Holding Out Hope

I WAS SHOCKED BY THE death of Elijah Cummings, because I had assumed he was in good health, and unaware of his long standing health difficulties. These days sixty eight is a young age at which to die. I was even more surprised at President Trump's bland but dignified comments, something to the effect that Cummings was a man of compassion and wisdom. Wisdom indeed, wisdom enough to seek a thorough investigation of Trump's tragically corrupt administration. Based on his usual behavior, Trump could have been expected to tweet something like "totally dishonest third rate politician finally dead." It would have been much more in keeping with his character, or lack thereof. You might suspect that somebody hid Trump's smart phone from him just long enough to persuade the president that verbally attacking a recently deceased and greatly admired man would be highly detrimental to presidential approval ratings, particularly in the wake of the disastrous decision to feed the Kurds to the Turks. There is now a ray of hope that one, Trump is actually capable of taking good advice and using it, and two, he is capable of speaking without insulting or lying. Trump's failure to consult military advisers prior to removing American forces from, on the other, hand, confirms that, really, the president hasn't changed at all, has not become a person intelligent enough to seek and get advice from people more knowledgeable than himself. His pattern of creating a crises, responding to it, then claiming credit for solving a problem which he created and never should have existed continues apace. Neither does the president seem to have changed his pattern of denying wrongdoing, then, when trapped into admitting it, claiming that the wrongdoing was not wrongdoing, but instead was perfectly legitimate, conducted with unmatched wisdom by a very stable genius. Thus, withholding military assistance from a foreign country until said country provides damaging information on a political opponent becomes a holy crusade to root out corruption, assuming that all corruption within aforementioned foreign country consists of the business dealings of a family member of his primary political opponent. It is indeed surprising that Trump didn't eulogize Elijah Cummings by calling him a corrupt and dishonest third rate politician representing a rat infested city, as he once in fact said of Cummings' Congressional district, then later clarifying his remarks by claiming that he in fact intended his remarks as a compliment. When Trump insulted the people of Baltimore, Cummings graciously invited the president to come for a visit; regrettably, Trump did not accept the invitation. had he done so, he might have learned a little about what it means to be a person of high moral character, and what a nice city Baltimore really is. but then again, probably not; the president is not known for being a good learner.