And Iraaan, Iran so far awayyyy

[Grant]

No dumb Florida moron jacks Tommy Vercetti!

RIP Ray Liotta

So Iran hasn't exactly been the most peaceful and stable country in the mid east over the last 5 years.  Protests galore. 

Throw into this gas soaked Charmin environment the Iranian Scarf Police and a 22 year old girl visiting Tehran from the far northwest, the Kurdish portion.  Add some standard Scarf Police head beatings and things have lit up. 

Anti-Regime protests in 11 cities in seven different provinces.  Likely to continue growing.  The protests are concentrated in the Kuristan portion of Iran, but there are others along the border with Iraq and even the border of Pakistan.  The closer they are to countries without the Scarf Police.  Protests seems to be primarily youth groups.  There is no central headquarters or heirarchy.  There is some groups that are moving from protest to insurgency, but they seem small and disorganized.  Anarchist Cookbook stuff. 

Pro-Regime rallies have been staged and the blame is being put squarely on "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".  Funny how they don't seem to want to mention Saudi Arabia in there.  Hezbollah media has repeated the claims it's all just "scattered riots".  More security personnel have been killed in this protest wave, 26,  than any previous wave in the regime's history. 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, kinda the Iranian version of the Shutzstaffel, may be mobilizing retired members to suppress the protests. 

I tell ya, the writers really hit it out of the park this season. 

Bonus points for the first post that goes like: "F Iran.  So sorry what is about to happen to all the kids there."

[Grant]

According to Iran state media, 15 people were killed and 40 injured in a terrorist attack on a Shia mosque in the city of Shiraz, in Fars Province.  ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.  Not sure why ISIS wants to kill Iranians.

Iran has blamed the attack on... guess?  I bet you'll never guess who Iran blames it on.  Cumon, give it a guess. 

Yes, I know.  I was surprised too when they blamed it on Israel, the United States, and Saudi Arabia.  Please quote the above sentence when responding to educate me on the "Byzantine" ways of middle eastern politics and the perfidy of the CIA and CHASE MANHATTAN.  The Iranians are also blaming the protests, probably using it as an excuse to increase crackdowns.

Protesters are establishing routines.  They demonstrate on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Iranian Sunni clerics such as Maulvi Abdol Hamid and others are joining and beginning to form a somewhat background leadership for the protest movement.  Iran is 10% Sunni, as far as I can tell.  Mostly Kurds and other ethnic minorities.  Protests are increasingly concentrated along the Northwest and Western areas of Iran.  Traditional Kurdish and Sunni Areas. 

If the CIA and Mossad were really as powerful and diabolic as everybody says they are, then the Khameni regime would have already toppled.  There is more than enough popular support for the KGB/FSB to organize a Marxist revolution. 

[Fenring]

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.  Not sure why ISIS wants to kill Iranians.

Not much of a surprise if true. Word on the street was always that ISIS was Wahabbist, hence an enemy of Iran-type Muslims among others.

[Aris Katsaris]

According to Iran state media, 15 people were killed and 40 injured in a terrorist attack on a Shia mosque in the city of Shiraz, in Fars Province.  ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.  Not sure why ISIS wants to kill Iranians.

Is this sarcasm or don't you know that ISIS is Sunni, and thus despises the Shia?

[Grant]

Is this sarcasm or don't you know that ISIS is Sunni, and thus despises the Shia?

No, Aris. It wasn’t sarcasm. I really didn’t know that, or if ai did I had forgotten, though I did figure it out over the weekend without your help.  I don’t know everything.  If I did, I’d be almost as insufferable as you.