The Calls for Violence Must Be Denounced
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Of all the voices being raised against the specter of mob rule in this country, few carry more weight than that of Steve Scalise.
That’s because Scalise, a Republican congressman from Louisiana, knows first-hand what happens when violent words turn into violent action.
In June 2017, he was shot and seriously wounded by a man named James Hodgkinson, who turned up at a practice session for a charity baseball game in Washington, D.C.—and started shooting as players practiced in Alexandria, Virginia. Scalise wound up in intensive care, underwent multiple surgeries, and even had to relearn how to walk.
And all because Hodgkinson, a Bernie Sanders supporter described by his own lawyer as “a very irascible, angry little man,” was so furious over the election of President Donald Trump that he moved to the D.C. area to protest.
Well, I think we can all agree that there’s a huge gap between the all-American tradition of protesting and the criminal activity of trying to maim or murder those you disagree with.
At least I hope we can agree on that. After all, when you have Eric Holder, President Barack Obama’s attorney general, caught on tape telling his political teammates, “When they go low, we kick them,” you have to wonder.
Especially when Holder’s advice follows viral videos of Brett Kavanaugh protesters ambushing lawmakers in hallways and elevators and being verbally abusive, not to mention accosting others in restaurants and even at their homes.
You’d think that the Scalise shooting would have made everyone wary of ratcheting up the rhetoric too much. And sure, some did speak up against it—at least a little bit. Sanders said he was “sickened by this despicable act,” and Michelle Obama has famously said, “When they go low, we go high.”
Even Holder felt pressured to walk back his advice as something not meant to be taken literally.
But these calls for civility have been far too few in number. And as the fight over Kavanaugh proved, they obviously haven’t made much of an impression.
Indeed, many on the left have made a point in recent weeks of denouncing calls for civility. In angry posts on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere, they insist that this is nothing more than an attempt to muzzle them.
Faced with a president who is alleged to be a monster, they claim they have no choice—that they must resort to profane rhetoric and physical confrontation. That those who support the president will have “no peace.”
As Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, put it: “If you see anybody from [the Trump administration] in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd! Tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!”
Well, there’s another name for angry crowds: Mobs.
The left doesn’t like the “m word,” but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s accurate. And when you keep demonizing your opponents, no matter how justified you may think it is, don’t be surprised when—having let the genie out of the bottle—things get ugly.
Just ask Scalise. “I’m concerned that you are seeing an increase of this,” he said recently. “I’d like to see the mainstream media asking both Republican and Democratic leaders to stand up against this kind of rhetoric, this kind of violence.”
That, he adds, is why “we’ve got to keep shining a light on this, to make it clear that this isn’t what politics is about in America. It’s not what the founding of our country was about. It was about freedom of speech, freedom of expression. Not violence against anybody.”
Contrast that with Hillary Clinton, who recently said, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.” And what would she suggest instead? Oh, “civility can start again,” she says—once her party is back in power.
Such threats are unconscionable. Those who support such a belligerent agenda don’t deserve the reins of power. It’s un-American. And it’s wrong.
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“Faced with a president who is alleged to be a monster, they claim they have no choice—that they must resort to profane rhetoric and physical confrontation. That those who support the president will have “no peace.”
As Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, put it: “If you see anybody from [the Trump administration] in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd! Tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!”
Well, there’s another name for angry crowds: Mobs.
The left doesn’t like the “m word,” but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s accurate. And when you keep demonizing your opponents, no matter how justified you may think it is, don’t be surprised when—having let the genie out of the bottle—things get ugly.
Just ask Scalise. “I’m concerned that you are seeing an increase of this,” he said recently. “I’d like to see the mainstream media asking both Republican and Democratic leaders to stand up against this kind of rhetoric, this kind of violence.”
That, he adds, is why “we’ve got to keep shining a light on this, to make it clear that this isn’t what politics is about in America. It’s not what the founding of our country was about. It was about freedom of speech, freedom of expression. Not violence against anybody.”
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You might want to clue Trump in.
You beat me to it. GMTA.
Maybe next week the KKK and the Neo-Nazis will whine about the lack of tolerance in 21st century America.
There already is no tolerance in America for the democrat started KKK or the national socialist neo nazis. They have no place in the GOP.
When was the last time that the Klan was part of the DNC? The Klan are only Democrats because Lincoln was a republican when he defeated the CSA. When was the last time that a Nazi was a democratic candidate?
Both groups are currently part of the GOP and are running under Republican banner.
As Trump (and John James in Michigan) has proven, anyone can run under the Republican banner. Neither are conservatives, much the less Republicans.
Of course no one one the left has ever answered this question. Name one Republican, much the less one conservative, that would ever support the economic platform of the American Nazi Party,
Sounds damn leftist to me.
"very fine people" - Donald Trump
66% of the country supports leaving Confederate statues alone- NPR
Very good stat. So about two thirds want them left alone while others want they removed. Can we assume there are good people on either side?
I certainly do think there are.
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your projector is broken. history books clearly show the opposite to be true.
kkk, jim crow, and even most opposition to women voting = democrats.
the only thing that has evolved with the democrats?
they moved from physical slavery to mental slavery.
but... they still hide their faces.
Because it is.
He’s the one who is calling out the mobs that are the secular progressive wing of the democrat party for their leaders calls to incivility and violence and the followers who engage in it. Save the what aboutism for someone who cares, so stay on the seed topic which is Hillary’s call for incivility until her side takes political power back. Our country was spared much misery when that witch lost in 16 unexpectedly and we got to watch her followers cry in NY City.
My irony meter just exploded.
And now they want revenge for that upset loss by engaging in violence against supporters of who they lost to and the elected leaders themselves as well.
When you are in a hole, the first step to getting out is to stop digging deeper.
You should tell thait to your party’s dear leaders who push for violence while digging their holes ever larger and deeper
So the left is no better than Trump (and seems to be proud of it), who I can't stand. Thank you for making it so easy for me to ignore the Democrats this election cycle. Trump is bad enough without the entire left egging things on.
Seems hypocrisy knows no party lines.
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The voters will decide in a couple of weeks which they want more- idiotic mobs blocking traffic, harassing people in restaurants and cursing widows who lost loved ones on 9/11 or a good economy with plentiful jobs and a country not afraid to stand up for itself for good trade deals and a secure border. It's a pretty clear choice between anarchists and law and order.
That IS the decision legitimate voters will have to make. Who is old enough to remember the last time the American people had to make that decision? I remember the late 60's and in an eerie way we are back in the same moment.
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Donald Trump Cheers Body-Slamming Of Reporter
May want to talk to the Idiot in Charge regarding your concerns. Fish rots from the head down.
Exactly. Until the rightwing can reel in the violent rhetoric voiced regularly by their moronic commander in chief, they're welcome to go fuck themselves. Too bad that thumper Scalise, a sponsor of the religious freedom bill, can't connect the dots between that and his deity letting him get shot in center field. About as plausible as blaming hurricanes and tornadoes on gay marriage for the mentally challenged.
I will gladly wait for the left to reel in their own violent hate based inciting rhetoric first. Oh, I'm sorry, the left just does not do that. It is always the right causing it isn't it? As far as I'm concerned, it is the hard core progressive liberals who have the monopoly on hypocrisy in this country!
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Yep, Ok,
Who has been attacked by Bernie supporters at his rallies? How many people have been targeted for assault by Bernie or Liz Warren?
I'm sure the lunatics from Antifa agree with you.
Tell orange conman traitor in chief and his "very fine people" to knock the shit off
spanking children is part of the job.
when the lunatic left stops acting like spoiled rotten kids they will be treated as adults again.
meanwhile all they do is ensure their defeat in the midterms and beyond.
That will never happen. The mob is expecting to be rewarded for its behavior by the puppeteers Waters, Holder and Hillary.
I'd rather tell the left to quit repeating the "very fine people" lie.
It's his own words, show me where it's a lie.
Context is everything. Trump was referring to the nation wide monument debate, not just in Charlottesville.
The last two above 5.3.2 and 5.3.3 are exactly right. Well said.
What a surprise, you got no answer. Her silence is deafening!
I am constantly amazed at the length trumpers will go to to : acquit, blink at, clear, exculpate, excuse, exempt exonerate, forgive, go easy on, launder, pardon, vindicate whitewash, and wink at the appalling behavior of this pos !
They may be Americans but they sure aren’t patriots. This pos potus encourages physical violence and then says the Left are a mob. Can you say “gas-lighting” ?
I agree, It seems many people have not yet grasped the fact that our president will say about anything he believes will further His agendas. Also, I dont look for many of them to change their stance until and if they themselves or their loved ones are personally harmed or threatened by the president his words, actions or policies.
I have no fear of being harmed by our President or his present policies. I do fear for my safety when ever I leave home for the Bay Area.
I doubt many who support him do.
He’s having a rally Monday in Texas where over 100,000 people are expected to show up. Just saw that headline this evening on another site and seeded the good news.
And yet this seed is about his supporters and GOP candidates for other offices being physically assaulted and verbally harassed in public and even at their homes by democrat mobs. Our campaign motto now is “Jobs not mobs”.
Which of course will instantly be spun by the opposing side to be "Slobs not mops" or "Mobs not slobs".
Xx.. I dont know what to do, all I know is as I sit and watch americans just further divide and play this as, I see it, destructive immature tug of war between the two ideologies about which side controls the whole country it saddens me the core. I do not believe this is what the founding fathers had in mind. At All.
IMO: "United we stand, devided we fall" and divide and conquer have meaning.
I really do wish America good luck, but each day I see less of a united states of America.
It’s no longer possible. We have almost no shared values. We are really two countries living as farcically as if we were one
I'm fairly sure wringing your hands and wishing everyone luck helps a lot...
We've already seen examples where the religious conservatives win out and gain absolute power, we can see how well that works in Iran. The secularists, those who want to make laws based on facts and science instead of faith and unproven religious beliefs, exist in Iran but are the minority and are harassed, arrested and abused by the religious conservatives. Hopefully our great nation will never fall under the complete control of our religious conservatives or we'll have the same thing, good people fearing for their safety and freedom if they speak out against the brand of religious ideology that supplants our government.
While some claim we have no shared values, I disagree. We all want a safe environment to raise our kids, we want a stable economy, we want the availability of good paying jobs, we want a quality education for our children, we both want the freedom to have our own beliefs. We want a nation that is able to protect us from foreign threats whether they be military or cyber attacks on our country.
While we can fight over how to achieve those goals till we're blue in the face, if we refuse to even recognize the other side as being law abiding, tax paying American citizens with the exact same rights to our nations future as ourselves, then we'll never be able to work together to achieve those goals. What we see now is the demonization of those on the opposing side, and you have to ask who is most responsible for this divide, and I think that's fairly obvious. If I had to evacuate to a shelter and was in a confined space for a long time with a group of religious conservatives, I don't think I'd have any problem with them as long as they kept their faith to themselves most of the time and weren't actively trying to convert me. I would think the same should be true of some solo religious conservative having to shelter with a group of LGTBQ Americans. We should be able to work together for our mutual benefit without demanding everyone around us share our same morals, without claiming that those who don't aren't real Americans or don't deserve the same rights you enjoy.
I think the biggest roadblock to the two sides working together is that one side is fine with compromise as long as we don't take steps back to the prejudiced inequality of our past, while the other side thinks of compromise as a dirty word. One side sees compromise as a direct attack on their faith, that to "compromise" in any way would be abandoning their faith. No one of course is asking them to abandon their faith, all anyone is asking is that they treat other Americans with the same respect they expect, to treat every law abiding tax paying American citizen the same when they come in and order a cake from your public business. So until both sides are willing to make some compromises, we're stuck with immobile religious conservatives demanding their right to discriminate and minority groups like LGTBQ Americans asking to be treated the same as any other American with a right to work, file taxes, fall in love, get married, raise kids, retire and live in peace and security just like any other Americans wants to do. Only the right is refusing to accept that as a reality, and the left isn't going to "compromise" by returning LGTBQ Americans to 2nd class citizenship status with limited rights, bans on marriage and being denied jobs or being fired from your job because the employer found out.
So what's the real divide? One side believes we can all get along, those of every stripe regardless of race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith or lack thereof while the other side believes we must discriminate against Americans who don't follow a Christian moral code and they demand their right to discriminate against Muslims, LGTBQ Americans, atheists, Latinos, blacks and women. That's the real divide we have in America and the reason we seem to be stuck at an impasse.
LOL... I dont see where choosing to be part of the division helps unite the county.
When I see both some good and some bad in both ideologies. At least I can be true to myself. Especially when it seems so many from both parties can only see the good in their own ideology and party and the bad in the other ideology and party.
I'l still of the mind America is a better country ran with cooperation instead of confrontation.
"united we stand, devided we fall" verses "divide and conquer"
Yep, Good luck America
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all you or anyone can do is pick a side and vote.
early voting started today where I live and the turn out is the largest I have ever seen... rightwingers around the block and then down the streets. I was shocked in a good way.
it was like a block party... LOL
the red tsunami has begun
You certainly may be correct and if so that is sa damn sad. People choose whether to work together or not. I think the majority of us do have at least some shared values but they are easily overlooked by categorizing us all into two tiny little entities.
cons and libs
Sorry I can not and will not try to fit into that either one of those two small square holes.
Thankfully for myself as the people who do chose to devided this county at all costs I'm hoping that I'm old enough not to have to suffer too many consequences of it myself.
Two parties each desiring full control of one land. Great plan.
God Luck
Do you live in a major city especially anywhere along the coast ? I would not doubt if in most of those places you would see more of a mix or even more blue.
as long as the left is infested with liberal progressive anarchists who hate our flag, our anthem, and secure borders, there will be no unity.
IMO: As long as we have radicals especially radical groups Unity is and has been more difficult. Its still a choice for most of us who consider ourselves sane though.
not long ago we had a pretty bad problem with some of the right wing radicals as well .
Remember these:
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Its still a choice: "united we stand devided we fall"
On one side we have those who believe this land is and always has been a Christian nation that should be controlled by the white Christian elite who will keep America charging towards their imagined inevitable war with Islam and global evil called Armageddon where their God returns, murders all their enemies and people they think of as "icky", then whisks the faithful off to salvation.
On the other side we have a mixed bag of believers, atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, liberals, progressives, LGTBQ Americans, black, Latino, Asian, Americans of almost every stripe. They believe in an America that is a melting pot of cultures and ideas, peoples and faiths, where no one group is given any special pedestal and everyone is treated equaly and with respect, where everyone has the same rights as anyone else. They believe in America continuing to be a shining city on the hill, the envy of the world, that people from other countries dream of visiting or even someday moving and becoming an American citizen.
Notice in the second group there's still plenty of room for religious conservatives, they're welcome in the melting pot America, they just have to stop trying to blow out the stove out of fear they'll melt. They can have their faith, they can worship how they want, they can even believe in some inevitable Armageddon, they just can't be allowed to turn America into a Christian Mecca, just another discriminatory theocracy, the world already has too many.
I think you nailed your groups 2 and 3 pretty well but group one IMO: includes a few more categories like the folks who felt they were paying too much to help others, folks unhappy with the established government and including many more religious groups.
Personally I dont care. IMO: Take away the most radical of both sides and the majority of the rest could probably work out most of the rest for the best.
But as a good friend recently pointed out to me , the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
only until it becomes too big a pain in the ass...
then it gets removed, replaced and thrown away for scrap.
since our doj is no longer greasing the left wheel?
im fairly sure their bearings will burn up over time.
10yrs for federal riot charges = too much friction, and too much heat.
cheers
fire is hot and water is wet also... but we can not talk about that anymore.
the truth has become a "sweeping generalization."
im going to study up on my qualifiers.
and if the sun comes up again, I will go surfing tomorrow... LOL
yeah and doubtful when that burning starts it spreads to burning the country folks but the conservatives who do dwell or work in the cities may well get a little scorched themselves to the point hey aren't all too happy either.
10yrs for federal riot charges = too much friction, and too much heat.
While that may stop much of the public violence but it didn't seem to stop some of the radicals on the right or the left before.
Yes the conservatives can possibly force a one party power government on america if they try hard enough for a time. But if they do I dont look for a Great American outcome as they seem to predict.
Time will tell until then I want nothing to do with either side because neither side seems any compromising they just want it their own way. Waaa
One land two parties each want full power, good luck.
as an avid surfer I am allergic to anywhere but the coast
small price to pay - will gladly pay it.
you will find the line of volunteers to stand in the lefts way and get "scorched" as you put it, stretches to the horizon and beyond.
the anarchists on the left do not possess that kind of resolve. their actual power to force change thru violence has been greatly exaggerated.
we don't need luck. as long as we have the first and second amendments we will be just fine.
besides... like any family, we only fight among ourselves until another country attacks us then we are inseparable and a unified force to be reckoned with.
cheers
Yes, group one who pushes for a white Christian nation does include those who felt they were paying to much to help others, but they're almost all exclusively white Christians feeling angry about being guilt tripped into paying taxes that go to the poor and minorities, the very same thing KKK members and white supremacist extremists hate. It includes those who have a skewed view of what they call the "established government", but that just seems to be the modern day version of "Union Army", and most of those who are against the "establishment" consider themselves "rebels". But that's because those subgroups are still part of the white nationalist religious conservative movement which includes ideologically confederate "rebels", neo-Nazi's and the KKK, all of whom consider themselves "Christian conservatives". The only difference between the standard religious conservative and an extreme religious conservative is the extreme religious conservatives are actively trying to bring about what they consider is the inevitable war against non-believers while the standard religious conservatives are waiting on their God to come and start the war. If the extremists get their way and do start their hoped for war, the standard religious conservatives will line up with their extremist counterparts and you'll no longer be able to tell them apart.
Neither thing you state about religious conservatives
most of us hold tothe belief of the early church that NO earthly events are necessary for the end of the church age which is signified by the Rapture of the Church (being caught up to heaven) to be with Christ
a smaller segment does hold to the beliefs you site and I’ve been debating their false understanding of scripture for decades.
LOL I also loved being close to the ocean but I quickly learned if you want anything you own to last, ya dont live right next to an ocean !
I found most stuff doesn't hold up to that salt air very well, If at all. lol
When I move to Fl I started out beachside right on the ocean, it didn't take long before I realized if I wanted anything i brought with me left I better move a little more inland. So I did. Just enough to not have my stuff rot and fall apart though...lol That salt air is really caustic stuff !!
And I left the surfing to others. not my cup of tea. I prefer something with an engine !
Great IF its an outside force but all this fighting among ourselves if its an inside force it may not be recognised til it's to late. Take away the balance then the checks and balances that assure that balance and hello one party america.
Hey, If it happens soon enough we could just call the new governmental system trumperika, In honor of the founder of the movement to rebuild America. a MAGA salute as it were.
King trump and his loyal subjects, Nice ring to it eh ?
sad !
I've no doubt you have, but when push comes to shove, and they ignite a Christian civil war, which side of the line do you stand? With the secular "Union" that is standing up to protect minorities, Muslims, LGTBQ Americans, liberals and progressives under attack from these extremists or the "Rebels" who take up their bibles and guns and declare the holy war has come?
And while they are a "smaller group", they are by no means "small". There are thousands of them. I believe the numbers that are active members of these extremist groups represent just one hundredth of those who would come to their aid if retaliated against. Like the Cliven Bundy standoff, there were just a handful of Bundies and other actual ranchers trying to keep using federal land to feed their cattle, but we saw hundreds of wannabe heroes show up with their guns to stand off with federal authorities.
I will always stand against the immorality of Godless statist forced collectivism
the Bundys are heroes against the evil that is the State
Are taxes forced collectivism?
So this article calling for an end to violence only applies to "the left", because obviously you still want to be able to stand up with your guns and fight against the established government and the constitution. The Bundy's were criminals who continued to break the law long after they had been warned and then when someone tried to stop them from grazing their cattle on land they don't own they pointed guns at the government representatives. We all know how that would have ended had the Bundy's been black or Muslim, and it wouldn't have been the government just backing down giving everyone who pointed their guns at the police a pass.
talk is cheap, and the news is meant to exaggerate.
there is much less real violence under trumps DOJ.
your fear, or fantasy, whichever the case may be, of mass violence in the streets?
not going to happen under this administration.
the tide has turned and the paradigm has shifted...
expect more mayberry and less fallujah :)
Somehow I kinda doubt it, Mayberry was a fictitious community that cooperated with each other, sometimes to the point of ad nauseam.
At this time america is a far cry form anything close to that.
The Bundys are welfare queens because if they had to pay fair market value for that grazing land they would be broke, or maybe they thought that they wouldn't pay that landowner either. They want the taxpayer to subsidize their feed costs and then they turn atround and sell those steers for retail and claim to have earned that profit. If we didn't pay taxes they couldn't afford to be farmers.
it was much worse under obama.
without obama's admins / doj's support?
the anarchists have been neutered.
will they admit that? LOL, of course not.
will they threaten violence even though they can not back it up? of course...
we simply do not care what they say... LOL
there has been much less violence since the day trump was elected
that trend will continue
cheers
Time will tell, Good luck but remember he who laughs last laughs best. cheers !
The income tax is. Our founders correctly viewed taxing income as party of government tyranny
The government acts tyrannically as it seized much of the undeveloped land from the states and the people. We are rising up against this tyranny
"Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience." -- John Locke, 1690
“The State governments possess inherent advantages, which will ever give them an influence and ascendancy over the National Government, and will for ever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments. That their liberties, indeed, can be subverted by the federal head, is repugnant to every rule of political calculation.”
Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788
"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers." -- Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution
Our founding father also had about 5 million people to govern.
More people, more problems, more laws, more government, more cost
Want a smaller government have a smaller populus with fewer problems.
Now, 326 million of us and counting.
And more problems and more laws and guess what yep, more government and more cost.
That is absolute nonsense. The Constitution specifically gave Congress the power to levy taxes. Article 1 sections 8, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to levy tax. They knew that there had to be a pay for the government if you decided to create a government to oversee the country. The Founding Fathers didn't plan to fund the country via bake sales and donations.
And it is tyranny. The more progressive the more tyrannical.
How is the Constitution tyrannical?
Then why did we need to amend the constitution with the worst one ever, the 16th which allowed the income tax?
Ask and you shall receive.
Conservatives want to live in the 14th century of kings and Popes and we want to live in the progressive 21st with equal rights for all people regardless of race, creed, color, gender sex, or disability.
You want a world with political commissars, zampolit and thought police
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You're projecting your own thoughts on to me again because I oppose those ideas.
The 16th and 17th amendments were the worst things that ever happened to our constitution post ratification
Why do you oppose the people electing our Senators?
Because the senate was more responsive to the states the way the constitution originally was set up. now they all put their national party above the interests of their state.
Did you ever consider that if the state legislatures were controlled by one party how that would effect who they made the state's Senators? Don't you think that it is better that we the people elect our Senators?
Good news:
3 more Proud Boys members arrested for violent NYC brawl
Yep, I still agree, rhetoric that promotes violence should be stopped,
So, when are ya'all going to tell Trump to stop using it?
U.S. white nationalist leader, three others charged with conspiracy
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The leader of a California-based white nationalist group and three others have been charged with conspiring to incite riots at political rallies, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday,
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Oh jesus christ, sreiously?