Countdown with Keith Olbermann

EPISODE 83: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (0:15) SPECIAL COMMENT: Of COURSE Trump knew who Nick Fuentes was. Of course Trump knew what Kanye West has become. Of course Trump wanted them there, because they are hate-peddlers with followings and they are all he has left. And you don't get past security as Kanye's "Plus One." (5:30) Trump is exploring going all-in on antisemitism because if you hadn't noticed, nobody but Lindell-level freaks have even referenced The Big Lie about the 2020 Election since Trump lost the 2022 Election. While House Republicans promise to investigate every crackpot rumor from Hunter Biden's Laptop to Fentanyl to Covid's Origins, did you notice they are NOT investigating the 2020 Election? Trump needs a New Act. (8:39) Though Trump is vulnerable, prominent Republicans are still hesitant to accuse him of antisemitism, which is odd since he's been antisemitic far longer than Fuentes or West. B-Block (16:30) DON'T FORGET. A MONTH AGO, TRUMP THREATENED AMERICAN JEWS: "No president has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S...U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel. Before it's too late." (20:04) Translating Trump's manifold antisemitism, including the 'real loyalty' trope, his history of calling Israel "your country" to American Jewish groups, the 'You know some people would mistreat you Jews but I didn't so why haven't you rewarded me' threat, and especially (22:39) invoking the Evangelicals, for whom the Jews are a prop in their "End Times" fantasy of the return of Jesus followed by all Jews converting - or being slaughtered (27:00) Given Trump's history of Hitler worship this is especially virulent stuff. He praised Hitler's generals and economics and kept a book of his speeches in his bedroom  C-Block (30:00) I'LL REPEAT MY ASSERTION. TRUMP IS NOW AMERICA'S HITLER. We saw it first in September in Youngstown, Ohio, with the modified Sieg Heil, and the QAnon Music, and the rewritten history. it is time to use the real words. Trump has stopped pretending, and embraced QAnon, Christofascism, and Violent Revolution. He is America's Hitler, and he must be stopped while we still have any capacity to do so.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 82: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: OK maybe I am. (1:58) Trump has about as bad a day as you can have in court and not be Al Pacino in the movie "And Justice For All." But first, I'm worried about The Washington Post profile of new Trump Special Counsel Jack Smith and my haunting fear he is there to run out the clock on behalf of Merrick Garland. A former colleague is quoted as saying "It was understood that the fastest way for a case to die was to give it to (Jack Smith's) Public Integrity Section." (3:00) Happily, though the Post gave not the slightest hint of  it, the guy who said that is not just a revenge-obsessed right wing nut job but the worst kind: one who thinks he's an impartial analyst. (6:07) So we can look instead at Trump's FIVE legal setbacks in one day: on the tax case at the Supreme Court (and what Dems can do with the taxes with only 41 days until the GOP takes the house); at the hearing to dismiss the Special Master from the Nuclear Documents Kleptomania case; at Lindsey Graham's Grand Jury appearance in Georgia; at the efforts to revitalize Manhattan's Stormy Daniels hush money case; and at the impending SECOND lawsuit by E. Jean Carroll. No comment from Trump Attorney Lionel Hutz. B-Block (12:40) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Max in North Carolina (13:40) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Yes, you didn't imagine it. The 2nd Woman produced a tape of Herschel Walker phoning her and saying "this is your stud farm calling, you big sex puppy you," and then he said something much dumber live on Fox News. Herschel's Erection Election plus the AP taking its "Russian missiles in Poland" screw-up and making it much worse and Bolsonaro contesting after all (19:29) IN SPORTS: Lionel Messi's Employers upset Lionel Messi's Team at the World Cup: It's A Messi Situation, plus the Rob Thomson surprise, and what a fan did to Pete Rozelle the day he wouldn't cancel the NFL schedule even after the JFK Assassination (23:14) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Bothsidesist Ashley Parker and GOP Talking Point Merchant Katherine Herridge of CBS can't compete with producer Stew Peters whose movie about supposed deaths after Covid vaccinations "DIED SUDDENLY" actually shows people who a) didn't get vaccinated b) didn't die and c) didn't do anything suddenly. C-BLOCK (28:44) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It is ESPN's most beloved outtake and since it was about the World Cup, I present it now in annotated form. Ladies and gentlemen: It's the famous "SOCCER BREAKDOWN.":See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 81: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Tucker Carlson, who has spent months conflating LGBTQ issues with "sex crimes" and "castrating children" and two months ago demanded his viewers not "put up with this, for one second, no matter what the law says," last night insisted stochastic terrorism is impossible and no one could be indoctrinated by his or others' words while repeating that gay and trans people and doctors and teachers were indoctrinating children and then throwing to a commercial for Golden Corral because OF COURSE things said on television can't influence you to do ANYTHING. (8:49) And the right wing continues its attempt to get others to act violently: GOP presidential wannabe Mike Pompeo insists "The most dangerous person in the world is (American Federation of Teachers leader) Randi Weingarten" because of "the filth they're teaching our kids." B-Block (15:23) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Cottage and Sheff (16:36) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Comer Scandal-latest. Bob Iger returns; I will repeat the best advice I've ever gotten in my life, which Iger gave me in March 1979! (20:16) IN SPORTS: US "loses" World Cup opener 1-1; Iran's brave players win the day while the cowardly captains of Belgium, Denmark, England, Germany, The Netherlands, and Wales lose it. The new baseball Hall of Fame ballot is out and once again the top new candidate will be excluded because of a cheating scandal (24:03) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: 32 paragraphs of Trump Special Counsel/GOP BS Biden Investigations bothsidesism from CNN, competing with Cesar "Crisis of Confidence" Conde of NBC News and ex-Press Secretary Kayleigh "I Dunno How To Say This Name" McEnany for the dishonors. C-Block (28:53) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL. It is 59 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and I may be the youngest person you know with a distinct memory of that terrible day and the days that followed. From the adults crying to the cancellation of all the cartoons to the muted Thanksgiving Day Parade, it made its impression on me, two months shy of my fifth birthday.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 80: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) 1st SPECIAL COMMENT Is America free? Or are we slaves to the mob rule of Republican gun owners? These Americans - just out for a Saturday night in a place in Colorado Springs that they considered their "haven," just like the children were in Uvalde and just like the shoppers in Buffalo, were killed - directly or stochastically - by Republicans.(5:40) We always ignore the darkest, truest part of the equation of gun violence: there are people in this country who WANT this to keep happening. It is why more children die by gunfire every year than do on-duty cops or active military. And the Republican Party has prostituted itself to these people. (9:10) The 2nd Amendment is a lie; there are 103 words related to money or ownership in the Constitution as amended and none of them are in 2A; (13:41) Right now the President could make enormous inroads into the availability of the guns with which Republicans hunt minorities and children, just by Executive Orders. He must make them, and more over he must lead us in the truth: once again, in Colorado Springs, REPUBLICANS MURDERED AMERICANS. B-Block (18:51) 2nd SPECIAL COMMENT: If you were Attorney General and you were trying to run out the clock on prosecuting an ex-president and make sure it was the clock that got the blame - and not you - you'd do exactly what Merrick Garland did in appointing a Special Counsel nearly two years after the crime (22:08) There are seven major rationalizations for Garland's act. I'll let them by refuted by Neal Katyal, William Barr, Jill Wine-Banks, Bradley Moss, Matthew Miller, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Samuel Alito - and Robert Mueller. C-Block (30:50) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: The extraordinary offer by dog rescue champion/singer/comedian Elayne Booster (31:25) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Nothing new on the James Comer Scandal (32:21) IN SPORTS: Qatar didn't ban beer at the World Cup. It just raised the price to $22,600; the infamous "Mantle Lewd Questionnaire" is up for auction (and I'll tell you about the only baseball document even more profane than Mantle's: the 1898 Special Instructions To Players (38:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Geraldo Rivera and Ronny Jackson are no match for Maggie "Trump's Change of Tone" Haberman (40:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 40 years ago, the media guy for the NFL Players Union and all but one of the reporters covering the NFL strike talks pranked the one remaining reporter. It. Was. Epic.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 79: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) How could the Republicans be THIS stupid? The man who will lead their attack on Hunter and Joe Biden, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, has been credibly accused by his college girlfriend of violence, psychological abuse, threatening her life, and driving her to the clinic to abort their child. (2:05) Did they think that because the story broke seven years ago it had fallen off the internet? The first full day they are the Majority-Elect they trot out a new head of House Oversight, James Comer of Kentucky, who announces a Hunter Biden investigation and then says "I want to be clear: This is an investigation of JOE Biden." (3:05) No, let ME be clear: this needs to be an investigation of JAMES COMER. This is where this crap STOPS. (5:20) You don't like this kind of stuff? This is the only way to STOP this kind of stuff: the bully has to get the crap beaten out of him, and James Comer is the bully here. Let's Go. (7:15) What the GOP should've announced it was investigating was Ticketmaster (9:10) Still the co-defendant in the Republican Investigation Machine is the media. The Washington Examiner and Red State didn't headline Comer's Folly over Pelosi's Retirement - CNN and The New York Times did. (11:50) And once again CNN's Chief Chris Licht stepped right up with that big "Hit Me" sign around his neck and said "So the play is not to be offensive to A side, right?" I'll explain how wrong he is. (13:43) The good news is: the Democrats are finally getting smart, and David Brock has left Media Matters to run a "SWAT Team" that will investigate the GOP investigators. And they can start with the James Comer scandal. Oh, did I mention the James Comer scandal? B-Block (20:20) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Miller in Pennsylvania, who ate a sock (21:16) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Space Karen kills Twitter; 1/6 Subcommittee to decide whether to make criminal referrals (23:43) IN SPORTS: The Most Valuable Players are named. If a guy finishes 2nd in that vote AND 4th in the vote for best pitcher, isn't he by definition the "most valuable?" What the hell does "most valuable" mean? (26:38) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mike Pompeo forgets his part in the insurrection, the New York Post has never heard of "Run Of Show" or "Rundown" documents. They compete with Baseball's Commissioner who suddenly announced that if you bet on baseball, you should be banned BY baseball. C-Block (31:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His classic stories of Man vs. Life: "Nine Needles" and "The Mouse Who Went To The Country."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 78: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: 12 Republicans join the Democrats to give the codification of Marriage Equality a filibuster-proof majority. The Respect for Marriage Act will be law by Christmas (2:37) It seems so obvious; it is in fact breathtaking. 14 years ago a Democratic candidate could be elected POTUS without endorsing same-sex marriage. 26 years ago a Democratic president could sign legislation defining marriage as only between a man and a woman (4:02) And 14 years and exactly one week ago, I could startle viewers, my bosses, and some liberals by decrying the passage of Prop 8 in California - which TOOK AWAY Marriage Equality awarded by the courts - in a Special Comment called "A Question of Love" (12:15) This is how far we have come: Two months later I was approached by Sir Ian McKellan who said that the fact that I was able to incorporate those opinions into an American cable newscast meant "some of my hope for the future is restored." Today, with the path to codified Marriage Equality assured, some of MY hope for the future is restored. B-Block (17:48) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Penny, in Missouri (18:50) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Mike Pence defies Congress (and logic), now it's Stu Varney trashing Trump (to Trump's daughter-in-law), and a Democrat beats a Faux Democrat in LA (20:22) IN SPORTS: Two unanimous Cy Young Winners for the first time since Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA and Denny McLain's 31 wins, Virginia cancels its football game, Kyrie coming back - but why? (23:11) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Laura Ingraham continuing to try to make the fabricated Pelosi Conspiracy Theory happen and Chris Licht drowning at CNN, compete with the executives of MSNBC, NBC News, and NBC. After getting fricasseed for firing Tiffany Cross to appease fascists like Tucker Carlson, they knew what to do: Trash her anonymously in The New York Post. C-Block (32:21) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 30 years ago today, the Colorado Rockies and then-Florida Marlins were born in the baseball expansion draft which I anchored on ESPN. The draft followed one of the weirdest you're-gonna-die-on-THAT-hill things I ever witnessed in sports broadcasting. But most importantly: I can now confess that to get the scoop as to who would be the first pick, I did a terrible, terrible thing ;-)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 77: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: God what a terrible speech! Trump's official declaration he's running was so bad Fox News bailed out of it! And CNN bailed out of it! And Mick Mulvaney trashed it. And two ex-Trump Press Secretaries. AND DURING IT IVANKA TRUMP ANNOUNCED SHE'S LEAVING POLITICS! (5:00) The mainstream GOP continues to distance itself; Fox News lists 13 GOP presidential possibilities - none of them are Trump (5:40) Chris Christie trashes Trump to GOP Governors conference, gets applauded (8:30) These are not moral judgments, not patriotic ones, not decency ones, not pro-democracy ones. But these people have the survival instincts of cockroaches and somebody just flipped on every kitchen light in America (8:40) Even crazy Wendy Rogers in Arizona is wondering if she's been living in an echo chamber (11:15) And yet there's just enough loyalists to remain to make sure if the GOP can keep Trump at bay, he'll run as a third party candidate in 2024. They were the ones outside Trump Tower yesterday screaming "Trump or Death" - to which we say "OFFER ACCEPTED!" B-Block (15:31) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Elsa in Brooklyn (16:26) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Latest on the Russian missile or rocket that hit Poland; (18:14) IN SPORTS: Angels with their annual dubious free agency signing; Richard Nixon's alma mater ends 107 years of football; and the merchandisers of the NBA finally outsmart themselves (22:03) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Republicans keeping 50-99% of what they raise for Herschel Walker and Fox's Kevin Corke are no match for Worst Persons Hall of Famer Bill O'Reilly - he's baaaack! C-Block (26:43) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: O'Reilly's contretemps with the "News Nation" channel reminded me Dan Abrams has a show there, on the cable tv news version of 'Nick-At-Nite.' And THAT reminded me of the day MSNBC tried to switch the disrespected Abrams from hosting its unpopular 9 PM show, to being network General Manager. After the staff stopped laughing, it wound up being worse than we could have dreamed. Within ONE WEEK management had reassured us he would be fired. He became a Lame Duck in ONE WEEK!    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 76: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: New leak to Washington Post clearly confesses Trump stole documents, but insists he didn't do it for evil reasons, he did it for EGO. He's not a TRAITOR! He's just a hoarder! He's not a foreign spy who might face the death penalty. He's just a collector! He's like YOU: YOU'D keep a White House cocktail napkin wouldn't you? So HE kept a White House Ultra-Classified Document (or 200 of them) (3:28) This transparent attempt to minimize the charge and the sentence again suggests it's not only unbelievably bad for Trump but it's far worse than we could possibly imagine. (6:30) "He seemed motivated by a more basic desire not to give up what he believed was his property," the Post writes, and suddenly I'm watching Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck breaking into the den of the 40 Thieves and Daffy sees all the diamonds and gold and screams "IT'S MINE! DOWN, DOWN, DOWN! GO, GO, GO! MINE, MINE, MINE!" He's not Julius Rosenberg! He's Daffy Duck! (9:35) The Guardian also reports evidence secret documents were mixed with post-presidential letters in Trump's desk drawer. What collector doesn't do THAT? (10:15) Trump still scheduled to formalize his 2024 candidacy today, even as a London paper reports Murdoch called him personally to withdraw support. B-Block (16:08) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Spaghetti, again (16:58) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Not only did Katie Hobbs win, but she was right about not debating Lake. And we need to worry about the phenomenon of not just TV types, but TV newscasters, seeking office. Plus Jay Leno is recovering and he's nicer than you know, and NBC suspended the reporter who ran the fake Pelosi conspiracy theory (21:31) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Virginia's hypocritical lieutenant governor takes on Elon "Bloatware" Musk and Herschel Walker attacking how Senator Warnock is raising his kids, for the dishonors. C-Block (25:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Not one but two of my ex-ESPN colleagues entered the media wing of hockey's Hall of Fame last night. One saved my scoop about the retirement of Mario Lemieux, and the other was in the booth the night New York player Sergio Momesso was called "Sergio Mimosa."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 75: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Well THAT was fun! Enjoy retaining the Senate and the fascists turning on Trump and then FORGET IT AND GET BACK TO WORK (2:32) Ever seen the movie "Carrie"? There is a lesson for us in it. When you think you have ended Carrie's reign of horror, make sure you burn the grave, salt the earth, and encase everything in concrete before she can reach up from hell to grab you. They are not defeated, they are developing a new Supreme Court scheme as we speak (4:26) Be aggressive - like Pelosi and Schumer planning to raise the debt limit during the Lame Duck session (5:44) And consider the more outlandish ideas: nominating Liz Cheney to be Speaker or offering cabinet or ambassador slots to uninfected GOP Congressmen (7:20) Because the fascists will now cut to the chase: supporters of a different Kari are calling for a military takeover of the government so they can get a new vote in Arizona (8:47) Now is the time to strike because they are burning down their own house: attacking Trump, McConnell, McCarthy and Ronna Romney while Trump cultists like Ann Coulter and Glenn Youngkin's Lieutenant Governor and even the DILBERT GUY bail on Trump (10:43) But now the next threat comes into focus: The Federalist Society is so hellbent to enact "Independent State Legislature Theory" that it has purged its own co-founder because he doesn't believe in it. Supreme Court Barbie - Amy Coney Barrett - and the other fascists do, as you'll hear. And to stop them, we'll need to designate The Federalist Society as a terrorist organization. B-Block (18:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Maslow in Pennsylvania (19:02) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Coincidence? Trump wanted to "get the IRS on" Comey and McCabe. And each was then hit with a rare invasive audit. (21:07) IN SPORTS: No experience? No problem! Jeff Saturday wins in NFL coaching debut (23:39) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A New Jersey Republican official calls the cops on a 9-year old African-American girl who "scared him." He competes with Sarah "They think we're stupid" Palin and Donald "They stole the ELECTRON from Blake Masters" Trump for the dishonors. C-Block (29:36) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I really did fall off a cliff (well, a pretty tall rock outcropping) filming a TV Commercial for Boston Market. But that's only part of the story. The ads paid so much I was willing to quit ESPN to do them instead, and the ads were so perversely effective that the company went bankrupt!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 74: Countdown With Keith Olbermann A-Block (1:45) Let me tell you what is to come: Trump and DeSantis will both run for the '24 Republican Nomination. When DeSantis wins, Trump will run anyway as an independent, cinching the White House for Biden (or any Democrat) (2:05) The Republican establishment has, overnight, turned on Trump and burned the bridges to him. The front page of Murdoch's New York Post has an illustration of Trump as an egg, atop a wall, and in big block letters: "TRUMPTY DUMPTY" and a column inside nicknames him "Toxic Trump." (7:00) Let's review your doubts: Do you doubt DeSantis will run? You think he made that two-minute miniature Bible Epic movie just to run up the score in Florida? Do you doubt the GOP has bailed? Peter King has just said Trump "should no longer be the face of the Republican Party." (12:10) Now Kevin McCarthy gets to lead an impotent, fractured Republican party in the House with not enough power to crush the crazies but not enough power to impeach Biden, either (11:50) And Trump got them a runoff in Georgia where the 203,000 Georgians who voted for Brian Kemp but did not vote for Herschel Walker are really expected to vote for Walker in the runoff?  B-Block (17:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Spaghetti in Staten Island (18:22) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Glenn Youngkin apologizes to the Pelosis but only after the election is over, and competes with Chris Cillizza and Elon Musk screwing twitter into the ground and threatening to turn your non-blue-checked tweets into junk mail, for the honors. ( 23:14) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The story of the anniversary of my late beloved puppy Mishu. C-Block (37:02) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL, CONTINUED: The passing of Mishu. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.