October Surprise?

Entry for "October surprise" in the Merriam-Webster dictionary

There's a tradition in U.S. presidential elections for an "October surprise" i.e. a game-changer just prior to the first Tuesday in November. Iran has often factored in to these "surprises" and certainly is poised to do so again this year as the response to Israel's horrific bombing of refugees in tents at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza this week was the U.S. and UK sanctioning Iran (you can't make this shit up). 

I don't think the surprise was the by now iconic (and much suppressed on social media) video of Palestinians in tents at Al-Aqsa being burned alive. Someone on Twitter juxtaposed it with the famous Vietnam war photo of a girl child burned by napalm running naked down a road, speculating that this would be "the" image of the U.S.-Israel extermination campaign in Gaza. Entirely possible, but what's also true is the observation that colonizers have always committed atrocities on indigenous people -- back in the day though, there were no cameras to record the horrors we remember on Indigenous Peoples Day.

Recently I've been helping out as a respite caregiver for my friend's 90+ year old mother. Last night at supper I asked what she had been up to that afternoon.

Mom: Looking at the news but nothing much happened today, just a bunch of stuff about the election. I'm so sick of it all, I wish the election was over.

Me: Nothing about Israel bombing Gaza then?

Mom: No. But I don't think we should send any more money to Israel. I want them to stop doing that! But nobody listens to me.

A better summation of the distraction role of corporate media could hardly be found. 

That's why I don't post much about the election. Which corporate genocide supporter will be in the White House come January? Who cares. Proud to rank Jill Stein - Butch Ware first on my ballot and if we get the right October surprise they could even win as they're on the ballot in enough states to earn a majority of electoral college votes.

This October PAC ad allegedly in favor of Harris - Walz is indeed surprising. It absolutely reads like satire from start to finish. Is it a serious bid for attempts to get men to vote for Harris? This month we also saw Obama making condescending remarks about Black "brothers" being too insecure in their manhood to vote for a woman president so...maybe? 

You be the judge.

All these guys are "man enough" to ignore the U.S.-Israel genocide in Gaza and depleted uranium bombing in Beirut and pogroms in the West Bank? My response: fuck them AND the horse they rode in on.

Three Strikes You're Out?

 

https://x.com/HossamShabat/status/1843743248680136963

I got up in the early morning hours of October 9 to find that three things had happened: Israeli troops had sealed off northern Gaza and begun slaughtering people there after bombing a flour warehouse in the one remaining bakery; the U.S.-Israel had bombed suburbs of Beirut with depleted uranium ordnance; and the U.S.-Israel had bombed residential areas of Damascus in Syria.

I will say U.S.-Israel from now on to acknowledge the fact that, for the purposes of WWIII, they are one and the same. Operating both nations as sock puppets so that Biden can pretend to feel things about Bibi's conduct of the war doesn't really fool anyone, though the talking heads of corporate media must pretend to believe. (Until they self-immolate like CBS worker Samuel Mena just did outside the White House.)

The first two overnight occurrences were the most troubling: Israeli soldiers shooting at children and their families in a concentration camp setting is not new but it is especially horrific after a solid year of forced marches and deliberate starvation in the Gaza strip, and in light of announced plans to “cleanse” northern Gaza of any Palestinian presence in order to turn it into a permanent Israeli military zone. As someone I can't find again on Twitter observed, the Zionists have now done everything the Nazis did to their ancestors except build gas chambers. No need to tattoo numbers on anybody’s arms these days; digital surveillance technology has taken care of that.

Sounds like enough atrocities, doesn't it? But wait, there's more.

Depleted uranium was used extensively by the U.S. in the illegal war on Iraq, so we already know of its horrors. Covering large areas with radioactive dust that will outlive all of us, causing miscarriages and horrific birth defects when pregnant women are exposed, and causing lots of kinds of cancer. 

Iraqi girl Farah after three operations to correct deformities caused by exposure to D.U. in utero

What have the humans of Lebanon done to deserve this treatment? The government of Lebanon allows the U.S. to operate a military base there, but Hezbollah arose and grew in strength in direct response to repeated violence inflicted by Israel on civilians. After witnessing the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres of a previous war with Israel, who can blame them?

https://x.com/malcolmx653459/status/1844050234474946560

Incinerating people in Damascus and burying them in rubble is the signature act of depravity we’ve come to expect since October 7, 2023. As horrific as the rest, and also a worrying sign that the U.S.-Israel is going for broke, expanding to a regional war that promises to drawn in not only powerhouse Iran but unvanquished Russia on Syria’s behalf. Iran gave up its nuclear weapon program in a diplomatic deal during the Obama administration; now comes news that it is seriously considering restarting that project. Who can blame them?

Russia of course has nukes including so called tactical nukes that are still vastly more powerful than the bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan in WWII. And both Russia and Iran have hypersonic weapons that are nearly impossible for the Iron Dome (or Iron Sieve as it’s now revealed to be) to intercept. The U.S.-Israel has nukes, too, of course and it's pretty clear that no act of war is too awful for them to contemplate. Is Tehran next?

Former arms inspector Scott Ritter thinks it could be, but also thinks that it will hasten rather than delay Israel's demise as a nation. 

now Israel is being bombarded on a near-daily basis by long-range drones, rockets, and missiles fired from Hezbollah, militias in Iraq, and the Houthi in Yemen. The Iranian ballistic missile attack of Oct. 1 vividly demonstrated to all Israelis the reality that there is no viable defense against these attacks. 

Moreover, if the Israel-Iran conflict continues to escalate (and Israel has promised a retaliation of immense proportions), Iran has indicated it will destroy Israel’s critical infrastructure — power plants, water desalinization plants, energy production and distribution centers — in short, Israel will cease being able to function as a modern nation state.

It's not a question of if but a question of when the empire that Zionists built will fall. But will its collapse precede Armageddon, or usher it in?