Countdown with Keith Olbermann

EPISODE 132: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: We'll get Breaking Balloon News out of the way: four in eight days IS a lot, but our ability to recognize them grew exponentially after the first one, and experts suggest the Pentagon has been flummoxed by unknown aerial craft for years. Meanwhile, Trump's newest Classified Documents crime may seem trivial but is extraordinarily important. Giving docs to a campaign staffer to scan into a laptop and a thumb drive is a textbook violation of 18 US Code 798 (a) "DISCLOSURE OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION." And it raises a peck of new questions: why did CNN identify the staffer in a tweet, then delete the tweet without explanation? What do you mean the staffer they named spent time studying in Russia? Was the laptop attached to the internet? Were the classified documents transferred to ANOTHER computer? What was the thumb drive for? And honestly, couldn't Trump's newest new newer lawyer come up with a better excuse for Trump having the classified documents folder in his bedroom than "he liked to use it to cover the light on his phone that used to interrupt his sleep?"  B-Block (18:36) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: My gun rights are more important than your physics, said the late gun rights advocate to the MRI staff. Matt Gaetz invites the wrong Vet. And Chris Licht's latest idea to save CNN is: Charles Barkley doing the news. (23:13) IN SPORTS: Not only was the Super Bowl decided on a penalty that they might as well have called "Defensive Sneezing," but those gambling ads are going to make outcomes like this look worse and worse. Plus one of those commercials seems to have purloined my catchphrase; Fox again finds the worst ex-baseball player to join its baseball show; and ESPN - and I - mourn our veteran producer Barry Sacks. C-Block (32:45) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Theodore, in St. Louis (33:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: YOU think the Super Bowl controversy is that lousy holding call with 1:52 left. Today in Washington, the political media thinks the Super Bowl Controversy is the fact that President Biden didn't do an interview with Fox for the Pre-Game Show! As somebody who hosted that show AND a presidential inauguration in a span of thirteen days, I can tell you that the politicos have no clue how unpopular politicians who inject themselves into sportscasts are. I came thisclose to having to do "that" interview in 2009 and I tried to get them to just cancel it. The President who does not a news interview on Super Bowl Sunday but instead puts $100 Million of the nation's money on a series of prop bets and does an interview about THAT will get himself re-elected.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 131: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: The latest on Trump Special Counsel Smith subpoenaing Mike Pence. And the Republicans extended their collective self-own to 48 hours as "The Weaponization Subcommittee" meets and points the weapon at itself. The star FBI whistleblower witness turns out to have retired from the bureau in 1999 and gets decimated by Rep. Dan Goldman; the star "Twitter Legal" expert turns out to be Jonathan Turley and he gets destroyed by Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. As Tulsi Gabbard testifies, a Republican literally falls asleep; as Chuck Grassley testifies he insists Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians in 2016 to make sure she...lost? It's worse than a farce; it's a farce that even Fox News won't televise. And it hides the reality that there SHOULD be a weaponization investigation and it should be pointed at the Barr-Durham Investigation, and that the ever-unfolding story of the arrested ex-FBI agent Charles McGonigal. New reporting on McGonigal suggests he could have been a blackmail victim, and that those two separate criminal indictments(working for Trump-friendly Russian Oleg Deripaska, and meddling in Albanian politics) may actually be part of only one giant conspiracy. B-Block (19:12) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: George Santos's new dog scandal comes to you live from the town of Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania; Nancy Faust pays tribute to the late Burt Bacharach (23:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Elon Musk thinks Twitter is suppressing his tweets and reportedly fires those who disagree with him; Ron Johnson defends himself against the charge that he wanted to privatize Social Security by confirming he wanted to privatize Social Security; and Rick Scott TRIES to defend himself against the same charge by invoking one name eight times in four minutes. The name is - inexplicably - Jake Tapper. C-Block (29:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Snuggle, looking to be adopted in Miami (29:55) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Rudy Giuliani gets his "preserve all documents" lawyer letter from Hunter Biden's attorney. You may think Rudy went bad in 2020, or 2007, or some time after his peak in 9/11. Actually - trust me - even I knew he was a hallucinating jerk, as long ago as 1995.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 130: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: I want to congratulate House Oversight Committee Chairman Comer for letting the Democrats hijack his Hunter Biden express and turn it into "Would you like me to give the direct quote? Chrissy Teigen referred to Donald Trump as a 'pussy ass bitch.'" The Republicans made every mistake they could make, down to not being able to keep the lights on in the hearing room. Elsewhere in Washington, while the GOP continued to insist Biden was lying and none of its members ever called to cut, re-define, sunset, or privatize Social Security, the White House produced reports and proposals and quotes and videos from Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Mike Pence, Lindsey Graham, and dozens of other Republicans to do exactly that. And if you needed a punchline: two organizations whined about Biden's speech. One was the Republican Party and the other was...the Chinese Communist Party. B-Block (15:02) IN SPORTS: NHL shoots itself over Pride Night yet again. Home team doesn't show up for its own game. College hoops game delayed because they installed the court wrong! (19:10) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Who crashed Twitter and Instagram and Pokemon Go and all the other key apps and sites? Even Project Veritas has had enough of Little Jimmy O'Keefe. And book-banning in Florida has now extended to works about Henry Aaron, Roberto Clemente - and Jackie Robinson! C-Block (24:30) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Gemma in New York (25:33) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A listener asks 'how many people HAVE tried to get you fired?' Well I have a team working on trying to get an estimate within 100, but for now I've got the story of the Major League Baseball team that actually got me fired from a network before I even started a new job at the sport's network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 129: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: The State of the Union Address has long since become an anachronism; devolving into a series of insiders talking to insiders and pointing to ordinary citizens as if they were creatures on display at a zoo; e a ritual with the meaning sucked out of it; an ever-louder arguing for resuming what President Thomas Jefferson first thought to do: to just write the damn speech and have somebody else drop it off at the House Chamber door And against that backdrop of near-obsolescence, President Joe Biden absolutely KILLED The State of the Union last night. At his finest, at his most robust, at his most combative, in his element, in the arena, throwing punches, blocking the hecklers, and unashamedly exploiting the undeniable advantage of having the only microphone in the room, he delivered a masterpiece. I don’t know how many of these I have heard and how many of the claims and promises and attitudes and catchphrases and applause lines I have heard at 9:30 and forgotten by 11, but this one I’ll remember: roads and infrastructure and education and insulin caps and unfair taxes and hidden service fees and cable costs and raising teachers’ pay and quadrupling the stock buyback tax, and non-compete clauses for fast food cashiers and “The Talk” and “Something Good Must Come From This” and “Do Something” and “Ban Assault Weapons Now” And without one of them ever seeing it coming, he provided the coup-de-grace: baiting the Republicans into loudly and embarrassingly shouting and bleating and denying what they’ve all been murmuring about all week: baiting the Republicans into insisting no, they don’t want to gut social security and medicare. And thank you to Marjorie Tailor Greene as Cruella deVil and Kyrsten Sinema as Tweety after the car airbags had inflated and especially Trump for choosing, of all days, the afternoon of the SOTU to accuse Ron DeSantis of "grooming high school girls." Few political speeches are great. Fewer still are masterpieces. THAT was an actual masterpiece. B-Block (13:29) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Flaco the escaped Central Park Zoo Eagle-Owl RETURNS to the zoo...and then leaves again for Wollman Rink but is scared away by the unbelievably loud P.A. system? (14:56) IN SPORTS: Aaron Rodgers doesn't know people close their blinds when they go to sleep and LeBron James once tried to get an ESPN sportscaster fired because he thought she was mean to him? (17:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: American opinion weaponizes against The New McCarthyism and Kevin McCarthy's "Weaponization" subcommittee while George Santos may bring Lee Zeldin down with him, and a London tabloid anoints a dark horse GOP presidential candidate for 2024. Or maybe it's 2022. Or maybe it's 2020. They refer to all three! C-Block (22:30) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Nigel, in New York (23:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Joe Biden's State of the Union last night may have been an epic all-timer. The 1998 one came at the very start of the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal and MSNBC didn't choose an anchor for its coverage until almost the last minute. Imagine my surprise when that anchor turned out to be... ME.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 128: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Before he begins tonight's State of the Union Address, President Biden should pull his aviators out of his pocket and slap them on, reach under the lectern and pull out a shredded Chinese balloon and drape it in front of himself, and reach under again and produce an AIM-9X Sidewinder Missile and rest it on his shoulder. It's ridiculous hyperbole of course. But how much MORE ridiculous than Bush's Flight Suit and Mission Accomplished speech? Democrats have no clue how stupid half the country (or more) really is, and how easily that half can be manipulated by stunts, theater, shiny objects, crotch bulges in flight suits, braggadocio, nonsense, outright lies, and other tactics Republicans mastered decades ago. How stupid are they? When Karine Jean-Pierre reminded reporters they'd been given "Tick Tocks" (journalistic jargon for minute-by-minute timelines), The Daily Caller and Fox News both jumped to the asinine conclusion that the secrets of the nation were being distributed on TIK-TOK. This is how dumb they are, and they are not getting less so. Bring a Sidewinder with you, Mr. President. B-Block (18:50) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Did a Federal Judge just notice a flaw in the SCOTUS overturn of Roe-V-Wade that might reinstate it? Samuel Alito's Mom's Abortion Clinic? And Flaco seems about to check back in to his old home. (21:48) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Elon Musk, joke plagiarist, fake news spreader, safety disaster; Confirmation that NewsMax wanted to raise its price to DirecTV from $0 to $13,000,000. And the Bill Maher numbers are in and - guess what - he did not make the slightest difference in CNN's implosion. C-Block (28:34) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Pandora, in Philadelphia (29:47) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's basically the anniversary of the day the geniuses at MSNBC would've lost Maddow to CNN because Larry King offered her $250 and unbeknownst to me we weren't paying her anything.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 127: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: It is carefully hidden to protect the sources, but there's no question in my mind now: The New York Times' profile of the arrested ex-FBI New York Executive Charles McGonigal implies that FBI and DOJ are investigating whether he was working for Oleg Deripaska, employer of Paul Manafort who was Trump's Campaign Manager - FOR FREE - long before he retired from the Bureau. I go through the Times piece line-by-line and the phrasing, the invoking of an earlier Russian Spy in McGonigal's own FBI department, the terminology, is all groundwork for later stories that could fully reengage this country with the reality of Trump's 2016 Conspiracy with Russia - and how the FBI's New York Office may have knowingly or unknowingly played a part on both ends of that fetid deal. B-Block (19:53) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Gang Of 8 offered Trump Dock-Drama briefing; "Jim Dial" dies; Flaco the missing Central Park Owl? He's over at my place (24:32) IN SPORTS: Conspiracy nut Kyrie Irving dealt to Dealey Plaza; NHL tries to pretend its sudden homophobia problem/Pride Night disaster crisis is just going to go away (27:55) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Inside SCOTUS (in)security and use of private emails; Jenna Ellis is a moron; a Mississippi state rep goes full racist about the Chinese balloon. C-Block (34:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Andre, in New York (34:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Schmuck Todd did it again. Another Republican Congressman lied to him about the five Chinese Recon Balloons sighted during the Trump Administration and Chuck said "duh, ok." What it was like to work with - and spend ten years in a fantasy football league with - Chuckles The Clown.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 126: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: The New McCarthyism of Kevin McCarthy goes on full display. He has the nerve to complain of Ilhan Omar's seeming antisemitism that she said "I didn't now there's a trope when it comes to referring to somebody who is Jewish, with money." Yet in 2018 McCarthy himself tweeted "We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election!" - as obvious a "Jewish With Money" trope as there could be. And McCarthy is still demanding spending cuts without once saying where the cuts should be. And now he's proposing a Congressional hearing into DirecTV refusing to pay $20,000,000 to NewsMax for that which NewsMax was charging it $0. And yet the only event that could actually cost him, was refusing to concur with Marjorie Traitor Greene that Ashli Babbitt was "murdered." Also: Bill Barr defends the Durham Farce and the Los Angeles Times makes him sound as high as a Chinese Spy Balloon. B-Block (15:27) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: One America News, leading Paul Pelosi Conspiracy Conveyor, has clearly been scared into honesty. An Illinois woman embezzled 100,000 Chicken Wings. And a Nebraska senator has come up with the last impediment to voting that the fascists had forgot to impose. (20:15) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His best known, and probably his best, short story: The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. C-Block (35:50) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Sweetheart, in Texas; (37:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I'm sure you've all made a commercial, but did you fall off a cliff while doing so? Did your commercial bankrupt the company? Aha! Let me learn you some things.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 125: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Do 15 words in The New York Times' infamous Halloween clearing of Trump on Russia identify one of the anonymous governmental sources of the lie as the just-arrested ex-FBI agent Charles McGonigal? Does the timeline of what the FBI New York office did with the Anthony Weiner laptop also suggest that the man who helped force the Comey Letter is...Charles McGonigal? Did the DOJ just arrest someone on lesser charges in hopes of getting him to flip on Trump, or the FBI New York leakers, or others in the Trump-Russia Conspiracy? Someone named...Charles McGonigal? The analysis by author Greg Olean finds potential smoking guns everywhere. And did FBI interference on Trump's behalf ever stop? A new Congressman presses the DOJ to investigate William Barr and John Durham, and - another election, another laptop - Hunter Biden goes on offense and demands the DOJ and the state of Delaware investigate Trumpland figures including Rudy Giuliani for stealing the contents of his laptop, and trafficking in them. B-Block (19:25) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Melody in Arkansas (20:38) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Tom Brady retired. Again. SURRRRRE he did. The College Board caves to Ron DeSantis - time to put them out of business. And a nitwitted Freshman Congressman from Missouri named Burlison not only compares DirecTV refusing to pay to carry NewsMax to the holocaust, but tries to ad lib Pastor Niemoller's "First, they came for the Socialists." Too bad about DirecTV being "de-platformed" and Burlison now having absolutely no place left in Right Wing Media to go to whine about being silenced. C-Block (34:49) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Sure the FBI New York bureau may have fixed the 2016 election to Trump, but literally they're not all bad. In fact, I'm a satisfied customer. They did a helluva job each time some guy mailed me what he claimed was Anthrax in 2006.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 124: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: At a time when the all the forces that can be brought to bear against democracy, against diversity, against more voters more often in more convenient ways, are being brought; when the liberal viewpoint on cable news has never more important, has never been under greater threat from both market-forces and more transparent fascism; when the premise of such 24/7 coverage has never been closer to extinction, the people running the last surviving liberal and moderate outlets have the solution to the crisis: MSNBC will give you more Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert guest hits, and CNN is going to bring you, in prime time, once a week... Gayle King!  B-Block (22:37) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Akira in New York (23:36) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Oh, NOW CBS reports that days after Biden's lawyers first found documents, they invited the FBI to search the Think Tank; Santos recusing from committees; McCarthy thinks this'll give him time to "clear things up" LOL; Military Coup in Moscow? And self-referential news: a million downloads in one month! (26:56) IN SPORTS: When you're turning to Hope Hicks to help your image, your image is in baaaaad shape. And that 13-year old Women's Basketball JV player? She was just a little old (30:16) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jesse Watters accidentally speaks the truth, the Schlapp victim sues again, and actress Andrea Riseborough gets away with it. C-Block (34:48) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 16 years ago, then Senator Joe Biden invited me to lunch to ask my advice. About what? What did I care? He asked for my ADVICE! Actually it was about converting anger into righteous indignation and I take no credit for this but I will ask you: when was the last time you heard somebody throw the old charge at him that he's a "hot head?"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 123: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: "You have a lot of folks who are just waiting for his mortal demise," says former Michigan Republican Congressman Peter Meijer. "I've heard from a lot of people who will go onstage and put on the red hat and then give me a call the next day and say 'I can't wait until this guy dies.'" It's an amazing strategy but a passive one. And it ignores the various walls closing in on Trump: two District Attorneys, three Grand Juries, one Judiciary Chairman annoyed at John Durham and William Barr, one Judiciary Chairman rebuffed by Merrick Garland, one porn star, and one guy named Pecker. Still, potentially the most extraordinary story about Trump: the clouds gathering around the arrest of Charlie McGonigal, who was a 24/7, 365 days a year, hot and cold running blackmail-victim-FBI-Agent-waiting-to-happen. And now two analysts look at his arrest and suggest: this may evolve into a) a spy scandal in which the national security was utterly breached and b) a journalistic disaster in which Trump, Russia, and the FBI managed to manipulate The New York Times into pushing Trump across the finish line in 2016. B-Block (18:53) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Memphis, in Texas (20:06) IN SPORTS: The passing of hockey's Bobby Hull and Cleveland's John Adams; Why was the 52nd best player in baseball chosen to adorn the cover of its top video game? And happy 206th birthday, J. Shorthouse, Esq. (24:07) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: More George Santos stupidity, a Florida Climate Caucus Congresswoman who owns up to $195k in oil stocks, and Megyn Kelly slams Jill Biden for something her own father did. C-Block (29:56) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: CNN has gone and done it: addressing its cratering ratings by adding a regular Friday segment from Bill Maher's HBO panel. Time again to go back to 2009 when Bill and I nearly brawled at his HBO after-party because he insisted we never met in college (spoiler alert: Oh yeah we did).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.