Will "The Butcher" Finally Go Down?

He should, but let's hope it's not Trump who does this on behalf of Netanyahu (another butcher). This is a job for a U.N. Coalition.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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I need to issue a warning: I read Wikipedia’s profile of Khomenei this morning, and a worse WHITEWASH of a tyrant I’ve never seen. What a puff piece on this virulent human-rights abuser. It should come with a medical warning, like a package of cigarettes, because it’s designed to rot your brain. This man is a killer.

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We cannot say that we, here in America, are exempt from the hideous mindset that elevated this man and has kept this 86-year-old misogynist and power-addicted religious poseur in authority since the death of Iranian Revolution mastermind Ruhollah Khomeini (not directly related) in Cairo in1989.

Ali Khomenei claims the authority of God, and so do the likes of the misogynist Pete Hegseth, the misogynist J.D. Vance (the Pope does not agree), the the six misogynist right-wing Supreme Court Justices who claimed such godliness while they stripped, first, women’s rights and now sanction human rights abuses of anyone not male and white. It remains to be seen what the Supreme Court will do with ICE and whether the much-deserved impeachment of dog-killer and serial human-rights abuser Kristi Noem will pan out. Articles of Impeachment were brought by Rep. Robin Kelly, for:

• Obstruction of Congress for instances in which members of Congress were denied entry to DHS facilities and for withholding congressionally appropriated disaster relief funding.

• Violation of public trust: For allegedly denying ICE detainees due process and violating the First and Fourth amendments.

• Self-dealing: Over reports that Noem awarded $220 million in contracts to a firm run by her top spokesperson’s husband.

This set of impeachment articles is welcome news: what should also be happening is that Noem, Hegseth, and Trump should be indicted for human rights violations—like Netanyahu and Bolsonaro—by the International Criminal Court.

On Netanyahu’s Behalf? Very likely.

And while Trump blusters about attacking Iran, an incredibly dangerous gambit, the question must be asked about how much Trump is willing to do for a fascist state like Netanyahu’s devolved State of Israel, but AIPAC’s eternal spigot of cash for Trump’s coffers has everything to do with it. That, and the fact that Trump is staring down exactly the same abyss as Bolsonaro and Netanyahu: criminal indictment by the ICC. There’s more on this later this week because there is a lot here.

Trump Follows Khomenei’s 18 Tir Playbook

July 9, 1999—18 Tir in the Iranian calendar—marked the first time since the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, and the first in the 10-year-old administration of Ali Khomenei, that there were serious protests. They started at Tehran University, sparked by the closure of the reformist campus newspaper Salām (“Salute”).

Salām was no Western mouthpiece. A Persian-language daily, it was named by Ahmad Khomeini, the Grand Ayatollah’s son, and published by opposition cleric Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha, a man frequently put under house arrested by the Supreme Leader, who doesn’t DARE kill this man. Anti-American to the core, Salām provided quality editorials and investigative articles about financial scandals, and openly exposed injustice and corruption.

On the advice of security services that the positions taken by Salām were growing in influence and popularity, Ali Khomenei went on the offensive. He shut down the newspaper, but the closure did not have the impact that Khomenei planned. A country then—25 years ago—already sick of the virulent, oppressive Islamic regime, exploded. Protesters filled the streets of Tehran, and simmering unrest erupted in every major Iranian city, including the holy cities of Shiraz and Qom.

Khomenei, who is as intolerant of divergent opinion as any man who ever drew breath, went to war. Entering Tehran University dormitories in the middle of the night, elements of the Basij and the a unit of Hezbollah, cracked down hard. They took prisoners all five leaders of the University of Tehran protest. They threw several students from third-floor balconies.

More than seventy students from UT went missing and have never been seen again. But it was what happened next that ended the rebellion after six days.

A Flayed, Burned Corpse in the Doorway of the Science Building

At dawn, several days after the uprising began, University of Tehran students found the calling card Khomenei had left. Rotting and stinking in the doorway of the UT science building was the corpse, widely believed to be that of a student. The unfortunate had been flayed to death and his/her body burned. Other corpses were strewn across the lawns and streets inside the university’s tiny town within a city.

Silence spread like death itself. It was the first time the full breadth of Khomenei’s sadism and malice became apparent in the full light of day. He’d already killed thousands, of course. Many died just after the revolution for being “on the wrong side.” More would die for being gay, for being liberal, for being women.

And more uprisings would follow:

• 2009-2010: Green Movement Protests

• 2022-2023: Mahsa Amini Protests: Woman, Life, Freedom

What’s Going on Now?

Sky News has an excellent synopsis here: https://news.sky.com/story/why-are-people-protesting-in-iran-everything-you-need-to-know-13490639

Some major points are:

• Demonstrations began on 28 December when shopkeepers and bazaar merchants in Tehran staged a strike as the Iranian currency hit an all-time low against the US dollar.

• Sanctions from the United Nations were also reimposed on the country in September 2025.

• The country’s long-standing economic crisis deepened again after Israel and the US launched strikes on the Islamic Republic in June last year in a 12-day war that targeted several of Iran’s nuclear sites.

• While protests initially focused on the economy, they have since expanded to wider political issues, with protesters heard chanting anti-government statements.

• Footage from 30 December showed university students marching alongside shopkeepers and merchants in Tehran, chanting “rest in peace Reza Shah”, a reference to the founder of the royal dynasty who was ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

• It comes after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian announced his government would stop providing a preferential subsidized rate of foreign currency to importers and producers and instead give a monthly subsidy to each person in Iran - a system that makes it more likely merchants will hike the price of goods.

Image: People outside the Iranian embassy in London in support of nationwide protests in Iran. Pic: Reuters

How widespread are the protests?

Demonstrations and protests had been recorded in at least 186 cities across all 31 provinces by 12 January, according to HRANA.

The Internet in Iran is shut down. Accounts are trickling out from cell phones.

Counting the Dead

At least 2,500 people have died—the Jerusalem Post cites an almost-certainly-inflated 12,500—as many as 70,000 are in custody and promised speedy trials and executions.

This Is a Job for a U.N. Coalition Not a Rogue U.S. President and a Trigger-Happy Secretary of Defense [sic].

A unilateral action by any single country invites terrorist strikes and possible nuclear action by Iran on Israel and on the USA if Khomenei can manage it.

And Americans need to decide if they are willing to run that risk so AIPAC keeps funneling money to a U.S. president purely because he is willing to exterminate every Palestinian man, woman and child to get it (he is).

The Iranian people need and deserve help—but help from ALL the world’s people—not just from Netanyahu’s partners in crime and a craven U.S. president who was, six months ago—before he invaded Venezuela and stole the country’s oil and before he went on a drunken saber-rattling jihad about Greenland—was whining that the Norwegian Committee wouldn’t give him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Time to employ a little PEACEFUL WARRIOR resistance.

And pray that that impeachment of Kristi Noem spreads to every other American criminal who richly deserves it.