Crescent International
Latest update 8:59 pm November 4 Toronto Time
Votes are still being counted in several states to determine who will be the next president of the United States.
At 8 pm, CNN had projected 253 electoral college votes for Democratic candidate Joe Biden while 213 for Donald Trump.
Other media outlets have given Biden 264 electoral college votes, putting him within reach of achieving the magic number of 270 electoral college votes to secure the presidency.
This means Biden's path to victory is much easier than Trump's. And Biden naturally sounds a lot more confident. He has said that once all the votes are counted, "we would be the winners".
Several states have become crucial for the race: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada.
CNN has already declared that Biden has won in Michigan and Wisconsin while he is leading in Arizona and Nevada.
Politico, on the other hand, has declared Biden victory in Arizona.
If Biden wins either Nevada or Georgia, this would put him over the top to reach 270 seats.
Trump lawyers have said they would call for a recount in Michigan and Wisconsin and ask the courts to stop the vote count in Pennsylvania.
In most states, the late counting is of mail-in ballots. State legislatures, Republican dominated, prohibited mail-in ballot counting before election day.
This has delayed the process that Trump calls "voter fraud".
Legal and election experts have dismissed such allegations. They refer to it as voter suppression, not fraud. The reason is that mail-in votes favour Biden in overwhelming numbers.
Polls show that younger voters and those with college degree favour Biden while uneducated whites, especially over 60 favour Trump.
Women also generally favour Biden.
Claiming to be the sole superpower and a global leader in technology, the US is unable to count votes on time that were cast several days ago.
The year 2020 has been really bizarre especially because of the pandemic but also because of the US presidential election.
Voter turnout has been much higher than in earlier elections but also extremely polarized. Divisions run deep.
Biden has polled higher than any candidate in US history.
Fears of violence on Election Day did not materialize but it still cannot be ruled out.
Perhaps it may be time to get UN Peacekeeping forces comprising troops from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Fiji to be deployed around Washington DC and in other parts of the Divided States to maintain peace, should a civil war break out.
It would definitely be a messy affair given some many weapons (372 million) in the hands of people.
Displaying his customary arrogance, Trump claimed victory in the early hours of Wednesday November 4 demanding that vote counting must stop since the election is over.
Even by his outlandish standards, his latest claim left most people stunned. He clearly does not care for the rights of the American people. He never has.
Commenting on the American election and inspired by US foreign policy pronouncements, a Palestinian observer made the following proposal.
He said let us have two states in the US.
Let's call them Blue States and Red States. Democrats use the colour blue while Republicans use red. Where states of the same colour do not have common borders, they can be linked with overland bridges!
Their party symbols are also interesting. Donkey is the Democrats' symbol while an elephant represents Republicans.
True, Trump looks like an old elephant but perhaps he is closer to a donkey both because of his stubbornness but also because of his stupidity.
What about Washington DC, the current capital of the US? The Palestinian has a solution for that as well.
It should be the joint capital of the two new states and administered by an international body.
Now that is a great idea. It is better than having a civil war, isn't it?
Donald Trump’s stunning victory has left not only the American establishment but the rest of the world also shell-shocked. This is not how...
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