<![CDATA[Ayatollah Ali Khamenei]]><![CDATA[Gaza]]><![CDATA[Hamas]]><![CDATA[Iran]]><![CDATA[Pro-Palestinian]]>Featured

Saturday’s Final Word – HotAir

Tabs, don’t go away mad, tabs, just go away





Ed: The Iranian people are brave and determined. May their freedom be at hand.

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Simon Sebag Montefiore at the Free Press: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran who occupies a role akin to a sacred monarch, issued a grave warning to the public on Friday. “Everyone knows the Islamic Republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honorable people,” he said. “It will not back down in the face of saboteurs.”

Khamenei defied Donald Trump, comparing him to the “tyrants & arrogant rulers of the world, such as Pharaoh, Nimrod, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi [the last shah] & other such rulers [who] saw their downfall when they were at the peak of their hubris. He too will fall.” His absence of self-awareness speaks of the regime’s isolation, delusion, and brutality. Khamenei has been a dictator since 1989, during which time he has brutally repressed multiple waves of protest with indiscriminate slaughter, rape, and public hangings, not to mention his role in wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

We are at a historic moment, a tilt in the world game and a rare spark of hope and excitement. The bravery of these Iranian protestors is awe-inspiring—particularly the women and girls, who have played a special courageous role. This time, among the greatest heroes are the heroines, personified in part by the dashing young woman who filmed herself lighting a cigarette with a burning photograph of the supreme leader. That is the spirit that is setting Iran aflame.

Ed: Bookmark this lengthy essay and read it carefully. It’s a great history lesson, as well as a cautionary tale as well as reason to hope that this tyranny has just about breathed its last. The best part of this essay is an analysis of what a collapse of an Islamist regime might mean for the region – not a so-called Arab Spring that enables more radical Islamists, but the dismantling of a geopolitical order oriented to the Moscow-Beijing axis. 





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Ed: Call it the Silence of the Shams.

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Telegraph (UK): A protester climbed onto the balcony of the Iranian embassy in London and tore down the regime’s flag.

Images shared on social media showed the protester scaling the front of the building opposite Hyde Park before climbing onto a balcony and raising the “Lion and Sun” flag of Imperial Iran, which has long been banned by the regime. …

The man was cheered by hundreds of opposition activists and their supporters who had gathered in front of the embassy, site of the famous siege of 1980 when an SAS unit stormed the building to liberate hostages taken by an armed group.

Ed: The historic resonance here is notable. Also, if a protester can manage to do this at the Iranian embassy, their security must be very concerned with other tasks. I wonder how much smoke is pouring out the chimney there as the IRGC intelligence officials destroy records and codes. 

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Ed: This may be an iconic moment and image. Let’s hope.  

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WSJ: Israel and Hamas are preparing for renewed fighting as the Palestinian militant group is refusing to disarm, a requirement that is holding up progress on President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza. 





Israel’s military has drawn up plans for a new ground operation inside Hamas-controlled territory in Gaza, according to people briefed on the plans. Hamas is focusing on rebuilding military capabilities lost during the war, including parts of its damaged tunnel infrastructure, Arab and Israeli officials said. The U.S.-designated terrorist group also has received a new influx of cash that has helped it regularly pay salaries to its fighters again, the officials said.

Ed: As everyone here knows, I’ve predicted this all along. I include it here because (a) it looks like the Israelis are about to finally act on Hamas’ refusal to comply, and (b) the collapse of the regime in Tehran will come at the worst time possible for Hamas. 

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Ed: Say, remember when M-SNOW insisted that the car never hit the ICE agent, too? They are making it up as they go along. 

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Scott Johnson at WashEx: Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) abandoned his ludicrous quest for a third term on Jan. 5. He has angrily refused to resign from office. Whenever he departs, whether upon his resignation some time this year or the expiration of his term early next year, we can say this much with certainty: Like former President Joe Biden, he has become a dispensable inconvenience to Democrats, in this case, Minnesota Democrats facing the 2026 elections at all levels of state government, and, like Biden, he will leave office in disgrace.





To say that Walz is the worst governor in Minnesota history does not come close to doing justice to his case. Like the children of Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon, our governors have mostly been above average, with a dip here and there. Walz has plumbed the depths of political turpitude while refusing to take responsibility for the catastrophe over which he at least bears supervisory responsibility. He is at best guilty of an old-fashioned kind of political corruption that has been magnified to the nth degree by an absurdly creative welfare state. We have never seen anything like it.

Ed: If Walz ever faces accountability for the massive fraud enabled by his administration, Scott will be one of the people who deserves the most credit for it. He has written about it for years. The media has finally begun to cover these stories, only because Scott and others forced the story into the national consciousness. For that, we may also have to thank Kamala Harris, ironically. 

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Ed: It’s also very cold in Minnesota in January. At noon today, it was 21 degrees outside with the wind chill taking it down to 7 degrees. However, I’d also guess that the release of the agent’s cellphone video yesterday made this protest a lot harder to sustain. Plus, the usual suspects may be worried about Trump invoking the Insurrection Act.





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Hollywood in Toto: Kimmel didn’t correct the record or otherwise indicate she was wrong. He’s not a journalist, per se, but by regularly wading into political matters he’s become part of the punditry class. He should know better, and he’s doing a disservice to his audience by not separating fact from fiction when possible.

And who knows what other misinformation he’ll peddle next, all with a corrupt Legacy Media unwilling to call him out.

Is Disney, Inc. proud of these broadcasts? Are they worried some will open them up to sizable lawsuits sooner or later?

More importantly, is anyone at Team Disney upset that their signature shows misinform at a delicate time in our Republic?

If silence is any indication, we have our answer.

Ed: My theory is that Kimmel took the proper message from his oddly short contract extension and knows Disney will dump him in the off-year when it expires. He wants Disney to fire him early so he can pose as a free-speech martyr. Maybe Disney’s being smart by ignoring Kimmel while cutting his budget. 

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… as well as population counts done for the census.

This is about DEMOCRATS WANTING TO REGAIN AND HOLD POLITICAL POWER.

They really don’t care about Ms. Good dying as a result of their hyperbolic exhortations.  

All in service of the cause — which is power.





Ed: This is exactly what’s happening. Democrats have opposed immigration enforcement for decades, and then threw open the border to make it even more difficult if and when Republicans took control of the White House. They didn’t count on Trump’s return, nor on his determination to reverse what Democrats did in the previous four years. 

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Legal Insurrection:  With protests surging across cities and towns across Iran, the regime has reportedly unleashed foreign fighters to crack down on protesters. The U.S. State Department raised the alarm about Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi terror militia set loose on Iranians.

“The United States is concerned by reports that the Islamic Republic has employed Hezbollah terrorists and Iraqi militias to crack down on peaceful protests,” State Department’s Persian-language account on X said on Saturday.

Ed: There had been reports of the regime’s proxies heading quickly to the home office, as it were. They may be surprised by what they find there. 

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Ed: It was just a hip check!





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Ed: Follow the thread. This could be decisive, or it could be that the security forces are organizing for a large-scale assault. 


Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you’re digging these Final Word posts and want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!





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