Because the Torah says so

Thee are eleven ingredients of the incense in the holy Temple. The teaching that lists them mentions at the end that if they would had added a drop of honey, no one could resist [it would be so inspiring]. So why did they not add any honey?  כל שאור וכל דבש לא תקטירו No leaven nor any honey shalt you offer to the Lord your God.

This explains the simple path of the Gra. The Litvak yeshivot do not add nor subtract from the Torah because the Torah says so.  [And in fact that is actually a verse in Deuteronomy: Thou shalt not add nor subtract from the Law.]

Two Treaties of Government

To understand the situation in the USA I think the best idea is to learn the Two Treaties of Government of John Locke plus the Declaration of Independence. There you see even though the USA is a republic  (not direct democracy), still it is based on fair elections. Since there was doubt about the validity of the count of the Dominion machines, the election should not have been certified.

[The Two Treaties is all about: when is it moral to rebel against the government?]

Just to be clear: I hold from the Two Treaties and the Constitution of the USA because they are the best in coming to peace of the state which is one f the major goals of Torah. On a small scale a Litvak yeshiva tends to be the best in creating a decent group based on objective morality. But on a larger scale the model based on the American Constitution brings the best results of creating a just society. --I mean to say that how to create such a thig has been a subject of debate ever since Plato wrote the Republic. But his answers seem lacking. Nor do any intellectual answers since then get any better results. The odd fact is the model based on Medieval England (Parliament, the Magna Carta, etc which got translated into the American system  get the best results in terms of a just society.) Kings on occasion were okay but often they were not.

universities ought to simply become technical schools.

 In the time of Kant many thought that the universities ought to simply become technical schools. (What is called today: "STEM fields".) But the "liberal arts" won and so we have the social studies and humanities parts of the university.

{I mean to say that the theological aspect of the universities was already on its way out. So the question arose what should be the nature of the university?}

However I think the original idea was best --of just having universities being technical schools. The liberal arts departments are of negative value.

But not everything in university ought to be for the sake of making a living. So while the socialist departments ought to be disbanded, not everything else should be for making a living. Rather I see certain things in STEM as having ontological value in themselves [like Mathematics and Physics.]

{You see this in Rishonim mediaeval authorities. But how far does this go? [To consider some "secular subjects" has having value to learn just for their own sake?] 

two important lessons to learn from Robert E Lee. Lee was always strongest when he was considered weak.

I noticed that there are two important lessons to learn from Robert E Lee. One of the most astounding facts about him is that he was more dangerous in retreat than in offensive attack. You learn this from the Antietam battle with General McClellan.  G. McClellan was dismissed by Lincoln because of his perceived mistake of not following Lee in his retreat back to Virginia across the Potomac.  I do not know from where Lincoln was getting his information from because in fact McClellan did pursue Lee! At the river crossing where Lee was retreating, there was an eye witness from a Northern newspaper that wrote that when McClellan tried to attack Lee (in this retreat), the air was filled with bullets as thick as rain attacking McClellan.

The other very important fact about Lee is defense. He created a system of breastworks [makeshift fences] after the battle of Mine Run.  The Northern general looked and looked for the slightest opening and found nothing and so retreated. Later Lee was do the same with Grant. [The northern general at that time made his own instant retreat at night knowing that Lee would immediately in the morning pursue him.]

So you see Lee was always strongest when he was considered weak.