Sightings
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.
Sleep Attack: A Cautionary Tale
Naomi Cavalier wrote: The curtain of sleep dropped of its own volition and the world vanished (even as I write this, I gasp). No more than a second or two later I was jolted awake by the impact of my car, a Honda Accord, slamming into a fire hydrant alongside the road. A geyser of water erupted from the hydrant as the car veered and crashed into a telephone pole. more »
Degas and the Millinery Trade, High-fashion Hats and the Women Who Created Them; My Aunt's Creation
The exhibition is the first to examine the height of the millinery trade in Paris, from around 1875 to 1914, as reflected in the art of the Impressionists and French milliners. From the start of the Third Republic until the outbreak of World War I, there were around 1,000 milliners working in what was then considered the fashion capital of the world. Degas and the Impressionists' representations of millinery became a central theme within the broader avant-garde ambition to showcase the diversity of Parisian modern life. more »
Updated: Senate Intel Committee Held FISA Hearing Wednesday; James Comey's Prepared Senate Testimony for June 8th
The witnesses on Wednesday will provide a comprehensive overview of FISA's authorities, current oversight mechanisms, and examples of the value this court-authorized collection provides to the United States Intelligence Community in testimony at the Senate Intelligence Committee. The hearing will move into closed session following the open session. On Thursday, former FBI Director James Comey will testify in Senate open session. more »
Scientists Fear US Is ‘Losing Its Edge’ In Government-Funded Cancer Research: "I fear we are losing a generation of young, talented biomedical scientists"
President Donald Trump has proposed cutting the NIH budget for 2018 from $31.8 billion to $26 billion, a decline that many worry would jeopardize the fight against cancer and other diseases. Those cuts include $1 billion less for the National Cancer Institute. The NCI notes that its purchasing power already has declined by 25 percent since 2003, because its budget — while growing — hasn't kept up with inflation. Congress gave the NCI nearly $5.4 billion in fiscal year 2017, an increase of $174.6 million over last year. more »