Be Excellent To Each Other

And after four years of not much happening, the US goes to the polls tomorrow. Or at least those who haven't already voted will. Or those who are not for some unknowable reason prevented from voting. And all to pick people to pick people. Perhaps.

No, I won't be staying up. Would be exciting if the Democrats can take the Senate, but that seems to depend on the lead Biden has across the country to lift those elsewhere on the ticket.

Obligatory if increasingly outdated 'Animanaics'
.

You don't have to stay up this time... we'll get some results next week

I'll be staying up, I love the shenanigans

John Oliver was pretty fired up on Last Week....

I expect Trump will manage to get close enough that it turns into a legal battle decided by his Supreme Court.

America hasn't been great for a long, long time though has it, really?

When do you think it was great? Pre colonisation? Pre ice age?

Good question, and I personally am not sure I can do much more than take a vague and somewhat arbitrary stab at that. It seemed great to me when I was younger, so for me I'd say sometime before 2000.

The fact that this is actually A Fucking Thing and yet they still have the brass bollocked audacity to even pretend to be Great by any measure is the biggest pile of both hilarious and tragic horseshit. It turns out that America has never actually been 'good', never mind 'great', but it's just never been so obvious as it is now.

The bit where the house falls on Buster Keaton was pretty pro.

I quite liked the bit where Falcon said "on your left" and then Captain America said "Avengers Assemble".

I think you've summed it up quite concisely. Well done.

Right, I'm going to stay up I think, I've done the last three at least, so I think it's right.

As such, what's everyone's recommendation for the best TV channel, internet video stream and text stream to follow? And snacks/drinks?

I would recommend a nice solid 8 hrs sleep before the nukes start flying

It'd be good if you could design an electoral system more perverse and complex than the one they already have. An interesting thought experiment.

For drinks, I'd alternate between tea and vodka.

Fuck this. No hope left now.

Regardless of who wins.

Blimey, it’s a bit of a roller coaster. 5 mins ago Biden was over 25 up on Trump, now he’s three behind.

I wish the fat lady would hurry up and sing, but that may not even happen today at all.

I've given up on hope in overnight election counts as going to bed with hope and waking up to crushing horror isn't fun.

2010 general election was where my hope flickered, but 2016 was the final nail. Brexit and Trump in the same year. My hope is long dead

Just got up. This isn't looking good, especially as Trump kept Florida.

It’s turned around again now. Biden 220, Trump 213.

The tension.....the tension.

Looks like the Republicans will keep the Senate, so even were Biden to win he wouldn't be able to get anything done.

Nothing has changed hands yet though, so it comes down to the 3 "blue wall states" and Arizona.

<turns on news>
<turns off news>

Here's a rainbow

Where there's a rainbow there's rain. Bleak, miserable, cold rain.

https://twitter.com/amandaknox/status/1 ... 8416618496

Whatever happens, the next four years can't be as bad as that four-year study abroad I did in Italy, right?

— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) November 4, 2020

Oh

So AFAICT Biden needs to win 2 of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, problem is, Trump is ahead in all of them, with not many votes left to count in any of the states.

Oh god.

Which is why Trump doesn't want the postal votes to be counted and wants the Supreme Court to stop those counts.

It could come down to Pennsylvania, couldn't it? Which surely they won't get through today?

Oh god, I can see Trump doing something absolutely ridiculous to keep that from happening.

Trump turning the most sacred part of the U.S into a reality show.

Unbelievable.

Gracelands?

Reality show star treats everything as a reality show shocker.

Can someone who understands betting odds explain this to me?

Am I right thinking that for every £2 you put on Biden you get £1(plus original 2) back, and for every 8 put on Trump you get 13 back, so they think Biden is going to win? I can’t remember which way ‘around’ betting odds go.

Yes, that's it. 2/1 considered less likely, so paying more, than 1/2.

Decimal betting odds is much easier to understand, and it’s frustrating that fractional odds are still primarily used in this country (perhaps to deliberately obfuscate). In this case Biden’s odds would be 1.5 and Trump’s 2.625 (you divide the numerator by the denominator and add 1.0 to reflect your original stake).

So if you put a tenner on Biden you’d get £15 plusincluding your stake back, and Trump you’d get £26.25 andwith your stake returned.

So Biden is the favourite.

I thought that was what it was, but doubted myself because I daren’t believe that anyone would predict shorter odds on Biden without checking first.

This is how it starts, so don't be tempted or you'll end up like Robby Box or Kush.

I googled that and am very little the wiser

You wouldn't get your stake back. At odds of 1.5, you'd get £15 back including your stake.

Yes, sorry, I was doing it in a rush. I did at least state you add the 1 for your stake

Decimal odds do look simpler to calculate. To be fair, the ratio odds are simple, I just can never remember which side represents the stake and which the return.

Robbie was character in Big Deal, a series about a compulsive gambler. Mrs W were glued to it in the 70s.

I love US history and politics but the agony is really getting to me. And this is after three final pints at a favourite pub.

In other exciting US ballot news, citizens of Rhode Island have voted to name their state...

And by the Devil's Split too...

The front page of The Times is absolutely bonkers. A right-wing columnist in a right-wing paper, in a country with a right-wing government, talking about another right-wing country, with a right-wing president apparently being replaced by a broadly right-wing candidate - from the Democrat party, with whom the Conservaties always used to claim the most in common. And it blames the radical left.

Arg! The left! Sinister!

Didn’t know you spoke Italian