Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1h

No no it’s not like a flayed man at all, you’re misunderstanding it! It’s fun!

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1h

Some people might say of this ground beef Labubu, “I saw this, so now you have to too.”

I say of it, “I was privileged to see this, so now you get the chance to too.”

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2h

*wear

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2h

I vaguely remember some kerfuffle in like 2008 where the 1st ID CAB was insisting that everyone in the brigade must where the 1st ID CAB combat patch and guys raised a stink with Army Times and the brigade backtracked. The power of the press!

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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 8h

Few more details.

Somalia is at 81 confirmed strikes plus a ground raid.

Yemen may include an alleged but not confirmed strike on AQAP not just the anti-Houthi campaign.

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 8h

Yesterday's Syria strike puts US combat actions during the second Trump administration at:

—1,000+ air strikes in Yemen (March-April)
—75+ air strikes in Somalia
—7 air strikes and 3 JSOC ground raids in Syria
—4 air strikes in the Caribbean
—B-2 strikes on 3 sites in Iran
—1 air strike in Iraq

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 8h

Correction: besides the 75+ Somalia strikes (81 by @davidsterman.bsky.social's count), there has also been one Somalia "operation" on July 25 that AFRICOM didn't describe as an air strike, suggesting it was a JSOC ground raid

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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 8h

Notable not only as further lethal military action under the "President of Peace" but also because the executive branch has not previously announced (AFAIK) that Ansar al-Islam is covered by the 2001 AUMF.

(Full scope 2001 AUMF remains a secret.)

Query whether strike under the AUMF or Article II.

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 8h

Yesterday's Syria strike puts US combat actions during the second Trump administration at:

—1,000+ air strikes in Yemen (March-April)
—75+ air strikes in Somalia
—7 air strikes and 3 JSOC ground raids in Syria
—4 air strikes in the Caribbean
—B-2 strikes on 3 sites in Iran
—1 air strike in Iraq

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 8h

...renamed Ansar al-Islam again in 2007 and started working in Syria in 2011 (and whose original Iraqi branch was subsumed by ISIS in 2014).

But I suspect what's going on is that they're trying to categorize former Hurras al-Din members who've remained active since HaD's Jan 2025 dissolution.

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 8h

I'm not sure what Ansar al-Islam they're referring to, but it may be a descendant of the same Ansar al-Islam that Mullah Krekar founded in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2001 and whose survivors founded Ansar al-Sunna in 2003 to fight US troops in Iraq and was a fellow-traveler with AQI, which then was...

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 8h

Yesterday's Syria strike puts US combat actions during the second Trump administration at:

—1,000+ air strikes in Yemen (March-April)
—75+ air strikes in Somalia
—7 air strikes and 3 JSOC ground raids in Syria
—4 air strikes in the Caribbean
—B-2 strikes on 3 sites in Iran
—1 air strike in Iraq

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 8h

Taken Sept 21, this image shows the full extent of the destruction of Beit Hanoun, a former city of 50,000 people that the IDF has methodically demolished.

The two clusters of remaining buildings in this 3.25-sq-mile area circled. Everything else has been razed by earthmovers and demo charges.

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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

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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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

CNN @cnn.com · 1d

The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees in Washington, DC, to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, a law enforcement source told CNN.

FBI employees ordered to immediately search for records related to Amelia Earhart, source says | CNN Politics

The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees in Washington, DC, to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, a la...

www.cnn.com

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Lol I’m not a leftist

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah.

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Saw “Anemone” and I’m very sorry to report that it includes Daniel Day Lewis’s character (a former 14 Intelligence Co operative in Northern Ireland) saying at the start of an anguished monologue, “War crime?? The *war* is the crime!”

Anemone review – Daniel Day-Lewis returns for a bleak and painfully serious misfire

New York film festival: the actor unretires, with his son onboard to direct, for a portentous and plodding film about war-torn men

www.theguardian.com

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

They are definitely not the best tech guys, mechanics, or snipers ever

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Don’t think these Texas National Guard guys are going to be chasing any immigrants around Chicago on foot

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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 2d

"At the Pentagon, some military lawyers, including international law experts within DoD’s Office of General Counsel, have raised concerns about the legality of the lethal strikes on suspected drug traffickers....

Multiple current and former JAGs ... told CNN that the strikes do not appear lawful."

Exclusive: Classified Justice Department opinion authorizes strikes on secret list of cartels, sources say | CNN Politics

The Trump administration has produced a classified legal opinion that justifies lethal strikes against a secret and expansive list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers, according to multiple peop...

www.cnn.com

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d

…to do this on real operations than the military does, since the only US military ground units still engaged in vestigial GWOT combat operations besides Delta/ST6 are like one Ranger platoon at a time in Iraq, a few Green Beret teams in Syria, and a few SEAL platoons in Somalia.

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d

CBP is competing with the military for young men raised on GWOT SOF movies and podcasts who want to fly around in helicopters in Multicam with guns and kick down doors. To young men not thinking about morality or legality, actions like this make a credible case that CBP offers more opportunities…

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d

First instance I’ve seen of CBP paramilitaries inserting for one of these urban operations by helicopter (fast-roped from Black Hawks, presumably CBP AMO ones).

Hard to imagine a plausible tactical rationale, but easy to guess another one: this is *great* content for CBP’s aggro recruiting videos.

Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 2d

CHICAGO (AP) — Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital.

apnews.com/article/chic...

Using helicopters and chemical agents, immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago

Activists, residents and elected leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation’s third-largest cit...

apnews.com

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d

You can see that the IDF approach during the offensive has been to hold the line they already have on the east side of Gaza City, while advancing from the north and south, presumably to create a corridor cutting the remaining portion of Gaza City in two (a coastal pocket and inland pocket).

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d

Here that FLOT (blue) is superimposed on the extent of satellite-documented neighborhood demolitions a month ago (black) as the offensive began.

Suggests the proportion of Gaza City under IDF control has risen from about 49 percent at the operation's outset to about 69 percent at current pause.

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d

The IDF has released very few details about the Gaza City operation since it began, so it's hard to judge the extent of new neighborhoods demolitions over the past month as IDF operations pause.

This Israeli OSINT account has an estimate of the current front line of IDF advance:

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