Badlands Brief

Gay Ayatollahs & Globalist Fragility

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.

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DOJ, DHS Move Toward Data-Sharing Deal Linking Voter Rolls to Immigration Investigations

The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are nearing a formal agreement that would allow federal authorities to use voter registration data in immigration and criminal probes, sources familiar with the discussions told CBS News.

Under the reported plan, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division would provide voter roll data collected from states to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, with the goal of identifying non-citizens who may be registered to vote or who may have participated in past elections unlawfully. The request for access is expected to be submitted by Todd Lyons, currently serving as the senior official performing the duties of ICE director.

Officials are also considering building a system that would enable federal investigators to cross-reference voter registration records with DHS immigration databases, allowing direct query-based matching between the two systems.

A DOJ spokesperson said the department is allocating significant resources to ensure elections remain “free, fair, and transparent,” emphasizing efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls and ensure that only American citizens determine election outcomes.

Ashe in America: Anonymous sources “with direct knowledge of the plan” tell CBS News that the plan is in place for “the federal government to use sensitive voter registration data for immigration and criminal investigations.”

The DOJ seemed to confirm the reports, with a spokesperson telling the outlet that, “This Department of Justice is devoting significant resources to ensure that elections are free, fair, and transparent. That includes litigation to ensure voter roll maintenance and a clear focus on ensuring that American elections are decided solely by American citizens.”

Dare to dream.

Listen, privacy is a myth. The idea that the federal government cannot identify frauds – whether election or entitlement or immigration frauds – from government data sets is very silly. It’s a position that can only be held by those intent on committing frauds.

Notably, these states had no issues sharing data with the federal government when they were besties and collaborating to undermine the civil rights of their political opponents.

Weird. Accelerate.

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Trump, Xi Set for Beijing Meeting in May, White House Confirms

President Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 and 15, the White House announced Wednesday. The President posted on Truth Social:

“My meeting with the Highly Respected President of China, President Xi Jinping, which was originally postponed due to our Military operation in Iran, has been rescheduled, and will take place in Beijing on May 14th and 15th. First Lady Melania and I will also host President Xi and Madame Peng for a reciprocal visit in Washington, D.C., at a later date, this year. Our Representatives are finalizing preparations for these Historic Visits. I look very much forward to spending time with President Xi in what will be, I am sure, a Monumental Event. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are also expected to host Xi for a reciprocal visit in Washington later this year, with the date still to be determined.

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: The most notable aspect of this development is that it it’ll place the visit on the one year anniversary of Trump’s trip to Arabia, which occurred from May 13-16 of last year.

I wonder if we will get another groundbreaking speech like the one Trump gave in Riyadh last year.

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EU Economy on the Brink as Proxy Conflicts Reveal Globalist Fragility

Germany’s economy is facing prolonged stagnation, with weak industrial output, high energy costs, and structural pressures tied to deindustrialization trends.

Germany’s economic news coincides with broader political instability in parts of Europe. In Denmark, the resignation of Mette Frederiksen followed major electoral losses for the Social Democrats. Additionally, Hungary cut natural gas supplies to Ukraine amid disputes tied to Russian oil transit and energy policy, highlighting ongoing energy tensions linked to the war. Europe’s energy system remains heavily influenced by the fallout from reduced Russian gas flows, forcing reliance on alternative suppliers and contributing to higher costs across the continent.

Against this backdrop, the US has linked long-term security guarantees for Ukraine to potential concessions around territory and alliances.

“The Middle East definitely has an impact on President Trump, and I think on his next steps. President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy to put more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” Zelenskyy said. “The Americans are prepared to finalize these guarantees at a high level once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas.”

Burning Bright: The Globalist Hegemon has been dying for some time.

The Iran Crisis is merely accelerating its fracture along fault lines Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have been exposing for years.

Germany’s industrial base has been hollowed out to the bone, with deindustrialization not the result of policy failure, but as engineered consequence.

Political dominoes are toppling in places like Denmark, where the old guard fractures under the weight of their own illusions, while Hungary draws hard lines on energy flows, refusing to play the vassal game any longer in the midst of populist uprisings in Germany, the UK and Spain.

This is an organic dialectic forming in real time: European Panic on one side, raw Sovereign Strength on the other.

The United States, Russia and China are operating from positions of unassailable leverage—energy dominance, strategic depth and industrial resilience—while the collectivist cult’s crown jewel devours itself from within.

The Collective Mind is registering the contrast.

This recognition may be subconscious at first, but, as the patterns compound, the awakening will turn conscious, and then a pivot, sharp and inevitable is in the offing.

Decentralized strength. National renewal.

The restoration of agency on a multipolar canvas.

This theme, power versus the illusion of it didn’t begin in the sands of the Middle East or in the Strait of Hormuz. It first crystallized with Russia’s move into Ukraine, which served as an initial shatterpoint of the unipolar spell.

What looked like empiric aggression to many at that time was, in truth, the first major inversion of the rules-based international order, with Russia exposing the fragility of proxy architectures built on sand and the emptiness of sanctions wielded as weapons, rendering the West’s self-inflicted energy vulnerabilities laid bare for all to see.

Now, the arc bends toward culmination in multiple theaters at once, including the one that kicked off the current arc.

Russia continues to dominate Ukraine in all the ways that matter. All that remains is the endgame to be actualized, the one that was projected from the start, and that will recall the deal first presented by Vladimir Putin at the outset, something Donald Trump is signaling directly to the Prussian Proxy he was supposed to save.

(And that he is, in a manner of speaking.)

First go the puppets. Then the puppet masters.

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Trump Confirms the CIA Told Him the Ayatollah is Gay

President Donald Trump said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Five” that the CIA had told him Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is gay, referencing recent intelligence claims.

Trump acknowledged the agency relayed the information but indicated uncertainty, noting that others have made similar claims. The President then reminisced about his support from gay voters in the 2024 election.

“I did very well with the gay vote. Okay? I even played the Gay National Anthem as my walk-out for my campaign. And I think it probably helped me.”

The reporting connects the claim to broader geopolitical narratives and internal Iranian power dynamics. “The IDF could soon collapse if there is no solution to the shortage of manpower, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir warned in remarks during a security cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. ‘I am raising 10 red flags before the IDF collapses into itself,’ Zamir said during the cabinet meeting, The Jerusalem Post confirmed.”

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: President Trump is now calling the Ayatollah gay after spending weeks speculating whether he was even alive/real because there hadn’t been any footage of him appearing in public. (By that standard, the father has been MIA for roughly a year, too.)

It feels like we are getting trolled by Trump. It looks like we are getting trolled by Trump. Which leads me to my conclusion that we are being trolled by Trump.

Let’s see how much sillier they can make all of this…

As for The Jerusalem Post article, there has been speculation and analysis of this phenomenon for years, and the logic of it is pretty simple:

The IDF is a relatively small fighting force that has never had to fight a protracted war that has lasted longer than a month or so. The lack of enlisted soldiers has been supplemented by the mobilization of reservists. After completing their mandated two years of military service, all Israeli citizens are required to remain signed up as a reservist for a number of years.

Because the reservists are Israel citizens who make up the entire Israeli economy, their mere recruitment into these conflict over 2.5 year period time creates significant economic pressures. Everybody being drafted and mobilized into the IDF means that small businesses don’t stay open or they can’t find the labor to staff their operations. The net effect being a break down in supply chain and other logistics and services that depend on small businesses. (And none of this even takes into consideration the people who are fleeing Israel due to the war zone conditions.)

I’ve heard versions of this analysis from all types of commentators; now we are hearing it from IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir.

Zamir was appointed by Netanyahu after his predecessor became the scapegoat for October 7. He is a career soldier who served on tank crews, and is therefore considered a credible authority when it comes to the perspective of the average IDF soldier.

One of the many challenges the IDF has faced since October 7 is a lack of enlisted soldiers. They have reportedly been short anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 men, and the over-reliance on reserve troops has forced reservists to serve as many as six or seven combat tours since October 7, according to Zamir.

And none of this even takes into account the fact that yesterday the Knesset approved the mobilization of an additional 400,000 reservists.

For context, the total number of reservists who have been mobilized since October 7 is reportedly 375,000.

And now we have Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announcing a massive invasion of southern Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah and annex everything south of the Litani River. (Not to mention, any escalation on the horizon with Iran, including a ground invasion.)

The IDF are stretched too thin. They cannot continue to fight this multi-front war while overly relying on reservists to perform the majority of combat operations, especially when those reservists have already served half a dozen deployments in the past few years. If the IDF doesn’t collapse, it could mutiny against the IDF or government leadership. As more Israeli citizens are dragged from their lives and businesses and into the IDF, a collapse or mutiny seems all the more likely.

Remember when President Trump said that maybe he forced Israel into this conflict? It hits differently now, especially with Trump announcing a ten-day ceasefire, posturing toward peace. Netanyahu, on the other hand, says Israel will continue to fight until it achieves its foreign policy objectives.

So it does seem that Trump has done the impossible: baiting Israel into an impossible military scenario while Trump heads for the exit ramp. And Naftali Bennett now seems pretty upset that Israel is currently losing all of its wars.

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Olympic Committee Adopts New Policy Limiting Women’s Events to Biological Females

The International Olympic Committee announced Thursday it has approved a new policy restricting eligibility for women’s events at Olympic competitions to biological females, beginning with the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Under the policy, eligibility will be determined through a one-time screening for the SRY gene, with athletes who test negative qualifying for the female category. The IOC said the measure is intended to protect fairness, safety, and integrity in women’s competition and will not be applied retroactively.

Athletes who test positive for the SRY gene, including transgender and certain intersex competitors, will be ineligible for women’s events but may compete in other categories, including male or open divisions. The policy includes limited exceptions for specific medical conditions such as Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry said the decision was based on scientific and medical guidance, citing competitive fairness and athlete safety.

Ashe in America: In a win for women, athletes with Y-chromosomes are no longer allowed to compete in women’s sports at the Olympics.

Sanity seems to be returning to the collective mind. At least, the IOC decision supports that story. Women must not be gaslit into compromising their spaces for mentally ill men. This is basic.

But what about the Munchausen Moms that mutilated their kids during the height of a genocidal social contagion? Can they admit they became monsters and harmed their younglings for social credit and status?

Probably not. And the culture war rages on.

But at least we don’t have to watch men beat up women for gold medals any longer. Let’s hope we are nearing rock bottom for this experiment.

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BONUS ITEM

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FHFA Director Refers Letitia James to DOJ Over Alleged Insurance Application Misrepresentations

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte has again referred New York Attorney General Letitia James to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution, citing allegations that she may have provided false information on a homeowner’s insurance application.

Pulte sent letters Wednesday to US Attorneys in Florida and Illinois requesting they “authenticate and investigate” the claims. The referral cites analysis from attorney Mike Davis, who pointed to court filings he says show discrepancies in James’ insurance representations.

According to the letters, one application submitted to a Florida-based insurer indicated James’ Norfolk, Virginia property would remain unoccupied for five months each year. Testimony referenced in the referral states her niece, Nakia Thompson, lived in the home for several years, contradicting the claim that the residence was vacant for extended periods.

A separate filing cited in the Illinois referral shows James allegedly indicated the home would be occupied by a single adult with no children. Public reporting referenced by Pulte states the property was occupied by her niece and three children, raising additional questions about the accuracy of the application and prompting a request for further federal review.

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