Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Year 4, Week 52 (302 total reports)
18.03.2026-31.03.2026
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr. Jerry Goebel
The power of the people was on display this week with “No Kings” protests taking shape in small and big towns throughout the United States, and indeed, the world.
Visual Stories!
My heart told me this week that many of us needed a hopeful song that looked forward to the end of this madness. We’re seeing cracks in the MAGA facade, and we need to put a chisel in those cracks and drive it deeper. This happy-go-lucky tune channels the hit song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” I hope you enjoy it and find it both uplifting and empowering. “What a Joy,” https://youtu.be/KSCZPNJMAGk
Top Links of the Week
31.03.2026
Trump’s Executive Order Diverting Border Security Funds to TSA Is a Blatantly Criminal Act
Do I like airport lines backed up for literally blocks? Of course not. Do I like that TSA is not being paid? Of course not. But like Andy Craig, this journalist from The Unpopulist, I also don’t like this president breaking the law to use discretionary funds at his whim and fancy. Craig compares T.R.U.M.P. to King Charles, I, who attempted to bypass the Parliament from 1629 to 1640, resulting in the “Glorious Revolution,” of 1688; a civil war, and the King’s execution. Despite Congress giving this president a 10-billion dollar slush fund, it is not his to do with as he will. It is allocated by Congress and overseen by Congress. Though his Republican lackeys have consistently let this president do whatever he wants, his choice to personally determine what to do with this unheard-of, enormous sum of money (from the One, Big, Beautiful Bill) crosses a constitutional line. The Constitution was designed to give Congress, not the president, spending and allocation powers. As Craig points out, this is not a “flaw” in the system, it is the bedrock of the system. It is what separates an autocrat from a democratic president. Pleased as I would be to see TSA employees paid and lines flowing at the normal snail’s pace, I am not in favor of an autocratic government. Similarly to posting ICE in airports (a ploy that even Steve Bannon admits is designed to make us feel more comfortable with their public presence ahead of the mid-term elections), this is a sign of a deeper and more sinister plot to undermine our Democratic government.
30.03.2026
Photos From the Third Nationwide ‘No Kings’ Protest
The biggest news this weekend is the people (over 8 million) who showed up in large and small towns around the globe to put U.S. politicians on the alert. No more wars, no more distractions, no more T.R.U.M.P., and no more kings. Atlantic captures photos from around the U.S. (small towns and large) of people who will not be intimidated—or distracted—by this administration. The countdown to invoking the 25th Amendment has begun!
27.03.2026
March 26, 2026
Heather Cox Richardson arguably offers the best-researched political commentary available today. In this article, she examines how the United States has gone rogue and become untrustworthy as a global partner. She examines the graft of this White House under this president, not just by his family but among insiders in the cabinet and among Republican representatives. T.R.U.M.P. has worked to align himself with global dictators and authoritarians, including supporting Putin at a moment when he is openly offering military information to Iran in a war this president started. In my own opinion, one cannot blame just this president without pointing an admonishing finger at the 35% of voters who put him into office and those who stayed home and let others vote for him in their stead. What other countries have learned from this is that even if the U.S. swings back to a saner leadership after this election, there is no telling what it will do when it swings back again in following elections. Other countries are forming partnerships that don’t include such a feckless population so easily swayed almost daily by conspiracy theories.
26.03.2026
What we know and don't know about Iran war negotiations
It seems awkward to be asking whom to trust: the demented would-be king in the White House or the fanatical religious fundamentalist Ayatollah in Iran. But here we are, an extremely awkward time when lying is part and parcel of a politician’s tool kit. It almost boils down to, “Whose lie seems less untrue?” It is particularly difficult with this president and his administration, who seem to prefer lying to truth-telling. The reality they have to sell—especially in regard to this war—is particularly undigestible. But… so is the reality about the economy, so is the reality about climate change, so is the reality about graft and traitorous behavior, and… of course, so is the reality about the Epstein files.
25.03.2026
March 24, 2026
Heather Cox Richardson quotes economist Paul Krugman as saying, “People close to Trump are trading based on national secrets.” These are not just the acts of profiteers; these are the acts of traitors. Someone, in the inner circles of this White House, tipped off investors about actions that were going to take place on a battlefield, and those people—including representatives of Congress—used that information to invest over a half billion dollars. This should not surprise us from an administration that revealed military secrets on public social media to journalists (without consequence). Keep this information on your files so we can remind lawmakers when (if) we can vote again.
24.03.2026
America's wealth gap is growing, and Trump's policies are making it bigger
There is an economic term called Mudsilling. It refers to a powerful upper class that intentionally creates a permanent underclass to serve their economic needs, and it comes from a construction term whereby a mudsill is the lowest threshold that supports the foundation for a building. Nothing could describe the Project 2025 economy better. In my article review yesterday, we examined who is profiting off the aggressions of this administration. The presidency, Congress, and our Supreme Court have demonstrated they are doing all they can to rob the poor and give money to their ultra-wealthy benefactors. Relying on the midterms is not enough. Our current president has already indicated that he does not want voting to occur, and the recent action of sending his private shock troops (ICE) to airports is but one indication that he will also take over polling places. We need to be more assertive if we want to save our democracy for our children. We need to show our elected officials that we will not tolerate a mudsill economy.
23.03.2026
Who Is Profiting from the War in Iran - and What We Can Do About It
This brief article by the editors at Daily Kos is important if you want to know 1) why war is so profitable, 2) who profits from it, and 3) what you can do to resist this cycle of blatant racketeering. Among those who are profiting the most from this war in Iran is the president himself, his family, Netanyahu, Putin, China, petroleum companies, and even Iran itself! The editors go on to reflect upon a piece by James Carville about how we can respond and what Democrats can do to target such exploitation in the future.
20.03.2026
Trump Had No Plan B for Iran
If Tom Nichols of The Atlantic wrote it or has it in his podcast, I want to understand the commentary. This article takes a deep dive into the behind-the-scene thinking (or lack thereof) of this administration’s decision to join Netanyahu in bombing Iran. Despite being told by military and intelligence experts who are familiar with the region, T.R.U.M.P. ordered this invasion thinking it would be a one-bomb-run ordeal and the regime would collapse. So confident were they of their own “brilliance” that there was no Plan B. As Mr. Nichols puts it, “Trump’s Plan A was to hit Iran hard, watch the theocrats flee, and then hand power to a government of his own choosing. Should such things not come to pass, Plan B was … well, apparently, there was no Plan B.” Nichols goes on to squarely lay the blame for this invasion on those responsible. Here are his words: “Some observers have criticized American planners for failing to anticipate such a move. This is unfair: The intelligence community and the U.S. military have analyzed, planned, and exercised for this scenario for decades. The failure came not from the national-security community, but from the civilians, and specifically the commander in chief, who evidently refused to heed warnings from his senior military advisers that the Iranians would do exactly what anyone paying attention suspected they would do.” Once again, Nichols points out, “T.R.U.M.P.’s arrogance,” is putting the United States—and the world—at extreme risk. This presidency is the worst presidency since, well, since his last presidency. Let’s just hope the globe can recover from what the people of the United States (voters and stay-at-homers alike) have unleashed.
19.03.2026
The Iran War’s Next Threat Is to Food and Water
The Atlantic’s Vivian Salama looks behind the scenes and into the near future to analyze the global implications of T.R.U.M.P.’s grandiose encroachment into Iran. Salama does a deep dive into the story behind and beyond simply the effect of this “invasion” on food and water in the region, not just gas and oil for the United States. According the this administration, they didn’t think that their invasion would cause this many problems, which begs to remind us how imbecilic this President can be and how intentionally blind he has become cocooned by his sycophantic followers. Let us not also become victims of myopic vision looking at only how this incursion affects us nationally or locally. It’s not just about gas and oil prices, it is about access to food and water, which is becoming a far greater menace to the world.
18.03.2026
Nobody Wants To Clean Up Trump's Mess In The Strait Of Hormuz
Ryan Grenoble and Marita Vlachou of HuffPost aptly name this post-Iran, non-war invasion as a “no-alition of the willing.” Turns out this administration is learning you can’t invade a country with only Israel’s support, insult all of your allies, then expect them—or the population of the United States—to be supportive. And it drives this administration more insane (if that’s possible). Adam Serwer of The Atlantic posts a similar headline and discusses T.R.U.M.P.’s unreadiness for the chaos he has caused. He quotes the president as saying, “On Monday, Trump told reporters that Iran wasn’t ‘supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East.’ He said, ‘They hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait,’ and “nobody expected that. We were shocked.’” This is just another illustration of how obtuse this administration is and how it will not listen to anyone who doesn’t praise, “The Dear Leader.” The world will pay the price for this incompetence. Rising oil prices affect everyone and nearly everything from shipping to fertilizer. In the United States, this is further complicated by all the internal battles this administration has started from the nonpayment of TSA employees to ICE running rampant on city streets. It almost seems trite to say (and too ubiquitous) elect a clown, expect a circus. What can we do? Keep the focus on the Epstein files, keep demanding their release. All of this is a distraction from sending this president where he belongs, not in the White House, but in an orange suit.
