Andrew Campbell

'My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare / I had to cram so many things to store everything in there’ - David Bowie

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

As of Dec 2019, the Yellowhead Institute noted that only 9 of 94 #TRC calls to action had been implemented. As of June 1, 2021 the CBC’s tracker says 10 are done. In six years. And these are the low-hanging fruit! #215children

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

A year old, but how much has changed? :: Calls to Action Accountability: A Status Update on Reconciliation - Yellowhead Institute https://t.co/dxFgIgAjtp

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

I was once an undocumented migrant in Spain – this new decree will change lives | Francheska Melendez https://t.co/6ImoxKUNRy

[𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 🇮🇷 ✡︎ @NiohBerg]

🔴 🧵 Dispatch of the last few days from inside Iran.

Please read and share. This is a detailed ground report from Tehran and Karaj.

1/3

"
I am inside Iran.

I write this from a connection so weak it feels like breathing through a cracked wall. I am an IT expert, and it still took me three days to build a slow, unstable link. Most of my friends have nothing. No messages. Not even calls during the night. Absolutely no internet connection at all.

This is only a fraction of what happened across these nights. Even if an all seeing AI tried to translate every second into words, the result would be hundreds of pages, at least 300, because the whole country was fighting in the dark at the same time.

This is my diary of January 8 through January 10. It is built from what I witnessed and what trusted friends and family relayed to me through offline means and brief signal windows during the blackout. I am not guessing. I am recording.

Thursday, January 8, 2026

The call was for 8 pm. People started chanting before 4 pm.

By 6 pm the digital blackout began to clamp down. Connections dropped, returned, dropped again. I kept mine alive by switching through layered VPN methods. Most people could not. One by one, the city went silent online while getting louder in the streets.

By 8 pm, Tehran and Karaj were packed wall to wall. Protests do not look like that. This was the streets being taken back. We have not seen numbers or nerve like this in 2009, 2022, or November 2019.

From 8 pm to 11 pm, the streets were fire. Clashes with regime forces. People defending each other. Around 9 pm, in some areas, they moved to live rounds. People were shot.

Tehran, Haft Hoz, Narmak, Tehranpars

A friend in Narmak described a crowd that still sounds unreal. Elderly women and men. Youth. Children. Every kind of Iranian. It was not one group. It was the country in one place.

At about 7:10 pm, they saw roughly ten to twenty uniformed forces near the metro. Later, the uniforms faded. The plainclothes multiplied inside the crowd.

Before the main gathering fully peaked, my friends tried to use the restroom. They entered through the parking entrance of a commercial complex. The moment they stepped inside, the chant hit the building. Long live the Shah. Immediate. Then tear gas was released inside the mall. Panic. People rushing for any exit.

They took an elevator down to reach the restrooms. Suddenly people ran in telling them to get out now because the doors were going to be shut and they would be trapped and jailed inside. They ran out and hit a flood of people in the street. They stayed with the chant and moved toward the larger crowd.

Tear gas kept landing in the middle of people. Over and over. In one hour alone, more than twenty to thirty canisters were fired. One detail matters. The friend reporting this was near the back end of the crowd, and the crowd stretched for about a kilometer. From where they stood, it did not make sense for the gas to be coming from the direction of the Haft Hoz police station. Some canisters seemed to come from within the crowd or from above, from rooftops or higher points. That kind of attack makes you doubt everyone around you.

Over roughly four hours, that friend says they stopped seeing uniformed forces entirely. What they saw instead was plainclothes agents everywhere, breaking groups apart with speed and ease.

People fought back the way unarmed crowds can. They pulled down signs. They smashed surveillance cameras. They kept moving. The crowd did not shrink. It grew.

By around 10:30 to 11 pm, regime forces started dispersing the crowd again and again at intersections. The mass broke into smaller clusters. People got scared. Many started to leave.

But from the front came a different report. People were saying groups were moving toward the Haft Hoz police station to storm it. Then came shootings. My friend reported people were hit, including someone shot right next to their friend.

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

It’s war and peace with Donald and Pete – and the worst group chat the world has ever seen | Marina Hyde https://t.co/3NJA8bpEEF

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats https://t.co/jvofruXL5B

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

I’m a pediatrician in Texas. Things are dire and we need your support – not your condescension | Seema Jilani https://t.co/aIwTwFg71h

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

We are on the road for democracy and justice | Bernie Sanders https://t.co/iER3O29lOU

[Jonina Campbell @joninacampbell]

“There’s nothing there. No new ideas. No new promises. No new programs or services to address the doctor shortage, ER closures, prolific offenders, street crimes, housing or cost-of-living concerns.” #bcpoli #thronespeech

[Jillian Oliver @Jillyoli]

The @BCGreens just released a great mental health platform, which includes adding a mental health option to 911 and 6 appointments with a psychologist covered under MSP:

[JayKeeley @doomedparade]

whatever you have going on in your life pls remember that reggae Led Zeppelin with Elvis on vocals exists #DreadZeppelin

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

I’m an expert on adolescence: here’s why a smartphone ban isn’t the answer, and what we should do instead https://t.co/CQTn9KevBY

[Jonina Campbell @joninacampbell]

The Adam’s Family is coming to #newwest Shows run from May 30-June 1st. I’m pretty excited as my daughter is playing Wednesday. https://t.co/uoeFyxBwo1

[Lubalin @lubalin_vibe_co]

turning random internet drama into songs, part 2

[Jo @JoJoFromJerz]

My 14-yr old son just pointed out that we dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki 29 years before I was born but the Tears for Fears song we were listening to in the car was 39 years ago from today and that simply is not possible and I can’t believe he would lie like that.

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

Threads like this solid gold one from @pretentiouswhat are the reason I am still clinging to twitter, although sadly the signal-to-noise ratio has deteriorated so much these are now a rare find

[David Fishman @pretentiouswhat]

China Taxicab Chronicles 5: Solitary Mr. He

Mr. He picks me up in Shanghai on my way to the maglev station. He looks to be in his late 50s. It's about 7am and I'm pulling a suitcase, clearly heading to the airport.

"Hello, foreign friend. Are you going home for the New Year?"

[The Record @TheRecord]

Letter: 'Sorry' shouldn't be hard for New West politicians to say https://t.co/OEXhyx3FzP

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

Currently listening to Midnight Oil - Punter Barrier - fantastic live album. And this song one of my all-time faves https://t.co/1czN3qu8vZ

[Andrew Campbell @sackofguts]

Hi @duolingo - all I want for Christmas is an Icelandic course on Duolingo. What say?

[Jillian Oliver @Jillyoli]

This amounts to abandoning any progress BC has made on climate change.

Recent research suggests LNG is worse than coal and that touted benefits of carbon capture are overblown. #bcpoli