Trump TV Reality Show in Cleveland

Donald J. Trump, middle-aged spoiled rich kid, a 6-times-bankrupt businessman, and former reality TV star, is featured in a TV miniseries this week in Cleveland, Ohio (“the Open-Carry State”). Speakers include minor show-biz celebrities who didn’t make the cut for Mr. Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice series:

Scott Baio, from the 1982 TV show Joanie Loves Chachi

Kimberlin Brown, soap opera actor (The Young and the Restless [1973], The Bold and the Beautiful [1987])

Ben Carson MD, former surgeon, a motivational speaker, … somehow

Chris W. Cox, Executive Director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action

Jerry Falwell Jr., gun-totin’ Christian lawyer famously sired by televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr.

Natalie Gulbis, 492nd-ranked LPGA golfer (and “Blonde Bombshell,” adds the Daily Caller)

Laura Ingraham, right-wing radio host

Brock Mealer, “inspirational speaker” and car crash victim

Willie Jess Robertson, Duck Dynasty TV personality and duck call company executive

Phil Ruffin, Las Vegas casino owner, partner in the Trump International Hotel and Tower

Antonio Sabato Jr., underwear model

Darrell Scott, pastor of Cleveland’s New Spirit Revival Center, a “prosperity church“

Lisa Shin, optometrist, of Korean Americans for Trump (founded in April), who formed a new non-certifying optometry association and then resigned from it; one of very few non-blonde  women speaking at the Convention

Melania Knaus Trump, Slovene-American former model and the incumbent Mrs. Trump

Tiffany Trump, out of Marla Maples by D.J. Trump, Internet celebrity who is famous for being well-known

Dana White, President of the mixed martial arts organization Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

GOP Convention: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

During this week’s GOP Convention in Cleveland, you can’t carry tennis balls or water pistols near the event arena, but you can carry a gun. Ohio is an “open carry” state. What could possibly go wrong?

But don’t try to carry firearms into Quicken Loans Arena, though. Republican conventioneers may not care about the safety of ordinary citizens, but they’re concerned about their own hides, especially if they can put the “gun-free zone” blame on those “Nanny State” Secret Service killjoys. Actually, privately owned Quicken Loans Arena never allows patrons to carry any weapons, but Republicans aren’t going to blame a business for saying what happens on its own premises.

More:

“Cleveland Police Union Asks Kasich To Suspend Open Carry Laws For RNC,” Sara Jerde, TPM Livewire

“Journalists are getting trained like war correspondents to cover the US conventions,” Maria Muriel, The World (PRI)

“What’s a University For? Case Western Suddenly Shuts Down to House Riot Police,” Belt Magazine

“Your Guide to Cleveland’s Security Nightmare,” Eric Levitz, New York Magazine

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Republicans: Welcome to Cleveland!

The city of Cleveland is looking forward to hosting the 2016 Republican National Convention in July. The Cleveland Division of Police is buying snappy new uniforms, riot-control suits that look like samurai armor. Officers will wave hello to visitors with new 26-inch expandable steel batons with weighted tips, and 300 bicycle-riding armored cops will entertain the sidewalk throngs. Cleveland police will also decorate the streetscape with miles of interlocking steel crowd-control barriers.

Congress gave Cleveland $30 million for event security, so the Ohio town is really gearing up to greet the 50,000 visiting GOP conventioneers, including Donald Trump’s legion of goons, bikers, and KKK followers. Suburban law enforcement will lend officers to bring the Cleveland force up to 5,000, but maybe Governor Kasich can have his confetti bomber on call for emergency crowd immobilization, just in case.

GOP Convention: Look Out, Cleveland….

Reality TV star and billionaire thug Donald M. Trump, fresh from the triumph of winning the Florida GOP primary, shared his vision of this summer’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland. If he’s a few hundred delegates shy of 1,237 and isn’t the nominee: “I think you’d have riots,” he told Chris Cuomo,  “I think you’d have problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen.”

But since GOP delegates are selected by GOP state committees and not the candidates, they represent the Republican Party first, so the convention is not necessarily a Trump Coronation. Look out, Cleveland.