Badlands News Brief

Russia Makes a Move, Garland Threatens & Zelenskyy Stalls

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 Tuesday, April 9 …

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Russia Says Investigating Senior U.S., NATO Officials for ‘Financing Terrorism’

Russia’s top investigative body announced Tuesday that it has launched a criminal probe into senior officials in the United States and NATO member countries who are suspected of “financing terrorism.”

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it has “established” that money from commercial organizations had been used to “eliminate prominent political and public figures” inside and outside Russia in recent years, as well as to “inflict economic damage” against the country.

While the Investigative Committee did not specify which terrorist attacks it suspects were funded by Western organizations, the announcement comes as top Russian officials double down on claims that Ukraine and the West were involved in the deadly Crocus City Hall attack last month.

The top law enforcement body named the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings as one of the implicated organizations. U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden served as a member of Burisma’s board of directors between 2014 and 2019. — The Moscow Times

Our Take: “This one makes a little giddy, as I've openly speculated that we may soon see public disclosure of the international financing of terrorism via lawfare by one of the purported members of the would-be Sovereign Alliance.

I've also pondered how Trump went about securing the trust of the Saudi's so quickly that they gave him a Sword Dance just months after he entered office. What did he do in order to immediately win their genuine respect?

There is one subject that I know for certain is a sore spot for both Donald Trump and Crown Prince MBS, and that subject is 9/11. It was traumatic for both of them, both vowing in the aftermath to seek retribution against those responsible.

Against those responsible.

According to documents released by the CIA during the Obama Administration, the US government officially blames the Saudi's for 9/11. This view has been expressed by political figures from both ends of the Uniparty spectrum.

MBS blames the perpetrators of 9/11 for bringing war and chaos to the Middle East. Donald Trump blames those same perpetrators for forever changing his home town, and his country, by killing his friends and neighbors.

Pure speculation, but wouldn't it be wild if that's what Trump gave to the Saudi's? The truth about 9/11?

That could be fun.

I wonder what evidence Putin is going to present next to support his argument that US government agencies are funding terrorist activities?

[accelerate]” — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry

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Justice Department asks GOP to ‘avoid conflict’ following Garland contempt threat

The Justice Department urged House Republicans to “avoid conflict” in a brewing battle after they threatened the possibility of contempt proceedings in their efforts to gain information on special counsel Robert Hur’s probe of President Biden’s handling of classified records. 

The Monday letter from the Justice Department’s head of legislative affairs asserts the House’s Oversight and Judiciary committees received the information they requested when they asked for transcripts of Hur’s interview with Biden, as well as a recording of the conversation. They likewise asked for some of the classified documents as well as all communications with Biden’s attorneys.

“The Committees have received the information you requested. That information may not have substantiated the concerns the Committees articulated, but it does appear to help resolve them and your inquiry,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote to House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

The letter goes on to assert the chairs may have requested the information for “political purposes that should have no role” in determining which law enforcement files are shared. — The Hill

Our Take: “That sounds like a threat. Almost like the most powerful government in the world is saying, ‘Take what we gave you and be happy about it. You don’t want us to turn our investigative powers on you, now, do you?’

The DOJ wants to eliminate the very real findings of the Hur report; that is, that Biden broke the law but is unfit to stand trial. Since he is again running to be President, that finding is devastating — and Biden’s DOJ wants to make it go away.

Notably, they could make it go away by replacing him with another candidate. They haven’t and, at this point, it kind of seems like they can’t.

Is the Uniparty stuck with Biden?” — Ashe in America

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Zelenskyy warns Russia has penetrated US politics, invites Trump to Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine warned in an interview that Russian influence had pierced the American political system and rejected the idea, backed by allies of Donald Trump, that Ukraine could swiftly end the war just by making massive territorial concessions.

But Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he had privately urged Trump through intermediaries to travel to Ukraine and that Trump had expressed interest but had not yet committed to making a trip. Zelenskyy said he was open to hearing Trump’s proposals for the war, while making clear he was highly skeptical.

“If the deal is that we just give up our territories, and that’s the idea behind it, then it’s a very primitive idea,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Axel Springer media outlets. POLITICO is owned by Axel Springer.

Zelenskyy continued: “I need very strong arguments. I don’t need a fantastic idea, I need a real idea, because people’s lives are at stake.”

Any deal that merely gave up land to Russian President Vladimir Putin in exchange for an end to hostilities, Zelenskyy said, would just open the way for more Russian wars of conquest in the future. A negotiated peace, he said, had to leave the Russian despot “no room to carry out his plans.”

In the interview, Zelenskyy swerved at times between expressing impatience with Western allies that have not delivered military aid readily enough — he faulted Germany most explicitly — and admitting that Ukraine is under considerable pressure to show new progress in the war. The interview was conducted in a combination of English and Ukrainian, partially using translators. — Politico

Our Take: “Politico is becoming my favorite establishment rag—not because I think they’re trying to tell us the truth, but rather because, as an establishment rag, I believe they’re one of the ones more earnestly attempting to learn what’s actually going on from the perspective of the Globalist war machine when it comes to a proxy state they seem to have quite lost control of.

On recent episodes of the Devolution Power Hour, Jon Herold and I speculated that the Biden Admin has narratively lost the plot on Ukraine, most notably because of its publicly-reported ‘anger and frustration’ at Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries, which have contributed to spiking global oil prices, which, in turn are hurting the Regime’s re-election chances … leaving the fakeness of said elections to the side, for the time being.

On Defected on Sunday night, Just Human and I went one step further, gaming out a potential scenario wherein Zelensky fully turns on the establishment, either provoking Putin more directly or by doing the total opposite, and coming to the table with peace on his mind.

Now that he’s openly requesting the presence of the man I’ve long speculated will go down in history as the Peacemaker … that particular scenario looks mighty juicy to us, and mighty scary to [them.]” — Burning Bright

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"We Cannot Cope": Police Scotland Deluged With Politicized Hate-Crime Reports

Entirely as predicted, Police Scotland has been deluged with vexatious and politically-driven ‘hate crime’ reports, with one top official complaining “we cannot cope.”

Didn’t see this one coming.

Under the new legislation, anyone deemed to have been verbally ‘abusive’, in person or online, to a transgender person, including “insulting” them could be hit with a prison sentence of up to seven years.

That instantly led to a flood of bad faith reports, including from conservatives making a mockery of the system and from deranged left-wing activists trying to punish their ideological adversaries.

David Threadgold, Chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, said that the new legislation was being exploited to pursue personal and political vendettas.

“Police Scotland have gone public and said that on every occasion, reports of hate crime will be investigated,” Mr. Threadgold told the BBC. “That creates a situation where we simply cannot cope at the moment.” — Modernity News

Our Take: “David Threadgold, Chairman of the Scottish Police Federation complaining about ‘people who look to weaponize this legislation… for… political scoring’ reveals the thin membrane of awareness that separates those who understand the war we’re in and those who reside in the realm of jUsT pOliTiCs.

It’s not that the legislation is being weaponized. The legislation is the weapon.

To take this awareness further, much of this lawfare is now on autopilot due to the momentum of ideological subversion.

It’s not enough that people in positions of power, amidst corruption, are against something.

We need authorities who grasp the true nature of the threat beyond superficial takes about politics. Otherwise, what good are public servants who cannot defend the institutions they are sworn to uphold?” — Simon Esler

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Colorado Republicans, facing power gap, will try to impeach — or recall — Jena Griswold over Trump ballot case

Colorado’s super-minority House Republicans are set to launch a largely symbolic impeachment attempt against Secretary of State Jena Griswold in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling keeping former President Donald Trump on the state’s primary ballot.

The bid, announced Thursday, came just days after the state GOP’s leader and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert threatened to pursue a recall campaign against the Democratic official. Griswold had urged the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling by Colorado’s high court finding Trump ineligible to run under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.

Neither option would have much chance of success as Republicans castigate Griswold for her role in the case and her wider criticism of Trump. House Republicans on Thursday morning made their impeachment attempt public by releasing a letter to House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Democrat, in which the caucus accused Griswold, who’s in the second year of her second term, of lacking “professionalism and integrity” for supporting Trump’s removal from the ballot.

“Since being elected, the Secretary of State has used her position as a platform for her partisan political ideology and has proven herself unfit for this elected position,” wrote Rep. Ryan Armagost, a Berthoud Republican who authored the letter. It was signed by all but two members of the House Republican caucus.

An impeachment of a state official requires a vote first by a House committee and then support from a majority of the chamber. It then would move to the Senate for a formal trial. — Denver 7

Our Take: “I’m not gonna lie, I prefer watching this nonsense from the comfort of my studio with all our Badlanders kicking it in the chat. But Tuesday, I went down to the Colorado Capitol to witness the impeachment hearing for Secretary of State Jena Griswold. It was very silly.

First, the Resolution charges malfeasance in office and accuses the Secretary of weaponizing her office for political gain and to interfere in the upcoming election. The US Supreme Court’s 9-0 opinion on the matter proves that the endeavor was frivolous, but the entirety of the commie establishment in the Centennial State has circled the wagons to make the interference appear to be a legitimate effort.

Such was the case again Tuesday, as the Democrats essentially screeched ‘insurrection’ and ‘democracy’! for several hours. Jena’s witnesses patted themselves on the back for being nonpartisan. Notably, two of her four witnesses were from leftist lawfare outfit Common Cause, and one of them was an attorney for the petitioners in the 9-0 case.

No one was under oath during the proceeding, and it showed. Jena talked about how fair she is and tried, again, to pretend that she was a neutral actor in the whole affair — while running around the nation squealing that the top Republican Presidential candidate is an ‘oathbreaking insurrectionist.’

Harry Dunn — the Capitol Police Officer that lied, under oath, during the J6 Committee hearings, about the death of Brian Sicknick. In January, Dunn was quoted in The Guardian, ‘Today, I’m running for Congress, to stop Trump’s Maga extremists and ensure it never happens again.’

The resolution failed on a party line vote, after hours of nonsense, and Jena will no doubt take a victory lap. She said during the hearing that ‘Colorado voters do trust me!’ — to chuckles in the hearing room and public backlash online.

Like I said, it was very silly and not nearly as fun without the Badlands chat.

Be vigilant during the upcoming Election Season, Colorado. The communists that oversee ‘Democracy!’ will be emboldened by today’s proceeding.” — Ashe in America

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Florida woman is sentenced to month in jail for selling Biden’s daughter’s diary

A Florida mother was sentenced Tuesday to a month in prison and three months of home confinement for stealing and selling President Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary four years ago to the conservative group Project Veritas.

Aimee Harris was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who called the Palm Beach, Florida, woman’s actions “despicable.”

Harris pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in August 2022, admitting that she received $20,000 of the $40,000 that was paid by Project Veritas for personal items belonging to the president’s daughter, Ashley Biden.

Project Veritas, founded in 2010, identifies itself as a news organization. It is best known for conducting hidden camera stings that have embarrassed news outlets, labor organizations and Democratic politicians.

A tearful Harris apologized for enabling Ashley Biden’s private writings to be sold after she found the diary and other items at a friend’s Delray Beach, Florida, home in 2020, where prosecutors said Ashley Biden believed her items were safely stored after she temporarily stayed there in spring 2020. — Politico

Our Take: “…soooo, you're saying that the diary in which Ashlee Biden confides that her father, Joe Biden, showered with her at age 11 and heavily implies that he molested her... ... is real?” — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry

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Another Take: “Yeah. Short takes for this one. But, I always say that Game Theory’s a bitch, if you’re on the wrong side of it. When you’ve got the infamous diary entered into the public record as a POTENTIAL belonging, that’s one thing, but now that court’s are forwarding legal findings built entirely on the authenticity of that thing, we get the perfect mix of Actual-Potential, none of which is good for the Biden Regime.

Where it concerns Harris, all we have to go on is speculation and the gravitational pull of plans within plans and the theories that orbit them … BUT, since she made a pretty penny pawning said documentation, one wonders what other agreements she made in the process.

Is Veritas a journalism outlet, or something more?” — Burning Bright

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BONUS ITEMS

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Scandal Rocks Biden's Labor Dept For Lying About Sharing Non-Public Inflation Data With Secret Group Of Wall Street "Super Users"

A little over a month ago, a scandal erupted among the (relatively small( group of economists who keep a close eye on the monthly inflation data reported by the Biden Department of Labor, when they learned that there is an even smaller, and much more exclusive group of economists called "super users" who get preferential treatment from the BLS, including wink-wink-nudge-nudge explanations of where the data may diverge from expectations. That was the case for the January CPI when as Bloomberg first reported, the BLS sent an email to a group of data “super users”, which "explained suggested a surge in a measure of rental inflation — which left analysts puzzled — was caused by an adjustment to how subcomponents of the index are weighted":

[…]

In retrospect, it appears the BLS really did have something to hide, because in a follow up from both the NYT and Bloomberg, we now learn that an economist from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was corresponding on data related the monthly CPI print with major firms like JPMorgan and BlackRock, in what Bloomberg said "raised questions about equitable access to economic information."

[…]

n mid-February, one user asked if they could be added to the “super user email list,” to which the BLS economist replied minutes later, “Yes I can add you to the list.” The move was an attempt by the lowly paid government worker to curry favor with his much better paid peers on the sell- and buyside so that he could, one day, trade the preferential data access for a cushier job in some hedge fund or Wall Street firm.

As Bloomberg details, while the recipients’ names were redacted from the request, email signature details or disclosures from their employers were visible in some of the provided records. And in addition to BlackRock and JPMorgan, other banks, hedge funds and research firms — Brevan Howard, Millennium Capital Partners LLP, Citadel, Moore Capital Management, High Frequency Economics, Nomura Securities International and BNP Paribas — appeared in the exchanges and declined to comment. Pharo Management and Wolfe Research also came up in the emails but didn’t provide comment.

Understandably, economists - at least those who were not important enough to be on the "super user" list - have been clamoring to find out more about these “super users” are after the BLS staffer addressed an email to those people in February, suggesting that a change to the weights of underlying data within a key measure of rental inflation was behind its surge in January’s CPI. As we reported at the time, the BLS told recipients to disregard its contents, and subsequently tried to clear the confusion with a notice on its website. The agency also said that the email was “a mistake.” — ZeroHedge

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Jack Smith Urges Supreme Court To Reject Trump's Presidential Immunity Claim In Final Filing

Special counsel Jack Smith in his final filing before the hearing is urging the Supreme Court to reject former President Donald Trump’s presidential immunity claim and deny any motions to delay a trial on charges related to the 2020 federal election conspiracy case.

Prosecutors from the DOJ allege President Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election result on Jan. 6, 2021, charging him with four counts of conspiracy and obstruction.

Former President Trump has denied he did anything wrong by calling for transparency and audits of the vote counts in swing states, and maintains presidential immunity for his actions on that day, which prevents prosecution for any actions he took while still in the top job.

In a fresh court brief on April 8, Mr. Smith pressed that President Trump’s argument for presidential immunity over official acts as president has no grounding in the Constitution, the nation’s history, or Americans’ understanding that presidents are not above the law.

“The President’s constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed does not entail a general right to violate them,” Mr. Smith said in the brief.

“The Framers never endorsed criminal immunity for a former President, and all Presidents from the Founding to the modern era have known that after leaving office they faced potential criminal liability for official acts.” — The Epoch Times

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Germany to Order Ships, Armored Vehicles Worth Up to €7 Billion

Germany’s ruling coalition will forge ahead this quarter with a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s armed forces with orders worth as much as €7 billion ($7.6 billion) for two navy frigates and hundreds of armored transport vehicles.

The government will exercise an option to buy two additional navy F126 frigates for about €3 billion, taking the total number to six, according to people familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

The government will also firm up an order worth as much as €4 billion for as many as 900 Fuchs armored transporters manufactured by Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH for delivery starting in 2025, the people said.

The main contractor for the frigate project is a unit of Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding BV of the Netherlands, and its partners are Thales SA of France and Germany’s Blohm+Voss.

Spokespeople for the defense ministry in Berlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. — Bloomberg

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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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