History. Art. Culture. The Written Word. Comedy. Curiosities. Nature and The Sciences. Anything Else That Holds My Attention. Combinations Thereof. And The Occasional Disjointed Personal Post. ((Hodge-Podge)) Welcome Bid. "Queen of the Cultured Wilds. Empress of the Empty Space between Words. Grand Duchess with Dominion over Damasks" - shilohta "The best mystery I've ever discovered" - R a n d e h
olive is circulating again! i hope even now after she’s gone she knows how many people saw such an often misunderstood little creature and sent so much love her way. i love being reminded of this post and read through the tags all the time, it gives me hope in the goodness of people, especially during shit times. i love you olive!
Southern Poverty Law Center releases report as US government pursues federal fraud charges against group
Maya Yang at The Guardian:
A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) finds hard-right groups have increasingly expanded their influence across the US government, which is pursuing a federal fraud case into the civil rights organization.
Tuesday’s report – which identified 1,263 hate and anti-government groups in operation throughout 2025 – comes less than two months after it was indicted by the government it says the hard right has infiltrated.
According to the SPLC’s annual Year in Hate and Extremism report, Donald Trump’s administration has “radically transformed government policy in favor of far-right interests and individuals” since the start of his second presidency in early 2025.
In addition to the administration’s “full, complete and unconditional” presidential pardons of approximately 1,500 people involved in the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021, the report cited the administration’s shifting the focus of federal law enforcement from combating violent crime to conducting immigration raids against marginalized communities.
The report said 23% of all FBI agents have been reassigned to immigration enforcement, leading to the stripping of personnel from other areas including white-collar crime, counter-terrorism, organized crime and cybercrime.
“The Trump administration’s shift away from traditional law enforcement priorities, staffing and funding, along with its embrace of dangerously aggressive and reckless immigration enforcement tactics, has made US citizens less safe and more likely to be victimized,” the report asserted.
It also said that the administration has “downplayed the threat of right-wing extremist violence” – and in the process has increased the threat posed by far-right extremism.
The report pointed to the US Senate’s confirmation of senior administration officials including defense secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI director Kash Patel and former National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent, all of whom have espoused racist and misogynistic views.
In addition to the administration’s dismantlement of a national database that tracked domestic terrorism and hate crimes, the SPLC report cited the justice department’s removal of a peer-reviewed study from its website that found far-right attacks continue to “outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism”.
The report also cited a rise in younger, digitally savvy rightwingers who have been “granted unprecedented access to the federal government, gained political power in exchange for creating content that helped sell the administration’s policies targeting immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, women and poor folks”.
The SPLC-- which is under the scope for bogus “fraud” charges by the Trump Regime-- released its annual The Year In Hate and Extremism report.
The report reveals that hard-right groups have increasingly expanded their influence across the US government as a result of Donald Trump returning to office.
See Also:
NCRM: Hard-Right Groups Expanded Power Across the Trump Administration in 2025: SPLC Report
Le Phénakisticop by Paul Gavarni, 1834 (Art Institute Chicago).
A charming look at an 1830s couple enjoying the novelty of an early animation technology: a phenakistiscope disc that shows a short, looping animation when rotated.
A French phenakistiscope animation from 1833 (Wikimedia).
Proscription of direct action group has led to more than 700 people being charged under Terrorism Act
Protesters arrested for allegedly supporting Palestine Action have expressed anger at the court of appeal’s decision that the ban on the direct action group was lawful.
On Monday, five judges overturned the high court’s February ruling that proscription was unlawful, meaning that more than 3,000 people who have been arrested under the Terrorism Act since proscription, more than 700 of whom have been charged, could now face prosecution.
While the Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, has said she will appeal to the supreme court, any prospect of the ban being quashed and prosecutions being discontinued – which seemed a possibility after the high court judgment – is off the table for now.
One of those charged, Deborah Hinton, 82, a former magistrate from Truro, Cornwall, described the judgment as “devastating and shocking”. She said of a prison sentence under the Terrorism Act: “Obviously I’m very upset, I’m very nervous, but I couldn’t do anything else but do what I did. I didn’t have a choice. We are heading towards an authoritarian state, and as I saw it, it was my duty to take a stand.
“One did hold out hope that the government [would] see sense. We haven’t got enough money to have a proper defence system for this country and yet they’re wasting millions and millions on this ridiculous prosecution of people holding placards.”
The vast majority of those arrested were holding placards saying “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” at Defend Our Juries demonstrations.
Marianne Sorrell, 81, from Wells, Somerset, who was held by police for almost 27 hours after being arrested, during which officers forced their way into her house and searched it, described Monday’s judgment as a travesty of justice. “I’m thinking very seriously of getting arrested again for the same offence,” she said.
“I haven’t up to now, because it meant going to London but I’m so incensed by what’s going on and very perturbed that I’m thinking I will go to London if the action to support Palestine Action is to continue.”
Both Hinton and Sorrell also expressed outrage about the lengthy custodial sentences imposed on Friday on four Palestine Action activists who smashed up drones and other equipment at an Israeli arms manufacturer’s UK factory after a judge ruled that there was a “terrorist connection” to their offending. Hinton described it as “completely out of all proportion and of anything that one could expect in a civilised country like ours”.
Father John McGowan, 75 – who was one of 532 people arrested at a demonstration in Parliament Square on 9 August last year, said he too was angry and disappointed by the court of appeal’s decision but it did not affect how he felt about what he did.
“[Being arrested and charged] is an inconvenience for me compared to what the people are currently experiencing in Gaza, and still are,” he said. “My judge is myself, my conscience, I’m at peace with myself and with what I’ve done and so let’s see what happens. I’m prepared even to go to prison. I don’t think that will happen but I’m prepared to do that.”
In her written judgment on Monday, the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, said: “When the severity of the effects of proscription on [an individual’s rights to freedom of expression and assembly] are balanced against the importance of the objectives of protecting national security and the rights and freedoms of others … we find that the latter in this case outweighed the former.”
The court of appeal’s decision also prompted renewed criticism of the ban from human rights groups.
Tom Southerden, Amnesty’s legal programme director, said: “We have long said that the banning of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was a grave misuse of sweeping counter-terrorism powers with serious consequences for human rights, and today’s outcome does not alter that assessment. It is fundamentally disproportionate to treat direct action protest as terrorism.
“The images of people from all walks of life – from nurses and pensioners to military veterans – being bundled into police vans for peacefully holding placards will be long remembered as a deeply shameful chapter in our history.”
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