Countdown with Keith Olbermann

EPISODE 142: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Merrick Garland is going to appear in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning. And it looks like there'll be yet another new and big and shiny thing to ask him about, about the arrested ex-FBI man Charles McGonigal and the Russian linked via Paul Manafort to Trump, Oleg Deripaska. Once, McGonigal was in charge of investigating Deripaska. The next thing you knew, he was WORKING FOR Deripaska. Exactly WHEN that happened keeps changing. 2020? 2019? Now it's 2018? Could it have been 2016? Judiciary Chair Dick Durban and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse want to know, and they want to know if Garland knows if McGonigal was aware of his FBI New York Field Office and how it was already trying to fix the 2016 election for Trump by forcing James Comey to re-smear Hillary Clinton eleven days before the election. Meanwhile Trump CAN get the GOP nomination because the GOP hierarchy is moronic: it actually believes it has "cornered" him by demanding a pledge of all would-be nominees to support whoever gets the nomination because OF COURSE he always lives up to his promises. And Tucker Carlson doubles down on the January 6th video scam. B-Block (18:08) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: First you could say "Dilbert" isn't funny. Then you could say it isn't appropriate. Now, after Scott Adams' racist rant, you can say it just...isn't. Happily Elon Musk is there to defend him. And the Department of Energy says Covid-19 was a lab leak? Oh they say it with "low confidence" that they're right? And it's the Department of ENERGY? (21:43) In sports: baseball's pitch clock seems to work (I'll be DAMNED), but where is it going to come up with the money to pay Manny Machado? Four more Regional Sports Networks pumping baseball (and the NBA and NHL) full of cash say they will likely go bankrupt within a month. (25:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Did the anti-Drag governor of Tennessee dress up IN drag in High School? Why does one writer keep calling CNN's Chris "Maybe Ate Paste" Licht a genius when he's never finished higher than last in the ratings? And how do you spell "NINTH" and "TWELFTH"? Don't ask the Florida Department of Education - the folks there have no clue. C-Block (32:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Peanut, in North Carolina, who weighs 20 pounds when she should weigh 60, needs your help. (33:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: On one day I was supposed to have coffee - at her invitation, as a prelude to a date, with Uma Thurman, AND the president of Current TV was taking me to dinner to explain how we could get rid of the idiot co-owner who didn't know what "DVR" was and so bought ratings showing only "Live" viewers, not "Live + DVR" viewers. If I tell you I had coffee and dinner alone, can you guess what happened?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 141: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: Where is the Department of Justice? Homeland Security? The House Democrats? The Senate Democrats? The Capitol Police Board? When those who are supposed to protect us make it a four-day week, WHO will step up to stop Kevin McCarthy's criminal collusion with Tucker Carlson on the 1/6 Security Video? Mike Lindell. No, seriously.  Lindell alone acts as the implications of McCarthy's Quid Pro Quo become more evident. As the argument is made that the Democrats should now release all the video to all news organizations so some of them will be prepared to push back against Carlson's Conspiracy Theories and False Flag claims, the 44,000 hours of pure unadulterated high grade brainwash is clearly designed to be used to whitewash Trump. And it fits into the Gaslight Ecosystem, which last night expanded to include an organization trying to blacklist ALL former staffers on the House January 6th Committee, and blacklist their new employers, and blacklist their new employers' clients. B-Block (15:02) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Ron DeSantis and his press secretary are losing a battle with a newscaster who fell asleep on the air the other day; Alaska's advocate for child abuse death is censured; and George Santos not only signs on to legislation honoring a gun, but lies about it as well (19:22) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Does a publisher get to purge mildly offensive words like "fat" or "bald" from the works of a dead author? Wouldn't a warning note be enough? Upping the ante: the author is Roald Dahl, the man who created Willy Wonka. Upping the ante again: he was both an often terrible human being and an often exceptionally kind one. Upping the ante one last time: when I was seven years old, Roald Dahl and I corresponded. C-Block (39:40) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Ben in Brooklyn (40:40) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His most darkly humorous story, the one that prophesied Trump: "The Greatest Man In The World."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 140: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN:  A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: Speaker Kevin McCarthy has jeopardized the security of every Representative and every Senator and every staffer, and the continuity of the government of the United States, and thus the safety of every CITIZEN of the United States - and he has publicly admitted to, and boasted about, committing the act by which he did so. This is treasonous. Indict him and arrest him. We now know that Tucker Carlson gained access to the January 6 video by the deception of McCarthy and/or House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil. Steil asked the Capitol Police for a video terminal on which he personally could look at the video. Without warning the Capitol Police, McCarthy unilaterally gave Carlson access to that terminal.  And then, yesterday, McCarthy not only admitted "he released" the video - he began to FUNDRAISE OFF HIS DECEPTION. "The Speaker," says Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, "is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11..it also risks exposing the carefully laid out and highly guarded plans for the continuity of government, intended to preserve our democracy in the event of an attack." These are not minor infractions, nor mere political conflicts. This is treachery. McCarthy admits to doing it. Indict him and arrest him. B-Block (15:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Special Counsel subpoenas Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner (Trump) and before you think they can't try to evade it by making up yet another ludicrous privilege: You forgot Nepo-Baby Privilege, didn't you? GOP still denies it wants to cut Social Security and Medicare while Paul Ryan and Mike Pence announce they want to cut Social Security and Medicare. And in the new Marist Poll Biden does what 100% of political pundits insisted he could not do. (18:18) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Never light a Pride Flag on fire. Especially not if there's a high-def surveillance camera right next to it. Sean Hannity endorses a plan to disenfranchise Sean Hannity. And Barney Rubble's Body Double explains why "black people" should be proud of Confederate statues. C-Block (22:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since I'm calling for the government to shut down "Fox News" I probably need to fess up: I went out on two dates with Laura Ingraham. Admittedly, it was a century ago, but I think you need to know. Besides which it's cheaper than telling it to a therapist. Thank you.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 139: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Kevin McCarthy/Tucker Carlson Scandal has blown wide open as The Capitol Police Board meets to vote on whether or not to stop the Speaker from giving the Fox News Liar what Rep. Zoe Lofgren calls "a blueprint for bad guys on how to more successfully attack the Capitol." House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries convenes his caucus this afternoon to take what action it can as Jeffries calls the collusion between McCarthy and Carlson "an egregious security breach." In essence, Kevin McCarthy has STOLEN the January 6th video and handed it to Tucker Carlson, and Tucker Carlson and Fox News have already done more damage to this country than Al-Qaeda or ISIS or Atomwaffen or any other terrorist group could dream of. We're approaching the 20th anniversary of the day Geraldo Rivera, live on Fox News Channel, gave away the position and movements of the 101st Airborne Division, and was literally escorted out of Iraq by the U.S. military. This underscores the reality that Fox News has NEVER cared about the troops, about freedoms, about America. It sells a product. The product is phony patriotism. The product is a distorted picture of America. The product is hate. The product is lies. It's time to put the manufacturers of the product, Fox "News," out of business. B-Block (20:27) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Trump Georgia Grand Jury presents Hint Number 32,753; Barney Rubble's Body Double doubles down on the Red State/Blue State divorce but adds taking away voting rights for Democrats; Democrats make criminal referral on Ohio Train Disaster while Republicans hesitate to offend their corporate masters (31:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: an unfortunate Washington Post headline, a really dumb Oklahoma congressman, and a really disturbing Alaska state legislator who believes if an abused child is killed, "it's actually a benefit to society." C-Block (31:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: When I talk about Fox and its core value - evil - I'm not just repeating what I've heard. I was once fired, personally, by Rupert Murdoch, for telling the truth, and my bosses got dragged for it as well.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 138: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Only Marjorie Taylor Greene would be stupid enough to demand a "national divorce" in which the United States "separates by red states and blue states" - when SHE LIVES IN A BLUE STATE. But then again, what do you expect? She was raised on a diet of Fox News. Speaker McCarthy has now unilaterally handed over 41,000 hours of 1/6 Capitol Security Video to Tucker Carlson and Carlson can now provide a roadmap to the next seditionists on how to avoid security while also gaslighting the story of 2021. Last week, we learned of the astonishing cynical manipulation of America by Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and the others, who didn't believe a word of the denialist crap they sold the country. Between those two stories it's time for the country to act to de-platform and close down Fox News as a clear and present danger to the future of the United States of America. The Department of Justice needs to seek a Restraining Order to keep Fox from manipulating the video McCarthy gave it. I've been arguing since 1998 that Fox News was a mortal peril. Since 2007 I've said it was more damaging to this country than Al-Qaeda has been. We must shut them down the way we shut down Big Tobacco and Big Pharma. B-Block (23:15) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Moscow commentators react to Biden's trip to Kyiv: "We should've blown him up." Flaco leaves the nest. Adams schools DeSantis. (26:51) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: All she did was tap the balloon. But it wasn't a balloon, it was a $42,000 ceramic sculpture and it crashed to the floor. The Texas School Superintendent whose gun was found by a 3rd Grader. And CNN owner John Malone has to admit one of two things: that after the Don Lemon debacle, Chris Licht is a complete failure, or he hired Chris Licht BECAUSE he'd be a complete failure. C-Block (33:45) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Mr. JoJo in Shreveport (34:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The influence of Fox News and the belief by some of its hosts like Carlson that they are in fact running this country is in large part the result of mainstream media negligence. In 2009, Fox tried to avenge itself against me by attacking GE's Chairman and he folded up because his mother was a Bill O'Reilly viewer and she saw what O'Reilly said and called up her son and yelled at him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 137: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL BREAKING NEWS EDITION OF THE COUNTDOWN PODCAST: Joe Biden's shock visit to Ukraine and the near-genius of its message to multiple audiences: (A) The American people, rarely surprised by anything, waking up to their president in Kyiv with Zelensky as air raid signals go off - on Presidents' Day no less! (B) To the Republicans trying to undermine support for Ukraine here (C) To buck up the Ukrainians with at least another year of war ahead (D) To Russia if it thought its proxies here could really undermine this country's foreign policy (E) To China amid rumors it might support Russia with materiel that maybe its role could be peacekeeper, what with the Chinese Foreign Minister in Moscow today of all days (F) And lastly, a message so profound and obvious even the American News Media can't miss it nor fail to fit it easily into one of the four or five templates it can process. B-Block (14:30) On Russian disinformation through Musk, Carlson, Republicans. C-Block (22:10) My lunch with Joe BidenSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 136: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) The death of baseball's legendary television analyst Tim McCarver, easily one of the most beloved people in the sport, and in broadcasting. I knew him for 42 years and for whatever criticisms he took late in his career from listeners who didn't realize all the other ones were merely doing impressions of him, in 1983 he literally, personally, saved my love of the game. He was a pleasure to work with, and as I have been saying for 20 years, his insight in literally the last 60 seconds of the bottom of the 9th inning of the 7th Game of the most emotional season in baseball history was the television equivalent of Bill Mazeroski's home run to win the 1960 World Series. B-Block (19:55) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Fox News texts are out. Tucker Carlson was afraid Trump would destroy them, but telling the truth about him would tank the stock price. He, Ingraham and Hannity all thought Rudy Giuliani was crazy. The News Chief tried to stop news. Perjury in the Trump Atlanta case? How many people did Senator Fetterman help yesterday? Now that he's proven he can live on his own, why is the Central Park Zoo setting a honey trap to re-capture Flaco the Owl? And can anyone stop the Killer Windows of Russia? (25:48) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Nikki Haley would struggle with the math part of her own Presidential Candidate Mental Competency Test, Ann Coulter makes you feel sympathy for Nikki Haley, and a German choreographer says: I am an artist and you have criticized me, so, I will now smear my dog's feces on your face. C-Block (31:50) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Falcon, Rio, Titan, Torino, and Tundra - five pups with Parvo in Texas (32:50) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: fittingly on the occasion of the loss of a great baseball broadcaster, Thurber's story that begins with the words of another great baseball broadcaster: "The Catbird Seat."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 135: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: If you're wondering if the American Political Media Industrial Complex learned something - anything - from its disastrous stenography of Donald Trump's seven-year-long assault on democracy, the answer is here, and the answer is NO. Mike Pence, who refused to testify to the 1/6 Committee because of EXECUTIVE privilege, last night said he was refusing to testify to Special Counsel Jack Smith's grand jury because of LEGISLATIVE privilege and no reporter called him on the impossibility of both things being true, or the fact that he's trying to evade testified about AN ATTEMPT TO MURDER HIM. Getting even more whitewashing and gaslighting courtesy Robert Costa of CBS and Maggie Haberman was Nikki Haley's presidential candidacy announcement. It was barely noted that she was one of the first mainstream Republicans to sell her soul to Trump, and she then did his evil bidding at the U.N., announcing the move of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem simply to satisfy the religious nuts who believed it was necessary before all the Jews could be converted and all the good little evangelicals can get their asses raptured. Political Media only understands four or five story templates and still won't take sedition and fascism seriously, nor call out the "Republicans" who helped Trump and now are pretending to distance themselves from his evil. It's unconscionable, and if they're not going to call out the Pences and Haleys, I'm going to call THEM out. B-Block (19:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Smith also subpoenas Mark Meadows, and the death of Raquel Welch, which requires the telling of the extraordinary Peter Cook story from his movie with her, "Bedazzled." (22:20) IN SPORTS: The day they tweet $185,000,000 signee Jacob deGrom was "clocking in," he clocked out with the all-too-familiar non-injury injury. And if your team is on a Bally Sports Network: oops, they may be going bankrupt. (25:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Indiana Congresswoman born in Ukraine has the nerve to compare the NewsMax/DirecTV story to totalitarianism; Same Sex couple parental rights at risk; and the two idiot Tennessee Republicans who want to rename "John Lewis Way" after Donald Trump. C-Block (31:15) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Guiness (32:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was actually asked on a New York street yesterday what the greatest thing my father ever said. So I had to explain. And explain how it then wound up coming out of Jeff Daniels' mouth on the 7th Episode of HBO's "Newsroom."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 134: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: We are owned by guns, and our only way out is Economic Civil War. Why does this supposedly sophisticated nation abide the ritual sacrifice of our children to insane gun owners? Because it makes other people millions of dollars. And when we cross a milestone where one of the Michigan State student-survivors is also a Sandy Hook survivor and at least three of them are also Oxford High student-survivors, we must attack the Gun Lobby, the Death Lobby, the Republican Death Party, and the Red States that harbor these terrorists with the only weapon they fear: Money. The Blue States keep the Red Ones from going bankrupt tomorrow and starving by next week. Let's use it. We must force our Blue State governments to stop contributing money to the Federal Government unless the Red States meet our demands about guns, the disproportionate House and Senate that codifies it, and the bought-and-sold Supreme Court that protects it. The Red States survive on State-to-State Socialism and you know how they hate Socialism. And the constitutional basis for an Economic Civil War? Why, the 2nd Amendment. After all, we are trying to protect "the security of a free State," aren't we? B-Block (18:40) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Special Counsel squeezes a Trump lawyer, Feinstein to retire, Nikki Haley is the next contestant, and Flaco the Eagle-Owl is not really a "zoo escapee" any longer. (22:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Why lookee here! It's Elon Musk, Elon Musk, and then Elon Musk! He really fixed Twitter so his tweets would "win"? What a twerp! C-Block (28:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Joy and Easy, sisters in New York (29:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Many have dreamed of it, but only one of my 438 past bosses actually threatened to kill me, and chased me around the studio to prove he was sincere. The saga of the premiere of "Rita Cosby Tonight" and the man who actually thought I was sabotaging it (as if anybody needed to), MSNBC president Rick Kaplan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 133: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: To try to score cheap political points about the downing of the Chinese Spy Balloon, Marjorie Taylor Greene stood before an Idaho Lincoln Day Dinner and defecated on the memory of the dead of 9/11 and the heroes of Flight 93. She actually claimed that the argument that shooting it down over the mainland was "bullshit" because "Do you guys remember on 9/11 when an airplane crashed in Pennsylvania? A jetliner? Remember that? It didn't kill anybody on the ground! It killed everyone on board! But it didn't kill anyone on the ground!" She must resign from Congress immediately, or be expelled, because even for her this is disgraceful and intolerable. B-Block (15:17) IN SPORTS: The "temporary" Extra Innings Ghost Runner becomes permanent. Baseball has always survived the idiocy of those who run it, as evidenced by the new research of how the old Washington Senators preferred Jim Busby to some guy named Mickey Mantle (22:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Bono and U2 get in bed with a guy using illicit Facial Recognition technology; The College Board talks big, does nothing, to Ron DeFascist; The backlash over 'The Black National Anthem' at the Super Bowl. Moron Benny Johnson not only says it should be illegal, but asks what if there were a 'White National Anthem.' Have I got a surprise for Benny. C-Block (29:45) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Daniel, in Texas (30:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It is now exactly 43 years since the masters of UPI Radio got the rookie - me - drunk at the 1980 Olympics and then sent me to cover the Men's Downhill in the -50 wind chill of Whiteface Mountain. I somehow got myself there, but I did not get all my equipment with me and boy was THAT a surprise.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.