As an election junkie based in Sweden I’m following proceedings day and night; this time on my laptop via CNN. I have to say their reporting and analysis are superb – when they allow the reporters and analysts on. The only problem for me is the interminable ‘commercial breaks’, which don’t actually carry the commercials that I presume American audiences are shown. Instead they repeat over and over an advert for one of CNN’s own programmes, called ‘Quest’ – or it may be ‘Quince’ or ‘Queer’ – ‘on Business’, featuring the most irritating man I’ve ever seen on TV – I think he’s British – cavorting ridiculously around a maze which is meant to symbolise the commercial world, before turning on a fountain in the centre with the cry: ‘What a profitable day!’ I can turn the sound off, but not the picture without the risk of missing some fascinating analysis of postal votes from the suburbs of Detroit, or wherever. Still, excellent work, CNN, if it’s not all ‘fake’, as Trump seems to think.

It looks at present – midday Thursday Swedish time – as if Biden might win, although it’s by no means certain. That of course adds to the fascination of the event for people like me; so long as we put out of our minds the crucial importance of this election not only to America but to us in Britain and the rest of America’s declining world-wide empire. Best to view it like an American football game; which is how it’s presented on US TV. Several commentators are saying how ‘enjoyable’ it is.

I’m looking forward – if I’m allowed to – to the aftermath of the count, and the behaviour of the Donald and his disciples if they are ‘cheated’ out of their rightful victory. But I confess I’m glad that I’ll be viewing it from a distance. Looking out from our sunny island home over the bay and beyond the trees (below, pic taken just now), it all seems sorta crazy; a bit of a ‘mardröm’, as we Swedes would say. Let’s hope we all wake up soon.

Of course it’s what we might have expected of the final stage of a collapsing late-capitalist system. Especially if Trump – the very personification of late capitalism – wins again. More on this later.