| | | | |  | | By POLITICO MAGAZINE | | | | 
| | 
| | 
Chris Rufo is the latest iteration of a certain sort of person in the DeSantis operation — sicced at the governor’s behest to pick a point-scoring fight that generates headlines and left-of-center outrage. | Jenny Riffle for POLITICO | Not even three years ago, Chris Rufo was a short-lived Seattle city council candidate and more or less middling documentary filmmaker. Now, he’s a lieutenant in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ culture war. More than anyone else, he’s the reason “critical race theory” — the phrase, if not the actual legal concept — has become a fault line in the discourse. To critics he’s “a right-wing propagandist,” “a hired gun for the information wars.” And as of January, he’s leading DeSantis’ takeover of New College of Florida, remaking it in the presumptive 2024 presidential candidate’s “anti-woke” image — a linchpin in DeSantis’ everything-but-announced 2024 presidential campaign. It took one meeting of the new board of trustees to fire the university’s president. It took two to end the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts entirely. Outside, parents of students dressed in the red robes of The Handmaid’s Tale. Someone had chalked “FUCK RUFO” on the sidewalk. Inside, Rufo smiled — or perhaps it was a smirk. “But what might make Rufo matter most at this moment in American politics is what he says about DeSantis — as a governor, and as a potential president,” writes Michael Kruse in this fascinating deep-dive profile of the 38-year-old seeking to reshape education in Florida — and beyond. Drawing from interviews with former DeSantis aides, members of Congress, academics, Rufo himself and others, Kruse draws an intimate portrait of the man who has called CRT “more dangerous” than “nuclear weapons,” from the lie he told a Clinton-connected filmmaker to launch his career to his travels to Hungary, where he hopes to learn a thing or two from Viktor Orban’s administration. Does Rufo have higher aspirations? Should we expect to see him at the White House in coming years? “I mean,” he says, “depends who’s there.” Read the story.
| | | | A message from Meta: Field trips in the metaverse will take learning beyond the textbook.
Students learning about prehistoric eras will use virtual reality to take field trips to the Ice Age and visit the woolly mammoths. As a result, students will not only learn their history lessons - they’ll experience them.
The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real.
Explore more possibilities with the metaverse. | | | | | | | 
| “Some people talk of impeaching John Adams, but I am for softer measures. I would keep him to make fun of him.” Can you guess who said this about John Adams? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
| | | | 
| | 
Pool photo by Caroline Brehman | Washington’s Weird Mark Milley Fandom … Gen. Mark Milley has come a long way since Donald Trump’s infamous march across LaFayette Square for an awkward photo-op during the 2020 protests. Not a long way in geographic terms — he’s still very much in D.C. — only now he’s in D.C. Earlier this month, he was at the Puck News party at the French embassy. A couple days later, he was snapping pics at the Gridiron. Reviled by the far right, he’s become something of a cause célèbre in Washington: the guard-rail respecting professional who kept the president’s worst impulses in check, unafraid to clap back when politicians smear the military as “woke.” “But if Milley’s efforts to protect the military from political chaos are about a deep desire to preserve the pre-Trump, constitutional version of normal,” writes Michael Schaffer in this week’s Capital City column, “the profile he cuts in Washington is a daily reminder of how far we are from that normal.”
| | | | 
| TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew made his debut before Congress to defend his company against a proposed U.S. ban. He left with a few bruises from both sides of the aisle. Follow these talking points if you want to sound smart on the latest drama around TikTok. (From POLITICO’s Rebecca Kern) — Want to get bipartisan support for something? Bring up national security threats from China and you may gain momentum to pass a bill that would strengthen data privacy rights (at least that’s what House lawmakers are hoping.) — Sure, TikTok is owned by ByteDance in Beijing, but the subsidiary is actually incorporated in the U.S. and has headquarters in Los Angeles and Singapore. — When someone asks if you think the CCP is spying on you, just say, “I don’t think that spying is the right way to describe it.” — Next time you talk to a Zoomer, know they’re probably one of the 150 million Americans on the app. And they’ll likely defend it, like the dozens of TikTokers who rallied outside of the Capitol this week.
| | | | 
| | 
For all the Founding Fathers, including those who spoke out against slavery in some contexts, the debate was over how much to accommodate slavery, not whether to abolish it, writes Sheryll Cashin. | Wikimedia Commons | Hey, ChatGPT, What’s Slavery? … With AP African American Studies out the window and legislation brewing to prevent even colleges from teaching American history “contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence” — whatever that means — where exactly will students in Florida, if not the rest of the country, go to learn tough truths? The internet. And what exactly will Google and ChatGPT tell them? Sheryyl Cashin ran an informal experiment to find out. “Which delegates to the Constitutional Convention spoke out against slavery and what did they say?” she asked ChatGPT. The results are a fascinating and troubling look at how we’ll remember the past in the future. “The truth is complicated and suppressed by cynics and ideologues whose views can be amplified by search engines and their algorithms,” Cashin writes. “Artificial intelligence, I fear, will accelerate its burial.”
| | | | A message from Meta:   | | | | | | | 
| | 
Donald Trump, Vince McMahon and Ron DeSantis | POLITICO illustration/Photos by Getty Images, AP, iStock | The WWE Is Key to Understanding Politics. Seriously. … You may not know the names of the wrestling world’s superstars, but if you’ve paid even scant attention to politics since a certain WWE Hall of Famer became president in 2017, you’re basically a superfan. In fact, wrestling may just be the key to understanding the cage match that has become life in America. It might even tell us something about how the Republican primary is going to play out. That’s according to Abraham Josephine Riesman, the author of a new book called Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America. “There’s little difference between Trumpism and Vince’s neokayfabe, each with their infinite and indistinguishable layers of irony and sincerity,” she writes. Michael Kruse spoke with her about faces and heels, why McMahon may be the closest friend Trump has, and the entertainment-ification of democracy.
| | | | 
| | 
William J. Clinton Presidential Library/NARA | On October 26th, 1993, President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton celebrated their first Halloween in the White House by dressing up as first couple James and Dolley Madison. The Clintons hosted a late October costume party every year, a celebration that doubled as a birthday party for Hillary, who’s birthday is on October 26. Later costumes would include country music stars and a Grease inspired 50’s outfit. The Madisons were a compelling choice for the Clintons — the nation’s fourth presidential couple was seen as having true partnership in marriage and politics. Dolley is often described as setting the precedent for the role of first lady, making the position more public-facing and using her influence to advance charitable and social causes.
| | | **Who Dissed answer: Who else but Adams’ longtime and bitter mutual critic, Common Sense author Thomas Paine? Adams gave as good as he got. Here’s his take on the 1776 pamphlet: “What a poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous mass.” politicoweekend@email.politico.com
| | | | A message from Meta: The metaverse will give doctors new tools to make decisions faster.
In the ER, every second counts. Doctors will use the metaverse to visualize scans and quickly make decisions, helping patients get the specialty care they need in a timely manner.
The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real.
Explore more possibilities with the metaverse. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment