The Democratic Party continues its illicit love affair with presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, when asked about then Senator Clinton’s vote authorizing President George Bush’s disastrous and murderous invasion of Iraq, said this: “Elections are about the future. They’re not about what happened 13 years ago. They’re about the future, and that’s really what people want to hear.” Yes, this is the same Mrs. Pelosi who took the possibility of the impeachment of Mr. Bush ‘off the table’, because the evidence wasn’t there, she said, and she apparently had no interest in looking for it. So, as with Mr. Bush, with Mrs. Clinton we need not look at what she’s actually done, only at what she says she will do in the future. One is reminded of the abusive husband who, during the remorse stage, swears that he’ll never again strike his wife. No need to look at a long pattern of abuse; simply take his word that there will be no more.

Unfortunately, we must, as voters and potential victims of a Hillary Clinton presidency, look back, forward and to the present. And it is that alarming present, put in context by the not-too-distant past, that should give everyone pause.

Mrs. Clinton either has, or is expected to raise, upwards of $2 billion dollars to purchase a four-year lease to the White House. She might wish the public to believe that hard-working United States citizens, toiling at the shop or office every day, are scraping together $5.00 and $10.00 donations, all of which, in total, achieves that $2 billion. However, such is not the case. Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign is being financed by the same organizations that fund her and her husband’s charitable organization, and that list includes at least 118 individuals and companies that lobbied the State Department when Mrs. Clinton was Secretary of State. A look at some of them is more than a little interesting. Because the list is so extensive, we will just show oil companies and defense contractors. This list shows companies in those categories that both donated to the Clinton foundation (along with the amount given), and lobbied the State Department.

Defense Contractors:

* Boeing: between $1 million and $5 million.

* Lockheed Martin: between $100,000 and $300,000.

Oil Companies

* Duke Energy Corporation: between $1 million and $5 million

* ExxonMobil: between $1 million and $5 million.

* Chevron: between $500,00 and $1 million

* Noble Energy: between $200,000 and $500.00.

* Hess Corporation: between $100,000 and $250,000.

And, as a bonus, the top three contributors:

* Microsoft/Gates Foundation: at least $26 million

* Walmart: between $2 million and $11 million.

* Coca-Cola: between $5million and $10 million.

When looking at this list, Mrs. Clinton’s vote in 2002 authorizing Mr. Bush to invade oil-rich Iraq is not terribly surprising.

What do we learn from this list? Perhaps it is obvious that few people, and certainly not the intelligent, savvy and crafty Mrs. Clinton, will bite the hands that so generously feed them. We must also speculate on what commitments and promises the illustrious Mrs. Clinton has made to her very generous benefactors. As a senator, she was in a position to introduce, co-sponsor and vote for laws favorable to them. As Secretary of State, she could lobby governments around the world for such laws. One can only imagine the power she would wield as president of the United States to benefit those who helped her purchase that office.
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Keith Fons showed up for work Nov. 9 at the Subway he manages in downtown Portland, expecting a normal Monday morning rush.

A day earlier, The Oregonian's front page featured a story about Fons and the everyday challenges that low-wage workers face. The 35-year-old father worked as many as 80 hours every week at two Subway shops to provide for his wife, who has multiple sclerosis, and their three young children.

The fam­­­ily's story of making it work on $11.50 an hour struck a chord with readers and dozens offered to help. One befriended Fons on Facebook and sent money. Another donated a box of Christmas presents for the kids.

Fons was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from strangers.

But less than a week after The Oregonian/OregonLive shared Fons' story, he was fired from his second job, at a 24-hour Subway near Northwest 21st Avenue and West Burnside Street. Losing half his hours will cost his family $1,400 to $2,000 a month.

"People say, 'Do what you love.'" Fons said Monday, wearing a puffy down coat given to him by a customer in recent days. "I loved working for Subway and customer service."
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In the wake of the murderous attacks in Paris, we can expect western heads of state to do what they always do in such circumstances: declare total and unremitting war on those who brought it about. They don’t actually mean it. They’ve had the means to uproot and destroy Islamic State within their hands for over a year now. They’ve simply refused to make use of it. In fact, as the world watched leaders making statements of implacable resolve at the G20 summit in Antalaya, these same leaders are hobnobbing with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a man whose tacit political, economic, and even military support contributed to Isis’s ability to perpetrate the atrocities in Paris, not to mention an endless stream of atrocities inside the Middle East.

How could Isis be eliminated? In the region, everyone knows. All it would really take would be to unleash the largely Kurdish forces of the YPG (Democratic Union party) in Syria, and PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ party) guerillas in Iraq and Turkey. These are, currently, the main forces actually fighting Isis on the ground. They have proved extraordinarily militarily effective and oppose every aspect of Isis’s reactionary ideology.

But instead, YPG-controlled territory in Syria finds itself placed under a total embargo by Turkey, and PKK forces are under continual bombardment by the Turkish air force. Not only has Erdoğan done almost everything he can to cripple the forces actually fighting Isis; there is considerable evidence that his government has been at least tacitly aiding Isis itself.

It might seem outrageous to suggest that a Nato member like Turkey would in any way support an organisation that murders western civilians in cold blood. That would be like a Nato member supporting al-Qaida. But in fact there is reason to believe that Erdoğan’s government does support the Syrian branch of al-Qaida (Jabhat al-Nusra) too, along with any number of other rebel groups that share its conservative Islamist ideology. The Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University has compiled a long list of evidence of Turkish support for Isis in Syria.
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"You can’t operate a capitalistic system unless you are vulturistic; you have to have someone else’s blood to suck to be a capitalist. You show me a capitalist, I’ll show you a bloodsucker. He cannot be anything but a bloodsucker if he’s going to be a capitalist. He’s got to get it from somewhere other than himself, and that’s where he gets it–from somewhere or someone other than himself. So, when we look at the African continent, when we look at the trouble that’s going on between East and West, we find that the nations in Africa are developing socialistic systems to solve their problems.

There’s one thing that Martin Luther King mentioned at the Armory the other night, which I thought was most significant. I hope he really understood what he was saying. He mentioned that while he was in some of those Scandinavian countries he saw no poverty. There was no unemployment, no poverty. Everyone was getting education, everyone had decent housing, decent whatever–they needed to exist. But why did he mention those countries on his list as different?

This is the richest country on earth and there’s poverty, there’s bad housing, there’s slums, there’s inferior education. And this is the richest country on earth. Now, you know, if those countries that are poor can come up with a solution to their problems so that there’s no unemployment, then instead of you running downtown picketing city hall, you should stop and find out what they do over there to solve their problems."

The biggest portion of debt relief in her plan is described in On Campus, “For those who already struggle with debt, the compact would feature refinancing to lower interest rates. Typical borrowers could save $2,000 over the life of their loans.” (emphasis added)

This part of Clinton’s “bold” solution provides the current typical debtor relief amounting to less than 7% of the current principal owed. With interest payments, the total eventually paid on a loan is far greater than the current average principal of over $30,000.

According to the Washington Post, Hillary Clinton disclosed that she: “…delivered 51 speeches in 2014 and the first three months of 2015, earning more than $11 million.”

That comes to over $215,000 a speech. If an average speech lasts an hour, and she is paid by the second, Clinton’s student debt plan offers the current average debtor relief of less money than she is paid speaking for 34 seconds.

Is Clinton’s student debt plan an example of her “bold solutions to help American workers and their families” who she supposedly champions?

Given what Clinton is offering to those who already struggle with debt, would one be wise to have concerns about her plans to provide meaningful solutions to any of our problems?

Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining company, applauds President Obama who signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R. 2262) into law. This law recognizes the right of U.S. citizens to own asteroid resources they obtain and encourages the commercial exploration and utilization of resources from asteroids.

"This is the single greatest recognition of property rights in history," said Eric Anderson, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Planetary Resources, Inc. "This legislation establishes the same supportive framework that created the great economies of history, and will encourage the sustained development of space."

Peter H. Diamandis, M.D., Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Planetary Resources, Inc., said, "A hundred years from now, humanity will look at this period in time as the point in which we were able to establish a permanent foothold in space. In history, there has never been a more rapid rate progress than right now."

Peter Marquez, Vice President of Global Engagement, Planetary Resources, Inc., said, "Our nation's continued leadership and prosperity in space is enabled by this new law. Planetary Resources is grateful for the leadership shown by Congress in crafting this legislation and for President Obama signing H.R. 2262 into law. We applaud the members of Congress who have led this effort. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Lamar Smith (R-TX), Patty Murray (D-WA), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Bill Posey (R-FL) and Derek Kilmer (D-WA) have been unwavering in their support and leadership for the growth of the U.S. economy into the Solar System."

Senator Rubio (R-FL) said, "Throughout our entire economy, we need to eliminate unnecessary regulations that cost too much and make it harder for American innovators to create jobs. The reforms included here make it easier for our innovators to return Americans to suborbital space and will help the American space industry continue pushing further into space than ever before. I'm proud the final bill includes proposals I had previously introduced in the Senate, including one related to commercial recovery of space resources. This bill is an important win for Florida's space coast and the entire space exploration community."
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Marylanders continue to have a low level of support for former Gov. Martin O'Malley's presidential ambitions, a new poll for The Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore shows.

Only 7 percent of Maryland Democrats say they would vote for O'Malley for president, compared with 56 percent for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 23 percent for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

O'Malley has failed to break out of single digits anywhere in the country, including his home state. Opponents cite O'Malley's lackluster polling in the state he led for eight years to question his viability on the national stage.

O'Malley is supported by only 4 percent of Democrats in Baltimore, the city he once led as mayor for two terms, and just 2 percent of primary voters in nearby Baltimore County, the poll found.
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Syria can seem an endless black hole of misery, but in the northern, largely Kurdish region of Rojava, it is also the scene of a profoundly democratic and humanist revolution, which places the rights of ethnic minorities and women’s liberation at its centre.

Ironically, given the horror that surrounds it, Rojava is the site of the most profound experiments on grassroots, participatory democracy outside of the revolutionary projects in Latin America. Like in Venezuela, the ideal of “the commune” is at the heart of Rojava’s burgeoning democracy.

The Rojavan revolution came to the world’s attention largely through the heroic resistance by the fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) in defeating an Islamic State group siege on the Rojavan town of Kobane in January. But many have noted the profoundly revolutionary ideology that drives Rojavan freedom fighters - which they are seeking to put into practice amid great odds.

Rojava is a “liberated zone” in northern Syria that forms part of the traditional homeland of Kurdistan. The major political party is the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is ideologically aligned with the left-wing Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), based in Turkey.
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