NEW YORK SUN: Attainting Trump.

By suggesting criminal charges could be in the cards for President Trump, the House committee investigating the events of January 6 isn’t just weakening their case before the Supreme Court. They’re also skating close to the constitutional prohibition on bills of attainder. That’s one of the limits Americans placed on Congress, enjoining what the Supreme Court has called “trial by legislature” — exactly what the January 6 committee appears eager to conduct.

The Constitution forbids bills of attainder as “a general safeguard against legislative exercise of the judicial function,” Chief Justice Warren explained in United States v. Brown. Under the British monarchy, such bills were used to punish without a trial individuals accused of disloyalty, treason, or any conduct the parliament found objectionable. The Framers, Chief Justice Warren wrote, “sought to guard against such dangers by limiting legislatures to the task of rule-making.”

Members of the January 6 committee seem to have lost sight of that wisdom. So far, they’ve been racking up victories in their effort, in federal court, to breach Mr. Trump’s executive privilege. The Supreme Court, though, has yet to decide whether to hear Mr. Trump’s appeal asking to shield his papers. It strikes us that the committee’s chairman has handed Mr. Trump’s lawyers valuable ammunition of Congress’s intent.

It’s an abuse of legislative power, that — like the dual frivolous impeachments of Trump based on bogus evidence — sets a precedent for more abuses in the future.

MEGAN FOX: Montana Judiciary Caught Lobbying Against Judicial Accountability in Email Scandal. “In April, the Montana judiciary was caught red-handed lobbying against bills that would lead to more accountability for judges. This comes right on the heels of the scathing Wall Street Journal report that found hundreds of judges refusing to recuse themselves from hearing cases in which they had financial investments — a story that reached even the Supreme Court — as the judiciary is being exposed.”

INDEED:

Plus:

WELL: Georgia opens investigation into possible illegal ballot harvesting in 2020 election. “Georgia authorities have launched an investigation into an allegation of systematic ballot harvesting during the state’s 2020 general election and subsequent U.S. Senate runoff and may soon issue subpoenas to secure evidence, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed to Just the News. . . . According to interviews and documents reviewed by Just the News, Raffensperger’s office received a detailed complaint from conservative voter integrity group True the Vote on Nov. 30 saying it had assembled evidence that scores of activists worked with nonprofit groups to collect and deliver thousands of absentee ballots, often during wee-hour operations, to temporary voting drop boxes distributed around the state during the pandemic.”

Ballot-harvesting is illegal under Georgia law.

“BACK WHEN HE WAS RIGHT WHERE YOU WANTED HIM, YOU LOVED HIS FAT FACE. OR SO YOU SAY.” At WaPo, freaking out over J.D. Vance’s beard. Plus: “I don’t know how the beard symbolizes that, other than that those things are masculine. How weird to get caught up in his beard!”

The left hates, fears, and envies traditional masculinity. That’s been plain for several decades.

Plus, from the comments at the link: “Maybe they fear the return of the bearded Republican politician like Lincoln or Grant who will treat Democrats like they need to be treated.”

Well, today’s Democrats are also pro-slavery. House Democrats Won’t Schedule Vote on Bill to Sanction Chinese Slave Labor.

And: “‘J.D. Vance didn’t used [sic] to have one.’ Pretty much true of everyone with a beard.”

FLASHBACK: Obama’s iPhone Flub:

As President Obama fumbled with an iPhone, the blogosphere recalled he had earlier falsely bad-mouthed President Rutherford B. Hayes as a technological troglodyte. It’s not his error that annoys but his arrogance.

For a man who would have Americans believe that he and his big government are smarter than anyone, it might help if the president could show some evidence of it when he lectures others.

Instead, Obama bumbled around on an iPhone at a campaign stop with no idea how to master the device, triggering a viral response on the Internet about his past pontifications on history and technology.

Indeed it did.

Plus this: “Hayes unleashed the free market. Obama not only has done the opposite, he hasn’t even mastered today’s telephone.” Ouch.

ANNALS OF INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION: Montana Judiciary Caught Lobbying Against Judicial Accountability in Email Scandal. “The Montana judiciary is in deep trouble. The Wall Street Journal picked up on a local story that has been exploding since last April but has just now started to get national attention. In April, the Montana judiciary was caught red-handed lobbying against bills that would lead to more accountability for judges. This comes right on the heels of the scathing Wall Street Journal report that found hundreds of judges refusing to recuse themselves from hearing cases in which they had financial investments — a story that reached even the Supreme Court — as the judiciary is being exposed.”

OPEN THREAD: It’s a sad, sad world.

“I’M GOING TO SHUT DOWN THE VIRUS, NOT THE COUNTRY:” The Slutty ’Hot Vax’ Summer That Never Happened. New video from Reason TV:

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China’s Mars orbiter snaps amazing selfies above Red Planet.

WHY ISN’T VA. GOV. GLENN YOUNGKIN DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THE SNOW, ask people too dumb to know that Youngkin isn’t governor yet.

Meanwhile, people who know better are making the obvious reality-based points:

Related:

MUCH MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Game-Changer: Arizona Families Will Now Be Able to Take Their Education Dollars Elsewhere if Schools Close—Even for a Single Day.

THIS IS A JOKE, BUT IT’S ALSO PROBABLY PART OF THE 2024 DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM:

ACCORDING TO THE MEDIA, THAT’S THE ONLY TIME IT’S IN PERIL: Democracy is not in crisis just because Democrats are losing.

But then “our democracy” is just a code word for “untrammeled Democratic Party rule.”

Plus: “Personally, I suspect a lot of the panic over the anniversary of Jan. 6 is really connected to another anniversary that is coming up. In about two more weeks, Joe Biden will have been president for a full year. You may have noticed that it hasn’t been going very well for him or his party. Violent crime spiked last year and then, in many places, spiked again this year. The economy was looking pretty decent until inflation started to spike and turned out not to be as transitory as predicted. The pandemic was looking pretty good until the delta wave spiked and now more Americans have died since Biden took office than before that. The border situation was looking pretty good before Biden took office, then apprehensions spiked to a historic high, literally the highest numbers ever recorded in a single fiscal year. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was approved of by most people in theory, but it became a deadly disaster where Americans and former allies were left behind to the tender mercies of the Taliban. On top of all of that, Biden’s agenda is stalled, his approval ratings are deep underwater and Democrats’ control of Congress is very much at risk, so much so that many are retiring rather than contemplate a future in the minority. Much better to talk about the anniversary of last year’s riot than how the Biden administration is doing one year in.”

January 20, 2021 did far more harm to American than January 6.

HMM: Study: 10% of adults have benign tumor linked with diabetes, high blood pressure.

WHILE COMPLAINING ABOUT TRUMP’S THREAT TO “OUR DEMOCRACY,” LEFT STARTS BATTLESPACE PREPARATION FOR STEALING FUTURE ELECTIONS: Tur Fears ‘Next Election Won’t Be Fair,’ Hopes for 2024 ‘Contingency Plan.’

EVIDENCE THAT HUMANS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CURIOUS, AND HAD POOR JUDGMENT: Mysterious Footprints Suggest Neanderthals Climbed a Volcano Right After It Erupted.

WHEN THEY PRY MY COLD, DEAD HANDS: Off the steering wheel of my pickup, though the same will apply when they come after my 1911 R1 and my 1873 Springfield 45-70 U.S. Calvary Carbine. If you recall the Anti-Destination League, you know exactly what I mean.

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Joe Biden erroneously states it’s ‘2020’ in post-New Year’s gaffe.

SO THE RUSSIAN ASAT “TEST” WAS MORE OF A SUB-ROSA ATTACK: Russian ASAT debris imperils DoD, NRO sats, while ISS risks increase: COMSPOC. “The COMSPOC analysis also shows that Russian government claims that the debris would not harm the International Space Station are blatantly not true. In fact, the opposite appears to be the case.”

A friend comments: “Note that while they’ve been bitching about Starlink, the Chinese haven’t said a word about Russia.”

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Shot: How Tim Kaine helped persuade Virginians — and conservatives — to act on climate change.

—The Washington Post, July 25, 2016.

Chaser: Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine among hundreds trapped overnight in snowstorm traffic jam.

—ABC News, today.

THIS MAY SAY AS MUCH ABOUT IN-PERSON VISITS AS ABOUT TELEMEDICINE: Telemedicine may be as good as in-person visits for managing chronic illnesses.

MICHAEL WALSH: Monarch Fauci Turns Increasingly Desperate.

For relevance.

LIBERALS ARE ACTUALLY DOUBLING DOWN ON GOING AFTER RON DESANTIS’ WIFE.

THIS ASSUMES HE CAN REMEMBER THEM: More Words That Will Haunt Joe Biden Forever.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS…WELL, PRETTY CONSISTENT, ACTUALLY:

Shot: CBS Warns GOP Midterm Wins One of the ‘Top Global Risks’ in 2022.

On Tuesday, CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil and Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer sounded the alarm over the possibility of Republicans winning big in the 2022 midterm elections, something they hysterically labeled one of “the top global risks” in the year ahead. The pair claimed any GOP victory in the midterms or the 2024 presidential contest would be seen as “illegitimate.”

“A new report is detailing what it says are the biggest risks facing the globe in 2022 and the findings may surprise you,” Dokoupil declared. Turning to Bremmer, he touted: “Number three, midterm elections here in the U.S., a top risk for 2022. How come?”

In reply, Bremmer wailed:

Well, maybe the least of the surprises. This is the most important midterm election in American history. We have January 6 coming up in just a day and as you know, since the profoundly challenged elections of 2020, no lessons have been learned at all in the United States. The country is much more divided and a large number of Americans, 64% in an NPR poll yesterday, say they thought the United States’ democracy was in crisis.

He went on to specifically identify the Republican Party as the source of the supposed global threat: “…the United States has an election process that is increasingly broken, increasingly delegitimized. And the midterm elections, especially if you have significant win for a Trump-led Republican Party, means that 2024 is going to be seen as illegitimate and potentially a constitutional crisis.”

—NewsBusters, today.

Chaser: Then-New Host of Face the Nation Advised Obama in 2013 to ‘Destroy the GOP:’

John Dickerson, replacing Bob Schieffer as the new host of Face the Nation, will continue the same level of objectivity that CBS has brought to viewers for half a century. In 1964, when CBS was one third of all television news, Walter Cronkite and Daniel Schorr repeatedly smeared Barry Goldwater as a crypto-Nazi. His successor, Dan Rather, blew himself up in spectacular fashion with RatherGate in 2004, as dissected by all those bloggers in their Pajamas, to coin a Website name. In 2007, Rather’s successor, Scott Pelley, violating 32 flavors of Godwin’s Law in the same fashion as Cronkite, “was asked why he refused to include global warming skeptics in his reporting. He responded, ‘If I do an interview with [Holocaust survivor] Elie Wiesel, am I required as a journalist to find a Holocaust denier?’”, as NewsBusters noted.

—Ed Driscoll.com, April 12, 2015.

Today, CBS no doubt views 2015 as the good old days of the GOP. If Republicans do take back the House in November, will CBS declare that “The voters had a temper tantrum last week,” as the late Peter Jennings of ABC said in November of 1994, or will they declare the elections “illegitimate” as CNN’s Ana Navarro did today: Ana Navarro Says Donald Trump Was Illegitimately Elected in 2016 During Wild Rant on The View.