The Daily Populous Thursday April 17th, 2025 night edition
Authored by esquire.com and submitted by Esquire

The carefully crafted chaos has shown up here in the Commonwealth (God save it!) in a big, brass-band kind of way. And—so far, anyway—the old homestead has stood up well as we come up on the 250th anniversary of the last time we rose up against tyranny. First of all, Harvard stacked up every penny of its $54 billion endowment and told the administration to bring it on. From Reuters:

Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a public letter on Monday that demands made by the Department of Education last week would allow the federal government “to control the Harvard community” and threaten the school’s “values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge.”

“No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber wrote.

Anyone following this story should take a minute and read the letter sent from the Department of Education (Secretary Suplex, presiding). It is absolutely a ransom note, an extortionist’s primer. For example:

By August 2025, the University shall commission an external party, which shall satisfy the federal government as to its competence and good faith, to audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for viewpoint diversity, such that each department, field, or teaching unit must be individually viewpoint diverse. This audit shall begin no later than the summer of 2025 and shall proceed on a department-by-department, field-by-field, or teaching-unit-by-teaching-unit basis as appropriate. The report of the external party shall be submitted to University leadership and the federal government no later than the end of 2025. Harvard must abolish all criteria, preferences, and practices, whether mandatory or optional, throughout its admissions and hiring practices, that function as ideological litmus tests.

You just insisted on ideological litmus tests, you dolts.

Every department or field found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by hiring a critical mass of new faculty within that department or field who will provide viewpoint diversity; every teaching unit found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by admitting a critical mass of students who will provide viewpoint diversity. If the review finds that the existing faculty in the relevant department or field are not capable of hiring for viewpoint diversity, or that the relevant teaching unit is not capable of admitting a critical mass of students with diverse viewpoints, hiring or admissions within that department, field, or teaching unit shall be transferred to the closest cognate department.

I want to audit the Geology 101 class based on the idea that the earth was created one October day 6,000 years ago, or the med-school seminar on the immunological benefits of horse paste and Jesus.

Now, there are complications regarding using the endowment as a lifeboat; there are more than a few MAGA fan-kidz among the wealthy Harvard alums, but I suspect there are more who value that for which Harvard stands and who, generally, value any American institution that declines to bend the knee and which answers the blackmail with that most American of answers: no.

On the other side of the river, a story that has developed legs, as we used to say around the city desk on Harrison Avenue, is the story of Nicole Micheroni, the Boston lawyer who received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security informing her that she had to deport herself by the weekend. From The Boston Globe:

“It is time for you to leave the United States,” the email said. Micheroni, who was born in Massachusetts, was confused. The message, titled, “Notification of Termination of Parole,” included no client name or case number. “It took me a couple of minutes to realize it was sent to me, instead of someone I represent,” Micheroni said.

Micheroni, you see, practices immigration law, and these emails are clearly meant to scare people out of the country whom they can’t get rid of any other way. And if you think the letters also weren’t meant to intimidate their lawyers, you should get off the Good Ship Lollipop before it sails and the norovirus breaks out. In case you need proof of that, there’s another Boston immigration lawyer who got one of these emails. From NBC Boston:

The letter cites an expiration of her parole, but Bello says she’s been a U.S. citizen for nearly 20 years and isn’t under parole. Bello says many of her clients also received the same letter. “Pretty much going by whatever email we have in the parole application, we’re getting sent a letter. And they’re not even checking if it’s the attorney’s email or the applicant’s email,” Bello said. “I think there’s a lack of responsibility on the department on sending the letters like this.”

This weekend, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the events of April 1775, including Paul Revere’s ride and the battles of Lexington and Concord. There will be much cheering and beating of drums, and local TV will get some cool video. But the real tribute comes from Harvard and from the offices of two lawyers, and it echoes the probably apocryphal words of Captain John Parker, captain of the militia, who was said to tell the assembled minutemen on April 19, 1775:

Stand your ground, don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.

UPDATE—The White House escalated matters Tuesday, responding to Harvard’s recalcitrance by threatening the university’s nonprofit status. From The Harvard Crimson:

“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?,” he wrote in a Tuesday post on Truth Social. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST,” Trump added.

Tuesday’s announcement is the first explicit indication from the Trump administration that it is seriously considering revoking Harvard’s nonprofit status—a move that would significantly change how much the University has to pay in taxes to the federal government. Nonprofits, including most institutions like Harvard, are exempt from federal income taxes, but their status can be revoked if they operate outside of their stated purposes. Republicans have frequently levied that line of attack against Harvard, arguing that the University has strayed from its educational and research mission.

All they want is the trophy, the head on the wall, the horse’s head in the bed. All these Ivy grads, cosplaying as meth-head dropouts from Central Bugtussle A&M. It would be comic, if it weren’t so morally and ethically revolting.

yukonhoneybadger on April 16th, 2025 at 16:35 UTC »

So Trump is challenging the top law school in the country that is littered with Uber wealthy alums.... I can't see how this will go well for Trump.

Equivalent-Excuse-80 on April 16th, 2025 at 14:50 UTC »

Harvard did the math. They would lose a lot of alumni support, donations and tuition if they capitulate.

45and47-big_mistake on April 16th, 2025 at 14:48 UTC »

It's almost as if the mafia has taken over this country.