Badlands News Brief
Presidential Immunity & Rugpulls Galore
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 Tuesday, January 9 …
Trump’s immunity claim gets frosty reception at appeals court
A federal appeals court panel strongly suggested Tuesday that it would reject Donald Trump’s claims of immunity from criminal charges related to his effort to subvert the 2020 election.
With Trump looking on, the three judges expressed deep skepticism of his contention that a president could not be prosecuted — even for assassinating a rival or selling military secrets — if he were not first impeached and convicted by Congress.
“I think it’s paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal law,” said Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee.
Despite that inclination, the judges — who also include Biden appointees Florence Pan and Michelle Childs — appeared divided during Tuesday’s oral argument over how to shape their decision. Their ruling, no matter where they land, is likely to trigger a further appeal to the Supreme Court for a final determination on whether Trump’s criminal trial in Washington, D.C. will take place this year.
That trial is currently scheduled to begin March 4, but it is likely to be postponed by the litigation over Trump’s immunity claims. His claims hinge on his argument that the charges against him, brought by special counsel Jack Smith, arose out of his official acts as president. Smith alleges that Trump tried to disenfranchise American voters and defraud the nation by spreading lies about the 2020 election and attempting to cling to power. — Politico
Trump’s Take:
Our Take: “Trump’s statements coming out of this immunity argument were charged for a few reasons:
If you're looking at it on a surface level, obviously everything Trump says here is completely true. The Witch Hunt the Biden-led DOJ has launched against him is a miscarriage of justice and sets precedents that can only cause damage to the American Republic, the Office of the President and even the very culture it's all holding up.
The bigger point, however, is that it also reads like a direct warning.
When Trump and his team talk about the 'dangerous precedents' being set by this 'legal' saga, they're speaking to multiple audiences at once: for supporters, they're confirming what MAGA and the America First base already know.
For the Deep State, however, they're laying out all the various ways in which these precedents can and likely WILL be turned back around on them.
This isn't a simple tit-for-tat exchange. One side has the truth and the constitution on its side and the other simply does not.
There will be consequences.” —
Fani Willis' Prosecutor Meeting White House Counsel Raises Questions
There are calls for the White House to reveal details of two 2022 meetings that reportedly took place between its employees and Nathan Wade. He is a special prosecutor working on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' Georgia election-interference case, which was brought against Donald Trump and 18 other defendants.
The meetings were revealed in a 127-page filing from Michael Roman, another of those charged, seeking to get the case thrown out on the basis that Willis "never had legal authority to appoint the special prosecutor." The document also alleges Wade and Willis were involved in a "clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case," which saw both profit "at the expense of the taxpayers." These claims have not been independently verified by Newsweek.
Trump was indicted in the Georgia case in August 2023 on 13 separate criminal charges. The former president, and other defendants, are accused of having broken the law whilst attempting to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory in the state. Trump has pled not guilty to all charges and insists the case against him is politically motivated.
The filings from Roman's case include a bill sent from Wade to the Fulton County district attorney's office requesting two payments of $2,000 for separate occasions, under the project title "anti-corruption special prosecutor." — NewsWeek
Our Take: “Corruption is everywhere. It’s never been more obvious that people in positions of power view themselves as above the law. The ruling class. The beautiful people enjoying the trappings of power.
Fani Willis was possibly involved in a RICO conspiracy while prosecuting an entire cast of her political opposition for RICO.
According to Roman’s filing, Fani rewarded her lover with government work, then billed the services for ‘anti-corruption special prosecutor.’ Ballsy.
Now we’re learning that Wade, the lover, is visiting the White House? Bernie Kerik asked, ‘Why would Wade be meeting with The White House Council? Who is directing the Fani Willis investigation? The White House, the DOJ?’
Damn good questions.” —
X Confirms 'Bitcoin ETF' Breach Was Not Of Any Of Its Systems, SEC Failed To Use 2-Factor Authentication On Phone
SEC Chair Gary Gensler - having issued his pre-emptive warning at just how terrifyingly dangerous cryptos are - proudly proclaimed the approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs on X:
In a stunning update, just minutes later, Gensler has posted on X that this is false and that his account has been hacked:
And the hits keep coming for the SEC.
With fingers being pointed and blame being apportioned for the SEC screw-up, X's Safety team have provided a rather awkward statement on the results of their probe of the breach.
[…]
We can also confirm that the account did not have two-factor authentication enabled at the time the account was compromised.
And there it is, just as the mainstream establishment would have loved to blame Elon Musk, or X, it turns out the world's leading securities regulator was incapable of utilizing two-factor authentication on an account that by all standards can be extremely market-moving in its capabilities. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “It’s hard to cover the bases quite as well as our friends at ZH did, but here goes:
The Badlands boys
and host Rugpull Radio every week.Their premise is largely that most of what we're watching in all theaters of the Info War largely exist to cover the core pillar of the System of Systems, that being the Fake Fiat Financial sector ... to which they'll get no argument from me.
As if we hadn't seen enough to indicate just how controlled the Narrative currently is, today, the SEC sent out a Tweet announcing the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF, one of the most seismic financial developments in decades ... only to rug-pull minutes later by claiming said announcement was the result of a 'hack.'
Either the ETF approval is being rugged, or the announcement is. Either way, it's putting maximum eyes on both decentralized currencies and, more importantly, the Administrative systems who have taken it upon themselves to act as custodians of our right to engage in free exchange and value discovery.
'You are watching a movie' feeling intensifies.” —
Judge Loretta Preska Orders Epstein Island Images To Be Redacted After Court Accidentally Releases Them
A federal judge issued an order Monday to redact newly released images of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, his partner Ghislaine Maxwell and young girls and women on his infamous Caribbean island.
U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York ordered for a collection of photos from Epstein’s Little St. James Island to be redacted after they were disclosed in a court filing unsealed Monday.
“The Clerk of the Court is directed to strike docket entry 1332-7 in the above-captioned case because it contains inadvertently disclosed images that should have been redacted. Counsel shall re-file the stricken document as soon as is practicable,” Preska said in the order.
The images were from Epstein’s island in 2006 and provided by Epstein Accuser Sarah Ransome, the New York Post (NYP) reported along with the images.
“They were really naughty. You know, they took girls from very underprivileged families. They gave them accommodation, they gave them food, gave them money for transportation, you know, private planes, etc, etc.,” Ransome said in a deposition, according to the court filings reported by the NYP. — The Daily Caller
Our Take: “It’s becoming ever clearer that the recent Epstein news is a controlled op at all levels.
The court accidentally released pictures then ordered them sealed? Why? Is there anything more important to the public trust than sunlight on the Epstein’s demand?
The descriptions of the pictures provided in this article sound benign. As Patrick always says, the ‘young girls’ approach to sex crime disclosure is a softening tactic meant to distract from the reality that it’s children, from babies through ‘young girls.’
Let me know when they start outing and arresting the people sacrificing children in the temple.” —
Another Take: “We're nearing the end stage of Overton's Goalpost where it concerns the darkest path in the Mind War.
First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they fight you.
Then they admit they're a bunch of Satanic pedophiles and that you were right about everything.” —
China sanctions 5 US defense companies in response to US sanctions and arms sales to Taiwan
China announced sanctions Sunday on five American defense-related companies in response to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and U.S sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals.
The sanctions will freeze any property the companies have in China and prohibit organizations and individuals in China from doing business with them, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted online.
It was unclear what impact, if any, the sanctions would have on the companies, BAE Systems Land and Armaments, Alliant Techsystems Operations, AeroVironment, Viasat and Data Link Solutions. Such sanctions are often mostly symbolic as American defense contractors generally don’t sell to China. — AP News
Our Take: “Taiwan is holding presidential elections next week, and the tensions are already ratcheting up as we approach them.
Yesterday, I had said that, whichever side wins (the incumbent party or the opposition,) tensions in the Taiwan Straight are unlikely to decrease as a result.
If the incumbent party wins (expected,) then anti-China rhetoric will ramp up, while the opposition party would likely be more amenable to Chinese incursions and even reunification with the island nation, resulting in a massive internal combustion in the political and military spheres of Taiwan.
As if that didn't jive with the common themes of escalation and acceleration that have defined the Biden era, however, China is making sure it ties the US and western powers directly into the narrative campaign, announcing a series of largely symbolic sanctions against US Defense Firms while accusing them of moves aimed at preventing Chinese unification.
The next 'Current Crisis' main event seems to be ramping up.” —
Biden is asking for Mexican help to stop the record surge of migrants. Here's what Mexico wants in return.
The Biden administration is increasingly leaning on Mexico to curb the record flow of migrants crossing into the U.S., but Mexico has its own lists of ambitious asks for the U.S., say officials from both governments familiar with the discussions.
Previous measures taken by the Biden administration to stem the migrant surge have led to only temporary dips in the numbers, and in late December, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Mexico to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to ask for greater assistance. Those conversations were “preliminary,” the officials said, and did not result in hard promises from either side.
In a press conference on Friday, López Obrador called on the U.S. to approve a plan that would deploy $20 billion to Latin American and Caribbean countries, suspend the U.S. blockade of Cuba, remove all sanctions against Venezuela and grant at least 10 million Hispanics living in the U.S. the right to remain and work legally. — NBC News
Our Take: “This is a pretty interesting story to me, in that I think it's one of the best recent examples of the Narratives going firmly against the Biden Admin, while the Actuals that could be in the offing set us up well for a bevy of permanent status changes heading into 2025.
While opinions vary, the media is largely in agreement that the Mexican president has the leverage in negotiations with the Biden Admin where it concerns Mexico assisting in the stemming of illegal immigration across the southern US border.
What Mexico reportedly wants is $20b in US aid to Latin American and Caribbean countries, a permanent suspension of the US blockade of Cuba, the removal of sanctions against Venezuela and the granting of work visas to 10m hispanics who have been living within the US long-term already.
These wouldn't be popular concessions among conservatives, but they might have long-term benefits to US-LATAM relations and economic cohesion.
Trump gets to reap the rewards for Biden's failures.” —
BONUS ITEMS
Here We Go: Michelle Obama Says She's "Terrified" Of Trump Winning
Michelle Obama has said that she is kept awake at night by the thought of Donald Trump winning in 2024, in comments have already led to speculation that she could replace Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee.
When asked during a podcast ‘what keeps you up at night?’ Obama said “What’s gonna happen in this next election.”
“I am terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter. Who we select. Who speaks for us. Who holds that bully pulpit,” she continued.
“It affects us in ways that I think sometimes people take for granted,” Obama further noted, claiming that government does “everything for us.”
“We cannot take this democracy for granted and sometimes I worry that we do,” she added.
Later in the interview, she commented “We see childish leadership right before us, what that looks like and how that feels. Where someone is just base and vulgar and cynical. In a leadership position it doesn’t trickle down well.” — Modernity News
Ray Epps, a target of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories, gets a year of probation for his Capitol riot role
A man targeted by right-wing conspiracy theories about the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Tuesday to a year of probation for joining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of fellow Donald Trump supporters.
Ray Epps, a former Arizona resident who was driven into hiding by death threats, pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge. He received no jail time, and there were no restrictions placed on his travel during his probation, but he will have to serve 100 hours of community service.
He appeared remotely by video conference and wasn’t in the Washington, D.C., courtroom when Chief Judge James Boasberg sentenced him. Prosecutors had recommended a six-month term of imprisonment for Epps.
Epps’ sentencing took place in the same building where Trump was attending an appeals court hearing as the Republican former president’s lawyers argued he’s immune from prosecution on charges he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost. — AP News
US and Allies Met Secretly With Ukraine on Peace Plan
A secret meeting took place last month between Ukraine, its Group of Seven allies and a small group of Global South countries to try to rally support for Kyiv’s conditions for holding peace talks with Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.
The previously undisclosed Dec. 16 meeting of national security advisers was held in Saudi Arabia and followed larger, publicized gatherings aimed at countering Moscow’s attempts to divide and paint Ukraine and its allies as unwilling to negotiate an end to the war.
The secrecy was aimed in part at making participant countries feel more comfortable about joining. The smaller format allowed for a freer, more frank discussion on Ukraine’s so-called peace formula and plans for moving that process forward as well as principles for potentially engaging with Russia in future, the people said. — Bloomberg
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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"First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they fight you. Then they admit they're a bunch of Satanic pedophiles and that you were right about everything.”
--or--
"Then they admit they're a bunch of NORMAL sincere Satan-worshiping pedophiles obviously doing what any NORMAL sincere Satan-worshiping pedophile would and should do for their lord!"
The question is whether or not they can get away with it. I say, and pray, NO!
AiA writes: "The beautiful people enjoying the trappings of power." In a recent study on the system of systems in the Bible (why not, the system is after all sourced from the serpent of old) I realized that what we typically read as "wealth of her sensuality" - (where her is the "city of Babylon" that deceives all the nations) should actually be understood as "the power of her insolent luxury." (see revelation 18:3-9). Verse 9 referenced above says: "And the kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived sensuously..." (which means to live above the rules and laws).
In other words - this is the current manifestation of an age old conflict. Hard Stop!
Knowing that should make us both more wary and more confident. More wary - because our enemy is beguiling and an expert at slander and "playing the game". More confident - because our enemy is finite both in his intellect and in his resources; whereas our advocate is not. He is in fact the epitome of the Infinite Player.
My vote for quote of the day (and cause for prayer): "Trump gets to reap the rewards for Biden's failures.”
Thank you all for your takes! Have fun at GART 3!!
PS - for those who wonder: the Infinite Player's motives are in our best interest; though at times it may not appear to be the case.
PPS - Jesus would have quite likely posted "mean tweets" - at least to some.