Sunday, July 26, 2015

From The Mailbag, A Reader Concerned With The State Of My Relations To Federal Affairs.

The message, in its entirety:

So....How's Obama working out for you?! LOL

Glad you asked my friend, as I haven't had much of a chance here to tell folks  how many more prescriptions I'm filling these days from the Obamacare. Funny thing how people tend to give me more business once they're finally able to afford to see a doctor, and a little ironic how the reason I haven't had the time to tell you about all the extra prescriptions I've been filling is because of...all the extra prescriptions I've been filling.

That's the main effect I see as to how the Obama's working out for me. I'd call it a win win for me and my customers.

Of course there's more to a presidency than money for me, so I suppose we should take a minute and ponder some of the other workings out of the Obama administration:

-A quantum leap forward in rights for gays and lesbians.

- A solution to a vexing problem in the Middle East that doesn't involve a bunch of dead people.

-Long overdue recognition that pretending that the government of Cuba doesn't exist is kinda stupid.

-Acknowledgement, at the top federal level, of the idiotic gun culture so unique to us.

-Net neutrality is now federal policy.

-AT&T and T-Mobile were stopped from combining to make your cell phone service even worse than it is now.

-Comcast and Time Warner were stopped from combining to make your cable/internet service even worse than it is now.

-No more federal cheer leading for the likes of Lloyd Duplantis and his ilk. Pharmacists, you'll remember, who got their 15 minutes of fame during the Bush administration for denying women birth control prescriptions.

We'll classify those under "things you definitely wouldn't have got under a President McCain or Romney."

By the way, there have been developments on the Lloyd Duplantis front. Stay tuned.

Back to the Obama workings out though:

-A president who addresses the out of control criminal justice system we've created, and the personal, spiritual, and financial toll it takes on every American.

-An economy that didn't collapse after it was left on the brink by George The Lesser.

Those will go under "things you probably wouldn't have got under those other two guys."

It hasn't all been roses and sunshine though, to wit:

-George The Lesser's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are still limping along, although another way of looking at it would be two fewer wars have been started than during the previous administration.

-Guantanamo's still there.

-Zero action, at the federal level, regarding the idiotic gun culture so unique to us.

-A monstrosity of a trade deal is working it's way into law. If you haven't read about the Trans Pacific Partnership you should.

Those will go under "things that probably would have happened under a Republican administration."

All in all I'd give Obama a "B," mostly for the increased foot traffic going through my business these days. If I were rotting away in Guantanamo or humping around in Afghanistan, I'd be inclined to grade him a little lower.

Not quite sure why you care about my views so much my anonymous friend, but there you go.


Monday, July 20, 2015

Testify To Pharmacy Jesus My Friend......Testify......

I QUIT RITE AID!

And it was the best thing I could have ever done for myself.


Hello Mr Monkey, I asked advice from you a few years ago about leaving Walgreens for a Rite Aid position located where I wanted to live. I thought you would like to hear what happened.

It lasted 3 years. During that time, I was miserable. It got so bad, I was forced to flex my brain muscles more than I did in pharmacy school, to figure out how to get out. It is so pathetic, to spend $150k on student loans and pass classes that took all of my efforts for so many years, only to find myself equally pressured to get the fuck out of the very place I dedicated my life to be in.

I was threatened with trivial write ups over mentally ill customer complaints, sending a personal fax, putting a flu shot sign in the incorrect location, etc. These write ups, I was told, would lead to a final meeting that would possibly result in termination. I put my keys in the lock box, called the DPM and informed him I would never be back. They did not deserve a 2 week notice.


I started a home business with my wife, and all is well. I still Rph, doing some floating for the new Haggen stores. I now own my life again, sleep well at night, and wish the best for all of my pharmacy friends that are stuck in the corporate trenches.

I appreciate all of your thoughts and writings over the years, and they no doubt had a huge influence in my ultimate decision to leave and stand up for myself. For that, I thank you very much Mr. Monkey.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

From The Archives, And With a Special Dedication To A Certain Mr. Trump.

We've reached bottom now, right?

Surely we have. I've said that so many times over the course of the last decade, and been proven wrong every single time. But tonight it has to be true.

Because let me recap for you where we stand in the political life of this country right now. A commie, left leaning, profane half crazy blogger who calls himself a monkey and would call John McCain a butcher of innocent lives in the service of empire, who would have surely taken part in any and all demonstrations against the stupid, unjust, illegal dance of death this country was responsible for in Vietnam.....

....who wouldn't have hesitated to shout in John McCain's face what he thought of his career choice had he been 20 years older and ever had the chance....

....still has more respect for John McCain.....

Than the man who was at the top of the last set of national polls of likely Republican voters.

Surely we can't sink any lower.

Original blogpost airdate  November 05, 2008

A True Story About John McCain I Can Tell You Now That The Election Is Over.


I don't have to tell most of you that John McCain was a fighter pilot in the Navy during the Vietnam War. I don't have to tell you that he was shot down, captured, held prisoner and tortured by the Vietnamese for 5 and a half years.

And I don't mean the kind of torture that we do in Guantanamo where we're careful not to leave any marks. The Vietnamese didn't care anything about leaving marks. They beat the living piss out of John McCain and then would hang him from the ceiling in his cell by his broken arms when they were done. That's why you never saw him raise his arms during the campaign. He can't. At one point during his captivity he weighed less than a hundred pounds. That's not the story I want to tell you though. The story I want to tell you starts in that prison cell, with the voice of a person named David Ifshin.

Ifshin was president of the National Student Association, and in 1970 he went to Hanoi to urge American troops to turn against the war. His words were broadcast over Radio Hanoi repeatedly and into the cell that was John McCain's living hell.

You might expect that the two men would have gone on to become bitter lifelong enemies. You would be wrong. Ifshin went on to be general counsel of Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, a fact that didn't sit very well with many of the veterans of the war Ifshin had railed against. Some of these veterans heckled the president during his first Memorial Day speech, waving signs that read "Tell us about David Ifshin"

John McCain gave a speech on the floor of the Senate that day. “Let me tell you about David Ifshin…" McCain said. "David is a friend of mine.”

"I wanted the protesters to know that they were bearing false witness against a good man." McCain said later."His friendship honored me and honors me still."

 You see, although both McCain and Ifshin came to radically different conclusions, both men passionately believed in doing what was best for the country. Both men came to see that in the other and to respect the others' commitment.

I was going to write a tongue in cheek post tonight about kicking the Republicans when they were down. It would have been really funny. But after hearing Obama's victory speech tonight, I decided to tell you this story instead. Because my friends, I can't help but feel there was a tectonic shift in this country tonight. A much welcome shift in the tone we are going to get from our leader over the next 8 years. After hearing the man I had hoped so long for, finally making the speech that I so longed for him to make, well, a post about kicking the Republicans when they were down just seemed so.........Bushy.

And Bush already seems like ancient history, doesn't he?

I'll be dammed if there isn't a little hope in the land tonight.