Trumpenstein Looms in Sleepytown: Fini

We left the rally and that evening I ended up at a local rock pub listening to a few indie bands. The first group up was a Prince cover band, the lead singer budding the “Purple Rain” coiffure and singing the hits off said album. The next day news was announced that Prince had died…the irony of life sometimes is obscene.

I took the next few days to process the Trump rally, evaluating what I had seen and comparing it to the dozens upon dozens of news stories and feeds I’ve caught during the 2016 campaign. This was not the crowd of right wing berserkers like CNN and other affiliates had been exploiting on the airwaves. Politics aside, they were pretty much normal people…the likes of which you could see gathered at some religious revival or a local high school football game. These weren’t the fanatical rogue rangers we saw squatting on federal property out in Oregon or punching on Trump antagonists.

The weekend came around while I was still debating myself on those (and other) questions. Spring is looming and the full moon influence brought Trump and the death of Prince to my mental doorstep. Circumstances led me to stumble onto a few squares of blotter acid and that led to a full evening at my local haunt, Dormans. The night drove on as my friends and I chattered like squirrels and washed down the LSD with a glass or three of mezcal. After closing the bar down I sauntered off with some other dudes on the promise of cocaine and more debate on life, death and everything….except politics. The early hours became a throwback to an earlier era, when people got extremely high and had ‘rap’ sessions for hours on end…or just talked away the acid until they came down enough to sleep. This guy had a cool little pad to chill at until the sun came up and he flipped on old Dylan music and recorded concerts of the Grateful Dead. He was a writer, specifically (of what I heard but not necessarily exclusive)  of poems. Next to his desk was a pile of poems he had typed out on a manual typewriter.
“These are like…my masturbations” he said pointing to the stack of poems. His work was deep and painted some really powerful imagery but it was also laced with a pain he harbors over lost relationships with women. He had been dating a stripper at one time. He went from there to a webcam girl. I can see where that would feed a whole lot of pain and art and we three talked and consoled each other in the knowledge of acceptance. No matter how off keel our brains may have been at that moment from the drugs and alcohol, we all assured one another that things were no less sane than what CNN and Fox and half the news feed off the internet was telling us.

Early that morning, a few hours before the sun would come up, I wandered on the streets to get back home. I was lost momentarily as the drugs had led me in a directional loop. The morning life of animals in my neighborhood is incredible and I wandered a bit to listen to the birds sing. The bird calls gave me some clarity and slowly I began to conclude the whole Trump rally and what I got from it. Trump has secured a big number of extremist right wing conservative voters and now needs to seal the deal by appealing to a less extreme crowd. The Republican Party has stranded a huge group of their people that weren’t prepared to go as far (right) as Trump-hell, a good amount of GOP big names on the field didn’t want to go as far as Trump, but sensationalized news stories rallied people to rattle their Republican sabres and this kept Trumpenstein alive. The monster was fed from a panicky audience of voters who were dissatisfied by the other candidates and needed to assure themselves that Hillary Clinton would not become the next President. It’s another situation where people are not voting for one candidate so much as they are voting to oppose another. Push came to shove in the election cycle and the race is now coming into the home stretch. Citizens unhappy with Barack Obama and dreading the thought of a Clinton presidency follow-up are frantic. Strong support for a Republican candidate will become hinged on whether Sanders or Clinton take the nomination for the Democrats. Sanders may bring less a Republican voter turnout; Hillary will have people coming down from the mountains of Tennessee and beyond to strike her chances in office.

Now I sit in the Church and wait to see what the finals bring about. Who will get called for that last competition in the battle? Will it be the popular candidate or a predestined ringer? Will I be able to trust the voter turnout numbers on screen or can I go out (like I did to the Trump rally) and see an alternate reality? All we have to rely on is….
what?

fin

Trumpenstein Looms in Sleepytown pt. 2

“Cinnamon and sugary and softly spoken lies
You never know just how you look through other people’s eyes”
-the Butthole Surfers

Time passed by at a surreal rate. I wasn’t taken in by the fever of the man; I came to observe the event and to see how the Republican voting block here in Indianapolis (and surrounding towns represented) stacked up against the Democrats this year. This type fanfare builds steam beneath budding candidates and turns them into viable competitors for the Presidency. I think back now to the beginning of this 2016 campaign, remembering Donald as he did the slow descent on an escalator to a crowd of paid enthusiasts. Not many believed back then (myself included) that he would continue to rise and become the front runner for Republicans…but he’s still in the race and still leading strong.

I don’t recall what theme song they played when Trump sauntered up to the podium here in Indy. They had been blasting generic rock tunes all morning – Rolling Stones, stuff like that. They definitely weren’t playing any old Amboy Dukes songs or hits off Ted Nugent’s Cat Scratch Fever album. They didn’t want to light up the crowd too heavy. Trump’s people seem to be getting Donald to tone it down a bit and not seem so hostile at these events so as to appeal to the undecided voter block. He’s won over a small crowd of right wing crowds but needs more. He needs to secure those stragglers still clinging to belief in a Ted Cruz run for the White House, or walking down a blind alley trying to support any halfwit entering the race this late in the game. Regardless, Donald did finally don the stage and the crowd went fucking nuts. Whooping and cheering as he shot out his bullet point slogans, bloating his jowls before the crowd and standing tall for all to admire. He likes to play the crowd – as do all politicians vying for votes. I kept losing focus on his actual words, then amid the stream of noise coming out of him, I would hear the word “China”, or he might say “lying Ted Cruz”, but those were about the only words I recall of much significance. Too much dope?…or just enough? Political rallies are so close in resemblance to high school pep rallies. The crowds aren’t necessarily always going to be listening for substance of material and policy plans…some times they just want to see the celebrity dance.

It seemed about every ten minutes or so a bubble of protesters would rise up against Trump and begin disrupting the event. The crowd had been instructed via loudspeaker (earlier) not to physically engage protesters, rather they should point them out in the crowd and chant Trump’s name to alert security to their location. Security was pretty swift on the protesters but those opposed to Trump hung on like roaches. Anyone thrown out of the hall would join a now growing amount of outside protestors. Numbers were increasing both inside and out but there were no signs of a huge fight popping up and before long the event lulled into routine. It became a repetitive cycle of Trump saying something trivial, protesters barking – followed by protesters thrown out, Trump doing segue into another hot button topic and finishing with a slogan. Mike told me he needed to hear Trump say “we’re going to build a wall” and by God if Donald didn’t pull it out. He pulled that big dick slogan out and the crowd loved it. It’s a campaign mantra that needs to be on a button…might be on a button in one form or another for all I know. Snappy ( and not-so-snappy) campaign slogans have been used throughout the history of voting in America and they always thrown them on buttons… Surely by now someone has made a ‘we’re gonna build a wall” button. My favorite button of the day was the “Hot Chicks Love Trump” button. There were a variety of Hillary slamming buttons and t-shirts being worn, plenty for sale from authorized dealers.

I think we broke free just in time to avoid major traffic holdups. By the time we were walking outside among the protestors, Secret Service had dismantled metal detectors and security was ready to go to their hotel rooms. The party’s over and you can’t stay here folks. This was when I felt I needed some time to absorb all the nuances of this experience. The undertones of crowd behavior and alike minded people’s kinetic energy…we needed to get out of there and think about what we had just experienced…

Trumpenstein Looms in Sleepytown pt. 1

This was too good to pass up. On the celebrated day of cannabis appreciation (4/20) Donald Trump, the icon of the Republican run for the 2016 White House, would show up at the Indiana State fairgrounds to rally support for himself. I couldn’t let Trump pass me by, not on Weed Day. His visit to Indy came on the heels of his big win in New York. The positive numbers he pulled out of the Big Apple had to fill his empty soul with glee so why not carry that feeling into the Midwest where he could try to secure a few more delegates? Fast paced timing threw the rally together with little notice; most people I knew were unaware he had scheduled to stop in Sleepytown. Later breaking news suggested the Big Man, Chris Christie, might even show up there. I was glad to have caught notice in time to plan the Trump Sojourn, check the thing out and compare it to that lagging Sanders rally I attended a little more than a  month ago. I was sorry to have missed a more recent rally for Bernie but a twisted mind like mine can only ingest so much politico before nausea takes over and leaves me shuddering in the corner.

One quick call to Mike, mi hermano, and the Trump trip was in swing. I’d make sure we had an adequate amount of THC for our brains to wrap around the experience that is…Donald Trump. Trump and the Trump crowd. An undiluted taste of Hoosier Republicans, out there backing their man. This was life theater at it’s best. Mike grabbed tickets and we sped off the next day.

Local Democrat/Independent opposition to Trump laid notice they would be protesting at the rally. That would definitely add to the festivities. Some early online chatter the day before we left for this event tried to persuade people to get online tickets and not show up-a boycott of some sort, I suppose. Something to say ‘we will undermine your efforts, Don’…some people don’t know the strength of conviction the Trump supporter has for this man. Ticket buyouts? No fucking way, not on these zealots’ watch. I personally wasn’t about boycotting the event. I wanted to walk straight into the den of a Trump rally and experience it for what it is…..while high. That buyout ticket idea wouldn’t fly anyway (I found out they weren’t going to collect your tickets…I made sure to check that one out…walked straight up to a state trooper and asked. I don’t know if the officer noticed, or didn’t care, that I was baked. Sure I was high, but I was under control and not foaming at the mouth about taking down Trumpenstein).

The crowd slowly grew outside the building on the state fairgrounds. The weed we smoked had kicked in nicely and now we were both really into the discussion and ambiance this whole scene had. This was the gravy of politics, the live rally event of the Republican Party and associates. This was CNN and Fox News covering where you were standing; the happening that would be broadcast out for a few moments on the media…with perhaps a bit more. You could smell the dopamine oozing out of pores as the crowd grew with anticipation knowing Donald would be there soon. Security screening insured by Secret Service kept it all nice and civil, something more common each day at large events. Reminds me of being screened at a pro ball team game or maybe the airport. The slow growth of people coming inside began to fill the small hall and Mike and I took advantage of surveying the lay of things around and near the main stage…not too close. Key positions were claimed by security or devout party members. People who had stuck it out for hours holding their key spot on the floor. We cruised the perimeter and met the Republican voters. All forms of mutation as friendly as could be and anxious to see their man on stage. The one that really shook me in that moment was a lady in a wheelchair holding on to a sign reading STANDS WITH TRUMP. The irony of this visual-and just as bizarre, the ability to pull out a phone and take a picture of this oxymoron and not be seen as abnormally intrusive. Our society is selfie-propelled so taking snaps or video of the real world are more the norm. The lady in the chair wasn’t even phased. A couple young buck cowboys wearing shirts reading HILLARY FOR PRISON 2016 smiled there way near me. Trump friendlies from various Indiana towns who had forged their way to this event. Small families and button vendors, news hacks and political antagonists, all gathering in a fairground block building for the live version of the GOP front runner….Trump was coming.

Waning Politco, Sleepytown Time Traveling

This past Saturday a group of more than one thousand irate citizens of Indiana hoofed it down to the Indiana Statehouse protesting the recent actions of Governor, Mike Pence (R). This religious mutant has been wreaking havoc on the Midwest in repeated policy changes that sound and seem more from an era of about fifty-five years ago. His laws travel back through time to that point in our country’s past when bigotry and prejudice, religious mendacity and homophobia ran rampant. His most recent decree set an abortion law which he said, “Affirms the value of all human life.” A good portion of the public disagreed to the point of wanting to go down there with signs and words against Pence. The metro area is peppered with signs calling to oust the Governor and this latest abortion stance only adds more hatred toward the man. This doesn’t seem to stifle his urge to create a Fire and Brimstone playscape out of Indiana. He ignored the public and silently passed a restrictive abortion policies Bill behind closed doors. It was reported that after signing the legislation, he closed it all with a prayer.

…and Jesus fucking wept…

I missed the protest against HEA 1337 due to a schedule that had me late night kicking it at the local bar scene. The State Street Pub hosts insanely good hip-hop artists and a DJ who mixes euphoric, primitive tunes to bounce with. I’m always amazed at how great some of these small venue clubs are around town. Excellent music being sound engineered off tablet technology. Great acoustics in a concrete structure where the sound engulfs you, but doesn’t swallow you whole….this is the way our tech should be used. This is the positive side of the twenty-first century. I probably could have slammed down some chemical energy drink and got to the protest the day after the live music scene at State Street, but I weighed out. I’m holding out for a gigantic sea of Hoosiers marching their way down to the Statehouse. Pence’s stance on the LGBT community shot a flare across the country that painted Indiana as a gay-unfriendly community (and affiliated sexual orientation groups under the LGBT shield), all not true of the people; more a reflection of the Governor’s religious cult-like behavior. The LGBT community and supporters should add to the growing crowd of protesters here in Sleepytown. The man seems to have run crazy this deep into his career as a politician. He’s molding some off-shoot Christianity community that reminds me more of that Stephen King story, Children of the Corn. His attitude toward a diverse community of people in Indiana, a Holier-Than-Thou zeal and a rabid eye on minorities reeks of paranoia and I feel the number of protesting Hoosiers is just beginning. I’m waiting for that big mob scene, citizens with blood rimmed eyes howling toward the Statehouse.

While all this backwoods mentality legislation is going on here, the national race for the Presidency has lost a bit of it’s glimmer on the news scene. There are update stories but they are less shock value at this point in the race. The Trump campaign machine, as well as the Clinton tribe, both took some setback. Ted Cruz swept all the delegates in Colorado. Sanders won in Wyoming. A growing number of people are beginning to feel hope in the power of logic and can once again believe that something (or someone) will come along and dethrone Donald Trump. Hillary is losing her support and the fever for Sanders continues to rise. Trump’s longstanding lead as the Republican front runner gave his psyche a boost of Totalitarian glee and everyone seemed a little worried throughout most of this election. That man so close to the football could not be a good thing. Now there is a pinch of optimism that ensures everyone that the GOP will stop this monster one way or another.

Hoosiers will have to continue working hard at shedding the accusations of homophobia and racism, all brought about thanks to the Governor. Other states are beginning to pop up in the news feed as holding similar problems right now. Each state will have to battle this ‘back in time’ approach to laws that concern equality for all citizens. The men in women’s uterus backers are but a handful of devious elected officials here in Indy and I imagine Pence and his group of elite feel they can wait this out if no more citizens call him on it. Pence can take a bit of heat but I have to wonder what will come about when national drivers/sponsors for the biggest spectacle in race car driving pop up around May? What if those big sponsors boycott the Indianapolis 500 instead, leading to a vast chunk of profit taken out of the race? Community sales could reports millions in revenue loss, which would just keep adding to that future crowd down at the Statehouse.

I hope to catch the next rally and the way the national political scene is waning right now, it might be more entertaining for the moment….or maybe I’ll just go back to State Street.