Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON — National Democrats are doing more outreach than ever before to convince voters they are the party that defends the right to vote. But new polling from The Huffington Post and YouGov demonstrates they have some work to do to get that message to voters.

This presidential election year is the first without the full protections of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA). In 2013, the Supreme Court issued a controversial 5-4 decision that struck down the VRA’s most powerful provision, Section 5, which required states with a history of discriminatory voting procedures to run any changes to their election laws by the Department of Justice or get approval in federal court before they could take effect.

States like Texas and North Carolina that had previously been covered under Section 5 immediately passed new restrictions on voting, including strict voter identification laws, cutbacks to early voting and the elimination of same-day registration. For 17 states, this presidential election will be the first in which new voting restrictions are in effect, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Republicans say the flood of new laws restricting voting access is meant to prevent voter fraud and to cut costs. (They sometimes slip up and say such laws will help them win elections.) Democrats counter those claims by pointing out that voter fraud is exceedingly rare and that such laws make it more difficult for racial and language minorities, low-income people, seniors, students, people with disabilities and other Democratic-leaning constituencies to register and vote.

In response to these trends, the Democratic National Committee in the last few months has responded to nearly every high-profile Republican attempt to make voting less accessible. The committee has held press calls on Democratic-backed lawsuits against Wisconsin’s strict voter ID law, voting restrictions in North Carolina and cutbacks to voting sites for Arizona’s presidential primary. They have also held calls to tout Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s (D) executive order restoring voting rights to ex-offenders and a judicial order halting Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship requirement to register to vote.

“We do use this as an opportunity to contrast our values, and our initiatives, and their values, and their tactics, of using election laws to make voting more difficult, said Pratt Wiley, the DNC’s national director of voter expansion. “We want to make sure that voters understand that even though there are new obstacles put in place, that Democrats are working legislatively, through legal channels as well as through our campaigns, to ensure that voters are equipped with the tools they need in order to successfully cast a ballot.”

On Tuesday, Democratic members of Congress launched a new Voting Rights Caucus to push for a restoration of the Voting Rights Act and to fight back against restrictive voting laws. No Republicans have joined. (Democrats and a handful of Republicans have tried to get Congress’ GOP leadership to back efforts to get some states under federal pre-clearance, to no avail.)

Despite these stepped-up engagement efforts, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll reveals that a significant chunk of U.S. adults don’t have fully formed opinions about which party is more committed to protecting the right to vote. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they trust Democrats more on voting rights, 32 percent said they trust Republicans more and 30 percent said they were not sure.

Another poll question asked about cutbacks to early voting, since Republicans in states with GOP-controlled legislatures like Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska and Wisconsin have limited or tried to limit early voting hours and days. Twenty-three percent of respondents said eliminating early voting days and shortening the hours when people can vote is done as a cost-saving measure — the oft-stated justification — while 33 percent of respondents said such moves mainly done as an attempt to limit voting by minorities and low-income voters. Thirty-two percent of respondents said they don’t know enough to take a stance.

There were other poll results that show Democrats need to do more to counter GOP talking points. They need to explain that voter fraud isn’t a reason to restrict access and that proof-of-citizenship requirements make it difficult for voters without birth certificates — or certificates that don’t match their name — to cast a ballot. When asked which they consider more important — preventing voter fraud or making sure no one who is eligible to vote is prevented from doing so — 53 percent of respondents chose the former and 39 percent chose the latter. And 68 percent said eligible voters should have to show proof of citizenship to vote, compared to 22 percent of respondents who said they should not.

Just 3 percent of respondents said voting rights was one of their top two issues that is most important to them when choosing whom to vote for, illustrating that Democrats haven’t yet made voting rights a voting issue.

It’s possible that a general election face-off between the GOP’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (or Bernie Sanders) could clarify the distinctions between the parties on the issue. Clinton has advocated for automatic voter registration and called out states like Wisconsin for passing strict voter ID laws while Sen. Sanders (I-Vt. has introduced automatic voter registration bill and legislation that would make Election Day a national holiday. 

Trump, for his part, gave an unintelligible answer earlier this month to a question about whether he’d like to see laws changed to make voting easier. He said “you have places where people just walk in and vote,” which apparently is a problem, and that there’s a national epidemic of non-citizens voting. (There isn’t.)

Ariel Edwards-Levy contributed reporting. 

The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted May 20 – May 23 among U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.

The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.

Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.

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When a stranger shamed her 3-year-old son for wearing a princess dress, this U.K. mom struck back with a powerful Facebook post

On May 20, Haylee Bazen posted a photo of her son Zackary in a Queen Elsa costume, along with one of the two of them in matching Disney princess shirts.

In the caption, she wrote an open letter addressed “to the lady at the bus stop who felt the need to interrupt my conversation with my son.”

“I am NOT sorry you didn’t like how he was dressed nor am I sorry that you didn’t like our discussion topic of who our favorite Disney Princess is (Snow White obviously),” Bazen wrote.

Discussing Zackary, the mom added, “He can be who he wants to be. Today he was a Disney princess, and YES I did send him to school like that.”

“Why???” she continued. “Because that’s what he wanted to wear, because he wanted to show his teachers and friends his Elsa dress, because he wanted to sing ‘let it go’ for show and tell, because he doesn’t understand the gender stereotypes YOU think he should conform to, but most importantly because he is awesome!!”

Bazen explained that her son has many different interests. “He plays with cars and dolls, princesses and pirates,” she wrote. “He rides his scooter or pushes his pram. He wears zombie face painting or lipstick and if he choose to wear a dress he can!!”

The mom concluded by telling the stranger to keep her “disapproving stares” and “poisonous words” to herself (“unless you want to tell him how great he looks,” she added.)

Bazen was inspired to write the post after a stranger approached her at the bus stop and asked if she was “punishing” Zackary by making him wear a Queen Elsa dress, The Daily Mail reports. When the mom responded that his outfit was not a punishment but actually his choice, the woman offered some harsh words.

“She told me that we should be embarrassed and that boys shouldn’t wear dresses. But if anything, she’s the one who should be embarrassed,” Bazen said, adding, “If I saw someone on the street in an outfit I didn’t like or thought didn’t suit them I wouldn’t stop them and shame them. Why ruin someone’s day?” 

The mom’s Facebook post in response to the incident has generated over 154,000 likes and 15,000 overwhelmingly positive comments. Some parents even shared photos of their own sons in Elsa costumes.

Here’s to letting kids be kids!

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Photo by: Brooke Louise Photography

“My nanny has it good. They basically get paid to sit around for 2 hours while my baby naps everyday.”

“My wife and I need a sitter this Saturday night. The kids will be asleep the entire time so it’s an easy job. Because of this, will you reduce your rate?”

“Since you’re only going to be feeding the kids and putting them to bed, can we pay you your usual rate for while they are awake, and then half your rate for when they are asleep? Ya know, because you really won’t be doing anything except watching Netflix… it’s easy money.”

“Okay, so we can offer you $16/hour, but the kids nap everyday so we don’t pay for the hours they nap. If you need the money, we are happy to compensate you while they are napping, but you would have to take on extra tasks around the house during that time. We don’t feel comfortable paying you to do ‘nothing,’ but there are a lot of chores we need help with such as our laundry, ironing, sweeping, organizing, filing, tidying up, watering plants, preparing family meals, etc.”

No, these are not hypothetical scenarios — these are real. And sadly, they happen more frequently than you might think. Parents, I can see where you are coming from. Truly, I can. Childcare is expensive. The idea of paying top dollar for someone to sit at your house while your child is sleeping can be difficult to swallow. But here’s the thing — your nanny/babysitter isn’t doing “nothing” — they are taking care of your child. Your child needs to be cared for even when asleep, otherwise you wouldn’t have hired someone in the first place. What if your child wakes up? What if there is an emergency? That is what your nanny/babysitter is being paid for. To make it out like they are doing “nothing” and suggest they offer a reduced rate is simply insulting. They are ensuring your child is safe and loved while you are out. I think we can all agree that’s a pretty important job. Plus, if you’re hiring a babysitter for a Saturday night, you are paying a premium for your babysitter to give up their Saturday night. Time is money!

Let’s do my favorite and flip it: I’m sure at your job there are times when things slow down a bit. How would you feel getting paid a reduced rate during the “slower” times even though you are still on the clock and can’t go anywhere? It’s unfair and would imply that your time isn’t valuable.

Unless a nanny can leave the house (without the kids) and go grab a coffee or lunch, they are not on a “break”. In fact, nannies never get a break, because even when the kids are napping, they are still on the clock — caring for your children. Plus, most nannies have child related chores to catch up on so they are lucky if they get 30 minutes to quickly eat their late lunch (ya know, because at a normal lunch hour they were busy feeding your kids). Nannying all day is nonstop. If the kids are napping and the nanny is lucky enough to be all caught up on chores, let them just chill. Let them watch some TV or do whatever they want to relax. It’s a small price to pay to ensure your nanny doesn’t get burnt out. Parents, I highly doubt you are “on” all day with your kids on the weekends. For the most part (unless it’s a really crazy day), I’m sure you sit down and take a breather. I’m sure you let your kids entertain themselves for a little bit — maybe even turn on the TV. To this you might say…

“But it’s a job and you are being paid.”

You’re right. It is a job, and we are being paid. But that’s a very dangerous mentality to have. The fact that nannying is a job doesn’t make it okay to have unrealistic expectations of a human being. Nor does it make it okay to expect a nanny to take a reduced rate, if for a couple hours their job is “easy”. I need to tread lightly here because I absolutely do not want to come across as someone who complains about having to work hard. Anyone who knows me will attest to what a hard worker I am. I have been working since I was 15 and I have an extremely strong work ethic. But I’m still human. I’m not a robot. Just like you, I need breaks. Just like you, some days I need to let the kids entertain themselves a little bit more than usual. And just like you, I believe my time is valuable and should be compensated for what it’s worth — even if it’s just coming over to babysit for date night and your kids are already asleep when I arrive.

So parents, please don’t ever say our job is easy because we get to sit around for 2 hours when your kids nap. Please don’t ever ask us to reduce our rate when your kids are sleeping. Please don’t ever say we will only be paid during nap time if we take on extra tasks and never stop. I mean, really? We are literally still working simply by being in your home and not being able to leave. Please remember we are human and even though it’s a job, we simply can’t “go go go” 10+ hours a day, 5 days a week. And lastly, please remember that you are entrusting us with the most important people in your life, so it’s imperative we feel valued and don’t get burnt out by being overworked. Because it’s not just us nannies who are affected — your children are directly affected by nanny burnout — and if nothing else, that is something you should care about.

Brooke Weglarz is a passionate nanny advocate with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology. She offers professional information and tips to help foster fair and harmonious relationships between parents and nannies. She blogs at nannycounsel.com and her instagram is @nannycounsel.

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I have to say a lot of people have been asking this question. No, really. A lot of women come up to me, and they ask me. They say, ‘how can I be a successful woman’?’

And I tell them, look, we know what a successful woman is. But we’ve had almost twenty years of the worst kinds of women you can imagine. Oh, my God, I can’t believe it. These women. Believe me, they’re not 10’s! They’re just not. It’s terrible. It’s just terrible. You know what, do you know what? Women are probably more like less intelligent males, with a lot of makeup on them. A lot. It’s true.

Look, if you want to know what success for women means, do you want to know what success for women means?

I’ll tell you.

First of all there’s makeup, by the way, I love makeup. It’s probably my favorite thing after fake tan, no it’s my favorite thing. Trump Foundation. It’s in every Trump Hotel. Trump Foundation is by far the most natural, the most pigmented foundation you’ve ever used. China. A lot of people in China use Trump Foundation. But, the Chinese! They bring their makeup here, but they’re not bringing their best. They’re bringing makeup with a lot of problems.

And let me tell you. I have experience. Lots of experience. I had over five years of the worst kind of makeup you can imagine. It’s terrible. It’s just terrible. But now with Trump Foundation, believe me. If I’m being honest, I probably shouldn’t say that. I’m proud of it. I’ve done an amazing job. I’m not doing that to brag, because you know what? I don’t have to brag.

If I’m being honest, I mean, if I’m being really honest. I like successful women. Except for Adrianna Huffington, now she’s a successful woman that I don’t like. Though, I probably shouldn’t say that. She’s a nice woman, but she’s like, ‘rights, prejudice, sleep, danger,’ on and on, like that. I don’t know. She’s like a thesaurus! You know what I mean? She’s like an encyclopedia! She’s a dictionary! I don’t know. I mean, you know?

So, we have all these women, and we can judge them and critique them or put them in separate groups. Did you know that? They don’t tell you that, and I’ll tell you, no one is better at knowing what a successful woman is than me.

You wouldn’t believe it.

This is a work of parody inspired by the wonderful work of Steven Edwards “What’s 2 plus 2?” which can be seen here http://www.attn.com/stories/6407/george-takei-impersonates-donald-trump

Sarah Bell is a writer based in Seoul.
She is contactable at www.themscript.com

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.