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PBD Podcast Episode 192. In this episode, Patrick Bet-David is joined by Nazanin Nour, Morteza Alborzi, Polet Sabatimani, & Vincent Oshana.
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Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller Your Next Five Moves (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
With all the tragic events taking place in Iran and the courageous protests are going on around the world, specifically in Iran, women leading the way with the youth, we decided to do a special podcast to just discuss the topic of Iran.
And we got four special guests here with us.
One of them, this is our Assyrian Adam.
We call him Vinny O'Shana.
Shalom.
Who's here with us?
Second, we have Nazanin Noor, who made some strong comments about New York Times.
I want to say last week that went viral.
Everybody was talking about it.
Everybody was sending it to us.
If you don't know who she is, her background, she's appeared on Prime TV U.S., shows like Madam Secretary, Criminal Minds, Political Minds.
She's also the creative mind behind Persian Mom and many other things.
On top of that, she graduated from George Mason University with a degree in government and international politics.
Her double major is in communication, but I love her minor.
Yeah.
Her minor is in media criticism.
How awesome is that minor, right?
Which is appropriate for New York Times.
I like it.
We criticize a lot of things.
That's good.
We're going to do a lot more of it today, hopefully.
And then we have Morteza Alborzi, okay, former world champion, 12 consecutive Iran national champion, head coach for Iran and U.S. national karate team, and over 17,000 students, of which over 1,200 black belts.
He was a former political prisoner and activist 24-7 the last 43 years.
And his obsession is to make sure he brings freedom back to Iran so we can go back to Iran one day and celebrate the rich history that Iran has.
And you see him right there on the cover of the master's magazine martial arts.
I think you're a ninth degree black belt, if I'm not mistaken.
So Morteza Al-Borzi, thank you.
He shook my hand in the green room and almost my knuckles broke.
I told you, don't do it.
I don't know why you did it.
We give you the same thing.
It hurts so bad.
Well, the whole thing is we're safe.
That's the most important thing.
He's on our side.
And then last but not least, there's only one way to introduce the last person that we have here.
And it's a picture.
Can we just show one picture?
So this will explain who the last person is.
So the guy to the right is a guy named Patrick Bed David.
And the guy to the left is my sister, Paulette Bedavid Sabatimani, who's also here with us.
And the reason why I wanted to also bring my sister Paulette is because she's got not only strong opinions, but she's got a different perspective because she lived in Iran up until 16 years old.
And she was probably old enough to remember the revolution taking place.
So you probably have some history there, memories there, Paulette, to share with everybody else.
And that picture does it, I mean, that picture should pretty much tell you how this whole thing got started with that hijab.
Look at how she's wearing that hijab because not because of choice, but because of force, because it's what's normal in the country that we were born and raised in.
So having said that, we want to welcome everybody here on the podcast.
It's good to have you guys on.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you for having us.
Thanks for having us.
And as usual, we have Tyler here as well.
Tyler is not Iranian, but he's got the beard of an Iranian, so we're going to make it work.
Okay.
All right, so let's get right into it.
So Nazanin, Morteza, Paulette, we'll start with you guys first.
When you first heard the news of what's going on with this, you got really passionate.
You've been passionate about this for a minute here.
Obviously, your degree and says what your passion's been around this for a while.
What happened with this one where you suddenly went out there, you gave your rant with New York Times, and now everybody is curious to know where they're saying, well, this doesn't make any sense.
They're saying it's economical.
They're not saying it's because of women.
They're not saying because of that.
Give us your thoughts on what's going on with Iran and how you all of a sudden wanted to voice your opinion about this.
Well, I think I've voiced my opinion on Iran for many years, but I feel like I've held back.
Like many people in the diaspora do for many different reasons.
For those that don't know, some people fear persecution, even.
That's how far the Islamic Republic has its reach because it instills fear even in people that don't live there.
And especially if you have family and friends there.
And then this specific case, I feel like for Masajina Amini, it was the same thing that got Iranians out in the streets.
It was like the straw that broke the camel's back.
It was like, really?
Again, and this violently.
And then the New York Times thing was, I read the article.
First of all, the headline was very misleading.
And what was the body of the article?
Of course, there's things in there that are factual.
It's correct.
The economy is bad.
But the economy isn't bad just because of what's going on right now.
It's been in a steep decline for like a couple decades.
So there's a lot of things at play.
And again, I'm not an economic expert, so I can't really speak to that.
But that's not the whole story.
So many journalist friends of mine reached out to me privately, and then some of them went public too, which to me I thought was interesting.
I was like, okay, so it's not just me that is getting really upset about this.
People are looking at this that are in that profession and saying, well, the headline was misleading.
If you read parts of the article, it makes it seem like Iran has some sort of functioning democracy and that there's these legitimate elections, which there is not.
And I couldn't fathom how you could see all of the footage coming out of Iran and then go write an entire piece that it's in a well-respected, in many circles, publication that's supposed to inform the masses.
And so a lot of people are getting their information and knowledge from this.
And if they read this, they will walk away thinking, oh, yeah, it's the economy.
Not that people don't want to live under a theocracy.
Not that people are screaming Zanzen Degiazadi, which is woman life freedom, that they want women want bodily autonomy and human rights.
They don't want to live under a theocracy.
They're literally screaming death to the dictator, death to the regime.
And all of those things got the equivalent of one little soundbite.
And I would say 50 to 60% of the article focused on, well, they're out because of the economy.
And let's speak to so-and-so who owns this bazaar here, which again, very valid, but that's not what pushed people out into the streets.
I want to read this.
So for some of you that maybe haven't read this article, what page is it on, Tyler?
If you can tell me what page it is so I can go right to it.
It should be eight, eight or nine.
Okay, so let me read this article.
I'm not going to read you the whole thing, but I think a couple of the snippets out of it so you can kind of follow what story she's talking about.
I got eight here.
I'm on eighth and I don't see it.
Tell me what page is it on.
It's one of the pages that we had earlier.
Just the one you handed.
Oh, no, six.
Page six right at the top.
Out of reach dreams in a sickly economy.
Let me read this to you.
So okay, so this is New York Times, October 2nd.
Out of reach dreams in a sickly economy provoked a rage in Iran, right?
When Nader, a 41-year-old construction company employee in Tehran, shops for groceries, he constantly adjusts his list as he wanders the aisles, double-checking prices and factoring them into his budget.
His basket keeps shrinking as inflation surges.
A year ago, he gave up red meat and chicken.
Now with Nader's savings gone and his rent having doubled, even cheese and eggs are becoming luxuries.
I can't keep up with the rising prices no matter how hard I run.
You know, as a taxi driver to afford clothes, the school books for his son and a telephone interview.
Our demand is for the government to fix the economy to understand that we are breaking under financial pressure.
Nader, like tens of thousands of Iranians taking part in a nationwide protest against the government in the past two weeks, has plenty of grievances to choose from, soaring prices, high unemployment, corruption, political repression, and the law requiring women to dress modestly, modestly, and cover their hair.
That last issue set off unrest when a young woman, Mahsa Amini, died two weeks ago in the custody of the Morality Police.
But the story state of Iran's economy is one of the main forces sparing Iranians into streets to demand change.
So you read something like this, you know, and it's not like it's a small newspaper.
This is New York Times.
Now, a lot of people have lost a lot of trust for New York Times on, you know, opposing sides, you know, whatever the aisle.
Even Bill Maher is not talking highly about New York Times today that he did before.
Morteza, when you read something like this and you see what's going on with America, a lot of people are going to read this saying, oh, all these videos are just videos.
It's not really that bad.
It's just another country in the Middle East that they're protesting.
That goes on all the time.
It's fine.
Let's not pay attention to it.
Let's pay attention to other things.
Why is this so important for people that are not Iranian to pay attention to?
Look, Patrick, John, as I mentioned most of my stories on Instagram, Facebook, this is not happening because of what happened to Massa.
This was a bomb waiting, waiting 43 years for a country that was second in gas, third in oil, fifth in precious metals, fifth in gold, fifth strongest army in the world with a passport that 157 doesn't need a visa to go to 157 countries.
Pre-revolution.
You're talking 77, 76.
Exactly.
And on 77 and 78 was the second, not third, second most visitor tourist that visit our country.
Turning to the point that now people finding food in a trash can.
I get emotional.
I talk about it even.
That country which provided so many geniuses, 5,500 professors in United States universities, Iranian.
Wow.
One-third of NASA are Iranian.
Now the Sharif University is getting surrounded by police.
And we know what's going to happen to those kids.
We know what's going to happen to them.
When you say we know, just assume people don't know what will happen to those kids.
What exactly happened to two events before that?
What happened?
You think right now 185, 87 or 89 people got killed?
No.
You're asking me, 3,000, 4,000 people got killed.
Because all those people that got arrested, there is no sign.
And like last time, they find the body of 2,100 of them.
It's not just the people that got killed in the street.
I got a picture this morning from the doctor.
We have a medical clinic on the ground.
In Tehran?
Yeah, in Tehran.
We're helping them with the money that these doctors are serving people that they got shot and slaughtered.
Because if they step in a hospital, immediately they get arrested.
They're not even letting go in.
The doctor posted picture, said, by the law, you cannot come to hospital and shot at the injured.
And he put a picture on it that they went to the hospital and do it.
Now imagine what they're going to do when they take you to the custody and jail.
May I say something about that?
Because I got messages from inside of Iran about the hospital situation.
Somebody, a couple people told me, oh, my so-and-so is the chief at this hospital and at this hospital.
And they were warning patients not to use their real names because if you come in with any type of wound that shows that you were maybe in a protest or hit at a protest, you could get arrested.
And he's talking about Shadif University.
That just happened a few days ago for your listeners, where they, this is, it's like the Harvard, the MIT in Iran.
You have the best and brightest students there.
And they just surrounded it, the government forces, and chased them out.
They got blocked into the garage.
Some people made it out.
Some people got arrested, beaten.
A lot of students are still in jail, which is why a lot of students are protesting at universities right now, asking for their friends and their classmates to be released.
I mean, it's pretty wild when you say that to a regular person.
They're like, what are you talking about?
That's really the life right now in Iran.
And New York Times is saying, you know, it's a fair election, you know, Raisi that he had last year and lowest amount of turnout in election since 1979.
And, you know, stats come out and hey, this was already predetermined.
So for Iran, let me even take a step back.
You know, why does Iran matter so much to you?
Okay, Paul, for you.
We were born in Iran.
Okay, we lived there for a while.
But we're not, we're Assyrian, we're Armenian.
We've been in America for quite some time.
What's so special about Iran to you?
Memories.
You want to go back?
And there's so much history in Iran.
I remember when the revolution happened, I was actually researching it and I came across an article that back in 1979, women protesting forced hijab.
So there were about 100,000 women that were on the streets fighting that they didn't want to have hijab, right?
This is right after Khomeini and March said that hijab is going to be mandatory.
It says on March 8, 1979, more than 100,000 women gathered on the street to protest hijab.
And I remember mom used to take us to, there was a street called Gandhi.
It's still there.
And they had like the first malls and everything came there and to get us Italian ice cream, right?
And so we're there and all of a sudden back then they would call it sepah.
It was Sarollah.
They used to call the Saro laws, right?
And they were in the cars and they were just chasing to see which who is a police of hijab.
Police of hijab.
What now is the gas air shot?
It's just the same.
It's the same thing.
It's just a different thing.
I just want to make sure the listeners know what we're talking about.
And then we were out and this was, you were three, I was about nine.
And mom, we were walking on the street and then the morality police charged at mom and said, What are you doing?
You're raising a prostitute.
Her hair is causing a mantisin.
And so you remember this.
I remember that.
The way she was and mom was fighting back.
Don't talk to me like, because just like this mask that became mandate all of a sudden.
That's what I had so many flashbacks when the mask came back and I'm like, you got to fight this.
This is all a psychological fight.
So anyways, then after that, mom got me the first Rusari hijab.
How old are you?
I was 10.
10.
I was nine and a half, 10.
And was it like, was it something for you, Paulette, where it was like, I'm a woman now, I'm wearing a hijab, or was it kind of like, I don't want to wear this, or was it like, everybody does it, so I'm doing it as well?
Do you remember like what it was for you?
It wasn't none of those.
It was, we just have to protect ourselves to be safe because kids were missing.
And back then, because in 1967, family protection law was reappealed.
There was a family protection law that protected women.
And they said the age of marriage for women went up to 15.
Then Shah and their cabinet took it up to what does that sound by the way?
Do you guys hear that sound right now?
Yes, I do.
Malik, is that from your side or no?
Because we hear the sound and it's I'm off.
I don't have anything.
I'm on airplane mode.
Okay, can you check to see if your own phone is off or off?
See if yours is a computer.
It's playback.
I can hear it.
It's playback.
If somebody's YouTube is playing back.
Yeah.
But I don't have anything.
Yeah, it's not me here either.
Mine is off.
Okay, keep going.
Keep going.
So you were saying, so you were explaining the story.
The age of marriage went up to 15 and then 18.
And then after the revolution, they dropped it down to nine, and then they took it up to 13.
So for mom, was we just have to do what they say because I don't want them to come and snatch my kid.
That was the only reason why.
That was the only reason why.
Just to make sure, follow the rules, conform so they leave us alone.
Exactly.
Conformity is becoming the norm.
And 15 became 13.
And in some cases today, women in Iran, the whole concept of hijab is that you become a woman at nine years old, and you hear stories about 52-year-old men marrying a nine-year-old, which is some random stories when you hear that.
It's not as prevalent or common in Iran.
It isn't, you know, to keep it factual.
Yes, it happens, but it happens more.
Do you realize what you just said, how weird that is to me to even hear, to even say it's not prevalent, meaning it doesn't happen every day?
I totally understand.
Oh, no, it's terrible.
The fact that it, like I explained to my 10-year-old son, I said, Tico, I want you to think about what is okay in Iran that it happens once in a while.
He said, what's that?
I said, how old's your sister?
Six.
I said, can you imagine your nine-year-old daughter?
Let's just say nine-year-old sister.
Senna becomes nine.
She's okay to marry a 52-year-old.
He's like, what are you talking about that?
10-year-old kid.
The conditions over there are so, but here's a challenge.
Like, you're almost conditioned to think it's normal.
How about to you?
What does Iran mean to you?
Because for you, if I, doing the research with your family, I think your parents came here 75.
I think they went back, they came back, if I'm not mistaken, I'm trying to get some of the stories.
Yeah, they came in 75 to go to university, and it was like a lot of Iranians.
They came to get a degree, and then they were going to go back to Iran.
But while they were in America, the revolution happened.
Again, I think important for your listeners to know that we went from a monarchy to a theocracy as well in 1979.
So they were in university, the revolution happened, and then it was like, okay, well, let's see what's going to happen after.
And then the Iran-Iraq war started.
And then, you know, everybody in Iran, all the family was like, you guys should just stay there, especially because then I was born during the Iran-Iraq war.
And they were like, well, especially with a daughter, you guys should just stay in America.
And that happened to a lot of families that the plan was to go back, but they just, they stayed here.
So.
Aborze, how about yourself?
My best memories out of my life was from that country, all the honors that I brought for the country, brought the flag for the country up.
And then when I'm thinking about jail and Evin, every second of it, I'm thinking about what is happening to these people.
I was seven years for a habitat after I left Evin, although I got 49 times again arrested from one hour to one and a half a year.
I was four times in front of assassination line, which anytime they could make a mistake and like shoot me, right?
But what I came out when I came out, I was like, I have one mission in my life that this fire doesn't gonna go down on me until I see this regime go down.
Because I cannot accept prostitution age in my country comes to the 12.
12 years old, probably 12 years old.
12 years old.
Officially, they're getting paid.
There are videos about it.
In Mashhad, officially, they have office.
They're offering 12 days, 13 years, 14 years.
You want it for an hour, you want it for a week.
We're talking about Sira?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like a temporary marriage.
So it's like legal in the eyes of Islam, in their eyes of Islam.
Legal in the eyes of Islam.
The religious reasons say this is more count of heaven for you ladies.
If you do that with the people that are coming from Iraq and side countries to here, you give them a pleasure, you have more count of heavens.
Because they come from Karbala.
Because like a holy land.
Karbala is in Iran.
And Iran.
And it's a holy site.
Got it.
Okay.
So she said something.
She said, you know, we went from a monarchy to a theocracy.
Okay.
So again, everybody's heard the stories of Mossadegh.
We know the stories about, you know, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi.
Few people know about Reza Khan, his father, how he also was in exile.
And then Khomeini comes in after being in exile twice.
Boom.
The next thing you know, Shah leaves.
And Iran changes.
But there were a lot of people that were for the Shah fallen.
There were a lot of people that said that Shah's a bad person.
You know, you got Sabak, you did this.
We should have had Mossadegh.
We should have had this person.
You know, some say Mossadegh was a CIA plant.
Some say the Shah was the puppet of the West.
You hear all of these things, right?
And even some of the kids, whatever the kids believe in is whatever their parents told them.
For the most part, you know, if you're a Christian, it's probably because your parents are Christians.
If you're Muslim, you're Muslim.
If you're, you know, an LDS, sometimes you're an LDS.
About 80% of the time we follow our parents' religion and beliefs that they have, except if there's a broken family, then typically you don't want to follow one of them because one of them left and you're kind of like, screw it, I don't want to follow you, whatever it may be, right?
There's like an animosity towards a parent.
How much of what we hear on the monarchy side, the criticism it got, how much of that criticism was real?
How much of that criticism, in your opinion?
Obviously, you know, there's only so much context we have on what we're talking about.
What is the difference between a criticism it got under Shah's regime versus a criticism it got under the theocracy we've had the last 43 years?
I'll go to you first.
Well, I wasn't alive then, but from what I know, you know, so I feel like the experiences here are going to be able to speak to it better.
But from, of course, what I've researched and I've been to Iran many times and, you know, family and all that kind of stuff, speaking to my family, the criticism of the Shah was valid, obviously, in the sense that it created enough dissent in his own country that people thought they wanted this revolution.
They didn't want what came.
Some of them did.
But after Khomeini came in, everyone was like, wait, what?
This is not what you promised us.
Because as they can attest to, there was, Khomeini would send in cassette tapes from his exile in France, and it was these sermons.
And he was, he was saying, yeah, he was the original going viral.
He was saying about how he was going to, you know, women were going to be equal and everything was going to be great.
And we're going to go back to this type of a country where it's a little bit more modest.
We're going to get the West out.
And because people were fed up with, a lot of people were fed up with the Shah, not everybody, they were for this.
And then your sister brought up a good point.
It's really interesting that in 1979, when Khomeini came and said, actually, hijab is going to be mandatory.
The women were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not what you promised us.
So the same women that were protesting now, somebody I heard said the scholar Kadim Sajjadpur said, the same women that protested in 1979 against the hijab, their granddaughters now are avenging them, which is really, it's a really interesting parallel because they were literally getting beat up in the streets as well.
And they all said afterward, we didn't get what we thought we were going to get.
There's actually a great documentary that if your listeners want, if they want to get more familiar with Iran, it came out on HBO a few days ago or last week.
It's called Hostages Gero Ganha, four-part mini documentary series.
And it shows you how we got into the hostage crisis with the Shah leaving and Carter and Khomeini and the aftermath.
And it's really, really great for people who don't know that much about Iran's history.
Fantastic.
Yeah.
Murtiza, what would you say?
You know, again, criticism pre-Shah, when Shah was there, you know, the 2,500-year anniversary.
He spent way too much money.
Can you pull up, put the Iran 2,500-year anniversary, put this big celebration.
It was a big deal.
And it created so much criticism amongst people saying, why would you spend this much money?
Go actually to the pictures so people can see what it was like.
Yeah, go to the pictures and show actually what it was like.
Man, if you can show a real good one.
Okay, yeah, right there.
A lot of people participated in that from around the country.
That's right.
It was a big deal for celebrities, political leaders.
You know, so some people saw that and they said, wow, look how strong Iran's becoming.
But some people saw that in Iran and people like Khomeini, they said, look how rich the Shah has become and he has all the money and you're poor and he's taking all the money.
What if we can nationalize the oil?
What if we can do this?
What if we can do that?
What if we can have free rights?
What if we can have free this?
And people actually started falling for this.
So, Morteza, from your perspective, you're living there at that time.
The criticism that the Shah got that led to 9 million people revolting against him versus reality compared to what happened under Khomeini.
Give us the difference between the two.
As a matter of fact, Patrick John, about this Josh Haido Zarbusa Saleh, that year my brother took me to 7th Air Force Base in Shiraz and I lived there.
I saw that demonstration.
You were there.
I was next to the street.
We were clapping for the whole thing.
You have no idea what kind of honor he had between all these presidents and kings invited there to see our rich culture.
We bring it up to the world that look who we are.
We deserve where we are and we deserve where we want to go.
I sort of agree with Nazanin when she said if the door was a little bit open, Shah would let people know all those things that they were pretending that they want to bring it.
They wouldn't fall for it.
They wouldn't fall for it.
I was working from the 9th grade, 10th grade in a bookstore right in front of the Tehran University.
It was a GB bookstore that belongs to Enteshora de Frantin.
And I was the artivist.
I was taking the inventory in and out.
And I was behind the black glass window.
And I would see like how students come in and looking at this side and that side and passing, for example, Samad Berangi's book to each other.
And they were scared like if Sawak see them.
Let them see that.
There is nothing in it.
It's a kid's book.
Why are you making this guy so big that people make it that, oh, Sawak this, Sawak that?
It wasn't a big deal.
We made it big.
Sawak wasn't a big deal.
It wasn't a big deal.
What Sawak did.
Sawak is just to put in context, folks.
Sawak was Iran's CIA.
Iran's CIA.
At that time.
That was trained by the CIA, by the way.
And the MICA.
Any country have a security system.
That's right, of course.
Every country has it, right?
Sure.
For saving this country, right?
But point is, they were doing stupid things.
They were doing like a thing that it wasn't a big deal at all.
What I say, if Shah would let Jose El Nier home, get to open the door for everyone, nobody would vote for this regime.
Nobody.
Everybody knows like what's the origin, what's the inside the regime.
They closed it, closed it.
People are like, oh, it must be a magic in there.
Then let's go vote.
But yeah, we saw him in the moon.
All of this.
You're saying if he would have allowed people the freedom to learn and have other ideologies and thoughts.
Exactly.
Right.
That he would.
Yeah.
So he shouldn't have been afraid of two-day party, like the Communist Party that was coming in or any of those kinds of things.
And more important than that, Patrick John, leadership comes with a responsibility.
Sure.
If you're a leader, sometimes you have to say something that maybe 90% don't like it.
But six months from now, they adore you for saying it and standing on your position.
Sure.
Right.
When the whole thing was starting, my expectation from Shah was, as a leader of the country, that we love what he did for the country.
We love what his father did for the country.
Put his foot down and doesn't say, let me step out of the country, see what they're going to do.
And we paid for it 43 years to become a most dry country, most poorish country.
Are you saying he shouldn't have left?
No, he should have left.
He should have leave.
Okay, so let's process that.
Let's actually go there.
If he doesn't leave, what happens?
You think the people weren't going to go into the palace and go in there and get him?
You don't think that was going to happen?
They couldn't story for the cinema rates they did.
They couldn't story for the major heavy shari where they did.
Because they would find out that what happened.
It wasn't a 17,000 death.
It was 173.
They made these stories big and big and big.
And because he was not defending, he was just acting very gentleman, very like a classy person.
But doesn't that contradict your argument to say that if you would have let the two-day party just come in and present their arguments, you know, on one end, you're saying he should have let him.
On the other end, you're saying he wasn't paranoid enough.
So if he's too paranoid, hey, hey, hey, listen, these two-day guys, let's arrest him, put him into jail.
On the other side, no, no, no, he wasn't too paranoid enough.
Khomeini had more power than it really did.
should have really controlled it more so it's like a it's almost like a that's a game a leadership playing game Leadership-playing game.
When pull, when push.
Yeah, I don't know about that one.
That's going to be a tough one for him to play.
Thoughts?
No, I was going to say, don't forget also the Americans' role behind the scenes of all this, too.
They were afraid of the spread of any type of communism or anything like that.
So they had a vested interest in playing the parts in the leadership.
When you say American leaders, who are you referencing?
Anyone in specific?
No, the administration when towards the end, yeah.
Got it.
So, got it.
Well, I mean, you know, we're in the U.S. right now because of Jimmy Carter.
If there's no Jimmy Carter, we'll probably be still in Iran right now.
It depends on the money.
We're getting pulled from every side.
Our Persian Gulf belongs to 90% right, it belongs to China.
Gas and gold is Russia.
Obviously, West and East are pulling Iran apart, and it's not in their benefit that right not supporting people.
But also, Shah was dealing with his own.
Shah was dealing with his own health, also, right?
His health was deteriorating towards the end.
So it was kind of like the timing of all of it come together.
You were going to say something.
No, I was going to, this all reminded me of this documentary.
HBO.
One of the hostages.
Are you in it?
Yes, I was.
No.
Like, she's like, I'm the director of the Raki Viya.
I'm the producer.
So I want to give it a plug.
I'm not the producer.
But he said something really interesting where he said, one of the hostages, and he had an Iranian wife that was waiting for him back in America.
He said that, I'm paraphrasing.
He said, we were not the losers of the hostage crisis because we were there for 444 days and it was uncomfortable and it was distressing and it was a bad experience.
But the real losers of all of this, the real people that suffered were the Iranian people because they became an international pariah.
And for the last 42 years, when this was shot, it was 42 years.
They've had to suffer under this dictatorship, under this theocracy, which is what leads us to Masojina Amini.
It wasn't just about her.
It was just like what happened two years ago with George Floyd.
It wasn't just about George Floyd.
It was a bigger issue of people protesting systemic racism and police brutality.
So this is the same thing.
She was the representative of the match that lit the fire.
That was a match.
Yeah.
And that was it.
And if you don't mind, Pat, so I posted a video from my podcast.
It got kind of, you know, kind of emotional.
It got where I was just kind of pointing out like the feminists in this country, a lot of them complain when they can literally do anything that they want.
And I said, this poor girl, her hat was wrong, and I beat her to death in the street, which triggered me to think about more things about where are the modern day feminists at here.
All the big voices, all those celebrities that jump on anything quick that happens only to Americans, from the Amy Schumer's to Alyssa Milanos to Michelle Obama.
Where are you guys at?
Amy did say something.
She said something.
She said something.
Just one thing.
It was one thing.
And I totally agree with that, by the way.
We're all, you know, I'm very left.
I'm a Democrat.
So I'm extremely, extremely disappointed and distressed with the response from what I guess I would say my party leadership.
And you're waiting.
And I'm thankful that AOC came out a couple of times.
She gave a very detailed breakdown of what happened.
But Congresswoman Omar said something the other day that I found very problematic as well, because it was kind of like the New York Times article where it didn't present the full case.
Exactly.
So where do you think those people, like, where are they at?
If it's not about a problem here, it isn't about abortion.
Your fellow sisters are literally getting beaten to death by the morality police.
Where are you at?
Where's the march?
Where's the uprise?
Where's the going into the streets?
I think somewhere in Canada, they had 100, I'm sorry, 60,000.
Like, it was amazing.
I don't see it here.
And it's like, if it's not about one certain subject, I don't think they really don't care.
Saying one thing is one thing, but I think getting out there and getting in the streets, I know, Paula, you've been doing it, I know Nas, you've been doing it too.
If it's your rally cry.
So for example, my rally cry is capitalism and free enterprise and business and freedom of speech.
That's my rally cry.
If a topic comes around that, I'm going to talk about it.
Like when PayPal came out yesterday over the weekend, they said, hey, PayPal, moving forward, they're going to find you $2,500 if anybody puts any kind of misinformation out there.
I'm like, what is these guys?
I put on Twitter.
And that wasn't fake.
That was actually absolutely fake.
No, they just took it down.
No, they just reversed it.
They got debunked.
That's their role.
Yahoo came out and Yahoo said they reversed their position saying they can't do that.
And by the way, if it was fake, PayPal lost $6 billion today.
Wow.
Oh, did they?
Market value.
But see, here's what happens.
Some people are like, yeah, but that was Snopes.
That never really happened.
This is happening where it's concerning certain people.
And people are like, wait a minute, this is what's going on.
When you're saying this feminist stuff, there's a lot of women that this is their rally cry.
Your rally cry is feminine.
Your rally cry is woman.
Your rally cry is that when you're campaigning and those are the ones that are quiet.
That's making people feel.
Yeah, that's a worry for some people.
Question.
So, Morse is, we've seen this many times, though.
This isn't like the first time that this has taken place, right?
This has been going on for many times.
Every time something like this happens, people are like, oh, it's not going to happen.
You know, it's just another, it's going to last a day.
It's going to last a week.
It's going to last two weeks.
It's going to last three weeks.
Eventually, it's going to be this.
What is different with this one than other protests we've had in the past?
Here's the difference.
Never happened that 25 days, morning to night, 24 hours, people under age 30 that they did not even born in the other regime.
They born in this regime.
Never happened.
I don't know if you heard that news or not.
In Sistan, eight kids got killed.
They got shot from the back.
And 80 people total in Zaheda.
88.
Yeah.
I mean, they didn't even tell them run or hey to turn around and they shoot them.
They just shot them from the back.
These things, we believe when it gets to this point, every one blood brings thousands of bloods up to go fight back.
These families, they're not going to stop this time.
It's a matter of do or die.
We can feel it this time.
I'm in touch with Iran almost every night.
Almost every night.
We're talking.
We can feel the language.
You know, when you're all the same and you look at the eyes, I'm talking.
Of course.
I can feel it.
When I'm talking to them, I can feel it.
This time is different.
For many reasons is different.
Many reasons.
They have nothing to lose anymore.
You got to be scared of the people.
They have nothing to lose.
That's a good point.
And Mortezojan, they are also banding together to shut down businesses, like from all sectors.
There's oil and gas people that were protesting today in Abadan.
They're striking, and some students are striking.
Basilis have been closing down their ships.
So I'm reading this book called From Dictatorship to Democracy, I Just Finished, by Gene Sharp.
He died four years ago or something like that.
Fascinating story.
And he breaks down the 187 things you got to do to have a peaceful revolution, to go from a dictatorship to a democracy, which theocracy.
In other words, it's pretty much a dictatorship they have over there right now.
You don't have a voice.
You don't have freedom.
Anything can be taken away from you.
It's a very different kind of an environment.
But his argument is this has to be a peaceful revolution, peaceful protesting.
It can't be violent.
It's like the whole story with MLK versus Malcolm X. One wanted to do it peacefully.
The other one had to go more on the violent direction.
Do you think the Iranian people can pull this off peacefully or are they going to need help for someone to support them where it's going to get pretty violent?
But when it gets to the point that is starting three days ago, they're taking criminal prisoners out and give them a weapon to fight the protests.
Give them a chain to fight the protests.
When they filmed it, the regime.
Yeah, the regime opened the jails, criminal jails, people that they killed people.
Now they give them promise of lowering their jail time or off them for the death or whatever and put them in the street.
There's also reports of, which the regime in Iran has done this before.
They bring in forces from Lebanon and surrounding countries because some people say that it's easier for them to beat and kill Iranians because it's not their Hambatans, it's not their people, their country, women and men.
So that's happening too because there's photos circulating of their uniforms.
Their videos and the videos.
And you know that they're talking Arabic.
Yeah.
They're saying that you're in my land and you're telling me what I can do in my own country.
Get out of my country.
And they're speaking, even the police or whatever, they're not even wearing anything.
Some of them are just in casual clothes.
But going back to the question, Napoleon, going back to the question, to all of you.
And, you know, violent, peaceful protest is the method of peaceful protesting, can that prevail long term?
No.
You don't think.
Okay, so tell me why.
I just feel like, and also for a diaspora Iranian to be sitting out here, I can never tell people in Iran what to do because I'm not there.
So this isn't what.
Yeah, so what I'm just saying is when, because I've seen people inside of Iran say this in a more eloquent, articulate way, but essentially, if the state is meeting us with repression and violence, that's how we're going to respond back.
And that's what you're seeing.
Okay, fine.
So how do you do that without weapons?
Because over there, it's not Second Amendment.
It's not like America, where they believe in Second Amendment, which by the way, times like this kind of validates, kind of need a gun here and there to protect myself against the government that tries to do this to me.
But how do you do that if you don't have access to guns and weapons?
And that's a major problem because people thinking Army would join them one of these days.
Well, guess what?
The head of the army are selected from the high generals of Zephyr Pasteuran.
They put him on the top of the army.
We heard last week there are five of each group higher in the rank.
They got basically assassinated because they were thinking or talking with each other for something like that.
Here's the point.
Right now, people, they're hoping that they get the lower rank this side.
And if you see Stone and Rock is against the TA gas and bullets.
People is who?
The people, like we the people, not the government.
Hoping that police forces come to their side.
Hoping that police forces come to their side.
Which I believe is one thing that a lot of people say outside of Iranian side, that that's what they need.
Absolutely.
And by the way, you know what this book said?
The book said when large institutions, unions, organizations turn against the government, that's when they start losing.
So it's not just the people.
So when you're talking about businesses, oil, things like that, that's kind of the direction it needs to go to for some of that to be taking place.
But you're saying there's, regardless of what happens, it's going to go through violence.
It's not going to be successful as a peace report protest.
Way past it.
So let me ask you, was the 791 a peaceful protest when they got the shot or was it was it violent?
It was peaceful.
So maybe peaceful could work because being too violent worked against the Shah.
Patrick John, this regime is the dirtier than the Shah.
It's the worst regime in the history.
You don't find any king, any dictator did what they did to the country and to the people.
You know what's crazy?
You know, so I was on the show with Fardot Farrasad.
Good looking guy.
I don't know if you guys.
Oh, from Iran International?
Yeah, from Iran International.
So he had me on last week and we're talking and he asked me the weirdest question because I did a video about Iran like a couple years ago, U.S.-Iran history of conflict.
And he said, you know, in your timeline, again, I'm paraphrasing because he asked it in Farsi and there was a translator.
I speak Farsi, but I don't speak it fluently to speak on the channel in Farsi.
So he says, you said that when Iran needs help, and for whatever reason, Democrats don't help Iran to have a democracy, Republicans do.
And I said...
We're not saying, history says.
No.
I'm just saying case study.
The closest thing to Joe Biden ever is Jimmy Carter.
And the closest thing to Jimmy Carter ever is Joe Biden.
Did you hear Michelle Obama or OPRA say anything about this is happening in Iran?
I'm specifically talking Carter Biden.
I'm specifically talking Carter Biden, right?
Because, you know, on the outside, Carter was sold as a what?
Carter, everyone who knows Carter says good things about Carter as a person, left, right, middle, doesn't matter, as a human being.
Pacifist.
Yeah, but when you talk about as a leader, Scott was not a leader, decision maker.
He wasn't.
He was just a very good Christian family man, you know, just the kind of a guy that's like, you know, if you're going to be like a man, be like this person, he's a good man, right?
But when it comes down to decisions like this, he didn't make the decisions that he needed to make.
Kissinger himself, they could have helped.
They didn't get involved, right?
And then you have Biden being where he's at right now.
And, you know, they have a bunch of other sets of issues that they're dealing with.
Focus is more on Ukraine, less on Iran, you know.
Ukraine's the main focus right now because of Russia, all that stuff.
Hey, 50 billion here, 60 billion here.
And then Biden agreed to give another $7 billion, I believe, last week, where the conversation is taking place.
And now everyone's saying, well, the whole thing's going to change when they get back to the JCPOA negotiation to get a nuclear because we have to give them what they want so this thing can kind of go away, which is, I don't understand that argument to take the position of let's give them what they want so the regime is going to be happier and calmer, right?
What are your thoughts when you're hearing this of U.S. not being as involved to help the people where maybe in other times they got a little bit more help than they're getting right now?
You're talking about Iran, right?
Yeah, I'm talking about like, because, you know, for them to do what they want to do, they're going to need some sort of a help.
Outside help.
The people are, not the government.
So there's a big difference.
Like, for example, if we're talking, If we're talking Armenia against Azerbaijan, okay?
The Armenian people and the government, the Armenian people are not revolting against him.
They're on the same page.
They need help.
Here's money.
Ukraine is like, dude, we're on the same page.
We need help.
They're attacking us, right?
But Iranian people, their government is hurting them.
So a regime has to come in and help the people out, and it's not happening.
Why is Iran not helping out?
Pradeqjan, United States sold over a trillion dollars after brought Khomeini to Iran.
It's not in their… You said they sold?
They sold trillion dollars of arm in last 43 years to the Middle Eastern area because of them making one country scary.
Hey, you got to buy this against them.
Hey, you got to buy this weapon against.
That's what is happening.
Iran, I mean, with Khomeini come to Iran, seven war happened.
48 million refugees.
One and a half million killed.
Over 3 million disabled.
This is a gift of one mistake.
United States foreign policy should change, must change.
Enough already making Al-Gaide support Al-Gaide, give him so much money, and then they get against him.
Enough making Boko Aram or whatever, all those ISIs and all of them, and then later on turning against to become a terrorist of the area.
If you're going back and you see what these things happening is a mistake of foreign policy of the United States.
But there are a lot of Iranians.
Sorry, Khawaja.
No, no, no, you don't.
There are a lot of Iranians that also I hear from that don't want foreign intervention, because a lot of people do see, the reason we're even here is because of foreign intervention, partially.
So there is that argument too, that it has to come from within.
How it's going to come from within?
I also don't have the answer, but but there's a difference because uh, and here's how I see the foreign intervention, the the difference between.
There's another documentary that uh why uh, the revolution of Iran happened, talking about what they did to the shah, because Shah was becoming too powerful.
For example if, if you're living in a society where the, the people at the top, are abusing people okay say, you and I are here, we go to a restaurant.
Okay, we see a guy that's hitting a girl, slaps her in the face, what are you gonna tell me to do?
I'm not gonna tell you.
I'm gonna go intervene, that's right.
So you, it's so, but but should we intervene?
I would, but should we?
Yes, so we should.
Yes, you just yes, but but wait a minute, that's different.
But no, it's not.
It's not different because in this situation, 12 year olds are getting killed.
Yeah, okay.
So it's not like with the shah.
Shah was killing 12 year olds.
It's not like the Shah was forcing 52 year olds to marry nine year old.
It's a very different perspective.
So but let me wrap this point up.
So for me, you know, in in a in a, in a situation like this, these are two different situations.
If my, my sister is married to her husband, they're having a fight.
It's not my business, i'm not Intervening.
Zero.
If my wife and I are having a fight, my dad lives with my dad's biggest reason why he didn't want to live with us.
For 10 years, I've been trying to get this guy to live with us.
You know what's the number one reason?
I don't want to come in between you and your wife.
Never.
Like if we fight, guess what my dad does?
Goes upstairs.
He goes to his room.
He says, it's your business.
Okay.
He goes, it's your business.
No problem.
But I tell you, if I even, it's never happened.
But if I did something, he's the first one that's going to come in and say, I'm intervening.
Right.
So I think, you know, as much as you say some Iranians are saying that, I understand that's like the diplomatic, politically correct thing to say for some, not saying all of them.
Some of them want to say something like that.
This is a very different situation they're currently in right now.
Well, I'm not talking about diaspora Iranians saying this.
I'm talking about Iranians inside of Iran.
But my question to you was, if you are saying they need intervention, so how do you propose that to happen?
What can even happen?
How can you get anything?
I think we got to, the United States has to be the number one to step up.
They got to put sanctions.
I know we always do sanctions on Russia and everybody.
We got to get hands-on because like you said, if it's going to be rocks against bullets, they're not going to, I love them to death and I'm with them 100%.
You're not going to win that battle.
And I don't know.
Here's my question to you guys.
Why aren't we getting as involved with not like Ukraine and all this?
Why are we?
Because they're trying to negotiate the JC.
That's what I was going to say.
I mean, that's what I would think is happening.
So do you have to answer that?
You guys have an answer because I have a rebuttal here.
Okay.
So let me give my feedback to you on how to help on something like that.
And I know it's not going to be a popular one for you because of where you lean politically, but I'll give it to you.
So, you know, sometimes Paulette, for instance, I was the annoying younger brother.
Super protective.
Okay.
I'm exactly who you think I was.
So when my sister would date guys, you know, it was just a bad situation.
She did not want me around, right?
Because my parents got a divorce.
So naturally, from 10 years old, when they got a divorce, I was the brother.
I have to play that role naturally.
No problem.
So when you have somebody annoying like that in your life, you don't want them around too much because it's like, man, let me just live my life and just don't bother me, right?
Until all of a sudden something happens where there's really a need, then you say, you know what?
This is a situation where I wish that brother of mine that was like that would be here to protect me against XYZ.
Is that 90% of the time?
No, it's 10% of the time.
When Trump was president, okay, he put sanctions on top of to the point where Iran was about to go through the revolution.
It was very close, where they were about to go through the revolution.
And he says, no, we support the Iranian people.
No, we support the Iranian people.
He pulled out of the $150 billion with Kerry and Obama.
He said, no, we're not going to be doing this.
Pull that, pull that, pull that.
We're not going to be doing this.
And then the moment the regime changes, no, this is back on the table.
Let's talk about it.
We're removing this.
We're removing that.
And then they start getting free.
I was in Monaco one time and we're having, can't even mention the person's name, but the person is involved in the economy of the 21 countries that they're dealing with, the economy and all this stuff.
He says, listen, the moment sanctions were given, we had to call every bank in the Middle East to say, you can't do any business with people in Iran.
He says it was legit when that took place.
Like when you're saying business is shutting down, oil shutting down, you got to bring the pain to the government, right?
Unfortunately, the current regime can do that, but they're not doing that.
And they're playing negotiation.
There's a famous guy back in the days.
His name was Ronald.
He says, you don't negotiate with terrorists.
We've been negotiating with terrorists for too long.
And I don't think you should negotiate with terrorists.
A lot of people agree with you.
And there's messages that we get from inside of Iran that say we know things are bad.
And yeah, the economy sucks, but we want you guys to put pressure on your politicians to not renegotiate this deal.
We will suffer a little longer.
And they say a lot of people say, we don't want help.
We just want your support.
Because not even a dollar of it come to Iran.
Right.
To the people.
That goes directly from the account to account to the terrorists outside the countries.
And funny thing is, none of those countries said one thing about what is happening in Iran.
Neither Syria or Palestinians or none of them.
That's what I was going to ask you.
Who in that area, besides us, because it's always us, we're the world's police, but like you said, there's conflict of interest right now.
Who else can step in and help?
I mean, is it always going to be just us?
Nobody else is trying, like you just said.
When you say us, do you mean America?
America.
I mean, normally we help with everything.
Our hand is everywhere.
160, whatever countries.
We have bases everywhere.
Nobody has a base here.
We're spread out.
Who else in that area could try to help?
Like, nobody's stepping up.
They didn't leave any friends around.
They just supported all the terrorist groups in each country.
The government of every single country around us are the enemy of us.
I mean, think about it.
Two times the trucks, 18 trucks of gold and dollars that were going illegally to Turkish to come out and go to any of their private banks.
Turkish got it.
Nobody said this is ours.
It was a few hundred billion dollars with the golds and dollars.
They're like, fantastic.
We have a budget for a few years of our country.
Nobody claimed it.
Wow.
This is crazy that like how many trillions of dollars they stole out of that country and still that country is standing.
Imagine what a rich country it was.
Well, an analyst also had speculated to me that other countries in the region aren't going to come out strongly in support of the Iranian people and their fight for freedom because then they'll get worried that, oh, this could happen in our country too.
That's about to happen in Iraq, right?
Yeah, they're going to want to revolutionize it.
So, okay, so let's just say the revolution does happen.
Okay, let's just say this is a different one and it's going to actually take place.
Okay.
Who's running the place?
What's the form of the government?
Who steps up?
You know, who are some names?
You know, for the longest time, you know, many of the Iranians who love the Shah, they're like, you know, his son is going to go back and Farah and Reza Pal-Avi and they're going to go back and, you know, that's what's going to happen.
You're hearing a new soccer player, legendary soccer player, Ali Karimi, you know, going around saying what he's saying.
Because typically when you do have a revolution, a British diplomat wrote a book like 20 years, 15 years ago called Leaderless Revolution.
Who's the leader today?
It's a leaderless revolution, right?
It's like the prime example of there's a revolution taking place without a leader.
What's going to happen if this revolution does take place?
This is the biggest characteristics that this event has right now.
Which is why it's literally there is an event going on 25 days in a country with no exact or no person as a leading it.
And here's the problem with, in my opinion, from the outside the country leaders or even inside the country.
Imagine a one-road, one-way line bridge, and you're parking at the middle of it.
You're not backing up that people go and you're not going forward.
Some of our leaders are standing at the middle of the bridge and they're not letting people.
One day they are king, one day they are not king.
One day they want to become leader.
One day they don't want.
One day they're a resident.
They announced that I'm just a resident.
This thing is not what we can't count on the people that are on outside the country.
I believe the next future leader of the country would be possibly a lady from the street of terror.
You think so?
Look at what the girls are doing.
That's amazing.
Look at what the teenage girls are leading the charge right now.
That would be a fascinating thing.
Oh my God, that'd be great.
Seeing them in the street and, you know.
Yeah.
I mean, but you know how when there's a crisis, leaders rise up and you kind of identify certain names like, hey, look at what happened here.
Boom.
Who is this person?
Never knew this person.
Overnight we know the person.
Are there some names that are being identified who are getting their voices to get louder and louder?
I haven't heard any.
And also, I would say, even if I had, it's dangerous to say it because you're just giving something away.
Like, oh, well, then we're going to go back to this person.
I understand not to say that.
No, but what you say when you said Ali Karimi, I think people half joke and half think, well, he'd be great if he could come back and do that.
Right.
No, but I have also heard people say just, this is not anything formal.
This is just like, oh, this would be cool if this happened.
But there's a human rights lawyer that famously has never left the country and they jail her all the time for defending human rights, Nasdaq and Sutoude.
And you said a female.
People have been like, well, she'd be great if, you know, she could lead.
Iran, out of all the countries, is ready to have a woman as a prisoner.
Well, not in the current government.
No, no, no.
Of course.
I'm saying once the revolution happens, you think it's capable to do that.
And if you do, when Khomeini came in, he killed 2,000 of Shah's generals and military leaders.
What do you do if you do take over?
Hezbollahs are still there.
Morality police people are still there.
What do you do?
They jail them?
Like 100,000 people are going to go to jail?
I mean, that's a – because those, if they're still out there, they're going to do what their job is to do.
Are they going to escape and go to, you know, where are they going to go to?
What do you do with those folks?
Well, the Imperial Army, when Shah left, a lot of them just switched over.
They're like, okay, well, I guess you're all right.
No, no.
He killed a lot of them.
He killed like a couple thousand of them.
And a lot of them escaped.
Top ones.
Yeah, they got.
Top ones, yeah.
Well, yeah.
I mean, those are the main ones you got to figure out because you need your lieutenants, you need your generals.
But what happens with that?
What do you do with that?
What happens with the Hezbollahs?
What happens with these, you know, these people?
You know, history shows during the Mosaddegh time and even a couple of times after that that these people, they have a fantastic talent of over-the-night changing face.
We saw that at 11.40 a.m., people were in the street.
Death to Shah Zadabad Mosadir.
The 20 two months passed between the people saying people said the opposite things 20 minutes later when that happened.
What do you mean by that?
So you're saying they have to change their minds is what you're saying?
Many people.
Look at our celebrities.
Look at our celebrities in past months.
I have a Farsi page past as soon as I came out of the country on Facebook.
I contact many celebrities that about this matter.
You want to say something?
About this matter, you want to say something?
Nothing, nothing.
Now, last 15, 20 days, they feel like, oh, it looks like this is serious.
They start saying something.
And some of them still, they're not clearing their position.
They're just saying something between this pay and dabe that I don't say that taking aside.
It's not a time to say, I'm Pers Police or I'm Taji.
I'm, you know, soccer teams, which side.
It's a matter right now.
You have Sharaf or you're Bisharaf.
That's it.
That's it.
And they threaten.
Sharaf, Bisharaf.
Can you explain what?
No, I can't.
It's just having shame.
Having shame.
Yeah.
So if you are Bi Sharaf, you have no shame.
No shame.
No shame.
Shame or your own shame.
And the artists do get threatened and their families get threatened.
And I know they've taken people's passports away so they can't leave the country.
So, yes, it would be.
And a lot of them have spoken out and then they get threatened.
And so it's like they try to do it and they can't go past a certain point because of what's being told that will happen to them and their families.
So you know what I mean?
Sheravin Hojipur just made a song with everybody's tweets.
I don't know if you heard that.
Of course.
And so they caught him.
They captured him.
And then his video came out, I guess, yesterday.
And in his video, he just wanted to let everyone know that I'm okay.
Nothing's happened.
It was a misunderstanding that they thought perhaps I'm with the other governments outside of Iran.
But, you know, it's not.
And instead of giving me money, a lot of Iranians are supporting my music and you're sending me money.
Send the funds to Mahak.
Yeah.
Mahak.
And at the end, I'm okay.
I'm not taking any podcasts.
I'm not at this point at all.
And you could see that it's scripted.
So the Iranian government lobby.
Same thing that happened in China with Jack Mao and Jack Mo went disappearing for three months.
Yeah.
So when you ask.
And by the way, the song riven.
First time.
By the way, the first time I heard it, I'm like, oh my God.
I had the kids listen to it.
It's unbelievable.
But go ahead.
You were saying.
So when you're thinking, when you're saying, how come we're not helping Iran, right?
Think about Iran, Russia, China.
Right?
They're all working together.
So if you have one country that has mess, then what happens?
Your power, it's all power play.
Who we can help and who we can't play help.
And by the way, if America wants to help Iran, who's going to get the money?
The government?
That's not going to help the people.
Yeah, exactly.
That's not going to help them.
So who's the person?
There is no person.
So it's just a movement.
And you can't just give money to the people.
And these take time too.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
So maybe something will emerge.
I'd like to go for them.
Weeks and months.
Me too.
Because it's not letting down.
And like we said, when you have schoolgirls that are this defiant in the face of authority and they don't care and they're out in the streets getting murdered and beaten and going in the faces of police and any authority figure taking off their hedgehogs, you know, this is like there's no turning back from this.
And like Mortez Jan said, they feel like there's nothing to lose.
We literally live under the worst oppression.
So what worse could happen?
Yep.
So one of their chants is that until our last blood, we're not giving up on this movement.
That's their, like, I don't say it exactly how they say it.
They have nothing to lose.
Yeah.
That's where they are.
Nobody, you can't find anybody does what they did to our country in 43 years in the history of human beings.
You can't find it.
I was with you in Irvine.
You guys were doing protesting.
You were in LA the day before.
How big are these protests getting in LA and Irvine?
It's getting bigger and bigger, bigger and bigger.
Yesterday, Sunday, we had the event at Michel Viejo.
It's a little city.
Somewhere around 3, 4,000 people were there.
Oh, wow.
Michel Viejo.
Our event in LA was a little over 20,000.
Oh, okay.
I was helping you.
And then that afternoon, we drove to LA.
Yeah, we were started downtown at City Hall and marched.
And it was, I mean, you can see there's aerial shots and 151 cities participate in this.
I should point out it was started by Hamid Esmalion, who lost his daughter and wife in the flight 752, which was shot down by the IRGC.
And he started this movement.
And it's because of him that we had the Global Day of Action for Iran and 151 cities.
I mean, that's a lot of global support.
You know, I hope this is the one area where, you know, everybody, it doesn't matter which side you're on politically, everybody unites and say, look, man, I don't care which one you voted for or not.
If there's one thing we agree on, I'd love to see democracy get back into Iran where we can be free and go back and visit a place like this.
It seems like if there's one thing, hopefully, people can stay unified on, it seemed like so far it's looking good to do something with this.
But we're going to see what's going to happen.
By the way, so just out of curiosity, this is a topic that comes up all the time.
I've spent time with Reza Pahlavi a couple times, the son, in D.C. We've had a meeting together.
We sat down, we talked about his father.
We did a Zoom a couple years ago, and we've spoken.
You should have him on, you should have money, you should have Manan.
And he's out there, very, you know, eloquent, great speaker, does a very good job.
But the audience is 50-50.
If you look at his social media, it gets a lot of people, gets a lot of commentary.
He gets a lot of people that still follow him, very loyal to his messaging.
But what is the perspective of Reza Pahlavi's, you know, his son, RP?
How do the Persian-Iranian people view him?
Any one of you guys can take this one if you're...
Well, I live in L.A.
Okay.
So LA leans toward more monarchists, but there's also a lot of people like me who aren't aligned or affiliated with any group, ideology, or person.
We just want freedom for Iran.
And I know some of the people in his camp have said, look, he just would like to be a part of the democracy and in an election.
And if they vote for him, great.
And if they don't, it'll be somebody else.
So there's kind of different camps.
And there is definitely split support.
That's what I've seen.
Yeah, I agree.
When last couple of times he cleared his vision about, you know what, I want to be a citizen.
And if people wanted me to run the country, no problem.
Then you guys select it, right?
This made so much clarity for people that are thinking like only king, only Reza, only Reza Shah is coming.
This way, now people know that we talk about absolute democracy.
Absolute democracy.
When regime change, everybody votes on what they want to do.
I don't know.
You guys are all being very diplomatic.
I think it's more 50-50 because I don't know if the younger people feel he can relate to their pain because he's lived in America.
And, you know, I think the generation that knows his father more, they're probably saying, oh, we would like that back.
But the younger generation, I don't know.
I'm not 100%.
I would agree with that as well.
You don't know if the younger generation, which is very valid on why that would be the case.
Well, listen to their chants, too.
The younger generation is just saying, Zanzanda Giazari, freedom, deaths of the dictator, deaths of the regime, don't be scared.
We're all together.
So that I just feel like if we listen to their chants, we can hear what they want.
Freedom, secularism, secular democracy, but there's not one person's name.
Some people say it in Iran, but the majority are not saying one person's name.
It's kind of like, for example, we moved to Florida, right?
And I was having a conversation with Sia, and then we talk about California, how we miss California, but we miss California post-COVID because that's the California we know.
California is different for us now because we're so used to Florida.
Are you kidding me?
And I feel like, for example, the older generation remembers how Iran was with Shah and Pahlavi, all of that.
And they're hoping that comes back.
But is there a connection with the youth?
Is he making, is RP making connection with the youth?
Or whenever there is uprise, that's when he shows up.
That's the whole question.
Got it.
So, you know, some view as an opportunist, hey, come out here, say a few things.
Some say, no, we want him here because we'd like to go back and see what Iran once used to be.
The chance of Iran going back to a monarchy is slim to none.
It's not going to be a monarch.
Only thing that's going to happen is, again, my opinion.
I'm just talking from my perspective here on what I'm saying.
Democracy is the only, in order for him to take it back to monarchy, I feel you can't be disconnected for 43 years.
That's a long time for it to happen again.
So, again, no one knows.
You'll see what happened.
If it comes down to the election, that's who they want.
It is what it is.
If it doesn't, it won't happen.
I think people experienced 1,400 years ago Islam.
That's enough for them.
They don't want to go experience 250 years ago majority again.
It's time for democracy and freedom for.
But what does democracy look like?
What if we find out?
How do you live here?
No, I understand, but think about 44 years of oppression.
How do you gradually do that?
Right.
What does it look like?
How long does it take?
Because it's not going to happen overnight.
Think about it.
Of course it's not.
Of course it's not going to happen overnight.
It's going to take a while.
Yeah.
But it is possible because it's a different type of movement this time than the green movement.
And green movement, I feel like, I actually was in Iran when that happened.
I got to Iran two days before the election with Ahmadinejad and Mousavi.
And it was when I when we landed, we were out of the airport in Tehran at 2 a.m. and we're driving through the streets and everybody's out dancing.
There's green everywhere because that was the color of the movement.
Music.
And I was like so shocked.
I asked my family, I was like, this is happening here?
This is legal right now.
And they're like, well, yeah, it's before the election.
So they want everybody to feel this energy.
And everybody really felt energized.
And then we all saw what happened.
It was a rigged election, obviously, and went to Ahmadinejad.
But those, and I was there for the couple weeks after, so I saw what happened, but it did kind of get quashed pretty quickly.
This one has sustained and it's showing no signs of slowing down, especially because we're talking about different sectors of businesses now joining together to protest.
So that's one big difference.
Another one is like how young the people are that are engaged and moving this forward too, like teenagers were saying, you know, I just haven't seen it be this sustained because we've had protests happen.
Oban happened.
That was the bloody November in 2019, where 1,500 people that we know of were killed.
And then that, because the internet got throttled and cut off and the world wasn't paying the attention it is now, that also got quelled really easily.
This one is not.
This one's growing more.
Let me ask you.
You guys remember, you know, what's that one song?
We are the world, you know, the whole USA for Africa, US for Africa, the song.
If somebody does want to, you know, do an event like that to raise money, who does the money go to?
Who do you trust to send the money to?
Are there any organizations that you can support?
Are there ones that people trust that is actually going to make it in there?
You know, sometimes the biggest criticism is when the money never makes it to the real people.
The ones in the middle keep most of the money, so be careful who you give your money to.
Yeah, the center of human rights in Iran.
That's all.
I swear to God, I was going to ask you, if we're sending that money, who's going to get it?
Does it go directly to them or is the government involved?
There's a couple that came out.
I wish I had my phone with me, but I can find the link.
But there are a couple like Iran Human Rights, Center for Human Rights, and they use the money to, I believe what it says is to actually just help promote some freedoms and democracy for Iran.
And they work on, like, I don't want to misspeak for them, but they use it.
It's not going.
You can't just send money to Iran anyway.
And there are certain ways that you can get money to charity organizations and stuff.
There's also an Amnesty International petition that's going around.
I know one of the human rights attorneys that's a part of the effort that people are trying to get signed so that it puts pressure on the UN and the international community to create an international mechanism to investigate crimes against humanity from these officials and to go after their assets in other countries, especially where their kids live.
So they're trying to get them to not be able to travel, to have, you know, them and their kids not be able to have property, freeze their money.
And that's one way to get to them and try them for crimes.
That's one way to get to who?
To the officials of Iran who are in charge of giving these orders.
It's basically like a way to sanction them, to freeze their assets, to allow them not to travel freely to U.S., Canada, Europe.
Yeah.
Okay.
Pull it, did you guys know one or no?
Like where the money goes to?
Because sometimes like, like right now, for example, I'm having a, what's that again?
They should say it somewhere down there.
That's the one of Iran.
Yeah, that's it.
We got some people, but they cannot accept big money.
They're going to get in danger.
Of course.
So we, past three weeks, we got some channels that be sent little by little, 5,000, 10,000, 5,000.
That's not.
And yeah, mostly goes for the doctors and people that are giving help.
They're spending for the medical stuff for the people that get shot and so on, so on their own degraded.
What do you guys think about Christiane Amanpour?
What do you guys think about her with CNN?
Has she even said anything about this?
Yeah, what do you think about her in general?
Has she talked about this?
Well, you know, the whole thing, she was supposed to do an interview with Raisi, and then, you know, he said you have to wear the hijab.
And she said, I've done interviews for the last God knows how many years, 20-some years, 30 years.
I've never worn the hijab.
She says, now I'm not showing up to the interview.
If you don't wear the hijab, and she doesn't.
There's a picture of her, if you want to put it up, with her not wearing the hijab with an empty chair.
It's the empty chair picture.
I don't know if you have that or not.
Type an empty chair.
Yeah, Raisi is fan.
R-A.
There it is.
It's right there to the right.
There you go.
That's the picture right there.
And he doesn't show up.
But then she does this.
Then a couple of days later, she tweets and says, you know, retweets the article about New York Times.
And I think she pins it to the top.
Then she unpinned it about the fact that the issues taking place in Iran is economy.
It's not really, you know, what's going on with women and hijab and all this.
That's more of an economical issue that's going on.
Why is it?
So here's an, by the way, I don't know if you guys know or not.
It's for some of you guys that just joined us.
We have somebody on the panel right now that minored a media criticism.
If you guys are familiar with that, there's a minor called Media Criticism, and we're going to go to see if she can criticize some of the media or not.
So for the expert on a panel that's a media criticism minor, CNN put this information.
Why is it, CNN, New York Times?
Why is it that some of these stories, like you're just tell the story on what's going on rather than play in politics with some of this stuff?
What is their biggest hesitation to say, Russia, Putin is Hitler, but in Iran?
No, it's not really as bad.
It's really only economical, but Putin is Hitler.
Second coming of, you know, Hitler is going to be.
Why do they turn people like him into such terrible leader, Ukraine heroes?
But Iran is more economical situation, that's going to be.
Why do you think they're doing that?
Why are they playing politics?
I can't speak to Putin, but CNN has stepped up their coverage in the last week.
I've seen Jake Tapper covers it almost nightly, and they are showing the videos.
They were one of the first people that I think showed what was happening at Sharif University and the violence and the crackdown that was happening on the students.
So I will say they have stepped up.
Christiana Rampoor just interviewed Shireen Ebadi, who was the first female in the Middle East to win a Nobel Peace Prize and did a, you know, her basic ending message was: she asked Ms. Ebadi, what do you think should happen?
She said, yeah, it has to be regime change.
They're saying it and they're showing it now.
Other networks need to follow suit.
I didn't find, I know some people found this problematic.
I felt like she was making a statement.
On this?
Yeah.
No, I love that she did this.
Okay, I thought you did it like that.
No, no, no.
I salute.
I'm like, oh, yeah, this was great.
Of course, because the visual was absolutely.
I want her to do more of this.
Show this.
Like, hey, why should women, you know, the whole concept about if you don't wear a hijab, it's like a woman walking around naked.
That's what Khomeini said in 79, that a woman not wearing a hijab is the same as a woman walking around naked.
I mean, and for some people to say, well, that's the norm here.
We believe that.
I like the stance she took with this one.
And this was right in the thick of, I think it was just a few days after Master Jina died.
And so she was like, of course.
And they're on American soil.
So it's different.
If she was in Iran, I'm sure she would have put it on because she was.
Oh, she said that.
She's like, I'm not doing it in America.
Not an American soul, but that's the, you're in our country.
Why am I supposed to wear the laws are here on my side?
Patty John, I have nothing against Christian Amampur.
She was born in our street.
We were like, neighbor.
But generally and originally, if you ask majority of the Persian people, they see the origin of the Shia branch of Islam just created by UK.
There's a history on it exactly how they send it, how they designed it, how those majlises showed up, above and above, and they just trained to speak for us.
Everybody knows about the role that UK played behind the Shia.
So Persian people originally don't have a good opinion about the CNN, especially what happened in the first 79.
You think that?
Most Persians to me are Democrats.
Most Persians are CNN driven.
It's pretty split these days.
I think it's 60-40 is for my feeling.
I mean, when I was in LA.
Have you seen the last week protest right in front of the CNN building in Sunset Board?
I did.
5,000 people there.
Yeah, but I think for the most part, most Iranians, 60, I'll go 60-40, most of them are Democrats.
So I would assume that's like the liberal in the States.
But why do they, though?
Why do Iranians lean liberal in the States?
What's really curious to know, but does that have anything to do with Iran or is it more to do just pure philosophy?
I lean, not lean, I am, because of domestic policies in the United States.
So I believe in I'm pro-choice, I'm LGBTQ rights, I'm Black Lives Matter.
So that's me.
Internationally, with Iran, I think the Democrats have screwed up the response.
Not everybody is unified in what they're saying against Iran.
So I'm disappointed in that.
But yeah, I mean, most of us are Democrats, of course, because we live in America.
So that's what we want for this country.
When it comes to Iran, I can see why there are, I have, I know people that socially are liberal in the U.S., but they have voted Republican because of the Republicans' harder stance toward Iran.
Did you hear about what happened with Black Lives Matter just in the last couple of weeks?
With the funds?
Yeah.
I did hear some stories.
What do you think about that?
Which one are you speaking about in specific?
I just want to make sure that you're all of them.
So one, the founder got indicted.
Two, Kanye coming out talking about White Lives Matter.
Kanye, I just can't with him right now.
Three Osborne.
What's the matter with her?
Sharon Osborne.
Sharon Osborne.
$900,000.
I'm interviewing her, and she says, look, I wish Kanye would have told me Black Lives Matter was a scam.
We gave him $900,000.
So what happens here is the following.
You're an educated person.
You went to a great university.
You speak eloquently.
You're somebody that's, you know, and a lot of us, you know, in, you know, you're hearing, you're like, okay, Black Lives Matter, basic concept.
Of course it matters.
White Lives Matter.
Of course it matters.
All lives matter.
Of course it matters.
But that wasn't the point of Black Lives Matter.
Well, no, no, the saying.
Listen, saying I'm also not talking about an organization right now.
I'm talking about a movement.
Well, the movement, but the leaders behind the movement, we get the organization has just been corrupt and they're not helping.
any black lives in the community.
They're just taking all the money and spending it on themselves.
Candace Owens is in a thing where they raised $80 million.
What is it?
What's it helping?
What are they helping in the community?
Here's the biggest part.
Here's the biggest part.
Here's the biggest part where credibility is lost.
My opinion.
Break this apart when I give this to you, okay?
What is the job of MSNBC or CNN or Fox or CBS or these guys that are investigative journalists, right?
How long does it take to find out it's a shit show within a organization?
It's your job to do that.
But if you don't do that blindly, you just go out there and say, yeah, here's what it is, and then this happens.
You know what happens?
You lose credibility.
People don't trust the media when you say stuff.
And CNN's rating is in such shambles right now that they had to fire the guy, fire a bunch of their hosts.
They don't know what the hell to do.
Brian Williams, that was maybe their best guy that they had, he decided to step away and cannot even believe what's going on.
I was a Cuomo guy.
I thought Cuomo was doing a decent job.
Take his brother out and any of the Me Too, I don't, the credibility behind some of the Me Too movement with him.
Take that.
I'm not talking about that.
I thought he was okay.
But you realize what they did was so, so bad that they had to dramatically change it because educated people who went to school followed their truth.
And then now it's like, well, we never, you know, the Russia was a hoax, but let's not talk about it because of Durham.
You know, we know that was a hoax and it was funded by Hillary.
Let's not talk about it.
Hunter's laptop.
Let's not talk about Hunter's laptop.
Let's talk about it two days afterwards election.
No, no, let's not talk.
There is no investigation.
So credibility is gone because they never talk about it.
What do you mean they did bad stuff?
You said they did so many bad.
What are you referring to?
With CNN.
You said CNN did so many bad things.
Everything I just listed to you.
Well, I mean, if we're going to talk about networks, Fox News is the same thing.
It's just on the other side.
So, but then here's what I would say to you.
Here's what I would say to you.
Say you're right.
Let's say you're right.
Yeah.
Would you say you're right about CNN too or no?
About that they've engaged in what?
Misinformation.
Misinformation, bias.
You just hit him.
They're not reporting the news.
They're holding back news.
You help people.
I'm sure there's a bias because they're left-leaning.
No, no, it's not about bias.
So here's the thing.
So how do you judge a, I don't know, how do you judge a company that's going through problems?
How do you judge a company that's going through that?
How do you judge a bad restaurant?
Food, food and service.
What else?
I would just food.
If I say, guys, let's go to this restaurant.
Yeah.
And lunchtime we go to this restaurant.
What's the first way to judge at 12 o'clock that this restaurant may have a problem?
If it's packed or an MP.
If it's packed and people say it sucks, do you believe it?
No.
No.
Let me ask the question one more time.
If the restaurant is packed, but people say it sucks, do you believe it?
No.
No.
If they say it's awesome, I understand why you would.
No, I mean, I've been to a restaurant that got raised reviews and it didn't have good food.
If a restaurant is typically bad, it's empty.
Yeah.
If a restaurant is good, it's full.
Unless the ambiance is great.
No, I don't know about that.
So CNN is the restaurant that's empty and Fox is full right now.
Unfortunately for some people.
Do we have ratings numbers to look at?
Oh, my.
Can you tell me?
Tucker Coulson is the most watchful on television.
Up ratings.
Well, that's sad.
And I don't care for Tucker.
Don't just pull up Tucker.
Just pull up rating for all.
Wait, but how is this helping Iran?
No, no, but you just said.
You brought up Black Lives Matter.
I don't bring it up.
You said Black Lives Matter.
I brought up CNN.
I never once said Black Lives Matter.
You said Black Lives Matter.
You brought up CNN.
So from Black Lives Matter, we went into story.
No, no, you asked me.
Why are you concerned about this now?
You asked, you said, can we see ratings?
We're just delivering for you.
No, you said finish for her and show some ratings.
You said, why do Iranians vote Democrat?
And I said, because of social issues in the United States.
And then I listed a few and you harped on Black Lives Matter.
I said LGBTQ rights.
I said pro-choice.
I get that.
You chose Black Lives Matter.
And then we got to CNN somehow.
And now we're looking at Tucker Carlson's podcast.
Because again, that's the problem.
But you see, what you just said right there is, I think, the issue.
I think the issue is, like, for example, Stephen A. Smith.
I don't know if you know who he is or not.
Stephen A. Smith is ESPN guy, right?
He's like Stephen A. Smith is like the Tucker of Fox or the Mad Out of MSNBC or the Morning Joe.
I've seen his video.
We know who he is.
You know what he just did?
Let me tell you what he just did.
Which I think we need more of this.
So he just launches a podcast.
Do you know his first guest?
No.
Chris Cuomo.
Do you know his second guest?
Tucker Carlson.
Sean Hannah.
Well, that's just ratings.
By the way, no, no, but let me tell you what happened.
He's on, what's the guy's name?
Jesse Waters.
Jesse Waters.
Some people love Jesse Waters.
Some hate Jesse Waters, right?
He was a guy that was part of Jesse Waters.
Jesse Waters was part of Bill O'Reilly's guy that he would go, man on the street.
It was Jesse Waters.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Okay.
So, anyways, so he does first podcast, Chris Cuomo, second podcast he does with Sean Hannity.
He's on Jesse Waters promoting his podcast two days ago.
Jesse says, Am I your favorite host at Fox?
Stephen A. Smith thinks, nah, no, I got it.
I'm with Sean Hannah.
Sean Hannity is my favorite host at Fox.
I was like, what?
He said that on national television on Fox?
Can we pull the clip up?
But can I tell you something?
Can I tell you something?
Here's what I love about this.
I love that because I think, like, a guy's asked me a question about this morning, guys asked me a question about, I don't know, he's asked me a question about LeBron James.
What do you think about LeBron James?
I think LeBron could be a unifier.
He's not.
What do you think about Oprah Winfrey?
I think she could be a unifier.
She's not.
You know what made Obama's speech freaking amazing?
Which speech?
At the DNC in 2004?
It was so perfect that they did case studies about it, wrote books about it.
Because he says, I don't care if you're from Texas, you're white, you're black, you're Hispanic, you're this, you're that.
This is United States.
Let's figure out a way to make it work together, right?
Wait, how are LeBron and Oprah not unifying?
They're not.
They're no way.
You think LeBron's a unifier in America?
No way.
How are you?
In the NBA, you have to be a Democrat to be in the NBA.
Of course.
The NBA, you know, name me a one open Republican in the NBA.
Go ahead.
I'll wait.
Because there is no.
Why don't follow them that closely?
But there's none.
But you know how it is in baseball?
No one gives a shit.
Nobody cares.
Like, no one gives a shit.
The best players in baseball are like, dude, let's just play the game.
Let's just talk, you know.
Nobody's making basketball political.
What do you mean?
Are you crazy?
No.
You know what I'm saying?
Why you don't know?
Can you pull up the ratings?
She's asking for ratings.
You're taking your time three times.
Damn it.
Okay.
I just don't see how this is helping Iran.
What does this have to do with Iran?
Can you tell me this title?
Honestly, LeBron James.
Show me the stats first.
Hey, I like LeBron James, so I don't know.
Show me the stats.
Show me the stats if you have it for ratings for everybody.
It's not like this one, the one that shows everybody.
CNN is also, I feel like, in flux.
They fired a bunch of people and they're trying to figure out their vibe.
They're like, are we going to go?
But it was like that a year ago.
Are we going to go left, right, center?
They're going to be super central.
By the way, but do you know why CNN was like?
I'm not defending CNN.
I understand it.
What I'm saying to you is what made CNN so powerful is a guy named Ted Turner started it.
Yeah.
And you know how he finished it in his book?
The last chapter of his book, everybody has to read.
He's the one guy I do want to interview, but unfortunately, he's not in good health conditions.
We're in communication with his camp.
We'd love to interview him.
He's in a different place.
When his book ends, what it talks about is how disappointed he is in the current product.
Because it's only one-sided.
You don't hear both sides of the story.
So is Fox News.
I understand you're saying so is Fox News, but Fox will actually do some digging and tell some stuff.
CNN blindly says, nope.
I don't agree with you.
Okay, so let me ask you a question.
Three years, everybody in America thought Russia hoax or Russia was a real deal.
None of it was.
They came.
No, I mean Russia was a real deal.
Russia, Russia, Russia, Trump.
Russian collision with Trump.
You don't think that anything like that?
That's not a matter of thinking.
I'm not going to get into that because that has nothing to do with Iran.
It's not that we say that again, but I think this has a lot to do with Iran.
I think this has everything to do with Iran if you have.
How so?
I'll answer to you.
I think it has to do with Iran because in order for there to be progress, we all have to question why we believe what we believe in.
How much of it is brainwashing?
How much of it is the way we were brought up?
How much of it is true?
I was an atheist 25 years of my life, purely.
I almost became a Scientologist because I went to Scientology churches regularly.
Almost became a Mormon because I was around incredible Mormon people, fantastic Mormon people.
When I tell you great, phenomenal Mormon people around me.
So I said, let me look into this.
Then I went and looked at Judaism.
I looked at Jehovah seven day.
I was curious.
I'm going out there looking for it.
And I'm like, my dad wasn't going to church.
My mother was not, you know, wasn't like part of our, you know, like everyday life.
I don't remember ever doing a Bible study.
I don't remember ever doing, sitting down and saying, okay, kids, let's talk about, you know, such and such.
Il-Khalisi.
No, nothing, nothing like that.
And one day I'm like, you know what?
This is what I want to do politically.
My dad was a, what do you call it?
A imperialist.
Mother was a communist.
Kind of a family thing you're raised in.
That's a confusing communist.
Divorced twice in 20 years.
Parents got divorced twice in 20 years.
Our parents, you know how you see all these guys, frisbee people that are throwing frisbees down?
They threw, you know, plates like frisbees in our house.
It was so entertaining.
They could play frisbee with plates.
It was so fascinating, our family.
It was a very peaceful marriage that they had.
Yeah, yeah.
Sounds like it.
Yeah, yeah.
It's just very, very good.
So the point I'm trying to make is on why this has to do with that, I think we all have to question.
Every time somebody says we can't say, Fox said it, it's got to be true.
If CNN said it, it's got to be true.
If this person said it, it's got to be true.
Because if CNN's restaurant is empty, there is a reason.
That's fine to say that, but I will never agree with the fact that Fox doesn't give you news with a slant.
It's clearly biased.
Of course they can.
I didn't say they don't.
Okay.
Of course they do.
I'm not saying they don't.
I never said that.
Are you just talking ratings?
But here's.
Which I still haven't seen.
But here's the part.
I'll pull it up while you're going through it.
This isn't the one.
There's a ranking that they do that this 2.189.
Okay, so let's go through this one.
SNBC second one point.
Fox's channel, Cruise to Victor and third quarter cable, delivering an average prime audience of 2.2 million.
I see, easily outpacing MSNBC, which was distance second to 1.277 million.
They're also very sensationalist, and that draws a crowd.
Oh, my God.
That's what I think.
So you were sensationalist with the New York Times.
So you said you suck.
They were.
But I loved it.
Because it's true.
That article sucked.
So guess what?
You were right.
You can be sensationalist and right.
Yes.
I don't think Fox is right, though.
No, they are right.
They are right.
But again, again, I think my biggest thing is I've interviewed seven communists because I want to talk to people that disagree with you.
We should talk to people that disagree with you.
And I think you should go and sit down and talk to Tucker Carlson.
I would love to see that.
I think Tucker Carlson had me on.
He would regret it, but it would be great TV.
I think you're underestimating the power of a very strong debater who knows his world very well and knows the other person's world as well.
Sure.
Very well.
I think guys like him, I think the opposite of him was Jon Stewart at his peak.
I love John Stewart.
I love John Stewart.
I love Jon Stewart, but I also love Tucker.
It's so weird.
I'm confusing.
I do not like Jon Stewart.
I understand.
But I think I love both.
Well, you've got in the middle of the road a lot.
I veer this way.
Yeah.
No, it's totally fine.
And again, all I'm saying is I think if we're going to go, my challenge right now is if we're going in the direction that we're going with Iran, I would like to say, listen, you like the Lakers, I like the Clippers, but we both love Iran.
Is that okay if we just unify in this area and we say great high five?
We're scored away, right?
So we don't have to agree on everything, but let's agree on this one thing that we would like to see democracy coming back to Iran.
Let me finish this data because I hate to have guests on it and I don't finish it up.
Which was third overall 717 amongst 25 Wikipedia demographics.
Fox News outpaced them tuned up.
By the way, this must be a foxnews.com website.
Yeah, whatever.
You don't see the foxnews.com.
I feel like you think I'm like on the board of CNN or like my uncle owns it.
I'm not like, you know.
No, I don't think that.
But what I do think is, what I do think is, I think you're a very powerful.
Just look what happened to you in the last week.
And to me, you said something.
You said most of us are kind of like, you know, careful on what we say.
Different reasons.
Some has to do with career, the industry you're a part of.
You got to be careful because, you know, maybe family traditions, values, risk.
You're not careful not when I say about what?
Not you.
I'm saying you said at the beginning, you said, I said, you know, you were very vocal recently.
You said, I've always been not this vocal, but, you know, the risk of your career.
You said some comments.
Not my career.
You said different people have different fears of what they say.
For some, it is career.
Yes.
Not you.
For some, it could be career.
Yeah.
But I think there's some people that got a voice who are minor in media, you know, criticism that should use the voice more often.
And I think it's good for society.
I think you guys like when I use my voice when you like what I'm saying.
No, but I don't care what you say that I disagree with.
I want you to say it.
And then I want us to have a friendly debate and let the audience decide.
And I don't care if I agree with you or not.
Believe me, I've had criminals here.
I've had mobsters here.
I've had people I fully don't agree with.
But I want to poke and ask the question.
And the audience says, screw you, Pat.
I agree with them.
I don't know.
No problem.
It's good to go.
You get to decide for yourself.
Look, I don't like Tucker.
You like Tucker, but we want freedom for Iran.
So there you go.
I got one in two.
We're making friends today.
So this is the Friends 101.
Find areas of agreement.
Common ground.
Which is Iran.
So now let's go back and finish it out with the last 10, 15 minutes that we have here.
How optimistic are you guys?
How optimistic are you with how things are going right now?
Obviously, it's day 25.
For us, all we're doing is talking about this day 25.
For the people in there, it's day 25.
And day 25 comes with a lot of suffering and challenges and losses and a lot of different mess.
It's ugly, right?
How optimistic are you that this could be the one?
I know we talked about it briefly a minute ago, but how optimistic are you that this could actually be the one that leads to a bigger thing that eventually we can go back to Iran?
Mortez, I will start with you.
I go 200%.
200%.
200%.
So go to Vegas, bet on the odds, 200%.
We're going to be in Iran next year.
That's what you're saying.
Absolutely.
You think so?
You're that kind of.
These people have nothing to lose.
I had a message for martial artists generally and men in Iran when all we can do is all we can do.
I cannot go back in the country.
I'm prohibited to go back in.
But if I could, Patrick, I wouldn't wait here one minute.
Because I believe, seriously, I'm telling you, I'm not going to be able to do that.
So we have to get our insurance license.
I told my, yeah, we're going to have a branch over there.
That's a different conversation, but go ahead.
I told my daughter, I told my son, if I could go, you wouldn't see me 25 days ago.
I would be there.
Wow.
Because I feel this is a time.
It's a responsibility.
Yeah.
Especially for my generation that somehow we didn't do what we supposed to do in our time when 79 happened.
We have to pay our dues to the kids 12, 14 years old, putting their life in their hands and in the street.
They're getting bullied.
And that so-and-so men or martial artists sitting at home and waiting to see, you know, smoke goes away and then show up.
It's ridiculous.
It's such a shame.
Such a shame.
We have to go in now.
Otherwise, we're going to regret.
Patrick, if this regime stays after this event, God forbid and God forbid, I don't want to even think about it.
Nobody can remove them anymore.
We become worse than North Korea.
I think it'll be bad, my opinion.
I don't know if it's permanent, like you said, 1400, 275, the whole thing you were saying earlier.
But here's what my worries are with that: is $400 billion, 25 years.
China's going to own Iran.
That's the $400 billion agreement, 25 years.
Iran's very upset about that, too.
Yeah, but you know, they took the money.
It's kind of like so.
People were upset.
I know.
We're on the same page.
I know.
But that's my, the reason why, you know, everybody's like, this is the election.
Why you should vote for Hillary Eve?
Why you should vote for Trump?
Because this is a different, everybody says the same script, right?
But I believe this is like the real one because you don't want to be owned by China.
That's my biggest concern.
Because if we do, guess what?
Next time I want to be able to go fly in there and see my family 25, 68 years from now, 68 years from now, it's a long time from now.
I'd like to go in the next 12 to 24 months and not have to worry about my life when I go there.
So, I'm sorry, God, going together.
How long do you guys think this is going to?
I mean, they're on 25 days, and I wish them all the best.
How long do you think this goes for?
How long do you think that's going to be?
You mean this protesting?
Like, how long this is going to last?
Because I mean, it can't, I'm not, I mean, it's going to stop, but at some point, I don't want it to, I mean, because I think they're going to be in the streets until these people are shooting and killing.
And you were talking about it, the youth, it's the young ones that are stepping up.
They're getting killed.
They're getting killed.
So I just, I want to.
Let me answer you this way.
There's a famous saying in Persian.
They say, when mullah get on the donkey, doesn't come down until donkey dies.
This thing is not going to get over soon.
I hope not.
They are going to put so much blood on the street.
And guess what?
Freedom has a price.
Freedom has a price.
And if we don't pay the price, we're not going to get it.
I agree.
Well, and was it your point or your point?
You said we're not there.
That's the thing that's very upsetting: we know what it takes for something to change.
And it's a terrible feeling to sit here and feel helpless and just watch our countrymen get killed, knowing what they're fighting for, knowing all we can do is amplify their voices.
There was something that came out today.
One of the mullahs said, and he's known for, they're all hardliners, but he's known for just being a hardliner his whole career.
He said something like, it was translated as in, whatever grievances you all have, I'm open to talking about it.
I saw this briefly when I got off the plane.
So that shows a crack, maybe a crack in their getting really, they're showing that they're worried.
Like, oh, okay, maybe if we make some concessions, but the people have had it.
They're not trying, they're not in there for reform.
They're for change, regime change, democracy, secularism.
No, there's the moment you make concessions, they're going to go back to the same situation.
This hijab issue is so it was one of the pillars of the Islamic revolution.
So they know the regime knows if these women keep because you know there's all these videos, these girls are now, women are walking around Iran without their headscarves and people are filming it.
If they lose this issue, they know that it's only a matter of time until the whole thing crumbles because that's the one because then everyone's like, okay, well, now we're not wearing this.
Okay, well, now I want my equal rights too.
I want my word to be a woman's word is only worth 50% of a man's in court.
She can't sing in public alone.
She can't travel without the permission of her husband.
She can't get educated without the permission of her husband.
If she wants to get a divorce, it's not up to her.
She loses custody immediately.
There's a lot of things around it that they're fighting for.
So they know once the hijab goes, because that's the biggest, most obvious form of oppression, everything else is going to crumble.
And that's why I think they're starting to, we heard somebody say, oh, okay, maybe we should, maybe we can talk about this, guys.
Like, they're like, maybe we can talk about this.
I hope they don't negotiate.
No, no, no, I don't.
I hope they don't negotiate.
It's past the form.
Nobody wants reform.
They're not saying reform.
They're saying regime too.
That's what they're saying in the streets.
So when you were talking about, when we talked about CNN and Fox and what does it have to do with Iran, it has a lot to do with Iran because the news media is not speaking the truth.
Everything they're talking about, they're like, oh, you know, this person committed suicide.
That person had a heart and condition.
So people are being fed that misinformation and they're learning it from the best.
Well, CNN, I said, like I said in the last week, has been.
Jake Tapper has been accurately reporting information.
And if that's what you guys meant by what does it have to do with Iran, I totally agree.
Of course, the media coverage is not enough.
We still need more.
Everybody's, I mean, my friends, none of us are journalists by trade.
We're all in the arts or doctors, lawyers, everyone in the diaspora is like being the news right now because the news isn't doing their job.
Yeah, I mean, right now, that's the, I think that's the great equalizer.
The great equalizers were actually seeing it.
Like these clips, you know how every time I see these videos where it says, you know, such and such content, see why.
And then, hey, you click to watch it.
There's some, it says something.
Oh, yeah, the warning.
Yeah, warning, some kind of warning.
Yeah.
Click on it and then you watch it.
You're saying to yourself, this is not a movie.
This is real.
Someone's really going through this in Iran right now.
And that's happening.
It's getting suppressed on social media very oddly too, because, and I think it's people from the other side reporting people's accounts.
That if you even open some of the stuff that says it's distressing, it's actually just like an article that uses the word kill or death or murder.
I had a couple posts up that I was literally just translating what they were chanting in the street and my account was reported because it was like promoting violence.
And I wrote to Meta, and I know someone that knows people at Meta and they got it taken care of, which is you guys have to understand Persian translations to this wasn't me saying, let's go kill people.
I'm literally just translating a slogan.
You know what I mean?
That's unbelievable.
I do believe I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they just didn't have the mechanism in place and now it's in place.
Yeah, yeah.
So let's give them the benefit of the doubt and hopefully that stuff doesn't.
Reinstated, you know, you're back.
I never got blocked.
That post got taken.
I got you.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think there needs to be more famous, bigger names that are going to stand in the front and help them because I'm not really hearing anybody.
There's a lot of celebrity.
Well, Iranian, or I'm talking about like, oh, like if a promise somebody stood up and was like, hey, listen, look what's happening.
A lot more eyes.
Because I'm not going to lie, I'm not seeing a lot of it.
I mean, I'm seeing it because, you know, my mom and dad are from Iran and I'm a Syrian.
But I want to see some big, I haven't heard any big names really getting involved recently.
Wait, in America?
I have Kim Kardashian, Dua Lipa, the Hadid sisters, Ruby Rose, Viola Davis.
I can keep going.
But like I said, you guys have to be able to see it.
I have been seeing it.
Yes.
Well, that's what I'm saying.
Where is it?
I don't see it in the news because if somebody that big, to me, was it?
We're reposting it.
Yeah, exactly.
That's the problem.
I want to see somebody really step up and really start.
Kim Karnashian.
Kim Karnashian dedicated her whole story.
Oh, Fashion Houses did it a few days ago.
Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Gucci.
They all posted Zanzandigia's Adi, We Stand with the Women of Iran.
So it's happening.
This is great, man.
Just telling you, like, if this thing keeps, you know, momentum doesn't happen overnight.
It takes a minute.
It's been building.
Yeah, it's been building.
No, no question about it.
I mean, again, credit goes to the people that are in Iran.
Of course.
They get all the credit.
I just hope these people that, you know, one of the things I was thinking about, you know, how you said the shah should have never left.
If you know Khomeini was never in Iran and he still was able to do the revolution that it took place without having to be in Iran, right?
You know, like I'm trying to get a hold of we talked about him earlier, Ali, to speak to him.
Do you think it's safe for a guy like that to stay there?
Do you think it's safe for him to stay there?
Or it's maybe not a bad idea for him to go to Rome or Scott to Dubai, which is only a 45-minute flight.
For who?
Ali Karimi or some of those guys.
He's not in Iran.
Where is he in the middle?
Oh, he's definitely.
He can't be at Iran, right?
Okay, I got you.
Yeah.
Not after what he said.
Yeah.
I don't think he could have said that inside there without fearing for.
Yeah, there's some guys like that.
I'm glad he's not.
I thought he was in Iran because we're trying to message him.
And, you know, some people are saying you're not going to be able to get a hold of him.
That's good.
Just the fact that there's people like that that are talking, it's good.
And it's exciting that this momentum is taking place.
And we appreciate you guys coming out.
This was a great conversation.
Our audience is not a big Iranian community.
You know, it's like there may be less than 1% of 1% Persian.
The podcast is different content, which is even better because people who don't really follow this story now got a good clinic on what's really taking place from different perspectives.
Watch the video.
I think that this banner be keeping it on the bridge of the call version.
The call was when traffic comes, thousands of cars they're honking that we're looking at them from the up.
They're like white.
Yeah.
They're like black.
They're not Persian.
And they see these banners, they're like, it's becoming very popular this thing.
Be getting people's attention.
Yes.
Somebody said they're trying to do an event at YouTube Arena with 6,07,000 people where they're bringing Dariush and people like that to them.
In LA, there's something being planned.
Is there?
I want to go to it.
I'll tell you what.
No, the only reason I'm saying this is I'm open to the idea of renting out Staples and doing a one-day full event.
I say you're missing live all day.
That'd be awesome.
Listen, if any of these guys would have any interest and they're close to any of the main, like I'm thinking like 12-hour straight concert performing, talking, bring the youngest rappers from Dariush to Guguj to the youngest, to every one of them, and do a one-day full.
We rent out the Staples Center and put on a nice AV team.
And 100% of the money that comes in goes to whatever charity we can trust or form of helping, you know, where we're able to do something with that.
And people can keep giving.
We'll create a 1-800 number and show live exactly how much money we're raising.
That's not going to be hard.
We can the next seven to 14 days, in the next week or two.
I'll tell you about that offline.
But also, there's a group of people that I know too.
It's a large collective.
I don't know everybody in it.
It's Iranians based mostly out of Los Angeles, I think, that have started this GoFundMe.
And they're raising funds to buy ad space and billboards in different media markets so that they can get the word out because it's not being reported on.
So that's also happening, too.
I like that other angle.
I like us, like, if there's a if we know where the money goes to, yeah, too many times you've given money like to places where it's like the money doesn't do like the whole $900,000 of Black Lives, you want the money to go to a place that you know what they're going to be doing with it.
Big people, that's it.
That is the one.
Okay, there you go.
Put the link below.
Ad space and media space.
Okay, sounds good.
Well, folks, hopefully, you know, if you didn't have any plans about learning more about Iran, you just did, because we had five people that are Iranian here, and we were equal opportunities.
We got Tyler here.
He's here with us.
Tyler, honestly, your commentary tonight was the best.
By far, your commentary was best.
It took a little long to get that data for.
You're talking to the best in the business here.
I think you're doing it on purpose, but that's we were up and rocking.
He's trying to be friendly to you.
He's trying to be nice.
He wants you to leave with a good experience because he wants you to leave.
You're upset.
He's like, I love Tucker Carlson.
He's my uncle.
Anyways, his last name is Tyler Carlson.
Oh, snap.
That would be hilarious.
She becomes the director of that HBO documentary, and you're related to Tucker Carlson.
