Badlands Brief
Moves and Countermoves
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.
Iran and the Global Energy War
The United States has carried out strikes on Iranian military targets on Kharg Island, a strategic oil export hub that handles about 90% of Iran’s oil shipments, according to reporting on the conflict. President Donald Trump said the attacks destroyed military facilities on the island but avoided oil infrastructure, warning that broader strikes could follow if Iran interferes with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has threatened retaliation after the strikes, warning that energy infrastructure tied to the United States in Gulf countries could become targets. The escalating conflict has disrupted maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key route that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump warned that NATO faces a “very bad” future if allies do not assist the United States in reopening the strait. He called on countries that depend heavily on Gulf oil—including China, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and South Korea—to contribute military assets such as minesweepers and air defenses to secure the waterway.
Meanwhile, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said the war with Iran has cost about $12 billion so far, adding the administration currently has the funding it needs but may seek additional money from Congress.
HASSETT: “Well, first of all, you have to understand that America is not going to have its economy harmed by what the Iranians are doing. The bottom line is that in the ‘70s we didn’t produce much oil, but now we do. So America is in a very strong position. They think that they’re going to harm the U.S. economy and get President Trump to back down. There couldn’t be anything that was a stupider thing to say because the bottom line is that our economy has got all this momentum in the world and we’ve got lots and lots of oil. We have lots of trading partners that are more on the hook from imported oil from these guys. And as we can see, it’s completely unacceptable that a government that would, you know, murder 40,000 of their people just a few months ago would be blackmailing countries to let stuff through. President Trump thinks that is unacceptable and for the global economy we need to fix it and we are going to fix it fast.”
Burning Bright: This is multipolar realignment and narrative disarmament operating in perfect harmony.
The rails to peace and prosperity are being quietly maintained and even strengthened by the very nations the dying paradigm continues to paint as existential threats, while our so-called allies find themselves increasingly isolated by the consequences of their own choices.
As this unfolds, something else is happening that may prove even more significant in the long run, as a new macro-narrative is rising steadily to challenge and ultimately subsume the war story being pushed out of Tehran.
That narrative centers on energy—its weaponization, its strategic centrality and how the current disruptions, whether actual or largely perceptual are dramatically accelerating the germination phase of a renaissance that has been carefully seeded for years, and which is about to enter warp speed.
To wit, while the mainstream lens remains fixed on regime change speculation and fears of wider regional war, the deeper current involves the deliberate targeting of energy infrastructure: strikes on production facilities, retaliatory actions against gulf assets, temporary production shut-ins and the resulting contraction of global energy trade outside of the strategic exceptions highlighted above.
The weaponization is real, in other words. But so is the selectivity of its impact.
And while the parties most deeply invested in maintaining the old order of managed conflict are contributing to the energy pressure, they are also the least equipped to withstand its consequences.
Europe remains dangerously dependent on imported energy after years of pipeline disruptions and an ideological war against its own nuclear capacity that even some of its capitals now admit was a catastrophic strategic error.
These actors are playing a dangerous game on terrain that is rapidly shifting beneath them.
By contrast, the emerging multipolar alignment demonstrates a different approach:
Russia continues directing oil toward its largest customer through carefully negotiated temporary arrangements, India has responded to any external pressure with characteristically sovereign bluntness and Chinese commercial vessels continue moving through contested waters with minimal disruption.
Again, these developments are not random. They reflect a deeper coordination on the actual plane even as narrative sparring continues on the surface.
This silent-running, but increasingly public multipolar mesh is protecting its populations, rerouting supply chains and asserting control over its own energy destiny in ways the old architecture never anticipated.
Why?
Because they have the US onboard, even if many even in the Truth Community fail to grasp that fact, and will instead react to ‘news’ of Trump ‘making peace’ with the two men who helped him plan it out as if it’s happening in real time, much like the normie hivemind.
This is the true power paradigm revealing itself in real time, with energy serving as both the primary arena and the ultimate prize.
(For a LOT more on this, consider checking out my most recent long-form, Trump’s Test.)
***
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: It would appear that President Trump is using the Iran War to pull a narrative pincer against NATO. He is now threatening NATO with “bad [consequences]” if they fail to step up and send ships to the Strait of Hormuz, which will surely have negative consequences on those NATO countries, in terms of energy.
Think about it: All the reports lately have been about how Europe is desperate and facing an energy crisis with the Iran War threatening maritime shipments of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). Putin then exacerbates the situation by threatening to cut off natural gas supplied to Europe via land-based pipelines. That leaves the US as the only supplier of LNG to the continent, but would still cause severe spikes in consumer costs.
This puts Europe firmly in the grip of Putin and Iran, and Trump is now forcing NATO to choose between sending ships to the Strait of Hormuz—risking an entanglement with Iran and losing all LNG deliveries from the Persian Gulf—or refusing the demands of Trump, who is now Europe’s only reliable energy supplier.
Europe is now in an impossible situation. There is no winning play. The only choice they really have is to negotiate. But with whom? Putin? Trump? Iran? All three would likely make the same baseline demand: end the support for Ukraine and make permanent peace with Russia.
And, according to Hassett, you know who isn’t affected by all of this chaos? America; but also Russia and Iran—all three of which are energy independent.
That is what we call “Checkmate.”
Moves and Countermoves: The War for the First Amendment
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened media organizations with treason charges over their coverage of the war with Iran, according to a report published March 16, 2026. In a Truth Social post, Trump accused what he called “fake news” outlets of spreading false information allegedly fabricated by Tehran using artificial intelligence. (RT, Mar. 16, 2026)
Trump said Iran had circulated AI-generated images and footage portraying attacks on U.S. military assets, including alleged strikes on refueling aircraft and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. He wrote that media outlets distributing what he described as “knowingly FAKE” information should face treason charges for disseminating false reports.
The comments come amid a regional conflict that RT reported began in late February when U.S. and Israeli forces launched coordinated strikes on Iran, prompting retaliatory attacks by Tehran across the region.
Separately, former CIA officer John Kiriakou said he is concerned about the safety of journalist Tucker Carlson. In an RT program aired March 15, Kiriakou said he was “genuinely worried” about Carlson following the journalist’s claim that the CIA may pursue a criminal referral under the Foreign Agents Registration Act related to communications with individuals in Iran before the war.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: The major headline is “Trump threatens Fake News media outlets with Treason Charges.”
But that is only one stanza in an Epic Poem of a much larger war that is underway for the First Amendment.
This is something that I have been covering for 3 years now on Badlands Media—the Zionist plot to dismantle the First Amendment with “antisemitism” as their Trojan Horse.
It all started with the Uniparty-Right passing legislation and executive orders in 38 states to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. I warned everybody in 2023 that this would become a beachhead for expansion, with the most egregious example occurring in Florida where [then] state senator Randy Fine sponsored HB 269, which “new offenses related to harassment, threats, or intimidation targeting religious or ethnic groups.” The bill was presented as targeting graffiti and other forms of harassment, but a key provision included criminalizing flyers and pamplets that criticized Israel—as the IRHA definition of antisemitism equates it with anti-Zionism.
The law also imposes harsh prison sentences for offenders.
Randy Fine and Ron DeSantis made a “secret trip” to Jerusalem, where Governor DeSantis signed the bill into law.
That seems kind of strange, doesn’t it? A governor and state senator traveling to a foreign country to sign a bill into law?
Fast forward to November 2025. At the Republican Jewish Coalition summit, Fine labeled Tucker Carlson as “the most dangerous antisemite in America.”
That seems like quite the statement, considering how much more radical others are toward Israel and Jews than Tucker Carlson. So why single him out?
Because of the size of his platform and his reach, which includes normies and middle America.
Fast forward to March 5, where Fine called Tucker a “cancer” after Tucker published a podcast that highlighted Chabad-Lubavitch, which is an Ultra-Orthodox community in New York City with some dubious history. You may recall two years ago when the Chabad’s headquarters were raided by the NYPD after “secret tunnels” where found underneath the facility.
Now Tucker is claiming that the intelligence community is coming after him, while Israeli influencers online call for him to be imprisoned for inciting violence against Jews— blaming him for the school shooting last week in Michigan.
Mark Levin posted an article from Mediaite highlighting a call from Republican Congressman Max Miller for Tucker to be investigated and imprisoned for being an Iranian agent.
Now, regardless of your view of Tucker—whether you want to believe that he is an earnest actor or an intelligence asset—what is happening here is a Hegelian Dialectic to discourage and even criminalize dissidence toward the government of Israel, equating it with a hatred of Jews.
This is an extremely dangerous slippery slope that will surely lead to criminalizing criticism of the US government—citing concern that it incites violence against politicians.
Fortunately, President Trump appears to be subverting it by encouraging these shills to jump the shark.
Read this post and tell me he isn’t describing Israel:
Now see this post on Mark Levin:
Laying it on a little thick, aren’t we?
But hubris and ego will blind thee.
But the true master of manipulating the media is Donald Trump.
When asked about reports that an expeditionary force of marines was being deployed to the Middle East, Trump responded, “You are a very obnoxious person.”
Trump then went on to say that the Fake News is using AI to create fake stories.
I think what President Trump is doing here is simultaneously baiting Levin, Loomer and their cohorts into clamping down and jumping the shark on demanding Americans be jailed for hate speech, while also baiting the media into attacking him for violating the First Amendment as it relates to freedom of the press.
Obviously, the corporate media is corrupt and must be dismantled. But here we have two separate factions with two separate agenda— the Zionists and the Fake News Media— who are now on a collision course over the First Amendment.
Accelerate.
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Tucker Carlson claims CIA planning to frame him for FARA violations
Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson said he learned that the CIA was preparing a criminal referral involving his contacts with people in Iran, according to an article published by ZeroHedge on March 16, 2026. The article quoted Carlson as saying the supposed offense was “talking to people in Iran before the war” and that “They read my texts.” A search-engine snippet for the X post linked by the user showed a post attributed to Carlson that read: “When you discover the CIA has been reading your texts in order to frame you for a crime.” (ZeroHedge, March 16, 2026; X search snippet retrieved March 16, 2026)
ZeroHedge later updated its article to report that “top admin officials” had told Axios reporter Marc Caputo there was “no CIA investigation of Carlson.” The same article also said activist Laura Loomer posted that she would take credit if Carlson were charged and that she had been “relentless” in contacting GOP representatives, law enforcement and the Justice Department about him.
One of Mark Levin’s biggest public critics is Tucker Carlson, and now Tucker Carlson is reportedly under investigation for FARA violations.
When I first read this post from President Trump, I was on the phone with a friend who is a federal agent in the immigration domain currently posted in our nation’s rotting capitol, and I said, “Damn, I guess the whole final boss thing just got a boost.”
“What’s the final boss thing?” he asked.
In way too many words, I explained the idea that the people are still so domesticated and dependent on outside authority—even after all we’ve been through—that Trump himself must become the thing we’re fighting for the people to finally stop waiting for a political savior and step into their power.
I hate this idea. But damn if this Mark Levin love letter, with a Sean Hannity cameo, doesn’t bring it to mind. Who is the audience of this?!
As Burning Bright and I discussed on Saturday during The Blitz (see Bonus Items), the truth community has an honesty problem and, in a startling turn of events, many have turned into gatekeepers.
Maybe they always were, but it’s pretty obvious now that much of the truth community gets their ideas from Fox News.
“Stop saying true but unfortunate things in an election year! Do you want to lose the midterms?!”
“Stop saying true but unfortunate things while we’re at war! Do you want Iran to shoot nukes at America?!”
No. When propaganda is at its peak — always war — the truth is most important.
Why?
“The first casualty when war comes, is truth,” as US Senator Hiram Johnson said in 1917, and “All warfare is based on deception,” as Sun Tzu said in Art of War.
Many on the right-tempted side of the truth community, those who have spent years talking about 5GW and psyops and Fed infiltration, are cheering on the story that Tucker Carlson is going to prison because Laura Loomer told the DOJ he’s a foreign agent for Iran.
Closer to home, calls to censor the speech of Badlands’ hosts amplified markedly this week — and I reckon that, given the untold but extraordinary amount of pressure applied, if Badlands Media was run by anyone other than Jon Herold, those calls might have been successful.
Our speech is the hill to die on. “There is no other hill that truly matters than the right of people to say what they believe,” Jon told me when we were discussing one of the operations against Badlands last week. Jon’s a hero.
In 1783, George Washington was facing a shadow effort to convince his soldiers to desert the American cause. In a plea to his troops, that everyone should read, Washington said:
“That the secret Mover of this Scheme (whoever he may be) intended to take advantage of the passions, while they were warmed by the recollection of past distresses, without giving time for cool, deliberative thinking, and that composure of Mind which is so necessary to give dignity and stability to measures, is rendered too obvious… What can this Writer have in view, by recommending such measures? Can he be a friend…to this Country? Rather, is he not an insidious Foe?”
In times of great deception (war, etc.), the truth is most important because it’s most under attack. No reason — not one of fear or favor, not in times of war or peace — can justify its limitation.
In the same speech, Washington said, “…for if Men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind; reason is of no use to us—the freedom of Speech may be taken away—and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.”
Obviously President Trump knows this. He modeled resistance to it, for us. The President was censored so much he built his own social media platform. So what gives?
This is the discussion I had with my Fed friend who responded, “Yeah. I can see how you’d get there. But you have to remember that people are emotional and may never reclaim their power.”
That’s exactly what I’d expect a Fed to say. I earnestly hope he isn’t correct.
ANTIFA cell convicted on terrorist charges in Texas
A federal jury in Fort Worth, Texas convicted nine defendants for their roles in a July 4, 2025 attack outside the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Alvarado, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Prosecutors described the group as members of a “North Texas Antifa cell” involved in rioting, explosives offenses and providing material support to terrorists.
Authorities said the incident involved fireworks, vandalism and gunfire directed at responding law enforcement. Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross was shot and injured during the confrontation. Benjamin Song was convicted of attempted murder and firearms offenses related to the shooting.
Eight defendants were convicted of charges including rioting, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use explosives and using explosives, with fireworks cited as the explosive devices. Daniel Sanchez-Estrada was convicted of corruptly concealing documents, while he and Maricela Rueda were also convicted of conspiracy to conceal documents tied to the investigation.
Sentencing for the defendants has not yet been announced.
Ashe in America: I usually think the term “domestic terrorism” is overused for overreach, but attempting to bomb something for political purposes definitely qualifies.
Antifa is ostensibly an IC op that recruits vulnerable people, hires them to destabilize the nation, and pays them in meth and tacos. Okay, fine, I don’t know about the tacos, but I’ve looked Denver antifa members in the eyes and the meth assertion survives on first hand knowledge. #NotAllAntifa
It seems like we’re going to get more of this, at least according to the SAC:
“This case marks a historic moment as it represents the nation’s initial federal indictment targeting a coordinated group of Antifa cell members engaged in violent criminal activity,” said HSI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard. “The charges demonstrate our unwavering commitment to confronting domestic terrorism and protecting our communities from organized threats.”
People planting bombs deserve prison or worse — full stop. That actually is domestic terrorism.
But, at the risk of being called an antifa supporter for insisting upon due process rights for the accused, no matter who they are, if the domestic terror label is expanded to capture speech, assembly, association, etc. (without underlying criminal conduct), are we okay with it because the accused is antifa?
We’re not when it’s Tina Peters.
Principles are greater than politics.
Equal justice under the law is nonnegotiable.
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Cuba confirms talks with Trump Admin
Israel’s Justice Ministry unit responsible for reviewing clemency requests has reportedly not recommended granting a pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report citing officials familiar with the matter. The unit’s position means that any potential pardon request would face internal opposition within the justice system.
Netanyahu is currently standing trial on corruption charges, including bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, which he denies. Israeli law allows the president to grant pardons, though they typically occur after conviction rather than during an ongoing trial.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu said he does not know whether Iranians will overthrow the country’s leadership, acknowledging uncertainty about internal regime change while Israel continues military operations against Iran. He also warned that Israel could target Iran’s Supreme Leader if the conflict continues to escalate.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said only the Iranian people can ultimately bring down their government, but added that outside assistance may be necessary.
Related: The Israel Defense Forces said it struck dozens of targets in Tehran, describing the operation as part of a campaign to deepen the blow against the Iranian regime. Iranian official Ali Larijani said the war will not end until Iran’s enemies are made “sorry for their grave miscalculation.”
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: On Thursday evening, the sitting president of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, announced that he would host an emergency press conference on Friday morning to disclose something important. The following morning, he appeared alongside Raulito Castro—grandson to Raul Castro, and known by his nickname, “El Cangrejo” (The Crab)—where Diaz-Canel said that Cuba was in open negotiations with the Trump administration. No other details were provided.
This all but confirms all of Mark Caputo’s reporting in Axios that Marco Rubio and Castro had been in secret negotiations for Castro to potentially take over as leader.
Diaz-Canel is the first non-Castro family member to lead Cuba since Fidel Castro became its leader in 1959.
The demand by the NeoCons has always been that the Castro family be expelled from Cuba and perhaps even arrested for war crimes. Now it appears that President Trump plans to install one of them as America’s preferred choice of Cuban leader—following the template we have seen play out in other countries, such as Venezuela.
BONUS ITEM
BADLANDS BLITZ EPISODE 10
On the latest episode of the Badlands Blitz, we take aim at Donald Trump’s Discombobulation techniques ... and how the Truth Community may be more vulnerable to them than they’d like to think.
And ALSO how that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Enjoy!
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So...I broke away from my morning routines to read today's Brief: not in the least disappointed!
"Principles are greater than politics. Equal justice under the law is nonnegotiable."
I believe that quote would sound equally as sincere from any of the Badlands contributors as it did from @Ashe.
Everyone possesses a morality - a personal set of values. Using a Venn diagram we might find the overlap to be more extensive than it feels at times. Ashe's quote likely stands near the center of that overlap.
We are designed for choice (or said another way); our Creator made us in His Image and Likeness. Choosing has consequences...but "not choosing" is seldom without consequences as well. Choose wisely!!
Our son and his wife surprised us with a short visit yesterday. During our wide-ranging conversation which included work, parental responsibilities and hockey, the topic of MMA fighting came up. Our son (who attended several days at GART Cocoa a few months ago) stated that he believed that pay-per-view fighting was largely orchestrated for manipulation and entertainment. Had he ever heard the term “kayfabe?” Turns out, he had not. It led to a short, eye-opening discussion about “Trumpamania.” Seeds may have been planted in these two, who have voted for Trump more than three times now. 🙏🏼