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.
Congressional Budget Office: American Health Care Act Cost Estimate and How Many Will Be Uninsured
CBO and JCT estimate that, in 2018, 14 million more people would be uninsured under the legislation than under current law. Most of that increase would stem from repealing the penalties associated with the individual mandate. Some of those people would choose not to have insurance because they chose to be covered by insurance under current law only to avoid paying the penalties, and some people would forgo insurance in response to higher premiums. Later, following additional changes to subsidies for insurance purchased in the nongroup market and to the Medicaid program, the increase in the number of uninsured people relative to the number under current law would rise to 21 million in 2020 and then to 24 million in 2026. more »
Congressional Actions: House Passes Fairness for Breastfeeding Mothers Act; Senate Passed Resolution Raising Awareness of Modern Slavery
Hearings: On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee will hold a hearing, "Reauthorization of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program."On Thursday, the House Education and the Workforce Committee will hold a hearing, "Honoring our Commitment to Recover and Protect Missing Exploited Children." On Thursday, the House Judiciary Subcommittee will hold a hearing, "Combatting Crimes Against Children: Assessing the Legal Landscape." The Senate passed a resolution raising awareness of modern slavery. The resolution notes that 55 percent of forced labor victims are women or girls and one in five victims of slavery is a child. more »
Something Old, Something New: Wearing Red to Show Solidarity in Major Cities All Over the World
Jo Freeman writes: "A Day Without Women" borrowed it's theme from "A Day Without Immigrants" on Feb. 17, which was new. Many people interpreted it as a call to strike. "Women Strike!" was proclaimed from the top of the arch in New York City's Washington Square. That was old. In 1970, Betty Friedan called for a Women's Strike on August 26, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the US Woman Suffrage Amendment and announce a new women's movement to the world. Leaders of the NOw quickly scrambled to interpret that as a "do your own thing" strike. They organized a march down New York's Fifth Ave., which was the first time in decades that women marched to demand women's rights in the US.
more »
USG/ERC Stephen O’Brien's Statement to the UN Security Council on Missions to Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Kenya
"Thank you for inviting me to brief on my visits to countries facing famine or at risk of famine: Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia. The situation for people in each country is dire and without a major international response, the situation will get worse. All four countries have one thing in common: conflict. . . My small team met a girl displaced to Ibb, still having shrapnel wounds in her legs while her brother was deeply traumatized. I was introduced to a 13-year-old girl who fled from Taizzcity, left in charge of her seven siblings. I spoke with families who have become displaced to Aden as their homes were destroyed by airstrikes living in a destroyed school." more »
