SEASON 4 EPISODE 56: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: In destroying The Washington Post yesterday, Trump-fluffer Jeff Bezos has gone far enough. Democratic leaders must commit to using anti-trust laws to destroy Amazon, Prime, Blue Origin - and Bezos, financially. Every would-be president, senator, representative must vow to break the oligarchs - Bezos, Musk, Trump, and all the rest.

Bezos first hollowed out the Post to make it servile to Trump and his gang. Now he's destroyed its foreign and sports desks, and its viability as a counterweight to the anti-democracy forces abroad in the land. All so he could spend $75,000,000 or more on a vanity project designed to tell Trump a life: that his wife is an attractive "movie star."

We are not going back to the America of 1885. We must bankrupt Jeff Bezos.

(And I apologize for the slipshod nature of this episode. I'm under the weather, throat bad, was planning to postpone this episode but this could not wait. Please forgive for the extemporaneous nature of the commentary; the rest of the show is interesting but not new)

B-Block (30:00) OLYMPICS TIME: As the 2026 games begin in Italy let me take you back to the most famous winter games yet: the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, which I covered as a 21-year old rookie with United Press International (while my bosses tried to teach me how to work and drink at the same time).

C-Block (42:00) MORE WITH JAMES THURBER: Continuing the broadcasting theme, his first person story of the timelessness of on-air nerves and the labyrinth that is radio, TV, streaming or any other medium in any century: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."

SEASON 4 EPISODE 56: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: In destroying The Washington Post yesterday, Trump-fluffer Jeff Bezos has gone far enough. Democratic leaders must commit to using anti-trust laws to destroy Amazon, Prime, Blue Origin - and Bezos, financially. Every would-be president, senator, representative must vow to break the oligarchs - Bezos, Musk, Trump, and all the rest.
Bezos first hollowed out the Post to make it servile to Trump and his gang. Now he's destroyed its foreign and sports desks, and its viability as a counterweight to the anti-democracy forces abroad in the land. All so he could spend $75,000,000 or more on a vanity project designed to tell Trump a life: that his wife is an attractive "movie star."
We are not going back to the America of 1885. We must bankrupt Jeff Bezos.
(And I apologize for the slipshod nature of this episode. I'm under the weather, throat bad, was planning to postpone this episode but this could not wait. Please forgive for the extemporaneous nature of the commentary; the rest of the show is interesting but not new)
B-Block (30:00) OLYMPICS TIME: As the 2026 games begin in Italy let me take you back to the most famous winter games yet: the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, which I covered as a 21-year old rookie with United Press International (while my bosses tried to teach me how to work and drink at the same time).
C-Block (42:00) MORE WITH JAMES THURBER: Continuing the broadcasting theme, his first person story of the timelessness of on-air nerves and the labyrinth that is radio, TV, streaming or any other medium in any century: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."

“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 HE KILLED THE POST, WE MUST DESTROY BEZOS FINANCIALLY - 2.6.26

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/f500551d-d672-4dc1-9d51-b3e70149e0dc/transcript

SEASON 4 EPISODE 55: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: So would you like to collapse the Trump Regime? Today? Peacefully? Legally? 

You - the White House press corps. It only takes one of you.

You go into the next Oval Office Scrum, and you ask him politely for his explanation of something released by his administration, by Pam Bondi’s office, on the government website, and you read – quoting this FBI 302 interview file: “Maxwell presented (her) to Trump…by the things Maxwell said, it was clear that (she) was available…”And don’t stop reading and don’t make eye contact. THEN from the sworn affidavit, reed, quote: “I personally witnessed Defendant Trump telling the plaintiff that she couldn’t ever say anything, if she didn’t want to disappear like the 12-year old female (redacted) and that he was capable of having her whole family killed…” Quote: “the physical and sexual abuse that I personally witnessed of minor females at the hands of Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein... under penalty of perjury even though I fully understand that the life of myself and my family is now in grave danger” unquote, what SIR is your explanation SIR about when you threatened this girl’s life, sir.

Just keep asking. Don't make eye contact, don't stop, don't stop talking when he starts talking. Just reel off those quotes. And the one about becoming fertilizer. And the "Calendar Girls" story (as nonsensical as that probably is). And all the others. Because we don't always see the escape hatch when it appears before us, and it just appeared.

Because the Epstein Files are part of an official Department of Justice Document Dump. Their contents are Pam Bondi's problem, not you or your lawyer's. And if you don't bear down and do this job as it was designed by the Founding Fathers, you will sooner or later face one of these outcomes: you'll be arrested, you'll be replaced by some automaton Bari Weiss likes, or the country will survive and the next people running media will never consider you for work because you were cowardly when we needed your courage.

Oh and you can peacefully, legally end the careers of Elon Musk and Marco Rubio and Bari Weiss and lots of others. The material is all in front of you. Just have the courage to pick it up and fling it, like he'd fling his poo at you.

ALSO: Don Lemon was arrested not because Jesus but because Trump has always hated him. And if you've forgotten, I explained two weeks ago why Trump was trying to restart the 2020 crap, now sending Tulsi Gabbard to Georgia. They're sitting up not a claim that the election was fixed, but that the election was fixed by another country (hey, Nicolas Maduro, you mind taking the rap, in exchange for a pardon?) and there is no statute of limitations on THAT.

B-Block (34:55) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Harriet Hageman, the blob they elected to the House from Wyoming to replace Liz Cheney, is now running for Senate. Emphasize "running": she has fled a town hill. The Bill Maher Pretzel Logic: Celebrities should shut up, voters don't listen to TV and movie stars. But Bill, you expect them to listen to you. So you're saying you're not a star? And the latest Bari Weiss firing target is supposedly Face The Nation host Margaret Brennan and one of the names being thrown around (probably nonsensically) is Matt Lauer.

C-Block (54:00) MONDAYS WITH THURBER: We need a doubleheader. I heard an audio book with a famous actor doing Thurber's tribute to what would be called Dunning-Kruger Syndrome: "The Macbeth Murder Mystery" and it was one of those rare times when I actually said "No - I did this better." So I bring it to you, and as a bonus, a second great unheralded Thurber story: "Meet Birdey Doggett." Enjoy them at your leisure.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 55: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: So would you like to collapse the Trump Regime? Today? Peacefully? Legally?&nbsp;
You - the White House press corps. It only takes one of you.
You go into the next Oval Office Scrum, and you ask him politely for his explanation of something released by his administration, by Pam Bondi&rsquo;s office, on the government website, and you read &ndash; quoting this FBI 302 interview file: &ldquo;Maxwell presented (her) to Trump&hellip;by the things Maxwell said, it was clear that (she) was available&hellip;&rdquo;And don&rsquo;t stop reading and don&rsquo;t make eye contact. THEN from the sworn affidavit, reed, quote: &ldquo;I personally witnessed Defendant Trump telling the plaintiff that she couldn&rsquo;t ever say anything, if she didn&rsquo;t want to disappear like the 12-year old female (redacted) and that he was capable of having her whole family killed&hellip;&rdquo; Quote: &ldquo;the physical and sexual abuse that I personally witnessed of minor females at the hands of Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein... under penalty of perjury even though I fully understand that the life of myself and my family is now in grave danger&rdquo; unquote, what SIR is your explanation SIR about when you threatened this girl&rsquo;s life, sir.
Just keep asking. Don't make eye contact, don't stop, don't stop talking when he starts talking. Just reel off those quotes. And the one about becoming fertilizer. And the "Calendar Girls" story (as nonsensical as that probably is). And all the others. Because we don't always see the escape hatch when it appears before us, and it just appeared.
Because the Epstein Files are part of an official Department of Justice Document Dump. Their contents are Pam Bondi's problem, not you or your lawyer's. And if you don't bear down and do this job as it was designed by the Founding Fathers, you will sooner or later face one of these outcomes: you'll be arrested, you'll be replaced by some automaton Bari Weiss likes, or the country will survive and the next people running media will never consider you for work because you were cowardly when we needed your courage.
Oh and you can peacefully, legally end the careers of Elon Musk and Marco Rubio and Bari Weiss and lots of others. The material is all in front of you. Just have the courage to pick it up and fling it, like he'd fling his poo at you.
ALSO: Don Lemon was arrested not because Jesus but because Trump has always hated him. And if you've forgotten, I explained two weeks ago why Trump was trying to restart the 2020 crap, now sending Tulsi Gabbard to Georgia. They're sitting up not a claim that the election was fixed, but that the election was fixed by another country (hey, Nicolas Maduro, you mind taking the rap, in exchange for a pardon?) and there is no statute of limitations on THAT.
B-Block (34:55) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Harriet Hageman, the blob they elected to the House from Wyoming to replace Liz Cheney, is now running for Senate. Emphasize "running": she has fled a town hill. The Bill Maher Pretzel Logic: Celebrities should shut up, voters don't listen to TV and movie stars. But Bill, you expect them to listen to you. So you're saying you're not a star? And the latest Bari Weiss firing target is supposedly Face The Nation host Margaret Brennan and one of the names being thrown around (probably nonsensically) is Matt Lauer.
C-Block (54:00) MONDAYS WITH THURBER: We need a doubleheader. I heard an audio book with a famous actor doing Thurber's tribute to what would be called Dunning-Kruger Syndrome: "The Macbeth Murder Mystery" and it was one of those rare times when I actually said "No - I did this better." So I bring it to you, and as a bonus, a second great unheralded Thurber story: "Meet Birdey Doggett." Enjoy them at your leisure.

EPSTEIN: HOW TO PEACEFULLY END TRUMP'S PRESIDENCY.......TODAY - 2.2.26

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/cd812aa3-44aa-47d9-a30c-b3e40150c71a/transcript

SEASON 4 EPISODE 54: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: At this moment, the biggest threat to the future of democracy at this minute is Chuck Schumer.

He and the other members of the milquetoast caucus of Senate Democrats are ready to give away their chance to turn MAGA's panic over the ICE murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti (and Keith Porter Jr) into a forced re-structure of the entire damnable structure. Instead of demanding a new organization with bipartisan control and a blanket ban on any activity near polling places or in fact in the week before an election, Schumer is willing to sell that for four trivial concessions.

He's willing to forfeit the last chance to get these death squads off our streets in exchange for a "uniform code of conduct," the end of "roving patrols," the discontinuation of masks, and the use of body cameras. Because obviously the threat that ICE's next slaughter of an innocent bystander will be captured on video completely kept these Trump Death Squads from killing Alex Pretti. 

It's beyond Schumer's usual naiveté. It's criminally negligent. He shouldn't just be ousted as Minority Leader, he should be expelled from the Senate. Trump blames Bovino. Bovino blames Noem. Noem blames Miller. Miller blames Border Patrol. Roger Stone blames Lewandowski. Trump blames the 2nd Amendment. They're imploding, Chuck. Get out of their way, you moron.

ROBERT FICO: Slovakia’s pro-Trump prime minister who last year spoke at CPAC (it's pronounced Fitso) was quoted by five Politico sources as having been shaken after a meeting with Trump on the 17th, alarmed by Trump's "psychological state" and convinced Trump was "out of his mind." Denials all around. 

(33:00) BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: If you didn't know, Saturday he wrote an ICE protest song. Uploaded it to social media yesterday. Calls 'em all out by name, including "King Trump." Chills. With Bruce's kind permission, we're playing it in the podcast. Superb stuff. I wish Bruce were Senate minority leader.

B-Block (40:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A News Nation moron reduces the death of Alex Pretti to a "scrum." Melania doesn't know her icons from her iconoclasts. And Katie Miller insists all Conservative women are far more attractive than all Liberal women. You have to give her credit: who knew she had gotten this far with such devastatingly impaired vision?

C-Block (50:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just past the anniversary, now 45 years, since a famed New York morning disc jockey responded to something I said on the air one hour by threatening to kill me, and then responded to something I said on the air the next hour by trying to hire me full-time on his station. The Ted Brown Saga - revisited.

 

SEASON 4 EPISODE 54: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: At this moment, the biggest threat to the future of democracy at this minute is Chuck Schumer.
He and the other members of the milquetoast caucus of Senate Democrats are ready to give away their chance to turn MAGA's panic over the ICE murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti (and Keith Porter Jr) into a forced re-structure of the entire damnable structure. Instead of demanding a new organization with bipartisan control and a blanket ban on any activity near polling places or in fact in the week before an election, Schumer is willing to sell that for four trivial concessions.
He's willing to forfeit the last chance to get these death squads off our streets in exchange for a "uniform code of conduct," the end of "roving patrols," the discontinuation of masks, and the use of body cameras. Because obviously the threat that ICE's next slaughter of an innocent bystander will be captured on video completely kept these Trump Death Squads from killing Alex Pretti.&nbsp;
It's beyond Schumer's usual naivet&eacute;. It's criminally negligent. He shouldn't just be ousted as Minority Leader, he should be expelled from the Senate. Trump blames Bovino. Bovino blames Noem. Noem blames Miller. Miller blames Border Patrol. Roger Stone blames Lewandowski. Trump blames the 2nd Amendment. They're imploding, Chuck. Get out of their way, you moron.
ROBERT FICO: Slovakia&rsquo;s pro-Trump prime minister who last year spoke at CPAC (it's pronounced Fitso) was quoted by five Politico sources as having been shaken after a meeting with Trump on the 17th, alarmed by Trump's "psychological state" and convinced Trump was "out of his mind." Denials all around.&nbsp;
(33:00) BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: If you didn't know, Saturday he wrote an ICE protest song. Uploaded it to social media yesterday. Calls 'em all out by name, including "King Trump." Chills. With Bruce's kind permission, we're playing it in the podcast. Superb stuff. I wish Bruce were Senate minority leader.
B-Block (40:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A News Nation moron reduces the death of Alex Pretti to a "scrum." Melania doesn't know her icons from her iconoclasts. And Katie Miller insists all Conservative women are far more attractive than all Liberal women. You have to give her credit: who knew she had gotten this far with such devastatingly impaired vision?
C-Block (50:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just past the anniversary, now 45 years, since a famed New York morning disc jockey responded to something I said on the air one hour by threatening to kill me, and then responded to something I said on the air the next hour by trying to hire me full-time on his station. The Ted Brown Saga - revisited.
&nbsp;

"THE ART OF THE NO-DEAL" ON ICE - 1.29.26

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/6b7b10be-12c7-475b-9365-b3e0016ba65c/transcript

SEASON 4 EPISODE 53: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Alex Pretti may not have been murdered by Trump's Paramilitary Death Squad AS a warning to American governors and mayors and citizens, but the Trump Dictatorship is exploiting the state-sponsored terrorism against a VA Nurse to issue that warning anyway: You "better support President Trump," said Attorney General Bondi. The implied threat that followed was easy to decipher: if you don't, ICE won't leave your city alone and it won't leave you ALIVE.

Bondi's comment came as she explained her (extortion) letter to Governor Walz, offering to remove ICE and Border Patrol from Minnesota providing Walz gives the DOJ records and data and especially his voter rolls. Because it's easier to fix elections if you have the voter rolls. But behind it was the bigger picture: “We sent Governor Walz a very strong letter today. We got it out saying that he BETTER SUPPORT PRESIDENT TRUMP. He better support the men and women in law enforcement because if he doesn’t, we are, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

The United States of America is at this moment without a functioning government. In place of a government, it has a Trump terrorist organization, enforced by a paramilitary death squad, Proud ICE Boys, masked gunmen, street gangs in Nazi leather trenchcoats. We are without a government and we are without a functioning Constitution and we are without a functioning president. We are destabilized – from within – by state sponsored terrorism. Our OWN state. With our OWN terrorist – the worst terrorist this nation has ever faced: Donald John Trump.

What to do about it? It starts with the Democrats in the Senate not just attacking ICE funding but shutting all funding down, indefinitely. This Trump junta must be broken.

B-Block (35:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: We could devote the segment just to those idiots who defended ICE after the Renee Good murder and are now done, professionally. But we'll limit it to three medalists and some runners-up: two New York Post writers, Tony Dokoupil, Senator Fetterman, Clay Travis, Scott Jennings, Stephen A. Smith

C-Block (47:00) COMIC RELIEF: THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: New year, new round-numbered anniversaries. 30 years ago I was wined and dined by a Chicago radio station that was willing to double my salary and build their franchise around me if I quit SportsCenter. And they convinced me to do it. And then half an hour before I was going to say 'let's make it happen' they... took the station off the air.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 53: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Alex Pretti may not have been murdered by Trump's Paramilitary Death Squad AS a warning to American governors and mayors and citizens, but the Trump Dictatorship is exploiting the state-sponsored terrorism against a VA Nurse to issue that warning anyway: You "better support President Trump," said Attorney General Bondi. The implied threat that followed was easy to decipher: if you don't, ICE won't leave your city alone and it won't leave you ALIVE.
Bondi's comment came as she explained her (extortion) letter to Governor Walz, offering to remove ICE and Border Patrol from Minnesota providing Walz gives the DOJ records and data and especially his voter rolls. Because it's easier to fix elections if you have the voter rolls. But behind it was the bigger picture: &ldquo;We sent Governor Walz a very strong letter today. We got it out saying that he BETTER SUPPORT PRESIDENT TRUMP. He better support the men and women in law enforcement because if he doesn&rsquo;t, we are, and that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re doing right now.&rdquo;
The United States of America is at this moment without a functioning government. In place of a government, it has a Trump terrorist organization, enforced by a paramilitary death squad, Proud ICE Boys, masked gunmen, street gangs in Nazi leather trenchcoats. We are without a government and we are without a functioning Constitution and we are without a functioning president.&nbsp;We are destabilized &ndash; from within &ndash; by state sponsored terrorism. Our OWN state. With our OWN terrorist &ndash; the worst terrorist this nation has ever faced: Donald John Trump.
What to do about it? It starts with the Democrats in the Senate not just attacking ICE funding but shutting all funding down, indefinitely. This Trump junta must be broken.
B-Block (35:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: We could devote the segment just to those idiots who defended ICE after the Renee Good murder and are now done, professionally. But we'll limit it to three medalists and some runners-up: two New York Post writers, Tony Dokoupil, Senator Fetterman, Clay Travis, Scott Jennings, Stephen A. Smith
C-Block (47:00) COMIC RELIEF: THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: New year, new round-numbered anniversaries. 30 years ago I was wined and dined by a Chicago radio station that was willing to double my salary and build their franchise around me if I quit SportsCenter. And they convinced me to do it. And then half an hour before I was going to say 'let's make it happen' they... took the station off the air.

THE MURDER OF ALEX PRETTI IS TRUMP'S WARNING: SUPPORT ME OR ELSE - 1.26.26

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/31212af0-b375-43df-8d06-b3de0005e2e3/transcript

AFTER HE KILLED THE POST, WE MUST DESTROY BEZOS FINANCIALLY - 2.6.26

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