Badlands News Brief
Mockingbird Meltdowns & DOGE-Driven Dreams
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.
Before we get into the meat of today’s Brief, we want to take a moment to thank our sponsor, River Bitcoin. River Bitcoin’s interest-on-cash protects your dollars with FDIC insurance while offering you the option to reap the potential gains of Bitcoin. Move your cash to River and start earning a REAL interest rate with Bitcoin, today!
Now, onto the news from Tuesday, January 14 …
Highlights From the Hearing Where Republicans Embraced Hegseth’s Bid to Lead the Pentagon
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for defense secretary, emerged from a tense confirmation hearing on Tuesday with the support of the Republican Party intact following weeks of scrutiny over his fitness and qualifications to lead the Pentagon. A vote of the full Senate could come as soon as next week.
In a hearing that stretched more than four hours, Democrats pressed Mr. Hegseth on numerous allegations of misconduct, his views about women in combat and his ability to lead a sprawling department with three million employees and an $849 billion budget. Mr. Hegseth claimed to have been the victim of a “smear campaign” that focused on an accusation of sexual assault and episodes of drinking to excess.
But a key Republican member of the committee, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, a veteran and a sexual assault survivor, appeared satisfied with his responses to her questions about the role of women in the military and sexual assault prevention. Ms. Ernst, who is seen as critical to Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation chances, spent much of her time focusing on their agreement that the Pentagon should be audited. – The New York Times
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Badlands Media Special Coverage: Senate Confirmation Hearings – Continuing Coverage
Our Take: Uniparty republicans love these hearings because they get to present themselves as super based MAGA defenders when in reality most of them turned on Trump after 2020, and all of them have simped for Ukraine and other retardation.
Shiny objects. –
Another Take: If you missed Badlands coverage of Pete Hegseth’s Senate confirmation hearing, you can watch it here. As the Hill article claims, Democrats tried to hit Hegseth with “allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement,” but what the article leaves out is that these allegations were all they had.
There were no surprises, no shocking revelations… just a bunch of Senators attempting to convince the viewers that they can credibly throw stones for sexual misconduct, excessive drinking, or financial mismanagement. People in glass chambers shouldn’t throw stones.
“Anonymous smears” was Hegseth’s repeated response to Democrat Senators’ questions, and the nearly five hour hearing was largely uneventful. Hegseth will be confirmed. Today’s schedule includes (as of press time), Bondi, Rubio, Ratcliffe, and more, so tune in for continuing coverage, beginning at 9:30aET!
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Azerbaijan Signaled That It Might Be Preparing Its Own Special Operation Against Armenia
Azerbaijani President Ilhan Aliyev gave a nearly three-hour-long interview to several local TV channels last week, during which time he signaled that his country might be preparing its own special operation against Armenia along the lines of Russia’s ongoing one in Ukraine. He of course didn’t use that term, but describing Armenia as a fascist state whose foreign-backed military buildup poses a threat to regional security very closely resembles Putin’s words about Ukraine ahead of large-scale hostilities.
Aliyev began that part of his interview by defending Azerbaijan’s increased military budget as a response to the arms race that Armenia initiated. This is being partially fueled by the “European Peace Facility”, whose military loans are written off after a certain period, he said. Armenia is therefore basically receiving arms from the bloc for free. To make matters even more alarming, an Armenian-EU-US cooperation platform was launched last April, which Aliyev claimed has a de facto military component.
He then declared that “The independent Armenian state is actually a fascist state because this country has been led by proponents of fascist ideology for nearly 30 years.” As evidence of this, he cited its ethnic cleansing of Azeris from Armenia and Karabakh, which the first Armenian President bragged about in a newly unearthed video that was dubbed into Russian here while an excerpt was dubbed into English here. He added that Armenia is also “Islamophobic, Azerbaijanophobic, racist, (and) xenophobic”.
Aliyev upped the ante right after by thundering that “We are neighbors with such a fascist state, and the threat of fascism is not going away. Therefore, fascism must be destroyed. Either the Armenian leadership will destroy it or we will. We have no other choice.” The Azerbaijani leader suggested that “France and other countries that provide it with weapons must terminate and cancel these contracts. The weapons that have already been sent to Armenia must be returned. This is our condition.”
He hopes that his words will be heeded now that “The Soros era has ended in America” with Trump’s return. – Andrew Korybko
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Ukraine Not Yet in Strong Position for Peace Talks: NATO Chief
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Monday that Ukraine was not yet in a strong position to begin peace talks with Russia ahead of President-elect Trump taking office next week with a pledge to end the war.
Rutte told the European Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committees the hope was to ensure Ukraine has adequate security guarantees so that Russia could not attack again, but he expressed doubt that the current stage of the war afforded the opportunity for such a deal.
“At this moment, clearly, Ukraine is not there,” he said. “Because they cannot, at this moment, negotiate from a position of strength. And we have to do more to make sure, by changing the trajectory of the conflict, that they can get to the position of strength.”
Rutte said the peace talks also have to grapple with Ukraine’s future relationship with NATO.
“But it’s too early now to exactly sketch out what that exactly will mean, also something we have to discuss with the incoming U.S. administration,” he said. “But let’s hope that we will get to that point as soon as possible.”
Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, confirmed last week he is planning a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said it was open to the possibility. – The Hill
Our Take: For several years, now, I've claimed that the Russian theater is perhaps more indicative of the 'real' war against the Globalist Deep State than anything that's been going on in the western world.
That's not to say that there is NOT a war going on against the Deep State in the West; in fact, I believe Donald Trump and the advent of the Q Op shortly after him helped trigger the most accelerated period of mass awakening (and, by extension, public exposure of the System of Systems) in modern history.
Still, while Trump and Q have focused the bulk of their attention on revealing and by extension helping to dismantle the standing of the self-described 'Elites' in the West, one could argue that Vladimir Putin and the resurgent Russian Federation have done more on an Actual level to hem in the Western Globalist Hegemon than anyone else.
Of course, the comparison game comes up wanting, here, as I also believe these operations run in parallel with one another, and are augmented by each other. For example, as I have argued many times before, there was ZERO CHANCE Putin was going to kick off whatever necessary Military Operation needed to be kicked off in the Donbas without Donald Trump off the (public) game board.
This isn't a particularly hot take, as all your usual Con Inc. shills advance it, albeit through inverted framing.
While many believe Putin was 'afraid' of Trump, and therefore, waited until Trump couldn't stop him before kicking off the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, nothing could be further from the truth. The fact that Trump still boosts this narrative is owing to the need to set up the ultimate story of mass catharsis through the public peacemaking effort that will be codified through him and Putin on the world stage. After all, one cannot have peace (or its mass psychological effects) without first having the threat of war.
So, while the Devolution Operation has been instrumental in prompting a period of accelerated exposure Stateside, I believe its most seismic effects have been to allow other members of the Sovereign Alliance (Putin, Xi and beyond) to make moves on an 'Actual' level they did not have the narrative shielding to do so before.
When it comes to the standing of Proxy States on the world stage (from Ukraine to Taiwan to Israel, and everything in between,) they have never been in a more precarious position, with the increasingly-restless populations of western nations fed up with providing the funding and de facto sociopolitical permission for them to continue laundering, lobbying and warring on behalf of collectivist bureaucrats and oligarchs.
To wit, does the common man feel better or worse about Ukrainian Nazis these days?
Long-time national disputes (Russia-Ukraine, Azerbaijan-Armenia, Israel-Palestine, China-Taiwan,) are engineered specifically to keep otherwise sovereign nations outside of the Regime’s dominion from focusing on prosperity and production.
Who keeps these conflicts going on a ground level? The Nazis (read: Regime puppets) installed into their respective illegitimate, non-sovereign governments. DeNazification is a form of peacemaking, in other words ... and we're standing on the cusp of a new age of peace.
All of this is to say, when you see headlines claiming said proxies are "not yet in strong enough position for negotiations," understand that they never were. They were merely held in place due to the threat of the US Military Industrial Complex and the abstract (and increasingly inept) power projection capabilities of collectivist unions with no actual power to put to their acronymous names.
Additionally, when you witness seeding of the next possible 'DeNazification effort,' try to keep from reacting, and instead consider the possibility that the Sovereign Alliance is in the midst of exactly that on a global scale.
In truth, the Nazis never left.
So, to the Sovereign Alliance, wherever they may be operating, I say ... happy hunting. –
Turley: The Critical Explanation Missing from Jack Smith's Trump Report
The release of the first part of Jack Smith’s report at midnight on Tuesday night was the special counsel’s version of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision: we had seen it before.
Putting aside the public filings where Smith fought to get this information out before the election, there was little new in the report. What the report did not contain is an explanation of how Smith destroyed his own cases against Trump. However, one notable element was Smith’s reliance on a dubious concurrence by Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the subject of a prior column on my blog about what would be an interpretation that was too clever by half.
Much of the report was vintage Smith in dismissing countervailing precedent and insisting that he could "obtain and sustain a conviction at trial." He may be right about obtaining a conviction before a Washington, D.C. jury and a highly motivated judge against Trump. However, he would not have been able to sustain any conviction — and this report makes that abundantly clear.
Smith repeats the same conclusory evidence, such as citing how Donald Trump said "fight" ten times in his January 6, 2021, speech. He minimized the immunity decision by removing some evidence but kept largely the original indictment. However, the treatment of the obstruction claims was the most telling and indicative of Smith, who has repeatedly lost cases due to overextending constitutional and statutory authority.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Fischer v. United States rejecting the use of obstruction of legal proceedings against January 6th defendants will potentially impact hundreds of cases. For some, it may lead to dismissals or, in cases with multiple charges, resentencings.
One of those cases that will be impacted is the pending prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump who is facing four charges, including two obstruction counts. It was not clear if Special Counsel Jack Smith would yield to the decision or possibly take the dubious path laid out by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her concurrence. – Fox News
Our Take: Jack Smith has released Volume 1 of his final report. Will be going through this in the coming day(s). Key takeaway after thorough analysis of the cover page: Trump won 2020 and Jack Smith is a whiny bitch:
This part will always be funny to me, "Trump knew there was no election fraud because people with far less access to classified info told him so."
It's like the landscapers telling the general contractor the electricity doesn't work because CNN said so. –
Tens of Thousands Protest in Romania’s Capital Against Annulled Presidential Race
Tens of thousands protested in Romania’s capital on Sunday against a top court’s decision last month to annul the presidential election after an outsider candidate unexpectedly emerged as the frontrunner.
Many of the demonstrators in Bucharest honked horns and waved Romania’s blue, yellow, and red flags, while others brandished placards bearing slogans such as “Democracy is not optional” and “We want free elections.” Many also demanded the resumption of the presidential race from the second round.
The protest comes a month after the Constitutional Court made the unprecedented move to annul the election just two days before a Dec. 8 runoff. The far-right populist Calin Georgescu shocked many when he won the first round on Nov. 24, after which allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference emerged.
George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, said at the protest on Sunday, “We are protesting against the coup d’état that took place on Dec. 6. “We are sorry to discover so late that we were living in a lie and that we were led by people who claimed to be democrats, but are not at all.” – AP News
Our Take: “Everything that threatens my grip on power is Russian interference: a child’s guide to politics.”
These are the same clowns who are out to “save democracy,” right? And they are now making a habit of cancelling elections wherever they can’t win them?
Cancel democracy to save democracy. Brilliant. Clearly democracy has been dead for years, perhaps decades, maybe even generations.
What makes this story do great is that now the “experts” are suggesting that the opposing (right and left) traditional parties put aside their differences to thwart the populists forming a new government. They are pulling off the mask and revealing that democracy has long been a sham. It was always a Uniparty, and politics nothing more than theater; nothing more than professional wrestling.
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Musk’s Plan for ‘DOGE’ Initiative Looks Worse as Details Come into Focus
It’s never been altogether clear how, exactly, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (or “DOGE”) is supposed to work. On the surface, Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and failed White House hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy to oversee the advisory panel and, according to the president-elect’s campaign promises, the informal council will identify $2 trillion to cut from the federal budget. Just below the surface, however, the entire endeavor is highly suspect.
For one thing, Musk and Ramaswamy have no background in auditing or the federal budget. For another, their “department” will have no actual power: If they came up with ideas for cuts, the panel could write a sternly worded memo filled with suggestions, but that’s about it.
Making matters considerably worse, the Republican megadonor overseeing the gambit has already admitted that it won’t be able to meet Trump’s goals. But the larger “DOGE” endeavor is apparently moving forward anyway — in ways that are increasingly discouraging. – MSNBC
Our Take: It’s clear from the emotional hysteria of this “Maddow Blog” – LOL – writer that the regime is uneasy about the DOGE. Over at MSNBC, they are white knuckling the remaining days of “The Pause,” clinging to the idea that Elon Musk and his endeavor’s “no actual power.”
This is technically true, if we are talking about the traditional, on-paper powers of the illegitimate institutions. The DOGE team will not be Senate confirmed or have statutory authorities. The probably won’t get pins or stationary with their titles on it.
But power in a transformational change effort is asymmetrical. MSNBC (and their masters) are counting on things being the way they’ve always been. That’s a fatal mistake.
In the 2006 book, “The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations,” author Ori Brafman explores many historical examples of established, too-big-to-fail entities making exactly that mistake. Music labels vs. Napster, AT&T vs. Skype, even the Spanish vs. the Apache.
“A raid on a Spanish settlement, for example, could be conceived in one place, organized in another, and carried out in yet another. You never knew where the Apaches would be coming from. In one sense, there was no place where important decisions were made, and in another sense, decisions were made by everybody everywhere.”
The point is that, when attacked, centralized organizations tend to become even more centralized. That is a mistake when confronting a decentralized threat – like DOGE. In contrast, when attacked, decentralized organizations tend to become even more open and decentralized. This is because, “Ideology is the glue that holds decentralized organizations together.”
MSNBC is articulating this problem quite well. DOGE shouldn’t have any power, but the idea of DOGE is more powerful than mockingbird narratives or institutional norms: The government must end waste, fraud, and abuse and stop doing all the unconstitutional things it does now.
The idea of DOGE makes Elon Musk very powerful. MSNBC appears to be starting to figure that out. –
Crown Prince and Brazilian President Discuss Strengthening Ties
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a phone call on Monday from Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
During the conversation, the two leaders reviewed the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and Brazil and emphasized their commitment to further developing cooperation across various fields.
Discussions also encompassed a range of topics of mutual interest, highlighting the shared vision for addressing global and regional challenges and both leaders reaffirmed their countries' dedication to fostering collaboration that benefits their respective nations and contributes to global progress, SPA added. – Arab News
Our Take: Recently, I wrote about Saudi Arabia’s successful pilot program to extract lithium from oil-field runoff (salt water/brine), which was funded by the Saudi national oil company (Aramco) and the national mining company (Ma’aden). Yesterday, this story broke:
For context, Brazil was the ninth largest supplier of oil in the world in 2022.
Saudi Arabia has been invited to join BRICS, and has elected to delay their entry for unspecified reasons — I suspect it is related to keeping the US dollar propped up, as a favor to President Trump, Jared Kushner, and the American People.
If MBS shares this lithium technology with other countries, it will allow for many players to enter the lithium market as suppliers, which will prevent another energy oligarchy like OPEC from emerging and dominating the world’s economy.
This would represent a leveling of the playing field that few thought would ever be possible. –
Bannon Taunts Musk: He Doesn’t Have That Much Power
Steve Bannon taunted his fellow Trump ally Elon Musk on Tuesday, telling POLITICO that the president-elect’s billionaire right-hand-man doesn’t have all that much power.
Bannon, a former chief strategist for Trump and host of the “War Room” podcast, told POLITICO White House bureau chief Dasha Burns that Musk has had some influence over Cabinet picks and policy discussions but that he doesn’t “have the ability to actually make decisions and inform those decisions and drive those decisions.”
As Trump’s big-tent GOP returns to power, Bannon and Musk have served as a prime example of the infighting already underway — and the challenges it will pose to the incoming president. Allies argue that it offers an early reminder of the incoming president’s governing style, a way for Trump to retain his decision making power, while ensuring no one faction gains too much control.
In dismissing Musk’s influence, Bannon pointed to Scott Bessent winning out over Musk’s favorite, Howard Lutnick, for Treasury secretary. He also noted that in the fight over H-1B visas…they’ll move Musk even closer to the stance of MAGA loyalists — that the program should be done away with entirely.
– Politico
Our Take: Elon Musk is taking fire from the sizable gaming contingent he courted for essentially faking his virtual prowess. Still, there are some who believe he's an actual super genius and not an entirely invented character.
That's not a bad thing. So is 'The Donald.'
War of Stories. –
In the Knesset, ADL Chief Admits Failure to Extinguish the Post-Oct. 7 ‘Inferno of Antisemitism,’ Calls for New Strategies
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, admitted failure in his organization’s — and the wider Jewish community’s — efforts to combat the “inferno of antisemitism” that has rocked the world over the past 15 months, in remarks made in the Knesset this morning.
Greenblatt and other American Jewish leaders who appeared in the Knesset’s Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs called on Israeli lawmakers and the State of Israel to take seriously the need to address global antisemitism.
“Nobody likes to admit when they’ve fallen short. I don’t like to lose. I personally hate to lose. However, sometimes we need to acknowledge the reality, and I believe it takes confidence to express humility,” he said. “What I learned from working in Silicon Valley, it’s OK to fail as long as you fail forward and learn from it. So that’s what needs to happen now.”
Greenblatt did not offer concrete recommendations to innovate the field of combating antisemitism, but said that fresh thinking was sorely needed.
— eJP
Our Take: “Otherwise, as Einstein said, we’ll be doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It’s the definition of insanity. So starting with ADL and the rest of the NGO sector in the U.S. and around the world, we’ve got to start doing things differently. And the same goes here in Israel. This means that the problem won’t be solved by yet another new Knesset task force. It won’t be solved by the government just throwing money at the problem. It won’t be solved by the IDF spokesperson’s unit issuing updated talking points or suddenly using TikTok. Like us in America, you need to adopt new strategies to experiment with creative tactics to study the results and scale what works,” he said.
“We need the kind of genius that manufactured Apollo Gold Pagers and infiltrated Hezbollah for over a decade to prepare for this battle. We need the kind of courage that executed Operation Deep Layer inside Syria and destroyed Iranian missile manufacturing capabilities to undertake this mission. This is the kind of ingenuity and inventiveness that have always been a hallmark of the State of Israel, that have always been a characteristic of the Jewish people. I know we can do it.”
Just so we’re clear:
Jonathan Greenblatt and his friends are upset that people on the internet are accusing the Israeli government of committing war crimes (genocide) in Gaza and other parts of the Middle East, and their proposed solution to stop it is to… create a new special unit in their military, and appoint as its leader the guy(s) who planned the pager attack?
We are reaching levels of satire that shouldn’t even be possible.
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Biden Trying to Spoil Everything Before Trump Arrives – Lavrov
The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden is working hard to create problems for President-elect Donald Trump before he enters the White House, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Lavrov made the statement at a press conference on Tuesday when asked about the new sanctions against the Russian energy industry, which Washington announced last week.
The curbs target two major petroleum producers – Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz – as well as their subsidiaries, including Naftna industrija Srbije (NIS), which handles deliveries of Russian oil to Serbia and neighboring European nations. Related insurance providers, as well as more than 30 oilfield service companies and over 180 vessels used to deliver Russian oil, have also been slapped with restrictions.
According to the foreign minister, the move by the Biden administration simultaneously targets Serbia, Russia, and Trump, who has expressed readiness to resume dialogue with Moscow to try to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine conflict. “The Democrats have such a manner in American politics to spoil the whole thing for the next administration before the end of their mandate,” he said. – RT
Our Take: Sun Tzu said, "An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes." Lavrov seems to be implying that’s what is happening with the Biden Administration during their last few days.
Even if you think Blue is our boy, his National Security Advisor doesn’t deserve that same benefit. Here is NSA Jake Sullivan almost giddy at the idea that something bad might happen.
Five days to go. –
BONUS ITEMS
Supreme Court Denies RFK Jr. Appeal Over COVID Probes
The Supreme Court on Monday blocked Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Children's Health Defense from stopping investigations of doctors in Washington state over possible COVID-19 misinformation.
The court's ruling came after Justice Elena Kagan denied the bid in November. After Kagan's decision, Kennedy's group and doctors asked Justice Clarence Thomas to review their application for an injunction pending appeal.
Thomas, though, referred the matter to the full court, NBC News reported. None of the justices noted any disagreement with Monday's denial.
Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, founded CHD, which joined other plaintiffs in claiming that any investigations seeking to sanction doctors for their views on COVID would violate free speech rights under the First Amendment, NBC News reported. — Newsmax
Gavin Newsom Says Nothing Is His Fault As California Burns
If excuses were good for putting out fires, California’s Democrat chief executive Gavin Newsom could have his state fixed in a jiffy.
As California sailed into the weekend literally ablaze, Newsom thought there was no better time to sit for a half-hour podcast interview with a former Obama administration official. It was beautiful and truly everything we’ve grown to expect from a Democrat in a position of authority.
In 30 minutes, Newsom explained that every criticism leveled at him is “misinformation,” that he is just as much a victim as anyone who saw his home burn to ashes, and that he’s helping fix the problem even though it’s not his responsibility. [...]
When Favreau then suggested to Newsom that he’s “ultimately responsible as the … governor of the state” and that the newly announced investigation into a water shortage appeared to some as an effort to “pass the blame,” the Democrat governor assured the audience that no, no, no, that’s not it at all... “I’ve got that question…And I want to get the answers.” – The Federalist
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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GBPH you nailed it a couple of times today first: "It was always a Uniparty, and politics nothing more than theater; nothing more than professional wrestling. – GhostofBasedPatrickHenry". Trumpamania is real and will be televised BABY! or you said it another way: "We are reaching levels of satire that shouldn’t even be possible. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry"... sad but true!
While I still believe that there are BOOMs coming and should begin before Trump's inauguration I remain comfyAF... Let the Show Begin (or continue:-)
IMHO it is ALL theater. and if you enjoy watching Reality TV then by all means enjoy. I choose to tune out and wait for for Trump and team to open all those cans of whuppass!!!
P.S. I just bought more popcorn...
God Wins!
God Bless!!!
Badlands………. That was a hell of a brief. Thank you.
Everyone, everyone had a great take this morning, but the one I liked best?
Five days to go. – Ashe in America