"I DISSENT" - BIDEN DECLARES WAR ON SUPREME COURT, TRUMP - 7.2.24

that he too dissented. He attacked Trump by name. He said, because the Supreme Court had done a terrible disservice to this nation by preventing a Trump trial on January sixth, before the election, that therefore the people must decide on Trump. He acknowledged, there are virtually no limits to what a president can do. It was a clear declaration of war

on the Supreme Court. It was a clear repositioning of Trump from just an unprincipled political opponent to a genuine menace to our form of government and our form of life. Any president will be free to ignore the law, Biden said.

He closed with may God help preserve our democracy. It was strong, it was good, I believe in the references to both the Supreme Court and trumpet was unprecedented, and I hope it was just to start a start of this president forcefully defending the democracy because it is far from enough. Whether it knows it or not, the Supreme Court has handed Joe Biden the same nearly limitless power it had created for the use of the Trader Trump. It was nice that he said he would respect the

limitations of the presidency, but bluntly he should not. How about pointing it a big print out of presidential immunity and say I'm issuing an executive order establishing six more seats on the Supreme Court and the mandatory Supreme Court ethic Code that goes into effect now, and here are

the nominees, and the hearings start tomorrow. And if you want to make a big deal out of it, mister Chief Justice, they will be escorted to their chairs at the Supreme Court by Secret Service or the National Guard or whoever. But look, I'm not threatening you current justices. I mean, I don't want any trouble here. I know mister Alito has his own flag. Why not show what presidential immunity means? What, as he said last night, Trump

could do with it. But instead of doing the kinds of things Trump intends to do, doing something only one millionth as impactful, something intended for the good of the nation pack the Court put the whorehouse of Alito and Thomas out of business. I am delighted the President dissents and is willing to say so now to put dissent into actions. As to the legal implications, as you know, I am always a glass half full, upbeat, hopeful kind

of guy. So what I saw in yesterday's corrupt Supreme Religious Court creating presidential Official Act immunity and transforming a democratic republic into a monarchy the Kingdom of America, I saw the problem solving it, promises President Joe Bid. I'm sorry, King Biden, the first has the s from the debate last week to deal with a little renomination thingy you may have heard about, continuing pressure to end his bid for reelection because maybe he's not sharp enough to beat

Trump or to continue being president. And now this short and not sweet eye dissent creed decur he gave last night. He can fix all of this in a couple of quick steps. If the Court is going to make the President of the United States omnipotent, Joe run with it. Just make up a terrorist threat. If you can't think of one called George W.

it's official. Oh and if King Biden wants to preclude any further blowback or friction, arrest Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito and Thomas and gorstch Cavanaugh and Barrett and everybody in the Federalist Society and Kirsten Constitutional Karen Cinema, who stopped filibuster reform, and the New York Times editorial board. And what the hell those pods save America bastards. Arrest those pods, save America bastards. Plenty of seats in the

bus boys. Oh on, cat Turd, Arrest cat Turd. I mean, who's going to stop him? That's the whole point. Official means official. I know what you're saying, you're being hyperbolic, aren't you, Gabby Alderman, am I am? I really? When the President quote uses his official powers in any way, under the majority's reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy sealed Team six to assassinate a political rival, Immune organizes a military coup to hold

on to power. Immune takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon Immune Immune, Immune Immune from as you already know, Justice Sodomyor's dissent, with which the President agreed, the Supreme Court has now thrown out two hundred and forty eight years of American history. More really, and done so at the start of the week in which we are to

celebrate that two hundred and forty eighth birthday. As Sotomayor also noted, Alexander Hamilton himself was specific about the necessity to have a former president all former presidents, be subject to possible prosecution for any crimes he committed in office, because that would be one of the key distinctions between the new United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain, from which we had to stage a revolution to free ourselves. Their king was sacred and inviolable, our president would be

subject to personal punishment and disgrace. It's as if Alexander Hamilton met Trump. But that's all gone now. We are a monarchy. And if you can't prove that the president was not acting in an official capacity when he killed that guy or threatened that Georgia secretary of State, or lied about how deadly COVID was, you can't prosecute him.

And by the way, if you think that, like seven eighths of the Supreme Court's corruptly partisan task here was to stall for Trump, that's true, but it may be a little low as a figure because they managed to pack in two further stalls for Trump that could postpone the election subversion case not only into next year, but

maybe beyond that. The new legal standard for prosecuting him is no longer can you prove there is reasonable evidence that he tried to foment an insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power where he tried to prevent an election counting. It's whether or not you can prove he thought he was acting officially, And how will you do that? Well? Trump can sue over every action that a court declares

was unofficial. Each count based on unofficial conduct. He can just sue another stall, add months to the delay Trump, and add months more after that. Because the time bomb hiding behind that hidden time bomb is the additional finding by this court that would make the government of Iran blush.

If you do somehow sneak a charge past the giant rubber that John Roberts just wrapped around Trump's head, if you do find something unofficial with which to charge him, you cannot use as evidence anything that he did related to that charge that was itself part of an official act. The easiest comp for this is Richard Nixon's strenuous exertions to get himself a pardon and Gerald Ford's disastrous career ending stupidity to give him one. They were utterly unnecessary.

The Watergate cover up was based on the lie that there was a national security element, so the CIA had to tell the DOJ to drop the investigation. That was a crime in nineteen seventy two. As of yesterday, it's not a crime anymore. It's an official act. And then anything Nixon did to get those departments to stop the investigation, every part of the cover up, like every meeting he had with John Dean, all the ones Nixon moronically recorded

for posterity all those times he bugged himself. A prosecutor could not use any of that as evidence against Nixon, as John himself posted yesterday, When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. Richard Nixon nineteen seventy four, affirmed US Supreme Court twenty twenty four. The response. Besides the presidents, the official Senate Judiciary Committee social media feed sent out three strongly worded posts. And when I

say strongly worded, I mean not strongly worded. Breaking. Yeah. Justice Thomas and Justice Alito brazenly refuse to accuse themselves from Donald trump immunity case, despite repeated calls to do so. Mister Chief Justice, we need an enforceable code of conduct for all Supreme Court justices. Oh did you send this out before you finished it? You left out pretty please

while you were begging. Not only does that sound like it was sent by a eunuch like Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, but it was not posted until roughly five hours after the ruling was posted. There is no easier dystopian view of the future than to predict the one in which Trump does what he says he's going to do if he has returned to power, and about which

the court indemnified him yesterday. Government assassinations of his rivals, the military on the streets of this country, arresting peaceful civilian protesters, other arrests of critics, roundups, camps or at minimum prisons, bribes for pardons. Oh yeah, Guliani said, Trump already did that last time, and we haven't even started talking about the deportation of millions of Americans. These crazy, unbelievable, unimaginable, unretractable things are going to happen now in America, now

in the immediate future. The only remaining details are who is going to do them and whether they will or will not be done for the good of the people. President Biden, they might as well be done by the good side in order to prevent them from being done by the bad side. I mean, I wonder what motives Roberts and Alito and Thomas thought they would be leaving you to turn over the government to Trump if it comes to that next January. I mean, if you can

make it sound official, you can do anything anything. Lincoln violated the Constitution to save it. You should do the same. If that's where we are, I'd rather have you doing it than Trump doing it. You heard the Supreme Court, mister president. When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. So long as it's official. You heard Justice Sodoma or she obviously resonated with you. It's her read You can right now order Navy Sealed Team

six to assassinate a political rival. Certainly you thought about that since the debate ended last Thursday. I mean, she may have said a political rival, but I bet if you have made her the new Chief Justice and you got her some extra Yankees tickets, she'd agree. It's an unlimited number of political rivals. Let's get cracking. Round them up, keep them dogies rolling, move them on, hit them, uphait

them up, move on. Sealed Team six is going to have a lot on its plate, and you're going to need at least six new Supreme Court nominees, the six additional seats I suggested, and six new ones to replace the ones who were headed to the Huscal. I mean. On Sunday, Trump reposted somebody else's graphic with a picture of her and quote, Elizabeth Lynn Cheney is guilty of

treason read truth if you want televised military tribunals. Hey, Trump and the fascists want televised military budals, Let's give him some televised military tribunals anchored by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. I'm sure they'd be happy to do it, as long as you promised to type out on little index cards what they're supposed to say and when they're

supposed to allowed to say it. Rollin', rollin' rulin. Okay, I'll stop, and now we have a new king unless he abdicates and lets the vice King have the nomination. I remain agnostic about this Biden nomination crisis. Is it still the lead story after yesterday? I want what wins? Newest polling from Morning Consult data obtained over the weekend, the percentage of Democratic voters who believe Joe Biden is mentally fit is down nine points to sixty eight percent.

They have not polled since last night's speech. I suspect it would bounce back up again. USA Today and Suffolk University poll. Forty one percent of Democrats want a different nominee. Of course, of those who say they're going to vote for him, thirty seven percent of Democrats want a different nominee. Nine percent of Democrats are more likely to back a third party candidate now. And if those numbers don't tell you everything you need to know about the way things are,

I don't know what could. We may want to replace him, but we'll vote for him. We are treating him like the Republicans treat Trump. I believe they consider themselves pragmatic. The punchline in the USA Today poll, Americans of all political persuasions want Biden replaced on the ticket fifty four percent to thirty seven, and they want Trump replaced on

the other ticket fifty one percent to forty six. One of the more intriguing and under publicized arguments for changing horses is the idea that Trump has been way too quiet about Biden since the debate, that you would have expected him to be pushing for Biden to drop out. That if the scenario was the way I tend to see it, that barring new information, Biden remains the strongest opponent. That if that's true, Trump would be trying to get a different opponent, trying to get him to drop out.

But there is evidence that while Trump has had the animal cunning to largely stay out of it and to let Biden potentially self destruct. So far that Trump has been veering towards not staying out of it any longer. Firstly, the Republicans have tried to find some excuse to get the Democratic nominee to drop out during the presidential campaign,

during every presidential campaign since at least two thousand and eight. Moreover, on Saturday, Trump himself posted that not only did Biden's debate performance raise the question whether America can survive four more years of him, but he added the fact is I don't know if it can survive five more months. We are in great danger during what will be a transition period unquote. That is the typical Trump plausible denial opaqueness.

But obviously he's trying to dure up some kind of unstoppable demand for if he wins, Biden resigning immediately and letting Trump take over in November. So no, he's not actively arguing for Biden to leave the ticket. He's just actively arguing for Biden to leave the White House before the end of his term. Which reminds me about a point I wanted to make yesterday, which I wanted to make after the live podcast Thursday Night, which I originally

did make in February before the State of the Union. Bluntly, if you want Joe Biden to quit the ticket, I cannot help but suggest that you also need to argue that he should quit the presidency. If the argument is that the Biden we saw Thursday night actually has appeared with frequency at moments of great import in the last six, eight, ten months. And it's bad enough whatever it is to make a presidential nomination change unprecedented in the history of

our country. If it's that bad, why do you want

somebody so compromised running the country? Additionally, if you are going to be cold enough and calculating enough to shive the sitting president of the United States in July one hundred and twenty seven days before the election, or ask him to shive himself, actually, and if history proves that being president already is the easiest way to win a presidential election, does it not necessarily follow, no matter how cruelly that If you are going to argue Biden can't

be the nominee because he can't win the election, and he can't be president next January, he also can't be president right now. And you have to optimize the advantages of whoever replaces him on the ticket, since the only morally justifiable choice is the vice president anyway, and removing Biden and then removing her would make the Democrats experience in nineteen sixty eight look like something between a laugh

in and a love in. Don't we need both in terms of whose safeguards the nation and in terms of the political advantage of incumbency? Don't we need in this construction President Kamala Harris immediately, I mean, isn't that the logical extension of those arguing for Biden to quit the ticket? Yes, quit the ticket. Oh, oh, by the way, stay on

as a lame duck. So we have a democratic president of the United States and a would be Democratic president of the United States who was still his vice president. In any event, there is still no indication that Biden has any intent on leaving voluntarily, and there was a big screw up on the official nomination process reported by Bloomberg News yesterday that you may have been confused by.

Bloomberg reported that the Democratic National Committee was considering formally nominating President Biden as early as the middle of this month to preclude any attempt to remove him from the nomination, as a flood of DNC folk then pointed out, no, a game of telephone has obviously been played on the story of the online nomination of Joe Biden two weeks ago in order to beat the State of Ohio's deadline, the ballot deadline there to get your name on the

ballot in Ohio August seventh, the deadline with which Ohio fascists were trying to knock Biden off the ballot entirely. Lastly, I promised during Sunday's bulletin, and I had a story from the Democratic debate that I moderated in two thousand and seven that seemed relevant to this crisis, though I will admit I'm not sure exactly how it's relevant. This

was officially not a debate. It was the afl CIO candidates forum at Soldier Field in Chicago, outdoors in the middle of August, with temperatures at about two hundred and six degrees, air conditioning vents placed on the floor shooting upwards literally between the legs of all eight candidates and your personable moderator, who, by the way, during a commercial break, was convinced that his suit had melded with his skin

during that break or another break. Senator Joe Biden, who, as I have mentioned previously, I had informally counseled about speaking angry over a delightful lunch months earlier, he came over to me, and he spoke angry. He felt he had not gotten the chance to reply to the mischaracterization by one of the other candidates of his answer to

an earlier question. I said that while I did not disagree with him, we were going to that commercial break that we were now in, and there was literally nothing I could have done about it, and that we had moved on from the topic and I wasn't coming back to him on it. He then said that when I next did ask him something anything, he was going to go back and bring up where he had been misquoted.

By now, I had already begun to feel like I was interfering on behalf of one candidate, or maybe against him. I really couldn't tell either way. I thought I'd better stop here, but for the sake of the entire debate and the broadcast, and for the sake of not starting a war among the candidates. When it was already two hundred and six degrees out when my only goal in that entire campaign was getting anybody but John McCain elected president.

I reminded Senator Biden what all the candidates had been told beforehand, and what I had just teased going into the commercial break. There had been a terrible mind accident in West Virginia weeks earlier. This was a union forum. The AFLCIO sponsored the thing, rented Soldier Field, something like twenty five thousand union members, sweating it out in the baking Chicago summer heat. One of the widows of one of the dead West Virginia mind was going to ask

one of the questions from the audience. Biden knew all this. The other seven knew this. I felt that it was bending the rules, but just still barely within my reasonable discretion to tell him that he was an obvious choice to be one of the candidates who got to try to answer her question and interact with her. I mean,

he's from Scranton, that's mine country in Pennsylvania. Who better to talk about a mining accident to a mining widow and to address her and then suddenly switch from her grief to something else about I don't know, terrorism, banking. That was not going to look good for the party, for the debate or for Senator Biden. Sure enough we came back. The woman asked her question, I don't think it went to Biden first. I don't think I called upon him first. But I did go to him as

we had planned. He offered her his sincere condolences, and then he promptly changed the subject back to terrorism or banking or banking terrorism or whatever it was, and he said, you'll remember earlier, And it was by that point six seven, ten to fifteen minutes earlier nobody remembered. He is stubborn, and when he gets his game face on, something else happens behind that face, especially at debates. Once it was him concluding that part of world history in which anybody

took Rudy Giuliani seriously. He was the one who finished Rudy Giuliani. He was the one who said everything Giuliani said was a noun a verb in nine to eleven. One other time it was him basically blowing off the miners' widow, and one other debate was last Thursday. What it means in this context, I am again not sure. I did think whatever it means, it might flesh out your understanding of him, just at the moment, a moment when he

has a few options on his plate. Make himself a lame duck, or resign as candidate or resign as president, or f both of those ideas and fight on. Or, like I said before, do what increasingly seems like a pretty good idea, and perhaps a much simpler one. The Supreme Court says, you can do this. Joe, postpone the election. Put Trump in military detention somewhere, move them on, hit him up, hit him up, move on, write him in,

write them out. Problem solved. Also of interest here, ruling, ruling, ruling. Okay, I give up. The situation is too grim for any more of my stupid singing today, which is exactly why I definitely must start singing today.

is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead of us on this edition of Countdown, A little break from all this. I always think of this one subject

as the Fourth of July approaches. I got hired. I had an edge on anybody who might have competed with me for the network radio job with which I began my broadcasting career because the week the senior guy quit that job and the job opened up, the fourth of July was on a Wednesday, and they needed somebody in a hurry, and they he needed somebody who was unemployed, and that was me. The proof of the theory of being in the right place at the right time from

just forty five years ago. This week coming up in things I promised not to tell, But first there are still more new idiots to talk about, and Wow, have these two stories brought them out of the woodwork. The daily roundup of the miscrants, morons and Dunning Kruger Effects specimens, including one all time great returning for continuing honors who constitute today's worst persons in the world. First dishonorable mention

to Justice and Intelligence reporter Kendalanian of NBC News. He writes, it's extraordinary that a presidential candidate is running after being convicted of felonies. It's also extraordinary that the sitting president reportedly is taking advice about his political future from a son who has been convicted did a felonies. Oh, you can't slip anything past Ken, can you? Ken? Delanian long ago gave up any prechense of being a reporter at NBC. He is a right wing propagandist.

Wikipedia pages. Dealanian the actual entry reads played football at Williams and is credited with a major role in helping the f Men achieve their first unbeaten and untied season in a century. Ooh, Where'd you get drafted? Kenny deans Fir's position after graduating from Williams was at the Philadelphia Inquirer. According to Delaney, in his first published article at the Inquirer was a story on a pet funeral. See when you find what you're good at that early in your career,

you should stick to it. Don't get in over your head on justice and intelligence, especially not intelligence if you don't have any. The Bronze Matthew Beloney of Puck News

and editor in chief Ben Smith of Semaphore News. When you and I worry that the established legacy media in this country is out of touch and disconnected from reality and it's lost, we know we can turn to the newcomers, the digitals, the rule benders, and we get exactly the same crap from the newcomers, the digitals and the rule benders. I've written for Beloney and the venue may be new,

but the sentiment is still the disaster. That is, we know everything about the story, but nothing about what it means in real life. He has tweeted that he and Smith were to share a podcast in which they would discuss the real news in the Joe Biden crisis quote. It's an election year, but CNN has been in a ratings free fall. That Joe Biden's situation could finally provide a story with massive general interest. Listen, Yes, that's what's

important here CNN's ratings. How the Biden story could impact CNN's ratings, because that's what they've been missing, a good story. There hasn't been a good story at all during the prosecution of the former president of the United States in four different venues. There hasn't been a good story at all. With climate change, there's been a good They don't have any good anchors on CNN, and they lurched right words

two years ago. That's why the ratings tanked. But you know what would be even better for CNN than just Biden and the nomination issue. That could just shoot their ratings up to mediocre. Like if there were a really big asteroid with a ninety nine percent chance of hitting Earth Man the CNN ratings would just explode. Of course, we'd never actually see those final CNN ratings because the planet would have exploded by then too. But think of

the demos. The runner up, Ralph Nader. You remember, Ralph. You remember two thousand when Bush beat Gore in Florida by five hundred and thirty seven votes, which led to the Supreme Court decision that took the election for Bush. But Ralph's vanity third party campaign earned him ninety seven thousand votes in Florida, and research, repeated research has suggested

an overwhelming majority of them were drawn from likely Gore voters. Ralph, though, has apparently forgotten about that or forgotten that he ran for president in two thousand, because he responded to the Supreme Court yesterday by blaming a different presidential candidate, not himself. A dictatorial unelected majority in the Supreme Court has just

rendered America a dictatorial president above the law. Thank you, Hillary Clinton, whose blundering campaign let the dictatorial Trump become president and led to a right wing dictatorial majority on the Supreme Court. Honestly, as Ellie Mistyle pointed out, you know, the Conservatives have been running the Supreme Court since the Bush years. Right, at least if Ralph had not run his useless, cynical, dynamite juggling third party campaign in two thousand.

As Ellie pointed out, maybe Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by Bush is not there to write yesterday's swill. Honestly, this so pisces me off. The unbelievable blaming of Hillary Clinton for this that I would wish harm on Ralph for writing that. Bud ninety And you know, since age is everything these days, Tick tick tick, buddy, But our winner the worst. And I don't know about you, but I need this burst of nostalgia Billow the clown. Here's

a Biden update from billoreilly dot com news headquarters. The decision has been made that the President will quit the campaign two reasons. Democrat internal polling says he cannot recover from the debate and fundraising is drying up. So it's over for Joe, but the White House doesn't yet know how or when to make the announcement. Stay close, Stay close, is what he used to say to his producers, the women. Okay, what are the odds that Billow doesn't realize He's not

on Fox every night anymore? And that he puts on makeup anyway around seven forty five PM. I mean, look, I'm not on TV anymore either, but I still don't make stuff up like a Biden up. From Billoreilly dot com News headquarters. It's a tent in the yard, except when we live stream from iHeart headquarters. I do the Countdown podcast in this converted walk in in my home, which by the way, has the best acoustics I've ever

gotten to use. And I do not call it Countdown with Keith Olderman dot comnewsheadquarters because that would be stupid. It's where I keep a few suits, keep a few more than I need, largely to improve the sound quality in here. Since I saw this Bill o Biden update, I have spent way too much time wondering what the physical layout is like at Bill Oreilly dot com News headquarters. I really don't have a good picture in my mind.

But if I refer back to the lawsuit, the testimony and the Andrea Macris sexual harrissment suit against Billow, I suspect that whatever the rest of it looks like, Bill O'Reilly dot com News headquarters is equipped with some falafels and at least one very well used vibrator.

He had been offered a real job as the sports director of the NBC Radio network, and he would happily finish out the next two weeks as this sports director of UPI's radio network, and then by and Maury's boss was screwed. Maury's boss had three sportscasters. Trumbull was not

just the boss. He also did the evening sportscasting shift, like four or five days a week, And just four months earlier they had moved one of the sportscasters over to be the new business reporter, and to replace him, they had to listen to the audition tapes of two hundred sportscasters from across the country, and not one of them was really any good, not even as good as Mary Trumbull, And so they hired the least bad of them and they were hoping for the best, and suddenly

the new guy was the second senior man on the staff. And even though you have not heard of UPI's radio network except when I've mentioned it in this series, it

was a very big deal. On July second, nineteen seventy nine, there were about one thousand radio stations affiliated with it in this country, and though few of them were in the top fifty city and fewer still ran the sports cast that Mary Trumbull and Sam Rosan and Jack Russell did in those fifty cities, the smaller the market was, the bigger the star Moury and Sam and now Jack were.

And what made it worse, of course, was that it was Monday, July second, which meant the actual Fourth of July holiday was Wednesday, which meant that nobody, but nobody would be in the office almost anywhere in American radio

for at least the next few days. And in those times when the long three day weekend when he had got Monday off, was just becoming acceptable, this thing July fourth, in the middle of the week was an excuse for a four day weekend or a five day weekend, or I'll just take the whole week off and that meant whoever would be doing Mary Trumble's UPI sports casts as

of Monday, July sixteenth, nineteen seventy nine. He basically could not currently have a job because he'd have to quit because when he quitted, he would have to give two weeks notice. And even if Maury's boss figured out who to hire in the next hour and got him approved by his own boss, there was literally no way the new guy could start on the sixteenth, and he'd have to get his boss's approval. Then he didn't know where his boss was because his boss was taking like an

eight day weekend. So now Maury Trumble's boss was looking at the new guy starting no sooner than July twenty third, or he suddenly realized, with a shudder, what if the new guy had to move to New York from anywhere further away from them than like Albany or Jersey or something. So that's when Maury Trumble's boss, well, he thought that wasn't true anymore. He was Mary Trumble's ex boss, wasn't he. For all the trouble Maury had just caused him, at

least that part was good news. Maury Trumble's X boss made his decision. I'll just hire that kid from Westchester. Stan Sabek said to himself, I don't know how I'll convince Shortino to take on a kid with absolutely no full time professional experience, but I'll figure it out. Stan Sabek was the bureau chief of UPI Audio, and Shortino

was his boss, Frank Shortino the network general manager. And Frank was already old enough to really dislike anybody much younger than he was, which is why the youngest person in the New York headquarters that day was thirty three, and Schortino didn't really trust her. And suddenly it came to him, and Stan Sabek smiled. He rolled that phrase over in his head, no full time professional experience, and he smiled again. My god, we only have to pay

the kids sixteen thousand a year. We'll save thirty grand on salary. My mother did not even step out into the warmth and the bright sunshine of the pre holiday afternoon.

Keith Phone, I was lying there on our very sketchy front lawn, listening to my home built walkman and working on my tank, and trying not to think of the fact that it was now the week of July fourth, which was the deadline I had given myself for just sitting around working on my tan after I surprised myself and my family and my friends, and especially my professors by actually graduating from Cornell on time in seven semesters, the last of which contained twenty eight credits in ten

different courses, a juggling act so arduous that I will still, all these years later have dreams in which it is graduation morning, May twenty eighth, nineteen seventy nine, and I suddenly realized I have forgotten an entire course, and I must read three thousand pages or write five hundred pages or both before noon, or I will not graduate on time, and I will have to go back and start all

over again. In well, if it's a really stressful period of time in my life, I will have to go back and start all over again in the third grade as an adult in those chairs, missus Weiner, I'm stuck in the chair again, possibly because I'm sixty four years old, Keith, it's Roger Norum. My heart suddenly raced. Roger Norum was my contact at a radio network i'd basically known nothing

about even three months earlier. It was called UPI Audio a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend had referred me to a news editor there named Art Mcalloon. And I went into the UPI Audio offices on forty second Street in my best suit, with absolutely no worry that I'd ever forget a name like Art Mcalloon, And out came a very quiet man with a kind face and a big round beard and a big round, curly head of hair. And he proceeded to explain very

quietly that he was not Art Mcalloon. And Art had quit, but not before passing me on to him Roger Norum. Before I knew it, Roger had in turn passed me on to a sportscaster named Sam Rosen. I have introduced you to him here before. He made such an impression on me that my last Cornell English paper was supposed to be a quick profile of somebody interesting I had just met, and I chose Sam over somebody else I had met the same day, and the other guy was

named Bob Iger. Anyway, Sam had been startled at the tape of my college sports casts and had pronounced it twice as good as the guy they had just hired, who was now Stan Sabek's second senior sportscaster. And before I knew it, Sam had given the tape to Stan, and Stan had invited me back into New York for a formal interview. And Stan had said, you will hear this a lot in this business, but give me a

little time. I think I can guarantee you six seven weeks of vacation relief this summer, some sports, some news, if you don't mind doing both. Roger Norm had some interesting news for me on that phone call. You may have guessed it was about Mary Trumbull resigning from UPI and going to NBC. It's the talk of the place right now. He's already packing. They'll have to move fast, and then with the holiday, there's no way they can bring in people for interviews or have a full search

to replace him. You should give him till Thursday the fifth and then and call Stan unless he calls you first. I mean, they really loved your tape. Stan told people about it. He was very excited. It's the old cliche Keith about being in the right place at the right time. And by the way, if you can make it over, you are cordially invited to the annual Norham Family Fourth of July Bash. We're in Westchester two. I never once spoke to Roger Norham that he did not invite me

to a Norum bash. He had them for all major holidays, and I believe for lesser events like the Westminster Dog Show and Moroccan Independence Day. He was a lovely man, and while he was a fine newsman, he was far better at kindness and favor. He's like the one he was doing me on that July afternoon so long ago. Needless to say, I was silent and pretty much breathless

for the rest of July second, nineteen seventy nine. As hard as that might be for you to believe, I explained to my folks what might be going on, how just as I was going to make myself start worrying about actually getting a job, maybe in Atlanta, I might have just gotten a job a forty minute train ride away. Based on what Stan Sabeg had said about getting me vacation relief work. I suspected he would offer me something on a temporary basis to see if I could actually

do it. But still, if even that actually happened, this was my chance to break into professional radio. At probably the peak of professional radio's post war importance and competitiveness and expansion, and to break in in New York City at a network. My rivals for every job I would seek for the next twenty years, or thirty years or fifty years, would be happy to be breaking in in Keyakok, Iowa. No offense, Kyokook, and I would be on the network, they would hear as they arrived to do the morning

shift at four thirty am in Kyokook. I do not remember sleeping that night, certainly well, still, I am confident that I remember this correctly. On Tuesday, July third, nineteen seventy nine, I was back out on the Olderman family tanning lawn twenty feet from the driveway just afternoon when the front door opened and Mom said it again, Keith phone, someone named Stan, Keith Stan Sabek. He laughed, Stan laughed

a lot. Stan and I had a loud fight fourteen months later that got me fired and then unfired hours later. Stan laughed in the middle of all that twice tired of lying around the pool, yet I lied and said, yes, of course, there was no pool, just my lawn. I don't know if you've heard. He said it in such a way that confirmed that he was confident. I had heard, and noram or Rosen or somebody had called to tell me. But my sports director quick to go to NBC. I

need a full time sportscaster to replace him. You interested prepared as I was for the offer of part time work. I was stunned. On top of stunned. Full time stand Did you say full time? Stan laughed, yes, sixteen thousand, No negotiations. Mostly nights, some mornings, some ball games. You get to cover split days off. You're not going to have a weekend for a couple of years. Probably. Can you come in Thursday to fill out the job application for the job I just hired you for? He laughed again.

Ever since, I have associated the fourth of July with the start of my career, but especially those years when the week with the fourth in it is in the middle of the week, just like that, and makes it more difficult for employers to hire anybody except the cheap and the unemployed. Turns out that Wednesday, July fourth calendar

is not a frequent thing. Happened in nineteen seventy nine, Happened again in nineteen ninety, two thousand and one, two thousand and seven, twenty eighteen, not scheduled to happen again until twenty twenty nine, barring major breaking news developments. A week to the day that stan sebek had called, I was on the air at UPI. I wasn't supposed to be. I was just supposed to be watching the morning shift with Sam Rosen. And then finally he said, so, do you think you got the hang of it? And I said,

m I guess so. He said, good, because you're on at nine forty five. I was so scared. I had an out of body experience. Thirty days after stan Sebic called on July third, I was on my own on the night shift, maybe the seventh time, when the Yankee catcher Thurman Munson was killed when he crashed his private plane, and I had to call his teammates for interviews and still do the sports cast every hour. By October, they had put me on a plane to go cover the

National League playoffs. Six months after he called, Stan and Sam Rosen and I were covering the nineteen eighty Winter Olympics for UPI Radio, and our stuff was playing on radio stations around the world. But all these years later, none of that compared to the sensation of that phone call and the realization that my career had really started. At forty eight hours later, I was walking into UPI's offices as a pro plus, I got the first shock of my career. Good news, Stan said and laughed. That's

stringing work you did for UPI. All those Cornell football games you covered for fifteen dollars a game. The union says, guess what they count towards your professional experience, So you won't be starting at just sixteen thousand. You get credited with experience for all that stringing. You got exactly six days worth of credit. Congratulations, you'll be starting at sixteen thousand, twenty five dollars a year, and Stan sabc laughed, I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank you

for listening. Countdown musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanel arranged, produced, and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums. Mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards, and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Another music, including some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and

performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Fauss, the best baseball stadium organist ever, and once again my accompanist. Our announcer was my friend Larry David. Everything else was pretty much my fault.

So that's countdown for this the one hundred and twenty seventh day until the twenty twenty four presidential election, the two hundred and seventy fifth day since convicted felon Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States. You the July eleventh sentencing hearing. Use the mental health system. You've got it now, mister President hughes presidential immunity to stop Trump from doing it again while we still.