Author: Rocky Neptun

Bread, Circuses and The Welfare King: Alexander Spanos

 Rocky Neptun  January 20, 2011  10 Comments on Bread, Circuses and The Welfare King: Alexander Spanos

Editor: This contribution by Rocky Neptun is a continuation of the debate about a new football stadium in downtown San Diego, begun by Andy Cohen here.

When I began my property maintenance business a few decades ago, I used 80 percent of my assets and borrowed an amount equivalent to another 50 percent. At that time, or even now, there was never a consideration that you, as a taxpayer, should finance my business venture.

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Artifice at the Theatre: Mayor Sanders’ State of the City Speech

 Rocky Neptun  January 17, 2011  2 Comments on Artifice at the Theatre: Mayor Sanders’ State of the City Speech

Like a bogus Thespian, Jerry Sanders took to the stage of the Balboa Theater in mid-January, using every ounce of verbal ruse and sleight of mouth he possessed to attempt a bravado performance heralding his dreary and monotonous six years as Mayor of San Diego.

Sander’s speech, like his devious administration of city government as water boy for the corporate state, reflects a continuing tale of two cities.

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Privatization in Mexico resulted in the deaths of 48 children.

 Rocky Neptun  December 7, 2010  1 Comment on Privatization in Mexico resulted in the deaths of 48 children.

Privatize! Then, Bury Your Children! Tijuana, Mexico. Dec. 5: Protesting the scorching deaths of their children for profit, several dozen…

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Jesus, George Washington and San Diego’s Medical Marijuana Struggle

 Rocky Neptun  November 16, 2010  9 Comments on Jesus, George Washington and San Diego’s Medical Marijuana Struggle

Editor: This two-year old post by Rocky Neptun is a constant favorite or our readers. We thought we’d just bring it out for some more sun – but please realize dear reader, that it was written in November of 2010.

By Rocky Neptun

Under the shadow of a venomous San Diego District Attorney and a cliff-hanger Attorney General election between a fanatical D.A. from Los Angeles and a sympathetic D.A. from the Bay Area, medical marijuana patients, providers and activists met near Mission Bay under the banner of “putting patients first.”

The November 14th, all-day gathering, at the Marina Village Conference Center reflected both the radiance of altruism in the medical marijuana movement, its ancient heritage, and the potential to humanize the medical-care-giving industry, as well as the dangers members and patients face from reactionary forces still fighting the obsolete cultural wars of the 1960’s.

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Campaign forms in San Diego to halt ICE raids

 Rocky Neptun  November 9, 2010  20 Comments on Campaign forms in San Diego to halt ICE raids

By Rocky Neptun

Next March will mark the 57th anniversary of Anne Frank’s death. Branded an illegal alien of the occupied Netherlands because she was Jewish; she and her young friends had to hide in fear of the black-shirted fiends known as the Protective Squad (Schutzstaffel) or SS as it was commonly called.

Roaming through neighborhoods they were the enforcers of ethnic purification. Their unspeakable atrocities against human beings in the name of the law still lacerate our sense of humanity. And while the ends of their sickening purposes still surface occasionally in places like the Sudan, Rwanda and Bosnia; their means continue to be used as weapons against targeted peoples like today’s Department of Homeland Security thugs.

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Donkey Tears in San Diego – Can Progressives Build a Majority Here?

 Rocky Neptun  November 8, 2010  1 Comment on Donkey Tears in San Diego – Can Progressives Build a Majority Here?

By Rocky Neptun

About forty activists, mostly Democrats, gathered last week for breakfast at the office of the San Diego Foundation for Change to lick their wounds, investigate what went wrong and listen to an exciting presentation on possible future progressive election victories.

Lamenting the Republican gains in the mid-term elections, participants, ranging from the chair of the San Diego Democratic Club to the editor of Indian Voices to church groups, power liberals all, spoke of their despair over what many saw as a conservative turn to the electorate.

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Anti-War Activists in the Nation’s Heartland Under Attack!

 Rocky Neptun  September 27, 2010  5 Comments on Anti-War Activists in the Nation’s Heartland Under Attack!

By Rocky Neptun

The sweeping assaults across the nation on peaceful anti-war activists Sept. 24th represent an ominous divergence for an administration which was elected to change the heavy-handed policies of the Bush regime. Like something straight out of the Ashcroft playbook, FBI agents, in cooperation with local authorities, raided homes and offices in Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota. Government thugs also showed up at the doors of progressives and human rights activists in North Carolina and San Jose, California.

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Affordable Housing is a Human Right!

 Rocky Neptun  September 20, 2010  2 Comments on Affordable Housing is a Human Right!

By Rocky Neptune

Every human right has had to be fought for against powerful interests who profit from the subjugation and misuse of their fellow persons. The right to vote was opposed by kings and emperors and is still occasionally nullified by millionaire judges, …

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Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio: Abuse protected by the badge

 Rocky Neptun  August 23, 2010  1 Comment on Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio: Abuse protected by the badge

By Rocky Neptun

“Do not forsake me, ohhhh..my darling,” the deep raspy voice of Gary Cooper intoned as Hadleyville Marshal Will Kane walked out into the middle of town to meet the evil that was arriving on the noon train. Having just gotten married to a pacifist Quaker that day, hanging up his guns and badge; he would have to make a choice between the effortless escapism in the waiting buggy, horses harnessed and ready, and facing down the malicious criminal who was approaching – even though everyone in town was frightened and hid.

Gary Cooper won a Best Acting Oscar for that performance, while Tex Ritter’s theme High Noon won Best Song.

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No Place at the Table: Feeding the Hungry in San Diego is a Crime!

 Rocky Neptun  August 18, 2010  10 Comments on No Place at the Table: Feeding the Hungry in San Diego is a Crime!

By Rocky Neptun

“Mommie, I’m hungry,” the little girl cried as she stood shivering in the cold wind, waiting for food. The image has never left me…and now that I am semi-retired I want to be part of an effort making sure no more children starve on San Diego city streets.

I want to help buy a catering truck. A fellow member of the San Diego Renters Union, who was once homeless, has gotten a modest settlement and has agreed to match whatever the Renters Union can raise toward buying a food truck to feed the homeless. As someone who spent their teen years on the streets of New York City, I learned very early, as I camped under a hedge at New York University, that whatever didn’t fit in a back-pack was useless. I had no possessions, so possessions did not possess me. But I did know hunger and, often, what crimes against society – and oneself – it took to obtain money for food.

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