"Women's Issues" are Everyone's Issues

This week, I watched Bob Kendrick, President of the National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, deliver a masterclass in storytelling, extempore, to 200 nonprofit communicators visiting his museum during #ComNet24 (please watch!)

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THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS OBSESSED WITH CONTROLLING WOMEN’S LIVES. Donald Trump is a convicted sex offender and has been credibly accused of a litany of crimes against women. His running mate, JD Vance, is essentially an avatar for the “women belong in the kitchen” movement in the modern GOP. Trump doesn’t seem to be very aware of, well, much of anything these days, but Vance is a different, even more dangerous story.

His public comments on women are as crazy as they are voluminous—there are years of podcast appearances and events that paint a picture of a man beholden to a worldview that diminishes anyone who isn’t a white man.

This list from Self is a great overview of Vance’s traditionalist views, and we should absolutely take them exactly as he said them. There is no room for interpretation here:

In recently resurfaced remarks during a 2021 Center for Christian Virtue leadership forum, Vance said, in reference to how children are taught in school, “that so many leaders of the left…they’re people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children,” adding that this “really disorients me and it really disturbs me.”

Not a lot of room for interpretation here either:

During a 2021 interview with Curtis Jackson of Spectrum News 1, in Columbus, when Vance was running for Senate, Jackson asked him whether anti-abortion laws should include exceptions for rape or incest. Vance’s response skirted around the question: “Look, I think two wrongs don’t make a right,” he said, as if to imply that the wrong of rape or incest should not be followed by the equivalent “wrong” of abortion.

And, here he is in his own words:

“You have women who think that truly the liberationist path is to spend 90 hours a week working in a cubicle at McKinsey instead of starting a family and having children.”

If Trump is the known quantity, Vance is the wolf in wolf’s clothing. This is all ominous for women in this country, of course, but the fact that the story is continuously framed as “women’s issues” is really not helping—these are issues that directly affect everyone and they need to be treated as such. If the fundamental rights of women are under threat, all rights are under threat, full stop. Trump is, at this point, pretty much an empty vessel for right-wing grievances and causes, but Vance represents the future of the MAGA movement, and there’s no reason to think that he will do anything less than exactly what he says he wants to do.

Women are certainly motivated to vote, and Kamala Harris’ candidacy has helped that:

But the partisan divide is shocking on major issues:

The fact that we have to poll on these issues—IVF, abortion access and birth control access—gives away the urgency of the issue. These issues directly affect women’s bodies and there is only one party that aims to get the government involved however it can (cue the “I thought the GOP was the small government party” chorus). First, all of these issues very directly affect men as well, whether they want to admit it or not. Second, the idea that this kind of state intervention into private matters will not translate to other aspects of our lives is na?ve to say the least. Women’s rights over their own bodies are on the ballot, and the faster men realize this, internalize it and start to take these as societal issues and not “something women care about,” we will all be much much better off.

Saturday Night Live did a Daily Show-like segment last weekend about the final push of the campaign, and, again, I simply do not understand how this race is a toss-up.

Vote. For. Kamala Harris. And tell your unconvinced uncle in swing states to do the same.

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DIGIMENTORS TECH TIP | Android 15 Rolls Out with Thick Security Blanket

By Robert S. Anthony Each week, veteran tech journalist Bob Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him?@newyorkbob on Twitter and check out his 1.1 million followers on Pinterest!

It didn’t shock the world the way Apple’s iPhone did in 2007, but when Google’s Android mobile operating system arrived in 2008, it kicked off a battle for smartphone software dominance that’s unsettled to this day. Now, with Android 15 rolling out, the OS takes a hard swing not at Apple, but at protecting Android users from thieves, prying eyes and other cyber maladies.

Android has evolved quite a bit since 2008 when it showed up inside the T-Mobile G1 (aka the HTC Dream), which had a slide-out QWERTY mechanical keyboard and a 3.2-inch, 320-by-480-pixel touch screen. In 2024 Android 15 finds itself having to support giant folding screens like the 8-inch, 2,076-by-2,152-pixel inside display on the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Android 15 offers new privacy and security features that can be tweaked by digging deep into the Settings menu, but not all new capabilities will be available to all Android phones. As usual, Google’s own Pixel phones will have access to Android 15 first.

Among the security features supported by Android 15 is a Theft Detection Lock which locks a mobile device’s screen if it detects a sudden movement like when a phone is snatched out of a hand. Once the screen is locked, the thief is left to figure out the unit’s screen lock PIN or, if the screen is locked with a fingerprint, he’s out of luck without more hacking.

Also available is a Remote Lock feature which, once enabled, allows users to remotely lock a stolen phone by entering the phone’s number into the Remote Lock page at Google’s Find My Device website.

One item that was expected to be in Android 15 but has not been enabled is an “Identifier Disclosure Transparency” feature which could warn users if their phone was being tracked by a so-called “stingray” device. The American Civil Liberties Union describes stingray devices as “invasive cell phone surveillance devices that mimic cell phone towers and send out signals to trick cell phones in the area into transmitting their locations and identifying information.”

While stingray devices are used by some law-enforcement agencies, such devices are also in the hands of hackers looking to pry into personal data. The anti-stingray feature would alert phone users if it detects such devices, thus giving the user the chance to turn off the phone or take other actions. Google notes that phones would need the proper hardware to support this feature.

In addition to Pixel phones from the Pixel 6 on, Android 15 will be available to many Android phones running Android 10 and later, according to Google. You can check if your phone is ready for Android 15 by going into Settings, then to System and finally to Software update.

Note that the Android 15 upgrade will take time—sometimes over an hour—so don’t start it in the middle of the workday. The upgrade doesn’t erase any data, but it doesn’t hurt to back up essential files and photos first and to keep the device plugged in during the upgrade.

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