The Badlands Brief is your daily drop of Badlands’ takes on the narratives dominating the info war. Read on, and join the conversation in the comments section.
Spectacular! Freedom 250 Opens Year-Long, National Celebration With Washington Monument Illumination
On New Year’s Eve, Freedom 250’s “opening signature moment of a year-long series of marquee national events celebrating the triumph of the American spirit” took place, transforming the Washington Monument into the world’s tallest birthday candle, and used the Monument to tell our Nation’s story in a new and unexpected way.
If you’re in the DC area this weekend, shows play every hour on the hour: January 2, 2026: 7:00 PM - 11:30 PM January 3, 2026: 7:00 PM - 11:30 PM January 4, 2026: 7:00 PM - 11:30 PM January 5, 2026: 7:00 PM - 11:30 PM
Freedom 250 aims to collaborate with state governments, private companies, and civic organizations to spark renewed appreciation for the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that has defined the nation, while helping lay the groundwork for the next quarter-millennium of independence and opportunity.
The effort is designed to coordinate celebrations in every state and internationally by engaging local communities and partners nationwide. The organization will work alongside the White House Task Force 250, federal agencies, and the America250 Commission to plan and execute events commemorating the nation’s founding.
Ashe in America: President Trump told us about Freedom 250 vision last year:
There is a five hour video of that ceremony on the Freedom 250 site, in case you missed it. There will be events in all 50 states, and you can check out the event calendar here. Badlands-forged Teddy Roosevelt’s Presidential Library opening is July 1st, in Medora, ND.
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Treasury Sanctions Oil Firms, Blocks Tankers in Oil Belt Crackdown
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned four companies – Corniola Limited, Krape Myrtle Co LTD, Winky International Limited, and Aries Global Investment LTD – for operating in Venezuela’s oil sector for helping Venezuela evade sanctions.
Four oil tankers were designated as blocked property in connection with these sanctions. OFAC designated the companies under Executive Order 13850: “Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela.” (November 2, 2018)
Transactions by US persons involving these blocked or designated persons are generally prohibited, and violations could lead to civil or criminal penalties.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: There is now a coordinated [trans-national] effort to connect Venezuela and Iran, geopolitically, and at the center of the psyop is none other than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Here is Netanyahu telling NewsMax on New Year’s Eve, “Iran is in cahoots with the Maduro regime. They are exporting terrorism to America.”
Then the very next day, our Treasury Department issues sanctions against Iranian and Venezuelan tech and defense firms, alleging that they are part of this missile program that everybody has suddenly gotten all hot and bothered over.
It couldn’t be more obvious that this is all gaslighting to start a war with Iran, using Venezuela as the proverbial bridge to get us there.
I don’t care how many Trump surrogates bang on the table insisting that Venezuela is evil and needs to be militarily defeated. This is all a massive psyop to start World War Three. (Thankfully, in my opinion, President Trump and President Maduro have been working together since 2017 and are effectively exposing these demons.)
Here is a New Year’s interview with Maduro, who was asked why he is out and about amid five months of nonstop threats against his life by US government officials; why isn’t he hiding in a bunker?
For those who don’t watch the video, which is in Spanish with English subtitles: Maduro then goes on to say that he intends to make Venezuela great again, just like President Trump wants to make America great again, and that both countries can do it through peaceful vocation and not war.
This guy sounds a lot more reasonable and level-headed than Bibi Netanyahu and the psychopaths in the Israeli government.
P.S. The Ayatollah of Iran also issued a Christmas Day proclamation stating that Jesus was sent to save humanity, calling on all to follow in His footsteps.
Are we sure we have been told the truth about Iran?
***
Ashe in America: There is a lot of action over in Treasury regarding Venezuela and Iran and weapons and oil and tankers and sanctions. Those nerds were working through the holiday – and, after checking their sanctions list twice, they updated it.
Treasury added Iranian entities and removed four women and two men from the list. The removed persons were from Russia, Switzerland, Cyprus, and Israel.
“Treasury is holding Iran and Venezuela accountable for their aggressive and reckless proliferation of deadly weapons around the world,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley. “We will continue to take swift action to deprive those who enable Iran’s military-industrial complex access to the U.S. financial system.”
That’s tough talk against Iran’s Military Industrial Complex.
Can we match that energy with America’s?
Free Press? Washington Warns Journalists Against Investigations After Feds Descend on Minnesota – Following Journalist’s Fraud Investigation
Independent journalist Nick Shirley said he is preparing a follow-up video to a previously released investigation alleging fraud in taxpayer-funded childcare and related social service programs. Shirley stated that the new video will examine additional alleged fraud and said he has required security while continuing his reporting.
Following allegations of fraud involving childcare providers in Minnesota, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it is freezing federal child care payments until states can verify that funds are being used for legitimate services. HHS said the action is intended to ensure program integrity while the allegations are reviewed.
In Washington state, Attorney General Nick Brown issued a warning to citizen journalists investigating alleged fraud at Somali-run daycare facilities, stating that uninvited visits, recording, or conduct perceived as harassment could lead to legal consequences, including potential hate-crime-related charges. The warning followed complaints from daycare providers about harassment and safety concerns.
Burning Bright: The unraveling of the Somali fraud network encapsulates the best and worst of the Info War.
The best?
The appearance of a true sovereign collective seizing the story from the grasp of the Media Industrial Complex while forcing a cascade of actuals to ripple across the battlespace.
As for the worst?
The inevitable emergence of celebrity cults, where individual voices—however effective in their deployments—are anointed as saviors, transforming what should be a decentralized hunt for truth into yet another hierarchical echo chamber, ripe for co-optation or controlled opposition.
Yeah, much of the Nick Shirley saga strikes me as cringeworthy in its execution and distasteful in its theatrics.
The teasing of a “crazier” follow-up video as a self-proclaimed “masterpiece,” the invocations of death threats, the breathless anticipation built around claims of personal peril. To me, it smacks less of the relentless pursuit of truth and more of the cultivation of, well, a new cult of personality, one eagerly crowned by the controlled conservatism apparatus as the latest anointed warrior in the fight to “save” America.
That said ... in the War of Stories I’ve been chronicling since I first stepped onto this digital field, the Net Effects refrain has always served me well.
Whether by design, or by the emergence of the collective mind finally asserting itself over the scripted deployments of the System (on either side,) the Net Effects of this deployment have been significant.
Consider the Actuals AND Narratives piling up in the wake of this bombshell, each one an admission by the implicated protectorate that the narrative ground has shifted beneath their feet.
We’ve got federal posturing, with the Department of Health and Human Services freezing payments not just to Minnesota, but nationwide.
This is the Bicameral beauty of Narrative Shielding and Mandate Cultivation—a dynamic that finds its purest expression in the Trump era, in which the administration is granted operational shielding when, and ONLY when the awakened collective pushes with such force and coherence that decisive action and disclosure become the only viable path forward.
Then, the reverse indicators start piling up, with Attorneys General issuing dire warnings to citizen journalists, threatening hate crime charges that act as signals that reinforce the central premise of their reporting in the first place.
And at the panicked core of the Media Industrial Complex itself, outlets like CBS are suddenly pledging to start reporting real news, admitting—publicly, unequivocally—that they’ve been behind the story ... all stories, for years.
Because at the end of every narrative arc, no matter my personal distaste for the theatrics of any individual voice, no matter whether federal agencies are merely posturing for optics or finally activating under public mandate, the Story remains the key to winning a war made of the stuff.
And the Narrative Setters are now admitting they’ve lost it.
***
Ashe in America: While Washington is threatening journalists, the White House is trolling the panicking corrupticrats.
Mamdani Sworn In! Vows to “Replace the Frigidity of Rugged Individualism With the Warmth of Collectivism”
Zohran Mamdani was inaugurated as the 112th mayor of New York City on January 1, 2026, marking several historic firsts: he is the city’s first Muslim mayor, first of South Asian descent, and first born in Africa (in Kampala, Uganda). The inauguration occurred in two parts:
A private midnight swearing-in shortly after New Year’s, administered by New York Attorney General Letitia James in the decommissioned old City Hall subway station. Mamdani placed his hand on two Qurans—one belonging to his grandfather and another from the Schomburg Center.
A larger public ceremony in the afternoon on the steps of City Hall, where U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders administered the ceremonial oath. This was accompanied by an open-to-the-public “Inauguration of a New Era” block party along Broadway in the Canyon of Heroes, drawing tens of thousands despite cold weather. Performances included Javier Muñoz singing the national anthem and Mandy Patinkin with a school chorus.
Notable attendees and speakers included Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who introduced the event), Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, former mayors Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio, Senator Chuck Schumer, and Mamdani’s family—wife Rama Duwaji, mother filmmaker Mira Nair, and father academic Mahmood Mamdani.
In his inaugural address, Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist and former state assemblyman, vowed to govern “expansively and audaciously.” He emphasized uplifting working-class New Yorkers, tackling affordability (especially housing), and ushering in a “new era” of progressive politics.
He promised bold action on campaign pledges like tenant protections and rejected moderating his vision, while pledging to represent all New Yorkers. Immediately after, he signed executive orders focused on housing, including reviving an office to protect tenants and establishing task forces to accelerate development.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: “While Mamdani has said he will keep the [Office to Combat Antisemitism], its function will likely shift. Mamdani’s revocation of prior executive orders includes Adams’s endorsement of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which includes some forms of criticism of Israel.”
#OurBoyMam strikes again.
This is a big one, and something from which Republicuck governors can learn. As we have covered in this News Letter for years, across the country, state legislatures have been officially endorsing the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism, which has been changed and updated even since those laws and executive orders have been signed.
Why are we allowing our government(s) to outsource their guidance to NGOs, especially when that guidance is fluid and subject to change?
USDA Announces Bridge Assistance Payments for Farmers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced commodity payment rates for the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, providing direct financial support to eligible producers.
On December 31, 2025, USDA released the per-acre payment rates by commodity under the program, which offers one-time payments to help farmers manage market disruptions and ongoing economic pressures. The Farmer Bridge Assistance Program is part of a $12 billion farmer support package, with $11 billion designated for direct commodity payments.
The payments are intended to provide short-term financial relief and support operational stability for U.S. agricultural producers.
The Department is also taking steps to eliminate fraud in grant and other farmer support programs. Secretary Brooke L. Rollins directed all USDA agencies and staff offices to immediately adopt and implement the first-ever set of USDA General Terms and Conditions for all future awards.
“Since Day One, the Trump Administration has been working to promote government efficiency, streamline unnecessary regulations, and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in all USDA programs. As we took action to eliminate radical left ideology and foreign adversaries within these programs, we quickly realized the herculean task of updating over 100 sets of terms and conditions, some of which didn’t even have termination clauses, each time a new policy or priority was announced,” Rollins said.
“Today’s action not only reduces government bureaucracy and makes it easier for USDA customers to access our programs, but it also strengthens our ability to take swift action when recipients and cooperators—and even recipients of subawards and subcontracts—are not compliant with Federal law and applicable Executive Orders.”
Ashe in America: If you watched Culture of Change on Monday, then you know that farmer “bailouts” often mean using farmers to, effectively, launder money.
The global corporations set the prices for both the inputs and outputs (of whatever ag-based sector), and they remove the floors, erase margins, and force small and medium farms into massive debt. The bailouts service the debt, passing through the farmers and, once again, government transfers wealth from Americans to corporations.
The producers, the farmers, end up in exactly the same place they were before the super benevolent “bail out” – maybe they bought themselves time, but the predatory dynamic is still in play.
Talking to farmers, the solutions lie in regenerative farming, which is a massive transformation and will require investment that feels impossible when they’re in the hole; still, on the same day, Rollins announced regenerative farming is a top five research priority for USDA.
I hope that means we’re going to heal our soil, prioritize American producers, and make farmers great again.
I’m not holding my breath, but I really do hope for that – and I also can see a path where it’s possible.
America First.
Israeli-American CEO Calls to Limit the First Amendment to “Protect It”
On December 29, 2025, Shlomo Kramer, Israeli-American CEO of Cato Networks, joined CNBC and argued for limiting the First Amendment to “protect it” against AI-generated deepfakes and misinformation that could polarize society.
Kramer proposes AI-driven “authenticity scores” for social media content and greater government-platform control to verify information, framing these as essential for national security amid rising cyber warfare risks.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: If you have noticed your social media feed being flooded with revisionist history that the America was founded on “Judeo-Christian values” – a term that had never been used in print media prior to the 1960s and wasn’t adopted into the cultural lexicon until the 1980s (look it up) — you should also notice that Israeli billionaires, politicians, and influencers are now suddenly challenging the idea of Free Speech and the First Amendment.
At some point, the Christian Zionists will hopefully relent and admit that they were duped into adopting a foreign ideology that fundamentally rejects Western Civilization as well as the teachings of Jesus Christ. I pray that God grants them the wisdom and humility to receive that revelation.
Understand that Israel was founded by Eastern European Socialists (many of which were openly Bolsheviks) who created a nation that champions the idea that the security of the state is greater than any one individual, and that is the ethos that Shlomo Kramer is championing when he calls for the First Amendment to be limited, “so that it can be saved.”
We really need to stop listening to these foreigners and tell them all to go home and stop bothering us with their misguided “wisdom.”
BONUS ITEMS
Zelenskyy: 90% Ready for Peace…The Remaining 10% is Everything, Though
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a New Year address Wednesday, speaking for 20-minute speech.
“Ten percent remains…those 10 percent contain, in fact, everything…Those are the 10 percent that will determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live.”
“Have our arguments been heard? We very much hope so. Have they agreed with us? Not fully. Not yet. That is precisely why, for now, we speak of 90 percent, not the full 100 percent, readiness of a peace agreement.”
“Budapest-style piece of paper will not satisfy Ukraine.”
“What does Ukraine want? Peace? Yes. At any cost? No. We want the end of the war — not the end of Ukraine.”
New Transcript! Jack Smith Defended Investigations Before House Judiciary on December 17th
On New Year’s Eve, Republicans released the transcript of former prosecutor Jack Smith’s appearance before a closed door House Judiciary session a couple weeks earlier. Smith vigorously defended his actions and rejected accusations of political motivation and weaponization of government.
“The president was preying on the party allegiance of people who supported him,” Smith said. “The evidence that I felt was most powerful was the evidence that came from people in his own party who…put country before party and were willing to tell the truth to him, even though it could mean trouble for them.”
According to the transcript, “discussion of Volume Two of the special counsel’s reports and any information or conclusions in Volume Two or in drafts thereof is specifically prohibited by Judge Cannon’s January 21st, 2025, order. This morning, just over an hour ago, the Department of Justice sent us an email affirming its view that Judge Cannon’s order applies to Mr. Smith and that it precludes him from disclosing any nonpublic information that may be contained in Volume Two, including but not limited to interview transcripts, search warrant materials, business records, toll records, video footage, records obtained by grand jury subpoenas, attorney-client communications, and potential for Rule 404(b) evidence. This restriction significantly limits Mr. Smith’s ability to discuss the classified documents case.”
The classified documents case was still raised 46 times. At least on paper, the closed door session was dramatic. “I have no doubt that the president wants to seek retribution against me,” Smith said.
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The opinions expressed in the Badlands Brief are those of the tagged authors and do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or positions of Badlands Media.
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Love the format. Like "our take" is replaced with author, so we know who we are reading without having to scroll down. And I also love not mentioning the libtard sources.
Love the format. Like "our take" is replaced with author, so we know who we are reading without having to scroll down. And I also love not mentioning the libtard sources.
Great job!
we have to limit it to protect it™️
we have to pass it to see whats in it™️
same old shit. if it worked the last time…