Countdown with Keith Olbermann

EPISODE 165: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) The gun cult of this country, led by Fox News and the right wing media hatred factory, has metaphorically shat on the dead children of Nashville. They are trying - at this moment - to use their poor, destroyed bodies, as a rationalization for the purging of the LGBTQ community AND its allies on the fallacious pretext that, as the filth Tucker Carlson said, "The Trans movement is targeting Christians." Simultaneously these sadists are using the murder of these nine-year olds as the final, ultimate excuse to not merely do nothing to stop the madness of Gun America, but to INCREASE the number of guns they own and place them ubiquitously in this society. This cult of death with its AR-15 Murder Machines must be stopped. As always, the first step to halt evil is to call it evil, and do so loudly. And yesterday, two Congressmen began the loud attack on evil: Jared Moskowitz of Florida, and Jamaal Bowman of New York, whom I am proud to say now represents the town in which I grew up. B-Block (24:06) The cornerstone of the Republican/Fox/Gun Cult lie is its perversion of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. To understand that lie you must understand that the Constitution is in actuality a property document that decides what the government can own and what the people can own. Forms of the word "vote" appear just 37 times in it. "Right" and "rights" appear just 15 times. Terms of money and ownership are included 103 times. The Constitution is about OWNERSHIP. Yet the 2nd Amendment does not contain the word "own" nor any synonym for it. And as the former Chief Justice of the United States said, "The gun lobby's interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is one of the greatest pieces of fraud...on the American People..." Let the lying begin. C-Block (42:44) From February 15, 2022, after the shooting at Michigan State. (57:30) Every Dog Has Its Day: as we try to save the country let's save a poor puppy named Junior.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 164: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) Actually I have answers to this. Conflicting reports that the Manhattan District Attorney's Grand Jury looking into the Stormy Daniels payoff will be off until tomorrow - or next week. Either way, this likely has less to do with Trump or Pecker or Trump's Pecker, and more to do with the fact that the jurors have actual lives. There is good news from Special Counsel Jack Smith's Grand Jury in Washington: Mike Pence must testify after all (with limited exclusions). But does anybody remember that there's a THIRD Grand Jury out there? Anyone? Bueller? B-Block (14:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Marjorie Barney Rubble Greene can't understand why Twitter suspended her just because she spat on the dead of Nashville by calling the shooting "the threat of Antifa driven trans-terrorism; and Dominion Voting System has just a few names on its witness list include multiple anchors and multiple Murdochs. (17:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Senator Tommy Tuberville is holding up military promotions cuz abortion and the top two REPUBLICANS on the Armed Services Committee are mad as hell about it. The head of the Chicago police union, who has been suspended for misconduct eight different times, threatens voters with "blood in the streets" if they vote for the black guy for Mayor; and Congressman Byron Donalds condescendingly dismisses the possible ban of the AR-15 Death Machine and the children it murdered as "politics." C-Block (24:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: As Baseball's Opening Day looms, time to go back to a simpler, gentler era when a big league manager could lock his entire team in the trainers' room so that there wouldn't be a soul in the clubhouse and that would teach the obnoxious young anchor of SportsCenter a lesson. Me and Buck Showalter - 1993.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 163: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) The apparent final witness who could get Donald Trump arrested for paying off Stormy Daniels is named Pecker. DAVID Pecker, former publisher of the National Inquirer and the middleman in the Catch-and-Kill process by which Trump buried his infidelity problem before the 2016 election, returned to Alvin Bragg's Manhattan Grand Jury to confirm a) Trump paid her off and b) Trump knew it was done to influence the outcome of the election. Silence out of the Special Counsel's office; Trump slammed on Fox and Fox Business for his Waco speech; and why Trump's history with Mike Tyson explains Trump's cult unshakable adherence to him even though he's such a putz. B-Block (15:38) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Was turmoil in Israel quieted or worsened when the Prime Minister said he was staving off a "civil war"? The far right calls the Nashville shooting a false flag - until the shooter was ID'd as Trans and that became their only headline. (19:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: C-Block (26:15) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: The whole crowd at New York Bully Crew needs our donations - they're out of food (27:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Newly recovered from an archaeological dig in my storage unit: the ORIGINAL unedited copy of the greatest TV sports outtake of all time: Gary Miller's SOCCER BREAKDOWN.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 162: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) Special Counsel Jack Smith is reportedly constructing a conspiracy charge - Conspiracy To Obstruct A Congressional Proceeding - against Trump. CBS News reported this once, buried it, doesn't seem to realize what it has. If the charge hangs off the statute 18 US Code 1512 (c) (2) it carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, and Robert Costa reported Smith is "looking into a possible conspiracy case against Trump and people around him trying to block the Congressional proceedings on January 6th" and says witnesses "are being asked about what kind of NATIONAL SECURITY LEVERS Trump was asking about in those final days." And Smith's other primary investigation - the Classified Documents Trump stole and were found at Mar-a-Lago - are still very much in play. Meanwhile back at the ranch: Trump has now made all three possible statements about his possible indictment in the Stormy Daniels case: A) He's Being Arrested B) The Case Has Been Dismissed C) He Really Doesn't Have Any Idea. And Stormy Daniels herself breaks a MAGA critic in half. The MAGA-splainer tweets Trump wouldn't touch Daniels with a 10-foot pole; she slams back: no, he did it with a 3-inch pole. Which circles back neatly to the idea that Trump could go to jail with his national defense lever in his hand. B-Block (15:37) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Israel falls apart and 16% of the nation protests fascist changes there; pay attention, we may have to protest this way here. And Elon Musk has only lost $24,000,000,000 on Twitter in five months but he can make it up if everybody buys a $7 checkmark. EVERYBODY. (21:10) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Marsha Blackburn attacks Democrats for trying to "ban" everything. She's tried to ban at least 7 things in the last two years; The John Fetterman's Been Replaced By A Body Double conspirators get a tremendous disappointment as Facts ruin their fun. And this is 57-dimensional chess: You know what the Russian Sputnik Covid vaccine was for? To put chips in Russians so they can be targeted by...American missiles? Huh? C-Block (26:40) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY (27:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I can tell you from my own experience - four different times - that there's nothing fake about receiving "fake anthrax" in the mail, as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg did Friday after Trump's threat of "death and destruction."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 161: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) If I told you Donald Trump was an "animal" who "should be removed immediately;" If I told you Trump was "doing...the work of the devil;" If I told you Trump was destroying our country "as they tell US to be peaceful;" If I showed you two pictures, one of Trump and - next to it - one of me holding a baseball bat, about to swing it, posed exactly as was Robert DeNiro portraying Al Capone in "The Untouchables" just before he beat another character to death WITH a baseball bat; If I showed you 30 other social media posts I had made in just 24 hours, each of them filled with threatening and violent and hateful language about Trump, what would you think I was TELLING you? What would you THINK I was hoping you would DO? Donald Trump is a stochastic terrorist. He used stochastic terrorism to get somebody to attack the FBI after the Mar-a-Lago search and within days a man breached a local FBI headquarters to try to kill FBI agents. He used stochastic terrorism to get others to commit the insurrection of January 6. He used stochastic terrorism to inspire somebody to attack Democrats in 2018 and Cesar Sayoc sent out 12 liberals and he had a second list in his computer and I know because I was on it. Trump is not just committing stochastic terrorism, he knows he is doing it, because it has worked for him, so well, and so often. Arrest him, today. And he has openly threatened four prosecutors and countless journalists and witnesses. He must not only be arrested - he must NOT be granted bail. B-Block (17:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The judge may order Rupert Murdoch to testify in the Fox/Dominion defamation case; a NEW defamation case may be filed against Tucker Carlson; Ron DeSantis comes out in favor of immediately eliminating The New York Post and all of conservative media (20:01) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: You're going to CHARGE for Apple TV Baseball? After what it sounded like LAST year? A dishonest media attack on Alvin Bragg. And the Congressman who wants to stop The Biden Student Debt Relief program insisting "debt can not be forgiven" - after he filed for bankruptcy FIVE TIMES. C-Block (25:30) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Lace, on death row in New York (26:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Please meet Muggs - "The Dog That Bit People."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 160: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Stormy Daniels Grand Jury reconvenes at mid-day Thursday amid a reporting consensus that one last witness will be heard, to rebut the pro-Trump attorney Robert Costello who appeared Monday. But nobody is certain if that will be a Michael Cohen redux or an entirely new witness (CNN even threw out the name Stormy Daniels). So far Costello's main contributions have been the standard Trump hyperbole about "600 pages of evidence the DA has hidden" (almost none of which seems to have any relevance to the Daniels payoff) and one of the great malapropisms of the Trump era. Costello insists he "threw a wrench into their monkey works" - which isn't a thing. The Grand Jury is not expected to do anything but hear testimony so an indictment would seem to shift to next week. But so far everything that seemed logical has proved not to be the case. Happily, the Special Counsel's push to erase Attorney-Client privilege for Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran seems to be clarifying nicely. Trump lost his appeal, seems out of position to go further up the food chain. which means that Corcoran will have to answer six lines of questioning, all of which mainlines back to whether Trump knew that the "certification document" Corcoran wrote and Christina Bobb signed last spring was going to falsely declare that Trump had returned all the Classified Documents he stole. THIS prosecution remains on course and on schedule - unless somebody throws... a monkey into the wrench works. B-Block (15:23) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Ted Cruz and the others who insisted DirecTV was censoring NewsMax when it was actually about money, now STILL insist it was censorship even after a dollar compromise has been reached. MSNBC follows CNN in a sudden lurch to the right as Ari Melber stands up for absolutely nothing and "welcomes" John Kasich as a paid contributor. And the Michigan GOP gets a new "Possession can be transmitted by Sex With Demons" chair and a month later they're tweeting memes of the wedding rings of thousands of Holocaust victims. (21:27) IN SPORTS: Sports Illustrated declares that local sportscasters - once gods in human form - are now dead. Not only did I used to be one of them but I wrote a piece predicting this day...in 1992! C-Block (34:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Speaking of local sportscasting: the greatest scoop I ever got while doing it was one where my only real effort was answering the phone from tipsters half a dozen times. The tale of breaking the Wayne Gretzky Trade.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 159: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: Apparently it's the 12 DAYS of Trumpmas: the Judge who was supervising Special Counsel Jack Smith's Grand Jury wrote that Smith had presented prima facie evidence "that the former president had committed criminal violations" and the documents - and NOTES OF AUDIO RECORDINGS - she ordered Trump's attorney to turn over to Smith were part of Trump's "criminal scheme." And all this has NOTHING to do with the Stormy Daniels story. But per The New York Times, Trump, in his madness, "has told friends and associates that he welcomes the idea of being paraded by the authorities before a throng of reporters and news cameras. He has even mused openly about whether he should smile for the assembled media... and is said to have described the potential spectacle as A FUN EXPERIENCE." Norma Desmond Trump is ready for his close-up, Mr. D.A. DeMille! B-Block (20:00) IN SPORTS: It was the greatest performance in basketball history, and he only scored 4 points during it. New York Knicks legend Willis Reed, who won the 1970 NBA title virtually only by showing up, has died. And ESPN has parted ways with the executive who did the most to direct SportsCenter away from what the audience wanted. (26:10) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The U.S. government is terrified of Elon Musk's foreign partners and might yet step in to end his ownership of twitter, while somebody FINALLY asks Rep. James Comer about his college girlfriend's allegation that he beat her and threatened her life - and he confesses to leaking damaging emails about the blogger who first reported the story! C-Block (32:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Moose Tracks, on death row in New York (33:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It was Episode 7 of Aaron Sorkin's "Newsroom" and Jeff Daniels said one line - and every one of my old girlfriends contacted me and said "Wait. Wasn't that what your Dad always said?"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

UPDATE 158: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: What if they gave a Trump Rally and nobody came? It happened, yesterday, at Trump Tower. My exclusive report from the scene as TWO people showed up, 22 showed up downtown, and today's big California rally is scheduled in the parking lot of a Laguna Hills In-N-Out Burger apparently because THE NEAREST FOUR SEASONS TOTAL LANDSCAPING WAS BOOKED. While the rest of us celebrate the thrilling holiday season before Mugshotmas, the far right continue to act as if the gravity has been turned off in their universe. DeSantis defends Trump; Trump implies he's a pedophile or he's gay. McCarthy insists Trump wants no protests; Trump tries to get New York police to NOT defend anti-Trump residents. And in the case against those who allegedly defamed on Trump's behalf, as Dominion Voting and Fox go back into a courtroom in Delaware today, the Fox "News" case comes apart. The former producer of Maria Bartiromo's show, now a Tucker Carlson guest booker, says Fox lawyers tried to make her take the fall. She sues them; they try to stop her from testifying against them. But her testimony leaks: she says her bosses called Bartiromo "a crazy b*tch" and Carlson's producer asked if Bartiromo were having an affair with Kevin McCarthy. She also alleges Carlson's staff made jokes about Jews, and conducted a mock debate about who they'd rather sleep with: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer or her challenger Tudor Dixon. On the other hand: Rupert Murdoch is getting married again, because love means never having to say you're sorry you're 92. B-BLOCK (15:07) A special summary of 20 years ago as this nation attacked Iraq based on a series of lies by a series of liars named George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld. At this milestone anniversary, liberal media is quite rightly assailed for 'letting it happen.' But I want to give some context for it, especially as one of the few who risked their careers to be anti-war (and my first anti-Iraq War broadcast was in October 2002). I was once almost fired for simply telling the truth about the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, and I expected to be when I aired the first Special Comment against Iraq and Rumsfeld's attempt to demonize dissent. I'll re-read that commentary, too. C-BLOCK (34:35) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Fenix in Tennessee (35:32) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: On JULY 2, 1979 I was just a fan in the stands cheering Thurman Munson of the New York Yankees. On AUGUST 2, 1979 I was the anchor on a 1000-station radio network having to cover his sudden death, as it flashed across the wire machine two minutes before my first sportscast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 157: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41): The "Lock Her Up" Crowd needs to speak to the manager! It thought it made itself perfectly clear! It's "Lock HER Up!" It CANNOT BE "Lock HIM Up!" Whether Trump is arrested tomorrow, next week, or never, the fascist orgasm of naked pusillanimous fear over the rumors Trump himself spread, is COMPLETELY WORTH IT. But the general "wisdom" is complete nonsense. These are bullies who have never before been stood up to. They do not know what to do next but utter dark threats they have no means of acting upon. A "human moat" to encircle Trump? Crashing the economy? Storming key cities in the blue states? As my cousin by adoption and marriage Mike Tyson says, verybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, and Trump's cult just got punched in the mouth. And if a Trump arrest would guarantee him a "landslide victory" then the obvious Democratic nominee next year is Hunter Biden, on a chain gang with his father, Pelosi, Fauci, Hillary, and Vice President Harris. I understand we've all been worn down by eight years of this Fun-House-Mirrors-crap but relax. Gravity still works. Honestly: the arrest thing isn't even the most important Trump story. What a Washington judge did Friday to attorney-client privilege with Trump and lawyer Evan Corcoran - and what she did with Corcoran's notes that must implicate Trump in perjury - is the real deal. Plus there was an omen in Manhattan yesterday. The Proud Boys attacked "Drag Story Hour" - and got the crap kicked out of them. B-Block (18:18) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Capitol Police confirm what I guessed at: they not only NEVER saw the Tucker Carlson January 6 Gaslighting Video but they were tricked by Speaker McCarthy and Rep. Bryan Steil into setting up a viewing station the cops thought was for Congressman but was actually for Fox "News." (20:49) IN SPORTS: The World Baseball Classic has a problem and it's not just the injuries to Jose Altuve and Edwin Diaz. Why insurance may cancel or reschedule the next WBC. And a bigoted NHL goalie ruins another pride night, but with a twist: He says he can't be a Homophobe because one of his best friends is Muslim. (29:43) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Kayleigh McEnany tries to say "Ingraham Angle" while guest hosting the show. It goes poorly. The weakest flex ever by a failed candidate for governor. And does Senator Marsha Blackburn sound like an escapee from every 1987 TV Magazine Show special on streamlining your style? That's because she IS - and there's proof. C-Block (40:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Nacho in Brooklyn (44:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Now it's The New York Times burying CNN's Chris Licht. I'd just like to point out I started the Moby-Licht ball rolling, and I should tell you the tale of how when we worked together at MSNBC he was infamous as Joe Scarborough's henchman who tried to interfere with Maddow's show and Matthews' and mine and get preferential coverage for Joey Scars' buddies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 156: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: It doesn't MATTER whether Marjorie Taylor Greene really is so stupid that when she insisted yesterday she's never seen any Putin plan to invade Europe, she doesn't know Ukraine is in Europe. All that matters is whether she makes sure that something like 51% of the COUNTRY is so stupid that IT doesn't know Ukraine is in Europe. It's MAKE AMERICA STUPID AGAIN. And its weapon is a rapidly strengthening, rapidly escalating feedback loop centering around Fox "News" and we goddamned better do something about it soon. Because not only is it being used against Ukraine and for Russia, but it's now reached the equivalent to tertiary syphilis: McCarthy gives Carlson meaningless January 6 video which Carlson lies and says is 44,000 hours of the Zapruder film so that yesterday Rep. Barry The January 5th Tour Guide Loudermilk can lie and say "this means we need a new January 6 Committee to investigate the OLD January 6 Committee!" The long-term solution would be a truth based liberal television network with a billion dollars behind it, but who's going to do THAT? The short-term solution is Senate hearings into Fox "News" and Murdoch and whether its interest in destroying the current form of government is funded in any way by a foreign power. It doesn't have to BE funded by a foreign power. Just at the moment, we just need something we can put on against the Barry Loudermilk Hearings To Clear Barry Loudermilk! (10:20) IN SPORTS: Stop The World Baseball Classic before it kills again (18:35) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A bad day for Kellyanne Conway as she reveals Kushner was the only Trump family member to make billions during the Junta, and then shocks the world by confirming China is sending arms... to China! But she's no match for Marianne "Non Disclosure Disagreement" Williamson, and SHE'S no match for Ron "I Eat Pudding With My Fingers" DeSantis. B-Block (24:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It was the greatest scoop of my career to that point, an exclusive told in pantomime by the athlete we were staking out, another gift handed to me without a moment's hesitation by a hockey and football owner and curmudgeon named Harry Ornest. And it would've upended the entire coverage of the 1991 National Football League draft. Except the cameraman forgot to roll tape. I'll be getting over it any day now. C-Block (39:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Archie, a Missouri puppy, was shot in the leg (40:00) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Two of his stories of man not against others, but against life: "Nine Needles" and "The Mouse Who Went To The Country."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 155: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: "A Democratic president," writes Will Saletan (whose brother and I co-wrote a book of poems in 4th grade, "is standing up to Putin. And he's facing a Republican who would rather attack Mickey Mouse." But Ron DeSantis's ignorant, naive, isolationism is much worse. It opens the door for a full-on Republican campaign pledge (under him or Trump) to betray Ukraine as of 1/20/25. Just last night a retired American military officer went on Fox and told Carlson "The truth is coming out that this war was not started by Russia." What happens on 1/20/25, if one of them is inaugurated as president, and moments later Putin bombs...Poland? Because that just went from farfetched scenario to tangible possibility as the Polish Security Agency discovered Russian agents installing hidden cameras along the Polish railroad lines on which Western ammunition and weapons are transported to Kiev. If Putin has already game-planned an attack on NATO, we have to wonder: Would Trump or DeSantis be so committed to the anti-Ukraine, pro-Putin stance that THEIR United States would wind up permitting or even supporting a Russian war against NATO? It is a long, interwoven saga of DeSantis and Fox and Trump and Georgia 2020 and Marjorie Taylor Greene disclosing classified information at the Mexican border and how you won't hear this on Fox - or on CNN for that matter, where David Zaslav publicly recommitted to Chris Licht (who when we were at MSNBC together we all thought used to eat paste) in a meeting with 600 CNN Managers (CNN? 600 Managers? There's your problem right there). The New CNN's recommitment to useless, pointless, banal stenography was brilliantly characterized by Dylan Byers of Puck: "Nearly one year in, it's clear that Zaslav still believes in his vision for CNN as a nonpartisan, broadcast-style news digest, and still believes that Licht is his Captain Ahab." Captain...AHAB? Wait, doesn't Moby-Dick (or is it Moby-Licht) end with mass death? CALL ME ISHMAEL. MY BOAT SANK. THE END. B-Block (19:18) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Shenanigan and Banshee, 14-week old shep/husky puppies in Devore, CA. (20:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: My career at the RKO Radio Network, where my boss was Charley Steiner, and where he once tasked me with finding out when and where a secret meeting between Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner and Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn would be held. And after I gave up and went to get some pizza, I literally RAN INTO STEINBRENNER ON THE STREET YELLING OUT THE DETAILS OF THE MEETING. C-Block (43:40) MORE THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A little under the weather today so let me re-tell the adventures of another '80s job, which I waited 10 months to be able to start, and which lasted only half that long. Why almost nobody remembers me as "Keith Olbermann, SportsCenter 5, Boston."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 154: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: DeSantis dismissed Ukraine as not being one of our "vital national interests" and exactly six hours later a Russian fighter jet was knocking one of our intelligence drones out of international air space 75 miles off the Ukrainian coach. DeFascist looks like an idiot today, especially since Republican grown-ups pounded the crap out of him all day, and even more so because as a Congressman, the Rube-In-High-Heels demanded offensive and defensive weapons be sent TO Ukraine. It's not just the standard story of a local yokel stepping onto the Republican national stage and promptly plummeting into the orchestra bit. DeSantis's flip-flop underscores the Republicans' century-long inability to make up its mind about any of the various incarnations of Russia. The America First DeSantii of 1939 wanted to ignore Russia even after its pact with Hitler. The post-war Republicans turned the actual Soviet threat into spies inside every home fallout shelter. Then Nixon went for detente. Then Reagan joked about beginning the bombing of Russia in five minutes. Then Reagan both destroyed the Soviet Union and 'brought peace.' Then Trump sold the GOP to Putin. Now DeSantis doesn't know which side of which is the Wokey-Fenokee Swamp. Meanwhile after a day of utter silence, Russia's second-favorite American Tucker Carlson actually mentioned Jacob Chansley, the Q Shaman. One mention. Literally. No explanation what happened to his wall-to-wall-coverage of the worst attack on American freedom unwoke non-CRT conspiracy. And coincidence or maybe more: heard anything from ANY Republican besides Gosar about it? Or about this "visit" to the January 6 defendants inside the DC Jail? They've gone silent too. But a DC judge hasn't: he says not only aren't the J6'ers NOT being mistreated, all their complaints have been addressed by the jailers AND they all have access to tablets to review...guess what...January 6th video for their defense. Something's up and it isn't Fox's ratings. B-Block (16:19) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Biden again notes that caving to Freedom Caucus demands to freeze spending at 2022 levels as their price to vote for a debt ceiling hike means...De-funding the police. Ohhhhhh are the Republicans pissed. Trump's indictment is days away and always will be. And he championed Veterinary Ivermectin for 11 years. Right up to the day it killed him. (20:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Brian Kilmeade calls Trump "the most disciplined I've ever seen him" because he hasn't dined with any white supremacists lately. The NHL televises a New York Rangers game live in cartoon without calling them the New York POWER Rangers. And a Minnesota state senator says there's no need for free school breakfasts or lunches because HE'S never met a hungry person. C-Block (26:30) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Hopper, in Missouri (27:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Dan Abrams of "News Nation" humiliated himself on his show on the Nick-At-Nite of TV News networks. Which reminded me of the day in 2006 the geniuses at NBC decided to make him General Manager of MSNBC. He was so bad so fast that ONE WEEK LATER they took all the power away from him. It's a long laugh.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 153: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Wait - what? After a lurid week of claiming the entire January 6 Insurrection was just "peaceful sight-seers" disturbed by "hooligans" and insisting that the greatest conspiracy in the history of the country had been effected to transform the country and weaponize this and lie about that, Tucker Carlson suddenly, abruptly, completely and without explanation DROPPED THE JANUARY 6TH VIDEO STORY LAST NIGHT. No Jacob Chansley. No withheld video. No punish Liz Cheney. It's quiet. It's too quiet. What happened? The Department of Justice released three videos implicating Chansley, putting him within feet of a Senator (probably Chuck Grassley) during mid-evacuation. A New York State Supreme Court judge let the OTHER voting machine company's defamation lawsuit against Fox proceed. For all we know, Rupert Murdoch called Carlson and said "shut your pie hole." But the sudden silence was almost universal. Seen a tweet from a Congressman lately? Even Elon Musk stopped trying to convince people - on Saturday. B-Block (19:26) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Yes, you read right. South Carolina state representative introduces bill to institute death penalty for women who get abortions (be pro-life or we'll kill you). A (dubious) report CNN may fire Chris Licht before Labor Day (22:14) IN SPORTS: Garrapolo to Raiders; Bauer to Japan; Unknown Nicaraguan WBC star gets big league contract; in memory of Joe Pepitone. (25:43) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Wall Street Journal blames SVB failure on bank not having enough white guys; Trump talks about education, like he ever had one; and Ron DeSantis can do an interview AND throw a baseball while wearing high heels! C-Block (34:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Sloane in California (35:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Sportscaster Gary Lineker beats the BBC. It ends his suspension, he keeps expressing his political opinions. Utter deja vu for me. In 2010 MSNBC suspended me for doing something I had the right to do, vowed to not pay me for months. That was Friday. By Tuesday I was back on the air and they owed me much, much more money than they had owed me on Friday.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 152: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: New government document in a separate January 6 case filed yesterday, sworn under oath and under penalty of perjury, confirms that by September 2021 Jacob Chansley and his attorneys were given all but 10 seconds of the J6 video Carlson showed last week. Carlson's claim that Chansley and his lawyers had never seen the video, is a lie. Carlson's claim that it was "withheld" from Chansley and America, is a lie. Carlson's claim that they were sightseers, is a lie. Carlson's claim that it's a false flag, is a lie. Tucker Carlson is a liar. What's worse: he could be guilty of Obstruction of Justice. Because what has this all been about? This was Kevin McCarthy providing Tucker Carlson access to the materials with which to lie, gaslight, and whitewash. He did all three things. This is a conspiracy to turn guilty perpetrators of insurrection, coup, and violent attack on the Capitol during the official transfer of power, into victims - and the victims into defendants. And THAT is called "Obstruction Of Justice." B-Block (20:47) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Yay Capitalism until its speculative bank fails then it's Yay Socialism. At least it shuts up Junior Trump. Mike Pence talks tough against Trump but still won't lift a finger to stop him. And Tom Hanks broke my Cummerbund at the Oscars. (24:23) IN SPORTS: DeSantis's brilliant idea to get a hated tennis player arrested, MSG's Jim Dolan vows to win alcohol fight (it'd be his first win) and what sportscaster solidarity can do: BBC's Gary Lineker has brought the UK's fascist government to its knees. (30:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: On the other hand, the UK mailed in its uniforms for the World Baseball Classic. The House Freedom Caucus's debt limit demand includes...Defunding the police? And why DeSantis needs to read every snowflake first. C-Block (35:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: My Dad died, 13 years ago today. But instead of telling you some somber remembrance let me tell you about something he did that, 47 years later, still strikes me as the epitome of selfless parenting and still leaves me speechless. Oh and it features me meeting Howard Stern when he was 20 and I was 15.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 151: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42): New Tucker Carlson bombshell in the Dominion Documents Dump. Media Matters discovers a text in which Carlson praised and disseminated the writings of a racist holocaust denier, only 2-1/2 years ago. He sent somebody close enough to Carlson to have his cell number a link to a column written by David Cole - who denies that Auschwitz was an extermination camp and questions whether six million Jewish people perished in the Holocaust. Carlson added "This is a good piece." That Carlson would praise such scum is hardly news: he works for Fox "News." But this shocker coming out at such a critical time for him and Fox is indeed news. Because it reopens the 2019 scandal that vanished into the pandemic year, in which radio recordings surfaced of Carlson being crassly racist and sexist, and insulting in those ways to the likes of everybody from Barack Obama to Martha Stewart's daughter. Carlson also defended convicted child rapist Warren Jeffs and attacked statutory rape laws. His other problems continue. A fourth night of "January 6 Video" produced only more re-runs. And he impeached his own Wednesday guest. The Q Shaman's first attorney Albert Watkins was, on Wednesday, a victim of the vast plot Carlson claimed to have uncovered. But last night Watkins became a villain who had let the "shaman" down. In point of fact, Watkins had been fired after he called his client "retarded" and one of the "short bus people" and Watkins was cited for "ineffective assistance of counsel." Every time Rupert Murdoch and Fox have squirmed out of a scandal they've done so by firing somebody big: Roger Ailes, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly. Rupert is in survival mode and the new revelations make it easier for him to scapegoat Carlson. B-Block (19:03) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Yeah yeah sure Trump's gonna be indicted any day now (says the Times. Again). Jenna Ellis, the Canary in the Rudy Giuliani gas coal mine, confesses. Lauren Boebert can't count nor tell time and shock of shocks, a new George Santos scandal. (22:25) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Trump has a new book that sums him up. It's stuff other people wrote TO him. Letters. Now I may have to publish the letter HE wrote to ME. Elon Musk's novel way to promote employees. And Lindsey Graham. No - not that one. A far funnier one. C-Block (28:00) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: When he went to the 4th Grade at the turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries, the great writer lived in a world where if you failed the 4th Grade, you stayed in the 4th Grade. If his wonderful account is true, some of his classmates had been there for more than a decade, and constituted the best amateur baseball team in the state of Ohio, good enough to beat Ohio State. "I Went To Sullivant."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 150: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Tucker Carlson's Trump Derangement Syndrome Dance Party went into re-runs last night, then was cancelled, and then the star ran away. Carlson literally ran out of new 1/6 video and re-ran much of his Monday segment; his conspiracy theory rant went from the rage and drama of Monday to something closer than kvetchy. It ended with not a bang but a whimper. Did Carlson sense that his schtick was less gaslight and more stomach gas and it couldn't have done more damage to himself and Fox "News" if it had planned that way? Did somebody at Fox tell him to stop? There certainly was no mistaking what Carlson did after bailing on 1/6: he had a reporter do the softest, squishiest, credulous report on Trump's promise that if elected everybody would get their own new "Freedom City" - and a flying car. The message was obvious: Trump heard about the "I hate him passionately" text and exacted retribution. But while Carlson bailed out, America piled on. Carlson was slammed by everybody from Ben Shapiro to Joe Biden. Liz Cheney attacked the possible new investigation of the 1/6 Commission by tweeting "bring it on" and four presidential ethicists asked the House to investigate the McCarthy/MAGA Congressmen/Carlson deal. B-Block (13:51) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Comer and Marjorie Traitor Greene are going to jail. Unfortunately we think they won't be staying. In Paste Eating news, CNN's boss tells his employees not to go for the "sugar high of ratings." He needn't worry about the ratings - there aren't any. (18:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jesse Watters thinks he can arrest Dr. Fauci. A new trick in high school book-banning: just check out all copies of the book you want to shadow ban. And the Texas state legislator pushing a secession referendum also wanted the death penalty for abortions and wanted a tax break for married straight couples. Then a reporter found out the legislator seems to have gotten his wife off a website that bills itself as an alternative to "mail order brides from Thailand and the Philippines." Ooops. C-Block (24:45) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Basil, in New York (25:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Somebody asked me the other day: "Where In The World Is Mitt Lauer?" And I said I didn't know, but I hoped it was somewhere unpleasant. Before the ugly violent stuff came out, everybody at NBC knew he was a dangerous manipulative vindictive jackass. One day I got a scoop he thought he deserved, so he tried to get me fired. We should have done more to stop him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 149: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Free advice for Rupert Murdoch: Fire Tucker Carlson - now. And Ingraham. And Hannity. Because between how the January 6 Video Gaslight Gambit failed and backfired and self-owned, and Round 3 of the Dominion Lawsuit Document Dump, it's gonna be him or them and history has proven again and again that it's ALWAYS him. Carlson's fraud was so bad, and angered so many, that Senator Thom Tillis said "It's bulls**t" and Mitch McConnell said Fox News made a mistake and half a dozen other Republicans ripped the network. And internally, no other Fox host said ANYTHING supportive, on the air or off, until Laura Ingraham finally hit McConnell back at 10 PM last night. And the Dominion 3rd Tranche may be the killer. Not only is there now a paper trail to Murdoch sharing info - maybe even a copy - of Biden's commercials with Jared Kushner. But in a phrase you will soon see on every political billboard everywhere, there's Carlson texting a Fox producer on January 4 2021: "We are very very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can't wait. I HATE HIM PASSIONATELY." How much would you pay to charity for the privilege of showing Trump that text? B-Block (21:0) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Why are TVs in the US Capitol required to be tuned to Fox 'News?' Trump's genius plan to solve Ukraine: give it to Russia. Marjorie Taylor Greene talks about women who take testosterone what was that about every Republican accusation being an admission? (24:21) IN SPORTS: For the third time, the NHL (The National Hypocrisy League) has screwed up Pride Night. Is this a Russian problem? (28:52) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Before signing a deal to become "Sister Cities" make sure the other one exists. The UK's Prime Minister touts the nation's Modern Slavery (?) And poor Musk thought he was just mocking the differently-abled. Actually he was confirming he owed somebody $100 million. C-Block (35:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Four poor pups in Dallas (36:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A lot about Russia and Ukraine in this episode so time to tell the tale of my musical genius Great Grandfather. Ever heard the story of the guy who gave away the name "General Motors" for free? That was my Ukrainian Great Grandpa, Antony Zelensky, whose saving grace was: he TOLD that story on himself every day of his life!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 148: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: As he set out to gaslight his Gullibles into believing the January 6th video "proves" there was false flag, with "sight-seers" led astray by a few "hooligans," what was the ONE thing Tucker Carlson could NOT do? What, as the prospect of a $1,600,000,000 damage judgment against Fox loomed in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case, did he need to avoid at all costs? Say something like "The 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy, given the facts that have since emerged about that election. No honest person can deny it." He RE-ENACTED FOX'S LIES FROM 2020 as documented in the Dominion depositions and texts. If that weren't good (bad) enough he also defamed Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. I guess they'll have to co-own the channel with Dominion. Now what? Does Rupert Murdoch throw Carlson overboard? Fire him to try to tamp down the Dominion Crisis AND the Cheney/Kinzinger crisis? How did Fox let him put this on? How did Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and the others not strangle Carlson into unconsciousness rather than let him do what he did? Carlson's shtick was unsurprisingly thin. But at least he added a catchphrase to the lexicon of lying and manipulation: "The Video Proves This." (NARRATOR: The video didn't prove this). B-Block (22:03) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Transgenderism eradicator Michael Knowles doubles down, Senator Mike Lee defends him, Adidas may burn Yeezy Shoes (26:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Never TWEET a QR code, Mr. Prime Minister. Speaking of, Boris Johnson nominates Dad for a knighthood. And Elon Musk needs two guards to escort him to the bathroom, fulfilling the old joke about the guy too stupid to relieve himself without the help of a committee. C-Block (32:55) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: August, in California (33:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since we're talking Fox and Dominion and whether Rupert Murdoch is now going to scapegoat Tucker Carlson, how about the other guy he DID scapegoat, Lou Dobbs? 42 years ago Lou Dobbs' rumored messy personal life led directly to the start of my TV career at CNN.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 147: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Donald Trump is this close to declaring himself God. His announcement to his ever-grieved angry real-victim-here Cult of Karens -- "I AM YOUR RETRIBUTION" illustrates that even his eight-year long terrorist attack on this country had at least one more level to go. Trump has now imbued the 2024 GOP race with vengeance and vendetta. And a vote for Trump in 2024 is a vote for retribution and vengeance - and bloodshed. And thanks to a failed actor who looks disturbingly like the cartoon character "Quagmire" from "Family Guy," Michael Knowles, we now know the first targets of Trump's mob. "Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life, entirely." While Knowles tries the fascist trick of saying he never said transgender PEOPLE must be eradicated, most people have missed the key word in that hateful utterance. It's not "eradicated" it's "entirely," and it renders Knowles's hairsplitting meaningless. B-Block (16:45) IN SPORTS: One of the best of baseball's announcers, Dave Wills of the Tampa Bay Rays, has died suddenly, and the sport is grieving. (23:13) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Russian prime minister gets laughed at, a Florida Republican does something so dumb Newt Gingrich slams him, and Mr. Non-Opinion Journalism at Fox "News," Bret Baier, turns out to be just as bad as the rest of them. C-Block (30:48) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Brothers Brooklyn and Butter (31:49) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: One minute I was ruminating on the unappreciated beauty of the Hudson River as seen from a commuter train. The next they were prying me loose from the window I had become frozen to.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 146: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: As Rupert Murdoch prepares to scapegoat Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott for the Dominion Documents scandal, a reminder that no matter how hopeful we might be right now, Fox "News" isn't going to destroy itself! Here are ten steps to take to help kill the thing so that democracy may live. There are recommendations for actions by Democrats invited to appear as guests, for what the White House Correspondents Association and RTCA should do, what the Senate should do, what prosecutors should do, what media should do, what the network should do. Plus: there are three steps YOU can do at home to hasten the demise, including hurrying over to UnFoxMyCableBox-dot-com. Plus I will answer the question: How does Sean Hannity sleep at night (on a bed made out of money) and tell you that the man most responsible for Fox "News" existing today is, of all people, Rudy Giuliani. It's almost forgotten now, but what he did as Mayor of New York in October 1996 saved this godforsaken poisoner of this nation from vanishing almost before it began. B-Block (26:06) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Jim Jordan's "Weaponization" Committee is coming apart at the seams; DOJ says yes you can sue Trump over 1/6. But that doesn't mean you'll win, and Daniel Ellsberg says goodbye. (30:53) IN SPORTS: Did the New York Rangers' social media director abuse an LGBTQ fan because other LGBTQ fans complained when the Rangers screwed up Pride Night? And the ESPN offer of a true public service: a centralized place where you can find your game, no matter who's streaming it (35:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The NFL team where players say rats ran the practice facility; who would've guessed Marjorie Traitor Greene's press flak is an asshole; and the Florida legislator who wants to force bloggers who write about Ron DeSantis to REGISTER WITH THE STATE OR FACE HUGE FINES. C-Block (40:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: The only Thurber character who owns his own pet...Thunderstorm: "The Black Magic Of Barney Haller."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 145: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: The President must fire FBI Director Christopher Wray, and the Senate must conduct hearings into Fox "News" to see if it can be stopped and if the citizenships of Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, and the others, can be revoked. The FBI: The Washington Post's reporting on the FBI's attempt to shut down the investigation, then the search, and finally the prosecution in the Trump case requires nothing less than the immediate dismissal of the director - if we can get him off Fox Non-News for a moment - and most of the now-rogue FBI Washington Field Office. Agents and then the Bureau Chief believed Trump and his attorney, instead of their bosses, and the judge, and the Constitution. Fire everybody. Fox Non-News: Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries sent a searing six-paragraph letter to Murdoch et al. It demands they chose between "lying to their viewers" and "honest reporting." The money is in the former, and Rupert Murdoch made this decision in 1952. What is necessary is something to scare the crap out of Murdoch: charges against hm for an illegal contribution-in-kind to the Trump campaign, if Tucker Carlson shows any of the 1/6 video - and convening a hearing dragging these bastards before the Senate. B-Block (20:53) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: I got Senator Mike Lee's twitter account suspended briefly yesterday. So THAT happened. And boring as he is, Merrick Garland still managed to blow up Ted Cruz yesterday. (25:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Rep. Boebert forgets about them new states, Alaska and Hawaii; Rep. Donalds, who met with a 1/6 Seditionist INSIDE THE CAPITOL, and Ronda Santis, who has forgotten one detail in his scheme to dictate what Disney does and doesn't put in their movies and shows. C-Block (30:15) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Poor Magnus got pulled out of the NYC pound only to come down with pneumonia. (31:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A sports fan so ardent he used to wager on baseball spring training games AND do impressions of sportscasters, including me. It's the story of the day I got to meet the late great actor Walter Matthau.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 144: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Good news everyone! We don't have to worry about Kevin McCarthy turning over 44,000 hours of January 6 Video to Tucker Carlson. Because Tucker has promised Kevin that he won't use any of the sensitive stuff that could get congressmen or senators or Vice Presidents killed next time. And we know how we can trust Tucker Carlson! Just look at all those Carlson texts from the Dominion defamation suit! His word is the coin of the realm. Provided the realm in question is Russia. Perhaps never before in American history has their been such a pairing of Political Scum with Media Scum as McCarthy and Carlson. And McCarthy's response to the criticism of his unprecedented and indefensible act: "It almost seems like the press is jealous...He'll have an exclusive. Then I'll give it out to the entire country." And McCarthy's henchman in this sleazy nightmare turns out to be Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Congressman caught ON the January 5-6 video giving at least one January 6th defendant a tour of security checkpoints. There are still steps the Biden Administration and the Democrats can do to stop this farce. It stops with ending access to all representatives of all NewsCorp employees, for the simple reason that Fox News and its cousins are NOT news organizations. I'm not holding my breath. B-Block (21:03) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Fools on the Hill: Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene humiliate themselves during congressional hearings, while trying to play "gotcha" with people smarter than they are. (26:02) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Chris Licht again, this time for putting on an ex-Norfolk Southern lobbyist to comment on the Norfolk Southern disaster; How could you possibly misspell Jackie Robinson's name? And help us: NYC has elected a messianic theocrat as mayor. Eric Adams goes nuts - again. C-Block (31:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Dora and Lee, starved puppies in Arkansas (32:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The Fox News/NewsCorp perfidy is not limited to television. When the tv arm of the octopus is criticized and threatened, the Murdoch monster uses the print arms to try to strangle the opponent. When a right wing would-be terrorist sent fake anthrax to me and a dozen other liberals, the FBI asked me - and all news organizations - to keep it quiet just for a day. Murdoch's New York Post not only refused, but wrote the story concluding that the person to blame here was...me.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 143: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Rupert Murdoch showed Joe Biden's 2020 Presidential Campaign Commercials to Jared Kushner before they were public. This - the most startling of the second tranche of revelations from the Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit against Fox and NewsCorp - doesn't just violate electoral and journalistic ethics. It may be criminal - and it certainly should mean the metaphorical 'Death Penalty' for a dark, evil propaganda channel masquerading as a news organization. Fox News must be de-platformed and the company drive into bankruptcy. We can have democracy in this country, or we can have Fox News. We cannot have both. Fox is still in a position to do the damage outlined in the newest revelations (including, in essence, selling time on Fox News panels to Mike Lindell, and when its own researchers confirmed the crazy claims against Dominion were false, ignoring them and firing them) in part because in 2009 MSNBC and NBC cut a deal with Fox to circumscribe what news it could report about Fox, and what news Fox could report about MSNBC, NBC, and parent company GE. It's time to tell that nauseating story in full detail. B-Block (30:56) SPECIAL COMMENT: The 2009 NBC-Fox collusion began with conversations among then-NBC President Jeff Zucker and Roger Ailes of Fox, and included a threat by GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt to take MSNBC off the air, and the attempt to buy off Fox by having GE advertise on Fox Networks. C-Block (53:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: The saga of NBC's deal to help Fox News stay out of the full glare of public criticism climaxed in a July dinner in the GE Chairman's Private Dining Room on the top floor of 30 Rock. It was a scene worthy of the movie "Network" - only they didn't wind up actually assassinating me - only symbolically.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 142: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Merrick Garland is going to appear in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning. And it looks like there'll be yet another new and big and shiny thing to ask him about, about the arrested ex-FBI man Charles McGonigal and the Russian linked via Paul Manafort to Trump, Oleg Deripaska. Once, McGonigal was in charge of investigating Deripaska. The next thing you knew, he was WORKING FOR Deripaska. Exactly WHEN that happened keeps changing. 2020? 2019? Now it's 2018? Could it have been 2016? Judiciary Chair Dick Durban and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse want to know, and they want to know if Garland knows if McGonigal was aware of his FBI New York Field Office and how it was already trying to fix the 2016 election for Trump by forcing James Comey to re-smear Hillary Clinton eleven days before the election. Meanwhile Trump CAN get the GOP nomination because the GOP hierarchy is moronic: it actually believes it has "cornered" him by demanding a pledge of all would-be nominees to support whoever gets the nomination because OF COURSE he always lives up to his promises. And Tucker Carlson doubles down on the January 6th video scam. B-Block (18:08) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: First you could say "Dilbert" isn't funny. Then you could say it isn't appropriate. Now, after Scott Adams' racist rant, you can say it just...isn't. Happily Elon Musk is there to defend him. And the Department of Energy says Covid-19 was a lab leak? Oh they say it with "low confidence" that they're right? And it's the Department of ENERGY? (21:43) In sports: baseball's pitch clock seems to work (I'll be DAMNED), but where is it going to come up with the money to pay Manny Machado? Four more Regional Sports Networks pumping baseball (and the NBA and NHL) full of cash say they will likely go bankrupt within a month. (25:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Did the anti-Drag governor of Tennessee dress up IN drag in High School? Why does one writer keep calling CNN's Chris "Maybe Ate Paste" Licht a genius when he's never finished higher than last in the ratings? And how do you spell "NINTH" and "TWELFTH"? Don't ask the Florida Department of Education - the folks there have no clue. C-Block (32:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Peanut, in North Carolina, who weighs 20 pounds when she should weigh 60, needs your help. (33:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: On one day I was supposed to have coffee - at her invitation, as a prelude to a date, with Uma Thurman, AND the president of Current TV was taking me to dinner to explain how we could get rid of the idiot co-owner who didn't know what "DVR" was and so bought ratings showing only "Live" viewers, not "Live + DVR" viewers. If I tell you I had coffee and dinner alone, can you guess what happened?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 141: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: Where is the Department of Justice? Homeland Security? The House Democrats? The Senate Democrats? The Capitol Police Board? When those who are supposed to protect us make it a four-day week, WHO will step up to stop Kevin McCarthy's criminal collusion with Tucker Carlson on the 1/6 Security Video? Mike Lindell. No, seriously. Lindell alone acts as the implications of McCarthy's Quid Pro Quo become more evident. As the argument is made that the Democrats should now release all the video to all news organizations so some of them will be prepared to push back against Carlson's Conspiracy Theories and False Flag claims, the 44,000 hours of pure unadulterated high grade brainwash is clearly designed to be used to whitewash Trump. And it fits into the Gaslight Ecosystem, which last night expanded to include an organization trying to blacklist ALL former staffers on the House January 6th Committee, and blacklist their new employers, and blacklist their new employers' clients. B-Block (15:02) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Ron DeSantis and his press secretary are losing a battle with a newscaster who fell asleep on the air the other day; Alaska's advocate for child abuse death is censured; and George Santos not only signs on to legislation honoring a gun, but lies about it as well (19:22) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Does a publisher get to purge mildly offensive words like "fat" or "bald" from the works of a dead author? Wouldn't a warning note be enough? Upping the ante: the author is Roald Dahl, the man who created Willy Wonka. Upping the ante again: he was both an often terrible human being and an often exceptionally kind one. Upping the ante one last time: when I was seven years old, Roald Dahl and I corresponded. C-Block (39:40) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Ben in Brooklyn (40:40) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His most darkly humorous story, the one that prophesied Trump: "The Greatest Man In The World."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 140: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN: A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: Speaker Kevin McCarthy has jeopardized the security of every Representative and every Senator and every staffer, and the continuity of the government of the United States, and thus the safety of every CITIZEN of the United States - and he has publicly admitted to, and boasted about, committing the act by which he did so. This is treasonous. Indict him and arrest him. We now know that Tucker Carlson gained access to the January 6 video by the deception of McCarthy and/or House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil. Steil asked the Capitol Police for a video terminal on which he personally could look at the video. Without warning the Capitol Police, McCarthy unilaterally gave Carlson access to that terminal. And then, yesterday, McCarthy not only admitted "he released" the video - he began to FUNDRAISE OFF HIS DECEPTION. "The Speaker," says Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, "is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11..it also risks exposing the carefully laid out and highly guarded plans for the continuity of government, intended to preserve our democracy in the event of an attack." These are not minor infractions, nor mere political conflicts. This is treachery. McCarthy admits to doing it. Indict him and arrest him. B-Block (15:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Special Counsel subpoenas Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner (Trump) and before you think they can't try to evade it by making up yet another ludicrous privilege: You forgot Nepo-Baby Privilege, didn't you? GOP still denies it wants to cut Social Security and Medicare while Paul Ryan and Mike Pence announce they want to cut Social Security and Medicare. And in the new Marist Poll Biden does what 100% of political pundits insisted he could not do. (18:18) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Never light a Pride Flag on fire. Especially not if there's a high-def surveillance camera right next to it. Sean Hannity endorses a plan to disenfranchise Sean Hannity. And Barney Rubble's Body Double explains why "black people" should be proud of Confederate statues. C-Block (22:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since I'm calling for the government to shut down "Fox News" I probably need to fess up: I went out on two dates with Laura Ingraham. Admittedly, it was a century ago, but I think you need to know. Besides which it's cheaper than telling it to a therapist. Thank you.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 139: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Kevin McCarthy/Tucker Carlson Scandal has blown wide open as The Capitol Police Board meets to vote on whether or not to stop the Speaker from giving the Fox News Liar what Rep. Zoe Lofgren calls "a blueprint for bad guys on how to more successfully attack the Capitol." House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries convenes his caucus this afternoon to take what action it can as Jeffries calls the collusion between McCarthy and Carlson "an egregious security breach." In essence, Kevin McCarthy has STOLEN the January 6th video and handed it to Tucker Carlson, and Tucker Carlson and Fox News have already done more damage to this country than Al-Qaeda or ISIS or Atomwaffen or any other terrorist group could dream of. We're approaching the 20th anniversary of the day Geraldo Rivera, live on Fox News Channel, gave away the position and movements of the 101st Airborne Division, and was literally escorted out of Iraq by the U.S. military. This underscores the reality that Fox News has NEVER cared about the troops, about freedoms, about America. It sells a product. The product is phony patriotism. The product is a distorted picture of America. The product is hate. The product is lies. It's time to put the manufacturers of the product, Fox "News," out of business. B-Block (20:27) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Trump Georgia Grand Jury presents Hint Number 32,753; Barney Rubble's Body Double doubles down on the Red State/Blue State divorce but adds taking away voting rights for Democrats; Democrats make criminal referral on Ohio Train Disaster while Republicans hesitate to offend their corporate masters (31:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: an unfortunate Washington Post headline, a really dumb Oklahoma congressman, and a really disturbing Alaska state legislator who believes if an abused child is killed, "it's actually a benefit to society." C-Block (31:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: When I talk about Fox and its core value - evil - I'm not just repeating what I've heard. I was once fired, personally, by Rupert Murdoch, for telling the truth, and my bosses got dragged for it as well.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 138: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Only Marjorie Taylor Greene would be stupid enough to demand a "national divorce" in which the United States "separates by red states and blue states" - when SHE LIVES IN A BLUE STATE. But then again, what do you expect? She was raised on a diet of Fox News. Speaker McCarthy has now unilaterally handed over 41,000 hours of 1/6 Capitol Security Video to Tucker Carlson and Carlson can now provide a roadmap to the next seditionists on how to avoid security while also gaslighting the story of 2021. Last week, we learned of the astonishing cynical manipulation of America by Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and the others, who didn't believe a word of the denialist crap they sold the country. Between those two stories it's time for the country to act to de-platform and close down Fox News as a clear and present danger to the future of the United States of America. The Department of Justice needs to seek a Restraining Order to keep Fox from manipulating the video McCarthy gave it. I've been arguing since 1998 that Fox News was a mortal peril. Since 2007 I've said it was more damaging to this country than Al-Qaeda has been. We must shut them down the way we shut down Big Tobacco and Big Pharma. B-Block (23:15) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Moscow commentators react to Biden's trip to Kyiv: "We should've blown him up." Flaco leaves the nest. Adams schools DeSantis. (26:51) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: All she did was tap the balloon. But it wasn't a balloon, it was a $42,000 ceramic sculpture and it crashed to the floor. The Texas School Superintendent whose gun was found by a 3rd Grader. And CNN owner John Malone has to admit one of two things: that after the Don Lemon debacle, Chris Licht is a complete failure, or he hired Chris Licht BECAUSE he'd be a complete failure. C-Block (33:45) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Mr. JoJo in Shreveport (34:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The influence of Fox News and the belief by some of its hosts like Carlson that they are in fact running this country is in large part the result of mainstream media negligence. In 2009, Fox tried to avenge itself against me by attacking GE's Chairman and he folded up because his mother was a Bill O'Reilly viewer and she saw what O'Reilly said and called up her son and yelled at him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 137: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL BREAKING NEWS EDITION OF THE COUNTDOWN PODCAST: Joe Biden's shock visit to Ukraine and the near-genius of its message to multiple audiences: (A) The American people, rarely surprised by anything, waking up to their president in Kyiv with Zelensky as air raid signals go off - on Presidents' Day no less! (B) To the Republicans trying to undermine support for Ukraine here (C) To buck up the Ukrainians with at least another year of war ahead (D) To Russia if it thought its proxies here could really undermine this country's foreign policy (E) To China amid rumors it might support Russia with materiel that maybe its role could be peacekeeper, what with the Chinese Foreign Minister in Moscow today of all days (F) And lastly, a message so profound and obvious even the American News Media can't miss it nor fail to fit it easily into one of the four or five templates it can process. B-Block (14:30) On Russian disinformation through Musk, Carlson, Republicans. C-Block (22:10) My lunch with Joe BidenSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 136: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) The death of baseball's legendary television analyst Tim McCarver, easily one of the most beloved people in the sport, and in broadcasting. I knew him for 42 years and for whatever criticisms he took late in his career from listeners who didn't realize all the other ones were merely doing impressions of him, in 1983 he literally, personally, saved my love of the game. He was a pleasure to work with, and as I have been saying for 20 years, his insight in literally the last 60 seconds of the bottom of the 9th inning of the 7th Game of the most emotional season in baseball history was the television equivalent of Bill Mazeroski's home run to win the 1960 World Series. B-Block (19:55) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Fox News texts are out. Tucker Carlson was afraid Trump would destroy them, but telling the truth about him would tank the stock price. He, Ingraham and Hannity all thought Rudy Giuliani was crazy. The News Chief tried to stop news. Perjury in the Trump Atlanta case? How many people did Senator Fetterman help yesterday? Now that he's proven he can live on his own, why is the Central Park Zoo setting a honey trap to re-capture Flaco the Owl? And can anyone stop the Killer Windows of Russia? (25:48) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Nikki Haley would struggle with the math part of her own Presidential Candidate Mental Competency Test, Ann Coulter makes you feel sympathy for Nikki Haley, and a German choreographer says: I am an artist and you have criticized me, so, I will now smear my dog's feces on your face. C-Block (31:50) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Falcon, Rio, Titan, Torino, and Tundra - five pups with Parvo in Texas (32:50) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: fittingly on the occasion of the loss of a great baseball broadcaster, Thurber's story that begins with the words of another great baseball broadcaster: "The Catbird Seat."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 135: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: If you're wondering if the American Political Media Industrial Complex learned something - anything - from its disastrous stenography of Donald Trump's seven-year-long assault on democracy, the answer is here, and the answer is NO. Mike Pence, who refused to testify to the 1/6 Committee because of EXECUTIVE privilege, last night said he was refusing to testify to Special Counsel Jack Smith's grand jury because of LEGISLATIVE privilege and no reporter called him on the impossibility of both things being true, or the fact that he's trying to evade testified about AN ATTEMPT TO MURDER HIM. Getting even more whitewashing and gaslighting courtesy Robert Costa of CBS and Maggie Haberman was Nikki Haley's presidential candidacy announcement. It was barely noted that she was one of the first mainstream Republicans to sell her soul to Trump, and she then did his evil bidding at the U.N., announcing the move of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem simply to satisfy the religious nuts who believed it was necessary before all the Jews could be converted and all the good little evangelicals can get their asses raptured. Political Media only understands four or five story templates and still won't take sedition and fascism seriously, nor call out the "Republicans" who helped Trump and now are pretending to distance themselves from his evil. It's unconscionable, and if they're not going to call out the Pences and Haleys, I'm going to call THEM out. B-Block (19:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Smith also subpoenas Mark Meadows, and the death of Raquel Welch, which requires the telling of the extraordinary Peter Cook story from his movie with her, "Bedazzled." (22:20) IN SPORTS: The day they tweet $185,000,000 signee Jacob deGrom was "clocking in," he clocked out with the all-too-familiar non-injury injury. And if your team is on a Bally Sports Network: oops, they may be going bankrupt. (25:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Indiana Congresswoman born in Ukraine has the nerve to compare the NewsMax/DirecTV story to totalitarianism; Same Sex couple parental rights at risk; and the two idiot Tennessee Republicans who want to rename "John Lewis Way" after Donald Trump. C-Block (31:15) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Guiness (32:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was actually asked on a New York street yesterday what the greatest thing my father ever said. So I had to explain. And explain how it then wound up coming out of Jeff Daniels' mouth on the 7th Episode of HBO's "Newsroom."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 134: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: We are owned by guns, and our only way out is Economic Civil War. Why does this supposedly sophisticated nation abide the ritual sacrifice of our children to insane gun owners? Because it makes other people millions of dollars. And when we cross a milestone where one of the Michigan State student-survivors is also a Sandy Hook survivor and at least three of them are also Oxford High student-survivors, we must attack the Gun Lobby, the Death Lobby, the Republican Death Party, and the Red States that harbor these terrorists with the only weapon they fear: Money. The Blue States keep the Red Ones from going bankrupt tomorrow and starving by next week. Let's use it. We must force our Blue State governments to stop contributing money to the Federal Government unless the Red States meet our demands about guns, the disproportionate House and Senate that codifies it, and the bought-and-sold Supreme Court that protects it. The Red States survive on State-to-State Socialism and you know how they hate Socialism. And the constitutional basis for an Economic Civil War? Why, the 2nd Amendment. After all, we are trying to protect "the security of a free State," aren't we? B-Block (18:40) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Special Counsel squeezes a Trump lawyer, Feinstein to retire, Nikki Haley is the next contestant, and Flaco the Eagle-Owl is not really a "zoo escapee" any longer. (22:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Why lookee here! It's Elon Musk, Elon Musk, and then Elon Musk! He really fixed Twitter so his tweets would "win"? What a twerp! C-Block (28:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Joy and Easy, sisters in New York (29:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Many have dreamed of it, but only one of my 438 past bosses actually threatened to kill me, and chased me around the studio to prove he was sincere. The saga of the premiere of "Rita Cosby Tonight" and the man who actually thought I was sabotaging it (as if anybody needed to), MSNBC president Rick Kaplan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 133: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: To try to score cheap political points about the downing of the Chinese Spy Balloon, Marjorie Taylor Greene stood before an Idaho Lincoln Day Dinner and defecated on the memory of the dead of 9/11 and the heroes of Flight 93. She actually claimed that the argument that shooting it down over the mainland was "bullshit" because "Do you guys remember on 9/11 when an airplane crashed in Pennsylvania? A jetliner? Remember that? It didn't kill anybody on the ground! It killed everyone on board! But it didn't kill anyone on the ground!" She must resign from Congress immediately, or be expelled, because even for her this is disgraceful and intolerable. B-Block (15:17) IN SPORTS: The "temporary" Extra Innings Ghost Runner becomes permanent. Baseball has always survived the idiocy of those who run it, as evidenced by the new research of how the old Washington Senators preferred Jim Busby to some guy named Mickey Mantle (22:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Bono and U2 get in bed with a guy using illicit Facial Recognition technology; The College Board talks big, does nothing, to Ron DeFascist; The backlash over 'The Black National Anthem' at the Super Bowl. Moron Benny Johnson not only says it should be illegal, but asks what if there were a 'White National Anthem.' Have I got a surprise for Benny. C-Block (29:45) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Daniel, in Texas (30:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It is now exactly 43 years since the masters of UPI Radio got the rookie - me - drunk at the 1980 Olympics and then sent me to cover the Men's Downhill in the -50 wind chill of Whiteface Mountain. I somehow got myself there, but I did not get all my equipment with me and boy was THAT a surprise.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 132: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: We'll get Breaking Balloon News out of the way: four in eight days IS a lot, but our ability to recognize them grew exponentially after the first one, and experts suggest the Pentagon has been flummoxed by unknown aerial craft for years. Meanwhile, Trump's newest Classified Documents crime may seem trivial but is extraordinarily important. Giving docs to a campaign staffer to scan into a laptop and a thumb drive is a textbook violation of 18 US Code 798 (a) "DISCLOSURE OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION." And it raises a peck of new questions: why did CNN identify the staffer in a tweet, then delete the tweet without explanation? What do you mean the staffer they named spent time studying in Russia? Was the laptop attached to the internet? Were the classified documents transferred to ANOTHER computer? What was the thumb drive for? And honestly, couldn't Trump's newest new newer lawyer come up with a better excuse for Trump having the classified documents folder in his bedroom than "he liked to use it to cover the light on his phone that used to interrupt his sleep?" B-Block (18:36) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: My gun rights are more important than your physics, said the late gun rights advocate to the MRI staff. Matt Gaetz invites the wrong Vet. And Chris Licht's latest idea to save CNN is: Charles Barkley doing the news. (23:13) IN SPORTS: Not only was the Super Bowl decided on a penalty that they might as well have called "Defensive Sneezing," but those gambling ads are going to make outcomes like this look worse and worse. Plus one of those commercials seems to have purloined my catchphrase; Fox again finds the worst ex-baseball player to join its baseball show; and ESPN - and I - mourn our veteran producer Barry Sacks. C-Block (32:45) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Theodore, in St. Louis (33:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: YOU think the Super Bowl controversy is that lousy holding call with 1:52 left. Today in Washington, the political media thinks the Super Bowl Controversy is the fact that President Biden didn't do an interview with Fox for the Pre-Game Show! As somebody who hosted that show AND a presidential inauguration in a span of thirteen days, I can tell you that the politicos have no clue how unpopular politicians who inject themselves into sportscasts are. I came thisclose to having to do "that" interview in 2009 and I tried to get them to just cancel it. The President who does not a news interview on Super Bowl Sunday but instead puts $100 Million of the nation's money on a series of prop bets and does an interview about THAT will get himself re-elected.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 131: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: The latest on Trump Special Counsel Smith subpoenaing Mike Pence. And the Republicans extended their collective self-own to 48 hours as "The Weaponization Subcommittee" meets and points the weapon at itself. The star FBI whistleblower witness turns out to have retired from the bureau in 1999 and gets decimated by Rep. Dan Goldman; the star "Twitter Legal" expert turns out to be Jonathan Turley and he gets destroyed by Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. As Tulsi Gabbard testifies, a Republican literally falls asleep; as Chuck Grassley testifies he insists Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians in 2016 to make sure she...lost? It's worse than a farce; it's a farce that even Fox News won't televise. And it hides the reality that there SHOULD be a weaponization investigation and it should be pointed at the Barr-Durham Investigation, and that the ever-unfolding story of the arrested ex-FBI agent Charles McGonigal. New reporting on McGonigal suggests he could have been a blackmail victim, and that those two separate criminal indictments(working for Trump-friendly Russian Oleg Deripaska, and meddling in Albanian politics) may actually be part of only one giant conspiracy. B-Block (19:12) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: George Santos's new dog scandal comes to you live from the town of Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania; Nancy Faust pays tribute to the late Burt Bacharach (23:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Elon Musk thinks Twitter is suppressing his tweets and reportedly fires those who disagree with him; Ron Johnson defends himself against the charge that he wanted to privatize Social Security by confirming he wanted to privatize Social Security; and Rick Scott TRIES to defend himself against the same charge by invoking one name eight times in four minutes. The name is - inexplicably - Jake Tapper. C-Block (29:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Snuggle, looking to be adopted in Miami (29:55) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Rudy Giuliani gets his "preserve all documents" lawyer letter from Hunter Biden's attorney. You may think Rudy went bad in 2020, or 2007, or some time after his peak in 9/11. Actually - trust me - even I knew he was a hallucinating jerk, as long ago as 1995.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 130: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: I want to congratulate House Oversight Committee Chairman Comer for letting the Democrats hijack his Hunter Biden express and turn it into "Would you like me to give the direct quote? Chrissy Teigen referred to Donald Trump as a 'pussy ass bitch.'" The Republicans made every mistake they could make, down to not being able to keep the lights on in the hearing room. Elsewhere in Washington, while the GOP continued to insist Biden was lying and none of its members ever called to cut, re-define, sunset, or privatize Social Security, the White House produced reports and proposals and quotes and videos from Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Mike Pence, Lindsey Graham, and dozens of other Republicans to do exactly that. And if you needed a punchline: two organizations whined about Biden's speech. One was the Republican Party and the other was...the Chinese Communist Party. B-Block (15:02) IN SPORTS: NHL shoots itself over Pride Night yet again. Home team doesn't show up for its own game. College hoops game delayed because they installed the court wrong! (19:10) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Who crashed Twitter and Instagram and Pokemon Go and all the other key apps and sites? Even Project Veritas has had enough of Little Jimmy O'Keefe. And book-banning in Florida has now extended to works about Henry Aaron, Roberto Clemente - and Jackie Robinson! C-Block (24:30) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Gemma in New York (25:33) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A listener asks 'how many people HAVE tried to get you fired?' Well I have a team working on trying to get an estimate within 100, but for now I've got the story of the Major League Baseball team that actually got me fired from a network before I even started a new job at the sport's network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 129: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: The State of the Union Address has long since become an anachronism; devolving into a series of insiders talking to insiders and pointing to ordinary citizens as if they were creatures on display at a zoo; e a ritual with the meaning sucked out of it; an ever-louder arguing for resuming what President Thomas Jefferson first thought to do: to just write the damn speech and have somebody else drop it off at the House Chamber door And against that backdrop of near-obsolescence, President Joe Biden absolutely KILLED The State of the Union last night. At his finest, at his most robust, at his most combative, in his element, in the arena, throwing punches, blocking the hecklers, and unashamedly exploiting the undeniable advantage of having the only microphone in the room, he delivered a masterpiece. I don’t know how many of these I have heard and how many of the claims and promises and attitudes and catchphrases and applause lines I have heard at 9:30 and forgotten by 11, but this one I’ll remember: roads and infrastructure and education and insulin caps and unfair taxes and hidden service fees and cable costs and raising teachers’ pay and quadrupling the stock buyback tax, and non-compete clauses for fast food cashiers and “The Talk” and “Something Good Must Come From This” and “Do Something” and “Ban Assault Weapons Now” And without one of them ever seeing it coming, he provided the coup-de-grace: baiting the Republicans into loudly and embarrassingly shouting and bleating and denying what they’ve all been murmuring about all week: baiting the Republicans into insisting no, they don’t want to gut social security and medicare. And thank you to Marjorie Tailor Greene as Cruella deVil and Kyrsten Sinema as Tweety after the car airbags had inflated and especially Trump for choosing, of all days, the afternoon of the SOTU to accuse Ron DeSantis of "grooming high school girls." Few political speeches are great. Fewer still are masterpieces. THAT was an actual masterpiece. B-Block (13:29) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Flaco the escaped Central Park Zoo Eagle-Owl RETURNS to the zoo...and then leaves again for Wollman Rink but is scared away by the unbelievably loud P.A. system? (14:56) IN SPORTS: Aaron Rodgers doesn't know people close their blinds when they go to sleep and LeBron James once tried to get an ESPN sportscaster fired because he thought she was mean to him? (17:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: American opinion weaponizes against The New McCarthyism and Kevin McCarthy's "Weaponization" subcommittee while George Santos may bring Lee Zeldin down with him, and a London tabloid anoints a dark horse GOP presidential candidate for 2024. Or maybe it's 2022. Or maybe it's 2020. They refer to all three! C-Block (22:30) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Nigel, in New York (23:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Joe Biden's State of the Union last night may have been an epic all-timer. The 1998 one came at the very start of the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal and MSNBC didn't choose an anchor for its coverage until almost the last minute. Imagine my surprise when that anchor turned out to be... ME.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 128: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Before he begins tonight's State of the Union Address, President Biden should pull his aviators out of his pocket and slap them on, reach under the lectern and pull out a shredded Chinese balloon and drape it in front of himself, and reach under again and produce an AIM-9X Sidewinder Missile and rest it on his shoulder. It's ridiculous hyperbole of course. But how much MORE ridiculous than Bush's Flight Suit and Mission Accomplished speech? Democrats have no clue how stupid half the country (or more) really is, and how easily that half can be manipulated by stunts, theater, shiny objects, crotch bulges in flight suits, braggadocio, nonsense, outright lies, and other tactics Republicans mastered decades ago. How stupid are they? When Karine Jean-Pierre reminded reporters they'd been given "Tick Tocks" (journalistic jargon for minute-by-minute timelines), The Daily Caller and Fox News both jumped to the asinine conclusion that the secrets of the nation were being distributed on TIK-TOK. This is how dumb they are, and they are not getting less so. Bring a Sidewinder with you, Mr. President. B-Block (18:50) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Did a Federal Judge just notice a flaw in the SCOTUS overturn of Roe-V-Wade that might reinstate it? Samuel Alito's Mom's Abortion Clinic? And Flaco seems about to check back in to his old home. (21:48) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Elon Musk, joke plagiarist, fake news spreader, safety disaster; Confirmation that NewsMax wanted to raise its price to DirecTV from $0 to $13,000,000. And the Bill Maher numbers are in and - guess what - he did not make the slightest difference in CNN's implosion. C-Block (28:34) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Pandora, in Philadelphia (29:47) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's basically the anniversary of the day the geniuses at MSNBC would've lost Maddow to CNN because Larry King offered her $250 and unbeknownst to me we weren't paying her anything.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 127: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: It is carefully hidden to protect the sources, but there's no question in my mind now: The New York Times' profile of the arrested ex-FBI New York Executive Charles McGonigal implies that FBI and DOJ are investigating whether he was working for Oleg Deripaska, employer of Paul Manafort who was Trump's Campaign Manager - FOR FREE - long before he retired from the Bureau. I go through the Times piece line-by-line and the phrasing, the invoking of an earlier Russian Spy in McGonigal's own FBI department, the terminology, is all groundwork for later stories that could fully reengage this country with the reality of Trump's 2016 Conspiracy with Russia - and how the FBI's New York Office may have knowingly or unknowingly played a part on both ends of that fetid deal. B-Block (19:53) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Gang Of 8 offered Trump Dock-Drama briefing; "Jim Dial" dies; Flaco the missing Central Park Owl? He's over at my place (24:32) IN SPORTS: Conspiracy nut Kyrie Irving dealt to Dealey Plaza; NHL tries to pretend its sudden homophobia problem/Pride Night disaster crisis is just going to go away (27:55) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Inside SCOTUS (in)security and use of private emails; Jenna Ellis is a moron; a Mississippi state rep goes full racist about the Chinese balloon. C-Block (34:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Andre, in New York (34:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Schmuck Todd did it again. Another Republican Congressman lied to him about the five Chinese Recon Balloons sighted during the Trump Administration and Chuck said "duh, ok." What it was like to work with - and spend ten years in a fantasy football league with - Chuckles The Clown.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 126: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: The New McCarthyism of Kevin McCarthy goes on full display. He has the nerve to complain of Ilhan Omar's seeming antisemitism that she said "I didn't now there's a trope when it comes to referring to somebody who is Jewish, with money." Yet in 2018 McCarthy himself tweeted "We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election!" - as obvious a "Jewish With Money" trope as there could be. And McCarthy is still demanding spending cuts without once saying where the cuts should be. And now he's proposing a Congressional hearing into DirecTV refusing to pay $20,000,000 to NewsMax for that which NewsMax was charging it $0. And yet the only event that could actually cost him, was refusing to concur with Marjorie Traitor Greene that Ashli Babbitt was "murdered." Also: Bill Barr defends the Durham Farce and the Los Angeles Times makes him sound as high as a Chinese Spy Balloon. B-Block (15:27) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: One America News, leading Paul Pelosi Conspiracy Conveyor, has clearly been scared into honesty. An Illinois woman embezzled 100,000 Chicken Wings. And a Nebraska senator has come up with the last impediment to voting that the fascists had forgot to impose. (20:15) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His best known, and probably his best, short story: The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. C-Block (35:50) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Sweetheart, in Texas; (37:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I'm sure you've all made a commercial, but did you fall off a cliff while doing so? Did your commercial bankrupt the company? Aha! Let me learn you some things.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 125: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Do 15 words in The New York Times' infamous Halloween clearing of Trump on Russia identify one of the anonymous governmental sources of the lie as the just-arrested ex-FBI agent Charles McGonigal? Does the timeline of what the FBI New York office did with the Anthony Weiner laptop also suggest that the man who helped force the Comey Letter is...Charles McGonigal? Did the DOJ just arrest someone on lesser charges in hopes of getting him to flip on Trump, or the FBI New York leakers, or others in the Trump-Russia Conspiracy? Someone named...Charles McGonigal? The analysis by author Greg Olean finds potential smoking guns everywhere. And did FBI interference on Trump's behalf ever stop? A new Congressman presses the DOJ to investigate William Barr and John Durham, and - another election, another laptop - Hunter Biden goes on offense and demands the DOJ and the state of Delaware investigate Trumpland figures including Rudy Giuliani for stealing the contents of his laptop, and trafficking in them. B-Block (19:25) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Melody in Arkansas (20:38) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Tom Brady retired. Again. SURRRRRE he did. The College Board caves to Ron DeSantis - time to put them out of business. And a nitwitted Freshman Congressman from Missouri named Burlison not only compares DirecTV refusing to pay to carry NewsMax to the holocaust, but tries to ad lib Pastor Niemoller's "First, they came for the Socialists." Too bad about DirecTV being "de-platformed" and Burlison now having absolutely no place left in Right Wing Media to go to whine about being silenced. C-Block (34:49) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Sure the FBI New York bureau may have fixed the 2016 election to Trump, but literally they're not all bad. In fact, I'm a satisfied customer. They did a helluva job each time some guy mailed me what he claimed was Anthrax in 2006.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 124: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: At a time when the all the forces that can be brought to bear against democracy, against diversity, against more voters more often in more convenient ways, are being brought; when the liberal viewpoint on cable news has never more important, has never been under greater threat from both market-forces and more transparent fascism; when the premise of such 24/7 coverage has never been closer to extinction, the people running the last surviving liberal and moderate outlets have the solution to the crisis: MSNBC will give you more Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert guest hits, and CNN is going to bring you, in prime time, once a week... Gayle King! B-Block (22:37) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Akira in New York (23:36) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Oh, NOW CBS reports that days after Biden's lawyers first found documents, they invited the FBI to search the Think Tank; Santos recusing from committees; McCarthy thinks this'll give him time to "clear things up" LOL; Military Coup in Moscow? And self-referential news: a million downloads in one month! (26:56) IN SPORTS: When you're turning to Hope Hicks to help your image, your image is in baaaaad shape. And that 13-year old Women's Basketball JV player? She was just a little old (30:16) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jesse Watters accidentally speaks the truth, the Schlapp victim sues again, and actress Andrea Riseborough gets away with it. C-Block (34:48) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 16 years ago, then Senator Joe Biden invited me to lunch to ask my advice. About what? What did I care? He asked for my ADVICE! Actually it was about converting anger into righteous indignation and I take no credit for this but I will ask you: when was the last time you heard somebody throw the old charge at him that he's a "hot head?"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 123: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: "You have a lot of folks who are just waiting for his mortal demise," says former Michigan Republican Congressman Peter Meijer. "I've heard from a lot of people who will go onstage and put on the red hat and then give me a call the next day and say 'I can't wait until this guy dies.'" It's an amazing strategy but a passive one. And it ignores the various walls closing in on Trump: two District Attorneys, three Grand Juries, one Judiciary Chairman annoyed at John Durham and William Barr, one Judiciary Chairman rebuffed by Merrick Garland, one porn star, and one guy named Pecker. Still, potentially the most extraordinary story about Trump: the clouds gathering around the arrest of Charlie McGonigal, who was a 24/7, 365 days a year, hot and cold running blackmail-victim-FBI-Agent-waiting-to-happen. And now two analysts look at his arrest and suggest: this may evolve into a) a spy scandal in which the national security was utterly breached and b) a journalistic disaster in which Trump, Russia, and the FBI managed to manipulate The New York Times into pushing Trump across the finish line in 2016. B-Block (18:53) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Memphis, in Texas (20:06) IN SPORTS: The passing of hockey's Bobby Hull and Cleveland's John Adams; Why was the 52nd best player in baseball chosen to adorn the cover of its top video game? And happy 206th birthday, J. Shorthouse, Esq. (24:07) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: More George Santos stupidity, a Florida Climate Caucus Congresswoman who owns up to $195k in oil stocks, and Megyn Kelly slams Jill Biden for something her own father did. C-Block (29:56) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: CNN has gone and done it: addressing its cratering ratings by adding a regular Friday segment from Bill Maher's HBO panel. Time again to go back to 2009 when Bill and I nearly brawled at his HBO after-party because he insisted we never met in college (spoiler alert: Oh yeah we did).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 122: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: Watch the video of the torture and murder of Tyre Nichols by the Memphis police, and read what they first claimed had happened to him, and the unmistakable truth is confirmed anew: We are all hostages to the police. More directly, more urgently, more fatally - for people of color. But all the rest of us, too. Police who kill other than as a last, unavoidable act to protect the community are no longer police for any of us, and if they can be trained to kill because of race, they can be trained to kill because of politics, or sexual orientation, or because of whoever those who trained them want them to kill. B-Block (19:19) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Olive, the mini-pug, in New Jersey. (20:16) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: A motive for FBI election tamperer Charles McGonigal: he was leading a double life; Trump's domes and binoculars; the ratings of CNN and MSNBC crash and burn but thank god NBC didn't have to deal with the controversy of bringing me back! (26:00) IN SPORTS: White Sox retain Benetti, Super Bowl set on the dumbest penalty in years, Pride Night without the Pride or the explanation. (29:46) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: THE Associated Press insults THE French, General Ripper rides again, and the vapid CNN host who says the Memphis police didn't murder Tyre Nichols. C-Block (35:26) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: On the subject of the cratering of cable news, did I ever tell you how Lawrence O'Donnell tried to take Countdown away from me while I was taking care of my dying father? Or how he stole two of my senior producers to run his new show? Or how he leaked a personal letter of mine to Ann Coulter? Or how his ratings are now down below where MSNBC's were in 2003?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 121: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Yesterday I proposed that to crowd this corrupt Republican farce, "The Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Government" off the stage, the Democrats needed a similar investigation in the Senate. Suddenly there are far more important reasons than politics and counter-programming. The New York Times' post-mortem on The Durham "Investigation" shows ethical corner cutting and possible criminality. And the deeper dives into the ex-FBI agent arrested Monday show the outlines of the possibility Charles McGonigal took Russian money long before 2021. What if these are just two pictures of the same conspiracy taken at different times? What if this is ALL about an effort to protect Russian Government Intelligence Agencies, and Trump? And even worse: what if The New McCarthyism of the "Weaponization" subcommittee is just the newest photo of the same cover-up? Start that investigation now, Senators. B-Block (14:57) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Cookie, in Ft. Lauderdale (16:07) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Sports Owner James Dolan-Moron; Fascist Congressmen threaten an investigation of one company refusing to start paying another company for a product it currently gets for free; and George "Jew-Ish" Santos turns out to have posted offensive Hitler jokes (22:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Numerology time. One birthday boy's greatest scoop, about a guy whose birthday was the day before, that aired on 8/8/88. C-Block (28:43) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His epic story of deception and the Brooklyn Dodgers: "The Catbird Seat."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 120: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: We must act now against The New McCarthyism, or lose the Republic. With Trump restored to Facebook, dispatching Coke Jr and recording a video sending KEVIN McCarthy instructions for this insidious "Weaponization Subcommittee," the Democrats must literally counter-program. The Senate must crowd the Jim Jordan Star Chamber off the public stage by holding its own hearings (the suppression of the Mueller Report; the actions of just-arrested FBI agent and now Russian oligarch advisor Charles McGonigal in the infamous Comey Letter of October 2016; anything will do). Trump smells the opportunity to turn truth into falsehood, and falsehood into truth. We must stop him and The New McCarthyism - and damn fast. B-Block (15:25) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Huggin, in New York (16:21) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Sapphire's successor is finally on the way; the man behind audience participation at "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has passed; and a bad day for Joe Rogan and Fred Roggin (20:14)THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: HOW many people watched baseball's Hall of Fame announcement on the network it owns? Marge can see her reflection in a mirror. And the RWNJ who thinks Damar Hamlin didn't recover from his cardiac arrest and is actually dead and the vaccine killed him - because some people are just insensitive morons. C-Block (25:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: With the Republicans now offering to place one of their presidential primary debates on CNN or MSNBC, time to recall the day they starkly told Tom Brokaw what HE had to do if they really expected John McCain to show up to the debate Brokaw would moderate in his swan song for NBC News: get me fired.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 119: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) OF McGONIGAL, DERIPASKA, AND MANAFORT, Part 1: Even at this late date, the ex-FBI executive arrested Saturday, Charles McGonigal, could put Donald Trump in jail forever. McGonigal is not only facing prison for working for Russian oligarch and election conspiracist Oleg Deripaska, but when the FBI revived the "But Her Emails" smear against Hillary Clinton 11 days before the 2016 election and three days later leaked it had "cleared" Trump, McGonigal was the head of the FBI's 2016 Trump-Russia investigation. He's the centerpiece of TWO of the plots to install Trump, and his arrest should start the entire investigation of the Trump-Russia Conspiracy. B-Block (13:34) OF McGONIGAL, DERIPASKA, AND MANAFORT, Part 2: McGonigal, like Paul Manafort, became an employee of Putin crony Deripaska. It's time again to examine Manafort, in bed with Deripaska to the tune of $60,000,000 and appearing in front of Tom Barrack right after Trump lost the Iowa Caucuses saying "I've got to GET TO TRUMP." His story, and the timeline that led McGonigal to a prison cell. C-Block (31:55) OF McGONIGAL, DERIPASKA, AND MANAFORT, Part 3: Suddenly the picture looks so familiar: emails, a computer, gaslighting. It's time to remember the horrible feeling of the morning the sun did not rise: November 9, 2016, and to launch either a Senate or Presidential investigation of the successful Trump-Russia plot to install him in the White House before they succeed again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 118: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Trump-Russia story roared back from the dead yesterday and basically nobody noticed. They've arrested retired FBI agent Charles McGonigal, of the lead FBI investigators of 2016 Russian Electoral Interference by Putin-friendly Russian oligarch Oleg Derpiaska. The allegation? That McGonigal has spent the last year secretly working FOR OLEG DERIPASKA. And if that doesn't make you scratch your head, remember that one of Deripaska's employees was a consultant named Paul Manafort and by total coincidence one of Trump's campaign managers was a consultant named Paul Manafort. Plus updates on Biden's documents (we're up to EIGHT different stories now) and how the Arizona Senate race just changed, activating Kyrsten Sinema's aversion to three-ways. B-Block (16:28) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Robin; (17:42) IN SPORTS: Angels not for sale, Hall of Fame may not get any electees; Local newscaster struggles with the hockey name "Canucks." And "Boudreau." And "Tocchet." (23:27) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mike Pompeo smears Jamal Khashoggi, Elon Musk again, and the M&M Nonsense fight for the honors. C-Block (29:08) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since it's baseball Hall of Fame announcement day, the story of the time I was asked at age 20 to call Willie Mays after he was banned from the game. A woman answered. Or it sounded like a woman. But it also sounded like Willie. And that's when the fun began.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 117: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: I do not believe Joe Biden and/or his team mishandled any classified documents. Unfortunately, it’s clear Joe Biden and/or his team mishandled the messaging, the process, and the narrative. If you have to tell seven different stories in two weeks, it begins to matter less and less that you were totally cooperative and proactive and invited the feds to search, and it begins to look more and more like that oldest of presidential story templates: It no longer looks like what the president said it was. Happily there are several things the president can still did to regain the narrative and smash the undeserved gift his team handed the inquisition-happy Republicans and the pudding-brained American political-media complex so desperate for a Democratic scandal that Peter Baker actually wrote a piece comparing Biden's papers to Clinton-Lewinsky! And he better do them TODAY. B-Block (16:25) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Sebastian; (17:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Brett Kavanaugh Sexual Assault documentary, Revised Edition, plus George Santos, and the SCOTUS Investigation that wasn't really an investigation. (20:14) IN SPORTS: Trump praises Trump, The Golfer Of Strength And Stamina. Hockey's Vancouver Canucks screw up again. A month until Spring Training games and the chaos of the new rules. And my secret method to make sure all batting averages actually go up (24:36) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Nikki Haley doesn't know what the "P" in VP stands for, the lights are on but no one's home, and Greg Abbott's epic twitter self-own. C-Block (29:13) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Talk about White Houses trying to control the narrative: in 2004 George W. Bush's people were a) convinced I was on their side b) knew I was only interviewing Iraq War critic Ambassador Joe Wilson in order to savage him c) decided to help me by emailing all their talking points but d) couldn't figure out how to spell my name. Hilarity ensued (and all they wound up doing was revealing to me all of "their" people at NBC News.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 116: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) Alina Habba! C'mon Down! You're the next contestant on YOU TRUSTED TRUMP! His lawyer sanctioned $937,989.39 for being stupid enough to file Trump's stunt-suit against Hillary Clinton. Just part of a day in which it sure sounded as if Trump has gotten a role of stamps and mailed it in for 2024, low lighted by what could be the new somnambulant campaign slogan: "TRUMP 2024! SO IT GOES." (7:45) Trump invokes the Supreme Court leak, leaving me to wonder: if there was a crime, why wasn't the FBI or the cops investigating it and not...the Court itself? (9:06) The first lie George Santos addresses is the Drag Queen story and his big flex is "I don't kill dogs"? And he manages non-denial denials on both (12:04) And there are three new January 6th Defendants, all Marines in Military Intelligence and that magic phrase offers happy memories of George Carlin. B-Block (17:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Uptown, in New York (18:12) IN SPORTS: Time for Tony Dungy's annual humiliation of NBC Sports, and the Philadelphia Flyers double down on the Pride Night disaster that threatens to turn the NHL into the "National Homophobia League" (23:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The New York Times competes with two different state governors - one Democrat, one Republican. C-Block (28:13) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Of spies, schemes, string beans, and falling asleep mid-fantasy: "The Lady on 142."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.