Blog Heap of Links for the day 22 April 2016

Israel latest technology 2015 one of the best military in the world

…Mafia bosses have ‘declared war’ against migrants on the holiday paradise of Sicily as one thousand new Muslim freeloaders, rapists, and potential jihadists pour into the island every week. Mayor Leoluca Orland said: ‘Palermo is no longer an Italian town. It is no longer European. You can walk in the city and feel like you’re in Istanbul or Beirut.’…

Islamic State jihadists have renewed attacks with chemical weapons on Kurdish positions in northern Iraq… Peshmerga, say they have been hit twice in one week by what appeared to be chlorine gas.…

At least 10 militants were blown up by their own explosives as they were busy making an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in southeastern Ghazni province.…

A Christian woman's fateful and defiant stance in front of a bulldozer last week evoked the memory of Tiananmen Square and has become a rallying cry against persecution at the hands of the Beijing government.

The woman, identified by Christian activists as Ding Cuimei, wife of the Rev. Li Jiangong, was trying to stop the government-ordered demolition of Beitou Church in the central Hena province city of Zhumadian. Unlike the iconic man who brazenly stopped a tank in the 1989 uprising, Ding was pushed into a ditch and buried alive as horrified congregants watched helplessly.…

…wo teenage Islamists have been detained in west Germany, after admitting to bombing a Sikh temple, stoking religious and ethnic tensions.…

Anti-Muslim themes are drawing huge crowds, especially in Christian towns where Muslim invaders are being dumped…

A new study finds that up to 2.2 billion people worldwide are at risk of contracting the Zika virus, which can cause irreparable damage to unborn children and painful nerve damage.

The study adds to the woes looming over Brazil – the epicenter of the Zika outbreak – as the nation prepares to welcome thousands for the 2016 Summer Olympics.…

…Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed a sweeping order that grants 206,000 convicted felons voting rights just months before the presidential election. …order extends to non-violent and violent felons, including convicted murderers and rapists… will likely boost black voter turnout in a critical swing state that could deliver Hillary Clinton…

Lifelong Democrat Tom Hanks… publicly stating…

Friday at the United Nations, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the U.N. Messenger of Peace, urged world leaders …

The United States Treasury on Thursday unveiled the final design for the new $20 bill featuring abolitionist Harriet Tubman…

…Herbs like lemongrass, lavender and rosemary release a scent that repels mosquitoes. So does bee balm, a pretty purple flower native to Oklahoma. Simply planting them close to your patio can do the trick.…

In a huge victory for religious freedom and civil liberty, the Oklahoma House of Representatives voted this week to provide an exemption to biometric collection, retention, and storage for state-issued drivers’ licenses and ID cards. SB 683 also directs that the biometric data previously collected from exempted persons be wiped from the database.

The bill, which now goes back to the State Senate, where it is expected to pass, will bring Oklahoma into compliance with the Federal Real ID law, but protect its citizens from having to obtain a biometric ID. House sponsor Jon Echols explained that while the bill does bring the state into compliance with federal law, those individuals who opt for a traditional ID would not be able to board a plane using that form of ID. But they could use an alternative form of ID, such as a passport.…

…U.N. torture watchdog urges Saudi to halt flogging, amputations…
…Mauritanian blogger's death sentence upheld…
…ISIS suspect reveals plans to open up route from Syria to U.S. through Mexico…

…Vanilla Mania - Do we need the real thing or can we do with a number of molecules?…
…Americans Really Enjoying This Warmer, More Agreeable Weather…
…The Primaries Aren’t Democratic? They’re Not Supposed to Be Democratic…

…Islamic State mines kill dozens of civilians returning to Ramadi…
…China denies reports of massing troops at North Korea border…
…Decriminalize all drugs, business and world leaders tell UN…

• 11 Times The Left Pushed Anti-LGBT Hoaxes
• McDonalds Responds to Wage Hike!
• Hillary: ‘We Just Have Too Many Guns … In Our Homes’
• The Guardian Launches Online Safe Space…

• Concerrned about Iran? He has a funny way of showing it
• Positive gangs. Funny coming from the party which created & subsidizes the feral youth of today
• FBI spends big bucks to crack iPhone encryption
• When are the indictments and arrests going to take place? …

…On this day in 2008 the United States Air Force retired the remaining F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft then service. This was based on the production start of the F-22. In 2009 as part of his war on the military and need for spending money on worthless social programs Obama killed the F-22. He cited the start of the F-35, which was supposed to be cheaper. Instead the F-35 which tried to be all things to all people has been a massive failure with cost overruns and a lot of problems.…

The European Central Bank has decided to hold its benchmark refinancing rate at 0%, leaving open the possibility of new “stimulus” measures. Meanwhile, Germany has revised its forecast of growth for 2017 to 1.5%, down from 1.7% this year.

In other news, Pope Francis took to Twitter to urge the faithful to display solidarity on climate change, which he considers a major challenge to humanity.…

The debate over Donald J. Trump’s charges of a “rigged” Republican primary system demonstrates that Trump wasn’t a Republican to begin with. As a Democrat who became a Republican just to seize the nomination, he seems to have had no understanding of how the Republicans operate and manage their presidential nominating process… Rush Limbaugh and Joseph Farah maintain that Trump, the master of complex real estate deals, completely understood the Republican rules but chose to ignore them so that he could accuse the GOP of being corrupt.

If this is the case, then Trump’s campaign is even more of a hostile takeover than anyone imagined.…

No state in the coming weeks of the Republican presidential contest is viewed by the campaigns as more consequential than Indiana — and none has been a bigger black hole for polling, where not a single public survey of the state’s electorate has been released.…