Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for September 12, 2019

Political robocalls…

My default ringtone is silence. Everybody I want to talk to has some other ringtone,

Let us now bow our heads and pray for those poor souls who live in battleground states. I’m looking at you MI, PA and WI.

Open enrollment brings out the Medicare supplement scam-sters.

When I read it, my immediate thought wasn’t Medicare scams. It was about the 2020 election and the DNC and the RNC and the “pollsters” and and and…

Does anyone know of a good apathy app that can screen my calls?

I do like flagmichael’s silent ringtone, but that sounds like more programming than I’d be interested in. I’d like to share one piece of advice: If you do pick up an unknown caller keep in mind never to answer a question with “Yes” – I’ve heard sinister actors record everything and then splice your reply from “Can you hear me OK?” to “Is it OK to switch your service?” or whatever the current scam is.

When they start on their speil I love to put the phone on speaker and then on the arm of the couch. Then when they get to the part where they go “Hello? Hello? Are you there? Hello? Click!” Cracks me up every time.

It annoys Her, but I can’t help myself – I abuse them. Unless I’m in a charitable mood and the unwanted caller is female; then it’s “Can I ask something first? What color is your underwear?” Usually gets them off fast.

ps – the double entendre was unintentional, but I like it.

A couple was on the news yesterday. They got scammed by medicare for $10K medical bill

I’ve blocked area code 202. That helps a little.

If it weren’t for robo-calls about extended car warranties or credit card protection, I don’t think I’d get any calls at all.

Actually it is political calls seeking endorsements.

With the elections coming up the calls will be from political campaigns and pollsters.

On “Inside Edition” this week, they showed a guy who talked to telemarketers in a Donald Duck voice (he did an excellent DD). :-)

I am going for a record number of ‘blocked’ calls. I believe I have over 100 numbers AND counting right now. Call me once, # not recognized, don’t leave msg – BLOCKED – call and leave msg not interested in – BLOCKED – area code not recognized – BLOCKED. ETC. I figure I’ll add about 200 numbers between now and 11/2020. Wish I knew what the record was. lol

I love telemarketers.

Me: Hello, this is David.

Them: Oh, hello. May I speak to David?

Me: No. [CLICK]

hearing that now… I have an IA phone here in IN, so I can block those pretty easy. Blaaah!!

I guess I missed the meaning entirely. I thought it was avoiding a politician’s call. You know, the people who are working to ban robocalls, except those from politicians?

Montana passed a law making political robocalls illegal, but the courts overturned it as a violation of the first amendment. My position is that, unless I have an opportunity for equal response to the caller, it is not a first amendment issue…it’s a privacy invasion.

I’m lucky to live in a state with little importance to national races: some of the last primaries in the nation and only 4 EC delegates we get very little advertising from POTUS races.Of course the local/state races provide plenty of headache all on their own.

And the candidates.

In some countries, the phone companies cooperated with the government to shut down the whole telemarketing industry.

Here in America, the phone companies are getting paid too much money by the telemarketers, and the politicians are getting paid too much money by the telemarketers and the phone companies.

Actually, the solution to this is quite simple. Stop the “unlimited calling” plans and impose a 10 cent/call (no matter the duration). If I make 10 calls/day, that’s about $30/month, but if a robocaller makes 10,000 calls/day, that’s $30,000/month.

I hate to disillusion you guys, but I just turned 65 and the insurance calls keep on coming.

Political statement?