Mad As Hell But Taking Dan Rather's Advice

It all boiled over yesterday after that vicious attack on Paul Pelosi (meant for Speaker Nancy Pelosi), Ke being approved back into Facebook, and the threat implied in Randy Quaid’s GQP tweet.  What happened is very clear proof the coup on our democracy is not over.  And people like Ke and Quaid and are making outrageous disgusting behavior the new norm. And “Christian” nationalists keep dragging God and Jesus into their sorry behavior. 

This is how I feel:

I'm As Mad As Hell

And then I read Dan Rather’s tweet.  Dan Rather is one of the very few journalists I trust for the truth. His advice today makes complete sense to me.  I plan to put aside thoughts, grief, and despair about the evil doings of the GQP, trumpers, and “Christian” nationalists.

Today my daughters are coming for a visit.  I’m planning a nice roast chicken dinner and we’ll visit and then either watch a movie or a Netflix series.

I am going to reread Jane Goodall’s The Book Of Hope.  She said that many times she’s felt anger and despair about what was happening but still kept nourishing that flame of hope that things will get better.  She suggested several things to remember during dark times and now, of course, I can’t remember them all.  Worthy of a reread for sure.

I’m going to be phone banking, encouraging voters to mail their ballots or go to the polls.  Some of the dialers I use have software that will bring up locations for voting and if anyone is unsure where to show up, I can give them answers.  I do feel much better when I talk to voters and share our views.

There will be music almost 24/7 this weekend.  Right now, I’m listening to Tran Siberian Orchestra’s Lost Christmas Eve. Yes, I know we haven’t had Halloween yet.  This music comforts and soothes me. 

And then there’s Country First.

I do have hope in spite of being angry.  I am staying steady.

 

Lost in the Twilight Zone

 

It’s funny: everyday I collect news stories on topics I want to write about. In the last week or so, I just keep setting them aside.

I feel like I’m wandering around in the Twilight Zone.

Or, a more up-to-date type experience: I’m in the Upside Down and can’t find my way out.

I’ve written about this before but it seems every day news items are more mind blowing.

The midterms are in less than two weeks.  Almost everywhere it seems that qualified candidates are in a virtual dead-heat with mind-dead, tRump parroting, ultra-right-wing conservatives. And why? I still don’t get it.

In Georgia, voters have a current senator now that is a thoughtful, rational, and even better yet, Christian minister in Raphael Warnock. Yet many are going for brain damaged or just flat-out stupid Hershel Walker.  Not only has he been lying and making ridiculously stupid remarks, Mr. Pro Life has at least 2 women publicly testifying he wanted them to abort his babies with them. In normal times, this would be a total deal breaker for Mr. Walker.  Apparently, the Upside Down is now known as the “New Normal” where it’s OK to be a fool, a liar and a hypocrite as long as you are a Rethuglican.

In Pennsylvania, there’ve been positive and negative takes on Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s debate with snake oil salesman Dr. Oz.  Fetterman had a major stroke less than 6 months ago and is doing amazingly well in his recovery.  He still has some processing issues and needed some accommodation for the debate, to have the questions in text for him to read.  Dr. Oz has been in hot water for his many erroneous medical claims.  Not only that, he doesn’t even live in PA.  In spite of all that, major media is all gloom and doom about Fetterman.  It’s depressing.  The man is intelligent and has some great ideas; Dr. Oz panders to the tRumpers.  His most recent statement during the debate was that a woman’s reproductive care should be up to the woman, her doctor and, oh yeah, local legislators. 

In all the other battleground states, decent Democratic candidates or office holders are struggling to keep even with inept Rethuglicans endorsed by tRump—and some of these clowns are just evil.  Why? Because Rethuglican millionaire/billionaires are pouring in ad money to support the idiots on the Rethug ticket.

A sense of simple decency and kindness barely exists online at all.

I can’t look at major media anymore.  The headlines are infuriating and depressing as Democrats & President Biden are bashed without quarter and tRumpers are fawned over like they’re gods.  No wonder they walk around arrogantly broadcasting their anti-Semitic, racist, ugly views. There’s no blowback. Their own party members won’t say anything and, surprisingly, neither will the Democrats.

The Democratic leadership has been asleep at the wheel almost the entire time President Biden has been in office.  There have been so many blown opportunities for talking points to connect with voters.  It’s like that whole party has OD’d on Valium or something.

I set aside topics I want to write about because going down those roads would only serve to make me more discouraged.  There are only 2 weeks to the election and I want to keep a flame of hope kindled.  From now until the election is over, I’m going to set news aside and just focus on job hunting and writing for NaNoWriMo in November.  If we do have a blue wave or tsunami, I can write about things that need to be changed.  If we don’t, it won’t matter because we won’t have a democracy anymore.

For Your Sunday Reading Pleasure: "Christian" Nationalism

 

The religious right used to support Republicans for their stands on “moral” issues that were important to them.  Now, though, they support Rethuglicans just to keep them in power and to try and establish a theocracy.  It doesn’t matter what sins Rethuglicans engage in; the point is to gain control of Congress.  So, they support the treasonous former guy and candidates like Hershel Walker, J.D. Vance and other outrageous people running for any office with power.

Hershel Walker is the former football player running for the Senate, to represent Georgia. The incumbent is an actual Christian, Rev. Warnock.  Walker’s talk has been all exaggeration and lies.  He claimed to be a total opponent of abortion.  That alone would appeal to the religious right but, more importantly, he was a Rethuglican.  So, when truths were revealed about his lies and hypocrisy, they rallied around him anyway instead of condemning him.  He was exposed as an irresponsible father, impregnating women and then abandoning them to care for the children he helped create.  He paid for at least one to have an abortion.  Say what! So much for his right to life proclamation.

Paying for abortion should have been a deal breaker for "Christians", but it wasn’t.  It didn’t matter to the religious right that they already had a real Christian practicing minister in place. The only thing that mattered was getting Warnock elected.  What hypocrites the religious right are exposing themselves to be.  But they don’t care.

I am angry about the way Christian teachings and beliefs have been hijacked and twisted not only by the religious right but now by fascist leaning “Christian” nationalists.  Those people have entangled themselves in the Bible but mostly from the Old Testament.  Some of the angriest and rigid verses are found there.  There is some negativity in the New Testament but Jesus’ teachings revolved around love, kindness and care for each other. 

I am not a devout quoter of the Bible and I don’t remember which book in the NT this story comes from but there was a passage in which Jesus was saying that he’d been turned away when he was in need.  His followers were upset and protested that they’d always tried to meet Jesus’ needs.  His answer (my paraphrasing) was that every time they turned away someone who needed shelter, didn’t share food with someone hungry, didn’t care for the sick, didn’t care for children, and acted with prejudice/racism against foreigners, they were actually turning Jesus away.  His basic teaching was to love God above all and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. 

Think about it.  Think about the things you do for yourself to meet your needs.  Then think of the homeless vets living under bridges, immigrants fleeing for their lives from a violent country, hungry children in families that can’t afford to buy all the food they need and are struggling just to keep afloat…the list goes on and on.  There is much we can do to “feed my people” as Jesus asked.

These days, it seems only Democrats and some Independents are willing to do this.  Rethuglican legislators vote against every single piece of legislation that would address the needs of most people in this country.  Rethuglicans are no longer asking themselves WWJD.  They are asking themselves: what must we do to gain the power to control everyone?

Daily Sound & Fury recently had a very good article about why fascist leaning politicians and voters have glommed onto “Christian” nationalism.  I highly recommend reading it.  Sadly, the people who NEED to read this most likely or definitely would not. 

There’s another article from MSNBC Opinion that is also very good at explaining how and why Christianity is blended with nationalism.  From this article, I learned a new term: dominionism.  What is that? The article defined it this way: “Dominionism specifically calls for Christians to reclaim the “seven mountains of dominion” in society for God: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government. “

This is serious, scary business.  I absolutely do not want “Christian” nationalists controlling the education of my great grandchildren, nor do I want them involved anywhere else except for their own churches.  I do not want a country with one religion only.  That is fascism.  And when you mix in the white supremacists and extremists, it becomes Nazism.

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest.  As for me, I am joining two phone banks.  One is for my own representative, Andy Kim, and the other is for swing states/close races across the country.  This is how I can fight back against the extremists.  I can vote.  I’m not feeling very optimistic today but I will keep fighting.

My Short-Lived Career As A Market Research Interviewer

Like many seniors on fixed incomes, my husband and I find ourselves increasingly squeezed by inflation and rising costs.  Robert Reich reported not long ago that working people’s salaries aren’t keeping up with inflation but at least are receiving some sort of raise, even if inadequate.  We are stuck with social security and a small pension.

So, I thought to supplement our income with one of those work-from-home jobs.  While I was an interpreter, I’d supplement income during slow months by working as a part time market research interviewer.  I worked for several research companies from 1983 to 1992 and they were all fine companies to work for.  Before becoming an interpreter, I was a secretary.  Even before that, in high school, I became a proficient typist.  So, I began looking for remote jobs.

It didn’t take too long before a human resources manager from X Group saw my resume and called me to interview me for a market research position.  She gave me a bare bones overview: my shift would be 5p.m. to 1a.m. and I would call across the country according to time zones.  Well, I was used to that.  At my earlier companies, we’d call the East Coast until 8-8:30, change to Central Time until their 8-8:30, move to Mountain repeat and then to Pacific.  I was cool with it all and looked forward to giving us extra income for the things we need.  Like dental work.

Training was scheduled for two days from 3-9 p.m.  I liked the trainer but we sure moved like gangbusters learning the rules and then taking a crash course in one of the complicated dialing systems.  We were moving pretty fast and although I took notes, I found the dialing system confusing.  We practiced logging in a couple of times and then we were thrown onto dialing system.

Literally.  Thrown on.  In my previous experience, all the interviewers would go over the script together.  Old news.  We were expected to utilized a huge very busy message board chock full of items and search all over for the job briefing sheet.  We’d then look to see who we were calling, where, why and how long the survey was supposed to be.  Under the schedule item, I saw a scolding message toward the interviews that they were using too much idle time and they weren’t “rebutting”; that rebutting was required and they’d better start doing a better job of it.

Rebutting?  That means pestering a reluctant respondent to keep going and finish the survey until they just hang up on you.  Oh dear.  Well, I thought, I can use my persuasive skills and then just let them go before they blow their gasket.

I was assigned to a political survey.  Of course.  The midterms are coming up and there were multiple jobs covering multiple candidates.  I began calling, fumbling around a bit like any newbie, but did talk to people.  I was a little taken aback by how many tRump supporters I was reaching.  Later, my daughter Heidi commented that they were the ones dumb enough to answer a call from a number they didn’t recognize.  Democratic voters would just let the phone ring.  Ha, I wish.

The following evening, we trained on the other dialing system. That one was easier to use.  We spent just 2 hours in actual training and then, again, we were thrown onto the phones.  Another political survey.

I had my husband Ted print out as many of the relevant articles from that message board as I possibly could.  On Saturday night, I went into it cold.  We had a contact person (supervisor) and tech advisor assigned to us but there were a lot of people they had to watch/help.  I had a hard start but the tech guy helped me get under way.  He was very funny to chat with.

As it got toward 9, I began to wonder when we’d move to Central time.  People were getting testy.  “Don’t you realize how late it is?”  In the beginning, they were still civil.  I’d apologize and let them go their way.  Supervisor’s message was to tell each caller ‘I’m sorry I’m calling so late but we just need one more in your area.  Please stay on with me so that my supervisor doesn’t send me home for not making the quota.’  That’s a rebuttal.

I didn’t like it.  I didn’t want to do it.  I think it’s rude to call anyone late in the evening, especially for a survey that would be meaningless to them.  I want to treat people the way I want to be treated so that means being considerate and kind.  Calling this late and then trying to guilt/strong arm into doing a survey is not kind nor is it considerate.

The supervisor’s response was just something like, this hour is really hard but we just have to get through it and keep calling.

Hour?  I was calling East Coast voters until 10 p.m.?  OMG.  What have I gotten myself into?

At 10, we were switched to Central Time jobs.  Yes.  In Central Time it was already 9 p.m. and these potential respondents were VERY peevish.

Somehow, I survived my first weekend of shifts.  I had Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off but in the back of my head was that Friday shift.  Friday night, I had two respondents drop the F-bomb on me several times when I called.  I was shaken but I wasn’t angry with THEM.  Yes, they were very rude and didn’t need to curse at me but, after all, I might’ve woken them up or interrupted some pleasurable activity with my intrusive late-night call. 

I reached out to the supervisor.  Again, the response was basically: yes, it’s bad but suck it up and call.

I was being switched from one dialing system to another and getting fouled up remembering what to do when.  I read the notes and moved along slowly but they expected I would switch in five minutes.  I couldn’t.  The instructions on my cheat sheets weren’t all that clear and I had to carefully go step by step, like a toddler.

Last night was the corker.  It started really well.  I was speaking to an 89-year-old woman who still voted but tended to ramble as old people do.  We were at the closing questions when the supervisor’s voice was in my ear to hurry up and end the call.  When we were done, she said the job was bid at completing a survey in 15 minutes and I’d taken 25.  Oops.  Next time I should interrupt the respondent and say I have to move on or I’m going to get into trouble.  OKAY.

The following survey also went 20 minutes but that was because the respondent was very expansive during the open ends.  During training, the supervisor repeated over and over, “get down what they say verbatim.  Ver-ba-tim.  VER-ba-tim.”  So, I did.

I was switched from one state to two others.  As it got later, I still managed to connect with people and felt really good although I was discouraged to hear from so many tRump supporters.

Then I had to switch from one dialing system to the other, the difficult complicated one.  I got completely lost and tried to log in a couple times.  I finally succeeded but wasn’t receiving calls so I contacted tech.  It was the same guy from a week before but he was no longer jolly.  He took over my computer to fix whatever was going on and messaged me that I had too many of the sign in window open, and I did this wrong and messed up that and this should be easy, not hard.

Some of the stuff I was expected to know hadn’t been covered in the training at all.

So, he manipulated my screen as I sat there with my face burning and guts churning.  He messaged me: “Now go sign in.”

Um, no.  I don’t think so.  I’ve had enough.  So, I told him no, I’m signing out.  He was totally shocked and asked, your shift is over?  And I answered no but I’m signing out. I’ll contact HR.  So, I closed everything down just before 10, emailed the woman in HR I’d spoken to originally and just said I stopped early, didn’t feel well, unhappy here and this isn’t a good fit for us.  I didn’t go into all my grievances, just said this wasn’t a good fit.

She wished me well.

So, I’m looking for something part time, not full time, and not a job where I’m expected to call people so late at night.

I was really totally dismayed by one more thing:  of all my completed surveys about ¾ were with tRump supporters.  Even reading statements about the evil things Rethugs want to do did NOT sway them.  One doctor said to me: “I don’t care what they do.  No matter what, I’m voting the Republican line.”

A doctor.

It’s scary.

Why didn’t I get more Democratic voters?  There were tons of answering machines and wrong numbers.  Were those the Dems?  Were the no answers and busys because Dems were busy doing Other Stuff?

I have to hope so.  I have to hope.