www.alphadictionary.com

How can anyone with even a rudimentary education write
‘. . . was a former . . . .’?

He/she may be dead.

"President Eisenhower was a former military commander."

Well done! And thanks! But I’ve seen this several times in reference to a living person.

It sounds suspiciously as if you expected a modicum of proper grammar out there in the internot. I think I lost hope when I read of how the officer who died in the January insurrection "lied in State." Perjury after death?

I’ve probably inveighed tediously on this before, but I get a kick out of “ . . . but both sides are still far apart on key issues . . . .”

Gee, methinks, that’s a shame. I thought only one side was far apart.

And this, from the San Francisco Chronicle many years ago (I have the clipping somewhere):
“ . . . they were watched like hawks when they were younger.”