Badlands News Brief

The Turns on COVID, Ukraine & the Establishment Have Begun

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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.

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 Monday, September 4 …

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Trump Lockdown Tyrant Does 180, Says No New Mask Mandates

When COVID-19 broker out, Dr. Deborah Birx, a former military AIDS researcher with no training, experience, or publications in epidemiology or public health policy, found herself leading a White House Task Force which would play a seminal role in dictating how the country locked down for the pandemic.

In March of 2020, Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci were grinning like Cheshire Cats with Duper's Delight as they laid out an unprecedented lockdown and masking strategy which Birx later admitted they pulled out of their asses.

Now that we're revisiting mask mandates over the latest Covid-19 surge, Birx and Fauci are seemingly on different sides of the debate.

"We don't need to mandate," Birx told Newsmax on Saturday, in response to reports that an increasing number of hospitals and businesses are now requiring masks again.

"We need to actually empower people with the information that they need for themselves and their families because every family is different," she continued. "And by the way, outside is safe, and playgrounds are safe." — ZeroHedge

(CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH ON X)

Our Take: “Overton's Goalpost is being deployed regarding COVID-23, mask mandates and lockdowns.

This week:

Anthony Fauci claims masks DO NOT WORK ‘for the public at large,’ but DO work on an ‘individual basis.’

This is patently absurd, and everyone knows it.

More importantly, it clashes with messaging the same week from fellow COVID tyrant, Dr. Deborah Birx, who says, ‘We don't need to mandate,’ while saying we need to ‘empower people’ to make their own decisions.

Retreat is Defeat in the Mind War.” —

Burning Bright

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Biden "Disappointed" Xi To Skip G20 Summit As Beijing Calls Out US "Zero-Sum Cold War Mindset"

Following several days of widespread reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning to skip this week’s G20 summit in India, President Biden has voiced that he's disappointed" Xi won't be there.

"I am disappointed, but I am going to see him," Biden responded to reporters Sunday during a trip to Delaware when asked about Xi's likely absence at the annual major summit among leader's of the globe's top economies.

Biden did not speculate or offer any timeline on when he might meet with Xi in the future. After the reports of Xi's expected absence, Biden's words mark the highest level confirmation from a G20 country leader that the Chinese leader won't be in attendance.

Last Friday, China's foreign ministry once again lashed out over what it says has created the climate of current tensions and rivalry. "It accused the US of comprehensively 'containing' China through wars of tariffs, trade, tech, chips and rules," noted South China Morning Post. 

"What the US is doing is not competition but enforcing its zero-sum cold war mindset," FM spokesman Wang Wenbin said. "China strongly opposes the suppression of the US in the name of competition, which will only push two countries towards confrontations and divide the world with the new cold war."

Still, Biden officials are sounding a note of optimism hat things won't spiral further, at a moment of tit-for-tat export controls, particularly impacting technology. — ZeroHedge

Our Take: “This news on its face depicts a new world order, emerging as decades of America Last policies rapidly arrive at their inevitable ends.

First, regardless of the Biden administration’s ‘hailing’ of US Commerce Secretary Gina Riamondo’s diplomatic mission last week, she was as unfruitful and disrespected as all the other bureaucrats they’ve sent. Also, Riamondo’s journey involved a fun story about children and Disney during her visit in China, which is a little on the nose for my tastes, but there is an ongoing writers’ strike.

The accelerated timeline of the global transformation is dizzying. There is the anti-western realignment of Africa, BRICS rising, Russia, and Wagner, and coups d’ etat. There are old and new disclosures in the pandemic universe — vaccines, new variants, biolabs. There are ongoing reruns of the real Biden crimes, the fake Trump witch hunts, old and new disclosures in elections, and weaponized government everywhere. It’s all happening, all at once — it’s hard to keep up with all these stories, let alone find the signal.

Now President Xi is snubbing the G20 as if to signal that the old, established instruments of global control aren’t worth his time. Maybe they aren’t.

While the injustices we’ve endured for the past few years have favored the regime, the current moment in the war of stories favors awakening. People in control of the op wouldn’t expose themselves so fast and furious on so many fronts.

Those who see through the operations comprise two-thirds of the nation and growing. They may not all be on our side of every issue, but they’re emerging out of the matrix. At least that makes the ground game in the war of stories a little more honest.” —

Ashe in America

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NY Times Wakes Up to Corruption in Ukraine as Officials Admit Military Contract Money ‘Vanished’

In a potential signal of shifting attitudes on how the war in Ukraine is covered in the legacy media, the New York Times is starting to slowly acknowledge the endemic corruption that has been a defining feature of the former Soviet state as officials have admitted that money for military contracts has “vanished”.

Following the dismissal of Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov amid a slew of corruption scandals surrounding the war effort against Russia, the New York Times acknowledged that the “enduring challenge of corruption in Ukraine” has “emerged as a rare area of criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s leadership.”

Although Reznikov has yet to be tied with any of the corruption scandals personally, the Times went on to admit that the resignation has “elevated the issue to the highest level of Ukrainian politics”. Unnamed Ukrainian officials even told the paper that some funds intended for military contracts “failed to produce weaponry or ammunition and that some money has vanished,” while claiming that the issue was merely confined to the early days of the war.

The neo-liberal outlet has previously been keen to highlight claims from the Biden administration on how the Zelensky government has been “committed to fighting corruption,” citing as evidence statements from officials such as veteran Washington insider and Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who played a pivotal role in the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine that saw the overthrow of democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

Despite nine senior government officials being sacked over allegations of corruption, including purchasing military food supplies at vastly inflated prices and taking luxury vacations, the paper went on to write in January that “corruption has otherwise not been a significant factor in the war, despite Russian propaganda claims to the contrary that are aimed at undermining his [Zelensky’s] government.” — Breitbart

Our Take: “Regarding Zelenskys' Anti-Corruption Purge:

Over the last 48 hours, Zelensky has sacked Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, while his DOJ has arrested Ihor Kolomoyskyi, the man who funded his campaign and was seen as Ukraine's puppet master.

This is all happening in the midst of a public about-face on the failed counter-offensive. The MSM and NATO are turning on Zelensky publicly.

Regarding the ‘vanishing’ billions, the Media Industrial Complex and Globalist leadership has begun its 'turn' on Zelensky and Ukraine just as Zelensky and Ukraine SEEM to be executing a turn on them.

Why?

Have they begun to wonder where his loyalties lie?

You don't have to be a 'white hat' for your strings to be cut.

Control goes both ways.” —

Burning Bright

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Elon Musk’s dad Errol fears his son ‘might be assassinated’ as Tesla CEO faces Justice Department’s legal attacks

ELON Musk’s dad fears that the world’s richest man could be assassinated for going up against the US government.

Retired electromechanical engineer Errol Musk, 77, says he has serious concerns for his firstborn son’s safety.

Musk, 52, is currently weathering a flurry of legal attacks from the Department of Justice and negative press.

It comes after President Joe Biden suggested in July that “there’s a lot of ways” of investigating the tech tycoon.

Musk has previously joked that he could “die in mysterious circumstances”.

But Errol exclusively told The U.S. Sun that both he and Elon are worried about what could happen to him. Reacting to a recent New Yorker piece by journalist Ronan Farrow titled “Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule,” Errol said: “It’s a hit job, a shadow government-sponsored opening salvo on Elon.

“The artillery-like softening up of the enemy before the actual attack and preparing of the ever-submissive people for the attack.”
Asked if he fears that the “shadow government” will try to assassinate Elon, he replied: “Yes.”

Errol, who has previously told The U.S. Sun that he warned his son to beef up his security, said Elon shares the same fear.

Farrow’s article claimed that Musk’s “influence is more brazen and expansive” than previous “meddling of oligarchs and other monied interests in the fate of nations.” — The Sun

Our Take: “While I find the comments of Errol Musk to be relatively dramatic in context, I think it’s tantalizing to see these sorts of narratives trotted out in the War of Stories.

Elon Musk is one of the more fascinating Mind-Movers in the Info War, not solely because of his position in the cultural zeitgeist, but because he first came to prominence and was first raised by and buoyed by the Marxist and Leftist/Techie contingent in Silicon Valley before being demonized by the very same after his slow (likely pre-planned) ‘turn’ toward ‘radical independence,’ free speech and the breathless defense of capitalism.

Musk isn’t openly pro-MAGA, nor should he be at this stage of the ever-evolving Info War game; but he is consistently exposing the reachable middle (and even left) of American society to ideas they wouldn’t engage with coming from figures they deem ‘alt. Right,’ including ‘shadow governments.’

Net Effects = winning.” —

Burning Bright

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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.