Countdown with Keith Olbermann

EPISODE 73: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT There WAS a Red Wave: A wave goodbye to your tsunami. Sanity got up off the mat. We beat the undead zombies with some well placed shovels. Fetterman defeated Oz. Free Crudites for EVERYONE. This could turn out to be the BEST midterms for any first-term president in decades. Joe Biden just went from nomination Dark Horse, to superhero Dark Brandon. And as a bonus, regardless of who ultimately gets the House and who gets the Senate, among Republicans, Trump will get much of the blame. B-Block (15:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Princess Wiggles in New York (15:58) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: 1/6 Commish interviews Trump's driver, big countries may finally pony up at COP27, Zelenskyy softens stance on negotiations with Russia (18:15) IN SPORTS: Dusty Baker will return, invoking memories of Jesse Orosco and the poet Rolfe Humphries (21:11) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Peacock, with its upcoming Casey Anthony series, battles Tucker "One of the Largest Sources of Death Threats" Carlson and Brett "Another Day, Another Scandal" Favre for the dishonors. C-Block (25:55) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 25 years since I met her and nearly as long since I went out on a date with Laura Ingraham. It was worse than you'd expect, and it was followed by a second date that was actually closer to me being kidnapped and held hostage. But I learned a valuable lesson about how - and how efficiently - "The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" actually works, that remains instructive to this day.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 72: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) OH GOD I so wanted Trump to declare his candidacy last night. He was THISCLOSE to doing it at his fascist rally in Ohio and thus snatching defeat for the Republicans from the jaws of victory, like he did in Georgia. But somebody got to him! (3:46) Whatever happens today, the media is doing everything it can to stick to the "Red Wave" narrative: Their polls all indicate Democratic leads in the Generic Congressional Ballot so what did Politico, Yahoo, and Reuters do? THEY DISMISSED THEIR OWN POLLS AS OUTLIERS. It all underscores the real media narrative: The media corporations are sucking up to the fascists (8:30) Last night, the Republicans gave away the next narrative: any election undecided by Wednesday morning has been fixed by the Democrats (10:48) Oh by the way, a key member of Russia's 2016 Conspiracy with Trump confessed to interfering in the election (11:45) And Elon Musk tweeted more Nazi names and six months after saying "for Twitter to deserve public trust it must be politically neutral" he told his 115,000,000 followers they should vote Republican. Oh and he's also talking about putting all of Twitter behind a paywall.  B-Block (16:40) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Ace has been reserved! Today it's Angie, in Brooklyn (17:33) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Bannon incarceration delayed, Ted Cruz hit by a White Claw and Texas police actually just don't stand there (19:24) IN SPORTS: Check with me Monday after new Coach Saturday makes his debut Sunday; It's the strangest NFL coaching move since Rock Island fired its coach mid-game in 1921. Baseball free agent news and the new Veterans' Hall of Fame Ballot is out: McGriff, Murphy, Mattingly, four roiders, one jackass - where's Keith Hernandez? (23:27) Brit "Trash OnThe Street" Hume and CNN's New Morning Show, called "Fascists? Please Let Us Live!" are no match for the all-time champion of Conventional Political Lack of Wisdom and Groupthink: Chris Cillizza with an all-time great column, telling History Teacher Jim Clyburn he doesn't understand history. C-Block (34:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The day in 1981 the disc jockey on the top New York radio station tried to kill me and then get me fired for daring to criticize "his" New York Giants on his show. The saga of Ted Brown and "he won't remember that either" (49:55) Plus, because it was handy, a complete sportscast from December 30, 1981, and 22-year old me doing an entire sportscast on WNEW Radio in New York, complete with the latest Wayne Gretzky news (and Ted Brown).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 71: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) On the Friday before an election crucial to democracy, MSNBC fired its most outspoken host because Fox News complained about her. Where is the protest by Lawrence O'Donnell? By Chris Hayes? By Alex Wagner? Where is the threat to walk out, to boycott, to stand on principle, by Rachel Maddow? (3:10) NBC had to retract a fabricated Today Show story that reignited the fascists' homophobic conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi. The correspondent was not fired. The Today Show executive was not fired. The head of news was not fired. Tiffany Cross? She was fired. (7:33) Cross joked about "castrating Florida," rightly savaged Alyssa Farah, Megyn Kelly, and Clarence Thomas - and her ratings were growing. But when Tucker Carlson devoted a segment to actually suggesting she was fomenting a Rwanda-style genocide of white Americans, NBC and MSNBC went crazy. (10:10) Joy Reid said something, more personal than professional (10:30) O'Donnell said nothing; then again when he filled in for me while my father was dying in 2010 he tried to replace me as Countdown host and then stole a group of producers from me for his new show (11:36) Chris Hayes, silent now, once stood up and refused to substitute for me when I had been improperly suspended (13:30) And Maddow, who in 2009 stood up and told the president of NBC News and all the executives and talent at MSNBC that if anybody interfered with the content of her show, she would walk out because "I cannot have the audience wondering what else I have not told them" (18:41) But now Maddow is making $30 million a year and the courage to walk out when it could cost you that much, is lacking. Rachel? Will you pretend the firing of Tiffany Cross is not your problem? Or will you stand up for what is right? You know - like you used to. B-Block (23:40) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Ace in New York desperately needs a foster or adopter, anywhere from Virginia to Maine (24:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: DeSantis shocked head of The Leopards Eating People's Faces Party ate his face; Musk "likes" meme with quote from American neo-nazi pedophile, and that was the BEST thing he did to Twitter over the weekend (30:19) IN SPORTS: Astros get a World Series Parade; Phillies set World Series futility records; Boston Bruins destroy reputation by signing, then dumping, bully (32:45) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mark Levin admits his side consists of "White Supremacists" and competes with Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz padding a 50-page report to 1,050 pages, and former journalist Jason Whitlock going misogynistic, homophobic AND racist all in the same sentence. C-Block (37:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: In memory of Vinny Vassallo, or as a few SportsCenter viewers will remember him: Vinny The Stat Man.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 70: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: It goes without saying Trump should not merely already be under indictment - he should be under 24/7 guard in a SuperMax Prison. But he's not. So we have to view last night's leak about the Department of Justice considering a Special Trump Counsel as "good news." (2:45) CNN's report says the Special Counsel would be appointed as soon as Trump officially declares he's running (he came close last night at one of his Cult Rallies) (3:53) CNN also reported something strange: that DOJ has hired two high-priced prosecutors in advance, just in case they do decide to prosecute. Are you kidding? Who does this? You don't hire guys away from Law Firm Partnerships 'just in case' (5:55) Plus CNN discovered one of the hirings because the guy UPDATED HIS LINKED-IN PROFILE! (8:23) In actual stuff that's happened, CREW, which got a New Mexico County Commissioner removed from office for insurrection based on the 14th Amendment, says it will sue to get Trump similarly barred from serving (11:00) All of which leads me to invoke 19th Century British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone and an immortal quote about him supplied by one of his fiercest critics, Henry Labouchere. B-Block (14:25) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Calto, in New York (15:17) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Golly, I guessed right: Elon Musk IS willing to sell YOUR Twitter identity to somebody else. I think we call this "blackmail." Plus CNBC fires Shepard "I Come From A Town Full Of Secrets" Smith. (17:54) IN SPORTS: World Series Game 5 Nailbiter; maybe those Phillies Powder Blue unis aren't good luck; and an imperfection in Don Larsen's 1956 Perfect Game you may not know about. Finally, Kyrie Irving is suspended. (24:37) WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A lawyer age-shaming the victim in an indecent exposure case and a medical school that played with the 1918 Influenza vie with Laura Ingraham for the honors C-Block (29:57) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: "The Luck Of Jad Peters."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 69: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) It's hard to believe a Presidential speech about domestic threats to democracy would have to take a back seat to another story (2:20) But the Department of Justice has given "Use Immunity" to Trump flunky Kash Patel so he can be brought back before the Documents Grand Jury and tell the truth about whether or not he witnessed Trump verbally declassifying all the stolen documents (Spoiler alert: he didn't) (5:40) Patel's testimony suggests DOJ is still on a timeline towards indicting Trump in the first week of January (6:02) There was nothing WRONG with Biden's Democracy-In-Danger speech but it lacked the controlled rage he mastered in his speech in Philadelphia in September. Thus, the advice he asked me for 15 years ago about channeling anger into righteous indignation was either too good or not good enough (7:52) Unless this was some kind of "this is the last time I say it nicely" speech, Biden's call to the better angels of our nature will completely elude those who disagree with him and believe America IS a zero-sum game, like Stewart Rhodes, whose terrifying manifesto for Trump was released (9:30) And there's no use throwing the new facts in the DePape/Pelosis case at the Right Wing. It's case closed for them and any new facts can be dismissed as Cover-ups or Conspiracies (11:55) IN SPORTS: What if they gave a World Series no-hitter and nobody cared? B-Block (17:45) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Lia in Staten Island (18:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Elon Musk not knowing that +$8 and -$8 are different things fights Captain Obvious from The New York Times and Kyrie Irving and the NBA trying to fight their way out of the antisemitism mess, for the honors (22:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's 22 years ago now when Roger Clemens of the Yankees threw part of the broken bat of Mike Piazza of the Mets - threw it either AT him or inadvertently NEAR him. I had to do the first interview with Clemens, and then I asked a question that has haunted me for 22 years - what happened to the shattered bat? C-Block 41:09 THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The Piazza Bat saga continues through the present day, and includes everybody from John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, to Vin Scully, to Jay of Chez Jay restaurant in Santa Monica, California.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 68: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) "He was completely caught up in the fantasy. He really believed in the whole MAGA, stolen election. If you go to Fox News, if you look at QAnon - you know." David DePape's employer of six years makes it Case Closed: the would-be assassin of Nancy Pelosi was energized stochastically by every weapon the GOP can muster (2:24) And it appears that DePape's defense will be a claim of "vulnerability" to the MAGA/Fox News/Trump misinformation machine (3:24) Yet the GOP continues in full denial, to the extent that a Washington Examiner columnist insists the assassination attempt never happened (5:04) How does the GOP maintain this astonishing and apparently heartfelt hypocrisy? Their party DEPENDS on it. Let me review a couple dozen Herschel Walker/Peter Navarro/Samuel Alito cases (10:30) And finally we have the explanation of "Every Republican Accusation Is A Confession" from a psychology professional: it's not projection, it's not compensation. B-Block (20:04) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Hex, in Devore CA (21:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Graham has to testify, Wisconsin fascist gubernatorial candidate says the quiet fascist part out loud, and Elon Musk's tries to make selling Verification into a populist issue when he's really just blackmailing the blue checks: pay me $96/year or I'll shadow-ban you, and maybe sell your identity to somebody else. Plus late word that the Treasury Department isn't happy with all those Saudi, Qatari, and Chinese investors and may try to hold up his purchase! (26:16) IN SPORTS: Even MORE home runs, yet another A's franchise shift, and the NBA screws up the Kyrie Irving disaster yet again (29:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLDS: Mehmet Oz, Jim "Yes MASA" Jordan and Andrea "Bothsidesism" Mitchell compete for the honors. C-Block (34:02) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: You know how I know CNN is trying to swing to the right to protect its profits in case the country goes fascist? Because MSNBC tried it in 2003. The harrowing story of the day they tried to make me run a commentary by Michael Savage - literally dressed as a brownshirt - in the middle of Countdown and what I had to do to stop them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 67: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) Since 2018 Republicans have spent at least $227 Million on TV advertising to get somebody to try to kill Nancy Pelosi and now we know how they finally got their money's worth with David DePape (2:15) They're not calling it a confession, but that's what it is (3:44) A confession to political terrorism versus the Democratic Party, engineered stochastically by the Republican Party. And every Democrat and every news organization that does not say that is an accessory after the fact (5:13) And this has all be inevitable since January 21, 2010 - since "Citizens United" when the Roberts Court ruled all curbs on how much money corporations could spend on political advertising illegal (10:33) What INFINITY MONEY would do to American politics, and America, was so obvious that night that even I was able to predict much of it on Countdown. If anything, I understated the impact (12:38) Which leaves us this question: if the corporations and the men who run them want more attacks on more Nancy Pelosis - who's going to stop them? B-Block (20:41) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Pearl in Nashville (21:25) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: On top of everything else, Clarence Thomas is an idiot, and the producers of "2000 Mules" have been jailed! (23:49) IN SPORTS: It's simple. The NBA is going to have to ban Kyrie Irving, We've had the traditional Philadelphia World Series rainout. And I called Hoberg Hoiberg but not Zoidberg (26:16) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Tara Reid can't tell hearts from diamonds. She and Anti-Vax Nut Sherri Tenpenny compete with Don Bolduc - who actually NAMED a school where he thinks this "Litter Box" nonsense is happening - for the honors. But Bolduc is the only one likely to be sued. C-Block (30:48) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I thought I had met Bill Maher 22 years ago this month. Turns out the date was much, much earlier. But it took 31 years and two near-fistfights to figure it all out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Arrest the stochastic terrorists who instigated the attempted assassination of Nancy Pelosi on Friday. 18 USC 871, punishing threats against those in the presidential success, will suffice for Marjorie Taylor Greene, on video from 2019 (5:41) And Republican Congressional Committee chair Tom Emmer, who tweeted video of himself firing a weapon, with the hashtag "#FirePelosi (6:49) The GOP has been encouraging violence against Pelosi since 2010 (8:00) It got a gift to help satisfy its own adherents and gaslight others when Bay Area TV reporter Evan Sernoffsky falsely reported the assailant was wearing only underwear. All references to this stem from this terrible journalism, and none carry Sernoffsky's retraction (9:15) And then came the Elon Musk tweet spreading a nonsensical conspiracy theory from a pretend news outlet around the world (10:30) The GOP's effort to work the refs has produced results, especially in convincing media to pretend the party's use of the threat of violence is something new (11:00) Just my own experience, as a victim of four fake anthrax mailings in 2006 because I criticized Bush, and being on the second wave list of the "MAGA-Bomber" in 2018 for criticizing Trump, underscores how widespread this tactic has been. (15:15) And then there is the last component. How can the Marjorie Taylor Greenes of this world be sure that everybody they encourage to use violence is a Republican, and every one of the victims will be a Democrat - and not the other way around? B-Block (19:20) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Droolius Caesar, in New York (20:22) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Lula wins, why did the DOJ add a Terror prosecutor to the Trump Documents team, the Mastriano confession, Musk charging for blue checks? (23:55) IN SPORTS: Did you see the perfect game in the World Series Saturday? And the Qataris celebrating the LGBTQ boycott of the World Cup (28:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The new UK PM gets roasted by a patient at a hospital photo op. He and Tom Cotton compete with the Kansas candidate who implied Tiger Woods killed a cop for the "honors." C-Block (33:36) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The day Brian Williams lied about Iraq but I thought I was the one going crazy, then the day I tried to save Brian Williams; then the day the president of NBC News explained why they didn't - and couldn't - fire him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SPECIAL EPISODE 65: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: This was an assassination attempt. It was meant to be the execution of the Speaker of the House, 11 days before the midterms. It was a political crime, an act of domestic terrorism, an extension of the January 6th coup, the full expression of a new mantra of a political party gone insane, the culmination of the cult of Donald Trump (3:18) And THIS MUST BE SAID NOW by the Democratic leaders and media now cowering behind bothsidesism and electoral mediocrity (4:23) And it must be said by President Biden: that the attempted assassination of Nancy Pelosi was an attack on the government of the United States, inspired by the GOP, MAGA, and Trump. And Biden must also say: IT STOPS HERE.  (7:25) Democrats must also push back on the GOP filth who actually tried to dismiss this as a random break-in, like Ronna McDaniel, Glenn Youngkin, and the journalistic whores of Fox News, Newsmax, and others (11:53) And I want to have the conversation about POTUS' emergency powers - big and small (12:42) Because after a week in which Trump threatened to have reporters raped, thugs maced students, militia stalked ballot drop boxes, antisemitism and pro-Putin propaganda was rewarded, and now an assassination attempt - this country is under attack. Friday it was life and death for the Pelosis. Now, it is life and death for the rest of us. B-Block (17:38) FRIDAY'S SPECIAL COMMENT: 90 months for a 1/6 Insurrectionist and 1/6 Committee pursuit of Secret Service turncoats. But two years after the coup and not one insurrectionist politician, stochastic terrorist, or Trump is in jail (18:45) As the midterms loom we must act as if democracy is already lost and we are trying to fire up an electorate - and candidates - who might get it back (22:25) We are betrayed by two supposedly liberal institutions: the political infrastructure and the media, yet CBS, CNN, New York Times, others, are still hedging their bets, ready to protect their profits in case Full Fascism comes to this country (28:00) Instead of making a plain case: Republicans = Fascists, Democrats = Destroyers of Fascism, we are trying to hide under euphemisms and appeasement and fear. (33:40) We have nothing to fear but fear itself. But to paraphrase to FDR but my late friend Bill Hurt in "Body Heat," "Sometimes the fear comes down so heavy I feel like I should wear a hat." C-Block (36:47) FRIDAYS WITH JAMES THURBER: Dog lover Thurber’s lovable dog story about an unlovable dog that if you’re a dog lover, you’ll just love. It's "The Dog That Bit People."  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 64: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: 90 months for a 1/6 Insurrectionist and 1/6 Committee pursuit of Secret Service turncoats. But two years after the coup and not one insurrectionist politician, stochastic terrorist, or Trump is in jail (2:55) As the midterms loom we must act as if democracy is already lost and we are trying to fire up an electorate - and candidates - who might get it back (6:30) We are betrayed by two supposedly liberal institutions: the political infrastructure and the media, yet CBS, CNN, New York Times, others, are still hedging their bets, ready to protect their profits in case Full Fascism comes to this country (12:08) Instead of making a plain case: Republicans = Fascists, Democrats = Destroyers of Fascism, we are trying to hide under euphemisms and appeasement and fear. (17:47) We have nothing to fear but fear itself. But to paraphrase to FDR but my late friend Bill Hurt in "Body Heat," "Sometimes the fear comes down so heavy I feel like I should wear a hat." B-Block (21:51) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Yofiel, in the Bahamas (23:54) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Zeldin under unexpected investigation; Why does the Omaha PD need a tank?; New York Post hacked - nobody notices the difference; Lucianne Goldberg dies. Thoughts and prayers. (27:17) In sports: Britain's Foreign Secretary actually tells LGBTQ soccer fans to "flex and compromise" at the anti-gay Qatar World Cup, plus the World Series preview from a guy who may have checked out on the World Series after 55 years. (29:42) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel attacks Biden's stutter and Fetterman's stroke but sucked up to Trump's brain damage and insanity. She competes with Elon Musk and Tudor Dixon - who may be the dumbest person in America - for the honors. C-Block (34:30) FRIDAYS WITH JAMES THURBER: Dog lover Thurber’s lovable dog story about an unlovable dog that if you’re a dog lover, you’ll just love. It's "The Dog That Bit People."  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.