Barb Caffrey's Blog

Writing the Elfyverse . . . and beyond

Just Trying to Get By…

with 24 comments

As the blog title says, the mood around Chez Caffrey tonight is exactly that: trying to get by.

I can’t ignore the stresses in the world. They bother me. And I can do so little about them.

For example, I hate it that the people in Hong Kong, who are protesting for democracy, are not being backed up by the United States in word or deed. (I don’t want the U.S. to go to war with China. But this is a situation where diplomacy might’ve done some good. Yet the Congress, as well as the President, remains for the most part eerily silent.)

I also am unhappy by much of what I’ve seen and heard regarding the impeachment inquiry in the U.S. Congress. Everything I’ve read (and I have read the entire 300-page report put out by the Congress yesterday) shows that President Trump seems to believe that Presidents are like Kings, and can do whatever they like. I can’t abide that. And I don’t understand why others can.

Mind, I believe in the rule of law. If the Senate, which probably will get the impeachment from the House sooner or later (the House hasn’t taken a vote yet), refuses to carefully ponder the evidence, I will be extremely unhappy. And if they do what Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has already said he will and refuse to even read the evidence, that will make me furious.

These people are not being paid to duck the evidence. They are being paid to do what is in the best interests of the country.

Not their party. The country.

Anyway, I mention all of this because it does weigh on my mind. And I can do so little about it.

What I can do, mind, is write about it. (Which you see, for what good it does.) I can register people to vote when my health is strong enough. I can also weigh the evidence, when it fully comes out, in my own mind, with my own knowledge of the U.S. Constitution, and decide for myself what I’d do if I were in the Senate.

(Hint, hint: I do not believe in party over country. I believe in what John McCain did. Country over party. Or as John Quincy Adams said, “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone.”)

Mind, if the evidence ultimately isn’t there, then it’s not. (Though it’s hard to believe right now there won’t be enough evidence to show that. And if you doubt me, go read that report and put “Obama” in there instead of Trump. Would you think this behavior is OK then? But I digress.)

The evidence should be heard, should be weighed, should be measured…and if the folks in the Senate who are apparently blinded by Donald Trump’s cult of personality can’t figure out that what the current president has done will be used as a measuring stick for all presidents to follow, then they are idiots. (And should be voted out of office forthwith.)

Anyway, I see all this, and wonder what in the Hell the point is. There’s so little I can affect. And it bothers me.

But all I can do, from day to day, is be my best self.

(And so should you, even though it may seem completely pointless to try.)

So, I’ll keep on trying to get by. And as I do that, I’ll continue to work on my writing, my editing, my music, and whatever other abilities I have that can do some people some good somewhere…as that’s all I know how to do.

——

P.S. We still do live in a free society. I am grateful for this. I am able to say what I feel, in a way I feel is right, and not be hauled off to jail for doing so.

May it continue ever so.

24 Responses

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  1. Hi Barb.
    There are times when the frustrations of the antics of not just politicians, but pundits or worse media personalities can drive one to various forms of distraction because you cannot get hold of them by the shoulders and give them a good shaking.
    Being deep in our General Election (due 12th December) I can well understanding your feelings.

    deteremineddespitewp

    December 4, 2019 at 1:58 pm

    • Yeah. You do wonder why our elected officials can’t get it together and be sensible, don’t you? (I know I do.)

      Good luck with your elections, Roger. I hope they make more sense than ours did.

      Barb Caffrey

      December 4, 2019 at 2:40 pm

      • Party systems are very tribal at times and of course there are always the few with the God complex which makes co-operation difficult.
        As for our Elections I am hoping the Johnson government gets thrown out because of the characters involved therein. However the resultant Labour (and possibly other parties) set up does not fill me ‘dancing in the streets’ glee. But democracy is messy and we often chose the least worst alternatives or vote against rather then vote for.
        That said all the alternatives to Democracy are far worse. So we vote and hope.

        deteremineddespitewp

        December 5, 2019 at 3:49 am

      • Yes. Sometimes the only choices that you have are bad and Godawful. So you choose bad, hoping you’ve avoided Godawful.

        Good luck with it, Roger. 🙂

        Barb Caffrey

        December 6, 2019 at 8:26 pm

      • And hope things will get better. There is always Hope, but it relies on pro-active responses to the hateful and the ignorant.

        deteremineddespitewp

        December 7, 2019 at 12:40 pm

      • That’s true, too, Roger.

        Barb Caffrey

        December 7, 2019 at 6:03 pm

  2. Barb, concering Hong Kong, the silence from the UK is even more embarrassing than that of the USA. Hong Kong was after all a British colony, and it was handed over in good faith.
    Handed over in good faith to communists? What a joke!

    Malcolm J Wardlaw

    December 5, 2019 at 4:28 am

    • I agree, Malcolm. It really is wrong that the UK says nothing. Even worse than the US saying nothing, for precisely the reasons you gave…I am disgusted with most of the world’s politicians on this issue. But the UK pols take the cake for arrogance and futility, don’t they?

      Barb Caffrey

      December 6, 2019 at 8:26 pm

    • That was in a time when the UK had influence. We have long slid away from that position. UK knows it China knows it….in fact China owns a bit of the UK infrastructure and its industries so has influence here…..And back in the 19th Century it was the other way around…Irony.

      deteremineddespitewp

      December 7, 2019 at 12:39 pm

      • Yeah. Sometimes things are odd that way.

        The thing is, the UK does have a moral reason to want Hong Kong’s democracy to flourish, rather than be suppressed. Saying something mild beats saying nothing. And diplomacy would be well worth trying, too…but only if the leadership of the country is behind it. (That’s the problem we have here in the US, too. The diplomats feel profoundly unsupported, and who can blame them?)

        Barb Caffrey

        December 7, 2019 at 6:03 pm

      • Well we don’t have leaders, we have opportunists and tinkers of local issues. Concepts of honour and moral don’t figure.

        deteremineddespitewp

        December 8, 2019 at 7:19 am

      • That is what’s so frustrating. There aren’t very many genuine statesmen (or women). Instead, we get folks who want to game the system. It’s awful.

        Barb Caffrey

        December 9, 2019 at 6:43 pm

      • These are indeed times which test people’s souls.

        deteremineddespitewp

        December 10, 2019 at 11:30 am

      • I can see why, now, that people were afraid to speak up against tyranny and oppression. I try to pick and choose my spots, when I see such…but I refuse to be silenced completely.

        And yes, you are right. 🙂

        Barb Caffrey

        December 10, 2019 at 7:28 pm

      • Never be silenced Barb the oppressive forces be they government or just pressure groups can do many things but they cannot reach into your soul.

        deteremineddespitewp

        December 11, 2019 at 3:31 am

      • Very true, Roger.

        I mostly worry because I read history, I know the signs of decline, and I see them all around me. I’m not a fool.

        But I’m also one, lone voice in the wilderness, and sometimes it gets to be too much, shouting into the void.

        I’m glad you understand where I’m coming from, though. 🙂

        Barb Caffrey

        December 12, 2019 at 7:08 am

      • Certainly do Barb.
        Sometimes all a person can do is ‘read the runes’ and at least be prepared for whatever is coming, so it doesn’t come as a shock.
        I’m doing that now with our General Election, voting takes place today. Boris Johnson and his cabinet are not folk who care much about ordinary folk and are ill-suited to run this nation at this stage in its history.
        That said he could still be Prime Minister tomorrow. I prepare myself for the worst and ponder on how best to cope on many levels.

        deteremineddespitewp

        December 12, 2019 at 12:39 pm

      • Yeah. I am sorry, Roger. I do not see Boris Johnson as the right person for this time, either. He seems like a demagogue; maybe a step above Trump, but maybe not.

        I wish you well, and hope things will shake out for the best somehow. (And I promise to keep fighting on this end.)

        Barb Caffrey

        December 12, 2019 at 10:04 pm

      • Sadly Barb, they did not. The conservatives were returned with a large majority
        As of this day I no longer count myself as British in my heart and soul.
        Catholic. European. Socialist yes. British, they lost the right to call me british,

        deteremineddespitewp

        December 13, 2019 at 5:28 am

      • I was very surprised, and very unhappy, with the amount of votes Boris J. got. That was shocking, to me. Who voted for him, and why? And do they honestly think Brexit is a good idea? (If so, why? How does isolationism help anyone? All I can see it doing is crashing the UK economy, but that’s my armchair analysis and I’m obviously not an economist by trade.)

        Hang in there, Roger.

        I do think things will improve somehow, but obviously we are on a downward cycle right now in both the UK and the US. Canny, intelligent leadership is needed; unfortunately, all we have in the US is tribalism, cynicism, and arrogance. (And that’s a bad mix, to put it mildly.)

        As I said, I don’t see Boris J. as the right leader for the times at hand. But as he’s who you’ve got, I’ll pray he rises to the occasion and somehow finds statesmanship in his soul. (That would be miraculous, but it could happen. Right?)

        Barb Caffrey

        December 14, 2019 at 6:45 am

      • Basically The Conservatives played the Brexit card (which has racist undertones, make no mistake). But they couldn’t have done it without the help of Labour; not just Corbyn, but the rabid wing of his supporters portrayed Labour as a party of nasty, narrowed minded ‘lefties’ which always unsettles the British public, it being conservative with a small ‘c’. They of course will blame everyone but themselves. They have been a disgusting crew; myself being very far-left thought them betrayers of the universal creed of socialism and a mirror image of your own Alt Right, but that is a very long story and would require going into a lot of UK political detail which would need even more ‘sub-explanations’.
        Johnson is a self-serving opportunist and the only thing you can say positive about that would be if he felt things were moving back to the centre he would scramble to reposition himself.
        To paraphrase Thomas Paine ‘These are times which test people’s souls’

        deteremineddespitewp

        December 14, 2019 at 9:40 am

      • Yes. Your last line is absolutely right.

        And yes again. Johnson is an opportunist, and possibly that is what will save the UK. Oddly enough.

        Here’s hoping. 🙂

        Barb Caffrey

        December 14, 2019 at 9:23 pm

      • Here’s to the Law of Unintended Consequences then?

        deteremineddespitewp

        December 15, 2019 at 5:38 am

      • Yeah. We can always hope for that.

        Barb Caffrey

        December 15, 2019 at 5:24 pm


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