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.
US Department of Justice: "From Nuremberg to Ukraine: Accountability for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity”
"The Justice Department is committed to holding the perpetrators of such grave crimes fully accountable. During a trip to Ukraine in June, Attorney General Garland announced the creation of the Department’s War Crimes Accountability Team, to centralize and strengthen our Ukraine accountability efforts, and he asked me to lead it. Unfortunately, however, the Title 18 war crimes statute does not cover the vast majority of war criminals who have come to the United States, who are here, or who will eventually come here – because it confers jurisdiction only when a victim or perpetrator is a U.S. person, not on the basis that the perpetrator has immigrated to our country or is otherwise on U.S. soil. The statute also contains other provisions that limit our ability to enforce it." more »
GAO, Medicare Telehealth: Actions Needed to Strengthen Oversight and Help Providers Educate Patients on Privacy and Security Risks
"To help patients access care during the pandemic, Medicare temporarily waived restrictions on telehealth — health care services delivered via phone or video. The use of telehealth services rose tenfold: 53 million telehealth visits in Apr.-Dec. 2020 vs. 5 million during the same period in 2019. But Medicare hasn't comprehensively assessed the quality of care patients received, and lacks data on telehealth services delivered in patients' homes or via phone. Patients may also be unaware that their private health information could be overheard or inappropriately disclosed during their video appointment. Our recommendations address these issues." more »
Jo Freeman Reviews Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality
Jo Freeman writes: "This book is a good introductory overview of US women’s accomplishments and activism over the last hundred years, in only 500 pages. Despite the subtitle, the book is not about feminists. It is about formidable women, many of whom would not think of calling themselves feminists. Eleanor Roosevelt disdained feminism, but, as her chapter documents, she worked hard to improve women’s lives..."If you know little or nothing about women’s history in the United States this book is a good place to start. There is so much more to the story of the fight for equality — which is not yet over." more »
Center for Strategic and International Studies: “The Future Outlook with Dr. Anthony Fauci”
Dr. Fauci: 'We need to make sure that in the realm of the complexity of this outbreak, from a public health standpoint, from a policy standpoint, from a scientific standpoint, the one thing that does stand out as a really unprecedented success story is how science has added to our capability in a very, very big way to address this outbreak. And even though it’s been terrible from the standpoint of the toll of human suffering and death both in the United States and globally, it clearly would have been much, much worse had it not been for what science has brought to the table. Having said that in one breath, we still must be aware of how unusual this virus is and continues to be in its ability to evolve into new variants which defy the standard public health mechanisms of addressing an outbreak where you would expect it that once a certain number of people get infected and/or get vaccinated that you could, essentially, bring an end to the pandemic component of the outbreak." more »
