Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SEASON 3 EPISODE 144: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Well, there it is, finally - the perfect storm that can dethrone or at least deplete Trump and of course it's his fault. HE has openly admitted he's covering up the Epstein Files, and he has in essence confessed he's in the Epstein Files. The problem is a simple one: Trump promised to give them pedophiles. They were promised politician pedophiles. They were promised that the politicians who were covering up Epstein were the pedophiles. And then one day Trump suddenly decided to announce that HE was the politician who was covering up Epstein and he SCOLDED them and HUMILIATED them and YELLED at them for challenging his god-ordained RIGHT to cover up Epstein, and they said in their confusion “but you promised us that you would reveal the pedophile politicians that were covering up Epstein and…wait a minute... that means...” As of mid-afternoon Trump was getting ratioed, on his own social media site, nearly 4:1 by angry, confused, moronic MAGAs. They have lived and died by his insistence that only pedophile politicians personally implicated in the Epstein documents and "client list" would be keeping them from being released. Now his two conflicting piles of bull have clashed, and he has been buried under them. UNFORTUNATELY TRUMP'S RESPONSE is utterly predictable: he will double down on Trump-ISIS atrocities, on torturing immigrants. It will give his 'people' the snuff films they want and may deflect their rage, at least for awhile. But remember, any time you see ICE threatening kids, to shout "Watcha doin? Grabbing those kids so Trump can take them to Epstein Island?" B-Block (30:46) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Karoline Leavitt thinks her conference calls are being interfered with by the devil. Riley Gaines' reward for stirring up murderous hate against Trans people? She gets to audition for Fox, and conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Her skills are so varied: she's 85th best in swimming AND propaganda! And then there's winner Caitlin Francis, a rando from California who has the kind of advice only a homeschooling MAGA mother can present to you: dogs and cats have no souls, so if their vet bills exceed $1000, kill them. Say, Mrs. Francis, what's your over-under on your sick kids? (44:17) SPORTSBALLCENTER: Would you like to play in tomorrow night's baseball All-Star Game? Because that's the only stunt they have left to save the dying exhibition, now that they've decided that five big league games is sufficient experience to be an All-Star? And the floodgates may have just opened in St. Louis, where a pro sports team is eliminating its separate radio and TV play-by-play teams and simulcasting. This is the future, and it's not pretty. C-Block (1:05:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Somebody asked me what was my favorite joke that I ever did on the air. So here's a bunch - starring Albert Hall, the Takko-Bell trade, and the day the Reading Phillies set me up to get ejected from a minor league baseball game. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 143: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL REPORT: Which is worse? That Trump is running a “Protection Racket Presidency” and bribed one Senator to vote for his Big Beautiful Soak The Poor Budget Bill while metaphorically bumping off one Senator who wouldn’t? Or that Trump threatened Israel, threatened the government of Israel, if Israel's courts don’t do what HE wants on behalf of Netanyahu – and nobody noticed. Which is worse? Well it’s a trick question because these are actually just two different aspects of the same story. It’s a protection racket. These are a) the domestic operations of the protection racket, and b) the international operations of the protection racket. Thom Tillis, the vaguely responsible Republican senator from North Carolina, refused to let Trump politically rape him Saturday night and would not vote to advance the budget bill. Trump had been threatening him for weeks, months, accelerated it, finally began to ask for volunteers to primary him, Tillis announced yesterday he will retire from the senate at the end of his term next year. So much for Mr. Tillis. So much for somebody, anybody, in the Republican party saying “I owe this country something.” So much for the thought that when the country is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell ‘em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Tiller. I don’t know where I’ll be then, but I’ll know about it and I’ll be happy.” Well I know where Thom Tillis will be: he’ll be back home in Cornelius, North Carolina. Presumably drinking heavily. Reflecting on how he represents the utter moral and ethical decline of the already near-bankrupt and nearly-totally-declined Republican Party. Meanwhile Senator Lisa Murkowski turns out to be Susan Collins with less Kibuki make-up. She sold her soul to get herself a carveout for Alaska, only to find out the Senate Parliamentarian says it violates the Senate's Byrd Rule and the carveout must be carved out. Lol. AND TRUMP THREATENED TO DEFUND ISRAEL - what would be the end of the political career of any other American figure - and nobody noticed. And it seems to have worked. ALSO: WHY KRISTEN GILLIBRAND MUST RESIGN (and get treatment), Stephen Miller has a financial interest in the ICE raids, the plot to make Eric Adams the Republican nominee for mayor of New York, and you missed the new SCOTUS rulings on porn! Pay attention, Mike Johnson! B-Block (37:32) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jeopardy aficionados worried about a conflict of interest because the contestant was related to the person who was the answer to the question? I was on two episodes of Jeopardy in which a contestant had the same name as the answer to the question, and where a contestant wrote four of the five sketches that were all the answers in an entire category! Plus the Fox host who doesn't know when World War 2 was or which American party caused breadlines; Chris Cuomo thinks AOC destroyed the Democratic Party not, say, he and his brother; and idiot Senator Bernie Moreno discusses "anals" with Laura Ingraham. C-Block (56:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's that time again. July 10 is the 46th anniversary of my first broadcast on my first full-time broadcasting job, which means you have a choice: you have to listen to it, or skip it. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 142: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: The only “scum” here is Trump and the only thing that’s been “obliterated” is America’s reputation. We have now descended to that level of hell in which the entire purpose of the government of the United States is to say and shout and lie so loudly and so often that the insane, deteriorating, mentally-dissolving, international joke that IS the current president doesn’t yell at the fools and whores who work for him. He has now gotten the government of Israel to lie for him about his attack on Iran; he has now gotten his own government to issue assessments that not only completely contradict YESTERDAY’S assessments but completely contradict his OWN assessments; he has now gotten his own Director of National Intelligence – presumably under threat of being fired – to cherry-pick SOMEBODY’S intelligence, maybe ours, maybe Qatar’s, maybe Joe Rogan’s, who knows – and insist that it is NEW and it confirms his obsession that everybody in the country, everybody in the world, everybody in the universe, everybody YET TO BE BORN, agree with him that Iran’s nuclear capacity is quote “obliterated” and for all time and forever and no arguments and it’s the greatest military success since Hiroshima and Nagasaki and don’t you dare say otherwise, don’t you dare say inconclusive obliterated obliterated obliterated. Except that 24 hours ago Trump said… inconclusive.  THERE ARE SEVERAL SIDEBARS to Zohran Mamdani’s startling first-round win in the Democratic primary for mayor here in Fun City. First: the tepidness of national Democratic support for him. Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and the rest of the gerontocracy better shape up fast because Mamdani won the MIDDLE class by doing the two things you idiots refused to even try to do last year: combine concern for the financial crushing OF the middle class, AND standing up for what’s right in the country and the world, including opposing Trump and ICE and punishing corrupt political cynics like Andrew Cuomo. The hesitation can only open an avenue for Eric Adams to whore himself out as a pro-business "centrist" who will be Trump's tool. B-Block (27:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Larry Ellison and my old ex-friend Jeff "You Should've Known I Was Lying To You" Shell have a plan for CBS News: more Bari Weiss. The one time we could've used propaganda and Voice of America in Iran, Kari Lake made sure we were off the air. And it's so easy to miss and to minimize, but Trump went full gay-bashing this week. Silence is compliance. C-Block (37:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Now that I'm with my fifth different network just doing baseball games (FanDuel Sports) it's a good time to revisit my departure from my first. A scant 28 years ago this month I left ESPN - but we came thisclose to keeping the relationship going just enough to continue the Sunday SportsCenter. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

BULLETIN: SEASON 3 EPISODE 141. TRUMP'S PROFANE, INSANE RANT Donald Trump's limited tether to reality has snapped this morning and he must be removed from office, by his own party, first via the 25th Amendment and then by Impeachment. Even as individuals as far from being anti-Trump as Speaker of the House Johnson and Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry have said, live, on networks like Fox and CNN, that Iran's nuclear capacity was obviously not fully destroyed in Trump's undeclared war against Iran, he has now raged against the networks, against Israel, and against Iran - because reality is not doing what he is telling it to. After a session with the press that was disturbing even for him, Trump then went aboard Air Force One and began to struggle (again, well beyond his usual struggle) to locate certain words and even repeat words just said to him. Asked about possible Iran "sleeper cells" he raged against "super cells." Trump is a lethal, imminent, clear and present danger to the life of everybody on this planet. He cannot continue in office. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 140: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: We join the Trump Dictatorship, already in progress. He has attacked Iran, declared undeclared war on Iran, denied he wanted regime change there and is now insisting there should be regime change. And it's all because he has lost America. The Economist polling that has his OVERALL approval underwater in FIFTEEN states… that HE WON LAST YEAR. SEVEN under in Pennsylvania, FOUR under in Georgia, FOUR under in North Carolina, eight under in Michigan, eight under in Pennsylvania. Even CNN’s pollster Harry Enten says “I think we can say Trump has lost the political battle when it comes to what has happened in Los Angeles." CNN has Trump at -15 approval on his key issue: immigration, and -24 among independents. Trump attacked Iran because he has lost America. As a political observer wrote on January 17, 2012, “Obama will attack Iran in order to get re-elected.” And the SAME political observer wrote on October 9, 2012, “Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.” And the SAME political observer then wrote on September 16 2013 “I predict that President Obama will at some point attack Iran in order to save face,” and as the SAME political observer wrote on September 25, 2013 “Remember what I previously said, Obama will some day attack Iran in order to show how tough he is,” and how finally that SAME political observer wrote on November 10 2013 “Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly – not skilled” – and that political observer was… Donald J. Trump. I'll analyze the consequences of Trump's unconstitutional act - including angering Putin - and the hilarious moment when Pete Hegseth got the location of the target wrong. Plus Trump's nonsensical "I'd especially like to thank God," his lies about being opposed to Iraq, and the small victory: the Senate parliamentarian says they have to strip from the budget bill the move to limit the courts' ability to restrain Trump. B-Block (37:32) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: It's like Champions Week on Jeopardy: Mayor Eric Adams keeps digging, Jake Tapper keeps digging, and Stephen A. Smith is digging so hard to align himself with the reprehensible Candace Owens that at this rate Smith will be forcing ESPN to fire him. C-Block (50:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Of all the things you don't expect to come up on Jason Benetti's Detroit Tigers telecast is not one but two ex-pitchers confessing they still have dreams - thirty years later - that the anthem is playing, they are supposed to be pitching, but they cannot find their uniforms or that their shoelaces have been tied together. I'll explain why the mini-PTSD dream has become a nostalgic dream for these guys from my cohort: Frank Tanana, Dan Petry, and me. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.