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From the GNR Newsroom: Its the Monday Good News Roundup [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-17
Welcome back my friends to the Monday Good News Roundup, that time of the week when your intrepid GNR Newsroom (Myself, Killer300, Bhu, and the good people at the GNR Discord) Collect the good news to start your week off right.
Look, none of us are foolish, I know things are bad right now, President Elon and his little partner Donny Twoscoops are running around making trouble, but believe me that people are not laying down and taking it. We have more friends and allies than you know, and there are a lot of people on all levels jamming the gears of Elon’s rampant attempts at taking over our Government. We just gotta dig deep and keep fighting.
And one way we are fighting back is illustrated through our first song of the night. I was gonna post this last week but I forgot to do so, so please enjoy Weird Al, I’ll Sue you (warning for flashing light)
That’s where this lawsuit comes in. Twenty-seven Jewish and Christian religious groups, representing national denominations and interdenominational associations with millions of members, sued to reinstate the sensitive locations policy and prohibit immigration enforcement actions in places of worship unless there are exigent circumstances. They contend that the government’s actions violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The RFRA was enacted in 1993 and provides for religious exemptions from federal laws.
This is what true faith looks like, people of God standing up for the poor and downtrodden.
Staggering sales drops, swastika-daubed EVs, companies culling fleet models, and fan-forum owners selling their cars—Elon Musk's alt-right antics are seriously impacting his electric car business.
Looks like things are not going well for President Elon, as his shitty attempted takeover of the US is not making him too popular, will this end up destroying Elon financially? Well a guy can dream can't he? Honestly it feels like Elon was jealous of Trump going from being a shitty billionaire to the worst thing ever and he wanted to get in on the action.
Rachel Maddow is not impressed by President Elon and his shitty antics.
President Donald Trump's favorable rating among Generation Z voters has dramatically fallen since the 2024 election, according to a poll. A survey from The Economist/YouGov released Wednesday revealed the president's net favorability rating among those aged 18-29 is minus 18 points. This is a drop from the plus 19 favorable rating he scored among this demographic in the days following November's race.
It looks like Gen Z learned a sobering lesson in the last election: Don’t trust lying scumbags who lie all the time and who actively hate you. Seems obvious in hindsight, but hey, we were all young and dumb once (I loved Ross Perot as a kid, yes seriously. I was dumb)
Trump has a tendency to back down when challenged or when things get to tough on him, so we have to keep fighting fiercely and make sure he doesn’t get away with anything.
The world got 31 new ‘wetland cities’, beavers saved Czech taxpayers £1m, and a UK city mooted a basic income scheme, plus more good news
Just an aggregate of good news from the previous week. Little stories here and there to keep ones spirits up.
x Oregon has the first press release: www.doj.state.or.us/media-home/n... — Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) 2025-02-14T21:06:58.512Z
Oregon has the right idea: Keep fighting back, don’t agree with anything he does, don’t let him get away with anything.
Feb 13 (Reuters) - As opponents of U.S. President Donald Trump's rapid-fire executive actions turn to the courts, at least eight of the largest corporate law firms in the country have signed on to represent plaintiffs leading the fight in the past two weeks. All eight firms, which include WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block and Arnold & Porter, also challenged Trump policies during his first term, such as restrictions on immigration from some majority Muslim countries.
More legal challenges to Trump. A lot of money and a lot of power being used to set up roadblocks against this bastard.
Hours before he became the lone Republican senator to vote against the confirmation of ex-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the pages of a major Kentucky paper to bash the president. In a column for the Courier-Journal. McConnell launched a full-scale attack on the president's plan to use tariffs to solve America's economic woes, with the longtime GOP leader claiming they will have the exact opposite effect.
I’m not gonna lie, I fucking hate Mitch McConnell, this scheming, smug piece of shit was responsible for netting Trump three Supreme court picks; he refused to let Obama get his last one in, and he shoved the third one in before RGB was even cold in the ground god rest her soul. And now he has the gall to call out Trump now that he’s getting out of politics, now that the damage has been done now he decides to speak up.
But you know what? At this point we can take all the help we can get, so feel free to continue slagging off Trump McConnell, then kindly shut up and go away forever.
Here is one of the big ones this week: Getting President Elon and his fucking Doge out of the Government via a lawsuit. Its time he gets a reality check that just because he’s the president (and not Trump, who is not the president) he can’t just do whatever he wants.
And on that note, time for another musical interlude: Cotton Eyed Joe by RedNex
A Maryland judge on Thursday temporarily blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump that seeks to withhold federal funds from institutions that provide gender-affirming care to people 18 and under. U.S. District Court Judge Brendan Hurson issued a nationwide temporary restraining order blocking the executive order, which caused hospitals nationwide to cease offering care to trans minors and young adults, cutting off their access to medicine. The 14-day order marks the latest loss in courts for Trump, who has aggressively sought to consolidate power in the executive branch with orders and other actions seeking to restrict funding appropriated by Congress.
Trump thinks he can just bypass the courts and do whatever he wants. Luckily it doesn’t work like that, and the courts are blocking his nonsense EO’s as fast as he farts them out.
There's a new safe haven for those who identify as transgender in the Bay State, after Worcester officially became a sanctuary city for that community during a lengthy city council meeting on Tuesday night. This meeting lasted about five hours and there were about 200 people who showed up to voice their support. It was standing room only inside council chambers – as dozens of residents spoke before the city council in favor of making Worcester a sanctuary city for those who identify as transgender or of other diverse genders.
In an age of performative cruelty, the most rebellious thing you can do is be kind to your fellows.
There was a bloodbath over at the Justice Department, signaling real trouble ahead for the Trump administration. In the first major challenge to Trump’s new Attorney General Pam Bondi, the resignation of acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, a top prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, set off a chain reaction that has shaken the Justice Department to its core. The Department had been planning to drop all charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is facing federal corruption charges and possible new obstruction of justice charges. Lately, Adams has been working hard to curry favor with the Trump White House, and it looked like his efforts were about to pay off. Enter Sassoon, who was in charge of the Adams case. When she learned of the plan to dismiss all charges against Adams, she offered her resignation in a polite but damning letter. In it, she laid out why she could no longer in good faith work for the Department, which had put political considerations above the rule of law.
A running theme of this GNR has been “Trump fought the law and the law won”. Its probably gonna keep happening too.
And yet, now that the administration has executed its opening gambit, to this chess player’s eye the assault seems haphazard and even at odds with itself. The White House pushed out quickly and aggressively, but without sufficient thought as to what would happen next. Defenders, initially huddled against the onslaught, prepared counterattacks and launched them, predictably, in the form of dozens of lawsuits, sometimes referred to as “lawfare.” Despite having initiated this war, however, within days the White House appeared oddly unprepared to defend its legal positions. But how could that be? Aren’t the folks at Project 2025 masterminding this? Isn’t Elon Musk an evil genius whose techno-coup will effectively end the Republic? And aren’t all the MAGA folks whooping and cheering as Trump “owns the libs” so hard? Within those questions lies a key truth: This isn’t some grand strategy hatched in the mind of the “stable genius” in the White House. Rather, it’s a mad rush by three competing factions within the administration. These factions sometimes have overlapping goals, but often advance competing ones. Two of them—the MAGA right and the tech broligarchy—are already feuding as their interests diverge. Think cheap immigrant H-1B labor versus racist white nationalism.
Did they think this through? I’m gonna say no. No they did not. Controversial opinion I know, but I’m not one to blindly follow public opinion. I calls them how I see em, and if the emperor has no clothes, I’m gonna say so. (Now whether Trump is not wearing clothes because he forgot them or because President Elon is making him go around naked I can’t say).
Just so not every major article today is about Trump or President Elon.
I still say that Dubya was a worse and more damaging president than Trump is. Like I know its hard to believe and this actually is a controversial opinion, but I will die on this hill. Dubya was worse because, at the very least he had someone competent pulling his strings. Plus I was there, shit got pretty bad back then, I just wasn’t as aware because I wasn’t as politically active on the internet back then as I am now.
Point is, we’ve done this before, with Reagan, with Dubya, and now again with Trump, and we will weather the storm and fight back and win just like we’ve done in the past, so don’t lose heart.
The new resistance to Donald Trump’s presidency had a plan: State attorneys general from Maine to Hawaii would rush to court to stop vast portions of the agenda Trump had spent years promising to deliver. And it’s working: Democratic attorneys general and the Democracy Forward coalition of liberal lawyers have been winning in court and throwing up hurdles to his agenda. Skeptical judges have kept federal workers in their jobs, unfrozen billions of dollars in grants, and preserved birthright citizenship; Democracy’s own network of partner organizations has grown from around 180 after the election to more than 400 now.
Someone on the GNR discord asked me how I can be so calm in the face of these uncertain times, and I told them that I have faith that people a lot smarter, a lot meaner, and a lot more tenacious than I am are fighting tooth and nail against Trump. I may not be able to do much more than report on that but I know there are people doing more and risking more than I will ever know.
Valve has seemingly introduced new rules that ban games that require users to watch paid ads (or rely on other such ad-based revenue models) from Steam. However, some sources report that these rules may have already existed, and that Valve has merely created a dedicated page on Steamworks to clarify this policy. The page explains that Steam does not contain paid advertising, and that advertising-based revenue models are not allowed on the platform. It further states that developers are also prohibited from using advertising as a way to provide value to players, such as giving players an in-game reward for watching or engaging with ads.
Bit of a weird note to end on, but as an avid video game player (I refuse to identify as a gamer on principle these days) I do appreciate the gesture by Valve.
You know what time it is now? Time for Pokemon
And now its time for the GNR Lightning round, a collection of stories that don’t get as much focus as the main articles.
Colorado and Connecticut lower utility prices by reining in lobbyists
Broadway’s bike friendly future
Networked Geothermal advocates optimistic despite Massachusetts setback
When pain hits home, Republicans balk at Trump spending cuts and Tariffs
What could go right? Incoming!
New Gene editing techniques may have cured one year olds deadly disease
Sea Turtles increase significantly in numbers
Sports take: Chiefs lost because of Donald Trump
And now its time for the Organizing spotlight, where we look at some ways you can more actively fight against the Broligarchy
A small way to make a big difference now
No voice unheard
How to channel your anger into meaningful action
And we close this morning, as we always do, with the cute corner. Because you need a little serotonin to get the day going on the right foot.
And that does it for this week, see you all next Monday
[END]
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