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 Tuesday, April 23 …
'Its The Economy, Stupid!' Black And Hispanic Voters Embrace Trump On Economics And Well-Being
Epoch Times reporter Tom Ozimek recently wrote in these pages of former President Donald Trump’s encounter with Kayla Montgomery, a young Republican political consultant whose business is to “engage young, black professionals, students, and community members” in the Atlanta area. The ex-president and Ms. Montgomery met at a Chick-fil-A restaurant during an impromptu campaign stop in Atlanta. Ms. Montgomery was effusive in her praise of President Trump, saying, “I don’t care what the media tells you, President Trump—we support you!” A video of Ms. Montgomery and the former president hugging soon went viral, even as the media and Democrats quickly dismissed the interaction as “staged.”
Then, last week, President Trump left his trial in Manhattan to visit a bodega in Washington Heights, a mostly black and immigrant community on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and received a hero’s welcome from the working people there.
Whether the Chick-fil-A event was staged or not is open to debate. What is undeniable, though, is that polling shows Donald Trump has upended much of the black and Hispanic voting support Democrats have enjoyed since at least Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” and, at least in some instances, back to FDR’s New Deal.
A Wall Street Journal poll showed that President Trump’s support among black men in swing states had moved to 30 percent earlier this month compared to just 11 percent of black men nationally in 2020. Among black women, those same percentages went from 6 percent in 2020 to 11 percent in April. — The Epoch Times
Our Take: “Black and brown voters aren’t ’moving towards Trump’ so much as moving away from the uniparty left and its rainbow communism.
It’s the economy, sure, but it’s also the overt bigotry, the mutilation of children, the disarmament, the three theaters of war, the open border, the attack on energy, the demented so-called ruler of the US, and so much more.
Black and brown voters share the same concerns as Asian voters and Pacific Islander voters and white voters. They are American concerns and Americans are largely unified in them. From that realization, the logical electoral choice is President Trump.
That is, voters aren’t ‘moving towards Trump;’ they’re realizing they were with Trump — his policies and platform and vision for America — all along.” —
Pro-Palestinian protests sweep US college campuses following mass arrests at Columbia
Columbia canceled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at New York University and Yale, and the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public Monday as some of the most prestigious U.S. universities sought to defuse campus tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas.
More than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s green were arrested last week, and similar encampments have sprouted up at universities around the country as schools struggle with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.
At New York University, an encampment set up by students swelled to hundreds of protesters throughout the day Monday. The school said it warned the crowd to leave, then called in the police after the scene became disorderly and the university said it learned of reports of “intimidating chants and several antisemitic incidents.” Shortly after 8:30 p.m., officers began making arrests.
“It’s a really outrageous crackdown by the university to allow the police to arrest students on our own campus,” said New York University law student Byul Yoon. — AP News
Our Take: “‘When the chips are down. These people. They'll eat each other.’
One of the most interesting Macros spinning out of the Crisis Cascade is the Ouroboros pattern consuming college campuses, threatening the culture-setting paradigm of what we're told is the ideology currently in control of our nation.
From pro-Palestinian protests that have quickly changed in a subtle, meaningful way to anti-Israel demonstrations, the narrative-setters out of the establishment are having difficulty corralling the sociopolitical beast they cultivated, pampered and unleashed during the first Trump Administration, when their army of commie zombies would march at their every hash-tagging beck and call.
Now, with Trump not only seen as publicly outside of the halls of power, but still actively hunted by those within them, said zombies have no target on which to focus the very tension the powers that (seemingly) be programmed into them in the first place, so they're turning on the stories of their masters.” —
Israel steps up strikes across Gaza, orders new evacuations in north
Israeli strikes intensified across Gaza on Tuesday in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, residents said, and the army ordered fresh evacuations in the north of the enclave, warning civilians they were in a "dangerous combat zone".
Strikes by air and shelling from tanks on the ground were also reported in central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip in what residents said late on Tuesday were almost 24 hours of non-stop bombardments.
In a post on social media platform X, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee urged residents of four zones in Beit Lahiya on Gaza's northern edge to move to two designated areas.
He said the military "will work with extreme force against terrorist infrastructure and subversive elements" in the region.
In a statement issued later on Tuesday, the military said it "follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."
The renewed shelling and bombing of northern Gaza comes almost four months after the Israeli army announced it was drawing down troops there, saying Hamas no longer controlled those areas. — Reuters
Our Take: “I can't help but wonder if the true purpose of this Gaza offensive is not to eradicate Hamas, but to grow it.
Looking at some of the other headlines out of Israel, one of them is, ‘Marking 200 days of war, Hamas calls for escalation across all fronts.’
’The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, called on Tuesday for an escalation across all fronts in a televised speech marking 200 days since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.’
The timing of this aligns with the IDF's decision to Jen Psaki back to northern Gaza for another round of bombing, highlighting the fact that even carpet-bombing a city into dust is not enough to eliminate an ideology from existence.
Back in January, the former head of the Shin Bet (Israeli domestic security force), Ami Ayalon, said in an interview that he has come to realize that the only way that Israel will ever have peace and security is if the Palestinians have hope for the future—advocating for a two-state solution.
Ayalon pointed out that people who are desperate and without hope will always turn to violence and zealotry, as they face their own existential demise. And he is absolutely right.
The more that the IDF bombs Palestine into oblivion, the more radicalized vigilantes it creates. That sentiment will spread beyond Palestine and into the region—just look at what is happening right now on American campuses.
Now consider how President Donald Trump so quickly wiped out ISIS without carpet bombing civilian settlements. Without knowing the specifics, we can speculate that they were surgical and precise, likely targeting key leaders as well as sources of funding. We certainly didn't get any Tik Tok videos of cratered city blocks and bloodied civilians. If those existed, you know they would have played 24/7 on CNN, ad nauseam.
The strategy Trump employed was designed to contain the ideology, so the parties backing ISIS couldn't use it as recruiting material. The strategy we are witnessing now in Gaza is the opposite approach, with the opposite net effect. Surely, the military strategists behind it are well aware of this. I suspect that is the point.” —
Lancet: Migration Is ‘Inextricably Linked to Climate Change’
The once prestigious Lancet medical journal is galloping onward in its woke agenda, insisting on an “inextricable” link between climate change and immigration.
In its most recent issue, the Lancet laments a lack of widespread appreciation for the “climate–migration–health nexus,” while urging greater efforts to awaken the public to the problem.
“Climate change is increasingly driving population movement, acting as a driver of and a barrier to migration and as a hazard experienced during journeys or on arrival at new destinations,” the journal contends.
The article fails to explain how climate — something measured in 30-year swaths as opposed to daily occurring weather — can act as a barrier or a hazard to anything. — Breitbert
Our Take: “This is a long game, and we’re not at the beginning but in the middle.
The globalist ‘thought leaders’ have been pushing the ‘great migration’ for decades. Diversifying to destabilize is a highly effective tactic — just ask Sweden. In case you don’t click that link, the title of the article is ‘Swedish PM says integration of immigrants has failed, fueled gang crime.’ That was, of course, the point. Denver should take note; they won’t, because they’re on board with the goal.
The goal is an open society where national sovereignty ceases to exist and nation state authority is directed by the globalists. Nation states won’t yield their sovereignty willingly, so they need to be destabilized and overrun with crime and chaos.
Problem. Reaction. Solution. On a three-plus decade timeline.
Climate provides the perfect narrative cover causation. These people aren’t moving because they want to destabilize your community. They’re moving to your neighborhood because the planet is dying. And the planet is dying because you’re killing it, western nations, so suck it up, welcome the newcomers, and don’t bitch about it.
None of that is true, of course. At best, the migrants are moving because the globalists first targeted their homelands — destabilized and destroyed. At worst, they’re troops. And in no realistic scenario is any of it about climate.” —
Boxer Ryan Garcia Endorses Donald Trump for President
Boxer Ryan Garcia, who has recently been dragged through the mud by the Fake News Media for speaking out about child sex trafficking, just announced while sitting at Mar-a-Lago) that he will be voting for President Trump!
He also offered his help to the Trump campaign: “Hey you’re my President. If you need somebody to troll Barack Obama, I could do it really well.”
Garcia just shocked the boxing world this past weekend by beating undefeated Devin Haney. The truth wins! — From friend of Badlands TheStormHasArrived
Our Take: “For those not well-versed in combat sports habbenings, the Garcia rabbit hole actually goes a lot deeper.
He spent the month leading up to his bout with Devin Haney ‘partying,’ ranting about the Deep State and overall acting, honestly, pretty erratic. He then missed weight by 3 lbs and paid Haney $500k per pound, resulting in him paying his opponent $1.5 Million before they even stepped into the ring.
This press tour had the net effect of making Garcia close as a 5 or 6-to-1 underdog on fight night, depending on the bookie.
He responded by betting on himself (literally,) flooring Haney three times over 12 rounds and notching a massive ‘upset’ in the boxing world, then acted totally normal at the post-fight press conference, even going so far as to suggest the entire lead-up to the event was a PsyOp.
So, to recap, Garcia has been talking about child trafficking among elites, ‘pretending’ to be crazy only to turn up and put on career performances against world champions.
Eyes on.” —
BONUS ITEMS
Bernie Sanders To Lead Progressive Fight Against Israel Aid In Senate With New Amendment
US Sen. Bernie Sanders said Monday that he would put forth an amendment to remove offensive military funding for Israel from a House-passed aid package that the Senate is set to consider this week.
The amendment would "cut billions in offensive military funding to Israel from the proposed national security supplemental package," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. The package, approved by the Republican-controlled House over the weekend, includes $17 billion in unconditional military assistance to the Israeli government, which stands accused on the world stage of "perpetrating genocide" in Gaza.
The senator said he would also offer an amendment to "protect essential humanitarian operations" in the Gaza Strip, where millions of people are facing the possibility of starvation due to Israel's suffocating and illegal blockade. At least 28 children under the age of 12 have starved to death in Gaza in recent weeks.
Sanders' amendment would restore U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the most important aid agency working in Gaza.
An independent report released Monday found that Israel has not provided any evidence to support its claim that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations. The US suspended its UNRWA aid in late January in response to Israel's unsubstantiated allegations against the agency's workers, and the House-passed Israel legislation would prohibit funding for the organization.
Sanders said Monday that the Senate "should have a chance to debate and vote on the key components of such a massive package." — Common Dreams
"F**king Clown Show": Unsealed Court Docs Reveal Biden DOJ Colluded With National Archives To Target Trump, Jack Smith Tried To Conceal
Newly unsealed documents in Donald Trump's classified documents case reveal that the Biden White House colluded with the National Archives (NARA) and the FBI to concoct a case against the former president.
What's more, Special Counsel Jack Smith sought to conceal this - telling Judge Eileen Cannon in February that Trump's counsel isn't entitled to discovery on documents between the White House and NARA, that the court should toss requests for evidence of the alleged coordination, and that the court should deny Trump's request for evidence related to secure facilities at his residences. Further, Trump's request for unredacted discovery of materials should be denied.
As the Epoch Times notes further, the trove of unsealed filings also revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) code name for its investigation into President Trump’s presidential records was “[Redacted] Plasmic Echo.”
A key exhibit included with a motion to compel filed in January was an FBI case file labeled “[Redacted] PLASMIC ECHO; Mishandling of Classified or National Defense Information.”
The defense has argued that the emails unsealed on Monday indicate communication between NARA officials, the Biden administration, and the DOJ regarding President Trump’s records, alleging coordination in targeting the former president since 2021.
One email from NARA’s general counsel to the national archivist discussed drafting a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland concerning “missing Trump records.” Subsequent emails revealed coordination between NARA and the Biden White House counsel’s office regarding the handling of these records. — ZeroHedge
Mistrial declared in case of Arizona rancher accused of fatally shooting Mexican migrant near border
An Arizona judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border. The decision came after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision after more than two full days of deliberation in trial of George Alan Kelly, 75, who was charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 30, 2023, shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea.
"Based upon the jury's inability to reach a verdict on any count," Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink said, "This case is in mistrial."
The Santa Cruz County Attorney's Office can still decide whether to retry Kelly for any charge, or drop the case all together.
A status hearing was scheduled for next Monday afternoon, when prosecutors could inform the judge if they plan to refile the case. Prosecutors did not immediately respond to emailed requests for additional comment.
Kelly was charged with second-degree murder in killing of Cuen-Buitimea, 48, who lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. — CBS News
Senate forces sale of TikTok despite vow of legal challenges
The Senate followed through with congressional plans to force the sale of TikTok on Tuesday despite vows from its Chinese owners that it will fight the legislation in court.
The measure, tucked into a $95 billion package on foreign aid that passed the upper chamber 79-18, now heads to the desk of President Joe Biden, who has promised to sign it.
The House originally passed the bill, which requires ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to divest or else face a nationwide ban, in March. But the version that is expected to become law reflects a compromise between the two chambers.
The House updated the legislation to extend the window for divestment from six to nine months. The president was given the authority to extend that runway another 90 days, creating in effect a one-year grace period.
The tweak proved decisive in winning the support of Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who leads the Senate panel with jurisdiction over the app. — The Washington Examiner
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.
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The student at university saying it's crazy to be arrested on our campus - for me that took my mind immediately to J6. 1. The campus is not the students but they are visitors 2. The people's house 100% belongs to the American people.
Just thought the parallel there was super interesting. 👍
Mistrial in AZ. WE keep pronouncing it: THE PROCESS IS THE PUNISHMENT!!!! They get to put anyone they want into their crosshairs and never pull the trigger. The litigation kills them. Just ask this poor rancher what this trial has COST HIM!!