Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Year 4, Week 12 (262 total reports)
23.04.20245-02.05.2025
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr. Jerry Goebel
The focus this week is on the gaps being revealed in the current administration and the excuses President 47 (and his sycophants) are using to explain their growing failures.
Visual Stories!
In order for authoritarians to rule, they first need to cause panic and fear among voters. This song, Rule Them, Scare Them, focuses on how this administration is using fear to force martial law and take powers that do not belong to them.
Top Links of the Week
02.05.2025
A Gutted Education Department’s New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students
It is not the goal of this administration to educate young people; it is their goal to indoctrinate them. Draconian cuts are being made to undermine the future of our children’s ability to thrive in a global economy (but, of course, this administration is also trying to undermine that economic order as well). Among those cuts are teaching substantive history or sex education classes, mental health support, anything that doesn’t support the radical right’s conservative so-called “Christian” agenda. Nothing would please Project 2025 more than a generation that doesn’t question its authoritarian dictums or explore the racism in the country’s past—which is now more likely to crop up in this administration’s future. Education Secretary Linda McMahon—who has no experience in education—and has publicly called AI, A1—is President 47’s choice to dismantle the education department. Like other cabinet members, she is doing his bidding, and the bidding of the greater source behind 47’s doctrines, Project 2025. Are you prepared to graduate the dumbest, meanest, most amenable generation since the Hitler Youth Corp? That’s the goal here.
01.05.2025
April 30, 2025
This commentary is filled with well-researched facts—unlike the President’s interviews. One of the things it reveals is how ludicrous (totally bonker bananas) this administration’s explanations for its obvious failures are: in economic policy, in immigration policy, in foreign policy, but also how crazy his minions have become in defending him. The GOP has even been redefining the meaning of the word “Day” to keep Congress from acting on its responsibility to set tariffs—a responsibility defined by the Constitution. President 47 is using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to strip Congress of its role as the body that sets tariffs. There is a time limit to the Presidential use of the IEEPA, which is why the GOP must redefine what the word “Day” means. According to President 47, the downturns we are seeing in the US economy, and even the downturns we are expected to see in the next quarter, are the sole fault of Joe Biden and what 47 calls “The Biden Overhang.” Washington Post legal and economic columnist Natasha Sarin called this administration’s justifications “totally bonker bananas.” The sad part is, this is going to get worse before it gets better. The economy will continue to tank as 47’s tariffs begin to take effect and goods stop flowing to the US market, the lies will continue to increase, and the GOP will expand its smokescreen. This President is preparing us for the “Christmas Slump” by saying, “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.” Leave it to this felon, this bankruptcy king, to tell us that we should lower children’s expectations for Christmas this year—as if only they will experience the effects of his utter economic absurdity. And leave it to the GOP Congress to defend his lunacy—and even more—as hypocrites like Lindsay Graham try to suggest that this President should be the next Pope!
30.04.2025
Russia Is in Demographic Free Fall. Putin Isn’t Helping.
Read in The Atlantic: https://apple.news/AxyQzeaZySq2icQDnS9F8vw
If you wonder about the validity of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handsmaid’s Tale,” you need to read this article. Russia is facing a birth rate crisis and the way that Putin is addressing it would be comical, if it weren’t so devious and deranged. And—as if that part is not frightening enough—we need to understand that authoritarians and conservatives among the lunatic right wing will use this (are using this) as a model for their policies. In the article’s summary, the author, Anna Nemtsova, points to the real reason, Russian women aren’t having children; Putin has, “created a society that Russians no longer want to bring children into.”
29.04.2025
Trump’s Poll Numbers Have Plummeted and He’s Not Taking It Well at All
Charles P. Pierce, whose musings on this presidency are never without a sardonic smile, tells us that President 47’s poll ratings, after 100 days, are the worst of any president (including himself—the previous low). Of course, he is not going to accept these ratings. In customary fashion, he says the pollsters are “out to get him, liars, and should be prosecuted for election fraud.” These ratings, along with the loss of his pick in Canada, are beginning to mark this imbecile as the true pariah that he is. We need to keep it up, folks. Keep showing up to stand against this monarchy and his authoritarian dictatorship. It’s our only hope to save democracy for our children.
28.04.2025
‘I Run the Country and the World’
This is an important article chronicling the process of getting a face-to-face interview with a madman, as well as looking at what he’s done in his first 100 days. For me, the article points out how incredibly stupid the US electorate has been in electing this egomaniacal narcissist to office a second time, despite dire warnings that what he wanted (and what he is doing) is “blowing it all up—gleefully.” Yes, 47 even says he is “having fun doing it.” Over and over again, 47 tells the reporters what he has done and then asks, “Were you shocked by that?” As if that is the primary answer he is seeking from people, “Are you shocked?” If we’re not, we should be. Tearing down Global Democracy and leaving chaos in its wake is the priority of this administration—and he’s having fun doing it. If we think it can’t get worse, we’re fooling ourselves. For some reason, this president thinks he is worshipped—no doubt he is by the people with whom he’s surrounded himself. It is up to us to take to the streets and show him we do not support this behavior. We are not just shocked, we are appalled. The next series of national rallies occurs on May 1st (May Day). Please find your nearest rally and make your voice heard. “Hands Off!”
27.04.2025
One Hundred Days of Ineptitude
This excellent article by David Remnick, editor at the New Yorker since 1998 and writer since 1992, takes a refresher look at the travesties of this administration’s first One Hundred Days. We are seeing the truths of Adam Serwer’s book, “Cruelty is the Point,” come to life, especially over the weekend where we witnessed three children (one as young as two and one with brain cancer) deported with no access to attorneys and no due process. This administration is beyond cruel, it is inhumane—and revels in its inhumanity as if that were a badge of honor. In a flash of brilliance, this article ends with a quote from one of my favorite American leaders, quoting Remnick, “‘The limits of tyrants,’ Frederick Douglass said, ‘are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.’ The President will persist in his assault until he feels the resistance of a people who will tolerate it no longer.”
26.04.2025
Judge charged with obstructing immigration agents, escalating Trump’s fight with judiciary
This administration wants to flaunt its authoritarian control and, like a two-year-old, push its boundaries until they are at the breaking point. Folks, only you and I can show these fascists that that point has been reached. Ignoring the Supreme Court, and now, using the FBI to arrest a judge in Wisconsin, are examples of how far this reactionary government-by-chaos is willing to go. Polls are showing that President 47 has the worst approval rating of any president (except for himself during his first term), but polls mean nothing to this administration. Only when those around him begin to see how politically costly it is to support this conservative regime will they begin to act differently. It’s time to take to the streets (if you have not) in order to literally save democracy. We need the overwhelming support of those who don’t want their children to be raised in a dictatorial nation.
25.04.2025
Keeping Score: Bill Disenfranchising Women Voters Passes U.S. House, Heads to Senate; Barbara Lee Becomes Mayor of Oakland; Republicans Threaten SNAP and Medicaid
If this administration confuses you, you’re not alone. It is evident that they are even confusing themselves. The Republicans call themselves “Pronatalists,” wanting families to have more babies. Meanwhile, their idol, Elon Musk, has 14. Between President 47 and Musk, they have 17 children by six women. Yet, while pushing this misogynist agenda, they also are making it increasingly difficult for women to vote, get medical care, receive support payments, and feed their children. The most evident semblance of a policy is that they want women to have more babies, but they don’t want to support them when they do. They also don’t want women to vote in elections. This is the new GOP feminism.
24.04.2025
Transcript: Trump Is a Weak and Failing President. Treat Him that Way.
President 47 is obsessed with adulation—and he’s not getting it. In fact, his poll numbers have tanked. President 47 has the worst 100-day approval rating of any president in history (the previous worst president was himself as President 45). So what does he do? What does he have his spokespeople do? Make up adulation, spin the facts like they’re a roulette wheel, and try to stay ahead of the news cycle, only—with multiple fronts collapsing (tariffs, defense, deportations, health)—it is getting increasingly hard to spin the wheel fast enough—even for this professional carny. The great negotiator is increasingly looking like a bumbling agitator, and this interview with Simon Rosenberg analyzes the broad array of failures this administration is encountering. But there’s no time to be smug or enjoy the implosion; 47 is still doing a lot of damage through executive actions and orders. Sure, they can be walked back judicially when this administration is finally gone; but there is substantial damage that can be done between then and now. Keep up the pressure, keep showing up, keep using your purchasing power. Keep informed. An advisor of 47’s administration stated today that opposing deportation is an act of terrorism. This, of course, is part of the branding this administration has to do in order to declare martial law. Keep it up, folks; let’s make sure that this brand of authoritarian conservatism can never find a foothold in the US again.
23.04.2025
The Trump Administration’s War on Children
Republicans love babies—before they’re born—after that, they make it very difficult for children to live sustainable lives. Children are a commodity to this administration, and like any bad parent, they can’t wait to wash their hands of their commitments to support them. This administration wants to diminish child support payments, undermine education, eradicate school lunch programs, indeed, any food programs that might support young children. This article documents the numerous ways this administration has literally attacked programs supporting the welfare of children—especially impoverished children. It is imperative, for the future of our young ones, that this conservative viewpoint be extinguished once and for all. No more attacks on children, no more escorting our future into ignorance and poverty. The duplicity of the GOP must be called out and canceled.
