Ep. 68: A New Path?
Hey FRs,
If you haven't had a chance to listen to our most recent episode, please do. We had a great conversation with Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker, Hamoun Dolatshahi about the Kurdish perspective on the recently squashed uprising in Iran. It's a perspective we don't hear enough and one that left me a little shaken and inspired. A weird combo, for sure, but I'm grateful for it.
We also covered Trump's "Board of Peace," which is simultaneously trying to supplant the UN and line Trump's pockets. Another weird combo but not that surprising considering the source.
We covered Trump's hilarious(?) texts to Norway's PM– thank goodness that man has been freed from obsessing over thoughts of peace 😑, and laughed at the aftermath of what happens to people trying to negotiate with JD Vance. Based on how quickly they ran to their smokes, I'm guessing their insides felt something like this...
If you haven't seen the video, stick around for JD Vance corner on this week's ep:
The wry smile on the woman's face is pretty great. She knows.
Seena's Corner
I’m back with an update on something that is Iran-adjacent. By now I’m sure you've seen that the death toll keeps rising as the Internet blackout continues. However, some have been able to get images and videos public via VPNs and Starlink. Remember though, the regime there is allowing some videos of extreme violence and dead bodies to get out (in some cases doing it themselves), as a way of quelling future uprisings. That being said, there is a sliver of hope that I’m seeing from this: BitChat.
BitChat is an offline messaging platform launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey that he made after a week of coding, and it’s jumped from obscurity to the top of app stores across Iran. It’s also popped off in Uganda ahead of an election that could cement Yoweri Museveni's four-decade grip on power; they killed the web there too.
Today’s activists have managed to stay a step ahead by using BitChat. The app doesn't need your internet. It uses your phone's Bluetooth to turn every device into a relay point, passing messages person to person until they reach their destination. It's the technological equivalent of a bucket brigade, except the buckets are filled with information governments desperately want to contain.
In Iran, where the clerical regime has been shutting down the internet to quell nationwide protests, usage jumped three times over. Iranians have been using VPNs and satellites to evade the firewall of the regime for years now, but this technology is one that can evade even the most stringent of security measures.
So what’s a fascist regime to do? Full on police state; an Arab militia on every corner? Confiscate phones? The brutality has worked. I’ve always been against interventionism, but forget the US, where is the rest of the world? Where is Europe? We’re all watching the same massacre and still people are putting their faith in a guy that doesn’t know the difference between Greenland and Iceland.
Thanks to Jack for this app, and as always: Death to the Dictator. Death to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Free the Iranian people!
Meanwhile in Ohio: What Travis is Reading ––
As more immigrant communities across the U.S. get targeted by The Trump Administration, ICE and right-wing media, it's important to realize how these policies and tactics impact the cities left in their wake –– remember the Haitian immigrants demonized during the 2024 election in Springfield, Ohio? While they first faced ridicule due to baseless rhetoric about "eating pets" that year, those verbal attacks turned into right-wing protests in the city and since then, The Trump Administration has ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants in the country, meaning many of them have started to self-deport –– so what happens when children are left behind by their immigrant parents in those situations? One Catholic Grandma in Springfield is trying to fill the void, while also sounding the alarm.
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And stay warm this weekend, folks!
