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.
Senate Commerce Subcommittee Set ... Protecting Kids Online: Testimony From a Facebook Whistleblower
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security has convened a hearing titled “Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower”. Recent Wall Street Journal investigations have revealed troubling insights regarding how Instagram affects teenagers, how it handles children onto the platform, and other consumer protection matters related to Facebook. The hearing will provide an opportunity for a Facebook whistleblower to discuss their perspective and experience with the Subcommittee, including how to update children’s privacy regulations and other laws to protect consumers online. more »
Journalist's Resource: Religious Exemptions and Required Vaccines; Examining the Research
"How often do students and employees claim vaccine mandates conflict with their religious beliefs? What are schools doing to discourage exemptions to required childhood vaccines? Even as national surveys show Americans drawing away from religion, a growing share of American children have sought religious exemptions to required school vaccinations. Even before some California school districts ordered students in certain age groups to get immunized against COVID-19, research showed the percentage of kindergarteners whose parents claim vaccines conflict with their religious beliefs was on the rise." more »
New York Historical Society Presents Exhibition Honoring Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the New York Historical Society, the city's oldest museum: "These are Judge Hand’s words: Just what is this sacred liberty that must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias. May the spirit of liberty, as Judge Hand explained, be your beacon. May you have the conscience and the courage to act in accord with that ideal as you play your part in helping to achieve a more perfect union." more »
Testimony of Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: "The debt ceiling has been raised or suspended 78 times since 1960"
"I’ll end my remarks there except to say this: It is imperative that Congress address the debt limit. If not, our current estimate is that Treasury will likely exhaust its extraordinary measures by October 18. At that point, we expect Treasury would be left with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly. America would default for the first time in history. The full faith and credit of the United States would be impaired, and our country would likely face a financial crisis and economic recession as a result. We must address this issue to honor commitments made by this – and prior – Congresses, including those made to address the health and economic impact of the pandemic. It’s necessary to avert a catastrophic event for our economy." more »
