Tag Archives: President Trump

Newswire: Supreme Court upholds Obamacare

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Supreme Court

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Supreme Court In a significant victory for the Biden-Harris administration and Americans who depend on affordable health care, the Supreme Court rejected the latest challenge to President Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. The challenge stemmed from whether the individual mandate could be cut from the rest of the law or whether the justices should strike down the entire law. Former President Trump made it his mission to get rid of the law, which has provided millions of Americans with access to affordable health care, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. The court ruled 7-2, with Justice Stephen Breyer writing for the majority, striking down a lower court ruling and determining that the plaintiffs — Texas and 17 other GOP-led states — did not show that they have the standing to bring the initial suits. “We conclude that the plaintiffs in this suit failed to show a concrete, particularized injury fairly traceable to the defendants’ conduct in enforcing the specific statutory provision they attack as unconstitutional,” wrote Justice Breyer. “They have failed to show that they have the standing to attack as unconstitutional the Act’s minimum essential coverage provision. Therefore, we reverse the Fifth Circuit’s judgment in respect to standing, vacate the judgment, and remand the case with instructions to dismiss,” the Justice continued. “We do not reach these questions of the Act’s validity … for Texas and the other plaintiffs in this suit lack the standing necessary to raise them. Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Reportedly, 31 million Americans have health coverage connected to the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare. Also, a guarantee of access to continuous insurance coverage is protected for more than 54 million people with preexisting conditions because of the health care law’s provisions that prevent insurance companies from canceling or refusing to establish policies because of pre-existing conditions.

Newswire: Trump vows complete end of Obamacare law despite pandemic

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By Devlin Barrett, The Washington Post
President Trump said last Wednesday he will continue trying to toss out all of the Affordable Care Act, even as some in his administration, including Attorney General William P. Barr, have privately argued parts of the law should be preserved amid a pandemic.
“We want to terminate health care under Obamacare,” Trump told reporters Wednesday, the last day for his administration to change its position in a Supreme Court case challenging the law. “Obamacare, we run it really well. . . . But running it great, it’s still lousy health care.”
While the president has said he will preserve some of the Affordable Care Act’s most popular provisions, including guaranteed coverage for preexisting medical conditions, he has not offered a plan to do so, and his administration’s legal position seeks to end all parts of the law, including those provisions.
Democrats, who view the fight over the Affordable Care Act as a winning election issue for them, denounced the president’s decision.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement that “the President’s insistence on doubling down on his senseless and cruel argument in court to destroy the ACA and every last one of its benefits and protections is unconscionable, particularly in the middle of a pandemic.”
Trump’s declaration caps months of debate within his administration about the best course of action, in which the stakes have only become greater now that the nation’s health-care system is struggling to deal with the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 80,000 Americans.
On Monday, Barr attended a meeting of senior officials in which he argued the administration should temper its opposition to Obamacare, leaving some parts of the law intact, according to people familiar with the discussion, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversation was private.
The case before the court was brought by a group of Republican states, and as part of that case, the Trump administration is seeking to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act, which passed in 2010 and became one of President Barack Obama’s most significant legislative victories.
Barr and others in the administration have argued that killing Obamacare completely could be politically damaging to Republicans in an election year, particularly when there is a national health crisis. In two previous case, the Supreme Court upheld the law, but if the high court were to strike it down, millions of people could find themselves without affordable health care.
The high court plans to hear arguments in the case later this year, and a decision may not come until 2021, well after the November election.
The latest ACA suit was organized by Republican attorneys general in Texas and other states. When the Trump administration declined to defend the law, a coalition of Democratic-led states entered.
The case began after the Republican-led Congress in 2017, unable to secure the votes to abolish the law, reduced to zero the penalty for a person not buying health insurance. Lawyers for the state of Texas argued that in doing so, Congress had removed the essential tax element that the Supreme Court had previously ruled made the program constitutional.
A district judge in Texas agreed and said the entire law must fall. Eventually the Trump administration agreed with that assessment.

Newswire : Kamala Harris: Will McConnell let the Senate hold a fair impeachment trial?

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By Kamala D. Harris, U.S. Senator (D-CA)

December 18 — Today the House of Representatives will vote on whether to impeach President Trump. If it votes yes, sometime early in the new year I will take an oath on the Senate floor to uphold the Constitution, review evidence and follow the facts wherever they lead, regardless of party or ideology. Every one of my colleagues will be required to do the same.
As a former prosecutor, I understand the importance of holding powerful people accountable. I know that every trial requires fairness and truth. Having worked my whole life serving the people, I know that any trial that abandons the pursuit of truth cannot be considered fair or just.
But the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, appears more interested in covering up the president’s misconduct than in pursuing truth and fairness. He is already trying to limit the impeachment trial by preventing witnesses from testifying, and he has all but announced a verdict. In doing so, he showed the American people that he has no intention of honoring his oath.
Let’s be clear: Mr. McConnell doesn’t want a Senate trial. He wants a Senate cover-up.
Fortunately, Mr. McConnell does not have the power to unilaterally undermine this trial. Every single senator will be empowered with an equal vote on how the trial will proceed. Though in just the past year, Mr. McConnell has used his position to unilaterally block legislation to restore the Voting Rights Act, lower the prices of prescription drugs and address the gun violence epidemic, he cannot wield the same authority in a Senate impeachment trial.
In this trial, senators will be far more than jurors. Every one of us will vote to determine the rules for the trial, decide which witnesses testify and ultimately serve as both court and jury. Each of us will be called on to uphold our oath with every decision we make. We will all be held accountable by the American people if we refuse to discover the facts relevant to the articles of impeachment.
The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, has made a reasonable request to hear from four additional witnesses with firsthand knowledge of the president’s misconduct and to review documents that shed light on why the administration initially decided to cut off military aid to Ukraine.
We need to hear from Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, who admitted to Mr. Trump’s bribery scheme on live television, and from the former national security adviser, John Bolton, who has been shopping stories about Mr. Trump to book publishers instead of speaking with Congress. Every senator should want to hear from anyone who can speak directly to the president’s misconduct related to the articles of impeachment.
Even Richard Nixon allowed the key figures behind the Watergate scandal to speak to Congress, and he eventually turned over incriminating portions of his Oval Office recordings to investigators. But Mr. Trump has stonewalled Congress and inhibited our ability to seek justice by demanding that those closest to the center of the Ukraine scandal stay silent.
Senators must be allowed to subpoena relevant witnesses and submit questions to them directly. The Senate should not vote on any article of impeachment or consider a motion to dismiss the trial until we have reviewed the additional testimony and evidence that Mr. Schumer has requested.
I have never been in a courtroom where the accused can unilaterally block witnesses from testifying or prohibit prosecutors from asking witnesses questions. No court would allow a trial to proceed this way, and neither should any member of the Senate.
Ensuring the integrity of this trial is a solemn responsibility for every senator, with consequences that extend far beyond any one presidency. My colleagues and I have a duty to use our voice and our vote to insist on a fair trial, rooted in the pursuit of truth. We must demonstrate to the American people that in our system of justice all are equal under law, and that there are not two sets of rules, one for Donald Trump and another for everybody else. We must conduct the Senate impeachment trial in a way that is fair and that reflects impartial justice.
History will judge the actions taken by the United States Senate at a time when our Constitution and the rule of law were at stake. I’ll be fighting for justice and accountability, and my colleagues should too.
Kamala D. Harris is a Democratic senator from California. The above article was originally published as a letter to the editor by The New York Times. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. The article is reproduced here by request.

Newswire : 85 percent of Blacks want Trump Impeached

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57 Percent of Latinos Agree in Poll, Only 41 Percent of Whites
By Richard Prince

U. S. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was the first member of Congress
to publically state on May 17,2017 that President Trump should be impeached.


Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Journal-isms
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Eighty-five percent of African-Americans say President Trump should be impeached, the highest of any ethnic group, according to the latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll.
Fifty-seven percent of Hispanics feel the same way, the poll shows.
However, only 41 percent of Whites do, according to the survey, meaning that the common conclusion that the country is evenly divided on the impeachment issue is possible only because of the intense anti-Trump feeling among people of color.
“A year out from the 2020 election, we don’t have 2020 vision, but the general dynamics of the race are coming into focus: a sitting president below 50 percent, who receives credit on the economy,
speaks his mind for better or worse, but who most Americans do not trust and who is facing an impeachment inquiry that a majority of Americans support,” a summary of the poll said. “Taken together, these suggest a tough road ahead for Donald Trump. . . .”
Jeff Horwitt, a senior vice president at Hart Research and Associates, which conducted the survey for the two news organizations, told Journal-isms that the sample sizes for Asian Americans and Native Americans were too small to be valid.
He gave the racial breakdown as follows: Impeach/Not impeach
• White – 41 percent/54 percent
• African-American – 85 percent/9 percent
• Hispanic – 57 percent/40 percent
•
“The raw number of interviews among all adults are 117 African Americans and 99 Hispanics,” Horwitt messaged.
The poll was conducted from Oct. 27 to 30, among 900 adults of all races, with additional interviews to get to 414 interviews among Democratic primary voters, the survey takers said.
The results for Blacks and Latinos clearly contradict Trump’s frequent boasts that people of color support him.
Trump made a typical claim in July when he insulted the majority-Black city of Baltimore. “What I’ve done for African Americans, no president, I would say, has done. Now, I’ll say this: they are so happy, because I get the calls,” he told reporters as he left for a speech in Virginia that was boycotted by Black state lawmakers, as Daniel Dale reported July 30 for CNN. “They are so happy at what I’ve been able to do in Baltimore and other Democratic-run, corrupt
cities.”
Trump continued later: “The African-American people have been calling the White House. They have never been so happy [at] what a president has done. Not only the lowest unemployment in history for African-Americans, not only opportunity zones for, really, the biggest beneficiary the inner city, and not only criminal justice reform. But they’re so happy that I pointed out the corrupt politics of Baltimore. It’s filthy dirty. It’s so horrible. And they are happy as hell.”
At a rally in New Mexico in September, Trump claimed, “We are working night and day to deliver a future of limitless opportunities for our nation’s Hispanic-American citizens. . . . Nobody loves the Hispanics more. We love our Hispanics, get out and vote,” Bess Levin reported Sept. 17 for Vanity Fair.
Trump also said, “At the center of America’s drug crisis, this is where the Hispanics know it better than anybody. People said, ‘Oh, the Hispanics won’t like a wall.’ I said, ‘I think they are going to love it.’ You know why? Because you understand it better than other people, but at the whole center of this crisis is the drugs that are pouring in, and you understand that when other people don’t understand it.’ . . . .”

Newswire : Obama calls for gun control: ‘We are not helpless’ to stop attacks

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CASEY DARNELL, Yahoo News

Former President Barack Obama

Former President Barack Obama called for stricter gun control laws in a Monday statement after two mass shootings over the weekend left more than 30 people dead in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
“We are not helpless here,” Obama said in a statement posted on Twitter. “And until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening.”
Obama said the El Paso shooting followed a “dangerous trend” of violence motivated by racist ideologies. He compared white supremacist websites to terrorist groups like ISIS and called on law enforcement and internet platforms to reduce the influence of hate groups.
The El Paso shooting is being investigated as a possible hate crime after an anti-immigrant “manifesto” posted online was connected to the alleged gunman. Posts on 8chan, an online messaging board used by right-wing extremists, have also been connected to the alleged gunman. Law enforcement officials said on Saturday that the suspect told them he wanted to shoot as many Mexicans as possible.
Obama also called on Americans to “soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments.” He didn’t specify which leaders he was talking about. President Trump is known for anti-immigrant rhetoric, repeatedly referring to a migrant caravan at the U.S.-Mexico border as an “invasion.”
Obama noted that hateful rhetoric and language that demonizes others isn’t new but has been at the “root of most human tragedy.”
“It has no place in our politics and our public life,” he wrote. “And it’s time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much — clearly and unequivocally.”
Obama also called on Americans to “soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments.” He didn’t specify which leaders he was talking about. President Trump is known for anti-immigrant rhetoric, repeatedly referring to a migrant caravan at the U.S.-Mexico border as an “invasion.”
Obama noted that hateful rhetoric and language that demonizes others isn’t new but has been at the “root of most human tragedy.”
“It has no place in our politics and our public life,” he wrote. “And it’s time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much — clearly and unequivocally.”
Trump delivered remarks at the White House on Monday morning, condemning the attacks as “evil” and “wicked.” While he cited “racist hate” in the manifesto, he blamed the shootings on mental illness, violent video games and the internet.
“We must recognize that the internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds and perform demented acts,“ Trump said. “We must shine light on the dark recesses of the internet and stop mass murders before they start.”

Newswire : CBC Chair Karen Bass responds to Trump’s new offer to reopen the government

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Rep. Karen Bass
WASHINGTON – Sunday, the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), issued the following statement after President Trump announced a new offer in exchange for $5.7 billion for a border wall.
“The President’s proposal is yet another example of his willingness to use the well-being of Black and brown communities as a political pawn. DACA recipients deserve a permanent solution and Black Americans, who are disproportionately impacted by this shutdown, need to have the government immediately reopened.
“There are federal workers without paychecks, businesses unable to provide services for the government, and millions of families that depend on food stamps that don’t know when they’ll be able to afford their next grocery trip. That’s the crisis this shutdown has caused. The President could end it if he wanted to but unfortunately, today, he made it clear that he doesn’t.”

Newswire:  U.S. Senate’s only Black Republican blocks Tom Farr from becoming a Federal judge

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 By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Senator Tim Scott

On November 29, the U.S. Senate’s only African American Republican Senator, Tim Scott, announced he would oppose the nomination of Thomas Farr to a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. Scott’s blockbuster decision ended the chance of Farr’s nomination being confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Scott cited, “lingering concerns” on “issues that could affect [Farr’s] decision-making process as a federal judge.” “This week, a Department of Justice memo written under President George H.W. Bush was released that shed new light on Mr. Farr’s activities. This, in turn, created more concerns. Weighing these important factors, this afternoon I concluded that I could not support Mr. Farr’s nomination,” said Scott. The decision marked the second time Scott has blocked a Trump nominee to the federal bench. “Thomas Farr was the most polarizing, dangerous and biased nominee that we have seen put forth by President Trump. We applaud Senator Tim Scott for exercising independence in the examination of Farr’s disturbing record; a record influenced by the modern white supremacist machine that former North Carolina senator Jesse Helms pioneered, and one that demonstrated bias and a commitment to defending voter suppression efforts at every turn,” stated Kristen Clarke, President of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Farr was the primary coordinator of the 1984 ‘ballot security’ program conducted by the 1984 Helms for Senate Committee. He coordinated several ‘ballot security’ activities in 1984, including a postcard mailing to voters in predominantly black precincts which was designed to serve as a basis to challenge voters on election day. Footnote 7, DOJ Memo, June 19, 1991. This revelation is singularly disqualifying,” wrote NAACP President Derrick Johnson. Sen. Scott’s decision was a dramatic one. A day before on November 28, he was nowhere to be found shortly before a vote to continue debate on the Farr nomination. Other Senators, as well as reporters, searched for Scott near the Senate floor before that procedural vote. Many assumed his support of moving the debate to a final vote meant he would support Farr’s nomination. That assumption was incorrect. Sen. Scott was joined by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in wondering out loud about whether Farr should be on the federal bench. But Sen. Scott was the only one to announce he would vote against Farr on the floor.

Newswire : Mauritania ordered to end forced labor or lose trade benefits

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Anti-slavery activists in Maritania

Nov. 5, 2018 (GIN) – Forced labor tolerated by the Mauritanian government was called a decisive factor in the U.S. decision this week to end favored nation trade status for the country as of January 1. “Forced or compulsory labor practices like hereditary slavery have no place in the 21st century,” said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative C.J. Mahoney. “This action underscores this Administration’s commitment to ending modern slavery and enforcing labor provisions in our trade laws and trade agreements. “We hope Mauritania will work with us to eradicate forced labor and hereditary slavery so that its eligibility in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) may be restored in the future.” President Donald Trump, according to a press release from the executive office, had determined that Mauritania was not making sufficient progress toward establishing the protection of internationally recognized worker rights. It went without saying that such criticisms from United States were least expected from a nation built on slavery, challenged over voting rights and currently dismantling the rights of workers to unionize, to safe working conditions, to freedom from discrimination, among others. At a public hearing last August, a representative of the AFL-CIO federation of unions in the U.S. affirmed that Mauritania was in violation of established worker rights to association and to bargain collectively. A ruling by the African Union earlier this year found that anti-slavery laws were not enforced and slave owners received lenient sentences for violating human rights. Mauritanian government spokesman Mohamed Ould Maham called the decision by President Trump “a betrayal of the friendly relations between our countries and a denial of our efforts” to roll back slavery practices. The West African nation insists the country is no longer home to slavery, but to “the vestiges of slavery”, including poverty, social and economic exclusion and unequal access to education for members of the country’s former slave class, known as Haratin. An estimated 90,000 people in the country of about 4.3 million still live in modern slavery conditions. Haratins are the largest minority group in Mauritania and among the most economically and politically marginalized, according to UNPO – the Underrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization. Public comments and hearing testimony related to the eligibility review are available online at http://www.regulations.govunder docket number USTR-2018-022.

Newswire : Civil Rights leaders address week of hate while also focusing on Nov. 6

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 By Hazel Trice Edney

 

Maurice Stallard (69) and Vickie Jones (67) murdered at Kentucky Krogers .

(TriceEdneyWire) – As civil rights leaders and voting advocates around the nation prepared for the Nov. 6 mid-term elections last week, they suddenly found themselves embroiled with a string of hate incidents, culminating in arguably the most politically, racially, and ethnically violent week in recent American history. It started Monday, Oct. 22, when a string of public figures who have been verbally attacked by President Donald Trump – including five Black leaders – were discovered to be targets of pipe bombs, mostly addressed to them through the mail. By Oct. 29, as many as 15 bomb contraptions had been discovered. None reached their apparent targets. The addressees on the packages included former President Barack Obama, U. S. Rep. Maxine Waters, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, and former Attorney General Eric Holder – all critical of Trump. Others were sent to former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Joseph Biden, former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton, billionaires Robert De Niro and George Soros; former CIA Director John Brennan, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, and Democratic donor Tom Steyer. Though none of the bombs exploded, the motive of terror – and possible death – were clear. Cesar Sayoc, 56, was arrested by the FBI in South Florida on Friday, Oct. 26. The Washington Post described Sayoc as a “former pizza deliveryman, strip-club worker and virulently partisan supporter” of President Trump. He was charged with a string of crimes connected with the bombs. Then, on Wednesday, Oct. 24, a White man was charged with shooting and killing two Black senior citizens at a Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, Kentucky after he tried, but failed to enter a Black church. The two victims, Maurice Stallard, 69, and Vickie Jones, 67, were shot in the grocery store and the parking lot, respectively. The suspect, Gregory A. Bush, 51, was arrested shortly after the shooting. Amidst Bush’s rampage, a White witness said he pointed a gun at Bush and Bush looked at him and said, ‘Whites don’t shoot Whites.’ The FBI is now investigating the killings of Stallard and Jones and hate crimes. Ultimately, on Saturday morning, Oct. 27, the nation was devastated when hearing that 11 people had been massacred inside the Tree of Life Jewish Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The suspect, Robert D. Bowers, 46, was charged with 29 criminal counts; including using a firearm to commit murder, 11 counts of criminal homicide, six counts of aggravated assault and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation. He is also charged with a hate crime, the obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs. Bowers was reportedly armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and three handguns. Witnesses said he shouted anti-Semitic slurs as he opened fire inside the house of worship. Six other people were wounded, including four police officers. Bowers, himself, was also injured by gunfire, and remains hospitalized this week. It is unclear whether he was shot by authorities or whether his injury was self-inflicted. Civil rights organizations, dealing with get out to vote and voter protection campaigns, quickly refocused to address the injustices and the threats. “The NAACP condemns the hate-inspired killings at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Our condolences go out to those who have suffered losses and injuries during this horrific event. Anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, and hatred represent horrible stains on our democracy. When these stains are embraced by elected officials and demagogues who prey on the fears and lowest common denominators within our nation, we all suffer,” said a statement. “We must say no to hate, fear-mongering and the demonization of differences.” The NAACP continued, “It’s unfortunate that this tragedy follows the terroristic behavior of those who feel justified in sending bombs to those who differ politically. Our nation at its best represents inclusion and opportunity. This is one side of America, yet on the other side of America exists, the often embraced idea of using violence toward those with different political views. It’s a side our community knows all too well and continues to experience. We empathize with members of the Jewish Community attending a baby naming service at a synagogue, children at a school or being separated from parents at our borders or simple church-goers seeking to worship in peace– all of it is wrong and disheartening.” The Congressional Black Caucus issued a statement on the Kroger Grocery Store and the synagogue shootings simultaneously. “It brings me great sorrow to have to recurrently address the public and console our loved ones due to acts of grotesque, racially charged hate and pure evil,” said Rep. Cedric Richmond, CBC chairman. “This is not the United States of America that we should know, love, or grow accustomed to.” Richmond continued, “We cannot sit back and watch as bigots and racists take the lives of innocent Americans, and we must not stay silent while white nationalists continue to feel emboldened and empowered by the tacit approval of our highest form of leadership. At a time like this, it is clear that we must perform an audit of our core values, evaluate what we really stand for, and then take the necessary corrective steps to ending anti-Semitic and other racially charged acts of violence from becoming a common occurrence.” Despite the havoc of the week of hate, the terror was nothing new to Black people, Richmond noted. He wrote, “African Americans know well the deeply rooted pain also experienced by those in the Jewish community on the account of the flagrant racists and bigots that poison our country. Events ranging from the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama to the Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, to the Freedom Summer murders in Mississippi, both African Americans and the Jewish community know what it is like to be targeted and routinely persecuted all in the name of fear and hate.” Painful reflections on the hate incidents played out through heartfelt posts on social media. Theodore Shaw, distinguished professor of law and director of University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights, who is also former director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, posted an extensive reflection on Facebook. “Yesterday, with all of the focus on the mail bombs sent to liberal/Democratic leadership, almost lost in the news was the Kentucky shootings of two African Americans by a white man who almost went into a black church to kill and maim African American worshipers. Today, in Pittsburgh, a hate-driven anti-Semite entered a synagogue and killed eleven people,” Shaw wrote “Jews, African Americans, Muslims, Mexicans, Central and South Americans, migrants, LGBTQ people, women, and others are objects of hatred and violence simply because of who and what they are. My heart aches for our country and what it is these days.” Shaw concluded with a skillful refocus on the upcoming election: “We cannot shoot our way out of this problem. Nor can we look to the individual who occupies the White House. He is part of the problem, not part of the solution. We have to express solidarity with one another and condemn hatred on all grounds. It is up to all people of good will to reject this madness, and to stand with any community targeted because of who and what they are. And to vote for those who share the values of inclusion, diversity, and, dare I say, the beloved community. And vote to turn out of office or stop the election of haters.”