Badlands News Brief

The Walls Are Closing in ... Or Are They?

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 the Weekend that Was …

---

"This Is Political Persecution": Trump Rages, DeSantis 'Won't Extradite', McCarthy Cries 'Injustice' Over Indictment

‘This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history. From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats - the enemy of the hardworking men and women of this Country - have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement. You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this.

‘The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable - indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.

“Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done. The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever.

“Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace. Rather than stopping the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on. This is how Bragg spends his time!

“I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party - united and strong - will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” — Statement by Donald Trump

Our Take: “Just Human often refers to the concept of the Matador’s Cloak, while I prefer to make allusions to combat sports and counter strikers when it comes to engaging with, discerning and ultimately mapping the Narrative Deployments of Donald Trump, a man the Deep State has been underestimating to their own detriment for years, and one I feel many in this community STILL make the same mistake regarding.

Whether or not an indictment on Trump is actualized this week, the very fact that Trump is the one pushing this Narrative hardest, and the fact that many influential figures within the Media Industrial Complex and the Marxist Cultural Left are decrying the move as a grave miscalculation that could result in Trump’s sociopolitical capital increasing to insurmountable levels ahead of the 2024 campaign cycle should give you all the confidence you need to stay comfy and cozy in these tense and chaotic times.” — Burning Bright

---

China Open to Strengthening Military ‘Coordination’ with Russia

A spokesman for the Chinese Defense Ministry said on Thursday that China is ready to increase military cooperation with Russia after dictators Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin met in Moscow two weeks ago.

“The Chinese military is willing to work together with the Russian military to fully implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, further strengthening strategic communication and coordination,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Tan Kefei said.

Tan said this enhanced cooperation could include more joint exercises and patrols, such as the five days of training held in the Gulf of Oman by China, Russia, and Iran during the week of March 15. Tan said the exercises would help the three authoritarian countries to “jointly carry out diversified maritime military missions.”

Tan insisted China’s coordination with Russia would be different from the military alliances of the Cold War because it is “based on the principles of non-alliance, non-confrontation, and non-targeting of third parties,” a declaration that may come as something of a surprise to the Ukrainians. — Breitbart

Our Take: “While the US military, under the steady guidance of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, is working on proper pronouns, diversity, inclusion, and equity, China and Russia are considering combining their military forces. But never mind all that; climate change is obviously the clear and present danger; you should be more concerned about the climate and your Trump-supporting neighbor.

Oh, and don't forget critical race theory. As everyone knows, when you have a pool of people to select from that is racially, culturally, and religiously diverse and you’re molding them into a homogeneous fighting force, it’s important they all understand that one race among them is evil, inferior, and can’t be trusted.

This article is more of an opportunity to comment on the state of things here in the U.S.A. as this military "coordination" between our nation's greatest adversaries has been happening for years. A lot of us here at Badlands suspect that Trump has worked out some kind of deal with Putin and Xi, but to the surface-level conservatives out there, this must seem like the beginning of the end.” — Ryan DeLarme

---

---

Oil Surges In Early Trading After OPEC+ Surprise 'Unipolar World'-Challenging Production Cut

Well we didn't think it would take long.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House has responded to OPEC+'s decision to cut crude production by 1 million barrels/day by saying that "output cuts aren't advisable right now given market uncertainty," adding that The White House "will continue to work with all producers and consumers to ensure energy markets support economic growth and lower prices for American consumers."

Helima Croft, head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said Saudi Arabia was staking out an economic strategy independent of the US, after a deterioration in relations between Riyadh and Washington during the Biden administration.

“It’s a Saudi-first policy. They’re making new friends, as we saw with China,” Croft said, referring to a recent Beijing-brokered diplomatic deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The Kingdom was sending a message to the US that “it’s no longer a unipolar world”. — ZeroHedge, sourcing The Financial Times

Our Take: “In much of my writing, I refer to a Sovereign Alliance theory that some other Badlanders agree with, asserting that, while Trump and his fellow patriots have forwarded Deep State-averse operations in the United States, other sovereign factions move on the international game board, advancing both kinetic/military AND, more importantly, financial and economic objectives that have the petrodollar hemmed in and Globalist trade systems teetering on the brink of extinction.

The latest move by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to turn its back on the Biden Administration in very public—and very humiliating—fashion does nothing to disabuse me of this notion.

Power is power. Not the threat of it. Not the promise of it. The thing is the thing, and the Kingdom is reminding the west of that one barrel—or lack thereof—at a time.” — Burning Bright

---

Tensions Flare Inside NPR After Staff Layoffs and Town Halls

Last week, NPR laid off 84 people and stopped production on four seasonal podcasts, including Invisibilia, Louder Than a Riot and Rough Translation. The company warned in February those cuts would be coming after it projected a $30 million sponsorship shortfall this year.

Thirteen roles in the organization’s digital team are also planned to be cut, but that group unionized through a separate union for broadcast employees and technicians and haven’t yet agreed on a contract with NPR, despite the organization voluntarily recognizing them. This means they cannot be laid off until a contract or separate lay-off agreement is met.

While layoffs often mark the abrupt end of an era at an organization, NPR’s story has stretched into this week, spilling over into multiple, tense all-hands meetings in which impacted employees grilled executives about their decisions.

All laid off employees were given 30 days, or as much time as needed, to remain on staff and transition their work. But impacted staff, while technically still employees, are not allowed to enter the NPR offices. So instead, the company hosted its all-hands meetings over Zoom. During the meetings, some executives called in from home to address the group, often in scripted remarks or in vague terms, according to people who attended. — Bloomberg

Our Take: “You cannot truly earn your sniveling inner-city hipster stripes until you carve out a portion of your day to listen to the senseless drivel coming out of NPR while driving around in the hybrid car that your liberal parents bought you.

Additionally, you can always count on the NPR correspondent to sound freakishly unamused, no matter what they happen to be reporting on. Whether it's the imploding markets or the latest [insert curated story that is both stunning and brave], the NPR correspondent drones on hypnotically like some sort of programmable lifeform that has been denied a personality—that is, until it comes time to strategically denounce or praise something to sway public favor.

NPR is basically a cultural weapon at this point, and I, for one, am thrilled to see them hemorrhaging ungrateful employees.” — Ryan DeLarme

---

Weekly Show Schedule

---

---

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.

---

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.