Badlands News Brief

Epstein Boomerangs & Bipartisan Bullsh*t

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 Monday, January 8 …

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Epstein accuser claims pedophile had sex tapes of Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson: new docs

A Jeffrey Epstein accuser once claimed former President Donald Trump allegedly had “sexual relations” with one of her unnamed friends at the late pedophile’s New York home “on regular occasions,” according to another trove of court documents unsealed Monday.

Sarah Ransome, in a string of 2016 emails to then-New York Post columnist Maureen Callahan also claimed that she had copies of tapes Epstein had made of some of his high-profile friends — Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and British business magnate Richard Branson — allegedly having sex with an unnamed woman.

“She confided in me about her casual ‘friendship’ with Donald. Mr. Trump definitely seemed to have a thing for her and she told me how he kept going on about how he liked her ‘pert nipples,’” Ransome wrote about her friend in one email, made public when the latest batch of newly unsealed documents dropped.

“I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jeffery’s NY mansion on regular occasions,” she added.  

Ransome walked back the salacious allegations in an Oct. 23, 2016 email with Callahan, writing, “I would like to retract everything I have said to you and walk away from this,” according to the filing. 

She added that “only bad things” and “pain for my family”  would come from going public. — NY Post

Our Take: “For this one … we should probably start at the whole … ‘walked back the salacious allegations’ part.

But it’s really beside the point, and the point is that the Media Industrial Complex, including those purporting to be on the ‘Right,’ are fully engaged in a mass conflation campaign against Donald Trump in a desperate bid to turn the Epstein boomerang around on him.

And yet, one of the most encouraging aspects of the current moment in the Info War is that the enemy has reached the point where they can no longer conceal the reality of Crimes Against Children, so they're well into the conflation phase, accusing Trump of their own crimes.

The reason it's such an easy observation to make is largely owing to the Q Op, which prepped millions of minds for these future Narrative moves, and Trump was engaged in Narrative Seeding even before that more directed and detailed Op went hot.

When you look back at the first Trump Admin, and especially the lead-up to it, Trump's rhetoric ran two parallel tracks:

1. Seeding of the revelations (and ensuing Justice) to come years later.

2. Bait for the very Establishment he (and patriots) were hunting to hunt him.

The First Trump Admin was all about template and precedent setting, and now, those chickens are finally coming home to roost in the Collective Mind.

Game Theory's a bitch ... if you're on the wrong side of it.” — Burning Bright

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Congressional leaders announce spending deal as shutdown threat looms

House and Senate leaders on Sunday announced a spending deal for government funding in 2024, the first step to averting a shutdown later this month even as that threat still looms.

The topline numbers agreed to by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer include $1.59 trillion for fiscal year 2024, with $886 billion for defense spending and $704 in non-defense spending. They also agreed to a $69 billion side deal in adjustments that will go toward non-defense domestic spending.

The side deal brings the non-defense spending figure to nearly $773 billion, a Democratic source told CNN, with spending close to $1.66 trillion overall.

While their agreement on funding levels will reduce the chances of a shutdown, there are still major hurdles facing Congress ahead of two funding deadlines: January 19 and February 2.

One of those hurdles is how to deal with demands by conservatives to use the funding bill as leverage to impose more stringent immigration and border security demands.

Congress will still have to approve funding bills — or a stopgap resolution to avoid a shutdown by the deadlines. And it remains uncertain how that effort will play out even though Schumer and Johnson have a deal on funding levels.

The far-right House Freedom Caucus called the deal negotiated between the House and Senate leaders a “total failure,” presenting a challenge for Johnson, who is leading an extremely narrow majority. — CNN

Our Take: “This is notably bipartisan which, given the current moment, is terrifying.

Schumer and Johnson agree on spending, the White House is on board and, according to this piece, the House Freedom Caucus is going to be the big loser. If true, that means the uniparty is united against the America First majority (again).

It remains to be seen if any of the HFC members have any fight left. Perhaps there are still negotiations to be had, but remember that Speaker Johnson was elected unanimously by his caucus, as I predicted the morning of the vote. They were all too excited about him the night before.

It’s becoming clearer as to why that was.” — Ashe in America

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Ignoring Taiwan's complaints, more Chinese balloons spotted over strait

Taiwan's defence ministry said it detected three more Chinese balloons flying over the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, one of which crossed the island, the latest in a spate of such balloons the ministry says it has spotted over the past month.

The ministry on Saturday, in a strongly worded statement, accused China of threatening aviation safety and waging psychological warfare on the island's people with the balloons, days before key Taiwanese elections.

China's defence ministry, which last month declined to comment on the balloons, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The potential for China to use balloons for spying became a global issue last February when the United States shot down what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon. China said the balloon was a civilian craft that accidentally drifted astray.

Taiwan is on high alert for Chinese military and political activity ahead of this Saturday's presidential and parliamentary elections. It says China is exerting military and economic pressure in an attempt to interfere in the elections.

China views the island as its own territory, a claim Taiwan's government rejects. — Reuters

Our Take: “NOT THE DREADED CHINESE BALLOONS!

The Ukraine Proxy War has completely run out of steam, and that lack of energy has now been translated to all Layers of the Collective Mind except for the unreachable sycophants who still believe in the Zelensky-Luke Skywalker framing circa February 2022.

That said, the next 'Current Crisis' is already showing signs of spinning up, and the Truth Community and Anons have been prepping themselves to engage with it for some time, now.

The next slate of Taiwanese elections is set for January 13, and while opinions vary, a win by either candidate would be seen as potentially inflammatory from a China-Taiwan relations standpoint:

- Current Vice President Lai Ching-te is an anti-China hawk who has a Zelenskian stance toward Xi Jinping. His victory would mark escalation.

- Opposition leader Hou Yu-ih is 'friendlier' to China, but 'experts' believe a win by him would further embolden Chinese incursions into the territory.

Get them PsyOp goggles on, people. 2024 has only just begun.” — Burning Bright

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Twenty-Seven States File to Oppose Colorado’s Disqualification of Trump under the 14th Amendment

The majority of Americans oppose the decisions in Colorado and Maine to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot. Other polls put the balance slightly in favor, but all polls show a deeply divided country on this effort. The Maine decision will now be reviewed by the Maine state courts, but the Colorado decision is scheduled for oral argument in a matter of weeks. A reversal of the Colorado decision is now supported by 27 states, which filed with the Supreme Court to oppose the underlying theory under the Fourteenth Amendment.  It is relatively rare to see states opposing the expansion of their own authority vis-a-vis Congress. The brief reinforces the view of states like Colorado as outliers in the country in embracing this anti-democratic theory.

The attorneys general of Indiana, West Virginia and 25 other states, warn the court that this novel theory will produce “chaos” in the country.

“The Colorado Supreme Court has cast itself into a ‘political thicket,’ Evenwel v. Abbott, 578 U.S. 54, 58, (2016), and it is now up to this Court to pull it out. ‘Confidence in the integrity of our electoral processes is essential to the functioning of our participatory democracy.’ Purcell v. Gonzalez, 549 U.S. 1, 4 (2006) (per curiam). If the Colorado decision stands, that critical confidence will be harmed. Many Americans will become convinced that a few partisan actors have contrived to take a political decision out of ordinary voters’ hands.” — Jonathan Turley

Our Take: “A majority of states oppose the CO Supreme Court decision to remove President Trump from the ballot, and a majority of Americans do, too. The egregious overreach by the high court in the Centennial state is captivating the national conversation at many of the narrative layers.

SCOTUS will likely rule before Colorado’s primary on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024, and I’ll have a detailed analysis of this case, and all the novel lawfare cases against President Trump and America First, on the Badlands Substack tomorrow.

Don’t miss it!” — Ashe in America

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Trump Rips Austin For 'Improper Professional Conduct & Dereliction Of Duty' After Secretive Hospital Stay

Leading Republican presidential contender Donald Trump was never too keen on Biden's Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to begin with, but on Monday the former president unleashed in response to the growing scandal over Austin's 'secretive' hospital stay, after having failed to disclose to the White House that he had been incapacitated for four days last week.

The 70-year old Pentagon chief and career Army general had experienced complications from a routine surgery and was hospitalized since Jan.1; however, the White House didn't know of his absence from the top Pentagon post until Friday, which has sparked scandal over transparency in the Biden administration. The White House-appointed civilian head of the military was persona non grata and the Commander-in-Chief didn't so much as know about it at a moment Washington is increasingly embroiled in major conflicts from Ukraine to Israel-Gaza to the Red Sea. —ZeroHedge

Our Take: “If one were a total crackpot conspiracy loon, one might at least play with the idea of reading this while imagining Lloyd Austin sitting next to Donald Trump as he composed it.

"When you understand the (Devolution) broadly ... you can see it in all things." - Miyamoto Musashi ... or maybe it was Jon Herold …” — Burning Bright

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BONUS ITEMS

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Loss of Alaska cockpit recording rekindles industry safety debate

The cockpit voice recorder data on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet which lost a panel mid-flight on Friday was overwritten, U.S. authorities said, renewing attention on long-standing safety calls for longer in-flight recordings.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy said on Sunday no data was available on the cockpit voice recorder because it was not retrieved within two hours - when recording restarts, erasing previous data.

The U.S. requires cockpit voice recorders to log two hours of data versus 25 hours in Europe for planes made after 2021.

The industry has been wrestling with the length of cockpit recordings since the disappearance of a Malaysian jet in 2014.

Although the Boeing 777 has never been found, the loss of MH370 sharply increased efforts to monitor the longest possible modern flights and where necessary recap earlier flights. — Reuters

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War on Gaza: Israel kills top Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil in Lebanon air strike

An Israeli air strike killed senior Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil on Monday, a development that is likely to result in a further escalation between the two sides, which have been involved in a low intensity conflict since 7 October.

Tawil died along with another fighter from the Lebanese armed group, according to the Reuters news agency. The Israeli air strike targeted the pair's car in the village of Majdal Selm.

Known as “Jawad”, Tawil was a deputy head of a unit in the elite Radwan force and played an important role in Hezbollah's recent confrontations with the Israeli army.

"This is a very painful strike," one security source said, while another added, "Things will flare up now."

The commander played “a leading role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in the south”, according to one unnamed official speaking to the AFP news agency. — Middle East Eye

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Hunter Biden contempt resolutions introduced, House Republicans allege he 'violated federal law'

House Republicans on Monday introduced resolutions to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas, which GOP congressional leaders say violates federal law. 

Both the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the House Judiciary Committee released resolutions and identical reports to support their efforts to hold the first son in contempt.

Hunter Biden appeared before the Capitol the day he was scheduled to be deposed last month and said he would publicly testify but would not appear for a closed-door meeting with members of Congress to discuss his family's business dealings. House Republicans said Friday they would move to hold Hunter Biden in contempt after he refused to follow the subpoena. 

By failing to follow the subpoena, "Biden has violated federal law, and must be held in contempt of Congress," the committees said in their reports accompanying their contempt resolutions. — Just the 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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