What the Fuck? Redux

 

It’s been a beautiful autumn in New England. Above average temperatures, long stretches of sunny days, though the lack of rain – good and bad –has led to a brilliant display of fall colors.

I get up in the morning and shamble into my morning routine.

It all feels normal and belies the complete and utter travesty of convicted felon, sexual assaulter, twice impeached, election denier, coup inciter, document thief being elected over a former prosecutor, district attorney, attorney general, US senator and vice president. Who just happened to a woman. Of color. 

The Scum of the Earth

YET ANOTHER UPDATE (Bridging on below...). A relatively new tactic. A friendly-voiced woman -- "Alice White" or Amelia -- who sounds relatively real until you've experienced the scam is on the line. The voice prompts begin, ultimately leading to a Medicare supplement or death benefits and switching over to the "supervisor," in the classic Asian-based hell-hole. AI at its finest.

MEANWHILE in Canada March 2025): A collection of scammers who are truly the scum of the earth and the efforts to hold them accountable: The Diabolical World of Phone Scams.

ANOTHER UPDATE (February 2025): Interesting article about tracking robocallers, tracing it to one individual. Still, not a lot of hope for getting these POSs under control. I've noticed the latest iteration seems to be an AI-generated voice with a *name* that sounds quite real (and with all the background chatter), calling me about signing up for Medicare supplements. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/on-the-trail-of-the-robocall-king?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us.

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.

And Then There Were None

The 2020 presidential field started out as the most diverse in history in terms of gender, race, and sexual orientation.

Six women were among them, four of whom had solid political chops. One by one they dropped out.

And we are now left with two white male septuagenarians running for president. 

Stockholm Syndrome

What do Patty Hearst, passengers hijacked in 1985 on TWA flight 847, victims of a bank robbery in Sweden in 1973, and the Republican party have in common?   

Make Way for 2020

It’s the end of 2019 and the political chaos continues.

Three years after stealing the election, tRump is still in office. The investigations that began even before he took office are still under way and are producing more evidence of corruption every day. That’s in addition to the dirty dealing that has resulted in two articles of impeachment: Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

1,000 Days

From Twitter

Will the women lead to the ultimate downfall of tRump?

Donald tRump has been in office for 1,000 days. No, I refuse to use the honorific with his name because he is the furthest thing from a president the United States has ever had.

The most recent calculation by the Washington Post totaled tRump's 13,435 false or misleading claims over 993 days. 

Never have we seen the level of corruption and abuse he has created in all aspects of his administration – the White House staff, cabinet positions, judges all have questionable qualifications and histories, often mired in the swamp tRump vowed to drain.

Trump’s Abnormal Events

Students of authoritarian regimes suggest keeping a list of abnormal events after a demagogue is elected, as a way to remind yourself that this isn't normal and to keep from being overwhelmed into acceptance by the onslaught of attacks on our rights.

Those of us who attempted to do that gave up a long time ago, overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of outrageousness. A few diehards, such as Amy Siskind, are doing the hard work for us, via her Weekly List. She compiled her first year’s collection into “The List,” published in March 2018.

Siskind, along with Karen McRae, has also organized a We the People March in Washington, D.C., for Sept. 21. Check the website for other marches across the country and travel information.

#OutrageOverload

Every time I think about venting about the outrage-du-jour committed by tRump and company, another travesty supplants it. (Yeah, I've written that before.)

The concentration camps housing kids in cages with no soap or toothpaste was out there. Then there were the racist attacks against the four Democratic women of color, and add to that Elijah Cummings.

Ladies: Gird Your Loins

UPDATE: On Tuesday night, May 13, 25 white men of the Alabama senate, all Republicans, voted to take away a women's right to choose what to do with her body. And on Wednesday evening in an act of betrayal to the women of Alabama and the US, Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill. Then, on Thursday morning, Missouri's senate passed an 8-week bill (it must be passed by the house and signed by the governor) and Louisiana's house and senate passed a fetal heartbeat bill.

If women are not allowed to make decisions concerning their bodies, how the hell will they be elected president?

Yes, I am enraged, and no number of "there, theres" will squelch it.

This past week in particular has been a shitstorm for women’s right to choose. In particular, Georgia, now known as Gilead, passed a “heartbeat” bill that would ban abortions as early as six weeks. Gov. Brian Kemp signed the brutally restrictive bill, which is supposed to go into effect Jan. 1; the American Civil Liberties Union will challenge it in court. Georgia has the highest maternal death rate in the country.

Also tagged on to the bill is a caveat that a woman who travels out of state for an abortion may be charged with conspiracy to commit murder and anyone who assists her could be charged with conspiracy. My question is how will they know? Will Georgia hire the uterus police to be stationed at state borders?

Still Waiting

Every time I want to write about the shitstorm that is our government today, something else happens that buries my original complaint.

But this Accountability waiting game is enraging and exhausting.

I Engaged Them

But alas I do.

Admittedly, I have little ongoing contact with diehard tRump supporters. I pride myself on following some 20 solid news sources and look at the credentials and sources of those presenting information on Facebook. There has been an amazing amount of solid investigative journalism. Just check the books downloaded to my Kindle that I turn to when sleepless (which is pretty often these days).