For people who follow current events daily, there is a shocking amount of shocking news every day.
Obviously, it’s all relative; the news of today is not close to that of living through a world war, the holocaust, economic depression, or, if you want to go way back, a civil or revolutionary war. But, in the world today, it does feel like we are living through a re-set culturally and politically.
About a year ago, well-known conservative historian and philosopher Victor Davis Hanson wrote in a piece titled Reflections on the Counter-Revolution in America that,
The left’s revolution had become so deeply institutionalized that the once-bizarre had become the politically correct norm: three, not two, sexes; illegal aliens de facto not different from American citizens; a country without borders; massive debt and trade imbalances propped up for years by near-zero, de facto interest rates; and nation-building abroad as the country’s interior at home was hollowed out.
It is VDH’s sentiments that I am channeling today. There is a reset going on and it’s only at the beginning. OMB Director Russ Vought spoke about the reset going on after 100 years of expansive government policies in a speech before the Republican National Lawyers Association. His speech is linked here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CjrNWam44/
This week one of the more explosive stories that is part of the reset – counter-revolution is the news that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been indicted for paying the very hate groups they say they hate.
That story continues the unraveling of the cultural hoaxes Americans have been subjected to by Leftists organizations for decades.
The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted by a grand jury for payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2014 to multiple persons inside the very groups they deemed to be hate groups.
From the Justice Department’s press release:
A Grand Jury in Montgomery, Alabama, today returned an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division filed two forfeiture actions to recover alleged proceeds of the organization’s fraud scheme. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated this case with assistance from the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).
“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law.”
“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups – even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes. That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.
The fraud of the SPLC is part of the broader fraud of the DEI, “transgender”, sanctuary state activist agenda Americans, and even more so Illinoisans, have had shoved into every aspect of public policy. But, change is happening with the following:
- the indictment of SPLC,
- the CASS report and Finnish report on the harm of gender transitioning,
- the legal cases against doctors who permanently mutilated young persons,
- the federal civil rights lawsuits that now squarely deem race-based college entrance and scholarships as racist,
- the pushback on illegal immigration
- the uncovering of massive amounts of taxpayer fraud
All of the above point to an awakening to the scams that have been perpetrated on the American people. The mainstream media, woke education establishment, and Leftist politicians will try to bury the story on the SPLC and continue on as if they had no part in furthering the extreme ideology and hoaxes, but for number of reasons, they won’t be able to ignore what is obvious to so many.
Americans don’t hate each other as a rule. They are, however, increasingly suspicious of their government and politicians and frustrated with a lack of progress on crime, poverty, fiscal restraint, and fairness in public policy.
Three shootings in just the last 48-hours point to a further unraveling of the social compact between citizens for which there will be a reckoning.
The First Shooting – the third attempt on President Trump’s life last night at the White House Correspondence Dinner. The alleged shooter is a 31-year old mechanical engineer who graduated from the prestigious California Institute of Technology. He had recently been employed as an ACT/SAT tutor which raises its own questions for someone so accomplished.
We must understand how it is that a 31-year old flies literally across the country, arms himself with two guns and multiple knives, and then attempts to shoot up an event that the President is at. How was he radicalized? Was he aided by anyone? What enraged him enough to plan out the attack?
New information reported this morning is that the shooter was a political Leftist having attended a No Kings rally and having left a manifesto that was anti-Trump and anti-Christian.
In the wake of this shooting, will Chicago Public Schools keep it’s May Day plans to host anti-Trump rallies?
The Second Shooting – the tragic shooting of two Chicago police officers, one who died at the scene and the second who is still hospitalized. The shooting occurred at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital while the shooter was in police custody. He had been taken there for observation and was able to get a gun.
CWB Chicago reports that,
“A man suspected of shooting two Chicago police officers inside a hospital room Saturday morning had been a fugitive for weeks, had two violent felony cases pending against him, had escaped from electronic monitoring, and was listed as an absconder by the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to court records and multiple government sources.
The officers were standing guard over the man at Swedish Hospital, 5140 North California Avenue, when he gained access to a gun and shot them around 10:50 a.m., CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling said.”
Here’s yet another example of multiple policy failures by Illinois leaders. CWB Chicago also reported that in December 2025, the alleged shooter “had four felony cases pending: armed vehicular hijacking with a firearm, armed robbery with a firearm, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, and aggravated battery of a peace officer” when Judge John Lyke agreed to place him on electronic monitoring. By January the judge loosened his restrictions allowing the alleged shooter to attend classes a Truman College and move around. By March the individual was skipping court dates and could not be found.
Here’s just part of his record,
”The suspect first appeared in CWB Chicago’s reporting in 2017, after he attacked and robbed two men in Boystown and later robbed three more men at gunpoint on the Grand Red Line platform in River North. He ultimately received four concurrent seven-year sentences for those crimes.
In 2021, he was sentenced to three years for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He got out, was arrested again in 2023 for possessing a stolen vehicle and fleeing police, and while in jail, got charged with battering correctional officers, court records show.”
This shooter needs to be a case study from his birth to his alleged murder of a police officer. What happened here? What services were offered and failed? What about taxpayer funded day care, preschool, parent mentoring, violence prevention programs, Afterschool Matters, Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, free education through college, solar-for-all job programs, get your degree in prison programs…I could go on and on.
How about all those taxpayer-supported NGOs that help community members?
What went wrong? This alleged shooter isn’t the only one who “fell through the crack.” It’s a giant crater in public policy and it’s failing everywhere.
The Third Shooting – Louisiana Mall Shooting. From a CNN report:
Louisiana authorities have charged a 17-year-old with murder, and they are searching for another suspect after bystanders were caught in the crossfire of a shooting at a mall in Baton Rouge on Thursday that killed one teenage girl.
Baton Rouge Police Chief TJ Morse said the shooting seemed to be driven by “social media beefs and maybe gang-related stuff,” but the investigation is ongoing. One thing Morse said he was sure of was that the shooting was not a random act.
“We know that this was two groups of people that met up at the mall, exchanged words and then pulled guns and innocent people were hit,” Morse said.
This shooting is like so much other teen violence we see in Chicago. Kids meet up, someone says something that offends another, and then a gun is pulled out and shots are fired.
What’s different this time is Governor Landry’s response to the shooting. He’s had it. And it sounds like accountability is coming.
According to the article, Landry said:
“he is asking all levels and sectors of law enforcement — including the National Guard, FBI, US Department of Justice and US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — to “prepare for a targeted warrant sweep” for anyone connected to the mall shooting and focus on the “neighborhoods that these individuals came out of.” Landry said the sweep also includes adults who “enable juvenile offenders” and “need to face consequences as well.”
“We are not going to allow our streets, our schools and our public spaces to become your battleground,” Landry said. “Those who brought this violence into our public spaces and into the lives of our ordinary citizens, I want you to know you are now the criminal problem and we are focused on you.”
A 17-year old has been arrested. And “During Friday’s news conference, Landry vehemently told reporters that if it was up to him the suspects would “spend the rest of their lives” at Louisiana’s notorious state penitentiary.”
America cannot allow a few lawless individuals to wreak havoc in our neighborhoods and public spaces without consequence.
We’ve funded every policy proposal the Left has asked for and they have failed. Law and order must be established and accountability pushed back to the family.
Back to the SPLC – The SPLC has a Hate Map and list where they track individuals and organizations that hold conservative views on issues of immigration, marriage, sexual orientation, and more. “Hate” groups include Alliance Defending Freedom, Liberty Counsel, Family Research Council, and American Family Association. TPUSA, Focus on the Family, and PragerU are listed as “extremist” groups.
In her previous position with Illinois Family Institute (IFI), Breakthrough Ideas Cultural and Education Writer, Laurie Higgins wrote about her interaction with SPLC and her attempt to get IFI removed from their list of extremist organization. Laurie’s post is included in this newsletter.
IFI remains on the SPLC naughty list. They shouldn’t be. It’s actually the above groups that provide the answer to stopping the horrific shootings listed above and the other crimes against people in this country that dutifully as citizens play by the rules every day.
IN OTHER NEWS
House Roll Call on the Bears/Mega-Project Bill
Good News – The Millionaire’s tax failed for this year. Despite Speaker Welch being in favor of the 3% additional tax on income over $1 million, he could not convince enough of his members to agree to put the constituitional amendment on the ballot. Read more here:
Bad News – the Bears/Mega-Project bill advanced with a vote of 78-32. Ten Republicans voted for the bill – 25% of Republican members. House Minority Leader Tony McCombie didn’t vote on the bill. Obviously, the caucus was divided and she had no power to influence the legislation. That said, she should have taken a stand one way or the other and made a strong statement on what she wanted in the bill that wasn’t there.
The bill is a hot-mess of special deals for everyone except property owners not included in a mega-project. The bill gives massive 40-year property tax relief to projects spending $100 million or more without giving any relief to other propety owners.
My stance has always been if big business gets relief on property taxes, then everyone else does too. That’s not what happens in this bill. While the bill says that one-half of the “payment in lieu of taxes” (PILOT) goes to local and statewide tax relief, the PILOT money will be a pittance in relief spread over so many property owners.
In my opinion, Republicans should have been a hard no and bargained for a hard property tax cap for all. There were other reasons to say no to the project. It requires union work under a project labor agreement, something that should be negotiated privately instead of mandated in a bill, it gives a 10-year sales tax exemption for all construction materials, and it requires a 20% spend with minority-owned businesses and defines what qualifies as such – this is blatantly racist and unneeded 60 years after the Civil Rights Act passed and decades of set asides for minority businesses.
There was much more news to report from this week and I will send out a separate email on other issues later in the week.