Tag Archives: culture

A Proposal for Harvard University

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Given the blatant antisemitic bigotry of Harvard’s President Claudine Gay, as well as her dishonesty, demonstrated by her plagiarism—She plagiarized her acknowledgments—and the antisemitism demonstrated by the Harvard Corporation, the school’s governing body, and its open condonement of Gay’s bigotry and dishonesty, when that body unanimously supported retaining her as President, it’s clear that drastic changes to Harvard University’s governance is badly needed.

A Harvard professor has suggested a pathway to that.

One faculty member, citing a carve-out in the Massachusetts Constitution that reserves authority over Harvard to the state legislature, has urged Massachusetts lawmakers to install a government official on the board to provide more transparency and public accountability.

Here is the relevant section of that constitution, from Chapter V, Section I, Article III:

…it is declared, that the governor, lieutenant governor, council and senate of this commonwealth, are and shall be deemed, their successors, who with the president of Harvard College, for the time being, together with the ministers of the congregational churches in the towns of Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchester, mentioned in the said act, shall be, and hereby are, vested with all the powers and authority belonging, or in any way appertaining to the overseers of Harvard College; provided, that] nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the legislature of this commonwealth from making such alterations in the government of the said university, as shall be conducive to its advantage and the interest of the republic of letters….

The professor is on the right track, but one government rep on a board of 13 or 14 won’t accomplish anything. The State needs to revamp the Corporation board altogether—maybe put on the board reps from the ministers of the congregational churches in the towns of Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchester in sufficient number that their aggregation outnumbers the remaining members, if they’re not, instead, to replace the incumbents. Additionally—these are Critical Items—the State needs to remove the President’s sole authority over the board’s agenda and to eliminate the board’s authority to select their own replacements.

 

Massachusetts’ constitution can be read in its entirety here.

Political Donations Received and Returned

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried made a number of political donations to Republican and Progressive-Democrat candidates in the 2022 election cycle. FTX has gone into bankruptcy, and Bankman-Fried has related legal problems.

Just the News cited OpenSecrets.org for the following data:

In the House:

65 Democrats received average contributions of $3,758 from FTX
73 House Republicans received average contributions of $3,300

In the Senate side:

24 Democrats received an average of $5,796
20 Republicans received $6,695

Back to the House:

8 Democrats returned their contributions
12 Republicans returned their contributions

The Senate:

2 Democrats returned their contributions
4 Republicans returned their contributions

Here are the percentage figures, since the raw numbers without context could be misleading. In the House:

8 of 65 Democrats returned—12%
12 of 73 Republicans returned—16%

In the Senate:

2 of 24 Democrats returned—17%
4 of 20 Republicans returned—20%

It really is all about the Benjamins. For Progressive-Democrats.

Go figure.

Responsibility and Carping

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A couple of letter writers in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal‘s Letters section have some remarks about the way Israel is (trying to) prosecute its defense against Hamas’ war of extermination.

First is the Progressive-Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts, Seth Moulton. He so-piously wrapped himself in his status as a veteran and a US Marine to decry the Gaza civilian casualties occurring as Israel fights to defend itself. In his bellyaching about those casualties, he implies that they are the result of IDF action. He very carefully, though, ignores the fact that those casualties are inflicted on Gaza’s civilians by Hamas directly, as those terrorists shoot the civilians who are trying to leave the combat zone, especially including those proximate targets that the IDF routinely is at pains to identify beforehand so those civilians could otherwise depart.

Moulton further carefully ignores the fact that Hamas inflicts those casualties indirectly by placing their weapons caches, their rocket and missile launchers, and their command centers inside Gazans’ residential buildings, schools, and hospitals.

Moulton, perhaps even more despicably, provides no evidence whatsoever to support his contention that the IDF isn’t doing enough to protect the civilians even as it tries to pick out the terrorist immersing himself in the civilian crowd.

Israel certainly is responsible for its actions. So is Hamas. Carping from safety, by anyone, is not responsible action.

On the other hand, a letter-writer from outside the Progressive-Democrat Beltway Bubble, Paul Mertis of Atlanta, pointed out these items, contradicting Moulton:

[Biden to Netanyahu:] “There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did.” Perhaps Mr Biden should be reminded that while it is approximately 7,000 miles from Washington to Kabul, Gaza borders Israel.

To which I add, regarding Biden’s…irresponsible…advice: yeah, that was just some people that did something. And, it’s also 5,900 miles from Washington to Gaza. It’s easy enough for Biden—and Moulton, come to that—to sit safely on the faraway sidelines and carp, while terrorists, operating from inside Gaza, try to destroy the nation on whose borders Gaza sits.

Chimera

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Hamas has begun planning for the governance of the Gaza strip once its war against Israel is ended.

Hamas’s political leaders have been talking with their Palestinian rivals about how to govern Gaza and the West Bank after the war ends, a fraught negotiation that threatens to put them at odds with the militant wing fighting Israel.
The talks are the clearest sign that Hamas’s political faction is starting to plan for what follows the conflict.

Husam Badran, of Hamas’s Doha-based political bureau:

We want to establish a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem[.]

That’s not as outlandish or hubristic as it might seem, given the weakness of the Biden administration’s support for Israel as it defends itself against Hamas’ war of annihilation. That weakness is exemplified by Biden’s, Sullivan’s, Blinken’s, and Lloyd’s constant pressure on Israel for cease fire and to stop killing Gazans indiscriminately—a charge for which none of those worthies have offered a scintilla of evidence. That weakness is further exemplified by the letters from staffers and interns that Biden has received demanding overt support for “Palestinians.”

Nor are our allies in Europe—putative allies of Israel—helping the matter with their constant bleating for cease fires and ends to fighting and please stops.

There’s this…challenge…too, from Mohammed Dahlan, former Gaza security chief with close Emirati and Egyptian connections who’s in daily contact with Hamas:

[D]o you think anybody is going to be able to run to make peace without Hamas?

I ask does anybody think any sort of peace is possible with Hamas?

Israel must conclude Hamas’ war on Israeli terms and not on the terms of the weak kneed or of Palestinian terrorist supporters. The only legitimate end is for Israel to eliminate the entity that is determined to exterminate Israelis.

When the Hamas war is over, there should be no one in Hamas to plan, there should be no Hamas.

Punishing Success

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Los Angeles has decided that the successful are too successful, and they must be knocked down. To that end, the city’s government has decided to tax the sales proceeds of the wealthy’s homes at 4% on homes sold for $5-$10 million and at 5.5% on homes sold for more than $10 million. This is on top of the real estate brokers’ ordinary 6% fee, and it’s paid by the buyer. Not that that will have any impact on the seller’s ability to sell at a fair price, or anything.

LA isn’t alone in this “mansion tax” move, either. Other jurisdictions, mostly at the State level (it won’t be long before California broadens LA’s move), are doing this, also. They’re all Progressive-Democrat-run, too, all but one of them exclusively so.

  • Connecticut: 2.25% on properties surpassing $2.5 million. Progressive-Democrat Governor, Senate, House
  • District of Columbia: 1.45% on properties sold for $400,000 or more. Progressive-Democrat Governor, City Council
  • Hawaii: Marginal rates ranging from 10% to 20% for estates valued over $5.49 million. Progressive-Democrat Governor, Senate, House
  • New Jersey: 1% on real estate transactions exceeding $1 million. Progressive-Democrat Governor, Senate, House
  • New York: 1% to 3.9% on residential acquisitions of $1 million or more. Progressive-Democrat Governor, Senate, House
  • Vermont: 16% on properties valued over $5 million. Republican Governor, Progressive-Democrat Senate, House
  • Washington: Graduated rates starting at 1.28% for properties sold at a minimum of $500,000. Progressive-Democrat Governor, Senate, House

And, to repeat,

  • Los Angeles: 4% on homes sold for more than $5-$10 million and 5.5% on homes sold for more than $10 million. Progressive-Democrat Mayor, City Council

This is behavior of the green-eyed jealous politicians of the Progressive-Democratic Party: seizing the produce of success and redistributing it for their own political gain. It’s also just one more incentive for the successful to leave these jurisdictions altogether.