Badlands News Brief
Ceasefires, Olive Branches ... and Scare Events?
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 with some Badlands flavoring to help wash it down.
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Now, onto the news from Tuesday, November 26 …
Cabinet announces ceasefire in Lebanon by a vote of 10-1
A ceasefire in Lebanon was announced by the Israeli cabinet at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday by a vote of 10 to 1, according to a statement by the Prime Minister's Office.
President Biden announced that the deal would take effect at 4 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The ceasefire deal for Lebanon will provide the conditions needed for a return to calm in the country, and France and the United States will both work to ensure the ceasefire is fully implemented, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said in a joint statement.
This comes after several days of strained last-minute negotiation, in which Israel pushed for the removal of France as guarantor of the security situation in Lebanon, citing current diplomatic tensions between France and Israel.
The deal passed through the war and general cabinet before being fully approved. Netanyahu also ran the ceasefire past by the heads of the local authorities in the North, many of whom responded with anger at being told the deal would not lead to an immediate return to their homes. — Jerusalem Post
Our Take: I approach this milestone with combined trepidation and enthusiasm.
My enthusiasm comes from a revelation that Amos Hochstein—the lifelong Democrat diplomat, whom we have speculated is working for the White Hats— has been operating under direct orders from President Trump, as reported originally in Lebanese and Israeli media back on November 8th, just three days after the election.
"Go and finish your work and make a deal with Lebanon," Israeli media reported Trump telling Hochstein.
It was also reported by Newsweek last week, quoting Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri commentary given to the Lebanese newspaper, Ad-Diyar.
"According to Berri, this optimism is due to Amos Hochstein's confirmation during his last communication that he received the green light from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to push the talks forward and reach a ceasefire," the Arabic-language newspaper reported.
Well, I guess we can stop calling it "speculation," and begin to reference it as "fact." Amos Hochstein is working for President Trump.
However, this doesn't mean everything is sunshine and rainbows. We aren't out of the woods yet.
Israel reportedly continued bombing Beirut right up until the moment the cease-fire deal was finalized, allegedly even after it had been agreed to, in principle. Then, after the agreement was in place, the IDF bombed a bridge at the Lebanese-Syrian border, which was likely used by Hezbollah to move troops between the two countries, as Hezbollah has been defending the Assad government from NATO and ISIS attacks for the past 12 years.
Netanyahu has also issued a public statement emphasizing that the importance of this ceasefire is that it would allow Israel to shift its focus to fighting Iran, which certainly won't be news well received by Hezbollah, who are allies of Iran. He also belligerently threatened Hezbollah with a near certainty that the fighting would soon resume. (Bibi just can't help but put his foot in his mouth, huh?)
Bibi stressed that the Biden administration has been with-holding arms from Israel— something that Amos Hochstein has said in the past is blatantly untrue— which he believes will change when Trump enters office. (I personally don't believe President Trump will contribute to the escalation of war.)
To me, that video felt like a direct message to President Trump, and almost felt like a threat. Bibi intends to wage war in the Middle East, with or without US assistance.
The Ayatollah—the Supreme Leader of Iran—has put out his own statement, demanding that Netanyahu be executed for war crimes, after the warrant for his arrest by the ICC is fulfilled.
Boy, that escalated quickly. While we can certainly applaud Hochstein for his efforts to achieve peace—and more important, his loyalty to President Trump's will—something tells me that this fragile peace will not last. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
Trump’s tariff threat sets stage for bitter global trade war
Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on goods imported into the US has set the stage for a bitter global trade war, according to trade experts and economists, with consumers and companies warned to brace for steep costs.
The president-elect announced on Monday night that he intends to hit Canada, Mexico and China with tariffs on all their exports to the US – until they reduce migration and the flow of drugs into the country.
As officials in the three countries scrambled to respond, Keith Rockwell, a former director at the World Trade Organization, predicted that Trump’s move could spark a trade war. “The United States exports hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods to these countries,” he said. “Anyone who expects that they will stand pat and not retaliate has not been paying attention.”
China promptly suggested that both sides would lose from an escalation in economic tensions. “No one will win a trade war or a tariff war,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson at the Chinese embassy in Washington, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s deputy prime minister, and Dominic LeBlanc, its public safety minister, touted the country’s “balanced and mutually beneficial” economic ties with the US. — The Guardian
Our Take: Trump's Tariff Game Theory has already kicked off in earnest before the second Admin takes office, once more blurring the lines between Actual and Narrative deployments and demonstrating that there are many forms of power projection.
First, Trump threatens tariffs, attaching the threat to a deal, as he often did throughout his storied business career.
The leaders of Canada and Mexico respond with bluster and bravado, only for their respective dollars to flash crash relative to the USD.
(Keep in mind, the respective currencies of the three nations involved in the lover's spat were responding to narrative, NOT actual.)
That's because the money knows who wins a trade war between the most powerful economic empire in world history and, well, literally anyone else, which is the now-open secret the globalist hegemon wanted desperately to keep from the American people ... and their own.
Now, we're seeing capitulation.
Trump may not even NEED tariffs to see their net effects realized. — Burning Bright
At the crossroads of news and opinion, ‘Morning Joe’ hosts grapple with aftermath of Trump meeting
One of the striking things about how furiously many people reacted to the news last week that MSNBC “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with President-Elect Donald Trump was how quaint their defenders sounded.
“It is insane for critics to NOT think all of us in the media need to know more so we can share/report more,” Jim VandeHei, co-founder of Axios and Politico, said on social media.
It would be journalistic malpractice for the hosts of a morning television news program not to take a meeting with a president-elect, right? But “Morning Joe” isn’t traditional journalism, and last week’s incident is a telling illustration of the broader trend of impartial fact-finding being crowded out in the marketplace by opinionated news and the expectations that creates.
Scarborough, a former congressman, and his wife, veteran newswoman Brzezinski, didn’t just talk about the presidential campaign from their four-hour weekday perch. They tirelessly and emotionally advocated for Democrat Kamala Harris, likening Trump to a fascist-in-waiting.
“They have portrayed themselves as bastions of integrity standing up to a would-be dictator,” says Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief now professor at George Washington University’s school of media and public affairs. “What the followers see is the daily procession of people on the show constantly talking about the evils of Donald Trump and then Joe and Mika show up and have high tea with the guy.” — AP News
Our Take: “I won’t even call it journalism,” Sesno says. “It’s storytelling.”
As a young teen, I realized the overt bias of news organizations in the 1992 presidential election, where authoritative media mocked voters considering voting for third party candidate Ross Perot. “Only a fool would throw away their vote on a third party candidate,” the media claimed.
My parents voted for Perot, and this was a formative moment for me that solidified my desire to be a journalist. In my entrance essay, I theorized that Headline News would be the downfall of the informed American populace because once you convince people that they can get the truth from a headline, whoever writes the headlines defines what is true. That was 1995.
It’s almost 30 years later, and audiences now boycott news agencies that don’t affirm their beliefs. The corporate press can cry about it now, but they created this false reality by lying to their audiences for generations. Also, corporate media very likely answers to the intelligence community. It was never going to last forever, and it’s an absolute honor to witness their downfall.
Hey, remind me who Mika’s dad was, again?
If the media answers to the intelligence community, then they’re operating as an extension of the government. That means it is the government that has been propagandizing the populace, and they’ve been doing it to fabricate consent — for criminal and unconstitutional imperialism and for generations.
This is a massive crime, and it cannot go unpunished.
No deals. Truth and Reconciliation. MAGA. — Ashe in America
Kremlin slams ‘irresponsible’ Ukraine nuclear talk
The idea of providing Ukraine with nuclear weapons comes from the “extremist flank” of Kiev’s Western backers, who have lost touch with reality, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
The New York Times reported last week that EU and American officials have suggested that outgoing US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear arms as a “security guarantee.” “That would be an instant and enormous deterrent,” the paper claimed, in an article bylined by four of its reporters, but citing anonymous sources, in which it acknowledged that such a move would be “complicated and have serious implications.”
Commenting on the report on Tuesday, Peskov said: “You know, even the most provocative line aimed at escalating tensions has a fringe extremist flank. This idea probably comes from this fringe extremist flank.”
The Russian presidential spokesman described the suggestion of transferring nuclear weapons to Ukraine as “absolutely irresponsible deliberations by people, who probably have a poor understanding… of reality, and who do not feel a shred of responsibility” for the consequences of their proposals.
Peskov also noted that “all of these statements are anonymous.” — RT
And …
Transfer of nukes to Kiev would be viewed as attack on Russia – Medvedev
Moscow will consider any threat of nuclear arms being supplied to Ukraine by the US as preparation for a direct war with Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev has warned. The actual transfer of nuclear weapons would be tantamount to an attack on the country under Russia’s new nuclear doctrine, he added.
In a Telegram post on Tuesday, Medvedev referenced a recent report in the New York Times. In a piece bylined by four of its journalists, the NYT claimed that US and EU officials are “discussing deterrence as a security guarantee” for Ukraine, claiming a conversation is underway to consider giving Ukraine nuclear weapons.
US politicians and journalists are seriously discussing the consequences of providing Kiev with nuclear weapons, said Medvedev, who serves as the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council.
“Looks like my sad joke about crazy senile Biden, who’s eager to go out with a bang and take a substantial part of humanity with him, is becoming dangerously real,” he said.
Medvedev argued that the idea of “giving nukes to a country that’s at war with the greatest nuclear power” is so absurd that Biden and anyone else considering such a step must have “massive paranoid psychosis.”
The former president said the threat of transferring nuclear weapons to Kiev would be viewed as preparation for a nuclear conflict with Russia. — RT
Our Take: Well, it would appear that a nuclear scare event is on the immediate horizon.
Yesterday on Badlands Daily, CannCon and I discussed the drama swirling around the Trump cabinet nominees, and as I asserted on Saturday Night’s DPH, I do believe that we are watching a new phase of TrumpaMania play out at the narrative level.
Even experienced intelligence analysts, such as Scott Ritter, seem genuinely fooled by President Trump’s moves.
On Monday, Ritter told Judge Napolitano that his honest assessment is that President Trump “played” the American People, campaigning on the promise of being a peace-seeking president, only to turn around and nominate rabid warmongers to his administration.
This audience knows better, and you all know how I feel about narrative chaos. (I live for it.)
As I said at GART during the Game Theory panel, the most logical play between now and officially entering office is for Trump and the White Hats to orchestrate intense narrative escalation that is so severe that it outpaces reality, and public mandate for narrative resolution forms before actual kinetic escalation can manifest.
That means appointing television characters who represent a desire for death and destruction, in order to project narrative chaos.
"When you are based, act like a normie. When you are normie, pretend to be based." — Pepe Tzu, as translated by GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
Crescent Dunes: Biden DOJ Moved on Election Night to Cover Up Alleged Solar Energy Scandal that Cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Millions
Outgoing President Joe Biden’s Justice Department moved on election night on Nov. 5 to essentially ensure the cover-up of a potentially massive green energy scandal, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
This story has tentacles back through, not just the Biden administration, but all the way back to the Obama administration, and it could be something that jeopardizes the broader green energy agenda and the future of leftist solar projects on federal lands. At least one congresswoman is already formally pressing the DOJ for answers, and more members of Congress are likely to get involved soon. It could even have major implications for the incoming administration’s energy policy.
On Nov. 5, at 5:20 p.m. ET, less than an hour before the first polls closed and when it had become clear from the exit polls that Democrat presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris was likely to lose, an attorney with the Justice Department emailed lawyers for plaintiffs in a qui tam lawsuit aimed at recouping significant losses the taxpayers allegedly incurred from a failed solar plant in Nevada. A qui tam lawsuit is when a private plaintiff sues on behalf of the U.S. Government to recoup taxpayer dollars — often alleging fraud, misuse, or theft of taxpayer dollars.
The email from the DOJ stated what plaintiffs started hearing through the grapevine as the election neared and it became clear the Harris campaign was in trouble. The email said that the DOJ intended to dismiss a lawsuit that it had previously allowed to proceed, thereby undercutting the private push to recoup significant losses for American taxpayers. — Breitbart
Our Take: The green new deal is a money laundering operation, and this became apparent back during the Obama administration with Solyndra. Obama gave $535M to Solyndra to produce specialized solar panels. Then the company went out of business. The scandal was quickly memory-holed.
This Crescent Dunes project also goes back to the Obama administration, and also appears to be a money-laundering operation — but the moves of the Biden DOJ on election night will not be so easily forgotten.
It seems obvious that the DOJ is tying off all these investigations for nefarious purposes. If these investigations and, in this case, lawsuits, were legitimate, the DOJ would want them to continue in the new administration to ensure the ends of justice. But they’re trying to close them out before incoming AG Pam Bondi and her team can have a look. Seems legit.
It’s also important to remember — and this point cannot be stressed enough — that the green new deal has nothing to do with the environment. Consider:
“In addition to its struggles to turn a profit, the plant also was criticized because birds were dying in the intense heat produced by the panels. Some reports indicated that birds had burst into flames in mid-flight.”
Windmills are beaching whales. Plastic bags replaced paper bags to save trees but then became the nation’s number one pollutant. Hydroelectric power destroys river ecosystems by adjusting river flows based on human demand.
Environmentalists’ solutions always end in worse environmental outcomes, but not before taxpayers have shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s never about the environment. It’s about money, power, and control.
With the incoming administration’s focus on rooting out systemic corruption, I doubt this coverup will stand. Justice — real justice — is coming. Soon. — Ashe in America
Trump team weighs direct talks with North Korea's Kim in new diplomatic push, sources say
President-elect Donald Trump's team is discussing pursuing direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, hoping a fresh diplomatic push can lower the risks of armed conflict, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Several in Trump's team now see a direct approach from Trump, to build on a relationship that already exists, as most likely to break the ice with Kim, years after the two traded insults and what Trump called "beautiful" letters in an unprecedented diplomatic effort during his first term in office, the people said.
The policy discussions are fluid and no final decisions have been made by the president-elect, the sources said.
Trump's transition team did not respond to a request for comment.
What reciprocation Kim will offer Trump is unclear. The North Koreans ignored four years of outreach by U.S. President Joe Biden to start talks with no pre-conditions, and Kim is emboldened by, opens new tab an expanded missile arsenal and a much closer relationship with Russia.
"We have already gone as far as we can on negotiating with the United States," Kim said last week in a speech at a Pyongyang military exhibition, according to state media.
During his 2017-2021 presidency, Trump held three meetings with Kim, in Singapore, Hanoi, and at the Korean border, the first time a sitting U.S. president had set foot in the country.
Their diplomacy yielded no concrete results, even as Trump described their talks as falling "in love." The U.S. called for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons, while Kim demanded full sanctions relief, then issued new threats. — Reuters
Our Take: Super excited for the sequel of the summer bromance comedy between Vlad and Un, which was actually a sequel to the bromance between Un and Trump from 2018-2019.
How wild would it be if Kim Jong Un became the Peacemaker who brings President Trump and Putin together to achieve world peace after this whole nuclear scare event? Would that be an effective narrative vehicle to reset the west's perception of Un and North Korea?
What did Elon say? The most entertaining outcome is the most likely? — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
BONUS ITEMS
Trump officials to receive immediate clearances and easier FBI vetting
Donald Trump’s transition team is planning for all cabinet picks to receive sweeping security clearances from the president-elect and only face FBI background checks after the incoming administration takes over the bureau and its own officials are installed in key positions, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move appears to mean that Trump’s team will continue to skirt FBI vetting and may not receive classified briefings until Trump is sworn in on 20 January and unilaterally grant sweeping security clearances across the administration.
Trump’s team has regarded the FBI background check process with contempt for months, a product of their deep distrust of the bureau ever since officials turned over transition records to the Russia investigation during the first Trump presidency, the people said.
But delaying FBI vetting could also bring ancillary PR benefits for the Trump team if some political appointees run into problems during a background check, which could upend their Senate confirmation process, or if they struggle to obtain security clearances once in the White House.
The putative process for obtaining a clearance in the first Trump administration involved the White House’s personnel security office relying on an FBI background check to decide whether to grant one. The background check initially looked for untrustworthiness or red flags that could be exploited by adversaries.
If the initial checks against law enforcement databases uncovered no issues, applicants were granted an interim clearance while deeper investigations continued until it was advanced to a permanent clearance. The current Trump plan appears set to bypass that initial stage. — The Guardian
Trump admin eyes CFTC to lead digital asset regulation
The incoming Trump administration wants to expand the power of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by granting it oversight of a significant portion of the $3 trillion digital asset market, FOX Business has learned.
The move would come as part of a broader effort by President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress to roll back some of the regulatory power the Securities and Exchange Commission has wielded over the digital asset industry under President Biden and his outgoing SEC chairman, Gary Gensler.
The CFTC, often referred to as the "little sister" of the SEC, is mandated by Congress to oversee the $20 trillion U.S. derivatives market, which includes the trading of futures, options, plus physical commodities like gold, oil and wheat. Like the SEC, the CFTC has the power to establish market rules and bring enforcement cases, but it’s often perceived as having a lighter regulatory touch than the SEC because the derivative markets are dominated by sophisticated institutional players as opposed to small investors and therefore considered to be better equipped at managing risk. — FOX Business
Walmart to phase out DEI initiatives amid escalated attacks from conservatives
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, will phase out several diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in its workplaces, as far-right conservatives continue take aim at such programs.
Among several sweeping changes, the company will no longer consider race and gender as a means to improve diversity when making offers to suppliers, several outlets reported.
“Our purpose, to help people save money and live better, has been at our core since our founding 62 years ago and continues to guide us today. We can deliver on it because we are willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America. We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said in a statement to the Guardian.
Walmart will no longer offer DEI trainings through the Racial Equity Institute, a consultant firm specializing in improving corporate diversity and equity, the Washington Post reported.
The company will also not be renewing a racial equity center that it established through a five-year commitment to “address the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black and African American people in education, health, finance and criminal justice systems”, according to Walmart’s website.
The multinational corporation will also be removing LGBTQ+ merchandise from its stores, CNBC reported.
The decision to discontinue DEI efforts at Walmart was first announced by the conservative pundit Robby Starbuck, who continued to attack DEI efforts as apart of an ongoing campaign.
Starbuck claimed: “Walmart is ending their woke policies,” in a post to X. — The Guardian
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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God Bless your parents, Ashe, for raising an independent thinker and seeker of truth in journalism 🙏❤️
God Bless GhostofBasedPatrickHenry for venturing forth with conviction and courage on the road less traveled…which has given us non-mainstream thinkers some darn good company 🙏❤️
God Bless BurningBright for your 40,000 ft view, sharing your rooted footing, helping us keep our balance through the chaos 🙏❤️
God Bless all commenters here who take the time to share their thoughts and insights and contribute to that consciousness frequency ever faithful to the American principles of Freedom and Liberty…”that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth” (Lincoln) 🙏❤️🕊🕊
Just start calling me Pepe Tzu because I am pretty much done trying to refute the current narrative. It had to be this way. It apparently (STILL) is going to have to be this way. I enjoy the thought of some of Trump’s cabinet picks setting up shop only to be dreadfully exposed on TELEVISION by Trump deranged ”talking heads” who can’t wait to make a fool of him. He is no fool. Patience is required Pepes.