So today was apparently International Women’s Day. Did you catch anyone on the network news mentioning the women of Iran – and their fight for freedom of choice to wear or not wear the hijab? No. In fact, the mainstreams seem to have lost all interest in the Iranian protests.
 
But it’s not because the demonstrations have ended; they now include large swaths of the working class ~ Iran: Continued Nationwide Strikes and Protests; workers in agricultural, equipment, transportation and engineering sectors are all protesting the failing economy.
 
 
This latest popular uprising, which began last December, is clear evidence that the billions Obama gave the Islamic regime in his one-sided nuclear deal, never managed to trickle down and improve the life of the average Iranian. Rather, as Ken Blackwell wrote several weeks ago ~

(T)he mullahs used the political and economic benefits of the deal for further human rights abuses and intensify their war efforts in the region. But these interventions have only made the regime more fragile.
 
The uprising was a revolt for freedom, popular sovereignty, social justice, and prosperity. It showed that Iranian society is in an explosive state, simmering with discontent. It showed that the regime is much weaker than perceived.

 
Plainly, as Helen Raleigh at The Federalist asserted back in January, the Iranian People Deserve a Better Life. Unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran hasn’t been an Islamic theocracy for centuries. Until 1979 they were much more Westernized ~

Iran’s former self, the Persian Empire, produced great culture. Its art, literature, and language have influenced the rest of the world. Some English words we use today, such as “pajama” and “paradise,” derive from Persian. Poems by great Persian poets such as Hafiz and Sadi enchanted Ralph Waldo Emerson and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
 
Even prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution that ushered in today’s oppressive regime, the Iranian people lived a much freer life. There is ample evidence that the theocratic Iranian state since the 1979 revolution has failed to make the Iranian people’s life better.

 
Especially women’s lives. Since 1979 all women and girls over the age of 9 have been required to wear a hijab (head covering) in public ~

For any woman to remove her hijab in the public square is a crime and puts her at risk of incarceration in some of Iran’s most notorious prisons […]
 
Amnesty International reports that dozens of Iranian women are currently at risk of long jail terms for protesting compulsory hijabs. At least 35 have been arrested in Tehran alone, with several reportedly subjected to torture while in prison.
 
In an official statement, the Iranian police warned women that if they continue removing their hijabs in protest, they would be charged with inciting corruption and prostitution—a crime that carries a hefty jail sentence.

Source: Daily Signal

 
 
Aynaz “Anni” Cyrus is a frequent contributor to the Glazov Gang, and a tireless advocate for women’s rights in her native Iran. She recently spoke with Jamie Glazov about the Freedom-From-Hijab Movement ~
 

 
 
 
 
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The Iranian regime is in clear and flagrant violation of human rights. Earlier this year there was some tough talk from Nikki Haley at the U.N.. And President Trump condemned the arrest of protesters via Twitter ~

“Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching!”

 
Yet further action can and should be taken. As Ivan Sascha Sheehan wrote (Fox News) in late December, we can certainly apply economic sanctions ~

The United States should next impose crippling economic sanctions targeting key institutions that act as a lifeline for the Iranian regime, in particular the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. The U.S. should also make it clear that Iran will face serious consequences if protesters are suppressed violently.

Further,

As a political gesture, the Trump administration should also formally recognize the Iranian people’s right to regime change and the legitimacy of the organized resistance that is pursuing this goal.

[I would guess this means some type of official declaration (not just Twitter 🙂 ).]
 
Sheehan continued ~

The demonstrations have proven beyond doubt that the welfare of Iranians was never going to improve after the 2015 agreement that lifted worldwide economic sanctions against Iran in return for actions designed to halt the nation’s development of nuclear weapons.
 
Thanks to the lifting of those sanctions, Iranian companies linked to the government and the Revolutionary Guards are reaping the rewards of reopened international trade. But the Iranian people face increasingly dire economic circumstances, prompting the demonstrations and sharp criticism of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Through their ongoing protests the people of Iran are telling the world that they see regime change as the only way forward. The United States needs to support their efforts it every way we can short of military intervention.

 
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Related:
Iranian “Justice”
Women in Iran Are Standing Up to Oppressive Policies
Iranian Women To U.S.: Our Protest Isn’t About The Hijab. It Is About Freedom ~

“We are fighting for freedom to choose to wear or not wear hijab. Our fight is against compulsion. Our fight is for freedom of choice.”

Security Forces Brutally Raid Women’s IWD Gathering in Tehran ~ How Iran celebrates International Women’s Day

Iranians aren’t just protesting… many are converting to Christianity

Iran’s Martyrs and the Left’s Malicious Silence ~ Another enlightening video from the Glazov Gang

Iranian Regime’s Abuse of Human Rights Must Be Addressed
More evidence of Obama’s Iranian treachery ~ Even before Obama gave them millions, the Iranian regime was illicitly ferrying militants into Syria on commercial aircraft – and Obama and his henchmen knew it!

First Liberty (the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to protecting religious liberty for all Americans) is representing the American Legion against the American Humanist Association who are somehow offended by a 93 year-old cross in Bladensburg, Maryland. The memorial was erected in 1925 to honor 49 Bladensburg-area men who gave their lives while serving in WWI.

 
Unfortunately, last Thursday the Federal Court of Appeals ordered the removal of the cross ~

RICHMOND, Va.—The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit today denied an en banc rehearing in the Bladensburg World War I Veterans Memorial case. First Liberty Institute and Jones Day filed a petition for an en banc rehearing November 1, 2017 asking that all active Fourth Circuit judges hear and issue a decision in the case. Today’s announcement comes after an October decision by a three-judge Fourth Circuit panel declaring the historic cross-shaped memorial unconstitutional.
 
“The decision of the three-judge panel sets a dangerous precedent for veterans memorials and cemeteries across America, and we cannot allow it to be the final word,” said Hiram Sasser, Deputy Chief Counsel for First Liberty. “If this decision stands, other memorials—including those in nearby Arlington Cemetery—will be targeted for destruction as well. The American Legion will appeal this case to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

 
How was this a perfectly acceptable memorial one hundred years ago? No atheist – and there must have been a few – had a problem with it when it was erected in 1925. Why didn’t it violate the “separation of church and state” then?
 
Answer: that was before liberal judges had decided to arbitrarily re-write the Constitution.
 
In his book “When All the Crosses are Gone,” Michael Youssef explained that progressives have deliberately misinterpreted Thomas Jefferson’s famous “wall of separation” for decades now ~

The “wall of separation” Jefferson describes was designed to protect religion from government interference. Jefferson would be shocked and offended to know that the First Amendment is now being used by the ACLU and other secularists to suppress the free exercise of religion and muzzle churches. When Jefferson wrote about a “wall of separation between Church & State,” he never envisioned that his words would be twisted into a rationale for removing the cross from a schoolgirl’s neck or from a war memorial or from a county seal […]

 
The clear language of the First Amendment guarantees us the liberty to memorialize our war dead, to acknowledge the Christian history of our land, to recognize the Judeo-Christian influence on our founding documents, and to proclaim our national motto, “In God We Trust.”

 
The Left’s attack on our Christian heritage – in particular their war on crosses – has serious implications for our society and our country ~

When the crosses are gone, we will have lost everything: The protection of the Constitution. Our history. Our American heritage. Our liberty. And I think there is something else that is lost when the crosses are gone. We lose our ability to think clearly, to reason with one another, and to live together in an orderly, rational society.

 
Youssef wrote those words in 2011. They were prophetic. By permitting progressives to dismantle America’s Judeo-Christian foundation, we’re actually helping them dismantle America itself.

 
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Related:

Let’s try separation-of-historical-fact-from-fiction for a change
America’s Future – When the Crosses Are Gone Video from Michael Youssef
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Updated: 3-9-18
Added: Was America Founded to Be Secular? ~ Another excellent video from PragerU explains how Judeo-Christian values are foundational to our society, our Constitution, to America itself ~

“For the founders, a free society, divorced from religion, simply could not work and would not survive.”

This story from Far Left Watch – via Terresa Monroe-Hamilton at Trevor Loudon’s New Zeal – is awfully alarming – especially since it’s occurring in an otherwise sane, conservative state. It seems a growing number of college kids in Austin are newly-enamored with an ideology that was responsible for the death of 100 million people in the 20th century alone.

Home of the University of Texas, it appears that Austin is becoming a communist hotbed of radicals and revolutionaries ~

There are many communist groups there now. One of the most active according to Far Left Watch is the communist militia group, Red Guards Austin. Evidently, this is a Maoist “anti-fascist” group. They are big into armed demonstrations and they routinely call for violent armed revolution. They are itching to kill capitalists. They also have a track record of attacking pro-lifers and Trump supporters […]
 
 
(The Red Guards) are joined by and are affiliated with other radical groups such as Serve The People – Austin, Defend Our Hoods – Austin and the ever popular Revolutionary Student Front – Austin.

No doubt heavily steeped in Howard Zinn’s anti-American mythology, these malcontents may self-identify as communists, but their propaganda sounds like pure anarchy. For example ~

The Revolutionary Student Front – Austin is a self-described “revolutionary anti-capitalist student movement” that organizes at the University of Texas – Austin. They are militant in nature and were just recently in the news for holding self-defense training on campus and tweeting about killing police officers.

 
 
Here’s an incoherent mission statement of sorts from a document the Revolutionary Student Front (RSF) published last month ~

“Because our forces can only be built through the militant, violent struggle against the enemies of our class, we know that these fretful cowards will never reach that point. Making war will prepare us for the war to come, rally around us and bring into our ranks those who realize the necessity of violence to achieve a classless society free from exploitation, and unmask the real enemies of the people. We reaffirm our commitment to the principle of revolutionary violence that is necessary to confront the enemies of the people.”

And yet, who are the real, masked cowards?
 
 
In desperate need of the comparative ideologies instruction they never received, these mis-educated millennials need to spent a semester or two in Venezuela.

 
Monroe-Hamilton concludes with this ~

This group hearts a communist dictator that killed millions of people. They advocate targeted political violence against “capitalists.” They openly encourage armed insurrection against the US government and they openly recruit at the University of Texas at Austin. They are seeking out the mentally ill to recruit as resistance fighters. They openly admit some of their own organizers have mental issues. Why is this security threat not addressed? Oh, that’s right… we’re talking about the FBI. Perhaps someone should address this before people are killed. Just a thought.

King Cove is an isolated Aleutian fishing village located 600 miles away from the nearest medical facility. The town’s remote location has prevented many ill or injured villagers from reaching a hospital in time. At least 19 have died in the last three decades; a significant number in a population less than 1,000. But the extreme environmentalists don’t particularly care ~ Green’s try to block road serving native Alaskans by suing administration ~

At an emotional January 22 ceremony in Washington, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, on behalf of the Trump Administration, signed an agreement for a land exchange between the federal government and the state of Alaska that will allow construction of a 11-mile-long, single lane gravel road between isolated King Cove and Cold Bay, site of the all-weather airport. The road will go through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

 
Oh no. Not a wildlife refuge ~

Within two weeks of Zinke’s announcement, a coalition of green groups filed a suit in the U.S. District Court in Alaska, arguing that the proposed land swap would violate the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

 
First of all, we’re not talking about a major 4-lane freeway here. The proposed road is a little more than 11 miles of single-lane gravel ~

A 400-acre corridor through the Izembek refuge would be needed to construct the road. That corridor would impose on only about 0.06 percent of the Izembek refuge.

Second, to put this in perspective, the federal government owns more than 64% of the land in Alaska. The state owns another 24%. That leaves just 12% in private hands. Essentially, the entire state of Alaska is a wildlife preserve. Further, the state’s 373 million acres are roughly 1/5 the size of rest of the U.S.. Ginormous.
 
Yet somehow, 11 miles of road will have a devastating impact on migratory birds? Um, no. As Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) explains ~

Claims by environmentalists that the road would do “irreparable harm” to birds using the Pacific Flyway are belied by the well-documented experience of migratory birds along far more challenging flyways. According to the Audubon Society, more than 325 bird species make the round-trip each year along the Mississippi Flyway, from their breeding grounds in Canada and the northern United States to their wintering grounds along the Gulf of Mexico and in Central and South America. Whooping Cranes, Least Terns, Prothonotary Warblers, and many other species fly over the 130 bridges that cross the river, seven of which are part of the heavily traveled Interstate Highway System, and past such major metropolitan areas as New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Furthermore, as CFACT continues ~

In addition to the local tribes, the U.S. Coast Guard also welcomes the road. Over the years, Coast Guard crews have had to step in and evacuate King Cove residents in emergencies.
 
“This road will provide residents of King Cove safe and reliable access to an airstrip and to commercial medivac services,” Admiral Paul F. Zukunft, U.S. Coast Guard commandant, said in a statement. “It will significantly reduce the risk to our U.S. Coast Guard aircrews are exposed to while operating in one of the U.S. Coast Guard’s most unforgiving environments – Alaska.”

This new road project is a practical solution to King Cove’s isolation. It will significantly improve the lives of the residents – mainly native Aleuts – while having minimal impact on the environment. If the radical greens actually cared about the welfare of their fellow human beings they would approve as well.

 
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Related:
Ryan Zinke revives Alaska’s King Cove road project killed under Obama
New interior secretary brings renewed hope for a road out of King Cove