Mike Baker

And so front and center there is there's been some reporting that and we talked about this before on the program, the issue of water scarcity, the crisis that could be staring them in the face.

Now, if we stick with the water issue just for a minute and get kind of granular, what are you hearing from sources on the ground about what it's like day to day?

Because it's one thing to say, okay, reservoirs are drying up or lakes are 5% of what they used to be just years ago.

But how is it impacting daily life for the Iranian population?

Well, and I think it's interesting.

We've seen some reporting talking about the tens of thousands of villages that have just gone away, right?

Because the wells for those villages aren't functioning anymore.

There's nothing down there.

There's nothing in the aquifer.

And it's interesting because if you look at traditionally the the republic's support base, right, because people always talk about they talk about the young people, academics, others, the educated class, whatever you want to say, you know, that have in the past come out and protest for one reason or another.

But the rural population, right, sort of the poor, the agricultural based population, they tended to support the Islamic Republic, it seems.

And yet this water shortage, as you pointed out, hits them extremely hard.

And so I guess my question is probably impossible to answer, but.

at what point, when you're talking about water, right, it's, as you point out, it's a basic necessity, right?

It's one thing to do without luxury goods, but when the government or the regime in this case can't provide water, at what point do the people say that is enough?

Because that's kind of the holy grail that everyone's been waiting for for all these years.

And between that, the regime's willingness to slaughter thousands of their own, the economic hardships that they delivered on the people,

I think out in the West, there's a lot of folks just saying, well, at what point did they say we've had enough?

And then I want to pick up on that.

But first, Alireza, as you know, you're a friend of the show and you understand we've got to take a break.