COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 22

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): Do not deceive yourself. 

Trump's appointment of Stephen Miller is not some kind of desperation ploy because there's just nobody else to do the job. This is the Junta's reaction to the clear signs that after the mid-term defenestration, Trump was giving up on being a forever king, and instead receding into his fantasy world of ballrooms and arches and filigree.

The people who help manipulate Trump to manipulate his insanity, NEED Trump to try something akin - at least in spirit - to January 6. They need him to declare Texas "stolen" and threaten to jail the Democrats who are constitutionally obligated to perform oversight in the House. They need to keep his madness at the forefront.

Miller is there to keep Trump insane - and Pete Hegseth is there to supply the violence as necessary.

ALSO: The prospects of impeaching Hegseth (or this idiot Attorney General Todd Blanche who actually thinks the constitution even refers to a job called 'Attorney General') are excellent - but the prospects of getting the two-thirds Senate vote to remove them aren't. But there are plenty of next steps to take now that Alito and Thomas have both indicated they have no plans on retiring from SCOTUS.

PLUS: It is the greatest question any reporter has ever asked Trump, he did nothing but flinch and walk away - and it could never be asked by any American reporter, each of whom could shout it out at every gaggle, but they know their bosses would fire them and try to blacklist them, instantly (because the "Liberal Media" is owned by conservatives.

B-Block (THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL) 45:00. We near the 40th anniversary of one of the great spans of my life. In 1987-88 there was actually, for a months, a multi-station, multi-network, multi-city... bidding war for my services. And it featured one station bidding against itself, while the odds on favor blew the lead, and its boss called me up and swore at me for not accepting his fatally flawed offer. May you enjoy the story, and then some day enjoy a bidding war.