Badlands News Brief
A Biden, a Clinton and a Trump Walk Into a SCIF
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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 picks news items of interest from the previous days to give you an overview of the biggest goings-on relevant to the Truth Community.
Items feature original commentary from members of our growing team of citizen journalists. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see their other work.
Now, onto the news from Tuesday, August 15 …
Special Counsel Jack Smith Objects to Trump’s Request for Secure Facility to Discuss Classified Documents
Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith on Aug. 14 objected to a request by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers to set up a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) to allow him and his legal team to discuss the classified documents in the case against him, arguing the move would amount to “special treatment.”
In a court filing (pdf) to U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, prosecutors with Mr. Smith pushed back against President Trump’s request, claiming that the 2024 Republican presidential candidate was seeking “special treatment that no other criminal defendant would receive and that is unsupported by law or precedent.”
Prosecutors further claimed that President Trump’s request for the SCIF was based on a “misrepresentation” of the requirements set out in the proposed protective order issued last week by Judge Tanya Chutkan.
That protective order stated that President Trump and his legal team were not allowed to disclose “sensitive materials,” including recordings, transcripts, and interview reports, to anyone who is not part of his legal defense in the case.
“The proposed protective order requires that any discussion of classified information between Trump and his attorneys take place in a sensitive compartmented information facility (‘SCIF’); it does not require, as Trump maintains, that all discussions take place in the same SCIF where classified discovery will be housed,” prosecutors with Mr. Smith wrote in their court filing. — The Epoch Times
Our Take: “We discussed this situation at length on last Wednesday night’s episode of the Devolution Power Hour, in which
laid out the general absurdity of the fact that Trump COULD be allowed to discuss sensitive matters relating to his legal defense in a SCIF, when the entirety of Smith’s case seems to rely on the supposition or accusation that ‘classified’ documents the ‘former’ president had in his possession at Mar-a-Lago were accessed and contained in a SCIF that was certified for use during his public run as president.In the midst of all the Lawfare going on in the latest Trump indictment situation, there’s also quite a bit of baiting going back and forth. Smith may be wise to Trump’s SCIF bait, but as is usually the way with Trump, once you’ve recognized one Narrative or legal trap, you’ve already fallen headfirst into three more.” —
Awkward: Rachel Maddow Calls Out 'Election Deniers' As Hillary Clinton Offers Blank Stare
Hoax-funding election denier Hillary Clinton sat down with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow this week to cackle over the prosecution of Donald Trump.
According to Clinton, who destroyed evidence with bleachbit and hammers, ran an illegal server out of her house containing highly classified documents, and was given a 'no reasonable prosecutor' pass by the FBI, Trump's indictments represent a "terrible moment" for America, and that "The only satisfaction may be that the system is working."
Things got a little awkward, however, when Maddow launched into a screed over election denial - during which Hillary Clinton sat in silence. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “If anyone denies the asymmetry of our justice system, the fact that Hillary Clinton is still walking free should remove all doubt. Not only did her team bleachbit devices, smash cell phones with a hammer, and run an illegal server with State secrets out of her home; She funded and peddled the Steele Dossier, which we now know that they all knew was a fabrication.
Hillary’s husband was impeached for lying to the American people, but Hillary has received no punishment at all for engaging in an international conspiracy to defraud the electorate through RussiaGate. Two years and millions of taxpayer dollars, obstruction of government, interfering with the peaceful transition of power, and engaging in a (still ongoing) coverup.
But if that isn’t bad enough — and it is, in my opinion, to get a unanimous decision on treason charges — Clinton and her proxies also denied the 2016 election results for years. She told anyone who would listen that Trump stole the election and that he was illegitimate. It’s hilarious that Rachel Maddow, who also denied the election results and was one of the main peddlers of the RussiaGate Hoax, is asking Clinton to comment on the current allegations about Trump. But then, they’re still engaging in a coverup and, laughably, they still think they’re going to get away with it.” —
Emails show JPMorgan working with Jeffrey Epstein to lure Google co-founder Sergey Brin as client: court docs
Newly revealed emails shed fresh light on JPMorgan’s cozy ties with Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting that top bankers at the Wall Street giant bent over backwards to accommodate the dead pedophile as he helped them line up lucrative clients — including Google and its co-founder Sergey Brin.
The US Virgin Islands filed explosive court papers on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court to bolster its allegation that Epstein played a key role as an investment “advisor” to the Silicon Valley search giant and Brin, whose personal portfolio of over $4 billion was among the bank’s largest.
In an email from 2006 that was unsealed Tuesday, Mary Erdoes — a star banker who is now the CEO of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division — urged colleagues to set up a team in New York rather than in San Francisco, where Google and Brin are based, to manage the accounts, according to the court documents.
Erdoes wrote in the email, which had the subject line “google”: “This is NOTHING to do with the abilities of the SF team. This is solely because of our need to have a NY team cover a NY person, Jeffrey Epstein (as the advisor to the partners).”
That same day, Ann Borowiec — then a managing director at JPMorgan’s NJ Private Bank — shared a message with the subject line “big new business oppy,” informing colleagues that a New York-based team had been picked “to work with Jeffrey Epstein (advisor) on business oppy associated with GRATS that are terminating for Google founders,” the filing showed. — The New York Post
Our Take: “A few years ago, this is the sort of headline that would have had the decentralized Anon hivemind buzzing with excitement over the fact that Narratives like Epstein and child sex trafficking among Elites was being covered in major media outlets.
These days, it’s just another Tuesday.
While it’s possible to read that as some sort of doomer’s take about the prospect that Justice may never come for these sorts of people, I see it as yet another in a long line of recent examples that the War of Stories features near-constant reminders amidst all of the Lawfare and Trump Indictment noise what this war is and always has been about … while reminding us that there is only one subject that may have the power to not only wake up the vast majority of the populace as to the true nature of our collectivist enemy, but to unite them.
Tick, tock.” —
U.S. OFFICIAL HINTS AT POSSIBLE PLEA DEAL FOR JULIAN ASSANGE
THE UNITED STATES is considering a plea deal that would allow WikiLeaks founder and whistleblower Julian Assange to return to Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday.
U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy told the Morning Herald that there could be a “resolution” to Assange’s now-four-year detention in Britain. Assange, an Australian citizen, has been held in a London prison since 2019 while combating U.S. extradition efforts. He faces 18 criminal charges in the U.S., 17 of which allege violations of the Espionage Act.
Kennedy’s comments come weeks after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rebuffed Australia’s calls to end the prosecution against Assange. After a July meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Brisbane, Blinken said the whistleblower was “charged with very serious criminal conduct” for his role in publishing classified American government materials. The files Assange shared in 2010 included footage of a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed 18 civilians — including journalists — and hundreds of thousands of field reports from the Iraq War.
“There is a way to resolve it,” Kennedy said on Assange’s detention, adding that a plea deal would be “up to the Justice Department.” The Department of Justice declined to comment. The State Department did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.
“The administration appears to be searching for an off-ramp ahead of [the prime minister’s] first state visit to DC in October,” Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s brother, told The Intercept. “If one isn’t found we could see a repeat of a very public rebuff delivered by Tony Blinken to the Australian Foreign Minister two weeks ago in Brisbane.” — The Intercept
Our Take: “The persecution of Julian Assange foreshadowed the weaponization of government that we are experiencing now.
I used to believe our First Amendment protections on freedom of the press were impenetrable. During the Obama administration, when the 44th president attempted to ice Fox News out of the press pool, the entire media establishment rallied to their defense, despite the ideological differences between networks. Now, however, we’ve seen journalists routinely punished for telling stories the government doesn’t like.
For example, African journalist Simon Atebe is suing the current administration for discrimination in the press pool. Unlike the Fox example, though, no other networks are coming to his defense. It’s a different world, and it’s a world that was inevitable given the treatment of Julian Assange beginning years ago.
This supposed deal, according to this report, is ultimately up to the Biden Department of Justice. My initial reaction to learning that was, ‘It’s a trap!’
Assange and Wikileaks exposed the crimes of the US government and embarrassed the establishment. They’ve wanted to punish him for years and, given the chance, would to the fullest extent of the law. Keep in mind that Assange’s ‘crime’ is journalism, and a government that punishes journalists is the definition of tyranny.
While that’s my initial reaction, as I seek to understand this story, I can’t help but wonder at the timing and the drivers of this seeming about face on Assange. Who is negotiating on behalf of the US? Both the DOJ and State declined to comment. Is that because they don’t want to tip their hand? Or is it because they aren’t running point? Who is really in control? Can anything stop what is coming?” —
Soros Foundation to End Most EU Operations in ‘Radical Shift’
Open Society Foundations, the philanthropic organization that controls most of the assets in George Soros’s $25 billion family office, is set to end a large part of its operations in the European Union as part of a retrenchment under new leadership.
Soros handed control of OSF to his son, Alexander Soros, in June, who promptly announced a headcount reduction of at least 40% at the foundation, which donates money to humanitarian and democratic causes worldwide.
OSF cited a “radical shift of strategic direction” in a new operating model created by OSF’s leadership that will require “significant further restructuring” and “closing all regional and global programs,” according to a letter sent to grantees in Hungary and shared with Bloomberg by a person who wished not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“Ultimately, the new approved strategic direction provides for withdrawal and termination of large parts of our current work within the European Union, shifting our focus and allocation of resources to other parts of the world,” the message said, quoting another note that had been sent to staff at OSF’s headquarters in Berlin.
“OSF will largely terminate funding within the European Union, and further funding will be extremely limited,” it said. The letter to grantees didn’t provide further details, saying only that the shift was decided because “EU institutions and governments were already allocating significant resources to human rights, freedom and pluralism” inside the bloc.
OSF’s press office didn’t immediately respond to emails or messages left by phone. — Bloomberg
Our Take: “Just two months ago, the Soros family hit the news cycle due to the handing-off of the censorious empire to Soros the younger. This month, it looks like George gave his spawn a somewhat unceremonious inheritance that may be more of an albatross.
Once those in this community get over the understandable and delicious schadenfreude of the whole situation, I want you to ruminate on what this means in terms of the current Overton Window (worldwide) regarding the Collective Mind.
While there are still MANY truths—and even the questions that spawn the search for said truths—left undiscovered for our sleeping fellows, many of them seem to be defecting from the Narrative dissemination programs of the enemy.
In order to win an Info War, you don’t need your psychological enemy to adopt your paradigm; you only need him to abandon his own.” —
BONUS ITEMS
Justice Shrugged: The Persecution of Donald Trump
Trump's refusal to accept the election results turns on his deep sense of individualistic ambition, his willingness to challenge societal norms, and his determination not to surrender his principles, even at the expense of public ridicule, political persecution, and now potentially years in prison. But you can’t view the 2020 election in a vacuum. Trump was no different than Rearden in fighting what he knows is a rigged system. For the preceding five years, Trump had been the victim of a series of vicious attacks by the Deep State and the media who never really accepted him as president. So Trump had no reason to accept the election results parroted by the same actors who had already tried to destroy him multiple times.
And now, two and a half years after the 2020 election, as Trump has a fighting chance of returning to the White House in the greatest political comeback in history, his enemies have come for him again, with three separate indictments and soon to be a fourth. — RealClearPolitics
Russia's Shoigu says Ukraine depleted, war showing weakness of Western weapons
Russia's defence minister told officials on Tuesday that Ukraine's ability to fight had been "almost exhausted" and said the war had exposed vulnerabilities in Western weapons systems that Moscow would soon share.
The war has sown devastation across swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, killed or injured hundreds of thousands and triggered the biggest rupture in Russia's ties with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of war crimes and cast Moscow's invasion as an imperial-style land grab. The Kremlin casts the conflict as an existential battle with a hostile West which it says wants to tear Russia apart.
Speaking to a security conference in Moscow attended by China's defence minister, Li Shangfu, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, 68, said the conflict had been a serious test for Russia.
"In the special military operation, the Russian army has debunked many myths about the superiority of Western military standards," Shoigu said in a rare public speech, according to a text supplied by his ministry.
"The preliminary results of combat operations show that Ukraine's military resources are almost exhausted," said Shoigu, one of President Vladimir Putin's most powerful allies. He did not give detailed evidence to back up either statement.
Reuters was refused accreditation to attend the security conference by the defence ministry. No reason was given. — Reuters
DOJ Rebukes Hunter Biden’s Lawyers, Denies ‘Sweetheart’ Immunity Agreement Is Valid
Special Counsel David Weiss said in a court filing Tuesday that Hunter Biden’s plea deal and pretrial diversion agreement are not in effect, denying a claim his lawyers made Sunday night.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers told the judge in a filing that his plea deal and diversion agreement were “largely dictated” by Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors, also stating that the diversion agreement is still “valid and binding.” The lawyers wrote in a footnote that the Government said in court the agreement was “in effect” and stands apart from the plea deal, which the DOJ denied Tuesday.
“The Government never said the proposed diversion agreement was in effect because it is not,” Weiss responded in the court filing Tuesday. “And in none of the portions of the transcript that the Defendant cites in this footnote did the Government say the diversion agreement was in effect. In fact, the Government said the opposite.” — The Daily Caller
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.
The Badlands Media team will continue to combine our cognitive powers in order to slow things down and find the signal amidst the noise as this series expands.
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.
Wow the last two articles are packed with goodies. I'm getting away from the political news to focus on my writing. It's my gut belief that we WILL win... and it's a done deal. Gotta get ready for people to wake up and guide them toward God. Thanks for all your efforts toward the Awakening! You guys rock!
My take: Hillary is being brought back into the news cycle for a reason. She looks terrified and she knows how this ends.
'Pain comes in many forms'
Q