As long as I can remember I've always considered the Cons to be more American than Canadian.
And since Andrew Scheer became their leader I've often wondered whether his party has been receiving money from some of the sinister billionaires who have been bankrolling right-wing groups all over the United States.
For who can forget how he tried to undermine our country at the NAFTA negotiations, for crass political reasons.
And now one of his good buddies has been caught with his grubby hands in an American cookie jar.
And it would have to be Ezra Levant.
Rebel Media, the Canadian alt-right website run by Ezra Levant, partnered with an American far-right think tank bankrolled by Donald Trump’s top donor who is also a major funder of the global alt-right.
According to a recent report from LobeLog, an American foreign policy website, Rebel Media produced a dozen “cross-branded videos” with the New York-based Gatestone Institute, an “anti-Muslim organization that has long opposed the immigration of Muslims to the West.”
With the source of that bigot money according to Lobelog, being the sinister Robert Mercer and his ghastly daughter Rebekah...
The secretive Mercers are not only Trump’s biggest donors. In addition to funding the Trump campaign, the Mercers were also a close ally of Steve Bannon, financing the far-right Breitbart news website and the big data firm Cambridge Analytica – their money is widely considered to be at “the heart of a multimillion-dollar propaganda network” fuelling the global alt-right.
And since we are being bombarded these days with Con propaganda videos to a degree never seen before, and there are more "fake news" stories out there than one can possibly count, or correct.
I can't help but wonder whether Hamish Marshall, the co-founder of Rebel Media and its business manager for many years, can shed some light on the situation?
Tell us where all those Con propaganda videos are coming from? Why do so many supposedly made by "ordinary Canadians" look so similar?
Does he know how long shadowy alt-right billionaires have been propping up the "fearless" Rebel?
And now that he's the Con's campaign manager, can he assure us that all this fake news is coming from THEIR rear orifice, and not from organizations like the Gatestone Institute?
Because that could be embarrassing, what with the Cons having just launched a campaign claiming they don't do that...
And even more importantly, it could be devastating, since the election is sure to be framed as the Canadians versus the Trumplings, or the traitors within.
And in that regard, Justin Trudeau has a definite advantage...
Over the creepy Trumpling Andrew Scheer...
And who knows, with a little bit of luck we might be able to cage this bigot once and for all.
Bring down two other shabby Cons for the price of one.
And drive the Trumplings from power, before they corrupt our country further.
Down with the aliens and their traitor values.
Go Canada GO...
How about all the sinister (((billionaires))) funding left-wing groups? Or do those not count?
ReplyDeletePlease name one. That is if you can count that high.
DeleteJD
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Elison, the Waltons, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, Tim Gill, Mark Zuckerburg, Tom Steyer...
DeleteShut up, you bigot nono, and take your six-pointed parentheses with you. Didn't you hear what Justin said? The current year isn't 1933.
DeleteNow fuck off back to Ezra's pizza den in the basement bunker of Trump Tower. Andy and Hammy are getting lonely and looking for a pet troll to cuddle-duddle.
Preferably from a source not named FoxNews, Breitbart, InfoWars, Drudge, Sinclair Broadcasting, etc.
Deletemr perfect
Anon 10:12/2:01, you don't read very well do you? Simon's post is about how a Canadian political party appears to be in league with and receiving money from an American right wing billionaire. None of the names you trotted out have any connection to left wing groups in Canada. There is zero proof. And the truth be told, the Liberals didn't need any help from American billionaires because most businesses and corporations who supported Harper and the Conservatives in 2011 could see he was going down in 2015. So they switched their support to the Liberals. Simple. Learn to educate yourself.
Deletemr perfect
Hi anon@10:12 AM...I don't know any progressive billionaires who fund reactionary, racist, planet burning groups like the Mercers do. Do you? And please not Soros. The only thing more irritating than that is Benghazi...
DeleteBingo! When that mook invited the notorious bigot Pamela Gellar to give a two-minute hate talk about Muslims, I knew something was up. Now we know that Ezra's been plugged into the Mercernary matrix, it's practically a foregone conclusion that Marshall is trying to pull an Analytica operation of his own on Canada.
ReplyDeleteCtrl-C, Ctrl-V. Ctrl Alt-Right Delete.
Good job, Press Progress. The Nazionalist Post and the Conrad Black Channel should take note: this is what REAL investigative journalism looks like. Not comparing the thread count of Justin's socks while they get high sniffing Andy's panties.
Bob and Bekah need to go share a Faraday cage in prison with Ezra, Hammy and Andy. And not a moment too soon.
Hi Jackie... Press Progress has been doing a good job, and it only makes more obvious how blind the Con media is to the Trumpling menace. And yes, Hamish Marshall is using the same kid of psychographic stuff to target voters. That's not illegal, but if you can target low information voters with fake news designed to feed their most deep rooted prejudices, you can turn reality on its head, and steal an election...
DeletePS: Here's another article that talks about the diabolical Mercer's reach into the U.S. and even France and Germany. As only Wonkette can :)
ReplyDeletehttps://wonkette.com/632239/lets-art-appreciate-the-fuck-out-of-these-dark-money-anti-muslim-ads-by-a-doctor-of-rhetoric
Wonkette... Oh there's some really highbrow reading.
DeleteThere's other sources, including the primary source footnoted in the article. I just picked one that's lighthearted enough so that you don't go crazy with how depressing this all is. Simon's blog is humorous yet informative too; I suppose you have something bad to say about that? Is Breitbart (aka the Robert Mercer Report) more your speed or brand of "comedy"?
Deletehi anon@4:47 PM... "Wonkette... Oh there's some really highbrow reading," says the Rebel reader. When that article did give a good idea of the extent of the problem and I thought this was both insightful...
DeleteWhat’s remarkable about these things is that they’re very professional-looking, no matter how stupid the message is. A fair bit of work went into this stuff, which is surprising, considering how unimaginatively repetitive the jokes are: Burqas, Allah, no pork, women have no rights, scary prayers, scary Arabic script, and Jihad jihad jihad jihad. Not that we’re expecting complexity from raw propaganda, but it all seems like thin gruel to base an ad campaign on.
And wrong. That's not thin gruel. That's what you come up with when you use data to drill into people's heads, and learn how to appeal to their basest instincts...
"his ghastly daughter Rebekah... " Whoa! The good Lord wasn't too kind to her when he was handing out looks, Simon. As my daddy used to say, "She had a face that'd make a train take the ditch".
ReplyDeleteI do feel slight pity for her in that she was raised by a disgusting racist who actively tries to recruit and brainwash people into embracing his odious mantra by way of his trash propaganda. However, she's an adult now and has clearly chosen her ugly path.
This is another great post Simon. We finally have the hard evidence that Levant's POS Rebel Media is indeed the recipient of Mercer's dirty money used for the production of hate propaganda and fake news.
We also know that all things Rebel have a way of making it into the Con propaganda machine. What a quaint little setup they have. A racist pig funds an equally racist pig and whatever the racist pig Cons deem as okay for public consumption, is foisted upon us like a bout of explosive diarrhea.
Well Mr. Schmear, the shit's gonna hit the fan one day and you will be the one right in front of it.
JD
hi JD...Rebekah Mercer is an interesting case, she's said to be quite brilliant, she claims she's not a bigot, but she's got the air of a religious fanatic, and hands out money to reactionary groups like Jesus is said to have handed out bread and fishes. As I said in my post, the next election will be a choice between the Canada as we know it, and the Trumplings who are trying to change this country and its values. Anything that can make that choice clear is invaluable. For needless to say failure is not an option...
DeleteAn informative post Simon and as you have said before the Con propaganda machine is hiding in plain sight. YouTube is their platform of choice as they can target the end user and tailor the propaganda to maximum effect, anywhere from an immigrant fearing bigot to someone who wants to vote for a traditionally attired leader. I took the time to watch a half dozen mild anti Trudeau propaganda videos and if they were the total extent of my information they would be somewhat convincing in discouraging me from voting. The hard core stuff was not effective but again that is the beauty of being able to adjust content based on the end user profile.
ReplyDeleteAlthough unethical the activity to date is not illegal as Canada's election laws are hopelessly outdated and authority was further stymied by Harper's fair election meddling.
Although difficult to count there is at least 500 and possibly over 1000 anti Trudeau propaganda videos populating YouTube. I have surveyed around a dozen sites using socialblade.com and some such as steeper33 produce around 30 anti Trudeau videos per month while others average around 1 per week and fill in with other Con leaning propaganda. Its interesting that for the low volume sites their other videos have a fairly low number of views but for any videos with Trudeau in the title the number of views reliably jumps to 20,000 or more. He is the number one target which suggests the YouTube algorithm (possibly with their help) is pushing the anti Trudeau campaign. Its also interesting that the Steeper33 site jumped from relative obscurity to 1.5 million views per month shortly after Scheer was elected Conservative leader. Although Facebook has apologized for this type of unethical behavior and have committed to changing their ways there does not seem to be any similar apology coming from Google/YouTube. California is planning an Honest Ads Act to address some of the more obvious propaganda techniques. Hopefully Canada will not wait until its too late to follow.
Pro Clinton vs anti Clinton YouTube videos - Anti Trudeau ratio is worse https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/02/youtube-algorithm-election-clinton-trump-guillaume-chaslot
Why YouTube is the weapon of choice https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3dy7vb/why-the-right-is-dominating-youtube
RT
Hi RT...thanks, I'm glad you liked the post. And yes, that's exactly what's happening. The Con propaganda machine is hiding in plain sight, and our mediocre media is too biased or too dumb to see it. The figures you mention are impressive, steeper33 is a VERY busy person, the amount of rabid anti-Trudeau propaganda has to be seen to be believed. And algorithms and bots are hyping things to a fever pitch. I hope Canadians wake up in time, or they won't know what hit them...
DeleteLOL Anon 10:12 AM. When Morons plug in.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if our intrepid corporate Con press will explore the source of these adds and possible US links?
Oh Wait. Not I don't!
hi Brian...As I told RT, I don't know whether our intrepid media is too biased or too dumb to see what's happening, and how the Trump disease is affecting this country. But no, don't hold your breath waiting for them to see the light. We are going to have to use social media to try to wake Canadians up...
DeleteI still don't understand how Levant doesn't know this is all going to end badly for him. The people he rubs elbows with view him as a useful idiot. Theoretically, if his "friends" were to rid society of his list of undesirables, they would have ole Ezra line up for the next "shower," if you get my drift. Not trying to be funny, just realistic.
ReplyDeletemr perfect
Forethought is not Ezra's strong point. His long list of lost legal cases shows this. Come to think of it, self-restraint is not high on his list of behaviours either.
DeleteNope. Ezra is one of the cool ones. The other day he was bitching that Canada was taking Israel's refugees. He gets a pass.
Delete@jrkrideau -- neither is self-awareness, obviously. His own Wikipedia page says that he invited the odious lawyer (Doug Christie) who'd made a name for himself representing Holocaust-denying scum like Paul Fromm and Ernst Zündel, to give a "free speech" talk on campus back when he was in college. This was in 1990. Then you had "Gypsygate" at Sun-TV and Rebel's hiring of notorious anti-Semites like Gavin McInnes and Faith Goldy. I have Jewish ancestry in my background, and Ezra sickens me. The man is a disgusting traitor to his own people, and his derangement has only intensified and metastasized over the past 30 years to the point where his "network" has grown to encompass the mainstream Conservative party and is now a threat to Canadian society.
DeleteI can't be the only one who thinks he's got something else he hates himself for, that he's been driven over the edge since being publicly humiliated after that sweaty boxing match and the subsequent election that put Justin on top, and that he wants to destroy the one thing he can't have. I just hope Canadians are smart enough not to let him.
He's Andrew Scheer's Roy Cohn.
Hi Mr Perfect...I used to think Levant was a ruthless bigot ideologue, but now I see him as just a shameless opportunist. When he worked at Ethical Oil with Hamish Marshall we all knew he was getting money from groups like the Koch brothers, but couldn't prove it. And he'll take money from anyone for anything because that's all he cares about...
Deletehi jrkrideau...Levant has never exhibited the slightest bit of shame for anything he has ever done. Not even for the time just after Jack Layton's death, when he put on an orange wig to mock the so-called orange wave. When I heard of that I knew he had no judgement and no decency...
DeleteHi Jackie...the good news is that The Rebel isn't doing that well these days. It has never recovered from the Charlottesville controversy, and is just a shadow of what it once was. He's trying to branch out into the U.K. and the U.S., but it looks to me like he's not going anywhere. Get the hearse ready, the Rebel is going down...
DeleteThe question I have is what consideration was involved between Conrad Black and the CPC when Black was fast-tracked directly from a federal U.S. prison to Canada, where he has no citizenship? The Reformacons say that all the decision making in this affair was made by Citizenship & Immigration officials and there was no political interference. How dumb do the Cons think we are?
ReplyDeleteI also wonder about
Deletethis!