EPISODE 248: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon will now begin to decide whether we all live or die. This, sadly, is not hyperbole. A federal judge who has presided over a total of four trials for a total of fourteen days will today make the first of a series of decisions that will ultimately end with whether we all live or die. The forest really CAN never be seen because we’re next to the trees and how fitting the analogy is because while we are down here taking samples of the bark to check markings by Jack Smith, the big picture is: this judge, Aileen Cannon will at minimum help decide whether or not Donald Trump is kept out of the White House and that will at minimum help decide whether or not we have any chance of maintaining a president who will lead this nation and thus this world through climate change.

It really is that stark, and I think we forget about it and then something snaps the picture into focus and in my case it IS two pictures. The first is that one grinning idiot in the black "SAN DIEGO" shirt and the black shorts and the black cap and the black sunglasses in Death Valley taking selfies with a digital thermometer reading 131 degrees - both as if that heat couldn’t hill him, personally, and as if that 131 degree temperature was temporary or transient or unique to that locale or something he has to take a picture of so he can preserve it for his grandchildren and oh by the way at the present rate of acceleration of the climate catastrophe don’t worry about preserving it for your grandchildren because you’re not going to have any, nor is anybody else, because the last words Donald Trump ever speaks on this earth will be about how money is more important than anything or how climate change is a hoax or both and if any of the existential decisions about this planet of the next five years are made with Trump as president - we're all dead.

The other image was this redneck Jason Aldean, the pride of MAGA, New Year’s Eve guest at Mar-a-Lago, the yodeling darling of the Climate Denial crowd dropping a song on Friday daring black protestors to – to quote the title “Try That In A Small Town” – and then having to run off the stage and get two IV’s stuck in him so he didn’t lose consciousness while singing the ferocious tropical heat of Hartford, Connecticut. In July. At night. But there’s no man-made climate change. Try THAT in a Small Town, Jason, after the energy grid has failed and your governor chased away all the doctors because Woke.

109 in Rome, 110 expected in Miami, 126 in Sanbao China, 152 at Persian Gulf Airport which is in Iran but closer to Dubai than anywhere else and it didn’t matter because it was 152. So if the power had failed at Persian Gulf Airport, I mean, again, energy grid failure -- as if it were Texas -- there would’ve been a mass casualty event. Judge Cannon is to tell Trump’s lawyers and Walt Nauta’s lawyers and Jack Smith’s team some preliminary findings about the process for handling classified information at the trial and all the indications she gave yesterday suggested she would be adding an item to the agenda: the planned trial start date and timeline and we are now on the path. 

She won't be the only one who decides whether we all live or die. But she gets the first set of decisions.As to us, history doesn’t usually SCHEDULE stuff this important in advance. It didn't warn us about Bubonic Plague or Archduke Ferdinand or Hitler or John Brown. But it's warning us in advance about this. I guess that means we're lucky.

B-Block (17:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Flynn and Bannon are subpoenaed for the Smartmatic suit against Fox. So? Do they tell the truth, or lie? Harlan Crow tries to deduct the Good Ship Super-Yacht Clarence Thomas; Pink Beret Girl from 1/6 is finally found - and turned in by an EX. And the rule of thumb in cable news is: the first week of a new show is its ratings peak. Which means Kaitlin Collins soon will not be watching her own program. (22:51) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Megyn Kelly blasts RFK Jr's sister because Meg is too dumb to know what RFK Jr's sister DOES; The mayor betrays Atlanta over Cop City; and brilliant plan, Vivek Ramaswamy: on the Supreme Court, he wants: Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and the judge who protected a Beauty Pageant's right to discriminate against transgendered people.

C-Block (28:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: If Lionel Messi really is going to debut for the Miami MLS team Friday we have to welcome him in the only way Countdown can. Whatever your watch may say, it's always SOCCER BREAKDOWN O'CLOCK!