Jason Arday: the Cambridge D.E.I. professor and his sad demise

On August 5th Jason Arday, Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge, resigned after being outed for plagiarism allegations, personal qualifications and alleged achievements.

The D.E.I. hire was appointed in 2023 as Cambridge's youngest Black professor, but investigations by the school cast doubts about his claimed accomplishments which became public. 

For example, Arday claimed to have run 30 marathons in 35 days. I've run a dozen in my life and let me just say, this is almost impossible. And in one version, he claimed to have suffered an epileptic seizure and fractured his leg on the 21st marathon but finished the rest. He also claimed to have run 300 miles in 3 days, and 600 miles in 6 days, occasionally describing it as Edinburgh to London. 

He also claimed to have raised over £5 million (or specifically £5.5 million and counting) for 70–80+ charities over roughly 18–20 years, most notably Shooting Star Children’s Hospices and Shelter, largely through the ultra-running challenges. (He later said this was as part of a larger syndicate/collective of about 100 people whose names he could not disclose due to NDAs.) Earlier versions of his story included lower but still substantial figures, such as nearly £250,000 by his late 20s or over £100,000 since age 17.

The real mindblower was regarding his personal background and overcoming adversity. Supposedly, he was diagnosed with autism along with other developmental delays, at age 3, and was non-verbal until age 11, just prior to his 12th birthday, when he "miraculously" spoke. He claimed to have been illiterate until age 18. Other related details in his self-accounts of his history include learning disabilities, epilepsy, a benign brain tumor, and other health challenges.

But wait . . . there's more.

Arday also claimed to have played academy-level/semi-professional football, did relief work with WaterAid, [installing water points in South America and West Africa. He was also an Olympic torch bearer for the London 2012 Olympics as a highlight of his fundraising work, and was shortlisted many times for The Mirror's Pride of Britain Fundraiser of the Year Award which earned him various honors tied to these efforts.

His PhD thesis was clearly plagiarized and he even incorporated the same grammatical errors the students from whom he copied and pasted, or whatever, made.

Sadly, Jason Arday was found dead on Friday, 14 August 2026. Multiple reports from outlets including the Associated Press, BBC, CBC, and others stated he was found unresponsive at a home in Battersea, south London. His family, via his publisher Simon & Schuster, expressed shock at the loss. The death was listed as non suspicious and I suspect he was responsible himself.

I blame Cambridge for not vetting him beyond his claims and race. He checked all the victim boxes and Cambridge had to be licking their chops when he applied there for employment.

I suspect Arday just couldn't stand the public humiliation and having to face the reality of who he actually was. 

D.E.I. is also dying and in this case, that's a good thing.  

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Likud launches billboard ahead of elections with the four Horses Asses of the Apolcalypse

Likud billboard with Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem. August 16, 2026. 

Likud has apparently decided that the best way to kick off election season is to remind Israelis that, when it comes to political enemies, there is always room for a few more.

The party unveiled a billboard featuring Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem. Israeli social media accounts shared images of the billboard Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu helpfully reposted the image with the caption: “Don’t let them win.”

The billboard itself reportedly reads: “They want Netanyahu to lose, don’t let them win.”

The Jerusalem Post, however, believes the billboard is not actually in Jerusalem, as social media posts claimed, but in Tel Aviv overlooking the Ayalon Highway. Apparently even billboards are getting caught up in the Israeli election geography dispute.

Naturally, Israeli politicians were not going to let Likud have all the fun.

Yashar, the party led by former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, produced its own version. Its billboard read: “They want the IDF to collapse, don’t let Netanyahu win.”

“Netanyahu, we fixed for you,” the X/Twitter caption read. “Only Eisenkot will establish a fully Zionist government.”

Then MK Naama Lazimi entered the fray with perhaps the most politically loaded Photoshop job of the day.

She replaced Likud’s four villains with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Netanyahu’s current strategic adviser Yonatan Urich, former media adviser Eli Feldstein, and former political adviser Srulik Einhorn, all of whom are believed to be connected to the Qatargate affair.

Qatargate concerns an investigation into Netanyahu aides who allegedly received payments from Qatar while involved in hostage negotiations with Hamas. Nothing says Israeli political unity quite like accusing your opponent of being compromised by the country associated with Hamas.

Lazimi changed the billboard's message to: “They want Netanyahu to win, don’t let them lose.”

“Netanyahu, I updated this to the Qatargate version,” she wrote. “The invoice will be submitted on October 7.”

At this point, Israeli election campaigning has apparently evolved into a national Photoshop competition with the added benefit of an occasional national security implication.

And the polls suggest voters have plenty of choices. Eisenkot’s Yashar currently leads with 24 Knesset seats, followed by Netanyahu’s Likud with 22 and Naftali Bennett’s B'Yachad with 15.

The election has not even arrived yet, and the candidates are already putting each other on billboards with Ayatollahs, terrorists, foreign leaders and alleged scandal participants.

Israelis may want to buckle up. Election season is apparently going to be a long one.

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Illegal alien woman demands citizenship, goes ballistic in Espanol: calls for end of ICE doing their job

In a bold stand for the sacred right to ignore the law for decades while expecting freebies, furious Americans took to social media to blast an illegal alien who has been present in the United States for 37 years after she demanded amnesty in a Spanish rant alongside top Democratic Party leaders.

"I ask that you be champions of a change in the immigration laws," said Margarita Cielo Balbuena, in Spanish, flanked by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ), through an interpreter earlier this week. 

"We need a path to citizenship for those of us that have been present for at least seven years in this country," she continued. "We need a stop to these raids that immigration is using to terrorize Dover [New Jersey]." 

Basically, Balbuena wants ICE to stop doing their damn job.

"It is not just that someone like me, who has been in this country since 1989, [and still doesn't speak English] who pays taxes, who is a homeowner, who is a business owner who gives work to others, someone who has children and grandchildren who are born in this country — that I have to suffer the psychological and physical abuse and that I also have to suffer the humiliation that is the violent arrest and detention in a detention center," said Cielo Balbuena.

By violent arrest, Balbuena is referring to being arrested without incident. No wounds, no blood, but somehow it's violent.

The foreign-born woman was detained in ICE's Elizabeth Detention Center for two months, and claimed that she was treated inhumanely, according to the New Jersey Globe. Apparently, being held for repeatedly violating U.S. immigration law after nearly four decades of freeloading off the system counts as "abuse" in the progressive dictionary.

Jeffries faces growing pressure as democratic socialist-backed candidates gain influence in New York, raising new questions about the party's ideological direction. But online opponents of illegal immigration were not sympathetic to Cielo Balbuena's call. 

Shockingly, some people still believe that entering and remaining in a country illegally for 37 years does not entitle you to a participation trophy and a passport. 

Among her most prominent and harshest critics was former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commander-at-large Gregory Bovino."You have lived in the United States since 1989. That is 37 years. You still need a translator," he said. "At a Democratic event you stood up and demanded a path to citizenship for anyone who has been here just 7 years," Bovino continued. "Notice the arrogance. Notice the entitlement." 

He went on to claim that Democrats' open borders policies allowed so many foreigners into the country so quickly that "assimilation is no longer required." 

"There can be no amnesty and there can be no exceptions. All illegals must go," the John Birch Society said on X in response to the video. 

"No English. No citizenship," said popular online personality Brigitte Gabriel. "No. Someone who wanted to be a citizen would care enough to learn the language. In any country," said another post that garnered over 1,000 likes.

"Immediate deportation," said actor Matthew Marsden. "A just country that cares about its citizens should defend it. That includes getting rid of people like this."

Rep. Jeffries spoke at the event, and demanded the closure of Delaney Hall, another ICE detention facility in New Jersey that was subject to intense protests and sometimes violent riots for months earlier this year. 

"Delaney Hall needs to be shut down," Jeffries said. "That will remain a high priority for us until it takes place. The behavior that ICE is engaging in is inconsistent with our values and what America should represent." [The values Jeffries refers to is the end to law and order, open borders, and defunding the police.]

The White House fired back in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying: "These types of smears by sanctuary politicians are contributing to our ICE law enforcement officers facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats. Our ICE officers are heroes who put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists from American communities. Democrats must stop demonizing our officers for simply enforcing our nation’s laws," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said. 

At press time, Democrats were still searching for a way to explain how demanding citizenship after 37 years of lawbreaking while needing a translator somehow advances the cause of justice, fairness, and not turning America into a free-for-all.

Ya es hora de deportar a todos los extranjeros ilegales.

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IDF seizes huge Iran terror axis arsenal but the fingerprints on them are damning

Israel’s capture of a vast arsenal from Iran’s terror proxies reveals an axis with the most unexpected originsAmong the weapons taken from Hezbollah was a Nazi-era MG-34 machine gunFox News Digital was granted rare access to the Israel Defense Forces’ Tzrifin Base in central Israel. There, stored in careful order, lies a formidable collection of rockets, grenades, drones, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers, mortars and assorted firepower seized from Hezbollah and Hamas.

This arsenal, manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russia, China, and by local workshops in Lebanon and Gaza, and even including a relic of the Nazi era, formed the machinery with which Hamas and Hezbollah waged war against Israeli civilians and the IDF after the October 7, 2023, massacre. 

The IDF notes that Hezbollah directed some of the same weapons against Lebanese civilians as well. Both groups belong to Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance.” Together they have killed more than 300 American citizens, according to available reports. 

At the height of the conflict Israel fought a multi-front war against Iran and its proxies. Tehran fired these weapons into civilian areas, including Tel Aviv and Be’ersheva. Days after the joint American-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, the regime launched a ballistic missile into Beersheba, wounding 19 people.

To the untrained eye the small Nazi swastika emblem on a German Second World War MG-34 machine gun, recovered from a Hezbollah compound in Lebanon, is almost invisible. 

For Lieutenant Colonel (reserve) Idan Sharon-Kettler, commander of the IDF’s Captured Equipment Evacuation Unit, identifying such markings is routine. “The German MG-34 has the markings of an eagle carrying a swastika stamped on it,” he explained. The gun, he told Fox News Digital, appears to have served “propaganda or for morale” among the Iranian-backed terrorists in Lebanon. A second Nazi-era weapon, the MP 44 (also known as the StG 44), was likewise taken from Hezbollah.

Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated terrorist organizations by the United States, showed particular ingenuity in converting ordinary vehicles into instruments of high-intensity attack. Dual-use technology, equipment that serves civilian purposes one day and military ones the next, is their stock in trade. 

“Motorcycles like these took Israelis hostages,” Sharon-Kettler said, indicating an Egyptian Halawa Motors motorcycle captured inside Israel on 7 October. That day Hamas murdered more than 1,200 people, among them more than 40 American citizens, and abducted over 250 others. 

The IDF also recovered rockets belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad that had been employed as “propaganda dummies” in Gaza parades directed against Israel. From Hezbollah in Lebanon came all-terrain vehicles designed to carry rockets and fighters. One such ATV was fitted to hold six rockets complete with launchers. “You can sit on top of a hill and control a road that goes underneath. And with six anti-tank rockets you will stop almost any vehicle that passes,” Sharon-Kettler observed. 

In the broken, hilly terrain of southern Lebanon the vehicles offered obvious tactical advantages. 

Iranian-made mortars were found in quantity. “We found hundreds” in Lebanon, Sharon-Kettler said. Drones, including decoy models, were seized as well. Some of Hezbollah’s drones, according to Sharon-Kettler, exist chiefly “to make noise” and thereby “divert [IDF] resources.” 

Dozens of Iranian-produced cannons were taken from villages in southern Lebanon, the organization’s heartland. “In many houses the canons were pointing out of windows,” he reported. One of the captured pieces was of Russian manufacture. The storage halls also contain Russian AK-47 assault rifles in various configurations, together with more recent AK-103 and AK-104 models recovered in southern Lebanon. “Light sniper rifles, some made in Iran, some Russian, are very common with Hezbollah and Hamas,” Sharon-Kettler noted. 

Among the more unexpected finds was a highly decorated Turkish hunting rifle used by Hezbollah, as well as sophisticated Austrian Steyr sniper rifles, including the Steyr HS .50-calibre model. An Iranian-made replica of the Steyr was also displayed. Sub-machine guns of Chinese and Russian origin, and anti-tank launchers produced in Russia and Iran, completed the collection of small arms and support weapons.Uniforms manufactured in Syria, China and Lebanon, helmets, anti-shrapnel vests and medical kits further illustrate the professional and guerrilla equipment amassed by these groups. 

Both Hezbollah and Hamas embed their fighters among civilian populations, placing them inside residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools and mosques. This is how these terrorists operate, but it seems the Left doesn't like to discuss this situation.

Sharon-Kettler offered a blunt assessment of Israel’s continued presence in Lebanon. “Even after the agreement we had with the Lebanese army and government, once we entered Lebanon again, we kept finding everything that is here. For me, it means, if we are not doing the work to clean Lebanon from military entities targeting are civilians, nobody else is doing that.” He referred to the November 2024 ceasefire arrangement between Lebanon and Israel that was meant to end the fighting begun when Hezbollah joined Hamas’s war on 8 October 2023.

A State Department official, speaking on background, recently informed Fox News that the American-led effort to secure the disarmament of Hezbollah by the Lebanese government and a phased withdrawal of IDF forces from southern Lebanon continues. The next round of talks is scheduled for early September in Rome. “We feel good about the trajectory,” the official said, adding, “We are not naive about the difficulties. . . "

Hezbollah, of course, is trying to sabotage the process.  

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Texas Airports Discover the Shocking Concept of Religious Neutrality

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R-of course) has apparently committed the unforgivable sin of asking whether government-owned airports should be in the business of providing religion-specific amenities.

Abbott ordered a review of state funding for airports across Texas after learning about Islamic ablution facilities at two of the state's largest airports. The question is fairly simple: If government is supposed to remain religiously neutral, why is it providing specialized facilities for the practices of one particular faith?

“These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” said Abbott.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport plans to install separate foot-washing stations for men and women so Muslims can perform wudu, the ritual washing conducted before Islamic prayer. The project was originally listed as privately funded, with an estimated price tag of $300,000 and an August 31 start date.

Apparently, however, the phrase "privately funded" was experiencing a brief identity crisis.

DFW later told the Dallas Express that the facilities would actually be paid for with airport funds. The airport blamed an outside design firm, which mistakenly selected "non-publicly funded" on a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

“That was an error and it should have indicated that airport funds would be used projects. We are putting in firm erroneously selected no dollars for its operation to prevent that kind of error in the future,” said DFW.

This is reassuring. Nothing makes taxpayers sleep better than learning that hundreds of thousands of dollars in airport spending may have been accurately described as private funding due to an unfortunate encounter with a dropdown menu.

Abbott's review could result in existing state grants being revoked and future funding denied to airport operators, including DFW and George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

He has also asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to investigate both airports for possible religious discrimination.

While DFW is still deciding whether to install its ablution facilities, IAH [George Bush International Airport] already has one connected to a prayer room.

“Both airports are government-owned facilities,” said Abbott. “The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination.”

Abbott also asked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to have the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration review the facilities and take corrective action if necessary.

Both airports receive federal funding and are required to comply with federal laws prohibiting religious discrimination. Which raises an awkward question for the modern bureaucracy: If government cannot favor one religion over another, how exactly did taxpayers wind up underwriting religious foot baths?

Surely this is all just a misunderstanding.

Perhaps tomorrow the airports will announce that Christians can receive complimentary baptismal pools, Jews can get kosher ceremonial washing stations, Hindus can receive a taxpayer-funded purification room, and atheists can be provided with a comfortable chair where they can contemplate the absurdity of the entire arrangement.

DFW's explanation does little to calm the situation. According to the airport, the outside design firm selected the wrong funding designation on the paperwork.

Apparently the airport's religious neutrality was not the problem. The checkbox was.

X users backed Abbott's move, with some calling for similar scrutiny of other airports.

At this rate, the next great airport security breakthrough may not involve detecting explosives. It may involve detecting whether the government has accidentally decided to become the facilities manager for someone's religion.

And somewhere, a taxpayer is still waiting for the airport to build a special foot-washing station for him.

He just hasn't figured out which religion gets one yet.

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Graham Platner returns like a boomerang on a rope: Dems pissed

Graham Platner was supposed to be yesterday’s problem. Fat chance.

Instead, the former neo Nazi Maine Senate candidate has apparently decided to become the Democratic Party’s version of that mysterious brown stain on the carpet that refuses to disappear no matter how much everyone insists the room has been cleaned.

Platner was forced out of the Senate race after his disturbing social media history, Nazi tattoo, domestic abuse allegations, and a credible rape allegation became impossible for Democrats to ignore. There’s damaged goods, and then there’s Graham Platner, who somehow managed to make damaged goods look like a luxury product.

Naturally, like an ugly puss pimple on a hot date, he’s back.

Comrade Platner is now scheduled to headline a Labor Day rally in Maine, prompting Democrats who had desperately hoped to move on from the controversy to react with gastroenteritis and flatulence.

According to the Bangor Daily News, Democrats are confused and frustrated that activists in Hancock County announced the rally featuring this alleged sexual abuser. The event comes as the party attempts to rally behind its new Senate nominee, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, who is trying to build a national campaign against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Jackson has his own Platner-ish problems, but that's a story for another time. I'll just say, not only is he married to his second cousin, he's alleged to be abusive toward her.

Republicans have already spent weeks trying to tie Jackson to Platner. So naturally, the last thing Democrats need is for Platner to grab a microphone, step onto a stage, and remind everyone why they spent so much time trying to make him disappear.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” former Maine Democratic Party Vice Chair Peggy Schaffer said. “He’s not an elected official, not a union member, and he’s an accused rapist.” [She left out alleged domestic abuser.]

"And this one is my Totenkopf. Nice, right?"

Jordan Wood, who ran for the Senate and House earlier this year and is working to elect Jackson and other Democrats, was equally concerned.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Wood said. “I think it’s important for the many Democratic campaigns to move on from that. Highlighting him at an event is unproductive and unhelpful for those campaigns.” Because when you pull the curtain back, you see the slime bucket this guy is.

That seems like a fairly straightforward message: Please stop inviting the controversial former candidate to Democratic events.

Unfortunately, Democrats have never been particularly good at following their own advice when a politically useful ally is accused of sexual misconduct.

Just ask Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, Eric Swalwell, Al Franken, or Andrew Cuomo,.

Platner’s alleged victims are not laughing.

Jenny Racicot and Lyndsey Fifield, who have accused Platner of rape and domestic abuse respectively, released a statement condemning the decision to give him another public platform. And they are Democrats!

"Last month, we came forward at great personal cost to tell the world who we knew Graham Platner to be. We shed light on some of the darkest, most painful days of our lives and detailed the toll – physical and emotional – that his abuse took on each of us. Neither of us wanted to be forced into the spotlight, but we came forward because we believe in building a future where no other woman has to endure what we did.

"In the weeks since we spoke out, Graham Platner has had every opportunity to take accountability for the pain he has caused. Instead, he has continued to double down – discrediting us and telling blatant lies about his past. And now, he’s trying to sweep the truth under the rug and pretend things are back to normal.

"While Graham’s behavior sucks, it’s hardly surprising. What is surprising is that there are people who are still willing to give him a platform despite his refusal to take any accountability for his actions. It’s a slap in the face, not just to us, but to survivors everywhere. Our message to Mainers: stand with survivors and refuse to platform abusers."

Cheyenne Hunt, executive director of Reckoning Action, also demanded that Democrats reconsider the invitation.

“Continuing to give Graham Platner a bully pulpit is irresponsible, reckless, and antithetical to the direction we should be headed as Democrats. If we want to be a party that supports survivors, we cannot also be a party that continues to platform abusers. Full stop.

"We call on the Hancock County Activists to rescind his invitation to speak, and we call on Democrats everywhere to stand with survivors.”

At this point, the Democratic Party appears to have created the political equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster, only to discover that the monster keeps showing up at Labor Day rallies demanding a microphone.

Democrats wanted Platner gone.

Platner apparently had other plans. Perhaps his oyster farm isn't doing so well. 

And now the party that desperately wants voters to forget about him is being forced to explain why its own activists are putting him on stage.

There are political candidates who refuse to die.

Then there is Graham Platner, apparently rolling toward the next campaign event like der Fuhrer's Panzers in the Ardennes, leaving Democratic campaign strategists behind him frantically searching for the political equivalent of an anti-tank weapon.

He's a fool, but a dangerous fool. Maybe, however, he'll open the eyes of Democrats who finally realize how far their party has gone over the edge and they'll switch to the Grand Old Party.

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Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao's home raided by FBI and woo hoo, it's interesting

Sheng Thao is the former mayor of Oakland, California (2023–2024), the first Hmong American to lead a major U.S. city. She was narrowly elected in 2022, recalled by voters in 2024 amid crime concerns and other issues, and faces an ongoing federal bribery and corruption case with a trial scheduled for October 2026.

Background and rise to office

Thao was born in 1985 in Stockton, California, the daughter of Hmong refugees who fled Laos. She grew up in poverty, experienced domestic violence, and was homeless for a time in her early 20s (including living in her car with her infant son). She later earned degrees from Merritt College and UC Berkeley.

She worked as a staffer for Oakland City Council member Rebecca Kaplan, then won election to the Oakland City Council (District 4) in 2018—the first Hmong American on the council. She served as president pro tem. In November 2022, she narrowly defeated fellow councilmember Loren Taylor in a ranked-choice mayoral race (by roughly 682 votes) and took office in January 2023 as Oakland’s 51st mayor. She emphasized addressing crime, homelessness, and affordable housing, with goals including building tens of thousands of new housing units.

Mayoral tenure and recall

Her time in office was turbulent. Early on, she fired Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. The city faced ongoing challenges with crime, business closures, homelessness, and budget issues (including deficits). Crime later declined in some metrics, and she pointed to efforts on housing, violence prevention (including a ceasefire strategy), 911 improvements, and other initiatives.

A recall campaign gained traction, driven by frustration over public safety and questions about her leadership. The Oakland police union called for her resignation. On November 5, 2024, voters approved the recall with about 60.6% in favor—the first successful mayoral recall in Oakland history. She left office in mid-December 2024 after results were certified.

Federal investigation and charges

In June 2024 (shortly after the recall petition was certified), the FBI raided Thao’s home as part of a corruption probe. In January 2025, a federal grand jury indicted her, her longtime partner Andre Jones, and father-son businessmen David and Andy Duong (associated with California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s recycling contractor, and related housing ventures such as Evolutionary Homes).

Prosecutors describe an alleged “pay-to-play” scheme. They claim that around the 2022 election and afterward, the Duongs provided campaign support (including financing roughly $75,000 in negative mailers against Thao’s opponents) and payments to Jones for a “no-show” job (about $95,000 of a promised larger amount), in exchange for Thao using her influence to help their businesses—such as with recycling contracts, city purchases of modular/container housing, favorable appointments, and other favors. Additional allegations in court filings have included claims of sharing sensitive information, creating fake employment records, and other actions.

All four defendants pleaded not guilty. Related figures, including political operative Mario Juarez (a key alleged participant/informant) and former San Leandro Councilmember Bryan Azevedo, have pleaded guilty in connected matters and are expected to be witnesses. Prosecutors have listed dozens of potential witnesses (including city staff, officials, and others).

Recent developments (as of August 2026)

The case remains active with a jury trial set to begin around October 19, 2026 (jury selection earlier that month). On August 14, 2026, Thao appeared in federal court in Oakland for a pretrial motions hearing. New court records include allegations that she pressured the Duongs to pay about $10,000 to a reporter’s associate to suppress a potential story about alleged drug use and sexual conduct during a 2023 Vietnam trip funded by California Waste Solutions. Prosecutors also reference claims involving secret recordings or materials of politicians held by one of the businessmen. Defense teams have sought to exclude various evidence; the judge is reviewing those issues.

Thao has maintained her innocence through counsel. The case is being closely watched in the Bay Area as it involves local politics, city contracts, and allegations of influence-peddling.

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The Southern Poverty Law Center Discovers That Fighting Extremism Can Be Extremely Profitable

Heidi Beirich

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has spent decades warning Americans about the terrifying threat of extremism. It has compiled hate maps, labeled conservative organizations as hate groups, and portrayed itself as one of the nation's great guardians against the forces of intolerance.

Now, according to federal prosecutors, the SPLC has found an innovative way to fight extremism: allegedly give millions of dollars to extremists. It's kind of reminiscent of the auto glass store owner sneaking around the neighborhood breaking car windows. It's great for business.

On April 21, 2026, a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, indicted the SPLC on 11 counts involving wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. A superseding indictment followed in June, with additional developments in August.

Prosecutors allege that the SPLC secretly diverted more than $4 million in donor funds to informants associated with extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, National Alliance, and National Socialist Movement.

Some of that money allegedly helped fund such wholesome anti-hate activities as recruiting members, purchasing KKK robes, and acquiring materials for cross-burnings.

Apparently, the SPLC's definition of "fighting hate" comes with a rather generous expense account for the hate groups that give them credibility for their own existence.

The alleged operation also reportedly involved a collection of shell accounts established under wonderfully ordinary names such as "Fox Photography," "Rare Books Warehouse," and "Tech Writers Group." Having a mysterious bank account belonging to a fake photography company is about as transparent as a brick wall.

Federal prosecutors contend that donors were led to believe their money was being used to combat extremism, rather than quietly financing people inside extremist organizations.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel have described the allegations as a scheme involving the "manufacturing racism."

Which raises an uncomfortable question for the SPLC: If you are allegedly paying extremists to manufacture the very material you use to warn people about extremism, are you fighting the fire, or operating the fire department?

The controversy became even more awkward on August 12, when former SPLC Intelligence Project director Heidi Beirich was charged in a superseding indictment. Prosecutors allege she oversaw payments to informants and had a romantic relationship with one key source, identified as "F-9," who was linked to the neo-Nazi National Alliance.

According to prosecutors, fraulein Beirich and the informant shared a home and joint bank accounts, with roughly $140,000 in SPLC donor money allegedly flowing into those accounts between 2015 and 2021. Prosecutors say the informant received approximately $1.2 million from the SPLC over the years.

That certainly gives "donating to the cause" a rather different meaning.

The SPLC denies wrongdoing. Of course it does. It has pleaded not guilty and insists that the prosecution is politically motivated retaliation by the Trump administration for its civil rights work and hate-group designations. In fact, they believe Trump is controlling the entire planet and his next move might be the moon.

The organization says its informant program was a legitimate intelligence operation that gathered information, reported threats to law enforcement, and "saved lives." On the contrary, the organization has created racial divide and may have even contributed to racial violence.

The SPLC also says the case "will not shake our resolve."

Fair enough. Federal indictments apparently do not shake the resolve of an organization that has spent years telling everyone else they should be shaken.

On August 7, U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks rejected the SPLC's attempt to have the case dismissed on grounds of vindictive prosecution, finding insufficient evidence of prosecutorial animus connected to the decision to charge the organization.

So for the moment, the SPLC's preferred explanation remains political persecution, while prosecutors' preferred explanation remains fraud.

It is an unusually stark disagreement over what happened to millions of dollars.

The irony is difficult to miss. The SPLC has built an enormous public reputation by warning Americans about organizations it considers dangerous. It has helped create a culture in which being placed on an SPLC list can carry enormous reputational consequences.

Yet now the organization itself stands accused of secretly funneling millions of dollars to people connected to some of the very extremist groups it publicly condemns, and one of the organization's leaders has allegedly 'slept with the enemy.'

And this is hardly the first controversy to land on the SPLC's doorstep. 

In 2019, co-founder Morris Dees was fired amid allegations involving workplace misconduct, racism, and sexism. The organization has also faced years of criticism over its practice of labeling mainstream conservative and religious organizations as "hate groups." The only serial haters seems to be the SPLC.

The SPLC has always maintained that its classifications are necessary to expose dangerous extremism, but this turned out to be balderdash [aka BS].

Now prosecutors are asking a rather inconvenient question: What happens when the organization doing the exposing allegedly becomes part of the story?

The SPLC insists it was conducting undercover intelligence work, but the FBI was unable to find evidence of intelligence among the leadership.

Critics see something much darker: an organization allegedly financing the extremists whose existence helps justify the organization's fundraising, influence, and political relevance. In other words, their entire existence.

If the allegations are proven, the Southern Poverty Law Center may have achieved something remarkably efficient. It allegedly found a way to fight extremism, fund extremism, identify extremism, fundraise off extremism, and then blame conservatives for noticing.

That is not merely a hate map.

That is a business model.

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