Badlands News Brief
Bidens on Parade, Trump on Campaign & Obama in the Basement
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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 picks 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 commentary from members of our growing team of citizen journalists. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see their other work.
Now, onto the news from Thursday, July 20 …
Bombshell FBI memo: Hunter Biden hired by Ukrainian firm to 'protect' it from corruption probe
A trusted FBI informant told agents in 2020 that Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma Holdings to use his father to help "protect" the Ukrainian gas firm from problems, including an effort to "take care of'" a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the company for corruption, according to an explosive document released by Sen. Charles Grassley on Thursday.
"They hired Hunter Biden to protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems," the informant reported to the FBI that a top Burisma official named Vadim Pojarskii declared during a meeting while Joe Biden was still vice president, according to the FD-1023 confidential human source report Grassley, R-Iowa, released.
The informant also reported that Burisma had asked Hunter Biden to help get the top prosecutor in Ukraine, Victor Shokin, sidelined because he was investigating the firm for corruption and interfering with Burisma's effort to buy a U.S. firm. — Just the News
FBI official testifies agency knew Hunter Biden laptop was real
The same FBI personnel who warned social media companies that the Hunter Biden laptop could be part of a potential Russian "hack and leak" operation ahead of the 2020 election knew that it was not disinformation, an FBI official told the House Judiciary Committee.
Section Chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force Laura Dehmlow participated in a transcribed interview before the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on Monday and revealed details of how the bureau "conditioned" social media companies to believe the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, despite knowing it was legitimate.
In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, detailed Dehmlow’s testimony, which revealed that after the initial New York Post story on the Hunter Biden laptop in October 2020, the FBI "made an institutional decision to refuse to answer direct questions from social media companies about the laptop’s authenticity — despite months of constant information sharing up to that time."
"Put simply, after the FBI conditioned social media companies to believe that the laptop was the product of a hack-and-dump operation, the Bureau stopped its information sharing, allowing social media companies to conclude that the New York Post story was Russian disinformation," Jordan wrote. — FOX News
Our Take: “Entering 2023, several of us at Badlands Media claimed that we’d be looking at the true Year of the Boomerang after a few false starts in the past. While some have suggested the only Boomerangs worth paying attention to are those that result in Deep State criminals behind bars, I would posit to you that winning, much like Justice, is a process, and that the role of the GOP Congressional Committees during this period of time is largely to occupy the role of public Disclosure.
The above news items not only drill that point home, but also help to further delineate and distinguish between ‘Exposure’ and ‘Disclosure.’ To me, Exposure is largely self-inflicted; these are the sorts of scandals that public Deep State figures like Hunter Biden and many others this community has tracked and dug into for years, now end up embroiled in, even if there’s no legal ramifications for said scandals at the outset. Disclosure is the process by which the Actual—and by that I mean tangible, documentary evidence—is presented both TO and BY Congress to the American people, connecting dots, framing the Narratives we need framed and most importantly, getting sworn testimony on the record for the very real trials that are coming down the line.
Rather than focusing on the current optics that the Biden Crime Family—and many of their Deep State cohorts—seem to keep slipping through the amorphous net of justice in the United States, I would appeal to you to focus on the fact that, if the Deep State truly was in control, their chosen leadership would not be the subject of weekly—almost daily, now—Congressional Committees in the first place.
These hearings have real legal ramifications, and actual standing in the American Justice System—a System Donald Trump saw fit to appoint a record number of judges into during his initial run.
Do you really think they’re not going to pay?
Sometimes, you just have to sit back and enjoy the show, frustrating as the plot can be en route to the revelations of the third act.” —
Friendly Fire: Dan Goldman Accidentally Demolishes Biden Defense In Whistleblower Hearing
One of the most basic lessons that we teach law students is that you should “never ask a question you don’t know the answer to.”
The peril of the poorly crafted question was on display in Wednesday’s hearing with two whistleblowers on political interference in the Hunter Biden investigation.
Most Democrats avoided any questions on the substance of the allegations, focusing instead on everything from systemic racism to the use of the term “two-tiered system of justice” and, of course, Donald Trump.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) often goes where wiser members fear to tread. On this occasion, Goldman may have delivered one of the most damaging moments for the Democrats.
In the course of just a few minutes, the freshman New York congressman seemed to demolish the defense of President Biden.
Goldman was trying to get the witnesses to say that there is no evidence that President Biden was personally involved in the alleged felonies of his son.
He raised the shocking WhatsApp message that Hunter had allegedly sent to a Chinese official with foreign intelligence contacts.
[…]
Most Democrats have avoided the message, which is incredibly damaging and seems to contradict the President’s long denial of any knowledge or involvement in his son’s dealings.
Goldman pressed veteran IRS investigator Gary Shapley about his suggestion that Joe Biden discussed the foreign dealing with his son. Shapley eagerly said that he would be happy to explain but Goldman cut him off and said that he did not have time for such explanations.
At this point, most lawyers would have reversed engines out of troubled waters, but Goldman plowed full speed ahead. He said that the references to Joe sitting next to his son does not mean that they actually discussed his business.
Goldman then went even further and raised a “lunch where Joe Biden came to say hello at the Four Season’s hotel to a lunch that he was having with CEFC executives.” He then reads from the record in how Biden associate Rob Walker described the origins of the meeting with the Chinese officials to get his dad to stop by: “Hunter told his Dad that ‘I may be trying to start a company or try to do something with these guys.’ “
Goldman then pounced and said slyly “Now let me ask you something, that doesn’t sound much like Joe Biden was involved in whatever Hunter was doing with the CEFC if Hunter Biden is telling him that he is trying to do business with them, does it?”
That is when Shapley stated the obvious: “No, but it does show that he told his father that he was trying to do business and . . . ” — Jonathan Turley
Our Take: “The Big Guy is in big trouble. For years, Joe Biden has insisted that he never spoke with son Hunter about his overseas business dealings. This is, of course, hilarious, as this article chronicles the many ways that Joe is connected Hunter’s ‘work,’ from payment structures to office keys to shakedowns over WhatsApp.
How far we’ve come in a couple decades.
Former President Bill Clinton was impeached for lying to the American People. But in 2023, Congressional Democrats are lying to prevent Biden’s inevitable impeachment. Unfortunately for the op, these guys aren’t the brightest, and Rep. Dan Goldman accidentally exposed his dear leader during Wednesday’s hearing.
It’s hard to believe these ‘accidental’ exposures are actually accidental. It’s also hard to believe these exposures — the documented, verified evidence of Biden Family high crimes and misdemeanors, presented to the public — have had zero consequences. The 459 criminal violations have barely gotten any mainstream attention at all. Instead, all narrative threads lead to 45, and any mention of the Biden Crime Family is met with, ‘But Trump!’
Accidental or intentional, the more people that see the overwhelming evidence of treasonous Biden behavior, the better. Public awakening will eventually lead to change. That awakening coming from the rhetorical missteps of a Democrat Congressman just makes the whole endeavor more entertaining.” —
Trump’s Legal Woes Mount as Trial Dates and Campaign Calendar Collide
As former President Donald J. Trump campaigns for the White House while multiple criminal prosecutions against him play out, at least one thing is clear: Under the laws of physics, he cannot be in two places at once.
Generally, criminal defendants must be present in the courtroom during their trials. Not only will that force Mr. Trump to step away from the campaign trail, possibly for weeks at a time, but the judges overseeing his trials must also jostle for position in sequencing dates. The collision course is raising extraordinary — and unprecedented — questions about the logistical, legal and political challenges of various trials unfolding against the backdrop of a presidential campaign.
“The courts will have to decide how to balance the public interest in having expeditious trials against Trump’s interest and the public interest in his being able to campaign so that the democratic process works,” said Bruce Green, a Fordham University professor and former prosecutor. “That’s a type of complexity that courts have never had to deal with before.”
More broadly, the complications make plain another reality: Mr. Trump’s troubles are entangling the campaign with the courts to a degree the nation has never experienced before and raising tensions around the ideal of keeping the justice system separate from politics. — The New York Times
Our Take: “Ironically, sometimes I like posting dramatic, anti-Trump takes by the Mainstream Media not because I want to dunk all over them, but rather because, often, I feel that they’re running parallel Narratives to both this Community and Donald Trump and patriots without truly understanding what they’re doing.
For example, the NYT is clearly framing Donald Trump as an embattled, controversial public figure with the entire U.S. Justice System after him for presumed wrongdoings, ranging from disputed process crimes when he was supposedly leaving office to his alleged role in an alleged insurrection on an infamous day in early 2021.
The thing is … that’s also the framing Trump and patriots have chosen as their prime Narrative directive for 2023, casting Trump as the ultimate martyr of the MAGA and America First movement, with the full force of the Deep State’s weaponized Department of Justice after him even as the many exploits of the Biden Crime Family seemingly go unpunished in front of a distraught and dubious populace.
Of course, the framing of the WHY could not be more opposed along each side of the War of Stories, but the fact that the Media Industrial Complex is engaging in the subjects Trump and company bait—up to and including his own indictments, each of which he has pre-seeded and announced—suggest that they’re not in control of anything but how many ways they can rephrase the same anti-MAGA lies they’ve been spouting since 2016.” —
“Every Statement You Made About Me is Inaccurate…These Are Defamations Used to Censor Me” – RFK Jr. Goes Scorched Earth on Nasty Democrat After She Slanders and Advocates Censoring Him During Her Opening Statement
Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) got in a verbal fight with Kennedy during the hearing which did not end well for her. Kennedy put the deranged liberal right in her place after she publicly slandered him during her opening statement.
Plaskett began her opening statement during the hearing with a lie: she claimed that RFK, Jr said that COVID was targeted to specifically attack Caucasians and Blacks. As Jim Hoft previously pointed out, his comments were completely taken out of context.
She went on to claim Kennedy advised Black Americans not to receive vaccines and trash Kennedy’s research on the COVID shot.
The rude Democrat next attacked her Republican colleagues for daring to have RFK, Jr. to speak in the first place and launched a chilling attack on the First Amendment.
[…]
Kennedy was then given a chance by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to respond to Plaskett’s cruel smears. His remarks were straight fire:
Relevant remarks:
“I would like to respond to these defamations that have been applied to me by the ranking member.
Virtually every statement that you just made about me is inaccurate. I have never advised Black Americans not to receive vaccines.
At one moment you point out that I am anti vax at another moment you point out that my children are vaccinated.
These are defamations and malignancies that are used to censor me to prevent people from listening to the actual things that I’m saying.
“The term ‘malinformation’ was coined to describe information that Facebook and Twitter and the other social media sites understood was true, but that the White House and other federal agencies wanted censored anyway for political reasons because it challenged official orthodoxies.” — The Gateway Pundit
Our Take: “A very fiery hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, as Democrats attacked Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as a racist and antisemite, claimed FDA studies on Covid-19 were racist, and pretended to care about children.
While all Democrats revealed and embarrassed themselves by openly slandering a Kennedy on the official Congressional record, no one had a more Orwellian showing than Representative Ramen, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the undistinguished but infamous ‘gentle lady’ from the great state of Florida.
She claimed that RFK put her children at risk of antisemitic attacks. She refused to allow him to address her slander, even calling on Chairman Jordan to silence the witness at key moments during the exchange. Then, after seven minutes, all of her false statements about Kennedy’s scientific assertions were instantly debunked when Congressman Massie entered two peer reviewed studies, one from NIH and one from FDA. She shrieked, but her time had expired.
This article from the Gateway Pundit isn’t about Wasserman-Schultz, however; it’s about Plaskett, though the two commies are working off the same playbook. At the end of the hearing, as they were about to close, RFK asked to correct the record about his connection to a SuperPAC, a minor request that eventually took less than one minute to put on the record. In response, Plaskett attempted to execute a coup on Jordan’s committee, and silence Mr. Kennedy herself.
Kennedy: ‘May I—‘
Plaskett: ‘No, you may not…the time is up, we’re done.’
Jordan: ‘I haven’t adjourned the hearing, and I don’t think you’re the chair.’
Plaskett: ‘Mister Chair!’
Jordan reminded her that she wasn’t in charge, and Kennedy was eventually allowed to make his very brief assertion. The exchange about whether or not Kennedy should be allowed to correct the record was significantly longer than the two sentences the Democrat Presidential candidate, ultimately, said.
That final moment of the hearing summarized the entire proceeding perfectly. Democrats will silence anyone who threatens the government sanctioned central narrative. Disturbing, since they swore an oath to protect against exactly that.” —
Rand Paul: We Have Referred Fauci to DOJ for Prosecution for Lying to Congress
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News Daily he has referred Dr. Anthony Fauci for prosecution, explaining that the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief lied during his testimony before Congress.
Paul initially said he gave Fauci the benefit of the doubt in 2020, deeming Fauci a “disinterested public health figure.” But as he had further interactions with him, he concluded the former White House medical adviser was a “dishonest” individual, determined to cover up his initial response to the coronavirus pandemic.
He pointed to further evidence this week–the emergence of an email featuring Fauci summarizing a phone call in early 2020.
“This is when they’re just beginning to look into the pandemic. And in that email, he basically says, ‘Yes, we’re suspicious that this could be a manipulated virus because it came from a lab in Wuhan, where they do gain of function research,’ and he describes the research,” Paul said.
“Well, this directly contradicts everything he said in committee hearing to me, denying absolutely that they funded any gain of function, and it’s absolutely a lie,” he said. — Breitbart
Our Take: “An infamous letter of the alphabet has used the phrase, ‘Drip, drip, flood,’ in relation to the Info War, ostensibly in reference to the pattern in which information is going to be Disclosed to the American public throughout or en route to the period of time many of us refer to as the Great Awakening.
What’s especially interesting about the Fauci/NIH Narrative, along with the Wuhan Lab resurfacing in the War of Stories is the very fact that it disappeared in the first place, at least in the bulk of the Collective Mind.
To me, the resurfacing of Narratives that the Deep State Globalists would obviously love to remain suppressed is yet another hint that they don’t have as much control over the game board as they once wielded, and that the clock may be starting to run out on how long they can keep their chosen members from facing justice.
Fauci isn’t solely responsible for whatever went on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, nor everything that followed it … but he is the public FACE of everything that went on. A public face that Donald Trump drew attention to early and often.
Are you beginning to understand why?” —
Former President Barack Obama Releases Summer Reading List
Our Take: “In 2020, former President Barack Obama told Stephen Colbert: ‘I used to say, if I can make an arrangement where I had a stand-in or front-man or front-woman and they had an earpiece in, and I was just in my basement in my sweats looking through the stuff, and I could sort of deliver the lines while someone was doing all the talking and ceremony, I’d be fine with that because I found the work fascinating.’
If the former president was running a shadow presidency, we’d expect him to publicly appear out of the game. He might, say, start a book club and tell his 132 million Twitter followers to consume specific stories — in this war of stories — to shape their opinions on key topics that are critical to the information war.
Hey, look! Obama just released a summer reading list. It’s a mixed bag of fiction and nonfiction with nine titles: a biography, a social commentary, a historical nonfiction nautical tale, and five works of fiction. While the literary vehicles vary, the themes Obama is propagating this summer are tightly connected. That is, it’s all race and class.
Let’s take a look at the summaries, as described on Amazon’s page for each work:
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond ‘argues that poverty persists in the United States due to choices and actions made by more fortunate Americans.’
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane is a novel, and the description reads, ‘One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances.’
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig, a bald white dude, is a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. in which, ‘The author confronts King’s shortcomings head-on, acknowledging his extramarital affairs and battles with depression. But, conversely, Eig contends that these personal failings did not detract from King’s unwavering dedication to the cause of civil rights.’
Hello Beautiful by Ana Napolitano is a novel that reviewers and critics have compared to Little Women. One verified five star review described the work as, ‘A story of William who suffers depression and a feeling like he doesn't belong.’
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby is a thriller described as, ‘A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.’
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton is another novel, described as, ‘A gripping psychological thriller … Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are … it is a mesmerizing, unflinching consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.’
What Napoleon Could Not Do by DK Nnuro is a novel where ‘America is seen through the eyes and ambitions of three characters with ties to Africa.’ This one is on every major list of 2023 must read books.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann is a nonfiction work that tells the story of British sailors, marooned in the 1740s, who traversed nearly 3,000 miles, survived, and were greeted as heroes. ‘But then ... six months later, another … craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes—they were mutineers.’
Blue Hour by Tiffany Clarke Harrison is a novel in which ‘Our narrator is a gifted photographer, an uncertain wife, an infertile mother, a biracial woman in an unraveling America. As she grapples with a lifetime of ambivalence about motherhood, yet another act of police brutality makes headlines …’
I am not judging any of these books by their covers and, in fact, after researching the list, there are a few titles that jump the line in my own summer reading list.
I just find it interesting picturing the shadow president, lounging by the pool on his multimillion dollar Martha’s Vineyard estate, reading this particular literary collection — and officially releasing it to his fan base in rebuke of American race and class issues.
Innocent or insidious?” —
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.
The Badlands Media team will continue to combine our cognitive powers in order to slow things down and find the signal amidst the noise as this series expands.
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.
I love your News Briefs, Badlands!
So…Hunter and his laptop are the gift that keeps on giving.
DEMs had their fingers crossed behind their backs when they took their oaths of office.
“Drip, drip, flood”….There’s no shutting that faucet of truths off anymore, and keeping up with it earns my deep respect to our Badlands journalists.
The DS is clearly loosing their control, thanks in large part to the tidal wave of decentralized news (again, hat tip to Badlands)
And that Obama / Colbert quote? Obama clearly describes his very real part in the Shadow Presidency …for those with the eyes and ears to comprehend…a number growing into the real Great Awakening!
Thank you all ❤️🇺🇸🌎
First Exposure then comes Disclosure then Arrest
We watch wait hope for the best!!
Where are the Fauci files?
Where are the J 6 tales that Tucker has?
Where is the Weiner laptop?
Where is HRC s server and laptop?
Drip drip Tsunami comes
Good for RFK to slash back!!
MAGA GO