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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.
Bills Introduced, May 11 - 15: To Provide Emergency Assistance to Families Through Home Visiting Programs; Modifying Restaurant Meals Program under SNAP; Emergency Grants to States & Indian Tribes
Bills Introduced: Reimbursements for the child care operational emergency costs of certain institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic; provide states and Indian tribes with flexibility in administering the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program; emergency grants to states and Indian tribes to provide financial support for low-income individuals; bill to increase the age of eligibility for children to receive benefits under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
Weekly Legislative Update
May 11… more »
Jo Freeman Reviews Overturning Brown: The Segregationist Legacy of the Modern School Choice Movement
School choice sounds good, but is it really? Suitts says that understanding its racist roots illuminates its monochrome consequences. The Court eventually ruled that it was not permissible to create racially specific schools, even though they were technically private, not public. The schools switched to virtual segregation, which is another name for token integration. A few non-whites (not always black) were allowed in. Private schools remained overwhelmingly white, and not just in the South. Suitts concludes that shifting more resources from public to private schools, by whatever rationale, won’t result in a better education for those who need it most. To find out more about what happened and why, read this book. more »
A New Dinosaur Study: Can We Really Tell Male and Female Dinosaurs Apart?
Can we really tell male and female dinosaurs apart? Scientists worldwide have long debated our ability to identify male and female dinosaurs. Researchers analysed skulls from modern-day gharials, an endangered and giant crocodilian species, to see how easy it is to distinguish between males and females using only fossil records. Male gharials are larger in size than females and possess a fleshy growth on the end of their snout, known as a ghara. The research teamstudied 106 gharial specimens in museums across the world. They found that aside from the presence of the narial fossa in males, it was still very hard to tell the sexes apart. more »
Rose Madeline Mula Writes About Silver Linings to the COVID19 Cloud
Rose Madeline Mula writes: I have thought about whom I would like to be isolated with if given the chance. Obviously, my first choice would be those I love — especially any of them who can cook. Other than that, who? No, not George Clooney. There would be way too much pressure to try to look good 24/7. Instead, it would be very handy to have a tech support guy or gal ensconced in the guest room to solve my inevitable computer glitches ... a plumber (clogged toilets are my nightmare, second only to a shortage of toilet paper) ... an electrician (in case of a repeat of my recent smoke detector catastrophe when all three failed simultaneously on a Saturday night and each screamed “EVACUATE!” every five seconds) ... And if one of these guys or gals knows how to fold a fitted sheet, that would be a big plus. more »
