A Big OOPS!
A mistake uncovers another move toward the digital prison.
A “senior moment” due to my current absent mindedness and befuddlement brought on by the big D, I neglected to deposit money in my account for my credit card bill. I had the money and the opportunity to do so in time, but forgot until after I got home the day the bill was due. Immediately upon realizing my error, I thought to run down to the bank and deposit enough to cover the bill. But, the pre exwife told me in the past that there is no need as the credit card company will just try again several times the next day. Due Tuesday, deposited Wednesday, I thought I was covered.
Running low on some consumables, I tried to order them Friday, but my card was declined. Not good. I check my phone, which I never do at home as I have it for use outside the house, I find that I have a call from an unknown number. They left a message.
The call was an automated call with my name spoken in the worst kind of robotic way you have heard. If I was the person named, I was directed to push the “1” button. As this was a recorded message, doing so had zero effect. Then a message telling me that the call will be terminated as I did not respond. I did gather it was likely from the credit card company. Later that day, messages from apps I use for work that I pay the monthly subscriptions for with my credit card informed me that the payment requests were declined.
Calling the number recorded by my phone was nonproductive as was calling the phone number on the back of my card. So I went to the closet credit card counter to home. There used to be one just a couple of stations away, but it closed several years before the panic when the whole department store it was in closed down. The next closest is an hour distant.
The person helping me asked if I have their app, I do. She walked me through to where I could have the system withdraw the money from my account right then. Not bad, finally a convenience that I can use. It would also allow for near immediate reinstatement of my card’s validity. An error message. Cannot do this on an iPad, must use an idiot phone, which I do not have. She was surprised to see my flip phone. She suggests another route, to generate a bar code that a clerk at a convenience store can scan and allow me to pay through them. Same error message.
The only solution remaining was for the help center clerk to call another help center. After the person on the phone verified I was me, she sent the information I needed to transfer the money from my account at my bank’s ATM by email. However, the payment will not post until Monday. Not a huge problem, as least as far as using the card, but for my monthly payments made with the card, this could be a problem.
Let’s compare the current situation with how it was not that many years ago. I have used this credit card center for more than 20 years. I used to work full time at an Eikawa school at the same station and have used it many times since. It is not as close to home but more convenient to where I now work. When I first started using it, I could still pay cash at the window. Later, payments had to be made at one of the several ATMs they had at the center. During the panic, these were removed and replaced with a single ATM at a different location. I reported earlier that this too has been removed leaving only one method of paying my credit card bill, automatic withdrawal from my account. This is bad for anyone, whether they realize it or not, but particularly so for myself for reasons I will not repeat here. Now, even though I have my credit card company’s app that lows me to perform a numbers of actions through it, most of these are not accessible expect through an idiot phone. Now, to do general banking, one must first buy an extremely expensive idiot phone that tracks all our movements and searches on the internet.
A Midwestern Doctor just posted an excellent piece on the broader issues of modern tech and specifically AI. They clearly connect many issues that I have written upon myself and a few I chosen not to. I can no longer afford to pay for a subscription, so cannot link to the article which I read a portion of in the email notification. Not seeing the entire article, I cannot gauge what portion of it I read, but that which I did is an excellent summary. The title is “The Dangerous Automation of Information”.
Canada's new interim prime minister, Mark Carney, is a WEF globalist who's a big fan of CBDCs and digital IDs. These are scary, scary times.
I note in the comments that the words “scary” and “terrifying” keep cropping up. Not just here but everywhere. While there is every reason to feel such emotions, we are also inadvertently playing along with the most fundamental trap of all and that is to keep us all in a permanent state of fear. This lowers our vibrations, affects our health, prevents us from thinking clearly and just eats away at us over time. Replace that fear with mere awareness as being in a state of fear will not help and only make matters worse. Being aware may or may not help us, depending on how many others wake up to this nightmare situation we are already in and one that is about to get far worse. It will at least keep us in the best possible state to face whatever is ahead. We should also take some comfort in the fact that all of this is anti-human and against nature. So far everything that goes against natural law eventually ends up destroying itself and the only question is how long it will take and how many casualties there will be.