When I learned that the Supreme Court, dominated by the five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican anti-Constitutional VD) would be deciding the legality of discriminating against LGBTQ citizens in the workplace, I was sure of the outcome. Much to my surprise, the decision was a big win for LGBTQ!
Gay and transgender employees cannot be fired from their jobs solely because of their LGBT status, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The court found for the first time that federal civil rights law prohibiting workplace discrimination on the basis of sex also protects employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“An employer who discriminates against homosexual or transgender employees necessarily and intentionally applies sex-based rules,” the court found.
The 6-to-3 ruling, led by Justice Neil Gorsuch, largely turned on the meaning of the word “sex” within Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it unlawful for an employer to “discriminate against any individual” because of their sex.
There was little dispute that Congress did not intend to protect LGBT employees when it passed that landmark civil rights-era legislation. But over 50 years later, lawyers at the hight [sic] court tussled over whether sex-based protections must include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity by consequence.
The Trump administration intervened in the case with a brief arguing that terminating gay or lesbian employees wouldn’t constitute discrimination under Title VII because affected workers of both genders “would be similarly situated—and they would be treated the same.”…
Although I used to be straight, before I forgot how and became a never-sexual, I could not be more pleased for the LGBTQ community. I’m surprised that Injustice Whoresuch wrote the decision. Of course, Injustices Thomas, Scalito, and KavaNazi opposed. Nevertheless, it is imperative to take back both the White House and the Senate and keep them long term. As it it, it will take decades to transform SCROTUS (Republican ant-Constitutional VD) back to SCOTUS.
It’s a crazy day here in the CatBox. My main nurse from Providence Home Health just called and will be here momentarily. She just left, so I missed my morning nap. Tomorrow is my big appointment with my oncologist and that team, so please expect no more than a very brief Personal Update, as I leave at 7:30 AM. Oh God, it’s Monday, AGAIN!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:03 (average 5:46). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Cartoon:
Remember what Bloody Bullseye Barbie (Sarah Palin) and the Republican Reich did to Gabby Giffords!
From NY Times: Representative Denver Riggleman, a freshman Republican from Virginia, lost a bitterly contested primary race decided in an unusual drive-through state convention, weighed down by outrage among party activists that he officiated at a same-sex wedding.
In a result announced early Sunday, Bob Good, a former athletics official at Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Liberty University who describes himself as a “biblical conservative,” ousted Mr. Riggleman, a distillery owner and former Air Force intelligence officer with a libertarian streak. Mr. Good captured 58 percent of the vote in a convention held Saturday that was decided by roughly 2,400 party delegates, according to party officials.
Mr. Riggleman, as well as outside observers, denounced the setup — enabled by state laws that allow local party officials to choose congressional nominees by conventions instead of traditional primary elections — which has tended to benefit hard-line candidates.
This is why every Republican must go. Any time individual Republicans do something decent and proper, they get kicked out of the Reich. RESIST!!
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Autopsy Reveals Rayshard Brooks Death Ruled A Homicide
Of course shooting a Black man in the back by a racist Republican pig was a murder. To the Republican Reich, Black Lives don’t matter. RESIST!!
From YouTube (a blast from the past): Gerry & The Pacemakers – You’ll Never Walk Alone [Official Video]
Here is the one hundred seventy-sixth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s winner is Garrett Rolfe, a Republican police officer in Atlanta. He is so honored for murdering yet another unarmed Black man, by shooting him in the back as he fled.
Less than 24 hours after a white police officer shot and killed an African-American man outside a fast-food restaurant, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta announced on Saturday that the city’s police chief had resigned.
Early on Sunday morning, Sgt. John Chafee, a spokesman for the Atlanta Police Department, said the officer who shot the man had been fired…
…The authorities said the man, Rayshard Brooks, 27, had run from the police on Friday night after failing a sobriety test and grabbing a Taser from an officer during a struggle with him. Ms. Bottoms said that security footage appeared to show that Mr. Brooks had fired the Taser toward the officer, who was chasing him before he was killed, but that she did not consider that a justification for the shooting…
To be fair, I have to say that Brooks’ conduct was far from acceptable. Police and Republicans are claiming that Rolfe was in fear for his life, because Brooks fired the TASER at him. However, police and “expert witnesses” have testified in court the use of TASERs by police is justified in crowd control, because it is a non lethal weapon. Therefore, Rolfe could not have feared for his life from a non-lethal weapon. Furthermore, once the TASER had been fired and missed, it could not be fired again and was no threat to Rolfe. For Rolfe to shoot an unarmed fleeing Brooks in the back is a racist Republican murder.
Although my justly deserved peerage would never be confirmed by the Republican Reich in this country, at least the UK has given me the recognition I deserve.
From now on, you may address me as Sir TomCat or Lord TomCat. Either would be purrrrfect!
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: In his latest attack on the nation’s sixteenth President, Donald Trump boasted on Saturday that his television ratings were “much higher” than Abraham Lincoln’s.
“If you put my TV ratings side by side with Lincoln’s, there’s no comparison,” Trump told Fox News. “Honest Abe would want me to be honest about it, and, honestly, his ratings were terrible.”
Trump argued that Lincoln’s television ratings were especially poor “when you consider that he didn’t have to compete with Netflix and Amazon, like I have to.”
“Abraham Lincoln had zero competition and he still couldn’t get a decent number,” Trump said. “He might have been O.K. at some other things, but he was a total loser on TV.”
Theorizing about Lincoln’s poor ratings performance, Trump mused that “it might have been the beard.”
Dang Andy! If criminal Fuhrer Trump* traded places with Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth would be a national hero. RESIST!!
The world is dealing with an unprecedented health crisis caused by a new virus. With new insights in the way COVID19 spreads, in the way the virus behaves and in the way to deal with the pandemic every day, it is now more important than ever to safeguard the information we share is accurate and fact-based. We have to inoculate ourselves against the fake news and misinformation that infect our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment by fact-checking.
For the duration of the pandemic, I will try to give you an overview of the main issues in CoronaCheck, an Australian email newsletter with the latest from around the world concerning the coronavirus.*
As expected, with the curve flattening in Australia and Europe, the attention has turned to other news and the fake news and misinformation that go along with that, and fact-checkers are following. Unless a second wave of COVID-19 cases and fatalities brings about another wave of news manipulation, this article will now appear only once a week.
SOCIAL DISTANCING
A Meta-analysis (an analysis of existing scientific research) published in The Lancet found with “moderate certainty” that keeping a distance of a metre or more away from people with probable COVID-19, SARS or MERS cut the risk of infection from 13 per cent to 3 per cent. The analysis likewise found that “for every one metre further away in distancing, the relative effect might increase 2.02 times”.
So, according to Full Fact, the claims in UK media that keeping a distance of at least one metre from others could “slash the risk of catching coronavirus by 80 per cent”, and that doubling that distance may halve the risk, are both largely correct. But as Full Fact pointed out: “It is important to note that most of the research used in this study does not relate to COVID-19, but to SARS and MERS, diseases caused by other coronaviruses, which may spread differently.”
Fact-checkers at AFP found in a fact-check that a social media post claiming mask-wearing “reduces oxygen up to 60 per cent”, increased the risk of CO2 poisoning and led to more face touching to be misleading.
An associate medical officer of health at Toronto Public Health, Vinita Dubey, told AFP that if worn correctly, a cloth mask is unlikely to reduce oxygen enough that the wearer would pass out and that “prolonged use of a face mask, including the N95, has not been shown to cause carbon dioxide toxicity in healthy people”.
Another expert, Hyo-Jick Choi, of the University of Alberta, told the AFP fact-checkers he had not come across any study directly correlating mask-wearing to increased face-touching.
The claim of a woman in a viral video that mask-wearing hurts the immune system and does not protect from COVID-19 was also debunked by AFP, saying that “Multiple studies have shown that the use of masks can protect populations from COVID-19, including a recent publication by the UK’s Royal Society, which indicated that masks reduce droplets dispersal.”
According to Sheeley Payne, of the University of Texas, there’s no indication that masks hurt the immune system. As she told AFP, “there is no evidence that masks or gloves reduce the normal microbiota or predispose people to opportunistic infections”.
There are still a lot of claims going around that the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax (or a flu-like illness, the severity of which has been greatly exaggerated), neither of which is true.
“There is no evidence of a connection between money donated to COVID-19 research and a pandemic designation,” the fact-checkers of Lead Stories concluded this week when they found that Bill Gates did not bribe the World Health Organisation with $50 million to declare COVID-19 a pandemic.
Lead Stories also debunked a claim that Russia used scientific data to expose the pandemic as a hoax, stating: “Authorities from Moscow’s health department did release information about antibody testing of a random population sample of Moscow residents in late May 2020, but they did not make the statement that COVID-19 is a fake pandemic.”
PolitFact found that a photo appearing to show a woman carrying a body bag casually in one hand, which was said to be further evidence that coronavirus is a hoax, instead showed a “symbolic funeral procession” as part of a protest in Florida against the reopening of the economy.
FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.
President Trump has been very busy escalating protests across the US in response to the death of George Floyd, but that hasn’t stopped him from attempting to divert blame for the rising COVID-19 death toll, again insinuating that China deliberately spread the coronavirus to the US and other parts of the world while managing to curb its spread domestically.
In a Fox News radio interview, Mr Trump said: “[The virus] came out of Wuhan. Why is it that it didn’t go to China but it went to the rest of the world? It went to Europe. It went to the world. It went to the United States. But it didn’t go to Beijing.” He further pointed out: “It didn’t go to other parts of China. What’s that all about? So, how come they let it go out to the world, but they didn’t let it go into China. That’s a little strange deal going on there.”
Factcheck.org found that those claims were inaccurate and that the virus did spread outside of Wuhan to other parts of China, including Beijing and noted: “That the virus did not spread as widely in China as it did in other countries, including the US, is largely the result of extreme measures taken by the Chinese government to control its spread.”
Graphic of the week
Statistics from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System show Australia was experiencing above-average flu numbers before social distancing.
There were just 208 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza in Australia during May this year, compared to 30,567 at the same time in 2019.
“It just tells us the value of physically distancing, good hand hygiene, avoiding mass gatherings [when sick], cough etiquette and being aware of all those other strategies to avoid the transmission of infectious diseases,” said Kerry Hancock, chair of the RACGP Specific Interests Respiratory Medicine network.
Things that don’t cure and/or prevent COVID-19
#30: Drinking methanol, ethanol or bleach “Methanol, ethanol, and bleach are poisons. Drinking them can lead to disability and death. Methanol, ethanol, and bleach are sometimes used in cleaning products to kill the virus on surfaces – however, you should never drink them. They will not kill the virus in your body and they will harm your internal organs.” – World Health Organisation
*The facts in this article are derived from the Australian RMIT ABC Fact Check newsletters which in turn draw on their own resources and those of their colleagues within the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which RMIT ABC Fact Check is a member.
Bill – Here are three clips from Bill Maher’s Real Time last night.
I couldn’t find the Monologue.
Radley Balko – It certainly sounds like Camden, NJ got it right. It’s a good thing to have an example. (Notice how in explaining what happened in Camden, Balko mentions “union” twice – once that they dumped the old one. and once that they now have a new one with a different contract.)
Wilmore and Welch – Past dog whistling indeed. I said it before, and will probably say t again – this rally is like holding a rally at Auschwitz – during Passover. TC, you suggested “reorganize” instead of “defund” – I didn’t think that was powerful enough, but I could certainly go with “the Camden miracle.”
New Rule – Yes. Ugly, but accurate. Loyalty is a good thing. But distorting the use of a good thing is an evil thing. A d that’s why Democrats really shouldn’t be more like Republicans, in any way.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone here that, since about forever, medical studies have limited their subjects to men – or that this has produced a disparity in the quality of medical treatment received by females as opposed to males. Some medical misconceptions about women are comparable to misconceptions about people of color – both groups are assumed (subconsciously – I am not accusing any doctors of doing this deliberately) to be exaggerating their pain. Any woman can tell you stories.
But one positive result of CoViD-19 may be that it has brought attention to a big sex difference in immunity. Roughly equal numbers of men and women get the virus (with symptoms) in every age group. But, in every age group, about twice the percentage of men die. This has immunologists (one of whom wrote this paper) looking hard for answers. ================================================================
COVID-19’s deadliness for men is revealing why researchers should have been studying immune system sex differences years ago
When it comes to surviving critical cases of COVID-19, it appears that men draw the short straw.
Initial reports from China revealed the early evidence of increased male mortality associated with COVID. According to the Global Health 50/50 research initiative, nearly every country is now reporting significantly higher COVID-19-related mortality rates in males than in females as of June 4. Yet, current data suggest similar infection rates for men and women. In other words, while men and women are being infected with COVID-19 at similar rates, a significantly higher proportion of men succumb to the disease than women, across groups of similar age. Why is it then that more men are dying from COVID-19? Or rather, should we be asking why are more women surviving?
Some clues to why females have higher survival rates may be found in our current understanding of differences in the immune systems of men versus women.
Could sex differences in immune system play a role?
In general, females have a more robust immune response than men which may help females fight off infections better than males. This could be a result of genetic factors or sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone.
Biological females have two copies of the X chromosome, which contains more immune genes. While the genes on one X chromosome are mostly inactive, some immune genes can escape this inactivation, leading to double the number of immune-related genes and thus double the quantity of certain immune proteins compared with biological men who have only one X chromosome.
It is, however, interesting that the current data showing that women have better survival rates than men applies to even men and women in the 80-plus age group, when hormone levels in both sexes equalize. This suggests that factors other than adult sex hormone levels are contributing to sex differences in COVID-19 mortality.
Androgens, a group of hormones – including testosterone – that are best known to stimulate the development of male characteristics and can cause hair loss, have also received recent attention as a risk factor for COVID-19 in males. In a study conducted in Italy, prostate cancer diagnosis increased the risk for COVID-19. However, prostate cancer patients who were receiving androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), a treatment that suppresses the production of androgens which fuels prostate cancer cell growth, had a significantly lower risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. This suggests that blocking androgens in men was protective against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
It is unknown how ADT works to reduce infection rates in men and whether this has been shown in other countries has yet to be determined. Testosterone, which is an androgen hormone has immune-suppressive effects so one explanation could be that ADT might boost the immune system to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection.
There is also evidence that males and females have different quantities of certain receptors that recognize pathogens or that serve as an invasion point for viruses like SARS-CoV-2. One example is the quantity of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors, which SARS-CoV-2 binds to in order to infect cells. While there is currently no conclusive evidence for a role of ACE2 receptors impacting sex differences and the severity of COVID-19 disease, it remains a potential contributing factor.
Gender, sex and COVID-19 risk
A number of factors can interact with biological sex to increase or decrease one’s susceptibility to COVID-19. Another major factor is gender, which refers to social behaviors or cultural norms that society deems appropriate. Males may be at increased risk for severe disease, because in general, they tend to smoke and drink more, wash their hands less frequently and often delay seeking medical attention. All of these gender specific behaviors may put men at higher risk. While there is no current data yet on how gender plays a role in COVID-19, it will be a critically important factor to account for in order to understand sex differences in mortality.
Age, psychological stress level, coexisting conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease can also interact with biological sex to increase disease.
While COVID-19 highlights the importance of biological sex in disease risk, sex biases in disease in general is not a new concept. COVID-19 is just another example of a disease that will be added to the growing list of diseases for which males or females are at increased risk.
A history of male-biased research
You might be wondering that if biological sex is so important, then why don’t we know what is causing disparities in disease prevalence between the sexes and why are there no sex-specific therapies?
One major reason is when it comes to being included in scientific research, it is mostly males who have been studied.
This disparity between biological sex differences in research has only recently been remedied. It has only been in the last five years that the National Institutes of Health has required sex difference data to be collected for all newly funded preclinical research grants.
While there may be several reasons for choosing one sex over the other in research, the huge disparity that now exists is likely a major reason why we still know relatively little about sex differences in immunity, including the current COVID-19 pandemic.
This has clearly hindered advancement of women’s health, but also has negative consequences for men’s health. For example, given the biological differences between the sexes, it is very possible that drugs and therapies will have different effects in females than males.
Biological sex is clearly a major factor determining disease outcomes in COVID-19. Precisely how your biological sex makes you more or less resilient to diseases such as COVID-19 remains to be elucidated. Future basic research with animals and clinical trials in people need to consider biological sex as well as interactions with gender as an important variable.
/>================================================================ Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, as I was reading, I was interested to know whether anyone had compared the death rate of corona virus patients who were prepubertal boys as opposed to the death rate in prepubertal girls … but that was not mentioned. I hope that’s because there are not enough cases to examine – but if so I fear that’s not going to stay valid. At any rate, I hope some good comes of the investigation and research that is being done. Give the researchers some pats on the back, or however you prefer to encourage us poor humans.
It’s a busy day here in the CatBox, as it’s a WWWendy day. This is my only article today. JD, would you please cover Bill Maher? Yesterday’s Home Health appointment went well, and I’ll have help from, a standard care nurse, a palliative care nurse, and a home aide. I should be in the saddle tomorrow.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:04 (average 4:50). To do it, click here. How did you do.
Cartoon:
Trump* Virus Update:
The reason Oregon is increasing is that Republicans here opened a couple unsafe food processing plants. Workers became infected and spread it.
ess than 24 hours after a white police officer shot and killed an African-American man outside a fast-food restaurant, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta announced on Saturday that the city’s police chief had resigned.
