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.
Clintons Continue to Stall Epstein Testimony
Bill and Hillary Clinton have declined subpoenas from the House Oversight Committee, led by Chairman James Comer, to provide depositions in a congressional investigation related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Their attorneys stated that the subpoenas lack a valid legislative purpose, are legally unenforceable, and serve a politically motivated effort to harass and embarrass them. The Clintons noted they have already submitted sworn written statements and possess no additional relevant information.
In response to threats of contempt proceedings, the Clintons indicated they anticipate and are prepared to contest any such action.
Ashe in America: Bill Clinton may have a partial excuse on some of this — he is a former President, after all. That being said, his protections end at official acts.
We know this because Trump set the precedent in 2024 with Trump vs. United States.
Remember that time Sonia was all spun out about whether a President could order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political opponent?
That’s relevant here.
The nationally-binding SCOTUS order on that case:
There is no immunity for unofficial acts.
Yikes, Bill. The Epstein stuff was long after you left office.
Hillary has no excuse. She was not in office during early Epstein, but was later during the Obama administration…
…but her public service is irrelevant. Those special immunities only apply to Presidents, so she never got them. She was never supposed to lose, but, because she did, she is exposed and vulnerable to accountability.
Dare to believe…
In addition to Trump vs. United States, we also got another relevant precedent during the scrotus admin: Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro.
Those guys went to prison for exactly what the Clintons are doing now.
Precedent set.
Equal justice demands the Clintons do time.
No one is above the law, right?
Those precedents are set for conservatives. Is there equal justice?
Let’s see what happens.
Conscious Strength
Jordan Sather’s Conscious Strength all natural supplement line has a new website as well as 3 new products, a whole food Vitamin C, Para~Shite parasite detox support, and Apricot Seed Extract with Vitamin B17. Plus Sather is launching a 6 week program on Jan 25h in his private coaching group with training on nutrition, supplementation, and corrective exercise through weekly live calls and 70+ exclusive videos. Full MAHA ahead!
A Convergence of Cartels
In a series of high-profile actions, the Trump administration is pursuing multiple investigations into alleged misconduct and waste.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has signaled active Treasury probes into “dark-money” NGOs accused of funding and organizing protests that obstruct federal operations, describing the approach as tracking illicit financing networks and linking the activities to potential “color revolution” tactics backed by left-wing billionaires and foreign entities. In related comments, Bessent stated that 5-10% of the federal budget is lost annually to fraud and improper payments, emphasizing ongoing efforts to eliminate waste through deliberate investigations and a new whistleblower program—work he frames as continuing the mission of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Separately, the Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, issuing grand jury subpoenas over claims he misled Congress about a $2.5 billion Fed headquarters renovation project; Powell has called the probe politically motivated pressure on monetary policy and vowed to resist.
On the international front, Trump continues to posture in the western hemisphere and beyond, with his abstract and direct power projection aimed at cartels and cartel-aligned operations in the midst of color revolutions across the battlespace.
Burning Bright: 2026 is 13 days old, and the degree of Narrative and Actual convergence is off the charts already.
What began as scattered skirmishes across disparate fronts—state-level fraud, foreign staging grounds, dark-money networks and kinetic anti-cartel ops—is now converging into a singular, macro narrative deployment: the exposure and dismantling of the invisible enemy, the untouchables who have long puppeteered nations, economies and by extension, the macro mind from the shadows.
First up, the domestic front ignites with the cascading exposure of mass fraud and corruption at the state level, most vividly in Minnesota, where Somali networks—long shielded by layers of bureaucratic complicity—stand revealed as conduits for billions in diverted taxpayer funds, from welfare schemes to child nutrition scams and, crucially, election irregularities that echo the rigged mechanics the system has deployed globally for decades.
These are microcosms of the System of Systems itself, where foreign-linked networks exploit porous borders and captured institutions to siphon wealth and influence outcomes.
The Collective Mind, primed by years of narrative seeding by Trump himself now processes these revelations not as partisan talking points, but as the revelation of long-suspected systemic rot that demands wholesale audits—Actual and Narrative—of the entire apparatus.
This domestic exposure dovetails with revelations of foreign staging grounds, where nations like Somalia, Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico emerge as operational hubs for color revolution infrastructure.
The pattern is unmistakable: NGOs—humanitarian fronts—facilitate chaos vectors, funded through opaque channels that loop back to central banking conduits and billionaire passthroughs Trump has made a target of his ire for a decade, but especially throughout 2025.
These same networks, long used to destabilize sovereign holdouts are now being mapped at home, their funding trails illuminated by whistleblowers and (sudden) deliberate investigations simultaneous to their capture and routing abroad.
Enter Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—whom I named the 'Wolf of Main Street' in 2025—who now signals an unambiguous crackdown on dark-money NGOs, while directly invoking the anti-mafia playbook: follow the money, flip the rats, dismantle the hierarchies.
“Yes, yes, and yes” was the direct quote from the US Treasury Secretary regarding all of the above.
This 'new' directive unfolds in parallel with what we're told is the kinetic roll-up of cartels across the Western Hemisphere—operations Trump has escalated by designating key syndicates as foreign terrorist organizations, paving the way for land-based strikes and cross-border coordination.
This is Cartel Convergence, and it’s damn fun to watch.
Signals Cross in Colorful Iranian Revolution
Protests in Iran, initially sparked by economic grievances including the collapse of the rial in late December, have escalated into widespread unrest involving armed clashes, attacks on security forces, and vandalism in multiple cities.
Death toll reports vary significantly: one US-based rights group cites 646 total deaths (including over 500 protesters and 133 security personnel), while Iranian officials claim at least 109 security forces killed by armed rioters, and unverified claims suggest higher protester casualties.
The Iranian government has imposed widespread internet and communications blackouts, throttled services, jammed signals, and confiscated Starlink equipment to restrict protest coordination and global visibility.
Meanwhile, Tehran accuses the US and Israel of orchestrating the violence through trained agents, summoned European ambassadors (from France, Germany, Italy, and Britain) to view videos depicting armed rioters committing arson, gunfire, and attacks on officers, and demanded an end to foreign support for protesters.
In response, President Trump has publicly urged Iranians to continue protesting and seize institutions while threatening potential US military intervention in response to crackdowns.
Finally, Israeli and Arab officials have reportedly advised the US to delay any strikes on Iran, arguing the regime is not yet sufficiently weakened for military action to achieve regime change, and instead recommended measures like enhanced sanctions, cyberattacks, targeted killings, or support for bypassing communications restrictions to further destabilize it.
When President Trump ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to leave the eastern Mediterranean (departed on November 18) and come to the Caribbean to play WrestleMania with Maduro, I pointed out that there was no longer a naval presence within striking distance of Iran.
Regime analysts are now drawing similar observations.
So it seems that Trump is now encouraging the provocateurs (the paid operatives) to escalate immediately.
The problem is that, while it does appear that there are some people showing up in the streets, even Israeli media is acknowledging that there is no enthusiasm for military intervention from either inside Iran or around the Middle East.
But we totally needed that aircraft carrier to capture Maduro, who obviously cut a deal with President Trump, given that [according to his son and Delcy Rodriguez,] he signed some sort of a continuity of government contingency plan in the event of his capture or demise.
Maduro could have booked a Southwest flight to NYC, but the aircraft carrier was a necessary touch that made the corresponding narrative so much more believable.
In that screencap you'll also notice that—in addition to suggesting political assassination— the Israelis requested that the Iranian people have their internet restored so they can receive the hasbara propaganda.
So now Elon is stepping up and giving everybody in Iran free Starlink; But I assume that also means that Elon will be able to track anybody using the internet.
With the right AI tools, wouldn't that allow interested parties to track agitators in real time?
So, in summary, the US military has no carrier strike group to offer to the Iranian regime change plot because the Abraham Lincoln went down to the Caribbean to be a swash-bucklin' pirate and loot some booty for Trump?
Now On Sale! Tickets to the Great American Restoration Tour in Nashville
Badlands Media hits the road four times a year for a three-day patriot-packed event with our hosts and the Badlands community. Meet like-minded Americans, hear powerful content, and be part of something real on April 9-12 in Nashville, TN.
Minne-Somalians Are Having a Rough Time Under Trump
The Department of Homeland Security, under Secretary Kristi Noem, has ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali nationals, requiring those currently protected to depart the United States by March 17.
Noem stated that “temporary means temporary,” citing improved country conditions in Somalia that no longer meet statutory requirements for TPS, and asserting that continued protection is contrary to U.S. national interests, emphasizing an “Americans first” approach.
TPS for Somalia was originally designated in 1991 due to ongoing civil war and most recently extended by the Biden administration in September 2024. USCIS data indicates 2,471 Somali nationals currently hold TPS, with 1,383 applications pending and an estimated 600 beneficiaries residing in Minnesota.
President Trump said the following on Truth Social:
“Do the people of Minnesota really want to live in a community in which there are thousands of already convicted murderers, drug dealers and addicts, rapists, violent released and escaped prisoners, dangerous people from foreign mental institutions and insane asylums, and other deadly criminals too dangerous to even mention. All the patriots of ICE want to do is remove them from your neighborhood and send them back to the prisons and mental institutions from where they came, most in foreign Countries who illegally entered the USA though Sleepy Joe Biden’s HORRIBLE Open Border’s Policy. Every place we go, crime comes down. In Chicago, despite a weak and incompetent Governor and Mayor fighting us all the way, a big improvement was made. Thousands of Criminals were removed! Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people. FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
Ashe in America: It’s bizarre to see grown adults acting shocked to learn that entitlement fraud is close to 10% of US GDP. It’s maddening to see them feign paralysis about it… maddening because it implies complicity.
First, we just learned about highly advanced, targeted energy weapons and super soldiers that are 1:100 capable. Don’t tell me we can’t do anything about squatting criminal Somalis.
Second, deport the Somalis and arrest/prosecute/convict/ incarcerate the Americans. They’ve all proven themselves conspirators, and giving aid and comfort to America’s foreign enemies is treason. Somalis are obviously America’s foreign enemies.
Third, the latest talking points on Somali scammers are crazy familiar…
Same playbook, different scandal.
The regime rhymes a lot, and this is exactly the same dodge tactic that we get from the illegitimate criminals about elections.
Cutting their grift isn’t enough. They must be held accountable.
Final (for now) thoughts on this: As I’ve repeatedly said, the idea that Americans are somehow obligated to take the world’s garbage humans because the French gave us an ugly statute of Ishtar is globalist propaganda to drive more garbage humans into America.
This Somali Scammer Saga is proof that we can just say no.
And we should.
No. Get out.
They cannot say no. If they try, then we Venezuela Minneapolis.
No one is above the law.
Geopolitical Chaos and the Pirates of the Carib-Iran
Following the U.S. special forces raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026—during which most Cuban members of his security team were reportedly killed—the Trump administration has intensified actions in the region.
The U.S. has seized multiple oil tankers transporting Venezuelan oil and is pursuing court warrants for dozens more vessels suspected of carrying unauthorized Venezuelan, Iranian, or Russian oil, with Pentagon officials vowing to interdict all such “dark fleet” ships.
President Trump has suggested Secretary of State Marco Rubio could lead a post-regime Cuba, urged Havana to “make a deal” amid accusations of its reliance on Venezuelan oil, and reinstated Cuba on the state sponsors of terrorism list.
Separately, tensions over Greenland have escalated, with Trump insisting the U.S. will acquire the mineral-rich, Danish-controlled territory—preferably through purchase, but warning of “the hard way” if necessary, without ruling out military force—and stating rejection would be “a big problem.”
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen firmly rejected U.S. ownership, stating “we choose Denmark,” and prioritizing ties with NATO, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the EU, while pausing independence plans amid the “geopolitical crisis.”
A senior U.S. official indicated meaningful action could come within weeks or months, with talks scheduled involving Vice President JD Vance and Rubio.
A January 2026 Yahoo/YouGov poll showed 62% of Americans opposing U.S. military action in Greenland (14% in favor), with low support for interventions in other threatened countries post-Maduro capture: Cuba (26% favor), Mexico (25%), Colombia (24%), and Iran (29%).
European leaders have warned a Greenland takeover could end NATO, and some are discussing counter-presence measures.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: The one and only correct take on this situation is that President Trump is mocking the regime by cosplaying as Pirate King of the Caribbean, jesting on social media about appointing Marco Rubio as the new leader of Cuba, as he seizes vessels and plunders their booty, as he promises to capture more ships in the immediate future.
He's like the modern version of Blackbeard.
Fear all ye men who sail the Caribbean!
It's an inversion of the British Empire, which during the Age of Sail, would issue letters of marque to its naval captains who had been ordered to engage in piracy against Spanish treasure ships returning from Mexico (gold) and Panama (silver).
The captains became known as "privateers," and the highly coveted letter of marque was a license to loot and not be hanged by the authorities.
Many of the privateers took to the lifestyle of the more outlaw pirates, and many of the more notorious outlaw pirates were actually privateers sailing with letters of marque.
But pretty much all the European pirates from the Age of Sail started in the navy.
One of these pirates, Captain Henry Morgan (yes, the same one from the spiced rum bottle), acquired enough political clout to be appointed Governor of Jamaica by the British Crown—a position he would use to launch formal military operations against the populations of modern-day Colombia and Venezuela.
In one of the most famous battles, the indigenous natives corralled over 2,000 bulls into the jungle, and when the pirates deployed their cannons in an open field, the natives triggered a stampede and trampled thousands of the invading pirates to death.
What I see President Trump doing now is bringing back this system of direct power projection, and using it for political advantage.
A pirate can be the British governor of a major Caribbean island because the British had the military power to do whatever they wanted, and dominated the oceans during the Golden Age of Piracy.
Something tells me that Trump is establishing precedents here for a reason, but I also think the overwhelming sense of chaos and complete abandonment of international law. (Which isn't real and never really has been.)
Just look at what he is doing with Greenland.
What if the intended outcome was never to take responsibility for Greenland's citizenry (which does not necessarily reflect or embrace true American values) but rather to gain a strategic foothold on the landmass and free access to its resources?
To me, that sounds like a much better deal for the United States.
In any event, Greenland is now a bargaining chip and the proof is right here in this snippit.
Greenland has decided to get mouthy and declare its allegiance to Denmark and NATO.
PS - I feel like this guy is a little too underdressed to be delivering an address of this magnitude. You are essentially declaring proverbial war against Donald Trump and you are wearing a hoodie like a homeless person. Read the room.
Then there is this gem.
* * checks notes * *
Oh yes, that poll was conducted by Yahoo News, which means it still has more credibility than US elections.
Trump's response to the lesbian in a hoodie was the best:
”That's their problem. I disagree with them. I don't know who he is. Don't know anything about him, but that's going to be a big problem for him," Trump said.
Might makes right, amirite?
Netanyahu set the precedent, and now President Trump is going to exploit it, while also exposing the inherent problems with hegemony and unipolarity.
BONUS ITEMS
PBS Starts Cutting the Fat … And Nobody Noticed
PBS News Weekend, the weekend edition of PBS NewsHour that began in 2013, aired its final live broadcast on January 11, 2026, after 12 years on air. Anchor John Yang announced during the episode that PBS had canceled the program “at least for the foreseeable future” due to the loss of federal funding for public media; he also stated he would depart the network at the end of January.
The cancellation stems from a $1.1 billion cut in federal appropriations for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), enacted by the Republican-controlled Congress in 2025 in response to President Trump’s calls to defund PBS and NPR over allegations of liberal bias. The CPB, which funds public broadcasting, has since begun steps toward closure.
Starting the following weekend, PBS replaced the live weekend newscast with two pre-taped 30-minute single-topic programs produced during the week to reduce costs.
Please share the Brief far and wide! Want to join the conversation? Jump in the comments and let us know your thoughts. And if you like the Substack, you should check out our shows — streaming now on Badlands Media!
The opinions expressed in the Badlands Brief are those of the tagged authors and do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or positions of Badlands Media.
The Brief is free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber to help our collective of citizen journalists take back the narrative.
Ghost, you crack me up!! Your "P.S." on the Greenland take is super funny! "Read the room"!! :)
“the idea that Americans are somehow obligated to take the world’s garbage humans because the French gave us an ugly statute of Ishtar is globalist propaganda to drive more garbage humans into America.”
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM
SOOOO LOOKING FORWARD TO MARCH 17!!!