11 responses to “And now the news: 4/30”

1. 

   granville

   04/30/2026

   From what I understand the SPLC was no longer relevant after a major purge in the last two years. Most of their leading writers and researchers left or were fired, many of them looking a lot like union busting. They haven’t produced anything of note since those folks left and were probably going to be one of those zombie orgs with a huge endowment and a nice name for charitable donations.

   If interested this is a fairly convincing report from one of them written before the indictment: https://michaeledisonhayden.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-the-splcand-me

   So this is bullshit but if we’re searching for a bright side it will discourage donations to a group that wouldn’t have done anything meaningful with them.

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      05/01/2026

      Thanks for this. Entirely news to me. Won me over even before Hayden gets to the union-busting (though that would’ve been enough), when he writes of “Half-a-mil Mags,” so nicknamed because that’s what she’s paid. I refuse to support or even respect alleged good-guy organizations that pay management along the lines of bad-guy organizations. That paycheck is where the line’s crossed, for me.

      Next he mentions a “gala” he attended, and again I gotta say, no good-guy organization has ever hosted a “gala.”

      > You hear a lot of liberal and Democratic rhetoric about how dire this moment is. I agree. The only thing I have ever wanted, for the SPLC and for everyone living through this extraordinarily challenging moment, is for us to act like it.

      Big picture, this is what depresses me most about here and now. Not the evil of fascists (no surprise there) or the “write a stern letter” response of the Democrats (ditto), but that virtually none of the people and organizations we’d been told to believe in have responded with any more righteous fury than if an ordinary pre-Trump Republican had proposed reducing the budget at EPA. With rare exceptions, the only people truly angry and speaking out are utter nobodies like me.

      Anyway, just gotta add that until some credible source says otherwise, I’m assuming all the right-wing claims about SPLC are bullshit, same as all the right-wing claims about, well, everything. But you’ve successfully ruined SPLC in my eyes, and thanks for that.

      Reply
      1. 

         granville

         05/01/2026

         That colossal failure you describe feels like something I should have known was coming (being an unbearable cynic) but I was surprised, and depressed.

         Musk suing Media Matters, I think, scared the shit out of everyone in the NGO sector who, much like “Half A Mil Mags” relish their aperitifs too much to risk them for someone who doesn’t know what an aperitif is. That’s all it took. Yokels burning crosses or driving their cars into gay bars doesn’t scare them off, but threatening to interrupt their galas have them hiding under blankets. And for what? They still got this bullshit lawsuit thrown at them anyway.

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         1. 

            Doug Holland

            05/02/2026

            You can’t appease bullies. Give ’em half your sandwich, they’ll want more.

            But yeah, anyone or any organization that gives a damn wouldn’t stand down like SPLC has. Fuck ’em.

            Reply
      2. 

         granville

         05/01/2026

         Out of curiosity I pulled the SPLC’s 990 form that non-profits have to file. Amazing stuff there.

         1. They list 3 pages of employees making > $200k per year. “Half A Mil Mags” is indeed paid half a mil.
         2. Salaries and employee benefits and compensation totalling $63 million a year and rising by 12% year over year.
         2. Their total assets have to be seen to be believed. A “private investment fund” of $747,925,246 alone: https://i.imgur.com/jMUQQLN.png

         Reply
         1. 

            Doug Holland

            05/02/2026

            Too much to say and only mere minutes to say it, so it’ll have to wait until after Mom duty today, sorry.

            Reply
         2. 

            Doug Holland

            05/02/2026

            “Rising by 12% year over year” is enough to damn them for me. Everything else is just double-damn.

            Man, them’s big numbers. What do I know from such big numbers, but an outfit with $747million in investments doesn’t need $10 p/month from me, or from anyone.

            Reply
2. 

   Claude Reigns

   05/02/2026

   SPLC can fuck themselves sideways with a butter knife. ADL as well. Their “shitlists” are basically anyone who they disagree with politically, regardless of that person’s complexity (eg Jim Goad). Not to mention the above examples of exorbitant monies and influence, and numerous instances of the higher-ups being involved in sex scandals, racists tirades, so on.

   Bottom line? All organizations, period, are or will become corrupt. And any individual or group that tries to silence ANYONE deserves my eternal disdain.

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      05/02/2026

      > Bottom line? All organizations, period, are or will become corrupt. And any individual or group that tries to silence ANYONE deserves my eternal disdain.

      Truth.

      I’ll never forget ADL’s response to Musk doing the Nazi salute three times in a row. They said it wasn’t a Nazi salute. So, yeah, the ADL doesn’t give a shit about anti-defamation. Maybe SPLC goes in the same shit-bucket.

      Reply
3. 

   Jonah Baldwin

   05/03/2026

   if we survive trump and move on to a normal-style shitty president and dem congress, i don’t ever fucking ever fucking ever want to hear democrats say they can’t do something, the republicans won’t let them. the lesson in this crap it’s that the party in power can do any fucking thing they want.

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      05/03/2026

      “Want” is the key word. Republicans want to do things. They’re all the wrong things, but they seriously want to do them. Democrats want to pose for the camera, but don’t really want to do squat.

      Reply

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