Free Republic

On Wednesday Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended the company’s decision to put Infowars founder Alex Jones in a seven-day “timeout”. Dorsey said, “I feel any suspension, whether it be a permanent or a temporary one, makes someone think about their actions and their behaviors,” Dorsey said. In the same week that Jack Dorsey is lecturing on “appropriate actions and behavior” Twitter just certified racist New York Times writer Sarah Jeong with a blue check mark. And now this Twitter shut down two top Iranian activist’s pages today.

Reza Pahlavi is hated & feared by the Iranian regime, because he is very popular with the Iranian people & the regime view him as a huge threat. 2 days ago, Reza Pahlavi asked Iranians via social media, to use their local soccer match to show their disdain for the regime. He specifically asked Azeris, since as a whole they were not participating as much in the ongoing protests. Here is a video posted after that request: Thousands of soccer fans in Iranian province of Azerbaijan singing in praise of Reza Pahlavi in Turkish-Azeri language.

For this week’s Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had historian, Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, former Special Advisor to the Secretary of State and consultant to the National Security Council during the Reagan administration, author of 38 books and most pertinent to today, Iran expert, Michael Ledeen on the podcast to discuss among other things: The impending collapse of the Khomeinist regime and what the U.S. can do to accelerate it The false narrative about alternatives for Iran being either appeasement or war The history of U.S. intelligence failures in Iran How secular...

Iran has recently faced the largest wave of popular protest since the Green Movement of 2009, mainly focused on economic stagnation but also bleeding into more political issues of foreign policy, personal freedoms, and human rights. The rising wave of discontent is pushing the government to make some concessions. Just yesterday, the regime's security council approved the release of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the 2009 protest movement, from house arrest after seven years. This move illustrates the regime's unease with the rising pressure from the streets, but also shows that it has some tools...

Apparently the mullahs and their goon squads were in for a surprise when on Sunday, someone opened fire on them in Khorramshahr, 400 miles southwest of Tehran, as they rolled in to shut down a protest over locals getting poisoned by untreated water. It's an area with a large Arabic population out near the Iraqi border. The gunfire came back at them. Mowing down is now going two ways, and it's clear the regime is scared - their official state media said the protestors only threw stones and garbage. Well, no. There's a spectacular, well-shot video on Twitter here, showing...

Feb. is the Iranian regime's celebration of "The Revolution". Protesters have taken to the streets to call for the end of the regime and death to Khamenei. They are tearing down posters & banners celebrating the Revolution and burning them. The protests are happening in cities throughout the country. The women are still taking off their head scarves in protest and being arrested. Just because the media doesn't report it, doesn't mean it isn't happening. There are many photos & videos on Twitter @iranprotests, and #iranprotests

But for almost as long as Iran has groaned under this oppressive, historically unnatural regime, there have been signs of change coming from within. At no time since 1979 itself has this been more pronounced than right now. Massive pro-democracy demonstrations have flared up around Iran, as people take to the streets in bold defiance of the government (and at no small measure of personal risk) to demand a say in their leadership. This kind of demonstration is virtually unprecedented in the history of Iran; the closest parallel would be the Green Movement of 2009, when Iranians protested a probably-rigged...

Since there's a virtual blackout on news of the protests in Iran, I'm posting some updates that aren't being generally reported. Pres. Trump needs to help the Iranian people get publicity through satellite & high tech methods. If the protesters can communicate better within Iran, they can better organize. The Iranian regime is depending upon being able to keep the world in the dark in order to quell the protests Updates: Widespread labor strikes in Iran. Yet, there's absolutely zero coverage in the press or media. In Isfahan, fuel truck drivers have stopped delivering fuel. Protests in Isfahan last night...

A recent article in the Scientific American titled “Climate Change May Have Helped Spark Iran’s Protests” suggests climate – not Iran’s active export of terrorism and neglect of its civilian population – is responsible for the second consecutive week of protests in the Islamic Republic. “The impacts of climate change are among the environmental challenges facing Iran that helped spark protests in dozens of cities across the Islamic republic,” the publication wrote. At least 22 people have died during the protests, which began on December 28. One young man, 23-year-old Sina Ghanbari, reportedly died while in custody at Iran’s notorious...

As tens of thousands marched in the streets of Tehran on Wednesday in support of the regime, the head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps assured Iranians the "sedition" had been defeated. Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari is whistling past the graveyard. The protests that broke out a week ago and spread and became riots are a fire bell in the night for the Islamic Republic. The protesters denounced President Hassan Rouhani, re-elected last year with 57 percent of the vote, for failing to curb inflation or deliver the benefits he promised when Iran signed the nuclear deal. Supreme Leader Ayatollah...

There is no doubt that the U.S. delegation has something to tell the world,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook. “For example, Nikki Haley can share America’s experience in breaking up protests, going into detail about how, say, the mass arrests and the stifling of the Occupy Wall Street movement happened or how Ferguson was ‘quelled,’” she added.

Is it a revolution? Can it succeed? Should we support it, and if so, how? Surely this tumult is very different from the protests of 2009. It’s different in at least two ways, geographical and demographical. Geographically, whereas the 2009 protests were mainly limited to Tehran, today’s phenomenon covers the whole country, from major cities to smaller towns and even rural villages. That’s significant, because those who do not believe in the prospects of an Iranian revolution invariably argue that opposition to the regime is restricted to the elites of the big cities, and that rural populations are pro-regime. It’s...

President Trump is unpopular. He's unpopular because he's boorish, crude and silly; he's unpopular because he has a unique capacity to turn winning news cycles into referenda on his use of Twitter. But the United States under President Trump hasn't seen any serious anti-liberty revanchism. In fact, under Trump, regulations have dropped precipitously; the economy continues its pattern of growth; and press freedoms have actually been strengthened. Despite popular opinion, women aren't on the verge of enslavement into Vice President Mike Pence's "Handmaid's Tale," nor are black Americans in danger of resegregation or political disenfranchisement. Yet while Iranians protest against...

Amid regime crackdown, Trump admin 'will not turn back' on Iranian protesters The Trump administration is keeping a close eye on the growing protests in Iran, with senior administration officials working to ensure President Donald Trump does not miss an opportunity to incubate a possible revolution that could topple Iran's hardline ruling regime, according to White House officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. With the world watching growing demonstrations across Iran, the Trump administration sees an opportunity to feed the growing protests. The policy is starkly different than the Obama administration's approach in 2009, when similar protests gripped...

The Women’s March is facing intense pressure to come out in support of Iranian women protesting the fundamentalist Islamic regime. Women have become symbolic leaders of the protests, which are entering their sixth day, by removing their hijab in defiance of laws mandating they cover their faces and hair. One image that has gone viral shows a young woman standing above a crowd, waving her jettisoned white hijab like a flag. The death toll from the anti-government protests rose to 21 overnight, and at least 450 people have been arrested. The Women’s March is busy rolling out its anniversary protest...

Mostafa Kishavarzi looks over the 10,000 watches crammed into his tiny store wedged between dozens of similar retailers in the jewelry section of the Tehran Bazaar. Every watch in his store — and most of those sold by his competitors — come from one place, and it’s not Iran. It’s China. Kishavarzi sells everything from knock-off Rolexes to nothing-fancy, off-brand watches. He flies to Shenzhen, China, several times a year to buy the timepieces and makes a tidy profit selling them back in Tehran. “My watches are perfect for middle- and low-income people,” he said proudly. “Even the batteries are...

President Trump on Tuesday tweeted about the uprisings taking place in Iran, saying the United States is watching.“The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their “pockets.” The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights,” he tweeted. “The U.S. is watching!” The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their “pockets.” The...

Unlike his predecessor, President Trump is siding with the Iranian people. Once again, the Iranian people are rejecting their authoritarian government and repressive rule by the mullahs. The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, is also losing support, according to sources at the Rand Corporation. In recent days the Iranians have demonstrated in Tehran and other major cities such as Mashad and Kermanshah to protest food prices and unemployment. Some demonstrators have been shot and remarkably, there are reports of cries of “death to Khameini,” the cleric who is Iran’s supreme leader. But this time, unlike during the Obama Administration, the...

In the past few days, thousands of Iranians have marched against the terrorist regime in Tehran. As of this writing, twelve of these Iranians have been murdered by the country’s Revolutionary Guard. Trump has tweeted his support for the protesters, spoken out in their favor, and made clear that he’d love to see them topple the regime itself. Contrast Trump’s behavior with that of the Obama administration, which deliberately ignored anti-regime protests in 2009, choosing instead to cozy favor with the regime and maximize Tehran’s regional power. The administration even went so far as to give Tehran a legal pathway...

Trump sides with the protesters -- unlike Obama. The Iranian regime is facing the most serious threat from mass protests in the streets since the failed Green Revolution in 2009. What started out as scattered unrest over unemployment, rising food prices, costly military adventures and corruption has morphed into widespread anger at the country’s theocracy itself and its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. While Iran’s figurehead President Hassan Rouhani called for calm and claimed that people had the right to protest under Iran’s Constitution, riot police have lashed out at demonstrators, some of whom were reportedly heard chanting “death to...