Friday's Final Word

You've got your nuclear tabs, and your drip dry links ...

HOLY SMOKES! 🔥🔥

Gutfeld just ripped Jessica Tarlov to shreds on The Five about the SPLC. She’s still claiming the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville was completely real and organic, even though it’s been proved the whole thing was funded.

This is hands-down the best… pic.twitter.com/fYmBunQZew

— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) April 23, 2026

This is hands-down the best thing you’ll watch all day!

Ed: It's certainly the most revealing. Gutfeld is pure, righteous fire, likely prompted by Tarlov's attempt to rage-splain the SPLC's grotesque moral inversions. 

===

Matt Taibbi:  It shouldn’t be a big revelation, but NGOs and politicians that fundraise on images of hate or hate speech — Twitter complained that “SPLC-type organizations” were at the forefront of demanding they censor — are massively incentivized to overstate or even concoct their “work product.” Though the SPLC’s indictment this week for paying members of hate groups is still just a list of unproven charges at this stage, there are now enough of these incidents to ask if America is really as steeped in hate as many institutions say.

In the digital age, a little bit of fraud goes a long way. The hate-business model works so well that right- and left-leaning organizations have fed each other customers. This is part of the SPLC’s background, and one reason we have so much hate inflation in America.

Ed: This is worth reading for some background on the SPLC, although I think Matt's tangent in direct-mail fundraising is off the point substantially. The rest of this is spot-on, especially about the market for "hate crimes." As I said to Tony Katz yesterday, and I was only partly kidding, the SPLC ran out of hate "supply" and funded it instead to turn a profit on selling it to saps. That has real-world consequences. 

===

SPLC is in a legal box with no clean exit.

To defeat the donor fraud charges, they have to argue the informant program was legitimate intelligence work coordinated with federal law enforcement. Bryan Fair already said that on video on April 21st.

But the moment that's the… https://t.co/vswWsyKKzK

— bitchuneedsoap (@bitchuneedsoap) April 24, 2026

But the moment that's the defense, three new problems open:

Donors did not give money to fund FBI-coordinated intelligence operations. Class action exposure on the actual basis of the donor relationship.

501(c)(3) status doesn't cover serving as a federal intelligence contractor. Tax exemption becomes contestable.

Admitting FBI coordination validates exactly the Grassley-Patel-HJC finding that SPLC was feeding the FBI taxonomies used to target American religious communities.

Ed: This entire thread is also worth reading. The escape options are very limited because of the political dynamics of the change in DoJ and White House leadership. Kash Patel is not interested in protecting the FBI's reputation by hiding the actions taken under Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray. This racket only worked so long as the DoJ had incentives to protect its own reputation. 

===

Kira Davis: This is the Charlottesville Lie in action.

Hassan Piker is only the latest example of the mainstreaming of political assassination culture. That he can take to the internet airwaves and suggest the assassination of a sitting Senator and be taken seriously by anyone, let alone the Democrat establishment that has been parading him around lately, is a shocking testament to the complete degradation of our political boundaries and common sense of safety.

The Charlottesville Lie has murderous spawn.

President Trump was nearly murdered on that lie. Corey Comperatore was murdered on that lie.

Charlie Kirk was murdered on that lie.

Ed: Heather Hayer was murdered on that lie. The SPLC funded the organization of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where Hayer got murdered while counterprotesting. The entire event was concocted and partly funded by the SPLC. The SPLC has Hayer's blood on their hands, too. 

===

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865.

Please cite for me any periods of years between 1865 and 2026 when the KKK was NOT being funded by Democrats.

I'll stand by.

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) April 24, 2026

Ed: Let us know in the comments when this was not true. Bring receipts. 

===

I'm not an esteemed anti-racist group, so I need someone to explain to me in simple terms how reviving a dormant Nazi org squares with the "confidential informant" excuse.

— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) April 24, 2026

Ed: We'll wait for an answer to this one, too. 

===

NY Post: Bob Woodson, an 89-year-old civil rights champion who faced jail time for his advocacy in the Jim Crow South, condemned the SPLC and admitted he wasn’t “surprised at all” that the nonprofit allegedly funneled more than $3 million to “field sources” to infiltrate extremists groups between between 2014 and 2023.

“This is just a more obvious expression of the contradiction of people who say they are fighting for civil rights, and as a consequence, they are corrupt,” Woodson charged on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show.”

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. These are people who are supposed to be fighting for civil rights. They ask which problems are fundable, not which ones are solvable. So you get this kind of corruption that you’re witnessing,” the octogenarian declared.

Ed: That's a very good explanation. All one has to ask is whether the SPLC would have more benefit from the elimination of racism or its perpetuation. And that question should be asked of all NGOs that claim to work against racism, because the SPLC isn't the only org that benefits from astroturfed racism. 

===

I am going to say out loud a suspicion that I have had for at least the last two weeks: the negotiations were never serious from the US side after the first weekend in Islamabad. We needed a pause to restock with both offensive and (especially) defensive weapons, set up the…

— Ken Gardner (@KenGardner11) April 24, 2026

... blockade, and wait for the third carrier group to arrive (which has now happened). 

With everything now pretty much in place and ready to go, I suspect that we will be reading the Iran regime the riot act one last time.  I'm not saying that if they again refuse to be rational, we will resume operations, but it wouldn't surprise me if we do. 

Either way, time is on our side even if we do nothing other than continue to enforce the blockade. Iran's position is hopeless. They are a rabid animal caught in a trap, and like all rabid animals they might cause one last round of real pain until they are put down. This is why I think we needed the pause in order to restock defensive weapons for Israel and the Gulf states.

Ed: I'm a little less cynical. I think Trump wanted to see if he could get a deal with verifiable compliance. He might still take one if it's offered. However, I am dead certain that Trump never took the IRGC junta seriously as a negotiating partner, and is now fully ready to begin the next phase of the war. Trump didn't assume any risk in the ceasefire, and the blockade is the real checkmate move anyway. The next phase of bombing will be aimed at Vahidi's infrastructure and the complete reduction of Iran's industrial capacity, most of which the IRGC controls. 

===

Michael Doran at The Free Press: Critics of Trump’s approach focus almost exclusively on this one aspect of the battlefield, namely the IRGC’s continued missile and drone attacks and its disruption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The assessment by former MI6 chief Sir Alex Younger in a conversation with The Economist in March is typical. Younger argued that Iran had “played a weak hand pretty well” through “horizontal escalation,” claiming that Trump had “underestimated the task” and “lost the initiative.” Trump, in this view, had handed Tehran the “whip hand.”

This view misses the larger picture. To be sure, the IRGC retains the capability to inflict damage through asymmetric tactics, but it cannot sustain itself on oxygen and a commitment to jihad alone. Without a viable economic base, even the most hardened regime will crack. Trump has focused on that vulnerability. ...

Trump’s approach exploits these pressures. It will not deliver a rapid knockout blow, but a systematic strangulation of the Iranian economy. Oil trade and maritime activity will decline. The banking system will collapse. Inflation will increase even further. And unemployment will rise dramatically. The Central Bank of Iran has warned of an additional two million people joining the ranks of the unemployed, an unprecedented figure.

The economic strangulation did not begin now, on the fly. It started with Trump’s return to the White House, and it is what led to the unrest at the beginning of the year. Ultimately, it is the single most important factor that will ultimately determine Iran’s fate.

Ed: Time has always been on Trump's side. He keeps trying to explain that. The media isn't interested in reality, however, but only on sustaining their contradictory TACO/Trump Is A Madman narratives. 

===

🚨Ynet: The IDF and Mossad wanted the war against Iran to have opened with a far more devastating blow, a “blackout strike,” including plunging Tehran into darkness by striking the power stations in order to destabilize the regime. This proposal was rejected by Israel’s PM and…

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) April 24, 2026

This proposal was rejected by Israel’s PM and the Trump administration.

Ed: This was the "shock and awe" approach we used with Iraq, and it created long-term trouble for us in the occupation. The Pentagon adjusted that doctrine accordingly afterward. Was that wise? I think it's still debatable, but it has allowed the US and Israel options for escalation. That option is still very much on the table. 

===

Jonathan Turley: The deceit began with the language of the resolution itself. While Virginia law requires clarity in such resolutions, the language was obtuse and vague, declaring that it would “temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections.” There was nothing “temporary” about the plan which would continue for years. More importantly, it is unclear what is meant by “restore fairness” in a map that would wipe out virtually every GOP district.

In addition, the process used to rush the resolution to the ballot was abridged and unprecedented. This mess was too much for Tazewell Circuit Judge Jack Hurley who enjoined the map approved by voters. It is now awaiting an oral argument before the Virginia Supreme Court next week.

Jones was, of course, aware of all of this when he received the most predictable question from CNN host Brianna Keilar who cited the misleading elements cited by Judge Hurley and asked “does he have a point that it’s misleading?” ...

This exchange went up until, to her great credit, Keilar ended the interview with “I don’t hear you answering the substance of my question.”

Ed: As Professor Turley wryly observes, he'd better figure out an answer to that question by Monday. The state supreme court will demand that answer during oral arguments, as well as answers to other questions raised about the referendum and its contents. 

===

DeSantis - 50% approval, including 87% approval among Republicans in Florida.

Jeffries: 27% approval, just 64% approval among Dems.

Also Jeffries… https://t.co/DVqVLJK0wJ

— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) April 24, 2026

Ed: Res ipsa loquitur.

===

Axios: Florida bans lawmakers from intentionally creating congressional seats to give their party an advantage. But Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly has launched a three-tiered power play to evade the ban — and create more GOP-friendly seats — in November.

Why it matters: Partisan control of Congress could hinge on how — or whether — Florida legislators approve DeSantis' new map of U.S. House districts in a special session next Tuesday.

DeSantis called lawmakers to Tallahassee in light of the nationwide redistricting battle that began when President Trump pressured Republican-led states to create more GOP-leaning House seats.

Ed: DeSantis may end up with the last laugh. Even so, I wonder whether this just ends up being a wash in the midterms, unless the court tosses out the Virginia redistricting. 

===

Karoline Leavitt gaggles with the press for the last time before her baby girl arrives!

“I know all of you have the President’s phone number personally, so I have no doubt that you won’t have a shortage of statements and news from this building while I’m gone” @PressSec 🤣🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/TunqaU3p6S

— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) April 24, 2026

Ed: Good luck, Karoline Leavitt, and many blessings on you and your family!

Editor's note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you're digging these Final Word posts and want to join the conversation in the comments -- and support independent platforms -- why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!