Viviana Varela

[Jill Filipovic @JillFilipovic]

Men can choose to not do this. Men can choose to treat women the way they would like to be treated (I suspect that most men, when extremely drunk and high on ketamine and having reluctantly consented to some limited sexual activity, would not find it pleasant to have their condition advertised as “free ass” to random men on Snapchat). We can create a culture in which men who treat women this way are considered reprehensible, pathetic, and worthy of scorn, whether or not they have technically committed a crime.
https://t.co/bsFWYb2LFI

[Viviana Varela @VVarelaw]

On point.

[Viviana Varela @VVarelaw]

Proud of my alma mater!

[University of Florida News @UFNews]

AI isn’t going away — @CNN examines how @UF prepares students to look “under the hood” and apply it thoughtfully across disciplines. https://t.co/6YzbX5ajUv

[FLORIDA @UF]

GNV🧡💙

[Jamie Metzl @JamieMetzl]

The Gaza war has been a terrible tragedy, sparked by the unconscionable horror of Hamas’s October 7 terrorist massacre but rooted in a much longer conflict in which terrible mistakes have been made on all sides—including multiple credible pathways toward Palestinian statehood that Palestinian and Arab leaders tragically rejected.

After October 7, Israel had both the right and the responsibility to dismantle Hamas’s military infrastructure and avoid the urban-warfare trap Hamas had spent years constructing. Israel also made serious mistakes, including restrictions on humanitarian aid that worsened civilian suffering. Those decisions deserve scrutiny and criticism.

But Hamas bears enormous responsibility for the catastrophe it deliberately engineered. For years, it built hundreds of miles of tunnels beneath Gaza—an extraordinary underground infrastructure capable of providing extensive protection from bombardment. Hamas explicitly said those tunnels were for Gaza’s civilians, even though the tunnels were everywhere and could have been used to save thousands of lives.

That was not merely callous indifference. Hamas deliberately provoked a devastating war and then sought to turn the deaths of the people it governed into a strategic weapon. Yahya Sinwar’s own reported messages described Palestinian civilian deaths as “necessary sacrifices” and calculated that mounting casualties would increase international pressure on Israel. Hamas kept its fighters underground while civilians remained exposed above, embedded military operations within densely populated areas, and exploited the resulting deaths to advance its political and military objectives.

The evidence points to the appalling conclusion that Hamas wanted enormous numbers of Gazan civilians to die because their deaths served its strategy. It embedded its terrorist infrastructure in civilian institutions and treated the people of Gaza as human sacrifices. This was horrific and unconscionable. Palestinians in Gaza are among Hamas’s greatest victims.

War is terrible and must be avoided to the fullest extent possible. But Hamas’s strategy was to force Israel into a painful and costly urban war in one of the most densely populated environments on earth, where Hamas had deliberately embedded much of its military infrastructure among civilians. Israel took extraordinary—and by many measures historically extensive and deeply costly in terms of Israeli casualties—precautions to reduce unnecessary civilian casualties, but even extraordinary precautions cannot prevent innocent people from being killed in a brutal urban war, particularly when the battlefield has been deliberately constructed to place civilians in harm’s way.

None of this diminishes the immense suffering in Gaza. Every innocent Palestinian and Israeli life lost is a tragedy. Israelis and Palestinians both deserve security, dignity, and a peaceful future.

But “genocide” is not a synonym for a horrific war with terrible civilian casualties. It is a specific legal charge requiring proof of an intent to destroy a protected group, in whole or substantial part, as such. the evidence clearly does not establish that Israel possessed such an intent, and the demographic record certainly does not establish genocide on its own.

What happened in Gaza was horrific enough without mischaracterizing it: a devastating war triggered by a monstrous terrorist attack, fought against an enemy that deliberately entrenched itself among civilians and viewed their deaths as strategically useful, with terrible mistakes and immense human suffering along the way.

Cynically calling this tragedy “genocide” does not bring us closer to truth, accountability, reconciliation, or peace. On the contrary, it serves the interests of the adversaries of peace, justice, and meaningful accountability for the many mistakes and terrible decisions that have been made on all sides of this conflict for the better part of a century.

[Victor Davis Hanson @VDHanson]

https://t.co/g7UbpfIZ8C

[Bill Maher @billmaher]

If you’re going to migrate to a country that is proudly a melting pot, you have to want to melt.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

We have reached a stage in our country where there are only two sides to every issue and every incident. Each side lives in protected echo chambers which are provided with a curated set of ‘facts’ and/or video footage from certain camera angles that are consistent with the preexisting views and conclusions of that side.

Individuals are ‘convicted’ of serious crimes in the headlines, by politicians appealing to their base, and ultimately in the minds of the public, or they are exonerated, before all of the facts are in and a detailed investigation has been completed.

This is not good for America. We need to go back to a world where we suspend judgment and await the conclusions of a detailed investigation before we convict or exonerate. Let’s not forget that a man is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Rushing to judgment helps no one and harms us all. It also greatly elevates the temperature, which keeps potential targets of law enforcement and those who enforce our laws on edge, massively increasing the risk to all.

We need to take a deep breath and reserve judgment before this gets even more out of control.

[Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital]

Legendary clip…

"To those who say that the United States is only interested in our oil, I ask those people: What do you think the Russians and the Chinese wanted…

The recipe for Arepas?"

[Viviana Varela @VVarelaw]

@rpedroso @CollegeFBonX Frosted Strawberry forever

[Florida Gators Football @GatorsFB]

🐊 @kylepitts__ x #ProBowlVote

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

I just visited a shop class in Great Falls, Montana where high school students are building houses for people who need a place to call home.

Let that sink in for a moment.

High schoolers in Great Falls Montana, under the guidance of an excellent shop instructor and lots of community support, are building actual houses. Not birdhouses or doll houses – real homes, built to code from the ground up for real people, and move-in ready.

Yesterday, I toured the latest home these kids are in the process of building. It’s the 48th such home built since 1998, through this remarkable program. While I was there, I ran into @GregForMontana. Like me, the Governor was blown away by what these kids were doing and took the time to talk to each one of them, thanking them for their hard work and congratulating them for what they’d accomplished. I was then invited to join the Governor on stage at Great Falls High, where I answered a few questions about mikeroweWORKS, talked about the many opportunities in the skilled trades, and discussed the ways we might be able to encourage more projects like this one, in Montana and beyond.

It's encouraging to see public/private partnerships done right. And really, it’s not that complicated; it just takes a few stubborn people in various organizations who won't take no for an answer. In this case, too many to name, but a quick shout out to Pete Pace, the shop teacher at the center of High School Homes, the administrators in the school district, the principal at Great Falls High, Sherrie Arey and her devoted crew at @neighborworks, the incredibly generous executives at @WellsFargo who offered another round of financial support, and a Governor with the good sense to push through the normal bureaucratic nonsense that kills programs like this. Bravo to all!

Mike
PS. This is the third time in two months I’ve seen a program like this in action. The first was in Western North Carolina, (Rebuilding the Hollars), the second was in New Orleans, (@uCCNOLA.) The projects all have one thing in common - a shop class with an exceptional instructor. Like I said, it takes support from every direction, but a high school shop class is always where it starts.

For years, I’ve argued that removing shop class from high schools was a mistake that would deny a whole generation of students’ critical exposure to a long list of essential careers and rob them of an opportunity to prepare for the all-important apprenticeships on which most skilled careers are built. Today, standing in the shop class at Great Falls, watching dozens of engaged students cutting, hammering, measuring, and fabricating, it occurred to me that I was wrong. Taking shop class out of high school was not merely a mistake - it was the single dumbest decision in the history of modern education. We didn't just rob a whole generation of students, we robbed ourselves, in a colossal, self-inflicted wound that's led directly to a host of unintended consequences - including the current shortages in every essential skilled trade.

Correcting it, should be at or near the top of every Governor’s agenda in every single state. Because tomorrow’s skilled workforce is currently in the 8th grade, and if we don’t meet these kids where they are - right now - with programs like this, we’re in for a world of hurt.

[CNN @CNN]

Two top BBC leaders resign after accusations that footage of Trump's Jan. 6 speech was misleadingly edited in a documentary. https://t.co/ytFYEDm7Dh

[Florida Gators @FloridaGators]

hang it in the Louvre

[Mike Howell @MHowellTweets]

ConLaw 101 update:

2020-24: you don't need to have a President to make decisions

2025 on: you can't have a President make decisions

[Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley]

A new Wisconsin judge “has no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by ICE to a concentration camp." Judge Monica Isham has joined other Democrats in ignoring the alleged criminal conduct by the judge. https://t.co/R5mqGBOGm9

[Empire State Building Observation Deck @EmpireStateBldg]

Shining in @GatorsMBK’s blue and orange for the rest of the night in honor of their NCAA Championship Victory

[Danny Wuerffel @DannyWuerffel]

Found my guys @HeismanTrophy welcome dinner 🐊

[Viviana Varela @VVarelaw]

Viviana Varela | Notable - Women Leaders in Law - Florida Trend https://t.co/d8wLtfIv0U

[Viviana Varela @VVarelaw]

Fantastic. Miami-Dade County ballots fall off a truck, given to police | Miami Herald https://t.co/1fxlW0M6i0