Tag: US election

  • Taylor Swift endorses Kamala, internet reminds her of silence on Gaza genocide

    Taylor Swift endorses Kamala, internet reminds her of silence on Gaza genocide

    Taylor Swift on Wednesday repeated her call for fans to register to vote in the US presidential election as she accepted MTV’s top Video Music Award.

    Swift won the Video of the Year for “Fortnight,” which also featured Post Malone, and thanked her loyal Swifties for bestowing her with the fan-chosen award, which she took home for the third straight year.

    “To the fans, I’m always trying to figure out a way to say thank you to you for making my life what it is,” Swift, who directed the video, said onstage.

    “If you are over 18 please register to vote for something else that is very important,” she added.

    The 34-year-old international megastar’s call follows her endorsement of Kamala Harris in the minutes after the previous evening’s presidential debate between the Democratic hopeful and Republican Donald Trump.

    “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift said in a lengthy Instagram post in throwing her support behind the Democratic nominee.

    Criticism by the Internet

    However, netizens lambasted her for not criticizing Israel for the past year despite her activism against oppression all around the world and especially against government policies. Some reminded her of supporting a candidate who is pro-genocide, implying Kamala’s pro-Israel stance.

    Here are the reactions X (formerly Twitter)

  • He’s predicted (almost) every US Election — and says Harris will win

    He’s predicted (almost) every US Election — and says Harris will win

    Forget the polls, ditch the data and stop sending journalists to swing-state diners to interview undecided voters: historian Allan Lichtman already knows who is going to win the US presidential election.

    “Harris will win,” Lichtman confidently announced to AFP.

    He was speaking at his home in the leafy Washington suburb of Bethesda shortly after unveiling his much-discussed, once-every-four-years White House prediction, based on what he calls the “13 keys” method.

    It can be easy to dismiss Lichtman’s signature methodology as just another gimmick in the endless, drawn-out “horse race” style coverage of US elections — where journalists, pollsters and pundits are constantly trying to see who is up and who is down.

    But the American University history professor has answers for his critics — and a track record that’s hard to beat, having correctly called all but one election since 1984.

    Lichtman pays no attention to opinion polls.

    Instead, his predictions are based on a series of true-or-false propositions applied to the current presidential administration. If six or more of these “keys” are false, the election will go to the out-of-power challenger — in this case, Republican candidate Donald Trump.

    One of the keys, for example, posits that the president’s party won seats in the most recent midterm elections. The Democrats actually lost control of the House in the 2022 midterms, meaning this particular key is termed “false,” tipping the scales toward Trump.

    A few more keys break Trump’s way: President Joe Biden stepped down, meaning Democrats lost the key which determines the “incumbency,” a vital advantage.

    Biden’s vice president and replacement as nominee, Kamala Harris, is surging on optimism among party faithful. But Lichtman rules that she does not qualify for another of the keys, which is being a charismatic, “once-in-a-generation” candidate in the style of Ronald Reagan or Franklin Roosevelt.

    More points to Trump, yes. But after that the keys start breaking in rapid succession for Harris.

    For example, the Biden administration’s massive environment and infrastructure legislation ticks the box for the key requiring a “major policy change” by the current White House.

    Another key for Harris is the exit of fringe independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    She also satisfies the key demanding lack of major scandal.

    Do the math and it turns out that only three keys are falling for Trump. But to be declared the presumptive winner, he would have needed six.

    And there’s another key which could go Harris’s way, if the administration reaches a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.

    It’s a move that would likely require Democrats to push harder against the Israeli government — sure to cause strain among poll-obsessed advisors in a party trying to straddle a base that is heavily divided over the issue. Yet, a ceasefire would mean the Democrats actually delivered a policy achievement, Lichtman argues, and deliver one of the keys on foreign policy.

    “I don’t like to speculate, because the devil is in the details, but that could be seen as a big success,” he said.

    Critics of the “13 keys” home in on the speculative nature of some of the true-false propositions. What is a charismatic leader, for example?

    Yet the sage of Bethesda, as some have dubbed him, is well-versed in arguing his case.

    “I’ve been doing this for 40 years. I think I’ve heard every conceivable question,” he said. “‘Aren’t your keys subjective?’ I obviously have an answer to that — they’re not subjective, they’re judgmental.

    “We’re dealing with human beings. Historians make judgments all the time, and the judgments are very tightly constrained.”

    Amid the “noise” of national political punditry, Lichtman argues, presidential elections are a simple “vote up or down on the strength and performance of the White House party.”

    In that way, his method is anti-horse race — focused on good governance rather than campaigns, since in reality “we forget virtually anything a candidate has to say.”

  • Pakistani-American lobbyist, who donated for Trump and Kamala Harris, jailed for 12 years

    The American Federal Court in California has convicted a Pakistani-American political donor for violation of the Foreign Act, awarding him twelve years in prison along with a hefty penalty of $15.705 million in restitution and $1.75 million in criminal fine.

    According to The News, 50-year-old Imaad Shah Zuberi of Arcadia was sentenced by US District Judge Virginia A Phillips for forging records to conceal his work as a foreign agent while lobbying high-level US officials, evading the payment of millions of dollars in taxes, making illegal campaign contributions, and obstructing a federal investigation into the source of donations to a presidential inauguration committee.

    Zuberi was born in Pakistan and migrated to the US with his parents when he was just three-years-old. Eventually, he secured US citizenship.

    In 1996, Zuberi served in the US Army for about six months and was honourably discharged after sustaining a knee injury. He received a BSc in 1997 from the University of Southern California and an MBA in 2006 from Stanford University.

    The Pakistani-origin man was facing charges of donating $900,000 to the Trump inaugural committee. He was also a top fundraiser for former president Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012, Dawn reported.

    He donated at least $100,000 for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and also raised funds for Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in 2014, and then-California attorney general Kamala Harris, now vice president, in 2015.

    In November 2019, Zuberi pleaded guilty to a three-count information charging him with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by making false statements on a FARA filing, tax evasion, and making illegal campaign contributions.

    In June 2020, Zuberi pleaded guilty in a separate case to one count of obstruction of justice. His sentence today pertains to both cases.

    “The violations were part of a larger surreptitious effort to route foreign money into US elections and to use it to corrupt the US policy-making processes,” prosecutors said in a court filing.

    They also pleaded the court to reject Zuberi’s claim that funnelling money to influence US policy-making and elections was the “way America works”.

    “Zuberi turned acting as an unregistered foreign agent into a business enterprise,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C Demers, adding, “He used foreign money to fund illegal campaign contributions that bought him political influence, and used that influence to lobby US officials for policy changes on behalf of numerous foreign principals.”

    “Zuberi flouted federal laws that restrict foreign influences upon our government and prohibit injecting foreign money into our political campaigns. He enriched himself by defrauding his clients and evading the payment of taxes,” said Acting US Attorney Tracy L Wilkison for the Central District of California.

    “Today’s sentence, which also accounts for Zuberi’s attempt to obstruct an investigation into his felonious conduct, underscores the importance of our ongoing efforts to maintain transparency in U.S. elections and policy-making processes.”

  • US Electoral College will vote today to confirm Biden’s presidential win

    United States Electors will gather in state capitols across the country today to formally vote for Joe Biden as the next US president, effectively ending President Donald Trump’s frenzied but failing attempt to overturn his loss in the November 3 election.

    The state-by-state votes, traditionally an afterthought, have taken on outsized significance this year in light of Trump’s unprecedented assault on the nation’s democratic process. Pushing false claims of widespread fraud, Trump has pressured state officials to throw the election results out and declare him the winner.

    In the United States, a candidate becomes president not by winning a majority of the national popular vote but through an Electoral College system, which allots electoral votes to the 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on their population. 

    Election results show Biden, the Democratic former vice president, won 306 of the 538 electoral votes available – exceeding the necessary 270. Trump, a Republican, earned 232.

    In capitols such as Lansing, Michigan; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Atlanta, Georgia, electors – typically party loyalists – will gather to formally cast those votes.

    While there are sometimes a handful of “rogue” electors who vote for someone other than the winner of their state’s popular vote, the vast majority rubber-stamp their state’s results, and officials do not expect anything different on Monday.

    Trump has called on Republican state legislators to appoint their own electors, essentially ignoring the will of the voters. State lawmakers have largely dismissed the idea.

    The votes cast on Monday will be sent to Congress to be officially counted on January 6, the final stage of America’s complex election process.

    Trump said late last month he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden, but has since pressed on with his unprecedented campaign to overturn his defeat, filing without success numerous lawsuits challenging state vote counts. On Friday, the US Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Texas that sought to invalidate the results in four states that Biden won.

    Once the Electoral College vote is complete, Trump’s sole remaining gambit would be to convince Congress not to certify the count on Jan. 6. Federal law allows individual lawmakers to challenge states’ electoral votes, which prompts both the House of Representatives and the Senate to debate the objections before voting on whether to sustain them.

    Mo Brooks, a conservative Republican congressman, has vowed to file challenges when Congress reviews the vote next month, though it is all but certain both chambers would reject his effort. Democrats control the House, while several moderate Republicans in the Senate have already publicly accepted Biden’s victory.

    In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. The formal vote earned extra attention when some Democratic activists called for electors to “go rogue” against Trump. In the end, seven electors broke ranks, an unusually high number but still far too few to sway the outcome.

    ‘Landmines’

    “There are a lot of landmines in the Electoral College, and this election really revealed a lot of them,” he said.

    Even if Monday’s vote runs smoothly, Trump’s efforts – such as encouraging state legislatures to appoint their own sets of “dueling” electors – have exposed the potential flaws in the system, said Robert Alexander, a professor at Ohio Northern University who has written a book about the Electoral College.

    While the electoral votes normally involve some pomp and circumstance, most events this year will be significantly scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    In Michigan, for instance, the 16 electors are allowed to bring only a single guest; Arizona has shifted its ceremony from the capitol building to an unassuming government facility and pared down the list of invitees. At least one state, Nevada, intends to hold its electoral vote entirely virtually.

    The process of choosing electors varies by state. In some, state parties pick electors at local or state conventions, while in others, the party leadership chooses the slate. In Pennsylvania, the presidential candidates themselves pick their electors, while in California, Democratic congressional nominees select them.

  • Twitter reacts to ‘Pornhub popup’ during CNN’s live coverage of US election

    In a rather awkward incident, a Pornhub popup has allegedly appeared during CNN’s live coverage of the United States (US) presidential election.

    According to the details, as the neck-and-neck race for the key to the White House between Democratic challenger Joe Biden and American President Donald Trump stretches over four days now, someone at CNN seems to be in dire need of a distraction.

    A video doing rounds over the internet shows senior American journalist Wolf Blitzer commenting on the endless counting of votes in Pennsylvania while news anchor John King, who is said to not have slept for more than six hours since Tuesday, stands on the other side of the studio, in front of a big interactive screen.

    It isn’t later that King notices what is being claimed to be a Pornhub popup on the screen. A quick gesture and the alleged porn site label, perhaps visited at that moment by someone in the editorial office, disappears.

    The anchor is then seen giving someone a “death stare”, leaving netizens wondering if he knew who it was.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://twitter.com/PatrickSikler/status/1324645655055400961

    Here’s what Twitterati have to say about the episode:

    https://twitter.com/titancrising/status/1324658856396529665

    While some weren’t as amused…

    …some also said that the video was “fake“.

    https://twitter.com/lewiswake/status/1324655345369796609

    What do you think? Let The Current know in the comments

  • KYA BOLA? (Aug 26): ‘Trump ka aik crore naukriyo ka naara’, ‘wazire azam k sath dhoka’, ‘Usman Buzdar doosro se behtar’

    KYA BOLA? (Aug 26): ‘Trump ka aik crore naukriyo ka naara’, ‘wazire azam k sath dhoka’, ‘Usman Buzdar doosro se behtar’

    Following are some snippets that stood out from Urdu newspapers on August 26, 2020, which The Current takes no responsibility for.

    ‘Trump Ka Aik Crore Naukriyo Ka Naara’

    It has been reported by Daily Jang that Donald Trump has promised to provide one crore (10 million) jobs if he wins the presidential election scheduled for November 3. 

    ‘Wazire Azam K Sath Dhoka’

    According to Daily Jang, Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed has said, “Mein zaati taur pr Nawaz Sharif ko bahar janay ki ijaazat denay ka haami tha… woh yahaan rahein yaa Bartania mein, iss se koi farq nahi parrta… yeh sarrkoon pay aanay wali jamaat nahi hai. Wazire azam ko Nawaz Sharif k bahar janay ka afsos hai aur unko andaaza hogya tha inn k sath dhoka hua hai… log deal k beghair bahar nahi jatay, kahin naa kahin mamla tay hota hai.”

    ‘Usman Buzdar Doosro Se Behtar’

    Prominent journalist Saleem Safi, in his column for Daily Jang, has said, “Karkardagi k lihaz se sab se zyada aitraz Usman Buzdar pr ho rha hai halaan k ap kisi bhi mayar pr parkhein tou KP aur Balochistan k wazire aala ki karkardagi Buzdar Sahib se kai guna kharaab hai. Buzdar Sahib ne kuch naya nahi kia tou pehle se bani cheezo ko tabah bhi nahi kia… KP mein pehle se qayim idaaro ko tabah kia gya jab k Balochistan tou har hawaly se tabah-haal hai… lekin siyasat aur media mein tabsara sirf Punjab aur Buzdar Sahib ka hota hai.”

  • Pakistani-American journalist to become first South Asian to moderate US presidential debate

    Pakistani-American journalist to become first South Asian to moderate US presidential debate

    Pakistani-American journalist Amna Nawaz has been selected to moderate a United States (US) presidential debate and become the first woman of South Asian origin to have had the honour, according to media reports.

    Nawaz, 40, a senior correspondent for the Public Broadcasting Service news programme “NewsHour”, along with Judy Woodruff, PBS anchor and managing editor, and colleague PBS NewHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, and Politico chief political correspondent Tim Alberta, will co-moderate the sixth Democratic primary debate, scheduled for December 19 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.

    Amana is the daughter of Shuja Nawaz, a former Pakistan Television (PTV) journalist and currently a Distinguished Fellow, South Asia Center, at Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think-tank.

    Nawaz, who joined PBS NewsHour in April 2018, besides serving as its senior national correspondent is also its primary substitute anchor.

    Prior to joining the NewsHour, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News, anchoring breaking news coverage and leading the network’s digital coverage of the 2016 presidential election. Before that, she served as a foreign correspondent at NBC News, reporting from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, and the broader region.

    She is also the founder and former managing editor of NBC’s Asian-America platform, built to elevate the voices of America’s fastest-growing population.

    At the NewsHour, Nawaz has reported politics, foreign affairs, education, climate change, culture and sports. Her immigration reporting has taken her to multiple border communities in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico. She’s investigated the impact of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, including following the journey of a single toddler as she left her home in Mexico, was separated from her family at the U.S. border, and later reunited with her family several weeks later. She also regularly covers issues around detention, refugees and asylum, and migrant children in US government custody.

    Earlier, at NBC News, her work appeared on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Dateline NBC, MSNBC, and MSNBC.com.

    She was NBC’s Islamabad Bureau Chief and Correspondent for several years, and was the first foreign journalist allowed inside North Waziristan. She covered the Taliban attack on Malala Yousafzai, the US raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, and broke news in a series of exclusive reports on the impact of US drone strikes. Nawaz reported for the network’s investigative unit, covering the US housing crisis and the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill, and also covered the election and inauguration of Barack Obama, the earthquake in Haiti, and Hurricane Katrina.

    Nawaz has also been honoured with an Emmy Award for the NBC News Special “Inside the Obama White House,” a Society for Features Journalism Award, and was a recipient of the International Reporting Project fellowship in 2009.

    She’s an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania–where she earned a bachelor’s degree, majoring in politics, philosophy and economics, and also where she captained the varsity field hockey team—and the London School of Economics—from where she received her master’s degree majoring in comparative politics.

    Asked about the effect of her being an Asian American woman on her career,  Nawaz told Jade magazine.com, , “Sure, in the parts of the world I’ve covered, there have been a lot of times when I’m the only woman at the protest, or in the briefing room, or on the military embed.”

    “I’m certainly not the first woman to be any of those places and was actually really lucky to have the support and encouragement of female journalists before me who’d been there and done that.”

    But she acknowledged, “I’ve had people make assumptions about me – because I’m a woman, because I’m Asian, because my family’s from Pakistan, because I’m Muslim – but I can’t control what others think. All I can do is bring my whole self to this job, to report the stories as I see them, and try to treat others’ stories with the same care and respect I’d want someone to treat mine.”