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Jo Freeman: There’s Plenty To Do at the RNC – If You Have the Right Credentials
by Jo Freeman
Every national nominating convention has plenty of auxiliary events, some authorized, some not. Getting space can be a challenge; getting the word out even more so. But they do it nonetheless. Press were given a RNC 2024 Master Event Calendar, which was updated a few days later. Events began on Sunday and ended on Thursday. The actual convention sessions were just one item on the list. The calendar said if an event was Open or Closed to press, and also whom to contact to register. I’m going to describe some of the events, including a couple I went to, and a couple I was turned away from.
Since my focus is on women, I obviously wanted to go to those events – if I could.
The National Federation of Republican Women is the largest grassroots Republican women's organization in the country with hundreds of clubs. Founded in 1938, its members made the phone calls and knocked on the doors that elected Republican candidates for decades. It’s Tuesday luncheon featured Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders. The Master Calendar said it was SOLD OUT and they wouldn’t let me in. I was able to get into their lounge at the Fiserv Forum Wednesday evening, where I was repeatedly asked if I was a member, and if not, would I join. “I’m press,” I said. “I can’t join anything partisan.” I then said: “What brings you here?” On hearing that, finding anyone willing to chat with me was like pulling teeth.
Moms for Liberty met in a concert hall that afternoon. I had pre-registered, and I got in. From high in a balcony seat I listened to several people talk about the evils of transgenderism. It’s webpage says WE BELIEVE Power Belongs to the People. Sound Familiar? With a focus is on parental rights, it wants to “STOP WOKE indoctrination.”
Tuesday I went to “The New Mavericks” reception co-hosted by the Black Republican Mayors Association and the Georgia Republican Party. They honored Sen. Tim Scott, four Congressmen and two Georgia delegates – all male. There was only one mayor on stage, from Aurora, IL. The chair of the Georgia Republican Party was the one white man on the stage. At that event, women served; they didn’t speak. The RNC reported that 55 delegates to the 2024 convention are Black, up from 18 in 2016.
I missed the Independent Women’s Forum toast to “Women Who Make Our Country Great” because I went to Convention Fest: The Official Delegate Experience, which was held in the streets outside the Fiserve Forum and Baird Hall as well as some space inside Baird. To get to that one you not only needed a credential of some sort, but a USSS pass (which I have).
Concerned Women for America parked its pink bus across from the Baird Center the week before the RNC. No one was home. When Convention Fest opened on Tuesday afternoon, they set up a pink tent, from which its leaders preached to whomever passed by. It calls itself “the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization” but its focus is evangelical Christian. The slogan on the side of its pink bus captures this emphasis: “She Prays, She Votes.” A prayer precedes each sermon.
Jo Freeman Reviews Elizabeth Warren's New Book: Persist ("I have a plan for that")
Jo Freeman writes: If you enjoyed listening to Elizabeth Warren during the 2019/20 Presidential debates or if you applauded her on the campaign trail, you will love this book. It’s one very long campaign speech. In six chapters she entertains readers with stories of her youth, her family, her dog, her plans, her policy proposals, and a few insights... Not until the final chapter on being “A Woman” does she begin to tie her experiences together. She ran into a lot of glass ceilings and broke some of them, but never escaped the “discrimination that lasts a lifetime.” She talks about care giving and abortion, as well as the consequences of unequal pay and limited job opportunities for women... As her final story, Warren writes about a little girl she met on the selfie line in St. Paul Minnesota, in 2019. That girl told her “You better win... I’ve been waiting for a girl president since.... since... since kindergarten.” more »
91.0% Efficacy In Preventing Symtomatic Disease: US Clinical Trial Results Show Novavax Vaccine is Safe and Prevents COVID-19
Results from a Phase 3 clinical trial enrolling 29,960 adult volunteers in the United States and Mexico show that the investigational vaccine known as NVX-CoV2373 demonstrated 90.4% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease. The candidate showed 100% protection against moderate and severe disease. In people at high risk of developing complications from COVID-19 (people 65 years or older and people under age 65 with certain comorbidities or with likely regular exposure to COVID-19), the vaccine showed 91.0% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease. more »
Kaiser Family Foundation: FDA’s Approval of Biogen’s New Alzheimer’s Drug Has Huge Cost Implications for Medicare and Beneficiaries
"The question of what would happen when a new, expensive prescription drug comes to market for a disease like Alzheimer’s that afflicts millions of people has loomed large in discussions over drug prices in the U.S.— and now we’re about to find out. After a nearly 20-year dry spell in new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved a new Alzheimer’s medication, Aduhelm (aducanumab), developed by Biogen, with an expected annual price tag of $56,000. While the scientific community debates the evidence of the effectiveness of this new drug, the FDA’s decision raises hope for Alzheimer’s patients and their families, along with serious cost concerns for patients and payers, particularly Medicare." more »
U.S. Government Accountability Office: Science & Tech Spotlight: Renewable Ocean Energy
A Century of Non-Partisan Fact-Based Work: What is it? Renewable ocean energy (or, simply, ocean energy), is energy derived from the ocean's movement, or from its physical and chemical state. In the United States, ocean energy can be generated from waves, tides, and currents, as well as ocean temperature differences. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that if fully utilized, ocean energy resources in the U.S. could provide the equivalent of over half of the electricity that the country generated in 2019. U.S. government and industry stakeholders predict that ocean energy will likely be first used to provide power for energy and water needs of island and coastal communities and offshore activities. more »
