#we’re IRANIAN

[soulless-bex]

why do people always assume you’re queer when you talk about queer rights? like, yeah i am, but that’s completely unrelated

[cowgworl]

i have so many thoughts but the thing that’s at the absolute forefront of my mind is the white people that continue to hijack every political and social movement bc it makes them feel good to support disenfranchised people just to dissolve right back into apathy and general disinterest and even aggressively pointing fingers back at the people they once ”supported” because things didn’t pan out well for them. they need to have their voices silenced and outreached hands slapped away they are such a plague to everything they touch. wearing keffiyehs and chanting women life freedom while simultaneously falling for regime propaganda and regurgitating it in the same breath with no shame.. these vultures never cared about marginalized people’s liberation, they just yearn for oppression because they think their proximity to it will make them interesting for once

[idontmindifuforgetme]

Still can’t get over how an anon complained to me they’re “tired” “no one gives a fuck anymore.” Do you not think we’re tired? Do you not think we are mourning and grieving and feeling so utterly devastated our families have to live under fear every day, holding their breath and waiting the next move by people who don’t give a single fuck for them? Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan have all shut down commercial flights. Jordan is shooting down Iranian drones as we speak. I have family in Jordan too. This isn’t about you.

[soon-palestine]

Israel, the world’s most innocent country, fell victim to a horrific attack from Iran with zero reported casualties on the same day Israel killed dozens of civilians in Gaza.

Israel had been minding its own business, quietly bombing hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, and an embassy, when the Iranian regime launched their outrageous attack for no apparent reason. Thankfully, the US and UK scrambled jets to defend Israeli airspace because it’s wrong to bomb countries in the Middle East, unless your name is Israel, in which case you can do all the bombing you want.

Every British and American ship in the region is now in grave danger and the risk of terror attacks on our soil has surely increased, but you will be relieved to know our countries have not benefitted in any way from our intervention. Personally, I can’t think of a better way for Israel to spend our tax money.

Our leaders have condemned Iran in the strongest possible terms, which is confusing because I thought we were supposed to remain ambiguous and say we’re investigating the matter when such an attack occurs. Perhaps this is one of those rules that only applies to Israel though.

When informed of the attack, a calm and rational Suella Braverman screamed: “WAR! I WANT WAR!” and when she’d stopped hyperventilating, she added: “This must be the end of western backsliding on Israel,” because she thinks we have not been sufficiently supportive of their genocide. Anyone who is not on the same side of the argument as Suella Braverman must ask serious questions about themselves.

Iran’s unprovoked attack involved giving Israel adequate warning and launching 30-year-old missiles, 99% of which were intercepted, and then saying the matter is closed unless Israel escalates further. The fact Iran would consider retaliating to further escalation from Israel shows just extreme these lunatics are.

Among Iran’s targets was the Israeli air base from which the missiles that struck its embassy were launched, killing 13 on April 1. As of yet, we have no indication as to why Iran carried out the attack, but we’re going to tell you it’s because they want to start World War III. Psychos.

Conspiracy theorists have suggested it’s actually Benjamin Netanyahu who wants escalation, but it’s unclear why the man who faces political oblivion, and possibly jail, would be incentivised to draw his allies into the fight and cause everyone to forget his many war crimes.

Israel, the country that definitely does not want war, has vowed an “unprecedented” response against Iran which will probably kill many more than zero people. If Iran expresses disapproval at Israel’s next mass murder, it’s because they’re trying to destabilise the region. At this point, we’ll have no choice but to help Israel do to Iran what we’ve spent six months helping them do to Gaza - launch precision strikes that destroy 70% of the buildings in the country and leave survivors living in tents.

Worryingly, we’ve just discovered at the most convenient moment that Iran has enough uranium to build 12 nuclear bombs. If it were true that Iran had so much weapon-grade uranium, it would be incredibly stupid to attack them, but we’re going to insist we must attack them because we’re weapon-grade idiots - and we think you are too.

Please just switch your brain off and accept what you’re being told, you simpletons! What matters is rich people can afford nuclear bunkers if this all goes horribly wrong. In the meantime, you can look forward to lots of exciting stories in the media about bringing back conscription and describing how you are likely to die in humanity's final war. Are you looking forward to radiation sickness and nuclear winter? Because they sound like brilliant fun! x

Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed this outstanding piece of journalism as much as I did, you can support my work here:

[thealogie]

You know as an Iranian I’ve lived my whole life thinking “ok me/my family live in a country where there could be a war and if that happens we’re privilege enough to at least be able to try to get out!” But I forgot to worry about “what if someone I love decides to go to the store one day and happens to stand next to someone Israel has unilaterally deemed a terrorist and decided to explode with their mind”

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Pentagon confirms ‘around 2,000’ U.S. troops deployed in Syria

Washington quietly doubled the official number of troops present inside Syria at an unspecified point before the fall of Damascus.

The U.S. illegally deployed troops in Syria in November 2015 to allegedly “prevent the return of ISIS.” This came just two months after Russia accepted the request of Damascus to provide air support to the Syrian army, Iranian special forces, and Hezbollah in their fight against ISIS forces who threatened to overrun the Syrian capital.

In the chaos that ensued, Washington and allied Kurdish militias seized control of Syria’s resource-rich northeast, where the U.S. army remains to this day and regularly loots Syrian resources. Hundreds of U.S. troops are also present in the massive Al-Tanf base near the tri-border area connecting Syria, Iraq, and Jordan.

In 2019, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump detailed why Washington intends to uphold the occupation of northeast Syria, saying, “We want to bring our soldiers home. But we did leave soldiers because we’re keeping the oil .… I like oil. We’re keeping the oil.”

[girlactionfigure]

A very powerful message from Hillel Fuld:  I really don’t think you understand the absolute miracles that we witnessed last night here in Israel. In fact, I am sure you don’t. Let’s break this down. Israel has three air defense systems, each one of them a technological wonder and that’s not me saying it. That’s Dr. Gold who basically invented the Iron Dome who told me that. The level and sophistication of the Iron Dome is simply unparalleled. But the Iron Dome only knows how to detonate short range rockets or missiles within a 70 km range, give or take.  Then Israel has the David’s Sling system. That knows how to deal with mid range missiles up to approximately 300 km.  Then we have the Arrow system that literally detonates missiles that can fly outside of the earth’s atmosphere. That has a range of about 2,400 km!! 🤯 Last night, as Iran rained down ballistic missiles on Israel, all three defense systems were activated and implemented to perfection. The chances of all of these incredibly complex systems working in unison as flawlessly as they did last night, are basically non existent. If one thing went wrong, if one of those ballistic missiles hit an apartment building, a shopping center, or an army base, we would now be burying hundreds of Israelis.  And all of that is not even the biggest miracle.  A few hours ago, I got a WhatsApp message from a good friend who is a senior executive at Microsoft and who wasn’t exactly a God fearing Jew. Until yesterday.  Here is what he wrote me.  “If you’re looking for miracles man - last night I started believing. Missiles hit all around me but none of them hit my house or any house, for that matter.” He elaborated some more and shared info about the missiles that he watched land just meters away from very strategic places in Israel, to say the least.  Each one of those defense systems is, in and of itself, pretty miraculous, but what is even more insane is the low casualty numbers from the rockets and missiles that we’re NOT intercepted.  Where did those missiles go? I’ll tell you where. They landed in sand, in water, and in “Empty spaces”.  Have you been to Israel? It’s a microscopic country. What empty spaces? Where are these empty spaces? 🤷‍♂️ How have hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles all either get detonated by miraculous systems or totally miss their mark and land in empty spaces causing zero casualties and minimal damage?!   How?? Listen, I get it. This thought process begs the question, where was God during the horrible terrorist attack yesterday? Where was He on October 7th? Where was He during the holocaust?  All valid questions that require a very serious nuanced conversation.  But if you know anything about what had to happen last night and throughout this war in general, for such a low number of casualties, you’ll know that what we witnessed last night was the equivalent of God splitting the sea right before our eyes.  Guess what. When God split the sea, there were those who didn’t believe it was a miracle and didn’t jump in. And there are also those who feel the need to explain it naturally. Ok, that’s fine.  You don’t want to call yesterday an act of God? That’s your choice, but like my Microsoft friend, if you look at these events objectively, you’d have a really hard time seeing those hundreds of deadly missiles land in empty spaces and not see the hand of God.  Last night was an incredible display of the collaboration between two of the powers that protect the Jewish people: The IDF and Hashem.  Last night will go down in history right alongside many of Israel’s accomplishments in this war including the beepers and the unprecedented low ratio between combatant and civilian, as a military operation the likes of which the world has never seen. Ever! Last night will be analyzed by military strategists and experts for generations.  Last night, we witnessed history.  Last night we witnessed open miracles.  Last night, we witnessed God in all His glory watching over His children.

[mariacallous]

This is dated 12-29-2023, for the record.

It was a nightmare scenario that Ukrainian and Western officials had feared for months. Western officials have watched as Russia stacked up precision-guided munitions to launch targeted attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure in the winter while keeping up the pace of strikes on cities using unguided “dumb” bombs. 

And on Friday morning, it became a reality. Russia conducted a hailstorm of strikes across Ukraine, hitting Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Kharkiv. There were at least 158 drone and missile strikes in all, which damaged hospitals, a shopping mall, and schools, killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 160. 

The numbers are still going up as search and rescue teams pick through the rubble. Russia fired its missiles with so much abandon that the Polish government confirmed one of the Kremlin’s projectiles entered its airspace. In the chaos that engulfed the Kyiv streets, one man tried to stop the fires from spreading by driving his burning car away from his neighbors. 

The renewed barrages have Ukrainian officials and U.S. experts questioning how long they’ll be able to keep the lights on during winter—or hold territory—especially with the long tail of U.S. military aid running out, unless Congress acts soon. 

Ukrainian officials believe that Russia’s capacity to strike is even greater than what it just showed off: The Kremlin can fire off about 300 Iranian-made suicide drones in one attack on Ukraine and about 150 ballistic missiles in one shot on Kyiv, said Sasha Ustinova, a Ukrainian lawmaker.  

And with the Ukrainian counteroffensive stalled and fresh weapons not flowing until January at the earliest, how resilient will the Ukrainians be? 

“The Ukrainians are heading for a tough winter, for obvious reasons,” Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson said in an interview earlier this month. “But I think that the Ukrainian morale is much, much higher than the Russian morale. What is crucial right now, of course, is that we all will step up support.”

But that morale is now getting tested, as Ukrainians were shaken out of bed by dozens of air raid alerts that lit up their phones. And the aid isn’t coming—at least until the U.S. Congress gets back from recess in the second week of January, and maybe for even longer. 

“Ukraine needs funding now to continue to fight for freedom from such horror in 2024,” Bridget Brink, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, wrote in a tweet screenshotting the numerous air raid alerts sent to Kyiv residents.

U.S. officials have seen movement across the nearly stagnant front lines slow considerably in recent weeks, a trend that is expected to continue. The weather in Ukraine has hit subzero temperatures and piles of snow have mostly halted forward movement along the 600-mile front, underscoring the prospect of several months of attrition warfare. Ukraine is already making moves to lower the draft age to get more men onto the battlefield.  

Ukraine doesn’t need any silver bullets, experts say. It just needs the regular kind. 

“We’re clearly past the ground counteroffensive now,” said Peter Rough, a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at Hudson Institute. “Since it won’t get large numbers of longer-range precision fires, Ukraine probably needs to entrench and defend right now—and absent Congress passing the supplemental, even those defensive lines may not remain stable.” 

Still, Jonson said the Ukrainian military has been getting some access to more long-range strike weapons, which has forced Russian ships and aircraft to move farther away from the front lines. But Ukraine has had to build its military while fending off the invasion: Jonson said that Kyiv is operating about 600 types of Western weapons systems, while ferrying fuel and spare parts across the front line. All that on roads that will be coated with sleet, snow, and ice. 

Even with its limited arsenal of Western-provided long-range weapons like British-made Storm Shadows and the cluster variant of the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System, Ukraine has still made a dent, knocking out a Russian tank landing ship in Crimea on Tuesday. And experts believe that Russia’s fragile logistics system—which was never designed for continuous military operations across Europe’s second-largest country—is a good target.  

“If they had longer-range weapons, they could completely wreck the logistics system,” said Ben Hodges, the former head of U.S. Army Europe. “I think they know this is a real vulnerability for the Russians, particularly in winter.” 

But Ukrainians fear they are already running out of munitions—and time. Though Western-provided air defenses blanket much of Kyiv, they are not enough to defend against far-flung Russian attacks that could dot the country during winter. As much as Ukraine needs more air defenses to blunt attacks like Friday’s firestorm, Ukrainian officials have indicated that the falling temperatures have already shifted their priorities: Attrition warfare means a premium on artillery fire, and Europe is far behind on its target to produce a million artillery shells by March 2024.

“The biggest problem we’re going to run into is when they start shelling us heavily,” Ustinova said. “Because we will not have enough munitions.” 

But Ukraine has been forced to cut military operations as aid has dried up. Ukrainian Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who heads up a group of forces in the southern push, told the BBC this week that Ukraine is facing particularly acute shortages of Soviet-era 122 mm and 152 mm shells, which still make up a large portion of Kyiv’s military arsenal. And if the Ukrainians want to apply forward pressure in spite of the snow, they have to clear entire minefields in front of them, only for the Russians to reseed the deadly explosives from the air. 

The Russian war chest is still heavily stocked. Hanno Pevkur, the Estonian defense minister, said in November that Russia still has about 7,000 to 8,000 tanks in reserve. Meanwhile, Russia has turned its sanctions-battered economy into a war economy. The Kremlin plans to spend 6 percent of GDP on defense next year. And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deals for drones with Iran and ammunition with North Korea have indicated to Western officials that Russia’s game is quantity, not quality. 

“It doesn’t matter. As long as it fires, as long as it unfortunately kills Ukrainians, it is good for Russians,” Pevkur said. “They are increasing their production, especially ammunition. They don’t care about the quality. They care about the quantity.” 

Western officials believe that there are 300,000 to 400,000 Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, across a swath of occupied territory that is about the size of the contiguous Baltic states. Russian casualties have totaled about that many troops in the 22 months since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began. But experts caution that the cannon fodder won’t last forever. It might not have to last that much longer, though.

In November, Russian forces claimed to gain ground around the eastern city of Avdiivka, where Western officials believe the Kremlin is trying to make a pincer move to encircle the town, the site of a major coke fuel and chemical plant. They’ve also set their sights on the important railway junction of Kupyansk. 

“They just keep pushing these guys into a meat grinder to convey the sense that they have endless resources,” Hodges said. “They don’t have endless resources.” 

For now, though, absent Western aid, Russia’s focus on eastern Ukraine could lead Kyiv to cede more ground. 

“That’s very painful for us, because we pay thousands of lives to get every single kilometer,” Ustinova said.  

“They are already taking more territory,” she added. “Look at the map.”

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Tabby Refael

It was no surprise, then, that immediately after the Tel Aviv attack, social media users arrived in Tel Aviv’s Yemeni neighborhood of Kerem HaTeimanim (the name means “Vineyard of the Yemenis”) to ask people what they thought of Yemen, and of the Houthis. Kerem HaTeimanim is adjacent to the famous Carmel Market, and many Yemeni Jews, some of whom must have been second generation Israelis, were asked if they had a message for the Houthis back in Yemen. The responses, all in Hebrew, were quintessentially Israeli:

“You’re Yemeni, right?” a young woman who was filming the video asked a kippah-clad, gray-bearded man as he prepared traditional Yemeni flatbreads, most likely at a stall at the Carmel Market. “I’m Swedish,” he answered jokingly. His response reminded me of each time that Americans asked me or some of my Iranian friends from where we hailed, and we responded that we were Italian. 

“Do you have a message for the Houthis?” the young interviewer asked the man. “A message for the Houthis?” he repeated the question. “Go to hell.” When asked if the Houthis scared him, the man, who was holding a large tray of flatbreads ready to be baked, answered, “Can anyone scare Am Israel (the people of Israel)? No one can scare Am Israel!”

Two dark-haired young men of Yemeni descent sat at a cafe and stated, “A few Houthis won’t affect us. Definitely not here in the Yemeni neighborhood. It’s the stronghold.” Every now and then, that’s exactly how I feel when I read dire headlines about Iran while living in an area of West L.A. called “Tehrangeles.”

There were so many memorable responses, and I want to share even more of them with readers: 

“They’re backwards,” said one Yemeni woman regarding the Houthis. “I think they’re overdoing it,” a tan, dark-haired man working at another food stall said “I love Yemenis,” added his co-worker. “But you went too far, friends. In Tel Aviv, and with no warning!” he chuckled.

My favorite respondent was a buff, young Yemeni baker with a bald head, a heavily tattoed upper arm and an impressive black goatee and mustache. While calmly continuing to pull at a giant, pliable mass of dough, he yelled, “Why at four in the morning?!” (regarding the bombing). “Do it in the afternoon! Why at four?!”

“Congratulations to the Houthis,” said another young man. “Everyone from Hamas to Iran has tried to hit Tel Aviv and failed. And they [Houthis], suddenly with their flip flops, opened up a new parking spot for us.”

Finally, there was a young Yemeni man who looked straight at the camera and delivered his own message to the Houthis, “I’m sure our Jachnun [bread] is better than yours, you #%S!!”

The responses of these Israeli Yemenis say it all: Embarrassment and dissociation on the one hand (one woman said, “They’re embarrassing the Yemenis! We’re not connected to them at all”), and pride and ownership in their own Yemeni identities, on the other. It’s almost as if they were saying, “We’re Yemeni too, but unlike you [Houthis], we got it right.” Millions of Iranians feel the same way about the regime in Tehran.

[matan4il]

Thank you for spreading information and sources! I have seen so much misinformation or straight up propaganda that it seems hard sometimes to determine what is and isn’t true.

Just yesterday, in my high school library, a few people were quite loudly talking about the white phosphorous claim, and were calling Israel a “genocidal settler state”.

I tried to refute them, and the argument got pretty loud, and was attracting others. I wasn’t worried about it getting violent, and I thought that they were obviously just fed misinformation. After all, we’re high schoolers, surely they wouldn’t just choose to hate an ethnic group… right?

And then I clearly heard one of the kids watching say “Fucking kike”.

I honestly didn’t really know what to do, I didn’t know what it meant, but it was clear that it was some kind of derogatory slur.

All this to mean, I am not Jewish, I do not even “look” Jewish, and I was called a slur for simply speaking up against antisemitism. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you and all other Jews and Israelis right now.

Please stay safe, and know that at least some of us support you!

Am Yisrael Chai!

Hi lovely! *hugs* Thank you so much for standing up for Jewish people. Especially when it is difficult and scary. I hope you're okay! And thank you again, SO MUCH, for doing what's right. I am REALLY proud of you, and I hope you're also proud of yourself, because you deserve to be! *sends even more hugs and love*

Since you mentioned the white phosphorus lie, I'm gonna add a vid regarding that for you at the end.

You're right, they have been fed misinformation, and repetitive, false slogans, that invoke righteous rage, and sound righteous when people repeat them, but which have little to do with reality. These young people are literally being indoctrinated to see Israel as the greatest of evils, even while the Iranian and Syrian regimes are butchering their own people, as just random examples of much greater evils that are currently happening in the world, and have been for a long while. Just to get a perspective, here's a graph of the bloodiest conflicts ever:

Notice that it starts at 3 million fatalities. The Israeli-Arab conflict, with all of the buzz around it, isn't even on here. Why? Because the number of fatalities altogether, counting Israelis, pre-state Jews, Palestinians and non-Palestinian Arabs, is just a little under 120,000 people. Another example of the disproportion between how many people died in this conflict, and how much attention it gets (making it seem as being far worse than it is) can be seen in this map:

So as I hope you can see, you're looking at the ratio between the number of fatalities and the internet pages dedicated to them.

I find the most interesting bit on the map being the victims at Mariupol. I've seen this website rage that white people get more attention than POC. Well, you can see that the attention to Gazans is way more than what the people of Mariupol got.

So what makes the Israeli-Arab conflict get so much more attention that it deserves, based on its severity (as measured by the number of people killed)? There's actually NOTHING unique about it, except... that it involves the one Jewish state. Attack Israel, and you get to attack Jews. Attack Israel, and you get to attack the biggest Jewish community in the world. Attack Israel, and you get to attack and de-legitimize the country meant to serve as the Jewish safe haven. And if the high schoolers you were confronting got a diet of antisemitism at home, or from their friends, or they were simply sold this "social justice" narrative, that really stems from antisemitism, then yeah, they're going to be spreading antisemitism themselves.

And as I promised, the vid about the white phosphorus lie (it's a lie that I've heard every time Israel has been fighting Hamas, BTW. It's a lie every single time):

Hope you're taking care of yourself! And thank you again! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[beardedmrbean]

A House committee revealed Friday that the Pentagon, other US agencies and the European Union — in addition to the State Department — have funded a for-profit “fact-checking” firm that blacklisted The Post.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote a letter to the firm, NewsGuard, demanding more details about the public-private collaboration that led last year to the State Department being sued by conservative outlets that were labeled more “risky” than their liberal counterparts.

NewsGuard has briefed committee staff on contracts it had with the Defense Department in 2021, including the Cyber National Mission Force within US Cyber Command; the State Department and its Global Engagement Center; and the EU’s Joint Research Centre.

“The Committee writes today to seek additional documents and communications from NewsGuard related to all past and present contracts with or grants administered by federal government agencies or any other government entity, including foreign governments,” Comer informed NewsGuard CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz.

“The protection of First Amendment rights of American citizens is paramount and attempts by government actors to infringe on those rights is dangerous and misguided,” the chairman warned.

The Oversight panel in June opened its investigation into NewsGuard’s apparent participation in a government-funded “censorship campaign” to allegedly discredit and even demonetize news outlets by sharing its ratings of their reliability with advertisers.

Comer also expressed concern about NewsGuard employees sharing social media posts exhibiting left-wing bias, in violation of the company’s policies, and the firm throttling disfavored outlets’ “misinformation” — which in at least one case included a published academic study on the failure of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These wide-ranging connections with various government agencies are taking place as the government is rapidly expanding into the censorship sphere,” the chairman wrote. “For example, one search of government grants and contracts from 2016 through 2023 revealed that there were 538 separate grants and 36 different government contracts specifically to address ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation.’”

The right-leaning websites the Daily Wire and the Federalist filed a civil complaint against the State Department in December 2023 for allegedly using taxpayer dollars to fund firms like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which smeared the outlets as “purveyors of ‘disinformation.’”

Both firms have relationships with social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, as well as advertisers like Dell Technologies, ExxonMobil and Nike, prompting concerns about how their “disinformation” ratings would affect business.

In 2022, GDI distributed a “Disinformation Risk Assessment” that rated the “riskiest” sites for factual news as the Federalist, the Daily Wire, Newsmax, the American Conservative, Reason Magazine and the New York Post, among others.

The New York Times and the Washington Post were ranked as among the “least risky.”

In a statement Friday, Crovitz said: “When the Trump administration first asked us for our data and insights about disinformation campaigns from hostile foreign governments in 2020, we contracted with them on the condition that such work be strictly limited to disinformation from hostile governments, not US publishers. We’re proud that NewsGuard’s data and analysis has helped defend Western democracies against Russian, Chinese and Iranian disinformation. NewsGuard was created as a transparent alternative to censorship by governments or big tech companies, and we do not censor any content.”

The 2020 and 2024 elections have brought so-called “anti-misinformation” and “anti-disinformation” efforts to the fore — with The Post’s bombshell scoop on Hunter Biden’s laptop being falsely labeled a Russian plant by then-candidate Joe Biden.

Some Democrats have since been suggesting that the only way to defeat pushback to their policies is by crushing the First Amendment.

President Biden’s ex-climate envoy John Kerry even called the constitutional freedom “a major block” to keeping people from believing the “wrong” kinds of things.

“You know, there’s a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you’re going to have some accountability on facts,” Kerry told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“But look, if people only go to one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda, and they’re putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence,” he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, also downplayed free speech protections during a 2022 appearance on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out.”

“I think we need to push back on this. There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy,” the Minnesota governor inaccurately stated.

Comer has asked for NewsGuard to provide by Nov. 8 all records of its contracts, grants or other work with the Pentagon, the State Department and any other federal agencies or departments.

[davidaugust]

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said that Iran “strongly rejects any involvement in the recent armed attack against Trump,” adding, “This accusation is just insulting: we wouldn’t let the Secret Service see our shooter on the roof a full 20 minutes before they fired. I mean, come on, we’re better at assassinations than that.”

- written by me, see it and more in This Week This Week tonight in LA.

[idontmindifuforgetme]

bitch we are tired nobody gives a flying fuck anymore and ww3 started a while ago bye

What do you guys get for sending things like this? Genuinely asking. You know you’re sending this to someone who has family in Iraq, which is literally right in between the Israeli-Iranian confrontation, so why do you get off spewing so much vitriol???? We’re literally all sitting in the living room right now and listening to the news in silence, hoping our families will be okay. Meanwhile, this has been Palestinians’ reality for months. I don’t even have the energy to argue with you

[womanlifefreedom]

This article from December 2022 considers the erasure of LGBTQ Iranians in the protests (unfortunately, I can't get the link to embed).

“LGBTQ Iranians are at the forefront of this revolution. We’re just not seeing them as visibly,” Säye Skye, an Iranian rapper and activist based in Berlin, tells gal-dem. He was forced to leave Iran soon after releasing his first song in 2009, ‘Saye Yek Zane Irani’ (Shadow of an Iranian Woman), a viral hit which unapologetically states the existence of queer people in Iran, resulting in Saye receiving many death threats. “People of Iran all want the same thing: freedom,” he says. “This is a crucial moment where people are looking beyond differences and fighting for a common cause.” 

I'll also note here that gal-dem was a UK based Black and POC led publication that showcased QTBIPOC writers and perspectives. It folded after a successful eight years in March 2023. Please support your independent publishers when you can <3

[invisibleicewands]

White Rabbit Red Rabbit review – a game Michael Sheen hops to it

assim Soleimanpour’s 2010 play has been performed in more than 30 languages and, like many of the Iranian theatre-maker’s projects, it’s a cold-read show – delivered by someone who hasn’t seen or rehearsed the script. There is a frisson when a performer relying on their wits and an audience unsure of what to expect encounter a text for the very first time.

This theatre is in the round, so there is an unhurried revolve – the only flourish for a show that unfolds under unchanging light, on a stage that is bare save for two glasses of water on a red metal table, and a chair holding a large red envelope.

Every show has a different performer pull the script from the envelope. I see Michael Sheen, who takes a comically deep breath as he turns the first page. He boggles slightly at some of the stage directions – and yes, he will be asked to impersonate an ostrich – but although it sounds like an ordeal, Soleimanpour isn’t out to get the guest performer.

Olly Alexander, Miriam Margolyes, Adjoa Andoh and Paloma Faith will all follow in this starry Soho run. Each will undoubtedly bring their own qualities but the work suits Sheen’s gift for whimsy, indignation and rousing exhortation. He also navigates an eager-beaver crowd projecting a giggly, almost protective energy towards him: there are no shortage of volunteers for audience participation.

A weave of rabbit-based fables, the piece is “not so much a play as an experiment”, Soleimanpour has explained. What does it investigate? We’re asked to consider risk, complicity and conformity, but ultimately White Rabbit Red Rabbit explores the laws of live theatre – the way in which an audience let disbelief ebb and flow; our pleasure in watching an event take shape even without rehearsal. And if there’s an unforeseen accident – well that only heightens our pleasure.

Now based in Berlin, Soleimanpour wrote the play, his text says, in the city of Shiraz in 2010. It is moving to ponder the journeys of this text sent out from a repressive state. Perhaps inevitably, performed in the heart of London’s entertainment district, it skews playful rather than grave – it can’t quite manage the high stakes it invokes.

[barbielore]

For Women's History Month, and just ahead of International Women's Day coming up in a couple of days, Mattel have expanded their Barbie Role Models line to include eight new women.

Mattel's statement on the matter is:

Barbie is committed to shining a light on empowering role models in an effort to inspire more girls. As a part of The Barbie Dream Gap Project, we’re introducing girls to remarkable women’s stories to show them you can be anything.

As per usual these are one of a kind dolls to represent different celebrities or women who have achieved significant things in their fields. If you can't tell from the Barbie likenesses, these dolls are Helen Mirren, Maira Gomez, Viola Davis, Lila Avilés, Shania Twain, Enissa Amani, Nicole Fujita and Kylie Minogue.

Though obviously some of these women are more household names than others, and hence the news is headlined with Helen Mirren and Viola Davis, none of these women are slouches. Maira Gomez, for example, is an Amazonian influencer, and Enissa Amani is an Iranian-German comedian and activist.

I do not want to take anything away from any of the women who were chosen as Barbie Role Models, but I do wish Mattel had chosen a bit more variety in women they chose for this, as they all work essentially in the entertainment industry. However, of course, 2024's Career of the Year was Women in Film, so I hazard a guess this was a deliberate choice.