1) Why wouldn’t she start talking about a maternity leave?

I’m a contractor, too. During the last shutdown, we got a “stop work order,” and our entire program was furloughed. The rationale for this was the same as verymoco’s: a federal employee 3000 miles away supervises the 60 or so people working on my contract. The decision about whether or not to provide backpay is made…

Also, not getting paid eats into your savings. Assuming you have them. Even a decent wage can mean paycheck to paycheck. I’d be fucked if one of mine was missed.

“ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka Food Stamps) would likely stop providing monthly food benefits to the 45 million Americans”

In the last shutdown, I was fortunate to have enough savings that I could pay all my bills despite not receiving my regular paycheck on time. Yes, we were paid eventually, but I didn’t know for sure if that would happen. For a lot of the lower-paid employees, though, not getting paid for an indeterminate amount of…

Excuse to posts a lovely wedding picture of my mother, about to celebrate their 50th anniversary next month? Accepted! Say hello to October of 1965.

You are incredibly incorrect. Signed, a woman who has received gyno checkups and birth control from PP.

The contracting situation was especially confusing to me. Some reports said that government contractors were just told to stop working—did the government still owe payments on pledged contracts? Or were some contractors still required to work and not compensated later?

Those numbers really perfectly illustrate the fact that these guys show about as much respect for tax dollars as they do for toilet paper. $2.5 billion in losses from the last shutdown... and they are going to do it again over $500 million of funding that is only loosely tied to the issue they are up in arms about.

Again? Really? Ted Cruz is such a piece of trash. Abortions are a very VERY small portion of what Planned Parenthood does. It is an essential service and needs to be funded. The countries budget is not something to be held ransom for political gain.

I actually brought this up in our group slack channel RIGHT before this story went live:

Umm, I think that’s illegal in most parts of the U.S.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU GUYS?

This is fantastic information, thank you. A follow up?

AND, you might get in your feelings over the shit-talking, because James isgoing to call you a bitch. He always does that.

SO THIS. For every unaware woman who blithely declares “I’m not a feminist,” the response should be “Why the everloving fuck aren’t you?”

“Sorry about the Herrs, you should have gone with Utz.”

Congratulations Mark and Allen, and a beautifully written article.