Josh Manning
@joshmanning.bsky.social
Iraq War vet. Former intelligence community Russia then counterterrorism analyst. Now: middling flak.
MI —> MT —> WA. Warren-Occupy core. Social justice warrior.
Opinions, quirks mine.
Words: LA Times, Foreign Policy, Newsweek. Face: MSNBC, Al Jazeera
MI —> MT —> WA. Warren-Occupy core. Social justice warrior.
Opinions, quirks mine.
Words: LA Times, Foreign Policy, Newsweek. Face: MSNBC, Al Jazeera
Pinned
Josh Manning
@joshmanning.bsky.social
· Sep 15
Personnel from a U.S. warship boarded a Venezuelan tuna boat with nine fishermen while it was sailing in Venezuelan waters, Venezuela’s foreign minister said on Saturday, underlining strained relations with the United States.
https://to.pbs.org/46hft5R
https://to.pbs.org/46hft5R
Venezuela says U.S. warship raided a tuna boat as tensions rise in the Caribbean
Personnel from a U.S. warship boarded a Venezuelan tuna boat with nine fishermen while it was sailing in Venezuelan waters, Venezuela’s foreign minister said on Saturday, underlining strained relation...
www.pbs.org
So here is what I think is happening, because I had a front row seat to Mike Flynn doing this sort of thing at DIA … The agencies are collecting intelligence from bad sources or dictating what they want their sources to say so it ends up in raw reporting. They can then weaponize this intel.
Reposted by Josh Manning
It may not happen soon, but Mitch Bradley should remember that he can be recalled to duty someday and court martialed for ordering murder.
Hegseth's not the only war criminal here. "The [USSOCOM] commander overseeing the operation from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Adm. Frank M. 'Mitch' Bradley, told people on the secure conference call that the survivors were still legitimate targets... He ordered the second strike."
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 29, 2025 at 12:36 AM
It may not happen soon, but Mitch Bradley should remember that he can be recalled to duty someday and court martialed for ordering murder.
Almost!
A chapter in Hegseth’s book is literally titled “More Lethality, Less Lawyers.”
It’s almost as if there were signs!
It’s almost as if there were signs!
November 29, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Almost!
*whispers* The invaders are inside the White House
November 29, 2025 at 2:59 AM
*whispers* The invaders are inside the White House
Reposted by Josh Manning
Democrats should make videos every day about how the military must disobey illegal orders
November 29, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Democrats should make videos every day about how the military must disobey illegal orders
The littlest of the little boys.
November 29, 2025 at 2:54 AM
The littlest of the little boys.
Reposted by Josh Manning
What a great headline
November 28, 2025 at 3:49 PM
What a great headline
One of their best maritime lawyers:
November 29, 2025 at 2:14 AM
One of their best maritime lawyers:
Reposted by Josh Manning
This is the scandal. Trump isn’t targeting dangerous people. He’s targeting peaceful immigrants. Almost exclusively.
November 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
This is the scandal. Trump isn’t targeting dangerous people. He’s targeting peaceful immigrants. Almost exclusively.
Reposted by Josh Manning
Hope matters, but without a clear map of how the system is failing, it can’t change anything. The slide happens because core democratic functions are weakening under real structural pressures. Naming that isn’t surrender, it’s the work required to understand what has to be rebuilt.
November 28, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Hope matters, but without a clear map of how the system is failing, it can’t change anything. The slide happens because core democratic functions are weakening under real structural pressures. Naming that isn’t surrender, it’s the work required to understand what has to be rebuilt.
Reposted by Josh Manning
Pete Hegseth’s a fucking douche.
November 29, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Pete Hegseth’s a fucking douche.
Reposted by Josh Manning
Trump pardons a narcotics kingpin, but he blows up fishing boats in the Caribbean.
WHOA. Trump says he will pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez, who once said that he wanted to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.” He had people killed as part of his narco-trafficking ring, which he at times operated directly out of his presidential office.
November 29, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Trump pardons a narcotics kingpin, but he blows up fishing boats in the Caribbean.
Reposted by Josh Manning
"Elon Musk is personally responsible for the deaths of at least 400,000 children" is a stat that should be cited every time he and his pervert fanboys start yapping about birth rates
Elon Musk and the Trump administration gleefully shutting down USAID “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.”
People throw around terms like genocide quite freely online but it’s hard to find other words to describe this level of man-made death.
People throw around terms like genocide quite freely online but it’s hard to find other words to describe this level of man-made death.
USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...
hsph.harvard.edu
November 29, 2025 at 1:05 AM
"Elon Musk is personally responsible for the deaths of at least 400,000 children" is a stat that should be cited every time he and his pervert fanboys start yapping about birth rates
Reposted by Josh Manning
This coming from Seth Moulton really highlights where the politics are. The men and women who actually served their country with honor and integrity are pissed off.
“Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder.”
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 11:25 PM
This coming from Seth Moulton really highlights where the politics are. The men and women who actually served their country with honor and integrity are pissed off.
Reposted by Josh Manning
To put a finer point on this whole thing: "Two people with direct knowledge of the operation" — presumably uniformed military leaders — are accusing the U.S. Secretary of Defense of personally ordering specific war crimes. That's a historic accusation.
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 11:48 PM
To put a finer point on this whole thing: "Two people with direct knowledge of the operation" — presumably uniformed military leaders — are accusing the U.S. Secretary of Defense of personally ordering specific war crimes. That's a historic accusation.
Reposted by Josh Manning
Wild to see Whelan say this, but to be clear the OLC's immunity powers are fake anyway. The "golden shield" idea was made up to justify rampant criminality in the GWBush years, then adopted by Holder to excuse Obama's inaction. It's not in the Constitution, statute, or precedent. It's not the law.
Does Pete Hegseth have a "golden shield" against prosecution in the form of a DOJ OLC opinion? Ed Whelan thinks not.
November 28, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Wild to see Whelan say this, but to be clear the OLC's immunity powers are fake anyway. The "golden shield" idea was made up to justify rampant criminality in the GWBush years, then adopted by Holder to excuse Obama's inaction. It's not in the Constitution, statute, or precedent. It's not the law.
Reposted by Josh Manning
But just because the President, or the SecDef with authority delegated by the President, approves a strike, it DOES NOT MAKE THAT STRIKE LAWFUL!!!!!! 18 & end/
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 PM
But just because the President, or the SecDef with authority delegated by the President, approves a strike, it DOES NOT MAKE THAT STRIKE LAWFUL!!!!!! 18 & end/
Reposted by Josh Manning
This is a highly unusual order from a Secretary of Defense, and it’s almost certainly a war crime.
In the strike in question, two people survived and were clinging to the side of the ruined boat, and a second mission was spun up to execute them.
In the strike in question, two people survived and were clinging to the side of the ruined boat, and a second mission was spun up to execute them.
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:30 PM
This is a highly unusual order from a Secretary of Defense, and it’s almost certainly a war crime.
In the strike in question, two people survived and were clinging to the side of the ruined boat, and a second mission was spun up to execute them.
In the strike in question, two people survived and were clinging to the side of the ruined boat, and a second mission was spun up to execute them.
Reposted by Josh Manning
The reason we got and cannot get rid of Trump is that America is a business and he is a cash cow for way way way too many people including his ostensible opponents. He’s the Beatles of news, and that is an indicator that the news itself is broken.
November 28, 2025 at 9:25 PM
The reason we got and cannot get rid of Trump is that America is a business and he is a cash cow for way way way too many people including his ostensible opponents. He’s the Beatles of news, and that is an indicator that the news itself is broken.
Reposted by Josh Manning
Noah Smith's assertions here lie in the assumption that Indigenous nations are not truly nations, but rather, 'racial groups'. This is neither true nor demonstrates a complete understanding of Indigenous nationhood.
www.thefp.com/p/no-you-are...
www.thefp.com/p/no-you-are...
No, You Are Not on Indigenous Land
No, you are not on Indigenous land, argues Noah Smith. Pieces of territory belong to institutions, not to racial groups.
www.thefp.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Noah Smith's assertions here lie in the assumption that Indigenous nations are not truly nations, but rather, 'racial groups'. This is neither true nor demonstrates a complete understanding of Indigenous nationhood.
www.thefp.com/p/no-you-are...
www.thefp.com/p/no-you-are...
FTG
Noah Smith's assertions here lie in the assumption that Indigenous nations are not truly nations, but rather, 'racial groups'. This is neither true nor demonstrates a complete understanding of Indigenous nationhood.
www.thefp.com/p/no-you-are...
www.thefp.com/p/no-you-are...
No, You Are Not on Indigenous Land
No, you are not on Indigenous land, argues Noah Smith. Pieces of territory belong to institutions, not to racial groups.
www.thefp.com
November 28, 2025 at 9:59 PM
FTG
Reposted by Josh Manning
There is literally no reason for the military to be in D.C.
November 28, 2025 at 4:13 AM
There is literally no reason for the military to be in D.C.
Venezuela gonna be a fiasco. The military will do its thing, but command and control gonna be a mess.
This is actually a relevant factor here: it's been pretty clear SOUTHCOM, whose commander resigned, has been pushing back, at least somewhat. They're putting it under the operational command of SOCOM specifically because that's the most already rotten place you'll find people happy to do crimes.
Why do you need Seal Team 6 to blow up a fucking boat?
November 28, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Venezuela gonna be a fiasco. The military will do its thing, but command and control gonna be a mess.
Reposted by Josh Manning
I joined @cwarzel.bsky.social on the Galaxy Brain Podcast to explain some of the reasons why America, and a lot of other Western democracies, are sliding into authoritarianism and why it's probably inevitable
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvFh...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvFh...
America’s Slide Toward Simulated Democracy with Eliot Higgins
YouTube video by The Atlantic
www.youtube.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:30 PM
I joined @cwarzel.bsky.social on the Galaxy Brain Podcast to explain some of the reasons why America, and a lot of other Western democracies, are sliding into authoritarianism and why it's probably inevitable
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvFh...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvFh...
Reposted by Josh Manning
A reminder for those who are not aware: "remigration" is the process of deporting all non-white people from a country. It includes citizens and is, by definition, ethnic cleansing.
And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.
And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.
November 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM
A reminder for those who are not aware: "remigration" is the process of deporting all non-white people from a country. It includes citizens and is, by definition, ethnic cleansing.
And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.
And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.
Reposted by Josh Manning
So I'm pretty sure a three star knows that an order to strike alleged combatants who are hors de combat is facially illegal, in case anyone's still having any hangups on whether Bradley needs to be in the dock after this
November 28, 2025 at 5:55 PM
So I'm pretty sure a three star knows that an order to strike alleged combatants who are hors de combat is facially illegal, in case anyone's still having any hangups on whether Bradley needs to be in the dock after this