The October Surprises are coming, you know, fast and furious.

The first shot came from the Democrats (naturally). The New York Times published an illegal release of Mr Trump’s 2001 state tax filings – or the first pages thereof. The documents show that he had declared a massive loss for that year. This is completely legal. From this the Times inferred he paid no income taxes for many years thereafter until his profits exceeded his losses. Again, that’s completely legal. And we don’t know how soon his profits came back up so that he had taxable income. It also doesn’t mean he paid no taxes. He paid a lot in property and other taxes. Nonetheless, leftists called him a tax cheat. The fact that Hillary and the New York Times have used exactly the same tax provision has been swept under the rug by, uh, Hillary, the New York Times, and the mainstream media in general.

Then there was Hurricane Mathew, which seemed to show a lot of promise for Democrat political profit. Unfortunately for them it didn’t live up to media hype. Still, there may be something to be squeezed out here – the hurricane did create some telegenic coastal flooding.

But wait. There’s more. Guy Benson of Townhall has the latest:

In the latest Quinnipiac poll (Hillary +5), Donald Trump trails among female voters by 20 points. In Fox News’ new survey, his deficit among women is 10 points. That gap may soon grow, as the Washington Post has obtained audio of Donald Trump bragging about his sexual exploits on a hot mic in 2005…

If you think this is fine and won’t matter with any undecided voters, you’re living in such a thick bubble that you may need to order some oxygen tanks. Trump needs to make up ground among college graduates and white women to have a prayer in November. This hurts.

It does. The Donald has a real problem with women voters. They just don’t like crass and vulgar. I don’t either but, like Lucky Jack Aubrey, I believe that “in the service we must choose the lesser of two weevils.” I can’t justify the Pontius Pilate route of voting Libertarian, voting Green, or not voting at all.

And speaking of crass, here’s the no doubt pre-planned Hillary tweet in response the the Post’s shot at Trump:

“This is horrific. We cannot allow this man to become President.”

Say this for Hillary: she has a special kind of chutzpah. Back to Townhall and to the obvious response

The Trump campaign has responded with a statement dismissing this as “locker room talk,” asserting that Bill Clinton said worse on the links with Trump, and issuing a “sorry if you were offended” quasi-apology…

The Washington Post hit piece drags Donald partway down to the level of Bill. Mr Trump (so far as we know) isn’t a sex addict. He didn’t do it in the Oval Office with an intern. He didn’t commit perjury. He isn’t guilty of rape. He didn’t allow his wife to attack the victims and participate in a massive cover-up. Other that, that Mr Trump’s behavior is indefensible. Furthermore, comparing yourself to the Clintons isn’t exactly holding yourself to a high standard.

But to continue with the Surprises…

This story is understandably going to get a lot of play, but please allow me to point out what else happened today: Hundreds of additional Hillary Clinton emails were released to the public by court order. These are among the trove of work-related trove she lied about withholding…

The dirt is still sifting out on the outrageous “accommodations” given to Team Clinton by the DOJ and FBI, concerning disappeared email evidence, questions deliberately not asked, grants of immunities to guilty-as-sin minions, and who knows what else. Old news, I know. That’s how the Clintons wanted it to be.

Enter Vladimir Putin, stage right, to the game of October Surprises:

The Russian government petitioned the UN to lay off its Trump criticism, while the US Intelligence Community affirmed that the Russian government is responsible for the many hacks that appear designed to influence our election.

Yes, you read that right. The UN has taken sides in the US presidential election. As to Russia, well, it is astonishing to me but they’re all-in to harm the Democrat side in this election. You’d think they’d support the continuation of weak and ineffectual US foreign policy. You’d think. But it seems that imperative has been overcome by deep dislike and indeed disdain for the ruling party here in America. Every day our incompetent Secretary of State feeds this by hurling venom at the Kremlin. We really don’t need a full-up conflict with Russia this fall.

With regard to cyber attribution, here’s the New York Times:

The Obama Administration on Friday formally accused the Russian government of stealing and disclosing emails from the Democrat National Committee and a range of other institutions and prominent individuals [all Democrats]…

In a statement from the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, and the Department of Homeland Security, the government said the leaked emails that have appeared on a variety of websites “are intended to interfere with the US election process.”

The emails were posted on the well-known WikiLeaks site and two newer sites, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, identified as being associated with Russian intelligence.

“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the statement said.

I digress. Back to Townhall:

Wikileaks – which many believe is a Russian front – dumped hacked Clinton campaign emails. Some of them dealt with the Wall Street speech transcripts she’s been hiding from voters. Gosh, I wonder why.

Here’s a sample from the email summary of a fulsomely-remunerated 2013 Hillary speech:

“Hillary Clinton said her dream is a hemispheric Common Market with open trade and open borders…”

And the Townhall comment:

Open borders and open trade. Anathema to the prevailing political environment. The trade stuff would have hurt her badly in the primary, and the immigration line could harm her chances in the general.

The leaked emails show she also spoke of being out of touch with the American middle class, about having “public and private” policy positions, and of course she showered the love on the Wall Street fat cats.

Other Russian-origin leaks have come from Guccifer 2.0 in the form of Clinton Foundation/DNC documents and from DC Leaks who have published over 40,000 emails sent by a Clinton minion.

I don’t doubt there will be more to come from the mainstream media (who I suspect are providing throughput for Clinton campaign opposition research) and Mr Putin’s security services. Both sides are seeking an Assassin’s Mace (to use the Chinese term) – the perfect weapon to strike the killer blow.

This was already a campaign between negatives. The dueling October Surprises are going to make both candidates look even more ugly than they already did. In the battle between media-orchestrated hits and Russian-orchestrated leaks the advantage goes to the side with the biggest megaphone. Clearly that’s the Democrats. Their hit pieces are better-digested (with embedded Clinton Campaign talking points) and better timed than those coming from the Russians, who are simply making data dumps.

Donald Trump is in a two-on-one contest against Mrs Clinton and the media. He’s struggling with double standards, now broadly accepted, wherein Democrats can say or do anything and Republicans must walk the straight and narrow (a big problem for the Donald). Sunday’s debate will be more of the same. I expect both candidate Clinton – suitably rested after her “drug holiday” – and the moderator to come out in full attack mode. Maybe they’ve prepared another whack with the Assassin’s Mace concerning the Donald and women.

The Real Clear Politics average of polls stands at Clinton +3.2 (in a four-way race). Trends are negative. At this point Mr Trump will either have to be rescued by events too significant for the media to hide or he will have to find a way to break through the power of the system. Failing a turnaround, we’ll be stuck with what I project will be our second-worst President ever (sorry Democrats James Buchanan and Jimmy Carter – ineffective must yield place to evil).

– Tacitus

Copyright 2016 Tacitus
http://www.vicsocotra.com