We are the drain the swamp people

Sister Ship SS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

• School District Bond issues on ballot in Scott County — Polls open 7:00 AM to 8:00PM
• See here for voting locations (much reduced from November general election locations).
• On behalf of our Bettendorf School District tax payers — we say tough love for students — as for the educational apparat — not so much of the love part
• Vote no on the costly Bettendorf School District bond referendum.
• As for the Davenport School Board’s proposed ~~ basically to let them have carte blanche with existing finance authorization (supposedly not an increase in property taxes) — nyet  as well. We are not impressed with your ability to  spend money wisely or anticipate needs
• Make it a no confidence vote, send them back to the drawing board
• Bettendorf and Davenport Boards should show commitment and especially results in academic performance across the student spectrum, not ‘woke’ ideology and make do like everybody else has to in tough economic times

Bettendorf School District Board  wants 67 MILLION dollars for improvements additions to its middle school and high school.  Have you seen Bettendorf High School campus? — it has had major additions out the wazoo  and what has that done for basic student academic performance, contentment? Isn’t that supposed to be the basic goal?   The place has a roof, secure walls and HVAC, a gymnasium and auditorium — most everything else is superfluous in the scheme of things.  If there is genuine student enrollment growth (one wonders why given school choice and Bettendorf’s discipline record) the can-do administrators can tack on a few modular class rooms.

The claim is the middle school needs extensive improvements and is to receive most of the money. The middle school for the most part feeds the high school, one would assume at a one to one basis through to graduation (reality is somewhat lower depending on drop-out rate and departures from the school district offerings due to inferior educational performance). Growth in one largely coincides with the other.

So the middle school is coping now, we say continue to cope.

If there are genuine increases in enrollment, then as we advocate for the high school,  the school board should go back to the drawing board, lower their expectations for permanent buildings and then only after the tax-paying economic situation stabilizes.  Tack on modular classroom additions  commensurate with what enrollment can’t be absorbed.

Given the city’s related amenities we are unimpressed by claims of a need for still more athletic facilities. Few students or parents with their heads screwed on straight have children in an athletic category shopping for schools with the best work-out rooms. Parents with their heads screwed on straight want solid academic performance for their kids and they will inform their charges – you are going where we think you will get an education and be reasonably safe.  If a school system is not delivering those then the problem is about the culture that is being cultivated within the walls, not the size of the walls.

Even if Bettendorf (or Davenport) academic performance was solid, that academic success was achieved without the gold-plated improvements proposed belying the “need.” And by the way, if costly fancy schools (rather than academic performance) increases property values, a contention of supporters of increased taxes in the Bettendorf bond vote, then fancy schools increase taxes on the fixed income and the economically stretched and hurting.  It is the inescapable other side of the coin.

The Davenport Schools Bond Boondoggle proposal is not for an increase in property taxes per se like Bettendorf’s. They want your carte blanche authorization for a kitchen sink wording about the use of state allocations —  no doubt the bulk of which will go to close, consolidate and build up selected schools (see their plan) necessitated because of declining enrollments  which of course has nothing to do with the district’s stellar performance in academic achievement. We cannot get past the impression the community is being played with the wording of this proposal. The last part of the proposal insists your non-agreement does not stop them from spending the money according to their previous no doubt catch all authorization.  We say use the opportunity to vote no as a message of no-confidence.  They will understand the meaning.

The effects of the Bettendorf School District proposal on  property taxpayers in that district are described in this article: See Chart.  Homeowners can expect to pay hundreds of dollars more in taxes for a long time.  As regards commercial property owner taxes The Board’s spokeshole is quoted in the QCT article “Our bond consultant, Piper Sandler, let us know there are (rollback) changes coming to the Iowa commercial tax code,” Curt Pratt, the Bettendorf district’s director of operations, said. “So they’ll actually be paying less property taxes overall.”   What that means is that if the property tax increase succeeds    that commercial property tax payers will see no relief, but should be happy about that or something.

Critics of the Bettendorf proposal have pointed out that many property taxpayers are on fixed income and that for many the increase along with other costs will be a substantial burden taking away any small partial relief they receive from Social Security increases. The critique also applies to the Davenport proposal in that it allows for using the state funds for property tax relief which we highly doubt will be done. So property taxpayers in the Davenport School District will likely be screwed out of relief because the board (and city leadership) is such a failure at attracting students to the city and its schools because of poor academic performance, crime and overall taxes.  Those sorts of people should not be given any kind of approval.

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• And speaking of mutilating people, South Park produced this while ridiculing the transgender psycho-social-medical malpractice phenomenon (emphasis on psycho)
• More of this scathing ridicule is needed

First a bit of a disclaimer:

Episode endorsed by the Babylon Bee creator

To say the least, the animated series South Park is not a show for everyone. But the show has been seen and clips and links forwarded by the millions for decades now as it has been a continuously renewed series since 1997. I have gone years without seeing an episode and have only seen a very few but are aware of the show because of those forwards, usually relevant to a particularly timely controversy.

Lately the show has been in the limelight in particular for its treatment of abortion and transgenderism.

The show’s specialty and appeal is biting satire and ridicule that often takes on the pretensions of celebrities and celebrity/ politically correct causes mostly using cartoon grade-school children as the main actors allowing all the exaggerations of childhood as a vehicle. It is certainly more about the dialogue and absurdist plotting rather than the sophistication of the cartooning.

This from a Wikipedia analysis:

They (children characters) are frequently confused by the contradictory and hypocritical behavior of their parents and other adults, and often perceive them as having distorted views on morality and society.   . . . 

South Park was the first weekly program to be rated TV-MA,[21] and is generally intended for adult audiences.[22][23][24] The boys and most other child characters use strong profanity, with only the most taboo words being bleeped during a typical broadcast.[9] Parker and Stone perceive this as the manner in which real-life small boys speak when they are alone.[25][26]

South Park commonly makes use of carnivalesque and absurdist techniques,[27] numerous running gags,[28][29] violence,[29][30] sexual content,[31][32] offhand pop-cultural references, and satirical portrayal of celebrities.[33]

Early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented and featured more slapstick-style humor.[34] While social satire had been used on the show occasionally earlier on, it became more prevalent a the series progressed, with the show retaining some of its focus on the boys’ fondness of scatological humor in an attempt to remind adult viewers “what it was like to be eight years old.”[10] Parker and Stone also began further developing other characters by giving them larger roles in certain storylines,[10] and began writing plots as parables based on religion, politics, and numerous other topics.[9] This provided the opportunity for the show to spoof both extreme sides of contentious issues,[35] while lampooning both liberal and conservative points of view.[9][17][36] Rebecca Raphael described the show as “an equal opportunity offender”,[16] while Parker and Stone describe their main purpose as to “be funny” and “make people laugh”,[37][38] while stating that no particular topic or group of people be exempt from mockery and satire.[17][33][39][40][41]

Parker and Stone insist that the show is still more about “kids being kids” and “what it’s like to be in [elementary school] in America”,[42] stating that the introduction of a more satirical element to the series was the result of the two adding more of a “moral center” to the show so that it would rely less on simply being crude and shocking in an attempt to maintain an audience.[37][38] While profane, Parker notes that there is still an “underlying sweetness” aspect to the child characters,[35] and Time described the boys as “sometimes cruel but with a core of innocence.”[12] Usually, the boys or other characters pondered over what transpired during an episode and conveyed the important lesson taken from it with a short monologue. During earlier seasons, this speech commonly began with a variation of the phrase “You know, I’ve learned something today…”.[43]

Aspects to the ridicule are sometimes subtle, (even obscure to the more detached from current events) such that you have to be at least “woke aware” to get much of it. The writers of South Park, still mainly the original two creators and developers, try to be as current as possible, writing and finishing an episode in the week prior to putting it out.

While the dialogue is vulgar (imparted to grade-school kids) and the images and story lines often not something for the faint of heart — some of the show’s themes even in their often surreal presentation can reasonably be interpreted as ridicule in defense of normative values or, if not that, then at least willing to skewer the shallowness, hypocrisy and corruption of the left.

We do not mean to put too much of a high literature spin to the reliance on shock and ribald humor in the cartoon series. We are only saying that the plots and sub-plots, undercurrents and obscure messaging at least sometimes reflect what conservatives can appreciate.

About the treatment of abortion and transgender issues in the series

Some of the episodes are remarkably prescient while at first perhaps being interpreted as off the wall. A case in point is the writers’ 2005 presentation of a transgender character, biological male to female, going to an abortion clinic to actually get an abortion, because, well, that is what character presumes every woman does. A right off passage or something. It is of course absurd and meant to convey that. It was no defense of transgender ideology to show how ridiculous their ideology is. The episode anticipated the very arguments we are hearing 18 years later such as “men can have babies.”

In the same episode, the related portrayal of the abortion license, the mocking of callous abortion attitudes, the inclusion of dialogue conveying the grotesqueness also including not so subtle abortion imagery are a potent add-on to the ridicule of transgenderism.

That is extended in the series to include the sale of aborted baby parts.

Abortion is a theme that has come up in a number of the episodes

And there are more — visit https://southpark.cc.com

The transgender theme has also been visited a number of times doubling down on how absurd the ideology is. To be sure the topic is unquestionably relevant to school age children.

In the abortion related episode(s) the character “Cartman”  is usually the antagonist who is totally amoral when he isn’t immoral, jealous and scheming and the generally evil little Beelzebub of the series.  The show is probably most popular with the cynical so as a political motivator in that avenue probably not all that “inspirational”. But ridiculing the motivations, falsities and results of leftist ideology (when they do) to an audience cynical toward conservatives as well reduces antagonisms toward us and the reach of the big-government misanthropes.

If fans of the show (we know you are out there and appreciate you) can help us research the appearance of abortion related and transgender themes and any other of political interest to conservatives by sending us links it would be immensely appreciated. The producers of the show have a Web site that allows some thematic searches found here.

From a New York Post commentary last week which triggered our interest in seeing if the abortion issue had been dealt with in other episodes.

‘South Park’ goes viral for ‘brutally honest take’ on trans rights, abortion
A resurfaced “South Park” clip — featuring a transgender woman demanding an abortion despite not being able to get pregnant — is going viral 18 years after its original air date. Social media watchdogs are heralding its “brutally honest take” on transgender rights and abortion “in this crazy woke world we’re all in.”

The episode titled “Mr. Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina,” which originally aired on March 9, 2005, features fourth grade teacher Herbert/Janet Garrison trying to get an abortion because they have not menstruated.

Later in the episode, Garrison — who was born biologically male — expresses outrage due to the fact that they cannot abort (nor carry) a child, even though they paid for reassignment surgery.

This NewsBusters story on the same matter provides comments from certain influencers many will be familiar with:

Seth Dillon (owner of Babylon Bee)

Here’s South Park mocking the insane idea that men can actually become women. This clip is from 2005.

It’s a brutally honest take on the callous savagery of abortion, too. We need more mockery like this.

Donald Trump, Jr.

South Park nails it!

Natallie Argyle (author at Chicks on the Right)

In one minute and 25 seconds, @SouthPark said all the things we aren’t allowed to say about trans “women” and abortions.

Queen Nat

South Park does it again! This time mocking trans and abortions South Park is needed in this crazy woke world we’re all in, to wake people up to how ridiculous it is!

Visit the South Park site https://southpark.cc.com/topics/nmko4w/abortion/5fujrl

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While we are working on several posts we hope that are still timely (if it doesn’t take too long to get them up) — bear with us, one will be up latter today. So much ends up by the wayside as they are eclipsed by even more current events.  If you have a statement or commentary you would like featured by all means post it here to comments and yours truly will evaluate it for a feature presentation.  If graphics are desired or integral indicate that and I will be in contact to facilitate formatting.

Roger Mall

Editor

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Where have I been!  While I consider myself  fairly aware when it comes to political jargon even if I struggle with the usefulness of some of the catchwords like “gaslighting” , this one heretofore flew under my radar (more jargon).

The delightful word, of Chinese origin is  – baizuo –  pronounced as bīzwō (long i, long o). It has apparently been in the Urban Dictionary for a year or more and their definition is more succinct while consistent with others.

Baizuo（白左，White Leftists）is a popular Mainland Chinese term coined for a specific subset of Westerners who are despised by most Chinese for their pretentiousness, hypocritical behavior and an overbearing sense of entitlement.

Baizuos are mostly characterized by their heavy use of political correctness and double standards to covertly advance their own material or emotional interests at the expense of others, while claiming otherwise from a self-assumed superior moral position. Some are truly non-malicious, but are too naive or lack the worldview to provide useful opinions or solutions to real societal problems.

• To describe the same people I just used the more general descriptive term “dipshit” 
• Now we have a term suitable for less coarse company with more specific meaning,
• Thanks to TN for sending it, along with the first graphic below
• Comsymps try to pack a lot into the word bourgeoisie. Now conservatives have at least as sophisticated sounding sociological (and psychological) descriptor
• Rush used to refer to the same people with the phrase “heads full of mush”.  The phrase was succinct but not as succinct as baizuo.
• Go forth and use it with relish

Here is a wikipedia entry for the word along with some selected memes to illustrate the term and its target.  By the way, as I delved into the matter another word that popped up was “gutmensch“. It is a German term full of similar disdain directed at the same sort of people perhaps with more bite than “do-gooders” but neither as packed, red-pilled  and based as baizuo :-).

Wikipedia Definition Baizuo:

“Baizuo” is a popular political epithet commonly used on the Chinese Internet. The literal translation is “white left” which refers to western white liberal leftists.[5] According to Chinese political scientist Chenchen Zhang, the word “Baizuo” refers to those who “only care about topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT rights and the environment”, but lack a concept of “real problems in the real world”. It is also used to describe those “hypocritical humanitarians who advocate political correctness just to satisfy their own sense of moral superiority”.[6][7] Some used this word to indicate those “ignorant and arrogant westerners” who “pity the rest of the world and think they are saviours”.[8]

History[edit]
The term baizuo was apparently coined in a 2010 article published on Renren Network by user Li Shuo, entitled The Fake Morality of the Western White Left and the Chinese Patriotic Scientists  . .  initially used as a general critique of certain socialist values in the American left.[3] No further use of the term is known until 2013, where it enjoyed prominence in the Chinese forum Zhihu through 2013–2015.[citation needed]

Substantial use in Chinese Internet culture began in early 2016, at first at MIT BBS, a bulletin board system used by many Chinese Americans, during the 2016 United States presidential election. Baizuo was used there to criticize the Democratic Party’s emphasis on the affirmative action policies perceived as discriminating against Asians.[9]

This term also gained some attentions in Germany and is used to criticize Angela Merkel’s immigration policies.[10][11]

The term has been referenced approvingly by American conservatives, including Tucker Carlson and Rod Dreher.[12]

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• 400 plus in attendance and an appropriate theme song
• Washington Post reporter definitely chastened – QCT maybe takes the hint and gives a somewhat straight report. 
• View Sarah Watson report,  the same reporter whose byline was attached to the atrocity we criticized in our earlier post: Kari Lake tells GOP in Bettendorf she’s ready to go ‘Iowa witch’ on the media
• Kari Lake seems to pledge fealty to Trump, but we hope she is not confusing Trump with the last hope for America — articulate forthright conservatism is and the Republican bench is much stronger than one person.
• The event featured a complimentary lunch as others sponsored by the group have been and are scheduled to be by the Scott County Republican (Evening) Women’s group. Our compliments to them.
• Embedded is a YouTube video we posted there of the first 5 minutes of Lake’s presentation.  The entire speech was fairly brief and wholly dynamic. Thanks to LB for taking and providing us the video. 
• A brief backgrounder follows the vid. If the video does not appear directly the link within is active.

Kari Lake visited her family and the community where she grew up and first worked in  broadcast journalism earlier this week. She took time to speak at a local Scott County Republican Women’s event. 

After an entrance to a clip of rousing music “American Woman” (Lenny Kravitz version) appropriate for this dynamo, Lake gave an equally rousing speech making clear she will not tolerate lying journalists (see our previous post). She even asked the crowd, which overwhelmed the building after enthusiastically waiting outside on a blustery day, whether she should bother to sit down for an interview with the Washington Post reporter in attendance. 

Lake made it clear she is intent on seeing through her Arizona gubernatorial campaign’s appeals to the court system regarding the integrity of the November vote. In that regard Lake raised the issue of the mass mailing of ballots and lack of chain of custody to the ballots.  There are other evidentiary issues in her legal case regarding the less than 1%  supposed loss. An early (predictable)  adverse opinion is undergoing appeal.

Of note, Kari Lake started as an intern at KWQC (TV) in Davenport. The station’s heritage includes radio station WOC (now separate) where Ronald Reagan got his start in broadcasting. Reagan was born and grew up about an hour away in Illinois. Lake was born across the river in Rock Island, Illinois but grew up in nearby Eldridge, Iowa where her dad was a high school coach and government teacher.  She is the youngest of 8 children.  Video provided to veritaspac.com by Lorrie B.

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The QCT — “where straight news is just not their thing”

Regarding another example of a travesty of objective journalism at the QCT — an article about a scheduled appearance of QC native Kari Lake, who contests for good reason and loads of evidence the results of the Arizona gubernatorial race in which she was the Republican candidate. We suspect ( mere speculation you understand) that this is how things might have gone down at the QCT prior to their posting of what properly should have been a who-what- when-where-why story — the latter aspect uneditorialized unless they were willing to interview the sponsor for a rebuttal:

QCT EDITOR TO REPORTER:

OK so we hear that Kari Lake is going to be a featured speaker at some Republican event.  Drats!  Word will get out without us so we better try to get in front of this because lord knows we are the best conduit for warning Democrats. As best we can, we need to inoculate the community and undermine this hater/denier’s credibility.  We do not have to offer evidence of anything we say, that is not our job. Snark is.  Can you handle it? 

QCT REPORTER TO EDITOR:

YES! YES! YES! Thank you so much for this opportunity boss. Doing a quick number on her is all I am emotionally capable of as long as I do not have to say it to her face and be terrorized by her horrible being. Her treatment of reporters is so vile.  She has no idea what this job entails.  I will get right on it. Death to Republicans and All They Stand for! (standard aloha among QCT personnel)

Later that day after reviewing the reporters posting the word is the Editor sent her an internal memo:

Yes this will do.  Your lede is yeoman hackery which you may not know in our managers parlance is a high compliment. Remember, the AP is watching and your use of their Stylebook I am sure will not go unnoticed. DRATS. 

Here is what the QCT illustrious reporter posted, Do read it and you will understand the context of our comments.

https://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/elections/kari-lake-coming-to-scott-county/article_3bf31d44-27de-5523-9ff5-aceb05433ebd.html

We responded to the QCT:

Dear Editor of the QCT — did you approve and therefore think the lede by Ms Watson was appropriate? Much of what Ms Lake speaks about is media bias and your paper is certainly living up to her charge with ample evidence.

Adding to commenter Lets Go Brandon question(ed. note — another online comment to the article) — will the QCT preface articles regarding Biden, should he ever depart Delaware and show up here, with ledes such as: Biden who maintains without evidence that (pick one or all) he ever drove an 18-wheeler; ever graduated at the top of his class in law school; ever had a house burn down with his wife in it, had a wife die in an accident due to a drunk driver, that our exit from Afghanistan was a triumph (of any sort), our border is secure . . . and on and on and on?

Related reading — relating to the evidence the QCT reporter is ignorant of.

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A meme to go along with our previous post

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• Same question as regards Rite Aid and their pharmacists
• Questions are especially relevant in Illinois, and perhaps in Iowa
• Answer: Hardly a degree of separation
• Another question: If an abortion clinic happened to stock candy and magazines would you do business there?
• Boycott all of their stores everywhere for their corporate culture and corporate decisions.  More commentary with links below graphic

CVS and Walgreens plan to sell abortion pill mifepristone at pharmacies after FDA rule change

Pro-life activists to protest CVS and Walgreens over plans to dispense abortion pill

Whether it be Walgreen or CVS or Rite Aid with their woke corporate decisions its time for targeted updates to their banners and slogans. We have a few possibilities and welcome yours.  Perhaps: ABORTIONs R US . . .  or maybe Apothecary /Abortuary What’s the Difference! . . . how about Killing or Curing — We Don’t Care! . . . and this might work: Your Local Sorcerer’s Apprentice!

Some might respond that the pharmacist is just fulfilling a “doctors”* orders  . . . kind of like a nurse or receptionist who willingly works in an abortion clinic,  just collecting a paycheck. Innocent as all hell.

Or someone might respond: It’s not like the pharmacist actually works IN the abortion clinic. Except they are now basically running a branch office, in a manner of speaking of course.

Another might intone: But they have been selling morning after pills “plan b'” for awhile.  True but some of them might make a contention (even if unlikely) that such drugs could be contraceptive and not abortifacient.  Sort of like the solace members of a firing squad might receive because one of them is traditionally issued a blank.

The obfuscator might contend: these drugs are only safely used up to ten weeks. But with  the abortion drug protocols (or lack thereof) there are relatively frequent complications and ten weeks is after heartbeat laws protecting unborn babies go into effect in many states (six weeks being standard) and definitively in those states that have protected unborn life at all stages of human life’s continuum as before Roe v Wade — for example South Dakota.

In Iowa legal protection for the unborn as of today is in limbo pending a decision of the Iowa Supreme Court which at Governor Reynolds request has agreed to an expedited review of Iowa’s Heartbeat law protecting babies at approximately 6 weeks*.

As for Illinois — Walgreen/CVS et al might be happy to hand them out like Pez with a prescription because the right to life of an unborn baby has effectively been taken away at all stages.

The inescapable reality is that a drug protocol designed to kill unborn babies might now be on pharmacists shelves in Illinois and possibly Iowa. Pharmacists working for these companies will be willing executioners apprentices, handing them to a prescription holder, no doubt cheerfully giving the customer instructions in their use… functioning as an accessory … sort of as the gun runner, armorer and assistant hitman for the prescribing abortionist.  They will knowingly (and lovingly of course) take money for what is being done — a snuff operation. They load the gun, sell the gun and instruct in its use knowing full well what it is being used for.

Prior to this the abortionist “doctor” dispensed the death dealing drugs, pulled them out of a drawer and handed them to the woman or girl, be they ignorant or distraught. Your corner pharmacist was not involved.  Now these corporate entities and pharmacists who stay with them want to be involved and get in on the money. If it is not about the money, and about ideology, that is even worse. Killing innocent human beings is not curing.

These same entities and the pharmacists association decline to be conduits for lethal injection compounds in furtherance of death sentences (after multiple appeals) even for serial killers. It is against their ethics to participate. Fine. It is also a convenient turn-down as there are so few there is no money in it, that is until we start helping granny die as they do in enlightened Canada. Trust that it will come to that (oh wait,  it has in a number of states although perhaps not quite yet directly involving pharmacists) given their money grubbing Sorcerer’s Apprentice corporate proclivities.

So if the claim of ethics enters into such decisions (they invoke such claims) dispensing baby killing drugs is not a neutral undertaking for these American firms or pharmacists who work for the entity, or frankly anyone who works in their warehouse or stores.

As the saying goes, because it is a  a free country, with employment at will, workers can’t claim neutrality or indifference when they could stop it by saying NO to management — take this in and we leave. And if that does not work take your leave with deliberate speed. There are other pharmacies, (which will be exceedingly competitive if they are the ones who have the pharmacists) and there are other jobs in retail and so many beneficial work places uncompromised or encumbered by direct involvement in dealing in death against the innocent.

It’s All About the Grovers Baby

In our opinion these companies, long in the news for corrupt and questionable practices do such things first for the money and then when caught consider fines a cost of doing business. Then they look for ways to appease the regulators with politically correct pronouncements. It’s still all about the Grovers (as in Cleveland). Here are some excerpts from an article by Ryan Bomberger writing at LifeNews.com regarding the corruption these drug marketers have essentially pled guilty to:

Woe is Walgreens.

Many don’t realize the long sordid history Walgreens has when it comes to jeopardizing public health. Let me list a few. There was that 2008 racial discrimination class action lawsuit where the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued Walgreens for “discriminating against African American retail management and pharmacy employees in promotion, compensation, and assignment.” Walgreens settled for $24 million. That same year, Walgreens paid out $35 million to the federal government as a result of a national investigation into its fraudulent prescription altering and billing scheme. The pharmacy was accused of changing prescription dosage without any kind of physician approval and charged Medicaid more for the medications. See. Stealthy and crappy, not so much healthy and happy.

In 2013, Walgreens paid $80 million for an “an unprecedented number of record-keeping and dispensing violations” with millions of controlled substances, including oxycodone. The chain was accused of helping the flow of these drugs to the black market. In 2019, Walgreens agreed to pay a whopping $269 million to settle both federal and state lawsuits for overbilling taxpayer-funded healthcare programs.

These are just a few of the corrupt actions of your friendly corporate drug dealer.

CVS is a mess.

In 2009, CVS paid $2.25 million in a joint Federal Trade Commission and Health and Human Services investigation where the chain failed to protect patient information. CVS employees threw away pill bottles with personal and medical information, credit card info, employment applications (with SSN info), and more sensitive material into open dumpsters.

In 2016, CVS paid $3.5 million to settle allegations that 50, count ‘em, 50 of its stores filled out bogus prescriptions for addictive painkillers. The pharmacy chain violated the Controlled Substances Act, and the Department of Justice had to act to “improve public safety and public health” since CVS Health chose not to.

In 2022, both Walgreens and CVS agreed to pay a massive $5 billion settlement because of allegations that they enabled the opioid crisis. In 2021, just over 75,000 human lives died from synthetic opioids according to the CDC.

For DECADES these outfits continued to sell tobacco products — long after it was unassailable (however  obvious) that inhaled tobacco products were poison for lung tissue. They continued to sell them for the money and because it was legal.  It is not illegal for them to do so now. So while they knew they were dealing in death all along, they  decided opprobrium and hypocrisy had become too much to deal with. We need to make them feel the same about killing developing children at stages we all went through . . . that it is ultimately not a good business model to participate in killing future generations or suffer overall profit losses for customers turning away from them.

Preliminary possibilities regarding boycotting CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid (and others) because of their becoming purveyors of child killing drugs include:

First of all let them know your outrage.  Here are links to organizations helping people to do just that.

Pro-life activists to protest CVS and Walgreens over plans to dispense abortion pill

https://www.liveaction.org/news/activists-protest-cvs-walgreens-abortion-pill/

PRO-LIFE BOYCOTT: Demand CVS and Walgreens STOP Selling Abortion Pills!

Boycott Walgreens and CVS Because They’re Now Abortion Drug Dealers.

Use online mail-order service for maintenance medications — how do Walgreen stores et al get its deliveries?  — off of a truck — get yours via US Mail or UPS etc. But cut them out and let them know.

Various health insurance companies have links to preferred or”in-network” pharmaceutical providers.  They usually include the big three the focus of this article but often others. We do not know the willingness of these other local pharmacies to be conduits for death dealing drugs  but one health insurance company, Aetna, lists: Costco, Walmart, Sam’s Club, HyVee, First Medical, American, Genoa Healthcare LLC., Two Rivers Pharmacy, Main at Locust Pharmacy and others locally as preferred providers. There may be some circumstances where one is temporarily forced to deal with bad actors but with few exceptions there are probably alternatives at similar cost, in driving range or online and by mail.

Beat feet to the door of those providers that do not engage in what are violations of the traditional Hypocratic Oath which includes these words:

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly

I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

The publication Forbes had a recent article which may be helpful as to even lower cost alternatives to the big three.  The Forbes criterion focuses on price and business standards however the willingness to market chemical abortion concoctions are not addressed so further inquiry is recommended.  The uptake is there are often lower cost alternatives to the abortion dealers.  Hopefully a pro-life network will identify and even market or recommend pro-life alternative sources.

Best Online Pharmacies Of January 2023.

Regarding abortion drugs by mail, state laws protecting unborn life should be enforced as Attorney’s General from pro-life states are warning not be violated

Mailing abortion pills could break law, Republican AGs tell pharmacies.

Reckless: Biden’s FDA Clears Way for Dangerous DIY Abortion Drugs by Mail

We would offer as well that California with strict anti-Second Amendment laws bans the sale, import, or possession of certain firearms and components regardless of their legality in other states. In other words you can’t mail regulated matter to a recipient in the state and not have parties (including shippers) face repercussions within the state. Shippers supposedly have policies against receiving contraband and may be liable.

Additional links and quotes of interest:

Bretbart article: Pro-Life Groups Protest Walgreens, CVS over Plans to Dispense Abortion Pills.

Live Action founder and president, Lila Rose, said Walgreens is “on track to becoming on of the biggest abortionists in the nation.”

“They are no longer a healthcare company but an abortion company. It is disgusting and repulsive to the American people that a pharmacist preparing allergy medication and blood pressure pills will now also be packaging and handing out deadly poison intended to kill children,” Rose said in a statement. “Walgreens—and other companies choosing to make a quick buck by pedaling the deadly abortion pill—can never be taken seriously as a healthcare company again. Mothers and children will not be safe until these drugs are taken off the market.”

. . .

According to the report, 40 Day for Life is also encouraging peaceful protests at pharmacies during its February 22 – April 2 campaign.

“CVS and Walgreens have replaced Planned Parenthood as the most significant abortion chains in the Western Hemisphere,” Shawn Carney, president and CEO of 40 Days for Life, told CNA on January 24. “With 18,000 locations between the two, and now Rite Aid joining in, we have given the hundreds of 40 Days for Life campaign leaders not currently leading a campaign the opportunity to do so outside a pharmacy.”

Breitbart News reached out to both CVS Health and Walgreens for comment about the protests. CVS Health did not respond by the time of publication, but Walgreens Senior Director of External Relations Fraser Engerman sent a statement stating that the company will dispense abortion bills consistent with federal and state laws. He said:

We intend to become a certified pharmacy under the program. We are working through the registration, necessary training of our pharmacists, as well as evaluating our pharmacy network in terms of where we normally dispense products that have extra FDA requirements and will dispense these consistent with federal and state laws. 

. . .

CVS and Walgreens have replaced Planned Parenthood as the most significant abortion chains in the Western Hemisphere,” Shawn Carney, president and CEO of 40 Days for Life, told CNA on January 24. “With 18,000 locations between the two, and now Rite Aid joining in, we have given the hundreds of 40 Days for Life campaign leaders not currently leading a campaign the opportunity to do so outside a pharmacy.

Woman Dies After Taking Abortion Pill. (40 Days For Life Podcast)

As CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid prepare to distribute chemical abortions through their drive-through windows, ANOTHER woman has died after taking the deadly pills.

The Canadian teenager succumbed to septic shock–a complication of chemical abortions. While abortion pills hit the U.S. market in 2000, it took 15 more years for them to be approved in Canada…because another Canadian woman died of septic shock during the clinical trial.

Are Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid prepared for the complications and even deaths that will follow their decision to cash in on vulnerable women? We discussed that question recently on The 40 Days for Life Podcast:

40daysforlife.com/pharmacy_abortions

Abortion Pill Reversal Protocol

Article at LifeRisk.org:

There is a possibility to save your child by the APR protocol.

https://www.abortionpillreversal.com/

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Brown-Pelosi-Newsom-Getty four horses of the apocalypse.

ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL

We could maintain that just about every problem in the country and the states is the result of the characteristic dominant political power emanating from the major metropolises. One, San Forncisco, has particularly outsize influence.  As a group they are unvirtually all run by Democrats and produce inordinately Democrat victories via machine politics. Many of the ignoramuses in leadership emanate from their own school systems. Corruption breeds corruption.  Anyway here is an interesting graphic depiction of who runs Californica. Sent by TN the link fleshes out the connections. The pedigree of the publication TN refers us to is unassailable.

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2019/01/gavin-newsoms-keeping-it-all-in-the-family/

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• “Popularity (net of favor/unfavor) matters if you do not want to bring out your opposition, generate all those soldiers willing to, shall we say, stretch mail-in ballots and the people willing to cooperate in it.

Now Donald Trump in the last day or two has been touting his lead in one poll over Biden in a hypothetical 2024 matchup, which is an improvement for Trump of late.  Trump does not mention that DeSantis leads Biden by one point in the same poll. The margin of error in the poll is supposedly three points so theoretically, if not necessarily likely, any of the following permutations are possible: Trump could be ahead of Biden by 9 (add 3 to Trump, subtract 3 from Biden) or Biden could be ahead of Trump by 3 (drop 3 for Trump, add 3 for Biden). There are other permutations including DeSantis leads all of them (add 3 to DeSantis and drop Trump 3 along with dropping Biden 3).

The following article  from the Daily Caller News Foundation,  refers to the “popularity” poll at RealClearPolitics.  Bold is our emphasis.

JARED WHITLEY: Ron DeSantis Is More Popular Than Any Other National Political Figure

Jared Whitley on January 28, 2023

There’s been a longstanding saying that “Democrats fall in love, while Republicans fall in line.” When picking presidential candidates, Democrats have historically sought someone who gives them goosebumps, while Republicans are happy to be good soldiers.

In 1996, Bob Dole was the Senate majority leader. In 2000, Bush was governor of the biggest red state. In 2008, John McCain was the guy who came in second in 2000. In 2012, Mitt Romney was the guy who came in second in 2008.

Trump flipped this standard for both sides. Republican primary voters fell in love with him in 2016, while Democrats fell in line for Joe Biden in 2020. Knowing they could slip him past the goalie in enough swing states, party puppet masters cracked the whip for Amtrak Joe, despite his zero real diversity points, inappropriate behavior toward women and girls, and championing causes they now consider haram.

Because of this paradigm shift, pundits will spend the next year speculating if either will lead their respective parties going into 2024. While there are plenty of questions to ask on both sides, one fact is irrefutable in American politics right now.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the only popular national public figure.

That’s according to the figures from our friends at Real Clear Politics, who present a daily composite of various polls to present a political leader’s net favorability ratings, subtracting their disapproval from their approval. This polling data gets more attention in the days leading up to an election, but popularity is still important to most people during the off-season.

Here’s how the numbers look as of January 25.

• • Gov. Ron DeSantis: +7.2
  • Pres. Joe Biden: -10.1
  • Sen. Chuck Schumer: -15
  • VP Kamala Harris: -16.4
  • Speaker Kevin McCarthy: -18.2
  • Rep. Nancy Pelosi: -19
  • Donald Trump: -21.1
  • Sen. Mitch McConnell: -32.8!

To repeat: favorability is important to most people. Regardless of what you think about Sen. McConnell, you have to admire his thick skin. He also gets that the only people he needs to win over live in Kentucky, and they love him: he won with 20 points over his opponent in 2020, flipping seven of the ten counties he lost in 2014.

DeSantis’s victory last year was just as impressive, winning with a 20 point landslide after a 0.4 point squeaker in 2018. When he started as governor, Florida was sending 13 Democrats to the House; now they’re only sending eight. The Sunshine governor is championing the right battles in the right ways, showcasing limousine liberals’ hypocrisy on immigration, fighting woke indoctrination, and offering asylum to Libs of TikTok after she was doxxed by left-wing terrorists.

And this is all working for DeSantis. The YouGov poll in mid-November gave him just a net +3 favorability while the most recent one gives him a net +15. PredictIt is favors DeSantis over both Biden and Trump, and Elon Musk pre-emptively endorsed him. Things seem so inevitable for DeSantis at this point that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already started airing attack ads against him.

Newsom seems to think he’ll carry the Democrat flag next year. He might; it seems impossible that Biden will be mentally fit or even alive by then. If Harris’ unfavorability weren’t so high, Biden would have already been 25thAmendment-ed out of office.

While pundits speculate between DeSantis or Trump, the more interesting question to pose is who Democrats will pick. In 2008, the decision between Clinton and Obama forced them to answer the question “Are we sexist or racist?” – the question is much more complicated now.

Democrats’ favorite for 2024 appears to be Pete Buttigieg, whose only accomplishments are being gay and photogenic. That might not be enough for their Big Tent, and we can all hope for a long, drawn-out, painful primary battle among them. If an incompetent secretary of transportation manages to come out on top, he won’t stand a chance after four years of so-called progressive mismanagement of our economy and foreign policy.

Trump’s accomplishments on those fronts should have made him a shoe-in for re-election – a roaring stock market, record low unemployment, four Middle East peace deals, crushing ISIS rather than surrendering to the Taliban, not starting World War III with a cult-like energy policy, etc. Alas that just didn’t matter to many people, as we’ve discussed before: modern elections are popularity contests, not job interviews.

The Trump presidency gave the country (and the world) a wake-up call it needed. But as the sunshine from DeSantis’ star continues to rise in 2024, let’s remember that good soldiers can also have goosebumps.

Jared Whitley is a longtime D.C. and Utah politico and award-winning political writer, having worked in the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Bush White House and the defense industry. He has an MBA from Hult International Business School in Dubai.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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