Craven

On Sunday, Philadelphia journalist Will Bunch described two deadly incidents with a common thread,  domestic violence.

On Friday morning, the recently estranged husband of a Philadelphia city employee shot and killed his wife. Last November, a man "clad in all black and brandishing an assault-style weapon opened fire" in a Baptist Church and killed 26 persons.  The latter incident "had followed years of horrific abuse and assaults on women, children and even a dog that didn’t stop after the Air Force had court-martialed the man for repeatedly kicking, punching and choking his first wife and even fracturing the skull of his 2-year-old stepson."

Noting that in an average month fifty women are shot dead by an "intimate partner" and that it is a particular problem in Philadelphia, Bunch blames "toxic masculinity," whose underlying cause is "a poisonous mix of a craving for male supremacy, an inability to properly channel emotions and an inevitable turn toward violence when things are not working out — is so deeply rooted it almost becomes background noise."

I'd instead blame primarily America's love affair with guns, but the difference between that and toxic masculinity may be a distinction without a difference. 

As he probably expected, Bunch got a lot of angry responses to his piece, revealing

In the few hours since I posted this column on toxic masculinity, I've been called a "neutered" not-masculine "pink hat" wearer and a "eunuch" and a "pussy," among many other things. Which I think maybe helps prove my point? https://t.co/cGwCmF52ji

— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) August 19, 2018

I'll chance "making an ass out of you and me" by assuming that these are not supporters of, say, KirstenGillibrand or Hillary Clinton. In a leap of faith, It's a safe bet that most of these critics are at least somewhat partial to Donald J. Trump.

This is the guy who only recently learned that the White House counsel has been talking extensively to the Special Counsel. The President

was unsettled by the notion that he didn't know everything McGahn said to the special counsel during their interviews, the sources said. And while he had approved the cooperation, Trump did not know the conversations stretched for 30 hours or that his legal team didn't conduct a full debriefing with McGahn after the fact.

Trump remained agitated for the rest of the weekend, the people said, believing the revelation made him look weak. Between conversations with his lawyers and a round of golf with Sen. Rand Paul, Trump lashed out on Twitter, decrying the suggestion he was caught off guard.

And so we recall learning in January that the previous June

After receiving the president’s order to fire Mr. Mueller, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, refused to ask the Justice Department to dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

Mr. McGahn disagreed with the president’s case and told senior White House officials that firing Mr. Mueller would have a catastrophic effect on Mr. Trump’s presidency. Mr. McGahn also told White House officials that Mr. Trump would not follow through on the dismissal on his own. The president then backed off.

Mr. McGahn also told White House officials that Mr. Trump would not follow through on the dismissal on his own. The president then backed off.

Of course he did.  Unless it's on a "reality" (irony duly understood) television program, Donald Trump can't fire anyone. In December 2017 Chief of Staff John Kelly was authorized to dismiss Omarosa Manigault Newman but when he did so, Trump cowardly  told OMN "Nobody even told me about it. You know, they run a big operation but I didn't know it. I didn't know that. Damn it, I don't love you leaving at all."

Trump and wife Ivanka wanted Kelly gone in February, but Trump couldn't bring himself to do it.  The President was fed up with Kelly again in April, but Kelly can't fire Kelly. Face to face, Trump practically genuflects before everyone. (See Putin, V.)

"Eunuch?" "Neutered?" "Pink hat wearer?"  It takes a special kind of person to accuse a journalist of being a wuss when more than two years ago Bill Maher already had Donald Trump figured out:

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