Ketabz

The Iranian navy, which has been destroyed eight times, closed the Strait of Hormuz again, because the United States for the seventh time won the war that wasn’t a war, so the United States can open the Strait of Hormuz that was open before the not war. The not war that started to get the uranium that was completely obliterated, so that the Iranians can’t build the nuclear bomb that they weren’t building for the not war that the United States started. Then the United States which has nuclear weapons threatening to use nuclear weapons to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons because having nuclear weapons is dangerous. If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.

There is no “silver bullet” solution to the Iran problem. Arming loosely organized opposition groups, without clear leadership or a coherent strategy, risks leading to even greater bloodshed, as recent events have already shown. More importantly, any meaningful regime change in Iran would require years of careful planning and a deep understanding of the country’s internal dynamics. The idea that one can simply “flood” Iran with weapons reflects a failure to learn the lessons of the past several weeks. The regime is likely capable of absorbing and overcoming such efforts. More broadly, the recurring search for a quick, one-size-fits-all solution to Iran underscores a fundamental misunderstanding among some policymakers about how Iran actually works. #iran

There is mounting evidence that the conflict with Iran was not a war of necessity, but a war of choice. For months, the central justification has been that Iran was on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. That claim helped create urgency, shape public opinion, and frame the stakes. But the reality is more complicated and far less convenient. By most credible assessments, Iran was not imminently close to producing a nuclear weapon. Yet the administration continues to rely on that narrative, even as its own intelligence community appears to hold a more nuanced view. That disconnect raises uncomfortable but unavoidable questions: if the threat was not immediate, what exactly justified the decision to escalate? More troubling still is the strategic consequence of the war itself. Before the conflict, Iran had not crossed the threshold toward weaponization. Now, it may be drawing the opposite lesson, that without a nuclear deterrent, it remains vulnerable to external pressure and military action. In trying to prevent a nuclear Iran, the United States may have strengthened the very logic that would push Iran in that direction. This is the paradox at the heart of the current policy: a war launched to stop a future threat may end up accelerating it. A self-fulfilling prophecy

Abdul El-Sayed: “AIPAC and Israel are not the same as Judaism and the Jewish people. I love Judaism and I love the Jewish people. The single most dangerous thing they’ve tried to tell us is somehow they can extend the definition of antisemitism to include a foreign government and its leaders. I call bullshit”

i won’t interview tucker carlson or appear on his show. too many instances of disinformation and bad faith to merit platforming in my view.

Things that have failed to bring the regime to negotiate in "good faith" (think tank slang for making concessions that aren't in its interests): - Sanctioning Iran's Central Bank - Kicking Iran off SWIFT - Sanctioning Iran's oil - Making Iran's currency collapse - Assassinating everyone from Khamenei to Soleimani to Larijani - Carpet bombing Tehran twice in 9 months - Hitting every enrichment site - Bombing the heart of Iran's industry - Wiping out most of Iran's conventional navy None of that worked. They haven't even agreed to the basic stuff like diluting the 60% enrichment stockpile which are the easier parts, let alone the trickier concessions. Oh no but you don't understand the geniuses at the Brookings Institution have it figured out. The blockade will do what all those failed in. Yea ok. The fruit flies infesting my home are more intelligent than these people ...

This is an obviously bonkers thing to say. Yes, Iran continued doing those things. It wasn't gonna change overnight, was it? But the trajectory was clear. We had a president, Rouhani, who was massively strengthened by JCPOA, had mass support (got 24 million votes in 2017, including my own vote) and was openly taking the fight to the IRGC. He was pro-Western, skeptical of Russia and China and of the anti-Israel policy. Iran was opening to Western investment. Counterfactual history is hard. Trump might have not left and Rouhani might have still lost the domestic battle to Khamenei and IRGC hardliners. But Trump's victory and scuttling of the deal made that much easier.

@arash_tehran @yashar

Pahlavi’s top strategist has left think-tank FDD for the pro-Pahlavi outfit NUFDI

One of Iran’s most powerful families founded its largest crypto exchange. It’s used by the IRGC to move millions - reuters.com/investigations…

Important argument by @citrinowicz on how war on Iran saved rather than doom the Islamic Republib: “after the Israeli and U.S. militaries launched a war on the Islamic Republic at the end of the month, eliminating Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other key regime figures, the Islamic Republic did not collapse. Instead, internal pressure appears to have consolidated it around hard-line elements. It didn’t have to be this way. The protests that erupted in Iran in late December—one of the country’s most serious waves of unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution—were only the most public illustration of a process of internal change that had been gaining momentum. The regime was under severe economic strain and faced profound popular discontent. Even after a January brutal crackdown on demonstrators, the government remained very fragile. In response, it had already begun to loosen some socially repressive policies and seek a deal with the United States that would exchange military and nuclear advancements for sanctions relief. But instead of accelerating that change, the U.S.-Israeli war set it back. Khamenei’s death disrupted Iran’s evolution and provided the regime with an opportunity to consolidate. Paradoxically, the external pressure meant to topple the Iranian regime has helped preserve it.” foreignaffairs.com/iran/how-war-s…

جمهوری اسلامی شاید دشمنی بزرگتر از جان بولتون در آمریکا نداشته باشد. ایشان خواهان این شده که آمریکا بخاطر جنایتی که در میناب کرد معذرت‌خواهی کند و غرامت پرداخت کند. بعد رضا پهلوی هنوز اسم بچه‌های میناب را نیاورده و طرفدارانش را که نگوییم بهتر است.

ُThis is a breathtaking achievement that shows how special Iran is. As you see of the top 7, all are in US or UK and one is in Singapore. All rich countries. Despite all the sanctions and isolation, Iranians punch above their weight

The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank. It just published a 30-year study showing immigrants paid 14.5 trillion dollars more in taxes than they received in government benefits. Every single year. For thirty years. Without exception. The country was lied to. Here is what the study found.🧵

the CATO Institute.. a libertarian think tank funded by the Koch brothers.. just published a study showing immigrants paid more in taxes than they received in benefits every single year from 1994 to 2023.. not a left-wing university.. not a Democratic PAC.. the Koch brothers' own research institute.. they reduced the deficit by $14.5 trillion over 30 years.. they earn less per hour but work at higher rates.. which means higher per capita income.. which means higher taxes paid.. the country spent 30 years being told immigrants were draining the system.. turns out they were funding it.. and the people who told you that knew the numbers the whole time

This is not 1920s Italy, and they are not the fascist Benito Mussolini’s Squadristi (Blackshirts). This is Britain yesterday, and they are Mr Reza #Pahlavi’s self-styled “Immortal Guard,” offering a glimpse of the political order they envisage for #Iran.

@rostam_pechorin Ro has been my favorite member of the House the last few years. He’s now one of the biggest leaders of the party, and rightfully so.

Ro Khanna won in a landslide in 2024 for a reason. I didn't even realize someone was running against him until I saw this, and I grew up in his district. I don't even know what can be said about the video... made my skin crawl.

بله من مخالف جمهوری اسلامی هستم اما: ۱) خواهان کنار رفتن آن «به هر قیمتی» نیستم و عدم ویرانی ایران برایم مهم‌تر از هر حکومتی است ۲) مخالف ج.ا هستم چون حکومت دموکراتیک و منتخب مردم و مبتنی بر حقوق بشر می‌خواهم. جنس این مخالفت مهم است!‌ بنابراین خواهان دموکراتیک‌تر شدن ایران و گذار دموکراتیک هستم. این می‌تواند از طریق مجلس موسسان و برپایی نظام جددی باشد. می‌تواند هم از طریق تقویت نهادهای انتخابی کنونی مثل مجلس و ریاست‌جمهوری و الغای نظام ولایت فقیه باشد. از اصلاح‌طلبانی که در این راستا تلاش واقعی کنند پشتیبانی می‌کنیم گرچه اگر راه‌شان به جایی نرود هم هشدار می‌دهیم. ۳) دلیل نمی‌شود حکومت مستقر ایران هر کاری که کرد بد باشد و دشمنانش هرکاری کردند خوب باشد. به عنوان نیروی مسئول سیاسی ما همیشه از سیاست‌هایی دفاع می‌کنیم که در راستای منافع ملی ایران و اصول‌مان باشند. بخشی از سیاست اپوزیسیونی اصولمند این است که شما سیاست‌های خودتان را پیشنهاد دهید. اگر حکومت هم گاهی این سیاست‌ها را پذیرفت که چه بهتر. منتهی ما برای حداکثر سیاست‌های خود و دموکراتیک/منتخب شدن حکومت همچنان مبارزه می‌کنیم. در همین راستا همگام با نیروهای مترقی مثل حزب چپ ایران و اتحاد جمهوری‌خواهان ایران از مذاکراتی که منجر به کاهش تنش، پایان جنگ با آمریکا و عادی‌سازی روابط با این کشور شوند باید پشتیبانی کنیم.

🇮🇱🇵🇸 A Palestinian resident in Hebron, West Bank, recorded how a settler repeatedly attacked his house. The settler threw stones right in front of an IDF soldier and nothing happened for a while. He was finally arrested, only after he turned on Israeli soldiers who told him to leave. "They do everything possible to make our life impossible to force us to leave," says the Palestinian. That's the system working exactly as designed. Source: @the_andrey_x

Let this sink in: Congress is about to extend US veterans’ benefits to Americans who served in the ISRAELI military and partook in the genocide in Gaza... military.com/feature/2026/0…

President Trump’s abuse of America's allies has reached a tipping point. Now countries have started making long-term policy shifts — and those shifts will soon take on a life of their own. My take: