Joseph Talbot

The 2018 John Mulaney “Horse In A Hospital” bit is still so great 😂 Best part is he doesn’t mention the name Trump at all. Oh America, you finally removed the horse from the hospital. DO NOT let it back in 😬

@RupertLowe10 Good grief man

Don't be fooled by the media, there are plenty of us on this side of the Atlantic hoping for a Trump victory. Many in Westminster too, even if they won't admit it... The world is a much safer place with a President Trump. I sincerely hope he triumphs.

Reposting this from FB with @MichaelRosenYes ' permission. This is a really astute and plausible analysis of what is being done in Gaza and Lebanon and why - possibly the best I have read yet. Do, please, take the time to read it: "I was on the demonstration today and listened to the speeches. I think that plenty of people are getting it wrong. I don't think that the US and the UK are 'complicit' with what Israel is doing. I don't the the US and the UK are 'collaborating'. I don't even really think that the US and the UK are 'supplying arms'. To me, these words don't explain what has happened this last year and is happening right now. For those words to make sense ('complicit', 'collaborate', 'supply'), it would suggest that the US and the UK are doing Israel a favour, or are leaping in to 'help' Israel. But objectively, the US (and its allies) have gone beyond being complicit, collaborating, and supplying. The vast tonnage of bombs, the massive use of US aircraft, drones, munitions and high tech back-up, can, to my mind, only be interpreted as the US (and allies including us) doing this for its own reasons. What's going on is an enactment of US policy. If I'm right (and I accept I may not be), it would mean a realignment of how we view what's going on. It would mean dropping the pretence that the US is a mediator, and/or a supporter. What's going on would not be a matter of Israel drawing up new boundaries, carrying out mass slaughter, widening the area of conflict to include all the surrounding areas, but it would be US policy. It would mean us seeing what's going on as stages in how the US would like the Middle East to be this year, next year and for the next years. If true, this would take me to thinking ahead to something else. Many in the US administration now accept that the Iraq War was a mistake. It was a sudden, unprovoked, blitz-type war. Perhaps, the US is envisaging something different this time: a long-term war fought in terms of constant small-scale warfare against Iran and its allies, exhausting and crushing them under the weight of superior, almost inexhaustible firepower. Unlike the Iraq War, this time the US has a skilled, experienced, highly motivated ally on the ground. Note: not like the decaying, corrupt puppets of the South Vietnam government, but an ideological force, (Israel) whose views hold sway in most of the western governments and western populations. But to the point, they're there, on the ground, ready and able to do the bombing, to seize the land, and to justify it. Behind all this, lies a question why? This can't feasibly be, (as people like Douglas Murray insist it is) about 'values' ie Judeo-Christianity vs Islam. Would a modern state feasibly spend billions on fighting for Christianity against Islam? There must be material reasons lying behind this onslaught, which the ideological stuff about 'values' can be used to justify what's going on. Clearly the Middle East holds within it vast resources that the US and allies believe ('know'?) they need and/or have some control over its production and distribution. In addition is the power of what we've come to call the 'military-industrial' complex. Built into the US government and economy is this huge chunk of never-ending production and profit-making. What we call 'tech' is a huge part of this complex too. In one sense, the US administration and government serves the purpose of making sure that the military-industrial complex gets its contracts, uses up its 'products' (guns, bombs, planes, drones, tech), gets new contracts, on and on and on. In other words, when the government commits to war, it gives the complex what it wants. So, coming back to where I started, I think we're getting it wrong, if we think the US is 'complicit' or 'collaborating'. Instead, we should think of it as 'pursuing', 'driving', 'carrying out' war (or wars) in the Middle East, informed by what didn't work before, trying to make this one (these ones) work better. And, if we turn that round 180 degrees, it means that in effect, the Palestinians are fighting against the mercenary forces of the US. I understand why the left has tended to construct 'Israel' or 'Zionism' and 'Zionists' as the enemy but I'm now of the feeling that this is misleading. Thinking of what's going on in that way, draws us into how Israel and Zionism sees it - a local fight for the self-determination of the Jews. I see the left dragged into endless arguments about the nature of the Israeli state, the origins of Zionism, or the nature of the Balfour Agreement etc etc. I'm now of the view even if that was all relevant before, it's no longer relevant. What's going on now is much more like the Vietnam War, other than that US pilots are not actually flying the planes, and US men and women are not 'on the ground'. They don't need to be because the aims and objectives of the people who are on the ground are a perfect match for the aims and objectives of the US, with none of the flakiness of the South Vietnamese. As I say, this is only me thinking aloud. I know there are strong disagreements with this view. I know there are people who would prefer something more nuanced - and I accept that it may have been more nuanced in the past. However, this is my view of where we are now as of 2024. Thanks for reading.

I called families to tell them their beloved was dying. I read out messages from absent family members. I saw the British public behave with such *staggering* decency as they obeyed the rules to protect the vulnerable. Is my anger 'overblown'? She has absolutely no idea.

Apropos of nothing. Zilch. Nada.

"Gisèle Pelicot tells mass rape trial ‘it’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them’". I genuinely think that single-handedly, this woman has done more for us than all men put together in history. She's stood up & made MEN confront and watch THEIR rapes. She's a fucking SAINT.

I don’t want the neighbourhood health service that @wesstreeting is offering, because it is bound to be biased to wealthy areas. I want a National Health Service.

@Footinit @manfuego007 Can he have his plums and eat it?

@manfuego007 I’m not sure what he wants more. To be naked or eat my offerings.

Rather aptly, I’m making a plum crumble in an effort to persuade my client to put his pants back on.

@tmem1986 @mrjamesob Good grief!

Now signed by more than 50 MPs If your MP hasn't signed, ask them to add their name ✍️

Pictures of a deadly blaze in Gaza - caused by an Israeli strike on a hospital tent camp - have shocked the world this week. Information about victims has started to emerge - this is what we know about Shaban al Dalu.

This

Keir Starmer was asked by Ed Davey if he's going to sanction Israeil finance Minister Smotrich for saying that starving 2M people in Gaza may be 'justified & moral’ & the national security Minister Ben Gvir who called the settlers who killed a 19 year old in the West Bank heroes.

This young man was Sha’ban Ahmed. Yesterday the world witnessed his horrific & terrible death. But according to mainstream news reports, the PM meeting Taylor swift ranks as a bigger story. Talk about him. Remember him. ❤️ This brutal & hate filled madness has to end.

The Media won't show his picture and say his name. Will you?

@Cop4x4tv wtf does he do when they lose?

Meet Jack Callis, a guy who yesterday decided, after his team won a football game, to beat up random other teams football fans for no reason. He's now lost his jobs, probably girlfriend, his 2A rights, and his freedom, all because he got drunk and decided, key word decided to assault random guys. (He's looking at felony assault, among other charges, up to 8 years in the federal prison.)

Soldiers are “teenage victims” Folks it’s getting absurd

What the Nazis did to the Jews was EVIL What Israel is doing to the Palestinians is EVIL Holocaust deniers are vile scum Genocide deniers are vile scum I am Jewish. This post accords with proper Jewish values - not with Zionist Supremacist ideology

@cactusncookies I’m not telling you!

Imagine you have 10 min to hide a peanut in your house. The FBI is going to look for it for the next 24 hours. If they don’t find it you get a million dollars. Where are you hiding it?

The image of hospital patients, tethered to IVs as American-supplied Israeli bombs ignite fires around them in Gaza, may well stand as the defining image of this horror.