Blogger Who Revealed GOP Leader's KKK Ties Had Home Internet Lines Cut 420
blottsie writes Last month, Lamar White, Jr. set off a firestorm in Washington when a post on his personal blog revealed that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the third most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, was a featured speaker at a white nationalist conference put on by former Klu Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. Then someone climbed in his back yard and severed his Internet cables.
Censorship? (Score:5, Insightful)
"My rights are for me and me alone."
Re:Censorship? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this is more about intimidation than censorship.
By cutting his cable, they may be silencing him temporarily, but more importantly they are sending him a message. "We know where you live."
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Re:Censorship? (Score:4, Insightful)
I have found progressives more inclined to ask questions of their critics than conservatives
It has to do with mental makeup, that is to say progressives are a great deal more curious about the world around them, while conservatives already know how everything is and just want to shut up those who disagree with them
Re:Censorship? (Score:4, Insightful)
progressives are also much better at the avoidance of buying into stereotypes as well.
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Is there a +1 Meta moderation? Or should it be -1 Meta? I'm going to keep reading your post and gp post until my head explodes. Well played, sir.
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Re:Censorship? (Score:5, Insightful)
>> progressives are a great deal more curious about the world around them, while conservatives already know how everything
>
> I'm sure you'd like to believe this, but it isn't true. There are introspective people from all walks and everywhere on the spectrum,
What you wrote is true in the binary sense, but it does not address the numbers of such people. It is part of the definition of conservatism to be satisified with the status quo and conversely, progressivism has a central tenant that change is necessary. And while there are certainly conservatives who believe change is necessary, that very fact makes them less conservative than those who think progress is unnecessary.
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To themselves? Of course.
Corruption begets corruption, clearly.
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Sure, if you go back to the 40s and 50s, you will find that most of the south was Dems and there were even Dem Senators who had been Klan members
Then this little thing call the Civil Rights Movement came along. Some of the former Klansmen (Sen Byrd is a good example) turned their backs on their past and worked to convince people to no longer be associated with that group
By the 70s many people in the South were disillusioned with the Dem party because of the support of civil rights and they were attracted to
Re:Censorship? (Score:4, Informative)
Every time you trot out this known falsehood you sound like an idiot. They were political organizations that were required to do more work to prove that they were following the law and not taking advantage of hype in one area or another. The groups targeted were both left and right leaning groups and the leftists groups were the only ones denied anything. Stop lying or being misinformed. I'm so sick of people who can't see that they are being manipulated by political entities against their own self interest acting as the mouthpiece for their overlords. I'm not saying it's an issue that affects one political party more than another, but currently conservatives seem to be the ones more full of stupid. No one should be proud to be ignorant. We have enough real issues to deal with that this kind of childish distraction just gets in the way of getting things most Americans already agree on done.
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Every time you trot out this known falsehood you sound like an idiot. They were political organizations that were required to do more work to prove that they were following the law and not taking advantage of hype in one area or another. The groups targeted were both left and right leaning groups and the leftists groups were the only ones denied anything. Stop lying or being misinformed. I'm so sick of people who can't see that they are being manipulated by political entities against their own self interest acting as the mouthpiece for their overlords. I'm not saying it's an issue that affects one political party more than another, but currently conservatives seem to be the ones more full of stupid. No one should be proud to be ignorant. We have enough real issues to deal with that this kind of childish distraction just gets in the way of getting things most Americans already agree on done.
Small issue with your "known falsehood"... The IRS Inspector General reported that in fact, the IRS DID target conservative groups to a greater extent than non-conservative. This report is what started the whole noise machine in the first place.
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It's also hilariously ineffective in this day and age where wireless access does tend to exist.
If someone cuts the internet connection to my house I can just tether my phone to my router and continue uninterrupted. So as long as I have power, this doesn't mean shit. What's sad is that the moron trying to intimidate via cutting internet cables didn't get electrocuted in the process.
Standard cop tactic in the USA (Score:5, Interesting)
I am a witness in a court case against a local city cop who has been running an illegal dumping ring with the assistance of corrupt members of the state environmental protection agency and the county cops.
I got a 2am visit from the state cops and a county cop. They said that a neighbor had his car broken into and some of my mail (stolen from my mailbox) was found in the car. They accused me of getting drunk, breaking into the neighbor's car, and accidentally leaving my mail there. After harassing me and my neighbor (also a witness) for a couple of hours they left. At no point did my neighbor accuse me of breaking into his car and everybody present knew exactly what was going on - the cops were saying "all cops are brothers, and we will break the law to protect our brothers, and we know who you two guys are".
They were really hoping one of us would get noisy or do something aggressive so they could just shoot us, of course. Because every cop knows now that they can shoot an unarmed man on camera and get away with it. Cops are above the law, just like the ultra-rich are.
Pissed me right off, I can tell you. But I stayed calm and addressed them as "Sir" so I'm still alive to testify....
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Man, I wish you had filmed it. Right onto Youtube and viral on the Internet. That's the only thing that kind of cop is afraid of.
Re:Standard cop tactic in the USA (Score:4, Informative)
So, did you tell the prosecutor (or plaintiff)? Even in Philadelphia, witness intimidation can get you in trouble.
Re:Standard cop tactic in the USA (Score:5, Informative)
Did you report it to any of the following; local police board, state police board, prosecutor in the case? The prosecutor would be your best bet as they usually get pissed off when their witnesses are messed with. The prosecutor could charge the officers with witness tampering. Did you politely ask for the case number so you could refer to the incident later?
Re:Standard cop tactic in the USA (Score:4, Informative)
In Chicago, the internal affairs division of the police is staffed mostly by ex-cops. The prosecutor may be a better bet if they're not obviously trying to do a bad job to protect their brothers.
Re:Censorship? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would call it terrorism.
it's Jack Daniels, he did it (Score:3)
or Old Overshoe or homebrew or whatever... there is always a fringe group of wackos that self-appoint themselves as avengers, just as soon as they get a little numb and it's dark enough...
those guys will eventually spill the beans to a buddy over a cold one. cops might solve a quarter of their cases that way, working their way in to being that buddy.
dating back to the original assassins, who had to get hopped up on a little hash before doing their tasks.
Re:Censorship? (Score:5, Interesting)
I am not sure this is a sign of an attempt to silence this guy. A few years ago I had something very similar happen to me, and I am not a blogger with enemies. This was before we got cable Internet in my area. My employer had put a fractional T1 line in so that I could work from home when I was on call. Somebody came along cut the cable off the back of my house pulled the whole thing up all the way back to the box behind the row of houses and took it. They guy who came from the phone company was of the opinion they wanted the copper. From the way the guy talked it sounded like it was a fairly common occurrence. Copper prices are much higher now than they were back then. So it is entirely possible that somebody wanted the cable but it was just too hard for them to pull up. That fits the description of the damage in the article.
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They don't have to issue overt threats for this to be intimidation. It would be similar to them torching his car or leaving some other well-understood method of intimidation. Burning crosses come to mind.
In any case, whoever did this shown that they know where this person lives, and they're willing to break some laws / do property damage in order to silence him. By going after his "internet cable", they are clearly referencing his internet postings / blogging activity. Sure, this doe have the effect of
Re:Censorship? (Score:4, Insightful)
Well the person who you think is using "Right to Free Speech" to Vandalize someone's infrastructure that they too use to deploy free speech. So who is censoring who?
Free Speech doesn't mean every freaking action you do, because you want to send a message falls under free speech.
In that case those gangsters who shoot down those other gangsters to explain that this is their territory are in the right as well.
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Re:Censorship? (Score:5, Insightful)
"It might not be the Klan or the white nationalists, it could just be a random person who found my address and didn't like what I was posting," he said. "I understand my address is public record. If someone wants to find where you live, they can find where you live, no matter who you are. I'm really not intimidated by that."
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Re:Censorship? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Censorship? (Score:4, Funny)
...it could even have been the blogger, in a stunt to garner even more attention
It could have even been... (*messes up hair so it stands straight up*) ... ALIENS.
It could also have been your mom.
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The same people who claim to have nooses put on their door knobs, or had the N word written on their check, or etc. etc. only to find they did it themselves [fakehatecrimes.org], "to make a statement"
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Wrong "they", but you get the point.
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I think you might be overestimating the minimum intelligence of right wingers.
3. A right wing supporter of Scalise, who should (but still doesn't) know the result will be #1.
I think #1 and #3 are both pretty likely.
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I think you might be overestimating the minimum intelligence of right wingers.
3. A right wing supporter of Scalise, who should (but still doesn't) know the result will be #1.
I think #1 and #3 are both pretty likely.
You would. A lot of closed minded people view people with opposite viewpoints as less intelligent.
Re:Censorship? (Score:5, Insightful)
And you of course assume that if I suggest that the *minimum* intelligence of a right winger is low, it must mean I am a left winger and therefore think left wingers are smarter.
FYI I'm neither a left nor right winger. I am a free thinker and an independent voter. I have actually voted for twice as many republicans as democrats (2 republicans vs 1 democrat).
I'm not sure why the idea that the dumbest right winger would in fact be dumb is even controversial. The dumbest left winger is no doubt dumb as well, but I don't see why this even needs to be explicitly stated. It should be obvious.
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Yes yes yes but PARTY POLITICS! SOLIDARITY!
Seriously, people are *IDIOTS* when politics come out. One of the forums I hang out in refers to the phenomenon as "politics is the mind-killer". It turns normally rational people into raving lunatics at a sport competition, except with less cheering and (somehow) even more bullshit.
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I think you might be overestimating the minimum intelligence of right wingers.
Or the education of Left-wingers who don't know that the KKK has historically been closely tied to the Democrat party?
(Even just Wikipedia will tell you that much.)
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the KKK has historically been closely tied to the Democrat party?
It WAS tied to the Democrats. Even as early as 1948, the segregationists knew their welcome in the Democratic party was coming to an endl. the 1964 civil rights act and Nixon's Southern Strategy pretty much finished the job.
The KKK's been Republican aligned for years.
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Care to cite where the Bible tells people to only help the deserving poor?
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The same people who claim to have nooses put on their door knobs, or had the N word written on their check, or etc. etc. only to find they did it themselves [fakehatecrimes.org], "to make a statement"
Why do you equate gun-rights advocates with KKK members?
When your hash table only has two buckets... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do you equate gun-rights advocates with KKK members?
When your hash table only has two buckets, you either hash into bucket 'A' or you hash into bucket 'B'.
Re:Censorship? (Score:4, Funny)
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Telecom sabotage - what's the penalty? (Score:2)
What's the penalty for telecom sabotage in the US?
Re:Telecom sabotage - what's the penalty? (Score:5, Funny)
Given the state of net neutrality today, it seems to be a Senate seat.
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If we catch you we sue the shit out of you. In addition to that, I'm sure plenty of other vandalism type criminal charges also apply if it's intentional.
Internet cables? (Score:2)
Re:Internet cables? (Score:5, Funny)
They're actually tubes, not cables.
Re:Internet cables? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, and now the guy's back yard is full of cats.
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Who the hell writes this crap? Internet cables?
I assume this is in the US. Where the cables are in the air going from the house to the utility pole, just like in 3rd world countries. They probably cut the telephone cable as well if there was one, but who would notice that?
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Speak for yourself, all the cables around my house are underground.
Aerial vs Buried depends on region. In rural, it is often aerial, buried costs 10x and when you need to run it much further per person, it makes sense. It can also be aerial in cities due to the difficulty/cost of running underground cables where there is no exposed dirt. In suburban America, the cables are often buried.
Up north, there is more pressure for buried cables than in the south due to the winter time storms, and in coastal regio
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So what do you prefer to call the coax cable that carries the internet connection? "The network frobnication string"?
Re:Internet cables? (Score:5, Insightful)
So what do you prefer to call the coax cable that carries the internet connection? "The network frobnication string"?
The "coaxial cable", or the "cable television connection".
What's particularly stupid is the claim that it took a "power tool" to cut this line. Cutting standard 75 ohm cable TV cables takes all the power of ... a knife. At worst, a pair of dikes.
Now, maybe this guy was special and the cable company used hardline into his house, but even then a simple bolt cutter would make quick work of it.
Let's see if we can summarize this tempest over this awful event. A politician organized and led a chapter of the KKK. He sent a letter to senator saying:
He was interviewed in 2001 and said:
His bigotry extended to gay rights, where he:
This Scalise guy is clearly ... oh, wait. He didn't do any of that. That's all stuff that the highly respected Senator Robert Byrd [wikipedia.org] did.
So what did Scalise do that shows he has "KKK ties"? He was invited to and spoke at a conference that he didn't know was organized by someone involved with the KKK. He talked about economics. Afterwards, the KKK organizers blogged about all the useful information about slush funds he gave them, as if his intent was to teach the KKK about how to use slush funds for evil things.
Scalise no more has KKK ties than Barack Obama has KKK ties because Obama spoke at Byrd's funeral and said good things about him.
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A jacketed linear medium which carries data is called a "cable" whether it's RG-6 coax, Cat 1 UTP, or fiber. And if that cable carries Internet traffic, it's perfectly reasonable to call it an "Internet cable". The only problem I have with "cut the Internet cables" is the superfluous pluralization, which I suspect is the product of an analogy with "cut the telephone wires", which in contrast is technically accurate because a telephone cable carries a twisted pair of wires. But if people use "Internet cab
only one side of this story. (Score:2, Insightful)
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Let's all immeditately jump to conclusions then! (Score:2, Insightful)
Why wait for any more details? Clearly this is all the information we need.
Police State! (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, why is this even a story? Someone vandalized someone else's house because they didn't like something they wrote and published on the Internet?
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No wonder they can't build a replacement for the Space Shuttle -- they're apparently too busy skulking around in people's back yards!
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Clearly, this was done by the thugs at the NASA at the behest of the United State Government
Hey, at least the NASA thugs are intercepting ISIS's communications. Although I've never understood why they keep sending them supplies...
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It was probably the neighbor who got pissed at the guy's dog doing his dooty in the neighbors yard. It is entirely speculation as to why, but my theory is plausible...unless it was the IRS on another vendetta against those who hate the government yadda-yadda ding-dong....
His ties to the KKK? (Score:4, Informative)
That's stretching it a bit. While touring New Orleans to speak about his opposition the Stelly tax plan, he spoke once to a small EURO contingent, hours before the actual convention, not at the actual convention, one stop among many. Guilty by brief association?
http://www.snopes.com/politics... [snopes.com]
Re:His ties to the KKK? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:His ties to the KKK? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:His ties to the KKK? (Score:4, Interesting)
That's stretching it a bit. While touring New Orleans to speak about his opposition the Stelly tax plan, he spoke once to a small EURO contingent, hours before the actual convention, not at the actual convention, one stop among many. Guilty by brief association?
http://www.snopes.com/politics... [snopes.com]
The snopes article doesn't quite back you up. It's possible that he spoke to a related gathering a few hours before the convention, not knowing it was EURO related nor that there were a few white supremacists in attendance. But it's also possible that he did address the EURO convention with full knowledge of who they were, either because he wanted their support (or non-opposition) and/or he was sympathetic to their beliefs.
The truth is there's insufficient information to know what really happened.
Too bad the story didn't have a different ending (Score:2)
Someone climbed over the fence to cut his internet cables only to be gnawed on by the family's German Shepherd.
Is anyone surprised? (Score:3)
KKK, ISIS, AL QUEDA, LOL.... Different idiots with the same outlook on disagreement.
Why isn't the KKK a terrorist organization? (Score:4, Insightful)
They have lynched, raped, blown up churches, intimidated etc. Why are they not considered a terrorist organization?
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Re:Why isn't the KKK a terrorist organization? (Score:4, Informative)
I would say Dixiecrats, who have long since fled to the Republican Party. The TEA party are their intellectual heirs, IMO.
Re:This is Slashdot, not Politico (Score:4, Insightful)
Blogs are on the internet.
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Can we just stop w/ the political stories?
Political stories generate a lot of page hits. I doubt if they will stop.
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Face it, the losers who still haven't abandoned this insane, racist, far
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The problem falls the fact that someones internet connection was cut.
Back in the old days before the late 1990's when such technology such as Internet Access, Cell Phones, Using a Computer. Where domain of the geeks. Today everyone is using it, however a lot of the old school geeks didn't get the memo.
If back in school if I were to walk around with a PDA and/or a Cell phone, Laptop of a Pager. I would been labeled even more of an outcast. Today having such technology is trendy.
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Providing secular laws and education seems to be the key in blunting the effect of religious zealotry
We can easily identify those leaders who fight against secularism as the promoters of religious radicalism and refuse to vote for them
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Just like USSR, China and North Korea does, by jailing people for having a terrorist handbook called ... "the bible"
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I was more inclined to think Europe and Japan, but I suppose that having no argument leads you to just shout about them damn commies
That's ok, I guess it would suck to live with an out dated view of the world, particularly when you are trying real hard to ignore that which is plainly obvious
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People tend to realize that the supernatural is imaginary if we allow them a decent education. Unfortunately a huge regressive subculture wants us to remain ignorant and reactionary, so we make stupid comments like "Just like USSR, China and North Korea does, by jailing people for having a terrorist handbook called
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Perhaps, but the word "kleagle" sounds like some kind of anal wart.
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Well, they do play kinky dragon games (Find-the-Tail, etc.) The white smocks and headgear are a dead giveaway.
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Shhh! You're depriving all those people whose only card to play is calling someone a "raaaaaaaaaaacist".
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Re:Steve Scalise did NOT speak to KKK group (Score:5, Informative)
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white-supremacist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002 [washingtonpost.com]
So he confirmed he spoke to a group, but didn't know they were founded by Duke and didn't know they were racist. Where is the lie?
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He didn't remember the exact group he spoke to, so he said he was sorry if it was affiliated with the KKK... but it turned out it was not the same group at all.
If you'd only read the original link you responded to, you would know that also.
Re:Steve Scalise did NOT speak to KKK group (Score:5, Informative)
Nonsense. [cenlamar.com]. Even Scalise doesn't believe that.
Re:Steve Scalise did NOT speak to KKK group (Score:4, Informative)
For those with weak reading comprehension:
1. EURO organizes a conference.
2. Knight, acting for EURO, books a hotel's conference facilities.
3. The facilities include a hospitality room, generally like a lounge.
4. Knight uses the hospitality room for other purposes, before the EURO conference starts.
5. One of those other things is a meeting for a neighborhood association.
6. Scalise spoke at that meeting, in the hospitality room.
Now make sure your tinfoil hat is on good and tight because the next step is a doozy:
7. Lamar White, Jr. asks three or four people if they've ever heard of the association in question, and they haven't.
8. Lamar White, Jr. assumes that any time a group of 3 or more people gather they must obtain government permission and get recorded on the state registry of corporations and DBAs, so he queries that database and finds nothing.
9. Lamar White, Jr. thus concludes that the whole thing was made up to hide Scalise's involvement.
Note also that step 6 involves "speaking at an event HOSTED by", but not "speaking TO a conference of".
Re:Steve Scalise did NOT speak to KKK group (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Steve Scalise did NOT speak to KKK group (Score:5, Insightful)
The hypocrisy is thick alright.
About as thick as that pile of BS you just spouted.
The dude admitted he spoke to them.
That's your narrative.
Case closed.
As for Robert Byrd, he repeatedly said he quit and left, and repeatedly apologized for the year he was a member, and repeatedly spoke against discrimination and in favor or tolerance. Yes, you got him: he started a local chapter and though it was a good thing, for about a year. And then spent the rest of his life apologizing for and denouncing it.
But as you said, the narrative has been set, and the facts don't matter.
The only think you left out is that you were speaking about yourself.
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As for Robert Byrd, he repeatedly said he quit and left, and repeatedly apologized for the year he was a member, and repeatedly spoke against discrimination and in favor or tolerance.
Uh, yeah. If he had been a Republican I would still see some a picture of him with some awful sneer or whatever (captured from a video) along with a hateful caption every single day on my facebook wall. But he was a Democrat so it's all good.
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The dude admitted he spoke to them.
That's your narrative.
Case closed.
No, he didn't. The "dude" said he didn't know the group he spoke to was a supremacist group and apologized IF they were.
The reason he didn't know is because he didn't speak to the supremacist group. He spoke to a civics group. The only connection between the two groups was that the same man rented the same room for both groups. But the meetings were 2 1/2 hours apart.
I have no idea whether the man is a white supremacist or not. But I hope I'm not gullible enough to label him as such just because a bunc
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Slashdot is pretty derpy these days, but not Breitbart-derpy, s