Monthly Archives: February 2017

The hysteria concerning the alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election appears to be a mirror projection of techniques that have been used against Russia, with little or no success, with the aim of interfering in its political processes. While the propaganda campaign aimed at Russia has sought to foster the impression that the countrys media is strictly controlled, in actuality the liberal opposition newspapers and radio stations have in the past run articles and stories that, due to their nature, would be unthinkable in the free West. Controversial stories over the last few years have included:

These media outlets main audience is not the Russian public but rather Western funders and supporters. Novaya Gazeta funding sources include the Netherlands and the Soros Foundation. The Dozhd TV Channel financing is opaqueits owners claim they are financing the project using own funds, which must be bottomless considering the channel has not turned a profit since it began operating. Ekho Moskvy is receiving financial support from the Voice of America Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is also supporting other liberal news outlets. These and other Russian media outlets figure prominently in the Fiscal Year 2017 proposed federal budget appropriation for the US State Department. Moreover, journalists working for these outlets have received a broad array of awards for journalism issued by a number of Western governments and West-controlled so-called non-governmental organizations.

Another example of a Internet media outlet created in order to push the pro-liberal agenda is Meduza. It was financed by opposition oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and so-called anonymous investors. In spite of Meduza being registered and based in Latvia, it focuses on the Russian audience and is promoting globalist agenda in Russia.

In addition to resources which are openly promoting anti-Russian propaganda, there is an array of major media outlets whose informational policy demonstrates they are pursuing political goals quite divorced from Russias interests as a sovereign state.

In the meantime, genuinely accomplished investigative journalists such as Julian Assange are facing politically motivated prosecutions, and there are efforts to exclude English-language Russia-based media such as RT and Sputnik from Western markets for allegedly spreading propaganda.

This state of affairs also raises the question why is the Russian government tolerant of media beholden to foreign sponsors. Part of the answer lies with the guarantees of the freedom of speech and press contained in the Russian Constitution, though the support of these outlets by important factions of the economic and political elite also plays a rolethe Ekho Moskvy radio station is part of the Gazprom Media Holding, for example. Ultimately, however, the relatively unfettered existence of these media is a reflection of the Russian governments confidence in its policies and its popular support, in sharp contrast to the panicked fake news reaction to the loss of Hillary Clinton that resulted in widespread calls to limit the freedom of speech in Western countries, lest the wrong candidates win elections.

Still, this is an intolerable state of affairs, a leftover from the 1990s era of Russias political and economic weakness, when it seemed it might become nothing more than a politically impotent supplier of raw materials to the West. Any genuine reset of Russia-West relations will require the West to respect the inviolability of Russias political institutions and processes in the same way that the West demands respect for theirs.

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Russia's Liberal Media's Foreign Sponsors - Center for Research on Globalization

NSW Liberal powerbroker, boss and lobbyist Michael Photioshas resigned as the leader of the party's dominant left faction, surprising even his close allies.

At a meeting on Saturday afternoon Mr Photios surprised factional colleagues by resigning his post as chairman of the board of the party's most dominant faction, the moderates also known as the left, Liberal sources confirmed.

Mr Photios received a standing ovation for his more than a decade in a post that carries considerable formal influence over party policy and preselections.

Combined with a stint in the faction's deputy leadership dating back to the 1980s, Mr Photios had three decades leading the moderate wing of the Liberals, during which time they rose from the bottom to the top of politics in Australia's largest state.

Mr Photios told friends he had been planning to take them by surprise and wanted to resign at the top of his political game, following the recent ascension of members of his factionto the Prime Minister's and Premier's jobs.

The move also comes as the role of lobbyists within the party has come under increasing scrutiny, particularly Mr Photios and his firm, Premier State, which enjoys large, $20,000-plus monthly retainers from major corporate clients including Telstra, the Hotels Association and The Star casino.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott told the ABC last year that lobbyists had too much control.

"If you are making money out of the people whose preselections you control or influence, there is obviously a potential for corruption," Mr Abbott said.

The NSW Liberals' state director, Chris Stone, wrote to lobbyists asking them to resign from the party's state conference, a policymaking forum, after that criticism was raised last August.

Mr Photios' decision also follows the ascension of leading moderate Gladys Berejiklian to the premiership of NSW last month.

Talkback radio king Alan Jones was among those who said Ms Berejiklian was too close to the party's behind-the-scenes operators, including Mr Photios.

In 2013 Mr Photios resigned from the ruling NSW Liberal state executive after then premier Barry O'Farrell passed an edict banning party officials from lobbying members of his government.

Mr Photios' role as the leader of the moderates will instead be assumed jointly by newly appointed Better Regulation Minister Matt Kean and Trent Zimmerman, the federal MP who won the right to succeed Joe Hockey in his northern Sydney seat.

The moderates, beaten into submission by the party's hard right last decade, have come to assume greater and greater supremacy within the Liberal Party and the largest single share of the votes on its ruling state executive.

"He's been the most successful chairman we've seen since the Greiner years," one senior moderate member said. "It will leave a huge hole."

Another source queried whether the faction's new leadership would be able to keep centrist and left-wing members recruited under Mr Photios together in one faction.

Mr Photios resigned from the NSW parliament after more than a decade in 1999. He served as Minister for Ethnic Affairs and Multiculturalism in the Fahey government.

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Michael Photios resigns as the leader of NSW Liberal's dominant left faction - The Sydney Morning Herald

Senator Leila De Lima waves from a police van after appearing at a Muntinlupa court on drug charges in Muntinlupa, Metro Manila. Erik de Castro, Reuters

MANILA - The president of an international federation of liberal political parties has joined the fray in defending the cause of embattled Senator Leila de Lima, writing to the leadership of the European Union (EU) in the lawmakers behalf.

In a statement issued earlier this week, Liberal International (LI) extended its support to the Liberal Party of the Philippines (LPP), and said it is deeply concerned about De Limas arrest, as well as the deteriorating human rights situation in general.

The Philippines, under the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte is turning rapidly into an illiberal state, where there is no respect for the law whatsoever. I have asked written questions to HRVP (High Representative/Vice-President) [Federica] Mogherini in order to see what action the EU can take, said Hans Van Baalen, LIs president of honor.

Markus Leoning, the chair of LIs human rights committee meanwhile said that Duterte should respect and defend Philippine laws, as well as the rights of his people.

He stressed that liberals across the world call for De Limas immediate release, especially as she is viewed as a highly respected human rights activist fighting against corruption and the rule of law.

The Philippines Liberal Party has condemned the arrest of De Lima as the result of a political vendetta, and has no place in the justice system that upholds the rule of law.

The lawmaker was detained at the Philippine National Polices custodial center in Camp Crame. On Friday, she was presented to the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 204 after her arrest.

Commission on Human Rights chair Chito Gascon described her as "in high spirits" despite her incarceration.

Liberal International was founded in 1947, and stands for free and fair elections, social justice, tolerance, and free trade, among others.

On Thursday, Duterte's chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo said karma was only catching up with the former justice chief. Duterte's allies believe the Aquino administration resorted to political persecution.

Panelo said De Lima's impending arrest was different from the time when the then-justice chief effected the arrest of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2011. A Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge issued the arrest warrant against Arroyo after she was charged with electoral sabotage by the Commission Elections (Comelec).

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Liberal International writes EU to seek help for De Lima - ABS-CBN News

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Roughly80 percent of practicing witches and psychics are politically liberal with 55 percent being strongly liberal, according to a new survey published Thursday.

This Politics of the Paranormal survey polled 1,756attendees at UFO and paranormal conferencesin the U.S. and found that the biggest group of conspiracy theorists were left wing. The seven-month survey asked attendees to identify aseither conservative, strongly conservative, liberal, strongly liberal, or none of the above

Nearly 40 percent of those surveyed self-identified as strongly liberal and a little under 10 percent being liberal. However, the conspiracy theory community is heavily polarized, as roughly 33 percent are strongly conservative and another 8 percent are conservative with roughly 10 percent identifying as neither.

The only major group of conspiracy theorist represented who were conservative were Bigfoot Hunters. The most politically non-aligned group at the conferences was UFO aficionados, 30 percent of whom had no strong political preferences.

Researchers behind the survey admit they were surprised by these results.

Conspiracy kooks were commonly believed to lean right politically, states a summary of the research in Journal of the Bizarre. Yet, when you stop to think about the most popular conspiracies of our time, from the JFK assassination to the 9/11 conspiracy, these conspiracies were championed by liberals.

Liberals arent the only people to believe in psychics however

A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) data dump contained 1,864 instances in which the agencyseriously investigated psychic phenomena, including the use of psychics by law enforcement, research with the Pentagon, using psychics to spy on the Soviet Union and attempts to debunk scientists skeptical of psychic powers.

CIA scientists even tested celebrity psychic Uri Geller in 1973, but the agencys research intopsychic powers does a lot more to prove its shoddy research methods than it does to demonstrate the actual existence of psychic phenomena

The CIAs scientific investigation of psychic power likelyindicate that any science that heavily relies on statistics may have a powerful placebo effect. Researchers are able to remember the hits and forget the misses simply by repeating testing until it produces experimental evidence that meets typical scientific standards for statistics purely by chance.

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Researchers Say 80% Of Self-Proclaimed 'Psychics' Are Liberal - Daily Caller

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Appearing on ITVs Piers Morgans Life Stories, he was asked about David Silvester, a former UKIP councillor who said the 2013 flooding was Gods punishment for gay marriage. This was a deliberate media campaign to make UKIP out to be something that it wasnt, explained Mr. Farage.

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Mr. Silverster had been a councillor for the Conservatives before defecting to UKIP, during which time he has said similar things without them ever being reported. Mr. Farage continued:

It is because of these irrelevant people, who held no position, they happened to join an organisation, and because of these irrelevant people, being demonised by liberal media.

Ive had to live years, frankly, of being frightened of walking out into the street all because the media picked out these people. And because these people attempted to demonise me and give me a bad name, Farage said.

And youre surprised three years on, when I have to live like a virtual prisoner, that Im not happy about it? Will I ever forgive the British media for what theyve done to me? No.

Mr. Farage said UKIPs aim was to advance common-sense policies in which people would struggle to find anything racist.

He was also questioned on former UKIP Member of the European Parliament, Godfrey Bloom, who was recorded using the phrase Bongo Bongo Land. Mr Farage said the wording was wrong, but Mr. Blooms wider point was correct.

Was he right about us sending foreign aid to corrupt regimes all over the world when we could spend it better at home? Of course he was right, he said.

When Mr. Morgan asked about rumours he could move to the U.S., Mr. Farage said he wouldnt consider going anywhere until he is certain Brexit would be implemented fully.

Asked if he would ever consider running for Prime Minister, Mr. Farage added: If this political class let us down on Brexit, then anything can happen.

Ive got to see the Brexit process through, we won the war but we must win the peace. Ill see out my time in the European Parliament, so Ill be there until 2019, he added.

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FARAGE: I 'Lived Like Virtual Prisoner' Due to 'Liberal Media' 'Demonisation' - Breitbart News