Sure, there’s a lot going on, and my inclination is to comment on some of it and leave the rest on the shelf. Hence, this is the week that was. Again.
Iraq Redux. It’s worth noting that Obama’s 300 military advisers have arrived in the nation we destroyed, ready to counsel the leaders of one of Iraq’s rump states on how to stitch the mangled limbs back onto the dismembered torso of that nation. I have heard a lot of T.V. commentator theories over the past few weeks about how this situation came to be, but perhaps only one U.S. based analyst – Steve Clemons at the Atlantic who has 
bothered to follow the money back from ISIS to their funders in Saudi Arabia, a nation our own John McCain and others have praised to the rafters for funding the Syrian opposition. Once again, we are staring down the barrels of our own guns, scratching our heads in wonder.
Tea Party: zip. We had a primary here in upstate New York, the 22nd Congressional District, in which incumbent corporatist Republican Richard Hanna was challenged by a tea party convert named Claudia Tenney, who claimed Hanna wasn’t a true conservative. You’ve heard this before. Hanna won the G.O.P. primary, mostly because our district simply isn’t as blood red as Claudia Tenney likes to think it is. This is Centerville, Claudia – always has been. Hanna is a center-right Republican, essentially pro-choice, anti-tax, but not afraid of appropriations. This drives the reactionaries mad, while Democrats and those on the left must content themselves with watching from the sidelines – we have no candidate this year. Didn’t send in enough boxtops, I guess.
Big Loss. Last week, Central New York lost one of its most committed peace activists, Dr. Sunithi Bejekal. Sunithi was always encouraging me to do more, attend meetings, write more letters to the editor, etc., very likely because she herself had accomplished so many things through the course of her life. I will miss her encouraging, always kind words, and will try to heed them even in her absence. But more than that, I will miss seeing her on the street, in the shops, and in the pages of the local paper, stirring the pot, making some noise, and hopefully moving some minds in a more humane direction. OM SHANTI SHANTI.
Next week: SCOTUS decisions.
