d Blog

Welcome to d blog, also known as Dan's rant. The content herein is essentially comprised of miscellaneous ramblings and random thoughts on the nature of contemporary existence.

"In America"

Private parties and sticking it to the elderly

It’s My Party
If you are industrious enough or lucky enough to afford participation in certain rarified pursuits such as for instance, competitions involving say vintage racing cars, you might also be invited to attend gatherings featuring lectures and one on one instructional conversation from renowned champion drivers. Years ago while dining with a Boxer Berlinetta owning friend at The Breakers during a Moroso “Vintage Weekend” I witnessed my buddy being given a personal invitation to just such an elite occurrence. My friend, a Ferrari Aficionado of note didn’t seem to care much. He was politely distracted towards the envoy delivering the invite. (A standard of behavior in certain circles?) Although the unpublished yet prestigious confab came with quite a high price of admission by my standards, apparently it takes more than mere money to be asked to attend one of these “Inner Circle” happenings.

Throughout various industries and avocational pursuits, the contacts one makes at these types of things prove invaluable in achieving both the requisite business and social trajectory. In a “Catch 22” sort of dynamic you must be invited in and you must not care whether you are or not. Think the Paris Hilton yawn. The rich are indeed different. Evidence of these kinds of activities is seeping through into the public domain all the time. IE;” President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a campaign contributor during a weekend quail hunt on a friend's South Texas ranch” Jeez, I can’t remember the last weekend quail hunt I was at, can you? What do you think that occasion was all about? The point is more than who gets a seat at the table, the fact that high priced fundraisers enable more than simply the fueling of a politico’s campaign chest; a rising tide lifts all boats. This is how the rich get richer. It’s a rarefied society that the rest of us usually don’t get wind of.

Elsewhere;
I’ll Cry If I want to
88 year old women in assisted living facilities are left convulsing in the throes of throbbing tears by the incessant assaults of hardened telemarketers. The farcical No Call List is thus far an unenforced construct. Predictive dialers from Mongolia ring an American phone 5 or 6 times and more prior to connecting the recipient to a phone tree where any button they push connects them to a pitchman. The recipients of this telemarketing spam erroneously believe themselves to be on some sort of list. Further they believe that the rep they are speaking with can remove them from the list. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no list. Every possible number is called. Repeatedly. There is no getting off the list. There is no database really. At least not one with any discernment or cleansing function. The telemarketer isn’t in touch with the contracted outgoing call center. The managers who instruct the phone reps never to put them on the phone with the customer are in control.

Massive caller id spoofing prevents the recipients from determining who is really calling but in any case it is not the telemarketer that they connect with if they follow the instructions provided by the outgoing voice message. Technically by pressing any button they are calling the telemarketer bypassing the letter if not the spirit of the Do Not Call List regulation. FCC enforcement should get with the program. Scores of outgoing call centers that exist in many of the nations metropolitan areas are committing these crimes of torment against populations that are ill prepared to deal with it, such as stay at homes like the sick and elderly. Not to mention the interruption to business and public safety organizations that revieve these calls as well.

Unethical telemarketing organizations populate their boiler rooms via “help wanted” ads and are easy to locate geographically in this way. Extended Warranty anyone?

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