Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 4/15

[SVPete]

A Jussie Smollett-esque hoax

https://x.com/ThomasMHern/status/2044354159512580443

Sundas ‘Sunny’ Naqvi of Skokie, Illinois claimed she was held in ICE custody for nearly two days after returning from a trip to Turkey.

Democrats in Illinois and mainstream media instantly latched onto the story given Naqvi’s status as a US Citizen.

Only problem is the entire story was a hoax.
...
Turns out Naqvi stayed in a Hampton Inn & Suites the same dates she claimed to be in federal custody and was spotted at a local gas station.
...
Court records also show Naqvi pleaded guilty and served two years probation for falsely accusing a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor of sexual harassment.

Naqvi has learned she can leverage her Brown Privilege to make false accusations that Dems, Progs, and their MSM-shills will lap up.

[SVPete]

John Cleese Blasts Black Lives Matter, Liberal Silence amid Easter Massacre of Nigerian Christians by Islamist Terrorists

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/04/14/john-cleese-blasts-black-lives-matter-liberal-silence-amid-easter-massacre-of-nigerian-christians-by-islamist-terrorists/

British comic legend John Cleese has blasted Black Lives Matter and the wider liberal elites for their collective silence in the wake of the Easter massacre of Christians in Nigeria who were targeted by Islamic terrorists.

“It looks rather as though Black Lives Don’t Matter,” Cleese lamented on his social media account.

He further added a sideswipe of liberal media by observing, “Also, writing about it would damage the image of the murderers who killed these poor people.”

The 86-year-old actor/comedian was responding to a post from the Chair of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Senior Counsel at The Justice Department, Leo Terrell, who had posited, “Why isn’t the world talking about the massacre of Christians by Islamist terrorists??!!!!”

As Breitbart News reported, Nigerian Christians experienced deadly suspected jihadist attacks in at least five states on Easter Sunday, the holiest day on the Christian calendar – involving direct attacks on Easter services, mass abductions, and indiscriminate firing on local victims.

I'm not sure whether Cleese is unaware that Prog faithful hate Christians and view Muslims as a victim class or he's calling out their ideology-rooted hypocrisy.

[SVPete]

Vance Drops the Hammer: 447 LA Hospices Shut Down in Massive $600M Fraud Bust

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/04/15/new-jd-vance-shuts-down-447-la-hospices-in-600m-fraud-crackdown-n2201306

When we surrender a significant percentage of our annual income to the various levels of government, the least we should expect in return is for that money to be used properly, to fund the government's one primary role: to protect the liberty and property of the taxpayers. We have a right to expect our government employees to prevent our money from being soaked up in massive fraud. But that is what has been happening; those days, though, may be coming to an end.

We have been watching the first actions taken by Vice President JD Vance's fraud task force, and the results of their work are starting to roll in - and they are rather spectacular. A "First on Fox" piece over at Fox News has some numbers.

The anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance has suspended 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies suspected of fraud in Los Angeles, with a total fraud estimate of more than $600 million.

The number of suspensions is roughly a 539% increase from the 70 reported by Fox News Digital at the beginning of April.

"Where there is fraud, the task force will find it," a spokesperson for Vance told Fox News Digital. "We will not stop until every hard-earned taxpayer dollar goes toward the honest Americans who deserve them."

...
Here's the very real concern to come out of all this: What happens in 2028? All of this fraud investigation and shutdown (and the delightful shamed withdrawal of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz from his re-election campaign) is only happening because President Donald Trump ordered it done. Democrat administrations seemed perfectly content to let this go on. For that matter, previous Republican administrations didn't seem too concerned. But there has been a pretty blatant explosion in such fraud in the last few years, and it's grown far too prevalent to ignore.

The concern expressed in that last paragraph I quoted is too real. Unless the bureaucrats - the Feds who didn't notice the millions going to orgs at the same address or the state bureaucrats who did not notice they were certifying multiple hospices at the same address  - who were some insanely negligent (or complicit?) get booted, this fraud will just go into hibernation until the scrutiny ends.

Meanwhile, the real hospice orgs who are providing services within Medicare regs will probably get another burdensome layer of regs intended to prevent fraud.

On another tack, Trump appointed Vance Anti-Fraud Czar (not Trump's term, AFAIK), and Vance is getting things done. Contrast him with Kammie, LIEden' Border Czar, who did zero.

[SVPete]

Tom Homan Has the Perfect Response for Catholic Leaders Complaining About Immigration Enforcement

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/amy-curtis/2026/04/15/tom-homan-pope-leo-n2674482

Several Catholic leaders, including Pope Leo XIV, have been very critical of President Trump's immigration enforcement policies. Back in January of last year, it was revealed that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and other Catholic organizations were getting hundreds of millions from the government to "resettle" immigrants in America. The Trump administration turned off that spigot, and the criticisms followed.

But the Vatican, which has some of the strictest immigration laws imaginable, and the Swiss Guard to help enforce them, has no idea what the problems are like on the ground at the U.S. border. Tom Homan, a Catholic who has spent decades working on immigration, does.

And he's got a message for Pope Leo and others: stay out of the issue.

"I'm not going to speak for the President, I'm speaking for myself, a lifelong Catholic," Homan said. "I would say, stay out of immigration. They don't know what they're talking about."

"Because if they wore my shoes for 40 years, and talked to a nine-year-old girl that got raped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor-trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet including a five-year-old boy that baked to death, if they understood the atrocities that happen on the open border, I think their opinion would change," Homan continued.

"And I welcome a discussion with any of them, because they don't understand illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. Where President Trump had the most secure border in the lifetime of this nation, right now, lives are being saved. He's saving thousands of lives a year because he has a secure border," Homan said. "Human traffickers are out of business, right? The cartels are going bankrupt because of that secure border. I wish they'd understand that. Because if they did, I think they'd have a different opinion."

[enslaved1]

Eighth grade student kills 9 people, wounds 13 in Turkey's 2nd school shooting in 2 days

A 14-year-old armed with five guns opened fire at a Turkish school on Wednesday, killing nine people, wounding 13 and sparking scenes of mayhem as students jumped out of windows to escape.

The attack in the southern province of Kahramanmaras province was Turkey's second such incident in as many days, shocking a country where school shootings are a rare occurrence.

Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci confirmed nine deaths, with 13 wounded — six in intensive care, three of them in a critical condition.

The minister described the attacker as an "eigth grade student aged 14."

"A student came to school with guns that we believe belonged to his father in his backpack. He entered two classrooms and opened fire randomly, causing injuries and deaths," Kahramanmaras province governor Mukerrem Unluer told reporters earlier in the day

snip to include information about the previous shooting mentioned

The shooting came after another attacker on Tuesday opened fire with a shotgun at his former high school in Siverek district of Sanliurfa province, wounding 16 people before killing himself in a showdown with police. Ten students were among the wounded in that incident, in which the 18-year-old attacker fired randomly inside the vocational high school.

He killed himself with the shotgun after he was "cornered by police," Gov. Hasan Sildak said, The Associated Press reported.

Contrary to the narrative, school shootings are not exclusive to America.  Haven't been for a while. 

[enslaved1]

US edges closer to popular vote deciding winner of presidential elections

A national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after the Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed the national popular vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia.

Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors.
a man speaks into a microphone in a room full of people
Swalwell’s shock exit throws California governor’s race into disarray: ‘This really tosses the table over’
Read more

Every state that has so far enacted the compact has Democratic electoral majorities, including California, New York and Illinois. But legislation has been introduced in enough states to reach the 270-elector threshold, including swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

This one may be thread worthy.  The article mentions two likely Constitutional arguments against this but it still seems to me that such an act would require an amendment, not just a bunch of states agreeing.