Bunker Mentality

The past few days have been hard for many of us, hell for many as well. The George Lloyd killing, the continuing protests, and the clear signs that people who need to hear those protests will never listen, all these things grind the spirit. 

We've also realized that the coronavirus and police violence share something in common: they both reveal the pervasive racism that shapes our society. Both pandemics disproportionately kill black people.

We also saw something else. Donald Trump is full of bluster, with racism dripping through his threats to respond to looting with bullets and his reference to thugs. But when protesters closed in on the White House, what'd he do? He literally turned off the lights and hid in his bunker. 

Donald Trump is a coward.

@tencents77/Twitter

But he's a corrupt coward. And while we were looking at other things this week, waves of evidence reminded us that there's something very wrong with Donald Trump's relationship with Russia.

First, thinking he was doing Trump some kind of favor (???), new DNI John Ratcliffe released the transcripts of Michael Flynn's pre-inauguration call with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak--and guess what, it was collusion indeed. As Republican and Democratic lawmakers together were gearing up to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, and before Trump was in the White House, Flynn was trying to smooth things out. The transcripts also confirmed that Flynn was guilty of precisely the crimes to which he plead guilty--lying to the FBI. 

Isn't it remarkable that Trump, who once said Flynn lied to him and to Mike Pence, now says Flynn is getting a raw deal?

Further purging anyone even close to the Russia investigation, the Trump administration also fired Dana Boente, the FBI's top lawyer. Boente, of course, has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the investigation by the FBI's inspector general, but we all know how Trump feels about watchdogs.

Violating the top rule of blogging, I've saved the biggest thing for last because it pulls so many things together. Trump called for an in-person G7 meeting at Camp David. Right away Angela Merkel said no thanks, I'm not coming to the United States in person during this pandemic. 

If there was ever proof that the United States no longer leads the world, that should do it.

But it got worse: Trump publicly said he'd like to invite Vladimir Putin. Putin got kicked out when the Russians invaded Crimea in 2014, and they're still there. But Trump wants to give his boss a seat at the meeting. 

Something is still wrong with Trump and Russia. According to Molly McKew, in two days Trump gained 400,000 Twitter followers. 

Right away, the UK and Canada both said: no way we're allowing Putin back into the G7. Besides Crimea, Russia is still undermining every major democracy. 

And this is where we are. Donald Trump is a coward, there's still something very wrong with Trump and Russia, and the United States no longer leads the free world.