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.
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society: Changes in activity levels, physical functioning, and fall risk during the COVID-19 pandemic
Clinical Investigation: "A nationally representative online survey of 2006 U.S. adults aged 50–80 was conducted in January 2021 to assess changes in health behaviors (worsened physical activity and less daily time spent on feet), social isolation (lack of companionship and perceived isolation), physical function (mobility and physical conditioning), and falls (falls and fear of falling) since March 2020. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess relationships among physical activity, social isolation, physical function, falls, and fear of falling." more »
Yale School of the Environment's Study of Environment Found "Total Indirect Emissions from Electric Vehicles Pale in Comparison to the Indirect Emissions from Fossil Fuel-powered Vehicles"
"According to Paul Wolfram [Yale] ’21 PhD now a postdoc with the Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland, the study shows that 'the elephant in the room is the supply chain of fossil fuel-powered vehicles, not that of electric vehicles'. He notes that the faster we switch to electric vehicles, the better — at least in countries with a sufficiently decarbonized electricity supply, like the US Yale economics professor Ken Gillingham, whose research has focused extensively on alternative energy adoption in transportation, says this research provides a better understanding of how comprehensive carbon pricing — which includes the full supply chain — can shift consumers toward electric vehicles." more »
National Institutes of Health-funded Study Suggests COVID-19 Increases Risk of Pregnancy Complications
The study included more than 13,000 pregnant individuals from 17 U.S. hospitals, approximately 2,400 of whom were infected with SARS-CoV-2. Participants delivered between March 1 and December 31 2020, before SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was available. The researchers compared outcomes among those with COVID-19 to those from uninfected patients, and tabulated the study results as a primary outcome — whether the patient had died from any cause or had a serious illness or condition related to common obstetric complications. They also evaluated the results in terms of several secondary outcomes, including cesarean delivery, preterm birth, and fetal and newborn death. more »
Julia Sneden Wrote: If The Shoe Fits ... You Can Bet It's Not Fashionable
Julia Sneden Wrote: My mother was a mini Imelda Marcos. She kept upwards of 40 pairs of shoes well into her 80's, and was crushed when she had to give up high heels following a heart attack at the age of 89. Her sole criterion in buying shoes was style, not comfort, and she was very proud of wearing size 5½ long after her feet had grown to 6½. While she had a pair of old oxfords for hiking and gardening, I never saw her wearing anything but high heels for shopping, visiting, teaching, church-going, and general around-the-house wear. She loved shoes so much that she would order a pair that caught her fancy from a catalogue. If they didn't fit, she would give them away unworn to a friend or the daughter of a friend, to an employee or to the churchwomen's sale.
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