Relationships and Going Places
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.
KHN (Kaiser Health News): How Fauci and the NIH Got Ahead of the FDA and CDC in Backing Boosters
"The support for an extra dose of covid vaccine clearly emerged, at least in part, from an NIH research dynamo, built by Fauci, that for months has been getting intricate real-time data about covid variants and how they respond to vaccine-produced immunity. The FDA and CDC were seeing much of the same data, but as regulatory agencies, they were more cautious. The FDA, in particular, won’t rule on a product until the company making it submits extensive data. And its officials are gimlet-eyed reviewers of such studies.
"On boosters, Americans have heard conflicting messages from various parts of the U.S. government. Yet, Fauci said, “there is less disagreement and conflicts than seem to get out into the tweetosphere.” He ticked off a number of prominent scientists in the field — including Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock and covid vaccine inventor Barney Graham — who were on board with his position. All but Graham are members of the White House covid task force. more »
The Scout Report; September 17, 2021: Extreme Weather, General Interest Explore: Pearls of the Planet CosmoQuest British Library: Digital Scholarship Blog Wheelmap On Being: Starting Points & Care Packages
There are more than 60 live cam themes to check out, arranged in alphabetical order for easy browsing. Highlights include "Project Puffin," "Owl Research Institute," "International Wolf Center," and "Aquarium of the Pacific," among others. Once users have selected a theme to visit, they will be taken to a page with live camera footage. Astronomy buffs, stargazers, and students of all ages will want to check out CosmoQuest, an online community space where citizen scientists can participate in expanding our knowledge of the universe through collaboration with scientists from NASA, OSIRIS-REx, Dawn, and other organizations. Librarians, archivists, and researchers should check out the Digital Scholarship Blog from the British Library (previously featured in the 02-09-2018 Scout Report), which won the 2018 Digital Humanities Award for Best Blog Post or Series of Posts. Wheelmap is a free online map of wheelchair accessible places around the world. On the map, the accessibility of locations is designed through a traffic light system: green for full accessibility, orange for partial accessibility, and red for inaccessibility. Visitors can use the Search bar to find and check the accessibility of nearby locations or filter the search for specific kinds of places (e.g., Transport, Education, Toilets) and degree of accessibility.
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Rose Madeline Mula Writes: It's a Wackadoodle World
Rose Madeline Mula Writes: Among other things that have disappeared, along with traditional names, are virgin brides. Actually virgins — period. And brides in general. It seems that fewer and fewer couples are opting for marriage these days as “living in sin” apparently is either no longer considered to be a sin or nobody cares. And the few marriages that do take place often feature the couple’s children as ring bearers and flower girls. A popular inscription in the autograph books we all owned was “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes (fill in a name) with a baby carriage.” Not any more. Not in that order. And why do people need so much entertainment today? Case in point: I recently saw an ad for a waterproof radio with headphones to wear while surfing. Isn’t surfing enough? When I was young, sitting by the radio listening to “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy” or “Our Gal Sunday” was the highlight of my day. more »
Dereliction of Duty: Examining the Inspector General’s Report on the FBI’s Handling of the Larry Nassar Investigation
Panel I
Simone Biles
Houston, TX
McKayla Maroney
Long Beach, CA
Maggie Nichols
Little Canada, MN
Aly Raisman
Boston, MA
Panel II
The Honorable Michael E. Horowitz
Inspector General
United States Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
The Honorable Christopher A. Wray
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington DC more »
