The news cycle is impossible to fully track these days. That’s where we come in. The Badlands News Brief is a uniquely curated selection of the stories dominating the info war — with context and commentary from Badlands hosts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday, hoping to forge a plan to end the war in Ukraine, but the American leader’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly before the meeting suggests obstacles to peace remain.
Zelenskiy has said he hopes to soften a U.S. proposal for Ukrainian forces to withdraw completely from the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, a Russian demand that would mean ceding some territory held by Ukrainian forces. — Reuters
Our Take: From the Media Machine to the Globalist Hegemon, 2025 marked forward motion on virtually all fronts in the Info War, the Mind War and the Shadow War.
In my latest, I break each theater down front by front, win by win.
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The 14 December Bondi Beach attack targeting Jews at a Hanukkah celebration has brought the issue of antisemitism into sharp national focus. In response, the New South Wales government announced measures to further curb hate speech and symbols, and, more controversially, new protest powers. This event and the government’s response have once again raised questions about the relationship between Jews, Israel, Zionism and anti-Zionism.
Zionism is a Jewish national movement that sought to create a Jewish state, then to secure and sustain it. But “Zionism” is also a contested label: for many Jews it signifies safety, continuity and belonging; for Palestinians – and for many others – it denotes dispossession and ongoing domination. It’s clear that for different people, the word Zionism means very different things, which leads to people talking past one another – with real-world consequences.
Originating in the late 19th century as a movement for Jewish national self-determination, Zionism was founded in response to the increase of a modern form of Jew-hatred grounded in pseudo-science and conspiracy theories, and the rise of European national movements seeking their independence. Early Zionists argued that the only solution for the precarious status of Jews as a perennially persecuted minority in Europe was through the establishment of a Jewish state. […]
In the nearly 130 years since the founding of the Zionist movement, the meaning of the term has continually evolved. — The Guardian
Our Take: “Short of having a Chinese-style system which you shut down and cut off access to the internet, it’s not at all clear how you deal w/ access to [anti-Semitic] material.”
The implications of this position are hilarious. Not least of these is that “refuting the claims” is not a plausible response. Admitting that being no longer able to censor a view out of existence means the view is bound to spread everywhere is an admission that the view is true enough to be compelling to virtually everyone. — Chris Paul
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently published Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices. Given current widespread distrust of HHS, especially regarding vaccines, we knew this review, which we co-authored, would be met with skepticism. So, it is worth noting that we, along with most of the other authors, are liberals.
While everyone should be concerned when vulnerable populations do not receive appropriate medical care, those of us on the left side of the political spectrum need to pay special attention. This is because many of the organizations and individuals we trust have gotten this issue wrong…
The approach to pediatric gender distress currently favored in the U.S., which involves the provision of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones sometimes followed by surgery, was rapidly adopted internationally largely on the basis of a Dutch experiment [of] just 70 adolescents who had been gender nonconforming since early childhood. The vast majority of these patients (62 out of 70) reported being exclusively same-sex attracted (gay).
During the study, a patient died of surgical complications due to having been given puberty blockers years earlier; some developed diabetes and were excluded from final data analysis; others were lost to follow up. The remaining 55 patients underwent surgical transition upon reaching legal adulthood. All were rendered sterile. In short, the medical practice now known euphemistically as pediatric “gender affirming care” is based on methodologically weak research that sterilized a group of gay or bisexual youth and left one of them dead.
Since then, thousands of well-meaning parents have been led to believe that medicalization is necessary for their children’s well-being. What they may not know is that some leading clinician-researchers have buried unfavorable research and have minimized concerning findings (including completed suicides in minors started on hormones). — Newsweek
Our Take: I was surprised to see this opinion in Newsweek. It’s obvious to anyone with eyes that gender affirming care is the sexualization, sterilization, mutilation, and psychological torture — of children — and this Dutch study, which is cited as the standard to engage in this malicious destruction of innocence says as much.
We all know this, so the science is confirmation. But what of the suckers and losers who bought into this vicious cult? What of the Munchausen Moms with their fad children?
Are they going to claim they were hoodwinked and call themselves victims? I say no. You don’t need “science” to convince you not to engage in the sexualization, sterilization, mutilation, and psychological torture of your own children.
That’s biologically wired into parents. Unless those parents are psychos. History will remember them accurately. — Ashe in America
A YouTuber found no children inside a Minnesota daycare that has received $4 million in state funding — and couldn’t even spell “learning” correctly on its own front door.
The apparent revelation comes amid the exploding welfare scandal involving the state’s Somali community, which the feds have said could top $9 million.
In a video that went viral this week, Nick Shirley and another man can be seen approaching a Minneapolis building that has a sign that incorrectly reads “Quality Learing [sic] Center.”
Almost instantly, a white woman — who didn’t immediately appear to be associated with the daycare and had her phone out filming — appears and yells, “Don’t open up. We have ICE here.”
“How do you have ICE here ma’am, I’m literally a YouTuber?” Shirley replies.
Shirley and his colleague then pull out papers showing the daycare is licensed for 99 children and received $1.9 million annually in the past two years from the state. — New York Post
Our Take: Did you know that the reason we have so many Somalians here in the United States is because of the media?
“Press images of a massive famine provoked US intervention in Somalia.”
“Meanwhile, graphic media accounts of mass starvation drove policy.”
“But late in July 1992, as pictures of skeletal children jolted the American public, President George H. W. Bush decided that the United States should play a leading, visible role.”
This is all according to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time in the early 90s… — Jon Herold
Any European troops deployed to Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets by Russia’s armed forces, News.Az reports, citing the TASS. Lavrov also accused European politicians of being driven by “ambitions” in their relations with Kiev and disregarding the people of Ukraine and of their own nations.
Earlier, Lavrov said Moscow would respond to any move to deploy European troops in Ukraine or to use frozen Russian assets to support Kiev.
He also underlined that Russia has no plans to go to war with Europe.
“However, we will respond to any hostile actions, including the deployment of European military contingents in Ukraine and the seizure of Russian assets. We are already prepared for such a response,” he said. — News.Az
Our Take: X is blowing up with “Russia is destroying Ukraine right now! Make it stop!”
What the hell did you think would happen?!?
Ukraine tried to sink sanctioned ships (against international law)
Ukraine met with the EU who coddled Zelenskyy’s balls and told him “you can do it!”
Ukraine proposed a RIDICULOUS peace plan compelling the US into unconstitutional “Article 5-like” protections.
EU pledged another $90B, which it first has to BORROW from Europeans.
The backlash against AI invading almost every aspect of the computing experience is growing by the day. Particularly as an onslaught of lazy AI slop subsuming news feeds, the tech is starting to feel like a massive distraction — and huge parts of the internet are disillusioned or even fuming in anger. […]
Even household names in the open-source industry aren’t safe. After being appointed as the new CEO of open-source software company Mozilla, whose Firefox browser has long been lauded as a compelling alternative to Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo announced that it would be tripling down on AI.
In a December 16 blog post, Enzor-DeMeo announced that Firefox would become a “modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.”
But a ringing backlash quickly forced the company into damage control mode. “I’ve never seen a company so astoundingly out of touch with the people who want to use its software,” one disillusioned user tweeted in response to the news. “I switched back to Firefox late last year BECAUSE it was the last AI-free browser,” another lamented. “I shoulda known.” […]
The outcry was formidable enough for Mozilla to clarify the company’s new CEO’s comments. “Something that hasn’t been made clear: Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features,” the company wrote in an update on Mastodon. — Futurism
Our Take: Firefox is a cult classic among open source maxis, and the company should have seen this backlash coming. As the person on the internet said:
“I’ve never seen a company so astoundingly out of touch with the people who want to use its software.”
It’s encouraging. Unless you learn to code, your trust for code integrity is placed in honorable devs and the watchdog nerds that hold them accountable.
In my experience, open source maxis isn’t a bad place to hold some hope. It’s the Wild West, but there is a similar code of honor within that particular community of outlaws. Accelerate. — Ashe in America
The Republican Party that I joined in the 1980s (and later left) espoused a straightforward set of principles. It believed in free markets, limited government, peace through strength in dealing with international aggressors, and “traditional” values. Sure, the last one was nebulous and the party often was hypocritical, but these core ideas were the key to its eventual resurgence. […]
Engaging in nostalgia is a hazard of growing older, but one need not be misty-eyed to compare that Grand Old Party to the current freak show. Sure, Democrats were pretty awful during that era (and embraced views surprisingly common in Republican circles today) and largely remain so, but the GOP was the voice of sanity. With the GOP’s dark and nasty pivot, advocates for those age-old ideals have nowhere to turn.
We’ve become numb to narcissistic rage posts from our president, but the highly publicized Turning Point USA convention last week offers a preview into where the Republican Party is going after Donald Trump exits the stage. It’s not pretty. — Orange County Register
If there is a boundary setter in the GOP, Vice President JD Vance might be it. MAGAdom is feuding over whether antisemitic figures like Nick Fuentes will be allowed in the Republican coalition when President Donald Trump leaves. Observers watched last weekend’s Turning Point USA convention to see if Vance would draw a red line against bigotry in the party.
He did not. Vance ducked a chance to “condemn a streak of antisemitism” that has roiled the GOP in recent months, said The Associated Press. “I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to de-platform,” Vance said during the convention’s closing speech. That came after conservative commentator Ben Shapiro criticized Fuentes, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson during his own address. Those figures and their allies are “grifters and they do not deserve your time,” Shapiro said. Vance, though, refused to take sides in the feud. MAGA Republicans have “far more important work to do than canceling each other,” Vance said.
Vance has repeatedly “refused to pick a side in interparty fights over bigotry,” said The New York Times. — The Week
Our Take: “Democrats have zero enthusiasm and plan for 2028. 2026 is the time to slam the door. Don’t leave even a crack. Every question should be: ‘Does this action open the door even a sliver for the democrats?’ If yes, don’t do it. Don’t join in. 2028 will define the next 2 decades.”
TPUSA declares that full messaging compliance will be necessary going forward unless you want to get kicked out of their creepy club and have those paid-off dorks say mean things about you…
The “Charlie Kirk” Stadium Funeral Telethon and last weekend’s “AmFest” Soap Opera Convention can plausibly be viewed as soft disclosure for the total corruption of the institutional mainstream of American Judeo (inverted) Christianity and the megachurch style of personal advancement through pseudo-worship. That would be God using this abomination for good. Politics, rightfully, be damned. — Chris Paul
Everyone had only one thing on their mind: will Stranger Things keep up with its quality or decline in the worst way possible? With the final season ongoing, the last episode will be released on January 1, 2026. Volume 2 just came out on Netflix and it is not without fault.
People were already afraid of the declining quality, hoping that the final season could recreate the same hype as the first. Unfortunately, the second half has proven otherwise. Worse, it undermines the stakes. […]
The second volume of Stranger Things Season 5 introduced the idea that Vecna would not face defeat until and unless Will admits that he isn’t attracted to women but men. The idea that the stakes of the final season rely on someone coming out of the closet feels off, if not underwhelming, in terms of a series finale. — MensXP
Our Take: Stranger Things is working overtime to try to convince the country that coming out as gay circa 1987 was the ultimate taboo, to the point where it takes precedence over saving the world.
I decided to look up the two bestselling musical artists of 1987 …
He can’t vote, can’t drive a car, and still needs a permission slip for field trips — but 14-year-old Dean Roy believes he’s ready to run Vermont. While most high school freshmen set their eyes on student council or homecoming king, the teenager is looking to make history with an eye-popping campaign for governor. ‘I really hope that this mission of mine leads to more youth getting involved,’ Roy told the Daily Mail.
If elected, he’d be the first-ever US governor under the age of 18. In 2018, 13-year-old Ethan Sonneborn ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Vermont. The youngest-ever US governor was Democrat Stevens Mason, who had just turned 24 when he began serving his term in Michigan in 1835.
Speaking from his bedroom with an American flag hanging vertically behind him, Roy told the Daily Mail his long-shot campaign all started with an offhand comment. At his 8th-grade graduation, his teacher joked that he wanted the campaign manager job if Roy ever ran for office. What was likely intended as a throwaway comment struck a moment of curiosity for the youngster, who rushed home and looked up the requirements. — Daily Mail
Our Take: Vermont is the only state in the so-called Union with no age restrictions to run for Chief Executive.
He couldn’t possibly do worse than those who came before him… Vermont is so corrupt it makes the nation fund Bernie Sanders’ commie fever dreams.
The International Space Station was painstakingly assembled segment by segment, launched into orbit by many expensive and logistically complex rockets.
Now there’s intense interest in a radically different model: launching space habitats that can inflate like balloons once they’re in space, creating far more room for astronauts inside — and maximizing the amount of orbital real estate they can claim with just a single launch.
Case in point, the aptly-named startup Max Space recently unveiled plans for its private space habitat, dubbed Thunderbird Station, that can expand to a whopping 12,300 cubic feet — roughly a third of the volume of the ISS — while only requiring a single launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. — Futurism
Model Mario Rodriguez sued Tyler Perry for $77 million, alleging sexual assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Perry’s lawyer responded in a statement saying this will be another “failed money grab.” Perry previously denied similar claims made by actor Derek Dixon, who has the same lawyer as Rodriguez. — People
Palau, an archipelago of about 350 small islands in the Pacific Ocean, has signed a “memo of understanding” with the Trump administration to take up to 75 “third country nationals” who cannot be returned to their home nations, the office of Palau’s president said on Wednesday. In return, Palau will receive $7.5 million and other aid.
The arrangement will allow for people who have never been charged with a crime to live and work in Palau, “helping address local labor shortages in needed occupations,” according to the statement from the office of Palau’s president, Surangel Whipps Jr.
The Trump administration has been intensifying its efforts to deport people to countries where they have no connections, according to a recent analysis of public immigration court data. — The New York Times
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Chris you have a real gift for exposing the Party of False Decorum, bravo: "Admitting that being no longer able to censor a view out of existence means the view is bound to spread everywhere is an admission that the view is true enough to be compelling to virtually everyone. — Chris Paul"
The last few days of 2025 look to be very exciting!
—-🤔. This appears to support my position that the Israel we know today was created in line with nothing we’ve been told, that it had/has a completely different purpose for its creators. ‘Zionism is a Jewish national movement that sought to create a Jewish state, then to secure and sustain it.’ Even the timing appears to align with Marxist weaponization of words’ meanings. ‘In the nearly 130 years since the founding of the Zionist movement, the meaning of the term has continually evolved.’ Time will most surely reveal the true purpose.
—-Ashe, 💯 History will remember the evil these ‘parents’ did to their children. More importantly, so will God.
—-Jon’s comments about the famine in Somalia was used to create sympathy to bring the starving children here demonstrates how well-planned the takedown of the US has been. This is merely an offshoot branch. Heck, the cabal likely created the famine (if there actually was one).
—-Vermont. Interesting, Ashe, ‘Give the kid a chance.’ Might just be ‘revealing.’
—-Looks like 2026 will open our eyes to much that has been hidden.🤔👀
—-Ashe has the bottom line, both today and for 2026. ‘Accelerate.’
Welcome back from another fun filled weekend.
Chris you have a real gift for exposing the Party of False Decorum, bravo: "Admitting that being no longer able to censor a view out of existence means the view is bound to spread everywhere is an admission that the view is true enough to be compelling to virtually everyone. — Chris Paul"
The last few days of 2025 look to be very exciting!
God Wins!
God Bless!!!
—-🤔. This appears to support my position that the Israel we know today was created in line with nothing we’ve been told, that it had/has a completely different purpose for its creators. ‘Zionism is a Jewish national movement that sought to create a Jewish state, then to secure and sustain it.’ Even the timing appears to align with Marxist weaponization of words’ meanings. ‘In the nearly 130 years since the founding of the Zionist movement, the meaning of the term has continually evolved.’ Time will most surely reveal the true purpose.
—-Ashe, 💯 History will remember the evil these ‘parents’ did to their children. More importantly, so will God.
—-Jon’s comments about the famine in Somalia was used to create sympathy to bring the starving children here demonstrates how well-planned the takedown of the US has been. This is merely an offshoot branch. Heck, the cabal likely created the famine (if there actually was one).
—-Vermont. Interesting, Ashe, ‘Give the kid a chance.’ Might just be ‘revealing.’
—-Looks like 2026 will open our eyes to much that has been hidden.🤔👀
—-Ashe has the bottom line, both today and for 2026. ‘Accelerate.’