Badlands Brief
Mixed Gender Crews, Trafficking Stings, & Shadow Cabal Reruns
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.
Democrats Planning Another “Cabal” Effort to Fortify the Midterms
Politico is reporting that Senate Democrats are conducting private strategy sessions and scenario-planning exercises ahead of the 2026 midterms, focused on potential election disruptions, foreign interference, federal law-enforcement activity at polling places, and post-election legal disputes.
Democratic lawmakers, election officials, and outside advisers are developing litigation, communications, and response plans for a range of hypothetical scenarios. Democrats have also complained that they are receiving limited election-security briefings from the Trump administration.
The effort has drawn comparisons from critics to the cross-institutional coordination described in a 2021 Time magazine article that characterized the 2020 election as being “fortified” through cooperation among activists, election officials, labor groups, and private-sector organizations. Politico frames the current planning as a defensive effort to prepare for possible election-related conflicts during the 2026 midterms.
Ashe in America: Is this a remake or a rerun?
“Schumer last week convened a slate of experts that included former Attorney General Eric Holder, prominent Democratic election attorney Marc Elias, election-law expert Norman Eisen and the heads of the left-leaning legal group Democracy Forward and the nonpartisan, nonprofit Protect Democracy. They helped senators prepare for a trio of possible scenarios and boost coordination with state and local leaders who directly oversee election administration and voter turnout operations.”
Remember this?
“There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs… The scenario the shadow campaigners were desperate to stop was not a Trump victory. It was an election so calamitous that no result could be discerned at all, a failure of the central act of democratic self-governance that has been a hallmark of America since its founding. Their work touched every aspect of the election. They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears. They executed national public-awareness campaigns that helped Americans understand how the vote count would unfold over days or weeks, preventing Trump’s conspiracy theories and false claims of victory from getting more traction. After Election Day, they monitored every pressure point to ensure that Trump could not overturn the result. ‘The untold story of the election is the thousands of people of both parties who accomplished the triumph of American democracy at its very foundation,’ says Norm Eisen, a prominent lawyer and former Obama Administration official who recruited Republicans and Democrats to the board of the Voter Protection Program.”
That astounding admission in TIME was published on February 4, 2021 – and they’re about to do it again.
Same people, too. The current shadow cabal and 2020 shadow cabal are both the brain-children of Norm Eisen and his minions. Marc Elias is strategizing election interference instead of preparing for his inevitable criminal trial, which is a bit discouraging.
Still, it’s encouraging that they’re announcing their plans to psy-op the nation in advance this time. Last time they waited three months before bragging about their successful efforts to steal the election.
I hope this is a remake instead of a rerun and that they change the ending.
Trump Cancels ‘Bomb the Shit Out of Them’ Campaign After Talks With Iranian Regime ... Again… Then Announces a DEAL
President Donald Trump appeared to pull back from another round of threatened military escalation against Iran after signaling that negotiations with Tehran may be nearing a breakthrough. Just days after warning that the US would “bomb the shit out of them” if Iran failed to reach an agreement, Trump said a major peace deal could be signed soon and indicated planned strikes had been suspended while talks continue.
The diplomatic shift comes despite continued clashes in and around the Strait of Hormuz. US forces have carried out strikes on Iranian targets and enforced a naval blockade on Iranian shipping, while Iran has launched retaliatory missile and drone attacks and threatened broader disruption of regional energy flows. Both sides accuse the other of repeatedly violating ceasefire arrangements.
Iran has publicly stated that no final agreement has been approved and that key issues remain unresolved, including sanctions relief and other negotiating demands. Iranian officials have simultaneously warned that any renewed US attack would trigger an even harsher response than previous exchanges.
LATE NIGHT UPDATE: A proposed memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz without tolls and provide sanctions relief tied to Iranian compliance, according to details of a draft agreement reported by Axios on June 12. The proposal would also extend a ceasefire for 60 days, including in Lebanon, while the parties conduct negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.
Axios reported that negotiators reached a tentative agreement Wednesday night following talks involving Qatari mediator Ali Al-Thawadi and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The outlet cited diplomats and U.S. officials familiar with the negotiations.
Under the reported framework, Iran would commit not to acquire a nuclear weapon and would work toward resolving disputes over its enriched uranium stockpile. Axios reported that one option under discussion would involve down-blending highly enriched uranium within Iran under United Nations supervision, though any nuclear-program measures would require a subsequent and more detailed agreement.
President Trump said he expected a signing ceremony over the weekend. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tehran had not yet made a final decision on the proposal. Axios reported that, if signed, the accord would be known as the “Islamabad agreement” and was mediated jointly by Qatar and Pakistan.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: The timing of this was critical because it seems that everybody’s mind was breaking as of yesterday—even those in this very chat.
Look, I get it: Trump’s schizophrenic behavior is not for the faint of heart. I spent an inordinate amount of time closely studying it for the sake of pattern recognition, and I feel pretty confident in saying that he wasn’t doing it to “wake up the normies.” In fact, I don’t think the whiplash messaging was even meant for the public. I think Trump was doing it to shatter the minds of his enemies—the people in the so-called GOP who had already anointed themselves as the future of MAGA and therefore, implicitly, Trump’s successors.
For example, Nancy Mace. Years ago, I recall Mace doing a bunch of shady things that demonstrated that she could not be trusted and was definitely not a true populist leader in this movement. She was basically an Instagram THOT who was recruited to lure men back into the rocky shoals of the Uniparty. The highlight of her career was that awkward congressional hearing she convened last year to tell everybody that a nude video of her had been leaked by her ex-fiancé and she was super embarassed about it, then proceeded to show images of her nude silhouette which she had blown up and physically printed on boards. She even had the print shop place a yellow circle around her nude body so that it would be easy for the audience to find.
Not only did Mace’s ex-fiance, Patrick Bryant, categorically deny her claims and promise to take steps to clear his name, but the four other men she identified in the hearing and accused of spreading the video filed a defamation lawsuit against her to prove their innocence.
All of this tracks, as Mace’s social media activity was pretty much just selfies of her cleavage with platitudes about fighting corruption in DC.
Thankfully, President Trump broke Mace by endorsing one of her primary opponents in the six-man field for South Caroline governor. Mace came in last place with 12% of the vote, failing to advance to the run-off election scheduled for June 23rd.
Mace then took to X, vowing to seek revenge against President Trump for “ending her political career.”
She later held a press conference where she publicly endorsed Alan Wilson in the run-off election, saying she wanted to help him defeat Trump-endorsed Lt Governor Pamela Evette.
Look how quickly this harpy turned on President Trump and MAGA, after spending years grifting off of Trump’s name and policy platform. This is why it had to be this way. This is why Trump had to activate the discombobulator and turn it on the American government.
But it wasn’t just Nancy Mace. There were others whose minds were broken by Trump’s antics concerning Iran.
Let’s look next at Mark Levin, who has spent years pretending to love Trump after publicly rebuking him in the 2016 election.
When Trump canceled the planned attacks and announced that a deal was imminent, here’s what Levin posted.
MOAR
Mark is so broken that he is now taking the second-hand reporting about the Iranians’ word over Trump’s.
Look how mad.
(Hezbollah didn’t kill those 241 Marines in 1983; it was a group called Islamic Jihad—and later we learned from Mossad whistleblower Victor Ostrovsky that Israel knew about the forthcoming attack and refused to tell the US because they wanted those Marines to die so America would come fight in the Middle East.)
Here’s Lindsey Graham—who has been radio silent on the Iran-Israel conflict for the past week or two, because he had a primary election on Tuesday which he won after receiving Trump’s endorsement. Now that Lindsey’s primary is over and Trump has announced plans to make peace with the Ayatollah, the knives are coming out.
Lindsey implying that Trump is a chickenhawk like Obama. That’s rich. But it follows an attack vector that others in Mossad Media utilized yesterday.
Laura Loomer, citing reports from Netanyahu’s office that they are not part of this deal, openly subverting President Trump.
Loomer sharpening her knives…
Tom Cotton introduced a provision to the 2027 Intelligence Authorization Act that would require the President to expand intelligence sharing with Mossad and prohibit the President from suspending or limiting intelligence sharing with Israel.
And yet, it is considered “antisemitic” to suggest that maybe Israel controls our politicians and is plundering our government coffers for cash, and now highly classified intelligence.
This is why it had to be this way. This is why Trump had to discombobulate everybody—and will likely continue to discombobulate everybody.
We will continue to track these patterns and expose the traitors in our government.
As for this deal, anything could potentially happen—including it being blown up by bad faith actors who have infiltrated the process. . Four Air Force C-17’s have departed from Israel to Europe in anticipation of a signing ceremony in Geneva that will reportedly be attended by Vance. The fact that it is Vance and not Trump going—plus the fact that it is being hosted by Europe—has me worried that this deal isn’t the final deal, and may fall apart.
All we can do is continue to analyze and track events, and expose the discombobulated television characters for the frauds that they are.
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DHS Is Fully Funded; Human Trafficking Sting Claims To Have “Found” 146,000 Kids
The Trump administration announced this week that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is fully funded following passage and signing of a major immigration and border-security package that provides tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for DHS, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection through the remainder of President Trump’s term. The legislation allocates roughly $70 billion in additional immigration-enforcement funding over the next three years.
In a Thursday press conference, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the administration has located approximately 146,000 migrant children who had previously lost contact with federal authorities after entering the United States as unaccompanied minors. Mullin said nearly 300,000 additional children remain unaccounted for and that investigators are pursuing reports of severe abuse involving some of those minors.
Mullin stated that investigators are reviewing allegations from some recovered children who claimed they had been raped “600 to 700 times.” The administration’s efforts follow earlier DHS Inspector General findings that hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors transferred from federal custody were not consistently tracked through immigration proceedings, fueling concerns about exploitation, trafficking, and abuse. DHS and DOJ have made locating missing children and investigating trafficking networks a major enforcement priority.
Related: Reporting on renewed scrutiny of the Epstein files has highlighted ongoing political pressure on the White House and Justice Department to release additional records related to the late financier’s network and associates. The issue has continued to draw attention from both supporters and critics of the administration.
Burning Bright: Donald Trump’s signing of the Secure America Act arrives alongside DHS announcements detailing the true, horrifying scale of child trafficking that exploded under previous administrations.
Nearly 146,000 unaccompanied migrant minors have now been located inside the United States.
Roughly 450,000 were smuggled across the border between 2021 and 2024.
Some 300,000 remain unaccounted for.
Reports detail systematic abuse, including hundreds of rapes.
Indictments are landing.
New resources for child exploitation investigators are being funded.
ICE and Homeland Security Investigations are surging into sanctuary jurisdictions.
This is the bright signal: A president treating the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol as exactly that, while moving with clarity to locate the lost and prosecute the networks that devoured them.
It is also, in this moment, a dark signal—because it surfaces inside a sea of engineered noise whose primary function appears to be distraction from and subversion of precisely this campaign.
And as always, it all comes down to names.
In The Honeypot Hoax, I laid out how the Epstein Narrative, for all the genuine awakening it forced upon millions (including myself) to the darkest path of the Info War, simultaneously handed the enemy a weapon.
Whether seeded from the beginning as a controlled honeypot or, more likely, commandeered once the Truth Community shattered it into the Zeitgeist, the Epstein Saga has always contained both hints as to the real blackmail architecture of the Deep State Elite and layers of misdirection designed to subvert the true scale of the horror.
The trap was never only about one man or one island.
It was about the whole temple—the broader structure of control that required both the operation and the story around it to remain partially obscured or endlessly contested.
So, has the Epstein Files drama, in its current form—the releases, reports of supposed internal White House friction, the media amplification of big names, the predictable backlash and division—done more to advance or to complicate Donald Trump’s second-term directives?
Has it sharpened or blurred the American people’s grasp of just how widespread, systemic and industrial the industry actually is?
Names are powerful.
Names are real, and exposure matters.
But names can also become liabilities when the apparatus offering them up on the Epsteinian altar is not capitulating, but adapting—sacrificing select pieces to preserve the larger machine, to keep the focus on spectacle rather than the ground-level machinery still grinding children through systems that have not so much failed as been intentionally structured with said failure in mind.
That is subversion, not surrender.
Trafficking is real.
It is not a metaphor or a meme. It is an industrial-scale operation that thrived under policies of deliberate neglect and, in places, something much darker.
The numbers are staggering.
The cost—to the children, to every family that will never be whole, to the soul of a nation that allowed it—is unpayable.
The guilt runs broad and deep, and the implications are sobering.
The ultimate task, then, and the reason Trump might not be lying when he reacts in anger whenever the Epstein Files are brought up is not to win the daily news cycle, but to amplify the ultimate truth:
That child trafficking on this scale was enabled by design, and that it is now being dismantled at scale by an administration that has chosen to fund the hunters rather than the networks.
That’s not about one man or one island, or a collection of names that may or may not have run through it.
It’s about the whole temple. And it always was.
(If you got something out of this, consider revisiting my last long-form on the Darkest Path in the Info War.)
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IDF Backs Away From Mixed-Gender Tank Crews After Rabbi Pushback
The IDF says men and women will not serve inside the same tanks, after leaders of 12 Hesder yeshivas reportedly threatened to stop sending students to Armored Corps units over a female tank integration pilot.
The army said it still “needs every male and female combat soldier,” but clarified that integration options do not include mixed crews in the same vehicle.
The controversy is politically significant because Hesder graduates are heavily represented in Israeli combat units and officer corps, so threats by yeshivas to boycott armored service carry real weight for military recruitment.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: Israel is known for being a highly progressive society. In fact, Tel Aviv is considered the “gayest city in the world” for its attitudes regarding LGTBQ lifestyles.
In April, Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that the IDF must proceed with the integration of these units. As these rabbis have pointed out, this integration will lead to an exodus from the IDF and Israeli government by soldiers ending their tenure and considering extending their career. This comes at a time when Israel cannot afford to be losing any soldiers, let alone experienced full-time soldiers.
If the measure is enforced and the tank units are integrated, then the morale and effectiveness of the IDF will surely be affected, at a time when Netanyahu is considering expanding the war even further and possibly opening up new fronts.
There is already severe tension between the Ultra-Orthodox community and the IDF. The implementation of this edict will only further exacerbate that tension and possibly accelerate the collapse of the IDF, which seems imminent given the reports of its exhausted and overworked soldiers, along with a lagging recruitment and reduced enthusiasm to serve.
This is a perfect storm of terrible luck for the IDF and Netanyahu, the latter of which desperately needs this in order to remain in favor with the people.
Accelerate.
ActBlue & WinRed Money Laundering Allegations Aren’t Going Away
Congressional scrutiny of online political fundraising platforms ActBlue and WinRed intensified this week as House Republicans held a hearing examining allegations of fraud, foreign contributions, and weaknesses in donor-verification systems.
During the hearing, ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment rights when questioned by lawmakers. Democrats on the panel argued that Republicans were using the hearing to target Democratic fundraising operations, while noting that similar concerns have also been raised about WinRed. Republicans, meanwhile, said questions remain about suspicious donation patterns, identity verification, and the potential use of straw donors or foreign funds.
The hearing did not produce new evidence of criminal wrongdoing by either platform, but it underscored that congressional investigations into online political fundraising practices are continuing and that concerns about donor verification are likely to remain a subject of debate heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
Ashe in America: Over a year ago, in April 2025, House Republicans released a report and said “Democratic fundraising powerhouse ActBlue changed its fraud policy twice during the 2024 campaign, implementing “more lenient” standards that let foreign and other suspicious donor money flow into US campaigns.”
It also said:
“This staff report is not the end of our investigation. We’re also asking for transcribed interviews with current ActBlue employees—including the ones responsible for ActBlue’s fraud-prevention operation—and reviewing suspicious activity reports (SARs) of fraud on ActBlue.”
It seems the House Republicans were telling the truth. ActBlue is now being prosecuted – which is why Wallace Jones pled the fifth – and the matter isn’t going away. And, in case you’re new here, ActBlue launched in 2004 as a new endeavor to harness the power of grassroots small donors.
And boy did they harness that power.
In my opinion, democrats harnessed the power of “grassroots donors” through a meeting of the minds to engage in a highly coordinated portfolio of crime. The Federal Statutes they potentially violated (h/t: Peter Bernegger) include:
18 U.S.C. § 1956 – Money Laundering
18 U.S.C. § 1957 – Monetary Transactions in Property Derived from Unlawful Activity
18 U.S.C. § 1001 – False Statements to Federal Agencies
52 U.S.C. § 30122 – Contributions in the Name of Another
18 U.S.C. § 1343 – Wire Fraud
18 U.S.C. § 1341 – Mail Fraud
18 U.S.C. § 371 – Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
18 U.S.C. § 1028 – Identity Theft
18 U.S.C. § 1030 – Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
15 U.S.C. § 6801–6809 – Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
31 U.S.C. 5311 et seq - Bank Secrecy Act (12 CFR 21.11, 12 CFR 21.21)
52 U.S.C. § 30122 – Contributions in the Name of Another (FECA)
18 U.S.C. § 1028 – Identity Fraud and Document Fraud
Plus the state versions of these charges that can be applied in the states. Ostensibly for each transaction.
Republicans got in on the operation in 2012 with the Mitt Romney campaign. Obama’s PAC received the largest campaign finance violation-related fine in history for that 2008 “primitive smurfing”, but it didn’t come down until 2013.
“This is just how campaign finance works now!”
“Both sides do it!”
It’s a portfolio of crime.
Prosecute every one of them.
BONUS ITEMS
USPS Proposes New Ballot Mail Tracking, Verification Standards For Federal Elections
The US Postal Service has proposed new regulations governing the handling of mail-in and absentee ballots for federal elections, citing President Trump’s Executive Order 14399 on election integrity. The proposal would establish new tracking, reporting, and processing requirements for ballots sent through the mail.
Under the proposed rule, ballots for federal general, special, and runoff elections would be required to use USPS-approved envelope designs featuring the official Election Mail logo and unique Intelligent Mail barcodes on both outbound and return envelopes. Election officials would also be required to submit ballot-mailing and participation data through a new Federal Ballot Mail Portal, including information used to associate mailed ballots with official election records and support reconciliation of ballot mailings.
USPS said the proposal would create a standardized process for tracking and verifying election mail, providing greater visibility into ballots moving through the postal system. The agency stated the changes are intended to support the objectives outlined in Executive Order 14399 while improving handling and monitoring of election mail.
The proposal would also establish a verification process before USPS accepts outbound ballot mailings from election officials. Mailings that do not comply with the new requirements would be returned for correction.
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Cream the evil and fatally corrupt rinos. Cream the evil & fatally corrupt communist democrats in the USA. Mobilize Operation EPIC CREAMERY. Engage the discombobulation device!
DJT is ONE MAN who has invested a significant portion of his remaining time on earth to flush these creeps into the open field. Now we all know more than we've ever known before. U.S. government bureaucracy is absolutely evil, absolutely corrupt.
DJT is ONE MAN who has done, and is doing what he can do. He has invested a LOT of his time and money to chop thru the swamp's camouflage. The evil ones are as naked as they've ever been to the public eye. What happens next is up to We The People of The United States of America.
U.S. Border patrol officer J.J. Carrell presents evidence of U.S. government supported child-prostitution and enslavement of MILLIONS of men, women, boys and girls. All for the pleasure and profit of the evil ones DJT's laser-beam has revealed. The creeps out in Los Angeles who stole the vote from Spencer Pratt are ringleaders in human trafficking. Listen to what Officer Carrell says: https://rumble.com/v7aidhy-the-silent-slaughter-how-human-trafficking-devours-innocence.html
At this point, it may be that J.J. Carrell is part of an operation to create dissension within dissension. The whole government is evil now. The only two things remaining untouched are The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of The United States of America.
I reckon if DJT was a wanna-be demagogue he would have called for a million man insurrection by now. He ain't playing for power. He is offering We The People a chance to take out the evil garbage-people who have taken over the reins of government power. We need to get back to basics. Unionized communist-led bureaucracy is the enemy still in hiding.
@GhostofBasedPatrickHenry - "Israel is known for being a highly progressive society. In fact, Tel Aviv is considered the “gayest city in the world” for its attitudes regarding LGTBQ lifestyles."
I am on Book Six of Josephus' "Wars of the Jews" - Titus is about to fully enter Jerusalem. In Book 4 section 9 subsection 10 he describes the behaviors of one of the two hedonistic armies that would literally force the Romans to destroy the city and temple in 70 AD.
A partial quote (again this occurred within the city and the temple grounds):
"And thus did they roil themselves up and down the city, as in a brothel house and defile it entirely with their impure actions; nay, while their faces looked like the faces of women, they killed with their right hands; and when their gait was effeminate, they presently attacked men, and became warriors and drew their swords from under their finely dyed cloaks and ran everybody through whom they alighted upon."
So it seems, the rejection of their Messiah and their insistence on the perpetuity of the divine rights to conquer the whole inhabited earth did then and continues still to manifest itself in a vehement contradiction of values!