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The Libya Observer

South Libya locals launch tour to spread peace and love The Libya Observer A group of tourists and desert lovers called "the desert Jeep's friends" arrived in Samnu town, northeast of Sabha, on July 16, in a trip that aims to spread love and tolerance among the Libyans and to convey a message to the rest of the world that in ...

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South Libya locals launch tour to spread peace and love - The Libya Observer

By Katie Mitchell

After fours years of rapid national expansion, the future of the Black Lives Matter movement is uncertain. The 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump and the concurrent Republican sweep of Congress radically transformed the national political landscape. And for advocacy organizations like the Black Lives Matter Network, the prospect of garnering nationwide policy change has plummeted.

In the first half of this year, the organization has spent much time recoiling from this conservative revolution. Both the Washington Post and BuzzFeed have reported a slowdown in BLM street protests. And in a recent NPR interview, Black Lives Matter network co-founder, Patrisse Khan-Cullors referred to the movements national prospects as devastating.

However last week, on its fourth anniversary, the BLM Network took account of the movements victories to date and articulated a robust new game plan for operating in Trumps America moving forward. In the 55 page report, organizers sketched out how a localized, intersectional agenda can keep the movements momentum going during this time of political uncertainty.

Our dissent, demonstrations, demands, and tireless fight for dignity have revealed a ubiquitous white rage, resentment, and revenge, Shanelle Matthews, Director of Communications for the Black Lives Matter Global Network said in the written statement referring to the nations rise in popular xenophobia and racism. Coupled with economic insecurity and a rise in global conservatism, we are living in a more precarious political landscape than we were just one presidential election ago.

Despite that, our mandate has not changed, Matthews continued. Organize and end all state-sanctioned violence until all Black Lives Matter.

Beyond Matthews resolute call to continue organizing, her emphasis on advocating for all black lives is an important distinction. As the movement has blossomed in recent years, leaders have combatted the common tendency to only rally around male, cisgender victims of police brutality and elevate cisgender male voices in protest leadership roles. Rather, BLM has prioritized centering women and trans people in both leadership roles and advocacy.

As organizers who work with everyday people, BLM members see and understand significant gaps in movement spaces and leadership. A network spokesperson said in the anniversary report. Black liberation movements in this country have created room, space, and leadership mostly for Black heterosexual, cisgender menleaving women, queer and transgender people, and others either out of the movement or in the background to move the work forward with little or no recognition.

As a network, we have always recognized the need to center the leadership of women and queer and trans people, the report explained.

Political scientist note just how sharply this focus on centering the most marginalized communities and amplifying their voices sharply contrasts from traditional civil rights advocacy groups operating principles.

Placing police brutality into a wider web of inequality has largely been missing from the more narrowly crafted agendas of the liberal establishment organizations, like [Rev. Al] Sharptons National Action Network (NAN), which have focused more on resolving the details of particular cases than on generalizing about the systemic nature of police violence, Princeton University Professor of African-American Studies Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes in From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation.

Taylor explains this means that the legacy civil rights organizations usually concentrate on legal approaches to addressing police brutality, whereas this generation of activist connects police oppression with other social issues.

In the BLM Network four-year report, writers highlight both the strategic and social value of addressing the interwoven web ofcrises such as transphobia, sexism, poverty, and structural racism.

In addition to continuing to cultivate diverse coalition across identities, BLM activists are doubling down on the local, grassroots tactics in light of the Trump Administration. Given that the Trump White House has articulated a staunchly adversarial stance towards Black Lives Matter, organizers are looking to local state legislators and city councils to achieve the policy changes that they seek.

The local is where the work is, Cullorssaid in an interview with NPR. if you zoom in to cities, to towns, to rural areas, people are fighting back, and people are winning.

The organizers who authored the report have confidence that this combined strategy of intersectional and local organizing will be a successful formula.

Despite all that we are up against given this new political landscape, we are uniquely positioned to build substantial power for Black people in 2017. Shanelle Matthews wrote in the report. We know this because we have been here before, and we have the wisdom of elders and the wherewithal to listen and strategize accordingly.

The work will be harder, Matthews wrote, but the work is the same.

Author Bio: Katie is a public health professional, focusing on health communication and programming. Shes most passionate about eliminating the health disparities that negatively impact Black mothers and their children. She enjoys reading, devouring chocolate chip cookies, and pretending to be from Atlanta. Shes on theTwitterand not much else.

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On Its Fourth Birthday, Black Lives Matter Doubles Down On An Intersectional Agenda - Wear Your Voice

The race for governor has more than two candidates, although the third man in the race is getting far less attention. Michael Pope spent some time with him on the campaign trail.

Michael Pope has this profile on Cliff Hyra, the Libertarian candidate for governor.

Outside the Clarendon Metro station in Arlington on a sweltering afternoon, a candidate for governor is struggling against the summertime heat to get the attention of voters.

Hi Im Cliff Hyra. Im the Libertarian candidate for governor of Virginia.

Oh yeah?

Yes sir. Im running for a more inclusive and innovative Virginia. I want to reform the tax and regulatory system. I want to reform the criminal justice system, and make things more fair for everybody here in Virginia."

"Thats cool, man.

Cliff Hyra will be on the ballot statewide as a candidate for governor. But you may not have heard of him. The patent attorney from Northern Virginia is running as a Libertarian, a party he describes as conservative on fiscal issues and liberal on social issues. If elected governor he says he would use the power of the office to ramp down the War on Drugs.

Thats something I could do immediately as soon as I came into office I could order law enforcement to deprioritize marijuana use. I dont want to see anybody whos arrested only for marijuna use. Its certainly a very poor use of scare resources.

He would also take aim at the criminal justice system.

The sentences that are handed down are very often disproportionate. If you look at surveys showing the levels of use between African American and other communities and then the levels of arrests are very disproportionate.

The last Libertarian candidate to run for governor was Robert Sarvis, who ran against Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli. He did better than any other third party candidate in the last 40 years. But that still wasnt enough to crack 10%.

Sarvis was out campaigning with Hyra. The problem is that we dont actually have a level playing field. We have to spend a lot of effort just to get on the ballot. Once were on the ballot, theres an effort to keep us out of the debates.

Sarvissays he should have been included in the debates. I was polling at 10%. I got 145,000 votes and I still wasnt allowed in the debates, and I think thats a tragedy.

"If this race is as close as I think it could be, then the Libertarian candidate could play the spoiler and in that case he would hurt Ed Gillespie."

So far, Hyra has yet to receive an invitation to any of the debates this year. The Virginia Bar Association will be conducting the first debate this weekend, and they wont be including Hyra because he doesnt have the necessary polling numbers and he hasnt raised enough money.

But Christopher Newport Universitys Quentin Kidd says that doesnt mean he wont have an influence over the outcome of the election.

"Remember the last time Ed Gillespie came within 17,000 votes of beating Mark Warner. If this is a 17,000 vote race then you could be in a situation where the Libertarian candidate does in fact play the spoiler.

If this race is as close as I think it could be, then the Libertarian candidate could play the spoiler and in that case he would hurt Ed Gillespie.

On some issues, Hyra and Gillespie arent all that far apart. Take the issue of expanding Medicaid.

Expansion is forever. Its almost a poison pill because once you get that expansion its really hard to roll it back."

And then there's abortion.

In general, on abortion issues I would defer to the legislature. So the exception to that would be if theres something that I feel is unconstitutional.

But then theres the controversial issues of the pipelines.

Well Im opposed to the pipelines, and Im opposed to them mainly for property rights reasons. You have the federal government, and theyre taking private property and its for the benefit of a private company, Dominion Power.

Back on the campaign trail in Clarendon, Hyra is making an elevator pitch at the top of an escalator.

I think its very unfortunate some of the rhetoric that weve seen recently thats been very discouraging to people who want to visit here from overseas. But I think they are a wonderful asset, and I hope that we can reverse the trend in that respect."

Thats cool, man.

OK, very nice meeting you.

I really hope you make it.

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Meet Your Libertarian Candidate for Governor, Cliff Hyra - WVTF

Yet Mr. Bullock already has the makings of a national stump speech. He boasts about his progressive accomplishments with a Republican-dominated legislature: He expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, cutting the rate of the states uninsured by over half, implemented stricter campaign finance laws and made Montana one of the few states to increase support for higher education.

While appealing to the Democratic heart, Mr. Bullock also has a message for the Democratic head. He talks of the partys need to broaden its appeal beyond the coasts Mr. Bullock won re-election as Donald J. Trump captured Montana by over 20 points while implying they cannot turn to a septuagenarian as their nominee.

Theres a lot of folks out there talking that are a lot older than middle-aged guys like me, said Mr. Bullock, 51, alluding to some of the partys best-known figures.

And if the contrast with the likes of Mr. Sanders, 75, were not obvious enough, the governor held up one of his accomplishments against one of Mr. Sanderss calling cards.

We can talk free college for all all we want, but theres a whole lot of people that can get a darn good job, like in Montana, out of an apprenticeship, Mr. Bullock said, citing programs he has supported as governor. Sixty-thousand-dollar average salary, and theyre making money while theyre getting there.

He also said he was uneasy about immediately implementing another of Mr. Sanderss signature promises, Medicare for all.

He may be more overt about his ambitions, but Mr. Bullock was by no means the only Democratic governor here eyeing the White House.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, the chairman of the National Governors Association, exuberantly led a panel that drew Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and the Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk, with an eye toward raising his profile. The host governor, Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, may also be open to a presidential run.

And while each is from a decidedly more Democratic state than Mr. Bullock, both are also unapologetic, business-friendly pragmatists with a focus on economic development that borders on obsessive.

Mr. McAuliffe will not retreat from his support for free trade pacts, slyly noting that he stands with the president (as in: Barack Obama) on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

And Ms. Raimondo, noting that all Im doing is jobs, recalled with a touch of incredulity how she recently gave an economic speech and was told afterward by attendees that it was risky to have that pro-growth, pro-job message as a Democrat.

Recounting her efforts to promote apprenticeships in Rhode Islands shipyards, Ms. Raimondo echoed Mr. Bullock on free college for all. I dont care if they ever go and get a four-year degree or not, she said, warning her party not to be snobby about higher education.

The challenge for the would-be presidential contenders on the center left, however, can be found in how Mr. Trump found success.

Unlike Republican nominees before him, the president ran on a platform of racially tinged nationalism, vowing to tear up trade deals and protect entitlements while using language rarely heard from mainstream politicians about minority communities.

In attempting to explain Mr. Trumps victory, many Democrats have therefore chalked it up to his racial demagogy and rhetorical populism. They find the first of these tactics reprehensible, but many have an impulse to counter the president with their own, more robust brand of populism.

This reaction does not point toward budget-balancing governors preaching pragmatism.

Yet the whims of political fate can be fickle.

After the 2004 election, Democrats second consecutive presidential loss, some in the party believed that they could win in 2008 only by nominating a red-state centrist. They won with an African-American Chicagoan named Barack Hussein Obama.

And after their own back-to-back presidential defeats, Republicans said after 2012 that the path back to the White House could be found in nominating a candidate better able to connect with the younger and more diverse rising American electorate. Enter Mr. Trump.

So there may be hope yet for Mr. Bullock, a former state attorney general whose down-home boosterism about Montanas natural wonders belies a Columbia Law degree and stint as a Washington lawyer at Steptoe & Johnson. He has already started on the Democratic speaking circuit, appearing before a Center for American Progress forum in May. Next week, he will attend another donor-filled gathering on the Divided States of America at the Aspen Institute.

To the barricades it is not.

The values folks want is for government to run its own budgets and be as careful with their money as a family is with their own, Mr. Bullock said.

Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and in the Morning Briefing newsletter.

A version of this article appears in print on July 18, 2017, on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Democratic Governors Seek a Middle Path To the White House.

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As Party Drifts Left, Pragmatic Democratic Governors Have Eye on White House - New York Times

Former state Sen. Jim Boyle of Gorham has declared his candidacy for governor in 2018, adding to a growing list of Democratic contenders.

Boyle made an announcement Tuesday morning but registered with the Maine Ethics Commission quietly a day earlier, joining five other Democrats.

Maine was once a place where you could work hard and build a good life for your family. It didnt matter if you lived in Fort Kent, Portland or Millinocket, he said in a statement. But those opportunities no longer exist for too many people. I cant sit on my hands and watch Maine become a place where hard-working people get left behind.

Jim Boyle

Boyle served one term in the Maine Senate from 2012-14 before narrowly losing to Republican Amy Volk of Scarborough, who was reelected in 2016.

The 58-year-old owns an environmental consulting firm. He is the latest name to enter a rapidly growing field of candidates seeking to succeed Gov. Paul LePage, whose second term ends.

Adam Cote was the first Democrat to declare back in April but he has been joined recently by Janet Mills, Maines attorney general, and Mark Eves, former speaker of the House.

Betsy Sweet and Patrick Eisenhart also have declared their candidacies.

The Republican slate of primary candidates is still thin, with only Mary Mayhew, former Department of Health and Human Services commissioner under LePage, entering the race to date.

This story will be updated

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Gorham Democrat Jim Boyle enters Maine governor race - Press Herald