Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SERIES 2 EPISODE 52: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: It is nearly impossible to be shocked by anything bubbling up in Jack Smith's prosecutions of Donald Trump, and yet Smith has pulled it off. He has promised the court that during the trial of the United States vs. Trump for the stolen documents and secrets: "Why it occurred, what Trump knew, and what Trump intended in retaining them – all issues that the Government will prove at trial, primarily with unclassified evidence." It's a stunning guarantee, buried deep in Smith's filing, answering why Trump should to get his wish to delay the trial until after the election. And he tantalizes us: because nothing else in the motion even REFERS to it, let alone explains it. But it does dovetail with the latest grim details from Israel - and the awful echoes from Washington.Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, has now demanded that American aide to Ukraine be CUT OFF and sent instead to Israel, as if there were a reason for such a false either/or choice, and apparently unaware that people can see that his own performance and that of the rest of the Republican anti-Ukraine caucus is not in support of Israel but actually in support of Hamas and Iran. Twice in the last year the Kremlin invited Hamas to send delegations to Moscow and the terrorist group’s leadership met with Putin’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in September 2022 and this past March. There is considerable analysis being done in Europe that the Russians encouraged – even bribed – Hamas, to undertake the full-scale attack that began from the Gaza Strip on Saturday and continues even at this hour. The Russians, this analysis reasons, wanted this because they are Iran’s leading ally and because a Middle East conflict of almost any size would amount to a second front, in which Western resources being dedicated to fighting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, might be re-directed TO Israel. In other words, Josh Hawley is doing exactly what the Russians want: degrading western support for Ukraine on the false excuse that the money must go instead to defend Israel. THAT would just give Russia a freer hand in Ukraine, and more money and materiel, to send to Hamas, to DEFEAT Israel, as Iran wants. It MUST not be forgotten, especially not at this hour, that on May 10th, 2017, in the Oval Office, Trump disclosed classified intelligence – classified intelligence obtained by the Israelis – about an ISIS plot the Israelis unraveled in a town in Syria. Trump gave the information, directly, to Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The same man who twice met with the Hamas delegations in Moscow. PLUS: not only confirmation that Egypt warned Israel about an attack from Gaza, but a reason to suspect that somebody in the Netanyahu government has thrown the defense services under the bus to protect the troubled Prime Minister. B-Block (26:12) IN SPORTS: Steve Garvey? Running for Senator? The baseball hero whose political career died in 1988 when he became "The Father Of Our Country"? His old team underscores baseball's playoff crisis. Hockey dives further into homophobia. And one of that game's best ambassadors has to quit to attend to his own health. (39:07) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Has-been Aaron Rodgers says nasty things about Taylor Swift's boyfriend who they still pay to make commercials, there's a 1/6 defendant worried about "chest-feeding" and the Murdoch empire inadvertently reveals that if the Democrats were to switch candidates, there's one alternate choice with all the name recognition in the world. C-Block (45:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The words were spoken by the best Communications professor I ever had, 44 or 45 years ago. And every week since - and literally yesterday - it's been ignored. "Whatever you do: DON'T SAY THIS."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 51: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: It is the problem with all national intelligence. It is like an overnight electrical storm: it blindingly illuminates the horizon but only for a second. And you must concentrate entirely on decoding what it really shows you, and not how it fits into your preconceptions. And so, like Bush before 9/11, like Putin before Ukraine, like a series of American governments before Pearl Harbor, like Neville Chamberlain before the invasion of Poland, Benjamin Netanyahu didn't truly ignore the warnings of Egyptian Intelligence and his own security forces. He simply forced them into a template in which Gaza was stable if not ideal, and The West Bank was a pressure cooker ready to explode - and also the only thing that kept him in power. It was only useful to him if the threat was from The West Bank. It could only BE The West Bank.  The intel agencies will, as always, be blamed, and are already being blamed - because the politicians have the microphones. This was not a failure of intelligence. This was a failure of Benjamin Netanyahu. ALSO: Why do Rand Paul and Tommy Tuberville hate Israel? Trump identifies the real culprits: Forbes Magazine and the Forbes 400. And somebody TOLD YOU LAST WEDNESDAY that Kevin McCarthy would wind up being a candidate to be the next Speaker of the House and lookee here - that's exactly what's shaping up. B-Block (20:06) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: There's so many Gaza takes that the Medal Stand (Maximum Occupancy: 3) is SUPER-SIZED with six winners! Listen as Elon Musk, John Roberts, Martha McCallum, Ronna McDaniel, Nancy Mace - and even Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, squeeze onto the podium. C-Block (28:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: So it's thirteen years and a couple of Saturdays since I not only had to explain to my old classmates that the movie "A Christmas Story" in which Little Ralphie finally wigs out and beats the crap out of the bully was an almost punch-for-punch re-creation of our last day in the 4th Grade but that the bully had come up to me at the reunion and asked "Did we have a FIGHT in the 4th Grade?"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 50: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is for all intents and purposes a spy, who in April 2021 gave away nuclear submarine secrets to an Australian manufacturer of boxes, 'potentially endanger(ing) the U.S. fleet." The businessman promptly told at least 45 other people, including 11 of his own employees, 10 Australian officials, and THREE FORMER Australian Prime Ministers. We must do to Trump what we would do to any other trafficker in top secret information: arrest, detention without bail, prosecution for espionage. We know the name of the man Trump delivered defense information to, we know his nationality, we know when and where Trump delivered it to him, we know what the information delivered WAS, we know that Jack Smith’s investigators know about it and interviewed him at least twice, and we know WHO the man in turned SHARED the top secret information WITH, totaling at LEAST 45 other people including three of his home country’s prime ministers. TRUMP GAVE AWAY OUR NUCLEAR SUBMARINE SECRETS TO A GUY WHO MAKES CORRUGATED BOXES. It's ESPIONAGE. Donald Trump committed ESPIONAGE. He is not MERELY trying to burn down representative government in this country AGAIN but in his spare time over the last three years he has been committing ESPIONAGE and he is for all intents and purposes a foreign agent of at LEAST one other country, Australia, and when we FIND agents of other countries who trade in information about how many nuclear warheads can fit in one of our submarines or how close they can get to the Russians without the Russians finding out they are there. And the government, no matter the fallout, needs to arrest Donald Trump today, for espionage, for spying on behalf of a foreign nation, and keep him detained without bail. B-Block (22:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Get your popcorn. The Republicans are Cawthorning Matt Gaetz. Politico underscores what's wrong with American media. The GOP finally can claim it got a Biden out of the White House: Commander the dog. (27:03) IN SPORTS: Farewell to Dick Butkus. I knew him; he was smart, ethical, funny. As predicted here, the Mets' GM exits. And as predicted nowhere: The New York Post comes out in defense of Trevor Bauer. (31:54) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Fox's pro-Nikki Haley guest turns out to be her state co-chair. Target's claim to be closing stores because of shoplifting turns out to be fraudulent. And Sage Steele and Bill Maher participate in the worst interview I've ever seen. C-Block (40:35) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His epic of baseball and not-really-attempted murder: "The Catbird Seat."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 49: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has already violated Judge Arthur Engoron’s gag order and if Engoron actually WAS contemplating finding him in contempt and putting him in jail for 30 days he should damn well do it and do it NOW – and if he WASN’T, he ought to expand the gag order and specify that if Trump breaks it again, he WILL spend a month behind bars. Yesterday, he posted quote “the judge fraudulently reduced the value of Mar-a-Lago and other assets in order to make their fake case more viable.”During the lunch-break he said of Engoron “he’s a Democrat judge, he has no choice, he’s run by the Democrats” thus accusing the judge both of fraud and of political corruption. The gag order precludes Trump from public comments about “any members of my staff” and it is not twisting logic nor semantics too strongly to note that the judge COUNTS as a member of his own staff. So step five is the judge imposing the serious sanctions. By statute it would be contempt of court and under New York State Law article 19 section 751 contempt of court is punishable by – I regret to tell you CAPITAL PUNISHMENT does NOT apply under article 19 section 751 – it’s punishable by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both. At the discretion of the judge. And if Judge Engoron really wants to make the argument that he is not a member of his own staff he needs to broaden the gag order immediately. Because you, or I, or Hunter Biden, or Joe Biden, or Jesus Christ fresh off the court would have already amassed a thousand 30-day sentences for the kind of stuff Donald Trump has gotten away with, abusing and degrading and insulting and harassing and threatening and undermining and sabotaging and lying about the judicial system. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani's Georgia lawyers have bailed out on him. On the other hand he got the kind of publicity he craves. The New York Times has published 3,109 devastating words OVER Maggie Haberman’s byline and UNDER the headline “Giuliani’s Drinking, Long A Fraught Subject, Has Trump Prosecutors’ Attention.” The Times writes they quote “have shown an interest in the drinking habits of Mr. Giuliani… (they’ve) questioned witnesses about Mr. Giuliani’s alcohol consumption as he was advising Mr. Trump, including on election night… Mr. Smith’s investigators have also asked about Mr. Trump’s level of awareness of his lawyer’s drinking as they worked to overturn the election… The answers to those prompts could complicate any efforts by Mr. Trump’s team to lean on a so-called advice-of-counsel defense… if such guidance came from someone whom Mr. Trump knew to be compromised by alcohol, especially when many others told Mr. Trump definitively that he had lost, his argument could weaken… several people at the White House on election night (the evening when Mr. Giuliani urged Mr. Trump to declare victory despite the results) have said that the former mayor appeared to be drunk, slurring and carrying an odor of alcohol. ‘The Mayor was definitely intoxicated’ Jason Miller”… said. The Trump/Smith angle is fascinating. Because apparently you can’t use an advice-of-counsel defense if your counsel is so drunk he could be considered at risk for spontaneous combustion. B-Block (19:21) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Institute of Economic Affairs has figured out "the future of journalism." It's four Matthews and no women, according to them. Jonathan Turley isn't just flubbing the big stuff; he got Steve Martin's name wrong. And the Trojan horse "news" site "The Messenger" has partnered with an AI company to rank the most reliable news organizations. And you're right: Glenn Beck's "The Blaze" can be trusted. "The New York Times" cannot. C-Block (25:35) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Saturday will be the 48th anniversary of the first broadcast I ever did that had both sponsors and an audience. It was preceded by the elders of the Cornell University radio station sports department playing a trick on me that would be repeated four years later when I made my network debut. I can laugh now. Then? I had two out-of-body experiences. Happily the 1975 WVBR-FM broadcast still exists, so I've tacked it on to the end of this segment. And yes: I mispronounced my own name.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 48: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Kevin McCarthy is out and the ensuing chaos mainlines directly back to an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." House Republican Radicals caught that proverbial car they’ve been chasing and they had no idea what to do next and they look like idiots. The offing of Kevin McCarthy is actually notable only because a) it underscores the reality that the Republicans have bluster and the novelty of having opened the pandora’s box of fascism and political violence, but they don’t have any leaders, as evidenced by b) Kevin McCarthy saying on Face The Nation, two days before they garroted him, that he’d survive and they should bring it on and now THAT’S probably the worst political TV interview of our time leading to c) his epic news conference last night in which he compared Vladimir Putin to Hitler in the ‘30s and concluding with d) McCarthy’s only actual accomplishment – he lasted 270 days in the job, 12 more than the record holder for shortest speakership. But the REAL lead story did not happen in Washington yesterday. WHICH idiot Republican becomes the NEW Future Former Speaker of the House doesn’t much matter. Because the real lead story is summarized by the phrase AND NOW WE WAIT. Turns out that not only did Judge Arthur Engoron issue a gag order against Trump hours after Trump attacked the clerk of Engoron’s court room yesterday, but he issued a gag order against Trump less than a day after he WARNED Trump’s lawyers informally that their client needed to shut the eff up. Engoron – of whom they should be installing a statue outside his courtroom – provided a template for Judge Tonya Chutkan for a week from next Monday. Judge Engoron not only gagged Trump but HOW he gagged him ALSO gags Junior Trump and Eric Trump: “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I won’t tolerate it. Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff.” But this trial is ultimately MOST valuable because what we just saw was the if-then scenario play out. Engoron didn’t just issue a gag order because Trump attacked the clerk. He had WARNED HIM, via his lawyers, informally but clearly. And twelve hours later Trump did it anyway. Memo to Judge Chutkan: Get ready to issue a gag order, on penalty of revoking his bail, after that hearing October 16. And get ready to have to enforce it. B-Block (24:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Campbell Brown is out as news chief at Meta/Facebook so I have to tell you the story of how CNN's president was forced to hire her instead of me at 8 PM there (and they then all got fired), which in turn means I have to tell the story of how Brown's Meta colleague Anne Kornblut wound up being interviewed by the MSNBC anchor (Savannah Guthrie) her husband left her for. And then there's Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who apologized for referencing Nazis in the Republican Party. Why? There ARE Nazis in the Republican Party. We call them...Nazis. C-Block (33:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's baseball playoff time again, so it's time for me to tell you about the year I was in the middle of a riot in Fenway Park, and I overheard a Yankee swearing at his manager in the clubhouse, and I bought - and chose not to air - videotape of Roger Clemens nearly getting into a fistfight with a Yankee fan before Game 3 of the World Series.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 47: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Yeah, I get it: I want my MTV (Motion To Vacate). Gaetz is running for governor. It’s a STUNT. It doesn’t matter WHICH Russian Republican runs their spitshow. What MATTERS is: Jack Smith is goddamned serious about the Gag Order. And new polling shows that the NATION is serious about disqualifying Trump under the 14th Amendment: 51 percent in favor, only 34 percent opposed. Judge Chutkan will convene a hearing on October 16 – two weeks from yesterday – on the Jack Smith gag order request and Smith is even more damned serious about it than I dreamed. HIS late night answer to TRUMP’S late night answer pointed out that the newest threats he made – the post about the death penalty for treason for what Trump considered treason – weren’t directed at Milley but directed at OTHER potential witnesses who might want to avoid those kinds of THREATS let aloner anything else. More over, the Special Counsel’s office noted that it doesn’t REALLY matter whether Trump did or DIDN’T buy a Lugar at a white supremacist gun shop in South Carolina. A purchase would obviously be a violation of his bail and there’d be no way for Chutkan not to revoke it and not to put him behind bars until the trial starts. But the OTHER option was ALSO an abuse of the terms under which Chutkan did not end Trump’s freedom in the first place.“The defendant either purchased a gun in violation of the law and his conditions, or seeks to benefit from his supporters’ mistaken belief that he did so.” Even LYING about buying a gun is a way in which Trump has exploited the absence of a gag order to remind his cult – AND WITNESSES – that he is a man dedicated to violence and the fomenting OF violence. Also Trump inadvertently CONFESSED to January 6th, and at his fraud trial he reminded us that his only genuine emotions are about money, and losing it makes him angry and stupid. So anybody debating him needs to make him ANGRY ABOUT MONEY. Also Trump said he’d rather be electrocuted than eaten by sharks and to that I say: you’ve got a deal! B-Block (18:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Did you know Governor Sarah Huckabee of Arkansas is being buried by a scandal over a $19,000 Podium? George Santos has a Constitutional argument against the new California senator. Unfortunately it appears he made it up. And speaking of making it up, Fox's Rachel Compost-Doofy is shocked Gov. Newsom didn't appoint the woman SHE KNEW would be the next Senator (22:03) IN SPORTS: The passing of Tim Wakefield and the guilt of Curt Schilling. Baseball managers Buck Showalter and Phil Nevin were fired even if the teams won't say so. The baseball playoffs have next to no meaning for me, maybe because 45 years ago yesterday I attended - a reported - the greatest playoff game imaginable. K.O. reports from the Bucky F'ing Dent Game. C-Block (32:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: One of the managers offed as the baseball season ended was Buck Showalter, who 30 years ago provided one of my favorite sports anecdotes and later made fun of himself for it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 46: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:40) IT'S STEVIE DAY! If you heard Friday's regular episode of the podcast, you've heard all of this before but I wanted to emphasize this story because, well, because it IS Stevie Day. 11 years ago today, totally by happenstance, with no plan, no rhyme, and no reason, I instantaneously became a dog person. All because of a little Maltese who liked to give kisses (and still does) B-Block (16:37) IT'S STEVIE DAY - PART TWO: She has fought through everything: cancer, immune disease, mobility issues, and never stopped smiling, and never believing that any human meant her anything but good (and still does). And now I have four dogs and I truly was, eleven years ago today, born again in dogs :-) C-Block (31:12) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 45: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: "Join the ultimate strike against the globalist class," Trump shouted at his crowd in Michigan. And of course that is a double dogwhistle because to antisemites like Trump, "Globalist" means Jews, but also has a CLEAN meaning: dealing with the interconnections of the modern world, internationally. And he got away with “strike” there because he was nominally addressing the labor action by the United Auto Workers. Of course if you think he was telling his cult of thugs to take labor action against those dealing with the interconnections of the modern world, congratulations on awakening from your nine-year coma. Trump began to covertly attack Jewish people as soon as his presidential campaign began, he threatened globalists at the United Nations, this is nothing new. But the use of the term “ultimate strike” should set off any remaining alarm bells that have not been ringing continuously all this time. This is not a complicated calculation: if Trump determined that he could get elected by beginning a full-fledged attack on Jewish people, Jewish influence, he’d do it. When we speak of him as having the soul of a mass murderer, that’s what we mean. People do not have any actual VALUE to him. Re-enact the holocaust in whole or in part? To get re-elected? To stay out of jail? Of course he’d do that. And to any group you could name. If he became convinced that he could regain the White House by rounding up and killing all the… left-handed people, he’d do it. There is also more to the attack on the news media for "country-threatening treason." The former editor of The Washington Post confirms are worst fears. When Trump and Kushner demanded they meet to discuss how they could 'make it up' to Trump for reporting on Russia, the executives went as summoned, and negotiated. There is the danger in how the media has treated Trump and will treat him: it's all a negotiation for him, and it's all a negotiation for them. Speaking of which, Melania has reportedly re-done her pre-nup. Which Tee Box did she get in the new deal? And as House Republicans prepare to sack Kevin McCarthy and replace him with Tom Emmer, who best represented their hilarious 'Impeachment Inquiry' launch? Jonathan Turkey saying he didn't see any evidence worthy of an impeachment? Or Congressman Chuck Edwards, who couldn't pronounce any of the names or words in the sentence they gave him to read - particularly: "Oligarch." B-Block (25:22) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Stew Peters and guest demand execution of Taylor Swift and Travis Kielce for vaccine advocacy. Hey, Matt Gaetz? Why the long face? And Curt Schilling - Scumbag - reveals a former teammate is fighting cancer even though the former teammate wanted to keep it private. (30:42) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL, PART 1: Saturday is Stevie Day. You've heard this story before? Well here's your chance to hear it again. A boy and his first dog (ok, the boy was 53). C-Block (46:17) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL, PART 2: Stevie makes her cameo.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 44: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: THE NEW TRUMP FATWA. Trump has now threatened another judge. As usual, by inference, and with just enough space between him and the call for violence that he can deny it when it happens. It’s another Trump Fatwa and he personally is now issuing more of them – and more often – than is the government of Iran. So Tanya Chutkan’s coming decision – next week? The week after? - on the Jack Smith gag order looms even larger than before and bluntly she should skip the gag order and go directly to revoking his bail and putting him behind bars. Since last Friday he has tried to incite someone to kill the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and has accused the news media of “country-threatening treason” and promised to make its people “pay a very big price” for criticizing him. Since last month he has threatened the Special Counsel and the District Attorney of Fulton County Georgia and the District Attorney of Manhattan and the Attorney General of the State of New York and a woman he has sexually assaulted and an ex-president he doxed and everybody in the country who might fit under the phrase “If you go after me, I’m coming after you” and Judge Chutkan herself. Now it's Judge Arthur Engoron: “We need justice in our country! This political hack judge… must be stopped.” The only hack who must be stopped - by the law - is Trump. Chutkan has every right to do so, and she must. I now have slightly more hope after she slapped him around for 20 pages last night, rejecting a demand that she recuse herself because she had referenced him while sentencing other January 6 conspirators. She called his interpretation of her remarks quote “hypersensitive, cynical and suspicious” – yeah, that’s him pretty much.  And then there’s Trump’s accomplices: The news media. The New York Times makes a phenomenal journalistic failure that protects Trump, and while the Fascists have a giant pretend-news propaganda infrastructure bankrolled by billionaires, the sad truth is, the “Liberal Media”relies for its funding on: Commercials on Maddow's show, for Dr. Scholl’s Skin Tag Remover. Biden, Democrats, and democracy itself needs its rich people to spend to fight back against the Fox/Alex Jones/Joe Rogan machine with something promoting actual liberal-oriented news. And damned soon. B-Block (30:57) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Paul Ryan is nice enough to slam Kevin McCarthy AND Aaron Rodgers. The NFL is simultaneously trying to convince people it's not racist while also advertising adjacent to the posts by racist accounts on Twitter. And why has the Bidens' dog bit another Secret Service agent? One Fox idiot has the answer - he must've gotten into that cocaine they found at the White House. C-Block (36:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Apropos of the idea that the vast right wing conspiracy is mostly about controlling the narrative, let me re-tell the day 15 years ago when the Republicans told Tom Brokaw to either get me off MSNBC's coverage of the rest of the presidential campaign, or watch as their candidate refused to show up to the Presidential Debate Brokaw was to moderate. Brokaw not only did it, but he boasted about it in a New York Times article that's still online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 300! - COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Judge Tanya Sue Chutkan is about to become the most important person in the 2024 presidential campaign and maybe the most important person in the fight to prevent the sabotaging of democracy. Because if Judge Chutkan sides WITH Trump and AGAINST Jack Smith in the Gag Order case, she will be enabling Trump to claim that everything he does – every threat he makes, every conspiracy theory he stokes, every lie about Biden he proclaims – has been authorized by a Federal Judge and YOU cannot stop him and the LAW cannot stop him and the CONSTITUTION cannot stop him and THAT fresh hell will make the current one read like a quick dance in the spring rain. To read the full 25-page Trump Gag Order filing is an exercise by Trump to get the Judge – and thus the Courts – to sign off on every one of his anti-democracy rages and every call for assassination by proxy and to exonerate him on January 6th and to enshrine him as the REAL victim in this case. The Trump lawyers response filed late Monday night BURSTS with Trumpian claims of rights that do not exist, and precedents that do not authorize his dangerous rhetoric, and constitutional means to DESTROY the constitution that are not part of the American system of representative government. But if Judge Chutkan finds for Trump, he will immediately claim they are ALL in effect and he will exploit them and 482 days from now we will be living in an authoritarian state. Trump’s lawyers gave away the sub-plot in the first sentence. Literally. The answer to the Smith demand for a Gag Order begins: “President Trump respectfully submits this response in opposition to the prosecution’s motion to impose unconstitutional prior restraints." If Chutkan agrees with Trump, Trump will proceed and boast that his threat that kicked this all off – If you go after me, I’m coming after you – is constitutionally protected. He might as well put it on bumper stickers and MAGA hats. B-Block (20:15) IN SPORTS: In memory of Brooks Robinson, the greatest 3rd Baseman but a greater person (22:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: For the 20th consecutive year ex-pitcher Curt Schilling tells you who he really is. Benny Johnson lies about what Biden said and gets pounded - by the Right? And RFK Junior grabs and kisses yet another 3rd Rail: 9/11 Trutherism and Idiocy. C-Block (28:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: There is a Hall of Fame of people who have helped to ruin American journalism and I ran into one of the immortals the other day. His name is Andy Lack, he ran NBC News into the ground, and among other things he put Chuck Todd on Meet The Press and mainstreamed Megyn Kelly. Now you get to hear what a jackass he is.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.