The Scum of the Earth

FURTHER UPDATE: As of April 2024, the calls are finally abating. They now come from "investors" who want to buy my property (Sure! $2 million cash. Immediately); Spectrum, the scam Amazon order, electric service. But not at the previous volume. Perseverance must be paying off.

UPDATE: July 20. I received 30 calls today, 30 CALLS. They're all on my caller ID record. They're mostly from Comcast/Xfinity, ATT/DirecTV, "your cable provider," and "Are you looking to save money..." with one or two thrown in from Alex at Bank of American and friends. A go-around on the phone and via Twitter DM provided clucks of concern, a case number, ID verification, and a promised call back from the "legal department." I went out for a short time this afternoon and came back to 6 calls (via iteration #4 below). 

I work at home. My landline is 12 inches from my laptop. Starting in the morning at about 10 or so, the calls begin. I’m not gonna mince words: Telemarketers and robocallers are the scum of the earth.

Here’s looking at you.

But of course, the calls do not come from these “real” companies, rather from call centers in Kolkata, India, or Pakistan or some armpit somewhere.

They assume four different iterations. (1) The robo intro – press 1, etc.; (2) The voice prompt; (3) A live caller; and (4) The newest one: Although you’re advised not to pick up the phone, they’re now hanging on the line long enough to trigger your voice mail, so there’s a call waiting. You check the message and there is silence, segueing into the busy signal. I came home from a short errand one afternoon to five so-called messages.

So they get you no matter what tactic you take.

A Trip Through the WayBack Machine

 

It started with a concert – the World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra.

 

I’d always loved Big Band music and jumped at the opportunity to hear the orchestra perform in Madison. Along with the wonderful sounds of the ‘30s and ‘40s, the concert triggered something in me akin to a WayBack Machine.

"Emerge Tremfiant" – And other commercials we love to hate

 

An informal poll on Twitter offers small comfort that you’re not alone when it comes to gritting your teeth through the half-dozen or more commercials that assault you between segments of any television program. Marketers lie awake at night trying to determine how to reach the lowest of the low with their nonsensical story lines, bad dancing (so much bad dancing!), and jingles guaranteed to create never-ending earworms. And then they believe that by airing them once every 5 minutes, we’ll buy their products.

It didn’t have to be this bad

 

 

Really. It didn't.

Thanks to the utter ignorance of a collection of tRump-adoring states mired in conspiracy theories, we’ve experienced another surge of COVID, delta flavor. We no sooner dared to shed our masks when the surge reared its head again. Now, as fall kicks, in we’re still ambivalent. Kids are back to school in person, masked (for the most part, amid bitching anti-maskers). In-person meetings are resuming. Restaurants are open for in-person dining. Things seem pretty much under control here in Connecticut with the infection rate hovering around 2 percent, though the clusterfuck continues in primarily Red states. 

It can happen here – And it did

Shortly after noon on Tuesday, word spread that an active shooter was barricaded in a house at the corner of Main Street and North Harbor Street in Branford firing at random into the Richlin plaza.

 

How many of us travel that stretch of road each and every day?

#FacebookDisabledMyAccount, but I won in the end

 

Facebook has blocked the accounts of hundreds of ordinary people, ignoring pleas for help and refusing to provide explanations 

 

Wednesday, Oct. 21. It was just another day in Covidland. Got up, made coffee, emptied the dishwasher, fed the cats, and sat down at the laptop. Checked email, then Facebook, as usual.

 

And was greeted with the message, “Your account has been disabled.”

 

So began the process of being in Facebook hell, a process that would make Dante smile.

I discovered that the deactivation applied to four of us who were/are admins for a moderate-left Facebook political discussion group. Our members are carefully vetted and we post articles from mainstream credible sources, based on the MediaBias chart. We also discussed debates and hearings.

Our pages were all gone. For me, it was 10 years worth of contacts (many reachable through Facebook only), photos, my adult coloring- and cat-related groups, my ExclusivelyCats business page.

Post-Election Reflection

My mantra over the past few months had been: Stupidity is the real pandemic.

With the election results last night, it’s never felt more true.

 As we’ve been huddled in our homes over the past eight months, tRump was crisscrossing the country leading superspreader events, generating an estimated 30,000 Covid cases and 700 deaths, according to a Stanford University study. This, despite his own Covid case, that of his wife and son, and numerous White House employees.

100 Days

Photo: globalminds.world

There are 100 days until the election. In June 2018, I wondered how we survived the first 500 days of Donald tRump’s pseudo presidency. Now I’m wondering how we will survive the next 100 days, not to mention the November to January period of time before he is officially out of office and the havoc he can raise during that interim in extracting revenge for his loss.

Resistance Reading List

Sleeplessness is a hallmark of life today, We flip and toss, scour social media, watch Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime. The coronavirus quarantine has only exacerbated our anxiety. 

I've never slept that soundly, but I've always been a compulsive reader. A couple of years ago my husband got me a Kindle. With an office stuffed full of books, I hadn't thought much about getting one. Turns out, it was one of the best gifts ever. So I sleep with my Kindle – I can grab it from my nighstand, and read a few pages without turning on the light.

This reading list was compiled with the help of various Resistance members. Let the downloads begin. 

I Am SO Lucky

(Sorry, peeps, Blogger is not letting me change the mice type.)

In the midst of the conflagration known as tRump’s management of the coronavirus, I am among the lucky ones.

I work at home as a writer and I’m used to its day-to-day solitary nature. (Just don’t take away my internet!) My husband’s job as a security office is deemed “essential” but he has minimal contact with others and carries around disinfectant and wipes. We have income from our jobs. We both collect Social Security. Our fridge and cupboards are well stocked, and yes, we have plenty of toilet paper and cat food.