Badlands News Brief
Congress Limps Along as the Nation Grits Its Teeth
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.
Some items feature original (and subjective) commentary. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see our writers’ corresponding Substack accounts and check out their other work.
Now, onto the news from Thursday, January 18 …
Congress passes stopgap bill to prevent a shutdown until March, sending it to Biden
Congress passed a bill on Thursday that would prevent a partial government shutdown this weekend and keep federal funds flowing through March 1 and March 8.
The Democratic-led Senate voted 77-18 on final passage after considering a few amendments. The Republican-led House soon followed suit, passing it by a vote of 314-108.
The bill now goes to President Joe Biden's desk to become law before the funding expires Friday at midnight.
It is the third stopgap bill since last September as the divided Congress struggles to agree on full-year government funding bills. Thursday's bill passed with mostly Democratic votes, with 107 Republicans voting for it and 106 voting against it.
A recent deal between Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on how much to spend in the new year has renewed hope of completing the process by the new early March deadlines. But that is far from guaranteed as right-wing House Republicans rebel against it. — NBC News
Our Take: “Our own
often refers to the concept of reruns when it comes to parsing many of the Narrative Deployments of the last few months and years.The Stopgap/Congressional funding bills certainly fit into this template. After all, it feels like the American public has never been inundated with this many attempts by Congress to simultaneously bloviate about its lack of funding while demonstrating exactly why many feel we’d be better off if said funding never arrived.
What’s particularly curious about this pattern, however, is the fact that said funding ALWAYS seems to arrive just in the nick of time … almost like we’re watching the total Narrative destruction of the Old Guard without the Actual effects of government shutdowns being visited upon a fragile American system.” —
Young Audiences Question Climate Alarmism, Prompting Calls To Censor Content
A recent study has revealed significant skepticism among young audiences regarding climate alarmism, a development that poses a challenge to advocates of urgent climate action but is likely to be welcomed by those who see stoking fear about the supposed ills of global warming as exaggerated.
The study was released on Jan. 16 by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a left-leaning organization that was sued by Elon Musk for allegedly engaging in a “scare campaign” to drive away advertisers.
The study reveals a significant increase between 2018 and 2023 in YouTube content that expresses one of the following three viewpoints: “climate solutions won’t work,” “climate science and the climate movement are unreliable,” or “the impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless.”
Researchers also found that roughly one-third of teenagers (the predominant YouTube audience) hold views such as “climate policies cause more harm than good” or consider “climate change a hoax to control and oppress people.”
The findings—which the CCDH calls alarming and “startling”—suggest that there’s a growing rejection of climate narratives that emphasize imminent global catastrophe.
The group says it finds the trend troubling—and is urging big tech platforms such as YouTube to censor content that “contradicts the authoritative scientific consensus” on climate change.
However, the trend revealed by the research is likely to be seen as a breath of fresh air by skeptics of climate alarmism, as well as by those who believe that climate activism is about political control or has morphed into some kind of secular religion, which is sometimes labeled the “climate cult.” — The Epoch Times
Our Take: “As a mom of three GenZ Y-chromes, I often say that I believe the hysteria about the youth is overblown. I’m usually responded to with claims that my sample is biased and anecdotal which, of course, it is. But my three sons are not the only reason for my optimism about the youth.
In 2024, ‘sticking it to the man’ means appealing to reason and logic over emotion which, ultimately, leads to a rejection of global communism. And every generation has their campaign to stick it to the man. The sample size and compounding circumstances that drive my optimism about the youth accounts for this modern definition of rebellion, but it also considers that this generation has greater access to information than any that preceded it.
These circumstances are driving the heightened calls for censorship, but this reaction by global climate cultists only hurts their case, and it will only drive further awakening. The regime isn’t calling to censor just anyone; they’re attempting to censor ‘Nobel laureates, theoretical physicists, meteorologists, professors, and environmental scientists from across the world.’
The youth are able to see that the science is not, in fact, settled, and they’re recognizing that the ‘authorities’ lied to and manipulated them in their formative years.
As I’ve said for a while now, the issue I see with the kids is not that they’re going to become communists, but that they’re going to be blackpilled. The system is obviously, overtly corrupted. The emperor has no clothes and the kids can see that he is naked. But their beef isn’t with the naked emperor, it’s with the masses playing along and claiming he’s clothed. Let’s give the kids something to hope in. America First.” —
Watchdog presses DOJ to review official's involvement in Mar-a-Lago investigation
America First Legal (AFL) on Thursday filed a complaint with the Department of Justice seeking a review of one agency official's involvement in the 2022 Mar-a-Lago raid that led to special counsel Jack Smith's ongoing prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
"We write because it appears that a Department of Justice political appointee named Austin Evers was improperly involved in matters relating to the investigation and subsequent prosecution of former President Donald Trump," the watchdog wrote to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). "Documents disclosed by the Department to America First Legal demonstrate that Mr. Evers was involved in discussions, briefings, and litigation concerning the Mar-a-Lago raid and may have been involved in discussions directly relevant to the eventual issuance of an indictment." — Just the News
And …
Hearing on allegations against Fulton DA Fani Willis set for February 15
A hearing has been set for Feb. 15 on allegations Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has had an improper relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she hired to assist in her investigation and subsequent indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing The State v Donald John Trump, issued the order for the hearing on Thursday. The hearing itself is set for 9:30 a.m., and McAfee has given prosecutors until Feb. 2 to file a response.
Willis is the locally elected district attorney who issued dozens of indictments in August 2023 accusing Trump and his allies of trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
The indictments say Trump and his allies suggested Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, could find enough votes for him to win the battleground state; harassed an election worker who faced false claims of fraud; and attempted to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electors favorable to Trump. — Atlanta News First
Our Take: “If it’s difficult to blame anyone in the Truth Community if they can’t keep up with the FOUR trials Donald Trump is currently embroiled in, how many Normies do you think are keeping up on them?
While that informational—and reputation-destroying—chaos seems to be an intentional feature of the Deep State’s weaponized DOJ, I’d argue it’s backfiring on them, just like most of their strategies tend to when it comes to the Orange Man.
Lately, the Georgia Elections case and the Mar-a-Lago case are following similar trend lines, with the court system turning the slow, steady ire of its gaze onto the prosecutorial teams rather than Trump, for a change, and mostly due to perceived and alleged process violations.
I’ve argued many times that, in 2024, Trump’s Trial(s) are his campaign, and the more we see these deployments edge in his favor, the more firm I am in that summation.” —
Inside the effort to create a far-reaching U.S.-Saudi-Israeli pact to end the war
Eleven days ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham arrived for a private meeting in a lavish tent with ruby red rugs and low burgundy cushions in the western Saudi Arabian oasis town of Al Ula, home to ancient Nabatean ruins. The tent is guarded by layers of Saudi security that protect the nearby winter camp of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican, was a participant in a series of high-stakes meetings with the crown prince in recent weeks involving American lawmakers and diplomats hoping to rekindle a potential treaty between Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States. Their ambitious goal is to hammer out a framework for concluding the Israel-Hamas war, stabilizing the Middle East and paving the way for some form of Palestinian self-governance in the Gaza Strip.
The big question is: Will the Israeli government — and the Israeli public — accept a path to Palestinian state in exchange for an American-backed peace treaty with Saudi Arabia?
Despite months of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hard-line members of his right-wing coalition publicly dismissing the idea of a Palestinian state after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia that ends the Israel-Hamas war is seen as a potential political win for Netanyahu, according to six people familiar with the talks.
“Any deal for normalization with Saudi Arabia right now would be a major win politically speaking for Netanyahu and an exit strategy,” said Nadav Eyal, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Yediyot Ahronot. — NBC News
Our Take: “With the Middle East devolving into a different persuasion of the same sort of (engineered) chaos that's been afflicting the region for generations, the Establishment is seeding the idea that it just might take the Saudis to broker a peace deal in the region ...
The thing is, Donald Trump had this buttoned up during his time in office with the advent of the Abraham Accords, and has a better relationship with Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman than any western leader.
If one were given to conceptualizing the emergence of the multi-polar world order as the culmination of a decades-long plan by a group of sovereign-minded, military-backed change agents, one might think all the wheeling and attempted deal-making we're seeing in the ether right now is simply paving the way for the following Bicameral outcome:
The Globalist arms of the US and EU get continued egg on their face.
Trump, MBS, Putin, Xi and other sovereign leaders form a new mesh of lasting peace.” —
Eve of Destruction: Failed U.S. Lunar Lander Bound for Fiery End in Earth’s Atmosphere
The failed Peregrine One lunar lander will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere late Thursday and burn up somewhere over the South Pacific.
Experts had been working with NASA and other space companies to find the most safe and responsible way of ending Peregrine’s mission.
The doomed $108 million lander suffered a critical propellant leak shortly after launching from Florida on its Vulcan rocket last week, as Breitbart News reported.
Although engineers were able to stabilise the situation, the loss of oxidiser meant a safe touch-down on the lunar surface could never be attempted.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic has decided to dispose of the craft, rather let it wander aimlessly through space, posing a collision hazard.
It is reportedly carrying a sample of President John F Kennedy’s DNA alongside the ashes of dozens of people, all of which will now be lost. — Breitbart
Our Take: “The top-line message of this story is that a $108 million lunar lander failed to land on the moon, and NASA has decided to burn it up in the ‘earths atmosphere.’
NASA is mentioned a bunch in this article, but the only mention of Space Force is in the caption of a photo that reports to show the lander lifting off, ‘from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 8, 2024.’
But it’s not just your tax dollars burning up. Consider this other detail:
‘It is reportedly carrying a sample of President John F Kennedy’s DNA alongside the ashes of dozens of people, all of which will now be lost.’
Another headline out of Metro UK was more alarmist, ‘JFK’s DNA ‘could be lost forever in space’ after moon launch hitch.’ All stories claim the ashes of up to 70 other people will also burn up in the controlled reentry.
They call this science, but it’s wholly unscientific. Putting late President Kennedy’s DNA on the moon is not for scientific purposes. At best, it’s for nostalgia, but more likely considering the $108M price tag, it’s ceremonial, religious. There is no serious argument that such an endeavor would be for ‘science.’
If you believe that the heliocentric model is inconsistent with the Word of God, as I do, or that it is scientifically flawed, as many do, then the space narratives are much more meaningful to our collective reality than the top-line message.
Recall the recent film ‘Leave the World Behind’ from Obama’s production company, where the two minors are wearing shirts that say ‘obey’ and ‘nasa’ while standing side-by-side. That’s also the film that nods to a shadowy cabal running the world and declares that even the most powerful people we see can only hope for a ‘heads up’ when that cabal decides to destroy the world.
The continued existence of ‘The Science’ depends on such theater. The Science as a religion requires such sacrifices. Both require the ongoing censorship of the truth.
Space, like climate, nuclear, and virology, presents as a religious endeavor that cannot be questioned. Don’t be afraid to question it. Truth matters.” —
Trump vows to block creation of digital dollar
Former President Trump vowed Wednesday night to block the creation of a federal digital currency, calling it a “dangerous threat to freedom.”
“Tonight, I am also making another promise to protect Americans from government tyranny,” Trump said at a rally in Portsmouth, N.H. “As your president, I will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency.”
“Such a currency would give a federal government, our federal government, the absolute control over your money,” he added. “They could take your money. You wouldn’t even know it was gone. This would be a dangerous threat to freedom.”
A central bank digital currency (CBDC) is a digital version of a currency issued by a central bank. In the U.S., this would entail the Federal Reserve issuing a digital dollar that could be used the same way as a regular dollar.
While President Biden called for additional discussion and research into a CBDC system in a September 2022 executive order, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in March that the Fed and a Treasury-led interagency working group had not yet made “any real decisions” on the issue.
Powell has also previously emphasized that the central bank would not move forward with a digital dollar without approval from Congress. — The Hill
Our Take: “Trump's CBDC comments represent a pretty seismic development as it relates to the Info War, and they run in parallel with
’s framing that Trump reflects the views of MAGA back at them as the War of Stories evolves.I personally like to imagine Trump as the central pillar of the current sociopolitical Overton Window, with Anons and Truthers front-running that window to various degrees.
This creates an energizing feedback loop between Anons and Trump, as our ability to front-run topics and distill subject matter beyond the current scope of understanding of the Normie Layers of the Collective Mind grants Trump the ability to shift that central pillar (and thus, the Macro Overton Window at large) progressively forward in terms of disclosure and understanding.
This community understands the dangers CBDCs present; Trump is confirming them.
We also understand what true decentralization looks like, and I think Trump is prepping the Normie hivemind for those conversations.” —
The GOP Is Already Clashing Over Trump’s VP Pick
The fiercest Republican campaign isn’t taking place between the presidential hopefuls in Iowa or New Hampshire this month, but rather in the backstage fight over who would be Donald Trump’s running mate. Or more to the point: who will not be Trump’s pick.
As Nikki Haley emerges as the former president’s most formidable opponent in the coming states, and toughens her rhetoric, her Trumpworld foes are intensifying their own efforts to block her from the consolation prize of the vice presidency.
Haley’s critics have even privately warned Trump that, were he to make Haley first in line to the presidency, he’d effectively be setting himself up for an intra-party coup, as GOP senators would use any legal or political pretext to remove him from office and elevate the more old guard-aligned Haley.
“Nikki Haley as VP would be an establishment neocon fantasy and a MAGA nightmare,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told me. “On Day One she would convert the Naval Observatory into an anti-Trump, resistance headquarters, undermining him at every step.”
The Stop Nikki effort is so forceful because Trump’s decision will go to the heart of the party’s debate over its identity. — Politico
Our Take: “There are really only two possibilities when it comes to Trump's VP pick ... and all administrative decisions to come:
A) They've already been made, and we're just watching a slow drip of that info to the public.
B) The team is beta testing potentialities in the MAGA and America First ether, and adjusting internal logistics accordingly.
Either way, they're watching public interaction with these deployments, and measuring sentiment. And I think they often start with their most targeted base before traversing the Normie Layers of the Collective Mind.” —
BONUS ITEMS
These 14 Democrats voted for a GOP resolution denouncing Biden’s ‘open-border policies’
Fourteen Democrats voted with Republicans to denounce President Biden’s “open-border policies” Wednesday, delivering a rare legislative rebuke to the leader of their party on the politically prickly matter of immigration and border policy.
The GOP-led resolution — which also urges Biden to “end his administration’s open-border policies” — cleared the chamber in a 225-187 vote, with all Republicans in support.
Democratic “yes” votes came from Reps. Colin Allred (Texas), Yadira Caraveo (Colo.), Angie Craig (Minn.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (N.C.), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Greg Landsman (Ohio), Susie Lee (Nevada), Jared Moskowitz (Fla.), Wiley Nickel (N.C.), Mary Peltola (Alaska), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) and Eric Sorensen (Ill.).
“Most of us understand that nations need borders, those borders should be secured, and we should enforce the immigration laws on the books. Most of us also understand that those seeking entry to our country deserve an orderly and predictable immigration process. Right now we have problems on both fronts,” Golden said. — The Hill
At Least 9 Killed After Pakistan Launches Retaliatory Airstrikes In Iran
In the early hours of Thursday, Pakistan's air force responded to Iran's prior cross-border ballistic missile attack against a Sunni militant group believed behind the Kerman city suicide bombings, launching fresh retaliatory strikes against alleged Iranian militant hideouts. Pakistan's leadership has been seething angry over Iran's "unprovoked violation of its airspace" on Tuesday.
Pakistan's new drone and rocket attack killed at least nine people, according to The Associated Press, in an operation that Pakistan's foreign ministry described as "a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes."
"This morning’s action was taken in light of credible intelligence of impending large scale terrorist activities," the statement continued. "This action is a manifestation of Pakistan’s unflinching resolve to protect and defend its national security against all threats."
Pakistan's military deployed "killer drones, rockets, loitering munitions and standoff weapons"—in reference to weapon systems that fire from a distance, which means that Pakistan's aircraft likely didn't cross into Iranian airspace during the operation. — ZeroHedge
Hunter Biden Not Protected From Gun Charges By 2nd Amendment: Federal Prosecutors
The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment does not protect President Joe Biden’s son from felony gun charges, federal prosecutors said in a new brief.
“Anglo-American law has long recognized that the government may disarm those who, by their conduct or characteristics, present an increased risk to public safety if they possess firearms,” prosecutors said in the Jan. 16 filing. That means a U.S. law against gun ownership by people who use or are addicted to drugs can still stand under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that struck down restrictions in New York, they added.
Hunter Biden, 53, is facing three felony counts after certifying on a form in 2018 that he was not a user of or addicted to drugs. Mr. Biden later wrote in his memoir that he was using drugs at the time.
But lawyers for the defendant argued in late 2023 that the statute Mr. Biden was charged with violating is not constitutional under court precedent, including the Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
“In truth, the statute is indefensible under the Bruen framework,” they wrote in a motion to dismiss. — The Epoch Times
Supreme Court action already upending January 6 rioter sentencings, being looked at by Trump defense
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to take a case challenging how the Justice Department prosecutes January 6 rioters has already put on hold several rioters’ sentencings and could affect hundreds more cases — including Donald Trump’s.
If the challenge is successful, the Supreme Court could potentially wipe away two of the four counts that special counsel Jack Smith has brought against the former president in his federal election interference case, and upend felony convictions for dozens of January 6 rioters.
Since the Supreme Court agreed last month to take the case, Fischer v. US, more than a dozen January 6 defendants have already asked judges to halt their upcoming sentencings and trials. While some judges have balked, others have agreed to delays for the rioters in a handful of cases. — CNN
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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Warmongering, suck-up, Lindsey Graham sent to talk with MBS...for peace??? 😱
My one disappointment in Trump was that he didn't sign an executive order requiring GMO labeling of foods. GMO foods have100 times the glyphosate herbicide that they already know causes cancer. People should be able to choose non GMO. It became illegal in this South American country to grow GMO crops thanks to pressure from the indigenous. Labeling of GMOs is required. You would be surprised at how quickly the big food companies like Nabisco and Nestles reformulated with conventional ingredients! It didn't even take a month.