Iran may be on the precipice of a human rights revolution, and President Biden made a huge step in the right direction for criminal justice reform. 

Thursday, October 6, 2022
BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- Conservative social media influencer Christian Walker ([link removed]) sending a very subtle message to his father, Georgia GOP Senate nominee and father of many children (secret and public!) Herschel Walker

Demonstrations in Iran continue this week, along with state violence against the protesters, and the nation’s unrest is about much more than just hair.

* The protests do stem from the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Masha Amini, at the hands of Iran’s morality police, and they represent the largest demonstrations the country has seen in years. The state’s official story is that Amini had a heart attack after being arrested for an alleged violation of Iran’s strict dress code for women, but the footage they released was edited. That was almost three weeks ago, and protesters are still marching through the streets, eliciting brutal clashes with police ([link removed]) .

* How brutal? A 16-year-old girl named Nika Shakarimi who attended the initial protests disappeared on September 20, according to her family, after burning her headscarf in protest and being followed by security forces. The government then refused to disclose her whereabouts, stole her body for burial, and pressured her relatives to make false statements about how she died ([link removed]) . Her aunt and uncle were detained by Iranian authorities after they posted what they believed to be the truth about Nika’s death and spoke to the media. Her story very closely mirrors Amini’s.

* Tehran judiciary official Mohammad Shahriari was cited by the media saying that a post-mortem suggested her injuries were caused by a fall from a great height. But a death certificate issued by a cemetery in the capital stated that she died after suffering “multiple injuries caused by blows with a hard object.” State television aired footage of her uncle criticizing the protests and confirming the official government narrative, but as he spoke, someone seemed to whisper in Persian, “Say it, you scumbag!” The Iranian government has long made use of forced confessions according to human rights groups. Nika’s social-media accounts were deleted after she went missing, according to her family.

Iran’s authoritarian regime led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has ruled so barbarously that protests like these in the face of state violence would have been unthinkable until recently.

* The uprising represents a true challenge to the Iranian clerical leadership, and reflects decades of pent-up anger from a populace suppressed by poverty, gender segregation, and human rights violations. In a video that has gone viral on social media, one woman stood on the sidewalk while holding a portrait of her son in the capital of Tehran saying ([link removed]) , “I am not scared of anyone. They told me to be silent. I will not be. I will carry my son’s picture everywhere. They killed him.” Videos of schoolgirls waving their headscarves in the air and singing protest songs have spread like wildfire across the internet, as have images of protesters fighting against Basij, a brutalizing paramilitary group. For the better part of a month, chants of “Death to the dictator,” have echoed throughout the streets of Tehran from protesters hellbent on exposing the corruption and hypocrisy of the clerical establishment.

* A new report from Amnesty International details the horrifying events of what has become known as “bloody Friday.” On September 30, Iranian security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people, including children ([link removed]) , and injured hundreds more during a violent crackdown after Friday prayers in Zahedan. Since then, another 16 people have been killed in separate incidents in the same area amid an ongoing clampdown on protests. The extreme state violence underscores the Iranian government’s commitment to suppressing the protests at all costs. Today, the United States imposed more sanctions on Iranian government officials in response to Masha Amini’s death, and the resulting state violence against protesters
([link removed]) . The Foreign Assets Control office of the Treasury Department designated seven high-ranking leaders for financial penalties for shutting down Iran’s internet access, repressing speech, and inflicting violence on civilians.

What we’re witnessing is the most widespread challenge to Iran’s leadership in years, a nation possibly on the precipice of a human-rights revolution. Now is not the time to look away.

We have the comics and progressive crossover you didn’t know you needed. Lovett or Leave It ([link removed]) has a new shirt available in the crooked merch store and its inspired by Lovett and (believe it or not) conservative pundits. Fox News pundits might think the libs have gone so far that they want to defund Batman and they’re not wrong. A rich guy using his wealth to fund vigilante justice? It doesn’t scream progressive values.

Head to Crooked.com/store ([link removed]) to get your Defund Bruce Wayne shirt today
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President Biden has pardoned all people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law today ([link removed]) . He also said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be considered a Class 1 drug, in the same group as narcotics like heroin and LSD. The pardons will clear the names of about 6,500 people who were convicted on federal charges of simple marijuana possession from 1992-2021, and thousands more who were convicted in Washington, DC. The Biden administration will also urge state governors to follow his lead if they have not already implemented similar measures, as state convictions for such offenses far outnumber federal. Biden stopped short of calling for the complete decriminalization of marijuana, which only Congress can do. Criminal justice-reform advocates have been urging the president to take action for some time now in order to demonstrate his commitment to chipping away at the structural
inequalities built into the criminal-justice system, some of which he had a hand in creating with the 1994 Crime Bill.

Former Oath Keepers member John Zimmerman testified in the seditious conspiracy trial of the group’s founder Stewart Rhodes that Rhodes had a contact at the Secret Service with whom he was in correspondence over three months before the January 6 insurrection ([link removed]) .


A former Texas Department of Public Safety trooper is under investigation after footage revealed that she arrived within two minutes of the gunman entering Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, but did not act to subdue him ([link removed]) , and he was not stopped for 77 minutes. She’s now working for the same school system ([link removed]) of the same children who survived the shooting.


A former police officer opened fire in a Thailand daycare center today, killing at least 36 people—at least 24 of whom were children as young as three—in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting ([link removed]) . The man had been fired from the school earlier this year for drug possession, and killed himself, along with his wife and child, at home after the massacre.


A right-wing federal judge halted key provisions of New York state’s latest gun-control law, saying multiple parts of the law passed this year are unconstitutional ([link removed]) , including restrictions on concealed carry in places like trains and airplanes. Yay, freedom.


A new Washington Post analysis shows that the majority of Republican nominees on the ballot this November for House, Senate, and statewide races (299 candidates!) either deny or question the outcome of the 2020 presidential election ([link removed]) . We could have told you that.


Congress is now pressing the FBI after a whistleblower alleged that an internal review found that a staggering 665 FBI personnel resigned or retired to avoid accountability ([link removed]) in misconduct probes over the past 20 years.


Two men who fled Russia to avoid conscription ended up on a remote island off the coast of Alaska ([link removed]) . No word from Sarah Palin as to whether or not she saw them coming from her house.


Continuing his tour of denial, Georgia GOP senate candidate Herschel Walker said he had “no idea” who the woman claiming he urged her to have an abortion could be ([link removed]) . Turns out, it’s the mother of another one of his children. Don’t you just hate when that happens?


Mark your calendars: the next January 6 Committee hearing will be held on Thursday, October 13 ([link removed]) , at 1 p.m. EST. This could be the series finale!


The city of Rochester, NY, agreed to pay the family of Daniel Prude $12 million after he was killed by Rochester police officers ([link removed]) in March 2020.


The managing director of the International Monetary Fund announced that the IMF is once again lowering its projections for global economic growth in 2023 ([link removed]) and said things are “likely to get worse before they get better.” Oh good!
Unthinkable conditions in Alabama’s prison system have sparked a widespread strike among prisoners incarcerated in all 13 state prisons ([link removed]) . Beginning on September 26, demanding improvement to their conditions, the incarcerated population in these prisons started striking from their prison-service jobs, for which they receive no pay. They’re also demanding reforms to harsh sentencing laws and surging parole denials, both of which have long plagued the Alabama carceral system. The strike has continued even as the Alabama Department of Corrections canceled weekend visits for prisoners, and reduced the number of daily meals provided to inmates from three to two. Not helping your p.r. there, ADOC! Inmates have leaked photos of the cold, paltry meals they are regularly provided and many claim they are denied access to basic healthcare and livable conditions. One prisoner has publicly claimed to have been
transported from a work-release center to a higher-security prison and forced to work against the strike. There is allegedly a coordinated effort to keep inmates incarcerated “in order to generate more for the state of Alabama.” As of July 2022, the ADOC holds more than 20,000 prisoners ([link removed]) in facilities designed to hold a maximum of 12,115. More than one in four inmates are serving life sentences, or sentences exceeding fifty years.
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A new technique involving a skin swab could be the key to detecting Parkinson’s disease ([link removed]) , which is historically difficult to diagnose.

A new poll shows that the majority of voters in nine key battleground states are more likely to back senators who support the Respect for Marriage Act ([link removed]) . Support for marriage equality remains at an all-time high.
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