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Its meant to choose the winner in just one of 435 congressional districts across the United States, but the outcome of an election today (June 20) in suburban Atlanta could put the brakes on the entire Republican legislative agenda promoted by US president Donald Trump.

The sixth district was until this year represented by Tom Price, a Republican lawmaker who was tapped by Trump to become as US secretary of Health and Human Services. The scramble to replace him has been entirely influenced by the unpopularity of the new presidentdespite the fact that Price has never collected less than 60% of the vote in 14 years of elections, the Democratic candidate has a chance to flip the district.

Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old former legislative staffer who was raised in a nearby Georgia community, is the Democratic standard-bearer. A novice campaigner, he has surged on the back of anti-Trump sentiment and attacks on the unpopular health care bill passed by House Republicans.

His opponent is Karen Handel, a former county official and Georgia secretary of state who has accepted Trumps backing and articulated a fairly typical God, gays, and guns campaignshe has made clear her opposition to same-sex adoption, while her allies have attempted to tie Ossoff to the shooting of several Republican lawmakers and aides last week in Washington.

Polls have a notoriously tough time with special elections and their unpredictable electorates, but they show the vote just about tied, with perhaps a slight edge for Ossoff. He won 48% of the vote in an open primary in April. That election set up todays run-off because no candidate cleared a true majority; Handel won 20% of the vote in a crowded Republican field.

Last fall, Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in the district by just one percentage point. For comparison, Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama there by 28 percentage points. Now, Democrats are asking if the deep recession in Trumps popularity since November will be felt here and by Handel, just enough to get their nominee over the line.

If Ossoff wins this conservative district, which was once represented by Newt Gingrich, the result will be far more than just one fewer vote for Republicans in the House. (Remember, the Republican health care bill passed the House by just one vote.) It will also be a signal to other lawmakers that Trump has indeed become electoral poison in the kind of affluent suburban districts where Democrats hope build an anti-Trump majority among white professionals inclined to back the GOP but turned off by Trumps vulgarity and incompetence.

Republican incumbents are sure to be less likely to go out on a limb to support their already-teetering legislative agenda if there is real evidence it will cost them their jobs. But if Ossoff loses, expect the liberal handwringing about the Democratic partys leadership to spread.

Ossoff hasnt followed the progressive playbook when it comes to political messaging, declining to embrace single-payer healthcare or to make inequality central to his message. If he fails, its likely that Bernie Sanders-backing Democrats will use the loss to promote the idea that the party still needs a major revamp of its rhetoric.

A failure for the Democrats here isnt the end of their quest for gains in the legislaturethe seat is not among the 23 Republican-held districts won by Clinton last year, though it is a top target proposed by electoral analyst Charlie Cook.

Victory, however, would put wind at the back of the opposition party, something shiny to show fundraisers as they prepare for what will be a very expensive electoral fight in 2018. Democratic political operative have been talking about an anti-Trump wave sweeping the country, but until they bring home the goods, their credibility remains somewhere around Nov. 9, 2016, levels. Conversely, a win for Handel will embolden those Republicans who think they can hold on until this whole Trump thing blows over.

The high stakes can be seen in the money that both parties are pouring into this race, which in May became the most expensive congressional election ever. With more than $57 million spent so far, there is no sign the cash flow will slow. Ossoff in particular has benefitted from amped-up small donors, raising more than $23 million himself, while Handel has only raised $4.5 million. But outside spending by political action committees has benefitted Handel, with $18.2 million in her favor to Ossoffs $8 million.

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Today's $57 million special election in Georgia could stop Donald Trump's legislative agenda in its tracks - Quartz

Dave Rubin, the gay, liberal host of The Rubin Report, has become the Lefts latest victim of smearing-by-association, his character having been contorted in Josh Harkinsons recent Mother Jones article Cashing in on the Rise of the Alt-Right. After describing the funding models of a number of alt-right and neo-Nazi websites and podcasts, Harkinsons piece notes that Rubin has interviewed such personalities as Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Cernovich, the self-described new right blogger who has argued that date rape does not exist and regularly peddles conspiracy theories. Originally, it also characterized Rubin as farright.

While the term farright probably does not merit the legal label of libel, its use in this context was at best lacking in intellectual honesty, and at worst a shoddy, malicious attempt to slime Rubin. Rubin is married to a man and favors marijuana legalization, pro-choice policies, and single-payer health care. He has publicly challenged the regressive Lefts increasingly illiberal attitude toward speech it finds objectionable, but that doesnt mean he can be characterized as further to the right than Breitbart in good faith. And Harkinson seems to know as much. After Rubin called the piece libelous and demanded a retraction on Twitter, the author backpedaled, claiming that Rubin merely host[s] softball interviews with lots of people who are to the right of Breitbart. Meanwhile, Mother Jones changed the sentence in question to remove the term farright, added Rubins response in parentheses, and highlighted both changes in a vague editorial note at the bottom of the page.

In digital journalism, such errors and retractions are inevitable. But the conflation of Rubin with literal white supremacists and separatists and the subsequent half-hearted retraction were no accident. Evidently, Mother Jones intended to equate Rubin who interviews and challenges personalities ranging from Margaret Cho and Hilary Rosen to Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson with the Internets most prominent alt-right extremists.

This is obviously quite problematic. Reasonable people can, of course, disagree about the propriety of giving a platform to those with views that engender wide, bipartisan disgust. But Harkinson isnt interested in having such a good-faith debate; his aim is to silence and de-legitimize those who attempt to air and understand extremist views. Indeed, when confronted with criticism from the likes of Ben Shapiro and Joe Rogan, he doubled down on his attack, retweeting clips of Rubin (rightly) arguing that non-mainstream voices are worth engaging with in part due to the failures of the media but also because entities with audiences as wide and engaged as, say, InfowarsAlex Jones, should be unpacked and understood.

Although this example is particularly egregious, it is by no means unique. The mass uproar over Megyn Kellys recent interview with Jones has, to a lesser extent, been informed by the same hostility toward interviews with controversial guests. Lost in the hubbub was that,given Kellys professional and prosecutorial credentials, her interview with Jones who has a massive audience and the ear of the president carried the potential to be an act of journalistic service.

Jack Shafer of Politico smartly lambasted the censorious power of the hecklers veto that was wielded against Kelly and threatens edgy, truth-telling journalism of the uncomfortable variety that explores how someone such as Jones could attract millions of followers. Under the veil of a moral panic, Kelly and Rubin have been stigmatized for the crime of heterodoxy, made to serve as a public warning to anyone else who threatens to deviate from a leftist agenda.

One wonders where this game ends. Back when the term alt-right was exclusively reserved for white supremacists with no regard for conservatism as it has traditionally been understood, it maintained a sort of incriminating implication. But every time the Left attempts to tar non-leftists with the same brush, it dilutes the label, just as it has done with every other pejorative that came before. The difference now, thankfully, is that the Internet gives victims such as Rubin a chance to fight back.

READ MORE: You Gotta Lie: The Tangled Progressive Web The Sickening Attack on Otto WarmbierIs Symbolic of the Lefts Hate Problem To Both Sides in Americas Dialogue War: Disarm

Tiana Lowe is an editorial intern at National Review.

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Mother Jones Smears Liberal Talk-Show Host Dave Rubin for Daring to Interview 'Alt-Right' Figures - National Review

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters.

Ever since President Donald Trump hired then-Breitbart.com chief executive Stephen Bannon to run his presidential campaign, the press has been struggling to comprehend the alt-right movement that his website helped promote. While many journalists have done yeomans work catching up on the assortment of white nationalists, misogynists, and conspiracy theorists behind this new wave of fringe media outlets, theyve been less effective in learning about the tactics those figures use to manipulate the press. That failing was evident over the weekend, as major news outlets reported on Friday nights alt-right interruption of a performance of William Shakespeares Julius Caesar.

That controversy, which triggered stories by The Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC,The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other major publications, demonstrated that the news judgment of mainstream news outlets has yet to adjust to the new reality. And it is a sad reminder that the alt-rights greatest strength is its ability to exploit the media for its own ends.

Conservative criticism of the Public Theaters production of Julius Caesar in New Yorks Central Park, which debuted in late May and concluded Sunday night, hit the public consciousness on June 11 after it came under attack from Fox News. In an appearance on the weekend edition of the networks Fox & Friends morning show, TownHall.com Political Editor Guy Benson denounced the play for placing a Trump look-alike in the titular role of the Roman leader who is assassinated onstage.

As other conservative media figures and Trumps own sons joined the chorus, Delta and Bank of America ended their corporate sponsorship of the production. And after a gunman targeted Republican members of Congress practicing on a baseball field last week, wounding Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), right-wing commentators linked the attack to the play.

These arguments are foolish and made in bad faith. Caesars assassination is not glamorized in the production indeed, the message of the play is that misguided political violence will inevitably breed disastrous consequences. Likening Shakespeares monarchs and politicians to real-life figures is a long-standing performance practice, seized by directors with sometimes illuminating, sometimes boneheaded results, Slates Issac Butler noted after the initial complaints, pointing out that performances of Julius Caesar have featured then-President Barack Obama in the titular role without incident.

The controversy culminated in a protest at Friday nights performance, when the production was interrupted for roughly a minute when the alt-right online outlet Rebel Medias Laura Loomer stormed the stage, shouting, Do you want Trump to be assassinated? She was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. Jack Posobiec, another alt-right figure, also interrupted the performance, yelling, The blood of Steve Scalise is on your hands and comparing the audience to the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels before being removed from the theater. Posobiec taped the disturbance and posted it on Twitter, where it quickly circulated.

Why did they do it? The incident has the hallmarks of a grift: The disturbances came after alt-right personality Mike Cernovich offered a $1,000 bounty to anyone who successfully interrupted the performance, and Loomer is seeking to crowdfund $25,000, supposedly for her legal defense.

Its not unusual for protesters to use civil disobedience to garner media attention for their cause. But this protest had no real aim other than the aggrandizement of its participants. It had all the moral force of a pair of drunken assholes running onto the field to halt a baseball game, and deserved a similar degree of attention from the media. Instead, mainstream reporters have been transfixed by the story, generating reams of coverage that bolster the profiles of Posobiec and Loomer. For the cost of a ticket, they were able to troll the public with their nonsense claims, with mainstream outlets regurgitating their trolling at the top of their stories and burying the reasons not to believe them.

This manipulation of the mainstream press by subversive elements who dont play by the traditional rules of journalism should be an ongoing concern. Weve seen the press fall for these efforts time and time again indeed, NBC News spent most of last week getting outmaneuvered at every turn by Infowars chief Alex Jones.

Mainstream reporters rightfully feel compelled to cover the rising tide of fringe-right outlets because of their close ties to the president, and the manner in which their seemingly-absurd conspiracy theories have translated into harassment. Their claims about a pedophile ring operating out of a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor led to gunfire at the restaurant; Seth Richs family was hassled following their allegations that the murdered Democratic staffer was actually bumped off by Hillary Clintons campaign; their lies that the Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax turn the lives of the victims parents into waking nightmares.

But the pro-Trump fringe has become adept at taking advantage of those inclinations to increase its own influence. As they come under more scrutiny, these alt-right figures are learning how to gin up grievances, manufacture new controversies, and troll the press to garner attention and make money.

Reporters need to show better news judgment when they engage with the alt-right. When the movements media personalities are stirring controversies that have a real impact on peoples lives, they have earned national attention.

But when the alt-right personalities are deliberately screwing with journalists to bolster their own profiles, the best thing journalists can do for their readers is refuse to play their game.

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Reporters Fall Into The Alt-Right Trap With Julius Caesar Stunt - The National Memo (blog)

Two men were charged with attempted murder Tuesday in the stabbing of a man who works as a bodyguard for a nationally known figure popular among the alt-right, prosecutors said.

Edgar Khodzhasaryan, 30, of Glendale, and Arsen Bekverdyan, 31, of Burbank, were charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon in the stabbing following a dispute in a Santa Monica parking structure on Saturday, according to Sarah Ardalani, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office.

Tim Gionet, a popular alt-right internet personality better known by his Twitter handle, @BakedAlaska, identified the victim as Antonio Foreman.

Gionet, who said Foreman sometimes works for him as a bodyguard, told his more than 175,000 Twitter followers that the assault was politically or racially motivated. Foreman is an ardent supporter of President Trump, and had been leaving an event in support of the President when he was attacked, Gionet said.

Law enforcement officials flatly dismissed the claim.

Prosecutors did not file a hate crime enhancement with the charges, Ardalani said. Lt. Saul Rodriguez, a Santa Monica Police Department spokesman, said the attack was spurred by an argument.

Theres nothing here that would lead us to believe it was targeted or a hate crime or anything like that, Rodriguez said.

Khodzhasaryan and Bekverdyan were exiting the parking structure and attempting to call for a parking attendant to help them operate the gate around 11 p.m. on Saturday when the victim made a comment to the suspects which led to an argument, Rodriguez said.

All three men exited their vehicles and a fist fight erupted, Rodriguez said. The suspects fled a short time later, and the victim realized he had been stabbed, according to Rodriguez. The victim, whom Rodriguez would not identify, was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.

Khodzhasaryan and Bekverdyan were arrested a short time later while being treated for minor injuries at an area hospital, Rodriguez said. Khodzhasaryan is also suspected of a probation violation.

Both were being held in lieu of $1 million bail, and were scheduled to be arraigned in the Airport Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, Ardalani said. It was not immediately clear who was representing them.

Gionet is a former BuzzFeed employee and popular right-wing Internet personality who has many fans among the alt-right movement, a loosely connected fraternity of white nationalists and other far-right groups.

Foreman is also affiliated with the Oath Keepers, according to Gionet. The Oath Keepers, a group comprised largely of former law enforcement officers and military veterans, often provides security for far-right protesters and at demonstrations in support of President Trump.

The group has been described as one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the country, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks domestic extremists and hate groups.

Gionet told The Times that Foreman was stabbed nine times by two suspects who made anti-white comments either prior to, or during, the attack. Gionet said Foreman, whom he described as one of his best friends, was in stable condition at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday.

On Twitter, Gionet claimed one of the suspects yelled, Youre getting the shank White Boy, before the attack.

james.queally@latimes.com

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California. Follow @mattdpearce for national news.

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UPDATES:

2:30 p.m.: This story was updated with information about the charges filed against the assailants.

11:45 a.m.: This story was updated with additional information about the suspects.

This story first published at 10:10 a.m.

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Two charged with attempted murder in stabbing of bodyguard of well-known alt-right figure - Los Angeles Times

As the sporadic episodes of low-contact social unrest outside of Charlottesville venues continued this past weekend, city residents Monday called upon the city to disallow upcoming public events that will feature the Ku Klux Klan, far-right political activists and white nationalists.

The most recent flare-up happened Saturday night when right-wing activists and members of a pro-Western fraternal organization called the Proud Boys were refused service from several restaurants downtown, including Cinema Taco and Millers.

After right-wing activists this weekend lambasted the restaurants for allegedly discriminating against them for their political views, left-wing activists Monday asked the city to revoke the permits for the events the KKK and the alt-right a loose collection of far-right-wing political movements will stage this summer.

Make no mistake, these groups are coming to do physical and psychological harm to Charlottesvilles residents and the local government of the Capital of the Resistance intends to let them, said Mark Heisey. How is this city going to allow violent white nationalists who promote and are carrying out murders of people of color all over this country?

Another left-wing activist, Luis Oyola, described an encounter earlier this month with a pair of right-wing activists, Jason Kessler and William Loudermilk, who he said told him to go back to your country.

The most dangerous thing about these men is not their opinion, but their insecurities and the way they take them out on others, Oyola said.

Alleging that the Proud Boys are more like a gang than a fraternal group, he said that a rumored rite of passage into the upper echelon of the group involves beating up an antifa, or anti-fascist activist.

Kessler, who has invited a slew of white nationalist groups and activist to speak at an August rally in Emancipation Park, known until recently as Lee Park, dismissed the assertion that the right-wing groups are violent.

I think weve settled that none of you guys are for the First Amendment, Kessler told detractors at Mondays council meeting.

You guys arent even liberals liberals agree with the First Amendment. You guys are totalitarians and communists, he said. You think that any speech you disagree with is violence that is complete bull-crap.

A week after meeting at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church to discuss how the community should respond to the upcoming events, the council will hold a news conference Tuesday with Police Chief Al Thomas and other city officials to talk about Unity Day, another event now being planned for July 8, the same day as the KKK rally planned for Court Square.

According to a news release, city officials also will discuss public safety and unity before, during and after July 8.

Following the public comment period at Mondays meeting, the council briefly discussed the possibility of rescinding the permit for Kesslers Aug. 12 event, raising concern that individuals or groups involved could be participating in gang-like activity.

City Attorney Craig Brown advised that the groups have not been found guilty of committing any crimes in the city and that restricting the events could violate constitutional rights.

Earlier in the meeting, Mayor Mike Signer called for civility.

What makes us great is precisely the fact that everyone has the right to speak, no matter how noxious their opinions are that hateful and ignorant views will perish through exposure to sunlight, oxygen and facts, he said.

We can and will confront and defeat these dark forces. And we will do so on our own terms.

Priorities; strategic plan

While much attention was given to the July 8 Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rally and the Aug. 12 Unite the Right event, the council also addressed other issues Monday.

Among those issues, the council voted to adopt a plan of objectives to prioritize in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The City Council Annual Workplan outlines a focus on several areas, including workforce development, affordable housing development, traffic management, urban planning initiatives and citizen engagement. Other specific items included completing the Belmont Bridge replacement project, seeing the Dewberry Hotel constructed and improving the citys relationship with Albemarle County and the University of Virginia.

The council also approved its three-year strategic plan. The new plan was drafted per work sessions last summer and fall. The plan is meant to guide how city and elected officials will manage the citys priorities from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2020.

The plan calls for fostering an inclusive community of self-sufficient residents; a healthy and safe city; a beautiful and sustainable natural and built environment; a strong, creative and diversified economy; and a well-managed and responsive organization.

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Council hears earful on KKK, alt-right rallies | Local | dailyprogress ... - The Daily Progress