Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that if Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker does not recuse himself from oversight of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, then Democrats will seek to tie protections for the investigation into the spending bill.
“We Democrats, House and Senate, will attempt to add to must-pass legislation, in this case the spending bill, legislation that would prevent Mr. Whitaker from interfering with the Mueller investigation” should Whitaker not recuse, Schumer said Sunday during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Schumer said he was concerned about the past statements Whitaker made as a commentator on CNN about the investigation. Whitaker has argued that cutting Mueller’s budget would be a way to end the probe, that investigating President Trump’s finances would be a “red line” and that he believes there was “no collusion” between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Separated at birth.
“The appointment of Mr. Whitaker should concern every American – Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative – who believes in rule of law and justice,” Schumer said.” “He has already prejudged the Mueller situation. If he stays there, he will create a constitutional crisis by inhibiting Mueller or firing Mueller, so Congress has to act.”
Schumer, along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other key Democrats, are sending a letter to Lee Lofthus, the top ethics officer at the Justice Department, to question Lofthus if he had advised Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the Mueller probe.
Schumer, however, stopped short of saying he would risk a government shutdown if Mueller protection’s weren’t added to a spending bill.
What about Eric Holder’s corruption when he was over the DOJ.
“I believe there will be enough of our Republican colleagues who will join us. There’s no reason we shouldn’t add this and avoid a constitutional crisis,” Schumer said. “We’ll see what happens down the road.”
With the pushback from top Democrats, numerous Republican lawmakers have come to Whitaker’s defense. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Whitaker was “appointed legally” and there was no reason for him to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation.
“You don’t recuse somebody because they have opinions different than the people they’re overseeing,” Graham said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “The bottom line here is Mueller will be allowed to do the job without political interference by Mr. Whitaker.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who is likely to take over as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee come January, said on Sunday that if Whitaker doesn’t recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation, then the acting attorney general will be subpoenaed by the panel.
“Our very first witness after January 3, we will subpoena, or we will summon, if necessary subpoena, Mr. Whitaker,” Nadler said on “State of the Union.” “The questions we will ask him will be about his expressed hostility to the investigation.”
Nadler added: “How he can possibly supervise it when he’s expressed, when he’s come out and said that the investigation is invalid.”
The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said that protecting Mueller’s investigation will be a top priority should he take over as the panel’s chair come January.
“Well, the very first thing, obviously, is to protect the Mueller investigation. The President’s dismissal of Attorney General Sessions and his appointment of Whitaker, who’s a complete political lackey, is a real threat to the integrity of that investigation,” he said, adding that the investigation is “of utmost importance.”
Thislittle sissy has never shot a gun or thrown a punch. If Hitler was alive he would take over France again.
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced nationalism during an Armistice Day centennial observance in Paris on Sunday.
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: Nationalism is treason,” Macron said, according to a Euronews translator.
Macron spoke in front of world leaders including President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“If we think our interests may only come first and we don’t care for others, it is a treason of our values, a betrayal of all moral values,” he said. “We must remember this.”
Macron said that the moral values of France helped them fight for the future of their country.
He praised the world leaders that formed the first League of Nations, after World War I.
“They imagined the first international corporation, the dismantling of empires, and redefined borders, and dreamed at the time of a union, a political union of Europe,” Macron said.
He lamented that the spirit of revenge and humiliation after World War I sparked renewed nationalism that led to World War II.
Macron defended organizations like the European Union and the United Nations, hailing their ideals despite their “setbacks” over the years. He called for a new era of science-built progress.
“Together we can rise to the challenges of poverty, global warming, disease, inequality, and ignorance,” he said. “And we can win this together, because victory is possible together, together we can break away from the countertruths and injustices, we can counter the extremes which would drive us to war.”
In an interview with CNN, Macron continued his condemnation of nationalism but was hesitant to claim the “globalist” label.
“I would say I’m a patriot,” he said, but added: “I’m not a believer in a sort of globalism without any differentiation. I think it doesn’t — it’s very inconsistent, and it’s extremely — it makes our people very nervous. But I’m not a nationalist, which is very different for me from being a patriot.”
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned of the dangers of rising nationalism as he addressed Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and other world leaders at a ceremony in Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the first world war armistice.
As more than 60 heads of state and dignitaries gathered in the rain near Paris’s tomb of the unknown soldier to mark a century since guns fell silent on the western front, Macron delivered a pointedly political speech, warning that “old demons” were resurfacing and threatened the fragile peace.
Later Macron commented that it was great to have world leaders at the Arc de Triomphe for the first world war memorial but asked how the photos would be seen in the future: “A symbol of lasting peace? Or the last moment of unity before the world falls into disorder? That depends on us.”
The centrist pro-European Macron used his commemoration speech to say that nations must find new ways to build peace together in the face of dangerous, rising populism and “selfish” nationalism.
Armistice Day: moving events mark 100 years since end of first world war – as it happened
Describing himself as a patriot, Macron said: “Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. In saying ‘our interests first, whatever happens to the others,’ you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: its moral values.
“Old demons are resurfacing. History sometimes threatens to take its tragic course again and compromise our hope of peace. Let us vow to prioritise peace over everything.”
He said the traces of the first world war had never been erased from Europenor the Middle East and called on countries to stand together in “goodwill” against climate change, poverty and inequality. “Let us build our hopes rather than playing our fears against each other.”
Trump, who said recently he was proud to be a nationalist, looked on alongside Putin, the Russian president, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and scores of other leaders, but not the British prime minister, Theresa May, who was at the ceremony at the Cenotaph in London.

Armistice Day is marked around the world – in pictures
After the commemorations at the Arc de Triomphe, key world leaders had lunch at the Élysée Palace – a moment of frantic diplomacy for Macron. Trump was seated between Macron and the Moroccan king, Mohammed VI, and Merkel was seated next to Putin. The Spanish king Felipe was also at the table, and French observers marvelled that May was absent from the gathering. She was represented instead by David Lidington, who was not at the top table.
The leaders had met at the Arc de Triomphe for the armistice ceremony just after 11am. Most heads of state walked slowly together for the last few metres, standing shoulder to shoulder under black umbrellas. This slow walk under pouring rain was seen as a gesture for peace. Both Trump and Putin were absent as both arrived separately at the Arc de Triomphe in their own security conveys.
As Trump’s motorcade arrived, a topless activist from the Femen group ran out with “Fake” and “Peace” written on her chest, shouting “fake peace maker!” She was removed by police.
Putin was the last to arrive. He shook hands with several leaders but his warmest greeting was for Trump, giving him a smile and thumbs up and patting the US president’s arm.
Trump had been expected to meet Putin for talks during the visit, but will instead sit down with him formally later this month, most likely at a world leaders’ summit in Buenos Aires.
Trump had been criticised at home for cancelling a visit to an American cemetery outside Paris on Saturday because of bad weather. Rain grounded the helicopter Trump had planned to take, so he cancelled the trip, officials said. He instead visited a different American cemetery on Sunday afternoon.
Macron, Merkel and the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres opened a new peace forum in Paris, designed to boost multilateralism and the cooperation between nations at a moment of tension. Merkel warned that “lack of communication and unwillingness to compromise” could have terrible consequences for world peace.
Trump, who while pushing an “America First” agenda has called into question multilateralist organisations, was not going to attend the conference. Nor was Putin expected.
Some anti-Trump protestors gathered at a square in central Paris, where the Trump baby balloon seen in London was on display.
She Should Be Forced To Retire. The Woman Can’t Tell You What Day Of The Week It Is Damit.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was seriously injured in a Wednesday evening fall in her chambers at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The health of the 85-year-old justice and progressive favorite is much-watched, lest a sudden change of events give President Donald Trump a third appointment to the high court.
“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fell in her office at the Court last evening,” the Supreme Court public information office said Thursday morning. “She went home, but after experiencing discomfort overnight, went to George Washington University Hospital early this morning. Tests showed that she fractured three ribs on her left side and she was admitted for observation and treatment. Updates will be provided as they become available.”
The injury precluded Ginsburg from attending Thursday morning’s ceremonial investiture of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was confirmed on Oct 6. Trump, the First Lady, various administration officials, federal judges, and other well-placed members of Washington’s legal establishment are expected to attend.
Tuesday’s fall was not Ginsburg’s first. In 2012 she fell and broke two ribs, an injury which went undisclosed for some time. The justice has also been treated twice for cancer. In 1999 she famously endured a battery of radiation and chemotherapy for colon cancer without missing any official business. A decade later in 2009, she underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer.
Ginsburg is the high court’s oldest member. Her health is a continued source of anxiety for progressives. Ginsburg tends to dodge inquiries as to her well-being, insisting she will serve for as long as she is able.
President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replaced him with Sessions’ chief of staff, Trump announced by tweet Wednesday.
“We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States,” Trump tweeted. “He will serve our Country well. We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date.”
We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well….
We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well….
“At your request I am submitting my resignation,” Sessions began.
Sessions continued, “We prosecuted the largest number of violent offenders and firearm defenders in our country’s history. We took on transnational gangs that are bringing violence and death across our borders and protected national security.”
“I have been honored to serve as Attorney General and have worked to implement the law enforcement agenda based on the rule of law that formed a central part of your campaign for the Presidency,” he closed.
Trump has long been agitating to fire Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation and blames him for the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump hinted in the run up to the 2018 midterm elections that he would fire Sessions.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Fox News reports that the Department of Justice does not believe it needs to swear in Whitaker as acting attorney general, since he has already been sworn in for a different position.
Multiple reports indicate Whitaker is now in charge of all DOJ activities, including Mueller’s investigation. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had been overseeing the probe since Sessions’ recusal.
Whitaker wrote an op-ed for USA Today in July 2016 saying he would indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her handling of classified information.
READ THE FULL LETTER FROM SESSIONS:
Dear Mr. President,
At your request I am submitting my resignation.
Since the day I was honored to be sworn in as Attorney General of the United States, I came to work at the Department of Justice every day determined to do my duty and serve my country. I have done so to the best of my ability, working to support the fundamental legal processes that are the foundation of justice.
The team we assembled embraced your directive to be a law and order Department of Justice. We prosecuted the largest number of violent offenders and firearm defendants in our country’s history. We took on transnational gangs that are bringing violence and death across our borders and protected national security. We did our part to restore immigration enforcement. We targeted the opioid epidemic by prosecuting doctors, pharmacists, and anyone else who contributes to this crisis with new law enforcement tools and determination. And we have seen results. After two years of rising violent crime and homicides prior to this administration, those trends have reversed—thanks to the hard work of our prosecutors and law enforcement around the country.
I am particularly grateful to the fabulous men and women in law enforcement all over this country with whom I have served. I have had no greater honor than to serve alongside them. As I have said many times, they have my thanks and I will always have their backs.
Most importantly, in my time as Attorney General we have restored and upheld the rule of law—a glorious tradition that each of us has a responsibility to safeguard. We have operated with integrity and have lawfully and aggressively advanced the policy agenda of this administration.
I have been honored to serve as Attorney General and have worked to implement the law enforcement agenda based on the rule of law that formed a central part of your campaign for the Presidency.
A tough guy at college only. Why don’t he move to a socialist country?

Dartmouth College lecturer Mark Bray made the argument to abolish capitalism in a recent op-ed for Truthout, linking capitalism to the prioritizing of profit over the environment and everything else.
The professor has previously donated half of the profits from his book chronicling Antifa to the organization, written an introduction to an Antifa comic book, and tweeted glowingly about Antifa flags made by kids at a summer camp.
A Dartmouth professor argued on Tuesday that “if we don’t abolish capitalism, capitalism will abolish us.”
Dartmouth College lecturer Mark Bray made the remark in an op-ed for Truthout, titled “How Capitalism Stokes the Far Right and Climate Catastrophe.”
“We must recognize that the climate crisis and the resurgence of the far right are two of the most acute symptoms of our failure to abolish capitalism.” Tweet This
“We are on a deadline,” Bray says. “Lesser-evilism among capitalist politicians may have some rationale when spending five minutes casting a ballot on Election Day, but we don’t have time for it to be a guiding strategical outlook. We need to organize movements to build popular power and shut down the industries that threaten our existence.”
“Fascism is ascendant,” the Ivy League professor continues. “The world is on fire. This is no time to be patient. If we don’t abolish capitalism, capitalism will abolish us.”
Bray claims that the far right advocates for environmentally destructive policies, alleging that the faction prioritizes interests of certain groups over those of the entire planet, but takes his argument a step further by blaming capitalism.
“We must recognize that the climate crisis and the resurgence of the far right are two of the most acute symptoms of our failure to abolish capitalism,” the scholar asserts. “A capitalist system that prioritizes profit and perpetual growth over all else is the mortal enemy of global aspirations for a sustainable economy that satisfies needs rather than stock portfolios.”
Bray’s faculty profile lists the Dartmouth lecturer as an associated visiting scholar of the school’s Gender Research Institute. It also describes him as “a historian of human rights, terrorism, and political radicalism in Modern Europe.” But Bray seems to have done more than just document issues of radicalism.
The professor donated half of the profits from his book “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook” to Antifa.
[RELATED: Dartmouth prof to donate half of book proceeds to Antifa]
He has also authored the introduction to an Antifa comic book and in a tweet displaying photos of what he suggested were Antifa flags made by kids at a summer camp, said “super rad!”
Campus Reform contacted Bray, asking him what his preferred alternative to capitalism would be among other questions, but the professor did not comment in time for press.
Migrants are the “lifeblood” of America, not Americans and their children, says former top Democrat Sen. Harry Reid.
“Immigrants are the lifeblood of our nation,” Reid said, ignoring the 4 million Americans who turn 18 this year in a homeland with 260 million Americans, 34 million legal immigrants and at least 11 million illegal migrants.
Migrants, he said, “are our power and our strength.”
Reid made the claim as he tried to slam President Donald Trump’s call on Oct. for a reform of the birthright citizenship rules.
Reid led the Senate Democrats until 2016. His elevation of migrants above Americans came shortly after President Donald Trump declared himself to be a pro-American nationalist.
But Reid’s praise for migrants and contempt for Americans is echoed by many Democrats, by progressive columnists, some GOP-affiliated columnists, and by many immigrant political activists.
For example, the Democrats’ leaders in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi declared in a lengthy speech in February 2018 that:
We’re a great country because we’re constantly reinvigorated by immigrants coming to our country. Their commitment and courage and commitment to the American dream which drew them here in the first place strengthened the American dream. As newcomers with all of that hope and aspiration, they make America more American when they come here and that’s why our country will not stagnate.
…
Great things, discoveries in America came from immigrants coming here. Many of the great academic minds in our country came from another country. But then — at the same time America produced our own and that’s a pretty exciting combination.
Rep. Joe Kennedy, in an October article for Time magazine, tried to revive the claim that America is a “nation of immigrants,” not a nation of and for Americans and their children:
Few felt it as deeply as President John F. Kennedy. In his 1964 book A Nation of Immigrants, recently re-released, my great-uncle outlines the compelling case for immigration, in economic, moral, and global terms. “The abundant resources of this land provided the foundation for a great nation,” he writes. “But only people could make the opportunity a reality. Immigration provided the human resources.”
Many pro-migration advocates also argue that migrants are more important and productive than Americans:
New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in January 2018:
Over all, America is suffering from a loss of dynamism. New business formation is down. Interstate mobility is down. Americans switch jobs less frequently and more Americans go through the day without ever leaving the house.
…
Of course [Americans] react with defensive animosity to the immigrants who out-hustle and out-build them. You’d react negatively, too, if confronted with people who are better versions of what you wish you were yourself.
In June 2017, a former Wall Street Journal writer who is now working for the New York Times declared America belongs to immigrants because immigrants make the nation more powerful. Bret Stephens wrote:
I speak of Americans whose families have been in this country for a few generations. Complacent, entitled and often shockingly ignorant on basic points of American law and history, they are the stagnant pool in which our national prospects risk drowning…
Bottom line: So-called real Americans are screwing up America. Maybe they should leave, so that we can replace them with new and better ones: newcomers who are more appreciative of what the United States has to offer, more ambitious for themselves and their children, and more willing to sacrifice for the future.
Americans have no right to America, Stephens continued, saying:
We’re a country of immigrants — by and for them, too. Americans who don’t get it should get out.
In January 2018, the Washington Post’s (WaPo) op-ed editor, Fred Hiatt, declared:
Here’s the bottom line: I think we should remain open to immigrants because it’s part of who we are as a nation, because every generation of newcomers — even, or maybe especially, the ones who come with nothing but moxie and a tolerance for risk — has enriched and improved us …
A vote to choke off immigration is a vote for stagnation and decline.
In February 2017, Bill Kristol, the editor-at-large of the D.C.-based Weekly Standard magazine, declared that population replacement would be the best for national power:
“Look, to be totally honest, if things are so bad as you say with the white working class, don’t you want to get new Americans in?
[I hope] this thing isn’t being videotaped or ever shown anywhere. Whatever tiny, pathetic future I have is going to totally collapse. You can make a case that America has been great because every — I think John Adams said this — basically if you are in free society, a capitalist society, after two or three generations of hard work everyone becomes kind of decadent, lazy, spoiled — whatever. Then, luckily, you have these waves of people coming in from Italy, Ireland, Russia, and now Mexico.
Stephens’ progressive and elitist peers have lauded the Hamilton musical, which portrays says American was founded by immigrants, not settlers, and that today’s immigrants as the rejuvenating diverse lifeblood of dull, white America. The play includes a song titled: “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done),” which glamorizes the imported, underpaid cheap-labor and sweatshops which serve Hamilton‘s wealthy ticket-buyers:
Pelso also said Americans owe a moral debt to illegals for bringing their children into the United States:
I say to their parents: Thank you for bringing these Dreamers to America. We’re in your debt for the courage it took, for you to take the risk, physically, politically, in every way, to do so.”
