Where We Are This Week - 12/16/22
Tragedy continues in Iran, the vagaries of free speech™️ are debated, and Trump tries to make 'fetch' happen.
Well, that went fast. With holiday preparations reaching last-minute urgency, and travel plans looming ever closer, you may have not had a keen eye on world events this week. Luckily for you, I can’t stop myself. With a seventh-month-old, plans seem to make themselves, and no one honestly expects yours to be the family that does the traveling. Without further ado, let’s take a look at where’ve been the past few days, and what that means about where we’re headed.
Unrest in Iran continues, second protester is publicly hanged
Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was executed on Monday in Mashhad, Iran for his role in the ongoing protests against the tyrannical regime in the middle eastern nation. Rahnavard became the second civilian to be executed as a result of the demonstrations sparked by the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by the country’s morality police.
Mohsen Shekari was the first protestor to be tried, and publicly executed last Thursday. Both men have been prosecuted behind closed doors in what appear to be show trials. Rahnavard was charged with the crime of “waging a war against God” by the regime, a crime that warrants the death penalty. Assuredly, neither man was waging a war against the Almighty but was fighting for themselves, their mothers, and sisters, and against their oppressors.
Now, it’s being reported that Iranian professional footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani faces potential execution for his part in the anti-government protests. Nasr-Azadani previously played for the u16 national team squad and Tractor S.C. in the Persian Gulf Pro League. The footballer is being charged with “assisting in moharabeh” or, an “enmity against God.” FIFPRO, an international professional footballers union, has condemned his punishment.
Meanwhile, U.S. and European officials continue to only offer ‘thoughts and prayers’ for the Iranian people, and toothless condemnations of the regime. United Nations members continue to entertain the possibility of negotiating with the despotic government regarding a new nuclear deal. Journalist Masih Alinejad has been indispensable to the Iranian people in her efforts to hold world leaders accountable for their actions, providing excellent insight into her people's struggles.

Elon Musk suspends jounalists’ Twitter accounts
Musk has previously described himself as a “free speech absolutist”, and as it turns out, he’s not. Not that he necessarily should be. On Thursday night, Twitter suspended the accounts of several notable journalists for violating their terms of service.
A Twitter-storm ensued - we should really start naming these like tropical storms though I’m afraid we’d have to employ a few different alphabets. On a Twitter Spaces that was hosted by a BuzzFeed reporter, Musk claimed he was doxxed by the accounts in question.
This is where it gets tricky. The accounts, including @elonjet, had posted links to the billionaire’s real-time exact location. Elon was rightly offended by the violation of his privacy given that he said he was with his son at the time, but it’s not quite as clear as one would hope. The accounts in question were posting links to a flight-tracker of Musk’s private jet. Flight data is public information, similar to public records of home addresses so it’s not as if these accounts were posting banned content per se.
What is free speech and who wants it anyways? I’m a strong proponent of the 1st amendment, which protects your right to say about anything. But even the 1st amendment isn’t absolute on free speech - i.e. incitement of violence, yelling fire in a public place, etc. Should it apply to online forums like Twitter? Since Twitter has replaced the public square it probably should extend to it - though it might add a little unwanted patina to the social media site.
Musk’s takeover is destined to fail. Despite his intentions - which I believe are good - his inchoate reign as ‘Chief Twit’ - his words, not mine - demonstrates the frailty of online discourse. The job of content moderation is too big, and too polarized for one man - especially one that in any other nation would be described as an oligarch and has publicly endorsed political candidates. Last month, CBS initiated a company-wide moratorium on tweeting while they reviewed their stance on the company. Now, CNN is evaluating whether it will remain on the platform. While a response of 'good riddance!’ is tempting, it’s not helpful. As a society, we need spaces where there are agreed-upon rules under which we can communicate, Twitter may never be that place, but if Elon can put a Tesla in space, maybe he can turn this one around.
Trump issues NFTs and sells out
I promise I have no intention of making Where We Are a weekly installment of checking in on Trump. Though seeing what he’s been up to lately maybe someone should be checking in at Mar-a-Lago a couple of times a week.
Thursday, the former president teased his followers with a “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT” in typical Trumpian fashion. The last time he did this, he announced his 2024 presidential bid, so it wasn’t clear what this would be the plot twist no one saw coming - NFTs?
This comes an entire year after the bust of the NFT market, and during an economic recession to boot. Tone deaf and out of touch don’t even begin to describe this latest move that could signal his political demise.
Trump issued 45,000 NFTs that appeared to be poorly crafted, computer-generated images of himself, looking rather svelte I might add, in various costumes. They look like something out of a MAGA-induced fever dream.





But the Trump faithful have come through once again. All 45,000 sold out - one account bought 1,000 of these utterly worthless images. Either it’s an elaborate troll or a giant political misstep but I’ll be the first to eat my hat if it turns out issuing these - or buying them for that matter - turns out to be a masterstroke of genius. Don’t let me pick out the hat either, I’ll need to learn from my ill-begotten boldness.
World Cup: Two Cinderella stories of varying degrees come to an end
Argentina dismantled what looked like an exhausted Croatian team and stamped their ticket to the final. France bested Morocco in a close game despite the result never looking in doubt in order to appear in their second straight World Cup final. Morocco played an incredible tournament, and should be congratulated for making it at as far as they did - and how they did it! - but ultimately didn’t have the firepower to compete with an imposing French team.
I remain steadfast in my prediction that Les Bleus will be successful in their quest to repeat their 2018 successes, but Qatar is the real winner this year. If Argentina wins, Lionel Messi will undoubtedly be the player of the tournament, but if France wins, Kylian Mbappé will likely receive the ward - personally, I’m holding out for an Olivier Giroud hat-trick in the finale.
Both Mbappé and Messi play for the Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain, a club that is owned by the Emir of Qatar through the state’s sovereign wealth fund. As footballing nations- and viewers - blithely participated in this year’s competition, Qatar will have enhanced its eminence, and any stain on its reputation is sure to not set.
As a brief follow-up to my piece about this year’s World Cup, Eva Kaili, Vice President of the European Parliament, only a few weeks ago was seen praising the host nation saying that Qatar’s “reforms” had “inspired the Arab world,” and unbelievably, that it was a “frontrunner in labour rights.”



Last week, Kaili was arrested for accepting €600,000 worth of bribes from Qatar. Sometimes the dots just connect themselves, don’t they?
That’s it for this week. Be well, enjoy your weekend, and God bless the people of Iran.
Nice recap! So much for morality police. Who’s picking what’s moral? Hopefully, that’s not what awaits the USA. One would think, it could never get that bad here; however, it does depend on the administer of such a dictate. It doesn’t have to be killing people, that’s abhorrent. The deciding, can say, it’s not moral to have two vehicles in a family when others have none. The slope gets more slippy as time passes by, and everything is on the table. We are seeing these moral mandates already with health care and world forums. Our government was created to insure our Liberty, not take it away. At least it was here in the USA. Unfortunately, I feel like I’m sliding a bit on that slope already.