Simon Lester
@simonlester.com
6.7K followers 700 following 6.4K posts

Founded WorldTradeLaw.net & ChinaTradeMonitor.com Non-Resident Fellow @bakerinstitute.bsky.social Formerly @wto.org @cato.org Trade Policy feed: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xqzu2eazvxb5fohoc4nap33y/feed/aaab5ctu4u4fc .. more

Political science 43%
Economics 28%
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simonlester.com
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:...

simonlester.com
I don't go on Twitter much, can you check and see if Matt Stoller is OK?
atrupar.com
Q: Politico reported on a group chat of young Republicans. Does this just reflect some bad apples?

HOCHUL: Some bad apples? These are the future of the GOP. This is so vile it's hard to find the words to put into context ... there's gotta be consequences ... this bullshit has to stop.
atrupar.com
Trump at the Charlie Kirk memorial event: "They fired sniper rifles at ICE agents, and me. But I made a turn at a good time. I made a turn at a good time. Charlie couldn't believe it, actually."

Reposted by Simon Lester

atrupar.com
Trump on Charlie Kirk: "He was able to fight people that were enemies. And he didn't necessarily love those enemies so much. You know, I heard 'he loved his enemies' and I said, 'Wait a minute, is that the same Charlie that I knew? I'm not sure.' But I didn't want to get into it."

Reposted by Simon Lester

mattpeterson.bsky.social
I asked the White House if the president was talking about used cooking oil, and they haven't answered. (Trump often gets ahead of his comms staff.) But UCO imports from China—used for biofuel—hit a record last year, prompting some domestic complaints. Brooke Rollins was talking about it midyear.

simonlester.com
Just saw someone on the other site praising the Roberts court for "ending racial discrimination in schools," and I'm kind of glad the link was paywalled so I didn't have to read the full explanation, which I'm sure was going to irritate me.

Reposted by Simon Lester

acyn.bsky.social
Meiselas: Would you be willing to confirm that you would only be serving one term if you were to be elected?

Mills: I would only serve one term. That’s a realistic expectation, and it’s one I would certainly agree with.
mattpeterson.bsky.social
Don't look now but Trump just freaked out the market again by continuing to escalate the trade war.
I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act. We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution. As an example, we can easily produce Cooking Oil ourselves, we don’t need to purchase it from China.

Reposted by Simon Lester

mattburgess1.bsky.social
Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year
We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.
kattenbarge.bsky.social
Whenever I see men complain about the male loneliness crisis or unique emotional/psychological issues faced by men, it’s very clear that they just don’t see women as full people capable of experiencing the exact same emotions they do

simonlester.com
It's a strange state of affairs where world leaders have to consider whether public support of Trump's Nobel Prize quest can get them, say, a tariff reduction of 5 percentage points.
atrupar.com
Johnson: "Together with my friend Speaker Ohana of the Israeli Knesset we're going to rally speakers and presidents of parliaments around the world so we will jointly nominate President Donald J Trump for next year's Nobel Prize. No one has ever deserved that prize more & that is an objective fact."
noupside.bsky.social
I'm sorry, is the Trump Administration talking to a tech platform?

Is it...requesting content moderation?
Today following outreach from @thejusticedept, Facebook removed a large group page that was being used to dox and target @ICEgov agents in Chicago.
The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs. The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.

Reposted by Simon Lester

thebulwark.com
Rep. Scalise calls the “No Kings” protests a “hate America” rally.

simonlester.com
I don't know what to make of any of this. Hoping the Thursday night debate will help clarify things.
atrupar.com
Johnson: "Together with my friend Speaker Ohana of the Israeli Knesset we're going to rally speakers and presidents of parliaments around the world so we will jointly nominate President Donald J Trump for next year's Nobel Prize. No one has ever deserved that prize more & that is an objective fact."

simonlester.com
Based on my vast experience with the state of Maine, including three separate week-long visits to cool off during the summer, I think Mainers should consider all of the Democratic candidates during the primary election and decide which one they like best.

simonlester.com
I've heard good things, and I think they should consider extending their coverage a bit to the south.

Reposted by Simon Lester

robfranciseu.bsky.social
Dutch trade minister Aukje de Vries denies that the Netherlands had bowed to US pressure when it seized Nexperia earlier this week.

“We always take as the Netherlands our own decisions on export controls,” de Vries said.

simonlester.com
I feel like the Dodger runners should have been watching the umps for a signal -- the left field ump gave a clear no catch signal.

Reposted by Simon Lester

simonlester.com
There's a lot of demand for a center left Washington newspaper, if anyone wants to jump in to the market.

Reposted by Simon Lester

soumayakeynes.ft.com
The Dutch government seized control of chipmaker Nexperia after Washington warned the company would not be removed from its export control list if its Chinese CEO Zhang Xuezheng remained in charge

by @andybounds.bsky.social @benhallnews.bsky.social & Ryan McMorrow
www.ft.com/content/db01...
Dutch seizure of chipmaker followed US ultimatum over Chinese chief
Takeover of Nexperia plunges Netherlands into US-China tech war
www.ft.com
fbermingham.bsky.social
EU trade ministers meeting in Denmark today. Will discuss China's rare earth controls. Sefcovic says he has requested a call with Wang Wentao

"Discussion on economic security will be more pronounced today than expected, especially with the measures announced by China last week"
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
"Sapiens" is so normal for the first 70,000 years of human history but then goes absolutely buckwild as soon as it gets to colonialism
Had the Aztecs and Incas shown a bit more interest in the world surrounding them - and had they known what the Spaniards had done to their neighbours - they might have resisted the Spanish conquest more keenly and successfully.

simonlester.com
Chase Utley would have been hit twice by that pitch.