Sign in

Brad Simpson

@bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social
6.9K followers 2.3K following 4.5K posts

US foreign policy, human rights, decolonization, Indonesia, UConn, DIPG dad. #DefeatDIPG www.bradleyrsimpson.com My new book from Oxford! global.oup.com/academic/product/the…

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Brad Simpson
Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The term “remigration” is associated with the extreme right and only came into widespread usage in 2023-4. Even Germany’s AfD avoided using the term in 2024 for fear of scaring away voters. Today the US government is celebrating the “victories” it’s racked up in the “ethnic cleansing” column.
Department of Homelan... • Follow •.• X
5h • 0
Net negative migration for the first time in HALF a CENTURY.
Americans are amassing victories NEVER seen before thanks to President Trump.
We will continue to grow our efforts to fulfill the mandate given to this administration.
REMIGRATION REPORT
94%)
3.3+
MILLION REMOVALS
INCLUDING DEPORTATIONS AND VOLUNTARY REMOVALS
ASYLUM DENIAL AT 94%
250,000
VISAS REVOKED
REVOKED
TRAVEL BANNED
FROM 39 COUNTRIES
2,600+
287(G)
AGREEMENTS
NATURALIZATIONS
DOWN
75%
1.3K
519
212
761509600
Reposted by Brad Simpson
stevelevitsky.bsky.social @stevelevitsky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Lucan Way and I have been writing about competitive authoritarianism for more than 25 years. We never thought we'd write this piece. www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/com...
journalofdemocracy.org
Competitive Authoritarianism in America | Journal of Democracy
The United States has slid into competitive authoritarianism. The slide has been modest and remains reversible—but it is real. Even after Donald Trump, American democracy will remain fragile.
6540285
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Urging @raskin.house.gov to support this urgent legislation, which would only affirm US adherence to international law, under which all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal.
120
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
He did not just say that, I told myself before playing this video to be sure. Yes, he did actually say that.
001
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Will be redesigning my history of US foreign relations course so that every about the Trump administration is about gender. How do you even parody this stuff?
040
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It’s important to remember that faculty and colleagues in other countries are also under sustained assault from their leaders and University systems. Maybe know more south than the UK, which is decimating its universities. Solidarity with striking colleagues at Nottingham today.
093
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Israeli IDF personnel routinely arrest and even murder US citizens with absolutely zero consequences under both Republican and Democratic administrations. When I was in grad school an IDF sniper shot a Jewish-American friend of mine in the face and Clinton era Embassy folks refused to do anything.
131
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The best thing about the end of this ad is that you can basically use it at the end of every single thing Republicans say about practically everything these days. Like this:
010
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Washington Post under Jeff Bezos. Truly covering the most important stories in the capital of the world’s most powerful country.
Washington Post with some bullshit advertisement for Popeyes chicken masquerading as an article.
031
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
First review is out! Grateful to Carlos Corrochano Perez for his thoughtful engagement with my book: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
The first right: self-determination and the transformation of international order, 1941–2000 - Contemporary Political Theory
Contemporary Political Theory -
020
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This by @vanjackson.bsky.social is very good on Trump’s neo-fascist regional politics. foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/28/t...
foreignpolicy.com
Trump’s ‘Greater North America’ Is Fascist Geopolitics
The administration’s hemispheric vision has dangerous roots and dangerous implications.
022
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is not only grotesque as policy, but unbelievably counterproductive as politics. Does Trump think that the children of conservatives do not have degrees in social work or teaching?
042
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
1970s Superfriends episodes are amazing. One of them is entirely focused on the Superfriends trying to solve the mystery of a missing air conditioner from a government research facility.
140
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Watching Superfriends (1973) with a three-year-old and it’s amazing. The first episode is about an alien who comes to Earth to steal energy because nobody listened to the conservationists on his home planet telling them that they needed to not be so wasteful. Very 1970s environmentalism.
030
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Again, I just want to congratulate the people on this site who spent the summer left punching and posting every other day about Hasan Piker. Good work normalizing this stuff, folks.
220
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
An amazing figure, given that the United States still insists on dominating global military spending and weapon sales. And for what? www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
131
Reposted by Brad Simpson
Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Article 25 (3)(e) of the statute establishing the International Criminal Court criminalizes incitement to genocide. If someone can walk into the United Nations and say this, they’re daring the court to act.
13341031196
Reposted by Brad Simpson
The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 22/09/2026
Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit New York this week to address the UN General Assembly. @jakeromm.bsky.social of the @hindrajabfoundation.be breaks down how the United States has the legal ability to arrest and prosecute Netanyahu for crimes under U.S. law:
thenation.com
How to Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu
Make no mistake: The United States can seize Netanyahu for crimes under US law and prosecute him in US courts when he is in New York City this week.
53813
Reposted by Brad Simpson
Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Back in 2005, at the height of the bubble, Citigroup coined the term "plutonomy" to describe economies "where economic growth is powered by & largely consumed by the wealthy few." The original report — which was an investment thesis! — reads as haunting premonition: drive.google.com/file/d/0B6JH...
drive.google.com
Citigroup Oct 16 2005 Plutonomy Report Part 1.pdf
1137
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Kristin Oberiano’s landmark history of Guam and American Empire is out today. Essential reading for @shafrhistorians.bsky.social and other scholars of the Pacific world. uncpress.org/978146969391...
uncpress.org
Territorial Discontent
This one-hundred-year history of the island of Guåhan, also known as Guam, charts how Indigenous CHamorus and Filipino migrants navigated and negotiated t...
044
Reposted by Brad Simpson
History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 22/09/2026
'Our political engagement involved questioning what we knew, understanding our circumstances within wider structures of power, and participating in their transformation'. In this essay, Shahrzad Mojab reflects on her political education in 1970s Iranian student politics.
historyworkshop.org.uk
Revolutionary Learning
Transforming the world around us begins with learning to see and inhabit it differently. Shahrzad Mojab reflects on her political education in the 1970s Iranian student movement in the United States.
166
Reposted by Brad Simpson
Quinn Slobodian @quinnslobodian.com · 21/09/2026
Perhaps the best piece I've read yet on this emergent politics ⬇️
110334
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
An extraordinary account of what is a effectively state sponsored human trafficking program, sending vulnerable refugees to authoritarian states they have never been to where many are imprisoned and tortured. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...
washingtonpost.com
How Trump turned a refugee bureau into a $410 million deportation operation
Inside the secret deals powering the president’s push to deport migrants to countries not their own.
052
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
US foreign relations historians have long tried to theorize the explanatory factors that shape our field. Political economy, ideology, emotions, geopolitics. Spontaneous morning erections is not something we have properly theorized.
071
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Given all the horrible stuff Trump has done in recent months I’m almost quaintly nostalgic for when he just spent his talks musing about whether or not he would like to be eaten by sharks or electrocuted by electric boats.
183
Reposted by Brad Simpson
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is not a historical turning point. Settler colonial regimes contain from their inception the kernel of fascism that will sooner or later be their defining characteristics. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
haaretz.com
'Historic turning point' • Israel moves toward recognizing Austrian party founded by former Nazis
The Austrian Freedom Party's leader gave a speech backing Israel's right-wing agenda that was welcomed by members of the Israeli government. Austria's established Jewish community vehemently rejects t...
311340
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Thanks you to the folks on here who spent the summer posting shit about Hassan piker every day and legitimizing the obsessive coverage by the corporate press and the Trump administration and Republican party’s decision to try and make him the entire face of the midterm elections. Good work, folks.
042
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This new article by Taomo Zhou is amazing. Absent Mother between Two States academic.oup.com/ahr/article/...
academic.oup.com
An Absent Mother between Two States: Third World Internationalism and the Politics of Motherhood in Indonesia and China
Abstract. Motherhood—one of the most important and yet mundane social institutions—is central to understanding the rise and decline of Third World internat
011
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Well, when you put it that way.
080
Reposted by Brad Simpson
Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I guess we can add Trump managing to end the Kennedy Center to the rest of his legacy: - new wars, incompetently managed - destroyed USAID, killed hundreds of thousands - highest debt and deficits in US history - out of control costs and inflation
12425102
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is insane. Federal officials acknowledge that Trump‘s stupid arch will destroy the architectural continuity between the mall and Arlington Cemetery and harm dozens of monuments but basically say “we have no choice but to destroy. what else can we do”? www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
washingtonpost.com
Trump’s arch will harm historic sites but must proceed, federal officials say
National Park Service officials acknowledge that President Donald Trump’s planned arch would harm dozens of historic sites but say it must move forward anyway.
162
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Undated photos of death star damaged by rebel strikes.
051
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
“If we don’t sell $50 billion in US cars to anyone, we don’t lose $50 billion a year. We actually get to keep $50 billion in metal and plastic and rubber for ourselves, like in giant piles. Its very simple, right?”
131
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Order this book today!
121
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Trump literally closing the Kennedy Center, one of the world’s finest performing arts centers, which was in fine financial shape before he took it over and tried to stick his name on it, has completely emblematic of his presidency. He will literally destroy anything he cannot stick his name on.
1145
Reposted by Brad Simpson
Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
i'm not sure if robert kraft quite grasps what he started
23086381534
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The Deep polishing off his FBI application.
010
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
MIke Johnson: President Trump is the idea as president, like sometimes he has an idea to post an AI slop video of him flying a jet and taking a giant dump on America, or of him controlling giant robots. Sometimes we have a hard time keeping up.”
000
Reposted by Brad Simpson
Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"The larger reality: a new phase of the political project to make Israeli Jewish control permanent while dismantling the conditions for Palestinian collective life.... in a project of supremacy, dispossession and elimination." - Yuli Novak, Exec Director of B’Tselem www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Israel’s Elimination Project
Two languages. Two realities.
035
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
We are seeing a real time what it’s like to have a mafia state in which everyone’s safety and security, and the existence of institutions everyone takes for granted, are corrupted and threatened with destruction, wholly at the whim of the mafia boss.
240
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
He says while reposting an AI generated video of him flying in a jet and literally taking a dump on the American people.
032
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Trumpism is accelerationist fuel for all sorts of things.
000
Reposted by Brad Simpson
Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I've been thinking a lot lately about both the value and the limits of historical analogies, esp. analogies to 1930s-40s Germany, to make sense of the present. This review by Sam Adler-Bell does a nice job of navigating this challenge. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/b...
nytimes.com
What the Third Reich Can Teach Us About America Today (Gift Article)
In “53 Days,” the historian Timothy W. Ryback shows how the Nazis used democratic means to destroy German democracy.
514454
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Nothing to see here just a corrupt Russian oligarch and one of Putin‘s inner circle helping to pay for and attend the wedding of Donald Trump Jr, a man he had barely knew. Nothing suspicious about this at all!
021
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Linda Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver were the two original female action heroes. Both path breaking without being sexualized as central aspects of their characters, though both were undeniable attractive. #HATM
3160
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Something about 1980s science fiction that had no concept of scale. Now there would be an Apple Watch or something being used to trace where the aliens were instead of a gigantic machine that looked like a handheld betamax. #HATM
150
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Amazing that the movie predator which came out a year later is so obviously based on aliens. #HATM
050
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“I can drive a class two loader” as one of the most in your face examples of foreshadowing in science fiction movie history. #hatm
071
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I always thought there would be less smoking in space hundred of years in the future. This is like a New York cop procedural from the 1970s. #HATM
050