Issues
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 Hearings, Bills Passed and Introduced: Combat Online Predators Act, End Banking for Human Traffickers Act, Developing Maternity Care Quality
Bills Introduced: The importance of reducing the rate of maternal mortality and morbidity among Black women; A bill to address the use of opioids and substance use disorders with respect to pregnant women and babies; A bill to prohibit the pricing of consumer products and services that are substantially similar if such products or services are priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whose use the products are intended or marketed or for whom the services are performed or offered; a bill to require the secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide child care assistance to veterans receiving certain training or vocational rehabilitation. more »
Jo Freeman Reviews Hope's Kids, A Voting Rights Summer
Jo Freeman reviews and writes: Alan Venable was one of Hope’s kids. A junior at Harvard, he joined 18 students from Brandeis University and four from other Boston area schools to go to Columbia S.C. for ten weeks. After two weeks, six of them moved to Calhoun County. When they started canvassing only 490 blacks were registered to vote in that county. They registered 114 in July, under the very restrictive registration rules typical of the Southern states, which were generally applied to blacks but not to whites. When the VRA became law on August 6, it removed the literacy test. Another 500 registered in the next two months. more »
A Better Understanding of How, Where, and Why Cancer Develops: Genomic Analysis of 33 Cancer Types Completed
The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) final paper details genomic alterations in 10 key signaling pathways that control the stages of the cell’s life cycle, growth, and death. The researchers found that 89% of tumors had at least one significant alteration in these pathways. About 57% of tumors had at least one alteration that could be targeted with currently known drugs and 30% had multiple targetable alterations. These findings will help researchers explore treatments with more tailored approaches, such as using a combination of drugs to target multiple pathways at the same time. more »
Confessions of a Catholic (Who Doesn't Believe in Confession)
Rose Madeline Mula writes: "As I sat at Mass one recent Saturday afternoon, I thought the officiating priest said something about “Fake News” and the current political climate. Was he sympathizing with Donald Trump? My first instinct was to walk out. But since I hadn’t heard the context of his remarks, I wasn’t sure. So I stayed, recalling another Mass, at another church, during another era of political contention, when another priest declaimed from the pulpit that it was our responsibility to vote for George Bush. I was furious!" more »
