Targeting seniors: Robo and cold calls

Targeting Seniors

In my fifth year of retirement, I've become bombarded by Robo & cold calls, usually at the first and last of each month. Ranging from walk in tubs through and including blood thinning drug litigation, I began to take these intrusions personally. However, after asking around, I've discovered that these nuisance calls aren't solely my burden.

My requests to be removed from their calling lists,by both word or pressing the indicated phone key, have proven fruitless. Thanks to the wonders of computers, many "do not call requests" are circumvented by computers redirecting calls through a different telephone number. So, same sales pitch but from a different number. Amy, a security analyst calling from a recorded line asking me,"can you hear me?"(pause) "Are you still there?" as of this post has come from twenty different numbers.

The federal Do Not Call registry must be requested from the actual telephone number and must be renewed annually. Again, the computer shuffling numbers defeats this list.
Yesterday my elder son installed a new call blocking device (1200 capacity) because my Panasonic phone system reached its 250 capacity (in less than one year) this past Saturday. As I began working on this entry (9:31 a.m.), the blood thinning drug lawsuit rang. At 10:43 a.m., my lucky ship came in...a free vacation cruise. Then at 12:30p.m., good old Amy rang. Ugghhhhhhh.... And the solar energy people are relentless!!!!!

As a senior on a fixed income, why must I incur extra expense to guard against such predatory commerce? I don't ask this question naively, but more rhetorically. The simplistic responses of "hang up" and "don't answer unknown numbers" are irksome!
Quoting the Beach Boys, "Help, help me, Rhonda!"

Enough Blood Already Shed Stop Spending Today

we have cried 
We have torn out our hair
We have hidden with fear and shame in the darkness of our own homes
Watching autrocity after autrocity on our television sets 
That now cost us hundreds per month
We watch and we pay for the bad news...

While our people lie naked and dead in padded jail cells
on the sides of roads, in the front seats of their cars
And on the doorsteps of strangers while seeking help...
And what do we get
More bloodshed.

I delayed watching the video of that young man
shot dead in front of a 4 year old as long as I could.
I would un-see it if I could
Just as I would un-see the video taken by the jail house
camera's of the veteran dragged into a padded cell
with a broken back who lay dying
For 7 days
Unable to move
UNABLE to even wet his lips with the cup of water they left for him
His food was thrown in to him while he died
ALONE LIKE a rabid dog
A death worse than a prisoner of war.
A DEATH WITHOUT THE HONOR HE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN
IF HE HAD NOT RETURNED FROM THE ARMED FORCES SERVING THOSE WHO LET HIM DIE.

I cannot un-see
or dis-remember any of it.
And yet we march.....again...
The marchers could have just as easily been targeted
Like those in a Church we all mourn.

We have marched.
We have stood on court house steps
Holding candles while praying
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE PRAYING IS OVER?

MORE DEATH OBVIOUSLY....
Some of us have stood in the GAP
For long periods
While others have been reluctant
There has always been the danger
that some seriously damaged and ill person
would let loose with a hail of bullets
On a crowd of us or the authorities.

That danger could have come from anywhere.
One never knows who and how a person will
feel when pressed against a cold, hard wall.

There is no danger or threat when we silently
protest by just not PARTICIPATING IN THE MADNESS.

There is also no danger or threat when we
OCCUPY OUR CITY COUNCIL AND SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS.
GET ALL UP IN THE FACE OF LEGISLATORS WITH YOUR "NOT SPENDING"

Voices must be heard in places where policy is made.
Seems policy makers are not listening.
Stop the senseless flow cash
Perhaps then the senseless killings will get the attention of those who profit most for our dollars.

HOW ABOUT THAT CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? UNITED... NOW THAT IS A REAL JOKE...

WE KNOW WHAT TO DO.
WE HAVE DONE IT BEFORE
HONOR THOSE WHO HAVE COME BEFORE.
START NOW!
START NOT DOING WHAT WE ALWAYS DO..
STOP GIVING OUR HARD EARNED
DOLLARS TO PEOPLE WHO
REFUSE TO CALL FOR PROSECUTION

Of those who murder our sons, our daughters,
cousins, friends, neighbors and even people we
do not know.

THEY ALL MATTER. WE ALL MATTER.

Stand in the GAP by closing your wallet for as long as it takes
How long can they go without getting our money?
How long?

WE ARE THE CITY
WE ARE THE STATE
WE ARE THE COUNTRY
WE ARE THE WORLD.
WE BUY THE BULLETS USED TO KILL US.

Watch this video.
How sure are YOU that this cannot happen to you or someone you love?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/19/cops-taunted-black-veteran-as-he-died.html?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning

Reading is Fundamentally Important

As always, the Democratic line ruled the day. Voters did exactly what they have been programmed to do. They voted the Democratic Line without question, without thinking.

Question is: Is that always wise? Did you ever wonder who controls how one Candidate and not the other gets on that line?

A Candidate who always has the line told me that the line is not that important. Of course not, he was on it. At the same time, he was accusing someone of petitioning against him who was not even on the ballot. Picture That!

That is the reason the Democratic Municipal Committee is SOOOO important. 

The Democratic Committee makes the decision as to which Candidate gets the line. That person almost always WINS the most votes, because Voters have been programmed to read from left to right. This year, the County Democratic Committee interceded w/o explanation and moved people off the line. Why? Good question. Incumbents have traditionally gotten the line as per the Englewood Democratic Municipal Committee decisions. Ask Mr. Lou Stellato why he moved the incumbent Bissondai Ragbir off the line and replaced her with one of Sir Frank Huttle III's people.

There is more than one way to win, however.

There have been irregularities noticed in the past years. There were more to add to the list this year, especially coming out of the County where the County changed the position of persons on the ballot to insure that Sir Frank Huttle III's people got the line. (Thus control of the Democratic Committee and the LINE for future elections.)  Picture That #2

All of the hubbub about the 2nd Ward Race distracted from the real objective which was to continue to stack the Municipal Committee. We did not miss the ploy. Disruptive emails came out every single day that served to rip apart the fabric of neighborhoods, community and the City at large. Now 3 sitting Council people must serve with a person that they tried to destroy. Picture That #3

If one pays attention to the Presidential Race across the Country, especially in places like Nevada, one finds that Municipal Committees have even been de-certified in order to guarantee the outcome. It is just that important to some people to win control.

Englewood is a smaller version of what is going on all over the country. Folks are so engrossed with the Big Buffoon's crazy race for President, they are missing the big picture of what is going on right under our noses in our own hometown.

This year's Primary has focused more attention on the Englewood Democratic Municipal Committee than ever before. This was a grass roots objective. We must continue to educate the 99%. (and that is us) 

Look where voting blindly has gotten us. The age of the mindless minion must end. We must learn to vote the issues and not the Party Line or the person. Hopefully, we will bring more attention to the importance of this issue as time moves on.

That means a win for us. The 1% is not going to take over Englewood any time soon. They have controlled some of us with offers of jobs and money for years. They have priced services like Pool Passes, participation in Recreation Sports and other programs out of our reach. They have given us "Dog Days of Summer" hours at the pool during the times that we are working. There is nothing like getting a gift that  you can never use. Picture That #4

When I was a child in North Carolina, I witnessed the big farmers come around with loads of men of color on the back of pick up trucks. The White Men carried baseball bats, had 12 gauge shotguns up over the visor in the cab and barked orders at my Father and older brothers that made me cringe. When I was 12, I asked my Dad what they were doing. My brothers and some of the older children at school had told me that they were being taken to vote so the big farmers could control the cost of cotton, tobacco and other farm produce.  My Daddy told me that the joke was on them, because no one could go in the voting booth with him. 

He said, "I do what I want when that curtain closes." 
Picture That #5

The 1% may have more money, but dollars do not punch that "X" in the voting booth.

Keep the faith. It did not get this way overnight.

It will not be corrected overnight.

Until November....Get more practice reading....Become unpredictable......

Expect More Than Empty Promises

I hope that everyone has had a chance to examine

the sample ballot.

Residents of 4/2 and all wards and districts should take a moment more when voting this year. Change the pattern. Instead of starting at the top and checking all boxes down to the bottom without reading the names, do something different.

Start at the bottom and read the names. Think about all of the promises, the rhetoric and mud slinging that has taken place over the last month.

If you received a flyer today with a photo of a person who told you all the great things that he/she has done for you over the last 7 - 8 years, take a moment to reflect. Is that true? Do you have any idea who that person is? Would that person even have bothered to ask for your vote if there had been no challenge to his or her candidacy in 2016?

It all boils down to whether you think the jobs described have been what was best for you and yours. Whom did it serve? Do you know either of those people?

Whatever the results of the Election tomorrow, I will continue to work for the good of my community.