Badlands News Brief
Hot Wars Wind Down. Trade & Meme Wars Heat Up.
We’re back after a quick break for GART 7 in Las Vegas. If you missed the fun, you can still purchase a virtual ticket and experience both stage and behind the scenes content from our seventh stop on the Great American Restoration Tour!
Tickets for stop eight, happening May 1-4, 2025 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, are coming soon — stay tuned!
The news cycle is impossible to fully track these days. That’s where we come in. The Badlands News Brief is a uniquely curated selection of the stories dominating the info war — with context and commentary from Badlands hosts.
Now, let’s catch up on the news ...
Tens of Thousands of Mexicans Rally With President to Celebrate US Decision to Delay Tariffs
Tens of thousands of people packed into Mexico’s City main plaza on Sunday to celebrate with President Claudia Sheinbaum a decision by the U.S. to postpone tariffs on many of the country’s goods. The crowd clutched large Mexican flags and yelled, “Mexico is to be respected!” as they cheered on Sheinbaum.
“Fortunately, dialogue and respect have prevailed,” she told the crowd.
The celebration comes just days after U.S. President Donald Trump postponed 25% tariffs on many imports from Mexico for a month, saying Sheinbaum had made progress on drug smuggling and illegal immigration. Sheinbaum had planned to announce any retaliatory measures on Sunday, but instead held a mass celebration.
While threats persist, the president said she was optimistic tariffs would not be applied to Mexico and that she would continue to act with a “cool head” in the face of Trump. – AP News
AND
Trump Drops New Tariff Bombshell After Canada Threatens to 'Shut Off Electricity Completely' to Three US States
Donald Trump continued his budding trade war with Canada by pledging to 'just get it all back' with stiffer reciprocal tariffs next month - as Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to knock his lights out. Ford has already followed through on a promise to put a 25% tariff on Canadian electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota on Monday.
The Ontario premier, who runs Canada's most populous province, now says he's ready to 'shut the electricity off completely' if America continues to 'escalate.' Trump has shot back, mocking Ford's plan and saying that his promise of reciprocal tariffs will render anything Ontario does useless.
'Despite the fact that Canada is charging the USA from 250% to 390% Tariffs on many of our farm products, Ontario just announced a 25% surcharge on 'electricity,' of all things, and you're not even allowed to do that,' he said in a Truth Social. However, Trump said that the US will 'just get it all back on April 2,' when the administration's reciprocal tariff plan goes into effect.
Trump continued to take shots at his neighbors to the north before declaring he was on the way to making America great again. 'Canada is a Tariff abuser, and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer… When asked by Fox Business whether he would relent on Canada's reciprocal tariffs, Ford said he would only do so once Trump stops threatening his allies. – Daily Mail
Our Take: I’m old enough to remember when the expert class told us that tariffs would only hurt America. But here we are in the midst of a trade war, and the people of Mexico threw a party in response to Trump delaying tariffs.
Up north, Canada is attempting an unserious flex, executed through emotionally blackmailing 47 for continued subsidies.
In the midst of all that, the American people are largely oblivious to the existence of this trade war because it doesn’t really impact us. We’re the ones doing the subsidizing, not the other way around. Also, we can source domestic lumber and electricity so the joke is on the syrup bros.
My favorite bit is that the Ontario Premier refuses to back down on the principle that Trump shouldn’t threaten his allies. What Ford fails to understand is that his whiny demands reinforce Trump’s point – that our “allies” are actually entitled freeloaders that hate us and enable our enemies. –
***
Another Take: Trump is like a cat owner with a laser pen and the global Regime the cat. –
Get Free Shipping on 1NESS with Promo Code BADLANDS
This week’s sponsor of the Badlands News Brief is 1NESS, powering your wellness journey with natural health solutions. Use promocode “Badlands” to unlock free shipping at checkout!
Rubio Announces that 83% of USAID Contracts Will Be Canceled
The Trump administration officially canceled 83% of U.S. foreign aid contracts on Monday.
"The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States," Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X early Monday morning.
The total number of contracts is about 6,200, representing programs that were appropriated by Congress in the last budget approval.
Rubio said that the remaining 1,000 or so contracts would be administered by the State Department, which absorbed the U.S. Agency for international Development (USAID) last month.
In his post, Rubio thanked DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency headed by Elon Musk — for implementing "overdue and historic reform."
– NPR
Our Take: It is totally unacceptable to keep ANY of these USAID contracts, let alone 1000 of them.
You wouldn’t celebrate a doctor removing only 83% of a cancerous tumor when they had the opportunity to remove it all, so don’t celebrate this bullshit either.
–
Netanyahu Confidant ‘Lashed Out’ at US Envoy Over Direct Talks with Hamas — Official
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer “lashed out” at US hostage envoy Adam Boehler during a Tuesday phone call held after Israel learned of an unprecedented meeting that the Trump aide held with a senior Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya earlier that day in Doha to discuss the potential release of American hostages from Gaza, a Western official told The Times of Israel on Friday.
Dermer fumed over Boehler discussing the number of Palestinian prisoners Israel would release in exchange for the five Israeli-American hostages still in Gaza, one of them alive and four believed dead, without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s consent, the official said, confirming reporting in the Axios news site.
Boehler tried to explain that these were only initial discussions with Hamas and that nothing would be finalized without Israel’s approval, the Western official said. Hours after the tense call was held, Boehler’s meeting with Hayya was leaked to the media, in a move that the US believes Israel was behind and which has led to a further decrease in trust between the sides, the Western official added.
The US decision not to loop Israel in ahead of the Tuesday meeting came after Netanyahu expressed his opposition to the idea when it was first proposed to him by the Trump administration last month, the official said. Axios noted that Israel was particularly against such a meeting going ahead without any preconditions for Hamas to meet. – The Times of Israel
Our Take: “Israel has avoided publicly criticizing the US over its unprecedented direct talks with Hamas, but Netanyahu’s office issued a terse statement on Wednesday that more than hinted at its opposition. “Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas,” the statement read.”
For those wondering why many of us have lost all patience and respect for the government of Israel, look no further than this story.
The levels of hubris and entitlement are off the charts. They demand that we (America) give them unlimited funding, unlimited military support, and then have the nerve to think they can tell us what to do?
Shall we remind Ron Dermer of the role he and Bibi Netanyahu played in secretly laundering tens of millions of dollars to Hamas back in 2018-2019 to keep them financially solvent,and in power?
The answer to this conflict is simple: Stop sending all aid to Israel, especially weaponry. Let them figure it out for themselves. The spoiled rotten attitude of their government is beyond insufferable. –
Trump Envoy Plans Talks With Putin in Russia After U.S.-Ukraine Summit
White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is planning to travel to Moscow later this week for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a source with direct knowledge confirmed.
Why it matters: The meeting with Putin is planned to take place several days after a key meeting between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that will focus on a possible ceasefire in the war with Russia.
Witkoff was supposed to participate in the meeting with Ukrainian officials, but at the moment it looks like he is going to be the main channel of communication with Russia as part of the division of labor inside of President Trump's foreign policy and national security team.
Flashback: This will be Witkoff's second meeting with Putin. – Axios
Our Take: It doesn't take a faith-based approach to understand that the deals are already done, and that what we're watching is a translation of the story of the peacemakers to a world long calcified against its possibility.
Trump and Putin are rapidly cultivating mandate.
Let them cook. –
Does Trump Really Want a Weaker Dollar?
“A strong dollar is in our national interest.” The simple message from Robert Rubin, who became treasury secretary in 1994, marked a turning point. For decades, American policymakers had complained about how the weak currencies of their country’s trading partners had made life difficult for domestic manufacturers. Since then, they have either repeated Mr Rubin’s maxim, or avoided discussing the appropriate level for the greenback altogether.
Now things are up in the air. With trade policy increasingly protectionist and the dollar suddenly weakening, three decades of Treasury orthodoxy is in question. The Trump administration is not speaking with one voice. Scott Bessent, the new treasury secretary, has stressed that the strong-dollar policy is still in place. But both President Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, his vice-president, have argued for a weaker currency, saying that the greenback’s strength is a problem for American industry.
Messrs Trump and Vance may, therefore, welcome the fact that their new, ultra-aggressive trade policies are ripping through currency markets. The dollar has fallen to a five-month low against the Japanese yen. Last week, the euro increased by 4.5% against the greenback, its most rapid rise since 2009. A continuation of such trends would represent a sharp change after more than a decade of dollar strength, with consequences for monetary policy at home and abroad, international markets and global trade.
Moreover, some in the administration want to go further. – The Economist
Our Take: The blame game for a potential shutdown at the end of the week is in full swing.
Worth noting that Trump has consistently been fully committed to the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, and JD Vance has nothing to do with any of it. The Economist is a global elite mouthpiece for a global elite audience. –
Musk Calls for Sanctions on Ukrainian Oligarchs
Elon Musk has suggested that sanctioning Ukraine’s top ten oligarchs could bring about a swift resolution to the conflict with Russia. He offered the unusual proposal in a post on X on Saturday. Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was responding to a discussion on US financial aid to Ukraine. He has frequently criticized US support for Kiev, while in general advocating reducing federal spending on foreign assistance.
“Place sanctions on the top 10 Ukrainian oligarchs, especially the ones with mansions in Monaco, and this will stop immediately. That is the key to the puzzle,” Musk wrote in response to a post by Senator Mike Lee, who called for the US to halt financial aid to Kiev. Musk did not elaborate on how exactly such a move would impact the conflict.
According to the news outlet Ukrainian Focus, as of September 2024, topping the list of the country’s wealthiest people was Rinat Akhmetov, owner of industrial conglomerate SCM Group. He was followed by Interpipe Group owner Viktor Pinchuk, former President Petro Poroshenko, Dneprazot owner Igor Kolomoisky, and Ferrexpo owner Konstantin Zhevago.
Most of the above-listed individuals have contributed to Kiev’s war effort. – RT
Our Take: You have to love that the public conversation has now shifted focus toward oligarchs, and targeting them with penalties for their corruption. The list of oligarchs included in the article are worth investigating for ties to other scandals, especially since it includes the notorious gangster, Igor Kolomoisky.
It is interesting that the article notes that the Ukrainian government recently sanctioned many of these oligarchs — including Kolomoisky — which brings Burning Bright’s “Our Boy Z” theory to mind.
I’ve been reading a book about Robert Maxwell that was published over 20 years ago. Wouldn’t ya know, many of the Ukrainian-Israeli Mafia names I have been placing on my ever-growing mind map are doing business with Maxwell in the 1980s and 1990s.
I wonder how many of the names included in the article are tied to this mafia?
–
Banker Mark Carney Wins Race to Lead Liberal Party, and Canada
Amid a generational crisis in Canada’s relationship with the United States, the Liberal Party of Canada on Sunday chose an unelected technocrat with deep experience in financial markets to replace Justin Trudeau as party leader and the country’s prime minister, and to take on President Trump.
Mark Carney, 59, who steered the Bank of Canada through the 2008 global financial crisis and the Bank of England through Brexit, but who has never been elected to office, won a leadership race on Sunday against his friend and former finance minister, Chrystia Freeland.
He won a stunning 85.9 percent of the votes cast by Liberal Party members. More than 150,000 people voted, according to the party’s leaders.
– The New York Times
Our Take: A week ago, Donald Trump asked why Justin Trudeau was still speaking for the Canadian people. This week, Mark Carney is succeeding him as Prime Minister.
What's more, he's a literal central banker being forced to adopt nationalist rhetoric.
Trump plays the tunes. They dance. –
Chaos Erupts in Romania After Far-Right Frontrunner Banned from Presidential Vote
The far-right frontrunner in Romania’s presidential vote has been barred from running in May’s election, in an explosive decision that sparked violence on the streets of Bucharest and came despite pressure from Washington to “listen” to voters’ demands.
After a 10-4 vote, the country’s electoral bureau (BEC) said Sunday it was invalidating Calin Georgescu’s candidacy due to his “failure to comply with the electoral regulations.”
The decision came just over a week after Romanian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Georgescu, accusing him of crimes such as attempting to subvert the constitutional order and establishing a fascist organization. When Georgescu left the courthouse where he was questioned last month, he made what many interpreted to be a Nazi salute to his supporters outside.
Georgescu said Sunday’s decision had dealt “a direct blow to the heart of democracy worldwide.” His supporters swiftly took to the streets in Bucharest, CNN’s affiliate Antena 3 reported, with some tearing up asphalt from the roads to pelt police who had amassed to guard the BEC building.
– CNN
Our Take: We’ve seen this movie before. My only question is whether there is a Romanian buffalo soldier shaman character like there was in the US and Brazil.
The good news is that this Romanian story is a reboot of our story, and it reminds us that we have no right to judge Romanian elections given the state of ours.
Yesterday,
shared the above post from Elon Musk and wrote:“Elections need to be fixed at the state level. That requires people understanding that elections are fake, seeing through the illusion of ‘red states,’ and ignoring the widespread effort by the Uniparty Right to support the legitimacy of our elections on the basis of Trump being declared the winner of a fake election. Virtually everyone has gone back to sleep when it comes to our fake elections. It’s almost as though that was the plan.”
This is, of course, correct. And we’re wasting time.
While the people of Romania run their insurrection cycles, Americans should know better and demand the restoration of legitimate consent in government immediately.
Since the anointed and approved influencers are now allowed to talk about elections being fake, what’s the hold up? –
Wait, Who is Posting Those Unflattering J. D. Vance Memes?
J. D. Vance doesn’t look like himself. In recent days, memes have spread across social media in which the vice president’s face has been Photoshopped to give him cartoonishly chubby cheeks. He looks like a bearded baby or Humpty Dumpty. Sometimes, he is holding a lollipop and wearing a child’s baseball cap with a propeller affixed to the top. One meme takes his edited baby face and adds lusciously curly locks, while another changes his skin tone to a gentle purple hue, making him look like a Willy Wonka–inspired human blueberry. In every image, Vance has been reanimated as an utter doofus. […]
Of course, people love making memes that portray their political adversaries as hapless and incompetent. That’s not exactly what’s happening with these images of Vance. The memes are going viral on the left-wing internet. But they are equally, if not more, popular on the right. Explicitly pro-Trump accounts on X that otherwise spend their time bashing liberals are posting embarrassing memes of their party’s second in command.
No, the right doesn’t appear to be posting unflattering memes of Vance because it has turned on him. As I wrote when Vance joined the Republican ticket, he uniquely appeals to various factions across the party. [...]
So why is the right willing to make fun of one of its own with memes? … “They’re just funny.” – The Atlantic
Our Take: The JD Vance memes are hilarious, and the fact that the dorks over at The Atlantic don't understand them – or why Trump supporters would also be making/circulating them – is too perfect.
They truly don't understand internet culture, memetics, or humor in general. All of those things embrace self-deprecation as one of the highest forms of comedy, and the self-righteous pillow-biters at The Atlantic are too prideful and low-energy to ever get it.
This is why we won the Meme War of 2016, and why we will win every Meme War for the rest of time. –
BONUS ITEMS
Elon Musk Points Finger at Ukraine for Cyber Attack on X that Caused Major Outages
Elon Musk has pointed the finger at Ukraine for a major cyber attack on X (formerly Twitter), that caused outages throughout Monday.
Tens of thousands of users reported at least three major outages of the website and app.
Pro-Palestinian hacker group Dark Storm Team claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack on the platform, according to a public Telegram post. The group is known for primarily targeting countries and entities that support Israel's attack on Gaza following Hamas' surprise attack on October 7, 2023.
However, Musk suggested that a "large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved" in the "massive" hack, in a series of posts on X. "We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources."
Musk later told Larry Kudlow, during an interview on Fox News, that the hackers had "IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area." – Newsweek
Biden's Intelligence Access to President's Daily Brief Revoked, DNI Gabbard Says
President Donald Trump has officially revoked access to the President's Daily Brief, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard posted on Monday.
Former President Joe Biden – who barred Trump from receiving classified briefings after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob – will no longer receive the top-secret intelligence information according to Trump's directive, a process he first ordered begun in February.
The moves are the latest in Trump's retribution campaign against what he claims was "weaponization" of the justice and intelligence segments of the federal government under Biden and Democrats.
Trump also ordered revoked the security clearances of former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former national security adviser Jake Sullivan, former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and attorneys Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, and Andrew Weissman. – ABC News
White House Holds First-Ever Digital Asset Summit
"Welcome to the first-ever White House Digital Asset Summit. Last year, I promised to make America the Bitcoin superpower of the world, AND WE'RE TAKING HISTORIC ACTION TO DELIVER ON THAT PROMISE."
– President Donald J. Trump
FBI Hands Over Subpoenaed Documents that Republicans Say Christopher Wray Withheld
The FBI produced hundreds of pages of subpoenaed material to the House Judiciary Committee related to Republicans’ past investigations after committee members said they never received them from the Biden administration.
An FBI assistant director wrote in a letter obtained Monday by the Washington Examiner to the Republican-led committee that the tranche of documents was related to the FBI’s inquiries into threats to school administrators, the pipe bombs discovered near the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and violent extremists’ alleged ties to a faction of Catholicism.
They also included material related to the FBI’s engagement with social media companies about foreign interference in the 2020 election.
– Washington Examiner
Thank you for reading today’s Badlands News Brief. As always, please share the brief far and wide, and drop your comments below to discuss with your fellow Badlanders. The opinions expressed in the Badlands News Brief are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or positions of Badlands Media.
The Badlands News Brief is free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Help our collective of citizen journalists take back the narrative. We are the news now.
"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 83% 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 ..." This is entirely true, but you also wouldn't give the doctor a brief time limit. The last 17% of that tumor often takes the most time to extract, especially when it has wound itself into vital organs. 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻.
I sure missed The Brief but I'm glad everyone had a good time at GART.