This is so bonkers — there absolutely are right wing publishers fully willing to publish polemical garbage. That presumably even they didn’t want this manuscript speaks volumes.

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Fill in the following blank with the least credible name that still makes a true statement (for you): I find that Tottenham Hotspur are in productive discussion with [insert name] to be their next manager more believable than the US is in productive peace talks with Iran.

Spurs pursuing RdZ with VV in charge is hardly surprising (and disheartening). How long did the accused defensive midfielder overlap with Vinai at that nearby team? Put aside those issues — does RdZ even make sense tactically with current squad? Bait press, and beat with short accurate passing?

Not sure why Spurs need Roberto de Zerbi when Ryan de Masona is clearly available.

Very distressing but important insight from @bretdevereaux.bsky.social regarding the Iran War. acoup.blog/2026/03/25/m...

“We break it, you fix it” is a substantial twist on the Iraq War ‘Pottery Barn’ rule. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_bre....

war_iran_final-blow_v1.pdf war_iran_final-final-blow-v2.pdf war_iran_final-blow-no edits.pdf war_iran_final-blow-no edits (1).pdf war_iran_final-blow-no edits (1) APPROVED.pdf IRANWARPLANSFINALFINALFINAL.pdf IRANWARPLANSFINALFINALFINAL (1).pdf

The #IranWar lacks strategy, goals, legitimacy and support, says our expert Prof Jason Reifler @jasonreifler.bsky.social. Writing for @uk.theconversation.com, he asks under what conditions do people support military action. Read more👉 theconversation.com/iran-war-lac... @sotonpolitics.bsky.social

Here is my new piece about public opinion and the Iran War. Decades of political science research has examined what factors generate and maintain public support for military action. In the case of Iran, the U.S. lacks all of them. theconversation.com/iran-war-lac...

Quick thought: Sending ICE agents to airports is a dumb idea. That said, ICE agents menacingly and unhelpfully standing around doing nothing is about a best case scenario of their deployment.

I know that Star Trek is fiction. But good lord this is similar to Picard defeating the Borg by issuing the lowly defended sleep command. Enemies are supposed to find weaknesses. But I’m sure we don’t have any weaknesses hidden in plain view that could be used against us. <insert Padme meme here.>

On the one hand, it is good to walk back from ridiculous escalatory threats. On the other, it is bad for a POTUS to use social media to make destabilizing policy pronouncements in the first place, and then walk them back through what I suspect are exaggerated claims ("productive talks").

Need to do some real work this week, so hopefully my Spurs posting is less. After a night to sleep on it, a few thoughts. The result sucked yesterday. Reiterating a theme from last night -- essential to separate the result from the quality of the match. (I hate how sportsball fandom makes me sad.)

If Spurs are going to make a coaching change, tomorrow is the day to do it. That said, I think keep Tudor. Spurs are playing better than they were under Frank. Game stats (xG, field tilt, touches in the box, ppda) all in Spurs favor. Not sure what magic a new coach is going to bring.

What a weird game. I thought Spurs were the more dominant team (especially first half), and these stats seem to bear that out. Really bad luck to lose 3-0 if these stats are accurate.

With Vicario in goal for Spurs today, did I imagine news that he was out with a hernia injury or did I just fall for low quality clickbait Spurs news?

Over the last 30 years or so, one of the topics in the IR literature that has received an incredible amount of attention is the idea of "audience costs": that the domestic political costs of backing down in international conflict are sufficiently bad that leaders favor staying in/escalation.

For fun, have done a tiny bit of not terribly sophisticated data analysis. I created a small dataset of expected points for each Spurs PL game this season -- and included variables for rough measure of opponent quality, number of red card minutes, and number of minutes played for some key players.

Lineup guess vs Forest Something 4-4-2 / 4-2-3-1. Kinsky Porro Romero VdV Spence Xavi Sarr Gray Tel Solanke Richarlison Xavi on right doesn’t entirely make sense, but not exactly sure (a) who else to put there, and (b) where else to put Xavi. (Who is on right in a 4-2-3-1 is similar question.)

Using the understat XG table (understat.com/league/EPL/2...), here are teams relegated since the 2014-14 season with more than 40 xPTS: Watford 19-20 47.87 Leicester 22-23 45.07 West Brom 17-18 42.96 Fulham 20-21 42.42 Hull 14-15 41.32 Leeds 22-23 40.58 QPR 14-15 40.28 Newcastle 15-16 40.21

Just an observation: The Nick Timothy/Nigel Farage complaints about “Muslim domination” via prayer in a public space seem rhetorically very similar to complaints about pride events.

Lt Cmdr Data conveys emotion more credibly than Mark Zuckerberg. (True, that’s a professional actor portraying an emotionless android, but still.)

I’m looking forward to the their new desert hellscape chic collection. Very spicy. (I’ll see myself out now.)

I think that’s a 3-4-1-2 (but maybe 3-4-3 with a front line of RKM-Tel-Xavi). I don’t know. Vic Romero Dragusin VdV Porro Gray Sarr Spence Xavi RKM Tel

I’m not sure what a convenience sample of online football fans tells us, but whatevs. In the unlikely event anyone cares about my VAR thoughts, here they are. Two specific suggestions (that are in tension with each other): 1) Reviews have to become faster. (Continued)

Ah, reminds me of the famous Socrates line in Plato’s Apology: “An unexamined life is economically more efficient. Move forward.” As I wrote elsewhere, this is quite the cocktail of Randian nonsense and aggressive historical inaccuracy, served with a twist of psychopathy.

Weirdest ever inscription to a copy of Dr Seuss’s “Oh the paces you’ll go”!

There are many reasons to be upset at Trump’s belittling of allies not contributing to a poorly thought out war against Iran. The one that I find most problematic is the completely ahistorical nature of his not understanding why it was in U.S. interests for a less militarily capable Europe.

Here’s my preferred Sunday Spurs XI. Assumes Biss and Gallagher only available as subs. Spence at RCB to put Porro at RWB and Gray at DM. Souza LWB for left footed balance. Tel/ RKM late energy attacking subs. Vic Spence Dragusin Danso Porro Gray Sarr Souza Xavi Solanke Richarlison

Is this a military operations briefing or a crypto sales pitch? Number go up forever!

When, if Iran and Venezuela are guides then this “negotiation” means US military action is imminent. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/w...

According to Facebook, I submitted my ERC Debunker proposal 11 years ago. What an amazing experience that was. Thanks to the wonderful coauthors who made the journey so successful! And thanks to the ERC for trusting me with such a large award!

Exciting news! The @yorkpsychology.bsky.social are recruiting 3 new ART (research and teaching) lecturers! One role will be prioritised for cognitive, affective and/or social neuroscience. #neuroskyence #cognition #psychscisky #neurojobs

The Iran War is yet just another installment in my oft repeated observation: Trump does not pursue policy in the traditional sense, nor does he engage in good faith negotiation. He demands concessions that give him wealth, status, submission, or subservience. I see no strategic goal or plan.

[User prompt for an LLM chat bot] Write an op-ed imagining what Allan Bloom would say about fancy Starbucks orders. [Chat bot] That’s a very good idea. Here you go. Next, I could prepare bullet points for yelling at clouds. [User] Great!

I want to strongly emphasize that self nominations for awards are absolutely ok! From my experience on awards committees over the years, that’s the modal submission!

The prophet we need (bad homophone pun very much intended)

“They” is doing a lot of work in this summary. One reading is that it refers to kids, but I think the proper reading is that it applies to parents. And that is sadder. My kids had absolutely no problem at any point in their development understanding that it is OK to love someone the same sex/gender.

Only tangentially related, but any opportunity to re-up this long form article must be taken. medium.com/the-awl/step...

Hegseth's testosterone fueled briefings have energy somewhere between shouting hysterically threatening to sue someone after some minor inconvenience and full pro wrestling bluster. Seriously, how far off of "if you smell what the bombs are cooking" are we?

Trying to keep some Spurs optimism. Tricky to figure out an XI w/ ~14 outfield players, who are mostly are left wingers or box-to-box midfielders. Kinsky* Porro Danso VdV Souza Sarr Gallagher Richy Xavi Tel Solanke *per FB London 4-2-3-1 in hopes it gives more midfield control against 3-4-3.

Antonio Guterres is up first at this Security Council meeting. He condemns this morning’s strikes by Israel and the US on Iran, and the return strikes by Iran on countries in the region. There is, he says, no alternative to the peaceful settlement of disputes

A lot of my academic focuses on public attitudes about foreign policy and the use of force. The just initiated bombing of Iran lacks many of the components that build and sustain domestic support for military action.

Which nepo bay can have the more spectacular crash — Lance Stroll or David Ellison?

Having read my Carey and His (2011), here is one way to try and improve both US and UK politics. Multimember districts with low district magnitude and PR. For the US, increase the size of the House and Senate five fold -- making multimember districts with 5 representatives. doi.org/10.1111/j.15...

Badenoch statement on by-election inclucdes this line: “Clearly this election was not about who would be the best MP. But there was only one sensible candidate standing in Gorton and Denton” I’m not an electoral strategy genius or anything, but calling the voters dummies seems suboptimal.

Modest thoughts about the UK by-election (what in the American context would be called a special election) (`/6):

This is so stupid and I laughed like a drain