A Bit of History on the Significance of Eggs on Easter

There are some things floating around with seemingly each religious holidays, essentially exposing these major religious holidays as having their roots in what would be considered pagan, and thus borderline evil, holidays that preceded Christianity and even, in some cases, Judaism.

Some of them are probably accurate, although some of them appear to be completely inaccurate. Yet, the misinformation spreads, because that is how the internet works. In this day and age, when we seem to be taken aback with the speed of technological progress on an almost daily basis, this is one of the dangers and misfortunes of the so-called information age: that false information spreads at least as fast as solid information, and sometimes, it seems, faster. And the difference between the two can seem blurred, as more and more people seem to be having difficulty telling them apart.

When I was writing for the Guardian Liberty Voice, I wrote articles exploring the hidden history of some holidays. One of the ones that I felt proudest of was a Thanksgiving article, for which I received some praise from an editor and fellow writer, although the ratings for the article (yes, there were ratings for each article) remained fairly stagnant. Still, it was a source of pride. 

There were other holiday histories which I explored, including Halloween, Boxing Day (the day after Christmas, for those who are not familiar), Canada Day (that one did have high ratings, as I recall), Earth Day, and Christmas.

Christmas obviously was one with a religious history, and it was fascinating to explore that. However, I always wanted to do one on Easter, but never quite got around to it. My period of inactivity grew too long, and for all intents and purposes, I was no longer an active contributing writer for GLV early in 2017. 

Still, I was happy to have been a part of it, to have written those articles and many more (over 100!), and to have done some articles that I at least felt had a bit more substance to them than many of the articles that were getting much higher ratings (and for which the authors were actually getting paid), such as those which focused on the Kardashians, or other fluff "news" stories.

However, the one article that I had been hoping to do was an article exploring the history of Easter, although I never did quite get around to it, which was disappointing. And although I did not do one this year for Easter here on "The Charbor Chronicles," either, I did at least find one link that seemed worth sharing that actually does delve a bit into the history of Easter, and tries to separate some popular internet misconceptions (if not outright deceptions) from the truth.

So, please take a look at this article below from Scientific American, which I believe is a fairly reputable source. It was interesting, and should help shed light on what is accurate, and what is not (such as that Easter was originally taken from Ishtar).

Enjoy!

Beyond Ishtar: The Tradition of Eggs at Easter Don't believe every meme you encounter.  By Krystal D'Costa on March 31, 20137 

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter/

Happy Easter!

Just wanted to make sure that I wish everyone a Happy Easter Sunday!

I know that this is a time for many people to get together with family for an Easter meal, and good times spent together. This is a sacred time of the year for Christians, as this day is actually more sacred than Christmas is.

Some believe that the festivities and imagery surrounding this holiday - particularly candy Easter bunnies - go against the grain of the spirit of this day.

While that may be true, and there certainly is legitimacy to the notion that it has become overly commercialized, nonetheless, I try to do similar things with my son. That was what Easter often meant when I was growing up. Easter egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, peeps, and other sure signs of Easter. These traditions made me happy as a child, and so I feel it is important to try and make sure that my own son has the chance to enjoy the same thing.

In any case, whatever Easter might mean to you, I wish each and everyone who celebrates it a Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all! Joyeuses Pâques à tous! Wesołych Świąt dla Ciebie i Twojej rodziny! ¡Felices Pascuas para todos!

Celebrating Easter Weekend

Wrote and published this last year, but thought it would still be nice to do so again this Easter. Of course last year, it felt like summer on Easter Sunday. This year, by contrast, it still feels cool and very much like early spring. Anyway, here is what I wrote last year:

Easter is one of those holidays that I have come to invest more meaning with over time.

When I was a child, the religious aspects eluded me. Easter was a holiday for brightly colored candies in egg shapes, and for Easter egg hunting. That meant Paas painting egg shell kits, and that also meant dying the eggs all different colors, which was all sorts of fun. There was the Easter Bunny as well, and usually, that meant chocolates in the shape of those bunnies.

That seemed to be Easter to me as a child.

Of course, that was my very limited understanding of the holiday at the time.

In time, I learned about the more serious meanings, including the Jesus being crucified, and the resurrection. It is indeed the holiest day of the Christian calendar, and for good reason. This is the central belief of their cannon.

Some years ago, I heard that retail stores had tried to make Easter a holiday similar to Christmas, where they tried all sorts of massive sales. The idea was that Easter would become essentially another Christmas, so that there would be a mad dash for holiday gifts at the beginning of winter, and then another one at the beginning of spring.

Fortunately, that experiment flopped. After all, Christmas, like Easter, was originally intended to be a holiday honoring Jesus - in this case, his birth. Yet, what Christmas has become is the ultimate shopping holiday. Shopping for gifts, and spending a ton of money in the process. More often than not, it winds up being a crass consumer pursuit, where it more or less becomes about keeping up with the Joneses. Unfortunately, it stresses people out, to the point where many people feel completely left out.

The conditioning for this holiday begins early. I also remember in my own childhood equating Christmas with receiving gifts, hoping to get all that you desired (even when you knew, deep down, that this was not possible). Again, the actual significance of Christmas and what it was supposed to represent eluded me, and it seems to largely elude most people who engage enthusiastically in shopping and buying gifts. It was so popular, it even became a holiday in Japan, although minus the religious significance, which seems fitting, frankly.

However, this whole thing that has spiraled out of control actually goes completely against the grain of what Jesus said and taught. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus suggest that we should engage in mass consumer culture. In fact, he clearly advocates quite the opposite, unless you have extremely selective interpretations. Even then, there really is no justification for this mass consumerism anywhere in the Bible, and so it is good, at least, that the greed of retailers to try and do to Easter what they succeeded in doing to Christmas ultimately was not successful.

Still, there is some degree of consumerism associated with Easter as it is popularly celebrated in the West. Again, we have all of those candies and chocolate bunnies and dyes for the eggs, and all of that. And food expenses surely go up, because many families host holiday feasts.

However, Easter remains largely a holiday when Christians usually go to church and honor the resurrection, and attempt to be humble, and to try and anchor their moral compass to come a little closer to the Christian spirit, at least in theory. Spending time with loved ones is a good way of doing that.

And so, even though I have never been the most religious man (the common way of describing this is to suggest that I am spiritual, but not religious), I nonetheless try to understand the spirit that this holiday is supposed to represent, as well as it's historical roots as a celebration of the arrival of spring, and the season of new life, as the cold of winter yields to the milder climate of spring. Indeed, it was quite hot this past Easter Sunday, and felt like we were watching it jump straight from winter to summer.

My son was with me throughout this weekend, which meant something special to me. And even though I understand that Easter candy is part of the crass consumer culture, it was hard to resist not getting a little bit for my son, and then having him go on a small scale Easter egg hunt, much like my brother and I did when we were younger. Those were generally fun and treasured memories, and my son is still yet a child, and he enjoyed it last year, and was very much looking forward to it this year, to boot. Plus, who would it hurt, anyway?

So, here are some video clips of my son going on his Easter egg hunt over this extended holiday weekend:

The History Behind April Fool's Day

And finally, one last post for April Fool's Day: a history of why it became the "holiday", if you will, for pranks and jokes and buffoonery of all kinds. I published this originally a year ago, but since not much has changed in relation to April Fool's Day, I figured it was worth publishing again! Why not? 

Okay, so, yes, it's April Fool's Day. I originally wanted to write a review for the late Bryce Courtney's book of the same title, which despite the title, is actually not funny at all: it is about how his son died from AIDS. 

However, I got very backed up with some of the books that I have been reading, while simultaneously finding myself on a cold streak with reading. I would read quite a bit for several days, then I would find myself barely reading on others. It has been a weirdly inconsistent month, and not just in terms of reading. 

Failing that, then, I wanted to give a bit of history on this holiday. You see, I think it's safe to assume that we all know people that really take to this holiday, and come up with zany ideas of pranks to pull, while the rest of us roll our eyes, or perhaps even grit our teeth.

There was one coworker of mine that was like this. He is a very decent man, but was also known for being quite a bit eccentric. It seemed that April Fool's Day was his big holiday. To say that he loved it would not do it justice. He would talk about it months in advance (no, I'm not kidding), and would talk about his experiences pulling pranks (usually the same ones) on different people, year after year). 

One of his favorite pranks consisted of attaching a five dollar bill to a fishing line (again, no, I'm not kidding). Naturally, the idea was that people would get excited, and reach down for it. Then, of course, he would yank it away.

Well, I was warned about this well in advance, and wanted to do something to retaliate, so to speak. So, I sat there and pretended not to notice. He tried wiggling the bill, and again, i pretended that nothing was amiss or unusual, as if I were completely absorbed in my work.

He tried again, this time closer. But again, the same result. Perhaps I pretended to look away, although it's been so long, so who knows?

So, of course, he tried again. This time, I was sure that I would get it. But instead, I looked his way, and he quickly hid himself. 

He took a chance at a quick glance and, observing him from the corner of my eye (and having left the bill untouched and apparently unnoticed), I once again looked in his direction, this time with a frown, as if "something" was really attracting my attention. Once again, he quickly his from site.

When I was quite sure that he was going to stay out of view until I could complete what I had in mind, I sprung into action, quickly grabbing the bill, trying hard not to pull on the line or anything. Then, I attached a badly soiled diaper from my child, and pulled the line.

No, actually, I'm just kidding.

I attached a knife, with an attached note threatening his life if he fu..I mean, if he messed with me again.

Actually, I'm just kidding. I just took the bill, and let him pull the line with nothing on it anymore. A few minutes later, he asked for his bill back, and I gave it to him. 

Anticlimactic, right?

He was not the only friend that I have known who pulled consistently pranks on this day, almost always with a big, goofy smile on his face to show how happy he was with himself. Some of the tricks can be funny. But again, some kind of make you roll your eyes. Or punch the comedian in the face. Either way is an appropriate reaction.

But here is something that I heard somewhere that is less funny when you really think about it: the origins of the holiday.

You see, the traditional start of the year in olden days was the first day of spring - April 1st. But when this was changed for religious reasons (why else?), not everyone got on board. After all, spring is the season of new life, and what better time to start a new year? Really, it makes a lot of sense when you think about it, right?

So, yes, some people resisted the change. Those people were mocked, and pranks were pulled on them to show what fools there were. This tradition has carried on and, hence, April Fool's Day!

But was this the true history? I wanted to get to the bottom of it, and write out a whole thing. But as I write this, I find myself quite lacking in energy (no, that is not an April Fool's joke), and so I just kept the articles in place as they were, to allow you, the reader, unfettered access to the theories on the history of the holiday, and make you own determinations about the validity, or lack thereof.  

Lazy on my end? Yes. But I will say this: quite a few of these are quite informative and interesting, and I'd be willing to bet that you will find them so, as well. 

Before we begin, let me just pause to add something here: a lot of the here seems uncertain. There does not appear to be one definitive truth behind the holiday, although there are certainly similarities between some of the origins that I read. That said, if you heard some other history behind it, please feel free to share it. I'd love to hear it, and as always, would love to hear from you!

So, let's get started.

Here's an article called "April Fool's Day: The History of the Holiday" from Mike Krumboltz of The Sideshow, from March 30, 2012 (That's why he is warning you that "Sunday" is April Fool's Day):

April Fool's Day: The History of the Holiday

Consider yourself warned. Sunday is April Fools' Day, a day when you are encouraged to pull pranks on loved ones, co-workers, casual acquaintances, and even that one guy at the bus stop. It's an odd tradition, but how did it get started? What's the history of April Fools' Day, anyway?

Nobody is completely sure about the origin of this, the silliest of holidays. However the urban legend experts at Snopes.com say that most experts  give credit to Pope Gregory XIII, who, in the 1500s, gave the world the Gregorian calendar. [Related: Is April Fools' Day dying?]

In 1562, the Gregorian calendar moved the first day of the year from April 1 to January 1. Word did eventually get around, but some people were a bit slow to hear the news. These folks continued celebrating the new year on April 1, unaware that they were now three months behind the times. These "April fools" were tricked by those in the know. The tradition eventually made its way to the USA.

And it's still going strong. Over the past week, Web searches on "april fools day jokes" and "april fools day pranks" have more than doubled, and related lookups for "easy april fools day pranks" and "april fools day jokes for work" also spiked. Bottom line: Keep your guard up, especially if somebody offers you a word search puzzle. Lookups for "impossible april fools day word searches" are up 200%. [Related: 5 hilarious fake scientific breakthroughs]

But really, there is no way to be certain you'll escape trickery. Because on April 1, even corporations are out to trick you. In 1998, Burger King tricked its customers by releasing "the left-handed Whopper." In 1957, the BBC reported Swiss farmers were harvesting spaghetti from trees. And in 1996, Taco Bell took out ads in major newspapers announcing that the company had purchased the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. Shudder.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/april-fools-day-history-holiday-212531257.html

Here is a history, according to Wikepedia:

April Fools' Day is celebrated in many countries on April 1 every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1 is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when people play practical jokes and hoaxes on each other.

In Italy, France and Belgium, children and adults traditionally tack paper fishes on each other's back as a trick and shout "April fish!" in their local languages (pesce d'aprile!, poisson d'avril! and aprilvis! in Italian, French and Flemish, respectively). Such fish feature prominently on many French late 19th to early 20th century April Fools' Day postcards.

The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of January 1 by Pope Gregory XIII as New Year's Day of the Gregorian Calendar in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, sometimes questioned for earlier references[1]

Origins

Precursors of April Fools' Day include the Roman festival of Hilaria, held March 25,[2] and the Medieval Feast of Fools, held December 28,[3] still a day on which pranks are played in Spanish-speaking countries.

In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392), the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two.[4] Modern scholars believe that there is a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, Syn March was gon.[5] Thus, the passage originally meant 32 days after April, i.e. May 2,[6] the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, which took place in 1381. Readers apparently misunderstood this line to mean "March 32", i.e. April 1.[7] In Chaucer's tale, the vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox.

In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a poisson d’avril (April fool, literally "April fish"), a possible reference to the holiday.[8] In 1539, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote of a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on April 1.[6] In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the holiday as "Fooles holy day", the first British reference.[6] On April 1, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to "see the Lions washed".[6]

In the Middle Ages, up until the late 18th century, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25 (Feast of the Annunciation) in most European towns.[9] In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on April 1.[2][3] Many writers suggest that April Fools originated because those who celebrated on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates.[2] The use of January 1 as New Year's Day was common in France by the mid-16th century,[6] and this date was adopted officially in 1564 by the Edict of Roussillon.

A study in the 1950s, by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, found that in the UK and those countries whose traditions derived from there, the joking ceased at midday.[10] But this practice appears to have lapsed in more recent years

Here is another history, with the link below:

The history of April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day is uncertain, but the current thinking is that it began around 1582 in France with the reform of the calendar under Charles IX. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved from March 25 - April 1 (new year's week) to January 1.

Communication traveled slowly in those days and some people were only informed of the change several years later. Still others, who were more rebellious refused to acknowledge the change and continued to celebrate on the last day of the former celebration, April 1. These people were labeled "fools" by the general populace, were subject to ridicule and sent on "fool errands," sent invitations to nonexistent parties and had other practical jokes played upon them. The butts of these pranks became known as a "poisson d'avril" or "April fish" because a young naive fish is easily caught. In addition, one common practice was to hook a paper fish on the back of someone as a joke.

This harassment evolved over time and a custom of prank-playing continue on the first day of April. This tradition eventually spread elsewhere like to Britain and Scotland in the 18th century and was introduced to the American colonies by the English and the French. Because of this spread to other countries, April Fool's Day has taken on an international flavor with each country celebrating the holiday in its own way.

In Scotland, for instance, April Fool's Day is devoted to spoofs involving the buttocks and as such is called Taily Day. The butts of these jokes are known as April 'Gowk', another name for cuckoo bird. The origins of the "Kick Me" sign can be traced back to the Scottish observance.

In England, jokes are played only in the morning. Fools are called 'gobs' or 'gobby' and the victim of a joke is called a 'noodle.' It was considered back luck to play a practical joke on someone after noon.

In Rome, the holiday is known as Festival of Hilaria, celebrating the resurrection of the god Attis, is on March 25 and is also referred to as "Roman Laughing Day."

In Portugal, April Fool's Day falls on the Sunday and Monday before lent. In this celebration, many people throw flour at their friends.

The Huli Festival is celebrated on March 31 in India. People play jokes on one another and smear colors on one another celebrating the arrival of Spring.

So, no matter where you happen to be in the world on April 1, don't be surprised if April fools fall playfully upon you.

http://www.april-fools.us/history-april-fools.htm

And finally, here's the history, according to Infoplease.com:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html

April Fools' Day, sometimes called All Fools' Day, is one of the most light-hearted days of the year. Its origins are uncertain. Some see it as a celebration related to the turn of the seasons, while others believe it stems from the adoption of a new calendar.

New Year's Day Moves

Ancient cultures, including those of the Romans and Hindus, celebrated New Year's Day on or around April 1. It closely follows the vernal equinox (March 20th or March 21st.) In medieval times, much of Europe celebrated March 25, the Feast of Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) to replace the old Julian Calendar. The new calendar called for New Year's Day to be celebrated Jan. 1. That year, France adopted the reformed calendar and shifted New Year's day to Jan. 1. According to a popular explanation, many people either refused to accept the new date, or did not learn about it, and continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1. Other people began to make fun of these traditionalists, sending them on "fool's errands" or trying to trick them into believing something false. Eventually, the practice spread throughout Europe.

Problems With This Explanation

There are at least two difficulties with this explanation. The first is that it doesn't fully account for the spread of April Fools' Day to other European countries. The Gregorian calendar was not adopted by England until 1752, for example, but April Fools' Day was already well established there by that point. The second is that we have no direct historical evidence for this explanation, only conjecture, and that conjecture appears to have been made more recently.

Constantine and Kugel

Another explanation of the origins of April Fools' Day was provided by Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University. He explained that the practice began during the reign of Constantine, when a group of court jesters and fools told the Roman emperor that they could do a better job of running the empire. Constantine, amused, allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for one day. Kugel passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day, and the custom became an annual event.

"In a way," explained Prof. Boskin, "it was a very serious day. In those times fools were really wise men. It was the role of jesters to put things in perspective with humor."

This explanation was brought to the public's attention in an Associated Press article printed by many newspapers in 1983. There was only one catch: Boskin made the whole thing up. It took a couple of weeks for the AP to realize that they'd been victims of an April Fools' joke themselves.

Spring Fever

It is worth noting that many different cultures have had days of foolishness around the start of April, give or take a couple of weeks. The Romans had a festival named Hilaria on March 25, rejoicing in the resurrection of Attis. The Hindu calendar has Holi, and the Jewish calendar has Purim. Perhaps there's something about the time of year, with its turn from winter to spring, that lends itself to lighthearted celebrations.

Observances Around the World

April Fools' Day is observed throughout the Western world. Practices include sending someone on a "fool's errand," looking for things that don't exist; playing pranks; and trying to get people to believe ridiculous things.

The French call April 1 Poisson d'Avril, or "April Fish." French children sometimes tape a picture of a fish on the back of their schoolmates, crying "Poisson d'Avril" when the prank is discovered.

Yes, I know that I already published a link to one of these (the first one) somewhere on this site previously, and not all that long ago. But there are apparently more of them now, and so I thought it would be appropriate, in the spirit of April Fool's Day, to keep things lighthearted, and show a sense of humor, even about topics that most people would never joke about.

So, here is the link to what events from before World War I to immediately after World War II would look like if it had been a news feed on Facebook:

http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6650094/facebook-news-feed-history-of-the-world-world-war-i-to-world-war-ii

And here is one in a similar manner, only if World War II was an RTS:

http://www.strategypage.com/humor/articles/military_jokes_20057151.asp

This was a pretty good one that I did not get to see all of yet: the entire history of the world done in similar fashion:

http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6486984/facebook-news-feed-history-of-the-world-big-bang-to-humans

And finally, a lighthearted link to real history: historical facts that seem, at least on the surface, just too bizarre to be real. Only, they are real! Pretty interesting stuff, and here's the link below:

"51 Historical Facts That Sound Like Huge Lies But Are Actually True" by Mike Spohr of Buzzfeed Staff, March 25, 2014:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/51-historical-facts-that-are-totally-messed-up

Jared Kushner Allegedly Admitted That Donald Trump Lies to his Base Because He Feels That They Are Not Smart Enough to Know Any Better

We have never before seen a major national political candidate in this country who set off so many alarm bells from such a wide portion of the country before Donald Trump in 2016. It's one thing that Democrats did not like or trust the man, but the number of Republicans who seemed unusually skeptical about him should have tipped more people off that there really is something different, and very alarming, about the man.

Yet, he was nominated as the official GOP candidate and, eventually, was elected to the highest office in the land.

Afterwards, many Republicans fell in line, and supported their new president. But many also did not, and this man remains very polarizing, even within the GOP. I mean, seriously, how often have you seen the president being so criticized and questioned, even by people who normally would be political allies? Sure, every politician, and every President, has critics, even by fellow party members. But the vehemence with which he is being attacked, the relentlessness of charges that he is, for all intents and purposes, an immature, overgrown child, just do not go away. 

Why do his supporters have such a difficult time seeing that there might be a good reason for this? When will they ever see, or admit, that these criticisms are not coming from left field, but are grounded in concrete reality, based on Trump's own conduct, and his own words?

Now, it surely is no secret to anyone who knows me, or follows this blog, that I am no fan of President Trump. Like most everyone else, I too think of him as an immature, overgrown, overly entitled and bratty child. 

But it's more than that. It's worse.

My big suspicion with Donald Trump and his team is this: they hold the American people in contempt. They want to keep playing the big important rich boys, and they want to keep making money the only way that they know how, which is by taking advantage shamelessly, by making shady deals, perhaps even illegal business transactions. They want to continue being vulture capitalists, and they want to encourage other powerful people like them to do the same. If it seems like they are doing everything humanly possible to make the country, and even the world, a worse place, it's because that is exactly what they are doing. Honestly, I do not know that they know how to do anything else, and they do not appear to have it in them to be or do better than this, generally.

Naturally, this poison is affecting the country for the worst. Trump is not the symbol of what the country should be, or the direction this nation, much less this world, should be going in. Cut throat, vulture capitalism has not worked for a vast majority of people, and not surprisingly, the gap between rich and poor, between the powerful and the weak, between the haves and the have-nots, has grown dramatically in the short time that Trump has been in the White House. It did not get there accidentally, or by static, somehow. This was done by design, and the widening gap is also by design, as the most privileged among us, including Trump and friends, are helping themselves to our money and our resources, because they know they can. At least, they assume that they can, and nothing has really suggested otherwise yet.

One of the charges that Trump finds continually leveled at him is that he is a con artist, that all that he really offers are lies and scams. Indeed, if you look at his history, you will find an extensive history clearly showing good reason for people feeling that this is all that Trump is about. He has a long and alarming history of shady deals and abuses, and promising much while delivering little. 

He thrived because people believed what they wanted to believe, and abandoned their critical thinking in order to fool themselves into believing it. He thrived off of this, it worked for him, and so he used it, encouraged it, and mastered the art of manipulating the masses. Not only does he trick and use people, but he then looks down with contempt at the very people that he did this to, because when you view the world in simple, black and white ways, seeing only winners and losers, and feeling that you are the ultimate winner, then how else can you possibly view the people you took advantage of? To Trump, and people like him, anyone who does not play the game the way that they do, anyone who is not filthy rich and scamming people out of their money is just a loser.

Is this really who we want as our president?

Not surprisingly, the President surrounds himself with like-minded people as himself, which is perhaps why he has the most blatantly corrupt administration in history. And, since Trump also wavers so incredibly in his opinions of people, one day holding them up as model citizens, and then the next scoffing at them and ridiculing them publicly, it is not surprising that there is such a high turnover rate in the Trump White House. Frankly, it would be surprising if there was not. 

And of those who remain, we can expect only the worst kind of conduct. The kind of conduct that Trump gives his stamp of approval for, and which makes the country worse. 

Case in point, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Here is a guy with the worst kind of ethics. A man who owns apartments meant for low-income people, but who hides that fact when it suits him, and has no qualms about trying to raise the price of rent, and essentially force the poor people out, so that he can pocket the profits and come out "the winner."

Kushner has indeed had some shady deals, and new headlines on a daily basis reveal numerous situations where he is guilty of conflicts of interest. The fact that he did not even get the security clearance that usually should be an automatic for such a high-ranking official within the White House strongly suggests that something is not right with this guy. 

This man basically looks down on members of his own Republican party, for that matter. When Elizabeth Spiers called out Trump on his birther stance and claimed that it was racist, Kushner, according to her, responded like this:

“He rolled his eyes and said ‘He doesn’t really believe it, Elizabeth. He just knows Republicans are stupid and they’ll buy it’”.   

This is not the first time that Trump has been accused of dismissing his own Republicans as, at least by and large, stupid. However, it cannot fully be proven, although frankly, it would not surprise me that he would feel this way. It would be even less of a surprise for me to know that he not only feels this way, but joined the very party that he feels is populated with stupid people. 

What really depresses me about the present, and especially the future, regarding what is going on in this country, is that people seemingly truly cannot see through a man like Trump, nor the people who he surrounds himself with. Whether or not he outright said so boldly that he thinks Republicans are stupid, I have no doubt that, given his winners and losers perspective on life, he does indeed view them as losers, with himself of course being the winner, once again having scammed people into believing what he wants them to believe in order to get what he wanted.

Trump has incredibly low approval ratings, has been condemned worldwide for many of his actions and viewpoints, and is generally seen as a clownish figure by far too many to be easily dismissed. Yet, he also is the sitting President, and like it or not, has a solid 30 to 35 percent who serve as his base of supporters, and seem to let him get away with nonsense time and time again.

The unanswerable question now is why?

Jared Kushner 'admitted Donald Trump lies to his base because he thinks they're stupid' The Independent Maya Oppenheim ,The Independent•May 31, 2017:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/jared-kushner-apos-admitted-donald-102800653.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fb

Laura Ingraham Apologizes After Bullying Parkland Survivor David Hogg - But Only After Consequences Are Felt

Mass shootings are obviously tragic and clearly unpleasant, but the increasingly selfish and willfully blind and arrogant defense of the NRA by many Trump supporters in the wake of these tragedies is simply downright depressing. In the past six months, there have been three major mass shootings that rank as among the most deadly in modern American history. The first was the biggest, at the concert in Las Vegas, where 58 people were killed, and hundreds more wounded. The second was the biggest mass shooting in Texas history, as a man walked into a church in Sutherland Springs and killed 26 people. Then last month, Florida saw another mass shooting, this one in Parkland. It ranks as the third deadliest school shooting in the modern history of the United States.

So, perhaps it is not surprising that the gun debate has been raging like never before. After all, we have a big mouth that received the full endorsement of the NRA during the 2016 presidential campaign, and now he is in the Oval Office. He mocked a disabled reporter during the campaign, so should it really be a surprise that his gun loving supporters would make such a point of mocking kids?

No, it's worse than that, actually. They are bullying kids who survived one of the world school shootings in history. These kids saw their classmates killed on what was supposed to be a regular school day, but wound up anything but. A 19-year-old man, hardly more than a kid himself, somehow managed to get his hands on an AR-15, and decided to use it against defenseless kids.

This was not the first time, or the second time, or the third time that we have seen such massacres in American schools. In the past, some of the solutions offered up by pro-NRA advocates has been to have armed guards in every school. Despite tight budgets, this was seen as an emergency to help keep our kids safe. But there were armed guards in previous school shootings, and it did not help. It did not help at Columbine. And in Parkland, the guard refused to enter the building, refused to put his life on the line to either help prevent, or at the very least limit, a school massacre.

Do we really think that teachers, who surely would not get more training on guns and shooting, would fare better?

Also, there are plenty of mass shootings that happen outside of schools, as well. Are we going to hire armed guards, at taxpayer expense, for literally every kind of public gathering? Will we see them at post offices, at shopping malls and supermarkets? Are we going to hire them for churches, which have obviously seen quite a few mass shootings just in recent years, as well? Would it even help in these circumstances? How much would an armed guard have helped in Las Vegas, where the shooter was firing from 32 stories up?

Obviously, that solution has not always worked. Yet, conservatives and other NRA supporters, usually quite hawkish about being on a tight budget to the point that they continually try to cut school programs, like Trump did with after school programs, are now championing the idea of providing teachers with training and with guns themselves. Clearly, this will cost quite a lot of money, considering how many thousands of schools there are in the country, and presumably, there would be more than one teacher on average per school that would receive such training, because of absences and the possibility that a trained teacher at the far end of a school would not necessarily even be able to get to a shooting on time if it winds up being on the complete other end of the school. Plus, let's face it, if armed guards with proper training and equipment do not always, or even often, prevent mass shootings, why would teachers suddenly be the answer?

Of course, it is pointed out over and over again that the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world with such a massive problem with gun violence in general, and with the relentless regularity of mass shootings in particular. It is hard not to notice that the easy availability of guns in the United States might indeed be a decisive contributing factor for all of this.

So, despite how confident conservative gun lovers try to sound with their answers, history has not been on their side. And that's got to be frustrating.

But who knew that they could stoop so low as to outright mock kids in high school? Conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham seemed to be absolutely gleeful that one of the Parkland teens turned activist was turned down from several colleges, despite an apparently strong GPA and other impressive credentials. FOr her lack of professionalism, numerous sponsors dropped her. And now, only after the fact, and seeing that there are indeed consequences for being an asshole, she seems to be apologizing and expressing regret at her own conduct.

How convenient.

Ingraham is hardly the only one, though. One of the NRA gun lovers slapped a Hitler mustache on the image of a Parkland kid, and a fake image of another Parkland survivor turned activist, Emma Gonzalez, tearing up the constitution, while another member of the Republican party from Maine referred to her as a "skinhead lesbian," before he was forced to drop his political campaign as a result of his mind-numbingly stupid and insensitive remarks.

But how low can we go as a nation? When is enough enough? Not just with gun violence, but also with the personal insults and, yes, the bullying. Not be kids,but by supposedly full grown, allegedly responsible adults. If this is how angry and irresponsible they get, how trustworthy will they possibly be with assault weapons?

This is getting absurd. Frankly, those sponsors should have dropped idiots like Ingraham and LaPierre and the NRA in general, and a long time ago.

No matter what political affiliation we may subscribe to, it seems that everyone agrees that we seem to have lost something as a nation.

The question that I have, is whether insulting children who want frankly reasonable measures for their own personal safety is the cause, or just a clear symptom of the larger problem plaguing us, clearly pointing to what is wrong with this country?

Hogg Asks Melania for Comment After Ingraham Tweet  Newsweek logo Newsweek Joe Difazio, March 29, 2018:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hogg-asks-melania-for-comment-after-ingraham-tweet/ar-AAvfIaz






Laura Ingraham, Facing Boycott, Apologizes for Taunting Parkland Survivor David Hogg By DANIEL VICTORMARCH 29, 2018:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/business/media/laura-ingraham-david-hogg.html

Under President Trump, Growing Number of Americans Go Without Health Insurance

Sometimes, you have to be careful what you wish for.

For years, people listened to horror stories about how bad any expansion of the healthcare program would be, how it was increasing government control, and would inevitably lead to a brutal dictatorship (funny how literally everything that threatens the privileges of the rich, from healthcare reform to gun reforms that threaten the profit of the NRA seem to always be labelled as a first step towards dictatorship, even when there is no evidence of this from the numerous countries which tried both). 

Then, in 2016, many of these same people bought into the promises of then candidate Donald Trump, who made wild promises and statements that sounded too good to be true. The most famous was his promise not only to build a border wall, but to make Mexico pay for this wall. "Mark my words," he said specifically. He would be the greatest job creating president in history. He would save the coal industry, and bring back all of those lost coal jobs in Appalachia. He would be the fittest man ever to serve, which seems laughable, because he was nowhere near in as good a shape as the man who preceded him, or even the man who preceded him. He criticized Obama for playing golf while so much needed to be done, and promised that he would never play golf as president. He would be too busy working on behalf of the country, so he promised that he would not take vacations, either. He also promised that he would defeat ISIS within 30 days, and of course, he knew more about ISIS than the generals did. He would release his taxes, and he would divorce himself from his business interests to avoid any conflict of interests. He would pay down the national debt. He would do for the country what he had done for his business empire, and under him, the country would no longer be a laughing stock, but would just win, win, win. We would win so much, in fact, that we would grow tired of winning.  He told us, with a straight face, that he and he alone could save this country. 

Of course, there was a reason why those promises sounded too good to be true. For those of us who looked at this man as a clown figure, and took what he said with a grain of salt as the rantings of an untrustworthy man, we saw his extensive past as a conman and understood at once that he was just putting us on, that this was just the latest, and apparently greatest, scam yet. But surely, most of us thought, our fellow countrymen would eventually see through all of this. A man who mocks the disabled and stokes the fans of racism, and who lied so effortlessly, would not be rewarded with the White House, right?

Well, we all know what happened, so there is no point in retelling that particular story. 

But now that he is in office, how many of those promises did he manage to keep? Did he force Mexico to pay for the wall? Nope. Shocker, I know. Did he defeat ISIS within 30 days? Not so much. Did he release his taxes, or at least divorce himself from his business interests? Nah, he never actually intended to go through with that, anyway. Did he at least refuse to play golf, or take vacations? Hardly. In fact, he has spent more time on vacation during this stretch of his presidency than anyone who preceded him, to my knowledge. Are we winning, winning, winning, to the point that we are sick and tired of it? Not at all. In fact, it seems that the rest of the world is laughing at us far more these days than ever before, and Trump has everything to do with that. 

One of the many promises that Trump made as a candidate that sounded too good to be true was healthcare. He promised it would be an amazing plan, and would cover everybody. Plus, it would be cheaper than the healthcare system - the hated Obamacare - that then existed in full force. 

Low and behold, though, this was yet another lie. Not only did he not come up with something better and less costly that would cover everyone, he did not make a serious effort to help design one. All he did was attach his name to the mediocre plans of others, such as Paul Ryan, and then lent all of his support towards "repealing and replacing" Obamacare. But of course, those efforts were fruitless, and did not pass Congress. Then they focused on simply repealing Obamacare, but that did not pass, either. So, Trump did exactly what he and his supporters criticized Obama for, and exerted his executive power in order to gut Obamacare, for all intents and purposes. 

And so, he could claim to have ended Obamacare. That much he can do. But did he make it better, cheaper, more affordable? Nope. Is everyone at least now covered? Not even close. In fact, predictably, there are more and more people going without health insurance now specifically as a consequence of having Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Many of these people are in red states and, presumably, many of them strongly supported and ultimately voted for Donald Trump.

Again, careful what you wish for.

Of course, the Republican lie...er, excuse me, line - the Republican line...would be that these people are exercising their freedom of choice. But it is the freedom of choice of having to make difficult choices based on financial realities. Namely, that they have to gamble and go without the expensive health insurance costs that they cannot afford, and hope that it ultimately works out best, that they get lucky. It's a gamble, of course, not unlike the gamble that Americans collectively took for many years by sticking so doggedly to the for profit healthcare system in the first place - the only one of it's kind in the industrialized world. And there's a reason for that, too. No other industrialized nations want anything to do with such a system, because they see the failures of the system we have here in the United States, and the people of these countries know that what they have is better than what we have. Hell, even President Trump admitted it during a visit with the Australian head of state, commenting that their healthcare system was better than the American one. And that was before Obamacare was gutted. It's even worse now, under Trump!

According to a recent article published by Bloomberg, the success ob the Obamacare program - for all of it's faults - is being taken away as a direct consequence of the actions by Trump:

While the share of Americans without health insurance is near historic lows four years after the Affordable Care Act extended coverage to almost 20 million people, the Trump administration has been rolling back parts of the law. At the same time, the cost for many people to buy a health plan—if they don’t get it from a job or the government—is higher than ever. 

Are you as tired of all of this "winning" as I am yet?

Again, careful what you wish for. Most Trump supporters desperately wanted an end to Obamacare, and most desperately wanted Trump in the White House. Now, they got exactly what they wished for - except once again, the exact same failures that were so glaringly obvious, and which created the need for reforms like those in Obamacare, are rising up. And President Trump is not addressing any of this. He's too busy playing rounds of golf on his weekend outings to sunny Florida to bother, and he seems to like his vacations way too much to actually address the concerns, much less the needs, of the American people he is supposed to be representing.

Surprise, surprise, eh?

Now, Obamacare was basically a first step in the right direction. It did not scrap the exclusively for profit healthcare system, but it did curtail it, took out the worst of the abuses and unfairness. But under Trump, all of that is coming right back, and whatever tinkering we might have done to make Obamacare work better will now shift to a fight simply to retain as many scraps of it as possible, with Trump the butcher having carved it all up and rendered it virtually lifeless.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Why Some Americans Are Risking It and Skipping Health Insurance by John Tozzi, March 26, 2018:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-26/why-some-americans-are-risking-it-and-skipping-health-insurance