Hello friends - Happy Friday! Welcome to another edition of The Slip! You may notice things are looking a little different around here…This week we’ve decided to shake things up a bit and experiment with a slightly new format and ditch the longform essay in favor of taking smaller bites of the proverbial apple. Sarah and I love, love, love doing deep dives on topics that matter a great deal to us - and you! - but sometimes it feels like there’s so MUCH we should be covering that it leads to a little bit of decision paralysis. And we don’t want that. As always, we welcome feedback. If this new format doesn’t work for you, tell us! Leave a comment! This is a two-way street. Our goal, as always, remains unchanged: Provide an outlet and a voice for conservative women who aren’t represented by the modern feminist movement.
Thanks for being here!
1 Thing to do today (if nothing else)
Get your dose of Vitamin C. Seriously. Everyone I know is dropping like flies right now and succumbing to colds, flus, coughs, and other viruses. Consider yourself warned - and go eat an orange!
Gut Check: Your job owes you nothing
The other day I watched, like millions of other people, the viral video posted online by Brittany Pietsch who filmed herself getting fired. What?!? Yes, you read that right. Imagine this: You’ve been working at a tech company (in this case, Cloudflare) for 4 months. You find out a bunch of your colleagues are getting fired and then it happens: a re quest for a video call with HR. You know what’s about to happen. So what do you do? Film it and post it on TikTok, duh!
Now, I’m not sure if Pietsch was looking for her 15 minutes of fame, but she’s certainly getting it. Whatever her motive for posting the video, the internet….has thoughts. And so do I! Though they’re slightly complicated.
Longtime readers of The Slip may know that I’ve been in this position. I was fired, at the ripe old age of 22, from my very first job out of college. It stung. I was thoroughly blindsided, but to this day, I WISH I had pressed my bosses for a better explanation in the moment. So on that front, I say kudos to Pietsch for not letting these execs get off the hook so easily. Whether you’re dealing with at-will employees or not, everyone deserves an honest explanation for why the firing is happening. It sounds like the HR folks just had no knowledge or solid facts to give her, which is a problem.
What I am bothered by is the attitude that she’s above getting fired; that she’s owed this job by Cloudflare. That’s problematic. You job owes you nothing. “But I work so hard!” That’s great, and in return you get some money in your bank account. It’s a transaction and at the end of it you’re both equal. The entire thing also seems entirely unprofessional and short-sighted to me. How are future employers going to view this? How will this impact her prospects of getting another job? Does she care? The whole incident forced Cloudflare to come out and say there was NO mass lay-off - just termination of 40 out of 1,500 sales employees who were not performing up to their standards, which if you ask me, doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of Pietsch.
And finally - why must we film and post EVERYTHING on social media these days? I promise you…it’s ok to keep some things off the internet! Pietsch says she has “no regrets.” That’s great...while it lasts. But everything posted on the internet has the potential to come back and bite you eventually. Tell me I’m wrong.
Feminism Files
The pope is calling for an international ban on surrogacy, on the grounds that it “represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.” Hmmm. No offense to the Pope (I’m not even catholic), but I consider myself firmly in the camp of “surrogacy should be judged on a case by case basis.” And as of right now, at least, I’m ok with that. NR: “Grave Violation of Dignity: Pope Francis Urges Universal Ban on Surrogate Motherhood.”
Remember that gut-wrenching abortion ad that basically won re-election for Democrat Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear last November? The ad’s narrator and star, Hadley Duvall, isn’t finished with her quest to change the Commonwealth’s abortion laws. Now, she’s calling on lawmakers to add exceptions to the state law for rape and incest, among other things. Once again, us Republicans need to figure out how to balance compassion with being pro-life is all I'm saying. AP: Campaign advocate for abortion rights makes plea for Kentucky lawmakers to relax abortion ban
Ok so Fani Willis is the District Attorney who brought charges against Donald Trump for attempting (allegedly) to interfere with the election results in Georgia in 2020. She brought on a special prosecutor to help her named Nathan Wade. Nathan Wade is going through a divorce with his wife Jocelyn. Mike Roman, a former Trump official who was charged alongside the former president, is accusing Wade and Willis, through his attorney Ashleigh Merchant, of having a sexual relationship that predates Willis hiring Wade to work the Trump case. Are you still with me? Roman is also alleging that the two have financially profited off of the Trump case, which is a big no-no in the legal world. Why am I putting this in the “feminism files”? Because when Willis finally sorta commented on the accusations, her first instinct was to blame it all on racism. She’s black. Wade is black. That’s why they’re being called out - it couldn’t POSSIBLY be because they actually screwed up. And you wonder why you haven’t heard about this on the nightly news. Feminism fail right here. Almost reminds me of a now ex-president of Harvard who refused to own her mistakes too! WSJ: He was hired by Fani Willis to prosecute Trump. Now he’s accused of an affair with her
The Hill: Fani Willis breaks silence on misconduct accusations
Powerful read right here about why we can’t be giving Hamas a pass on sexual violence. It’s crazy that we even have to say this. Washington Monthly: She asked for it: Hamas, Weaponized rape, and reversing years of progress for victims of sexual violence
Political Horse Race
Photo cred: NPR
On Monday, a few voters in Iowa went to their caucus locations and overwhelmingly chose Donald J. Trump as their guy to face Joe Biden in November. And by “few,” I really do mean “a few”. About 110,000 Iowans showed up to caucus on Monday night - roughly 15% of the state’s 752,000 registered Republicans. And I get it: it was cold. Really, really, really cold. That likely had a huge impact on turnout, and I don’t want to downplay the risks of -20 degree weather.
What’s grinding my gears is the idea, pushed by every single Trump supporter online, that it’s over. It’s all over. Trump is the nominee. The Iowans have spoken. Time to pack it up.
Sure…about 56,000 Iowans spoke in favor of Trump. But who says 56,000 people in a country of some 37 million registered Republicans (give or take a few) should determine the fate of this here nomination process? I respect Iowa’s role in the presidential primary. Really, I do. But let’s not consider this over. At least not until the fat lady sings!
In Your Free Time:
To watch: Willy Wonka. Is it the best movie ever? No. Is it entertaining? I thought so! And yes, I even teared up a little at the end. Don’t overthink it - just go see it!
To listen: This Honestly episode about America’s COVID failures is great.
To buy: These Bombas slippers were a Christmas present, but if I had known how awesome they were I would have bought them for myself a long time ago!
Thank you and we’ll see you in two weeks! -Amanda