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.
Now, onto the news from the Weekend that Was …
In E.U. Elections, the Center Holds, but the Far Right Still Wreaks Havoc
Voters across the European Union’s 27 members mostly backed centrists in the European Parliament elections, but handed important gains to far-right parties, steeling them as a disruptive force, ushering in a political earthquake in France and unsettling the bloc’s mainstream establishment.
Partial results made public late Sunday showed that centrist political groups were poised to face some losses, but still maintain a clear majority of more than 400 seats in the 720-seat assembly, with the conservatives marking a decisive victory. European Parliament groups that hold a nationalist, anti-immigrant agenda will likely control about 130 seats, a better showing than the last election in 2019.
The balloting indicates that the prevailing winds have grown chill for some of Europe’s political establishment and underscored that the momentum of the far-right forces that have been expanding their challenge to centrists over the past decade had yet to crest. — The New York Times
Our Take: It’s afraid.
That’s the refrain that first leapt to mind as I scrolled the MSM mouthpieces, searching for the best possible microcosm of the panic pattern currently gripping the globalist elite.
2024 has been called the Worldwide Election Year by some in the international media, as the US isn’t the only major nation holding elections. While the most important Actual elections outside of the US—Russia, India, etc.—have already taken place, with Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi drawing additional terms, among others, the EU Parliamentary Elections have flown under the radar a bit, if for no other reason than the fact that, well, they don’t really matter.
In essence, gaining a majority in the globalist-centered EU Parliament is useful when it comes to EU policy and trade ramifications between the member states, but since the EU is itself far from a sovereign actor on the world stage, the twice-a-decade elections tend to feature low voter turnout and enthusiasm.
Boy did that change this weekend, as THIS round of parliamentary voting saw record turnout … and an absolute drubbing by ‘far right’ and center-right parties, much to the chagrin, and yes, the panic of the center-left and far left.
Most clearly rattled by the results of the weekend’s votes were France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz, who were soundly rejected to the tune of double-digit deficits.
Again, these elections DO NOT currently affect leadership in France, Germany or any EU member state directly, but they DO act as an overall bellwether for the current sociopolitical persuasion of the old continent … and that sentiment has swung violently in favor of strong borders and anti-interventionism.
We’ve been told the awakening will spread worldwide. Well … looks like we were told the truth. —
Gantz quits war government, says PM preventing ‘true victory’ over Hamas, urges elections
Accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of preventing Israel from achieving “true victory” in its war against Hamas, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz announced his party’s long-anticipated withdrawal from the government on Sunday evening, weeks after conditioning his continued support on the prime minister’s acceptance of an agreed-upon vision for the Gaza conflict by June 8.
“After October 7, just like hundreds of thousands of patriotic Israelis, my colleagues and I mobilized as well” and joined the coalition, “even though we knew it was a bad government,” said Gantz, one of three voting members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet.
The centrist National Unity party joined the emergency government days after October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages into the Gaza Strip, sparking the ongoing war in the enclave.
“We did it because we knew it was a bad government. The people of Israel, the fighters, the commanders, the families of the murdered, the casualties and the hostages needed unity and support like they needed air to breathe,” Gantz explained. — Times of Israel
Our Take: Okay. Before (or after) you read this take, you should go watch this six-minute video that I put together this weekend (before this news broke) that explains the kayfabe between Trump and Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas. They have been working together since before the Saudi Sword Dance that happened on May 20, 2017.
There is a second post where I explain that I have stumbled upon what appears to be a propaganda campaign (?) run by Donald Trump in December 2021 using Israeli state media against Bibi Netanyahu, where Trump explicitly says, "I cut him off mid-sentence, and said, 'Bibi, you don't want to make a deal.’"
Trump goes on to promote Benny Gantz and Mahmoud Abbas as the two peacemakers, expressing his bewilderment as to why Netanyahu is even still in government:
"Gantz loves Israel. I just don't know what happened to him? Because I heard that, after a certain period of time, Bibi was going to leave, and [Gantz] was going to take over—all the sudden, we're into a new election. I said that if [Gantz] had won [the election], I think it (peace) would be a lot easier. I don't think Bibi ever wanted to make peace. I think he just tapped us along—just tap, tap, tap—I think Bibi did not want to make peace; never did."
On Abbas: "I thought he wanted to make a deal more than Netanyahu. I had a great meeting with him. We spent a lot of time together; talked about many things. He was almost like a father. (laughs) He was so nice—couldn't have been nicer. And after meeting with Bibi for three minutes, I looked at him and said, 'You don't want to make a deal, do you?' and he said, 'Well...uh, uh, uh...’"
“I always thought that the Palestinians were impossible, and that the Israelis would do anything to make a deal... I found that not to be true."
President Donald J. Trump, from the rafters!
While some of the comments were reported by obscure outlets as quotes from various memoirs, nobody really talked about the fact that Trump went on Israel Channel 12—which is basically state media—and ran psychological warfare campaigns against Netanyahu. This would explain, in part, the widespread civil unrest around Israel against Netanyahu. As Trump explained, he was polling at over 80% among Israeli citizens at the time.
So now Gantz is resigning from Bibi's government, claiming that he always thought it was a "bad government," and that he only joined for the sake of unity and public morale?
This is too perfect. Because the universal consensus is that Gantz was always the moderate in the room—he ran against Netanyahu in the most recent election, on the moderate platform—and that, should he resign, Bibi would be left with nothing but Zionist-maximalists in his security cabinet, who are now openly calling for the extermination and conquest of Palestine.
Accelerate, lads. —
Attorney General Ken Paxton Opens Investigation into Car Manufacturers’ Collection and Sale of Drivers’ Data
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened an investigation into several car manufacturers after widespread reporting that they have secretly been collecting mass amounts of data about drivers directly from their vehicles and then selling that data to third parties—including to insurance providers.
The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices – Consumer Protection Act authorizes the Office of the Attorney General to investigate false, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices. Accordingly, car manufacturers and the third parties to whom they sold data are being instructed to produce documents relevant to their conduct. Additionally, they are being instructed to produce documents showing the disclosures they made to customers about the extent of their data collection practices and subsequent sale of their customers’ data.
“The technology in modern vehicles enables manufacturers to collect millions of data points about the people driving them” said Attorney General Paxton. “Recently, consumers have grown extremely concerned that their driving data is being reported to their insurance company without their knowledge or authorization. These reports of the invasive and unmitigated collection and sale of data without consumer consent are disturbing, and they merit a thorough investigation and appropriate enforcement.” — Office of Ken Paxton
Our Take: Data freedom is the civil rights issue of our time, but because so many already-established civil liberties are being trampled, it doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
From the super computers we hold in our hands to the friendly and helpful wire taps in our homes to, as in this news out of Texas, the cars that take us where we want to go, we are living in the Wild West of data freedom.
Centralized entities — governments, corporations, NGOs, etc. — extract enormous value from user data and, depending on what state you live in, there are very few limitations on how they can use it.
Side note: Shout out to California for attempting to tackle this issue back in 2018. Sorry, red states, but Cali is prioritizing data privacy better than any state in the nation. That being said, cheers to Texas for waking up, at least as it relates to cars.
So why should you care? And what do I mean by data?
I dug deep into this topic in July 2020, but to summarize:
All of it.
Consider what that means with the example of video games.
As Patrick Stafford noted in his May 2019 piece, The dangers of in-game data collection: Can your choices come back to haunt you?, ‘...developers...see a chart that outlines how that game’s players are motivated...How do players interact within a game? What choices do they make? That information can be used to make better games. And it can also be combined with other types of information to build robust personal profiles. Those personal profiles are typically used to target advertising, but privacy experts warn that, in the future, that information may be used in sinister ways we can’t expect.’
Of course, it’s not just video games. The same data mining, distillation, structuring, analysis, and visualization is happening for every conversation, transaction, social media post, and any other online behaviors - across every sector of every industry, in every nation across our realm. Data experts have defined the concept of ‘data exhaust’ to refer to the stream of intimate ones and zeros we leave in our wake.
Data freedom is highly complex, and it’s not as politically sexy as censorship or monopoly grievances — but it’s arguably more important.
Imagine you have the capability to intimately view humanity on a global scale, viewing and interacting, in real time, with any slice of the data you want, running predictive modeling on that data at scale… Would you not develop a God complex?
Yes, obviously.
Sadly, too few officials with statutory authority are willing to fight for data freedom (ostensibly because they’re all benefiting from data harvesting and its immeasurably valuable outcomes.) Good on Paxton for being one of them.
‘Alexa, remind me to move to Texas.’ —
The Most Consequential TV Show in History
In a CNN interview shortly after launching his presidential campaign in 2015, Donald Trump told a skeptical Jake Tapper that he was “in it to win it” and boasted, “I’m giving up hundreds of millions of dollars to do this. I’m giving up a prime-time television show.” In fact, according to a new book, Trump wasn’t quite as confident as he claimed. For at least six months after he entered the race, he insisted on keeping the set for The Apprentice intact on the 14th floor of Trump Tower—if the whole presidential-campaign thing didn’t work out, at least it would generate good publicity for the next season of The Celebrity Apprentice. “There was a cognizant decision to leave the boardroom,” Trump’s son Eric told the book’s author, “and there was a possibility of it coming back.” When the set was eventually torn down, campaign staffers took over the floor.
This almost-too-perfect metaphor for the melding of Trump’s reality-TV and political careers appears in Apprentice in Wonderland, by the entertainment journalist Ramin Setoodeh. The book comes out later this month; I obtained an early copy.
It is by now a truism of the Trump era that the 45th president rose to power in large part thanks to the persona he popularized on The Apprentice, which he hosted from 2004 to 2015. Few readers will be surprised to learn that the character he played on the show—the tough-but-fair executive who doles out savvy business advice and decisively fires underperforming employees—was more reality-TV invention than reality. But the book’s peek behind the scenes of what is arguably the most consequential television show in history is still revealing. In Setoodeh’s look back at the series, Trump, a man who has now served in the most powerful office in the world, shows himself to be thoroughly steeped in the tawdry, lowbrow celebrity culture of the aughts—a culture that remains influential on his politics. — The Atlantic
Our Take: The Atlantic thinks they're exceedingly clever with the framing of this week's deep dive on The Apprentice as a "character" study (in more ways than one,) leading up to the election.
In a manner of speaking, they ARE clever, compared to the other establishment vultures in the media industrial complex.
The thing is, the fact that "The Donald" was a persona crafted, perfected or launched on The Apprentice isn't lost on most Anons. We've been saying it for years.
What's actually bothering the establishment about this revelation is that it's just dawning on them, and they're just beginning to connect the dots with the benefit of hindsight ... which is now changing to foresight.
"The Donald" is famous as a construct for being tough, fair, bombastic ... and exceedingly direct. He would laugh in one scene and "fire" contestants in the next without so much as a twitch.
What happens when this "character" knows EXACTLY who's loyal to him ... and who's not?
[Their] threat is OUR promise. —
‘Bulls**t’ – Putin on ‘plans’ to attack NATO
The idea that Moscow has some kind of plan to attack NATO is a stupid attempt to maintain the West’s global hegemony by fear, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Putin was asked about NATO’s preparations to defend from a Russian “invasion” at a meeting with the heads of major international news agencies on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
“Look, someone has imagined that Russia wants to attack NATO. Have you gone completely insane? Are you as thick as a plank? Who came up with this nonsense, this bulls**t?” Putin said.
The Russian president suggested that the “bulls**t” was in the service of deceiving the Western public, urging them to arm themselves and send more weapons to Ukraine. — RT
Our Take: This feels like Russian Maneuver Defense.
has talked about this technique a lot, and I detailed its origins last week on Breaking History.The Russians figured out how to defeat the Nazi's Blitzkrieg: feign retreat, drawing the advancing tanks deep, allowing a "head" to form well past the defensive lines. Once the initial attack force crossed into Russian territory, the flanking defensive positions (the Russian's called them the "shoulders") enveloped the point of penetration (called the "neck") and "decapitated" the head (the attack force), allowing it to be encircled and destroyed.
The Russians called it "Shoulder Defense," and it was so successful that Hitler denied ever using the term "Blitzkrieg," calling it a silly word.
So while the Germans (NATO) invented Maneuver Warfare, the Russians became the masters of it.
We covered last week how Putin is sending his navy to the Caribbean. Unrelated note (but kind of a related note): Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted CARICOM (sort of like the EU of the Caribbean) for the first time ever last fall in the Saudi ancestral home of Diriyah, and less than two weeks later, there's suddenly a paramilitary conflict in the region of Guayana that resulted in the British deploying naval ships to the area—to protect their exclusive colonial oil rights (because of course they have those in... Guayana)—which resulted in the Russian Ministry of Defense telling London to FAFO. (Guess who won that flexing contest?)
What made the Saudi thing even weirder is that a week before the attack, a picture was posted on X of MBS and the President of Guayana, and the exact three countries involved in the subsequent conflict are hashtagged. (Guayana, Suriname, and Venezuela) And then the day before things pop off, the Saudi Foreign Ministry hosts the Venezuelan and Suriname ambassadors, and include both of them in the same press release—which they almost never do. (Normally, they would post about them separately)
(Maybe I'm grasping, but it just feels weird. I don't really have a firm read or opinion on Guayana, but it is a fascinating development, and seems to be related to the Multi-polar Devolution.)
Then, of course, there is Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. Now, El Salvador is not a Caribbean nation—it rests solely on the Pacific coast of Central America—but did you see the guest list at Bukele's presidential inauguration last week?
Considering that El Salvador is the smallest nation on the American mainland (fact check me, comments), it casts a pretty big shadow. And happens to get along very well with Vladimir Putin.
Moves and Countermoves. Maneuver Warfare.
Keep playing games, NATO. The Sovereign Alliance is playing for keeps. —
Another Take: Russians buzzing the Caribbean. Chinese testing the Taiwan Straight. Trump (probably) heading to jail in the interim. Economy on the brink. POTATUS "losing his mind" on the world stage.
"Worldwide naval exercises" being planned for fall 2024 by all major players.
“Bullsh*t” nuclear scares emanating from those dastardly Russians …
Might be time to brush up on the Scare Event theory that first emanated from the Q Drops, and why the last threat (that being the threat of total annihilation) has always been the most likely for mass population awakening.
The Crisis Cascade seems like it's primed to come to a series of inflection points this summer, which will make the previous 'hot' summers look quaint by comparison.
[Their] Scare Event will be transformed into a Mass Unification Event.
But you already know where it's going.
Which means you get to enjoy the show, while prepping to be the frame and support by the tens of millions who do not.
The choice to know has always been yours. Did you make it? —
Zimbabwe will have incredible harvest this year thanks to Russian fertilizers — President
Zimbabwe is grateful to Russia for the supply of fertilizers - this year, the harvest will be incredible, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
"We received both grain and fertilizer from Russia. We are very grateful and as a result of this delivery we will have an incredible harvest, because we have enough fertilizer," he said.
"However, we will need more supplies, and Russia gives us lower prices and convenient payment methods than anywhere else. We are happy with the existing agreements and opportunities," he emphasized.
It was reported in March that a humanitarian shipment of 23,000 tons of Uralchem fertilizers was delivered and transferred to Zimbabwe.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was held on June 5-8. This year’s theme was "The Formation of New Areas of Growth as the Cornerstone of a Multipolar World." SPIEF was organized by the Roscongress Foundation. TASS was the information partner of the event. — TASS
Our Take: "...Russia gives us lower prices and convenient payment methods than anywhere else. We are happy with the existing agreements and opportunities,"
This is the power of bilateral agreements.
Zimbabwe needed fertilizer. Russia offered them product at very competitive pricing, as well as convenient payment methods. Simple as. So now, if somebody wants to move in on that market, they have to offer better value to Zimbabwe. Who wins? Zimbabwe. That's the power of a true free market, versus elitist trade organizations that skim off the top, and make retarded regulations that are borderline criminal in their intent.
Zimbabwe has an interesting history. It used to be called "Rhodesia," named after Cecil Rhodes—the agent for the Rothschild banking family who was dispatched to Africa in the 1880's to established the "Cape to Cairo" railway for the British, which would connect the north African coast to South Africa. The British South Africa Company, founded by Rhodes, named the colony after Cecil in 1895. You can imagine how the locals were treated by the British/Prussian prospectors. (Rhodesia shares a large border with German East Africa... no coincidences, friends.)
Then there's the Rhodes Scholarship, which has become an iconic moniker with instant cultural recognition, insinuating extreme intelligence and philanthropic sensibilities. The reality is that this program is used to identify and cultivate "talent" for the globalist mafia. (Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar, as was Pete Buttigieg.)
So yeah, Russia continues to kick ass and take names in Africa. In related news, the Zimbabwean president said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that "Africa will soon roar like a lion."
I believe it. The world is becoming an increasingly exciting place. —
BONUS ITEMS
Biden insists he’s not involved in his family’s business dealings. But his aides are a different story.
For years, Joe Biden shared a bookkeeper with his son, Hunter. He also shared a personal lawyer with his brother, Jim. And when Jim Biden wanted to know more about one of Hunter Biden’s associates, he hired the former head of Joe Biden’s Secret Service detail to investigate.
Since 2019, Joe Biden has repeatedly distanced himself from his family’s business dealings, saying that he has never so much as discussed them with his relatives or with anyone else. But House impeachment inquiry interviews, public records and emails reviewed by POLITICO show that members of his inner circle were regularly enmeshed in those dealings: Many of the president’s closest staffers and advisers have doubled as his relatives’ business associates, both during and after their stints working for the man at the center of the Biden family orbit.
Those overlaps reflect an all-in-the family approach to business and politicking that dates back a half-century to the president’s first Senate bid, run primarily by his parents and siblings. Since then, his political patrons have at times forged business ties with his relatives, who in turn have converted some of their business partners into campaign supporters. And over a lifetime in public life, some of the president’s aides have taken on roles as surrogate members of the tight-knit Biden clan.
The Bidens’ approach complicates their efforts to distance the president from his family’s ventures.
As Jim and Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings have caused controversy and several of their business partners have been convicted of federal fraud and corruption crimes in recent years, any potential links between their business dealings and the president have come in for renewed scrutiny. — Politico
Trump Has Raised $400 Million In One Week
On May 30th, Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of… falsifying records of something, no one really quite knows what. A week later on June 6th, Trump announced that he has raised $400 MILLION since the verdict.
Speaking at a Turning Point Action town hall event in Arizona, Trump stated “I just went through a rigged trial in New York with a highly conflicted, and I mean highly conflicted, judge where there was no crime.”
“They didn’t want to bring the case. They could have brought the case seven years ago. It’s only when you run for office they bring cases,” Trump continued.
Trump further noted that he is “beating Biden, by the way, by a lot,” adding that following the conviction, “more campaign funds were given to this campaign than any campaign they think in history, almost $400 million.”
It is an unprecedented amount and likely will not be matched by Biden before the election. — Modernity News
Judge Merchan Provides Information Indicating Juror in Trump Case May Have Predetermined Guilty Verdict
There’s just something very sketchy about this public release of information from Judge Merchan in New York City. Merchan doesn’t have an integrity bone and the comment he is bringing attention toward is innocuous and random. However, Merchan could be trying to get Trump to violate the gag order aspect and talk about jurors; thereby making the sentencing worse.
According to information Merchan is providing the lawyers in the Trump case, a comment was made on the court’s FaceBook page indicating one of the jurors said the Trump guilty verdict was predetermined. [SOURCE] “My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted. Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!”
Why would Judge Merchan want to draw public attention to this?
Either something bigger is being diluted by this story, or perhaps Merchan is using it as a provocation to get Trump to talk about the jury and violate his gag order ahead of sentencing.
Or, perhaps Merchan is looking to create a mistrial to exit the case, or do it over again and extend the gag order. — Conservative Treehouse
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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On the NATO v/s Russia, Putin’s running circles around these hedonistic idiots. We stand to suffer from the stupidity of our own “leaders” rather than attacks from adversaries.
When we in the west look forward to better times to come, once the deep state has been eradicated and the central bank destroyed, can we possibly even imagine what the changes will be like in Africa for the people of that continent. A continent of famines, starvation, horrific wars and death in every direction, suddenly freed and able to enjoy the wealth, health and prosperity of their homelands. I can’t even comprehend how that will look but I pray it will transpire and Africa can finally use its riches to transform this beautiful continent in a thoughtful, prosperous and environmentally astute way.