The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee seems very far away from Ripon, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Republican Party. As one approaches the RNC, inside the heavily guarded, temporary steel wall erected around Milwaukee’s downtown as part of this so-called National Special Security Event, one encounters a side street next to Media Row, filled with food vendors, a stage, T-shirt and souvenir booths, and a slew of organizations touting conservative issues. Also present is a replica of The Little White Schoolhouse, towed into place by the Ripon Chamber of Commerce. It was in the actual schoolhouse, still standing in Ripon some 90 miles northwest of Milwaukee, that a group of abolitionists launched their new Republican Party on March 20, 1854.

The abolitionists who met in Ripon in 1854 included many from a nearby socialist community known as Ceresco. They felt the freedom they sought should be enjoyed by all, including the millions of people enslaved in the U.S. Two years after the party formed, an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln joined. In 1858, he ran a failed Senate campaign against a pro-slavery Democrat, Stephen Douglas, then, in 1860, ran for president. Southern states began seceding within months of Lincoln’s election, launching the nation into civil war.

Several years earlier, in 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, giving bounty hunters from the South significant powers to abduct and remove suspected runaway enslaved people from the North to the South. When Joshua Glover, an escaped slave from Missouri living in Wisconsin, was caught and held overnight in the Milwaukee jail in 1854, a crowd of up to 6,000 formed, stormed the jail, freed Glover and helped him escape to Canada. It was the Glover incident that spurred the Wisconsinites to finally launch their new, abolitionist political party.

“Resolved … we will cooperate and be known as Republicans. … We cordially invite all persons, whether of native or foreign birth, who are in favor of the objects expressed, to unite with us,” read one of the founding resolutions. The principal “object expressed,” their main goal, was the abolition of slavery in the United States.

One hundred seventy years later, the rhetoric pouring forth from the RNC podium sounds strikingly different. Back in 1854, immigrants were a large part of the population swelling new states like Wisconsin. Now, hostility to immigrants is a central theme of the Trump campaign. Donald Trump ordered the streamlining of the GOP’s platform from 66 pages of detailed policy prescriptions to a compact 16-page document.

“We must deport the millions of illegal migrants who Joe Biden has deliberately encouraged to invade our Country,” it reads, promising to “begin (the) largest deportation program in American history.” Many delegates at the convention were enthusiastically holding signs that read, “Mass Deportation Now!”

On stage at the Fiserv Forum, MAGA Republican loyalists spoke from the podium, heaping praise on their party’s unquestioned leader, Donald Trump, just days after an attempted assassination that left him with a bloodied right ear over which he now wears a white bandage. A number of Republican delegates have been wearing symbolic ear patches in solidarity.

Speakers compared Trump to legendary leaders like President Abraham Lincoln, Civil War General then President Ulysses S. Grant and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In the wake of last Saturday’s assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, several key Republicans, including Donald Trump himself, are calling for national unity. Unfortunately, most convention speakers are calling for unity by rallying their base against marginalized communities like immigrants, trans people and others they consider undesirable.

“We are facing an invasion on our southern border — not figuratively, a literal invasion,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said from the podium. “Every day Americans are dying, murdered, assaulted, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has engineered an armed standoff between Texas National Guardsmen and U.S. federal border agents, and who proudly buses desperate migrants to cities run by Democrats, spoke as well:

“Biden has welcomed into our country rapists, murderers, even terrorists.” In fact, the crime rate in the immigrant population is far less than in the general U.S. population.

Jean Guerrero, a senior fellow at the UCLA Latina Futures 2050 Lab, said: “They have nothing else to offer the American people. It’s scapegoating politics, rooted in stoking fear and stoking hate and creating the impression that there’s a dystopic reality at the border, which simply is not the case.”

The answer to the current threat to democracy is more democracy. “Knocking on doors and talking to people,” Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, suggested as the best organizing strategy. “You need to get the word out, because every vote counts.”

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!” She is the co-author, with Denis Moynihan and David Goodman, of “Democracy Now!: 20 Years Covering the Movements Changing America.”

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — Multiple festivals are expected to draw thousands to Milwaukee’s lakefront this weekend, but driving in and around downtown could create some headaches. Officials say pack your patience.

Street signs are already going up in anticipation of the crowds.

With so many big events in town parking this weekend could be tough.

This weekend, only motorcycles will be allowed to park along Lincoln Memorial Drive just outside Veterans Park for Harley Fest.

Who won’t have a difficult time parking this weekend? Scooters because they can be left anywhere.

The Air and Water Show’s website is selling reserved parking. Saturday parking is sold out, but right now, Sunday is still available.

“On Bradford Beach, McKinley Beach, McKinley Park we have reserved seating. We have our box office open, get here early,” said Paul Rogers, President, Waterstone Bank Air & Water Show.

The water part of the show starts at 10 a.m., then at noon, they’ll be flying.

“So, this is a unique weekend because of Harley Fest, German Fest and Brew Fest, Milwaukee County Parks wanted us to do all of these events together. We all said yes so now we have a great weekend with all these events. It’s working out great,” said Rogers.

The Thunderbirds will be zooming overhead about 3:00 p.m.

“This is an F16 C model with a block 52 variant which means it has the pratt and 22 engine and gives us a bit more thrust, a bit more power,” said Lt. Col. Nathan Malafa, U.S. Air Force, Thunderbirds Commander.

Eight F16’s are already lined up at the 128^th Air Refueling Station, but only six will fly in the show. Two are backups.

“So, when you see the four jets flying together, I’ll be the one in the front and then when we rejoin the six jets together, the delta, I’ll also be the one in the front,” said Lt. Col. Malafa.

“And on Friday they’re gonna practice and do at least one, maybe two full practices down there so that’s another opportunity to see just about a full show,” said Col. Merkel.

Col. Charles Merkel says in addition, visitors will see a possible replacement for one of Milwaukee’s fleet that the 128^th is hoping to get in the near future.

“We obviously love our KC135s but they’re 60 plus years old and it’s time to modernize and we want to have the opportunity to do that,” said Col. Merkel.

For now, consider this weekend in Milwaukee a one-stop shop for all your entertainment needs.

“Oh, you’re gonna hear us absolutely, I’ll bet you’ll hear us taking off from here all the way over to the beach as well,” said Lt. Col. Malafa.

With just a few days left before the Major League Baseball Trade Deadline, the Milwaukee Brewers made a move to supplement their effective yet burdened bullpen by sending a pair of minor league prospects to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for right-hander Nick Mears Saturday afternoon.

On the surface, Mears, 27, doesn’t have the kind of impressive numbers that one would expect from a deadline acquisition. In 41 appearances for the Rockies this season, Mears has a 1-4 record and 5.56 ERA but has been spectacular of late, posting a 1.80 ERA over his last 12 outings while holding opponents to a .160 batting average during that stretch.

His recent success, combined with a fastball that averages a shade under 97 MPH and a propensity for generating weak contact, made him an ideal fit for a team with a top-tier defensive infield and a coaching staff that has become one of the best in the game at helping pitchers figure out ways to capitalize on their strengths.

“It came together really quickly,” Brewers general manager Matt Arnold said. “We had a lot of conversations over the last several days and Nick Mears kept coming up in conversation. The ability to access that kind of arm , we felt like it made a lot of sense. We’ve obviously had a lot of success here with our bullpen to this point and we felt like adding another good arm like Rick Mears was somebody that would continue to help our staff as well.”

The move couldn’t have come at a better time.

Just two hours before the deal was announced, Milwaukee placed left-hander Bryan Hudson on the injured list with an oblique strain, leaving the Brewers without one of their most dependable — and effective — relief options as they head into the stretch run of the 2024 regular season.

Acquired in January in what was at the time a somewhat under-the-radar trade with the Dodgers, Hudson has been nothing short of spectacular in his first full big-league season. In 41 appearances, Hudson is 4-1 with a 1.60 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and has struck out 54 batters over 50 2/3 innings of work.

After posting a 0.82 ERA through his first 29 appearances, Hudson’s name was bandied about as a potential All-Star selection but he’s 0-1 with a blown save an 6.75 ERA over his last six outings which seemed to suggest something might be amiss.

Manager Pat Murphy dismissed the notion that Hudson’s injury stemmed from his heavy workload.

“To say his workload is egregious in any way is not accurate,” Murphy said. “He’s been pretty steady. We’ve really done a great job of not overusing him because he’s thrown more ever before.

“Anything could have contributed (to the injury). We know how pitching injuries are. They can happen on one pitch and they can happen over time. Who knows. It has nothing to do with his arm. This is in his side so he could have done it some other way. We don’t even know what it is for sure.

“It’s just disappointing that we continue to deal with injuries every day.”

Murphy wasn’t exaggerating. Hudson’s injury comes a day after Milwaukee had to place Rob Zastrynsy on the IL with left elbow tendonitis. The Brewers have lost 12 different pitchers to injury in 2024 — including two with season-ending injuries (Wade Miley and Robert Gasser, both of whom underwent Tommy John surgery).

Right-hander Brandon Woodruff, underwent shoulder surgery last fall that will leave him out until next season, while All-Star closer has been out since Spring Training due to surgery to repair stress fractures in his back.

“It hurts. It hurts and you want so badly for the team to continue to perform and have that same edge,” Murphy said. “You get dealt these cards every day but you can’t let it get you. It’s a test. You’ve got to just keep going. You can have those inner battles. That’s why you come up with “undaunted.” The reason we talk about something like that is because the tendency is not to be undaunted. You can say that every team goes through this. I don’t care what every team has been through and some how, they’ve been able to come out on the other side.”

The addition of Mears along with Tyler Jay, who was called up earlier Saturday to replace Hudson on the active roster, should provide a temporary boost while Milwaukee is expecting to get Williams back perhaps as soon as next week.

More help is on the way as J.B. Bukauskaus, DL Hall and Joe Ross progress in their minor league rehab assignments while Arnold still has three days to try and find more help on the trade market ahead of the July 30 deadline.