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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, whose stated opinions are their own. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see their other work.
Now, onto the news from Monday, November 13 …
Biden Wants US to Open Military Ties with China: National Security Advisor
President Joe Biden will be asking Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday to restore military-to-military contacts that were severed last year, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday.
In June, China rebuffed Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s request to resume those contacts, although Blinken said he repeatedly asked China to do so, according to CNBC.
China formally severed regular armed forces contacts in August 2022 after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, according to The Associated Press. The visit was seen as giving official sanction to the existence of self-governing Taiwan, which China claims is actually part of its country.
Sullivan said getting China to say yes to the contacts “has been a priority for President Biden. He believes that having military-to-military communication is necessary to manage competition responsibly, and to ensure that competition does not turn into conflict,” according to CBS.
Sullivan said regular contacts can avoid “mistakes or miscalculations or miscommunication.” — The Gateway Pundit
Our Take: “‘China Joe’ is one of the most infamous names the pretender-in-chief enjoys not just within MAGA, but within the larger sociopolitical zeitgeist.
As with many of the other famous political monikers in the Info War, this one was coined by Donald Trump, who I have long argued is a Master of Narrative Warfare, as detailed in my own series on the subject.
While Trump’s nicknames serve an obvious, surface-level purpose—that being to draw attention to a negative or corrupt aspect of his chosen subject, or to highlight a systemic issue in the U.S. by proxy—there is often more going on beneath the surface.
While ‘China Joe’ is a fitting name, or WAS, I firmly believe that the Biden Admin is completely hemmed in on the game board by the Devolution operation, and I also believe there is a Sovereign Alliance that includes nationalist interests in China (headed by Xi Jinping) working to help destabilize the Globalist Deep State, even and perhaps especially within its own lands.
So, how do we reconcile these seeming contradictions? By recognizing that, as
often says, ‘everything is two things,’ and every nation has an ‘evil twin.’‘China Joe’ has been neutered, and his connections to Deep State elements abroad severed, but that doesn’t mean the Narrative being pushed is useless—far from it, as the education phase of the Info War is still an ongoing process, and Anons are years ahead of the Normie Layers within the Collective Mind.” —
Biden, Xi set to pledge ban on AI in autonomous weapons like drones, nuclear warhead control: sources
In a landmark agreement set to be announced at Wednesday's much-awaited bilateral meeting, Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are poised to pledge a ban on the use of artificial intelligence in autonomous weaponry, such as drones, and in the control and deployment of nuclear warheads, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to the Post.
The potential dangers of AI are expected to be a major focus of the US-China discussions, taking place on the sidelines of this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
Both Washington and Beijing have expressed concerns over the unregulated use of this technology to fuel conflicts. — South China Morning Post, linked by Yahoo
Our Take: “In case you didn’t think that the US was taking the AI threat seriously, in addition to making Kamala Harris the admin’s AI Czar, it’s just been announced that Biden and Xi are agreeing not to allow AI to control nuclear launch codes.
Wait, was that a serious consideration at some point? Who was advocating for AI to control nuclear launch codes?
Call me a cynic, but I’m betting Xi finds some way to weaponize this agreement against Biden and his admin. And the rest of us held hostage by this illegitimate regime. All year long we’ve been told that Xi and Biden are at odds and the rising tension between super powers is reaching crisis levels. Something doesn’t sit right on this development.
Also, I’m damn near more comfortable with AI controlling the launch codes than with Biden having them. Who really does have the nuclear football anyway?
So many questions…” —
High Stakes And A Simple Choice: "I'm 94 Years Old & Saddened By What I See Happening To America"
I am 94 years old and like many of you, I am exhausted by politics and saddened by what I see happening to America. I had hoped it was time for me to move to the sidelines and let younger generations continue the fight to preserve America’s founding freedoms and values. But, like so many of us, I realized that I could not let myself walk away; the stakes are just too high.
We cannot let the America we see today be what we leave to our children and grandchildren. Many of our once-great cities have devolved into lawlessness with random violent attacks on innocent people, rampant looting, and large-scale homeless encampments. There are rarely consequences for the wrongdoers because George Soros-elected prosecutors across America refuse to prosecute them.
[…]
For Democrats, the choice is simple. If you feel that you are better off now than you were three years ago, you should vote for Joe Biden or whoever is the Democrat candidate. For Republicans, the choice is also simple. Let’s face it: Donald Trump is going to win the nomination. You should be doing all you can to ensure his winning the general election. — RealClear Wire
Our Take: “The Liberal and Conservative Establishment, also known as the Uniparty are trying to spin this letter as just another case of some corrupt rich guy stumping for another corrupt rich guy in Donald Trump, but it’s making waves in all the right circles (for us,) and all the wrong ones [for them.]
Bernie Marcus may not be a household name, but he’s been a mover and shaker in the world of finance and domestic commerce for decades, and while it’s not shocking that he’d be in favor of Trump’s return due to the one true POTUS’s previous track record with the US economy, the fact that he’s 94 years old, far closer to the end of the ride than the beginning, and made all the money he could ever need lends credence to the fact that he truly does feel the nation is in need of change (rather, of progression through regression to a past mindset,) and that saying so should not be a matter of controversy, but rather incontrovertible fact.
That said, what’s even more meaningful about Marcus’s stand, and its effects is the moral focus of the open letter. Choosing Donald Trump in 2024 isn’t just going to be the logical choice, but, as the awakening accelerates for a growing plurality of the Collective Mind … the RIGHT choice, in every sense of the word.” —
Secret Service agents protecting Biden’s granddaughter open fire when 3 people try to break into SUV
Secret Service agents protecting President Joe Biden’s granddaughter opened fire after three people tried to break into an unmarked Secret Service vehicle in the nation’s capital, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The agents, assigned to protect Naomi Biden, were out with her in the Georgetown neighborhood late Sunday night when they saw the three people breaking a window of the parked and unoccupied SUV, the official said. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on Monday on the condition of anonymity.
One of the agents opened fire, but no one was struck by the gunfire, the Secret Service said in a statement. The three people were seen fleeing in a red car, and the Secret Service said it put out a regional bulletin to Metropolitan Police to be on the lookout for it. — AP News
Our Take: “If you’re going to break into a car, you probably shouldn’t pick a Secret Service vehicle. It appears that, as crime expands in the lawmaking municipality, the criminals are getting dumber.
Crime is on the rise across the nation, but you’d think the government would be better at protecting their own streets. Apparently not, as this article details at least three incidents where congressional staffers have been robbed, carjacked, and stabbed.
In this latest incident, the Secret Service agent discharged his firearm — and missed. Also, the three carjackers got away. Naomi Biden must be feeling pretty safe at this point.
If this is the level of skill and expertise provided to presidential family members, there is no hope for the safety of the rest of us. It’s almost as though we need to keep our right to defend ourselves.” —
Kiev hoping for Trump-Zelensky call – media
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is eager to speak directly with former US President Donald Trump, in case the Republican frontrunner retakes the White House in 2024, the Strana news outlet reported on Sunday, citing an inside source in Kiev.
An individual close to Zelensky’s office reasoned that Trump, as the de facto 2024 presidential nominee for the Republican Party, effectively controls the flow of foreign aid to Kiev, since Republicans hold the majority in the House of Representatives, which has been responsible for blocking the White House’s efforts to continue funding the Ukrainian conflict.
The Ukrainian leader’s cabinet “understands this, and therefore is trying to organize a direct conversation between Trump and Zelensky,” the source told Strana. — RT
Our Take: “One of my favorite dialogue scenes is the dinner scene between Jack Nicholson’s Frank Costello and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Billy Costigan in The Departed, wherein Costello informs Costigan in somewhat cryptic, oddly wisened fashion that, ‘you can learn a lot, watching things eat.’
My personal Info War spin on this line is that, ‘you can learn a lot, watching things lie.’
I apply this to the Deep State as a whole, of course, but specifically to the clowns within the Media Industrial Complex.
As the MSM coalesces around the cynically, derisively insulting readings of this narrative deployment, suggesting Zelensky is mocking Trump, and that any possibility of the two brokering a peace deal their globalist puppeteers will do anything to stop is nothing but a pipe dream.
How fitting would it be for them to be proven utterly wrong—bitterly, in fact—on the world stage?
We’re watching a movie, and we’re going to like how it ends.” —
BONUS ITEMS
A COVID-19 vaccine reckoning is coming for the DOJ over federal mandates
The Justice Department has just posted a new jobs ad — it’s looking for eight new attorneys to defend the federal government in vaccine injury cases.
Presumably, the hiring spree is in anticipation of a surge of COVID vaccine lawsuits, as people who were forced by government mandates to take the jab, and suffered serious side effects as a result, try to extract compensation from a system that is stacked against them.
“The office is currently expanding to address workload created by an increase in cases filed under the Vaccine Act,” reads the ad posted by the Torts Branch of the DOJ on the USAJobs website.
The recruitment drive comes on the heels of a little-noticed lawsuit filed in Louisiana last month by six vaccine-injured plaintiffs against the federal government.
The suit aims to overturn the legal immunity that pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and Moderna enjoy on their COVID shots. — The NY Post
Supreme Court will adopt an ethics code
The Supreme Court announced Monday the justices will adopt an ethics code as they face increasing pressure over undisclosed travel and gifts.
Concerns about alleged ethical improprieties by the justices ignited earlier this year in April after the nonprofit outlet ProPublica reported that Justice Clarence Thomas had gone on trips paid for by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. The high court released its new 14-page guidance, which includes rules for accepting travel opportunities, on Monday afternoon.
The new guidance appears to allow justices to exercise their own discretion for accepting certain travel gifts, stating they "may accept reasonable compensation and reimbursement of expenses for permitted activities" if the source of the gift does not seem intended to influence a justice's duties "or otherwise appear improper."
"Expense reimbursement should be limited to the actual or reasonably estimated costs of travel, food, and lodging reasonably incurred by the Justice and, where appropriate to the occasion, by the Justice’s spouse or relative," the new guidance states under a section titled "COMPENSATION, REIMBURSEMENT, FINANCIAL REPORTING."
The nine justices have "agreed to comply with the statute governing financial disclosure, and the undersigned Members of the Court each individually reaffirm that commitment," the section adds. — The Washington Examiner
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.
Burning Bright - you opined, ‘you can learn a lot, watching things lie.’
Is that ever the truth. This is the reason I have not turned off the idiot box from my existence. My wife watched CBS News every day. While I am not watching it, I am absorbing it. And for exactly the reason you point out. I pay attention to their BS for exactly the reason you point out. You can learn a lot. 3 stories this morning back to back on CBS Mornings:
Gaza and the poor palestinians and the need for Humanitarian aid - pictures of children being carried into a hospital - Calls for cease fire. The word Israel and Netanyahu repeated while showing bombs going off. Where were the pictures of beheaded Israelis a month ago?
Supreme Court Code of Ethics story with Adam Schiff quoting why such a thing is pointless unless someone (he) is able to watchdog it.
Georgia Trump case where 4 defendents have accepted plea deals - desperately seeking a sound bite that sounds like it implicates Trump. Commentators saying thing like "conspiracy" and "proven false claims that the election was rigged".
NEWS is one thing. Propaganda and Opinion are another. CBS are not considered the Thought Leaders of the Left in the media. That is given to MSNBC and CNN. But they are fully vested in the spread of the agenda.
The Biden grandkid caper is so ridiculous I'm speechless! The Zelensky character is a joke and I cringe when his name is mentioned anywhere, and cannot wait until he's removed! As for the DOJ lawsuit...mandates are NOT laws and we DON'T have to follow them. People should have refused them and sued their employers because those that did, won and still have their health intact. Once we take down the DS we have decades of overhaul to our educational system, government, legal system and last but not least...dismantling the big pharma cartel!