Anyone who believes that Republicans are going to be knocked into a healthier reality by tonight’s election results are not getting it. This is the Republican party now. They are a party that campaigns on tribalism and their model is to build the biggest tribe, and destroy smaller ones. This is where we’re going.
I keep reading pundits talking about Trump’s historically low approval rating and it’s clear that they don’t get it - they don’t see what’s happening. Yes, his approval numbers are historically low, but it doesn’t matter. They can win with pluralities. They can win by just being the biggest tribe, and dismantling the system.
How much does a robocall campaign cost anyway? It seems like a lot of money just to carry out some minor dickery. And I would think this is the sort of thing that would be more likely to get Democrats out while lulling Republicans into a sense of security, so potentially counterproductive.
I can’t imagine it would be much, frankly. An autodialer looks to be a couple hundred bucks, a recorded message, and off you go.
Back in my youth when my PC had a modem, I probably could have coded something up in a day or so, so I can’t imagine it would be a problem today either.
I don’t know how you would permit it - there are no laws that I know about that prevent me from dialing your phone number.
Back in the day, long distance charges would get you down, but now I imagine you could do it off a burner cell phone or 2 (depending on how long you wanted your campaign to take).
If I were interested in learning IOS or Android coding, that would actually make interesting app - let’s hope the merry pranksters don’t get on it.
If you’re running a robo-call center, you’re probably going to be using a SIP or VoIP Trunk Group with a couple of dozen call paths. In my company at least, that would come bundled with 1000 minutes of Long Distance.
Fraud lies on the far side of indictment and prosecution. The behavior might violate the law or someone’s rights, but the effect is immediate while the consequences are very much neither immediate nor even certain. Seems like a fairly low-risk gamble.
IANAL but I think those robocalls are considered obvious parodies of the people purported to be speaking in them. There are exemptions for parody/satire in libel and defamation laws.
The head of an LBGT advocacy group caught a prominent gay-conversion “therapist” trolling for action on a gay hookup app - so he successfully catfished him.
The kicker? The newly-outed doctor (funny how all these people who think gayness is curable turn out to be closet cases) intends to right his wrongs by undergoing gay-conversion therapy himself.)
EPILOGUE: Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage because Jesus, has been voted out of office.
Woohoo! Now I’m wondering if those who voted for her will refuse to get a marriage license or any other type of license from her successor because said successor “is not my county clerk”.