Badlands News Brief

Trump Counters, SBF Pleads & Disney Dies?

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.

Many items feature original (and subjective) commentary. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see our writers’ Substack accounts and check out their other work.

Now, onto the news from Thursday, March 28 …

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Trump’s team cites First Amendment in contesting charges in Georgia election interference case

The charges against Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference case seek to criminalize political speech and advocacy conduct that the First Amendment protects, a lawyer for the former president said Thursday as he argued that the indictment should be dismissed.

The hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee was on a filing from Mr. Trump and on two pretrial motions by co-defendant David Shafer and centered on technical legal arguments. It marked something of a return to normalcy after the case was rocked by allegations that District Attorney Fani Willis improperly benefited from her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor hired for the case.

“There is nothing alleged factually against President Trump that is not political speech,” Trump’s lead lawyer, Steve Sadow, told the judge. Mr. Sadow said a sitting president expressing concerns about an election is “the height of political speech” and that is protected even if what was said ended up being false.

Prosecutor Donald Wakeford countered that Mr. Trump’s statements are not protected by the First Amendment because they were integral to criminal activity.

“It’s not just that they were false. It’s not that the defendant has been hauled into a courtroom because the prosecution doesn’t like what he said,” Mr. Wakeford said, adding that Mr. Trump is free to express his opinion and make legitimate protests. “What he is not allowed to do is to employ his speech and his expression and his statements as part of a criminal conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO statute, to impersonate public officers, to file false documents, to make false statements to the government.”

Mr. Wakeford pointed out that similar arguments were raised and rejected in the federal election interference case against Mr. Trump brought by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in a December ruling that “it is well established that the First Amendment does not protect speech that is used as an instrument of a crime.” — The Globe and Mail

And …

Former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark fights to save law license as disciplinary trial begins

Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who worked closely with former President Donald Trump in a bid to subvert the 2020 election, should face professional consequences — including the potential loss of his license to practice law — for his effort to throw the nation into chaos, D.C. bar disciplinary authorities argued Tuesday.

But a lawyer for Clark said it would be unreasonable to punish him for his work during the tumultuous days ahead of Jan. 6, 2021, when he spearheaded a proposal to encourage state legislatures to consider overturning the results. That plan was never adopted and Trump ultimately turned it down. Punishing Clark for being on the losing side of a policy dispute would set a dangerous precedent, Clark’s team argued.

The alternate realities were on display Tuesday as bar investigators began laying out their case to penalize Clark for his role in Trump’s scheme to remain in power. Investigators charged Clark with violating professional rules of conduct in late 2020 by attempting to coerce his bosses to send a letter to Georgia lawmakers encouraging them to reconsider the outcome of the election there based on “significant concerns” about the integrity of the vote.

For Clark, the opening arguments in the case — heard by a three-member panel of the D.C. Bar’s Board of Professional Responsibility — were never supposed to happen. Clark has spent two years fighting legal battles intended to scrap the case altogether, contending that the D.C. Bar has no jurisdiction over the conduct of federal government lawyers. But a federal court rejected Clark’s position, and an appeals court declined to step in to block the case from moving ahead. — Politico

Our Take: “We are getting a master class in RICO with this Fani Willis case down in Georgia, and I have a feeling it's going to be very useful in the future. We first covered the Donald Trump and David Shafer Motions Hearing in Scott McAfee's courtroom.

Steve Sadow argued for President Trump, and the motion was to dismiss charges related to President Trump's speech because the charges are unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds 'as applied' to the facts of the case. The county argued that the speech is an overt act among many in a pattern of 'criminal behavior.' The crime, of course, is being Donald Trump.

David Shafer's attorneys argued two motions about the alternate slate of electors. The first was that he was acting on the advice of counsel and engaging in conduct that was lawful at the time; that is, before the 116th Congress passed the Electoral Count Act. The second motion was to strike language from the indictment that characterized guilt vs. innocence (i.e., 'fake, false, lawful,' etc. The government said that this was a matter to be determined at trial, while Shafer argued that the characterization will taint the jury pool.

When the Georgia hearing ended, we tuned into former DOJ Official and Georgia RICO Defendant Jeff Clark's disbarment hearing, which was a bonus master class in the rules and codes of professional conduct. There is also a lot of witness testimony about why exploring 2020 election fraud was not just proper, but compulsory for officers of the court. Matt Gaetz was there. Check out Brian and my analysis on Rumble by clicking the links below if you missed it!" —

Ashe in America

WATCH BADLANDS LIVE COVERAGE:

TRUMP & SHAFER MOTIONS HEARING

WATCH CLARK DISBARMENT HEARING

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years for crypto fraud, to pay $11 billion in forfeiture

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday for the massive fraud and conspiracy that doomed his cryptocurrency exchange and a related hedge fund, Alameda Research.

The sentence in Manhattan federal court was significantly less than the 40 to 50 years in prison that federal prosecutors wanted for Bankman-Fried, but it was much more than the five to six-and-a-half years suggested by his attorneys.

“There is a risk that this man will be in position to do something very bad in the future,” Judge Lewis Kaplan said before sentencing the 32-year-old and ordering him to pay $11 billion in forfeiture to the U.S. government.

“And it’s not a trivial risk at all,” Kaplan added.

Kaplan noted he has never heard “a word of remorse for the commission of terrible crimes” from Bankman-Fried.

The judge said that in the 30 years on the federal bench, he had “never seen a performance” like Bankman-Fried’s trial testimony.

If Bankman-Fried was not “outright lying” during cross-examination by prosecutors, he was “evasive,” Kaplan said. — CNBC

Our Take: “United States v. SBF

Samuel Bankman-Fried is sentenced to:

• 300 months in Federal Prison (25yrs)

• $11.02 billion forfeiture

• Plus forfeiture of specific properties

• Medium or lower security facility near San Francisco recommended

Gotta admit, I am disappointed in that sentence. I do not consider it to be sufficient for the criminality in this case, especially considering that Sam is wholly unrepentant and engaged in witness tampering while awaiting trial and also perjured himself.

I am not confident that this sentence serves the ends of Justice, nor that it is a deterrent to others. Possibly it is. 25yrs and $11 billion is certainly nothing to scoff at.

However, I remember the days when people moaned that nothing would happen to him at all, that FTX, Sam, and the other execs would all get away with this.

I never believed that and indeed, they did not get away with this.

The other execs were indicted and flipped against Sam.

FTX, Alameda, and others were taken from Sam and the new owners entered them in bankruptcy and began a process to secure some degree of restitution to the victims.

Further restitution is forthcoming as a consequence of this conviction and sentence, but of course, it will never be able to make the victims completely whole again.

SBF’s counsel have stated that they will appeal this sentence, so the story doesn’t end here.

Given Sam’s ego and unrepentant disposition, I could picture an appeal going badly for him…

Question now is: What about the parents?” —

Just Human

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Disney Faces Accusations of Misleading Shareholders with Left-Wing Agenda

The Walt Disney Company is facing backlash after critics say it has misled its shareholders by prioritizing a “woke political and social agenda” over profits, thus violating its fiduciary duty.

As Fox News reports, a letter was sent to Disney on Wednesday by America First Legal (AFL) accusing the company of unlawful discrimination, as well as forcing political messages that have resulted in “damage to Disney’s brand, properties, and commercial reputation by management’s manufactured misalignment between its woke political and social agenda and the vast majority of the Company’s customers.”

AFL, which is run by Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, further claims that Disney’s upper levels of management “intentionally manufactured misalignment between the Company and its core customers” in recent years, which has led to the company’s market capitalization losing over $100 billion since February of 2021.

“Disney has displayed an inexplicable disregard for its customers and shareholders, forcing radical gender-expansive, anti-White, and anti-police content on families while providing warnings about harmful content on uncontroversial content,” said AFL in a press release, which went on to cite several examples of left-wing rhetoric and messages in Disney’s various entertainment products, from TV shows to movies.

In February, AFL filed a civil rights complaint against Disney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that the company implemented a “patently illegal” hiring program that overwhelmingly favored “underrepresented” groups.

“Disney is an iconic American brand–the product of decades of family-focused content infused with American pride that hundreds of millions of Americans have enjoyed for decades,” said AFL Executive Director Gene Hamilton in a statement. “But today, Disney’s leadership appears to have abandoned its roots–and most notably, its shareholders–in hopes of placating an insatiable activist movement that aims to radically reshape the Disney brand into something that is completely inconsistent with its history.”

“If Disney were a privately held corporation, it could make whatever foolish decisions it desired if those decisions complied with the law. But it’s not,” Hamilton continued. “Disney’s leadership is gambling with–and losing–shareholder money and appears to be violating federal law in the process.” — American Greatness

Our Take: “The Hollywood Reporter ran this header on Wednesday, 'Bob Iger’s Invincible Era Is Over.'

While they're pinning the tail on the Igerian donkey for now, the rash of media panic pieces and about-faces coming out this week regarding the Disney empire are both seismic and delicious to many in the truth community.

As for what kicked off the latest Narrative Crisis Cascade for the biggest entertainment company in the world, it comes on the back of twin deployments: namely, the announcement that billionaire Nelson Peltz now has sizable support to actualize his planned seizing of a seat & some control of the Disney board next month, right on the heels of his announcement that he would be supporting Donald Trump in the 2024 election ...

Along with Disney being forced to settle with the State of Florida on its ongoing special status disputes, reducing the company's legal autonomy considerably.

Politics IS Culture, and the Culture War has turned decidedly on the establishment.

Oh ... and if this wasn't enough, former Trump senior advisor and America First Legal head Stephen Miller has now sent a letter to Disney ‘accusing the company of unlawful discrimination, as well as forcing political messages that have resulted in damage to Disney’s brand ... by management’s manufactured misalignment between its woke political and social agenda and the vast majority of the Company’s customers.'

So, to recap, we've got:

• Bob Iger being thrown to the wolves in a media he once dominated as a Dem presidential hopeful

• Billionaire investor and Trump supporter Nelson Peltz on the verge of seizing power on the Disney board

• Disney settling special status suit with Florida, cutting its losses

• Elon Musk supporting Gina Carano's suit against the company

• America First Legal (a totally, definitely civilian outfit and not at all part of a larger plan) taking legal aim

Disney WAS a distraction.

Now, it's demise has become the very entertainment it used to peddle.” —

Burning Bright

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US changes how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity. It’s the first revision in 27 years

For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government.

“You can’t underestimate the emotional impact this has on people,” said Meeta Anand, senior director for Census & Data Equity at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s how we conceive ourselves as a society. ... You are seeing a desire for people to want to self-identify and be reflected in data so they can tell their own stories.”

Under the revisions, questions about race and ethnicity that previously were asked separately on forms will be combined into a single question. That will give respondents the option to pick multiple categories at the same time, such as “Black,” “American Indian” and “Hispanic.” Research has shown that large numbers of Hispanic people aren’t sure how to answer the race question when that question is asked separately because they understand race and ethnicity to be similar and they often pick “some other race” or do not answer the question. — AP News

Our Take: “We talk a lot about narratives, and the role of the media in creating the false reality. That’s the communication part of the communists’ public-facing strategy. The change management part is to redefine the underlying infrastructure – the people, their beliefs, and the rules, norms, and metrics associated with the desired change outcomes.

Those desired change outcomes are obvious.

As George Carlin once said, ‘The quality of our thoughts and ideas can only be as good as the quality of our language.’

From this announcement:

‘You can’t underestimate the emotional impact this has on people… It’s how we conceive ourselves as a society.’

It also happens to support societal segmentation and create new grievance categories. They admit as much:

‘To be able to disaggregate can really be helpful to distinguish different kinds of discrimination, the ability to enforce laws around discrimination and do research on public health and economic outcomes,’ said Allison Plyer, chief demographer of The Data Center in New Orleans.

Then there is this:

‘The changes also strike the terms ‘majority’ and ‘minority,’ because they fail to reflect the nation’s complex racial and ethnic diversity, some officials say.’

Wait, what? How does removing the term ‘minority’ impact the law? In Google Scholar, there are 10 pages of cases referencing ‘minority’ litigators and their specific rights.

Did the Office of Management and Budget just open a massive can of worms?” —

Ashe in America

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BONUS ITEMS

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Russian Navy Enters Warship-Crowded Red Sea Amid Houthi Attacks

Russian warships from the Pacific Fleet have crossed the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and entered the Red Sea, the state-run Tass news agency said, venturing into a maritime region plagued by Houthi attacks and crowded with naval vessels.

The detachment included the missile cruiser Varyag and frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov, Tass reported Thursday, citing the Russian Pacific Fleet’s press service, which said the ships were carrying out “assigned tasks within the framework of the long-range sea campaign.” The ultimate destination of the ships was unclear from the report, as was the reason Russia sent vessels to the area.

For months, the Yemen-based Houthis have carried out a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea in retaliation for Israel’s military actions in Gaza, forcing many ships to redirect their journeys. The group told China and Russia earlier this month that their ships can sail through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden without being attacked. In exchange, the two countries may provide political support to the Houthis in bodies such as the United Nations Security Council, according to several people with knowledge of the militant group’s discussions. — Bloomberg

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CERN to test world's most powerful particle accelerator during April's  solar eclipse  to search for 'invisible' matter that secretly powers our universe

The world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator is set smash protons together on April 8 to search for invisible particles secretly powering our universe.

Theories have suggested there are 17 different particle groups and the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, confirmed the existence of one using its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012.

Now, the team has restarted LHC after a two-year hibernation with hopes of unraveling more mysterious - specifically dark matter. 

Scientists began preliminary tests by sending billions of protons around LHC's ring of superconducting magnets to boost their energy and ensure the $4 billion machine was in working condition.

And next month, CERN will shoot them down a 17-mile-long tunnel at nearly the speed of light to recreate conditions a second after the Big Bang. — The Daily Mail

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RNC files election integrity suit against Michigan secretary of state

The Republican National Committee on Thursday filed an election integrity lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, alleging that she had worked to covertly undercut the state's absentee voting safeguards.

At issue is a memorandum Benson sent to election officials ahead of the state's presidential primary encouraging them to apply a "presumption of validity" to signatures on absentee ballot requests, which the RNC contends violates the state constitution's signature matching requirement.

"This new rule, however, is directly inconsistent with the plain language of the Michigan Constitution and the Michigan Election Law," the suit stated. It further highlighted a rule Benson promulgated that grants election officials broad leeway to account for discrepancies in signatures on return envelopes with signatures on file, which the RNC described as permitting verification based on "mere speculation." — Just the News

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Baltimore Leader Says Conservatives “Should Be Afraid” For Calling Him the ‘DEI Mayor’

Baltimore leader Brandon Scott appeared on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show to assert that white conservatives “should be afraid” of the consequences of calling him the ‘DEI Mayor’ and that his “purpose in life” was to make them uncomfortable.

Yes, really.

Professional race-bator Reid angrily asserted that when right-wingers make fun of DEI, they actually mean just “black people,” claiming, “It’s the reason they complained about Critical Race Theory, it’s not fashionable to be openly racist anymore in America.”

She then welcomed Scott, who dresses and acts like a Black Lives Matter activist, to address the horrifically “racist” fact that right-wingers don’t support DEI in light of the Baltimore bridge collapse.

The mayor complained about “young black men” being demonized and treated as the “boogeymen” by racist conservatives who think that “only straight, white wealthy men” should have power. — Modernity News

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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.

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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