Badlands News Brief

Marauding, Squirrel-Murdering Psyhopaths Panic Ahead of the Election

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 …

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TV Exec Tells CNN's Brian Stelter The Inconvenient Truth: "Trump Victory Means MSM Is Dead In Current Form"

CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter shared a comment from an anonymous television executive on X, "If half the country has decided that Trump is qualified to be president, that means they're not reading any of this media, and we've lost this audience completely. A Trump victory means mainstream media is dead in its current form."

The anonymous TV exec's comment to Stelter nailed it. Trust in corporate media has been sliding for decades but has imploded to record-low levels in the last several years. 

History might show that the 2020s was the decade when the curtain was lifted on the censorship blob, a combination of MSM, government, big tech, nonprofits (fake fact-checkers), and globalist billionaires that work overtime to sow division across the nation, trick the American people into endless foreign wars, and artificially create a news flow environment favorable to far-left policies. — ZeroHedge

Our Take: Print media died in the late 1990s, but it wasn’t until 2012 that Newsweek discontinued and eulogized their printed magazine. Institutional change is a lagging indicator of public trust, in the media or otherwise. 

As we frequently discuss in The Brief, trust in the “fake news” is at an all time low, and they keep breaking that record. This erosion has been gradual, going back decades. For example, I asked Grok when trust in the institutional press began to crumble, and we time traveled back to 1968:

“The 1968 convention, coupled with events like the Tet Offensive earlier that year, which was initially reported as a significant defeat for the US but later understood more as a strategic loss for the Vietnamese, contributed to a broader erosion of trust in media. The public began questioning the media's role in shaping narratives around the war and domestic unrest.”

Gradually, and then all at once.

Media has a lower approval rating than Congress, and American trust in the institution has been falling since Vietnam. In a 2023 Gallup poll, only 16% of US adults expressed a "great deal" of trust in the mass media — and that was before the dumpster fire that is 2024.  

Yet, the legacy media still claims narrative authority, and that authority leads to real world impacts. Consider Fox News and Arizona in 2020.

It’s almost like something other than market forces is at work. It’s almost like public trust in the media is no longer a part of their business model. Maybe it never was.

I remember hearing an anecdote years back about Chinese immigrants being surprised that Americans watch the news. In China, everyone knows it’s propaganda. We're reaching that point in the US, though definitely not with the required levels of urgency for countering the communist color revolution — which is absolutely and almost exclusively being televised. 

Back to this silly Stelter article, the death of legacy media has nothing to do with tomorrow’s election. Like printed Newsweek in 2012, they’re already dead. The only matter remaining is the eulogy. —

Ashe in America

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Ron Paul responds to Elon Musk’s invitation to join Trump administration

Former Texas Representative Ron Paul, a long-time advocate for limited government and free-market principles, could potentially play a role in a future Trump administration.

Paul, known for his criticism of federal policies such as the Federal Reserve, mass surveillance, and the military-industrial complex, has expressed openness to the idea. Responding to Tesla CEO Elon Musk on social media platform X, Paul said he would be “happy to talk” with Musk about joining a potential Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk recently posted that he would welcome Paul’s involvement in the department, which he humorously referred to as the “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),” alluding to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

Musk’s interest in a governmental role has become increasingly visible, with the CEO explicitly stating his willingness to serve in a Trump-led administration if the opportunity arises. Following Musk’s post, Trump hinted at appointing him to an advisory or official role if elected president.

Paul’s legacy in politics includes founding the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE) in 1976 and serving as the first chairman of Citizens for a Sound Economy. Often cited as the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement, Paul’s influence extends across fiscal conservatism and anti-interventionist policies.

If appointed, the combination of Paul’s libertarian principles and Musk’s tech-driven approach could bring an unconventional dynamic to government operations under a Trump presidency. — The Express Tribune

Our Take:

It's all coming together...

This development is a very big deal. It represents the merger of what I consider the origins of the Tea Party movement with the MAGA platform.

The Tea Party movement had no centralized doctrine or figurehead, like MAGA had with Donald Trump. Some say it was named after the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American colonists snuck aboard British ships and threw East India Company (EIC) tea into the Boston Harbor, after the British Parliament placed tariffs on all non-EIC tea.

(The reason being that the EIC was facing bankruptcy, due to overwhelming corruption and malfeasance in its ranks, and had an enormous surplus of tea that was reaching its shelf life—one of the many side-effects of corruption and mismanagement. This apathy towards commerce is what led to the EIC abandoning its commercial licenses altogether in 1833 and focusing exclusively on raising private armies and overthrowing governments in the far east, until it mutated into what we now call "British Intelligence" in 1873. That entity was responsible for later creating MI6, the Muslim Brotherhood, the CIA, Five Eyes, Mossad, and Operation Gladio, among other things.)

Others claim that the TEA Party stands for "Taxed Enough Already." In any event, the consensus is that the movement was intended to be a tax revolt against an ever-expanding government, in the wake of the Patriot Act and growing national security apparatus.

Ron Paul was a major figure in this movement in 2008—before it was even called "The Tea Party movement." That moniker came a few years later, after the Koch Brothers and other grifting parasites in "conservative" politics co-opted the momentum, and astro-turfed their own malevolence into it, which metastasized into a venomous poison that coagulated in the veins of the movement, leading to widespread "black-pilling" and defection among the grass-roots participants after they witnessed a series of discouraging developments by the treasonous entity known as the Republican Party.

Here is a 2010 headline from The Atlantic acknowledging Ron Paul's role in the spiritual origins of the movement.

The "Tea Party Caucus," as it became known, flourished during the Obama administration, as Americans became desperate to stop the spread of socialism in America. However, under the Tea Party's stewardship, Congress agreed to an ever-expanding list of expenditures that led to a national debt that is now well over $34 Trillion. The Tea Party Republicans became a laughing stock, known for their "strongly worded letters" that never led to anything of consequence, and nominated John Boehner and Paul Ryan to be Speakers of the House. Under their failed leadership, we also saw Mitt Romney become the 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate.

I imagine that it was these betrayals that kept Ron Paul identifying as a libertarian, and not a Republican. (Because the Republicans have proven themselves to be such vile scumbags, and extremely abusive toward their constituents.)

The fact that Ron Paul is being brought into the new Trump Administration, while those vile scumbags in the Old Guard GOP are being boxed out, brings a tear and a smile to the face of many true conservatives; Because a cornerstone of Ron Paul's legacy has always been the call to abolish the Federal Reserve, and end the income tax—a concept that President Trump has been regularly mentioning lately.

I cannot wait to see how Ron Paul will be unleashed. I hope they give him a cord and let him flip over some tables. Maybe whip a few central bankers. (One can dream.) —

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry

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Orbán: "Liberals Have Had Their Place In The Sun, It's Time To Defeat Them In Every Election, Starting With Donald Trump"

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has defended his administration’s conservative policies on migration and family support, emphasizing Hungary’s stance as a “conservative island” in a “liberal European ocean.”

In an interview with Austrian ServusTV, the Hungarian leader claimed his administration’s priority of family-friendly policies over immigration is the right solution to declining birth rates as he strives to protect “the Hungarian way of life.”

“Unlike many other EU member states, we did not allow people belonging to foreign cultures to enter,” Orbán said, contrasting Hungary’s stance with countries like Germany and France where immigration is relied upon to address demographic challenges. “We support families, not migration,” he added.

The Hungarian prime minister took a firm stance particularly against illegal immigration, emphasizing Hungary’s resistance to the influx of people from “foreign cultures — predominantly Islam.” He claimed that Hungary’s strict migration policies help maintain lower crime rates and prevent social unrest.

“We Hungarians think that the situation will not get better with illegal migration, but only worse. Nobody in Hungary wants illegal migrants to come in; we are on a different path,” he told the Austrian broadcaster.

[…]

One significant development he hopes will affect the West’s short-term foreign policy is the outcome of next week’s U.S. presidential election.

“We know that Donald Trump did not start a war anywhere as president, and wherever he was, he ended it as soon as possible,” Orbán remarked. “If there is a person in the world who can succeed in achieving a ceasefire, it is Donald Trump.” — ReMix News

Our Take: The American Election is always a worldwide inflection point that either maintains or sets the mass psychological paradigm for the coming cycle.

Yes, even and especially when it's fake.

From an election fraud apparatus that may or may not have been neutered to narrative seeding on everything from foreign interference to the Insurrection Act, the paradigm pump has been primed for pure, engineered chaos in November.

It all depends on whose chaos you think it is, and I've personally always maintain that Donald Trump and the patriots behind him are chaos conductors, using and moving the story to suit our sovereign ends.

It is not a coincidence that the normie hivemind is being told Russia, China and North Korea are on the move, as the "New Axis" as described by the western hegemon is going to enter the stage in a BIG way in the coming months.

The election and its aftermath could be their major narrative entry point.

Peacemakers on deck, but not before the threat of war is built up. —

Burning Bright

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"RIP My Best Friend": Outrage Ensues After Beloved Rescue Squirrel Seized By NY, Euthanized

The internet is ablaze with rage after the state of New York seized a beloved rescue squirrel Peanut from its owner's home Wednesday and euthanized it.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation staged a five-hour raid on the home of Mark Luongo after an anonymous complaint was lodged against the P'nuts Freedom Farm, where internet sensation Peanut the squirrel was taken into custody before the state euthanized it along with a raccoon 'in order to test for rabies.'

"RIP MY BEST FRIEND. Thank you for the best 7 years of my life. Thank you for bringing so much joy to us and the world. I’m sorry I failed you but thank you for everything," Longo wrote in a post announcing Peanut's death. — Zerohedge

Our Take: A pet squirrel hijacked the news cycle over the weekend after a woman, who was reportedly in Texas, lodged a complaint against a popular animal rescue in New York.

Officials seized Peanut the Squirrel, and Fred the Raccoon, in a five hour raid on the NYers’ home, then euthanized the animals to “test for rabies,” according to authorities.

There was no evidence of rabies, but that didn’t matter. Also, people keep forgetting about Fred.

This wasn’t just a viral social media moment. My husband, a NYer, raged about NY government after reading about Peanut in NewsBreak. The story broke through to my sons and their friends — and they get most of their “news” from the Xbox live chat.

A government big enough to fulfill all your wishes is powerful enough to raid your home and kill your pets. That’s the widespread takeaway of this sad, memetic moment.

Mike Benz said on X Saturday, “Are we gonna win this election because of this f’ing squirrel?”

From a narrative standpoint, yes. Decisively. And, in US elections, the narrative is all there is. —

Ashe in America

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Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend’

Jeffrey Epstein described himself as Donald Trump’s “closest friend” and claimed intimate knowledge of his proclivity for sex, including cuckolding his best friends, according to recordings obtained exclusively by the Daily Beast.

The convicted pedophile even boasted of his closeness to Trump and his now-wife Melania by claiming, “the first time he slept with her was on my plane,” which was dubbed the Lolita Express.

Epstein spoke at length about Trump with the author Michael Wolff in August 2017, two years before being found dead in his jail cell. Wolff was researching his bombshell bestseller Fire and Fury at the time.

The recordings cast more light on Trump’s long relationship with Epstein, and will add to debate over the character of the Republican candidate, especially his attitudes and conduct toward women, just days before the election. — The Daily Beast

Our Take: The Whole Temple is coming down, which is why its priests are so terrified.

They kicked off the year with Trump-Epstein conflation.

Looks like they're trying to close it out the same way.

My take from the first time around stands:

"While it can be a little frustrating to weather the Trump-Epstein conflation and obfuscation techniques blasted out by the Media Industrial Complex (including 'Right-Wing' media,) when you zoom out a bit and consider it all through the twin lenses of a Mass Disclosure Operation and the Great Awakening, it couldn't be going any better.

For starters, as many have pointed out, the MAGA and Trump base already knows he's innocent of any criminal association with Epstein, though he was a clear target of the Influence Op.

...

In their blindness to see Trump toppled in the public mind, they have eagerly shifted the Overton Window into the mass acknowledgement that former presidents associated with pedophiles … at the very least." —

Burning Bright

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Jason Kelce slams fan’s phone down after they used homophobic slur toward brother Travis for dating Taylor Swift

Jason Kelce took part in a few fun festivities alongside the ESPN “College GameDay” crew on Saturday.

But things took an ugly turn after a homophobic comment from a fan outside Beaver Stadium was used in reference to his brother Travis.

The retired Eagles center was seen walking around University Park, Pennsylvania, carrying a case of beer as screams and cheers could be heard around him of people recognizing the former NFL star.

But one comment stuck out from all the noise after one fan made a derogatory comment about Travis Kelce’s high-profile relationship with Taylor Swift.

“Kelce how does it feel that your brother is a f—–t for dating Taylor Swift?” — NY Post

Our Take:

I can’t tell you how little I care about the world of celebrity. But considering that it commands the highest levels of clout in our modern [degenerate] society, sooner or later it needs to be addressed.

The Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift relationship is obviously a media-orchestrated construct, with [leaked] PR-contracts that stipulate terms of the relationship. It all makes sense, when you consider that the couple has publicly adopted political positions, and Travis Kelce became a paid spokesperson for Pfizer and the COVID-19 vaccine.

For that reason, shaming these people in public is the only way to disincentivize the behavior.

For many years, I have said that public shaming is a lost art. Public shaming is the very mechanism that was used to cultivate human civilization, as undesirable behaviors were ostracized, and violators pushed to the outskirts of society.

At some point, this mechanism was weaponized by ambitious degenerates who sought to dominate their fellow man. Public shaming became what Chris Paul calls "The Party of False Decorum," as the elites established overly tedious rules that were designed to control and oppress. Those who failed to comply with these arbitrary measures lost rank within the social hierarchy of the elites. The best historical example of this social dynamic was in London, and the British Empire, in general. The pomp and circumstance of "London Society" is what has always made the British elite particularly insufferable, as they sought to dominate the entire world.

This social mechanism (public shaming) was again bastardized with the emergence of "Cancel Culture," where digital (and sometimes physical) lynch mobs would seek to destroy the lives of those who failed to comply with the evolving values of Cultural Marxism.

Simply put, the only way to defeat the elites who have weaponized basic human behaviors against the masses is to turn human civilization against them. And that begins by turning society against the puppets of the elites. Travis Kelce was incentivized to become a puppet of the oligarchs because he was offered money and clout, in exchange for his services. If that promise of clout is removed from the equation, and inverted through the act of public shaming, then perhaps the money won't be enough for celebrities to agree to participate. (A celebrity who loses his clout also loses his marketability as a celebrity.)

Ultimately, this is all about incentive structures, and that is a topic that warrants more discussion and dissection. —

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry

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BONUS ITEMS

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SNL’s Kamala Harris cameo might have violated fairness rules

Kamala Harris’s appearance on Saturday Night Live just days before America votes may have been a violation of election rules.

The vice president poked fun at Donald Trump as she made the surprise cameo on the comedy show this weekend as the rivals enter the final stage of their White House campaigns.

Harris, who has been played on the 50th season of the comedy show by Maya Rudolph, appeared in a sketch with the actress after flying to New York City on her way to campaign in Michigan.

Now a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission, a government agency that regulates radio and television in the US, says the appearance may have violated its “equal time” rule.

The criticism came from Brendan Carr, a Republican who was nominated by both Donald Trump and Joe Biden to the FCC’s five-member commission. — The Independent

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Medvedev: US Election Doesn't Matter, Ukraine War Won't Stop, And Trump May Get JFK'd If He Intervenes

Days after Russia launched a massive readyness drill of their nuclear forces, former Russian President and current deputy chairman of the country's Security Counsel Dmitry Medvedev says that the outcome of the US election doesn't matter, as both candidates believe "Russia must be defeated," and that if Donald Trump is elected and tries to intervene, he may be assassinated.

Medvedev made the comments to his nearly 1.4 million followers on Telegram.

The entire post, translated (emphasis ours);

The whole world stands frozen in uneasy anticipation, waiting for the results of the presidential election in the distant land of 'Us.

There is no reason why we should have high expectations about it.

1. The outcome of the election will not change anything for Russia, as both candidates share the same bipartisan consensus that ‘Russia must be defeated’.

2. Kamala is dumb, inexperienced, and easy to control, as she will be terrified of everyone around her. All the real decision-making will be done by a coterie of top ministers and advisors plus (indirectly) the Obamas.

3. A low-energy Trump, spewing clichés like “I'll offer them a deal” and “I have a very good relationship with...”, will be forced to comply with the system and its rules. He won't stop the war. Not in one day, not in three days, not in three months. And if he actually attempts to do it, he could end up becoming the new JFK.

4. The only thing that matters is how much cash the new POTUS can squeeze out of Congress to finance someone else's war, fought in a far-off land. Cash to feed the American military-industrial complex and to line the pockets of the Banderite scum in Ukraine.

5. That is why, if we want to please both candidates for the highest American office, the best thing to do on November 5 is keep pummeling the Nazi regime in Kiev!

Meanwhile, Medvedev reiterated to Russian state-controlled news agency RT that adding Ukraine to NATO could lead to World War III. — ZeroHedge

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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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