Russell Working

"The Insurrectionist" novel. Russian lit. @VCFA MFA. @NYTimes @TheAtlantic @JapanTimes @SCMPNews

[Russell Working @ByWorking]

@NiohBerg Disgraceful. Did he think no one would take him seriously, that he could just troll the ayatollahs like Rosie O’Donnell?

[𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 🇮🇷 ✡︎ @NiohBerg]

From inside Iran:

“Our friend’s wounded father wasn't allowed treatment in the hospital, and died on a stretcher in the hallway.

A young girl who had been shot was found next day under a car, where she had taken shelter in fear, and bled out.

A young man working at our local supermarket lost his eye.

We got trapped under the Taj bridge in Sattar Khan and the mercenaries started shooting at us from above. We ran into an alley and saw that a young man had been shot in the throat with a shotgun point plank. He was gasping in front of our eyes and died, we couldn’t do anything because we didn’t even have the most basic tools, and phone lines were cut.

Last week, every morning when I went to open my shop, I saw lots of blood on the ground; customers were scared and wouldn’t come in.

We have a nurse friend who told us the regime are executing the wounded at her hospital.

Believe me, 12,000 is a joke compared to the scale of what we have seen and heard in just these few days.”

[Mark Dubowitz @mdubowitz]

Let me be clear: if Obama or Biden had thanked Khamenei and his goons for pausing 800 executions—after weeks of massacring thousands of innocent Iranian civilians—we would be outraged.

We should be outraged now. And horrified.

The U.S. needs to take action.

[Erfan Paydar @Erfanmusic]

💔 What happened at the Rasht Bazaar in northern Iran on Thursday, January 8, 2026, will go down as one of the most horrific crimes any government has ever committed against its own people.

A large group of civilians was driven into the bazaar through fear and gunfire. They were trapped inside, the entire place was set on fire, and machine-gun fire rained down on anyone who tried to escape the flames to save their lives.

These were ordinary people, protesters, men, women, and children.

How can some of you still defend this regime and try to frame this as the government dealing with “rogue rioters”?

Shame on you. History will not forget you.

#IranMassacre
#RashtBazaar

[Ridvan Aydemir | Apostate Prophet @ApostateProphet]

When the Iranian protests started, Donald Trump encouraged them.

He told Iranians to continue protesting and fighting.

He told them that the US will support them.

He said he would come to their aid if the Islamic Regime began killing them.

He said he will strike the Islamic regime and the regime will end soon.

He encouraged them more and more and more, by directly speaking to them.

Thousands of Iranians were massacred by the Islamic regime throughout the weeks.

No help ever arrived.

To make matters worse, Trump thanked the Islamic regime for supposedly not executing hundreds of protesters. The Islamic Regime DID murder thousands and execute protesters. Khamenei then publicly called Trump a criminal and called America the enemy.

This is shameful and disgusting.

[נועה מגיד | Noa magid @NoaMagid]

Arnika Dabbagh, just 15.
A champion swimmer.
The Islamic regime shot her in the heart.

She will never come home.

[Imtiaz Mahmood @ImtiazMadmood]

An Iranian in Mashhad just shared this footage of hundreds of defenseless men sprinting after Khamenei’s IRGC forces with nothing left to lose.

Live ammunition, tear gas, snipers…nothing is stopping them.

- @Tarikh_football

[Russell Working @ByWorking]

Horrible betrayal by Trump if we don’t do something. Why did he egg the protesters on if he didn’t plan to help?

[Tahmineh Dehbozorgi @DeTahmineh]

I just spoke to a friend in Iran who just got back online. He said the Islamic Republic hired terrorist militias—Hashd al-Shaabi and Fatemiyoun Division—professional killers shooting people indiscriminately in the streets and in front of their homes. The death toll is far higher than 20,000. Body bags everywhere. Families can’t even bury their dead. Now they’re bracing for the next wave of executions.

He told me that he watched so many people get gunned down in front of him that he wishes he’d died too so he doesn’t have to live with these images.

[FOX Sports: NFL @NFLonFOX]

What temperature estimates can we see at kickoff in the divisional round?

Football weather loading... ❄️

[Russell Working @ByWorking]

Said this elsewhere, but we're seeing the worst American betrayal in our history with Iran. Worse than Carter and Obama. Worse than Biden droning a family in Afghanistan. If @WhiteHouse planned to do nothing, why did @realDonaldTrump egg people on to go out in the streets to be slaughtered?

[Russell Working @ByWorking]

Worst American betrayal in the history of our relations with Iran. Worse than Carter and Obama. Worse than Biden droning a family in Afghanistan. If @WhiteHouse planned to do nothing, why did @realDonaldTrump egg people on to go out in the streets to be slaughtered?

[The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]

As protests mounted against the Iranian regime, the internet suddenly went dark. That’s when the killing began. https://t.co/BMVIryfXNm

[Mosab Hassan Yousef @MosabHasanYOSEF]

Poor timing from a leader isn’t just a slip. It’s a gamble that echoes.

Back then, Trump could have let momentum build on those Israeli strikes that gutted Iran’s military brain trust, backed by Mossad’s decades-deep groundwork.

Instead, he chased the ceasefire spotlight, dropping F-bombs on the timing while missing the real payload: unrelenting pressure.

Ego over execution handed the Ayatollah a lifeline. He regrouped, jailed spies, and now we’re staring at stalled protests and a tougher rebuild.

Bad calls don’t vanish; they compound. When the next window opens try not get in the way🙏

[David Jacobs @DrJacobsRad]

These are scout images from a CT scan of a young Iranian protester.

There are 47 pellets in her face. This is typical of BB shot, meant to take down large birds.

She will never see again.

I am outraged by the world's indifference to the Ayatollah's brutality.

#IranMassacre

[علی‌حسین قاضی‌زاده @Alighazizade]

Testimony of a witness

On Thursday night, on Ashrafi Esfahani Street, protesters realized that security forces were moving closer and taking positions around them.

Suddenly, from within the crowd, several individuals who had been chanting alongside the protesters pulled firearms from their pockets and shot the bravest individuals — those leading the chants — in the head, killing them.

These individuals, numbering around ten, then stood back-to-back, protecting one another, separated from the crowd, and moved toward the security forces.

As soon as they fully distanced themselves from the protesters and approached the security units, the security forces opened fire on the crowd, attempting to kill everyone who had witnessed what had just occurred.

This account indicates that, at a strategic level, the forces of the Islamic Republic were deliberately targeting young and courageous individuals in order to strip future protests of their leaders.

The witness says that he and two of his friends who saw the scene are in shock at the extreme brutality of the regime’s forces.

[Sana Ebrahimi Ledene @__Injaneb96]

A message from an Iranian mother:
"I am Dorsa Sattari’s mother.
I am the mother of Iran.
They shot my daughter.
I buried her in our own yard, tell the world she is safe.
I will lie beside her soon."

In Iran, parents take the lifeless bodies of their children home because they fear the regime will steal them, and never return them.

[Russell Working @ByWorking]

Hello, @realDonaldTrump? @SecRubio? Anybody?

[James Woods @RealJamesWoods]

Every time Republicans start huffing and puffing their faux outrage about all the Democrat corruption, tag them, then ask them when they are going to DO SOMETHING!!!!

Make it clear we won’t even bother to vote next year, if they don’t get off their worthless asses.

[علی شریفی زارچی @SharifiZarchi]

I am an Iranian university professor. I was in Iran until last week and directly witnessed the uprising of the Iranian people. What is happening is a revolution born of desperation and courage. I fully and unequivocally endorse the speeches of Masih Alinejad and Ahmad Batebi at the UNSC. Every claim made by the Iranian regime—including by its foreign minister and its UN ambassador—is nothing but deliberate, systematic lies meant to cover up crimes.

The regime has already killed my friend Parsa Saffar, a brilliant medical student at Mashhad University. Was he a terrorist? His only “crime” was being young, educated, and Iranian. The regime has filled the country with thousands of body bags. Were they terrorists too? How unarmed protesters, many of which being very young students can be terrorists? Why the so called "terrorists" that the Iranian regime claims only kill protesters, and not the rally of regime supporters?

Understanding Iran is painfully simple. Iran possesses some of the world’s largest oil, gas, and natural reserves, yet the Islamic Republic has driven the country into collapse: one of the weakest economies in the region, the least-valued currency in the world, crushing inflation, families unable to afford food or rent, massive unemployment, and millions of young people unable to marry or build a future because of economic despair. The people are angry—and rightly so.

The Islamic Republic has turned Iran into a deadlock through aggression, corruption, killing its own citizens, silencing all free voices, and enforcing internet blackouts to hide its brutality. The Iranian people are demanding regime change—just as people did during the Arab Spring in Syria. The same cruel regime that sent forces to help Bashar al-Assad massacre Syrians is now using the same methods to massacre Iranians.

I call on the United Nations, the UN Security Council, and every single government to end their silence in the face of the Islamic Republic’s murder machine. A regime that massacres its own citizens has no red lines—and will not hesitate to kill the citizens of other countries as well. Act now. Stand with the Iranian protesters. End this brutal regime.

#IranMassacre
#IranRevolution2026
#DigitalBlackoutIran

[Russell Working @ByWorking]

@JimHansonDC I would love to be wrong.