Below is my column in The Hill on the controversies involving far-left influencers rallying support for Iranian and anti-American interests. One figure, Calla Walsh, could face legal consequences for her participation in alleged Iranian propaganda videos. The question is whether she will be treated as a type of Tehran Rose by the U.S. government.
Here is the column:
On July 4, 1916, Iva Ikuko Toguri was born in Los Angeles — 25 years before she would go to Japan and become known as the infamous Tokyo Rose during World War II.
Roughly one hundred years later, Calla Walsh, 21, has stepped forward as a type of Tehran Rose, cutting propaganda films for one of the most blood-soaked regimes in the world. Walsh appeared at the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and praised him as the “greatest anti-imperialist leader.”
Walsh is not alone. Other young Americans have rallied to the anti-American cause. That includes Jackson Hinkle, who appeared on a stage in Tehran, cheering on a crowd chanting “Down with America.” It also includes Max Blumenthal, 48, the son of Sidney Blumenthal, the columnist who became notorious as the “attack dog” for Bill and Hillary Clinton.
While supporting a regime that denies free speech and other human rights to its citizens, they are protected in the U.S. in voicing unpopular views, including denouncing their own nation. The question is where the line is between that and criminal conduct.
Walsh, Hinkle and Blumenthal fit a pattern not just as young and privileged radicals, often downwardly mobile from their parents’ careers and accomplishments, but also as voices groomed by U.S. media culture for years.
She would work on the campaigns of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. (Her work on the campaigns drew gushing reviews in The New York Times and Boston Magazine).
Hinkle was also celebrated by the media after he embraced socialism and then communism. Born in San Clemente, California, he was named one of “The 17 Most Inspirational Kids of 2017” by Reader’s Digest. As with Walsh, he was featured in Teen Vogue as an inspirational young activist. In a Los Angeles Times article, he was described by a source as “the kind of guy who gives you hope about the future … Jackson is fearless and well-informed.” Today, he is a vocal supporter not only of Iran’s regime but also of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its war against Ukraine.
The scion of the Democratic establishment, Blumenthal attended the exclusive Georgetown Day School in Washington and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. His connections gave him immediate access to elite publications. He wrote books denouncing Israel and espousing increasingly radicalized values.
He also wrote far-left columns for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. Liberal websites, including The Nation, The Daily Beast, and The Huffington Post, featured his work. He is viewed as an apologist for regimes fighting the U.S., often dismissing atrocities committed by countries such as Syria and Russia. (His father, Sidney Blumenthal, sent Hillary Clinton roughly two dozen of his son’s columns. Hillary responded with such praise as “Max strikes again!” and “He’s so good.”)
All three are examples of today’s radical chic in media and higher education, all given platforms as influencers.
And there are thousands like Walsh, Hinkle, and Blumenthal. Indeed, our colleges are cranking out radicalized young people who have a paucity of job prospects but an abundance of rage.
Recently, a Fourth of July event captured this culture in Chicago. The event featured Bill Ayers, a former professor, former fugitive, and one of the founders of the domestic terrorist organization, the Weather Underground.
The other speaker was Princeton’s Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a chaired professor in the African-American Studies department and a writer for the New Yorker. Taylor delighted the young audience by saying that they were all part of the “F— the U.S.” crowd and called on others to reject “the idea of loving a nation state, which is what patriotism is.” She repeatedly returned to the theme that borders are “deadly” and “borders kill people,” denouncing all borders as “a tool of death and destruction.”
Walsh’s emergence as a face of Iranian propaganda raises striking parallels to Toguri, who was arrested and convicted of treason after World War II. She was actually just one of several women who participated in the infamous propaganda radio programs for the Japanese military.
The difference is that Toguri, whom President Gerald Ford later pardoned, may have been an unwilling participant in the programs. Unlike Walsh, Toguri was effectively trapped in Japan after the U.S. refused to recognize her citizenship, preventing her from returning home to California.
Toguri was effectively destitute, subjected to cruel treatment by the Japanese. She insisted that she had been coerced into reading anti-American scripts and that even then she refused to attack the United States in her programs.
Walsh was not just a willing participant; she is a raving anti-Semitic ally to the Iranians — and seemingly any country that can do harm to the U.S.
She found ample support in the media as she veered further and further leftward while adopting anti-American views. Enablers at publications like Teen Vogue featured her manifesto: “I’m a 17-year-old socialist. For my generation, a fascist presidential administration, pandemic, economic collapse, and a historic uprising for Black lives have shaped our worldview.”
Following the attack on a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, Walsh asked: “Why should zionists feel safe anywhere“? After the Iranian government massacred tens of thousands of protesters, Walsh defended and helped whitewash the lethal response, instead blaming the U.S. and Israel.
The usual suspects on the American left helped facilitate and fund Walsh’s radicalization. That includes Fergie Chambers, the self-styled millionaire Marxist organizer and heir to the Cox Communications empire. Chambers, a college dropout who has helped finance Walsh’s Unity of Fields organization and at times to pay her legal bills, has said that “the most important thing for the prosperity of humanity is the destruction of the U.S.”
As for her current finances, if she has received funds from Iranian-linked groups, she could face legal jeopardy. Walsh has reportedly been working with Iranian state media that have been put under sanctions by the U.S.
Hinkle and Blumenthal may also face questions regarding any support they have given or received in relation to Iran and other countries. Hinkle, notably, was a high-profile participant as a “pro-Iran influencer” at the funeral of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last year. He was also a speaker at a Houthi rally in Yemen, with his speech again followed by chants of “Death to America!” Hezbollah, like Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the other violent paramilitaries it supports, has been declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
The Tehran Times described Blumenthal as attending as editor-in-chief of The Grayzone with hundreds of other Western influencers. Again, there is no evidence he received or gave support directly to the Iranian regime. He can maintain that he is a journalist opposed to U.S. imperialism, acting within his rights under the First Amendment.
In our country, it is no easy task to show that someone has crossed a line. It is not a criminal act, after all, to join “F— the U.S.” chants in Chicago or even “Down with America” in Tehran. Also, if you were merely observing or reporting, you are not criminally culpable, even if you are a useful dupe for propagandists. Yet working directly with propaganda units associated with foreign terrorist organizations could lead to charges.
Fortunately for the anti-American influencers, they will be afforded all of the protections regimes like Iran and Russia deny to everyone. In the end, they are less important than what they represent: They are the enfants terribles of the American left, and they are being replicated in the thousands in our educational system.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
The existing laws make ‘verbal treason’ banishment impossible for natives, hard for naturalized. CHANGE THE LAWS & DEPORT SWORN ENEMIES. J.C. Tate, Lincoln Co., NM
On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) discussed Iran and said that the Gulf states “have a responsibility here as well. We’ve done our job.” And “We have defanged Iran, now it’s their turn to go in and finish the job that they need to finish. They need to send their ground troops in, if that’s what it takes. But it should not be American soldiers that are leading the way.”
A coalition of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, operating under CENTCOM, forms a regional superpower that technologically outmatches Iran through superior air power, advanced armor, and a combined force of nearly 1 million personnel including Israeli reserves. This alliance holds overwhelming superiority in the air with over 800 modern combat jets against Iran’s roughly 200 older aircraft, alongside a modernized tank fleet (Merkava IVs, M1A2 Abrams) that outclasses Iranian armor.
Steve Witherspoon’s Bitter Disappointment
Today Steve Witherspoon aspired to provoke a meaningful discussion on this comment thread. Witherspoon had fancied that this blog was frequented by deep-thinking Libertarians. And Witherspoon fancied himself as being exactly that: ‘A deep-thinking Libertarian’.
But his attempts to spark a meaningful discussion went nowhere so fast that Witherspoon was reduced to sputtering, “Geeze, what f_ckin morons” over and over. These laments invited sympathy from Estovir’s puppets.
Then it occurred to Witherspoon that he too could be one of Estovir’s puppets. The anxiety was overwhelming. Witherspoon rushed to the bathroom mirror hoping to see the face Estovir had chosen in that thumbnail photograph. But there was no reflection, just vacant glass.
“Nooooooo– Witherspoon screamed in horror! He was just another puppet with a stupid name and stolen picture!!
At that point the bathroom melted away, swallowing Witherspoon like a whirlpool to nowhere. Nevertheless Estovir will bring Witherspoon back to sputter yet again, “Geeze, what f_ckin morons”.
If there’s one thing we can all agree and depend on on a daily basis it’s the fact that Anonymous writes off-topic fictional narratives, over and Over and OVER again. Some of his trolling narratives lean more towards humorous depictions of reality extrapolated to absurdity, like this one, but most are just in-your-face trolling deflections presented specifically to drag on-topic discussion down rabbit holes leading to Wonderland delusions. Got to give this internet troll credit where credit is due, he may be a moron and a troll, but he’s definitely a persistent trolling moron.
This humorous narrative is built around me writing the phrase “Geeze what a f’ing moron.” which the Anonymous fictional author states that I’ve written “over and over”, which of course his “over and over” was another fictional misrepresentation of reality. Fact is, I only wrote that phrase once in this comment which was a direct reply to yet another off topic deflection written by Anonymous in his daily lineup of 568,412 (yes that’s an intentionally absurd misrepresentation of the actual quantity) trolling deflections. The rest of Anonymous’ narrative is pure fiction.
P.S. Anonymous still hasn’t supported the fictional claim he made in the comment I linked to, even after I specifically challenged him to support it in a previous comment. Anonymous, the trolling moron, has no integrity.
Steve,
Ah, yes. The annony has to resort to really bad fiction at 9:59PM no less, expecting you not to see annony’s bad fiction.
Quite right and well said about annony having no integrity.
Trump Keeps Contradicting On Iran
President Trump’s latest threat to impose fees on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz contradicts weeks of declarations by his top aides that no country can charge tolls or fees for passage through the vital waterway that has been a contested space in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Mr. Trump told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” on Monday that America was “going to get paid for guarding” the strait, adding that the United States “will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20 percent,” for all cargo that passes through the waters. Mr. Trump has made remarks before about the United States collecting tolls in the strait, which for decades has been considered for an international waterway.
He and his aides have not explained how his position squares with repeated contradictory public assertions by the likes of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also Mr. Trump’s White House national security adviser.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/us/politics/trump-iran-hormuz-fees-vance-rubio.html?smid=nytcore
NY Times? Bahahaha 🤣 😂 😆
Let’s be honest, the most blood-soaked country in the world is not Iran, it’s the United States. We have killed literally millions, both inside our own borders and all over the world. As for what is treason and what is not, for there has to be treason, the United States has to be in an actual war. Treason is NOT failing to support the current regime, whatever it might be, or speaking out against it. Donald Trump, for whom I voted three times, started this mess and there’s no requirement for any American to support it.
the most blood-soaked country in the world is . . . the United States
Are you sure? More blood-soaked than Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union (with its scores of millions killed), or Communist China under Mao (with its perhaps hundreds of millions killed)?
Iran killed thousands in the streets. No such thing has happened in America.
Useful idiot babies
“…OR IN ADHERING TO THEIR ENEMIES, GIVING THEM AID AND COMFORT.”
Calla Walsh, Ana María Archila, and Zoran Mamdani must be prosecuted for treason.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Article 3, Section 3
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
Reformation of the Amerucan educational system is Job 1.
A veritable case in point.
Trump Was Also Praising Iran
Last month, just before signing a memorandum of understanding that offered Iran billions of dollars in economic benefits in return for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Trump lavished praise on Iran’s leaders. “They were nice to deal with,” he said, adding that they were “strong” and “smart people” who are “not radicalized” and are “looking to help their country.”
Last week, following Iranian attacks on ships in the strait, Trump described Iran’s leaders as “scum,” “sick people,” “liars,” and “vicious, violent people,” and said the ceasefire was “over.” He ordered retaliatory military strikes and revoked the sanctions waiver the Treasury Department had provided for Iran to sell its oil.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/07/13/trumps-iran-russia-rhetoric-has-turned-tough-will-it-last
…………………………………….
Turley could have added Donald Trump to the list Iranian regime admirers. But as usual, Trump is now saying something quite different.
IFIFY
“Trump Was Also [Negotiating With] Iran”
Iran presented with favorable terms, agreeable to all.
Trump praised them.
Then, Iran reneged on those terms.
Trump called them scum. Okay. As one would when someone does not hold up their end of the bargain.
The situation changed. Does that make Trump a supporter of Iran?
Of course not.
That is non-critical thinking, low IQ, leftist thinking.
And come on! Are you really going to show us all how much you lack critical thinking and low IQ by quoting the WaPo? Get real, man!
Estovir, judging from the on again, off again nature of this war, Trump’s ‘negotiating’ skills don’t look terribly strong.
^ The imbecile who thinks everyone else is named Estovir ^