the ben box

because I like to scream into the void

[Chris Hayes @chrislhayes]

everyone should watch this. totally fascinating.

[Hussain Abdul-Hussain @hahussain]

As Arabs, our message to the world cannot be restricted to eliciting global sympathy for the children of Gaza. We cannot depict ourselves as helpless children, behind whom we hide our failure to control our Hamas thugs who massacred 1300 non-combatant Israelis. This is a moral failure that the world sees but that we try to hide behind the “rights of the Palestinian people,” rights that none of us are willing to articulate. Free Palestine can mean anything, from an Arab Palestinian state living in peace next to Jewish Israel to an Arab Palestinian state instead of Jewish Israel.
For Arab Israeli peace to happen, and since Palestinians are either children, or Hamas thugs, or useless corrupt Mahmud Silicon-Face Abbas, non-Palestinian Arabs should step up to save the Palestinians from themselves and save the region ongoing sorrow. We, Arabs, have to show the world that we are at peace with the idea of a Jewish state, that we are willing to concede what we believe – rightly or wrongly -- is ours (1948 territory), that we genuinely want bygones to be bygones, without secretly holding grudges and passing them to our children. We must seek a better future for ourselves and our kids, as well as for Israelis and their kids.
The Palestine disaster (nakba) is not a disaster of land loss or military defeat. It is a disaster of absence of leadership that can articulate the Arab alternative to war and death. We ask the world to stop the Israeli war on Hamas, but what do we offer as an alternative to stopping the war? Just let those Hamas thugs who massacred 1300 Israelis get away with their crime (because there is a history of dispute)? Ask Israel to go back to October 6? Knowing that Hamas can break out of the Gaza fence and repeat its massacre any minute? Hamas must go. We Arabs must help get rid of it, and most importantly, we must show that we have a plan for the day after Hamas.
Let’s learn from the mistake of Iraq and Arab Spring countries, that once what we have is gone, what comes next looks worse. Let’s preempt the worse by offering the better.
As long as we, the Arabs, do not have answers to all these questions, the world will manage things without us. It does not matter if all of us, 1.3 billion Muslims, think that Israel is at fault. What matters is global perception, which clearly thinks that Islamist terrorism is the problem, not Israelis dancing at a music festival. And we, the Arabs, are not even talking to the world. We are talking to each other, patting ourselves on the back for being utopian and principled on Palestine, while we are in fact idiotically out of touch with reality. We insist on our backward message, then act surprised why many of our states are failing and why we are migrating in droves.
Please stop treating Palestine like religion, like we have to stick to our principles to win credit in the afterlife and to garner social acceptance among each other (Arabs and/or Muslims). Please think of Palestine like a problem that requires troubleshooting, compromise, pragmatism, and most importantly, looking toward the future, not the past.

[Yasmine Mohammed 🦋 ياسمين محمد @YasMohammedxx]

Dear Muslims,
THINK: When has any Islamic leadership ever served you or your ummah?
Look what Hamas has done to Gazans
Look what the Iranian regime has done to Iranians
Look at what the Taliban have done to Afghans
Look at what ISIS has done to Iraqis and Syrians
Look at what Pakistan has done to Pakistanis

How long does this list need to be before you see what’s in front of your face?

[Hussain Abdul-Hussain @hahussain]

Dear Terrorist Hamas:
If you’re as strong as you claim, stop hiding in Gaza and come out and fight #Israel, that’s if you care about Palestinian lives and want to spare collateral damage.
But killing Israeli babies, party goers, and scores of non-combatants, then running away and hiding behind Gaza’s civilians is cowardice.
#IsraelFightsBack
#Hamas_is_ISIS

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

Social Security recipients will get an inflation adjusted boost in their checks next year — 3.2%.

Good news.

But wait...Why don't people working at the federal minimum wage get an inflation adjustment? The $7.25 minimum wage has stagnated since 2009.

Hello?

[Hussain Abdul-Hussain @hahussain]

Couldn’t have said it better. Like Israel is fighting a war for its survival, the Arabs have to wage a war of introspection. Many Arabs I know, from the elite Western-educated with good jobs, and many who live in the West, feel happy watching Hamas take an 85 year old Israeli woman hostage or dragging dead Jewish bodies in the street. There is a serious ethical and moral problem here. This is not a Hamas war, this is a tribal raid reminiscent of Medieval times.
Arabs should not be worried about Israel, but what would happen if Israel ceased to exist. The enormous Arab failure will continue, this time without the excuse of blaming Israel. This is why Arab Israeli peace is the best way forward. When Arabs give up their obsession with blaming their failure on Israel, they’re making their peace with the idea that their failure is their own, they’re taking agency and upgrading their Medieval social code and view of the world. Most importantly, peace allows Arabs to understand that pride should be incumbent on knowledge and a better life, not land and war.
The Arab civilization is extremely sick, judging by its non existent intellectualism and absence from the global effort to advance sciences. At this point, Arab contribution to improving human civilization is close to nil, with Arabs being mainly consumers.
All these issues should top the list of Arab priorities and end the obsession with antisemitism and anti anything that is not Arab and Muslim. Not only Jews have suffered when living with Arabs and Muslims, but everybody who is not Arab (Kurds, Amazigh, etc) and not Muslim (Christian, Baha’i, Assyrian, Copt, Druze, Alawite). We need a serious discussion to make many Arab countries understand liberty and tolerance, without which, these Arab countries will remain failing, lawless and off the civilization grid, not only those living in proximity to Israel, like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Palestinian Territories, but also far away ones like Yemen, Somalia, Libya. Enough is enough. Drop the obsession with antisemitism and look inward. The Greek wisdom that best applies here is Know Thyself.

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

The Supreme Court will soon hear what could be the most important tax case in decades.

Moore v. US could permanently shield billionaires from a wealth tax.

This is why billionaires give luxury gifts to Supreme Court justices. For this exact moment.

[Why you should have a cat @ShouldHaveCat]

Mother cat scolds kitten for messing up the bed and fixes it herself

[Emily Murnane @emily_murnane]

Babe, what’s wrong? You’ve barely chugged your Eggo Brunch in a Jar Appalachian Sippin’ Cream

[yotam @yotamha1]

@InternetH0F World be prepared 👇🫡

[Nina Turner @ninaturner]

Reminder:

[Davram @davramdavram]

Planned Parenthood Protest dispersed with one sign.

[mallory (she/her)💬 @this_is_mallory]

I paid $11 for this Vision Healing Masterclass so you don’t have to 🤓 This is my saturday morning cartoons.

[Louis Virtel @louisvirtel]

I cannot believe Bob Barker lived as close to 100 as possible without going over.

[Keith Boykin @keithboykin]

91 criminal charges
26 sexual assault allegations
6 bankruptcies
5 draft deferments
4 indictments
2 impeachments
1 convicted company
1 fake university shut down
1 fake charity shut down
$25 million fraud settlement
$5 million sexual abuse verdict
$2 million charity abuse judgment

[Nina Turner @ninaturner]

It could all be so simple.

[Fascinating @fasc1nate]

A coyote and a badger travel together.

Coyotes and badgers are known to hunt together. They can even be more successful hunting prairie dogs and ground squirrels when they work in tandem. https://t.co/hb2aHVJINN

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

Around 250 million years ago, the Earth faced a catastrophic event known as the Great Dying, which caused mass extinctions. In the midst of this turmoil, an injured amphibian named Broomistega sought refuge from the harsh conditions. It found solace in a small, warm burrow, already occupied by a dormant Thrinaxodon, an ancestor of mammals, about the size of a fox.

Although the researchers discovered two puncture marks on Broomistega, they concluded that they did not match the Thrinaxodon's dental structure. Despite having broken ribs, Broomistega showed signs of healing, suggesting its injury wasn't due to a conflict with the Triassic creatures.

The cohabitation between Broomistega and Thrinaxodon was peaceful until a muddy flood suddenly buried them in the burrow while they peacefully rested together.