WHAT I TAKE FROM MARX PART TWO

One of my favorite parts of reading Karl Marx is when he ditches the stilted doctrinaire language filled with the converter’s zeal and the off-putting language of the self-identified visionary and discusses the negative influence of Capitalism on the family, the community, the society.

 “The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his 'natural superiors,' and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, callous 'cash payment.' It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom—Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers.

The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.” 

From The COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

In particular, the last paragraph which is the end result of the capitalist society – how people relate to each other.  I grew up in America and I’ve seen brothers sue each other for a share of the family business, parents steal from children and vice versa.  The last couple years I lived in the US, I owned a condominium in Southern California.  From time to time, we would receive rudely written letters announcing mandatory meetings of the ownership association (The word mandatory in black lettering all caps).  These meetings were to vote on various rules to do with guest parking, fees etc.  The meetings themselves were silly as the owners who rented out their properties always had enough votes to narrowly push through whatever they wanted to.  They would communicate their votes ahead of time through proxies (not bothering to show up for the “mandatory” meetings like us peons).  These meetings quickly devolved into personal attacks, like rats fighting over their own tiny stinky rotten pieces of cheese.  “Buy a fucking house” one person would say to the other as an argument against doing something in the complex....A new level of ownership or slavery.

The love of money, the love of material possessions, and those who worship these things are disgusting.  They put commerce above all else and this is a sickness.  It also alienates one from his humanity and bonding with other people.

By reducing people to monetary units, we cheapen humanity.  We lose all sense of morality.  Everything becomes a transaction and well become whores to some degree.  

At the heart of Marxist theory is this understanding and how it undermines all other relationships and in doing so undermines the idea of a just and fair society.    

WHAT I TAKE FROM MARX PART ONE

(This is the first of two posts on Karl Marx.  The first will talk about the political, the second about the personal)

I wouldn’t call myself a Marxist a for two reasons 1.) By nature, I am not an ideological person.  I look at each issue that affects life and come to a view based just on that issue.  Of course, patterns will emerge but I don’t apply said patterns to unrelated issues (Something a member of a political party or a follower of a doctrine/ideology would do) 2.) Even though it’s a blanket description of many competing theories, Marxim itself demands a certain slavish devotion of doctrine that would contradict my first reason -  Like religion in that regard.

However, I do think Karl Marx got a number of things right and I also think there is a necessity for a healthy and just society to apply to apply at least a few of his principles to governance.  I describe two Marx influenced ideas at the end of the post.

Marxism correctly identifies the conflict between the wealthiest members of society who are always looking to maximize profit and those who work for them  whose wages and benefits are continually under assault as a result of this.  Obviously, a completely profit driven society that was first world in its legal protections for workers and in its taxation and infrastructure relationship would eventually relocate its business to somewhere with less regulation like for example in the third world.  This has happened time and time again the last several decades in America.

If profit is your motive then it feeds greed, yours and the greed of your shareholders, but how many people are shareholders of a given company (assuming the company is public)?  At this point, providing jobs for your fellow countrymen takes a backseat for your own selfishness.  This is what has been happening and is happening now in America.

Class as defined by a dictionary may seem outside the conversation if America is the nation we are talking about but class = money, pared down just to wealth and not assuming any superhuman qualities assigned to those who have wealth either inherited or earned, is very much described in Marxist doctrine .  America tends to mythologize those who seemingly go from rags to riches although many of the stories are often embellished and/or the wealthy person had a lot of help along the way.  Often you dig below the surface and you find the Horatio Alger storied figure had a wealthy parent(s) like Bill Gates or Donald Trump for example.

Marxism can correctly be applied to another key problem with Western capitalism – The misidentification of the individual standing alone as what makes up society particularly societal change and history.  We are all in this together and it is the relationship the individual has with the different groups in his life be they his family, his place of employment  or the government  that moves life.  The individual as great man of history standing alone and triumphing is a creation of Hollywood – total fiction, American folklore.

When we think of the Proletariat we think of factory workers in the industrial revolution of the 1800’s but a guy working in customer service for a credit card company, an insurance salesman, an auto mechanic, a debt collector are the Proletariat of today’s society.  The Bourgeoisie of today are those that own businesses either directly or through shares.

One of the key points of Marxism which was expounded with even more clarity and broadness of vision by Theodore Adorno is the Bourgeoisie also own the narrative (since they own everything else) and promulgate the viewpoint that best helps them  so the Proletariat often act against their own best interests by supporting this.  It’s form of brainwashing - think of modern political advertising.

Adorno takes this even further showing how instilling wants for unnecessary material goods and saturating an audience with dumbed down entertainment further anesthetizes and distracts the proletariat I wrote more about Adorno here http://rajdronamraju.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/the-world-according-to-theodor-adorno/

So two ideas I have that I would like to see implemented that one could say were based on Marxist principles.

1.) A wealth cap – No individual would be worth more than a pre-set amount.  I’m all for freedom but when we are talking about a finite amount of resources then what you have hoarded is automatically depriving someone else.  There is no need for any one person to be a billionaire.  I would also eliminate the ability to incorporate oneself as a business.

2.) Partial government ownership of all businesses – All business big or small would be semi-government owned.  This would be a benefit of entrepreneurs as they could go to the government with an idea and they would be able to receive backing.  Big business should not be an adversary to a society and the wellbeing of its citizens.  Often its priorities, for once again the reason of profit cause that business in a whole host of areas such as the environment, worker rights, etc. to be hostile to the Proletariat.  Let government run business in a democratic society and both will be responsive for what is good the citizenry.        

THREE WESTERN CORPORATE NEWS MEDIA FAILS OF THE WEEK

Contrary to its own self-righteous bullsh*t, The United States has one of the least free news services in the world.  Dominated by large corporation ownership of networks and newspapers and riddled with agents of the CIA and other intelligence services, US news is completely devoid of history (things happen in a vacuum) or they just don’t report stories that don’t fit into their narrative of a fairy tale America.

Here are three of the awful, evil things the US supports and funds throughout the world which were not covered in the news this week.

Western corporate news media fail of the week #1 – I don’t expect anything less from the Zionist controlled Western media, they are already circling the bottom of the bowl, but the “reporting” on the deaths of the five Israelis by Palestinians in Jerusalem completely ignores what’s been going on lately. Settlers have gone crazy since the Gaza mass murder ramming their cars into children in the street, stabbing Palestinians, the other day they murdered a bus driver and the Israeli government did no autopsy and called it a suicide despite the guy’s body being covered with bruises. It’s like the South before civil rights. When an Israeli murders a Palestinian, he is almost never convicted.

The one sided storyline http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/us-media-erase-israeli-state-and-settler-violence

Western corporate news media fail of the week #2 – What they don’t tell you in the coverage of the murder of Miss Honduras is that the reason Honduras is sinking into anarchy and violence and people are fleeing and crossing the border and eventually to the USA is the coup enabled by the CIA in which the rich 1% got rid of Zelaya a man of the people who wanted to help the poor. Allende déjà vu (only they didn’t kill Zelaya) .

Hillary Clinton is involved up to her eyeballs – What a disgusting human being she is http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/9/hillary-clinton-honduraslatinamericaforeignpolicy.html

Western corporate news media fail of the week #3 - Russia introduced an “Anti-Nazi” resolution at the United Nations which condemns the use of Nazis symbols and language as well as public memorials to Nazism, holocaust denial, racism and anti-Semitism and holding public demonstrations under a Nazi banner. This is a growing problem especially in the old Soviet client states. It passed but guess who voted against it? Yup America who backs so called “democracy movements” in many of these countries (Not just Ukraine where we’ve seen the ugliness of what an American supported coup and government looks like) but who are in fact a collection of Neo-Nazis and their oligarch robber baron backers. Shameful is the word!

These are the allies the US wants? Really? http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/11/18/stay-away-from-kiev/

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S EXECUTIVE ORDER ON IMMIGRATION IS A MISTAKE

I think President Obama’s executive order on immigration is a mistake. While America does owe something to the refugees of those nations such as Guatemala and Honduras whose internal situations they’ve made terrible, this is not the way to solve the problem even temporarily.

1.) The argument that the Republican party especially in the House of Representatives hates Obama so intently that they won’t agree to anything is only half true. The other half of the equation is Obama is horrible at handling legislation – No interest or desire to get his hands dirty at pushing things through, terrible at working legislators for votes, horrible negotiator – He’s kind of the anti-LBJ. I still say immigration reform which got through the senate could have made it through the house had Obama been willing to push them

 2.) The precedent this establishes is awful. You may agree with what President Obama is doing but what about in 2016 if a Republican becomes president and tries to use executive orders for things he can’t get through? Of modern day presidents, FDR used the executive order the most which is understandable considering the crisis he faced and his length of time in office. I don’t see the immigration issue as rising to that level.

3.) The defense of Obama that Presidents Reagan and Bush the 1st did this too on immigration? That’s a false comparison! Reagan and Bush used executive orders to fix loopholes and missing parts of immigration legislation passed in 1986 by the senate. Obama is doing this IN PLACE OF legislation.

Again, I am not opposed to this philosophically but I am on a procedural basis plus I think it will only increase the dysfunction between the executive and legislative branches of our government a trademark of the Obama years.

THE INDECENCY OF ISRAEL

I was off line for several months earlier this year and that time period included Israel’s rampage through Gaza in yet another attempt to use the bogus threat of national security to cover ethnic cleansing and genocide in land stolen by the Zionists to create their Nazi state.

One line of defence for Israel I have always heard but not heard rebutted as much as the other faux “Jewish state” justifications which are – History (Plenty of other countries have a claim on that part of the world.  If this is correct then Rome has a claim on the UK for its 200 year occupancy), Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust (In that case, Germany should be the Zionist homeland not in the Middle East), and the process (The British had no right to give away the Palestinian land for a Jewish state and the Arabs as a whole were right to fight it) The argument Israel has won its recognition as a state by through wars and combat basically is saying might makes right, greater violence bestows the right to exists on the winner which when one thinks about it, is all Israel has.

I discussed the case against Israel on an earlier blog post  http://rajdronamraju.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/the-case-against-israel/

But what I’m talking about specifically is what Israel is in the description of its supporters - A democracy in an area without any, a so-called bastion of liberal thought and western values.

On the face of it this argument is ludicrous as it confers legitimacy on any power that wipes out a group of people and steals their land.  All that matters is what they do now not the ethnic cleansing war crimes they committed in the past.

But I would argue that is a dishonest and an invalid argument as Israel is an indecent state.

It is a racist, genocidal state that recognizes no difference between combatants and those in armed conflict against it.  It does this deliberately so as to “mow the grass” the Zionazis euphemism for murdering large numbers of Palestinians to keep the population down.

It is a racist state that mirrors this in everything it does from excluding Israeli Arabs from living in certain areas to never prosecuting or giving a slap on the wrist sentences to settler violence against Palestinians including violence against children.

It is a dishonest state that lies about its own past constantly and the genocide the Zionists committed to steal the land from its original inhabitants.

It is also dishonest in its self-description – Jewish fundamentalism is on the rise in Israel leading to conflicts among Jews from everything to women’s rights (like where men and women sit on a bus and how women dress ) to who serves in its military.

Dishonest in its description of Gaza – Israel never left Gaza merely pulled out the settlers without relinquishing control of air, water, or taxes then turned it into a giant jail on all sides.

Whether it tests new cruel and destructive military weaponry (DIME weapons, Flechette shells, white phosphorus) on a defenseless population or locks up and tortures innocent Palestinian children, Israel is an indecent, evil state whose antecedents are Nazi Germany and Apartheid era South Africa.

I hope to see the end of Israel as we know it in my lifetime.

  

BILL COSBY IS A RAPIST

I’ve always had mixed feelings about Bill Cosby.  As a kid, I liked the shows he did or was part of in the 1970’s that were aimed at children – The Electric Company, Fat Albert, his variety show on Sunday nights at 7:00.  He wasn’t so much a comedian as a storyteller and had all the skills to make an audience hang on every word of those stories.

I didn’t care so much for his 80’s show.  THE COSBY SHOW was feel good Reagan era crap that completely ignored what a lot of African Americans go through in America.  His evolution into a public scold for black people seemed ill-fitting considering he was very quiet during the civil rights era when he was first becoming a big star.  Tommy Smothers once called him out on this and Cosby physically attacked him.

That last story is perhaps why my feelings about Cosby have always been mixed because I always felt under the affable, exasperated everyman was a lot of anger.  It shows in his eyes and in his physical movements.  I wouldn’t call it violent rage lurking there; more like a passive aggressive anger (although I could see him exploding).  Complaining about one thing when you are really trying to let someone know you are irritated about that same thing without telling them outright.  In general, there has always been something very creepy about Bill Cosby.

Regarding the rape accusations made about Cosby, I believe them because there are at least 14 (or 16) different women, most or all of whom don’t know each other, occurring over 30+ years and who tell somewhat similar stories of being drugged and groomed by Cosby and his army of handlers.  Cosby has settled with at least one accuser out of court and has been mum on the rest.  His PR people created a wall of silence.

A timeline  http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/timeline-of-the-abuse-charges-against-cosby.html

Does this matter to Cosby’s huge legacy as a comedian and performer?  Yes it does.  Cosby has always marketed himself as a clean family man, an image that began to unravel in the 90’s when he was the victim of a blackmail plot involving the paternity of a prostitute’s daughter, a prostitute Cosby admitted to sleeping with.  All that time spent hanging out at the Playboy Mansion should have been a clue.

Cosby is a monumental fake and a sexual predator.  He is an old man but IMO there is no statute of limitations in exposing someone like this.  It will be good to see Bill Cosby suffer some form of justice either in the courts or through the lessening of him as a popular public figure.    

AVONMORE BY BRYAN FERRY

Bryan Ferry's solo albums have always veered between records of new material and of cover versions and of combinations of the two.  Happy to say that AVONMORE is mostly new material except for two weird covers (Send in the Clowns and Johnny and Mary) at the end of the record.  Overall just a dependably enjoyable record of the usual Ferry wall of sound, his trademark since the last Roxy Music album AVALON, well played by an army of musicians including Nile Rodgers and Johnny Marr (who co-wrote Soldier of Fortune a ballad here)and his ever aging fragile voice (which has great authority)....Not as good as his best solo work (nor Roxy Music of course) - OLYMPIA, MAMOUNA, BETE NOIRE, BOYS AND GIRLS but I like it....Standout tracks - Driving Me Wild,  A Special Kind of Guy, and Loop De Li (the first single).

My review of the last Ferry album OLYMPIA can be found here http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2010/10/olympia-by-bryan-ferry.html

THE PROBLEM WITH SAMANTHA POWER

It’s great that Malaysia, New Zealand, and especially Venezuela have won two year seats on the United Nations Security Council. About Venezuela winning a place, Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the UN, had this to say “Unfortunately, Venezuela’s violations of human rights at home are at odds with the (UN) charter’s letter. The United States will continue to call upon the government of Venezuela to respect the fundamental freedoms and universal human rights of its people.” What a load of dung! If you replace the word “Venezuela” with “United States” that would be a better description of reality. The Venezuelan government has been fighting a war against the wealthy 1% of their country who are seeking to overturn the will of the people through thuggery, throwing money around, and influencing the military aided and abetted by the CIA.

Power wrote a book about genocide called “A Problem from Hell” but has shown herself to be an Israeli bootlicker and a servant of empire.  Hell is not a particularly well-written book either.  She ignored the root causes of genocide (US bombing in Cambodia for example or the colonialists pitting Hutus and Tutsis against one another) in favor of general empty verbiage.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard her criticize Israel once even during their recent killing spree in Gaza.  Beware those to who toady to American empire and try to set themselves up as an international agent of conscience.  She is a fraud and an embarrassment!

THE SMEARING OF AHMADINEJAD

One of the most worrisome developments of the Republican takeover of the Senate last week is the renewed sabre rattling at Iran.  Neo-Cons like John McCain are back in control of senate committees and are wasting no time in talking about sanctions and military action.  Obama is kind of on their side anyway and won't have much interest in stopping them.

There are many countries that have been victimized by US imperialism  but Iran is near the top of the list what with coup that got rid of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and stuck them with the Shah, an evil corrupt autocrat, for the next several decades

One way the US and its proxy Israel kept the pressure on Iran which has dared to fight back against the American evil empire is to exaggerate up Iran’s nuclear policy into something which is desperately threatening to the West when in effect Iran is not even close to developing a nuclear weapon.

Another way is to demonize Iran’s leadership.  That’s kind of hard with the current president Hassan Rouhani who is somewhat low key but worked well with Iran’s last president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Never mind that much of what was reported were mistranslations. (Deliberate in my opinion as Zionists and their allies control almost all of the Western news media) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-sedaei/the-biggest-lie-told-to-t_b_70248.html

Sure he had a big mouth (and voiced a lot of intolerant opinions on gays, women etc. which Christians in the US do too) but much of what he did was trolling Israel and the US and much of what he said about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, US imperialism, and the Holocaust as an excuse for a holocaust conducted by the Zionists against the Palestinians.  The holocaust is not unique in the history of the world and treating it as such is used to excuse or minimize other crimes against humanity (such as those committed against Israel).

Ahmadinejad Is back teaching now (he has a PhD in engineering).  Here he is taking the bus to work and standing in his office.

MY STRUGGLE: BOOK ONE BY KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD

The memoir as novel seems truly tapped out, overused by writers who lack the imagination to sit down and come up with a plot and characters.

It is a challenge then for the writer who chooses to work in this medium for one, he must have an interesting and possibly universal story to tell.  For another, he must stylistically be able to tell a story that’s not told in the form of a more escapist completely fictional narrative with the confines of its structure.

The first volume of MY STRUGGLE by Karl Ove Knausgaard definitely satisfies the latter point.  He doesn’t necessarily have a lot to say in the lead off to his multi-volume autobiographical work which has garnered a lot of good reviews and critical attention.

However regarding the overall meaning....

Proust is the most immediate influence that comes to mind but whereas Proust, despite his sloppiness, had a very clear framing mechanism for his remembrances , Knausgaard does not.   Most of the book seems to be about the problematic relationship with his father up to and including his father’s death but I feel that something is missing here. 

As much as I like the way Knausgaard writes, there is nothing ”solid” here , just description without feeling, without force, the intellectual who is too outside his own life. Still the writing is good enough I would read further volumes of MY STRUGGLE.

THE WAR AGAINST NICE GUYS

An unfortunate by product of the rightful outrage by women in the USA for a number of recent issues involving unjust and wrong treatment such as various high school and college sexual assaults incidents that were not handled by administrators correctly and were swept under the rug or ignored altogether, minimizing of sexual assault when it is committed by an athlete or other celebrity, Elliot Rodgers shooting murders, catcalling, gamergate etc. is the attack on “nice guys” by some women.

A nice guy is described as a man who tries to pick up or talk to a woman, finds out she is not interested then responds in some verbally abusive way.  At some point, he either described himself or was described as a “nice guy” – well mannered and not devious or overly forceful in his dealings with women.

I’m not sure how we arrived at this as most of the kind of guys in the behavioral incidents I mentioned above would not classify themselves as nice guys nor would they want to be as they feel this would not help them be attractive to American women who are supposed to be attracted to assholes.

First off, if he’s verbally abusive, he’s not a nice guy so I’m not sure why that description is used except in quotes in an ironic sense.

Second, why is this type of man the priority in discussions about change in male behavior instead of the athlete/frat boy/type A male which is still a bigger problem for most women?

I can only speak anecdotally about my experience as a single man in America - a lot of American women don’t respect a guy who holds doors open nor uses please and thank you not to mention is well mannered when it comes building up to a sexual relationship.   As someone who is somewhat conservative about gender matters and a gentleman on dates, most American women were not that interested in me which was fine as I never had any interest in them and only dated foreign born women (I am married to a Malaysian).  In Asia, the attributes of a gentleman are still prized plus Asian women are much more physically attractive and generally take better care of themselves. 

I don’t however blame American women for this nor work this into some sort of larger narrative about how women are no good.  The problem is capitalism colliding with the puritan based Christianity of the pioneers that settled large parts of the country.  America sexually is screwed up stuck between hypersexual displays that sexualise everything and prioritize sex in a way that is not healthy and a holdover puritanism that still preaches abstinence, homophobia, and restrictions on abortion.

American women are vulgar, materialistic and kind of gross but so is the culture that spawned them (and so are the men that live there).

Also I’d just like to say about the term “friendzone” – Men bring this on themselves. Hanging around with a woman in a platonic friendship hoping she’ll like you is masochistic!  I learned early on that only creates frustration and a phony foundation for a relationship with another person, also it's dishonest.

I SUPPORT ARNOLD ABBOTT

It has become a trend in the US state of Florida to criminalize the feeding of the homeless, many of whom gravitate to that state because of their milder winters.  These laws do nothing to resolve the core problems at the root of homelessness but seek to end it by legislating the homeless out of existence without doing anything to address mental illness or drug abuse or just the lack of work that find people unable to support themselves anymore.

Laws that criminalize giving food to the homeless are sick and evil.  Any society that passes such laws deserves to end up on the ash heap of history.  I consider this part of gentrification - Scumbag rich people - not in my backyard.  Personally I hope their houses all burn down and they find themselves out on the street.

Arnold Abbott is 90 years old and has been feeding the homeless in public parks in Fort Lauderdale through his charitable organization LOVE THY NEIGHBOR.

Abbott, who fought in WWII as a combat infantryman and received two purple hearts and was also active in the 1960's in the civil rights movement, has now been arrested and cited but continues to feed the homeless, the destitute, despite the danger of further arrest....I'm an atheist but I know no other way to say this other than in religious lingo - God bless him! I'm posting about this because this story is a microcosm of everything that is wrong with America....Income equality is the new civil rights struggle and encompasses many other problems (police abuse, homelessness, perpetual war etc.). 

Abbot is a hero in my eyes.  A total badass and here’s how you can support him

His organization LOVE THY NEIGHBOR http://lovethyneighbor.org/

A fund for his legal costs http://www.gofundme.com/gueuaw

A FEW THOUGHTS ON ELECTION 2014

In many ways, this election seemed like a tantrum, perhaps a final tantrum from those who expect the America of the myth to be restored, the American dream, high wages for plentiful jobs, home with two cars,  sending kids to college but that America no longer exists (if it ever truly existed) and its never coming back.

In its place is an America of diminished resources that taxes its depleting assets and morality even further in the building and maintenance of an empire it cannot afford and which much of the world rejects.  This is of course including the endless armed conflicts the US feels the need to inject itself into.

The answer or at least one of the answers is an end to the two party duopoly of power.  Until then, here a few observations on this election.

1.)  Clearly this was a wave election.  Losing the governorship of Maryland  and almost losing (as of this writing) a senate seat in Virginia are examples of losses the Democratic party did not expect.  Whether it be avoiding a run-off in Georgia or retaining the governorship in Florida, the Republicans exceeded their wildest dreams.

2.) I'm not a Democrat but I do think a lot of the Democrats who lost tonight (espc. in senate races) such as Grimes in Kentucky were too quick to run away from the president and their own party in general. What kind of message does that send to the voter?

3.) While there is no doubt that Republicans make efforts to drive down voter turnout from constituencies that vote Democratic (poor, African Americans etc.) and some of these efforts are illegal/unconstitutional, I must say that I do not see the problem with requiring a photo ID for voting - You need one for everything else important and while there may not be widespread fraud now the potential is certainly there. If the argument is some elderly or poor people don't have access to a driver's license then there should be a voter's card given to those who can prove they don't have the resources for obtaining another form of photo ID or even better and easier a national ID card which everyone would be required to present when voting. And no, a student ID is not a valid form of ID. At the university I went to, the foreign students had the exact same ID's as those who were Americans.

4.) One thing I really don't like is when they call a race based on exit polls before even one vote has been counted. I understand a certain result is likely in some cases but it would be nice to see the trend emerging ,at least 20% or 25% of the votes counted perhaps, before calling a winner.

5.) Scott Walker’s re-election which is too bad not just because he's anti-working people, anti-education etc. but because rumor is he is planning to run for the Republican nomination for president 2016 . He will not run had he lost re-election. With his non-threatening demeanor, he could be a formidable national candidate.

6.) Harry Reid (and Nancy Pelosi) need to step down from their leadership positions.  Neither has shown much leadership as of late especially Reid who made no effort to push through contentious legislation nor confront Republicans.  I think we could have had immigration reform had Reid (and the president) been willing to work with the House of Representatives.

7.) Marijuana legalization in Oregon and Washington DC was good news this evening.  I hope this trend continues.