.@SecRubio: "Too often, these days, we build downwards. We design our standards to ensure that no one will lose. We preoccupy ourselves more with the comfort of the worst than the potential of the best. We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average."

In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.

Loyal and competent staffers do not magically appear on day one of a Presidential administration. They must be identified, vetted, and trained. Nick Solheim of @americanmoment joins @BreccanFThies on the first episode of The Long March to discuss how the Right should build a personnel pipeline that brings new talent to D.C. Apply to the American Moment Fellowship for American Statecraft: americanmoment.org/programs/… 00:00 Welcome to The Long March 08:38 Introducing Nick Solheim 09:49 2 Million Careers vs. 4,500 Appointees 12:29 Why Trump 45 Got Stymied 13:49 Nobody Reads the Bill — Their Staff Does 18:05 Patronage Isn't a Dirty Word 20:50 Worshipping at the Altar of the Process 23:28 The Talent D.C. Is Leaving on the Table 25:42 Inside the Fellowship for American Statecraft 26:38 The Unpaid Internship That Started It All 28:00 The Lumber Mill NAFTA Killed 31:51 The Pitch to Would-Be Finance Bros 33:13 What Zoomers Know They've Lost 39:25 Burn the Ships: What Nick Looks for in a Hire 43:05 The Tom Cotton–Rand Paul Test 49:39 The Question Every American Moment Applicant Gets 51:39 Aligned Across the Board 52:49 Please Stop Quoting Aristotle in Interviews 56:30 What's on Nick's Nightstand 59:12 Should Conservatives Use Power at All? 1:05:32 Trade, Immigration, and Foreign Policy 1:08:30 What Does Winning Look Like?

Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington: "Our first obligation as a Church is to embrace in a sustained, unwavering, prophetic and compassionate way the immigrants who are suffering so deeply because of the oppression they are facing." adw.org/news/wdmr-homily-mce…

NEW: Eric Schmitt’s general counsel Ethan Harper was expected to join the White House Staff Secretary’s office next week but the move’s now in doubt after yesterday’s Jack Smith hearing. Harper was the one holding up the board behind Schmitt. politico.com/newsletters/wes…

NEW: The Calder Foundation tells me “a motor will be operational expected before the end of the year” to spin the ‘clouds’ in Hart Atrium for 1st time since 1992. The clouds were taken down in 2014 and restored with funds from fmr Microsoft Pres/CEO Jon Shirley and his wife Kim.

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In 2022, a Canadian church hosted a ‘physician-assisted suicide’ in its sanctuary, ending the life of an 86-year-old congregation member. They called it a “crossing over ceremony.” 🧵

President Trump at the National Archives is all of us while visiting museums: "Yeah.. This is when they built it properly." 🤣

Traffic Alert: Road closures will impact parts of Downtown Washington for the remainder of the work week due to security measures for the state visit of the President of China. Commuters are also advised to anticipate rolling closures between Joint Base Andrews and the Downtown area during Wednesday’s evening commute. Closed Wednesday morning through Friday afternoon: -12th Street between Constitution Avenue and E Street, NW -Pennsylvania Avenue between 9th Street and 13th Street, NW See the full list of closures from our partners at the Metropolitan Police Department: mpdc.dc.gov/release/traffic-…

"Barron is correct to insist he is not a 'member of the Trump administration' but his selective treatment of the church's teachings convicts him as an apologist for the president," Michael Sean Winters writes. bit.ly/4y6cvOk