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Jeanne Manford, PFLAG founder, RIP
Mary Shaw
I was saddened to learn of the recent death of Jeanne Manford, founder of an organization that eventually grew to become Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). Manford started the original support group in 1972, after her gay son had been beaten while participating in a protest for gay rights in their native New York City. PFLAG now has some 200,000 members and more than 350 local chapters across the U.S.
Since its inception, the organization has provided a supportive environment for members of the LGBT community and the people who love them. Perhaps most prominently, it has provided a safe and compassionate haven for parents and other family members who need to work out all kinds of issues upon learning that a son, daughter, brother, or sister is gay. And, once over that initial hump, the group's ongoing support can lead to lifelong friendships and a life-changing commitment to the causes of acceptance and equality.
Permanent Afghanistan Occupation Planned
by Stephen Lendman
America came to stay. Accelerated withdrawal claims reflect subterfuge. Washington officials and media scoundrels don't explain. Misinformation and illusion substitute for reality.
Reuters headlined "Obama, Karzai accelerate end of US combat role in Afghanistan."
"Obama's determin(ed) to wind down a long, unpopular war."
The New York Times headlined 'Obama Accelerates Transition of Security to Afghans." Obama is "eager to turn a page after more than a decade of war."
Chavismo in Venezuela
by Stephen Lendman
Chavez remains hospitalized. He's recovering from complicated cancer surgery. It's his fourth in 18 months.
His scheduled January 10 inauguration was postponed. Venezuelans turned out en masse. Tens of thousands gathered outside Caracas' Palacio de Miraflores. It's Chavez's official workplace.
Many others rallied throughout the capital. Red-shirted supporters were everywhere. Sound trucks aired Chavez campaign music. People danced. The mood was celebratory. Air Force jets flew overhead. Vendors sold Bolivarian memorabilia.
Chavez and Simon Bolivar photos were displayed. Their images adorned shirts. Signs read "I am Chavez." "Chavez is the heart of the people." Other Chavistas expressed support their way.
Lest we forget, an attack on Syria is an attack on Iran and a threat to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
by chycho
United States involvement in Syria has nothing to do with a repressive regime. After all, in 2002 the United States willingly used Assad’s regime to torture Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, when they renditioned him to Syria from New York. The world was also quite grateful to Syria for accepting 1.5 million refugees created by the US invasion of Iraq, especially considering that for approximately the same period the United States had only accepted 7,000 Iraqi refugees. What’s happening in Syria is part of a bigger picture, a grand chessboard if you’d like, and what’s happening there is definitely not the end game.
Anti-Chavez Media War Rages
by Stephen Lendman
It shouldn't surprise. It raged throughout his tenure. It continues while he's ill. It vilifies progressive Bolivarianism. It wants neoliberal harshness replacing it.
It ignores responsible social reform. It's dismissive of Chavez's overwhelming popularity. He rescued Venezuela from its ugly past. Millions won't tolerate returning to what they deplore.
On January 7, the Cuban News Agency (ACN) headlined "Experts Denounce Media War against Venezuela and Hugo Chavez," saying:
On Venezuelan television, sociologist Mariclem Stelling said right-wing ideologues aren't able to discredit Bolivarianism. They surface prominently around election time.
They "break up into pseudo-organizations and fade away." Their views don't reflect popular sentiment. They're targeting Chavez's health. They hope "to get him out of the political scene."
Big Oil, Big Ketchup and The Assassination of Hugo Chavez
By Greg Palast
President Hugo Chavez shows reporter Greg Palast the sword of Simon
Bolivar seen in portrait in background. Miraflores Palace, Caracas, 2006.
Photo by richard rowley.
Venezuelan President Chavez once asked me why the US elite wanted to kill him. My dear Hugo: It’s the oil. And it’s the Koch Brothers – and it’s the ketchup.
Reverend Pat Robertson said,
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“Hugo Chavez thinks we’re trying to assassinate him. I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.”
It was 2005 and Robertson was channeling the frustration of George Bush’s State Department. Despite Bush’s providing intelligence, funds and even a note of congratulations to the crew who kidnapped Chavez (we’ll get there), Hugo remained in office, reelected and wildly popular.
The Next Big Thing
Timothy Gatto
The political theatre in Washington is nothing but a media show to keep the masses under control in order to keep them ignorant of what the real situation is. This charade that the Democrats and Republicans are delivering to the people makes the masses believe that there is real division and that is the result of electing their representatives to the House and Senate and they come to believe that they have a choice.
They have no choice. They are led to the voting booths by the same people that engineered who will run for office. The candidates are well vetted by background checks and by interviews to make sure that they are going to be “handled” easily. The people running for office are funded by large corporations and lobbies. The candidates are dependent on the groups that got them elected.
New York Times Wages War on Medicare and Social Security
by Stephen Lendman
The record of America's newspaper of record is deplorable. It supports wealth, power, privilege and dominance. It backs corporate interests. It spurns popular ones. It endorses imperial wars.
It's comfortable about toppling independently elected governments. It's silent about propping up friendly despots. It's quiet about disappearing democratic freedoms. It ignores US duopoly power.
It endorses sham elections. It's waging war on America's social contract. ObamaCare rationed healthcare to enrich insurers, drug companies, and large hospital chains.
In March 2010, a Times editorial headlined "Health Care Reform, at last." It praised what it should have condemned.
Ralph Nader called it "a pay-or-die system that's the disgrace of the Western world."
Obama's financial reform was a Wall Street giveaway. It was old wine in new bottles. It was more scam than reform. A Times July editorial headlined "Congress Passes Financial Reform."
Debt Ceiling Disaster - Crazy or Criminal?
By Michael Collins
(Washington, DC 1/9/13) Let's say that on a Monday, you sit down and take a hard look at your finances. Your bills exceed your income, assets are just a feint memory, and there is no relief in sight. Reluctantly, you decide that your only choice is to declare bankruptcy. On Tuesday you say, I think I'll do some shopping before it's all over. You proceed to charge $2,000 on your VISA card for some jewelry and other non essentials. On Wednesday, you get a lawyer and file for bankruptcy.
Guess what? You still owe the $2,000 since the court will conclude that you made the purchases fraudulently. You knew you were filing for bankruptcy and made the charges any way. Even worse, the court may refuse to grant the bankruptcy filing all together as a result of the obvious fraud.
That is exactly what the Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing with their open announcement that they will vote against raising the debt ceiling without their solution to government spending. Since that announcement, has one single deficit hawk stood up and said, We must stop all spending as of this moment since we are proposing to default on those expenditures?
Foreign Terrorists Wage War on Syria
by Stephen Lendman
Syrian authorities said so in 2011. Other reports acknowledged it then and now.
Syria is Washington's war. It was planned years ago. America wants pro-Western puppet leadership replacing Assad.
All independent governments are targeted for regime change. Imperial rogue states operate that way.
Strategy used is longstanding. On January 4, Michel Chossudovsky discussed it. Current US proxy wars employ earlier tactics. Western-recruited death squads are used.
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