Articles
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.
Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/protecting-children-online
https://www.senate.gov/isvp/?auto_play=false&comm=judiciary&filename=judiciary013124&poster=https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/assets/images/video-poster.png&stt=
Full Committee Hearing
Date: Wednesday, January 31st, 2024
Protecting Children Online
Hearings
FULL COMMITTEE
Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis
Type:Full Committee Hearing
Date: Wednesday, January 31st, 2024
Time: 10:00am
Location: Dirksen Senate Office Building Room G50
Presiding: Chair Durbin more »
New York City's Cooper Hewitt's Retrospective of British Artist's Es Devlin
"An Atlas of Es Devlin is the first monographic museum exhibition dedicated to British artist and stage designer Es Devlin (born 1971), who is renowned for work that transforms audiences. Since beginning in small theaters in 1995, she has charted a course from kinetic stage designs at the National Theatre and the Metropolitan Opera to installations at major institutions, including the World Expo, Lincoln Center, and the United Nations headquarters. Her sculptures for Olympic Ceremonies, NFL Super Bowl halftime shows, and stadium tours for Beyoncé, The Weeknd, and U2 frame narratives that feel personal at a monumental scale." more »
Justice Department Releases Report on its Critical Incident Review of the Response to the Mass Shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas
"The team collected and reviewed more than 14,000 pieces of data and documentation, including policies, training logs, body camera and CCTV video footage, audio recordings, photographs, personnel records, manuals and standard operating procedures, interview transcripts, investigative files and data, and other documents. The report is intended to provide the most comprehensive assessment available of the law enforcement response to the horrific incident on May 24, 2022, as well as the emergency medical response, communications, and trauma services in the wake of the tragedy. It begins with a minute-by-minute timeline reconstructing key events before, during, and immediately following the shooting. The report addresses many previously unanswered questions, builds on the existing knowledge base for responding to incidents of mass violence, and identifies generally accepted practices for effective law enforcement responses. In doing so, this report endeavors to honor the victims and survivors of this tragedy, as well as offer recommendations to improve future responses in other communities." more »
Women's Congressional Policy Institute Weekly Legislative Update: Reproductive Health, Recruiting Families Using Data Act, the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act
This week: A bill to prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from restricting funding for pregnancy centers; Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 6918, the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act; the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 6914, the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act; the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 3058, the Recruiting Families Using Data Act. This week, the Senate and House may consider a laddered continuing resolution (CR) (as-yet-unnumbered) to extend most FY2023 spending bills to two dates in March. more »