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.

The Ovens This Time: Israel Firebombs Rafah Tents In Safe Zone Trap

Martyrs of the Rafah Massacre (Photo shared by Mondoweiss)

Israel responded to the ICC ordering it to stop committing war crimes by fire bombing Gazan refugees in tents in "safe" zones the Israeli government sent them to. Many children were among those burned to death in the bombings. The horror is beyond words, only pictures can really convey it.

Fire rages following an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 26, 2024. (Reuters TV / Reuters)

Or maybe videos. Like this one shared on Twitter, compelling evidence that eradicating Hamas is the least credible rationale for Israel's industrial scale slaughter of children.

https://x.com/richimedhurst/status/1795105646435549359

It was with Rafah burning in my brain that I encountered Maine's Zionist cheerleader Senator Angus King at a Memorial Day parade in his hometown of Brunswick. I shouted: "Free free Palestine!" which got his attention and then: "Angus King, you can't hide, I charge you with genocide! Stop arming genocide with my tax dollars, Angus!" He made no reply. There is really no place he can go now without facing protesters, even though the parade had banned Palestinian flags or even keffiyehs.

My granddaughter and I decided to wear watermelon clothing to be in the parade, an expression which some people noticed. In these times amid galloping suppression of dissent we will nevertheless find ways to speak our truth.

Driving home my son shared an analysis that made me feel a little hopeful. He noted that genocide is Biden's legacy for certain, and that ordinary people (he is in his 30's) are not at all sympathetic with war in general or with Israel's treatment of Palestinians. His view was not that the tide is turning, but that it has turned. The war on terror is now totally defunct as a concept anyone can support, and he predicted that slavish loyalty to Israel now will eventually hurt politicians. 

I'm always interested to hear from other generations about their zeitgeist. I just hope humans survive long enough for younger, better people to rise up and do what they need to do. I'm fearful that in the European and East Asian regions the U.S. and its gang are inching us closer to nuclear war with each passing day. For example, U.S./NATO dba Ukraine just bombed three space early warning facilities that are key to Russian missile defense and understood to be a red line. 

I didn't say that in the car, because there was a child present. 

How heart rending for Palestinian parents and grandparents to be unable to protect their little ones from genocide at Israel's hands, while the world looks on and makes a tidy profit. 

Time for this grandma to throw a spanner in the works.