October 30, 2018--October-November Surprises

The big October surprise, which was supposed to leach over into the first week in November, was the fear Trump would instill in midterm voters about the "caravan" of migrants heading from Honduras to the American border.

The fear was further fueled by Fox News sycophants who in a stream of fake news "reported" daily without evidence about how the thousands marching north were infiltrated by "Middle Eastern terrorists." 

Just as that was building into a political wave--poll numbers began to trend in support of Republican candidates--the stock market started to gyrate so that the so-called Trump rally lost all its gains for 2018 (giving the lie to his claim that the economy had never in history been better), a new mad bomber appeared, sending explosive devices to more than a dozen Trump critics from George Soros to the Obamas to of course Hilary and potential 2020 opponents Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Joe Biden.

(As an aside, how much like chopped liver do Bernie and Elizabeth Warren feel for not receiving bombs of their own? Just like anyone not on Nixon's "enemies list" expressed disappointment for not being included.) 

Trump harmed himself politically by making light of this, referring to it as "that bomb thing." And didn't do much better when an anti-semitic mass murderer attacked a synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 worshipers. After a few perfunctory comments Trump referred to it as a "bad hair day." Something he should be an expert about, having one 365 days a year.

As a result, the polls appear to be reversing themselves again and it is looking likely that the Democrats will gain control of the House and lose only one or two seats in the Senate.

So much for October-November surprises, though there is still a full week before the election, lots of time for Republican dirty tricksters to pull a few stunts.

On that subject, though I am not prone to believing in conspiracy theories, there's a Pulitzer Prize awaiting a journalist who gets to the bottom of how the migrant caravan was organized to culminate in ugly confrontations at the border the day before Election Day.

I suspect that the political party that gave us Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, and Roger Stone might somehow be tugging on the strings. If we can get that story out even Fox News would have to offer some coverage.