Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Year 4, Week 39 (289 total reports)
17.12.2025-23.12.2025
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr. Jerry Goebel
Rep. Representative Robert Massie summed it up saying, “I can’t believe how badly they botched this.” Trump sycophants picked this week what mountain they would die on, and it is the Epstein Files. They could have been transparent, but the temptation to lie about their Dementee-in-Chief’s role was too tempting.
Visual Stories!
Trumpism takes all of the air out of the room and not just in the U.S. He is a global menace. If, at times, you feel overwhelmed by what he’s doing lately, remember that is their goal: to leave you feeling overwhelmed and helpless. This country-style tune is for you. Do what you can, no matter how small. Keep resisting, be David to your own Goliath.
Top Links of the Week
23.12.2025
Trump tests the First Amendment: A timeline
https://www.cnn.com/politics/free-speech-trump-timeline-vis?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_flipboard
Kaanita Eyers and Matt Stiles of CNN offer a timeline of how Trump and Trumpism have sought to undermine First Amendment values. As the authors remind us, this important amendment protects the freedom of religion, speech, and press; the right to peaceful assembly; and the right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.” It also bars the government from enacting laws that prevent the “free exercise” of these rights. It has been a primary goal of Trumpism to intimidate those who have spoken against this administration, and these two journalists give us a timeline of the actions the Trumpists have taken to try to generate fear in their most vocal critics. Eyers and Stiles quote Burt Neuborne, a civil liberties professor at New York University Law School. “The Trump administration is ‘trying to frighten Americans out of exercising their First Amendment rights by denying them benefits if they dare to do something that Trump doesn’t like.’ Neuborne warned that the ‘net result’ would be ‘a society that is not exercising their First Amendment rights. The First Amendment rights are there, but it’s too costly to exercise them.’” I have to admit, I took a recent trip to the U.S., and—even with the little work that I do—I was concerned that my work would flag me at the border. We need to keep up the resistance and keep up the pressure. We can’t allow these miscreants to stifle our speech.
22.12.2025
They’re Delusional If They Think This Is Going to Go Away’
It seems apparent that the hard-core MAGA sycophants have picked the hill they are going to die on. Late Friday night, the Justice Department, according to The Atlantic journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick, sent an email to Epstein survivors that Pam Bondi would try to speak with survivors to “express support for them.” In typical White House style, these days, she canceled the meeting saying Bondi,“was at Walter Reed today for a prescheduled routine appointment,” and emphasized that “no call was missed” because “that meeting was never scheduled.” This administration is having a difficult time keeping up with its own lies, but not a difficult time continuing to harm Epstein Survivors or the American public that demands to see those files without redactions. The mockery of a release that the White House did present to the public was radically redacted, including full pages that were blacked out and photos of anyone that were related to Trump (including Trump) or his buddies. If we are to believe what was released, only Bill Clinton and a few celebrities are indicted in these files. Fitzpatrick tells us that Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said that the day’s release, “‘grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law’ that Trump signed last month. When I talked with him late this evening, he told me, with reference to the Justice Department, ‘I can’t believe how badly they botched this.’” It appears that Donald Trump’s predatory protectors are never going to give up the real files without more court battles and delays. Is this what we want in a President, someone willing to continually lie and seek revenge rather than be honest and transparent—even when ordered by the court? It is far past time for a complete revealing of these files, regardless of what they reveal. What is Trump so afraid of that he is willing to start a war and kill people to distract us from these files? As of Sunday morning news shows, Rep. Massie has said that they were considering an inherent contempt action against Pam Bondi. This rarely used action would fine Bondi for every day she doesn’t release the complete Epstein files. It seems apparent that this is the only way that the victims of these crimes, as well as the American people, will get anywhere near the truth.
19.12.2025
This Is What Presidential Panic Looks Like
Donald Trump delivered a fear-drenched rant live from the White House.
Read in The Atlantic: https://apple.news/APCi8_Q_6T8-Zvo8flGmFKA
According to Tom Nichols of The Atlantic, Trump usurped our living rooms last night to tell us what “piggies” we are and how we need to “shut up.” It was a night of ugly panic as Trump told us that the economy is great and that countries all over the world adore him and the United States. Obviously, the “Nodfather” only hears from his cultic cabinet sycophants and has no reliable access to outside opinion. Here’s how Nichols put it: “Americans saw a president drenched in pure panic as he tried to bully an entire nation into admitting that he’s doing a great job. For 20 minutes, he vented his hurt feelings without a molecule of empathy or awareness.” Nichols continues by saying, “The president has been unraveling for weeks, and his speech tonight, like Trump himself, was unworthy of America and its people.” It is enjoyable to watch this boisterous bully fall apart in real time. An increasing number of people are finding him increasingly tiring. It just isn’t happening fast enough, and he is still causing an horrendous amount of global and national damage. It’s time, Donald, to go away.
18.12.2025
Americans Are Turning Hard Against Trumpism
According to Matt Johnson of The Bulwark, the support for Trump and Trumpism is rapidly disintegrating. They are tiring of Trumponomics or, as Johnson says, “Create a problem, announce a partial fix that leaves everyone worse off than where they started, and declare victory.” People are also tiring of Trump’s performative cruelty—even former MAGA diehards like Marjorie Taylor-Greene (who admonished him publicly for his social media response to the death of the beloved Rob Reiner and his wife). In nearly all areas that measure a president’s popularity, Trump is flailing. He just doesn’t see it because no one in his circle tells him the truth. This is a well-researched piece by Johnson, and I would encourage you to read it—especially if you, like me, would be gleeful to see the end of this regime.
17.12.2025
The Longest Suicide Note in American History
Anne Applebaum, a staff writer for The Atlantic, presents a well-researched article analyzing the disastrous state of the new Trump administration’s defense policy. As the title suggests, she believes it’s a suicide note for America’s future. Essentially, Trump’s policy will inflict damage on the United States that external enemies couldn’t do over the last two centuries. In essence, this is a traitorous policy change destroying the U.S. from the inside out. Applebaum argues that it practically grants Russia free rein in Europe and China free rein in Asia (with the exception of a takeover of Taiwan). The article points out that this is essentially an internal memo for far-right conservatives, built on conspiracy theories, lacking research, and designed to protect the interests of white billionaire technocrats. She points out that, “like the Bible,” this policy seems to have been written by a committee as the style of writing varies throughout. It looks more like the ultra-right conservative groups that surround Trump rather than the work of the brain-addled president himself. Applebaum warns that, if implemented, this policy will lead to the U.S.’s downfall on the global stage. Perhaps the only way to reverse this insanity is through a solid mid-term defeat, the impeachment of Donald Trump and his cabinet, and a rewrite of a new National Defense Policy. We have to turn out the vote, folks. And we need to keep up the resistance.
