What A Day: James and the giant impeachment

For those of us who thought the madness might end with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) showing stolen pornagraphic images during a congressional hearing, no such luck!
 

• In absence of any plans or policy vision to help alleviate the problems Americans face, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says that his band of goons may launch an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. “Uh…what for?” you may ask. McCarthy went on Fox News on Monday and told Sean Hannity (who else) “We’ve only followed where the information has taken us.” Lol. 
   

• So what exactly do congressional Republicans claim to have on president Biden? You will be positively shocked to learn: not much! A series of investigations led by the GOP-controlled House have targeted the president, his administration, and members of his family—with Hunter Biden being their main obsession. Last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-OH) released an internal FBI document containing a highly dubious allegation that President Biden was involved in an illegal foreign bribery scheme. So is there any supporting evidence? Nope! Just the allegation, which even Donald Trump’s Justice Department deemed bogus.
   

• That hasn’t stopped Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer from pretending to think it’s very credible. The FBI took the extraordinary step of allowing members of the House Oversight Committee to privately view the document (but not hold on to them) and now Grassley and Comer are pushing the FBI to release it publicly. The form, known as a 1023, formally documents claims from an FBI informant, but does not provide supporting evidence that his allegations are true. It’s also important to note that the other man who was supposed to be James Comer’s “star informant” turned out to be a felon on the lam who was also an unregistered agent for the Chinese government.

Let’s dig in a little deeper into the accusation at hand. 
 

• The FBI document in question states that the informant provided the information to the Bureau in June 2020, but the conversations and meetings described date back to 2015. The informant described a 2016 meeting with the CEO of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, who claimed that he had made two $5 million payments to “the Bidens” but did not specify further. The FBI described the informant as credible but noted that they were “not able to provide any further opinion as to the veracity” of the claims. We should note it surely does resemble the “dirt” that Rudy Giuliani, acting at Trump’s behest, pressured Ukrainian officials to fabricate about the Bidens in the corruption scandal that led to Trump’s first impeachment.

• The FBI responded to the GOP disclosure of the form by blasting Republican lawmakers for ignoring the bureau’s “significant concerns” about the dangers of releasing the materials, saying that it “...at a minimum – unnecessarily risks the safety of a confidential source.” Interestingly, House Democrats have already released the transcript of separate private comments Zlochevsky made to Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas, where the CEO stated that “no one from Burisma had any contacts with VP Biden or people working for him,” while Hunter Biden served on the company’s board. Parnas has repeatedly called this line of GOP accusations against President Biden “misinformation” and stands ready to testify under oath—you’ll be stunned to learn that Republicans don’t want to hear from him.

Add it all up and it looks like Republicans are gearing up to conduct a revenge impeachment based on nothing, and by sheer coincidence, to do so at the same point in Biden’s presidency as Trump’s first impeachment. In the span of just a few weeks, the idea of impeaching president Biden went from a fringe Marjorie Taylor Greene stunt that made even certain spineless GOP miscreants queasy, to a reality now being floated by the speaker of the House. Very healthy, normal political party brimming with good ideas! 

With the senate set to vote on the Supreme Court Code of Ethics, many are asking “Should the White House push for increasing the number of Justices on the Supreme Court?” On a recent episode of Positively Dreadful, host Brian Beutler asks Adam Serwer of The Atlantic and Ben Wittes of The Brookings Institute their thoughts in a special debate format that we’re rolling out all summer long. Tune into this and more great conversations on Positively Dreadful every Friday.

The Fulton County, GA district attorney’s office is reportedly examining several statutes under which to charge disgraced former president Donald Trump including solicitation to commit election fraud and conspiracy to commit election fraud. 

Recently-unsealed court motions revealed that eight search warrants were filed in connection with Trump’s mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) laid off more than one-third of his 2024 campaign staff (including this guy who tweeted out a pro-DeSantis video replete with Nazi imagery) on Tuesday. So you know everything’s going great!

Texas A&M University professor Joy Alonzo, an expert on the opioid crisis, was suspended after allegedly criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX) in a lecture. “Free speech!!!” conservatives have done it again!

An archaeological dig to find a lost children’s cemetery in Nebraska near the site of a former Native American boarding school has ended, with no remains found. 

President Biden honored Emmett Till on Tuesday by establishing a national monument that will span two states. Addressing recent attempts in GOP-controlled states to rewrite the uglier parts of American history, Biden said,“Darkness and denialism can hide much but they erase nothing…We can't just choose to learn what we want to know.”

Federalist Society bigwig and hall-of-fame right-wing judge benefactor Leonard Leo has refused to provide Democratic lawmakers with information regarding the trips he gifted to Justice Samuel Alito. 

A proposed amendment to enshrine abortion rights into the Ohio state constitution secured enough valid signatures to make the November ballot, with almost half a million valid signatures gathered across 55 counties. Let’s friggin’ go, Buckeyes!

A Better Way to Wake Up

OK—let’s spill the beans. Drinking too much coffee can lead to a surge of adrenaline and cortisol. Those hormones are great when you're fighting off a wild tiger or dodging an errant spear (hey, it could happen!), but if you’re drinking countless cups every day just to wake up, it's like trying to light a candle with a flamethrower. It’s too much.

So MUD\WTR created something better. Their OG blend is a coffee alternative made from 100% organic cacao, masala chai, and functional mushrooms. With a fraction of the caffeine found in a cup of coffee, you get the sustainable energy you need to conquer your day… without the jitters or afternoon energy crash.

Plus it tastes like a mug of hot cacao met a chai latte and they had a baby. Give it a try and use code CROOKED for 15% off today.

The Biden administration unveiled new rules for the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act on Tuesday, requiring insurance companies to increase their coverage of mental-health care. 

New reports show that consumer confidence continued to trend up in July, hitting a two-year high. 

Democrats are using recent Supreme Court rulings upholding key aspects of the Voting Rights Act to plan a new strategy to take back the House by winning new districts in the south. 

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gave the largest-ever single donation to the Screen Actors Guild strike-relief fund, said to be seven figures. Can you smell what The Rock is cooking? It’s solidarity.