Badlands News Brief
Border Battles, Trump Trials & COVID Comeuppance
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.
Some items feature original (and subjective) commentary. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see our writers’ corresponding Substack accounts and check out their other work. (Please extend a warm welcome to our newest Brief contributor, Simon Esler.)
Now, onto the news from Monday, January 22 …
Bienvenidos! Supremes Roberts, Barrett Join Libs In Allowing Biden To Remove Texas Border Wire
The Supreme Court voted 5–4 vote to allow U.S. Border Patrol agents to remove razor wire that was set up along the U.S.–Mexico border by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott while a legal challenge plays out.
In a brief order, the high court vacated a ruling issued in mid-December by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh voted to deny the application to vacate that lower court injunction, which would have prevented Border Patrol agents from removing the barrier.
Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the Biden administration. No one provided an explanation for their vote.
The order represents a win for President Joe Biden’s administration, which has struggled to curb illegal immigration into the United States since he took office in 2021, amid an ongoing battle with Mr. Abbott, a Republican, over the border. The administration had filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court and argued that Texas was blocking federal agents from carrying out their duties.
In arguments to the high court, Biden administration lawyers claimed that the barrier prevented agents from reaching illegal immigrants who already entered the United States. Lawyers for the state of Texas, however, have said that Washington has not been able to secure the border as Mr. Abbott’s administration set up razor wire fencing under the Operation Lone Star plan.
They argued that the razor wire blocks agents from gaining access to “the very border they are charged with patrolling and the individuals they are charged with apprehending and inspecting.” — The Epoch Times
Our Take: “This will probably go over like a lead balloon, but…
Understanding > Reacting
Last year, the State of Texas installed its own border measures. Understandably so.
The Biden Admin then began removing those barriers.
In October 2023, Texas went to the Fifth Circuit and argued against this action, saying that the Border Agents were violating Texas Law in doing so.
The Fifth Circuit granted a STAY (a temporary pause) of this activity.
So the Biden Admin went to SCOTUS.
They argued to SCOTUS that the STAY prevented Border Agents from doing their job, as Texas had placed the barriers in such a way as to prevent agents from accessing certain areas (about 2.5 miles of border).
Texas argued that it was in the public interest for the STAY to remain in place, that the border was not secure, that agents were not enforcing Federal Law, and that the Biden Admin going to SCOTUS was unnecessary, as the case was already docketed to be heard on Feb 7.
In a 5-4 decision, the court vacated that lower court’s order, meaning they in-paused the activity.
The four conservative justices were interested in it staying in place for now; the other five justices were not. It’s important to understand that the Federal Government has the authority and power to enforce its own Laws and SCOTUS has just reaffirmed that. Not Texas nor any other State can event the Federal Government from doing so.
I’m not telling you it’s the correct decision at this moment.
I’m not telling you that you have to like it.
I’m just telling you that it’s understandable.
And I will also tell you that the question to now ask, and one that I’m sure Texas will, is …
What about the instances where the Federal Government fails to enforce its own Laws and that failure is to the grave detriment of the citizens of Texas and other States?
I think SCOTUS will see that issue differently.” — Just Human
Trump Defamation Trial Is Delayed
The trial of E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against Donald J. Trump was suspended Monday because of illness among jurors — and one of his lawyers’ parents.
One juror was on his way to court when he began to feel flulike symptoms and called the courthouse to report he was feeling ill, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told lawyers for Mr. Trump and Ms. Carroll.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, who was exposed to Covid during a visit to her parents, said she had tested negative but was still feeling symptoms.
She asked Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to postpone court for the day.
“I’d like to have the full panel,” Ms. Habba told Judge Kaplan.
She then asked if the trial could be postponed until Wednesday, noting Mr. Trump had reminded her of the primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
“I would need his testimony to be Wednesday,” Ms. Habba said.
Roberta Kaplan, Ms. Carroll’s lawyer, said she would prefer to continue on Tuesday.
“I’d like to get this trial over with,” she said.
Judge Kaplan said he would consider Ms. Habba’s request. — The New York Times
Our Take: “If there is any doubt that the E Jean Carroll cases are election interference, a ‘sick juror’ put the court in recess today, and President Trump’s testimony has been moved to Tuesday — the day of the NH Primary.
The judge waited to put the court in recess until after he dismissed President Trump’s motion for a mistrial after Carroll revealed she deleted material evidence required to prove her claims.
Judge Kaplan has been coloring outside the lines of Federal Civil Procedure since the inception of this case, so it’s not surprising that he’s willing to overlook egregious violations at this point. It’s expected.
President Trump’s counsel asked the judge to move the testimony to Wednesday, and Kaplan said he wouldn’t decide in the moment — so it remains to be seen if President Trump will spend the NH Primary in the Live Free or Die state, or in the courtroom.
This is unprecedented, and that cannot be understated. The boomerang is going to be glorious.” — Ashe in America
Journalist Who Attacked Top Tennis Player For Refusing COVID Vaccine Dies Suddenly
One could argue that the mandates and vaccines were more a loyalty test than an effort to save lives: Those who complied were considered devout collectivists or at least people who could be controllable, and those who refused to comply immediately stood out as a potential threat. This is how a world-class tennis player from Serbia, Novak Djokovic, was treated when it was revealed that he was not vaccinated when he entered the Australian Open in early 2022.
Djokovic was subsequently removed from the tournament and had his travel visa revoked. Keep in mind the player had a clean bill of health at the time, but his example of defiance of the jab was considered unacceptable by Australian authorities. What would follow was an endless attack on his character and intelligence on social media, which a number of corporate journalists joined in on.
One of the lead instigators of this attempt at cancellation was Mike Dickson, a prominent British sports journalist working for the Daily Mail. Dickson is noted as being relentless in his criticism of Djokovic, calling the player "arrogant and deplorable" for refusing to submit.
This week, Mike Dickson is reported to have collapsed and “died suddenly” at the age of 59 while covering the Australian Open. The cause of death has been kept confidential.
Despite Dickson's attempts to paint Novak Djokovic as a global villain, the player had only kind words for the journalist upon news of his passing, offering his condolences. Contrary to all the accusations, very often it's the covid cultists that act like villains while the people they criticize display character and honor. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “The constant stream of well-known vaccine shills suddenly dying is a pattern that, for those who have seen through the covid narrative, has become increasingly hard to ignore.
While those still defending the jab will dismiss stories like this, claiming that we cannot truly know whether the cause of death was at all related to the injection, this retort ignores something we have all become very adept at utilizing: inductive reasoning (the practice of using specific observations for pattern recognition to make general conclusions).
These detractors may be correct in saying that we shouldn’t be certain each time this happens; however, our instinct to observe the pattern of sudden deaths after the release of a bioweapon and watching the legacy media omit the mounting data showing a rise in deaths isn’t just a clever way to try to feel right.
Observing sudden deaths rise alongside propaganda designed to downplay them, using inductive reasoning, is basic situational awareness on the modern 5GW battlefield.” — Simon Esler
Judge unseals divorce case involving Fulton Trump prosecutor
A Cobb County judge on Monday unsealed the divorce records of a top prosecutor in Fulton County’s election interference probe, allowing the public to sift through personal information that could involve his boss and alleged romantic partner, District Attorney Fani Willis.
Superior Court Judge Henry Thompson also placed a temporary stay on a subpoena from the estranged wife of special prosecutor Nathan Wade. She was seeking to depose Willis this week.
Thompson said Nathan Wade should first be deposed before he determines whether Willis possesses unique personal information that would require her to be questioned under oath by attorneys for Joycelyn Wade. An evidentiary hearing in the divorce case is set for Jan. 31.
The determination came at the tail-end of a 30-minute hearing that was closely watched by the media. — The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Our Take: “Fani got a brief reprieve from testifying in her boyfriend’s divorce proceedings this week, as Judge Henry Thompson ruled that he needs to hear from said boyfriend before deciding to allow his wife to depose the Fulton County DA.
Jerry Springer should be live streaming this thing.
The stay order raises the profile of Nathan Wade’s testimony, and his divorce is now a matter of public interest. Will Wade implicate Fani or protect her? The smart play is the latter, but the records are now unsealed, as the bank records were public last week; in other words, protecting Fani may mean perjuring himself.
Wade’s liability in his divorce is the least of his problems, as his relationship with DA Willis is the subject of an inquiry in the lovers’ RICO case. A hearing before Judge Scott McAfee is scheduled for February 15. There are serious, well-founded allegations of public corruption, and the financial records implicate collusion with the White House. It’s a big deal.
All this is happening with Fani as Fulton County’s failure to administer a legitimate election was read into the record in Harrison Floyd’s subpoena hearing last week, and as J. Alex Halderman just hacked a Dominion machine in court using a pen.
Big things are happening in Georgia, and there are national implications.
Tune in to Badlands Daily this week for updates from the courtroom in Curling v Raffensberger. Brian Lupo is there and, each morning, he will be providing his exclusive, first-hand account of the proceedings.” — Ashe in America
Trump-linked stocks soar after DeSantis throws in the towel
Shares of Digital World Acquisition (DWAC,) the blank check firm set to take former U.S. President Donald Trump's social media platform public, soared to their highest in 19 months on Monday after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ended his 2024 presidential bid.
The stock jumped 55% to $41, its highest since June 2022, after DeSantis on Sunday stopped his campaign just two days before the pivotal New Hampshire primary. DeSantis also endorsed Trump over rival Republican hopeful Nikki Haley.
Digital World has now more than doubled over the past five trading sessions as the former president gained momentum in his bid to become the Republican candidate in November's general election.
Shares of video-sharing platform Rumble (RUM,) popular with conservatives, jumped 33% to $4.77 on Monday. The company announced a partnership with media firm Barstool Sports. — Reuters
Our Take: “In moves that have stunned everyone on Wall Street (but very few on MAGA Main Street) DWAC and Rumble shares have surged since Trump's landslide victory in Iowa last week, and that surge has only accelerated in an exponential manner since Ron DeSantis announced that he was suspending his campaign and endorsed Trump.
It's possible to view these market moves simply as the work of retail and institutional investors seeing the potential inevitability of Trump's return to office, but they also represent what could be a coming cascade of legal and narrative wins for the one true POTUS.
DWAC has itself been involved in litigation for two years over its expected merger with Trump Media and Technology Group (which owns and operates Truth Social,) and all signs are pointing to a timely (2024) resolution in its favor, while Rumble runs the servers Truth Social operates on.
Additionally, Rumble has just signed a deal with Barstool Sports and long-time Trump ally Dave Portnoy.
Such habbenings.” — Burning Bright
WSJ Editor-in-Chief Tells Davos Elites ‘We No Longer Own The News’
During a discussion titled ‘Defending Truth,’ The editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal admitted to Davos elites that the legacy media no longer ‘own the facts’ and people are much more likely to question what they report as truth.
Emma Tucker told a crowd at the World Economic Forum, “I think there’s a very specific challenge for the legacy brands, like the New York Times and like the Wall Street Journal.”
She continued, “If you go back really not that long ago, as I say, we owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well.”
“If it said it in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, then that was a fact,” Tucker further stated, adding “Nowadays, people can go to all sorts of different sources for the news and they’re much more questioning about what we’re saying.” — Modernity News
Our Take: “Decentralization of authority in the information war is a force that, unavoidably, has the centralized media conglomerates in a panic.
We should take these big victories for the morale boost that they are.
WSJ Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker openly saying, ‘we owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well … If it said it in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, then that was a fact,’ certainly paints a picture of tyrants losing their grip.
At the same time, beyond the morale boost, we should be aware that their response to the threat of decentralized, citizen driven journalism will be to push for a level of centralized power that dwarfs their fading monopoly. This is their response to losing power across the globe: to spin it as “dangerous,” as a justification for transnational systems of control. That’s why we take the morale boost, but use it to keep advancing on their territory with a keen eye on their spin. Their losses are always spun into a Hegelian dialectic that advocates for a globalist security state.
Fortunately for us, asymmetrical information warfare is a distinct advantage in a world rejecting their false authority.” — Simon Esler
Dr. Tony is reportedly distancing Himself from Himself
Dr. Anthony Fauci is reportedly distancing himself from social distancing, distributing an ever-changing definition of “gain of function” research, and denying that COVID-19 policies he advocated have definitively set back public education.
The man who helmed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly four decades recalls surprisingly little about how he ran the agency during the pandemic, according to quotes and paraphrases released by the GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic from Fauci’s transcribed interviews this week.
Outside critics are keen to refresh the memory of the bureaucrat who retired with the largest salary in the federal government and a record-setting pension, such as the allegedly self-serving flexibility of his definitions of research that attempts to learn more about a virus but also enhances its transmissibility or lethality.
Lawmakers who participated in the 14 hours of sit-downs shared further details with the media, including Fauci’s alleged skepticism that school shutdowns caused learning loss, as claimed by The New York Times editorial board among a wide range of sources.
Noting Fauci’s previous insistence that he didn’t force school districts to close, Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, told the New York Post that districts knew they would be vulnerable to lawsuits if they didn’t “follow the guidance that’s coming out of the federal government.” — The Liberty Beacon
(CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH ON ‘X’)
Our Take: “Rank intimidation and coercion tactics used against Americans are unlawful, unethical, and represent violations of the basic tenets of freedom and informed consent. Dr. Fauci isn’t ethically qualified to run a pharmacy, let alone be at the head of the nations most powerful healthcare institutions. I demand his removal for any healthcare position he might still hold, a review and reversal of all his policies that are unethical, and a referral to the DoJ for prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.
In the past, there were plenty of reasons to levy significant accusations against Fauci. This example here is unique in that it's understandable and approachable from even the most uninformed citizen insofar as lawfulness, trust, and ethics.
Doctors must always a) uphold the Hippocratic Oath (above and beyond merely the policy of officialdom) and must b) respect and honor the choices of their patients and the patients rights (to informed consent in the role of trustee for the patients well being).
Given these core tenets of a valid intrust relationship, to act in bad faith is itself a violation of the principles of trust and honorable contracts that are the bedrock of all valid forms of law. The Hippocratic Oath, for example, is itself an expression of trust, wherein the doctor is the trustee and the patient is the grantor-beneficiary.
These principles of the True Rule of Law are and were the basis of the Constitution of the United States, which is an instrument of trust, a covenant between citizens and God to create a union where, for the first time in modern history, the rights of the individual took priority over the whims and dictates of the tyrant-sovereign, be it a king, prime minister, or elected representative. As a matter of fact, a king or any other position of authority acting in the capacity of officer of government is now and always has been a position of trust; whether it’s a simple traffic cop or the highest office holder in the land, the same rules of trusteeship apply.
These rules are … Good Faith (honesty and the absence of backroom deals), Transparency and Full disclosure, and Clean Hands.
The fact that Fauci knowingly made a backroom deal with various complicit institutions and businesses to use force and coercion to undermine the capacity of informed consent and employed duress as a tactic to garner compliance to vaccine policy, is itself a glaring and damning example of bad faith (lack of honesty), breach of trust and a violation of the spirit of trusteeship, and makes him personally liable for all the damages suffered that these deals directly and indirectly contributed to. This doesn’t even include the conflict of interest that he earns money for pushing the Covid shots. And any contract or agreement made under duress voids the agreement and places the one who is employed in a liable position.
The posted clip that recently surfaced has provided a very clear example of all these principles of the True Rule of Law. The founding fathers used these principles to reign in the tyrant-king. I would argue, we will need them to clearly identify the criminality in our government and elsewhere, along with teaching them to our children so they never let this happen to our country or our world again.
’Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.’” — Justin Deschamps
Google Lawsuit for Collecting Biometrics Without Consent Revived in Canada
The British Columbia Court of Appeal says Yeremia Situmorang, who filed a civil claim alleging pictures of his children taken on his Android phone were automatically uploaded to Google Photos without his consent, can go back to the B.C. Supreme Court to try and certify his class action suit against the tech giant for the non-consensual collection of face biometrics.
A court document states Situmorang’s argument that “facial biometric data is intrinsically sensitive personal information, akin to an individual’s DNA or fingerprints,” and that collecting said data without consent constitutes a violation of privacy.
Situmorang’s action is on behalf of anyone who had facial biometric identifiers extracted and collected via Google Photos – both users and non-users of the cloud-based image storing platform. — The Activist Post
Our Take: “Given the sordid history of tech giants like Facebook being tied to DARPA, and related government agencies constantly vying for new ways to weaponize our data against us, this lawsuit targeting Google for collecting facial biometrics without consent has some deep implications.
This particular lawsuit out of British Columbia in Canada ties into the ethics surrounding facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence poignantly because it was ignited by a father who realized his children’s faces were being collected and analyzed by Google without his consent.
It aligns with a similar lawsuit filed by State of Texas Attorney general Ken Paxton, essentially making the same accusation.
On the one hand, facial recognition advancements have given rise to deep fake technology that has exploded as a new tool in the domain of meme warfare, allowing digital soldiers to target corrupt officials with inspiring precision.
On the other hand, numerous law enforcement operations have caught pedophiles harvesting images of people’s children to generate high end child sexual abuse materials for a growing market of deep fake pornography.
Either way, we the people will need to be deeply involved in the lawfare unfolding around these technologies and the brand new ethical dilemmas they represent.” — Simon Esler
BONUS ITEMS
Supreme Court rejects Devon Archer appeal in criminal case
The Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal brought by Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden convicted for his role in defrauding the corporate arm of a Native American tribe.
The court's refusal to hear Archer's case means the conviction remains in place and brings him closer to serving a prison term.
A judge initially ruled that Archer should spend a year and a day in prison, but he has challenged the sentence. He is out on bail.
Archer was convicted in 2018 in connection with a scheme led by businessman Jason Galanis to defraud Wakpamni Lake Community Corp., the business arm of the South Dakota-based Wakpamni Lake Community of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
Archer and others were accused of misusing millions of dollars that the corporation raised by issuing bonds and, instead of investing the proceeds as agreed, using it "for personal purposes, such as funding personal business ventures and buying jewelry, luxury cars and a new home," prosecutors said in court papers. — NBC News
Boris Johnson Says Davos Elite "Trembling Violently" At Return Of Trump
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the Davos elite are “trembling violently” at the very real prospect of Donald Trump winning the presidency again.
Johnson made the comments in an exclusive article for the Daily Mail.
“In the cocktail parties of Davos, I am told, the global wokerati have been trembling so violently that you could hear the ice tinkling in their negronis,” wrote the ex-PM.
After his landslide win in Iowa earlier this week, Trump is expected to enjoy a repeat performance in New Hampshire on Tuesday despite the avalanche of challenges he has faced.
“In the senior common rooms of our universities, in the synod of the Church of England, in the Orwellian corridors of the BBC and among much of the UK establishment there has been a caterwauling orgy of nose-holding abhorrence,” thundered Johnson.
Boris pointed out that the more insane the attacks on Trump become, the more he seems to thrive.
“The more frenzied the effort to cancel him, the stronger he becomes. The more bitterly his enemies wage lawfare against him, the more unstoppable he seems to be,” he wrote. — Modernity News
Impeachment inquiry moves into uncertain phase for Bidens
Witnesses whom lawmakers plan to question as part of the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in the coming weeks were once some of the associates most intimately familiar with the Biden family’s business affairs.
Some of them had well-documented firsthand involvement in business ventures with the Bidens, and two had what records suggest were falling outs with the president’s son Hunter Biden.
The former associates include Tony Bobulinski, Eric Schwerin, and Rob Walker. Hunter Biden himself is also scheduled to testify at the end of February, and an interview with the president’s brother James Biden is in the works, according to a source familiar with the plans.
The former associates are positioned to deliver to Republicans what could be the most directly relevant testimony to the impeachment inquiry yet after several past witnesses provided material that was informative but that lacked evidence of impeachable offenses.
Lawmakers, for example, interviewed bankruptcy trustee Carol Fox and art gallerist George Berges. Both had knowledge of only narrow aspects of the Bidens’ lives: shady dealings that James Biden engaged in with a healthcare company and the terms of Hunter Biden’s art sales, respectively, according to sources and a transcript review. — 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.
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.
Badlands Media will always put out our content for free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Help our collective of citizen journalists take back the narrative from the MSM. We are the news now.
Nice! “ Fortunately for us, asymmetrical information warfare is a distinct advantage in a world rejecting their false authority.” — Simon Esler
And Emma Tucker: “ If you go back really not that long ago, as I say, we owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well.” They once had minds convincingly captured and now we watch as they loose their minds! 🤞
Not that long ago…you mean when Obama reversed the Smith-Mundt Act? and lies and propaganda became the “facts you owned”? 🍿
Fauci “distancing himself from himself”!
“The Science” expert without any expertise in real science and certainly no belief in the Hippocratic Oath as he orchestrated the most grievous harm to the trusting public. I’m not in favor of his execution but rather hope he lives out his days in a federal prison cell!
Thanks for the Briefs and Takes. Love them! ❤️🙏🇺🇸🕊🌎
So now Texas has to prove the case the Federal government is failing to protect American citizens. Next court battle. In the interim American ingenuity is next. No razor wire, so do something else. There are plenty of creative minds that could come up with something novel. That's not me, yet I have faith the patriots can put together a think tank.