Tuesday, July 30, 2019

QUOTH TRUMP: I WROTE THE RAVEN, NOT EDGAR ALLAN POE


By Dana Milbank
Washington Post

I’m sorry to be the one to say this, but somebody has to: We are going to have to deport Baltimore.

I’m not naive. I know that deporting the Maryland city, which itself is one of America’s busiest ports, will be a logistical headache. And yet, it could not be clearer that Baltimore has no place in President Trump’s America.

The president has in the past few days described Baltimore as a "corrupt mess" and a "disgusting" "disgusting,” “very dangerous” and “filthy place” that “ranks last in almost every major category” and is "the Worst in the USA where "no human being would want to live."

It’s easy to see why Trump feels this way. Everything that Baltimore is, Trump is not, and vice versa. There isn’t enough room in this country for both of them. Consider:

Baltimore is a city of letters, home of Edgar Allan Poe, Upton Sinclair, H.L. Mencken and Tom Clancy; Trump dishoners English in unpresidented and covfefe ways.

The Second Continental Congress met in Baltimore in the winter of 1776, and Baltimore’s Samuel Chase signed the Declaration of Independence; Trump says the Continental Army "rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.”

Baltimore is where Francis Scott Key penned “The Star-Spangled Banner” while detained with prisoners of war on a British warship; Trump says “I like people who weren’t captured.”

Baltimore produced New York Yankees great Babe Ruth; Trump says of himself : “I was the best baseball player in New York.”

Steel from Baltimore’s Sparrows Point built the Golden Gate and George Washington bridges; Trump almost built a tower in Moscow.

Baltimore is the “Charm City”; Trump has insulted 598 people, places and things on Twitter over the past four years, per a New York Times tally, and he once shoved the prime minister of Montenegro.

Baltimore’s blue crab is the world’s finest and its aquarium world-famous; Trump’s top seafood dish is McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish.

Baltimore occupies a key place in African American history, with ties to Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglass; Trump says Douglass is “an example of somebody’s who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.”

Baltimore’s Little Italy produced Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. and his daughter, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Trump eats pizza with a fork.

The Baltimore Orioles were one of the charter franchises of the American League, and Camden Yards the inspiration for the modern ballpark; Trump promised to start a baseball league and failed to deliver.

Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr. is called the Iron Man for his record-setting endurance; Trump took a golf cart while other world leaders walked during a Group of Seven summit in Sicily.

Baltimore Colts (and later, Ravens) fans have been unfailingly loyal through good times and bad; Trump paid hush money to Stormy Daniels.

Billie Holiday grew up in Baltimore; Jennifer Holliday pulled out of a performance at Trump’s inauguration.

Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins is one of the world’s top medical institutions; Trump says windmills cause cancer.

To be fair, there are a few areas in which Baltimore and Trump have some common ground: Baltimore, in the early 19th century, was the first American city to embrace gas lighting; Trump, in the early 21st century, embraces gaslighting. Baltimore inspired "hairspray" and "The Wire"; Trump gave us “The Apprentice.” View image on Twitter

Baltimore, in Trump’s telling, is a “rat and rodent infested mess”; Trump’s Mar-a-Lago was cited for 78 health-code violations over three years.

Trump also has some evident similarities to one of Baltimore’s own, Spiro Agnew. And Trump, when wearing white tie and tails to meet the queen, looked a lot like the tuxedo-clad mascot for Baltimore-born National Bohemian beer, Mr. Natty Boh.

But these are the exceptions.

It should be obvious that Baltimore and Trumpism are fundamentally incompatible. If we are truly to Make America Great Again, we will have to send Baltimore back to the place it came from — in this case, Ireland. (Baltimore is named for the second Lord Baltimore of the Irish House of Lords, Cecil Calvert, the first Proprietor of the Province of Maryland.) Also to be deported are other portions of the country Trump has recently deemed unsuitable: Cincinnati, Detroit and New York (Trump had tweeted that nonwhite congresswomen from these cities should “go back” to the “totally broken and “crime infested places from which they came”), and now San Francisco (Trump, in a misspelled tweet Sunday, said Pelosi’s district is “failing badly” and “not recognizeable”).

Some will mourn Baltimore when it is gone. I, however, will take some advice from Baltimore’s favorite son.

"Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Baltimore!

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

LINCOLN Quotes. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

Anonymous said...

He said it as a way to turn the attention to Elijah Cummings' shortcoming as representative of the district where Baltimore is, not because he is racist. When there is a problem, you point out the problem, and then you fixe it, a thing Elijah Cummings hasn't done. Why hasn't Elijah Cummings done or at least said anything about the sanitary conditions of Baltimore, I mean he's supposed to be the voice for those people, right? President Trump had to point out what was right under his nose, the media though twists his words, call him a racist, and now he's the bad guy, while Elijah Cummings is not held accountable for his lack of action, go figure.

Anonymous said...

Much of Baltimore is in poor shape, to try and justify either Trumps tasteless analysis or the poor management of one of The United States most historical city is useless.

But the facts are as they are, Baltimore is in really bad trouble and it has been run by Liberal Democrats do as long as it makes any difference.

Elijah Cummings is a big part of the problem.

Anonymous said...

Baltimore like browntown is a shit hole. Instead of cummings, we have vela who has also accomplished nothing while in office.

Anonymous said...

Baltimore is NOT Brownsville. Brownsville is dirty top to bottom. Filthy people in a filthy town. And you know it!

Anonymous said...

Does Cameron County have a Republican Party? Are there any Republicans elected in Cameron County?

Anonymous said...

Cummings like Filemon Vela, like to keep their districts looking like and running like third world countries. The reason could be that if it looks and runs like "Shit" more benefits.

Anonymous said...

Trump uses Twitter like a laser pointer and all the liberals are a bunch of cats trying to catch the dot of light. He is playing with you and making you look stupid every time you set you set your hair on fire about one of his Tweets. He is Master Manipulator and you idiots dance to his tune.

Anonymous said...

and two lucios
@July 31, 2019 at 5:05 AM

Anonymous said...

Trump 2020

Anonymous said...

Evenglican Christian ✝️ platform for the 2020 elections is gonna push hard.

Anonymous said...

T R U M P! Get off the democrat plantation! They are trying to keep you poor and dependent. Stand up for yourself.

Anonymous said...

Keep crying John Mon

rita