Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy 2024 05.11.24
Year 3, Week 39 (229 total reports)
29.11.2024-05.11.2024
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Turn off your social media tonight, the vote won’t be counted and concluded this evening. Expect the Orange Clown of Mar-A-Lago to declare victory early and plenty of fake news and social media posts to follow.
Song of the Week
There was a good thoughtful this week (that I’ll include) that said, “It depressed the hell out of me, that people I grew up with or I am related to have turned into people that I wouldn’t tell where Anne Frank was hiding.” This farcical song captures the painful meaning of that phrase.
Top Links of the Week
05.11.2024
Imagine What One Year Of A Kamala Harris Presidency Could Be
Please VOTE today. This hope-filled article imagines what the US will look like on its Quarter Millennial if we elect Kamala Harris for President this week. It’s just the type of hope needed to steel ourselves for tonight. PBS advises, “turn off your social media” while watching tonight. Expect the Orange Clown of Mar-A-Lago to declare victory early and a hailstorm of fake news and posts to follow. Chances are the true results of the Presidential election will not be resolved tonight, Biden’s win wasn’t official until the Saturday after the booths had closed. But like, then, Trump will declare himself the winner and everything after that, he will call fake. Then he will use the courts to press his false claims (again)...
04.11.2024
'Traitors within': How one group tried to radicalize the American right in the '60s
The term “enemies from within” is not just a term historically used by dictators abroad, it has a US history as well, back to Barry Goldwater (in his loss to perhaps the last true Republican, Dwight Eisenhower), and crafted by the infamous, John Birch Society. In 1958, the John Birch Society, under the guidance of ultra-conservative, Robert Welch, wanted Goldwater to attack members of the GOP who did not support their agenda, he called them, “Traitors within…” This article does a good job of reflecting on the US history of that terminology and it’s usage as hate speech by the far right radicals of the GOP.
03.11.2024
Trump Needs Help
This article puts the issue as gently as possible. Yesterday, the Orange Clown of Mar-A-Lago, in front of a group including children, simulated performing fellatio on a microphone during a rally. The article points out that if this were a grandfather or an elderly father, we would seriously seek medical attention for him. We would make sure he was not put under any psychological stress, and—most of all—until he had sought help, we would find ways to prevent him from being in public venues, especially when children are around. Have all the years of living without boundaries on any of his most basic impulses finally caught up and overwhelmed DonOLD? Given his increasing fascination with female AND male genitalia, as well as this shocking display in a public venue, we would think that he is deeply entrenched in a state of what famed psychosocial psychoanalyst, Erik Erikson, would call disintegration. We certainly would not want this person controlling the largest military in the world. Yet, this article points out, that even this might not dissuade his cultic followers to re-consider their votes. How very sad—and, at the same time—terrifying.
02.11.2024
How Does Immigration Affect the U.S. Economy?
If you want to understand the numbers beyond the Republican rhetoric of immigration, this article is a great place to start. It reveals the amount of taxes that immigrants pay in the US, the industries that would be devastated under T-Rump’s massive deportation schemes (which gives a bit of insight into how the economy would be on the brink of collapse with such idiotic policies). If you know people who “think” they understand immigration issues, but still believe in DonOLD’s/the Far Right’s policies, then this article is for you. Sadly, the people who support the Orange Clown of Mar-A-Lago’s policies on immigration and most other areas, are not basing their opinions upon fact, but upon fear. It’s been in authoritarian’s playbooks to stoke fear about immigration in multiple countries and multiple campaigns throughout history. Fascists need tangible enemies to succeed and the Far Right is no different. They have chosen to create hatred and fear rather than offer constructive solutions. The Orange Dictator-for-a-Day even told his minions to vote against an Immigration Policy that Republicans help draft because the policy would help resolve issues at the border and that would be bad for the Orange Clown’s campaign. If we want true reform at the US Border that results in humane policies that don’t involve separating families, detaining children in prison camps, and mass deportation, then we need to get rid of this generation of T-Rump cult followers.
01.11.2024
Two dead, another arrested for miscarriage — this is how Trump plans to "protect" women
T-Rump says that he will protect women, “whether they like it or not.” This article points out how DonOLD and his Far Right Minions plan on “protecting” women—by controlling them, to the death if necessary. Let’s shut this group of American Fascists out, teach them they have no right to make choices for other people’s bodies. Vote them—and their policies of death—out!
31.10.2024
A tale of two closing messages: Harris offers patriotism, rejects Trump’s ‘chaos’
The future of America is either very bright and full of economic opportunity for all classes of people or a “garbage heap” filled with racist hate and Christian nationalism. It depends on which candidate YOU vote for. Please vote for hope and “not going back” to the 1800’s.
30.10.2024
Mass Deportation Won’t Solve U.S. Immigration Policy. Here Are Three Things That Will.
I spent a great deal of time in Central America and currently live in Mexico. I abhor what the Far Right is doing to the issue of immigration, but mostly what they are doing to people who are trying to legally immigrate to the United States or have already immigrated. The GOP playbook is straight from every fascist government seeking authoritarian rulle for the last 100 years. Distract people from their real problems (and your inability to address them) by creating an enemy they can hate. Make that group of people less-than-human and generate an us/them mentality. Sadly, because there are so many people choosing to be ignorant about immigration glabally, it continually works. Like a teenager feeling angst about growing up, it is easier to hate something tangible (parents, teachers, authority figures in general), than it is to deal with the deeper issues of growth and development. In order to grow, immature minds create tangible enemies. This effort to externalize blame and push it outward would be comical if the consequences weren’t so serious. Frank Herbert states repeatedly in Dune, “Fear is the mind-killer,” and it is. It prevents people from using their rational mind to look at interior issues. It shuts down empathy and all paths to a compassionate solution. In its stead, it leaves hatred and vilification. Whether it is creating glaringly false stories about immigrants eating cats, dogs… and geese, calling Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage or lies about how schools are doing sex changes on children in the middle of the day; the lies are not stopping—even worse—the blatant abandonment of cognitive reality checking and the addiction for more absurdity on a daily basis is growing. That’s why I found this article so refreshing, the solutions it presents to the immigration issues the world is facing today are applicable and practical. They make common sense and would produce long-term solutions indigenous to the areas where emigration is growing. Please read this article and pass it along to people who do not understand the underlying issues of global immigration.
Youth Advocacy Training Link of the Week
How to Carry the Burden of Grief
Grief is never linear and the stages of grief can come and go like tsunamis on our heart. This poignant article talks about strategies for bearing the burden of our losses. It can also help you assist others experiencing similar waves of pain.
