Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SEASON 2 EPISODE 62: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump threatens the New York judge, while Jack Smith goes not for a stronger gag order but something closer to a Hannibal Lecter mask.  “This is judicial misconduct, coupled with prosecutorial misconduct, and somebody from the state of New York must step in and stop this complete and total miscarriage of justice,” unquote. BECAUSE Trump had earlier suggested that New York’s GOVERNOR should “get involved” and because he capitalized the word “State” in State of New York, he kept one foot in that shadowy region in which he’s lived that life and his attorneys could argue that he was NOT asking “somebody from the state of New York” to “step in and stop this” by attacking somebody like the judge or the district attorney. The rest of the filing shows that Trump IGNORED the New York Gag Order, IGNORED it again, was called to the witness stand to explain what he said, LIED ABOUT IT – PERJURED HIMSELF – and has proven to be unrestrainable even with the Gag Order as presently constituted. Jack Smith isn’t telling the Judge that Trump has violated her GAG ORDER. He is telling her that Trump has violated the ORIGINAL CONDITIONS under which she did NOT jail him until the trial starts. To resume the quote. “Accordingly, the court should modify the defendant’s conditions of release by making compliance with the Order a CONDITION or by clarifying that the existing condition barring communication with witnesses about the facts of the case, INCLUDES indirect messages made publicly on social media or in speeches.” Plus, Trump's faint grip on sanity seems to be slipping and the tell on that is: he has reverted to the genuinely unfathomable dog analogies that he fell into during the most stressful times of 2015-2016. When Trump starts claiming dogs get fired, he's about to lose it. And Speaker Mike Johnson, Day 2: For a man who spent twenty years advocating for sending gay people to prison for having sex, advocating for sending doctors to prison for providing family planning, advocating for a national abortion ban, advocating for fewer laws against guns, advocating for more laws against divorce, advocating for gutting of the entire societal safety net, advocating for disenfranchising minorities and entire states, advocating for using the constitution to destroy the constitution, advocating for the forced conflation of church and state, advocating for a conservative group that makes employees swear an oath to Jesus, advocating against transgenderism, advocating against men wearing women’s clothes, advocating against women wearing MEN’S clothes, advocating restrictions against Muslims, advocating against federal disaster relief, advocating for more oil and gas and against science that has proved we are all going to be KILLED by more oil and gas, advocating for that idiot Amy Coney Barrett since he met her in 1988, advocating for a limit of three terms in the House and then running for this one – his FOURTH, and advocating for the overthrow of the duly-elected government of the United States throughout the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. For a guy who has done nothing but comment on everything, all the time, and always wrong… so far… he sure has been Speaker of The House Mr. No Comment. B-Block (22:24) IN SPORTS: Oh boy. The World Series. The 7th best regular season team versus the 12th best. I have never been less interested. Here's a shock: after legal sports gambling websites become the primary sponsor of all North American sports league, a player is suspended for half a season for...using one. And the brilliant idea from England's Tottenham Hotspur: give each player in its team history their own "legacy number." (27:35) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: President Duda of Poland may be trying to Trump the last election. E-Bikers should be saving the planet; instead they're menacing New Yorkers. And I do not pretend this isn't a crass idea. I think we should name the mass shootings after the politicians and propagandists who have enabled them. So Lewiston, Maine, should be named after Speaker Johnson or Susan Collins or Sean Hannity. C-Block (35:45) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A story I have not previously read you, to which almost everyone can relate. How science and swimming almost kept him from graduating in "University Days."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 61: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: House Republicans have fully embraced Dementia J. Trump's tiny, ugly, Johnson. And even as Speaker Mike Johnson checks all the denialist nihilist boxes - he's homophobic, he wants to put abortion providers in prison, he wants to make gay sex illegal, he wants to spend taxpayer money on religious projects, he is so obscure that Senators Barrasso and Collins had no idea who he was - are the seeds already in price for his eventual dethroning? On January 6th, during the insurrection, on Fox News, Mike Johnson CRITICIZED DONALD TRUMP. One can only assume that nobody has played the clip for Trump or said "Are you aware, sir, that he blamed you for not doing more to stop things, SIR?" In the short term there is new reporting that Johnson was far more involved in the insurrection than originally known. He was the point man in the House's Amicus Brief to the Texas lawsuit to throw out the electoral results from Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Washington (a brief so controversial that other Republicans said Trump should preemptively pardon all the Congressmen who signed it). But now it turns out he briefed other Congressmen on January 5th on how to rationalize blocking the certification of Biden's victory on bullshit "constitutional" grounds.  Meanwhile: when will a judge in this country do the right thing and put Trump in jail the way he would put you or me in jail? During the lunch break at the civil fraud trial yesterday, Trump AGAIN attacked Judge Arthur Engoron's clerk. The judge merely assessed a $10,000 fine. If you're not going to have the balls to put him in prison, at least get his attention. The fine should be $1,500,000,000. See what he does about that. B-Block (19:43) IN SPORTS: Dusty Baker ends his baseball managerial career, while the only manager to commute with me on the New York Subway system shifts from San Diego to San Francisco. And Baseball's Hall of Fame announces ten nominees for its annual recognition of one great broadcaster and I've worked with three of them and four of them are good friends and good grief I'm old. (26:17) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Tommy Tuberville may have been thwarted by Senate Democrats. There's a Clarence Thomas money scandal (no, a DIFFERENT one), and here we go: Eric Adams says he was made mayor of New York City by God. Only this time it gets translated in real time into Spanish. C-Block (32:47) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: America lost something when the intricate, rehearsed, multi-person practical joke vanished. 41 years ago this month I was fortunate to play a minor role in the greatest practical joke I ever witnessed, when we at the NFL player strike negotiations convinced a reporter from The New York Times that he had just missed the biggest story of the year.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 60: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Five months ago today this podcast was titled “Did Mark Meadows Flip?” Now, ABC reports and Bloomberg and The Guardian report – Mark Meadows has flipped. How much he said and how willingly he said it is unclear, but there’s no doubt that he testified under oath and with immunity to Jack Smith’s Grand Jury and would do the same in the Election Subversion Trial of Donald Trump. What Meadows told prosecutors and grand jurors is damning. He never found any evidence of election corruption. He repeatedly told Trump that. He felt Trump was being “dishonest” when he claimed victory on election night. When the Supreme Court ruled against Trump on December 11, 2020, Trump told Meadows “something to the effect of ‘then that’s the end’ or ‘so that’s it.’ Yet a week later came Trump’s “Will be Wild” tweet, 22 days later came the phone call to Georgia, 26 days later came the insurrection. And what Meadows testified underscores that at each of these traitorous moments, Trump knew he was lying – the essence of Smith’s case.   There’s a run on the Plea Deal bank because Jenna Ellis became the third ex-Trump lawyer to flip in Georgia. She tearfully said if she’d known then what she knows now blah blah blah. Most of her testimony will sink Rudy Giuliani and as unlikely as this sounds, the next most logical candidate to flip is Giuliani himself. He’s out of money and Trump has abandoned him. MEANWHILE BACK AT TRUMP PLANTATION: House Republicans selected their third choice for Speaker, Tom Emmer. Trump vetoed him. The slaves threw Emmer overboard in just over four hours. Last night they selected their fourth choice, insurrectionist Mike Johnson, while Kevin McCarthy maneuvered behind the scenes to get back. Somewhere there must be six GOP members ready to retire rather than keep this lousy job, and who want revenge. They could dictate a name to the Democrats and between them get him elected and Trump could do NOTHING about it. Instead, pressed by a reporter about Johnson's role in the attempt to install Trump as dictator, the treason caucus shouted the questioner down. B-Block (19:23) IN SPORTS: Oh boy, just the dramatic World Series match-up we all wanted: the 4th best team in the American League (the Texas Rangers) versus the 6th best team in the National League (the Arizona Diamondbacks, who finished exactly three games over .500). This madness will be reflected in the ratings. Good news: NHL reversed its pride stick tape ban after a player used it anyway and dared Appeasement Commissioner Gary Bettman to do anything about it. (24:39) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The New York Post writer who thought she was bashing liberals over Sidney Powell but actually proved Jack Smith’s case; Kyrsten Sinema’s delusions of grandeur; and Ted Cruz – senator from Texas – does not know the name of the Texas team that is going to the World Series. Even though it’s FROM Texas and NAMED Texas. C-Block (30:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: A special request. Remember my hospice puppy Mishu? I’m now trying to help a Maltese girl, abandoned by a puppy mill and then hit by a car, with a broken leg and a broken pelvis, and named… MISHA. This one’s personal. The link is here: https://www.givinggrid.com/Hit-And-Run-Misha-Needs-Surgery/?ublast=407378 (32:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The “co-speaker” story reminded me of the “co-presidency” idea Gerald Ford pitched to Ronald Reagan in 1980. It fell through, but hours later the most talented newscaster I ever worked with, zonked out of his head, went on the air and read old copy that indicated it was a done deal. It helped to get him fired. He was a brilliant and tragic figure. Please meet Will Spens.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 59: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The cheese slid COMPLETELY off Trump’s cracker yesterday in Derry New Hampshire. The first time I ever posited in public that his brain doesn’t work right was in a piece and video I did for Vanity Fair in 2016 called Could Trump Pass A Sanity Test and I do NOT know what the next step DOWN is mentally or psychologically or intellectually from “no he could NOT pass a sanity test” but Trump has now reached it: one speech, five statements that in a previous century would have been examined as signs of possible tertiary syphilis. At Derry, New Hampshire he a) showed he believed he was the first person to ever realize the letters U and S could spell "us" AND "U.S;" b) revealed he didn't know why FDR "sat" while he spoke nor what the thing he sat in was called; c) confused Turkey's Erdogan and Hungary's Orban; d) claimed he was Nelson Mandela; and e) told his voters not to bother to vote. Trump is crazy. Those who opposed him shied away from this in 2016 and 2020. It needs to be mentioned hourly, because it's not only true and an existential danger - it's also perfect politics - the ideal answer to the slanders about Biden's age and acuity.  Also: Judge Michael Luttig is back with another Constitutional answer to a Trump lie. If you don't know about the Presidential Vesting Clause in Article 2, it's why Trump does NOT have "absolute immunity" for trying to overturn an election while president. Luttig and 23 other former Republican officeholders filed a brief with the court saying this was a threat to the integrity of all future elections. Trump continues to dare a judge to jail him for violating his various gag orders; he's caught in a bald-faced lie about whether or not Sidney Powell ever worked for him; the essence of the Jack Smith case against him is proved by Kenneth Chesebro taking a plea deal; and is the Republican Civil War over the Speaker of the House (now extended to Trump pretending he's not trying to sabotage Tom Emmer) enough to send five Republicans to form their own third party and get one of their group elected by the Democrats as the new Speaker? Is the GOP about to re-enact what destroyed the Whig Party in 1852? B-Block (24:04) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Have you ever heard of the poll that indicated a third of all Trump supporters favor building a wall along the Atlantic Ocean to keep Muslims out? (32:27) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Tom Cruise's agent discovers what "genocide" actually means. A Stanford neurobiologist concludes there is no free will. A Jim Jordan colleague says the naysayers got all those death threats because they deserved them. And why, yes that WAS a picture of Hitler on Michigan State's football stadium scoreboard. Why do you ask? C-Block (38:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The anniversary was Sunday, and the story continues to unfold 23 years later. The night in the 2000 World Series when Mike Piazza's bat shattered and Roger Clemens picked up the barrel and threw it near (or at, if you were a Mets fan) Piazza. And I thought Clemens was throwing it at me. And then Piazza announced he was suing me. And then it turned out he'd threatened others. It's an amazing saga within a saga.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 58: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Sidney Powell has flipped on Trump in Georgia. And if she's flipped on Trump in Georgia, she has to have either flipped on him in Jack Smith's DC case, or is about to. Because otherwise anything she says on the stand in Atlanta could be used against her in federal court. And she may be, to quote Elmer Fudd, a scwewy wabbit, but she ain't going to Alcatwaz. GOP's record 3793rd House Speaker vote, short version? Election denier denies election, loses by 22, convinces none of them to vote for him, decides to try it again anyway, is a f***ing idiot. It's so bad Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace have made inadvertent sex jokes about it. GAZA LATEST: Joe Biden's speech is so unequivocal and strong it was praised by a Fox News stalwart. AND the Gaza Hospital Scam gets scammier: US Intel says the death toll is 100-300, but a European intel source tells Agence France Presse that THAT'S high and it could be as low as a dozen fatalities. Amazingly, some people will look at this as bad news. B-Block (29:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska, CNN trying to get a Republican debate, Iowa City banning books - but not enough. C-Block (30:29) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Hey, Flip My Kraken! To honor the Trump news, James Thurber's epic profile of Trump even though it was written 15 years before Trump was born: The Greatest Man In The World.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 57: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Who could have guessed this? Republican Congressmen and Congresswomen are only in favor of threats when the threats are NOT made against themselves! Imagine being SUCH a schmuck that all the other people in the schmuck PARTY not only hate you and are trying to defeat you, but they have coordinated their hatred so that the votes against you keep GROWING and you get MORE humiliated each time you step out there. Imagine that’s YOU. That would make YOU…Jim Jordan! Hi, Schmuck! Now it's 22 Republicans vote against him, and at least SEVEN claim Jordan is responsible for doxxing and intimidation and in at least one case, death threats. So they are reportedly co-ordinating their no votes. So he gets LESS support on each vote. And he still plans on conducting a third vote. I’ll explain who the fictional Senator Fred Van Ackerman was, which movie he was in, and why Jim Jordan is one plot twist away from becoming him and getting Van Ackerman's choice: resign, or stay around as a mute lame duck. Because it turns out the Republicans hate Jordan even more than WE DO. I’ll also explain how the Gaza Hospital scam didn’t even last 24 hours. Because if it starts with “THEY BOMBED THE HOSPITAL” but it proves they actually “BOMBED THE PARKING LOT," all the other claims become exponentially LESS believable. And that leads us to genius of Joe Biden for going to Israel and throwing this country’s weight behind the truth. And how that dovetails into the story of what the newspapermen were writing 40 years ago today, about the president who was too old to run again and might not run and was facing an unbeatable opponent. And that president wound up winning the electoral college by 525 votes to 13. B-Block (23:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: GOP Congressman Mike Collins pretends GOP isn't imploding by saying Hakeem Jeffries lost too. And Marjorie Taylor Barney Rubble Greene makes that rare double appearance in the list: winning for attacking "insurrectionists" at the Capitol whose text messages were about hot dog stands. C-Block (29:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It wasn't THAT traumatic. It was just the most venerable disc jockey in New York radio coming into the newsroom and screaming that he would get me - the 21-year old back-up sportscaster - fired that day, and then an hour later, the same disc jockey coming back into the newsroom and screaming that he would get me a multi-year contract to become a regular on his show.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 56: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump may have a new problem in his civil fraud trial in New York. As the folks at Meidas Touch sleuthed, he has re-posted a piece by the loathsome Laura Loomer that appears to give an address for New York State Attorney General Letitia James. This isn't specifically covered under the gag order imposed against Trump by Judge Arthur Engoron, but it underscores the point that it should be. And it further underscores that both Judge Engoron and Judge Tanya Chutkan should try to expand their gag orders to include any such threats or stochastic invasions of the lives of the primary figures in ALL the legal cases against Trump. His only skill is finding where the line is, and how it moves. The judiciary needs to be proactive against him, not meek. And unfortunately Judge Chutkan's written version of HER gag order is devoid of any reference to which sanctions she'll impose when Trump finally violates it. There is, naturally, a connection to the lies and the world of delusion of Trump and his supporters, and the nightmare at the Gaza City hospital yesterday. Technology will probably - sooner or later - tell us whether Israel or Hamas did this, and then lied about it and successfully blamed the other. It may even tell us about the small chance the location of the carnage might have been inadvertent. But what this horror really tells us is where the Trump Lies lead and end, and how we must fight them because the imaginary world requires absolute fealty and ultimately the willingness to kill rather than admit you are wrong. You know it's been a bad day when Jim Jordan's wipeout in the Speaker voice, and what Elise Stefanik said about him that she THOUGHT would help, turns out to be the humorous relief. B-Block (22:12) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Who could have seen this coming? Britain's Conservatives expel member accused of sexual harassment and exposure. His name is Peter Bone. The Washington Post does a Jim Jordan profile without mentioning January 6th or the subpoena he skipped. And a professor at my alma mater says something so inhuman and stupid about the Middle East that supporters of BOTH Israel and Hamas should be offended - and he should be fired. C-Block (27:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It was the first item I checked on my bucket list. I was 10. The day I saw my first World Series game turns out to probably have been the day baseball's dominant role in American culture peaked. Plus: it was Vietnam Moratorium Day.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 55: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trust me: I think the Trump Gag Order is an extraordinary and terrific thing and I've invested all my money in popcorn futures. But the real headline coming out of Judge Tanya Chutkan's courtroom is her vow not to alter the start date of the Subversion Trial: March 4, 2024. This means it doesn't get postponed beyond the election and it also SEEMS as if she is taking the idea of starting it early as a punishment for WHEN Trump violates the gag order off the table. If that's the case - and she's promised a full written statement detailing the "sanctions" if he doesn't seal his lips closed with epoxy - then there are few options for her. She can fine him, or jail him. And even if she goes for the first one he'll eventually do it so many times she'll have no choice but to go to the second one. REVOKE. HIS. BAIL. Trump already began testing the boundaries, and trying to see if he can get his Renfields to carry his water for him. And there were many tea leaves from the hearing to read - and all of them look bad for your favorite traitor. Plus I have some stuff on the Jordan Speaker vote and Israel-Hamas. But the story that actually stuns me was one I thought I saw coming. As predicted here, the other shoe after NBC going soft on Trump on The Meet The Press interview has fallen: NBC gets the 3rd Republican Presidential debate. But they have debate "partners" including the appalling Rumble (Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate claim homes there) and Salem Radio (Charlie Kirk, Dinesh D'Souza, Jenna Ellis, Hugh Hewitt). Hewitt may be a co-moderator. Where are NBC's liberals here? When is enough enough? How much money is enough for my old protege to say "I refuse to be associated with any of this. Drop it or I'm out." I took a stance like that and I sleep well every night because of it. Rachel Maddow's voice still matters here and she's not using it. Assuming it's still - at $31,000,000 per annum - HER voice. B-Block (24:24) IN SPORTS: Marlins prove sexism still flourishes in baseball by humiliating successful General Manager. The worst National Anthem you've ever heard. (30:09) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: PBS correspondent is genuinely startled Democratic house members correctly call Jim Jordan an "insurrectionist" (wait'll she hears about the gymnasts). Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA gets whacked at ASU. Lauren Boebert barely knew the man she made sweet music with at "Beetlejuice" - except her campaign spent $300 at his bar. C-Block (36:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: That hockey anthem gave me a flashback to the day I was at Madison Square Garden and they directed our attention to the big screen on the scoreboard where NBC's Brian Williams promptly destroyed his own career.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 54: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The day after he attacked Israel and mocked its Prime Minister and praised Hezbollah, Trump was astonishingly quiet, and even his self-praising press release was composed in the past tense and lacked the usual arrogance. Something is wrong in Trumpland. And here's a shock: Trump's minions are going to need ANOTHER new Speaker of the House and right now there's nobody within 100 votes of the minimum number of votes needed for election! Just 18 days after I asked why he hadn't been indicted as an agent of Egypt, Senator Menendez...is. Now I ask: why is he out on bail? Ron DeSantis comes out of unintentional retirement to pull a really transparent stunt on Israel, and Tommy Tuberville shoots himself in the foot on the same topic. And something does not add up on the Mary Lou Retton story. So sick she can't breathe? No insurance? Daughter starts a GoFundMe? And last year the tiny Republican had a house worth $2,000,000? B-Block (19:17) IN SPORTS: New ESPN host reveals he's paid Aaron Rodgers millions for "interviews" and why this means all TV Sports "News" programs are now mortally and irreversibly wounded. A large part of the field beclowns itself over the issue of whether a minor taunt a Braves' player made about a Phillies' player in a clubhouse full of reporters was somehow 'off the record' and an instance from my own career when it really WAS. And Sunday it'll be 35 years since I matter-of-factly predicted the Kirk Gibson World Series home run that everybody else still seems to think was impossible. And the witness to my prediction makes a cameo! C-Block (38:20) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Only Thurber could merge the laziness of a sticky summer at his Connecticut place with the absolute conviction that his "hired man" trafficks with The Devil: "The Black Magic of Barney Haller."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 53: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Well, could YOU choose between Rep. Beelzebub or Rep. Lucifer? Jordan and Scalise both eminently define different kind of evils of the Republican Party. But the knives are out and they're steak knives: Jordan's allies are trying to sink Scalise by revealing his campaign has spent half a million dollars at DC's Capital Grille since 2011 (unfortunately that amounts to a nightly purchase of just two Filet Mignons, a side of spinach for the table, and no tip). While Trump's lawyers file their latest delay against Jack Smith by claiming there are "missing documents" from he January 6th Committee, and his Colorado lawyers explain Trump isn't subject to the 14th Amendment because the president doesn't have to "support" the Constitution, Trump goes off the deep end on Israel. He claims that Israel was attacked because of the 2020 election "rigging," keeps repeating "Barack Hussein Obama," and attacks Prime Minister Netanyahu claiming Israel was neither smart nor tough. The cheese whiz is slipping off the cracker - again. B-Block (20:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The internet is not kind to Tommy Tuberville: never joke about POTUS falling down if there's video of YOU falling down. Clouds begin to gather around Gary Bettman after he caves to the homophobes and Russians. And there's a shooting war between Israel and Hamas so what's exactly the right thing for a Charlie Kirk Turning Point USA "ambassador" to do? Compare "zionism to communism." C-Block (29:43) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I missed the anniversary, but to be fair - so did ESPN. 30 years ago on the 1st of this month we debuted ESPN2. Nobody noticed this month. EVERYBODY noticed then. We were voted the 7th worst thing in sports for 1993!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.