Badlands Brief
Persian Devolution, Minnesotan Maneuvers & Chinese Checkers
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.
In Minnesota, ICE Clashes with the Judicial System as Pretti Details Obscure the Narrative
Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz has ordered acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to appear in person in Minneapolis federal court on January 30, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. to show cause why he should not be held in contempt.
The order stems from ICE’s failure to comply with a January 14, 2026, directive requiring a bond hearing or release within seven days for detainee Juan Tobay Robles, who was taken into custody by federal immigration agents earlier that month.
Judge Schiltz described the violation as part of “one of dozens of court orders” ignored by ICE in recent weeks, stating, “The Court’s patience is at an end... the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed.”
The hearing could be canceled if Robles is released beforehand.
The ruling comes amid escalating tensions in Minneapolis over federal immigration enforcement operations.
On January 24, 2026, 37-year-old former Minneapolis VA Medical Center ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti was fatally shot by U.S. Border Patrol agents during chaotic anti-ICE protests. Body-worn camera footage showed Pretti approaching agents while filming, resisting dispersal orders, and reaching toward his waist where he lawfully carried a concealed firearm.
Pretti, described by colleagues as compassionate and previously apolitical, had quit his job in mid-2025. His father, Michael Pretti, told reporters the family noticed unusual behavior, including pulling away from routine activities and talking more about “standing up” against perceived federal overreach.
“He seemed to have joined some kind of group,” the father said, adding that they had warned him to avoid direct confrontation.
Extracted cellphone data reportedly revealed Pretti’s involvement in coordinated anti-ICE protest networks, including encrypted Signal groups sharing agent locations and planning crowd mobilization to obstruct operations.
The incident followed similar confrontations, heightening scrutiny of protest tactics opposing Trump administration immigration policies.
Ashe in America: The 72-hour rule means withholding outrage until the “facts” are better known. It’s a good rule.
In the case of Alex Pretti, the “VA Nurse” who was a “first responder” when he was “brutally murdered” during ICE enforcement last weekend, the initial narrative has been roundly debunked.
On Tuesday, news spread online that Pretti was known to ICE authorities and had sustained a broken rib just weeks before his death due to interfering with ICE enforcement. There were also claims that his parents reported he left the VA months before his death, other reports that he was fired, and others still that he had “changed” recently, with his parents allegedly describing an online radicalization that transformed their son.
Of all those swirling rumors, only the broken rib has been confirmed. Still, that insight sheds new light on the circumstances of the seemingly-militant activist’s armed and repeated interference, and his predictable death.
He was an agitator.
Another thing I learned Tuesday is that Pretti’s parents live in Colorado. Renee Good also had ties to Colorado.
Fascinating.
On Monday, Colorado legislators spent their legislative time mourning Pretti (and Good) and calling for federal resistance — rather than engaging in legitimate legislative business for the people of Colorado.
Finding out that Pretti and Good — both white leftist activist martyrs, now — have ties to Colorado, a communist country, is hard to believe is a coincidence.
Rather, the operation has all the classic earmarks of a deep state color revolution, and Colorado is the tip of the spear for those on US soil.
Predictably, it’s working. Prominent Republicans are calling for temperance and middle ground:
Middle ground?
So the American people should allow the government to enable criminal invaders without consequence … sometimes?
So we have rule of law sometimes, but only when politicians find it politically expedient?
No.
GTFO.
Deport Newt, too.
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US Weighs Precision Strikes on Iran as Tehran Activates Emergency Contingency Plans
Iran has implemented emergency measures to ensure government continuity and essential supplies amid escalating threats of US or Israeli attacks, with President Masoud Pezeshkian delegating expanded powers to provincial governors for rapid decision-making, accelerated imports, and barter trade without foreign currency.
The Supreme National Security Council has designated successors for key military and civilian officials to prevent leadership gaps in crises, drawing on past wartime protocols.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is reportedly considering precision strikes on senior Iranian officials and commanders linked to protester crackdowns, as well as a potential full blockade of Iranian oil exports to collapse the economy and exploit perceived regime weakness—described by US intelligence as the government’s most vulnerable position since the 1979 revolution.
President Trump has boasted of deploying a “beautiful armada,” including the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, while stating openness to negotiations … while warning of military options.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards have warned that attacks could disrupt global oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, and that neighboring countries permitting use of their territory would be treated as hostile.
Regional de-escalation efforts continue, including Saudi-Iranian talks, amid a “heavy shadow of war” cited by Iranian officials.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: It would appear that Iran has not only implemented a Continuity of Government (COG) protocol, but one that appears to closely resemble Jon Herold’s Devolution Theory.
From the Financial Times of London:
In early August of last year, Iranian media reported—quoting the Secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council—that the leadership had approved the establishment of the National Defense Council within the framework of Article 176 of the Iranian Constitution.
A report from September stated: "Iranian Deputy Interior Minister for Security and Law Enforcement and National Security Council (NSC) Secretary Ali Akbar Pour Jamshidian stated on September 27 that the Supreme National Security Council (SCNC) had directed all Iranian military and civilian officials to designate several successors to ensure continuity of governance in the event of leadership disruption."
Other reports from Iranian media around this time advised that there could be structural changes to the Supreme National Security Council, with a focus on the "separation of defense and security affairs from each other."
The report emphasized that efforts were being made to rebuild the intelligence and security institutions.
Could that be because Iran realized they had been compromised by the late General Soleimani and his Mossad handler, David Barnea?
From the Financial Times article:
According to the news outlet, Tasnim News Agency, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian phoned Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman yesterday.
During the call, Pezeshkian stated that "Muslim Unity" was the key to addressing the region's destabilizing events, echoing MBS's own words that he delivered to the 57 nations of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation during a meeting convened in Riyadh by MBS and his father, King Salman, in November 2023 in the wake of the October 7th attack.
It was during this extraordinary meeting that Saudi Arabia normalized relations with Iran, ending a conflict that stretched all the way back to 1979, when the Iranian Revolution triggered a cultural schism between the two countries that led to the radicalization of both Sunni and Shia Islam in the 1980's.
Immediately following this call between President Pezeshkian and the Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia announced that its airspace would not be used by any party to conduct operations against Iran.
We are now seeing at least two patterns emerge.
The first is that Saudi Arabia has placed itself between Israel/US and Iran on multiple occasions, with one of the more notable being the week before the 2024 US Presidential election, when Saudi Arabia announced that it had hosted joint naval exercises with Iran, as Lindsey Graham and other Republicans were calling on Joe Biden and Netanyahu to launch missile strikes against Iran.
The other pattern that emerged is that President Trump seems to be pushing these "hostile" foreign governments into Continuity of Government protocols, starting with Venezuela in December 2024.
We must wonder what the benefit of a COG protocol would be in the context of Venezuela and Iran— two governments that Republican leadership would like to see overthrown and replaced by Israeli-aligned puppet leaders.
All one must do is look at how US Senator Lindsey Graham is threatening both Iran and Saudi Arabia in a single social media post.
Could it be that COG will put these governments into a lockdown situation, politically, which pre-emptively thwarts any regime change operation being wielded against them?
Persian Devolution?
China Purges Top Generals in Major Military Shake-Up
Chinese authorities announced investigations into Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Gen. Zhang Youxia, 75, and Gen. Liu Zhenli for “serious violations of discipline and law,” a phrase commonly indicating corruption.
The probes were revealed over the weekend of January 25-26, with a People’s Liberation Army Daily accusing the pair of “seriously betraying” the Communist Party’s trust, “trampling on and undermining” the Central Military Commission, and threatening the authority of its chairman, President Xi Jinping.
Zhang, a longtime Xi ally with family ties dating back to China’s revolutionary era and rare combat experience, was previously seen as untouchable.
Unverified reports cited by The Wall Street Journal allege he leaked core nuclear weapons data to the US and accepted bribes, while speculation includes factional infighting or excessive personal power.
The purges have reduced the CMC—China’s top military body—to just Xi and one other member, leaving senior PLA ranks in disarray and creating a leadership void amid years of anti-corruption campaigns that have ousted dozens of high-ranking officers since 2023.
Analysts describe the moves as strengthening Xi’s absolute control over the military, though they raise concerns about operational readiness, morale, and a climate of suspicion that may deter promotions and cautious decision-making.
The PLA remains under Xi’s centralized command, with no reported impact on strategic ambitions such as Taiwan.
Burning Bright: You knew I wasn’t going to let Ghost have all the fun on this particular topic …
To wit, shockwaves emanate from Beijing yet again, carrying with them the familiar tremors of a Globalist media protectorate descending into orchestrated hysterics, with the dutiful custodians of the fading open society mirage now amplifying headlines laced with feigned alarm and barely-concealed desperation over Xi Jinping’s most daring purge to date.
The targets this time strike at the very heart of what was once deemed untouchable: General Zhang Youxia, a longtime confidant whose revolutionary bloodline traces back to the founding of the People’s Liberation Army itself, standing as the highest-ranking military officer beneath Xi, joined by figures like General Liu Zhenli in a cascade of accusations that range from entrenched corruption and factional cliques to the most damning indictment of all—leaking nuclear secrets to the imperial adversary across the Pacific—that’s us, people—the very empire that—according to Xi’s (defensible) narrative, at least from Sovereign Alliance framing—has long sought to encircle and contain China’s ascent.
The pearl-clutching unfolds in perfect synchronization across the usual channels: the regime-aligned echo chambers of CNN and BBC, the commentariat fringes of the alt. media libertatian doomer intellectual elite parroting instability scripts sourced (unknowingly) from controlled opposition, and, perhaps most tellingly, certain voices lurking in the ostensibly ‘America First’ wilderness who, whether through miscalibration or unwitting alignment find themselves engaged IN rather than AGAINST narrative pincers meant to crush the Sovereign Alliance rather than propel it.
This concerted panic serves as the clearest sovereign signal amid the swirling fog of the Info War—the first and most reliable clue that what we’re witnessing is not the unraveling of power at the apex, but its final, inexorable consolidation; not fragility exposed, but the methodical expulsion of Globalist Deep State tendrils that have insinuated themselves into China’s institutional framework for generations, mirroring the parallel shadow campaigns waged by sovereign allies across the global chessboard, which I’ve been attempting to map since I started engaging in the Info War in earnest several years ago.
For those calibrated to the deeper rhythms of this Shadow War, the pattern reveals itself with crystalline clarity: Xi Jinping’s Tigers and Flies campaign—a decade-spanning crusade against the high-level oligarchic predators (the tigers) and the swarming petty corruptors beneath them (the flies)—has proceeded with unflinching methodical precision, mistaken by Western observers for stagnation when it was merely the patient accumulation of leverage.
Leverage now being deployed the old fashioned way.
If you’re interested in a MUCH deeper dive on this subject, consider my too-long form on the subject, Doomed Dynasty, which is my attempt at a Chinese edition of the Righteous Russia series.
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Another Government Shutdown is on the Table … Because of ICE?
As a Friday deadline looms for funding key federal agencies, the United States heads toward a potential partial government shutdown, with Senate Democrats vowing to block a Republican-backed six-bill spending package unless it excludes Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provisions that include an additional $10 billion for ICE on top of prior allocations from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Polymarket odds of a shutdown by January 31, 2026, stand at approximately 79%. Affected agencies would include DHS (encompassing ICE, FEMA, TSA, and the Coast Guard), the Pentagon, Labor, Transportation, and HUD.
The impasse stems from national uproar over federal immigration enforcement tactics in Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal agents in recent confrontations, described by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as involving individuals who were “from all appearances... not violent criminals.”
Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have called White House and GOP proposals “unrealistic,” demanding significant reforms such as prohibiting federal agents from wearing masks during operations and requiring judicial search warrants before entering homes. Schumer stated that five non-DHS bills could pass immediately if separated, warning that Republicans would bear responsibility for any shutdown.
In response, the Trump administration has pursued de-escalatory measures, including demoting CBP official Gregory Bovino from Minneapolis operations and replacing him with border czar Tom Homan, President Trump personally phoning Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem agreeing to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee after months of refusal.
Republicans refuse to strip DHS language from the package, citing difficulties securing House votes for a revised bill while the chamber is in recess.
Ashe in America: Prior to 2025, the longest government shutdown was in 2018, for 35 days, and it was about immigration enforcement.
The December 2025 shutdown was longer — 43 days — and the outrage also focused on immigration, targeting eligibility changes that kicked migrants off SNAP and Medicaid.
That was a wild bit of gaslighting, as we’ve always been told that criminal invaders can’t access entitlements.
Related: You will recall last week that Georgia senators denounced the idea that illegals can vote while expressing in desperation that voter registration information will be shared with DHS and used for immigration enforcement.
That’s a hilariously embarrassing contradiction, but unipartisan beneficiaries of stolen elections have never bothered with principled arguments. Outrage is their currency.
Now, once again, they’re signaling a shutdown of services for Americans to protect the interests of criminal invading migrants. I would argue that’s treason, even though I love government shutdowns and want them to remain impotent and unfunded forever. On principle, it’s treason.
Is the third time the charm?
That is, will Americans finally listen and comprehend and realize that the politicians have been lying about the criminal invading migrants for years, and weaponizing empathy and outrage to wield the political winds?
We don’t need more evidence of treasonous corruption. We need accountability.
What does that look like when the authorities of accountability are the ones who need to be held accountable?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
BONUS ITEMS
The CIA Is Moving Back to Venezuela (If They Ever Left)
The CIA is moving to establish a permanent ground presence in Venezuela after the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, which involved agency support, including a covert team deployed in August to track his movements and an insider source within the Venezuelan government.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe became the first senior Trump administration official to visit Caracas, meeting interim President Delcy Rodríguez—whom the US backed over opposition leader Maria Corina Machado based on classified CIA assessments—and military leaders to warn that Venezuela can no longer serve as a safe haven for US adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran.
Sources familiar with the planning describe the CIA leading initial re-entry efforts due to ongoing instability, prioritizing the establishment of an intelligence annex for informal liaison channels with Venezuelan officials, factions, and opposition before full diplomatic operations resume.
The State Department is handling long-term diplomacy and embassy reopening assessments, with a small team already in Caracas evaluating the shuttered US facility closed since 2019.
President Trump has stated the US was “asked” to reopen the embassy, claimed the administration would effectively “run” the country during the transition, and expressed intent for American oil companies to resume operations and aid rebuilding.
Long-term objectives remain unclear as the White House defines the broader mission.
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Ashe, you rock! Colorado is a communist country. There is no middle ground. Deport Newt. GTFO. Yeah, all of that. And let’s investigate Colorado. And also FREE TINA!
Policing yourself is not possible. The concept of an "elected official" is fake. The bad guys are making, and in some cases enforcing, the laws. What is a badlander to do?
1. Stop paying taxes