Badlands News Brief
Fani Hunts Alone as Putin Keeps the Throne
The News Cycle is almost impossible to track these days. At least, to do so fully.
That’s where we come in.
In the Badlands News Brief, the Badlands Media team hand pick news items of interest from the previous days to give you an overview of the biggest goings-on relevant to the Truth Community.
Many items feature original (and subjective) commentary. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see our writers’ Substack accounts and check out their other work.
Now, onto the news from the Weekend that Was …
DA Fani Willis allowed to stay on Georgia election case after lead prosecutor resigns
Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor in the Fulton County election interference case against Former President Trump and his co-defendants, resigned Friday as special prosecutor following a ruling by the judge overseeing the case.
Wade's resignation came hours after Judge Scott McAfee declined to outright disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, but ruled that either she or Wade must step aside from the case due to a "significant appearance of impropriety" stemming from a romantic relationship between Willis and Wade.
Per the judge's ruling, Wade's resignation means that Willis and the rest of her team will remain on the case.
In his resignation letter addressed to Willis, Wade said he was stepping down "in the interest of democracy."
"Although the court found, that 'the Defendants failed to meet their burden of proving that the District Attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest,' I am offering my resignation in the interest of democracy, in dedication to the American public, and to move this case forward as quickly as possible," Wade wrote.
In a short letter accepting Wade's resignation, Willis lauded him "for the professionalism and dignity you have shown over the last 865 days."
"I will always remember -- and will remind everyone -- that you were brave enough to step forward and take on the investigation and prosecution of the allegations that the defendants in this case engaged in a conspiracy to overturn Georgia's 2020 Presidential Election," Willis wrote. — ABC News
The BEFORE Wade Take: “A few days ago, Judge McAffee cleaved off a huge portion of the case: everything to do with the Raffensberger phone call. Six charges now gone.
In a RICO case, you have to connect everything together into a packaged conspiracy—a criminal enterprise. This case was already thin and poorly woven together. McAfee just made it WORSE.
This put DA Willis into the MOST difficult of positions: either she goes ahead with a crippled case OR throws the case in the bin, starts over from square one with a new grand jury, new indictment, and starts EVERYTHING all over again.
Now with this decision, McAfee has CONFIRMED—he has DETERMINED that there is at least the ‘appearance of conflict of interest’ even though the Defendants did not meet the bar of an ‘actual conflict’, ‘the established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team—an appearance that must be removed.’
ie: either Willis and her Office goes, OR her Top Prosecutor Wade goes. (Editor’s Note: … it was the latter.)
And now, with a RECORD established, testimony and evidence committed to the record, much of which points towards conflict of interest, unethical behavior, perjury... an ethics board and the Supreme Court of Georgia and the State Bar have serious material to examine when a complaint is brought to them.
Judge McAfee also said,
’After consideration of the record established on these motions, the Court finds the allegations and evidence legally insufficient to support a finding of an actual conflict of interest. However, the appearance of impropriety remains …’
So either Wade or Willis has to go, and whoever remains is left with a poorly constructed, uneven, incomplete structure of a case that is very likely not capable of surviving serious assaults from the remaining Defendants.
In other words, THEY LOST THIS BATTLE, AND ARE VERY LIKELY TO KEEP LOSING.
WE WON THIS BATTLE, AND THERE ARE MORE WINS AHEAD.” —
The AFTER Wade Take: “CannCon and I went through Judge McAfee’s order on Friday’s Why We Vote. I can’t speak for Brian, but I find it disturbing how many conservative content creators fail to see the big picture, unable to think critically about this order. I guess running in circles and screaming that the judge is corrupt is better for business.
Judge McAfee’s acknowledgment that the appearance of impropriety must be remedied to protect the public trust is important and appropriate. McAfee didn’t just find that Willis and Wade’s relationship was reason for concern — he found that it was so concerning and potentially damaging to the public trust that it had to be remedied before the case could proceed. That is significant, as McAfee is the first court in a while that acknowledged public trust at all.
From popular reaction to the order, I can only assume that most people expected McAfee to not only fire Fani, but to disbar her, throw her and Wade in the slammer, dismiss the case and declare President Trump the rightful winner of the 2020 and 2024 elections. In other words, from the reaction, it appears popular expectations were detached from reality.
The order is a setback for Willis, and Wade resigned on Friday.
Remember that Willis struggled to find a prosecutor to bring the case from its inception, and she is now out ~$700k, and may have to go back to the county for additional funding. That might be a tough ask, as Willis is facing a GA Senate inquiry about her use of public funds — objectively, it appears that Willis secured funding to hire 55 employees and then, two weeks later, hired her boyfriend (and seemingly no one else).
She also faces a state ethics inquiry, a GA Bar complaint, and a Congressional inquiry, and the judge’s order mentions these other forums as the appropriate fact finders in Fani’s corruption.
My bias is that I do not want this case to end before the evidence is heard. This is also the position of some of the defendants in the case who are confident in their affirmative defenses. For example:
’What if we can prove that Trump won?’
This question was posed by Harrison Floyd’s attorneys in their motions hearing a few months back, and it’s clear from their subpoenas that they’re pursuing this defense.
This trial is our best opportunity to litigate 2020 election fraud.
It will be televised.
The evidence will be heard.
The ‘Trump won’ defense is in play.
And now Fani is tainted, facing multiple serious corruption inquiries, and must find a new prosecutor before the case can proceed.
Well done, Judge McAfee.” —
Putin Wins Fifth Term As Russian President With 87% Of The Vote
It will surprise no one that Vladimir Putin secured another six years as Russia’s president - effectively ensuring that he will surpass Joseph Stalin as Russia's longest-serving ruler should he successfully complete his latest term when he will be 77 years old - in a bid to step up his war in Ukraine and challenge the West, with the Kremlin claiming record public support for him in a vote whose outcome was largely pre-determined even without mystery sacks of mail-in ballots arriving at 3am.
Putin won 87%, according to an exit poll broadcast on state television late Sunday, shortly after the end of three days of voting. That exceeded the previous high of 77% support that the incumbent president received in 2018 elections, according to Bloomberg.
Three other candidates, all from parties loyal to the Kremlin, received no more than 5% support. Nearly 4.5 million people voted online in a system used in 29 of Russia’s regions for the first time in a presidential election, the Interfax news service reported, citing government data.
Preliminary turnout was 74.22% - the largest in over 3 decades - according to Central Election Commission data shown on state TV. That turnout was the highest since Boris Yeltsin became president in 1991 after the Soviet Union’s collapse, and well above the 67.5% turnout recorded in 2018. At least six Russian regions claimed turnout was above 90%.
Of note, according to the CEC, Putin received 94.12% of the votes after processing 100% of the protocols in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation in the Lugansk People's Republic, which is located in the contested Donetsk region.
Putin is extending his nearly quarter-century rule into a fifth term at a time when his troops are on the offensive in Ukraine. Russia’s pressing its advantage in the third year of the invasion that’s become Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, as Ukraine struggles to supply its forces with munitions amid delays in military aid from its US and European allies. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “There is only one appropriately memetic response for this completely shocking, surprising and dastardly development …
Of course, if you’ve been able to hoard more than two brain cells to rub together in the hopes of making a third as the Info War rages on, you’ll AT LEAST have considered the possibility that the same Media Industrial Complex working on behalf of a centuries-old Globalist cabal that has been lying to us for years about … everything … has probably ALSO been lying to us about Vladimir Putin, Russia and Orthodox Christianity.
I first came to attention in this space by devoting most of my time to an examination of the story of Russia as it has been told to the western mind, and while Putin winning another Presidential term does little to change that narrative for now, I, for one am quite pleased that Donald Trump will not be the only sovereign leader who continues to be a thorn in the side of the Deep State for a little while longer.” —
In on the Joke: The Comedic Trick Trump Uses to Normalize His Behavior
“I’ve been indicted more times than Alphonse Capone,” Donald Trump said from the stage in Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill, South Carolina. “It’s true,” he said. It’s not. But what mattered the most was that here he was, late last month, uncorking an especially lively version of what has become a routine rally riff — and one that never fails to send ripples of giggles through the crowds he commands. “My parents are looking down. They’re saying, ‘I never thought this could happen to my son — he’s been indicted!’” he said, hands out, head up, reveling in the hoots on cue.
The audio track of the traveling Trump carnival is by now reliable to the point of ritualistic. Lee Greenwood to start, the odd, QAnon-coopted sort of liturgical dirge to close, the apocalyptic assessments of the condition of the nation and the prompts to harass the press and the jeers and the swears from the throngs in between. I could shut my eyes and know precisely where I was. For me, though, there’s one sound that’s come to stick out more than any of the many others.
It’s the laughter.
These signature set pieces are an utter engine, of course, of Trump’s stubborn and undeniable appeal, and humor’s always played a part, from repeated ridicule of his rivals to more impromptu and innocuous asides to physical pantomimes — the resulting laughter a consistent and key piece of their cadence and pull. This isn’t new, and Trump, obviously, is far from the first president or pol with some capacity for comedy. But over the past few months, at events of his that I’ve been to — in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — it’s felt to me particularly conspicuous. His destabilizing rhetoric has gotten even more dark. It’s what’s made the laughter all the more stark.
His allies and aides suggest it’s a big part of the reason the former and maybe future president still registers as relatable, managing to maintain the useful reputation as a politically incorrect outsider despite his obvious insider status as the leader of the GOP.
His critics along with experts in rhetoric and nationalist and populist movements and leaders say it helps him turn his opponents into not just enemies but jokes. They say it helps him recast his own liabilities as laughing matters and desensitizes his supporters to his most outrageous comments and proposals — the undermining of institutions, the abandonment of allies, mass deportations and all but outright invitations for Russian invasions and so on. They say the mirth masks the menace. — Politico
Our Take: “This was a very entertaining read. It's fun to get into the weeds of enemy territory on the cognitive battlefield. Seeing the headspace that this level of raging TDS foments, this late in the game, is not just entertaining, though, it's also deeply informative.
This was a true circus of all the mad propaganda that has been fired at Trump over the years. It was kind of like a 'greatest hits' of the histrionics constantly maintained surrounding Trump's entire existence.
It's so genuinely funny when the war is this transparent and the smell of the enemy's desperation is this pungent. It's the projection that always gets me. It never fails.
’Horseplay is necessary,’ believed Joseph Goebbels, one of Adolf Hitler’s closest, most loyal advisers and the Nazis’ top propagandist. ‘Mussolini,”’Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the author of Strongmen, told me, referring to 20th-century Italian fascist Benito Mussolini, ‘had the same twisted sense of humor’ as Trump. And stenograms of Communist Party and Politburo meetings in the era of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union show no shortage of notations of laughter — from jokes made at the expense of somebody about to be on the outs to a sort of forced or sycophantic fun. ‘There’s a lot,’ Maya Vinokour, a scholar of Stalinism, told me, ‘and that even ends up being true as the purges start.’
Right now, as I write this, there are raging (unfailingly anti-Trump) Canadians in the streets who have been using the pro-Palestine movement to promote communism. They have latched on to the mainstream narratives that claim that the freedom movement in Canada is born of Donald Trump's extremist cult.
Some literally bring pictures of Stalin, Lennin or Marx to their protests. The leadership they are siding with is literally using fifth generation communist warfare on a daily basis. And yet here we are, with Politico comparing Trump to the communists tyrants of the past.
I have to say that the mental gymnastics maintained by these people is truly a sight to behold.” —
Boeing Whistleblower: "If Anything Happens to Me, It's Not Suicide"
The Boeing whistleblower who supposedly killed himself reportedly told a close family friend not to believe it if it was announced he had committed suicide.
62-year-old John Barnett died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Charleston County coroner’s office in South Carolina said earlier this week.
Barnett had previously raised concerns about the company’s production issues having worked for the company for 32 years before leaving in 2017.
According to his attorneys, Barnett had “exposed very serious safety problems with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and was retaliated against and subjected to a hostile work environment” and was in the middle of a legal deposition against Boeing.
“He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on. We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it,” said the attorneys. — Modernity News
Our Take: “Barnett didn’t kill himself.
Of course we don’t know for sure, and the coroner says he did, but those of us in the truth community are rightly skeptical of highly-convenient suicides.
This guy was in the middle of testifying against a powerful DOD contractor and, according to those close to him, he wanted to testify, he was in good spirits, and there was no indication that he was planning to take his own life. In fact, he told his friends not to believe any news that he died by suicide. It’s literally unbelievable.
Boeing has been under fire in the press recently, but their problems go back years and point to serious problems with safety and trust. From the BBC on Sunday:
‘The findings came shortly after another report into Boeing's safety culture by an expert panel found a ‘disconnect’ between senior management and regular staff, as well as signs that staff were hesitant about reporting problems for fear of retaliation.’
According to Barnett’s attorneys, he was already retaliated against before he allegedly committed suicide.
The BBC piece continues:
‘Adam Dickson, a former senior manager at Boeing who once worked on the 737 Max programme, agrees there is a gulf between executives and workers on the factory floor.
‘The culture at Boeing has been toxic to trust for over a decade now… You can add safety steps, you can add procedures. But the fundamental issue of distrust makes those changes almost ineffective.’
Sounds like US election systems.
Boeing wants to get out of this inquiry with their brand in tact, but that may be impossible since the revelations are continuing.
‘The FAA warned that improperly installed wiring bundles on 737 Max planes could become damaged, leading to controls on the wings deploying unexpectedly, and making the aircraft start to roll.’
From doors blowing off mid air and wheels failing to deploy, to software glitches and, now, faulty wiring bundles — it’s not looking good for the iconic American company. Of course, if they’re intentionally endangering pilots and passengers and killing off witnesses, then failing at business should be the least of their consequences.
RIP, Mr. Barnett.” —
Musk Defends Former President, Scarborough Deletes, After Leftist Corporate Media Unleashes Trump "Bloodbath Hoax"
Corporate media and their woke allies on the Biden/Harris social media campaign team launched a disinformation and misinformation propaganda campaign against former President Trump, purposely misconstruing his speech at an event on Saturday.
The blatant disinformation and misinformation by leftist newspapers, radicals in the Biden administration, and even Democrat lawmakers have been on full display over the last 15 hours. There has also been an awakening on X of just how bad Democrats are at propaganda - and they can't even make it believable anymore.
Almost immediately, legacy media outlets, such as NBC News, ABC News, and Politico, among others, took Trump's speech entirely out of context...
[…]
Meanwhile, Elon Musk commented on the absurd propaganda, saying, "Legacy media lies."
[…]
The walkbacks have already begun - with MSNBC's Joe Scarborough deleting his 'Bloodbath' post on X after getting called out by Musk. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “‘When someone shows you who they are, believe them.’
It’s a truism that’s become ubiquitous in American culture when it comes to judging people not by the personas they effect, but rather by their actions, and by the underlying values those actions demonstrate.
Obviously, this sort of Narrative coordination by the Media Industrial Complex shocks precisely nobody who considers themselves an Anon, a citizen journalist or a direct-path reasoner, but there are a couple of white pills spinning out of the whole cascade:
The time between the deployment of a media op against Trump, the MAGA base or the truth community and its complete exposure by that very same decentralized collective has exponentially shrunk from a few years, to a few months, to a few minutes.
The enemy aren’t the only ones coordinating their messaging … but if you still don’t think Trump and Elon Musk are in cahoots … I just don’t know which movie you’re watching.
You can learn a lot, watching things lie … and the American people have been watching the media lie for a LONG time.” —
BONUS ITEMS
DeSantis details alarming find aboard Haitian migrant boat seized off Florida coast
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Friday that state law enforcement had intercepted a vessel coming to the Florida coast carrying dozens of Haitian migrants, as well as firearms, drugs and night vision gear.
"Our Florida Fish and Wildlife offices interdicted a vessel that had 25 illegal immigrants, potential illegal immigrants from Haiti in their boat. In their vessel they had firearms, they had drugs, they had night vision gear and were boating very recklessly, which would potentially endanger other folks," DeSantis said, adding that the interdiction had occurred "recently" in the last few weeks.
"That vessel was interdicted near the Sebastian Inlet and those illegal aliens were turned over to the Coast Guard for deportation," he said. — FOX News
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Expected to Tap Nicole Shanahan as Running Mate
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to tap Nicole Shanahan, a California-based attorney and entrepreneur once married to Google co-founder Sergey Brinn, as his running mate for his independent bid for the presidency, Mediaite has learned.
Aaron Rodgers, the outspoken NFL quarterback who Kennedy had been considering as his VP pick, is out of the running, a source close to the campaign said. The prospect of his selection prompted concerns among donors to the campaign.
Shanahan, who was behind Kennedy’s Super Bowl commercial, is now expected to be named the running mate to the long-shot bid.
“They align on numerous issues,” a source close with the campaign said of Kennedy and Shanahan. “The campaign is also looking for a candidate who can help finance the ballot access initiative,” that will be crucial if Kennedy stands a chance of competing in the election.
The source added: “She might be infusing millions of dollars into the campaign to help fund the ballot initiative, which makes her attractive financially; however, she lacks the qualifications to actually do the job.” — MediaLite
Female Athletes Sue NCAA Over Transgender Competitors in Sports
Over a dozen female athletes are suing the National Collegiate Athletics Association for letting transgender athletes compete against them and use female locker rooms in college sports.
At the center of the class-action lawsuit is Lia Thomas, the trans athlete who dominated the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships while a student at the University of Pennsylvania. The suit states that both the NCAA and Georgia Tech, which hosted the event, knowingly violated Title IX, the federal statute that guarantees equal opportunity for men and women in college education and sports.
The lawsuit, the first federal action of its kind, seeks to change the rules, rendering any biological males ineligible to compete against female athletes. It demands the NCAA revoke all awards given to trans athletes in women’s competitions and “reassign” them to their female contenders. It also asks for “damages for pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, expense costs and other damages due to defendants’ wrongful conduct.”
In 2022, Thomas clinched the 500-yard freestyle title at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships and was named All-American in all three events Thomas participated in. Thomas first competed for the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s swim team as a male from 2017 to 2020 but never reached the NCAA championships during that time. After two years on hormone therapy, Thomas switched to the women’s team, trouncing female competitors in both sprint and endurance races. — The Free Press
We hope you enjoyed this brief look back at the major news items you might have missed in this ever-escalating and ever-accelerating news cycle as the Information War continues to rage on around us.
As always, if you have any thoughts on these news items or the MANY others swirling in the digital ether, drop into the comments below to share them with your fellow Badlanders.
Editor’s Note: I’ll be taking a short break from the Info War (and other work) to enjoy some R&R (and I’m not talking about Righteous Russia, for once,) but our own
is going to be handling the Brief in the interim. Thank you all for your continued support of this publication and this team. —Badlands Media will always put out our content for free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Help our collective of citizen journalists take back the narrative from the MSM. We are the news now.
Judge McAfee, Mr Barnett RIP and Elon Musk are my Heroes this week!
The "Bloodbath" waged against WE THE PEOPLE, by the Corrupt Liars @ Fake News...brought to you by, bio-weaponized jab happy Pfizer....owned by the Gates Foundation...are LOSING the disinformation/misinformation WAR!
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” ✝️
I was with family this weekend, enjoying watching my sweet beautiful granddaughter perform in her first cheer competition and missed most of the recent news. Each news story was fantastic! We are winning bigly! For me this “war” is for my children and grandchildren! And I am a lioness when it comes to my grandchildren! I will never shut up or stop fighting!!!❤️🇺🇸🙏😊