Lauren Boebert

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is continuing her agenda of actively attacking everything Democrats do, to the point she is becoming like a more experienced Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert.

On Wednesday Blackburn posted a Twitter thread filled with graphics she appeared to see as attacking President Joe Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure bill. As the far-right Tennessee conservative may learn, the legislation is extraordinarily popular with the American people – Democratic and Republican voters alike.

Republicans are being highly-criticized for spending the past several months demanding the security measures enacted after the January 6 insurrection, including additional fencing, be removed – claiming there is no longer any danger or threat.

Friday afternoon a man rammed his car into a Capitol Hill barricade, exited and began slashing or stabbing at two Capitol Hill police officers, killing one of them. That suspect was shot and died. The other officer is reportedly in critical condition.

The top Democratic challenger to Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has been raking in cash since the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Kerry Donovan, a rancher and educator who serves as president pro tem of the Colorado state Senate, has taken in more than $614,000 in 55 days for her 2022 midterm challenge of the first-term firebrand Republican congresswoman, reported Politico.

On Wednesday, The Arizona Republic reported that a Florida-based technology company run by a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist has been hired by the Arizona Senate to conduct a broad review of the 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County.

"The company, called Cyber Ninjas, will lead a team that includes three other firms as part of the $150,000 contract the Senate has awarded to conduct an unprecedented audit of the county's election results," reported Andrew Oxford and Jen Fifield. "But a deleted Twitter account that appears to belong to the Cyber Ninjas founder Doug Logan suggests he has already made up his mind about the security of Arizona's elections. It includes a litany of unsubstantiated allegations about fraud in the last election."

I'm not a fan of pro wrestling so I have never watched two grown men simultaneously try to throw each other out of the ring. But having watched the entire interview Fox News host Tucker Carlson held with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on Tuesday night, I now see the appeal. No one grabbed anyone by the shoulders — the two were not even in the same room — but it was nonetheless a riveting pas de deux of insinuation and attempted blackmail. It was a rare moment of comeuppance for two of the most ridiculous, yet sinister, figures in American politics, and impossible to look away from.

It was, in other words, great TV. And that is what Fox News is good at, turning politics into a campy wrestling match, devoid of meaningful content but full of stock characters locked in asinine conflicts. The network's instinct for good TV has elevated figures like Gaetz, a spoiled mediocrity who, in another time, would simply be a faceless grifter warming the congressional seat Daddy bought him, at least until the feds caught up to him. In our era, though, his combination of bottomless self-confidence and a rich kid-honed skill at being a remorseless bully turned him into an aspirational figure for the Fox News audience, a role model for the trigger-the-liberals crowd.

According to a report from Axios, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has been confiding to friends that he is considering stepping down to become a media personality.

Three sources told Axios that Gaetz "has privately told confidants he's seriously considering not seeking re-election and possibly leaving Congress early for a job at Newsmax."

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) whined this weekend that she's under attack from the left because of her overwhelming support of dangerous guns used by soldiers in war and not for traditional things like hunting or protection. After the mass shooting in Colorado this week, Boebert replaced her video streaming background with the flag of the state, covering up her arsenal.

She was also attacked for trying to turn the mass shooting into being about her.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) unfavorably compared gun purchases to voting by mail, and she was hit with another round of mockery.

The gun-loving Colorado Republican is routinely dunked on by other Twitter users, and she drew a similar response for suggesting that buying a gun should be easier than voting in the wake of a mass shooting in her home state left 10 people dead.

After a year of illness, death and economic destruction, the vaccines are providing us with a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. So naturally, as we are all preparing to go back to the office or out to dinner or take a trip, it's also time for us to start back up with the senseless mass shootings that are as much a part of our culture these days as March Madness and pizza delivery. Within the last five days, we have had two mass shootings killing a total of 18 innocent people in two separate states. Two 21-year-old men were able to get their hands on semi-automatic weapons in the days before they opened fire, one in Georgia and one in Colorado.

As I have confessed before, I've become regretfully pessimistic about the prospect for sensible gun laws in this country in recent years. After Newtown, Charleston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, Pittsburgh, El Paso and dozens more, it just seems that we watch these horrific events unfold on TV and ask ourselves over and over what kind of civilized country would allow this carnage. Then the gun proliferation enthusiasts rush in with "thoughts and prayers" and make some empty gesture about banning an obscure firearm accessory after which there is grieving, political haggling and then, finally, nothing.