They're trying to kill you

 It's astonishing to me that the corporate media has not faced up to the reality that the Musk Administration is literally trying to destroy the biomedical and public health research enterprise in the United States. In fact, as far as I can tell the leadership of my own school and university haven't accepted this as a fact. I can understand that it's almost impossible for them to contemplate, but they need to figure it out, and fast.

 

The question is why they are doing this. The NIH and its research mission are very popular. When Dump tried to cut the NIH budget during his previous presidency, the Republican congress wouldn't go along. Beyond just the general public, universities and the scientists who work at them, and people who specifically want their own children's cancer to be cured and want hope for their parents with Alzheimer's disease, there is a vast capitalist constituency for it. The pharmaceutical and medical device industries depend on the NIH pipeline of basic research to feed their own research and development enterprises, and the new devices and drugs that result are a source of immense profit. The U.S. scientific establishment is the envy of the world, and a source of immense pride for Americans.

 

If anyone has a better hypothesis about this than mine I'll be happy to hear it. But as far as I can understand this, science is an independent arbiter of truth, president Musk doesn't want that. He wants the truth to be whatever he says it is, and universities are a competing source of epistemological authority. And yes, they're going to do the same thing to what's left of honest, independent journalism. Am I hysterically over-reacting? Nope. This is just the cold truth.

Wednesday Bible Study: Jeremaiad

Jeremiah's name has become a common noun, jeremiad, meaning a long litany of condemnation and predictions of doom. Right now it's actually a popular form of discourse in the U.S., which I have engaged in myself. Anyway, with Jerry it's all about the Israelites forsaking Yahweh for the competition. Again, there's no reason for us to read the whole thing because it just goes on and on, saying the same thing over and over again, using a lot of imagery which is frequently unintelligible. So here's chapter 2, just so you get the flavor of it.

 

2 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:

“This is what the Lord says:

“‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
    how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
    through a land not sown.
³ Israel was holy to the Lord,
    the firstfruits of his harvest;
all who devoured her were held guilty,
    and disaster overtook them,’”
declares the Lord.

⁴ Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob,
    all you clans of Israel.

⁵ This is what the Lord says:

“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
    that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
    and became worthless themselves.
⁶ They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord,
    who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
    through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
    a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
⁷ I brought you into a fertile land
    to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
    and made my inheritance detestable.
⁸ The priests did not ask,
    ‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
    the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
    following worthless idols.

⁹ “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the Lord.
    “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
¹⁰ Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
    send to Kedar^[a] and observe closely;
    see if there has ever been anything like this:
¹¹ Has a nation ever changed its gods?
    (Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
    for worthless idols.
¹² Be appalled at this, you heavens,
    and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
¹³ “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
¹⁴ Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth?
    Why then has he become plunder?
¹⁵ Lions have roared;
    they have growled at him.
They have laid waste his land;
    his towns are burned and deserted.
¹⁶ Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
    have cracked your skull.
¹⁷ Have you not brought this on yourselves
    by forsaking the Lord your God
    when he led you in the way?
¹⁸ Now why go to Egypt
    to drink water from the Nile^[b]?
And why go to Assyria
    to drink water from the Euphrates?
¹⁹ Your wickedness will punish you;
    your backsliding will rebuke you.
Consider then and realize
    how evil and bitter it is for you
when you forsake the Lord your God
    and have no awe of me,”
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

²⁰ “Long ago you broke off your yoke
    and tore off your bonds;
    you said, ‘I will not serve you!’
Indeed, on every high hill
    and under every spreading tree
    you lay down as a prostitute.
²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine
    of sound and reliable stock.
How then did you turn against me
    into a corrupt, wild vine?
²² Although you wash yourself with soap
    and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
    the stain of your guilt is still before me,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.
²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;
    I have not run after the Baals’?
See how you behaved in the valley;
    consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
    running here and there,
²⁴ a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
    sniffing the wind in her craving—
    in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
    at mating time they will find her.
²⁵ Do not run until your feet are bare
    and your throat is dry.
But you said, ‘It’s no use!
    I love foreign gods,
    and I must go after them.’

²⁶ “As a thief is disgraced when he is caught,
    so the people of Israel are disgraced—
they, their kings and their officials,
    their priests and their prophets.
²⁷ They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’
    and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
They have turned their backs to me
    and not their faces;
yet when they are in trouble, they say,
    ‘Come and save us!’
²⁸ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?
    Let them come if they can save you
    when you are in trouble!
For you, Judah, have as many gods
    as you have towns.

²⁹ “Why do you bring charges against me?
    You have all rebelled against me,”
declares the Lord.
³⁰ “In vain I punished your people;
    they did not respond to correction.
Your sword has devoured your prophets
    like a ravenous lion.

³¹ “You of this generation, consider the word of the Lord:

“Have I been a desert to Israel
    or a land of great darkness?
Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam;
    we will come to you no more’?
³² Does a young woman forget her jewelry,
    a bride her wedding ornaments?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
    days without number.
³³ How skilled you are at pursuing love!
    Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.
³⁴ On your clothes is found
    the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
    though you did not catch them breaking in.
Yet in spite of all this
³⁵     you say, ‘I am innocent;
    he is not angry with me.’
But I will pass judgment on you
    because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶ Why do you go about so much,
    changing your ways?
You will be disappointed by Egypt
    as you were by Assyria.
³⁷ You will also leave that place
    with your hands on your head,
for the Lord has rejected those you trust;
    you will not be helped by them.

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 2:10 In the Syro-Arabian desert
2. Jeremiah 2:18 Hebrew Shihor; that is, a branch of the Nile

 

The plutocratic mind

Being super-rich makes you stupid, because nobody will tell you why you're wrong. Here's the basic thinking of your typical billionaire. The federal government makes me pay taxes, provide some basic level of safety and fairness for my employees, and won't let me dump my toxic waste in the river. Therefore the federal government is bad, and should largely be abolished.

 

They literally have no concept that commerce and industry are only possible because of government. They do not understand how society and the economy work. They are utter idiots. They're about to find out. 

Also, too: Josh Marshall on the same subject. Some pull quotes:

 

One of the great truisms about economics is that people assume CEOs have a deep understanding of economics when in fact most evidence suggests they don’t. This isn’t just the general and often true fact that people think captains of industry type CEOs are smarter than they really are. It’s more specific: what’s good for an economy isn’t just not identical to what is good for a company. Often they’re precisely opposite. You really don’t need to do anything more than actually read Adam Smith to know this. (You could actually argue it’s one of his central points.)   . . .

 

In economic terms – and obviously that’s not the only terms governments operate in – governments main role is to foster economic growth and kinds of growth that benefit the population as a whole. That means creating a climate of predictability and rules that foster economic activity. It also means certain kinds of public investment that drive economic activity – basic research, etc., infrastructure.

 

They just don't understand how the world works and where their wealth comes from. Again, they're idiots.

 

 

A dude with major negativity problems

That would be Jeremiah. The ostensible author is largely contemporaneous with the ostensible Isaiah, and has a similar message: Judah is doomed because the people have fallen away from the proper worship of Yahweh. The work purports to begin during the reign of King Josiah, who was considered a good king and made reforms, but it wasn't enough and, as we know, Judah eventually fell to the Babylonian empire in 587 BCE. Jeremiah purports to begin the book in 609 BCE.

 

However, although it is likely that some of the material originated during that time, and probably was even written by a guy named Jeremiah, the book as a whole was extensively added to during and probably after the Babylonian exile, by the same group called the Deuteronomists who produced the extant versions of Deuteronomy and Judges through Kings. This must have continued after the fourth century BCE because the Masoretic and Septuagint versions are very different -- the Masoretic is longer by some 15%, and the arrangement of the material is different. Jeremiah makes God out to be a very repulsive character, viciously angry and vengeful. As with Isaiah, we won't need to read the whole thing, but we'll get the flavor of it. Here is the first chapter. Since this is the NIV, it's based on the Masoretic text.

One final comment. That God says "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" is cited by anti-abortionists to suggest that the "soul" exists before conception and is somehow implanted in the embryo. They cite this passage because it is literally the only one they've got in the entire Bible that could possibly suggest any such thing. However, this is obviously about this one, specific individual only. He is claiming to have been specially created to be God's messenger. Of course he is actually psychotic.

 

1 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. ² The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, ³ and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

The Call of Jeremiah

⁴ The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew^[a] you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

⁶ “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

⁷ But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

⁹ Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

¹¹ The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?”

“I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied.

¹² The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching^[b] to see that my word is fulfilled.”

¹³ The word of the Lord came to me again: “What do you see?”

“I see a pot that is boiling,” I answered. “It is tilting toward us from the north.”

¹⁴ The Lord said to me, “From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. ¹⁵ I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,” declares the Lord.

“Their kings will come and set up their thrones
    in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem;
they will come against all her surrounding walls
    and against all the towns of Judah.
¹⁶ I will pronounce my judgments on my people
    because of their wickedness in forsaking me,
in burning incense to other gods
    and in worshiping what their hands have made.

¹⁷ “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. ¹⁸ Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. ¹⁹ They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 1:5 Or chose
2. Jeremiah 1:12 The Hebrew for watching sounds like the Hebrew for almond tree.

 

Medicaid -- cont.

As I said at the beginning, Medicaid is structured as an entitlement, i.e., the amount the government spends depends on the number of beneficiaries and the medical costs they incur, it isn't a set amount that's appropriated annually. However, the cost is split between the states and the federal government. For the original "categorically eligible" population -- children and their custodial parents, pregnant women, and dual-eligible Medicare beneficiaries, the federal government pays half the cost for the affluent states, and up to 70% for states with high poverty levels. For the "expansion" population -- everyone else up to 130% of the federal poverty level -- the federal government currently pays 90%. 

The legislation that just passed the house requires $2 trillion in spending cuts, but an actual increase of $300 billion for the military and so-called border security, while providing $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, mostly for wealthy people and corporations, i.e. it would increase the federal deficit by more than $2 trillion. In case you didn't know already, Republicans do not care about deficit spending. Republican administrations always run up huge debts, which Democratic administrations are stuck with trying to pay off. That's been the patter since Reagan. 

 

They also don't care about the people who vote for them. The only way they're going to get even close to those $2 trillion in spending cuts is by trashing Medicaid. There are a couple of ways to go about it. Obviously, they can cut the share the federal government pays, starting with the expansion population, sticking the bill with the states. So either your state taxes will go up proportionately, or those people will lose coverage. The other way, which they've wanted to do forever, is to make Medicaid a block grant rather than an entitlement. In other words, the states will get a lump sum, much lower than they get now, obviously, which again means either your state taxes go up, or people lose coverage.

 

Krugthulu explains what that will mean for the Trump cultists.  Those low-income, rural states and areas that voted for Orange Julius will lose their medical care, their hospitals will close, there won't be any doctors to deliver their babies. What will happen to their old folks in the nursing home is difficult even to imagine. And the only reason for this is so that Elon Musk and Peter Thiel won't have to pay taxes.

Wednesday Bible Study: Let's get this over with

The rest of Trito-Isaiah is just more of the same, prophesying the greatness of Judah and the destruction of its enemies, Yahweh boasting of his greatness and threatening horrific consequences for people who displease him, yadda yadda. So we'll just skip to the last chapter and then go to Jeremiah.

 

This chapter is interesting fist of all because, as before in Trito-Isaiah, it condemns animal sacrifice. Perhaps even more interesting, it calls upon all people to worship Yahweh and even states that he will appoint some gentiles as priests. In other words it's asserting the worship of the one god Yahweh as a universal religion, and repudiating the hereditary priesthood, the sacrificial rituals, and the concept of the chosen people which were at the center of the Torah. Evidently this didn't make much of an impression on orthodox Jewish thinking, but obviously it sits well with Christians, although I haven't seen it referred to in Christian theological writing or liturgy. I think most religious apologists prefer just to ignore it.

 

66 This is what the Lord says:

“Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house you will build for me?
    Where will my resting place be?
² Has not my hand made all these things,
    and so they came into being?”
declares the Lord.

“These are the ones I look on with favor:
    those who are humble and contrite in spirit,
    and who tremble at my word.
³ But whoever sacrifices a bull
    is like one who kills a person,
and whoever offers a lamb
    is like one who breaks a dog’s neck;
whoever makes a grain offering
    is like one who presents pig’s blood,
and whoever burns memorial incense
    is like one who worships an idol.
They have chosen their own ways,
    and they delight in their abominations;
⁴ so I also will choose harsh treatment for them
    and will bring on them what they dread.
For when I called, no one answered,
    when I spoke, no one listened.
They did evil in my sight
    and chose what displeases me.”

⁵ Hear the word of the Lord,
    you who tremble at his word:
“Your own people who hate you,
    and exclude you because of my name, have said,
‘Let the Lord be glorified,
    that we may see your joy!’
    Yet they will be put to shame.
⁶ Hear that uproar from the city,
    hear that noise from the temple!
It is the sound of the Lord
    repaying his enemies all they deserve.

⁷ “Before she goes into labor,
    she gives birth;
before the pains come upon her,
    she delivers a son.
⁸ Who has ever heard of such things?
    Who has ever seen things like this?
Can a country be born in a day
    or a nation be brought forth in a moment?
Yet no sooner is Zion in labor
    than she gives birth to her children.
⁹ Do I bring to the moment of birth
    and not give delivery?” says the Lord.
“Do I close up the womb
    when I bring to delivery?” says your God.
¹⁰ “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,
    all you who love her;
rejoice greatly with her,
    all you who mourn over her.
¹¹ For you will nurse and be satisfied
    at her comforting breasts;
you will drink deeply
    and delight in her overflowing abundance.”

¹² For this is what the Lord says:

“I will extend peace to her like a river,
    and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried on her arm
    and dandled on her knees.
¹³ As a mother comforts her child,
    so will I comfort you;
    and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

¹⁴ When you see this, your heart will rejoice
    and you will flourish like grass;
the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants,
    but his fury will be shown to his foes.
¹⁵ See, the Lord is coming with fire,
    and his chariots are like a whirlwind;
he will bring down his anger with fury,
    and his rebuke with flames of fire.
¹⁶ For with fire and with his sword
    the Lord will execute judgment on all people,
    and many will be those slain by the Lord.

¹⁷ “Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things—they will meet their end together with the one they follow,” declares the Lord.

¹⁸ “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come^[a] and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.

¹⁹ “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans^[b] and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. ²⁰ And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the Lord. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. ²¹ And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord.

²² “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure. ²³ From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord. ²⁴ “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 66:18 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
2. Isaiah 66:19 Some Septuagint manuscripts Put (Libyans); Hebrew Pul

 

Medicaid: A primer

Believe it or not, I recently had a conversation with a friend who is a psychotherapist, who bills Medicaid for many of his clients, and he didn't know some of the basic facts about the program. I told him that the Republicans would try to convert it into a block grant, and he thought it already was. So I think I'd better lay out the basics.

 

Medicaid is an entitlement program, like Social Security and Medicare. That means anyone who meets eligibility requirements can receive it. There's a somewhat complicated history regarding who has been eligible. Originally it was for families that qualified for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, what was usually meant by "welfare" back in the day, which was abolished under the Clinton Administration. Originally states also had the option to include people who were "medically indigent," including not only beneficiaries of AFDC and disability, but also people over 65. 

As all people over age 65 were now to be covered by Medicare, perhaps it did not occur to people that this provision would be important. However, as people tended to live longer past age 65, and to develop costlier medical needs, notably including long-term care that Medicare does not pay for, states increasingly were compelled to provide Medicaid to Medicare beneficiaries who had unaffordable medical and long-term care costs. This “dual eligible” population now accounts for 19% of Medicare beneficiaries and 14% of Medicaid beneficiaries, but 30% of Medicaid spending. The median cost of a nursing home stay is about $8,000 per month nationally. In Connecticut, it’s more than $13,000, that is $156,000 per year. As you can see very few retirees have incomes approaching this amount, and that is why they account for such a disproportionate amount of Medicaid spending.

But it continued to be the case that only poor families with children qualified, along with people who were eligible for Medicare. That meant that poor people under 65 who didn't live in households with children were not eligible. The Affordable Care Act gave states the option to expand eligibility to anyone under 135% of the federal poverty level, regardless of whether they are caring for dependent children. Most have done so, but there are a few holdouts. A program called the Children's Health Insurance Program also covers children in families that aren't poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, but who have expensive health care needs. Most states essentially fold this into the Medicaid program and it works in a similar way. Right now there are about 72 million people enrolled in Medicaid, and 7.2 million enrolled in CHIP. Of the total 79 million, about half are children. 

 

However, despite being just 14% of Medicaid beneficiaries, so-called "dual eligible" Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, mostly people over 65, account for 30% of spending, because long-term care is so costly. Next, I'll explain how the program is financed, and what the Republicans want to do to it.

 

 

Sunday Sermonette: No new thing under the sun?

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. It's hard to find the right response when the occupant of the office of president of the United States is a demented lunatic with the mentality of a two year old who spends his time playing golf, spouting absurdities, and surrendering the national interest to the country's most dangerous and depraved adversaries; while the government is actually run by a drug-addled psychopathic foreigner whose ultimate goal is to destroy it and put all power in the hands of a cabal of billionaires. That's kind of bad. But evildoers have seized power before, and it doesn't last forever. Viz. Isaiah 57. 

57 The righteous perish,
    and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
    and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
    to be spared from evil.
² Those who walk uprightly
    enter into peace;
    they find rest as they lie in death.

³ “But you—come here, you children of a sorceress,
    you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!
⁴ Who are you mocking?
    At whom do you sneer
    and stick out your tongue?
Are you not a brood of rebels,
    the offspring of liars?
⁵ You burn with lust among the oaks
    and under every spreading tree;
you sacrifice your children in the ravines
    and under the overhanging crags.
⁶ The idols among the smooth stones of the ravines are your portion;
    indeed, they are your lot.
Yes, to them you have poured out drink offerings
    and offered grain offerings.
    In view of all this, should I relent?
⁷ You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill;
    there you went up to offer your sacrifices.
⁸ Behind your doors and your doorposts
    you have put your pagan symbols.
Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed,
    you climbed into it and opened it wide;
you made a pact with those whose beds you love,
    and you looked with lust on their naked bodies.
⁹ You went to Molek^[a] with olive oil
    and increased your perfumes.
You sent your ambassadors^[b] far away;
    you descended to the very realm of the dead!
¹⁰ You wearied yourself by such going about,
    but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’
You found renewal of your strength,
    and so you did not faint.

¹¹ “Whom have you so dreaded and feared
    that you have not been true to me,
and have neither remembered me
    nor taken this to heart?
Is it not because I have long been silent
    that you do not fear me?
¹² I will expose your righteousness and your works,
    and they will not benefit you.
¹³ When you cry out for help,
    let your collection of idols save you!
The wind will carry all of them off,
    a mere breath will blow them away.
But whoever takes refuge in me
    will inherit the land
    and possess my holy mountain.”

Comfort for the Contrite

¹⁴ And it will be said:

“Build up, build up, prepare the road!
    Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”
¹⁵ For this is what the high and exalted One says—
    he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
    but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.
¹⁶ I will not accuse them forever,
    nor will I always be angry,
for then they would faint away because of me—
    the very people I have created.
¹⁷ I was enraged by their sinful greed;
    I punished them, and hid my face in anger,
    yet they kept on in their willful ways.
¹⁸ I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;
    I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners,
¹⁹     creating praise on their lips.
Peace, peace, to those far and near,”
    says the Lord. “And I will heal them.”
²⁰ But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
    which cannot rest,
    whose waves cast up mire and mud.
²¹ “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 57:9 Or to the king
2. Isaiah 57:9 Or idols

Wednesday Bible Study: The restoration

As promised, we're now skipping ahead to so-called Trito-Isaiah, chapters 56-66. It's entirely unclear why this material was tacked on to the earlier two books, as it is completely unrelated both in context and meaning. These chapters were written by anonymous people -- yes, probably several of them -- during the Persian period of the Judean restoration, i.e. about 520 - 400 BCE. 

 

Since there's obviously no longer any need to prophecy the restoration of Judah, this material appears to concern theological and political disputes of the time. Note that the early period of the restoration is described in two versions, in the book of Ezrah/Nehemiah, but we don't know exactly when any of this was written and whether it corresponds with that period. 

 

Anyway, Ch. 56 is interesting because it asserts that eunuchs can fully participate in religious life, which is a direct contradiction to Leviticus 21 and Deuteronomy 23. Specifically, the latter says "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD." The declaration in Leviticus is just as clear and absolute. Clearly the absolute decrees of the Torah were by now open to dissent. Also, like the Book of Ruth, this chapter allows for converts from other nations to join the congregation -- again a direct contradiction to the Torah but a feature of modern Judaism.

 

56 This is what the Lord says:

“Maintain justice
    and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
    and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
² Blessed is the one who does this—
    the person who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,
    and keeps their hands from doing any evil.”

³ Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
    “I am only a dry tree.”

⁴ For this is what the Lord says:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose what pleases me
    and hold fast to my covenant—
⁵ to them I will give within my temple and its walls
    a memorial and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that will endure forever.
⁶ And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
    to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
    and who hold fast to my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain
    and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
    a house of prayer for all nations.”
⁸ The Sovereign Lord declares—
    he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
    besides those already gathered.”

God’s Accusation Against the Wicked

⁹ Come, all you beasts of the field,
    come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!
¹⁰ Israel’s watchmen are blind,
    they all lack knowledge;
they are all mute dogs,
    they cannot bark;
they lie around and dream,
    they love to sleep.
¹¹ They are dogs with mighty appetites;
    they never have enough.
They are shepherds who lack understanding;
    they all turn to their own way,
    they seek their own gain.
¹² “Come,” each one cries, “let me get wine!
    Let us drink our fill of beer!
And tomorrow will be like today,
    or even far better.”

 

Health Equity

I know they're trying to beat us down with outrage fatigue, but it's not going to work with me. I take a lot of president Musk's violence and hatred personally, including his trying to censor scientific research on disparities in health and health care associated with socioeconomic status, including race, ethnicity and gender.  We know that rich people live longer, healthier lives than poor people. We also know that even after adjusting for education and income, white people live longer and healthier lives than Black people. As Drs. Alladina, Hardin and Rabin write in the linked article, "In recent weeks, studies that would help us answer . . . health equity questions have come under attack from the federal government for their “wokeness” and “shameful” agenda. They have, in a word, been censored. . . ."

The assault on science began on Jan. 20, when diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government were explicitly ended. Days later, researchers noticed that the Food and Drug Administration had quietly removed guidance on recruiting patients with diverse backgrounds for clinical trials. And by the end of January, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists were instructed to freeze publication, or even retract, articles submitted for publication, to check if they contained newly forbidden words like “gender.” Online tools for navigating public health databases such as the Centers for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System have disappeared, researchers are being muzzled and meetings to review grants at the National Institutes of Health have been canceled, then rescheduled, then canceled again.

 

Recognition of health equity is not wokeness or a shameful agenda, it is simply facing the truth, a truth I have dedicated my professional career to understanding and combating. You might as well know that I have been a member of the Institutional Review Board of Latin American Health Institute; a member of the Scientific Advisory Council, Latino Health Policy Council of Massachusetts; Research Director and Steering Committee Member ex oficio, New England Coalition for Health Equity; member, Massachusetts Department of Public Health Hispanic Births Task Force; Symposium Director for “Who Counts: The Classification and Application of Race and Ethnicity in Public Health Data,” New England Coalition for Health Equity; member, Disproportionate Minority Contact Peer Review Committee, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention;  Symposium Director for “Everybody Counts: State Policy to Eliminate Health Disparities,” New England Coalition for Health Equity; member, Executive Committee, Massachusetts Disparities Action Network; and member, Steering Committee, Tufts University Community Research Center. Much of my published research concerns disparities in health care access and delivery based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender and stigmatized conditions.

 

So I can tell you that this is absolutely real. The reason  -- the entire reason -- that the United States has lower life expectancy and worse health status than all the other wealthy nations, and even some that aren't so wealthy, is because of these disparities. If we could eliminate them, we could join the rest of the world in reaping the benefits of modern medical science and spending on public health and medical services, for which right now we are not getting our money's worth. We don't need a racist, South African Nazi to tell us we can't try to understand and solve this problem.

Sunday Sermonette: Gobbledeygook

I had to shovel and plow this morning so I'm getting to this a bit late. 

 

As I've said, I'm going to skip much of deutero-Isaiah -- material that was written during the Babylonian exile and consists of God bragging about his own greatness and predicting the fall of Babylon to the Persian emperor Cyrus, basically. Again, it does introduce the most overt monotheism we've seen so far, although God still favors the descendants of Jacob, and Christians have co-opted the prophecies about the restoration of Judah to pretend they are somehow predictions of Jesus as the Messiah, which they very clearly are not. But this is basically very repetitious and also uses a lot of obscure imagery, so there's not good reason to read it all. I am going to give you Chapter 50 however, before we skip ahead to Trito-Isaiah, which was written after the return to Jerusalem. 

 

I just couldn't resist sharing this inscrutable imagery. Of course theologians, both Jewish and Christian, will find ways to interpret it, but it can mean whatever you want it to. This is true of much of the Bible, so it really isn't a useful guide to anything -- it's a Rorschach test. 

50 This is what the Lord says:

“Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce
    with which I sent her away?
Or to which of my creditors
    did I sell you?
Because of your sins you were sold;
    because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.
² When I came, why was there no one?
    When I called, why was there no one to answer?
Was my arm too short to deliver you?
    Do I lack the strength to rescue you?
By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea,
    I turn rivers into a desert;
their fish rot for lack of water
    and die of thirst.
³ I clothe the heavens with darkness
    and make sackcloth its covering.”

⁴ The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue,
    to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
    wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
⁵ The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;
    I have not been rebellious,
    I have not turned away.
⁶ I offered my back to those who beat me,
    my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
    from mocking and spitting.
⁷ Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
    I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
    and I know I will not be put to shame.
⁸ He who vindicates me is near.
    Who then will bring charges against me?
    Let us face each other!
Who is my accuser?
    Let him confront me!
⁹ It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.
    Who will condemn me?
They will all wear out like a garment;
    the moths will eat them up.

¹⁰ Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys the word of his servant?
Let the one who walks in the dark,
    who has no light,
trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on their God.
¹¹ But now, all you who light fires
    and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires
    and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand:
    You will lie down in torment.

Flooding the Zone

President Musk's strategy is basically to commit so many outrages so quickly that nobody can focus on any one of them sufficiently to resist effectively. Meanwhile, the nominal president just spouts insanity and inanity, essentially as a distraction. The New York Times doesn't have to write a serious policy analysis explaining why the U.S. is not going to take over Greenland or the Gaza Strip, but they do it anyway, which both dignifies delusions and takes up space that otherwise might be put to meaningful use.

 

I'm going to focus, at least for now, on the question of whether president Musk really wants to destroy the scientific research enterprise in the U.S. and if so, why. First of all, that would be the effect of executive actions taken so far, and further proposed. They've put a raving lunatic in charge of HHS, which includes NIH, the CDC, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration*, and some smaller pockets of money for public health promotion and research. The abrupt, unilateral cap on indirect costs of 15% affects all of these agencies, and the National Science Foundation, NASA, Advanced Research Projects Agency, and others that fund scientific research. Musk has also suspended all review panel and national advisory committee meetings, which are the mechanism for actually awarding funds. We'll see where that goes.

 

I've explained the indirect costs issue before, and I won't repeat myself, but take my word for it, with a 15% cap it will be impossible to sustain more than a shadow of the current scientific enterprise in the U.S. And no, private corporations do little or no basic research. They only invest where they can see a likely financial payoff, and that means they'll do some applied research but with basic science a) there's not telling whether and how it might lead to profit and b) you can't patent scientific facts. The pharmaceutical industry turns discoveries made by NIH-funded investigators into billions in profits, but it doesn't invest in making the discoveries itself.

 

The basic problem for president Musk is that his rule depends on a vast edifice of lies. Truth is the enemy, and truth is part of the mission and the culture of the university. The first thing the Nazis did when they invaded Poland was not to hunt down the Jews, but rather to murder the so-called intelligentsia, "the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society;^[1] as such, the intelligentsia consists of scholars, academics, teachers, journalists, and literary writers.^{[2][3] . . .} After the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the Nazis launched the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia, by way of the military operations of the Special Prosecution Book-Poland, the German AB-Aktion in Poland, the Intelligenzaktion, and the Intelligenzaktion Pommern." Stalin did the same thing in the east.

 

I don't think Musk intends to murder us, but he does want to put us out of business. He's gotten a long way down that road.

*SAMHSA doesn't technically fund research, but they fund many demonstration and capacity building projects that typically included 15% for evaluation, which amounts to implementation research. If a university or other research institute has the subcontract for evaluation, they'll get their indirect costs as part of that 15% of the grant.