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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: 2025-02-24
Welcome back to the Monday Good News Roundup, that time of the week where your intrepid GNR Newsroom (Myself, Killer300, Bhu, and the GNR Discord) bring you all the good news to start your week off right, along with music, cartoons, Cute animals, and ways you can help resist the Broligarchy.
Last week I was asked how I can keep calm in the face of the mayhem that is currently occurring in our country. Well, aside from the fact that I have shit in my personal life that’s a much more immediate problem, I recognize that A) There’s no sense in worrying about stuff I largely have no control over, and B) there are people out there who are tougher, meaner, more tenacious, smarter, and braver than I who are already fighting tooth and nail against Trump and Elon. We are not alone, we are not laying down and taking this, we are fighting, and we are winning, and we will continue to win, we’re just getting started.
On a personal note my dad got a job last week, so our money troubles will soon be over, and we are starting to maybe zero in on a place to stay, I will keep you posted.
Anyway, enough of that, onto the good news. And before that some music:
Lucky Star by Madonna
So it turns out Elon isn’t the kingmaker he seems to fancy himself, I wonder how much money he wasted on the German elections? It would deeply amuse me if he eventually bankrupts himself trying to be the man who sold the world.
With Japanese know-how and the unwavering support of Japanese experts, Bhutan’s national bird is being hatched and hand-reared in captivity successfully for the first time ever. The major hurdle to rearing chicks was overcome, and two healthy birds were just hand-reared, bringing the total captive population to five—a crucial lifeline to a bird that numbers less than 100 in the wild. The critically-endangered white-bellied heron faces extinction due to habitat disturbance from human activities and predation. Professor Satoshi Shimano and his team from Hosei University, Japan, collaborated with the White-Bellied Heron Conservation Center (WBHCC) in Bhutan, to revive the species through direct intervention.
Don’t believe the cynics who say humans are naturally cruel and hateful. That’s part of us yeah, but its just as much a human impulse to help others, like helping these poor endangered birds.
We all could use some good news after another week of the Trump and Musk madness. And that’s what I’ve got for you today. I hope it gives you a break from this chaos—even if just for a moment. Over the last 5 days alone, I was able to interview Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum, fmr. federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, and fmr. US Rep. Beto O’Rourke. I’m excited to announce that my next interview is with the one and only Jessica Craven! It will be Monday at 4pm ET live, here on Substack. Yesterday, the Supreme Court paused Trump’s attempt to fire Hampton Dellinger, head of the agency in charge of whistleblower protection. This is the first legal dispute to reach the high court over Trump’s unconstitutional maneuvering, and it certainly won’t be the last. Also on Friday, a judge blocked Trump’s attempt to end government support for DEI programs. The injunction prohibits terminating or altering federal contracts related to DEI. Despite all-out pressure from the DOJ, and Trump declaring himself “king” over the matter, a federal judge refused to dismiss the Eric Adams corruption case in New York City. The next phase in the case is set for March 7, when legal briefs are due. A judge also blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury payment systems. After winning the court order, New York Attorney General Letitia James promised: “We will keep fighting to protect all Americans from this administration’s destruction.”
And this is just a sampling of the ways Trump lost this week. The guy can’t stop losing.
In his ruling late Friday, Judge Adam B. Abelson of the District of Maryland said that the defendants shall not “pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards, contracts or obligations,” or “change the terms of any current obligation” related to equity programs. The executive orders had required a halt to spending on diversity initiatives throughout the federal government.
Once again the legal system tells Trump to slow his roll and that his little proclamations aren’t worth the paper he had an AI print them on.
Following a loud public outcry about job cuts at the National Park Service — and a relentless media campaign from outdoors enthusiasts across the country — it looks like the Trump administration has reconsidered. A plan to eliminate thousands of seasonal workers at the beloved federal agency appears to have been reversed. Last month, prospective seasonal employees — the people who collect the entrance fees, clean the trails and restrooms and help rescue injured hikers — received emails saying their job offers for the 2025 season had been rescinded.
Even Trump must bow to public opinion. Keep complaining about him, it works better than you think.
Last weekend, a swarm of pickets converged on Tesla showrooms in dozens of cities across the U.S. I joined one on Saturday in San Francisco, and then a larger one on Monday. Since then, many more pickets have sprung up, with more being planned. It’s all under the loosely organized banner of “#TeslaTakedown.” And since there are no leaders or spokespeople, I can only say what drew me to join: the desire to declare, as my protest sign read, that “Musk is a Nazi.” To start with, we need to name our enemy, without pulling punches: We are struggling against a fascist coup mounted by the Trump-Musk-Vance regime. We are not alone in this global struggle against fascism, or in facing the two existential threats it poses of nuclear omnicide and climate change. An essential element of nonviolent resistance — particularly in cases of coups and authoritarian power grabs — is the withdrawal of cooperation. Coup-plotters, coup-makers and coup-profiteers are vulnerable to people power, and right now the unelected Musk is the most vulnerable. Trump and Musk may deny it, but their actions and values are fascist. Trump delegated power to Musk to carry out the ongoing coup, and relied on Project 2025 to script it and put the orders in front of him to sign. But it’s Musk and his minions who have done most of the dirty work, and Musk who owns this coup in all its increasingly gory details. Musk needs to be held accountable — but first, he needs to be stopped.
We are gonna hit Trump and Elon where it hurts: Their pocketbook, and that’s only the start.
For many politically minded people who are not fascists, the weeks since Donald Trump’s inauguration have felt like an unstoppable whirlwind of doom. By plowing ahead with plans to shutter entire federal agencies, cut tens of thousands of federal workers, and generally govern by decree in bold defiance of written laws, Trump and his allies are inculcating in their opposition the feeling of being overwhelmed. I have already heard entirely too much despair creeping into the tone of those who should form the backbone of the political opposition to what is happening right now. Without minimizing the potential for the utter destruction of the rule of law in this country—a genuine possibility!—I want to make two basic points that may be helpful in restoring a little fire to everyone who does not care to live in a fascist state. First: the political faction carrying out the Trump-Musk agenda right now does not have the support of the majority of the public. Far from it. And second: the fraction of the public that is happy with the agenda currently being enacted is going to get smaller for the foreseeable future.
Never forget that we outnumber them, always have always will, and that’s why we will win.
It’s been 30 days of turmoil, chaos and fear. We’ve seen headspinning executive orders; ICE raids and cruel deportations; brazen, illegal takeovers of our federal payment and computer systems by Elon Musk and his DOGE hackers; mass firings of federal workers; and shutdowns of entire programs and agencies. But this week, we also saw Trump’s assault on our democracy begin to falter. I’m not just talking about the scores of lawsuits now pinning down the Justice Department and revealing to the federal judges just how haphazard, dangerous and incompetent the new administration is. The pushback has come from ordinary Americans all around the country, and it’s starting to have a noticeable effect.
Things are scary right now, I know they are, but we aren’t backing down, we are gonna fight hard and we’re gonna win.
Yeah apparently the Red state voters are not at all happy about getting their faces eaten and are complaining to the Leopard tamers.
Man, even Ben Shapiro is turning on Trump, what a time to be alive.
I think we could use another music break.
Bye Bye Bye by N Sync
WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Multiple U.S. agencies have told employees not to respond immediately to a demand by President Donald Trump's adviser Elon Musk to list their accomplishments in the past week or be fired, as a chaotic campaign to cull the federal workforce pushes forward. Trump administration-appointed officials at the FBI and State Department sent their staff emails telling them not to respond outside their chains of command - a possible sign of tension between members of the Republican administration and the world's richest person in his campaign to slash the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce. "The FBI, through the office of the director, is in charge of all our review processes," said FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump appointee, in an email to staff seen by Reuters. Musk leads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which in the first weeks of Trump's administration has laid off more than 20,000 workers and offered buyouts to another 75,000, across wide swaths of the government from the Defense Department - long a top Republican priority - to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where all staff members have been ordered to halt work.
Elon trying to take the same sterling approach to running the Government that he did to running Twitter, fortunately Elon isn’t actually in charge of anything so he can’t fire anyone, and some agencies are reminding him of that.
At the root of the problem is a belief that Trump is doing little to lower prices, which many Americans believe are simply too high. In CNN’s survey, 62% of Americans say Trump has not done enough to lower prices. In a Reuters poll, just 32% approved of Trump’s handling of inflation. In the Post’s poll, only 7% of Americans said grocery prices were “excellent” or “good,” while an incredible 92% said they were “not so good” or “poor.” Trump and his administration’s allies have tried to lower expectations about when prices will go down after repeatedly promising nearly instant relief on the campaign trail. Democrats, however, are eager to flip the script.
Yeah it turns out Trump doesn’t give a shit about helping poor people. Who could have guessed except everyone who guessed?
President Trump’s approval rating appears to be underwater as many suggest he may be overstepping his authority, according to a survey released Thursday. The CNN poll, conducted by SSRS, shows that while 47 percent of adults in the U.S. say they approve of Trump’s moves since returning to the Oval Office a month ago, 52 percent say the opposite. The majority of respondents, 75 percent, said they believe he has handled the presidency in a way that they expected. The remaining 25 percent said Trump has acted in an unexpected way, according to the survey.
And people are not happy with Trumps current job performance. Does not bode well for his next four years.
A federal court is hearing arguments about President Trump’s second attempt to restrict transgender people serving in the military. The preliminary injunction hearing in Washington is being covered by Lawdork’s Chris Geidner. Transcripts show the judge is fact checking and asking for evidence from Trump Justice Department lawyers to back up a need for a ban. The hearing is about one of two legal challenges to Trump’s order, Talbott v Trump. The National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLAD Law filed on behalf of six active duty transgender military personnel and two trans Americans seeking to enlist. Judge Ana Reyes fact checked the Trump orders’ false claims about there only being “two sexes”: “This executive order is premised on an assertion that’s not biologically correct,” Reyes said. “There are anywhere near 30 intersex examples. Anyone who doesn’t have XX or XY chromosomes is not just male or female, they’re intersex.” “If I’m intersex, where am I allowed to go?”
Really powerful stuff, a US judge is acknowledging the existence of intersex and nonbinary people and is fighting against bigotry and standing up for them.
And yes, this is a Biden appointee doing this. I stand by what I say that in ten years we’re gonna look back on Biden and realize how good we had it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell announced Thursday that he won’t seek reelection next year, ending a decadeslong tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of President Donald Trump. McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, chose his 83rd birthday to share his decision not to run for another term in Kentucky and to retire when his current term ends. He informed The Associated Press of his decision before he addressed colleagues in a speech on the Senate floor.
And now you know why he’s been so open about criticizing Trump. Oh to have the bravery of a GOP senator who is on their last term and no longer afraid of being primaried.
But yeah, fuck off McConnell, don’t go away mad, just go away.
x JUST IN: A federal judge has ordered the reinstatement of Cathy Harris atop the Merit Systems Protection Board, ruling that Trump's decision to fire her exceeded his authority. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social) 2025-02-18T20:51:52.054Z
Okay, I think that’s enough Good news for now, now enjoy some Pokemon.
And now please enjoy the GNR Lightning round
The people take antitrust into their own hands
Bentz Pendleton town hall draws major crowd, criticisms
Courage in a Georgia town hall
What could go right? Operation Thunder
States moving forward with buy clean policies despite Trump
Portland housing policies are delivering
What the US can learn from South Koreans
And now let us indulge in the cute corner:
And finally for the night, the resistance spotlight, with some helpful links to help you find ways big and small to resist the Broligarchy.
Chop wood, Carry water
Notes on not surrendering
x If you're looking for some great databases of the ongoing resistance (as well as some other useful resources) here's a thread of where to start. 1. Check out Choose Democracy's website with incredible guides on action you can take: choosedemocracy.us — Resist List (@resistlist.bsky.social) 2025-02-20T02:11:52.305Z
What can I do to fight this coup?
Alright I think that does it for this week. See you guys next week, and remember to stay strong.
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