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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.
Congressional Bills Introduced & Hearings: Child Care at Vet Centers, Child, Dependent Care Tax Credit, Safe Contraception, Climate Change, Parental Leave Benefits, Maternal Mortality, Child Sexual Abuse
On Wednesday, the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 1585, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act; A bill to make it a criminal offense for individuals to engage in sexual acts while acting under color of law or with individuals in their custody, to encourage states to adopt similar laws; House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel is scheduled to hold a hearing, “Examining the Role of the Commander in Sexual Assault Prosecutions”; Addressing Campus Sexual Assault and Ensuring Student Safety Rights; A bill to require training and education to teachers and other school employees, students, and the community about how to prevent, recognize, respond to, and report child sexual abuse in primary and secondary education.
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Updated: The Honorable Nancy Pelosi: "Between the inevitable and the Unconceivable" ... "The Mueller Report will be released" “The President’s sham emergency declaration and unlawful transfers of funds have undermined our democracy"
"There's an easy answer to this: Release the Mueller report as soon as possible ... And let me just say ... the Mueller report will be released. To us, it is inevitable ... to them it is inconceivable ... We have to shorten the distance between the inevitable and the inconceivable." "Release the report ... that is where the evidence is ... if they don't have anything to hide, they shouldn't worry."
“The President’s sham emergency declaration and unlawful transfers of funds have undermined our democracy, contravening the vote of the bipartisan Congress, the will of the American people and the letter of the Constitution. more »
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the National Remembrance Service in NZ: 'Let us be the nation we believe ourselves to be'
"In the days that have followed the terrorist attack on the 15th of March, we have often found ourselves without words. What words adequately express the pain and suffering of 50 men, women and children lost, and so many injured? What words capture the anguish of our Muslim community being the target of hatred and violence? What words express the grief of a city that has already known so much pain? A place that is diverse, that is welcoming, that is kind and compassionate. Those values represent the very best of us." more »
Filling in the Blanks: A Prehistory of the Adult Coloring Craze
The practice goes back to the earliest days of print in the fifteenth century. Artists, printers, booksellers, consumers, and readers all applied color to originally black-and-white images. Before Gutenberg’s innovation of the moveable-type press, both woodblock and engraved prints, single sheets with printed images, were popular in Germany and parts of Central Europe. They were used in various ways, and many people did what we might do with them — hung them on the walls of their home. more »
