Grasshopper's Appeal Part 11
The [...Last... ] Straw Poll ... &... Campaigning....pages 53 -- 59
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The Straw Poll
In San Mateo, they held a straw poll to let you vote for the horse you wanted to run in the Democratic primary. The capitol D indicates there is nothing democratic about it. You pay $25- bucks and this entitles you to vote, or select whom you felt was most worthy or desirable. I don’t know if you could pay and vote more than once, I really couldn’t afford it at all, but I did pay for one choice. In fact, I thought there was only one choice, that of Dennis Kucinich. Sadly, my horse didn’t even stay in the primary. Perhaps I should have followed his lead and dropped outta the race myself. Oh well, too late when you’ve already lost.
I do wish to commend Dennis K. at this time for questioning and standing against both arbitrary detention and extrajudicial assassination, a most troubling and disturbing trend.
So it was mid-October, after the Ed Jew arrest and re-charge and re-arrest upon the Vandebos, when I went down to do this straw poll, but I’m not exactly sure why. I do know that I thought it made strange sense to campaign there, but it was something to do , anyway. Probably Luke’s idea.
[ i hesitatingly repost this, but you can see pictures, which will save you from having to read this install if you are in a hurry…
http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/es_crackberry_chronicles_071023.shtml
obviously they won’t have anything nice to say, nor even accurate, but the pictures are revealing…hide the kids… oh well]
I drove down there in my Grasshopper for Mayor mobile with that wanker Luke Thomas, Elaine Santori, his girlfriend, some guy named Bob, and my acoustic guitar. Josh Wolf and his entourage also went down, but they’d left earlier, before my arrest. We spent perhaps two hours there at the San Mateo Expose` or Exhibit Center, and I made my choice of Dennis Kucinich, heard him and Hilary Clinton speak, and heckled her as much as I could for her warmongering ways, saying, “Stop the War.” That got boring quickly, as did listening to her lie, so I went outside. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, just a perfect day, and I really wanted to get out of there, but those journalist types were ogling Dennis, and so I thought I’d pull my van up somewhere close to the doors, of course not blocking traffic, but sort of to the side of the front door, where people could see me if they were looking, and my beautiful Grasshopper Taxicab, or rather, my Grasshopper for Mayor mobile, although I didn’t expect to get too many of their votes.
Then again, like Ed Jew, maybe most San Francisco voters actually reside outside the city, perhaps in San Mateo county?
[like SFO, which although located in the City and County of San Francisco, technically, requires driving through the Lithuanian enclaves of South City and other San Mateo towns, but i digress in thought of Kaliningrad, woops, where did my mind go?]
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You know, after they dropped all those Ed Jew charges, and I was serving in solitary, they slapped me with a parking ticket for parking in Ed Jew’s driveway. After Zadik tried to fight this, we saw it would cost even more to pursue, so my friend just paid it off. Sadly, Zadik couldn’t even defend me from the DPT, let alone the conspiring trio of Vandebos, Hallett, and Yaggy.
~ ~ ~
San Mateo Expo~ or Exhibit; it was nice and warm outside, and I’m just waitin’ on a friend, playing guitar near the doors, being ignored. I had pulled my van up near the main entrance, off to the side. I decided to hop up on the roof of my van, where I continued to play my acoustic, being ignored. Gosh, it was just so nice and sunny out that afternoon, fabulous skies, and so warm. I got that feeling, playing guitar, that I just wasn’t doing enough to stop this bloody war we always seem to have to wage against someone or other, be it communists, terrorists, poor folks, whomever is convenient to oppress. If nothing else, one can oppress oneself.
So I started getting hotter, and took my clothes off, and kept playing guitar on the roof of my van, largely being ignored, with perhaps my rear visible to a small degree, but nothing of the anterior, as this was well hidden by the guitar i kept slung low. There were photos on the internet that I couldn’t get a copy of from my lawyer in that trial, clearly showing that there really was nothing to be seen, oh well.
I’m hanging around, singing my song “Mine Land” singing the words/refrain, “Stop the War,” and some management types have caught wind of my waving, as it weren’t , and have asked me to put my clothes back on. I think I ignored them long enough to finish that song, and i was still waiting for those folks inside. When they re-emerged, then I put my clothes back on and we were basically driving away. I really wasn’t trying to upset anyone, and I meant no harm. Funny how anti-war protestors have become totally criminalized. Especially in San Mateo.
We were about halfway out the driveway when the cops pulled about halfway in, pulled me over, arrested me saying they weren’t really arresting me, just a formality while they arrested me. I think they eventually charged me with improper speech. I mean, maybe they charged me with being a public nuisance, or singing out of key, something very serious. Perhaps blocking the right of way in the parking lot, which I really was not doing; nor was I publicly nuisancing no one. Sadly, the day I was due to appear in their court there, I was sort of busy being in court here in San Francisco. I did eventually get to visit the lovely jails of Redwood City , which was a fun vacation from the naked bars of the local lock-up.
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Campaigning
i love how Carol Yaggy says I have no ties to the community, after she’s untied them all. Allways fear a woman who wears a tie.
What exactly was some of the speech that I was exercising my freedom to transmit so freely? I though you might like to hear what some of my driving broadcast sounded like, in case you hadn’t gotten any live at the time.
are you tired of that useless nuisance, that Gravel Threesome pretending to care not cash in on you? On November 6th, 2007,
vote Grasshopper. Yes, that's me, Grasshopper Kaplan, asking you
to vote for me. Only Grasshopper Kaplan, that's me, is out here
campaigning. A vote for Grasshopper is a vote for separate bicycle
pathways. That's right, separate paths for bikes, so we don't have to
compete with all these dangerous cars. And free Muni for
residents , with a downtown transit assessment district, to make the
big businesses that benefit from getting you downtown there help
pay for your transport to work
Let's make it legal to live in commercial spaces, with
eviction protection. That's right folks, there's tons of vacant
commercial spaces in every part of the city , and its already
the only way so many folks can live here , so let's make it legal..
Cause if you work here, you gotta be able to live here instead of
having to commute hundreds of miles back and forth just to get to
work. That's unpaid labor, and bad for our planet, all that pollutin' and commuting. Let's make San Francisco a place where people can
LIVE, with Eviction Protection. Let' s legalize marijuana, and then
we can encourage Gavin to smoke some. Let's have a greens for
peace program to support schools and roads, , but not wars nor jails.
Let's make San Francisco beautiful, by legalizing prostitution.
That's right, let's make Gavin Newsom walk the streets. Let's have
Total Amnesty for undocumented people. Vote Grasshopper
Kaplan, and remember to Tune In, Turn On, and Take Over...
i loosely quote some of what I might have been espousing in my campaign, along these public thoroughfares of San Francisco, hoping to get a few votes or applause, obtaining little or neither.
Although people supported and liked my agenda, theoretically, they basically thought I was beyond insane, and stark raving mad, quite likely merely for having a mind to be the mayor man.
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This one woman, I’ll never forget, whom Yaggy excused from the jury in her chambers, this woman said she actually agreed with all of my platform planks, but couldn’t vote for me because she thought I myself was crazy. Was that because I seemed to be getting arrested a lot all of a sudden when I started sticking my toes into the political quicksand ocean rip current?
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Facts # 2
- I was frequently arrested while running for mayor, including at 201 Turk, a debate for mayoral candidates to which I was invited. These arrests violated my freedom of speech.
- They had dropped , but then re-charged me for the Vandebos after i parked in Ed Jew’s driveway. Did Lt. Daniel J. Mahoney have something to do with me getting re-charged for that piece of poo from Janet Vandebos?
- They kept delaying the Vandebos trial, against my will and wishes, violating my rights to due process and a fair and speedy trial.
Now, jumping ahead a bit, when I was released from the Ed Jew, i was 5150’d to SFGH 1st floor Psych ER, this because I was homeless. Also, they said I was crazy BECAUSE I was running for mayor. Although it may have appeared to be a crazy course of action from their perspective, I did not know then that running for public office was to be considered an act of deep psychosis and full -on hysterical pandemonium, comparable to swimming in the Bay; but i know that now.
Because I was released from the Ed Jew to SFGH Psych ER, 5150’d, and unable to secure actual release until a friend could come to pick me up, this all caused me to miss a court date, due to effective detention — rendering me to SFGH at the time of that court date. Being homeless is cause to be locked up for 3 days in the “5150,” whereby one is deemed a danger to oneself or others, potentially merely for being homeless.
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I absolutely was refused release or transport to the court date at 10:30 am; they would only release me from SFGH after noon. Then, when I went to pick up my van, they re-arrested me, re-charged me with the Vandebos, there was more torture in solitary, and then days later AGAIN “released,” me - to SFGH Psych ER from jail, this time causing me to miss a mayoral function at SOMAR, the Soma Arts Gallery there on Brannan, where I’ve never been. Oh well
Also, I believe it was during that same week of torture and terror in early September ‘07 , they brought me to SFGH but this time to the 7th Floor, where I was fed a burrito, because it was something vegan that I could eat. I think, in fact, they brought me there because I am vegan. I guess being vegan is an mental disorder. They brought me back from that unit to jail, as I recall, hence I speak of rendition, torture, and terror, from experience, not conjecture, thank you.
[why do we torture each other all the time? Why do we treat each other meanly, when we could be kind…? / baby i’m beggin you , on my bended knees, oh you just got to release me….]
But about the Mayor’s race, now. I believe the filing due date 3 years ago was the end of the first week of August. Rachelle thanked me for filing a few days early, instead of at the last minute like most folks. It cost me just shy of $5,000- dollars to be on the ballot. 5 Grand, less several hundred signatories-in-lieu I’d collected worth 50 C [cents] each, which cost me far more in time to collect than value derived.
What decided me to go ahead and run?
Why did I run for Mayor after my taxicab business was indefinitely suspended — although they did not have any Vandebos charges pending?
What decided me, finally, in addition to my desire to make it legal to live in commercial spaces? Well, when I saw that, despite dropping those initial Vandebos charges, my business remained shut down, I felt like the bid for Mayor was my only hope, a sort of last-ditch effort to resurrect Grasshopper from the ashes. In retrospect, perhaps that was what decided them to continue to come down hard on me?
Running for Mayor, I believed , was my only hope. Like the phoenix singing its final song in death throes, the bid for Mayor was my curtain call, or last gasp. Plus i realized , being out of business, that if I didn’t run for Mayor, I’d have nothing else to do. At least I had my lovely campaign van , temporarily. I’ve since lost everything I’d worked so hard for to gather.
Perhaps they kept moving the Vandebos trial forward, until after the election, violating my right to speedy trial and due process, so as to avoid providing any accidental sympathy or publicity for Grasshopper.
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Perhaps, they thought they’d avoid giving me any more potential votes from campaigning in a public “venue,” by waiting until after the election for my trial
OR,
perhaps not. In homage to Orwell and Kafka, one juror stated that the trial, although occurring after the election, was part of my mayoral campaign, that i was just putting them through it to try to get votes, belatedly I guess. Maybe that juror didn’t actually live in San Francisco, and was not aware of when the election occurred? None of the jurors were my peers; the one who might vaguely have been, Andrew, was removed because I had spoken several words of kind encouragement to him after a small musical show he held that I attended. Smell a rose, go to jail, that’s the law. Jury of your peers, that’s the lie. Ain’t nobody who go to jail never had no mofu’ing peers on they jury. Peers, that’s what the rich folks get, who almost never have to go inside at all.
Yes, that thing about me going to trial as an effort to get votes! Man, what a mix-up or shake-down of mirrors, microscopes, and the accepted cosmic order of the flow of time. Like me going 80 mph, they claimed, on the parking lot that was 101 North on 7-26th , 2007. It still sort of riles me that no one bothered to check out the simple fact of what were the actual, FACTual traffic conditions of that road, on that day. Had anyone taken the time, having done so, [s/he ] could have easily discredited their whole stinking enchilada of a rotten fish tale that they cooked up and sold, as caviar. They managed to get everything backwards and then hold it against me, sort of selectively and inappropriately, or perhaps, criminally, I would suggest. I mean, (I believe) the conduct of Karen Hallett, whom prosecuted the Vandebos case against me, was criminal and unethical. {Guess I had to put that in somewhere, why not here. } Prosecutors can lie through their teeth and just make stuff up, as long as they keep the jails full and keep the system rotten to the core.
Now call me foolish, but somewhere along the line I picked up the idea of thee Rule of Freedom, probably from Mary Klein or Cheryl Jones over there in my boarding school for fuck-ups I graduated Valedictorian of. You know, you’ve all heard that same American crapola on your Victrola, that stuff about by the people, of the people, for the people. Well, my voice was deemed inappropriate, so my business was doomed. I was silenced by the City and County of San Francisco, which never even told me I had the right to remain silent. Actually , I lost that privilege, in my desperate attempt to defend my self and save my business. Oh well, amendments probably make good toilet paper. If, of course, you have the right to freely use a bathroom. Do you?
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[ \\\ …to be continued … /// ]
Note, i actually think my singing on this last clip is as good as i’ve heard it…and the rest of the band is diggin a dancing groove, hence, AbunDance…
Blessings