Badlands Brief
Diplomatic Trolling & Colombian Election Denial
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.
Politico Pens Doge Obituary ... While Trump Officials Say It Is ‘Alive In Spirit’
The White House marked July 4 as the formal conclusion of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) initial mission, bringing to a close the temporary initiative created by President Trump to identify waste, fraud, and inefficiency throughout the federal government. While Politico characterized the move as the end of DOGE, Trump administration officials said the effort is continuing under a different structure rather than being dismantled. One official described DOGE as remaining “alive in spirit,” with its recommendations now being carried out directly by individual federal departments and agencies.
According to administration officials, many DOGE personnel have transitioned into permanent roles across the federal government to oversee implementation of the initiative’s reforms. Agencies are expected to continue reviewing contracts, reducing unnecessary spending, modernizing technology systems, streamlining operations, and pursuing workforce efficiency measures first developed under the centralized DOGE office.
The administration has said it will continue tracking and publicizing savings generated through these reforms, portraying the July 4 transition as the beginning of a long-term government-wide management effort rather than the end of the initiative itself.
Ashe in America: I believe that DOGE was a technology project as part of a broader transformation program. It was positioned that way in the Executive Order temporarily establishing it, and the narrative of DOGE and its promises was externally generated by the media and other third party actors – such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Because I believe it’s a technology project, I also believe the internal success metrics of DOGE are something other than money saved. I would imagine it’s something closer to a comprehensive install with active reporting across agencies and departments.
That’s how I read the happenings of DOGE, but I concede it’s just theory. I’m open to being wrong – maybe DOGE was just a shiny object meant to distract from the expansion of the techno-surveillance state. Come to think of it, both could be true, couldn’t they?
Despite the temptation to swallow a black pill on “government efficiency”, modern workplace tracking software is something that employees fear and employers covet. As the employers of the government, we should want our employees to know they’re being tracked and fear being caught defrauding or subverting our agenda…shouldn’t we?
“OPM Director Scott Kupor told Reuters DOGE ‘doesn’t exist’ but clarified on X it ‘may not have centralized leadership’ but ‘the principles of DOGE remain alive and well.’”
If true, that’s a good thing. And, if true, we should expect to see additional prosecutions for waste, fraud, and abuse.
And we should see both the size and expense of government continue to shrink. In fact, we should demand it.
Raul Castro Says He’s Ready to “Negotiate” With Trump For Future of Cuba; Cuba Goes ‘Dark’ Immediately After
Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, said in an interview with USA Today that he is prepared to negotiate directly with President Trump over the future of US-Cuba relations. Although he does not hold a formal government position, Rodríguez Castro serves as a close aide and bodyguard to his grandfather and said Cuba could consider measures such as the release of political prisoners if broader negotiations with Washington were to take place. His comments come as the Trump administration continues to maintain economic and diplomatic pressure on the Cuban government.
Hours after the interview was published, Cuba experienced another nationwide electrical grid collapse, leaving much of the island without power. Cuban authorities said the cause of the outage was not immediately known and began restoring electricity while prioritizing hospitals and other critical infrastructure.
The blackout was the country’s eighth nationwide grid failure since October 2025, highlighting Cuba’s ongoing energy and infrastructure challenges amid its broader economic difficulties.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: “CUBA IS NEXT!!!”
How many times have you see the bloodthirsty online sycophants post this as they bow their heads to digital deities in solemn prayer, hoping that they will soon get to read about bloody and glorious warfare conducted on foreign soil—believing that these acts somehow improve their lives and the lives of their families?
The indictment for former Cuban President Raul Castro was unsealed on May 20 (my birthday, which every year seems to bring something new and interesting, geopolitically). He stands accused of conspiracy to kill four US nationals in a 1996 shootdown of an aircraft.
Whether this elder Castro is guilty of said crime, and whether he is what Mossad Media portrays him to be, is a separate debate. Maybe he is; Maybe he isn’t. Maybe those four US nationals were CIA operatives on a mission to overthrow the Cuban government. Who knows.
Here is what the 96 year-old Raul Castro said publicly following the unsealing of his indictment.
For those who didn’t watch the video, Castro makes the salient point that nearly 3,500 Cuban diplomats have been murdered around the world, often by the CIA in less-than-inconspicuous circumstances, and yet Cuba is the government that is consistently labeled as a “terrorist regime.”
Here is another video of a public speech he made a few days later:
What he said: "Cuba, famous before the Revolution as a paradise for gambling, prostitution, refuge for mobsters... was transformed into a symbol of dignity, independence, humanism."
To what extent he is accurately portraying the history can be debated, but we must note that it was the United States that became a dumping ground for drugs, organized crime, and prostitution in the latter half of the 20th century. It was the United States that became the cartels’ playground. And it was our corrupt political elite who were complicit in allowing that to happen—the same people who incessantly scream about the evils of Cuba and the Castro regime.
Let me ask you this: Is Cuba an impoverished nation because of communism? Or is it impoverished because of a trade embargo that has been imposed by the US since 1958?
Am I willing to give peace a chance, and see if this younger Raul Castro—El Cangrejo (“The Crab”) as they call him—is a reasonable guy with whom we can negotiate and trade?
Yes. Yes, I am.
Anything is better than the constant and never-ending threat of war that has loomed over that godforsaken island for the past 70 years.
And for those who are hanging their hat on, “BUT TRUMP SAID…”
…here is what Trump said back in March, during the Saudi Foreign Investment Forum in Miami. Listen to this clip and tell me that he isn’t mocking everybody for believing that he would actually telegraph his military plans to invade Cuba and overthrow its government.
When Trump makes peace with the Castro Family, the NeoCon/Zionists will be 0-3 in predicting the outcome of foreign conflicts—and we haven’t even gotten to Israel, yet. (That’s when things are going to get really exciting.)
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Trump Trolls Meloni Ahead of NATO Summit
President Trump escalated his public feud with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni by posting a meme on Truth Social captioned “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED” on the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara. The post follows Trump’s earlier claim that Meloni had repeatedly sought a photograph with him during the recent G7 summit, a characterization Meloni publicly rejected.
The two leaders have also clashed in recent weeks over Italy’s decision not to allow US bombers to use Naval Air Station Sigonella during military operations connected to the Iran conflict.
Despite the public exchanges, officials on both sides have sought to minimize the significance of the dispute. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said the relationship between Italy and the United States extends beyond disagreements between individual leaders, while other Italian officials declined to respond directly to Trump’s latest remarks.
Trump and Meloni are both expected to attend the NATO summit, where alliance defense spending, regional security, and the aftermath of the Iran conflict are expected to dominate discussions.
Burning Bright: Let’s leave aside whether or not this particular rivalry within a rivalry is of the Kayfabian variety or not.
Clearly, Trump is having fun with it, joking that he needs a restraining order against Italy’s Giorgia Meloni ahead of his touchdown in Ankara for the latest NATO summit he is expected to dominate optically, since he has already done all the Actual work.
More so, I think Trump is signal-boosting the trip in the first place, and the auspicious where and when in both actual and narrative time it is occurring.
In terms of the where, our own GhostofBasedPatrickHenry can wax poetic about that all day long (and probably is right now,) given that Turkey is the bastard middle child of both NATO and a reforming in real time Middle East, and so, the geopolitical timing of the latest NATO meet-up happening in one of the globe’s true inflection points is notable, as will be the relative stance Turkey adopts in comparison to both sides of the geopolitical divide.
Where it concerns Narrative timing, which I am more interested in than any other variety, Trump has spent the last six months running two intersecting dialectics where it concerns geopolitics:
On the one hand, he has given ALL sovereigns and would-be sovereigns on the world stage a stark lesson in the ‘power is power’ refrain I’ve been writing about since 2022, and that both Vladimir Putin (on the kinetic front) and Xi Jinping (on the financial front) have reminded the West of over the last decade.
As such, Trump goes to Ankara with the posture of a conqueror, even if that particular bit of Iranian geopolitical theater was just that, in the estimation of insane people like me and , oh yeah, GhostofBasedPatrickHenry.
On the other hand, Trump AND the so-called Iranian Regime have reminding the global Mindscape of the concept of face-saving, its strategic importance and the many packages in which it comes, whether they be ballistic missiles intentionally deployed to ‘miss’ anything of importance, or press conferences and photo ops in which leaders peacock for the Media Protectorate.
Trump knows the latter is coming this week when it comes to his would-be peers and so-called Allies that are anything but.
And they know that he knows it.
By prepping the battlespace with memetic intent, Trump puts them on the backfoot.
Either they capitulate publicly and prostrate themselves at his feet (and by extension, ours) in Ankara, or they take the bait, and further isolate themselves in the eyes of the emergent Multipolar World Order.
A Sophie’s (or was it Giorgia’s?) Choice, if ever there was one, and all comprised of optics that will ultimately come up short, as will, I suspect the Western Collectorate’s already-illusory (and fast-declining) mandate of leadership.
***
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: This is some intense political theater unfolding, and not for the sake of the American public, or even the European public.
The timing of this post by President Trump is the proverbial smoking gun to my theory.
He posts this two days before the start of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
I don’t normally reference Q posts—I find the decoder culture to be pretty cringe and the deductions to be noncommittal and half-baked—but I did follow Q from the very first post. Here is what Q said about Mateo Salvini, who is now Meloni’s Deputy Prime Minister:
“Italy is w/ POTUS”
That alone is not enough to convince us of anything, but in the context of our long-running observations and research, it certainly supports my belief that Georgia Meloni is #OurGirl and President Trump is currently abetting her efforts to consolidate power inside of both Italy and NATO.
Meloni’s government, which took office on October 22, 2022, just became the second longest-serving government in Post-WW2 Italian history this past May. It will become the longest-serving government on September 4th.
What this says about the Meloni/Salvini administration is that it already enjoys widespread popularity across the Italian political spectrum. However, despite her countless successes as Italian PM, Meloni’s first major failure as PM came this past March when she attempted to challenge the Italian judiciary with what are known as the Nordio Reforms; constitutional measures that would separate Italian judges and prosecutors into separate career tracks—a concept that many see as prudent after a number of high-profile scandals exposed shady backroom deals over senior prosecutor appointments. The judiciary has become highly politicized and polarized, and the reforms would also create new systems of accountability for judges when they engage in misconduct.
A vote was held for the Nordio Reforms in March, but failed.
A second set of constitutional reforms that Meloni has been pushing, called the Premierato, would seek to provide greater political stability (a hallmark of Meloni’s administration) by modifying Italy’s traditional parliamentary system so that the Prime Minister was elected to a five-year term directly by the people, rather than being appointed by the president via coalition support within the Parliament—which can be pulled at any time, leading to new elections. This volatile system is why Italy’s governments do not typically last longer than a year or two before collapsing.
Here is a quick breakdown of how the Premierato would change Italy’s political system:
So while Meloni enjoys populist support among the people, that support has not been reflected in the Italian political system.
By singling out and “attacking” Meloni, what President Trump has done is made her into a martyr, leading to greater political support from both inside Italy but also across Europe.
See this article from just five days ago:
Do you see? President Trump is running a psychological warfare operation against the Italian political elite. All of this began on June 19, when Meloni cancelled a planned trip to the US by her top diplomat. And it does appear that most of the Italian political spectrum is now falling in line behind Meloni, as she appears to be taking on the big bad American bully.
So, what will Meloni do with her emerging mandate? Aside from constitutional reforms that seek to stabilize Italian politics?
I would direct your attention to this article published four days ago.
That same photo was used in a similar article published in April 2025.
Do you see? Meloni has spent the past several years—particularly since Trump has returned to office—steering Europe toward the influence of Erdogan, who happens to be a close ally of both Putin and President Trump.
Now, thanks to the recent TrumpaMania antics, #OurGirl Meloni has consolidated her political power both inside Italy and across Europe, and is using that clout to advance the Sovereign Alliance multipolar agenda.
Chess, not checkers, anon.
PS - Rutte is playing his part, as well. This clip is from this morning’s NATO kickoff in Ankara.
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Trump Interferes With World Cup, Making Communists Cry
President Trump publicly criticized FIFA after US forward Folarin Balogun was shown a red card during the United States’ Round of 16 World Cup match against Belgium, calling the decision unfair and directing administration officials to raise concerns with FIFA leadership, according to Axios.
The effort prompted criticism from Democratic lawmakers and ethics experts, who argued the White House should not seek to influence decisions made by an international sporting organization, while administration officials said the president was simply advocating for fair treatment of the US team.
FIFA has not indicated it will revisit the officiating decision, and the United States was eliminated from the tournament with a 4-1 loss to Belgium, which advanced to the quarterfinals.
Ashe in America: I maintain my long held position that hockey is the only true sport, and I now hold the position that soccer is little more than ceremonial silliness that makes the world feel better about not being American.
I was on the air for most of last night’s match, so I missed the drama. I did see the public response when my show ended and, while I hate it when Team USA loses, it’s only soccer. It’s hard to get too bothered.
Honestly, it’s a relief. We no longer have to pretend that a sport in which a tie is an acceptable outcome has any place in the United States of America.
Colombian President Accuses Mossad of Stealing Colombian Election Using Servers in California
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has escalated his challenge to the country’s presidential election by refusing to recognize the legitimacy of president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella and alleging that the vote was compromised by foreign interference.
In a series of posts on X, Petro claimed Colombia’s election systems were manipulated through servers located in California and alleged that Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, played a role in influencing the outcome. Petro called for a comprehensive forensic audit, a recount, and an independent review of the election infrastructure before the results are considered final.
The allegations follow a closely contested runoff election in which Petro-backed candidate Iván Cepeda narrowly lost to de la Espriella. While Petro has continued to argue that the election was compromised, he has not publicly released evidence supporting his claims. Colombian electoral authorities have defended the integrity of the vote, and Israeli officials have not publicly responded to the accusations.
The dispute has further deepened political tensions in Colombia as the country prepares for its presidential transition.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: Speaking of the NeoCon/Zionist crowd getting things wrong: This story has the potential to be one of the most explosive narratives of the year—because it could be the narrative that finally unravels the entire election fraud apparatus here in America.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro is being an absolute unit right now on X, firebombing the interwebs with weapons-grade truth bombs.
Just look at this masterpiece:
Petro is asserting that the recent Colombian presidential election was stolen using computer servers that are based in California.
My favorite excerpt is this part:
“From my phone conversation with Trump, I was able to confirm that he didn't know I didn't support de la Espriella because of his old ties to drug trafficking and the genocide in Colombia.
I hope that amid his concerns he has time to call his intelligence agencies so they can tell him who Abelardo de la Espriella is and why he is a US citizen and who his partners are, including alias "Boliche".
Colombia's current president is faced with evidence of an electoral fraud via algorithms and with prohibited foreign financing in our constitution.”
Wew, lad.
But it gets better. Petro goes on to directly accuse both Netanyahu and Mossad of being behind the whole operation.
So we are clear: The Clan del Golfo (Gulf Clan) is the largest cocaine cartel operating in Colombia. It is the cartel that Gustavo Petro has been fighting against, militarily, with the help of the US since 2022, and it is the cartel that met with Petro’s diplomats in Doha (Qatar) last September to negotiate an eventual surrender.
Petro is now accusing Netanyahu [and bad actors in the US government] of aiding and abetting the Gulf Clan’s attempt to return to power in Colombia.
On Friday, I noticed that Petro is accusing La Espriella of planning to restore the tax and monetary policies of Ivan Duque, who served as president of Colombia before Petro.
You may recall that just a few days after Maduro was arrested, Petro held a massive public rally where he disclosed for the first time that the US Deep State had originally planned to invade Venezuela and start a civil war, using Colombia as the staging ground, with the blessing of President Duque.
So if La Espriella does restore Duque’s policies, then we will know that “La Tigre” is most likely a Deep State operator.
Here is something that is also very notable and very interesting:
Exactly 50 minutes BEFORE President Petro published that long post above where he specifically cites California, and mentions Trump, President Trump posted this to his Truth Social account.
That is a picture of the recently restored Simon Bolivar statue. Bolivar is the historical figure akin to George Washington in the Colombia/Venezuela region of South America. If you check you will see that both Gustavo Petro and Nicolas Maduro refer to Bolivar relentlessly in their public communications.
Is this a comm from President Trump that Colombia is going to be cleaned up?
BONUS ITEM
Trump Says Netanyahu Requested White House Meeting, Says “He Knows Who The Boss Is”
President Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a meeting at the White House, suggesting it could take place as soon as next week after Trump returns from the NATO summit.
“We get along very good. [Netanyahu] knows who the boss is,” Trump said in a brief phone interview with Axios.
The potential meeting would mark the first in-person encounter between the two leaders since their tense Situation Room meeting in February, when Netanyahu reportedly presented a proposal involving a joint strike plan against Iran.
Behind the scenes, tensions have reportedly grown between Trump and Netanyahu in recent months. One US official said some in Trump’s circle believe Netanyahu has been “wrong about everything,” while Trump himself has privately criticized aspects of Israel’s military actions, including calling Netanyahu “crazy” during a prior call over escalation in Lebanon.
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"Despite the temptation to swallow a black pill on “government efficiency”, modern workplace tracking software is something that employees fear and employers covet. As the employers of the government, we should want our employees to know they’re being tracked and fear being caught defrauding or subverting our agenda…shouldn’t we?"
If one is honest in their work, one should not fear tracking software. I long for a significantly smaller government. Mostly starting within the offices of the "selected". Their hubris at their supposed importance is at an all time high. I would expect most could do with a staff of 10 people.
As I read about Meloni, I see her as exercising some sovereignty - which is what we want.......right???
The theater of PDJT is always entertaining.
And in the words of some here -- God Wins!!!
The only spectator sports that interest me are auto racing, tractor pulls, and anything my grandkids are playing in at the moment, but except for President Trump's request for a review of the Balogun Red Card (which FIFA could have refused to do, or decided either way) Belgium's win would always have borne an asterisk for defeating a partial team, and I appreciate Trump's action.
(Full disclosure - our son and his family hosted a Belgian exchange student last year. The people of Belgium, regardless of where their government stands, love the USA. I'll be sending our "bonus granddaughter" a note of congratulations on their team's win. And by the way, hosting an exchange student is tremendously rewarding. Our kids have been doing it for six years now and it's been nothing but positive for their family and ours. Check out cetusa.org.)