Sightings
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.
Election 2016: What Do the Models Say About Who Will Win in November?
Note that all of these models forecast the presidential election based on the winner of the national two-party vote, and do not factor in third-party candidates. And they assume that a majority or plurality of the popular vote will produce the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. Those are reasonable assumptions based on the historical record but, as William Howard Taft and Al Gore would testify, not foolproof... One final point on polling-based forecasts. As rigorous and sophisticated as these models may be, they all have to work with imperfect materials. more »
The Upheaval of a Broken Bar Stool and a 70-Gallon Fish Tank
Roberta McReynolds writes: At one point Mike tripped over the hose I was using to siphon water. It jerked out of my hands and sprayed water on the carpet and ... (you guessed it) ... the end of the new sofa. My recliner, to be exact. Fortunately the fabric had been treated to repel spills, but it didn't repel the psychological trauma in my mind. Ick! Jerry, our neighbor, grabbed one of the many towels I had spread out and wiped the sofa as I grabbed the hose and speculated about how high my blood pressure had just spiked.
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Our Eyes Turn Towards the North: Senior Women in Canada
Canada, like many industrialized countries, has an aging population. The continued growth in the number of women and men aged 65 years and over, with women representing the majority of older people, will have implications for many areas such as health services, caregiving, housing and pensions. This chapter provides an overview of senior women in the population, analysed in a historical context where appropriate. It examines their socio-demographic characteristics, including life expectancy, diversity, family and living arrangements, health and well-being, labour force participation and income. more »
Masterpiece Theater: Another Television Presentation of Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals: The Durrells in Corfu
The new series, premiering October 16th at 8/7c, is a six-part adaptation of Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals (and its two sequels, Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods), and follows one unconventional mother and her four children on their quest to start anew. Get to know the colorful characters, and the actors who portray them, with Masterpiece's introduction to this sun-drenched series with a biting wit. more »