Badlands News Brief
All Eyes on the US as the World Shifts
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.
Before we get into the meat of today’s Brief, we want to take a moment to thank our sponsor, and to let our Badlands readers know about a fantastic deal they’re offering.
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Now, onto the news from Thursday, October 24 …
'Startling': GOP Early-Voting Turnout In Nevada Amazes Veteran Observer, Alarms Dems
Warning lights have been flashing all over the Democrats' 2024 dashboard, and now a new one is pointing to big trouble for Kamala Harris in the battleground state of Nevada, where early voting results show that GOP voters are actually outnumbering Democrats.
Across the country, Democrats typically account for a majority of early votes, and Nevada has been no exception -- until now. "The numbers look pretty GOP so far, and that never happens in a presidential year," wrote veteran Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston in a Tuesday afternoon blog post at the Nevada Independent.
Democrats lead statewide mail-in voting by 17,298, but Republicans lead in-person voting by a whopping 25,173 -- even beating Dems in Clark County and Washoe County, homes of Las Vegas and Reno, respectively. Statewide, Republicans account for 52% of in-person early voting, Democrats are just 28%, and "other" is 20%. "Those in-person numbers are startling," wrote Ralston, who's been covering Silver State politics for three decades. "A few more days like this...and the Democratic bedwetting will reach epic proportions."
Another dynamic of Americans politics is the big distinction between urban and rural voting patterns, with cities reliably delivering large volumes of Democratic votes. In Nevada, the dynamic is perhaps even more pronounced, with Democrats' statewide fortunes largely tied to the so-called "Clark firewall." However, so far in 2024, that barrier is looking mighty short. "The Clark firewall is only 6,500, about a seventh of what it was in 2020," wrote Ralston.
The bigger picture is even worse for the Democrats: "The [Republican voter-turnout] lead in rural Nevada is more than double the [Democrat] lead in urban Nevada," he wrote. The sea change prompted Ralston to declare that we're witnessing a new dynamic in the 2024 cycle: "The [GOP] rural firewall. It's a thing." — ZeroHedge
Our Take: Trump will likely win Nevada, but the big headline is, according to the reported early vote totals, Donald Trump could win Clark County — that’s Las Vegas.
Considered an impenetrable blue wall in Nevada, in 2024, “The Clark firewall is only 6,500, about a seventh of what it was in 2020.”
Again, this is based on the reported early vote turnout. And just to be crystal clear, these are not vote totals. The number is early voting turnout by party. So, take all of it with a case of salt.
It’s just a data point. A very damning data point.
If you follow the work of Seth Keshel, then you know that early vote turnout is a leading indicator. If this kind of Republican turnout signals a national trend — and there are many indications that it does in GA, PA, WI, and more — then Trump could very well win the popular vote.
Now, of course Trump could win the popular vote. We are not a 50/50 country. But, if illegitimate elections are an information and exposure operation, Trump winning the popular vote is narrative gold.
Admittedly, my motives are somewhat petty on this point. Colorado allegedly passed the “National Popular Vote Compact” in 2020. I want Donald Trump to win the popular vote on the very first relevant election since its so-called “passage” so I can watch Colorado communists lose their minds and mock them for it.
It’s the simple things. —
India says it has reached a deal with China to patrol disputed border
India and China have reached an agreement on patrolling their disputed border, a senior Indian official said Monday, marking a major thaw four years after bloody clashes between the nations’ border guards tanked bilateral relations and reshaped geopolitics in Asia.
The Indian announcement came shortly before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping were scheduled to arrive in Russia to attend the BRICS summit, which is being hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin and begins Tuesday. Speculation has been mounting in recent weeks that China and India were working toward a diplomatic breakthrough and that Modi and Xi could discuss normalizing relations in a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS conference in Kazan.
“Over the last several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators have been in close contact with each other in a variety of forums, and as a result of these discussions, [an] agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters in New Delhi, referring to the countries’ contested border. The agreement, Misri said, has led to “disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020.”
Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said at a regular briefing Tuesday that “China and India, through diplomatic and military channels, maintained close communication recently over border-related issues. The two sides have now reached a solution.” — WAPO
Our Take: The Sovereign Alliance is establishing itself as the champion of peace and prosperity, as the West mutates into a dysgenic cretin that is hellbent on castrating civilization and making everybody have a vagina—or be one.
We could be there right now, in Kazan, hanging with the homies and planning some really sweet and innovative projects. You know—The Future. Instead, we are stuck here in this post-American purgatory, working hard at our jobs only to have our wages seized from us by a cabal of violent pedophiles who hate us almost as much as they hate God.
It really is sick, when you stop and think about it. And it could all be over tomorrow, if we simply agreed to wake up tomorrow, and stop believing in any of it.
This could be us. Just one of the bros.
Soon. —
Trump says he’s open to pardoning Hunter Biden
Donald Trump said Thursday he’s open to pardoning Hunter Biden if he’s reelected — a significant reversal after years of lobbing attacks at the legal issues faced by the president’s son as part of his “Biden crime family” talking point.
“I wouldn’t take it off the books,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt when asked if he would consider pardoning Hunter Biden, who was found guilty in June of three felonies in a federal gun trial and pleaded guilty in September to federal tax charges.
“See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me so viciously, despite what, and Hunter’s a bad boy,” the former president said. “There’s no question about it. He’s been a bad boy. All you had to do is see the laptop from hell. But I happen to think it’s very bad for our country.”
For years, Trump has contended that his multiple legal challenges are a form of political retribution — and cited Hunter Biden’s legal woes as an example of a liberal double standard under President Joe Biden’s Justice Department. His online criticism of Hunter was so severe that Hunter’s lawyers at one point sent him a cease-and-desist letter, citing fear of inciting violence.
That strategy was complicated when both Hunter Biden and Trump were found guilty of felonies within weeks of each other earlier this year — and Joe Biden said he would not pardon his son. Trump’s campaign swiftly released a statement casting Hunter’s gun trial as a “distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family,” which it contends are a series of shady dealings with foreign governments that have been debunked. — Politico
Our Take: Mileage varies on just how deep the Biden Op goes.
There are some who believe Hunter has stumbled his way ass backwards into one of the biggest Deep State crime family disclosures of all time ... and there are others who believe it's impossible that everything from the infamous laptop to Ukrainian Quid Pro Quo found its way into the public zeitgeist with such serendipitous timing.
For me, it's relatively clear that the #OurBoyBlue moniker I bestowed upon Joe Biden is far from a joke, as these Scranton boys have been the best foils Donald Trump could have asked for during this accelerated era of awakening.
For over a year, I've suggested that a pardon of Hunter Biden was in the offing by Donald Trump, and I haven't been alone.
Doing so would not only provide fresh tinder for the "Hunter flipped" crowd, but also act as Narrative Shielding to the masses for Trump 2.0.
As I've said many times, to unify the nation, Trump needs to be seen as a builder, not a conqueror.
War of Stories. —
Really putting Ukraine's Abrams and F-16s to work fighting Russia means most probably won't survive, but that's the kind of war this is
The brutal war in Ukraine is the kind of conflict that is going to consume the Western tanks and fighter jets sent if Kyiv's forces really put them to work in battle, war experts told Business Insider, arguing that the West shouldn't be surprised if none of them make it to the end of the war.
This is an intense, large-scale, protracted fight, and the Ukrainians need to make bold, high-risk, high-reward plays, they said. That doesn't preclude caution, but using them to their fullest risks losses.
"If any of the F-16s make it to the end of the war, they probably weren't used hard enough," Michael Bohnert, an air warfare expert at RAND Corporation, said.
"I hate saying that," he added, "but we as the West have to realize every Abrams tank that was given, every F-16, if any of them make it through the war, they probably weren't used to their maximum extent."
Ukraine's Western partners sent fighters and tanks in small numbers, and those small numbers limit what Ukraine can do with the weapons. Maximizing potential means raising risks, and using them to their fullest is going to mean losses, especially in this kind of conflict. — Business Insider
And …
Ukrainian Troops Increasingly Refusing Orders, Desertion Rates Explode
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has opened 51,000 cases of desertion through the first nine months of 2024. The number of soldiers abandoning their posts is likely to double last year’s total.
The Times of London reported data from the Ukrainian government showing that "51,000 criminal cases were initiated for desertion and abandonment of a military unit between January and September of this year."
El Pais previously noted that 45,000 Ukrainians were being prosecuted for desertion from the start of the year through August. Al-Jazeera says the number is at least 30,000 desertions.
At the start of the year, Kiev was estimated to have between 500,000 and 800,000 active-duty soldiers and an additional 300,000 reservists.
The Ukrainians have also sustained casualties fighting to defend from Russian advances and amid Kiev’s Kursk invasion.
Kiev has struggled to fill its ranks with fresh soldiers, leading Ukraine to drop its conscription age from 27 to 25. As Kiev is still facing manpower shortages, American politicians are pushing Ukraine to drop draft age to 18. Responsible Statecraft has reported. — The Libertarian Institute
Our Take: These two headlines, side by side, are laugh out loud funny.
The first article focuses on the perspective of a shill from the RAND Corporation.
For those who don't know what the RAND Corporation is, here is the opening paragraph from its Wikipedia page:
The RAND Corporation is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND Corporation engages in research and development (R&D) in a number of fields and industries. Since the 1950s, RAND research has helped inform United States policy decisions on a wide variety of issues, including the space race, the Vietnam War, the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms confrontation, the creation of the Great Society social welfare programs, and national health care.
So basically, it is an apologist for the Military Industrial Complex, which produces the white papers necessary for groups like the Trilateral Commission and the World Economic Forum to justify their psychotic plans to take over the world, by creating the materials needed to sow fear and anxiety over the "chaos" produced by the natural order of things, which can only be rectified by strong institutional control. (big government)
Then you have this clown, Michael Bohnert (more like Mike Boner, amirite?), basically saying that if every American-gifted tank and fighter jet in Ukraine isn't destroyed on the battlefield, then the Ukrainians aren't fighting hard enough to defend the crime scene that is the puppet state of Ukraine.
What a bunch of freaking sociopaths.
Fortunately, this other article really undercuts the notion that there is any hope of this crime scene remaining in the hands of the ruthless criminals who have controlled it ever since their ancestors came slithering out of the Pale of Settlement in 1917 and butchered Czar Nicholas II and his family.
What really makes me happy about that last part is that it is none other than Lindsey Graham pushing for this insanity. I cannot imagine what skeletons that limp-wristed lunatic is hiding in his closet. (Gives me chills just thinking about it.)
Before this is all over, Lady Lindsey, you will kneel and submit to Vladimir The Great.
The sins of the past century must be rectified. And that begins by smashing the all of the Deep State's toys. —
Trump Claims Kamala Isn't Campaigning Because She Knows Something The American Public Doesn't
Donald Trump claimed that Kamala Harris is taking days off and not properly campaigning because she knows something about the election that the American public doesn’t.
Trump made the cryptic comments during his campaign rally in Georgia.
“This is a woman who took yesterday off, how do you take yesterday off?” asked Trump.
“You’ve got 13 days, you’re running for the presidency, she takes time off,” he added.
“I’ve got 52 days in a row and I’m not taking any days off, that I can tell you,” said Trump.
“I hear she’s taking another one tomorrow or something – it’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen – maybe she knows something that we don’t know, that’s bad, right? Maybe she knows something we don’t know – does everybody understand that, maybe, maybe,” he concluded.
Respondents on X speculated that Trump was referring to Democrats cheating to win the election or the election not happening at all.
Harris had no speeches or public appearances scheduled for Tuesday, with her campaign only noting that she would take part in a recorded interview with NBC’s Hallie Jackson and another with Telemundo. — Modernity News
Our Take: What does Kamala know?
Does she know that she has the election in the bag and her efforts are nothing more than theater? It doesn’t seem like that’s the case given the current rhetoric and actions of the regime.
Does she know that a new Trump scandal is going to eliminate her competition in the next week and a half? Certainly not. She held a press conference Wednesday to call Trump “Hitler” followed by an instantly debunked #metoo rerun. No one believed it.
Does she know that her own scandals are going to catch up to her in the next week and a half? This seems more likely, if for no other reason than the fact that she seems entirely defeated recently.
I don’t know what she knows that’s keeping her off the campaign trail. It could be as simple as knowing that the best campaign strategy is to shut her up.
Then again, maybe she knows that nothing can stop what is coming. —
Saudi Prince’s Beach Party Looks to Show Neom Dream Is Real
Days before Saudi Arabia kicks off its flagship investment conference, a handpicked selection of guests will get the first glimpse of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s trillion-dollar bet that the kingdom has a future beyond oil.
An exclusive group of financiers, entertainers and influencers from around the world will this week descend upon Sindalah Island, the first project to open its doors at the planned city of Neom. The resort is now home to ultra-luxury hotels and unspoilt beaches, plus an 86-berth marina where the uber rich can dock their yachts and dive into the crystal clear waters of the Red Sea.
A lot is riding on the success of Sindalah and the wider area in the kingdom’s northwest that’s been re-branded as Neom and is expected to cost anywhere from $500 billion to $1.5 trillion to build — Crown Prince Mohammed’s boldest move yet. The opening comes days before the kingdom kicks off the eighth edition of its Future Investment Initiative, a Davos-style confab.
“There is still considerable effort to go in partnerships and investment, so timing with FII would make sense,” said Karen Young, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “If investors see some major infrastructure in place for power, water, transport, that would do a lot to instill confidence about government commitment to major installations in Neom.”
Designed to be everything from a futuristic port, a high-end tourist destination and a clean-energy hub to a venue for the FIFA World Cup and the Asian Winter Games, Neom has never been short of ambition. — Bloomberg
And …
Saudi Arabia breaks ground on $50B Mukaab, the ‘world’s largest building’ — which can hold 20 Empire State Buildings
It’s an out-of-the-box undertaking.
What is expected to be the “world’s largest building” has officially broken ground in Saudi Arabia.
The ambitious $50 billion project — called The Mukaab — in capital city Riyadh is part of a wave of futuristic construction across the Arab nation, the Sun reported.
A rendering of the massive Mukaab, which will cost $50 billion to construct.flickr/Salman Al-Mazini
The skyline-redefining Mukaab will clock in at 1,300 feet high and 1,200 feet wide when completed – giving it enough volume to contain 20 Empire State Buildings, the outlet reported.
Offering fine dining, retail space, offices and restaurants, the massive cube will be its own downtown-in-a-box with 2 million square feet of floor space. — NY Post
Our Take: Welp, here I was, feeling pretty good about things. Having fun watching TrumpaMania. Then I learned that MBS is having a beach party at some sweet resort he just built to promote all the sweet construction projects he is doing, and now I have FOMO.
This building in Riyadh they have planned looks insane. It's basically a tower inside a giant domed space, and the walls of the dome are a giant IMAX screen that projects hyper-realistic landscapes.
While this concept may sound a little absurd, on paper, consider that they are building this thing in the middle of the Arabian Desert. Unlike Jeddah, or Dubai, or Abu Dhabi, you don't have the "ocean" views (Red Sea/Persian Gulf) or that cool ocean breeze. You just have sand, and killer heat (literally). So a giant indoor volume that is capable of imitating an outdoor experience is a concept that is intriguing.
At the very least, you have to credit MBS for defying Barack Obama, who laughed in his face in 2016 when MBS told Obama that he was going to transform the Middle East into the next great civilization. There are reports now that over the next 10 years, the Saudi construction market will utilize 20% of the world's steel supply. And almost all of that steel is going toward one single [MASSIVE] construction project. (There are several others in the works.)
"Since Saudi Arabia is not a major steel producer, it is likely they are buying a lot of their steel from overseas."
Remember when Donald Trump said he wanted to revitalize our steel industry? Right now, Saudi is looking to China and India for suppliers. If we don't throw off the chains of effeminate cultural marxism, we are going to get left in the dust. While we are busy imploding as a country, the Global South is building tomorrow's next great monuments.
The Deep State thought MBS was playing a trick on them when he said that Saudi Arabia was going to divest out of oil, diversify the portfolio of the Public Investment Fund, and establish a massive tourism and high-tech industry in their country by 2030. They literally laughed at him.
Remember, Saudi Arabia is scheduled to host the World's Fair in 2030, and the FIFA World Cup in 2034.
Who's laughing now, Barack? —
BONUS ITEMS
Anderson Cooper Gives Kamala Harris a Bruising CNN Town Hall
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper challenged Vice President Kamala Harris over the Biden administration's record on illegal immigration and her personal attitude toward a border wall during the network's town hall on Wednesday. However some commentators were skeptical of her performance, saying she "focused a lot more on Donald Trump" than her own policies.
Cooper asked Harris to explain her support for a bipartisan immigration deal that included $650 million in spending on a border wall—though she previously "criticized the wall more than 50 times" and labeled a wall "stupid," "useless" and "a medieval vanity project."
Harris responded: "So let's talk about Donald Trump and that border wall. Remember Donald Trump said Mexico would pay for it? Come on, they didn't. How much of that wall did he build? I think the last number I saw is about 2 percent. And then when it came time for him to do a photo op you know where he did it? In the part of the wall that President Obama built."
Harris has taken a harder line on immigration as exclusive polling for Newsweek by Redfield & Wilton Strategies showed 53 percent of Democrat-leaning voters support a stronger approach to the issue.
Philip van Scheltinga, of Redfield & Wilton Strategies, told Newsweek: "When even Democratic voters are overwhelmingly unhappy with the situation as it has developed, then it is time for the Democratic Party to revisit their position."
Harris also used her CNN appearance to call former President Donald Trump a fascist, echoing comments from John Kelly, Trump's former White House chief of staff who said Trump had praised Adolf Hitler's generals. The former president's team strongly denies the allegation. The Republican nominee hit back on Truth Social, writing that Harris is "a Threat to Democracy" and "not fit to be President of the United States." — Newsweek
In Omaha, Democrats and Republicans Compete for Pivotal Electoral Vote
In the three-county area comprising Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, election officials, local party leaders, and voters agree on one thing: winning the district will be purely a matter of turnout.
Nebraska is one of two states that splits its votes in the Electoral College. This presents a rare opportunity for partisans to seize an extra vote in the presidential contest. A single electoral vote can be critical if the race is close.
In the district, Democrats are working to peel off a vote for their candidate while Republicans are trying to keep the most populous part of the conservative Cornhusker State in the fold for the GOP.
Voter registration data and local history suggest there is a narrow margin between turning the jurisdiction—centered on Omaha—blue or keeping it red.
[…]
Without big spending at their backs, local Republicans are focusing on grassroots efforts to maintain the GOP’s perennial advantage in the area.
To that end, the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign are turning to a joint venture called Trump Force 47. The effort is dedicated to recruiting local Republicans and deploying them to get out the vote in their communities.
Maggie Bellino-Bunde, a Trump Force 47 volunteer from Douglas County, told The Epoch Times the initiative is working on identifying low-propensity Republican voters—people who may not participate in every election—and going to their homes to try to get them to commit to voting either in person or by mail. — The Epoch Times
Top Democrat sounds alarm over Trump transition plan delay
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, raised concern Wednesday over former President Trump's delay in entering into agreements with the Biden administration over the presidential transition process.
Why it matters: The Trump transition team's handling of the process is unorthodox compared to past candidates and underscores the GOP nominee's distrust of the Biden administration and tendency to shirk democratic tradition.
Driving the news: In a letter sent to Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), and first reported by NBC News, Raskin said the Trump team is "breaking the precedent set by every other presidential candidate since 2010" by not agreeing to accept federal transition resources and "refused to commit to a smooth transition."
The Maryland Democrat said the Trump team's actions demonstrated "a spectacular disregard for the successful continuation of the essential institutions of American democratic government."
Two deadlines on agreements — one with the General Services Administration and another with the White House — have passed. Vice President Kamala Harris' team has signed these agreements, known as memoranda of understanding.
Zoom in: The first agreement, which had a signing deadline of Sept. 1, outlines the terms for space and services, such as office areas, IT services and other equipment for a candidate's transition teams, per a GSA spokesperson. — Axios
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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Can we count the number of times the Mainstream/Legacy media reports Trump like this:
Hunter’s gun trial as a “distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family,” which it contends are a series of shady dealings with foreign governments that have been debunked. — Politico
Ending their statement with the Hawk Tuah of "has been debunked" as a way of calling Trump a liar. DESPITE the fact that the "debunking" itself in all cases, were lies dreamed up by the same Legacy fools.
Lies on top of Lies on top of Lies . . . all presented as "News"
While Burning Bright wrote Trump may pardon Hunter to be seen as a builder, I can agree to a degree on building verses conquering but the majority of the American People need and want to see accountability for the egregious criminal and traitorous activities. A few may see it as conquering but I would see it as a cleansing. America needs to be cleansed of the evil doers. Personally, I cannot wait to see this happen as well as government downsizing if that is possible.