We finally made it above the fold! WOOT!
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty exhilarated by this weekend’s No Kings protests! What a rush! I was at two events—first the No Kings protest in Nyack, NY, and then on to the big one in New York City. Both were fantastic; the NYC one was absolutely massive! I couldn’t stop smiling afterwards—I’m still a little giddy. To see Americans turn out in bigger numbers than ever to support democracy after the year we’ve had was just…deeply moving.
I trust and hope that you had as great an experience as I did. Tell me all about it in the comments, please!
Meanwhile, a lot of other great stuff happened this week on top of No Kings. So let’s get into it! Please remember to bask in all this goodness, then share it with others. Keeping morale up is so important for the fight we still have ahead.
Love you, folks. Congratulations again!
Read This!
The 19th has a new story out about young women inspired to run for office after participating in the first No Kings protest.
“Early anecdotal evidence suggests that participating in No Kings events is motivating the women organizing them to think more about what they can do to support their country’s democracy.” So hopeful!
Celebrate This! 🎉
It’s official! The No Kings protests were the biggest yet, with over 8 MILLION Americans out in the streets across the country—including in every single Congressional district in the nation! The protests got real news coverage, too—finally! Including above the fold, front page coverage in the NYT (see above)! Also the Guardian has a great photo gallery.
Someone managed to hack the main White House phone so that it briefly showed the words “Epstein Island” when people called. Washington Post has the receipts.
Another win for the ACLU! ICE is now required to provide detained individuals at the Florida facility nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” with access to legal counsel.
Representative Sam Graves, the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he would leave Congress after nearly three decades, the latest sign that the G.O.P. is bracing for big losses.
After volunteers chalked around dozens of congressional offices, posted on social media, and called their representatives, Republicans pushed back the vote on the AI mass surveillance bill (FISA).
Yet again, a record amount of new solar and wind capacity came online globally last year, according to the latest numbers by think tank Ember. The jump was sizable: Additions exceeded the prior year’s by 17%.
A new U.K. study confirms that hairdressers are uniquely positioned to be effective climate messengers. Huh!
Wikipedia banned the use of AI-generated content on its posts.
The Los Angeles Metro Board unanimously approved a key north-south light rail extension that will greatly increase Southern California rail network usefulness by tying together the Metro B, D, and E Lines. This is a huge win for transit advocates and the city as a whole!
Mayor Mamdani’s Department of Transportation will finally follow through on a mothballed 2024 plan to build a new and improved Manhattan-side bike lane and pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge.
US solar generation in January 2026 surged 15%, compared to January 2025.
Utah state lawmakers passed a bill that prohibits police and other government officials from requesting polygraph tests for alleged sex assault victims.
A former cancer nurse who became a priest at the age of 40 was installed as archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday. She is the first woman to lead the Church of England.
A franchisee operating Taco Bell and Dunkin’ locations in the city will pay $1.5 million in restitution to more than 760 workers under a settlement reached with the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for violations of the city’s Fair Workweek Law. Thanks Mayor Mamdani!
A Lyme disease vaccine showed over 70% efficacy in a clinical trial.
Toyota is leaning into EV production.
Elon Musk lost his lawsuit alleging that advertisers violated antitrust law by colluding on an ad boycott after he took over Twitter
A group of wealthy clean energy investors is targeting the architects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act with TV ads and other campaign tactics as they face reelection this fall.
Solar panel sales are rising in the U.K. as oil and gas prices skyrocket, and as the government lifts a ban on the sale of plug-in balcony solar kits.
Joe Rogan called people in the MAGA movement “unintelligent” and “a bunch of f*cking dorks” on his podcast.
Democrats in Virginia just pushed 25 gun reform bills to the finish line, and the expectation is that Governor Spanberger will sign them all. Again, elections matter! Many of these bills were passed by Democrats in the last legislative session, but then vetoed by Republican Governor Youngkin.
An anonymous donor gifted $1 million to help erase student loan debt for nurses at a Philadelphia hospital.
In evidence that our boycott is affecting them, Open AI cancelled their AI porn feature indefinitely AND shut down Sora (their video generation app). As a result of the latter, Disney pulled all of their investment money in Open AI!
The Progressive Caucus has announced it is opposing any Iran supplemental funding.
A new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds 13% of Americans who cast ballots for Trump in 2024 say they regret how they voted in the last election.
Washington State’s legislature passed a string of bills focused on affordability and addressing climate change, including a bill to establish a state electrical transmission authority to help green light clean energy projects.
A humanitarian aid convoy arrived in Cuba carrying 20 tons of aid in an effort to break the United States’ 64-year trade embargo and two-month-long oil blockade, both of which have plunged the island into crisis.
France’s far-right National Rally failed to win control of any major city in Sunday’s nationwide municipal election, a setback that gave hope to embattled mainstream parties ahead of next year’s presidential election. Also, leftist candidates won important Mayoral races, including in Paris and Marseilles.
Uber and Rivian have teamed up to deploy up to 50,000 fully autonomous electric robotaxis, signaling a major step forward in clean transportation technology.
In a humiliating defeat for Trump, Democrat Emily Gregory flipped Florida House District 87 — Trump’s home district, which he won by 11 points in 2024.
A federal judge is allowing the re-release of deposition videos of two former DOGE staffers, ruling that the risk of “embarrassment and reputational harm” is not enough to overcome the public interest in the videos. (If you haven’t yet seen these videos, they’re INSANE)
A Republican-backed attempt to repeal Utah’s voter-approved ban on partisan gerrymandering failed after the measure fell below the required signature threshold to reach the ballot.
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, a decorated Navy SEAL veteran, called on Barron Trump to join the military.
Actresses Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey reunited to reenact an iconic “Beaches” scene to protest ICE and promote the “No Kings” nationwide rallies.
The city of Baltimore sued Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, alleging that its tool, Grok, has continued to generate nonconsensual sexual images in violation of the city’s consumer protection and deceptive practice laws.
In FL Senate District 14, Democrat Brian Nathan, a union leader and Navy veteran, pulled off a massive upset by defeating his Republican opponent, despite being outspent more than three to one.
Democrats have now won or overperformed in 258 out of 289 key elections — a rate of nearly 90%.
A Los Angeles jury ruled that Meta and YouTube have been found liable for deliberately designing addictive products that hooked a young user and led to her being harmed.
The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed a trial court decision blocking provisions of a bill that criminalized voter engagement activities and the distribution of absentee ballot applications.
The top Republican in the North Carolina Senate, who’s been in power for decades and done many awful things during his tenure, lost his primary despite having Trump’s endorsement.
A Chinese energy executive says the country may reach peak oil demand sooner than expected as conflict in the Middle East drives China even further toward renewables.
Virginia is set to enact a flurry of laws boosting cleaner, cheaper power! Elections matter!
Delta suspended travel perks for Congressmembers until TSA gets funding.
The UN voted to recognize the enslavement of Africans as the “gravest crime against humanity” and urged member states to consider apologizing for the slave trade and contributing to a reparations fund.
A new Fox News poll shows President Trump’s disapproval rating is the highest it has been in either of his two terms.
Six months into Bari Weiss’ overhaul of CBS News, new ratings data obtained by Status shows its flagship programs are shedding viewers at an alarming rate, collapsing to historic lows and accelerating the network’s decline.
Anthropic won a preliminary injunction barring the US Department of Defense from labeling it a supply-chain risk, potentially clearing the way for customers to resume working with the company.
A Tennessee woman launched a GoFundMe that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for an elderly DoorDash driver who was struggling to pay his wife’s medical bills.
The state of Minnesota sued the Trump administration for access to investigation materials regarding the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Batteries will account for some 28% of new U.S. power plant capacity built this year. And for the first time, the country will be able to produce enough grid batteries to meet that surging demand on its own.
Rep. Greg Casar joined Sen. Chris Murphy in introducing the Bets Off Act, which would stop gambling on things like war and assassinations.
Watch This! 👀
@pearlmania500 on Instagram is one of my favorites, and this is one of my favorite ever videos of his. He does curse a lot, so if that offends you, skip it!
Chop Wood, Carry Water is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
From Chop Wood, Carry Water via this RSS feed
You must log in or # to comment.