The British are insufficiently subservient to Donald Trump

Census

Ted Hesson and Josh Gerstein, “Why Trump will likely lose the census citizenship fight,” Politico, July 8, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/08/trump-census-citizenship-2020-1573574

Felicia Sonmez and Matt Zapotosky, “Plaintiffs seek to block Justice Department from changing lawyers in census citizenship case,” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/plaintiffs-seek-to-block-justice-department-from-changing-lawyers-in-census-citizenship-case/2019/07/08/307182d6-a1e6-11e9-b732-41a79c2551bf_story.html

Matt Zapotosky, “Federal judge rejects Trump administration’s bid to swap out lawyers for Census case on citizenship question,” Washington Post, July 9, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-judge-rejects-trump-administrations-bid-to-swap-out-lawyers-for-census-case-on-citizenship-question/2019/07/09/d12f811e-a24f-11e9-b7b4-95e30869bd15_story.html


Donald Trump

Donald Trump is throwing a tantrum[1] because the British ambassador said privately[2] what everyone who’s serious already knows to be true.[3] No one who’s serious seriously blames the ambassador—the cables were leaked and it is an ambassador’s job to be candid with their home government about the political situation in the country they’re in—but it’s awkward while Britain goes through a leadership transition due to the Brexit mess, in which Theresa May discounted Trump’s advice.[4] And Trump would have preferred Nigel Farage as ambassador anyway.[5]

Mark Landler, “Leaked British Cables Critical of Trump Lead to Diplomatic Uproar,” New York Times, July 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/donald-trump-kim-darroch.html

Josh Rogin, “British ambassador’s leaked cables are far from ‘bombshells,’” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/08/british-ambassadors-leaked-cables-are-far-bombshells/

Steven Swinford, “Donald Trump attacks ‘stupid’ envoy and ‘foolish’ Theresa May,” Times, July 9, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/liam-fox-should-stop-kowtowing-to-donald-trump-say-envoys-allies-gg79r9cl6


Social Networks

The courts seem to be finding, and not just with Donald Trump, that politicians are using their Twitter accounts to communicate with constituents about official business. They cannot “block” some of those constituents when those constituents voice opinions they don’t like[6] but they might still be able to “mute” them.[7]

Corinne Ramey, “President Trump Can’t Block Twitter Users, Federal Appeals Court Rules,” Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-trump-cant-block-twitter-users-federal-appeals-court-rules-11562685206


Kamala Harris

She sounded awfully good in the debate against Joe Biden,[8] but her record as a district attorney and as California’s attorney general paints a far uglier picture,[9] even before we get to the systemic issues of criminal injustice.[10]

Marjorie Cohn, “Kamala Harris Has a Distinguished Career of Serving Injustice,” Truthout, July 8, 2019, https://truthout.org/articles/kamala-harris-has-a-distinguished-career-of-serving-injustice/


  1. [1]Steven Swinford, “Donald Trump attacks ‘stupid’ envoy and ‘foolish’ Theresa May,” Times, July 9, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/liam-fox-should-stop-kowtowing-to-donald-trump-say-envoys-allies-gg79r9cl6
  2. [2]Mark Landler, “Leaked British Cables Critical of Trump Lead to Diplomatic Uproar,” New York Times, July 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/donald-trump-kim-darroch.html
  3. [3]Josh Rogin, “British ambassador’s leaked cables are far from ‘bombshells,’” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/08/british-ambassadors-leaked-cables-are-far-bombshells/
  4. [4]Mark Landler, “Leaked British Cables Critical of Trump Lead to Diplomatic Uproar,” New York Times, July 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/donald-trump-kim-darroch.html; Steven Swinford, “Donald Trump attacks ‘stupid’ envoy and ‘foolish’ Theresa May,” Times, July 9, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/liam-fox-should-stop-kowtowing-to-donald-trump-say-envoys-allies-gg79r9cl6
  5. [5]Nicky Woolf and Jessica Elgot, “Nigel Farage would be great UK ambassador to US, says Donald Trump,” Guardian, November 22, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/22/nigel-farage-uk-ambassador-us-donald-trump
  6. [6]Corinne Ramey, “President Trump Can’t Block Twitter Users, Federal Appeals Court Rules,” Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-trump-cant-block-twitter-users-federal-appeals-court-rules-11562685206
  7. [7]British Broadcasting Corporation, “Trump told to mute Twitter critics, not block them, by New York judge,” March 9, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43344837
  8. [8]Mark Z. Barabak, “Seven takeaways from Democratic debate Night 2: Sparks from Biden and Harris, honesty from Buttigieg,” Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-2020-democratic-debate-miami-takeaways-20190627-story.html; Stephen Collinson, “Joe Biden throws own campaign into turmoil after Harris attacks his record on race,” CNN, June 28, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/politics/first-democratic-debate-night-2-analysis/index.html; Maeve Reston, “Harris’ attack on Joe Biden steals spotlight at Democratic primary debate,” CNN, June 28, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/27/politics/democratic-primary-debate-night-two-joe-biden-bernie-sanders-kamala-harris/index.html
  9. [9]Marjorie Cohn, “Kamala Harris Has a Distinguished Career of Serving Injustice,” Truthout, July 8, 2019, https://truthout.org/articles/kamala-harris-has-a-distinguished-career-of-serving-injustice/
  10. [10]Ernest Drucker, A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America(New York: New Press, 2011); Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 7th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2004); Dan Simon, In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice Process (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2012).