Alireza Doostdar علیرضا دوستدار

Campus @UChicago looking beautiful.

@HermezSami The story is really weird but it might be true. Saberin, an IRGC-affiliated telegram channel had intimated something like this on March 1. t.me/Saberin_ir/591…

This story is not true. It's just given legitimacy because published in the genocide complicit NYT. The most important lesson of this story is how truth gets manufactured and how ppl fall for it every time.

۴۰۰ سرباز آمریکایی با عملیاتی پیچیده خودشون رو به تاسیسات هسته‌ای اصفهان می‌رسونن، ورودی‌های تونل‌ها رو به سختی پیدا می‌کنن و به اعماق زمین نفوذ می‌کنن ولی چیزی پیدا نمی‌کنن. آخرش می‌فهمن چهارصد کیلو اورانیوم غنی شده همون خودشون بودن.

Call me old-fashioned but bombing Ahmadinejad's house sounds like a really weird way of installing him in power? Seriously do these people take war to be a video game? Either there's more to this than is being reported or we've underestimated the sheer stupidity of U.S. empire.

@nmansoori_ Easy for you to say with a relatively easy-to-pronounce name 😂

Please just absolutely butcher my name instead of getting AI to pronounce it correctly

In my latest on Iran Analytica, I explain why many in #Iran believe the current ceasefire may only be a pause before a shorter, more intense new phase of conflict, and why another round of war may still fail to resolve the underlying strategic deadlock irananalytica.org/p/is-a-new-rou…

@AliAbutalebi @freedomrideblog @amooKarl امروز تولد هو شی مین هم هست 🎂🎉

@freedomrideblog عمو کارل اغلب «خوبا» اردیبهشتی‌ان: شما، عمو ولادیمیر، عمو هو، عمو مالکم… حتی من… 😅😅😅 @amooKarl

Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925.

Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925. (Safia Latif is the artist)

The Mideast is once again teetering on the brink as Trump appears poised to reignite war with Iran. While Trump's threats of war may be theatre designed to force Tehran into submission, Tehran expects the US to attack it within the next 48 hours. We should recognize that restarting the war amounts to an admission that Trump’s previous escalatory gambit — the blockade of the blockade — has failed. That, in turn, was itself an admission that the war had failed. Which was an admission that the threats of war in January had failed. As I have argued before, this relentless search for an escalatory silver bullet capable of bringing Iran to its knees is not unique to Trump; it has become a defining pathology of American Iran policy for decades. And as Washington has come to realize that the blockade is backfiring, a new and dangerous dynamic has emerged: both sides now believe another round of fighting will strengthen their hand in the negotiations that follow. As I argued in January, Trump dramatically underestimated Iran’s strength, while hard-liners in Tehran believed war would strengthen Iran’s leverage by exposing the illusion of Iranian weakness. In their view, the outcome of the conflict vindicated that assessment, leaving them increasingly confident — even emboldened — about what a second round of war could yield. Moreover, just as Tehran believes Trump intends to prosecute the next war with far greater ferocity, Iranian planners are preparing a far more expansive and punishing retaliatory campaign, complete with new strategic objectives and targets. First, they see it as an opportunity to inflict maximum strategic damage on the UAE, citing Abu Dhabi’s active role in the previous conflict and its role in urging Trump to resume hostilities. Tehran is likely to target American data centers in the UAE, a move that serves multiple purposes. Iran sees these firms as participants in the conflict. At the same time, Tehran sees an opportunity to cripple the UAE’s ambitions to become a global artificial intelligence hub — and, in doing so, potentially undermine Washington’s AI competition with China. Read the rest of the analysis on my Substack: tritaparsi.substack.com/p/is-trump-poi…

@niki888 @TheAlexSylvian counterpunch.org/2019/05/02/an-…

@niki888 @TheAlexSylvian I've watched the mini-series and haven't read the book, but found this criticism by Ed Moloney (the director of the Boston College Belfast Project) very helpful.

they gotta dig thatcher up and kill her again

This is the glorious Inea Bushnaq. A folklorist and oral historian, she in part descends from the Bosnians who found a home in Tulkarm, Caesarea and elsewhere in the 1880s. palestine-studies.org/sites/default/…

Thanks to all who came out to our not one but two demonstrations yesterday in defense of the freedom to teach and learn

بالاخره منتشر شد✌️ جای کتاب «فمینیستی زیستن» در پیشخوان کتابفروشی‌ها بود تا خونده و به بحث گذاشته بشه. اما تنگ‌نظری وزارت ارشاد این شانس رو از ما گرفت. حالا به‌لطف نشر نوگام می‌تونید فایل کتاب رو دانلود و اگر در توان‌تون بود حمایت کنید. درباره کتاب👇 nogaam.com/book/2484/

Israel is threatening to sue the NYT over Kristof’s piece on sexual violence in Israeli prisons. Prediction: it won’t actually go forward. A real suit means discovery, witnesses, and opening the prisons. The last things Israel wants on the record.

Friedrich Mustz

Wild to think about how if Kristof lived in Gaza or the West Bank, the Israeli military would likely by now have just announced he was aiding terrorism and blown him up with guided missiles, as they’ve done to countless Palestinian journalists over the last three years.

I have to remind young(er) people sometimes, there was a time when Palestinians had to prove they existed. Not that they had rights or were human, that they *existed.* We think about what that did to Palestinians. To wake up one day in 1948 and be told, you do not exist.

Two years later, the answer is yes.

Insane story. A school district in Long Island covered up a watermelon painting on the personalized parking spot of a high school senior after complaints from pro-Israel parents. The student sued, alleging 1st amendment violation. The judge found that the student had a case and urged the school to settle. An initial agreement of $100k + apology was reached. Then the school reneged on the apology and paid an extra $25k instead - all to avoid admitting that expressions the Palestinian identity are not hate speech.