Badlands Brief

Dems Demand a Post-Trump Strategy as Hamas Haggles for Peace

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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Democrats Concerned About Winning Post Trump

Democrats are reportedly engaged in internal debates over the party’s identity, policy priorities, and electoral strategy, according to Axios, as the party looks towards 2028 post Trump. Some Democratic strategists and party figures say the party lacks a clear unifying message heading into the 2028 election cycle.

Several Democrats argue the party has been defined primarily by opposition to Donald Trump and must now articulate a broader agenda beyond that focus.

“You can’t win a presidential election on opposition alone,” Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina told Axios. “The midterms are going to be 85-90% driven by voter opposition to Trump and maybe 10-15% based on what Dems stand for…We cannot rely on that same calculation to win in 2028.”

Some Democrats believe the party should focus on working-class economic issues, arguing that recent elections revealed weaknesses with certain voter groups. Others within the party say Democrats should continue emphasizing social and cultural policy priorities alongside economic policy.

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Republican Strategists Desperate for Trump to Move on From 2020

Republican strategists and officials are divided over whether Donald Trump should continue emphasizing claims about the 2020 election or shift messaging toward current policy issues and future elections.

Some Republican strategists and lawmakers are urging President Donald Trump to stop focusing on claims about the 2020 election and instead emphasize issues they believe will resonate more with voters in upcoming elections.

Politico cites multiple Republican officials and strategists who said that continuing to focus on election fraud in 2020 and beyond could distract from policy issues ahead of the midterm elections.

While some say the party’s messaging should focus on current governance and future policy priorities rather than revisiting past election disputes, other Republicans remain supportive of Trump raising election integrity concerns and view the issue as important to many Republican voters.

Ashe in America: Democrats are concerned about their ability to win elections after the midterms — when opposing Trump is an irrelevant platform (assuming the President isn’t running again in 2028).

In contrast, Republicans are very concerned about their ability to win elections — especially The Midterms™️— if President Trump keeps talking about 2020-2024 election fraud.

“Stop saying true things! We’re gonna lose the next fake election!”

No one wins a fake election. Everyone loses, especially future generations of Americans. This is the fight. This is the place to fix your stance and demand the reckoning.

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry joined me on Culture of Change last night, and we discussed the whiplash we’re both (all?) feeling about the sudden and detached moralizing from former “truthers” who insist we stop saying true things about elections. We had a blast, and you should check it out.

“What truly matters is not which party controls our government but whether our government is controlled by the people.”

Note: We are still using the same election systems and processes that are currently, right now, being exposed in Georgia and Arizona as well as comprising investigations and legal action in a couple dozen more states.

Think about that.

The battle for real elections is ongoing. It’s happening now.

Now ask yourself why the imperative from those you once trusted for truth would be to shut your mouth and play along.

It’s discombobulating, for real.

President Trump never stopped calling elections fake… So why are some of his so-called supporters (and political allies) insisting that we all pretend they’re suddenly real despite no meaningful change to the underlying systems and processes?

Incentives explain behavior.

My incentives are to secure national legitimacy for my sons and their descendants. We cannot have real elections until we are honest about, and there is accountability for, the fake ones.

And if we don’t have real elections, we don’t have a nation.

I know it’s uncomfortable. I know people want to go back to a time where they didn’t need to worry about corruption and could just bask in comfort and complacency.

That’s how we got here, though.

And, besides, that’s not America — and it’s certainly not anything resembling liberty. As Einstein allegedly said, “Freedom, in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it.”

You can plug yourself back into the matrix, but the steak isn’t real. Also, your pod-borne progeny will hate you for delaying the fight to their time because you’re selfish and addicted to comfort. Don’t be that guy.

This is the fight. And it’s happening now.

Brains on, everyone.

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Hamas Holds Talks With Trump-Backed Gaza Peace Board

Representatives of Hamas met with members of the Gaza Peace Board last week to discuss governance and security arrangements. The Gaza Peace Board is part of a framework supported by US President Trump, and it is intended to establish a transitional governing structure for Gaza after the current conflict.

According to the report, the meeting addressed potential security coordination and administrative control in Gaza during a transition period. The discussions reportedly involved regional mediators and representatives connected to the peace board structure, though details of participants and outcomes were not fully disclosed.

The talks come amid ongoing international efforts to establish post-war governance arrangements for Gaza following the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: How funny would it be if Hamas joined the Board of Peace?

And how about Hamas being represented at the meeting by a guy named Aryeh Lightstone? Is he like the Flash Gordon of Gaza?

So they meet and then Israel opens up a crossing from Gaza into Egypt that has been closed down since the Iran conflict began. But it doesn’t say anything about Israel attending the meeting—which would have been major news: Israel meeting with Hamas.

It’s possible that Israel was at the meeting; but, regardless, the fact is that the meetings are no longer being run by Israel, they are being run by this coalition of nations that will seek a deal with Hamas. Israel is only a part of this coalition, so what happens if they try to bail or sabotage it at the 11th hour?

I think a reasonable request would be that anybody who contributed to the events of October 7th should be held accountable, including the Israeli leadership. A full investigation should be conducted by the Board of Peace, along with these allegations of false flag attacks by Israel on the Arab nations.

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Trump Invokes Defense Production Act Amid Iran-Driven Energy Concerns

President Donald Trump invoked authorities under the Defense Production Act to address energy supply concerns linked to instability involving Iran. The administration directed a US oil company to restart petroleum production operations in California that had previously been halted.

The action was taken amid concerns that disruptions tied to the conflict involving Iran could affect global oil markets and US energy supply. The White House order adjusts delegations of authority under the Defense Production Act, clarifying which federal officials can exercise certain powers granted by the statute.

The Defense Production Act allows the federal government to direct private industry to prioritize contracts and expand production deemed necessary for national defense. Per the White House order, addressing potential energy supply disruptions linked to Iranian instability, including directing the restart of certain California oil production operations, meets federal delegation authority under the law.

Burning Bright: The Energy War isn’t about Iran. And we already won it.

Donald Trump is using the Reverse Hegelian Dialectic that is the Iranian Knot to cultivate public mandate for American Accelerationism and Operation Warp Speed.

This is Narrative Disarmament wearing the mask of escalation once again.

The surface story gives the Invisible Enemy—the globalist warmongers, the energy cartels, the scarcity engineers—exactly what they’ve spent decades demanding: fresh chaos halfway across the world that should spike prices, rattle supply chains and lock the American people into perpetual foreign dependence.

But watch what actually happens when the dust settles, probably far more quickly than most believe.

The geopolitical drama isn’t the mission. It’s the shield.

And under that shield, Donald Trump is cultivating the mass psychological mandate for a Warp Speed push into the decentralization of American energy along three overlapping paths that rewrite the stolen American Dream in real time, as I have been arguing in the pages of The Timeline War series for two years, now.

First path: ‘Drill Baby, Drill’ gets the mother of all infusions, both Actual and Narrative.

Americans are already feeling the squeeze from the ripples coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, amplifying the usual media fear porn about global shortages.

And yet, our own reserves, our own infrastructure, our own sovereign capacity should have insulated us completely.

Enter the Trump admin’s invocation of the Defense Production Act, directing Sable Offshore to restart shuttered California operations at the Santa Ynez Unit and pipeline system—boosting in-state production by 50,000 barrels a day and slashing foreign crude imports that were flowing through the very chokepoints now under narrative siege.

This is the codification (literally) of sovereign mandate: energy independence isn’t a slogan anymore. It’s national security, and the first visible rejection of the engineered scarcity the Globalist machine has peddled for generations, and which is in a much more precarious position than the US when it comes to the shattering of the centralized international energy trade.

And so, the engineered chaos abroad (chaos Trump himself is directly responsible for triggering, according to the central narrative) becomes the permission structure at home.

Americans see the bill, feel the vulnerability and suddenly, ‘Drill Baby, Drill’ isn’t partisan rhetoric—it’s survival instinct translated into policy.

This is Sovereign Disentanglement, and it’s only phase one.

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Trump Clashes with Fed Ahead of Possible Warsh Confirmation

President Donald Trump is expected to nominate Kevin Warsh to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, as tensions over interest-rate policy and Fed independence heat up ahead of confirmation.

Powell’s term ends on May 15, 2026. Warsh previously served as a Federal Reserve governor from 2006 to 2011. Republican Senator Thom Tillis has been involved in discussions about the nomination and confirmation dynamics surrounding Warsh, according to Axios.

The President repeatedly, publicly criticized Powell over interest-rates and broader monetary policy.

Related: Federal Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg dismissed the Justice Department’s Federal Reserve subpoenas Friday. The DOJ sought documents about its building renovation and Powell’s allegedly false testimony about them. Boasberg said he was, “left with no credible reason to think that the Government is investigating suspicious facts as opposed to targeting a disfavored official.”

“...it is hard to see the renovations and testimony as anything other than a convenient pretext” for “another, unstated purpose: pressuring Powell to knuckle under,” Boasberg wrote.

Ashe in America: Jerome Powell has two months left in his term as Fed Chair, and one might expect him to just ride it out.

But that’s not what’s happening.

Instead, Powell is still a main character in multiple active stories. I am aware of four:

First, President Trump is demanding that Powell cut interest rates right now. This fight has been ongoing since Trump’s second inauguration.

Second, Judge Boasberg is calling Powell a political target (and by extension accusing the Trump Administration of weaponizing the government). Powell allegedly lied to Congress and, of course, Boasberg is the guy to adjudicate the case. LOL.

Third, Senator Tillis is apparently Powell’s political “security” detail (that’s weird), refusing to confirm Powell’s successor in the Senate if the administration doesn’t drop the case. So, Tillis sounds guilty, amirite?

Then there is the fourth, and my personal favorite, where court filings suggest that Powell may refuse to leave his post in May. From Barron’s:

“Jerome Powell’s lawyer told federal prosecutors in January that the Federal Reserve chair feels he would remain on the central bank’s board of governors past the expiration of his chairmanship if the criminal investigation into him stays open, according to the government’s account in newly unsealed court documents filed Friday.”

It sounds like the third and fourth options are related, which begs the question of conspiracy. Is Powell engaged in a conspiracy with certain Senators to squat at his new Fed building, refuse to leave, never cut interest rates, and refuse the President’s fiscal agenda (in an effort to prevent the golden age system)?

Maybe.

Probably.

I recently rewatched the first three seasons of the show Homeland. (Note: The show is trash after season 3). Through the CIA’s various operations, their assets are active until their cover is blown. That is, as long as the target (a terrorist in this construct) believes that the asset is normal and uncompromised, the operation can continue.

Powell is active, we are told, because of his role and function in the stories; but I wonder if the target still believes he is normal and uncompromised.

Who is the target?

Well, what do you believe about Powell? Is he a vehicle to get Trump? Or is he a vehicle to get others like, for example, Tillis and/or Boasberg?

I don’t claim to know, but I can (happily) entertain the idea that there is an inversion happening where Trump is pointing a spotlight on the targets of disclosure.

Side note: If the people Trump publicly shakes down are the good guys, and the people he publicly love bombs are the bad guys, I would feel so much better about the Levin Love Letter we talked about yesterday.

There are still a number of problems with this inversion, ethically and otherwise; however, those problems are a symptom of the shadow tactics of an information war generally — not of these specific narratives within it.

That is, I don’t have an ethical problem with Powell being a secret white hat per se; but I do have an ethical issue with the use of secret white hats generally, and especially in a steady state future.

What color does Powell’s hat need to be to permanently end the Fed?

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Is Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL Intentionally Trying to Stoke Antisemitism?

Jonathan Greenblatt discussed confronting antisemitism and defending Jewish communities on X Friday, following a shooting in Michigan.

“What happened yesterday didn’t happen in a vacuum. West Bloomfield now can be added to the long list of Jewish communities who have experienced the terror and trauma of a synagogue attack. They felt it firsthand. The rest of us are reeling, too,” Greenblatt posted. “Jewish people too often are accused of conspiracies or scapegoated for the world’s problems. This isn’t new. It’s been happening for centuries. But I’m sick of the hypocrisy we’re hearing from politicians to podcasters, candidates and commentators. You don’t get to say you abhor antisemitism and then blame the Jewish people or the Jewish state for the conflict in the Middle East. It’s gaslighting and we’re tired of it. Sick and tired of it.”

The post from Greenblatt prompted criticism from some social media users who argued that his rhetoric or framing could escalate tensions or worsen online hostility. Another viral video clip shows Greenblatt referencing the “genius” behind Israel’s pager-based intelligence operation against Hezbollah, saying similar ingenuity is needed to confront antisemitism.

The pager-based intelligence operation against Hezbollah involved turning pagers into incendiary devices – exploding pagers.

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: The strategy is actually sound, if your intended endgame is to formally dismantle the First Amendment. This would be an example of what we mean when we say “Hegelian Dialectic.”

In the immediate aftermath of last week’s school shooting(s), Greenblatt took to the airwaves to blame podcasters and social media influencers for inciting violence against that Jewish school in Michigan.

While addressing the Israeli Knesset last year, Greenblatt says the kind of “genius” behind the pager attack on Hezbollah is now needed to fight antisemitism.

Here, in that same appearance, he is saying how important it is for Israel to purchase TikTok and control that information battlespace. (TikTok was subsequently purchased by Israeli entities.)

And, finally, here is Greenblatt in a recent appearance saying that they are developing an AI designed to detect antisemitic attitudes online and report them to relevant authorities.

Of course! This will definitely win over public opinion!

If we are going to use Greenblatt’s logic and hold podcasters responsible for inciting strangers into committing school shootings, shouldn’t that same logic by applied toward those who stoke antisemitism by saying provocative things like this that are obviously going to upset and scare people?

And perhaps that tactic is part of a larger scheme to justify restrictions against the First Amendment?

It would seem that we may have to choose between maintaining Israel as an ally, or keeping the First Amendment. Sometimes I worry about which one the Evangelical wing of the Truth Movement would pick.

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BONUS ITEM

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Judge Blocks Parts of RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy Changes, Stays Replacement of Federal Vaccine Advisory Panel

A federal judge in Boston has halted parts of Health Secretary RFK Jr.’s effort to revise federal vaccine guidance, including a plan to reduce recommended childhood immunizations and his decision last year to remove all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and appoint new experts.

In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy sided with the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical organizations that challenged the changes. The groups argued that federal health officials acted outside legal procedures while advancing a broader restructuring of national immunization policy.

The dispute centers on steps taken by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on January 5 that reduced the list of routinely recommended childhood vaccines to 11 and lowered the recommendation status for several illnesses, including Rotavirus, Influenza, and Hepatitis A.

The lawsuit also targeted Kennedy’s decision last year to remove all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and appoint new experts to the panel that helps determine vaccine recommendations and insurance coverage. While the panel will still meet for a scheduled meeting this week, the judge’s ruling stays the advisers’ appointments and any votes on further policy changes.

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