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.