i found myself with my soul kind of squeezed out watching what happened in ferguson monday night. it was really upsetting. and i've never looked forward to a thanksgiving like i am to this one. i just want to say thank you, the viewer, to watching. thank you to all the people in my family who i'm going to be with, and my daughter who turns 3 on friday. for everyone to maybe take a moment at this thanksgiving to try to enlarge their empathetic qualities and faculties and to offer some grace to people across the table from them, across the social divide from them and to give thanks for what we do have. that is "all in" for this evening. rachel maddow show starts now with steve kornacki. >> thanks for that. happy thanksgiving to you and your family. >> you too. >> thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. rachel has the night off. happy thanksgiving eve to all of you. at the height of the presidential race back in the summer of 2008, then-candidate barack obama was crisscrossing

the country making a case for why he should be elected president of the united states. the american economy was imploding, russia and georgia were on the verge of war, the united states was engaged in direct talks with north korea on the subject of nuclear disarmament. a busy time in america, a busy time in the world. a very busy time in the news business. and in the middle of all this, with all of this more swirling in the air, there was actually a moment in the middle of all this that it seemed that all anyone wanted to ask barack obama about was a cartoon. cartoon that was on the cover of a magazine called "the new yorker yorker." >> so the title of that "new

yorker" cover was the politics of fear. and that came out shortly after a fox news commentator had wondered alloud on television i they had given each other a terrorist fist jab. that "new yorkyorker" cover capd that moment in political and media life, the conversation that was happening in our country right then, not just in politics but the culture at large. this is something that the cover of the "new yorker" is good for. this was the cover of "the new yorker" after osama bin laden was killed. even if you never read a word of the magazine, "new yorker" covers are a phenomenon. this is during the disastrous obama care rollout. when the world had discovered that mitt romney once strapped a dog to the roof of the car during a family trip. this is how "the new yorker" encapsulated. that's rick santorum on the roof of the car.

after bp spilled oil into the gulf coast, the worst oil spill in american history, here was the cover of "the new yorker," this is 9/11 cover. one of the most provocative covers was probably this, the valentine's day issue from 1993, back when new york city was grappling with some deep-seated, seemingly intractable tensions between the block and jewish orthodox populations. there had been rioting, violence and looting, simmering tension. when this cover came out, it was controversial, poignant, funny, provocative, one that people still remember and still talk about today 21 years later. and that's what just the right cover image can do. it can stand the test of time. and so now this week, this the cover of the newest issue of "the new yorker." it's called broken arch. and the artist who created this cover, his name is bob stack. he lived in st. louis for 17

years, and he says that watching the news right now in his home state breaks his heart. quote, my hope is that the events in ferguson will provide a bridge and opportunity for the city and also for the country to learn and to come together. last night and into this morning people poured out on to the streets all over the country in solidarity with the folks that had been protesting in ferguson. from new york, boston, minneapolis, atlanta, portland, oakland, l.a., people last night took to the streets and they marched. in many places people used their bodies to block traffic, to close roads and highways. in los angeles they blocked the highway, the 101 highway. in new york they stopped traffic at the lincoln tunnel. they closed the brooklyn bridge also. they blocked both highways on either side of manhattan. for the most part all of these protests were peaceful, although there were bursts of violence. in oakland, california, protests grew more violent as the night wore on. people started fires, some shattered windows, they threw bricks at police officers. more than 90 people in all were

arrested in oakland as a result of those protests last evening. in ferguson, there was some violence but the st. louis county police chief called it a much better night last night than the night before. there were 44 arrests total that were made. this is a live shot right now in the city of ferguson. these are live images on thanksgiving eve right now the streets are calm in ferguson. you can see the national guard here outside the ferguson police department. in downtown st. louis today there was a dramatic confrontation between protesters who had tried to make their way into city hall and police officers who said that the crowd had, quote, made contact with the city hall security guard and the crowd had to disperse. some in the crowd tried to question that order. >> only because they assaulted us and forced their way into the building. >> maybe a psychotic person. >> well, unfortunately, sometimes a bad apple ruins the whole barrel. >> like darren wilson? that's the bad apple. >> so now it's time to go.

this is an unlawful assembly. anybody who remains is subject to arrest and/or other actions up to and including the deployment of chemical munitions. >> three people were arrested during those protests in downtown st. louis. on the ground in ferguson, in the city of st. louis people have been protesting the grand jury's decision not to indict officer darren wilson in the shooting death of michael brown, but this story also is continuing to unfold in a very important way, continuing to unfold away from the streets and away from the scenes of all those protests because when that local prosecutor announced the grand jury's decision not to indict wilson back on monday night, that prosecutor also made the decision to release thousands of pages of documents, thousands of interviews, pieces of evidence that had been presented to that grand jury in this case. the grand jury that decided not to pursue a case. a surprising decision. something you basically never

see. evidence and testimony presented to a grand jury is generally not made available for the public to view. but here it was. it was made public in a flood of paper. something like 4700 documents in all all released at once. people, journalists, everyone across the country is combing through that stuff trying to find some of what they're looking for. a lot is jaw dropping. today "the washington post" presented this piece, based on the quote voluminous testimony released in the aftermath of the grand jury's decision. the "post" found that officer wilson left the scene of the shooting, he returned to the police station unescorted, washed his hands and placed his gun into the evidence bag himself. the interviews were not taped. an investigator with the st. louis county medical examiner's office opted not to take measurements at the scene of the shooting. he said it was, quote, self-explanatory what had

happened there. the same investigator was the one whose battery died in his camera and why he was not able to take any pictures. instead he had to rely on pictures taken by the police department. this in a shooting investigation involving a police officer. there was no police officer back at the police station to take a photograph of officer wilson before he washed the blood off his hands. when asked if it was common practice to let someone involved in a shooting incident like this handle and package evidence himself, like his own gun, a detective testified that it was not customary to do that and the st. louis county police department, but that he didn't know about ferguson. and there are lots of revelations in this "washington post" story. we know about them only because these reporters at the "post" have spent the past few days combing through all this material, all of that information released by the prosecutor, finding all the relevant information, the context that we need to understand what happened here, not just during the shooting, but in its aftermath. how this was handled by law

enforcement after the shooting happened. this story continues to unfold. it continues on the streets. it continues in and around ferguson. it continues all around this country. and it is also now in the hands of reporters or anyone else, for that matter, who wants to pore over any or all of the documents we have in this case. for better or worse, we have all of that information publicly available. when people have started digging into it, what they found so far has been fascinating. joining us now from ferguson is wesley lowery, he's been covering the situation for "the washington post." the scene behind you now looks, compared to the past two nights, positively tranquil. what are we looking at in a wider area around you right now? >> of course, it's a very calm night so far tonight in ferguson. it's been a very calm tranquil day. right now there's a quiet memorial happening at the site where michael brown was killed.

it started at the site in shaw in st. louis where myers was killed and moved to jimmy powell, a shooting that happened after mike brown and they've now arrived at canfield. we're not seeing massive protests outside the police department. we're not seen a massive protest presence at the site of the brown shooting. the national guard remain here guarding the police department and kind of keeping a watchful eye over the protester, but very calm. >> so let me ask you about this story in your paper, in "the washington post" about all of these -- wherever you want to call them, errors, oversights, omissions. you have the officer himself, darren wilson who basically packaged his own evidence. you don't have measurements being taken at the crime scene. when you add all these together, do you have reason to suspect it had all of the proper or normal protocols been followed here that maybe there would have been more for this grand jury to look at, for this prosecutor to look at that could have resulted in a prosecution? >> what we know is that there's

certainly -- there's certainly pieces of evidence that no longer exist. you know, we're led to believe that darren wilson had blood on his hands, on his arms, that was washed off. a big issue in the months since the shooting has been how far away was michael brown's body from darren wilson and from darren wilson's cruiser because so much of this narrative is brown running around and either turning around and surrendering or charging. the medical examiner took no measurements. no matter what you believe happened in this altercation between brown and darren wilson, most reasonable people are willing to raise an eyebrow at the idea that darren wilson after discharging his weapon a dozen times at michael brown and shooting and killing him, then continued to handle the weapon use to kill michael brown. in any other type of shooting, that would be beyond the realm of belief that -- if i were to shoot you, that i would then have access to the weapon after the police arrive for more than an hour to do who knows what

with. >> and that particular issue there with the gun, that seems sort of central to the conflicting versions of events we've heard here because the case of officer wilson, correct me if i'm wrong here, that there was a struggle and michael brown had his hands on the gun at one point. if you could fingerprint that gun, you could probably corroborate that story or find out if it's not true. >> exactly. michael brown not only had his hands on the gun but was so strong he had control over the weapon. well, that would lead most reasonable people to believe that there might be some type of dna evidence on that gun. fingerprints, dna, according to the grand jury transcripts that my colleagues and i have pored over, they could either test for dna or fingerprints. they couldn't do both. they chose a test for dna. at no point in the transcripts for the grand jury does mcculloch or the other prosecutors present what the findings of those test also were. the gun was tested for michael brown's dna but we have no clue

if his dna was found on the gun. that would seem to be a crucial piece of evidence one way or the other. >> this is a town -- we say city a lot. but this is not the biggest metropolis in the world. is this the sort of thing where we could look at all these flaws and basically say, you know what, they never deal with this kind of thing. everybody was kind of making it up on the fly and this is what happened. >> if we watch at how the police here handle many elements, be it the crowd control, the initial investigation, the movement of the body that day, this was a situation they weren't quite prepared for. that said st. louis county police had a lot to do with this investigation. ferguson pd handed it over to them on the first day, within the first hour. they handle a lot of homicides, a lot of shootings. there are reasonable questions here that can't necessarily be explained away by this is a small town suburb somewhere, they don't know what to do. >> wesley lowrie, happy

thanksgiving to you. >> much needed good news out of ferguson. we're now officially on white house veto watch. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours, but aleve can last 12 hours... and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? aleve, proven better on pain.

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massachusetts, the ferguson library is doing that and more. you'll want to hear this story. the good news out of ferguson, that's next. the holiday season is here, which means it's time for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. hurry into the sign-then- drive event and get a five-hundred- dollar black friday bonus on select new volkswagen models. black friday bonus offer ends december 1st. right now, you can get a single line with 3 gigs for $65 a month. 3 gigs ... is that a lot? that's about ... 100 app downloads, 45 hours of streaming music, and 6 hours of video playing. (singing) and five golden rings!

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this is the ferguson municipal library which is located on florissant road right in the heart of the city's downtown, down the road from the ferguson police department where a lot of the action the last two nights has been centered. yesterday, after the worst of the unrest, ferguson library made a point of being open. they tweeted out early in the morning that they would be open all day with wifi, water, rest and knowledge. library staff was in place at 9:00 a.m. with over 50 volunteers, 50 parents, teachers, retired folks pitching in to help giving out free lunches to school kids, even having story time for some of the younger kids. the library held what they call an ad hoc school day. they did this for a week back in august after the ferguson school district delayed the start of their school year because of the protests on the streets back then. back then and now, the library invited invited teachers to come in. yesterday the library also

opened its doors to local businesses. staffers from the missouri secretary of state's office were there to help business owners organize and preserve records for any of the damage they might have suffered this week. then today the library made space for the missouri department of insurance to help businesses file insurance claims. the library's director told us that the library stayed open as late as they thought was safe on monday, the night of the decision of the grand jury. the library kept their doors open right up to 8:00 p.m., moments before the grand jury announcement. they made the decision to open the library the next morning so there would be a place for the community to gather and to collect themselves. this is just what libraries are supposed to do. that's what the ferguson library director told us when we called him. in his words, it was nothing different in kind. the regular schools in ferguson remain closed next week means the ferguson library will keep their ad hoc school going as well. just by being open this week, by doing what they do every day, by

doing it amidst incredible upheaval in the larger community, by doing that the ferguson library made a difference, not just for people in ferguson but the people around the country. in the website for the ferguson library, you can find a donation button that was added this summer when people around the country asked how they could help out. in the last two days 7,000 people have all across the united states have clicked to make donations. staff of the library told us that most gave small amounts, maybe $5, maybe $10. people gave what they could. they didn't just give money. also from all over the country people are sending books, college kids in olympia, washington, made bookmarks. they sent them in the mail to the library. the staff say they have been staggered by the outpour of support. the fact that it's been so enormous they might now be able to hire another full-time employee. because right now they only have one. back in august the ferguson library put up this sign, quote,

during difficult times the library is a quiet oasis where we can catch our breath, learn and think about what to do next. please help keep our oasis peaceful and serene, today that sign is still up. engineered with end rounded bristles so brushing doesn't scratch gums and angled perfectly, to remove 90% of plaque for a healthier smile. trust the brand more dentists and hygienists use. oral-b. goodnight. goodnight. for those kept awake by pain... the night is anything but good. introducing new aleve pm. the first to combine a safe sleep aid. plus the 12 hour strength of aleve. for pain relief that can last until the am. now you can have a good night and a... good morning! new aleve pm. for a better am.

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to for dinner, monica lewinsky or ken starr? remember this was 1998, congress was just getting ready to impeach bill clinton after he lied about an affair with a white house intern. they wanted to know who would you rather share cranberry and turkey with? monica lewinsky or the independent counsel whose investigation had turned up evidence of the affair, kenneth starr. and the answer from the american people was a resounding neither. 32% said lewinsky, 32% said ken starr. and 35% said neither one of them. you get polls like this and every now and then they make you laugh. the huffington post website rounded up some of the best thanksgiving polls from the last few decades. like this one. so "washington post"/abc news poll from 1993, the very first year of bill clinton's presidency. the poll asked people what they were thankful for in their lives. topping that list, 99% of americans said they were

thankful for their family. not much of a surprise there. that was number one on the list. tied for number one also coming in at 99% was freedom of religion. people saying they were thankful for that. 97% said thankful for freedom of the press. something we appreciate. 95% said thankful for their television. then look what came in next, after family, religion, the press and television, look what was next on the list of what americans were thankful for back in 1993. you'll never guess. it's congress. 77% of meamericans that year, me than three out of every four said they were either very thankful or somewhat thankful for congress. how do people feel about congress today? this is from the gallup poll that was just released after this midterm election, congress clocking in with a 15% approval rating. that is up from its approval rating at this same time last year when it was down in single digits such as 9%. those kinds of numbers, 15%, 9%,

numbers far below the 77% who were thankful for congress two decades ago, that helps to explain why on the eve of thanksgiving 2014, the world gets to watch this. >> i take about eight quarts of water, half a dozen bay leaves, kosher salt, a little palm full of peppercorns, and the real secret, 16 ounces of pure maple syrup. i put it in a pot and bring it to where it's about to boil and turn it off. take a bucket, put a bag in there, put the turkey in there, put the brine over it. brine has to be cool. put it outside if it's cold enough or in the refrigerator for 24 hours. take it out, rinse it off, first half of the cooking time i cook the bird breast down, then halfway through i go in and literally pick it and turn it over. >> house speaker john boehner

how to brine a turkey. that's what they'll do in an effort to try to forge some kind of connection with everyday americans. maybe if they see john boehner brining a turkey, maybe they'll see him as more as a person than a politician from an institution they hate. the party needs as many americans on their side as they can get right now because they're essentially at war with president obama, and that war is about to kick up yet another notch to a brand new level that we haven't seen before in the last six years. that story is next. stay with us. >> now, i only cook my bird to 160 max. then i take it out, put foil oifrt and let it sit for at least an hour. it's the resting time that really works. oifrt and let it s least an hour. it's the resting time that really works. voifrt and let it least an hour. it's the resting time that really works. eroifrt and let it least an hour. it's the resting time that really works. oifrt and let it t least an hour. it's the resting time that really works. ioifrt and let it at least an hour. it's the resting time that

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he told me there's a whole new way to treat sensitivity. he suggested i try new crest sensi-stop strips. [ male announcer ] just apply to the gumline of sensitive teeth for a quick 10 minutes. the special ingredient forms a lasting barrier that provides immediate relief and up to one month of protection. see why dental professionals endorse crest sensi-stop strips to treat sensitivity. that's 1 strip. 10 minutes. and up to 1 month of protection. satisfaction guaranteed. [ woman ] life opens up when you relieve sensitivity. okay. chart imitates life. this is one of rachel's favorite segments. since i'm siing in for her, i'm going to steal it for the night. last week one of the big stories was the u.s. senate voting on the keystone xl pipeline on a bill to approve construction of that pipeline. mary landrieu's bill needed 60

votes to pass. it didn't get them. it came up one vote short, got just 59. ordinarily that would be a huge deal. there's been years of buildup for a keystone vote. there it was finally and defeated by just one vote. a major dramatic moment. at least you'd think. but here's the thing. that vote was just delaying the inevitable because republicans won control of the senate and once they officially take over control of the chamber in january and you can pet they're going to hold a brand new vote on keystone. then at that time they will actually have those 60 votes they need to pass. and then when that happens, it will mean a showdown with the president. because president obama has been very clear about the fact that he doesn't support this legislation. right before that vote last week, here's what white house press secretary josh earnest had to say about it. >> certainly is a piece of legislation that the president doesn't support because the president believes that this is something that should be

determined through the state department and the regular process that is in place to evaluate projects like this. but again, i'm not in a position to issue veto threats here, but as you rightly point out there are similar pieces of legislation that have been introduced in this country where the president's senior advisers have recommended a veto. >> president's senior advisers have recommended a veto. that's a veto threat. so had the keystone pipeline bill gotten just one more vote in the senate, the bill would have passed, it would have gone to obama's desk and he would be getting ready to take out his pen and officially veto it. congressional negotiators from both parties are working on a new tax cut deal. yesterday as details of that deal emerged, the white house issued another veto threat. now, details from the supposedly pending deal include permanent tax breaks for corporations, no permanent tax breaks for low income families. so that is a two vetoes threatened by the white house in the course of just two weeks. and if that feels like it's

something new, two veto threats in two weeks, something we haven't heard before in the last six year, the words "obama" and "veto" being used in the same sentence, if it feels new, that's because it's the case. here's the number of vetoes. more than 80 years of presidential veto history right here in this chart. the "usa today" actually keeps these numbers on their website. way over there on the left, that's fdr, he holds the veto crown. 635. that number is so huge we couldn't fit the bar on this graph. that broke the chart. that's what happens when you get elected four times and serve more than 12 years as president. then after fdr, truman, dwight hizen hower, nixon had 43 veet oes, clinton issued 37. this is the total number of vetoes so far for president obama. look at that.

two. two lonely little vetoes in six years as president. that is it. one of those was on mortgage note arization bill the other on a spending bill. if you're squinting to see the bar for obama's two vetoes, we can zoom in a thousand times and help you see it. there you go. president obama has the fewest number of vetoes of any modern president, and that is by far. ronald reagan had 78, bush sr. had 44 and obama has only two. here's the thing about the two tiny vetoes, they're about to get a lot of company in the next two years because that count will explode as soon as january comes and republicans, for the first time since obama became president, republicans official take control of both houses of congress. when they do that in january, they will start to send bills to the president's desk. bills that in many cases he's

not going to like. he'll start with the keystone pipeline or taxes or healthcare, where it ends, that's a big story to be watching for the next two years. let's bring in ryan grimm, the washington, d.c. post of the huffington post. the supposed deal on tax cuts between harry reid, the top democrat in the senate, and republicans, this thing that prompted the white house to issue a veto threat. no surprise the white house would have issues with something republicans are trying to do. but harry reid, can you tell us what's going on here? >> what it seems like happened is that word leaked out before the deal had finally been reached and republicans may have had motivations to try to get that out to box out the gains they made in the negotiations so far. but the white house did what it hasn't done much in the past is

come out and, like you said, issue that veto. they said we wouldn't comment whether it passes one of the chambers or not. here they are issuing a threat just based on some leaks and possibly inaccurate leaks because the talks are actually still ongoing. what's happening here? why is the white house doing this? one of the theories that senate democrats are kicking around is that they think that the president might actually want to veto these tax extenders so that they get punted into the next year and they can be done as a big package together with corporate tax reform. if you get these extenders done, then k street and new york doesn't really have that much of a motivation to do corporate tax reform. if you get these extenders done, then there's a reason. obama has been chasing this white whale of a big deal where he can sit down with mcconnell and boehner and hash out some piece of legislation and the thinking is maybe he wants to

try again for his seventh year. >> so in january, the big difference is the story since 2011, since republicans got the house, is somebody gets out of the republican house, it dies in the democratic senate and never gets to president obama's desk. now there's the opportunity for republicans maybe with the help of a handful of democrats to get something through the senate, get it on obama's desk and put him in the position of having to decide it. the key stone pipeline, he said he wants to veto it. it gives him the opportunity to do bargains. are we getting signs from the white house they would be willing to give up, trade, to take in exchange for putting his signature on something like the keystone pipeline? >> i think that's right. you'll see a game played where republicans along with a couple of conservative democrats will pass a couple of talking point bills. the keystone pipeline will get through the house and the senate like you said, then he'll voto tha -- veto that. now the real negotiations start.

now they're going to sit down and say, okay, well, what kind of renewable energy credits can we throw in with keystone, what do you want? we'll back off your ozone rule, back off the carbon rules. i don't know if there are enough incentives that republicans can put in with keystone at this point to get him to sign it, but it becomes the kind of chip that he can put on the table. >> is it something -- we're talking more specifically about energy policy there, though. could he broaden it out. minimum wage is something he's been talking about for a couple of years now. could he get minimum wage combined with this? >> theory at the timically, he could. but you have to think about the lobbies that are involved. the green groups will want green stuff. they're sympathetic to the minimum wage as much as anybody else is, but they have their own constituencies, an awful hard sell to tell them give up this

thing you've been calling game over for the planet to get minimum wage or subsidies for exchanges or whatever it might be. the kind of constituent politics come into play there. but theoretically, it would certainly be possible. >> a brand new dynamic years seven and eight of the obama administration beawe'll be deal with something new. happy thanksgiving to you. >> and you too. >> i get to live out one of my lifelong dreams on live television. i don't know if this is going to work. you know what? it's going to work because we want it to work.

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you've become something of a social media rock star. all of you, after this lecture, should go out and look at the blog the notorious -- >> kempler. >> kempler. >> you got that? it's a tumblr, not a blog. ruth bader ginsburg of the rbg jack-o'-lantern, features kids dressed up like the supreme court justice. also recently john oliver's hbo show featured footage of the nine supreme court justices as dogs. you can see the chihuahua version of ruth bader ginsburg

if you want. she was appointed to the court by bill clinton 21 years ago now. she's survived two separate battles with cancer. she returned without missing a hearing. she works out twice a week with a personal trainer. supposedly she can do 20 military push-ups, 20 real push-ups. ruth bader ginsburg is the longest serving liberal on the supreme court. there's a bloc of four liberals on the court. she's been there the longest of them. the five-member conservative majority decided to let the voter i.d. law in texas stand. it was published along with a fierce dissent that was written by ruth bader ginsburg. it was published at 5:00 in the morning on a saturday. that means that ruth bader ginsburg had stayed up all night friday night that early saturday morning writing that dissent. she's passionate, she's strong and she's also 81 years old. because time is time and humans are mortal, she knows that

people wonder when she might step down. and some difficult political realities go along with that speculation. she got asked it "b" it directly back in september. i'm not sure how to ask this, but a lot of people who admire and respect you wonder if you'll resign while president obama is in office? and the answer came back from justice ginsburg. who do you think president obama could appoint at this very day given the boundaries that we have? if i resign any time this year, he could not successfully appoint anyone i would like to see in the court. she feels strong. she's not stepping down any time soon. that was september. that was before the election, that was back when democrats still controlled the senate. democratic majority evaporated with the elections this month. come january, republicans will control the senate and because they control the senate, it means they'll control the process for picking nominees for the federal bench, for the supreme court. already the elections have put ruth bader ginsburg tenure on the court in a new light.

during her routine workout yesterday, she felt a little discomfort as a spokesman for the court described it. she went to the hospital where doctors put a extent in her right coronary artery. that's a way of keeping the blood throwing through that artery. the supreme court released a statement saying that ginsburg is resting comfortably and expects to be released from the hospital in the next 48 hours. if this story plays out as everyone hopes, it means she'll be back on her feet in no time, back at work. she'll do that with all the eyes of the nation's liberals willing her to long and lasting health because this story does raise an uncomfortable subject. the window for trying to replace her under a democratic senate -- excuse me a democratic senate has now pretty much closed. what follows now is a path that is, at best, uncertain for any nominee for president obama, whether the high court or federal bench for his new pick for attorney general. joining us is jess braven, the supreme court correspondent for "the wall street journal." jess, thanks for being with us

tonight. let me ask you if there had been -- we had that quote from ruth bader ginsburg which seemed pretty ironclad back in september saying right now i don't like who he could appoint. i don't imagine she's reassessed anything. but have there been any indications from her more recently on this subject? >> no, the same story for the past couple years. there have been a few liberal law professor and others who suggested that she retire strategically, create an opening that president obama could then fill. she's not been interested in doing that. she's made it clear she intends to stay on as long as her health all allows. with her option today, we have to wonder how long does that allow. her colleague john paul stevens retired at age 90 and is still going strong. that question remains open. all we know is she wants to stay on as long as she says she can do the job. >> obviously everybody wishes her nothing but the best of health and in the longest possible life, but there is this nightmare scenario for democrats

here where, for whatever reason, if ruth bader ginsburg is forced involuntarily to leave the kour and there's a republican president, that means the most liberal just on the court would then be by a son r conservative republican president. do you agree with her assessment that if she were to have resigned this year or in the past two years the president could not have appointed a successor comparable to her in ideolo ideology? >> it's hard so. it depends on how much of an issue the republican minority would have made an obama nominee. four past supreme court nominees have had close to party line votes. chief justice roberts and justice samuel alito were opposed by half or most democrats when they were appointed by president bush.

what would happen now when the president is in a weaker position and republicans are eager to try to fill that slot? all kinds of questions. one part of appointments, supreme court appointments seem to matter more to the republican base than they have the democratic base politically. it's a much bigger issue for republicans than the democrats. and because republicans care so much more about these vacancies, it's quite likely they would make a big deal about it in the senate. >> do you think they would appreciate any difference between -- if ruth bader ginsburg were to resign, she's a liberal, the court stays balanced versus, like, if scalia were to go, there's a conservative and he's replacing with a liberal, then the balance of the court changes. would that factor into their -- how they posture on this? >> absolutely yes.

i think they would give president obama somewhat more leeway were it justice ginsburg or one of the other three more liberal members of the court who step down. but if it were one of the five conservative, i would expect the republicans to fight very hard to either keep that vacancy hope until the next president takes off or insist on some kind of compromise nominee or conservative that obama would find acceptable. as opposed to many other battles he will have in his term. coming up, we will give you your holiday travel forecast. it's going to come with a twist because i'm doing the weather. it's going to be great, trust me. this is vital information. you're not going to want to miss it. a secure retirement.

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>> tell me if you can spot a pattern here. wild weather disrupts travel plans. this is 2005. weather threatens to continue to disrupt holiday travel. day before thanksgiving in 2005. then in 2006, storm floods hammer millions of americans making thanksgiving trek. 2007, day before thanksgiving, a sour thanksgiving recipe. record travel, possible storm. 2008, here's a change. the weather was actually fine in 200 8. 2009, thanksgiving storm on the way. 2010, storm messes with thanksgiving travel plans. 2011, weather delays wreak havoc on thanksgiving travel. 2010, snow, wind may cause more thanksgiving travel headaches. and then last year, 2013, hey,

look, more of the same, weather walloping east coast as 43 million travel for thanksgiving. i think this is what you call a pat erp. every year the day before thanksgiving, the biggest single travel day of the year year, every year now for more than a decade, every single year, a giant storm seems to arrive just in time to turn everyone's travel plans into a total and complete nightmare. >> it was a miserable travel day for millions of americans on the move for thanksgiving. >> forecasters predict that by tonight, some of the rain we're seeing north anticipate west of where we are here in newark will be turning into sleet and snow. of course, the concern is what it's going to do to heavy thanksgiving travel. bad timing. >> for some holiday travelers, getting to thanksgiving dinner is not going to be easy. there's a real mess in the middle of the country. rain, ice and snow hit parts of the planes and upper midwest wednesday. >> the rush is on. the thanksgiving travel crunch sunday way and two powerful storm systems are already having

a big impact on the roads and airports nationwide. >> we can see snow wrapping around this system. so we're gong to be looking at wind gusts tomorrow morning about 50 miles an hour, which are going to wreak havoc with the airports from washington, new york, boston, philadelphia. >> every single year it's like this. on this day. and so naturally, it's happening again right now. the thanksgiving travel curse is back, and it is worse than ever. and to show you exactly what we're up against here, we bes e decided it's time to dust off the big board so i can step into the role i wanted to play since i watch dick albert on channel 5 in boston doing the weather. we need the weather ticker. can we get that at the bomb of screen here? call that up. there it is. there's the weather ticker. this is officially now tv weather center. we're going to call it the storm

center, is that what it is? so this is the storm as it has progressed through the day. moving up into the mid-atlantic. right now, the last oft storm, the worst of the storm still in northern new england. there are thousands without power in maine. this thing has left snow on the groed up in some places, ice on the ground in other places. frazzled travelers everywhere. so that's the trajectory of the storm. you can see. now let's take a look at what kind of snowfall we're tacking abo -- talking about here. look houd concord, you could be getting up to a foot of snow. albany, new york, that's the heart of it in central new england. let's see what you're looking at tomorrow. what kind of a thanksgiving forecast. a lit bill of snow in the morning in maine, otherwise just cold temperatures. much better tomorrow. a happy thanksgiving forecast for most of the country. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you on any weekend show "up this weekend." now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> move over al roker, i have a new favorite weather man. that's amazing, steve.

i could watch that all night. >> i'll do it all night and break roker's record. >> do a kornacki-thon, go ahead. thank you, steve. >> all right. >> tonight, it seems the only people in american law enforcement who don't know the law of land on the use of deadly force by police are the two prosecutors in the michael broup case who presented that evidence to the grand jury. that's coming up. but first, we will go life to ferguson tonight. >> there's hope in the air that we've seen the final bits of destruction. >> the families are praying with families of other victims. >> every city with a police department needs to engage in some introspection. >> we're just going to keep nig fighting, pray for a better outcome. >> a boy killed holding a pell let gun. >> how