Inside Iran’s Notorious Section 209
Political Prison
Posted By: 4250Luis, 2/2/2026 1:52:33 AM
Arash’s mother never got the chance to serve the sunny-side-up eggs she made for her son before the knock on the door came. It was April 27, 2012. Three plainclothes officers of the Iranian security forces pushed their way in after producing a warrant. The men searched the house for two hours, confiscating laptops and phones. Arash’s pregnant wife returned from her morning shift at school to find her husband in custody. “Don’t worry,” the agents assured her in soft tones, “this will all be cleared up in a few hours after Arash comes down to the station for questioning.”
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4250Luis"
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC’s “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been reported missing, and law enforcement described the scene they encountered at her Arizona home as “very concerning.”
Homicide detectives were sent in, which is not standard practice in a missing person case, and Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said that the house is a crime scene. There were volunteers, search-and-rescue teams, dogs, Border Patrol agents, and helicopters deployed in the search on Sunday. They have now been sent home to rest.
“We will call them in again if we need them, but right now we don’t see this as a search mission, but a crime scene,” Nanos said.
It is a grim indictment of European timidity that only the slaughter of thousands of innocent protesters on the streets of Iran finally forced the European Union to act. For decades, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been the backbone of repression at home and terror abroad. Its crimes were never hidden. They were merely ignored. Now, quite belatedly, Brussels has moved and only one shameful outlier remains, the United Kingdom Britain’s refusal to fast-track proscribing the IRGC rests on a feeble and frankly ludicrous argument, that one cannot designate an “organ of a state” as a terrorist organisation.
California: A lost cause?
11 replies
The recent announcement that California led the nation in losing domestic migrants may seem like another nail in the Golden State’s coffin.
It’s just another piece of bad news for a state that, despite having the most billionaires in the world, suffers the nation’s highest poverty rate, per recent Census data.
The state’s young people are faring poorly: Among teenagers, the unemployment rate tops 21%, just short of twice the national average.
And for those under 30, California’s jobless rate exceeds that of every other state except for Mississippi.
So, is the onetime capital of the future finished? If it stays on the current path, with ever-expanding government,
SpaceX has successfully cut off the Russian military from having “unauthorized” access to the Starlink satellite systems that had been used to attack Ukraine, Elon Musk said Sunday.
Musk, the SpaceX CEO, said Russia’s drone network had now lost access to the company’s satellites after Ukrainian officials informed him of Russia’s illegal use of the Starlink system last week,
“Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked,” the tech billionaire wrote on X.
Unlike alliances that fluctuate with electoral cycles, the U.S.-UAE partnership has proven durable because it is grounded in shared strategic instincts: opposition to political Islam, preference for state stability over chaos, and a pragmatic understanding of power. From counterterrorism cooperation to energy security and regional normalization, Abu Dhabi has repeatedly aligned with U.S. objectives when it mattered.
Under U.S. President Donald Trump, the UAE played a central role in the Abraham Accords — one of the most consequential diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East in generations. The Accords succeeded because they were deal-oriented, interest-based, and insulated from ideological illusion.
The state of California is losing yet another tech company to Florida.
In a dramatic sign of the rising allure of low-tax, pro-business states, quantum computing firm D-Wave Quantum Inc. announced it is relocating its corporate headquarters and key R & D operations from Palo Alto to Boca Raton, Florida. The move, confirmed in a statement from the company, marks a stinging blow to Silicon Valley, in what many see as a broader trend of tech companies leaving high-cost Cali for more business-friendly regions.
CEO Dr. Alan Baratz made no secret of the strategy: Florida’s rapidly growing tech ecosystem, expanding talent pool,
I'm Just two years ago, Mary Barra, chief executive of General Motors, declared: “We believe in an all-electric future.” She went on to claim that the challenges her company was facing in the EV market were merely temporary bumps on the road to net zero. But as Bob Dylan famously observed, things have changed. On Jan. 8, GM announced it would take a $7.1 billion hit in charges against its earnings, of which $6 billion is due to Barra’s failed EV strategy. In a filing with the SEC, the company also warned that it would take more write-downs this year as part of a “strategic realignment of EV capacity.”
Conservatism’s Case for Cheerful Realism
2 replies
have been thinking a lot about narrative formation, about how the taken-for-granted atmosphere of opinion forms and diffuses such that tout le monde internalizes its gospel. One credible—or at least listened to—pundit or politician opines in a way that the media approves, and presto, a new bit of conventional “wisdom” is born or at least reinforced. A mere opinion, often ill-informed and frequently at wide variance with the truth, is repeated ad nauseam. Suddenly, it acquires the carapace of general currency that, at a distance, can easily be mistaken for fact.
Some years ago, I started a folder marked “Conservative Gloominess.”
Arash’s mother never got the chance to serve the sunny-side-up eggs she made for her son before the knock on the door came. It was April 27, 2012. Three plainclothes officers of the Iranian security forces pushed their way in after producing a warrant. The men searched the house for two hours, confiscating laptops and phones. Arash’s pregnant wife returned from her morning shift at school to find her husband in custody. “Don’t worry,” the agents assured her in soft tones, “this will all be cleared up in a few hours after Arash comes down to the station for questioning.”
President Trump: ‘Scammer’ Ilhan Omar
Should Be Jailed over Minnesota’s Billions
in Fraud 10 replies
Should Be Jailed over Minnesota’s Billions
in Fraud 10 replies
President Donald Trump had a fiery message for Minnesota’s Democrat leaders on Saturday, saying the fraud in Minnesota is bigger than initially projected.
The president zeroed in on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) when he wrote in a Truth Social post, “The Theft and Fraud in Minnesota is far greater than the 19 Billion Dollars originally projected. The Biden Administration knew this FRAUD was happening, and did absolutely nothing about it.”
“‘Scammer’ Illhan Omar and her absolutely terrible friends from Somalia should all be in jail right now or, far worse, send them back to Somalia,” he continued. ”
Vladimir Putin violates Trump’s temporary
winter truce, killing 5 Ukrainians in
overnight airstrikes 6 replies
winter truce, killing 5 Ukrainians in
overnight airstrikes 6 replies
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin reneged on his deal with President Trump to briefly pause the war in Ukraine, killing at least five and injuring more than a dozen in strikes across the battered country overnight into Saturday.
Moscow continued its relentless assault on Ukraine — despite a personal plea from Trump to suspend fighting for one week — while the war-torn country and its decimated energy infrastructure go through a deadly cold snap that’s left millions vulnerable to power outages.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Iran’s supreme leader warned Sunday that any attack by the United States would spark a “regional war” in the Mideast, further escalating tensions as President Donald Trump has threatened to militarily strike the Islamic Republic.
The comments from the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are the most-direct threat he’s made so far as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated American warships are in the Arabian Sea, sent by Trump there after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.
It remains unclear whether Trump will use force. He’s repeatedly said Iran wants to negotiate and has brought up Tehran’s nuclear program as another issue he wants to see resolved.
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Investigators Can't Find Tapes Showing
Fulton County's 2020 Ballot Count Started
At Zero, Board Says 29 replies
Fulton County's 2020 Ballot Count Started
At Zero, Board Says 29 replies
A 2020 election scandal in Fulton County, Georgia's most populous county, continues to grow with new derails revealed in a State Election Board (SEB) meeting last Wednesday -- and now, a week later, with an FBI raid seeking election documents from the county. (snip) When a ballot scanner is used to count ballots, election officials must start the process by printing and signing a "zero tape," which confirms the count started at zero. (snip) [S]tate investigators were unable to find any ["zero tapes"] from Fulton County's early voting period in the 2020 general election, SEB member Jan Johnson said during the board meeting.
The British countryside is in the midst of a diversity drive after a government-commissioned report found it was too 'white' and 'middle-class'. Officials charged with managing some of the country's best known beauty spots have laid out a series of proposals aimed at attracting minorities. In the wake of the report, officials representing National Landscapes - including the Cotswolds and Chilterns - have now published a series of management plans that detail their proposals to attract more minority communities. The Chiltern National Landscape will launch an outreach programme in Luton and High Wycombe targeted at Muslims.
Washington — Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed to testify in the House Oversight Committee's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, ahead of expected votes in the House later this week on holding the pair in contempt of Congress.
In an email to the committee on Monday, the Clintons' legal team said the former president and former secretary of state "accept the terms of your letter and will appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates." [snip] Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the oversight panel, said[snip]"The Clintons' counsel has said they agree to terms, but those terms lack clarity yet again and they have provided no dates for their depositions.
An unsettling scene unfolded on Minneapolis streets over the weekend as anti-ICE activists turned public roadways into impromptu checkpoints and blockades -- while Minneapolis police at one point looked on and walked away. Social media videos show agitators blocking streets with furniture and stopping cars in Minneapolis -- even apparently cross-referencing plates against a database of ICE vehicles before letting drivers through. (snip) When Minneapolis police officers approached and urged [a] group to move [an] obstruction "for fire trucks and ambulances," the protesters didn't budge (snip) and officers eventually left (snip.)
Democrats in the Washington state legislature are pushing a proposal that establishes a list of demographic groups that are presumed to be “socially disadvantaged” for the purposes of state business certification. Based on the breadth of those categories, roughly 70 percent of Washington state residents would fall under the bill’s definition of “socially disadvantaged.” Under existing statute, the Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises (OMWBE) defines a “socially disadvantaged individual” as someone who has experienced racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society due to group identity, stemming from circumstances beyond the individual’s control. The agency may also determine social disadvantage on a case-by-case basis.
I'm Just two years ago, Mary Barra, chief executive of General Motors, declared: “We believe in an all-electric future.” She went on to claim that the challenges her company was facing in the EV market were merely temporary bumps on the road to net zero. But as Bob Dylan famously observed, things have changed. On Jan. 8, GM announced it would take a $7.1 billion hit in charges against its earnings, of which $6 billion is due to Barra’s failed EV strategy. In a filing with the SEC, the company also warned that it would take more write-downs this year as part of a “strategic realignment of EV capacity.”
The Abigail Spanberger Bait-and-Switch
19 replies
During the 2025 gubernatorial election the voters of Virginia believed they were choosing between pragmatic Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger and lackluster Republican Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. The former was well funded and portrayed favorably by the corporate “news” media as a centrist, while the latter struggled to raise money and was labeled an extremist because of her strong support of gun rights. Spanberger won by double digits and most Virginians thought they were getting a slightly more liberal governor than her predecessor, Glenn Youngkin. Yet the moment she took office, it became obvious that Gov. Spanberger was no moderate.
Maine Democrats have been calling for over a year for the release of more files related to the infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but the disclosures may have caused some collateral damage for Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, candidate for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. The sensational allegations against Gov. Mills surfaced Friday in a trove of documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice as a part of its ongoing disclosure of materials related to the investigation into Epstein's sex-trafficking and espionage ring. (snip) An anonymous tipster alleges that Mills was "instrumental" in covering up child sexual abuse and was "credibly named" in cocaine trafficking.
Bicycle mob attack driver after collision,
fracture his ribs and back, and destroy
his car 17 replies
fracture his ribs and back, and destroy
his car 17 replies
The Bay Area is experiencing mobs of bicycle riders stopping to attack and seriously injure drivers who provoke their wrath, while riding around in large groups that the cyclists call “ride outs.” ABC7News (KGO Television) reports:
A Santa Clara driver suffered fractures to his ribs and back after a mob of bicyclists brutally assaulted him following an accident involving one of them.
This is the latest in a string of violent incidents involving large groups of bicyclists, popularly known as “ride outs”, a rapidly growing trend where large, often informal groups of cyclists -- from dozens to thousands -- gather to ride through city streets.
A Minnesota Democratic Party official is urging people on social media to "act neutral" to get seated on a jury and vote to acquit a woman accused of biting off a federal agent's finger tip. Nick Kruse is former vice president of the Minnesota Young DFL and current at-large director of Stonewall DFL. In a Jan. 26 post on X, Kruse wrote that "no one should be going to prison for defending our city against ICE," and encouraged followers to spread information about "jury nullification."
The Trump administration has quietly decided to allow employers to import 65,000 extra H-2B visa migrants for jobs that would otherwise pay decent wages to ordinary American who vote in the midterm elections. The visa giveaway is part of President Trump’s zig-zagging between the two sides of his coalition — the voters he needs on election day, and the business donors who provide the funds for political campaigns. Meanwhile, the national media is ignoring the visa giveaway to business because it is focused on the left-wing street groups who are trying to block the deportation of criminal and wage-cutting illegal migrants from Minneapolis.
Donald Trump threatened Monday to begin legal action against “loser” Trevor Noah after the comedian said the president visited convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s island and needs it again to “hang out” with Bill Clinton. The South African provided no evidence for the allegation which has been dismissed outright as a lie and fabrication by Trump.
After congratulating Billie Eilish for winning the Grammy for Song of the Year for her track “Wildflower,” host Noah brought up his Trump and Epstein allegation.
“Wow. That’s a Grammy that every artist wants — almost as much as Trump wants Greenland,” he quipped, referring to the president’s efforts regarding the Arctic territory.