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october/september surprises!
friday, october 18th, 2024
An October surprise is usually defined as the well-known (and more often left-wing) tactic of manufacturing or unloading a news story right before voting to surprise a rival without allowing them time sufficiently to respond or recover.
Think of the last-minute bombshell disclosure, five days before the 2000 election, that candidate George W. Bush had been cited for drunk driving over a quarter-century earlier. That surprise may have cost Bush the popular vote that year.
Former October surprises — both the embarrassing disclosures and the use of incumbency to warp the election — are now becoming earlier and more frequent preemptive “September” shocks.Sometimes, an incumbent can use his powers of office to warp the election. Joe Biden benefited before the 2022 midterm elections when leftist activists leaked the impending Supreme Court repeal of Roe v. Wade.
Closer to the actual voting, Biden sought to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars of student debt owed to the federal government. He also began draining the strategic petroleum reserve to lower gas prices (as he is doing again this election year as well). No wonder the predicted Republican midterm red wave ended up a tiny ripple.
More often, October surprises are more ad hominem and unleashed on a rival candidate’s supposedly previously undisclosed failings.
At the end of the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton’s team leaked news of her purchased bogus “Steele Dossier” as supposed proof of Trump-Russian “collusion.”
On the eve of the last 2020 presidential debate, Joe Biden delegated now Secretary of State Antony Blinken to work with former interim CIA Director Mike Morrell to round up “51 former intelligence authorities.” They were to lie that the incriminating Hunter Biden laptop was likely a product of a Russian intelligence “disinformation” operation.
The ruse worked—turning potential proof of Biden family corruption into a replay of the fake 2016 Trump-Russian collusion hoax.
This time around, apparently the Harris campaign could not wait until October or early November to spring their surprises.
Perhaps the Harris campaign’s impatience is due to Democratically-inspired radical changes to state voting laws.
Remember that in 2020, under the cover of COVID, Democrat legal teams got state laws altered to institutionalize early and mail-in voting in key states. Those changes reduced our once iconic Election Day into a mere construct when only 30 percent of voters cast their ballots.
So, former October surprises—both the embarrassing disclosures and the use of incumbency to warp the election—are now becoming earlier and more frequent preemptive “September” shocks.
Suddenly, the Federal Reserve Bank, just 50 days before the election, decided that interest rates that spiraled under Biden-Harris in reaction to their hyperinflation right now need to be slashed—as supposed proof that the Biden-Harris inflation is now over and the economy needs a sudden revving up.
Just as abruptly, on September 23, just 43 days before Election Day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was flown by the Biden-Harris administration — at U.S. government expense — into the United States.
More amazingly, Zelensky landed first in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, where most observers believe the currently deadlocked election will be decided.
No surprise, Zelensky immediately toured a Pennsylvania munitions plant making artillery shells likely destined for his Ukraine — at a time when the state’s voters are concerned about job losses.
The Harris-Biden administration was sending the not-so-subtle message that providing billions of dollars in arms to Zelensky’s Ukraine translates into jobs for voting Pennsylvanians.
But that was not all to this crass September surprise.
In an interview with the left-wing pro-Biden-Harris New Yorker magazine, Zelensky plunged right into the current neck-and-neck presidential race. He trashed Harris’s rival Donald Trump as someone who “doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.”
Not satisfied with that putdown, the Ukrainian president hit even harder Trump’s running mate and vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, as “dangerous” and “too radical”.
The left still talks nonstop about nonexistent 2016 Trump-Russia “collusion” and equally bogus 2020 Trump-Russian “disinformation.”
Yet it would be hard to define any clearer “election interference” than the current Zelensky surprise.
After all, has any vice president incumbent running for president ever flown in a foreign leader on a U.S. military jet to the one key U.S. state that will likely decide the impending election?
And furthermore, has any paraded him around that state’s weapons export plant while he trashed current Vice President Harris’s two opponents with invectives like “dangerous” and “radical?”
And why else was Zelensky’s Pennsylvania trip arranged by the Biden-Harris administration but to coincide with the traditional dates that mail-in and early-voting balloting start?
Yet were the Zelensky sudden Pennsylvania drop-in and his crude domestic politicking and trashing of Trump and Vance all that wise?
After all, Harris’s opponent Donald Trump had just escaped an assassination attempt from a pro-Ukrainian gunman—furious over Trump’s purported preference for a negotiated settlement to the 30-month-long, one-million-casualties war?
Add it all up, and sometimes September surprises backfire — when they appear to voters as crude and insulting rather than just conniving.
© 9.26.2024 by Victor Davis Hanson, "American Greatness".
A Day In The Life.
Up at 7a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee and breakfast, took two 50mg Tramadol and a 300mg Gabapentin for various pains, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, had a couple smokes in the HOT garage and checked the leftover errands list. All that is postponed until next week. The forecast is for 98 by 4p, today. I'm staying inside.
It was cool 45°/ low 00% humidity outside, headed to 71°. I had some wonderful Kona "Peaberry" Coffee, then scanned the news and weather sites, and missed the entire "Chris Stigall Show LIVE" (CS Show) from 6-9a, also missed part of the "Chris Plante Show LIVE" (CP Show) 9-12noon.
The biggest threat to American democracy, is *stupid people*.I downloaded a copy of Malwarebytes Premium (I have a subscription) to check this desktop unit, and it found 2 "threats" on the machine, quarantined them and the device is good to go, now. My main machine has *everything* installed and running; this back-up machine has some of it, and I'm getting lambasted by someone making purchases at Lowes, and charging it all to my card, with shipment to me. I managed to catch one of two, so far, and cancel it. The other's on it's way, and I'll have to physically return it. I've canceled my account at Lowes, to stop it. Next, I'll have to cancel my WF credit card. Damn.
Sherry arrived at 5:30, after filling-in for Daughter Hollie at her nearby art shop in Hallam, and we had a very nice time, as usual, during her all-too short visit. She left just as dusk was settling into the area. I had some dinner, watched the news, History's "unXplained Mysteries" until 11; lights out.
Up at 7:30a on Saturday, a mild 59°, blue sky, sunny morning forecast to get to the low-70s. Beautiful day, once again, and I'm enjoying every minute of these gifts, before Winter really arrives. I had one errand to do, and was back by late morning, did a couple condo chores, swapped-out the oscillating tower Heater to replace the oscillating tower Fan, in the garage. After a late lunch, I took a nice walk around the CHCA complex, ran into some neighbors walking their dogs, and a met new addition to the neighborhood, did some light weeding in the back patio garden, scanned the news headlines and took a 90min nap. I watched various TV programs into the evening -- another "NBC Night" -- until midnight, and unplugged.
The problem is not OUR guns; it's YOUR sons.Up at 8:30a on Sunday, another mild 57°, blue sky, sunny morning forecast to get up to 82° -- almost like Summer. I made coffee, had a couple smokes in the open garage, had an Apple Fritter, fed the squirrels and bluejays, fired-up the back-up desktop, and checked the news headlines and weather. After a beard-trimming shave and delightful shower, I took a walk around the condo complex, and noticed that all the Dogwoods -- American (Cornus Florida) and Chinese (Cornus Kousa) -- are now noticeably changing color, and so are the Burning Bushes (Euonymus x alatus) and it's beginning to look like Fall, as more and more tree color-up and drop leaves. And the dirty Pin Oak (Quercus Phellos) is now dropping it's leaves by the boxcar load.
Here are 15 foods that you'll never eat again. Huh?
I did a load of laundry, some condo chores and just enjoyed the day. After calling Sherry to chat, we wound-up adding another day together, for the coming week. Nice. I had some dinner, watched news and Discovery's "Homestead Rescue" until 11:30p; lights out.
Up at 5:15a on Monday -- Happy Columbus Day -- to ZERO-DARK-THIRTY (sunrise now 7:16), I made coffee, turned-up the heat, had a few smokes in the garage, and tuned into the "CS Show LIVE" 6-9, and switched over to the "CP Show LIVE" from 9-12. I scanned the news and weather, had some breakfast and got things ready for my usual Monday trip down south. I called my WF Bank and had my CC canceled, charges reversed for new illegal purchases by some hackers, and am waiting for a new CC. I'll just pay cash for a while. F•cking hacker bastards. I'd kill them if I could get the shots.
Better scratch that Happy Columbus Day thing... it's now being called "Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2024". Total freaking bullshit.
It was an uneventful and pleasant trip, and I was back by 2:30, had a massive dbl-cheeseburger and fries from FIVE GUYS, crashed on the L:R couch until 5:30p. Carb overload. Waking up at dusk, I closed the condo, checked the news and did paperwork for the rest of the evening. ***FROST WARNING*** tonite. Good, bring on Winter. I didn't watch any TV all night; just got all news from the Net. After dinner, I had paperwork from today's mail pick-up, and worked until 12 midnight. Lights out.
Up at 6a on Tuesday, with the alarm -- JoAnne is in today at 8:30a to clean -- I upped the heat, made coffee, checked one news headline site aggregator, and had some Rye Toast w/ Philly Cream Cheese, for breakfast. The ***FROST WARNING*** was still up on the 3 weather sites I use, even at a cold 37°, it didn't happen here; maybe in some of the surrounding valleys. I tuned into the "CS Show LIVE", as they were recapping a Trump Rally from last night.
I sure hope this Walz-homo-young boy story goes somewhere, but Trump&Co should stay away from it until a credible witness or the grown-up boy comes forward with details and facts. This story is all over X/ Twitter, and FR, but that sure doesn't make it fact, YET. Oh, please let it be so!
Remember that small Springfield, Ohio town of 58,000 invaded by 20,000 illegal Haitian subhuman shitfilth, courtesy of the Bidet-Harris scumbags? Here's the small town of Logansport, Indiana, which also has not been spared the disastrous effects of Joe "Lunch Bucket" Biden and Kamala "Heels Up" Harris’s unending border disaster horror show. Our Nation is infiltrated by 20-30 MILLION (we have no real idea) criminal, illegal, alien invaders and we're beyond screwed, soon to the death of us all. There'll always be an "America", but it won't be what you and I grew-u7p in, and loved. That's almost gone for good. No, I'm just being realistic. Forget Trump's "mass deportation" promise -- IT CAN'T BE DONE! America is almost over.
I drove over to the nearby Rite Aid Pharmacy to p/u8 3 Rxs and a 6-pak of Kleenex boxes, and got back just after 3p. Doug's Tree Service trucks were all over the complex, doing pruning and some tree removal. After an afternoon snack, I hit the LR couch at 4, for 90mins, outside temps had dropped into the upper-40s, and I was glad to have my soft, warm lamb's wool Pemdleton® Boartd Shirt® on (no, not me). I fired-up the furnace to 75®, and watched the news. The Stock Market had a bloodbath, today. But shit-for-brains Kama-Lama-Ding-Dong's solution of bleck mens' unemployment is free money and weed. Natch, and that'll work just fine. I bagged it for the night around midnight.
Up at 8a on Wednesday, to a bright, windy, sunny 39°, I upped the heat, made coffee, fired-up the garage heater for a short while to take the chill off, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE". I tried to find the article on "Unknown drones swarming US Military Base for 17 days". It was buried at all news sites, but a Google search turned it up. After breakfast, I got ready for the day, and Sherry's visit at 1p.
We took a drive to Flinchbaugh's Orchard & Farm Market to get some goodies, but they were sparse on goodies at this time of year. We got most of what we wanted and came back to my place for a while. We had a great -- but all too short -- time together, and she had to leave as dusk was soon approaching, so we bid "see ya", not goodbye. I had some dinner, watched the news and called it a day around midnight.
Up at 8:30a on Thursday, a sunny, cold, windy 41°, poor air quality, clear blue sky morning, forecast to get to a "balmy" 60°. Heh. After making coffee, upping the heat to 75°, I sit shivering in gym shorts and t-shirt, w/ coffee, having a smoke, in the open garage, feeding the squirrels (2), bluejays (9) and cardinal (1), with a seriously-blinding windshield glare. I tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" until 12noon, and then switched to the "Rob Carson Show LIVE" on WCBM (Balt) until 3p, and got ready for the day.
After a couple errands, I spent the afternoon working on updating the back-up computer, and ***trying*** to install my trusty, old HP 1660 DeskJet Printer. I took a break for some dinner, and continued trying again until 11p. I quit6 and watched the news until 12midnight. Lights out.
Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal" and it's a busy one. App'ts, a phone mtg, new tires for the Jeep (Sherry's son, Corey), helping a new business (Sherry's daughter, Hollie), and of course, and being with Sherry twice! YES.
Very Strange Things Are Happening in the Sky.
Okay, this is starting to get really weird. At the same time that the Middle East is erupting in flames, the U.S. is being pummeled by major natural disasters and we are preparing for the most pivotal election in modern history, extremely unusual things are happening in the heavens.
The “Comet of the Century” is making a spectacular run past our planet, the Sun has unleashed an extremely powerful coronal mass ejection, a “second Moon” is now orbiting our world, and it is being suggested that we are witnessing an “intriguing alignment of constellations and stars” that appears to relate to events written in the Book of Revelation. Are we really supposed to believe that it is just a “coincidence” that all of these things are occurring simultaneously?
According to ABC News, Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas will be closest to our planet on Saturday…
Prepare to spot a rare, bright comet.
The space rock is slinging toward Earth from the outer reaches of the solar system and will make its closest pass on Saturday. It should be visible through the end of October, clear skies permitting.
As I have discussed previously, something else will also be happening on Saturday.
Yom Kippur beings at sundown on Friday, and it lasts until sundown on Saturday.
Yeah, I suppose that is just another “coincidence” too.
The comet is about two miles wide, but NPR is reporting that the tail of the comet “extends for tens of millions of miles”…
A comet discovered last year — known as C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS — is set to make a close approach to Earth in the coming days.
The snowy dirtball is nearly 2 miles in diameter and its tail of dust and gasses extends for tens of millions of miles, Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, told NPR.
You will be able to view this comet with the naked eye, but if you have a pair of binoculars you will be able to see what is taking place in spectacular detail…
The comet will initially appear low on the western horizon in the glow of twilight about 45 minutes after sunset each day starting Saturday, Oct. 12, through the end of the month, Cooke said.
The comet can be seen without special equipment but the best view will be through a pair of binoculars.
“Comets look okay to the unaided eye, but with a pair of binoculars, they’ll knock your socks off,” Cooke said. “It’ll be really good in a pair of binoculars. So, if you got a pair of binoculars, why don’t you bring those along and take a look at the comet.”
Amazingly, this comet is making a run past our planet at the same time that something truly unique is happening among the stars.
The following comes from an article that was just authored by journalist Troy Anderson…
On the day I write this, Oct. 9, 2024, a particular video has caught my attention. It explores an intriguing alignment of constellations and stars, drawing parallels to the descriptions found in the book of Revelation.
According to the video, this date may involve a celestial event that mirrors what the apostle John described in his prophetic vision on the Isle of Patmos nearly 2,000 years ago.
Many have written books about how the stars literally foreshadowed the birth of Christ over 2,000 years ago.
Could it be possible that God is using the stars to warn us about what is coming in our time?
According to Anderson, “a rare alignment of planets and stars” appears to depict “the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the great red dragon”…
The video suggests that on Oct. 9, there will be a rare alignment of planets and stars that matches descriptions from the book of Revelation, including the symbolism of the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the great red dragon. If these interpretations hold any weight, then this date might represent a significant marker in the prophetic timeline. As a journalist and researcher of biblical prophecy, I find it worth exploring whether such signs could indeed be an indication of the times we’re living in, especially following the Great North American Eclipse on April 8, 2024, which I wrote about in an article for Charisma.
Because I am entirely convinced that they are very closely related.
Meanwhile, the Sun continues to behave very erratically.
We are being told that a “fast-moving coronal mass ejection” was unleashed on Tuesday night, and that caused NOAA’s Space Prediction Center to issue a G4 geomagnetic storm watch…
A “severe” solar storm could make the northern lights visible in the U.S. farther south than usual while also posing the potential to disrupt modern technology, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A fast-moving coronal mass ejection (CME) __ a powerful burst of magnetized plasma from the sun’s corona — erupted from the sun on Tuesday night, prompting NOAA’s Space Prediction Center to issue a rare G4 geomagnetic storm watch, indicating “detrimental impacts” to critical technology and possible widespread voltage control problems, according to NOAA.
The CME is expected to cause a moderate solar storm here on Earth on Thursday and Friday, according to NOAA.
On top of everything else, our planet has now acquired a second Moon.
That’s right.
For a little while, a “temporary mini-moon” will be orbiting our planet…
Over the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard somewhere that Earth was going to get a second moon. Well, we can now confirm that Earth now officially has two moons after capturing asteroid 2024 PT5.
On Sunday, September 29, our planet captured the tiny asteroid named 2024 PT5, turning it into a temporary mini-moon.
Needless to say, the vast majority of the population is paying very little attention to what is going on in the heavens.
And hardly anyone believes that the very strange things that are taking place in the sky have any real significance.
But as I have documented, in Genesis chapter 1 God told us that one of the primary reasons why He created the Sun, Moon and stars was because He planed to use them as “signs”, and He has been doing that all throughout human history.
Now it is happening again, and most people are completely missing it.
© 10.11.2024 by MICHAEL SNYDER, "America First Report".
Brace Yourselves: A Tsunami Approaches.
Brace yourself: a tsunami approaches.
While we squabble over which side is winning this losing battle to lead the country, there is something being concocted in the dens of power, far beyond the public eye, and it doesn’t bode well for the future of this country.
Anytime you have an entire nation so mesmerized by the antics of the political ruling class that they are oblivious to all else, you’d better beware.
Anytime you have a government that operates in the shadows, speaks in a language of force, and rules by fiat, you’d better beware.
And anytime you have a government so far removed from its people as to ensure that they are never seen, heard or heeded by those elected to represent them, you’d better beware.
What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security... And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.We’ve got to get our priorities straight if we are to ever have any hope of maintaining any sense of freedom in America.
As long as we allow ourselves to be distracted, diverted, occasionally outraged, always polarized and content to view each other—rather than the government—as the enemy, we’ll never manage to present a unified front against tyranny (or government corruption and ineptitude) in any form.
Mind you, by “government,” I’m not referring to the highly partisan, two-party bureaucracy of the Republicans and Democrats. Rather, I’m referring to “government” with a capital “G,” the entrenched Deep State that is unaffected by elections, unaltered by populist movements, and has set itself beyond the reach of the law.
This is the hidden face of a government that has no respect for the freedoms of its citizenry.
So, stop with all of the excuses and the hedging and the finger-pointing and the pissing contests to see which side can out-shout, out-blame and out-spew the other.
Enough already with the short- and long-term amnesia that allows political sycophants to conveniently forget the duplicity, complicity and mendacity of their own party while casting blame on everyone else.
This is how evil wins.
This is how freedom falls and tyranny rises.
This is how good, generally decent people—having allowed themselves to be distracted with manufactured crises, polarizing politics, and fighting that divides the populace into warring us vs. them camps—fail to take note of the looming danger that threatens to wipe freedom from the map and place us all in chains.
The world has been down this road before, as historian Milton Mayer recounts in his seminal book on Hitler’s rise to power, They Thought They Were Free.
We are at our most vulnerable right now.
The gravest threat facing us as a nation is not extremism but despotism, exercised by a ruling class whose only allegiance is to power and money.
We’re in a national state of denial, yet no amount of escapism can shield us from the harsh reality that the danger in our midst is posed by an entrenched government bureaucracy that has no regard for the Constitution, Congress, the courts or the citizenry.
No matter how often the team colors change, the playbook remains the same. The leopard does not change its spots.
Scrape off the surface layers and you will find that nothing has changed.
The police state is still winning. We the people are still losing.
In fact, the American police state has continued to advance at the same costly, intrusive, privacy-sapping, Constitution-defying, heartbreaking, soul-scorching, relentless pace under the current Tyrant-in-Chief as it did under those who occupied the White House before him (Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, etc.).
So you can try to persuade yourself that you are free, that you still live in a country that values freedom, and that it is not too late to make America great again, but to anyone who has been paying attention to America’s decline over the past century, it will be just another lie.
Consider for yourselves:
- Police haven’t stopped disregarding the rights of citizens.
- SWAT teams haven’t stopped crashing through doors and terrorizing families.
- The Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security haven’t stopped militarizing and federalizing local police.
- Schools haven’t stopped treating young people like hard-core prisoners.
- For-profit private prisons haven’t stopped locking up Americans and immigrants alike at taxpayer expense.
- Censorship hasn’t stopped.
- The courts haven’t stopped marching in lockstep with the police state.
- Government bureaucrats haven’t stopped turning American citizens into criminals.
- The surveillance state hasn’t stopped spying on Americans’ communications, transactions or movements.
- The TSA hasn’t stopped groping or ogling travelers.
- Congress hasn’t stopped enacting draconian laws.
- The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t stopped being a “wasteful, growing, fear-mongering beast.”
- The military industrial complex hasn’t stopped profiting from endless wars abroad.
- The Deep State’s shadow government hasn’t stopped calling the shots behind the scenes.
- And the American people haven’t stopped acting like gullible sheep.
The German people chose to ignore the truth and believe the lie.
They were not oblivious to the horrors taking place around them. The warning signs were definitely there, blinking incessantly like large neon signs.
“Still,” historian Robert Gellately writes, “the vast majority voted in favor of Nazism, and in spite of what they could read in the press and hear by word of mouth about the secret police, the concentration camps, official anti-Semitism, and so on.”
The German people backed Hitler because for the majority of them, life was good.
In a nutshell, life was good because their creature comforts remained undiminished, their bank accounts remained flush, and they weren’t being discriminated against, persecuted, starved, beaten, shot, stripped, jailed and turned into slave labor.
Life is good in America, too.
Life is good in America as long as you’re able to keep sleep-walking through life, cocooning yourself in political fantasies that depict a world in which your party is always right and everyone else is wrong, and distracting yourself with bread-and-circus entertainment that bears no resemblance to reality.
Life is good in America as long as you don’t mind being made to pay through the nose for the government’s endless wars, subsidization of foreign nations, bloated workforce, secret agencies, fusion centers, private prisons, biometric databases, invasive technologies, arsenal of weapons, and every other budgetary line item that is contributing to the fast-growing wealth of the corporate elite at the expense of those who are barely making ends meet—that is, we the 99%.
Life is good in America for the privileged few, but as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, it’s getting worse by the day for the rest of us.
So, please spare me the media hysterics and the outrage and the hypocritical double standards of those whose moral conscience appears to be largely dictated by their political loyalties.
Anyone who believes that the injustices, cruelties and vicious callousness of the U.S. government are unique to any one particular administration has not been paying attention.
© D10.15.2024 by John & Nisha Whitehead, "The Rutherford Institute".