Badlands News Brief
Media Apologies, Fake & Gay Drones and Trump Appointments
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.
Now, onto the news from the Weekend that Was …
George Stephanopoulos and ABC apologize to Trump, are forced to pay $15 million to settle defamation suit
ABC News and its top anchor George Stephanopoulos have reached a settlement with Donald Trump in his defamation suit, which will result in the news network paying the president-elect $15 million.
The settlement was publicly filed on Saturday, revealing that the two parties have come to an agreement and avoided a costly trial. According to the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a "Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past." Additionally, the network will pay $1 million in Trump's attorney fees.
Stephanopoulos and ABC News also had to issue statements of "regret" as an editor's note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024, online article, about comments made earlier this year that prompted Trump to file the defamation lawsuit. The note reads, "ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024."
ABC News said the network was "pleased" to have concluded the case.
"We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing," an ABC News spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Trump filed a defamation suit against Stephanopoulos after he asserted that Trump was found "liable for rape" in a civil case during a contentious interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., last March.
After playing a clip of Mace discussing being a victim of rape, Stephanopoulos asked her, "How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?"
"You've endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape," Stephanopoulos said, alluding to the legal victory by Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll.
Stephanopoulos repeated that claim ten times during his spat with Mace, despite the fact that a jury actually determined Trump was liable for "sexual abuse," which has a distinct definition under New York law. — FOX News
Our Take: In March, George Stephanopoulos was interviewing Nancy Mace on ABC, and said, “You've endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape.”
As a result of that statement, the network had to apologize in a footnote on the article and pay Trump $15M as a charitable donation.
So. Much. Winning.
The apology, a statement of “regret,” for Stephanopoulos’ comments didn’t go far enough, but $15M should cover the deficit.
Legal outcomes are starting to feel like justice. I am personally invested in this trend continuing. Dare to dream?
The best is yet to come. — Ashe in America
Another Take: Stay tuned for another item where I make a point about the Smith-Mundt Act and propaganda outlets masquerading as news organizations … — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
New Theory: NJ Drone Sightings May Be "Nuclear Sniffers" Following Elevated NYC Radiation Levels
The founder of an aerospace company specializing in military-grade drones published a video on the Chinese social media platform TikTok, sharing his thoughts on the mystery drone sightings in New Jersey. His expert opinion is alarming, leaving many wishing that Paul Krugman's theory about an alien invasion was true instead.
"I spoke to a gentleman a few months ago, who was trying to raise the alarm to the highest levels of our government ... about this one particular nuclear warhead that he physically put his hands on ... that was left over from Ukraine ... and he knew this thing was headed towards the United States," Saxon Aerospace's John Ferguson stated in the video.
He continued: "Everyone knows that this administration is pushing to get into war with Russia."
"Let's back up a few years ... remember when those drones were mysteriously flying across I-70 from Colorado to Nebraska to Kansas and then to Missouri? Well, it was believed that those drones were looking for radioactive material that came up missing in the US," Ferguson noted.
Ferguson then explained the various payloads drones can support, such as laser sensors and optics, and he added, "Drones have no reason to fly at night... Because they don't see shit. Unless you have thermal optics - drones really don't see stuff at night - mapping must be done during the day."
Ferguson then segued into the purported drone sightings in New Jersey, noting, "These drones are not nefarious in intent ... but if they're drones - the only reason they would be flying - and flying that low at night - is because they're trying to smell something on the ground."
"My belief is that these drones are trying to smell something on the ground - if that's gas leaks or radioactive material - or whatever." — ZeroHedge
Our Take: "The choice to know will be yours."
To me, this is the exact sort of deployment one of the most infamous Q refrains is referencing.
The very idiocy of the central narrative seems to be a feature of the Great Awakening rather than a bug.
Last year, I referred to the concept of 'Shatterpoints,' which are essentially psycho-temporal convergence points where the energy required to keep the cognitive dissonance associated with full belief in the central narrative is overwhelmed by sheer logic, forcing a change point in the observing mind, which is to say, a shattering.
I believe this occurs on both Micro and Macro, Individual and Societal scales, and that each observing mind has its own criteria for shatterpoints.
If you're reading this post, most likely, your Shatterpoint was reached LONG before now. Hell, if you even know we're in an Info War, then you're well beyond the shattering, and well into the process of Awakening.
For the normie layers of the Collective Mind, it seems ghosts in the media machine are aware that the Fear Narrative, while effective, must also be increasingly-absurd in order to feel jarring to generations of people who've already been inoculated to the prospect that the world isn't actually meant to be an inherently devastating and terrifying place.
Now do you see how Trump can meme on drone warfare even while the media and MIL take the fictional threat ultra seriously?
Some see a comedy. Others see a horror movie.
What movie are you watching? — Burning Bright
Israel strikes military targets in Syrian city of Tartus - Media
On the night of December 16, the Israeli Air Force carried out powerful strikes on military targets located in the port city of Tartus, Syria. The city hosts a naval base used by Russian forces, as well as a military ship repair yard, according to The Times of Israel and Newsru.co.il.
It is noted that Israeli airstrikes also targeted sites in Syria's Latakia province.
According to Israeli media, a Syrian military observer described the attack on the Tartus facilities as the most powerful strike in the area in over ten years, since 2012.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claims that Israeli military aircraft struck several sites, including air defense units and ground-to-ground missile bases.
Syrian sources reported that the targets in Tartus included an air defense base and a storage facility for ground-to-ground missiles. — RBC Ukraine
Our Take: Let's review the timeline:
Syria falls. Assad "flees" to Moscow. Western propaganda outlets report that Russia is abandoning its naval base Tartus and Hmeimem airbase in Latakia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov then comes out and clarifies that Russia is not abandoning either of these bases.
On December 13th, Business Insider reports that Russia is sending ships to Tartus to extract weapons from strategic caches that it has maintained there since the days of the Cold War. The Al Qaeda affiliate, HTS, who now rules the country, says that it is prepared to continue accommodating the Russian military in Syria, if Russia is prepared to meet its conditions.
Yesterday, December 15, the Israeli air force bombed weapons caches in Tartus, triggering an explosion that registered as a 3.0 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale.
It is worth noting that these two Russian bases serve as the staging ground for the Wagner Group's Africa Corp, which has spent the past several years running operations across the African continent to assist in liberating African nations from the draconian rule of western powers. One of these nations includes the Democratic Republic of Congo, where in 2017 President Trump used Executive Order 13818 to seize the assets of Israeli oligarch Dan Gertler, who effectively had a monopoly on rare earth mineral mining in the country, and was using child slavery to run his operations. It was also revealed in the Paradise Papers leak that Gertler was distributing millions of dollars of cash to his friends in Israel.
On January 15, 2021, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer used his clout in the State Department to get Gertler removed from the EO 13818 list, though the sanctions were reimposed by Janet Yellen just two months later.
Back in May of this year, a failed coup attempt was launched against the president of the DRC, who had ousted the former regime in 2018. It appears that the coup was designed to reinstall the former president, as it was led by US-Congolese dual citizen Christian Malanga, who was killed in the act. Malanga has deep ties to the Israeli government, namely former Mossad director Yossi Cohen, who in 2019 was caught sneaking around the DRC with Dan Gertler. Aides within the current government believe that Cohen and Gertler were perhaps trying to organize a coup. When the scandal was exposed by reporters in 2022, it was so explosive that it forced Cohen to resign from the Mossad.
As of now, it is unclear whether Israel was targeting Russian military stockpiles in this attack, though it is hard to believe that their strikes against Tartus and Latakia are a coincidence, considering that Netanyahu is now saying that he wants to build diplomacy with the terrorist regime who has violently seized power in Damascus.
It would seem that not only has Netanyahu struck a blow against Russia's operations in Syria, but also in Africa, where Israel and the globalist hegemony are desperate to retake control of governments and the natural resources. And now the State Department is in direct contact with the terrorists ruling Damascus? Too perfect. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer willing to 'find common ground' with Trump: 'I know Donald Trump cares about Michigan'
In the wake of the Republican trifecta, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is trying another tone with Donald Trump: "I know Donald Trump cares about Michigan. And I’m hoping that because of that, we’ll be able to find some common ground in some important ways."
The blue leader's conciliatory words in an interview with CNN are a far cry from the cross accusations she poured on the president-elect during his first term, when, at a fever pitch during early in the pandemic, she wrote to him that he said he was going to "stand with Michigan," but he had to "prove it".
"People in Michigan, like a majority of Americans, voted for Donald Trump, and my oath is to Michigan," she declared in her last interview. Trump won the swing state with 49.7% of the vote to Kamala Harris' 48.3%, according to the AP tally. Although four years earlier a majority opted for Joe Biden, in previous polls Trump had also come out on top.
As recently as last month, Whitmer announced that she would not be part of the alliance of anti-Trump governors started by his counterparts in Illinois, JB Pritzker, and Colorado, Jared Polis. Thus, the influential Democrat, who sounded like Biden's replacement in 2024 and is a favorite to lead the party in 2028, further distances herself from some of her colleagues who pledged war on the Republican and moves closer to others like Kathy Hochul, New York. — VOZ
Our Take: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is basically saying, ‘Sorry about that whole Nazi thing, but we should look to the future now, right?’
Whitmer is one of the worst offenders of weaponized government and regime elitism. From the article:
“…last month, Whitmer announced that she would not be part of the alliance…started by his counterparts in Illinois, JB Pritzker, and Colorado, Jared Polis.“
Whitmer is running for President in 2028. So is Jared Polis, it appears, who has reapplied his libertarian foundation according to a recent run of publicity stunts.
The Democrat party is openly viewed as communist now, so these authoritarians are attempting to tack back and hope the people forget their true nature.
Whitmer may be ‘bending the knee’ with her latest; but it could also just be good old-fashioned political calculus. People have short memories for politics, and career politicians are hoping they can return to politics as usual in 2028.
I didn’t say these authoritarians were smart.
Our job is to ensure that people never forget the monsters these governors became — when they had emergency powers and since. If they are held accountable, for that and the rest, people will remember, and their political maneuvers won’t work.
Accountability matters. Accountability is a requirement for the future of public trust.
They can’t outmaneuver the justice phase, because justice is not political. — Ashe in America
Trump names Richard Grenell to lead presidential envoy for special missions
Our Take: We're going to have to keep the Kayfabe going a while longer with Kim, Maduro and the bois, but Donnie's been threading the needle when it comes to simultaneously building the Axis & Allies narrative while undermining it.
"Special Missions" and "hottest spots?"
War of Stories. — Burning Bright
South Korea’s parliament votes to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law order
South Korea’s parliament on Saturday impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his stunning and short-lived martial law decree, a move that ended days of political paralysis but set up an intense debate over Yoon’s fate, as jubilant crowds roared to celebrate another defiant moment in the country’s resilient democracy.
The National Assembly passed the motion 204-85. Yoon’s presidential powers and duties were subsequently suspended and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s No. 2 official, took over presidential powers later Saturday.
The Constitutional Court has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss Yoon as president or restore his powers. If he’s thrown out of office, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.
It was the second National Assembly vote on Yoon’s impeachment after ruling party lawmakers boycotted the first floor vote last Saturday. Some People Power Party lawmakers had since said they would vote for Yoon’s impeachment as public protests intensified and his approval rating plummeted. — AP News
Our Take: It'll be interesting to see what happens to the now disgraced former President Yoon. There are many who are calling for him to be tried for treason, and even some calling for the death penalty, if convicted.
It would appear that he did try to orchestrate a false flag attack designed to provoke war with North Korea, in order to impose martial law and assume authoritarian control over his people. Such tyranny cannot be forgiven. I would argue that would government officials engage in such sinister and draconian tactics, a severe example should be made of them—one that will ring through the ages, and strike fear into the hearts of wicked men for centuries to come.
It is this precedent that ultimately liberates The People from the tyranny of evil men, for they know that good men are prepared to rise up and destroy them, if/when they show their true colors.
There is only one way to establish this precedent, and it is not a pleasant thing to consider; however, it is something that is done out of love for our children, and the preservation of culture. Preserving the good in this world requires strength, courage, and honor. We cannot allow fear and trepidation to prevent us from building a greater future, and we certainly cannot allow blood-sucking cockroaches like Yoon (who is most likely a puppet of the CIA) to slither into the halls of power in America and impose his tyrannical will on our people.
Whatever happens to Yoon is up to the people of South Korea, but here in America, we must consider that similar scum has infected our government. I do not expect that it is possible to negotiate with such parasites. The rule of law must be restored. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
Trump Says He Supports an End to Daylight Saving Time
President-elect Donald J. Trump called daylight saving time “inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation” in a social media post on Friday and said the Republican Party would try to “eliminate” it, in the latest effort to end the twice-yearly time change.
Most states change their time by one hour — in March, when clocks spring forward, and in November, when clocks fall back.
Over the years, many elected officials, including Mr. Trump, have expressed support for ending the changes.
“Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is OK with me!” Mr. Trump posted on social media in March 2019.
He reiterated his support for such a move on Friday, posting on X, “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!”
On social media, there was support for Mr. Trump’s post.
Many people called the time changes antiquated. Some noted that daylight saving time would most likely not be eliminated, as his post suggested, but rather would be made permanent, and the time changes would be eliminated.
Ending the clock change would require the approval of Congress. There have been many bipartisan efforts to pass such a bill, but all have failed. In 2022, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, but it died in the House. An effort to pass a similar bill in 2023 also failed.
The idea behind daylight saving time is to move an hour of sunlight from the early morning to the evening, so that people can make more use of daylight. — NYT
Our Take: If I had to venture a guess, Trump is largely referencing deaths of despair here, the statistics around which are absolutely staggering when 'Daylight Savings' is taken into account.
But there's more to it than that.
I've spent the better part of a decade over-analyzing Trump's statements, and in the lead-up to the 2024 election, he went on several winding asides ABOUT his 'weaves,' suggesting those who think "it's really quite genius" are onto something.
The same is true for seemingly-innocuous, discordant campaign promises like this one.
So, I think this is the latest in a long line of Trump signals that the enemy has been screwing with the American people in more ways than they've ever imagined, while playing to the common sense rhetoric and everyman energy he built the Donald character atop, and projected the MAGA movement from.
When it comes to Daylight Savings Time, there is, quite literally no logical modern argument to keep the practice in place. But I would posit to you that the reason for it is less so because the cabal want people depressed, though there is that, and more so that it harkens back to their original obsession ... control.
What more could one hope to control than time itself?
Rather, our perception of it?
The Info War is merely the latest iteration in an eternal war between the forces of light and darkness, which is to say, it's a war about TIME, and largely of it.
Trump often tells you the truth between the beats.
Are you paying attention? — Burning Bright
Niger bans BBC for ‘spreading disinformation’
Niger has suspended BBC programming, accusing the British state broadcaster of spreading false information that could destabilize the West African country, which has struggled to combat a decade-long lethal jihadist insurgency.
The move on Thursday adds the BBC to a growing list of Western media agencies sanctioned by the Nigerien military government and its allies in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali in recent years.
State-owned outlet ANP published a letter from the African state’s media regulator, ordering local press groups affiliated with the British state broadcaster to “suspend, with immediate effect,” the channel’s programs across the country for three months.
The Nigerien communications ministry said the outlet has aired “erroneous information tending to destabilize social tranquility and undermine the morale of the troops.”
The authorities failed to mention any specific broadcast that prompted their decision. However, on Wednesday, several Western outlets reported that jihadists had killed 90 soldiers and at least 40 civilians in Chatoumane in Niger’s Tera region near Burkina Faso.
Niger’s leadership denied the attack had occurred, labeling the reports “baseless assertions” and a “campaign of intoxication.” — RT
Our Take: I'm sure western media outlets will present this as an infringement of free speech and free press—the same scumbags who celebrated with glee as truth tellers had their proverbial tongues cut out for exposing the crimes against humanity being conducted by Corporate America and the US government back in 2020 during the COVID scam.
The fact is that the BBC and outlets like it are not "news organizations," they are highly funded and highly sophisticated propaganda disseminators who have proven themselves capable of destabilizing societies and even toppling governments. If these outlets are not directly controlled by intelligence agencies, then they are most certainly heavily influenced by them—as the "journalists" openly boast about using anonymous intelligence officials "familiar with the situation" in just about every piece of hot garbage they publish.
The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 was passed by Congress just one year after President Harry Truman created the Central Intelligence Agency with the National Security Act of 1947. Smith-Mundt was designed to protect the American public from the psychological warfare operations that the CIA was created to deploy, not that I personally believe such an act would have stopped Langley from doing so. However, in 2012, President Obama effectively repealed Smith-Mundt, giving the CIA the full authority to impose its ruthless will upon the unsuspecting American People.
The results have been devastating. Obama is a criminal and a traitor. When the time comes to prosecute him, he will probably try to claim Kenyan citizenship or something to avoid accountability. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
BONUS ITEMS
Trump team in talks with Biden and Ukrainian officials about ending war with Russia
President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team has held discussions with the White House and Ukrainian leaders as part of a concerted effort to find a way to end the war with Russia, multiple sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.
Trump's advisers and Cabinet nominees, who hold a range of views on Ukraine, have yet to present a conceptual or specific peace plan to Kyiv, the sources said.
The president-elect has vowed to end the conflict even before he is inaugurated next month, calling the casualties suffered on both sides “a tragedy.” But he has sent mixed signals in his public comments, urging Russia to make peace but also suggesting he might scale back U.S. military aid to Ukraine or reimpose limits on Kyiv’s use of American-made long-range missiles against targets inside Russia.
Despite Trump’s promises to end the war quickly, it remains unclear whether he can persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the fighting as Moscow’s forces gain ground in eastern Ukraine. It is also not clear if Trump's team has communicated with Putin’s government about Ukraine, and if so, what has been conveyed by either side.
When asked on “Meet the Press” if he were actively working to end the war, Trump said, “I am, but he declined to say if he had spoken to Putin since the November election.
“I don’t want to say anything about that, because I don’t want to do anything that could impede the negotiation,” Trump said.
The transition team declined to comment on whether a Putin ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, carried any message from Russia to Trump in his recent visit to Mar-a-Lago. — NBC News
Trump Advisers Seek to Shrink or Eliminate Bank Regulators
The Trump transition team has started to explore pathways to dramatically shrink, consolidate or even eliminate the top bank watchdogs in Washington.
In recent interviews with potential nominees to lead bank regulatory agencies, Trump advisers and officials from his newfound Department of Government Efficiency have, for example, asked whether the president-elect could abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., people familiar with the matter said.
Advisers have asked the nominees under consideration for the FDIC, as well as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, if deposit insurance could then be absorbed into the Treasury Department, some of the people said.
Any proposal to eliminate the FDIC or any agency would require congressional action. While past presidents have reorganized and rebranded departments, Washington has never shut down a major cabinet-level agency and rarely closed other agencies like the FDIC that are not.
Bank executives are optimistic President-elect Donald Trump will ease a host of regulations on capital cushions and consumer protections, as well as scrutiny of consolidation in the industry. But FDIC deposit insurance is considered near sacred. Any move that threatened to undermine even the perception of deposit insurance could quickly ripple through banks and in a crisis might compound customer fears.
After several banks failed last year, customers panicked about whether their deposits were safe at smaller banks. Many fled to the biggest of big banks who are perceived to be so important that the government would never let them fail. Since then, banks have been calling for wider deposit insurance protections to keep smaller banks competitive. — WSJ
Trump Names Devin Nunes as Chairman of Intelligence Advisory Board
President Trump announced Saturday that Devin Nunes, a close ally and former U.S. lawmaker, will serve as chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
Nunes, who currently leads Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, will continue in his role as CEO while taking on the advisory position, according to a post by Trump on the platform.
Nunes previously chaired the U.S. House Intelligence Committee during Trump’s first term and was a staunch defender of the president-elect. As chair, Nunes accused the FBI of conspiring against Trump during its Russia Hoax investigation.
“Devin will draw on his experience as former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and his key role in exposing the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, to provide me with independent assessments of the effectiveness and propriety of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s activities,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board is tasked with offering independent evaluations of the intelligence community’s operations and planning.
In the same announcement, Trump named Troy Edgar, an IBM executive and former Department of Homeland Security official, as deputy secretary of DHS. Additionally, businessman Bill White was appointed to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Belgium. — Badlands News
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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They regret it to the tune of 15 mil. Regret is not repentance, nor a real apology. They must keep lying. They just regret their diabolical schemes backfired. I do NOT expect a change in their MO. But We The People are so beyond ever believing what they say EVER.
#1……justice is not political. — Ashe in America