I've seen a lot of videos today...Some things I noticed:
- Nearly all the protests happen after it's dark. It allows people to not be so visible for identification, and it's also when police aren't at their sharpest.
- Contrary 2009, there is no chants for reforms. In fact, one of the central chants is: "Principalist or Reformer it doesn't matter, your time is up"
- Unprecedented before, a lot of posters and imagery of both Khomeini and Khamenei is being ripped and set on fire.
- So far, the only major region where there's been very little activity is North West near Azerbaijan. One of the reasons is that the regime knows about their separatist tendencies, so they actually serve them, so standards of living and quality of life is greater than most other places, Tehran aside. Be interesting to see if they join the protests this week.
- Today, a great number of actors and actresses for the first time commented on the protests, almost all supporting the people and condemning IRGC violence. This may be a start to get the higher-class elite to join too. Reminder that average monthly in Tehran is over twice as much as average in other cities.
- I think this week the regime actually went quite easy on protestors (by their standards) hoping the protests would naturally die down. But IRGC is now set to take over control of the situation starting tomorrow and iron fist will be out.
- Saudi Arabia, as predicted, is trying to sponsor terror groups in Khuzestan. A propaganda video came out today with 5 arab men with Saudi accent, asking people of Ahwaz (capital of Khuzestan) to end "Persian occupation". I saw the clip, they looked like virgin teenagers. Just Saudis trying to stir the pot. But I saw many clips of Ahwaz protests, no mention of race/tribes in the chants.
- Son of Shah is being a lot more vocal and active on Twitter...and now there is a vacuum and void for leadership for opposition. If he has any serious intents of leading (He said he wants a secular parliamentary democracy and not a monarchy), this is his chance to make a stand.
- One of the biggest chants is: "Police forces, please join your people". In Iran, there are 4 level of parallel forces. The Army (mostly neutral and the ones most likely to support people), the IRGC (very much regime loyalists), the Basij (basically IRGC-lite), and day to day police officers. In a few cities, protests have been near the IRGC and Basij buildings, with people throwing rocks at the building and ripping apart their posters. IRGC and Basij are hated by most ordinary people, whereas the day-to-day cops and the army people are seen in a much better light.
- I've seen posters and posts online calling for a nation-wide strike at 12 noon tomorrow. I don't think there is much into it, but something to keep an eye out for. I am very interested to see how ruthless and brutal IRGC forces will be tomorrow.
- Just saw the detailed list of the budget. 18% INCREASE in budget for religious seminary of the most regressive and crazy cleric in the country. From a so called reformer president as well.
**Also one thing for Saudi Arabia.....a post-islamic united Iran is almost guaranteed to be extremely nationalist, vehemently anti-arab, and xenophobic. That's why Saudi is trying to push the separatist message through their proxies and social media. They are my biggest concern. I would hope that the people are smarter than to fall for Saudi's message. Luckily, one difference of Iran and Syria, is Iran has seen about 40 years of islamism and theocracy. No body will be fooled by the false songs of the ideas Saudi would like to promote.
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Just saw an interview with the one of regime's top 10 powerful guys, ex-head of parliament....when asked about the protests, he went out to say how shocked and surprised he was at pro-Reza Shah chants,..you could tell he was extremely triggered.
This is also a good thread discussing the depth and background story behind the protests. Funnily, the very first one was prompted up by principals Hardliners to be focused just on Rouhani (and not the regime), but then it got out of their control and has caught them by surprise.
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