As with any Iranian video making the rounds on Twitter, I can’t prove that it is what it claims to be but it’s certainly plausible. Reports of students being killed by regime goons have been steady since the weekend, with 60 kids supposedly detained at Isfahan U. and others allegedly thrown out of upstairs windows. Clips of their injuries were being uploaded as early as Sunday but the one below takes it to a whole new level. Strong content warning, needless to say.

If you’re hungry for analysis, this short Laura Secor piece at the New Yorker about how well and truly Khamenei has crapped the bed is worth your while. I know I’m a broken record about this but I still can’t understand why he would have thrown his own credibility so quickly and fully behind Ahmadinejad given the odds of mass protests at the result. The prudent thing would have been to endorse the vote-rigging secretly, wait to see how the public reacted, and then play the innocent naif who’s shocked, shocked at the fraud if an uproar erupted. That way he gets to pin the whole thing on Ahmadinejad. As it is, the two are now joined at the hip. There’s really no imaginable scenario by which Ahmadinejad goes but Khamanei stays on untarnished. Either the regime is toppled or it’s a gloves-off autocracy forever. Some choice.

Incidentally, if you haven’t been following Jim Geraghty today, go see how much fun he’s having digging up old (and not so old) quotes from idiot liberals about how “shrewd” the regime is and what a “sweet hipster style” Ahmadinejad has. (Actually, argues E.M. Zanotti, he practically is a hipster.) In fact, if not for his Holocaust denial, he would have been much more popular as an icon of revolutionary chic. I know it plays well in the region, but so nutty is it and so quintessentially the hallmark of an anti-semite that even leftists otherwise inclined to spin for Iran could never really embrace him, even though he’s become the face of anti-Americanism abroad. For most Bush-haters — but not for all — it was simply too much, sweet hipster style notwithstanding. Anyway, here’s some of the hipster’s handiwork. Brace yourself. Click the image to watch.

Update: There’s some weirdness with the vid. Sometimes it says content unavailable, other times it plays. Try refreshing the page after you click the image or else click the “Student Dies After Police Shooting in Isfahan’s student’s dorm” link (second one from the top) here.