Countdown with Keith Olbermann

EPISODE 56: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: The old sports phrase is "No Pain, No Gain." The political corollary is: "No Pain, No Gain - But No Brain, No Pain." This is proved by Herschel Walker's latest lie about the abortion he paid for (3:00) To say nothing of similar amazingly stupid deceit from Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Donald Trump, Kanye West, and Elon Musk (5:53) And yet the World Championship may be held by the new U.K. government. Only on Day 41 and already a lame duck, Prime Minister Liz Truss doesn't show up to face the House of Commons and when someone jokes she's hiding under a desk, Truss's stand-in answers seriously "I can assure the house she is not under a desk." It's the longest sustained laughter I've ever heard a group of politicians express at another's expense, and it proves another theory that has been festering in me for decades (9:30) Namely: There are no adults.

B-Block (13:21) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Jeezy, in Los Angeles (14:15) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: In the Senate debates, Utah's Mike Lee is caught seditioning and Ohio's J.D. Vance is caught lying, denying he ever claimed Alex Jones was a more credible source of information than Maddow (17:13) IN SPORTS: Baseball's jinxed post-season continues: they wait two-and-a-half hours to rain out the Yankees and Guardians when it never really rained. Plus the format is a disaster: the National League World Series team will have either the 10th or 11th worst record in the sport. And more taxpayers get scammed for a new stadium, this time in Nashville. I'll repeat the simple explanation proving all the 'benefits' of new sports facilities are non-existent folderol. (22:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Liz Truss's Health Secretary vies with Trump's balls and Oz drinking his own urine (yeah, they "made" you) for the honors.

C-Block (26:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It was 48 years ago this month that I was at Boston University, aged 15, destined for an internship with the Boston Celtics, and to my shock I was offered a full merit scholarship - a free ride. And then a stringy-haired disc jockey at the college radio station said the set-up was all wrong and I would be making a mistake if I went there. Impossibly, that gaunt, snarky kid of 20 was named Howard Stern.

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OATH KEEPERS COULD SCREW TRUMP

A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Keep your eye on the trial of Stewart Rhodes and the Oath Keepers as jury selection continues today. Rhodes' defense is: he and his terrorists were acting on what were to be legal orders from Trump as President. So...they just guessed that would be the case? They assumed? THEY HAD TO HAVE BEEN TOLD. Told? By whom? What will they say in their own defense and who will testify to what communications or meetings or conspiracies? They are on trial for Seditious Conspiracy and perhaps decades in jail and who they blame could be close to Trump - or Trump himself. (5:07) Other Oath Keepers have already flipped and implicated Roger Stone, Stop The Steal, and The Proud Boys (7:05) And ex-Trump physician, Congressman Ronny Jackson, who supposedly reached out to Stewart Rhodes for protection during the attempted coup.

B-Block (15:16) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Jinxie in Brooklyn (16:39) IN SPORTS: Sure they clinched their division, but what about Aaron Judge's home run drought? And now that the NFL has cancelled its All-Star Game will the other leagues follow suit? (20:32) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The book banners of Bucks County PA taking it an extra yard, the University of Idaho, and the DeSantis appointee who just quit after a KKK photo surfaced, compete for honors (24:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: In the world of the movie "Network" it was 47 years ago this week that things began to go off the rails for Howard Beale, Max Schumacher, Diana Christensen, and the UBS Evening News. For my money, it's the greatest movie of all time - and especially the most prophetic.

C-Block (37:03) More on "Network" and the 23 separate prophecies of auteur Paddy Chayefsky, who saw in 1976 what the rest of us could not imagine: what television news would look like in 2022.

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KYRSTEN SINEMA SHOULD RESIGN

A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: I do not know how or why Senator Sinema of Arizona can still identify as a Democrat after appearing with Mitch McConnell at an event that was for all intents and purposes a Republican Campaign Rally for the mid-terms. Sinema praised McConnell for his "respect for the Senate" even though it was McConnell who made up a rule that denied Merrick Garland even a hearing for the Supreme Court and stole the seat for the Republicans. She blamed everybody BUT the Republicans for politics becoming "radicalized, spiraling steadily downward into bitter and tribal extremism" and never mentioned January 6th. She forecast a Democratic defeat in November. (9:53) I explain my personal relationship with Kyrsten Sinema, first as a friend, then in a brief dating relationship, then again as a friend, spanning nearly eight years, and her deterioration from as liberal and progressive a person as I've ever met to a clown who has fallen for Mitch McConnell's act. She should resign from the Senate - Arizona's governor would be required by law to name a Democratic replacement - and take her deliberate unwillingness to recognize the threat to democracy posed by the Republicans, and utilize it either to challenge Tulsi Gabbard for the role OF Tulsi Gabbard, or go host "Meet The Press."

B-Block (19:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Edda in The Bahamas (20:13) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Meadows texts: the "Crown Jewels" of the 1/6 Investigation; Liz Truss has them invoking the 119 days of George Canning; Ken Paxton flees. (22:45) IN SPORTS: The Judge Watch Never Stops; Brett Favre suspended by SiriusXM. (24:35) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Our boy Chuck Todd, the American Senator who doesn't know how to pronounce "9/11," and the Elitist cheering for the defeat of the Elitists without realizing he IS an Elitist, vie for the honors.

C-Block (31:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It actually happened: the president of NBC summoned us to his 52nd Floor office to warn us that MSNBC was about to be taken off the air by order of the Chairman of G.E. because HIS MOMMY TOLD HIM TO.

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A-Block (1:47) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trial of the Proud Boys starts in DC, near the trial of the Oath Keepers, while one liberal commentator is blasted for asking about climate change and Hurricane Ian, but Tucker Carlson is free to insinuate President Biden blew up the Nord Stream pipelines. So this question: (2:47) WHY and WHEN did much of our country GO CRAZY? When did despicable but sane conservatives go insane? (4:09) I think the answer is: the conservatives' guard rails began to fall off when the 9/11 PTSD sunk in (13:52) Certainly what Bush got away with, in Iraq, with torture, conservatives lost any fear that they couldn't get away with anything - including claiming JFK Jr. is back from the dead.

B-Block (19:27) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Gonzo, in New York (20:27) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Coolio, In Memoriam; J.R. Majewski, in trouble again; Marjorie Trailer Park Greene, in divorce court; and John Barron rides again. (22:20) IN SPORTS: Tim Mayza and Matt Buschmann are in the record books! (Oh and Aaron Judge too) And of triple-headers, quadruple-headers, and sextuple-headers (23:56) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: MTG self-owns while hog-hunting, Martha MacCallum doesn't understand Puerto Rico, and Chris Hayes advocates something unconscionable, as they compete for he honors (29:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Saturday is the 29th Anniversary of the launch of the New Coke of TV Sports: ESPN2 - and I still have the scars!

C-Block (41:15) Part two of Things I Promised Not To Tell. There were two reasons I was willing to give up SportsCenter to be the face of the ESPN2 disaster. One reason, I've always mentioned. But the other? I don't think I told more than one other person in 29 years. In this podcast: I TELL THEE.

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3 STEPS TO STOP TRUMP TODAY

A BLOCK (1:48) SPECIAL COMMENT: Ron DeSantis didn't "pull off a political stunt." He is guilty of kidnapping and human trafficking and must be arrested. (3:42) He's violated 8 US Code 1324 and (5:31) his agent lured people onto the flight to Massachusetts. There are 50 counts; it's 5 years each (8:09) Incredibly, the White House already had a meeting scheduled today about "litigation options" against DeSantis and Abbott (8:49) And we must stand up against the psychopathic scum the way our ancestors did against the psychopathic scum of 1860 (10:30) Plus: there's a three-step process to bypass the corrupt Trump-appointee who just erased American law to protect the pimp who put her on the bench: Appeal, Waive All Executive Privilege, and INDICT THE M'F'ER NOW, especially after the interview (13:05) in which he made seven separate incitements to another insurrection in just 37 seconds of an interview.(14:30) A reminder: the bully understands only the kick in the crotch.

B BLOCK (19:10) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Cooper, in Los Angeles (20:42) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Marjorie Taylor Greene tries three times to kick and push a Young Voters' Organizer, finally gets her, no word on charges; Chris "Eats Paste" Licht demotes CNN's top liberal primetime host to co-host of the little-watched morning program (alongside a former reporter for "The Daily Caller"), WSJ whiffs on Biden's Railroad (25:30) IN SPORTS: Federer goes, Ohio Republicans vote themselves the right to inspect undressed teenaged girl athletes, Washington Commanders can't tell WHICH Washington (28:22) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: D'Souza confuses an arrested Republican for a Democrat, Mike Lindell literally forgets This-Is-A-Hardee's and Blake Masters wants to fire all the generals as they vie for hours.

C BLOCK (34:10) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty!

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