Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social) @bradleyrsimpson Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

@MSeelle4439

@iambohema_v2

@xiomarasierra

@pharmaguy

@Aate

@nttoren

@bokeplokalmalam

@KeremAltaylar

@RhenmanPartners

@WahlbergZeta

@jelkink

@AnalySource

@reefandresist

@faerellrclaire

@TOTO_NL

@FULLYFocused_

@bokeplokalmalam

@DiegoFC

@stwmaniax

@bokeplokalmalam

@besttakess

@bkopava

@mateojaimesp

@biblicalflesh

@CirclingDrain

@vPlutoLIVE

@AACL_SRW

@stwmaniax

@bokeplokalmalam

@tetoxmnmn

@lorsque_le_jour

@_karhide

@ssp_cajeme

@panidanya

@IanGriffiths5

@useagave

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

10 months

The first Palestinian person I ever met was my junior year in Germany. He was a medical student named Nimr living on the floor of my apartment building, and for weeks, he wouldn’t talk to me. At one point I asked him why he wouldn’t talk to me, and he said because I was American.

424

19K

94K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

I am a Sanders supporter and a bitter critic of Biden in many fronts, but Sanders loses we lick our wounds, grit our teeth, and work to defeat Trump by electing Biden, at which point we push him relentlessly from the left. No pity party, just hard work. Anything else is insane.

#CaliBernication

@brooklynnygirl

5 years

If @JoeBiden gets the nomination I will #DemExit Who will join me?

23K

2K

15K

4K

11K

78K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

I am a historian of US foreign policy. I have read many, many letters from US Presidents to foreign leaders, and I have never read a letter from the US President so unhinged, so threatening, so bizarre, so completely lacking in basic etiquette. Trump is deeply, deeply unwell.

Peter Alexander

@PeterAlexander

5 years

White House confirms authenticity of Trump letter to Erdogan, dated 10/9: “History... will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool! I will call you later.” First reported by Fox Business.

1K

2K

4K

2K

17K

52K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

I’m a historian of genocide and mass violence. Let’s be clear. Trump talks like a Nazi, like Rwandan genocidaires, like the Indonesian military folks who killed 500,000 civilians in six months in 1965. This is the pre-language of genocide, the dehumanizing of future victims.

1K

22K

44K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

8 months

When I was in grad school one of my housemates, a Jewish peace activist, went to the West Bank with the international solidarity movement and had part of his face shot off by an Israeli sniper while trying to help to Palestinian children the sniper was shooting at. So like him?

Rabbi David Schlusselberg

@RavSchluss

8 months

If the Palestinian supporters around the world had actually visited Israel, we would have far more people siding with Israel right now.

3K

119

854

63

8K

45K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

3 years

As my son Elijah was dying of pediatric brain cancer in 2017, @HamillHimself contributed to a birthday video Lucasfilm put together where several Star Wars actors wished him happy birthday for his ninth bday (April 22). Here is Elijah watching Mark Hamill. He died the next day.

Star Wars Facts

@sw_tweets

3 years

Mark Hamill once visited a dying fan and answered every question as Luke Skywalker because the fan couldn't tell reality from fiction anymore

181

1K

17K

788

3K

42K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

Abraham Lincoln paid 3x more in taxes in 1864 than Donald Trump in 2016. Not more as a share of his income. More in taxes. Lincoln paid $1981.67 in federal taxes on a salary of $25,000 in 1864-1865. Trump paid $750 in 2016, about one-third what Lincoln paid, but 151 years later.

435

12K

37K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

10 months

I think it’s impossible for anyone who hasn’t lived under occupation as Palestinians have for over 50 years the infinite variety of daily humiliations and degradations they endure, which are meant to demonstrate their powerlessness in the face of Israeli military occupation.

18

2K

31K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 months

The lesson of literally almost every single successful social movement in modern US history (women’s suffrage, civil rights, LGBTQ, Act-UP, antiwar, disability rights, etc) is that dissent *must* produce disorder to provoke the kind of response that enables meaningful change.

Read Abolish Rent

@JoshuaPHilll

5 months

Biden is now giving a completely one-sided, dishonest speech about these campus protests. “Dissent must never lead to disorder.”

1K

3K

12K

64

7K

29K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

10 months

Most Americans have no idea how totally the United States is identified in the rest of the world with the occupation and decades, long torment of the Palestinians. That the US alone has blocked a two state solution and Palestinian self determination for over 40 years.

158

3K

29K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

10 months

He said one of the things he remembered was that the soldiers carried American M-16s and he understood that the United States was on the side of the people who daily sexually assaulted his sibling. This lasted for several years, he told me.

23

2K

28K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 months

i also do things accidentally 80 times in a row.

Forensic Architecture

@ForensicArchi

5 months

NEW: Our analysis of reported data identifies at least 80 separate attacks by Israel on aid in Gaza since January. The frequency and widespread nature of these attacks suggests that Israel is systematically targeting aid.

496

5K

8K

15

7K

28K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

10 months

This struck me, and so I asked him to explain. He told me that he lived in the West Bank and he and his sister would cross through checkpoints every day to go to work in Israel. And every day he had to watch his sister be groped and sexually humiliated by checkpoint soldiers.

45

2K

27K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

10 months

I think about this often. About the almost incomprehensible restraint that Palestinians must attempt to display when they can be arbitrarily arrested, shot, murdered for almost anything. Or nothing at all. And the near impossibility of maintaining ones dignity in the face of it.

28

2K

26K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

10 months

That so many Palestinians retain any hope, any faith in humanity after decades of being occupied, colonized, humiliated, bombed, and collectively tortured, with the support of the most powerful country on earth, which has armed and supports their tormentors, is a literal miracle.

17

2K

23K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

Historian of US foreign policy here. One of the core functions of US diplomacy towards client states engaging in mass murder is denial of death tolls. I cannot think of a single example of simple acknowledgment of client state atrocities since 1945. A few examples:

112

6K

17K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

9 months

Thirty years ago I very earnestly sent Noam Chomsky my senior thesis (on the mass media and covert ops in Guatemala), and he not only sent me back 5 pages of comments but a year later wrote me this note, by which time I was in a history PhD program. What a mensch.

131

620

17K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

Is there any precedent since 1945 of a state openly declaring that WHO and UN personnel are legitimate military targets who can be murdered?

Eylon Levy

@EylonALevy

11 months

We hold the ⁦ @WHO ⁩ complicit with Hamas’ human shield strategy and any loss of life from its gross negligence.

2K

5K

197

4K

16K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

9 months

As a historian who has researched and studied genocide in places like Indonesia and Timor Leste, I am deeply aware of the difficulties of determining when it seems clear that genocidal violence is unfolding. The Israeli annihilation of Gaza clearly meets that threshold.

281

5K

14K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

Free job hunting advice from a tenured professor. 1. save your CV in multiple places. I save mine on a floppy disk and print out copies on my dot matrix printer. 2. Make sure the little tape in your answering machine is rewound in case you get called with an offer. 1/4

63

1K

12K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

1 month

Before I die, I would love to see a presidential candidate announce that the United States didn’t intend to militarily dominate the world forever.

296

1K

12K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

As a historian of US foreign relations, I can honestly say that that has never been anything like this before: a President openly expressing not just disagreement, but contempt for his own intelligence community because they will not parrot his lies. Just astonishing.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

6 years

....a source of potential danger and conflict. They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge. There economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!

34K

10K

54K

248

3K

9K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

1 month

The day my son Elijah died I carried him, dead and limp in my arms, into the hospital. For months now I’ve seen Palestinian parents carrying their dead children like this after being murdered by Israeli attacks, carried out with US weapons, and I’m filled with rage and despair.

73

2K

9K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

10 months

I will say that we became friends over the year I was in Germany. But becoming friends with Nimr meant mostly listening, and thinking about how I, who considered myself a good lefty in 1992, could be so oblivious of a situation that was so deeply affected by US foreign policy.

11

372

9K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

10 months

The late Marilyn Young once wrote an essay that talked about this. How being an American means living oblivious to how American power looks and feels in other parts of the world on a daily basis. Many of us still do.

32

863

9K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

1/9 For the non-historians out there: I am a historian of US foreign policy who has read more documents like this than I can remember, so a few thoughts on the Trump MemCon. 1) This is not verbatim, as the document states. It is a sort of summary, which is very different.

171

3K

7K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

The White House letter announcing that Trump won’t cooperate with the impeachment inquiry reads like it was drafted by Rudy Giuliani, Stephen Miller, and Sean Hannity after snorting a bunch of coke, reading an Anne Coulter book, watching a Dinesh D’Souza talk, and sniffing glue.

Maggie Haberman

@maggieNYT

5 years

209

175

333

264

1K

6K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

2 months

There is nothing like this in post 1945 international history. A single country literally waging war against the United Nations, declaring UN agencies terrorist organizations, murdering staff with impunity, and facing *zero* sanctions or criticism for doing so from Biden Admin.

Ryan Grim

@ryangrim

2 months

NEW: Leaked UN report reveals 366 UN staff and family members have been killed by Israel's war. More here:

148

6K

11K

25

3K

6K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

2 months

You’ve gotta love the sight of a racially diverse crowd of thousands of liberals cheering the VP as she pledges the further militarization of the US Mexico border and the flagrantly illegal denial of asylum to desperate central American migrants.

Kamala HQ

@KamalaHQ

2 months

Vice President Harris: Donald Trump has been talking a big game about securing our border, but as my friend Quavo would say, he does not walk it like he talks it. Our administration worked on the most significant border security bill in decades. It was all set to pass, but at the

970

2K

11K

76

1K

6K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

There have been at least 8 times as many COVID-19 cases coming from the White House in the last 24 hours (8) as in all of Vietnam (1), a country of 95 million people. It didn’t have to be this way.

31

1K

6K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 months

I’m a historian of US foreign relations and modern international politics, and there is literally no other political situation anywhere in the world in the last 130 years where the US said it has no leverage and can do nothing to shape the behavior of another state.

Daniel Denvir

@DanielDenvir

5 months

Sullivan puts it quite clearly: as far as Biden is concerned, it’s entirely up to Israel what happens to Palestinians, and the US has no plans to use its vast leverage to make them deliver even an ounce of peace and justice.

25

165

495

66

1K

5K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

3 years

1/7 I was a radio producer for Democracy Now! on September 11, 2001 and in the months afterwards. I had a unique vantage point to witness the antiwar movement against the US invasion of Afghanistan. There was a mass antiwar movement: decentralized, local, and ignored by media.

51

1K

4K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

7 months

Its worth noting that the NYT has never had a Palestinian correspondent in 50 years.

Jeet Heer

@HeerJeet

7 months

The liberal New York Times is racially profile its staff.

37

782

3K

11

768

4K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

@KevinMKruse It's important to note that Gugino is a Catholic Worker, a Christian pacifist, and a life-long peace activist with a deep commitment to nonviolence and service to the poor. This is who Trump is calling an Antifa provocateur.

Martin Gugino, Buffalo man pushed by police, is long-time peace...

Martin Gugino — the 75-year-old man who was shoved to the ground by Buffalo police in a video seen by millions — is a longtime peace activist and “gentle person,” according to...

nypost.com

89

2K

4K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

@Ocasio2018 Amazingly, @michaeljknowles there are communities where rich people and working people live right next to each other, in the same zip code even! They are called cities, and many are marked by striking inequality even where average wealth (a meaningless figure) is high.

137

168

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

The men who can do this are people you think you know, people you think are incapable of doing this kind of thing, until they show you that they are. And that’s some scary, sobering shit. We are responsible for and to each other. We shouldn’t forget. #twitterstorians

124

449

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

7/9 Zelensky flatters Trump in ways I have never seen in such a conversation - mentioning he stayed at Trump's hotel, etc. Its almost certain he was briefed that this is the way to get on Trump's good side: kiss his ass, flatter, praise. This is a weird, weird thing to read.

55

655

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

9 months

The Israeli annihilation of Gaza may be the first episode in history of genocide unfolding in real time, in full view of the world, with the perpetrators proudly announcing their intentions every day, and other governments proudly trumpeting their participation.

133

1K

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

Israel is waging a deliberate campaign of murdering journalists wholly without precedent in the history of modern warfare. To my knowledge no country has ever killed so many journalists in such a short period of time. We may need a new category of war crime to capture this.

Shailja #FreePalestine Patel

@shailjapatel

11 months

Israel just murdered Gaza journalist Yakub Bursh inside his own home. He is the 50th Palestinian journalist targeted and murdered by Israel since October 7th. In many cases, Israel has also killed the journalist's family and destroyed their home. Genocide wants no documentation.

432

20K

34K

16

1K

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

8 months

@JB__Oz Excuse me, I think my friend knows what happened. He was with an international team, trying to protect Palestinian civilians, wearing orange vests, in a place where Israeli Army snipers had killed numerous civilians and children. Stop gaslighting.

6

32

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

The point here is simple. The US government, under Democratic and Republican Administrations, *will always deny atrocities* carried out by client states and allies and use its diplomatic and media influence to this end. We should expect the Biden Admin to lie in this way.

12

835

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

Trump today: "Four Seasons and seven lawsuits ago my lawyers brought forth on this parking lot, a new legal filing, conceived under the influence, and dedicated to the proposition that bird shit smeared on a printout of a Newsmax article constitutes a legal strategy..."

45

506

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

I have researched coups and coup attempts in Guatemala (1954), Iran (1953), Indonesia (1965-1966), and elsewhere. Reading reports at the time and afterwards it’s always striking how poorly organized and led and doomed to fail they seem. Until they succeed. This one was close.

85

516

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

It also tells me that when we see this shit happening we have to intervene. Just put your body in the way and refuse to leave until you know that that person is safe. Follow them, be an asshole, say out loud what you see happening so that the person hoping to get away

7

388

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

Furious, realizing that if I hadn’t been there he would have had sex with her without her consent. She woke up remembering nothing. Someone I know was asking my permission to sexually assault someone and thought some code of men would suffice. He considers himself a good lefty

9

401

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

8 months

@plastique_paddy He had several years of multiple surgeries and was able to mostly recover.

1

16

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

7 months

Your average CNN panel would be humiliated by any random teenager w/ a TikTok account. Some of the most ignorant, incurious, intolerant, indoctrinated people in the country. Utterly incapable of an independent, humane thought if their lives dependent on it.

Mac

@GoodPoliticGuy

7 months

Unreal CNN panel. Nina Turner brings up suffering in Gaza, gets interrupted, and Anderson Cooper says ‘we don’t need to debate the issue’ and tries to pivot. How tf to you discuss the Michigan uncommitted vote without discussing THE REASON ITS HAPPENING??

1K

5K

21K

33

546

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

Textbook impeachable abuse of power, for both Barr and Trump.

Greg Sargent

@GregTSargent

4 years

Wow. Prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky will testify to @HouseJudiciary Dems tomorrow that DOJ higher ups repeatedly pressured prosecutors to "water down" the Stone sentencing rec, because of his relationship to Trump. He and others sounded the alarm about this, but it was not "heeded":

45

849

2K

48

1K

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

When Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, with US military and diplomatic backing, its armed forces killed 50-100k civilians in the first 12 months (roughly 15% of the population). US officials flatly denied the scope and scale of killing:()

10

594

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

9/9 The few paragraphs referring to Barr, Giuliani, Biden, etc. are, from a historian's perspective, very, very clear in their meaning. Take 100 historians, and 99 will see this document in the same way, even if we interpret it with great caution. This is very, very damning.

19

484

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

Israel is doing to Gaza what every historian of colonialism and counterinsurgency can tell stories of - responding to an atrocity against metropolitan civilians or attack on colonial soldiers with a punitive counter massacre of civilians on a far larger scale.

31

751

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

We are truly living in an an Onion article. “White House announces $13 billion in mil aid to Israel to annihilate Gaza, rejects Palestinian casualty figures, says no red lines for Israel, compares those who protest to neo-Nazis, announces task force against Islamophobia.”

The White House

@WhiteHouse

11 months

Today, President Biden and Vice President Harris are announcing the development of the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia. Our Administration has been clear: there is no place for hate in America against anyone.

3K

699

3K

30

780

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

In Dec. 1981 a US backed El Salvadoran special forces unit massacred more than 800 civilians amidst the Salvadoran civil war. The Reagan Administration, led by Elliot Abrams, initially just denied the massacre or blamed FMLN guerrillas.

Time for a US Apology to El Salvador

Obama recently expressed regret for US support of Argentina’s “dirty war.” It’s time Washington did the same regarding our active backing of right-wing butchery in El Salvador.

www.thenation.com

7

574

3K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

And feminist, a “good guy.” And he seemed to think his self-rationalization or desire or her drunkenness gave him license. It was terrifying to see in real time. I talked to people about this and feel I did the right thing and will tell this person how close he came to

11

262

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

Katie Hill is a victim of revenge porn form her ex husband, and is slut shamed into resigning. A book just came out with 43 new women accusing Donald Trump of sexual assault or harassment and it is met with a collective yawn. And no one is surprised by either.

Rep. Katie Hill

@RepKatieHill

5 years

It is with a broken heart that today I announce my resignation from Congress. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I believe it is the best thing for my constituents, my community, and our country. See my official statement below.

17K

4K

17K

34

706

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

It’s worth noting that no US government since has initially acknowledged an Israeli massacre or atrocity. Its reflexive response is to back Israeli denials. If anyone can think of one, please post. I cannot think of a single one since the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

16

397

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

We can find dozens of similar examples over the last 40 years. More recently the Trump (and now Biden Admin) denied the scope and scale of US backed Saudi atrocities and killings in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has killed more than 100,000 civilians:

U.S. War Crimes in Yemen: Stop Looking the Other Way

The longstanding involvement of the United States in the conflict in Yemen is facing renewed scrutiny. On September 16, State Department officials testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee...

www.hrw.org

5

462

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

8/9 Trump mentioning Giuliani repeatedly in the call is a enormous tell. Normally President will refer to Sect State, Ambassador, or cabinet officials as his point person on a policy issue. Trump mentions his personal lawyer, and Zelensky will have known exactly what this means.

16

426

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

11 months

Israel has killed 3/4 of all the journalists killed in the world in 2023. In three weeks. Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war - Committee to Protect Journalists

Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war - Committee to Protect Journalists

The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on Gazan journalists since Israel declared war on Hamas following its attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. As of September 27, 2024, CPJ’s...

cpj.org

17

1K

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

9 months

The South African petition to the international criminal court will expose the total bankruptcy of international law, since the most powerful country in the history of the world is an open accomplice and has already announced that the perpetrators will get away with it.

26

503

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

9.Publications matter! Talk about a book review or enclyclopedia entry you might write! It will give you a leg up on the competition. 10. Only apply for jobs in places you’d like to live in. I recommend Manhattan and the Bay Area. 11. Have fun! 4/4

16

27

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

5/ Congress can and must subpoena all the follow up documents from this call, because State, DOD, DOJ, and others will have created documents from this call that say "here's what we do now." This MemCon is one data point in a narrative, referring to many other relevant events.

10

414

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

The grad student who found the UNC “Silent Sam” statue speech in the archives. Never let anyone tell you archival research isn’t important.

Dr. Adam H. Domby

@AdamHDomby

6 years

Finding this speech in the Archives as a young graduate student remains the most influential piece of historical research I've ever done. It shifted the debate on campus in ways I never expected. I never would have saw this coming when I first read the speech in @SoHistColl_1930

18

377

2K

10

545

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

9 months

A Republican presidential candidate’s official position on Palestine is support for straightforward ethnic cleansing of the sort for which Bosnian officials were convicted of genocide at the ICTY. Just pure, unadulterated, unapologetic racism.

Doha News

@dohanews

9 months

“I have always said that what the Palestinians need is to move to pro-Hamas countries such as Qatar, Iran and Turkey,” said U.S. Presidential candidate, @NikkiHaley

957

239

693

70

626

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

So @DevinCow has gone from about 1000 to 132,000 followers since @DevinNunes announced he was suing a fake online cow, and if nothing else, this proves that all of the funny people are on the right side.

81

288

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

Holy shit, Hill says Sondland told her he didn’t need to keep her in the loop and he said he was briefing Trump, Bolton, Pompeo, and Mulvaney. She realized it was clear Sondland was engaging on a “domestic political errand.” Jesus she is cold as steel.

33

283

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

One reason why many prominent liberals are ok with Bloomberg is that he inhabits their cultural world. He’s witty, urbane, sophisticated, and seems like the anti-Trump of billionaires, so it’s easy to dismiss a long history of learned racism and sexism. Trump is more foreign.

Soledad O'Brien

@soledadobrien

5 years

(Love you but this is absurd)

2K

386

3K

76

203

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

Destroying someone else’s life, and his own. I don’t tell this to pat myself on the back. I was terrified at the time, watching something really ugly that happens to so many women, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and managed to do the

4

187

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

3. Give yourself plenty of time to mail in all of your application materials. 4. Keep the white out handy in case you have to edit your cover letter on the typewriter. 5. Mention the latest trends in your field (“social history,” “gender,” “culture,”) in your interviews. 2/4

2

34

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

Like a lot to have to do, but that’s because we have conditioned men to think that women have to work to not get raped or sexually assaulted, and that there are half a dozen ways to rationalize rape or assault as drunken consensual sex or something.

9

290

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

6/ This letter suggests a complete breakdown of the policymaking process and a President who is totally improvising with no input from advisors, since no competent, serious policymaker would ever sign off on such a letter. It just would not happen.

22

368

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

5/ Trump’s letter seems to have been dictated straight by him to a secretary and sent to Erdogan without any input from top NSC, State Dept, or Pentagon/JCS advisors. It’s hard to overstate how crazy this is, given the stakes involved for US in Turkey’s invasion of Syria.

27

332

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

2 months

This continues to astonish. The revelations of US torture at Abu Ghraib were front page news for months. Yet US journalists are ignoring a Israeli state-backed program of systematic rape and torture which soldiers are *literally* live-streaming for top Israeli officials to watch.

Laleh Khalili 🇵🇸

@LalehKhalili

2 months

The extent to which US or UK based journalists are protecting Israeli soldiers raping, destroying and committing all sorts of atrocities is astonishing. Their neglect didn’t go anywhere this far with US/UK soldiers committing the same. I really am just amazed at the complicity.

8

714

2K

8

775

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

8/ Presidents normally see themselves as constrained by their advisers, whose greater expertise and experience they at least have to consider. Trump doesn’t seem to see himself constrained by anyone and seems to feel free to say or do anything, and that should terrify us all. END

64

291

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

Right thing. And it was scary. What this tells me is how easy it is to not see potential sexual assaults, when we see two colleagues walking from the bar at the end of the night, one of whom is clearly not in a place to exercise judgment or consent.

2

196

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

3/9 Before getting on phone calls like this, both Trump and Zelenskyy will have gotten briefing materials with talking points and what the other party wants to talk about, Congress will of course subpoena these. Zalenskyy's briefing materials would be super interesting here.

24

233

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

Until he asked me “you are going to walk me back to my room and wait outside aren’t you?” Goddam right I am. “You don’t think I would have done anything with her like that, do you?” Goddam right I do. He walked in, I waited outside for a while, and paced the halls scared and

6

190

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

5.5/9 When I and other historians at places like @NSArchive use the Freedom of Information Act to request documents related to Presidential conversations, we request all documents from weeks or months before and weeks or months after, because there is prep work and follow up.

7

239

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

@chrislhayes I’m a historian of US foreign policy, and have read documents like this for 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this. There is nothing, nothing about US policy here. It’s all about Trump and Zelenskyy knows it.

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

1/9 For the non-historians out there: I am a historian of US foreign policy who has read more documents like this than I can remember, so a few thoughts on the Trump MemCon. 1) This is not verbatim, as the document states. It is a sort of summary, which is very different.

171

3K

7K

10

455

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

3.5/9 Zelensky's briefing materials would summarize the state of play of US econ and military assistance, diplomacy, etc. There was *no need* for Trump to specifically mention US mil aid. Zelensky knew the US was holding up military assistance, and why, and what he had to say.

9

276

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

@joelockhart @IanBrettCooper I’m a historian of US politics. Ian is right, you are wrong. Dems have accommodated meaningful social reform when pressed by the left (militant labor, civil rights orgs Dems couldn’t co-opt, etc), almost always in effort to forestall more radical demands (like a public option).

13

48

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

6. Ladies, dress modestly! This is the 90s, not the 60s! 7. Demonstrate your familiarity with technology. Include your Netscape or AOL electronic mail address in your CV. 8. Since there are lots of jobs this year, be choosy! 3/4

8

34

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

1 year

Israel’s semi-official policy is to reflexively deny when it murders large numbers of civilians. It did this in 1996 when it bombed a UN compound in Qana in southern Lebanon and killed 106 people. IDF blamed Hezbollah. Later evidence confirmed it was IDF:

Massacre in sanctuary

Eyewitness

www.independent.co.uk

27

753

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

Consciously committing rape or sexual assault in the “right” situation. Make sure to talk to the victim and let her (or him) know that they aren’t stupid, didn’t do anything wrong, and have nothing to be ashamed of. That they have a right to be fucking angry. All that seems

2

198

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

What if Mayors in cities where Trump wants to hold rallies just refuse to provide public services for them until Trump pays back every other city he has stiffed? Trump is forcing cities to *subsidize* his campaign fundraising, stiffing them, and local taxpayers pick up the bill.

28

378

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

On mornings like this, it is nice to fall back on little daily rituals that provide some normalcy: Practicing yoga, feeding the pets, eating an entire box of pop tarts with a glass of whiskey.

40

166

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

This isn’t even the most scandalous thing in the last hour.

Miami Herald

@MiamiHerald

5 years

Prosecutors: Army officer at Mar-a-Lago uploaded suspected child porn to Russian website

211

1K

18

365

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

From Vanity Fair: When Fred Trump had Alzheimers his family pretended "he was still running the Trump Organization. Every day Fred Sr. would go to the office in Brooklyn and they would *give him blank papers* to sort through and sign."

30

475

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

2/ For non-historians wondering what makes this letter so unusual, aside from the bonkers prose: Normally a letter from the US president to a foreign leader is drafted by the national security advisor or other high level policymakers, with input from other stakeholders.

38

248

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

2/9 The references to Giuliani strongly suggest that Zelenskyy is familiar with his efforts over the preceding months to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. When reading documents like this, historians often assemble timelines to interpret references to people and events.

9

219

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

While he pleaded with me to not get in the way because they were both “consenting adults.” Fuck that. I insisted on staying, she passed out face first on her bed, and I insisted on walking him back to his room, walking around and around as he pretended not to know which was his

5

193

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

3 years

In early 1999 or so, while I was in grad school I was arrested for disrupting a speech Madeline Albright gave before the Chicago World Council. I had been in Iraq for the second time just a few weeks before, Delivering medicine to Iraqi hospitals in defiance of US /UN sanctions.

24

234

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

2 years

@MattBinder This is the same Glenn Greenwald who published the entirety of his private correspondence with Chelsea Manning in a fit of adolescent pique after the latter criticized him once.

9

84

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

6 years

With it knows that you know *exactly* they are hoping to do if you’ll just be a good guy and leave. Tell people right afterwards so other people hear it in real time. Make sure it’s not just your word against his the next morning. People you know, “nice” people are capable of

1

204

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

6/9 We can read much into the tone, tenor, and other 'cues' in the memo. This is at the heart of what we do as historians - trying to 'read' an incomplete transcript and come to best interpretation of language used. The tone is of a supplicant (Zelenskyy) buttering the President.

6

212

1K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

This was my son Elijah’s last Halloween, in 2016. He died six months later from the DIPG tumor slowly squeezing his brain off. I think about him every day, and extra on days like today. He’d be eleven and a half, and I miss him more than I can imagine.

117

29

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

8 months

@SpamBakedBeans And this gets you blocked. Bye.

1

5

2K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

4 years

Moundsville, WV is a town of just over 9,000 people, where 23% of the population lives in poverty, the median household income is $30,400. Population is 97% white.

82

590

1K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

3/ Even in response to rapidly unfolding events, a Pres letter is written and edited by committee, almost never by the Pres himself, and usually goes through multiple drafts to make sure every word is consistent with existing policy or spells out a considered policy option.

17

196

1K

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social)

@bradleyrsimpson

5 years

10/ here is an example of a follow up document resulting from a Presidential phone call (this example is from Bill Clinton calling Indonesian President Suharto in 1998):

34

199

1K