Anyhow, if you are a political connection of mine, that’s why sometimes I hit my limit and have to take a break. I care about you and your causes and I really fucking wish this were a world where you could pursue your goals unhindered. And also I could relax, step back and bore you about lampshades
What I really wish is that I could meet more lampshade super fans. Everyone I know who can talk lampshades is a pro and I feel badly about talking work when I see them because they probably want fuller richer lives and to talk politics or something 6/
All of which is to say in this extra-busy election cycle, I do care, I am on committees, I do donate, I’m trying to be the best I can be.
It’s not terrible. The people are lovely. But they keep mistaking me for a superfan when really it’s civic duty.
5/
And then I’m recoiling, because come on, enough!
My coworker says it’s like having a kid on a sports team you find dull at best. You gotta go to the games and you do take enjoyment from seeing your kid and their friends, but then an actual sport fan parent mistakes you for one of them and oh no
3/
So as I’m doing my duty and metaphorically eating my vegetables by putting effort and donations toward politics, many people mistake me for someone who super enjoys it, who’s interested in a good policy debate, or what’s up now with Working Families Party or whatever
2/
If I had to make a list of things I love to talk about, politics/policy/activism don’t make the top 25, maybe not the top 50. Lampshades are (way) more interesting. But I get involved because civic duty. It’s part of adulting.
The problem is, many people do not share this view
1/
They’re not native - Tommies are from Southeastern Europe. But they naturalize in the top half of the US easily as long as they have a bit of sun in early spring and are undisturbed and not too boggy all year.
Yours are so lovely!
A win!
That’s awesome!!! They look like either you planted a handful in one hole last fall or you planted one years ago and it’s propagated friends for itself
I was at an event at the State House Library with her and Nellie Gorbea once. Gina stood in the front of the room and greeted top people. Nellie darted over to a shy group of Latina teenaged girls and engaged them in conversation.
On the basis of that alone, I would follow Nellie anywhere.
How are you getting by? I’m cc:ed on this email list with dozens of gardeners for public spaces across my state, and everyone is sending in photos of the green tips and tiny new blooms of crocuses and snowdrops on muddy lawns
We all admire because you need something to cling to
I had a friend who worked for Gina and went on overseas economic development trips with her. Gina rarely spoke directly to her and she’s fairly sure Gina never bothered to learn her name.
Now, my friend is a top global incubator exec and Gina is utterly missing out on her as a contact
I don’t sense that she is false. I feel like she is a smart, straight shooter who is good with her peers.
I don’t trust though that her ideas and values are anywhere in line with progressives, or that she has the ability to hear and take seriously people who she doesn’t think are her peers.
Another top queer hockey romance author once you include other platforms, is Catherine Cloud (thesameoldstreets) who is also great at including ace and lesbian people in her stories. She’s strong at found and refound family, and there’s nearly always a dog with silky ears in her stories.
Reminding everyone that Taylor Fitzpatrick (youcouldmakealife) is next in line for the throne of Hockey Romance in terms of popularity and $$$. I think because the bulk of her work is published on Patreon/AO3/Tumbler the trad book folks don’t see the iceberg beneath her 5 self-published books.
I emailed them this morning to opt out of this feature.
expertoptout@superhuman.com
Agreed though, if it hasn’t occurred to her to reach out to and support the local political community beyond leadership, she may not think of small businesses as ‘important’ and equal to big business either.
Small are the masses who must be managed, not cared for as equals.
I don’t think you can be a raging idealist and have that career. I think you have to be very pragmatic. Ideals are nice and you go to church on sundays, but they are not your core.
She would probably be a good governor in times when ideals don’t matter as much as great operational governance
She’s probably awfully good at getting along with people and internal org politics. You don’t get to the top and on so many boards on merit alone - it’s more related to being competent plus strong people skills
www.linkedin.com/in/helena-bu...
Having now spent some time on her LinkedIn (wow, she’s made a healthy income from for-profit Board work), I wonder since she’s spent her whole career among ‘the elite’ she may think she knows ‘little people’ or ‘the masses’ but doesn’t think of herself as one of us.
she’s not supporting or in community with other local women running for office.
Women are under attack now in RI from PACs funded by conservative Dem men. We are meeting nights and weekends to fight back. Now is the time local women need support.
I don’t see it from her and that’s kinda sad.
It’s about getting elected, saying you’ve ’met the people’ and then jetting off to live and work in completely different circles in DC.
And this is what concerns me about Helena. She is acting like she’s above us. Without having ever served a day in any office, she’s assuming she is qualified &
So, she’s kind of a fly-over candidate. When I see photos of her appearances now at local senior centers and house parties, it feels like Presidential hopefuls dropping into folksy town halls in New Hampshire before Super Tuesday. They don’t intend to care about the people they meet that much.
Plus, the overall paucity of her in-state giving (except to Raimundo and herself) appears to reflect a disinterest in and disconnection from our state’s politics.
She sees what Reed and Whitehouse do in DC as far more important than what happens in our local statehouse.
I read this as someone who is reaching out to support the people she sees as potential peers. And she doesn’t see state senators, state reps, town councilors or school boards as important to her at all. (Unless they are whips or majority leaders.)
What’s missing are contributions to 99% of local women candidates. She’s happy to plow cash into Kamala Harris but basically none into women at home.
Thing is RI is so tiny that donating to women candidates here makes an outsized impact.
She did not make a single donation to a candidate in RI in 2025. She only made 2 in 2024, both to Bob Phillips who is Deputy Majority Leader.
2023 was also sparse. $1k to Maria Bucci, a Cranston mayoral candidate, $250 to AG Peter Neronha & a lousy $100 to RI Black Lives Matter PAC
She gives to RI senators and winning congressman. She gave tons to Raimundo.
Otherwise she gives very little to very few people, apparently chosen for their power. Shekarchi, Kazarain, Gorbea.
She likes republicans and conservative democrats. Locally, she gave to GOP Lt Gov candidate, Catherine Terry Taylor, to Lincoln Chaffee, and to Michael McCaffrey (a man opposed to lgbtq and women’s rights). Nationally, she gave Mitch McConnell (!) in 2014 and the Home Depot PAC multiple times. 2/
