Badlands News Brief
Deliberations Begin as Signal Spreads in the Info War
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 Tuesday, May 27 …
Trump trial hears closing arguments ahead of jury deliberations in "hush money" case
Jurors slogged through about eight hours of closing arguments in Donald Trump's criminal trial on Tuesday, with lawyers from both sides making their final cases before the jury begins deliberating whether Trump is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying of business records.
Trump's lead attorney Todd Blanche argued that Michael Cohen, the prosecution's key witness, was the "greatest liar of all time" and acted alone when he paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016 for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Blanche told jurors they could not find Trump guilty based on Cohen's testimony, and said there were plenty of other reasons to doubt prosecutors' narrative of the case.
Trump is accused of signing off on the scheme to falsify records to cover up the "hush money" payment. Prosecutors say the plan was designed to subvert election law and keep the payment secret. They allege Trump falsely portrayed reimbursements for the $130,000 payment as monthly checks for Cohen's ongoing legal services, paid over the course of the first year of his presidency. Trump has pleaded not guilty, and his defense argued the checks and associated records were accurate.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass presented the closing arguments for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. He defended Cohen's credibility and said his testimony lines up with a voluminous record of text messages, emails and call records shown at trial. He urged the jury to hold Trump accountable. — CBS News
Our Take: “Closing arguments in the NY ‘election interference’ case took place Tuesday, with the jury staying late as the prosecution closed. Deliberations begin tomorrow.
The defense went first, and Trump’s Attorney Blanche recapped all the supposed evidence in painstaking detail, putting it all in the broader context of the totality of the evidence, and pointing out the many areas of reasonable doubt.
Yesterday, I called this trial a colonoscopy for the Trump campaign, and that really came to light when the prosecution recast all that evidence in their own context — a story that wholly relies on Michael Cohen’s credibility.
The prosecution claims that Cohen’s credibility is immaterial of his evidence is reliable. But much of that ‘evidence’ is just Cohen’s testimony. He was impeached as a witness multiple times during the trial. They haven’t proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Court will resume in the morning for jury instructions, scheduled for one hour, and then deliberations will begin. It all comes down to the jury now, and we’ll bring you the dramatic conclusion when it happens!
Huge thanks to Inner City Press on X for the play by play from the courtroom.” —
Another Take: “DJT was up 9% yesterday as MSM stories swirl projecting a likely conviction and a potential jailing that much of the Anon world has been calling for months.
Now ... if this is bad for Trump, why is money pouring in on him?
Retail is supporting Trump because they're supporting what he represents. They're not holding because of a value play, but for ideological reasons.
Obviously, institutional shorts have been targeting DJT for months, as Devin Nunes has been signaling.
Market-movers are breaking through some resistance walls because they know jailing him won't just solidify his standing as the winner of the 2024 election, but also because it will send his standing in the Collective Mind soaring to new heights.
Won't it be something if and when the surface-level Narrative is 'catastrophic' for Trump, while the only votes that matter before actual voting begins continue to pile into three letters that are coming to be synonymous not just with winning ... but with comebacks?
Eyes on.” —
Nikki Haley writes ‘finish them’ on IDF artillery shells during Israel visit
Nikki Haley, the failed Republican presidential nominee, signed Israeli artillery shells with the inscription “Finish Them!” on a Memorial Day visit to Israel.
The former South Carolina governor’s graphic display of support came on a trip to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where she was accompanied by Danny Danon, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a noted hawkish member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in the Knesset.
Her shell-signing activities came at a time when Israel is engaged in a devastating military offensive in Gaza that has so far killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, an estimated 15,000 of them children.
Talking to reporters, Haley was unapologetic, criticising Joe Biden’s administration for temporarily withholding weapons as a means of discouraging an Israeli attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and aiming barbs at the international criminal court (ICC) – which is seeking Netanyahu’s arrest – and the international court of justice (ICJ), which is considering charges of genocide against Israel.
“What America needs to understand is if Israel’s fighting our enemies, how can we not help them,” said Haley, whose missile message also carried the words “America loves Israel”. — The Guardian
Our Take: “Finish what, exactly?
I can only assume that she is referring to the Fatah political faction, and Hamas's usurpation over them in the Palestinian Authority.
As Colonel Douglas Macgregor—who served as an advisor to the Trump administration—told Judge Andrew Napolitano last week, Hamas has ‘made whole’ all of their personnel losses sustained since October 7th, thanks to the IDF's clumsy military campaign, which has proven to be a major recruiting tool for Hamas. Macgregor explains that there is no military plan in place for how to prevent the resurgence of Hamas in the areas deemed ‘cleared’ of hostiles, which has resulted in the return of Hamas militants in northern Gaza.
Macgregor goes on to explain that the chosen strategy—indiscriminate bombing of urban environments—is exactly the opposite of what a discerning military general would do when fighting guerillas, as the ‘ruins’ of a bombed-out city provide an enormous advantage to defending infantry, who can easily hide and ambush the arriving IDF armor columns, which are forced to maneuver through limited corridors where debris hasn't yet prevented their movement. (There's also the fact that whatever maps the IDF may have possessed of Gazan cities are now useless, as the landscape has been completely altered from the craters and destroyed buildings.)
Macgregor also mentions activity in the West Bank that is not being reported to western audience by the corporate media and governments.
The influence of Hamas has now grown far beyond the borders of Gaza, thanks to this siege, and if elections were held today in the West Bank, Fatah may very well lose to Hamas. It's worth noting that in 1993, when Fatah and the Palestinian Authority were officially recognized as the ruling authority of Palestine, Hamas was nothing more than a street gang with CIA funding, and was never meant to be a part of the government. That changed, of course, thanks to the efforts of Bibi Netanyahu, who boasted about it to his friends in the Likud Party.
There is this insane notion that more killing will somehow expand our capacity for peace. Those who have studied the art of war—which is really the art of peace (h/t General Kwast)—understand that destroying your enemy and achieving victory are almost never the same thing, especially if lasting peace is your endgame. Unfortunately, as Macgregor told the Judge during their sitrep yesterday, he believes the Abraham Accords are likely dead.
Fortunately, Team Peace has not yet abandoned their mission. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told the press: ‘..Israel doesn't get to decide whether or not the Palestinians have a right to self-determination... We will build the lighthouse and we will light the light, and hope that eventually Israel will come to the shore of peace and security for all of us.’
What a total inversion of everything we have ever been told about the conflict between Israel and the Arabs. Nikki Haley sounds like a bloodthirsty psychopath, next to Prince Faisal bin Farhan.” —
Dems in full-blown ‘freakout’ over Biden
A pervasive sense of fear has settled in at the highest levels of the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, even among officeholders and strategists who had previously expressed confidence about the coming battle with Donald Trump.
All year, Democrats had been on a joyless and exhausting grind through the 2024 election. But now, nearly five months from the election, anxiety has morphed into palpable trepidation, according to more than a dozen party leaders and operatives. And the gap between what Democrats will say on TV or in print, and what they’ll text their friends, has only grown as worries have surged about Biden’s prospects.
“You don’t want to be that guy who is on the record saying we’re doomed, or the campaign’s bad or Biden’s making mistakes. Nobody wants to be that guy,” said a Democratic operative in close touch with the White House and granted anonymity to speak freely.
But Biden’s stubbornly poor polling and the stakes of the election “are creating the freakout,” he said. — Politico
Our Take: “I said last week that Politico has become a gold mine of negative or reverse indicators coming out of the establishment.
Well ... they're opening the summer stretch with a very literal panic pattern where it concerns Trump 2024.
On the surface, that's par for the course, but when you dig into the meat of the article, there are actually some pretty interesting comms layered throughout:
1) Politico refers to Trump's campaign stops in New York, New Jersey and California as ‘psychological warfare’ meant to destabilize the curated image of Democrat control, calling into question the liberal unity of Blue States. This matches recent commentary by
, and I on the Power Hour.2) Eric Trump is quoted as saying, ‘Make no mistake, there is a war happening in this country.’ Obviously, that one can be taken in multiple ways by this audience.
Overall, the piece represents a growing divide between Biden Admin strategists and the DC 'expert class.'“ —
Trump co-defendants Harrison Floyd, Trevian Kutti appear in Fulton County courtroom Tuesday
On Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee held court to discuss two matters in Georgia's election interference case in connection to co-defendants Harrison Floyd and Trevian Kutti.
According to court records, Floyd's matter concerned a subpoena to count Fulton County's 2020 election ballots. Floyd has stated that he wants to personally recount the 528,777 ballots cast in Fulton County.
Floyd, the former head of Black Voices for Trump, has requested copies of all county ballots from the last presidential election to prove that election fraud cost former President Donald Trump a second term. His legal team aims to show Trump as the actual winner of the election as part of their defense in the interference case. — FOX Atlanta
Our Take: “We were back in Judge Scott McAfee’s court room on Tuesday for two motion hearings down in Georgia.
Harrison Floyd was first up, and we’re still arguing over whether Fulton County has to produce the evidence requested last November, which was addressed in January as well. The county continues to obstruct and, now, they’re changing their arguments.
Fulton County claimed Tuesday that they never said they didn’t do signature verification.
and I went to the tape:Unfortunately for the county, this change in argument may have opened the door to some pain. They now should have to prove that they did accomplish signature verification in accordance with the law — while simultaneously arguing that it will take thousands of hours to do signature verification to comply with discovery in this case.
The county also argued that Floyd’s ‘Trump Won’ defense should be thrown out by the court because the defense couldn’t have known that Trump won in 2020, and the defendant wouldn’t have had access to the records in question at the time of the conduct in question. You can’t make this up. As
The second hearing was Trevian Kutti, which is pronounced like ‘cutie,’ who was there on a procedural matter for her new counsel. Kutti claimed she heard about the hearing on Twitter, and her new counsel was unaware as well. Apparently her new attorney’s motion to appear was filed on the wrong docket, which will be remedied as a result of the hearing. This is not the first time defendants in this case have had issues with filings and the clerk’s office.
There is still much to come in our favorite RICO saga, so catch up on the live coverage, and stay tuned!” —
Revealed: Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry
The former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian can reveal.
Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.
That investigation, launched in 2021, culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct in its war in Gaza.
The prosecutor’s decision to apply to the ICC’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, alongside three Hamas leaders, is an outcome Israel’s military and political establishment has long feared. — The Guardian
Our Take: “The timing of this story is a bit serendipitous, as I just presented a dig on Monday's Badlands Daily where I detailed former Mossad director Yossi Cohen's misadventures in the Congo, and how it all connects to the Israeli oligarchy, Trump's Executive Order 13818, and last week's failed coup against the government of the DRC, which was conducted by Congolese-American mercenary Christian Mangala, in a likely attempt to re-install Joseph Kabila as the leader of the DRC.
Some get a little triggered when we talk about the ICC, but I will remind everybody that it was
Because remember: this process is about the systematic destruction of the Old Guard. So don't get distracted by shiny objects.
With that said, there are some fascinating disclosures in this article. For instance, the same prosecutor (Fatou Bensouda) who originally opened up an investigation into Israel's potential war crimes in Gaza also previously investigated Cohen's misadventures in the Congo, which were done on behalf of Israeli oligarch Dan Gertler. Gertler was the third name listed on EO 13818 due to his child slave-mining camps and human trafficking operations in the Congo, which the Biden administration now views as a tempting means to acquire the rare earth minerals needed to facilitate the Green New Deal.
While this article highlights the Trump administration's (read: Pompeo, who is close friends with Cohen) sanctions against Bensouda in 2019, what I notice is that both Bensouda and Trump's team were simultaneously investigating Dan Gertler for his crimes against humanity in 2017, and independently reached the same conclusion. (The article doesn't name Gertler, but the 2022 article cited toward the end certainly does.)
Fascinating to learn that Bensouda was also investigating the CIA's crimes in Afghanistan, which we know now was a giant opium trafficking operation that was responsible for the Opioid Epidemic, which has killed millions of Americans. That seems to be another parallel with the Trump administration, which turned control of Afghanistan over to the Taliban, who ended the CIA's drug operation. (Which is why they were forced to pivot to fentanyl.)
I will reiterate that the ICC is an illegitimate organization, and the justice we seek for these crimes should be adjudicated in an American court of law. However, there are threads of truth here that are very real, and deserve attention.
What I expect to see is an escalation of drama and conflict between the globalist oligarchs—of which Yossi Cohen most definitely serves—and the ‘sacred institutions’ that they have created in order to domesticate the world and rule over it.” —
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund launches new group to boost space industry
The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, on Monday launched the Neo Space Group to work on the Kingdom’s satellite and space industry, its first investment in the sector.
The Neo Space Group or NSG is the “PIF’s first investment focused on the space industry,” the sovereign wealth fund said in a statement.
It “aims to develop and enhance commercial space operations in Saudi Arabia, providing innovative satellite and space solutions locally and globally,” the PIF said.
It will also “invest in localization, technology, start-ups, and knowledge in the space and satellite sector in Saudi Arabia” in the latest bid to boost economic diversification.
“The establishment of NSG marks an important milestone in the development of the growing satellite and space sector in Saudi Arabia,” said Omar al-Madhi, PIF’s co-head of MENA Direct Investments. — Alarabiya News
And …
Saudi Arabia emerges as key investor in Elon Musk’s $24 billion startup xAI
Saudi Arabia has emerged as a key investor in tech billionaire Elon Musk’s startup xAI. The startup recently announced its $6 billion Series B funding round which it will utilize to launch xAI’s first products in the market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate the research and development of future technologies.
In this series of funding, Saudi Arabia emerged as one of the key investors in xAI. In a blog post, the company recently revealed that Kingdom Holding and entrepreneur Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal among others were some of the company’s top investors. Other investors in Series B included Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz. Sequoia Capital and Fidelity Management & Research Company were also among the key investors.
In 2022, Kingdom Holding and Prince Alwaleed maintained their $1.89 billion stake in social media platform X after Musk took over the company. This makes them jointly the second-largest investors in the platform.
In the blog post, xAI noted its significant strides over the past year including the release of Grok-1 on X in November. The company also recently announced updates to the Grok-1.5 model with long context capability. The company has also launched Grok-1.5V with image understanding and the open-source release of Grok-1. This has opened doors for advancements in various applications, optimizations and extensions of the model. — Economy Middle East
Our Take: “Okay, so this take started as something lighthearted—’Saudis in Space: The Musical’—but has become something a little more serious.
Reports of Saudi Arabia investing in space-faring technologies are obviously going to draw curiosity over how it may connect to Elon Musk—who many of us recognize as a potential player in Devolution. Upon entering that rabbit hole, I stumbled onto this other article that names Saudi Arabia as the key investor in Elon's other big endeavor: xAI.
If you were to base your judgement of Elon Musk and his AI project solely on the reporting of this article, you might walk away with the opinion that it is nefarious and untrustworthy. Why? Because the Saudi investor named is Kingdom Holdings, which is the fund created by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal— coined ‘Prince Dopey’ by President Trump—who has invested nearly $2 billion into the project. We all know that Prince Dopey is bad-news bears.
[Stephen A. Smith voice] However...
I know from my obsessive research on the Saudis that Kingdom Holdings is no longer controlled by Prince Dopey, which this article fails to disclose. It's controlled by none other than Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Because when MBS rounded up all of his corrupt cousins on November 4, 2017, in what has become known as the ‘Saudi Royal Purge,’ he also assumed control over their various companies—such as the Bin Ladens' construction firm—as detailed in this 2018 article from Business Insider.
From the article: ‘Bin Talal was released in January amid an undisclosed deal, and remains the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, which held stakes in major international companies like Twitter, McDonald's, and the Walt Disney Company. As part of his release, the Kingdom Holding Company's $12.5 billion global investment decisions are now subject to approval by the Crown Prince's court.’
So now MBS is using Prince Dopey's money to invest in Elon Musk's pet projects? That all makes perfect sense to me.” —
BONUS ITEMS
Hunter Biden loses last-minute appeal to dismiss gun charges
A federal appeals court denied a request by Hunter Biden's legal team to throw out gun charges he is facing in federal court next month.
Biden had appealed a pretrial order to dismiss the charges on Second Amendment grounds, but the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit dismissed the appeal.
"The defendant’s Second Amendment defense does not implicate a right not to be tried that can be collaterally appealed," the court stated.
The court stated that the hypothetical Second Amendment defenses "can be effectively reviewed on appeal after final judgment." — FOX News
Rishi Sunak vows to reintroduce UK national service in first major campaign policy
Rishi Sunak has vowed to introduce mandatory national service for 18-year-olds if he is re-elected, in his first major policy announcement since the start of the election campaign earlier this week.
The move is part of what he said was an effort to provide security and opportunity in “an increasingly uncertain world”.
Sunak plans to require 18-year-olds to work with the armed forces on a 12-month placement or carry out community work, in a bid to reinforce his claim that he is best-placed to increase security in the UK.
“Generations of young people have not had the opportunities or experience they deserve and there are forces trying to divide our society in this increasingly uncertain world,” Sunak said.
National service was abolished in Britain in 1960 but there has been pressure from leading figures in the UK military for young people to be prepared for the possibility of war.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, head of the British army, talked in January about the need for the UK’s “prewar generation” to prepare for the possibility of future conflict, adding that there needed to be a “whole of nation undertaking”. — Financial Times
French military instructors to visit Ukrainian training centres soon, Ukraine commander says
Ukraine's top commander said on Monday he had signed paperwork allowing French military instructors to visit Ukrainian training centres soon.
"I am pleased to welcome France's initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian servicemen," Oleksandr Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app after talks via video link with French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu.
"I have already signed the documents that will enable the first French instructors to visit our training centres shortly and familiarize themselves with their infrastructure and personnel," Syrskyi said.
Syrskyi gave no further details but said he believed that France's determination would encourage other partners to join this "ambitious project."
Ukraine's Defence Ministry in a "clarification" issued later on X said Kyiv had been expressing interest in a project receiving foreign instructors since February.
"As of now, we are still in discussions with France and other countries on this issue," it said. — 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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Do the commie Democrats not realize that convicting and jailing Trump will ensure his landslide election? Are they all victims of the stupidity virus reaching pandemic levels? (Hilarious article about the stupidity virus linked below 😂)
Is their only play left on the gameboard that of non-stop distraction? In which case, what do they not want us to focus on?? Oh, that list is way too long…
Thank you, Ghost, for the recap of Colonel Douglas Macgregor and for the link! When it comes to military strategy it does seem as though Netanyahu is actually enabling Hamas. Clearly lasting peace is not in the equation. Genocide may lead to surrender, but it will never lead to Peace.
Love the quote by the Saudi Foreign Minister ❤️
“ a growing divide between Biden Admin strategists and the DC 'expert class.'“ — Burning Bright. 🍿🍿❤️
“ know from my obsessive research on the Saudis that Kingdom Holdings is no longer controlled by Prince Dopey, which this article fails to disclose. It's controlled by none other than Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”. Very Interesting! Thanks, Ghost ❤️
https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/fears-mount-as-stupidity-threat-escalates-amid-terror-shock-2/
The Trump "hush money" trial is a total joke. It's so painful and ridiculous I don't even like reading about it. It's a complete picture of how corrupt the justice system is in this country. And Nikki Haley being a blood thirsty psychopath is completely accurate in my book. I hope she never takes office. If I didn't have the level of faith I have, I couldn't survive this crap. I'm just patiently waiting for the corruption to be exposed ALL the way and removed so we can finally head toward God's plan for us.