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Jake Werner

@jwdwerner.bsky.social

1.3K followers 390 following 280 posts

Historian, director for East Asia @quincyinst.bsky.social, cofounder Justice Is Global. Previously @gdp-center.bsky.social, University of Chicago. Writing on US–China relations and global capitalism.

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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · Nov 13

From the Quincy Institute, the Institute for Policy Studies, and Justice Is Global, my essay laying out a comprehensive progressive strategy for US policy on China.
quincyinst.org/research/a-p...
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A Program for Progressive China Policy

Foregrounding internationalism, global cooperation, and multilateral collaboration are essential to solving shared challenges like climate change, public health crises, and global inequality. This can...

quincyinst.org

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Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 8h

WSJ: President Trump believed his Truth Social post demanding prosecutions of James Comey and other political foes was a private message to his attorney general, and "and was surprised to learn it was public."

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 7h

Not to mention the end of prosecuting financial/business crime, and your pick of crypto solutions for money laundering

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 15h

Want to read about how a presidential regime confronts democratic backsliding in a diverse and unequal society? Want to replace Latin (E Pluribus Unum) with Sanskrit (Bhinneka Tunggal Eka)? Check out these papers in the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 👇

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Introduction to the Special Section on Presidentialism and Democracy in Indonesia - Thomas B. Pepinsky, 2025

The three articles in this special section on presidentialism and democracy in Indonesia analyse the state of Indonesian democracy through a careful study of th...

journals.sagepub.com

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 15h

Reporter's notebook: I actually began working on this story shortly after footage of the incident showed up last month.

But by the time I finally got ahold of folks, the story grew: 2 *other* faith leaders I spoke with *also* reported being shot w/pepper balls while protesting this ICE facility.

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 15h

If you come for my people, you come through me.

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Jacob Silverman @jacobsilverman.com · 1d

It's pub day for my book, "Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley," which chronicles the rise of the tech right and their role in the 2024 election. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way.
linktr.ee/gildedrage

Gilded Rage | Linktree

A searing look at the rise of Silicon Valley's far right. Out October 2025.

linktr.ee

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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 1d

Shot a priest in the head with a pepper ball, just for fun.
There was absolutely no threat here.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s video of the incident

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 1d

Second: Trump loves displaying power. But to understand how these attacks fit his politics, we need a wider view on the role of spectacular violence in Maga psychology.

It’s hard to make sense of war in this case as a means to an end. We get a better grasp on it if we see it as an end in itself.
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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 1d

…for US social problems, and using that to mobilize state and popular violence behind unchecked power for the president.

But why that should develop so rapidly toward war is not immediately evident, particularly because war could undermine the domestic purge they’ve prioritized thus far.
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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 1d

Two additional issues need more investigation:

First: we know Stephen Miller is at the center of this operationally. Obviously it’s connected to his wider program of dehumanizing immigrants, driving them out of the US, scapegoating them for…
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
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Stephen Miller takes leading role in strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats

Exclusive: Miller’s homeland security council has played a key part in coordinating operations, sources say

www.theguardian.com

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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 1d

Commentary hasn’t shed much light on the perplexing question of what is motivating the move to war. From ‪@edwardluce.bsky.social‬, a good start:

“Trump is so pleased with the optics of these apparently risk-free fireworks [i.e. the boat murders] that he seems to be developing a taste for them.”
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Edward Luce @edwardluce.bsky.social · 1d

"None — repeat none — of America’s fentanyl has been found to originate from Venezuela. Yet Trump and Pete Hegseth, his compulsively strutting “secretary of war”, insist that the country is fuelling America’s opioid epidemic." Me on Trump's wag the dog script. www.ft.com/content/5b3e...

Venezuela is Trump’s useful enemy

Despite the president’s claims, the South American country is nowhere close to being the US’s biggest drug supplier

www.ft.com

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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 1d

Huang’s larger argument is important. He rejected those who cast China as a scheming enemy and so seek to cut our connections.

He wants competition instead of exclusion, because “the future is so much greater. It doesn’t have to be all us or them. It can be us *and* them.”

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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 1d

Politico gathered denunciations of Jensen Huang from a long list of the usual suspects in the China panic industry.

I was very glad to be the lone voice against Chinese exclusion in our immigration policy and great power conflict in our foreign policy.
subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter/2...

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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 1d

The weakest part of what they offer—the dialectic yet moves. But even there, they have an account of how the culture industry offers substitute satisfaction to the masses.

What is the gratification that people are supposed to be getting from CBS now?

Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 1d

People could relax about this stuff and focus on more important things, if they would just develop a suitably sophisticated materialist critique of ideology and mass consciousness.

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Kye @gxldsociety.bsky.social · 2d

PAY ATTENTION: ICE is filing fake 911 calls in Chicago, weaponizing emergency services to provoke local police.

Ordinary citizens would be charged with a felony. ICE calls it strategy.

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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 1d

Good question from Senator Coons.

AG Bondi refuses to disclose what legal theory if any from DOJ justifies these premeditated killings in the Caribbean.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

COONS: How did you conclude that these strikes on boats in the open ocean are legal?

BONDI: I'm not going to discuss any legal advice that my department may or may not have issued

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

Just as a reminder, Bondi’s origin story in Trump world is that she said she was going to investigate Trump University, Trump sent her a $25K check and the investigation disappeared. She later became Trump’s personal defense lawyer. So yeah, don’t challenge her integrity.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Bondi to Blumenthal: "You lied. How dare you? I'm a career prosecutor. Don't you ever challenge my integrity. Do not question my ability to be fair and impartial."

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Stephanie Lulay @slulay2.bsky.social · 1d

@blockclubchi.bsky.social, our nonprofit newsroom, is suing the federal government after 4 of our journalists were shot w/ pepper-spray bullets & tear-gassed by federal agents at Broadview.

Here's why we're defending our First Amendment right to report — and your right to know:

Block Club Chicago, News Organizations Sue Feds Over First Amendment Violations

Four of our journalists have been shot with pepper-spray bullets and tear-gassed while covering protests outside the Broadview ICE facility. A judge heard arguments at an emergency hearing Monday.

blockclubchicago.org

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 2d

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...

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Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 2d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 2d

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Exclusive | How China Secretly Pays Iran for Oil and Avoids U.S. Sanctions

A hidden funding conduit has deepened economic ties between the two U.S. rivals in defiance of Washington’s efforts to isolate Tehran.

www.wsj.com

Jake Werner @jwdwerner.bsky.social · 2d

@yarbatman.bsky.social on WSJ article:

“Total Chinese contracting turnover in Iran in 2023 was just $639m/288 Chinese workers. Compared to $4.2bn/4000 Chinese workers in Iraq…

“what we aren't seeing is actual Chinese investment in Iran that drives growth…China is avoiding Iran, not the sanctions.”

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 4d

Pretty incredible own goal by liberal institutions and many Democratic electeds to crush the exact type of protests in 2024 that would’ve been the most effective way to slow or stop ICE incursions into American cities in 2025

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