This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A top news editor who blasted National Public Radio for its leftist ideology, which taxpayers are forced to support, has been punished with a 5-day suspension for revealing the woke foundational problems of the organization.
The New York Post documents that NPR, which takes money from all American taxpayers but then spews out the leftist ideology it chooses, has suspended Uri Berliner.
He's the senior editor who recently published an essay that described how the tax-funded NPR has "lost America's trust" by reporting news from a leftist bias.
David Folkenflik, a media writer for NPR, revealed Berliner was suspended starting on Friday for five days without pay.
The report said Folkenflik reviewed a copy of the letter from NPR brass and confirmed the company told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets — a requirement for NPR journalists.
"NPR called the letter a 'final warning,' saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR's policy again," the Post reported.
Berliner is a Peabody Award-winning journalist who has 25 years of tenure with NPR.
But he cited NPR's "blind spots" regarding major issues such as the origins of COVID-19, the war in Gaza, the Biden family scandal around the laptop computer abandoned by Hunter Biden, and more.
Many of his colleagues were outraged that he made the disclosures on Free Press.
The fallout from the disclosures was predictable, with many, including President Donald Trump, insisting that taxes no longer be delivered to NPR for its one-sided reporting.
NPR chief executive Katherine Maher complained that Berliner's accusations were "demeaning."
Problematic, though, is the fact, the Post reported, that Maher has her own record of bias, such as the biased, "Donald Trump is a racist" claim that she made on social media.
She also has complained about "white silence."
The Daily Caller News Foundation explained that Berliner also charged that NPR was working to take down President Trump during his presidency by repeating the false claims of "Russia collusion."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A stunning new video has been delivered that makes the case for ONLY President Donald Trump as commander-in-chief.
The Gateway Pundit explains it is the "most powerful pro-Trump ad of the year" – "It is that good."
It is from Claremont Institute chairman Tom Klingenstein, a philanthropist, public speaker, writer, and playwright.
He explains:
Now that President Trump is the Republican nominee for President in 2024, it’s time for Republicans, including those who doubt him or even can’t stand him to get behind him. The times demand it. We are in a war fighting an enemy of revolutionaries that kick and spit on America. I call our enemy the Woke regime or the Group quota regime. This war is a contest between those who love America and those who hate it. But we do not have a commander-in-chief. You can’t win a war without one. We shouldn’t much care whether our commander-in-chief is a real conservative, whether he is a role model for children, or says lots of silly things, or whether he is modest or dignified.
What we should care about is whether he knows we are in a war, knows who the enemy is, and knows how to win.
Trump does. His policies are important but not as important as the rest of him. Trump grasps the essential things. He understands the Group quota regime is evil and will not stop until it destroys America. He is a fighter, bold, brave, and decisive, who has confidence in himself and his country.
Trump never apologizes for America. He rightly believes America is the greatest country in history. Trump says, in effect, we have our culture. It’s exceptional, and that’s the way we want to keep it. And we won’t keep it if we usher in millions of immigrants with cultures different from our own. Trump knows his job is to protect Americans and just Americans. Protect them not just from enemies abroad, but from the woke globalists within. He knows that America does not need more diversity. It needs more cohesion. The woke radicals tell the Trump voters they are a threat to democracy. Think about that. They’re saying, You Trumpsters are a threat to democracy. The woke radicals also tell us ad nauseam that America is systemically racist. Trump knows this is deadly nonsense, and he says so. This charge of systemic racism bounces off Trump because he has no white guilt, or any guilt for that matter. Trump tells his supporters what they already know. They are not racist, and they do not have white privilege. The woke radicals shut up those who disagree. Trump will not be shut up. If they manage to put him in jail, he will still roar like a lion.
The woke radicals have the moral arrogance of fanatics. Trump, God bless him, knows we are all sinners. Trump rejects the utopian fanaticism of the woke radicals. He is a businessman who takes the world on its own terms and navigates by facts and common sense. Trump’s base knows firsthand the America that Trump wants to recover. They love him, and they know he loves them. They will fight for him because they know he will fight for them. Trump speaks to his supporters as fellow citizens without any condescension or poll-tested BS. Despite his billions, he is one of them, an outsider looking in, a man who takes catsup on his steak. And is as disgusted as they are with the anti-American elite.
This natural appeal has molded everyday patriotic Americans into an army. We cannot stop the left’s revolution and retake the nation without these men and women. Unlike most Conservatives, they will actually fight for America. But they follow Trump. Without him, they stay home. With him, they are united and determined. At his rallies, his audience invariably breaks into chants of USA, USA. In these moments, Trump and his audience mutually pledge to each other their fidelity and their sacred honor.
His enemies hate him with an indescribable fierceness. Another Hitler, they say. Elect him and he will be a dictator. We should take this hysteria as reason for hope.
The America-haters rightly fear that Trump and his party are on the threshold of a successful counter-revolution. Trump hates his enemies every bit as much as they hate him. His enemies are America’s enemies. Trump is the most towering figure of our time. He has changed politics, not just in America, but in the West. If we are to take back America, we need someone who is unmovable, who has proven that he can stand up against the immensely powerful army of woke modernity that will attack him with all its might. Someone who will go after the deep state without pity or compassion. And someone who has the conviction that America is still the last best hope of Earth. That someone is Trump. Trump, the politician, came out of the blue. An unconventional commander against an unconventional enemy. Almost inconceivable as President at any other time.
Trump fits this turbulent moment to a T. Is it too much to wonder whether the appearance of this most unconventional man is providential?
Lincoln spoke of Americans as the almost chosen people. Trump gives us hope that the God who has never forsaken his almost chosen people will not do so now.
Klingenstein previously explained that America is in a war, and one requirement is to understand the enemy.
That is the "totalitarian regime," he noted.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
As the Israel Defense Forces began to withdraw their ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip a few days ago, some began to question whether the war might be coming to an end.
Not so fast, says Tal Beeri, director of the Research Department for the Israeli-based Alma center. "The war is not over," he told WND. Having served for 20 years in the IDF as a military intelligence officer, Beeri’s experience leads him to conclude the war is "changing its shape." North of the Gaza Strip and in Khan Yunis, "[the war moved] from wide ground maneuvers to targeted ground raids based on accurate intelligence," he said, noting that it will carry on in days ahead.
"The war against Hamas will continue for a long time both in the city of Rafah and in the central area of the Gaza Strip, where no ground maneuver has yet been carried out," he explained to WND. To that end, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, "We will complete the elimination of the Hamas battalions, including in Rafah. No force in the world will stop us. Many forces are trying to do this, but it will not help because this enemy, after what he has done, will not do it again."
"In order to finally dismantle the organized military power of Hamas," Beeri explained, "Israel must complete the military activity both in the city of Rafah and in the central area of the Gaza Strip."
Casualty numbers don’t add up
There is inevitably a deadly cost to war, but is the West receiving accurate casualty data?
"Despite the propaganda efforts of the Palestinians and their supporters around the world," Beeri told WND, "the number of civilian casualties is very low compared to other wars in the recent past." He also noted that "many casualties are actually military operatives of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip." What’s more, the Foundation for Defense for Democracies recently pointed out significant flaws and exaggerations in Palestinian casualty data, with one of the FDD’s directors describing some of the casualty statistics likely "fictional."
There are also reports of famine and a growing humanitarian crisis in the region. But according to the Alma research director, "there is no food problem in the Gaza Strip, and there never was such a problem." In Beeri’s view, "the whole issue of the campaigns about the urgent need for humanitarian aid, in general, to the Gaza Strip, and the food drops carried out by planes from various countries, are nothing more than a matter of public relations."
Beeri argued, "The abundance of food available in the Gaza Strip can be proven through authentic photos and videos from the Gaza Strip."
For him, there is only one problem affecting Gaza’s food supply, "and it is called Hamas," he asserted to WND. "Hamas operatives forcibly take over the food and aid delivered into the Gaza Strip and keep it for themselves."
Not a question of if, but when
A week ago, the IDF called up its reserve forces in light of a new threat. Beeri said, "these reserve soldiers were recruited for the purpose of preparation in light of a possible Iranian response to the April 1 assassination of the commander of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon." Most of the reservists are being deployed to bolster the air defense forces.
Even while the battle rages on to destroy Hamas, Beeri said Hezbollah is a "clear and immediate danger" to Israel from the north. "It is not a matter of if there will be a war against Hezbollah, but a question of when," he told WND.
"Hezbollah is interested in a war against Israel and has tried to drag Israel into such a war over the past two years," he said. Beeri suspects Hezbollah may not have known about Hamas’s plans to carry out an attack in Israel. In fact, by his estimation, "Hamas's action [on Oct. 7] may have stopped [Hezbollah] from invading the Galilee region in northern Israel."
Apart from being caught by surprise, Beeri added, "Hezbollah is not interested in being second to Hamas." But rest assured, he said, the terrorist organization is still plotting the destruction of Israel and the threat remains imminent.
Ideology matters
Beeri noted the importance of ideology in the deadly fight against both Hamas and Hezbollah. "As people of the Western world, with Western thinking and values," he said, "[one needs to] pay attention to how we analyze the Shiite axis led by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas."
"Many good people are mistaken about this and do not understand, for example, that while we sanctify the culture of life, the radical Shiite axis and Hamas sanctify the culture of death," he said.
And while Israel cares about civilian casualties, both Hamas and Hezbollah exploit their population for human shield tactics, he explained: "The ideologies of Iran and Hezbollah on the one hand, and Hamas on the other, are extreme religious ideologies. That's where it all starts and that's where it all ends."
"They are not really interested in dialogue, and they will never make peace with us," Beeri assured WND. "In the end, even if it takes decades, or even hundreds of years, they want us dead."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
There has been a significant effort by the Joe Biden administration to bring the United States under the authority of outsiders.
Some may consider them well-meaning outsiders, but the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the World Economic Forum nonetheless are run by those who are not Americans.
The arguments for submitting to those groups follows the logic that America must agree to do what the world considers best for all, not just what's best for the United States.
But the campaign has not been without its opponents, including members of Congress who say Biden cannot constitutionally bring America under an outside organization without an approving vote from the Senate, which is assigned to authorize all treaties, even if Biden just calls them "agreements."
But now one state-based organization has launched a resistance movement.
It is the Louisiana state Senate that has adopted Senate Bill 133.
It reads, "The World Health Organization, United Nations, and the World Economic Forum shall have no jurisdiction or power within the state of Louisiana."
And it specifically bars every political and municipal authority in the state from enforcing the policies of these global organizations.
Liberty Counsel Action chairman Mat Staver said, "Freedom should never be traded for security. Louisiana lawmakers have sent a clear message that they will not tolerate the Biden administration ceding American sovereignty or foreign entities governing its citizens."
The senators' statement said, "No rule, regulation, fee, tax, policy, or mandate of any kind of the World Health Organization, United Nations, and the World Economic Forum shall be enforced or implemented by the state of Louisiana or any agency, department, board, commission, political subdivision, governmental entity of the state, parish, municipality, or any other political entity."
The statement comes just as Joe Biden is trying to bind the U.S. under the WHO's "Pandemic Agreement" scheme, in which the international group would, during its version of a pandemic, take control of decision-making.
It could order people to be quarantined, take shots whether they wanted them or not, and more.
That agreement will be discussed in May at the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva.
It is the Tenth Amendment Center, Liberty Counsel reported, that explains the Constitution's 10th Amendment "limits the federal government only to the powers listed in the Constitution and vests all other power and authority to the states."
"We’re a sovereign state and we want to make sure that’s known in this legislation," said Louisiana State Rep. Kathy Edmonston.
The U.S. Supreme Court already has concluded that the Tenth Amendment prevents the federal government from dictating direct orders to the states due to that power not being listed in the Constitution.
The plan now is before the state House Governmental Affairs Committee.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A commentary from The Daily Signal's Tyler O'Neil blasts AP, the legacy wire service launched in those historic days when telegraph wires linked cities, for its climate agenda that now includes having reporters refuse to include the "other side" in stories on its ideologies.
O'Neil is managing editor at the Signal and explained the newest leftism comes from the AP's "style guide," which for years has been used by reporters across the industry to standardize grammar, spelling, and more.
But it long has been pushing leftist ideas and agendas.
He noted the "latest round of updates" include "guidance on how to avoid 'stigmatizing' obese people, admonitions to avoid calling people 'homeless' as it might be 'dehumanizing,' and warnings to avoid the term 'female' since 'some people object to its use as a descriptor for women because it can be seen as emphasizing biology and reproductive capacity over gender identity.'"
AP also for years has taken to side of the abortion lobby, suggesting pro-lifers be slammed with the negative label "anti-abortion" while promoting the other side as pursuing "abortion rights."
It tells reporters to avoid "pro-life" and "pro-choice."
Now it has delivered to reporters updates on its political agenda on climate change, or what used to be called global warming until the warming stopped.
"Climate change, resulting in the climate crisis, is largely caused by human activities that emit carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, according to the vast majority of peer-reviewed studies, science organizations, and climate scientists," AP claims. "This happens from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, and other activities. Greenhouse gases are the main driver of climate change."
O'Neil explains "AP insists that this is true, with a capital T. When 'telling the climate story,' the style guide urges journalists to 'avoid false balance—giving a platform to unfounded claims or unqualified sources in the guise of balancing a story by including all views. For example, coverage of a study describing the effects of climate change need not seek the 'other side' comment that humans do not influence the climate."
But the commentary points out the facts appear to be that the impact of humans on global warming, or now climate change, isn't clear.
"In the 1970s, alarmists warned of a coming ice age. In the 1990s, the form of the destroyer would be global warming. Now, the alarmists have adopted the catch-all term 'climate change,' so they can retroactively assign human agency to any disaster that strikes us at the moment," he noted.
He did point out that AP "tacitly admits that the climate alarmists have no smoking-gun evidence that human activities are bringing about Armageddon," when it states, "Avoid attributing single occurrences to climate change unless scientists have established a connection."
The AP then continues, "The climate story goes beyond extreme weather and science. It also is about politics, human rights, inequality, international law, biodiversity, society and culture, and many other issues."
The commentary condemns the "one-side-ism" that AP is pursuing now as "rot" and openly questions whether other issues that are the subject of reporting these days can be documented.
"The prognosis is not good. AP has repeatedly put its thumb on the scale to silence criticism of abortion and gender ideology—even going so far as telling journalists to avoid the term 'transgenderism' because it 'frames transgender identity as an ideology,'" he explained.
Then it claims that the "mainstream science" says "the climate is changing."
"AP doesn’t admit that the supposed unanimity of scientists on man-made catastrophic climate change is based on a lie—that 97% of scientists don’t believe the world is going to end because we burn fossil fuels," he explained.
So why would AP put its thumb on the scale again?
"AP has received large grants from left-wing foundations, particularly for its climate reporting. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation spent $2.5 million on AP’s climate and education reporting, the Washington Free Beacon reported. That foundation also funds Planned Parenthood," he explained.
Further cash came to AP from the Rockefeller Foundation for Climate Change, and the KR Foundation, for climate alarmism, he documented.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A Georgia family has been profiled in Reason for a series of incidents in which bystanders called police because their 7-year-old was riding a bike "alone."
Or worse, in a grocery to fetch a free cookie being offered by the store.
The report explains the saga started in 2018,
"The Widner kids—then ages 13, 11, nine, and seven—were members of a swim team at their local YMCA, which was about two blocks from their house. One day, after swim practice, the 7-year-old, Jackson, lagged while the rest of his siblings walked home, and stopped by the grocery for a free cookie," the report said.
A store worker demanded he stay until police arrived, and called them.
That pattern then was repeated several times over, as Jackson repeatedly acted like a responsible child in riding his new bike alone or stopping by the nearby store for a cookie.
Officers, aggravating the fact that they even were called to intervene, then triggered two investigations by Child Protective Services, the report said.
The report said the family "recently had the opportunity to share these experiences with the governor's office. (The meeting was arranged by the Reason Foundation, which publishes Reason, and Let Grow...)"
The goal? A "Reasonable Childhood Independence" law in the state.
Already, eight states have such provisions, and three more are working on their own plans.
But Reason explained that Jackson had "refused to tell the authorities where he lived—having been taught not to give such information to strangers."
The cops then "were very cross with Jackson and informed him that being out and about without his parents was a serious infraction. He responded that he would promptly go home 'if you would just leave me alone,' his mother recalled later."
The father, Glenn, also was scolded by police, and when a caseworker from Georgia's Division of Family and Child Services arrived, the report said, she closed the investigation, admitting, "her own kids could learn a bit more independence from the Widners," the mom, Beth, in said the report.
The conflict reached one point at which police accused Glenn of "breaking the law" by letting Jackson go out alone, but when he asked what law, they told him to "Google it."
As the confrontations reached a peak, a caseworker claimed the family would be required to follow a "parenting plan," and they refused.
The Widners then adopted a plan to leave the city, the report said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In direct opposition to the suspect claims of transgender activists that children who are "gender-confused" must have medical "care" that goes up to and includes surgical body mutilations, a new 15-year study confirms that most of those kids, if left alone, "grow out of it."
A report from the Daily Mail confirms the study results show that "being trans is usually just a phase for kids."
However, by age 25 only 4% said they "often" or even "sometimes" were discontent with gender.
"The results of the current study might help adolescents to realize that it is normal to have some doubts about one's identity and one's gender identity during this age period and that this is also relatively common," the study found.
Under the openly radical push by Joe Biden and his administration, the transgender ideology has exploded in popularity over the last few years.
Multiple federal moves have insisted that transgender "rights" supersede even the U.S. Constitution and that chemicals to alter physical characteristics and even surgical mutilations of healthy bodies is normal, even beneficial.
The study prompted Patrick Brown, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, to tell the Mail, "This study provides even more reason to be skeptical towards aggressive steps to facilitate gender transition in childhood and adolescence. The fact that rates of satisfaction are lower even just a few years later suggests that for the vast majority of people, prudence and caution, rather than a rush towards permanent surgeries or hormone therapies, will be the best approach for teenagers struggling to make sense of the world and their place in it."
He noted the evidence suggests policies that ban gender transition for children "make a great deal of sense."
The researchers, from the University of Groningen, noted their analysis of 2,770 people did not focus specifically on those in treatment for dysphoria.
The study asked participants to respond to: "I wish to be of the opposite sex" at six points over 15 years. The results, documented in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, confirmed 78% had the same feelings about their gender over the 15 years.
Nineteen percent became more content and only 2% were "less comfortable," the report said.
The study found, too, "Gender non-contentedness, while being relatively common during early adolescence, in general decreases with age and appears to be associated with a poorer self-concept and mental health throughout development."
The report noted from 2017 to 2021, some 121,880 children from 6-17 were diagnosed, then when Biden took office and started promoting the ideology, in 2021 there were 42,000 such diagnoses.
Likewise, the report noted sex change surgeries are exploding, up 40% in some years, even though sex cannot be changed as it is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level.
Biden recently offended millions in his country when he declared a "Transgender Day of Visibility" on Easter Sunday. The promotion apparently is observed each March 31, which was, in fact, Easter Sunday.
Dr. Jay Richards, of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, told the Daily Mail, "We’ve known for over a decade that most kids who experience distress with their sexed bodies resolve those feelings after they pass through natural puberty."
He said up to 88% of gender-dysphoric girls and 98% of boys "desisted" while going through puberty.
That is why, he told the publication, "'Gender-affirming care' on minors is such an outrage."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The Islamic clerical regime ruling Iran has been a destabilizing factor in the Middle East ever since its establishment in 1979, following the toppling of the Shah. But in 2002, a stark revelation by the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran, or NCRI, added an urgent new dimension to the destabilizing picture: the existence of a military nuclear program hidden for years.
Since then, a policy of carrot and stick has been the West’s approach towards the clerics in power in Iran, yielding no discernibly good result.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement – the so-called “Iran nuclear deal” – between Iran and the “P5+1+EU” (the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the UK, and the U.S., as well as Germany, plus the European Union) – was supposedly intended to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but veered far from its stated objectives. In 2018 the U.S. withdrew from the deal entirely under President Donald Trump, and today Iran seems closer than ever to fabricating a nuclear warhead.
But nuclear weapons, among other destabilizing regional and international factors, are all elements of survival for a regime facing deep, irreversible rejection by its own population.
Unable to quell internal unrest, the regime instigated the Oct. 7 Hamas mega-terror attack on Israel, which continues today, endangering the entire region with a devastating war.
Yet the clerics ruling Iran seem hopeless in the face of growing popular discontent and resistance, and their days may finally be numbered.
Since 2017, there have been numerous regional and nationwide uprisings in Iran. Analysis of these uprisings reveals that each has struck the regime's structure with increasing intensity, and more societal strata have joined in.
2017 Uprising: Khamenei loses his social base
In December 2017, inflation sparked demonstrations that swept across Iran. Notably, the regime's usual support base, the social class the mullahs refer to as “the oppressed,” participated extensively in these protests. Slogans were aimed at supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
This uprising fluctuated until it connected with the 2018 regional uprising in Isfahan, where farmers revolted due to a lack of water. They knew the regime was using the water from the abundant Zayandeh River for industries like steel manufacturing, controlled by Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC.
The 2018 Uprising was instigated after it was revealed that the Obama administration had released $150 billion of frozen Iranian funds to the Islamic regime. Exposing systematic and astronomical corruption, this uprising clearly demonstrated that the regime no longer had a meaningful base among the population. Another hugely significant event was President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018.
2019 Uprising: Triggered by rising fuel prices, former President Hassan Rouhani said, "I wasn't aware of the gasoline price hike." Ali Khamenei and the IRGC were the main drivers behind the hike to fund their proxies and internal forces through the increased gasoline prices. A characteristic of this uprising was the active role of students. The uprising became even more radicalized. Slogans increasingly targeted Khamenei and Iran's dictatorship. However, the main slogan of this uprising was "The game of reformists and hard-liners is over."
Khamenei, who had used a façade called "reformism" to sell his regime to the West, failed in this tactic. In this new uprising, members of the resistance units under the command of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran, or NCRI, emerged throughout the country as a force that could overthrow the regime. The Islamic Republic’s newspapers profiled youths who would appear in an alley or neighborhood, encourage people to burn the regime's repressive and plundering centers, organize them, and then quickly move to another area to organize people's protests.
With the widespread presence and unique organization of the resistance units, Khamenei fully understood that he was facing a completely new force. Therefore, he did not hesitate to order shootings against the rebellious youth. As Reuters reported, 1,500 young people were killed by direct fire in a matter of a few days in November 2019. The regime's proven illegitimacy resonated strongly throughout the Western world. The seemingly inevitable death knell for Iran's theocracy had sounded.
2020: The parliamentary elections faced severe boycotts. Resistance units reported a lack of voters in polling stations, but the regime still announced that 42% of eligible voters had participated. Invalid votes secured the second-highest seat count in this election. And Khamenei, having barely survived the 2019 uprising, knew better than anyone that these fabricated statistics foretold yet another uprising.
2021: Further contraction of power: Khamenei completely sidelined the so-called reformist faction in order to counter the waves of uprisings. He abandoned his closest and longest-standing allies, including Ali Larijani, the parliament speaker, and his brother Sadegh, the head of the judiciary, so he could install Ebrahim Raisi as the current president of Iran, all in a bid to gain more unity in his repressive apparatus.
COVID-19: For three years, from 2020 to 2022, COVID-19 dominated Iran as it did most of the rest of the world. Khamenei saw it as a blessing, using the pandemic as a defensive and human shield against further uprisings. Indeed, the country did not face any uprisings during those three years.
2022 Uprising: Following the death of Mahsa Amini – the 22-year-old Iranian woman who was beaten to death by Tehran’s “morality police” for refusing to wear a hijab – the city of Kurdistan, and then almost all cities in Iran, erupted in rioting. This uprising lasted for several months. On one hand, the world witnessed the brutality of Khamenei's forces, and on the other, the heroism of the young rebels, especially young women. Khamenei, with his accomplices in the West, tried to appease the outraged public by promoting the former Shah of Iran's son as an alternative to the Iranian theocracy but was just attempting to deceive the masses by suggesting that their uprising would lead to another dictatorship, thereby briefly pausing the uprising.
This time, though, the resistance units took the initiative. They popularized the slogans rejecting both the dictatorship of the Supreme Leader and the monarchy throughout Iran. In the 2022 uprising, students played an active and decisive role, while women, representing the resistance units, took on leadership roles. This uprising marked the evolution of dispersed rebel units across Iran. They carried out 1,800 revolutionary acts in 106 different cities, including 43 areas in Tehran during the Charshanb-e-Suri* campaign, the ancient festival on the last Wednesday of the Iranian year, and carried out 1,170 revolutionary acts in 87 cities during the campaign against the regime's elections to boycott it. They also exposed the actual participation figures in the recent elections by checking voting centers in 243 cities.
The anti-repression actions and operations during the election campaign occurred while the regime claimed, "Over 250 to 300 thousand security guards engaged in protection, defense, and security care." On the occasion of Charshanb-e-Suri – the annual Iranian New Year celebration featuring lighting fires and jumping over them – in Tehran alone 19,000 police, 23,000 members of the IRGC and Basij, and more than 2,000 undercover agents from the Ministry of Intelligence were deployed to minimize the people’s movements and celebrations.
Meanwhile, in the 2022 uprising, the rebel units managed to grow in number by 500% despite arrests and casualties. Slogans primarily focused on the “death of the dictator, whether it be the Shah or the leader.” During the uprising, the regime’s symbols were set on fire in all cities of Iran.
A downfall in minds
Despite billions of dollars having flowed into Iran, the 2017 uprising demonstrated the complete impotence of the regime in front of the very class the mullahs claimed to have the support of, whom they referred to as “the oppressed.” And since 2019, the full illegitimacy of the regime has been utterly exposed. Whether in the 2020 elections or the recent parliamentary elections, excluding white ballots, no more than 5% of the eligible population actually voted. Although this regime has always suffered from a legitimacy crisis, for which it compensated with internal repression and belligerence, its lack of legitimacy was evident in the 2020 elections and especially in 2024 on the international stage.
In the 2022 uprising, all symbols of the system were set on fire throughout the nation. Passing through these three stages is what is referred to in sociology as a collapse in the minds of the society. Then only physical collapse remains.
After the 2024 elections
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hoped he could partially rebuild his legitimacy in the recent elections, aiming to bridge the deep gap that had grown in his repressive apparatus since 2019. However, he was not successful. The parliament currently under Khamenei's control is such that no faction within the same camp has an absolute majority. These factions are in intense conflict. In his last speech, Khamenei said that the worst thing for the people is the conflict between his forces. Former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif stated that the election was entirely controlled by Mohammad-Ali Jafari, former IRGC commander, as well as Hossein Taib, former head of intelligence in the IRGC. Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of the previous parliament, who is supported by the IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force, also stands against those who have won top positions in Tehran elections, and therefore the conflict will continue.
The recent introduction of war in the Middle East was essentially aimed at helping Iran escape the circle of internal uprisings and resistance units’ operations and the regime’s inevitable overthrow. Although Khamenei is trying to glue together the broken pieces of his camp and his repressive apparatus through the adventures undertaken by the Houthis in international waterways, the last election demonstrated the opposite.
During the Shah's time, when the army no longer took to the streets to suppress the people or was not able to do so, the Shah said he had heard the call of the revolution, and that was when he appointed Shapour Bakhtiar as his last Prime Minister – who held on to the government for a mere 36 days before being swept aside by the 1979 anti-monarchy uprising.
Right now, with the division among suppression forces and within Khamenei's regime itself, the Supreme Leader likewise should be hearing the call of the people's revolution, as several thousand organized resistance units stand arrayed against him.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Officials in the U.S. State Department have been sued for failing to reveal what they said to each other about star journalist Tucker Carlson, who only a few weeks ago was in Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin.
It is Judicial Watch that confirmed it is filing a Freedom of Information lawsuit against State "for all emails and diplomatic notes from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy Security of State Victoria Nuland and other top department officials that reference former Fox News host Tucker Carlson."
"Why is the Biden State Department violating FOIA law to hide records on Tucker Carlson?" wondered Judicial Watch chief Tom Fitton.
The federal officials, so far, have claimed there are "unusual circumstances" that delayed the process of the information sought by the government watchdog.
It was two months ago that the Tucker Carlson Network and X (Twitter) ran Carlson’s interview in Moscow with the Russian president. It was the first interview with Putin to be granted to a Western journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The watchdog submitted a request for documentation on Feb. 7, but officials have failed to comply.
The request is for: "All (2024) emails and diplomatic notes sent to and from the following officials referencing 'Tucker Carlson': Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary James O’Brien, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Yuri Kim, Deputy Assistant Secretary Sonata Coulter, Deputy Assistant Secretary Gabriel Escobar, Deputy Assistant Secretary Joshua Huck, Deputy Assistant Secretary Douglas Jones, Deputy Assistant Secretary Jacqueline Ramos, and/or Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher W. Smith."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A report from the United Kingdom reveals a whole new level of atrocity that happens when abortion is the agenda: A woman in a hospital for a checkup was sedated and her unborn child was aborted – without permission.
A report from the Metro called the situation a "horror mix up."
The report explained it happened at Bulovka Hospital in Prague, where a woman "was mistakenly sedated and given an abortion when she should have been having a routine check-up."
The woman, with no health complications, was anesthetized and given a "curettage," which caused her to miscarry.
The abortion actually had been planned for a different woman, the report said.
A spokeswoman for the hospital, Eva Stolejda Libigerová, said in an interview it was an "adverse event."
Her statement continued, "According to the findings so far, as a result of serious violations and non-compliance with internal regulations by the employees concerned, an operation was started on an incorrectly identified patient."
The hospital apologized to the woman and her family and promised to "mitigate the damage as much as possible."
The hospital said it is an "accredited teaching hospital."
Staff members who were involved were "placed off duty pending a full evaluation."
The report noted Shadow Health Minister Kamal Farhan said, "No one can replace the loss that the mother experienced with financial means."
Jan Přáda, of the Czech Medical Chamber, said in an interview with a local newspaper that the problem was that the woman got to the operating table, and that staff and doctors both should have noticed a problem.
The woman was four months pregnant.