Badlands Brief

COVIDian Comeuppance and NATOnian Neglect

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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Media Admits COVID Origins Reckoning Appears to Be Gaining Momentum

A series of legal and administrative actions has targeted U.S. scientists affiliated with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases over their COVID-19 research and alleged efforts to obscure information about the virus’s origins.

Proponents of the lab-leak theory, including figures in the Trump administration, have pushed these cases as accountability for scientists they claim hid evidence of a possible laboratory origin in Wuhan, China.

The actions include debarments, indictments, arrests, removals from leadership, and congressional subpoenas, with enforcement shifting toward the Department of Justice.

In April 2026, virologist Ralph Baric was referred for a three-year federal debarment over paperwork inconsistencies and decade-old gain-of-function experiments.

David Morens, a former adviser to Anthony Fauci, was indicted for conspiring to conceal or falsify discussions of research grants and for using private emails to avoid public records requests; he was arrested at his home by armed federal agents.

Shortly afterward, Jeffrey Taubenberger was removed from his role as acting head of NIAID.

In May, virologist Vincent Munster and a colleague faced indictment for allegedly smuggling mpox virus samples into the United States without proper documentation and making false statements to customs officials.

On July 7, Senator Rand Paul announced a subpoena for Fauci to testify before the Senate.

Ashe in America: There are several domains that require justice for Americans to move on and build something new.

Fake elections is the most obvious and the one I talk most about, but there is also RussiaGate and the Autopen and, perhaps most egregious, Covid.

Covid was a portfolio of crimes against humanity.

The Atlantic laments that justice is coming because they — like most of the central narrative deployers — were complicit in that portfolio.

Hey, isn’t that the rag that published a desperate plea for amnesty?

Yes. Yes, it is.

That was in October 2022.

I bet they thought they were in the clear.

“The precise timing of these cases, which have all come to light since April, may be a coincidence. Yet all five are centered on a small community of scientists affiliated with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci ran for nearly 40 years.” — The Atlantic

Covid didn’t leak from a lab. It was a set of physiological and psychological contagions that were deployed on the American people.

And Covid was not disconnected from fake elections or the autopen or RussiaGate and any of the other dozens of scandals plaguing the the small group in our nation’s capitol “who have reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.”

It’s a grand treasonous conspiracy.

And we can’t have a Golden Age without a Justice Phase.

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Netanyahu and Mossad Media Now Claim That Iran Has Chemical Weapons and Still Poses a “Mortal Danger”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, which helped trigger the recent military conflict involving Israel and the United States.

He said the operations significantly set back Iran’s nuclear program by destroying much of its infrastructure, including centrifuges and manufacturing facilities, and by eliminating 20 of its top nuclear scientists.

Netanyahu described the immediate threat as having been pushed back considerably.

He warned, however, that Iran still poses a serious long-term danger.

Comparing the situation to excising a cancerous tumor that could return, Netanyahu noted that while Iran currently lacks the capability to build a nuclear bomb, its underlying desire remains. He emphasized that arming the regime with nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles would place both Israel and the United States in grave peril, citing chants of hostility toward America within parts of Iranian society.

He described his relationship with President Donald Trump as exceptionally strong, while acknowledging occasional disagreements, such as over potential U.S. arms sales to Turkey.

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: It never ends.

As long as the Zionist State of Israel exists, this war will never end.

They will continue to make up every excuse for why the war must continue, at all costs.

That's because this war is now an existential conflict for the Jewish supremacists who seek to conquer the Middle East and reassert their lost control over the US.

According to the Times of Israel, one third of all American Jews now say that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza.

According to the same polling, only 20% of all Americans say that Israel did not commit a genocide, and that the complete obliteration of the Gazan civilization was morally justified.

Whether this polling is accurate is irrelevant.

You can sense it in the air that the winds have changed, and Israel has now become widely recognized in the US as a liability, if not an outright enemy.

This development is what now makes this conflict an existential crisis for the Israeli political elite. They simply cannot afford to allow the peace to return to the Middle East—at least not until they have complete control over the region—because they know that the world is going to come seeking retribution for what Israel has already done, and what it ostensibly plans to do next.

Thanks to Netanyahu, Israel is now a cornered animal, bearing its teeth as it asserts what little power projection it has remaining.

Whether these circumstances were delivered by Netanyahu as part of a coordinated operation, or whether Bibi is simply acting in his own best interest in response to evolving incentives is a question that is secondary to the fact that it is happening, and that nothing at this point can stop it.

To make matters worse for Netanyahu, for the first time in Israeli history the Netanyahu government has openly declared that it will not respect a High Court of Justice ruling, sparking a constitutional crisis.

We will get into the specifics of the court rulings another time, but the High Court has warned of anarchy and societal breakdown should the government pursue this course of defiance.

I suspect that we will see a similar civil war, of sorts, break out among the political elite in the US, as Israel's control and influence over the US politicians and institutions becomes increasingly obvious.

(Hence why we have focused so much of our bandwidth over the past few years on understanding this critical issue.)

The moment is quickly approaching where every American will have to choose between their home country and a foreign country.

Let us pray that enough Americans choose America.

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Rutte, of NATO Says Trump Was Right About NATO, Infuriating NATO

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has urged alliance members to acknowledge that U.S. President Donald Trump was correct in demanding higher defense spending and greater burden-sharing from European allies.

In remarks at the NATO summit in Ankara, Rutte credited Trump with advancing a long-standing U.S. goal of equalizing defense contributions between America and Europe, describing the current period as transformational for the alliance.

He praised Trump personally, stating that what the president is doing for NATO is “great news.”

Rutte highlighted that over the past two years, the 31 non-U.S. NATO members have committed $250 billion in new defense investments and programs, with additional pledges expected.

He pointed to European support for the recent U.S.-led military campaign against Iran, noting that allies provided critical basing, airfields, and power projection capabilities that enabled the operation.

While acknowledging Trump’s frustration that some allies were slow to offer public backing, Rutte emphasized that the overall European contribution has been substantial and that the alliance must build sustainable capabilities to reduce over-reliance on the United States.

Rutte framed these developments as evidence that Europe is stepping up in response to threats from Russia, China, and other adversaries, creating a stronger and more balanced NATO.

He stressed the need for a sustainable alliance in which Europeans and Canadians take on a larger share of the load, even as Washington reviews its troop presence in Europe and focuses on other priorities.

Burning Bright: Of all the various Our Boys and Our Girls on the battlespace, I have to say, I've been sleeping on Our Boy Rutte.

The Secretary General of the defunct and inept NATO alliance first made waves in this community in 2025, when he referred to Donald Trump as 'daddy' in an offhand remark in reference to his first discombobulation campaign against the so-called Iranian Regime.

But in the year since, Rutte has played a pivotal role in the narrative amplification department, routinely calling out NATO's refusal to increase its defense spending in keeping with Trump's demands while continuously praising the US Commander-in-Chief.

In his latest remarks, delivered on the eve of the GOATUS touching down in Ankara for the latest meeting among non-equals in said alliance, Rutte doubled down, going so far as to invoke Dwight D. Eisenhower in relation to Trump's push to force the European Allies to do their part in maintaining the very hegemony they have only maintained through proxy control over the US Presidents over the intervening generations since Eisenhower reigned.

The thing is, I don't think we're returning to a world dominated by said US Hegemony, and Rutte's other remarks this week, in which he ALSO referenced a few other players on the game board demonstrate that he knows the real game Trump is playing, and who's playing it with him.

Aside from praising Trump for triggering a surge in European nationalism (and by extension, defense spending,) Rutte called out the kinetic and economic campaigns waged by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping as proofs positive of Trump's underlying premise--that we are moving from a hegemonic world to a multipolar one, and that the only language of negotiation in that world is power.

Rutte also threw in Iran and North Korea for good measure, completing the quintet (the US, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea) I've been referring to as the 'New Axis' since July 2025, two months before The Guardian referred to the same set as the 'Axis of Upheaval.'

Rutte may be Our Boy, or he may be Their Boy.

Either way, he's the only leader on the European continent doing what he should be before the resurgent might of the American people ... bowing at our feet, and begging for our friendship.

If he keeps it up, and if his compatriots follow suit, he may even have it.

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Key Dems Pull Out After Platner Campaign Rocked by Scandal

Graham Platner’s Democratic campaign for U.S. Senate in Maine has been thrown into turmoil by public sexual assault allegations from a former romantic partner.

Jenny Racicot accused Platner of sexually assaulting her in late 2021 after showing up at her home uninvited while heavily intoxicated.

She described him ignoring her protests, grabbing her forcefully, and proceeding with sex against her will, later claiming he did not remember the incident the next morning. Racicot did not file a police report at the time, but later shared details with a therapist and others; she said she sent Platner a message weeks afterward stating the encounter was non-consensual.

In response, Platner released a video statement denying the allegations as “categorically false” and framing them as a coordinated political hit timed just before Maine’s candidate filing deadline.

He announced he was stepping back temporarily to reflect on the best path forward for his campaign, his supporters, and the goal of defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Several prominent Democrats, including Sen. Ruben Gallego and Rep. Ro Khanna, quickly withdrew their endorsements, with Khanna calling the allegations serious and credible and urging Platner to drop out of the race.

Ashe in America: The democrats are run by literal communists, and they’re known for embracing “minor attracted people” — pedophiles — as part of their communities.

If you think I’m being hyperbolic, come to the colorful communist country of Colorado.

I’m always skeptical of rape and sexual assault allegations that surface in political campaigns, especially when they weren’t reported at the time, because they’re extremely convenient, with built in motivation and/or incentives to lie …

But, in this story, I’m stuck on why the allegations against Platner are a problem for “democrats” in the first place.

We’re talking about the party that regularly lets violent sex offenders out of prison as part of criminal justice reform.

Why is this alleged one — ostensibly one of their own — a problem?

Is it the Nazi tattoo?

He covered it up, didn’t he?

Also, it’s freedom of expression, which I thought was important to the party that wants to show their genitalia to children on Main Street in June.

The whole Platner story is very confusing.

Then again, if you consider that the depraved left has no principles, it actually makes sense.

Good thing elections are fake; otherwise, Platner’s pullouts might be concerning.

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Trump Blasts NATO, Praises Erdogan Before Touching Down in Ankara as Europeans Sweat

President Donald Trump arrived at the NATO summit in Ankara still seething over European allies’ refusal to support the recent U.S.-led military campaign against Iran. He has repeatedly expressed disappointment that allies declined to open air bases for strikes or contribute forces to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, viewing their hesitation as a lack of loyalty despite decades of U.S. protection for Europe.

Trump has publicly mocked and criticized several European leaders in connection with the dispute.

He posted memes targeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, dismissed U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer as weak, and brushed off NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s praise for increased allied spending.

He has emphasized that the United States does not need Europe’s money or assistance, declaring, “I just want loyalty,” while refusing to rule out further reductions in the U.S. military footprint in Europe.

The Pentagon has already scaled back some U.S. forces in the region and launched a six-month review of its presence, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth describing allies’ refusal to provide base access as “shameful.”

Meanwhile, he and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have exchanged warm compliments ahead of the summit, much to the chagrin of the rest of the so-called alliance.

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: First, let's take a look at the reception that President Trump received when he arrived in Turkey for the NATO Summit.

Legendary stuff.

President Trump walked into Ankara and laid down the law with NATO, making it infinitely clear that America is done with that organization.

President Trump even said that the only reason he attended was because the summit was being hosted by his dear friend, President Erdogan.

It's very clear that President Trump is prioritizing the relationship with Turkey over the relationship with Europe. I suspect that we will see similar treatment with the other Muslim nations of the Middle East, including Iran.

All of this is evidence of the Sovereign Alliance and its legitimacy, as it endeavors to supplant the Unipolar Hegemony with a new Multipolar World Order.

Europe needs to get its shit together and stop acting like a homeless bum.

Get a job, pay your bills, stop leeching off of America, restore you manufacturing base, and developing an energy program outside of those gay windmills that don't even produce suitable levels of electricity.

Until then, Europe is simply not going to be respected on the world stage.

Sorry, not sorry.

In life, there are consequences to your actions. Europe thought it could pursue this retarded woke agenda, and just coast on the fact that its various empires have ruled the world for the past 500 years.

The reality is that the Global South has overtaken Europe in energy production and manufacturing, and it won't be long before they can have superior military strength, as well.

Now that America is no longer going to play protector for Europe, that puts the continent in a precarious predicament when it comes to national defense and security.

We all want Europe to succeed and thrive. But we are also sick of the welfare queen behavior.

Get your act together and start behaving like a normal civilization again. Or don't, and fade away into irrelevance.

Your choice.

As for Erdogan and Turkey, they have demonstrated their desire to achieve greatness.

For those reasons, they are the stronger partner at the moment and are therefore more deserving of our attention and cooperation.

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