Im sure youre as relieved as i am that i am no longer doing this from between the barn door and the bookcase, but i do appreciate everybody being so kind and understanding. I have continued to test negative for covid19 myself throughout my quarantine. My most recent negative test was today, for which i am grateful beyond measure. My partner, susan, whos been positive, is doing much better and shes going to be fine, and as, again, as my quarantine ends, as i am back in the studio for the first time in more than two weeks, i just want to say thanks to everybody who made this possible made it possible for me to be away to come back in the interim way that i did and to everybody who wished us well. Your prayers and well wishes made a huge difference to me and my family, so, im a real person. These things happen. I thank you. All right, were going to start tonight in a most Rachel Maddow show kind of way, by talking about airplanes, specifically talking about a kind of airplane that susans dad used to fly back in the day. He was a commercial airline pilot. This is a dash 80. Its a big, fourengine jet that boeing started making in the mid1950s. The dash 80 would later become the basis for the boeing 707, which, of course was a famous passenger aircraft. But the dash 80 would also evolve on the military side in a bunch of really interesting ways. The dash 80 first evolved in the military side into something called the stratolifter, which is such a late 50s, early60s name, right . The stratolifter, in use in the United States since the 1960s and is still a workhorse transport plane for the air force. In the mid60s, 1965, boeing started making a special variant of the c135 stratolifter, and the special warrant they made cool name alert it was called the constant phoenix. And that variant of that plane was specially modified to fly around the world, taking samples of the air, sniffing the atmosphere for signs that someone, somewhere on earth, had set off a nuclear explosion. Constant phoenix. That variant of a stratolifter went up for first time in 1965, the height of the terror of the cold war, and it was used to identify any secret Nuclear Tests or blasts or even accidents that some country was trying to keep secret. The nuclear blastsniffing constant phoenix, amazing in its own right, but then it, itself, was modified into something else. It got modified into these. These planes are very, very specialized planes, and they are used for one very specific purpose, even more specific that be the nuclear sniffers that they were derived from. These planes are used for surveillance under a treaty called the open skies treaty. Theyre called oc135s. Theyre used just for the open skies treaty. And what the open skies treaty is, is itself, fascinating. It was entered into at the end of the cold war when the soviet union was claollapsing. The george h. W. Bush negotiated this for the u. S. And it went into effect in 1982. The idea for the open skies was radical and simple. Data was that you could help avoid nuclear war you could help avoid war, period, through transparency, by letting countries see what each other was doing. There are 34 countries in the open skies treaty. Under the terms of that treaty, all 34 of those countries can all look at what each other is doing. All of the countries in this treaty again, 34 theyre allowed to fly reconnaissance flights over each others territory on short notice. And then all the countries in the treaty are allowed to look at whatever reconnaissance those flights show, whatever surveillance information those flights have shown up. So if youre part of this treaty, you cant block one of the approved planes from the open skies treaty from flying over your territory to check out and see what youre doing. So you cant do anything that you cant hide from the air. The idea is that there would no longer be, say, surprise massing of troops on some european border, there would be no secret installation of a cuban missile crisisstyle missile array that took everybody by surprise because nobody knew it was there. The whole idea behind open skies was that all the countries under this treaty nearly three dozen countries would all get to look at each other from the open skies, and that transparency would help prevent surprises and help prevent war. Now, were part of the open skies treaty. 34 countries in all. The one country that is part of this deal that we have most worried about along the lines of the terms of this treaty is, of course, russia, because, into the 21st century, russias the only country out there in this neighborhood thats still invading their neighbors and annexing parts of other countries. But still, its us and russia and more than 30 other countries, all under the same treaty. And it is these unarmed, specially adapted boeing jets, these oc135s, that are our nations approved technology for flying surveillance flights under this treaty, for surveilling other countries that are part of this agreement. And tonight, right now, the Trump Administration is in the process of destroying those planes, while they are on their way out the door to be replaced by the Biden Administration. Tonight, within the past few hours, it looks like President Trump has finally decided that he cant just keep pretending that he didnt lose the election to joe biden. Hes still not conceding. Hes still keeping up this public facade that theres something going on with Trump Campaign legal challenges thats going to result in him magically being proclaimed the winner. Our case strongly continues i believe we will prevail but the trump appointee at the head of the gsa, the General Services administration, has relented, and today she finally agreed to ascertain that joe bidens the apparent winner of the president ial election, even though shes still not calling him president elect. What this means in practical terms is that the federal money that pays for the transition is being released to bidens team to actually start the transition, and it also means the Trump Administration is supposed to start formally meeting with their successor to hand off the workings of the federal government. Its finally happening, right . 20 days after election day, 16 days after it was clear beyond any doubt that biden had won and won by a lot. I mean, to be clear, theres obviously no case that the Trump Campaign is pressing, strongly or otherwise. Theres no case that theyre pressing that holds any prospect for getting the president ial Election Results thrown out, and you know, trump, somehow, seizing control anyway. Its done. Its not going to happen. Michigan certified their vote today. Well talk a little bit later on this hour about how that crazy train pulled into the station today. Pennsylvania is just about there with their certification as well. Georgia already did their certification. Its not going to be an issue in arizona or nevada or wherever else they want to say that democratic votes magically shouldnt count and magically donald trump is still president , despite losing lots more states than he needed to lose in order to lose this election. But the delay in accepting the president ial elections results, while all this nonsense has played out, has already been harmful to the real work that needs to be done in getting the new government up to speed, right . Getting the country ready for a huge change in government, while the pandemic is peaking and while the economy is in a disaster. I think its been overlooked, though, that the length of time that the president has chosen to stretch out this, you know, defying the Election Results and keeping up this fiction that hes somehow going to stay in power, despite the election its not just been a timewaster in terms of standing up the new government, it has also been a distraction from the stuff that the Trump Administration is doing right now on its way out the door to mess up the country as much as they can while theyre leaving. For example, the Trump Administration really did pick right now as the moment they have declared they are exiting the open skies treaty. So, for all for us and for all our allied countries in europe who have been in this treaty with us for decades, we have picked this moment, today, to leave them blind to the surveillance and other intelligence on russia that they have been depending on through us because of this treaty since the fall of the soviet union. This thing has been in place since 1992. We killed it today. Were leaving. Were not going to do those flights anymore. And so, the other countries in the treatment wont get access to the intelligence and Surveillance Data that those flights provided. Theyve been getting that data for decades. As of today, no longer. And, just to throw one more unwrapped baby ruth into the kiddie pool, just in case the Biden Administration wants to rejoin this treaty, once biden is president , right, which is something that would not stretch the imagination, this treaty makes sense, just in case they might want to rejoin the treaty, the Trump Administration has decided to destroy the airplanes that we use for compliance with this treaty. Quoting the wall street journal in a move that could complicate president elect joe bidens options if he sought to reenter the agreement, the Trump Administration is taking steps to dispose of the two specially equipped oc135b planes the u. S. Has used to carry out open skies flights. A senior u. S. Official said the planes are being designated as excess defense articles. The official said, weve started liquidating the equipment. The senior u. S. Official insisted that the goal in disposing of the oc135s is not to tie the hands of the incoming Biden Administration. That said, the move follows a july decision by thendefense secretary mark esper to cancel the program to buy newer planes to replace the oc135s, eliminating the option of replacing the aircraft with more modern variants as well. So, theyre destroying the planes and theyve made sure there wont be any to replace them. Now, its to be clear, its not even clear its not even widely agreed as to whether or not its legal for the Trump Administration to be doing this. I mean, legally, they were supposed to consult with congress for four months before pulling out of this treaty. They didnt. They just pulled out of it. Biden, if he wanted to, could presumably use that fact to unilaterally say, as president , were rejoining the open skies treaty, when they said they were withdrawing, that was actually illegal, it was done improperly, consider us to still be in it. But if biden does that and its not inconceivable that bidens going to do that neener, neener, too bad. The Trump Administration right now, as we speak, is liquidating these airplanes, like they are Postal Service sorting machines in a majority black city in a swing state. Right . And they killed off the funding for new ones, so theres no more planes to replace them in the pipeline and theyre very highly specialized aircraft. So you know, neener, neener. And hey, European Countries worried that they might be the next country to be invaded by russia, yeah, too bad. The u. S. Is no longer here to help you keep an eye on that. And if joe biden wants to be a normal u. S. President and go back to the United States helping other countries around the world in that way, well, he can start maybe at the scrap heap, where were putting all of the equipment, right, in one of those car smashers to see how small we can make it. Thats what theyre doing right now, in the transition, such as it is. It has been a disturbing spectacle and a debacle, right, watching the president and his team of his team of i mean, whatevers going on here. We call them lawyers in this context . It has been a spectacle and a debacle, watching the president , who was just voted out of office, try to, nevertheless, hold onto power, by dint of his ability to intimidate and prevail upon local and state Elections Officials, right . And by these pseudolegal pr gambits derived from the comments under youtube videos about the Gold Standard in lizard people, right, these things that theyre calling their lawsuits, which are just absolute nonsense and have been laughed out of every single court theyve been put before, by conservative and liberal judges, judges appointed by democrats and republicans and by a trumpappointed judge himself. Its been a spectacle and debacle watching conservative media go along with this nonsense and hype it, too, like its credible, right . And to see republican elected officials, including u. S. Senators just going along with this and saying, sure, its totally possible that this stack of affidavits about the lizard people and the Gold Standard does mean that trump is king now, right . It has been a spectacle and a debacle. And with this begrudging letter from the head of the gsa tonight saying that the transition can now begin. Maybe now, tonight, that part of this mess is ending. But now, what that means is that we get the transition as imagineered by the Trump Administration, and it really does involve physically trashing these planes so we cant do surveillance flights over russia anymore. I mean, even just within the National Security sphere, who else do we know theyre doing . Well, its also involved the president installing a star wars bar scene full of really weird dudes in senior roles at the pentagon and the National Security agency, including a new guy hes just put in charge of policy at the pentagon who says that president obama is a terrorist leader. Hes also put not one, not two, but three different guys who were at the heart of that whole thing where trump said Obama Wiretapped trump tower, right . Three junior staffers who made up that whole debacle are now the chief of staff at the pentagon, the top Legal Counsel at the National Security agency, and the intelligence chief at the pentagon, and that last guy, all of 34 years old, who is now the intelligence chief at the pentagon, who is seen as too nuts for even the Trump Administration at one point and was forced out of the National Security council job he had in the Trump White House after he got caught trying to sell all that nonsense about how obama was doing the wiretapping and the unmasking scandal and all that other madeup nonsense. He was literally laughed out of even the Trump Administration, but they brought him back. And after the election, installed him as intelligence chief at the pentagon. Hes also at the same time now the acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations and lowintensity conflict. Did i mention he is 34 years old . I should also mention that the new guy trump just installed after the election as defense secretary unilaterally changed the structure of the military so that special operations, like you know, navy s. E. A. L. S, right . Special operations now report directly to the civilian leadership at the pentagon, which means, specifically, that u. S. Military special operations now report specifically to this kid, this 34yearold guy who was too crazy even for the Trump White House. Like, the navy s. E. A. L. S and, you know, like delta force and the green berets, special operations of the u. S. Military now have to report to him in a thing they decided to change right after the election. Also, theyre shredding the surveillance planes that we use to do flights over russia to inform our european allies what russias doing in terms of its military operations and nuclear stuff. Theyre liquidating the planes. Today, president elect biden announced his first big raft of highprofile appointees. The biden nominee for secretary of state will be tony blinken, who has worked with biden for decades. He will be the first person with diplomatic chops and state department experience running that agency since trump slid exxon Ceo Rex Tillerson in there on an oil slick slip n slide in 2017. There will actually be somebody with highlevel state department experience running the state department. Imagine Antony Blinken was the number two official at the state department under secretary of state john kerry. He will now be secretary of state. John kerry, himself, will rejoin Government Service as bidens special envoy for climate. That will be a position on the National Security council that will give that issue of climate a really high profile, just by dent of the fact that kerrys going to be the one holding that job. The former fed chair, janet yellen, who President Trump vilified and then didnt appoint for a second term, will be back to Government Service, this time as treasury secretary, first woman to serve as treasury secretary in our nations history. Homeland security secretary will be alejandro ma giourkas. He was in the Obama Administration under secretary jeh johnson and is the first latino to head that agency. The director of National Intelligence will be another first, first time a woman has held that job. It will be avrial haynes. Shes worked with biden forever, is a former Deputy Director of the cia and former Senior Intelligence