April Fools

It’s April 3^rd, 32 degrees, and I just got through snow blowing my driveway. Another six inches predicted before tomorrow morning, morning low in single digits.  Happy Spring.  April fools!

Snow birds returned to Minnesota from Texas and Florida thinking they had dodged winter. Surprise!  Har har.  The Twins home opener is scheduled for Thursday, temps in the low 30s and maybe even snow.  He he. April fools!

President Trump hosted an Easter egg hunt at his resort in Mara Largo.  He wished everyone a Happy Easter, then proceeded to rant that there would be no DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) solution because it is the Democrat’s fault—apparently for not giving him his border wall.  He raved about illegals coming across the border bringing crime and drugs, somehow equating this with DACA even though to be eligible for DACA you had to be born in the U.S. and lived here continuously since 2007.  Details and truth are not his strong suit.  Now he wants the Senate to exercise the “nuclear option” to overcome a Democrat filibuster and ram his wall through.  Good luck with that.  April fools!

Speaking of nuclear options, Trump’s new Security Advisor John Bolton thinks we should keep a nuclear war with North Korea and Iran on the table.  Bolton also thought the Iraq War under George W. Bush was a good idea. Apparently he’s never seen a war that he didn’t like.  So what next as the President surrounds himself with war hawks and yes men? April fools?  I wish they were kidding.

In response to the student uprising following the Parkland massacre, Congress and various state legislatures are scrambling to enact measures that will mollify the students while not aggravating the NRA.  Realizing that thoughts and prayers were not enough, now we see bills pumping money into mental health, building fences and metal detectors at school sites, clear backpacks, and maybe even un-clunking the federal background check system.  Gun safety measures that don’t mention guns—except to arm teachers.  Here’s the bone, youngsters, now go away.  April fools!

Speaking of teachers, teachers in Kentucky and Oklahoma have risen up and walked out insisting on better funding for schools.  Arizona teachers may follow suit.  After years of tax cuts, and tax breaks to big oil and corporations, surprise—there doesn’t seem to be enough in the state coffers for salaries, benefits or even textbooks or school supplies.  Ironically all this is happening in red states.  I wonder how red they will be come November?  To the lawmakers from the teachers—this is no April fools joke.

All this snow will melt—some day.  Spring will come—some day.  The crazy red Trumpster fire that has infected our nation will burn out—some day. Cooler heads will prevail, if we don’t engage in a nuclear war in the meantime.  Not to be overly optimistic, but I think the tide is starting to turn, America.  If we can just hold on.  No foolin’.