Out & About ....

Nazanin Radcliff as she had to say goodbye to her Child after Furlough

Nasrin Soutodeh Goes back on Hunger Strike: An Update from her Husband Reza Khandan 

On the Moral Bankruptcy of the Islamic Republic:  The proliferation of Houses of Prostitution in Mashad catering to Iraqi Tourists 

August 2018 is drifting away into the history books as I am writing this.   The team at the Daily Outsider decided to go dark through Labor Day here in the United States as it finished a Virtual Property-Wide tribute to Senator McCain and as the team gears up for September which will be available later on Monday.    It has also been an extremely challenging week as I captured what I have noted above from my on-going daily forays on Social Media assessing the latest out of Iran.

I begin with Nazanin Zargari-Radcliff.   She was on a trip to Iran to see her parents and introduce her parents to their grand daughter.   She has been on the staff of the Thomson Reuter Foundation and was picked up as she was leaving On Iran on trumped up charges and has been detained ever since.   I have had the pleasure to be supportive adding my voice to agitate for her release.  She's one of a multitude of dual nationals that the Judiciary in Iran has detained--She was all of a sudden given a three day furlough and then again hauled off to Prison.    This is as Nasrin Soutodeh has begun an hunger strike to protest her detention and the continued harrasement by the regime against her family and supporters.    It is just absolutely irritating to be witness to it.

As the regime continues its' repressive moves to stiffle dissent, protests are continuing.    The regime is trying desparate moves including window dressing moves like impeaching the Economy Minister--who has virtually  no power as key levelrs of State Economic Power are controlled by the Supreme Leader.    What I find absolutely abhornet and sickening is how over the 30 years that the Supreme Leader has been in charge, Iran earned over 1 Trillion dollars in Income from Oil Exports.    Yet Iran is absolutely broke.    According to the regime's own statistics, out of the 24 Million Households, some 6.5 Million live in absolute povertry.   12 Million Households only have one breadwinner.   Over 21 Million People are unmarried as they cannot marry due to the dire economic circumstances.   The rate of divorce continues to skyrocket as the regime continues its' misadventures in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq continue.    What I found so sickening is how Larijani, the Majlis Speaker (and one of the richest men in Post-Revolutioanry Iran), said how it was an absolute obligation to help the children of Palestine--as Street Children in Iran work in order to support their families with no end in sight.    It was even more sickening how the 94-year head of the Guardian Council, Ahmad Janati, noted how he cried at the scene of Somali Children--yet he implores people to eat one meal a day and to be patient as to everything is going to be all right.  It was even more horrific as Rouhani, the President, came out and asked people to be patient and to set aside "differences"--as he has presided over a collapse of the currency, inflation continues to skyrocket, laborers are not being paid and the prison rolls continue to expand ever more.   I will not even bother to talk about the comical show put on showcasing the fact that they had produced a new aircraft--which turned out to be a repainted F-5.  This is as the regime gave me Iranian Sovereignty over the Caspian Sea--even though both Rouhani and his Foreign Minister, the Smooth-Talking Used Car Salesman Javad Zarif, denied it as I underscore the simple fact that #WeWillReClaimIran.       

Of all the agony I have been reviewing and assessing, the one that truly sickened me was the third headline as reported by a number of Media--the proliferation of houses of prostitution in Iran's holliest City, Mashad.    From the reporting I reviewed, Iraqi men flock to those cities and frequent such houses.   Mashad is one of the richest cities there is--and  yet such depravity must occur.    The two lowlifes in charges there have no sense of accountability for this as no one does in the regime--BBC Persian's Rana Rahimpour noted this as she underscored her frustration about Mrs. Radcliffs' predicament--what we all share.    This is just one in the latest in underscoring the total lack of moral legitimacy of the Regime that has continued to torment 80 Million Iranians.    It led me to think about and revisit David Brooks' writings to see whether these subhumans in charge in Iran understood even the mere idea of character--which they do not:




Despite all that goes on, there are still rays of hope and sunshine.   One example of it was this young man that created a school in Iran to cater to Street Children--and had to resort to an online fundraising campaign due to no funding from the regime--the regime has funds for useless religious institutions, foreign adventures and yet, nothing for schools.     As I write this, I could not pull up their website--which has led me to believe that somehow the regime has cut them off as the founders' video went viral throughout the Iranian Diaspora--I could not personally figure out how to support him as his fundraising page did not allow for any foreign contributions.

As I close out August, one thing I was quite proud of was the privilege of being supportive of a gathering of Korean War Veterans of the 40th Infantry Division at JFTB-Los Alamitos.    I produced a brief Visual Essay on it which I view as a high note to "book-end" my latest "Out & about":

I will not forget what one of the Veterans told me:   I'll do it all over again--Duty, Honor and courage in action.  If only the subhumans in charge in Iran truly understood these.

Onward to September with all its possibilities....