Badlands News Brief
Trump Baits Biden as Ukraine and Israel Posture
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, April 11 …
Trump campaign demands Biden debate him 'much earlier' and more often
The Trump campaign is calling for additional 2024 presidential debates and for them to take place "much earlier" than initially proposed by the debate commission, with former President Trump telling Fox News Digital that he is "totally committed" to debating President Biden "anytime, anywhere, anyplace."
Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a letter Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita sent Thursday to The Commission on Presidential Debates co-chairs Frank Farenkopf Jr. and Antonia Hernandez.
Wiles and LaCivita told the commission they were writing "in agreement with the pending letter," reported by The New York Times, "from television networks advocating for presidential debates to occur in 2024."
"While the Commission on Presidential Debates has already announced three presidential debates and a vice-presidential debate to occur later this year, we are in favor of these debates beginning much earlier," they wrote. — FOX News
Our Take: “It's not an overstatement when many of us refer to Donald Trump as a Master of Narrative Warfare, and his baiting of Biden to enter the debate arena with him leading up to the election is yet another masterstroke made even more intentional due to his refusal to let the fake GOP debates get a whiff of his MAGA jock strap.
Trump effectively overshadowed the GOP debates (and the GOP itself) by very publicly abstaining. His non-participation was de facto participation, in that he won the debates by rendering them entirely and pathetically moot in the minds of the American people ... EVEN those who hate him, and who only see HIM, not the GOP at large, as their enemy.
By focusing his sights on Biden when Biden is in the midst of a Narrative and Actual Crisis Cascade that's been spooking the crap out of the establishment cronies and grifters who are realizing they're actually stuck with the crypt keeper candidate, Trump is prepping normies for the Narrative slaughter & memetic harvest.” —
Biden promises Israel ‘ironclad’ support against Iran reprisals
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday promised “ironclad” support for Israel as Iran threatens reprisals over a strike that leveled an Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed two generals.
Biden’s promise comes despite his public criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the toll on civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas, especially after a strike killed seven aid workers.
Iran is “threatening to launch a significant attack on Israel,” Biden told a news conference.
“As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” Biden said.
“Let me say it again — ironclad. We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel’s security,” said Biden, who was speaking next to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
US officials have voiced alarm over the prospect of an imminent strike against Israeli interests after Israel on April 1 destroyed the consulate building, killing seven members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards including two generals.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned in a speech Wednesday that the “evil regime” of Israel “must be punished and will be punished.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz swiftly riposted, in a Persian-language statement on social media site X, “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran.” — Arab News
Our Take: “Moves and Countermoves.
The fog of war is thick, and laden with obscurities that make it near impossible to decipher what is real, what is disinformation, and what is mere posturing in the never-ending chess match of geopolitical game theory.
Israel attacks an Iranian embassy in Syria; Iran vows revenge; Israel vows to escalate if Iran follows through.
The Biden regime is talking out of both sides of its mouth, stating that it doesn't plan to get involved and demanding a 6-8 week ceasefire agreement from Iran, then turns around and pronounces ‘iron-clad’ support of Israel in a potential war against Iran.
Part of me thinks this is the foreign politicking of a dementia-ridden geriatric. Part of me thinks this chaotic messaging bears the hallmarks of the Trump presidency, which was able to subvert the scheming of the media with said chaos.
In any event, the chaotic messaging is certainly stoking enough confusion to delay kinetic escalation—at least, for the time being.
While the CIA and Mossad assure us that and Iranian missile strike will come at any moment, nothing has yet to transpire. Iran has also issued a statement saying that a retaliation would not be necessary, if the UN Security Council would simply condemn Israel's actions.
Can any of these statements be trusted? Of course not. This is war, anons. Fifth-generation war.” —
European Parliament Approves Controversial Migration Pact; Furious Nationalists Vow To Bring It Down After EU Elections
The European Parliament has approved the controversial EU Asylum and Migration Pact, which will see countries forced to accept their fair share of new arrivals into the bloc or pay a fine for every migrant they reject.
The new asylum and migration package was passed largely with votes from lawmakers affiliated with the European People’s Party, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and Renew Europe, with MEPs being urged to swallow their criticisms of the scheme and vote for the compromise legislation.
“History made,” tweeted European Parliament President Roberta Metsola as she praised what she described as a “robust legislative framework on how to deal with migration and asylum,” noting it had been “10 years in the making” but the EU had kept its word.
Some MEPs on both the left and the center-right revealed they voted through the pact despite its many flaws.
“The new legislation is not perfect but we can only make migration manageable and humane with one European solution,” said Hilde Vautmans, foreign affairs coordinator for Renew Europe.
Nationalist politicians across Europe expressed their anger at the passing of the pact, which they claim cedes sovereignty to an ever-centralized European Union.
“The Migration Pact organizes the tutelage and control of nations, the legal impunity of NGOs complicit with smugglers,” tweeted Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally.
She further vowed to “put an end to the accelerated pursuit of policies to encourage and organize mass immigration,” on June 9 at the EU elections in which her party is expected to win the most French seats. — ReMix News
Our Take: “The ‘Great Migration’ is a globalist fever dream that goes back decades. The concept of ‘climate refugees’ allows the global institutions — like the EU — to force unfettered migration as a moral matter.
That is the outcome of this vote by the European Parliament. Accept the newcomers, or you will pay. If Europeans are smart, they’ll follow the path of Brexit.
While the push to destabilize western nation states through mass migration has been coming for decades, it’s now accelerating. It’s almost as if the globalists know their time is short.
Make National Sovereignty Great Again.” —
Russia Bombards Ukraine With Hypersonic Missiles & Drones, Damaging Power Plants, NatGas Facilities
Russia launched a major missile and suicide drone offensive on Thursday, bombarding Ukraine's power grid and underground natural gas storage sites.
Bloomberg reports Russia air-launched six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles that hit critical infrastructure near Kyiv and a region around western Ukraine's biggest city, Lviv. Ukraine's air defense system was not able to intercept the hypersonic missiles. However, 18 out of 42 more traditional and slower Russian missiles were downed, and only one of 40 drones.
In a Facebook post, Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote that power plants near Kyiv, the Kharkiv region in the east, Zaporizhzhia in the south, and Lviv in the west were damaged. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram that a power plant was damaged in Odesa.
A person familiar with one of the strikes told Bloomberg that six missiles hit the Trypilska plant south of Kyiv, the largest power plant in the region. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “So Russia has launched six hypersonic missiles at Ukraine, and all six successfully penetrated Ukraine's US/NATO-provided missile-defense systems and struck their targets.
Russia also launched 42 non-hypersonic missiles, and 24 of them found their mark.
(The fact that Ukraine could only down 18 of the 42 regular missiles, and none of the hypersonic ones, should terrify Israel, being that Iran has similar technology as well as the allegiance of Russia.)
As far as war strategy goes, Putin is being diligent here. He is targeting critical infrastructure that will force Ukraine to the negotiating table. While some would call attacking energy plants an act of cruelty, I would call it a mercy, considering that Ukraine just passed new conscription measures intended to bolster its forces by 500,000 men.
All of those men will die if they are forced to meet Russia in the field. The sooner Putin can end this kinetic conflict, the better. The real question here is what exactly is Ukraine clinging to? Why is this conflict seemingly existential?
We all know the answer, and it is spelled C-I-A.
Gotta wonder what was in those bioweapon labs? The ones that the media breathlessly denied existed until Tori ‘The War Pig’ Nuland let the cat of the bag?” —
Netanyahu says Israel preparing for scenarios in other areas than Gaza
Israel is keeping up its war in Gaza but is also preparing for scenarios in other areas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, amid concern that Iran was preparing to strike Israel in response for the killing of senior Iranian commanders.
“Whoever harms us, we will harm them. We are prepared to meet all of the security needs of the State of Israel, both defensively and offensively,” he said in comments released by his office following a visit to the Tel Nof air force base in southern Israel.
Israel has been bracing for possible Iranian retaliation for the killing of a senior general and six other Iranian officers in an airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus on April 1. Israel has not said it was responsible but Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday Israel “must be punished and it shall be” for the attack.
Netanyahu made his comments as Israeli troops and warplanes started an operation in central Gaza overnight which the military said was aimed at destroying infrastructure of armed Palestinian groups. — Arab News
Our Take: “‘Drums... drums... in the deep.’
The drums of war are thundering, as the primal scream of a dying regime howls for blood.
Israel is prepared to embark on new offensives-- new adventures--according to Bibi Netanyahu. And Biden has pledged American blood as payment.
Where are the adults? What happened to the Abraham Accords?
Will the Sons of Abraham unite against the schemes of the devil?” —
O.J. Simpson, legendary football player and actor brought down by his murder trial, dies at 76
O.J. Simpson, the football star and Hollywood actor acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend in a trial that mesmerized the public and exposed divisions on race and policing in America, has died. He was 76.
The family announced on Simpson’s official X account that he died Wednesday of prostate cancer. He died in Las Vegas, officials there said Thursday.
Simpson earned fame, fortune and adulation through football and show business, but his legacy was forever changed by the June 1994 knife slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. He was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil case, and then served nine years in prison on unrelated charges.
Goldman’s father, Fred, and his sister, Kim, released a statement acknowledging that “the hope for true accountability has ended.”
“The news of Ron’s killer passing away is a mixed bag of complicated emotions and reminds us that the journey through grief is not linear,” they wrote. — AP News
Our Take: “OJ Simpson passed away Wednesday, refreshing our collective memory about that time he (allegedly) killed his wife.
One of the most interesting parts of that story is the fact that the OJ story is tightly connected to the Kardashian phenomena, a scandalous family that makes bagillions of dollars for being awful on camera.
Caitlyn Jenner wasted no time reacting to the news of Simpson’s death, tweeting 'Good Riddance' in response.
There’s history there. Jenner used to vacation with Simpson, along with their families, and was married to Kris Jenner when OJ allegedly killed his wife. Kris and Nicole were reportedly best friends.
Both Kris and Caitlyn Jenner have been on quite the journey in the decades since the 1994 killing. Kris is mum about the killing on socials, but apparently Caitlyn still has beef.
Simpson was officially acquitted of the killing, and Kris Jenner’s ex husband Robert Kardashian was part of the defense. In other words, the Jenners/Kardashians were kind of on both sides of the OJ saga.
Interesting…
Now do Kanye West.” —
BONUS ITEMS
Vietnam Real Estate Tycoon Sentenced to Death Over Massive Fraud Amounting To 3% Of GDP
Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh City in the country’s largest financial fraud case ever, state media Vietnam Net said. The 67-year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was formally charged with fraud amounting to $12.5 billion, or nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP.
Lan illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and allowed 2,500 loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion to the bank, reported state media VnExpress. The court asked her to compensate the bank $26.9 million.
Despite mitigating circumstances — this was a first-time offense and Lan participated in charity activities — the court attributed its harsh sentence to the seriousness of the case, saying Lan was at the helm of an orchestrated and sophisticated criminal enterprise that had serious consequences with no possibility of the money being recovered, the AP reported.
Her actions “not only violate the property management rights of individuals and organizations but also push SCB (Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank) into a state of special control; eroding people’s trust in the leadership of the Party and State,” VnExpress quoted the judgement as saying.
Her niece, Truong Hue Van, the chief executive of Van Thinh Phat, was also sentenced to 17 years in prison for aiding her aunt. — ZeroHedge
Justice Department Uncovers 'Inconsistencies' in Fani Willis's Use of Federal Grant Funds
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department has uncovered "inconsistencies" in Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis’s use of federal grant funds, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
The bombshell discovery comes two years after Willis fired a whistleblower who had warned the district attorney that her office was attempting to misuse a $488,000 federal grant to pay for "swag," computers, and travel. It’s that same grant that the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs now says is plagued with reporting discrepancies from Willis’s office, errors that federal authorities only disclosed to the Free Beacon after providing contradictory statements regarding awards Willis’s office may have made under the grant.
"During our review of the award to respond to this inquiry, we have noticed some inconsistencies in what Fulton County has reported to [the Federal Subaward Reporting System] and we are working with them to update their reporting accordingly," a Justice Department spokeswoman told the Free Beacon on Friday.
The Justice Department did not provide any further details on the nature of Willis’s reporting "inconsistencies" on the $488,000 federal grant, which was earmarked for the creation of a Center for Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention in Atlanta. The grant ended in September 2023, but the center never opened. — Washington Free Beacon
Musk says X received US House query on Brazil actions
Social media platform X has received an inquiry from the U.S. House of Representatives "regarding actions taken in Brazil that were in violation of Brazilian law," Elon Musk said on Wednesday in a post on X.
X was asked to suspend the accounts of "sitting members of the Brazilian parliament and many journalists," Musk said in another post.
The U.S. House could not be immediately reached for comment. X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The U.S. House move comes after Brazil Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes opened an inquiry on Sunday into Musk after he said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had ordered blocked.
If X fails to comply with the order to block certain accounts the company will be fined 100,000 reais ($19,736.32) per day, Moraes said.
The standoff between Brazil and the billionaire started when Musk, the owner of X and a self-declared free speech absolutist, challenged the decision by Moraes ordering the blocking of certain accounts. — Reuters
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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Man Oh Man the show continues and I remain comfyAF. Thanks for today's Takes.
I do not believe for one second that Sleepy Pedo Joe has any control of our military.
God Wins!
God Bless!!!
Interesting that OJ Simpson was another that was pushing the Covid vaccine and if you didn't take it you weren't too bright. Of course they'll never admit thats what killed him to warn and maybe help others. We couldn't do that.