Badlands News Brief
Badlands News Brief
Trump Hits the Bronx as the Establishment Panics
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 Thursday, May 23 …
Trump vows to 'save' deep-blue New York City in massive, historic Bronx rally
Former President Donald Trump has broken political norms by visiting one of the most deep-blue areas in New York City, a town not necessarily known for its kindness to Republicans.
Trump rallied a crowd of what his campaign estimated to be 25,000 supporters at Crotona Park in the Bronx on Thursday, far more than the initial 3,500 it said were expected to attend. Those numbers appeared to also include those lined up outside the event – who waited hours for a shot at getting inside even after the event began.
"I'm here tonight to declare we are going to turn New York City around, and we are going to turn it around very, very quickly," Trump said after taking the stage, vowing to bring back safety and better schools to the city. "We are going to make New York bigger, better and greater than ever before." — FOX News
Our Take: “When it comes to historic Trump rallies—aren’t they all?—the Badlands crew tends to look for anything from Devo comms to Q confirmations in his statements, while marveling at the crowds the true Commander-in-Chief continues to draw in supposedly enemy territory and exulting in the tantrums of the Media Industrial Complex as the very industry that relies on Trump narratives for its lifeblood also needs him to go away forever.
And I’m sure we’ll do all of the above over the weekend.
That said, I thought my friend TheStormHasArrived put it quite well when he posted the following:
Trump’s massive showing in The Bronx isn’t historic because it’s another near record-breaking Trump rally. It’s not historic because it’s happening in a ‘blue state.’ It’s not even historic because it’s happening in New York.
It’s historic in ways we don’t even know quite yet, but that I believe we can feel by watching its fallout over the coming days.
There is something intrinsic, American and yes, racial at play, here, and I think it’s something the Deep State fears more than anything else.
It’s been said that the Awakening will spread worldwide, and I believe that’s the case.
But it hasn’t even truly reached a fever pitch in our own lands. That day is coming, and I think we’re beginning to transition from the ‘very slowly’ phase to the ‘all at once’ coda.” —
The White House to the left: We told you so on crime
The defeat of a liberal Portland prosecutor at the hands of a tough-on-crime challenger has hardened a view among top White House officials that Democrats need to further distance themselves from their left flank on law-and-order issues.
In the wake of the voter backlash over public safety in Oregon, Joe Biden’s aides this week argued the results served as validation of their long-running concerns that crime and an immigration crisis at the southern border risk overwhelming the president’s case for reelection — especially if the broader party is seen as soft on both fronts.
“Particularly right now, Americans don’t want to feel like things are out of control,” said one Biden official, who was granted anonymity to offer candid views about tensions within the party. “Well-meaning ideas have gone too far, and we need a sensible approach.”
The White House is banking on the idea that voters will reward them for public efforts to crack down on immigration and boost spending on law enforcement — and, perhaps as importantly, that the liberal forces that so effectively moved the party away from those planks in 2020 won’t punish the president come November.
Inside the West Wing, senior counselor Steve Ricchetti has been among the leading voices making this case, while also advocating for more toughness on the border, according to the Biden official and one other, both granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. — Politico
Our Take: “This article is one hell of a gaslight. We’re gonna get into some highlights, but first, SHAME on Politico for carrying this dangerous government propaganda. Astounding.
Let’s dig in:
‘Joe Biden’s aides this week argued the results served as validation of their long-running concerns that crime and an immigration crisis at the southern border risk overwhelming the president’s case for reelection.’
Their long-running concerns? You mean while Biden and his top aides have been actively destroying the country for three and a half years, they were also concerned about how those efforts would impact their boss’s reelection chances? Sure, okay. Elections are totally real.
Then there’s this:
‘White House officials contend that Biden isn’t just making rhetorical adjustments but has substantive accomplishments to run on, too, pointing to statistics showing steep drops in murder rates across the country.‘
I laughed out loud at that one. The White House insists that crime is a good metric for Biden, and he should talk more about it. If murder rates are down, it’s only because the Biden administration changed the way they track the murder metric. America is undeniably less safe under Biden. Unreal, Politico.
Next up:
‘But Biden and his senior-most aides are united on the need to push for greater border security.’
Five months before the end of his term, after tens of millions of illegals have entered our nation, Biden is considering strong rhetoric on the border? That they believe Biden’s ever-shrinking base is stupid enough to believe these talking points should be as offensive to that base as it is hilarious to us. And it is hilarious.
And, finally:
‘Biden advisers insist there is still time to make inroads with Americans on both fronts, and that even minor gains could prove critical in a tight presidential race.’
It’s not a tight race, and there is most definitely not time before the election to convince the American people that Biden is (1) Cognitively functional, and (2) not a massive threat to national security.
There are actually people out there that believe this narrative propaganda and, while those people are on track to win Darwin Awards, their ignorance is preyed upon by outlets like Politico.
SHAME!” —
Obama State Dept blocked FBI from arresting supporters of Iran nuclear program in US: Emails
The Obama-Biden State Department "actively interfered" to prevent the FBI from executing arrest warrants on individuals illegally in the United States who were allegedly supporting Iranian financial efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction, whistleblowers told Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson.
Fox News Digital obtained letters Grassley, R-Iowa, and Johnson, R-Wis., sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Attorney General Merrick Garland on the matter.
The Obama-Biden administration began its Joint Plan of Action, which served as the negotiating process for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, that was signed by then-President Obama in 2015. At the time, Obama said broader sanctions would remain in place, which the administration would "continue to enforce... vigorously."
The United States, for decades during both Republican and Democratic administrations, imposed sanctions on "Iranian individuals, companies, and organizations for involvement in nuclear proliferation, ballistic missile development, support for terrorist groups, and human rights abuses." — FOX News
Our Take: “It may surprise some of you to hear this, but it was actually the United States who constructed Iran's first nuclear reactor in 1967—the five-megawatt Tehran Research Reactor. It operated on uranium enriched to about 93 percent (it is converted to run on 20 percent in 1993,) which the United States also supplied.
In 1974, Iranian Shah Reza Pahlavi established the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI,) and announced plans to generate about 23,000 megawatts of energy over 20 years, including the construction of 23 nuclear power plants and the development of a full nuclear fuel cycle, all with the full public support of the United States.
The Iran Nuclear Deal seems to have been more of a money-laundering operation than anything else. The reason they sent pallets of cash under the cover of darkness was so their would be no transaction logs that would normally accompany bank wire transfers.
Obama and his merry gang of criminals were looting the US Treasury, which is likely also why they blocked the FBI from arresting their Iranian accomplices.
From the article:
’It seems Trump election win having impact on doing business in Iran. We are going to sign a small deal in Iran this week ($5 million licensing agreement.) We were in talks with a Japanese bank to handle the funds, but they have recently backed off, unofficially citing coming Trump presidency. European banks feeling the same way. Small amount of money, but having a dampening effect on doing business in Iran.’
Ex-FBI official Peter Strzok was copied on that email.
Japanese banks ‘backed off’ when Trump entered office? So did European banks? Wonder why...
Did you know that Peter Strzok grew up in Iran? His father served three tours there, while in the Army Corps of Engineers. A coincidence, I'm sure.” —
Media Matters Lays Off A Dozen Staffers Following Federal Probe, Lawsuit By Elon Musk
Media Matters followed suit with several liberal outlets by laying off at least a dozen staffers following a federal probe and lawsuit by “X” chief executive officer Elon Musk.
Staffers, some of whom have been with Media Matters for years, took to social media announcing their sudden departure from the outlet. The layoffs followed federal probes filed by Republican Attorneys General Ken Paxton of Texas and Andrew Bailey of Missouri into the outlet for possible fraudulent activity by allegedly manipulating data on “X,” formerly known as Twitter.
Musk filed a defamation lawsuit against Media Matters in federal court in November, as the site has accused the outlet of “knowingly” manufacturing images showing advertisements from major corporations alongside posts made by white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
“Bad News: I’ve been laid off from @mmfa, along with a dozen colleagues. There’s a reason far-right billionaires attack Media Matters with armies of lawyers: They know how effective our work is, and it terrifies them (him),” staffer Kat Abughazaleh said, referring to Musk. — The Daily Caller
Our Take: “There’s almost TOO much good news in the headline alone to form a succinct comment on, but I’ll try:
Aside from the obvious of being unabashedly ecstatic about corporate communists and their cheerleaders being out of work, Elon Musk’s name being attached to the ongoing Crisis Cascade afflicting the establishment media isn’t just a mild comm, but a major signal, in my book.
Musk’s connections with the Trump-era Department of Defense come up pretty often on Badlands, especially on the Devolution Power Hour, so, when the man who just so happened to take control of the most influential social media platform—also known as communications and mass psychological manipulation weapons system—in the world went on to announce class action lawsuits against Media Matters and other Globalist proxy outfits, some of us thought there was MUCH more going on than the sort of billionaire Musk-Soros pissing match the very establishment media targeted would like you to believe.
Now, it looks like the first commie chickens are coming home to roost. Or, rather, they’re being sent home.
Say … do you think these are the type of corporate ‘journos’ who took selfies with ‘Conservative Tears’ mugs?” —
Putin and Bahraini monarch agree to increase cooperation
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa agreed on Thursday to step up their trade relations and work together to resolve the crisis in the Middle East.
King Hamad arrived in Moscow on Thursday for a two-day working visit to the Russian capital. After a two-hour conversation, Putin and the King signed documents regarding cooperation in the pharmaceutical and medical industry, transport and transit, as well as cultural exchange and environmental memoranda, according to a readout provided by the Kremlin.
“Unfortunately, trade between Russia and Bahrain is at an early stage, but the trends are positive,” Putin told Hamad. “However, the situation with investment is better: there are about 30 large projects underway, with a total worth of around $500 million.”
The king praised Putin for his “wise policy” and acknowledged “Russia’s role in the fair resolution of Arab issues.” Hamad, who currently holds the chairmanship of the Arab League, said that Bahrain aims to hold an international conference aimed at resolving the Israel-Hamas conflict. — RT
Our Take: “More and more, we see signs and indicators of the Sovereign Alliance.
This time it is Putin playing Peacemaker, but with the shadow of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman looming off-screen.
Last June, when the ‘mutiny’ happened in Russia, MBS hosted a call with Putin that included both the UAE and Bahrain. Including the UAE was not surprising, as they are the Saudis top ally, but the inclusion of Bahrain was a signal that Sunni and Shia are making amends.
Bahrain is not a large country, with a population of only 1.5 million on a small island just off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, near Qatar. Their population is split between Sunni and Shia, with the Shia Muslims comprising a slight majority of the population. The House of Al Khalifa has ruled there since 1784. During the Arab Spring of 2011, their government faced criticism for attacking the violent protesters who were activated to overthrow the governments of the Middle East. After that, the Al Khalifa turned to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for help and protection.
Last week, King Hamad hosted the 33rd Arab Summit, where a collective pact was issued calling for Israel's total withdrawal from Palestine. Hamad also announced his intention to host an international peace conference in the immediate future, where he intended to court the international community to fulfill the promise of the 1993 Oslo Accords and finalize the Two-State Solution between Israel and Palestine. At this meeting with the Russians, Hamad just expressed that he considers President Putin as the most important leader from outside the region to attend this meeting—most likely due to Putin's public defiance of the western hegemony.
Hamad also announced Bahrain's intention to restore ties with Iran, while Putin invited Bahrain to attend the upcoming BRICS summit. Bahrain applied for BRICS membership back in 2022, but was not among the nations invited to join in August of last year.
While the Hegemony calls for war and death, leaders like Putin, Xi, MBS, among others sue for peace. With each passing day, the clout of the globalist hegemony wanes as the signs of the Multi-polar world emerges, lead by the Sovereign Alliance.” —
The Taylor Swift Ticketmaster fiasco comes full circle as DOJ slams parent company with lawsuit
It's time for "Look What You Made Me Do" (The Justice Department's version).
Over a year after Ticketmaster crashed, preventing rabid Taylor Swift fans from purchasing tickets to her concert tour, the DOJ has announced an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation Entertainment. The suit accuses the ticket sales giant of unlawfully dominating the market.
"We are not here today because Live Nation-Ticketmaster's conduct is inconvenient or frustrating. We are here because, as we allege, that conduct is anti-competitive and illegal," Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference on Thursday. "It is time to break it up."
In its lawsuit, the Justice Department says that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have used "power and influence to insert themselves at the center and the edges of virtually every aspect of the live music ecosystem," allowing them to stifle innovation and exert control over how fans can purchase tickets and where artists can perform.
"This has given Live Nation and Ticketmaster the opportunity to freeze innovation and bend the industry to their own benefit. While this may be a boon to Live Nation's bottom line, there is a real cost to Americans," the Justice Department says in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes after Ticketmaster fumbled a pre-sale event in late 2022 for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour as fans competed with bots for a limited number of tickets. — Business Insider
Our Take: “Taylor Swift is truly privileged.
Back before covid, when the country wasn’t an absolute shit show and I left my house way more often, my husband and I used to go to 15-20 concerts per year. Ticketmaster would give us problems for at least three of those shows, each year, for acts like Dave Matthews Band, Dead & Company, and other jam bands. They aren’t small events, but they’re no Taylor Swift, apparently. When Swift gets mad at Ticketmaster, the DOJ gets involved.
‘…the Justice Department says that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have used power and influence to insert themselves at the center and the edges of virtually every aspect of the live music ecosystem.’
Um, yeah. That’s how Ticketmaster has worked forever. Why did it take Taylor Swift for you guys to do something about it?
This action by the DOJ follows Biden’s focus on criminalizing Ticketmaster ‘junk fees’ earlier in his administration, which makes you wonder: Who at Ticketmaster crossed the Bidens?” —
German Parliament Votes To Decriminalize The Possession Of Child Pornography
Are you starting to see a pattern yet?
First there was the introduction of gender fluid and LGBT ideology into public schools, then there were sexualized drag queen performances for children, then leftist activists demanded that pedophiles be referred to as "MAPS" (Minor Attracted Persons) because "they can't help who they are attracted to," then California passed a law reducing charges for adults engaged in sexual relations with minors.
Now, the German Parliament has forwarded a bill that makes possession and distribution of child pornography a misdemeanor instead of a felony, greatly diminishing possible penalties.
German officials claim the new law is meant to address inconsistencies in previous child pornography laws which are sometimes applied to people who "receive images or videos through email or social media without their permission." They also cited instances where two minors traded images and were charged with creation or possession of child pornography.
Critics of the bill argue that the German government could have easily made legal adjustments for those specific exceptions to avoid innocent people being wrongly imprisoned. Instead, they are trying to institute sweeping changes that reclassify the crime and give greater legal protections to an array of child predators. The new law does not make exceptions for adult offenders. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “Germany has a long and sordid history with sexual deviancy.
Pedophiles will romanticize the 1920's as Germany's ‘decade of decadence,’ but that's only because Berlin and Munich became the sex-tourism capital of the world, under the communist Weimar Republic. (Woketards will argue that it was a ‘republic,’ not a communist state, but I think we Americans all now understand and appreciate how easily a republic can be infiltrated by Bolshevik deviants.)
When I say ‘sex-tourism,’ I mean that they had brothels of every variety-- including children and animals—and transgenderism finally found a place where it could take root and blossom. This was why Hitler's platform of traditional family values in 1933 resonated so strongly with the German people. They were reacting to societal conditions that had been foisted upon them by nefarious outside forces—the same forces that had funded the Bolshevik Revolution as well as the forth-coming Third Reich. (The controlled opposition dynamic)
The Dulles brothers, working for the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, had been instrumental negotiators at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 at the conclusion of World War 1. It was with the ink of their pen that they primed Germany to be raped and pillaged in the 1920's, making its industry ripe for acquisition by the 1930's. Within 18 months of the Allies' sanctions imposed on Germany, the price for a loaf of bread went from five German Marks to over a million.
Corporate Communism, ladies and gentleman. Brought to you by crony capitalism—aka fascism. The Dulles Brothers, along with Prescott Bush, would go on to finance the Third Reich, before forming the CIA in 1947.
They were degenerates then, just as they are degenerates today.” —
BONUS ITEMS
US House of Representatives pass Republican-led anti-CBDC bill along partisan lines
Lawmakers voted 216 to 192, with 213 Republicans in favor of the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act introduced last year.
The House of Representatives drew partisan lines in a vote to pass a Republican-led bill blocking a central bank digital currency.
Lawmakers voted 216 to 192, with 213 Republicans in favor of the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act. Three Democrats voted for the bill, while 192 Democrats opposed it.
House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., introduced the bill in September 2023 to block the Federal Reserve Bank from issuing such an asset to individuals. CBDCs are a cryptocurrency issued and regulated by a country's central bank.
Emmer’s primary motivations stem from worries over broad monitoring of financial transactions. The lawmaker previously stated that CBDCs are “government-controlled programmable money that, if not designed to emulate cash, could give the federal government the ability to surveil Americans' transactions and choke out politically unpopular activity."
The bill advanced out of the House Financial Services Committee in September with heavy criticism from Democrats. House Financial Services Committee Ranking Democrat Maxine Waters, D-Calif., called the bill banning CBDCs "anti-innovation." — The Block
Vaccine Stocks Erupt After Bird Flu Cases Reported In US & Australia
Shares of vaccine companies surged on Wednesday following two reports of human bird flu infections, one in the US and another in Australia. The federal government is closely monitoring the rising risk of human-to-human transmission, which has yet to be seen.
On Wednesday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported a farmworker who had high exposure to infected livestock developed mild symptoms and has recovered.
"The current health risk to the general public remains low," Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, said in a news release. "
Bagdasarian continued, "We have not seen signs of sustained human-to-human transmission at this point. This is exactly how public health is meant to work, in early detection and monitoring of new and emerging illnesses."
The second case was reported in Australia's southeastern state of Victoria. This is the first human case of bird flu in the country. — ZeroHedge
CYBERCOM, DARPA pen agreement to speed up advanced cyberwarfare research
U.S. Cyber Command and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency signed a binding memorandum this month that carves out pathways needed to expedite research and development of advanced cyberware technologies in the Department of Defense.
The agreement, announced by the two Pentagon agencies this week, establishes budgets, roles and governance structures needed to swiftly move cyber technologies “from the laboratory to the cyber battlefield,” they said.
The move centers DARPA — the research giant focused on advanced technology for U.S. military capabilities — as the frontrunner entity that provides projects to be loaded into CYBERCOM’s software suite. The memorandum follows the 2022 establishment of Constellation, the agreement’s cornerstone pilot program focused on transmitting advanced hacking capabilities to American cyberspace combatants.
Under the agreement, R&D programs would be chosen by DARPA and executed by the Orion Consortium, a joint group that includes DARPA contributors and CYBERCOM engineers.
“We’re talking about the rapid expansion of the art of the possible by partnering directly with the people persistently pushing the technological beyond its limits, conversely informing and challenging those advancements through an operational lens to maximize the balance between the art and science of cyber in support of national security,” said CYBERCOM’s deputy commander Lt. Gen. William Hartman during a recent keynote address at RSA Conference in San Francisco.
CYBERCOM is one of several unified combatant commands that combines staff across multiple service branches. It deployed cyber warriors in “hunt forward” missions 22 times to 17 countries in 2023 to disable cyber threats across global networks, according to April testimony delivered to a Senate panel by command leader Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh. — NextGov
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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What a beautiful note to wrap up the week, the Historic Bronx Rally!! I caught a couple clips over on TS and, yes, it was glorious!! I don’t see race and different nationalities, I see my fellow AMERICANS ❤️🇺🇸
Glorious, we are winning. Best explained by BB: "But it hasn’t even truly reached a fever pitch in our own lands. That day is coming, and I think we’re beginning to transition from the ‘very slowly’ phase to the ‘all at once’ coda.” — Burning Bright"
God Wins!
God Bless!!