Day: November 22, 2021

A Gadhafi’s Return

Closing Thought–23Nov21

After years of Gadhafi absence….and a civil war that has killed thousands….and now with a tentative peace and the upcoming presidential elections a young son of Gadhafi has decided he wants to return to the forefront of Libya’s political scene.

The son and one-time heir apparent of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has announced his candidacy for the country’s presidential election next month, per the AP. Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, who’s wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity, submitted his candidacy papers in the southern town of Sabha on Sunday. Gadhafi’s son was captured by fighters in the town of Zintan late in 2011, the year when a popular uprising, backed by NATO, toppled his father after more than 40 years in power. The younger Gadhafi was released in June 2017 after more than five years of detention. His father was killed in 2011 amid the fighting that would turn into a civil war.

In a video shared by an election official, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi addressed the camera, saying that God will decide the right path for the country’s future. The 49-year-old, who earned a PhD at the London School of Economics, wore a traditional Libyan robe, turban, and spectacles. It was the first time in years that he appeared in public. The second-born son to the longtime dictator, he was seen as the reformist face of the Gadhafi regime before the 2011 uprising. He’s wanted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the first weeks of the 2011 uprising, while his father was still in power.

 

 

Seif al-Islam’s campaign may focus on the failure of political parties and armed groups to establish a government capable of stabilizing and uniting the fractured country since the 2011 overthrow and killing of his father. However, he’s likely to face stiff resistance from armed groups and militias, particularly in the capital, Tripoli, and the western town of Misrata. Following the overthrow of Gadhafi, oil-rich Libya spent most of the last decade split between rival governments—one based in Tripoli and the other in the eastern part of the country.

If he beats Haftar, a CIA asset for decades, will the country once again return to the days of his father?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

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What Is America’s Problem

About 50% of the nation embraces chaos, stupidity, ignorance and hatred….the other half is in search of knowledge and clarity…..some think that abortion, guns and religious iconography will free the country….no concern for hunger, homelessness and national unity.

There is some sort of unity that would be the myth of the ‘free market’…..that would be that a market that is free from nay  with the regulations would cure the ills of society like hunger, jobs, homelessness, etc….this myth as solved none of the societal problems with the exception of the captains of the free market….they have sucked all the profits possible out of the myth and left the rest of the country struggling.

Since about 1980 we have been watching our beloved country circle the drain.

There has been a wealth of finger pointing as to why this is happening……it is a feckless ineffective president or a do-nothing Congress or those damn lobbyists or…..like I stated a wealth of assigning blame.

All these assumptions are wrong!

The real problem is the American people.

The American people through their voting habits have created the division and the hatred that is the cancer on the American political landscape.

The election of 2022 the damage could possibly unprecedented….

“Our democracy faces an existential threat—the very real possibility that the outcome of an election could be ignored and the will of the people overturned by hyperpartisan actors,” 58 groups including MoveOn.org, Protect Democracy, Public Citizen, SEIU, and the Sierra Club assert in an open letter.

“Since the 2020 election, we have seen unprecedented and coordinated efforts to cast doubt on the U.S. election system,” the letter states.

“These efforts have taken many forms,” the authors explain, including “widespread disinformation campaigns and baseless claims of election fraud,… intimidation of election officials and administrators just for doing their jobs, new state laws to make election administration more partisan and more susceptible to manipulation or sabotage, and outright violence.”

Noting that “exaggerated and unsubstantiated fears about voter fraud have been a vote suppression tool for some time,” the letter argues that “these efforts took on entirely new ferocity with the advent of former President [Donald] Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ regarding the 2020 presidential election.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/11/08/our-democracy-faces-existential-threat-progressives-warn-gop-attack-2022-elections