One of these things is just like the other.

I challenge anyone to identify which of these excerpts is from the notorious social science hoax "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" by Alan Sokal, and which is a perfectly serious excerpt from Dr. Jordan Peterson.

And ... go:

 

 

OMG OMG OMG ... This could literally be the thing that writes Peterson's next book. Just keep pressing "REIONIZE ELECTRONS" and witness the hilarity.

JUXTAPOSE!

Conservative troll who continuously challenges people he disagrees with to a fistfight will now lecture you on "liberal" violence:

 

Where did all that money go? Part Deux.

Just a few observations ... recall from just a few months back that Rebel News' Ezra Levant pleaded publicly to help pay off (in its entirety) $380,000 worth of loans, and the drooling yobs of Rebel Nation came through:

Recall as well the rationale for that original infusion of cash -- to do more journalism and, more specifically, to hire more journos:

Oddly, in the couple of months since that massive windfall, the masthead at Rebel seems unchanged; there have been no new apparent hires, and the quality of journalism seems as misleading and valueless as ever.

On the other hand, it's public knowledge that, in the last few months, Rebel's Ezra Levant has:

• settled a defamation suit with CJPME (terms confidential),
• lost two anti-SLAPP motions, which puts him on the hook for not only his own legal fees, but the entirety of the other parties' costs, and
• is currently fighting a $200,000 defamation suit in Edmonton.

It would be massively irresponsible to speculate that these things were in any way related.

I'm just trying to be helpful.

P.S. While it goes back to 2017, it's worth rehashing Ezra's legal and financial beatdown at the hands of Khurrum Awan, as documented in Frank magazine:

a beatdown that was followed by Ezra's unsuccessful appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which surely cost a few more dollars, all of which raises the obvious question -- are any of Rebel News' long-time, faithful sponsors getting at all tired of handing over their cash month after month and year after year, only to open their browser to see Ezra having to fork over tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and judgments and costs?

Is there a single member of Rebel Nation who's been heard to mutter, "You know, I keep sending in all this money to hear the other side of story, and all I see is Ezra in court on a regular basis"?

And more specifically, are there any current journos working for Rebel News, almost certainly getting little more than a subsistence salary, watching all this money pour in from one fundraiser after another and wondering when any of it is going to trickle down to them?

One wonders when any of those gullible doofs are going to start asking questions.

P.P.S. A completely unreliable source suggests that Ezra is, indeed, planning to appeal those two anti-SLAPP losses, which would give him the opportunity to blow even more money on lawyers and costs. Just in case anyone cared.

JUXTAPOSE!

Brian Lilley, a co-founder of Rebel News, will now tout the value of fact checkers:

 

No, seriously, he went there.

Burning bridges, Rebel News-style.

It becomes curiouser and curiouser as to just what right-wing demographic the mouth-breathing yahoos at Rebel News are trying to appeal to, given their scorched-earth policy regarding so many of Canada's conservatives and political parties.

Lately, Rebel Obergruppenfuhrer Ezra Levant has been on an absolute tear, trashing CPC leader Erin O'Toole every chance he gets, like here:

More recently, Ezra has taken steaming dumps on Ontario premier Doug Ford:

At this point, given that Ezra survives entirely on the largesse of Canada's conservatives and stupid people, one has to ask -- isn't he sort of pissing off the very people whose wallets he should be trying to open? 

A simple question:

If "cancel culture" actually exists, how the fuck does Meghan McCain still have a job?

JUXTAPOSE!

Plaintiff in current Ezra Levant defamation action is an associate professor at Qatar University:

Witness for the defense is a former bouncer currently doing time:

You can't make this stuff up. You just can't.

JUXTAPOSE!

Rebel Media gleefully describes Antifa as "terrorists":

Rebel Media furious when Proud Boys are described as "terrorists":

I'm glad we had this little chat.

Yeah, that sounds kinda defamatory.

It seems to me that, if you never shot up a nightclub, having someone publicly accuse you of, you know, shooting up a nightclub might be just a wee bit defamatory:

I'm just saying.

JUXTAPOSE!

Rebel News, who love to tell everyone how they cover the other side of the story and always ask the tough questions no one else will ask, currently not reporting in any way on Ezra Levant's ongoing defamation trial.

Well, blimey, mate.

Gosh, that's a shame.

AFTERSNARK: It was only a year ago that Ezra had trailer park doyenne Sheila Gunn Reid passing around the chicken bucket for Tommy:

And now? Whatever's left of all that dosh is now in the hands of some trustee. Money well spent, Rebel Nation. Money well spent.

OH, MY: This is what is politely known as a scam:

YES,THIS IS CRUEL: I just don't give a shit:

If I was Farhan Chak's lawyer ...

Random musings on Ezra's current legal spat with Farhan Chak as described here, and it occurs that Ezra might be in way more trouble than he thinks, based on what is reported about his lawyers' legal strategy:

Now, while fair comment and responsible communication are both available defenses in a defamation action, there is a problem here, as I will now explain.

Perusing here, we find the opening explanation of "fair comment," most of which I chopped off because it is only that first sentence that concerns us:

You see, that opening sentence makes it clear that fair comment applies only to issues "of public interest." And what does that mean, you ask? I'm glad you asked.

It means that what is being uttered or written must inherently have a interest to some segment of the public. It is not enough that some of the public might be interested, that's not how it works. Rather, the content must, in some way, be relevant or timely or meaningful to at least some members of the public, and this is where it seems Ezra is going to have a problem, since there is absolutely no evidence of "public interest" here.

Given that the shooting happened in 1993, and that Chak was acquitted in 2007, and that Chak further moved from Canada to Qatar in 2008:

while I am not a lawyer, I submit that it would be exceedingly difficult to argue that any of that was suddenly in the public interest six years later in 2014 when Ezra mentioned it on his TV show. It's not as if the public was clamoring to know what became of Chak, and it's also fairly obvious that, when Ezra mentioned it, he had absolutely nothing new to add to the discussion. Quite simply, there is no persuasive evidence that any of what Ezra said about Chak had any component of "public interest" whatsoever, and if Chak's lawyers don't hammer that point home, they're doing it wrong.

Amusingly, Ezra's defense of "responsible communication" would appear to fail for precisely the same reason:

In fact, Ezra seems in even more trouble here, since a defense of responsible communication openly requires that the content be "urgent, serious, and of public importance," none of which applies here. Again, one simply cannot argue public interest for an event that happened years earlier of which pretty much no one has spoken until Ezra decided to spew it off the cuff on a TV show for no reason, years after the fact.

It appears that Ezra has other problems in this case as well, but front and centre, Chak's lawyers should be absolutely pounding home the point that, absent any evidence of public interest, most of Ezra's defenses are as dust in the wind.

Someone should point that out to them.

AFTERSNARK: In case you were wondering, it would seem that Ezra does not have a hope in hell of arguing that third defense of "qualified privilege" as that same source from earlier makes it clear what needs to be true to argue that:

Again, I am not a lawyer, but I just don't see this defense applying here.

DOUBLE AFTERSNARK: Is it worth pointing out where Ezra single-handedly destroys his own defense of responsible communication? Of course it is.

As you can read above, that defense requires that "the journalist used reliable sources, and tried to get and report the other side of the story." And here's Ezra, openly admitting that he either never checked (or never re-confirmed) a fairly significant point, while admitting its obvious relevance:

One is free to imagine Ezra's lawyer(s) at their table, upon hearing this, looking for the nearest sharp object to slash their wrists.

I'm sure it's all a massive coincidence.

Within just the last few months:

• Ezra Levant settles the defamation action against him from CJPME,
• Ezra Levant loses both recent anti-SLAPP motions filed against him, saddling him with not only his own legal fees, but the entire legal bill of the other sides, and
• Ezra Levant currently being sued for $200,000 for (you guessed it) defamation.

In a totally unrelated event, only last December, Ezra announced that he really, really, really badly needed a truckload of cash:

If you think these recent developments are in any way related, well, that just makes you a bad person.

How to get your stats up, Andrew Chapados-style.

Loyal reader sends me a heads-up about Rebel News hack Andrew Chapados, who seems to be a graduate of the Ezra Levant School of Registering Eleventy Bazillion Domain Names. A basic search for Chapados at Duck Duck Go shows, on the very first page, numerous articles by Chapados at what look like distinct web sites:

 

But if you look closer, it's odd that every single article across all those sites is, effectively, the same article: "Andrew Chapados takes a look at the numbers ...". But hang on, because it gets way weirder.

If one visits the first site (littlestalin.com) to read Andrew, well, this is what you get:

Um ... OK, not sure what "littlestalin" has to do with COVFEFE, but let's pop over to the second link listed at killingontario.com:

OK, that's kind of creepy ... that a distinct domain name takes you to what is clearly the same site. How about reopeningontario.ca? Jesus ...

And what about those last two -- maddr.ca and masksickness.ca? You guessed it -- exactly the same content.

One wonders what the point is of this tedious repetition, other than to saturate online searches and drive up one's hit rate. Suddenly, Andrew working for Rebel News seems so ... perfect.

So where DID all that money go?

As most people know, Rebel News' Ezra Levant recently convinced a truckload of gullible yobs to hand over almost half a million dollars to not only pay off an outstanding Rebel News loan in its entirety, but leave him with a wad of leftover dosh to blow any way he wants:

 

However, there is a nagging question in all of this -- given that Ezra was handed some $380,000 in late 2017 and early 2018, where did all that money go? It's a worthwhile question since, in asking for financial assistance, Ezra was asking his intellectually-limited groupies to not just help with paying off the outstanding loan, he was asking them to pay off the entire amount. Every penny. That is, he was making no offer to chip in any cash of his own, which leads one to ask -- did he simply not have any of that $380,000 left? And if not, where did it go? And here's the curious part.

Ezra himself admitted publicly that the initial loan was for ... well, let's let Ezra explain it himself:

OK, that's fair ... money to do more journamalism, and to hire new talent. The curiosity here is that, if one followed Rebel Media/News throughout 2018 and 2019, nothing seemed to change that much. If anything, it seemed that Rebel was shrinking, not growing.

Courtesy of the Intertoobz's Internet Archive, here's a shot of all the talentless hacks, yahoos and bottom dwellers on Rebel's masthead in early 2018:

At that point, one would think that with a massive infusion of capital, a few more folks would have signed on. Alas, such was not the case, so that by late 2019, even after $380,000 to expand Rebel's operations, this is the pathetic group of hangers-on that were left:

Five. All of five. Which inspires the obvious question -- if that money was not used for, as Ezra himself claimed, doing more journalism and hiring new talent, what in the name of Mutt happened to all of it?

Frankly, if I was a regular Rebel supporter and had been asked to bail Ezra out of a $380,000 hole, I might be just the slightest bit interested in where that original $380,000 had gone, since it doesn't seem to have gone to hiring or journalism.

I'm just curious, and wondering why Rebel's regular donors don't seem to be.

AFTERSNARK: Curiously, in his tweet above, Ezra promises that any surplus would be directed towards "hiring a full-time Parliamentary reporter." This is an odd promise to make since, as recently as December of last year, the PPG made it clear it was rejecting Rebel News for membership:

Under the circumstances, then, it's not clear the value of hiring a full-time Parliamentary reporter who has no accreditation to cover Parliament. That seems just ... weird.

It's OK to hate Paul Bettany.

So, just to be clear, Paul Bettany is married to Elizabeth Olsen on the small screen, and to Jennifer Connelly in real life.

I just thought that needed to be said.

JUXTAPOSE, Rebel News edition.

It's massively entertaining to watch the vile bigots at Rebel News, many of whom argued vehemently against allowing Omar Khadr back in Canada, to now be fundraising their shorts off by demeaning and denigrating Canada's "COVID hotels" and asserting that it is every Canadian citizen's right to free and unfettered right of return and unrestricted movement under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

With these folks, principles are so deliciously context-dependent.

JUXTAPOSE!

Pastor who resembles a more overweight and less attractive version of David Menzies, and with the utter lack of self-awareness of Jonathan Kay, advises ladies to look after themselves so that they, too, can have the cans to pose nude on the hood of a Dodge Charger.

 

Rex Murphy is the Barbara Kay of Lorrie Goldsteins.

That is all.

JUXTAPOSE!

Conservatives who have, for decades, promoted the idea of smaller government that didn't interfere in the freedoms of unfettered capitalism and free enterprise, suddenly demand ruthless government interference in capitalism and free enterprise.

ALTERNATE JUXTAPOSE! American conservatives who have, for decades, ruthlessly gutted voting rights and gerrymandered massive numbers of voters out of existence, will now insist they want to make sure every voice is heard and no one is censored.

JUXTAPOSE!

Canadian wingnuts who have never, at any time, criticized Doug Ford for what he did to residents of Ontario long-term care homes, are currently livid beyond description at what Andrew Cuomo did to residents of New York long-term care homes.

It's like the perfect storm of total crap.

When the culmination of your journalism career is to write for all three of the National Post, The Post Millennial and the Epoch Times, you seriously need to ask at what point your life turned to utter shit.

 

The legal has landed!

I have been reliably informed that, as of yesterday, Lord Baron Twatrick von Loadenhosen of Lloydminster was personally served for a court appearance scheduled for April 6, the end result of which will be that I will begin taking everything he owns.

That is all.

BREAKING!

Toronto, Mar 5, 2021: Ontario Premier Doug Ford announces that Ontarians over 65 will be able to get COVID-19 vaccinations at their local pharmacy or walk-in clinic, while those under 25 are eligible to get their shots from a dude named "Chico" selling them out of the trunk of a 1977 Camaro in the parking lot of Scarlett Heights Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke.

JUXTAPOSE!

Right wingers: "It's vitally important that the citizenry take a stand against unfair and inhumane laws, and oppose the establishment no matter the cost, since it's a matter of principle."

Also right wingers: "If only those black people submitted utterly to the police, there wouldn't be a problem, would there?"

Apparently, Rebel's Keean Bexte has a credibility problem.

Hilarious watching social media tear Rebel News' in-house white nationalist and backup "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" singer Keean Bexte about eight new orifices over his implausible claim that he checked his laptop and other essentials (including, apparently, cancer-prevention meds) with United, who lost it:

 

Can an emergency fundraiser to replace all this "lost" equipment be far behind? Let's watch.

BONUS TRACK: Is it worth pointing out that Bexte knew he was going into lockdown, and was already preparing for it on the flight home? Yes, this is that much of a choreographed scam:

 

 

If it's a day ending in "y" ...

... Ezra is lying about something, oh, look ...

 

Note well that the very tweet Ezra reproduces makes it clear it's referring exclusively to primary schoolchildren, which Ezra so predictably ignores to fuel his faux outrage generator.

Same as it ever was.

Grifters gonna grift: Episode Infinity Plus One.

Good Lord but it doesn't get any griftier than this -- Rebel News' "Alberta Bureau Chief" and trailer park arm candy Sheila Gunn Reid interviewing, of all people, United We Roll's Glen Carritt:

who left a truckload of people with bad tastes in their mouths regarding a GoFundMe page that was supposed to help truckers cover their expenses for that ride:

The final delightful bit of griftiness -- the above is Rebel News "Premium Content" you need to pay to read.

You can't make this stuff up, can you?

BONUS TRACK:

I'm just trying to be helpful.

JUXTAPOSE!

This would be Rebel News, insisting that currently-quarantined fascist turd Keean Bexte, being a Canadian citizen, has a "Charter right to come home":

Somewhere, Omar Khadr is reading this and thinking, "Um ... excuse me?"

JUXTAPOSE!

Right-wingers who had absolutely no problem with the Trump administration ripping children away from their refugee parents and throwing them into freezing, concrete-floored, razor wire cages will now feign outrage over parent-child separation:

There's dumbth, and then there's Keean-level dumbth.

This would be Rebel News' in-house white nationalist Keean Bexte, deciding to send his laptop as checked baggage.

That's it. That's the post.

In search of ... Patrick Ross.

Oh, *sigh* ... to absolutely no one's surprise, 40-year-old undischarged bankrupt and basement dweller Patrick Ross is, as he has done for years now, dodging and weaving to avoid legal service for an upcoming hearing which will allow me to start taking pretty much everything he owns. I have been reliably informed that when a process server showed up at the residence where we know Patrick resides, he was met with, "Patrick? Never heard of him." And at this point, I really have no patience left.

Patrick has played this game for years ... ignoring e-mails, screening phone calls, pretending he's never received legal documents, lying about sending in legal documents, promising undertakings and never delivering ... the list goes on and on and tediously on. And he has an absolute history of having his father (whose house he shares) insist to servers that Patrick is not there at the moment, or that he doesn't live there anymore, or who the hell is this Patrick of whom you speak, that sort of thing. Well, enough.

Patrick will be served eventually, there is no doubt about that. But to make this easier, all and sundry are invited to drop Patrick a note on social media (he is not hard to find -- just follow the stench of false bravado, bad faith debate and misogyny), and politely let him know that we're looking for him (as if he didn't already know).

Normally, I'd just ignore this spineless cowardice on Patrick's part and let the legal system run him to ground, but there is a delicious irony here. You see, Patrick considers himself the biggest, baddest, meanest right-wing yahoo on the Intertoobz, and takes great pleasure in misrepresenting others' opinions, then relentlessly insulting those people over things they never said. This is his pattern, and it has always been thus.

In the end, though, when Patrick is finally handed his ass intellectually, he has the same fallback position every single time -- he challenges his intellectual better to a fistfight.

I'm not kidding.

When Patrick inevitably gets trounced in a debate, without exception, he invites the victor to come find him for a fistfight, which is where the irony comes in, given how Patrick is now reduced to starting furiously whenever there is a knock at the door, and peering out from behind the living room curtains while his father denies his existence, or something like that.

So while we will run him to ground eventually (feel free to look up "substitutional service"), if you run into Patrick on the Intertoobz, politely mention that we're looking for him, and ask him why he's being such an evasive weasel. And if, perchance, he snaps back at you with a reply, by all means, take a screenshot so we have proof that he knows we're looking for him -- that sort of evidence always comes in handy when Patrick is finally dragged before a judge, and insists he had no idea and if only someone had told him.

I'm going back to work now, but if you run across Patrick in your travels, say hi from whatever process server is currently being paid to track him down. But be polite. Always polite. It's just good manners.

P.S. If you, by the remotest of chances, actually know where Patrick can be found in terms of where he works or where he hangs out, DO NOT post that information; rather, simply e-mail it to me privately at canadiancynic@yahoo.ca. If you leave any sort of info like that in the comments, I will make a note of it but I will also delete that comment immediately.

Got that? No public posting.

BY THE WAY, let me make a public service announcement that might save you hours, nay, days, of wasted time and aggravation with respect to the aforementioned Patrick Ross. Quite simply, Patrick always, always, always argues in bad faith. What that means is that Patrick will take what you say/write, deliberately distort and misrepresent it, then proceed to criticize you relentlessly for a position you've never taken. This is what he does -- Patrick has no interest in honest dialogue, his only interest is in eventually claiming "victory" over you.

If you want the perfect example of what it means to argue in bad faith, well, there's this gem from years back; I believe most people will recognize Patrick in what they read there.

I'm just trying to be helpful.

Anyone keeping track of all of Rebel News' promised legal actions?

A wee homework assignment for the interested and/or bored: It was in late January when one Ezra Levant howled furiously about being fined all of $3,000 for breaking election finance laws and, as always, Ezra was not going to let a fundraising opportunity go to waste:

So, in order to avoid paying $3,000, Ezra set out to raise, well, over $100,000:

So the obvious question is: has Rebel News filed its appeal of this ruling, and is it serious about going through with this constitutional challenge? Because it seems like any normal person, hit with s $3K fine, and being handed $100K to deal with it, might just look at all that dosh and think, "Hmmmmmmm ....".

In any event, it seems only fair to ask whether anyone can point at the filed appeal. I don't think that's unreasonable.

Grifters gonna grift, Episode 24,813.

Because nothing says "Masks are a scam!!" like selling masks for $25.