Welcome back friends to the Monday Good News Roundup, where your intrepid GNR Newsroom (Myself, Killer300, Bhu, and our friends at the GNR Discord server) bring you all the good news to start your week off right.
Before we start with the good news proper, I do have an announcement to make: This past week the GNR discord server had its first troll in it. Someone who decided to come in and start spewing out a lot of doomerist talk and pick fights with people in general chat. And of course the second I was made aware of the situation by my fellow Discord mod Bhu, the perpetrator was promptly banned.
So I will say this, The door to the GNR Discord is always open, we are always welcoming to people who want a place to post good news, or to complain about bad news, vent their frustrations, get reassurance that things will (eventually) be okay, or just look at funny animal videos or find something to distract them from *waves hand* all of this going on.
But let me make one thing very crystal clear. We at the GNR discord are not idiots. We can tell the difference between someone who is genuinely upset about things and needs comforting, and someone who is deliberately making a nuisance of themselves, and the latter will not be tolerated. If you come to the GNR discord to make trouble, you will be banned. No second chances, no appeals, this is MY house and I will not tolerate troublemakers.
Now, with that out of the way, lets get on with the good news, starting with some music. See you in Hell by Hinder
Speaking to people over the last week, one thing is clear: the vibe is changing in America. Most of us have been facing this madness for more than 9 years now. We are battle-tested. We have never been stronger than now. And we’ll only grow from here.
I’m happy to say I have another round of good news for you today.
This phenomenal community has now made The Dworkin Report top 5 of all News publications on Substack. Unreal. Thank you for making it happen!
Our activism arm—The Watchdog Coalition—run via our Substack, directed massive social media campaigns fighting for Medicaid and Social Security this week. Both efforts trended on Twitter/X and generated more than 750 million impressions.
We’ve been dealing with Trump for nine years now, nothing this bile spewing orange puss bag is new, we just have to hunker down and get this done.
- Rep. Robert Garcia said he raised the case of Andry José Hernández Romero directly with the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador and received confirmation that the embassy would make an official request for information on the deported hairdresser.
- Garcia, like many of us, is alarmed that these deportations aren’t just to a foreign country, but into a prison where a government official once said the only way out was in a coffin.
We are gong to bring back everyone that Trump has wrongfully deported. He is not going to get away with this.
NEW YORK -- The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for an error in a 2017 editorial that she says damaged her reputation, a jury concluded Tuesday.
The jury deliberated a little over two hours before reaching its verdict after lawyers for Palin and the newspaper delivered closing arguments at a Manhattan federal court civil trial that was in its second week.
Palin was sullen immediately after the verdict was announced by a jury foreperson who said the Times was “not libel.”
Man I have not thought about Sarah Palin for years. And one day we will be able to say the same about Trump and Elon.
Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency this time around on the most openly ethno-nationalist platform in memory, one he explicitly promised to implement with undisguised authoritarian measures. After he took office, and the forced disappearances and renditions to foreign gulags got going, there was reason to fear that he’d successfully acclimated voters to such tactics, and that he’d ride a wave of approval on the then-thriving economy to seal public approval of them for good.
This deeply unsettling scenario appears not to be happening. And it’s not just because Trump quickly crashed the good economy he inherited. A genuine backlash to Trump’s ethno-nationalist authoritarianism may be starting to take shape on its own terms.
Yeah, the American people are finally waking up to how Toxic Trump is and they are not buying what he is selling.
No quote for this one, just a collection of good news stories to make you feel good.
No quote here because its a video. But more infighting between Trump and his cronies is good for us.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping 145% tariffs on Chinese-made goods are creating chaos in the tabletop business, but there is one piece of the industry that’s seemingly exempt: role-playing game books. These are books that lay out the rules and world for different tabletop games — think the Dungeons & Dragons rulebook. The caveat here is that for the book to be exempt from tariffs, it must be imported and sold separately from “dices, maps, [and] figures” that are necessary in actually playing the game.
There has, indeed, been confusion on how these books are classified; a ruling from the Customs and Border Protection from 2024 clarified specifically that Shadowrun’s 6th edition rulebook would be classified under 4901.99.0070, which is for printed, hardbound books. This ruling is at odds with ones from 1989 and 1991, though, per a report from ICv2, which classified these as parts and accessories to tabletop games — not for “passive reading,” so not really books.
Great bit of news if you play table top role playing games (And if you don’t, you really should, its a great way to relieve stress and make new friends. I play with my friends every weekend on discord its good fun).
UPDATED with sentencing: George Santos, the former New York GOP congressman who pleaded guilty last summer to a multitude of federal charges after being expelled from the House of Representatives, was sentenced Friday to 87 months in federal prison.
The sentence was handed down today inside a Long Island, NY, courthouse, where the Associated Press said he offered his “deepest apologies” before U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert handed down the sentence after his conviction on counts including wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying on House of Representatives disclosure forms.
That’s my former Congressional representative. *Sigh* Like I know Schumer isn’t too popular around here these days, but believe me, it can always get worse.
Elon Musk has been ordered to release private emails as part of an ongoing lawsuit against Tesla.
A California judge compelled the tech CEO to release the emails to help the court determine whether his company had intentionally misled the public by falsely advertising the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features on Tesla vehicles.
Newsweek reached out to Tesla for comment via email.
More bad times ahead for the worlds least favorite billionaire. Couldn’t happen to a nicer piece of crap.
Speaking of guys everyone hates. Poor Ron DeSantis just can’t seem to keep out of trouble. I am reminded of the words of the great Jim Carrey at a time like this:
“STOP BREAKING THE LAW ASSHOLE!”
Could sum up the GOP in general these days couldn’t it?
Anyway, time for more music: Angel Beats! Crow Song
Three federal judges blocked key parts of Donald Trump’s agenda in courtrooms across the country on Thursday, all within roughly 90 minutes of one another.
First, Trump’s executive orders targeting so-called “sanctuary cities” were deemed unconstitutional attempts to “coerce” local officials into enforcing the president’s immigration policies.
Next, the president’s attempts to withhold federal funding from schools that engage with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were labeled “textbook viewpoint discrimination” that likely violate the First Amendment.
And another judge blocked parts of the president’s sweeping executive order targeting election administration and voting rights, including a requirement that voter registration forms ask for proof of citizenship.
For a guy who keeps claiming he’s winning he sure does lose a lot.
A new high-tech implant that safely triggers potent immune responses against hard-to-treat cancers has shown “promise” in fighting some of the deadliest forms of cancer—including metastatic melanoma, pancreatic and colorectal tumors.
The implantable cancer-fighting device, dubbed the “cytokine factory”, was developed by a team of researchers at Rice University’s Biotech Launch Pad in Houston, Texas.
I hope that this is the generation that finally destroys Cancer once and for all.
Democrats have been clamoring for the party to get better organized and competitive in all 50 states, and it seems that the new DNC leadership has listened.
The DNC has announced a massive organizing effort in all 50 states that see an increase in funding:
Today, DNC Chair Ken Martin and ASDC President Jane Kleeb announced a historic “organize everywhere, win anywhere” strategy – a new four-year agreement to deliver more resources into Democratic state and territory parties than ever before – delivering on Chair Martin’s commitment to turbocharging investments in on-the-ground organizing and party building. Under the new State Partnership Program (SPP) agreement, each state party will receive a baseline of $17,500 a month, a $5,000 per month increase over the last agreement, and Republican-controlled states will receive an additional investment of $5,000 a month through the DNC’s Red State Fund, putting their total at $22,500 every month. The combined investments total a monthly transfer of more than $1 million from the DNC to state parties—the committee’s largest investment in Democratic state parties in history.
Additionally, the DNC makes significant investments into the technology that powers the Democratic Party, including maintaining the national voter file with robust augmentations and giving state parties best-in-class tools for accessing and leveraging that data. Each state party receives six-figures worth of data and tooling annually.
These resources will allow Democratic state parties to invest in critical infrastructure and staffing, strengthen their data and tech operations, build on-the-ground organizing programs, and better prepare for upcoming election cycles – not just in the months ahead, but in the years to come.
Its time for us to go on the offensive, to stop playing nice and come out the gate with both fists swinging, and this is a good start to that.
x
The district court's opinion partially & temporarily blocking key parts of Trump's executive order on elections is careful, persuasive, and seems very likely to be upheld on appeal, even before this Supreme Court. The key point: Presidents don't have authority to regulate federal elections:
— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen.bsky.social) 2025-04-24T18:19:28.510Z
I really wish he could have been our VP, Walz seems like such a cool guy.
s we now know from the Crowd Counting Consortium – a joint project by Harvard University and the University of Connecticut – this sense of defeatism was always more felt at elite level rather than on the ground: already in the first weeks of Trump 2.0, there were far more protests than during the same period in the first administration. What seemed to be missing was a massive event serving as a focal point: now the more than 1,000 gatherings, with 100,000 showing up in DC alone, have provided one.
The enthusiasm about large and astonishingly diverse crowds has also revived a tendency, though, to focus on what has become an almost totemic number, a kind of social science Hallmark card for protesters: according to Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, civil, non-violent resistance that mobilizes 3.5% of a population has overwhelming chances of success (whereas violent action is actually more likely to fail or be outright counterproductive).
Three and a half per cent would mean 11 million people on the streets – even the Women’s March, generally seen as highly successful, mobilized “only” four or so million people. The first Earth Day event in 1970 – generally seen as the largest single-day demonstration in US history – brought out “only” 20 million.
As Chenoweth has cautioned, the 3.5% number was not some hard social scientific law, let alone a prescription. Many movements have been successful with fewer participants. Plus, what might best be described as a “historical tendency” was measured at a time when no one was conscious of it. Things might be different if one specifically tries to mobilize in light of a 3.5% goal; conversely, power-holders might now be determined to prevent resisters reaching a particular threshold at all costs.
We have the power, not Trump and not Elon, its time we remind them of that fact.
I think that’s a good end point for now. Time for Pokemon.
And now the cute corner:
And finally the organizing spotlight, with ways to help you resist in the Trump era.
Website for MAGA friendly businesses backfires as its used for boycotts
Want to beat authoritarianism? Look to Latin America
How federal workers can organize to stop DOGE
I think that will do for now, have a good week everyone.
