By Nathan Barton

The news these days is a constant drumbeat of just a few things: the evil actions of the FedGov and especially POTUS (“evil” as defined by the mainstream media), shootings (mostly in/around schools), movies (what is doing well, what is not), and of course, celebrities (pontificating on evils of guns and POTUS and the FedGov and their latest divorce and other critical moments).

The talk shows these days are a constant stream of “countering” leftist views of whatever the political and shooting/killing news of the day is. And getting people to calm down.

The newspapers: daily or weekly, they get thinner and thinner, with more and more “fluff” news about baby chicks and the celebs and how Ms. Smith’s third-grade class went out and picked up litter in the school yard for a “public service” project.

But listen to the advertisements that go along with that news and those talk shows and those newspapers.  More and more it fits into three categories: sponsorship “promotion” of the latest fads whether it is automobile repair insurance or blinds or holiday-related gifts; political adverts for various causes (usually in line with the show’s political leaning); and public service announcements (PSAs).  (Most of which are government generated or sponsored.) Sometimes it seems like the PSAs are taking over. (Newspapers also have “official notices” published by governments.)

Every day, I average a full dozen phony phonecalls – spamming and spoofing and the like.  Since I am trying to run a business, and people’s phone numbers have little connection to where they physically are, I have to answer most of them, lest I miss potential work or fail to speak to a regulator or other person I must deal with on behalf of my clients.  It used to be that just the “odd” calls – like from the Bay Area or Ellay or Main – were these bogus calls.  But now more and more are from area codes and exchanges of people and companies I deal with regularly.

Today the spoofing calls are as likely as not to be from not only the same area code but the same town where I have clients and people/businesses in my network.  Even less can I afford to ignore them: I’ve lost business from doing so.

The “more ethical” callers (I use the term only relatively and with great reluctance) use numbers that are not currently in service.  The unethical (scumbag) callers use anyone and everyone’s number.  I once had a call with a number I almost recognized.  I missed the call and they left no voicemail.  I looked up the number: it was for one of South Dakota’s senators.  Since I know them both, slightly, there was a remote chance that this one’s office might be calling me on something.  Nope! It was someone hijacking their number.  Since then I’ve gotten calls from phone numbers which are used ONLY by federal or state agencies: area codes and exchanges.  Only to find out that they are junk.

What are these calls about?  They are insurance sales calls, a LOT of “I-love-the-cops” appeals for “charity,” a few for veterans’ appeals and “student debt reduction” (paid off long, LONG ago), a lot of “your Google listing is out of date” (I don’t have one), a fair number of “We’re from Microsoft and we’re here to help” phishing calls, political fundraising calls, and phony polling calls. So they are either advertising, or scams.

Which is why I’ve taken to answering even calls that are directly to my home phone or personal cell phone as “business,” no matter what time of day or night.

“Hello, this is WASTELINE.  Please state the nature of your emergency.” About two-thirds of the bogus calls end right then: dial tone time.  So far, my clients and associates using an unfamiliar number will ask specifically for me or some other member of the company, and don’t hang up.  (They know we do odd things, and dealing with emergencies IS one of them.)  Caller ID helps a lot, of course, even though with more than 600 phone numbers on my Caller ID, it is its own pain-in-the-neck.

But the volume grows and grows.  Even just a year ago, it was only one or two dozen a week.  Now it is averaging 70-80.  Even on Sunday mornings and in the middle of the night. Just as the ratio of junk to worthwhile reading or listening to media increases and increases.

The useful content of calls, radio shows, and printed matter seems to constantly shrink.

But how many people really notice?

Not enough.  We’ve all slipped deep into the Matrix.  Into accepting less and less value for the time we spend trying to sort things out from what used to be dependable and useful means of communications.

Even when the primary purpose is entertainment. I grew up in a time where newspaper comics were serious business (so to speak).  Not just entertaining, but educational and usually a delight to the eye and often something worth pondering.  Steve Canyon, Prince Valiant, even Peanuts and Pogo and Gordo. Later we had Doonesbury and Bloom County: we might not agree with their politics but they helped you think.  Today, what few comics are left are seldom worth reading. The artwork is substandard, the grammar and spelling are worse than Lil Abner (but not intentionally, the way Al Capp’s was), the philosophy non-existent.  But they’ve largely been replaced by horoscopes and listings of bars and massage parlors.

And again no one cares.  Not even the producers of this garbage, who seem content to drive readers, viewers, and listeners away.

It is apathy, and not just apathetic but pathetic. And it is part of the dying society, dying culture, and dead moral atmosphere.

May God have mercy on this nation.

Mama’s Note: People and systems tend to produce what sells, what customers actually want to buy. Since several generations have now been indoctrinated by the government “schools” into the socialist religion, it is not surprising that the collectivist mantra and wardrobe malfunctions, etc. comprise much of what is now considered “news.” And “entertainment,” of course. So, I’m not sure that apathy applies here. Apathy is disinterest in what is happening, and a great many of these people are clearly passionate about their politics and what they consider important.

The current “news” and “entertainment” demonstrate the general passion for control, the solid belief that they are entitled to the property and even the lives of everyone else, that the world owes them a living – or whatever they want. Not limited to politicians or celebrities by any means, of course, but not universal either. The media presents these things and the fights between the various parasite factions, mostly ignoring the  majority of people who have at least a glimmer of the truth. Which, I think, is why newspapers are going out of business, and even such socialist cesspools as facebook are tanking.

I don’t know if all those people are actually looking for truth and integrity, but it is a good bet that many are aware that something is truly rotten in the core of America. What they do about it is yet to be seen.