For anyone too busy or lazy to read my book this is a good substitute! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

E259 - Who’s Allowed Self-Determination? w/ Brad Simpson

Podcast Episode · American Prestige · July 29 · 55m

podcasts.apple.com

If you’ve never read or heard much about Western Sahara, this is a good place to start. I wrote in my recent book on the history of self-determination of western dismissal of the rights of the Sahrawi and the transnational solidarity campaign that emerged.

Dana El Kurd@danaelkurd.bsky.social · yesterday

My episode with Sahrawi activist Mohamedsalem Werad, on Africa's last colony and American complicity in Moroccan occupation, is out now open.spotify.com/episode/4GcG...

LFG. I don’t think Elon Musk realizes how toxic he is for people in many parts of the country and this is exactly the kind of ad that will hopefully resonate.

Troy Jackson@troyjackson207.bsky.social · 3d ago

My response to Elon Musk.

He is so good at this

US basing agreements around the world are part of what we might call an archipelago of authoritarianism, since many governments maintain US bases in long-term defiance of popular will.

Shibley Telhami@stelhami.bsky.social · 6d ago

Hundreds of Jordanian political, legal and other figures sign an open letter calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Jordan in a rare public challenge to the government www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/w...

This is even better. After eliminating US funding for AIDS prevention globally and dismantling PEPFAR, the most successful foreign aid program in history, the State department compounds it’s murderous racism by saying “whoops!”

PBS News@pbsnews.org · 6d ago

The State Department said ​it takes "full responsibility" for "hastily" altering and then presenting a map of Africa at a global AIDS conference that mislabeled every single country it highlighted. An analysis by Reuters found a watermark in the map image that suggests it was made with OpenAI.

RFK: “Now here you will see that we are brining the roadkill baby bear meat in desiccated whale juice….”

USA TODAY@usatoday.com · 6d ago

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in an exclusive interview, says he will be 'reintroducing' Americans to cooking again in a new series.

This is amazing, and exactly what happens when you dismantle US diplomacy and knowledge of other parts of the world to the point where no one can point out that you’ve AI slopped and mislabeled the map of Africa.

Rima I Anabtawi@rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 6d ago

“The map showed Nigeria, where the U.S. has several hundred troops deployed, as landlocked in the Sahara Desert. Mozambique, which is in southeastern Africa, was relocated to the Horn of Africa, while Ivory ​Coast in West Africa was placed on the other side of the continent.”

This is so shockingly illegal, so shockingly unconstitutional, or anticonstitutional that I hardly know where to begin. Every Democratic governor should be filing lawsuits, refusing cooperation with federal agencies in response to this blatant criminality.

Seth Masket@smotus.bsky.social · 7d ago

This is honestly one of the most shocking images coming out of this administration and that’s saying something

Really interesting that none of the critics of Sam Moyn and Asli Bali’s recent piece in The Guardian acknowledge his co-author, a woman and of the world’s leading scholars of human rights and humanitarian law. Whew! Women have thoughts, too! Lots of rank ignorance and/or unacknowledged sexism here.

This is quite literally how my most recent book started, just by spending a little bit of time at the end of research trips on a different project stashing away interesting stuff on the history of self-determination.

Lesley A Hall@erinacean.bsky.social · 7d ago

I cannot count the archive research trips I have made where besides accumulating material of relevance to the project they were intended to be about, I stashed away a good deal of stuff that was interesting and might lead to something further. (Hooray for browsable catalogues, by the way.)

Haley Stevens is an Islamophobe and a racist. She must be cast out of public life and Democratic politics like all racists, bigots, and xenophobes.

brent sewer socialist🚰🌹@therealbrent.bsky.social · last wk.

This is absolutely insane, imagine if a progressive elected official was refusing to support Haley Stevens if she won! You’d never hear the end of it. Centrists are the ones who are dividing the Democratic Party with their Islamophobia and purity tests.

The American faith in Air power is undiminished since 1945, despite several generations of scholarship and evidence to the contrary. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

The Rise of American Air Power

The Bancroft Prize-winning history of American strategic bombing"Sherry has given us more than just a major contribution to the literature about air power an...

yalebooks.yale.edu

The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 7d ago

If the U.S. wants military action to be effective, Adm. Brad Cooper has said, the U.S. must step up its air attacks, significantly blunting Iran’s missile threat, to try to break the stalemate.

The attempt to demonize Mamdani as some sort of communist are so hilarious given that he is actually working harder than any mayor in recent New York City history to actually improve things for small business people instead of 1500 hedge fund and investment bank bros.

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · last wk.

Opinion: For roughly 180,000 small businesses operating in New York, the Democratic socialist mayor of America’s largest city intends to offer the kind of support previously reserved for large companies. ft.trib.al/LJHxHjZ

Imagine if Scotland had tried to install pedophiles, racists, and insurrectionists off the coast from his golf courses.

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · last wk.

As a reminder, our big dumb president is waging a big dumb vendetta over windmills because Scotland put some turbines near one of his big dumb golf courses more than a decade ago.

Neither Chris Nolan nor his associates can claim ignorance about the immorality of taking Moroccan $ to film in illegally occupied Western Sahara in defiance of the wishes of its indigenous inhabitants. Who cares about the reviews. Would you watch a film made on native land in similar circumstances?

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · last wk.

"Covering an area the size of Britain, Western Sahara is designated as a “non-self-governing territory” by the United Nations and remains on its official list of territories still awaiting decolonization." Eoghan Gilmartin for @africaisacountry1.bsky.social africasacountry.com/2026/07/odys...

Dulles International Airport desperately needs updating, but Trump predictably wants to enshittify the whole thing. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

We are entering an era of multi polarity. So what does an antiwar agenda for this era look like that doesn’t pine for the gross hypocrisy and interventionism of the Cold War, the 1990s, and the GWOT? Restraining destabilizing powers like Russia or Israel requires restraining the US as well.

Samuel Moyn@samuelmoyn.bsky.social · last wk.

The great Asli Bâli and I this morning on the sentimental glazing of US global supremacy - and the need to coax opportunity from its aftermath. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Augusta Dell’Omo @augustacaesar.bsky.social and her terrific new book getting a shoutout from @jamellebouie.net in his column this week. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...

Mamdani is no outlier. Most Americans recognize that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. And they correctly think Netanyahu, like other war criminals, should be arrested if he comes to the US and held accountable for his criminality.

Prem Thakker ツ@premthakker.bsky.social · last wk.

New poll: Americans believe the U.S. should arrest Benjamin Netanyahu by a +22 margin Total: 49-27 Black: 53-13 Hispanic: 52-15 Ages 18-29: 58-17 Harris voters: 74-10 Independents: 55-20 23% of Trump voters agree as well Economist/YouGov:

Normal folks: how can we address the epidemic of school shootings? Gun waiting periods? Ban assault rifles? Republicans: swarms of killer drones! 

I saw Buddy Guy perform at his club in Chicago about 30 years ago on a snowy winter night. At some point, he disappeared during a song. He had slipped out the side door and was playing by himself, god tier blues guitar, on the sidewalk, in a snowstorm. I can still remember how it felt to hear him.

Sarah Spain ✨@sarahspain.com · last wk.

How lucky are we that he's still out here entertaining us at 90... www.chicagotribune.com/2026/07/26/b...

Democratic Party leaders will absolutely choose incompetence and humiliating defeat or collaboration with Trumpism rather than accommodate or encourage their activist base who actually want to fight and win. Every. Single. Time. These folks must be driven from power and from public life.

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · last wk.

A party chair, when his party doesn’t control the White House, has two jobs: Raise money and (as Martin correctly said 17 months ago) to be a very public attack dog. He seems to have failed operatically at both. trib.al/2wLDoz6

It might seem right now like accountability for the many crimes of the Trump administration will never come. But we can make sure that justice has a long memory.

Brian Finucane@bcfinucane.bsky.social · last wk.

People have long memories when it comes to atrocity crimes. Might be relevant to current events. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

In 2003 when I was living in New York and finishing graduate school and working on the national antiwar mobilization, I regularly encountered Susan Sarandon, who even at the age of 56 was so shockingly beautiful and glamorous that I could barely look her in the eye. I saw her 6 mo. ago, and still…

Jeremy Dauber@jeremydauber.bsky.social · 2w ago

Random question: what celebrity have you met in real life who was dramatically better looking than ypu thought they were based on on screen appearance?

This is so wildly, instantly impeachable and illegal that I am astonished that they admitted this in court documents. It’s like admitting to murder or armed robbery. Any Democratic president who tried this would be instantly put on trial, and Democrats would join.

tony romm@tonyromm.bsky.social · 2w ago

NEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

I had a very strange historian’s dream last night. Somehow I was in Guatemala on the eve of the 1954 coup against Arbenz trying to warn people and being told I was a CIA agent. No idea what prompted this. Wondering if other historians have ever had a dream from some part of your reading or research.

Armed Israeli settlers, backed by the full might of the Israeli government, are engaged in a murderous campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. I know people whose families are in the communities being targeted by these religious terrorists. This is a campaign of state terror, full stop.

Al Jazeera English@aljazeera.com · 2w ago

Four Palestinians and one Israeli were killed after armed settlers raided the Palestinian village of Tal near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

Do people realize that DSA is not a political party but an organization like the Sierra club or your local community organization? And that most DSA members are also registered Democrats and were before they joined DSA? The hysteria around this is positively McCarthyite and many Dems are helping.

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · 2w ago

The national front against the lawless authoritarianism needs to be as big & inclusive as possible & neither DSA members nor former pro-GWB neocons can be excluded, nor can either group be permitted to impose litmus tests on who gets to be part of the national front.

Yes, @walshfreedom.bsky.social, if you were to deny the Holocaust or deny that Russia was occupying Ukraine, this would not be a mere disagreement, but evidence that you are, in fact, an awful person who does not believe that victims of genocide or occupation are actual human beings with rights.