Senator Tammy Duckworth brought her baby on the Senate floor. [Jezebel]
Michelle Pfeiffer was asked how much she weighed during Scarface. The audience booed the moderator, as they should. [Pajiba]
Aunties react to Taylor Swift’s cover of “September.” [Dlisted]
What the Fug Girls learned from Andrew Morton’s Meghan Markle book. [Go Fug Yourself]
Here’s the teaser for Crazy Rich Asians. [LaineyGossip]
Here’s more about the Comey Memos. [Buzzfeed]
Kanye West is releasing new music! Soon! [The Blemish]
RHONJ went to… Oklahoma…? [Reality Tea]
Kanye West has been tweeting gems all week. [Starcasm]
WATCH: In historic moment after rule change to allow babies on the US Senate floor, Sen. Tammy Duckworth – the first sitting senator to give birth – brings her newborn onto the floor for a vote: "It's about time, huh?” pic.twitter.com/ygTWKT7Vc7
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 19, 2018
She’s my senator and I love that these ancient white Republican male heads exploded.
I love even more that the vote to change the rules to allow the infant on the floor was unanimous, was pleasantly surprised by that!
Pat Robert of Kansas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas (both Rs) were privately bitching about it, though. They both said she could vote from the cloakroom. Someone pointed out that the cloakroom isn’t wheelchair accessible 😝
I love that they had to back down in the face of her badassery.
They’re probably afraid she’s going to whip out a boob or something!
I was just thinking: I hope she breast feeds there too!
Hahaha. Perfect. I bet they’re more afraid of her whipping out a boob than if she were to whip out a gun. Lol
@Minx, So is “Take your baby to the cloakroom” from the male senators the new “Go to the back of the bus” now? (Sigh)
Sorry- but no- take your baby to the cloakroom is not and never will be the equivalent of go to the back of the bus. Sigh
The comment about the concerns over the possibility of her having to breastfeed really pissed me off. She might have to breastfeed her baby?! GASP. So these stodgy old men are okay telling women what they *must* do with their bodies, but they get all pearl clutchy at the possibility of seeing a woman use said body to perform its biological function?
Not wanting her to breastfeed or use her boobs in public to do so *is* telling women can they can or cannot do with their bodies. Same continuum. These men have always placed themselves as being the ones who define and tell us what to do with EVERY aspect of our bodies natural function.
We are dirty when having monthly periods and shouldn’t talk about it. Our breasts are only to serve in private as either sexual objects or to nurture children again in private. They tell us when we should have use our vagina and with whom. And lastly, our uteruses belong to them. Yes, I’m 2018.
Maybe the glass ceiling wasn’t an instant shatter this cycle- more like a slow motion disintegration!
Hats off to Tammy duckworth! She’s so awesome!
My senator! She’s a bad*ss!
Yes! One of the moments I’m proud to live in Illinois!
Fellow Illinoisan here who also loves Tammy!
I am from the same area as her but she is not my senator, I cannot stand her or her policies. That being said…..kudos to her for bring this about. It has been a long time coming!!
Now, are all working moms going to be afforded the luxury of taking their baby to work or is it reserved for only moms in the senate?
You might ask the Republicans. They have such family-friendly policies for working moms. 😄
Interesting, since those who oppose her policies don’t really support paid family leave or policies that actually help moms.
I know that this is a historical moment, but new mothers should not bring their bewborns to work. They should be bonding with their families, recovering from the birthing, the adoption or the first time they met. The polititians should be pushing for a compulsory paid maternal and paternal leave…
thank you. good grief. this whole thing is creepy if u ask me.
If Tammy is not present, she can’t vote — there are strict rules about proxy voting and physical presence for bills. If she’s not actively working she can’t represent her constituency — so her job obligations differ from the regular working Jane.
And if she’s not present, she can’t push for those changes to leave that we should have, but are not likely to get any time soon. Compulsory, paid maternity leave is a loooong way off. Tammy needs to be there to make every vote count.
Yeah, what’s with moms/dads having a choice on what to do after having/adopting a child? Good thing you know exactly how they should be bonding and recovering… ??? /s/
I do believe that maternal and paternal leave is gross in the US and leaves so much to be desired.
I know congress is a bit different and its not easy to take off for months at a time, but in my experience
every time someone brings in their kid to my HHS office bc they dont have a babysitter lined up its very disruptive IMO. It would be one thing if the kids would lay low and well behaved, but last time this happened you had a bunch of kids running around for 8 hrs. We are a government agency and we all have open cubes WTF.
She works in Congress you idiot. She’s not a regular person at a regular job.
She works in Congress. She can pay for (and can surely afford) daycare – or a few hours of nannying – from someone in the Washington area — like everyone ELSE HAS TO DO when they go to WORK.
Wow, calling someone an idiot is really not necessary. We’re known for having civilized comments sections here. Take that crap elsewhere.
@stinky. If she’s breastfeeding, 10-day-olds need to be fed every @ 2 hours. And at 10 days, a lot of infants are still learning to nurse. If you are nursing, it’s not recommended to start adding in bottle feeding (even with breast milk) until 2 months because some babies have a hard time switching back and forth.
Many women in the US are forced to choose between nursing and returning to work within a few weeks of their child’s birth because they don’t have paid leave or any leave at all. But that doesn’t make it right. And it doesn’t mean that Tammy should be deprived of the option to nurse because of it.
I’m so excited for Crazy Rich Asians!!! I really liked the books, and while I was originally unsure of the casting (it’s not how they looked in my imagination) I can *definitely* get behind a shirtless Nick. (Fans self)
I am self employed as a freeze dry artist/taxidermist and I brought my baby with me to work/was back to work 1 week after my c section. I’m all for it, as long as the mom is comfortable with it – why not?
Yeah Tammy!!! You go girl!
I saw Tammy and the baby on the news this morning. Why was she in a wheel chair?
She lost both her legs in the Iraq war.
Oh wow, had no idea, thanks
You’re welcome! Not everyone knows that.
She normally alternates between using a cane and a wheel chair. The former is not likely doable while holding the baby.
Isn’t it not good for the newborn to be around possible germs?
She’s in a contained area for a relatively short amount of time, and the way Sen. Duckworth is wearing her in the sling, no-one is likely to touch her. I think she’s fine.
The opposite actually. In order to build up a healthy immune system, you need to be exposed to things so your body can react and learn to defend itself.
Exactly.
Not at that age.
Yes at that age. Unless the baby is immune-compromised it is good for them to be out. And like others have said the baby isn’t being passed around.
It’s good for babies to be our AFTER they’re vaccinated (at 8 weeks usually) and at the very least AFTER the 6 week mark. Parents often don’t realize that protocol calls for hospital admission and a spinal tap on newborns who spike a fever over a certain point (101.3, I think, but I could be off) prior to age 6 weeks. Also with the increased prevalence of whooping cough and other diseases due to anti-vaccers, it’s not as safe to have newborns in public as it was before this dumb movement. Basically, if possible, the safest place for a baby to be at that age is at home with only visitors with up to date vaccines. As yes, I know that’s hard. We struggled with it with my son & offended some people who wanted to visit, but our first priority was his health, & our pediatrician strongly recommended it. I’m sure she’s doing what she thinks is best for her family, but it’s not a choice I would make and it’s just plain silly to say it’s better for a 10 day old to be exposed to stuff. It’s not.
Somegirl is right. It’s after 6 weeks. OBs say not to take the baby out and about before then, and especially not around, ahem, the elderly.
This! This right here was the best news of yesterday! Tammy keeps breaking down barriers!
Perhaps if more children were on both the Senate and House floors, it wouldn’t be so easy for our representatives to dismiss healthcare and child healthcare. Or to run up the debt we’ll leave our children and grandchildren through tax cuts as we currently are doing. Or a host of other decisions made, it seems, without thought to how it will affect future generations.
just my wishful thinking.
I hope everyone had an umbrella handy because Tammy just keeps shattering those glass ceilings!!!! Amazing!
She is an amazing woman.
Dumb question (there are too many states between me and Illinois, so I really don’t know): Would Tammy Duckworth be a good candidate for president? Is she progressive, moderate, staunch, amenable, etc? Looking for a new leader to hitch my wagon behind because the current field is… meh. Obama (and Hilary, doggoneit!) left a hard act to follow.
She’s pretty strong on all fronts imo, though would need to develop her public speaking skills.
She wasn’t born in the United States, but then again neither was Ted Cruz.
Her father was an American and in the Army but I don’t know if she was born on a base like McCain was.
She wasn’t born on a base–her father was not in the military at the time of her birth–though I believe he worked for US organizations in Thailand at that time. It’s true the constitutional term “natural born citizen” is still not legally settled. It came up for Cruz and McCain, and likely would for her as well. But it is highly unlikely any legal challenges would succeed (per a recent CRS report). And given her sacrifices for this country, any attempt to paint her as a “non-American” would be pathetic and laughable.
My older sister was joyous yesterday with the news of Maile on the Senate floor & then told us stories of her internship 25 years ago when they had to build a ladies room because there wasn’t one for the 2 woman Senators to use and that staffers couldn’t use that and had to travel down to the basement and wait in long lines or go to the first floor and wait in extremely long lines with the tourists but that there were multiple men’s rooms on every floor.
OT but Avicii died??? So sad 🙁
I just saw that!! Very sad, so young…….
Just saw that, too. Bummer.
I love my senator!!
As someone who has to deal with a couple of screaming babies every day, I’m not a real fan of this. Is disruptive, I’m losing the use of an office we desperately need to use just because of the noise. Babies are not quiet. We’ve soundproofed all we can and it’s not working, we can hear the babies screaming all over our building.
I also used to work for a company where the owner let his personal secretary bring her baby. Again, it was too disruptive (loud) to the whole company. After a few months she was told to work from home.
Things need to be set up properly for this to work, daycare on site is a far better solution, not the baby attached to the mom wherever she goes.
She’s on maternity leave but still wants to cast votes. The kid will only be on the floor of the Senate long enough for her mom to raise or lower her thumb. How disruptive can that be?
I honestly have no problem with her situation, zipping in for a quick vote, then leaving. Especially the “leaving” part.
But what if the baby were screaming when it was her turn to vote? The headlines would be totally different today “Sen Duckworth Proving why Babies Shouldn’t be in the Workplace”.
Then people who should be adults put up with a crying baby for the time it takes for her to vote.
And that headline doesn’t need Senator Duckworth to prove it, our current politicians are doing just fine on their own, just saying 😉
I’m sure I’ll be skewered, but it is not your coworker’s responsibility to care for/have to tolerate your child. If your lifestyle can not accommodate a child and it’s care, then you shouldn’t have one. Your employer did not hire you to babysit your child on the company’s dime. Yes, family leave in America sucks, but sadly, life is not fair. Bad policies do not give one the right to expect others to care for or finance their offspring.
* I think I hit “reply” to another poster…this is just my general feeling on the story matter, not a specific response to another comment
i would lose my mind if someone had a baby in my workplace. it’s wildly inappropriate and would keep people from getting everything done.
but i dont think a lot of work gets done in this particular circus so it is probably fine
agwee!
I am a professor and I encourage my students to bring their babies and toddlers to class if no one opposes (they can also skype into class if they need to as an alternative). No one has ever opposed. I would prefer to remove the barriers to participation in work and school as much as we can, so I do. People would bitch if she didn’t show up because she had the audacity to have a baby while she had commitments to her constituents, so she can’t win this one. Our spaces of employment are designed with men in mind, and men who are not accountable to the childcare. If workplaces can experience the challenges women face in order to be active in the workforce, we may get more thoughtful designs. But I am from Canada where our parental leave is more supportive of those who work for an employer and think the America system is elitist.
Love this, oh-dear. Thank you.
@Oh Dear!
Thank you for taking steps to remove barriers and give everyone a chance to improve their situation. My younger sister is starting college in the fall. She’s going to be a non traditional student and is a single parent. I hope she comes across many instructors and professors as supportive as you.
When I was in undergrad and working on a performance degree my applied instrumental professor brought her baby in every day. It was impossible to progress as well as I should have because she was tending to the baby, baby was crying, baby was getting upset when students played their instruments (which is what we paid the university $1k/ credit hour to do), and her attention just was not on what she was supposed to be doing. But no one wants to say anything against the cute baby even though it disrupts every single lesson that you are paying out the nose for. Just because it’s okay in your class does not mean it’s okay in every discipline, and I ended up transferring to another university when it was obvious my applied professor was just going to babysit when she was supposed to be teaching her students. She lost a good majority of her studio and eventually did not get her contract renewed.
PoliteTeaSipper – I was going to make that point. While I think it’s great that people are willing to remove barriers, what about the students who aren’t getting the most out of the class because of a disruptive baby? Babies are loud, cranky and unpredictable, they do not belong in the workplace, nor classroom.
I agree with this actually. not popular but it is disruptive and while I do think it’s great she could go and cast a quick vote, i don’t think children belong in the workplace. I’ve had a student try to bring their baby to class and even though I said no, they still did just before the start and instead of other students getting ready for class presentations, they were playing with the baby. Cute yes, but disruptive to the workplace.
@Lightpurple…ugh that is so annoying. By design they never planned on women being there. HOW SAD. Who runs the world?GIRLS!!!
Men who are opinionated are ‘great leaders and will make the tough decisions’….while women who are opinionated are ‘a five letter word and over emotional’ I AM SO OVER IT.
Tammy is my Senator and will ALWAYS get my vote AND my $$$!!! LOVE HER!
I’d rather have cats and dogs allowed in the workplace but that’s just me.
*shrugs*
I 100% agree. And we do at my company.
Ditto. I have and love children, but they’re wildly disruptive. Dogs would be great. I’m allergic to the kittehz, sadly, and you know they’d all disrupt things by climbing on top of the keyboards and staring at people like they’re the ones being inconvenienced, lol.
Ugh. People need to stop trying to make it okay to bring kids everywhere. Unless you work with kids or in an industry directly related to children, they should not be in a workplace. Not everyone wants to have to deal with that while they’re trying to get their work done.
She’s a Senator who is required to be present to vote. No one is “trying to make it okay to bring kids everywhere “.
Thank you.
This. Not to mention her vote is critical.
Wrong place for comment! Sorry!
it sounds like oh heck yes they ARE trying to say its ok to bring your kids everywhere. thats what all the positive responses in this thread are about.
Well, everyone has to deal with stuff they don’t want to sometimes, and you just gotta suck it up and deal. It’s no one’s ideal situation to try and do their job while taking care of a child, but this is the world we live in and sometimes Senators (or others) have to get sh!t done.
Thank you.
I agree. It’s fine for her to go in quickly if that’s what’s necessary but seriously, no, it’s not okay for babies to be in the workplace. Other people have rights, too, to get their work done in a non-disruptive environment and babies are a whirlwind of constant action.
I really wish Michelle Pfeiffer had not been so classy and polite in answering that stupid, stupid question. Turn it around and ask how he felt about his daughter seeing all the drugs or chainsaw murdering?
Christian bale must ask himself where the problem is with this question
Tammy turned 50 last month – good for her! Any suggestions on the pronunciation of her daughter’s name? I’ve never heard Maile before. Google says a Hawaiian politician aided in the name, so perhaps it’s native Hawaiian.
It’s the Hawaiian spelling of “Miley”
Well, I’m an Admin. Assistant in a company with less than 40 employees, and our female Executive Director has developed the ugly habit of bringing her 2 y/o along to the office. The problem being the idea that Ex Dir feels it’s “the secretaries can keep an eye on her” Nope.
Not me sister. I am employed here to do my listed job duties. Not be your sitter.
My concern is..the “higher ups” feel they can set the rules. Where does this stop?
This Senator gets publicity for this and in the real world some over entitled fool like my Ex Dir tries pushing it too.
I do not care whose child is being brought to work, if I ran the world, no children at work period.
This!!
I just had to say, I LOVE your handle. One of the most beautiful songs ever written. It gives me chills every time.
not nearly long enough though lol
Thx☺i know what you i can never get enough of that song
sweet
She came, she voted, she left.
Kudos to her when every vote is so critical.
Exactly!
+1000
I’m surprised the Republicans haven’t figured out that voting and doing other things such as committee hearings by video conference call would greatly benefit them as well. People in her situation and in John McCain’s situation could do such things from home. It’s especially ridiculous to expect a man dealing with treatment for cancer to travel when the technology allows another way. They could put some restrictions on the actual situations and protocols that would be acceptable just so everybody doesn’t start calling in their vote from a local bar…
Have folks here ever watched CNN live from the Senate floor? That little baby will have a hard time outscreaming the Senators. They’re all talking with each other and there are some yellers amongst them. The structure of the chambers amplifies all the shuffling about also. It’s really noisy. Shouldn’t be a problem for the baby, she got used to it while in the womb and probably finds it soothing. If you want a baby who might sleep through a hurricane, don’t isolate it in a very quiet environment. They can handle familiar noise.
K. West’s Break the Simulation sounds like A Stoner Matrix.
Agree with SJhere, having kids in the office is not fun, especially if you’re the one having to look after one of the higher ups offspring, while paying exorbitant fees to keep your own kiddies in expensive aftercare
How old is Charlize T?
Kanye is back at last. Great news for music!