The news cycle is impossible to fully track these days. That’s where we come in. The Badlands News Brief is a uniquely curated selection of the stories dominating the info war — with context and commentary from Badlands hosts.
The Secret Service suspended six staffers without pay or benefits after President Donald Trump’s first assassination attempt nearly a year ago.
On July 13, 2024, Trump, who was the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination at the time, was at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a 20-year-old gunman fired at him.
A bullet grazed Trump’s ear, prompting Secret Service agents to shield him with their own bodies. As Trump was being swept away to safety, he raised his fist in the air and mouthed, “Fight, fight, fight.”
The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, killed one person and injured two others before a Secret Service sniper fatally shot him. – The Independant
Our Take: We’re coming up on the anniversary of the attempt on President Trump’s life in Butler, PA. It’s good to know they’re finally getting around to doing something about, ostensibly, the systemic failures that occurred that day.
“[Secret Service Deputy Director] Matt Quinn admitted the attempted assassination was an ‘operational failure’ for which the Secret Service is ‘totally accountable.’”
No more cover ups. Quinn also says in the article that they’re working on fixing the root causes. They better. July 13th is a day we won’t forget.
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Jeffrey Epstein's brother is ripping federal investigators as "stupid" for a recent memo stating no additional evidence would be released and that his brother's death in federal custody was indeed a suicide.
Mark Epstein, 70, has long disputed the official finding that his brother killed himself. He told Fox News Digital that when he hounded New York officials for answers, they didn't even provide him with the 911 call reporting his brother's death at a federal jail in Manhattan.
He said his brother was looking forward to a bail hearing at the time of his death and that autopsy findings were inconsistent with suicide. – Fox News
Our Take: Trump: “Stop talking about Epstein”
Media: “SO LETS TALK ABOUT EPSTEIN”
Playing them like a fiddle…
Without Trump 95% of us wouldn’t know who Jeffrey Epstein is, and he never would’ve been arrested in the first place so I’m willing to give some grace to see how this all plays out.
As Elon Musk studies up on how to start a third political party, among the people from whom he has sought advice is a somewhat surprising choice of consultant: the right-wing blogger Curtis Yarvin, who is perhaps best known for advocating monarchism.
Mr. Yarvin is one of the most influential thinkers on the so-called tech right, where he has attracted attention for his oft-expressed distaste for traditional American democracy.
He would not seem to be a source of the kind of expertise that Mr. Musk needs as he pursues his idea for the America Party — Mr. Yarvin is not an expert on the mechanics of creating third parties or on the strategies and intricacies of running third-party campaigns.
Still, Mr. Musk and Mr. Yarvin spoke late last week about the task ahead, according to two people briefed on the conversation who insisted on anonymity to describe it. A representative for Mr. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Yarvin declined to be interviewed. — The New York Times
Our Take: Does the Trump-Elon “fight” and this loud MAGA-tech divorce allow the bad parts of tech to be outed, the same way RINO Republicans were and the same way the Democrats were prior to that.
Elon Musk is spotlighting the predominant anti-Trump, pro-Regime ideology that exists within tech.
The tech oligarchs are not our friends. We don’t know them. They are using Trump/MAGA to advance their own causes and then split off as the only option aside from “Democrats” when they are effectively the same thing.
We are told that they want freedom because they are libertarians. We assume that because we also want freedom, we have formed a lasting bond.
But what freedom do they want? They’re all Scientific Materialists, which precludes any claim toward Christianity. Many of them are perverts and whoremongers. Tech is Hollywood for gays. They’re nihilists, ultimately. They’re vengeful and litigious. They are habitual liars. None of them even seem particularly bright. Strange, huh?
They build tools in conjunction with the Regime’s war machine to facilitate top-down control over all the people, over everything, while pretending to be freedom fighters.
Elon Musk will out them all, whether he means to or not, and it accounts for claims to kayfabe, which it probably is. — Chris Paul
We are excited to announce that Brad Zerbo’s groundbreaking and much anticipated 9/11 documentary “CODEX 911” is premiering at the 9th stop on the Great American Restoration Tour.
Come join us in person, or catch the screening remotely with a virtual ticket! Get yours at badlandsmedia.tv/events — Badlands Media
The CEO of a cloud-seeding company has spoken out about the organization's work after a series of deadly flash floods hit Texas.
Rainmaker CEO Augustus Doricko said his company, which works with farmers in Texas during times of drought, "unequivocally had nothing to do with the flooding."
The Context: Flash floods swept across central Texas on Friday. More than 80 people have died, and many remain missing, according to the Associated Press. Flooding struck as the Guadalupe River surged by more than 20 to 26 feet within 90 minutes, which caused widespread devastation and forced mass evacuations.
The National Weather Service has activated flood warnings across Texas, and many of these are expected to last until at least Monday morning. Flooding is the second-deadliest weather hazard in the U.S. after extreme heat, according to NWS data. – Newsweek
Our Take: Your weather modification experiment backfired so you compare “moving forward” after 109 deaths to…
Linda Yaccarino, the high-profile CEO of Elon Musk's social media platform X (formerly Twitter), announced her resignation on Wednesday, marking the end of a two-year tenure aimed at revitalizing the company's advertising business and transforming it into an "everything app."
Yaccarino, a veteran advertising executive who joined X from NBCUniversal in June 2023, confirmed her departure in a post on the platform, expressing gratitude to Elon Musk. "After two incredible years, I've decided to step down as CEO of X," Yaccarino wrote. "When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I'm immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App."
Yaccarino's departure comes amidst a turbulent period for X. — Adgully
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is rolling out Grok 4 just months after releasing its previous iteration, underscoring the frenetic pace of AI development.
Flanked by members of the xAI team and clad in a leather jacket, the billionaire demoed the new bot via a video livestream late Wednesday night.
Available immediately, Grok 4 is “smarter than almost all graduate students, in all disciplines, simultaneously,” according to Musk. It includes improved voice conversations and the company touted benchmarks showing the new AI system scoring higher than OpenAI and others.
“At times it may lack common sense, and it has not yet invented new technologies or discovered new physics, but that is just a matter of time,” Musk said about the new chatbot.
Grok 4’s release comes just a day after xAI was forced to remove inappropriate Grok posts from X that included antisemitic comments and replies to users. “Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X,” the company wrote. — Bloomberg
Our Take: I wonder if [Yaccarino’s departure] has to do with HitlerGrok?
Censorship WEF Queen is out.
Now remove the censorship guardrails. No more shadow bans!!!
I warned about this nearly two years ago on Badlands Daily, when Glenn Youngkin signed into law the nation’s first antisemitism hate speech law that conflated the definition with anti-Zionism.
Nobody wanted to hear it, because back then, so many were still convinced that Glenn Youngkin was a white hat and the Republicans were the superheroes that were going to save the world. [Clip Link] — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
The Justice Department filed a statement of interest Tuesday in Judicial Watch v. Illinois State Board of Elections, reinforcing its position that states must take “reasonable efforts” under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to remove ineligible voters and maintain transparent voter rolls.
According to the filing, the NVRA’s list maintenance provision demands that states implement effective programs—not symbolic ones—to ensure their voter registration lists remain accurate and publicly accessible.
“It is critical to remove ineligible voters from the registration rolls so that elections are conducted fairly, accurately, and without fraud,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, head of the Civil Rights Division. “Under the NVRA, states have the responsibility to conduct a robust program of list maintenance. The Department of Justice will vigorously enforce those requirements to ensure compliance.” Read the DOJ Press Release — Badlands Media
Our Take: It’s good to see movement on election integrity. Just make sure the court retains jurisdiction to enforce any agreements. (See JW v. Griswold).
Clean voter rolls will require — non-negotiable — decentralized voter roll management and maintenance.
It can be done, but it’s going to require systemic change.
The Department of Justice on Wednesday announced it issued more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics suspected of performing transgender “medical procedures” on minors, part of a sweeping investigation into what the department described as deceptive and potentially criminal practices in the medical industry.
The announcement came the same day the Federal Trade Commission held a Washington, D.C. workshop focused on the “Dangers of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ For Minors”. DOJ chief of staff Chad Mizelle also confirmed the Trump administration is preparing draft legislation and “working with Congress” on existing criminal laws related to “female genital mutilation to more robustly protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation.”
“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement confirming the subpoenas. The department said it is investigating violations, including healthcare fraud and false statements, though it did not name the clinics or doctors in its brief press release. – Washington Examiner
Some young American families will soon be getting a gift from Uncle Sam.
The sweeping budget bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday included a provision for the creation of investment accounts that parents can open on behalf of children under 18. And for U.S. citizens born from 2025 through 2028, the government will seed the accounts with an initial contribution of $1,000.
Republican lawmakers have nicknamed these vehicles “Trump accounts,” but the idea of creating so-called baby bonds has been around for a while. Hillary Clinton brought up the idea during her 2007 campaign, for example, and Democratic Senator Corey Booker proposed legislation offering up to $50,000 for newborns in 2021. — CNBC
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I think Jordan Sather is right about the Epstein situation - the Trump Admin is willing to take a hit (and it's a big one) to draw the big fish out of their holes. Meanwhile, the media is chumming the water.
I think Jordan Sather is right about the Epstein situation - the Trump Admin is willing to take a hit (and it's a big one) to draw the big fish out of their holes. Meanwhile, the media is chumming the water.
Beware of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics!
(As @Ashe noted https://open.substack.com/pub/asheinamerica/p/points-in-time-when-things-would?) Thomas Jefferson warned: "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground."
Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, May 27, 1788.
Time to pray! 🙏🏼