Radio Show Hour 2 – 06/26/2025

[00:00:13] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West. You are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show. All right. Happy to have you along, my fellow Americans. Sam Bushman live on your radio. Hard-hitting news the numbers refuse to use no doubt continues now. This is Hour 2 of 2. This is the broadcast for June 26th in the year of our Lord, 2025.

[00:00:42] Our goal to use the supreme law of the land, along with the incredible checks and balances brilliantly put in place by our founding fathers. That's the solution at our fingertips, ladies and gentlemen, to restore the republic, the checks and balances brilliantly put in place by our founders in the supreme law of the land. As you know, we reject revolution. We stand for peaceful restoration of the greatest country on the face of the earth because we follow the Prince of Peace. So we reject revolution unless it's a Jesus revolution.

[00:01:11] And then we're in because we do follow the Prince of Peace. Last hour, we had a great breakdown with Brian Rust, FreewaterCoinCo.com, and Pete Sepp, National Taxpayers Union President, NTU.org. We talked about the big, beautiful bill. We talked about the, you know, how do you even know what's going on with the spending? How do you know what's going on with the bill? How do you know if you support the bill if you can't even read it? Well, I know it's out there. It's over a thousand pages long. But when you read it, you're really reading yesterday's news or yesterday's news. Why?

[00:01:40] Because the House is changing it. The Senate's changing it. And they're working on, what do they call that, a big old conference to reconcile. And, you know, by the time they vote on it, nobody can read it. Nobody knows what's in it. It's a disaster on steroids. On one hand, they say that we're going to, hey, save all kinds of money with dodes and everybody else. But yet now they want to increase the debt ceiling. Anyway, what gives with that? What gives with Iran? On one hand, we're told, hey, they bombed them into oblivion. No nukes, man. They're set back decades, says Trump. CNN says months.

[00:02:11] How do you know the truth? We're going to find out to the best of our ability some of the truth. We've got an incredible guest now. He's an immigrant to the United States. And all you've got to do is ask an immigrant when you want to get to the bottom of something, I guess. Oftentimes they have a unique perspective that we simply do not have because of their lives experience, because they've lived other places and they know what it's like and what it's not like. They can analyze the truth in a very different way than we can.

[00:02:38] Today we've got Arash, Aram, with us. He was born in Tehran, Iran, and his family escaped and arrived in the United States after the coup d'etat, I guess, that took place back in 1979. They came here as political refugees with only the shirts on their back, basically. And he is an American, really, living in America now. But he's got family and people and others that know what's going on. And welcome to the broadcast of Rush.

[00:03:08] Thank you, Sam. Thanks for having me. Catch me up. What about this idea of the perspective that you guys have that we don't because of your life's experiences? I mean, I don't know anything about Iraq, to be honest with you, except for what the news tells me, right? And most of that's fake news. Basically, yeah.

[00:03:26] You know, without getting into too many crazy details, the story of Iran, for whatever reason, at least for the story of Iran in the 20th century, has been completely distorted. Very little of what people think they know about Iran is actually true. You know, since this whole, you know, bombing campaign began, you know, all my friends on Facebook keep posting all this stuff.

[00:03:54] And I've been spending hours and days like, no, no, no, this is false. This is wrong. So it's insane. I agree. Now, let's start with your story then, because nothing like a real perspective. You were born in Iran. You lived there. Things didn't go well. Well, let's kind of get the historical perspective on this, and then we can move into maybe what's really happening on the ground and what the reality of today is. Certainly.

[00:04:20] Yeah, I was born there in Tehran. And, you know, when at the time when I was born, which was at the beginning of the 1970s, you know, Iran was a prosperous place. It had gone through this radical, well, maybe radical is not the right word because it has such negative connotations. It had gone through this dramatic transformation at the end of the 19th century under the previous dynasty.

[00:04:48] Iran had basically become this horrible rundown place. Literacy was something like 10%. The country was extremely poor. People were hungry. And when the Pahlavis came in and they basically overtook the country, they transformed it. It became this, you know, I want to say paradise, but, you know, take that with a big grain of salt. But it became a place where people were educated, literate. Nobody was hungry.

[00:05:18] It's a comparative discussion, not a totality discussion, right? Exactly. Exactly. So at the time when I was born, you know, it was a pretty prosperous place. You know, I always tell people, and I think sometimes they're surprised by this. When I went to where I went to elementary school, most of the kids I went in my class were Americans. They were American kids that I went to school with. And, you know, I went to their houses for birthday parties. They came to my house for my birthday party.

[00:05:48] We're all friends. We play outside. You know, we'd watch the same, you know, TV shows. And a lot of them were like American TV shows. We had this great relationship with the U.S. And then something went wrong. And I think it broadly has to do with, you know, basically the oil crisis, the energy crisis that happened in the 1970s. And, you know, again, without getting into all the details, the country fell apart.

[00:06:15] And I do believe it was because of external forces, powers deciding that, hey, they wanted our resources. So they should. Tell me from where? What external powers? What sort of? It was mainly the Democrats under Jimmy Carter and his allies in Europe, mainly Germany, the UK, France. You know, France was basically harboring Khomeini.

[00:06:44] You know, the, you know, the mullah with a beard who's, you know, was everywhere in 1979. They basically housed him and protected him. And when it was time for him to, you know, return to Iran, they basically flew him on a private 747 Air France jetliner. You know, there's this famous photo of the pilot, you know, gingerly helping this, you know, older man down the steps of the airplane, you know, into Iran. I mean, that's a coup.

[00:07:14] That's not a revolution. So at that time, you know, my father. So the United States was involved in the coup? They were. They were. You know, I tend to say the Democrats and not the United States because I don't believe, at least at that time, I think there was. Your point is you want to separate the American people from some of the leadership at the time. Is that the point? Exactly. Exactly. Go ahead. I don't mean to take words out of your mouth, but I want people to understand.

[00:07:42] Hey, the average American wants peace for everybody, right? Exactly. They do. We've always said, my parents always said this, even before we moved to the U.S., that they always thought the Americans were, you know, just a fair, nice, kind people. You know, so it, you know, of course, I don't harbor a single, you know, bad thought about American people. But, you know, the party that was in power and they decided through their policy to overthrow the, you know, my country, my homeland.

[00:08:12] And, you know, I do harbor ill will towards them for sure. All right. And so the leadership of many people in the world, they got greedy. They wanted to basically slice and dice up Iran for the purposes of getting at the oil and getting at the prosperity there, right? That's right. That's right.

[00:08:29] And so because my father had a very, you know, high level position in the Shah's government, he basically was, I think the equivalent would be something like the head of the homeland security type of thing position. You know, he saw the writing on the wall.

[00:08:48] So he put my mom, my sister and me on a plane before things had fully, you know, fallen apart and sent us to London because we had some relatives there. And I learned years later, many years later, that they really thought it was going to be a temporary thing. Like he just wanted us to, you know, leave. And why don't you guys go vacation for a little bit? We're good. Yeah, exactly. Until things swept themselves out. And while we were in Iran at that time, you know, we'd already left our house.

[00:09:18] We had gone and were staying in my aunt's house because, again, of my father's position because he was wary that, you know, these mobs might, you know, pour into our house and basically kill us. And sure enough, this is after my mom, my sister and I had left. They did indeed pour into our house and looted everything and, you know, destroyed the place. So we really did escape with, you know, skin of our, I don't know what the expression is.

[00:09:48] So you fled to London and it turned out to be more permanent than you expected. Exactly, exactly. And we were there waiting for my dad to join us because he wanted to stay to try and fight, basically. And eventually he made it out of there, you know, in disguise. They had his posters of him all over the walls because they genuinely feared my dad as, you know, as someone who could potentially squash that coup. So he had to go into hiding and everything.

[00:10:16] And we lost contact with him for a long time. And then finally, you know, he was like on a horse basically through the mountains and into Turkey is how he basically got out of there. He joined us in London and the Brits decided they didn't want us to stay there. So we got political asylum in the U.S. And yeah, it was, I think, the summer of 1979 that we moved to. Yeah, the Brits kind of played the role of Mexico, just a conduit, right? Basically, basically, yeah.

[00:10:44] Yeah, you know, and yeah, we finally made it to the U.S. in 1979. All right, now let's step back because that's your story. Let's step back, though, because they claim in 1953 all kinds of stuff happened, too. And this is where it's like so muddy for me. It's hard to know who to trust with the facts, right? So what happened before that? Because you mentioned that Iran was prosperous when you were young and things were pretty much good. Now, I know it's a relative good, but still they were great.

[00:11:14] But what set the stage for all that? 1953, people hear a lot of stuff, right? Yeah, absolutely. You know, the thing that I alluded to about my friends on Facebook posting stuff, there's this narrative. There's a story that's been accepted by everybody that in 1953, the U.S., via the CIA, staged a coup to, and this is almost exactly the line that you always hear.

[00:11:39] They staged a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Mossadegh. This was the name of the prime minister. To install the Shah, who then went on to be this corrupt, tyrannical despot, you know, who tortured people and all this stuff for the remainder of his time in power. And that the events of 1979 were actually blowback, right? We've heard this term blowback over and over again because of 1953.

[00:12:09] And it's completely false. It's just, it's one of those reductive stories, you know, that you see like in the movies or something. You know, there's Darth Vader, you know, dressed in black. And then there's the good guys with their, you know, I don't know, lightsabers and spaceships. And they're fighting good versus evil. And it's just, it's just not like that at all. So what did happen in 1953 then? So at the time, and it gets pretty complicated.

[00:12:37] The British had a strong presence in Iran at that time. And they had been there for several years. They had established this company called the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company to basically harvest, you know, our oil. They wanted to make sure they got the first place good deal on the oil, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, to be fair, and, you know, I always try to be as fair as I possibly can.

[00:13:03] You know, the British did invest a lot of time and expertise in building a lot of that infrastructure. But they got greedy with the deals that they then wanted to make over that. You know, they basically wanted complete control of the oil, leaving us with very little in the way of any sort of like profit or anything from, you know, basically what's one of the natural resources of the place. And, you know, again, this was a pretty complicated time in the world.

[00:13:33] You know, the Soviets were in power at the time and they had a strong interest in Iran. So the U.S. definitely wanted to prevent a Soviet expansion and be, you know, although I think Americans often think of the Brits as maybe like their natural allies because, you know, similar history, same language, that kind of thing. I'm not so sure of that, though. We fought on freedom and whatever, but okay. Yeah. You know, the history of this country. Yeah.

[00:14:03] But I think people need to realize that a lot of times it's an antagonistic relationship. So, excuse me. So the Brits had already demanded that the first Shah Pahlavi, his name was Reza Shah. He was basically the man who came in and took over the country from the previous dynasty that allowed the country to sink into ruin. Let me ask you a question. When he did that, though, was there a coup there? Was there fighting? Were the Americans or were the Brits or the Soviets?

[00:14:33] Who was involved and how did it really go down, though? That's a good question. If it wasn't a coup d'etat like you're saying and he was put in place by these people, what really did occur? You know, we definitely had some external support. I'm not exactly sure what like the percentage of, you know, like, hey, we had, you know, 10% help from like the Brits and, you know, that kind of thing. I just don't know those numbers. But it was a pretty bloodless transition. It was, you know, the country.

[00:15:01] They basically, he came in and he was a strong military man. And the previous dynasty was just, they were in such disrepair that they basically just stepped aside and said, like, here, take over. You know, the country is yours. You know, so it wasn't this dramatic bloody revolution or anything like that. It was more like a, just a handover. To the Shah. Yes, this is the first Shah. And he's, you know, if you ever see pictures of him, he's got this big, you know, burly mustache.

[00:15:27] And just so everybody understands, the Shah is more of a, like a name, like a king or whatever you want to call it. I'm not getting politically correct, but I'm making a point that, hey, whoever's next is the Shah. That's not a person's name. It's a, it's a position's name, right? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for bringing that up. Shah just means king. I just want people to understand, because in our world, we don't even think of it like that. It's like, what are you talking about? Are you talking about Steve? Yeah. No, we're talking about this, this position, if you will, the Shah, which is the leader of the country. Exactly.

[00:15:53] And, you know, Iran has pretty much for its entire, you know, 2,500 year history had a monarchical tradition. So we're basically used to a monarchy. And yes, Shah just means king in Persian. So when he took over and started implementing these changes, he was very good friends with Adatürk, you know, the gentleman who took over Turkey. And they were, and he basically modernized Turkey as well. So they were basically working in tandem. And, you know, Turkey went through a similar transformation.

[00:16:24] But the British at that time, you know, decided that he was getting too powerful, too popular. And really what happened is they felt like, and I don't mean to interrupt, but I want to make this clear. They felt like, hey, we had this premier position now. And now others are getting on the gig because this guy's reaching out to others, too, and trying to look out for his own interests. And, hey, that conflicts with our, meaning the Brit's, interests. Exactly. Right? Exactly.

[00:16:50] So they actually made him abdicate and in place, place his son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. You know, and he's the Shah who, you know, was king of the country up until, you know, 1979. So, you know, in 1953, this son of the, you know, this first Shah was in a pretty weak position. He had, he was a young man. You know, he wasn't necessarily, you know, that wise to the world yet.

[00:17:17] There were all these external powers vying for, you know, dominance in the country. And so the Brits decided that they wanted to exert more control over our oil. So via this Muhammad Mossad Deq, you know, and he was this rabble rouser. He basically think of him as the Bernie Sanders of our time. You know, this dramatic socialist person who made these, you know, big flowery speeches.

[00:17:43] And if you actually go and watch footage of him at the time, like he'd, he'd do these fake fainting spells where he'd like pass out after giving this dramatic speech. And he was just kind of a clown, honestly. But he became popular because these other powers were just, you know, spreading propaganda. Yeah. So, and he was doing their bidding for his, for his funding, for his support, right? Exactly.

[00:18:09] So he pretended that he wanted to nationalize Iran's oil. But if you ask me, it was nonsense. It was this nonsense thing. It's exactly what happened in Venezuela under, shoot, not Maduro, but, you know, the guy who came before him. Sorry, I'm blanking on his name. The guy who died of, he died of cancer. You know, always wore the red beret. Anyway, the same thing happened in Venezuela where this guy came in.

[00:18:34] He was a socialist and he nationalized the oil in Venezuela and look at where Venezuela is today. So then the U.S. basically stepped in and advised the Shah that under our constitution. Oh, it's Hugo Chavez, right? Hugo Chavez. Thank you. Go ahead, sir. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Under our, excuse me, under our constitution of 1906, it was absolutely.

[00:19:04] Hold on, R meaning Iran's, right? I'm sorry? When you say R, you mean Iran's. Yes, sorry. Iran's. I just want to be clear. Yeah, that's true. I shift that. I want people to understand. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you. No, thanks for the clarity. Under Iran's constitution, it was the Shah's prerogative to appoint or dismiss the prime minister. We weren't a democracy. This notion of Mossad being democratically elected is just utterly false. We weren't a democracy.

[00:19:31] He was basically voted on by the parliament, much like Congress would vote on, you know, somebody who's been nominated to a cabinet position. And then it's up to the Shah to either accept that nomination or to say, no, I reject this. Kind of like how we do judges or Supreme Court in the United States a little bit. Exactly. Exactly. You know, the president can, you know, basically veto or, you know, accept it. So the U.S. basically stepped in and advised the Shah, hey, you know, you should maybe think

[00:20:00] about just dismissing this guy. He's got all these issues and all this stuff. And funny enough, the Shah actually accepted his nomination at first. But then Mossad decided that he wanted to take control of the military, of the country. So the socialist minister, who's basically, you know, if you ask me, working for the British, you know, now decides he wants to expand his power. And, you know, the way that's depicted here and people keep posting the same nonsense story

[00:20:29] over and over again is that he was this democratically elected person by the people. And that this, you know, evil tyrant Shah came and, you know, kicked him out with the help of the U.S. And it's just not true. You know, the CIA at that time was had only existed for like five years. You know, so the notion of them suddenly going into another country and staging this giant, you know, overthrow, it's just it's absolutely nonsense.

[00:20:55] And at the time, the British also had a pact with the Soviets that they were basically going to divide Iran into two. I think the Soviets were basically going to take the north part of the country. The Brits were going to take the southern part of the country. They had this, you know, this is all. It's kind of how Germany was divided in the day like that, right? Exactly. Exactly. Except, you know, it's the Brits and the English and the Soviets. It's not just the Soviets. Yeah.

[00:21:24] So, you know, and again, I'm not implying that, you know, the U.S. acted completely, you know, out of the goodness of its own heart. Obviously, you know, they had interest in the region. No, the United States felt like they were getting cut out of the deal and they certainly did certain things. Yeah. The problem is that it's shrouded in what we don't really know what was done due to classified documents and everything else. We don't really have an absolute handle on what was done. That's right.

[00:21:47] Make no mistake that we weren't the angelic representation some want us to believe, but we weren't as evil as they say either, right? No, exactly. Exactly. I think we just have to be a little more measured in how we look at these things. You know, it's not, you know, good guys and bad guys. It's just complicated politics. So in 1979, this wicked thug group come over. You guys had to flee for your lives. You came to the United States.

[00:22:15] What happened going forward from there? Let's kind of build the case for today's discussion. Sure, sure thing. So basically, the theocracy that took over, this Islamic regime, you know, first thing they did was they changed our, you know, centuries-old flag that had this lion with a sun behind it. They took that out, put the Allah, you know, the name for God, basically on the flag and added this, you know, Islamic filigree as the first thing they did.

[00:22:45] They started executing tons of people, torturing and executing them. A lot of them were, at least at the beginning, were Marxists because they were brought into the country by this Marxist presence in Iran that had been trained by the Soviets, by the KGB, basically. So it was the Islamists and the Marxists together who staged, who, you know, did what happened in 1979, this coup.

[00:23:14] You know, the people call it a revolution. I call it a coup. And it was clearly a coup d'etat then, though. It was clearly a flat out blatant takeover, right? I believe so. You know, again, the popular narrative is, hey, the Islamic revolution, but I refuse to call it that. So the Islamic revolution will make you believe that the people basically revolted and they, you know, took back or they claimed power. That's not really what happened. It was more of an installation of this leadership. Many of the good people had to flee for their lives.

[00:23:43] Many of the bad people might have supported them, but they certainly weren't the funding and the abling party, per se, right? That's exactly correct. I do want to, I do want to, are we taking it? Go ahead. You got just a minute. Go ahead and finish your thought and then we'll take a break. Yeah, sure thing. I do want to say that, you know, the Iranian people certainly played a role in it and, you know, they do take much of a blame for what happened in 1979. So they're not blameless. And rightfully so. But my whole point is they didn't provide the funding and the training and the arming, which made it possible. Yeah.

[00:24:14] Exactly. Is that right? That's correct. All right. Now they might've backed it. They might've created all kinds of anarchy and all kinds of trouble themselves, which helped facilitate it. But I'm just telling you, it wasn't the core of it is the point that our dear friend is making. Ladies and gentlemen, we are talking to our special guest, Arash Aram. He was born in Iran, had to flee to the United States for safety. We're asking an immigrant so we can get a handle on what's really going on in Iraq, right? Hang tight. You're listening to the one and only Liberty Roundtable Live.

[00:24:50] How would you like to help this program reach more people and earn silver at the same time? Call or text 801-669-2211 for complete details. News this hour from townhall.com. I'm Jason Walker. Big talk coming out of Tehran, Iran's supreme leader. Speaking out earlier in the day, he claims Iran achieved victory over Israel and the United States.

[00:25:16] President Trump, meanwhile, says the U.S. and Iran will hold talks likely next week. Before leaving the NATO summit, the president said there are plans to restart dialogue between the U.S. and Iran following last weekend's military bombing of nuclear sites. We're going to talk to them next week with Iran. We may sign an agreement. I don't know. To me, I don't think it's that necessary. He said he doesn't care if there's an agreement or not because the U.S. destroyed Iran's nuclear program.

[00:25:44] Greg Clugston, Washington. European Union leaders meeting in Brussels to address key global issues, including tougher sanctions on Russia and the Middle East conflicts. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will join via video conference. Also at townhall.com, the bulk of the House Democratic Caucus voting down an effort to launch impeachment proceedings against President Trump joining a unified House GOP. Here's Bernie Bennett.

[00:26:14] Led by Congressman Al Green of Texas, dozens of Democrats, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, voted on Tuesday in favor of beginning an impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump's strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, a move which numerous Democrats, as well as Republican Thomas Massey, said was unconstitutional. But most of their caucus was against that response to the U.S. involvement in Israel's war against Iran. On Tuesday, the impeachment inquiry vote was defeated, with 128 Democrats joining all present

[00:26:43] House Republicans and voting it down. Bernie Bennett, Washington. Strong storms hitting parts of France. At least two people have been killed, 17 injured. Power is out to more than 100,000 homes. More on these stories at townhall.com. Hi, it's Mike Gallagher. I've been thinking, why does it feel like losing weight is harder than ever before? With mixed messages, fad diets, the quick fix injections, even magic coffee. I mean, it's overwhelming. Most people are exhausted trying to fight a battle they cannot win.

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[00:28:07] Unfortunately, most political pundits only nibble around the edges when they claim to address the issues. Even worse, many of the so-called solutions are simply rewarmed servings of what got us into the mess we currently face. And the politicians think we're so gullible and naive that we'll buy their lies that they have reformed and now understand where they led us astray. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that they simply wish to continue to hold power.

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[00:30:23] Our incredible special guest today, Arush Aram. He was born in Iran, had to flee for his life in 79. He's been an American citizen. He first went to Britain. Britain. But then, hey, they said, we got to move you along here. Kind of like passing everybody through Mexico to the United States. Weird deal. But he's telling us the story of Iran. And the Shah, which is basically king, you know, had things pretty peaceful and pretty good when he was young.

[00:30:54] Then it went all south. And basically, the people certainly had a hand in it. But it isn't like we're told the fact is Russia, or I guess the Soviet Union, I should say. Moving alliances are everywhere. But anyway, the Soviet Union and Britain wanted to kind of carve up the country. And the United States wanted a hand in it, too. So we're not telling you their involvement was angelic by any means. But it's not near the belligerent replacement that we've been told.

[00:31:21] The fact is there was a coup d'etat in 79. And they wanted to divide up the country. The people played a role. But really, outside forces were the cause, right, Arash? That's correct. You know, I do want to clarify that, you know, in 79, you know, it was basically the Germans, the French, and the Democrats in the U.S. who basically hand in what happened as well. And basically installed this theocracy that went on to wreak havoc in the region.

[00:31:52] You know, the thing that I would want your listeners to really understand is that whether you believe that the Shah was a good man or a bad man, at least he was an Iranian and he did whatever he did for Iran. The theocracy does everything for Islam. They do not give a single, they don't have a single concern for the people. The way they treat them is completely brutal.

[00:32:17] So for the past, it's been 46, 47 years now, that's all they've been doing is just suppressing the people. The they pick up young people who might show a little bit of hair from, you know, under their, you know, hair coverings that they're, you know, legally must wear at all times. They throw them in prison. They torture them. They execute them. They control all communication within the country. And they do it for their ideology.

[00:32:46] They don't do it to make the country a better place. So, you know, all the oil wealth that the country has has just been spent on funding, you know, basically terrorism around the world instead of, hey, maybe we should invest in the infrastructure of the country. Maybe we should invest in, you know, good things here instead of bad things abroad. So really, the allied forces made this happen. And everybody's involvement is circumspect in terms of the details.

[00:33:13] But at the end of the day, the good guys made this all happen, right? Unfortunately, it's that's the story. And, you know, it's as far as I know, it's the truth. You know, Iranians, we're not Arabs. Islam isn't even native to Iran. You know, we only became Islamic because, you know, of conquest 1,300 years ago. So, you know, so it's not even most people there aren't even particularly religious.

[00:33:42] There is a small subset of people. In fact, the Iranians are part of the 10 tribes of Israel if you want to really drill in, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's we had a great relationship with Israel forever. We had a great relationship with the West and, you know, America. People there, for the most part, you know, love Western thought and ideas and culture and all this stuff. And yet, you know, there's nothing they can do about it. That's why you watch the Brady Bunch as a kid. Yeah, basically. Basically, I grew up with that stuff. Absolutely.

[00:34:13] So tell me then. Now, I understand this has happened. Your country has been taken over. When I say you're, I mean Iran. Yes. It's been taken over by these despots. Sadly, the people that are supposed to be for freedom enabled this to happen because they got greedy over oil and some of the riches that the country offered. We fast forward to today and now they're saying, hey, we've got to stop these crazy clowns. If they get nukes, it's going to go sideways fast. We can't let that happen. Isn't that the narrative? Basically.

[00:34:42] But, you know, we do have to maybe rewind just a little bit to, you know, October 7th, I guess almost two years ago when Hamas attacked Israel. That was such a brutal, barbaric attack and it was strictly funded by the theocracy in Iran. So I think the nuclear threat has been there forever. You know, where does the theocracy get all their money and all their training and all their weapons and all their all this stuff? Right. Sure.

[00:35:12] Where do they get that? They have, despite sanctions and everything from, you know, supposedly from Europe and, you know, the U.S. and all this stuff, they've made backroom deals with Europe. They've been basically selling the oil for extremely cheap to large parts of Europe. And we know that Europe has a severe energy crisis. But also they made a huge deal with with China. So China has basically started buying up their oil for very cheap.

[00:35:40] And they also have been manufacturing munitions for Russia for this, you know, for this war that they're engaged in with with Ukraine. So, you know, none of these are the whole reason I bring that up, though. Yeah. These supposedly forward leading countries. Anybody that wants oil, anybody that wants munitions, we're actually on one hand acting like, hey, these guys are the despots, which they are. Don't misunderstand me. It's true.

[00:36:06] But when we make these backroom deals with them, we're really enabling the very thing we claim that we want stopped. Right. One hundred percent. One hundred percent. So, you know, and that's why I say, you know, it's always politics. So, you know, the nuclear thing has always been a threat. But, you know, that deal that Obama tried to make with the theocracy, you know, when he was president was just one of the worst possible deals imaginable. It's kind of like the Carter deal in 79 almost. Basically.

[00:36:35] And, you know, you see this thread of, you know, it's always the Democrats who are enabling, you know, the mullahs in Iran. You know, the story of Obama sending them basically. Yeah. But, you know, we're China's most favored nation trading partner now. So, you know, on one hand, the Republicans are doing it, too, because if we're feeling China's military industrial complex and then they're partnering with with Iran to get oil and to get munitions made. That's right. Who's who around here? My absolutely happening. That's right. That's right.

[00:37:03] You know, so we're we're both friends and enemies with with our enemies and friends, you know. All right. So your view should Donald Trump have bombed Iraq? I mean, Iran. No, I believe so. I 100 percent support it. The issue that I have is that they went in and they did all of this. And I think there was a lot of hope and jubilation amongst Iranians within the country.

[00:37:28] And those of us who were, you know, expats, you know, living outside the country that we'd be able to actually overthrow the theocracy and, you know, bring the country back to where it used to be. Basically a reset, you know. And this ceasefire, if you will. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the leading person who could potentially, you know, take over and be a good leader to the country is the son of the Shah, you know.

[00:37:56] So there's been a huge deflation in people's spirits right now, not knowing what's going on right now. I'll fully acknowledge that everything that President Trump and Netanyahu have done up to now has been very smoke and mirrors. You know, they supposedly had this fight and falling out and then suddenly they launched this, you know, attack on Iran. You know, President Trump said, hey, we're going to give him two weeks.

[00:38:24] And suddenly we're bombing the, you know, the nuclear sites. And my problem isn't even because I do agree that, you know, the United States needs to protect our interests. And, hey, Iran could become a great threat with these people in power and everything else. Look what they've done to Iran and Iranians. So what will they do to the rest of the world given the chance? I understand and don't disagree with really that point. Sure. However, my problem with what President Donald Trump did, there's a way that we do things in America.

[00:38:50] And it's not the president just acts unilaterally and then denies when Congress says, hey, how far do we set Iran back? And then the president says, well, you're lying. Anybody who says anything different than what I'm claiming is fake news. But we're going to restrict information. And I acted unilaterally without going to Congress for authority here. And I have a problem with the way this is all going down in our own country. Sure. I think those are very valid and legitimate concerns. And I don't know what to say to that, honestly.

[00:39:18] I think when we look back at past presidencies, very little gets done. I can understand, you know, kind of see both sides that maybe, you know, President Trump thought this was the only way that he could get this done. And, you know, he's got bad warmonger folks whispering in his ear is part of the problem. But let me ask you this. Did we really set a run back decades, as President Trump says, or is it months like CNN saying? What's the real truth? That's a good question.

[00:39:46] You know, I'm certainly not in a position to have that much knowledge. My instinct is that they certainly did a lot of damage. It's not going to be months. I don't believe that we'll fully dismantle this goal of the MOLAs to obtain nuclear weapons until we eliminate that theocracy. Because if you believe what Trump's saying right now, it's like, hey, we've got tariffs coming in. We've got a big, beautiful bill, which is going to save us all and the taxpayers.

[00:40:14] We've basically zero people crossing the border now. We've shut down Iran and their nuclear aspirations. And so we've set that back decades. I mean, basically, we can just chill out, bring the troops home and just have peace forevermore, right? And we've got a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. We're all good. I just don't think the world is quite that simple. But, you know, I agree. But from what we're being told, isn't that kind of the narrative? And I'm not buying it either because I don't even know that the ceasefire will hold. I don't think the ceasefire will hold.

[00:40:42] And I just have this feeling that there's something else happening behind the scenes that we're just not privy to. I do believe that. And you have nobody on the ground that can let us know what that is or anything else. You know, I think there's also maybe a sense of duty of maybe we should keep our information to ourselves so we don't sabotage the process. You know what I'm saying? But do you think it's good or bad that what's happening behind the other narrative? Is it going to be beneficial?

[00:41:11] I do, too. I do, too. I'm trying to be optimistic. There's two forces within me. There's the deep, dark, pessimistic side. And there's the bright, sunny, optimistic side. And I'm trying to just listen to the optimist. The past 46 years have been extremely painful, not just for me, but all of my countrymen and the world, honestly.

[00:41:36] And the reason I'm trying to maintain this optimism is that an Iran without the theocracy will dramatically transform the world in a positive way. If things go according to plan, you know, according to what we want. And I fully admit that there's a lot of risk and things that could go wrong.

[00:41:55] But the idea of this big populated country full of educated people who love the West suddenly reappearing in the Middle East next to Russia in between us and China. Like, just think of the possibilities. So I'm trying to be optimistic about it. So. But, yeah, please. Iran has about 88 million people, just so people understand, right? Yeah. And that's what?

[00:42:24] Basically a quarter of the United States about? Yeah. And, you know, it's basically doubled since I, you know, fled the country. So. Sure. And I don't want to. Here's my problem. We always think we're going to get peace through war. Mm hmm. That, I think, is the biggest farce. Every time somebody justifies this to me and says, we've got to stop Iran from getting a new. My golly, they'll go crazy and kill everybody. Yeah. Yeah. But Russia just said they're going to ensure that they get one. You think they're going to get one?

[00:42:54] You know, that was Medvedev. And I don't put too much stock in what he said. You know, he was basically kicked out of power by Putin. So, you know, I don't think he's somebody that we should really listen to. What I will say, and I fully believe this, and I'm not. I'm an anti-war person. I hate war. I'm not advocating for war with my homeland. I do believe that the mullahs, again, because they're beholden to their ideology, not to the people, not to peace, not to the world.

[00:43:22] If they had nuclear weapons. Not to Iran, their country, or supposed country. Absolutely not. They would have almost zero compunction about using a nuclear weapon if they felt they should. They are not deterred by other countries having nuclear weapons. It doesn't matter to them. So they would, I believe. They don't care about mutual nuclear destruction. They don't care about lives.

[00:43:51] So it's a problem for them to get nukes. And I don't really want them to get nukes. But I guess I'm saying, on one hand, I don't think we have authority to stop them, on one hand. On the other hand, I'm convinced that these backroom deals that you mentioned, they're going to get nukes. It's not if, it's when, right? That's right. That's right. Which is why I keep saying, you know, the theocracy just basically has to go. That's the only way that we can be sure that this nuclear proliferation over there won't happen. And is there any way for the Iranians to do that themselves, to remove that?

[00:44:22] Look, I do believe that if the Iranians in Iran feel that they have some support, and I don't mean troops on the ground. I mean just, you know, hey, the U.S. is going to keep communications open. Because right now the internet phones in. If the United States follows the Constitution and uses Congress, I don't have any problem helping people stand for freedom around the world. We just got to do it within our own country, the correct law-abiding way, that's all. I don't disagree with you at all. I don't disagree with you whatsoever.

[00:44:51] But we are in the middle of this, so I'm not sure what to say. You know, do we now step back and go, well, now we need to go through, you know, the congressional constitutional process? Or, you know, do we keep pushing forward? And I truly don't know the answer to that question. What I will say, if you'll allow me, is that I do think that the words like war and regime change and everything are these fairly elastic terms.

[00:45:18] And I think they're being somewhat misused right now. You know, we've had plenty of military actions in the past that didn't require congressional approval. When we hit the Houthis, you know, with how many missiles and took down how many of their, you know, sources. You know, I see what's happening in Iran right now in actions by the U.S. in the same way. I absolutely draw the line at troops entering the picture, soldiers entering the country, things of that nature.

[00:45:48] But these, you know, strikes, and they have been surgical, at least on Israel's side and on the U.S.'s side. You know, my fellow Iranians as well, you know, were jubilant about what's happening. Who, nobody wants destruction of their country. But this is such a dire situation for people there that we see this as the only way forward.

[00:46:11] And, you know, again, I don't mean to disrespect the Constitution of the United States, of its congressional processes and things of that nature. And there's moral arguments to be made on both sides of that. The president does have some latitude. When does he have latitude versus, you know, et cetera. And so there's certainly some discussions and arguments to be made that way. I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater and just be so hardcore that there's – but there seems to me to be a right way and a wrong way.

[00:46:39] And if we think we're going to get peace through war, I think we're sadly mistaken. I think we need to become a lot less of a warlike people, a whole lot more of a Christian-type people. By the way, are you a United States citizen? I am. I am. I've been a citizen for many years. The reason I ask that is because it's really interesting to have an Iranian-born, but yet citizen of the United States. So you understand the Constitution versus the theocracy versus the monarch kind of governments. You've seen a lot of that.

[00:47:06] Talk us through that a little bit because that unique difference is what we ought to be exporting to Iran. I agree. I agree. I think – I absolutely love what the founding fathers of this country did. I love their vision. I love everything that they did. These young men, at least for most of them. You know, it's unimaginable to me that people of a similar age today would be able to accomplish the same thing.

[00:47:35] Would I love to see something similar established in Iran once we get rid of the theocracy? You know, very much so. Very much so. And even the son of the Shah, he's said over and over again that he doesn't want to go back and be king of the country. He wants the people to be able to dictate their own future. And he's often advocated for an American-style government and constitution. So, you know, we want to be secular as far as government goes.

[00:48:02] We just want to, you know, have a country that, you know, gets back to appreciating life and liberty and freedom and all the good things that we have here. I believe that's what most of the people on the planet want. Usually it's leaders that just have greed for power that disrupt this desire of most of us.

[00:48:26] Most of us really just want to have a great family life and peaceful and food and shelter and clothing and and the fuel to make our lives comfortable and to be left alone. Right. I couldn't agree with you more. And, you know, again, not to keep harping on the past, but, you know, that's how life was there before 1979. Again, it wasn't perfect. Of course, we had bad things. You know, no country is perfect. But compared to today. But America has that too. Let's be honest. Yeah, of course. Absolutely. What about your religion? What religion are you?

[00:48:55] Are you Christian? I'm fairly a-religious. I've always felt that, you know, I believe in God. I've always felt that the pursuit of God is an individual thing, at least for me. I like to ask my own questions. So I don't prescribe to a specific ideology. But, you know, I love from Utah. But really what you are calling out, though, is in the name of religion, this wickedness being done, whatever religious banners waived, right? Oh, 100%. 100%. I appreciate the Christian faith.

[00:49:25] You know, I've been living in Utah for almost six years now. And I've become such a fan of the, you know, the Mormon population here and their emphasis on family and friendship and, you know, all these things. So, you know, there are good religions out there. I think there are bad religions out there. There are good implementations of religion. There are bad implementations. There's a lot of people that take good religion and turn it bad for their own banner and their own causes in the name of religion, do they whatever.

[00:49:52] And that happens under all religions, wrongfully so and sadly so. Now, you're a filmmaker, right? Have you been able to document some of this stuff? Some of it. Very little. It's been basically my lifelong ambition. But just for, you know, various excuses, I just haven't been able to get to that point. Yeah, like I need a bunch of cash. I understand. You know, it's an expensive process. But like I worked for this organization called the Foundation for Economic Education, which is mainly a libertarian organization.

[00:50:20] And I did make this video for them called for the series that we did called The Out of Frame. And people can look it up on YouTube if they're interested. They would look up out of frame Khomeini, the Joker and one Iranian boy. And it's basically my story. They wouldn't let me say certain things. So it's a somewhat, you know, diluted version of my story.

[00:50:43] But it's about my relationship with the character of Batman and the idea of individualism, which I believe is, you know, a very American quality that I absolutely love. And, yeah, my journey as a kid in Iran to the U.S. So they can certainly go check that out. So you've been involved in all kinds of filmmaking, just not documenting the Iran story like you'd love to. But you have been in filmmaking for quite some time and you have your own company if people are interested, right? Yeah, absolutely.

[00:51:12] They can go to CataclysmoInc.com. That's basically just my company website. It has, you know, some examples of the work that I've done. I've been fortunate to, you know, work on a lot of, you know, very important films with great people like Mike Rowe. If people are familiar with him, you know, he's a fantastic guy. Yeah. And lots of just, I've worked or done work for Apple and Google and, you know, lots of big companies.

[00:51:38] And I'd love to be able to bring the story of Iran, the real story of Iran to audiences everywhere. It's going to be a road, a hoax. It costs a bunch of money. But, folks, we never want to give up faith. If you want to know about America, oftentimes you've got to ask an immigrant, though, because they have this perspective that, man, I mean, I just, I don't know. Sadly, Americans are sheltered. Americans are fairly ignorant. I mean, I only barely know one language, for example.

[00:52:08] And I'm just saying as a result of that and stuff, I think a lot of times we can be led around by the nose and told a story and we believe this and that and that based on whatever our positioning is. And oftentimes I think we're, I don't know if it's willfully or illfully. It's maybe both. Derelict of knowing what's really happening and what we can really do to make a difference. Rush, what do you think Americans can do in this state right now? What should we be doing?

[00:52:35] I would say certainly looking outside of mainstream sources to get the real stories, getting out of social media and talking to their neighbors and their friends. You know, talk to if they're interested in Iran or other countries, talk to people from that place. You know, look for better sources of information than, you know, a lot of the corporate sources that have, you know, their own interests to promote.

[00:53:02] So a rush, a ROM with me, ladies and gentlemen. He's an American citizen. He was born in Iran and he's telling his understanding, his perspective as we ask an immigrant, hey, what about America? The blessings of America. But what about, you know, Iran? What about where we are today? What can we do to advocate for peace and prosperity? And I think we need to pray for all leaders everywhere that peace and prosperity can be in the wake. And I pray the ceasefire holds.

[00:53:30] I just don't have a lot of confidence because they've been fighting for thousands of years, right? And I know Donald's the art of the deal guy, but he ain't that good. You know, I believe we've got to wait for Christ to come. That's my personal opinion. And I hope that we respect everyone's religion, you know, as long as they're not using it in the name of violence or anything else. You know, for example, a rush says, hey, he's, you know, he believes in God, but he's not really a specific religious, you know.

[00:53:54] I hope we respect that and we give him, you know, support for that to say, hey, we believe people can worship how, where, or what they may. And what we want is peaceful friends everywhere. A rush final comment from you. If you could tell America or the world anything, what would you say in 20 seconds? I would say look around you, make sure what happened to Iran doesn't happen to your country. Be aware, be active and fight for the good fight because once you lose it, it's really hard to get it back.

[00:54:23] A rush, a rom, ladies and gentlemen. In my opinion, American hero. Thank you so much. We'll have you back, my friend. Thank you, Sam. It's been a pleasure. Ladies and gentlemen, we are nationally syndicated by the Loving Liberty Radio Networks. Spread the word, share the love. Download our iPhone or Android apps on their... Respective stores. Or just listen online at lovingliberty.net. God save our republic.