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Yoni Appelbaum Profile picture
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23 Dec, 9 tweets, 5 min read
1. A short thread of @TheAtlIdeas authors on the president’s fondness for, and propensity to extend pardons to, war criminals:
@TheAtlIdeas 2. "Being no different from or better than our enemies has not been the aspiration of previous presidents, nor of our military," writes @KoriSchake

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
3. “Trump is a war-crimes enthusiast,” writes @AdamSerwer, adding that the president seeks to "forge the [military] into a partisan weapon for himself to wield against his enemies, using the promise of impunity for crimes against the weak or despised.”

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
4. "War is horrible enough when fought honorably. To join dishonor to horror is no victory for any American cause,” writes @DavidFrum:

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
5. "The United States military keeps itself in line by planting a thick hedge of norms and values, and if it ever were to lose it, woe betide the military, and woe betide the country,” writes @EliotACohen

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
6. "Even repeated, planned acts contrary to the letter and spirit of military law and ethical codes are forgiven, and his warfighters are unconstrained by modern laws of armed conflict,” writes @gcaw, warning of the consequences

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
7. "Pardons for those who violated the law and their oaths dishonor those who have kept their honor clean and those who have given their last full measure of devotion,” writes @DaveLapanDC

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
8. "When a leader, through his actions or inaction, grants his subordinates unrestricted license to kill, he neglects his responsibility for their welfare and undermines the cause for which they are risking their lives,” writes Col. (Ret.) Andrew Milburn theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
9. "What message does it send, to our uniformed commanders, when civilians loudly call for the pardon of men and women who were punished for disobeying the laws and other orders their commanders ordered them to follow?” asks @ExumAM

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

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More from @YAppelbaum

Yoni Appelbaum Profile picture
24 Dec
1. A brief thread about a truly obscure episode in American constitutional law that may well become all-important in the days ahead.
2. No president has ever issued a self-pardon. But in 1857, territorial Governor Isaac Stevens in Washington State clashed with the judiciary in an extraordinary episode. Stevens had ordered some settlers arrested.
3. Federal Judge Edward Lander tried to hold a habeas hearing. Stevens declared martial law, and had Lander arrested. When he released him, Lander convened a new hearing—issuing writs of habeas and holding Stevens in contempt, sending Marshalls to arrest him.
Read 12 tweets
Yoni Appelbaum Profile picture
23 Dec
1. The president has just vetoed the military’s funding bill, rather than allow the Army to rename bases that honor traitors.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
2. Why are there ten U.S. bases named after generals who took up arms against the Union, and for the preservation of slavery?

Michael Paradis unpacks the history of these base names:

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
3. In June, Gen. David Petraeus explained why he had decided the bases must be renamed—the Army "should not brook any celebration of those who betrayed their country,” he wrote: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Read 4 tweets
Yoni Appelbaum Profile picture
10 Dec
1. Five perspectives on what’s happening right now, as most House Republicans join most GOP attorneys general in asking the Supreme Court to set aside the election.

First, clarity from @GrahamDavidA: This is a direct attack on democracy
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
@GrahamDavidA 2. "Republican officeholders appear more concerned about provoking a backlash from the right if they don’t support Trump than pushback from the center or left if they do,” writes @RonBrownstein

theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
@GrahamDavidA @RonBrownstein 3. "When they say the 2020 election was stolen, Trumpists are expressing their view that …the nation belongs to them and them alone, whether or not they actually comprise a majority,” writes @AdamSerwer:
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Read 5 tweets
Yoni Appelbaum Profile picture
23 Nov
1. Biden has named Jake Sullivan his national-security adviser. In 2019, Sullivan laid out a vision for reviving American foreign policy in @TheAtlantic theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
@TheAtlantic 2. More recently, Biden’s newly named national-security adviser has been working on a Carnegie project, aimed at reorienting foreign policy around the middle class. What does that mean, in practical terms? Former Deputy SecState Bill Burns lays it out here theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
3. Biden’s orbit contains two competing visions of foreign policy, argues @thomaswright08—with the restorationist and reformist impulses battling against each other: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Read 4 tweets
Yoni Appelbaum Profile picture
22 Oct
1. If Texas turns blue this cycle—and that’s a huge and somewhat improbable “if”!—what’s happening right now in Harris County could be incredibly consequential for voting rights across the country.
2. The county has been aggressive about expanding access to voting, and turnout has surged. The partisan valence of that remains unclear. (A good breakdown here: houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/…) But by week’s end, there could be 1 million ballots cast—against 1.3m in all of 2016.
3. There’s an interesting set of incentives baked in here—if a particular metro area can boost turnout by liberalizing access, other areas will have to keep pace or risk losing relative clout in future elections.
Read 6 tweets
Yoni Appelbaum Profile picture
22 Oct
1. For five years, Donald Trump has survived politically by embracing a simple truth. The damaging scandals are those politicians seek to conceal; any revelation, no matter how damning, can be overcome if they insist they are actually proud of it.
2. The best illustration of this principle was the president’s phone call with Ukraine. Hiding it on a secret server betrayed cognizance of guilt, and provoked impeachment. Then the president insisted it was “perfect,” and the GOP Senate lined up to support him.
3. Today’s episode is the president’s 60 Minutes interview. By any objective standard, it’s a train-wreck. But rather than allow the network to define the story, the president insists it shows him in a favorable light, and posts it online.
Read 4 tweets

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