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"Your lives will continue. With new events and new faces. They are the faces of your children, who will fill your homes with noise and laughter." 

 These were the last words written by my sister in a text message to one of her daughters. 

 Dr. Soma Baroud was murdered on October 9 when Israeli warplanes bombed a taxi that carried her and other tired Gazans somewhere near the Bani Suhaila roundabout near Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. 

 I am still unable to understand whether she was on her way to the hospital, where she worked, or leaving the hospital to go home. Does it even matter? 

That Israel is now attacking United Nations peacekeepers in south Lebanon might well be decisive in turning its few remaining “friends” against it. Spain, France, Ireland and Italy, all of which contribute to the peacekeepers force (UNIFIL), and which continued to look the other way when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his band of war criminals committed atrocity after atrocity against Arabs, are now finding themselves mortified when European soldiers are being attacked and wounded by cannon fire from snipers and Israeli tanks. In one incident, Israeli armored vehicles smashed their way through the gate of a UNIFIL base, allegedly using chemical weapons that injured 15 UN soldiers.

Jeez, my mailbox is exploding! Everyone is freaking out over the latest polls, the pessimistic pundits, the sudden (?) rise of Trump, the warnings of doom and gloom! Mike! Mike! Please tell us he’s gonna lose! She’s gonna win! Flowers will bloom in December! Unicorns will ride on the backs of lions! The McRib will return!

Whoa. Everybody please calm down. We’ve all been here before. Exactly 3 weeks til Election Day — so that means it’s official, folks! We’ve entered the fear-mongering, pendulum-swing stage of the election season. We are no longer basking in the glow of Biden’s withdrawal and the adrenaline shot from Kamala’s injection into this race. That’s not surprising. It’s expected. Now, this is back to being a normal election season — the news outlets and pundits are salivating for their polls, and our side is cowering in fear and despair.

My friends, STOP OBSESSING OVER THE POLLS. 

Wait, what’s that I hear? “They’re tied at 48-48!!!” 

I said, STOP. OBSESSING. OVER. THE POLLS. 

With Election Day just three weeks off and voting already underway in some states, the race for president is down to the wire. Progressives could make the difference.

 While no one in their left mind plans to vote for the fascistic and unhinged Donald Trump, some say they won’t vote for Kamala Harris because of her loyalty to President Biden’s support for the Israeli war on Gaza. That might enable Trump to win with enough electoral votes from swing states -- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

 Those seven states are where progressives may well hold the future in their voting hands.

Last night on Saturday Night Live, there was that rare moment when a performer chose to give voice to the 200 million or so of us Americans who, for over two years, have been in a rage that the Supreme Leader in America (aka, the “Supreme Court,” that group of 5 or 6 religious right-wing nutters who rule over what women can and cannot do with their bodies in this country), overturned Roe v. Wade. 

The great Stevie Nicks, in her own rage over this injustice, sang for the first time live on national television her new song about those who have committed this atrocity against women. It’s called “The Lighthouse” — and my jaw dropped as she belted out one fiercely brutal lyric after another aimed squarely at the Court, at Trump, at MAGA Nation — and imploring all women to take a stand, to fight back now, it’s not too late.