As hundreds of thousands of Iranians take to the streets in support of their government and against recent violent demonstrations in the country, the chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) reports that the rioting seen in several Iranian cities over the last week is now under control. Claiming that "the Iranian nation has been targeted due to its resistance against the US and its lackeys and for its support for oppressed nations worldwide," Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari also reported that "a large number of the arrested trouble-makers at the center of the sedition had received training from counter-revolutionaries and the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization [MKO/MEK - People's Mujahedin of Iran, aka National Council of Resistance of Iran]."

When President Rouhani spoke with French President Macron yesterday, he urged France to stop hosting the MEK, which has been based in Paris since its leaders fled Iran after the 1979 revolution. Macron didn't acknowledge his country's support for the MEK, but he did call on the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel to cool their aggressive rhetoric. Much as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights spoon-feeds Western media with fake intel about what is going on there, and just as Turkey has to worry about the US-based fifth columnist Gulen network, Iran has to contend with a dodgy expatriate organization that Hillary Clinton got de-listed from the US List of Terror Organizations in 2012.

Undeterred by the sheer fantasy that a 'democratic revolution' could occur in a country that holds regular elections, it's all-systems go for the US media in its effort to 'catapult the propaganda' against the Iranian 'Islamic regime'. Fox News yesterday gave a platform to Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the Washington office of the MEK, in which he urged the Trump government to impose crippling sanctions (additional, presumably, to the existing ones) and to recognize his organization as the new government of Iran.

The heroic story of a righteous underdog fighting for noble ideals against a tyrannical regime has galvanized the US polity - right and left, including some among the ostensibly anti-globalist 'alt-media' - to proclaim their impassioned support for 'the Iranian opposition', whom they portray as democratic white knights against the theocratic despots ruling Iran. But a closer look at the 'better option' certain Westerners have deigned the 'saviors' of Iran reveals quite a different tale.

There are estimated to be over 200 million smartphone addicts worldwide and 46% of Americans say that they can't live without their smartphones. Mobile phones were initially an adjunct to the home phone, useful for emergencies while out on the road, but have morphed into an ever-present source of addiction for children and adults alike. Users check their phones up to 85 times a day, interact more with their phones than they do with other people and live in a state of continuous distraction. Warnings of the dangers of smartphone overuse have fallen on deaf ears as the technology has invaded every aspect of life. Researchers are finding that as we become more dependent on smartphone apps our cognitive capacities weaken considerably and we are left dumbed down, moody and distanced from reality.

Join us on this episode of The Health and Wellness Show where we discuss the dumbness of smartphones (and their owners) and if society can ever turn back after Pandora's smartphone has been unboxed.

Also stay tuned for Zoya's Pet Health Segment where she discusses the use of a common cooking spice as a solution for dog's itching.

Running Time: 01:20:05

Download: MP3

Infamous tie-eater, wanted criminal, ex-leader of Georgia, ex-leader of Odessa region in Ukraine, current figurehead for the "Ukrainian opposition" and all-around sorry excuse for a human being Mikheil Saakashvili is currently undergoing some legal trouble in Kiev. His Ukrainian citizenship was revoked back in December, prompting a series of self-preservation-inspired publicity stunts after he re-entered Ukraine and promised to stay. Since then, he has been taken into custody, rescued, questioned and released on numerous occasions. He and his supporters have called for Poroshenko's impeachment because of his corruption - Saakashvili says he's ready to become Ukraine's next prime minister. And just yesterday Saakashvili stunned the world by revealing the man behind all his current troubles: Vlad "The Man" Putin himself.

At the hearing, prosecutors sought to have Saakashvili placed under house arrest after he refused to answer questions from the SBU (Ukraine's security service). After refusing to speak, he revealed the dark hand of Putin to the media, accusing President Poroshenko of colluding with Putin to manufacture the charges against him. What charges? That Saakashvili himself is an agent of Putin! What a tangled web of Russian agents we have here.

Arch Russia-hater Mikheil Saakashvili accuses his arch enemy Poroshenko of being a Putin tool. Arch Russia-hater Poroshenko in turn is accusing Saakashvili of being a Putin tool. It doesn't get any better than this, folks. Talk about slap stick comedy! Just a couple weeks ago, famous Russian phone pranksters "Vovan and Lexus" rang up Poroshenko pretending to be calling from the Georgian special services. In their conversation, Poroshenko told them, "We found the connection between Mikheil Saakashvili and Russian special services. They financed him. We caught them red-handed."

Shortly before Christmas, a pronounced belch of methane erupted from the Washington Swamp with the 'revelation' that Obama had put the kibosh on a decade-long US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) investigation into a global cocaine racket allegedly run by none other than Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah. The goal of the Obama administration was to 'appease' the Iranians and secure the 'Iran nuke deal' in early 2016.

Although US media stopped short of suggesting that the former US president did so because he's an inveterate commie Muslim at heart, that sentiment was certainly in the air as the New York Post thundered about the "deafening media silence" following the 'revelation' and Bloomberg bellowed about Obama peddling in "alternative facts". If nothing else, the episode represented a brief but jarring turnaround in media fortunes for the globalists' favorite liberal.

A teacher of the Terra College in Assen, The Netherlands, who sexually abused his 13-year-old pupil and mentee has been jailed today for 30 months, which includes a 10 month suspended sentence. Last month the prosecutor sought a rape acquittal, as 'there was no question of violence or threat of violence'. This case follows in the footsteps of two separate rape cases in France last year when two men were acquitted of the same crime, as the French court was of the opinion that their victims - two 11-year-old girls - had consented.

The website SPECTR reported:

The events took place in 2009. A 22-year-old man took an 11-year-old girl to the park in Champs-sur-Marne, in the vicinity of Paris. He undressed her, asked her to lie on the ground and had sexual relations with the child. Despite her young age the girl became pregnant. She gave birth to a son in 2010.

In light of the facts the prosecutor asked an 8-year sentence. However, the court acquitted the man. As there was no question of coercion, nor threats or violence - the French legal criteria for rape - no unlawful act was committed, or so the judge argued. Therefore, the girl would have consented implicitly to the sexual act in the park, at least according to the court in question. [...]

The case is also remarkable as a very similar news item came to light in the end of September 2017. At the time the French prosecutor decided not to prosecute a 28-year-old pedophile for rape of another 11-year-old girl. Again, it was argued that the girl in question had not resisted, so one could speak of "consent". However, the lawyer who represented the girl said that the girl "[...] had been terrified and had felt ashamed" and therefore, had not uttered a sound.

What's happening in Iran? Are the protests genuinely spontaneous? Are the grievances authentic and deep-rooted? Or is it a drama created by covert, regime-change puppeteers? And what are the geopolitical implications of the success or failure of these events?

The Empire of Chaos threatened to throw the world into an unfathomable darkness. Instead, an Axis of Resistance has arisen
The New American Century project was supposed to extend the original American century (the 20th) by thwarting Eurasian integration (including Africa) and maintaining US hegemony. Rather than sit back as economic development transforms vast swathes of Asia and Africa, anglo-American imperialists wrecked country after country and used the chaos produced to justify their sales pitch of the world being one big war zone that must be 'managed' by the world's policeman. Nice work if you can get it.

But this modus operandi has suffered a heavy defeat. Islamic State (IS) - a geopolitical chess piece of the US - lies in ruins two years after the Russian intervention in Syria and the world's bully is walking around with a black eye. 16 years after 9/11 unleashed the imperialist reign of terror, Vladimir Putin has made the first decisive move to halt it. The US and its proxy forces can no longer terrorize the world with impunity.

For those unfamiliar with the term 'adrenal fatigue', it's a popular buzzword used often by those in alternative health and wellness circles to informally diagnose people who display any (or all) of the following symptoms:

Fatigue, insomnia, depression, anxiety, low libido, poor stress tolerance, dry skin, poor quality sleep, apathy, sugar and salt cravings, repeated infections, headaches, slow wound healing, menstrual irregularities, diarrhea, constipation, hair loss, palpitations, cold hands and feet, poor body temperature regulation, low blood sugar, increased effort to perform daily tasks, lack of energy, food intolerances, allergies, etc...

Chiropractor and naturopath Dr James Wilson, building upon the previous work of pioneers in the field of stress physiology, including Hans Selye, claims to have coined the term "adrenal fatigue" in 1998. Since then, a whole host of books have been published on the topic, and a simple google search brings up more than 403,000 results.

PJ Media posted a report on a new academic article written by two professors at the Oregon State University, and published in the journal Fat Studies (yes, apparently there's an academic journal thoughtfully named Fat Studies. Who knew?). The article, written by Vicki Ebbeck, a professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU, and Shannon Austin, a graduate teaching assistant at the same school, informs us that gym instructors and personal trainers are guilty of perpetuating "fat oppression" and "anti-fat bias".

The article is titled "Burning off the fat oppression: Self-compassion exercises for personal trainers," and right off the bat I've been triggered by that 'O-word', leading me to believe I know exactly what's coming - an SJW screed pigeon-holing all fat people into an oppressed category who have power held over them by a powerful group of fit people (mostly that most oppressive of oppressive power-holders, personal trainers). I wasn't disappointed.

That said, this one took a bit of effort to tease apart. On the one hand, this seems like a total 'snowflake libtard' academic take decrying what should be obvious - being overweight is not healthy and making efforts, through diet and exercise to control for excess weight, is beneficial - by recasting the overweight as an oppressed group. And make no mistake, that's exactly what this article is.

Self proclaimed feminist and graffiti artist Carolina Falkholt shocked the public when she painted a 40ft penis on the side of a residential NYC building on Christmas eve.

The "work of art" was commissioned by a street art collective called The New Allen which was created by Baby Brasa, a Peruvian restaurant. Fortunately, this was later removed by contractors hired by the landlord.

While some members of the public weren't particularly bothered by the mural and agreed that it was a form of " artistic expression", others blasted Falkholt for her lack of creativity and inconsideration for minors who would inevitably lay eyes on the giant phallus.