At Democratic Convention, many Democratic officials see nothing wrong in accepting donations from companies, lobbyists and PACs.

Of course, the Republican Party does the same thing.

The Democrats that think this is ok are the ones that won't help make things less corrupt.

PISSI organizes large and repeated atrocities against civilians in Iraq. The article calls on Westerners to "care".

I think we do care, but it is not clear what we can do to stop it. We are supporting combatants fighting against PISSI in Iraq and in Syria, but that can't be won by magic. It could be won faster by flattening cities such as Manbij and Mosul rather than trying to capture them, but that would mean a lot more civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, that victory won't immediately end bombings in Iraqi cities. Sunnis have been planting bombs against Shi'ites in Iraq since 10 years ago, long before PISSI. I don't know what anyone could do to stop it. Dubya broke things in Iraq, and the US ought to fix them; but if nobody knows how we could do so, pleas to do so are no use.

PISSI = Pseudo-Islamic State in Syria and Irag

A UK fast food company arranged a phony meeting just to create an opportunity to arrest foreigners working without legal permission.

The company was obliged to cooperate, but was it required to tell lies for that cooperation's sake?

I have no objection to arresting and deporting foreigners who are working illegally. If it is true that "no British person would do" the same work, perhaps the company will have to offer a raise to induce British people to do it. This might reduce some of the fall in wages that the UK has experienced since 2007.

However, to stop these people from talking with their friends and collecting their belongings before they are deported is a gratuitous cruelty. At least let them call to ask friends to bring over their belongings.

Thanks to the Corporations United decision, there is now a manual for any rich foreigners that want to donate to US political campaigns.

Many non-US-citizens have told me how unhappy they are that they can't vote in US elections, even though the results affect them greatly. But they can't use this method directly, because they are not rich.

Several Venezuelan high officials, and relatives of such, are accused by the US of involvement in drug trafficking.

The people now running Venezuela seem to be corrupt and interested mainly in power and money. Naturally, many Venezuelans want to kick them out.

What is sad is that the likely replacements are corrupt in a different way: they want to sell their country to multinational corporations and would let the US government impose power over it. (Possibly some may also be corrupt in the same way as the current rulers.)

The new leader that Venezuela needs is an honest libertarian socialist, one that wants to fix the irrational policies such as price controls, and encourage local farms and factories with profits, while keeping the multinationals out.