Be Not Proud: As the first anniversary of the January 6^th insurrection approaches, a federal judge has ruled that the First Amendment right to free speech does not protect four leaders of the right wing Proud Boys from facing trial for storming the Capitol.

  The four are charged with trespassing, destruction of property, and interference with law enforcement with the intent of obstructing Congress. US District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that none of that is protected by the Constitution.

  The defendants who claimed First Amendment protection are Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe, who respectively led Proud Boys chapters in Washington state, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, prosecutors say. More than 700 people, many of them members of right wing militias, have been charged in the riot.

  “No matter defendants’ political motivations or any political message they wished to express, this alleged conduct is simply not protected by the First Amendment,” wrote Judge Kelly, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump. “Defendants are not, as they argue, charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands, or participating in mere sit-ins or protests.”

Viral News: As the coronavirus pandemic heads into its third year, new cases in the US are up 126 percent, averaging 270,000 a day and breaking the previous pandemic record. Deaths have surpassed 820,000. 

  In other developments as the Omicron and Delta variants of the virus keep spreading, 86 cruise ships are reporting Covid cases onboard, the most since coming back from a 15-month shutdown, the centers for Disease Control reports. The CDC said in a statement of the obvious, that, “The chance of getting Covid-19 on cruise ships is high because the virus spreads easily between people in close quarters aboard ships.”

  And in Oklahoma, a federal judge rejected Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s challenge to the Pentagon’s military-wide Covid vaccine mandate in which he asked for his state’s members of the National Guard to be exempted.

The Obit Page: Former Oakland Raiders football coach John Madden, who led his team to a Super Bowl Championship and later became one of the most entertaining and exuberant hosts for Sunday afternoon coverage of the National Football League, has died at age 85. He was known for his verbal punctions of big plays and his electronic X’s and O’s analyzing what had happened on the field. He’d say “wham!”, “doink!” and “whoosh!” as he explained what happened.

  Madden injected himself into American living rooms in more ways than one. He became a pitch man for beer and an athlete’s foot remedy. Madden’s electronic football game has sold millions of copies.

  In a business requiring crisscrossing the country to cover football games, Madden didn’t take airplanes.  He was afraid to fly. He travelled in the Madden Cruiser, a luxury bus.

— Former Nevada Senator Harry Reid, once a prominent leader in the Democratic Party, has died of pancreatic cancer at age 82. During the Obama administration it was Reid as senate majority leader who steered into law the Affordable Care Act, the public healthcare now known as Obamacare. Reid rose from the bottom to the top. Raised in Searchlight, Nevada, he grew up in a home with no indoor plumbing. His father was an alcoholic miner who died by suicide, and his mother took in laundry from local whore houses.

The Spin Rack: After 10 years of wrangling, former bodybuilder and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver have finally put the ink on their divorce. They’re splitting their $400 million net worth. Arnold had a love child with the family housekeeper. — Music producer Dr. Dre has agreed to pay his ex $100 million. — The judge in the Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking trial has extended the panel’s working hours out of fear that the trial could be affected by the Covid crisis. — Nearly 17 feet of snow has fallen in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains but it’s still not enough to end the state’s drought. Snow supplies 30 percent of California’s fresh water.

The Party Line: Heading into New Year’s Eve, some government leaders are urging caution about the size of celebrations people attend.  Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said “Omicron and delta are coming to your party.”

-30-