Badlands News Brief

The Media Machine Panics as Battle Lines Are Drawn

The News Cycle is almost impossible to track these days. At least, to do so fully.

That’s where we come in.

In the Badlands News Brief, the Badlands Media team hand pick news items of interest from the previous days to give you an overview of the biggest goings-on relevant to the Truth Community with some Badlands flavoring to help wash it down.

Before we get into the meat of today’s Brief, we want to take a moment to thank our sponsor, and to let our Badlands readers know about a fantastic deal they’re offering.

New Badlands sponsor Luv Litters is currently offering free shipping on their fantastic natural pet litter. You can take advantage of this offer by clicking the image below.

Now, onto the news from Monday, October 28 …

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The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media

In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.

Let me give an analogy. Voting machines must meet two requirements. They must count the vote accurately, and people must believe they count the vote accurately. The second requirement is distinct from and just as important as the first.

Likewise with newspapers. We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.

Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one. Eugene Meyer, publisher of The Washington Post from 1933 to 1946, thought the same, and he was right. By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates is not enough to move us very far up the trust scale, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction. I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy. — WAPO Op Ed by Jeff Bezos

And …

Behind the Curtain: The big media era is over

The mainstream media's dominance in narrative- and reality-shaping in presidential elections shattered in 2024.

The future of news and information is upon us. Welcome to the shards of glass election — and news era.

Why it matters: How and where Americans get informed has broken into scores of pieces — from young men on Joe Rogan's podcasts, to suburban women following Instagram influencers.

Both campaigns have targeted small, often little-appreciated shards to reach hyper-specific pockets of potential voters. The campaigns are doing this with unorthodox, sometimes lengthy media appearances and precision ad targeting.

Former President Trump reached way more potential male voters with his three-hour Rogan conversation (33 million views over the weekend) than he could have with a dozen or more appearances on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC combined. All three cable news networks skew very old in viewership, with median ages ranging from 67 to 70.

Vice President Kamala Harris reached more young women on Alex Cooper's "Call Her Daddy" podcast, a show about sex and relationships, than she could on CBS' "60 Minutes" and ABC's "The View" combined. Both shows skew very old, too.

Memes, prediction markets and long-form podcast interviews shape the conversation as surely as any front page.

This new fragmented reality is the future — not just of elections, but also for how America learns about business, products, technology, culture and current events. — Axios

Our Take: The picture would be worth a thousand words, but Amazon owner and self-described elite Jeff Bezos did us one better, and actually WROTE 1,000 words to defend his decision to NOT interfere in an election.

This comes on the heels of Op eds that have been flooding the Info War over the course of the last week, wherein the screeching communist harpies that have decreed themselves official narrative-setters for the entire country realize with mounting dread and panic that they've lost complete control of the story, which, as I have been saying for over two years, IS the war.

Bloomberg actually referred to the media death spiral as a "doom loop," while Axios put it so directly in their own panic piece, it could have been written by an Anon: "the mainstream media's dominance in narrative and reality-shaping in presidential elections shattered in 2024."

Now, we have Bezos being swarmed by the very communist worker bees he once lorded over.

In Game Theory, chaos begets control.

Enjoy it. —

Burning Bright

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BRICS Just Dropped A Manifesto For The New World Order

This week’s Kazan Declaration suggests that the BRICS – in its expanded composition– is ready to open a new chapter in its history.

Never before have such voluminous documents been adopted as a result of the group’s summits.

Moreover, the Kazan Declaration will be the subject of great interest in the world’s political and academic circles, as well as the object of criticism by opponents of BRICS.

For the first time, the group’s unified vision of the current state of the international system is set out in detail.

The Declaration is a voluminous document containing 134 paragraphs, some of which are quite long. The statement adopted at the previous summit in Johannesburg in August 2023, contained only 94 paragraphs, and a document, adopted in Beijing in July 2022 had 75. Thus, year by year the outcome has become increasingly detailed and, as it is now customary to say, substantive, reflecting the gradual increase in the intensity of the group’s engagement and the broadening of the substantive scope of its multilateral cooperation.

The Kazan Declaration consists of a preamble and four sections dealing with:

(1) strengthening multilateralism,

(2) global and regional security,

(3) financial and economic cooperation, and

(4) humanitarian exchanges.

[…]

We can assume that it was not easy to find a common denominator on the situation in Gaza, given the very different positions of, for example, Iran and the UAE on Israel. The statement on the need to respect the territorial integrity of Syria could be interpreted as an implicit criticism of the Turkish military presence in that country, which Damascus has not explicitly authorized. It was probably easier to agree on less contentious issues, such as the ongoing nation-building crisis in Haiti, which is why the paragraph on this was relatively long and detailed. The same applies to the issue of international terrorism, which appears to be quite detailed; approaches to international terrorism seem to have been shared, if not fully agreed, among the group members from the outset. — Andrey Kortunov

Our Take: See what I mean when I say that the Middle East is a complex politic quagmire? And yet, the Middle East has never been as united as it is right now, at this moment in time.

And that's all thanks to the Sovereign Alliance, which this Kazan Declaration implicitly references.

BRICS does not even aim to ‘balance’ the West in any way. The BRICS will never be able to become a kind of G7, given the diversity of its members and the absence of a clear hegemonic leader in the group. Nevertheless, the group is capable of claiming, and is already openly doing so, a new, more prominent role in global governance and in defining the parameters of the new world order.

Based.

Putin declared that the BRICS movement represents a "New World Order," an obvious troll to George Bush, Sr, who made the same statement back in the 90's, referring to the globalist hegemony.

Did you know that Hollywood Hulk Hogan also once had his own New World Order?

It was one of those "stables" (gangs) that I mentioned the other day. Branded the "nWo", it represented a major milestone in Hogan's career, when he turned from hero to "heel" (antagonist) in the WWE central narrative at the 1996 summer pay-per-view event. Hogan said those in the nWo were in "for life"—kinda like a cult—and staged antics such as entering the arena with the Hells Angels.

Some of you may recall that this same biker gang volunteered to work security for Trump rallies back in 2016. What's even more interesting is that back on May 20 of this year, Trump had an eerily similar moment to Hulk Hogan, when he entered a New York courtroom with an entourage so large that they ran out of seating. Among the entourage was Chuck Zito, former president of the New York chapter of the Hells Angels.

TrumpaMania, baby. (Enjoy the show.) —

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry

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A Seismic Election Sends Asia’s Most Stable Democracy Into Chaos

For years, Japan has managed to resist the populist waves that have swept Europe and the United States as disaffected electorates have demanded radical change.

But as voters handed the longtime governing party of Japan a resounding blow in snap parliamentary elections on Sunday, there were signs that their frustration could convert one of the region’s most stable democracies into a much more chaotic one.

On the surface, it appeared that the center had held. Even though the Liberal Democratic Party, which has dominated Japanese politics for most of the postwar era, lost its majority in the lower house of Parliament, the Constitutional Democrats, who won the second-most seats behind the L.D.P., are another relatively centrist party.

But minority parties on the far left and far right both gained seats. And while Shigeru Ishiba, who was selected by the Liberal Democrats as prime minister only a month ago, blamed the party’s dismal showing on a protracted political finance scandal, analysts said the sense of grievance among voters went far deeper.

“The last 30 years of stagnation and the deterioration of the living standards, especially for young people — the frustration is there,” said Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat who is now a special adviser at the Canon Institute for Global Studies in Tokyo. — NYT

Our Take: We are one week out from Election Day, and Japan is showing us a glimpse of one possible outcome for next Tuesday’s climax.

Japanese voters allegedly rejected the ruling coalition, and its month-old Prime Minister, largely because of inflation and monetary policy, according to the mainstream reporting.

But accompanying the “shocking” election outcome are reports of fake voters, concerning irregularities, and challenge lawsuits. From the left.

This is not unexpected — or unprecedented — this year. As Time reported in December 2023, 2024 is THE election year.

From that Time article:

“2024 is not just an election year. It’s perhaps the election year. Globally, more voters than ever in history will head to the polls as at least 64 countries…representing a combined population of about 49% of the people in the world.”

Now that we are nearing the end of 2024, let’s check in on the results. This is long, but see if you can see a realignment emerging from of “global democracy.”

First, consider that, like in Japan, there are widespread claims of election irregularities.

In Bangladesh, the incumbent won, then resigned and fled the country. New elections were promised. The military in Pakistan were accused of rigging the election against Imran Khan’s party, but his party took the legislature while the “military backed candidate” took the PM spot. Lukashenko shored up his support in Belarus in an election that US diplomats called a “sham.” Claims of EU meddling in Moldova may also upend their election earlier this month. Pro western voices in Georgia, whose election was also held Monday, are claiming “Russian meddling” and asking the west to step in.

After the Iranian president died in a helicopter crash earlier this year, a reported “reformer” was elected, promising to increase diplomacy with the west. Incumbents and their parties retained victory in Rwanda, Syria, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, Mozambique, Venezuela, Algeria, and Jordan, in contests that western leaders refer to as ceremonial or even illegitimate.

The “tight contest narrative is also on full global display. EU voters shook up the parliament, though Ursula remained in power through a slim majority. In Finland, the NATO- and EU-backed candidate beat the gay populist with 51% of the vote. In the Solomon Islands, slim majorities led to the incumbent’s party performing below expectations, and the PM resigned. The same thing happened in France.

In India, Modi’s party lost their legislative majority, though Modi retained power. Tight margins favored the legislative incumbents in Belgium and Mongolia, while challengers won in San Marino, Lithuania, and Bulgaria. The latter called for new elections, which took place yesterday and are still being counted as of press time. The Sunday Presidential elections in Uruguay and Uzbekistan are also still being counted.

Tight margins are all over, but so are landslide victories.

Putin won 90% of the vote in Russia. El Salvador elected Bukele with ~85% of the vote. South Korea’s pro-west incumbent suffered a landslide defeat, and Maldives populists won a “shock landslide” victory, leading to western cries for a tourism boycott.

Western influences in elections was a big factor in 2024, particularly the fact that western influence just isn’t what it used to be.

For example, the populist won in Indonesia, despite having been condemned by the US for human rights violations. Slovakia elected a pro-Russian president and Austria delivered a pro-Russia legislature, though the latter is now struggling to form a governing coalition. The “far right” — LOL — won in Portugal, upending two decades of socialist rule.

In Panama and North Macedonia, the “right wing” populists won both the presidency and the legislature. Bhutan and Taiwan flipped their legislatures.

Then there is the dictatorial sounding results, though note that these factoids are coming from western press.

In Senegal, the populist opposition leader won the presidency, then later dissolved the parliament, calling for systemic transformation. The new monarch in Kuwait, who came into power in 2023, also dissolved his country’s parliament before their 2024 legislative elections. Togo passed a constitutional reform banning presidential elections at all. Chad went 61% for the western-dubbed “ruling junta.”

International observers cry fraud on all of this.

The globalist west wasn’t without their wins, however. Pro-western incumbents in Croatia won a majority in the legislature. Incumbents won in the Dominican Republic and Lithuania, Mauritania.

Still, it seems the people, globally, are leaning towards change. Incumbent parties lost their majorities in Madagascar and South Africa, and a political outsider won in a landslide in Iceland, reportedly for promising to rise above all politics.

And now Japan rejected their incumbent and voted against global/western monetary policy, and ostensibly other policies, with rising cries of fraud.

When you zoom out, it does seem that there is a multipolar realignment happening. With many of these races still to be counted or actively being contested, next Tuesday comes squarely into focus.

Can US elections produce a legitimate and trustworthy outcome despite the abject failure of US efforts to “spread democracy” around the world?

It doesn’t seem likely, but let’s see what happens. —

Ashe in America

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What Elon Musk's conversations with Putin could mean for the U.S. government

Elon Musk's alleged conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin have raised national security questions highlighting the U.S. government's reliance on SpaceX, the tech billionaire's astronautics company.

Why it matters: The situation puts the government in the difficult position of choosing to continue its relationship with Musk despite the liability he could pose, or sever ties and lose access to services it relies on.

Driving the news: Musk has been in "regular contact" with Putin since 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

SpaceX has contracts with the Department of Defense, which relies on the company to get its satellites into orbit.

SpaceX also has multiple contracts with NASA which relies on the company's rocket launches to take astronauts into space and bring supplies to the International Space Station.

The big picture: Musk acknowledged while campaigning for former President Trump at a Pennsylvania town hall earlier this month that he has a "top-secret" security clearance, the Journal reported. — Axios

And …

NASA chief and Democratic lawmakers urge investigation into reports of Musk-Putin conversations

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation into The Wall Street Journal's report that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Several Washington officials began pushing for a probe less than a day after The Journal — citing several current and former US, European, and Russian officials — reported that Musk and Putin have had regular calls since 2022 in which they have discussed "personal topics, business, and geopolitical tensions."

Musk has not responded to requests for comment from Business Insider. In a statement on X, which Musk reposted, the official SpaceX account described The Journal's report as an "incredibly misleading story" based on "completely unsubstantiated claims from unnamed sources."

On Friday, Nelson told Semafor that calls between Musk, the richest man in the world, and Putin "would be concerning" if true, particularly for NASA and the Department of Defense. Nelson added The Journal's report should be investigated but did not specify by which agency.

The same day, Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told Politico that the Defense Department should investigate Musk to ensure his alleged actions aren't "to the detriment" of the country's national security. — Business Insider

Our Take: Elon is quickly becoming one of the great characters of TrumpaMania. His storylines are getting absurd—and I'm here for it.

The spat with Maduro was high comedy, and now we get a spat with the dorks over at NASA.

I don't know whether Patrick's musings on Flat Earth are right—though I'm confident that we will get a definitive answer, one way or the other, as part of the legacy of President Donald Trump—but where we can all absolutely agree is that NASA is a limited hangout psyop; Because, at the very least, NASA has lied to us about the knowledge we have "lost" that once took us to the moon with relatively primitive technology, and in all likelihood, the footage of the "space walk" from 1969 was some sort of propaganda product that was related to the Cold War.

Don't get me wrong: we love nerds around these parts. (I'm a history nerd.) The nerds who can take all of these cool conceptual ideas that we've routinely discussed on Badlands, regarding futuristic technology, and make them a physical reality. Frankly, we desperately need more of those men.

(Sidenote: A lot of people who attended GART Deadwood said the "Futurism" panel, which was the final panel of the weekend, was their favorite. I think I agree. Those are some of the most fun discussions.)

But we're not talking about the nerds when we talk about NASA, because the nerds work at SpaceX and Tesla. The goons at NASA are dorks.

For example, take this clown, Bill Nelson, who is referenced in the headline of the article. Let us, please, take a moment to laugh at Bill's appearance. Look at that face. Total conman.

The Director of NASA. Wow! He must be really smart.

Actually, Bill was just appointed to this position back in May 2021 by Joe Biden. Before that, Bill was a Democrat Senator for 20 years, who helped pass ObamaCare. Before that, he was a Florida lawmaker for 28 years—starting in 1972. That's right. The Director of NASA was a career politician for nearly 50 years.

(Feel free to go back now and laugh at Bill's face, if you didn't take the opportunity earlier.)

Bill also managed to join the Army Reserves during Vietnam, "attaining the rank of Captain," though as far as I can tell, he never actually deployed. (Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" intensifies... )

There is no doubt in my mind that Bill Nelson has some horrifying secrets in his closet. His biography just reeks of privilege and grift. He epitomizes everything that is wrong with our government, and the rotting culture of degeneracy that infects the nation's capital.

I look forward to the day that all the criminals are run out of DC, so we can get back to talking about the cool nerdy stuff that will make our collective future great.

Until then, I will leave you with a video that Elon—the US government's #1 military contractor that is allegedly having routine conversations with Vladimir Putin—just posted on X.

(Please note the Hulk Hogan and TrumpaMania references. Elon gets it.) —

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry

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Virginia asks US Supreme Court to permit voter roll purge aimed at suspected noncitizens

Virginia Republican officials asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to allow the state to implement a program to remove suspected noncitizens from the voter rolls, in one of the first major voting cases to reach the high court ahead of next week’s presidential election.

The appeal has political salience as former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have seized on the case as part of a false narrative of widespread voting by people in the country illegally.

It is one of several election-related suits that have already landed at the Supreme Court or that are expected to arrive in the final days before the November 5 election. Those cases are arriving amid an incredibly close contest between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris and as polls show widespread distrust in the Supreme Court.

The election, already underway as millions of Americans cast early votes, has prompted a flood of litigation. But a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that a 56% of registered voters say they have just some or no trust in the Supreme Court to make the right decisions on any legal cases relating to the contest.

There’s a substantial political split in those numbers, with Trump supporters roughly twice as likely as Harris supporters to express at least a moderate amount of trust in the court. — CNN

Our Take: Virginia went to the Supreme Court Monday, taking on the DOJ demands to keep noncitizens on VA voter rolls. The high court is expected to rule in the days before November 5th.

This case is bizarre on its face. The “voters” in question are self identified noncitizens. They are legally ineligible to vote, and the only reason removing them is contentious is that the DOJ intervened and demanded the ineligible names remain on the rolls.

Here’s the thing. Virginia could procedurally flag the fake identities in their system and prevent their ballots from being cast, then remove them after the election period. They likely have done that, but they’re also insisting on making this a public fight, open for all of us to witness, during the election period.

From a change management standpoint, this has great educational value. The election period, and particularly the two weeks that bookend Election Day, is the maximum exposure period, when the greatest number of Americans are tuned into the narrative.

People are watching.

Also, you can’t just tell people about systemic election fraud. You have to show them. And to show them, they have to be tuned in. The timing of VA making their arguments — and of the DOJ’s coming response brief — ensures maximum visibility for Election Day and the weeks that follow.

Now consider that this high court saga is accompanied by election fraud schemes being publicly disclosed in Pennsylvania and Colorado, and that early voting machine failures — literal vote swapping — has been reported in Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia.

Better, the VA case encompasses all three branches of government — VA Governor, VA legislation, VA lower courts — and it also features constitutional questions about federal vs. state government authorities.

These critical questions about our institutional structures and divisions of authority are coming before the high court during the period of maximum exposure.

Change happens one conversation at a time. Sometimes that conversation happens before the US Supreme Court.

You can’t tell people. You have to show them.

And people are watching. —

Ashe in America

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Trump: "Kamala Is Just A Vessel; We Are Running Against Something Far More Powerful"

During a historic rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden, president Trump urged that Kamala Harris is purely “a vessel” and in reality the MAGA movement is fighting against “something far more powerful.”

Trump told the crowd, “We are not just running against Kamala — She means nothing. She is purely a vessel — We are running against something far bigger than Joe or Kamala and more powerful than them, which is a massive, vicious, crooked, radical left machine that runs today’s Democrat Party.” — Modernity News

Our Take: The MSM knew before most normies did that Kamala Harris wasn't it.

But they also believed the central narrative had become so entrenched in the American mind that they could simply keep telling the story of Kamala the candidate en route to another run.

But Kamala has been far worse than any of them could have imagined, which is to say, she's been far better for the continued process of awakening than even the dried out husk of a Deep State politician she was thrust into a de facto coup against in the waning days of his fake administration.

When Trump refers to Kamala Harris as "purely a vessel," he's branding her with the sort of permanent precision with which he's branded all of his other vanquished political enemies in the interim.

It's not that Kamala is evil, or corrupt, or hateful, though she is all of those things.

It's that Kamala is empty, vapid and disconcertingly inert.

She lacks anything to build a story around.

And in a war made of them ... that's not a great plan. —

Burning Bright

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Putin Answers Questions On "Secret Meetings" With Trump And North Korean Troops

The far-left media have been debunked at every turn when it comes to the Russiagate narrative.  Both Trump and Putin have denied any relationship and all the "evidence" that supposedly ties Trump to Putin has been exposed as fabricated.  After nearly a decade of intense scrutiny if there was any legitimate collusion between Trump and Russia it would have been found by now. 

Putin quickly pointed out that inquiries by US officials have found no collusion involving Trump and that the claims are nonsense.  That should be the end of it, but again, the western media is not interested in facts, they're interested in narratives.

[…]

Putin talked extensively on the reasons for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, arguing that it was NATO involvement in sparking the Maidan Revolution in 2014 that led to Russia's decision to go to war.  He also asserted that foreign military elements from NATO countries are heavily involved in Ukraine's defensive efforts on the ground, stating that "we are aware" what's really going on. 

The Russian leader seems to be suggesting here that if Ukraine can invite foreign assets into the war, then so can Russia.

As for the presence of North Korean troops in Russia, Putin doesn't deny it.  Satellite images and some leaked video seem to show North Korean soldiers in training areas near the eastern coast of Russia, but this is thousands of miles away from the Ukrainian front.  There is no evidence that North Koreans are currently fighting in Ukraine.  If this ends up being the intent, then yes, it would be considered an escalation by NATO, but not necessarily a rationale for NATO troops to enter the war. — ZeroHedge

Our Take:

This is such a brilliant move by Putin.

The clown from NBC, of course, barraged Putin with a bunch of inflammatory questions that were designed to provoke Putin into either affirming the implied allegations that President Trump and Putin are "colluding," or to get Putin to say negative things about Donald Trump. The circus clown also accused Putin of using NorK's (North Korean soldiers) in Ukraine against NATO's Jewish-Nazis.

Putin responded brilliantly by pointing out that Russia and North Korea have signed a security pact, and part of that agreement stipulates that either party assist the other, militarily, should the other party be invaded by foreign forces.

Unfortunately for the circus clown and the crime syndicate for which he speaks, NATO decided to invade Kursk—which is Russian territory. That means that under Article 4 of the security agreement with Kim Jong Un, North Korea is required to assist Russia in destroying all NATO and Ukrainian soldiers found on Russian soil.

The hypocrites in the globalist crime syndicate are eager to get Ukraine—and others—to join NATO mainly because any country that joins NATO can be used to invoke Article 5 of the NATO charter, should that country be invaded, by say, Russia. And because Ukraine is on the border of Russia, that makes Ukraine the best vehicle to invoke Article 5 and get the West in an all-out war with Russia.

Putin plainly stated that he and Trump have spoken, but that multiple investigations—including one by Congress—had concluded that nothing inappropriate had transpired.

So, have Trump and Putin been colluding this whole time? You're damn right they have—and we thank God for it.

As Putin clearly stated at the BRICS summit, he is creating a New World Order, and that order is best known as the Sovereign Alliance. —

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry

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BONUS ITEMS

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Extremists inspired by conspiracy theories pose major threat to 2024 elections, U.S. intelligence warns

U.S. intelligence agencies have identified domestic extremists with grievances rooted in election-related conspiracy theories, including beliefs in widespread voter fraud and animosity toward perceived political opponents, as the most likely threat of violence in the coming election. 

In a Joint Intelligence Bulletin that was not distributed publicly but was reviewed by NBC News, agents from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warn state and local law enforcement agencies that domestic violent extremists seeking to terrorize and disrupt the vote are a threat to the election and throughout Inauguration Day. 

The report identified the potential targets as candidates, elected officials, election workers, members of the media and judges involved in election cases. The potential threats include physical attacks and violence at polling places, ballot drop boxes, voter registration locations and rallies and campaign events. — NBC News

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Fires at election drop boxes destroy hundreds of ballots in Washington, Oregon

Officials in Washington and Oregon are investigating fires set Monday morning in two ballot drop boxes that destroyed hundreds of ballots in the final days of the 2024 election.

Why it matters: The arson comes as vote-by-mail voting has faced legal and political challenges, with litigation across the country and a growing web of election-related conspiracy theories.

Washington and Oregon, where the drop boxes were set ablaze, both hold vote-by-mail elections.

The latest: The FBI's Portland Office confirmed Monday it is investigating both incidents "to determine who is responsible."

Local police said the fires appear to be "very similar" to a third incident that also occurred earlier this month.

Driving the news: Portland Police Bureau said in a statement that officers responded to the scene of a fire around 3:30 a.m. Monday, where they discovered "an incendiary device" inside a ballot drop box that was used to start the fire.

The Multnomah County Elections Division in Oregon said in a statement that only three ballots were damaged, while the rest were protected by fire suppressant in the box. Voters with damaged ballots will be contacted, per the release.

Zoom out: In nearby Vancouver, a separate fire damaged hundreds of ballots. — Axios

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We hope you enjoyed this brief look back at the major news items you might have missed in this ever-escalating and ever-accelerating news cycle as the Information War continues to rage on around us.

As always, if you have any thoughts on these news items or the MANY others swirling in the digital ether, drop into the comments below to share them with your fellow Badlanders.

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