After yesterday’s ‘retirement’ of John Conyers (D-MI) following claims of inappropriate sexual behavior, many wonder what Senator Al Franken is about to say during a planned speech to the Senate:
Senator Franken is scheduled to deliver a speech from the Senate floor at 11:45 AM ET.
As The Hill reports, the general concensus is that Franken will resign, and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton will probably tap Lt. Governor Tina Smith to replace him.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) blasted the FBI and Senate Democrats on Wednesday for their unwillingness to fairly investigate Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration, stating that the Democrats on the committee he oversees “only want to talk about [President] Trump.”
In a fiery speech to the Senate, Grassley lambasted Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other Democrats for “a double standard here in the way that they desperately want to go after the president but ignore all other potential wrongdoing in the previous administration.”
He then tore into the credibility of the Justice Department and the FBI, pointing out that the veteran FBI agent placed in charge of both the Clinton investigation and the Trump-Russia, Peter Strzok, is wildly anti-Trump. Grassley insisted that both the Trump-Russia investigation and the Clinton email investigation are intricately connected to the firing of the former FBI Director James Comey, so they must be investigated together. From his speech:
There are two major controversies plaguing the credibility of the Justice Department and the FBI right now. On the one hand the Trump Russia investigation, and then on the other hand the handling of the Clinton investigation. Any congressional oversight related to either one of these topics is not credible without also examining the other. Both cases were active during last year’s campaign. Both cases have been linked to the firing of the FBI Director.
These questions go to the heart of the integrity of our federal law enforcement and justice system.
Grassley grilled Dianne Feinstein next for telling him that she would not participate in any investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails, despite stating earlier in the yearthat she wanted to get to the bottom of whether Attorney General Loretta Lynch asked James Comey to downgrade the seriousness of Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information by referring to it as a “matter” instead of an investigation.
“[T]he ranking member [Feinstein] has told me plainly she won’t join any investigation of the oversight of the Clinton e-mail investigations… …Even on Trump-Russia oversight where we have been able to cooperate a great deal, there have been similar problems.” –Rep. Grassley
When it came to the topic of obstruction, Grassley pointed to the fact that Hillary Clinton’s use of ‘Bleach Bit’ to delete 33,000 emails under subpoena appears be a clear case of obstruction, however when it came to Trump he said “So far, I have seen no credible evidence that President Trump has told anyone to lie. I have also seen no credible evidence that he or his aides have destroyed records being sought by investigators.
Grassley even placed an article by liberal law professor Alan Dershowitz in the Congressional record which asserts that Trump did not commit obstruction – because even if the President did fire Comey over the Russia investigation, “the president cannot be charged with a crime for merely exercising his authority under Article 2 of the constitution. This authority includes firing the director of the FBI for whatever reason or no reason”
In light of the mounting body of evidence that FBI officials were clearly covering for Clinton while gunning for Trump, one can understand why the President wanted Comey gone. As another example of Feinstein’s stonewalling, Grassley pointed to her refusal to fully investigate the “salacious and unverified” Trump-Russia dossier:
[A]ll year I have wanted to learn more about the origins of the dossier that largely kick started the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign. In july, the ranking member [Feinstein] joined me in a bipartisan letter seeking voluntary cooperation from the firm that produced the dossier. The dossier was based largely on Russian sources within Russia and was put together by a former british spy. It made salacious and unverified claims about trump. The company responsible for producing it, Fusion GPS, was uncooperative.
In response to our bipartisan request, it dumped on the committee about 32,000 pages of press clippings and 8,000 pages that were entirely blank. Since then, it has provided zero additional documents. The founder of Fusion GPS Initially indicated he would rely on his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination rather than testify at the committee hearing in july. He later agreed to a private staff interview but refused to answer dozens of key questions. I would like to compel him to answer questions and compel him to provide the documents that senator Feinstein and I both asked him in July to provide voluntarily, but under our committee rules, I don’t have the authority to do that on my own.
It should be pointed out that the House Intel Committee chaired by Devin Nunes (R-CA) has made much more progress with Fusion GPS, after the House found out that Fusion agreed to provide them with bank records, only to withhold 112 transactions relevant to the Russia probe. Due to this, the House is now demanding bank transfers to Fusion with other law firms in addition to the DNC’s council at Perkins Coie and Hostelter. Because of Fusion’s ommission of the banking transactions – effectively lying, the House committee is now arguing that the use of law firms to conceal payments to operatives is now fair game and relevant to their investigation.
While Grassley’s speech focused on Democrat efforts to hamstring Senate investigations, Feinstein told CNN on Monday that Grassley had similarly refused to sign her letters requesting more information on actions taken by the Trump campaign, saying “We want him to sign on. I think there’s an effort … not to go deeply,” adding “I hadn’t realized it before. But I realize it now. And we’re going to have to find a way to deal with it.”
Grassley shot back yesterday, stating “[Democrats] complain publicly and they complain privately that I’m not doing enough to investigate obstruction. But obstruction of justice is a legal term of art. It is a conclusion not evidence. …I do not make my conclusions first and try to shoehorn the facts to fit my conclusions.
It was bound to happen… Cat people have hopped on the digital currency bandwagon and collectively plowed over $6.7 million into ‘CryptoKitties’ – an Ethereum-based virtual cat described as “breedable Beanie Babies,” which have sold for upwards of $114,000. Each. The median price of CryptoKitties is $25.04.
DIGITAL CAT BREEDING SCHEME
“CryptoKitties players buy and sell unique digital kittens using ethereum. With two kittens, players can then breed their own digital kittens and sell them on the marketplace. The starting price is set by the user, and the price goes down until the end of the auction or the kitten is sold. The CryptoKitties team plans to release a new CryptoKitty every 15 minutes until Nov. 2018, whose starting price is set by the average of the last five CryptoKitties that were sold, plus 50 percent.” –CNBC
There’s a 256-bit ‘genome’ for each kitten, meaning there are 4 billion possible unique variations, according to the company. The reproduction rate for the randy CryptoCats is a distinguishing feature of the scheme, which features a “cooldown” time – or the time it takes a kitty to have a smoke, make a sandwich, and get back to breeding. The cooldown time varies from “fast” one minute breaks, to week-long “catatonic” breaks, and increases each time the kitty breeds.
Created by Vancouver company Axiom Zen, CryptoKitties launched on Thanksgiving in a limited offering to 200 people, and was opened to the public last Tuesday. Over 41,000 digital ‘kittens’ have been sold since then.
“The popularity of virtual cats fits the euphoria we see elsewhere in the crypto-currency space,” Peter Atwater, who studies market sentiment and heads Financial Insyghts, said in an email to CNBC. “It feels very reminiscent of the Candy Crush craze that helped propel the King Entertainment IPO back at the peak of the ‘Unicorn’ era in mid 2014.”
Source: Niel de la Rouviere
The CryptoKitties accounted for around 13.5 percent of the ethereum network’s trading Wedensday morning, according to Benjamin Roberts, co-founder and CEO of Etherium-focused startup company, Citizen Hex.
“With Cryptokitties every Ethereum user has suddenly taken on the computational overhead of running a mainstream application,” Roberts said in an email. “This overhead affects not only Cryptokitty transactions, but every other transaction on the Ethereum network.”
In fact, thanks to the heavy load put on the Ethereum network, Blockchain project SophiaTX postponed its sale of tokens by 48 hours due to the CryptoKitties clogging the network.
CryptoKitties has also had to raise its “birthing fee” multiple times due to network congestion – from .002 ETH (.90c) to .0015 ($6.69).
??? DUE TO CONGESTION ON THE NETWORK WE ARE INCREASING THE BIRTHING FEE FROM 0.002 ETH –> 0.015 ETH. WE HOPE THIS WILL ALLOW MORE KITTENS TO BE BORN ON TIME AS THERE HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANT DELAYS ???
Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, responded to critics who said the network clearly lacks the ability to scale to a flood of demand:
“With the largest developer community of any blockchain platform by far, the Ethereum blockchain is in an excellent position, especially at this early stage, to be able to deliver on its potential,” –Joseph Lubin
Digital Artwork
Struggling to find a valid reason why in the hell people are buying these cat-tulips, Joey Krug, co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital and a very early investor in Bitcoin, says “From a high level, abstract point of view, this stuff is almost digital artwork, if you will. It doesn’t have any inherent value other than what you think it’s worth,” adding “It does lend weight to the idea that the market is exuberant,’ he said. But “just because a market is exuberant [it] doesn’t mean that market is fraudulent.”
CNBCcontinues:
The rapid surge of interest in CryptoKitties mirrors the exuberant growth of cryptoassets overall, which some have compared to the mania around tulip bulbs in the 1600s and the Beanie Babies fad in the 1990s. Enthusiasts of digital currencies and their blockchain technology point out that after the tech stock bubble burst in 2000, companies such as Facebook and Google emerged as giants.
Bitcoin has leaped more than 1,200 percent this year to a record above $12,800, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum has climbed 5,500 percent to $446, and the entire market value of cryptocurrencies has exploded from around $17 billion at the start of this year to nearly $376 billion Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap.
Ethereum’s version of blockchain technology allows developers to create applications on top of the network, which does not need a centralized, third party to operate. Proponents say the system could transform the world as much as the internet did.
“The tulip mania comparison needs to die,” said Brian Patrick Eha, author of How Money Got Free: Bitcoin and the Fight for the Future of Finance. “Whether or not there is a bubble today in the price of bitcoin and other digital assets, you can’t compare a short-lived fervor for exotic flowers with the rise of an entirely new asset class built on game-changing technology.”
As Bitcoin reaches insane levels – up 13% on the day to $13.2K and change, the largest crypto-mining marketplace, Nice Hash, confirmed it has been hacked and over 4,000 bitcoins absconded with, worth over $50 million.
NiceHash has suffered a completely unpredictable and unforeshadowed cut and run^W^W^Whack, so much for the home miners and their extensive graphics card collections https://t.co/f3muLUtPAUhttps://t.co/bpqRl4CTob
The site has shut down for maintenance for what it claims will only be 24 hours:
Dear NiceHash user, our service is currently under maintenance. We are sorry for the inconvenience and please stay tuned for updates. Thank you for your understanding.
If NiceHash were hacked, then it makes sense that the hacker pushed all of the Bitcoin into a single wallet and then transferred it to their own wallet. There’s no way of getting it back if that’s the case, and if that is indeed the case, there’s no way NiceHash can restore money to miners’ wallets. If we’re talking about $50 million or more, it’s going to hurt, bad.
NiceHash CEO Andrej Nabergoj told WlkTribune that they are “assessing the situation and working with the authorities,” before issuing the following statement:
Unfortunately, there has been a security breach involving NiceHash website. We are currently investigating the nature of the incident and, as a result, we are stopping all operations for the next 24 hours.
Importantly, our payment system was compromised and the contents of the NiceHash Bitcoin wallet have been stolen. We are working to verify the precise number of BTC taken.
Clearly, this is a matter of deep concern and we are working hard to rectify the matter in the coming days. In addition to undertaking our own investigation, the incident has been reported to the relevant authorities and law enforcement and we are co-operating with them as a matter of urgency.
We are fully committed to restoring the NiceHash service with the highest security measures at the earliest opportunity.
We would not exist without our devoted buyers and miners all around the globe. We understand that you will have a lot of questions, and we ask for patience and understanding while we investigate the causes and find the appropriate solutions for the future of the service. We will endeavour to update you at regular intervals.
Then there’s this part:
“While the full scope of what happened is not yet known, we recommend, as a precaution, that you change your online passwords. We are truly sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused and are committing every resource towards solving this issue as soon as possible.”
Sorry about all that net worth you’ve just lost because we allowed ourselves to be hacked, please change your fucking passwords.
A former intern for Rep. John Conyers claims that the now-retired Congressman brought up the case of dead intern Chandra Levy after she rebuffed Conyers’ sexual advances – even claiming Conyers had “inside information” on the case.
Courtney Morse, 36, described the 2001 incident to the Washington Post in which Conyers drove her home one night.
Morse told The Post she quit her internship after Conyers drove her home from work one night, wrapped his hand around hers as it rested in her lap, and told her he was interested in a sexual relationship. When she rejected his advances, Morse said he brought up the then-developing investigation into the disappearance of former federal intern Chandra Levy.
“He said he had insider information on the case. I don’t know if he meant it to be threatening, but I took it that way,” Morse said in an interview. “I got out of the car and ran.” –WaPo
After rejecting Conyers, Morse said the Congressman then started buying her gifts and asking her to eat with him in the members’ dining room. “At the end of one work day, Morse said he offered to drive her to a residence where she was staying about 30 minutes from Capitol Hill,” WaPo reports.
“I thought it was odd that he was driving home an intern. It was out of the way, so it wasn’t convenient,” she said.
At the time Conyers tried to bed his intern, the Chandra Levy case was under investigation by police. Levy went missing in 2001 when it was revealed that she was having an affair with married California Democratic Rep. Gary Condit.
Condit was eventually cleared in the investigation after Levy’s remains were found about a year later in a park. Police charged MS-13 gang member Ingmar Guandique with the murder, however the case was dropped over shaky witness testimony. Guandique was eventually deported.
In light of Conyers’ alleged comment to the intern this morning, this is interesting. Last summer, prosecutors dropped charges against the guy accused of killing Chandra Levy. https://t.co/9sTdhTOOR4
What "insider information" does John Conyers know about Chandra Levy?
We need a full investigation into Conyers & why he seemingly used her story as a threat when his intern rejected his sexual proposition.#WednesdayWisdom#ChandraLevy
The cheated-on wife of FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was booted off Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel for sending his mistress anti-Trump text messages, appears to have scrubbed her Facebook page of pro-Hillary and pro-Obama ‘likes’ after her husband’s embarassing dismissal.
Redditor BREXITGOD notes that Strzok’s wife, Melissa Hodgman, was promoted to Associate Director in the SEC’s enforcement division by the Obama administration on October 14, 2016 – 14 days before the second Hillary Clinton email investigation. Of note, the FBI knew about the emails for “weeks” before launching the second investigation which Peter Strzok oversaw.
Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross pointed out Strzok’s wife’s apparent support for liberal causes on Sunday:
Strzok's wife, a gov't agency lawyer, appears to have strong pro-Clinton bias. We found that she's member of a "We Voted for Hillary" and "Democrats for a Blue America" Facebook groups. https://t.co/QxKSXfZTbj
A Facebook account that appears to be operated by Melissa Hodgman, a top lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission who married Strzok in 1994, shows membership in several pro-Clinton and pro-Obama Facebook groups.
“Democrats for a Blue America” and “Thank You Obama” are two of the groups Hodgman supports. She is also a follower of a page called “We Voted for Hillary.”
Hodgman did not respond to emails from The Daily Caller seeking comment about her involvement with the groups.
And yesterday, Redditor BREXITGOD discovered that Hodgman has scrubbed her Facebook “likes” of any and all references to Obama, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Huffington Post and “Democrats for a Blue America.”
When reached for comment as to how he determined that the Facebook account in question belongs to Hodgman, user BREXITGODprovided publicly available evidence to make the connection.
Futures are sagging, with the Dow down 53, the Nasdaq down 26, and S&P off by 4 points following two days of selling.
Meahwhile Asia isn’t doing so hot. Via Bloomberg:
Asian stocks are poised for the longest losing streak in two years as the technology, mining, consumer and industrial sectors led declines. Japan equities fell sharply, as did Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index. The Australian dollar and bond yields tumbled as traders dialed back expectations for higher interest rates after growth missed estimates.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index is set to fall for eight days, making it the longest run of losses since 2015. American shares fell, with an afternoon swoon wiping out early gains for a second straight day, as investors assessed the impact of proposed tax cuts. Ten-year Treasury yields maintained a slide to 2.34 percent, while the dollar held onto gains. The pound extended declines amid stalled Brexit negotiations, and the yen jumped.
“The adjustment mode is deepening lately in the Japanese stock market,” said Shunichi Otsuka, general manager in the research department at Ichiyoshi Securities in Tokyo. “It’s difficult to buy unless U.S. equities show firmness, even as some high-tech shares are becoming cheap.”
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is gaining retarded air again – breaking through $12,000 and ripping faces off ahead of speculation that widespread use of the upcoming CBOE and CME futures will help digital currencies gain more legitimacy as an asset class.
Cboe Global Markets Inc. has said it will start trading bitcoin futures on Dec. 10, while CME Group Inc.’s contracts are set to debut on Dec. 18. Nasdaq Inc. is planning to offer futures in 2018, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s Cantor Exchange is creating a bitcoin derivative, and startup LedgerX already offers options.
Congressman John Conyers – who retired today after sexual-misconduct allegations surfaced last month – has endorsed his son, John Conyers III, for the seat he’s held for over 50 years.
“I’m retiring today,” the 88-year-old Michigan Democrat told a local radio station from a Detroit hospital. “I want everyone to know how much I appreciate [their] support.”
Except, kids say the darndest things…
In a now deleted tweet, the younger Conyers – who has since deleted his Twitter account – bragged about his father’s infidelity with a woman who was also married – stating “My dad is a f*cking player and reckless as hell! He just got at this doods wife super low key”
The identity of the woman Conyers Sr. apparently ‘got at’ – as well as the dood in question are unknown.
“And for those wondering if it’s really the congressman’s son, other past tweets talking about “Mom Con” and Uncle Carl — the elder Conyers’ brother — should clue you in,” reports M Live‘s Aaron Foley
Days after it emerged that former Special Counsel investigator Peter Strzok was fired from Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe in August for sending anti-Trump text messages to his mistress while the two were working together on the Clinton email investigation, Sara Carter of Circa told a Fox News panel that there are more anti-Trump messages sent by Mueller’s team floating around.
Carter previously emerged as one of the handful of people to review documents obtained by an undercover FBI informant embedded in the Russian uranium industry. Appearing on Hannity’s show Monday night, Carter was asked about rumors of more anti-Trump sentiment expressed by Mueller’s team:
Sean Hannity: I’m hearing rumors all over the place Sara Carter that there are other anti-Trump text-emails out there. And we know about them.
Sara Carter: I think you’re hearing correctly Sean and I think a lot more is going to come out. In fact, I know a lot more is going to come out based on the sources I’ve spoken to.
The clip is below:
Tangentially, it has been widely reported that Mueller’s special counsel is stacked with investigators who have donated to Obama, Clinton or other Democrat causes. As Jessica McBride reported in Heavy:
Andrew Weissmann: Weissmann is a Barack Obama and Democratic campaign donor, according to federal records. “Weissmann, who led the Enron investigation, previously gave $2,300 to Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008 and $2,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 2006
Jeannie Rhee: donated $5,400 to Hillary Clinton in 2015 and 2016, according to FEC records. The records show she gave $2,500 each to Obama for America and Obama Victory Fund 2012 in 2011
Andrew Goldstein: According to Fox News, “Goldstein contributed a combined $3,300 to Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012”
Greg Andres: FEC records show that Andres has donated at least $2,700 to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
James Quarles: Donated thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He has also donated money recently to other Democrats, including Friends of Chuck Schumer and two other Democrats. He has a lengthy donation history dating back years. He did donate to two Republicans over the years, however.
Elizabeth Prelogar: A former law clerk to Justics Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagen, gave $250 to Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to FEC records. She also gave $500 total to Obama for America and the Obama Victory Fund 2012.
Brandon Van Grack: gave small amounts to ActBlue, an effort to raise money for Democrats, and to a Democratic candidate for Congress in 2012. In 2008, he gave about $286 to Barack Obama.
Rush Atkinson: donated $200 to Clinton’s campaign in 2016.
Kyle Freeny: In 2012, Freeny gave $300 to Obama. In 2008, Freeny also gave $250 to Obama, FEC records show.
To review: veteran FBI agent Peter Strzok, working under James Comey, headed up both the Clinton email investigation and the Trump-Russia probe before Mueller’s special counsel was created to take the reigns. Strzok – who was responsible for changing the FBI’s opinion of Clinton’s mishandling of classified info from “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless,” – had an extramarital affair with FBI lawyer Lisa Page while the two were working on the Clinton “matter.” During the investigation, Strzok sent Page anti-Trump / pro-Clinton text messages, which resulted in the dismissal of both Strzok and Page from Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe. Strzok now works in the FBI’s HR department.
Strzok’s conduct during the Clinton email investigation and any other politically charged cases he’s worked on, are now being investigated by the DOJ’s Office of Personel Management the results of which, per Sara Carter of Circa, will be coming out in December and January.
Moreover, as we reported earlier today, House Speaker Paul Ryan accused the DOJ and FBI of “stonewalling” the House Intelligence Committee’s wide-ranging subpoena related to the “Trump dossier,” along with the fact that the FBI appears to have willfully tried to conceal the reason for Strzok’s reassignment from the committee.
Meanwhile, upon being blindsided with this information and publicly embarrassed, Intel committee chairman Devin Nunes was understandably less than pleased.
In a statement issued Sunday, Nunes announced a serious escalation: His committee, he said, is preparing to hold Andrew McCabe and assistant AG Rod Rosenstein in contempt for the DOJ’s failure to comply with Nunes’s subpoena. He also accused the FBI and the DOJ of willfully refusing to comply with an Aug. 24 subpoena in part by refusing the committee’s request “for an explanation of Peter Strzok’s dismissal from the mueller probe.”
“By hiding from Congress, and from the American people, documented political bias by a key FBI head investigator for both the Russia collusion probe and the Clinton email investigation, the FBI and DOJ engaged in a willful attempt to thwart Congress’ constitutional oversight responsibility. This is part of a months-long pattern by the DOJ and FBI of stonewalling and obstructing this Committee’s oversight work, particularly oversight of their use of the Steele dossier. At this point, these agencies should be investigating themselves.
“The DOJ has now expressed—on a Saturday, just hours after the press reports on Strzok’s dismissal appeared—a sudden willingness to comply with some of the Committee’s long-standing demands. This attempted 11th-hour accommodation is neither credible nor believable, and in fact is yet another example of the DOJ’s disingenuousness and obstruction. Therefore, I have instructed House Intelligence Committee staff to begin drawing up a contempt of Congress resolution for DOJ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray. Unless all our outstanding demands are fully met by close of business on Monday, December 4, 2017, the committee will have the opportunity to move this resolution before the end of the month.”
It now appears that the FBI will have even more explaining to do as evidence of additional anti-Trump bias among members of Mueller’s investigation appear to be on the horizon...
A 16 year old was arrested and booked into San Bernardino Juvenile Hall Monday on a felony animal abuse charge after a viral snapchat video shows him intentionally throwing a scared cat onto a street in Ontario, CA. To view, click here.
The Suspect in the Cat Abuse Video has been ARRESTED! He was spotted by officers today in Upland. He ran from the officers but was quickly tackled and arrested. The injured cat is at a veterinarian hospital being looked after and is in good condition. pic.twitter.com/c7oiRwgNO6
The teen, identified as ‘Charlie’ on social media, is seen lifting the cat named Spot with both hands, then flinging it high into the air. The cat can be seen hitting the ground and heard meowing in pain.
Fortunately the cat survived the throw, however he has a broken leg, a fractured leg and internal injuries according to a release from the Inland Valley Humane Society & S.P.C.A., and will remain in the ER until she’s made a full recovery.
Hopefully the teen who threw the cat will die horribly in the next California wildfire to tear through his shitty neighborhood.
