It’s a reference to Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale and the TV series based on it, where part of the US is taken over by “religious” fundamentalists and re-named Gilead. Women have few rights in Giliead, and control over reproduction is not one of them. The book is great. Haven’t seen the TV series but lots of people like it.
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Ah, I understand - I guess there’s no balm there, is there? Thank you Les_Pane and BakerB for explaining that to me. I’ve never watched the show, so I wouldn’t have gotten it in a million years.
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I see what you did there, but in fact there is a balm. The Balm of Gilead (metaphorically a universal cure) in this case is education, knowledge, and exposure. Bad actors have to be called out each and every time, and exposed for that they are. And companies have to be pressured, continuously and mercilessly, to not give in to right-wing extremists.
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Are there any Costo, Walmart, Target, or grocery stores with pharmacies in them nearby? Here in northeast Ohio, we have lots of alternatives (Meijer, Rite Aid, Marc’s, Discount Drug Mart, Giant Eagle, …). My employer-sponsored health insurance keeps trying to switch my prescriptions to a mail-based provider.
BTW, you don’t need a Costco membership to use their pharmacies.
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There’s a pretty decent delivery pharmacy in the Bay Area called Alto that I used to use when I lived there. They use couriers, so they can deliver stuff you have to sign for, too.
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Well said!
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Note from one middle-aged graphic designer to another: this isn’t about you.
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And the Federal power of Medicare/Medicaid behind that, which supports the states, is also huge. And their executive branch is Health and Human Services, which has the largest Inspector General organization of any Executive Branch investigating misuse, fraud, waste, etc. of resources coming from HHS (these are the people who are working with other agencies to come down on opioid abuse, behind all those takedown stories of people who misused COVID funds, etc.). If the State of California gets any guff from Walgreen’s and they have any sort of Federal case coming from this, it’ll take a while but it won’t be pretty.
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I find it’s usually the words after “but…”
As in:
I’m not a racist but…
You are very nice but…
I love your family but…
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We’re also talking primarily pharmacists…of whom there is a specific shortage:
Walgreens should be able to limp along as a convenience store in California. They already dedicate more floor space to Gatorade, Pringles, and seasonal chachkis than to actual prescription medications.
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The laid-off pharmacists should have no trouble finding another employer.
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It started out as a book by Margaret Atwood, published in 1985.
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OK, new details dropping today about specific contracts that California won’t be renewing with Walgreens. Among them is a $54 Million contract to provide specialty prescription drugs to state prisons.
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CVS has had its own issues, and we’ve had problems at the nearest Walgreens. We’re fortunately only a half-hour drive (down mountain roads) to the rural county seat where a few markets and other pharmacies do business. Too bad they don’t deliver potent stuff. 8-(
“California will not stand by as corporations cave to extremists and cut off critical access to reproductive care and freedom,” Newsom said in a news release. “California is on track to be the fourth largest economy in the world and we will leverage our market power to defend the right to choose.”
He’s not kidding, though. We’ve got enough surplus cash to both give everyone a nice stimulus check AND pay for reparations for Black folks. And you know Walgreen’s wants that gravy.
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Yeah, this. The CVS in my town is a grungy, nasty place. The two private pharmacies don’t support reproductive Heath in their own way. And there’s a Walmart. Great choices.
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I’m ashamed that “buying meds for prisoners” didn’t come up as one of the ideas for Cali’s purchasing power here.
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