Be Mindful

Hands Off

Keep your grubby hands off my stuff, Elmo.

Parks & Rec

There is nothing so American as our national parks ... The fundamental idea behind the parks ... is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.

-- Teddy Roosevelt

Protesters gather at Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park as part of nationwide "Protect Your Parks Protest"

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday to oppose the recent firings of approximately 1,000 National Park Service and over 3,000 U.S. Forest Service employees nationwide. This comes as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency continue to lay off federal employees to cut federal spending.

The protest is one of 433 at national parks across the country organized by the Resistance Rangers. The rangers called for a nationwide day of action on March 1, encouraging protesters to hand out flyers to cars, put signs in front of webcams, hang banners, hang American flags upside down as a signal of distress, march in gateway towns, rally inside parks and picket around park signs.

The upside down flag has become a popular sign of protest, seen at demonstrations and rallies throughout the country both from those protesting the current administration to supporters of President Donald Trump protesting his felony convictions.

According to their website, the National Park Service Rangers are a "community of 700+ off-duty park rangers rallying to save public lands."

The rangers encouraged local protesters to meet at 10 a.m. at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center in Estes Park with protest signs and trash bags to clean up while at the site.

In February, hundreds of protesters gathered at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, carrying signs, chanting "Save our park" and cheering for NPS staff as they passed.

In a previous interview with CBS Colorado, Estes Park Mayor Gary Hall expressed concerns about how the layoffs will not only affect the park but also the communities that rely on them for employment. He said the community's businesses rely heavily on tourism from the park and he's concerned about safety risks to park staff and visitors.

"Estes Park is joined at the hip, heart, and soul of Rocky Mountain National Park," Hall said. "The health of Rocky Mountain National Park is the health of Estes Park to a great degree."

Hall told CBS Colorado that he's working with Colorado congressional leadership to advocate for the reinstatement of all Rocky Mountain National Park staff.

Resistance Rangers said those fired included rangers, scientists, wildland firefighters, first responders, trail crews, maintenance crews, and other mission critical staff.

Although the U.S. federal government is the nation's largest employer, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the federal workforce has grown little since 1980. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said "Most of this recorded spending growth is due to the rising cost of interest payments on the national debt and non-health, non-Social Security mandatory spending."

Indivisible Email

ICYMI: Elon Musk is "tweeXting" about Indivisible. Twice this week.

You know what that means - we’re getting to him.

He’s ranting about "paid protesters" because the idea that people would stand up to him, to Trump, to the billionaire class - without being on someone's payroll - blows his little mind. That’s how these guys think (they also cheat at video games). Everything is a transaction. Everything is rigged in their favor.

So when they see an actual grassroots movement of regular people fighting back? It sends them into a tailspin.

And it should.

Elon Musk is currently raiding the US Treasury for everything he can steal. His hand-picked goons have gutted entire agencies, mass-fired Social Security Administration workers and shut down local offices, and thrown government services into chaos. He's demanding access to taxpayers' records and pushing to give himself direct control over where your money goes - all so he can fund Trump's billionaire tax scam, which rips Medicaid apart, slashes food assistance, and hands $4.5 trillion in giveaways to the ultra-rich.

That's what this fight is about.

They want to take everything. Not just public programs, but public power. They want an America where a handful of billionaire kings control the courts, the laws, and the money - while the rest of us get whatever crumbs they decide to let trickle down.

Over the next few weeks, we have a clear mission: Make Republicans in Congress pay for their complicity. Force Democrats to use the power we gave them. And stop the Trump-Musk coup from gutting our country.

Here's how we're going to do it.

The Next Phase of This Fight: Musk Or Us March Recess

The House and Senate are heading home for recess from March 15-23 - and they are desperate to avoid you.

Why? Because during the last recess, the few Republicans who dared to hold town halls got absolutely wrecked by their own constituents. People showed up. They demanded answers. They called out their Members of Congress for gutting Medicaid, slashing Social Security, and letting President Musk seize control of federal systems with zero oversight. In the days that followed, we saw those same Republicans start to get very nervous about their complicity and their plan to slash very popular programs like Medicaid.

Republican leadership took notes. Now they’re telling their members to dodge town halls altogether. They know that if voters see what they’re actually doing - selling out the country to billionaires while shredding programs that millions rely on -- it will be politically devastating.

And Elon Musk? He's panicking because he sees what we're doing is working. If we weren't a threat, he wouldn’t be xeeting about us.

The Plan: Make Them Answer For It

Next week, we'll send you the full Musk or Us Recess Toolkit. But here’s where we start:

• 📞 CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS RIGHT NOW AND DEMAND A TOWN HALL. If Republicans want to vote to gut your healthcare and hand billions to Elon Musk, they should have to face their constituents and explain themselves. As for Democrats, we need them to be out there, loudly, explaining to their constituents what’s going on and how they’re going to fight back.
• Call Senate Republicans - If they’re gutting Medicaid and Social Security, they should say it to your face.
• Call House Republicans - They’re looting the government for billionaires. Make them explain why.
• Call Senate Democrats - They must hold the line against extreme MAGA cuts and demand real guardrails to protect against the Trump-Musk coup.
• Call House Democrats - They need to hear from us. No deals. No blank checks. No business as usual.
• 🔎 FIND A TOWN HALL - OR REPORT ONE. If you know of a town hall happening, tell us here.
• 🪑 IF THEY WON’T SHOW UP, START PLANNING YOUR EMPTY CHAIR TOWN HALL. We will call them out. We will invite the press. We will make sure every voter in their district knows exactly what kind of coward they are (just for fun, we came across this video we did back in 2017 on putting together an empty chair town hall, and figured you'd also like to see it). And if your Republican senator or representative is dodging, reach out to a neighboring Democrat to stand in for them at your empty chair town hall.

This Is A Fight for Our Country

• Elon Musk and Donald Trump think they can rule this country like kings.
• House Republicans think they can steal from working families to fund billionaire tax cuts.
• They all think we'll sit back and let them get away with it.

They are dead wrong.

• This country does not belong to billionaires.
• It does not belong to Trump.
• It does not belong to Musk.

It belongs to us.

We do not do kings. We do not let billionaires steal our government. And we sure as hell don’t stand by while a corrupt former president and an unelected billionaire try to burn our democracy to the ground.

So here’s the question: Are we going to let them get away with it?

Or are we going to fight like hell?

Blackout Friday

Those Kootenai Kops

CBS2

Security firm loses license after woman dragged from Idaho town hall

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — On Saturday, February 22nd, citizens gathered in the Coeur d'Alene High School auditorium to speak with elected members of the Idaho Legislature about community issues. The peaceful event quickly became a viral video on social media, as one woman was dragged from the auditorium by private security.

Teresa Borrenpohl was removed from her seat by a private security company, Lear Asset Management, who dragged her out of the auditorium and tried to tie her hands with zip ties, while the Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris recorded the incident, encouraging her removal.

Attempting to break free, Borrenpohl bit one of the unmarked security guards. A statement released by the CDA Police Department says in part, "During the meeting, after speaking out of turn, Teresa Correnpohl was asked to leave. When she refused, she was physically removed by employees of Lear Asset Management, a private security firm hired by the event organizers."

In a video of the incident, Borrenpohl can be heard shouting, "Women deserve a voice," before being removed. CDA Police report that Lear Asset Management's business license has been revoked for violating Coeur d'Alene City ordinances regarding security agencies and agents. The CDA Police continue to investigate the incident and battery charges against Borrehpohl have been dropped by the prosecutor.

A GoFundMe started the following Sunday, asking people to donate for Borrenpohl's ability to find legal counsel for the fight ahead. The GoFundMe asked for 30 thousand dollars, as of publication it has raised $245,000.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office reports that Sheriff Norris's conduct is also being investigated by an independent probe to ensure that his actions did not violate the code of conduct or the law. CBS2 reached out to the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office to clarify whether or not the probe extended beyond Sheriff Norris and who would be running the investigation. The KCSO spokesman said in response that a party has not yet been determined and that no other KCSO employees were present at the event.

Today's IG

Shut up and take my money.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Spacie Gracie (@spaciegracie99)

Missed A Few Items

We're not alone.

You May Not Have Known This, But People Are Protesting Donald Trump Around The World. 

We are only seven days into Donald Trump's presidency, and he's already made several controversial policies.

Amid pardoning about 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters to enacting mass deportations, rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and ordering the US to back out of the World Health Organization, people are already expressing concern over what is to come.

And it's not just those in the US. You may not know this, but people around the world have been protesting Donald Trump's actions and presidency since his inauguration.

From Berlin to Mexico and right here in the US, here are 21 images from anti-Trump protests.

1.London, UK:

2.Chicago, Illinois:

3.Brussels, Belgium:

4.Mexico City, Mexico:

5.Panama City, Panama:

6.Washington, DC:

7.Mexico City, Mexico:

8.London, UK:

9.New York, New York:

10.Berlin, Germany:

11.Panama City, Panama:

12.Tijuana, Mexico:

13.Naples, Italy:

14.Chicago, Illinois:

15.London, UK:

16.Mexico City, Mexico:

17.Boston, Massachusetts:

18.London, UK:

19.Naples, Italy:

20.Berlin, Germany:

21.And finally, Tijuana, Mexico:

Today In Georgia

Protests in Tblisi

Today, more than 20 protests and marches are planned in Tbilisi and regions. Various groups will hold marches across different locations throughout the day in Tbilisi.

Here’s the schedule of events:

• 10:00: A vehicle column departs from Kutaisi Central Square toward Tbilisi.
• 14:00: A march from Kaha Bendukidze Campus to Tbilisi City Court.
• 14:00: Social workers will gather near Tbilisi State University.
• 15:00: A teachers’ march will start from Vaso Abashidze Theatre.
• 15:00: A "Kutaisians’ March" will begin at Gabriadze Theatre and head toward Parliament.
• 15:00: A "Potterheads’ March" will start near D. Agmashenebeli Avenue at Sulakauri Publishers.
• 16:00: A "Svans’ March" will begin at Philharmonic Hall and head toward Parliament.
• 16:00: A yoga march will begin near Dynamo Stadium.
• 17:00: An "Acharians’ March" will start from Europe Square.
• 17:00: A march from Vake Park to Parliament for the fashion industry.
• 17:00: Striking students and lecturers will hold a march starting from Philharmonic Hall.
• 18:00: A "Rachvelians’ March" will begin at Vake Park.
• 18:00: A march of tattoo artists and tattoo enthusiasts will start from Philharmonic Hall.
• 18:00: An "Aragvelians’ March" will start from Bukia Garden to Parliament.
• 18:00: A "Kartlians’ March" will begin from Mziuri Park and head to Parliament.
• 18:00: A "Imeretians’ March" will begin from Marjanishvili Square.
• 19:00: A "Megrelians’ March" will start from Tbilisi State University.
• 19:00: A march of ISET students and alumni will start from Mikhail Zandukeli Street.
• 19:00: A "Gamers’ March" will start from Rustaveli Metro station toward Parliament.
• 19:00: A "Meskhetians’ March" will start from Republic Square.
• 20:00: A "Dancers’ March" will start from Philharmonic Hall.

Finally, at 19:00, protestors will gather again in front of Parliament to continue their demonstration against the Georgian Dream's decision on November 28. The protesters’ demands remain the same: to schedule new elections and free the demonstrators who were detained during protests.

The government has decided that Georgia will not open negotiations with the European Union until the end of 2028.

"It is time for our partners to demand new elections," writes the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabishvili, on social media.

"When the ruling party announces it will award the “order of merit” to the repressive apparatus high ranking officials, who have just been sanctioned …. How does one react???" writes the President of Georgia on social media platform X.

According to her, "It is precisely at the time when 'Georgian Dream' and the propaganda channel 'Imedi' declare that the OSCE recognizes the legitimacy of Georgia's elections. Lies about foreign statements have become a norm."

"An old Soviet habit! It is time for our partners to demand new elections," writes the President of Georgia.

"They Shoulda Shot All Of Them"

May 4, 1970.

Kids at Kent State University were out on campus grounds to protest America's war in SE Asia.

National Guard soldiers - also kids - opened fire, killing 4, and wounding 9 others.

People like this still exist. pic.twitter.com/MTs0D31WhP

— CaterinaCat (@CaterinaCatK) April 29, 2024

Oy

Another perfect example of the glaring hypocrisy of the GOP - the "party of free speech" clutches its pearls and staggers backwards groping for the fainting couch as people exercise their rights under 1A.

And the obvious implication is that Trump would, of course, quell the protests by turning out the military to bust a few skulls and send some protesters to prison for a few years to make sure everybody gets the message and blah blah blah.

That said, I think it would be good to get straight with the protocols of protest and civil disobedience.

• You do your thing
• You get yourself arrested
• You stand for the consequences
• You go back and do it again

You don't throw rocks and then hide your hands.

Because, yes - there are rules about how you break the rules. That's how we need to do things in a civilized and democratized society.

Sick to death of this wingnut crap, and just as sick of Press Poodles who continue to make like GOP stenographers, giving endless oxygen to authoritarian assholes, and doing nothing to clarify and contextualize the events.

Democracy dies in the darkness that WaPo refuses to lift.

Trump, GOP seize on campus protests to depict chaos under Biden

Republicans highlight images of turmoil, though most of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been peaceful

Former president Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans are seizing on the eruption of campus protests across the country to depict the United States as out of control under President Biden, seeking to use the mostly peaceful demonstrations as a political cudgel against the Democrats.

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The pro-Palestinian protests at numerous colleges — including Columbia, Yale, Emory, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and others — include encampments and barricades intended to highlight protesters’ denunciation of Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza, as well as to push universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Beyond the disruption to campus life, top Republicans have highlighted the antisemitic chants that have occurred at some of the protests. The issue is complicated by a debate over what constitutes antisemitism — and when criticism of Israel crosses that line — while some student organizers have denounced the chants or said they are coming from outside activists.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has cited the protests to accuse Biden and Democrats of being unable to maintain order or quash lawlessness, an accusation he has leveled at the president on other hot-button political issues. He has also highlighted the protests as a way to air his own political grievances, including the lack of similar demonstrations around his current criminal trial.

On Monday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social, “STOP THE PROTESTS NOW!!!”

As the protests have mushroomed in recent days, numerous Republicans have sought ways to highlight them as an example of the country’s slide into chaos. Several Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have visited the campus of Columbia University, the site of some of the most sweeping protests, to call for its president to resign for purportedly failing to contain the demonstrations.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, dispatched more than 100 state troopers to the University of Texas at Austin to clear out pro-Palestinian protesters, resulting in dozens of arrests. All of the charges against the protesters were later dropped for lack of probable cause.

The campus protests present conservatives with some of their favorite targets: elite universities, progressive activists, “woke” culture and civil rights leaders. In addition, attacking the protests allows Republicans to change the subject from less friendly political terrain, such as abortion rights and the war in Ukraine.

Their rhetoric is harsh in many cases. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) have demanded that Biden mobilize the National Guard to protect Jewish Americans on campus. Hawley compared the standoff to the battle over segregation in 1957, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower summoned the National Guard to force the integration of Central High School in Little Rock.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) suggested that the college protesters were mentally unstable. “You don’t get to turn our public places into a garbage dump. No civilization should tolerate these encampments. Get rid of them,” Vance posted on X. “If you want to protest peacefully fine. It’s your right. But go home and take a shower at the end of the day. These encampments are just gross. Wanting to participate in this is a mental illness.”

The GOP rhetoric has not been limited to campus protests, sometimes covering pro-Palestinian actions more broadly, including those that have shut down roads and bridges in some cities. Cotton, in a post on X, urged those who get stuck behind “pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic” to “take matters into your own hands.” Following criticism that some might read that as a call to violence, Cotton amended his post to say “take matters into your own hands to get them out of the way.”

Supporters of the campus protests say they are peaceful, and that accusations of antisemitism are often a pretext to shut down dissenting voices. Many of the Republicans criticizing the protests, they say, condoned or excused the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which was far more violent.

The students are “peacefully protesting for an end of the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” the group Jewish Voices for Peace, which supports a cease-fire in Gaza, said of the Columbia protests. “ … We condemn any and all hateful or violent comments targeting Jewish students; however, in shutting down public protest and suspending students, the actions of the University of Columbia are not ensuring safety for Jewish students — or any students — on campus.”

The Israel-Gaza war has deeply fractured the Democratic Party, posing significant political challenges to Biden months ahead of November’s presidential contest. Biden pledged steadfast support of Israel after Hamas militants stormed through the Israel-Gaza border on Oct. 7 and killed 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and took 253 hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel responded with a punishing military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, imposing a siege that has created a humanitarian catastrophe as Gaza’s health system has collapsed and the population faces a looming famine. The resulting protest movement has electrified many younger voters and progressives, as well as others in the Democratic coalition that Biden needs to repeat his 2020 win, who have called for the United States to impose conditions for aid to Israel or suspend it altogether.

Democrats have voiced a range of views on the legitimacy of the protests, and Biden has sought a balance between condemning antisemitism and supporting students’ right to protest. Republicans, in contrast, are largely unified in casting the demonstrations as a disgrace, echoing conservative denunciations of the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s.

Trump this week called a 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville — which he said at the time had “very fine people on both sides,” prompting a bipartisan backlash — a “peanut” compared with the current protests on campuses. Speaking to reporters after attending his criminal trial in New York on Thursday, Trump repeated the comments he wrote on social media and went further. He called the Charlottesville gathering, where a counterprotester was killed, “a little peanut” and added, “it was nothing compared — the hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here.”

Trump has contrasted the pro-Palestinian demonstrations with the lack of protests outside the Manhattan courthouse where he is on trial for an alleged hush money scheme. In seeking to blame Biden for the campus protests, Trump has accused the president of hating Israel, Jews and Palestinians, and accused Jewish Democrats of hating their religion. Many of the protesters are Jewish students, and progressive Jewish organizations have helped lead a number of protest movements since the war began in October.

“The Courthouse area in Lower Manhattan is in a COMPLETE LOCKDOWN mode, not for reasons of safety, but because they don’t want any of the thousands of MAGA supporters to be present,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “If they did the same thing at Columbia, and other locations, there would be no problem with the protesters!”

The tone of the criticism is not new; since Biden took office, Trump and other Republicans have pushed the notion that America is descending into chaos and lawlessness on his watch. From illegal immigration to soaring inflation to violent crime, they have regularly painted a picture of a country out of control.

These assertions have often been exaggerated or without context, but Trump has seized on them to promise a fierce crackdown should he return to power.

And during his 2020 reelection campaign, Trump tweeted in response to the large-scale protests over the police killing of George Floyd, which were mostly peaceful but occasionally turned to looting, writing, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The post was widely criticized for potentially encouraging private citizens, or police officers, to take deadly aim at looters.

Trump’s own position on Israel has often been hard to pin down. He has tried to position himself as a firm defender of Israel, but he has also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war and sought to exploit the fissures in Biden’s coalition over U.S. support of Israel.

After the Oct. 7 attack, Trump insulted Israel’s leaders while praising the intelligence of the Hezbollah militant group. Faced with a backlash to that comment, the former president proposed harsh policies against Muslim migrants, saying he would reimpose his ban on travel from Muslim-majority countries and deport students involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

In the weeks after the Hamas massacre, Trump said his administration would revoke student visas of “radical, anti-American and antisemitic foreigners.” Other Republicans still running for president at the time — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) — and GOP members of Congress similarly called for the visas of “pro-Hamas” foreign students to be revoked.

The spread of the college protests has ignited a renewed Republican response. When word circulated last Wednesday that pro-Palestinian protesters were planning to occupy a lawn at the University of Texas, Gov. Abbott sought to show that his Republican-dominated state would not tolerate a repeat of the encampment at Columbia University, dispatching state troopers.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said it responded to the campus “at the direction of” Abbott, who applauded the crackdown on social media. He said the protesters “belong in jail” and that any student participating in “hate-filled, antisemitic protests” at public colleges should be expelled.

Incidents at some universities have fed the criticisms, though pro-Palestinian activists say they are isolated incidents. Video re-emerged this week of a Columbia student who has taken part in the pro-Palestinian protest encampments declaring that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” The student, Khymani James, made the comments in a video posted in January, although he has since stated that they were wrong. Columbia said it had barred the student from campus, but it was unclear whether he was suspended or expelled.

In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp (R), following protests in several cities including Chicago and San Francisco, stressed that he would not tolerate anything similar in his state. Recounting a conversation with Georgia’s public safety commissioner, he said: “You know how I feel about people blocking bridges, airports and other things like we’re seeing around the country. I said, ‘If they do that, lock their ass up.’ ”

In New York City, Speaker Johnson and a group of GOP lawmakers visited Columbia’s campus on Wednesday, where they demanded that the university’s president, Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, resign for failing to quickly dismantle the pro-Palestine encampments and, in their view, for not doing enough to ensure that Jewish people on campus felt safe.

Their visit appeared to raise tensions, as Johnson was met with boos and pro-Palestinian chants. One student yelled at Johnson to “get off our campus,” while another shouted, “go back to Louisiana, Mike!”

And on Capitol Hill, Republicans last week urged the Biden administration to intervene in the demonstrations. Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), a top-ranking House Republican, sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling on them to deport students who she said “are brazenly endorsing Hamas and other terrorist organizations” by participating in demonstrations and related events on campus.

Separately, a group of 27 Senate Republicans, including every member of the Senate GOP leadership team, signed onto a letter to Cardona and Garland calling on the administration “to take action to restore order and protect Jewish students on our college campuses.”

“The Department of Education and federal law enforcement must act immediately to restore order, prosecute the mobs who have perpetuated violence and threats against Jewish students, revoke the visas of all foreign nationals (such as exchange students) who have taken part in promoting terrorism, and hold accountable school administrators who have stood by instead of protecting their students,” the letter said.

Divide-n-Conquer, boys and girls.

It used to be we had a "generation gap" that politicians and pundits fretted over. Now we have several generation gaps that can be exploited by cynical manipulators in order to gain political advantage for some vaguely defined "they".

The Daddy State is tickled pink whenever one group is set against another group. And when several groups are all set against each other, the power of the people diminishes considerably, and we're that much closer to Rule By Minority.

Today's Ryan

This is excellent is a couple of ways.

• He follows up on his own post, in order to make corrections and point out a possible error on his part
• He looks at it from an angle that's way out of his usual frame of reference

This is just good work.

Pushback

Mahsa Amini at 22 years old

Yeah - she's like really dangerous,

what with her insistence on

making her own decisions and all.

Assholes

People will be free. Even if we vote ourselves into bondage, there's always a kernel of dissent - a small group who won't knuckle under - who won't be fooled, and who will eventually bring the others around.

When the size of that kernel is potentially half of your population, you'd best be paying attention.

I'll say it again: Women will save us from ourselves - if we can figure out how to get the fuck outa their way.

The story of Iran’s Mahsa Amini uprising told through its most iconic images

It was a movement that began with the death of a young Iranian woman from a small Kurdish town. Over the next year, it spread on social media and captured the attention of the world.

This is the story of Iran’s uprising through its most memorable images.

1 Mahsa Amini’s death

On Sept. 13, 2022, Mahsa Amini was visiting her brother in Tehran just days before her 23rd birthday when she was stopped and taken away by the country’s infamous “morality police,” for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

View this post on Instagram

Within hours, Amini lay in a coma in a hospital bed, with Iranian police claiming that she had suffered a heart attack. Her family said she was beaten. The image of her shared on social media shook the country.

Three days later, she died.

2 Removing the headscarf

The protests began on Sept. 16, the day Amini died, with crowds gathering outside the Tehran hospital where she spent her final days.

As she was laid to rest in her hometown of Saqqez the following day, women took off their headscarves in protest. They chanted “woman, life, freedom” — a slogan that would soon be heard across the country.

پرچم مازنی‌ها ✌️👏
ساری، ۲۹ شهریور؛ مراسم روسری‌سوزان!#مهسا_امینی #مهساامینی pic.twitter.com/b2sAPJGIyV

— Pouria Zeraati (@pouriazeraati) September 20, 2022

translated:
Mazniha's flag ✌️👏
in Sari, 29 September; Burning scarf ceremony!
#Mehsa_Amini #MehsaAmini 

Some women took off their headscarves, waving them in the air or setting them on fire. Others cut their hair in public, openly defying the morality police.

کرمان، میدان آزادی#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/wk535lhtr9

— Kayhan (@cosmos196196) September 20, 2022

translated:
Kerman, Azadi Square

3 Targeting images of Khamenei

Images of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are everywhere in Iran, a symbol of his unquestioned authority.

As anger rose, protesters tore down posters and burned billboards featuring his face. “Death to Khamenei” became a rallying cry.

Burning Khamenei's billboard in Yazd with a Molotov cocktail. One way to show how much he is hated inside Iran.
#MahsaAmini #مهسا_امینی #IranRevoIution pic.twitter.com/0Kv85GIo4k

— Omid Memarian (@Omid_M) November 8, 2022

4 Rising up in universities

Universities became hubs of protest as young people became leaders of the movement. Campuses were raided by security forces. The government cut off the internet. Some students were detained or forced to abandon their studies.

When Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, visited one university in an attempt to calm protests, he was greeted by angry students yelling “get lost.”

Students at Al-Zahra University—an all female uni in Iran—shout in protest upon President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit:

“Death to the oppressor, whether it is a king or a [supreme] leader”pic.twitter.com/PyoCPQIgr8

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) October 8, 2022

In one clip, a group of young women can be seen singing the song “Baraye,” which became an anthem giving voice to protesters’ grievances and received a Grammy award for Best Song for Social Change.

5 Remembering Amini

In late October thousands of people made their way to Amini’s grave to mark the 40th day after her death — known as a “chehellom,” an especially important moment in the Iranian Shiite funerary tradition.

A photo of a young woman standing on a car without a headscarf became an iconic image.

6 Taking the protest to sports

Acts of protest weren’t confined to Iran. A number of Iranian athletes appeared to support the uprising on the world stage. Climber Elnaz Rekabi took part in a competition in South Korea without wearing a headscarf — mandatory for all women representing the country abroad.

Concerns for Rekabi’s welfare grew after a stilted message posted on her Instagram account claimed she was unintentionally not wearing a headscarf. She later returned home to crowds of supporters.

In November, members of Iran’s men’s soccer team at the World Cup refused to sing the national anthem during their first match against England, widely interpreted as a gesture of solidarity with the protesters back home.

Sardar Azmoun, a forward on the team, has been the most vocal champion of the uprising. “I don’t care if I’m sacked,” Azmoun wrote in a since-deleted post on Instagram last September. “Shame on you for killing people so easily. Viva Iranian women.” He later issued an apology on Instagram.

When the team was eliminated from the competition, protesters at home erupted in celebration over what they viewed as a symbolic defeat for the Islamic Republic.

سنندج شادی مردم پس از باخت تیم فوتبال جمهوری‌اسلامی.#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/uCn7FWZ1E0

— +۱۵۰۰تصویر (@1500tasvir) November 30, 2022

translated:
People's happiness in Sanandaj after the defeat of the football team of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

7 Showing global solidarity

در مراسم خاکسپاری جواد حیدری، از کشته‌شدگان اعتراضات به قتل #مهسا_امینی، خواهر او موهایش را بر مزار برادرش کوتاه میکند. pic.twitter.com/g3lg4fUsqq

— +۱۵۰۰تصویر (@1500tasvir) September 25, 2022

translated:
At the funeral of Javad Heydari, one of the victims of the murder protests #مهسا_امینی , his sister cuts her hair at her brother's grave.

As the death toll rose during protests, a video shared on social media showed a woman cutting her hair over the grave of her brother, Javad Heydari, who was killed during the demonstrations. The gesture is found in ancient Persian literature as a sign of protest, anger or grief.

Women around the world, from members of the Iranian diaspora to politicians and celebrities, cut their hair in solidarity.

And BTW - "morality police"? How in the blue-eyed buck naked fuck does that make sense to somebody?