Marco Rubio: Poster Boy For
The GOP Identity Crisis
·
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., walks
toward the stage as he is introduced at a Faith and Freedom Coalition
conference in June.
Charles
Dharapak / AP
Listen
Listening...
Originally published on July 10,
2013 5:13 pm
The Republican Party seems like
two parties these days. In the Senate, Republicans joined a two-thirds majority
to pass an immigration bill. But in the House, Republicans are balking.
Strategist Alex Lundry says it's
hard to figure out the way forward when your party's base of power is the House
of Representatives.
"One problem we have in the
wilderness is that there are a thousand chiefs," he says. "And it is
hard to get a party moving when you don't have somebody at the top who is a
core leader who can be directive."
One such leader was supposed to
be Marco Rubio, the charismatic, young Hispanic senator from Florida. Of all
the prospects for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, Rubio has been the
most visible. He took a leadership role on immigration, and he's been taking it
on the chin from his party's anti-amnesty base.
Pete Wehner, a former aide to
President George W. Bush, says conservatives gave Rubio the benefit of the
doubt at first. But within the past month or so, he says, "Rubio has
absorbed a lot of blows, and the criticisms against him have really amped
up," Wehner says. "And he's going to emerge from this immigration
debate in some respects a weakened and wounded figure."
If Rubio does run for president,
he will have to compete in early states like Iowa. Steve Deace, an Iowa
conservative activist and talk show host, says Rubio's support of a path to
citizenship for immigrants in the United States illegally has hurt him.
"I think a lot of the
entire conservative movement is aligned against him on this," Deace says.
"I think it's him against a lot of his own tribe."
Rubio has been booed at Tea
Party rallies. Glenn Beck has called him a "piece of garbage." Polls show his support among Republicans has dropped by
double-digits.
Deace says the reason is simple:
immigration.
"This is undercutting his
argument for the presidency. Rubio's argument for the presidency is: I defy all
the leftist cliches. I'm Hispanic, I didn't grow up rich, I'm not a person of
privilege, and ... the American dream is still attainable to me," Deace says.
"And when he goes out there and argues for what most people think is
amnesty ... with a bunch of people who are big-government people, it undercuts
what we like about him."
Rubio has defended himself in a
speech on the Senate floor.
"It would have been a lot
easier to just sit back, vote against any proposal and give speeches about how
I would have done it differently," he said. "This certainly isn't
about gaining support for future office."
But Rubio has also been getting
some high-level backup from the establishment wing of the party. The Chamber of
Commerce and several big Republican superPACs have been running ads supporting
his work on immigration.
Rubio may try to make up lost
ground as a champion of another bill that's popular with the GOP
base — a ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. That might help
with some anti-abortion activists, but not with those who see the immigration
bill creating lots of new Democrats to vote for candidates who support abortion
rights.
Rubio's experience says a lot
about the state of the Republican Party right now, Wehner says.
"I think what the Rubio
case study shows us is that reforming the Republican Party is going to be a
hard task," Wehner says.
But Deace sees it differently.
When pundits wonder why Republicans can't seem to "take one for the
team" and put aside their differences on taxes, farm subsidies or
immigration, Deace points out that it's because the Republican Party isn't
really a team at all.
"We're not a
coalition-driven party," he explains. "We're an ideologically driven
party. The Democrats have a coalition-driven party, so you may have black
ministers that agree with me theologically and morally voting for the same
candidates Rosie O'Donnell does because they have a coalition in order to get
access to government for something they believe they need. The Republican Party
is not a coalition of factions; it's an ideological party. ... It's kind of
hard to have a party for [Tea Party favorite Texas Sen.] Ted Cruz and [House
Speaker] John Boehner if you're an ideological party — those two guys don't
believe the same things."
And that's the problem facing
the GOP as it struggles to update itself to appeal to a changing electorate. It
just might not be possible to construct a tent big enough to accommodate both
the Ted Cruzes and the Marco Rubios.
Copyright
2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Transcript
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
The deep divisions within the
GOP on immigration are at the heart of the party's struggle to win back the
White House. And no one is feeling those divisions more acutely than the
Republican who took the lead on immigration reform in the Senate, Marco Rubio.
NPR's Mara Liasson reports.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: The
Republican Party seems like two parties these days. In the Senate, Republicans
joined a two-thirds majority to pass an immigration bill. But in the House, as
you've just heard, Republicans are balking. Strategist Alex Lundry says it's
hard to figure out the way forward when your party's base of power is the House
of Representatives.
ALEX LUNDRY: One problem we have
in the wilderness is that there are, you know, a thousand chiefs. And it is
hard, to get a party moving when you don't have somebody at the top who is a
core leader who can be directive in terms of this is the direction we're going.
LIASSON: One such leader was
supposed to be Marco Rubio, the charismatic, young Hispanic senator from
Florida. Of all the prospects for the GOP nomination in 2016, Rubio has been
the most visible. He took a leadership role on immigration, and he's been
taking it on the chin from his party's anti-amnesty base. Pete Wehner, a former
aide to George W. Bush, says conservatives at first gave Rubio the benefit of
the doubt.
PETE WEHNER: That's really
dissipated. And within the last month or so, he's absorbed a lot of blows, and
the criticisms against him have really amped up. And he's going to emerge from
this immigration debate in some respects a weakened and wounded figure.
LIASSON: If Rubio does run for
president, he'll have to compete in early states, like Iowa, where Steve Deace
is a conservative activist and talk show host. Deace says Rubio's support of a
path to citizenship for illegal immigrants has hurt him.
STEVE DEACE: I think a lot of
the entire conservative movement is aligned against him on this. So I think
it's him against a lot of his own tribe.
LIASSON: Rubio has been booed at
tea party rallies and called a piece of garbage by Glen Beck. Polls show his
support among Republicans has dropped by double digits. Deace says the reason
is simple: immigration.
DEACE: This is undercutting his
argument for the presidency. Rubio's argument for the presidency is: I defy all
the leftist cliches. I'm Hispanic, I didn't grow up rich, I'm not a person of
privilege, and the American Dream is still attainable to me. And when he goes
out there and argues for what most people think is amnesty, and if he argues
for it with a bunch of people who are big government people, it undercuts what
we like about him.
LIASSON: Rubio defended himself
in a speech on the Senate floor.
SENATOR MARCO RUBIO: It would have
been a lot easier to just sit back, vote against any proposal and give speeches
about how I would have done it differently. And finally, this is certainly
isn't about gaining support for future office.
LIASSON: But Rubio has also been
getting some high-level backup from the establishment wing of the party. The
Chamber of Commerce and several big Republican superPACs have been running ads
supporting his work on immigration.
(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL AD)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Stand with
Marco Rubio to end de facto amnesty. Support conservative immigration reform.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN#2: Call Senator
Rubio. Thank him for keeping his promise and fighting to secure the border.
LIASSON: Rubio may try to make
up lost ground as a champion of another bill that's popular with the GOP base:
a ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. That might help with some
pro-life activists, but not with those who see the immigration bill creating
lots of new Democrats to vote for pro-choice candidates. Pete Wehner says
Rubio's experience says a lot about the state of the Republican Party right
now.
WEHNER: I think what the Rubio
case study shows us is that reforming the Republican Party is going to be a
hard task.
LIASSON: But Steve Deace sees it
differently. When pundits wonder why Republicans can't seem to take one for the
team - putting aside their differences on taxes or farm subsidies or
immigration - Deace points out that's because the Republican Party isn't really
a team at all.
DEACE: We're not a
coalition-driven party. We're an ideologically driven party. The Democrats have
a coalition-driven party. So you may have black ministers that agree with me
theologically and morally, voting for the same candidates Rosie O'Donnell does,
because they have a coalition in order to get access to government for
something they believe they need.
The Republican Party is not a
coalition of factions. It's an ideological party. It's kind of hard to have a
party for Ted Cruz and John Boehner if you're an ideological party. Those two
guys don't believe the same things.
LIASSON: And that's the problem
facing the GOP as it struggles to update itself to appeal to a changing
electorate. It just might not be possible to construct a tent big enough to
accommodate the Ted Cruzes and the Marco Rubios. Mara Liasson, NPR News,
Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript
provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
-------
imho- MARCO RUBIO, young, brilliant and beautiful JFK of 21st
Century.... reflecting the 21st Century of the USA...... JUSTIN
TRUDEAU, PM- young, brilliant and beautiful reflecting the 21st
Century of our beloved Canada....
And baby, don’t cha ever forget.... will always love, honour
and respect PM STEPHEN HARPER... he saved Canada when Canada needed saving....
and PETER MACKAY.... protected our troops with his very life in Ottawa... and
never missed a visit to our troops again and again and again... MACKAY was
voted the most liked and trusted of all politicians by the Nato troops in
Afghanistan....
We old – golden voters in the millions and millions wanted
change... and to pass the banner to our youngbloods for their time.... knowing
they old warriors of the party would be there for guidance of PM Trudeau....
but PM Trudeau would always make his decision final.... and we took the
chance... just like many nations around
the world who want change... AND WANT THE YOUTH TO STEP UP AND BE TIRELESS FOR
OUR NATIONS...
1000 years later ...And look at Pope Francis again... in
Cuba yet.... and Russia’s – Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill..... meeting for
dialogue in the year of Mercy, Humanity and Environment..... what a year 2016
is folks...
-------------
One Billion Rising- no more excuses or abuses- #girlsmatter #womenmatter
ONE BILLION RISING- no more excuses or abuses #1BRising
CANADA WTF???
Saudi arms deal bad, Iran relations good. Howzzat?
A poll says 60% of Canadians think Ottawa should cancel the Saudi arms sale because human rights are more important. I bet none of them live in London or work at General Dynamics. Canadians are great at polls that will involve hardship that doesn’t affect them. Let’s reword the poll: Your daughter works at General Dynamics and she’s pregnant, if she loses his job she can’t make the mortgage payments. Do you think Canada should refuse to sell Saudi Arabia some vehicles it could easily get elsewhere because it would make us all feel morally superior?
Meanwhile the UN criticizes Iran for allowing girls as young as nine to be executed for crimes or forced into sexual relations with older husbands. Yet Stephane Dion thinks it’s just fine to reopen relations with Iran because, you know, everyone else does.
-------------
Young Beautiful and Brilliant just like JFK- Go USA- 'We did
it': Marco Rubio claims third place in Iowa as victory
-------------
Why are
Republicans beating up on No. 3? Inside the race to unseat Marco Rubio
The
Canadian Press
Published February 4, 2016 - 6:46pm
Published February 4, 2016 - 6:46pm
One rival is funding an air campaign, in the form of ads dropping bomblets on Marco Rubio's credibility. Another is smacking him with street-level insults.
The back-alley bruises are coming from the governor of New Jersey, who has been hitting Rubio with insults arguably worse than anything Canadians heard in the last election between the rival party leaders.
"Marco Rubio hasn't accomplished one thing in his career," Chris Christie told MSNBC on Thursday, bashing the young senator as a sheltered bubble boy.
"(All he does is) fix his hair, smile, and give the same speech he's given for the last six years... then he does a driveby 45-minute town hall meeting where he gives the same 60-second canned answers that he gives on the debate stage," he continued.
"Someone who has not done a thing in the United States Senate except skip votes because he says that his votes don't matter anymore — I mean, why would I want to support that person?"
So why all this animus expended on an alleged lightweight who finished third in Iowa, and whom polls suggest might finish second and possibly third again in New Hampshire?
There may be a method to this mad pile-on.
The old saying about Iowa is that there are only three exits: First place, second, and third. The first two spots went to Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, both detested by the prominent figures in their party.
That precious third spot was held by Rubio — and it appears the cluster of establishment rivals trailing him — Christie, Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — have decided that their only discernible path to victory involves pounding down Door No. 3.
A survey released Thursday described the prize. The Public Policy poll suggested Rubio would actually lead a three-way race involving Trump and Cruz, if everyone else dropped out.
His rivals aren't letting him take it. In fact, different campaigns have been chatting amongst themselves about their shared interest in taking down the first-term Florida senator, the New York Times reported Thursday.
Christie has been insulting his qualifications. He's also accused Rubio of being too uncompromisingly anti-abortion for a less-religious state like New Hampshire, where the race has shifted.
An old friend, meanwhile, is hammering Rubio not as an ideologue but as the opposite: a flip-flopping phoney.
A political-action committee supporting Bush, his old Florida ally, has taken out at least 218 advertising contracts worth hundreds of ads in the last few days, according to federal filings compiled by the website Political Ad Sleuth. Many are in New Hampshire, and many more are in the next-voting southern states.
If the group's website is any indication, Rubio is target No. 1.
Four of the last five ads about opponents on the Right to Rise committee's YouTube page target Rubio. One highlights his absentee rate in the Senate: "Doesn't show up for work, but wants a promotion."
In another ad, Rubio is a human weathervane: "Just another Washington politician you can't trust."
"Jeb Bush's Super PAC has basically spent $30 million — a third of its money — attacking me," Rubio told NBC before the Iowa vote.
"And yet we keep growing and we feel real positive about it."
Other Republicans, meanwhile, have grumbled in the press that Bush's rich friends have done worse than waste money — that they're damaging the party's hottest young prospect, who represents the Republican party's future.
In a head-to-head matchup against Hillary Clinton, Rubio is the only Republican who's consistently polled ahead of the Democratic front-runner.
Alexander Panetta, The Canadian Press
--------------------
----------------------------
The Outsiders: How Can Millennials Change Washington If They Hate It?
Young people are eager to
serve and to change the world. They just have no faith that public service or
elected office are the way to get it done.
1. Millennials,
in general, are fiercely committed to community service.
2. They
don’t see politics or government as a way to improve their communities, their
country, or the world.
3. So
the best and brightest are rejecting public service as a career path. Just as
Baby Boomers are retiring from government and politics, Washington faces a
rising-generation “brain drain.”
4. The
only way Millennials might engage Washington is if they first radically change
it.
The first three conclusions are rooted in hard data
I’ll share below. For a least a decade, experts have struggled to understand
why civic-minded Millennials are rejecting public service and politics. Beyond
the why,
I wanted to understand what it means: What happens to U.S. politics over the
next two or three decades if the best and bright of the next generation abandon
Washington? So I talked to them -- at elite public high schools in
suburban Washington and Boston, at Harvard University’s Kennedy School for
Government, and on Capitol Hill. In all, I conducted more than 80 interviews
with Millennials as well as pollsters, demographers, and generational experts.
They brought me to my fourth conclusion: What Millennials have in store for the
political system is revolutionary. Maybe worse.Speaking of technology, Millennials witnessed, embraced, and in some cases instigated massive disruptions of the music, television, movie, media, and retail industries. The most supervised and entitled generation in human history, they have no patience for inefficiency, stodgy institutions or the status quo. Consider what they could do to politics and government.
***
The good news is they want to serve.“The Millennials have arrived, and they could rescue the civic health of our nation after decades of decline,” says John Bridgeland, CEO of Civic Enterprises, a national-service think tank. One of the nation’s foremost authorities on civic engagement, Bridgeland believes Millennials will be the next Greatest Generation, because, like the generation anointed by Tom Brokaw, they are products of an era of economic crisis and war, and are committed to community service.
The National Conference on Citizenship reported in 2009 that Millennials “lead the way in volunteering” with a 43 percent service rate, compared to only 35 percent for Baby Boomers. According to research conducted for Harvard’s Institute of Politics, more than one-third of Americans ages 18-29 report that they volunteered for community service in the last year. Among college students, the volunteerism rate is a remarkable 53 percent, of which 41 percent say they serve at least a few times a month. The IOP has found similar levels of service since the project began in 2000.
Millennials also have an outsized sense of purpose. “Young Americans are more concerned with the importance of their work than the salary attached to it,” according to a study by the Government Business Council, the research arm of The Atlantic’s sister publication Government Executive. “In the 2011 National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Student Survey, college students revealed that the ability to improve the community ranks almost as highly as a strong starting salary when searching for their first job.”
***
“I teach autistic kids to ride horses,” Morgan Wallace said.
“Me, too,” said Ashley Morabito. They’re all chirping now:
“I work at a food pantry.”
“ … at my church.”
“Tutor reading …”
“… and teach English.”
“But how many of you think traditional public service is the best way to help your community and country?” I asked. “In other words, how many of you will make a career in politics or government?”
Not a hand went up. No chirping. Nothing -- the only noise in the abruptly silent room was the electronic hum of a fluorescent light. Finally, Shayan Ghahramani, a student, whispered, “Is this a joke?”
It wasn’t. But it was telling. The Harvard IOP study, “Survey of Young Americans’ Attitudes Toward Politics and Public Service,” published on April 30, suggests Millennials are increasingly negative and cynical about the political process.
- Nearly three in five young Americans agree that elected officials seem motivated by “selfish reasons,” an increase of 5 points since 2010.
- Fifty-six percent agree that “elected officials don’t have the same priorities that I have,” a 5-point increase.
- Nearly half agree that “politics has become too partisan,” up 2 points.
- Nearly one-third agree that “political involvement rarely has any tangible results,” up 5 points.
How deep is the disengagement? I spent two days at Harvard, and couldn’t find a single student whose career goal is Washington or elective office. One wouldn’t expect to hear this at the Kennedy School of Government. “Government and politics,” said graduate student Sara Estill, “holds little or no attraction for us.”
***
After World War II, millions of the young Americans
who would be known as the Greatest Generation found work in swelling government
bureaucracies. Many entered elective office. Millennials, however, are much
less likely to exercise their sense of civic purpose through public service,
and that’s bad news for good governance.As Baby Boomers approach retirement, the federal government will need to hire more than 200,000 highly skilled workers for a range of critical jobs. A successful transition depends on the interest of the 95 million Millennials -- a pool larger than the Boomers by nearly 20 million people. The Government Business Council recently reported that while Millennials make strong candidates for public service, fewer of them are pursuing government jobs than in past years. In short, they are opting out of government.
College students increasingly prefer the private sector, graduate school, or non-profit work, according to the Partnership for Public Service’s analysis of the 2011 National Association for Colleges and Employers Student Survey. In 2008, 8.4 percent of students planned to work for local, state, and federal governments after graduation. That number reached an all-time high of 10.2 percent during the 2009 recession, before dropping to 7.4 percent in 2010.
In their landmark books on Millennials, the sociologists Morley Winograd and Michael Hais compare young Americans today to other great “civic generations” that cycle through U.S. history every eight decades, starting with the Founding Fathers and including the generation that elected Abraham Lincoln and of course the Greatest Generation that won World War II. Raised in troubled times, “as adults, they focus on resolving social challenges and building institutions,” Winograd and Hais write in their recent Millennial Momentum. The authors believe Millennials have the makings to be the next great generation.
The trouble is that Millennials believe traditional politics and government (especially Washington) are the worst avenues to great things. They are more likely to be social entrepreneurs, working outside government to create innovative and measurably successful solutions to the nation’s problems, even if only on a relatively small scale. One is Matt Morgan, a Kennedy School student, who launched a website that helps readers respond to articles with political action. “There are so many problems Washington can’t fix that we can,” he says. Another is his classmate Sarah Estill, who wants to provide police departments with technology to fighting crime. “For my generation there are more ways we can effect change than in the past -- more tools in the toolbox,” she said. “Why not use all of them?” A generation ago, government had a monopoly on public service. To Millennials, the world is filled with injustice and need, but government isn’t the solution. They have apps for that.
***
In a book he published this spring, The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath, Mele warns that governments, political parties, corporations and other national institutions are crumbling before the power of the individual and the “radical connectivity” of technology. “Should present trends go unchecked,” Mele writes, “it is easy to imagine a nightmare scenario of social breakdown.”
While that may be the extreme scenario, Mele and other experts on the Millennial Generation say they can easily envision a future without a two-party system. The GOP and (less likely) the Democratic Party could die. Government itself, Mele says, may shed its hierarchical 20th-century approach and evolve into a mere “platform” that creates room for groups of citizens to do start-up ad-hoc projects or for small government groups to provide services in a coordinated manner.
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a forward thinker on digital-age governance, says a Millennial government will be peer-to-peer: ideas and actions bubbling up from citizens. “We need to acknowledge that for a whole generation of Americans under the age 30,” Newsom writes in his book, Citizensville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government, “their reality is not like the reality of the over-30s grew up with.”
This is what Steele had in mind when the former GOP chair told me to watch the scene in Iron Man 3 when Tony Stark takes a fistful of data about a criminal investigation and throws it onto a 3D screen, where it disaggregates into a collage of microbytes. Using these electronic puzzle pieces, Stark assembles a better picture of who carried out the crime and why. “That scene tells you all you need to know about what Millennials are poised to do to Washington,” Steele told me. “They are going to destroy the old silos, scatter their elements to the wind, and reassemble them in ways that make sense for them and the new century.”
Of course, young Americans tend to like the GOP even less. That’s why a plurality of Millennials (45 percent) describes their affiliation as independent this year, an increase of 6 points just since 2008. Winograd and Hais predict that the next generation of voters will reject traditional liberalism and conservatism. “The Millennial civic ethos,” they wrote, “will instead allow for both consensus and customization.”
Diggles agreed: “This tension -- two parties thinking they are in the trenches dueling it out, and a burgeoning generation who reject trench warfare altogether is, for me, the key. Washington doesn’t get that change isn’t just a slogan. It’s about to become a reality.”
“Neither party,” she said, “gets what’s coming down the pike.”
What’s coming are kids like Shayan, the keen-minded Langley High senior who laughed at my question about public service. “Let me tell you what’s going to happen to government and politics when we get ahold of them.” he told me. “We’ll destroy them.”
Shayan paused to let me stew on that a bit before shrugging his shoulders as if to tell this Baby Boom reporter: It’s not the end of the world, old man -- just the end of your world. “The thing about social institutions is when you destroy them,” Shayan said, “they get rebuilt eventually, in a different form for a different time.”
---------
BLOGGED:
Canada Military News: Red Roses-
BRILLIANT PIERRE ELLIOTT TRUDEAU - 4get religion fight the terrorists -
Canada's days of youngbloods real, raw and righteous- Jackie Kennedy dress like
during the day job and batik dresses and wild child and Ts in the evenings-
WWII kids love/d our troops in Canada, don't ever mistake that while we
welcomed draft dodgers 2/ Our Tory parents loved us deeply and we always played
Sat. night cards and church on sunday/ O Canada -Grandma's Apron -Happy
Thanksgiving/Canadian Bill of Rights sidestepped by War Measures Act because in
Canada VICTIMS MATTER/ Canada we need more disabled (disabilities are abilities
in disguise) in parliament/Canada Thankgiving is almost here- God bless our
troops and Canada /Girls Matter- #1BRising /Oct 8- Canada voted most respected
country in the world- u wld be so proud
-----------------------
But the standard-bearing arbiters of cool -- millennials, or
people whose souls have yet to be crushed by later life -- do know. And they
have anointed Bernie as the ultimate hipster.
Bernie is cool, Hillary is square
---------------
-------------------
Marco
Rubio Looks Forward to Working With Justin Trudeau on Keystone XL
Submitted
by Kevin Derby on October 20, 2015 - 2:29pm
Republican presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Marco
Rubio, R-Fla., the chairman of the U.S. Senate Western Hemisphere Subcommittee,
weighed in on Tuesday after the Liberal Party triumphed in the Canadian
parliamentary elections on Monday. Rubio said he looked forward to continuing
efforts to launch the Keystone XL Pipeline.
“Yesterday, millions of Canadians took to the polls
in parliamentary elections across the nation to choose their representatives.
We share a long history with our friends to the north, including a commitment
to democratic ideals and the peaceful transition of power,” Rubio said. “I
congratulate Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party on their election victory. I
also want to express my deep appreciation for the leadership outgoing Prime
Minister Stephen Harper showed globally and his commitment to the U.S.-Canadian
relationship.
“Canada continues to be an indispensable partner to the United States, as our largest trading partner, as a staunch ally in combating terror, and based on our shared determination to stand up for human rights around the world,” Rubio added. “I look forward to continuing close cooperation with Canada on mutual interests through projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline and the policies needed to keep our citizens safe.”
“Canada continues to be an indispensable partner to the United States, as our largest trading partner, as a staunch ally in combating terror, and based on our shared determination to stand up for human rights around the world,” Rubio added. “I look forward to continuing close cooperation with Canada on mutual interests through projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline and the policies needed to keep our citizens safe.”
-
See more at:
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/blog/marco-rubio-looks-forward-working-justin-trudeau-keystone-xl#sthash.ixnXQKaf.dpuf
-------------
The best animal song and commercial ever Canada... enjoy-
smile and laugh and just feel good folks.
Save the Canadians: Costa Rican Animals for the Overworked
----------
God has a
plan.. in 2016 Pope Francis says humanity and environment matter more
than UN/USA richmans wars
2016- the year of Mercy and Humanity and Environment- POPE
FRANCIS SETS EXAMPLE AND RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PATRIARCH.... still say Russia and
China are extraordinary..... and u know where u stand.... this is brilliant...
1000 years..... for the first time dialogue...
Historic
step: Pope, Russia Patriarch meet in Cuba Feb. 12
The
Canadian Press
Published February 5, 2016 - 2:45pm
Published February 5, 2016 - 2:45pm
The Feb. 12 meeting between Francis and Patriarch Kirill was announced Friday by both churches. It will be the first-ever meeting between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the largest in Orthodoxy.
Francis is due to travel to Mexico Feb. 12-18. He will stop in Cuba on the way and meet with Kirill at the Havana airport, where they will speak privately for about two hours and then sign a joint declaration, the Vatican said.
"This event has extraordinary importance in the path of ecumenical relations and dialogue among Christian confessions," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
The two churches split during the Great Schism of 1054 and have remained estranged over a host of issues, including the primacy of the pope and Russian Orthodox accusations that the Catholic Church is poaching converts in former Soviet lands.
Those tensions have prevented previous popes from ever meeting with the Russian patriarch, even though the Vatican has long insisted that it was merely ministering to tiny Catholic communities in the overwhelmingly Orthodox region.
Violence that threatens to extinguish the presence of Christians — Catholic and Orthodox — in the Middle East and Africa, however, has brought the churches closer together. Both the Vatican and the Orthodox Church have been outspoken in denouncing Islamic extremist attacks on Christians and the destruction of Christian monuments, particularly in Syria, where Russia has engaged in a bombing campaign in support of the Damascus government.
The meeting was years in the works and marks a major development in the Vatican's long effort to bridge the divisions in Christianity. For Kirill, it is perhaps trickier.
"Conservative forces within Moscow have said we don't like this reunification with the west ... (it) weakens us," noted Chad Pecknold, a theologian at Catholic University of America and author of "Christianity and Politics: A Brief Guide to the History."
He suggested the choice of Cuba, with its Soviet and communist ties, was significant particularly for Kirill, who will be in Cuba on an official visit at the time, his first to Latin America as patriarch.
In November 2014, Francis said he had told Kirill: "I'll go wherever you want. You call me and I'll go."
In the joint statement, the churches said the meeting "will mark an important stage in relations between the two churches."
Metropolitan Illarion, foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, told reporters Friday that there are still core disagreements between the Holy See and the Russian Church, in particular over various Orthodox churches in western Ukraine.
The conflict centres on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the country's second-largest, which follows eastern church rites but answers to the Holy See. The Russian Orthodox Church has considered western Ukraine its traditional territory and has resented papal influence there.
Still, Illarion said, the threats to Christian communities in the Middle East and northern and Central Africa requires immediate action.
"In this tragic situation, we need to put aside internal disagreements and pool efforts to save Christianity in the regions where it is subject to most severe persecution," he said.
About two-thirds of the world's Orthodox Christians, or about 200 million, belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest and most powerful church in Orthodoxy. The Catholic Church claims about 1.2 billion faithful.
The Vatican has long nurtured ties with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, who is considered "first among equals" within the Orthodox Church.
But the Russian Orthodox Church has always kept its distance from Rome. Joint theological commissions have met over the years and the Russian church's foreign minister has made periodic visits to Rome, but a pope-patriarch meeting has never been possible until now.
Christopher Bellitto, church history specialist at Kean University in New Jersey, said the meeting was a model for reconciliation.
"The two men are trying to heal a millennium of wounds in the Year of Mercy," he said, referring to Francis' jubilee year. "Even if they are not agreeing on everything, they are engaging in respectful dialogue — which is in short supply in our world."
The location of the meeting is significant. It has long been assumed that a "neutral" third country would be selected for any pope-patriarch encounter, but Europe had always been considered the natural location.
Cuba, though, presents a perhaps ideal location: physically removed from European territorial disputes between the churches, officially communist, yet known to both because of its colonial and more recent past.
In addition, Francis played a crucial role in ending the half-century Cold War estrangement between the United States and Cuba. That the one-time Soviet outpost in the Caribbean will now play a role in helping heal the 1,000-year schism between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches is a remarkable feat of geopolitical and ecumenical choreography that may have the added effect of thrusting President Raoul Castro into the spotlight. Castro will greet the pope upon his arrival and preside over the signing of the joint declaration.
The Vatican spokesman, Lombardi, declined to speculate about a possible papal trip to Russia, or to offer hints about what the joint declaration might say. Pecknold, the Catholic University theologian, noted that a common date for Easter has been a long-sought goal in ecumenical circles.
Under Francis, the Vatican has encouraged continuing ecumenical ties with the Orthodox as well as other Christian denominations. And it has gone out of its way to be solicitous to Russia, especially in shying away from directly criticizing Moscow over its role in the Ukraine conflict.
Kirill was the church's foreign policy chief before he became patriarch in 2009 and is well-known in Vatican circles. In a 2012 interview with a Siberian Catholic newspaper, Kirill dwelt on the dispute around the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church but said the issue of Catholic snatching of churches and flock in Russia is not as pressing as it was a decade ago.
Compared to his predecessor Alexei II, Kirill cuts a more militant figure, seeking a greater role for the church in Russia's domestic affairs. His support for President Vladimir Putin and the government is also more pronounced than his predecessor who tried to keep a distance with the Kremlin.
Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed from Moscow; Rachel Zoll contributed from New York.
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
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NOVA SCOTIA- All faiths never missed Billy Graham's tent
revivals- Locals celebrate World Interfaith Harmony Week http://herald.ca/MyT#.VrOCSwoqnzw.twitter …
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POPE FRANCIS HELPED US FIGHT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND DID IT
HIS WAY.... and our way.... the old way... each of us do so much in the
billions... but we are not the rich arrogant conglomerates.... we are just poor
Canadian us.... yet look what we get done.... this video – so many uppities in
the Vatican were appalled by the environment nature animals on our walls... and
3 billion of us rejoiced.... rejoiced....
POPE FRANCIS- Vatican -climate change matters Fiat Lux
lights up St. Peter's Basilica, December 8, 2015 (manortiz)
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O CANADA-we've been saying this as oldies for years- Looking
for someone to blame, oilpatch? Find a mirror.
The drive-by smearing of Justin Trudeau — three
months into his new government — is reaching comic proportions. My iPolitics
colleague Tasha Kheiriddin coined a clever phrase to describe Trudeau’s
political style: the “Oprah-fication of Ottawa.”
Witty. Still beats the ‘Stalinization’ of Canada
under the previous government. (Remember 24/7 — that publicly-funded PMO ‘news’
services that featured Stephen Harper as both subject and reporter?)
The sillier attacks on Trudeau’s style represent a
continuing state of risible denial of what happened in Canada last October 19 —
not to mention an unhealthy dose of contempt for the electoral process. The
neocon nitpickers, including the Official Opposition, look like Donald Trump after
Iowa — bitter, petulant, blaming the winner.
The latest nonsense out of the National Post
(which is a business partner of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
and acts the part on its news and opinion pages) is that Trudeau has somehow failed
Alberta. That’s right — you’re meant to believe that the whole thing has
unravelled (in three months) because Oprah is now in the driver’s seat.
Forty years of provincial Tories and a decade of federal Conservatives had
nothing to do with it.
Where to begin? First, when writers like Claudia Cattaneo at the Post speak
of Alberta, they don’t mean the province. They mean the oil industry that
continues to see the place as its personal campground.
That longstanding delusion was smashed by Albertans
themselves when they elected an NDP majority government in the last provincial
election. Alberta is much, much more than any single industry. More
importantly, no single industry can or should dictate its own rules to
government, at least not in a democracy.
It’s the oil industry itself that has a lot to
account for, not Trudeau. It was the industry’s so-called “hardball” approach
to resource extraction and pipeline development that turned off
environmentalists, First Nations, unions, other provinces and, finally, an
entire country.
How bad was this death march of arrogant incompetence?
Bad enough. For ten years, the industry had a virtual free pass through the
regulatory and environmental thickets of government. With a PC dynasty in power
in Alberta and Stephen Harper running Ottawa, getting pipelines built should
have been a slam-dunk.
What all of this thuggish
industry and government ‘hardball’ amounted to was failure — not one single new
pipeline in ten years. Bulldozing the energy industry’s critics merely
stiffened their resolve.
Point one: Stephen Harper never did regulate
the energy sector, despite his serial broken promises to do so from the day he
won government. He carried a brief for the industry from day one. Ironically,
his actions turned out to be detrimental to the very people he was trying to help.
Harper got a hernia pushing their interests in the wrong direction.
Point two: Harper deconstructed what environmental
protections Canada had in place for air, water and land, creating what he must
have thought was an obstacle-free path to rapid extraction and marketing of
non-renewable resources for his cosseted pet industry. In the process, he drew
the ire of President Barack Obama by calling approval of the Keystone XL
pipeline a “no-brainer.” Maybe Harper didn’t care about the environment; other
people clearly did.
Point three: Harper expanded the powers of the
National Energy Board and made a public agency the captive of the oil industry,
stocking it with industry players.
It was a total abdication of the public interest. The
game was rigged for the oilpatch; the hearings into projects like Northern
Gateway were skewed to pro-pipeline interests, hemmed in by time quotas and
limits on participants.
Worse, First Nations knew that their constitutional
right to meaningful consultation had been abrogated. And even though approval
of the project came in 2014 with 209 conditions, those conditions were largely
authored by the project’s developer — Enbridge Inc. It was an institutional
hustle — but the public still caught on.
What all of this thuggish industry and government
“hardball” amounted to was failure — not one single new pipeline in ten years.
Bulldozing the energy industry’s critics merely stiffened their resolve. The
First Nations took the matter to court, where they’ve won ruling after ruling.
The premier of British Columbia insisted that without a better deal, Northern
Gateway was dead — whether it had its environmental certificates or not. The
public lost all confidence in the regulatory process, leaving social consent
for pipeline construction beyond reach to this day.
While the oilpatch continued to bury its nose in its
navel, the world moved on from the misguided notion that environmental issues
were merely token issues, to be brushed aside in the name of jobs and rapid
resource development. Paris changed all that — but the industry, and a good few
commentators, seemed not to notice. That turned out to be a profound mistake.
On the issue of the century — climate change — Harper
led Canada out of the world community. Trudeau led the country back in, with a
massive mandate. As he promised during the campaign of 2015, he has embarked on
a plan to win back social license for pipeline development.
Get it boys? He’s on your side.
Trudeau’s measures include a climate change test on
export pipelines and a moratorium on oil tanker traffic on B.C.’s northern
coast. He also has pledged to re-invent the NEB as a truly public body, rather
than an industry one, with a special pledge to assure the board reflects
environmental expertise as well as industry knowledge.
Perhaps most important of all, Trudeau is attempting
to re-set the trust relationship with First Nations — a relationship blown up
by the previous government and industry players. If he is successful, projects
like the Energy East and Trans Mountain may actually reach tidewater — instead
of spending another ten years in the courts.
The game is no longer hardball. The game is now smart-ball.
Time for the oilpatch and its cadre of cheerleaders to learn the rules. You’d
think that ten years of failure would have made that — what’s the phrase? — a
no-brainer.
Michael Harris is a writer, journalist,
and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his “unceasing
pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.” His nine books
include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and
Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his
books have been made into movies. His new book on the Harper majority
government, Party of One, is a number one best-seller and has been
shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Literary Award for English-language
non-fiction.
Readers can reach the author at michaelharris@ipolitics.ca. Click here to view
other columns by Michael Harris.
The views, opinions and positions expressed by all
iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not
inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of
iPolitics.
------------
Exactly look at Iran and Saudis American 2million fracking
wells.. and Russia- Canada among few producers reduce oil output despite
unprofitable prices http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/11700528/story.html …
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Nova Scotia @nova0000scotia Old Momma Nova
God
has a plan.. in 2016 Pope Francis says humanity and environment matter more
than UN/USA richmans wars-O Ethiopia pic.twitter.com/nDlC22NKLf
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CLIMATE CHANGE- God has a plan- Huge swatch of B.C.'s Great
Bear Rainforest protected from logging in landmark deal http://ow.ly/XNXwl
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u make the world about the 7Billion not 1% Pope Francis
selects childrens’ letters for new book, due out March 1 http://herald.ca/MaA#.Vq-YmxLIRKo.twitter …
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Love u Pope Francis- u love and accept us each and all- no
matter who we are or where we came from- u raise us up
Vocations crisis needs prayer, not despair or lax
admissions, pope says http://cnstopstories.com/2016/02/01/vocations-crisis-needs-prayer-not-despair-or-lax-admissions-pope-says/ …
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We revered our grannie/pa People over 65 shared their
greatest regret in life – the most common one may surprise you http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/people-over-65-shared-their-greatest-regret-in-life-the-most-common-one-may-surprise-you-a6800851.html …
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From gangs to God: In #CiudadJuarez,
youth express hopes for papal visit http://wp.me/p5DZKA-1dt
#PopeinMexico
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Save the environment for the future generations.....
The Wolves
----------------
Bear Witness: a film by BC's Coastal First Nations
Published on Sep
3, 2013
When 'Cheeky' the bear is ambushed and decapitated in
front of a lone witness, a chain of events is set in motion up and down the
coast. You're the next link.
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The hard hard life of growing up in war and pre-teen and
young boys signing up-Canadian Youth –Growing up in Wartime http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/historical-sheets/youth …
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CANADA LIKE MANY NATIONS-99% youth not interested in war or
policing Not Necessarily Conscription... Motivating Youth to Serve http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vo7/no4/chapnick-eng.asp …
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BLOG:
Canada Military News: Libraries history in Canada and why they are now the meeting, greeting socializing and cultural landscape of communities across Canada and the world/Beyond Books: Why Some Libraries Now Lend Tools, Toys and More/Kentville Library Nova Scotia -Winnie and Joan and Elsie will be so proud of 1914 Stone United Church as new library quarters by Apple Blossom time 2016
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2016/02/canada-military-news-libraries-history.html
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B LOGGED:
Canada Military News: Celebrating Canada's Black History month 2016- some old blogs and history and a beautiful poem about the Checkerboard Army of WWII- Canada's best kept secret/blogs
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2016/02/canada-military-news-celebrating.html
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