Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Year 4, Week 18 (268 total reports)
28.05.2025-09.06.2025
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr. Jerry Goebel
In addition to Project 2025’s attempt to spawn violence throughout the US so they can initiate martial law, we examine the Bromance Breakup of President TACO and the man who bought his presidency. Enjoy our doo-wop version of Bromance Breakup.
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
10.06.2025
I Was Once Undocumented. Now I’m a Superintendent Speaking Out Against Trump’s Immigration Raids
Alberto M. Carvalho has an insider’s view of how damaging and evil the tactics that this administration is using are. He is a four-time national Superintendent of the Year award recipient and has served as the Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District since February 2022. He previously served as the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools for nearly 14 years, where his transformational leadership was recognized at the state, national, and international levels. Carvalho sees the effects of this administration’s attacks on the fabric of our country, affecting our country’s most valuable resource, not our manufacturing, not our technology, not our military, but our children. He stands firmly in support of creating schools (and school zones) where children can live free, free of fear from their own government. This administration has intentionally pushed us into a time of national chaos and fear. They have done so purposely; this is a choice they are making. It is in the very blood of the GOP. When you’re unsure about the vote, use fear, and especially use immigrants. Demonize them, make them the enemy, attack them, attack their beliefs, attack their families, and… even, attack their children. Welcome to Trump’s USA.
09.06.2025
What Trump's national emergencies could mean for American democracy
This is what Project 2025 told us would happen—and yet, people voted for their President. President 47 has to force violence to erupt if he is going to reach his ultimate prize: Martial Law. As this article points out, this administration has declared emergencies on multiple fronts across the US and throughout the world. Most of the emergencies are of their making. The GOP always uses immigration as its “Boogey Man” to raise fear across the US and ramp up votes. They use it because it works. It has worked in a number of their election wins. It is their modus operandi. They can’t get votes by reasoning with people; cult followers don’t reason; they do what their cult leader tells them. In this case, the cult leader (President 47) follows another cult (Project 2025), that wrote out a Mein Kampf of directions long before they decided to use this Game Show Host/Carney to carry out their desires. They want the violence, they want to threaten, they want to do all of this so they can take ultimate control. Martial Law is their aim, nothing less. They will create violence to get it. Lives lost, people illegally deported, all of that is collateral, incidental, in their quest for absolute control.
07.06.2025
It Would Be So Funny If Trump Nationalized Elon Musk’s Companies
Kate Aranoff of The New Republic has an idea I think is marvelous in light of the Breaking Boy Band Bromance between President TACO and his purchaser, Elon Musk. What if instead of canceling Musk’s contracts, Trump nationalized them? In Aranoff’s own words, “As The Washington Post reported in February, Musk’s businesses have over the years received $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits. In many ways, Musk owes his fortune to the U.S. government. A truce between Trump and Musk may be imminent, but if he wishes to use it, Trump has a powerful wild card for sticking it to Musk: nationalize his companies.” None other than Steve Bannon floated a variant of this idea on Thursday, suggesting the President TACO use the “Defense Production Act” to seize SpaceX. We reviewed yesterday the potential cost to this Administration’s OBBB if Musk made good on his threats to undermine Congress members who support the bill. What comes next for the dueling dinos in the White House?
06.06.2025
What Musk and Trump Risk Losing in Their High-Stakes Breakup
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/musk-trump-fallout-stakes-51bf1b5c?st=KMnqAV&mod=flipboard
We all knew that eventually, there would not be enough air in the universe for the two of them to share the oxygen. Inevitably, there would be a spat, but like two elephants fighting in your living room, there’s going to be collateral damage—and the citizens of the world stand to be the victims. Brian Schwartz and Micah Maidenber, at the Wall Street Journal, diagnose this “Bromance Breakup.” The damage won’t all be on the US Economy to bear; Musk stands to lose significant business advantages if he doesn’t have President TACO grifting for him in the Republican corner. SpaceX, Tesla, all of these enterprises have come to rely on government subsidies to keep their snorkel above the water line. 47 also stands to lose. His budget made it through the House 215-214. It returns to the House for an additional vote following the Senate vote. As the authors point out, “Musk said the bill would add $2.5 trillion to the federal deficit, calling it a ‘disgusting abomination’ and threatening to fire politicians ‘who betrayed the American people.’” Musk only needs to pull away a handful of Representatives for the bill to fail, and he has threatened to use his personal war chest to attack those members supporting it. The mid-term is fast approaching, and Republicans need lots and lots of money; Musk has it. On his own platform, X, Musk played with the idea of starting his own political party, and 81% of respondents supported the idea. He can’t be President, but owning one was the closest thing; who will he seek to own next?
05.06.2025
PRRI's Robert P. Jones: "Donald Trump sees himself as the king of kings"
Chauncey DeVega is a senior politics writer for Salon. In this article, he warns us that President 47 can do no wrong in the eyes of his followers. In other words, it doesn’t matter what laws he breaks or who he locks up, his cult followers are going to support him. I hope that you are finding alternative strategies to trying to change the opinions of those who have given their souls (and brains) to this lunatic. They are in so deep, they won’t be able to pull themselves out. Our strategy must be to support the resistance, be present to those who stand against this insanity, and, while making your voice heard now, keep an eye on the long run. The midterms are coming, and the economy under this administration is floundering. Don’t look for more Republicans to change sides. Instead, support people to turn out and vote this time—if they want to stop the chaos.
04.06.2025
6 Nobel prize-winning economists wrote a letter opposing Trump's budget bill: 'We have grave concerns'
This letter by six Nobel Prize-Winning economists warns the US of the crippling long-term debt and poverty the OBBB is adding to the US economy. In short, it will cripple the economy for generations to come. It is not that unusual for Republicans to spend the US into massive debt (in fact, that is their modus operandi), what is unusual is the blatant greed, spending, and cuts to middle income and the poor to which this bill has condemned the US. It is obvious that Republicans have no shame, no conscience, and will do whatever President TACO requests of them. This bill is destined to hurt the MAGA followers most of all. Another sign of their blind stupidity to a grifting con artist.
03.06.2025
The No. 1 Rule for Understanding Trump
In this “The Atlantic” article, Derek Thompson reminds us that almost as much is “undone” in this Administration as “is done.” In other words, Thompson deepens our understanding of the current term for President 47 as, “President TACO,” (Trump Always Chickens Out). It’s not just that this President chickens out on his tariff threats; it is also the courts turning back his illegal actions. Deportations, lawsuits, actions against Universities, DOGE cuts; this President has always acted helter-skelter, setting as many brush fires as possible before the courts and common sense catch up with him. This is not new behavior by this disordered man; it’s how he ran his real estate business and his personal life has always been: a craven rush to gain attention and satisfy his immediate urges. However, this time, the chaos was predetermined and directed by both Putin and Project 2025 (is there really any difference in their end game)? Global Dominance… add to that the drug-induced behavior of the megalomaniac, Elon Musk, and you have the recipe for disaster we now call the TACO Administration.
02.06.2025
June 1, 2025
This morning’s Substack commentary by Heather Cox Richardson chronicles the attack on the US population by this administration. It takes a quantifiable look into the Federal Protective Service, the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Elon Musk, and Health and Human Services. After invading a leading US Senator’s home office in New York and handcuffing a top aide, it is hard to imagine the extent to which this government is running amok—and how far it will go to fill its arrest quotas. Who’s next to be arrested? That’s hard to say, but it could be anyone of us.
01.06.2025
Elon Musk’s Reign of Terror Is Only Just Beginning
This is a very important message for those duped into believing the smokescreen put out by this Administration, that the Joseph Mengele of President 47 (Elon Musk), is done destroying lives. He’s not, as this article points out, he just has to leave before he has to actually apply for his position (which requires the same discloser that any Federal Employee—except Trump—must submit to). If you wonder why I am referring to him as the Joseph Mengele of this administration, consider these numbers revealed in this article: “Brown University professor Brooke Nichols has estimated that Musk’s destruction of USAID has already led to 300,000 deaths, the majority of which are children. As The American Prospect’s Ryan Cooper noted in his excellent piece on Musk’s legacy, ‘Roughly 1,500 babies have been born HIV-positive every day since January 21, because Musk cut off their mothers’ medication.’” This is why Elon Musk will forever be remembered throughout the world as the contemporary, “Dr. Death.” Dr. Death and President TACO, what a pair of lunatics we have in the loony stew that has become this administration.
31.05.2025
May 30, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson’s sub-stacks are always worth the read, and in this one, she examines the damaging (and potentially illegal) foray of Elon Musk into the US Government’s innermost workings. No one elected Musk; he bought President 47 and made him his puppet. Now, we learn, between drug-laced tirades and ego-based decision-making, the claims of Musk and DOGE leave no paper trail as to what he actually did (or undid) while 47 gave him access to our most private information. It is apparent that Musk used government contracts to make himself significantly more wealthy, while undermining the poorest in the world—especially through his dismantling of USAID. How much damage he has done, we might not know for years. How much access to information and power he has, we might also not know that for years. If we were to quote Yoda, we might say, “The graft is strong with this one.”
30.05.2025
Karl Rove Says This ‘Muddled Mess’ Trump Policy Will Cost The GOP Next Year’s Midterms
When Rove speaks, even Republicans should listen. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the eventual success of the Republican party, the GOP, and MAGA, than Karl Rove. He was the brains behind Reagan’s election. His marketing techniques have been the lusted-after standard of authoritarians wherever they sought to undermine democracy. So when Rove says that the mid-terms will flounder because of the “muddled mess” of this administration’s economic policy, it is time for even this cultic group of President TACO’s (Trump Always Chickens Out) peeps to take an ear. This is great news for those of us who believe in democracy, but it reminds us how important it will be actually to SHOW UP at the polls in 2026. In both of this President’s terms, he has been elected by those who stayed home even more than by those who voted. It’s not too early to make a plan and make sure your vote will actually count.
29.05.2025
Where is Trump Taking America?
This article by Thomas Carothers, the director of the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, takes an in-depth look into the deceptive chaos of the Project 2025/President 47 regime. We must always remember that the President is merely the front man, the carney, the reality show circus barker that represents the ghoulish face of this organization that would like to remain camouflaged to the public. Carothers points out the four pillars of this organization’s clandestine efforts: there are “four major interrelated endeavors: a sociocultural project, an economic project, a political project, and a foreign-policy project.” Each one overlaps and each one is nefarious, seeking to undermine the so-called “liberal gains” in the government during the last half-century. This is nothing new for conservatives; they keep trying to “Make America Great Again,” by making white people feel less vulnerable, evangelical Christians feel more powerful, and rich people richer. They keep trying to create a “Mudsill economy” with a permanent underclass of released prisoners, uneducated and impoverished employees that will serve as the underpaid servants of these predominantly white, Christian, overlords. The OBBB is the economic framework for their handiwork, featuring not only ways to undermine the lower and middle class, but also to prevent future GOP presidents from checks and balances. This is not the brainchild of President Taco (as he is now often referred to); he doesn’t have the capacity. Donny needs his grifters, and he has a full cabinet behind him.
28.05.2025
American soft power is evaporating in the Age of Trump
Alfred W. McCoy is the Harrington Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In this article, he points to the importance of “Soft Power” in world politics, but lacking in this Administration’s wheelhouse, saying, “In President Donald Trump’s transactional diplomacy, only the hard power of mineral deals, gifted airplanes, or military might matters. And yet, as we learned in the Cold War years, it’s much easier to exercise world leadership with willing followers won over by the form of diplomacy scholars have dubbed ‘soft power.’ As the progenitor of the concept, Harvard Professor Joseph Nye put it: ‘Seduction is always more effective than coercion. And many of our values, such as democracy, human rights, and individual opportunity, are deeply seductive.’ He first coined the term in 1990, just as the Cold War was ending, writing that ‘when one country gets other countries to want what it wants.’” Of course, all of this requires two things which this President deeply lacks: intelligence and the will/ability to negotiate. The symbols that would best exemplify this administration’s negotiating abilities would (oddly enough) be a hammer and a sickle. He is trying to beat his way to the world that he sees, but is willing to change that version of reality for the highest bidder. We can and must resist. When? Anytime is the right time.
