(End of the American Dream)—Is it just a coincidence that a massive protest movement has erupted in Tehran at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are warning that new military action against Iran may be needed soon? Without a doubt, the Islamic radicals that are ruling Iran are one of the most oppressive regimes on the entire planet, and so it is perfectly understandable that people that live under that regime would want to go out into the streets and protest.
But what we have been witnessing in Tehran this week doesn’t feel spontaneous to me. Could it be possible that starting a revolution in the capital is part of the overall plan for the next stage of the war with Iran?
Following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, President Trump issued quite an ominous threat to the Iranians…
President Donald Trump issued new warnings against Iran and Hamas after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida on Monday to try to advance the ceasefire deal that Trump brokered in Gaza.
Trump threatened Iran with unspecified consequences, saying Iran “may be behaving badly” and suggesting it was trying to rebuild nuclear sites after the U.S. struck three of them this year.
“If it’s confirmed, look, there will be consequences,” he said. “Consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than last time.”
The day before Trump’s threat, protests against the Iranian regime suddenly erupted in central Tehran…
Protests began on Sunday after shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar staged a strike when the rial hit a record low, plummeting to 1.42 million to the U.S. dollar.
Demonstrations spread to the cities of Karaj, Hamedan, Qeshm, Malard, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Shiraz and Yazd, where police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, BBC Persian reported. One video showed a protester curled up on the ground in Tehran, blocking a gang of black-clad police officers on motorcycles.
University students chanted slogans including “death to the dictator,” referring to Khamenei. Other slogans backed Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
If the nuts currently running Iran were removed, it is quite likely that Reza Pahlavi would serve as interim leader until new elections could be held. On Tuesday, he posted a very long message on X which called on the entire population of Iran to go into the streets and join the protests…
My courageous compatriots,
Your presence in the streets across Iran has kindled the flame of a national revolution. The continuation and expansion of your presence, and taking control of the streets, is today our foremost, vital priority.
I call upon the people of Iran to join in with the nationwide strikes and protests: government employees, workers in the energy and transportation sectors, truck drivers, nurses, teachers and academics, artisans and entrepreneurs, retirees and those who have lost their savings—everyone, unite and join this national movement.
Across Iran: Tehran, Karaj, Qazvin, Rasht, Sari, Gorgan, Semnan, Bojnord, Mashhad, Birjand, Zahedan, Kerman, Yazd, Shiraz, Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Yasuj, Ahvaz, Shahrekord, Isfahan, Khorramabad, Ilam, Kermanshah, Sanandaj, Urmia, Tabriz, Ardabil, Zanjan, Hamedan, Arak, and Qom.
I ask Iranians abroad—from Australia and East Asia to Europe and North America—to redouble your activities within the framework of the “Rise Iran” campaign to amplify the voice of the Iranian people to the media, international institutions, foreign governments, and parliaments.
Iran and its streets belong to the Iranian nation. And we will be victorious, because we are united and we are many.
Long live Iran,
Reza Pahlavi
He knows exactly what he is doing.
And he was probably encouraged to post such a message.
After months of economic pressure from the United States and Europe, the Iranian economy is a giant mess.
The overall inflation rate is up to 42 percent, and food prices have risen by 72 percent over the past year…
According to the state statistics center, the inflation rate in December rose to 42.2% from the same period last year and is 1.8% higher than in November. Food prices rose 72% and health and medical items were up 50% from December last year, according to the statistics center. Many critics see the rate as a sign of approaching hyperinflation.
When people can’t afford to buy enough food for their families, they tend to get very desperate.
One local merchant told a British news source that he was concerned that he would soon “have to bring suitcases of cash to simply buy bread”…
“What will my children eat? Do we have to bring suitcases of cash to simply buy bread? Do you find that normal?” Alborz told the Guardian over the phone, speaking under a pseudonym for fear of security reprisals.
Iran’s prosecutor general is acknowledging that Iranians that are hurting economically have a right to protest.
But he is also warning that if any protesters are engaged in the “implementation of externally designed scenarios”, they will face a “decisive response”…
“Peaceful livelihood protests are part of social and understandable realities,” Mohammad Movahedi-Azad told state media after protests started by shopkeepers in the capital city Tehran, which were joined by students and others in several cities across the country.
“Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate and decisive response,” warned Movahedi-Azad.
The Iranians have seen this before.
During the 12 Day War, internal unrest suddenly erupted, and many were hoping that it would lead to the overthrow of the Iranian regime at that time.
And now that we are seemingly on the verge of more military conflict between Israel and Iran, the Israelis are publicly urging Iranians to “go out into the streets”…
His comments came days after the Mossad intelligence agency of Iran’s arch-foe Israel posted on social media that it was “with you on the ground,” in a message to Iranian protesters. Posting on its Persian-language X account, the spy agency encouraged Iranians to “go out into the streets together.”
The U.S. State Department also seems quite eager to add fuel to the fire…
In a post shared via its own Farsi language account on X, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday that it was “deeply concerned by reports and videos that peaceful protesters in Iran are facing intimidation, violence, and arrests.”
“Demanding basic rights is not a crime. The Islamic Republic must respect the rights of the Iranian people and end the repression,” the U.S. government said in the post.
“First the bazaars. Then the students. Now the whole country. Iranians are united. Different lives, one demand: respect our voices and our rights,” the State Department said in a subsequent post.
Over the past several decades, the U.S. has been involved in organizing and funding revolutions against anti-western governments all over the world.
So it would not surprise me at all to learn that our fingerprints are all over this one.
Of course the Iranians don’t exactly have a right to complain, because they have been attempting to spread revolution all over the Middle East since 1979.
Let’s watch Iran very closely and see what happens next. Already, there are reports that Iranian security forces have gotten violent with some of the protesters…
“You must be naive to think Iranians trust this government or the regime,” said Farhad, a 19-year-old university student active in the protest movement who spoke under a pseudonym.
He and other students described how security services had confiscated student IDs and beaten and arrested some protesters. A protester in Tehran sent the Guardian a picture of a metal pellet, which they said was shot at them by security forces. The Guardian could not independently verify the claim of the protester.
“If the administration wanted to talk, they wouldn’t fire teargas, shoot at protesters and if dialogue is what they wanted, they would not have executed protesters in 2023. There is no willingness from any of us to talk to them, we want the mullahs gone and we want democracy,” Farhad added.
As footage of violence circulates on social media, that may inspire some protesters to take more extreme action.
On Wednesday, one group of protesters actually attempted to break into a local government building in Fasa…
Iranian protesters demonstrating over economic hardship and a plummeting currency attempted to break into a local government building as the unrest continued for a fourth day.
State media reported on Wednesday an organised group of “rioters” attempted to get into the local governorate building in Fasa in the southern province of Fars. Footage broadcast showed a group of people trying to break open the gate of the building.
“Their attack failed with the intervention of security forces,” state media said. “The leader of these rioters, a 28-year-old woman, was arrested.”
The semi-official Tasnim news agency cited a local official as saying three members of the security forces were wounded during the incident while four “attackers” had been detained.
A revolution that removes the Iranian regime from power may be one of the only ways that a cataclysmic military showdown between Israel and Iran can be avoided at this stage.
Newsweek is reporting that the Iranians are currently developing “unconventional warheads” that would have the capability of delivering chemical or biological weapons to Israeli targets…
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is working on the unconventional warheads for ballistic missiles while also repositioning missile launchers to the country’s eastern regions outlet Iran International quoted military sources as saying in a Monday report. The sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said these activities have accelerated in recent months.
The warheads are designed to carry and disperse chemical or biological agents when delivered by ballistic missiles, rather than conventional explosives, as an added form of deterrence alongside Iran’s existing missile force.
While the report noted that if confirmed, the move could drastically alter the region’s deterrence balance, it could trigger more intensified pressure on Tehran. Chemical and biological weapons are prohibited under international conventions to which Iran is a signatory.
The Israelis aren’t just going to sit there and allow the Iranians to do this. They will strike first and ask questions later.
And once the missiles start flying again, things will get really insane in the Middle East. I realize that most prominent voices are focused on other matters as we enter 2026.
But I believe that the drama that is unfolding in the Middle East has the potential to be one of the biggest stories during the year ahead, and so I will be monitoring developments very, very closely.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
Two Storms, One Harvest
Every food crisis in living memory has been a one-shock event. The 2008 price spike was a commodity bubble. The 2020 shortages were a logistics failure. The 2022 grain scare was a war on one exporter’s ports. Each time, the system bent, adjusted, and recovered, and each time the experts assured us afterward that global markets are simply too big and too diversified to fail.
What nobody in Washington seems eager to discuss is that 2026 is shaping up to be something the modern food system has never actually faced. Two independent shocks, one climatic and one geopolitical, are converging on the same harvest cycle at the same time. Not sequentially. Simultaneously.
Start with the weather. The Pacific Ocean is currently building toward what forecasters now openly call a record event. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center puts the odds of at least a strong El Niño near 88 percent, with roughly two in three odds it reaches “very strong” status, the tier reserved for perhaps three or four events in the entire satellite era. Every major global model now projects a median peak in Super El Niño territory, and most of them project it exceeding the 2015-16 event, which until now held the modern record. Sea surface anomalies were already brushing the super threshold in mid-July, months before these events normally peak. The atmosphere has already shifted into El Niño mode, and the event is forecast to crest in late fall and early winter.
This is not about “climate change.” It’s about the standard cycles of weather, and the cycle we’re currently in is one that has likely devastated societies in the past. We’re better prepared as a society today, but not all Americans are equally prepared.
Serious households have started doing the quiet math on their own. Grocery bills tell part of the story, and the forecast maps tell the rest, which is why long-term food storage has moved from fringe hobby to mainstream line item in the family budget, with established suppliers like Heaven’s Harvest seeing demand from people who five years ago would have rolled their eyes at the idea. That instinct is not paranoia. It is pattern recognition, and the pattern is worth walking through carefully.
Editor’s Note: Heaven’s Harvest IS a sponsor, but the warnings of this article are real and would be written even if we didn’t have a survival food sponsor. With that said, those who take advantage of what they offer can use promo code “Patriot” for 15% off.
The Fertilizer Clock Is Already Running
While the Pacific warms, the second shock has been unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict with Iran turned the world’s most important energy chokepoint into a contested waterway, and the consequences reach far beyond the gas pump. Roughly a third of global fertilizer trade moves through Hormuz, and the disruption sent urea prices up 86 percent year over year by March, with a 53 percent jump in a single month.
The World Bank projects energy prices rising about 24 percent in 2026 and fertilizer about 31 percent. By its own accounting, fertilizer prices ran 35 percent higher in the first five months of this year than the same period last year.
Here is the mechanism the nightly news will not explain. Fertilizer is not a grocery item. It is a time-delayed input. The nitrogen a farmer in Iowa or Punjab could not afford to apply this spring does not show up as a problem this spring. It shows up as a thinner harvest six to twelve months later.
The World Bank’s own food security brief concedes that the effects of reduced applications earlier this season “are likely to become visible only later in harvest outcomes.” Translate that from institutional language into plain English and it means this. The damage is already done, it is already in the ground, and we are simply waiting for it to arrive on the shelf.
Now check the calendar. Six to twelve months from the spring planting season lands us squarely in late 2026 and early 2027. Which is precisely when the strongest El Niño in the instrumental record is forecast to peak, bringing its signature droughts to Southeast Asia, Australia, southern Africa, northern Brazil, and South Asia, the very regions that grow the world’s rice, sugar, and oilseeds.
The World Bank warns openly that a strong El Niño “could disrupt multiple crop belts simultaneously” on top of the conflict-driven input costs. Their baseline projection assumes the Middle East disruptions ease by autumn. What in the last two years of Middle East history suggests that assumption is safe?
The System Has No Slack Left
The comfortable answer is that global markets always adjust. But adjustment requires slack, and the slack is gone. Global cereal production is expected to decline from last year’s records even before El Niño does its work. The UN World Food Programme, hardly a den of right-wing preppers, is calling this the most significant disruption to its supply chains since Covid and the invasion of Ukraine, and its supply chain director put the stakes bluntly.
Today’s supply chain challenges are tomorrow’s hunger crisis.
There is also a political dimension that markets cannot price. When food gets scarce, governments do not behave like economists. They behave like politicians. Export bans, hoarding mandates, and panic buying at the national level turned the modest rice shortfall of 2008 into a global crisis, and analysts are already warning that import-dependent nations are the first dominoes.
The 2015-16 Super El Niño, a far weaker event than what is now forecast, threw tens of millions into food stress across Africa and Asia. This one is projected to be stronger, and it arrives with fertilizer already rationed by price and shipping lanes already contested by missiles.
What Joseph Knew
Scripture does not treat preparation for lean years as faithlessness. It treats it as wisdom delivered in advance to those willing to act on it.
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt.
Joseph did not respond to that warning with a hashtag or a committee. He stored grain during the years of abundance, and when the famine came, Egypt stood while its neighbors begged. The lesson is not that famine is certain. It is that the time to prepare is precisely when preparation still looks optional.
Nobody who filled a pantry in a year of plenty has ever regretted it, and nobody standing in an empty aisle has ever been glad he waited for certainty.
None of this calls for panic, and panic is the enemy of sound judgment anyway. It calls for the same unglamorous prudence our grandparents considered ordinary. Keep some cash margin, know your local growers, and put real food in deep storage while it is cheap and available, because the entire arc of this story is that cheap and available is a closing window.
Families looking for a straightforward place to start can visit Heaven’s Harvest and use promo code Patriot for 15 percent off long-term storable food. The forecasts may yet soften, the strait may yet reopen, and we should pray they do. But hope is a fine thing to hold and a foolish thing to eat.
