The Samsung DeX Station is a dock for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus which allows the “Samsung DeX” desktop software to work. This software is active within the Samsung Galaxy S8 family of devices and allows the owner of a Galaxy S8 smartphone to plug their phone in and compute on a larger scale. This system runs a desktop-like … Continue reading
This column originally appeared in Emily Peck’s newsletter, a weekly email that looks at the convergence of women, economics, business and politics. Sign up here.
It’s a scandal with legs. Over the weekend, United Airlines kept two teenage girls off a plane because they were wearing leggings, which are apparently not appropriate pants for sitting inside a super-cramped cabin, with your knees in your throat, paying $8 for a sandwich and inhaling other people’s coughs and farts for many hours. The internet predictably went insane with outrage over the incident.
If you are a human American person, you probably know that millions of female persons in our soon-to-made-great-again country wear leggings ― especially young girls. Last year, online legging sales overtook jean sales. My daughter, who is 6, hasn’t worn jeans in years because obviously stretchy leggings are 1,000 times more comfortable and you can get them with glitter and butterflies. Many, many adult women also pointed out that United was continuing in an age-old tradition of shaming and sexualizing girls for wearing certain clothes.
Yesterday Bill O’Reilly made fun of Rep. Maxine Waters. He later had to apologize. She said she didn’t care. Well, actually she said, “I’m a strong black woman, and I cannot be intimidated.” Which is just perfect. Also if you need more Maxine Waters, this piece from Elle from back in January is a good time.
Also on Tuesday, the White House press secretary scolded reporter April Ryan, who is black, and told her to stop shaking her head.
Both of these incidents inspired black women on Twitter to share their real-life experiences at work. Many described having to deal with inappropriate comments about their looks, and even more opened up about how they’re often accused of being overly aggressive or intimidating when they’re just going about their day.
I feel safe in saying that Uber is not a chill place for women to work. In February, a female engineer who used to work there described being propositioned by her boss on her first day at the office and then having her complaints about that, and subsequent incidents, ignored again and again. That same month a New York Times story revealed more about gropings and anti-gay slurs at Uber. Over the weekend, The Information broke a story about Uber employees at a South Korean escort/karaoke bar. This week I spoke with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s ex-girlfriend about the company’s whole bro-vibe. Gabi Holzwarth talked about how demoralizing it was to attend parties swarming with Silicon Valley men, who’d hire models to socialize with them.
Don’t worry though, Uber’s on it! This week the ride-sharing company released information about the gender and ethnic makeup of its employees ― after years of refusing to do so. The company is finally acknowledging that perhaps the company culture is a stitch too aggressive. So now what? Oh, it’s donating money to charity. So all better then! Congrats, everyone.
Here are Gabi and Travis last spring when they were still dating:
Speaking of all-male cultures
Photos of large groups of white guys meeting at the White House are pretty familiar by now. In this picture, for example, Vice President Mike Pence is discussing health insurance with members of the so-called Freedom Caucus, a bunch of guys from Congress who believe they have the right to make decisions about women’s health care because of freedom or something. I feel super free about this, don’t you?
In the New York Times Jill Filipovic posits that these photos not only are the product of an administration that absolutely does not give AF about women or political correctness ― but instead serve as a deliberate display of aggressive masculinity.
“Mr. Trump promised he would make America great again, a slogan that included the implicit pledge to return white men to their place of historic supremacy,” she writes. “And that is precisely what these photos show.”
This column originally appeared in Emily Peck’s newsletter, a weekly email that looks at the convergence of women, economics, business and politics. Sign up here.
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On Wednesday, Sean Spicer offered what may be the most absurd lie of his whopper-filled tenure as White House spokesman.
“The president made women’s empowerment a priority throughout the campaign,” Spicer said, with a totally straight face, to a room full of reporters.
Watch:
To be clear, Spicer was speaking of the president. Donald Trump. The one who was caught on tape saying he grabs women “by the pussy,” and who is the author of this tweet:
Spicer told reporters on Wednesday that later in the day, Trump would drop by a panel devoted to women’s empowerment hosted by the White House, and led by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Also in attendance would be Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley ― that’s 75 percent of the women in Trump’s Cabinet. There are just four, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, in the 24-member group.
The last time a first-term president put so few women in his Cabinet was 1980.
Trump’s so into empowering women that he hires one woman for every three men for his White House staff, according to an analysis by Bloomberg. In some departments ― Commerce, Treasury, Energy ― fewer than 15 percent of Trump appointees are women, according to the analysis.
Spicer noted that during the campaign, Trump spoke about affordable child-care and paid family leave. That’s true. He spoke of those things late in the summer at the prompting of his daughter ― after a year of saying almost nothing on the subjects.
Since then, Trump has spoken of them one other time ― in a speech before a joint session of Congress ― and offered no further indication that he’s moving forward on any policies.
More recently, Trump got rid of a regulation that ensured government contractors don’t discriminate against women.
Spicer also ticked off some women-stuff Trump and his family have done since entering office ― a joint venture with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a round-table discussion led by daughter Ivanka Trump, and a speech by first lady Melania Trump.
Spicer didn’t mention that the president moved to reinstate restrictions on women’s health on his first day in office ― and that he did it in a room surrounded by other men. Just last week, Trump tried to restrict women’s health in the failed GOP health care bill by curtailing aspects of Obamacare that guaranteed access to maternity care.
At Wednesday’s panel, the Trump administration women in attendance will “speak about the unique challenges that women and young girls face today,” Spicer said.
Twitter users brought their A+ GIF game in response to Spicer’s comments:
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WASHINGTON ― Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted down a measure offered by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) to force President Donald Trump to release his tax returns to the committee.
In a party-line vote on Tuesday, 24 committee Republicans voted against the measure and 16 Democrats voted for it.
This is the second time committee Republicans have voted to keep Trump’s tax returns secret and the third time the House has held a vote on the subject. In February, committee Republicans sunk a prior measure from Pascrell, and then, on the floor of the House, Republicans beat back a resolution, also from Pascrell, to force the release of Trump’s tax returns. Both votes were along party lines.
Trump has refused to voluntarily release his tax returns for public review, though every other president since Gerald Ford has released some portion of their tax returns. Trump claims he can’t release his returns because they’re under a “routine audit,” but has provided no evidence of one. There is also no law or regulation preventing individuals from publicly disclosing their tax returns when they are under audit.
In an often-testy committee hearing, Republicans argued that Democrats were simply playing politics. “Frankly, this resolution is a procedural tool being utilized, and I think abused, for obvious political purposes,” committee chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said.
Pascrell shot back it was entirely proper to use the law and added that the committee had a duty to ensure the president’s business interests don’t conflict with his work for the American people.
“It is our responsibility under the Constitution, Mr. Chairman ― very clear, very clear ― to provide oversight of the executive branch and root out conflicts of interest,” Pascrell said. “That is our responsibility.”
Republicans on the committee argued that Democrats were improperly using a law enacted after the Teapot Dome Scandal in the 1920s that permitted the committee to obtain the tax returns of executive branch officials under investigation at the time. The committee used the same law decades later to obtain President Richard Nixon’s tax returns during the Watergate scandal. Republicans, including Brady, also used the law in 2014 to investigate allegations that the IRS improperly targeted conservative nonprofits.
Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio), a former tax lawyer, argued that the president’s tax returns would not reveal any items of interest.
“You’re railing off on things that you would never find on a tax return,” Renacci said, adding that Democrats were instead on a “political mission, not a mission of fact.”
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) echoed that sentiment. “This hearing clearly has showed me that this is just a bunch of political grandstanding,” he said.
This was the common theme from Republicans on the committee. One after the other, they argued that Democrats were only interested in politics and that Trump’s returns would contain nothing of interest beyond what was already revealed in the financial disclosures he had to file with the Federal Election Commission.
Republicans’ accusations that the measure was only about politics irked some Democrats. After Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) declared that the whole exercise was about politics, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) replied defensively.
“To impugn the integrity of [Rep. Pascrell] is irresponsible,” Crowley said. He added, “Our motivation is to find the truth.”
In addition to blocking the release of Trump’s tax returns twice on the Ways and Means Committee and once on the House floor, Republicans also voted to block a measure in the House Judiciary Committee requiring the Department of Justice to inform the committee about its investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russian government.
Without much power in Washington to hold hearings and call witnesses, Democrats are hoping to get Republicans on the record obstructing disclosures the public supports. The majority of Americans want Trump to release his tax returns, as every other president in the modern era has done.
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On an ordinary day, Maine mom Rachel McNamara was adjusting the straps on her toddler son’s car seat when an idea struck.
“I had him sit in his car seat and get all buckled up to make sure it looked good, and I thought, ‘Lets do a fun little test,’” she told The Huffington Post. “I flipped him up and had my husband take a quick picture.”
McNamara shared two photos from the “test” and a caption about car seat safety on Facebook and was overwhelmed to see the post quickly go viral.
The mom’s original caption stated, “After strapping your child into their car seat, ask yourself if you’d be comfortable flipping it upside down. Remember that the chest clip should be at armpit level and the straps should be tight enough to pass the pinch test. #carseatsafety.”
The post attracted a lot of attention from fellow parents. To date, it’s been shared almost 50,000 times.
Following the initial burst of viral fame, McNamara updated the caption with some additional clarifications and links to car seat safety resources.
“First, I’d like to clarify that I’m not advocating that parents should be flipping their kids upside down before every car ride,” she explained. “Just that they should feel confident that their child would be safe IF the car seat was flipped over in an accident. I think this is a great visual and shows just how important proper car seat use is.”
McNamara emphasized the importance of reading your car seat’s manual before installing and adjusting and clarified what the “pinch test” entails. She also advised parents to reach out to their local child passenger safety technician for assistance, keep their kids rear-facing for at least their first two years, and avoid “aftermarket products” and used car seats from untrustworthy sources.
“Car accidents are the leading cause of injury and death in children,” she wrote. “People might also say, ‘Twenty years ago I didn’t even wear a seatbelt and I’m perfectly fine!’ Well, that person got lucky. There are many children who are not alive today to tell their story.”
She added, “Times have changed. There are more drivers on the road today. We have more distracted drivers due to cell phones. We also know a lot more than we knew back then about children’s bones and development. Car seats are constantly evolving to become safer.”
McNamara has two daughters, ages 7 and 8, in addition to her 2-year-old son. She told HuffPost she developed a passion for car seat safety during her most recent pregnancy.
“I wasn’t as educated about car seats when I had my daughters,” she said. “Unfortunately I made some of the same mistakes that I talk about in my post. A favorite phrase I live by now is ‘Know better, do better.’”
Ultimately, the mom hopes parents who read her post learn more about car seat safety. And in lieu of flipping their children upside down (”because accidents do happen”), McNamara said they can simply ensure that the chest clip is at armpit level and the straps pass the pinch test.
“The biggest thing I want people to take from my post is that accidents can happen anywhere, at any time to anyone,” she said. “Proper car seat use could be the difference between life or death. It’s a little hard to hear that, but it’s true. And if someone is trying to give you advice about car seat safety, please don’t think they’re judging you or think you’re a bad parent. They care!”
— 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.
My 5-year-old son’s glasses are on their last leg. He has a backup pair – frames in a nice green we bought months ago for just this reason – but surprise! I can’t find them.
Rooting around in drawers, I take note of the clutter I find and start berating myself for my lack of organization. By the end of the morning, I find myself sucked into a vortex of parenting shame, convinced I’m not competent enough to be in charge of another person.
I can’t handle this, I think to myself. I am not good enough to do this job.
There’s a thing called “imposter syndrome,” named by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes to describe people who secretly feel they aren’t intelligent or capable despite evidence in the form of high achievement. “Imposters” fear being found out and exposed for the phonies they secretly feel themselves to be. People with imposter syndrome (often high-achieving women) tend to attribute their successes to luck or their ability to fool others instead of to inherent talent.
The term usually applies to achievement at work. But I think I have it for parenting.
Here I am, pretending to be an adult capable of managing the care and development of another human being. And yet internally, I’m the emotional equivalent of a pair of toddlers stacked up underneath a trench coat. Despite the evidence that I am doing this parenting thing, day by day, I feel barely capable of taking care of myself, much less a child.
Parenting lends itself to crippling self-doubt. It’s the long-term results that really matter, after all, and we won’t know how those turn out for decades. The job itself is so vast, the goals so ambitious: handle all the needs of another person while preparing them to be a productive citizen of the world. Is it any wonder I sometimes suspect I am not adequate for the task?
And as a foster and then adoptive mother, I’ve had more training than most. I had to complete hours of coursework to prepare for parenthood. I had to undergo a medical examination, and a “home study” to make sure my radiators were covered and my cleaning supplies were out of reach. I had to answer probing question about my past and my psyche. I did worksheets and took classes that prepared me for the worst possible outcomes of dealing with a troubled child.
But at the end of the day, we all just get handed a kid. All first-time parents are attempting to excel at a job we’ve never done before. And some days, I feel like a fraud.
It doesn’t help that in a world of Pinterest crafts and elaborate back-to-school photo shoots on Facebook, I’m likely to compare my insides to other people’s outsides. While I’m paddling as hard as I can to keep my head above water, I can look at other parents and assume they’ve got it effortlessly together.
Before I got sober from alcohol in 2009, I used to look around and feel that everyone else had gotten a manual that I had somehow missed. They understood how to do things that felt insurmountably difficult to me ― things like how to join a gym and then attend it, or how to open their mail regularly.
Today, as a sober mom, I feel pretty much the same way about parenting. I do not inherently know the rules ― how often is he allowed to eat french fries? Is It OK to let him wear his pajama pants outside? I still feel like I’m struggling to catch up to the parents who know what they’re doing.
It never occurs to me that everyone else might be feeling the same way.
The thing is, there is no way to do parenting perfectly. Some days it’s hard to even do it well. Life with kids is alternately chaotic, joyful, exasperating and mind-numbingly boring. Maybe I’m not that good at it. Probably I’m doing better than I think in low moments, as people who love me would undoubtedly say.
But the important thing is that I don’t let the idea that I might not be good enough paralyze me with fear, or lead me into anxiety and depression, but instead keep moving forward, one doing-my-damn-best decision at a time. Even if my drawers are cluttered and we never find those glasses.
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