Luckiest S.O.B. on the planet. How that no talent hack landed that job is beyond me.

Have a listen. Ms Zand asserts the Iranian regime is over. Its sole expectation can be its end, iys annihilation. The regime knows it and the Iranian people know it. Time, of course must pass (and with time, great still suffering to be endured), yet the outcome — she says — is already determined.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYoa9hI3CXg

That’s the episode where Rick’s message amounts to:

“Iran is a [beautiful] country, with great cafes and friendly people. OK, OK, so their stern government needs some work, but it’s [still] a fun country.”

I see.
Do you like how the Iranian Government- treats Iran’s women, and Iran’s protesters, Mr. Steves?

What we have been witnessing since at least November 2016, is the attempted (and at least partially, of not mostly, successful) political/social defenestration—insofar as the US is STILL a “nation of laws”—of DJT.
This has been followed by the defenestration of Trump supporters (and the right of center, generally—even non-supporters who demand adherence to the Constitution in such matters, e.g., Alan Dershowitz) since the election or 2020 (including, of course, the runup to the election).
The Democrats and their supporters have been able to achieve this by running an intense and concerted campaign of virulent demonization.
What this means, ultimately, is that anyone—of any part of the spectrum, right, center or left—may ultimately find themselves demonized as “enemies of the state” for WHATEVER reason du jour.
(Because this is how these things work.)

I think you’re mistaken there. One of the Shah’s prime ministers during the last six months of the regime told an American official ‘the Shah cannot make up his mind, and for that reason the country is lost’. Carter wasn’t a salutary addition to the situation, but it was quite a juggernaut barrelling down on the Shah. Trouble is, the seven digit populations demonstrating in the street had scant idea what a monster Khomeini was. His successor is evil, but his regime has been much less sanguinary.