Mateen Tabatabaei

haver of thoughts, taker of photographs, writer of words. upenn '22

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter

P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.

[Mateen Tabatabaei @mateentaba]

The eloquence is jarring.

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

President Obama on Iran: “We pulled it off without firing a missile. We got 97% of their enriched uranium out. There’s no dispute that it worked and we didn’t have to kill a whole bunch of people or shut down the Strait of Hormuz”

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

President Obama on Iran: “We pulled it off without firing a missile. We got 97% of their enriched uranium out. There’s no dispute that it worked and we didn’t have to kill a whole bunch of people or shut down the Strait of Hormuz”

[Mateen Tabatabaei @mateentaba]

@zgcx_ @boyhell I think imagining that we’re descended from swimming velociraptors also makes it tricky to grasp.

[Mateen Tabatabaei @mateentaba]

There’s not even any trees left standing 😔

[Tyfanwy Prudence McPrude 💛 @tiffy201]

This broke me 💔💔

[Mateen Tabatabaei @mateentaba]

@freedom1o1 @Ayaan Maybe because Iran was negotiating a diplomatic deal in good faith and US intelligence indicates they do not have and are not actively building a bomb? Maybe because spraying radiation poisoning on a civilian population isn’t very nice?

[Rania @umyaznemo]

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy educating the world on the sickness that is the Israeli people!

[Tiberius @tiberiusfiles]

There has never been a better time to watch this video

[Omar El Fares 🇵🇸 عُمَر الفارس @3lfares]

Just a reminder that Israel’s government doesn’t want peace

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

The Onion never misses

[Mike Madrid @madrid_mike]

Joe Rogan says it better than anyone else I’ve heard. Share with your MAGA friends.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

"A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a pastime."

— Major General Yair Golan, former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army

[Mateen Tabatabaei @mateentaba]

@GadSaad What happens if your ‘Western values’ includes not slaughtering children? Or prevents the deliberate murder of journalists and unarmed Red Crescent medics in a warzone?

[Ro Khanna @RoKhanna]

It is absurd that Palo Alto School district just voted to remove honors biology for all students & already removed honors English. They call it de-laning. I call it an assault on excellence. I took many honors classes at Council Rock High in PA.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

If you didn't speak out against *both* woke censorship and Trump's attempts to suppress criticism of Israel at universities, you're not a genuine free speech advocate. You're just a partisan hack who pretends to care about free speech when it suits you.

[John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch]

NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated.

The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).

[Institute for the Study of War @TheStudyofWar]

ICYMI: Cutting the current flow of aid to Ukraine would directly undermine President Trump’s stated goal of achieving a sustainable peace in Ukraine. ⬇️

Ukrainian forces, enabled by essential US assistance, are inflicting unsustainable losses on Russian forces while holding them to marginal gains. Ukrainian efforts, aided by the steady flow of Western aid, have significantly slowed Russian advances along the front, inflicted significant Russian personnel and equipment losses, and undermined Russia's efforts to project economic and domestic stability amid rising pressures from the war.

A suspension of ongoing US military assistance to Ukraine would encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to continue to increase his demands and fuel his conviction that he can achieve total victory through war. The cessation of US military assistance and monetary assistance aimed at strengthening Ukraine's defense industry could help tip the balance of the war and give Russia greater advantages on the battlefield in Ukraine, increasing the likelihood of a Russian victory in Ukraine.

Russia would leverage the cessation of US aid to Ukraine to seize more territory in Ukraine and attempt to exhaust European support – the approach Putin has outlined in his theory of victory.

Ending US aid to Ukraine and enabling further Russian gains would also embolden Putin and strengthen his belief that Russia can seize and control Ukraine and other former Soviet countries, including current NATO member states.

The Kremlin will likely intensify its military campaign in Ukraine and attempt to exploit any delay or cessation of US military assistance to Ukraine - as the Kremlin did in Spring 2024.

[Morag Mitchell @MoragMitchell3]

I just read this on Facebook:

Someone asked "Why do many British people not like Donald Trump?"

Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response:

1/

[Mateen Tabatabaei @mateentaba]

I constantly find myself forgetting about the dinosaurs. It really used to be their world! This fact is insane.

[Soma @somadwrites]

15. You can fit all of human history (and then some) between the periods when the Stegosaurus and T. Rex existed.

The Stegosaurus lived around 150 million years ago, the T. rex didn't appear until the last leg of the Late Cretaceous period, some 68 million years ago.