SEASON 2 EPISODE 54: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The day after he attacked Israel and mocked its Prime Minister and praised Hezbollah, Trump was astonishingly quiet, and even his self-praising press release was composed in the past tense and lacked the usual arrogance. Something is wrong in Trumpland. And here's a shock: Trump's minions are going to need ANOTHER new Speaker of the House and right now there's nobody within 100 votes of the minimum number of votes needed for election!

Just 18 days after I asked why he hadn't been indicted as an agent of Egypt, Senator Menendez...is. Now I ask: why is he out on bail? Ron DeSantis comes out of unintentional retirement to pull a really transparent stunt on Israel, and Tommy Tuberville shoots himself in the foot on the same topic. And something does not add up on the Mary Lou Retton story. So sick she can't breathe? No insurance? Daughter starts a GoFundMe? And last year the tiny Republican had a house worth $2,000,000?

B-Block (19:17) IN SPORTS: New ESPN host reveals he's paid Aaron Rodgers millions for "interviews" and why this means all TV Sports "News" programs are now mortally and irreversibly wounded. A large part of the field beclowns itself over the issue of whether a minor taunt a Braves' player made about a Phillies' player in a clubhouse full of reporters was somehow 'off the record' and an instance from my own career when it really WAS. And Sunday it'll be 35 years since I matter-of-factly predicted the Kirk Gibson World Series home run that everybody else still seems to think was impossible. And the witness to my prediction makes a cameo!

C-Block (38:20) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Only Thurber could merge the laziness of a sticky summer at his Connecticut place with the absolute conviction that his "hired man" trafficks with The Devil: "The Black Magic of Barney Haller."

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

“Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” the landmark news and commentary program that reordered the world of cable news, returns as a daily podcast. Olbermann’s daily news-driven mix will include his trademark “Special Comment” political analysis, the tongue-in-cheek “Worst Persons In The World” segment, and his timeless readings from the works of the immortal James Thurber. The man who turned SportsCenter into a cultural phenomenon will broaden the content to include a daily sports segment, a daily call for help for a suffering dog, and a remarkable series of anecdotes covering a career that stretched from covering the 1980 Olympic Miracle on Ice a month after his 21st birthday, to anchoring the 2009 Presidential Inauguration and the 2009 Super Bowl pre-game show in a span of just twelve days, to rejoining ESPN as a “rookie” baseball play-by-play man at the age of 59.

“Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” the landmark news and commentary program that reordered the world of cable news, returns as a daily podcast. Olbermann’s daily news-driven mix will include his trademark “Special Comment” political analysis, the tongue-in-cheek “Worst Persons In The World” segment, and his timeless readings from the works of the immortal James Thurber. The man who turned SportsCenter into a cultural phenomenon will broaden the content to include a daily sports segment, a daily call for help for a suffering dog, and a remarkable series of anecdotes covering a career that stretched from covering the 1980 Olympic Miracle on Ice a month after his 21st birthday, to anchoring the 2009 Presidential Inauguration and the 2009 Super Bowl pre-game show in a span of just twelve days, to rejoining ESPN as a “rookie” baseball play-by-play man at the age of 59.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann

AFTER ATTACKING ISRAEL, TRUMP IS SPEECHLESS. AND GOP IS SPEAKERLESS - 10.13.23

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/1937aa2f-97e1-46ef-a3fd-b09a0031049c/transcript

SEASON 2 EPISODE 178: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:40) SPECIAL COMMENT: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has not only now CONFIRMED that the upside down American flag flown in front of his home three days before President Biden’s inauguration WAS meant to support the Trump “Stop The Steal” plot – but in blaming his wife and neighbors for it, he has blatantly and transparently LIED in his excuse.

“I spoke directly with Justice Alito about the flag story in the New York Times,” posts Shannon Bream, a host on Fox News. “In addition to what’s in the story, he told me a neighbor on their street had a quote ‘F Trump’ sign that was within 50 feet of where children await the school the bus in January ’21.”

 THAT’S the lie. Local schools – city of Alexandria AND Fairfax county - had resumed REMOTE learning a MONTH earlier. There were no school buses. There were no kids waiting at bus stops waiting for the school buses that never were. Alito seems to have forgotten that anybody could check this.

"According to Justice Alito, things escalated and the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Mrs. Alito and blaming her for the January 6th attacks. Justice Alito says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood and there were words between Mrs. Alito and a male at the home with the sign,” unquote. Again – this sign could not have been seen by kids at a bus stop. “Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language ‘including the c-word.’ Following that exchange Mrs. Alito was distraught and hung the flag upside down quote “for a short time.” Justice Alito says some neighbors on his street are ‘very political’ and acknowledges it was a very heated time in January 2021,” end quote.

Alito said he had had “no involvement whatsoever” in the flying of the flag when contacted by The Times on Wednesday or Thursday. By Friday he suddenly had an involved and intricate story of an increasingly bitter and intense series of confrontations with his neighbors, including his wife becoming quote “distraught” – and especially the vivid and enraging detail about the flag with the F-word being visible to neighborhood children the school bus stop.

He's lying. Again. In multiple ways.

The Democratic response? Resign? Hearings? More limp-flagged calls for recusal and SCOTUS ethic rules. What would the Republicans be doing if – to merge two current Supreme Court scandals - say, Justice Katanji Brown Jackson had hung an ANTIFA-related flag or sign from HER home and taken cash and gifts directly from George Soros? Chairman Durbin needs to think about that – or somebody needs to think about it for him – and then he should do THAT.

B-Block (16:28) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Exactly what American journalism needed: Chris Cillizza has authored a "Mission Statement." It is even more hilariously self-unaware than any actual article he's ever written.

C-Block (38:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A lot in this episode about the media, so let's hear from Thurber and how they tried to turn him into a radio star and instead turned him into a nervous wreck: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."

SEASON 2 EPISODE 178: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:40) SPECIAL COMMENT: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has not only now CONFIRMED that the upside down American flag flown in front of his home three days before President Biden’s inauguration WAS meant to support the Trump “Stop The Steal” plot – but in blaming his wife and neighbors for it, he has blatantly and transparently LIED in his excuse.
“I spoke directly with Justice Alito about the flag story in the New York Times,” posts Shannon Bream, a host on Fox News. “In addition to what’s in the story, he told me a neighbor on their street had a quote ‘F Trump’ sign that was within 50 feet of where children await the school the bus in January ’21.”
 THAT’S the lie. Local schools – city of Alexandria AND Fairfax county - had resumed REMOTE learning a MONTH earlier. There were no school buses. There were no kids waiting at bus stops waiting for the school buses that never were. Alito seems to have forgotten that anybody could check this.
"According to Justice Alito, things escalated and the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Mrs. Alito and blaming her for the January 6th attacks. Justice Alito says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood and there were words between Mrs. Alito and a male at the home with the sign,” unquote. Again – this sign could not have been seen by kids at a bus stop. “Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language ‘including the c-word.’ Following that exchange Mrs. Alito was distraught and hung the flag upside down quote “for a short time.” Justice Alito says some neighbors on his street are ‘very political’ and acknowledges it was a very heated time in January 2021,” end quote.
Alito said he had had “no involvement whatsoever” in the flying of the flag when contacted by The Times on Wednesday or Thursday. By Friday he suddenly had an involved and intricate story of an increasingly bitter and intense series of confrontations with his neighbors, including his wife becoming quote “distraught” – and especially the vivid and enraging detail about the flag with the F-word being visible to neighborhood children the school bus stop.
He's lying. Again. In multiple ways.
The Democratic response? Resign? Hearings? More limp-flagged calls for recusal and SCOTUS ethic rules. What would the Republicans be doing if – to merge two current Supreme Court scandals - say, Justice Katanji Brown Jackson had hung an ANTIFA-related flag or sign from HER home and taken cash and gifts directly from George Soros? Chairman Durbin needs to think about that – or somebody needs to think about it for him – and then he should do THAT.
B-Block (16:28) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Exactly what American journalism needed: Chris Cillizza has authored a "Mission Statement." It is even more hilariously self-unaware than any actual article he's ever written.
C-Block (38:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A lot in this episode about the media, so let's hear from Thurber and how they tried to turn him into a radio star and instead turned him into a nervous wreck: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."

BULLETIN: ALITO CONFIRMS 'STOP THE STEAL' FLAG SCANDAL; LIES ANEW ABOUT IT - 5.17.24

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/10adaca2-cacf-4656-80fe-b173016a597d/transcript

SERIES 2 EPISODE 177: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: A lawyer yelling "you're a liar" at a witness does not make him a liar, despite what Anderson Cooper says. The storyline before the Trump Trial began was: If Michael Cohen keeps his cool when Todd Blanche screams at him, he'll prevail. He did it, and yet the networks rushed to ignore it. Prosecutors have already said they'll only need about an hour of re-direct of Cohen next Monday, meaning that's all the time they expect to require to polish him back up. They are still winning - plus there is still the wild card that in his perpetual over-confidence Trump may testify.

And yet that's not where I start because sometimes the most important story and the most interesting one are not the same thing. The primary sidebar takeaway from Cohen's testimony was based on a poorly worded tweet that the author, Ron Filipkowski, deleted. “Cohen testified that his main media contacts to get positive stories run about Trump were Maggie Haberman, Katy Tur, and Chris Cuomo." Except Cohen DIDN'T say that. He was asked if he had good relationships with reporters. Haberman? "Yes," he replied. Tur? "Yes." Cuomo? "Yes." I am thus in the position of defending - in part - the transactional Haberman, my appalling ex, and the ridiculous Cuomo. 

Having said that, they are all imperiled because of what Cohen DID say. 

Plus we have a really great punchline to the day in the courtroom in which a would-be Trump Insurrectionist learned that loyalty to him is a one-way street, even if the only thing you wanted was a wave.

B-Block (29:43) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Exactly what American journalism needed: Chris Cillizza has authored a "Mission Statement." It is even more hilariously self-unaware than any actual article he's ever written.

C-Block (51:44) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A lot in this episode about the media, so let's hear from Thurber and how they tried to turn him into a radio star and instead turned him into a nervous wreck: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."

SERIES 2 EPISODE 177: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: A lawyer yelling "you're a liar" at a witness does not make him a liar, despite what Anderson Cooper says. The storyline before the Trump Trial began was: If Michael Cohen keeps his cool when Todd Blanche screams at him, he'll prevail. He did it, and yet the networks rushed to ignore it. Prosecutors have already said they'll only need about an hour of re-direct of Cohen next Monday, meaning that's all the time they expect to require to polish him back up. They are still winning - plus there is still the wild card that in his perpetual over-confidence Trump may testify.
And yet that's not where I start because sometimes the most important story and the most interesting one are not the same thing. The primary sidebar takeaway from Cohen's testimony was based on a poorly worded tweet that the author, Ron Filipkowski, deleted. “Cohen testified that his main media contacts to get positive stories run about Trump were Maggie Haberman, Katy Tur, and Chris Cuomo." Except Cohen DIDN'T say that. He was asked if he had good relationships with reporters. Haberman? "Yes," he replied. Tur? "Yes." Cuomo? "Yes." I am thus in the position of defending - in part - the transactional Haberman, my appalling ex, and the ridiculous Cuomo. 
Having said that, they are all imperiled because of what Cohen DID say. 
Plus we have a really great punchline to the day in the courtroom in which a would-be Trump Insurrectionist learned that loyalty to him is a one-way street, even if the only thing you wanted was a wave.
B-Block (29:43) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Exactly what American journalism needed: Chris Cillizza has authored a "Mission Statement." It is even more hilariously self-unaware than any actual article he's ever written.
C-Block (51:44) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A lot in this episode about the media, so let's hear from Thurber and how they tried to turn him into a radio star and instead turned him into a nervous wreck: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."

NO, THEY DID NOT DESTROY MICHAEL COHEN - 5.17.24

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/cc54293a-d0af-4d30-95a7-b173001fbd65/transcript

SERIES 2 EPISODE 176: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: DON'T BE FOOLED. TRUMP HAS SET THE TABLE SO HE CAN BAIL OUT ON THE DEBATES.

"Please let this TRUTH," Trump wrote after the CNN and ABC debates were announced (and "TRUTH" is just an ironic brand name, like everything else Trump calls his crap), "serve to represent that I hereby accept debating Biden on Fox News. The date will be Wednesday, October 2nd. The hosts will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. Thank you.”

The Publishers' Clearing House style childish fake legalese ("Represent...hereby...thank you") is the tell. Trump has agreed to the two debates with Biden and simultaneously given himself a way out of going to either of them. Some time between now and the Atlanta debate next month he can simply insist Biden "recommit" to the imaginary third debate, and when Biden refuses, he can back out - claiming Biden backed out first.

A late statement from the Biden campaign yesterday showed I'm not the only one thinking this could be in the cards. It's Trump to a tee: What does he have to gain from a debate in which there is no audience, where microphones go off automatically when time expires, and in which Biden does not flail.

ALSO: HOW DID MSNBC LET THAT SCOOP GET AWAY? An in-court witness told them, live, Tuesday night, that he saw Trump reviewing the comments of his surrogates who insulted the judge and his family in Trump's place. It was evidence that there was a Trump conspiracy to evade the gag order and it was a huge story. And Alex Wagner changed the subject.

Regardless: Justice Merchan must conduct a hearing immediately. It was Trump who CALLED Mike Johnson and the other Republican prostitutes his "surrogates." Presumably there will be more of them today. They are a new and clever means of Trump violating the order by proxy and Merchan should send him to jail for it.

B-Block (31:28) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: "How MSNBC’s Leftward Tilt Delivers Ratings, and Complications," read the headline in The New York Times. Suddenly I was young again. This was obviously some sort of re-print from 2007. My hair was dark, I could still digest pizza. The sub headline made me happier still: "NBC’s leaders have been forced to grapple with how to square its cable news network’s embrace of progressive politics with the company’s straight-news operation.” Ah yes, thumbing through my scrapbooks from 2006 and 2007 and – that was in the New York Times YESTERDAY? SERIOUSLY? NBC executives are still exploiting The New York Times to whine about the "partisanship" of MSNBC? Holy crap!

C-Block (49:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since we're on this subject, time to re-tell the saga from June 2009 when the "friction" The New York Times reported on yesterday as if it were new (or even just not impossibly old) was so bad that the Chairman of GE - the corporation that then owned us - had decided to take MSNBC off the air because the $200,000,000 a year we made him just wasn't enough to compensate him for having his conservative Mom call up and yell at him.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 176: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: DON'T BE FOOLED. TRUMP HAS SET THE TABLE SO HE CAN BAIL OUT ON THE DEBATES.
"Please let this TRUTH," Trump wrote after the CNN and ABC debates were announced (and "TRUTH" is just an ironic brand name, like everything else Trump calls his crap), "serve to represent that I hereby accept debating Biden on Fox News. The date will be Wednesday, October 2nd. The hosts will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. Thank you.”
The Publishers' Clearing House style childish fake legalese ("Represent...hereby...thank you") is the tell. Trump has agreed to the two debates with Biden and simultaneously given himself a way out of going to either of them. Some time between now and the Atlanta debate next month he can simply insist Biden "recommit" to the imaginary third debate, and when Biden refuses, he can back out - claiming Biden backed out first.
A late statement from the Biden campaign yesterday showed I'm not the only one thinking this could be in the cards. It's Trump to a tee: What does he have to gain from a debate in which there is no audience, where microphones go off automatically when time expires, and in which Biden does not flail.
ALSO: HOW DID MSNBC LET THAT SCOOP GET AWAY? An in-court witness told them, live, Tuesday night, that he saw Trump reviewing the comments of his surrogates who insulted the judge and his family in Trump's place. It was evidence that there was a Trump conspiracy to evade the gag order and it was a huge story. And Alex Wagner changed the subject.
Regardless: Justice Merchan must conduct a hearing immediately. It was Trump who CALLED Mike Johnson and the other Republican prostitutes his "surrogates." Presumably there will be more of them today. They are a new and clever means of Trump violating the order by proxy and Merchan should send him to jail for it.
B-Block (31:28) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: "How MSNBC’s Leftward Tilt Delivers Ratings, and Complications," read the headline in The New York Times. Suddenly I was young again. This was obviously some sort of re-print from 2007. My hair was dark, I could still digest pizza. The sub headline made me happier still: "NBC’s leaders have been forced to grapple with how to square its cable news network’s embrace of progressive politics with the company’s straight-news operation.” Ah yes, thumbing through my scrapbooks from 2006 and 2007 and – that was in the New York Times YESTERDAY? SERIOUSLY? NBC executives are still exploiting The New York Times to whine about the "partisanship" of MSNBC? Holy crap!
C-Block (49:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since we're on this subject, time to re-tell the saga from June 2009 when the "friction" The New York Times reported on yesterday as if it were new (or even just not impossibly old) was so bad that the Chairman of GE - the corporation that then owned us - had decided to take MSNBC off the air because the $200,000,000 a year we made him just wasn't enough to compensate him for having his conservative Mom call up and yell at him.

TRUMP TIPS HIS HAND: HE'LL BACK OUT OF THE DEBATES WITH BIDEN - 5.16.24

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/d331cb89-c193-4989-9781-b17101813177/transcript

AFTER ATTACKING ISRAEL, TRUMP IS SPEECHLESS. AND GOP IS SPEAKERLESS - 10.13.23

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