Badlands News Brief
They're the Conspiracy Theorists, Now ...
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 with some Badlands flavoring to help wash it down.
This week’s items are brought to you by our friends at A Bit of Whimsy Boutique. Please support the America First sponsors who make this work possible.
Now, onto the news from Tuesday, July 16 …
Elon Musk Pledges $45 Million Monthly To Pro-Trump Super PAC To Counter Dems In Swing States
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, a source familiar with the situation has revealed Elon Musk's latest power move: a $45 million a month commitment to a new super political-action committee to support former President Donald Trump. This new super PAC will deploy large sums of money and other resources in critical swing states to counter 'get out the vote' campaigns by Democrats.
Called 'America PAC,' the group is reportedly focused on registering voters and convincing constituents to vote early and request mail-in ballots across swing states, according to the people. The group will counter get out the vote campaigns by Democrats in swing states.
Besides Musk, America PAC is supported by Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and former US ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft and her husband, Joe, the chief executive of coal producer Alliance Resource Partners. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: I fully understand and appreciate why people in the Truth Community approach major public figures like Elon Musk and others in this America PAC with trepidation, and I don’t think that’s unhealthy, but it prompted a thought regarding social permission for me in the wake of the Trump assassination attempt.
The attempt on Donald Trump removed whatever psychological impetus there was for supposedly high information, independent-minded Americans to continue delaying their move into the MAGA mindset, and for one simple reason:
The System has proven (to EVERYONE) that Donald Trump is not one of them.
Independents, Libertarians, Disaffected Liberals (I was one of these before my personal awakening,) and on-the-fence Centrists are anti-Establishment; they just consider Trump an offshoot of the very uniparty most of us fight against in the American zeitgeist, and honestly, unless you spend most of your time in the Info War, that stance makes sense.
Trump is a billionaire, a reality TV star ... an American heir.
By coming at the king, the Deep State removed ALL doubt.
[Their] enemy. Our champion.
And when Mind-Movers like Elon Musk are fully aboard the Trump Train in highly public fashion, that’s either capitulation or coordination … both of which lead to awakening in this reachable sectors of the Collective Mind. — Burning Bright
In Leaked Phone Call, Trump Tries to Coax Kennedy Into His Camp
A leaked video of Donald J. Trump calling Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered a behind-the-scenes look into the former president’s efforts to coax Mr. Kennedy out of the presidential race and into his camp.
On Mr. Kennedy’s speaker phone, Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, can be heard offering up the kind of anti-vaccine message that Mr. Kennedy is known for. Mr. Trump also reveals details of his call with President Biden, saying “it was very nice.” And he tells Mr. Kennedy, seemingly in an effort to win his support: “I would love you to do something. And I think it’ll be so good for you and so big for you. And we’re going to win.”
Mr. Kennedy, the iconoclastic but struggling independent candidate, apologized for the leak almost immediately on X, the same social media site where the video appeared.
“When President Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer,” he wrote. “I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am mortified that this was posted.”
On the call, Mr. Trump marveled that he had been shot by an AR-15-type weapon, the sort of military-style rifle Mr. Biden wants to ban — “pretty tough guns, right?” He also recounted telling the president how lucky he was to avoid his would-be assassin’s bullet.
“It felt like the world’s largest mosquito,” he told Mr. Kennedy of the bullet wound to his ear. — NYT
Our Take: First, the video does not explicitly show Trump trying to ‘coax Kennedy into his camp.’ In the limited audio, Trump says, ‘I would love you to do something. And I think it’ll be so good for you and so big for you. And we’re going to win.’
We don’t know what he’s asking him to do. Maybe Trump is asking Kennedy to drop out and endorse Trump. Maybe he’s asking him to be his golf partner in a tournament. If this were anyone other than 45, legacy media would likely take a more measured approach.
Second, the vaccine comments are gold. Most Americans, if they really think it through, will come to the conclusion that infants are given way too many vaccines, way too quickly. President Trump is not denying all vaccines in this clip, he’s suggesting that, perhaps, we should not inject infants with dozens of vials of poison right after they’re born.
Okay, I’m editorializing. What he actually said is, ‘“I want to do small doses.’ There is nothing controversial about this.
Finally, the ‘world’s largest mosquito line is badass.’ — Ashe in America
One in Three Biden Supporters Think Trump Shooting Might Have Been Staged
A new poll has laid bare how many voters believe the conspiracy theories swirling around the attempted assignation of Donald Trump over the weekend.
One third of those who support Trump's Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden said they believe the attack may have been staged and had never been intended to kill the former president. That equates to a little over 33 percent. And even some of Trump's own supporters believe the same thing, with around 12 percent suspecting the event was planned, according to the poll conducted by Morning Consult, an American business intelligence company.
Trump was left bloodied after being shot in the ear as a bullet whizzed past his head at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Thomas Matthew Crooks killed an audience member and injured two more after he opened fire at the event, before the 20-year-old was himself shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper shortly after launching his attack. After the shooting, Trump stood defiantly to raise his fist and shout "fight!" repeatedly, before being whisked away by security agents. Some political analysts believe the attack and Trump's reaction to it may have helped the Republican's chances ahead of November's presidential elections—although a separate Morning Consult poll suggested that was not the case so far. — Newsweek
Our Take: Who's the conspiracy theorist now?
I actually find this rather encouraging. Two-thirds of Democrats believe that Trump was nearly killed, and obviously save by an act of God, and the remaining third no longer trust "reality prime," as Chris Paul calls it.
As most of you probably know, once you begin the cognitive exercise of indulging alternative realities—"conspiracy theories"—it's a slippery slope that leads to an intellectual revolt against the gatekeepers of reality: the corporate media.
Because as those poor souls bend and twist their perception of events to align with their preconceived worldview, the corporate media will be telling them that the complete opposite is actually true. Our collective experience from the COVID Dark Ages show us that it is impossible to endure such conditions without cultivating an intense contempt for those gatekeepers.
So while it's unfortunate that so many people are still suffering from a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, those will likely be the Democrat voters who rebel next against their corporate overlords. The other two-thirds who recognize the miracle that we all witnessed on Saturday will begin to see Trump in a new light (many already have) and may even find God.
What a wonderful inversion of reality prime. But we still need more velocity.
Accelerate. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
Another Take: Liberals are currently claiming Trump staged his own assassination attempt.
This is not a bad thing.
Total inversion. Total awakening. — Burning Bright
Vance: Israel should finish war as quickly as possible, partner Sunni states against Iran
Ohio Senator JD Vance, fresh off his nomination on Monday as the Republican party’s vice presidential candidate, accused US President Joe Biden of “making it harder and harder” for Israel to vanquish Hamas, claiming his policies were unnecessarily prolonging the war and preventing Israeli-Saudi rapprochement.
Vance, a bestselling author who is the freshman senator from Ohio, said that Israel should win and end the war in Gaza “as quickly as possible,” to enable the “Israelis and the Sunni Arab states” to form a united front against Iran.
Former US president Donald Trump on Monday named Vance as his running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump himself was officially nominated as the party’s candidate for president.
Trump’s selection of Vance was seen as cementing the former president’s hold on the party, with some analysts saying Trump was effectively anointing the senator to be his successor. In choosing Vance — a harsh Trump critic turned fierce loyalist — the former US president eschewed more traditional conservatives in favor of a populist firebrand with a notable isolationist streak.
Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Vance concurred with host Sean Hannity’s statement that Biden had “surrendered the war on terrorism” by failing to sufficiently support Israel in its war on Hamas, sparked by the terror group’s shock October 7 onslaught that killed nearly 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. — Times of Israel
Our Take: I was never highly invested in the VP pick, though JD Vance was not my first choice. But if President Trump says he's the guy, then he's the guy.
With that said, it is extremely important that we immediately incorporate discernment and scrutiny as a natural part of our political ethos.
Donald Trump has earned our trust. The man just took a bullet for us, literally. There will likely never be another Donald Trump in our lifetime, maybe never again in American history. I will proudly declare I fully trust that man, despite having never met him, and that is a special designation that I never anticipate to grant to another public figure, for reasons that should be obvious.
I remember when Trump publicly seeded the idea of running for president in 2010, right after I graduated from college and had become invested in politics. He had my vote then, mostly because I found him endearing and highly capable, and thought his abrasive demeanor was exactly what politics needed. (I had soured on the Republican Party, and saw Obama for what he was.)
I've watched over the years as wave after wave of Americans have seen the light and rallied to Trump's side. It's been extremely encouraging, and likely what inspired me to write my Horseshoe Theory article last year, as the path before us became evident. Burning Bright and Chris Paul are living testaments to that theory, being former Democrats who have come full circle to become two beacons of wisdom in the Truth Movement. It is the ideological journey across that false-paradigm (the "political spectrum") that has imbued them with that wisdom: confronting the humility of supporting the "wrong" side, while recognizing that the other side was also wrong.
One example of the wisdom that they brought with them from that other side is the "anti-war" position of the traditional Left. That's a position that is both morally and logically correct. (Another would be the anti-corporation position, though the modern Left seems to have surrendered that ground.)
Supporting foreign wars is a position that the Right has maintained since the days of Vietnam, and, unfortunately, many people who will never need to take that long ideological journey—because they were already unwittingly in the vicinity of the would-be MAGA movement—will be deprived of the wisdom that naturally comes with being wrong; because failure is life's greatest teacher. (BB and Chris had a great discussion on Story Hour last night that is relevant to this take, and I highly suggest you all take a listen.)
What I'm about to say is less about JD Vance and more of a general commentary.
The idea that we shouldn't vet or scrutinize a person merely because Donald Trump says "he's the guy" is insane. There have been many people over the years who Trump has given his full endorsement, who turned out to be traitors. I believe that Trump has a way of giving people the opportunity to do the right thing, and more often than not, the swamp creatures of DC fall back on old habits.
I specifically recall how frustrating 2019 was for me, as I watched MAGA drop to its knees and worship both Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell—and I have the "Cocaine Mitch" memes to prove it. I remember being completely incredulous because those two worked so hard to keep Trump out of office in 2016—going as far as to insult Trump supporters— and then constantly subverting and undermining his actions. So when MAGA suddenly anointed them as heroes in 2019, I was both confused and irate that we could be so naive. (Hint: it was the MSM who elevated them to hero status.)
I wish nothing but success for JD Vance, and want him to be the greatest Vice-President of all time, but he isn't Donald Trump. He doesn't get, through osmosis, the wide berth that we now give Trump in his public commentary and narrative deployments. Because if we did grant Vance that status—which he has not yet fully earned, and I'm not sure any politician ever will—where does it end? Does his VP candidate get that same free pass, through that same osmosis? What about the guy after that? You can see how this quickly becomes another exercise in idolatry, which is exactly how we got into this mess in the first place. And if we fall back into that old habit, then we have betrayed Donald Trump, and he took that bullet for nothing.
So I will say that I am a little concerned that the very first thing Vance did as Trump's VP candidate was go on Fox News and shill for war with Iran; That is straight from the NeoCon playbook. (No doubt, Lady Lindsey was tickled pink.) And while I recognize that his messaging echoed Trump's messaging on Israel's Gaza campaign, his little comment about uniting Israel and the Sunni-Arab states against Iran is straight from the NeoCon lobby think tanks. (I have the maps to prove it.)
Fortunately for us, Crown Prince MBS has already made serious in-roads with the Iranians, and a war between Sunni and Shia Islam is highly unlikely. But I do not like the fact that our VP candidate is saber-rattling a war with the Sovereign Alliance—as Russia and China back both Iran and Hezbollah, as does MBS and the Saudis. Because nobody wants a massive war.
So I apologize for throwing cold water on the moment, and I hope that this was nothing more than just campaign posturing. I will reserve true judgement until I see more. As somebody who's followed the Q operation since that first weekend, and has supported President Trump for over a decade, spare me the "trust the plan" line, as I can't yet be certain that Vance is read in on any of that. (In exchange, I will not hold any of his vile comments about Trump from the past against him.) To assume as much is to begin that walk down the path of idolatry.
We should have enough respect for ourselves and our children to make politicians work for our trust. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
Jack Black cancels tour after bandmate jokes about Trump rally shooting
Jack Black abruptly shelved the world tour for his comedy rock band Tenacious D on Tuesday, after bandmate Kyle Gass joked onstage about the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.
“I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday,” Black wrote in an Instagram post shared Tuesday. “I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form.
“After much reflection, I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour,” he added, “and all future creative plans are on hold. I am grateful to the fans for their support and understanding.”
During the Tenacious D show in Sydney on Sunday night, Gass was presented with a birthday cake by what appeared to be a robot, according to videos of the event posted to social media. When asked to make a wish, Gass blew out the candles and said, “Don’t miss Trump next time” — a reference to the lone gunman who opened fire at former president Trump at a Pennsylvania rally the previous day. The shooting left one person dead and multiple people injured, including Trump, who was seen with blood on his ear and face.
The Sydney crowd reacted with a mix of boos and cheers. Outside the venue, Black’s critics didn’t hold back. — WAPO
Our Take: Who had Jack Black being (nearly) deported from Australia on their 2024 bingo card? What a wild ride this year has been.
The sad bit is that we’re getting a stronger condemnation of the assassination on President Trump from the nation that put people in quarantine camps than from leaders in the US. And we’re getting greater backlash for the ‘we missed’ crowd from Aussies than we are from Americans.
Leaders and citizens alike in Australia called for the deportation of the Tenacious D duo, and as a result, Black is attempting clean up. But no one actually believes he cares about Gass’s comment. He’s only worried about how that comment is going to hurt his bottom line.
Do we have to let them back in? They should reenact The Terminal. — Ashe in America
Dam Fails in Nashville, Illinois, Endangering Roughly 200 Homes, Officials Say
A dam, along with a secondary dam failed in Nashville, Illinois, on Tuesday morning. An evacuation warning was then put in place for residents in the city.
The secondary dam failure was reported at around 10 a.m., more than an hour after the first dam failed, according to the Washington County Emergency Management Agency (EMA).
This coming after more than six inches of rain fell in the area.
The Washington County EMA stated the Nashville Reservoir was overtopped after extensive rainfall starting on the night of July 15 and through July 16.
Some residents experienced waist deep flooding in areas. One resident there needed rescuing to leave her home, EMA stated.
Many roads in the area were shut down from the flooding as well, restricting motorists from traveling on all major roads throughout Washington County.
Washington County EMA stated an estimated 200 homes were considered to be endangered after the dam was overtopped. Since then, the evacuation has been completed.
No deaths or significant injuries were reported. — WSILTV
Our Take: So while JD Vance was on Fox News this morning, seeding the idea that we should dump billions of dollars, and maybe more American blood, into the Middle East—which I fully acknowledge could be mere campaign posturing, and maybe even at the direction of President Trump—a major dam in Nashville faced imminent collapse.
These grifters in Congress are STEALING our money and shipping it to far corners of the world, where it is serving no direct benefit to the American People. Meanwhile, our infrastructure here at home is literally collapsing, and threatening thousands of lives.
As Matthew Ehret and I discussed last week on Breaking History, there is major infrastructure happening in the third world. China has been building railroads in Kenya and Ethiopia, and just handed the keys over to the locals, free and clear. The UAE has pledged to invest $110 billion dollars in Africa in mutually beneficially bilateral agreements. China also helped Saudi Arabia build a 280-mile highspeed railway between Mecca and Medina, which opened in 2018. It travels 200 mph, and is ranked in the top ten fastest trains in the world. In 2022, Saudi announced plans to construct another 5,000 miles of highspeed rail, which is now underway.
So while some of you may think of the Middle East as a backwards place, understand that they already have more advanced technology and infrastructure than you do. For context, America only has one rail line that could be considered "highspeed" under a very broad definition—reaching only 150 mph—and that top speed is only allowed along 49 miles of its 457-mile track. (The rest of the time, it averages a speed of 82 mph.) The train that is able to reach that top speed was only put into service this year—meaning the Saudis only beat us by six years.
Simply put, your country is falling apart. It is in a state of rot and collapse, and you are being deprived of technologies that the third-world has enjoyed for years. All because the forces controlling our government hate you, and those ruthless gangsters are looting the coffers right in front of us— while telling us that we aren't allowed to have nice things or advanced technologies.
And these clowns want us to believe that our true enemy is somewhere abroad?
I would encourage all of you to go listen to the interview Russell Brand did last week with Colonel Douglas Macgregor. Not only does Macgregor give a very insightful take on Julian Assange, he also explains that America doesn't have any real enemies abroad; all of our enemies are here at home.
Remember that, next time Fox News or the GOP shill for another war. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
BONUS ITEMS
Biden orders Secret Service protection for RFK Jr. following Trump assassination attempt
President Biden has directed the Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., following Saturday's attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Monday.
The RFK Jr. campaign was requesting Secret Service protection long before the attempt on former President Donald Trump's life. The Kennedy family is painfully aware of how quickly life can be taken by a single attacker — both RFK Jr.'s father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, John F. Kennedy, were assassinated in the 1960s.
"In light of this weekend's events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.," Mayorkas announced during Monday's White House press briefing.
Kennedy is still trying to appear on ballots across the country, and his presidential aspirations are a long shot. But he does enjoy strong support from some Americans, and his events have drawn crowds.
Mr. Biden has ordered an independent review of Trump's Saturday rally and law enforcement's handling of the situation. Trump was not seriously injured when he was shot, but one spectator was killed, and two more were critically injured. The shooter was outside of the security perimeter, but managed to fire off shots mere hundreds of feet away from the stage of Trump's Butler County, Pennsylvania, rally site. — CBS News
Trump Reveals Key Pillars Of "Trumponomics": Low Taxes, Sky High Tariffs, Powell Not Fired, Treasury Secretary Dimon And Much More
Before the failed assassination attempt, before the catastrophic (for Biden) first presidential debate, Donald Trump gave Bloomberg an extensive interview in which he laid out the core tenets of Trumponomics 2.0 that will define his next presidency. Here are the key highlights:
According to the interview, if Trump wins, he will...
enforce huge bilateral sanctions even though he claims “I don’t love sanctions,” he says. He keeps circling back to William McKinley, who he says raised enough revenue through tariffs during his turn-of-the-20th-century presidency to avoid instituting a federal income tax yet never got the appropriate credit.
allow Jerome Powell to serve out his term as chair of the Federal Reserve, which runs through May 2026
will lower the corporate tax rate to as low as 15%
no longer plans to ban TikTok.
considers Jamie Dimon to serve as secretary of the Department of the Treasury
ambivalent (if not outright hostile) to the idea of protecting Taiwan from Chinese aggression and to US efforts to punish Putin for invading Ukraine.
While the broad strokes of Trumponomics might not be different from what they were during his first term, what’s new is the speed and efficiency with which he intends to enact them. He believes he understands the levers of power much more deeply now, including the importance of selecting the right people for the right jobs. “We had great people, but I had some people that I would not have chosen for a second time,” he says. “Now, I know everybody. Now, I am truly experienced.”
Maybe he is, or maybe he just is surrounded by better people. — ZeroHedge
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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Something occurred to me this morning that has little to do with any of todays articles. However it has everything to do with our Country’s piss poor situation.
What everyone in America needs to understand is the Democrats and RINOs have for years paid for socialist ideology by agreeing to blossom the national debt. Republicans have fought tax increases religiously while progressives in both parties have fought for higher taxes to pay for social programs. This is what caused Donald Trump’s attempted assassination.
He is accused of being Hitler, but he is actually just trying to save America from a total financial collapse. We cannot continue to amass debt to fund socialism. It is actually that simple!
I regret I have been so slow to see the simplicity of this very complex situation. But, there it is laid out on a few simple lines of logic. Once more folks see what I see, we are on the road to prosperity once again.
If I were RFK Jr. I'd be just a little nervous about being granted SS "protection."