon has to put
him in jail now, and to my mind, today would
(04:26):
be a good day to do it. They're gonna break
for the holiday, come back next Tuesday, give him an
all expenses paid, never to be forgotten Memorial Day weekend
at Rikers Island. I mean, at this point it's pretty
clear Trump won't really understand where he is anyway. As
court began yesterday, he did not know what month it was,
(04:48):
or where he was supposedly campaigning this week, or where
the next election or primary or whatever is. He decided
he was being kept from advocating for himself before the
primaries in Hampshire and Iowa, which happened last January. Natzie
Fagan and we go on day to day.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And I didn't kind of tell Iowa, I'm sorry. I
only ever Megan, I tell no, Andrew, sorry, I won't
be over to Magan. I'm sitting in a nice box
over there. As you know, I was supposed to be
in a.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Very different state.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Is a different state, the state of being asleep? Am
I right? By the way, the money Cohen stole, And
by the way, I've seen nothing funnier in the last
decade than Eric Trump writing that this just got interesting
because Cohen admitted for the second time that he swiped
thirty thousand dollars when Eric has self dealt on kids
(05:46):
cancer charities in the millions. The money Cohen stole was
reimbursement for a company that was helping him and Trump
fix a CNBC opinion poll about influential businessmen fix it
in Trump's favor, and they could only get Trump up
to ninth on the list, so Trump stiff them. Also
(06:07):
notable the Trump posse, the Republicans, the Renfields. A week ago,
it was the Speaker of the House. I don't know
how the hell he became Speaker of the House, but
he's Speaker of the House. And a bunch of corrupt
senators yesterday, Representative Keith's self, Representative Mary Miller, who is nuts,
(06:30):
who quoted Hitler at a stop the Steel rally, whose
hobby had one of those three percent militia stickers on it,
and Representative Andy Clyde, also known as Andy clown, the
one who said that January sixth was just a normal
tourist visit. Yes, it has happened in our lifetimes. They
(06:53):
are officially out of posse. Trump officially can no longer
grab them by the posse. I'm still working sick with
(07:34):
this sinus infection, so I'm particularly proud of that one line.
In fact, I'm gonna say it again, Trump can no
longer grab them by the posse. The other Trump headlines
He's supposed to have a rally in the South Bronx
day after tomorrow. He joked to donors that he fears
(07:56):
he might get hurt there as a native of the
Bronx and the descendant of South Bronxians, I would say
this is the first sign I have seen in months
that he may not be crazy. By the way, the
New York Times reported the little joke that he made
to his donors. Guess which reporter reported that, no, wasn't
(08:20):
Katie Terry Trump's Taylor Swift. Meanwhile, Kid rock interview with
Rolling Stone in it uses racial slurs, including the N word,
boasts he is part of America's political problem, and then
already drunk on wine and switching off to Jim Beam
and Cola quote He's sitting in a dark leather chair
(08:42):
shouting at me about something or other, when he reaches
behind the seat, pulls out a black handgun and waves
it around to make some sort of point rock then notes,
and I got an fing g damn gun right here.
If I needed, I got them everywhere. And somewhere Ted
Nugent is chewing on his knuckles, going, I have to
do better. I must do better than remember last week's Trump.
(09:08):
Why the eighty thousand crowd in New Jersey, eighty thousand
at Wildwood, New Jersey, one hundred thousand, two million, whatever
it was. Nope, it's been withdrawn from New Jersey Insider
NJ insider Lisa Fagan. I don't make these names up.
Lisa Fagan, the Wildwood Press spokesperson the Associated Press originally
(09:32):
cited as the source for the original crowd estimate, was
quoted as saying the eye popping estimate was based off
her own observations on the scene Saturday, having seen dozens
of other events in the same space. Five days later,
when asked to explain the wide variance between the AP
reporting and the New Jersey dot Com video that reveals
(09:54):
a crowd in the few thousands. Fagan provided a statement
from Mayor Treyano of Wildwood at odds with what the
Wire Service initially attributed to Fagan quote. As a tourist town,
we speak in tourism numbers, Tryana wrote. When we see
that volume of people attending a beach event, we know
(10:16):
that eighty thousand plus people are in our town. Now
I know that's Trumpian bookkeeping in a nutshell right there.
Your crowd is maybe seventy two hundred. You announced it's
eighty thousand or more because you and only you know that.
(10:38):
You mean that that's how many people must be in
the whole town, because there's seven thousand people in that
one part of the town. And you know, you could
criticize this, but remember it could be way worse. The
mayor theoretically could have claimed that the crowd was three
hundred and thirty three million, three hundred thousand, because that,
(11:01):
of course is how many people would be in our
country when there's seventy two hundred people in that one space.
And lastly, in the Trump News this update on the
presidential debates, did I tell you he would find an
excuse to back out did I tell you that he
(11:22):
would soon be preparing a series of excuses to back out,
that eventually he would take the one that seemed the
least stupid. Well, he hasn't gotten to the least stupid yet,
but he's preparing to back out, and he will back out.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
I just want to debate this guy, but you know,
and I'm gonna I'm going to demand a drug test
to By the way, I am, No, I really am.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Now to the sam Alito freak flag scandal Part three. No,
he has not changed his story again. Still it's the
why fault. Still, it's the school kids who could see
the sign as they waited for the bus that hadn't
been there for a month because it was remote learning.
He hasn't changed the story since he changed it on Friday.
(12:17):
Still has not suggested, by the way, in any of
the variations of his stories, that he might believe that, say,
a sitting justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States letting any kind of protest flag hang in public
from the flag pole in front of his own house
for at least three days is wrong, whether it's a
(12:41):
flag indicating stop the steal or steal the stop or
Antifa or support for Canada. Doesn't seem to think there's
anything wrong with that, has not denied that there was
a protest, and has not for the second or for
a moment, suggested that he and his family did not
have the right to do that while they were still
(13:02):
at the Supreme Court can considering cases that could have
decided or reversed the outcome of the twenty twenty election.
And still relative silence from the Democrats because because we
have a bunch of cowards on our team. Although there
is a good idea and we'll see if anybody does
(13:25):
anything about it. There is a new development, a theory
that the upside down flag from January twenty twenty one
from Martha Ann Alito it was all her fault. What
does sam Alito know from the flag sitting there and
the giant flagpole in front of his house? What does
he know from that? He never looks at the flag
in front of his own house. He barely goes to
(13:46):
his own house. Who's Martha Anne Alexandria Virginia. I don't
know her. There is a new theory that the upside
down flag is part of a political pattern for which
Alito should be punished in some way. The former legal
(14:06):
editor at BuzzFeed, Chris Geidner, reports that in late August
of last year, as the witch who calls herself libs
of TikTok continued to attack bud Light and the company
that owns it, and the influencer Dylan mulvany, that somebody
sold up to fifteen thousand dollars in stock in the
(14:29):
parent company of bud Light. Guess who sam Alito August
twenty twenty three, indicating a pattern of political protest which
violates the requirements that all judges, even the ones on
the Supreme Court, must stay publicly apolitical. Well, I think
that ship sailed a long time ago. Like that speech
(14:50):
that he gave after he visited the Vatican last year,
in which he mocked everybody who wasn't Catholic, I think
sam Alito's concern about whether or not we might perceive
him as political that may have waned. He may not
wake up in the middle of the night going gee,
I hope nobody thinks I'm political. But in any event,
here's the argument. In August of twenty twenty three, according
(15:13):
to the official filings, he sold between one thousand and
fifteen thousand dollars in at least that amount and at
least some of his stock in Anheuser Busch, and this
federal Chris Geidner, writing at lawdork dot Com wrote, according
to the Federal Judicial Financial Disclosure Reports database, Justice Samuel
(15:35):
Alito sold at least some of his stock in Anheuser
Busch and bought stock in Molsen Cores on Monday, August fourteenth,
twenty twenty three. So he switched brands. Here's the problem
with that. I have no respect whatsoever for Sam Alito,
and I have no respect for the justices on the
Supreme Court, who, because they are lifetime appointees, have basically
(15:58):
said f you to everybody else in all the rules,
and this includes the liberals. But the frick of scene
of Dylan mulvaney and Bud Light began in April of
twenty twenty three, and we're now talking about something towards
the middle of August, August fourteenth, twenty twenty three. And
you have to ask yourself if you accept the idea
(16:20):
that a judge, or particularly a justice of the United
States justice of the Supreme Court, has the right to
own stock, which is a debate, and I can see
arguments on both sides of it. Does he not have
the right to bail out of a stock that has
been failing from April onwards, even if it's his side
of the political ball that has caused the failure. Does
(16:42):
he not, by August have the right to sell up
to fifteen thousand dollars worth of his investment and put
it in a different beer stock. I just don't think
this is the real pattern. Now, if he sold the
stock and then she puts out the hit on Dylan mulvainy,
that's another story altogether. That's insider trading. But to call
(17:04):
the insider trading I think is nonsensical. Is Alito a
political sheep in sheep's clothing? Yes, of course. And again,
should Supreme Court justices be able to own stocks? A
much better question, But even that's kind of thin gruel
for this. On the other hand, as in all stories
in the timeline in which we live, a vital detail
(17:25):
of the original story was missed because all of us
who are looking for stuff like this have been going
at about oh thirty seven hundred percent of personal capacity
since sometime in the summer of twenty fifteen. In the
original New York Times story about sam Alito's stop the
steel flag at his house. I own a host. Word
(17:47):
of the flag filtered back to the court, people who
work there, said in interviews. Word of the flag filtered
back to the court? We who New York Times, you
mean to Chief Justice Roberts, since he's nominally in charge,
or or a janitor somewhere, or a clerk. I mean,
(18:09):
remember who the clerks are, particularly on the conservative side,
who they become. Laura Ingram was one of Clarence Thomas's clerks.
I think that's all you need to know about who
those people are. But what are we saying here? We're
saying Chief Justice Roberts knew about this months ago, years
ago and didn't do anything about it. Well, is that
(18:29):
not enough? Just that, whether it's Roberts or somebody else,
just that one phrase in the New York Times, word
of the flag filtered back to the court, people who
worked there set in interviews, and the rest of it
in there. Does that not suggest we need hearings. Congressman
Steve Cohen has moved to censure sam Alito. There is,
of course, one small problem with that, which is that
(18:50):
the House is controlled by the Democrats. No controlled by
the Republicans. Well, there goes the idea that justice or truth,
or morality or the law will be enforced to censure.
Sam Alito would just use the Barney Rubble test, would
(19:11):
require Congresswoman Barney Rubble to vote for it. But there
is a Judiciary committee that is run by Democrats. It
is in the Senate. Unfortunately, it is run by Dick Durbin,
who is either afraid of something somebody has on him
at the Supreme Court, or is the last guy in
(19:32):
America who buys into this idea that the Supreme Court
is somehow better than say, the Supreme Theocratic Court of Iran.
This sanctity of the Supreme Court, he's the last one
who believes it. I don't think sam Alito believes it anymore,
and apparently Dick Durbin does. And they're not doing a
(19:53):
damn thing except saying you really need to put in
some sort of etiquette and social responsibility and morality clause. Oh,
I mean, I'm sorry. I didn't mean morality, just conduct
caused eye. I'm sorry. There wasn't getting into morality. Clarence Thomas,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We're not talking about all that
stuff again with the videotapes.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
No no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Here was the theory. Originally, you could subpoena John Roberts
and Sam Alito and ask them under oath, what about
this flag jazz at a Senate hearing or somewhere else
in which Democrats could force the hearing to happen, And
(20:35):
of course somebody would sue to stop their testimony, and
guess where that would eventually wind up. The Supreme Court
would rule on whether or not those Supreme Court justices
had to testify. And of course, even if by a
chance Roberts and Alito or Thomas and Alito were subpoened
and thus really felt the need to recuse, oh guess what,
(20:56):
it's still four conservative votes to three liberal votes. However,
as always, Brian Boutler off message once a Countdown contributor
has a better idea. Subpoena not Roberts or Alito or Thomas,
but subpoena the liberal justices Justice Brown, Jackson, Justice Socomior
(21:19):
Justice Kagan. Subpoena them to come to the Democratic run
Senate Judiciary Committee. Why, as Boiler points out, and I
recommend subscribing to his site. Off message in January twenty
twenty two, there was one Scotis vote against giving the
January sixth Committee from the House access to the Trump
(21:42):
White House records in its investigation of the insurrection? Who
voted against it? Who was the one vote? Thomas? Why
doesn't say you're lucky that you know it's Thomas? Civilians
November twenty twenty two, Alito and Thomas both voted against
or voted in favor in that case of trying to
(22:04):
stop the Nuary sixth Committee from getting access to Kelly
Ward's phone. Kelly Ward has since been indicted in the
fake elector's plot in Arizona, and she is one of
the first class nut jobs in the entirety of the
fascist underbelly in this country. Alito and Thomas defended her.
Why what was their reasoning? What was discussed before the
(22:26):
ruling no idea? March twenty fourth, the quick ruling that
erased the fourteenth Amendment this year? Also this year they
wouldn't expedite a review of presidential immunity. They're still sitting
on presidential immunity. They're trying to find that fine line.
They're trying to do that razor's edge thing, thread the
needle we're going to have presidential immunity, but it's not
(22:46):
going to apply to Biden. You watch, and they would
hear the bid to erase charging insurrectionists with the obstruction
of official proceedings that was voted upon, and they're hearing it.
And who voted what way, and what were the logical arguments?
We don't know in all cases, who voted which way,
(23:06):
who said yes, we will hear this case, who said
we will not. All of the arguments they could make,
all of the possibilities which can and has been made
public in previous cases, has not been made public. It
is all a secret. It is not just the Supreme Court.
It is the secret goddamned Supreme Court. And they're doing
(23:27):
whatever the f they want. And Buler's idea of how
to interrupt that is since Democrats do not control the
House and cannot impeach Alito and Thomas, and there is
no way to get them off the court, and John
Roberts does not have the guts to turn in his
resignation and not only completely destroy the court without in
(23:47):
fact shifting it to a liberal court, but turn the
court over to somebody who is in there to reform
it and force Thomas and Alito out. Boiler's idea is
call the liberals to testify to who said what in
those negotiations in those the liberations, the Alito and Thomas
with Kelly Ward, the January twenty twenty two vote over
(24:10):
giving the January sixth Committee the records from the Trump
White House, the quick ruling erasing the fourteenth Amendment, the
expedited or non expedited review of presidential immunity, the attempt
to fabricate presidential immunity. Who said what? Justice Sotomayor, I
know you don't want to be here, but we need
to find out the truth. At minimum, expose the conservative justices,
(24:38):
particularly Alito and Thomas, on the record as siding with
the insurrectionists these cases. The Democratic Judiciary Committee investigation into
insurrectionists on the Supreme Court waited a little bit. If
you're saying, what's the point, well, what was the point
(25:01):
of pro public at chasing down Harlan crow Irons Thomas's
giant bus, his RV. What was the point of that?
What's the point of the times going after? What did
sam Alito know about the flag and when did he
know it? Three years ago? How long have they been
working on that. Who knows what else will shake out.
(25:26):
The point I have always made is that the first
thing that has to happen before anything gets fixed is
somebody has to stand up and say this is wrong.
And if you drag in Kagan and Sotomayor and Justice
Brown Jackson, and you say you're under oath, we need
to know what Clarence Thomas said about this, what Samuel
(25:48):
Alito said about this. If it goes no further than that,
there is a record, because who knows what else will
shake out? Because that bud Lights story insider trading. The
deal goes down in April, and the in trading the
guy sells in August. That's not insider trading. That's not
even smart trading. The bud Light story is mah, but
(26:12):
the idea behind the bud Light story is not mah.
While Alito was hearing a case last year to hamstring
the EPA, his wife was giving an energy company mineral rights.
If the EPA were hamstrung to what was in her
one hundred and sixty acres that she inherited from Daddy
(26:34):
in Oklahoma? Was that a cash deal? Did she and
Hubby talk about that or did they not talk about
anything like flags or one hundred and sixty acre mineral rights.
Suddenly I'm turning into Tom Broke, I'm mineral rights in Oklahoma?
Was that a cash? What was that? What do Kegan,
(26:55):
Sodamayora and Jackson know about this? What can they tell
us under oath? Bust up the Supreme I mean, what
kind of standards are we holding up in the Supreme Court?
It's utterly corrupt And there are three people who are
nominally not corrupt, and they don't say anything. And nobody
takes the chance of saying, let's poke around and see
(27:17):
what's going to happen here, because what are we going
to do? The Supreme Court is suddenly going to start
ruling against liberals and against the Constitution. They're doing that now.
We are already being beaten up by the bullies. Take
the rock and hit the bully in the head. Every
single smidge of corruption that can be brought to light
(27:37):
not only increases the chances that we stop the corruption,
but also it plays into the election. Who knows how
many voters don't understand that the Supreme Court is corrupt
now and will only get more corrupt as in a
Trump presidency. Alito certainly Thomas retire, and Trump said over
(28:02):
the weekend he wants to appoint new judges throughout the
judicial system, including the Supreme Court, who will still be
on the bench in the year twenty seventy. That's what
he wants. That's what they want. They want this country
to be ruled like Iran. The election is not just
(28:22):
our hope of avoiding this now, it may very well
be our last hope. Also of interest here in speaking
of Iran, Robert F. Kennedy Junior's voting address the one
on all those forms for all that ballot access, so
(28:43):
he can be a spoiler for Trump. A he doesn't
live there, the place on the address, and he doesn't
live there. Nobody's seen him there. He's been voting from
there since two thousand and eight. Also, right after the
president of Iran was killed in that helicopter accident, who
does rfk Junior bring up the president of Iran? And
(29:06):
he said, the President of the United States, whoever that
would be, And he really thinks it's going to be him.
He said, the President of the United States needs to
negotiate with the president of Iran. Only the guy he
thinks is the president of Iran is not the new
one that they haven't voted in yet, and isn't the
dead one. He's three presidents of Iran ago. That's who
(29:27):
Robert F. Kennedy wants to negotiate with. That's how crazy
he is. Worst person's next. This is countdown. This is countdown,
with Keith Olberman still ahead of us on this initiative countdown.
(30:04):
I'm he missed Willie Mays's birthday, meaning I missed the
opportunity to tell you of the day I, as a
twenty year old broadcasting rookie, had to call him and
interview him about the day he got banned from baseball.
And before I could ask him one question, Willie Mays
did a fake voice. And it was some fake voice.
(30:27):
I can't even use it in telling you the story
things I promised not to tell coming up at first
is ever, there are still more new idiots to talk about.
The daily roundup of the miss Grants, morons and Dunning
Krueger effects specimens who constitute today's worse persons in the world.
The Bronze Worser Politico, the increasingly right leaning insider publication
(30:50):
in the increasingly right leaning media, landscape where they're all
sitting around going how do we protect our phony, boloney
jobs and our money in the case of the Trump
winning and the country going fascist. I'll just read this
quote from political writer calder McHugh. Honestly, calder McHugh, you're
(31:11):
sure his name isn't Hugh mcaulder. Calder mcew who has
an idea of how to stay in power even if
the fascists take over Washington again. It's impossible to know.
He writes exactly how Trump will behave if he returns
to office. Well, first of all, let me just interject
here bullshit. By all accounts, Trump has professionalized his twenty
(31:34):
twenty four campaign, writes Hugh mcaulder, suggesting he learns something
from his slap dash first campaign and his twenty twenty
re election loss. Yes, he learned not to have any
more elections. But you haven't learned that, have you, cal macuter.
The question is whether his views on presidential prerogatives have changed,
(31:58):
or whether he intends to be guided by loftier principles
this guy writes, and it's not meant ironically loftier principles.
Trump's idea of loftier principles are ideas that get him
more money. Second half this is from the Politico Email newsletter,
(32:18):
and it speaks to how corrupt corrupt is nowadays. Nobody
even bothers to cover it up. Corruption at every level
of American society is so deep that nobody said no, don't, don't,
don't do that. They do this every week on the
Politico Email newsletter. I guess it's the Saturday edition in
(32:41):
which they have Great Weekend Reads curated by Ryan Liza.
Ryan Liza, who used to be with The New Yorker,
got fired for something we never found out what, involving
their behavior patterns and their rules. Nobody ever explained what
it was. I think I know what it was, but
I'm not ready to tell you yet. But it was
not It was not nice. Ryan Lizza Great Weekend Reads,
(33:04):
and he lists eight or nine long articles that are
usually appealing only to people who have lots of spare
time and a very very low threshold or very high
threshold for being bored. The first one Great Weekend Reads
curated by Ryan Liza Semi Colan on the campaign trail
(33:24):
by New York Magazines Olivia, Newsy Donald Trump is running
for president while bumping into the past at a Manhattan
criminal courthouse. They are their boyfriend and girlfriend, Ryan Lizza
pimping Olivia Newsy's article about Donald Trump and the campaign
trail and the trial. Boyfriend and girlfriend, and make no
(33:48):
secret of this. Unlike her past relationships, there's no secret
involved in this, the first one, and they're seven or
eight other You couldn't have the presence of mind to say,
why don't I put the one about you third? And
you would you hand me that coffee? I put you
third so it doesn't look like I'm the term technically
(34:09):
is a log rolling, and I'm pushing your article because
you're my girlfriend. Jesus, just pretend, pretend that there's some
ethics involved. Runner up worser. This isn't really worse, but
I needed a place to stick it, and I've been
saving it because of this sickness for a little while.
(34:30):
Here the Republican primary for the Senate in Maryland. Larry Hogan,
the former governor or, the outgoing governor, sixty three percent
of the vote. Robin Ficker was the runner up with
thirty percent of the vote. Robin Ficker. I looked at
this and I went Robin Ficker. Robin Ficker. Does the
name sound familiar? This is my world's colliding. Until nineteen
(34:52):
ninety eight, Robin Ficker was the heckler in professional sports.
He went to every one of the Washington Bullets and
then Washington Wizard's game. He sometimes had a portable megaphone
with him. He sat in the front row, so right
behind the visiting bench. He used insults, personal insults, derogatory terms,
sat right behind the bench. Several coaches had to be
(35:14):
restrained from going after him physically. And he was such
a fan that when they changed arenas and reassigned everybody
to new seats, they would not sell him those same
front row seats, and so he stopped being a fan
of the team. So a real dedicated fan who was
not there just to make fun of the other players.
I believe it was Charles Barkley, who wants in the
(35:36):
middle of one of these Ficker monologues, threw a wet,
sweaty towel and got it to wrap perfectly in a
tight camera shot around Robin Ficker's face. He's eighty something.
He runs for office every couple of years, and he
was the runner up in the Republican primary for Senate.
So when they talk about what an invincible candidate the
(35:57):
Republicans have trotted out for the Senate from Maryland, just
remember the guy he beat is the retired ex heckler
from the NBA. But our winner the worst RFK Junior.
Not a good week for being RFK Junior. Not a
good month, not a good year, not a good decade,
not a good lifetime. Ultimately, The New York Post reports
(36:22):
that Kennedy quote lists his residents to vote as a Tony,
Westchester County address which is in foreclosure. Proceedings for non
payment court record show the independent candidate claims his voting
address is eighty four Croton Lake Road in Katona, though
he is not the owner of the million dollar in
arrears property does not show up in residential searches for it,
(36:44):
and some longtime neighbors and even local authorities were shocked
at the notion it's his home. But RFK Junior also
has the same address list that has his domicile or
residents on his presidential nomination petitions filed in New Hampshire
in recent months, according to the records which are obtained
by the Post, and he's been voting being from this
(37:05):
address since at least two thousand and eight, according to
the New York Post, So everything about Robert F. Kennedy,
including his eligibility for being on the ballot in places
like New Hampshire, could be challenged if anybody would get
around doing that. He's been lying about his address all
this time, or he doesn't know where he lives, and
(37:28):
we have more evidence supporting the later theory of those two.
The day after the President of Iran was killed in
a chopper accident, RFK Junior demanded that the President of
the United States, presumably himself pres himself, negotiate with the
President of Iran. Only you know, right now there ain't
(37:50):
a president of Iran and it's getting worse from this point.
Just listen to this hitting down with other world leaders,
with people like President g and President Plutin and President
Vaman dinnershad for the prime minister all the people President
Akmadina Jodd, Mack Mood, Achmedina Jod or do you mean
somebody else like Barney Achmadena Jod Because mack Mood Akmadina
(38:13):
Jodd has not been president of Iran since August of
twenty thirteen, his term expired. He's tried to run twice since,
and he's two nuts even for the government of Iran.
R f K Junior thinks he's president. It's been almost
eleven years. R f K Junior, you will never convince
(38:34):
me that the worm is dead. Two days. Worst person
in the world. Now to the number one story on
(38:54):
the countdown, and I have to confess this has been
a strong effort. I hope you appreciate this. I'm playing
Hurt full edition and my favorite topic me which I've
he discussed and complimented myself. Now things I promise not
to tell, and I am late to the party. It
was two weeks ago yesterday, but Willie Howard Mays turned
(39:16):
ninety three years old earlier this month. And he is
the greatest defensive athlete I have ever seen in any sport.
Saw him in person when I was a kid, and
also one of the top five offensive athletes in any sport.
And this is now the seventy fourth baseball season since
his debut and the fifty first season since his retirement,
(39:36):
and everybody ever in baseball in all that time has
met him, and he is still rightly celebrated wherever he goes.
Whenever his name is brought up in me amidst all
this celebration and literally half a century or more of
glorification of Willie Mays. When his name comes up, I
think of only one thing. The first time I interviewed
(39:58):
him in the off season of nineteen seventy nine eighty.
And I'm not going to say it was a strange interview,
but I am affecting that I will be getting over
it any day now. Maybe it was at my first
job for my radio network when God helped me. Willie
Mays was seventeen years younger than I am now, Like
(40:22):
I wasn't scared enough to talk to Willie Mays. He
started that interview by doing a bit, a comedy bit
that if I had done it, then they would have
fired me. The other thing I think of is an
amazing injustice that befell Willie Mays that nobody talks about
(40:45):
and nobody registers anymore. Okay, the first part. So it's
a Saturday afternoon, October twenty seventh, nineteen seventy nine, just
forty three and a half years ago, and Willie Mays
has just been banned from baseball because word has gotten
out that he has signed a contract to do promotional
events for a casine know in Atlantic City, and there
(41:06):
is a news conference coming up in two days on Monday.
Now try explaining this whole concept to any current sports fan.
Any current sports fan now used to seeing retired players
on TV telling them how to bet and who to
bet on, or the sportscasters doing the games giving you
the latest odds and how they have changed since the
(41:28):
last period or inning started. Plus this was like three
months after Willie Mays was inducted into the Baseball Hall
of Fame, three months after the celebration of this brilliant career,
and now they've banned him for life for something that
today the commissioner would have sent him a note of congratulations,
(41:48):
to say nothing of a large paycheck. And nobody has
done an interview with Willy Mays yet because he has
been traveling. And my phone rings in my little cubby
hole at the United pres International Radio Network that I've
only been working at since August three months, that's how
long my full time broadcasting career has been to this point.
(42:10):
And on the phone is maybe the top baseball reporter
of the second half of the twentieth century, Keith. It's
Milt Richmond. This man once reported in July nineteen fifty
five that if the Milwaukee Braves did not start winning,
that they would fire their manager. Exactly one year later,
and they didn't start winning, and exactly one year later
(42:32):
to the day, they fired their manager. Keith, write this
phone number down. It's Willie May's. Milt never got excited
about anything. He talked like this all the time. William
Mays is expecting your call for an interview about this
banishment story. And I squeaked yes, sir, and I went
into one of our recording studios and I dialed Willie
(42:53):
Mays's phone number. And I will not recreate the voice
that I heard answer Willie May's phone, because while doing
this voice was once considered to be a staple of
American humor, even American humor written or performed by liberals.
I mean, James Thurber's short stories are full of this voice.
(43:15):
The voice is wildly racist. It is racist enough that
if today you heard an African American man do it,
even Willie Mays, you probably say.
Speaker 5 (43:27):
No, no, no, no, no, still racist. Don't do it, Willie.
It was a voice similar to the actress Hattie McDaniel,
who won the Academy Award in nineteen thirty nine for
Gone with the Wind. She was a world class blues singer,
a top patriotic fundraiser during World War Two, and she
played maids housekeepers in maybe two hundred films. She also
(43:52):
played one on a famous radio show, and was paid
so little that while she was performing her role of
the pretend maid, she had to keep working as a
real maid. Okay, so I'm twenty years old and I
have to interview Willie Mays about him getting banned from baseball,
which is crazy enough. And I call and the phone
is answered, and a gravelly but feminine voice that sounded
(44:15):
exactly like Hattie McDaniel says hello, mister Mays's residence. And
I'm a little thrown but I power through it somehow,
and I explain who I am, and she says ahah,
And I say where I'm calling from and she says uhah,
And I say, Milt Richmond said, mister Mays was expecting
my call. And she interrupts and goes, this is Willie.
(44:39):
The Hattie McDaniel impersonation was being done by Willie Mays.
Now I do not have this on tape. Silly me.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
When my bosses said you may not start recording before
you get express permission from the interviewee to start recording.
I believed them, and I lived by that rule. Anybody
else would have a tape of this phone being answered
and the Hattie McDaniel impression done by Willie Mays, because
(45:11):
the first thing you do is record, so you don't
have to remember to record, because otherwise you'll forget to record.
But I'm afraid you are going to have to take
my word for this, because why would I make this up.
October twenty seventh, nineteen seventy nine, and I still haven't
recovered mister Mays's residence. Happy ninety second birthday, Willy Mays.
(45:37):
Now the injustice that Willy Mays suffered that nobody talks about.
In fact, I've never heard him talk about it. This
is something else that no fan believes today. The United
States military used to draft Major League Baseball players and
NFL players and NBA players and send them into the
service in the middle of their seasons, in the primes
(45:59):
of their careers, even if there was no war in progress.
They only did it a couple of times after saying
nineteen forty five, and usually that was thinly veiled racist
political pressure, such as when they drafted Muhammad Ali in
nineteen sixty six when he was heavyweight champion of the
world and an activist Muslim, and he was twenty four
(46:19):
years old when everybody else getting drafted was eighteen. Remember that.
But in nineteen fifty two they also drafted Willie Mays.
He had come up from the Miners the year before
and had led the New York Giants from thirteen games
back to the National League pennant, and he was the
kind of all around whirlwind of a player nobody had
ever seen before in Major League Baseball. And on May
(46:42):
twenty ninth, thirty four games into his second season, boom,
he was drafted and inducted, and he missed the rest
of that season and all of the nineteen fifty three season.
I can't think of a parallel today. Maybe maybe they
draft in the middle of his second season somebody like
(47:03):
Fernando TEIs and in the middle of May, he's gone
for the rest of this year and next year because
he has to go serve in the military. Now. They
didn't draft Mickey Mantle, who also broke in in New
York in nineteen fifty one, the way Mays did, and
to be fair, Mickey Mantle had about four hundred medical
(47:24):
problems that would have kept anybody out of the military,
and it was all legit. But they also didn't draft
the nineteen fifty one American League Rookie of the Year winner,
Gil McDougald of the Yankees, who was a white guy,
or Walt Dropo, who was the Rookie of the Year
in nineteen fifty or Roy Sievers, who was the Rookie
of the Year in nineteen forty nine, or or you
(47:45):
get the point here. Now, trying to calculate should have
beens in sports is a risky enough business, but you
can get an approximation of what might have happened. If
a player hits twenty homers in his first year and
then misses two years, and then he comes back and
he hits forty one homers in his first year back,
you can extrap up of eight that he probably would
(48:06):
have hit twenty seven homers in the first missing year
and thirty four in the second missing year. Your numerical
sequence is twenty homers and twenty seven homers, then thirty
four homers, then forty one homers. You have to tinker
a little bit with it in Mays's case, because he
didn't miss all of that second season nineteen fifty two,
He just missed from June on, and he'd had a
(48:27):
slow start. He'd only hit four homers in the first
two months of nineteen fifty two, so instead of twenty
seven that year, maybe he only hits twenty four that year.
So a good guess as to how many homers Willie
Mays did not get to hit because he got drafted
and all the white guys did not get drafted is
all told fifty four. In real life, playing between nineteen
(48:50):
fifty one and nineteen seventy three, Willie Mays finished with
six hundred and sixty home runs. For most of the
nineteen sixties, it was thought he was the man who
would challenge Babe Ruth's career record, not Hank Aaron, but
Willie Mays. Willie Mays hit six hundred and sixty homers,
But if you give him those fifty four more homers
(49:12):
he might have hit. If he hadn't been so curiously
drafted in nineteen fifty two, Willie Mays would have finished
with seven hundred and fourteen home runs. Seven hundred and fourteen,
which is exactly how many Babe Ruth hit, So if
he doesn't get drafted, maybe in nineteen seventy two and
nineteen seventy three and nineteen seventy four, we are seeing
(49:33):
Willie Mays hit his seven hundredth career home run, challenging
Babe Ruth's record, and then tying and breaking Babe Ruth's record,
and then right behind him, Henry Aaron hits his seven
hundred and fifteenth homer and then his seven hundred and
sixteenth homer to break the all time record held by
Willie Mays mister Mays's residence. That's not how it sounded.
(50:10):
Done all the damage I can do here, Thank you
for listening. Countdown Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip
Schanel arranged, produced, and performed most of our music. Mister
Ray was on guitars, bass and drums, Mister Chanelle handled
orchestration and keyboards, and it was produced by Tko Brothers.
Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and
performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music
(50:31):
is the Alderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch
Warren Davis Curtisy of ESPN inc. Our satirical and pithy
musical comments are by Nancy Fauss, the best baseball stadium
organist ever. Our announcer was my friend Larry David. Everything
else was pretty much my fault. But once again I
did a good job today. Considering that's countdown for this
(50:52):
the one hundred and sixty ninth day until the twenty
twenty four presidential election, the two hundred and thirty second
day since Dictator Jay Trump's first attempted coup against the
democratically elected government of the United States. Use the legal
system such as it is, use the mental health system,
use presidential immunity if it happens, Use the not regularly
(51:14):
given elector objection option to stop him from doing it
again while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow.
Still day to day. On that with the sinus, We're
all day to day, especially me, till the next one.
I'm Keith Oulrimman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
(51:36):
good luck. Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple
(51:59):
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts,
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. I
am beginning to suspect that Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche is
(00:25):
going to find it hard to get paid, so his
final defense witness so disrespected the judge that the judge
cleared the courtroom in order to scream at the man.
His gotcha moment from last week was disproved yesterday by
not just videotape, but c span videotape at his gotcha
(00:47):
moment from this week from yesterday that he got Michael
Cohen to admit he had stolen money from Trump's company,
turned out to have already been brought up in testimony
a week ago, and both times it underscores that either
Trump illegally listed that stolen money as a reimbursement to
Michael Cohen, which they deny, or Trump illegally listed the
(01:11):
stolen money as legal expenses, which is what he is
on trial for doing. And lawyer Todd Blanche also let
his client be caught not just dozing off like every
other day in court, but to quote the New York
Daily News, it appeared Trump was fully out and just
woke up. His head was tipped back so far that
(01:34):
he would have been looking at the ceiling when he
opened his eyes. In other words, Trump was this close
to drooling the drool of regret into the pillow of remorse,
and there was a little issue afterwards. The first item
letter A on the gag order against Trump defended is
(01:58):
directed to refrain from making or directing others to make
public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses. He talked
afterwards about a witness. Wait, this just in't I'm being told.
He talked afterwards about two witnesses.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And he saw what happened to a highly respected lawyer today,
Bob Costello. I've never seen anything like the highlight respect
the last five weeks, Andy Madara, to show he saw
from the Trump organization.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Even if they're structuring a DATO up.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And now I can't talk about it because again I
have a even he knows he just broke the gag
order after the last time, after the last ten times.
To be exact, Justice Wan Meershaan was explicit that next
time he would have to consider jailing Trump well. Trump
talked about witness Robert Costello, the one whom the judge
(03:00):
metaphorically kicked in the gonads as the day came to
a roaring end. And then as you heard, he talked
about witness Michael Cohen, and as the judge has also
explicitly stated, it doesn't matter if he's reading or quoting
somebody else's words, it's him talking about a witness. If
there is any remaining doubt in Mershon's mind that the
(03:21):
premise of the Trump defense is not some kind of
refutation of the charges, but is instead merely an all
out attack on the rule of law by any means available,
an all out attack on the judge, on the court,
on its authority to dare to thwart Trump, the man
who wants to put the dick back in dictator. If
(03:42):
there is any remaining doubt in Jan Merschan's mind about this,
he must erase it. This is why the outburst from
the witness, Robert Costello, who is an attorney, where he
complained about Mershon's rulings in real time as they happen,
This could be the last straw that finally sends Trump
to the Big House. That was Trump's witness. The prosecution
(04:04):
fought Merchon to keep him out. Merchon sided with the defense.
The witness then metaphorically spit in Mershon's face. Not good
on the old strategicy front, Bob. Regardless, I don't care
if it's for the rest of Trump's life or just
for the rest of the day. Mershon has to put
him in jail now, and to my mind, today would
(04:26):
be a good day to do it. They're gonna break
for the holiday, come back next Tuesday, give him an
all expenses paid, never to be forgotten Memorial Day weekend
at Rikers Island. I mean, at this point it's pretty
clear Trump won't really understand where he is anyway. As
court began yesterday, he did not know what month it was,
(04:48):
or where he was supposedly campaigning this week, or where
the next election or primary or whatever is. He decided
he was being kept from advocating for himself before the
primaries in Hampshire and Iowa, which happened last January. Natzie
Fagan and we go on day to day.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And I didn't kind of tell Iowa, I'm sorry. I
only ever Megan, I tell no, Andrew, sorry, I won't
be over to Magan. I'm sitting in a nice box
over there. As you know, I was supposed to be
in a.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Very different state.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Is a different state, the state of being asleep? Am
I right? By the way, the money Cohen stole, And
by the way, I've seen nothing funnier in the last
decade than Eric Trump writing that this just got interesting
because Cohen admitted for the second time that he swiped
thirty thousand dollars when Eric has self dealt on kids
(05:46):
cancer charities in the millions. The money Cohen stole was
reimbursement for a company that was helping him and Trump
fix a CNBC opinion poll about influential businessmen fix it
in Trump's favor, and they could only get Trump up
to ninth on the list, so Trump stiff them. Also
(06:07):
notable the Trump posse, the Republicans, the Renfields. A week ago,
it was the Speaker of the House. I don't know
how the hell he became Speaker of the House, but
he's Speaker of the House. And a bunch of corrupt
senators yesterday, Representative Keith's self, Representative Mary Miller, who is nuts,
(06:30):
who quoted Hitler at a stop the Steel rally, whose
hobby had one of those three percent militia stickers on it,
and Representative Andy Clyde, also known as Andy clown, the
one who said that January sixth was just a normal
tourist visit. Yes, it has happened in our lifetimes. They
(06:53):
are officially out of posse. Trump officially can no longer
grab them by the posse. I'm still working sick with
(07:34):
this sinus infection, so I'm particularly proud of that one line.
In fact, I'm gonna say it again, Trump can no
longer grab them by the posse. The other Trump headlines
He's supposed to have a rally in the South Bronx
day after tomorrow. He joked to donors that he fears
(07:56):
he might get hurt there as a native of the
Bronx and the descendant of South Bronxians, I would say
this is the first sign I have seen in months
that he may not be crazy. By the way, the
New York Times reported the little joke that he made
to his donors. Guess which reporter reported that, no, wasn't
(08:20):
Katie Terry Trump's Taylor Swift. Meanwhile, Kid rock interview with
Rolling Stone in it uses racial slurs, including the N word,
boasts he is part of America's political problem, and then
already drunk on wine and switching off to Jim Beam
and Cola quote He's sitting in a dark leather chair
(08:42):
shouting at me about something or other, when he reaches
behind the seat, pulls out a black handgun and waves
it around to make some sort of point rock then notes,
and I got an fing g damn gun right here.
If I needed, I got them everywhere. And somewhere Ted
Nugent is chewing on his knuckles, going, I have to
do better. I must do better than remember last week's Trump.
(09:08):
Why the eighty thousand crowd in New Jersey, eighty thousand
at Wildwood, New Jersey, one hundred thousand, two million, whatever
it was. Nope, it's been withdrawn from New Jersey Insider
NJ insider Lisa Fagan. I don't make these names up.
Lisa Fagan, the Wildwood Press spokesperson the Associated Press originally
(09:32):
cited as the source for the original crowd estimate, was
quoted as saying the eye popping estimate was based off
her own observations on the scene Saturday, having seen dozens
of other events in the same space. Five days later,
when asked to explain the wide variance between the AP
reporting and the New Jersey dot Com video that reveals
(09:54):
a crowd in the few thousands. Fagan provided a statement
from Mayor Treyano of Wildwood at odds with what the
Wire Service initially attributed to Fagan quote. As a tourist town,
we speak in tourism numbers, Tryana wrote. When we see
that volume of people attending a beach event, we know
(10:16):
that eighty thousand plus people are in our town. Now
I know that's Trumpian bookkeeping in a nutshell right there.
Your crowd is maybe seventy two hundred. You announced it's
eighty thousand or more because you and only you know that.
(10:38):
You mean that that's how many people must be in
the whole town, because there's seven thousand people in that
one part of the town. And you know, you could
criticize this, but remember it could be way worse. The
mayor theoretically could have claimed that the crowd was three
hundred and thirty three million, three hundred thousand, because that,
(11:01):
of course is how many people would be in our
country when there's seventy two hundred people in that one space.
And lastly, in the Trump News this update on the
presidential debates, did I tell you he would find an
excuse to back out did I tell you that he
(11:22):
would soon be preparing a series of excuses to back out,
that eventually he would take the one that seemed the
least stupid. Well, he hasn't gotten to the least stupid yet,
but he's preparing to back out, and he will back out.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
I just want to debate this guy, but you know,
and I'm gonna I'm going to demand a drug test
to By the way, I am, No, I really am.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Now to the sam Alito freak flag scandal Part three. No,
he has not changed his story again. Still it's the
why fault. Still, it's the school kids who could see
the sign as they waited for the bus that hadn't
been there for a month because it was remote learning.
He hasn't changed the story since he changed it on Friday.
(12:17):
Still has not suggested, by the way, in any of
the variations of his stories, that he might believe that, say,
a sitting justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States letting any kind of protest flag hang in public
from the flag pole in front of his own house
for at least three days is wrong, whether it's a
(12:41):
flag indicating stop the steal or steal the stop or
Antifa or support for Canada. Doesn't seem to think there's
anything wrong with that, has not denied that there was
a protest, and has not for the second or for
a moment, suggested that he and his family did not
have the right to do that while they were still
(13:02):
at the Supreme Court can considering cases that could have
decided or reversed the outcome of the twenty twenty election.
And still relative silence from the Democrats because because we
have a bunch of cowards on our team. Although there
is a good idea and we'll see if anybody does
(13:25):
anything about it. There is a new development, a theory
that the upside down flag from January twenty twenty one
from Martha Ann Alito it was all her fault. What
does sam Alito know from the flag sitting there and
the giant flagpole in front of his house? What does
he know from that? He never looks at the flag
in front of his own house. He barely goes to
(13:46):
his own house. Who's Martha Anne Alexandria Virginia. I don't
know her. There is a new theory that the upside
down flag is part of a political pattern for which
Alito should be punished in some way. The former legal
(14:06):
editor at BuzzFeed, Chris Geidner, reports that in late August
of last year, as the witch who calls herself libs
of TikTok continued to attack bud Light and the company
that owns it, and the influencer Dylan mulvany, that somebody
sold up to fifteen thousand dollars in stock in the
(14:29):
parent company of bud Light. Guess who sam Alito August
twenty twenty three, indicating a pattern of political protest which
violates the requirements that all judges, even the ones on
the Supreme Court, must stay publicly apolitical. Well, I think
that ship sailed a long time ago. Like that speech
(14:50):
that he gave after he visited the Vatican last year,
in which he mocked everybody who wasn't Catholic, I think
sam Alito's concern about whether or not we might perceive
him as political that may have waned. He may not
wake up in the middle of the night going gee,
I hope nobody thinks I'm political. But in any event,
here's the argument. In August of twenty twenty three, according
(15:13):
to the official filings, he sold between one thousand and
fifteen thousand dollars in at least that amount and at
least some of his stock in Anheuser Busch, and this
federal Chris Geidner, writing at lawdork dot Com wrote, according
to the Federal Judicial Financial Disclosure Reports database, Justice Samuel
(15:35):
Alito sold at least some of his stock in Anheuser
Busch and bought stock in Molsen Cores on Monday, August fourteenth,
twenty twenty three. So he switched brands. Here's the problem
with that. I have no respect whatsoever for Sam Alito,
and I have no respect for the justices on the
Supreme Court, who, because they are lifetime appointees, have basically
(15:58):
said f you to everybody else in all the rules,
and this includes the liberals. But the frick of scene
of Dylan mulvaney and Bud Light began in April of
twenty twenty three, and we're now talking about something towards
the middle of August, August fourteenth, twenty twenty three. And
you have to ask yourself if you accept the idea
(16:20):
that a judge, or particularly a justice of the United
States justice of the Supreme Court, has the right to
own stock, which is a debate, and I can see
arguments on both sides of it. Does he not have
the right to bail out of a stock that has
been failing from April onwards, even if it's his side
of the political ball that has caused the failure. Does
(16:42):
he not, by August have the right to sell up
to fifteen thousand dollars worth of his investment and put
it in a different beer stock. I just don't think
this is the real pattern. Now, if he sold the
stock and then she puts out the hit on Dylan mulvainy,
that's another story altogether. That's insider trading. But to call
(17:04):
the insider trading I think is nonsensical. Is Alito a
political sheep in sheep's clothing? Yes, of course. And again,
should Supreme Court justices be able to own stocks? A
much better question, But even that's kind of thin gruel
for this. On the other hand, as in all stories
in the timeline in which we live, a vital detail
(17:25):
of the original story was missed because all of us
who are looking for stuff like this have been going
at about oh thirty seven hundred percent of personal capacity
since sometime in the summer of twenty fifteen. In the
original New York Times story about sam Alito's stop the
steel flag at his house. I own a host. Word
(17:47):
of the flag filtered back to the court, people who
work there, said in interviews. Word of the flag filtered
back to the court? We who New York Times, you
mean to Chief Justice Roberts, since he's nominally in charge,
or or a janitor somewhere, or a clerk. I mean,
(18:09):
remember who the clerks are, particularly on the conservative side,
who they become. Laura Ingram was one of Clarence Thomas's clerks.
I think that's all you need to know about who
those people are. But what are we saying here? We're
saying Chief Justice Roberts knew about this months ago, years
ago and didn't do anything about it. Well, is that
(18:29):
not enough? Just that, whether it's Roberts or somebody else,
just that one phrase in the New York Times, word
of the flag filtered back to the court, people who
worked there set in interviews, and the rest of it
in there. Does that not suggest we need hearings. Congressman
Steve Cohen has moved to censure sam Alito. There is,
of course, one small problem with that, which is that
(18:50):
the House is controlled by the Democrats. No controlled by
the Republicans. Well, there goes the idea that justice or truth,
or morality or the law will be enforced to censure.
Sam Alito would just use the Barney Rubble test, would
(19:11):
require Congresswoman Barney Rubble to vote for it. But there
is a Judiciary committee that is run by Democrats. It
is in the Senate. Unfortunately, it is run by Dick Durbin,
who is either afraid of something somebody has on him
at the Supreme Court, or is the last guy in
(19:32):
America who buys into this idea that the Supreme Court
is somehow better than say, the Supreme Theocratic Court of Iran.
This sanctity of the Supreme Court, he's the last one
who believes it. I don't think sam Alito believes it anymore,
and apparently Dick Durbin does. And they're not doing a
(19:53):
damn thing except saying you really need to put in
some sort of etiquette and social responsibility and morality clause. Oh,
I mean, I'm sorry. I didn't mean morality, just conduct
caused eye. I'm sorry. There wasn't getting into morality. Clarence Thomas,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We're not talking about all that
stuff again with the videotapes.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
No no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Here was the theory. Originally, you could subpoena John Roberts
and Sam Alito and ask them under oath, what about
this flag jazz at a Senate hearing or somewhere else
in which Democrats could force the hearing to happen, And
(20:35):
of course somebody would sue to stop their testimony, and
guess where that would eventually wind up. The Supreme Court
would rule on whether or not those Supreme Court justices
had to testify. And of course, even if by a
chance Roberts and Alito or Thomas and Alito were subpoened
and thus really felt the need to recuse, oh guess what,
(20:56):
it's still four conservative votes to three liberal votes. However,
as always, Brian Boutler off message once a Countdown contributor
has a better idea. Subpoena not Roberts or Alito or Thomas,
but subpoena the liberal justices Justice Brown, Jackson, Justice Socomior
(21:19):
Justice Kagan. Subpoena them to come to the Democratic run
Senate Judiciary Committee. Why, as Boiler points out, and I
recommend subscribing to his site. Off message in January twenty
twenty two, there was one Scotis vote against giving the
January sixth Committee from the House access to the Trump
(21:42):
White House records in its investigation of the insurrection? Who
voted against it? Who was the one vote? Thomas? Why
doesn't say you're lucky that you know it's Thomas? Civilians
November twenty twenty two, Alito and Thomas both voted against
or voted in favor in that case of trying to
(22:04):
stop the Nuary sixth Committee from getting access to Kelly
Ward's phone. Kelly Ward has since been indicted in the
fake elector's plot in Arizona, and she is one of
the first class nut jobs in the entirety of the
fascist underbelly in this country. Alito and Thomas defended her.
Why what was their reasoning? What was discussed before the
(22:26):
ruling no idea? March twenty fourth, the quick ruling that
erased the fourteenth Amendment this year? Also this year they
wouldn't expedite a review of presidential immunity. They're still sitting
on presidential immunity. They're trying to find that fine line.
They're trying to do that razor's edge thing, thread the
needle we're going to have presidential immunity, but it's not
(22:46):
going to apply to Biden. You watch, and they would
hear the bid to erase charging insurrectionists with the obstruction
of official proceedings that was voted upon, and they're hearing it.
And who voted what way, and what were the logical arguments?
We don't know in all cases, who voted which way,
(23:06):
who said yes, we will hear this case, who said
we will not. All of the arguments they could make,
all of the possibilities which can and has been made
public in previous cases, has not been made public. It
is all a secret. It is not just the Supreme Court.
It is the secret goddamned Supreme Court. And they're doing
(23:27):
whatever the f they want. And Buler's idea of how
to interrupt that is since Democrats do not control the
House and cannot impeach Alito and Thomas, and there is
no way to get them off the court, and John
Roberts does not have the guts to turn in his
resignation and not only completely destroy the court without in
(23:47):
fact shifting it to a liberal court, but turn the
court over to somebody who is in there to reform
it and force Thomas and Alito out. Boiler's idea is
call the liberals to testify to who said what in
those negotiations in those the liberations, the Alito and Thomas
with Kelly Ward, the January twenty twenty two vote over
(24:10):
giving the January sixth Committee the records from the Trump
White House, the quick ruling erasing the fourteenth Amendment, the
expedited or non expedited review of presidential immunity, the attempt
to fabricate presidential immunity. Who said what? Justice Sotomayor, I
know you don't want to be here, but we need
to find out the truth. At minimum, expose the conservative justices,
(24:38):
particularly Alito and Thomas, on the record as siding with
the insurrectionists these cases. The Democratic Judiciary Committee investigation into
insurrectionists on the Supreme Court waited a little bit. If
you're saying, what's the point, well, what was the point
(25:01):
of pro public at chasing down Harlan crow Irons Thomas's
giant bus, his RV. What was the point of that?
What's the point of the times going after? What did
sam Alito know about the flag and when did he
know it? Three years ago? How long have they been
working on that. Who knows what else will shake out.
(25:26):
The point I have always made is that the first
thing that has to happen before anything gets fixed is
somebody has to stand up and say this is wrong.
And if you drag in Kagan and Sotomayor and Justice
Brown Jackson, and you say you're under oath, we need
to know what Clarence Thomas said about this, what Samuel
(25:48):
Alito said about this. If it goes no further than that,
there is a record, because who knows what else will
shake out? Because that bud Lights story insider trading. The
deal goes down in April, and the in trading the
guy sells in August. That's not insider trading. That's not
even smart trading. The bud Light story is mah, but
(26:12):
the idea behind the bud Light story is not mah.
While Alito was hearing a case last year to hamstring
the EPA, his wife was giving an energy company mineral rights.
If the EPA were hamstrung to what was in her
one hundred and sixty acres that she inherited from Daddy
(26:34):
in Oklahoma? Was that a cash deal? Did she and
Hubby talk about that or did they not talk about
anything like flags or one hundred and sixty acre mineral rights.
Suddenly I'm turning into Tom Broke, I'm mineral rights in Oklahoma?
Was that a cash? What was that? What do Kegan,
(26:55):
Sodamayora and Jackson know about this? What can they tell
us under oath? Bust up the Supreme I mean, what
kind of standards are we holding up in the Supreme Court?
It's utterly corrupt And there are three people who are
nominally not corrupt, and they don't say anything. And nobody
takes the chance of saying, let's poke around and see
(27:17):
what's going to happen here, because what are we going
to do? The Supreme Court is suddenly going to start
ruling against liberals and against the Constitution. They're doing that now.
We are already being beaten up by the bullies. Take
the rock and hit the bully in the head. Every
single smidge of corruption that can be brought to light
(27:37):
not only increases the chances that we stop the corruption,
but also it plays into the election. Who knows how
many voters don't understand that the Supreme Court is corrupt
now and will only get more corrupt as in a
Trump presidency. Alito certainly Thomas retire, and Trump said over
(28:02):
the weekend he wants to appoint new judges throughout the
judicial system, including the Supreme Court, who will still be
on the bench in the year twenty seventy. That's what
he wants. That's what they want. They want this country
to be ruled like Iran. The election is not just
(28:22):
our hope of avoiding this now, it may very well
be our last hope. Also of interest here in speaking
of Iran, Robert F. Kennedy Junior's voting address the one
on all those forms for all that ballot access, so
(28:43):
he can be a spoiler for Trump. A he doesn't
live there, the place on the address, and he doesn't
live there. Nobody's seen him there. He's been voting from
there since two thousand and eight. Also, right after the
president of Iran was killed in that helicopter accident, who
does rfk Junior bring up the president of Iran? And
(29:06):
he said, the President of the United States, whoever that
would be, And he really thinks it's going to be him.
He said, the President of the United States needs to
negotiate with the president of Iran. Only the guy he
thinks is the president of Iran is not the new
one that they haven't voted in yet, and isn't the
dead one. He's three presidents of Iran ago. That's who
(29:27):
Robert F. Kennedy wants to negotiate with. That's how crazy
he is. Worst person's next. This is countdown. This is countdown,
with Keith Olberman still ahead of us on this initiative countdown.
(30:04):
I'm he missed Willie Mays's birthday, meaning I missed the
opportunity to tell you of the day I, as a
twenty year old broadcasting rookie, had to call him and
interview him about the day he got banned from baseball.
And before I could ask him one question, Willie Mays
did a fake voice. And it was some fake voice.
(30:27):
I can't even use it in telling you the story
things I promised not to tell coming up at first
is ever, there are still more new idiots to talk about.
The daily roundup of the miss Grants, morons and Dunning
Krueger effects specimens who constitute today's worse persons in the world.
The Bronze Worser Politico, the increasingly right leaning insider publication
(30:50):
in the increasingly right leaning media, landscape where they're all
sitting around going how do we protect our phony, boloney
jobs and our money in the case of the Trump
winning and the country going fascist. I'll just read this
quote from political writer calder McHugh. Honestly, calder McHugh, you're
(31:11):
sure his name isn't Hugh mcaulder. Calder mcew who has
an idea of how to stay in power even if
the fascists take over Washington again. It's impossible to know.
He writes exactly how Trump will behave if he returns
to office. Well, first of all, let me just interject
here bullshit. By all accounts, Trump has professionalized his twenty
(31:34):
twenty four campaign, writes Hugh mcaulder, suggesting he learns something
from his slap dash first campaign and his twenty twenty
re election loss. Yes, he learned not to have any
more elections. But you haven't learned that, have you, cal macuter.
The question is whether his views on presidential prerogatives have changed,
(31:58):
or whether he intends to be guided by loftier principles
this guy writes, and it's not meant ironically loftier principles.
Trump's idea of loftier principles are ideas that get him
more money. Second half this is from the Politico Email newsletter,
(32:18):
and it speaks to how corrupt corrupt is nowadays. Nobody
even bothers to cover it up. Corruption at every level
of American society is so deep that nobody said no, don't, don't,
don't do that. They do this every week on the
Politico Email newsletter. I guess it's the Saturday edition in
(32:41):
which they have Great Weekend Reads curated by Ryan Liza.
Ryan Liza, who used to be with The New Yorker,
got fired for something we never found out what, involving
their behavior patterns and their rules. Nobody ever explained what
it was. I think I know what it was, but
I'm not ready to tell you yet. But it was
not It was not nice. Ryan Lizza Great Weekend Reads,
(33:04):
and he lists eight or nine long articles that are
usually appealing only to people who have lots of spare
time and a very very low threshold or very high
threshold for being bored. The first one Great Weekend Reads
curated by Ryan Liza Semi Colan on the campaign trail
(33:24):
by New York Magazines Olivia, Newsy Donald Trump is running
for president while bumping into the past at a Manhattan
criminal courthouse. They are their boyfriend and girlfriend, Ryan Lizza
pimping Olivia Newsy's article about Donald Trump and the campaign
trail and the trial. Boyfriend and girlfriend, and make no
(33:48):
secret of this. Unlike her past relationships, there's no secret
involved in this, the first one, and they're seven or
eight other You couldn't have the presence of mind to say,
why don't I put the one about you third? And
you would you hand me that coffee? I put you
third so it doesn't look like I'm the term technically
(34:09):
is a log rolling, and I'm pushing your article because
you're my girlfriend. Jesus, just pretend, pretend that there's some
ethics involved. Runner up worser. This isn't really worse, but
I needed a place to stick it, and I've been
saving it because of this sickness for a little while.
(34:30):
Here the Republican primary for the Senate in Maryland. Larry Hogan,
the former governor or, the outgoing governor, sixty three percent
of the vote. Robin Ficker was the runner up with
thirty percent of the vote. Robin Ficker. I looked at
this and I went Robin Ficker. Robin Ficker. Does the
name sound familiar? This is my world's colliding. Until nineteen
(34:52):
ninety eight, Robin Ficker was the heckler in professional sports.
He went to every one of the Washington Bullets and
then Washington Wizard's game. He sometimes had a portable megaphone
with him. He sat in the front row, so right
behind the visiting bench. He used insults, personal insults, derogatory terms,
sat right behind the bench. Several coaches had to be
(35:14):
restrained from going after him physically. And he was such
a fan that when they changed arenas and reassigned everybody
to new seats, they would not sell him those same
front row seats, and so he stopped being a fan
of the team. So a real dedicated fan who was
not there just to make fun of the other players.
I believe it was Charles Barkley, who wants in the
(35:36):
middle of one of these Ficker monologues, threw a wet,
sweaty towel and got it to wrap perfectly in a
tight camera shot around Robin Ficker's face. He's eighty something.
He runs for office every couple of years, and he
was the runner up in the Republican primary for Senate.
So when they talk about what an invincible candidate the
(35:57):
Republicans have trotted out for the Senate from Maryland, just
remember the guy he beat is the retired ex heckler
from the NBA. But our winner the worst RFK Junior.
Not a good week for being RFK Junior. Not a
good month, not a good year, not a good decade,
not a good lifetime. Ultimately, The New York Post reports
(36:22):
that Kennedy quote lists his residents to vote as a Tony,
Westchester County address which is in foreclosure. Proceedings for non
payment court record show the independent candidate claims his voting
address is eighty four Croton Lake Road in Katona, though
he is not the owner of the million dollar in
arrears property does not show up in residential searches for it,
(36:44):
and some longtime neighbors and even local authorities were shocked
at the notion it's his home. But RFK Junior also
has the same address list that has his domicile or
residents on his presidential nomination petitions filed in New Hampshire
in recent months, according to the records which are obtained
by the Post, and he's been voting being from this
(37:05):
address since at least two thousand and eight, according to
the New York Post, So everything about Robert F. Kennedy,
including his eligibility for being on the ballot in places
like New Hampshire, could be challenged if anybody would get
around doing that. He's been lying about his address all
this time, or he doesn't know where he lives, and
(37:28):
we have more evidence supporting the later theory of those two.
The day after the President of Iran was killed in
a chopper accident, RFK Junior demanded that the President of
the United States, presumably himself pres himself, negotiate with the
President of Iran. Only you know, right now there ain't
(37:50):
a president of Iran and it's getting worse from this point.
Just listen to this hitting down with other world leaders,
with people like President g and President Plutin and President
Vaman dinnershad for the prime minister all the people President
Akmadina Jodd, Mack Mood, Achmedina Jod or do you mean
somebody else like Barney Achmadena Jod Because mack Mood Akmadina
(38:13):
Jodd has not been president of Iran since August of
twenty thirteen, his term expired. He's tried to run twice since,
and he's two nuts even for the government of Iran.
R f K Junior thinks he's president. It's been almost
eleven years. R f K Junior, you will never convince
(38:34):
me that the worm is dead. Two days. Worst person
in the world. Now to the number one story on
(38:54):
the countdown, and I have to confess this has been
a strong effort. I hope you appreciate this. I'm playing
Hurt full edition and my favorite topic me which I've
he discussed and complimented myself. Now things I promise not
to tell, and I am late to the party. It
was two weeks ago yesterday, but Willie Howard Mays turned
(39:16):
ninety three years old earlier this month. And he is
the greatest defensive athlete I have ever seen in any sport.
Saw him in person when I was a kid, and
also one of the top five offensive athletes in any sport.
And this is now the seventy fourth baseball season since
his debut and the fifty first season since his retirement,
(39:36):
and everybody ever in baseball in all that time has
met him, and he is still rightly celebrated wherever he goes.
Whenever his name is brought up in me amidst all
this celebration and literally half a century or more of
glorification of Willie Mays. When his name comes up, I
think of only one thing. The first time I interviewed
(39:58):
him in the off season of nineteen seventy nine eighty.
And I'm not going to say it was a strange interview,
but I am affecting that I will be getting over
it any day now. Maybe it was at my first
job for my radio network when God helped me. Willie
Mays was seventeen years younger than I am now, Like
(40:22):
I wasn't scared enough to talk to Willie Mays. He
started that interview by doing a bit, a comedy bit
that if I had done it, then they would have
fired me. The other thing I think of is an
amazing injustice that befell Willie Mays that nobody talks about
(40:45):
and nobody registers anymore. Okay, the first part. So it's
a Saturday afternoon, October twenty seventh, nineteen seventy nine, just
forty three and a half years ago, and Willie Mays
has just been banned from baseball because word has gotten
out that he has signed a contract to do promotional
events for a casine know in Atlantic City, and there
(41:06):
is a news conference coming up in two days on Monday.
Now try explaining this whole concept to any current sports fan.
Any current sports fan now used to seeing retired players
on TV telling them how to bet and who to
bet on, or the sportscasters doing the games giving you
the latest odds and how they have changed since the
(41:28):
last period or inning started. Plus this was like three
months after Willie Mays was inducted into the Baseball Hall
of Fame, three months after the celebration of this brilliant career,
and now they've banned him for life for something that
today the commissioner would have sent him a note of congratulations,
(41:48):
to say nothing of a large paycheck. And nobody has
done an interview with Willy Mays yet because he has
been traveling. And my phone rings in my little cubby
hole at the United pres International Radio Network that I've
only been working at since August three months, that's how
long my full time broadcasting career has been to this point.
(42:10):
And on the phone is maybe the top baseball reporter
of the second half of the twentieth century, Keith. It's
Milt Richmond. This man once reported in July nineteen fifty
five that if the Milwaukee Braves did not start winning,
that they would fire their manager. Exactly one year later,
and they didn't start winning, and exactly one year later
(42:32):
to the day, they fired their manager. Keith, write this
phone number down. It's Willie May's. Milt never got excited
about anything. He talked like this all the time. William
Mays is expecting your call for an interview about this
banishment story. And I squeaked yes, sir, and I went
into one of our recording studios and I dialed Willie
(42:53):
Mays's phone number. And I will not recreate the voice
that I heard answer Willie May's phone, because while doing
this voice was once considered to be a staple of
American humor, even American humor written or performed by liberals.
I mean, James Thurber's short stories are full of this voice.
(43:15):
The voice is wildly racist. It is racist enough that
if today you heard an African American man do it,
even Willie Mays, you probably say.
Speaker 5 (43:27):
No, no, no, no, no, still racist. Don't do it, Willie.
It was a voice similar to the actress Hattie McDaniel,
who won the Academy Award in nineteen thirty nine for
Gone with the Wind. She was a world class blues singer,
a top patriotic fundraiser during World War Two, and she
played maids housekeepers in maybe two hundred films. She also
(43:52):
played one on a famous radio show, and was paid
so little that while she was performing her role of
the pretend maid, she had to keep working as a
real maid. Okay, so I'm twenty years old and I
have to interview Willie Mays about him getting banned from baseball,
which is crazy enough. And I call and the phone
is answered, and a gravelly but feminine voice that sounded
(44:15):
exactly like Hattie McDaniel says hello, mister Mays's residence. And
I'm a little thrown but I power through it somehow,
and I explain who I am, and she says ahah,
And I say where I'm calling from and she says uhah,
And I say, Milt Richmond said, mister Mays was expecting
my call. And she interrupts and goes, this is Willie.
(44:39):
The Hattie McDaniel impersonation was being done by Willie Mays.
Now I do not have this on tape. Silly me.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
When my bosses said you may not start recording before
you get express permission from the interviewee to start recording.
I believed them, and I lived by that rule. Anybody
else would have a tape of this phone being answered
and the Hattie McDaniel impression done by Willie Mays, because
(45:11):
the first thing you do is record, so you don't
have to remember to record, because otherwise you'll forget to record.
But I'm afraid you are going to have to take
my word for this, because why would I make this up.
October twenty seventh, nineteen seventy nine, and I still haven't
recovered mister Mays's residence. Happy ninety second birthday, Willy Mays.
(45:37):
Now the injustice that Willy Mays suffered that nobody talks about.
In fact, I've never heard him talk about it. This
is something else that no fan believes today. The United
States military used to draft Major League Baseball players and
NFL players and NBA players and send them into the
service in the middle of their seasons, in the primes
(45:59):
of their careers, even if there was no war in progress.
They only did it a couple of times after saying
nineteen forty five, and usually that was thinly veiled racist
political pressure, such as when they drafted Muhammad Ali in
nineteen sixty six when he was heavyweight champion of the
world and an activist Muslim, and he was twenty four
(46:19):
years old when everybody else getting drafted was eighteen. Remember that.
But in nineteen fifty two they also drafted Willie Mays.
He had come up from the Miners the year before
and had led the New York Giants from thirteen games
back to the National League pennant, and he was the
kind of all around whirlwind of a player nobody had
ever seen before in Major League Baseball. And on May
(46:42):
twenty ninth, thirty four games into his second season, boom,
he was drafted and inducted, and he missed the rest
of that season and all of the nineteen fifty three season.
I can't think of a parallel today. Maybe maybe they
draft in the middle of his second season somebody like
(47:03):
Fernando TEIs and in the middle of May, he's gone
for the rest of this year and next year because
he has to go serve in the military. Now. They
didn't draft Mickey Mantle, who also broke in in New
York in nineteen fifty one, the way Mays did, and
to be fair, Mickey Mantle had about four hundred medical
(47:24):
problems that would have kept anybody out of the military,
and it was all legit. But they also didn't draft
the nineteen fifty one American League Rookie of the Year winner,
Gil McDougald of the Yankees, who was a white guy,
or Walt Dropo, who was the Rookie of the Year
in nineteen fifty or Roy Sievers, who was the Rookie
of the Year in nineteen forty nine, or or you
(47:45):
get the point here. Now, trying to calculate should have
beens in sports is a risky enough business, but you
can get an approximation of what might have happened. If
a player hits twenty homers in his first year and
then misses two years, and then he comes back and
he hits forty one homers in his first year back,
you can extrap up of eight that he probably would
(48:06):
have hit twenty seven homers in the first missing year
and thirty four in the second missing year. Your numerical
sequence is twenty homers and twenty seven homers, then thirty
four homers, then forty one homers. You have to tinker
a little bit with it in Mays's case, because he
didn't miss all of that second season nineteen fifty two,
He just missed from June on, and he'd had a
(48:27):
slow start. He'd only hit four homers in the first
two months of nineteen fifty two, so instead of twenty
seven that year, maybe he only hits twenty four that year.
So a good guess as to how many homers Willie
Mays did not get to hit because he got drafted
and all the white guys did not get drafted is
all told fifty four. In real life, playing between nineteen
(48:50):
fifty one and nineteen seventy three, Willie Mays finished with
six hundred and sixty home runs. For most of the
nineteen sixties, it was thought he was the man who
would challenge Babe Ruth's career record, not Hank Aaron, but
Willie Mays. Willie Mays hit six hundred and sixty homers,
But if you give him those fifty four more homers
(49:12):
he might have hit. If he hadn't been so curiously
drafted in nineteen fifty two, Willie Mays would have finished
with seven hundred and fourteen home runs. Seven hundred and fourteen,
which is exactly how many Babe Ruth hit, So if
he doesn't get drafted, maybe in nineteen seventy two and
nineteen seventy three and nineteen seventy four, we are seeing
(49:33):
Willie Mays hit his seven hundredth career home run, challenging
Babe Ruth's record, and then tying and breaking Babe Ruth's record,
and then right behind him, Henry Aaron hits his seven
hundred and fifteenth homer and then his seven hundred and
sixteenth homer to break the all time record held by
Willie Mays mister Mays's residence. That's not how it sounded.
(50:10):
Done all the damage I can do here, Thank you
for listening. Countdown Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip
Schanel arranged, produced, and performed most of our music. Mister
Ray was on guitars, bass and drums, Mister Chanelle handled
orchestration and keyboards, and it was produced by Tko Brothers.
Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and
performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music
(50:31):
is the Alderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch
Warren Davis Curtisy of ESPN inc. Our satirical and pithy
musical comments are by Nancy Fauss, the best baseball stadium
organist ever. Our announcer was my friend Larry David. Everything
else was pretty much my fault. But once again I
did a good job today. Considering that's countdown for this
(50:52):
the one hundred and sixty ninth day until the twenty
twenty four presidential election, the two hundred and thirty second
day since Dictator Jay Trump's first attempted coup against the
democratically elected government of the United States. Use the legal
system such as it is, use the mental health system,
use presidential immunity if it happens, Use the not regularly
(51:14):
given elector objection option to stop him from doing it
again while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow.
Still day to day. On that with the sinus, We're
all day to day, especially me, till the next one.
I'm Keith Oulrimman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
(51:36):
good luck. Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple
(51:59):
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts,
Host
Keith Olbermann
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.