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.
DOJ Probes Powell
The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell related to his congressional testimony concerning renovations to the Federal Reserve’s headquarters. Powell publicly confirmed the investigation on Sunday in a statement; there is no official release about the probe on the DOJ website.
Several Republican lawmakers responded publicly to the investigation. Thom Tillis criticized the probe and said he would oppose confirmation of new Federal Reserve nominees while the investigation remains ongoing.
President Donald Trump has previously criticized Powell and the Federal Reserve. The White House denies involvement in the probe. Powell’s current term as Fed chair ends in May.
Ashe in America: This probe has all the right people in a tizzy.
Thom Tillis threatened to keep the Fed rudderless and incapacitated “until this legal matter is fully resolved.” Wait, Senator Tillis, are you saying that we can effectively end the Fed by keeping Jerome Powell under investigation?
Notable. Also notice that Tillis is undermining his own credibility with this stunt. Powell allegedly lied under oath. Tillis is effectively saying it doesn’t matter – as a member of the branch that was deceived. Stockholm Syndrome or brazen corruption? Let me know what you think in the comments.
Then there is this winner:
“I’ve known Chairman Powell since we worked together at Treasury during the George H.W. Bush Administration,” House Financial Services Chair French Hill said. “Then, as now, I know Mr. Powell to be a man of integrity with a strong commitment to public service. While over the years we have had our policy disagreements, I found him to be forthright, candid, and a person of the highest integrity.”
Bro, you’re not making the case you think you are, lol. It’s like they’re actively reminding us of why we must maintain our resolve to end every one of their institutions and fake power centers.
“I knew Jerome back when we ran Papa Bush’s Treasury Department together. Integrity!” Unreal. Remember all the integrity of the George H. W. Bush administration? I don’t either. What a hilariously tone deaf failed flex by French Hill.
Of course, we don’t just want Powell rolled up for lying to Una Panoonah & Co; we want him incarcerated indefinitely for dedicating his life to destroying the Republic, expanding global communism on the backs of unknowing Americans, picking winners and losers while claiming impartiality, and gaslighting everyone about independence and accountability and public trust while embodying the opposite (allegedly).
The sooner we end this charade, the better. Ending the charade leads to ending the Fed.
Dare to dream.
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!
Trump Compounds American Power Projection
The US State Department is maintaining their Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Venezuela and reiterating that US citizens and lawful permanent residents in the country should depart immediately. The advisory cites security risks and the limited ability of the US government to provide emergency assistance. Related: No official confirmation has been issued regarding the “energy weapons and super soldiers” claims described in a viral video that was amplified by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt over the weekend.
In Cuba, President Trump publicly urged Cuba to reach an agreement with the United States, warning that time was running out. Cuban officials responded that they are not currently involved in negotiations with Washington.
European officials have reportedly discussed increasing military presence in Greenland. Denmark’s prime minister publicly stated that a US military attack on Greenland would undermine NATO. More on Greenland later in this Brief.
On January 10, 2026, US Central Command said US forces, working with partner forces, conducted large-scale strikes against ISIS targets in Syria.
Burning Bright : Power is Power.
Not rules. Not norms.
Not the hollow incantations of a “Rules-Based International Order” that spent decades pretending its edicts carried weight independent of the fist that once—willingly or not—enforced them.
And Donald Trump, in the opening salvos of his second term, is reminding every layer of the collective battlespace—from the streets of Caracas to the chancelleries of Europe, from the palaces of Tehran to the frozen expanses of Greenland—that rules do not project power.
Power projects rules.
And the story he is telling is so unapologetically raw, so deliberately theatrical that it demands attention from every observer, regardless of allegiance or worldview, and somewhat shockingly, regardless of which layer of reality you’re operating on.
Observe the whispered and now shouted narrative of American “super soldiers” executing a regime-change raid on Nicolás Maduro with the casual dominance of gods descending upon mortals.
Eyewitness accounts—amplified, not denied by the White House itself—paint a picture almost too cinematic to credit, yet too detailed to dismiss outright by those who believe, if not everything they’re told in the central narrative, then at least the baseline that surely SOMETHING they’re being told must be true.
Elite Delta operators, moving through Caracas under the cover of perfect night.
Swarms of autonomous drones silencing radar arrays without a trace.
Non-lethal sonic emitters that rupture sinuses, burst eardrums and induce immediate surrender.
Precision fire that drops hundreds of regime loyalists while leaving the twenty American avatars untouched.
And for narrative purposes (and plot-based convenience, of course,) a surviving Venezuelan guard, voice trembling in interviews that spread like wildfire across every platform, describing the scene with the haunted reverence of a man who has witnessed the future of war.
Whether one adopts the Bicameral Mindset—viewing this as the latest in the midst of a series of layered narrative deployments with minimal kinetic actuals—or whether fragments of operational truth bleed through the story layer, the translation remains identical, as do its net effects.
The United States can reach into the heart of your regime, extract or eliminate its head and leave your security apparatus shattered—all while projecting zero vulnerability.
Suddenly, the cartoonish becomes credible.
The narrative gains teeth.
And teeth, once bared, change the calculus of every observer, and most crucially, every would-be actor.
Iran Intensifies Crackdown as Protests Spread and International Tensions Rise
Iranian authorities intensified a security crackdown Monday as protests expanded across the country. The Ayatollah is calling for a harsher response to dissent, imposed restrictions on public activity as security forces have increased arrests and enforcement measures in recent days, according to reports. Iranian officials imposed restrictions on internet access, citing security concerns; Iranian state media reported that the internet restrictions were necessary to restore order.
Iranian officials accused the United States and Israel of interfering in Iran’s internal affairs. The US and Israel have not confirmed or denied the allegation. Iran’s foreign minister held discussions with US envoy Steve Witkoff, reportedly in an attempt to de-escalate the situation. The White House has yet to comment on the progress of those discussions.
Separately, Israel and Germany said they agreed to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation, citing concerns related to Iran and regional security threats. In the United States, Senator Lindsey Graham publicly called for consideration of stronger US action against Iran.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: Something tells me that whatever needed to happen in Iran already happened in 2020, after Trump took out Soleimani on January 3. (Because Netanyahu reneged on his promise to do it.)
Reza Pahlavi—the son of the deposed [CIA installed] was asked whether he felt any responsibility for the reported deaths in Iran. He basically said that these deaths were a necessary cost in the war to “liberate” Iran.
There are videos circulating now of the rioters and protesters attacking security guards.
Here’s the President listing off all the things he claims the protesters destroyed, including ambulances and hundreds of mosques.
We also have Mossad encouraging the protesters.
I wonder if we are about to get a public crash course on the Strategy of Tension and regime change operations.
“Greenland is Not For Sale”: Geopolitical Signals in the Arctic
Danish officials have reiterated that Greenland is not for sale, following renewed public statements by US President Donald Trump expressing interest in the territory. Denmark said Greenland’s status is determined by international law, and the self-governing rights of Greenland’s people.
Separately, officials in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France have discussed a coordinated approach toward US pressure related to Greenland, including diplomatic engagement aimed at reducing tensions and reaffirming existing security arrangements in the Arctic.
As reported above, European officials are concerned about US military intervention in Greenland, and its implications for the future of NATO.
Burning Bright: Greenland, strategic linchpin in the Arctic coveted by Trump since his first term for its position astride Russian and Chinese ambitions, is a potential flashpoint in the emergence of the new Pax Americana that is as logical as it is shocking to the calcified western psyche, long rooted in its post-war paradigm.
So, while the Danish Prime Minister issues a grave public warning that any American move to seize the island would “destroy NATO,” behind closed doors, the Europeans—UK, Germany and France—scramble to assemble a counter-proposal: a multinational NATO Arctic force ... anything to appease the American sovereign before he makes good on promises that once sounded like bluster and now look like anything but.
This is an actual cascade of rapidly shifting geopolitics and posturing all aligning around the new projected and actualizing American era, and all it took was one story (the Maduro swaparoo) whose actuals could be debated until the end of time.
The translation is universal: even the institutions built to constrain American power now react with the instinctive deference of entities that remember, deep in their foundational coding, who ultimately underwrote their existence.
***
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: A bill has been introduced by the Republicans regarding the annexation and statehood of Greenland.
This is Trump psychologically breaking the idea of international law.
Accelerate.
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Protests in US Cities After MN Woman Dies While Hitting ICE Agent With Her Car
Anti-ICE protests took place across the United States in recent days, following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good during a confrontation with an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Good struck the agent with her car before she was shot. ICE officials said the agent acted in self-defense. Video of the incident confirms the sequence of events.
Protests were organized under the banner “ICE Out For Good” by Indivisible and related groups. The event organizers claim more than 1,000 protests nationwide. Larger protests were held in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. In Minneapolis, thousands rallied, including Representative Ilhan Omar.
In Boca Raton, Florida, approximately 500 people protested outside a Home Depot. Police arrested one individual on battery charges following an altercation with a demonstrator. Protests in Los Angeles, Austin, and Houston also resulted in several arrests.
Ashe in America: Remember when George Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose when he was caught in the commission of a crime? This is like that but more shrill and unhinged.
The barren boss babes are shaving their heads again.
This has always seemed to me like the strangest way to assert “female empowerment.” Maybe it’s just me, but I love my hair and having it makes me feel more empowered. My husband loves it, too, and I can flip it around and things happen. (I can hear the “how dare yous” from here, bitches; talk to the hand.)
If I shaved my hair off, it would be like that moment in Narnia when it seems that all is lost.
Humiliated.
NOTE: Not that Asland was actually humiliated, of course, but humiliation was the point—the intention. Same vibe as the Crown of Thorns. The point of such a ritual is to subjugate and mock and scorn and humiliate. Obviously with Jesus (and Aslan in the fictional) that intention failed to achieve its outcome. All Glory to God!
Still, the exception proves the rule. Head shaving is a humiliation ritual. That’s true in frats and boot camps and locker rooms. It’s a tale as old as testosterone.
So, why are these menopausal women putting themselves through a (markedly male) humiliation ritual and recording it and crying through it and then posting it on the internet and claiming it empowers them?
That’s mental…
One more reason to make asylums great again.
BONUS ITEMS
Senate Bill Would Bar Lawmakers, Families From Trading Individual Stocks
A bill to ban congressional insider trading has been introduced in the Senate.
Senate Bill 1879, titled the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, would require lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children to place certain assets, including individual stocks, into qualified blind trusts, effectively barring them from actively buying or selling individual stocks. The bill allows investments in diversified vehicles such as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.
Under the proposal, covered individuals would be required to divest prohibited assets or place them in qualified blind trusts.
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Brilliant and humorous assessment as always. The Brief is my daily fix. :-) Seriously, I look forward to it every morning. Thank you for all the research and thought and humor you put into crafting it. You are my news.
There is no such thing as international law. I heard that on Badlands!