Thursday Night Massacre

Well, the Democrats certainly got beat bad on Election Night. Lost the Senate. Lost seats in the House. In other words, good bye productivity in Obama's last two years. This will be the weakest lame duck period in history. Implications:
1. Gridlock:
We are facing ISIS in the Middle East and an ebola outbreak in Africa. Gridlock will hinder American efficiency on these issues. We have already stalled(kinda) with respect to ISIS and they are gaining more ground. The GOP needs to be on  the same page as Obama if we want to stop this.
2. Immigration
Well, say bye to the long awaited immigration reform. With a house dominated by the GOP who cant even agree between themselves on what to do with immigration, we probably wont see much getting done.
3. Mitch McConnell: Say hi to our new majority leader in the senate everyone!! He once proclaimed that his PRIMARY GOAL WAS TO MAKE OBAMA A ONE TERM PRESIDENT. Well ladies and gentlemen, this man is quite simply a failure. Not only did he fail in that goal, but he failed in his job capacity to serve the people and focused his efforts on Obama. I'm just hoping he does not try to impeach him.....

Senate and Gubernatorial Races

It seems to be clear that the GOP will maintain control of the house, but what about the other races we have today.
In my home state, career politician Charlie Christ is battling Rick Scott. Neither candidate has much appeal at all, so its essentially picking the lesser of two evils. Scott has been accused of defrauding the government, among other things, while Christ has been in 3 parties in the last 5 years. Overall though, the fangate incident hurt Scott and I predict Christ to pull out a narrow victory. Interestingly enough, polls show that the ever-relevant Libertarian party candidate is actually pulling votes away from Christ, the Democrat, not Scott.

The Senate is the most important thing that will be decided tonight. The odds are in favor of the Republicans, which means Obama may cry a little tonight. Having a non-compliant House was hard enough, but a non compliant Senate would cripple Obama even further. Close races include the one in Colorado, with Mark Udall and Alaska with Mark Bedich. Unfortunately, my state has no senate races going on today, meaning I do not know as much about these politicians as I do about Floridians. I am certainly rooting for a Democrat Senate after tonight, but that just doesnt seem likely at all.

MAX

Genetically Modified Foods

Our grocery stores are packed with so many genetically modified foods we barely even notice anymore. The EU has banned these foods inside their lands, and many developing countries refuse to accept them as well. The debate surrounding them is hot.

First: Should we ban GMO's to eliminate the trade problem with the EU? Currently, the difference in opinions is creating friction between the two continents. Some sources even give Europe a higher yield in staple crops such as soy and corn. Should we switch, or stick to our position that they are safe.

Second: Golden Rice was probably the most hyped food of the 21st century. It appeared on the cover of Time Magazine at the turn of the Millenium. It was prepared to save the developing world of vitamin A deficiency. Unfortunately, everything did not go as planned. The rice has yet to be implemented on a large school due to corporate patents and more. Some people even argue the rice may discourage a balanced diet by putting so much emphasis on rice.

Third: Superweeds: This definitely sounds scary. These herbicide resistant weeds are killing farm productivity across the world. The real question is, are these a consequence of GM crops, or simple herbicide use. Some reports indicate herbicide use has gone down, while some indicate it has gone up. The cloudy scientific evidence surrounding all of GMO's make any judgement hard.

-Max

Midterm Elections

For many, the midterm elections are trivial and thus do not come out to vote. In fact, the voter turnout at these midterm elections is PITIFUL. Let's look at the impact this has:
1. Incumbency Advantage: In my opinion, the low voter turnout only helps the incumbents. Already blessed with high name recognition, these incumbents have little to do, because very few voters will turn out anyway. Incumbency advantage only hurts accountability, because they can continue to get elected without doing much.
2. Take away voice of people: Due to many factors, disgruntled voters have begun to argue that America is being dominated by the One $ One Vote motto instead of One Man One Vote. With this election in particular, congressman are more in bed with their financial benefactors than their voters, because quite simply, voters do not come out.
3. Save the Senate: The democrats are in real danger of losing the Senate. The disaster of the Obamacare rollout paired with foreign policy crises and the ability of the GOP to convince anyone that Obama is responsible for all the bad things that happen have contributed to this danger. It is commonly known that more voter turnout leads to more share of the vote for democrats, but with less people coming out, it is becoming less and less likely that the dems will save the senate. This, in turn, means Obama will be EVEN MORE crippled with congress than he was the last 4 years or so, and this means less efficiency and less benefits for Americans. To keep Obama and the dems afloat, the populus needs to turn out in this election.
Early voting and absentee ballots exist! Don't escape!

GOP Political Conundrum

The Republican Party is being pulled in two completely separate ways. The Tea Party sector of the GOP is where a lot of the money comes from, while the centrist GOP members probably make up a majority of the party. The Tea Party will have the upper-hand in many races due to the sheer amount of money they raise. Not only that, the Tea Party politicians are often truly grassroots. Take immensely popular national politician Eric Cantor. Cantor dropped his primary to a small college economics teacher named Dave Brat. Dave Brat focused his campaign on immigration reform, winning over many GOP primary voters in Virginia. While the tea party sector of the GOP can win big on the local level, it seems hard for the tea party to win on the national level. Independent voters, who often search for centrist candidates and even socially left republicans would have a hard time voting for a tea party presidential candidate. The tea party can certainly win over the masses, as Ted Cruz did during the shut down, but until the republicans distance themselves from the tea party, the chances of winning a national race over popular democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton constantly dwindle.
Not only that, but the young republicans today often times stand very left on social issues. If the republican party is ever to regain any national popularity, it must drastically shift its stance on popular social issues ranging from abortion to gay marriage to the legalization of marijuana.

Obama FoPo

Since the disaster that was the Obamacare rollout, President Obama has been looking for a spark to boost his popularity and protect his party in the midterm elections. This spark may come with Obama's commencement speech at West Point. Obama recently returned from Afghanistan where he gave a speech providing optimism for a dwindling down of troops in the Middle East. This speech and new plan of action all comes during a change in foreign policy dictated by President Obama called the Asia Pivot. The Asia Pivot essentially entails a pivoting of troops to counter the rising global stability threats from Southeast Asia and beyond. However, this Asia Pivot does not propose a shift of drones. In fact, with less troops on the ground, drone strikes may even increase in the Middle East. The jury is still out on drones and their effectiveness in killing and eliminating terrorist groups, but the Obama administration has showed no signs of slowing them down. Though not realistic, the current season of 24 shows a harm of drones and the possibility an enemy can take control of them. Drones also clearly create lasting enemies in the families of victims and drones inevitably take a toll on civilians. However, drones are effective in pin-pointing an enemy, conserve troop lives, and wipe out leaders of terrorist organizations(hydra effect).
Reports indicate Obama's speech at West Point will harp on diplomacy rather than intervention. This speech comes on the heels of a major conflict in Ukraine that resulted in a strengthened Russia. Obama needs to facilitate more international cooperation, as unilateral measures have not proven desirable in the past. Multilateral operations provide more legitimacy and effectiveness. Multilateral diplomatic arrangements have brought success. Iran's nuclear program is ever more stable than it was before the P5+1 talks. These successes need to be magnified upon with more international cooperation. We need to facilitate more trade with our allies and link many more countries together economically. This ensures that countries will have a stake in each others well being, meaning that countries will be less likely to be in conflict. In the world today, as my teacher always says, economics drives politics. As the top economy in the world, the United States needs to assume the role as world leader and work together with other countries to make a better place for all peoples of all nationalities. The time for a foreign policy shift is now.

Boko Haram

The recent Boko Haram attacks are devastating for Nigerian stability but present a tough paradox for the United States, too. The attacks symbolize that even though Nigeria is moving in the right direction, there remains still a major problem with internal security and ethnic conflicts. Goodluck Jonathan, President of Nigeria, has stalled on the issue but has made grounds in recent days. There is reportedly a deal that Boko Haram will release half the schoolgirls after a month of kidnapping.

Now brings the question of the ever important US involvement. Personally, I agree with President Obama and his decision to stay out of Nigeria. Though it is of the utmost importance to get these girls free, we also have to take into account the long term implications. Currently, Boko Haram is purely a regional group, staying primarily in the Western African/Sahel region. Boko Haram is a classic example of a group that was created to rid Western influence, with its name translating to "Death to Western Education." The implications of US involvement could bring more recruits to Boko Haram. As we saw with Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and more, United States involvement has ballooned recruits and morale of terrorist organizations.
While it is tough to ignore the crys and demands of Nigerian groups along with group along the worlds, US restraint is vital to containing Boko Haram involvement. Plus, ransom payments fund the wishes of these groups and negotiating with terrorists is unacceptable.

Introduction

Hi everyone,
For anyone who reads this, my name is Max and I will be covering current events and politics on this blog. I am a high school debater and Model UN delegate with a strong interest in politics and law. I am a junior in high school currently. Check back to this blog for anything from US midterm elections to Nigerian terrorists to global economics. Looking forward to keeping this up!