Simon Clark
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simoninlondon.bsky.social
Simon Clark
@simoninlondon.bsky.social
Anglo-American in London busy with a bit of climate investing, challenging online disinformation and helping with dialogue to end conflicts.
Useful summary in Goodbye Globalization by @elisabethbraw.bsky.social

"Post-Cold War globalization had been an honourable undertaking, and it had benefited countless people, but it had run its course. It hadn't taken the climate into account. It had overestimated democracy's power to convert...
November 6, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
Take a look at this extraordinary story by the @financialtimes.com investigations star Alison Killing:
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
November 6, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Simon Clark
For me, it is objectively ridiculous that the UK left knows and cares a lot more about Zohran Mamdani than it does about Pedro Sánchez - the left-wing Prime Minister of Europe's fastest growing economy.
November 5, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Precisely
i want to repeat this: mamdani and spanberger have run similar campaigns tailored to their respective electorates and it is maddening to watch political journalists attempt to create some broad contrast where none exist
the other thing about this is that there is no reason to pit these candidates against each other? each are good fits for their respective electorates and each shows the value of vigorous campaigns focused on the stated material problems of voters.
November 4, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Simon Clark
I've given my new Senator a lot of shit on here. But I don't think anyone with power has laid out the stakes of what we're facing as clearly as she does right here.

And if she's saying this, it's because she feels she must.
November 1, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Simon Clark
The amount of hate spread online is enormous - the tech sector needs to respond.

Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH, on the danger of generative AI:

“It is the nuclear age of disinformation and hate.”

“We haven’t come close to comprehending what happens next without intervention.”
October 28, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
A powerful debate today showing the strong bipartisan support for Ukraine - because it’s in the UK’s national interest. I made two main points. First, a ceasefire will only come when Putin concludes that pressure on Russia is jeopardising his hold on power. 1/6 www.parliament.uk/business/new...
Members consider the situation in Ukraine
Russo-Ukrainian War at heart of Lords debate. Find out more
www.parliament.uk
October 31, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
@theonion.com remains undefeated.
ICE Agent, 7-Year-Old Both Wearing Same ‘Military Commando’ Halloween Costume
October 31, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
“The human body is able to do some incredible things if you consume enough lead,” said the secretary of health and human services
Gray-Lipped RFK Jr. Touts Body’s Natural Ability To Transmute Lead Into Gold
WASHINGTON—Praising the process as yet another miracle of biology that modern medicine chooses to ignore, a gray-lipped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at a press conference Wednesday during which he tout...
theonion.com
October 29, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reading Giuliano Da Empoli's latest book. His description of meeting Biden at UNGA is brutal: "The last transatlantic president, the last Cold War combatant, the last internationalist, and yet the result of his foreign policy is a pile of rubble."
October 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
@sundersays.bsky.social should be happy with this
'She's only sorry she got caught and called out'
October 26, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Simon Clark
goddamn is there anything Wikipedia editors can’t do www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/n...
Wikipedia Volunteers Avert Tragedy by Taking Down Gunman at Conference
www.nytimes.com
October 18, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Excellent piece by @joshtpm.bsky.social which should prompt some deep thinking on the alternative to real estates-ism as a foreign policy for the US.
October 17, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
OpenAI’s new “safer” version of ChatGPT actually allows more harm.

We tested GPT-5 and GPT-4o & found that GPT-5 gave MORE harmful responses.

Our research in @theguardian.com 👇
https://bit.ly/4oseis2
ChatGPT ‘upgrade’ giving more harmful answers than previously, tests find
Campaigners ‘deeply concerned’ about response to prompts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders
www.theguardian.com
October 16, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
🚨NEW: After the attack at the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, British Jews who expressed grief & frustration were targeted with a wave of antisemitic abuse on X.

Our new analysis exposes how X is failing to enforce its own rules on violent & hateful content ⤵️
www.thejc.com/news/uk/excl...
October 10, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
JFC the man has not one ounce of shame in him.

He went to private school and Cambridge. He owns three homes and rents a fourth!
October 7, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
It's a pretty big deal that the NYC Bar Association--one of the most prominent and respected bar associations in the country--is accusing the President of ordering the "unlawful summary execution," i.e. murder--of civilians in violation of US and international law. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...
October 6, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
On Yom Kippur many Jewish people in Britain have their phones off to mark the holy day.

As it ends at 723pm, some will hear the tragic Manchester news for the first time.

At that time, please join many of us to send a message of solidarity to British Jews.Thanks Together coalition for proposing.
October 2, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Such a good piece by @jamellebouie.net Frederick Douglass was often frustrated with Lincoln and only belatedly understood his political wisdom and practical courage.
my latest is expanding on the observation that your view of the politics of opposition to the administration depend largely on your view of the election (gift link)
Opinion | Trump Has No Mandate to Destroy America
www.nytimes.com
October 1, 2025 at 2:45 PM
@sundersays.bsky.social key quote:

In the twenty-first century, the success of social democracy depends on narrowing differences between groups: a politics of fair chances, equal voice, and shared missions
Pleased to see @sundersays.bsky.social highlight the new @uclpolicylab.bsky.social essay collection on Labour and communitarianism in his response to the anonymous screed being circulated of late amongst Labour MPs
September 29, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by Simon Clark
Would be nice to send this article to all the generals and admirals gathering at Quantico next week to hear from Pete Hegseth….
The South Korean Ministry of Defense has awarded medals of merit to 11 officers for disobeying direct orders of superiors during the martial law fiasco, orders that they deemed to be contrary to the constitution and endangerment to democracy.
www.chosun.com/english/nati...
National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders
National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders Honored for rejecting illegal orders during martial law, Marine death probe
www.chosun.com
September 27, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
Nothing makes folks here on Bluesky angrier than rightly noting that what we need to solve our authoritarianism problem & have a durable democracy is a center-right pro-democracy party full of Bill Kristols, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
👇🎯🧵

Nothing makes all kinds of very online people here on Bluesky more angry than the very true, utterly banal, & deeply unpopular belief, often articulated by smart mainstream Democrats like Pete Buttigieg & Nancy Pelosi, that durable 🇺🇸 democracy requires a healthy center-right pro-democracy party
This should keep everyone up, including anyone who hopes to govern from whatever party emerges as the not-Democrats. And we need two healthy parties.
September 27, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Simon Clark
Kimmel won, kind of makes me think the pushback works, just like it did in 2016
September 26, 2025 at 9:37 PM