Simon Lester

@simonlester.com

7.1K followers 720 following 7.2K posts

Founded WorldTradeLaw.net & ChinaTradeMonitor.com Non-Resident Fellow @bakerinstitute.bsky.social

Trade Policy feed: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xqzu2eazvxb5fohoc4nap33y/feed/aaab5ctu4u4fc

Videos

Political science 43%

Economics 28%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Pinned

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · Apr 3

I see lots of new followers popping up today. I assume you are here for the trade policy, in which case you might like my custom trade policy feed: bsky.app/profile/did:...

Reposted by Simon Lester

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 5h

bro

Let's bring it back to the personal: if you look at my kids
— half white, half-South Asian — they were among the most discriminated against in the entire elite-college and jobs hierarchy under Joe Biden. And the Left explicitly promises to bring that hierarchy back if they ever again get power. It pisses me off that Fuentes calls my kids "jeet," and I appreciate that Ro Khanna would never do that. You know what pisses me off a million times more? That Ro Khanna, AOC, and Chris Murphy would deny them jobs and opportunities because they have the wrong skin color.

Reposted by Simon Lester, Olivier Mannoni

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 5h

A case where the quote is even worse in context than out of context. JD is scaremongering about “Islamists” winning elections in the UK/France and then somehow militarily threatening the US. Saying we should hold Europeans and Africans to different moral standards but anti-wokely.

“SA: But there's a bit of a paradox there, isn't there?
Because on the one hand, the administration says that America in the past too often lectured the world on moral values and so on. And yet the National Security Strategy document that was recently published made certain claims about what Europe should be like civilizationally. So even to get them to be where we want to be, we still have to lecture them.
JDV: We have much greater cultural, religious, and economic ties with Europe than we do with anywhere else in the world. That is just the nature of things. And
so I do think that we're going to have certain moral conversations with Europe that we might not have, for example, with a Democratic Republic of the Congo, because there is this sense of shared history and shared cultural values. To tie it back to a more specific or direct American interest, France and the United Kingdom have nuclear weapons. If they allow themselves to be overwhelmed with very destructive moral ideas, then you allow nuclear weapons to fall in the hands of people who can actually cause very, very serious harm to the United States.”

SA: What sort of ideas?
JDV: I think there are, for example, Islamists-aligned or Islamist-adjacent people who hold office in European countries right now. Right now, maybe at an extremely low level, right? They're winning mayoral elections, or they're winning municipal elections. But it's not inconceivable to imagine a scenario where a person with Islamist-adjacent views could have very significant influence in a European nuclear power. In the next five years? No. But 15 years from now? Absolutely. And that is very much a very direct threat to the United States of America. So I do think there are ways in which the moral conversation does absolutely bleed into America's national-security interests.
I just think that we want Europe to be strong and vibrant. I want Europe to be a place where Americans can go and visit, where there's cultural sharing;
Europeans are coming to American universities;
Americans are going to European universities; where our militaries are fighting together, training together.
That is impossible without some sense of a cultural foundation. The United States and Europe have that, but there's a risk of losing it over the long term.

Reposted by Simon Lester

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 9h

The risk of adopting overly simplified solutions to address child online safety may have a significant impact on the fundamental rights of both children and adults, Joan Barata writes

The Age of Age Restrictions Poses Policy Dilemmas for Kids Online Safety | TechPolicy.Press

The adoption of legal and regulatory frameworks around children's online safety must strike a proper balance, Joan Barata writes.

buff.ly

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 9h

I wonder if HBO promoting so many comedians in the 80s helped everyone up their game.

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 9h

Yeah, that makes sense. I do feel like some of the 90s network sitcom humor aged better than the 70s humor. Maybe they had to up their game due to more competition?

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 9h

I see some complaints about how Bluesky is toxic and I'm sure it is for some people. But I don't know if you can have microblog-style social media without some toxicity, and Bluesky has created tools to help deal with the toxicity. If you are having a bad experience, it's worth using these tools.

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 9h

I stumbled across episodes of Alice and Three's Company earlier today, and here's my question for anyone who wants to take a crack at it: How did 1970s TV age so poorly while 1970s music aged so well?

Reposted by Simon Lester

Dalindyebo Shabalala (he/him) @dyebo.bsky.social · 10h

What is this sympathetic fluff piece on an Afrikaner asylum seeker who repeats the Trump administrations lies about South Africa? In what world is this a special case for our attention? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/u...

Trump Invited White South Africans to America. One Ended Up in Detention.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Simon Lester

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 13h

I wish everyone a merry Christmas, too. The problem is the next sentence. Americans are not required to believe in any particular religion, and those who believe differently share just as fully in our nation as Americans whether or not they share in a religious celebration of this season.

Screenshot tweet from Department of Homeland Security @DHSgov: picture of two skyscrapers lit with cross motifs and words, "Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior."

Reposted by Simon Lester

NPR @npr.org · 22h

The original Betty Boop, the first four Nancy Drew books and Greta Garbo's first talkie are among the many works from 1930 that will be free to use, share and remake starting on Jan. 1. n.pr/4scrT9d

The cultural works becoming public domain in 2026, from Betty Boop to Nancy Drew

The original Betty Boop, the first four Nancy Drew books and Greta Garbo's first talkie are among the many works from 1930 that will be free to use, share and remake starting on Jan. 1.

n.pr

Reposted by Simon Lester

Jason, ex Inferis @benedictsred.bsky.social · 1d

Die Hard was actually appropriated from pagans

Reposted by Scott L. Greer, Conway Waddington, Simon Lester

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

First-ever US airstrikes in Nigeria put the second Trump admin’s 2025 combat actions at:

—Nigeria—tonight’s strikes
—Yemen—1,000+ strikes (Mar-Apr)
—Somalia—120 strikes, 1 ground raid
—Syria—78+ strikes, 3 ground raids
—Caribbean—11 strikes
—Eastern Pacific—20 strikes
—Iran—3 strikes
—Iraq—1 strike

Reposted by Simon Lester

Vishnu @iamvishnurajan.bsky.social · 1d

fascinating read about the history of Christmas in India

“St Thomas the Apostle is believed to have reached the Malabar Coast around 52 AD … the communities associated with his mission existed ‘independently of Western Christendom for over a millennium‘”

www.theweek.in/leisure/soci...

More than a colonial import: The ancient roots of Indian Christmas

If Christmas feels imported today, it is only because we have forgotten its older story, one that began in India long before Europe standardised the festival, complete with its calendars, carols, and ...

www.theweek.in

Reposted by Steve Peers, Scott A. Imberman, Simon Lester

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 1d

Merry Christmas!

The President of Peace just bombed Nigeria.

Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries! I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing. Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper. May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.

DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Reposted by Eric Goldman, Robert C. Richards, Alan Richardson , and 5 more Eric Goldman, Robert C. Richards, Alan Richardson, W. Andy Knight, James Goodwin, Simon Lester, Seth Frey, Timothy D. McBride

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump on Christmas: “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria.”

Reposted by Colin F. Camerer, Will Jennings, Brendan Nyhan , and 21 more Colin F. Camerer, Will Jennings, Brendan Nyhan, Steve Peers, Alistair Munro, Nathan Nunn, Christian E. Weller, Guy Grossman, Rebecca Tushnet, Aaron Sojourner, Nazita Lajevardi, Scott A. Imberman, Michael D. McDonald, Brian Keegan, Jens Rydgren, Aurélien Mondon, Josh Pasek, Alessandro Rigolon, Thomas J. Hayes, Stuart J. Turnbull‐Dugarte, Simon Lester, Nathan P. Kalmoe, David Darmofal, Roman Senninger

John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 1d

DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats.

Reposted by Simon Lester

Sebastian @seabass.bsky.social · 1d

Last but not least regulating BigTech is not enough - we must BUILD our own sovereignty. @eurosky.social is one part of this puzzle and I’m glad to be part of it. We’ll be launching in Jan 2026 and you can register today:

www.eurosky.social

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 1d

Since @mcuban.bsky.social is on here talking health care, here's my question for him: Isn't a crucial part of health care reform separating health insurance from employment, so that losing your job/changing jobs/starting your own business doesn't disrupt your health care situation?

Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 2d

I’m asking questions to learn more. It’s something I work on every day.

But Few want to discuss ways to solve problems on here. They want to virtue signal

Aaron Blackshear @aaronblackshear.bsky.social · 2d

Mark you literally ran a TV show encouraging people to think big and solve problems, and here you are whining “it’s too hard! How could we do it?!”

Reposted by Simon Lester

Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 1d

Denmark’s MP is mocking Trump’s idea of “buying Greenland”

Rasmus Jarlov ‹
@RasmusJarlov
X.com
Not that we are satisfied, but the current growth rate in Denmark is decent. We will start buying
USA states shortly.

Lars Christensen @MaMoMVPY • 18h
Denmark: +9.5%...more than double the US...

Reposted by Simon Lester

Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 1d

UPDATE: New Bluesky signups in Christmas Day are on pace to exceed 100,000 for the first time since the fallout of "Liberation Day"

Japanese users are not done with their mass exodus yet.

bskycheck.com

Bluesky Growth Tracker - Live User Activity Dashboard

Track Bluesky growth as it happens with our real-time dashboard. See live user sign-ups, monitor current growth rate, and explore verified domain handles across government, education, commercial and o...

bskycheck.com

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 1d

He was definitely more suited for police work than for overseeing Saturday detentions in a high school, I'll give you that.

Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s the U.S. government being officially religious in a country with no official religion.

Homeland Security tweet: Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior.

Reposted by Simon Lester

🦃 Seth Masket 🦃 @smotus.bsky.social · 2d

Merry Christmas!

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace, Sam Kamin, Simon Lester

Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 2d

I’m asking questions to learn more. It’s something I work on every day.

But Few want to discuss ways to solve problems on here. They want to virtue signal

Aaron Blackshear @aaronblackshear.bsky.social · 2d

Mark you literally ran a TV show encouraging people to think big and solve problems, and here you are whining “it’s too hard! How could we do it?!”

Reposted by Will Jennings, Rosemary A. Joyce, Simon Lester , and 1 more Will Jennings, Rosemary A. Joyce, Simon Lester, Stuart Shapiro

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 2d

Just a general reminder that your experience on any social media app depends a lot on what *you* make of it. It is easy to find some annoying people on any platform. But platforms like Bluesky also give *you* way more power to control your own experience and to fix whatever annoys you.

Reposted by Silvia Secchi, Simon Lester, Lynette H. Ong

Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 2d

BREAKING: sparked by a mass exodus of X users in protest of a new function that feeds images to Generative AI for other users to edit, for the first time since April 8th, Bluesky gained more than 55,000 new users in a day.

There are still 6.5 hours to go before the @bskycheck.com counter resets.

Bluesky Growth Tracker - Live User Activity Dashboard

bskycheck.com

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 2d

This should be required reading in schools.

Celeste Pewter @celestepewter.bsky.social · 2d

Also: I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

Publishing, let me write a media literacy book, I am begging you. I keep being told that there's no appetite for this...

But how can there NOT be, when it's an urgent and pressing issue, especially with how we aggregate news + use of AI?

Reposted by Simon Lester

Michael Paarlberg @mpaarlberg.bsky.social · 2d

If blockades, embargoes and sanctions were effective tools for regime change, there wouldn’t be such a long list of regimes that have weathered them…indeed, so many that they now make up a huge chunk of the global economy that coordinates specifically to evade US sanctions

Reposted by Simon Lester, David Darmofal

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 2d

Trump to child from Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania is great, we won Pennsylvania, actually three times. We won it a landslide.

Reposted by Steve Peers, Simon Lester

Celeste Pewter @celestepewter.bsky.social · 2d

Add to Home Screen

Light up
your news

Add to Home Screen

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news