Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 4/19

[SVPete]

Gazans Describe Hamas’s Habitual Sex Abuse of Their Own People

https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2026/04/18/gazans-describe-hamass-habitual-sex-abuse-of-their-own-people-n4951940

As genocidal Islamic terror group Hamas is once again consolidating power in Gaza, some Gazans are breaking their silence on how abusive Hamas jihadis are even of their own people.

A quote attributed to the late Israeli politician Golda Meir is, "We will only have peace with [the Arabs] when they love their children more than they hate us." But since Islamic sacred texts explicitly endorse and approve jihad, sex slavery, pedophilia, domestic abuse, and polygamy, it's not exactly shocking that many of the conglomerate of Muslim Arabs who now call themselves Palestinians continue to use and abuse their own women and children. The Daily Mail has a new report of Hamas sex abuse of Gazan women, as companion to the reports of horrific Hamas abuse of Israeli captives.

As of Oct. 2025, 80% of Palestinians supported jihad against Israel, and 70% opposed Hamas disarmament, but there is a minority of Gazans who are tired of being always the sex slaves and human shields of Hamas. Hamas co-founder's son Mosab Hassan Yousef has repeatedly emphasized how Palestinian jihadis will willingly sacrifice even their own children to the cause of jihad and how different factions in Gaza will fight and exploit each other when not actively fighting Israel. This is all the backdrop of the sad stories published on the Daily Mail.

There has been a rise in child marriages and adolescent pregnancies in Gaza, the Daily Mail noted, and a common trend of sex exploitation partly fuels the pregnancies. The Gazans who spoke to Jusoor News, which then passed the stories on to the Daily Mail, spoke in anonymity. One Gazan man said he was asked to locate a widow who had requested aid from a commander in Hamas's terrorist Qassam or al-Qassam Brigades, "but he took advantage of her." The Gazan man called it "disgraceful," and said he found the widow "in a tent in the Gharabli area where a bunch of Qassam members were taking advantage of her. We informed the leadership, but we were told we had to keep silent about it."

Islam at its heart, sadly, is a raiders and plunderers and enslavers religion. That does not encourage benignant governance.

[SVPete]

IRGC Closes Strait Again, Calls Iran's Foreign Minister an 'Idiot,' Fires on Oil Tankers

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/04/18/irgc-closes-strait-again-calls-irans-foreign-minister-an-idiot-n3814049

The Iranian government is at war with itself as much as it is at war with America, Israel, and the Gulf states.

As I have been writing for days now, there is not one Iranian government in charge, but two, battling it out over who controls the entire country.

The IRGC appears to be winning at the moment, which is utterly unsurprising.
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It's pretty clear that the civilian Iranian government was well on its way to a deal with Trump, and even announced that the Strait of Hormuz was open for business again. They had announced it to the world on X, and the Iranians had given ships actual clearance to transit the Strait.

Then, all of a sudden, the IRGC didn't just close the Strait, but sent boats out to fire on ships that were in the midst of transiting.

This is not entirely surprising. The Iranian government got beheaded, and now the lower-downs are scrapping among themselves for the vacant places of power, making contradictory statements and actions. Those new wannabes are split between assertion of POWER and trying to rebuild a nation out of the rubble.

[SVPete]

'Scandal' Is Object Lesson on How Coordinated Propaganda Campaigns Work

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/04/18/catholic-charities-scandal-is-object-lesson-on-how-coordinated-propaganda-campaigns-work-n3814048

Ten days ago, Democratic strategist and consiglieri David Axelrod met with the Pope for a nice chat.

The meeting was notable for a number of reasons, not least that Axelrod is Jewish, not Catholic. His audience with the Pope is, we are told, at least tangentially related to a potential visit from Barack Obama to meet with the Pope. Obama is not Catholic, and one wonders why there needs to be negotiations with the Pope directly about a potential meeting between a former president and the leader of the Catholic Church.
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All of this would be of only minor interest but for the fact that almost immediately subsequent to that meeting, the Pope went on the warpath against Donald Trump. His comments weren't vague and weren't even consistent with Catholic doctrine. Asserting that God doesn't listen to soldiers on the battlefield was a remarkably odd statement, inconsistent with centuries of Catholic doctrine.
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Above all, the oddest thing has been his arguing that Lebanon and Algeria are examples of how Christians and Muslims can live together. In both places, Christians have been persecuted by Muslims, both killed and driven out of the lands by Muslims who are quite clear that Christians aren't welcome.
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After the kerfuffle with the Pope, a story popped up strongly implying that Trump canceled a contract with Catholic Charities to manage the care of unaccompanied minor illegal aliens, amounting to many millions of dollars of revenue lost.

Almost everything about the story was false, most especially the implication that the timing suggested that it was pure retaliation.
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There are many reasons why this story cannot possibly be as portrayed by the propagandists, not the least of which is that the cancellation took place weeks before there was any back and forth between Trump and the Pope. There simply could be no connection, unless you believe that Trump is clairvoyant.

Trump may be magic, but not that magic.

The idea that Robert Prevost's (Leo XIV's) attacks were coordinated via Axelrod is certainly a CT, but the context is at least suggestive. Axelrod appears to be a non-religious Jew - raised in a liberal Jewish synagogue, but no public religious involvement, educationally or in public action.

Axelrod and Prevost and Axelrod have both been active in Chicago.

Even before being elected Pope, Prevost had been very publicly anti-Trump. The timing, the attacks starting after Axelrod's visit rather than in the immediate aftermath of the war on Iran is obviously suggestive.

[DefiantSix]

...The Daily Mail has a new report of Hamas sex abuse of Gazan women, as companion to the reports of horrific Hamas abuse of Israeli captives.
[/snip]

Funny how the Daily Mail can talk about Islamist abuse of Gazan women and children, but stay remarkably silent about Islamist abuse of women and children in the Daily Mail's own home country... 

[SVPete]

NY Atty General Who Investigated Trump’s Taxes Refuses to Release Her Tax Returns

[url]https://www.frontpagemag.com/ny-atty-general-who-investigated-trumps-taxes-refuses-to-release-her-tax-returns//url]

Attorney General Letitia James, easily the worst attorney general in the country (and that’s with contenders like California AG Rob ‘Duong’ Bonta and MN’s Keith X. Ellison, a former member of an Islamist hate group, in the mix) has done nothing to stop the state’s crime wave, but instead spent all of her time pursuing political investigations of the NRA, Trump and pro-Israel Jewish groups.

AG James famously launched a tax investigation of Trump, well outside her purview, inventing a crime, claiming that he had gained tax benefits from the value of his assets.

Now, James, with equal predictability, is refusing to release her tax returns.

Embattled New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday repeatedly refused to tell The Post why she won’t release her tax returns like other top Democrats in the state did earlier in the week.

The Empire State’s AG bizarrely claimed that the decision to release her own tax return was up to her staff.

Apparently her comms director decides whether to release her tax returns. Why might that be?

Try the multiple investigations into AG Letitia James over fraud allegations. Good thing she’s the AG and has already given herself a clean bill of health.

[SVPete]

USDA Disqualifies 1,562 Retailers, Prevents $835 Million in Fraudulent SNAP Transactions

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/usda-disqualifies-1562-retailers-prevents-835-million-in-fraudulent-snap-transactions-6013874?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport&src_src=partner&src_cmp=BonginoReport

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service has disqualified 1,562 retailers associated with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and disabled 760 illegal point-of-sale devices since Oct. 1, 2025.

This has resulted in the prevention of nearly $835 million in fraudulent SNAP transactions, Stephen Vaden, deputy secretary of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), said in an April 17 post on X.

“Commit fraud? We will find you and hold you accountable. Including jail time. And now, we have the whole of government, under the leadership of @VP and @AFergusonFTC, rooting out abuse of any program meant to help the most vulnerable.” Vaden wrote, referring to Vice President JD Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson.
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Fraud by SNAP retailers can involve selling items not allowed under the program, exchanging SNAP benefits for cash, and lying on their applications to get authorized to participate as a retailer under the program, according to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.

Some anti-fraud efforts are bringing fraudsters to justice after the $$$$ got taken. This is almost a billion $$ of fraud prevented.

[SVPete]

Washington D.C. Homicides Plunge 52 Percent As National Guard Deployment Changes City's Crime Landscape

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/scott-mcclallen/2026/04/18/dc-homicides-plunge-52-percent-as-national-guard-deployment-transforms-citys-crime-landscape-n2674698

The number of homicides in Washington, D.C., has dropped steeply after President Donald Trump sent the National Guard to clean up the city in August 2025.

There have been 20 homicides in 2026 so far in the nation’s capital, which is a 52 percent drop compared to 42 homicides recorded in the same time period of 2025, according to D.C. police statistics.

In all of 2025, the city recorded 127  homicides. The city recorded 187 homicides in 2024.

Data show that many categories of violent crime have plunged as of four months into 2026. Homicides are down 52 percent, sex abuse is down 48 percent, robbery is down 23 percent, and motor vehicle theft is down 56 percent.

It's amazing what happens when criminals get taken off the streets quicker and for longer. Who could have foreseen that?