I presume it is Donald Trump’s fault. And by “it” I mean the phone calls that have been plaguing me for the last several weeks. ON MY CELL PHONE!!! If you receive junk mail and spam email, is it a welcome intrusion for an unknown number to ring you when you use your phone for only a few repeat personal calls? Some are obvious misdialed numbers but others? Do I know anyone in Florida? Washington, D.C.? Wisconsin? I will answer with a very non-descript “Hello”. Sometimes you hear the distinct pause, click and a voice-activated robo-call starting. I received at least three calls from a spanish-speaking remodeling salesman with an L.A. area code. (I started responding in Russian to no avail).
It is not calls from Pakistan trying to tell me my Microsoft account needs to be protected. I would have fun with that. It’s not an attorney telling me my distant relative has left me money — I don’t have monied relations. It is nervous young ladies selling vacation rentals. it’s insurance salesmen; it’s charitable donations for causes that sound familiar to, but not actually, name charities. It is salesmen for mortgage refinancing.
At first, I was very civil, thanking them for calling and requesting my number be removed from their call list. Lately, the caller will talk the canned script over my objections. Then I started just hanging up. Add another number to a blocked-call list on my phone. There’s a reason I stopped having a landline phone at home. The only calls we got were from telemarketers. Please do not get me started on the continual flood of junk snail mail. With all the circulars and flyers that are left in my mailbox or attached to my door I could light and stay warm through the entirety of the next Ice Age.
I think all of us annoyed recipients of these telemarketers should demand $1.00 for every wasted minute from every single telemarketer. Call it an annoyance credit. We taxpayers deduct from our taxes due Uncle Sam a few hundred dollars a year. It would certainly deprive some politicians of the favors they bestow on telemarketing lobbyists. Of course, when elections roll around, the constant droning of election ads and PACs are worse than telemarketers – they constantly solicit feedback on issues important to us — with a generous request for support in their quest to have absolutely no interest in my well-being.
Of course, should the Democrats have won nationally — I would blame Madame President for the same irritation. I wonder if the telemarketers have a list of the government -supplied cell phones to those receiving Aid. Probably on the telemarketers own “do not bother to call” list.
Hold on. it’s an incoming call from Illinois; Comet, would you answer that?
It's a Dog's Life 