Daily Archives: 22 April 2025

It’s Not Just Security Failures

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Oh, please, spare us the whining about failures to adequately protect our political leaders. The violence that slips past our security details also result from deliberate provocation, and that comes primarily from the Left and from Progressive-Democratic Party politicians.

The arson attack targeting Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence is the latest in a recent spate of security failures that have left America’s VIPs in danger, raising questions about what has led to the breakdown.

Vermont’s Socialist Independent Senator Bernie Sanders’ inflammatory rhetoric was followed by a mass murder attempt on Republican Congressmen at a baseball game.

New York’s then-Senate Majority Leader and now-Senate Minority Leader Progressive-Democrat Chuck Schumer stood on the Supreme Court building steps and directly threatened, by name, two Supreme Court Justices. That was followed by an attempt to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of the two named.

Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden wanted to put a bullseye on Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s back. That was followed by two attempts to murder him.

It was a Leftist radical who openly murdered a health insurance company CEO in broad daylight and who now is lionized for his murder by the Left.

The arson (and murder attempt?) on Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor Josh Shapiro and his family, ironically himself a Progressive-Democrat, came against the backdrop of the ongoing decision of Leftists and Party to excuse, if not merely ignore, the climate of antisemitic bigotry and open support for terrorists related to Palestine and Hamas that pollutes so many of our institutions (not just “education”) and our politics. That, in turn, comes against the broader backdrop of excusing violent criminals, repeatedly releasing them on no bail, or not bothering to charge them at all, or even going so far as to charge criminals’ victims and victim defenders for the heinous crime of defending themselves or others.

Spare us all the crocodile tears, the hypocrisy, the outright dishonesty of pretending to be upset over “failures to protect” Americans, VIP or otherwise.

Harvard Doesn’t Need the Money

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The Federal money transfers in the form of grants and contracts, that is.

Some thoughts on the matter:

The school’s fundraising machinery has swung into gear, sending several email blasts to alumni seeking gifts during what one solicitation called “a critical moment,” and many donors say they are stepping up their efforts.
At the same time, school leaders including President Alan Garber are focusing on conversations with the school’s heaviest-hitting donors as they seek to offset the Trump administration’s $2.26 billion federal funding freeze, according to people familiar with the efforts.

To the extent these efforts are successful, and early indications are that they are succeeding, this strongly suggests that Harvard has no intrinsic need of Federal—us taxpayers’—dollars. That’s eliding the more than $53 billion endowment with its 9.6% return on investment and roughly 5% year-on-year growth, net of disbursements from the endowment.

Some big donors…said Harvard, and not the federal government, should steer the school’s operations and priorities.

That, by itself is entirely true. However, just as private donors get to call the shots on how their donations must be used by the school, so it is with Federal dollars: the government gets to specify how its transfers are used by the school. Even more, just as those private donors have no intrinsic obligation to donate at all, so it is with the government—it has no obligation at all, intrinsic or otherwise, to send any money at all to the school.

Harvard can operate entirely freely if it does not accept Federal dollars, and Harvard has no obligation, intrinsic or otherwise, to accept those dollars.

Little donors illustrate another reason for donating to Harvard. Lawyer Jim Ehrman:

…I am convincing myself that I am making a statement in support of Harvard’s “No” to Trump.

This has nothing to do with the legitimacy, or lack, of the Federal government continuing to fiscally support, with its funding transfers, the school’s antisemitic bigotry and support for terrorist-supporters on its campus. This is, instead, centered on knee-jerk Never Trumpism.