Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Here.

The responsibility for government shutdown needs to be assigned to both President Trump and his enabler Sen. Mitch McConnell. Moreover, it is not about a wall but rather a battle between protecting our democracy or enabling fascism.

If Congress were to submit to Trump’s ultimatum to fund his wall, it would be a severe blow to the Constitution and our democratic form of government. If this sounds like hyperbole, check out former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s latest book “Fascism: A Warning.” What are the signs of fascism that Albright identifies? First, an autocrat who believes he is the ultimate authority on all subjects. Second, a populist leader with a cult-like following. Third, attacks on and attempts to silence free press. Fourth, the emasculation of the authority of democratically elected legislatures. Fifth, discrediting and taking over the courts. Without doubt, the first three conditions already apply.

McConnell’s blockage of Senate votes and congressional Republicans’ fear of challenging Trump are enabling the fourth condition. Their success blocking Democrat judicial appointments and approval of countless ideological jurists could well lead to the fifth condition.

Tom Cooke, Oakland

Former FBI top lawyer James Baker just admitted involvement in FISA Warrant and further admitted there were IRREGULARITIES in the way the Russia probe was handled. They relied heavily on the unverified Trump “Dossier” paid for by the DNC & Clinton Campaign, & funded through a…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019

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…big Crooked Hillary law firm, represented by her lawyer Michael Sussmann (do you believe this?) who worked Baker hard & gave him Oppo Research for “a Russia probe.” This meeting, now exposed, is the subject of Senate inquiries and much more. An Unconstitutional Hoax. @FoxNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019

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Here.

Here.

Buck Sexton writes:

There is also a bigger lesson to be drawn from this. Social media mobs are a cancer on this country, and those in the news business have an obligation not to carelessly magnify malignant efforts at personal destruction. This affects all of us. It does not matter who you are, whether you are active online, care about politics, or keep to yourself. The social justice mob may come for you, your spouse or your child, and engage in a ritualistic destruction of their online reputation. Even a trip to the Lincoln Memorial for high school kids can be turned into something catastrophic.

If you haven’t been mobbed yet, give it time.

Here is Kurt Schlichter’s latest column.

To the editor:

Jonathan Metzl recites the positions of several supporters of President Trump who retain their approval of him because of racism or in spite of the fact that doing so is contrary to their own well-being.

Metzl alluded to a focus group respondent who said school budget cuts were justified because African Americans “just use school funds to rent party buses,” and another who criticized immigrants with this statement: “The Mexicans, their food stamps, everything they want, we’re paying for it.”

Those of us who are sociologists, social workers or in other helping professions have said it for some time: America is loaded with racists and others who are impractical at many levels. It is understandable that these people support the president under any circumstance.

Ralph Mitchell, Monterey Park