in Milwaukee. Today there’s a music festival in the neighborhood spanning seven stages with a number of local bands to showcase and tons of vendors. I think we’ll venture out this afternoon, the horrible weather will be sunny and in the low 70’s, before the heat wave hits tomorrow for the foreseeable future. But rest assured, a sweltering summer like we’ve never experienced should not be equated with any climate crisis caused by burning excessive fossil fuels.
We’ll probably run into our horrible neighbors, because who but horrible peoplle, as described by one Donald J Trump, would live here? Mr. Trump is expected to bring his felonious reputation and fellow felons to town next month to be crowned king of the Republican National Committee and its nominee for King of America, or should I say president. One step at a time, buster.
I’m told different stories by his enablers about why he called Milwaukee, his kind host for the 2024 RNC Convention, a horrible city. They can’t seem to get their answers straight. What I read through the inevitable cover-up is that it is because of: violent crime, and that rate has plummeted since Trump was president last time; and something about the 2020 presidential election being rigged, even though the Trump campaign’s own recount of Milwaukee and Madison showed that Biden won fair and square.
In fact, when Trump plans to be in town next month for the convention, his mere presence will increase the crime statistics, because so many of his business and campaign associates are also felons. Then there are all the as-yet unindicted ones, many who still hold elective office, who have been with him lock, stock and barrel in The Big Lie since its inception.
In Milwaukee if I am mailed an absentee ballot, I have to fill it out in front of a witness, sign and date it and have the witness do the same. Then I have to make sure the Board of Elections has a valid copy of my Wisconsin drivers’ license with photo on file showing current address, with proof of said address via a bill or official document sent to my home. Then, because drop boxes are now illegal and the mail is uncertain to be received in time to be counted, I have to drive downtown to the main election office and go up to the fifth floor and hand-deliver my ballot.
Then, I have to go back down to the idling car where my husband is with our dog (who we can’t leave in the car because it’s too cold in November) and sit there while he hand-delivers his ballot. Why? Because otherwise I could be convicted of “ballot harvesting” even though he is my legal witness to said document and I am his.
Welcome to being a registered voter in Wisconsin! Whenever I can, I vote in person as the precinct location is walkable and the poll workers amiable. I deliver my absentee ballot, unopened, and assure that it is voided, then I am issued a new ballot to fill out. Upon watching my ballot go into the counting machine I am given my “I Voted” sticker, thank all the poll workers for their service (followed by an email to the Board of Elections thanking everyone) and promptly lose the sticker in the snow/wind as I walk home.
The irony of all this double-checking and proof of this and that is that ballots received prior to election day are not allowed to be opened until the polls open on election day. That is not for “election integrity” at all. It was devised probably by the RNC so they could say mail ballots are fraudulent and so that someone like Donald J Trump, as he did on election night in 2020, can say that he won and to STOP COUNTING BALLOTS! And you wonder how The Big Lie got started.
Question. If Donald Trump won the presidency in 2020, why weren’t any down-ballot races investigated? Doesn’t it seem odd that ONLY Donald Trump was cheated that year? Just like all the investigations into this particular president’s attempts to steal the 2020 election (federal and state cases pending), steal top secret documents that belong to the American people (case pending) and illegally influence the 2016 presidential election (guilty, 34 federal felony counts) are “politically motivated?”
Maybe rural Wisconsonites will vote for Trump regardless of his thoughtless comments on its most populous city, but that’s OK. They’ll like him until he tariffs their farms out of existence. Perhaps a day will dawn when they finally realize Trump doesn’t care a whit about them, their businesses or their lives and only cares for his own and that of his rich donors. He said it himself last weekend, he doesn’t care at all about his voters, he only wants their votes. What you see is what you get.
The sun is up, dog is fed and walked and the windows are open bringing in fresh lake air before closing up for the summer. Lest people from outside Milwaukee think it an urban hellscape, I assure you it is not. I don’t trip over homeless people outside our building or worry about being robbed while walking to the market. There are people walking everywhere, many with canine companions, and families grilling picnics in the local park. Tennis players at public courts across the road. Music and arts and even kite festivals. And here, a lot of houses have front porches where people can hang out and watch the world go by. It’s summertime, school’s out and it’s time to put the top down or dust off your Harley for a beautiful, sunny day. Vote! Dee
Cooking with Dee 