Badlands Brief
Conflicts, Cartels, & Clemency
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.
Texas Primaries: Unexpected Ousters & Unlikely Election Deniers
Texas primary elections Tuesday sparked claims of “voter disenfranchisement” and major political upsets.
State Rep. James Talarico (D) won the Democrat primary for US Senate in Texas, defeating Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D, TX-30), in a closely watched contest. Talarico will advance to the general election for the seat held by Sen John Cornyn (R).
On election night, Crockett told supporters in Dallas that voters had been “disenfranchised,” saying her campaign received calls and emails from people who reported being denied entry to polling locations or experiencing confusion about where they were allowed to vote.
The confusion stemmed from changes in voting procedures that required some voters to cast ballots at assigned precinct locations rather than at any polling site. The rule change reportedly created widespread confusion in some counties and voters being turned away from incorrect polling locations.
A Dallas County judge initially ordered polling locations to remain open longer after voters reported problems at the polls, but the Texas Supreme Court later blocked the extension of voting hours.
Crockett said the confusion and reports from voters led her to believe that some people were unable to cast ballots; no formal findings of election fraud have been announced.
A Republican Senate runoff for the seat will take place between incumbent Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on May 26.
The Texas primaries produced other major political upsets. In one of the most notable, four-term US Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R, TX-02) lost his primary to state Rep. Steve Toth. In another, Rep. Al Green (D, TX-09) did not lose outright, but failed to secure a majority and is headed to a runoff against Christian Menefee, in an incumbent vs. incumbent, redistricting-based challenge. Early reporting that Green lost outright were premature.
Ashe in America: The primaries in Texas have Democrats freaking out because of the impact on the narrative.
The Democrat power projection for the past few months has been “Republicans are going to be destroyed in the midterms!”
The first taste we have is the opposite. Regime darlings are being ousted — in both parties. It’s a war on incumbents, in Texas, and we’ll soon see if that’s a trend in other states.
NOTE: CannCon and I discussed the primary fallout on Badlands Daily, and their “failure” to recruit enough volunteers. I have since learned from folks on the ground that there is more to that story. I don’t have the full story yet, but I aim to have it before Friday’s Why We Vote.
I don’t know if we’re getting real elections, but we’re definitely get closer to real elections being possible. There are some encouraging signs… Read on!
Get on the path. Stay on the path.
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The World Weighs in On the New World War
The United States joined Israel in military strikes against Iran Friday, and President Donald Trump said he ordered US forces to join the attack because he believed Iran was preparing to strike first.
The President’s remarks followed Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments that the United States acted because it expected Iran would retaliate against Israel’s planned action and potentially target US forces.
“Russian hardliners,” a characterization provided by Reuters and the wires, reacted strongly to the US attack on Iran, with some who previously viewed Trump favorably reportedly now describing him as a threat. Figures cited include Konstantin Malofeyev, described as a “Russian Nationalist,” and war blogger Boris Rozhin.
Some Russian hawks have called on the Kremlin to abandon US-mediated Ukraine peace talks and escalate Russia’s war effort.
The Kremlin has publicly condemned US actions against Iran while continuing diplomatic dialogue with Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss risks of escalation around Iran. Both leaders expressed concern about the conflict spreading to other countries in the region, according to the Kremlin.
China condemned strikes on Iran and called for an immediate ceasefire and diplomatic negotiations.
Iran launched missile and drone strikes in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks, targeting locations in Israel and US-linked sites in Gulf states.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the White House for clarification after learning that Trump administration officials might be communicating with the Iranian government, according to two sources familiar with the issue.
The Israeli government was reportedly concerned that the United States might pursue a ceasefire or diplomatic arrangement with Iran before Israel achieves its war objectives.
Burning Bright: Donald Trump’s Iranian Knot is slowly, but surely forcing the Sovereign Alliance onto stage from the periphery.
From where I’m sitting, we’ve entered the next phase of the Iran narrative deployment, as second-order stories are emerging.
The legacy press is openly salivating over what they see as the real prize: the breaking of the Russia-Iran axis and the dissolution of the Sovereign Alliance they have slowly begun to recognize as much more than a hopium-tinged theory, but rather a building threat to their Globalist Order that must be shattered before it fully coheres.
Politico is framing Khamenei’s killing as a gut punch to Vladimir Putin, triggering his paranoia about his own longevity and evoking Gaddafi-style collapse scenarios that once pushed him into open opposition with the West.
Reuters, for their part is highlighting Russian hardliners rattled to the core—calling Trump a “monster,” demanding he abandon US-brokered Ukraine talks and double down on the battlefield instead, while warning that the seeming systematic elimination of Moscow’s allies (Syria, Venezuela, now Iran) means Russia is next on the docket.
Finally, the propagandists at Foreign Policy paint Putin in a tightening dilemma: having condemned the “murder” of the Ayatollah in moral terms while refusing to name Trump or escalate, because he’s still banking on rapprochement, sanctions relief and the very de-escalation the Globalists fear most.
None of this is subtle.
The machine sees Trump’s strike not merely as a blow to Tehran, but as the wedge that could pry Putin away from his Iranian partner and fracture the emerging Sovereign Alliance before it can lock in the sort of multipolar peace I believe can ONLY be codified by the Sovereign Trinity.
If the theories I’ve been laying out since the Venezuela Model hold—and the pattern of Narrative Disarmament has been consistent—then Putin (and to a lesser extent, Xi Jinping) are incentivized to remain on the sidelines while the initial mass psychological and geopolitical dust settles.
If the ‘new’ Iranian Regime that emerges from this theater looks nearly identical to the old one, they get to save face to their respective populations while helping Trump lock in the new (but really old) status quo, now with the NeoCons and Warmongers of the West having been stripped of an actualizing premise and the mandate that comes on the back of it.
In other words, while the Invisible Enemy wants a full geopolitical fracture, I believe Trump is giving them the appearance of it while engaging in the sort of pre-emptive narrative disarmament that might come to be his greatest legacy.
And one very few, even in the Truth Community or Maga Core actually recognize.
Putin knows this.
The pragmatist in the Kremlin—who has already balanced relations with the Gulf states, Israel and Washington in even more difficult times than Trump has—understands that jumping into the fray now would only feed the very war machine he’s spent years outmaneuvering.
And so, he waits.
Additionally, Putin could just as easily take the field narratively in the Iran theater and step into the mediator role Trump himself has played between Ukraine and Russia.
According to the central narrative, Russia is the only actor on decent terms with Iran, the US, Israel and the Gulf Kingdoms at once, and Putin has reportedly already been on the phone with the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi leadership, ostensibly floating mediation frameworks.
If he leans into that, it doesn’t break the Sovereign Alliance.
It cements it.
***
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: Oh wow this is great.
Trouble in paradise, Bibi? Why so insecure?
It would seem that Netanyahu isn’t feeling the love in the war tent. So naturally, he is having the Mossad spy on the President of the United States and monitor his private communications.
That’s what friends do. That’s what “our closest allies” do. It’s for our own protection, really.
Because without Israel to supervise us we would probably do something really irresponsible that could threaten democracy worldwide. Thank goodness that six thousand years ago God promised Bibi Netanyahu that he would be chosen to spy on the White House and make sure that the Iran War agenda was achieved in its entirety.
But in all seriousness, how funny is this situation? Bibi Netanyahu has finally been given everything he has ever asked for, politically, and yet something still doesn’t feel right for him. He can’t simply enjoy this moment and be happy. It’s like he knows that Trump is playing him, he just can’t quite figure out how.
So he’s left standing there asking, “what’s the catch?”
Suddenly, I am feeling very good about this Iran War situation. Because the people who should be the most happy about the situation are apparently unable to even enjoy it, and there is a signal somewhere in that revelation.
State-Level Clemency Discussions For Tina Peters Spark Outrage From Peters’ Prosecutors in Colorado
On Monday, President Trump posted on Truth Social to “Free Tina Peters.”
Colorado Governor Jared Polis signaled on X Tuesday that he is open to commuting the sentence of Tina Peters:
“Last week, former State Senator Sonya Jaquez Lewis was sentenced to probation and community service after being convicted of four felonies including Attempt to Influence a Public Official. She made a horrible mistake, and she was wrong. I hope she learns from this and can rebuild her life. As someone who has known Sonya as a friend for many years, on a personal level I was glad to hear she isn’t going to prison which is a hard place for anyone, no less a retired 68-year old pharmacist. But it is not lost on me that she was convicted of the exact same felony charge as Tina Peters — attempting to influence a public official — and yet Tina Peters, as a non-violent first time offender got a nine year sentence. Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law. This is the context I am using as I consider cases like this that have sentencing disparities, which is why I have extended the deadline for clemency applications until April 3rd. I will be making decisions on these cases throughout the remainder of my governorship.”
On Wednesday, Tina Peters’ attorney shared a statement with Badlands Media’s Ashe Epp, responding to the Governor’s post:
“Tina Peters is grateful to Governor Polis for considering her request for clemency. As the governor said, ‘Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law.’ While Tina suffers in prison, another public official convicted of the same offense pays a fine and performs 150 hours of public service - less than one month of work. Tina’s political enemies (Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Attorney General Phil Weiser, and Dominion Voting Systems shill Matt Crane) today released statements demanding that Governor Polis show no mercy. It will take great courage for Governor Polis to grant Tina clemency, and Tina thanks him. John Case”
When pressed on whether a clemency application has been submitted, a member of the team responded:
“There is no missing paperwork.”
Ashe in America: This story is consuming my week, as it’s fast moving and we’re expecting even more breaking news (I’ll tease that as currently unconfirmed at the end of this take.)
On Friday, a state senator was convicted of four felonies, three for forgery and one for attempting to influence a public official.
I wrote about this Sunday:
“In Jaquez-Lewis’s case, prosecutors used a proceeding-based theory for the influence charge and minimized multiplicity by treating the committee as a single official. In Peters’ case, prosecutors used a recipient-based theory and maximized multiplicity by treating each communication as a separate statutory violation. Both approaches are legally permissible under existing Colorado doctrine — but it’s the intent of the discretion that is curious. The influence counts were stacked per recipient in one case, not in the other. In the former, the statutory violations resulted in almost a decade of prison. In the latter, probation. Government maxis will say the different treatment comes down to the defendants’ level of repentance… [But] level of repentance isn’t the only difference between these two similarly situated cases. There’s another. Jaquez-Lewis is a democrat whose alleged illegal conduct was in service of keeping her democrat seat of power in a system controlled at each level by democrats. Tina Peters is a republican whose alleged illegal conduct was in service of investigating legitimate concerns about how powerful people attain their seats of power in the first place.”
So, that was Sunday.
On Monday, President Trump posted “Free Tina Peters,” and outrage about the asymmetrical treatment of the two cases captivated Colorado’s corner of the internet.
Remember when I told you guys that Polis was going to disappoint his party this year?
On Tuesday, Polis dropped his nuke, and his allies in the state freaked all the way out. I wrote about that yesterday:
“Predictably, the far left in the Centennial State lost their minds, especially the radicals running the disaster that is Colorado’s ‘Justice’ system. Tina Peters is their most valuable political scalp, and she is the absolute last gasp of their carefully created narrative about “election denialism” being dangerous to ‘democracy.’ They need election denialism to be a threat to democracy because they they used that fake narrative to weaponize the government and undermine democracy.”
The piece is long and recaps the current landscape and open court proceedings of Tina Peters — and the political calculus at play. Since he’s expected to run for nationwide office, everyone should understand this guy:
“Polis’ political calculus here is mint. By seeding the narrative that he is considering some sort of clemency for Peters before the primary, he gets to test the level of weight the issue carries with the electorate. That data set will certainly inform what he is actually going to do on this issue. I’ve speculated for months that he is going to pardon her right before or right after the midterms – I’m generally leaning towards October – but the political weighting matters. Polis is pretending to be libertarian right now, and fake libertarian Polis only comes out when he is running for office. He’s currently unelectable nationally because he’s the face of Colorado’s nationwide brand as a communist hole, so he has some work to do rehabbing that image.”
After I published that piece last night, Tina Peters’ legal team sent me the statement in the article above.
They also suggested that Peters was or is going to be charged in the prison spat she had last month, but no confirmation or verification was provided yet. When I have it, it will be on my Substack. Stay tuned.
Elections are fake. Jena, Phil, and the people that weaponized the government are acting as though they’re still fake.
But their Executive — Governor Jared Polis — is acting as though they might be real. That’s notable.
“Polis forced the state’s incumbents to state their positions before the primary. Their swift, coordinated, and absolute position confirms their resolve – but it also signals that ‘information and belief’ about Tina Peters is important. Can all these attorneys sell the idea that they believed what they did to Peters was justice? They struggled to sell it to the appellate court. They haven’t sold Polis. Here’s hoping we’re closer to them trying to sell it as a viable defense to a Grande RICO Jury.”
Accelerate.
P.S. The pictures will continue. It’s too much fun and really brings the story to life, doesn’t it?
P.P.S. “No missing paperwork” could refer to Peters’ legal team’s theory that the Presidential Pardon is enough to get her out. They have not explicitly stated that she submitted an application for clemency to Jared Polis. Very interesting, and I wonder if the governor will announce in the future that he didn’t commute her sentence because she never applied. Let’s see what happens.
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US, Ecuadorian Forces Launch Joint Operations Against Narco-Terrorists
Ecuadorian and US military forces carried out coordinated operations on Tuesday targeting Designated Terrorist Organizations in Ecuador, according to US Southern Command.
The actions demonstrate a shared commitment across Latin America and the Caribbean to confront groups that have long spread terror, violence, and corruption.
“We commend the men and women of the Ecuadorian armed forces for their unwavering commitment to this fight, demonstrating courage and resolve through continued actions against narco-terrorists in their country,” said SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan.
Ecuador’s Defense Ministry described the effort as an “offensive” operation conducted with US support, noting that operational details remain classified.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: Here is an X post made by Colombian President Gustavo Petro on January 24, 2026.
A week after he made this post, Petro was at the White House meeting with President Trump, proposing joint-operations against the cartels, not just in South America but across the world.
This is only the beginning—really, the middle. (Petro has been going after these guys since 2022.)
The fact that President Trump is going after the cartels in the two places that Petro has always highlighted as the main problem—Mexico and Ecuador—is a great sign that President Trump is earnestly working with these other world leaders to take down the cabal.
BONUS ITEM
Supreme Court Rules Appeals Courts Must Defer to Immigration Agencies in Asylum Cases
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously that federal appeals courts must defer to immigration agencies’ factual findings when deciding whether an asylum seeker’s accepted facts qualify as persecution, a decision seen as a legal win for the Trump administration.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing for the Court, said the Immigration and Nationality Act requires this deferential review, meaning appeals courts can only overturn an agency’s decision if it is clearly unsupported by the evidence. The Court affirmed the lower court’s ruling. No justices dissented.
The case involved Douglas Humberto Urias-Orellana, a Salvadoran national who entered the United States without authorization in 2021 with his wife and child. He testified that a hitman had targeted him in El Salvador. An immigration judge found his testimony credible but determined the events did not meet the legal threshold for asylum, a conclusion the Supreme Court left in place.
Bondi Subpoenaed in Congressional Epstein Probe
The US House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas in the Jeffrey Epstein case this week. One of the subpoenas targets Pam Bondi.
Lawmakers are seeking documents and communications related to Epstein investigations in Florida during Bondi’s tenure as state AG.
The subpoenas come after allegations that key records in the investigation had not been fully released.
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It can't be said or written enough: FREE TINA PETERS.
Good stuff!
It is so much fun to watch Trump manhandle all the DS rat Bastards, they never seem to learn, he takes their momentum and uses it against them. Glorious!
Ashe I am glad you follow and report on Tina Peter.
Keep up the great work.
God Wins!
God Bless!!!