minister of russia under yeltsin, but after putin succeeded yeltsin and then showed what kind of ruler he would be, boris became just a vociferous and fearless critic of vladimir putin. in february of that year, february 2015, boris was planning an opposition march to protest against the putin regime. it was two days before that march when nemtsov was shot four times in the back while he was walking across the bridge. press reports at the time called it the highest-profile assassination in russia since the stalin era. and he wasn't the only target. days before nemtsov was assassinated, russian authorities had thrown one of his key political allies in jail, another vocal putin critic who had worked alongside boris nemtsov. nemtsov's friend was put in jail for 15 days for the high crime of handing out leaflets inviting people to attend that opposition march, the one that got nemtsov killed. the guy who was put in charge just for handing out leaflets just about the march, his name was alexey navalny. here he is leaving jail after boris nemtsov's death. reports say navalny left jail that day. he went home, took a shower, and then he went straight to visit boris nemtsov's grave. navalny said of his friend's assassination, quote, there will be no let-up in our efforts. we will give up nothing. this act of terror has not achieved its goal, and he meant it. alexey navalny, personally, became the biggest, loudest, most charismatic pushiest opposition leader in russia. he vowed to run for president himself to unseat putin. navalny built up an irreverent, creative forward-thinking, nimble opposition movement that among other things kept coming up with new, unexpected ways to expose corruption in the putin government, to keep poking his finger right in putin's eye. navalny and his group, they flew drones with cameras on them over huge, luxurious properties that somehow ended up in the possession of russian government officials who at least on paper had very modest salaries and no legitimate means to acquire these mansions and these wineries and these gigantic yachts. navalny's group tracked the secret mistresses and secret second families of high-ranking putin administration officials, linking them to organized crime figures and to yet more unexplained wealth. they exposed putin's own secret palaces that had never been disclosed to the russian people, and for which there was no public accounting at all, as to where the money came from to build these monstrosities. the last alexey navalny's putin's palace video was the most viewed video in russia according to youtube. the putin government has not appreciated any of it, as you might imagine. and so, a series of increasingly unfortunate events started to befall alexey navalny. you'll remember nemtsov was killed in 2015. well, in 2017, navalny was opening up a new headquarters for his opposition group. somebody approached him to come up and shake his hand. when navalny obliged, the unknown assailant doused him with a chemical that dyed his hand and his whole face bright green. but that did not stop him. he didn't wait even for the dye to wear off before he resumed his political action against putin. he said that he was going to embrace it. he said it made him look like a super hero. he took lots and lots of selfies, he recorded videos. his supporters started painting their own faces green in solidarity with him. but then just a month later, another assailant attacked alexey navalnyith more green dye, and this time, navalny said it, quote, hurt like hell. he thinks the second go-around, they mixed the thing with some kind of caustic chemical, and as you can see in this picture, the green stuff got inside his eyeball. see his eyeball is dyed as well. navalny started losing sight in that eye after the second attack. he needed surgery to save his eye from a specialist in spain. since he picked up that mental as russia's most visible, most vocal, most effective opposition leader, alexey navalny has been threatened, he's been arrested, he's been jailed, he's been dyed green twice, he's been almost blinded, and of course he was ultimately quite seriously poisoned. he was poisoned with the russian-made chemical nerve agent novichok last year. almost killed him. he recovered in germany and then, against the advice of everybody who loves him, he said that he would return to russia. he did. he returned to russia this year. he was immediately arrested. and then almost just as immediately convicted on phony charges, sentenced to two and a half years in a russian penal colony. this year, russia has labeled navalny's opposition organization an extremist group, and technically, that's the same designation that russia gives to isis and al qaeda. not only has putin banned navalny from standing as a candidate in any russian election, putin has banned navalny's whole anti-corruption group from operating inside russia at all. literally, they're considered to be a terroristic threat, like al qaeda is. many of navalny's associates and colleagues have had to flee the country now for fear that what russia did to navalny, it will next be done to them. but putin appears to be doing here is that he appears to be learning from what happened after the boris nemtsov assassination in 2015. he's making it so this time, there's no next man. there's no next leader. there's no next navalny in this case, waiting in the wings to pick up the mantel. with navalny, putin is pulling up his entire opposition movement by the root, at least he's trying to. except there's another element that putin hasn't account for. look at this. this was moscow in january of this year. a few days after navalny had returned to russia and got arrested, thousands of russian people took to the streets to protest against navalny being arrested, to protest against putin's corruption, his authoritarian regime, and it wasn't just in moscow that this happened. russia is a gigantic place. physically, it's the largest country in the world. it spans 11 different time zones. there were protests in little pockets all over russia, and it created this kind of wave effect, all day long, of people pouring into the streets. they gathered as far as -- as far north as siberia. one sub arctic remote village where it was minus 60 degrees that day, people turned out in pretty considerable numbers. i bring this up now, almost a full year after these demonstrations in russia, because this happened at the beginning of the year and this ended up being kind of an appropriate first course for the year that we have had since. this has been a hard year, it has been a scary year at times. the stuff we've covered just here on this show over the last 12 months has only very rarely been good news. but what we've also been able to cover this year is people standing up in remarkable numbers, in remarkable ways against remarkable adversity, people standing up for what they think is right, people standing up for democracy, people standing up against tyrants and abuse and violence by the state, violence by police, and we saw it certainly in very democratic form in russia, but we haven't just seen it in russia. you know, we haven't just seen it against putin. we've really seen it everywhere. over the course of the last year, i think it remains one of the most undercovered things about the politics of this moment on this earth. there has been a -- an explosion of peaceful, democratic, direct action from all kinds of people and places and issues. calling on other people's consciences, trying to move people to do the right thing and sometimes it does happen with big groups of people standing together, finding safety in numbers. but sometimes it happens in ones and twos, people standing up, really, all alone. >> my name's hannah and i'm here. i've sailed off the world's largest carport. i'm here with my friend, deanna, and we are stopping this coal terminal from loading all coal into ships and from unloading all coal from coal trains. this is part of the largest coal port in the world and we're here with blockade australia, stopping the operation. this is humans trying to survive. this is humans trying to overcome the system that is killing us, that is enslaving us, and we are trying to induce the social tipping points which will give us a chance at another generation. what a wild thing to want. >> what a wild thing to want. those two young women in australia, they rappelled off this giant piece of machinery at the largest coal port in the world this year. they were protesting australia's use of coal, its role as a major coal exporter, and that port specifically, its role in distributing coal all over the world. they strung themselves up by those harnesses, they hung there for hours, and it did halt the export of coal at that giant port for at least a little while. eventually, they were brought down, and they were arrested. this was glasgow, scotland, this year, a hundred thousand people demonstrating, urging world leaders to take action on climate change, including these scientists who chained themselves together and refused to move off this bridge. there were, of course, democratic climate protests here at home this year as well, the sunrise movement, the national campaign of young activists dedicated to pushing for solutions to the climate crisis. ever since president biden proposed really bold climate action in the build back better agenda, they have just been dogged in their pressure to try to get congress to actually do it. to actually see it through. for 14 days, young activists from the sunrise movement staged a hunger strike, first outside the white house, then outside the capitol. by the end, they had to be carted around in wheelchairs because their bodies were so weak. several of them were eventually hospitalized after not eating anything for that whole stretch of time. that action by these 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, this 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 houseboat. in september of this year, you might remember, a group of activists from his home state of west virginia, they paddled up to senator manchin's yacht in their own kayaks. they called themselves kayaktivits, and they held up signs that said, don't sink our bill. they eventually got senator manchin to come and talk to them from the deck of thinks yacht and listen to their concerns and debate the bill with him and debate its costs and credit to him for being willing to talk to them directly, for not hiding out below decks when they showed up. right around that same time, congress held its annual congressional baseball game, which is this nice annual tradition where republicans and democrats suit up and they play a few innings against each other. this year during the game, folks dropped banners over the bleachers at the stadium that said things like, our lives are not a game. pass 3.5 t, $3.5 trillion, which at that point was the price tag for the build back better bill. they had one that cut right to the point. dems, don't "f" this up. in october, members of the disability rights group, the absolutely nails uncompromising disability rights group, adapt, they staged a protest outside the office building where senator manchin and senator kyrsten sinema have offices. they were trying to move those two conservative democrats to agree to pass build back better. 15 of the protesters from adapt were arrested that day. by the next day, several of those same disability rights activists were already at another direct action outside the capitol. they did a 24-hour vigil for 24 hours straight, they camped outside the capitol and they talked about why so many lives depended on congress passing build back better. they were specifically trying to direct attention, i think they were successful in this, directing attention to this really important and previously overlooked part of build back better, which is its support for elderly people and disabled people getting home-based care and community-based care. that is huge for the lives and the dignity of elderly people and disabled people and their families. and that's in the build back better bill and they went out there for 24 straight hours to put a spotlight on that. at one point in the night, they held up this illuminated sign, care can't wait and that phrase has been a rallying cry among people who have been trying to get president biden's agenda passed. a few weeks later, in yet another direct action, healthcare activists held a rally outside a senate office building. they urged senators to support the healthcare provisions in build back better. they set up chairs to make it look like they were in a doctor's waiting room. they blocked access to the building for a while, while they told stories about loved ones they had lost, loved ones who had died because they had lacked proper access to healthcare. and there was another similar event of just a few weeks ago, this group gathered outside the capitol to urge congress to pass a bill to expand global access to vaccines, to help us better prepare for the next pandemic and about half a dozen of those activists walked to the front steps of one of the senate office buildings and they held cardboard tombstones with the names of their loved ones who had died from covid, and then they spread their loved ones' ashes on the steps. you can see them here. they're chanting, bringing the dead to your door. we won't take it anymore. >> we won't take it anymore. >> stop that. don't do that. >> this summer, three black members of congress, three african american members of congress were arrested and hauled away by police at demonstrations in d.c. on the issue of voting rights. they were calling on members of the senate to change the filibuster rules so voting rights legislation could be passed. it was also this summer that democratic legislators from the texas state senate fled the state of texas and came to washington, d.c., so that texas republicans couldn't have a quorum back home. those democrats barn stormed the hill. they pled with u.s. senators to pass federal legislation to protect the right to vote in every state, even those controlled by republicans. they delayed the passage of that voter suppression bill in texas by weeks and weeks, by fleeing themselves across the country. these are students all over the state of oklahoma this fall participating in a surprisingly large and sustained series of high school student walkouts to protest the scheduled execution of a man named julius jones. julius jones had been on death row in oklahoma for nearly 20 years for a murder he says he did not commit. serious questions have been raised about the fairness of his trial and whether or not he's truly guilty of the crime for which he's been sentenced to death. lots and lots of people in oklahoma mobilized this year to try to move the governor to please not kill this man, please call off the execution. in the end, it worked. hours before the execution was scheduled, hundreds of people gathered at the oklahoma state capitol building and with just a few hours left on the clock, it happened. the governor did commute julius jonas's sentence. they spared him. he was spared from the death chamber. you can listen to the reaction of the capitol when they learned. [ cheers and applause ] >> all those people who had been organizing to try to save julius jones's life, finally getting the last-minute news that it was worth it, what they had done. that he would be spared. here was direct action of yet another kind. this was glynn county, georgia, last month outside the trial of three men who were accused of killing an unarmed black man named ahmaud arbery. the defense attorney for one of the men accused of killing mr. arbery attempted to have prominent african american pastors thrown out of the courtroom. the defense attorney kept saying their presence was intimidating. he said it was black pastors, specifically, who were intimidating. just the black ones. he didn't have any trouble with other pastors. in response, more than a hundred black pastors showed up outside the courthouse to establish themselves as a peaceful, powerful, prayerful presence at this trial and to pray with mr. arbery's family. if you're looking for one indelible image from this year, if you're looking to sort of quantify or nail down one of the propulsive currents in the news this year, even if it didn't get credit, i think, from anybody else, to my mind, this was it. creative, nonviolent, conscience-calling direct action all over the place this year, all over the country, and in many ways all over the world. and we're going to cover some of that tonight over the course of this hour. and you know, direct action doesn't always work. alexey navalny is still in prison. the filibuster remains in place. voting rights are being gutted all over the country because of it. the globe is still warming. but the world is never just one thing. just one direction. and people aren't just helplessly tossed by the currents that we swim in. part of what this year has been, it's been a real master class in humans trying to change the course of human events. people being brave in the face of authoritarianism, people being unwavering in their convictions, their conviction that we must change, we must do what's right. not in spite of the strength of the opposition, but because of the strength of the opposition. unsung story of 2021. much more ahead on that tonight. 1 much more ahead on that tonight. real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ mission control, we are go for launch. only pay for what you need. um, she's eating the rocket. ♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten. new vicks vapostick. strong soothing vapors... help comfort your loved ones. for chest, neck, and back. it goes on clear. no mess just soothing comfort. try new vicks vapostick. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ her name was isabela. she was only 5 months pregnant, but her water broke. something was wrong. that's not when your water's supposed to break. she went to the hospital. she was told that her fetus lacked amniotic fluid, which can cause severe birth defects. she was told her pregnancy was not viable, that this baby was not going to survive, and that is when she texted her mother. she said, quote, they gave me an iv drip because i was shivering from fever. the baby weighs 485 grams, 17 ounces. for now, thanks to the abortion law, i have to lay down and they can't do anything. i hope that i don't have septicemia or i will not make it. it's dreadful and i have to wait. in the end, isabela did suffer septic shock and she died. she was 30 years old. in those text messages with her mom, she mentioned, thanks to the abortion law. she's talking about the near total ban on abortion that had gone into effect in poland earlier this year where isabela 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, like in isabela's case so even though they were sure the fetus would not survive, the doctors told her that she would only be treated after her fetus no longer had a heartbeat but by that point, it was too late. being forced to continue to carry that pregnancy killed that woman. while doctors stood by and let it happen. protests erupted around poland at the news of her death. outrage over a law that appears to have forced this woman to stay pregnant until it killed her. people carried her portrait through the streets and held signs that said, you have blood on your hands. red lightning bolts have become a symbol of the abortion rights movement in poland. people paraded them in the straits in the wake of isabela's death, chanting, not one more. isabela's story is an upsetting one at a lot of different levels. it's also a policy story. it's a dystopian illustration of what can happen when women are forced, against their will, to stay pregnant against their will. here in the united states, our supreme court heard oral arguments this month about an abortion ban passed in mississippi that was passed specifically to get roe vs. wade overturned, to erase the legal protections that women have that allow them to get abortions in this country. access to abortion is widely supported by the public in the united states. it has been for decades. support for abortion cuts across all sorts of ideological and demographic lines. on the day of the oral arguments on this case, there were demonstrations in front of the supreme court and across the country urging justices not to end roe vs. wade but in the end, that day the headlines were essentially unanimous in papers all across the country. the republican-appointed super conservative anti-abortion super majority on the supreme court, they appear to be ready to outright overturn roe vs. wade or gut it so it doesn't mean anything anymore. the oral arguments that day ran about three hours. if you have a long drive ahead of you or something over the holidays like that, it's actually worth listening to the whole three hours. it's really engaging. but if you want to catch just one exchange, let it be this one. trump appointee, justice brett kavanaugh, appears poised to gut abortion rights along with the conservative majority on the court. this is justice kavanaugh during the oral arguments characterizing that prospect. as the court simply becoming neutral on the issue of abortion, no longer playing a role in the issue. which makes it sound like there won't be a rule on abortion either way. what it actually means is, all republican-controlled states will now be free to make abortion a crime. and the lawyer who answers him here is julie rickalman from the center for reproductive rights. >> i think the other side would say that the core problem here is that the court has been forced by the position you're taking and by the cases to pick sides on the most contentious social debate in american life and to do so in a situation where they say that the constitution is neutral on the question of abortion. the text and history, that the constitution's neither pro-life nor pro-choice on the question of abortion, and they would say, therefore, it should be left to the people, to the states, or to congress. and i think they also, then, continue, because the constitution is neutral, that this court should be scrupulously neutral on the question of abortion, neither pro-choice nor pro-life but because they say the constitution doesn't give us the authority, we should leave it to the states and we should be scrupulously 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 that issue. so, i think that's -- as a big-picture level, their argument. i want to give you a chance to respond to that. >> yes, a few points, if i may, your honor. first, of course, those very same arguments were made in casey and the court rejected them, saying that this philosophical disagreement can't be resolved in a way that a woman has no choice in the matter and second, i don't think it would be a neutral position. the constitution provides a guarantee of liberty. the court has interpreted that liberty to include the ability to make decisions related to child-bearing marriage and family. women have an equal right to liberty under the constitution, your honor, and if they're not able to make this decision, if states can take control of women's bodies and force them to endure months of pregnancy and childbirth, then they will never have equal status under the constitution. >> if states can take control of women's bodies and force them to endure months of pregnancy and force them to endure childbirth against their will, then they will never have equal status under the constitution. the day of those oral arguments earlier this month, we talked with our friend, senior editor at slate.com. this was the headline on her article that came out that day on what kind of ruling we might expect from this super conservative court. it says, as you see there, scotus will gaslight us until the end. oral arguments made clear this court will overturn roe and they'll insist on their own reasonableness the whole time. dahlia explained to us what she heard that day that gave her the basis for that sort of clarion take. listen. >> i think going into argument today, there was a narrative that went, this isn't really a 6-3 court. it's a 3-3-3 court that amy coney barrett and brett kavanaugh and the chief justice are incrementalists, they care what people think. there was no reason to believe, other than the chief justice, who was trying to figure out a middle way not to overturn roe, maybe we could move the viability line and be okay with a 15-week instead of 24-week ban. there was no reason to believe, rachel, that he had a single other person on the court with him in that project. i think anyone who could count counted all of the conservative justices, except for roberts, gunning for roe. >> you said today -- you said today, in your piece that's just posted, dahla perhaps it would be refreshing if the conservatives on the supreme court no longer felt the need to lie to us. the lying is becoming untenable. after confirmation hearings where they said roe vs. wade was a clear precedent of the court, there's something sort of soothing about knowing the lying to our faces will soon be over. they were all six of them installed on the supreme court to put an end to roe vs. wade after all, and that is exactly what they intend to do. i wonder if you feel like this moment does mean that the sort of lying and the artifice around this issue is over. under president trump, when he talked about supreme court nominations, he essentially dropped the guise and said, yeah, whoever i put on there is going to overturn roe so yeah, roe is going to be overturned. are we sort of at a new layer, a new place where it's just essentially open combat on this issue and we're no longer couching it? >> yes and no. i mean, i think, look, let's be grateful that all of the fancy law professors and susan collinss and people who told us that these folks really meant when they said roe was precedent, they meant that. okay, let's put that aside. that artifice is gone. the artifice i worry about, and you played that brett kavanaugh clip, is the artifice of saying, like, let's be neutral. we're going to pretend to be neutral. we're not going to ban abortions, said kavanaugh, we're just not going to say there's a right, and that middle place, that neutral place is to just let states decide. we saw that same artifice, amy coney barrett kept insisting that because there were safe haven laws that allow you to more readily give your child up for adoption, it's not a problem for women to be forced to carry to term because they can just give their babies up. so, i think for me, the artifice of, we're being neutral, we're being reasoned, this is just a tiny little tweak around the margins, nothing earth-shaking happening here. not to worry about other precedents when we are gunning for roe, just roe, that's the artifice that really rankled today for me, the sort of pretense that this is a big nothing burger and everybody's worked up. >> senior editor at slate.com, dahlia, as always, thank you for your clarity. we got much more ahead here tonight. ur clarity we got much more ahead here tonight. g the love with those who need it most. now subaru is the largest automotive donor to make-a-wish and meals on wheels. and the largest corporate donor to the aspca and national park foundation. get a new subaru during the share the love event and subaru will donate two hundred and fifty dollars to charity. man, i slept. we gave new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep to people who were tired of being tired. i've never slept like this 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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 these 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, he's been a u.s. postal worker for nearly three decades, and he's talking about the mail. when he says he has witnessed miracles on the job. but did you catch what he said at the top? he said, i don't think he really has a clue about what we do. the "he" in that sentence is about a specific guy, and it's about this man, whose name is louis dejoy. the head of the united states postal service, the postmaster general appointed during the donald trump years. it was, of course, louis dejoy who basically broke the mail last year immediately after trump put him in the job or after he was put in the job during the trump years, dejoy instituted draconian new policies that created unprecedented backlogs in the mail across the country. somewhat unfathomablely even after that disastrous start, he's still in charge of usps and as long as he's still there, he's coming up with new ways to monkey wrench the way the mail gets delivered. earlier this year, he proposed a new ten-year plan for the postal service, promising that he had found a way to permanently make the mail slower and more expensive and less convenient. well done. "the washington post" called it the largest rollback of consumer mail services in a generation. postal workers immediately pointed out that part of the plan would entail offloading more mail carrying operations to private companies in a way that is specifically designed to slow mail down even further. so, that's what that postal worker, mike bates, was saying, that his boss had no idea about, no idea what we mail carriers do. you see the signs over his shoulder there. when mike bates made those remarks, he was at a protest. he was at an informational picket. postal workers held a rally in des moines, iowa, earlier this year to protest these new proposed changes to the way the post office operates. they stood outside the post office chanting, raise hell, save your mail. they say, cut back, we say, fight back. they say, cut back. we say, fight back. they made signs that say, dejoy equals delays. stop dejoy, save usps. you might remember us covering this. this was in may of this year. it was fascinating to see, right? folks using these grassroots tactics to try to focus public attention on what was going on at that government agency. and of course, to try to catch the attention of president biden. president biden can't directly fire louis dejoy. the white house has repeatedly made clear that they think he is not the right man for the job but it's the postal board of governors that hires and fires people for that postmaster job. well, now, in a surprise move, late last month, president biden made changes to the postal board of governors that may finally clear the way for louis dejoy to finally get ousted. "the washington post" was first to break the news. quote, president biden announced plans to nominate two new officials to the postal service's governing board, replacing key allies of louis dejoy. the move was a surprise to postal officials and even to members of congress. i casts doubt on dejoy's future at the agency. it potentially gives the panel two crucial votes to oust the postal chief who can be removed only by the board. joining us now is illinois congressman raja. the congressman has been calling on the board of governors to fire mr. dejoy for months now. he's also been calling on president biden to replace members of the postal service board so that the new board could replace mr. dejoy. also introduced a bill called the delivering envelopes judiciously on time year round act. as awkward as it sounds, it spells out d.e.j.o.y., the d.e.j.o.y. act to fix the things in the posting service that louis dejoy has deliberately broken. congressman, i really appreciate you being here. thank you. >> thanks, rachel. >> from the dejoy act to your involvement in the oversight committee's oversight of this matter to your direct pleas to president biden to please replace members of the board of governors, so that dejoy can be gotten rid of, you've been really, really, really focused on this, perhaps more than anybody else in government. did you know that president biden was going to do what he did today? >> i didn't. but you know, my pleas really came from my constituents, rachel. we've received more complaints, thousands of complaints about slower mail delivery and raised prices than perhaps any other issue that we talk about in government. and now, we're on the verge of the holidays, and unfortunately, the postmaster general is taking the joy out of the holidays too. so, 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, who's the chair of the board of governors, which he announced today. >> what sort of timeline do you think that people should expect here? as you say, your constituents have been giving you more feedback on this than any other issue. a lot of americans, people who run small businesses, people who just 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 apparently all by design. it is what he has set out to do and what he's done. if you can speak directly to americans right now who have been mad about this or who have been hurting about this, what would you expect in terms of the timeline for getting rid of him and starting the process of undoing some of what he's done? >> in the new year, i'm hoping that a -- the new chair of the board of governors conducts a vote with regard to mr. dejoy and relieves him of his duties. and so i'm very hopeful that happens sooner rather than later in the new year. >> illinois congressman raja has been playing point on this issue about louis dejoy left over from the trump years, still harming the postal service, doing a job that is infuriating and inconveniencing millions of americans of every stripe, now looks like he may be on his way out. something the congressman has been calling for. sir, it's been a huge day today. thanks for helping us talk about it and understand at the end of this long day. >> thank you, rachel. all right, we got much more ahead tonight. all right, we got much more ahead tonight. this is a cold call! nfl teams are turning to cold with tide, will you? that will never work! if it works on nfl jerseys it'll work for you. seriously! just perfect! and it'll save up to $150 a year. and it's cold! so you will turn to cold? fine! i'll turn to cold! that guy needs to chill out! this was a cold call! ♪ ♪ 'tis the season to break tradition in a cadillac. don't just put on a light show—be the light show. make your nights anything but silent. and ride in a sleigh that really slays. because in a cadillac, tradition is yours to define. so visit a cadillac showroom, and start celebrating today. ♪ ♪ 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 reporters' computers and notebooks. they riffled through computers they disconnected their computers and then frog marched them out the front doors. for more than 20 years "apple daily" was an independent, pro-democracy newspaper in hong kong and became the only pro-democracy publication still operating in hong kong following escalating crackdowns on independent journalism by the pro-chinese government. after that dawn raid, authorities froze the assets of the paper. and so "apple daily" the last remaining pro-democracy publication in all of hong kong, they announced this summer that they would shut down. no assets to access, no way to pay people or fund their operations, their employees being thrown in jail. how were they supposed to keep going? they announced they were shutting down the paper right away. but then look what happened. this was outside the "apple daily" offices on their final night of publication. all these people gathered outside in the rain to show their support to the journalists inside for doing the hard, dogged work of the free and fair press. they held up their cell phone flashlights in the air and waved at journalists inside. the staff of "apple daily" waved back. through their office windows. others went to the balcony and shined their lights too, a back and forth. it was ultimately from that vantage point that a photographer snapped the cover photo for the final page of their final print run. the headline there says hong kongers bid a painful farewell in the rain, the headline. we support "apple daily." this was the queue, the line in hong kong the next morning to buy a copy of the last edition of "apple daily." people got in line before the sun came up. on a normal day, that paper would print 80,000 copies, but for their final issue they printed 1 million. and by 8:00, they were all sold out. the shutdown of "apple daily" will end up being a footnote when the history books are written about this time, about rising authoritarianism in the 21st century, but for right now in the parts of the world where it remains a scary time for freedom of the press, it's also a story of hope, of people at least even in that context being willing to use their voices, use their bodies, use their wallets to stand up for independent journalism at a time when, of course, we need a fair and free press more than ever. we'll be right back. the freshne. press more than ever we'll be right back. ♪ still fresh ♪♪ in wash-scent booster ♪♪ downy unstopables as a dj, i know all about customization. that's why i love liberty mutual. they customize my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. how about a throwback? 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(music) ♪ i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ so the thing about this show is there is just one person's name on it, which is convenient, i know, but it's also ridiculous. because besides me, this show is stacked with incredibly talented producers and editors and production assistants and artists and archivists. do you know we have a whole team of archivists here? how else could we find that cool, old tape? without those folks, this would not be "the rachel maddow show." that you know. it would be the pot bellied less than lady not making much sense show. it's more efficient for it to be "the rachel maddow show," but it couldn't be this show without everybody who works so hard to make it possible. without further ado, a major thank you to everybody who works on this show who make me, oh, so better at this job. please behold. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ it's the 11th annual revvie awards. from rockefeller center, here's your host, al sharpton. >> good evening, and welcome to "politics nation's" 11th revvie awards. it's where we celebrate the best and worst in 2021 and give awards to those who deserve it. i'm honored to have been bringing you some of the most significant and memorable moments this past year. and what a year it's been.