No kiddin', I'm ready to fight, I've been looking for my tabbies all night ...
When the FBI does this, the extent of the duplicity sometimes becomes known afterward, though not always. That's bad enough; the SPLC's funding of extremists, on the other hand, remained a secret until now. This is relevant since the SPLC's primary role is to monitor and tabulate…
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) April 22, 2026
Ed: It's more than just wrong. It's a racket aimed at creating a self-sustaining outrage cycle to enrich themselves and conduct political smear campaigns. To the extent they contributed to the Charlottesville debacle, they also have blood on their hands. That goes beyond "wrong," but Robby's point is that even those claiming the SPLC did nothing wrong have no argument.
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Christian Toto at Hollywood In Toto: So George and Amal Clooney writing a $1 million check for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a group that allegedly calls out hate and bigotry, didn’t get much attention back in 2017. Legacy Media outlets covered it, and then moved on to more pressure items.
That’s despite SPLC being under the microscope for mislabeling right-leaning activists and groups as “hate” spreaders. In 2023, SPLC identified a parental rights group as being in the same company as the KKK, just one of many egregious examples.
Yet major groups like Amazon and PayPal relied on SPLC’s so-called “hate map” to weed out bigots.
See the problem? Except that problem just got exponentially worse.
Ed: Yes, their money went into the hands of racists at the KKK and other groups to stage events that the SPLC could use to raise even more money. Will the Protection Racket Media demand answers from the Clooneys over their support for the corrupt hoaxers at SPLC? Don't hold your breath.
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SPLC revenue before Charlotesville - $51,871,438
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) April 22, 2026
SPLC revenue after Charlotesville - $133,463,398
The SPLC paid $270,000 to a Unite the Right Rally leader.
The "hate" grift in a single image. pic.twitter.com/arUggwSkT2
Ed: This was no minor grift. Charlottesville was a particularly successful SPLC operation, in fact. They almost tripled their revenue by funding the rally/riot that resulted in the death of a counterprotester.
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Jim Geraghty at NRO: The defense, put forth by the likes of MSNOW contributor and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance, is that “the use of paid informants was essential to the intelligence the Center was gathering on the groups they were members of, including intelligence that was shared with the FBI.”
But how do we know that? Yes, the bureau did say on its old website that “the FBI has forged partnerships nationally and locally with many civil rights organizations to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems,” and it listed the SPLC as one of those organizations. But based on all available evidence, FBI didn’t ask, or hire, the SPLC to go around recruiting informants. The FBI has its own undercover agents and its own funds for recruiting informants. The SPLC decided, on its own, that paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to these members of hate groups was worth it.
In a video response, Brian Fair, the interim president and CEO of the SPLC, said, “We no longer work with paid informants.” Okay, wait, if this was on the up-and-up and such an effective tool, why did the organization stop paying informants? Or is ending the program a belated recognition that taking tax-deductible donations and putting large sums of money into the pockets of leaders and members of hate organizations wasn’t such a swell idea? Later, Fair says, “there is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.” So if it’s a life-saving program, why did SPLC stop it?
Ed: Great questions, and the odds of getting answers to them are roughly nil. It's also worth pointing out (as Jim does at the start) that the FBI is a law enforcement organization with both the authority and the enforcement power to use paid informants in investigations, the manner of which gets scrutinized during prosecutions. The SPLC is a 501c3 charity.
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Did the FBI previously coordinate and collude with the SPLC that it is now helping prosecute -- knowing that it was funding the likes of the KKK and the American Nazi Party? Was it in on the scam? Remember, particularly under the Biden admin it sought to inflate the threat of… pic.twitter.com/UGP7lgQRCx
— Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) April 22, 2026
Remember, particularly under the Biden admin it sought to inflate the threat of "right-wing extremism" to justify its jihad against MAGA world
Ed: I don't think any of us will forget it. While we're asking, perhaps the FBI will disclose how much the SPLC was involved in the Merrick Garland campaigns to paint parents protesting woke policies and curricula at school board meetings as "domestic terrorists." And Catholics supporting the traditional Latin Mass. And pro-life activists. And...
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Zach Jewell at The Daily Wire: In the days after the August 11, 2017, rally, which turned into a deadly affair, the SPLC urged PayPal to crack down on accounts linked to so-called hate groups. PayPal, which already had policies in place on preventing racist groups from using its platform to transfer money, took more action after the “Unite the Right” rally and agreed to cut off payments to 34 more accounts linked to the event.
“PayPal, one of the world’s largest online payment processors, was integral in raising money to orchestrate the event,” the SPLC stated on its website in August 2017. “Organizers, speakers, and individual attendees relied on the platform to move funds in the run up to the ultimately deadly event.”
Keegan Hankes, analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center, told The Washington Post at the time, “For the longest time, PayPal has essentially been the banking system for white nationalism. It’s a shame it took Charlottesville for them to take it seriously.”
On Tuesday, the SPLC was accused of paying multiple people affiliated with extremist groups more than $3 million between 2014 and 2023 and hiding its activity behind bank accounts that were opened for “a series of fictitious entities.” One informant was paid more than $270,000 by the SPLC between 2015 and 2023 and had a major role in planning the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, according to the indictment.
Ed: Utterly shameless, utterly corrupt. Anyone connected to the SPLC has a lot of explaining to do in the wake of this announcement.
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UPDATE on referendum lawsuits: The Tazewell Circuit Court just ruled the referendum unconstitutional. The Judge entered an injunction blocking certification of the election & denied a motion to stay pending appeal. A final order will be entered once drafted, & it will be…
— Ken Cuccinelli II (@KenCuccinelli) April 22, 2026
Ed: There is a pretty good chance that the state supreme court will be forced to throw out this referendum. There are significant irregularities in how this was presented to voters. Worth noting, however: the same judge ruled the referendum out of order in January but got overruled on appeal.
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WJLA: Virginia's current attorney general, Jay Jones, confirmed to 7News on Wednesday that his office would appeal the decision.
The order, according to officials, came from the Tazewell Circuit Court, which previously blocked the referendum after repeatedly deeming the vote and the resolution for the referendum unconstitutional, siding with Republicans who filed several suits.
Both previous attempts at blocking the referendum were struck down by the Virginia State Supreme Court.
Ed: That doesn't sound promising, but the top court may have wanted to wait until the matter ripened. If voters rejected the proposition, the court wouldn't need to act at all, and an argument could be made that no one suffered from imminent harm unless it passed. Now that it has, the state supreme court will have to deal with the real issues surrounding how this got on the ballot in the first place. Federal courts may have something to say about that, too, as well as the cooked outcome.
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We are having quite the night in the courts. A Virginia judge just blocked the state from certifying the results of Tuesday's congressional map referendum as unlawful. Judge Jack Hurley Jr., ruled that Democrats did not follow the correct procedure for a constitutional…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 22, 2026
Ed: Had this passed by double digits, courts might be loath to intervene. However, given the narrow nature of the vote and the irregularities uncovered, Virginia's judiciary might be inclined to tell Spanberger to start over and do it right.
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Alan Dershowitz: I’m a traditional liberal, civil libertarian, and civil rights advocate. I support equality, meritocracy, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and intellectual diversity.
I have not changed.
But the world around me has changed dramatically, requiring me to switch from being a Democrat critical of the Democrats to becoming a Republican.
Even as recently as 10 years ago I couldn’t have imagine myself uttering the words “I am a Republican.”
But recent events have pushed me away from the Democratic party and toward what I regard as the lesser of two evils – the deeply flawed but far better Republican Party.
Ed: This is an extension of Dershowitz' argument yesterday. It answers the question of why Dershowitz didn't choose to just remain independent. First, he argues, that eliminates his ability to influence the GOP and argue for election outcomes favoring them. More importantly, the GOP is standing firm on the great questions of the day.
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🚨 HOLY CRAP! Gov. Ron DeSantis just BODIED Hakeem Jeffries threatening Florida if we re-draw our 2026 maps
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 22, 2026
"'Oh, we're gonna go after Florida.' PLEASE. BE MY GUEST. I will PAY you to come campaign! I'll put you up in the Florida governor's mansion! We'll take you fishing.… pic.twitter.com/uAN8gVXVHR
NOTHING could be better for Florida Republicans than to see Hakeem Jeffries everywhere around this state!" 🤣
"Voters will NOT like what they see. DOOR IS OPEN! Invitation is out there!" 🔥
"I kinda feel bad for the guy...the far left hates him! They call him a dollar store Obama, AIPAC Shakur! He tried to ingratiate himself, but they won't drink the Kool-Aid!"
Time to re-draw, special session is in ONE WEEK. Florida is RED ☀️
Ed: I prefer 'Temu Obama.'
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James E. Thorne on X/Twitter: Donald Trump’s Iran gamble is being judged against the wrong baseline. Nobody serious expected regime change by airstrike; the bet of Operation Epic Fury was narrow but brutal, halt Iran’s march to a bomb, break the infrastructure that threatens Americans and allies, restore deterrence and, by closing Hormuz, demonstrate that even in a “multipolar” age the United States can still reach for the world’s most strategic chokepoint.
The question is not whether Iran looks worse than in peacetime, but whether it is weaker than the Iran we were otherwise on track to face: near‑weapons‑grade enrichment, hardened sites, ICBMs a tested weapon within a year, and implicitly backed by China. Against that counterfactual, a regime that has lost senior commanders, core nuclear facilities and major war‑making capacity has not “emerged stronger”.
Nor did this war suddenly hand power to the IRGC. The Guards have run Iran for years; the conflict stripped away the clerical façade and killed many of their most capable officers. They are not true religious believers but calculating military men, interested in power, money and survival more than theology. Such men can be negotiated with, if the terms strip away their most dangerous options. A discredited IRGC with degraded capabilities and no viable nuclear path is weaker than the old clerical‑IRGC hybrid with a bomb option. This looks less like a revolutionary vanguard and more like a brittle military dictatorship.
Ed: As a punitive expedition, it has been wildly successful. But if the IRGC emerges out the other side in power and still possessing highly enriched uranium, it will be difficult to sell this as a strategic victory. Be sure to read it all, however.
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Ed: This just dropped in the morning, and it's a great way to go out in style. I told Christian Toto and Olivier Knox that this is the film that my childhood has waited 50 years to see. Let's hope it doesn't stink. There's some backstory on its release too, which Chrstian and I may discuss in next week's OTBP, and the trailer makes a snarky reference to it at the end. Think "Batgirl."
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