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You know Eddie and I recently stopped by. Yeah, in Nashville. It's an incredible nonprofit empowering kids through music education. Thanks to Hyundai, we recorded a special podcast episode while we were there. How do you think learning an instrument helps kids with confidence?
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Learning an instrument allows them to discover
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a little bit further of who they are and be comfortable with it and
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then share a little bit about that with others. And if it's done in an environment that is celebrating and championing them, then that confidence can only go up.
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The full episode is out now presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 9. To donate and learn more about yeah's mission, just visit yahrocks.org Countdown with Keith
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Olbermann is a production of iHeartRadio. Don't get me wrong, I would not trust Tulsi Gabbard to watch the Washington Monument for five minutes to make sure it didn't get pulled out of the ground and stolen while I went to get a slice of pizza. And she has betrayed not only this nation, but herself, specifically over Iran. And Joe Kent is unstable garbage. Neither of them is noble, neither of them is not cowardly, neither of them may escape prosecution in the future. But we are all looking at what they did or did not do on Capitol Hill about Iran backwards, passively, aggressively, in a kind of bizarre code through omission, not commission. They call Trump a liar about Iran and the nuclear weapon that he alone in the world thinks Iran was about to have. This was in fact Tulsi Gabbard's mini coup against Trump over Iran. They didn't try to dance around the rationale for Trump's nonsensical, delusional, disastrous war in Iran, the one that if he is not losing it, it is only because he has already lost it. They did not lie for him. They refused to lie for him. They refused to sugarcoat the fact that they all told him in different ways and at different times that Iran posed no imminent nuclear threat and would not. They not only refused to roll under the bus for him, they stopped standing between him and the bus and he rolled right under it of his own volition. Kent's resignation and Gabbard's cover of the Ramones, I wanna be sedated, but in testimony form. And John Ratcliffe's word salad too, were cheesy and cheap. They could have easily been almost entirely accidental, or maybe at best they were the equivalent of hostage videos where the victim blinks out the identity of the kidnapper in Morse code. But everybody, even people in the Trump administration, everybody has a breaking point, or if not a breaking point, then a self preservation point. And I think Kent and Gabbard and to a lesser degree, Ratcliffe all reached it this week. Kent's resignation as Gabbard's chief deputy and his confession that, quote, I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war, Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation and his boss, Gabbard's jiu jitsu, like inertia barely 28 hours later in front of the Senate were not some kind of coincidence of timing. She said only Trump could state if Iran were an imminent threat. Only the president could make that conclusion. That's not really true, but it is true that that's the only thing she could say without being fired and without having everything else she said dismissed by the MAGA cult and by a lot of normal people as well. And then she agreed. A day after her top deputy quit, saying Iran was not an imminent threat, she agreed that everything the intelligence community told Trump was that Iran was not an imminent nuclear threat. The senator is Jon Ossoff. So the assessment of the intelligence community is that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated by last summer's airstrikes? Yes. And the opening statement you submitted to the committee last night also stated, quote, there has been no effort since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability, end quote. Correct? That's right. And that's the assessment of the intelligence community? Yes. The only way Iran could be an imminent nuclear threat is if the 2025 bombing runs by Trump failed. She just said they didn't fail. The only way Iran could be an imminent nuclear threat would be if they rebuilt their nuclear enrichment program after the 2025 bombing runs. She just said they hadn't tried. The other part about how only the president can assess an imminent threat. Her chief deputy at National Intelligence figuratively lit himself on fire and threw himself off the roof of their building 28 hours earlier, announcing Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation that would include nukes. At that point. It would have been great, great if Tulsi Gabbard had said Trump is lying. But it's Tulsi Gabbard that she got as far as she did yesterday. That is the high water mark, both of any intelligence in the head of the Director of National Intelligence and any integrity. For her, that was nirvana. And still when I heard that, I thought, nah, nah, nah, she's still. She still might have just slipped. There's no coup, there's no secret message, there's no revolt, there's no trouble. Trail of orchid petals that fell off her last lay, leading to the fact that the truth is out there. And then she did it again. Gabbard got out of Trump's way a second time and let his own instability throw him under the bus. Again, on an entirely different topic, she also got him on his ongoing attempt to overthrow the government to overturn the elections to overrule the midterms. You may recall back in the Haze of all of the scandals and nightmares that on January 28th, Gabbard was there as FBI agents illegally seized ballots from a voting center in Fulton County, Georgia. Ballots from 2020. She was photographed. She was photographed on the phone. Turns out she was on the phone with Trump. Turns out she put the FBI agents on the phone with Trump as well. On February 4, in an otherwise softball interview, NBC asked Trump, quote, why is Tulsi Gabbard there? And Trump answered, I don't know. On February 5th, the next day, Trump was asked again, why was Tulsi Gabbard there? Suddenly he had a story. She went in, at Pam's insistence. March 18. Yesterday, under oath, Gabbard was finally asked by Senator Warner was, what the f were you doing there? And that's when she let Trump throw himself under the bus. Again. I did not participate in a law enforcement activity, nor would I, because that does not exist within my authorities. You were present on the scene. Are the photos of you on the scene? I was at Fulton county, sir, at the request of the president and to work with the FBI to observe this action. It's a mini coup. It's at least a protest. It's at least a truth leak. And I'll say this again, I loathe Tulsi Gabbard. It's personal with me. She once got Harmeet Dylan to threaten me with a lawsuit because I retweeted something about Tulsi Gabbard. Retweeted, my God, have you ever read my tweets? A retweet? Seriously? I will never praise Tulsi Gabbard. And Joe Kent is twice as bad as she is. But don't look into the wrong end of the telescope here. Or with the tepid testimony about Iran from the CIA Director Ratcliffe yesterday, either. These are scumbags. These are anti democracy threats to the world. These are Trump stooges. But even Trump stooges know when they have to start covering their own assets. And there's no question that's what Kent did Tuesday. And if you say out loud the things that Gabbard could only imply, if you provide that part of the equation for her, that's also what Gabbard did yesterday. That was Gabbard's mini coup against Trump on Iran. And clearly on more than just Iran, why did she fess up about the Georgia thing? Keep these two on your list of Trump scandals and watch them daily. Back to Iran. And back to the theme of the passive aggressive under the bus throw. Our smarter allies have told Trump to f. Off. It really is amazing to see them sort of gabbered the verb to gabbered. Trump's desperate plea for some adult to come pull him out of this ocean of quicksand he decided on designed, ordered, personally mixed, loaded and then jumped into while whistling Yankee Doodle out his ass. Two weeks ago it was England is a bad ally with slow responses. 10 days ago it was Prime Minister Starmer's trying to horn in on the glory of a war I already won all by myself. Five days ago it was save me Starmer, now it's Starmer is a poopy pants. Tomorrow it will be. We'll see how Starmer does when I suddenly pull out of this quicksand war in Iran. And next week it'll be, hi, this is the President, I'd like to talk to the Prime Minister of England, Sherlock Holmes, please. Both regarding the British and the other allies, Trump is in fact at the I broke it, you bought it stage, quoting him yesterday. I wonder what would happen if we finished off what's left of the Iranian terror state and let the countries that use it. We don't be responsible for the so called straight. And he misspelled straight, the dingus. That would get some of our non responsive allies in gear and fast. Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point. President DJT no, it, it probably wouldn't. In fact it, it would get our allies to try to back out of the area where the quicksand has consumed Trump now and cut some kind of deal with Iran and then wait for the Trump bubbles to stop rising to the surface of the quicksand. The EU started to try to cut a deal with the Iranian government yesterday. Kaya Kalashi is essentially the EU Foreign Minister looking to reach some sort of settlement with Iran to provide safe passage through the strait. S T R A I T of Hormuz for. Well, for European Union tankers. Sorry, Trumpy. The UK wants nothing to do with the war in the Middle East. Trump is so stupid. It never dawned on him that attacking Starmer has made Starmer more popular back home, to say nothing of his deputy prime minister, Dr. Watson. But in the bigger picture, Trump has gone in three weeks from one. I can do this all by myself. I'm so great, I'm not even gonna tell the allies I'm gonna do it. 2. We need help. 3. We need help. Why aren't they helping me? 4, so many allies have told me they will be helping me and that I was so smart to do it. This way, sir. 5. No, I won't tell you who those allies are who will be helping me. 6. So, no, nobody's helping me, but that's great because I don't need help anyway. Iran is totally destroyed. 7. I talked to an ex president about this. He says I was so smart to do it, he wishes he had done it. And sure, they all denied they talked to me, but did you ever think about this? I'm an ex president too. Maybe I was just talking to myself. Huh? Huh. 8. The war that is still raging in Iran and the Middle East, I don't know, must be ghosts. And nine, we don't need anybody's help now because. Because we're leaving. And all of you can fix it. When a White House insider talking to White House House organ and propaganda sheet Politico says the off ramps don't work anymore. And a second White House insider says we clearly just kicked Iran's ass in the field. But to a large extent, they hold the cards now. They decide how long we're involved, and they decide if we put boots on the ground, guess what that means? Like I said before, that means there are two choices. A, we are losing, or B, we are not losing, but only because we already lost. Practically. What has Trump gotten done in the Middle East? Besides enough to get Joe Kent to quit and go look for somebody to swear fealty to who is more of a Nazi than Trump? What has he done besides drive the price of gallon of oil towards 110, besides destabilize the entire Middle East? Besides knowing in advance that Israel would blow up the gigantic natural gas field half owned by our ally Qatar? Well, he and NETanyahu have killed 11 Iranian leaders. The head of state, three leading defense officials, National Security Council leader, intelligence director, intelligence minister, head of the paramilitary, a religious leader, a spokesperson, and maybe the head of state's son. Wow. So if it had been the other way around and Iran had done that to us, that would be what Trump, Vance Jr. Hegseth, General Kane, Acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, Cash Patel, and say the head of the paramilitary. So that would be still Kristi Noem, religious leader. Okay, the clown televangelist, Paula White, and somebody else, an 11th guy like, I don't know, Besant or Gabbard, or if it includes the. The unofficial regime spokesman Joe Scarborough. So if those 11 people had been eliminated here, who would notice? I mean, ha ha ha. But seriously, would. Would the government fall? Would the jets stop taking off at the airports? Would America give up? Would America beg for peace? Would a majority of Americans be changed in some way or institute some sort of different kind of government? Or would they just the smarter ones simply ask, why is this Johnson guy calling himself president? And that would be the end of it. This is like the era of 2001 through 2006, when every other week Bush would announce a major terrorist has been killed or captured. And the impact on that tiny percentage of Americans keeping track might have been, wait a minute, the name of this new major terrorist. Isn't this the same as the major terrorist from last month, only written backwards? I mean, if that grinning fop, Kevin Hassett, got blown up by Iran, what would actually happen to this country? We'd see the the latest clip of him running on a loop on Cable News While 90% of America obsessed over its NCAA brackets. And the clip of Kevin Hassett that they would show was the one where he said, if the war were to be extended, it wouldn't really disrupt the US Economy very much at all. It would hurt consumers, and we'd have to think about what we'd have to do about that. But that's really the last of our concerns right now. And yet somehow that the consumer is the last of our concerns right now, said the Trump spokesman. That was not the weirdest thing said by the White House since last you and I spoke. What was wasn't just weird. It may be really, really important because it's a really, really bad sign about Trump's brain. It always bothered me that we're protecting and we don't need him. We didn't need him before we started. Dig, we must dig. Me was that's the Trump policy of lots of oil. Dig we must. Dig we must. Some people shook their heads and wondered what Grandpa Shardy was talking about and why he said, dig we must, instead of drill, baby, drill. And only some of us aging New Yorkers went pale. Dig we must. Dig we must used to be the ubiquitous, very effective ad slogan for the electric company here, Con Ed. It was, in fact, in total Dig we must for growing New York. The streets, the sidewalks, the empty lots of the city from Times Square to the most rural parts of Staten island used to be covered with Con Ed barricades, saw horses as they dug up the streets and annoyed everybody. And the sawhorses were covered with this phrase, dig we must. It became part of the vernacular of the city. It's in the classic movie the Manchurian Candidate. The Chinese scientist who brainwashes the presidential assassin says with a laugh, if kill we must for a Better New York. That movie came out in 1962. Dig we must was a big, big local catchphrase here in the 50s. It was phased out by 1965. 1966. I mean, I remember my grandfather saying it to me when he still lived in the Bronx. He moved out in 1966. Dig we must. Dig we must keep. What appears to be the last cultural reference to dig we must anywhere was apparently in a supposed New York City street scene in an episode of the old T detective series Kojak with the bald guy with the lollipop telly Savalas. And there's a bunch of Con Ed workers down an open manhole surrounded by a bunch of sawhorses. And the sawhorses all read dig we must for growing New York. That episode aired in 1973. And most people probably said, what the hell does dig we must mean? And I go into this excruciating detail because the week before, Trump called Caroline Levitt, Kellyanne Conway four times in one speech. Then he threatened reporters with treason charges for some reports about the Iran war that were not reported in the American media, only in foreign media. Then. Then Trump said, dig we must instead of drill, baby, drill. That was the latest evidence that this is no ordinary Trump brownout. This is a complete systems failure. Whatever is going on in that decaying body, whatever is going on in that disintegrating brain, it has now gotten so bad that when the wires fray and start shooting out sparks for Trump, it is now suddenly turning into 1962. Dig we must. Also of interest here, beginning to wish the US Hockey team didn't win the Olympics. The guy who scored the winning goal, Mr. Sportsmanship, his name is Jack Hughes. Just discovered, just discovered that the Olympics people gave the puck to the Hockey hall of Fame. And he's pissed off. He says it's his, even though he didn't bother to try to pick it up after he scored the goal. And he didn't ask anybody what happened to it for days afterwards. But it's mine. And more sports. The Los Angeles Dodgers have won it all again. They have sold the naming rights to Dodger Stadium while lying that they did not sell the naming rights to Uniqlo Dodger Stadium. They have won the Worst persons in the world award, edging out Rachel Maddow. That's next. This is Countdown. Most people think their insurance will cover them when disaster strikes. The truth, many are wrong. You pay premiums and assume you're protected until the fine print hits. Exclusions, limits, loopholes. Suddenly, that coverage isn't coverage. At all. My policy advocate reviews your policies Home Auto Life and breaks them down in plain English. They show what's really covered and what isn't. It costs just 27 cents a day less than a cup of coffee. For peace of mind before you assume you're covered, go to mypolicyadvocate.com you might be shocked at what you find. Mypolicyadvocate.com no one knows what the future
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This is Countdown with Keith Olbermann, my crazy friend. This is SportsCenter. Wait, check that.
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Not anymore.
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This is Countdown with Keith Olbermann in sports. Well, sports, politics. I cannot, in 50 years of covering this stuff, remember an American international sports triumph where the shine wore off faster or the good vibes turned to sour crap more completely than the men's Olympic hockey gold medal of 2026. First, there was, of course, the real time fiasco with Kash Patel in the dressing room. Glug, glug, glug. Then there was the use of the team as political props and this moron Tage Thompson of the Buffalo Sabres wearing a MAGA hat to the State of the Union while his teammates complained, the rest of us were wrong to make this political. Now the guy who happened to score the game winning goal in the gold medal victory overtime over Canada, Jack Hughes, is demanding that he be given the puck to keep for himself or his dad. He doesn't really have an argument for this. This is not like a baseball that he caught for the final out, or a football he caught for the winning touchdown in the super bowl, or a fan who caught something that was hit or thrown into the stands. Jack Hughes never held the puck, probably never even touched the puck. He certainly didn't bring the puck. It wasn't his puck. At any point he didn't go and grab the puck after he scored the goal. Hughes even admitted that it was several days after the game he realized, I don't have it. It only occurred to him when an interviewer asked him what became of the puck. But now, quote, I'm trying to get it like that's bullshit that the Hockey hall of Fame has it, in my opinion. Why would they have that puck? Possibly because the Olympics, which is a private, for profit corporation, donated the puck and other memorabilia from the Olympic hockey tournament, which it owns, to the Hockey hall of Fame. The Hockey hall of Fame in Toronto is an actual charitable international organization which, among other things, also has the puck that Sidney Crosby scored when fortunes here were reversed and the Canadian team beat the Americans in overtime at the Olympics in 2010. I wouldn't even want it for myself, jacques Hughes says, while demanding it for himself, even though it's not his. I'd want it for my dad. I know he'd just love, love having it. I'd love, love having it too. So what the problem here really though, is the framing of this story. ESPN broke the J' ACC Hughes story and their headlines reads, jacques wants his golden goal puck back from Hockey hall of Fame back. He never had it in the first place. They didn't take it from him. He had no interest in securing it for dear old dad on that day. He might never have thought about it or dear old dad until the reporter asked, if he never had it, how could he be getting it back? He wants the puck, okay? He doesn't want it back. He didn't have it before. Pat McAfee, the dumb sounding guy ESPN has on all day, during the day, has started a campaign to get Jack Hughes's puck back. There is a tradition in the National Hockey League, also a private organization, to give players many of the pucks that represent landmarks in their careers. 100th goal, 500th goal, whatever. But even that isn't giving a player his puck back. It's an employer paying tribute to an employee with a tribute that transcends cash. It's not like some fan caught the puck and refused to let Jack Hughes have it for cash or for free. In other sports, even players who've gotten the equivalent of the puck that way have had no luck establishing ownership. My friend Doug Mintkiewicz is a minor leaguer. He was actually at my going away party at ESPN in 1997. Believe it or not, Minkiewicz was the first baseman who caught the ball for the final out when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, their first series title since 1918. He kept the ball where it landed in his glove and he took it home and everything was great until he made a joke like a year later about selling it, and the next thing you knew, the Red Sox had sued him. After a lot of wrangling, the ball wound up by joint agreement at the Baseball hall of Fame, which, by the way, is a private corporation, no tax deductions involved. Now, if Jack Hughes had said, I want the puck and I want my dad to have it and we agree not to sell it, and when he's done with it, he's donating it to the hall of Fame, maybe that's a different story. But get Jack Hughes his puck back. It's not his puck. I mean, if Sidney Crosby is one of the greatest players of all time in hockey, has never complained about his puck being in the hall of fame now for 16 years. You know, Jack Hughes, try to be one tenth of the human being that Sidney Crosby is. Pretend you've been there before or will ever be there again. Anyway, if this is not bad enough, there is an ESPN hockey host who has continued my alma mater's increasingly mistaken decision to periodically swerve into the oncoming traffic that is politics for no good goddamned reason. There's the aforementioned McAfee with Aaron Rodgers. There's Stephen A. Smith pretending to know anything about politics, let alone enough to run as a stalking horse third party candidate to siphon votes away from the Democrat and do so while he is still on ESPN's air. I mean, if he were a guy on Fox who was nominally running for President of the United States, Fox would take him off. And now there's this from someone I remembered from when we launched ESPN News in the 90s. I was surprised to find out he's still at ESPN. His name is John Butcher. Grass about the newly announced World cup of Hockey. It is going to have eight teams from eight countries, but they haven't announced all the countries yet. This is what he wrote. Russia should be among the eight teams. Undoubtedly Russian players decorate the NHL with their skill and commitment. To deny them is a slap in the face to players like Nikita Kucherov who dedicate their lives to improving their skill level at their benefit. Yes, and thus enhances the entertainment value of the sport. Be above the sanctimonious and filth muck of politics and politicians, the dregs of the earth. We are watching a hockey tournament. Well sir, you have a nice time watching your hockey tournament. Russia is an enemy of this nation, probably its foremost enemy and an enemy of Canada's. Russia is currently openly supplying Iran with the locations of American assets and personnel in the Middle East. And whether you like this war or not, Russia is helping to kill Americans in the Middle East. Russia is actively helping a country that is at war with us. Why is ESPN even by several remote steps supporting Russia in this equation? I mean, just on a consistency basis, the network is waving the jingoistic flag with Pat McAfee and Jack Hughes and his MAGA adjacent agenda and Aaron Rodgers and get me my puck back. And yet with the other hand, it's supporting Russia and dismissing American troops in harm's way as being just the sanctimonious and filth muck of politics and politicians, the dregs of the earth. I'm sorry sir. American soldiers getting their legs blown off is not politics. There's a difference. I don't know. Sanctimonious and filth muck of politics and politicians talk about American soldiers like that. I don't know. Don't let Tage Maga Thompson hear that. You said that Mr. Butcher Grass he might call up Jack Hughes's dad and the three of them will come over and visit you and demand to see your birth certificate. Hey, guess what? As always, we always have more new idiots to talk about. The roundup of the miscreants morons and dunning Kruger effect specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in the world. The bronze Newt Gingrich. He just never runs out of the stupid this is the second century of this. If you don't recognize the name. Newt Gingrich is the guy who thought he was going to impeach and remove President Clinton and then convince President Al Gore to pardon Clinton and then before there was a new vice president named impeach and remove President Gore. And that would make the speaker of the House president, when the speaker of the House was himself Newt Gingrich. And instead the only guy who wound up losing his job was the speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who got fired. Newt's a moron. Slick, occasionally clever, occasionally shrewd. He had one good catchphrase in the 90s, the contract with America. But ultimately, Newt's big problem is he's easily led. He saw this thing on the Internet about replacing the Strait of Hormuz, and he posted it because it filled all his requirements. It made Democrats look bad, it made Trump look good, and it involved killing people and blowing stuff up. So he linked to this and he wrote it up and tweeted it out. Newt Gingrich wrote, quote, instead of fighting over a 21 mile wide bottleneck forever, we cut a new channel through friendly territory. A dozen thermonuclear detonations, and you've got a waterway wider than the Panama Canal, deeper than the Suez and safe from Iranian attacks. In case you missed it in there, this plan that Newt seriously posted involves using nukes, thermonuclear detonations, a dozen of them. He writes, to destroy part of the Middle east to create a new canal called the Trump Canal through the United Arab Emirates and other friendly nations who probably will be surprised by this whether they like it or not. Seriously. And he links to this site and the article with illustrations. The site's called Chinatalk, and the article is by somebody named Jordan Shafer, who illustrates the plan profusely and says that after all, you know, you don't have to worry about any side effects because radiation is the greatest liberal bogus conspiracy of all time. And after they set off a dozen nukes in the Middle east and have an instant canal, Trump could just have Caroline Levitt call them a controlled landscaping event. And the more you look at this thing, the more the smile breaks across your face because it is deadpan, economical, simple. Never let on you're mocking anybody's satire. And it ends with this Jordan Schaeffer writing the views expressed above do not necessarily represent those of anyone with a brain. Boy, he got that right. That's Newt Gingrich in one sentence. Newt took it seriously. Newt posted this on Sunday and even though it has been community noted already and the author Schaefer has posted a screenshot of Newt's idiotic tweet endorsing it as of recording time, Newt's idiotic tweet is still live. He hasn't even deleted it surreptitiously yet. He is still seriously endorsing a proposal to blow up part of the Middle east with nuclear weapons to create a canal. And the thing ends with this Schaeffer writing quote, your boss is a builder. Trump doesn't want to play nice with a coalition of countries. He hates to patrol the Strait of Hormuz. He wants to cut a ribbon and watch the Kyron on Fox. Trump canal opens largest in human history, Mr. Secretary. Give him that Chiron and you win the war and keep your job. We can even tariff the tankers. My DMs are open and Newt Gingrich fell for it. Runner up Rachel Maddow. Now she is not alone in this, but honest to God, I am so tired of everybody doing this exact same thing with I don't know how many dozens of stories. A quick summary of an important story and then the question in various forms, why isn't this getting more attention or significant attention or all the attention? Why aren't we talking about these cobblestones in Belfast? Maddow focused on Jared Kushner's attempt to leverage the war in the Middle east that his father in law has started and get $2 billion in investments for his own companies out of the countries he's supposedly a peace envoy to. It's really easily digested graft and yes, it's important. And Kushner is himself a sleeper first round choice if your fantasy scumbag league draft is coming up later this month. But Maddow went on her show and said and then wrote it again Asked on socials, how is Jared Kushner's role in the US Attacking Iran not more of a show stopping scandal? Well, gosh, maybe it isn't more of a show stopping scandal because there are 457 showstopping scandals going on at the moment, including about a dozen that could literally end the world and maybe a hundred that could end democracy in this country or voting in this country forever. Maybe we stop trying to say your problem isn't as important as my problem. They're all important. They're all threats to humanity. Every single thing Trump does could kill us all. Stop trying to gain primacy over all the other disasters. We gotta deal with all of them at the same time. Maybe we could just pick one and advocate for our own personal one and stick to that without saying why are they getting more attention just because he's threatening to destroy the Straits of Hormuz and Harg Island? My God. And as to the other part, the specifics here, how is it not more of a show stopping scandal? Rachel, which one of us has a TV show now that she could stop to make it a show stopping scandal, but the show is now on only once a week? Which one of us is working the Bill Maher schedule now and has let her own insecurities and vendettas lead her to block her mentor from coming back to that network and lead her to help blacklist him from that network? Because this may be the end of the world, but it's not a big enough deal to prioritize fighting commentators on your air ahead of grudges that that you've nursed since 2011. For F's sake, Maddow, we haven't spoken since the day I told you I was leaving. After I warned you every day for two months that I would be leaving. And you went on mar show an hour after I announced I was leaving and you lied that you knew nothing about it. First I've heard of it. Other than every day for the last 50 days. He won't stop talking about it in the office. We haven't spoken. Because your vendettas and your time off are more important to you than the impact on America your words might have or my words might have. How is Jared Kushner's role in the US Attacking Iran not more of a show stopping scandal? In part, the answer is, Rachel, your fault. You can't be bothered to be on more than once a week, even when this old guy who got you your career and is 15 years older than you are and all he wanted to do was retire and maybe do an occasional baseball broadcast on the radio once a month to just see if he could get to the ballpark and remember where it was. He's on twice as often as you are. Well, how come it's not more of a show stopping scandal? Because you, you let it not be a show stopping scandal and stop everybody doing this with their story. They're all important. That's still not the worst. The worst. The winners. The worst, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. Even as the Los Angeles Dodgers have won two consecutive World Series by having spent more money than it seems all the other teams in baseball history combined, the Dodgers have retained an element of dignity. They have embarrassment insurance. They have a. Yeah, but there's always. In fact, they have two of those. One of them is the memory of their sainted voice, Vin Scully recordings of whom they still use on a daily basis. The other insurance is their ballpark. Dodger Stadium. Now 64 years old, almost as old as me. The third oldest baseball stadium there is. I think it's the fourth oldest sports arena or stadium in pro sports in this country. And yet Dodger Stadium looks brand new and state of the art. And most importantly, it looks dignified. And it is dignified. Just a handful of stadiums have not sold out to sponsors. I think there's only seven in baseball haven't done the naming rights deal. And because of the naming rights deals, most of these stadiums and these teams go through the humiliation of changing the name of their ballpark every few minutes. Since 2003, the San Francisco Giants have played in PAC Bell Park, SBC Park AT&T park and Oracle park and they haven't even like moved five feet. And some of the names are just ridiculous. Any idea out there which is Dyken park, which one was Ringtone Stadium or whatever it was. But Dodgers Stadium has remained true to the dignity of selling only one brand. The Dodgers, well, it had. The team will now play starting this season at Uniqlo Field at Dodgers Stadium. That's a Japanese clothing firm, apparently. Uniqlo. Hey, it happens. Sacramento kings of the NBA started this shit in the 80s. And I used to go on the air and refer to their Arco arena as unconscionable oil profit stadium on local TV in la. And one day I got this nasty letter from the chief of PR at Arco who said he'd go to my boss and I had the pleasure of writing back to him that my boss had just gotten fired and I was leaving the station in six months and he could screw himself. And that was the end of that. On Constionable Oil Profit Stadium. And it hurts. It hurts that it'll be Uni Glob Field at Dodger Stadium. But it happens. It's inevitable. It's money. One day it'll be Viagra Heights at Fenway park in Boston, and it'll be Ozempic Stadium, the home of your New York Yankees. As the great sportswriter Wells Twombly once noted, larceny abhors a vacuum. It's too much money to not take it and stuff it in your ears. So Looney clo Field at Dodger Stadium it is, alas. But the reason the Dodgers are on this list, the reason the Dodgers have earned themselves a special place in naming rights hell is because after selling the naming rights to their stadium, Dodgers Stadium, the Dodgers are insisting they have not sold the naming rights to Dodger Stadium. They think they can convince their fans that they are still in some way pure because they only sold the naming rights to the field. We didn't sell the stadium name. We only sold the name of the dirt because they didn't replace the Dodger in Dodger Stadium and call it Tesla Stadium or Geico Gecko Grounds. The New York Times the Athletic actually wrote its Dodger Beat writer Katie Wu actually fatuously wrote, quote, dodger Stadium's name will remain unchanged. The Dodgers did not sell the naming rights to their ballpark and were not open to doing so throughout the process. Protecting the legacy of Dodger Stadium, which has been the name of the historic park since its opening in 1962, is a top priority for the organization. Excuse me, bullshit. However, Uniqlo will hold the rights to the playing field, which will likely be named Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium. Its name will be used in all references and signage related to Dodger Stadium, including a newly constructed sign in center field. Uniqlo will also hold exclusive marketing and promotional opportunities as the organization's top sponsor. You fell for it. There's gonna be a big sign in center field reading Uni KLOT Field at Dodger Stadium or something. And all the broadcasters on the Dodger games will have to say, from Unigoo Field at Dodger Stadium. And you know that they have got to at least have been looking into trying to AI Vin Scully's voice so they can get Vin to say from beyond the grave, it's time for Dodger baseball from Unicrap Field at Dodger Stadium. But they didn't sell the naming rights to make more money for a franchise now valued at being worth $8 billion. You can still say Dodgers Stadium, of course. There will probably be an attendant in a quaint 1962 Dodger straw hat who will then tap you on the shoulder and politely tell you that you will now be ejected from the place unless you immediately revise what you just said so that you actually said you are at Unigreed Field at Dodgers Stadium. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who just made the Yankees look dignified. Today's other worst persons in the world, brought to you by Uniqlo. Haven't done this for a while. Every dog has its day. My request to you to help me with a dog in need, and I know doing this every show kind of wore you guys out, so I have limited it to 2. I don't remember the last time I did this, but this is special. This is close to my heart. It is about not just a senior Maltese, but two of them. Two senior Malteses, bonded girls who appear to have been rescued from a life in a puppy mill. They are safe with each other, they are wonderful, they are healthy, and they need a home together. They can't be split up. By the way, if adopting two dogs seems like a lot to you, let me assure you it is worth the extra effort. And the extra effort is only about 50%. It's not double. And adopting a senior dog. Senior dogs know how to be dogs already, and they recognize when you're helping them. And the moment they begin to thank you will be as special a moment as you will have in your life. So these two. These two girls are fostered in Centerville, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour south of Erie and really close to almost everywhere in the Northeast. Everywhere from Cleveland, East, Mai Tai and Sariah. The guess is they're 10 years old. They are gentle, they are shy. They will need a patient, calm home. But once they accept that home, they'll be like puppies. Soraya is deaf. You'd never know it. She reads hand signs, she gets along fabulously, and she's very playful. They have a puppy pen in their foster home. It is their safe space. Anything that goes wrong, as long as they can get back into their puppy pen, they're happy. All the vaccines are up to date. They're chipped, they've got their shots, they've had their dentals. They are great adoptable dogs. I would take them in a moment, but that would give me six. Anyway, if you're within driving range of Centerville, Pennsylvania, like I said, a big area. I mean, you're two hours from Cleveland. You're six seven from New York. You can apply to adopt them if you want to see them. There's video. You can go to Instagram. Just type in Mai Tai M A I T A I Maltese Mai Tai Maltese and it's the first video that will come up. Or go to american maltese rescue.org american maltese rescue.org and look for the story of Mai Tai and Soraya. And I'll put all this stuff on my socials too. Mai Tai thanks you and Soraya thanks you and I thank you. Back in a moment with Things I promise not to tell and the story of how my great grandfather gave away the name and $1,000 in stock in the company that became General Motors. Most people think their insurance will cover them when disaster strikes. The truth? Many are wrong. You pay premiums and assume you're protected until the fine print hits. Exclusions, limits, loopholes. Suddenly that coverage isn't coverage at all. My policy advocate reviews your policies Home, Auto, Life and breaks them down in plain English. They show what's really covered and what isn't. It costs just 27 cents a day less than a cup of coffee. For peace of mind before you assume you're covered, go to mypolicyadvocate.com you might be shocked at what you find. Mypolicyadvocate.com no one knows what the future
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No. Oh boy. Yeah, I know my golf swing is off today. It's just a lesson. Who sent up champ? Can't. I think I might have gotten away with something I shouldn't have. The heck are you talking about? Okay. You see that brand new Hyundai Santa Fe over there? Yeah. Well, I only paid
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To the number one story on the countdown. And my favorite topic. Me and what is some much needed comic relief. I think though my late father would not have agreed with the idea that this was comic relief. Not at all. My great grandfather told this story every day until he died. It was legendary in the family. There is also considerable circumstantial evidence that it is all true. And the last possible date that it could have actually happened was Wednesday 16th September 1908. Antony Zelensky was born in Krakow in Poland in 1868. My sister found some evidence that he changed the way his name was spelled. That it was originally Zelensky with two Y's or two is at the end. Just like the Ukrainian president. And then he changed it to Z I E L I N S K I. Antony or as my father nicknamed him. The great financier was a natural musician. He could sing, he could play any instrument, he could compose music and lyrics. He could teach you how to play. He could build and repair anything from a kazoo to a grand piano. And that from his late teens. That was how he made his income. He traveled all around Europe from maybe 1885, 86, 87 onwards, staying at the homes of rich people for several days, teaching the girls how to sing and the boys how to play whatever was lying around the house, fixing the broken harpsichord, cobbling together the odd flute. So one day, and we're guessing around 1889, 1890, he traveled to the home of well off merchants in Od Odessa, then part of Russia, the Shevchenko's. 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 Shevchenko's were not happy when they discovered them in love. And they chased my great grandfather and their daughter out of the house, out of the city and out of the country. Antony Zelensky went home to Poland. He married his child bride. He returned to Krakow, whereupon all of his family then chased them out of the house, out of the city and out of the country. Get lost with you and your Russian whore, he would later tell the nephew, for whom my father was named Teddy. Antony and Matrona had to think fast. It's 1889, 1890. Where's a hard working guy thrown out of Russia and Poland in a matter of days? Where's he gonna go? They arrived in New York within weeks. This was, after all, the place with the statue that said she was the mother of all exiles. As I said, he was a natural musician. He picked up the English language quickly. And supposedly within a month or two, he was leaving his wife, my great grandmother, in their apartment in the Bronx and getting on trains for cities as far west as Chicago, going to the rich people's homes and getting $100 to teach music and write music and repair musical instruments and then get back on the train to New York. And though he earned a very good income doing this, Antony and his wife Matrona lived frugally, often without hot water in their home. Because my great grandfather was now driven, driven to avenge himself. Teddy, he would tell his nephew, who then told my dad, I save every dollar I can save. I invest in the safest investment in the world, the Polish national bonds. For one day I will return to Krakow. I will buy the biggest house on top of the biggest hill. I will stand outside all day waving my money at my relatives who made me and your aunt leave. And I will be saying to them as loudly As I can 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 businessman, to write a family song anthem, to repair the broken tuba, to teach the kids how to play the guitar, and to generally delight the family, in this case, the family of a businessman who he remembered as Mr. Billy. Came the end of my great grandfather's stay with Mr. Billy and his family. And Mr. Billy was so taken with Anthony Zielinski that he took him personally to the train station in Flint, Michigan, and went with him onto the platform. Mr. Zelensky, we have been delighted to have you here, said Mr. Billy. So delighted that I would be honored if you would accept, Instead of the $500 I owe you, if you would accept $1,000 in stock certificates from my business. My way of saying thanks. My way of saying, I hope you can return and visit us again. My great grandfather always said he was moved almost to tears by this gesture. But, Mr. Billy, I live very inexpensively. I invest all of my money in the world's safest investment, the polish national bonds. Mr. Billy congratulated Antony on his prudence. But he said, I believe I am at the cusp here of the next great business in this country, and I would again offer you this stock. I think you will make so much money that you can take it and buy all the Polish national bonds you can find. My great grandfather thought about this for a moment. I know, Mr. Billy, you mentioned you own a manufactory in town. What is this, you manufactor? Mr. Billy said. We're in the automobile business, Mr. Zelensky. My great grandfather lit up. Ah, yes. The streets of New York filled with the automobiles. This is the coming thing. But I still. I will still take the cash and I will invest in the world's safest investment, the Polish national bonds. The train was late. There was an awkward silence between the two men, which my great grandfather finally broke. Do I. Do I know the name of your company, Mr. Billy? Mr. Billy replied. Well, that's the topic of the moment, Mr. Zelensky. And I must say, having gotten to know you in the last week, I am not at all surprised that you have brought this subject up, because currently my company is called Buick Motor Cars. My great grandfather said. Ah, yes, Buick. I have heard of Buick. You are changing the name? Not exactly, Mr. Billy began. I believe, Mr. Zelensky, that the automotive business is going to grow exponentially. But we have one Large company in this field now. Ford. My great grandfather nodded in recognition. And dozens of the smaller companies like mine, like Buick. So I'm going to buy up several of my competitors and I'm going to form one company that's going to be bigger than Ford. And I think we will dominate the automobile field for decades to come. Ah, yes, said my great grandfather in appreciation. And what is it you will call this behemoth? Mr. Billy laughed again. You cut to the heart of the matter, Mr. Zelensky. We are debating that right now. We need something that expresses our national stature. My great grandfather shook his head at this. The problem is an easy one, though. You use National National Motor Cars. Now it was Mr. Billy's turn to laugh again. Your insight is extraordinary. That was our first thought as well. My very words. But would you believe there is a company in Indiana of all places, they make electric automobiles which will never work. And they are called National Motor Vehicles. We need a different name. We can't use National. American is taken, Continental is taken. And damn it, Mr. Zelinsky, we can't think of a good name that isn't already taken. My great grandfather thought for a second. You wish to express the national. The American, the broadly available. The national. Continental. National.
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The.
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What is the word in English about the availability of your vehicles? The general. The general availability of your vehiculars, Mr. Billy? Why not that? Why not General. General Automobiles, General Automotive, General Motor Car, or. Or maybe General Motors? Now it was time for Mr. Billy to become pensive. Finally he spoke. General Motors. H'm. It does have a certain ring to it, Mr. Zelensky. Oh, look, here's your train. Mr. Billy was, of course, Billy Durant. And Billy Durant owned Durant Dortmund, and then he owned Buick. And Then he consolidated 13 auto manufacturers and 10 parts and accessories companies together into, as it was called on the day Billy and his partners opened the escrow account on Wednesday, September 16, 1908, as it was called as of that day, General Motors Holding Company. My great grandfather, meanwhile, having gotten another $500 to invest in the world's safest investment, instead of $1,000 in stock in not General Motors, but the company that would become General Motors. Having passed on that and given the chairman of the company the name General Motors for free, my great grandfather returned to New York. He died 15 years later and to his credit. But we know 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 my great grandfather my favorite of all of my ancestors. And I hope wherever he went when he died in 1923, his humor went with him. Because there were several postscripts to this story that lend it authenticity and drive the rest of us even more nuts. My father was very much alive in 1940. He was an 11 year old boy with his uncle Teddy, Antony's nephew, my great grandfather's nephew, living with my dad and my grandparents and my uncles in the Bronx. My dad told me that one day there was a knock on the apartment door and he opened it to the site, as he put it. The sight of the two best suits of clothes I had ever seen in my life. The two men asked for my dad's uncle and he went and got him. And the men began to speak Polish to Uncle Teddy. Gentlemen, we are here in America. Would you please speak English in front of my family? Mr. Zelinsky, one of the suits said, we know that your uncle left you his investments in Polish national bonds. He was obviously a great Polish patriot. We represent the Polish government in exile. When we run the Nazis out of our homeland and freedom is again ours. I know your uncle would have and you would want the free Polish national state to be burdened financially to the least possible degree. Mr. Zelenskyy, your uncle was the fourth largest private investor in Polish national bonds in North America. In fact, he was just a few notches behind the national bank of Mexico. Will you retire these 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 $500 for what was at least $100,000 in bonds that were due in the year 1950 or later. My dad did not spend his life wondering about his grandfather's magnificent moment of investment stupidity. But it would occasionally wake him in the middle of the night. I didn't hear him screaming through the walls or anything, but it bothered him and it then began to bother me. And on my dad's nightly commutes from Manhattan to our little home in the suburbs, my dad came to know the other regulars on the train just like Don Draper did on Mad Men. It's the same train. And one of the regulars on that train turned out to be, of all things, a stock market historian. Naturally, dad told him this story. And the stock historian invited my dad to stop by his office at lunch one day. Sit down, Ted. And I mean, I mean sit down. The Historian showed my father the math. This was what a thousand dollars in Buick in 1908 turned into when Billy Durant created General Motors. Here's where it split. Here's where the stock split again. Here's when it quartered after they forced Durant out. Then he bought Chevrolet and he came back in and took over again and they split it. And my father said. He started to sweat and finally said, just tell me already, Ted, the thousand dollars your great grandfather turned down, 1907 or eight would. Would now be worth about $60 million. My father said he struggled to not pass out. His friend from the train, then said, plus the value of the name. I mean, I can't get that figure exactly, but it's got to be another couple million at least. Especially if he had taken stock in exchange for it. Wait, it gets worse. There's one more twist to this knife. When unions ran the Soviets out of Poland and Lecht Walesa became the president of the free Poland in 1990, he gave a speech establishing the new government. And he spoke naturally in Polish until, that is, it was time to address one topic. And then the president read that part in the international language of finance, English. My government will recognize and honor the following years of the Polish national bonds. My dad called me that night. He had spoken to his stock historian friend and gotten a rough estimate. My great grandfather had turned down $60 million in General Motors stock to keep, say, $100,000 in Polish bonds due in the year 1950. And Lechbulessa had just said, we will pay on those bonds. And so if great grandfather's nephew had just sat on them, if he'd thrown the guys in the great suits out and just accepted his great beloved uncle's mistake and just cut his losses there, if he just held onto the bonds that he chose over the $60 million, the bonds would have been worth 5 or 6 million. Keith, my dad said quietly over the phone, let me remind you what the great financier my grandfather told everyone. Remember this. None of us have the genes of. Of a businessman. I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Our musical directors of Countdown are John Philip Chenale on keyboards and handling the orchestration, and Brian Ray on guitars, bass and drum. Their work is produced by TKO Brothers. Nancy Foust, the best baseball stadium organist ever, is responsible for the satirical and pithy musical comments. Nancy used to work at Comiskey park before the old idiots who owned the White Sox changed the name of it to I don't know Dust Mold Stadium, Whatever. When we play the sports music, it's the Old Ollerman show. Theme from ESPN2 written by Mitch Warren Davis, courtesy of ESPN Inc. Other music is arranged and performed by the group no Horns Allowed. And my announcer today was my friend Tony Kornheiser, brought to you by probably a. Probably a cab. Maybe the bus. The program was produced by Ted. Ted, whose birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Ted. Everything else was, as always, my fault. That's Countdown for today. Day 424 of America held hostage again just 1,039 days until the scheduled end of his lame duck and lame brained term unless he is removed sooner by our allies at Harg Island. The next scheduled countdown is Monday. Bulletins as the news merits until the next one. I'm Keith Olbermann. Good morning, good afternoon, good night and good luck. I dig we must I dig Me was Countdown with Keith Olbermann is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Most people think their insurance will cover them when disaster strikes. The truth? Many are wrong. You pay premiums and assume you're protected until the fine print hits. Exclusions, limits, loopholes. Suddenly that coverage isn't coverage at all. My policy advocate reviews your policies Home Auto Life and breaks them down in plain English. They show what's really covered and what isn't. It costs just 27 cents a day less than a cup of coffee. For peace of mind before you assume you're covered, go to mypolicyadvocate.com you might be shocked at what you find. Mypolicyadvocate.com no one knows what the future
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No, it's just a golf lesson, champ. Loosen up. I can't see that. Hyundai Santa Fe. Yeah, I only paid. Finish up on your own. I gotta run.
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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Date: March 19, 2026
Host: Keith Olbermann
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts
In this episode, Keith Olbermann delivers a scathing commentary on the latest developments in U.S. politics, focusing on the passive-aggressive fallout among Trump administration officials over the Iran conflict, with particular attention on Tulsi Gabbard and Joe Kent. Olbermann dissects the recent Congressional testimony, administration resignations, the public unraveling of Trump's Middle East strategy, and the ways even his loyalists are now, out of self-preservation, subtly undercutting him. The episode also features segments on sports controversies, media criticism, and a personal family anecdote about missing out on a fortune.
Olbermann’s Reluctant Praise for Gabbard and Kent (02:51)
Gabbard’s Senate Testimony (04:45–07:00)
Joe Kent Resignation
Gabbard and the Georgia Ballots Seizure Incident (07:15–09:30)
Analysis of Passive Resistance
Shifting Narratives and Unraveling Support (12:30–16:50)
Outcome of Trump's Strategy
On Trump's Mental State (19:35–21:15)
(27:07–33:45)
The episode delves into the aftermath of the U.S. men’s hockey gold medal win, now eclipsed by political drama and entitlement.
Critique of ESPN and Russian Hockey Politics
(34:10–47:00)
(47:55–50:20)
(58:15–1:08:45)
Keith Olbermann’s tone throughout is acerbic, witty, and sardonic, combining sharp political analysis with cultural critique, personal storytelling, and biting humor. Quotes and moments referenced above keep faithful to his original style, marked by vivid analogies, run-on sarcasm, and personal asides.