Tuesday, April 21, 2020
The Right Sends In the Quacks
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/opinion/coronavirus-conservatives.html
On second thought, however, Moore fits
right in. One thing the coronavirus has thrown into sharp relief is the
centrality of quackery — confident pronouncements on technical subjects
by people who have no idea what they’re talking about — to the whole
enterprise of modern conservatism.
We know, for example, that Trump’s call for an early end to the economic lockdown was inspired in part by the writings of Richard Epstein,
a conservative legal scholar who decided that he understands
epidemiology better than the epidemiologists and confidently predicted
that Covid-19 would kill no more than 500 people. (It’s currently
killing four times that many every day.)
Or
consider how Fox News responded to the unwillingness of Dr. Anthony
Fauci to do what it wanted, and support an early reopening of the
economy. To provide an alternative view, the network turned to … Dr. Phil, whose expertise, if he has one, is in pop psychology.
We know, for example, that Trump’s call for an early end to the economic lockdown was inspired in part by the writings of Richard Epstein,
a conservative legal scholar who decided that he understands
epidemiology better than the epidemiologists and confidently predicted
that Covid-19 would kill no more than 500 people. (It’s currently
killing four times that many every day.)
Or
consider how Fox News responded to the unwillingness of Dr. Anthony
Fauci to do what it wanted, and support an early reopening of the
economy. To provide an alternative view, the network turned to … Dr. Phil, whose expertise, if he has one, is in pop psychology.
If Liquor Stores Are Essential, Why Isn’t Church?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/opinion/first-amendment-church-coronavirus.html
The new conundrums
created by the coronavirus can be addressed by some very old materials:
the principles of the First Amendment.
The White House Has Erected a Blockade Stopping States and Hospitals From Getting Coronavirus PPE
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/hospitals-face-a-white-house-blockade-for-coronavirus-ppe.html
Whenever
you start to think that the federal government under Donald Trump has
hit a moral bottom, it finds a new way to shock and horrify.
Dr. Fauci Says Easing Lockdown Measures Too Soon Will Lead to 'Big Spike' in Coronavirus Cases: 'It's Gonna Backfire'
https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-says-easing-lockdown-measures-too-soon-will-lead-big-spike-coronavirus-cases-its-1498944
Dr.
Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force,
has warned that reopening the economy too quickly by easing lockdown
restrictions could lead to a "big spike" in new coronavirus cases.
Fauci,
who serves as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, has faced criticism from protesters urging state
governments to end stay-at-home orders put in place to curb the spread
of the coronavirus. The public health expert was asked about these
protesters and their criticism during a Monday interview with ABC's Good Morning America.
"Clearly
this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics and
the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus. But
unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is
not gonna happen," Fauci explained.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Jews and Eyptians were equally immoral - Zohar
Zohar (2:170a-b) It is written: A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Ps. XXIII, 1). The difference between “a psalm of David” and “of David a psalm” has already been explained. In this psalm the Shekinah came first and rested upon the Psalmist, for, as has already been remarked, “a psalm of David” indicates that the first impulse proceeded from the Shekinah. But in this psalm David prays for nourishment, so that we should have thought the initiative would have come from him. The fact is that the Shekinah did indeed first urge David to sing this hymn to the King, to pray to Him for nourishment for Her, which She needs in order to supply food to the whole world; and it is her will that all mankind should pray for food, for when the Holy One wishes to send down to the world nourishment, She first receives it, She being the organ by which the whole world is sustained. Therefore, indeed, did She precede David in this psalm, and She rested upon him to inspire him in this prayer for food. “The Lord is my shepherd”: as a shepherd leads his flock to those places where there is grass in abundance, in order to provide them with whatever they need, so does the Holy One also unto Me. Here is another interpretation. There is an ancient dictum that “to provide food for humanity costs the Holy One, blessed be He, as great a struggle as it did to divide the Red Sea”.[Tr. note: T. B. Pes., 118b.] Here are two statements, both of deep significance. On the one hand, since everything done by the Holy One is done according to justice and truth, on which qualities the world is based, and as He always apportions a lot to all according to justice, both to the righteous and the wicked, and all that come into the world-as it is written, “for the Lord is righteous and loveth righteousness” (Ps. XI, 7)-He finds it difficult, when He sees so many wicked people and sinners, to supply them continually with nourishment. He deals with them not according to the rigour of the law, and nourishes and sustains them to the full extent of the supernal Grace which issues forth and descends upon all the beings of the world, and therewith He feeds them, one and all, righteous and saints, wicked and sinners, all creatures whatsoever, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, from the “horns of the buffaloes to the eggs of vermin”. [Tr. note: v. T. B. Sabb., 107b.] There is nothing in the world to which His mercy does not extend, even though, on account of the evil works of men, this is all as difficult to Him as was the dividing of the Red Sea. But was that really difficult to Him? Is it not written: “He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry” (Nahum I, 4)? “He that calleth for the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth” (Amos v, 8)? Is it not true of Him that as soon asHe is resolved to do a thing all obstacles are as naught before Him? How was it that the dividing of the Red Sea was difficult to Him? This is the explanation. When the Israelites stood on the shore of the Red Sea and the Holy One was about to divide its waters for them, Rahab, the angel-prince of Egypt, appeared, and demanded justice from the Holy One. He stood before Him and said: “Lord of the world, why dost thou desire to punish Egypt and to divide the Red Sea for Israel? Have not all sinned against Thee? Thy ways are according to justice and truth. Those are idolaters and so are these. Those are murderers, so are these.” Then was it difficult for Him to waive justice, and had not the Holy One called to mind Abraham's obedience in rising early (Gen. XXII, 3) to sacrifice his only son, they would all have perished in the Red Sea, because all that night God was weighing Israel in the scales of Justice, as we have been taught that the expression, “so that the one came not near the other all the night” (Ex. XIV, 20) indicates that the supernal angels appeared on that night to sing hymns of praise to the Holy One, and the Holy One said unto them: “The works of My hands are about to sink into the depths of the sea, and ye desire to sing unto Me hymns of praise?” But “it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord looked...” (Ibid. v. 24); that is to say, He “looked” for Abraham's sake, He “looked” upon Abraham's merit, who “rose up early in the morning” to accomplish the will of the Holy One. Then it was that the waters “went back”, they fled before Israel. Similarly, it has been stated[Tr. note: Cf. Lev. R., ch. VIII.] that “marriage unions are as difficult for (lit. before) the Holy One as was the dividing of the Red Sea”. As at the dividing of the Red Sea those who stood on the one side of the sea were drowned, and the others were saved, so in marriages also there is weeping for some and singing for others; He allows one man to die and gives his wife to another man, and at times a bad man gets a good wife. These happenings are great mysteries, but it all conforms to justice, and all that the Companions have said on this subject is quite true; as is also that which they have stated concerning the difference between “before” (liphne, lit. the face of) and “from before” (miliphne). These matrimonial decisions are arranged by him who stands before the Holy One and ministers before Him. Therefore the aforementioned dictum does not run, “hard are unions to the Holy One”, but “before (to the face of) the Holy One”; i.e. to him who is appointed over the arrangement of marriages and over the supply of food, since the power is not his, he is merely the administrator and under authority. [Note : the last 14 lines of the Hebrew text do not appear in the translation
Trump shocks in time of crisis with his standard approach
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/20/politics/trump-coronavirus-all-about-him/index.html
Even after three tumultuous years in which President Donald Trump has shredded the decorum of his office, his unwillingness to provide unifying leadership still has the power to shock.
Trump's daily coronavirus task force press briefing
has become the chief exhibit in this deficit of national stewardship
and has largely shed any purpose in conveying useful information at a
fraught moment — if that was ever the aim.
Instead,
the President spends his time perpetually trying to repair his own
image by disguising his belated and faulty response to the emergency.
But his refusal to accept any responsibility
at all raises questions about what he thinks the presidency, a
problem-solving job of last resort where the buck stops, is actually
for.
The President's plan to use
Sunday's briefing to polish his own personal narrative became clear when
he read out and held up a Wall Street Journal opinion column praising
his leadership.
Trump, Head of Government, Leans Into Antigovernment Message
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/us/politics/trump-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
With his poll
numbers fading after a rally-around-the-leader bump, the president is
stoking protests against stay-at-home orders.
But the president, who ran as an
insurgent in 2016, is most comfortable raging against the machine of
government, even when he is the one running the country. And while the
coronavirus is in every state in the union, it is heavily affecting
minority and low-income communities.
Recovered from coronavirus, United Hatzalah chief Eli Beer to return to Israel
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/278902
Eli Beer, United Hatzalah's president and founder, has made a full recovery and will land in Israel on Tuesday.
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