Hecate

This is magnificent.

This will only make proper sense if you've been watching Michael Spicer's most excellent videos: One for you, if you haven't:

Are you sure? I've read enough different opinions to suggest wiggle room and I can certainly imagine Justice Kegger having a good go at coming up with some interpretation that will give the go ahead from the Supreme Court, But it's likely irrelevant anyway because, as you say, President for a day Pence would do the job. As for the delay in vote counting, you can thank DeJoy for slowing down the mail and allowing troves of ballots to stagnate somewhere en route; Republican-assigned count monitors in some states who apparently challenged just about every ballot; and the Republican legislature in Pennsylvania and elsewhere who wouldn't allow postal ballots to be counted earlier.

Not a landslide. Not a blue wave. Trump's on his way out, but this wasn't a defeat of Trumpism at all. Far too close. Four years' worth of sewage spewing from the White House and too many Americans, again, looked at that and thought 'yes, I'll have some of that, thank you very much'. Trump will be dumped by the GOP like the trash he is now he's reached the end of his usefulness; they've got the tax cuts, the judges and the Supreme Court for a generation. They'll start looking for a successor, someone who can do the policies but without the clown car; an authoritarian with a slick facade. Tom Cotton, possibly. I wonder, though, if the base will still demand the spectacle, in which case a Trump Jr 2024 might be on the cards. Perhaps the red meat from Trump TV might keep them happy. Anyway, the progressives will soon start sniping at Biden for not being Bernie, and if the Dems don't win both Georgia run offs the Senate will still be Republican and nothing of substance will get done. Trump will chuck the pardons around, probably including himself, and everyone will get off with the last four years of criming. I am pleased, but that this wasn't a complete repudiation of all things Trump is beyond depressing.

Leftist 🤣 . You'd probably enjoy his book about Steve Bannon. File in the same box as Jason Miller on CNN.

High turn out on the day traditionally favours Democrats, but this year the situation is reversed: Dems have been voting early and by mail - hence DeJoy's shenanigans with the postal service and absentee ballots - while Republicans are expected to turn out on the day. Covid might suppress that a little, but Trump voters seem happy enough to go to his superspreader rallies, so who knows? There will certainly be a renewed call from the Trump camp to not count absentee votes after election day, something that we're seeing already. More significant than the reduction in female voters for Trump (something that's been a thing for a while) is the relatively recent loss of older voters, traditionally a solid Republican stronghold. Who knew that 'die for the economy, granny' might not go over too well with the over 60s? That just might nudge Biden over the edge in Florida, but I'm not holding my breath. Younger voters (who are, by far, the the least likely to vote) are apparently voting in greater numbers than in 2016, but I've heard murmurings that the black and Latino vote is less enthusiastic than expected. We'll see. Biden will need a landslide to ensure a win. In a normal universe he'd win anyway. In this hellscape Trump could win by a combination of voter suppression, gerrymandering, court stuffing and so on. Look at Wisconsin and Texas just this last week or two. Trump even thanked the Supreme Court in advance at one of his rallies the other day: “If we win on Tuesday or - thank you very much, Supreme Court - shortly thereafter...". I'm hopeful for a Biden landslide. I predict a Trump win, probably declared by the Supreme Court in a rerun of Bush and Gore.

My favourite Elphaba:

There are some classics: the Guinness evolution ad; the Levi 501 ads; the VW ads from the 80s and early 90s. Here are a couple of fairly recent ones (well, ten years or so ago, but I don't watch live tele so I haven't seen an ad in ages).

Excellent news. I'm genuinely astonished, and pleased, that you've found a tech company happy to invest in a little bit of the internet and have it retain its pipe and slippers. This might be the first time I've been pleasantly surprised in this godforsaken year.

If your interest runs to old thrillers, suspense, ghost stories and whatnot, there's a brilliantly funny podcast called The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society. Each week (or fortnight-ish) three blokes listen to and discuss an episode of old-time radio (though some episodes are from the 80s), such as Suspense, The Price of Fear, The Shadow etc. It really is excellent. Make your first one Episode 38 - Spawn of the Sub Human .

Spiras were more hollow that Twirls; a bit like the centre of my snowflake avatar. Twirls are/were more like flakes but covered in chocolate.

Are we sure Sheffield Forum is still going to be Sheffield Forum? I'm not. For all the buzzy hyperbole of the first post, I suspect a 'tech incubator' has about as much interest in a dusty, creaky, old-school internet forum as I have in whatever a tech incubator might be. Great ready-made community though. A company called Bulldozer from a team at Razor? Get ready for some slash and burn.