Badlands News Brief
Haley Sucks, Biden Dips & the CIA Does PR
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 the Weekend that Was …
Trump wins South Carolina, easily beating Haley in her home state and closing in on GOP nomination
Donald Trump won South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday, easily beating former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state and further consolidating his path to a third straight GOP nomination.
Trump has now swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates, adding to previous wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Haley is facing growing pressure to leave the race but says she’s not going anywhere despite losing the state where she was governor from 2011 to 2017.
A 2020 rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden is becoming increasingly inevitable. Haley has vowed to stay in the race through at least the batch of primaries on March 5, known as Super Tuesday, but was unable to dent Trump’s momentum in her home state despite holding far more campaign events and arguing that the indictments against Trump will hamstring him against Biden.
The Associated Press declared Trump the winner as polls closed statewide at 7 p.m. That race call was based on an analysis of AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of Republican South Carolina primary voters. The survey confirmed the findings of pre-Election Day polls showing Trump far outpacing Haley statewide. — AP News
Our Take: “They called this race immediately upon the polls closing. President Trump handily defeated Nikki Haley, but the day was not without incident.
The precinct location of Satchel Ford Elementary in Columbia had to pause counting ballots because the internet was down. Read that again. The internet came back up and counting resumed and no one apologized for lying, for years, about machines and the internet. The goal posts move again.
There were also ubiquitous reports of Democrats voting in Saturday’s SC Republican Primary, and Canncon has been talking about this ‘crossover voting’ for a while. Democrats are required to prop up Haley, and even with their help, she’s being humiliated.
Haley is committed to stay in the race until Super Tuesday. It’s so silly, you almost have to wonder if it’s real.” —
Biden's Job Approval Edges Down to 38%
Americans’ approval of President Joe Biden’s job performance has edged down three percentage points to 38%, just one point shy of his all-time low and well below the 50% threshold that has typically led to reelection for incumbents.
In addition, Biden registers subpar approval ratings for his handling of five key issues facing the U.S., including a new low of 28% for immigration and readings ranging from 30% to 40% for the situation in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas, foreign affairs, the economy and the situation in Ukraine.
Biden’s approval rating has not risen above 44% since August 2021, and his 39.8% average rating for his third year in office was the second worst among post-World War II presidents elected to their first term. — Gallup
Our Take: “Given how desperate the democrats are and how easily votes, let alone polls, have been manipulated in the past, I no longer read numbers associated with Joe Biden as representative of reality in any way.
Instead, I look at them as an attempt to place Joe’s obvious struggle into a particular model of the hero’s journey.
It’s important to consider what the shadow government behind Biden has to set up as fodder for post-election narratives.
I believe if we were shown the real approval ratings, the whole facade that is the Biden Administration would pop. Not like a freshly inflated balloon. More like a forgotten old balloon from my kid’s birthday party two weeks ago—kinda wrinkled, small and dusty in the corner. It would make a small fart noise as it went flaccid.
It looks to me as if they have to capitulate to some low approval ratings, but high enough that they could build a bare minimum underdog, come-back storyline.
Plausible deniability is important. If the numbers are too extreme in either direction, the narrative carrying the lie won’t be sustainable in the long term.
On top of that, the Deep State may squash all of our predictions about Biden being publicly sacrificed (character assassination) and replaced. They are psychotic and cocky enough to fake another Biden victory.
Or, even better, they are in such a panic that they don’t know what they’re going to do yet and have to keep the pro-Biden narratives on life support in case the ol’ switcheroo can’t be pulled off.
Or, the switcheroo is successful! And the story they weave becomes ‘Wow! Look at how incredibly [Deep State replacement] is surging past Biden’s approval ratings! The people have spoken!’
Hold the cornered animal’s propaganda lightly.” —
The Spy War: How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin
Now entering the third year of a war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, the intelligence partnership between Washington and Kyiv is a linchpin of Ukraine’s ability to defend itself. The C.I.A. and other American intelligence agencies provide intelligence for targeted missile strikes, track Russian troop movements and help support spy networks.
But the partnership is no wartime creation, nor is Ukraine the only beneficiary.
It took root a decade ago, coming together in fits and starts under three very different U.S. presidents, pushed forward by key individuals who often took daring risks. It has transformed Ukraine, whose intelligence agencies were long seen as thoroughly compromised by Russia, into one of Washington’s most important intelligence partners against the Kremlin today. — The New York Times
And …
What the Pentagon has learned from two years of war in Ukraine
The U.S. military is undertaking an expansive revision of its approach to war fighting, having largely abandoned the counterinsurgency playbook that was a hallmark of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan to focus instead on preparing for an even larger conflict with more sophisticated adversaries such as Russia or China.
What’s transpired in Ukraine, where this week the war enters its third year with hundreds of thousands dead or wounded on both sides and still no end in sight, has made clear to the Pentagon that battlefield calculations have fundamentally changed in the years since it last deployed forces in large numbers. Precision weapons, fleets of drones and digital surveillance can reach far beyond the front lines, posing grave risk to personnel wherever they are.
The war remains an active and bountiful research opportunity for American military planners as they look to the future, officials say. A classified year-long study on the lessons learned from both sides of the bloody campaign will help inform the next National Defense Strategy, a sweeping document that aligns the Pentagon’s myriad priorities. The 20 officers who led the project examined five areas: ground maneuver, air power, information warfare, sustaining and growing forces and long range fire capability. — The Washington Post
Our Take: “The NYT piece about the CIA waging a ‘Spy War’ in Ukraine for ‘decades’ is going viral for all the right reasons on our side of the Info War, and all the wrong reasons on [theirs.]
What's especially enticing about this seeming narrative about-face by THE narrative-setter of the Globalist Hegemon is the fact that it's being mirrored by a series of similar rhetorical retreats by other MSM outlets along parallel tracks.
While the NYT frames the CIA (one of the most hated agencies in the world and the one that drew the most fire from Putin this month) as clandestine heroes, WAPO has chosen a different theater to backtrack in, reporting that the US Military Industrial Complex and Deep State at large view the Ukraine-Russia conflict as a ‘bountiful opportunity.’
They can couch that language in as many asides about key learnings and MIL strategy as they want, but the language stands out to an audience grown both weary and increasingly wary of the central narrative and its progenitors.” —
New Cell Phone Records Prove DA Willis Affair
The lawyers for President Trump have Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade’s cell phone records. And it’s bad for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The official story from the Fulton County DA and her former lover Nathan Wade, made through sworn filings and sworn testimony, was that their “personal relationship” started in 2022.
In a February 2, 2022 filing, DA Willis submitted Wade’s affidavit to the Court which stated: “In 2022, District Attorney Willis and I developed a personal relationship.” DA Willis and Wade both testified that the relationship started sometime in early 2022.
But Wade’s cell phone records disprove their official story. In a filing this morning from President Trump’s attorneys, records indicate that the “relationship” between DA Willis and Wade was romantic well-before Wade’s November 1, 2021 appointment by Willis as Special Prosecutor.
Trump’s attorneys were able to obtain, by subpoena to AT&T, Wade’s cell phone records from 1/1/2021 through 11/30/2021. Wade’s location data was analyzed by an investigator hired by the attorneys - an analytical tool which generated geolocation data that pinpointed Wade’s presence at DA Willis’s South Fulton Condo during that time period. — TechnoFog
Our Take: “This should be a big week for our favorite, flush prosecutor. On Friday, Nathan Wade’s cell data was filed with the court, and if the process was just, it would be the final nail in the coffin of Fani’s foray into complex RICO litigation.
Before the cell data was filed, mainstream legal analysts were posturing that Willis would remain, but as of Sunday evening, that certainty has been replaced with ‘here’s what we know’ articles from the NYT, Newsweek, and the rest. We are still waiting for Judge McAfee to decide if Mr. Bradley will return to the stand, and about what he will be allowed to answer questions. You will recall that, when we left Judge McAfee and Mr. Bradley, the judge questioned whether Mr. Bradley had been misinterpreting privilege all along.
Summations are expected to follow the resolution of Mr. Bradley’s testimony, and the judge will rule at some point after that. The ruling may ripple across the case — remember, there are still pending questions before the court in Harrison Floyd’s evidentiary hearing and allegations of misconduct that have yet to be heard.
We may be back on the record in Fulton County as early as Tuesday, and we will bring it to you here on Badlands!” —
Once Valued At $5.7BN, Vice Media Stops Publishing And Nothing Of Value Was Lost
People are enjoying the demise of Vice Media, with many of them pointing out that literally nothing of value was lost.
Having once been valued at $5.7 billion (in 2017), and acquired out of bankruptcy last year by a consortium including George Soros, the company announced plans to cut hundreds of jobs and has - as of 14 hours ago - stopped publishing on Vice.com.
Chief executive Bruce Dixon said, “It is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously.”
The once supposedly “edgy” media outlet has been ridiculed for years for allowing its output to descend into the most utterly demented, vulgar and degenerate far-left content.
Respondents on X exploded with joy.
However will we cope without such stories as ‘How I Rediscovered Sexual LIberation Through Fisting’, ‘How to Eat Out a Non-Op Trans Woman’ and ‘Most Child Sex Abusers Are Not Pedophiles, Expert Says’. — Modernity News
Our Take: “Many years ago, I watched a Vice documentary on a small town where beastiality was the norm. The men in the town would regularly have sex with the female donkeys.
They built a pretty careful narrative in an attempt to show that:
’In this part of the world, the men are having sex with donkeys to preserve themselves for their wives. They practice with the donkeys so that they are better lovers after getting married.’
Super virtuous!
This is where what the left calls ‘an imperialist, colonialist mindset,’ is the correct view.
Human societies in which the people are still justifying sex with animals are sociologically and morally behind us. Yup.
The normalization of beastiality, and the majority of the other gross garbage Vice was spewing, was definitely a part of a genuine conspiracy to inject Satanic values and morals into our culture. Please die all the way, Vice.” —
El Salvador's Bukele Slams Soros At CPAC
El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele blasted George Soros, globalism, and the American financial system.
In a fiery address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Bukele - who won re-election by a staggering 84% of the vote, said of Globalism: "It's already dead," adding that in America "dark forces are taking over your country."
He said that the reason El Salvador ended up becoming the “murder capital of the world” was that the people were not equipped to understand just how radically their society was changing because it happened over a period of decades, one increment at a time.
Bukele likened this to boiling a frog, saying that if you keep turning up the heat and slowly boil the frog, it won’t realize what is happening until it is too late. The Latin American president urged Americans not to despair, however, as “you can still jump before the water boils.” -Lifesite
Bukele later explained that in El Salvador, a 12-year-long communist-inspired civil war broke out, and that he can "clear see the signs of a declining" country when he looks at America.
"They were setting the gang members free," he said of his home country, adding that in order to clean up El Salvador he had to remove "corrupt judges, corrupt attorneys and corrupt prosecutors." — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “El Salvador President Nayib Bukele made headlines over the weekend by delivering an ultra based speech to am American audience concerned with the direction of their nation, using his own as a white pill template.
The thing I find particularly compelling about Bukele is the fact that he provides a lot of signal, cutting through surface-level politics and directing his ire on the root of the problem, that being the Central Banking Apparatus that has sought to centralize control through the appearance of decentralization.
He also highlights NGOs and Globalist billionaires such as George Soros directly, putting a decrepit face on the collectivist rot he highlights for easy imprinting.
Bukele has drastically reduced crime in his nation by rooting out corruption, and claims he did so by focusing on "judges, attorneys and prosecutors" first.
When you add to this the fact that he's the first president to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender, things get even more interesting and exciting.” —
High-altitude balloon intercepted by US fighters over Utah a 'likely hobby balloon': NORAD
A balloon intercepted by fighter aircraft over Utah on Friday was a "likely hobby balloon" and has since left United States airspace, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said Saturday.
The "small balloon" was allowed to continue to fly above the U.S. after being intercepted Friday morning at an altitude of 43,000 to 45,000 feet because it has been determined not to pose a national security threat, NORAD said.
"After yesterday's fighter intercepts, and in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, the North American Aerospace Defense Command monitored the likely hobby balloon via ground radars until it left US airspace overnight," NORAD said in a statement on Saturday.
NORAD said it has no additional information on the balloon. — ABC News
Our Take: “The fighter jets determined the two foot cube attached to a Mylar balloon — their words, not mine — was not a threat. They’re going to let it keep flying. Don’t worry, they’ll keep their eyes on it.
This feels like a good time to remind people that chip technology has advanced such that functional machines can be smaller than a grain of rice. Just saying, I’d feel better if they actually inspected the thing.” —
BONUS ITEMS
Intuitive Machines: Odysseus Moon lander 'tipped over on touchdown'
The Odysseus Moon lander is likely lying on its side with its head resting against a rock.
The US spacecraft, which made history on Thursday by becoming the first ever privately built and operated robot to complete a soft lunar touchdown, is otherwise in good condition.
Its owner, Texan firm Intuitive Machines, says Odysseus has plenty of power and is communicating with Earth.
Controllers are trying to retrieve pictures from the robot.
Steve Altemus, the CEO and co-founder of IM, said it wasn't totally clear what had happened but the data suggested the robot caught a foot on the surface and then fell because it still had some lateral motion at the moment of landing.
Another possibility is that Odysseus broke a leg as it came down. Certainly, inertial measurement sensors indicate the body of the vehicle to be in a horizontal pose. — BBC News
AT&T Reveals Cause Of Major Outage, Not Caused By Cyberattack
AT&T said Friday that the 12-hour-long outage to its U.S. cellphone network Thursday didn’t appear to be caused by a cyberattack, blaming it on an “incorrect process.”
On Thursday, numerous customers reported that AT&T and Cricket, its subsidiary, were down for hours. Some 75,000 customers reported to DownDetector.com they were without cellphone service, texting, or internet access across the country, although that number is likely quite higher.
“Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” AT&T said in a statement Friday.
The company did not reveal the exact cause of the service disruption. The firm said Thursday that the disruption was fixed.
Amid the outage, iPhone users with AT&T saw an “SOS” message and were told that they could only make emergency or Wi-Fi calls. Android users saw a similar message that they could only make emergency calls.
But some local police and sheriff’s departments wrote on social media that some AT&T users were not able to make 911 calls, while some law enforcement officials, who were AT&T customers too, couldn’t use their devices. — The Epoch Times
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.
Badlands Media will always put out our content for free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Help our collective of citizen journalists take back the narrative from the MSM. We are the news now.
My gut is telling me that cell phone outage was a trial run, and people might want to make a plan. And the parlor tricks from the Globalists are getting predictable 🙄
Another balloon lives on, sweeping across our nation. Coincidental to a cell phone outage also across our nation. But jets identify it as a “hobby” balloon (what KIND of hobby??) and officials PROMISE to keep their eyes on it…for us. Wow, what a relief. I’m guessing they will let it drift all the way to the ocean. BUT THEY ARE KEEPING THEIR EYES ON IT!!!