C (8:53)

Mr. Speaker, news just broke this evening that federal prosecutors tried to indict the six Democrats in the disobey illegal orders video.

B (9:00)

But a grand jury in Washington did that.

C (9:03)

Do you believe that those six Democrats should be indicted?

B (9:06)

Good.

C (9:09)

I'm going to reserve comment on this until I review that. That's the first I've heard of it. I mean, I. Look, I think that anytime you're obstructing law enforcement and getting in the way of these sensitive operations, it's a very serious thing and it probably is a crime. And, and yeah, they probably should be indicted, but they were just reiterating the.

B (9:26)

Law that, that members of military should.

C (9:29)

Not have to obey illegal orders. Yeah, but I think they went further than that. I think they were. They were suggesting that they disobey the orders and I think that crosses. It was very serious. I'm glad due attention has been paid to it and I hope that they straighten up their act.

B (9:44)

Mike Johnson is not loyal to the Constitution of the United States. Jeanine Pirro is not loyal to the Constitution of the United States. It goes without saying that Donald Trump is not loyal to the Constitution of the United States. He's never read it. We should remove them. But to quote Shakespeare that way lies madness. All we can do now is hamstring them, box them in via the midterms. And if that is the case, then we must at all costs. And to that point there is the seizure of the 2020 votes in Georgia and the evidence that Trump's minions lied to a judge to obtain the legal means to steal them. I have suggested before that the involvement of this loose brained buffoon Gabbard, the worst advertisement ever for the Office of Director of National Intelligence. Her involvement suggests some ass clown refabrication of the 2020. Cleta Miller or Cleta Mitchell or Cleta whatever her name was and that idiot Powell woman and their claims that were at the heart of Trump's first coup attempt when Venezuelan computers caused Italian satellites to change Cleta Mitchell's name and change Trump votes into, I don't know, artichoke hearts. Go with artichoke hearts. The Italian satellites and Nicholas Maduro turned the Trump votes into artichoke hearts. I'm so tired. As we've seen, it doesn't have to make sense, just has to have the stamp of a corrupt and immoral gangster government. They might as well reference artichoke hearts. And that's what Tulsi Gabbard works for. Corrupt, immoral, gangster government that might as well be doing an artichoke hearts. And that's what Jeanine Pirro works for. That's what Mike Johnson works for. And that's what Donald Trump is. And I don't even want to get into what that 10 day lockdown of the El Paso airport that turned into a 10 hour lockdown was about. Drones at a military. They declared this a national defense airspace. They did that, not me. These venomous felons are just incompetent enough for the likeliest explanation to always remain. Coincidence. Or it has something to do with Camp East Montana, the ICE concentration camp outside El Paso. Or somebody in the Trump gang just watched the Kirk Douglas Burt Lancaster coup 1964 film Seven Days in May, which just happens to position a center of a military plot to overthrow the government of the United States in a secret military base under a secret national defense airspace outside El Paso. Now what to do about it? There is reason to be encouraged at the micro level. Democrats continue to blow Republicans out of the water in deeply Trump districts in special state legislature elections. NBC polled yesterday, in April 2025, only 34% of Americans strongly disapproved of Trump's dictatorial handling of immigration and The Porter. Only 34%. Now, 10 months later, 49% of us strongly disapprove of Trump on immigration and the border. 61% disapprove to some degree. 61. Trump is not only underwater or drowning on this. He's drowned already. He's 21 points underwater. He's 22 points underwater. On strong disapproval on the border and immigration. It's over. Data for progress polled on ICE and interference with the midterms, which is the real point of having ice. 64% of us, 64% of us believe Trump will use ICE to interfere with the midterms. 56% of us want ICE thus kept away from all polling stations. The most amazing statistic, the most terrifying statistic is that only 75% of Democrats want ICE kept away from all polling stations. If you are part of the 25% rethink, think they are out to take away your country. What else can we do besides being vigilant against the attempts to take away the country? The pro rights, pro democracy hero Mark Elias has a checklist at his site. Democracy docket things there are still time for pro democracy states to enact in their legislatures and for pro democracy Democratic senators who aren't under indictment to demand or we shut the government down. See you in November. As to the first part, you better do it in your state. Mine of New York has the worst state landslide grade Democratic party of them all. New York Democrats should win about 80% of the votes with these idiots. We are lucky we get about 6% outside of New York City anyway. Here are Elias's three straight legislative acts in the states in headline form with a quick explanation as needed. One, ban third party voter challenges and other forms of vigilantism. In other words, states need to pass laws today that prevent challenges by representatives of the federal government to the voting rolls and individual voters. Well, I'm from the Trump administration and I have. Get out. You're banned from this facility by state law. Take them away. Sergeant. Sergeant, take her down. And Booker. Sergeant, take her down. Sergeant Booker. Number two, provide criminal and civil remedies for voter intimidation. In other words, strip individuals who actually are doing that intimidation of the voters. Strip them for this November of any protections from being prosecuted by the states or being sued by the victims of their intimidation. You want to try to throw the election to Trump? Boy oh boy, it better work and better work perfectly. Otherwise you are going to jail or you are going bankrupt or both. And three Revise and strengthen election certification laws. Go through each one of these boys, go into your state legislatures and go by line by line all of the voting regulations and tighten up anything that isn't tight enough. At least secure the blue states and the ones in which Democrats still have influence in the legislature's and the House. Mark Elias also has four ideas that fall directly into this ICE funding debate. The government funding issue what Chuck Schumer and Akeem Jeffries are still dealing with right now. Rather than trying to improve on what Mr. Elias has written, I'm going to presume on his dedication to the cause and just steal 288 of his succinct clear words. Quote Mark Elias With Congress now negotiating funding priorities for the coming year, I offer the following four suggestions for new federal laws. 1. Prohibit federal law enforcement or the Department of Justice from operating within 500ft of any polling place, counting location or election office. Federal law enforcement must be barred from engaging in any legal or law enforcement activity near anyone casting a ballot, administering an election, or counting or certifying votes. As an aside, this goes back to the polling that I just read to you. The 61% of us who believe, excuse me, it was higher than that 65% of us who believe that ICE is going to try to interfere at the polling places this November. 2. Writes Mark Elias, Prohibit federal officials from taking investigative steps involving elections from 30 days before election day until one week after the last member of the new Congress is seated. For years, the DOJ has maintained a policy against making public criminal investigations involving candidates or voting in the run up to Election Day. That policy is insufficient, writes Mr. Elias. Congress should codify a ban on any investigative steps, public or private, during this period. 3. Require that any criminal, grand jury subpoena, arrest or search warrant involving elections be sought by The Senate confirmed U.S. attorney for the district where the activity occurs. Donald Trump has attempted to circumvent U.S. attorney offices to pursue political investigations and prosecutions. For example, the search warrant in Fulton county was sought by the U.S. attorney in Missouri, not by federal prosecutors in Georgia. Congress should prohibit this. Only The Senate confirmed U.S. attorney for the relevant district should be authorized to seek such actions. If no U.S. attorney has been confirmed, approval should be required from the longest serving federal prosecutor in that office. This is one to watch, I might add. They are doing this now. It is all centered on Missouri. They have a lunatic there, a Stephen Miller level crazy there. 4. Remove immunity from federal, state and local officials for any action that interferes with or denies a qualified voter the right to vote or to have their ballot counted. Yes, officials who disenfranchise voters should not be able to hide behind official immunity. Allowing lawsuits against election deniers for voter suppression or vote denial would create a powerful deterrent against such conduct. And I would add, if you do not think that is true, ask Rudy Giuliani, Mark Elias at Democracy Docket and all of those last four steps can be folded right now. Chuck Schumer, into what you are doing. You have the hammer and you have a full array of weapons to use against the Republicans. They have no way out without your support for a continuing resolution long term or short term. Give them nothing because the alternative is for them to take everything. It is clear that the incapacitating illness afflicting the President of the United States has progressed to the point that he is having full on full scale, full fiction hallucinations. I don't mean his regular hallucinations where he thinks something should have happened or is true, so he cuts out that noisome middleman reality and just announces that it has happened or is true. I mean something far, far worse. Donald Trump has now begun to literally see and hear things. This stuff with the new Canadian bridge seems trivial. Then it turns out the owner of the rival bridge, the Ambassador Bridge, called up Howard Lutnick, the guy who lied about how well he knew Epstein well, one of the guys who did that, who's in this administration, and apparently he asked Lutnick to get Trump to trash and threaten the people who own the new bridge. And of course Trump did that. The Lutnik stuff is just standard Trump corruption and who knows, probably graft. What is far more disturbing, far more important than people are recognizing, is that this involved Trump hallucinating. Trump put out a tweet. Not an exaggeration, not wishful thinking, not lying, not a big strong man crying story, not an everybody knows announcement. This is the son of a bitch president of the United States thinks something that didn't happen has actually happened. This is about the new Gordie Howe bridge and Trump's attempt to renege on our deal with Canada over it since they built it and it's entirely in their country and Michigan owns part of it anyway. And he Trump agreed to all this nine years ago. It's just standard Trump business practice, standard Trump crooked businessman, so sue me stuff. But then comes the terrifying Part which at first sounds so meaningless as to make Trump sound almost zany. Prime Minister Carney wants to make a deal with China which will eat Canada alive. The first thing China will do is terminate all ice hockey being played in Canada and permanently eliminate the Stanley Cup. How would they do that, Grandpa Simpson? Canada will make a deal with China. And first off, what does a deal with China have to do with the American Bridge? What does a deal with China have to do with hockey? What does Trump think he's talking about, which he prioritized in his post ahead of the subject of Canadian tariffs and ahead of his demand that they give us. Give him, I suppose, give him half the value of the bridge. More important to him than that, the first thing China will do is terminate all ice hockey being played in Canada and permanently eliminate the Stanley Cup. Sure. Wherever you are and whatever you do, if you said this, this exact delusional, irrelevant hallucination, they would either send you to the nearest medical office, or if nobody found anything wrong, their trust in you would still go off a cliff. We have to back out of this business deal with the Canadian company boss, because if we don't, the Chinese will ban hockey in Canada and eliminate the Stanley Cup. So who told you this, Fred? Did the late Larry kwong of the 1947-48 New York Rangers come to you in a dream and tell you this? Holy crap. The problem behind the problem is you can almost trace the mental and brain trauma path that formed the chain that led to this Trumpian hallucination. Trump has no idea what Canada is like. He is incapable of empathy or imagination or even processing that other people have lives as complex or meaningful as his own. To Trump, everybody is a cardboard cutout. All members of a given group are identical. Words can only have one meaning. Thus, asylum means mental institution, and it cannot mean anything except mental institution. Countries and people must be pigeonholed as quickly as possible. What's Canada mean? He asks himself. Oh, Canada is that drunk. Gretzky. He likes me. The only thing that registers with me is whether or not somebody likes me. Now, what does Gretchen Gretzky do again? Oh, yeah. Ice something. Ice hockey. Hey, wait. The Gordie Howe Bridge. Gordie Howe. That also means ice hockey. So. So when the Chinese. What is China again? Oh, yeah, China. Brutal businessmen. So they. Brutal Chinese businessmen have threatened Canada. Canada is Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe, and Gretzky and Howe mean hockey. Therefore, how would China hurt Canada? Oh, I remember now. The first thing China will do is terminate all Ice hockey being played in Canada and permanently eliminate the Stanley Cup. This is just my opinion of how this hallucination formed in Trump's mind, based on knowing him for 42 years. But I'm right, and he believes this stuff about China threatening to eliminate the Stanley Cup. He believes by now that it really happened if he thought it, therefore it could have happened. And if it could have happened and he's put it out in public, therefore it has to have happened, because he's never made a mistake. And that's why the rest of us in this world are effed. He is now actually hallucinating. And they're not even good hallucinations. Now, the gentlest interpretation of the hallucination is not quite as gentle as I may have just implied. It may be. May be that Trump had to think of something China could do to damage Canada, and he consciously and knowingly chose one, made one up, the least possible, least sane idea. In other words, the first one. He had China destroying the Stanley cobbler.

C (28:21)

Of course.

B (28:23)

For him to, as I say, cut out the middleman and go straight from what he wants to be true to saying it is true. It used to mean that something had actually kinda happened. The details, the explanations, these he makes up. Now we're going to something far worse. Stanley Cup, China destroy hockey. This is the pure figment of his imagination. And so a Canadian bridge means a deal with China, means the Chinese, means they're coming to destroy hockey. Or as he calls it, like it's still 1956 ice hockey. Oh, I thought you meant. I thought you meant field hockey. Now, the other more used to Trump hallucinations, the ones where it actually happened, but he lies about it and convincingly and endlessly itself. Contradictingly because part of his mental illness is his ability to believe any lie he says. Don't worry, he's still doing them, too. Tuesday, he explained he was going to raise tariffs 30% on Switzerland, but the Swiss prime minister was rude to him on the phone, so he raised the tariff 39% on her. Of course, Switzerland doesn't have a prime minister, it has a federation president. And the last woman to be federation president left the job last year, so I don't know who he thinks he was talking to, but some woman somewhere had her tariffs raised 39%. Maybe it was Ghislaine Maxwell. Last week, it leaks that Trump will stop sabotaging a new bridge vital for east coast rail service, provided Chuck Schumer supports naming Penn Station in New York after Trump and dulles airport outside D.C. after Trump. And they ask Trump about this and his entire answer is Schumer suggested it. So that the first time reporters get the chance to ask Trump's in house professional liar Caroline Levitt about it, she blows the whole scam. Because she's not only an evil, corrupt, condescending, bloated humanoid, but she's dumb as a rock. Why not? Levitt smears. It was something the President floated with Chuck Schumer. Well, you. You just, you just called, you just called your boss a liar. Good. Good luck at the next meeting. Still, could have been worse. She could have insisted. The Prime Minister of Switzerland floated it. You know, the Prime Minister of Switzerland, Prime Minister Gordon. One quick Epstein note about Trump and hallucinations for that matter. So which is it, Donnie? Did you know nothing at all about Epstein's crimes? The real ones? Or did you know enough about them to call to congratulate the then police chief of Palm Beach, Florida 20 years ago this July to thank him for the sex charges against Epstein and tell him everybody knew Epstein was doing that. Because you can either claim you've never known anything except that he was hiring women out of your spa at Mar a Lago and this offended you as a businessman, or you can claim you narked on him, you were a plant, you were informining on him, but you can't do both. They're mutually exclusive. And oh, by the way, while you sit there in between heaven and hell, or hell and hell, the answer to that question doesn't really matter because what you are doing now, Trump is conducting a cover up to protect Epstein's clients and co conspirators, whoever they are, doesn't matter anymore what there is about you or what there is conceivably clearing you in the Epstein files. It's. It's the COVID up that's always worse than the crime. And you, sir, are the chairman of the board of the Epstein cover up when the world has decided to bring out the pitches and pitchforks and torches and titches. Guilty, guilty, guilty. Talk about Trumpian hallucinations. Also of interest here, Megyn Kelly, Sage Steele and Michelle Tafoya still spouting racist, xenophobic, moronic hatred over the super bowl halftime show. The super bowl halftime show, I might add, was watched by 21Americans for every one who watched Kid Rock, the poet of underage sex. By the way, the audience for Kid Rock may have been padded by as much as 5/6. But the real point and the real reason I'm gonna mention these clowns, two of whom I once worked with, is that the language they are using against Bad Bunny and every Hispanic person in this country is virtually word for word what was used, what still is used by the sexist and racists who used to call a voicemail line we had at ESPN just to take their calls. They used to call ESPN and they used to say the exact same things to try to get the company to fire Sage Steele and Michelle Tafoya. That's next. This is Countdown. Segregation in the day, integration at night.

A (34:19)

When segregation was the law, one mysterious black club owner had his own rules.

C (34:24)

We didn't worry about what went on outside. It was like stepping in another world.

A (34:30)

Inside Charlie's place, black and white people danced together. But not everyone was happy about it.

C (34:37)

You saw the kkk. Yeah. They was dressed up in their uniform. The KKK set out to raid Charlie, take him away from here.

B (34:47)

Charlie was an example of power. They had to crush him.

A (34:54)

From Atlas Obscura, Rococo Punch and visit Myrtle beach comes Charlie's Place, a story that was nearly lost to time. Until now. Listen to Charlie's place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

B (35:13)

The Volkswagen Beetle started out as Hitler's dream car. It wound up as a beloved hippie.

C (35:19)

Icon and the bestselling car of all time.

B (35:21)

How did that happen? I'm Jacob Goldstein.

C (35:24)

And I'm Robert Smith. On business history, we tell the surprising stories behind the inventions and entrepreneurs that shaped our economy.

B (35:30)

And the story of the Beetle is truly surprising.

C (35:33)

It has so much in it.

B (35:34)

It has Nazis. It has the German economic miracle. And it features one of the most famous ads of all, an ad that really redefined what advertising was in the United States.

C (35:45)

The calculation was that there was some number of Americans who were ready for something different, who were ready for something.

B (35:52)

That was counter to the culture, if you will.

C (35:55)

Perfect timing in the decade of the 1960s. Listen to Business History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get.

B (36:03)

Your podcasts and watch episodes on YouTube.

C (36:07)

And the winner of the iHeart podcast award is.

B (36:10)

You can decide who takes home the 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the Year by voting at iHeartPodcastAwards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartPodcastAwards dot com Audible is.

C (36:24)

A proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award.

B (36:27)

Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts and originals all in one easy Apple app, Audible.

C (36:33)

There's more to imagine when you listen.

B (36:35)

Sign up for a free trial@audible.com the.

A (36:38)

More you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear?

C (36:46)

I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to.

A (36:48)

I would just want you to listen.

C (36:49)

To me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success.

A (36:55)

Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well being@soundedout together.org that's sounded out together.org brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal.

B (37:09)

This is COUNTDOWN with Keith Olbermann. Still ahead on this edition of countdown, the start of baseball spring training has gradually slid back earlier and earlier and earlier and sooner rather than later. It'll be on New Year's Eve and they always apply the fake scarcity rule to make this seem normal. You're only going to sell 200 of your product, whatever it is. Tell the customers there are only 150 of them and they are limited to one per purchase. You want to make people more interested in what is essentially the least interesting part of a very, very, very, very, very, very long and often uninteresting year in your sport. Tell them this. This isn't spring training. Yet. These guys showing up this week in Florida and Arizona, they've reported early because they can't wait to get started. Trust me, nobody in baseball is unable to get started or unable to wait to get started for the two full months of practice. Two months. Two months. Still, once upon a time when it was closer to five weeks, there was excitement in spring training. It was, it was the dawn of the new spring. And then the summer rather than, oh, the season will start in only why the same distance from November 1st to New Year's. In a moment I will try to take you back in time because the series of baseball previews I did on the radio in 1978 with interviews and sound bites and ballpark noises from spring training in Florida, I still have the tape. Coming up next in things I promise not to tell first, believe it or not, there's still 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 bronze. Worse fitting from the Olympics, the bronze medalist, Sturge Holm Lagreed of Norvay. Heard about him. Third place finisher in the men's 20 kilometer biathlon. That's cross country skiing with just a little frisson of target shooting in the middle of your cross country ski race. Oh, look at The Nordic tranquility of My God, he's got a gun. And with Norway finishing first and third in this race, their medalists went live on Norwegian television. And not for quick interviews either. Gold medalist Johan Olav Botten spoke. And then sometime later, Mr. Laegrade spoke. And Mr. Lygrade confessed to being unfaithful to the woman of his dreams. There is something I want to share with someone who may not be watching today. Cut them off. Cut em off now. Trust me, I've been in television since 1981. Half a year ago I met the love of my life, the world's most beautiful and nicest person. Three months ago I made the mistake of my life and cheated on her. And I told her about that a week ago. This has been the worst week of my life. I had the gold medal in life. And I am sure there are many people who will see things differently. But I only have eyes for her. Sport has come second these last few days. Yes, I wish I could share this with her. One factual correction. You finished with the bronze. So sport has come third these last few days. Now it's not her fault. But honestly, madam, your first hint should have been your realization that you were going out with a guy whose sport requires him to carry a gun and shoot it off on a cross country ski course. Still, the Norwegian public lucked out here. All we get in America is like the 40th consecutive year with a Lindsey Vaughan injury story. And instead they get Sturlaholm Ligrid turning the Olympic broadcast into Love Connection. The runner's up. A tie. Three of the dumbest people in media, two of whom I used to work with. God help me. And this is the stuff that is still left over when dumb, racist, hateful people collide with something like Bad Bunny at the super bowl halftime show. The three Michelle Tafoya, Megyn Kelly and Sa G. Steel. You know Megan. Megan is Munch's painting the scream come to life. Bad Bunny so freaked her out that she dropped any pretense that she's not a racist doing a segment with Piers Morgan. Now there's a duo and screaming at him. Football is ours. And I flash back to the time on Fox News when she devoted an entire segment to a topic that allowed her to scream something slightly different. Santa Claus is white. A troubled, troubled woman. But we have to keep her on the air because if. If we don't, that will leave only Kari Lake to support the camera filter business. An entire industry could go under. Then there's Michelle Tafoya. Who somehow got fired as a football sideline reporter twice and then started her campaign for senator in Minnesota by explaining in a commercial that she's ready to lead because she asked questions of coaches at halftime as a sideline reporter. And all the I didn't quite get the idea here, but the through line seems to be that all that leadership rubbed off on her during those 90 second interviews. As bad Bunny began during the super bowl, she tweeted during halftime tonight I'm going to do something I've never done before. Fold laundry. Needless to say, everybody but Michelle Tafoya was smart enough to say what? You've never folded laundry before? Because minutes later she tweeted again with annoyance, I'm going to restructure my sentence tonight. I'm going to do something I've never done during the super bowl halftime before. Fold laundry. How does somebody as dumb as Michelle Tafoya not know that they are as dumb as Michelle Tafoya? No brain, no pain. And speaking of that, Sagey Steele versus Bad Bunny, I couldn't understand a darn thing, he said. It's a celebration of American football down in the other countries. Football is soccer. This is ours. And I'm frustrated that the NFL and Jay Z chose to do something so outside of what our demographic with American football wants. Spanish is not the first language of the US this is a celebration of our country. That does not mean we are racist. This wouldn't have been on a national stage in any other country where they intentionally bring someone in who is choosing to say I don't care about the demographic of what this is. What's kind of sad here is I used to co anchor SportsCenter with her, so when I go to purgatory, I'll get out of body. I don't know, a thousand years earlier than otherwise planned. It wasn't my choice. I'm a team player. And I guess nobody ever told Sage Steele that when the voicemails on the ESPN SportsCenter complaint line used to pile up during and after her shows like the 6 o' clock sports center, almost all of the sexists and racists who would leave voicemails whining about her and saying stupid, racist and sexist things were basically saying I couldn't understand a darn thing, she said. It's a celebration of American sports. This is a celebration of our country, our sports, men's sports. That does not mean we are racist or misogynistic. This wouldn't have been on a national stage in any other country where they intentionally bring someone in and was choosing to say, I don't care about the demographic of what this is. Congratulations, Seiji, you have become your own haters. But our winner. Not a big name, not an important story, just a little larf. And another example of how our educational system and thus our society have crumbled pretty much since the introduction of homeschooling. Sandman0530 arlegan1 just a rando on Twitter, but this was priceless. One of Trump's more dangerous but least competent lunatics, Ed Martin tweeted, Ed is the guy who is this close to suing the sun for not shining when he wanted it to. Sandman0530 replied by upbraiding Ed Martin for having not freed Trump. Election overthrow co conspirator Tina Peters. And Sandman gave us one of my new favorite eggcorns. Eggcorns. Eggcorns. Wrong versions of words, phrases, homonyms. The things that stupid people not only think are right but insist are right. Eggcorns instead of acorns. Here's Sandman 0530 and his eggcorn. You ready? Sorry, Ed. We still see Tina Peters in prison being attacked and placed in solitaire. Oh, I love that. Placed in solitaire for all intensive purposes, that pasture is mustered in this doggy dog world so full of self refilling prophecies that you must always be poised to use the Heimlich remover. Sandman 0530. Oh no, she's been placed in solitaire. You know, if you're forced to spend too much time in solitaire, you'll wind up playing with less than a full deck. Today's worst person in the world. Segregation in the day, Integration at night.

A (48:07)

When segregation was the law, one mysterious black club owner had his own rules.

C (48:12)

We didn't worry about what was going on outside. It was like stepping in another world.

A (48:18)

Inside Charlie's Place, black and white people danced together. But not everyone was happy about it.

C (48:25)

You saw the kkk. Yeah, they was dressed up in their uniform. The KKK set out to raid Charlie, take him away from here.

B (48:35)

Charlie was an example of power. They had to crush him.

A (48:42)

From Atlas Obscura, Rococo Punch and visit Myrtle beach comes Charlie's Place, a story that was nearly lost to time. Until now. Listen to Charlie's place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

B (49:02)

The Volkswagen Beetle started out as Hitler's dream car. It wound up as a beloved hippie icon and the best selling car of all time. How did that happen. I'm Jacob Goldstein.

C (49:12)

And I'm Robert Smith. On business history, we tell the surprising stories behind the inventions and entrepreneurs that shaped our economy.

B (49:19)

And the story of the beetle is truly surprising. It has so much in it. It has Nazis, it has the German economic miracle. And it features one of the most famous ads of all time, an ad that really redefined what advertising was in the United States.

C (49:34)

The calculation was that there was some number of Americans who were ready for something different, who were ready for something.

B (49:40)

That was counter to the culture, if you will.

C (49:44)

Perfect timing in this decade of the 1960s. Listen to Business History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get.

B (49:51)

Your podcasts and watch episodes on YouTube.

C (49:55)

And the winner of the iHeart podcast award is.

B (49:58)

You can decide who takes home the 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the Year by voting at iHeartPodcastAwards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartPodcastAwards dot com Audible is.

C (50:12)

A proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award.

B (50:15)

Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts and originals. Audience all in one easy app.

C (50:20)

Audible there's more to imagine when you listen.

B (50:23)

Sign up for a free trial@audible.com the.

A (50:27)

More you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear?

C (50:34)

I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success.

A (50:43)

Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well being. @sounditouttogether.org that's sounditouttogether.org brought to you by the ad council and pivotal.

B (51:02)

For years, pretty much until I left Los Angeles local news for ESPN in 1992, I tried to record every broadcast I did. Radio, television. Well, it was just radio and television. I was going to say something else, but it was just radio and television. In 1992. I was often mocked for this because there was an element of ego to it. Although really I needed to see if I was getting any better or worse. And I had a vague sense of if I don't record these, who will? The end result. Everybody now wants to hear my tapes and see my videos and if I did it, I got it on tape somewhere. Somewhere. Including whenever baseball spring training opens this pretty good series. I did the spring training journal, mostly my own interviews. I did it for WVBR FM at Cornell in Ithaca, New York, just before the start of the baseball season of 1978. 19 7d8 and now part one of.

C (52:12)

The report on spring training. Via the magic of tape, we take you to a place where it is warm and sunny, Miami Stadium. Baseball people approach spring training from very different angles. Yankee manager Billy Martin has described it as a waste of time, an opinion that holds little weight with one of Martin's chief rivals, Earl Weaver of Baltimore. I've been doing a lot of experimenting playing people in different positions so that when you get north, if for some reason you have to get more offensive people in the lineup, that I can maybe switch an Eddie Murray from first to third base, which enables me to get Lee at first, move the hitter into the designated spot and different things. And you use spring training for that purpose. And sometimes you don't win a lot of games in doing it, but at least you're finding things out. Not winning a lot of games is not necessarily a bad thing, however. In fact, too much success in spring training is feared by many, including Philadelphia's Danny Ozark. His club started slowly last year, and Ozark blames it on a hot spring training. I think we were like 18 and 6 or something like that in spring, and now the season starts and it seems like everybody not complacent, but everybody feels like, well, something's going to happen this inning and we're going to get some runs, and it just didn't happen. So what we're trying to do is kind of work up to this opening day. Not all the players are happy with the way the camps work. Jim Rice of the Red Sox sees a need for a greater simulation of the regular season, especially for his club's pitchers. To me, spring training is mainly to get in shape, and our guys are in shape, but I don't think they're prepared because they go out and just only pitch four or five innings. I think in order to be a complete pitcher, you got to go out and go nine. Say, hey, I got to go nine today. And I think when a pitcher to wants walk out of the mound, he should have in his mind, hey, I want to go nine innings tomorrow. In part two of our series on spring training, a look at the readjustments some ball players have to go through. Now let's go to part two of our spring training journal. For some baseball people, spring training is a time of readjustment. Trades, hirings, firings, and now the free agent system make for strange faces in strange uniforms each spring. For Bobby Bonds of the Chicago White Sox. It's almost old hat. For the third time in four springs, Bonds joins a new club. But this year at least, he says he's not uncomfortable in his new surroundings. What really helps out this year is that the guys on the team are good individuals and they really are. The atmosphere of the whole team is good. It stems from the front office with Bill Veeck and through Bob Lemon. It comes right on down with the players. So I don't feel like a stranger really anymore. I feel like I'm a complete part of the ball club, the whole structure of it. I don't feel as there's one individual that I can't go to talk to. Other players go from losers to winners. John Matlack suffered through six seasons with the New York Mets. Now he is part of a major contender, the Texas Rangers. It's a good feeling to come from a team that was once a contender and sort of slipped downhill a little bit to a team that is now a contender. So anytime a situation like that arises, you've got to feel good about it. While Matlak moves from the bottom to the top, the route was reversed for Bobby Cox, first base coach for the world champion New York Yankees last season, manager of the doormat Atlanta Braves. This year. I enjoyed my first year in the big leagues with the Yankees as a coach and naturally we went on to win the pennant and the playoffs and the World Series and everything. And it was really an exciting year. And I went to this club which finished dead last last year, but I've enjoyed every minute of it. And then there's Fergie Jenkins who goes to a new and old team in 78 as he returns to the Texas Rangers. Jenkins was last a Texan in 75 and he sees a difference this time around. The team is a little more experienced, they have a little more depth, they have more experienced ball players. I think that the biggest thing is that this team is a contender. Now over maybe at the one year when I was with Billy Martin in 74, we made a push to jump on Oakland, but we came up short. But this year it looks like the team could do it. Tomorrow, in part three of the spring training series, a look at a team that operates on a wing and a prayer. Bill Vex, Chicago White Sox and now to part three of the spring training Journal. The Chicago White Sox seem to have found a new way to be competitive in these days of millionaire free agents and discontented stars. The Sox go for the low scale free agents, the comeback players and the rent a slugger system. Last year it was Eric Soderholm, a third baseman recovered from the junk pile after a season of inactivity due to a knee injury. Soderholm is a student of psychological conditioning and he thinks if you put somebody on the spot, he'll produce. Soderholm also thinks that the Chicago owner feels the same way. Bill's got that idea now with this year's camp. He's by 60 players in the camp and there's so many people battling for so many jobs. It puts everybody on the spot. It forces you to produce. This year, the recovery project is Ron Bloomberg, who has come to bat twice in two and a half years due to recurring shoulder and leg problems so far this spring. Bloomberg is healthy, but don't remind him of his past physical infirmity. Oh, don't talk about injuries to me. I had enough in my career. I just go out there and do.

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The best I can.

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I think I'm doing quite well for the amount of time when I have been playing. I'm hitting the ball fairly well. I'm not swinging with a lot of power, but I'm hitting a lot of line drives. I think I for being out for two and a half years, I think I'm doing a remarkable job so far. Last year, Chicago's here today, gone tomorrow. Sluggers were Oscar Gamble and Richie Zisk. This year it's Bobby Bonds, who, although he may be in Chicago for only one season, promises to be a team player. My main concern each year is to go out and contribute. If I go out and I can contribute to the team and I stay healthy, I will help the team and I will have a good year on my own because I will be doing what the team has expected me to do. But to say that it's important, the most important thing for me to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases and we don't win. No, I want to contribute to a winning cause and whatever that takes, that's what I want to do. The White Sox. The formula is cheap, efficient, unique and most importantly, it works. Tomorrow as our five part series continues, a look at spring training for a losing team, the Atlanta Bridge. Now here's part four of the spring training journal. Of all of baseball's losers, probably the Atlanta Braves are the most unique. Spring training for them has to have highlights other than a view to a successful season. And such a highlight was presented this year by the appearance of Jim Bouton in the club's minor league camp. Another highlight, colorful owner Ted Turner's tongue in cheek description of Mr. Boutton he's got a lot of talent. He can play baseball, he can write, he can announce, and he's plenty smart. We could use a guy with a lot of talent like that. Well, who knows? One of our riders that's traveling with a team might come down with a flu or something. He can fill in in a lot of different positions. Would Turner take advantage of Bouton's notoriety and call him to the majors as a publicity stunt? I don't know what's Bobby Cox? There's the manager of this club and Bill Lucas. All I do is try and pay the bill. But the presence of a manager never stopped Turner. Last year, he temporarily took over over the Braves as skipper, replacing Dave Bristol. Bristol is gone now. Bobby Cox is the new man in charge. He's running a camp of 46 players, only 14 of whom were major leaguers on opening day of 1977. Really, we're just trying to give everybody a chance to play and see as much of them as we can, because we do. We're kind of unique in most spring training than most spring training camps and that we've got a lot more decisions to make. Most camps have maybe one change in their starting lineup or so, and, you know, we're. Our eyes and ears are open and we have meetings a lot with our coaching staff and the instructors are in camp and evaluate all the talent that we have. And we're going to break north with our 25 best. It might only be the best 24. The Braves may not be able to afford that last player. Which brings us back to owner Ted Turner. All I do is try and pay the bill, and that's. Believe me, that's a big job, too. I'm not sure that the challenge faces. Chasing me. They're seizing all through the gravel, the Braves. Not the best, not even secure, but certainly not dull. Tomorrow, in the final part of our series on spring training, where were you when the lights went out? And now the fifth and final part of the spring training journal. The differences between spring training and the regular major League baseball season come out in minor ways, subtly. Like that one night in Fort Lauderdale. Right here in the middle of the sixth inning, the bottom of the sixth between the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves. Just after Mickey Klutz had hit a ball down the first baseline, the lights suddenly went out. They remain out. A lot of flashbulbs are flashing because the fans are taking pictures of the darkness, which doesn't make too much sense in itself. But anyway, the Yankees were leading here six to Two, when the lights suddenly went out. Some people are lighting matches here and there, calls for play ball. But the lights, all the towers here, there are about a half dozen of them. They're all out right now. And hidden by the darkness, the evil that lurks in the hearts of men came out into the open. Now the players are all converging around the Atlanta dugout, while a group of fans has apparently run out into the field in an attempt to get third base. I think they're fans. What are they out there? Yes, they are, and they're being led from the field at this point. A couple of fans went out to the field during the darkness here and attempted to snatch third base, but a couple of security officers caught them there and stopped it. During all this, Atlanta owner Ted Turner and Yankee president George Steinbrenner sat helplessly in the dark. Finally, somebody found the light switch.

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Got.

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The roar from the crowd as some of the lights have gone back on. The lights in the press box and now the field lights. And with the exception of the two field lights out in left field, they're all back on. Now there's two more. And there they go. So it looks like they'll be able to resume. Ah, yes, spring training in the regular season just ain't the same. But soon the change from exhibitions to the real thing will take place. And starting Monday on World REPORT Sports, we'll take a look at the divisional and league races for 1978. And that's the Early Sports tonight. I'm Keith Olbermann. Have a very good weekend. Molly Cummings back with more sports tonight on late edition at 11. Carol. Thank you, Keith. It's 5:57, the stock report right after this word from Garage de France.

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When I found the cassette those were recorded onto in March 1978, I was surprised to find on it that I had done and completely forgotten a live promo for that series. I had done it by phone from Miami Stadium, then the home of the Baltimore Orioles. And it was done live on our 5:30 newscast in Ithaca. And I was in Miami on the Friday that spring break ended and the Friday thus that my trip to Florida ended. This was actually done. It suddenly flashed back on me as well, about an hour after I had been sitting in the stands at the beautiful old art deco ballpark in Miami, and I had recorded all those narrations in that series you just heard. This was the preview.

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And now Keith Olbermann reporting from the Miami Stadium. Thank you, Mike. I'm perishably perched here in the press box high atop Miami Stadium A charismatic old place that looks a little bit more like a metal barn than it does a ballpark where the Baltimore Orioles and Cincinnati Reds will play tonight. Yet if there is one thing that a week in the baseball spring training camps teaches you, it's that appearances can be deceiving. The uniforms are major league and so are the players. But what's been happening on the field certainly is not. And that counts both before and during the actual games. For where else but spring training would you hear Thurman Munson singing Short People? Where else would a Yankee player apologize to a sportswriter? And where else could you see owners Ted Turner and George Steinbrenner sit helplessly by as the game between their two teams is halted by a short circuit blackout. Nowhere else but spring training. Then there are those things you expect, like contrasts. Why, just day before yesterday here the Baltimore Orioles hosted Los Angeles. You guessed it. Here's effervescence for you. Tommy Lasorda, manager of the Dodgers. I feel great. I can't wait till the season begins. I told everybody I got a weight problem. I can't wait till it all begins. And I'm just ecstatic about this ball club. And we're going to have a lot of fun. And it's an honor to be associated with outstanding pass players. But above all, they're outstanding young men. And the contrast? How about Earl Weaver, who thinks everybody's on his own? This is an individual sport. If you get enough individuals out there on the field doing their job and doing their job right, then it becomes a team. If that doesn't happen out on the field, no matter what happens in the clubhouse doesn't make any difference. Two very opposite ends of the spectrum. Spring training means a lot of things to a lot of people right now. To me it means a bad sunburn. But anyway, what spring training means to certain people will be the subject of a five part series next week on World Report Sports. And the week after, we'll have a preview of the upcoming season.

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That's it.

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From here in Miami, I'm Keith Olbermann. Back now to Mike. What would World Report Sports be without Keith Olbermann?

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Thanks, Keith. Great report. Not bad writing, by the way. Little nasal, but. How old did you say it was? 19. Okay, find that tape. Let's hire that kid. I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Most of our Countdown music was arranged, produced and performed by Brian Ray on guitars, bass and drums and John Phillip Chenale handling orchestration and keyboards. Our musical directors of Countdown it was produced by TKO Brothers. Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Foust. The sports music is the olderman Theme from ESPN2 written by Mitch Warren Davis, courtesy of ESPN Inc. Other music arranged and performed by the group no Horns Allowed. My announcer today, in keeping with the baseball spring training theme, was my friend Tony Kornheiser. This program was produced produced by Ted. Everything else was, as always, my fault. That's Countdown for today. Day 389 of America held hostage again and just 1,074 days until the scheduled end of his lame duck and lame brained term unless he is removed sooner by Epstein or the new Chinese Stanley Cup. The next scheduled countdown is Monday. Bulletins is the news merits until the next one. I'm Keith Olbermann. Good morning, good afternoon, good night and good luck. Countdown with Keith Ulberman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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When segregation was a law, one mysterious black club owner, Charlie Fitzgerald had his own rules.

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Segregation in the day, integration at night.

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It was like stepping on another world.

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Was he a businessman? A criminal? A hero?

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Charlie was an example, a power they had to crush him.

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Charlie's Place from Atlas Obscura and visit Myrtle Beach. Listen to Charlie's place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is.

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You can decide who takes home the 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the Year by voting@iheartpodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and and place Your vote@iheartpodcastawards.com Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts and originals all in one easy app.

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