Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[AlabamAlum]

[iam416]

In Illinois, that's correct. And the two trans inmates at this particular prison did, in fact, make safety arguments.

But, yes, this is now a thing. In more states than just Illinois.

I also believe the 9th Circuit just ruled that denying an inmates gender reassignment surgery violated the 8th Amendment.

[AlabamAlum]

[iam416]

I dunno. I thought the rules of the prison yard were fairly straight-forward: Accept the Queen's gambit and mate in less than 25 or become someone's bitch. Given your self-proclaimed greatness at chess, you should be fine either way.

[AlabamAlum]

I hate the QGA. Will almost always force white into something a bit more unorthodox with nf6 or even a Dutch.

[iam416]

Be that as it may, prison respect be earned thru QGA.

[AlabamAlum]

lol

[Jeff Buchanan]

OK, I said one has to "work hard" to understand Title VII (EO aspects) and the Gorsuch position. OTH, I didn't want to work that hard....... excellent exchange this morning.

BTW, I worked in the Georgia State Prison System right after I graduated from Emory's PA program for National Health Service Corps scholarship payback in an under-served population. This was 1998 and the two big issues before management were (1) the the question of whether or not inmates were entitled to the new Hepatitis C meds that just hit the market and (2) Whether trans inmates could obtain hormone therapy. Remember, this was GA!

Hep C meds, at that time, cost $80K for a 6 month course of treatment. And, of course, inmates, as a group, have about a 50% Hep C infection rate. Staggering costs but, yep, the prison system had to provide. The process to get the meds had a host of legitimate hoops to jump through, although plenty of inmates took legal action if denied and most won. It was at this point, that the GA prison system started to privatize and, today, it is almost entirely a private operation costing taxpayers a bundle.

The hormone therapy thing was less clear and that is because, well, it was Georgia. The courts were slow to recognize this category of access to medical care as legitimate. So complaints were routinely dismissed. When I finished my work their in 2003, they were getting oral estrogen at a dose so low it wasn't going to obtain the results trans folks wanted but they got it. Sex change operations were then and are still considered elective so, they weren't happening then and I don't think they are now either ...... in time I think they will.

With respect to the Gorsuch opinon and the likelihood that he may take a position favoring the inclusion of transgender folks in Title VII's EO provisions, I liked talent's take on the drift to crazyness and the political agenda that drives that in the face of what I think are common sense legal arguments, based on science, that trans folks aren't necessarily choosing that identity.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is an excellent source for COVID-19 facts. The world is awash in social media rumors and there is evidence that some of this is designed dysinformation from the usual suspects. One of the targets of designed dysinformation appears to be the Chinese leadership. Who knows where this is coming from. The World Health Organization has assigned a staff to combat the social media rumors and apparently a lot of money is getting poured into it

If you have Power Point on your PC, the latest briefings from The World Health Orgaization are in .PPTX format. You can breeze through the slides and get the skinny. Despite today's news of rapid spread of COVID-19 into other countries the numbers of infected persons/confirmed cases there are tiny. Containment is the by-word and every government has some level of it.

The official word is that it is still too early to tell what the virus will do. The take of mine I posted a few days ago hasn't changed. Despite the hysteria and false information, I still believe the virus will burn itself out. I'd add that I do think there is going to be economic damage and the impact is just starting to be felt. It will be short term though and economies will rebound quickly.

https://www.epi-win.com/updates

[AlabamAlum]

But...what about Lyme Dz?

[Dr. Strangelove]

OK, I said one has to "work hard" to understand Title VII (EO aspects) and the Gorsuch position. OTH, I didn't want to work that hard....... excellent exchange this morning.

BTW, I worked in the Georgia State Prison System right after I graduated from Emory's PA program for National Health Service Corps scholarship payback in an under-served population. This was 1998 and the two big issues before management were (1) the the question of whether or not inmates were entitled to the new Hepatitis C meds that just hit the market and (2) Whether trans inmates could obtain hormone therapy. Remember, this was GA!

Hep C meds, at that time, cost $80K for a 6 month course of treatment. And, of course, inmates, as a group, have about a 50% Hep C infection rate. Staggering costs but, yep, the prison system had to provide. The process to get the meds had a host of legitimate hoops to jump through, although plenty of inmates took legal action if denied and most won. It was at this point, that the GA prison system started to privatize and, today, it is almost entirely a private operation costing taxpayers a bundle.

The hormone therapy thing was less clear and that is because, well, it was Georgia. The courts were slow to recognize this category of access to medical care as legitimate. So complaints were routinely dismissed. When I finished my work their in 2003, they were getting oral estrogen at a dose so low it wasn't going to obtain the results trans folks wanted but they got it. Sex change operations were then and are still considered elective so, they weren't happening then and I don't think they are now either ...... in time I think they will.

With respect to the Gorsuch opinon and the likelihood that he may take a position favoring the inclusion of transgender folks in Title VII's EO provisions, I liked talent's take on the drift to crazyness and the political agenda that drives that in the face of what I think are common sense legal arguments, based on science, that trans folks aren't necessarily choosing that identity.

Just to clarify, there's currently two separate cases going on. One would strip away Title VII rights from transgenders. The other would strip away Title VII rights from gays.

[Dr. Strangelove]

What's interesting about Gorsuch is that his questions get to the framework. In discrimination cases the plaintiff typically has to show "but-for" causation -- that is, but-for my race, sex, religion, etc., I wouldn't have been treated this way. The employer then get say that they had "legitimate non-discriminatory" reasons for taking action -- or that my motivating factor for firing you wasn't because of your protected class. For example, rules that apply to all employees were the real reason for dismissal. So, in the legal context, the second point is the "proximate cause" or legal cause of the action. If they don't show a LNDR then the but-for cause becomes the proximate cause and the employer is liable.

What Gorsuch is saying is that "because of sex" could include sexual orientation in a but-for sense -- for the reasons stated above. However, he's very much leaving open the possibility that the employer could assert that sexual orientation was the proximate cause or legitimate non-discriminatory reason. That is, if you have a blanket policy that prohibits gay dudes or, says that you have to use the restroom of your biological sex, then that is not discrimination because of sex, but fundamentally because of sexual orientation.

So, if Gorsuch ends up siding with Plaintiffs then I could see him writing his own opinion -- you'd have 4 justices saying T7 flatly includes sexual orientation -- total legislation -- and 3 or 4 justices saying it does not. Gorsuch may say it does in a but-for sense, but that you can rebut it by showing that sexual orientation was the motivating factor.

I did get through the "gay" transcript. Breyer's example of a religious employer firing a Jewish employee because he disapproves of them marrying a Catholic is interesting.

Alito was almost getting made fun of at the end with his hypothetical of an employer knowing an applicant's sexual orientation but not their "sex". "Oh like Pat from SNL?" <<Courtroom laughs>> And then Alito is like, I don't get the reference...

I also didn't realize the "gay side" was really trying to limit this case to gay men and exclude lesbians.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Missed this earlier this week. The Hill finally released its lengthy internal review of all of John Solomon's work for them. In short he was wildly deceptive in hiding from his own editors where his info was coming from and did not report or actively hid numerous conflicts of interest.

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/483600-the-hills-review-of-john-solomons-columns-on-ukraine

[iam416]

[Hannibal]

Gender dysphoria isn't a gender. It's a mental illness.