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  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 1XX: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I would've expected Trump to mispronounce "Melania" as "Melanoma" before he garbled Putin's name. Whether Putin is his blackmailer, his benefactor or just his idol, if he called him "Poten," Donald Trump is a desperately sick man. I mean, Jesus H. Christ in a Hatbox. The evidence continues to mount for either the thesis that he has Fluent Aphasia or what veteran Trump health analyst Dr. John Gartner has identified as Phonemic Paraphasias (an Alzheimer's symptom in what regular words are replaced by nonsense that rhymes with them).  This could also explains Trump, a day after posting his latest bond for the latest money he owes E. Jean Carroll after her latest lawsuit, insisting again that he never met her, and two days after that going live on national television and insisting - as if he has never mentioned before - that he never met her. If his brain is dissolving, he might really have no idea that he met her or raped her or anything else. The bond in the Carroll case (one of them, I forget the number) brings us back to the other question. It was a bond posted by Chubb insurance (irony unbound) and neither Trump nor Chubb will confirm or deny the 91 million was co-signed by anybody else. Chubb has outlets in Russia, Turkey, UAE, Brasil. Trump met with right-winger Jeff Yass (who owns part of TikTok and now Trump DOESN'T want to ban TikTok) and Elon Musk. Did either of them buy Trump? And: today's House Judiciary Committee comedy show with Special Counsel Robert Hur hits differently now that Biden put a dagger in the heart of the MAGA Biden Age Plot during The State of the Union, and that Hur has "left" the Justice Department and is testifying as just a corrupt citizen Trump Stooge (which he was all along). If the Democrats begin to set him on fire, the GOP will turn on him on a dime. B-BLOCK (23:13) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: England's Kate is bad at photoshop and worse at apologizing. Pope Francis just echoed the wartime popes who appeased Hitler, and Marjorie Taylor Greene appears to have given away her plot to sabotage Biden into calling the murder victim "Laken Riley." (28:06) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Funny that Politico, The Washington Post, CNN, the broadcast networks, the AP, New York Times and everybody rushed to the Katie Britt disaster story but almost none of them gave any credit to the independent reporter Jonathan Katz who beat them to it by two days. WaPo actually pretended their guy broke it, and Politico amplified that. It's shameful, and another symptom of broken media. Speaking of broken, there's Mitt Romney, and Bill Maher. We have an explanation for why he turned into an idiot: he reads only the most idiotic political columnists (George Will? Really? I mean other than for baseball?) C-BLOCK (36:35) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: After the audience for our SOTU special was exceeded by only eight television news operations (each of which has, you know, a news operation) a prominent non-news TV executive asked me why I wasn't back on MSNBC. So I had to tell the Maddow story again. Including the part about the $437 with which I hired her for the network out of my own pocket.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 137: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: For everybody who doubted the Biden Campaign vision of last night's State of the Union as some sort of seminal re-set moment (like me): we were wrong. Biden's first seven minutes were not only the best public seven minutes of his life but they comprised one of the greatest openings to a SOTU in the nation's history.He not only dispelled any notion that he is no longer up to the challenge in any way, shape, or form, but he kicked Trump's teeth down his throat (and the teeth of MAGA and the GOP with them). Speaking forcefully, rapidly, confidently, and just this side of angrily, he hit them before they realized the fight had started: on Ukraine, on Putin, on January 6, on J6 Denial, and on every major issue.If it had been a fight it would've been stopped at seven minutes with Biden's hand raised by the ref. But he went on for a total of 68 minutes and continued to score on every issue. Before the speech only 45% in a CNN poll thought Biden's policies would move the country in the right direction. After it the number hadn't just blown up it had gone nuclear: 62%I devote this entire episode of the podcast to analyzing the speech and its impact and the impacts still to come, summarized by plagiarizing that line from "When Harry Met Sally." I WILL have what he's having.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 136: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: What President Biden should say in The State of the Union tonight is, to declare, simply and directly, that of all the threats to the United States of America the greatest of these is Donald John Trump and thus tonight I am declaring The Biden Doctrine. And in sum, my fellow Americans, the Biden Doctrine is this: we must save our country from madness and vengeance and hate and racism and dictatorship, and to save our country from these evils, we must metaphorically kick the ever-loving shit out of Donald Trump. Instead, the White House expects Biden to deliver a traditional speech that will re-set the campaign. The problem is, it'll be designed for a major event in the life of the nation called The State of the Union that… doesn’t exist any more. 53 million people watched Bill Clinton’s tension-filled post-Lewinsky State of the Union in 1998. That was 20 percent of the population. Last year? Biden had 27 million viewers and not a whole lot of streamers.  The other problem is, 538 researched Presidential Approval before and after each SOTU since 1978 and the average change in approval is a microscopic 1.9%. The all-time highest was Clinton's 10% gain after he stared down the Republicans post-Lewinsky. If you really do think this is your last chance to fundamentally re-set the race, then gimme The Biden Doctrine. What IS the Biden Doctrine about? The Biden Doctrine is about the greatest threat facing this nation. And what IS the greatest threat to the nation? It’s Trump. It’s Trump’s Cult. It’s Trump’s madness. It’s Trump’s racism. It’s Trump’s desire to be a dictator. It’s Trump’s next coup. Do it. If they build statues to President Joseph Robinette Biden Junior it will be for saving this nation from Donald Trump. Twice. There is no reason to back away from the easiest to understand accomplishment. There is no reason to hide from what even HE says is the reason he IS running again: to stop Trump and save representative government. Pound the son of a bitch in the ground, like you did at Independence Hall in September ’22. You'll get ten percent approval growth just for THAT. And don't forget to join me live on YouTube and Twitch right after the speech for the Countdown With Keith Olbermann State of the Union Post-Game Show. Biden starts about 9 ET, I should start around 10. Be there. Aloha. B-Block (22:59) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Bill Hemmer says because they cut away from Trump's "victory" speeches CNN and MSNBC should drop "news" from their names. Hilariously, last month Fox News... cut away from Trump's "victory" speeches. Politico and 60,000 other news organizations devoted space to a Democratic presidential candidate who got exactly 51 votes on Tuesday. And Elon Musk a) lied about Biden bringing in foreigners to vote b) lied when he called it "treason" c) probably lied about not helping Trump with financing and d) on the other hand, a candidate he opposed this week won by 2 to 1. C-Block (33:13) THURSDAYS WITH THURBER: They're all brilliantly written. But "The Car We Had To Push" is brilliantly written to be read aloud. One I've never read you before, from his classic book about his childhood in Columbus, Ohio: "My Life And Hard Times."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 135: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN Haley was winning Vermont, Uncommitted was doing ok but Biden’s worst margin was about 60 points, and once again Super Tuesday is just a brand name. But the HEADLINE is: the Supreme Court actually HAS left the door open to disqualify Trump from becoming president again. Seriously. Turns out that many Constitutional Scholars and even some sitting members of the House, think that in its haste to make sure their pimp Trump got on to the ballot yesterday in Colorado, the Court ALSO left the door open to Democrats and disaffected Republicans challenging the validity of a Trump election if god forbid it plays out like that. There is now a debate over the consequences of the court ruling that the Constitution gives ENFORCEMENT of the 14th Amendment “to Congress.” Practically speaking: Trump wins the electoral college, the Democrats hold the Senate (slightly unlikely) and take the House (very likely), and they are suddenly going to pass new legislation saying Trump is ineligible because he engaged in insurrection in 2021? Well they don’t HAVE to pass new legislation. They already did that, according to this reading, in 2022. It was “The Electoral Count Reform And Presidential Transition Act” designed to clarify the 1887 legislation through whose loopholes Trump tried to run his coup. The 2022 clarification closed nearly all of those loopholes, limiting what kinds of challenges lawmakers could make to electoral slates already certified by the states. But they left two grounds for objections challenges and one of them reads “the vote of one or more electors has not been regularly given.” THAT phrase was in the 19th Century legislation and it means, any suspicion that an elector was BRIBED to vote, or was like kidnapped and the guy casting the vote wasn’t the REAL elector, or voted on the wrong day, or… the elector voted for somebody who wasn’t eligible. Oops. Voted… for somebody who wasn’t elllllligggggggible, you say? It’s not just a can of worms. It’s a FAMILY SIZED can of worms. Thank you Sam Alito! ALSO: Trump just publicly contradicted his court filing in New York that he didn’t have the $465 million he owes. Asked about coming up with it on Fox, he answered: “I have a lot of money. I can do what I want to do…I don’t worry about money.” MEANWHILE: It’s mortifying but it may be a quick fix. A Democratic pollster has analyzed the field of potential Biden voters in three swing states and figured out that only 31% of them had even heard Trump’s top ten worst statements about vermin and deportation and dictatorship, because voters are not immersed in politics and people do move on with their lives. The good news is that the moment they HEAR all of them, Trump’s unfavorable score jumps by five points and individual deficits grow from five to nine points. Solution? More ads reminding people Trump is an anti-dictatorial son of a bitch. Like, you know, one in every commercial break on every television channel and streamer every day until the election. Oh – and emphasizing it in tomorrow’s State of the Union wouldn’t hurt. Did I mention I’ll be on, live, after it, for our Countdown post-game show, on YouTube and Twitch? B-Block (23:14) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Roger Stone thinks Facebook conspired to stop his astroturf. Axios still hasn’t fixed its LOLworthy story about Trump pivoting. And the appointment of a Hong Kong native here legally on a pre-citizenship visa to the San Francisco Election Commission to help with translating voting materials into other languages has deranged a bunch of fascists who are treating this as if Mao Tse Dong was just named to the Supreme Court. Maria Bartiromo thinks the San Francisco Election Commission is also the Federal Election Commission. And Michigan House candidate Anthony Hudson says we must have laws saying if you don’t speak English you can’t vote. Which’ll be a problem for Anthony because he can barely SPELL English. C-Block (33:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: We had a president of MSNBC, he had been the president of CNN, and among other things he didn’t have cable in his home and apparently hadn’t watched any night-time show on MSNBC for at least a year. He also lied about his height, and he was – legitimately – 6’4”. Who the hell DOES that?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SEASON 2 EPISODE 134: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) Trump appears to be suffering from a condition called "Fluent Aphasia." Victims can verbalize intricate long sentences, and appear to be answering questions or making coherent observations. But frequently all they have is the structure and the cadence of coherence; the rhythm of speech. They do not fully understand what they are hearing, cannot convey what they are trying to through speech, and are almost invariably the victims of strokes or head injuries. All attempts to explain "Fluent Aphasia" (or by its formal name, "Wernicke's Aphasia,") use the phrase "Word Salad." And after a three-day series of speeches in which, on literally dozens of occasions, he said things that SOUNDED like sentences but were not, the evidence is mounting and the problem is accelerating: the Trump word salad is "Fluent Aphasia" and on top of all of Trump's other mental and ethical problems, it is disqualifying. He cannot be president. His brain literally does not work correctly, MEANWHILE: “Course I’m respectable,” says John Huston as Noah Cross in Chinatown to Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes in Chinatown. “I’m OLD. Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable, if they LAST long enough.” And then there’s what happens when you’re all three of those things - as the Supreme Court and its justices are all three of those things: Politicians pretending to be justices, working in an ugly building, and as Trump relied upon and was proved correct – they’re all whores. “Because the Constitution makes Congress rather than the states responsible for enforcing Section 3 against federal office holders and candidates, we reverse,” reads the Court's decision to not enforce the 14th Amendment denying insurrectionists the right to become president or hold other offices. 9-nothing. Except it DOESN’T do that. Section 3, as conservative scholar after conservative scholar has repeatedly stated, is SELF-enforcing. It is automatic. If you engaged in insurrection, you’re out. If you think you’re being ill-treated, Section 3 provides you an override mechanism: you can get the House AND the Senate to each CLEAR you, each by a two-thirds vote. Period. The constitution says NOTHING about an enforcement responsibility. The Court betrayed democracy yesterday – again: this time by going faster to help Trump. On presidential immunity, it’s going SLOWER to help Trump. Its members, including Jackson and Kagan and Sotomayor, who before folding, stood up just long enough to wave BYE BYE to representative government, overruled one of the easiest parts of the constitution to understand for the benefit of one corrupt politician. Individually and as an entity they have proved themselves inept at basic reading comprehension. They have proved themselves to be corrupt and illegitimate. Its usefulness and relevance is at an end, and whatever replaces it, the immediate need is obvious: The Supreme Court must be dissolved. The funny part, of course, is that these idiots have inadvertently given the current sitting president (a Mr. Biden, I believe) a kind of qualified, specific immunity from prosecution in case HE wants to illegally overturn an election. B-Block (25:50) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Another reporter claims Trump is about to pivot and Trump promptly makes her look like an idiot. Trump's new vaccine promise: I'm here to kill your kids. Trump shortens his National Abortion Ban plan. Jack Smith says no, the DOJ 60-Day Secret Unwritten Rule does NOT apply to cases already filed against Trump. And farewell to my old friend Chris Mortensen go ESPN. (33:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jesse Watters says Biden "licking ice cream" is unmanly and implies he has Alzheimer's. That's before they found the post from five years ago of Watters... licking ice cream. The would-be Republican nominee for governor of Missouri is suing because, he claims, he was only an HONORARY member of the KKK, and Kristin Welker allegedly wins after allegedly graduating from Harvard and allegedly being a White House correspondent and saying Trump "allegedly" tried to overturn the election. C-Block (41:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: My oldest enemy - the one I thought was killed off in the '80s - turns out to be alive and well. My half century battle against "The Auto Train" and its stopped-up toilets of 1972.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 133: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: What happens if the Supreme Court – I’m sorry – Trump’s newest Super-PAC, John Roberts, Treasurer – takes the next step and not only listens to his shroom-high concept of “presidential immunity” late next month in order to stall his trials – but actually CREATES “presidential immunity.” What ACTUALLY happens TO this country, AT that exact moment? I still do think the STALL is the POINT; not granting all presidents immunity from all prosecutions for all time. But again, the stall itself raises the question: exactly what the hell do I know? But let me present  this grim silver lining in the form of a rhetorical question. You think about it, I’ll think about it. I’ll address it at length at the start of the new week: What happens to the nature of this country – what happens to the nature of our government – what happens to the nature of the presidency, if the Supreme Court actually rules no president can be prosecuted for official acts? What happens THAT instant? And combine that with not a rhetorical question but a simple factual one. The day the Supreme Court effectively turns the President of the United States into a King… WHO will BE president of the United States? And could Jack Smith's response to the SCOTUS prosecutorial and electoral interference actually be to indict Ginni Thomas and present John Roberts with an insoluble crisis inside his whorehouse? Plus I don't entirely trust the source, but there is startling polling suggesting the Democrats can turn immigration and border security from their biggest liability to a plus-seven in polling by simply making a big deal out of all the immigration and border security compromises they already agreed to - and acting on whatever they can. B-Block (16:32) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A good time to bring you his brilliant array of political commentary disguised as fables with birds and bears in them. And a Peacelike Mongoose. C-Block (31:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: To conclude Baseball Spring Training Week, I am still startled that the game was once so important that a rival guy went on a rival Los Angeles newscast and insisted that though they had just lost the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers were obligated to...go to a judge and get a court order to play in the World Series anyway!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 132: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:30) RICHARD, IN MEMORIAM: The day I met Richard Lewis, at a Los Angeles Lakers game in 1989 or 1990, we parted calling each other 'Brother.' It has been like that ever since. I want to tell you about my adopted brother, who despite his on-camera persona of dysfunction and self-absorption was in fact the most loving human being I have ever known. His support, his empathy, his caring, was endless. The total number of brothers and sisters he "adopted" was nearly so. I cannot imagine a world without him. B-Block (26:48) SPECIAL COMMENT: Of course the Supreme Court stepped in to delay Trump's trial for trying to overthrow the government and erase a valid election. It is comprised by five of Trump's judicial whores. It is yet another reason we must defeat Trump everywhere, including at the polls, so that a re-elected Joe Biden can appoint enough additional justices to the court to make Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett into living waxworks wailing impotently until they die. The good news about Trump is, simply, that he had to confess in writing that he is not the billionaire he claims to be but for all intents and purposes insolvent and incapable of paying the $465 million fine (with interest) he owes the state of New York. He offered 22% of his debt; the judge rejected it; the full appeals court almost certainly will, and if it actually leads to practical bankruptcy, that will kill Trump. And there was a hidden germ of good news inside Trump's underperformance in Michigan on Tuesday night. The former executive director of the state GOP there says ONE county result convinces him Trump - no matter what happens to Biden and protests and anything else - CANNOT win Michigan in November. Of course you didn't read that in The New York Times or the WaPo or see it on CNN or anywhere else because if there were any remaining doubts, they're gone now. There is a difference between "facts" and "truth." Telling the truth means blowback and controversy and having to stay late in the office. So our legacy media, as we saw again in Michigan, will hide behind meaningless "facts" and perfect its cowardice. C-BLOCK (49:30) With Richard Lewis at The 92nd Street Y in New York in April 2008, and on Countdown on MSNBC a few days later.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 131: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump under-performs AGAIN, falling short of polling by at least 17 points in the Michigan Republican. And Biden OVER-performs AGAIN, and so does the “Uncommitted” protest votes against his Israel-Gaza policy, in what is looking like a gentle rebuke in the Michigan Democratic Primary. PLUS: LEGACY NEWS MEDIA BREAKTHROUGH: After Trump did a hatful of racisms at “The Black Conservative Federation Gala” (the one that had almost no blacks in attendance) the president of ABC News Kim Godwin emailed people on her staff that “these remarks are as racist as they come…mind blowing. Shocking.” Of course they were NOT shocking and Godwin’s response might as well have been “wait – Trump was PRESIDENT?” and that only underscores the media disconnect from the reality of the evil of Trump. But the headline is: SHE TOOK A STAND and did so in writing, knowing it would get out. She may have had ulterior motives (she’s been dreadful and loathed on the job; she just got another boss appointed above her; she may be trying to stave off dismissal) and they don’t matter. She SAID something – more than her network or any network actually has. It may have moved the needle a bit. COMER DOUBLES DOWN: You wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. But he and Jim Jordan – with a new jailed witness replacing the first jailed witness as the primary asset in their President Biden Impeachment/Hunter Biden Smear – have doubled down. They’ve subpoenaed Merrick Garland for all of corrupt Special Counsel Robert Hur’s transcripts, videos, etc. If Garland were smart, he’d fight the subpoena and say that of course while it’s being ajudicated, Hur can’t say anything, especially to the House Committee. Because it would be useful if Democrats began to ask themselves: What dirty trick would a Republican play in this situation. And apply it not just to a subpoena from some whores in Congress, but to the dilemma in Michigan and, for that matter, at the border. Which leads me to a modest proposal: Biden should steal the issue, control the process, and neuter Trump all in one fell swoop. HE should declare HE is building a wall and destroy the feeble minds of 60 million Trumpists. A wall can be anything more than six inches long. B-BLOCK (30:08) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Axios slams Biden for having note cards at fundraisers. Then, a Democratic county chairman finds pictures of the Axios reporter and the Axios co-founder reading questions off note cards. A NewsMax host thinks the DHS Secretary can be impeached for breaking not laws, but laws NewsMax would like to see. And besides the foolishness of the GoFundMe to pay the now $466 Million Trump owes the state of New York, there’s a hidden reveal inside the boilerplate at the website that suggests the right may have another “Moms For THAT Kind of Liberty Wocka-Wocka” scandal in its bed. C-BLOCK (38:38) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Well we started on baseball spring training yesterday. Let’s continue. Let me tell you the tale of day I paid cash to suppress a story that would have rocked the World Series – the most famous pitcher in the game had gotten within inches of a fight, with a fan of his own team, and I made sure… nobody saw the video.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 130: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Bob Costas has been my friend for 40 years. He has been one of my closest professional friends for a quarter century. And now, bluntly, Bob Costas needs to shut the EFF up about Joe Biden. He has launched this extraordinary campaign - first on HBO with Bill Maher, now on CNN with that toad Michael Smerconish - demanding that Biden and his "hubris" be "shown the door" off the presidential ticket. Bob not only has no idea that such a thing is impossible and even if it were justifiable or smart or legal, it would result in a different candidate who would lose to Trump by ten points. Bob will hear none of this. I tried, behind the scenes, for two weeks. I failed. And I failed to make it clear to Bob that Trump is ALSO trying to get Biden off the ticket and so that all Bob is accomplishing is - he's doing Trump's work for him. It's heartbreaking, I'll lose his friendship, but Bob Costas needs to shut the EFF up about Joe Biden (and that goes for Jon Stewart, Ezra Klein, and all the others who like Bob don't realize that we have lots of historical evidence of what happens when the Democrats try to do a Julius Caesar on a sitting president. There are two results: you LBJ him and you get Richard Nixon; or you DON'T completely LBJ him and you only wound him - and you get Ronald Reagan). Bob. Shut the eff up. B-Block (29:42) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Oh, nothing, just Joe Biden and his hubris about to get a Gaza Cease Fire while eating ice cream; James Comer's favorite Russian plant will stay in jail so it's "Smirnov on Ice." Kenny The Cheese didn't tell the truth about his plot to overthrow democracy in Michigan; Trump underperformed the polling by EIGHT POINTS in South Carolina (36:52) IN SPORTS: A new explanation for baseball's uniform fiasco; Peter King retires; one of the unheralded heroes of baseball - Jim Hannan - passes away. (42:07) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: It took FIVE NBC reporters to claim Trump is about to "pivot?" Van Jones speaks at CPAC; There's a price on Tucker Carlson's head and bluntly it's humiliatingly low. C-Block (49:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: From the vault, it's my Spring Training Preview - for the year 1978!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 129: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN: A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The disgraced Special Hunter Biden Counsel is so terrified about what could happen next to the Russian Plant/FBI "Informant" Alexander Smirnov that he had him RE-arrested yesterday, in a different state, in a second and very unusual bid to deny Smirnov bail. A senior Republican congressman is so terrified (and enraged) about what could happen next to Smirnov that HE has broken ranks and confirmed that Jim Jordan and James Comer knew from the start that Smirnov's "Form 1023" stank and hadn't been corroborated and Smirnov had more red flags than a May Day Parade - and lied to the public anyway and nearly fulfilled Vladimir Putin's desire to see a president impeached eight months before the American election, and his son imprisoned. But the Attorney General Merrick Garland - who was so lazy and incompetent that when they brought Smirnov's fabrications to him he fell for them and appointed the Special Counsel anyway - is HE terrified or enraged about what could happen next to Smirnov? Nope. He's done nothing. While another Russian-Republican plot to alter the outcome of the election has played out almost entirely in public view. This is largely Merrick Garland's fault. If he doesn't suspend the Biden Counsel, David Weiss, and if he doesn't appoint a new one immediately to grill Comer and Jordan and Weiss and all the others, President Biden must fire him. We're under attack here. It's another coup attempt. It seems to link to Trump or at least Russia's desire to return Trump to power. And Garland is trying to clean his glasses. And it is absolutely true that this is the most important political story of the moment, and it needs to be framed as Brian Beutler framed it: What did the Republicans know, and when did they know it? B-Block (22:00) IN SPORTS: Meet Auston Matthews, the Mike Trout of Hockey. It's 44 years since the US beat Russia at the Lake Placid Olympics (I'll report from 1980) and the extraordinary revelation by my friend Jack Edwards, play-by-play man of the Boston Bruins. (30:17) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: C-PAC is back so the Nazi loonies are loonier than ever: Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobiec, General Flynn, Matt Schlapp say stuff like "this is where we end Democracy," and "I'd like to see television killings of Trump's opponents" and "Trump is still president." C-Block (38:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: You guys! I have now MET Smiles the Bernese! (38:35) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: a collection of his very political, still very relevant Political Fables: “The Mouse Who Went To The Country,” “The Very Proper Gander,” “The Moth And The Star,” “The Owl Who Was God,” “The Birds And The Foxes,” “The Peacelike Mongoose.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 128: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I think this fraudulent FBI 'whistleblower' who was arrested after confessing to making up the Hunter Biden story - Alexander Smirnov - the one who admitted the story was being spread by people connected to Russian intelligence?  I think he's flipping. I think there is one thin reed of evidence supporting what I admit is a hunch. Maybe a second one. More importantly, maybe, I think this man David Weiss who was - until Smirnov's story collapsed - the Special Counsel PROSECUTING Hunter Biden, has also flipped, and now intends to prosecute everybody who turned him into a Russian stooge, two steps removed. And I think he and Smirnov are going to take down at least the scum on the lower levels of the Russian Ring in this country (more likely the Russian operatives themselves, maybe James Comer, but just possibly running up the ladder to Jordan and Sean Hannity and, please God, Trump). But we're going to need a new Special Prosecutor to round all of the big names up. And a Senate Judiciary investigation on how this sack of crap was turned into the prosecution of the president's son, and the attempted impeachment of the sitting president. In an election year. At the direction of Vladimir Putin. We've been invaded again. And the Russians didn't need to shoot or bomb their way in here. Because all the Comers and Greenes and Jordans and Grassleys and Hannitys and Trumps just opened the doors for them. And may they burn in hell for doing so. Because I think Smirnov is flipping. B-Block (26:25) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Republicans select a California banker as their Wisconsin Senate candidate who's so non-Wisconsinian that in his introductory commercial he never SAYS which state he's running in. Jon Stewart is going to bothsides us into prison camps - and how DARE he attack Mary Trump. And how dare a Biden National Security Council spokesperson blame the betrayal of Ukraine on CONGRESS. It is the REPUBLICANS who did this. You are paid to say the truth - do your damn job. C-Block (33:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I've played this before. I needed the laugh again. It's the most joyous soccer story of all time: the ESPN Soccer Breakdown Tape.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 127: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I have argued for NINE YEARS that it is essential for the media to actually CALL the crazy shit Trump says “crazy shit” all the time. I have argued for FIVE YEARS that Joe Biden should CALL the crazy shit Trump says “crazy shit.” And it’s like I’ve been talking to the wind. And then, yesterday afternoon, from the White House lawn, CNN’s senior correspondent there quoted sources saying the President has directed his senior campaign staff to focus on Trump’s inflammatory comments, especially “THE CRAZY SHIT TRUMP SAYS IN PUBLIC.” No bleeping, no euphemisms, she said it – deliberately. Suddenly I feel like I’m not alone! This is the easiest way to beat Trump is to quote Trump and the easiest way to break through the numb-to-it-all white noise permitting Trump to survive as a public figure is to get angry about it, angry enough for… the CNN White House correspondent to say “the crazy shit that Trump says.” Live. From the White House lawn. At mid-day. Today, “The crazy shit that Trump says.” Tomorrow… the F-word! I want CNN to talk like that, I want Biden surrogates to talk like that, I want the presidentto go and talk like that. I want to hear the phrase “the crazy shit that Trump says” said by Joe Biden in the State of the Union, right after “Thank you Mr. Speaker.” I want it to have to be broadcast 100 times that night on 100 different channels and I want to see the right wing pundits stage phony strokes and umbrage at his locker room talk because he says it and I want it played again and again and again because IT’S… THE… TRUTH! Meanwhile, in what should shock no one: The supposed FBI whistleblower in the Hunter Biden case – the man who is at the center of the James Comer/Jim Jordan/Chuck Grassley/Donald Trump smear job against him and the president? – the one they ARRESTED last week for lying TO the FBI? Alexander Smirnov? He has now told investigators Quote: “that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing” the fabrications about Hunter Biden. Dramatic, yes. Two caveats: a) he WAS arrested for lying and b) that phrase “officials associated with Russian intelligence” now applies to about 90 percent of the Republican party. B-Block (17:29) IN SPORTS: Congratulations, Nashville and Salt Lake City. You’re getting major league baseball expansion teams. Unfortunately you won’t be getting them any earlier than 2032, according to ESPN. And the actor who played one of the legendary figures in the legendary Paul Newman hockey film “Slap Shot” has died. I’ll say goodbye to Paul D’Amico, so fierce-looking as “Captain Hook” that they modeled the comic book character Wolverine after him. (22:52) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A Republican Florida state legislator has introduced a bill that experts believe will put Florida right-wing media out of business (thank God these people are that stupid); Senator Mike Lee’s petition to get them to actually have an impeachment trial of Secretary Mayorkas earns only thirteen signatures; and Elon Musk’s crapshack website bans and then suddenly unbans Alexei Navalny’s widow. Well, Elmo’s name does constitute half of the word “Muscovite,” doesn’t it? C-Block (28:35) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Before Black History Month ends, let’s take the opportunity to tell the true story of the man who broke the color line in major league baseball. He was NOT Jackie Robinson. He was not even Fleet Walker. His name was William Edward White, he played in the National League in 1879, and for whether he couldn’t acknowledge his accomplishment or simply chose not to, he never did.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 126: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: How many times would YOU be permitted to threaten mass violence if you didn’t get your way before Homeland Security came and dragged your ass, off somewhere? I think Trump is now in triple digits. It’s time to drag him off. “All political prosecutions of your favorite president, me, must stop immediately… this is election interference and must be immediately stopped… Our country will not stand for it.” This is the by-now standard Trump stochastic threat: if the government does not bend to my will my supporters will kill you all. It’s megalomania and as often as he does it and as dulled as we become to it, it’s unspeakably dangerous. It is not just shouting fire in a crowded theater, it’s shouting fire in a crowded theater full of gun-crazed nutjobs. And I’ll go back to my first point here: how often would YOU get away with it?  Oh by the way, I think he also has to stop with this nauseating “your favorite president – me” schtick. If you hadn’t heard – in the new Presidents’ Day poll of 154 historians, Trump was again ranked the worst president ever, with only half the marks of the next-worst, James Buchanan. PLUS: The Biden Campaign "re-set?" Knock it out of the park at The State of the Union. Good - but how about a million ads simply stating Trump WILL INSTITUTE A NATIONAL ABORTION BAN? And the story of the day: I don’t know how the hell you could’ve missed this but  a 22-page report on the trial of a Union civilian employee during the Civil War who defended himself with a pocket-knife, produces the astonishing fact that in 1864 Abraham Lincoln PARDONED Joe Biden’s great great grandfather. The best part? "In imploring Lincoln to pardon him, the friends of Moses J. Robinette, described him as “ardent and influential… in opposing traitors and their schemes to destroy the government.” Talk about destiny! B-BLOCK (22:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: No, I don't know how a woman I lived with for three years wound up telling the audience for her MSNBC show how a man who tried to get the crowds at his rallies to kill her, wound up an "icon" in her eyes, and why she asked if it were "fair" to prosecute him - but I have a theory. The Self-Destruction of Katy Tur. (32:53) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Two guys having sex atop a moving New York subway train gives me the chance to quote the subway spokesman who preceded me as sports director of WVBR radio at Cornell, Tim Minton. Brian Kilmeade does a stupid, and spells it wrong. And the perfect joke about the Trump Sneakers. C-BLOCK (39:17) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 40 years ago this month I was beginning the shortest, weirdest job I ever had. And by coincidence I had to re-tell the story over the weekend. The Short Unhappy Boston Career of Keith Olbermann.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • BULLETIN: SEASON 2 EPISODE 125: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:40) BULLETIN: Russia's most vital and most vociferous opponent of Vladimir Putin and his dictatorship and international terrorism, Alexei Navalny, has died at a prison near the Arctic Circle. Putin killed him. Trump helped. The Republican Party helped. By coincidence, Navalny's wife - now his widow - was speaking at the Munich Security Conference this morning, as was Vice President Kamala Harris. Both of them spoke. The Vice President stated bluntly "Russia did this." Mrs. Navalny said she believed the day would come sooner than Putin would be punished for what he did, and urged world leaders to hasten that day. Putin invaded Ukraine - again - a year and one week ago, next Saturday. His useful idiots in this country, from Trump to Marjorie Greene to Tucker Carlson, must be held responsible. And the President must fulfill his 2021 warning to Putin that if Navalny died, the consequences to Russia would be terrible. They must start with the transfer of the $300,000,000,000 in Russian assets seized after the attack on Ukraine, to the Ukrainian government. We must spend Putin's money to destroy him. (The rest of this bulletin is a repeat of Friday's regular edition of Countdown)  (14:00) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Stormy Daniels Trump Trial will start as scheduled on March 25. The attempt to derail the Georgia 11,780 Votes Trial is bloodied but unbowed when the witness claiming the DA is lying about her relationship can't remember when she found out or who told her, and is a disgruntled ex-employee. The fine in the Trump Financial Fraud Trial should come today. And that ISN'T the Trump legal headline. The meticulous Trump really screwed up last night and posed for a series of photos that defied the first thing all lawyers tell all clients: Whatever you do, DON'T LOOK GUILTY. He not only looks guilty in these shots, he looks like he's already imprisoned. Plus the Comer/Grassley/Hannity "case" against the Bidens hits a slight bump (the "whistleblower" was just indicted for lying to the FBI - he made it all up) and Robert Hur's "Biden Age Plot" has two new conspirators, and shockingly enough they're both - just like Hur - Trump appointees. B-Block (38:47) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: What could bring the ever-warring world of baseball together in one quest? Nike. Fans, players, writers, jersey wonks, all agree: new uniforms it's made for 2024 suck. So, of course, does Marjorie Taylor Greene and after that hearing yesterday nobody knows that better than she does. And the mild, modest Associated Press produces the worst Bothsidesist headline of the month. C-block (45:00) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Back to the beginnings. Back to the story I heard William Windom recite in 1977 and hoped someday I could emulate him. Thurber's impeccable story of madness just beneath the surface: "A Box To Hide In."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 124: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) The Stormy Daniels Trump Trial will start as scheduled on March 25. The attempt to derail the Georgia 11,780 Votes Trial is bloodied but unbowed when the witness claiming the DA is lying about her relationship can't remember when she found out or who told her, and is a disgruntled ex-employee. The fine in the Trump Financial Fraud Trial should come today. And that ISN'T the Trump legal headline. The meticulous Trump really screwed up last night and posed for a series of photos that defied the first thing all lawyers tell all clients: Whatever you do, DON'T LOOK GUILTY. He not only looks guilty in these shots, he looks like he's already imprisoned. Plus the Comer/Grassley/Hannity "case" against the Bidens hits a slight bump (the "whistleblower" was just indicted for lying to the FBI - he made it all up) and Robert Hur's "Biden Age Plot" has two new conspirators, and shockingly enough they're both - just like Hur - Trump appointees. B-Block (27:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: What could bring the ever-warring world of baseball together in one quest? Nike. Fans, players, writers, jersey wonks, all agree: new uniforms it's made for 2024 suck. So, of course, does Marjorie Taylor Greene and after that hearing yesterday nobody knows that better than she does. And the mild, modest Associated Press produces the worst Bothsidesist headline of the month. C-block (33:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Back to the beginnings. Back to the story I heard William Windom recite in 1977 and hoped someday I could emulate him. Thurber's impeccable story of madness just beneath the surface: "A Box To Hide In."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SEASON 2 EPISODE 123: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Kansas City Super Bowl Parade shooting took place on the sixth anniversary of the Parkland shooting. And it took place on the sixteenth anniversary of the Northern Illinois University shooting. And two days ago was the anniversary of the Michigan State shooting. And next Monday will be twelve years since Alabama-Huntsville and two years since Portland and seventeen since Bethel Alaska and and and... We are here because mass shootings - and the bullshit about "Good Guys With Guns" and "equip the police better" - are the backbone of the gun industry and the politicians and judges and states it owns. And so we will have to financially break the backs of that industry and those politicians and judges and states. Because now it's them or us. B-Block (23:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A match made in TV Old Age Heaven: NewsNation hires Geraldo. Rep. Greg Murphy implies Vice President Harris is stupid - and mispronounces her name. And if the latest January 6 arrested suspect is named Method, the joke is inevitable. C-Block (29:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I offered Netflix ownership of the news industry. Its leaders worried only about the subtitles, and what would happen if one day the shows didn't upload. Seriously.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 122: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) BREAKING: The Democrats have flipped the Kitara Ravache Memorial Special Congressional Election in the New York 3rd. It's not a bellwether. It won't even be the same district a year from now. But Tom Suozzi not only took back the seat lost to "George Santos," he completely overshadowed the WhoreHouse Republicans' performance art impeachment last night of Secretary Mayorkas. (3:47) SPECIAL COMMENT: For once Politico aptly describes it: "The Biden Age Plot." Disgraced Special Counsel Robert Hur and House Republicans aren't just looking to have Hur testify on a topic about which he has no expertise, but they intend to have "Biden's Age" be the 2024 version of Benghazi: hearings, controversy, press conferences, witnesses, transcripts, subpoenas for weeks or even months.  It's enraging but it reveals the GOP's terror: it is willing to risk bringing up Trump's age, Trump's bad mental health, and especially Trump's stolen documents - the actually stolen ones for which he will stand trial eventually. There are two possible Democratic responses. The first is for Attorney General Garland to squelch testimony and leave the Republicans with only one note rather than a hatful of phony storylines. The second is for the Democrats to hoist the GOP on its own petard, and to conduct a Senate investigation to whether Hur and the House Republicans conspired for him to write his editorialization about Biden before he submitted his report. There is a sidebar to the entire "Biden's Age" crap. When you hear 77-year old Chris Wallace or 72-year old Maureen Dowd or even 61-year old Jon Stewart say "he's too old" there is a second half to that sentence that they never say aloud. "HE'S too old, and that proves I'M not." The personal fear and memento mori are a huge component.  And there IS a response and, happily, the Biden Campaign seems to have just figured it out this week. B-BLOCK (22:11) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Sean Hannity averaged 1.25 Hunter Biden stories per show last year and now the House has dropped the Hunter Biden performance art. A New York Times reporter explains the internal rationalization for bothsidesism: Biden Hasn't Done A Q&A With Us Recently. And gone but not forgotten: Chris Cillizza and the RFK Jr Super Bowl Commercial. C-BLOCK (29:20) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: My friend Andrew Blauner needs your help to get his 2-1/2 year old Bernese Mountain Dog Smiles treatment for lymphoma. (31:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's 44 years ago TODAY when my nascent broadcasting career nearly ended atop a mountain at the 1980 Winter Olympics, all because my bosses had decided to teach me the night before how to drink.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 121: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) Apparently having not done enough of the bidding of the creature who appointed him, Trump stooge and corrupt Special Counsel Robert Hur is negotiating with two House Committees to testify and/or provide transcripts of his interview with the president before the end of the month. If Merrick Garland will not invoke DOJ rules to prevent this, Biden must fire Garland and replace him with an Attorney General with an actual spine. And NBC and ABC need to fire everybody involved in the scandals at Meet The Press and This Week, in which the conclusion so obvious even Hur had to report it - that there was no evidence Biden willfully retained or shared classified documents - was reversed and both Kristen Welker and Jon Karl reported that Hur HAD found such evidence. It was the same as taking the verdict "NOT GUILTY" and reporting it as "...GUILTY" Welker and Karl and the producers and executives above them must be fired. And having had the editorializing door cracked open for them by Hur's willingness to assess Biden's memory even though he's not only not a neurologist, he's barely a lawyer, the media is running with the idea that, as Politico put it, Hur may have forced the Democrats' hand to switch to a "Plan B" instead of Biden.  "Plan B" assumes a lot of things: like Trump won't seize upon it, like Biden would agree to it, like there IS a perfect alternative, like everybody else who isn't the chosen perfect alternative is going to NOT try to take the nomination anyway, like there has been any evidence of Biden failing at any actual task or presidential function - and most importantly like there's any other candidate who would actually BE a better candidate than Joe Biden - no matter his real, imagined, or As-Seen-On-ABC-and-NBC flaws. I'll War-Game the possible outcomes. They're ALL worse than leaving things as is. B-Block (32:45) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Trump beats the SCOTUS deadline and is still beating the "Presidential Immunity" dead horse. It is increasingly clear the DOJ will have to move to take the Florida documents case away from Judge Cannon. And the plan is out of the bag: Trump will again service Putin - his plan is to cut off Ukraine funding on January 20 of next year. C-Block (38:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Part of the Plan B disaster creeped into my consciousness when a friend of four decades' duration went on the Bill Maher SleazeWeasel Show and declared that if Biden won't stand aside he must be pushed. This is all too much for me. Twice I had my chance to push Maher and I blew it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 120: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: OK which atrocity do you want to get enraged about first? The fact that yesterday I began by saying “today we begin to find out if we still have a Constitution” and turns out, sorry, I guess we don’t – and the three liberal justices are complicit in that? Or, the fact that a partisan hack appointed by Trump managed to turn his nothing-burger investigation of Biden and the returned documents into Christmas-For-The-Fascists by inserting unwarranted, unjustifiable, indefensible opinions about the president’s memory into it and THAT’S the headline and oh by the way where is the goddamned Attorney General on this? William Rehnquist's former clerk, Rod Rosenstein's former deputy, and a contributor to The Federalist has enough nerve finding nothing to prosecute but throwing into his report what sounds like a medical opinion about the President's memory but which is really just another Conservative law-breaker whipping out his schlong and putting it on the political scale. But how does the Attorney General let that document leave his department without demanding that irrelevant, unprofessional, indefensible section not be removed? Fire Merrick Garland. Now. Between this and his negligence in waiting two years to appoint a special prosecutor of Trump, he will bear the second most blame if Trump again seizes power. Meanwhile at the Supreme Court, disaster as Elena Kagan posits that enforcing the 14th Amendment gives one state the right to decide who the president will be, and Ketanji Brown Jackson falls for the "President is not really an OFFICER" fabrication. The analyst Elie Mystal thinks the vote could be 9-0 for Trump, in which case Kagan, Brown, and Sonia Sotomayor need to resign from the court. B-Block (23:17) IN SPORTS: Ex-coach Tommy Tuberville blasts Biden's memory and says he needs cues from reporters and 30 seconds later he can't remember the names of the teams and players in Sunday's Super Bowl and needs cues from a reporter. And the Oakland/Las Vegas A's saga worsens, while invoking the Oakland/Denver A's saga of 1977-80. (27:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Sarah Palin is back! And can now see Russian propaganda from her house. If every GOP accusation is actually a confession, Charlie Kirk and Marjorie Taylor Greene's theory of anti-impeachment GOP'ers being blackmailed with pedophilia is SOME confession. And of all the idiotic takes on the Robert Hur investigation of Biden, THE dumbest is by Mr. Astead W. Herndon of The New York Bothsidesist Times and CN-Bothesidesist-N. C-Block (34:32) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Since this podcast is one of five nominees for the best politics podcast at the upcoming iHeart Podcast Awards, it's fitting to read Thurber's great story of what happened when a rookie went on radio: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • SERIES 2 EPISODE 119: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Today we begin to find out if we still have a Constitution. Because the Constitution, in the third clause of the fourteenth amendment, says no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector, or hold any office, civil or military… who having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress or as an officer of the United States to support the Constitution shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. It does NOT say that that person has to be CONVICTED of insurrection or rebellion. It does NOT say that that person has to be disqualified from the ballot by a judge or a legislature or a plebiscite. It does NOT say that the president is NOT an officer of the United States or that a President is exempt. It does NOT say that the disqualification of an insurrectionist from being president is any different than is the disqualification of a foreign citizen, nor any different than is the disqualification of a 14-year old, that all of them are self-executing. It does NOT say that this clause of the constitution can only be enforced if all the voters agree. It does NOT say that this clause of the constitution can only be enforced AFTER somebody ineligible is elected. It does NOT say that this clause of the constitution can only be enforced if the insurrectionist’s cult and gangs and militias and stochastic terrorists promise not to threaten civil war.  It does NOT say that this clause of the constitution can only be enforced if a majority of justices of the Supreme Court can’t make up a bullshit excuse for NOT enforcing it. It DOES say that this clause of the constitution CAN be overridden if Congress removes the disqualification of an individual by a vote of two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate. PERIOD. I will quote extensively from the two Federalist Society constitutional scholars whose extraordinary research into the 14th Amendment really mainstreamed it: Professors William Baude and Michael Pearson. And I'll quote a third Professor they quote, at the crux of the real argument here: if the Justices should find an excuse to make up some rule to NOT enforce our Constitution out of fear of Trump and violence. From Daniel Epps of Washington University: "The Supreme Court shouldn't rule that Trump is ineligible for the presidency for engaging in insurrection, because if they do Trump will definitely stage an insurrection." B-BLOCK (20:18) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: If at first you don't impeach, try try again. Next Tuesday, in fact. And meet Valentina Gomez, trying to win the GOP nomination for Secretary of State of Missouri. She too is fed up with book banning. Her platform moves directly to book BURNING. (25:41) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Trump calls Grammy ratings "anemic" even though they exceed his last four hour-long network specials COMBINED. UK's Prime Minister shames himself. As do Tucker Carlson and the very gullible rightwing nut job Juanita Broadddrick. C-BLOCK (33:30) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Can you help out Guidry's Guardian Foundation? (34:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Somebody mentioned he went to a baseball event and got applause and support. So let me tell you about the baseball event at which I found out Rudy Giuliani was nuts. We are approaching its 30th anniversary!    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.