Anne Applebaum3d ago
Trump does not think strategically, historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. Allied leaders know that if they help him in the Gulf, he won't be grateful, or even remember www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Everyone but Trump Understands...
Everyone but Trump Understands What He’s Done

Allied leaders know that any positive gesture they make will count for nothing.

The Atlantic
Show threadAnne Applebaum3d ago
But they remember
Show threadPete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

@anneapplebaum.bsky.social
And it's not just about wounded national pride. The USA is a country building concentration camps for its own people and random tourists picked up by a lawless state-sponsored death squad. The war is following the same pattern of attacks on civilians that the USA's partner in war crime has been pursuing relentlessly in Gaza.

Why would we help these people even if they were being polite to us?

Mar 18 at 10:01amWeb
Show threadJeff C. 🇺🇦🇬🇱3d ago

@petealexharris @anneapplebaum.bsky.social You don’t, and it speaks well of you that you won’t.

We need to learn that there is a cost to this sort of thing. That fascism is a losing ideology.

Show threadswggrkllr3rd2d ago
@petealexharris @anneapplebaum.bsky.social Not random tourists, they check social media for trump critic posts and if there's a hit they take you in.
Show threadPete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫2d ago
@swggrkllr3rd @anneapplebaum.bsky.social
They might be targeting individuals too, but they are also just grabbing people. The thing about fascist brute squads is they have a lot of autonomy to do whatever savage, bullying, or sexual-assaulty kind of thing the individual brute wants to do without any accountability (which is why they joined up).
There's no central discipline; the strategy is enablement, for the goal of fearful uncertainty about what you can do to avoid being taken.
Show threadWesDym2d ago
@swggrkllr3rd We don't really know, and we know there are cases we're unaware of. There doesn't seem to be any consistent logic to it. The decisions sometimes seem to be the whims of individuals, who might be prosecuting their own petty personal biases, like the guy who gunned down a woman for smarting off to him. I would not bet anything, and I would advise ANYONE to avoid the US for the foreseeable future. It is not safe here, for anyone.