Once each week, we will endeavor to issue a roundup of recent, notable stories that we call The Ruinous Roundup. Prepare to take action when needed. Call or email your representatives, vote in the ballot box, vote with your money, stay informed, refuse to fall for gaslighting, hold leaders accountable, register to speak at school board meetings, and subscribe and share Preventing Ruin.
Here it is, the first Ruinous Roundup. In today’s edition we cover the national media’s pivot on COVID, Northern Virginia school board policies on masking, dems following a “masks for thee, but not for me” policy, illegal surveillance, and porn in schools.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D. NY)
Representative Jeffries, in a recent press conference, said (without a hint of irony),
Here’s where we are in America. Job creation is up, wages are up, unemployment is down, and the Omicron variant is in retreat. And that’s not by accident. A public health infrastructure was put into place, beginning with the American rescue plan, without a single Republican vote, to ensure that we can do everything possible to crush the virus. And that is what has been happening. Through the trials and tribulations of a once-in-a-century pandemic, through the Delta variant, now through the Omicron variant. When Biden took office there were 2 million Americans fully vaccinated. One year later more than 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated. That doesn’t happen by accident. Because Biden and Democrats in the House and the Senate have leaned into the science, to the evidence, to standing up a robust public health infrastructure, we are now seeing the fruits of that work.
Never mind that the Omicron wave in the U.S. followed the exact same trajectory as it did in countries around the world, many of whom have different (or even, barely existent) public health infrastructures and response initiatives. Omicron would have retreated on its own, even if we had done nothing at all about it. Never mind, too, that President Biden has Operation Warp Speed (and President Trump) to thank for his ability to proudly proclaim he vaccinated 200 million Americans in 2021.
President Biden and Democrats across the nation have spent two full years driving fear into the hearts of Americans, even while much of Red America moved safely on from the pandemic a year ago. However, Representative Jeffries’ remarks and the coordinated rush in Blue states to suddenly drop mask mandates (even though nothing has - scientifically speaking - changed in the last month) show that change is indeed afoot. As Jeff Childers over at Coffee and Covid states, a massive pivot is underway. The Narrative is changing. Suddenly we can publicly question the efficacy of masks, take masks off, downplay case counts, and any number of things that would have rendered one cancelled a mere month ago.
Perhaps President Biden will claim victory over COVID at his March 1, 2022, State of the Union Address? Perhaps COVID will suddenly no longer be a pandemic? Just in time for the November elections.
Gaslighting for Equity
Early this year, reports surfaced that New York, Minnesota, and Utah were using race as a factor to determine who would get scarce COVID treatments. Since then, Minnesota and Utah claim to have stopped using race when determining priority for treatment. New York has not. The New York Department of Health’s guidelines specifically state that COVID-positive patients are eligible to receive certain scarce COVID treatments if they have “a medical condition or other factors that increase their risk for severe illness.” At the bottom of page 2 in the guidelines, we find:
Non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity should be considered a risk factor, as longstanding systemic health and social inequities have contributed to an increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19.
Despite being able to read the New York Department of Health’s guidelines ourselves, the Washington Post yesterday posted an article calling claims that states are rationing scarce COVID treatments based on race false.
Has the Washington Post read the easily accessible guidelines from the New York Department of Health? They are readily available.
As an aside, monoclonal antibody treatments are scarce because the non-physician in the White House, President Biden, has restricted their use.
School Boards Always Follow “the Science”
Unless they are Northern Virginia school boards
While Blue states, in unison, seem to be in a rush this week to drop indoor mask mandates, localities in Northern Virginia were set on bucking the trend. Until the specter of S.B. 739 forced them to reconsider, that is.
State Senator, Democrat Chap Petersen, added language to S.B. 739 this week, enshrining the ability of parents to decide whether to mask their children in school. S.B. 739 passed the Senate on February 9, 2022, with a vote of 29-9. The bill is now under consideration of the House Committee as of the morning of February 11, 2022.
With this news, some Northern Virginia school boards — currently engaged in a lawsuit against Governor Glenn Youngkin over Executive Order 2, which gives parents the right to decide whether or not to mask their children in school pursuant to § 1-240.1 of the Code of Virginia — quietly backpedaled and unveiled plans to make masks optional in schools, provided certain metrics are met.
One district, Falls Church City, published the following infographic this week. It shows their continued insistance on following unscientific and meaningless guidelines in an effort to isolate and punish children who do not continue masking. They arbitrarily treat vaccinated and unvaccinated students differently, despite overwhelming evidence that the vaccinated catch and spread COVID. They also push the arbitrary 6’ spacing guideline that has no basis in science, and which was even dropped by the politicians at the CDC on March 19, 2022.
The Fairfax County school board also unveiled plans at last night’s school board meeting to move to a mask optional policy when transmission levels permit. We shall see how many ways they find to follow outdated “science” and punish students who opt-out of masking.
Speaking of masking….
Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten doubles down on mask mandates in schools, saying she will only support unmasking kids when there is ZERO COVID transmission in schools.


Yet, there are plenty of examples of Ms. Weingarten going maskless. Including a November 2021 conference and the very MSNBC interview wherein she professed her continued support for masking children, apparently indefinitely. Yet another example of “Rules for thee, but not for me!”



More Unmasked Dems
Here are some more examples of Dems who seem to think your kids and members of the service industry should remain masked, while they get to swan about mask-free.

U.S. Capitol Police
This week, Sean Davis over at The Federalist, reported that the inspector general opened an investigation into whether the USCP inappropriately surveilled elected members of Congress, their staff, and visitors to their offices in their efforts to investigate the January 6 riot.
Who will hold them accountable if this is true?
Porn in Schools
Check out this book found on February 11, 2022 at Oakton High School in Fairfax County, VA. Obviously, there is no indoctrination happening in our government schools.