ALITO CAN SHOVE HIS FLAGS UP HIS INSURRECTIONIST ASS - 5.23.24

now we have to take measures to overthrow it. Caught flying one insurrectionist flag at his Virginia home while he was at judicating cases that could have benefited the Trump coup attempt, Alito simply lied about it, claiming he had no role in it, then contradicted himself by telling a backstory of petty personal recrimination involving his wife and neighbors,

a backstory which had its own set of lies. And now we know that that entire story was at best a lie of omission, because when Alito was caught improperly flying a disqualifying insurrectionist symbol in public at his primary home in twenty twenty one, he was still continuing to hide the fact that through much or all of last summer he was flying a different disqualifying insurrectionist symbol in

public at his vacation home in New Jersey. It is, as you know by now, the Appeal to Heaven flag, the Appeal to Heaven flag stolen by groups of Christo fascists from its historical role in our founding revolution and repurposed by them to rationalize a fundamentalist religious dictatorship replacing

representative government in our country. As The New York Times noted in reporting this story, quote, the phrase appeal to heaven comes from the seventeenth century philosopher John Locke, who wrote of a responsibility to rebel, even use violence to overthrow unjust rule. Quote it's a paraphrase for trial by arms. Anthony Grafton, a historian at Princeton University, said in an interview Unquote it's a paraphrase for trial by arms. And it's been flying in public view from Samuel Alito's home.

And this is not merely the kind of anti democracy symbol of the so called distress flag, the US flag flown upside down. This one, the Jersey flag, is an implied call to violence, and Alito flew it, or let it be flown, from his vacation home in Long Beach Island, New Jersey. For much of last summer, Alito had yet to comment on this extraordinary, indefensible violation of the most minimal standard of judicial impartiality and loyalty to the Constitution.

Presumably he was too busy trying to figure out who to blame the flying of this flag on. It goes without saying that if there were any remaining ethical or even political justifications for permitting Alito to remain on our Supreme Court, they have now come to an end. There are no traditional means to remove him from his position. He and Clarence Thomas and John Roberts and the three Trump whores they serve with are untouchable. Certainly they think

they are. There are only three ways to proceed, and all should be used. If you will harken back to yesterday's episode, I noted the Bloomberg News report on increasing indications from political polsters and focus group stages that voters from all political extremes have suddenly begun to view the

Supreme Court as rogue, as dangerous, as unpredictable. If running a campaign to expand the Court or to purge its corrupted members like Alito seems too strong or too risky right now, at minimum, democrats from local city candidates to President Biden must adopt, as at least one of their campaign strategies, a direct statement that they will rein in this renegade, anti democracy, anti woman, anti minority, anti American, collection of theocrats and political zealots who have hijacked the

Supreme Court. Secondly, there must be hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

by their alarming cryptic brief criticisms of Alito and the others. Thirdly, if necessary, we may be placed in a position of having to ignore the Supreme Court the way Abraham Lincoln did. This would require the president's re election and in theory both retention of the Senate and gaining control of the House. Although the latter two are not really mandatory, it may come down to this. Ultimately, the message to Roberts and Alito may have to be in effect. You have made

your ruling on such and such a case. Now, how exactly do you expect to be able to enforce it? Translation you and what army? Because the appeal to heaven flag that Alito has been flying is an exhortation to physical violence, and we need to be prepared for that. The people who would, by any means available, turn this country into a religious dictatorship, a kind of westernized Iran,

have already overtaken one political party. This same flag sits outside the office of Speaker Mike Johnson and other representatives, including Bobert and Chip Roy right now, and now we learn at least one member of the Supreme Court's home and if these are their rules, now we must beat them at their own game, because sam Alito is a prejudiced, dishonest, lazy, proselytizing fraud with a Messiah complex and an agenda, an agenda not to serve the law, not the democracy, not

the nation, but his own religious beliefs. If it was not obvious before, it is unavoidable now. He is intent on turning the Supreme Court into the Republican Supreme religious court and intent on turning this nation into a theocracy. He may have already done the former and is well on his way towards the latter. He had revealed this bit by bit for years. Then in twenty twenty two

he pretty much stopped pretending. Quote it goes without saying that everyone is free to express disagreement with our decisions and to criticize our reasoning as they see fit, Alito said then, in response to a stark but actually mild reality check from Justice Atlanta Kagan. But saying or implying that the Court is becoming an illegitimate institution, or questioning our integrity crosses an important line, of course, Alito, and this Court already had no integrity left to be questioned.

And this was before we found out about his flag collection. In twenty twenty, sixty seven percent of this country said it had a great deal or fair amount of trust in the Supreme Court. Last year, the number was still at about fifty four percent. It is now forty seven percent. The Court's job approval in twenty twenty was fifty eight percent. It is now forty percent. The political majority has not changed on the Court since twenty twenty indeed, it has

not changed since nineteen seventy. The citizens of this country have not been the ones who politicized their view of the court. Mister Ledo and the frauds with whom he sits have politicized the Court beyond this nation's ability to withstand it anymore. And it is Alito and the frauds with whom he sits who have now substituted the Bible

for the Constitution. The very worst moments, said Justice Kagan, of the Court's history, have been times when judges have even essentially reflected one parties or one one ideology set of views in their legal decisions. The thing that builds up reservoirs of public confidence is the court acting like a court and not acting like an extension of the political process. If over time the court loses all connection with the public and with public sentiment, that is a

dangerous thing for democracy. It would be nice to have Justice Kaigan questioned forced to speak on the record in front of the Senate as to exactly what caused her to say that you already know I think of sam Alito's speech in Rome July twenty twenty two at the Notre Dame Religious Freedom Summit, which, as with most religious conferences, was misnamed and was actually the Notre Dame Religious You

have no freedom but to obey us summit. You may have heard him mock the world leaders who were appalled by the court's de dishonest overturn of Roe v. Wade, with its reliance on the legal wisdom of a judge who used to oversee the hanging of witches. You may have heard Alito bash secular values and the quote new

moral code. You probably, though did not hear him, Tell the following meaningless anecdote, and tell it with the gravity of someone who has just watched the burning of I was going to say the Constitution, but obviously I really mean, in Alito's case, somebody's just watched the burning of something sacred. The appeal to heaven flagged.

To also force them to honor the businesses that have built themselves into world influencing corporations by attributing quotes to this potentially fictional character, And to force us to defer to the interpretations of this man who may or may not have ever lived, about what the laws of the United States of America should be, and who the President of the United States of America should be, and if we should have a president of the United States of America or if a king or dictator would be better.

For the church, there is one last vital point about what Samuel Alito said and the danger it represents and the necessity for action that it causes. When Alito said questioning the Court's integrity, quote crosses an important line. What does he mean? What does he believe should be done after that line is crossed? As he seemed to say Kagan had crossed it. I believe the answer is far more ominous than is currently being realized. Two years ago.

Next month, I tweeted, and forgive the self quote, it has become necessary to dissolve the Supreme Court of the United States. The first step is for a state the Court has now forced guns upon to ignore this ruling. Great your court, why and how do you think you

can enforce your rulings? Ignore the court? A few days later, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida retweeted my remarks and added, it is a federal offense to incite rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof. First I thought he meant it for Trump to read

and just got the name wrong. What Rubio, in fact Paul but said there What Alito has opaquely danced around when asserting that questioning the Court's integrity crosses an important line is that they intend not just to complete the job of corrupting the Supreme Court and using it to convert this nation into a theocracy, and not just to suppress criticism of a corrupt, prostituted Supreme Court, but to

criminalize criticism of the court. If Marco Rubio could look at a tweet from some guy calling for states to ignore court rulings, which by the way, is one of the core values of his Republican party and which was bracketed historically. We now find out by Justice alit so hanging one insurrectionist flag at one of his homes and

a worse flag at another one of his homes. If Rubio could look at that and imply that I am guilty of inciting rebellion and insurrection by tweeting, then, unfortunately, we have to take Alito's referencing to saying or implying that the Court is becoming an illegitimate institution. For questioning our integrity crosses an important line. Not as a defensive Holier than Thou spasm, but as a threat. Samuel Alito is a threat to the United States of America, and

we must defend our nation. The would be dictatorships are stacked up so thick they have to wait for permission to land in a surprise announcement. On the other hand, Donald Trump has declared himself dead. They were authorized to shoot me, begins his email to try to con more money out of his dumbest cult members. Quote, I nearly escaped death. Uh, I nearly escaped death. I mean, so you did you? You didn't? You didn't escape death? I

nearly escaped death. Well, that's certainly would explain the cognitive decline of his wouldn't it? All jokes aside? And metaphorically speaking, Trump may actually be right. Something big has changed this week. If it is foddled up upon, it will be with us through the election, It will expand, and it will help us fight back against the mass stupidity the extraordinarily

uninformed part of the electorate Trump was writing to. There, the teeming millions of morons who were shown a standard boilerplate authorization given to every FBI agent and virtually every policeman in this country every day, every hour, and who, having been shown this in the Bill Hicks line like a dog being shown a card trick, are now convinced or pretending to be convinced, that it was a death warrant issued by Biden against Trump. Obviously, Biden didn't do that.

What he did, what he changed was he and those around him apparently decided yesterday Tuesday, maybe earlier, to take the foot off the break, to pull out the stops. They have decided, Yes, we will call Donald Trump all those things. He is a loser, a madman, a fascist, and after this week and the Unified Reich video, an anti Semite.

other words in human communication. Trump reposted it Reich, and it's not a month since Trump had boasted that only he and Dance Gabino are permitted to post on his account. This talk of some staffer doing it without checking is a typical Trump. Why Trump reposted it because he wants his cult to know he remains the same anti semi he was six months ago, and sixteen months ago and thirty years ago. He goes through this every month, so

they don't have any doubts about him. We go through this every month, and inexplicably, we continue to try to manufacture doubts he's a Nazi. Trump plays your roundup of the great anti Semitic hits. He has insisted repeatedly that American Jews quote, have to get their act together before it is too late. He has repeatedly pushed the calumny that Jews are loyal to is not to the United States. At the White House on Hanukkah, he referred to your country.

He meant Israel. He had dinner with the avowedly anti Semitic Nick Fuentes and Kanye West. He praised Hitler to former Chief of Staff John Kelly, and of course, the Vanity Fair article from nineteen ninety quote if Anna Trump told her lawyer that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed, which was confirmed by the former Chief of Gulf and Western and Paramount Marty Davis,

who gave Trump that book. This is not a complicated calculation. If Trump determined today that he could get elected by beginning a full fledged attack on Jewish people, Jewish influence, whatever, he'd do it. When we speak of him as having the soul of a mass murderer, that's what we mean. People do not have any actual value to him. Reenact the Holocaust in whole or in part to get reelected to stay out of jail. Of course he'll do that,

and to any group you could name. If he became convinced that he could regain the White House by rounding up and killing all the left handed people, he would do it. In March of this year, he introduced whole new Hitler ploys. The whole January sixth hostages thing is just a replay of how Hitler used to talk about Nazi Party members who had been jailed. Trump's reverence for

Ashley Babbitt. That's just a replay of Hitler's constant invocation of horse vessel shot by the Communists and the idea of having that second national anthem, that creepy thing he plays at his bund rallies, that's just stolen from the Germans and they used it until nineteen forty five and called it the horse vessel song. I don't know how this could be any clearer. The terminology must be used, and it must get stronger as election day nears. Today we call him an anti semi. Tomorrow I want to

hear the first gentleman call Trump a Nazi. Because whatever the deeper psychology of Trump, from being a disturbed and apparently homicidal child, through adulthood and now into old age, when deterioration has been added to this fatal mix, there is a simple through line. He craves money and power. He does not feel alive without both everything and everyone else he pretends to like and love. He does so because he believes it or they can get him money

and power. There are no other genuine emotions. If he could win the election by imprisoning America's Jews, he'd do it. If he could win the election by forcibly converting the Gentiles to Jews. He'd do that, In fact, he do them both one day after the other, if that would work. And therein lies the ultimate danger of Trump's particular version of anti Semitism, and why he must be called on it every day. It is actually a moral He can

switch it on or off as the moment requires. Today he is defending Jews and claiming his political opponents are attacking them and endangering their country. Tomorrow he will again be insisting that they are endangering him by being loyal to their country. Of the thousand different madnesses of Trump,

this one may be the most dangerous. And we are reminded again that of the thousand different madnesses of the Supreme Court, including its most influential justice, the Flag Collector, the most dangerous one is that its majority sees this scumbag Trump as a through which it can impose its theocracy to replace the democracy the Supreme Court seeks to murder. Also of interest here, Jim Jordan says something stupid about Alito and Thomas, but it's actually funny, and god damn it,

we could use some funny right about now. That's next. This is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman stell ahead of us on this edition to Countdown. I ran into al Roker at the Annimal Hospital the other day, so after he left I had to tell my friends there my matt Lower stories. So let me tell them to you too. Ahead in things I promised not to tell. I lied, But first, as ever, there are still new

idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miss Grits, morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two days Where in the world are the worst persons in the world, the bronze worse the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. In polling, his Conservative Party is down by an average of twenty

one points to the Labor Party. The conservatives big cell at the moment is that they're finally going to start expelling immigrants and sending them to Rwanda, and the government would be allowed to stay in office until New Year's Day. But yesterday's Sunac called what the Brits referred to as a snap election on July fourth. This July fourth, July fourth, good Calling says the continuity of British government like putting it up for a vote on the fourth of July.

Every parliamentary seat will be voted on forty three days from now. Now, I'll have to say nothing pleases me more than the idea that you could have an election, say an election in this country for the chief executive officer of the nation, and have the entire campaign last only six weeks and one day. On the other hand,

who exactly runs mister Sunac's optics. He bounded out of Number ten Downing Street to a famous outdoor podium to announce the election, and within seconds, sirens from police vehicles driving by drowned him out. And that was met metaphorically. Then came the literal part. That's when it started to rain. It rained so hard, so fast that water collected in

tiny puddles on the Prime Minister's suit. Somebody somewhere then probably turned on a rival public address system and played a song called things can Only Get Better.

did he find waiting for himself? Indoor reports that his Conservative members of Parliament are now planning to try to oust him as party leader and thus as Prime Minister before the election forty three days from now, because he called the election forty three days from now. I'd just like to add this, Liz Trusts tanned, rested and ready. The runner up worser Larry Hogan, the lame duck governor of Maryland running for the Senate. A reasonable Republican but

still just a Republican, I e. A liar. Hogan has posted his first campaign video and with it he has written, as governor, I promise to uphold Maryland law on abortion, and I kept my word in the Senate. I will support legislation that makes row the law of Land in every state so every woman gets the reproductive care she needs, because no one should come between a woman and her doctor.

Sounds very nice, but it was left to David Simon, the Baltimorean and O Tour of the Wire series to note that mister Hogan was not being completely honest or honest at all, or, as Simon put it, quote callo lying mook. Larry Hogan, your veto had to be overridden by the Democratic legislature, and then you withheld funds as a means of undermining the ability of Maryland women to control their own bodies. And now you have the nerve to tweet this dishonesty. Well, of course, David Simon that

he had the nerve to tweet that dishonesty. He's in the party of if all the other Republicans, but the winner the worst. Good old Jim Jordan, with one of his typical simplistic tweets, quote, America needs more justice Thomas and justice Alito and less Wan Mershan. Well, then here's good news for you, Jim Jordan. Republican. If you want more of Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, all you need is cash him stepped on another rake Jordan two days worst Parson.

he had been fired, effective immediately. And two the lesser known fact that everybody at NBC knew he He was an evil figure who dominated all of management at thirty Rock and in many cases coerced them into looking the other way, despite decades of abuse of women employees and of bullying and retribution against male employees, including other people on TV. This was so well known inside NBC News that even some of us who had left and had been gone for years knew. In advance he was to

be fired. I found out like four days before it happened. And much of the bad conduct, at least the bad conduct in the office involving the male employees, I saw happen in real time. When I returned to NBC in February two thousand and three, I was one of Lower's favorites. For some reason, My show Countdown was the last program he watched before he went to sleep, or maybe more correctly,

before he went to bed. He used to do these moronic where in the world is Matt Lower segments in which it created video clues as to his whereabouts that would run on the Today And one day one of his producers called and said Lower was such a fan of Countdown he wanted to do a special clue just for Countdown. Well, we had like two hundred thousand viewers a night. We took whatever we could get some free

Matt Lower. Sure. By the way, I was reminded recently that one MSNBC wag used to answer that rhetorical question where in the world is Matt Lower by answering in the bedroom of somebody else's wife. Anyway, Lower, if you think the Republican's ability to turn any tragedy into a political issue is something new, or that television's ability to turn any tragedy into ratings is something new, or that Matt Lower's ability to make anything worse was something new.

Consider the case of Terry Schivo. Terry Schivo was a woman in Florida, twenty six years old, struck by cardiac arrest. It did not kill her, but it left her in a living nightmare. She was in a quote persistent vegetative state, not brain dead, but neither was she conscious. And worse, her eyes were open and her head moved constantly and

involuntarily and in a regular pattern. Her parents, I guess, understandably unwilling to accept this terrible fate, quickly discovered that if you moved a balloon through her hospital room, Terry Shibo's head and gaze would seem to follow the balloon. Unfortunately, if you did not move a balloon through her hospital room, Terry Shibo's head and gaze would still follow the same exact path as it did when there was a balloon.

Her husband, Michael, spent seven years in the courts trying to get his wife's feeding tube removed and thus release her and him and everybody in the family from this living hell, and her parents fought him, and finally in two thousand and three, the parents went public. They showed video of their daughter her head following that balloon around the hospital room. They contacted it every politician who would

take their call. The Republican leader in the Senate, doctor Bill Frist of Tennessee, a heart surgeon, said on the Senate floor that, of course he could not diagnose a patient just from a videotape. And then he proceeded to diagnose a patient just from a videotape. He said on the Senate floor. She should not be taken off life support.

The Shaivohs eventually got Republicans to pass a bill in the House and Senate taking her case away from the Florida courts and putting it into the federal courts, and President George W. Bush actually flew back from vacation in Texas to Washington just to sign that law on camera. Of course, this was a topic for all of tabloid television, and for all of tabloid television that pretends it is not tabloid television, like the Today Show, and it went

on for months. Eventually, there was a pack of guests willing to appear on your show and imply cleverly that Michael Shay had caused his wife's vegetative state and was now trying to quote finish the job from my own network. Joe Scarborough, who had been a lawyer, put on Terry Schibo's brother and sister, and they both implied there was quote foul play. Joey scars put it this way. I am quoting him. They can attack every last person who

is trying to save this young woman from starvation. But in the Americans shocked by this macabre chapter in American politics, we'll see the Democrats as the party on the side of death and see George Bush as the defender of defenseless. Unquote Joe Scarborough MSNBC, Joe Scarborough is a jackass and a fraud. If you watch his show, you are getting hustled. If you go on his show, there's another word for that anyway. Finally, sanity prevailed. A court ordered the feeding

tube removed in March two thousand and five. Two weeks later, Terry shi died. The autopsy showed her brain was half its normal size. It had been irreversibly damaged fifteen years earlier. There were no signs of physical trauma, not the slightest indication of foul play. In January of two thousand and six,

I got a phone call. It was Michael Schaivo. He said, rather matter of factly, that he had tried to avoid watching as the tragedy he and his wife endured was turned into a multi network soap opera, but he found that there was one reporter who tried to balance the hysteria and to treat him fairly, and that that was me. And he wanted to know if I wanted to be the first person to interview him. Nothing fancy, he said.

This guy, Matt Lower, he said, had been calling him once a week and wanted to walk with him on the beaches of Florida and do a three hour interview for Today in Nightly News and Dateline and MSNBC. Michael Chaibo didn't want to do any of that, and he didn't like Matt Lauer at all, and he was thinking if he had to sit down with one of the celebrity interviewers, it would probably Ben Sawyer, but he hadn't

made up his mind yet. What Michael Schaibo wondered was if he could just go to a studio in Tampa one morning before work and have me go to a studio in New York and I could interview him remotely well naturally, I said yes. So on February first, two thousand and six, I got up way earlier than usual. I went into thirty Rock, I got into a studio. I taped an interview with Michael Schaibo. Bluntly, he was as dull an interviewee as I could imagine, and my

questions were deliberately not hysterical. But it was a good, factual interview, and for a network that struggled as much as MSNBC, it was a big deal just for journalistic credibility, just to balance what we had been playing on the Scarborough Show. Everybody at NBC News knew we were doing it. We recorded it at NBC News using NBC News control

rooms and videotape. Everybody knew, including the President of NBC News, Steve Campus, and the executive producers of Today Nightly News Dateline, all of whom were interested in using clips of the interview. After I finished, I went and visited the executive in charge of MSNBC in his office at thirty Rock. Then I went home and I took a nap before I went into MSNBC in the late afternoon to prepare my eight pm show. When the phone rang there, it was

Steve CAPPIs, President of NBC News. Look, you've interfered with the Today Show's long standing plans and commitments. We have signed contracts with Michael Chaibo. Matt Louer is furious, but I understand Chivo offered you this interview, so you couldn't have known how you were violating the Today Show. And Matt I pointed out that Chibo had said specifically that he had not signed anything with anybody. President of NBC News ignored this. Here's the offer, Matt and I will

make you. You don't run the interview tonight, we will run a segment of it tomorrow on Today, giving a full plug to countdown. Then tomorrow night you can run a four minute segment. The rest of your interview can run. And I think, despite what you've done to us, your interview should run after Matt Lowers does sometime next month. I think this is a great idea. Since Matt wants

me to fire you. I said, this was the dumbest thing I had ever heard, which was saying a lot since I had spent nearly three years working at Fox. There was nothing about our interview that risked Matt Lower's prospects of getting his own interview. In fact, it probably increased them. I could now pitch Michael Chaibo on Lower's behalf. Michael Chabo did not like Lawer. On the other end

of the phone, Cappus gasped, doesn't like Lower. Don't say that, But to bury our interview for a month was crapping all over MSNBC and me and Michael Schaibo and journalistically it was indefensible and it made me feel like walking out. Steve Cappus, whose later boss at NBC told me that she fired him for telling her that he would never take orders from a woman, began to scream, as I noted at the time in my die like a twelve year old.

a clip on NBC Nightly News. Somehow, Kappus began to scream again in an even higher pitched voice.

going to run seventeen minutes of it. I'm so impressed with your professionalism, Keith. I will always remember how cooperative you were. Fine, you do.

on Friday. By some strange coincidence, for four consecutive weeks, the Countdown piece never ran. It was just more petty revenge. The Today Show also booked me as a guest four times, canceled all four times, once the morning of my interview as I was shaving to go in and do the interview. The punchline, of course, my little interview back then with Michael Schaibo ran over the next three nights. It did

not really affect our ratings. It did contribute some tiny amount to the tiny amount of actual journalism MSNBC had done on the Shibo story. It counterbalanced that schmuck Scarborough. And on March twenty six, two thousand and six, the Matt Lauer Interview aired with Michael Schaibo, and, as NBC publicity phrased it, Michael and his new wife sit down for their first network interview with NBC News. Is Matt Lauer? Just likek I had suggested, I've.

Warren Davis and appears courtesy of ESPN. Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today is my friend Kenny Maine, and everything else was pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this, the one hundred and sixty seventh day until the twenty twenty four presidential election, and the one thousand, two hundred and thirty fourth day. That's one two three four since Dictator J. Trump's first attempted coup against the

democratically elected government of the United States. Use the legal system such as it is, use the mental health system, use presidential immunity if it happens, to stop him from doing it again while we still can here in New York anyway. The Memorial Day weekend began about quarter past seven Tuesday night, So I'm gonna give the throat and the sinuses a bit of a vacation. The next scheduled

countdown is Tuesday Bulletins. As the news warrants, I'll be on standby for that Trump rally in the South Bronx tonight. You never know when sam Alito's gonna fly another freak flag somewhere. Maybe this one was over the Supreme Court headquarters. Till the next one. I'm Keith Olderman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is

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