Badlands News Brief
The Media Tucks Tail as Peacemakers Take the Field
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.
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Now, onto the news from Weekend that Was …
Still-stunned Democrats begin to squint toward their future
Pick one word to describe Republicans and Donald Trump, the focus group moderator asked, and one word to describe Democrats and Kamala Harris.
“Crazy,” said the White woman in her 40s, who hadn’t gone to college. Then: “Preachy.”
The focus group organized by Harris supporters in western Pennsylvania, not long after the presidential debate in September, was made up of a dozen people who voted for Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 but who were undecided this time, except for being sure that they’d vote.
Asked to pick between the two words, the woman said she’d “probably go with ‘crazy,’” anguish clearly in her voice.
“Because ‘crazy’ doesn’t look down on me,” she said. “‘Preachy’ does.”
In CNN’s conversations with two dozen top Democratic operatives and elected officials since Election Day, the fear isn’t just that no one knows the answer to what’s next – it’s that they don’t even know what the question is at this point.
“Why is it that Donald Trump did 8 points better than he did against Hillary Clinton in Illinois and yet down ballot, Democrats held every office and gained at the local level across the state,” said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has already begun analyzing the results and planning for what’s ahead, with an eye on other down-ballot Democratic successes last week in Trump-won states like Michigan. “Donald Trump is a uniquely more popular figure, but what is it about him that makes him that way? We can all guess, but why don’t we actually look and find out?” — CNN
Our Take: On October 18, 2022, The NY Times and Siena College shocked themselves, and their readers, when their poll found that 68% of all likely US voters — regardless of party and demographics — believed government corruption was the greatest threat to American “democracy.”
While I’ve long speculated that America is not a 50/50 country, the fallout of this poll was the moment that speculation solidified into fact for me. All the very smart and tolerant people couldn’t explain it — and the poll disappeared from the headlines within hours.
Let’s briefly revisit that reporting.
“While 71 percent of registered voters agreed that democracy was ‘under threat,’ only about 17 percent of voters described the threat in a way that squares with discussion in mainstream media and among experts — with a focus on Republicans, Donald J. Trump, political violence, election denial, authoritarianism, and so on…When respondents were asked to volunteer one or two words to summarize the current threat to democracy, government corruption was brought up most often — more than Mr. Trump and Republicans combined.”
The sentiment was there, and this poll was published before the 2022 midterms. They couldn’t explain it or make it fit within their narrative but, rather than attempt to square this result with reality, they memory-holed the result and continued their failed strategy of corruptly persecuting their political opponents.
As a result in 2024, as CNN reports, “Democrats lost ground among nearly every demographic in the presidential race.”
The data was there, and Democrats had plenty of time to adjust their course and listen to the overwhelming majority (68%) of voters since October 18, 2022. They didn’t, though.
Instead, they continued their corrupt path. Of course they did — the corrupt are never going to hunt and purge corruption.
The incoming administration, however, must. Make America Great Again. — Ashe in America
CNN Analyst: Trump’s Victory Was So Massive He “Broke History”
CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten did a deep dive into the gains president Trump made with specific demographics in the election, highlighting how crushing they were for Democrats.
The numbers are truly astounding, and incredibly bad for the party of ‘joy.’
Enter pointed out that Trump made the greatest improvements over a previous presidential election performance from the same party since 1992.
“When was the last time a party gained in so many different places?” Enten asked, explaining that “You have to go all the way to back to 1992 when Bill Clinton improved on Michael Dukakis’ performance in 49 states, plus the District of Columbia.”
“Donald Trump’s performance on Tuesday was the best for a Republican presidential candidate in exit poll history,” Enten further urged, adding “He literally goes all the way back through history and breaks history.” — Modernity News
Our Take: It's becoming clear in the immediate aftermath of the inflection election that the most glaring net effect is a complete bifurcation between a media-engineered consensus mechanism and public mandate.
This has nothing to do with the (still unverifiable) number of votes in an inherently fraudulent election system.
It is, rather a consequence of observing the mass psychological response to the STORY of the election as it's being told to the people.
To wit, the response to the 2020 election result was mass chaos, strife (some of it engineered, no doubt,) and an establishment media victory parade that further alienated them from an increasing silent majority.
This week, we're seeing Hibernation Theory in full effect, with establishment media attempting to chart a rapid retreat along Overton's Goalpost in a bizarre bicameral attempt to simultaneously shame their audiences while apologizing to them.
This trend is being recognized worldwide. It's also irreversible.
Much like Awakening. — Burning Bright
Alex Soros Shocked That the Incumbent Political Order Is Being Crushed Around The Globe
Almost exactly one year ago, we wrote that 2024 would be the busiest political year on record...
.... and it certainly has delivered, including these main highlights.
The Taiwanese election in January 2024
Indian elections in April/May
European Parliamentary elections in June
The US Presidential Election in November.
So with the main events of 2024 now in the rearview mirror we can conclude that this has been a catastrophic year for incumbents at elections.
And not just in the US where Democrats have lost ground relative to four years earlier, but incumbents have also lost ground in the UK, France, India, Japan and South Africa as well this year.
It gets worse: an even more amazing stat comes from the FT, which reports that every governing party facing election in a developed country this year lost vote share, the first time this has ever happened!
[…]
One thing is certain: any political phenomenon which has even Alex Soros - who just wasted $1 billion backing the biggest Democrat loser in recent history - shocked that people everywhere are fed up with leaders who put globalist agendas above their own citizens, and are finally voting for leaders who actually serve them... — ZeroHedge
Our Take: According to Financial Times, as quoted in this ZeroHedge article, “every governing party facing election in a developed country this year lost vote share” and that is “the first time this has ever happened!”
It might be an overstatement to claim that MAGA is a global movement, but it is certainly not to state that the sentiment behind MAGA is a global sentiment. We are coming up on a decade of rising economic populism, where plebes around the world aren’t just yearning to be free of globalist chains — they’re rising up to break those chains and declare their independence from the global world order.
Against that backdrop, we find Alex Soros, confounded after the US Presidential election and still not quite grasping that his father handed him the reigns just before the pitchfork mobs showed up.
“The incumbents in every single one of the 10 major countries that have been tracked by the ParlGov global research project and held national elections in 2024 were given a kicking by voters. This is the first time this has ever happened in almost 120 years of records,” the younger Soros X-posted on Thursday.
He doesn’t pull the thread all the way to the logical conclusion: The people of the world are not only rejecting specific globalist governors but global governance itself. And, right or wrong, the Soros empire is one of the most prominent faces of this mad science experiment. The more about global control that is revealed, the greater and more savage the uprising will be.
I’m bullish on global psychopaths facing the “herds” they “manage” around the world. Have fun storming the castle(s)! — Ashe in America
Trump talked to Putin, told Russian leader not to escalate in Ukraine
President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the first phone conversation between the two men since Trump won the election, said several people familiar with the matter.
During the call, which Trump took from his resort in Florida, he advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe, said a person familiar with the call, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The two men discussed the goal of peace on the European continent and Trump expressed an interest in follow-up conversations to discuss “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,” several of the people said.
In his presidential campaign, Trump said he would bring an immediate end to the war in Ukraine, though did not offer details about how he intended to do so. He has signaled privately that he would support a deal where Russia kept some captured territory, and during the call he briefly raised the issue of land, people familiar with the matter said. — WAPO
Our Take: Peacemakers on Deck:
Two and a half years ago, before the Russian Federation began its Denazification effort in the Donbas, I published the Righteous Russia series.
While there were and undoubtedly are a host of thinkers with a deeper breadth of knowledge on the history of Russia than me, the series resonated largely because I approached it from the perspective of a storyteller.
In short, I wanted to engage with the STORY of Russia as it had been told to the American Mind for a century and more.
Part 4 remains my favorite piece of writing, and it's never been more relevant than it is today.
"In the wake of all this, Trump will either be reinstated or reelected by We, the People, and as his first act as our returned Commander-in-Chief, he will ‘demand’ peace with Vladimir Putin and Russia ...
Trump is not a man who will sue for peace. He does not plead. He does not beg. Trump will not request peace. He will have it, and Vladimir Putin will share in it." — Burning Bright
At US behest, Qatar has ordered Hamas to leave Doha — Biden officials
Following a request by the US, Qatar told Hamas over a week ago that it must close its diplomatic office in Doha, senior Biden administration officials told The Times of Israel on Friday.
Qatar has hosted Hamas officials in Doha since 2012, when the terror group moved its headquarters out of Damascus amid the Syrian civil war and after successive US administrations from both parties urged Qatar to serve as a conduit to the terror group.
Following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the US informed Qatar that Doha would not be able to maintain “business as usual” with the terror group. However, the administration held off on asking the Gulf state to shutter the Hamas office, viewing the communication channel with Hamas to be as critical as ever in brokering a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Those talks yielded in a week-long deal last November, but they have failed to secure a permanent ceasefire or the release of the remaining 101 hostages.
A US official told The Times of Israel that Hamas’s execution of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin along with five other captives in late August and subsequent rejection of more ceasefire proposals are what led the administration to change its approach regarding the terror group’s continued presence in Doha, deeming it “no longer viable or acceptable.” — Times of Israel
And …
Hamas offers Fatah responsibility of managing Gaza, including border and security - report
Hamas reportedly offered Fatah officials the responsibility of managing the Gaza Strip, including control of border crossings and security apparatuses, Israeli broadcaster KAN reported on Sunday evening. — Jerusalem Post
Our Take: Okay, everybody, we got a live one—by that I mean a proof, of sorts, of President Trump's grand plan.
We start with a phone call that President Trump had on Friday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, where he told Abbas that he was ready to work toward a "comprehensive peace" between Israel and Palestine. This would be the fulfillment of a promise that Trump made to Abbas back on May 3rd, 2017—17 days before the infamous Sword Dance in Saudi Arabia.
During that trip to Riyadh—where he received the Sword Dance—President Trump met with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar. During the filmed meeting, Trump revealed that he and Tamim had actually been friends "indirectly" for a very long time. (Note Tamim's smile—I wonder what Trump means by this? Back-channels?)
One month after the Sword Dance, in June 2017, Saudi King Salman announced that he was appointing his son, Defense Minister (and Deputy Crown Prince) Mohammed bin Salman, to the position of Crown Prince in a dramatic moment of political shock throughout Washington DC. The existing Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, had been a lifelong Saudi intelligence officer, and dear friend of the CIA, and his appointment as Crown Prince by King Salman upon his ascension to the throne in January 2015 led Washington to believe that they had their guy in line to become the Saudi sovereign. (Nayef was imprisoned by MBS, under charges of corruption and treason, and given comfortable accommodations at a luxury beach house in Jeddah.)
MBS immediately launched a hyper-aggressive embargo campaign against Qatar, joined by his Arab partners. All Qatari ships would be denied access to any Arab port in the Persian Gulf (Bahrain, Saudi, UAE,) but also denied access to Egyptian ports in the Red Sea and Mediterranean. MBS went as far as to draw up plans to physically construct a canal along the Qatar/Saudi border, which would turn the Qatari peninsula into a literal island. (He went as far as to put out a Request For Proposal to contractors.)
One month after MBS's dramatic move against his corrupt cousin, in July 2017, President Trump invited Tamim to the White House to meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and sign a Memorandum of Understanding for joint-counterterrorism operations that would focus on the financial networks that funded ISIS and similar groups. The agreement was said to be the first of its kind, and also noted in its language that Qatar's Al-Udeid Air Force Base houses CENTCOM’s Headquarters, the US Air Force Central Command, and the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing of the US Air Force.
A few months later, in September 2017, Trump invited Tamim to come meet him at the White House, where they held another press conference. Here, Trump reiterates that he and Tamim have been friends for a "very long time—people don't realize that."
Fascinating.
Tamim notes that he (Qatar) was the first to step forward and sign the MOU on counterterrorism, and they both briefly mentioned MBS's aggressive embargo that was underway against Qatar.
Considering the vast NGO and western intelligence presence in Qatar, I can't help but wonder if these developments represent an effort by Trump to free Tamim and his government from CIA/GCHQ (British Intelligence) control. The net result of the embargo was that Tamim pivoted into the sphere of influence of Iran—whom they had been at odds with for years—and I can't help but wonder what role Tamim played in later connecting Trump to Tehran, as it seems that Trump developed assets on the ground there.
Tamim also brought the Taliban into the fold, resulting in the Doha Agreement, which was signed in February 2020. The Taliban notably congratulated President Trump on his election victory, and said they looked forward to working with him on beginning a "New Chapter" in diplomacy between the two countries.
As for Palestine, Abbas departed his historic meeting with Trump and went about laying plans to cede control of Gaza from Hamas, who had controlled it ever since they won the 2006 election and driven out Fatah security forces, along with the IDF. In October 2017—one month after Tamim visited the White House— Abbas succeeded in brokering a reconciliation deal with Hamas leadership that would allow his party (Fatah) to re-enter Gaza and assume administrative control over its government.
That agreement was thwarted when Hamas operatives bombed the caravan of the Palestinian Prime Minister in March 2018, nearly killing him. Abbas responded by issuing severe sanctions on the Hamas government, freezing all payments from the Palestinian Authority and demanding that Hamas immediately surrender control to Fatah.
This financial siege would have worked, and Hamas would have been driven from power, had Bibi Netanyahu not subverted it by secretly walking briefcases full of cash (over $32 million) into Gaza to keep Hamas afloat. (We only know this because one of Netanyahu's ministers resigned in disgust and went public with the information.) Even before the caravan was bombed, Abbas publicly exposed negotiations between Hamas and Netanyahu, where the latter promised to give them cash for "infrastructure" and box Fatah and the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza, since Hamas is reliant on the PA to distribute funding to them.
So you see, Netanyahu likes Hamas over Fatah, because Hamas engages in militancy and gives Bibi purpose in the eyes of the Israeli people. (The vigilant war hawk,) Fatah seeks peace, which as we have seen, Netanyahu does not want. President Trump, himself, has said this on multiple occasions since leaving office.
So now we have Tamim kicking Hamas out of Qatar, as Hamas is publicly stating their intent to fulfill the 2018 agreement they made with Abbas/Fatah and cede control of Gaza to Hamas.
And we're suppose to believe this has nothing to do with Trump returning to power?
Netanyahu is running his own counter-op, as he has dispatched his top henchman (his version of Dan Scavino) Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump. (Dermer just left Russia from meeting with the Kremlin to discuss Hezbollah.) If that name sounds familiar, it's because Dermer was the guy who subverted Executive Order 13818 by getting Israeli oligarch Dan Gertler's name removed from the target list on January 15, 2021—just days before Trump left office. (Oddly enough, Janet Yellen reimposed the sanctions against Gertler and the Israeli oligarchy in March 2021, which I consider a Devo proof.)
One must wonder if Trump's recent announcement that Mike Pompeo would not be joining the new administration had anything to do with Dermer's subversive actions. Remember, Gertler owned the mines in Africa where child slaves were used to generate millions in revenue, and those funds were distributed among the Israeli oligarchs, per the Paradise Papers leak. (I've given you enough to chew on today. We'll get into Dermer and the Diaspora tomorrow.)
In any event, you can see that Tamim of Qatar is working with Trump against the forces trying to start WW3, and we are already seeing promises made in the earliest days of the Trump administration resurface so they can be fulfilled. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
BONUS ITEMS
Special Counsel Jack Smith moves to drop Trump election interference case
Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday filed a motion to vacate all deadlines in the 2020 election interference case against President-elect Trump in Washington, D.C., a widely expected move, but one that stops short of dropping the case against him completely.
The filing from Smith was widely expected following Trump's election to a second term, and is in keeping with longstanding Department of Justice policy against bringing criminal charges against a sitting president.
While the case has not been officially dropped, it appears to be moving in that direction. Smith said Friday that his team plans to give an updated report on the official status of the case against Trump on Dec. 2.
The news is likely a welcome relief for Trump, who vowed to fire Smith "within two seconds" if re-elected — ridding him of both a yearlong legal foe and the criminal charges Trump faced following his loss in the 2020 election.
Smith was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate both the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Trump's keeping of allegedly classified documents at his residence in Florida after leaving the White House in 2020.
Fox News reported earlier this week that the Department of Justice had been looking to wind down its criminal cases against Trump in Washington, D.C., and Florida, citing an Office of Legal Counsel memo that states it is against Department of Justice policy to investigate a sitting president for federal criminal charges and is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine.
Smith had indicted Trump in D.C. earlier this year on charges stemming from the former president's alleged efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.
He also brought federal charges against Trump in Florida for his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House. — FOX News
Rogan Reveals Kamala Campaign Wanted Editorial Control Over His Podcast
Podcast king Joe Rogan has revealed that Kamala Harris’ people demanded editorial control over an appearance on his show, and a final say on what was released to the public.
As we have already highlighted, Kamala had demanded to only appear for an hour with Rogan, and wanted to do it outside of his studio, meaning he would have had to travel to a location of her choosing.
Needless to say, Rogan refused to meet the demands, reasoning that it simply wouldn’t be an episode of his podcast if that was to happen.
Rogan unveiled more of what went on with discussions between his team and Kamala’s campaign, noting “There were a few restrictions of things they wanted to talk about…They wanted to know if I’d edit it. I’m like, there’s no editing.”
They were treating it as if it was the corporate soundbite mouthpiece media. — Modernity News
Trump’s return has some in Justice Department heading for the exits
A collective sense of dread has taken hold at the Department of Justice, which drew Donald Trump’s rage like no other part of the federal government during his campaign.
Some career attorneys at DOJ are already considering heading for the exits rather than sticking around to find out whether threats from Trump and his allies are real or campaign bluster. Those threats range from mass firings of “deep state” lawyers to expelling special counsel Jack Smith from the country.
“Everyone I’ve talked to, mostly lawyers, are losing their minds,” said one DOJ attorney, who like most of the people interviewed for this article was granted anonymity to speak freely about colleagues and avoid retribution from the president-elect and his allies. “The fear is that career leadership and career employees everywhere are either going to leave or they’re going to be driven out.”
While alarm over Trump’s return is widespread throughout the federal bureaucracy, it is perhaps most acute at the Justice Department, which was at the center of many of the major controversies of his first term.
Most of the department’s 115,000 employees were around for those controversies. Critics believed the Trump White House meddled in some of the department’s high-profile prosecutions. Both of Trump’s attorneys general, Jeff Sessions and William Barr, eventually lost the president’s confidence. And his first term ended with a stunning showdown between Trump and nearly all of his DOJ appointees as they resisted his attempts to cling to power.
But department veterans say those events pale in comparison to what they expect when Trump gets a second chance to try to remake the DOJ in his vision. They also know Trump’s anger at the department has only deepened in the past four years as it launched two unprecedented criminal prosecutions against him. — Politico
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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The rise of populist leaders and national sovereignty world-wide is such a white pill and most likely stems from the knee-capping of oligarchs from all across the known lands. This is becoming more obvious day by day. Yellen/Gertler is a “tell” that patriots are in control. But so many other proofs exist for those who have interest in geopolitics. The Sovereign Alliance is about to have it’s coming out party. Few will notice, but PEACE will be appealing to anyone who does not profit from war.
I am quite relieved that you guys and gal are not stopping transmission after last Tuesday's momentous result as there is still much we need to watch and measure. God Bless you all.