Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Year 4, Week 36 (286 total reports)
26.11.2025-02.12.2025
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr. Jerry Goebel
We are in a global theater, and politicians (from every side) see the best strategy to attract attention (not lead) is to yell, “Fire!”
https://www.communitiesoftrust-jerrygoebel.com/youthadvocacy
Visual Stories!
Trumpism continues to sink to lower depths. This week, the administration broke the Geneva Convention and possibly committed murder when Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered a double-tap on survivors of a Venezuelan boat attack. He told the commander, “No survivors,” so when the bombing team circled around and found two survivors floating in the wreckage, the commander ordered them killed as well. This Motown-inspired song to encourage you to rise above their tactics. Rise Above
Top Links of the Week
02.12.2025
What History’s Fallen Societies Have in Common
Linda Kinstler, a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, reviews a book titled “Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse” by Luke Kemp. Kemp offers a historical perspective on the collapse of civilizations spanning over 5,000 years. He identifies common factors that have led to apocalypticism, including extreme inequality, pandemics, rapid technological advancement, and draws parallels between these past civilizational collapses and the current global conditions. Kemp asserts that civilizations were both constructed and destroyed by “Goliaths,” which are collections of hierarchies where certain individuals dominate others to control resources and labor. The primary objective of Kemp’s work is to draw parallels between these past civilizational collapses and the current global situation. He cautions us that our best chances lie in taking David-like actions against the Goliaths of our time, specifically citing figures like Bezos and Musk as examples. Ultimately, this book urges us to take action to combat oppression and inequality.
01.12.2025
Yelling “Fire” in the American Theater
This article is very insightful comparing today’s politics to a person yelling “Fire” in a movie theater. It discusses how a healthy democracy needs honest discourse in order to function and that the honest discourse in our democracy has, instead, given way to creating crises in order to get the most media hits. It also discusses how our society, with its immediate access to the Internet, has lost the ability (or inclination) to truth-check the intentional crises created by politicians and the news media (specifically citing Fox for their news style, but saying other media outlets are now employing the same methods). This is not a new issue, but the size and intentionality of the problem is alarming. Finland now offers courses to its high school students on identifying false media claims, and it is probably time we do the same. Many politicians believe this to be an acceptable strategy (intentional deception) without which they cannot win. It is imperative that we question the sources and intent of the media we see and share. Where did it come from? Who benefits from the story? Is it verified in other reputable sources?
28.11.2025
There’s No Doubt About It: The Great MAGA Crack-Up Has Begun
This article is a good review of the last week in the bumbling, broken, MAGA presidency of Predator in Chief, Donald Trump. It does a good job of going, person by person, through his cabinet and looking at the terrible week they had as their incompetencies come home to roost. It’s a litany of fools examining how this administration is crumbling, or as the author, Michael Tomasky, puts it, “cracking up.” The last paragraph is worth it all: “People may not hate incompetence. They may not hate corruption. And they may not hate extremism. But all three at once? It’s getting to be too much for people, and it’s a great way to close out the year.“ Yet, let’s still remind ourselves that the whacko statements and actions of this administration have a deeper goal, to distract us from the Epstein files and their current scrubbing by the Justice (?) Department.
27.11.2025
Trump’s FBI Spent Nearly $1 Million on Redacting Epstein Files
Of course, we never expected to gain access to the full Epstein files, just like we never expected the House to approve spending on the Affordable Care Act once some (5) Democratic Representatives caved on the government shutdown. Trump’s FBI has assigned over a thousand agents to the “Special Redaction Project,” in which their sole assignment is to scrub the files. We don’t know… and will probably never know (unless someone comes forward) what they are being scrubbed for, but we can certainly assume. Perhaps someday—after this administration is in our rearview mirror, the Predator in Chief is gone, and his lead protectors are facing trial (and hopefully jail sentences)—perhaps then we will find out how deep the dirt goes and what a disgusting human being this administration and the Republicans have been protecting.
26.11.2025
‘An Example MUST BE SET’
This attempt by Donald Trump not only reveals, again, how mentally unstable the Chief Predator is, but also how far his fawning cabinet members will go to feed his ego and revenge fantasies. Mark Kelly is a war hero; he is an astronaut, a decorated war veteran who has multiple medals awarded for valorous behavior under fire. In short, he is everything that Donald Trump is not. Trump is a convicted felon, a draft dodger, and a child predator. As with the attempts to bring James Comey and Letitia James, these actions lend credence to the pattern of this administration: use the justice department to create fear among those who have stood against the authoritarian nature of Donald Trump. Even when these cases are thrown out of court, those targeted by Trump face personal violence against themselves and their families. These are mafia scare tactics, plain and simple. This violent and imbecilic regime must be removed, and Trump, plus all his supporters, must face the courts they have tried to usurp. Truly, “An Example MUST BE SET,” but that example is impeaching Trump and his administration for the blatant misuse of power. We must also not forget that all of this is a sideshow for the Trump Administration to scrub the Epstein Files. What is in them that is so bad that Trump is pouring his dying energy into burying them?
