Milwaukee Bar Announces It Will Shut Down During Week Of RNC
“I’m not trying to get involved with or actively take money or rent the space out to that tomfoolery.”
In an odd move that is getting a lot of attention on social media, Milwaukee bar owner Ricky Ramirez announced that he will be shutting down his bar, The Mothership, during the week of the Republican National Convention.
My favorite bar in Milwaukee, Mothership, is shutting down during the Republican National Convention because "fuck that noise." This rocks pic.twitter.com/QL3FzcnJmY
— 🇵🇸 timothy 🍉 faust (@crulge) March 13, 2024
Obviously, that’s his right, but it seems a really strange thing for a business owner to do when literally millions of dollars will be rolling out across Milwaukee businesses.
Rolling Stone reports (archive link):
Ramirez tells Rolling Stone that the Mothership, which he often refers to as “the mommy” in his posts, “has a chosen voice.” That voice made waves on social media Wednesday when he announced that he would be closing down the bar in mid-July when the Republican National Committee (RNC) is scheduled to hold its 2024 convention in the heart of Milwaukee.
The convention is expected to bring 50,000 people to the city. Special ordinances have been approved allowing bars to stay open late, and — as with past conventions — many liquor companies, brands, and political groups are pitching local watering holes on commemorative merchandise and event partnerships. Skipping the fray means potentially forgoing a lot of money.
On Wednesday, Ramirez issued a notice about his intention to close down to the bars’ more than 7,000 Instagram followers.
“Sup idiots we haven’t lost a lot of followers in a while so here we go…as everything gets amplified with like the RNC shitshow coming to town Imao I would like to formally state that we’re shutting bar down during the week of because fuck that noise,” he wrote. “I’m not trying to get involved with or actively take money or rent the space out to that tomfoolery.”
. . . . In a conversation with Rolling Stone, Ramirez says that as the child of first-generation immigrants living in a city that remains heavily segregated, he grew up with a “kind of chip on my shoulder” regarding discrimination. With the Republican Party having wholeheartedly embraced nativist policies, racist conspiracy theories, and a politics of antagonism against marginalized communities, Ramirez feels that “if there’s an influx of those kinds of people, then I’d rather just be closed.”
“We have a small staff. There’s only four of us and a friend that helps us one night a week … and all of us kind of just came to the same conclusion,” he explained, adding that his employees would be paid through the closure.
Apparently, the backlash was pretty intense because Ramirez said in a local television interview that he would be doing the same thing if it was the DNC. A stance that seems a bit odd since he originally said he was closing because the RNC attracted “those kinds of people,” speaking of Republicans.
Watch:
A Bay View bar plans to shut down when the RNC comes to Milwaukee in July. "Don't mix alcohol and politics," the owner of The Mothership says. pic.twitter.com/7oIwt62Eew
— Kendall Keys (@KendallKeysTV) March 15, 2024
Needless to say, people have thoughts.
The kind of small business owner ignorant enough to vote for Biden. Figures. Lose money just to prove a point.
— Andrea E (@AAC0519) March 16, 2024
Can’t wait for libs to invite DNC “tomfoolery”
Bad: Peaceful, paying conservative customers with opinions you don’t like.
Good: Violent mobs who steal, fight, and destroy but you get virtue points. pic.twitter.com/qed7rJYv9j
— Darth Crypto aKa Jesse Feinberg aced his LSATS (@DefNotDarth) March 16, 2024
This has already started.
— CPACarter (@CpaCarter) March 17, 2024
That is completely (D)ifferent.
— Jswarens (@jeff_swarens) March 16, 2024
— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) March 16, 2024
I'm thrilled to not spend money on people who hate me. Glad they're up front about it.
— Dave Gordon 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 (@D_Gordzo) March 16, 2024
They’re really socking it to those Trumpers. Like a toddler punishing her parents by refusing to eat. https://t.co/S5gz3Fi4fK
— Mike Kilo 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@Mike___Kilo) March 16, 2024
Publicly declaring “we don’t serve your kind here” will result in the loss of dramatically more future and current business than the 10% profit margin bars operate under.
It’s hilarious though
— Darth Crypto aKa Jesse Feinberg aced his LSATS (@DefNotDarth) March 17, 2024
I mean, I have no problem with this, but you should be able to deny service to whomever you want. But since the Civil Rights Act abolished freedom of association, this is just another example of rights for me, none for thee. https://t.co/jDx5dsSbfS
— James Kirkpatrick (@VDAREJamesK) March 16, 2024
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Comments
He’s not trying to get involved? Sorry, dude. You just got yourself and your business involved.
https://media.townhall.com/cdn/hodl/ha/images/2024/76/6e0dee8e-a162-4262-a91d-e7c36c55d3e1-650×0.jpeg
Stupid fish… dumb bass….
Kirkpatrick hit the nail on the head. There’s no getting around it — Democrat Ricky Ramirez is Democrat Lester Maddox’s moral progeny.
No, he didn’t. There’s no comparison between this and the segregation era or the cake baker. The comparison would be if he were to stay open but refuse to serve Republicans (leaving aside how he would recognize them; it might simply be a sign saying “Republicans not welcome”). But he’s not doing that, he’s closing down and not serving anyone. It’s completely legal and nobody seems to have a problem with anyone shutting down so as not to have to serve black or gay people.
I mean such a person would pretty much have to go out of business, but someone might close for a weekend when there’s an event in town that’s likely to attract tens of thousands of black people, such as a Nation of Islam or BLM event, and that would be completely legal, and probably a good idea anyway.
This bar owner, sides squarely with the America-hating Democrat Party, but is more likely preparing to protect his business from the Antifa/BLM Blackshirts sure to be unleashed on the Republican convention. Anyone with Prez Send Money Now c/o The Big Guy’s fascistic demeanor needs his stormtroopers in the streets to prove his boba fides.
Read the bar owners statement there was a HOWEVER in in there soliciting private parties.
His statement actually infers that he is staying open for business just privately for HIS “kind of people”
“/S” I am SURE out of the goodness of his heart he is willing to provide entertainment, drinks and location for free TO PRIVATE ENTITIES HE AGREES WITH FOR THAT WEEK. “S/”
“Infers”?!
He is closing for business. If you want to hire the place it’s available, because it’s closed.
And here we go again, Dem does something nasty, Dem Milhouse rides in on his blue horse to let us know that it’s the best thing EVAR..
Here we go again, the demonic leftist liar Azathoth spews up more libel from his filthy innards.
Business should exist to take any customer’s money. This dumb shit, he just alienated 30% of the city.
Libs are not known for their brilliance
More like 20%….
(WITH 327 OF 327 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
Joseph R. Biden / Kamala D. Harris (DEM) 194,661 78.83
Donald J. Trump / Michael R. Pence (REP) 48,414 19.60
1. Who are you to decide what a business “should” exist for? A business exists for whatever purposes its owner wants it to exist for.
2. Those are not his clientele anyway.
Margins are, well, marginal for hospitality industries, incl. bars and restaurants. It would only take the loss of a fraction of his usual clientele to put his bar out of business.
The temporary closure will cause some of his “reliable” clients to go elsewhere while he’s closed. They may never come back as they find places more to their liking, closer to home, less expensive, etc.
What he is doing is not without risk to the business’ long-term survival.
How has this f’ing moron remained in business up to this point?
Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the tainted waters of said region.
EBT cards
Don’t be silly, it’s a bar, he can’t take EBT cards.
But why would he have had trouble staying open? He caters to a specific clientele, who know him and his staff well and like the way he runs things. It’s likely that few if any of them will be so offended by this that they’ll stop coming, and in the meantime he has got huge publicity which will probably bring in more customers than he will lose (if any). And the best thing from his point of view is that it’s Republicans who are giving him much of that free advertising.
Meanwhile, how much business will he really lose by closing? Sure there will be a lot of thirsty people in town, but there’ll also be a lot of competition for those people. In all likelihood few of them would have come to him anyway. So he hasn’t lost much, and will more than make it up from new customers when he comes back from vacation.
How did I know you would pop up defending the idiot?
It’s his business, why is he being attacked? Don’t you believe in free enterprise?
Do you extend that free enterprise argument as an impenetrable shield to every venture and every act by those ventures or are you being selective?
It’s his business, why is he being attacked?
Duh!
Sure I believe in his free enterprise, But I also believe equally in Lester Maddox’s, and he wasn’t allowed his.
Good thing he is not in the wedding cake business
1. Lester Maddox was breaking the law. This guy isn’t.
2. Lester Maddox did shut his business down, and no one had any objection to that. That’s what this guy is doing, for a short time.
3. All these commenters suddenly worrying about his income don’t really care about that. It’s his income and his lookout. He’s presumably not an idiot and knows where his money comes from; I expect that this stunt, and the free publicity he has got from it, will increase his income rather than reducing it.
Just a crazy paranoid thought, any chance some democrat interests could be subsidizing this?
Why would they?
The Red Hen refused service to Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2019. Recently closed its doors permanently.
The Mothership refusing service to Republican National Committee.
Any bets clown face is out of business soon?
Not taking that bet. Bay View is a rich lib Cracker Conclave. This won’t hurt him one bit.
Sounds like a good place for a spontaneous visit by Trump when doofus reopens.
Rub it in their communist faces!
I’m from Milwaukee, and I ought to know…
But I’ve never heard of this bar
Who the F really cares?
There are literally thousands of bars in Milwaukee
Just wait till Chicago sets up their 1968 redux convention lol
I was a teen in Milwaukee when it was going on, right down I 94, was going to go with some girl friends, couldn’t get a ride… ended up a good thing
Publicity stunt, with a little bit ego stroking street cred. That place in VA that encouraged the harassment of Sarah Hukabee Sanders went out of business because half their clientele quit going there. Same thing coming for this fool. FJB
maybe not … Milwaukee is vastly different than VA ….
his business may improve … 4 person staff … will get paid for the week ..
but they miss out on tips …
I realize that there are not all that many conservatives or moderates in Milwaukee, but it strikes me that none of them should ever patronize “The Mothership” ever, either before or after the Convention. Not that I like or trust the GOPe, but this strikes me as a case where consequences should occur.
Subotai Bahadur
Going vintage on St. Patty’s day, I see: No Irish need apply.
I guess its patrons will just have to find another gay bar that week.
From the sound of it, the bar probably wouldn’t even register on anyone’s to do list during the convention anyway.
4 of “them” and a friend to run the bar. Hardly worth the noise.
Exactly. That’s probably why he’s doing it.
Win – win.
Fewer $$ for the enemies of America.
In Ramirez’s conversation with that lying magazine, Rolling Stone, he appears to be describing the DemoncRat party.
I support his right to shut down and not serve anyone he doesn’t want to but this seems like a very poor business decision. Virtue signaling may feel great at the time but in the long run alienating a giant customer base is a stupid move. Does he think that there are no Republicans, Independents and Libertarians in his usual mix of customers that will not think much of his language and go elsewhere?
There probably aren’t. They would have seen his hostility long ago and found somewhere else. From the announcement reproduced in the post it seems to me that this is a very niche place that caters to a very specific crowd.
Ate at one of those last night, in Texas. Big Trump flag and Biden “I did this” poster outside. Liberal trigger warning on the entry door. Won’t serve Coke products because employees there “need to be less white.” Pointed out the inconsistency with the Bud posters all over the wall, and indeed that’s where business had to take a backseat to politics. Unlike the libs, they’re passionate but they ain’t stupid.
I don’t know about that. I may not be a big patron of bars but I don’t remember ever meeting the owner of one. Considering the massive influx of business during this period is seems a bad decision to me and now the publicity is making everyone who didn’t pay attention very aware of it. You can be against Trump and/or the RNC but still run a business and be reasonable. Most people draw the line with outright hostility like this man is showing.
“In a conversation with Rolling Stone, Ramirez says that as the child of first-generation immigrants living in a city that remains heavily segregated, he grew up with a “kind of chip on my shoulder” regarding discrimination. ”
“Ramirez feels that “if there’s an influx of those kinds of people, then I’d rather just be closed.”
Discriminate much, you absolute hypocrite?
When I was a pre-teen one of the jokes my friends and I thought were funny went: “There are only two things I can’t stand: racists and Italians”.
That’s just sound moral philosophy.
OMG, we’re a race now?
He’s doing what democrats do. Throw tantrums.
What’s being overlooked here is that they’ll be allowing events for free to dirt cheap prices while they’re “closed”. They’re not really going to close. They’re going to control who gets in using a “private party” ruse.
It’s not a ruse. It’s closed, so the space is available. If you want to have a party there, the owner will take some income over none.
Look, if he wanted to stay open and just not serve Republicans he could just do that. Put up a sign “No Republicans” and continue as normal. I’m not aware of Wisconsin and/or Milwaukee having a law against that, so I assume they’re like most places in the USA where there is no such law. So he’d have no need for a “ruse”. There’d be no point.
His point is that he is free to claim a private party has “rented” the place whether or not it’s true. If the rent is “dirt cheap,” ($1), the “private party” could be one of his employees.
Why would he have to “claim” it, if it weren’t true?
Bear in mind that this is the kind of place that puts on its web site (and maybe also on its premises) a sign saying “Don’t do drugs in our bathrooms. Sex is OK.”. That doesn’t sound like the kind of place that would appeal to most people, or that even wants to.
These could be two unrelated statements- one a prohibition, the other an opinion.
It doesn’t sound like a place for a grassroots republican, but maybe the GOPe.
I read the headline incorrectly… I thought it meant the Bar Association…although it’s about the same crowd I guess….
Milwaukee? Was there no availability in Oakland? What was Ronna McDaniel thinking? The RNC couldn’t find any city that isn’t a Deep Blue shithole?
I’m entirely unconvinced that having a convention in a contested state does anything to improve the chances of winning that state…just ask Hillary Clinton. While there are no conservative or even Republican cities, there certainly are some cities that aren’t as far left as Milwaukee.
With this kind of scrambled mixed messaging, the guy is on track to become the next Democratic White House Press Room Shepherd. We’re closing because of the Republican convention. But we’ll be open for private parties. (which may be Republican, who knows) Then later, says he’d close for the DNC convention too.
I’m a little concerned about the RNC also. All of the Usual Suspects will be looking to stir up trouble, and I don’t trust the local mayor/police chiefs to stand behind their police and keep the peace. I really expect the BLM/Antifa crowd to put on dramatic false flag operations, and if I were a business owner, closing the bar to only *invited* members of *paying* parties would be a no-brainer. Just…way to pancake the announcement, dude.
It’s not BLM and Antifa I have concerns about. I have concerns about the FBLie and other three letter alphabet groups stirring up trouble in the name of Republicans.
They should be easy to recognize. They will be wearing khakis, have short hair, have clear plastic ear devices, and plenty of MAGA hats.
Ray Epps is the poster child for what to look for.
Probably is a CIA front or ground zero for voting fraud.
The place does not look like walking distance to the forum. Drug distribution center?
This is a nothing burger. There are only a billion zillion other bars in Milwaukee.
Where do you get your figures?
The Journal of Irreproducible Results, of course.
Perspective: Most Bars Per 100,000 Residents
1. New Orleans 57.3
2. Las Vegas 40.8
3. Portland 38.2
4. Milwaukee 36.7
… or about 201 bars in the city of MKE.
Not bad for a very non-tourist town but at least MKE was named “The Drunkest City in Amerca” in 2022 : https://www.realestatewitch.com/drunkest-cities-2022/
The Mothership is fodder for political dissension.
Bud lite sales not helping to keep the lights on nowadays?
The bar owner’s action is purely “LOOK AT ME” virtue signalling, and also advertising for the future. Best to ignore him.
Gee, such a tolerant, well worded message to the community … I’m pretty sure I would not fit in there. And on thst subject, why are the Republicans putting on a shiow in such a liberal, foul mouthed, city? This is close to Kenosha, which ridiculously put Kyle Rittenhouse on trial for a perfect self-defense action. I guess they figure if antifa is going to show up, they might as well burn down a liberal city.
Wondering if he features Bud Light . . .
Give me a break. He is just a publicity hound looking to save this dive in the long run.
Does anyone really think the GOP delegates wander afar from the hotel and convention center during the biggest hosted parties for them in four years?
“…he can’t take EBT cards.”
Doesn’t using EBT cards free up cash for other things, like drinking?
True but irrelevant.
Here’s a picture of a lovely bartender at this establishment
https://redstate.com/bradslager/2024/03/18/rolling-stone-considers-it-newsworthy-when-one-business-owner-spites-himself-over-politics-n2171568
It’s name in French is “La Place Ptomaine”.