Simon Talbot
@talbotpaul.bsky.social
will you please stop talking about fight club
Reposted by Simon Talbot
We now have a full-blown European-American crisis, and for no reason that the president is able to articulate
January 18, 2026 at 2:08 PM
We now have a full-blown European-American crisis, and for no reason that the president is able to articulate
Reposted by Simon Talbot
This is about the strength and tactics of the Iranian resistance. We can try to help them with tech to establish comms and maybe run guns to them if it continues as a one-sided street fight. But absent troops on the ground, we are not going to combat anything. And we shouldn't lie on this.
January 17, 2026 at 4:28 PM
This is about the strength and tactics of the Iranian resistance. We can try to help them with tech to establish comms and maybe run guns to them if it continues as a one-sided street fight. But absent troops on the ground, we are not going to combat anything. And we shouldn't lie on this.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
Very true. A hypefest that finally got Allen Dulles shitcanned after more than a decade of the same.
And that was air support, the safest, least effective and most half-assed interdiction between dissent and tyranny one can muster. Boots on the ground? Never. Talk is way cheaper.
And that was air support, the safest, least effective and most half-assed interdiction between dissent and tyranny one can muster. Boots on the ground? Never. Talk is way cheaper.
January 17, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Very true. A hypefest that finally got Allen Dulles shitcanned after more than a decade of the same.
And that was air support, the safest, least effective and most half-assed interdiction between dissent and tyranny one can muster. Boots on the ground? Never. Talk is way cheaper.
And that was air support, the safest, least effective and most half-assed interdiction between dissent and tyranny one can muster. Boots on the ground? Never. Talk is way cheaper.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
There are a few 1000 Cubans buried in a mass grave in Cuban waiting for that air support, any support.
January 17, 2026 at 4:09 PM
There are a few 1000 Cubans buried in a mass grave in Cuban waiting for that air support, any support.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
In '56, Hungarians rose with CIA hawks promising them promising "rollback.". Eisenhower would not risk WWIII. The Kurds were encouraged similarly but Bush held back. And now Trump, promises all, delivering nothing.
We can praise when people rise up. What we can't do is promise what isn't coming.
We can praise when people rise up. What we can't do is promise what isn't coming.
January 17, 2026 at 4:04 PM
In '56, Hungarians rose with CIA hawks promising them promising "rollback.". Eisenhower would not risk WWIII. The Kurds were encouraged similarly but Bush held back. And now Trump, promises all, delivering nothing.
We can praise when people rise up. What we can't do is promise what isn't coming.
We can praise when people rise up. What we can't do is promise what isn't coming.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
In your experience, think about how limp and simplistic the average political encounter with a fellow American is in these awful days. And realize that half of our citizens are more hollow and incapable than even that.
Every day we see more and more evidence of the GOP’s long range campaign to weaken and destroy public education bearing fruit. Millions with no knowledge of history are just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ at all the fascistic actions taken by these 21st Century Nazis.
January 17, 2026 at 4:09 PM
In your experience, think about how limp and simplistic the average political encounter with a fellow American is in these awful days. And realize that half of our citizens are more hollow and incapable than even that.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
Every day we see more and more evidence of the GOP’s long range campaign to weaken and destroy public education bearing fruit. Millions with no knowledge of history are just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ at all the fascistic actions taken by these 21st Century Nazis.
January 17, 2026 at 1:14 PM
Every day we see more and more evidence of the GOP’s long range campaign to weaken and destroy public education bearing fruit. Millions with no knowledge of history are just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ at all the fascistic actions taken by these 21st Century Nazis.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
If a new age of transitive award-giving is upon us, I'd be grateful if someone would gift me an MLB Gold Glove as the slap-hitting yet slick-fielding 2B I imagine I could have been. Also a Grammy for an elegant album of Muddy Waters covers I never got to record with the Butterfield Band backing me.
January 17, 2026 at 5:37 PM
If a new age of transitive award-giving is upon us, I'd be grateful if someone would gift me an MLB Gold Glove as the slap-hitting yet slick-fielding 2B I imagine I could have been. Also a Grammy for an elegant album of Muddy Waters covers I never got to record with the Butterfield Band backing me.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
young adults seem to complain the least, yet they arguably face the worst generational challenges:
- insane house price inflation
- AI destroying jobs
- climate change
- insane house price inflation
- AI destroying jobs
- climate change
January 17, 2026 at 4:26 PM
young adults seem to complain the least, yet they arguably face the worst generational challenges:
- insane house price inflation
- AI destroying jobs
- climate change
- insane house price inflation
- AI destroying jobs
- climate change
Reposted by Simon Talbot
believe it or not the 1980s also had delayed trains, unemployment, industrial strife, turds in rivers, crime, riots, underperforming schools
some things have improved and some things have got worse
Britain isn’t perfect but I don’t trust the people talking it down for their own populist purposes
some things have improved and some things have got worse
Britain isn’t perfect but I don’t trust the people talking it down for their own populist purposes
January 17, 2026 at 4:17 PM
believe it or not the 1980s also had delayed trains, unemployment, industrial strife, turds in rivers, crime, riots, underperforming schools
some things have improved and some things have got worse
Britain isn’t perfect but I don’t trust the people talking it down for their own populist purposes
some things have improved and some things have got worse
Britain isn’t perfect but I don’t trust the people talking it down for their own populist purposes
Reposted by Simon Talbot
every provocateur who wangs on all the time about Britain being “broken” should be sent to an actual failed state or autocracy for a month as a learning experience, there’s no shortage of them
January 17, 2026 at 3:12 PM
every provocateur who wangs on all the time about Britain being “broken” should be sent to an actual failed state or autocracy for a month as a learning experience, there’s no shortage of them
Reposted by Simon Talbot
The next chance for the Supreme Court to rule that these kind of tariffs are illegal and that the law Trump is using was never meant for this kind of thing will be on Tuesday, when the justices said new decisions will be announced.
Trump says he'll impose a 10% tariff (rising to 25% in June) on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland, because they've sent people to Greenland, until the US can buy Greenland.
January 17, 2026 at 5:03 PM
The next chance for the Supreme Court to rule that these kind of tariffs are illegal and that the law Trump is using was never meant for this kind of thing will be on Tuesday, when the justices said new decisions will be announced.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
Trump says he'll impose a 10% tariff (rising to 25% in June) on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland, because they've sent people to Greenland, until the US can buy Greenland.
January 17, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Trump says he'll impose a 10% tariff (rising to 25% in June) on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland, because they've sent people to Greenland, until the US can buy Greenland.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
Ps - I met quite a few Danish soldiers serving with the multi-national division when I was in Basra. They looked a great deal tougher than JD Vance looked during his stint writing press releases for the USMC.
January 17, 2026 at 8:45 PM
Ps - I met quite a few Danish soldiers serving with the multi-national division when I was in Basra. They looked a great deal tougher than JD Vance looked during his stint writing press releases for the USMC.
Reposted by Simon Talbot
I have resumed my Twitter thread on Gallup polls since 1937, and have started on 1965; you can catch up with the whole thing here docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Gallup 1937-75
Selected findings from The Gallup International Public Opinion Polls, Great Britain, 1937-1975 The first question asked by a Gallup poll in Great Britain, Jan 1937: “Do you consider that the grounds ...
docs.google.com
January 17, 2026 at 5:24 PM
I have resumed my Twitter thread on Gallup polls since 1937, and have started on 1965; you can catch up with the whole thing here docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Reposted by Simon Talbot
Pragmatically, they have to have reform *and* more money, I suspect
January 17, 2026 at 4:29 PM
Pragmatically, they have to have reform *and* more money, I suspect
Reposted by Simon Talbot
Public services need reform, not more money, argues Ryan Wain, Tony Blair Institute www.independent.co.uk/voices/publi...
There’s one thing that could improve all public services… and it’s not more money
Rather than piecemeal changes and sporadic spending cuts to individual government departments, Labour must reinvent how the state works from the ground up, says Ryan Wain
www.independent.co.uk
January 17, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Public services need reform, not more money, argues Ryan Wain, Tony Blair Institute www.independent.co.uk/voices/publi...
Reposted by Simon Talbot
“A decade or so ago, Europeans who cherished their nation’s peculiarities could still tell themselves that Brussels was the chief threat to them. Now, there are scarier things than regulatory standardisation.” Janan Ganesh www.ft.com/content/6dc7...
The right will want a United States of Europe
Conservatives will come to see a unified continent as the only defence against America and China
www.ft.com
January 17, 2026 at 3:43 PM
“A decade or so ago, Europeans who cherished their nation’s peculiarities could still tell themselves that Brussels was the chief threat to them. Now, there are scarier things than regulatory standardisation.” Janan Ganesh www.ft.com/content/6dc7...
Reposted by Simon Talbot
Answers to the i paper quiz are here docs.google.com/document/d/1...
i Quiz answers
17 Jan 10 Jan 3 Jan 2026 27 Dec 20 Dec 13 Dec 6 Dec 29 Nov 22 Nov 15 Nov 8 Nov 1 Nov 25 Oct 18 Oct 11 Oct 4 Oct 27 Sep 20 Sep 13 Sep 6 Sep 30 Aug 23 Aug 16 Aug 9 Aug 2 Aug 26 ...
docs.google.com
January 17, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Answers to the i paper quiz are here docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Reposted by Simon Talbot
4/10 in John Clarke's Saturday Quiz in the i paper (answers in the paper or here later)
January 17, 2026 at 9:07 AM
4/10 in John Clarke's Saturday Quiz in the i paper (answers in the paper or here later)
Reposted by Simon Talbot
On Farage’s “time-limited special offer”, by David Aaronovitch www.independent.co.uk/voices/rober...
January 17, 2026 at 1:31 PM
On Farage’s “time-limited special offer”, by David Aaronovitch www.independent.co.uk/voices/rober...
Reposted by Simon Talbot
I think this by Ciaran Martin is obviously true. End of story. Next please www.thetimes.com/article/9313...
January 17, 2026 at 1:17 PM
I think this by Ciaran Martin is obviously true. End of story. Next please www.thetimes.com/article/9313...
Reposted by Simon Talbot
Incredible piece of Search Engine Optimisation
January 16, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Incredible piece of Search Engine Optimisation
Reposted by Simon Talbot
Proprietor Aaron Aardvark
January 16, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Proprietor Aaron Aardvark