September 26, 2024

Thursday, September 26, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

Kamala is always busy.

Economic plans were on Kamala’s mind in Pittsburgh both at a rally and in an interview with Stephanie Ruhle.

Touch to watch all and any. 👇

The Vice President’s full talk in Pittsburgh yesterday. Starts at 4:41.

Harris backs ending filibuster for abortion rights legislation.

Kamala Harris is calling for changes to Senate procedure to pass federal legislation protecting abortion rights.

Harris voiced support for ending the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation in the Senate, commonly known as the filibuster, during an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio that aired Tuesday.

“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,” Harris said.

Harris has for months promised that she would sign legislation codifying Roe v. Wade’s protections in federal law but had yet as a presidential nominee to specifically weigh in on whether she supports an exception to the filibuster to do so. President Joe Biden has long said he supports such an exception, and in 2022 Harris promised as vice president to cast a tie-breaking vote to end the filibuster for reproductive rights and voting rights.

During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris also came out in support of an exception to the filibuster to pass a broad climate proposal called the Green New Deal.

The vice president has made reproductive rights a centerpiece of her presidential campaign, blaming Donald Trump and his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices for the 2022 high court ruling that ended Roe, which protected the right to abortion until fetal viability, around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion has proved a salient issue on the campaign trail since, and Democrats are hoping it will again carry them to victory this year. Trump has attempted to deflect criticism on abortion by saying the issue is now in the hands of the states.

The odds of actually restoring abortion protections Roe held in place are long, as Democrats face an uphill battle to keep the Senate this November. But if they manage to hold their Senate majority, Democrats appear to have the votes to pass abortion rights legislation in the chamber, after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who said last week that he would be willing to carve out an exception to the filibuster for such legislation.

Still, Harris’ position supporting reinstating Roe has frustrated some progressives in the abortion-rights movement who believe that the decision whether to terminate a pregnancy should be between a patient and their doctor, and that the government has no role in regulating abortions even after fetal viability.

The vice president has not said whether she supports Roe’s restrictions, which allowed states to ban abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy, so long as they included an exception to save the life of the mother, in addition to its protections.

Harris has emerged as a much more effective messenger on abortion rights than Biden, a devout Catholic who was often reluctant to even say the word “abortion” on the campaign trail.

She also has highlighted the stories of a diverse spectrum of people impacted by the near-total abortion bans that have taken effect in more than a third of the country since Roe’s demise, including the story of a Georgia woman, Amber Rose Thuman, who died after a hospital delayed providing her emergency medical care to remove tissue she failed to expel after taking abortion pills. (Politico).

Let’s keep the Senate and make Roe Protections the Law of this land.

The Harris campaign has its eye on Latino voters.

Univision to hold town halls with Harris,Trump

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump will appear at two separate town halls in front of a Spanish-speaking audience next month, Univision announced Tuesday.

Why it matters: One of the largest U.S. Spanish-language broadcasters is putting the presidential candidates before a key voting bloc, Hispanic voters, to face questions on the economy, jobs, health care, immigration and foreign policy.
"There are more than 36 million Hispanics eligible to vote in the U.S., making them the largest minority in the country, with the power to influence the outcome of the race for the White House and the future of the nation," Noticias Univision president Daniel Coronell said in a statement.
Zoom in: The town halls scheduled to take place next month will be moderated by journalist Enrique Acevedo.

Undecided Hispanic voters will directly ask questions to each candidate, the broadcaster said.

"The events will put an electorate that represents close to 15% of the voting bloc front and center, creating a forum exclusively for Latinos," per Univision.
What we're watching: The sit- down with Trump will take place in Miami, Florida, and will air Oct. 8 at 10pm ET.

The program with Harris will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will air Oct. 10 at 10pm ET. (Axios)

Happening.

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More venomous words from Mark Robinson, MAGA candidate for North Carolina Governor.

How did they find this guy!

Yes, he boasted he was a “Black Nazi,” and yes, he wished slavery would return, but here are some more Mark Robinson comments. 👇

“If the cops wanted to shoot an elderly black man they should have shot Al Sharpton,” Robinson commented in April 2009 on a NewsOne article about Sharpton participating in a police-brutality protest. “Closing his mouth would do this Nation good.”

“Obama IS a blackface step-in fectch-it [sic] for liberal white America,” Robinson wrote on the same site the same month.

“It’s Oprah the wicked witch, leading the way to sexing up the children!” he wrote beneath another article a few days later.

These comments are previously unreported. And for good reason: They’re no longer accessible on the Internet, as the comments systems Robinson used to make them are now defunct. The Bulwark was only able to access them through an archive of old comments made on sites built with the content management system WordPress. Plugging Robinson’s personal email address (the same one that multiple outlets have reported on in recent days) into that archive, we were able to find his now-infamous “minisoldr” username and the comments he left.

These additional posts underscore just how wide-ranging Robinson’s use of the “minisoldr” alias was. The Bulwark -
Yet Another Mark Robinson Eye-Popper

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Trump is always crazy

Foreign policy? Megalomanian fascination with authoritarians. Narcissistic obsession with telling people “ he likes me.”

Why would we be surprised that GOP sycophants try to sanewash Trump’s foreign policy!

Former Trump Advisers Are Whitewashing His Foreign Policy Record. Don’t Be Fooled.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/09/23/former-trump-advisers-whitewashing-his-foreign-policy-record-00179111

Former officials of the Trump presidency appear to be on a campaign to whitewash his administration’s foreign policy record.

In recent weeks and months, there’s been a flood of articles and interviews from them that present versions of the same argument: Donald Trump’s foreign policy legacy is better than you think. The most prominent are by Robert O’Brien, Trump’s last national security adviser, and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, but there have been others including by former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

The common purpose appears to be twofold: reassure a broader audience that a second Trump presidency would be more mainstream than many fear, and, by extension, to present his first administration as one of successes which restored American leadership on the international stage.

Having served almost three years in the Trump administration as ambassador and senior adviser to the secretary of State, I can say that both contentions are wrong.

The promise is that a now-experienced “Trump the Realist” will be even better for America. O’Brien, using Orwellian doublespeak, suggests we could see “a Trumpian restoration of peace through strength” and seeks to recast in glowing terms a dark period for American foreign policy that did lasting damage to global stability and America’s leadership in it. McMaster, while somewhat more critical than the others, praises Trump’s “long-overdue correctives to a number of unwise policies,” which was hard to argue at the time and even less so now.

O’Brien and the others are having a good run in mainstream outlets. Commentators like Eliot A. Cohen, Stephen Walt, and Matt Kroenig have also argued that concerns about a possible second Trump administration’s foreign policy are exaggerated. Outreach to the former president by international leaders, from Viktor Orbán to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the strong diplomatic presence on the Republican National Convention floor, conveys the impression that a second Trump term could be relatively conventional.

But it’s important to remember the reality of what Trump’s foreign policy actually was and actually did. And to recognize that nothing in the interim has changed for the better in his worldview. In a vastly more complex global landscape than when he was first president, a second Trump term could do real harm to America’s international economic, diplomatic and security interests. (Politico).

Heed this warning.👆

What else we can depend on - Trump will always support Putin.

Tariffs, anyone?

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New York Times check.

1:24 pm September 25th.

3 articles on Trump. 0 on Kamala.

What are we to do?

Perhaps aggregate such photos and write to the Grey Lady.

Readers of The New York Times can submit letters to letters@nytimes.

One more thing.

From the New York Times, Letters to the Editor.

In her most recent column, which I found to be, for the most part, entertaining, Maureen Dowd inexplicably writes, “Now we begin what is going to be a very ugly slugfest between the Unserious Man and the Untested Woman.” “Untested”?! How much more “tested” do you need to be than prosecutor, state attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president?

When will women finally not need to work harder, run faster in high heels and be infinitely more qualified than their male counterparts?

While Donald Trump makes a regular habit of babbling incoherently in public, Ms. Dowd wonders if the Democratic nominee will “manage to get through a minimum of policy stuff with no viral blunders.”

Personally, as a woman who spent 30 years working in a male-dominated field, I trust that Kamala Harris will continue to go above and beyond in anything she takes on, including the presidency of the United States.

Linda Folk
Vallejo, Calif.

To the Editor:

While I usually enjoy Ms. Dowd’s views, in Sunday’s column I saw something that has been reoccurring in all newspaper, television and social media coverage: a demand that Kamala Harris explain her policy positions. (“She has to show she has what it takes once she steps away from the teleprompter,” Ms. Dowd wrote. “Can she manage to get through a minimum of policy stuff with no viral blunders?”)

But no similar demands are made of her deranged opponent. He insults, name-calls and carries on in myriad ways, and it’s usually waved off as “That’s Trump!” He isn’t asked serious policy questions by the press, and he responds to the questions he is asked with lies, a change of subject or various other non-responses. In subsequent reporting, it’s meekly acknowledged that he lied, changed the subject, etc.

When is the national press going to expect the same level of competence from Republican candidates that is demanded of Democratic candidates?

John Ignas

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The GOP may take control of the Senate. What can you do?

Check out the scary analysis in The Bulwark below. Then I will suggest What can you do below.

Will Harris Be Able To Do Any of It?

—Andrew Egger

Here’s something we’re not talking nearly enough about: Republicans are about to retake the Senate.

Yes, endangered Democratic incumbents—folks like Jon Tester in Montana and Sherrod Brown in Ohio—are putting up strong fights. Yes, the GOP is likely to fritter away a few winnable races after putting up terrible candidates like Arizona’s Kari Lake.

But all that is likely to matter only in determining the size of the new Republican Senate majority. The basic math is just too brutal for Democrats.

With gravity-defying Sen. Joe Manchin retiring, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is all but guaranteed to give Republicans their first flip, balancing the Senate at 50 votes apiece. Stopping further GOP gains will require a perfect run across the other seven purple-to-red state seats currently under Democratic control: Montana, Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Some of these holds shouldn’t be difficult. Sen. Jacky Rosen is cruising comfortably in Nevada, and in Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego is running circles around Kari Lake. But the contests in Pennsylvania and Ohio are looking tight, and Tester’s chances look downright grim against Republican Tim Sheehy.

Democrats could compensate for one of these losses by picking up one of the two GOP seats that are theoretically in play. But Florida, where Sen. Rick Scott is up for reelection, barely seems to qualify as a swing state anymore. And while Sen. Ted Cruz might be the most unlikable guy in politics, it’s hard to imagine him faring worse in a presidential year than he did during the off-cycle blue wave of 2018, when he escaped a challenge from Beto O’Rourke with a two-point win.

For those trying to convince Trump-anxious Republican leaners to jump out of the plane and vote for Kamala Harris, the likelihood of a Republican-controlled Senate seems to be an incredibly salient fact. Maybe one they should talk about more.

Think of it this way: Which scenario will present the prospect of more alarmingly radical legislative change? Trump with a possible GOP trifecta, or a hemmed-in Harris?
And which president would have a longer leash to wield unilateral executive power: Trump, who wants to restock the entire federal labor force with loyalists and for whom the Supreme Court has already rolled out the red carpet, or Harris, who will face strict scrutiny from the conservative Court any time she tries to go it alone? The Bulwark, Another Robinson eye-popper..

Now, what can you do?

A first step to keeping a BLUE Senate is to help elect Colin Allred, Democratic Senator from Texas, and throw out Ted Cruz.

How wonderful would that be.

https://app.oath.vote/donate?p=niemtzow-allred&ref=PPIAM0N1

Or you can help elect Lauren Mucarsel-Powell, Democratic Senator from Florida, and throw out Rick Scott, next in line MAGA Senator who will replace Mitch McConnell if the Senate turns red.

How wonderful would that be.

https://app.oath.vote/donate?p=niemtzow-murcarsel-powell&ref=PPIAM0N1

Or you can support Sherrod Brown, Democratic Senator from Ohio, and end the candidacy of Bernie Moreno, Trump’s candidate on the ground in the Buck-eye State.

Moreno did himself some harm this week when local NBC affiliate, NBC4, obtained a video recording from a Warren County town hall on Friday, where GOP Senate hopeful Bernie Moreno accused suburban women of being focused solely on their ability to get an abortion.

https://www.nbc4i.com/news/your-local-election-hq/bernie-moreno-says-women-are-single-issue-voters-for-abortion-during-ohio-town-hall/

“You know, the left has a lot of single issue voters,” Moreno said. “Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ … OK. It’s a little crazy by the way, but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.'”

On November 7, 2023, Ohio voted in favor of amending the state constitution to enshrine abortion rights. votes, The referendum passed by 57% of the votes.

In response, 27 GOP members of the Ohio general assembly signed a statement the next day arguing the abortion rights proposal “failed to mention a single, specific law”, and vowing to “do everything in [their] power” to prevent the restrictive abortion laws on the books in Ohio from being challenged.

This is an issue which can help Sherrod Brown win his election and help keep the Senate Blue. Nikki Haley, Mr. Trump’s former rival, criticized the comments as “tone deaf” on social media.

https://app.oath.vote/donate?p=niemtzow-brown&ref=PPIAM0N1

Let’s add the totals. We keep Nevada and Arizona. We lose WV and Montana (Tester). We keep Ohio and the rest and win Texas and Florida.

Presently, the Senate is 47-49 with 4 independents who caucus with the Democrats. If we lose 1 of the independents(Manchin, WV), and lose 1 Dem (Tester) but win Texas and Florida (2), we have a gain of +1 (Dem) with 3 independents who caucus with us, as the GOP goes down by 2. The Senate will be 48-49 with 3 independents caucusing with us.

When we fight, we win. Fight!!

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Corrected version of my post yesterday. 👇

Someone, talk about “the emperor.” Is he “unserious” or just plain nuts?

“These are not normal people,” said Josh Stein, Democratic candidate for Governor, North Carolina.

Trump is not a normal person. We should all say this.

Watch this. 👇 Is this normal?

Read this. 👇 Is it normal?

The historian Heather Cox Richardson wrote - On Friday, news broke that maternal deaths in Texas skyrocketed after the state’s 2021 abortion ban, rising by 56% compared to an 11% increase across the rest of the nation. Just before midnight.

Richardson is a sane person so when she looks at data, she faces the world.

But Donald Trump tweets out fanciful discourse, sometimes violent, sometimes whimsical, but never real. Just off. “Somebody said women don’t like Donald Trump,” the Republican presidential nominee told the crowd at a recent rally in Johnstown, Pa. “That’s wrong. I think they love me, I love them.”


There is much media conversation in print, in social media, on television, interpreting craziness as Trump trying to win suburban women’s vote. Yes, or maybe, but what come out is also narcissistic word salad from a man who just isn’t normal.

From the time of Trump’s unexpected arrival by escalator in 2015, spewing disgusting racist lies about immigrants, he owned the press and the public.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said.”They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [sic]. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Controversy. Puke being treated as policy. Puke being shaped into policy.

Now Trump is a convicted rapist, and 34 times convicted felon, a criminal fraud, a racist who praised Nazis marching with tiki torches, chanting “Jews will not replace us,” an insurrectionist who orchestrated and excited an riot at our Capitol, a deluded and menacing voice resisting election results and the rule of law, wrapping himself and millions in a great lie.

Still spewing puke. Still being treated as if it was policy.

As Kamala said, “Trump is an unserious man, “ but, as the Vice President continued, the consequences of putting Donald Trump in the White House are extremely serious.” But is he just “unserious”? If so, isn’t that bad enough?

In most instances, the charge of “unserious” would derail a candidate’s run for President but in this case, it is clear that “unserious” easily floats off into pure crazy, and the Press doesn’t care, nor does the public. They all know Trump often crosses that line.

There is a collective commitment to laughing and/or deciphering, rather than denouncing, the scribbling - the word gargling - of a deranged man, a mad man.

That shouldn’t be. Too much is at stake.

Here is Today’s headline in the New York Times, the standard bearer for journalistic integrity in our nation.

Are you kidding me? That sounds like a lead-in with the expectation of a normal candidate. Trump is not. What should we expect? Rants about how he won in 2020 when in his words, “the RINO,”Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State of Georgia, refused to find him
11,779 votes, when he knew he won the state won by thousands of votes. “

Every day I face and I suspect you to face a headline, or media or social media coverage that ignores reality and treats Trump as if he were a familiar, GOP candidate, a buttoned-down, managerial type.
A man speaking policy.

Sane Washing. That is a moderate way of describing what should be recognized as madness by our media and worse, madness by the electorate.

We are often told to be kind and respectful of Trump supporters.

Why?

As a strategy? Okay. That I understand, but I want to be on record as saying that I think anyone who plans to vote for Trump, thinking he is sane and capable of running a nation sanely, is themselves out of their minds. Deplorables? Yes, but more. NUTS!

Some willing to ignore the gargling. Others entering his strange sphere.

This is a real and serious world. People struggling to stay alive, struggling to live decent lives, work or do activities that are economically and/or emotionally fulfilling. A world with dangerous disease, war and violence, natural and unnatural conditions.

But the GOP doesn’t see or care about the world. Even if the bulk of Trump supporters are also mad, the GOP is happy to have their votes.

Given the condition of some recent candidates that the GOP has put forth -Donald Trump, Mark Robinson, Herschl Walker, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, it is clear we need a strategy of how to deal with a candidates who are either not serious persons, or, unfortunately, not sane.

Our Vice Presidential candidate took a first step and called them weird, but even that is just a baby step to accurately describing what we see.

Join me in reality.

Tell everyone you can that candidates who are nuts are nuts. Yes, tell them candidates who are not serious are not serious.

Sample Trump is nuts. Say it. Doesn’t that feel good.

Post this on social media. Speak it aloud in your social circle.

Knocking on doors for Kamala?

Try it there.

Maybe you will be pleasantly surprised by someone else who noticed “their emperor has no clothes.”

It matters. (Annette Niemtzow, Annette’s News Roundup).

Donate for Josh Stein 👇

https://app.oath.vote/donate?p=niemtzow-stein&ref=PPIAM0N1

Donate to Kamala Harris Victory.

https://app.oath.vote/donate?p=niemtzow-harris&ref=PPIAM0N1

Donate to Defeat Donald Trump.

https://oath.vote/donate?p=dt&ref=PPIAM0N1

Your daily reminder.

Trump is a convicted felon.

On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.

The Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11th and September 18th. He will now be sentenced on November 26.

Today, September 26, is a “come to Jesus” Day for Trump. Jack Smith will lay out a 180 page document with charges supported by a grand jury against Trump. He will show that the Supreme Court immunity decision didn’t provide Trump with a “get out of jail” card.

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Tout Le Monde Regarde Le Sport Feminin.

Some move forward as some move back. Women’s sports 🏀 ⚽️ mirror the wild ride. Yes, everyone watches women’s sports, as they say above in French, especially this week as the WNBA finals are being played.

This article is on women’s soccer in Mexico.

Tigres Femenil,Liga MX women’s soccer players are new influencers

Soccer players from the Tigres Femenil, in gold, and players from Club América Femenil, in blue, take to the field for a match at University Stadium in San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico. (Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas)

SAN NICOLÁS DE LOS GARZA, Mexico — There was a time not long ago when Luna Roque dreamed of becoming an influencer, like Kimberly Loaiza. The glamorous Mexican singer — she could be a fourth Kardashian sister — got her start as a teenager doing viral challenges and producing makeup videos on YouTube; she now has more than 160 million followers across her social media platforms.


Then Luna’s parents took her to see the Tigres Femenil. The women’s soccer team, one of two based here in the Monterrey metropolitan area, is the most successful team in the seven-year history of the Liga MX Femenil, Mexico’s first professional women’s soccer league. The Tigres have won six of the league’s 13 titles; they’ve opened the current season with nine wins and a draw for a share of the league lead.
It took Luna, 8, just one game with Las Amazonas, as the Tigres are known, to ditch her dream of influencing for a new one. Now she’s training to be a professional soccer player.


The rise of the women’s game in soccer-mad Mexico is challenging traditional notions of gender in a country captured by machismo with a new kind of female role model: the athlete influencer, the strong, skilled woman who posts more about her feats on the field than her fashion choices off it.

The players, who are mostly in their 20s and 30s, are attracting millions of followers on social media with a clear message of empowerment — and turning the image of female celebrity here on its head.
The stereotypical Monterrey influencer is a light-skinned, thin and wealthy woman “who makes makeup tutorials or videos of her closet and of the jewelry she buys,” local journalist Carolina Solís says. “It’s a very aspirational thing.”
Las Amazonas, in contrast, challenge gender norms. They flex their muscles in the locker room and the practice pitch. They pose in sweat-soaked jerseys, show off tattoos, and lift trophies.
The club has nearly half a million followers on Instagram; players such as recent acquisition Jennifer Hermoso of Spain, winner of the 2023 World Cup and the tournament’s Silver Ball, have more than 1 million.

Stephany Mayor, left, and Bianca Sierra are teammates on the field and in real life. They've gained a large social media following.

Stephany Mayor and Bianca Sierra, Tigres teammates who have played on Mexico’s national team, have a combined social media presence of about 200,000 followers and a YouTube channel on which they post videos of their lives as a couple, their fertility treatment and as mothers of twins.
“Before, I would consider myself a role model more directed to young girls,” says Sierra, 32. Now, she says, she also wants to be a role model for women who want to be athletes and mothers at the same time.


Mayor says many Mexicans still don’t take women’s soccer seriously. “They think it’s a hobby,” she says. The challenge ahead, she says, is not so much on growing the sport but on normalizing it. “Equality will come at some point,” she says. “And I hope it’s soon, so that these generations that are coming behind us can benefit from it.”

In the players’ successes both on the field and online, Barbara Arredondo sees a larger movement that’s transforming Mexico. Arredondo, a producer and women’s rights advocate from Monterrey, sees women increasingly moving into leadership roles that had long been closed to them — not only in the inauguration next month of Claudia Sheinbaum, the country’s first female president, but in activism and other venues.

“They are being more and more vocal about injustices and becoming a reference in their fields like never before,” she says. Arredondo believes the players are not only influencers but agents of change. The game, she says, “is where the worlds of activism, sport and leadership collide.”


The Monterrey metropolitan area, the country’s second-largest, after Mexico City, loves its fútbol. Since 1960, fans of the men’s game here have been divided between C.F. Monterrey, winner of five first division titles, and Tigres UANL, winner of eight.
Laiza Onofre grew up watching the Tigres with her brother, father and grandfather while her mom did house chores. “Soccer is one of the few things that tie you to the men in your family in this city,” the 37-year-old illustrator says.


Then came the Liga MX Femenil, which began play in 2017, and the local clubs each fielded a women’s team. Now she’s a bigger fan of Las Amazonas than the men’s team. “For me,” she says, “the issue of representation is very potent.”

At University Stadium, the 42,000-seat venue where both editions of the Tigres play home games, Onofre sees a more diverse crowd for the women than the men: families, same-sex couples, older people. When she watches with her 90-year-old grandfather, she sees their potential to bring change. He knows their names and has his favorite: Belén Cruz.

“He is open and passionate about the game regardless of whether they are men or women,” she says. “It’s revolutionary.”
Social media has been a part of Liga MX Femenil’s growth plan since its inception. “We were invisible,” says Mariana Gutiérrez, the league’s director. “It was the tool for the players to become visible.” Attendance has grown at a rate of 11 percent annually. Nearly 11 million viewers tuned in to games last season.

A male Tigres Femenil fan.

Sofía Portales, 18, follows Las Amazonas not only because she plays and loves the game, but for what the women represent in a male-dominated sphere. “When you see women killing it in whatever they do, that inspires us women to believe we can also kill it in our fields,” she says. Portales has won a scholarship to play soccer at Monterrey University.


Mexico launched its first professional women’s soccer league 16 years after the United States, and it continues to lag behind the United States and other nations on equal pay and the resources it devotes to the game.
Still, the country is catching up. In February, the national team defeated the powerhouse U.S. side for the first time in 14 years in group play at the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup, the premiere tournament in the Americas.
In March, the Mexican Senate approved a reform that would require sports clubs to establish an equal base salary for men and women.

After watching her first Amazonas game last year, Luna, the 8-year-old, began to play. During recess at school, she says, only boys play soccer — but they’ve made an exception: “I am the only girl they will let play.”

At school, she says, there are no girls with whom she can talk soccer. At the soccer academy where she trains, it’s different.
Alejandra Montserrat Varela, the 26-year-old owner of a soccer academy for girls affiliated with the Tigres, didn’t grow up successful with female players to look up to. That’s changing, she says, but Luna is likely still to hear from men who say women shouldn’t or can’t play the game.
“Soccer empowers girls,” she says. “We are showing them that we can also play.” (The Washington Post).

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