unclevlad

Yeah, the different fade rates feels like something you'd want to support a fair bit. There are also some more complex builds the Combined Power supports. Drain: AoE radius, selective Aid: MUCH higher diceage to reflect the total amount you get, a little bit from each victim Also, the Drain might have a fixed target like STR; the Aid might have Variable Effect, or in the case of the AoE drain, even expanded effect.

The world case tally just passed 50 million, literally in the last few minutes. Did a refresh...50,009,552. 10,000 cases is maybe 15 minutes' worth of tally for this time of day, with both the US and western Europe likely both reporting heavily. (Maybe 6-7 minutes later? It jumped 8000 more.)

But that only applies when they ARE common to all slots. Which might be the case here, but he did say only most spells. At the least, you could build a custom modifier for everything else (Simple Magical Spell, -1) and cut it down to 2 limitations. Side note: Common Modifiers can also be used with lists, and the same point about suppressing the common limitation applies. That *really* helps the organization and readability, whether using common modifiers or not. Lists can denote sections: Defenses and Senses/LS are two I use a fair bit. Or Base Powers (all forms) and Empowered (HFO, or when a bunch of stuff is Linked to a core power that effectively defines an "HFO.") Last: lists can be copied and pasted from one sheet to another. All the list entries tag along for the ride. Can be handy for developing some 'template' power groupings you use a fair bit; for example, for HTH types, combat skill levels, defense maneuver, defensive attack (from APG), and rapid attack (HTH).

I think the Senate's willingness might be tied to the calculus for the next Congress...and specifically, to the *2* Georgia runoffs for Senate seats, that are now expected. The context for those races just became much, much clearer, and there won't be other elections to distract them. I feel seriously sorry for all Georgia residents because that state is about to see 40 days and 40 nights of unceasing ads, and those ads will probably be more negative and more strident ("keep the Senate or the socialists can't be stopped!!!" kind of stuff) than ever.

Seriously wrong tense there. It *should be* over. barring the challenges. Point of irony here: if cases end up at the Supreme Court and Trump still loses, it's his own packed court. But I'm not going to say it's over until Biden takes the oath of office. I am perfectly content to be called paranoid, but it's not a done deal until then. And Trump still holds the position; he's got, what, 70-odd days to throw a tantrum. He took the chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission away earlier this week, for promoting wind and solar, and gave it to a different member. He's been reported as having most agencies work on regulatory rollbacks; those are likely to be made official. As long as he's got the office, there's a lot of damage he can do. By the time I started becoming semi-conscious... grab iPad, head to nytimes.com...... BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Custom Modifier is your friend. It comes in very handy from time to time. I defined a High Scale movement advantage that's principally for Running and Flight, because MegaScale is too much IMO for the continuous movement powers. From APG, there's Damage-Based END cost that I also like a lot. There is a fair bit of stuff in APG not included in HD, but it can generally be included via one of the Customs. Defensive Attack's a nice one for a Multiple Attack specialist; it's got to be a custom skill.

Military Times had some stories on this. IIRC, more of the enlisted still intended to vote for Trump, but the numbers were MUCH lower. Like 60-40 Trump instead of 80-20. And officers were more likely to vote Biden, particularly in the higher ranks. Thought it was telling that a very substantial number of *senior* officers publicly repudiated Trump because he's an incompetent commander in chief.

Y'know, most people limit their mountain building by starting with a mole hill. These Trump campaign lawsuits try to make a mountain out of a grain of sand....

In software, there's an aphorism. Good, fast, cheap...pick 2. You can't have all 3. In voting, it's convenient for the voters, robustly reliable (any fraud would be small-scale at best), easy to count. One is manageable; two is getting hard. All three...dream on....

GOOD. Not that it's anyone in particular but that the league is being serious. I think at this point, the league will work through even a Miami Marlins or St. Louis Cardinals situation...if a team can't play 3 games, well, do the week 18 thing and cope. If it's 1 team, it'll be manageable. That doesn't mean it'll be pretty or desirable, so smacking down teams that break covid discipline is essential. EDIT: Tomlin fined $100K, the Steelers $250K for on-field mask violations. But with the number of teams that've temporarily stopped practice and shut down facilities...I still loath the words "out of an abundance of caution"...ya got to. I'll grant it's hard to change longstanding habits and masks are bloody annoying...but ya gotta do it.

One point from this election that's clear to me: My god, we need to modernize the process. Did a quick early-AM results check, including cnn.com. They were doing live reports. 220,000 or so ballots still to count in Arizona (as of the moment). About 4000 in Georgia...but then there's the provisional ballots and the military/overseas ballots, which IIRC was another 9000. So I believe neither would be resolved today. Nevada allows mailed ballots postmarked the 3rd to be counted as long as they arrive by the 12th. Well, perhaps there isn't much to be done there.... Still, it feels ridiculous to me that it takes this long. I figure part of it is, each state handles things on their own, so it's a patchwork of methodologies. Part of it is fear...legit fear of fraud, but also the magnification of that fear because vote fraud claims have been rampant. Some of it is almost certainly money.

I like popcorn as a late munchie. Just finished a batch, actually. Came here to say...did one last late check. One thing for near-certain...Georgia is going to a recount. 99% of the vote counted. About 4.9 million votes. The current margin is about 2000 votes. Not sure what the auto recount margin is in Georgia but unless they're HEAVILY weighted to one candidate, ya gotta figure the margin will be less. So that one won't be official til some time late next week, I expect. Or later. This is assuming there aren't a gazillion frivolous challenges filed....

Mid 3rd...the chum is in the water, the Packers are the sharks, and Nick Mullins is the tuna..... And if you have Aaron Rodgers on your fantasy team this week......CHA CHING!!!!!!!!!!!! Better yet, if you have Rodgers and Davante Adams.....

Mmm...ok, technically no. Expel but that's not gonna happen. That said, you get my point, I suspect.

My apologies if it feels like beating a dead horse but... a touch under 120,000 new cases. That's almost 30% higher than last Thursday. The 7 day average rose from 78,000 last Thursday to 96,000...about a 23% increase. 10 million cases overall is a lock tomorrow. We only need 80,000 and change. 250,000 deaths is 7-9 days away. We're 8th worst in both per capita case rates and per capita death rates, among countries with 1M or more people. EDIT: ugh...I didn't notice earlier. Yesterday set a record for most deaths in a day, world-wide...beating the mid-April peak. FIRST day to do so. Until today, which beat it by a full 10%. 9000 deaths worldwide. Just today.

That is the underlying point...there's no reason for McConnell to confirm. I'm just taking it a step further. Why not simply refuse to ever schedule confirmation hearings...a la Obama's Supreme Court nominee? The Senate's absolutely shown that governance is subservient to party advancement, so...what pressure, realy? Would it be any different than a non-hearing on a SC justice or on the impeachment?

The issue with Trump trying to set up a new network now, is the simple proliferation of all-news networks that now exist. And, is it going to be news, or pure commentary? The notion that he'd try to force the Party to go with a family member? Which one? Don Jr seems a non-entity. Kushner's been involved...but positively? Maybe that wouldn't matter. I think you're right that Trump would *love* to play kingmaker if he loses, I'm just not sure he's got a viable option. Then again, no one thought he was one last time...or this time. So who really knows. I had a really terrifying thought earlier. Just imagine that Biden wins, AND the Republicans get at least 50 seats in the Senate. Now...imagine Biden is incapacitated in office, or dies. Harris is the President. Would the Senate ever consider any nominee for VP? If the Republicans have 50....Harris is President, there is no VP to break ties..... Good lord what a mess......

I think Trump will probably be sniping from the sideline, using his status as an ex-President to compel the media to listen. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if he became a Fox News contributor. I am undecided, tho, whether the Republicans would accept him running again, or go a different direction. If the latter...what about Pence, or is he too tarred with the Trump brush? Not sure. Pence would likely be more comfortable with the religious conservatives but not necessarily with the whole MAGA crowd. But...someone can take that up, and push all the same buttons. It need not be Trump. EDIT: there's a NY Times article on this; they talk about Trump possibly trying to build a network to rival Fox News. That's perhaps easier said than done. But...he also has 88 million Twitter followers. If nothing else, continuing to harangue there will have influence.

I think the Trump campaign approach now is to just sow as much doubt and discord, and to build up a 'bonfire' of allegations about election irregularity they'll use over and over again, in state houses in particular to try to restrict voting procedures and rights. I also think Hermit's probably right; now is the time to disengage from Trump the figure; he isn't needed. Even if in the end, Biden's our president come January, 2024 is likely a mess. --I think Biden's a one-term president; his age is a huge concern. --I don't think Kamala Harris can win. Too many angles where the Republicans can attack. --The economy is going to be a disaster for a while, and the Senate is not going to play nice, probably. Or not that nice. --Taxes are going to *have* to be raised. They'll also get raised from some of Trump's moves being ONLY for this year, which means the consequences will be on Biden. But even more, all the money that's being spent to try to keep the country halfway afloat this year, has been financed with debt...which will require revenue to pay back. --No one is going to break the Republican stranglehold on the Midwest and most of the South. John McCain lost by a fairly large margin in the electoral college...but still won 22 states. Even Bob Dole took 19, and that was running against an incumbent. (And he wasn't exactly great on the campaign trail, IIRC.) To be sure, there's the Democratic locks like New York and California...but each state has 2 electoral college votes from the Senators, so those little states mean more than you think. So there's going to be plenty to be unhappy about, I suspect, and quite probably more ammunition for the Republican strategists (and Fox News) to use against Biden than even the ammo Trump's freely given to every late night host.

We'll never know, but honestly, unlucky is much more likely here than it might normally be. Ever watch a relatively small stream of water flow down mostly flat asphalt? It darts...it jerks...it sits and pools...then darts again. If it's the right amount of water, it doesn't flow smoothly or steadily like a river; it jumps around from spot to spot, missing large chunks entirely, at least for a while, while coursing through other areas.

Beat me to it. Highest so far...and Thursday and Friday have been pretty consistently higher than the other days, at least for the last several weeks. If both top 100K, as appears very likely, forget the weekend. We'll hit the 10M mark Friday night. Also, 1200 deaths. That's not the be-all, end-all stat but it's something to follow. (If nothing else, the overall number of serious cases should probably correlate.) The 7 day average is just below 900, which is the highest since early September. Yeah, it's gonna go away Real Soon Now. El Paso County has a population of about 720,000. 3100 new cases TODAY!!!!! So for every 230 people.....1 new case. 21,000 active cases...so about 1 person in 35, in the entire county. 1041 in the hospital. 311 in ICU. The county lists 234 ICU beds under normal circumstances. This is what's at risk if an area loses control.

And they're just bouncing a story from the Washington Times, which might as well be Fox News.

I just noticed we started the day at just under 9.7 million cases. So before the end of the weekend, we'll surpass 10 million. 250,000 dead will be notably before Thanksgiving. Ugh....

It is very much a squeaker. Which means it's a certainty now that we're in for a VERY long, messy period of challenges, recounts, and lawsuits. But at least there's hope. And that's not empty; last night was not a good one for me. The other big takeaway for me is similar to Doc Mid-Nite's. Van Jones put it that a lot of Democrats are upset that it's this close. Maybe upset isn't the right word; I'd go with disturbed. It's a bad sign. If Trump can't be swept out easily and convincingly, the Democrats have major problems.

My stomach is in knots...and I'm trying hard NOT to look. Not yet anyway, it's still much too early. Not entirely succeeding.