Sacramento on fire for Bernie!

[ghostsinthemachine]

24. Yeah very cool.

I got down there around 1 or so and there was a loooooooong line waiting to get in already. Found a few of my community radio pals (KVMR) and got pretty close to the front. Bunch of vendors swinging Bernie Merch, a nice van. Groups dressed and did skits and songs to entertain the crowd. The nurses were very active and had a big bus with a wrapped pro Bernie motif. Was a fun crowd, reminded me of the many concerts I saw at the Cal Expo amphitheater, including the Grateful Dead who I saw a few times there on the same date. No veggie burritos however.

I was pretty loud in my "make sure you check your registration" rant and it was unbelievable how many said "it happened to me too". So CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NOT BEEN KICKED OFF THE ROLLS!
Lot's of petition passers and registerers and a lot of signs, put out be the campaign, informing people to make sure, and for campaign info.

The search to get in was very police state'y. Dump all your shit out of bag, pick up camera, search camera, flashlight. Metal detectors. Intrusive hand Pat down. Wand. No nalgenes (this infuriates me) I asked where the drinking fountains were and was told there were none.I could by a 5 dollar poisonous bottle of tap water however. Really, isn't the exact kind of shit we are taking about?

So for me, that kind of thing really gets bad vibes flowing. Then the people scooting people tighter and tighter up front really were unecesssary and made people very uncomfortable for a long time while nothing was going on. The stage management for TV thing controlled the front so I split. Went to the bleachers and watched the rest from up high.
The music was great though I can only remember a couple of names. Jonah Matranga was one, and his music was great but he used a few F bombs and other curse words. I cringed then, there were a lot of kids there and I think you can get your point across without dropping the F bomb continuously. He had some righteous things, as did his music, but the vulgarities were unecesssary.

The bumper music was interesting. "Let's go crazy" some Marley, Lennon, "Rocking in the free world" all served to frenzy up the crowd and get the arms and signs waving. Hell we even did the damn wave! One thing, no Michael Franti! How is that possible? No music that was modern at all.

So awesome. So many families. That was so awesome seeing all the kids, sporting Bernie this and that. Teens everywhere, many too young to vote but sporting Bernie garb. Muslims for Bernie, Skateboarders for Bernie. Teachers and nurses. BUT, no UFW sightings, which I found odd considering the presence they have here in Sac. No real unions represented as a group and Sac is huge with govt unions.

He gave a great speech, hit a few home runs (healthcare, education).and got the crowd rallying every 30 seconds or so. Was very uplifting.
The sad thing is however, that if T rump were to play the same place, he would pack the place even more. I know this town and it is far more a T rump town than a Bernie town.