Badlands News Brief
Badlands News Brief
Kamalapalooza and the Convergence Censorious
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.
But before we get onto the Brief, we want to introduce you to a new Sponsor of the Badlands Substack: Kimchi One, a fermented product by our friends at Brightcore.
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Now, onto the news from Wednesday, August 28 …
Kamala Grants Joint Interview With Walz To Leftist CNN Anchor Dana Bash
Vice President Kamala Harris has finally agreed to an interview after weeks of avoiding the press since being anointed as the Democratic nominee for president.
Those expecting a tough interview with hard-hitting questions might find themselves disappointed because it will be held on CNN and hosted by left-leaning anchor Dana Bash.
In an unusual move, Harris will also share the spotlight with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The pre-taped interview will air at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, roughly 39 days after President Joe Biden exited the 2024 race and endorsed Harris as his successor.
Since announcing her presidential bid, Harris has avoided major media interactions. Instead, she has opted to speak off-the-record, meaning reporters cannot report or repeat her statements.
Despite clinching the Democratic nomination, Harris has yet to issue a major policy platform or thoroughly explain why her aides have walked back some of her most radical policies.
Harris, once dubbed the most liberal senator, has reversed her positions on a range of issues, including Medicare-for-All, fracking, re-structuring ICE, and more recently, her criticism of the border wall and support for an electric vehicle mandate.
She has also distanced herself from decriminalizing illegal border crossings, packing the Supreme Court, defunding the police and the Green New Deal. — HeadlineUSA.com
Our Take: Nothing says ‘strong woman of color, ready to lead’ like bringing an old white dude to her first major interview to make her seem more credible. And likable. And competent.
Unfortunately, Walz is a liability for Democrats victory aspirations, perhaps even more so than Harris herself. That’s a high bar.
During a time when Americans are, rightly, calling the progressive left ‘communists,’ Tim Walz’s former students are talking.
From Alpha News on Tuesday, ‘It was almost a daily revelation of how much he adores the communist regime,’ a former student told the outlet.
Walz was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre, and visited the site shortly after. ‘On June 4, 1994, Walz married Gwen Whipple on the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Gwen told a local newspaper that Walz wanted to have a date he’ll always remember.’ They reportedly spent their honeymoon in China.
The student, a man named Shad who declined to use his last name, said he’s been trying to tell people that Walz is a Maoist for 30 years.
‘There was no doubt he was a true believer,’ Shad said. ‘At night, we’d go out, we’d walk the street fairs. We’d be buying souvenirs and Tim was always buying the little red book. He said he gave them as gifts … I saw him buy at least a dozen on the trip.’
Walz’s Maoist beliefs are reflected in his governance of Minnesota. Unfettered abortion, color-revolution riots, opposition to free speech. This is Tim Walz.
And his beliefs are also prominent in Harris branding, with ‘strength through joy’ and ‘being unburdened by what has been.’
This interview will be hilarious, but it will also be illuminating as to whose leadership and priorities are driving the joyful electric short bus.
Harris is widely considered to be an unlikeable moron without coherent policy. Maybe that’s why she’s bringing Walz along to her first scheduled debate: Because his — Mao’s — platform is what’s really deck for a Harris-Walz administration. —
Emboldened anti-censorship movement takes on 2024
An anti-censorship movement born from the chaos of COVID and cultivated on platforms like X is increasingly aligning with the Trump campaign — and scoring some big wins.
Why it matters: Championed by Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and disaffected liberals, this loose network of dissenters views censorship — real or perceived — as the existential question of the 2024 election.
Axios has reported in the past on the growing movement of wealthy, anti-establishment renegades united mostly by their hatred of DEI policies, mainstream media and elite consensus.
Presented with a binary choice this November, many, like Musk, are now explicitly supporting the candidate who hews most closely to their view of free speech: Donald Trump.
Zoom in: This week alone has produced two of the anti-censorship movement's biggest political breakthroughs.
1. On Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that the Biden administration had "pressured" Facebook in 2021 to "censor certain content" related to COVID-19 as part of its efforts to crack down on misinformation.
2. On Tuesday, Trump named RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, both former Democrats who have endorsed him, as honorary co-chairs of his presidential transition team. — Axios
Our Take: Sometimes … you just have to sit back and let the simulation go full retard, breaking the cardinal sin in furtherance of the awakening.
Lately, some of the most viral headlines coming out of the Media Industrial Complex aren’t doing so because they’re sensational, as would have been the case a decade ago; they’re not even doing so because they’re inversions, as has been the case in recent years.
Instead, headlines are going viral because they’re sort of just stating the truth, replete with commentary that completely inverts it in the aftermath.
To wit, if a Constitution-loving American patriot were to pen a header discussing Donald Trump’s recent alliances, it might look an awful lot like the one Axios put out on Wednesday. And yet, Axios not only felt confident in putting forward the prospect that Trump’s new transition team prided itself on constitutional values, but actually thought it would DAMAGE said team, and the campaign as a whole.
This observation results in a tantalizing Bicameral: either the enemy really is this retarded … or patriot ghosts in the media machine are in complete control of the 4am talking points.
Either way, I feel fine … —
‘This is a war’: FM urges Gaza-style temporary evacuation of Palestinians in West Bank
Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called on Israel to consider temporarily relocating Palestinians as part of a major anti-terror raid in the northern West Bank the IDF launched in the wake of last week’s attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
“We need to deal with the [terror] threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed,” Israel’s senior diplomat tweeted, calling the operation “a war in every sense.”
Katz said that Israeli forces operating in Jenin, Tulkarem and other areas are working to dismantle an Iranian-backed terror network being built up in the West Bank.
“Iran is working to establish a terror front against Israel in [the West Bank], according to the model it used in Lebanon and Gaza, by funding and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan,” he tweeted.
At least 11 Palestinians have been reported killed so far in clashes and IDF drone strikes. Several wanted Palestinians have also been detained amid the operation, according to the military. — Times of Israel
Our Take: It seems that history continues to repeat itself in the year 2024.
The State of Israel has a long history of instructing Palestinian civilians to "temporarily" evacuate their homes, so that "counter-terrorism operations" can be conducted. Perhaps the most egregious example of this exercise occurred in 1967, during the Six Day War, when the IDF warned the West Bank that they intended to conduct massive bombing campaigns, and all the villages near the Israeli border needed to empty out. The Palestinians left their homes, expecting to return within days.
Instead, the IDF put up fences, and declared the villages now part of Israel. The bombings never occurred. Over 300,000 Palestinians were displaced as a result of this deception, never again returning to their homes, and Israel was lauded by western oligarchs for succeeding in expanding its borders with limited bloodshed. This exodus became known as the Naksa ("setback" in Arabic).
(When the Saudis demand that the borders under the Two-State Solution be returned to pre-1967 conditions, this is what they mean.)
A similar, more gruesome, exercise occurred at the onset of the initial civil war between Palestinians and Eastern European Jewish immigrants in 1947-48. What most people don't realize is that terrorism was imported to the Middle East by the Bolsheviks. The first Middle East terrorists were Jewish (Bolsheviks) in the 1930's. Even the first Arab terrorists—from the late 1930's—were all on British payrolls, whose leadership (Grand Mufti of Jerusalem) was an asset of British Intelligence. A controlled opposition dynamic.
The Nakba ("catastrophe") of 1948 was a Jewish terrorism campaign conducted against Palestinian civilians, perpetrated mainly by four paramilitary groups (the Irgun, the Lehi, the Haganah, and Palmach) who would combine in 1948 to form the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). A hallmark of the campaign was the targeting of "soft targets" such as bus stops and cafes, where the Jewish terrorists would either throw hand grenades or fire automatic weapons into crowds, with the intention of killing or maiming as many as possible. The goal, of course, was to maximize terror, and instill enough existential dread into the Arabs so they would pack up and leave the area.
The culmination of this terror campaign was the Deir Yassin massacre in April 1948, when the Irgun and Lehi (the two most notorious violent and ruthless groups), with the tactical support of the Haganah and Palmach, walked into the village of Deir Yassin (just outside of Jerusalem), rounded up over 100 women and children, and gunned them all down in cold blood. That act was sufficient to inspire the Arabs to pack up and leave. One month later, the four militias formally created the IDF, and the rest is history.
(Do you understand now why the Palestinians hate the IDF so much?)
But don't take it from me. Listen to the words of Miko Peled, an Israeli who comes from a family of high-ranking IDF generals.
For those who didn't listen to the video, Miko explains how he gained access to the transcripts of the meetings between the IDF generals in 1967, where they plotted the Six Day War. Meetings that his own father attended—his father's words. At this meeting, the generals explicitly asserted that they planned to lie to the public about the capabilities of the neighboring Arab militaries (which were weak) and also lie about an impending attack against Israel that was not at all real.
(Funny enough, Colonel Macgregor was interviewed by Judge Napolitano yesterday, and said that the most sympathetic figures to the Palestinian plight are IDF generals.)
How long has this conflict been fake and gay? From what I can gather, since the very beginning. Which makes sense, when you consider that Israel was created by the Rothschild family—likely for the purpose of ultimately destroying it in a giant armageddon. (World War 3)
Remember: these people (Rothschilds) are sick, and they love their human sacrifice rituals. —
Politico Claims JD Vance ‘Tries to Tether Harris’ to the Biden-Harris Administration
In what is being described as stark “gaslighting” by many readers on social media, Politico published an article claiming that former President Donald Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) “tried to tie Harris” to the Biden-Harris administration’s policies while speaking at a rally in Big Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday.
“Vance tries to tether Harris to Biden during Michigan rally,” read a Tuesday X post by Politico, citing the article.
In the piece, Politico reporter Mia McCarthy amusingly writes, “Speaking at a rally in Big Rapids, Michigan, former President Donald Trump’s running mate tried to tie Harris to the Biden administration’s policies.”
Politico’s X post was quickly issued a “Community Notes” correction advising the public that “Harris is currently President Biden’s Vice President.”
Social media users, meanwhile, slammed Politico in the comment section and accused the outlet of “gaslighting,” a term the American Psychological Association (APA) defines as “to manipulate another person into doubting their perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events.”
“We’ve reached apex gaslighting, people. It doesn’t get any more ‘believe us and not your own eyes’ than this,” one X user reacted.
“This is a level of media gaslighting I’ve never seen before. Holy fucking shit,” another wrote, before proclaiming, “SHES HIS GOD DAMN VICE PRESIDENT! RIGHT NOW! SHES IN OFFICE! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!”
“I didn’t even know this level of gaslighting was possible,” a third echoed.
“Harris is tied to Biden because… wait for it….. SHE IS HIS VICE PRESIDENT,” another X user exclaimed.
“How dare he tie Harris to the Biden/Harris administration!” another quipped.
“Tries? She tethered herself to him,” another informed.
Vance also reacted to Politico’s post, writing, “The thing is: she’s Biden’s Vice President.” — Breitbart
Our Take: The internet erupted Tuesday when Politico reporter Mia McCarthy wrote, ‘Donald Trump’s running mate tried to tie Harris to the Biden administration’s policies.’
The comments were hilarious, and Breitbart has captured many of them in this article. It’s refreshing to see a plurality of Americans calling out media gaslighting when it happens, rather than in hindsight.
That being said, neither Breitbart nor the internet goes hard enough at Politico’s editorial team and, while I love mocking the legacy media as much as the next guy, the real pressure points for Politico here are legal.
Politico has a political editor, fact checkers, lawyers, and an editorial board. Misguided Mia wrote the silly line, but she didn’t unilaterally publish the story. It’s hard to believe that everyone in Politico’s editorial chain of command didn’t realize that Harris is the current Vice President, AI Czar, Gun Czar, and Border Czar, and thus already tethered to Joe Biden.
It’s much more likely that the editorial board at Politico is participating in a coordinated effort to distance Harris from Biden. They certainly fact checked Mia’s article. At least one editor took a pass through it. Lawyers were likely available to review on request of the editor. They collectively decided to publish it.
That’s a donation in kind, and one of many for Politico. It’s not journalism, it’s using the power and credibility of a national news platform to help a candidate win an election. This happens all the time, especially at Politico, but #TetherGate is so overt and recognizable, it could move the needle on acceptability.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still gaslighting and should be roundly mocked.
It’s also a campaign finance violation and should be prosecuted. —
Telegram CEO Charged in France for Alleged Criminal Use of App
Pavel Durov, the chief executive officer of Telegram, was charged in France for complicity in the spread of sexual images of children and other crimes on the messaging app.
The charges against Durov also include allegations he refused to help authorities run legal wiretaps on suspects, Paris prosecutors said on Wednesday. They come after the 39-year-old was stopped at Le Bourget airport north of Paris on Saturday after disembarking from a private jet. — Bloomberg
Our Take: The outrage is growing over the revelation that French President Emmanuel Macron had lured Pavel Durov to Paris with a dinner invitation.
It's now also being revealed that back in 2018, Macron offered concessions in an attempt to persuade Durov to relocate Telegram's headquarters to France; Durov declined the offer.
Now the media and creepy influencers on X are going full bore to brand Telegram as a platform that is used for child-trafficking. (Talk about projection.)
Now, it's been announced that Durov is now under investigation by French authorities for committing "serious acts of violence" against his own son.
What's "going on here" is that Telegram has been the primary platform for disseminating information on both the Ukraine War and the Israel War—which, as you all know, I believe are one in the same. (I personally think Taiwan is a red herring, and isn't going to happen. We are watching the main event right now.)
But the Sovereign Alliance isn't taking this move by the globalists lightly. Russia has issued a series of stern statements, highlighting the tyrannical nature of the Western Hegemony, voiced by every major Russian figure from Vladimir Putin, to Sergei Lavrov, to Maria Zakharova.
Serbian MP Aleksandar Pavic said in an interview, "These are mafia tactics, let’s be very clear. They are trying to extort the encryption keys from him."
What's funny is that the French frogs nabbed the wrong brother. While it is Pavel who is the founder and celebrity face of Telegram, it was actually his brother, Nikolai, who was the genius savant who created the full-proof encryption software that protects Telegram's users. Nikolai has two PhD's in mathematics, and lives a lowkey life in Moscow, where he teaches at the University.
Most importantly, we have [UAE President] Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) stepping up to claim Durov as their own. Durov actually possesses tri-citizenship: He was born Russian, and was recently granted French citizenship, (as well as a passport from the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis) but is also an Emirati (UAE) citizen. And it is the UAE now jumping into the street fight to protect free speech from the European aristocrats.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement early on Tuesday that it was “closely following” Durov’s case and that it had “submitted a request to the French government to provide him with all consular services urgently”.
“Caring for citizens, preserving their interests, following up on their affairs, and providing them with all aspects of care are a top priority for the UAE,” the ministry said in the statement.
When Macron tried to get cute with the Emiratis, MBZ donned his golden wig and pulled a page out of President Trump's playbook, freezing a $20 Billion contract the UAE has signed to manufacture 80 Rafale fighter jets. Those jets are reportedly currently under construction, so France will eat that money, if MBZ decides not to pay.
FAFO, Macron, espèce de minet mordeur d'oreiller. Vive l’Alliance Souveraine! —
Ukrainian draft office threatens lethal force against citizens
Draft officers are within their rights to use lethal force in “self-defense” against citizens, a Ukrainian regional enlistment authority warned on Tuesday.
The head draft office of the western Ukrainian region of Volyn stated that officers had already been instructed to use lethal force in situations requiring self-defense.
“All personnel of all [draft offices] have been notified that in the event of a threat to life, lethal force should be used. The jokes are over. You wanted it to go by law? Everything will be according to the law,” the office said in a statement.
The threat comes following an attack on an enlistment office in the city of Lutsk earlier the same day. The facility was targeted by an unknown assailant, who engaged in a firefight with the soldiers guarding it, according to the local authorities. During the skirmish, one of the servicemen received gunshot wounds, while the attacker escaped the scene and remains at large. — RT
Our Take: [grabs popcorn]
Accelerate. —
BONUS ITEMS
Scoop: Democrats dare GOP to impeach Biden
House Democrats are effectively inviting a hardline Republican to go rogue and force a vote to impeach President Biden in the final weeks of the 2024 election.
Why it matters: Top House Democrats are in rare agreement with their Republican counterparts that an impeachment vote would damage GOP attempts to hang onto control of the House.
"The whole investigation has been a debacle for them, they have egg all over their face," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' (D-N.Y.) point-man on impeachment as ranking member of the Oversight Committee.
The vote, he argued, would "either prove that all of them are invested in this nonsense, or that they can't even ... get all the Republicans in the House to vote for it."
Driving the news: Top House Republicans and swing-district GOP lawmakers are furious about the prospect of a Trump ally like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) or Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) forcing a vote to impeach Biden, Axios' Juliegrace Brufke reported. — Axios
Several States Refuse To Remove RFK Jr.'s Name From Ballots, Hurting Trump
After Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the presidential race last week and threw his support behind former President Trump, several states have refused to remove his name from the ballot after he announced he would do so in about 10 swing states.
"Our polling consistently showed that by staying on the ballot in the battleground states, I would likely hand the election over to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on the most existential issues," Kennedy said just before endorsing Trump, Insider reports.
Three key states have dug in and are refusing to remove his name;
Michigan - a key battleground state, said it was too late for Kennedy to withdraw as the nominee of the Natural Law Party.
Wisconsin - whose Elections Commission voted 5-1 on Tuesday against removing his name, citing a law which says "any person who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot may not decline nomination."
Colorado - which, while less competitive for Trump than Michigan or Wisconsin, also refused to remove Kennedy's name.
"Minor party candidates cannot withdraw, so his name will remain on the ballot in the November election," said Cheri Hardmon, a spokesperson for Michigan Secretary of State in a statement to the Detroit News.
"The Natural Law Party held their convention to select electors for Robert Kennedy Jr. They cannot meet at this point to select new electors since it's past the primary," she added. — ZeroHedge
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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"1. On Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that the Biden administration had "pressured" Facebook in 2021 to "censor certain content" related to COVID-19 as part of its efforts to crack down on misinformation."
While this may be true, Zuck was censoring long before 2021 hit. I started posting truth about CV19 and the certainty of its relationship to future jabs as early as April in 2020 and my posts were being flagged, shadow banned, deleted by FB, or banned from posting replies. It's the reason i left the platform ultimately. Just got fedup with 30, 60 and 90 day bans. I think i was only able to actually post comments for 4 months out of 2020 and i ultimately walked in 2021.
INITIALLY RFK HAD TROUBLE GETTING HIS NAME ON THE BALLOT. NOW THAT HE WANTS TO REMOVE HIS NAME FROM SWING STATES WISCONSIN, AND MICHIGAN WILL NOT ALLOW HIM TO DO THAT. VOTES FOR KENNEDY IN THESE STATES WILL HURT TRUMP AND HELP KAMALA. NEVER KNEW HOW CRIMINAL MOST OF OUR STATES ARE. WE SHOULD INSIST BIDEN'S NAME STAY ON THE BALLOTS.