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Claims that Israel created Hamas oversimplify history. Robert Inlakesh debunks this myth, examining Israel's dealings with Hamas's precursor and revealing key misunderstandings about the group's origins and the Palestinian liberation movement.

The post The True History of How Hamas Was Created appeared first on MintPress News.

The whine: Lol. So unfaaaiiir!!!

According to the New York Times/Sienna poll released over the weekend, about 28% of people said they needed to learn more about Vice President Kamala Harris,” while only 9% said the same about Donald Trump with the race pretty much tied within the margin of error. Consequently, the conventional wisdom going into last night’s debate was that Harris had much more to lose — and gain — than Trump who is thought to have a pretty solid 46% no matter what while Harris could conceivably go up or down pretty substantially. The debate was therefore seen as make or break for her while for him it would probably change nothing. Could she rise to the occasion? Oh yes indeed she could and she did. That 28% of people who needed to learn more, learned that Kamala Harris is quick witted, highly qualified, confident and very well prepared. Yes, she has a very winning smile and exudes a joyful radiance, but she has a spine of steel which she demonstrated for a solid hour and a half as she dominated poor, spent Donald Trump. It was hardly a fair fight.

2024 Presidential Debate
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
September 10, 2024

9:01 PM: The candidates enter. Vice President Kamala Harris walks up decisively to former President Donald Trump, introduces herself, and extends her hand to shake. Trump tells her to have fun and looks around expectantly to see when the actual candidate he will be debating will arrive.

9:02 PM: Moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir introduce the debate participants and note that there will be no audience in attendance because security advised there wasn’t a way to prevent Philadelphians from smuggling in hoagies. They ask the candidates to, whenever possible, inhabit the same universe, one that reflects general reality. Harris smiles. Trump squints.

Ex-Serious Fraud Office chief Sir David Green KC says he is "depressed" about the apparent downgrading of the role

A new report uncovers the troubling ties between top VPN services like ExpressVPN and the Israeli security state, raising alarms about how much control Israel’s Unit 8200 has over your online privacy.

The post Exposed: How Israeli Spies Control Your VPN appeared first on MintPress News.

Harris demonstrated Trump’s weakness Kamala Harris is hardly the first person to observe that Donald Trump is easily manipulated with flattery. Particularly, flattery from autocrats and dictators he admires and whose respect he craves. They belong to an exclusive club he desperately wants to join, a strongman club that wouldn’t have an infant like him for a member. Harris said of Trump during last night’s debate: He’s trying to again divide and distract from the reality, which is it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy. It is well known that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on day one according to himself. It is well known that he said of Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants and go into Ukraine. It is well known when that he said when Russia went into Ukraine it was brilliant. It is well known he exchanged love letters with Kim Jong un.

Men kartläggning och analyser av detta slags släktbaserade nätverk som genom hot om våld och trakasserier ut­övar stor makt i invandrartäta förortsområden och genom detta allvarligt förhindrar integration lyser med sin frånvaro … I Sverige får man ha vilka värderingar man vill. Att omfatta och propagera för till exempel kommunistiska, islamistiska, kristna, reaktionära, feministiska, patriarkala […]

The childless cat lady sings You can’t unsee it. Donald Trump last night bested Joe Biden with a Grandpa Simpsonesque debate performance even more unsettling against Vice President Kamala Harris. If Trump’s goal was to be best of the worst, congratulations, Donald, you did it. Trump made at least 33 false claims during the debate, fact-checker Daniel Dale told CNN viewers Tuesday night. But that’s not the point anymore. Facts have never mattered to Trump, nor to his MAGA cult. As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” How did they feel about seeing Trump afraid even to look at Harris? How did Americans feel about Harris pledging to fight for them, all of them, while Trump whined about his crowd size? How did they feel about Trump citing Viktor Orbán, the autocratic prime minister of Hungary, as a character reference? There were too many memorable moments to review. Too many Harris zingers and Trump belly flops. But I’m reminded of Gov.

Every year, we wonder what might be appropriate on this day, and we can never think of anything more appropriate than this piece, which John Hodgman originally delivered at a literary reading shortly after September 11, 2001.

Good evening.

My name is John Hodgman. I am a former professional literary agent, which on a good day is a pretty small thing to be, and these days feels rather microscopic. Before I was a professional literary agent, I thought it would be a good idea to be a teacher of fiction in a college MFA program because it is easy and you are adored all the time and of course it pays a lot of money.

I used to have a lot of bright ideas.

BABY NAMES
Matilda
Archibald
Benjamin
Katherine
Theodore

CHILDHOOD NICKNAMES
Tilly
Archie
Benji
Kat
Teddy

NAMES FOR A JOB INTERVIEW
Maddie
Arch
Ben
Kate
Ted

NAMES FOR A REBELLIOUS TEENAGER
Madison
Ash
Benny
K
Spyder

PEN NAMES
M. K.
A. W.
B. R. R.
K-C
T

WRONG NAMES CALLED OUT BY A BARISTA
Melinda
Arnold
Ken
Cameron
Todd

With tens of thousands more killed and Ukraine’s leverage tanking, the quickly withdrawn House Democrats’ letter is proving prescient.

The post Progressives Were Pilloried for Wanting to End the Ukraine War in 2022. Things Have Only Gotten Worse. appeared first on The Intercept.

With tens of thousands more killed and Ukraine’s leverage tanking, the quickly withdrawn House Democrats’ letter is proving prescient.

The post Progressives Were Pilloried for Wanting to End the Ukraine War in 2022. Things Have Only Gotten Worse. appeared first on The Intercept.

Why did it take archeologists a century to decode the small clay tablet that’s also the oldest known map of the world?

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

Is social media causing you problems? Here are some personal and practical ways to reap its benefits with fewer drawbacks

- by Daria J Kuss

Read at Psyche

Newly-released figures expose the huge hurdles that victims and their families face in order to get justice

Vice President Kamala Harris relentlessly prosecuted former President Donald Trump's record and character during their first televised showdown

The weird, uncanny consistencies of far right politics. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian  6th September 2024 I’ve been thinking about a famously orange-skinned former presenter of trashy TV programmes, who lives on a luxurious coastal estate. He has a history of racist and Islamophobic remarks, of blaming asylum seekers for bringing disease into […]

When giving courses in the philosophy of science yours truly has often had David Papineau’s book Philosophical Devices (OUP 2012) on the reading list. Overall it is a good introduction to many of the instruments used when performing methodological and science theoretical analyses of economic and other social sciences issues. Unfortunately, the book has also fallen […]