Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SEASON 2 EPISODE 112: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Yes. I think that's the lead story. And I don't even LIKE Jon Stewart. But it's time to recognize that we are at war. It is, for now at least, a war being conducted almost entirely inside the media world, and here's a prayer that it stays contained within those walls. But if it is, the forces of democracy need all the fighters we can find. And Stewart - who has been mad at me since 2003 and once accused me of "stealing his act" - going back to host The Daily Show at least once a week and be the Executive Producer all the other days, at least through the election, is welcomed news. For that matter, I hope it inspires Maddow - who has been mad at me since 2011 - to be on the air more often at MSNBC. Meanwhile, I have had absolutely enough of "5 Takeaways From The New Hampshire Primary." Not only is the premise hackneyed, but The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, CNN, The Hill, and Agence France Presse all used EXACTLY THAT TITLE for their versions. And all of them left out the real takeaways: Trump needed to pretend to be a human being and instead lashed out in a rage against Nikki Haley that is now continuing into a third day and last night extended to Trump threatening to "ban" from MAGA anybody who contributes to her campaign (sure - he won't take somebody else's money; his least convincing lie yet). His fuse is completely gone. He also has now claimed he defeated the sitting governor of Iowa, I guess in the primary there, and near as I can find no sitting governor of Iowa has sought the Republican presidential nomination since 1912 so maybe whatever he has, has just moved into the tertiary stage. Plus: CNN's shame. Its 10 PM the anchor - the one it preempts once a week to instead run Charles Barkley - condescendingly parroted the right wing talking point that nobody in America wants Joe Biden. She should be fired, but given her ratings, they can do something worse to her: force her to continue doing her show. B-Block (25:04) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Frank Farian, the evil genius behind "Milli Vanilli," is dead. Until I read his obituary, I had NO idea that the scam came apart when a record skipped... in BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT. NewsNation is not satisfied with you not watching it on TV. Now it wants you to also not listen to it on radio. And the Maryland State Senate - led by Democrats - is trying to explain how the new member of the State Board of Elections just got arrested as a January 6th Insurrectionist. C-Block (32:11) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: With the Abby Phillip Right Wing Talking Point and CNN's continuing lurch rightwards - even under new post-Lichtian management - I think it's time to remind you that ALL the cable news networks have already had THE meeting and tried THE lurch to the right. At MSNBC it was 20 years ago and it was highlighted by the attempt to mainstream a homophobic racist named Michael Savage, and how the President of NBC was enraged when Savage crossed the line and had to be fired.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 111: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has never been truer to himself than after his solid but unspectacular victory over Nikki Haley in New Hampshire last night. His toadies like Marjorie Taylor Greene were whining within 10 minutes of the closing of the polls that the tally had been rigged against him. And he overshadowed his own victory by getting up and sweating through an angry, petty, vindictive "victory" speech in which he once again resorted to stochastic threats against Haley, this time promising he could reveal enough about her to get her investigated by "them." President Biden, meanwhile, won a non-primary primary in which he wasn't even on the Beauty Pageant Ballot, and he still got about 67% of the votes. And new polling in Pennsylvania - showing him up +8 over Trump there - was probably yesterday's REAL biggest presidential race story. Meanwhile it's Day 9 of Trump's Dementia Crisis. Not only are other Republicans noticing he's making less sense and seeming less present every day, but Trump is now blithering his way through teleprompter speeches and making sound effects on camera - all of which can be neatly folded into Biden Campaign Commercials. And while Jamie Combover's impeachment theater may be coming to the end of its run, there's a sudden revival of the Matt Gaetz Ethics Investigation in Congress. Plus why the President needs to federalize the Texas National Guard and arrest Governor Greg Abbott - today. B-Block (21:00) IN SPORTS: Baseball's Hall of Fame elects new members - one too few, or two too many? Beltre was a lock but I have deep doubts about Helton and Mauer. And look out, another MLB team will be forced to wear those horrific City Connect Uniforms. (25:57) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: How do the Oscars folks do this every year? You nominate Ken but not Barbie? You nominate Barbie for best picture but not its director? This is a tradition that dates back to "How Green Was My Valley" winning best picture in 1941 instead of say, Citizen Kane or The Maltese Falcon. One weird trick that connects Lenin and Benny Hill. And farewell to the greatest radio newscaster of all-time, Charles Osgood. (35:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Eric Adams plays Musical Chairs with actual chairs. Oklahoma's immoral School Superintendent gives a job to the immoral LibsOfTikTok witch. And Tiffany Cross finally breaks her silence on who knifed her in the back at MSNBC. The answer? Joey Scars himself. Joe Scarborough. C-BLOCK (43:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since we're already in Trash-MSNBC-Mode, let me tell you again of the story of how Lawrence O'Donnell, kindly filling in for me in 2010 while my Dad was dying, used the opportunity to try to get me fired, or try to get all my producers to leave with him for his new show. Scarborough is always the worst - but O'Donnell is close.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this podcast, Keith Olbermann discusses the Trump Dementia Crisis, focusing on Trump's mental stability and his conflation of Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi. The episode also touches on Ron DeSantis suspending his campaign, Trump's performance in Iowa, and the aftermath of the Capitol riots. Other topics include therapy benefits, Trump's manipulation of the media, and Elle King's controversial performance. The narrator also shares funny winter sports memories and introduces the Bridge Access program for free access to updated COVID-19 vaccines.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 109: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Acting on his behalf, Trump's attorneys enlarged on his threat of ten days ago and told the Supreme Court that if it did not do what he wants it to do, "chaos and bedlam" would ensue throughout the country. It's stochastic terrorism. Again. Always. Enough. Right or wrong, more than twenty years ago the government of this country utilized a process to detain those who made terroristic plans or threats against the nation. It involved an off-mainland site called Gitmo. And there were additional "black sites" around the world for use for when there were the added complications of American citizenship involved. It's time to send Trump there. I'd rather deal with the consequences of Trump at Gitmo than with him continuing to threaten this nation, or, worse yet, seizing power and ending all representative government here. Ironically this newest threat occurred less than a day after Trump made two unexpected (and, probably, unknowing) admissions. While he wants there to BE "presidential immunity" (that's what the terror threat against the Supreme Court was about) he acknowledged it doesn't currently exist. He also confessed that he had made "mistakes" as president and compared himself to a "rogue cop." B-BLOCK (21:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Nikki Haley blows off "No Labels." And she might still be alive in the Trump ticket VP race. (25:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Since when does "fist" work in the weather forecast? Larry Elder says The Deep State is suppressing his Twitter follower count. And Tucker Carlson accuses the Trump Government of planting the January 5/6 pipe bombs and I'm just guessing but I don't think he meant to. C-BLOCK (31:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Even in 1937 America was dumbing down. Thurber's bitterly hilarious story of a woman who hated the Shakespeare she had to read because it didn't conform to the rules of paperback fiction: "The MacBeth Murder Mystery."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 108: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: ONE of these days ONE of these judges will have to take the bullshit by the horns and jail Trump overnight for contempt of court. He made a mockery of all the laws of the nation again yesterday in New York and must be punished. Clearly somebody or something has punished him for something. Three or four red marks have suddenly sprouted on his right hand. James Carville thinks they're evidence of the secondary stage of syphilis. I think they're more consistent with an old man slipping on ice and grabbing something to try to stop himself from face-planting. But I'm sure Trump will claim they're stigmata. America's constipated political pundits have finally figured out that the interior numbers from Iowa confirm he didn't crush ANYTHING there; in fact only 8% of Iowa's Republicans voted for him! Oh and Nikki Haley is up to 38% in New Hampshire. Trump might not be the only one disqualified under the 14th Amendment. Representative Dan Goldman has moved to censure Representative Elise "Hostages" Stefanik B-Block (21:15) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The fascists are going to get another win out of the Supreme Court. Marjorie Taylor Greene sets herself up for another dick-pic joke. (25:23) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Argentina's New President - the guy in the Wolverine costume - blames the world's ills on feminism. The Babylon Bee's best bit of satire is its belief that it's funny. Ben Carson says why not concentration camps? The migrants have to have a place to stay! C-Block (30:35) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Beaten puppy Sweet Cheeks needs our help in North Carolina. (32:05) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Trump's rage against MSNBC for not worshiping him enough is actually not something new. The Republicans think they can get away with bullying MSNBC because they succeeded at it as long ago as 2008 - with me - and with the help of Tom Brokaw.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 107: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump did NOT crush DeSantis and Haley in Iowa. The "takeaway" is not that he crushed DeSantis and Haley in Iowa. The "takeaway" is he beat the field by only 2,222 votes. And the reality is Trump got a total of 56,260 votes and that’s about half the size of this podcast’s daily audience. And Trump only got 51 percent OF the votes in Iowa and if President Biden only got 51 percent in a primary they would cancel everything on television for the next 26 days and cover nothing BUT Biden only getting 51 percent in a primary, right up until kickoff on Super Bowl Sunday 26 days from now. “Biden Crisis Day 26. We pause now for football. Here’s the anthem. Join Wolf Blitzer, Tucker Carlson, David Axelrod, and Usher at halftime for a preview of Biden Crisis Day 27.” It's madness. Political media in this country has been in freefall since the 1990’s – hell, I succeeded in it, no experience necessary – but it is hard to believe it has ever been worse, even more a victim of band-wagoning, even more a john overflowing unto eternity, each reporter abandoning reality and objectivity to prove that THEIR take was right or that their NEXT take is FIRST or that THEY can stuff more undeserved accolades into a sentence than anybody else. It’s not that they are obsessed with the horserace – the horserace coverage is FINE. But when it’s a pack of miniature ponies struggling to make it around a ten-foot track, SAY THAT, don’t call them Secretariat and Man’o’War. Other REAL "takeaways" include Trump rolling out the new 2024 Con: his God Con, and Nikki Haley being utterly full of crap. And DeSantis realizing only too late that his path to victory was to turn on Trump and beat him senseless. Oh and Trump is deteriorating faster than ever before. If you mistake Biden for Obama, that's one thing. If you think the thing you rode down before you launched your campaign is an ESCALADE instead of an ESCALATOR... consult your physician! B-Block (21:26) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Gosh, where will Margie Green get her porn? House GOP may have dropped the Hunter Biden contempt plan. Knicks-Rangers owner James Dolan sued, accused of trafficking a woman to Harvey Weinstein. (23:46) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is so used to lying to its own morons it forgets the rest of the world needs to be slightly convinced. "Dudesy" steals George Carlin's jokes and calls it "A.I." Nate Cohn of The New York Times with a hiccup over "Hick-Up." C-Block (30:05) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Our 701-day snowless streak in Fun City is over and it got cold and clammy and as always I flashed back to the day my great doctor Ed Ceccolini gave me meds I wasn't ready for and the next thing I knew my face was stuck to the window of a commuter train in Grand Central because my drool had frozen onto it!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 106: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The obvious headline from Iowa last night: Trump romped, around 50%, with the reminder that if it were Biden only getting 50% in the first primary the Democrats would be considered dead in the water. The real headline from Iowa: Trump mused, in that skillfully ambitious way of his, about being in charge for "four years and beyond" and he can deny he meant refusing to leave office in 2029 but of course all he's TALKED about since 2017 was how he deserved more than two terms or more than eight years or more than the constitution allows. And the NEXT headline out of Iowa is the missing ingredient in the implausibly tight race between a psychotic dictator with dementia and a gifted dedicated president: the report that internal Biden research and polling says three out of four undecided voters really DON'T believe Trump will be the nominee and will have an "oh shit" moment. Plus: Marjorie Barney Rubble Greene thinks President Biden can communicate with the dead by phone. B-Block (26:08) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Rep. Barry "Your Tour Guide" Loudermilk makes a huge mistake. He wants to investigate Cassidy Hutchinson. And the Baltimore Sun is sold to a fascist and a one-time columnist who took a quarter of million in bribes from the Bush Administration. (30:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: When the NFL playoff game in Buffalo was postponed by snow, the Outkick The Coverage idiot whined that they didn't postpone D-Day because of bad weather - except of course they did. Plus Billo is back in the list. And Laura Loomer underscores the fundamental stupidity of the right. They don't believe in man-made climate change but they DO believe that Biden has a machine to manipulate the weather. C-Block (37:05) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A silly story about ESPN fudging nomination lists for the Emmy Awards (Erin Andrews became "Erik Andrews," etc., to allow ineligible talent to get trophies) ignores the real problem: the hosts of Emmy winning shows were ineligible to GET Emmys because the producers who ran the Emmys thought the talent had enough good stuff as it was. It flashed me back to a memorable conversation with Gil Stratton, an actor and sportscaster who insisted that every producer and executive he ever met was a bigger prima donna than an old colleague of his named Judy Garland.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 105: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) It is hard to believe that a year after he vanished like a bad dream, ex-Congressman/Hitler Fanboy/Weirdo Madison Cawthorn might emerge not just as a truth-teller but as THE truth-teller. He was the one who insisted Washington was a den of drug-fueled orgies and war-on-drug leaders doing bumps of coke in front of him. Did you WATCH the Hunter Biden hearing? Did you WATCH the Trump Town Hall on Fox? Did anything any Republican say make sense to you? Because not only is the answer "no" but the more frightening reality is that everything Trump said, and everything James Comer said, and Nancy Mace, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and all the other Republicans, made perfect sense to THEM. And what kind of thing causes you to mistakenly believe that your hallucinations seem perfectly normal to everybody else? And just to add in Cawthorn's other charge - it wasn't just drugs it was atypical sex. Greene showing more pornographic pictures of Hunter Biden? Nancy Mace referring to his balls? Is THIS the explanation of the behavior of... ALL REPUBLICANS? GOOD GOD WE NEED TO HEAR MORE FROM MADISON CAWTHORN. B-Block (15:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: No more itinerant laborers because of the animus towards migrants? This Indiana state rep has the solution: let kids quit school to go work in the fields at 14. And to help them not miss it, this Florida county has banned the dictionary. And to show you what you can become when you stop learning after the 8th Grade, there's Aaron Rodgers, who actually got himself fired by ESPN yesterday. C-Block (23:00) Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due and an explanation for today's comparative brevity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 104: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) Trump made another threat of political violence and terrorism and once again escaped being treated like any other terrorist or criminal trying to blackmail the nation by promising mass death and destruction if he doesn't get his way. After attending the appeals court hearing on his "presidential immunity" nonsense, Trump said if the prosecution of him continued "It'll be bedlam in the country." But he hasn't engaged in insurrection. Not since Noon Eastern yesterday. Meanwhile his attorney, Judge Luttig's former law clerk, insisted that no, if he hadn't been impeached and removed from office, Trump could not be prosecuted for ordering Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival.  But he's not saying HE would CAUSE the bedlam. Besides the background drumbeat of Trumpist political violence, the point of the "presidential immunity" action is to stall. And the Just Security website has game-planned when this Jack Smith prosecution is likely to end. Two of the answers end within plenty of time, the third begins to brush up against an old favorite: the DOJ tradition of not acting within 60 days of an election. And speaking of oldies but goodies, Trump reverts to birtherism. This time his victim is Nikki Haley. And his own mother.  And just for laughs, it was in an 1814 book of witticisms that our ancestors first read "Every man who is his own lawyer, has a fool for a client." So guess who intends to deliver some of the closing arguments in his Business Fraud Trial case in New York tomorrow? Our resident Fool. B-Block (17:48) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: I knew there was a reason not to say anything about the "disappearance" of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin: his "minor medical procedure" was surgery for prostate cancer. And the ESPN/Big Sleeveless Pat/Aaron Rodgers/Jimmy Kimmel disaster escalates: Rodgers denies he implied anything about Kimmel, uses ESPN as a platform to spread vaccine disinformation, and attacks an ESPN VP who had been protecting his buddy's show. Like ESPN's Rush Limbaugh disaster 20 years ago, this will end in tears. (25:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORD: political and journalistic accounts mysteriously disappear on Ketamine Musk's site. Judge Judy makes a presidential endorsement. And Lou Dobbs, Tulsi Gabbard, Don Lemon and Jim Rome are too desperate to just stand in front of a mirror and do their new shows to an audience that cares. C-Block (31:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since it's ESPN time, why not tell again the events of 32 years ago this month when I met the wonderful actress Elizabeth Montgomery on a flight, we became great friends, and she... helped me to launch the ESPN Radio Network?    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 103: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44): In the course of two speeches and four days President Joe Biden has found the word that not only perfectly describes Trump, that not only can be hung around him like a giant gold-outlined neon sign, that not only can humiliate him and stick to him forever, but that the rest of us have been waiting for SOMEBODY to say: "He's a loser." Loser = Trump Trump = Loser Loser J. Trump! The long weekend in which the prospects for retaining both Biden and democracy turned on a dime and Biden found his voice. He's the average American fed up with Trump's psychosis and violence and lies and racism and juvenile haircut and narcissism and stupidity and malevolence. And the anger is pitch-perfect. PLUS: Yesterday Trump overtly implied that if he regains power he will indict a former president of the United States. Today he was to attend the D-C Federal Appeals Court hearing at which he and his lawyers were to argue that you CANNOT indict a former president of the United States. Of all the legal updates the most interesting perhaps is the possibility that Trump digital guru Dan Scavino is cooperating with Jack Smith. Plus, no, Kristen Welker didn't fail to do her job with the Eva Braun of upstate New York. Her inertia when Stefanik called the January 6 insurrectionists "hostages" was what NBC was paying her to do. B-Block (24:44) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Wall Street Journal blockbuster about Elon Musk and drugs; Mehdi Hasan completely out at MSNBC, stars still silent (30:15) IN SPORTS: Latest on ESPN/Rodgers/McAfee/Kimmel/Williamson. In memory of Franz Beckenbauer (35:10) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Nikki Haley had a black friend, Kristina Karamo ousted in Michigan; Lauren Boebert can't keep a grip on herself in public despute with ex-hubby C-Block (40:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since the ESPN Pat McAfee/Jimmy Kimmel story includes accusations that ESPN leaked ratings to make McAfee look bad, I've got a story about MSNBC doing that to me at Current-TV - except the ratings were wrong.They were HIGHER than the ones we HAD at Current-TV!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.