NIH -- continued

Okay, I've summarized what a congressional committee has recommended for NIH reform. I endorse some of it and won't bother to argue against the rest. However, there is much they have overlooked. I'm taking the numbers I'm about to present from Rochelle and Loren Walensky, "U.S. Science in Peril," published in JAMA on February 14. It's subscription only, and there's no abstract, so you'll just have to trust me on this unless you have a subscription.

 

NIH uses various so-called "funding mechanisms," with designations such as R03, R21, R01, U24 and so on. Most are grants for single studies -- those are the R grants -- and the numbers basically distinguish how large they are and whether they're for preliminary and exploratory work, or a substantial hypothesis based study. U and P grants are for programs of research incorporating multiple studies, typically with "core" resources such as analytical or laboratory support. K awards are for post-doctoral research and mentorship. All of these are essential components of the scientific infrastructure.

 

The R01 is the substantial grant for a study for which preliminary work may already have been done using an R21 or the like. In 2023, NIH reviewed 48,660 R01 applications and funded 9,632 of them, i.e. less than 20%. These applications are extremely complex and laborious to prepare -- it typically takes months of work by investigators and administrators to put together the application package, which is hundreds of pages long. And the only way to pay for this is through the indirect costs the institution is receiving for projects that are already funded, and what are essentially unpaid hours for investigators. Oh, and BTW full-time tenured and tenure track professors are paid less now than they were in 1970, on average, and it isn't a whole lot for somebody who has 20 years or more of education -- about $100,000/year. 

The maximum budget for an R01 is $500,000/year, unless you get special approval, which is rare. That amount hasn't changed since 1993, meaning that adjusted for inflation it's worth 57% less. On average, scientists don't get their first R01 until they're in their 40s. Even if your R01 application is approved on the first submission, which is quite rate, it's ten months before the money comes. If you have to resubmit, which is almost always the case, it's another year and a half before you have a chance of seeing the money.

 

The Walensky's also aren't totally happy with peer review:

As for peer-review systems in general, gaps in reviewer expertise can lead to scientific misunderstanding, while conflicting feedback hinders the capacity to respond effectively; limited reviewer accountability allows inconsistent or unjustified critiques to undermine worthy grant applications. These systemic issues can slow scientific progress, discourage young investigators, and limit innovation.

In my experience, this is certainly true. There are three written reviews for each submission. The reviewers often contradict each other, and lack expertise to properly understand the proposal. They may also see a proposal as competition for their own program of research and downgrade it to protect their domain, or perhaps a junior faculty mentee; or they may belong to an opposing theoretical school. 

The Walenskys also complain about the shifting priorities that come with each new administration, and various other problems. The benefits to society of NIH-funded research are extraordinary. HIV used to be a sentence to a horrible death, now it just means taking a pill every morning and getting on with a normal life. The same was once true for pediatric leukemia, which now has a 90% cure rate. These are just two examples plucked from what could be a 100 page catalog. The solutions to these problems do not include reducing indirect cost rates or terminating programs of research that conflict with Robert Kennedy Junior's delusions. 

 

Actually they require more money, not less, but changes to the peer review process and simplification of applications are also needed. However, the people currently in charge have no understanding of how NIH and the institutions it funds work, the importance of what they do, or anything having to do with biomedical science. They are incompetent ideologues. So call your representatives in congress and tell them that they must protect NIH, AHRQ, the National Science Foundation, and all of the federal support for science.

Real NIH reform

A reader asks if NIH funds are really spent as efficiently as they could be. A short answer might be that nothing is perfect, but in fact people (including YT) have thought about this quite a lot lately. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce—chaired by former US Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) — released a report in June 2024 entitled Reforming the National Institutes of Health: Framework for Discussion. The report recommended closer oversight of high risk research, including international collaborations, no doubt at least in part resulting from concerns about the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and genetic research in general. I can't argue with that, it's a legitimate public concern even if arguably a bit overblown. However, that would obviously cost money rather than saving any.

 

Other recommendations include limited leadership tenure, which is a somewhat complicated argument but I won't argue with it; and more congressional control over funding decisions, which I'm not crazy about but a congressional committee would say that. Not that congress would actually do it. They already do outline broad priorities for research and allocate funds among the various institutes and centers. 

 

Which brings us to the more consequential recommendation, which I do support. That is to consolidate the 27 institutes and centers into 15. It is a legitimate problem that the missions of the institutes and centers are siloed. For example, alcohol misuse, misuse of other drugs, and mental illness,  not including the previous two problems, are all addressed by separate institutes. Several institutes are concerned with specific body parts -- heart, kidneys -- or systems, e.g. the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease can more or less be thought of as focusing on the immune system, while the National Cancer Institute focuses on innumerable diseases of abnormal cellular replication. 

 

If you know anything about physiology or public health, you can immediately see a problem, or maybe several. Humans don't consist of all these unrelated parts or sub-systems. We're all of them at once and they all go together. Hypertension damages the circulatory system and the kidneys. Among the causal factors are emotional distress and alcohol misuse, and those are all related to social determinants, some but not all of which are separately the concern of the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (uh oh, that's presumably going away entirely very soon). If I have a proposal to study primary care, or integrated behavioral health and medicine, or medical and psychiatric comorbidity, among a million other ideas I could suggest, I don't know where to send it. 

There are many additional ways in which the functioning of NIH could be improved, which I'll get to next. But the point is, people have been thinking about this and there are well informed, thoughtful and plausible proposals out there. None of them includes a chainsaw.

Wednesday Bible Study: Let's get this over with

 We'll just skip to the last chapter of Lamentations, since it's all pretty much the same -- death, doubt and doom loom, bazz fazz, as Pogo said. The first four chapters are all acrostics, with each verse beginning with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Why? Who knows. This is not. Again, we don't know when this was written, or by whom, but probably not just one author. Maybe it was some sort of a poetry contest. Anyway, next we're on to Ezekiel, who was definitely eating ethereal cereal.

 

5 Remember, Lord, what has happened to us;
    look, and see our disgrace.
² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to foreigners.
³ We have become fatherless,
    our mothers are widows.
⁴ We must buy the water we drink;
    our wood can be had only at a price.
⁵ Those who pursue us are at our heels;
    we are weary and find no rest.
⁶ We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
    to get enough bread.
⁷ Our ancestors sinned and are no more,
    and we bear their punishment.
⁸ Slaves rule over us,
    and there is no one to free us from their hands.
⁹ We get our bread at the risk of our lives
    because of the sword in the desert.
¹⁰ Our skin is hot as an oven,
    feverish from hunger.
¹¹ Women have been violated in Zion,
    and virgins in the towns of Judah.
¹² Princes have been hung up by their hands;
    elders are shown no respect.
¹³ Young men toil at the millstones;
    boys stagger under loads of wood.
¹⁴ The elders are gone from the city gate;
    the young men have stopped their music.
¹⁵ Joy is gone from our hearts;
    our dancing has turned to mourning.
¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head.
    Woe to us, for we have sinned!
¹⁷ Because of this our hearts are faint,
    because of these things our eyes grow dim
¹⁸ for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
    with jackals prowling over it.

¹⁹ You, Lord, reign forever;
    your throne endures from generation to generation.
²⁰ Why do you always forget us?
    Why do you forsake us so long?
²¹ Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return;
    renew our days as of old
²² unless you have utterly rejected us
    and are angry with us beyond measure.

 

Whistling past the graveyard

So, I got an email today from our dean of finance and administration, which went to all faculty, staff and doctoral students. There's already a university-wide hiring freeze, but now they're trying to find ways of saving some more bucks. If you're old enough to remember the WorldCom debacle, that was a company in dire financial straits (which they misrepresented to stockholders who got wiped out, and the president went to jail, but that's beside the point). So the president issued an order to save money by stopping maintenance of office plants.

 

At our school, the new directive is to cut back on food served at events (we normally get lunch at faculty meetings), if we have an invited speaker we can only take them out to dinner with three guests instead of six, and trying to cut back on office supplies. Sorry, but this is evidence of denial, not a serious response to mortal peril.  At Boston Children's Hospital, they get it: 

According to [Governor Maura] Healey’s administration, the hospital receives over $200 million in NIH funding annually, including $230 million last year. The proposed cuts by the Trump administration would cut that funding in half. 

“That means halting research into the diseases that harm children,” Healey said. “Ripping away hope from families … who are facing a devastating diagnosis. These cuts are going to cost jobs. They’re going to cost lives, young, vulnerable lives.” It’s not rhetoric,” she continued. “It’s not hyperbole. It’s a fact.”

“Everyone needs to understand how very serious this threat is,” said Healey.  “And everyone needs to understand the cuts that are being proposed in order to fund huge tax breaks for some of the richest people in the world are going to come on the backs of these patients and their families.”

Healey said the cuts have already had an effect in Massachusetts. Despite a federal judge’s temporary restraining order against the NIH for barring funding for medical research, Healey said the funding is still not coming through. Healey said that colleges and universities in the state are already reducing their budgets because of these cuts, which are stopping research and clinical trials in their tracks. 

Now, Healey said that a presence from China, Europe, and the Middle East is looking to poach these researchers to move overseas. “That is against America First,” she said. “We are giving away assets to other countries instead of retaining them and supporting them here.”

 

In my previous post, I tried to understand why they are doing this. Yes, as Gov. Healey says, Peter Thiel doesn't want to pay taxes. But believe me, wiping out the NIH entirely wouldn't make a dent. The entire NIH budget is about $50 billion. The federal budget is $1.7 trillion. A trillion, in case you didn't know, is 1,000 billion. In other words the NIH is less than 3% of the federal budget. So no, that can't really be the reason.

 

Too much to deal with

My blogging has been scarce lately, largely because I don't know what I have to contribute to the discourse any more. Here I was writing coherently about public health and health policy, and writing a book about it in which I lay for for the benefit of humanity what expertise I have gathered over the years -- and now I have to go back revise the whole book, and reconsider what use my expertise may be after all when the policy apparatus of the federal government has gone insane. 

I get the basic idea that a small cadre of plutocrats, fronted by a megalomaniacal lunatic, are conspiring to install a fascist oligarchy in the United States. I get that. But I don't get much of the specifics of why they are doing what they are doing with the powers they have arrogated, except for the general idea that they want to create maximum disruption and consternation, and divide and overwhelm any possible opposition. But destroying the scientific enterprise in the United States seems counterproductive for plutocracy. If we fail to create a next generation of scientists, while those who can go oversees, that's not good for the techbros. But maybe they don't believe that. Maybe they think they can take over the scientific enterprise as a proprietary project, that they can own it, and that federally funded research in universities is just competition they don't want.

 

But applied science -- technology and patents, what makes rich assholes rich -- depends for its raw material on basic science, knowledge about the world that nobody can own and that you can't invest in because there is just no telling what's going to become the basis of technology some day and what that technology might look like. It was 100 years before Einstein's relativity theory became of any actual use, but now it's very important because the Global Positioning System depends on it. The same goes for quantum theory which only became useful with the emergence of microelectronics.

 

In the area of biology, it took more than 50 years before the fundamental understanding of the biological mechanisms of genetics and the functioning of the eukaryotic cell turned into effective treatments for disease, and now mRNA vaccines, monoclonal antibodies -- and on and on. They can't own science -- though it goes without saying that wanting to is an abomination. 

 

The tariff thing is equally inexplicable, as is the repudiation of alliances, mass deportation (especially given that plutocrats depend on exploitable workers), and most of what they're doing. It just seems delusional to me, utterly insane. But I must be missing something.

Wednesday Bible Study: Bitching and Moaning

The Book of Lamentations is mercifully short, just five chapters. All of them are just what the title says, lamentations, specifically about the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BCE, which has been the main focus of most of what we've been reading lately. Although it was ascribed to Jeremiah, the consensus now is that it has nothing to do with him (like most of the Book of Jeremiah, actually). In fact, it is not known when it was written. It seems reasonable to suppose that it was during the exile, shortly after 586, but there is textual evidence that some of the material was written much later. 

God never speaks in Lamentations. He brought about the disaster, but he was right to do so, it was all the fault of the Jews for sinning against God. Unlike Isaiah and to a lesser extent Jeremiah, there is very little in the way of predicting redemption or restoration. The tone is despairing. That would seem odd if some or all of it was written during the Maccabean period, since the restoration had of course happened by then, but I'm not a biblical scholar so I'll presume there's a case for that. Anyway, as with Jeremiah there's no good reason to read the whole thing, but here's the first chapter. 

 

For unknown reasons, every verse begins with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Few translators have attempted to represent this with the Latin alphabet. Since it seems pointless to begin with, I can understand that. Anyway, Yahweh is one mean SOB.

1 ^[a]How deserted lies the city,
    once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
    who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
    has now become a slave.

² Bitterly she weeps at night,
    tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
    there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
    they have become her enemies.

³ After affliction and harsh labor,
    Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
    she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
    in the midst of her distress.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn,
    for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
    her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
    and she is in bitter anguish.

⁵ Her foes have become her masters;
    her enemies are at ease.
The Lord has brought her grief
    because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
    captive before the foe.

⁶ All the splendor has departed
    from Daughter Zion.
Her princes are like deer
    that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled
    before the pursuer.

⁷ In the days of her affliction and wandering
    Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
    that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
    there was no one to help her.
Her enemies looked at her
    and laughed at her destruction.

⁸ Jerusalem has sinned greatly
    and so has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
    for they have all seen her naked;
she herself groans
    and turns away.

⁹ Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
    she did not consider her future.
Her fall was astounding;
    there was none to comfort her.
“Look, Lord, on my affliction,
    for the enemy has triumphed.”

¹⁰ The enemy laid hands
    on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
    enter her sanctuary—
those you had forbidden
    to enter your assembly.

¹¹ All her people groan
    as they search for bread;
they barter their treasures for food
    to keep themselves alive.
“Look, Lord, and consider,
    for I am despised.”

¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
    Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
    that was inflicted on me,
that the Lord brought on me
    in the day of his fierce anger?

¹³ “From on high he sent fire,
    sent it down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet
    and turned me back.
He made me desolate,
    faint all the day long.

¹⁴ “My sins have been bound into a yoke^[b];
    by his hands they were woven together.
They have been hung on my neck,
    and the Lord has sapped my strength.
He has given me into the hands
    of those I cannot withstand.

¹⁵ “The Lord has rejected
    all the warriors in my midst;
he has summoned an army against me
    to^[c] crush my young men.
In his winepress the Lord has trampled
    Virgin Daughter Judah.

¹⁶ “This is why I weep
    and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
    no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
    because the enemy has prevailed.”

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands,
    but there is no one to comfort her.
The Lord has decreed for Jacob
    that his neighbors become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
    an unclean thing among them.

¹⁸ “The Lord is righteous,
    yet I rebelled against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
    look on my suffering.
My young men and young women
    have gone into exile.

¹⁹ “I called to my allies
    but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
    perished in the city
while they searched for food
    to keep themselves alive.

²⁰ “See, Lord, how distressed I am!
    I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
    for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
    inside, there is only death.

²¹ “People have heard my groaning,
    but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
    they rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day you have announced
    so they may become like me.

²² “Let all their wickedness come before you;
    deal with them
as you have dealt with me
    because of all my sins.
My groans are many
    and my heart is faint.”

Footnotes

1. Lamentations 1:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
2. Lamentations 1:14 Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint He kept watch over my sins
3. Lamentations 1:15 Or has set a time for me / when he will

What is to be done?

As far as I'm concerned, protests and calling your congressional reps and letters to the editor and blog posts and all that are fine, and you should do all that if you can. But the only really meaningful action I can take is to organize at the local level. I got a message from Rep. Joe Courtney's aide Adam Richardson that's on the money: "November's municipal elections will be the first referendum on Trump's second term - and we want to send a clear message that eastern Connecticut rejects him and all the harm his administration had already caused."

 

So in our small town, our Democratic Town Committee is committed to running a full slate of candidates for every office, from First Selectman to the Library Board. The town votes Republican and went for the raging orange lunatic by a substantial margin, but I'm determined to hold candidate forums, knock on doors, mail to every address, and do whatever it takes to thump the Republicans in November. We don't have any federal or statewide offices on the ballot, so it's all going to be about turnout.

 

Wherever you live, small town or big city, there's a Democratic Party organization. Join it. If there isn't one, found it -- contact your state party to find out how. Make sure there's a Democratic candidate for every line on the ballot, and make sure people work to get every one of them elected. That's what will make a difference.

Wednesday Bible Study: Let's get this over with

There's no sense continuing to read the endless drivel that constitutes the Book of Jeremiah. It drones on at unbelievable length just repeating the same tropes -- the people have angered God by messing around with other deities, he's gonna destroy Judah, but then it will ultimately be restored. That's it, there is no additional substantive content. So we'll just cut to the final chapter, which describes the fall of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar and the beginning of the Babylonian captivity.  This story is also told at the end of the Book of Kings, but there are numerous discrepancies, mostly minor -- different numbers and dates. So now we'll move on to Lamentations.

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. ² He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. ³ It was because of the Lord’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence.

Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴ So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. ⁵ The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

⁶ By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. ⁷ Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled. They left the city at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians^[a] were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,^{[b] 8} but the Babylonian^[c] army pursued King Zedekiah and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, ⁹ and he was captured.

He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him. ¹⁰ There at Riblah the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of Judah. ¹¹ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till the day of his death.

¹² On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ¹³ He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. ¹⁴ The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city, along with the rest of the craftsmen^[d] and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon. ¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan left behind the rest of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

¹⁷ The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried all the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸ They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. ¹⁹ The commander of the imperial guard took away the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, dishes and bowls used for drink offerings—all that were made of pure gold or silver.

²⁰ The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands, which King Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed. ²¹ Each pillar was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference^[e]; each was four fingers thick, and hollow. ²² The bronze capital on top of one pillar was five cubits^[f] high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar. ²³ There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; the total number of pomegranates above the surrounding network was a hundred.

²⁴ The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers. ²⁵ Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and seven royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land, sixty of whom were found in the city. ²⁶ Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷ There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed.

So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. ²⁸ This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile:

in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

²⁹ in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year,

832 people from Jerusalem;

³⁰ in his twenty-third year,

745 Jews taken into exile by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard.

There were 4,600 people in all.

Jehoiachin Released

³¹ In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed him from prison. ³² He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³ So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table. ³⁴ Day by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his death.

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 52:7 Or Chaldeans; also in verse 17
2. Jeremiah 52:7 Or the Jordan Valley
3. Jeremiah 52:8 Or Chaldean; also in verse 14
4. Jeremiah 52:15 Or the populace
5. Jeremiah 52:21 That is, about 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference or about 8.1 meters high and 5.4 meters in circumference
6. Jeremiah 52:22 That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters

Sunday Sermonette: Prophesying the past

As I have said, there's no point in reading all of Jeremiah, or even much of it -- it's just endless ranting against what the putative prophet sees as the Israelites worshiping the wrong Gods, and predictions of the horrific fate that awaits them. A lot of it is couched in metaphors of sexual infidelity, which can get pretty raunchy. 

 

Anyway, I'm going to skip to chapter 5, which purports to predict the Babylonian conquest and exile, without specifically naming Babylon. (Starting at verse 14.) But of course, this was written during the Babylonian exile, so it is a prediction of what has already happened, attributed to a character from the past. This is true of a lot of exilic material, that is editing or adding to existing material to make it consistent with what happened after it was first produced. That is how the Book of Kings, Isaiah, and Jeremiah took their present form.

 

5 “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem,
    look around and consider,
    search through her squares.
If you can find but one person
    who deals honestly and seeks the truth,
    I will forgive this city.
² Although they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’
    still they are swearing falsely.”

³ Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
    You struck them, but they felt no pain;
    you crushed them, but they refused correction.
They made their faces harder than stone
    and refused to repent.
⁴ I thought, “These are only the poor;
    they are foolish,
for they do not know the way of the Lord,
    the requirements of their God.
⁵ So I will go to the leaders
    and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the Lord,
    the requirements of their God.”
But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke
    and torn off the bonds.
⁶ Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them,
    a wolf from the desert will ravage them,
a leopard will lie in wait near their towns
    to tear to pieces any who venture out,
for their rebellion is great
    and their backslidings many.

⁷ “Why should I forgive you?
    Your children have forsaken me
    and sworn by gods that are not gods.
I supplied all their needs,
    yet they committed adultery
    and thronged to the houses of prostitutes.
⁸ They are well-fed, lusty stallions,
    each neighing for another man’s wife.
⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
    declares the Lord.
“Should I not avenge myself
    on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ “Go through her vineyards and ravage them,
    but do not destroy them completely.
Strip off her branches,
    for these people do not belong to the Lord.
¹¹ The people of Israel and the people of Judah
    have been utterly unfaithful to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹² They have lied about the Lord;
    they said, “He will do nothing!
No harm will come to us;
    we will never see sword or famine.
¹³ The prophets are but wind
    and the word is not in them;
    so let what they say be done to them.”

¹⁴ Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty says:

“Because the people have spoken these words,
    I will make my words in your mouth a fire
    and these people the wood it consumes.
¹⁵ People of Israel,” declares the Lord,
    “I am bringing a distant nation against you—
an ancient and enduring nation,
    a people whose language you do not know,
    whose speech you do not understand.
¹⁶ Their quivers are like an open grave;
    all of them are mighty warriors.
¹⁷ They will devour your harvests and food,
    devour your sons and daughters;
they will devour your flocks and herds,
    devour your vines and fig trees.
With the sword they will destroy
    the fortified cities in which you trust.

¹⁸ “Yet even in those days,” declares the Lord, “I will not destroy you completely. ¹⁹ And when the people ask, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.’

²⁰ “Announce this to the descendants of Jacob
    and proclaim it in Judah:
²¹ Hear this, you foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes but do not see,
    who have ears but do not hear:
²² Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord.
    “Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
    an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
    they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
²³ But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴ They do not say to themselves,
    ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives autumn and spring rains in season,
    who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’
²⁵ Your wrongdoings have kept these away;
    your sins have deprived you of good.

²⁶ “Among my people are the wicked
    who lie in wait like men who snare birds
    and like those who set traps to catch people.
²⁷ Like cages full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
they have become rich and powerful
²⁸     and have grown fat and sleek.
Their evil deeds have no limit;
    they do not seek justice.
They do not promote the case of the fatherless;
    they do not defend the just cause of the poor.
²⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
    declares the Lord.
“Should I not avenge myself
    on such a nation as this?

³⁰ “A horrible and shocking thing
    has happened in the land:
³¹ The prophets prophesy lies,
    the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
    But what will you do in the end?

 

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