Question So Sick of the BS Election Ads and Calls

Not a rant directed at any one party or candidate at an level, but I really wish that this election cycle was over and f-ing done with as I am sick and tired of settling down to a book on tape with my cat and getting clawed in the crotch when the phone ring, and not just my home phone but my cell as well, and it's either some group bugging me to vote for so and so, or a poller, as I live in PA, wanting to know my feelings on such and such. I am on the Do Not Call list with both numbers, but I'm not sure those apply to this bs or not. If it doesn't, I think we need a Change.org petition to get these calls covered by it.

Remember the older Simpsons shows where Bart prank calls Moe and Moe flips out? I looked up a bunch of those rants and have been using them when I get the crap calls.

As for the ads mentioned in the title, what ever happened to stating Hey I'm running for this seat instead of assuming people remember, or ever knew, what you'd been elected to? There's one guy, not gonna name names, but I have no dang clue what seat the other party is trying to block him from as as far as I've seen the guy doesn't currently have any ads on tv of his own. And the one that are only "Y supports X so don't vote for Y." are just as annoying.

-lets out a breath-

I feel better....

IIRC, political calls are NOT covered by the Do Not Call list. which sucks.

Although I am as non-political as one can be, it feels good to live in Canada right now - simply since we're not getting badgered by pollsters.
Now, if there was a way to convince the telemarketers that I don't need my furnace serviced; I might be allowed a peacefully evening.

Regarding Bart's crank calls: the one to Australia was my fav ... that and Seymor Butz

Political calls are exempt because politicians write the laws that make "Do Not Call" registries in the first place, and they exempted themselves.

Which, you know, is mighty shortsighted of them. There was a feature in (I believe) "Last Week Tonight" showing that politicians (like, U.S. representatives, not rinky-dinky local council guys) spend lots and lots of hours doing telemarketer duty in order to get political donations. They do this soul-killing drudgery because the "other side" is doing the same. If they outlawed political calls, both sides would have to find another way to operate -- perhaps with less money, perhaps with a different way to entice donors -- but both would be "hurt" equally so it wouldn't make a lot of difference in terms of political balance. And politicians on both sides would have more free time.

Being from California, I miss out on the worst of the pollsters and presidential campaigning, but we still get our fair share of local ads, including tons and tons of ads about propositions. At least the proposition ones are issue focused, not that you can trust anything on them anyways.


We've also have been getting those "Your Microsoft computer has a virus" scams recently. The amazing thing about those is that if you don't shut them down hard you sometimes get call backs, and they have the gall to get mad at you for not falling for their scam. Actually, I kind of wonder sometimes if they don't realize that they're scamming you - if the true scammers hire computer illiterates to make the calls for them, and the poor guys don't understand why everyone hates them for trying to be helpful.

My favorite response to a telemarketer was when my mom accused the caller of having an affair with my dad. We couldn't stop laughing after that one.

We had those virus guys call the house for awhile. But after i kept asking them why my Midget porn was getting infected they stopped.

I don't get a lot of political calls - thankfully. But I get tons of "You have won a 2-night vacation at blah-blah-blah," "we need to talk about your credit card", and the new "This the IRS to tell you that we are filing a suit, blah, blah, blah." Plus a ton of solicitation calls.

When Congress wrote the rules they also exempted 501c3 charitable orgs, and also any organization with whom you have a "business relationship" - which these days means that you might have accidentally checked a box or failed to check a box when installing software, buying anything on-line, or other transactions which basically say that by completing the transaction, you agree to essentially a business relationship with whoever they sell the data to.

This doesn't help for home-phones, but if your cellphone uses Android, you can define an arbitrary period of downtime during which the phone will automatically silence any incoming calls. The feature is under Settings -> Sound & notification -> Interruptions. There's also an option to have it continue permitting calls from your contacts list, or even just starred contacts, so that you can silence random unsolicited junk during the evening but still be reached by your friends and family.

I imagine iPhones have something like this as well, but if they don't, there's probably an app to provide it.

In my case, I find this useful to keep morons from waking me up in the morning when they blithely assume that I rise with the sun. It's a lot less hassle than manually silencing and unsilencing my phone every day.

One of my brother's used his Caller ID, Google and Google Earth to track down an annoying telemarketer and called him one evening at dinner time to ask about his swimming pool.

Since I only answer calls from numbers I recognize, I don't get bothered by those annoying calls.

On iPhones, the option for not ringing for phone calls for a set amount of time is called "Do Not Disturb" and is on the main screen of the "Settings" app.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: We've also have been getting those "Your Microsoft computer has a virus" scams recently. The amazing thing about those is that if you don't shut them down hard you sometimes get call backs, and they have the gall to get mad at you for not falling for their scam...

I was getting those calls about every other month over the summer. I got to the point I was threatening to bring the law down on them with language that would have maid sailors and trucker's blush. And maybe a few threats that would have gotten me in trouble.

When even that didn't work I finally just started saying "Well that's funny, we don't own any Microsoft products. We just have Macs and IWhatevers."

-reaches over and raps on wood- Seems like they got the hint, as I haven't had a repeat call in several months.

Camospam wrote: Although I am as non-political as one can be, it feels good to live in Canada right now - simply since we're not getting badgered by pollsters.
Now, if there was a way to convince the telemarketers that I don't need my furnace serviced; I might be allowed a peacefully evening.

Regarding Bart's crank calls: the one to Australia was my fav ... that and Seymor Butz

Don't forget the little bonus that from the time an election is called to vote day is less than two months in general. Seems to me that his current election campaign has been underway for about two years, at least.

Hello, thank you for fucking with my down time, I WILL be sending you a bill for $15,000.00 for your call to me.

they hang up right quick then for some reason.

"You have reached $50/minute ___ hotline. How may I direct your call?"

Mercifully, the UK doesn't have politicians badgering us with telephone calls...

...but we do get our fair share of subcontinental call centre workers trying to convince us they're Microsoft employees (which has been doing the rounds for years ) and telemarketing robocalls.

Which fall into one of several groups:
PPI refunds - the most common type. Several years ago, the financial services industry was found guilty of mis-selling payment protection insurance on loans and mortgages, and ordered them to give refunds to anyone who claimed they had been mis-sold PPI. Cue an entire industry springing up overnight of companies who'll help you check if you are due a PPI refund and claim it for you... in return for a fee of 30% +VAT (Value Added Tax - think sales tax, levied at 20% on most goods and services, with a few exceptions e.g. food and children's clothes). Even more ironic when you receive several messages on your answerphone from the same company claiming "This is our last attempt to contact you. Press 5 to claim your refund or press 9 to opt out and let the bank keep your money."

Ambulance chasers. Sorry folks, but I think I'd remember if I'd had an accident in the past three years of sufficient intensity to warrant medical attention! So I'd like to know how you lot think you can offer me compensation for non-existant injuries obtained in a non-existant accident...

Consumer surveys. Competitions to win £250 of M&S vouchers in response to filling out a survey (and almost certainly handing all your details to other companies in the same business).

Boiler replacement scheme. Advertising a (long-ended) government scheme to replace your domestic heating and hot water boiler for free if you're on certain benefits.

Professional oven cleaning service. "No fumes, no fuss."

We do have something called the "Telephone Preference Service", which is supposed to opt you out of such calls, except that it doesn't apply to calls from overseas (or, more likely, companies routing their calls overseas to avoid regulations) or if you've ever accidentally consented to a company sharing your information with others ("Please tick this box if you do not wish to not receive marketing material from us and other carefully selected companies")

While on the politics front, the blue party seems to have been infiltrated by the purple party, the red party politicians don't like their leader (but the grassroots do), and the purple party (who hate the EU) had a scuffle in the European Parliament, causing one of their members to be admitted to hospital. The economy's allegedly doing OK but the pound keeps falling to record lows while we keep ourselves entertained by testing the new polymer £5 notes to destruction.

I love the stupid lawyer ads on TV that say "If you have been injured or died, call ....."

a) does God have satellite TV in heaven?
b) is it a long-distance phone call?

I love the stupid lawyer ads on TV that say "If you have been injured or died, call ....."

a) does God have satellite TV in heaven?
b) is it a long-distance phone call?

elrodw wrote: I love the stupid lawyer ads on TV that say "If you have been injured or died, call ....."

a) does God have satellite TV in heaven?
b) is it a long-distance phone call?

My current favorite is the one says "If you are a woman that has had Ovarian Cancer..."

Men that had Ovarian Cancer cannot apply.

I'm always amused by the ads for an anti-ageing cream with "74% of women..." (stated it's wonderful), then you look at the small print at the bottom of the screen and see the pitifully small sample size (and it wouldn't surprise me if they were self-selecting from a magazine survey).

Conversely, here's some UK ads from a long-running 1990s campaign to provide some light relief:

Samson and Delilah (aka the lyrics many Brits will sing when they hear the song...) | Robin Hood | English Civil War | Steeplechase | Driving Instructor .

As for other advertisers, Metal paint | VHS video tapes | financial services (!) | banks (!) .

Not forgetting booze: lager (v=06S24aOqd6Q), cider (v=T8OwiKHfZbA), stout (v=3MuEtGPXLPI and v=qINiB3ndGmU).

(OK, that's enough corny UK ads to keep you entertained for a while!)

Those ads bring back some old memories for me... And we thought they were so cool at the time!

John.

We get a lot of calls trying to sell of solar. The fact that we already have solar doesn't seem to have penetrated in their brains.

GOD am I tired of seeing Donald Trump's face all over the place!

so you won't buy any of the Donald Trump toilet paper that is now on sale?

or Hillary Clinton toilet paper?

make a political statement, buy and use it, mail the used stuff to the campaign headquarters of that candidate.

Is it bad when Cthulhu looks like the lesser evil?

Nah, Cthulhu is the Greatest Evil . (My favorite slogan from that campaign is "Why vote for the lesser evil?")

Personally, I endorse the Allosaurus * for president. He was born in Montana, so unlike Cthulhu he's natural born.

*Chrome wants to spellcheck 'Allosaurus' to 'Lambeosaurus'. I'm not sure why it doesn't recognize 'Allosaurus' as a dinosaur, but it's made him rather upset, and he threatened to eat Google if they don't correct the oversight. As a top predator, the Allosaurus does not appreciate being confused with a dinosaur named after a sheep.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Nah, Cthulhu is the Greatest Evil . (My favorite slogan from that campaign is "Why vote for the lesser evil?")

This year I am not so sure of that.

Well damn, my first choice has dropped out. Candidate drops out.

I guess it's Hammy for the win! Hugs not Hate!

Personally, this would be my preference:


The slogan in Brazil even rhymed: "Não entre pelo cano, eleja um vulcano" -- roughly translated, it means "don't go down the tubes, elect a Vulcan"