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.
Pope Francis passed away at age 88 on April 21, just a day after an Easter Sunday appearance at St. Peter’s Square, where he gave well-wishes to thousands of Catholic supporters. The Vatican said Monday that Francis died after a stroke.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis was elected Pope in 2013 after his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope to resign in about 600 years. Francis, chosen as TIME’s 2013 Person of the Year, became the first Latin American pontiff when he took the reins of the religious institution. Over his term, Francis became known for his humility and calls for peace during major global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the Gaza humanitarian crisis.
As the world mourns Francis and commemorates his life’s legacy, his death also kickstarts a leadership transition period at the Vatican known as the interregnum, during which there is no Pope in power (referred to as sede vacante, or the “vacant seat”). [...]
What happens when a Pope dies? After the Pope dies, the Vatican’s traditional nine days of mourning called the novendiales begin. The election of a new Pope begins between 15 to 20 days after the death. The camerlengo, a cardinal in the Catholic Church, is in charge of organizing the election in a process known as the conclave, which was recently dramatized in the Oscar-winning film Conclave. – Time
Our Take: I watched Conclave yesterday, and that was weird. Not the political posturing and secrets and sabotage. That’s just human nature.
The ending was weird. I won’t spoil it, but Katy Perry’s “divine feminine” is on the menu.
Setting aside the ending, I wonder how realistic the process is as portrayed in the film. Again, human nature... –
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As I write, President Donald Trump is doing what he loves best, which is to gather the world’s attention as he threatens to break some rule or other. This time he’s preparing to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a.k.a. “Mr. Too Late [to lower interest rates], a major loser.”
If only because the world can’t quite believe Trump will do this, he will do it—probably in the next day or two, but certainly well before Powell’s term ends in May 2026. More importantly, the Supreme Court will allow it to happen.
I keep seeing the word “unprecedented” in news reports about the possibility of Powell’s firing. It is not unprecedented. Granted, no president has ever fired a Fed chair, but the Fed is an independent agency, and Trump has already fired a baker’s dozen such officials at nominally independent agencies. These include three members at the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board; two each at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Trade Commission; and one each at the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Election Commission, the Office of Special Counsel, the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
These firings have caused no small amount of chaos within the administrative state, which matters more than even liberals fully understand. But the market didn’t tank when these earlier officials were fired, because the market neither knows nor cares what these government agencies do. – The New Republic
Our Take: For years, I've been claiming that Donald Trump has the Federal Reserve caught in a series of game theory pincers they're unable to get out of, and that's WITHOUT considering the very real prospect that he currently wields direct control over the financial entity dating back to moves made in his first administration to fold the bank into the US Treasury, now led by Scott Bessent.
For weeks, I've also been claiming that one of the major theaters to watch in the next chapter of the War of Stories would be Trump amplifying his feud with Fed chairman Jerome Powell in an attempt to simultaneously provoke and disclose.
Well, in between tariff tantrums and peacemongering, some of Trump's most signal deployments have concerned the above; and this morning, he adopted a warlike posture when it comes to what he feels the Fed should do with the US economy caught in the engineered grips of a stagflationary holding pattern, unable to further raise or lower interest rates, as the former would all but ensure a deep recession while the latter could kick off an inflationary boom that further defines the line of demarcation between the real and fake economies.
At least, that's what WOULD happen if the battlespace hadn't been prepped by Trump and his economic A-team dating back to 2020, when the (also engineered) Covid Scamdemic lent them the perfect bit of narrative shielding that allowed the administration to provoke the Fed into an unprecedented money printing bonanza that accelerated the system's fiat timeline far ahead of where it was meant to be, thus kicking national awakening into warp speed as the link between central banking action and economic strife was rendered clear to more Americans than ever before.
This is because he removed their ability to reset the global economy on their terms. And yet, a reset IS coming. Just not the one they had in mind.
You see, Trump has the public mandate – and they have firmly lost it.
Thus, Trump is GOING to get his wish for "preemptive cuts," and since the current battlespace is in the midst of a global realignment AWAY from, well, globalism and back toward protectionism, this is going to juice the asset valuations of both Main Street AND Wall Street, all while a mix of tariffs, tax breaks, and the onshoring of domestic production result in a deflationary cycle that will offset the inflationary hangover that would typically come on the back of an engineered boom-bust cycle.
All the while, Trump is laying the groundwork to make sure such a spiral is never possible again, by refocusing the American mind on real systems of valuation, from profit and loss metrics to, perhaps most importantly, sound money backing, whether you're talking about gold, Bitcoin or both.
Trump is attempting to pull us away from the fiat system ... but first, he's going to milk it for all it's worth. [more] –
What was a miserable shortened week for the USD has gone from bad to worse in early Asia trading, when the Dollar index suddenly collapsed to a fresh 3 year low.
While there is no specific catalyst for the suddenly collapse in the illiquid early Asian session, which sees many countries on extended Easter holiday, Bloomberg quotes traders that hedge funds are selling the dollar against virtually any currencies after National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Friday that President Donald Trump is still exploring ways to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, according to traders.
“The president and his team will continue to study that,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Friday when asked by a reporter if removing Powell was an option. Hassett then suggested, accurately, that the Fed under Powell, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, had acted politically to benefit Democrats.
“The policy of this Federal Reserve was to raise rates the minute President Trump was elected last time, to say that the supply-side tax cuts that were going to be inflationary,” Hassett said, adding that Fed officials opted not to go “on TV and at IMF meetings and warn about the terrible inflation from the obvious runaway spending from Joe Biden, and the obvious runaway spending from Joe Biden was textbook inflationary,” Hassett continued. “And then they cut rates right ahead of the election.” – ZeroHedge
Our Take: As we've been saying...
"Ironically, if Powell will not cut rates to ease financial conditions, Trump's repeated browbeating of the Fed chair and threats to fire him will crash the dollar low enough to where Trump will get his financial easing one way or another." –
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ratified parliamentary approval of a crucial treaty with Tehran, which he originally signed with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in January. The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement, which Putin implemented on Monday, formalizes a commitment to building stronger relations across multiple areas, from national security, to peaceful nuclear energy to joint resistance against unilateral sanctions.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized last week that the treaty was being finalized “despite the challenging regional and global landscape and attempts to exert pressure on our nations,” by third parties.
In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump has threatened military action against Iran unless it agrees to curtail its nuclear activities sufficiently to guarantee that it cannot use them to develop weaponry — an aspiration the Islamic Republic has vehemently denied. – RT
Our Take: Oh wow, what timing. We've got Mike Huckabee over here openly professing that carpet bombing cities full of women and children is somehow a righteous act of altruism – and on Easter, no less – and Mark Levin accusing President Trump of negotiating another Barack Obama-styled Iran Nuclear Deal.
A year ago I would have been called a Hamas propagandist for asserting that Gaza had been carpet-bombed, but thanks to President Trump now it is universally understood that Gaza is a "demolition site", because it was absolutely carpet-bombed, which is a war crime. Nobody is advocating that we annihilate Denver (along with all of its inhabitants) in order to combat Tren de Aragua, yet when it comes to the Middle East, we've allowed the propagandists to seduce us into bloodlust.
Putin is now placing himself firmly between Netanyahu and Tehran, and daring Bibi to pull the trigger. President Trump has already made it clear that this new deal will grant Iran a civil nuclear energy program, though that seems to be a red line that nobody in Israeli politics is prepared to oblige.
How many nuclear weapons does Israel illegally possess? That's not a rhetorical question. It should be answered, before we send any more money to Tel Aviv. –
Federal authorities announced charges Monday against more than two dozen people they say were associated with Tren de Aragua in a list of mayhem ranging from robbery and sex trafficking to murder of women who tried to escape.
Prosecutors charged two different groups — one involving six people alleged to be current TdA members and another against 21 people authorities said are with Anti-Tren, a group that split off from TdA. The charges, handed up in two indictments in New York, challenge the claims of some immigration rights advocates that the government is overselling the threat from TdA.
“Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence, engaged in human trafficking, and spread deadly drugs through our communities,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
The Justice Department said the indictments are the first against TdA under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. – The Washington Times
Our Take:
[From General Flynn: “Tren de Aragua is a Foreign Terrorist organization directly backed by elements inside of the Venezuelan (VE) government.”]
“… backed by elements inside the Venezuelan government.”
Similarly, Abrego Garcia, for instance, is backed by elements inside the US government, but not by the US government.
The US government deported him, elements inside the US government support him.
This distinction is critical in all situations. That is especially true when we’re talking about countries and leaders described as adversarial based on what elements inside their governments are doing. –
Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum which gathers the world's business and political elite in the Swiss mountain village of Davos every year, has resigned as chair of its board of trustees, the WEF said on Monday.
The Geneva-based institution had announced earlier this month that Schwab, 87, would be stepping down, without indicating a timeframe.
"Following my recent announcement, and as I enter my 88th year, I have decided to step down from the position of Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees, with immediate effect," Schwab said in a statement released by the WEF.
The WEF board said in the statement that it had accepted Schwab's resignation at an extraordinary meeting held on April 20, and that Vice Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe would become the interim chairman. – Reuters
Our Take: They announced this last year, on May 21, 2024. It actually took longer than expected for Klaus to skedaddle.
From that article, “The WEF said the change in leadership will be completed before the next Davos gathering in January 2025.”
It took a few extra months, but now it’s complete. Schwab has been the head of the WEF for 50 years.
They shouldn’t get a new leader. They should be dissolved.
Culture of Change returned last night, and Abbey and I discussed this change, what it means, and the potential futures for the WEF.
MicroStrategy (MSTR +0.18%) stock rose Monday after the software company revealed it had snapped up even more Bitcoin (BTCUSD +0.86%).
It’s hardly news for a company whose name practically is synonymous with that of the cryptocurrency. But that’s just about where the relationship ends. If MicroStrategy were to stop buying Bitcoin today, this would have little to no impact on the price, according to analysts at TD Cowen.
MicroStrategy filed a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showing that it snapped up 6,556 digital tokens for $555.8 million in cash, or roughly $84,785 per Bitcoin, between April 14 and April 20. – Barrons
Our Take: *MICROSTRATEGY ACQUIRED 6,556 BITCOINS APRIL 14-20, 2025
*MICROSTRATEGY: SOLD 1.755M MSTR SHARES APRIL 14-20, 2025
*MICROSTRATEGY: NET PROCEEDS FROM MSTR SHARE SALE $547.7M
Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed it was “fake news,” but purported plans to shutter huge sections of the Department of State sent shivers down the spines of U.S. diplomats over the weekend.
An alleged draft order circulated through the State Department over the weekend, outlining a complete overhaul of the agency to “streamline mission delivery” while eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse,” according to The New York Times. The plan recommended eliminating the department’s bureaus focusing on African affairs and all “non-essential embassies and consulates in sub-Saharan Africa.” It would also shutter bureaus on democracy and human rights, refugees and migration, and one that works with international organizations. It would abolish the special envoy on climate and shrink the U.S. diplomatic presence in Canada to a “significantly reduced team” overseen by Rubio himself.
The document also pitched changes to how the foreign service works, ending an “outdated and disorganized generalist global rotation model” for a model that promotes specialization in one particular area. The plan called to terminate the foreign service’s contract to recruit fellowship candidates from Howard University, a historically Black institution.
Rubio responded to the report in a post on X Sunday, writing that it was “fake news.” But the proposed changes reportedly rattled diplomats, who thought the memo could be real, according to Politico. – The New Republic
Our Take: Based. Abolish the State Department and restart our diplomacy program from scratch. The majority of the world's international problems (as well internal turmoil in specific countries) can be traced back to the US State Department, and as I type this, special envoys such as Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler are demonstrating that diplomacy is best conducted by career businessmen and pragmatists.
We also understand that the CIA – which is the heart and soul of the State Department – is a malignant tumor on humanity, and should be excised as soon as possible for the safety of every man, woman, and child in the world. –
On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring an emergency at the US southern border and directed his top officials to evaluate whether to invoke a rarely used 19th-century law in response to immigration concerns.
The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the president to use active-duty military personnel to perform law-enforcement duties inside the US.
US media report that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, who were tasked with the assessment, will announce their recommendations later this week.
Since returning to office, Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a central focus, and border crossings have reached a quarter-century low. But the statute could further expand the president's powers. – BBC
The sewing machines had been switched off at Kang Yang Apparel, a women’s-clothing manufacturer in the southeastern-Chinese city of Yiwu, so it was easy to hear the word ricocheting across the factory floor: Chuanpu, a Mandarin nickname for Trump.
When I visited, the United States had just raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 percent. The workers at Kang Yang did not seem intimidated. When I approached a group of idle factory men, their replies were bellicose: “Hold strong!” one shouted. “You think we’re afraid of America?” barked another. Later, one man offered a steadier assessment: “The truth is, it will have an impact, but we will be fine.” Yiwu is the world’s largest wholesale market. [...]
Trump’s whirlwind policies have already throttled Yiwu’s supply chains. Purchase orders have dried up, and shipments have been postponed. On average, the merchants I spoke with have somewhere from 10 to 20 percent of their business tied up with the United States. Yet even as their future prospects looked bleak, there was little appetite for détente. – The Atlantic
Our Take: Donald Trump celebrates Easter at the White House. In his sarcastic, "classic Trump" post Trump once again suggested Biden was not the real president.
The Trump Deranged are fretting about Trump invoking the Insurrection Act, but there are certainly worse conspiracy theories, like the TV narrative that nothing is going on behind the scenes.
Flashback: Donald Trump announces that the Invisible Enemy would be defeated and the job would be "done by Easter" during the Very Deadly Pandemic in 2020.
Total Inversions and focusing on ideals as goals rather than half-measures. The White House replaces the covid info on covid.gov with a webpage laying out the 'lab leak theory.'
JD Vance visits Pope Francis just hours before he is announced as having died. Archbishop Vigano's scathing comments on Bergoglio. Flashback to 2017: The Pope at war with the Knights of Malta.
The strange voting process to determine a new pope and how the numbers shake out. Trump lowers the flags worldwide.
The Trump feud with Jerome Powell is responsible for the weakening of the dollar and the rise in gold, or so we're told. The Atlantic says that tariffs are basically Hitler.
Nayib Bukele proposes a prisoner swap with Venezuela. [more] –
Ye, the controversial US musician and fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West, disavowed his previous claims of being a Nazi in a social media post on [M]onday before later deleting it.
Earlier this year, the rapper embroiled himself in a major scandal after proclaiming himself “a Nazi,” and expressing love for Adolf Hitler, after a lengthy series of anti-Semitic posts on X.
“Okay […] I’ve come to the realization that I’m not a Nazi […] And hopefully you guys have come to the realization that I can and will say whatever the f*ck I feel like whenever the f*ck I feel like it,” Ye said in a now-deleted post on X on Monday.
Ye has become notorious for his public anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi tirades and interviews. The fallout from his statements has cost him hundreds of millions of dollars due to the loss of corporate sponsors over the past few years.
Last month, the controversial rapper-turned-fashionista flashed a white t-shirt with a swastika in a video published by the US tabloid TMZ. Ye called the stunt his “greatest dream” in a now-deleted X post the same day. – RT
Our Take:
So... Kanye has been running an op this whole time? (I wonder who gave him that idea...) And his op provoked the establishment Republicans into passing "hate speech" laws that effectively ban criticism of a specific foreign government? Thus, revealing their true character to the public?
We all owe Kanye a debt of gratitude for his public service. He lost billions of dollars in personal wealth for running this op, and in exchange, We The People were shown who the real traitors are in our government when it comes to free speech. –
Harvard University recruited a lineup of law firms and lawyers with ties to allies of President Donald Trump to sue the Trump administration over freezing billions in federal grants and contracts.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts features a long list of lawyers from four different firms, brought against an equally lengthy list of executive agency officials and Trump appointees, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
The lawsuit said that the funding freeze would impact ongoing research that develops "novel drugs to fight Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, engineer nanofibers to protect servicemembers and first responders, support American astronauts in space, and design an artificial intelligence system that can be used to diagnose and treat cancer."
Quinn Emanuel, headquartered in Los Angeles, has long represented Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who donated $250 million to Trump's campaign and is now the face of the White House DOGE office and its effort to decrease the size of the federal government. – Business Insider
A former Democrat staffer who filmed himself having sex in a congressional hearing room said he “spent a little bit in the psych ward” after news of the scandal broke — as he revealed his new life in Australia.
Aidan Maese-Czeropski was 24 years old when the explicit gay sex tape was released in 2023, leading to him being let go by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.).
“Mentally, I spent a little bit in the psych ward after the fact because it was just … it’s overwhelming to realize and to know that tens of millions of people literally despise you,” Maese-Czeropski told the Gay Sydney News, in an interview in which he revealed he has since moved to Sydney and started an OnlyFans. – New York Post
Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate who has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was denied permission from attending the birth of his first child, several reports confirmed Monday.
Khalil’s attorneys wrote on Sunday to Melissa Harper, the director of ICE’s field office in New Orleans where he is being held, requesting for a two-week release from detention to be with his wife when she delivered their son, CNN reported.
About 30 minutes later, Harper denied the request and said she was dismissing the furlough “after consideration of the submitted information and a review” of Khalil’s case, the outlet reported.
According to a statement shared online, Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said she welcomed their son into the world alone. “This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer,” she said. – The Hill
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True BB: "Trump is attempting to pull us away from the fiat system ... but first, he's going to milk it for all it's worth. [more] – Burning Bright". I believe the fiat slave system is at the heart of the DS Rat Bastard's control system and it must be taken down before the world can be fixed. I am glad to see Trump driving that bus:-)
Has anyone here read “Reading ‘Lolita’ in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi? This morning I am prompted to humanize the populace of middle eastern countries. The vast majority of people are just like us; caring for our families and trying to earn a living. Yesterday morning my husband was on a Teams call with a young Iranian man in Tehran who has a passion for leadership. I could hear the conversation and my heart felt glad.
True BB: "Trump is attempting to pull us away from the fiat system ... but first, he's going to milk it for all it's worth. [more] – Burning Bright". I believe the fiat slave system is at the heart of the DS Rat Bastard's control system and it must be taken down before the world can be fixed. I am glad to see Trump driving that bus:-)
God Wins!
God Bless!!!
Has anyone here read “Reading ‘Lolita’ in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi? This morning I am prompted to humanize the populace of middle eastern countries. The vast majority of people are just like us; caring for our families and trying to earn a living. Yesterday morning my husband was on a Teams call with a young Iranian man in Tehran who has a passion for leadership. I could hear the conversation and my heart felt glad.