Sightings
Jo Freeman: Fourth Dispatch from the RNC -- Largely on Things To Do At The Convention
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 Action: Passing Bill Prohibiting Child Sex Dolls, Peer Counseling for Women Vets, Bill Including Funding For Office on Violence Against Women
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)/Education and the Workforce introduced a Bill; Oversight and Government Reform; House Administration (6/13/18)—A bill to permit leave to care for a domestic partner, parent-in-law, adult child, sibling, grandchild, or grandparent who has a serious health condition, and to allow employees to take, as additional leave, parental involvement leave to participate in or attend their children’s and grandchildren’s educational and extracurricular activities. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)/Finance (6/12/18)—A bill to ensure access to mental health and substance use disorder services for children and pregnant women under the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and for other purposes. more »
Policy of Trump Administration: Office of the Attorney General, April 6th, 2018 Memo for Federal Prosecutors Along Southwest Border; MSNBC Videos
Atty General Jeff Sessions, April 6, 2018: "I direct each United States Attorney's Office along the Southwest Border to the extent practicable, and in consultation with DHS- to adopt immediately a zero-tolerance policy for all offenses referred for prosecution under section 1325(a). This zero-tolerance policy shall supersede any existing policies. If adopting such a policy requires additional resources, each office shall identify and request such additional resources." more »
Masterpiece Theater: Man In An Orange Shirt
Man in an Orange Shirt was commissioned by the BBC and premiered in the UK for its “Gay Britannia” season, celebrating the 50th anniversary of partial decriminalization of gay sex with the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. Prior to the 1967 ruling, the arrest and imprisonment of gay men brutally destroyed lives. Though the 1967 act was far from ideal, decriminalizing only homosexual acts done in private, it paved the way for people to organize as activists for meaningful rights and change, such as the 1976 London protest by supporters of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality more »
Random Thoughts While Tossing and Turning: Whatever Happened to the Slip? Do They Expect Me to Wear a Thong? What About Modesty?
Rose Madeline Mula writes: Why do high fashion models always look so angry? Is it because they’re in agony teetering on those ridiculous six-inch stilettoes — or because they’re forced to wear ugly outfits like flouncy dresses with unlaced combat boots and plaid skirts with flowered shirts. One ad featured a model in profile, wearing a nondescript dress, striding purposefully ahead. Her arm hung by her side, and from her hand a smallish pocketbook, which she held by a long strap, dangled almost at street level. Flames were shooting from the pocketbook, which didn’t seem to concern her a bit. more »