A statue of Trump and Epstein holding hands went up on the National Mall this week and stayed up for a few days before Trump had it taken away in the middle of the night. Fantastic!
Hi, all, and happy Sunday.
It’s been another difficult week—an understatement! Still, we somehow not only survived, but saw our numbers grow! Trump’s overreach is upsetting and scary, but it’s also a wildly effective recruitment tool. It is his inability to moderate his approach that will, in the end, cause his defeat.
To those of you who are new here, then, welcome!
This Sunday list is meant to show you that, despite the steady onslaught of terrible headlines, good things are also happening. We must take time to celebrate them so we can keep our strength up for the fight ahead.
So please sustain yourself with this list of wins that happened this week, while we were busy fighting fascism. It’s all quite awesome!
And people like you helped make all of it happen. BRAVO!
Read This 📖
“Feeling powerless doesn’t mean you are powerless” from Waging Nonviolence. Great piece!
Celebrate This! 🎉
Less than a week after it was taken off the air, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” started broadcasting again. This, after more than a million people canceled their Disney streaming subscriptions.
Kimmel’s return on Tuesday after almost a week off the air brought the show its highest ratings in decade. With nearly 18 million viewers in under 24 hours, his 28-minute monologue also became his most-watched ever on YouTube.
Sinclair and NexStar also backed down and reinstated the Jimmy Kimmel show to their stations. This, even though ABC and Disney didn’t accept Sinclair’s request for an ombudsman and other changes. YOU HELPED DO ALL OF THIS!
One of the worst officials in America—Oklahoma School Superintendent Ryan Walters—announced that he plans to resign. You may remember him from the porn-on-his-Zoom incident a few months ago. Anyway, he’s terrible. Good riddance.
Activist groups in HazMat suits gathered outside Eau Claire City Hall to protest Rep. Derrick Van Orden as “hazardous” to communities and healthcare.
ICE released an Oregon firefighter arrested last month during the Bear Gulch Fire.
Alan Greenspan and every other living former Fed chair submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court saying that Lisa Cook should keep her job.
Environmental justice activist Carletta Davis became the first Black female mayor of Prichard, Alabama.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the RNC’s lawsuit challenging Michigan’s voter roll maintenance practices.
Residents of Prince George’s County in Maryland achieved a pause in all data center development after hundreds protested a massive site in Landover.
Indianapolis residents have also shut down a proposed Google data center.
California refineries are closing as gasoline demand slips into permanent decline.
The Interior Department announced more than $54 million for waterfowl habitat and increased public access on refuges.
Huntington’s Disease has been successfully treated for the first time. HUGE!
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore $50 million in grant funding to U.C.L.A. for medical research, including studies into Parkinson’s disease treatment, cancer recovery, and other areas that would improve the health of Americans.
World Central Kitchen announced it’s building two new kitchens in Gaza, which will “nearly double” its daily meal production and move it closer to its goal of serving one million hot meals to people every day.
Cars with solar panels will become available in the US as early as next year, as companies in the cottage industry for sun-powered vehicles and add-on solar panels ship their first products.
Millions of Californians will receive refunds on their electric bill this October.
Researchers were able to embed digital fingerprints into 3D-printed parts, which could help make ghost guns more traceable.
The Gates Foundation pledged $912 million to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria and urged governments to take stronger action, too.
The U.S. Forest Service will now provide wildfire fighters with N95 respirators as part of standard equipment. The decision reverses a decades-long policy that banned the use of respirators to reduce exposure to toxins and carcinogens, with only bandanas approved for use as facial coverings.
A federal judge ruled that parts of Florida’s book ban law were unconstitutional and violated students’ First Amendment right of free access to ideas.
Despite an internal effort to reverse the regulation, the EPA will continue to hold polluters responsible for cleaning up “forever chemicals,” maintaining an important role of the agency despite chemical industry opposition.
Scientists have created a clear coating that turns windows into solar panels without compromising the view.
Energy-related CO2 emissions dropped 20% from 2005 to 2023 in the U.S., despite 14% population growth.
In a historic first, the Congressional Progressive Caucus voted to endorse blocking offensive weapon sales to Israel.
A 79-year-old Van Nuys car wash owner (and US citizen) has filed a federal civil rights claim seeking $50 million after he says he was violently body slammed and pinned by federal agents during an immigration raid at his business. The claim names the DHS, CBP and ICE as defendants.
Fresno city officials celebrated a federal judge’s decision to block the Trump administration from taking more than $250 million in federal funding away from Fresno, as well as millions more from other local governments.
Microsoft has terminated the Israeli military’s access to technology it used to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected millions of Palestinian civilian phone calls made each day in Gaza and the West Bank.
President Xi Jinping of China told a U.N. climate conference this week that his country would seek to reduce emissions by at least 7 to 10 percent by 2035. This is the first time China has ever made such a commitment, at least publicly.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) announced she would introduce articles of impeachment against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. due to the “health care chaos” and “reckless cuts” he’s brought under his tenure.
The Sandy Hook Promise tip line stopped a potential school shooting at a Bay Area high school.
MacKenzie Scott gave $70 million to UNCF to financially strengthen HBCUs.
Microsoft will get green steel from a first-of-its-kind facility in northern Sweden as the tech giant looks to curb the climate impact of its data center build-out.
Less than two weeks after the Trump administration dissolved a panel analyzing financial risks from climate change, former panel members are forming a new institute to continue the work.
A federal judge blocked the USDA from sharing data about SNAP applicants in 21 states.
Two Arizona voter suppression laws remain blocked* after a federal appeals court Monday decided not to rehear the case. A panel previously ruled the measures were unlawful.
Amazon will pay $2.5 billion to settle FTC allegations that it tricked people into paying for Prime, and sabotaged their attempts to cancel.
After three long months of being detained…Efrain, an undocumented father and husband in Los Angeles, is finally back at home! So many of you donated to help him raise legal fees. It worked! THANK YOU!
Britain, Australia, and Canada confirmed that they each now formally recognize Palestinian statehood.
Sens. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, introduced a bipartisan bill to re-establish national emergency suicide prevention hotlines and other services for LGBTQ+ youth.
House and Senate Democrats have opened separate investigations into the Trump administration’s decision to close a criminal F.B.I. inquiry into Tom Homan.
For the first time, women outnumber men in NASA’s newest astronaut class.
A federal judge ruled that the Revolution Wind project can resume construction, saying that the Trump administration’s stop-work order will cause “irreparable harm” if the halt continues. WHOOO!
Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.
Nebraska agreed to withhold any voter data from the DOJ until a pro-voting lawsuit seeking to prevent them from sharing statewide voter registration information is settled.
The DNC announced bilingual organizing support to Mobilize Californians to vote yes on Proposition 50 in California.
Adelita Grijalva won a special election for the U.S. House seat previously held by her father, Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died in March. She overperformed Kamala Harris’s margins by 17 points and will be the first Latina Congresswoman in Arizona!
Carbon-free sources met more than 80% of China’s new electricity demand last year. Wow!
A Hawaii group is organizing to buy back a huge swath of Molokaʻi Island from the billionaire investment firm that currently owns it. Their ultimate goal is to return Hawaiian land to Indigenous communities.
The Federal Trade Commission and seven states have sued TicketMaster and its parent company, Live Nation, for allegedly using deceptive pricing tactics and coordinating with brokers to allow them to illegally buy up and resell tickets at exorbitant prices.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) signed three new bills that offer new protections for Oregon consumers from deceptive and abusive business practices, stepping in where now-gutted federal consumer protection agencies left off.
New data about voting in 2023 and 2024 shows that down-ballot voting increased, reflecting greater voter engagement in state and local races. HUGE news!
Bishop Michael Pham, appointed by Pope Leo as the first U.S. bishop under his papacy, is showing up at immigration courts to support families caught in the current crackdown.
Watch This! 👀
Greg Johnstone for the win again. (Warning, some profanity.)
Chop Wood, Carry Water is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Thank you for reading Chop Wood, Carry Water. This post is public so feel free to share it.
From Chop Wood, Carry Water via this RSS feed
You must log in or # to comment.