Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Year 4, Week 16 (266 total reports)
21.05.20245-27.05.2025
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr. Jerry Goebel
We look this week at how the President’s words have become increasingly unattached to reality and embedded in conspiracy theories.
Visual Stories!
When is the best time to stand up to hatred and authoritarianism? Anytime is the right time. This Southern Gospel song is designed to inspire you to continue your efforts (or start them) to say, “Hands Off,” to this President and his puppet-masters.
Top Links of the Week
27.05.2025
May 26, 2025
This sub-stack by Heather Cox Richardson is well worth the read, in fact, I try to read all of her columns when they are released. Clicking on the article, you can find a place to subscribe, or just do an Internet search for her name. I forced myself to read the texts of speeches he gave over the weekend, simply because I think it’s important to know how unbalanced and incompetent President 47 really is. I knew this before, of course, but every time he opens his mouth is a new, revelatory moment into how far the GOP has gone to reduce themselves to become his henchmen and women. This President is a shame to the US, he would be a laughingstock—if he wasn’t so dangerous. And, we must remember, it isn’t just 47, but the sycophants that surround him. We need to rid the US, not just of this President, but all those lackeys that support him, excuse him, and assist in his predefined actions.
26.05.2025
Is Trump the America We Want Young People Across the World to See?
This sub-stack by Jim Acosta takes us inside the fiasco that was supposed to be a congratulation speech to West Point graduates. Instead, the demented one (as Acosta reviews) “paid homage, as only Trump can, to a late real estate developer friend, William Levitt whose personal life apparently included a yacht and “trophy wife.” How might this inspire this nation’s next generation of military leaders? You be the judge.” Indeed, let’s be the judge. A whole generation that is the age of this graduate has no personal experience of life before the Trump Era. What a sad commentary on history!
24.05.2025
Can Trump suspend habeas corpus?
This review, posted on NPR by Conner Donevan, Courtney Dorning, and Alisa Chang, begins with a sound bite from Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, when she was “schooled” at a Senate hearing this week. The question came from Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, that query (which should be simple for anyone having passed an elementary school civics class to answer), was, “What is habeas corpus?” Noem declared it was the “constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.” UC Berkeley law professor Amanda Tyler explains the true definition, “Well, literally, habeas corpus is to undergo and receive the body. And what does that mean? It means that in Anglo-American legal tradition, courts have the right and, indeed, the obligation when asked to look into the legal justification for someone being arrested and detained by the government. And so for centuries, that is the role that courts have played. They have worked to ensure that the executive, whether it's the King of England or the president of the United States, is not detaining somebody illegally.” Chang asks, “whether the president of the United States can unilaterally suspend habeas corpus?” To which Tyler responds, “The president does not have the power to suspend habeas ahead of Congress.” Like so many of President 47’s actions, they are blatantly illegal, but it is his M.O. is to break the law—because there’s been no consequence for doing so—then wait for the courts (and Congress) to remain inactive by not repealing or punishing his behavior. Will this be just another example of the American people rolling over and forgetting the illegalities (and immorality) of this President—who already faces a host of inconsequential legal actions? Only by taking to the streets, demanding a response from your Congress people and voting the GOP out in 2026, can this madman be stopped. What will you do this week, month, or year, to prevent the US from becoming even more of an autocracy beholden to Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk?
23.05.2025
Department Of Government Chaos, Revenge, And Patronage – OpEd
John Feffer is an author and columnist and the director of Foreign Policy In Focus. In this article, he points out how painful it is returning to the United States after trips to Europe and Asia. “The United States ranks pretty low in quality of life compared to its European and Asian competitors. In the U.S. News and World Report’s Quality of Life index, the United States is a middling 22 out of 89 countries, below Belgium, Japan, and Ireland. It’s tied for seventeenth place in the latest UN Human Development Report, below Hong Kong, Singapore, and Canada. That’s pretty lousy marks for the largest economy in the world.” Feffer goes on to say, “The recently rechristened (by me) Department of Government Chaos, Revenge, and Patronage (DOGCRAP) is making sure that the United States falls even further in the global rankings of quality of life.” It is important to read and understand Feffer’s “The Four Rs of National Self-Destruction,” if we are going to understand the pending damage of this Administration and the “think-tank” (wow, that’s an oxymoron), that backs it (Project 2025). This author’s insights are well worth the read, and I can’t sum them up well enough in a short column. Do yourself a favor and dig into this article. Definitely worth your time.
22.05.2025
Yes, Trump’s Budget Bill Is Really That Bad, That Cruel, and That Billionaire Friendly
It doesn’t take a deep dive into the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) to understand why these Republican hooligans wanted to pass the bill and save the arguments for the middle of the night. Cuts to Medicare, sales of public lands, and yes… the Big, Stupid Wall. Perhaps you’ve seen some of the arguments in Congress about tax breaks for tanning beds, while cutting the funds for hospital beds (who do we know that needs a little midnight tanning)? Charles P. Pierce of Esquire does a great job with this summary, revealing just how irresponsible and greedy this bill is.
21.05.2025
The Unlearning of America
https://www.theindex.media/the-unlearning-of-america/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=other
Nothing says “Brainwashed Barbie,” like a panel hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. As the writer, Joan Westenberg, points out, Noem was asked by Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, to define habeas corpus. Her answer: “It is a constitutional power the president has to deport people.” In short, the Secretary of Homeland Security for the United States of America has no concept of what habeas corpus means and is either reciting her own made-up answer or one given to her by the current administration. One doesn’t need more than a plastic spork to dig down and find that this cabinet is nothing but a hand-picked crop of fraudulent sycophants. This is the result of electing 47 to the White House. They are as morally bankrupt and intellectually hollow as their cultic leader. His cabinet was picked, not for their knowledge or capability, but for their propensity for revenge-politics. If we want that to change, we need to show up in every city possible to join with Hands Off Rallies and make our voices heard in any manner you are able. Question those who supported this abomination and let them work their way into a corner of their own making.
