OLN 417 — Vent Session (haibun)

Vent Session

I know that you are, like I am, ripping your hair out with frustration at the saturated poisonous begging streams of political ads, emails, texts, billboards, etc. I can turn the tv ads off. I can turn my head from the billboards. The spam-catcher flips email into spam folder which can be mass-deleted after being screened, or they disappear after 30 days.

The text messaging though! Mofos are flooding me. You see, if you want to donate to a candidate, they ask for your phone number to process payments. Once they get it, they distribute it to all of their party buddies across the nation. I probably get 20-50 texts from them each day. There is no spam folder for texts. Each one must be manually reported as spam, blocked, and deleted. It’s 5 or more clicks for each one to make it go away. Yet, even though that particular text with that particular phone # attached to it is gone, the candidates have an infinite number of numbers to continue to beg and beg and beg. They all come with a lovely portrait of the candidate heading it. Some are holding babies. Some kneeled by their pets. Some in military uniform. Some have arms crossed with an almost threatening expression on their faces.

I haven’t received one text from the opposing party to date :::knocking on wood::: which tells me the party I want to win is the one that is harassing me. Message to party campaigners:

STOP WITH THE TEXTS

Yes, I’ve given you a fair amount of my fixed income over the past so many months. I can’t give you any more. I have home improvement projects on a waiting list. I have ever-increasing expenses for utilities, taxes, insurance, gasoline to visit family, food and household staples, and the occasional night out or lunch with friends.

Your ongoing textual harassment will continue to irritate the piss out of me. I’m even considering changing my phone number, and oh what a pain that would be, but maybe that will give you the gist of how much I don’t want to keep getting harassed by you.

fear drives donations
one less meal on the table
starving for freedom

Mish is today’s host for dVerse’ OpenLinkNight.

21 Comments Add yours

  1. Aptivi's avatar Aptivi says:

    Lisa, the textual harassment is really very annoying. Me too, I stay away from ads of all kinds, such as short messages, e-mails, and so on. My carrier sends out promotional ads occasionally via SMS, and I’m trying to figure out how to stop them.

    Have a wonderful Friday ahead! ☺️

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Lisa or Li's avatar Lisa or Li says:

      I was forced over to google texting a few months back, and the texts seem way more plentiful than in past election seasons.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Aptivi's avatar Aptivi says:

        That’s really annoying. Ours are not so plentiful; just a simple text and one message per day, but it’s still annoying…

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Lisa or Li's avatar Lisa or Li says:

          Happy it is better where you are. It had better end after elections in Nov.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Aptivi's avatar Aptivi says:

            Hopefully, it’ll end for you. 🙏

            Liked by 1 person

  2. Carol anne's avatar Carol anne says:

    that is so irksome! I’m sorry you are being flooded with unwanted texts!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Max's avatar Max says:

    I get the same…I don’t want them and I have given some spicy replies that I can’t type here for decency’s sake.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Lisa or Li's avatar Lisa or Li says:

      I don’t blame you, Max.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Paula Light's avatar Paula Light says:

    I do have a spam folder on my iPhone, and I go in there periodically to delete all the political begging. What really bugs me though are the ugly signs everywhere. It’s pollution!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Lisa or Li's avatar Lisa or Li says:

      I hear you! Maybe I have a spam folder on my phone? It’s an android but not sure what an iPhone is? The same? Will look into it.

      Like

  5. memadtwo's avatar memadtwo says:

    I can’t stand them either. They make me NOT want to give. I sent an email to the DNC about it, but I doubt anyone even read it. Luckily since I moved I don’t get the 200 mailings a week because I only just changed my voter registration. I can’t believe anyone ever responds–you would think they would get the message…(K)

    Liked by 2 people

  6. lifelessons's avatar lifelessons says:

    The same here. Driving me crazy because I can’t donate from out of the country….yet they give you no way to contact them to tell them this. I sign their petitions but they don’t go throught unless you donate!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lisa or Li's avatar Lisa or Li says:

      That’s interesting that you can’t donate from outside of the country, even though you are a US citizen.

      Like

  7. Good venting Lisa 👏 Hooray for freedom and democracy!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. How annoying that must be. I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those during our elections. A few pamphlets in the mail or the odd phone call. I can see how you’d need to vent about it . Glad you had the opportunity at OLN. Wish I could throw in a vote from here. I think at this point, most of the world deserves to have a say. What a sh#t show.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lisa or Li's avatar Lisa or Li says:

      Yes, very. How are your politicians funded in Canada?

      Like

  9. Mish's avatar Mish says:

    Canada restricts the sources and amounts of funding for politicians. So there are huge differences in campaign spending in Canada vs. the U S. In Canada, businesses, unions or organizations cannot directly fund a political party. Individual citizens can donate but this is also capped. There are no multi millionaires feeding a campaign therefore a more level playing field. There are even caps on a candidate’s own contribution. If they win at least 10% of the votes in their riding, they are reimbursed 60% of their expenses by Elections Canada. Once elected, candidates receive a budget. Of course our whole electoral system works differently too. Hope this helps.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lisa or Li's avatar Lisa or Li says:

      Yes, it does help. Thank you!

      Like

      1. Mish's avatar Mish says:

        You’re welcome. 🙂

        Like

  10. Gillena Cox's avatar Gillena Cox says:

    Sorry to hear about your harrasment

    Much love

    Like

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