Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jeremy Goldkorn

@goldkorn.bsky.social

3.6K followers 5.2K following 1.3K posts

What you need to know about China this week: thechinaweek.com Lessons from China, Russia, South Africa, North Korea etc. for Trump and Musk's America: rhymingchaos.com Other links: jeremygoldkorn.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 8d

The daily onslaught of outrageous news of corruption, destruction of government capacity & attacks on science and education in the U.S. right now is dizzying. “What now?” you scream as you scroll through the morning’s news. It’s a little like the world Geremie Barmé stepped into in China in 1974

A constant bombardment of noise and information: China, 1974 to America, 2025

Geremie Barmé lived in China during the dying days of the Cultural Revolution, when every day brought a new political upheaval. It's a familiar feeling in Trump's world.

www.rhymingchaos.com

1 1 3

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

Maura Elizabeth Cunningham @mauracunningham.bsky.social · 23h

A @chinafile.bsky.social Conversation that showcases the many contributions Jerry Cohen made to the study of Chinese law, and the innumerable lives he touched during his 95 years with us.

Remembering Jerome A. Cohen

Jerome Alan Cohen (July 1, 1930 – September 22, 2025) was a renowned American lawyer who was one of the foremost foreign scholars of Chinese law. After studying law at Yale, Cohen embarked on a…

www.chinafile.com

8 17

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 19h

bsky.app/profile/jame...

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 19h

apparently “bari weiss doesn’t actually know what journalism is” extends to getting basic facts like the name of a subject right

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 19h

Promoting the editor-in-chief's personal side project. Zero named sources in a story that promotes the editor-in-chief's personal political position. Misspelling the subject's name. It took one day for CBS News to become a conservative blog.

www.cbsnews.com/video/some-n...

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 19h

Good night, and good luck to us all.

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 1d

Absolutely crucial point here by Greg Sargent. When we don’t call propaganda what it is, we co-produce it, and hasten disaster.
newrepublic.substack.com/p/maga-implo...

MAGA Implodes over Kristi Noem’s “Stare Down” with Man in Chicken Suit

A good New York Times piece on Portland nevertheless demonstrates how the conventions of objective reporting fail to accurately capture the bad faith driving pro-Trump propaganda.

newrepublic.substack.com

31 490 1.5K

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.bsky.social · 22h

What The Hell Is Going On, a thread:

I’ve seen some thinkpieces and posts about Portland protests that fail to understand the long-term hyperspecificity of Portland culture/humor, and frame it as a sort of shitposting meme-pilled ironic thing. Which is wrong.

So I’m gonna give you my breakdown.

39 580 1.6K

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

China Media Project @chinamediaproject.bsky.social · 1d

This one comes with a nice interactive pulldown table of (partial) pen names used in the CCP's official People's Daily. We aim to serve!

1 5 10

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

“Don't worry about China, it will all be fine! Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment.”

26 23 150

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 1d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand (mine is also generation-specific):

Let's pivot to video.

Eugene Finkel @efinkel.bsky.social · 1d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

Manuscript Central Account Opened

Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 1d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

The football is open.

1 4

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

Ben Wetzler @voteben.nyc · 2d

The TikTok thing is cartoonishly corrupt. Everyone involved should be in jail.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 3d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

2 40 170

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

John Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · 3d

I don't know if there's such a thing as a "world cyberwar" but I think we are in one? and the US is determined to lose it. 🧵

Today the admin is mass-firing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the nation's cybersecurity protection across all levels of government.

170 1.1K 2.3K

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 2d

Screenshot of Amazon web page advertising a frog costume similar to the one worn by Portland protestors.

1 6

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

John Delury @johndelury.bsky.social · 5d

Had some thoughts reading Quantico speeches by Hegseth and Trump through the lens of China's Cultural Revolution.

Shout outs to @goldkorn.bsky.social @mariarepnikova.bsky.social Geremie Barme, Orville Schell, Didi Tang

substack.com/@johndelury/...

American Mao and his Lin Biao

I read the transcripts so you don't have to, but you probably should if you haven't

substack.com

4 6

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 3d

Trump's response to China's new rare earths export controls does not sound like him at all (text in ALT):

From: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115350455734003647

Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China. Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would “clog” the Markets, and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China. We have been contacted by other Countries who are extremely angry at this great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere. Our relationship with China over the past six months has been a very good one, thereby making this move on Trade an even more surprising one. I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right! There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World “captive,” but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time, starting with the “Magnets” and, other Elements that they have quietly amassed into somewhat of a Monopoly position, a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least. But the U.S. has Monopoly positions also, much stronger and more far reaching than China’s. I have just not chosen to use them, there was never a reason for me to do so — UNTIL NOW! The letter they sent is many pages long, and details, with great specificity, each and every Element that they want to withhold from other Nations. Things that were routine are no longer routine at all. I have not spoken to President Xi because there was no reason to do so. This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World. I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so. The Chinese letters were especially inappropriate in that this was the Day that, after three th…

1 4

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 3d

It's extraordinary to watch the intentional reversal of human progress. The below by @drandrealove.bsky.social

We’re Losing Our Measles-Free Status in the Cleanest Era of Human History

Remove plumbing, and you get cholera. Remove vaccines, and you get measles. Both are public health infrastructure that keep us alive.

news.immunologic.org

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 5d

Good to see this in USA Today.

USA TODAY Opinion @usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 5d

"Had an older president like Joe Biden babbled like this there would have been immediate calls to airlift him to a sanatorium," writes columnist @rexhuppke.bsky.social. bit.ly/4n7pB7X

A photo of of Donald Trump. Text added to the image reads: "Opinion by Rex Huppke: Anyone with courage has to acknowledge Trump isn’t well. And he’s getting worse."

2 5

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 6d

I saw a post of yours that made sense. Now I can't find it! Interested in world politics, especially China and Global South, authoritarianism, how to resist fascism in the U.S., wild animals etc.

1 1

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

Elise Wang @elisewang.bsky.social · 7d

One of the more incredible stories out of LA this year has been how a taco review blog became the best on-the-ground coverage of ICE raids in the city.

They do a dispatch every day, follow-up on the kidnapped people (which almost no media outlet has done), and fact-check government claims.

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 7d

@lataco.bsky.social first began as a blog documenting local Mexican cuisine. Now, it’s an essential reporting powerhouse to the city as Trump’s mass deportation plot unfolds.

Check out the latest from our friends at Reveal: tinyurl.com/4cm2bsdr

21 1.9K 4.8K

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 8d

A constant bombardment of noise and information: China, 1974 to America, 2025

Geremie Barmé lived in China during the dying days of the Cultural Revolution, when every day brought a new political upheaval. It's a familiar feeling in Trump's world.

www.rhymingchaos.com

1 1 3

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

dan sinker @dansinker.com · 10d

They're still using Signal and they are still *terrible* at operational security

taber @kvetch.gay · 10d

a White House staffer was just tapping away all kinds of shit talk in the secret secure Signal chat in a place where someone could take *numerous* photographs of his phone screen undetected and walk them over to the Minnesota Star-Tribune

5 11 79

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 10d

Brett Kavanaugh:

• "I liked beer, I still like beer."
• A person’s "apparent ethnicity" is a "relevant factor" when deciding whether ICE thugs should arrest them or rough them up.

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 11d

"Kavanaugh Stop" is good slate.com/news-and-pol...

There’s a New Lawsuit Against “Kavanaugh Stops.” It’s Absolutely Devastating.

These detentions, far from the “brief” inconvenience the justice described, are often lengthy, violent, and dangerous.

slate.com

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 10d

They want the social media clips and sizzle reels.

29 U.S.C. § 157 @organizingpower.bsky.social · 10d

ICE has hired its own photographers and videographers, who are also wearing masks.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 10d

Simultaneously, ISP arrest a woman who's hyperventilating as Bovino and ICE move into the lot.

Reposted by Jeremy Goldkorn

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11d

Very possibly no political official in history has made so much corrupt money at a pace like this. Mobutu and Marcos looted a greater share of their countries’ wealth over decades but in absolute terms and in speed, Trump shamelessly puts them to shame.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 11d

“.. no modern American president has positioned his family to make so much money while in the White House. Already, since the early days of his reelection campaign, he’s more than doubled his net worth to about $5.4 billion.”

@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

43 580 1.4K

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 10d

I think Musk actually imitated the design of the Casspir, the apartheid South African era police and military vehicle used to suppress protests:

Apartheid-era South Africa armored vehicle Casspir, which looks a little like a Cybertruck.

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 13d

The original Chinese Locknet:

The Locknet

locknet.chinafile.com

1 3

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 13d

不相上下

Welcome to the beginning of Locknet, U.S. version.

Screenshot of Baidu.com search result for "White Paper Revolution" that reads: "Sorry, there are no results for this search."

See Wikipedia for details on White Paper Revolution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_COVID-19_protests_in_China

Screenshot of results for Google search for "does trump show signs of dementia." The AI result at the top is "An AI Overview is not available for this search."

1 4 13