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.
NCI-MATCH Precision MedicineTrial: Determining whether targeted therapies for people whose tumors have specific gene mutations will be effective regardless of their cancer type
Adults 18 years of age and older with solid tumors or lymphomas that have advanced following at least one line of standard systemic therapy, or with tumors for which there is no standard treatment, will be eligible. Each arm of the trial will enroll up to 35 patients. The trial's design calls for at least a quarter of the 1,000-patients enrolled to involve people with rare types of cancer. "After starting treatment in NCI-MATCH, a 6-month progression-free survival of 15 percent will not be considered promising, whereas a progression-free survival at six months of 35 percent will indicate that we would want to develop that treatment further." more »
Congress Advances "Girls Count"; Senate Committee Examines Rape Kit Backlog; Examining Fraud in Nutrition Programs; Women Veterans' Bills
"Girls Count" Legislation: The bill finds lack of birth registration for girls can exacerbate women's and girls' vulnerability to trafficking, child marriage, lack of access to health and education services, reduced unemployment. House Appropriations urges DoJ to combat cyber-stalking and is concerned with ongoing sexual assault kit backlogs. House Veterans Affairs approved the Ruth Moore Act, and a bill to provide counseling services for women veterans. "GAO found that USDA had not specifically directed states to tell participants that selling WIC formula was a participant violation." more »
White House Conference on Aging Forum and New Financial Coaching Initiative
"We are experiencing the greying of America, with 45 million people in this country who are age 65 or older and 10,000 more who are turning 65 each day. They are our grandparents, our parents, our neighbors, our friends. The average American is now spending about twenty years in retirement. They are still taking out and making payments on mortgages; they are still borrowing to buy cars and trucks; they are still accumulating credit card debt; some are even taking out student loans on behalf of their grandchildren. These heavier debt loads, that previous generations did not have, can threaten their economic security. more »
Air Bag Recall Redux For 34 Million Vehicles Worldwide: Air Bags Can Explode When Deployed, 11 Manufacturers
Takata files defect reports, enters Consent Order; NHTSA to coordinate remedy program
US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced that at the Department’s insistence, air bag manufacturer Takata has acknowledged that a defect exis… more »
