Welcome to the end of another month. It began with so much promise. The start of Spring always brings us so much hope. But, as usual, life and so many fools do things that make us shake our heads in disgust.

Here’s a look at a few highlights, but most lowlights in the April 2022 version of The Month in Review:

We begin with the confirmation vote for new Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. During the vote, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn was caught on camera giving the hand signal for white supremacy. Usually, I give people the benefit of the doubt over this because the sign does look the same as one for saying okay. But what has Blackburn done to deserve this? Her earlier questioning of Jackson was out of line if not racist. Maybe next time, Senator Marsha should just fold her hands.

Remember Scott Walker? He’s the former Governor of Wisconsin. A week after a federal judge eliminated the mask mandate on airplanes, Walker tweeted a photo of himself on a flight with this caption: “Nice to be massless on an airplane again.” He took a lot of heat on Twitter for his typo, which he blamed on spellcheck. He doubled down with this: “Regardless, it is nice to not be forced to wear a mask. Most on the flight are without masks and a few have them on (which is there right too)” Someone on his staff needs to help Scotty with the differences in their, they’re and there.

Enough of politics for a minute; let’s move on to sports:

Philadelphia Phillies’ third baseman Alec Bohn had a rough night. He made three errors in the first three innings of a game. When he had another chance and made a good throw to first base for an out, he was greeted by sarcastic cheers from the Philadelphia faithful. He was caught on camera saying to himself, “I fucking hate this place.” He did apologize but you have to know that cameras are all over the stadium. Oh yeah, the next night Bohn was greeted with a standing ovation. You gotta love Philadelphia sports fans.

Staying with baseball, the Chicago Cubs opened their season with a home victory over Milwaukee by a score of 5-4. The bigger story was all the empty seats. Did fans stay away because of the 46-degree weather or are they still angry that the ball club was dismantled by trades and this season doesn’t look any better? Maybe they just hate the Ricketts?

In music news, dates were announced for the latest Dead & Co. tour. Sources close to the band claimed it would be the final tour. Legendary band member Bob Weir tweeted this response: “News to me.” Drummer Bill Kreutzmann tweeted at Weir, “Whew. I thought you knew something that I didn’t.” Hmmmm….who would have guessed that members of the band would know more about this than sources?

In local news, northside bakery, Dinkel’s is closing today. What a run they’ve had. One hundred-one years! If you need some cookies or donuts, it really is now or never. Be prepared to wait a long time because the lines have been about a block long. They’ll be missed.

We started this with a Senator from the South, so let’s end with a Senator from the South.

Remember a few years ago when Kentucky Senator Rand Paul got into a fight with his next-door neighbor? It wasn’t much of a fight. Paul was beaten up pretty badly, ending up with some broken ribs. It didn’t stop Paul from his obnoxious behavior. Remember all his exchanges with Dr. Anthony Fauci during the peak of the pandemic?

Paul is at it again. He even doubled down on his ridiculous behavior in April.

It started during that same confirmation vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson. The roll call vote was over with Judge Jackson being confirmed. However, two votes had yet to be cast. One of the two was from Rand Paul (the other by Lindsey Graham). You see the dress code of the Senate states that you need to wear a jacket and tie to be on the floor. Since Rand wasn’t wearing one, he couldn’t cast his vote in person.

He had to cast his vote from a remote location elsewhere in the building. Paul’s behavior led to a delay in the announcement of the vote results. It was disrespectful not only to Judge Jackson but also to his fellow Senators and the others working in the chamber.

As foolish as Paul looked at the beginning of the month, he ended April looking even more obnoxious and ridiculous.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave a briefing on the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. Because this is one of the few issues that both political parties agree upon, it went as you would expect….until Rand Paul decided he needed to speak up.

He started by blaming Nato for the invasion. He doubled down by saying it wouldn’t have happened if the Biden administration didn’t “beat the drum to admit Ukraine” into the alliance. Paul hit the trifecta when he said, “You could also argue the countries they’ve attacked were part of Russia…part of the Soviet Union.” Blinken fought back by saying forcefully “That does not give Russia the right to attack them.”

Paul was so outrageous that even his Republican colleagues criticized him.

I don’t believe in violence. It’s never the answer. But every time Rand Paul opens his mouth, you have to wonder when someone is going to try to beat him up again. His former next-door neighbor has moved to Florida. I wonder how Rand gets along with his current neighbor?

That’s it for April. Four months are done, eight to go. I’m scared to see what’s up in May.

Related Post: The Ron DeSantis edition of The Month in Review

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