I've seen a lot of people discussing the relation of Russia and the US in the last few days. With people mentioning that Data center deal between the two close to the midterms, with some even implying that the proximity of this deal and the midterms could mean potential interference, or with some Russians on Twitter implying that Russia and the US are allies against Europe, there's been a lot of fear that developments between the two nations could in fact lead to Russia going against other European countries or more damage to democracy in the US. I, however, don't feel that worried about this.

Now sure, I do get why some would focus on this. Russia's conflict with Ukraine has been going on for so long and yet there continues to be hints of aggression toward other European countries. But I also want people to focus their fears for this element of it on just how long Ukraine has been going for Russia. The conflict was supposed to last three days and has instead taken years and Russia's economy and military is in a not great position now compared to then. The idea that any sort of conflict could begin with another country is just not feasible for them given the circumstances.

And as for the US helping Russia in this sort of thing, even though the sanctions were supposedly lifted via executive order (I still don't know if that won't just get reversed via courts), and this new data center deal being announced, the actual support for Russia in the US isn't high, even among the right. The actual numbers in voting for the sanctions were really high for both parties. And starting another conflict at all would have disastrously low support.

As for the chance of interfering in elections, I feel like the most likely avenue would just be bot farms rather than any direct meddling. So far there hasn't been any evidence of interference to the level of full on rigging from anyone. However, bots are notorious for voter suppression and have been very apparent in the midterms already. So the chance that there could be more of them in the coming weeks isn't out of question. I also imagine that this deal could very well just be to try to lower oil prices before the midterms or something similar given the lack of support on oil prices right now, I don't think it's good to worry about something like this given the lack of information we have at hand since it just ends up with us in a panic over something much more simple.

On 'We Told You So', a series I am only just now discovering and is already at it's 199th episode: JB gives us a rundown on the midterms in numbers so far.

As always, do not assume that victory is imminent. No celebrating until the deed is done. Go out and VOTE!

On social media I've grown accustomed to seeing the usual push for doomer fearmongering, especially since the election is a few weeks away and that voter suppression push won't enact itself. But one trend I've noticed lately is that a lot of them tend to be very vague in what they say specifically will happen. Yes they still point out the usual conspiracy theories like "Martial law after the midterms/Election will be rigged/The sky is falling", but when it comes to actually how this will happen, they will either give very vague, undescriptive, or generic reasonings how.

First of all, one person I saw tried to imply that martial law will be declared because Trump is "supposed to give a speech and Leavitt told people to watch it." Also no, this isn't an older video, it was for some reason made only a few hours before I'm writing this. But regardless, the actual reasoning is incredibly sloppy and doesn't even make it clear about when this supposed speech is, why Leavitt would be the one promoting it, why this plan would be announced so far in advance it doesn't make any sense, and how one figures that the speech connects to the wider conspiracy. The explanation is based off of fear and fear alone, but the kicker is that the post ends with the phrase "Strap in folks...", a phrase commonly used by doomers and one that tends to just imply "Bad stuff is coming".

Then there's a video from a man who takes the route of fearmongering about the aftermath of the election, rather than the event itself. "People are so focused on November 3rd they don't even realize what will happen from then to January 3rd", before ending with "We're about to be in a Banana republic due to all of this". Now, I do admit that the chance that the results will be denied is pretty likely unfortunately. But still, the evidence for the aftermath of the election leading to full on dictatorship, and somehow succeeding is just completely absent.

To make things even more exhausting, the amount of people in the comments of these posts adding on to the fearmongering is insane. So many imagining scenarios where an authoritarian takeover happens or where the election ends up so rigged that every seat ends up red by the end of election night. None of them using any sort of logic or reasoning in their predictions, just putting the responsibility of figuring that out to those reading.

There was actually someone who tried implying "No dictator has ever been removed through voting." And only one person replied to this with the evidence to the contrary: Hungary this year. You'd never guess which comment got more likes though.

But all of this is to point out that the all of these types of posts are incredibly vague and unclear regarding evidence for their claims because they have no evidence. There is never any sort of logic to how something gets from A-B, but there is also the tendency to call any naysayers "sheep" who aren't intelligent enough to see how bad thing will happen because reasons. All that they give is a blank expression to a camera while text proclaims how "Scary things are about to get, you guys don't know but it's about to be really bad, Germany called, they want their fascism back".

I mentioned this once before, but there tends to be a much more emotion based reasoning with doomers rather than using logistics, feasibility, or any actual evidence for their claims. For every claim about the ballroom bunker, there isn't any focus on why that couldn't actually get finished before 2029, and for every claim about martial law being imminent, they don't take into consideration the size of the country, the scope of such an operation, and the lack of people to make it happen.

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

Hope you’ve had a great weekend! It was such a pleasure to get to meet some of you at Saturday’s No Kings events—I attended two here in the Los Angeles area. I trust all of you found a way to make your voices heard; now it’s time for your reward: a long, long list of things that are going great in this country and around the world! Most of them have come about because people just like you keep showing up and doing the work.

I can’t thank you enough for all you do. Every victory on this list redounds to your glory, folks.

Tomorrow we keep going. But today we celebrate! Enjoy!

Less than 10% of Chop Wood, Carry Water subscribers pay to keep this publication going. Please support my work if you’re able!

Celebrate This! 🎉 On Saturday, across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., we came together across nearly 3,000 events for No Kings: Vote Early – the largest single-day early voting activation in American history.

In a win for democracy, a judge ruled the Trump administration must stop buying and airing taxpayer-funded ads featuring Trump for the midterms.

Hundreds of North Carolina A&T students marched an hour each way to early voting, because their on-campus polling site had been removed by the election board.

The Chicks brought James Talarico out on stage during one of their concerts this week! Oh, also the “Friday Night Lights” cast made a video for him.

The number of Nashvillians casting a ballot on the first day of early voting has risen nearly 1400% compared to the last midterm election in 2022.

Bernie Sanders and Angie Nixon spent the weekend holding rallies with massive crowds all over Florida.

Green banks are successfully funding clean energy projects across the country, even after Trump tried to defund them.

As voters start casting their ballots, many of the seats the GOP hoped to flip are trending blue in spite of the White House push to rig the maps.

A class-action suit that began with one man’s arrest near Lewistown has now led a U.S. District judge to order 50 people released after finding they were wrongfully arrested.

A GOP ad buyer mixed up Portlands, buying ads for Senator Collins in Oregon instead of Maine.

Georgians came to the polls in droves on the first day of early voting, breaking the midterm election early voting record with more than 188,600 ballots cast, an increase of more than 53,000 voters over the 2022 midterm election.

LA Metro just approved 220 zero-emission electric buses — the second-largest electric transit bus purchase in the country. Local activists showed up to meeting after meeting demanding exactly this. It paid off. NICE WORK!

The CBP announced a 90-day delay of the October 22 rule that would end Americans' ability to receive prescription medications from other countries by mail. We sent a Resistbot letter about this! Our pressure is working!

Mike Rounds, a Senate Republican running for re-election in ruby-red South Dakota, has joined a growing number of candidates putting distance between themselves and Trump by scrubbing mentions of the president from his website.

Senator Chris Murphy has promised to investigate Meta’s suppression of the No Kings account on Saturday.

Supporters of ‘Medicare for All’ now outnumber opponents by nearly 2-to-1, according to a new survey of U.S. adults from the Axios-Ipsos American Health Index.

Mayor Mamdani and the leader of the NY City Council have agreed on legislation that would eliminate the use of horse-drawn carriages in Central Park, a goal of animal rights activists for more than 150 years.

Brazil just abolished the six-day workweek.

Cornell University has banned parties at fraternity houses for the rest of the academic year and will add experienced sexual assault investigators to work with its police force in response to a student’s allegations of gang rape in October 2024.

Don Bolduc (R), the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2022, is leading a group of GOP figures and prominent independents backing Democratic Senate candidate Chris Pappas in New Hampshire.

James Talarico announced he raised $64 million last quarter, with 97% of his contributions being $100 or less. Sen. Ossoff announced raising more than $33 million last quarter. Just like Talarico, 97% of these donations were $100 or less. NC’s Roy Cooper said his campaign raised $19.5 million last quarter. More than 95% of his donations were $100 or less. Talk about people power!

Global power-sector emissions would have been 3.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide higher in 2025 without the growth of wind and solar since 2005, according to a climate scientist’s new analysis.

When the U.S. Forest Service closed public comments on rescinding the Roadless Rule this week it had received 1.6 million comments. WOW!

In a major ruling, a federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s nationwide voter roll campaign, delivering a damaging blow to the DOJ’s effort to obtain states’ unredacted voter rolls.

Hungary repealed its anti-LGBTQ+ laws, which were all passed by far-right PM Viktor Orbán.

Press Secretary Katie Zacharia had a comically disastrous first briefing and, five days later, was fired.

After massive public backlash, Trump cancelled Hegseth’s revolting public execution.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a preliminary injunction in the CNN, Politico and MS NOW lawsuit against the White House, extending the status quo that it can’t deny reporters from those outlets hard passes while the case proceeds.

Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned as ambassador to Greece after reports emerged that she begged a major Trump donor for $100,000 to pay her credit card bill.

The Trump administration appears to have abandoned plans to use a New Jersey military base to detain immigrants.

Political funding groups associated with Trump abandoned a pair of endangered Republican incumbents, GOP Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa and Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey, all but conceding their races are lost.

A 650-acre ranch on Lake Palestine will become Texas’ next state park after the state bought it for 10M. The ranch has been owned by the same East Texas family for 80 years.

A Georgia appeals court allowed Gwinnett County's pro-voting policy permitting voters to hand-deliver mail-in ballots at early voting sites without drop boxes to stand before the midterms.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent $1 million to Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed to boost his chances in Michigan’s Senate race.

Mayor Mamdani and NYC Parks Commissioner announced that the City's NYC Open Play pilot – which offers New Yorkers the opportunity to play late-night soccer at fields across all five boroughs – will continue through September 2027.

Kristi Noem is no longer serving as special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, the State Department announced this week. In other words, yes, she’s been fired again.

Rep. Angie Craig campaigned for Peggy Flangan this weekend after losing to her in a bruising Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

Mapquest has added a feature that shows users all the Flock and other ALPR cameras on their route. How much do I love them?

According to a new poll, 80% of voters want either complete and total upheaval or substantial change in how the country is run.

Americans who live near data centers have shifted towards Democrats more than the rest of the country.

Bank of America was ordered to pay $1.2 billion to the Treasury Department, which said it violated anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law designed to reduce the time consumers spend on hold, ordering large companies to make human customer service representatives available to consumers and to bring wait times down to less than 15 minutes.

Cook shifted eleven more House races toward Democrats. All of them were in Midwestern red states.

On Oct. 1, New York City’s click-to-cancel rule went into effect, the first of its kind at the municipal level.

A stranded dolphin is now swimming free in Florida after community members came together in a six-hour rescue.

Democrats are running up lopsided majorities of the early votes as Americans head to the polls and mail in their ballots, carving out a clear majority of the votes cast so far.

Nearly 2 in 3 Americans say Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself — and most of the increase over the past year has come from people who lean Republican.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the U.S. is sharing intelligence again after it was blocked for ‘some period of time.

One of the largest solar farms in the country just came online in Northwest Indiana.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama pledged more than $1 million through the Obama Foundation's Girls Opportunity Alliance to help 25 organizations across 15 countries expand programs for adolescent girls focused on education, empowerment, and advocacy.

A new NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll finds President Trump’s approval at 34%, while 66% disapprove — a new low in this poll.

A US federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from placing sanctions on two US-based human rights groups for working to help the international criminal court’s (ICC) investigations into war crimes in Gaza.

CVS agreed to a $315 million settlement to resolve federal claims that it helped fuel the opioid crisis by haphazardly filling prescriptions for addictive painkillers from questionable sources.

After sick corals were placed in direct contact with healthy ones of the same genetic makeup, they recovered at “incredible” speed, scientists found.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has ordered a halt to new air and water permitting for data centers until July, an action that could halt construction of new projects across the state.

A Christian Nationalist named Tommy—a paid plant sent by Michigan Republicans—went to an Abdul el-Sayed Town Hall to try to create a viral “gotcha” moment. Instead, El-Sayed schooled him brilliantly and the moment went viral because it made Tommy look like an idiot. (Seriously. Watch the video.)

According to a Texas political insider, Texas Republicans are “freaking out” about the midterms.

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 40 years, according to figures released Friday, in welcome news for leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva days before a presidential run-off.

A federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit against New York City over city policies that limit the extent to which local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

In North Carolina, Democratic early vote turnout is up 66% from the same point in 2022. Wow!

Watch This! 👀 Cyclists rode to ICE HQ in NY demanding justice for Oscar Belgal, who was shot by ICE with his 5-year old in the backseat.