Happy New Year !! 2021 arrived with crowdless and subdued celebrations under coronavirus restrictions but champagne is just as good no matter where you drink it. And now the news.

Open Range: Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse ripped open the rift between Republicans about accepting the election with a blistering letter to his constituents condemning the plan of Sen. Josh Hawley to challenge the Electoral College certification next Wednesday.

  “We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage,” Sasse wrote. “But they’re wrong — and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.”

  CNN reports that as many as 140 members of Congress are prepared to join in the attempt to block certification of the presidential election. One of them is Tennessee Rep. Diana Harshbarger who said, “Thousands of witnesses have submitted sworn affidavits of reported fraud related to the 2020 presidential election. Our constituents demand that these reported gross violations of our elections process are investigated seriously with the intent of restoring confidence in our electoral process.”

  None of those claims have passed the smell test in court. Sasse said in his letter that Trump and his lawyers can’t say in court what they claim in public. “Because,” Sasse said. there are no penalties for misleading the public. But there are serious penalties for misleading a judge, and the president’s lawyers know that – and thus they have repeated almost none of the claims of grand voter fraud that the campaign spokespeople are screaming at their most zealous supporters.” 

  Sasse said in his letter, “When we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent – not one. Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will ‘look’ to President Trump’s most ardent supporters.” 

  He said, “All the clever arguments and rhetorical gymnastics in the world won’t change the fact that this January 6th effort is designed to disenfranchise millions of Americans simply because they voted for someone in a different party. We ought to be better than that. If we normalize this, we’re going to turn American politics into a Hatfields and McCoys endless blood feud – a house hopelessly divided.”

Viral News: Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue is in quarantine just days before his election runoff after being exposed to the coronavirus.

  Celebrity doctor and huckster Drew Pinsky, who once called the coronavirus pandemic a “press induced panic,” has tested positive for COVID-19. The doctor and commercial pitch man now admits the virus is a serious problem. He wasn’t even paid to say it.

  In Wisconsin, a pharmacist has been arrested and accused of intentionally destroying 500 doses of vaccine by removing them from refrigeration. There’s no word on why he did that. 

  The numbers are bad. Another 3,430 Americans died in the last 24 hours and today the country will hit a total of 20 million cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic began.

  President Trump, back in Washington to challenge the election, is refusing responsibility for the stumbling rollout of the vaccines. He tweeted, “The Federal Government has distributed the vaccines to the states. Now it is up to the states to administer. Get moving!”

  When things do bad, it’s someone else’s responsibility. He is claiming responsibility for the lightning fast development of vaccines.

Hacked: Microsoft reports that the Russian group behind the hack into US government agencies and private companies also wormed into the programming giant’s internal systems and accessed some of the company’s source code. 

The Obit Page: Joe Clark, the imperious and unyielding principal who roamed the halls of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey with a bullhorn and sometimes a baseball bat, died at home  in Gainesville, Florida at age 82.

  Morgan Freeman portrayed him in the 1989 film “Lean on Me.” 

  The former Army drill sergeant  arrived at Eastside in 1982 calling it a “caldron of violence.” He expelled 300 students in his first week. He managed to bring the largely black and Hispanic school to order and raise some test scores.

  Clark was black. He told “60 Minutes” Correspondent Harry Reasoner in 1988, “Because we were slaves does not mean that you’ve got to be hoodlums and thugs and knock people in the head and rob people and rape people. No, I cannot accept that. And I make no more alibis for Blacks. I simply say work hard for what you want.”

The Rose of Texas: Among the many changes in life forced by the pandemic, the famous New Year’s Day Rose Bowl football game will be played today in Arlington, Texas rather than Pasadena, California. Alabama meets Notre Dame. Only once before was the game moved to North Carolina . That was in 1942 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

  The annual Rose Parade and the college football game that follows is at the heart of Pasadena’s identity and economy. The stadium, the actual Rose Bowl, is a dominant feature in the city. Pasadena negotiated a $2 million payment from the game’s producers as compensation. But the city is worried about the precedent of allowing the game and thousands of fans to go to another city and still allow the event to be called the Rose Bowl.

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