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Showing posts with label Iran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iran. Show all posts
Saturday, July 4, 2026
July 4th 2026, After 250 Years America And American Democracy Are Under Attack From Within!
Today, July 4th, 2026, is the 250th anniversary of American Democracy and America and American Democracy are more endangered today than we have ever been. That danger is centered in the White House, being directed by Fascists inside the White House. Let's just look at a few recent headline stories from across the country.
The American Civil Liberties Union has worked to defend and protect American Democracy every day since its founding in 1920, 106 years. Almost ten months ago,that organization posted this story on their website. While a headline which screams "How Trump's Attacks On Our Democracy Put America At Risk" should be shocking, rare, and terrifying, headlines and stories about the danger which TRAITOR Trump and the Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet" pose for us and our Democracy, they are so commonplace since June 16, 2015, that millions of Americans ignore them totally. This so-called "second administration" of TRAITOR Trump is doing a great deal of things which previous FASCISTS and would be dictators have been doing since atleast 250 years ago, and millions of Americans insist on claiming that all they do is in the best interest of the country. The ACLU story in particular is and should be chilling to any lover of this country and our Democracy. Early in the story it states "There is now a coordinated assault on the constitutional architecture that has sustained American democracy. This assault should alarm anyone who values constitutional governance and the personal freedoms we so often take for granted." That should terrify every citizen in this country and it does not. The formerly sacred institutions of American government are now being utilized to install FASCISM in the country and most people do not understand that fact. The article moves on to state that Federal agents have repeatedly detained or arrested public officials conducting legitimate oversight, including Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka, Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, and Senator Alex Padilla, who was tackled and detained for asking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem questions. Students, including green card holders, have been detained and threatened with deportation for writing op-eds or expressing views that deviate from what the administration deems acceptable.
In some ways, the facts in this previous quotation from the ACLU article are now old hat since the article is more than 8 months old. We have seen ICE agents murder two people who were peaceful protestors in Minnesota and little or no outrage has been seen in the general populace. We are now seeing several Americans charged with vandalism and other crimes for touching a $16million dollar disaster at the Reflecting Pool literally in sight of one of our nation's most hallowed shrines to Democracy, the Lincoln Memorial. An Olympian who once epitomized American values to the watching world has been charged in an overt act of domestic terrorism in order to silence opposition to TRAITOR Trump and his TREASONOUS enforcers who, after giving a multi-million dollar secret and unvetted contract to one of his supporters, to repair the reflecting pool did a damn fine job of gravely damaging that symbol of American Democracy. And nobody seems to care.
An active duty American Air Force Major was arrested on July 2, 2026, in his full uniform for using his constitutional right to free speech to openly criticize TRAITOR Trump's actions in Venezuela. That was a direct violation of the US Constitution for anyone, whether in uniform or not, to be arrested for utilizing free speech to question what are clearly two totally unjustified wars against two countries with the basic intent to steal their assets such as oil, gas, rare earth minerals, and other valuable possessions of two sovereign nations. Major Jason Watson knew full well that he had chosen to end his military career before he opened his mouth that day. It should be a shock to every living American of sound mind when such a career military officer finds it necessary to willingly give up a career in which he has volunteered to literally place his life on the line to defend this nation. But it has not been seen as a shock to most people in this country. Most people are either to uneducated, uncaring, or ignorant to understand that such a person would find it necessary to place his life on the line, as he swore to do when he was inducted into the US Air Force, in such a manner contrary to the publicly stated intent of the people who have disastrously found themselves in charge of this country's military. Major Jason Watson is much more an American Hero today than he has ever been before when he willing complying with orders to participate in war crimes and international terrorism against Venezuela and Iran. The former Olympian David Hearn is now much more an American Hero than he ever was as an Olympic canoeist. Both these men, both those murdered citizens in Minnesota, and every other American who has simpley stood up in a No Kings Day Protest is much more a loyal American patriot than any of the hired thugs who arrested or murdered them.
Today, July 4th, 2026, America and American Democracy are far more endangered than they ever were in any of our previous wars. Democracy is being attacked in ways it never was by Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, or Emperor Hirohito of Japan. We are under attack from those who are allowed to walk freely every day into the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the US Supreme Court and all of our government departments to pretend they are "making America great again". Those people, TRAITOR Trump and his many minions, are the most dangerous enemies America has ever faced. It is long past time for every American citizen to Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out in defense of our Democracy or it will be lost forever long before November 2028.
Monday, July 8, 2019
"Reading Lolita In Tehran" by Azar Nafisi--Book Review
I have just completed reading the book "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi and I have never been more pleased with a book in my life. This memoir is a masterpiece which explains why it was on the New York Times Bestseller List for more than 100 weeks after its release in 2003. I never read a book because it is or was a best seller. I read books because I want to and when I want to. I am very glad I never read this book when it was a best seller. Today is the time when every American should be reading this wonderful book. It is a memoir about life in Tehran in the years immediately after the Iranian Revolution and written by Azar Nafisi, a college professor at two major Iranian universities before she was forced to leave the country and now teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The title comes from a secret reading group or class which Dr. Nafisi set up in her home with a small group of her hand selected female students after she was expelled from her teaching position in Tehran. She set up the group in order to continue teaching books which had been or were about to be banned in Iran and to continue contact with this small group of her best, most dedicated, and most liberal female students. The book does an incredible job of documenting the increasing oppression of the revolutionary government against women, intellectuals, Americans, and non-Muslims. Simultaneously, for the student of great literature, the book can serve as the reading list for a seminar on the development of the novel and of literature about women, especially about women in oppressive environments. But it can and should also serve as a warning to every citizen of America about what is happening in Washington, DC, and in the soul of the United States of America as we suffer through this terrible time with the illegal occupation of the White House by an agent of Vladimir Putin and Russia; the steadily increasing oppression in America against immigrants, women, and liberals; the increasing unconstitutional pressure being brought to bear on our government by Right Wing Radical religious forces; and the wide ranging attacks on American Democracy by all these forces and the outside forces in Russia which control many of them.
I have said for many years that in order for the Religious Right Wing Radicals in America to believe the things they say about religion and politics that they have had to go through all the identical psychological changes that the fundamentalist mullahs in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan went through. Their supporters become incensed at this statement and spout stock phrases about how they are different from Muslims and they are "God's chosen people" which is exactly what the mullahs told Iranians, Iraqis, and Afghans. First, in order for either group to believe the things they claim they do, they have to believe they have a direct line to God, that they understand God better than anyone else alive, and that God is telling them what to do. Secondly, they have to believe that God is also telling them to tell the rest of us what to do. They all, both mullahs and "Christians", have to believe they are God's appointed emissaries on earth. Personally, I believe that if God intended to take a long vacation and leave anyone else in charge of our hearts, minds, and souls, He/She/It would have told the rest of us in advance who was in charge. The bottom line is that in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the mullahs are fake imams, fake mullahs, and fake Muslims; and in the United States of America, these self-described "Christians" are fake preachers, fake leaders, and fake Christians. In fact, they are Hypochristians and guilty of everything that compound word describes.
Now, let's get back to "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and how this all ties in with what is happening in America. This book does an incredible job of explaining on a personal level what happened as the radical Muslims in Iran gradually, step by step took over the lives of every citizen of Iran. It is also an incredible signpost about what the Hypochristians, Right Wing Radical Repugnicans, and agents of Russia are doing in America. The parallels are stunning and this book should serve as a warning toward anyone who is not already fighting tooth and nail to put an end to the Right Wing Radical Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate which is illegally occupying the White House after committing TREASON with Russia in order to steal an American election. It describes step by step how more and more oppressive changes were foisted on the people of Iran in the name of God. In America, the steps being taken are very similar. We are now seeing children dying in chain link cages on American soil and being killed in the name of America. We are seeing incredibly oppressive laws being passed to control, abuse, and nullify women, liberals, Democrats, and anyone else who opposes the criminals who support the TREASON. There is no difference between the illegal occupiers of the White House and the Iranian mullahs in all their black, shriveled, little souls.
This book also has a wonderfully insightful discussion of most of the works Azar Nafisi and her group of Iranian women, some of who spent years in prison during the time period of the book, read during their life as a class or book group. Dr. Nafisi's understanding of literature is tremendous and she provides a lengthy reading list at the end of the book. But there is also a much more lengthy reading list scattered throughout the pages of this book with the mention of dozens of other important and educational works of literature which Nafisi used to educate the women in her class. Each of us would be well served to devote ourselves to reading and understanding every book mentioned in this incredible memoir. We would all be far better people and citizens of the world if we did so. We would reach the end of that long literary quest with a far better understanding of both politics and literature, both Iran and America, both Democracy and the enemies who wish to destroy it.
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