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.
Rembrandt? The Case of Saul and David, a Patchwork of Canvases
Last year Ernst van de Wetering published the work as entirely by Rembrandt, executed in circa 1646 and circa 1652. The condition of Saul and David was not ideal. Although structurally sound, it certainly looked the worse for wear. The prominent vertical join and added piece were disfiguring. The paint surface was heavily flattened throughout, and the old varnish was yellowed and cracked. more »
Is the Queen Bee Lack of Effectiveness In 'Availability' to Blame? Bee Informed Partnership Releases Another Discouraging Report About Bee Colony Loss
Beekeepers do not only lose colonies in the winter but also throughout the summer, sometimes at significant levels. In the summer of 2014 (April – October), colony losses surpassed winter losses at 27.4% (total summer loss), with summer losses of 19.8% in 2013. Importantly, commercial beekeepers appear to consistently lose greater numbers of colonies over the summer months than over the winter months, whereas the opposite seems true for smaller-scale beekeepers. Beekeepers reported losing 42.1% of the total number of colonies managed over the last year, second highest annual loss recorded to date. more »
"Being captured is not just for journalists": A Hostage Policy Review Reportedly Near Completion
Editor's Note: We missed this program when originally presented, but wish to highlight it now when there is reported a review of hostage policy is nearing completion: Diane Foley, mother of executed US journalist James Foley, and Debra Tice, mother of missing freelance journalist Austin Tice, talked with Judy Woodruff, co-anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour, about new threats to journalism and press freedom during a program at the Newseum. more »
Between Two Worlds: Cruising the Turquoise Coast
Adrienne Cannon writes: It is raining in Istanbul on the first day of the tour. Our tour guide sets a quick pace during our visit to the Hagia Sophia mosque, and though I trot along as fast as I can, I fall behind the group. As we exit, I peer through the crowds trying to find the guide who has disappeared in a sea of umbrellas. For a few tense minutes I am alone and lost. Finally our unhappy tour guide finds me and cautions us all not to ever get lost as we will slow up the entire group. What a great beginning to my tour! more »
