SPLC: Hate For Profit. Judge: No, Virginia. Iran’s Bluff. Scoop: Kagan’s Clerks ‘Have Fear in Their Eyes.’ No Fear: DJT Goes to Nerd Prom. More
Enquiring Minds Want to Know: Are there any “very fine people” at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in Mobile, Alabama?
The SPLC is alleged to have hoodwinked its own donors by funneling millions of dollars into the “hate” groups the SPLC supposedly hates. Donors include George Clooney, who gave a million dollars, George Soros, JPMorgan, and ex-Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The indictment alleges that tax-deductible donations made to SPLC ended up in the hands of Ku Kluxers and other charmers. The SPLC insists that this was for informers to keep themselves safe from all the haters. Another explanation: Recipients of SPLC largesse egged on violent protests, thus churning up business for the SPLC. In other words, the SPLC manufactured racism for financial gain.
Spreading fear of the elusive white supremacist was big business for the SPLC:
The Southern Poverty Law Center more than doubled its revenue in the months following the deadly 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally — a surge now drawing renewed scrutiny after a Department of Justice indictment alleged the group paid an informant tied to the event’s organizers.
The 2017 rally, which left one woman dead, became a cultural flashpoint over white nationalism and political violence, driving widespread condemnation and a surge in donations to civil rights groups, including the SPLC. The fallout also shaped the 2020 presidential election, as President Donald Trump’s response — including his remarks about “very fine people” on both sides — was hammered by the left, with former President Joe Biden later citing Charlottesville as a reason he entered the race.
As a southern conservative who grew up in a famously liberal enclave, where liberal self-congratulation was not in short supply, I can’t suppress a soupcon (okay, a big bucketful of) schadenfreude. The SPLC targeted as “hate groups” worthy organizations and individuals such as Focus on the Family, Turning Point, USA, and Moms for Liberty. (I’m willing to bet they didn’t pay a Moms for Liberty “informant”!) PJ Media’s Robert Spencer writes about this in “Hey SPLC, Where’s My Check?” Brendan O’Neill writes at Spiked Online:
Every now and then, there’s a news event that feels simultaneously insane and entirely logical. The stink swirling around the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is just such an event. At first blush, the suggestion that the centre has been ‘fund[ing] the extremism that it claimed to be fighting’ seems wild. But then it hits you – such duplicitous antics, if true, would be wholly in keeping with an activist class that continually inflates the far-right threat in order to make itself feel purposeful and virtuous….
The possibility that the turbo-smug coastal elites were unwittingly giving money to literal Nazis is almost too good to be true. These are people who look down on the ‘rednecks’ who voted for Trump as dim minions of the new fascism. Yet it’s now alleged that one of their own beloved organisations pumped $3million into groups with names like Aryan Nations. I don’t know much about Aryan Nations but it doesn’t sound nice.
The Free Press’s Jed Rubenfeld suggests that, while the SPLC has undoubtedly spread hatred, it might not be guilty of a crime.
No, Virginia. Virginia’s controversial Democratic redistricting plan, which narrowly was passed by voters, is being blocked by a judge. I am amused that CNN describes the judge “as judge in rural southern Virginia.” Yes, Virginia, rural judges rule things unconstitutional, too. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “Virginia’s Race to the Gerrymander Bottom“:
The gerrymander race to the bottom escalated on Tuesday as Democrats in Virginia won a narrow victory to redraw their state map to add as many as four Democratic House seats. This is bad news for GOP control of the House in November, but Republicans can also blame President Trump for starting this rolling rock that has now come down on their heads.
The narrow 51.4%-48.6% margin attests to how brazenly partisan this exercise was. …
Barack Obama on Tuesday hailed Virginia for “stand[ing] up for our democracy,” but the vote effectively ends competitive elections for Congress in most of the state. This is why voters don’t take seriously Democratic complaints about GOP threats to democracy.
In “Virginia Failed the Basic Test of Our Democracy” at The Free Press Charles Lane argues: “A liberal society can’t work if both sides seize every advantage they can. But the latest gerrymander suggests we’ve gone awfully far down that road.”
We’re Starting Without You. Senate Republicans have rammed through a blueprint to bankroll ICE and the Border Patrol through the end of the Trump administration:
Senate Republicans adopted their budget resolution, which tees up funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, and effectively cuts congressional Democrats out of the process entirely.
It’s the first major step toward unlocking the budget reconciliation process, which Republicans are diving into once again after Democrats refused to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without stringent reforms. …
Is there more hope that we’re led to believe for the GOP in the midterms? “Democrats in Peril, From Barcelona to Boise” is the headline on Karl Rove’s column today. Rove writes that the Democratic party is “a mess, notwithstanding the GOP’s problems.” An interesting feature of the modern Dems is increasing opposition to the state of Isael. Matthew Continetti describes this in a column headlined “The Democrats Unify Against Israel“:
Israel is the Democratic Party’s new litmus test, and Senator Bernie Sanders is leading the turn against the Jewish state. In 2024, 19 Democrats voted with him to deny military aid to a U.S. ally at war. In 2025, 24 did the same. This year, as the U.S. and Israel fought side by side against the Iranian theocracy, 40 of 47 Democratic senators were with Mr. Sanders.
Democratic elites follow the polls. Anti-Israel sentiment runs through every level of the party, from former presidents to insurgent candidates. The woolly fringe is now mainstream. Barack Obama was all smiles in a recent photo-op with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a socialist for whom anti-Zionism is a calling card. The Democrats’ newest congresswoman, Analilia Mejia of New Jersey, is a former Sanders delegate who omitted Israeli terror victims from an Oct. 10, 2023, social-media post condemning violence in Gaza.
The front-runner in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary, Graham Platner, says he plans to remove the Nazi-associated tattoo on his chest. …
Get Me Rewrite. Not without poignance, it’s time to rewrite “Rule, Britania.” Because guess what country comes closest to ruling the seas? “How U.S. Ship Boardings Have Kicked Off a New Phase of the Iran War” is a news headline in the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. has boarded an Iran-linked tanker in the Indian Ocean. Most of the legacy media has focused on Secretary Hegseth’s firing of the Secretary of the Navy, whose name you probably don’t remember.
More meaningfully, Victor Davis Hanson writes at American Greatness about “How Iran Committed Suicide.” The subhead:
Iran’s decades-long bluff—built on terror proxies, nuclear brinkmanship, and Western appeasement—collapsed the moment it faced direct force and a changed geopolitical landscape.
Meanwhile, Eli Lake at The Free Press compares former President Obama’s JCPOA with Iran and Trump’s nuclear deal.
Writing at City Journal, Heather Mac Donald shines light on “The Climate Litigation Swindle.” The greenies rely on lawsuits utilizing junk science to bankrupt energy companies, which undermine the basis of American power.
Another shocking revelation from Mollie Hemingway’s new book on Justice Alito: Justice Kagan is not a sweetie pie! No!
According to the book, Kagan—widely regarded as the intellectual leader of the Court’s liberal bloc—is admired for her sharp legal mind, strategic skill in oral arguments, and ability to build coalitions with conservative justices. But that reputation is paired with repeated accounts from clerks and court insiders describing her as emotionally abusive and demoralizing inside chambers….
“‘Kagan’s clerks had fear in their eyes,’ recalls someone who clerked for a different justice,” Hemingway wrote in the book. “Other clerks compared her to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, moving from extremely kind to extremely angry.”
President Donald Trump will not have fear in his eyes as he attends the White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend, even though the trendy Daily Beast, and other beasts, will be lying in wait for him.
