Badlands News Brief
Propagandist Panic. The People Approve.
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.
Before we get into the meat of today’s Brief, we want to take a moment to thank our sponsor, SafeStreets. Click or call today for an exclusive offer for the Badlands audience. Secure your home with SafeStreets!
Now, onto the news from Wednesday, January 22nd …
Donald Trump's Approval Rating Breaks Records
The beginning of President Donald Trump's second term has seen his net approval rating reach a historic high, according to Rasmussen Reports, with the latest Presidential Tracking Poll showing a net approval of +14. This marks a significant milestone for Trump, breaking previous records set during his first term.
The poll, conducted by the conservative-leaning polling company over a two-day average from approximately 829 U.S. likely voters, showed that 54 percent of respondents approve of Trump's job performance, while 40 percent disapprove.
A three-day rolling average of this data is set to be released on January 23.
– Newsweek
Our Take: It’s day three of the Trump presidency, and 47 was correct:
There is so much happening – since Monday, the news cycle appears to have tripled. The narrative deployments feel disorganized and chaotic, lawsuits are flying in all directions, psyops have become comedically ridiculous.
As we will see later in this brief, “it’s already different,” and it’s only day three. The response to Trump 2.0 from the institutional powers leans toward hysteria but, while polls didn’t suddenly become real, the gap between the institutions and the people appears to be widening.
Of course Trump is popular. He was always popular. It’s now okay for them to admit it. –
Elon Musk Snipes at OpenAI's Sam Altman Over Trump-Backed Stargate, He Claps Back
Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman traded barbs over Stargate, a $500 billion artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project announced by US President Donald Trump. The project, to be funded by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, was described by Trump as "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential."
It will start with an initial $100 billion private investment, with Masayoshi Son, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Altman at the helm... When OpenAI posted on X that it would begin deploying $100 billion immediately, the SpaceX CEO shot back: "They don't actually have the money." He later added, "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority."
Altman initially responded diplomatically… But his tone shifted when addressing Musk's sniping at SoftBank's finances. "Wrong, as you surely know. Want to come visit the first site already under way? This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you'll mostly put [the United States] first," wrote Altman. – MSN
Our Take: If you find yourself turning on Trump, on day 2 of the greatest Presidency you'll ever witness, because somebody other than Trump said something about a future thing you will never be forced to take...
Then you are falling victim to an anti-Trump PSYOP. –
Another Take: Trump puts Sam Altman and Larry Ellison in spotlight
Internet now digging into them
Funny how that works. –
How Labeling Cartels ‘Terrorists’ Could Hurt the U.S. Economy
Isolating U.S. companies from cartel activities could be almost impossible given that the criminal groups operate in sectors like agriculture and tourism, leaving some American businesses vulnerable to sanctions.
President Trump’s executive order designating Mexican cartels and other criminal organizations as foreign terrorists could force some American companies to forgo doing business in Mexico rather than risk U.S. sanctions, according to former government officials and analysts — an outcome that could have a major effect on both countries given their deep economic interdependence.
The executive order, which Mr. Trump signed on Monday, is intended to apply maximum pressure on Mexico to rein in its dangerous drug trade. The designation, more generally, also gives his administration more power to impose economic penalties and travel restrictions, and potentially even to take military action in foreign countries.
Yet, disentangling cartel operations from U.S. interests in Mexico could be immensely complicated. Mexico is the United States’ largest trade partner of goods, and many American companies have manufacturing operations there.
– The New York Times
Our Take: "Even more complicated, these criminal networks have extended their operations far beyond drug trafficking and human smuggling. They are now embedded in a wide swath of the legal economy, from avocado farming to the country’s billion-dollar tourism industry, making it hard to be absolutely sure that American companies are isolated from cartel activities."
Avocados? Really? Can the CIA cope any harder?
But seriously, the avocado remark is a little too on-the-nose for a left-wing rag, even one as disreputable as the New York Times.
I'm laughing out loud writing this, as the NYT is a known CIA asset that was specifically named as a Muslim Brotherhood media asset by ["former" CIA agent] Kevin Chalker and Global Risk Advisors, in a 2017 presentation to Qatari figures in Doha. And here they are trying to argue that shutting down drug trafficking and human trafficking may actually be detrimental to society.
What shameless sociopaths.
According to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which defined the term "unlawful enemy combatant." (terrorist)
The TLDR is that anyone who provides material support to an unlawful enemy combatant is at risk of themselves being designated an unlawful enemy combatant.
We know from Congressional investigations from the 1970's that the CIA was in bed with the drug cartels in Central and South America. There is no reason to think that anything has changed.
I still can't get over the avocado thing. "What about muh avocado farms! Will somebody please think of the avocado farms!?" Hahahaha.
–
Trump's FBI Overhaul Puts 'Untouchable' Feds on Notice: Former Agent
President Donald Trump has promised to usher in a new era in America's top investigative unit — the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) — with day one changes being implemented as key senior roles were reassigned. The agency's shakeup began when former FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was nominated by Trump in his first administration, announced last month that he would step down from his post. Hours before Trump was sworn in, acting director Paul Abbate similarly stepped down.
The Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, that the longtime head of the Justice Department’s office of international affairs, Bruce Swartz, was reassigned along with as many as 20 other staffers. On Monday, the White House announced Brian Driscoll as acting director of the FBI. Driscoll’s time as acting director will presumably end when Kashyap "Kash" Patel is confirmed as the FBI’s next director by the U.S. Senate.
Throughout former President Biden's term, the FBI was entangled in repeated scandals, prompting President Trump to promise to root out corruption in the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ). – Fox News
Our Take: From gender to borders and crime, Trump's 'common sense' agenda is a game theory masterstroke.
Even to normies, systemic resistance to said agenda will codify intent, accelerating awakening. And this time, hibernation won't save them.
They're caught in a pincer, and they know it. –
Trump Officials Pause Health Agencies’ Communications, Citing Review
The Trump administration has instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts, according to nearly a dozen current and former officials and other people familiar with the matter.
The instructions were delivered Tuesday to staff at agencies inside the Department of Health and Human Services, including officials at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, one day after the new administration took office, according to the people with knowledge, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Some people familiar with the matter acknowledged that they expected some review during a presidential transition but said they were confused by the pause’s scope and indeterminate length. – The Washington Post
Our Take: The narrative about the next pandemic – this time bird flu – has been seeded for months, and a big part of selling a pandemic is the super official communication from the health agencies.
“The CDC was scheduled to publish several MMWR reports this week, including three about the H5N1 avian influenza virus outbreak, according to one federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.”
A communication pause frustrates pandemic narrative control, but that’s not the only impact of this move by Team Trump. The directive reads as those health communications are undergoing a centralized review.
This is the way. You can’t tell the people, you have to show them.
–
Inside Former VP Kamala Harris Marriage Turmoil as Doug Emhoff's Scandals are Blamed For Losing Presidency
Kamala Harris was all smiles and affection for her 'beloved' second gentleman Doug Emhoff in the immediate aftermath of her crushing presidential election defeat.
But now that President Donald Trump has been sworn into office, for sore loser Harris, it is now all about the blame game, and her target has flipped to her 'dead weight' husband. And as she weighs her political future – maybe a 2026 run for Governor of California or another try for the nation's top job two years later – she has to consider whether Emhoff is an asset or a liability.
One source exclusively told DailyMail.com: 'There's plenty of blame to go around as far as Kamala is concerned and Doug has his share.
– The Daily Mail
Our Take: A total rewriting of history, brought to you by fake elections.
Remember when they were calling Doug Emhoff a sex symbol?
Fake News is Future History. –
Saudi Arabia Plans $600 Billion in New US Investment, Trade Over Four Years
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Donald Trump that the kingdom wants to put $600 billion into expanded investment and trade with the United States over the next four years, the Saudi State news agency said early on Thursday.
In a phone call between the two leaders, the crown prince said the Trump administration's expected reforms could create "unprecedented economic prosperity", the state news agency reported. The report said Saudi Arabia wants its investments to capitalize on these conditions. It did not detail the source of the $600 billion, whether it would be public or private spending nor how the money would be deployed.
The investment "could increase further if additional opportunities arise," the agency quoted Bin Salman as telling Trump. Trump fostered close ties with Gulf states including Saudi Arabia during his first term. The country invested $2 billion in a firm formed by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and former aide, after Trump left office.
Trump said following his inauguration on Monday that he would consider making Saudi Arabia his first destination for a foreign visit if Riyadh agreed to buy $500 billion worth of American products, similar to what he did in his first term. – Reuters
Our Take: Oh, $500 billion from Masayoshi Son (still my favorite name to say) and the tech bros? Wait a minute – here comes the big stack out.
$600 billion from the Crown Prince.
I love that MBS isn't going to be outdone. He's had this vision for over 10 years. Here he is in the Oval Office, back in March 2018, talking about it like a giddy school boy on Christmas Eve.
The context of that meeting was to announce Saudi Arabia's purchase of $12.5 billion worth of military equipment from the US, but MBS just couldn't help talking about "the next 10 years" of investment in the US that he has planned, as well as future investment opportunities in his home country.
Donald Trump and MBS (as well as Elon, among others) are the kind of visionaries who reshape society. The end product of visionaries is not always a net positive, but the energy, passion, and excitement surrounding these figures is undeniable. –
Donald Trump's Inauguration TV Ratings Compared to Joe Biden's
On Monday, 24.6 million viewers tuned in to watch Donald Trump being sworn into office, estimates from the data analytics company Nielsen showed, which was lower than the viewership Joe Biden's inauguration received four years earlier…
Why It Matters: Crowd size has been a consistent topic of conversation for Trump, which Democrats have used to mock and enrage him. However, Trump moved his second inauguration indoors, citing the extreme cold in Washington, D.C., this week.
Though the move drastically reduced the size of the attending crowd, thousands of Trump's supporters braved the freezing temperatures and gathered outside the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., to watch Trump's televised swearing-in. Many waited in long lines to ensure they had a spot in the packed venue. – Newsweek
Out Take: Wow. These numbers are staggering.
And these numbers are just for X. There were still 24 million on Network TV. (People still watch network TV? LOL.) There were tens of millions on YouTube and Rumble.
This was the most viewed inauguration in American history.
–
Pro-Israel Republicans Alarmed Over Trump’s Defense Department Appointee
The Trump administration’s pick for deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East brings a record on Iran, the Houthis and the region that is alarming pro-Israel conservatives, having described Iran’s missile attack on Israel as “fairly moderate” and urged the U.S. against bombing the Houthis, instead calling for American pressure on Israel.
Michael DiMino, who was a military analyst at the CIA and an official at the Defense Department during the first Trump administration, has been a fellow at Defense Priorities, a Koch-funded isolationist think tank founded by allies of libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). He has called for a reduced U.S. presence in the Middle East and argued that the U.S. does not have any critical interests in the region.
In a webinar in February 2024 with Defense Priorities, DiMino, who was sworn in on Monday, declared that the Middle East does “not really” matter for U.S. interests, arguing that “vital or existential threats” in the Middle East are “best characterized as minimal to nonexistent,” and that the U.S.’ role in the region has not provided any benefits. – Jewish Insider
Our Take: Ever since that day in early November when Trump appointed Mike Huckabee as Israel's Ambassador and a number of ardent Zionists to his cabinet, I speculated that the move was a feign, of sorts, perhaps designed to instill a false sense of complacency in the Deep State and Tel Aviv that the Trump admin could be manipulated into continuing (maybe expanding?) the war in the Middle East. Why? Perhaps to avoid a rush to expand their war(s).
And now we have this guy, Michael DiMino:
So, DiMino thinks that what Israel is doing in Gaza to get rid of Hamas is actually giving Hamas a resurgence? And that President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are being undermined? And that there's no military solution in Gaza or the Red Sea? And that the US has no direct economic or national security interest in the Red Sea or Middle East? And that we should leave China to deal with it?
I really like the cut of this guy's jib. Apparently he was sworn in on Monday, along with another 30 new Pentagon appointees, but it went unreported. I only saw that Sputnik reported on it early yesterday, before it was picked up and circulated on X.
To me, Mike Huckabee is noise, Michael DiMino is signal.
–
Wyoming House Advances Protections to Stop Noncitizen Voting
The Wyoming House of Representatives passed legislation on Monday aimed at preventing noncitizens from voting in elections.
“I want to commend the House’s passage of these bills, which have been priority number one of our election integrity agenda,” Secretary of State Chuck Gray said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to work with the Legislature to achieve meaningful, conservative reform.”
HB 156 stipulates that “qualified elector[s]” must have “been a bona fide resident of Wyoming for not less than thirty (30) days before the date of the election at which he offers to vote.”
The bill also specifies that county clerks “shall not” register an individual to vote “if the person’s presented identification or proof of residence contains any indication that the person is not a citizen of the United States unless the person also presents proof of citizenship as specified by rule of the secretary of state.” – The Federalist
Our Take: We have to restore accurate and verifiable elections before the midterms, and red states are wasting no time.
Illegal migrant votes are not legal. Saying that in Colorado will get you labeled as a bigot, civilly sued, and possibly prosecuted; but just to the north in Wyoming, it’s a simple fact of law.
It needs to be law everywhere. Legal votes matter. –
BONUS ITEMS
It’s Already Different
During Donald Trump’s first term as president, critics used to ask, Can you imagine the outcry if a Democrat had done this? As Trump begins his second, the relevant question is Can you imagine the outcry if Trump had done this eight years ago?
Barely 24 hours into this new presidency, Trump has already taken a series of steps that would have caused widespread outrage and mass demonstrations if he had taken them during his first day, week, or year as president, in 2017. Most appallingly, he pardoned more than 1,500 January 6 rioters, including some involved in violence. (Of course, back then, who could have imagined that a president would attempt to stay in power despite losing, or that he would later return to the White House having won the next election?)
In addition, he purported to end birthright citizenship, exited the World Health Organization, attempted to turn large portions of the civil service into patronage jobs, and issued an executive order defining gender as a binary.
Although it is early, these steps have, for the most part, been met with muted response, including from a dazed left and press corps. That’s a big shift from eight years ago, when hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Washington, and Americans flocked to airports at midnight to try to thwart Trump’s travel ban. – The Atlantic
Ex-Us Army Lawyer Jailed For Destroying DOD Materials
A former US Army officer and attorney has been sentenced to 54 months in federal prison for willfully deleting army materials during what he claimed was a PTSD-related bout of alcoholism.
Manfredo Martin-Michael Madrigal III has been sentenced to a federal US prison for willfully deleting army materials, the Department of Justice has announced. The 38-year-old also lied to the authorities about contacting a foreign national, despite having previously called the Russian embassy in Washington DC.
Madrigal was reportedly assigned in February 2022 to the US Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Legal Center and School, where he developed training materials. Before his assignment to the JAG School, Madrigal served overseas on sensitive operations as an enlisted paratrooper with the US 82nd Airborne Division.
He had already been placed under scrutiny, having failed to report a previous arrest for driving under the influence. While the investigation into his omission was underway, days after he began work at JAG, he maliciously deleted training materials and filmed himself in the process. – RT
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.
Badlands Media will always put out our content for free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Help our collective of citizen journalists take back the narrative from the MSM. We are the news now.
This is the tipping point, for a decade the knowledge has grown that we are the majority and now as Ashe says: "Of course Trump is popular. He was always popular. It’s now okay for them to admit it. – Ashe in America".
Totally agree CP: "Fake News is Future History. – Chris Paul" but only if We the People don't share the Truth.
It has been amazing to watch Trump from his inauguration speech to all the EOs he signed Day 1 just open a floodgate of WHUPPASS. Gloves are off, now is the time of action and the DS Rat Bastards are now learning the true meaning of FAFO.
Finally, a note of thanks to Badlands Media. A friend called me Monday evening after he got home from work (truck driver) and was lamenting how the MSM "news" coverage he was watching was trying to turn all the glory of inauguration day into pee soup. I quickly cut off his whining and told him to turn the MSM off, I had been watching Badlands Media coverage of Inauguration Day and was fully informed and did not have to eat one shit sandwich all day... it's very simply, If it Hurts Stop Doing It! We have alternatives now. THANK Y'ALL!!!
God Wins!
God Bless!!!
@AsheInAmerica:
Re:"The Trump administration has instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications"
No official communications >> No new [fake] pandemics! 🇫🇷👏🏻🇺🇲
@GBPH:
Could DiMino mean "DiMinution" in this context?
I think we can actually hope so !
🇫🇷💒🕊️💕🇺🇲🌎