NEW DELHI, Nov 6 2:00 PM (IST): Neck and neck at the hustings and neck and neck three days into the counting, the presidential election this time has been an unparalleled story in American history especially with the largest number ever getting out and voting. And that too, amazingly, in the midst of a devastating global pandemic that has forced people indoors world over.

Going by the latest results, victory is slipping away for Trump, and that is simply because of the unpopularity he earned with his grotesque ways of dealing with issues like the corona pandemic, denigration of science and healthcare institutions, making more enemies than friends abroad for no rhyme or reason, and, in a way, destabilising the administration to no advantage. Dems'Joe Biden is just a step away from power.

By daybreak on Friday (US), Biden was seen steadily slashing Trump's lead in Georgia and Pennsylvania and retaining a narrow edge over his rival in Nevada and Arizona. News agencies and networks that call the States early saw Biden just needing 6 more electoral college votes to hit the majority mark of 270 while Trump was trailing far behind with 214 State votes. That is, any one State not called so far is more for Biden. Popular vote is counted and result declared for a candidate by majority in each of 50 States separately in America, and converted into electoral college votes going by the number of representatives of a State in Congress.

Earlier, as of 10 am (IST) Friday November 6, results of the presidential election held on Tuesday were still rolling in, counting continuing in several States as the volume of early voting due to the coronavirus pandemic had surpassed all previous records and the mail-in ballots were still arriving days after the polling ended on Novemebrc 3.

Counting continued uninterrupted despite Republican threats to counting staff at centres and countrywide protests to stop counting of ballots that came in after the voting closed on Tuesday evening. Republican candidate President Donald Trump and his supporters, as planned even before the polling, filed several lawsuits against what he called as "illegal votes" and "illegal counting" pleading to stop the counting in Michigan and Georgia and for a recount in Wisconsin. However, the judges refused to accept the Republican arguments as mostly they were "unsupported," non-specific and amounted to a wild goose chase.

When in the wee hours of Wednesday Trump, in the same breath accusing the Dems of "stealing" the votes he also made a premature declaration of victory as well, Biden had his civilising masterly lines ready: "Power can't be taken or asserted. It flows from the people." "No one is going to take democracy away from us. Not now, not ever."

Trump had been wildly predicting electoral malpractices by Democrats much before the election and as part of the phobia he had, defying all practices, hurried filling a Supreme Court vacancy with a conservative justice of his choice on the eve of the election, making the composition 6:3. He had a motive. Under the Constitution the States conduct the election and there is no Federal election commission or authority. The President has no control over the conduct of elections. However, the US Supreme Court remains the apex judicial authority for judicial remedies. And Trump had threatened during electioneering that there will not be a peaceful transfer of power if he is defeated and the apex court will decide the results. Hence the hurry in "packing the court". Trump's latest statement is, "Litigation over election may end up at the Supreme Court..."

On the polling day, anticipating resistance, the White House itself was fortified with a non-scalable fence. At 2 am on Wednesday (US EST), he made a speech accusing the Democrats of "stealing" the votes, irregularities in early voting, rigging and manipulating "illegal counting". He repeated his charges the following night even as lawsuits were filed in several States staking his unsupported claims.

However, despite all these hullabaloo and threats, the counting staff were doing their job unperturbed throughout the country. Unlike anticipated, there were no confrontations between party supporters except in Nevada. In Manhattan, 60 protesters were held. Although Republican protests againt what they called Democrats' "electoral malpractices" continued in most places and a battery of legal luminaries was lined up for a legal battle against what even some Republican lawmakers described as unsubstantiated, non-specific and wild allegations.

COMMENT: A man who doesn't know what is his job, lest he could know how to do what - defines what is Trump after all. At least while in the White House. Obviously, there was a revolting social consciousness looming large over him against his conduct and work that had gone quite grotesque and alarming.

Results as of 10 am (IST) Friday November 6 (credit: Agencies)

Georgia (electoral votes 16) counted 99% Biden 49.4% (24,46,814) Trump 49.4% (24,48,081);

Nevada (6) counted 84% B 49.4% (6,04,251); Trump 48.5% ( 5,92,813);

North Carolina (15) counted 94% Biden 48.7% (26,55,3830 Trump 50.1% (27,32,084);

Pennsylvania (20) counted 97% Biden 49.3% (32,67,923) Trump 49.6% (32,85,965);

Arizona (11) counted 90% Biden 50.1% (15,28,319) Trump 48.5% (14,82,062);

Florida (29) counted 99% Biden 47.9% (52,84,377) Trump 51.2% (56,58,690);

Iowa (6) counted 99% Biden 45% (7,57,580) Trump 53.2% (8,96,286);

Michigan (16) counted 99% Biden 50.6% (27,91,549) Trump 47.9% (26,46,423);

New Hampshire (4) counted 99% Biden 52.8% (4,23,186) Trump 45.6% (3,65,277);

Ohio (18) counted 96% Biden 45.2% (26,03,731) Trump 53.4% (30,74,418)

Texas (38) counted 85% Biden 46.4% (52,11,603) Trump 52.2% (58,60,494)

Wisconsin (10) counted 99% Biden 49.6% (16,30,542) Trump 48.9% (16,09,734)

Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.

Betting through Dubai-based Mahadev Book in India is conducted through a countrywide network. Probes reveal that the online gambling is worth several millions and top politicians, officials and celebs have been beneficiaries.

TAILPIECE: Polling dates for some States are round the corner. Top politicians have begun their acrimonious debate who looted more, even as Mahadev is washing their dirty laundry in the open ghat. Come what may, one needs to seize power to amass "thy wretched pelf!" One simple question is, why else one should spend lakhs or crores to get elected! A question every Indian should ask to oneself at least once a day!

His inaction amounts to defeating the rights of the people of the State to welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills, the Kerala Government's petition submitted, while the State of Tamil Nadu remarked that its "Governor is acting as a political rival."

Tailpiece: Coming up back to back, the petitions in their totality seem to question the provision of Raj Bhavan, and not motives of a Governor as a person.

Hundreds of cars piled up behind the wreckage of crashes occurring one after other in backing up - continuous crashes to the rhythm of metallic clanks and bangs back to back. According to reports, some ops required 'Jaws of Life' to pull apart the mangled cars to save lives inside.

The pilots struggled with Emerson to thwart a shut-off as he reached for the T-handles (see pix). Later he admitted to police he had taken psychedelic mushrooms and had a "nervous breakdown."

Doctors reasoned how the incidence of heart attacks is spiking over time and advise the simple way to play safely is to take a break and rehydrate yourself.

But how come ten people, including children, die of cardiac arrest at Garba in 24 hours, and that at different places of Gujarat? Garba had been going on for six days, and every year it is celebrated.

The killing of a teacher in France by an Islamic radical last Friday is linked to the Israel-Hamas war in West Asia, say authorities.

Shocking news from the UK: Leading grocers have started bribing policemen with free food and drinks to persuade them to take action against shoplifters.

Shoplifting has risen by about 27 per cent in 10 major cities across the UK this year. The cost of retail crime last year was $2.15 billion. Besides, “We are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying stores," Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said. Data shows that the police failed to respond to 73 per cent of serious retail crimes that included assault and abuse of workers, apart from shoplifting.

Isar Mohammad allegedly picked up a banana offered to Ganesh idol on Chaturthi at a makeshift temple in Delhi and consumed it.

Harris said hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every aspect of American popular culture.” “Hip-hop culture is American culture,” she said in a talk at her official residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

The social media had mixed reaction. There was much appreciation that she dances better than any VP in American history. But some called her "moves" as “cringe” while others did not like her pink pants - "pink pants don’t look good.” In fact, her ensembles have always been incongruous.

"Let’s see how the (Governor's) Vice-Chancellors are given salary." Mamata's extreme statements will put the Marxist Government in Kerala, which is also facing similar issues, to shame. Has she begun the countdown for a war on the streets?

It's true Mamata has come to see a conspiracy to demolish the established systems across the country, but lacks the ability to foresee what exactly is being pushed.

Brandishing a sword, Mahant Paramhans told reporters on Tuesday he himself will behead MK Stalin's son for his remarks against Sanatan Dharma in case nobody came forward to accept his offer he made in his video. Udhayanidhi reacted to the saint's Monday video, "I will speak more. I am the grandson of the artist who put his head on the rail track for Tamil Nadu."

Somanath elaborated, "I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples." (See videos)

Rao the mathematical legend had fathered the path-breaking Rao-Blackwell theorem, one of the most important theorems in mathematical statistics, at the age of 25. That brought him global fame. He is also famous for his Cramér-Rao Bound inequality theorem relating to quality of estimators in statistics which has had a profound bearing on applications of modern economics and several other diverse fields. Simply put, with the pioneering statistician computation became a tool to analyse even socio-economic challenges of modern times.

The alleged incident has received such a flash publicity that a standardised city's hugely middle class population will have second thoughts about eating outside for some time. Now everything on the table looks suspicious!

“All subjects directly connected to the people should be shifted to the State List. Particularly the subject of education. Only if this is done can cruel exams like NEET be abolished,” Stalin said. Education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List with the 42nd Constitution Amendment made by the Central Government in 1976.

Decentralisation has been at the core of Tamil politics since the times of CN Annadurai. Stalin indicated there will be political changes in the offing.

TAILPIECE: While the Centre and the States are at loggerheads, it takes a different cognitive acumen to know that entrance tests are not the way for students' admission to courses.

As recently as Tuesday Craig Robertson had posted on Facebook: "Perhaps Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the Marxist." Biden was scheduled to make his first visit to Utah as President Wednesday afternoon.

Maruti is recalling 87,599 S-Presso and Eeco vehicles to inspect and possibly replace parts in the steering system. All reputed companies around the world do recall their products when a defect comes to light.

Meanwhile, a question arises why just in about a year so many accidents have taken place involving Mercedes sent to India while the car has won safety awards abroad? In most cases, the vehicle collided with divider, while manoeuvring a turn. Was there a split second delay in the steering system coming to a grip when at high speed? Did anybody in India bother to study a pattern in several of these accidents that took place one after other?

Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died when his Mercedes-Benz-SUV hit a divider in Gujarat. Cricketer Rishabh Pant's Mercedes-Benz-SUV rammed a divider in Uttarakhand and smashed. It went up in flames but he escaped with injuries. Brother of PM Narendra Modi, Prahlad Modi's Mercedes-Benz-SUV met with a similar accident in Mysuru. And many more.

• Experts blame violation of the Visual Flying Rules (VFR) for most of the chopper crashes in the mountains as the leading cause. VFR means fly only visually - because of the lack of navigation aids in remote areas or unreliability of GPS-like aids in hilly terrains or a remote manipulation of instruments in cases of sabotage - as the topography plays havoc especially in the monsoon (mid-June to September).
• Even when VFR is followed, most crashes occur due to CFIT (Controlled Flight into Terrain) - that is, everything else is OK but the aircraft collides with hills or trees hidden by the clouds. This also occurs mostly in the monsoon.
• On Tueday with Manang, the chopper was brand new, pilot was highly experienced. But it hit an 'invisible' tree and then crashed against a hillside. This CFIT occurred when the pilot tried to dodge patches of clouds even as he was following the VFR.
• Simply put, everyone knows flying in the hills during the monsoon is risky, but the companies want to make more money in any which case. This type of tragedy is very frequently invited in the Indian hill State of Uttarakhand as well, where pilots are even made to fly without the mandatory rest.