Undefeated

Yeah it’s unfair -but if we were running the wrestling federation ourselves, it’d be hard to just let go of one of our top guys. Dabir (who was an Olympic and World champ himself) wants to keep 125 competitive.

Putin launching missiles: (The one coming to help him is Aleksandr Lukashenko.)

The worst possible strategy is to drag out the war in Ukraine. It’s costly for the U.S. and plays right into Russia’s hands. Russia is a paper tiger—just like the Iranian regime. The U.S. should deal with them from a position of strength, not treat them like they’re still some global superpower. Russia isn’t the Soviet Union anymore

Th” is such a tough sound. Honestly, I don’t think anyone here can say “think” as perfectly as the female singer in this song. The guy kicks things off… and then Lady Think enters the stage. https://dl.nitmusic.com/1399/02/Elnaz Golrokh & Hamid Fadaei – Just Follow Me.mp3

Exactly!

Thanks a lot. I’ve watched quite a few of Nicole’s videos. Even though she emphasizes Standard American English as a language coach—and like @Gene Mills Fan said, she clearly articulates both consonants and vowels—I always felt there was a slight accent I couldn’t quite place. But it looks like, as you and @Gene Mills Fan mentioned, her accent is Gen Am rather than Southern CA, where she was born. The speaker in the voice clip below (as she says herself) has a Southern California accent https://ia801303.us.archive.org/30/items/abraham_lincoln_history_2_1603_librivox/abrahamlincolnahistory2_02_hay_128kb.mp3

Hey everyone! I really like the way the speaker in this video pronounces things. Does anyone know what American accent this is or which region it might be from? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W36zovOp5Lc Appreciate any insights

I get why Dabir wants to stick with his top guys, but looking at it objectively, it’s hard to see how Masoumi beats Zare anytime soon. The last match showed he’s still behind Zare both technically and physically. Personally, I’d love to see both of them at the Worlds and the Olympics

https://www.varzesh3.com/news/2137618/واکنش-تند-دبیر-به-تغییر-تابعیت-ستاره-سنگین-وزن Masoumi is really under pressure. Dabir said the federation won’t issue a license for Masoumi to wrestle for another country. Dabir is very upset. He said they’ve given and will give release permits to our level two and three wrestlers to leave, but Masoumi is a top-level wrestler and must wrestle for Iran. He also threatened that if Masoumi doesn’t attend the upcoming training camps, he will be removed from the national junior team as well.

Hey Jimmy, forget that condo life and come to Iran! Let’s check out some Ayatollahs, join anti-American rallies, and hey — you might even get to hear the real fireworks with missile and bomb sounds! Now that’s an adventure for a guy like you.

When celebrities publicly support Gaza, even if they mean well and are trying to stand up for innocent people, it often ends up helping the wrong side — especially the terrorists in charge. Yes, ordinary people and children in Gaza have suffered a lot, especially from Israeli attacks. But here’s the thing: their own rulers, like Hamas, have done even more damage to them. These groups provoke violence, then hide among civilians, so that when retaliation happens, it’s the people — not the militants — who pay the price. When someone like Pep Guardiola speaks out for Gaza, it sends a signal. And regimes like Iran’s use it for propaganda. They show their people, “Look! Even famous Westerners are against Israel, so our policies must be right!” It strengthens their grip on power and manipulates public opinion. That’s why I think celebrities should be more careful. If you don’t understand the local power dynamics — who’s actually in control, who’s using civilians as shields — then your support might unintentionally empower the oppressors, not the oppressed. It’s not about staying silent — it’s about doing your homework before you speak.

Reading that first post reminded me of something I saw as a kid, around 35-37 years ago. There was an elderly Afghaninstani man who used to sell vegetables in our neighborhood with a pushcart. One day, while he was pushing it down our street, some officers showed up and arrested him for being undocumented. They took him away, and the cart—still full of vegetables—was left sitting there in the middle of the street. I’ve remembered that old man ever since. That image never left me.

Yesterday, someone posted this comment on an Iranian football website. He was clearly a supporter of the Islamic Republic. He started by saying that football doesn’t matter when “1,000 of our loved ones” have been killed—by which he didn’t mean ordinary people, but IRGC commanders. Then he criticized the platform’s owner—who’s actually very popular among Iranians—for not condemning Israel’s attack. He ended his comment with “I’d die for my leader,” “I’d die for my country,” and included the Islamic Republic’s flag. Of course, by “my country,” he meant the Islamic Republic itself. Anyway, I wanted to share this so you could see the like-to-dislike ratio on the comment: 22 likes and 69 dislikes. One of the likes was probably from the commenter himself (the platform allows that). Obviously this isn’t a scientific or random sample of society, but based on what I’ve seen, I think the ratio of regime supporters to opponents in the general population might not be that different.

I don’t see how it’s hypocritical to distinguish between legal and moral responsibility. A country can be held legally accountable for past or present wrongs—and reparations might be part of that, sometimes funded through taxes. But that doesn’t mean individual taxpayers are personally to blame. No one should feel ashamed for something their ancestors or previous governments did

Well, for someone with 10 Olympic and World medals, winning another world title at 92 kg doesn’t really add much to his legacy. He’s clearly aiming to become the first Iranian wrestler to win two Olympic golds. That said, if the Greco events take place before freestyle at the Olympics, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the Greco guys—either Saravi or Esmaeili—manages to win a second gold at the next Olympics before Yazdani gets his shot. So even if Yazdani wins, he might not be the first Iranian with two Olympic golds. Still, I think his best chance is at 86 kg.

This issue has both a legal and a personal dimension. Legally, reparations are a matter of laws, historical responsibility, and international standards. But on a personal level, individuals can’t be held accountable for actions they didn’t commit. For example, decades ago Saddam Hussein, with the support of some Western countries, invaded Iran and caused a devastating war with many casualties. Iraq, as a state, still owes reparations. But it wouldn't make sense to hold an Iraqi citizen—born long after the war and uninvolved in any way—personally responsible for Saddam's actions. I think the same logic should apply when we talk about personal responsibility versus collective historical accountability.

You're right. None of us choose where we're born—we just happen to be born in a place with a history that, honestly, has nothing to do with us personally. We're only responsible for our own actions, not for the pride or the mistakes of those who came before us. That’s why I don’t think modern Germans have any reason to feel ashamed of Germany’s past. Now, about that video—those people weren’t joking around. In Iran, there’s actually a group of people who admire Hitler. And at least at that time, they were making two major mistakes. First, they genuinely believed that Hitler liked Iranians for racial reasons. But the Nazis' definition of the "Aryan race" didn’t include Iranians at all—though this group in Iran doesn’t see it that way. They treat Hitler’s Mein Kampf almost like a holy book—some even keep a copy in their personal libraries, get swastika tattoos, and use Hitler’s photo as their profile picture. So no, it definitely wasn’t a joke to them. Second, they weren’t trying to offend the Germans—quite the opposite. They actually thought the Germans supported Hitler. So when Germany’s national anthem was played at a stadium, they gave the Nazi salute thinking it was the most respectful way to honor their guests. It’s wild when you think about it—they meant it as the ultimate sign of respect, and it ended up being one of the worst insults imaginable. Honestly, someone should make a movie about the whole thing and call it The Misunderstanding.

Hey everyone, I want to share a truly bizarre video that Iranians have been laughing at for years—mostly out of shock and disbelief. About twenty years ago, the German national soccer team came to Tehran to play against Iran. Among the spectators were some Iranians who, strangely enough, admire Hitler and believe in certain delusional myths about him. For example, they think that because Iranians are “Aryans,” Hitler had deep respect for them—this kind of historical fantasy. These fans, totally unaware of German culture and how Germans actually feel about Hitler, assumed that Germans (still?) admire him. So, in what they thought was a respectful gesture toward their “honorable opponents,” they did something that left the German players and fans at the stadium absolutely horrified. They gave a Nazi salute—during the German national anthem Here is the video The people holding German flags are German fans—completely frozen after the Iranians' "Heil Hitler" moment. They're just staring in disbelief

I think — though I’m not sure — that Yazdani himself has never said he won’t wrestle at 86kg anymore — that seems to have come from the national team coaches. All he’s said is that, after his surgery, his doctor advised him not to cut weight anymore. I still believe Yazdani plans to stay at 86kg, at least for the upcoming Olympics. Honestly, my confusion mostly comes from Yazdani’s usual vague way of speaking. He always has this cautious self-censorship — which seems like a contagious condition a lot of people have caught. The only Iranian wrestler I know who actually says things you can make sense of is Amir Mohammad Yazdani. The rest of them just stick to the same old clichés every time they talk.

That’s right. Thanks for pointing that out — I realized I’d translated it wrong. The correct translation (which was done by James Ross back in 1890 and I found it here) is: Which, of course, is part of a longer sentence. The full sentence is:

If the U.S. really wants to take meaningful action to pressure the Islamic Republic, it should identify all Iranians who have previously collaborated with the regime — as well as their children who are now living in the U.S. — and kick them out of the country, hard. Some of them might be speaking out against the regime now, but only because it serves their own interests. That shouldn’t be the measure. Anyone who was even for a moment a cog in that machine of repression and killing should be deported straight back to Iran. It wouldn’t even be hard — the FBI and other U.S. security agencies are more than capable of identifying them. That’s what real sanctions look like — not punishing ordinary citizens, who actually oppose the regime.

The issue isn’t about lifting sanctions. In fact, we fully support the harshest sanctions — but against the Islamic Republic itself and its top officials, not these ridiculous sanctions that don’t hurt the regime at all and only target ordinary people. If the sanctions were actually effective, the U.S. wouldn’t even need to talk about bombing right now. Sanctions need to be targeted, not random and indiscriminate. I’ve said before in previous comments: their children actively collaborate with their regime-connected parents. Western governments are hypocritical. For example, when the Islamic Republic shot down a civilian passenger plane over Tehran and everyone on board died, Trudeau went and lit candles with the Iranian community. But in that same Canada, they gave an award for “Top Entrepreneur” to the son of a regime official who stole billions and fled to Canada with his family — all because he “created jobs” by investing stolen money in Canada. I’m not making this up — you can look up his name yourself: Ardavan Khavari. What I’m saying is: why is your government handing out green cards to the children of terrorists? Aren’t you trying to put pressure on the regime leaders? If their families were actually in Iran, experiencing the effects of the sanctions firsthand, then the regime would feel the pressure. But when none of them are even living in Iran, what kind of pressure are these sanctions putting on them? Absolutely none.

There are plenty of declarations like that in the world. What I know is this: they’re bringing their corruption and cruelty with them to the West. A lot of people in Iran hold deep grudges against these families. It’s possible that by the time we gain the operational power to act against these traitors, the current rulers of Iran will already be dead. When that day comes, we’ll go after their children. And if their children are gone too, we’ll go after their grandchildren. I hope, when that day comes, your children or grandchildren aren’t standing beside them. You have the chance to prevent that danger now. For the safety of your own kids, don’t let the children of regime agents and Islamic Republic loyalists into your country.

The internet was completely shut down in the early days of the war in Iran by the Islamic Republic. They claimed Israel was using internet towers to control drones. After the ceasefire, they gradually started restoring access. The modem I have just fully connected today—it was barely getting a signal the past few days.

No. Because they don’t even work in Iran. Their developers are based in Europe and Canada. And even the ones who are still in Iran and work for military-affiliated institutions have access to supercomputers, ultra-fast internet, and tools that let them bypass these sanctions completely—so restrictions like this don’t affect them at all. And let me show you yet another example of this bizarre contradiction. Ensieh Khazali was the former Vice President of Iran under Raisi—the man known as “the Butcher” for his brutal role in executing political dissidents. She’s also the daughter of one of the highest-ranking ayatollahs in Iran. Ensieh is one of the figures behind Iran’s internet censorship policies. Because of people like her, Iranians have no direct access to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, X (Twitter), or even YouTube. If they want to use them, they have to pay for a VPN. Now guess what Ensieh’s son does for a living? He runs a VPN company in Canada! Here’s her Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensieh_Khazali And here’s a picture of her son, who sells VPNs from Canada to Iranians trying to get around the censorship he and his family helped create: https://techna.news/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image-2.jpg https://rooziato.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image_750x_631b112a452c7.jpg See what kind of corrupt business they’re running? And yet people are still willing to give them green cards and say things like “you can’t blame the children for the actions of their parents.” Seriously? They’re all in this together. When someone asked Ensieh what her son is doing in Canada, she replied: “He’s helping export the Islamic Revolution to the West.”