March 7, 2023 • 46 mins
EPISODE 149: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Free advice for Rupert Murdoch: Fire Tucker Carlson - now. And Ingraham. And Hannity. Because between how the January 6 Video Gaslight Gambit failed and backfired and self-owned, and Round 3 of the Dominion Lawsuit Document Dump, it's gonna be him or them and history has proven again and again that it's ALWAYS him.
Carlson's fraud was so bad, and angered so many, that Senator Thom Tillis said "It's bulls**t" and Mitch McConnell said Fox News made a mistake and half a dozen other Republicans ripped the network. And internally, no other Fox host said ANYTHING supportive, on the air or off, until Laura Ingraham finally hit McConnell back at 10 PM last night.
And the Dominion 3rd Tranche may be the killer. Not only is there now a paper trail to Murdoch sharing info - maybe even a copy - of Biden's commercials with Jared Kushner. But in a phrase you will soon see on every political billboard everywhere, there's Carlson texting a Fox producer on January 4 2021: "We are very very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can't wait. I HATE HIM PASSIONATELY."
How much would you pay to charity for the privilege of showing Trump that text?
B-Block (21:0) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Why are TVs in the US Capitol required to be tuned to Fox 'News?' Trump's genius plan to solve Ukraine: give it to Russia. Marjorie Taylor Greene talks about women who take testosterone what was that about every Republican accusation being an admission? (24:21) IN SPORTS: For the third time, the NHL (The National Hypocrisy League) has screwed up Pride Night. Is this a Russian problem? (28:52) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Before signing a deal to become "Sister Cities" make sure the other one exists. The UK's Prime Minister touts the nation's Modern Slavery (?) And poor Musk thought he was just mocking the differently-abled. Actually he was confirming he owed somebody $100 million.
C-Block (35:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Four poor pups in Dallas (36:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A lot about Russia and Ukraine in this episode so time to tell the tale of my musical genius Great Grandfather. Ever heard the story of the guy who gave away the name "General Motors" for free? That was my Ukrainian Great Grandpa, Antony Zelensky, whose saving grace was: he TOLD that story on himself every day of his life!
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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 Free
Advice for Rupert Murdoch, fire Tucker Carlson now and Sean
(00:29):
Hannity and Laura Ingram and then denounced Tucker Carlson's January
sixth video gas lighting and then say that cliche from Casablanca.
I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling with the news
content is going on in here. It failed, it backfired,
It did not stick to the wall. Rupert, punt, bail, scapegoat,
(00:52):
get off the sinking ship. Feed Sean Hannity to the sharks,
Let Laura Ingram sleep with the fishies. Throw Tucker Carlson
to the wolves. We're just light a match near him.
He'll explode. Probably on the air last night, he sounded impaired,
because between this and dominion, Rupert, it's either going to
(01:13):
be them or it's gonna be you. And history has
proven again and again it's never you. Because if you
didn't notice Rupert first, none of your other stars, not
even Hannity, the man who puts the gas in gas lighting,
fully followed Tucker Carlson down the QAnon video rabbit hole,
(01:34):
and then Rupert two hours before Carlson. Round two, you
got hit over the head with dominion documents. Round three.
January fourth, twenty twenty one. Tucker Carlson texts Fox producer
Alex Feiffer, quote, we are very very close to being
able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can't wait.
(01:56):
I hate him passionately unquote. Soon to be appearing on
a police billboard near you, Tucker Carlson says of Donald Trump,
I hate him passionately. I'm Joe Biden, and I approved
this message. As this one point six billion dollar lawsuit
(02:21):
is unfolding and Fox is being eaten alive by the
company it slandered. Tucker Carlson plowed ahead with his two
night January sixth video gas lighting gambit. Anyway, the cliff loomed,
yet Tucker hit the gas lighting Rupert. If this was
the Republican reaction to Carlson, If this was said by
(02:42):
a Republican senator on the record, as it was you, Rupert,
your headquarters is on fire and your hind quarters are
in a sling. I think it's bullshit. I was here,
I was down there, and I saw maybe a few tourists,
a few people who got caught up in things. But
when you see police barricades preached, when you see police
(03:04):
officers assaulted, all of that, or you had to be
in close proximity to it, I just don't think it's helpful.
Senator Tom tillis Republican of North Carolina, not exactly a moderate,
not exactly an enemy of Fox quote news unquote, and
he thinks it's bullshit. And after the Capitol Police Chief
Tom Manger wrote his officers an email in which he
(03:26):
excoriated Tucker Carlson, raising the question of how much Carlson
was lying when he said the Capitol Police had vetted
and approved the use of the video. Mitch McConnell, the
Republican leader in the Senate, held up a copy of
Manger's letter so everybody could get a photo or a
video of him holding up Manger's letter, and McConnell promptly
(03:48):
used the word quote mistake and the name quote Fox
News in the same sentence. It was a mistake, in
my view, for Fox News should depict this in a
way that's completely at various with what our chief law
enforcement official here at the Capital. Carlson's on air reply
(04:13):
to that was to make of course, a race based
insult about McConnell's wife others. Senator Mike Brown's, Republican of
North Dakota, that was no sight seeing tour. Quote. I
thought it was an insurrection at that time. I still
think it was an insurrection today. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican
of Utah, said McCarthy made a mistake giving the video
(04:33):
to Carlson. Compared Carlson to Alex Jones gaslighting about Sandy
Hook said Carlson's portrayal was quote dangerous and disgusting. Senator
Chuck Grassley, Republican of he barely knows where he's from.
Chuck Grassley quote, what happened that day shouldn't have happened.
(04:54):
Senator John Kennedy, Republican from Green Acres quote, I was here.
It was not peaceful. It was an abomination. It's not
going well, Rupert, and that's just external internally. Nobody, nobody,
not Hannity, not Ingram, not Little Jesse. Waters even retweeted
(05:18):
clips of Tucker Carlson's badly edited, unconvincing con job until
Ingram did something in her show late last night at
ten pm. There was one tweet put out on Tuesday
afternoon via Sean Hannity's account. It was a link to
a story written by somebody identifying themselves as Hannity staffer,
(05:40):
and it was about not Tucker Carlson, not Fox News.
It was about Elon Musk reacting to the video. And
it did not mention that he saw the video on
Fox News. They didn't put the story on your website, Rupert.
They didn't run promos, not that Tuckers suckers didn't try.
Media Matters got hold of a Fox internal email quote, Ray,
(06:03):
please promote Tucker's exclusive jan six footage. Hello all, Tonight
will be the night two of our two night investigation
into the truth behind January sixth and what really happened
that day. This show is already facing backlash from Senator
Chuck Schumer and the usual people in the media. We
look forward to providing even more footage tonight. Any promotion
(06:26):
before the additional footage airs tonight is greatly appreciated. First
of all, we all went through a month of this
crap about Kevin McCarthy handing Tucker Carlson this video, and
there was never any Fox network wide plan about promoting it.
(06:46):
Hell next week, it is six years ago that Rachel
Maddow got one page of one of Trump's tax returns,
and MSNBC did everything but buy all the ads on
the Super Bowl telecast, and she promoted it for forty
five minutes in her own show. And she did everything
except where a top hat with Dion letters on it,
reading please watch me. I have lost all sense of
(07:09):
self respect. And you know what This desperate email from
the Tucker Carlson's staff produced Brett Baer at six PM,
running a package a news report on the video, the
first ten seconds of which was self congratulatory and positive,
but the rest of which grew ever increasingly dubious, And
(07:29):
after it ended, Brett Baer came on live and said,
quote and to be clear, no one here at Fox
News condones any of the violence that happened on January sixth, Well,
not no one one. And then came addition two of
this last night, Carlson sounded unusual in some way. He
(07:55):
complained about the reaction to episode one. Most of the
first half of his show carried just one banner, chiron graphic,
which echoed Monday's the video. Who proves this the graphic
read our reporting is accurate. The tapes confirm it yet
other than a brief snippet showing a Capitol policeman whom
he was interviewing, he didn't show any tapes the entire premise.
(08:18):
We look forward to providing even more footage tonight, and
essentially there was no more footage. Did somebody step in?
Did somebody at Fox stop it in hopes of staunching
the bleeding, because, in a reversal of the oldest of
news TV cliches, it led, so it bled. It was
(08:40):
a disaster, It was a fiasco. It was a failure
of biblical proportions. Congratulations, Fox, you fooled Elon Musk. For
God's sakes, ten times a day, Elon Musk gets fooled
by somebody calling himself catted. It was so bad. Rupert
(09:01):
Kevin McCarthy waited nearly twenty four hours to say anything
in defense of the havoc. He let Tucker Carlson reek,
and when he finally spoke, speaker McCarthy said he couldn't
really comment because he had not seen the Tucker Carlson show.
Tucker who never heard of him, And the end result
(09:26):
for Fox quote news unquote, we are again talking about
how it's millionaire propagandists say one thing on television and
the exact opposite off of it. Dominion Round three produced
a Tucker Carlson email, a different one other than the
one about him hating Trump, that could not have been
more timely nor appropriate if it had been written late
(09:47):
yesterday afternoon, with the goal of making everything worse. Six
days after the twenty twenty election, Carlson's texting some other
unknown clown at Fox about his belief the fraud crap
was not crap, and he says it was quote bad
for the country to have this much doubt and suspicion
is exactly why people believe in conspiracies. Unquote. No, Tucker Carlson,
(10:10):
you ask people believe in conspiracies because of asses like you,
Because you're a conspiracy nut. You're a conspiracy monger, You're
a conspiracy shill. You're an amoral slime. You heard Mitt Romney.
You have become Alex Jones with a better haircut. Maybe
(10:36):
quote still getting mud thrown at us. Murdoch writes in
January twenty twenty one to his Fox quote news unquote
CEO Suzanne Scott, maybe Sean and Laura went too far.
All very well for Sean to tell you he was
in despair about Trump. But what did he tell his viewers.
November tenth, twenty twenty, Maria barter Romo tells Steve mannon
(11:02):
by text that she will not let the producer of
her show called Biden president elect quote until this moves
through the courts. Bannon replies, quote, the process is to
destroy Biden's presidency before it starts. If it starts, a
Fox anchor is colluding with a convict about how to
(11:26):
overthrow the government of the United States. Why, well, we
had the answer. Bannon then texted Bartomo back, quote, we
want you to run against Senator Schumer. This is your moment.
And round three of the dominion documents also brought us
more of the utter blank dedicated self prostitution of Carlson
(11:50):
and Hannity and ingram and in one case, all of
them in a three way text chain. Middle of November
twenty twenty is the decision desk of Fox called Arizona
for Biden, which was reality, but the Fox audience then
left because it didn't want reality. Ingram My anger at
the news channel is pronounced Carlson. It should be we'd
(12:14):
vote our lives to building an audience, and they let
Chris Wallace and Leland effing venerate Wrecket too much Hannity
too much is correct. I'm disgusted at this point, Ingram,
I think that three of us have enormous power. We
have more in power than we now are exercise. We
(12:35):
should all think about how together we can fence and
change the audience that exists comes for eyes. Are there
any more questions as to why I stopped dating her? Congrats, Tucker.
The audience you think you built that you actually just
inherited from poor old O'Reilly cannot handle the truth. Congrats Laura,
(13:02):
You've found a way to exercise your power force a
change by getting Rupert Murdoch to fire all three of you.
And now you can all go fight it out with
Greg Kelly to see who gets the plumb eight pm
slot on Newsmax. If Greg Kelly can be distracted away
from playing with his toes. I'm having way too much
(13:25):
fun here. It is conceivable Rupert Murdoch will not fire them,
maybe even fifty fifty that he won't fire all of them.
But what I said before is really true. Every day
since he took over the Adelaide News in Australia in
nineteen fifty two. Whenever Rupert Murdoch has seen that it
is them or me, the them people tend to disappear.
(13:49):
He fired Star reporters in Australia, he closed a newspaper
in England. Rather than let the scandal evolve, which could
have destroyed him. He wrung every last dollar of O'Reilly
here and then fired him for cause yesterday. And as
the desperate email from the Tucker Carlson producer implied, it
was what they pretended was the only blowback out of
(14:11):
the Senate, Chuck Schumer called them out, calling Carlson's first
episode of this quote one of the most shameful hours
we have ever seen on cable television. As an aside
on behalf of such MSNBC entrance in this competition as
Dietal and Daniels and Rita Cosbie Live and Direct and
(14:35):
Scarborough Country. I would like to have a conversation privately
with Senator Schumer later, but his major point, he's right shameful.
It was the reverse version of Murrow going after McCarthy.
Happily it blew up in Murdoch's face and in combination
with the dominion documents, not just round three, but the
(14:57):
earlier stuff from rounds one and two. More importantly, it
underscored that Chuck Schumer has every senatorial right to establish
a select committee to investigate the corruption at Fox Quote
News en quote and at News Corp. And by Tucker Carlson,
and by Sean Hannity, and by Laura Ingram, and by
(15:17):
Rupert Murdoch, Senator subpoena them. Quoting your own tweet, Tucker
Carlson is siding with the enemies of democracy. You goddamn
right he is. The whole channel is siding with the
enemies of democracy. It always has, it exists to do that.
It is an anti American crime syndicate in plain sight.
(15:40):
Treat it as such under oath, and if you need
a specific probable crime. There is this little matter of
Rupert Murdoch's sharing details of Joe Biden's campaign commercials with
Jared Kushner, maybe even showing them to him. It's unclear.
Murdoch answered yes when he was asked on the record
(16:01):
about quote giving Kushner a preview. But now in the
new tranch from Dominion, there is an email trail on
this subject. No, you are spending less on TV than Biden.
Murdoch wrote, However, my people tell me his advertisements are
a lot better creatively than yours, and Kushner replies, should
(16:23):
have some new creative out this week, and Murdoch replies,
your advertisement at one pm this Sunday and improvement. A
man who owns an alleged news network is not allowed
to consult one campaign about what the other campaign is doing.
And if he really did show Kushner a Biden commercial,
(16:45):
Rupert Murdoch should be in chains somewhere, and Senator if
this still does not seem to be reason enough to
convene a formal Senate investigation of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp.
And Fox, there is one new overriding question the nation
needs answered. Why is Hucker Carlson hiding the rest of
(17:07):
the January sixth video? What does Fox not want America
to see? Two can play this game? Mother Tucker still
(17:34):
ahead of us. In this initiship countdown, Elon Musk taunts
a disabled man who was asking him if he had
been fired or not fired by Twitter that it turns
out the guy had sold his company to Twitter and
the deal was if he was fired by Twitter, Twitter
out him one hundred million dollars. Suddenly, Musk could not
apologize fast enough. Another National Hockey League, Pride Night, is
(17:56):
canceled at the last minute, as the league's slogan, hockey
is for Everyone, turns out to be nothing better than
a lousy brand name. The commissioner of this league has
got to go and go now. And you ever heard
a story about a guy who suggested that they use
the name General Motors for their new company. But he
didn't bother to get a million dollars for his idea
(18:16):
or get anything, and then turned down some stock too. Yeah,
that was my great grandpa. Things I promised not to tell.
Coming up, that's next. This is countdown. This is countdown
with Keith Olbo. Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates,
(18:42):
some snarks, some prediction. Stateline Washington as an adjunct of
the Fox quote news unquote story. This salient question from
New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell, why are all publicly displayed
TV's in the US capital required by the Republicans to
be tuned to Fox quote news unquote. As Pascrell wrote
(19:04):
in a letter to Speaker McCarthy, Fox's owner admits Fox
deliberately lies to its viewers. A station that helped spark
January sixth should not be forced on visitors to our capital. Unquote,
we're forced on Americans Dateline Marilago Trump, in a radio
interview with Sean Hannity, made a little oopsie. Since the
Russians invaded Ukraine a year ago, he has insisted it
(19:27):
would never have happened if he had still been president.
To Hannity, he revealed, why, why, Well, he just would
have given putin part of Ukraine. Let me ask you
about Ukraine. You've said that before. Why would it not
have happened if you were president? He would have never
done it. He would have never that's without even negotiating
(19:47):
a deal. I could have negotiated. At worst, I could
have made a deal to take over something. You know,
there are certain areas that are Russians speaking to her
is frankly, but you could have worked a deal. Ah,
the old giveaway somebody else's country ploy, the one that
Neville Chamberlain used with such success with Hitler at Munich
in nineteen thirty eight. Swell Idea, FATS and Dateline Capitol
(20:11):
Hill Back inside the mind of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green.
We're going in, so don't wear your good shoes. Part
of the Republican platform of doing a lot about things
that matter only a little, the persecution of the one
tenth to one third of one percent of the American
population that is transgender. Female takes testosterone. The profound and
(20:37):
permanent effects of the hormone can be seen in a
matter of months. Voices drop, beards sprout, body fat is redistributed,
sexual interest explodes, aggression increases, and mood can be unpredictable. Funny,
who does that description remind you of? As they say,
(20:59):
every Republican accusation is really a confession, isn't it? Congress Peed?
(21:19):
This is Sports Center? Wait? Check that in not anymore?
This is Countdown with Keith Olberman in sports. Another Pride
Night disaster in the NHL, the National Hypocrisy League. The
Minnesota Wild held their Pride Night last night, and unlike
(21:41):
last year when they wore the now traditional warm up
uniforms for fifteen minutes, which say nothing on them but
merely have the numbers and some of the letters in
a Pride color pattern, the team did not wear these uniforms.
The problem was the self congratulatory team press release previewing
Pride Night Minnesota was up until hours before, and it
(22:01):
read in part quote part of the themed game programming
includes custom designed Wild Pride jerseys warned by the team
during pregame warmups, which will be signed an auctioned off
starting March seventh. The Wild later issued a boilerplate statement
about supporting the LGBTQ community, which did not explain in
(22:21):
the slightest or even once what happened to the uniforms.
But if it's just like the NHL's disaster on the
New York Rangers Pride Night earlier this season and the
Philadelphia Flyers Pride Night earlier, still it's because a Russian
player or players on the Minnesota team refused to wear
the warmups with rainbow coloring for quote religious reasons. In Philadelphia,
(22:44):
every Flyer player except the Russian born defenseman Ivan Provorov,
wore those warmups. The Flyers simply excused Provorov from the
warm up period. In New York, the culprit or culprits
have never been identified, but the Rangers only had two
Russian born players at the time on their roster, star
goalie Igor Shusterkin and forward Tammy pennerin. If the wild
(23:07):
hope to keep the identity of the homophobe on their
team of secret, they're going to have to move quickly.
There is only one Russian on the Minnesota roster. The
one Russian on the Minnesota roster is their star score
Corrill Caprisov. When the provof embarrassment occurred, it was explained
that he was Russian Orthodox and that religion does not
approve of same sex relationships. Nobody mentioned this at the time.
(23:30):
That the Russian Orthodox Church did approve of something else,
namely Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and its leaders said
out loud in front of people with tape rolling that
the invasion was justified in part because they had pride
nights in Ukraine. This was a homophobic war that church
was supporting. The circles back to an underlying issue the
(23:54):
National Hockey League will not deal with. I should say
it's another issue it will not deal with. The NHL
is very good at pretending to do something important when
in fact it is doing nothing. Why Russian nationals permitted
to play in the NHL right now? This country is
overtly and fiercely supporting Ukraine. As it defends itself against Russia,
(24:15):
and so is Canada. Yet here are Russian homophobes like
Proharoff and presumably capris Off and Shasterkin and or Panarin
taking North American money, to say nothing of Alexander Ovechkin
of the Washington Capitals, who is both chasing the game's
goalscoring record and still openly supporting in public the dictator
and warmonger Putin. These players should be given a simple choice,
(24:39):
repudiate your Russian citizenship or get out and don't tell
me about risks to their families. They have all long
since made enough money and had enough time to get
their families out of that stinking country. It was one
thing when it was just these guys sucking some cash
out of the US and Canada, but now they are
advancing a terrorist state internationally and a homophobic one inside
(25:04):
our country, all while the NHL and it's commissioner, Gary
Bettman push a slogan which is itself a complete lie.
Hockey is for everyone, and we should note for clarity
that everyone no longer includes gay people in the National
Hockey League. But at least the commissioner of the National
Hockey League has made sure, it does still include Russian bigots.
(25:28):
The Russian players have to go, and Commissioner Gary Bettman
has to be fired. Ahead. So yeah, my great grandfather
(25:51):
dreamed up the name General Motors. And what did he
leave his descendant me, Well, he left me this wonderful,
shiny anecdote, which I'll tell you next. First, it's time
for the daily roundup of the miss Grants, morons and
Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's whereas persons in
the world. The bronze mayor raz Baraca of Newark, New Jersey.
(26:14):
Nearly a month ago now, the mayor staged an elaborate
signing ceremony declaring that Newark and the United States of
Kalisa in India would become sister cities. I know, one
is a city, one is a state. Never mind, believe
it or not, that's not the real problem here. The
real problem here is there is no such place as
(26:34):
the United States of Galisa. It's all the invention of
a religious nut in India who's been under investigation for
sexual assault, and nobody in the mayor's office of Newark,
or in New Jersey or New York City media bothered
to even google the United States of Carlisa and you
know the sad part here is they went and made
(26:55):
a big old Sister Cities sign and everything over In
Newark runner up, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunac with an
unexpected second appearance in as many episodes. It's again for
a really disastrous tweet. You don't see this every day.
Soon Act sent out a warning about the UK's new
zero tolerance policy for undocumented immigration, and it reads, if
(27:15):
you come to the UK illegally, you can't claim asylum,
you can't benefit from our modern slavery protections. But there's
a big graphic next to it reading you will be
denied access to the UK's modern slavery system. I get it.
It's an attempt to stop human trafficking and that's a
(27:36):
good thing, the slavery thing, But this phrasing you can't
benefit from our modern slavery protections. You will be denied
access to the UK's modern slavery system. That doesn't say
what you think. It says like the UK's modern slavery system,
everything's up to date in twenty first century Britain. Come
(27:57):
for the Channel crossing, stay to enjoy access to our
modern slavery system. It just doesn't. It's not what you're
trying to say. It's the opposite. Speaking of which, our
winner again is Elon Musk, who has spent forty four
billion dollars to buy Twitter to make sure everybody could
watch himself own sixteen times a day. A man named
(28:20):
Harolder Torlifsson tweeted to Musk that nine days earlier his
access to his Twitter work computer had been discontinued, and
in all the time since he had not been able
to get a straight answer out of the company had
he been fired or not. Torlifsen said something about HR
asking him to be a hands on designer and he
couldn't be hands on because of his illness. He really
(28:43):
only could use one finger. Within about two tweets, Musk
was insulting the man and mocking his illness, which was
muscular dystrophe. He wrote that Torlifsson, who goes by the
name Halle Quote, did no actual work, claimed as his
excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing,
yet was simultaneously tweeting up his thumb. Musk finally told Holly, yes,
(29:07):
you were fired. That's when it turned out that Holly
had sold his design company to Twitter and stayed on
as an employee, and his sale deal with Twitter said
that if he were ever to be fired by Twitter,
they had to pay him the entire purchase price of
one hundred million dollars. The next musk tweet, I would
like to apologize to Hally from my misunderstanding. Blah blah
(29:30):
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Elon translation, I
would like to apologize to Hallie so I can keep
my one hundred dollar million dollars musk once again. Two
days worse person in the still ahead on Countdown. My
(29:56):
great grandfather told this story about himself every day until
he died. It was legend in the family. There is
considerable circumstantial evidence that it is all horrifyingly true. We
even know the last date when it could have happened,
September sixteenth, nineteen oh eight, so we'll call that the
day my great grandfather gave away General Motors. Next. First,
(30:23):
in each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in
need you can help. Every dog has its day to Dallas,
Texas and Lancaster Trinket, Charlotte and Biggs. Four dogs have
their day. They in the worst state of crisis, arrived
separately at the Dallas Dog r r R Rescue Dallas
Dogger Rescue, all in one week. Trinket had pneumonia, needed plasma.
(30:43):
Lancaster was a stray puppy with parvo. Charlotte has a
foreign body stuck inside Big so sick he need an
oxygen tent. They arrived simultaneously wiped out the rescue's funds.
They need thirty thousand to continue. They've gotten about ten.
They're trying to raise the rest on Cudley so these
four dogs can live. If you can donate, you can
find them on Cudley under hospitalization, after hospitalization, or just
(31:06):
check my Twitter feeds. I thank you, and Biggs, Charlotte,
Lancaster and Trinkett thank you as well. Anthony Zelinski was
born in Crackoff in Poland in eighteen sixty eight. My
sister just found some evidence that he changed the way
his name was spelled, that it was originally Zelenski with
(31:30):
two wys or two eyes at the end, just like
the Ukrainian president. We're kind of pleased with her discovery. Anthony,
or as my father nicknamed him, the Great financier was
a natural musician. He could sing, play any instrument, He
could compose music and lyrics. He could teach you how
to play. He could build or repair anything from a
kazoo to a grand piano, and that from his late
(31:52):
teens is how he made his money. He traveled all
around Europe from maybe eighteen eighty six onwards, staying at
rich people's houses for several days, teaching the girls how
to sing and the boys how to play whatever was
lying around the house, fixing the family harpsichord, cobbling together
the odd flute. One day, We're guessing around eighteen eighty
(32:13):
nine eighteen ninety he traveled to the home of well
off merchants in Odessa, then part of Russia, the Chevchenkos.
He taught the boys how to sing and the girls
how to play the organ, and then he fell in
love with the youngest daughter, Matrona. The Chefschenkos were not
happy when they discovered them in love and chased my
(32:34):
great grandfather and their daughter out of the house, out
of the city, and out of the country. Antony went
home to poland married his child bride, returned to Krakoff,
where all of his family then chased them out of
that house, out of that city, and out of that country.
Get lost with you and your Russian horror, he would
later tell the nephew for whom my father was named Teddy.
(32:57):
Antony and Matrona had to think fast. It's eighteen eighty nine,
eighteen ninety. Where's a hard working guy thrown out of
Russia and Poland gonna go? They arrived in New York
City within weeks. As I said, he was a natural musician.
He picked up English quickly, and supposedly within a month
or two, he was leaving his wife, my great grandmother,
in an apartment in the Bronx and getting on trains
(33:17):
for distant cities as far west as Chicago, going to
the rich people's homes and getting one hundred dollars to
teach the music, write music, repair musical instruments, and then
get right back on the train to New York. Though
he earned a very good income doing this, especially for
an immigrant, Anthony and Matrona lived frugally, often without hot
water in their home because my great grandfather was now driven,
(33:41):
driven to avenge himself Deaddy, he would tell his nephew,
who told my dad, I save every dollar I can
save I in West in the safest in Westmint, in
the world, the Polish national bonds. For one day. I
shall return to Krakow. I shall buy the biggest house
on top of the biggest hill and stand outside all
day waiving my money at my relatives who made me
(34:04):
and your aunt and saying to them, f you, this
is my goal. And on and on. This went for
a decade and more, until he went to Flint, Michigan,
to do his usual routine to stay at the house
of a prosperous American, write a family song, repair the
broken tuba, teach the kids to play the guitar, and
generally delight the family, in this case, the family of
(34:26):
a businessman who he remembered as mister Billie. Came the
end of my great grandfather's stay with mister Billy in
Michigan and his family in Michigan, and mister Bildie was
so taken with Anthony's Zolinsky that he took him personally
to the train station in Flint and went with him
onto the platform to wait for the train. Mister Zolinsky,
(34:48):
he said, we have been delighted to have you here,
that I would be honored if you would accept instead
of the five hundred dollars I owe you, please take
one thousand dollars in stock certificates from my business, my
way of saying thanks and hoping you can return and
visit us again. My great grandfather said he was almost
moved to tears by the gesture. But mister Billy, he explained,
(35:10):
I live very inexpensively, and I in west all my
money in the world's safest in Westmont, the Polish National bonds.
Mister Billy congratulated Antony on his prudence, but said, I
believe I am at the cusp of the next great
business in this country. I would again offer you this stock.
I think you will make so much money that you
could buy all the Polish National bonds. My great grandfather,
(35:34):
standing there on the train station in Flint, Michigan, fought
for a moment. I know, mister Billy, you mention you
own a manufactory in town. What is this you manufactor?
Mister Billy said, we are in the automobile business. Mister Zalinsky,
my great grandfather lit up. I s the streets of
New York are filled with automobiles. This is the coming thing.
(35:56):
But I will still take the cash and in West
in the World's safest in Westmint the Polish National bonds.
The train was late, an awkward silence now between them,
which my great grandfather finally broke. Do I know the
name of your company, mister Billy. Mister Billy replied, well,
that's the topic of the moment, mister Zelensky, and I
must say, having gotten to know you a little bit,
(36:17):
I'm not at all surprised you brought this subject up. Currently,
my company is called Buick Motor Cars. My great grandfather said, Ah, yes, Buke,
I've heard of Buck. You're changing the name. Not exactly,
said mister Billy. I believe the automotive business is going
to grow exponentially. But we have one large company in
the field, Ford, and we have dozens of smaller ones
(36:40):
like Buick. And I'm about to buy up several of
my competitors in form one big company, bigger than Ford,
and we will dominate automobiles for decades to come. Ah yes,
said my great grandfather. And what will you call this behemoth?
Mister Billy laughed again. You cut to the heart of
the matter, mister Zelensky. We are debating that right now.
(37:01):
We need a name that expresses our national stature. My
great grandfather shook his head at the obviousness of this.
The problem is an easy one. No, you use National
National motor Cars. Mister Billy laughed again, your insight is extraordinary.
That was our first thought as well. But would you
believe there is a company in Indiana, of all places,
(37:24):
they make electric automobiles which will never work, and they're
called National Motor Vehicles. We need another name. American has
also taken, Continental has taken. Damn it, mister Lewinsky. We
can't think of a good name that isn't already taken.
My great grandfather, who had just turned down the stock
in a thousand dollars worth of the stock in this company,
thought for a second. You wish to express the national,
(37:46):
the American, the broadly available or available National, Continental nationals.
What is the word in English? General? The general availability
of your vehiculers? Well, mister Billy, why not that? Why
not general? General automobiles, general automotive, general motor car, maybe
(38:13):
general motors. Now it was time for mister Billy to
become pensive. Finally he spoke, general motors does have a
certain ring to it. Mister Zelinski. Oh look, here's your train. Ah.
(38:34):
Mister Billy was, of course Billy Durant, and he owned
Durant Dort, and then he owned Buick, and then he
consolidated thirteen auto manufacturers and ten parts and accessory companies
together into as it was called, on the day Billy
and his partners opened the escrow account Wednesday, September sixteenth,
nineteen o eight, General Motors Holding Company, My great grandfather
(38:57):
having gotten another five hundred dollars to invest in the
world's safest investment instead of a thousand dollars in stock,
and not General Motors in nineteen o eight, but the
company that would become General Motors, and having given its
chairman the name General Motors for free, waved goodbye, got
on the train, returned to New York. He died fifteen
(39:20):
years later. And to his credit, we know of the
detail of this story because the person who told it
to everyone with a laugh, with a warning to his
relatives that none of them had the genes of a
businessman either, was my great grandfather himself. Needless to say,
this good self deprecating humor makes him my favorite of
(39:41):
all my ancestors, and I hope wherever he went. When
he died in nineteen twenty three, his humor went with
him because there were several postscripts to this story that
lend it authenticity and induce further rage in his descendants.
My father was very much alive in nineteen forty. He
was an eleven year old boy with his uncle Teddy
(40:03):
Antony's nephew, living with my dad and grandparents and my
uncles and the Bronx. My dad, who did not meet
his grandfather, Anthony Zelenski, said there was a knock on
the apartment door one day and he opened it to
the site, as he put it, of the two best
suits of clothing I had ever seen. The men wearing
them asked for my dad's uncle. He got him and
(40:25):
them and men began to speak Polish to uncle Teddy. Gentlemen,
we are here in America. You will please speak English
in front of my family, mister Zelinsky. One of them said,
we know that your uncle left you his investments in
Polish national bonds. He was obviously a great patriot. We
represent the Polish government in exile when we run the
Nazis out of our homeland and freedom is again hours.
(40:47):
I know your uncle would have, and you would want
the free Polish national state to not be burdened financially,
to be unburdened. In fact, to the greatest possible degree,
mister Zelenski, your uncle was the fourth largest private investor
in Polish national bonds in America. In fact, he was
just behind the National Bank of Mexico. Will you retire
(41:10):
his bonds for a nominal fee as a great Polish patriot.
My dad was never sure how nominal the fee was,
but he was convinced his uncle got less than five
hundred dollars for what was at least one hundred thousand
dollars in bonds due in the year nineteen fifty or later.
My dad did not spend his life wondering about his
(41:31):
grandfather's magnificent moment of investment stupidity, but it would occasionally
wake him in the middle of the night, and on
his nightly commutes from Manhattan to our little home in
the suburbs, he came to know the other regulars on
the train, just like Don Draper did on Madmen same train,
in fact, and one of the regulars on the train
turned out to be a stock historian. Eventually, Dad told
(41:55):
him the story of Antony's Lyinsky and Billy Durant and
General Motors, And the stock historian invited him to stop
by the office at lunch one day. Sit down, Ted,
and I mean sit down, Ted. The historian showed his math.
This was what a thousand dollars in Buick in nineteen
oh eight turned into when Billy Durant created General Motors
(42:16):
in nineteen oh eight. And here's where it's split. And see,
and here's where it's split again. And here's where it
quartered after they forced Durant out and then he bought Chevrolet,
and he came back in and took over General Motors again,
and it's split. And my father said, he started to sweat.
Just tell me already, Ted, the thousand dollars your great
grandfather turned down in General Motors in nineteen oh eight
(42:39):
would now be worth approximately sixty million dollars, my father said.
He struggled to not pass out his friend from the train,
then said, plus the value of the name. I can't
get that exactly, the stock historian said, but it's got
to be another couple million, five ten maybe, especially if
he'd taken stock in exchange for the name. There's one
(43:05):
twist to the knife well, so far, there's still plenty
of time for more. When the Unions ran the Soviets
out of Poland and lec Valessa became President of the
Free Poland in nineteen ninety, he gave a speech establishing
the new government. He spoke naturally in Polish, until that is,
it was time to address one topic. The president read
(43:26):
that part of the speech in English. My government will
recognize and honor the following years of the Polish national bonds.
My father called me in Los Angeles that night. He
had spoken to his stock, his Storian friend again and
gotten a new rough estimate. My great grandfather had turned
down sixty maybe seventy million dollars in general motors stock
(43:48):
to keep, say a hundred thousand dollars in Polish bonds
due in the year nineteen fifty, and lec Valessa had
just said, we'll pay on those bonds that we're due
in nineteen fifty. And so if great grandfather's nephew Teddy
had just sat on them, those bonds would have been
worth five or six million dollars. Keith, my father said, quietly,
(44:12):
let me remind you again what the great financier my
grandfather told everyone told all of us, none of us,
none of us have the genes of a businessman. Thank
(44:42):
you for listening. Countdown has come to you from these
studios el the Olberman Broadcasting Empire hi A Top its
headquarters in the Sports Capsule building here in New York,
the building I do not own. Here are the credits.
Most of the music was arranged, produced and performed by
Brian Ray and John Philip Channel and where the Countdown
musical directors produced by t KO Brothers. All are frustration
(45:05):
and keyboards by John Philip Channel, guitarist based on drums
by Brian Ray. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and
performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music
is the Olderman theme from ESPN two. It was written
by Mitch Warren Davis and it appears here courtesy of
ESPN Inc. Musical comments from Nancy Fauss. The best baseball
(45:25):
stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was Jonathan Banks from
Breaking Bad. Everything else was pretty much my fault. Let's
countdown for this the seven hundred ninety second day since
Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government
of the United States. Arrest him now while we still can.
The next schedule countdown is tomorrow, so until then, I'm
(45:47):
Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is at auction of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(46:11):
or wherever you get your podcasts
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio Free
Advice for Rupert Murdoch, fire Tucker Carlson now and Sean
(00:29):
Hannity and Laura Ingram and then denounced Tucker Carlson's January
sixth video gas lighting and then say that cliche from Casablanca.
I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling with the news
content is going on in here. It failed, it backfired,
It did not stick to the wall. Rupert, punt, bail, scapegoat,
(00:52):
get off the sinking ship. Feed Sean Hannity to the sharks,
Let Laura Ingram sleep with the fishies. Throw Tucker Carlson
to the wolves. We're just light a match near him.
He'll explode. Probably on the air last night, he sounded impaired,
because between this and dominion, Rupert, it's either going to
(01:13):
be them or it's gonna be you. And history has
proven again and again it's never you. Because if you
didn't notice Rupert first, none of your other stars, not
even Hannity, the man who puts the gas in gas lighting,
fully followed Tucker Carlson down the QAnon video rabbit hole,
(01:34):
and then Rupert two hours before Carlson. Round two, you
got hit over the head with dominion documents. Round three.
January fourth, twenty twenty one. Tucker Carlson texts Fox producer
Alex Feiffer, quote, we are very very close to being
able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can't wait.
(01:56):
I hate him passionately unquote. Soon to be appearing on
a police billboard near you, Tucker Carlson says of Donald Trump,
I hate him passionately. I'm Joe Biden, and I approved
this message. As this one point six billion dollar lawsuit
(02:21):
is unfolding and Fox is being eaten alive by the
company it slandered. Tucker Carlson plowed ahead with his two
night January sixth video gas lighting gambit. Anyway, the cliff loomed,
yet Tucker hit the gas lighting Rupert. If this was
the Republican reaction to Carlson, If this was said by
(02:42):
a Republican senator on the record, as it was you, Rupert,
your headquarters is on fire and your hind quarters are
in a sling. I think it's bullshit. I was here,
I was down there, and I saw maybe a few tourists,
a few people who got caught up in things. But
when you see police barricades preached, when you see police
(03:04):
officers assaulted, all of that, or you had to be
in close proximity to it, I just don't think it's helpful.
Senator Tom tillis Republican of North Carolina, not exactly a moderate,
not exactly an enemy of Fox quote news unquote, and
he thinks it's bullshit. And after the Capitol Police Chief
Tom Manger wrote his officers an email in which he
(03:26):
excoriated Tucker Carlson, raising the question of how much Carlson
was lying when he said the Capitol Police had vetted
and approved the use of the video. Mitch McConnell, the
Republican leader in the Senate, held up a copy of
Manger's letter so everybody could get a photo or a
video of him holding up Manger's letter, and McConnell promptly
(03:48):
used the word quote mistake and the name quote Fox
News in the same sentence. It was a mistake, in
my view, for Fox News should depict this in a
way that's completely at various with what our chief law
enforcement official here at the Capital. Carlson's on air reply
(04:13):
to that was to make of course, a race based
insult about McConnell's wife others. Senator Mike Brown's, Republican of
North Dakota, that was no sight seeing tour. Quote. I
thought it was an insurrection at that time. I still
think it was an insurrection today. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican
of Utah, said McCarthy made a mistake giving the video
(04:33):
to Carlson. Compared Carlson to Alex Jones gaslighting about Sandy
Hook said Carlson's portrayal was quote dangerous and disgusting. Senator
Chuck Grassley, Republican of he barely knows where he's from.
Chuck Grassley quote, what happened that day shouldn't have happened.
(04:54):
Senator John Kennedy, Republican from Green Acres quote, I was here.
It was not peaceful. It was an abomination. It's not
going well, Rupert, and that's just external internally. Nobody, nobody,
not Hannity, not Ingram, not Little Jesse. Waters even retweeted
(05:18):
clips of Tucker Carlson's badly edited, unconvincing con job until
Ingram did something in her show late last night at
ten pm. There was one tweet put out on Tuesday
afternoon via Sean Hannity's account. It was a link to
a story written by somebody identifying themselves as Hannity staffer,
(05:40):
and it was about not Tucker Carlson, not Fox News.
It was about Elon Musk reacting to the video. And
it did not mention that he saw the video on
Fox News. They didn't put the story on your website, Rupert.
They didn't run promos, not that Tuckers suckers didn't try.
Media Matters got hold of a Fox internal email quote, Ray,
(06:03):
please promote Tucker's exclusive jan six footage. Hello all, Tonight
will be the night two of our two night investigation
into the truth behind January sixth and what really happened
that day. This show is already facing backlash from Senator
Chuck Schumer and the usual people in the media. We
look forward to providing even more footage tonight. Any promotion
(06:26):
before the additional footage airs tonight is greatly appreciated. First
of all, we all went through a month of this
crap about Kevin McCarthy handing Tucker Carlson this video, and
there was never any Fox network wide plan about promoting it.
(06:46):
Hell next week, it is six years ago that Rachel
Maddow got one page of one of Trump's tax returns,
and MSNBC did everything but buy all the ads on
the Super Bowl telecast, and she promoted it for forty
five minutes in her own show. And she did everything
except where a top hat with Dion letters on it,
reading please watch me. I have lost all sense of
(07:09):
self respect. And you know what This desperate email from
the Tucker Carlson's staff produced Brett Baer at six PM,
running a package a news report on the video, the
first ten seconds of which was self congratulatory and positive,
but the rest of which grew ever increasingly dubious, And
(07:29):
after it ended, Brett Baer came on live and said,
quote and to be clear, no one here at Fox
News condones any of the violence that happened on January sixth, Well,
not no one one. And then came addition two of
this last night, Carlson sounded unusual in some way. He
(07:55):
complained about the reaction to episode one. Most of the
first half of his show carried just one banner, chiron graphic,
which echoed Monday's the video. Who proves this the graphic
read our reporting is accurate. The tapes confirm it yet
other than a brief snippet showing a Capitol policeman whom
he was interviewing, he didn't show any tapes the entire premise.
(08:18):
We look forward to providing even more footage tonight, and
essentially there was no more footage. Did somebody step in?
Did somebody at Fox stop it in hopes of staunching
the bleeding, because, in a reversal of the oldest of
news TV cliches, it led, so it bled. It was
(08:40):
a disaster, It was a fiasco. It was a failure
of biblical proportions. Congratulations, Fox, you fooled Elon Musk. For
God's sakes, ten times a day, Elon Musk gets fooled
by somebody calling himself catted. It was so bad. Rupert
(09:01):
Kevin McCarthy waited nearly twenty four hours to say anything
in defense of the havoc. He let Tucker Carlson reek,
and when he finally spoke, speaker McCarthy said he couldn't
really comment because he had not seen the Tucker Carlson show.
Tucker who never heard of him, And the end result
(09:26):
for Fox quote news unquote, we are again talking about
how it's millionaire propagandists say one thing on television and
the exact opposite off of it. Dominion Round three produced
a Tucker Carlson email, a different one other than the
one about him hating Trump, that could not have been
more timely nor appropriate if it had been written late
(09:47):
yesterday afternoon, with the goal of making everything worse. Six
days after the twenty twenty election, Carlson's texting some other
unknown clown at Fox about his belief the fraud crap
was not crap, and he says it was quote bad
for the country to have this much doubt and suspicion
is exactly why people believe in conspiracies. Unquote. No, Tucker Carlson,
(10:10):
you ask people believe in conspiracies because of asses like you,
Because you're a conspiracy nut. You're a conspiracy monger, You're
a conspiracy shill. You're an amoral slime. You heard Mitt Romney.
You have become Alex Jones with a better haircut. Maybe
(10:36):
quote still getting mud thrown at us. Murdoch writes in
January twenty twenty one to his Fox quote news unquote
CEO Suzanne Scott, maybe Sean and Laura went too far.
All very well for Sean to tell you he was
in despair about Trump. But what did he tell his viewers.
November tenth, twenty twenty, Maria barter Romo tells Steve mannon
(11:02):
by text that she will not let the producer of
her show called Biden president elect quote until this moves
through the courts. Bannon replies, quote, the process is to
destroy Biden's presidency before it starts. If it starts, a
Fox anchor is colluding with a convict about how to
(11:26):
overthrow the government of the United States. Why, well, we
had the answer. Bannon then texted Bartomo back, quote, we
want you to run against Senator Schumer. This is your moment.
And round three of the dominion documents also brought us
more of the utter blank dedicated self prostitution of Carlson
(11:50):
and Hannity and ingram and in one case, all of
them in a three way text chain. Middle of November
twenty twenty is the decision desk of Fox called Arizona
for Biden, which was reality, but the Fox audience then
left because it didn't want reality. Ingram My anger at
the news channel is pronounced Carlson. It should be we'd
(12:14):
vote our lives to building an audience, and they let
Chris Wallace and Leland effing venerate Wrecket too much Hannity
too much is correct. I'm disgusted at this point, Ingram,
I think that three of us have enormous power. We
have more in power than we now are exercise. We
(12:35):
should all think about how together we can fence and
change the audience that exists comes for eyes. Are there
any more questions as to why I stopped dating her? Congrats, Tucker.
The audience you think you built that you actually just
inherited from poor old O'Reilly cannot handle the truth. Congrats Laura,
(13:02):
You've found a way to exercise your power force a
change by getting Rupert Murdoch to fire all three of you.
And now you can all go fight it out with
Greg Kelly to see who gets the plumb eight pm
slot on Newsmax. If Greg Kelly can be distracted away
from playing with his toes. I'm having way too much
(13:25):
fun here. It is conceivable Rupert Murdoch will not fire them,
maybe even fifty fifty that he won't fire all of them.
But what I said before is really true. Every day
since he took over the Adelaide News in Australia in
nineteen fifty two. Whenever Rupert Murdoch has seen that it
is them or me, the them people tend to disappear.
(13:49):
He fired Star reporters in Australia, he closed a newspaper
in England. Rather than let the scandal evolve, which could
have destroyed him. He wrung every last dollar of O'Reilly
here and then fired him for cause yesterday. And as
the desperate email from the Tucker Carlson producer implied, it
was what they pretended was the only blowback out of
(14:11):
the Senate, Chuck Schumer called them out, calling Carlson's first
episode of this quote one of the most shameful hours
we have ever seen on cable television. As an aside
on behalf of such MSNBC entrance in this competition as
Dietal and Daniels and Rita Cosbie Live and Direct and
(14:35):
Scarborough Country. I would like to have a conversation privately
with Senator Schumer later, but his major point, he's right shameful.
It was the reverse version of Murrow going after McCarthy.
Happily it blew up in Murdoch's face and in combination
with the dominion documents, not just round three, but the
(14:57):
earlier stuff from rounds one and two. More importantly, it
underscored that Chuck Schumer has every senatorial right to establish
a select committee to investigate the corruption at Fox Quote
News en quote and at News Corp. And by Tucker Carlson,
and by Sean Hannity, and by Laura Ingram, and by
(15:17):
Rupert Murdoch, Senator subpoena them. Quoting your own tweet, Tucker
Carlson is siding with the enemies of democracy. You goddamn
right he is. The whole channel is siding with the
enemies of democracy. It always has, it exists to do that.
It is an anti American crime syndicate in plain sight.
(15:40):
Treat it as such under oath, and if you need
a specific probable crime. There is this little matter of
Rupert Murdoch's sharing details of Joe Biden's campaign commercials with
Jared Kushner, maybe even showing them to him. It's unclear.
Murdoch answered yes when he was asked on the record
(16:01):
about quote giving Kushner a preview. But now in the
new tranch from Dominion, there is an email trail on
this subject. No, you are spending less on TV than Biden.
Murdoch wrote, However, my people tell me his advertisements are
a lot better creatively than yours, and Kushner replies, should
(16:23):
have some new creative out this week, and Murdoch replies,
your advertisement at one pm this Sunday and improvement. A
man who owns an alleged news network is not allowed
to consult one campaign about what the other campaign is doing.
And if he really did show Kushner a Biden commercial,
(16:45):
Rupert Murdoch should be in chains somewhere, and Senator if
this still does not seem to be reason enough to
convene a formal Senate investigation of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp.
And Fox, there is one new overriding question the nation
needs answered. Why is Hucker Carlson hiding the rest of
(17:07):
the January sixth video? What does Fox not want America
to see? Two can play this game? Mother Tucker still
(17:34):
ahead of us. In this initiship countdown, Elon Musk taunts
a disabled man who was asking him if he had
been fired or not fired by Twitter that it turns
out the guy had sold his company to Twitter and
the deal was if he was fired by Twitter, Twitter
out him one hundred million dollars. Suddenly, Musk could not
apologize fast enough. Another National Hockey League, Pride Night, is
(17:56):
canceled at the last minute, as the league's slogan, hockey
is for Everyone, turns out to be nothing better than
a lousy brand name. The commissioner of this league has
got to go and go now. And you ever heard
a story about a guy who suggested that they use
the name General Motors for their new company. But he
didn't bother to get a million dollars for his idea
(18:16):
or get anything, and then turned down some stock too. Yeah,
that was my great grandpa. Things I promised not to tell.
Coming up, that's next. This is countdown. This is countdown
with Keith Olbo. Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates,
(18:42):
some snarks, some prediction. Stateline Washington as an adjunct of
the Fox quote news unquote story. This salient question from
New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell, why are all publicly displayed
TV's in the US capital required by the Republicans to
be tuned to Fox quote news unquote. As Pascrell wrote
(19:04):
in a letter to Speaker McCarthy, Fox's owner admits Fox
deliberately lies to its viewers. A station that helped spark
January sixth should not be forced on visitors to our capital. Unquote,
we're forced on Americans Dateline Marilago Trump, in a radio
interview with Sean Hannity, made a little oopsie. Since the
Russians invaded Ukraine a year ago, he has insisted it
(19:27):
would never have happened if he had still been president.
To Hannity, he revealed, why, why, Well, he just would
have given putin part of Ukraine. Let me ask you
about Ukraine. You've said that before. Why would it not
have happened if you were president? He would have never
done it. He would have never that's without even negotiating
(19:47):
a deal. I could have negotiated. At worst, I could
have made a deal to take over something. You know,
there are certain areas that are Russians speaking to her
is frankly, but you could have worked a deal. Ah,
the old giveaway somebody else's country ploy, the one that
Neville Chamberlain used with such success with Hitler at Munich
in nineteen thirty eight. Swell Idea, FATS and Dateline Capitol
(20:11):
Hill Back inside the mind of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green.
We're going in, so don't wear your good shoes. Part
of the Republican platform of doing a lot about things
that matter only a little, the persecution of the one
tenth to one third of one percent of the American
population that is transgender. Female takes testosterone. The profound and
(20:37):
permanent effects of the hormone can be seen in a
matter of months. Voices drop, beards sprout, body fat is redistributed,
sexual interest explodes, aggression increases, and mood can be unpredictable. Funny,
who does that description remind you of? As they say,
(20:59):
every Republican accusation is really a confession, isn't it? Congress Peed?
(21:19):
This is Sports Center? Wait? Check that in not anymore?
This is Countdown with Keith Olberman in sports. Another Pride
Night disaster in the NHL, the National Hypocrisy League. The
Minnesota Wild held their Pride Night last night, and unlike
(21:41):
last year when they wore the now traditional warm up
uniforms for fifteen minutes, which say nothing on them but
merely have the numbers and some of the letters in
a Pride color pattern, the team did not wear these uniforms.
The problem was the self congratulatory team press release previewing
Pride Night Minnesota was up until hours before, and it
(22:01):
read in part quote part of the themed game programming
includes custom designed Wild Pride jerseys warned by the team
during pregame warmups, which will be signed an auctioned off
starting March seventh. The Wild later issued a boilerplate statement
about supporting the LGBTQ community, which did not explain in
(22:21):
the slightest or even once what happened to the uniforms.
But if it's just like the NHL's disaster on the
New York Rangers Pride Night earlier this season and the
Philadelphia Flyers Pride Night earlier, still it's because a Russian
player or players on the Minnesota team refused to wear
the warmups with rainbow coloring for quote religious reasons. In Philadelphia,
(22:44):
every Flyer player except the Russian born defenseman Ivan Provorov,
wore those warmups. The Flyers simply excused Provorov from the
warm up period. In New York, the culprit or culprits
have never been identified, but the Rangers only had two
Russian born players at the time on their roster, star
goalie Igor Shusterkin and forward Tammy pennerin. If the wild
(23:07):
hope to keep the identity of the homophobe on their
team of secret, they're going to have to move quickly.
There is only one Russian on the Minnesota roster. The
one Russian on the Minnesota roster is their star score
Corrill Caprisov. When the provof embarrassment occurred, it was explained
that he was Russian Orthodox and that religion does not
approve of same sex relationships. Nobody mentioned this at the time.
(23:30):
That the Russian Orthodox Church did approve of something else,
namely Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and its leaders said
out loud in front of people with tape rolling that
the invasion was justified in part because they had pride
nights in Ukraine. This was a homophobic war that church
was supporting. The circles back to an underlying issue the
(23:54):
National Hockey League will not deal with. I should say
it's another issue it will not deal with. The NHL
is very good at pretending to do something important when
in fact it is doing nothing. Why Russian nationals permitted
to play in the NHL right now? This country is
overtly and fiercely supporting Ukraine. As it defends itself against Russia,
(24:15):
and so is Canada. Yet here are Russian homophobes like
Proharoff and presumably capris Off and Shasterkin and or Panarin
taking North American money, to say nothing of Alexander Ovechkin
of the Washington Capitals, who is both chasing the game's
goalscoring record and still openly supporting in public the dictator
and warmonger Putin. These players should be given a simple choice,
(24:39):
repudiate your Russian citizenship or get out and don't tell
me about risks to their families. They have all long
since made enough money and had enough time to get
their families out of that stinking country. It was one
thing when it was just these guys sucking some cash
out of the US and Canada, but now they are
advancing a terrorist state internationally and a homophobic one inside
(25:04):
our country, all while the NHL and it's commissioner, Gary
Bettman push a slogan which is itself a complete lie.
Hockey is for everyone, and we should note for clarity
that everyone no longer includes gay people in the National
Hockey League. But at least the commissioner of the National
Hockey League has made sure, it does still include Russian bigots.
(25:28):
The Russian players have to go, and Commissioner Gary Bettman
has to be fired. Ahead. So yeah, my great grandfather
(25:51):
dreamed up the name General Motors. And what did he
leave his descendant me, Well, he left me this wonderful,
shiny anecdote, which I'll tell you next. First, it's time
for the daily roundup of the miss Grants, morons and
Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's whereas persons in
the world. The bronze mayor raz Baraca of Newark, New Jersey.
(26:14):
Nearly a month ago now, the mayor staged an elaborate
signing ceremony declaring that Newark and the United States of
Kalisa in India would become sister cities. I know, one
is a city, one is a state. Never mind, believe
it or not, that's not the real problem here. The
real problem here is there is no such place as
(26:34):
the United States of Galisa. It's all the invention of
a religious nut in India who's been under investigation for
sexual assault, and nobody in the mayor's office of Newark,
or in New Jersey or New York City media bothered
to even google the United States of Carlisa and you
know the sad part here is they went and made
(26:55):
a big old Sister Cities sign and everything over In
Newark runner up, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunac with an
unexpected second appearance in as many episodes. It's again for
a really disastrous tweet. You don't see this every day.
Soon Act sent out a warning about the UK's new
zero tolerance policy for undocumented immigration, and it reads, if
(27:15):
you come to the UK illegally, you can't claim asylum,
you can't benefit from our modern slavery protections. But there's
a big graphic next to it reading you will be
denied access to the UK's modern slavery system. I get it.
It's an attempt to stop human trafficking and that's a
(27:36):
good thing, the slavery thing, But this phrasing you can't
benefit from our modern slavery protections. You will be denied
access to the UK's modern slavery system. That doesn't say
what you think. It says like the UK's modern slavery system,
everything's up to date in twenty first century Britain. Come
(27:57):
for the Channel crossing, stay to enjoy access to our
modern slavery system. It just doesn't. It's not what you're
trying to say. It's the opposite. Speaking of which, our
winner again is Elon Musk, who has spent forty four
billion dollars to buy Twitter to make sure everybody could
watch himself own sixteen times a day. A man named
(28:20):
Harolder Torlifsson tweeted to Musk that nine days earlier his
access to his Twitter work computer had been discontinued, and
in all the time since he had not been able
to get a straight answer out of the company had
he been fired or not. Torlifsen said something about HR
asking him to be a hands on designer and he
couldn't be hands on because of his illness. He really
(28:43):
only could use one finger. Within about two tweets, Musk
was insulting the man and mocking his illness, which was
muscular dystrophe. He wrote that Torlifsson, who goes by the
name Halle Quote, did no actual work, claimed as his
excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing,
yet was simultaneously tweeting up his thumb. Musk finally told Holly, yes,
(29:07):
you were fired. That's when it turned out that Holly
had sold his design company to Twitter and stayed on
as an employee, and his sale deal with Twitter said
that if he were ever to be fired by Twitter,
they had to pay him the entire purchase price of
one hundred million dollars. The next musk tweet, I would
like to apologize to Hally from my misunderstanding. Blah blah
(29:30):
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Elon translation, I
would like to apologize to Hallie so I can keep
my one hundred dollar million dollars musk once again. Two
days worse person in the still ahead on Countdown. My
(29:56):
great grandfather told this story about himself every day until
he died. It was legend in the family. There is
considerable circumstantial evidence that it is all horrifyingly true. We
even know the last date when it could have happened,
September sixteenth, nineteen oh eight, so we'll call that the
day my great grandfather gave away General Motors. Next. First,
(30:23):
in each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in
need you can help. Every dog has its day to Dallas,
Texas and Lancaster Trinket, Charlotte and Biggs. Four dogs have
their day. They in the worst state of crisis, arrived
separately at the Dallas Dog r r R Rescue Dallas
Dogger Rescue, all in one week. Trinket had pneumonia, needed plasma.
(30:43):
Lancaster was a stray puppy with parvo. Charlotte has a
foreign body stuck inside Big so sick he need an
oxygen tent. They arrived simultaneously wiped out the rescue's funds.
They need thirty thousand to continue. They've gotten about ten.
They're trying to raise the rest on Cudley so these
four dogs can live. If you can donate, you can
find them on Cudley under hospitalization, after hospitalization, or just
(31:06):
check my Twitter feeds. I thank you, and Biggs, Charlotte,
Lancaster and Trinkett thank you as well. Anthony Zelinski was
born in Crackoff in Poland in eighteen sixty eight. My
sister just found some evidence that he changed the way
his name was spelled, that it was originally Zelenski with
(31:30):
two wys or two eyes at the end, just like
the Ukrainian president. We're kind of pleased with her discovery. Anthony,
or as my father nicknamed him, the Great financier was
a natural musician. He could sing, play any instrument, He
could compose music and lyrics. He could teach you how
to play. He could build or repair anything from a
kazoo to a grand piano, and that from his late
(31:52):
teens is how he made his money. He traveled all
around Europe from maybe eighteen eighty six onwards, staying at
rich people's houses for several days, teaching the girls how
to sing and the boys how to play whatever was
lying around the house, fixing the family harpsichord, cobbling together
the odd flute. One day, We're guessing around eighteen eighty
(32:13):
nine eighteen ninety he traveled to the home of well
off merchants in Odessa, then part of Russia, the Chevchenkos.
He taught the boys how to sing and the girls
how to play the organ, and then he fell in
love with the youngest daughter, Matrona. The Chefschenkos were not
happy when they discovered them in love and chased my
(32:34):
great grandfather and their daughter out of the house, out
of the city, and out of the country. Antony went
home to poland married his child bride, returned to Krakoff,
where all of his family then chased them out of
that house, out of that city, and out of that country.
Get lost with you and your Russian horror, he would
later tell the nephew for whom my father was named Teddy.
(32:57):
Antony and Matrona had to think fast. It's eighteen eighty nine,
eighteen ninety. Where's a hard working guy thrown out of
Russia and Poland gonna go? They arrived in New York
City within weeks. As I said, he was a natural musician.
He picked up English quickly, and supposedly within a month
or two, he was leaving his wife, my great grandmother,
in an apartment in the Bronx and getting on trains
(33:17):
for distant cities as far west as Chicago, going to
the rich people's homes and getting one hundred dollars to
teach the music, write music, repair musical instruments, and then
get right back on the train to New York. Though
he earned a very good income doing this, especially for
an immigrant, Anthony and Matrona lived frugally, often without hot
water in their home because my great grandfather was now driven,
(33:41):
driven to avenge himself Deaddy, he would tell his nephew,
who told my dad, I save every dollar I can
save I in West in the safest in Westmint, in
the world, the Polish national bonds. For one day. I
shall return to Krakow. I shall buy the biggest house
on top of the biggest hill and stand outside all
day waiving my money at my relatives who made me
(34:04):
and your aunt and saying to them, f you, this
is my goal. And on and on. This went for
a decade and more, until he went to Flint, Michigan,
to do his usual routine to stay at the house
of a prosperous American, write a family song, repair the
broken tuba, teach the kids to play the guitar, and
generally delight the family, in this case, the family of
(34:26):
a businessman who he remembered as mister Billie. Came the
end of my great grandfather's stay with mister Billy in
Michigan and his family in Michigan, and mister Bildie was
so taken with Anthony's Zolinsky that he took him personally
to the train station in Flint and went with him
onto the platform to wait for the train. Mister Zolinsky,
(34:48):
he said, we have been delighted to have you here,
that I would be honored if you would accept instead
of the five hundred dollars I owe you, please take
one thousand dollars in stock certificates from my business, my
way of saying thanks and hoping you can return and
visit us again. My great grandfather said he was almost
moved to tears by the gesture. But mister Billy, he explained,
(35:10):
I live very inexpensively, and I in west all my
money in the world's safest in Westmont, the Polish National bonds.
Mister Billy congratulated Antony on his prudence, but said, I
believe I am at the cusp of the next great
business in this country. I would again offer you this stock.
I think you will make so much money that you
could buy all the Polish National bonds. My great grandfather,
(35:34):
standing there on the train station in Flint, Michigan, fought
for a moment. I know, mister Billy, you mention you
own a manufactory in town. What is this you manufactor?
Mister Billy said, we are in the automobile business. Mister Zalinsky,
my great grandfather lit up. I s the streets of
New York are filled with automobiles. This is the coming thing.
(35:56):
But I will still take the cash and in West
in the World's safest in Westmint the Polish National bonds.
The train was late, an awkward silence now between them,
which my great grandfather finally broke. Do I know the
name of your company, mister Billy. Mister Billy replied, well,
that's the topic of the moment, mister Zelensky, and I
must say, having gotten to know you a little bit,
(36:17):
I'm not at all surprised you brought this subject up. Currently,
my company is called Buick Motor Cars. My great grandfather said, Ah, yes, Buke,
I've heard of Buck. You're changing the name. Not exactly,
said mister Billy. I believe the automotive business is going
to grow exponentially. But we have one large company in
the field, Ford, and we have dozens of smaller ones
(36:40):
like Buick. And I'm about to buy up several of
my competitors in form one big company, bigger than Ford,
and we will dominate automobiles for decades to come. Ah yes,
said my great grandfather. And what will you call this behemoth?
Mister Billy laughed again. You cut to the heart of
the matter, mister Zelensky. We are debating that right now.
(37:01):
We need a name that expresses our national stature. My
great grandfather shook his head at the obviousness of this.
The problem is an easy one. No, you use National
National motor Cars. Mister Billy laughed again, your insight is extraordinary.
That was our first thought as well. But would you
believe there is a company in Indiana, of all places,
(37:24):
they make electric automobiles which will never work, and they're
called National Motor Vehicles. We need another name. American has
also taken, Continental has taken. Damn it, mister Lewinsky. We
can't think of a good name that isn't already taken.
My great grandfather, who had just turned down the stock
in a thousand dollars worth of the stock in this company,
thought for a second. You wish to express the national,
(37:46):
the American, the broadly available or available National, Continental nationals.
What is the word in English? General? The general availability
of your vehiculers? Well, mister Billy, why not that? Why
not general? General automobiles, general automotive, general motor car, maybe
(38:13):
general motors. Now it was time for mister Billy to
become pensive. Finally he spoke, general motors does have a
certain ring to it. Mister Zelinski. Oh look, here's your train. Ah.
(38:34):
Mister Billy was, of course Billy Durant, and he owned
Durant Dort, and then he owned Buick, and then he
consolidated thirteen auto manufacturers and ten parts and accessory companies
together into as it was called, on the day Billy
and his partners opened the escrow account Wednesday, September sixteenth,
nineteen o eight, General Motors Holding Company, My great grandfather
(38:57):
having gotten another five hundred dollars to invest in the
world's safest investment instead of a thousand dollars in stock,
and not General Motors in nineteen o eight, but the
company that would become General Motors, and having given its
chairman the name General Motors for free, waved goodbye, got
on the train, returned to New York. He died fifteen
(39:20):
years later. And to his credit, we know of the
detail of this story because the person who told it
to everyone with a laugh, with a warning to his
relatives that none of them had the genes of a
businessman either, was my great grandfather himself. Needless to say,
this good self deprecating humor makes him my favorite of
(39:41):
all my ancestors, and I hope wherever he went. When
he died in nineteen twenty three, his humor went with
him because there were several postscripts to this story that
lend it authenticity and induce further rage in his descendants.
My father was very much alive in nineteen forty. He
was an eleven year old boy with his uncle Teddy
(40:03):
Antony's nephew, living with my dad and grandparents and my
uncles and the Bronx. My dad, who did not meet
his grandfather, Anthony Zelenski, said there was a knock on
the apartment door one day and he opened it to
the site, as he put it, of the two best
suits of clothing I had ever seen. The men wearing
them asked for my dad's uncle. He got him and
(40:25):
them and men began to speak Polish to uncle Teddy. Gentlemen,
we are here in America. You will please speak English
in front of my family, mister Zelinsky. One of them said,
we know that your uncle left you his investments in
Polish national bonds. He was obviously a great patriot. We
represent the Polish government in exile when we run the
Nazis out of our homeland and freedom is again hours.
(40:47):
I know your uncle would have, and you would want
the free Polish national state to not be burdened financially,
to be unburdened. In fact, to the greatest possible degree,
mister Zelenski, your uncle was the fourth largest private investor
in Polish national bonds in America. In fact, he was
just behind the National Bank of Mexico. Will you retire
(41:10):
his bonds for a nominal fee as a great Polish patriot.
My dad was never sure how nominal the fee was,
but he was convinced his uncle got less than five
hundred dollars for what was at least one hundred thousand
dollars in bonds due in the year nineteen fifty or later.
My dad did not spend his life wondering about his
(41:31):
grandfather's magnificent moment of investment stupidity, but it would occasionally
wake him in the middle of the night, and on
his nightly commutes from Manhattan to our little home in
the suburbs, he came to know the other regulars on
the train, just like Don Draper did on Madmen same train,
in fact, and one of the regulars on the train
turned out to be a stock historian. Eventually, Dad told
(41:55):
him the story of Antony's Lyinsky and Billy Durant and
General Motors, And the stock historian invited him to stop
by the office at lunch one day. Sit down, Ted,
and I mean sit down, Ted. The historian showed his math.
This was what a thousand dollars in Buick in nineteen
oh eight turned into when Billy Durant created General Motors
(42:16):
in nineteen oh eight. And here's where it's split. And see,
and here's where it's split again. And here's where it
quartered after they forced Durant out and then he bought Chevrolet,
and he came back in and took over General Motors again,
and it's split. And my father said, he started to sweat.
Just tell me already, Ted, the thousand dollars your great
grandfather turned down in General Motors in nineteen oh eight
(42:39):
would now be worth approximately sixty million dollars, my father said.
He struggled to not pass out his friend from the train,
then said, plus the value of the name. I can't
get that exactly, the stock historian said, but it's got
to be another couple million, five ten maybe, especially if
he'd taken stock in exchange for the name. There's one
(43:05):
twist to the knife well, so far, there's still plenty
of time for more. When the Unions ran the Soviets
out of Poland and lec Valessa became President of the
Free Poland in nineteen ninety, he gave a speech establishing
the new government. He spoke naturally in Polish, until that is,
it was time to address one topic. The president read
(43:26):
that part of the speech in English. My government will
recognize and honor the following years of the Polish national bonds.
My father called me in Los Angeles that night. He
had spoken to his stock, his Storian friend again and
gotten a new rough estimate. My great grandfather had turned
down sixty maybe seventy million dollars in general motors stock
(43:48):
to keep, say a hundred thousand dollars in Polish bonds
due in the year nineteen fifty, and lec Valessa had
just said, we'll pay on those bonds that we're due
in nineteen fifty. And so if great grandfather's nephew Teddy
had just sat on them, those bonds would have been
worth five or six million dollars. Keith, my father said, quietly,
(44:12):
let me remind you again what the great financier my
grandfather told everyone told all of us, none of us,
none of us have the genes of a businessman. Thank
(44:42):
you for listening. Countdown has come to you from these
studios el the Olberman Broadcasting Empire hi A Top its
headquarters in the Sports Capsule building here in New York,
the building I do not own. Here are the credits.
Most of the music was arranged, produced and performed by
Brian Ray and John Philip Channel and where the Countdown
musical directors produced by t KO Brothers. All are frustration
(45:05):
and keyboards by John Philip Channel, guitarist based on drums
by Brian Ray. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and
performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music
is the Olderman theme from ESPN two. It was written
by Mitch Warren Davis and it appears here courtesy of
ESPN Inc. Musical comments from Nancy Fauss. The best baseball
(45:25):
stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was Jonathan Banks from
Breaking Bad. Everything else was pretty much my fault. Let's
countdown for this the seven hundred ninety second day since
Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government
of the United States. Arrest him now while we still can.
The next schedule countdown is tomorrow, so until then, I'm
(45:47):
Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is at auction of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(46:11):
or wherever you get your podcasts
Host
Keith Olbermann
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