Badlands News Brief

Drone Strikes, Hunter Hunted & Obama Resurfaces

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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.

Some 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 Wednesday, May 3 …

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Russia’s Medvedev Calls for 'Elimination' Of Zelensky & 'His Clique' After Drone Attack

Outspoken former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the security council Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday in a post on social media that the overnight drone attack on the Kremlin has left Moscow with no options but to "eliminate" Ukrainian President Zelensky and his "clique". Essentially he's calling for a 'decapitation' strike of the government in Kiev.

As for Zelensky, he's vehemently denied his government was behind the attack, which Russia is asserting was an assassination attempt targeting Putin.

And US Secretary of State Antony Blinken weighed in, casting doubt on Russia's narrative:

“I can’t in any way validate them,” said Blinken, who was at an event with the Post to preview the 2023 World Press Freedom Index. “We simply don’t know. Second, I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.” — ZeroHedge

Our Take: “Devolution means State Dep = Deep State.

- Ukraine accused of drone strikes aimed at Putin
- Ukraine denies involvement
- US State Dep has been commenting on supplying Ukraine with missiles for months
- CIA admitted to training Azov battallion, Russia's sworn enemy
- CIA accused of using Ukrainian proxies to sabotage NS2

- US State Dep accuses Russia of False Flag?
- False Flags on the Collective Mind?
- CIA hung out to dry?
- JFK Files timing?
- Epstein news timing?

Narrative Convergence.” — Burning Bright

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As evidence emerges in Hunter Biden probe, investigators see a political protection racket

A letter falsely insinuating a laptop was Russian disinformation. An IRS whistleblower. Suspicious activity bank reports. Suggestions of false testimony to Congress.

The more congressional investigators dig into evidence in the Hunter Biden scandal that was kept from the public for years, the more they have become concerned the first family was protected by a political cone of silence that prevented voters from making an informed choice in the 2020 election about a family with uncomfortable foreign business deals and partners.

"We've got the onion in front of us,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), the top Republican on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, who has been investigating the Biden family's business deals since 2019. "We're painstakingly peeling back thin layer after thin layer. But the truth is being revealed. And it's pretty ugly."

Two new sensational allegations burst into public Tuesday as Johnson joined fellow Sen. Chuck Grassley to formally accuse Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a close lieutenant of President Joe Biden, of giving Congress a "patently false" account in 2020 about his earlier dealings with Hunter Biden during the Obama years. — Just the News

Our Take: “The bell tolls for DS actors. The Hunter Biden trial provided insights that were unexpected. We knew a guy like Blinken was probably in bed with the Biden's et al in China and beyond. But we didn't have the sauce. Now we do.

Blinken did speak with Hunter even though he said he couldn't recall. Cracks in the dam are starting to appear. How long will it be before it breaks?

If you ask me, something is going to happen between now and 2024. This might be the start.” — Justin Deschamps

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Barack Obama lectures about 'widespread disinformation' on World Press Freedom Day: 'Truth matters'

On World Press Freedom Day Wednesday, a video was posted on Twitter of former President Barack Obama lecturing about "widespread disinformation" and the need for journalists to create "an information environment" to support democracy.

Obama had previously recorded the video for a conference on democracy held by the Columbia Journalism School in late April. In the clip, he touted the importance of journalism in the struggle for democracy and ways to combat disinformation and promote journalistic efforts to defend the truth.

Our Take: “Barack Obama lectured the world on misinformation, because, as the king of misinformation himself, who is better suited to give such a speech?” — AbsoluteTruth1776

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Here We Go Again: Troubled California Bank PacWest Craters 60% On Report It Is Seeking Buyers Or Capital Raise

Earlier today, when Jerome Powell openly lied to the American People during the FOMC press conference stating without a hint of irony that the US banking system is "sound and resilient"...

...we balked: how could this former lawyer lie so brazenly to the American people, the narrator wondered, when in just the past few weeks we had seen over half a trillion in bank failures, making the current bank failure episode even worse than the global financial crisis?

Well, as usual, the narrator was right, because while Powell's lies were still ringing in our ears, the next regional bank collapse was on its say.

Shortly after the close, Bloomberg reported that another regional, California-based bank (of course), PacWest Bancorp., was weighing a range of strategic options, including a sale.

The Beverly Hills-based bank - whose financial conditions it appears has been far worse than the Fed, which just hiked another 25bps, thought - has been working with a financial adviser and has also been considering a breakup or a capital raise, according to Bloomberg sources. While it is open to a sale, the company hasn’t started a formal auction process.

According to the report, "an outright sale has been hindered because there aren’t many potential buyers interested in the entire bank, which comprises a community lender called Pacific Western Bank and some commercial and consumer lending businesses, the people said." And similar to SVB and FRC, "a potential buyer would also have to potentially book a big loss marking down some of its loans, the people said." — ZeroHedge

Our Take: “The controlled demolition of the economy in preparation for the "rescue" of the financial system via CBDCs at some point in the future.

The Fed's rhetoric is so off-base, it's laughable. ‘Sound and resilient?’ Perhaps Powell isn't talking about the part of the financial system we can see. Instead, he's likely referring to the hidden agreements and trusts in place behind the scenes that make the existing financial system possible.

Translation: The brand known as the existing financial system, the USD-pegged global reserve currency system of paper notes and clearing houses, and so on—that is going down. But the international structure upon which this system has operated, and has always been in place behind the scenes—that is ‘sound and resilient.’

Who's ready to start up that parallel financial system? Anyone?” — Justin Deschamps

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A Store Selling Heroin, Meth, and Cocaine Just Opened in Canada

A Vancouver man has opened the only known brick-and-mortar store in Canada and the U.S. that sells heroin, cocaine, meth, MDMA, and other drugs.

Jerry Martin, 51, opened the Drugs Store Wednesday in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a neighborhood that’s long been considered ground zero for Canada’s overdose epidemic. While British Columbia has very progressive drug laws, the mobile shop is operating completely illegally. The province recently began a three-year drug decriminalization pilot project for possession of small amounts of opioids, cocaine, meth, and MDMA, but selling remains prohibited. 

However, Martin told VICE News he opened the store because he wants to give people drugs that have been tested and are free from adulterants, including fentanyl. Although fentanyl, which is driving record overdoses in Canada and the U.S., is the primary street opioid that Vancouverites now use, Martin is instead selling heroin. — Vice News

Our Take: “Canada’s downward spiral continues its death rattle around the toilet bowl as Cocaine, Heroin and Meth—among other drugs—are now available for legal purchase in Vancouver, BC.” — AbsoluteTruth1776

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Gender clinic for kids confirms some whistleblower claims, pledges vague changes amid probes

The shroud is coming off the practices associated with so-called gender affirming care for minors and the research that purportedly favors giving children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and surgically removing healthy breasts and genitals.

The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital tacitly confirmed some claims by a whistleblower while pledging vague changes amid investigations by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), even as it exonerated itself of "substandard care causing adverse outcomes for patients."

A study that concluded breast removal improves "chest dysphoria" in young women who identify as men or nonbinary, published last fall in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, inexplicably hid its results pertaining to gender dysphoria, suggesting they didn't align with the researchers' hypothesis.

An accompanying editorial proclaimed that so-called top surgery in adolescents and young adults is "effective and medically necessary." — Just the News

Our Take: “The truth about the transgender agenda is coming to light. But make no mistake, the only reason it is here at all is because the medical system is vulnerable to infiltration and manipulation. Why? Because, like many other institutions like it, the medical system is an extrinsically based orthodoxy.

Extrinsic refers to an external basis of belief. When you believe something based on faith in an authority of some kind, where their thoughts and opinions become your beliefs, it's very easy for that authority to push falsehoods onto believers. The believers can't critically assess the expert.

The medical system relies heavily on overly compartmentalized expert boards and bodies, with the vast majority of doctors assuming what they learn is true and good for their patients. Most medical professionals are executing treatments they don't understand and didn't develop. This means they can't critically assess the merit of the procedure. In effect, it produces an orthodoxy—a socially reinforced belief and value system that compels individuals affected by the orthodoxy to comply and avoid deviation from the norm.

Now this extrinsic foundation was built into the medical system from the start. It was designed to work this way, again, like other aspects of our society. The ray of hope is that, despite the overwhelming weight thrust upon doctors and nurses from on high, there are still good critical thinkers in the system willing to question medical doctrine. As horrific as the trans situation is, it's helping to expose this critical weakness of extrinsically based institutions. And it also helps expose other extrinsic weak points in our society, of which, there are many.

Thankfully, in my opinion, the solution to this overarching cross-institutional problem is the same insofar as the citizen is concerned. It's to discern the truth yourself. Train your mind on critical thinking and epistemology. Dare to analyze the claims of truth of our age. Work with others to do the same. This turns whatever extrinsic beliefs you have into intrinsic ones—ones that can be critically assessed at a personal level.

If only 10% of the population did this in a united and coordinated way, the house of cards that is our modern civilization would crumble, leaving room for a much better civilization to take its place, one where truth and goodness reign.” — Justin Deschamps

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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.