hello and thanks for joining us this hour and nice to have you here. so, one thing that it has going for it is a nice view of the kremlin. this bridge in central moscow, you know, location, location, location. it sits right up against red square across from the kremlin, a few hundred yards to the east and has a great view. in the end it is where they got him. boris mensov, the leading opposition leader in rusch in

2015 and after putin succeeded yeltsin, boris became a fearless critic of vladimir putin. in february of that year, february 2015 he was planning an opposition march to protest against the vladimir putin regime. shot four times in the back walking across the bridge. press reports called it the highest profile assassination in russia since the stallen era. days before he was assassinated russian authorities threw one of his key political allies in jail. put in jail for 15 days for the

high crime of handing out leaflets. the guy put in charge, his name was alexi navalny, here he is leaving jail after boris nemtsov's death. he left jail that day, went home, took a shower and straight home to visit his grave. he said wewill give up nothing. he ment it. navalny became the biggest, loudest, pushiest opposition leader in rusch. among other things kept coming up with new ways to expose

corruption in the putin government. navalny and his group flew drones with cameras on them. they ended up in the possession of russian government officials. who had modest salaries and no means to acquire the mansions and wineries and gigantic yachts. navalny's group tracked the secret mistresses and second families of putin officials linking them to organized crime figures and more unexplained wealth and exposed putin's secret palaces that were never disclosed to the russian people and no accounting at all where the money came from to build the monstrosities. the last palace video was the most watched video of the year in 2021.

the putin government hasn't appreciated anything. you will remember nemtsov was killed in 2015. 2017. an assailant doused him with a chemical that dyed his hands and face bright green. he didn't wait for the dye to wear off before resuming his political action against putin and said he was go to embrace it. he took a lot of selfies. his supporters started to paint their own faces green in soldarity with him. but then just a month later another assailant attacked navalny with green dye and he

said it hurts like hell and thinks they mixed it with a chemical. it got inside his eyeball and he started to lose sight in the eye. he needed surgery to save the eye. he has been threatened, arrested, jailed, dyed green twice. he has been almost blinded. of course he was ultimately quite seriously poisoned. he was poisoned with the russian made chemical nerve agent novichok last year and put him in a coma and almost killed him. he recovered in germany and then, against the advice of everybody that loves him, he said that he would return to rusch. he did. he returned to rusch this year. he was immediately arrested.

then immediately just as immediately convicted on phony charges, sentenced to two and a half years in a russian penal colony. they have labeled the organization an extremist group and that is the same designation given to isis and al qaeda. they are literally considered to be a terroristic threat like al qaeda is. what putin appears to be doing here is that he appears to be learning from what happened after the boris nemtsov assassination, making it where there is no next man or leader or navalny waiting in the wings

to pick up the mantel. putin is pulling up his opposition movement by the root or at least he is trying to. except that there is another element putin hasn't accounted for. look at this. this was moscow in january of this year. a few days after navalny returned to rusch and were arrested thousands took to the streets to protest against the arrest and putin's corruption and regime and not just in moscow. rusch is a gigantic place. physically the largest country in the world. it spans 11 time zones. there were pockets all over rusch creating a wave effect all day long of people pouring into the streets gathering as far north as siberia. one sub-artic remote village where it was minus 60 degrees that day. people turned out in

considerable numbers. i bring it up now, almost a full year after the demonstrations in rusch because it happened at the beginning of the year. this has been a hard year. it has been a scary year at times. what we also have been able to cover this year is people standing up in remarkable numbers and ways, people standing up for what they think is right. we have not just seen it in rusch or against putin but we have seen it everywhere. i think it remains one of the

most undercovered things about the politics on this earth. peaceful dramatic direct action from all kinds of people on all kinds of issues, calling on other peoples' consciouses, trying to move people to do the right thing and sometimes it happens with big groups of people, standing together and finding safety in numbers and safeties it happens in ones and twos, people standing up really all alone. >> my name is hannah. i am here and i have sailed off. i am here with my friend deanna. this is part of the largest coal port in the world.

this is humans trying to survive. we are trying to induce a social tipping point that will give us a chance at another generation. what a wild thing to want. >> what a wild thing to want. those two young men in australia, they repelled off this giant piece of machinery at the largest coal port in the world. that port essentially, their role in distributing coal. they strung themselves up and hung there for hours and it halted the export of coal for a little while. eventually they were brought down and arrested. this was glasgow, scotland this year during the climate summit.

100,000 people demonstrating urging world leaders to take action on climate change including the scientists who refused to move off of the bridge. there were of course dramatic protests at home ever since 14 days young activists staged a hunger strike. by the end they had to be carted out on wheelchairs because their bodies were so weak. several were hospitalized after not eating anything for the whole stretch of time. that action by the young members of the sunrise movement was just one part of a much larger series of protests and demonstrations

that we saw this year urging lawmakers to pass president biden's agenda, the build back better bill. when conservative democrat, joe manchin, the senator is in washington he lives on a yacht that he likes to call his house boat. in september, you might remember a group of activists from his home state of west virginia paddled up to senator manchin's yacht in their own kayaks holding signs saying support build back better and don't sink our bill senator manchin. they caused enough of a stir they got senator manchin to come out and talk to them and listen to the concerns and debate the bill and the costs and credit to him for talking him to them directly and not hiding out below decks. around the same time congress held their baseball game, the nice tradition where republicans and democrats suit up playing a

few innings against each other. they dropped banners over the bleachers in the stadium saying our lives are not a game. pass 3.5t, the price tag for the build back better bill. they had one cutting to the point. dems, don't eff this up. disability rights group adapt, they staged a protest outside the hart senate office building where senator manchin has an office. they were trying to move the two conservative democrats to agree to pass build back better. 15 of the protesters from adapt were arrested that day and by the next day several were already at another direct action outside the capital. a 24-hour vigil. they camped outside the capital.

they talked body why so many lives depended on congress passing build back better. directing attention to the overlooked part of build back better, the support for elderly people and disabled people getting home-based care and community-based care. that is huge for the lives and dignity. at one point in the night they held up an illuminated sign care can't wait. that phrase has been a rallying cry among people trying to get president biden's agenda passed. a few weeks later health care activists held a rally urging senators to support the health care provisions in build back

better. they blocked access to the building for a while telling stories about loved ones they lost and loved ones that dayed because they lacked proper access to health care. there was a similar event a few weeks ago gathering outside the capitol to urge congress to pass a bill for global vaccines to better prepare for the next pandemic and a half dozen of those activists held cardboard tombstones with the names of loved ones that died from covid and spread their loved ones ashes on the steps. they are chanting bring the dead to your door we won't take it anymore. this summer three black members of congress, three

african-american members of congress were hauled away by dc police on issues of voting rights. calling on members of the senate to change voting rules. this summer legislatures from the texas state senate fled the state of texas and came to washington dc so that texas republicans couldn't have a quorum back home, barn stormed the hill and pled with u.s. senators to pass federal legislation to protect the right to vote in every state. they delayed the passer of the voter suppression bill in texas by weeks and weeks by fleeing across the country. students all over the students of oklahoma participating in a surprisingly large and sustained series of high school student walk outs to protest the scheduled execution of a man named julius jones. julius jones was on death row in

oklahoma for a murder he said he did not commit. serious questions were raised about the fairness of his trial and whether or not he is guilty of the crime which he has been sentenced to death. a lot of people in oklahoma mobilized to move the governor to please not kill the man and call off the execution and it worked. hours before the execution was scheduled, hundreds of people gathered at the oklahoma state capitol building and it happened. the governor commuted julius jones' sentence and he was spared from the death chamber. you can listen to the reaction at the capitol when they learned. all of those people organizing to try to save julius jones' life, finally getting the last minute news it was worth it and that he would be spared. this is direct action of another

kind in georgia, outside the trial of three men accused of killing an unarmed black man. the defense attorney kept saying their presence was intimidating, black pastors specifically who were intimidating. just the black ones. in response more than 100 black pastors showed up outside the courthouse to establish themselves as a peaceful, powerful, prayerful presence at the trial and to pray with mr. arbery's family. if you are looking for one indellable image from this year to quantify or to nail down one of the currents in the news this

year. to my mind this was it. creative nonviolent conscious-calling direct action. all over the place this year. all over the country. in many ways all over the world. we are go to cover some of that tonight over the course of the action. direct action does not always work. navalny is in prison. voting rights are being gutted. the globe is still warming. the world is an ever, you know, not just one thing. not just one direction. people are not just helplessly tossed by the currents that we swim in. part of what this year has been has been a master class in humans trying to change the way of human events. people being brave in the face of changing and do what is right, not in spite of the strength of the opposition but

because of the opposition. much more ahead of that tonight. stay with us. pposition. much more ahead of that tonight. stay with us

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powering possibilities. >> on that front he has to >> on that front he has to

. >> her name was isabella. she was only five months pregnant but her water broke. something was wrong. that is not when your water is supposed to break. she was told her fetus lambed ambiotic fluids and was told her pregnancy was not viable and the baby was not go to survive. that is wn she texted her mother saying they gave me an iv drip because i was shivering from fever. the baby weighs 485 grams. for now thanks to the abortion law i have to lay down and they can't do anything. i hope i do not have septicamea.

she did suffer septic shock and died. you heard she mentioned thanks to the abortion law, the near total ban on abortion that went into effect in poland earlier this year where isabella lived in poland. in poland now it is against the law to terminate a pregnancy at any stage of the pregnancy because of a fetal abnormality. even though they were sure the fetus would not survive the doctors said she would only be treated after the -- protests erupted around poland. outrage over a law that appears to forced the woman to stay

pregnant even until it killed her. red lightning bolts, people raraided them through the streets chanting not one more. her story is an upsetting one and a illustration of what can happen when women are forced against their will to stay pregnant against their will. our supreme court heard oral argument busy an abortion ban passed in mississippi passed to get roe versus wade overturned. access to abortion is widely supported. it has been for decades.

there were demonstrations urging justices not to end roe versus wade. the super majority on the supreme court the oral arguments that day ran about three hours. if you had a long drive ahead of you this is justice cavanaugh saying the court becoming neutral, no longer playing a

role in the issue making it sound like there won't bea i rule on abortion either way. what it actually means is all republican controlled states will now be free to make abortion a crime. the lawyer that answers him here is from the -- >> i think the other side would say -- the court has been forced by the position you are taking to pick sides on the most contentious social debate in american life. neither pro-life or pro choice on the question of abortion and say therefore it should be left to the people and to the states or to congress.

i think they also then continue, because the constitution is neutral that the court should be scrupulously neutral on the question of abortion, neither pro choice or pro-life. but because they say the constitution does not give us the authority we should leave it to the states and be neutral on the question and that they are saying here, i think, that we should return to a position of neutrality on that contentious social issue rather than continuing to pick sides on the issue. i think that is at a big picture level their argument and i want to give you a chance to respond to that. >> a few points if i may. the same arguments were made and the court rejected them saying that this philosophical disagreements can't be resolved in the way where a woman has no

choice in the matter and the constitution provides a guarantee of liberty. the court interpreted that liberty to include the ability to make decisions relate to child bearing, marriage and family. women have an equal right to liberty under the constitution and if they are not able to make these decisions and states can force them to endure months of childbirth, they will never have equal status under the constitution. >> if states can take control of womens bodies and force them to endure months of pregnancy and childbirth against their will they will never have equal status under the constitution. the day of the oral arguments earlier in the month, we talked about our friend, senior editor at slate.com and this is her headline on that article on what kind of a ruling we might expect from the super conservative court. it says scotus will gaslight us until the end.

she explained to us what she heard giving us the basis for that take. listen. >> i think that going into argument today there was a narrative that went this is not really a 6-3 court. brett kavanaugh and the chief justice. they hear what people think. there is no reason to believe other than the chief justice who was trying to figure out not to overturn roe. maybe we can move the viability line and be okay with a 15-week instead of a 24-week ban. there was no reason to believe he had a single other person on the court with him. anyone that can counter-strike:

global offensived -- >> you said today in the piece that is just posted. perhaps it would be refreshing if the conservatives no longer felt the need to lie to us. especially for an institution that relies on public confidence. after confirmation hearings that roe versus wade was a clear precedent in the law of the land, all six of them installed on the supreme court to put an end to roe versus wade and that is exactly what they intend to do. i wonder if you feel like the moment means the lying over this is over. president trump essentially dropped the guys and said yeah. whoever i put on there is going to overturn roe. are we sort of at a new layer and a new place where it is open

combat on the issue? let's be grateful that these folks really meant it let's put it aside. the artifice that i worry about and you played that brett kavanaugh clip, the artifice of saying let's pretend to be neutral. we are not going to ban abortion. kavanaugh said that is on the table. he said there is not a right. the middle, neutral place is to just let states decide. we saw the same artifice. because there are safe haven laws allowing you to more readily give your child up for

adoption. we are being neutral. nothing earth shaking happening here. thanks rachael. >> we have much more ahead here tonight. stay with us. e have much more a tonight. stay with us

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>> the sky totally, totally gets it. >> i don't think he really has a clue of what we do. because when you put something in a blue box, it gets there. and when i started working here, i seen the miracles behind the walls right here. >> when you put something in the blue box, it gets there. it is kind of a miracle when you think about it. that man's name is mike bates, a u.s. postal worker for three decades. he said he witnessed miracles on the job. did you catch what he said at the top. i don't think he really has a clue about what we do. the he in the sentence is about a specific guy, about this man

whose the post master general appointed during the donald trump years. he broke the mail last year. after he was put on the job he instituted draconian new policies even after the start to his tenure, he is still in charge over there. he is still coming up with new ways to monkey wrench the way that the mail is delivered. he said he found a way to make the mail slower, less convenient.

in a way that is specifically designed to slow mail down even further. mike bates was saying that his boss had no idea about it. what we mail carriers do. you can see the signs over his shoulder. when mike bates made the remarks he was at a protest. workers held a rally in des moines, iowa to protest the changes to the way that the post office operates and stood outside chanting raise hell, save your mail. they say cut back. you say fight back. they made signs saying dejoy equals delays.

folks were trying to focus public attention on what is going on and to catch the attention of president biden. it is the postal board of governors that hires and fires people for the post master job. the "washington post" was first to break the news that president biden announced plans to nominate two officials replacing two allies of dejoy. the move was a surprise to postal officials and members of congress and casts doubt on dejoy's future in the agency and potentially gives the panel two crucial votes to oust the postal

chief who can only be removed by the board. congressman has been calling on the postal service board of governors to fire mr. dejoy for months and calling on president biden to replace members of the postal service board so that the new board can replace mr. dejoy. he introduced a bill called the delivering envelopes judiciously on time year-round act which is as awkward as it sounds but it spells out dejoy. i really appreciate you think here. thank you. >> from the dejoy act to your involvement and direct pleas to president biden to replace

members of the board of governors. you have been really focused on this. did you know president biden would do what he did today? i didn't. we received thousands of complaints about slower mail delivery and raised prices than perhaps any other issue than we talk about in government and are on the verge of the holidays and the post master general is taking dejoy out of the holidays too. it was time to call for his removal and once mr. bloom refused my plea to remove mr. dejoy i asked that the president also remove mr. bloom. >> what sort of a timeline do you think that people expect

here? a lot of americans, people that run small businesses. people that use the mail for normal bill paying and correspondence. millions of americans have been really mad about how bad the postal service has been under his leadership and it is all by design, what he set out to do and what he has done. if you can speak directly to americans who have been mad about this or hurting about this, what would you expect in terms of the timeline for getting rid of him and charting the process. >> i am hoping the new chair of the board of governors conducts a vote with regard to mr. dejoy and relieves him of his duties and i am hopeful that happens sooner rather than later in the new year. >> again, the congressman has been playing point on the issue about lewis dejoy, left over from the trump year. doing a job infuriating and

inconveniencing millions of americans. now looks like he might be on his way out. >> thank you rachael. >> all right. we have much more ahead. stay with us. we have much more . stay with us life opens up. aleve it... and see what's possible.

the raid happened at dawn. 500 police officers entered this office in hong kong on a june morning this past summer. the office belonged to a newspaper called apple daily. the officers rifled through computers and notebooks, disconnected all the computers and arrested five of the newspapers executives, frog marched them out of the front doors. for more than 20 years apple daily was an independent prodemocracy newspaper in hong kong and recent years the only pro-democracy publication still operating in hong kong.

after that dawn raid authorities froze the assets of the paper. so, apple daily, the last remaining independent pro-democracy publication in all of hong kong announced they would shut down. no assets, no way to pay people. their employees thrown in jail. how are they supposed to keep going? they announced they were shutting down and shutting down the paper right away. look what happened. this is outside of the apple daily offices on the final night of publication. all of the people gathered outside in the rain to show their support to the journalists inside for the doing the hard dogged work of the free and fair press. holding up cell phone flashlights. the staff waved back through office windows. others went up to the balconies and shined the lights on their

cell phones. a photographer snapped the cover photo for the final page of the final print run. hong kongers bid a painful farewell in the rain. we support apple daily. this is the queue, the line in hong kong the next morning to buy a copy of the last edition of apple daily. on a normal day the paper would print 80,000 copies. for the final issue they printed 1 million. by 8:00 they were sold out. the shut down will be a footnote when the history books are written about this time. for right now in the parts of the world where it remains a scary time for freedom of the press it is also a story of hope, of people at least in the

context to be able to use their voices, wallets to stand up for independent journalism. we will be right back. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ hey, tam-tam! i was thinking maybe... your mom's car? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ merry christmas, dad. i have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. so i'm taking zeposia, a once-daily pill. because i won't let uc stop me from being me. zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and it's the first and only s1p receptor modulator approved for uc. don't take zeposia if you've had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months,

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the thing about the show is that there is just one person's name on it. convenient and also ridiculous. this show is stacked with incredibly talented producers and artists and archivists. without all of the folks it would be the pol bellied lesbian lady in a room by herself not making much sense show. it is more efficient to be the rachel maddow show but it

couldn't be the show without everybody. without further adieu, a major thank you to everybody working on the show to making me so much better at the job. please, behold. ♪ ♪

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>> good evening and welcome to a special holiday edition of the last word. 2022 will be the year of the all important midterm congressional campaigns. mitch mcconnell said republicans won't be running on any issue.