Among the Alt-Racists
I’m eating an Isaly’s chipped chopped ham sandwich on a bench outside a convenience store in Pittsburgh. A racist sits across from me. We are both from the Midwest, yet thousands of miles distant in terms of worldview.
A Tourist’s Guide to the Cleveland You Can’t See
Meeting up with a couple non-media, non-RNC-affiliated locals for a pre-dinner drink, I asked for their first impressions on the circus. As a steady parade of politically costumed outsiders streamed
Counting the Hours, Waiting to Exhale
Old Stone Church, 10:15 a.m. Thursday. A banner on the front door reads, “Exhale Love!” Exhale. But not yet. Old Stone Church, 10:15 a.m. Thursday. It feels as though the entire city is waiting, holding its breath.
Video: A Walk in the RNC
Video: A Walk in the RNC
Wall Off Trump: Inside an RNC Action
“There’s a saying in America,” says Ian Vargas. “It’s be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it.” Ian Vargas and Gina Perez are giving Trump what he wants. A wall.
Fear and Loathing on Euclid Avenue: Dispatches from the RNC in CLE
“I’m not here because I agree with everybody.”
Within The Convention City, A Ghost Town
Public Square, 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Some guy is sprawled out on the steps at the front edge of the speaking stage below the Moses Cleaveland statue, fast asleep.
Memorializing Tamir Rice With Pokemon Go
The gazebo at Cudell Recreation Center is four miles away from the Republican National Convention. It is also a stop on the popular augmented reality game Pokemon Go.
For Some Clevelanders, It’s All About the Side Hustle
Search for downtown Cleveland on Google Earth before Friday and a giant, pixelated blob of commemorative Trump-themed swag will appear before your very eyes.
Stalking the American Dream in Cleveland’s Hingetown
As it turns out, even after a lifetime of stupid questions, there are still more to be asked. I learned this on day two of the Republican National Convention, when I went around asking one: “How do you define the American Dream?”
Video: Cleveland, Tamir Rice & the RNC
Video: Clevelanders Talk About Tamir Rice, the RNC & Cleveland
Clowns To Trump: You’re Giving Us A Bad Name
Donald Trump is a clown; a buffoon; a fool. The 2016 election in general and the RNC in Cleveland in particular is a circus. Just ask Comedy Central, which has trucked in its own Daily Show sideshow for the occasion, and whose alum, Steven Colbert, crashed (or “crashed”) the stage of the Q Sunday evening tricked out in his blue fright wig. But a circus is supposed to be fun, and clowns are supposed to be funny. And as a group of Cleveland clowns maintain, in this instance, none of this is the case.