Badlands Brief
Rebuke. Contempt. Disgust.
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.
Trump DOJ Subpoenas Reporter Over 2019 North Korea SEAL Mission Leak
Prosecutors in Newport News, Virginia have subpoenaed freelance reporter Matthew Cole, seeking to have him reveal his sources for a New York Times article on a top-secret 2019 Navy SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea.
FBI agents delivered the grand jury subpoena to Cole’s New York home in February. It demands two years of information on his contacts and conversations as investigators work to identify who leaked details of the classified operation.
The Times article, co-reported last fall by Cole and staff writer Dave Philipps, described how SEALs killed two or three unarmed North Koreans who stumbled upon a mission to plant a secret eavesdropping device near the country’s coastline. The account drew on interviews with two dozen people. Philipps has not been subpoenaed.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the specific probe but stated it will use all available legal tools to “uncover those who unlawfully disclose national defense information.”
Ashe in America: Despite the headlines, the Supreme Court’s case law generally cuts in favor of the Justice Department’s authority to subpoena a reporter in a leak investigation.
In Branzburg v. Hayes, the Court rejected the idea that reporters have a blanket First Amendment right to refuse a valid grand jury subpoena, holding that journalists generally have the same obligation as everyone else to provide evidence in criminal investigations. Two years later, in United States v. Nixon, the Court reinforced that principle, famously stating that “the public has a right to every man’s evidence” — even when important constitutional interests are involved.
Branzburg is the controlling precedent. But remember, just because the court made that decision doesn’t mean it’s right. (See: Roe v Wade.)
The strongest case that protects Cole and the Times from any meaningful consequences Bartnicki v. Vopper, which protects journalists who lawfully receive and publish information on matters of public concern (even if their source got the info unlawfully) — but the Supremes specifically left open whether the same rule applies when the information involves classified national security secrets.
That last point is what makes this case especially interesting.
The Supreme Court has never squarely answered how far First Amendment protections extend when a grand jury subpoena targets a reporter in a national security leak investigation. If this case reaches the Court, it could give the justices an opportunity to answer the question Bartnicki left unresolved and clarify whether Branzburg fully controls in the context of classified military operations.
Honestly, I can see it both ways. On the one hand, our First Amendment protections are the hill to die on in any period of government expansion (and always). On the other, the CIA (and IC otherwise) has infiltrated the institutional press and is ostensibly wearing “press” as a skin suit while running illegal psychological warfare campaigns on the American people, much as if they were trying to destabilize a foreign nation.
It would be awesome if, through this litigation, it was fully revealed that the institutional press isn’t really “press” at all.
Dare to dream.
Yet Another Turkish Cargo Ship is Hit by Ukrainian Drones, as Children Killed at Russian Beach Resort & Ukraine Embraces Campaign of Terror
Russian officials say a Ukrainian drone strike damaged another Turkish cargo vessel in the Black Sea, marking the latest reported incident involving Turkish commercial shipping amid the expanding maritime conflict. Moscow also says a separate Ukrainian drone attack struck a beach resort in Russia, killing several civilians, including children, and wounding others. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed responsibility for either strike.
The reported attacks come alongside an explosion at an upscale restaurant in Moscow that Russian investigators are treating as an act of terrorism. Russian officials have increasingly characterized Ukrainian cross-border drone strikes and sabotage operations as terrorist attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, while Ukraine has defended many long-range strikes as legitimate military operations intended to degrade Russia’s warfighting capabilities.
The incidents reflect the continued expansion of the war beyond traditional battlefield targets, with both sides accusing the other of violating the laws of armed conflict.
There is now a clear pattern. In what is perhaps the most damning sign that Ukraine has lost the war on the battlefield against Russia, it would appear that Kiev has fully embraced a campaign of terrorism against the civilians of Russia, as well as Russia’s allies.
Among a flurry of reports of acts of terrorism over the past week across Russia—including the bombing of an Italian restaurant in Moscow, where two Russian generals were allegedly dining—the most horrifying and outrageous account is that of a Ukrainian drone striking a beach resort in Gelendzhik, Russia, killing seven people including three children. Last week, another resort in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region was struck, killing twelve people including five children. (The Kremlin also applauded last week the “vital role” of First Lady Melania Trump in reuniting Russian and Ukrainian children with their families.)
We also have yet another Turkish cargo ship that was bombed some twenty miles off the coast of Russia, further affirming the theory that the Israeli government has recruited Kiev into opening up a new front against Turkey on the Black Sea.
Just last week, we saw the Deputy Speaker of the Russian Parliament give a public address where she accused the Ukrainian government of aiding child-trafficking operations online, revealing that a number of Ukrainian children have been sold on the dark web for tens of thousands of dollars, while another 60,000 children have been deported as war refugees without legal representation or proper due process. We also learned from Italian authorities that the Ukrainian government has been selling thousands of weapons to the Italian crime families — weapons that were most likely sent to Ukraine on the dime of the American taxpayer.
And, of course, we cannot forget the attempted assassination of a Ukrainian oligarch in Monaco last month by a Ukrainian intelligence officer — who was later murdered by one of her own colleagues. The Ukrainian oligarch is said to be a Russian sympathizer.
It is quite clear that the Deep State is using its Ukrainian proxy to wage a campaign of international terrorism against the Sovereign Alliance.
The violence can be found in Israel, as well. Yesterday, a group of religious Jews attacked an Armenian church in Jerusalem. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the young religious Jews have openly described humiliating Christians as a religious duty.
Last month, the Washington Post published an interview with Nikodemus Schnabel, the abbot of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem. Schnabel said that Jewish violence against Christians in Israel has exploded, as the Jewish jihadists are emboldened to do so by the Netanyahu government.
In May, the Armenian Patriarchate said in an interview, “Spitting and humiliation are daily. People are afraid to walk in Jerusalem with Christian symbols.” In that same article, Rabbi Michael Henkin, one of the leaders of “the religious left,” affirms that this new violent ethos has developed in Israel, and the government doesn’t seem at all interested in stopping it. Henkin says that even Jews who are sympathetic toward Palestine are being targeted with this violence, reporting that even the Israeli police are beating these individuals and destroying their kippahs that are embroidered with the Palestinian flag.
It would seem that hatred has completely consumed certain segments of Israeli society, and those segments appear to have considerable influence over the State. A similar pattern against Christians can also be found in Ukraine, as Russian Orthodox churches have been shuttered and its clergy persecuted, under accusation of collaborating with the Kremlin.
There is an undeniable war being waged against the followers of Jesus, and the saddest part is that millions of American Christians—seduced by earthly masters—are choosing to side with Satan.
One thing is clear: The Deep State is desperate and lashing out like a cornered animal.
Coffee vs Hot Cacao vs Green Tea
Which of these hot drinks was proven in a study to boost stem cells by 220% in 30 days? Billionaires drop 6 figures on stem cell therapy, but this hot drink costs 50 cents a day and boosts anti-aging stem cells improving heart health, blood pressure, and longevity. Go to trycacaobliss.com/badlands to learn more.
Chinese AI Models Force American Frontier Flagships Into Race to the Bottom
Chinese AI developers continue driving down the cost of frontier AI models, with reports that DeepSeek’s latest model delivers performance comparable to leading US systems at a fraction of the operating cost, intensifying competition among global AI companies. The rapid pace of lower-cost releases has increased pressure on American AI firms to reduce prices while continuing to invest heavily in training larger and more capable models.
The escalating competition comes as the Trump administration finalizes a national AI framework intended to strengthen US leadership in artificial intelligence. According to reports, the framework was developed through extensive consultations with industry leaders and focuses on accelerating AI innovation while maintaining America’s competitive edge against China.
Burning Bright: I know some find this subject matter dry, and if you’re focusing entirely on the horribly autistic naming conventions assigned to AI models across the battlespace, I don’t blame you.
Ignoring version names and even company names, however, I think there’s increasing value in observing the AI ‘race’ as a key front in the Shadow War, and as usual, I have a somewhat controversial reading of said front that drafts off of anti-China headlines while melding them into Sovereign Alliance framing.
In the midst of all the AI syntax and industry lingo, capital expenditure trends and market booms and busts (which seem to be occurring on a daily basis of late,) I think there’s some real signal within the noise here, which is exposing two key factions in the war for the future of artificial intelligence while laying down cover fire for the third.
First on the battlefield are the American frontier companies, led by Sam Altman’s ChatGPT and Dario Amodei’s Anthropic. These are widely regarded as the industry flagships and pioneers, and the logic stacks against which all other models are compared, including Elon Musk’s Grok, which currently falls behind them in MOST (but not ALL) benchmarks, which we’ll return to in a minute.
China (meaning, Chinese companies, but really the Chinese government) is the opposition, here, spinning up massive investments on the State side to essentially brute force the nonexistent Chinese private sector into direct competition with said American flagships.
That said, in my personal reading, China isn’t trying to ‘beat’ the flagship American models so much as driving the cost of them UP on a relative scale by driving their own cost per model DOWN at an exponential rate.
Put more simply, American flagship AI models are still leading the race from a capability perspective, but in terms of cost per task, China is absolutely destroying us.
Basically, if you want to buy a car for peak performance, you buy a Ferrari for $200k. But if you want to buy a car for peak VALUE, you buy a Corolla for $25k.
Which wins the ‘market?’
There’s room for both, but if you as a nation state are pinning your hopes to one, the Toyota model is the runaway winner.
Enter Elon Musk, whose Grok, while certainly lagging behind his American competition in terms of pure capability is actually smashing them in terms of cost per token, which is to say, intelligence efficiency.
That puts Musk’s tech track on pace with China’s, and I personally think the third player yet to enter the game in a public-facing manner is the US government led by Donald Trump.
As I’ve been arguing for months, I actually believe OpenAI and Anthropic are trying to retard the progression of the AI industry by appealing to Western governments to regulate said industry in favor of closed-weight models as opposed to open-weight and open-source models.
This is not a good thing, and we have been told very recently that the Trump administration is opposed to it. (By Howard Lutnick.)
So, which faction is actually proving said closed-weight modeling untenable on the global stage?
China.
And which American company is mirroring the China playbook?
SpaceXAI ... one of the leading DOD and DOW (and soon, probably DOE) contractors in the country.
THIS is the Shadow War.
Do you see it?
Tickets Now On Sale For GART 13 in Las Vegas!
Badlands Media hits the road four times a year for a 3-day patriot-packed event with our hosts and the Badlands community. Our 13th stop on the Great American Restoration Tour (GART) is September 17-20 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Come meet like-minded Americans, hear powerful content, and be part of something real.
Aaron Rodgers Goes Scorched Earth at “Absolute Coward” Anthony Fauci
Aaron Rodgers sharply criticized former White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci during an appearance on ESPN, calling him an “absolute coward” and a “criminal” while revisiting his longstanding criticism of the federal government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rodgers also reiterated his view that the virus most likely originated from a laboratory, arguing that officials failed to be transparent with the public during the pandemic.
Rodgers has remained one of the most prominent professional athletes to publicly challenge COVID-era policies, including vaccine mandates and public health guidance. Fauci has consistently denied accusations that he misled the public.
This is the level of respect that our government deserves.
People should stop groveling to the government and GOP simply because Donald Trump is now president. Don’t forget that these same institutions tried to imprison him just two years ago, after colluding with foreign powers to steal the 2020 election.
Never forget that all of you are descended from mavericks. The cowboy is the most universally recognized icon in the world, and is synonymous with America, because cowboys represent the American Spirit.
What a cowboy represents is defiant self-reliance. It is the ability to tell the government to “fuck off” and then ride your horse out of town into the desert and survive by your wits and ingenuity.
They are trying to breed that out of you. When I say “they,” I am referring to low-testosterone men and over-privileged women, neither of whom have any inkling of how stark and dangerous the world can become when there aren’t cowboys around to keep bad men at bay.
We have allowed the spoiled rotten children of the privileged elite to ruin our society, simply because they have money and lack vision to do anything constructive with their lives. The time has come to tell all of these people to “fuck off,” then ride our horses out of town and never again listen to their neurotic sermons.
We must remind ourselves that these sociopaths are all moral degenerates who have no idea how to contribute to society in any meaningful way. If it weren’t for the highly sophisticated and prosperous civilization that our cowboy forefathers created, these sociopaths would likely be roadkill in a third-world country. (Perhaps some of them would find ways to support themselves working as prostitutes and pickpockets.)
I know some will look at this clip of Aaron Rodgers and feel inclined to make a cynical remark about the bread and circus nature of modern sports. But what Rodgers represents here is the return of the alpha male to the town square. This is exactly how we should speak about government officials and the nerds who grovel at their feet.
Rebuke. Contempt. Disgust.
Until we reach that critical milestone in the Great Awakening that we have all been clamoring for since President Trump came down that escalator in 2015 — that is, restoring our government to a point where it becomes worthy of our respect — this is the tone that we should express any time our government attempts to speak down to us from its ivory tower.
The government must learn to fear The People in the same way that many people feared the government during the COVID scam-demic.
A New Political Party?
Speculation is growing that prominent “America First” figures could be laying the groundwork for a new political movement or third party after former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, commentator Tucker Carlson, former Rep. Thomas Massie, and former counterterrorism official Joe Kent recently met in Maine. The discussions follow months of public criticism of the Trump administration from several of the participants, particularly over US foreign policy and intervention abroad.
While no formal party has been announced, Carlson has publicly said he wants to help build a new political party rather than run for office himself, and Greene has said she is exploring the idea of an “America-focused” alternative outside the traditional Republican and Democratic parties.
Whether the effort evolves into a formal third party or remains an informal political coalition remains unclear, but the discussions highlight continuing divisions within the broader America First movement over the future direction of conservative politics.
Ashe in America: Everyone is speculating that this is a new political party, but I’m not convinced. The parties are an irrelevant distraction.
It’s a battle of the PACs. It was yesterday, it is today, and it will be tomorrow.
It’s common to think about the PACs as just funding engines, but the PACs are the centers of power in political campaigns. They’re often the decision makers on political narratives and funding allocations.
This isn’t a black pill that it all comes down to money. That’s the trap into wasted change efforts with no chance of sticking. It’s mostly true, but it’s the wrong framing. For candidates, the PACs buy the polling and advertising, and they pay consultants and publicists and lawyers.
PACs are storytellers as much as they’re money laundering engines. Maybe even more.
In a war of stories, the most persuasive storytellers win.
So, are they starting a new party? Or are they launching a new PAC? And does the distinction matter?
I think it matters. The parties are irrelevant theater, but the PACs have power. In a truly post partisan environment, the PACs are the power.
You gotta play to win.
BONUS ITEM
Blanche Secures Cornyn and Tillis Votes After Formally Terminating Anti-Weaponization Fund
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund and limiting the scope of an IRS audit settlement, clearing the way for his nomination.
Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), the final Republican holdouts, announced they will now vote yes on Blanche after securing a legally enforceable written document that ends the fund and constrains the audit protections to only the parties in the settlement agreement.
The senators said they had insisted from the outset on a binding document addressing both issues. The DOJ order confirms the audit settlement does not extend beyond the plaintiffs, the IRS, and the Treasury, resolving concerns shared by multiple Republican colleagues.
Cornyn and Tillis thanked Blanche and his staff for working with them and said they look forward to advancing his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Blanche is set to move through committee Tuesday morning.
Please share the Brief far and wide!
Want to join the conversation?
Jump in the comments and let us know your thoughts.
And if you like the Substack, you should check out our shows — streaming now on Badlands Media!
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.
The Brief is free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber.
“The time has come to tell all of these people to “fuck off,” then ride our horses out of town”
FUCK OFF. ALL THE WAY. don’t waste our time fucking off half way.
Thank you, Ghost!!
Perhaps the question should not be whether Matt Cole leaked classified information, but whether that information was true! As Alexander Hamilton argued, it’s not that we must defend the freedom of the press, but that we must defend our freedom to tell the truth!