Podcasts about b block

SERIES 2 EPISODE 41: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has gotten up in Iowa and announced if he again seizes power he will invoke the Alien Enemies Act and declare America has been INVADED and quote “immediately” detain and deport non-citizens of his choice who are older than 14 Not undocumented immigrants. Non-citizens. People who are here legally. People who are working TOWARDS becoming citizens. DACA's and Dreamers and Refugees and Immigrants. At his sole discretion: The Alien Enemies Act gives the president the authority to detain ANYONE – but on the pretext that he is “removing all known or suspected gang members… drug dealers, cartel members from the United States…” Suspected. Suspected by him. So, anybody who isn't a citizen. Anybody. Anybody. Anybody out of 22,000,000 non-citizens. The president immediately gains this power for himself, when he quote “makes public proclamation” that a quote “invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation”and THAT is why you hear the Boeberts and Greenes and Stephen Millers talk endlessly of “invasion” and Trump's rivals climb all over each other to threaten war-by-other-names against Mexico. Oh but Trump didn't do it last time! History is littered with the bones – literally – of those who thought that because a madman did not do the most mad thing he said he would do… THAT time that he'd never do it. It is its own form of madness to think Trump's first actual policy statement in nearly three years that wasn't about the 2020 election is just for show. It is its own form of madness to forget Trump's promise of retribution, and his own burning, seething, sadistic, animating sense of vengeance. And where do these detained non-citizens go? These places would in fact be camps, of some kind, and the living arrangements would necessarily be cramped, crowded, congested, confined — oh, what IS the word I'm looking for? Concentrated! That's it! The camps would be concentrated. Camps. With Concentration. B-Block (27:12) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Rupert Murdoch retires to become Chairman Emeritus of Fox and News Corp. This is a man so evil that a dying television playwright with three months to live literally said he named his cancer "Rupert" after Murdoch so he had something to fight, and that if he hadn't wanted to spend his last months creating a new series, he would've murdered Murdoch on behalf of mankind. This was 29 years ago. This man is Osama Bin-Journalist. Stop rationalizing that he deserves some kind of praise because he dominated his field. So has Trump. So did Hitler. The story of writer Dennis Potter and Rupert - and how Rupert fired me personally, after I followed his rules. And may he burn in hell and the sooner the better. C-Block (55:20) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His delightful story of every great dog you had to - and willingly made - excuses for: "The Dog That Bit People."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 40: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has descended into full-fledged panic over the Possible Gag Order and either he is exaggerating for effect – what a shock – or, more likely, his lawyers, preparing an answer to Jack Smith's request to Judge Chutkan that is due Monday, told him SOMETHING that set his hair on fire and you know the dangers of combustion when spray paint is mixed with open flames. And that imagery is more than a joke about his bottle blondness. It is a forecast of things to come. We are headed to a legal crisis over Trump's social media posts and his refusal to accede to the rule of law and I don't know where this ends but at the far end of political science fiction, where it ends is a shootout between United States Marshals and United States Secret Service. His bail – his NOT being held in a jail cell in the District of Columbia until trial starts – is dependent on him NOT defying the law. As I said last week, at some point, whatever limitations Chutkan imposes upon him, WHEN he violates them, whether it's the first time or the fiftieth – he is NOT going to surrender. He is not going to let them put him in prison. They are going to have to go and get him. And what happens THEN? It seems madness to risk the lives of Marshals or Secret Service to protect this semi-sentient pile of feces. But, what? You're going to have the Secret Service agents protecting him turn around an arrest him? Biden is going to order the head of the Secret Service to order his men to stand down when the Marshals arrive? Trump is going to see the photo-shoot-value in an actual perp walk? I'm not counting on the last one. Rolling Stone now reports that as you'd expect, the I-don't-think-about-jail crap he gave to the gullible Kristen Welker in last Sunday's stenography class is nonsense. Quoting: “In the past several months, Donald Trump has had a burning question for some of his confidants and attorneys: Would the authorities make him wear, quote, “one of those jumpsuits” in prison?... Three sources familiar with his comments say he's been aking lawyers and other people close to him what a prison sentence would look like for a former American president. Would he be sent to a ‘club fed' style prison… or a bad prison? Would he serve out a sentence in a plush home confinement?... those who've heard him ask these questions about a hypothetical sentencing tell Rolling Stone that it's clear the gravity of his mounting legal peril is GETTING to Trump." As an aside, I understand Jann Wenner is asking the same questions. Also: Cassidy Hutchinson's book includes a sexual assault accusation against Rudy Giuliani. It's the worst sexual misconduct accusation against him in nearly four months. Also Lin Wood flips on the entire Trump crowd. And a tweet from Junior Trump announces his father had died. He was hacked. We think. B-Block (18:45) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: JD Vance sets some kind of record by averaging more than one lie per sentence in a tweet about an "American journalist held hostage by Ukraine" who is none of the above. Congresswoman Victoria Spartz asks Merrick Garland a question and if he's still thinking about the hearing he's probably asking 'what the hell did she SAY?' And James O'Keefe's obsession with becoming a musical star has now led to the closure of Project (In Vino) Veritas. But who will think of the cast of O'Keefe-Homa!? C-Block (25:39) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: If Rudy is back in the news then the question: "what happened to Rudy?" is also back in the news and I'll give you the answer: whatever it is, it happened in 1995 or earlier.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 39: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: NOW the Deep State has done it! NOW the Deep State has made its 27-Dimensional Chess move to cement the place of THE conspiracy in place and it will be left only to a few patriots and the Dilbert Guy to carry the torch of truth. Because WE knew it didn't add up because Ray Epps had never been charged and now the evil genius bastards have CHARGED RAY EPPS. He could get up to 90 days and be fined maybe 500 dollars! American! The conspiracy to frame Donald Trump is the greatest conspiracy in the history of the world and it was designed to make it look like Trump lost the 2020 election and destroy Jon Voight's chances of winning a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscars and make Joe Rogan look stupid. Well, MORE stupid. And then when the LEAK happened – the provocateur – the FBI plant who started it all and whose fault it all is – Ray Epps talked all the Trump supporters into going into the Capitol even though the other part of the conspiracy says everybody who went INTO the Capitol was Antifa - when it was revealed by the investigative team of Maria Bartiromo and Cat Turd that the feds left one nearly invisible loose thread – that the Deep State claimed Ray Epps wasn't a plant yet they never CHARGED Ray Epps, they suddenly DID charge Ray Epps yesterday and the masterminds behind this vast earth-shattering conspiracy decided to cover their tracks and silence all protest forever by…charging him with one misdemeanor count of disruptive conduct and he's pleading guilty today. And yet there it is, across Right Wing Looney Tunes land, the utter conviction, the absolute certainty from each of them that they alone have noticed that Epps was charged with one negligible offense and has seemingly already made a plea deal and that the rest of the world didn't notice – everybody but Catturd, who valiantly stood up and braved assassination probably by typing “You're not fooling anyone, Feds!" Oh god are they stupid. And The Stupid was all around the circuit yesterday: somebody used Matt Gaetz's printer to produce a copy of his resolution to oust McCarthy as Speaker, then left it in a Baby-Changing Station to be found by a reporter. Tim Scott was stupid enough to attack unions. Trump attacked Biden with the 25th Amendment and got everything ABOUT the 25th Amendment wrong. And 46 Republican Senators wrote a letter complaining about the relaxed attire rules in the Senate when the owner of their party wears bronzer, spray paints his hair, and lives inside a baseball cap. B-Block (19:52) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Peter Baker thinks the job of the president of the United States has actually been made tougher by something written by a guy who is evidently a columnist for The Washington Post. Add it to the list: Trump either doesn't know how the 25th Amendment work or thinks his cultists don't. And a Texas school district fires a teacher for reading The Diary of Anne Frank to 8th Graders because it was too sexy. C-Block (27:32) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: My least favorite near-death experience? United Nations Week here in Fun City! My MOST favorite near-death experience? When the president of MSNBC chased me around the studios threatening to destroy me. God that was funny.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 38: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump staffers are flipping faster than fry cooks at Fat Burger!  two MORE of his gang members have flipped on him. Flipped on him evidently without getting anything in return even immunity. In one case, serving as a de facto government agent gathering and bringing in EVIDENCE against Trump. And in the other, flipping on him without – apparently – telling the truth: just making stuff up about him to save themselves by sinking HIM. In an almost comedic turn, Trump assistant/Gal Friday/factotum Molly Michael is telling federal investigators that he used to write to-do lists for her on the BACKS OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS HE HAD IMPROPERLY RETAINED. Documents with visible classification MARKINGS on them. Handed to Trump. IN the Oval Office. Which he used as scrap paper and handed to the lowest level White House staffer. They wouldn't have accepted it as a plot device on “Veep.” The To-Do Doo-Doo. Also according to ABC News, Trump found out LAST YEAR that the FBI wanted to talk to her, so he told her – she says - quote “You don't know anything about the boxes,” unquote. Thing is – she still doesn't know what he MEANT by that. There's always money in the banana stand. Meanwhile Jeff Clark – the man who would be Attorney General – has become the fifth of the Trump 19 to try to get his Atlanta charges moved to Federal Court and his lawyer has told the judge that he should grant their motion because of one letter. It's the letter he wrote but was prevented from sending after the 2020 election from the Justice Department to top officials in Georgia saying that the DOJ had reason to doubt that Georgia's election results were legitimate. Clark claims he was told to do so BY Trump, that he couldn't have done so UNLESS Trump told him to. His lawyer told Judge Steve Jones quote “They say he was acting outside of his lane. The president PUT it in his lane,” unquote. Meanwhile it says something that when Trump posts an antisemitic meme and that isn't the lead story. Trump has found and posted a graphic meme that reads quote “Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America and Israel because you believed false narratives! Let's hope you learned from your mistake and make better choices moving forward! Happy New Year!” Last October he also threatened America's Jews and not via meme. He personally said they “have to get their act together… before it is too late!” and had better support him for supporting Israel and once again implied that they were Jewish first and American second and no, the fact that he used to keep a book of Hitler's speeches in a cabinet next to his bed is nothing to worry about. Trump is a dangerous anti-semite. And this iteration is terrifying, because it is about the support of "Evangelicals" and it is a very dark thing indeed because the Evangelicals love Trump because he thinks he's going to help them convert (or get rid of) all the Jews so they can enjoy the Rapture. B-Block (30:52) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Dedicated to Lauren Boebert breaking up with her Beetlejuice beau (at least it had a Happy Ending): Nope, I was right, Maddow said NOTHING about the NBC/MSNBC Welker-Trump disaster. She told me success would ruin her as a person. She got that right. Also Elon Musk thinks he can charge everybody for Twitter. And Bill Maher makes up a phony excuse for backing off his plan to Scab and cross WGA picket lines. Reality was: his career would've ended. C-Block (38:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: How's your right side, just above the belt? Any pain? Any sharp searing blinding you-almost-blacked-out pain after you stick your finger into the area then remove it? Well my friend your appendix is on the fritz! Now don't do what I did 16 years ago and WAIT TO SEE THE DOCTOR UNTIL TWO DAYS LATER WHEN YOU ARE DYING OF SEPTICEMIA!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 37: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) BREAKING: Have Meet The Press staffers including Kristen Welker violated NBC News's own WRITTEN JOURNALISTIC guidelines – what it called “The NBC News Employee Handbook” – in failing to correct or fact-check Trump or in some significant way warn Meet The Press viewers yesterday that he was spreading provable falsehoods on their network in a pre-taped interview that provided NBC News three full days to document those falsehoods? Did NBC News make a deal with Trump's campaign to make sure that didn't happen – to NOT materially fact-check him on-the-air during the disastrous Kristen Welker interview? I do NOT yet know with complete assurance the answer to these questions. I DO know they are among many questions being asked INSIDE NBC right now, in part because of ONE tweet, and in part because of the awful realization that some sort of illicit pre-arrangement is an almost BETTER explanation than that Welker, and Meet The Press, and NBC News, abrogated virtually every one of its journalistic responsibilities in a Chris Licht-level dumpster fire that has left the long time viability of Welker, and her Executive Producer, and the nearly 76 year old program itself, up in the air. I do NOT know for certain that there is an internal investigation. I DO know veterans within NBC News are pushing for one based on the following timeline: Welker and NBC News reporter Dasha Burns were among a dozen Washington insiders who were quote “wining and dining” with Trump thugs Jason Miller, Steven Cheung and Chris LaCivita at a steakhouse called “Rare” the night before the Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee. The dinner was August 22nd, Welker had been named the host-in-waiting for Meet The Press on June 5th, the interview was suddenly announced late in the day last Wednesday, the 13th, conducted on Thursday the 14th. Contacts or discussions between Meet The Press and the Trump campaign about editorial restrictions - at that dinner or elsewhere - would be a major issue. The more PRESSING problem is: at exactly 10 A-M Eastern yesterday, NBC News posted on its website, a fact check of Welker's interview. At 10:13 A-M its “Meet The Press” account tweeted this, verbatim: Quote “Former President Trump made a spate of false and misleading comments about immigration, foreign policy, abortion and more in a wide-ranging interview with Meet The Press moderator Kristen Welker,” unquote. The problem is that the NBC News Employee handbook requires – or required – I was never given one, though I was given access to one, and I haven't personally seen a revised copy and am relying on others quoting it to me – that if they knowingly broadcast or publish lies false or misleading comments or information by anyone in any non-live format without a disclaimer or caveat or… a fact-check – they have violated the NBC News Employee codes and are potentially subject to punishment up to and including suspension and termination. On the one hand, NBC News is posting a fact-check of what, at 11:30 AM, it tweeted were “at least 11 times during President Trump's interview" when Trump was not truthful. "Here's our fact check." While on the other hand, someone in a position of authority at NBC News decided – made certain – that there was no SIMILAR fact check ON the television broadcast itself, other than a passing mention directing viewers to the website. But in confirming Trump quote “made a spate of false and misleading comments” in a piece posted ON THE NBC NEWS WEBSITE, they are underscoring that they failed to clearly flag and disclaim and caveat – and WARN – that Trump was MAKING those “false and misleading comments” on their television network, and in all the clips shown on MSNBC, CNBC, and the NBC owned and affiliated statements. The Meet The Press telecast, of course, SKIPPED anything resembling the online fact-check. B-Block (25:16) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: ABC's John Parkinson boasts about shouting at President Biden asking if he'll pardon his son - as he visits the churchyard where his son is buried. News organizations ignore a Trumpist Terrorist near the Biden home (if it had been Kavanaugh's house they'd be talking martial law) and Drew Barrymore sees the light but Bill Maher is still a Scumbag SCAB. C-Block (31:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A fitting time to bring up 2009 and the day Jeff Zucker called us in to his NBC President's office and announced that our corporate boss Jeff Immelt was ready to take MSNBC off the air because his mommy was a fan of Bill O'Reilly and was mad that I was criticizing Bill. Seriously.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 36: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:30) BULLETIN:  Gag Order now. Jail, later. Jack Smith has asked Judge Tonya Chutkan to shut Trump up and there is the tantalizing possibility that he wants her to at least threaten him with revocation of his bail and the terms of his release and that would mean jail. Smith leaves the penalty TO Judge Chutkan. But he writes “The court should ensure that public statements by the defendant and his agents do not prejudice these criminal proceedings. The defendant's repeated, inflammatory public statements regarding the District of Columbia, the Court, prosecutors and potential witnesses are substantially likely to materially prejudice the jury pool, create fear among potential jurors, and result in threats or harassment to individuals he singles out…” That is strong language that Smith couches as if – to be blunt – it isn't. Quote: “The Government proposes two narrowly tailored orders that impose modest, permissible restrictions on prejudicial extrajudicial conduct." What Smith is accusing Trump of – and what Smith is asking Chutkan to DO – has bearings on Fani Willis's prosecution of Trump there. You may recall that the Judge's warnings to Trump about the terms of his release – the fact that he has been permitted to remain free on bail – are FAR more explicit than what Jack Smith has gotten so far in Florida or Washington: “The defendant shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against any witness…” and yet Smith's document says Trump has threatened witnesses. “The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media.” Jack Smith's motions doesn't just quote the threats and intimidation in Trump's “posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual” – it actually includes reproductions of images of TEN of them. If Judge Chutkan finds against Trump in Washington, Trump could be immediately found guilty of violating his bail in Georgia. Trump replied by calling him quote “Deranged Jack Smith” again and referring to himself in the third person again and by mastering sophistry again by explaining that his poll numbers mean he can say anything he wants and claiming quote “I am not allowed to COMMENT? They leak, lie and sue and they won't allow me to SPEAK? How else would I explain that Jack Smith is deranged…” This is not about the 1st Amendment. This is not even about the most extreme theoretical example of the 1st Amendment: the cliché about yelling fire in a crowded theater. This is about a man who yells fire in a crowded theater, and then goes to every theater in the country and yells fire again. This is about a creature who believes himself omnipotent and untouchable. This is about a potential scenario in which – if not in response to THIS filing by Jack Smith, then by SOME filing by SOME prosecutor at SOME point after SOME high number of these violations in one of these cases – a judge has to send federal or state marshals to apprehend Trump and bring him to a jail or prison for detention. He is not going to stop – he does not understand the concept of having to stop. He will have to be forced to. You can insert your own thoughts about the implications if he resists arrest. One thing that Trump and his lawyers and his apologists and his cultists cannot say, is that they have not been warned. “The fact that he's running a political campaign has to yield to the orderly administration of justice,”Judge Chutkan told the Trump lawyer Lauro on the 11th of last month. “If that means he can't say exactly what he wants to say about witnesses in this case, that's how it has to be. Even arguably ambiguous statements from parties or their counsel, if they can be reasonably interpreted to intimidate witnesses or to prejudice potential jurors, can threaten the jurors,” Judge Chutkan continued, on August 11th. “I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.” Judge, he's not going to stop. You're going to have to lock him up. Do it now. B-Block (19:02) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Lauren Boebert of the anti-drag party, is dating a bar owner who reportedly hosted a drag party. Drew Barrymore re-starts her talk show even though the writers are on strike. That makes her a SCAB. Bill Maher re-starts his "comedy" show even though the writers are on strike (and he insults the writers in the process) and he is a SCAB. (27:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I didn't know until 2009 that Maher and I met at Cornell in 1978 and in less than a minute he'd been so obnoxious I was ready to sock him. In a terrific irony considering his scabbing for his corporate masters, way back then he called me a "corporate sellout." C-Block (43:00) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: The immortal short story "The Night The Bed Fell."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 35: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT:  Congratulations, Kevin McCarthy on a unique feat: impeaching YOURSELF. McCarthy and the Republicans got their wish – the framework of a Joe Biden Impeachment and in less than 72 hours they have so COMPLETELY obscured it and overshadowed it and knocked it off the front pages that not even the right wing outlets are talking about IT, they're talking about McCARTHY. It's going so well for Soon-To-Be-Former-House-Speaker Kevin McCarthy that a senior Republican lawmaker has now told Semafor News that this ends when quote, “The whole family kills each other. I think we're close to that right now. We are in maybe the Godfather TWO stage.” McCarthy that he met with his House Conference, dared them to oust him as Speaker, and then swore at them. “Go ahead. I'm not (effing) scared of it… move the (effing) motion.” And a Republican Congressional aide says that the Freedom Caucus members are quote “hellbent on losing the majority” for the GOP in the House. McCarthy, who was not smart enough to KNOW the story of Newt Gingrich's implosion under similar impeachment circumstances in 1998 (let alone use it as a template to avoid creating his current drama in which he is not only the hostage but the guy who showed the hostage takers how to TAKE the hostage) is probably not smart enough – when it comes to this - to quit. So the House will suspend while they hose down what's left of him off the walls and then if we're all real quiet, through our windows and doors will come the faint but unmistakable sound of President Biden laughing his ass off. Meanwhile, the Kristen Welker “Big Splash” sitdown for her Meet The Press Debut was arguably WORSE than expected. They throw clips on Nightly News with Lester Holt and in one he says to her he could've pardoned himself and he makes up stories about legal authorities and she smiles vapidly at him and instead of saying “You do know we all know you're lying” or even just “honey please” she says “even if you were re-elected?” as if she were asking some nitwit on Dateline whether or not he'd go to the prom with the murder victim again. And she asks him what he thinks about Hunter Biden which is like seeing “For my next question, President Trump, free topic! Say whatever you want!” And THEN HE says “You mean because I challenge an election, they want to put me in jail?” and instead of saying something like – well, anything – she stares vapidly and they cut to Lester and Lester stares vapidly and then says “He had a pretty interesting answer” and you are reminded that Lester reached the apogee of his journalistic career in his cameo at the end of the movie “The Fugitive” in 1993. And as the GOP implodes, I sit here and I almost pray that somebody in the Democratic Party has the vision to say “the Republicans are in trouble, let's make sure we make it far worse for them. THIS is the time: release the Comer," As the prospect looms that McCarthy will be ousted and somebody - maybe Oversight Chairman James Comer - will succeed him, now is the moment to push the 2015 allegations that surfaced when Comer ran for governor: He was credibly accused ago of physically and mentally abusing his college girlfriend from the early 1990's, and credibly accused calling her mother and threatening the girlfriend's life. And credibly accused of becoming “enraged” after finding that she had written-in his real name on the paperwork at the abortion clinic the quote “Pro-life” unquote Comer had driven her to, to end THEIR pregnancy oh and she still had that paperwork in a safe deposit box. B-Block (24:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Lauren Boebert of the anti-drag party, is dating a bar owner who reportedly hosted a drag party. Drew Barrymore re-starts her talk show even though the writers are on strike. That makes her a SCAB. Bill Maher re-starts his "comedy" show even though the writers are on strike (and he insults the writers in the process) and he is a SCAB. (32:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I didn't know until 2009 that Maher and I met at Cornell in 1978 and in less than a minute he'd been so obnoxious I was ready to sock him. In a terrific irony considering his scabbing for his corporate masters, way back then he called me a "corporate sellout." C-Block (47:45) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: The immortal short story "The Night The Bed Fell."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 34: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Judge Aileen Cannon! You have unsuspected depth! Trump's novice judicial appointee has shocked Trump World by issuing a gag order not only limiting what he can say and when he can say it during his prosecution and trial for stealing top secret documents, but also limiting when he and his lawyers can see the war plans and other classified information he stole. Cannon's ruling is almost everything Smith asked for. Any evidence marked classified? Trump can't discuss it publicly. The evidence marked classified that Trump has lied about and said he DE-classified? Trump can't discuss THAT publicly. The evidence marked classified that has become public knowledge without being officially de-classified? Trump can't discuss THAT publicly. If he wants to listen to any of the classified audio it has to be on a hardline headset on a computer that has no internet or network connection! And she also has ruled co-defendant Walt Nauta cannot have access to any of the material, so that's one less chance of a pro-Trump leak. It's stunning. Also, the Illegal Impeachment Inquiry Trump is stage-managing from behind the scenes is going shockingly badly. It's morphed into the GOP-In-Crisis; in fact, into the GOP in Open Revolt. McCarthy accused Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida of conspiring with Democrat Eric Swalwell of California to get Swalwell placed back on the Intelligence Committee. McCarthy even posits that THAT is a front for something else, saying of Gaetz quote “this is really about an ethics complaint.” Gaetz came back last night and said “This is an abject lie from a sad and pathetic man who lies to hold on to power,” and Congressman you'll have to be more SPECIFIC than that and USE McCarthy's name in that statement because otherwise it could be about anybody in your party. Also: the McCarthy FBI whistleblower about Hunter Biden? A DIFFERENT FBI whistleblower has implied that the other one is lying. And Hunter Biden just sued a former Trump aide for illegally accessing the laptop. And then there's the other media shoe dropping. A month ago Kristen Welker was one of a dozen reporters who took a meal with three Trump goons. Today, Welker will pre-destroy her career as host of "Meet The Press" to get a sit-down with Trump. The Executive Producer of her show - who didn't make the cut to join the Countdown staff 20 years ago - actually says of this garish soulless nonjournalistic stunt “We are in the business of covering politics. It's not our job to pick and choose the leaders. The American people get to do that. And so our job is to make sure that the American people understand who the people in power are, what they stand for, and what they plan to do.” It's not our job to STOP the arsonists, it's just our job to give equal coverage to the firefighters AND the arsonists. B-Block (26:54) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Mitt Romney's going to retire at the end of his Senate term. I wonder if anyone will notice. My GOD they're treating this like Daniel Webster leaving the Senate in 1850. In fact, Mitt Romney is one of the dumbest, least perceptive people ever in public service - a man so dim that it wasn't until after January 6th that he realized smart colleagues like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley might not actually think Trump had won but were just LYING FOR PERSONAL GAIN AT AMERICA'S COST. And for me, nothing will erase from my memory the day I awoke to find that Mitt had tweeted about me, complained about me, and as Tommy Vietor replied "It's long past time to break ground on a Both Sides museum in Washington, DC. This comparison of the President of the United States to Keith Olbermann MUST be preserved for future generations." But it what Mitt was complaining ABOUT that will always resonate: that I had despoiled American politics by calling Trump a terrorist. Three months later Mitt was a virtual hostage inside the Capitol, pinned there by... Trump's terrorists.  C-Block (38:43) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCKSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 33: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT:  The impeachment inquiry Kevin McCarthy has now unilaterally and personally declared against President Joe Biden is, in fact, illegal. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel – The TRUMP Administration Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel – ruled, on January 19th, 2020, that there can be no impeachment and no impeachment inquiry without… a vote. And that ruling is still on the books. Today. And Kevin McCarthy has violated it. Kevin McCarthy has broken the law. It's Kevin McCarthy's ILLEGAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY.  Steven A. Engel, Assistant Attorney General Office of Legal Counsel. Same guy who wrote Bill Barr's Muller summary for him, wrote: “The house of representatives must expressly authorize a committee to conduct an impeachment investigation and to use compulsory process IN that investigation before the committee may compel the production of documents of testimony in support of the House's power of impeachment…the House itself must authorize an impeachment inquiry… no committee may undertake the momentous move from legislative oversight to impeachment without a delegation BY THE FULL HOUSE of such authority." Kevin McCarthy also wrote in 2019 that an impeachment inquiry without a vote is invalid. And he said it again TWELVE DAYS AGO. So any Democrat responding to this latest Republican urination on the constitution on behalf of Dementia J. Trump by NOT calling this a quote “ILLEGAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY” should be expelled. From the party, from office, from the country. McCarthy didn't just break the rules, he just broke Trump rules and that fact should be hung around his neck every morning like one of those floral leis you get when you arrive in Hawaii. “Hello Mr. Speaker? And how's your illegal impeachment inquiry TODAY?” And then there's the history lesson McCarthy needs to know about the last Speaker to try to make an impeachment out of nothing. Newt Gingrich impeached Bill Clinton - and lost HIS job while Clinton kept his. And then Gingrich's successor lost his job before even officially starting it. And then HIS successor wound up in prison for child rape. As an aside: Rudy Giuliani is complaining about betrayals of the real meaning of 9/11 this year: who gets to speak first at the memorial. B-Block (26:29) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: All this Rudy and Clinton and Gingrich talk got me nostalgic for a quarter century ago, when in my third month in the news business I went - in one week - from “why haven't I seen you on SportsCenter lately" to “Good Evening, I'm anchoring live coverage of the State of the Union Address.” How to succeed in political broadcasting without really trying! C-Block (39:20) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK: An Aaron Rodgers postscriptSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 32: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Joe Biden really really really really really really really really really really should take Trump up on his Acuity Test Challenge. Trump alluded to it four times again yesterday - his belief he can PROVE he is the mentally competent one and Biden is the opposite. And Biden should jump on it with both feet. I know it sounds nuts and I know it sounds undignified and I know it sounds unpresidential and on the other hand this is America 2023 – right now we are the world's leading distributor OF nuts and OF undignified and OF unpresidential. Ian Millhiser of Vox summed it up last night: coverage of Biden's age, Biden's acuity, is quote “starting to take on the same character as the 2016 But Her Emails coverage – find something that is genuinely suboptimal about the Democratic candidate, and dwell on it endlessly to ‘balance' coverage of the criminal in charge of the GOP” unquote and he's exactly right. The American Political Media Industrial Complex will bothsides this country to death – it all but succeeded in 2016 and again in 2020. After years of promoting idiots into key editorial decisions, after years of reaching the point where balanced news consists of the following: here is a pound of truth, here is a pound of bullshit. So if Biden responding to Trump's psychotic post “I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch and sons, Biden, WSJ heads, to acuity tests! We can also throw some physical activity into it” lessens the chances of all of us, you know, winding up dead because our teeming millions of fellow Americans whose stupidity is too vast to be described by mere human language can't tell the difference between an undulating mass of blubber and madness, and a nearly 51-year veteran of service to this nation in its Senate, its Vice Presidency and its presidency, whose worst critics and most virulent haters still insist is actually simultaneously an enfeebled skeleton and the indefatigable mastermind of an international conspiracy and actually runs this country AND Ukraine and will personally remove every gas stove and dishwasher in America with his bare hands – if Biden saying to Trump “acuity test? Feats of strength? Let's go, Fat Boy” can actually change that narrative – he HAS to do it. Donald Trump IS bluff. His life is bluff. His alleged net worth is bluff. His patriotism is bluff. His intelligence is bluff. His marriage is bluff. His ability to remember his kids names is bluff. His business success is bluff. His hair is bluff. Once – just once – JUST ONCE someone needs to step down off the stage of dignified reluctance and CALL TRUMP'S BLUFF, slap him across the face, and keep slapping him until the crowd of support that forms around all bullies, backs away and looks for a different one. And now, for once, and ONLY for once, Joe Biden should imitate Trump. Employ the jujitsu. Do not ignore the punch. Do not evade the punch. GRAB the fist and pull it towards you. And even if what follows does not FINISH Trump on the American stage – and I honestly believe it could – it WILL re-set this essential narrative of competence and acuity and age and insanity. B-Block (23:46) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Another day, another one of my ex-bosses in trouble. It was Walter Isaacson, briefly and unhappily the president of CNN at the turn of the century, who wrote the book about Elon Musk that revealed Musk had been meddling in American foreign policy, on behalf of the Russians, against the Ukrainians. And now suddenly, what Isaacson wrote Musk did has been changed in The Washington Post - to make Musk look a little less guilty of violating The Logan Act. Which flashes me back to the day Isaacson, then president of CNN, called me in and asked me if CNN should have a comedy-oriented news hour and instead of asking if I'd like to try it, asked me if I thought Jon Stewart would. C-Block (44:35) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 31: SPECIAL COMMENT A-Block (1:43) Breaking: one-legged Trump invites rivals to an ass-kicking contest: “I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch and sons, Biden, WSJ heads, to acuity tests!” Today, impossibly, infuriatingly, embarrassingly, we have now circled back to what – with the benefit of hindsight – appears to be the saddest possible thing: THE highlight of his presidency – July 2020 or perhaps earlier, when he was told to memorize an endless string of complicated, unconnected, ill-defined words and then not just remember them, but remember them… in the exact order: PERSON. WOMAN. MAN. CAMERA. TV. “I proved I was all there,” Trump said proudly, horrifyingly, again and again and again, to every interviewer, at every campaign speech, to everybody who would hold still long enough, beaming like a toddler who managed to poop in the potty chair. Mostly. “I aced it. I aced the test.” We thought those were the most humiliating things he could ever say about himself and that test, which on the mental or intellectual soundness scale is slightly above ‘put a mirror under his nose to see if he's still breathing.'  We were wrong. For last night, somebody told him about a Wall Street Journal poll showing 73 percent of registered voters believed Joe Biden is too old to run for president – a not unexpected number given that the poll was run by… a former TRUMP pollster. But in that context the second number was shocking. FORTY-SEVEN percent of registered voters in the pro-Trump poll think TRUMP is too old to run. And after a typo in the first sentence of his rage-post last night he got right to it. “A few years ago I was the only one to agree to a mental acuity test and ACED IT” (aced it, is in caps) “Well I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch and sons, Biden, WSJ heads, to acuity tests! I will name the place and the test, and it will be a tough one. Nobody will come even close to me!” He trashed the Journal. He called it globalist. Damaged goods. Phony and rigged. He is enraged again. And that was just the start. It devolved into his claim that the true test of NON-MENTAL strength… is golf. Quote: “We can also throw some physical activity into it. I just won the Senior Club Championship at a big golf club,” (as an aside, he means his own, he said so, earlier; he cheats at all golf courses; he cheats at HIS golf courses with impunity; he cheats, literally, over his wife's dead body). “I just won the Senior Club Championship at a big golf club, with many very good players. To do so you need strength, accuracy, touch and above all, mental toughness. Ask Bret Baier (Fox) a very good golfer.” Yeah that's who I'm going to, to decide mental and physical competence.“The Wall Street Journal and Fox are damaged goods and their failed DeSanctimonious push and stupid $780 million settlement.” And the final thrust of this intellectual argument that would make Einstein weep – all in caps – “MORONS!!!" Plus, oh, just confirmation that Clarence and Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow and Cleta Mitchell should all be in jail for life. B-Block (23:33) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: And now he belongs to the ages. Chuck Todd leaves "Meet The Press" thoroughly convinced he did a great job. Don't let BOTH SIDES OF THE DOOR HIT YOU IN THE ASS ON THE WAY OUT Chuck. (29:10) IN SPORTS: Embattled Spanish soccer boss quits after forced kiss. Michigan State football coach beats it after harassment and abuse charge. And we have to start rescheduling the tennis tournaments: it'll be 147 degrees at the Aussie by 2050. (32:13) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Sean Spicer's amazing Freudian slip about GOP candidates. Elon Musk says his Neuralinks don't kill monkeys. They only kill terminally ILL monkeys. And Greg Gutfeld demands doxing of all leftist protestors. C-Block (38:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 22 years after 9/11 and the names I remember: Tomas Reyes, Mike Tanner, so many others. And what is finally becoming clear and horrible: the straight flashing line from that awful day to this awful day and the rise of hateful, blind fascism personified by Trump.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 30: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: It's BACK. Asked at his disbarment hearing in California about his December 2020 email to Boris Epshteyn referring to Mike Pence OR CHUCK GRASSLEY presiding over the January 6 Electoral College Vote count and certification, John Eastman said he couldn't answer because of attorney-client privilege. Asked WHICH client, he answered "President Trump." And so it reignites. It is the Dracula of January 6 Coup Conspiracy threads. Each time it seems like it's been discredited, something like this arises. Now it's Eastman reigniting the belief that his email, and Grassley's bizarre statements on January 5 that they didn't expect Pence to preside, and Pence's refusal to get into the Secret Service vehicle during the coup, are all connected. And Grassley once again has changed his story. I'll review the whole saga and I'll predict: if somebody breaks John Eastman, they'll get the truth. So let's break him! Might be Fani Willis. She has now replied to Jim Jordan's fishing expedition with everything this side of an indictment of Jordan. The highlights are wonderful. Then there's Peter Navarro's conviction and the reappearance of Sign Woman to torture the pint-sized fascist. Roger Stone reveals he has no idea what would happen during a nuclear war. A self-identifying Air Force vet confronts Ron DeSantis about the Dollar Store slaughter and Ron and his aide and his dubious Surgeon General overreact so much it's clear they know the mass shooting was DeSantis's fault. And we have to strip Elon Musk of his security clearance and all government contracts; a Russian propagandist goaded him into shutting off the satellite phone system he gave the Ukrainians when Ukraine needed it the most. Musk feared it would precipitate a "Mini-Pearl Harbor." Or, did he say "Minnie Pearl Harbor?" And that new CNN poll that's so dire for President Biden? Small detail. They polled 900 Republicans and only 600 non-Republicans. B-Block (25:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mike Buckner, explorer, who says tomorrow he will prove the earth is flat and what we think is the horizon of a globe is actually "The Great Ice Wall." CNN Politics thinks I'm-All-Ears Tuberville doing China's bidding by hamstringing the US military is a "Dispute between Tuberville and Democrats." And disgraced Conservative Steven Crowder takes out an ad offering a laugh and based on the allegations he repeatedly exposed himself to men, I think we know what the laugh is. C-Block (31:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Ever heard one of those stories of the guy who happens to run into the automobile manufacturer early in the 20th Century? And the businessman is just merging together a bunch of small firms and he needs a name for the new big one and the stranger says "How about General Motors?" The story is true - and it's about my great grandfather.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 29: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Is Jack Smith trying to get the Judge in the Election Subversion Trial to detain Trump or fine Trump or start Trump's trial early or issue a GAG ORDER against Trump? In Washington there is a behind-the-scenes courtroom drama playing out under seal, but which SEEMS to be – based on the half-second of light shining on it, the way a midnight thunderstorm illuminates everything and then just as quickly plunges it all back into darkness – which SEEMS to be an attempt by Jack Smith to get Judge Tanya Chutkan to PUNISH Donald Trump for shooting off his big bazoo in speeches and on social media. And that's all we know about it. Smith has made a filing with Judge Chutkan's court in which he alleges Trump has quote “made daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury pool.” That's almost LITERALLY IT. The whole motion is just 345 words. The easy part is to imagine what “daily extrajudicial statements” Smith is reminding Chutkan about because they began in the overnight hours of Sunday and Monday August 14th, not 72 hours after Judge Chutkan warned Trump's lawyer “I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements about this case” and Trump said he understood and at 12:33 Eastern Daylight Time Trump posted “How dare lowlife prosecutor, deranged Jack Smith, break into my former Twitter account without informing me and indeed trying to completely hide this atrocity from me." Revoke his bail? Is that what Jack Smith has ASKED her to do? Treat him as the lethal threat he represents and revoke his bail – the terms of which he has obviously violated? Or fine him? Or institute a gag order on him? Or is it that other option? WHATEVER is going on we will know SOMETHING next week, I think. CNN reports Chutkan has ordered both sides to file additional briefs on whether or not the original Smith brief – which presumably is about or at least TOUCHES on “the defendant's daily extrajudicial statements” -should be posted on the public record. Trump's team is to answer by Monday and the Special Counsel must answer by Monday. There is also all sorts of other bad news for Trump, including his announcement that he's going to testify at his "trial." Which one? B-Block (24:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Anderson Cooper has no idea what his job is at CNN; Little Jimmy O'Keefe told Project Veritas "The show must go on - even if our staffer is drowning;" and Rand Paul thinks he's talking about the dead eyes of Mitch McConnell when he actually means the dead eyes of... himself. C-Block (31:37) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Never go see how the sausage is made and, as I learned 48 years ago this month at my college radio station, never go see how radio or TV or any media is made if you ever want to enjoy it again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 28: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: I call for the immediate arrest of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, representative of the 14th district of Georgia, for violating 18 US code 871 – “Threats against the President and Successors to the Presidency.” Greene has posted to social media video of a direct threat to harm or kill Joe Biden, made by a man who when asked about that threat of personal violence replied “I don't regret nothing I said. I (effing) mean it, bro." Greene's own ignorance of the federal code dealing with threats against the President is no defense. 18 U-S code 871 quite clearly states that the threat does NOT have to be first-hand. Greene does not have to have said it, she merely has to have distributed the threat. Though she helpfully began her distribution and promulgation of the threat against Biden's life with her own statement: “I agree with this man.” At some point we have to break Greene - and the fascist right's - dance along the cliff-edge of political violence. Just two weeks ago she rightly complained that violent threats against her had gotten a weak three-month sentence. Now, the threat she distributed should be met by her being charged, arrested, convicted, and sentenced to the maximum of five years. Because occasionally the Justice System works. "Enrique" Tarrio broke the January 6 record with a 22-year sentence (though take the odds and bet on Trump getting more). And let's hear it for my new hero, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who was born in Cuba and who accused political ignoramus and stunter Tommy Tuberville of more than even endangering national security by holding up military promotions. “For someone who was born in a communist country," said Secretary Del Toro, "I would never have imagined that actually one of our own senators would actually be aiding and abetting communists and other autocratic regimes around the world.” And there is more on the 14th Amendment, now the flavor of the month in the media. Michigan's Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson makes an interesting revelation: “Secretaries of states of multiple states are having conversations. I'm talking with folks in Pennsylvania, with the secretary of state in Nevada and even in Maine; people in Georgia of course – my colleague Brad Raffensberger – just to get a sense of what the facts are” and she added that a group of states quote “likely need to act in concert, if we act at all.” B-Block (21:10) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: I'm somewhat limited by a throat infection, but here are Anthony Rendon of baseball's Angels who can't play due to a string of injuries (it happens) but refuses to talk about it (it's inexcusable), Washington Post "Fact Checker" Glenn Kessler, and the Saudi Prince who's trying to choose our president for us and whose exports to this country we should cut off and whose assets here we should seize. C-Block (29:12) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the night the Republican Party and Tom Brokaw got me fired as the co-anchor of MSNBC's 2008 Presidential Debate coverage because the Republicans told Brokaw do this or McCain won't show up for the debate you inherited when Tim Russert died and Brokaw really wanted a second career after Brian Williams had buried his first career alive and threw me under the bus even though I had welcomed him to our MSNBC campaign coverage when NBC had literally benched him for the '08 campaign.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 27: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Uh-oh. Somebody told Trump about the 14th Amendment and he's terrified And we know who terrified him. The Wall Street Journal published a 900-word editorial exactly 77 minutes before Trump's post and it is aptly titled “The 14th Amendment Trump Panic” because while the Journal usually has the confidence and arrogance and factuality of Marie Antoinette apocryphally talking about dessert, this time the lead fascists Chez Murdoch sound really scared. They have resorted to the argument that even if the 14thAmendment doesn't JUST apply to people who literally fired a gun at the flag or those who instructed them to, it can't apply to January 6th because January 6th wasn't a REAL insurrection because… uh… it didn't SUCCEED. 14-3 advocates are quote “willing to put democracy at risk in order to save it. But U-S institutions held up reasonably well despite the strains of the Trump Presidency, even the events of January 6. The transfer of power took place on schedule…the rioters and organizers are being punished, often severely…” In other words: whaddya mean ATTEMPTED murder? What kind of crime is THAT? Either there's murder, and you go to jail, or there isn't murder, and you go free. Am I right? Trump bleated about socialists and democrats and election interference and who will get to tell him? The Disqualification clause was in essence created to keep the Vice President of the confederacy out of the Senate. After he won. As a DEMOCRAT. In 1866. And Alexander Stephens had been convicted of NOTHING. He was arrested for treason on May 11th, 1865, released from prison in October without even going to trial. In 1919, 14/3 was used to keep a Congressman-Elect, Victor Berger of Wisconsin – literally an actual member of the Socialist party – out of the House because he had been convicted of violating the Espionage Act during the 1st World War because he opposed U-S entry into it. And just last year local New Mexico official Cuoy Griffin was bounced by 14/3 after nothing more than a misdemeanor conviction for trespassing. The point of course is that Stephens was kept out even though he was never convicted of anything, never even TRIED for anything, and he was readmitted only after a Congressionally-approved amnesty. Trump doesn't understand these nuances but like the wild animal he is he can smell fear, and there's nothing but fear in the WSJ editorial. Press the point. Plus we knew Mark Meadows had confessed to the Georgia judge last week while trying to get his trial moved to Federal Court. We had no idea how MUCH he had confessed, and how screwed he is, and how his only option may be to cut a deal with Fani Willis. B-Block (20:27) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: All is finally well at CNN where the new guy starts in one month and four days and controversy is a thing of the past and what do you mean at the BBC he once leaned over to a news editor and BIT HIM ON THE ARM HARD ENOUGH TO LEAVE MARKS THROUGH HIS SHIRT? (26:26) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Matt Schlapp conducts an exorcism...in his PANTS! The Philadelphia cemetery that has a memorial to...Nazi collaborators? And segueing perfectly: After pimping for the hashtag "Ban The ADL," Elon Musk insists he's opposed to all forms of anti-semitism and then explains that the main Jewish organization fighting anti-semitism, The Anti-Defamation League, has conspired to destroy advertising on twitter and he's suing them and if Musk ain't an antisemite it's an incredible simulation. C-Block (33:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The school year has begun at every level and inevitably I flash back to the day my legendary Cornell American history professor nearly failed all of us in his class because his favorite football team lost.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 26: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: In an April deposition in the New York Civil Fraud case, Trump told the Attorney General's office that he wasn't running his company because he was too busy saving the world from nuclear holocaust and saving millions of lives because he was the only one to think of DEALING with North Korea. You're WELCOME LOSERS. This underscores a part of Trump's insanity that it sometimes seems like we have gotten used to: he really DOES think he's the first person to ever think of something, or to DO something, that everybody else in his position did as long ago as 1946. I never hear him say something like this – “Only I saved millions of lives because only I dealt with North Korea” without thinking of what the idiot director Roger DeBris in Mel Brooks' movie “The Producers” says about the play itself – quote – “I never knew that the ‘THIRD REICH' meant Germany! I mean it's just DRENCHED with historical goodies like that.” That's Trump. Still, Trump didn't save Peter Navarro, who goes to trial – but only after failing to grab a paper “TRUMP LOST” sign held an inch over his head. And he didn't save Rudy Giuliani, who goes to trial for slandering Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman and hours later went on radio and slandered Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman AGAIN. And he didn't save Kevin McCarthy who will now have to start an impeachment without holding a vote – which he once violently criticized – or hold the vote and LOSE IT. The knives are out for Fani Willis. The Georgia State Senate Majority Leader now threatens her with reprimands, sanctions, hearings, defunding and removal. His name is Gooch and he's from Lumpkin County. But the Georgia State HOUSE Speaker, Jon Burns, another Republican, says trying to defund Willis violates separation of powers. With no hyperbole: I worry for Speaker Burns' safety. And the podcast celebrates a big milestone with a big thank you to you: the August audience was 3,000,000! B-Block (21:44) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: McConnell freezes again. Nice of his staffers to leave him out there and ask reporters to yell at him. And the brewing story about how if Mitch goes, the Democratic Kentucky governor may defy a new law and appoint a Democrat in his place. Plus the Proud Boys sentencings that weren't. (25:18) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Anti-pickleball millionaire Holly Peterson has an unexpected feature in her home: her own pickleball court. The guy who claimed he killed Bin Laden got arrested and replied by claiming he killed bin Laden. And why even in these days of loose ethics in cable news, MSNBC must fire primetime anchor Stephanie Ruhle. C-Block (32:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Poor puppy Thomas: attacked, left to die on the train tracks, and still wagging as humans treat him. (33:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's the 26th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, which was also the day cable news jumped the shark and the shark was in the Rubicon.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 25: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Trial of Donald Trump and the Trump 19 could begin in Atlanta on October 23rd. In such a low-key manner that it barely got noticed, Fonni Willis has now formally petitioned Judge Scott McAfee to MOVE UP the trial date for everybody – and reverse his previous ruling to sever the trial of Ken Chesebro from the entire roster of 19 defendants. It would mean everybody - not just Chesebro - goes on trial just 55 days from now, instead of on March 4.  And thus we are presented with the reality that the Chesebro, the man who may do the most to put Trump in prison BEFORE the 2024 election may be the man he turned to, to engineer this half-baked plan to overturn the 2020 election. Way to go Cheese-Bro! Now we need to know when the State of Georgia and maybe the Department of Justice will put this Georgia State Legislator Colton Moore behind bars. This is the State Senator with eyes on opposite sides of his head and he is the one who tried to get a special session of the Georgia senate called so he could defund the Fulton County D-A's office, and he is the one who previously revealed he believes that the Trump 19, if convicted, face death by lethal injection and he is now the one serving up on the propaganda channel “Real America's Voice” a threat to send troopers to arrest Fonni Willis and make a Trumpian stochastic promise of Civil War. In Washington, Congressman Andy Clyde is on the House Appropriations Committee and he says he has TWO amendments ready to tag on to the Fiscal 2024 budget for Commerce Justice and Science which his committee will take up next month after the recess and guess who they defund and no it's not Aileen Cannon. Clyde thinks he can take out Willis AND Alvin Bragg in New York AND Jack Smith (and he's wrong about that, which I'll explain in detail). B-Block (19:59) IN SPORTS: The complete failure of the Colorado Rockies' security staff as two fans charge and hold an Atlanta Braves star underscores that since 9/11 sports has adopted only "security theater" - not real security. It was the worst breach in baseball in nearly a week! The White Sox finally have an explanation as to how two fans got shot in the bleachers last Friday and it involves hiding a gun in "folds of belly fat." (25:35) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Shouldn't have praised the urban Trump Mugshot Mural until you saw what the thought bubble said, Charlie Kirk and Jesse Watters; Matt and the sound of one hand Schlapping; and the Katy, Texas, School Board Moronic Fascist who banned a book because it used "they" instead of "he" or "she" except that's not why they used they; THEY used THEY because it was grammatically correct and Morgan Calhoun is too stupid to know it. C-Block (31:49) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Running that clip of O.J. Simpson endorsing Vivek Ramaswamy provided a good laugh but ever since I've been haunted of memories of what he did in 1994, how nobody believed it was possible, and how in LA media in the '80s and '90s we knew he was a phony and an evil man, but we weren't able to probe harder to learn what a monster he truly was.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 24: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT:  Trump STILL has to go to trial in 189 days and apparently STILL does not know there is no legal mechanism to APPEAL the judge's schedule nor STILL does half the Republican Party and STILL at least half of all media including the BBC, and thus Trump is STILL ROYALLY EFFED.   And after Mark Meadows inexplicably testified for more than four hours yesterday trying to get a glorified change of venue in the Atlanta Election Subversion Conspiracy trial by using the singular strategy of confessing to everything… the Judge says he'll have a ruling “as soon as possible”whether it stays in local court in Atlanta or in a federal court presumably elsewhere in Georgia with a jury pool more favorable to Meadows and Trump and when they say favorable of course they mean more WHITE. She wasn't going to JAIL Trump, no matter how much I wished for it on my lucky beads. She was going to do something far worse. She was going to assume he was doing it to try to poison the jury pool (like he could think THAT rationally or THAT far ahead) and she would just speed up the trial. The prosecution wanted the trial to open 127 days from now. Trump countered with 947 days. Two and a half years. Chutkan's compromise REEKS of “this is punishment, please enjoy being EFFED” – 189 days. It's glorious​. There is one thing here Trump truly fears – the OTHER essential ingredient (besides a guilty verdict) that can put him behind bars: a speedy trial – and his nitwitted co-defendants, his supposed minions Ken Cheesbro and Mark Meadows and Sidney Powell all INVOKED the Georgia Speedy Trial Law so THAT one is already on track to start two months earlier than originally planned BY THE D-A… and now Trump is being beaten up by the judge who KNOWS it's the one thing Trump truly fears – and we'll see you on March 4th. Now about Meadows: why did he feel he had to testify – for four hours – that he was Trump's gatekeeper and HE was at every meeting and HE was on every phone call and HE was the guy others went to, to get Trump to listen to them – and HE went to Georgia and HE arranged the Raffensberger phone call and HE was in the meeting with the Michigan politicos and wait wait – that meeting and the Raffensberger call were about… overturning the election results in Georgia and Michigan? THAT'S what Trump meant about the 11-thousand-790 votes? I'll be damned! Trump is SO effed. B-Block (21:18) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Big news everyone! Today is the day the Bidens are sentenced by the military and the "Citizens Tribunal" according to the founder of Judicial Watch. Tucker Carlson insists getting fired makes you a man: so he's FOUR men I guess. And Joe The Plumber dies. (26:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Melanie Zanona of CNN both-sides a Biden impeachment story but leaves out the fact that the GOP has no evidence until PARAGRAPH NINE. The NRA exaggerates the number of Americans using an AR-15 for defense by roughly 1,999,996. And Congressman Byron Donalds "blames" the 2020 lockdown and the vaccine rollout on Biden. While Trump was still president. C-Block (31:47) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: With The Daily Beast reporting Matt Lauer has abandoned his comeback, time to recount what we really knew about him at NBC and the time he tried to get me fired because I helped him get a "big get" interview.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 22: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: After another mass shooting - one predicated on distinct and undeniable racism - shock and grief and rage can account for almost any reaction. But as Governor Ron DeSantis, who trades in distinct and undeniable racism and who had the gall to insist HBCUs in Florida would not be targeted when one was targeted Saturday, attended a vigil last night for the victims in Jacksonville, the crowd rightly booed and heckled him and his inanely smiling wife. And the local Democratic councilwoman made an unbelievable mistake. She told the crowd to "put parties aside. A bullet don't know a party." She could not be more wrong. A bullet not only knows a party but the bullets are there BECAUSE of a party and we damn well better say so. We have mass shootings and we have nearly unfettered civilian access to weapons of war and we have an orgy of gun worship BECAUSE of Republicans. Period. Our gun crisis may not be 100% Republican but it's 95%. Our awareness that at any moment, anywhere, anyone in this country could be murdered by sentient fecal matter and the only variables are which minority group THIS one murdered because of which Republican THIS one listened to, waxes and wanes. But there are four unswerving constants and they played out in Jacksonville over the weekend: they had the guns because of Republicans; if they didn't have the HATE already they got IT because of Republicans; nearly all of our news media will refuse to say that mass shootings in this country are the unquestioned FAULT of Republicans, and no matter what the circumstances of this particular one were, Republicans will insist it's too soon to – you know – try to STOP them from happening and to propose – you know – SOLUTIONS – is trying to exploit a tragedy for political gain. As opposed to trying to exploit a tragedy for donations from the National Rifle Association and making sure that nothing is ever, ever, done, to stop the next one. Trump's other spawn, Vivek Ramaswamy, spent Sunday morning insisting that Mike Pence he should've refused to certify Biden's election until the Senate agreed to instantly instituted new laws to mandate the most draconian Republican talking points about voting suppression: single-day elections, paper ballots, government-issued ID's, and quote “led through that level reform and then under that condition certified the election” – as if every moment of the political day is a hostage situation and every law is optional because Vivek Ramaswamy sees a loophole to exploit.  Happily that performance on "Meet The Press" earned Ramaswamy the coveted endorsement of one viewer: O.J. Simpson. The Trump Trials are now colliding in the scheduling space. One in the Washington case (when does the trial start? January 2024 or April 2026?) and one in the Atlanta case (Mark Meadows to be tried in local or federal court) both begin at the exact same hour. There are also more Atlanta defendants flipping on Trump before anybody asks them to. And the first signs of life are appearing in the attempt to actually DO something about disqualifying Trump from the ballot under the Disqualification Clause of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. B-Block (22:09) IN SPORTS: Spain's Soccer Kiss scandal continues to cascade. The Chicago White Sox still don't know how two fans got shot in the bleachers during a game. And the Oakland A's forgot they'll have to find a place to play four lame duck seasons before moving to Las Vegas (27:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Zillow mistakenly reports Trump sold Mar-a-Lago to Junior for 10 times its value ("Oops!"), Tucker and Musk are lying about the audience for Carlson's interview with Trump by a factor of at least 300:1, and Jonathan Turley 2023's biggest enemy right now is: Jonathan Turley 2021. C-Block (33:32) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The odometer has turned over again. Now it's 43 years since I started in television at CNN. So let me tell you how Ted Turner inadvertently invented SportsCenter AND nearly wound up owning ALL THE TEAMS in the National Football League.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 23: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Two major developments today warranting a bulletin edition: Judge Tonya Chutkan has set the start of jury selection in the Trump Subversion of the Election trial in Washington for March 4. Trump is, as I predicted this morning, EFFED. He's SO effed he's already insisting he will appeal her decision, proving he doesn't even know there is no legal means FOR him to appeal it. He is SO effed. Meanwhile in Atlanta, his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows seems hell bent on confessing to everything - including crimes he hasn't been charged with - just to get the trial moved from state to federal court. He actually took the stand this morning and admitted to everything on the Raffensberger call (and I think I called him Ken in here. Ken pitched for the Phillies in 1954). Note: the rest of this edition is repeated from Monday's regular edition. If you've heard it, feel free to hit STOP right about here. Also: the first signs of life are appearing in the attempt to actually DO something about disqualifying Trump from the ballot under the Disqualification Clause of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. After another mass shooting - one predicated on distinct and undeniable racism - shock and grief and rage can account for almost any reaction. But as Governor Ron DeSantis, who trades in distinct and undeniable racism and who had the gall to insist HBCUs in Florida would not be targeted when one was targeted Saturday, attended a vigil last night for the victims in Jacksonville, the crowd rightly booed and heckled him and his inanely smiling wife. And the local Democratic councilwoman made an unbelievable mistake. She told the crowd to "put parties aside. A bullet don't know a party." She could not be more wrong. A bullet not only knows a party but the bullets are there BECAUSE of a party and we damn well better say so. We have mass shootings and we have nearly unfettered civilian access to weapons of war and we have an orgy of gun worship BECAUSE of Republicans. Period. Our gun crisis may not be 100% Republican but it's 95%. Our awareness that at any moment, anywhere, anyone in this country could be murdered by sentient fecal matter and the only variables are which minority group THIS one murdered because of which Republican THIS one listened to, waxes and wanes. But there are four unswerving constants and they played out in Jacksonville over the weekend: they had the guns because of Republicans; if they didn't have the HATE already they got IT because of Republicans; nearly all of our news media will refuse to say that mass shootings in this country are the unquestioned FAULT of Republicans, and no matter what the circumstances of this particular one were, Republicans will insist it's too soon to – you know – try to STOP them from happening and to propose – you know – SOLUTIONS – is trying to exploit a tragedy for political gain. As opposed to trying to exploit a tragedy for donations from the National Rifle Association and making sure that nothing is ever, ever, done, to stop the next one. Trump's other spawn, Vivek Ramaswamy, spent Sunday morning insisting that Mike Pence he should've refused to certify Biden's election until the Senate agreed to instantly instituted new laws to mandate the most draconian Republican talking points about voting suppression: single-day elections, paper ballots, government-issued ID's, and quote “led through that level reform and then under that condition certified the election” – as if every moment of the political day is a hostage situation and every law is optional because Vivek Ramaswamy sees a loophole to exploit.  Happily that performance on "Meet The Press" earned Ramaswamy the coveted endorsement of one viewer: O.J. Simpson. B-Block (27:52) IN SPORTS: Spain's Soccer Kiss scandal continues to cascade. The Chicago White Sox still don't know how two fans got shot in the bleachers during a game. And the Oakland A's forgot they'll have to find a place to play four lame duck seasons before moving to Las Vegas (32:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Zillow mistakenly reports Trump sold Mar-a-Lago to Junior for 10 times its value ("Oops!"), Tucker and Musk are lying about the audience for Carlson's interview with Trump by a factor of at least 300:1, and Jonathan Turley 2023's biggest enemy right now is: Jonathan Turley 2021. C-Block (38:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The odometer has turned over again. Now it's 43 years since I started in television at CNN. So let me tell you how Ted Turner inadvertently invented SportsCenter AND nearly wound up owning ALL THE TEAMS in the National Football League.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 21: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The "Never Surrender" graphic and the "Never Surrender" $47 T-Shirt and the "Never Surrender" return-to-Twitter post all feature a photo taken literally AS TRUMP SURRENDERED. At least the Trump measurements - 6'3" 215 strawberry or blonde hair - are accurate. So long as they were determined from a satellite in high space orbit. Though the idea of the MUGSHOT is new, for most of us, the booking of Donald Trump is by now a ritual as old as time itself, passed from one generation of Americans to the next. To his supporters it is something they seem to have convinced themselves was not going to happen, and about which they take DIRE umbrage. Ned Ryun, the onetime George W Bush speechwriter and now head of one of the three million different organizations there to fight against the lack of conservative representation, went on Fox and said we were in a “cold civil war” and Sarah Palin, a dope, went on Newsmax and said “do you want us to be in a civil war? Because that's what's going to happen. We do need to rise up and take our country back” and one is inclined to remind the Witch from Wasilla who has all the tanks. Well, if this means Civil War at least it's about something important. The real news from Atlanta: another step taken by Kenneth Chesebro to put Donald Trump in jail before the election. I wish I understood his game here. B-Block (17:48) IN SPORTS: Shohei Ohtani is potentially facing the end of his pitching career - because unicorns don't exist - at exactly the same time the equally-hyped Stephen Strasburg retires due to an injury that his limited him to eight games since 2019. All of which reminds me of the greatest pitcher you've never heard of: Harry Krause. And when you're too big to do the Super Bowl halftime show (23:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Another year, another CNN streaming service. Plus Riley Gaines doxxes a librarian and the library gets a bomb threat. And just when we thought we had all debunked last year's "Litter boxes in schools" urban legend, Fox "newscaster" Shannon Bream announces it - as if it were true. C-Block (28:05) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: It's what I turn to whenever it is the Dark November of my Soul: "A Box To Hide In."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 20: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I watched the Republican Debate so you didn't have to and there was actually a surprise. Trump isn't leading by such a huge margin solely because of his cult and their craziness. He is leading by such a huge margin because DeSantis is a pull-string toy. He is rehearsed, wooden, confused, inflexible. At one point a moderator said "that isn't the question, Governor," and he replied "I know," like he was proud of it. Also: everybody hates Ramaswamy and there is a perfect word to describe him and that word was supplied by my Pittsburgh-bred friend Howard Fineman: "Jagoff."  Meanwhile Trump was with Tucker Carlson on Twitter and they were both pleasuring themselves to fantasies of somebody trying to assassinate Trump so then they could have a Civil War. There are Atlanta developments that could see the Fani Willis trial begin as early as November 3.  And maybe bigger than all, there is a scandal involving ABC News, CBS, CNN, NBC, The Washington Post, the New York Times, and other news outlets and I doubt anybody will notice but it drove me to distraction. Why, the night before the debate, did a dozen of the leading political reporters and editors think it was cool to have a meal with Jason Miller and two other thugs from the Trump Campaign and let them get schmoozed by them and let Miller try out his latest attacks on DeSantis? The Trump people want to dismember the press and maybe individual reporters. With the BEST of politicians you must keep yourself at arm's length - and these are the worst of them. They (and they include Dana Bash, Robert Costa, and Kristen Welker) should all be fired. B-Block (31:11) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Secret Service's 2020 links to The Oath Keepers; Prighozin dead after his plane falls out a window (35:03) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Nice troll by the Biden campaign to advertise on Fox News. Except it helps Fox News. CNN may have found an old Chris Licht to replace young Chris Licht. And with these bothsidesist Climate Change headlines, The Washington Post may kill us all. C-Block (35:55) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: No, Rudy Giuliani did not fall from grace. He's ALWAYS been like that. You just didn't know him in 1996 - I did. He was nuts then, too.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.