Focused Read in 3 minutes
Personal Commentary ~
Below you will find a Politico on the tracking of women running for office because the potential is for
a record number of women moving into public office in 2018. It's a
great idea.
📎 Note: In excerpting the highlights of the article, I will primarily highlight Democratic women
because as long as any member of the Republican Party supports a Party Leader who is an
admitted sexual assaulter of women with a high probability of having
been installed in the Oval Office by Russia she (or he) will not be, if at all possible, considered by me.
And, although I am a Democrat, that is not partisanship -- that is an act of #resistance, i.e. patriotism, IMO.
At any rate – 2018 and 2020 are going to be interesting years for women and the work Politico is doing to track and to report is good work,
so check the article out!
(L-R) Veronic Escobar, Janet Mills,
Sylvia Garcia
“Record-breaking number of
women run for office
POLITICO is partnering
with two organizations that track women in politics to tell the story
of a potentially historic year for women seeking elected office.
(By Heather Caygle)
… I think what you’re
seeing is enormous frustration among women,” said Jennifer Duffy, a
senior editor at Cook Political Report who has studied female
candidates for the Senate and governor for 30 years.
“I think it’s
frustration that some of the biggest issues in our country, and some
of the issues that are very important to women, are not being
solved," she added.
Duffy was speaking at “Ready to Run,” a
training program that advises potential female candidates on all
levels nationwide, the latest of which was recently held in
Washington, D.C.
POLITICO will be tracking
the status of female candidates — how they are faring in primaries,
the themes driving their election contests and the stories of
individual candidates — through Election Day.
... The Women Rule Candidate Tracker — an innovative
research collaboration between
POLITICO,
the Center for American
Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at
Rutgers-New Brunswick
and the Women in Public Service Project at The
Wilson Center — will provide a detailed snapshot of how women are
performing.
It will include up-to-date information about who’s
winning and losing, where election dollars are flowing and the issues
dominating the debate.
... here are five trends we’ll be paying attention to
leading up to Nov. 6:
The Year of the Woman?
... There has been a surge of potential female candidates
this election cycle, with nearly 60 percent more women declaring
plans to run for the House and Senate this year compared to the 2016
election.
... More than half of the 50
women competing for House seats in the Lone Star State won their
primary or will advance to a runoff in May.
And Texas is on track to
elect its first two Latinas to the House after two women — Veronica
Escobar and Sylvia Garcia — won their primaries in solidly
Democratic districts.
At least 494 women, both
Republicans and Democrats, have said they’re running for Congress
this year...hat’s up from 312 women who filed to run for House or Senate in
2016...
Change comes slowly
No matter how the election
turns out, women still have a long way to go to reach proportional
representation in Congress and governor’s mansions. Women make up
only about a fifth of Congress, despite comprising half of the
population. And only six states have women as governors, while 22
states have never had a female chief executive.
...But female lawmakers, researchers and
consultants say they see that trend starting to change, slowly, as
women become more confident and assertive in workplaces across the
U.S., not just in Congress...
History will be made
A dozen states currently
have no female representation in Congress.
Two states, Vermont and
Mississippi, have never elected a woman to the House or Senate.
But
the lack of a female presence in several of those congressional
delegations is set to change after November...
The gubernatorial
landscape will change, too
Currently women hold six
out of 50 governorships. But that could soon change.
Of the 36 gubernatorial
races in 2018, 35 are expected to have female candidates...And
at least 47 women have declared plans to run in 17 open seats, where
female candidates generally have a better chance because they’re
not trying to unseat an incumbent, although many will be competing
directly in head-to-head contests.
Equality isn’t going
to happen overnight
Even with the
record-breaking number of women planning to run this year, they still
only make up less than a quarter of all likely
congressional candidates in the 2018 cycle...
And there's a significant
disparity between Democrats and Republicans. Of the 494 women who
have said they’re running for the House and Senate this year, 76
percent are Democratic candidates.
“It’s obviously in
response to the 2016 election of Donald Trump. That has activated and
energized a lot of women particularly on the Democratic side,” said
Christine Matthews, a longtime GOP consultant and researcher.
... The imbalance carries over
to Congress, where about three-quarters of all female lawmakers are
Democrats...”
You can read more here
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5 minutes if you hit the link & read the story in full
Steve Hassan, mind control
and cult expert
( Full disclosure, many years ago, in another lifetime (approximately 1980) my path and Hassan's paths crossed in the work each of us was doing to educate on the dangers of destructive cultism -- and I can tell you this much, he knows of what he speaks. You can read more about Hassan here )
"Is Donald Trump a cult
leader? Expert says he “fits the stereotypical profile”
Mind control expert Steven
Hassan says a cult leader “wants everyone to merge into their
definition of reality”
Let's review: Donald Trump is a petite-fascist and aspiring demagogue who has threatened violence against his political enemies and shows no respect for the rule of law. He lies persistently and repeatedly, about matters small and large, in an effort to create a malignant new reality.
... Despite his many and obvious character deficits and failures of presidential leadership, Donald Trump appears to control the opinions of about 35 percent of the American people. There seems to be almost nothing he could do to weaken their support of him (including, as he has himself observed, committing murder in broad daylight). These are the attributes of a political cult.
Is it possible to free Trump's supporters from his Rasputin-like control over them? What is the source of his charismatic power? Is he really akin to a cult leader, or merely an old-fashioned American con artist? How does the Trump cult (if that's what it is) affect American democracy? Did Trump glean any insights into human psychology from growing up in a church whose leaders and members practiced mind control techniques such as "thought stopping"?
In an effort to answer these questions I recently spoke with Steven Hassan. He is one the world's foremost experts on mind control and cults..."
📎 Note: This week's Focused Point of Interest article is in a Q&A format and because I do not want to interrupt the flow I am just going to highlight the questions here to give you enough to decide to go further -- or not:
Q
"Much has been written about Donald Trump's mental health. But the mental health of his followers has not been discussed in as much detail. What is your take on this political moment?"
Q
"Why do you think there has been so much resistance from many people in the political or media classes to engaging in direct discussion of Trump's cult-like control over his public?"
Q
"How do we separate enthusiastic support for a leader from the attributes of a cult or cult leader?"
Q
"How would Trump fit into that model? Is he a con artist or a cult leader? He clearly has attributes of both."
Q
"How do loneliness and despair figure into the rise of Trumpism? Those are powerful factors both in cult formation and organized religion."
Q
"During the presidential campaign, Trump once said that he could shoot somebody in the street in broad daylight and his people would still support him. He was absolutely right. There is a cult of personality around Trump. How would you try to convince Trump's supporters to leave him? Is it possible to deprogram them?"
Q
"What gives you hope for the future? What are you afraid of?"
You can read the article in full here
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→ Direct sources for Democrats:
* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )
The Democratic Party Website
Also
C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))
→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists
in alphabetical order...
→ Some of my favorite, most informative
follows on Twitter include:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC
⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones
→ Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:
📰📰📰 Mother Jones
→ Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
( 📎 Interesting to note: Wallace, a former Republican (or an inactive Republican I believe she calls herself) is new to the job but for right now she has clearly put country over party and her work on Trump GOP has been credible, IMO... )
...for Networking for Democrats today!
g. (Unapologetic Democrat)
g. (Unapologetic Democrat)
📎 Note: I rarely get involved in primary races -- outside of those in my own area. And, unless there is a glaring reason that can not be ignored, I support Democratic Party nominees winning in general elections.
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(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.
It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."
*
Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!
( You can also find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )
*
See the League of Women Voters website:
Vote411 here
Thank you for focusing!
g., aka Focused Democrat
✊ Resisting "Fake News"
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