'Kick him out': New Yorkers celebrate outside Trump Tower on 5th Avenue

Alex Woodward  The Independent
Sat., November 7, 2020, 

(EPA)

Donald Trump’s hometown erupted in celebration following reports of Joe Biden’s victory against the president in the 2020 election, sending New York City residents into the streets to savour his defeat.

But in Manhattan, along the Fifth Avenue where the president once suggested he could shoot someone and get away with it, police barricades blocked the streets surrounding Trump Tower, and fresh plywood covered the windows on the street’s famous strip of luxury retailers for a protest and riot that never came.

Instead, while the president raged on Twitter after a round of golf, small crowds of New Yorkers stood against the barricades to breathe a sigh of relief on the streets surrounding the building where he began his 2016 presidential campaign launch — on the day it came to an end.

A man who identified himself to The Independent as Knife waved a Mexican flag while yelling obscenities in Spanish, punctuated by “kick him out”; on another corner, a man plugged a microphone into a speaker mounted on a bicycle to rally the crowds on the other sides of the street, separated only by barricades, a handful of police officers and empty streets.

Rocky Garcia, who recently moved back to the US from Europe in time to cast his ballot for the former vice president, popped a bottle of Champagne on the sidewalk on 57th Street.

Read more: Joe Biden wins the 2020 US election - follow live updates

“I came here for this moment,” he told The Independent. “I knew we had it in the bag, but I wanted to make sure we had it.”

Shortly before noon on Saturday, New Yorkers blared noisemakers, banged pots and pans and blared music from their balconies, windows, fire escapes, rooftops, and on sidewalks and outside moving cars, kicking off a chorus that lasted into the night.

Thousands of people joined rallies across the city, from Columbus Circle to Central Park, Washington Square Park and Prospect Park, where rallies and dance parties hailed the president’s upcoming exodus and reclaimed the streets after a summer of marches and vigils in the wake of police killings of Black Americans met by police violence.

On 16 June 2015, the reality TV personality and real estate mogul stepped onto the building’s golden escalator with his wife Melania Trump and made his slow descent, with Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” as his soundtrack to announce his candidacy in the 2016 presidential election, which he would eventually win.

Read more: How many US presidents have lost a second term?

The stunt from inside the 58-floor skyscraper — headquarters for the Trump Organization and a residence of the Trumps — included his speech in which he called Mexicans “rapists” within two minutes into his remarks. He also raged against Mexico, China and Japan on the economy, asking, “When did we beat Japan at anything?”

He also promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which his administration has brought to the US Supreme Court, and criticised then-president Barack Obama for playing golf. Five and a half years later, as voting results from Pennsylvania secured Mr Biden the electoral college votes to win the presidency, Mr Trump visited his golf course for nearly the 300th time since entering office.

Christopher Gould moved to New York in 1978, a year before the Trump Organization closed Bonwit Teller's flagship store on 5th Avenue before Mr Trump demolished it in 1980 to make way for his skyscraper.

New York police officers barricade the streets surrounding Trump Tower after Joe Biden is declared the 46th presidenct-elect.EPA

Mr Gould held up a sign reading “Dinged Don The Wicked Grinch Is Dead.”

“It was such a great day to get rid of that man in the White House,” said Linda Louey, who smiled under her mask while she held up a cardboard sign reading “You’re Fired,” the president’s catchphrase from his reality competition TV series The Apprentice.

“It’s going to be so nice to have civility in the White House — people who are civil,” she said.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was her likely first choice, “but I knew Biden would be the one.”

“He had to be,” she said. “He could bring everyone together.”

If the future former president returns to Trump Tower, “that’ll be fine,” she said, laughing. “So long as he doesn’t take up residence in the White House again.”

Read More

Jubilant Biden supporters start a party outside the White House

The moment New York City exploded in celebration at Joe Biden's win

Spike Lee cracks open bottle of champagne in streets as Joe Biden wins

Firecrackers and prayers as Indians celebrate Harris' win

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Election 2020 Harris India
Indian women prepare a Kolam, a traditional art work using colored powder, congratulating U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the hometown of Harris' maternal grandfather, in Thulasendrapuram, south of Chennai, Tamil Nadu state, India, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. After rooting for Kamala Harris as President-elect Joe Biden running mate, people in her small ancestral Indian village woke up Sunday morning to the news of her making history. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

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Election 2020 Biden
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris holds hands with President-elect Joe Biden and her husband Doug Emhoff as they celebrate Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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Indian Harris Ancestral Village
A local vendor sells flowers in front of a hoarding featuring U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the hometown of Harris' maternal grandfather, in Thulasendrapuram, south of Chennai, Tamil Nadu state, India, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. After rooting for Kamala Harris as President-elect Joe Biden running mate, people in her small ancestral Indian village woke up Sunday morning to the news of her making history. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)



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Election 2020 India Reax
Malayalam language newspapers that have as the main front page news, President-elect Joe Biden's win in the U.S. presidential election are displayed for sale between bottles of candies at a roadside shop in Kochi, Kerala state, India, Sunday, Nov.8, 2020. (AP Photo/R S Iyer)

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Election 2020 Biden
President-elect Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden, and members of the Biden family, along with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, her husband Doug Emhoff stand on stage Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

AIJAZ RAHI
Sat., November 7, 2020

THULASENDRAPURAM, India (AP) — Waking up to the news of Kamala Harris’ election as Joe Biden’s running mate, overjoyed people in her Indian grandfather’s hometown are setting off firecrackers, carrying her placards and offering prayers.

Groups gathered at street corners of the tiny village of Thulasendrapuram, population 350, reading newspapers and chatting about the Democrats’ victory before moving to the temple.

A woman wrote in color powder outside her home: “Congratulations Kamala Harris. Pride of our village. Vanakkam (Greetings) America.”

Most of them had gone to sleep by the time Biden clinched the winning threshold of 270 Electoral College votes, making Harris the first woman and the first person of South Asian descent to be elected vice president.

“For two or three days we kept our fingers crossed while the result was delayed,” said resident Kalidas Vamdayar.

"Now it’s a joyful moment for us. We are enjoying it. We will celebrate with firecrackers, distributing Indian sweets to people and praying in the temple. We will request her to come here. She would have heard our voice and she may come.”

Tamil Nadu state Food Minister R. Kamraj led about 100 people at the Dharma Sastha temple for a 20-minute prayer during which the idol of Hindu deity Ayyanar, a form of Lord Shiva, was washed with milk and decked with flowers by the priest. He chanted hymns after lighting oil lamps, and the villagers bowed their heads in respect.

“Kamala Harris is the daughter of our village. From children to senior citizens, each one of us is awaiting the day she would take oath as the vice president of the U.S.,” said Aulmozhi Sudhakar, a village councilor.

More singing, dancing and firecrackers are planned Sunday in the village, where cutouts and posters wishing Harris a “grand success” adorn many walls.

J. Sudhakar, who organized prayers on Election Day, expressed his wish that Harris should visit. As Americans voted, nearly 50 residents, with folded hands, lined up in the temple that reverberated with the sound of ringing bells, and a Hindu priest gave them sweets and flowers as a religious offering.

Women in the village, located 350 kilometers (215 miles) from the southern coastal city of Chennai, used bright colors to write “We Wish Kamala Harris Wins” on the ground, alongside a thumbs-up sign.

The lush green village is the hometown of Harris’ maternal grandfather, who had moved to Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, decades ago.

Inside the temple where people have been holding special prayers, Harris’ name is sculpted into a stone that lists public donations made to the temple in 2014, along with that of her grandfather who gave money decades ago.

Harris’ late mother also was born in India, before moving to the U.S. at the age of 19 to study at the University of California. She married a Jamaican, and they named their daughter Kamala, Sanskrit for “lotus flower.”

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet described Harris’ success as pathbreaking, and a matter of immense pride not just for her relatives but also for all Indian-Americans. "I am confident that the vibrant India-US ties will get even stronger with your support and leadership.”

There has been both excitement — and some concern — over Biden’s choice of Harris as his running mate.

Modi had invested in President Donald Trump, who visited India in February. Modi's many Hindu nationalist supporters also were upset with Harris when she expressed concern about the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, whose statehood India’s government revoked in August last year.

Harris stood by Pramila Jayapal, another U.S. congresswoman of Indian origin, when India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar refused to attend a meeting in the United States over her participation last year. Jayapal had earlier moved a resolution on the Kashmir issue critical of India in the House of Representatives.

Rights groups accuse India of human rights violations in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where insurgent groups have been fighting for independence or merger with neighboring Pakistan since 1989.

___

Israelis Protesting Netanyahu Welcome US Election Results

News18
Sat., November 7, 2020


JERUSALEM: Several thousand Israelis on Saturday attended the weekly demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, with some participants expressing hope that Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential race would bring changes in Israel as well.

The protesters have been gathering outside Netanyahu’s official residence for over four months, calling on him to resign for his handling of the coronavirus crisis and his ongoing trial on corruption charges.

Netanyahu is one of Trump’s closest allies on the international stage, and some protesters hoped that Trump’s defeat would spell trouble for the Israeli leader as well. Trump Down, Bibi to go, read one banner, using Netanyahu’s nickname. Netanyahu, You’re Next, read another.

Despite his stated commitment to bipartisan ties with the U.S., Israels closest and most important ally, Netanyahu has frequently been seen as siding with the Republicans.

After taking office, Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Irans nuclear deal with world powers, winning praise from Netanyahu. Trump also delivered a series of additional diplomatic gifts to Netanyahu, including his recognition of contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. That step, along with moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, led the Palestinians to sever ties with the U.S.

Biden has said he will not move the embassy back to Tel Aviv, but has signaled he will take a more even-handed approach toward Iran and the Palestinians.

I feel that to truly make progress with the peace and negotiation with the Palestinians, which is the most important path of peace, we need a United States thats more neutral, thats more a bridge between us and the Palestinians, said protester Shani Weissman.

In the West Bank, senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Hanan Ashrawi tweeted America Detrumped!

The world also needs to be able to breathe, she added.

In Tel Aviv, meanwhile, thousands of people attended a memorial service marking the 25th anniversary of the assassination of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Rabin was gunned down by a Jewish ultranationalist opposed to his peacemaking with the Palestinians.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

Belarusian police detain dozens of doctors ahead of anti-government rally

Reuters•November 7, 2020


 Opposition supporters protest against presidential election results in Minsk

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Belarusian police on Saturday detained dozens of medical professionals who had planned to take part in an anti-government protest in the capital Minsk, a prominent human rights group said.

Viasna, which is based in Minsk, said 60 doctors and other medical staff who had gathered for a rally were taken to police stations.

Natalia Ganusevich, a spokeswoman for the Minsk police, confirmed that some of the demonstrators had been detained and called on the population not to take part in unauthorized protests, TASS news agency reported.

At least 14 people were detained at a separate women's march on Saturday in the Belarusian capital, Viasna said.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is facing a weeks-long political crisis in which tens of thousands of Belarusians have regularly taken to the streets of Minsk calling for him to resign.

Thousands of people have been arrested at demonstrations since a disputed Aug. 9 presidential election. Rights groups say hundreds of detainees reported being subjected to beatings and other abuse.

The opposition has accused Lukashenko of rigging the election that granted him a sixth term.

A former collective farm manager in power since 1994, he has rejected that accusation and ignored the opposition's calls for him to step down.

The 66-year-old has faced strong criticism from the medical community and general population for having resisted calls for strict lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

He publicly dismissed fears about COVID-19 as a "psychosis" and recommended remedies such as drinking vodka, taking saunas and playing ice hockey.

The former Soviet country of 9.5 million has so far reported 105,283 cases, with 1,004 deaths.


(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Clelia Ozie

Bahamas Paradise forced crew to work for months. Judge says proposed payout isn’t enough

Taylor Dolven
Sat., November 7, 2020



Crew members who were forced to work aboard Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line ships for five months this year without pay are still waiting to be compensated.

On Thursday a federal judge called an $875,000 settlement agreement between lawyers for the company and lawyers for the estimated 275 crew members “wholly inadequate” and sent the legal teams back to the negotiating table. A lawyer for Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line said it needs to raise money for the settlement fund as it struggles to stay afloat, and that bankruptcy is a “possibility.” (THE SETTLEMENT WOULD AMOUNT TO LAWYERS FEES)

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom for the Southern District of Florida said she is concerned that the agreement does not do enough to compensate the crew.

“I have a concern about having to wait another year from the time the settlement is approved to be paid out,” she said. “It’s unfair to these individuals. We’re dealing with individuals like us who have to be paid for their work.”

Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line operates two-night cruises from West Palm Beach to Grand Bahama on its two ships. The company is majority-owned by the family of former Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Kevin Sheehan.

Investigation
How many coronavirus cases have been linked to cruises? Check out the latest numbers
The Miami Herald investigated COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships. Explore the findings of the most comprehensive tracking system of coronavirus cases linked to the cruise industry.

The company used threats of jail time and promises of a one-time $1,000 payment that never came to keep crew working without wages during the pandemic, according to interviews with five crew members. The Herald obtained recordings of crew meetings with CEO Oneil Khosa, President Kevin Sheehan Jr., and hotel director Prem Kainikkara during which the payments were promised.

After the U.S. government canceled cruises on March 14 amid COVID-19 outbreaks on several ships, Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line asked crew members on its two ships, the Grand Celebration and the Grand Classica, to sign an agreement to stay on board without pay. The company said it would pay crew members again as soon as cruising resumed — at that time, estimated as mid-April. The company forced hotel staff including cooks and cleaners to continue working, according to interviews with crew members, and asked others, such as casino staff, to pick up kitchen shifts — all without pay.

As the months passed without cruising, crew members begged to be sent home; the company stalled, falsely claiming the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wasn’t allowing it to repatriate crew. The CDC never stopped allowing repatriation but did require cruise companies to use private flights instead of commercial and insisted that company executives sign agreements ensuring the agency’s COVID-19 protocols would be followed. Cruise companies repatriated thousands of crew members through the U.S. during the summer.

Crew members sued Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in August. The suit alleges the company forced crew to work without pay, delayed repatriating crew to cut costs resulting in false imprisonment, did not provide crew members the two months’ severance guaranteed in their employment contracts and forced them to sign misleading agreements terminating their contracts.

The company’s lawyers and crew members’ lawyers reached a settlement agreement in September, but it needs court approval.

According to the settlement, the company will pay workers who signed the agreements the two months’ severance guaranteed in their contracts, and an additional $1,000 for “any and all work performed” on the ships. Attorney for the crew members Michael Winkleman said the agreement is poorly worded, and the crew members will be compensated for all hours worked. Thirty percent of the total payout — or $262,500 — will go to the attorneys and cover administrative costs of the settlement.

At Thursday’s hearing, Bloom questioned why the agreement doesn’t prohibit the company from engaging in the same practices going forward, like forcing crew members to sign termination agreements. She also said the agreement doesn’t compensate the crew members “100%” and denied the settlement, ordering both sides to file new briefs on the issues before the end of November.

The company’s lawyer Catherine MacIvor told the judge that Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line never intended to stiff the workers.

“The company is cash strapped,” she said. “They were housing them, feeding them. There were a couple of people making food for the crew. They were well taken care of.”

Spokespeople for the company did not respond to a request for comment.

With just two ships, Bahamas Paradise has been particularly hard hit as cruises remain canceled by the pandemic, MacIvor said, and will need to raise money to pay any settlement. The settlement says crew members will have a lien in the amount of $375,000 on the Grand Celebration ship if the company can’t secure financing by the end of the year, a maneuver Bloom called “illogical.”

“Those funds should be made available from the beginning,” Bloom said.

Looming over the case are arbitration clauses crew members agreed to in their employment contracts. If both sides can’t reach a settlement and get it approved by the court, the crew members will be forced to arbitrate their claims individually, an option Winkleman said puts them at a grave disadvantage.

“We’re either going to get a settlement or roll the dice,” he said. “I hope [the company] will agree to a quicker time frame for payment. I’m very pleased with the way the judge handled the hearing. I think she has legitimate concerns about the finality of the deal.”

FAMILIAR'S BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE
Major The Dog Came From An Animal Shelter. Now He's Headed To The White House

A Joe Biden presidency means his two German shepherds, Major and Champ, will be First Pets.

By Hilary Hanson

The White House is going back to the dogs ― including a shelter dog.

After four years of President Donald Trump’s famously pet-free tenure, Joe Biden winning the 2020 presidential election means that the patter of furred feet will likely be heard inside the White House once more.

The Biden family has two German shepherds: Champ, purchased from a breeder in 2008, and Major, adopted from an animal shelter 10 years later.

When the Bidens got Champ, they were criticized for purchasing a puppy from a high-volume commercial breeder that some described as a puppy mill. The family took a different path the next time around, and adopted Major from the Delaware Humane Association in 2018.

STEPH GOMEZ VIA DELAWARE HUMANE ASSOCIATION

Joe Biden and Major at the Delaware Humane Assocation in 2018.

Major had been surrendered to the shelter along with his littermates, and the whole crew was in poor health. The Bidens first took in Major as a foster puppy and ultimately decided to adopt him permanently. (His siblings also all found homes.)

Since then, the pair has made regular appearances on social media, particularly in photos from Jill Biden.


Though Major has been described on social media and on some news sites as the “first rescue dog” in the White House, that isn’t accurate. Lyndon B. Johnson had a beloved dog named Yuki who was found by his daughter at a Texas gas station on Thanksgiving in 1966.

MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES VIA GETTY IMAGES

President Lyndon B. Johnson introduces his pet dog Yuki on the South Lawn of the White House in September 1967.

“LBJ’s favorite dog was a rescue named Yuki, a white mutt who had been abandoned by his owner in a gas station in LBJ’s hometown of Johnson City, Texas,” wrote Johnson’s grandson, Lyndon Nugent, according to the Presidential Pet Museum. “They shared a very significant bond that personified the American spirit: Only in America could a poor boy from Johnson City end up in the White House.”

And while decidedly not a dog, at least one other presidential pet had similarly scrappy roots. Socks, the famous black and white cat belonging to the Clinton family, was originally a stray who jumped into Chelsea Clinton’s arms in Arkansas.
AP PHOTO/MARCY NIGH

Jared Kushner's Company Reportedly Moves To Evict Hundreds As Pandemic Rages

Kushner's Westminster Management is starting the eviction process, even though tenants are protected by a COVID-19 moratorium.

By Mary Papenfuss, HuffPost US
An apartment management company co-owned by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has taken action in court to evict hundreds of tenants whose finances have taken a hit from COVID -19, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Westminster Management has moved against largely low- and middle-income tenants in the Baltimore area, many of them Black, whose apartments are managed by the company, according to the Post.

A state moratorium protects tenants against evictions as people struggle with loss of jobs during the pandemic. A federal moratorium for government-supported housing, which includes some run by Westminster, also offers tenant protections during the crisis.

But Westminster, which manages some 20,000 apartments, and other management companies are eager to get started on the process against tenants with past-due rent.

One resident of a Westminster-managed apartment Tashika Booker, told the Post she lost her job working for an online education company because of the pandemic. She said she’s struggling to pay rent as she seeks other work.

Westminster, part of the Kushner family’s Kushner Cos., said in a statement that Westminster’s actions are fully compliant with state and federal eviction bans.

Jared Kushner said he gave up managing Kushner Cos. when his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, made him a senior White House adviser. But he maintained his ownership in the company. He earned $1.69 million from his stake in Westminster last year, according to his financial filings.

Westminster is currently fighting a lawsuit by Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, which accuses the company of violations concerning tacked-on fees and poor housing conditions.

Months before the suit was filed, Trump slammed the Baltimore congressional district represented by the late Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings’ (D-Md.) as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

Kushner properties in the area at the time had racked up hundreds of building code violations. An earlier lawsuit described one Kushner apartment as having a leaking bedroom ceiling, maggots in the living room carpet and raw sewage spewing form the kitchen sink.

As for the suit filed by Frosh, Kushner Cos. managers have denied the charges, and claim the court action is politically motivated.

Kushner last month dismissively blamed Black Americans for their hardships, saying that they must “want to be successful.”

Read the entire Washington Post article here.

Millions of American workers have children. Thanks to the pandemic, we can now stop pretending we don't.

insider@insider.com (Melissa Petro) 

© Melissa Petro 

Melissa Petro works from home while also being a caretaker for her children. 

Melissa Petro is a freelance writer based in New York where she lives with her husband and two small children.

Before the pandemic, she says she often played the role of the "secret parent," struggling to juggle work and family while sensing pressure from her employers to minimize her time spent parenting.

Now as more parents combine childcare with working from home, Petro says the labor of parenthood is no longer invisible or taken for granted.

While the pandemic has made working parents' lives more challenging, this normalization of parenting in the workplace is a silver lining, Petro says.

At Judge Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court last week, one Republican after another asked the type of questions parents have been asking each other for the past seven months, if not longer.

"How did you manage through lockdown?" Senator Ted Cruz asked the nominee, undoubtedly expecting little more than the pat response Barrett supplied.

When Senator John Kennedy asked "I am genuinely curious, who does laundry in your house?" he was joking, and many laughed— including Judge Barrett— but as a mom of two, perpetually surrounded by piles of clothes in various states of the laundry life cycle, I am genuinely curious.

No, really, I want answers.

Never mind the laundry, our professional futures are uncertain and we are frightened for our family's safety as we approach what experts predict will be "a very deadly December," with tens of thousands of coronavirus deaths to come.

I fail to see the humor in the fact that even parents who can afford to do so are afraid to hire a babysitter or nanny. Affordable childcare has become even harder to find, with a loss of nearly 4.5 million childcare slots as many US daycares shuttered, including the in-home facility where my husband and I had started sending our toddler to just a few months before lockdown.

Our kids are both young, and so we were relieved from having to choose between in-school and remote learning (which is, by all accounts, a disaster). Other parents in my community had the choice made for them when in-person learning was cancelled due to a coronavirus outbreak, undoubtedly leaving working parents in a sudden lurch.

Beneath the faux admiration and condescending suggestion that mothers are somehow morally superior by nature of our having kids, the increasingly un ignorable reality is that working parents struggle to balance their personal and professional lives— especially families without resources. Especially moms. Especially in the midst of a pandemic.

Barrett smiled politely and demurred— it was, after all, a job interview. But American families like mine are fed up; I, for one, am tired of pretending I've got it all under control.
The struggle to work without adequate childcare is real— and it's no laughing matter

Parenthood shouldn't qualify anyone for any particular position, but it shouldn't disqualify us either— and so often it does.

In 2016 alone, the National Survey of Children's Health found that parents particularly of children aged five and younger had to quit a job, not take a job, or significantly change their job because of problems with childcare. While both men and women can be affected, the fact that many women are still the primary caregivers means it disproportionately falls on us mothers.
Since the birth of my son three years ago, I've been fighting to not become one of these statistics

Without consistent and reliable childcare, my husband and I have tried (and failed) to keep parenting from interfering with our careers. My job as a freelance writer and teacher is important to us both, but his full-time, salaried job provides our family with health insurance and pays the majority of our bills, and so we agree it comes first.

Economist Emily Oster dubbed the phenomenon "secret parenting"— a culture that places work and parenting at odds, and so employees feel the need to hide or minimize evidence of their children in the workplace.

In our household, "secret parenting" meant I watched the kids and managed the house by myself while my husband gave it his all at the office. I finished assignments on my phone from the pediatrician's office and Skyped with students while I distracted my toddler with screen time.

Secret parenting meant shouldering the burden on nights my husband stayed late at the office, and silently resented the work emails he'd field at the dinner table after I'd just spent over 10 hours solo parenting our kids.
The juggling act is hard; the hardest part is pretending it's easy

Working without adequate childcare means letting opportunities pass by. Even when I'm trying to be honest with myself and my employers about my limitations, I frequently miss deadlines and make promises I can't deliver.

Pregnant with my second, I spoke candidly with one longtime employer. Instead of accommodating the situation, they discouraged me from applying for Paid Family Leave and rejected my request for a pay raise. When I refused lower paying assignments, they stopped offering me the more lucrative ones.

So I went back to trying — and failing — to do it all.
Now during the pandemic, the era of secret parenting is over

Yesterday my husband participated in a Zoom meeting wearing a firefighter costume, our two children as well as a neighbor's toddler screaming gleefully in the background. My life has changed a lot in the past seven months.

But so has his.

Instead of taking my once invisible labor for granted, Arran works from home and so we are better able to share the load — and it's impossible to hide from his employers, just as parenthood has been impossible to hide from mine.

Having his help makes it easier for me as a working mother, but it's still not easy. Without hired help, there's simply not enough time in the day. I feel a little selfish and somewhat guilty when I'm off writing while he's watching the kids, as if I'm sitting here watching "Real Housewives" reruns instead of bringing in much-needed income and (just barely) maintaining my career. It's also a fact that his work-time is often interrupted and we're afraid of how it could affect his job performance — and, in turn, affect our family's survival.
There is no 'magic formula'

Feinstein had the gall to ask Barrett for strategies — a "magic formula for how you do it and handle all the children and your job and your work and your thought process, which is obviously excellent."

The question perpetuates the persistent, erroneous belief that these challenges are surmountable if only you work hard enough — if you're smart enough and your thought process is "excellent," you still cannot solve an unsolvable equation.

Long-standing systemic issues and governmental failures have put families — and let's face it, women — in this impossible position. Instead of "it's improv," Barrett should have been honest about the help her family undoubtedly hires, then frankly acknowledged that the resources available to them are unavailable to most.

If there's any silver lining to the past seven months, it's the possibility that restrictions put in place to curb the spread of coronavirus will lead to a normalization of parenting in the workplace. The pandemic has made working parents' lives exponentially more difficult but let's face it, being a working parent has always been a challenge. But working parents — and moms, in particular — are an asset to the American workforce. It's time elected officials stop asking in faux-wonderment how we manage and start asking instead how to help.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Bayer executives buy 2.9 million euros in battered stock after writedowns


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bayer's CEO and two fellow executive board members purchased a collective 2.9 million euros ($3.5 million) worth of the German drugmaker's shares after the stock was battered by billions in writedowns, litigation woes and a bleaker profit outlook.

© Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay FILE PHOTO: 

Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer AG, arrives for the annual results news conference of the German drugmaker in Leverkusen

Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann and his wife Corinna purchased a combined 2.45 million euros in shares on Wednesday, according to regulatory filings posted by the company on Friday.

Finance chief Wolfgang Nickl and consumer health head Heiko Schipper also bought stakes worth 154,000 euros and 309,000 euros, respectively, on the same day.

Bayer shares have lost more than a fifth of their value since Sept. 30, when the group warned of billions of euros in impairment charges on agricultural assets and a slight decline in core earnings per share in 2021.

Those writedowns amounted to 9.25 billion euros, the company said when it announced quarterly results on Tuesday, also flagging an increase of around $750 million in the cost of settlement terms with U.S. plaintiffs over its Roundup weed killer.

The litigation over claims that Roundup causes cancer, which Bayer is seeking to settle for more than $11 billion, has also dragged the stock lower.

A Bayer spokesman would not comment beyond the filings.

Top executives are banned from buying or selling stock in their own company in the weeks running up to quarterly results announcements but are free to do so at other times.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Philadelphia Flyers Mascot Gritty Is The U.S. Election Mascot We Need And Deserve

The United States presidential election is down to the wire, as attention turns to the key swing states that will decide the winner. Arizona’s Maricopa County is now a weapon in everyone’s geography trivia arsenal. Georgia is on all of our minds. And we can’t help but wonder what’s taking Nevada so dang long to count.

In Philadelphia in particular, residents are preparing for the impact their city could have on the results. Once the state of Pennsylvania is called — which could come any time now — we’ll know who if former vice-president Joe Biden, who leads there, will secure its 20 electoral votes and, subsequently, win the election.

While Biden has several paths to victory through the swing states, Pennsylvania (and by extension Philly) is looking more and more likely to decide it on Friday. Throughout Thursday and Friday as Philly votes rolled in, U.S. President Donald Trump’s lead in the state began to shrink, eventually flipping to favour Biden early Friday.

And the city is going wild.

Philadelphia is home to a unique culture. It is, of course, a city where they had to grease lampposts with lard to prevent fans from climbing them following the Eagles’ 2018 Super Bowl victory (and here I will disclose that I am an Eagles fan and I 100 per cent would have climbed a lamppost if I could have.)

It’s full of passionate people, and thankfully the city has a figure to embody that passion: Gritty.

For those not in the cult of personality around the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers mascot, allow me to explain. The large orange monster was introduced as the hockey team’s mascot in September 2018 and quickly adopted as a symbol of socialist and anti-faschist movements, being dubbed “comrade Gritty”.

And now he’s become a symbol of Philadelphia’s possible role in the election and, apparently, the mortal enemy of Trump. 

He’s been memed into “Game Of Thrones’” Olenna Tyrell ...

 …  and as Captain America.

Really, there’s just been a bunch of top-shelf memes out there.

 

I’m losing my MIND over these Gritty memes. PA DOING SO GOOD. pic.twitter.com/PzoIGabLVT

— Bri ☠️ (@vizualcosplay) November 6, 2020

An unofficial manifestation of comrade Gritty even showed up at “count every vote” celebrations overnight in Philadelphia. And he knew how to get down. 

On Friday a version of Gritty even showed up in a klezmer band.

Many Gritty fans speculated what role the beast could play in a possible Biden administration, considering Philadelphia’s possible pivotal role in this election. 

Others suggested Gritty should be the true winner of the election.

He is the symbol of this long, chaotic election we need and deserve. Nothing but respect for MY president, Gritty.