Badlands News Brief
White Collar Prisons & Confounding Court Decisions
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.
Many items feature original (and subjective) commentary. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see our writers’ Substack accounts and check out their other work.
Now, onto the news from Monday, March 18…
Supreme Court leans against limiting Biden administration contacts with social media platforms
A majority of Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared highly skeptical about claims the Biden administration crossed the line from persuasion to coercion when it told social media platforms to remove problematic content.
At issue is an injunction imposed by a federal judge, currently on hold, that would limit contacts between government officials and social media companies on a wide range of issues.
[…]
Several justices questioned whether the nature of the communications was problematic, with liberal Justice Elena Kagan noting that officials sometimes have fraught communications with journalists.
“This happens literally thousands of times a day in the federal government,” she said.
[…]
The justice who appeared most sympathetic to the plaintiffs was conservative Samuel Alito… Alito also referred to reporters present in the courtroom.
“I cannot imagine federal officials taking that approach to the print media representatives over there. If you did that to them, what do you think the reaction would be?” he said.
[…]
When agreeing to hear the case, the Supreme Court in October blocked the appeals court ruling, with three conservative justices — Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — noting they disagreed with that decision.
— NBC News
Our Take: “Oral arguments were scheduled for one hour on Monday, and the fiery exchange lasted almost two. We covered the proceedings on Badlands, so be sure to check it out.
It was disturbing to hear the federal government’s arguments in favor of censorship, but even more so to hear these arguments affirmed by Supreme Court Justices.
For example, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson outright declared that it is permissible for the government to coerce private entities to violate the rights of Americans so long as they have a compelling government interest to do so.
Let’s play that out. The government absolutely had a compelling interest for the suppression of the lab leak theory. They did, in fact, coerce private companies to suppress that speech. But the lab leak theory is now the most accepted origin story for covid. In other words, the government reportedly coerced private companies to censor the truth to cover up their own crimes.
Justice Jackson suggesting that coercion is okay is anathema to the Constitution — the letter, the spirit, and the long record of case law.
The majority of mainstream outlets are reporting that the high court is leaning towards reversing the lower courts’ injunction; that is, that they will refuse to restrict the public private partnership model of the Censorship Industrial Complex.
Unfortunately, based on what we heard yesterday, I tend to agree.
The government wants to protect its power, regardless of its constitutionality. Disturbing, but not surprising.” Ashe in America
Supreme Court extends temporary hold on Texas immigration law
The Supreme Court on Monday extended a temporary block on a new Texas immigration law that is being challenged by the Biden administration.
In an order issued by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, the court again imposed a temporary freeze on a lower court decision. The court said the law would remain on hold "pending further order" of the court.
The law was originally due to go into effect on March 10, but Alito has now stepped in three times to ensure the lower court ruling remains on hold.
His most recent order had been due to expire Monday evening, meaning the law would have gone into effect without Supreme Court action.
The ruling is now blocked indefinitely, giving all nine justices more time to determine what next steps to take.
— NBC News
Our Take: “It’s spelled P-R-E-C-E-D-E-N-T.
Now, I know. The initial emotional reaction here is anger. ‘Abs, why won’t SCOTUS allow Texas to take this measure to protect its border?’
That border is also a Federal Border. Which the Federal Government also has a right to protect — and jurisdiction over.
The Biden Admin is being boxed in, here. And the longer they continue to do nothing, the more apparent their hypocrisy becomes. The longer they fight Texas in defending itself, the more apparent their hypocrisy becomes. This is a lose/lose situation for Biden, and to my mind that is exactly why Alito keeps stepping in and extending this hold.
On the flip side: This also sets precedent for President Trump when he is re-elected in November.
Imagine… Trump orders a wall, or immigration measure, and a state blocks it. We now have precedent for Trump’s Admin to stand firm, regardless of what any lefty-communist state may do to stop him on immigration.” Paul Fleuret
United Airlines CEO Reassures Everyone Boeing Planes Are Safe After Series Of Incidents
On Monday morning, the CEO of United Airlines Holdings Inc. informed passengers that the airline is reviewing a series of aviation incidents involving its commercial jets, including Boeing-made ones.
"Unfortunately, in the past few weeks, our airline has experienced a number of incidents that are reminders of the importance of safety," CEO Scott Kirby wrote in a message to passengers.
Kirby said, "While they are all unrelated, I want you to know that these incidents have our attention and have sharpened our focus."
— ZeroHedge
Our Take: “Something is rotten in the airline industry, but it can’t just be DEI or ESG scores. The controlled demolition of the airline industry is too juicy of a temptation for the goblin-esque egregore that is The Great Reset.
Having just flown last week with American Airlines I can confirm that it was a full blown nightmare. We waited in the airport for our flight to take off for eight hours before they cancelled it. My replacement flight was a whole 24 hours later and, when I arrived, they told me my suitcase was still at my layover destination.
This implosion occurring across huge swaths of the airline industry with just the right number of instances to build a narrative? Hmmm. In the Northwoods Memorandum they explain that a false flag operation is composed of ‘generated instances.’
‘Enable a logical build up of Generated Instances combined with other seemingly unrelated events to camouflage the ultimate objective and create the necessary impressions.’
Elsewhere on the global battlefield, Denmark’s Transport Minister Thomas Danielsen announced the implementation of a green tax on all flights:
‘It will still be possible to fly, but it must be possible to do this in an environmentally friendly way.’
How could you implement 15-minute cities if people can hop on a plane and be free?
A pretext is needed to implement the next phase of the narrative:
‘Flying is environmentally dangerous.’
‘Flying is unsafe and needs to be minimized.’
‘An unsustainable industry.’
‘An industry in transition.’
‘Flying is an exclusive asset of the hyper wealthy globalist elite.’
As soon as someone gets suicided, as the BOEING whistleblower was, you know you’re dealing with a rabid, petulant hoard of deep state creatures gnashing their teeth and snarling about ‘building back better.’
Such creatures, paralyzed by the threat of being exposed, make reactionary, desperate moves.
This is all starting to look sloppy and desperate to me.” Simon Esler
Impossible for Trump to Post Bond Covering $454M Civil Fraud Judgment: Lawyers
It is impossible for former President Donald Trump to post a bond covering the full amount of his $454 million civil fraud judgment while he appeals, his lawyers told a New York appellate court Monday.
Trump’s lawyers wrote in a court filing that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the circumstances presented,” AP reports.
With interest, Trump owes $456.8 million.
In all, he and co-defendants including his company and top executives owe $467.3 million. To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collateral worth $557 million, Trump’s lawyers said per the report.
They said the defendants had so far approached 30 surety companies through four separate brokers to obtain a bond.
A state appeals court judge ruled last month the Republican presidential candidate must post a bond covering the full amount to pause enforcement of the judgment, which is to begin on March 25, as Breitbart News reported.
— Breitbart News
Our Take: “So, ‘Trump is Broke’ was trending on X Monday, as this news came down, and it was ‘bloodbath’ all over again. As the regime and their useful idiots come to terms with their position, all they really have going for them is intellectual dishonesty and ad hominem attacks.
The lawfare efforts and cries of ‘91 counts!’ have backfired, as the public awakens to weaponized government more with each corrupt establishment move. The efforts to keep Trump off the ballot are moot. Damn near every poll shows Trump decisively beating Biden, on all issues aside from mean tweets, and he may even win the popular vote at this rate.
Wanna see a meltdown? If Trump wins the popular vote, the National Popular Vote Compact states will have to award him their electors. Glorious.
The ‘Trump is Broke’ deployment is more of the same: The victory lap reminds the masses of the grave injustices.
No one should have to pay the government to access the appellate process, but especially in such an unprecedented — and, according to all reputable legal scholars, manifestly unjust — decision such as Engoron’s.
The people know how wrong this is. And the regime’s hysteria proves that they know we know.
Accelerate.” Ashe in America
Protest erupts in eastern Cuba amid blackouts, food shortages
Hundreds in Cuba's second-largest city, Santiago, engaged in a rare public protest on Sunday, according to social media and official reports, prompting Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel to call for dialogue in an "atmosphere of tranquility and peace."
Protesters in Santiago took to the streets with chants of "power and food," according to videos posted on social media, as blackouts in places extended for 18 hours or more a day, jeopardizing frozen food and ratcheting up tensions on the island.
Cuba has fallen into a near unprecedented economic crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic, with vast shortages of food, fuel and medicine stoking a record-breaking exodus that has seen upwards of 400,000 people migrate to the United States.
Diaz-Canel confirmed the Santiago protest on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after the rally concluded… Diaz-Canel also said "terrorists" from the United States were seeking to foment further uprisings.
"This context will be taken advantage of by the enemies of the Revolution, for destabilizing purposes," Diaz-Canel said on X.
[…]
The U.S. embassy in Havana said it was monitoring the protests in Santiago and elsewhere. "We urge the Cuban government to respect the human rights of the protesters and address the legitimate needs of the Cuban people," the embassy said on X.
Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez blasted the U.S. Embassy comments late on Sunday… "The US Government, especially its embassy in #Cuba, must refrain from interfering in the country's internal affairs and inciting social disorder," Rodriguez said on X.
Protests on the island are exceedingly rare but have cropped up more often in recent years as economic crisis rocks the country.
— Reuters
Our Take: “As it turns out: Communism doesn’t work.
As gas prices soar, food shortages rapidly becoming an issue, and blackouts rolling across the country — one needs only looks towards Cuba to see what happens what a country is ruled under communist beliefs and ideals.
Cuba is collapsing. More and more Cuban migrants are fleeing to the United States, and there appears to be no end in sight for Cubans.
As a result of the aforementioned, protests have erupted all over the island. The chaos in Cuba has been preceded by the collapse of Haiti and, as stated in the article — the situation in the Caribbean is beginning to mirror the ‘Arab Spring,’ which began in 2010.
I can’t help but think we are seeing the deep state turning all the screws in a last ditch effort to retain power. Too bad for them that nothing can stop what is coming.” Paul Fleuret
Biden Admin Sending Tribes $120 Million To Fight Climate Change
The Biden administration announced Thursday that it is giving Native American tribes across the country a total of $120 million to fight climate change.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) is disseminating the money, which will be split into 146 different awards to support projects that enhance “climate resilience” in tribal communities. The funding is inspired in part by the administration’s view that Native American populations are among the least able to prepare or recover from climate change’s impacts.
[…]
The funding is also in line with the Biden administration’s Justice40 agenda, which stipulates that at least 40% of the benefits derived from climate spending flow to purportedly disadvantaged and marginalized communities.
“Indigenous communities are facing unique and intensifying climate-related challenges that pose an existential threat to tribal economies, infrastructure, lives and livelihoods,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said of the funding…
The $120 million announced Thursday is part of a broader $440 million spending push to fund tribes to fight climate change, according to the DOI. The $120 million is made up of $26 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law, $71 million from the Inflation Reduction Act and $23 million from fiscal year 2023 appropriations.
— The Daily Caller
Our Take: “Last year, I published several articles on how the State of Colorado’s environmental agenda is harming the Navajo communities in the four corners. Under the banner of climate change, the government closed the coal mine, starving the reservation of a critical fuel source.
This created a double energy crisis — the communities required fire wood for fuel, and that meant they needed transportation to locate and haul the firewood. Both are barriers, and locals warn that elderly grandmothers on the reservation will die as a result of the misguided policies.
That brings me to this gaslight: ‘Indigenous communities are facing unique and intensifying climate-related challenges that pose an existential threat to tribal economies, infrastructure, lives and livelihoods.’
The double energy crisis on the Navajo reservation is not a result of climate change. It’s a result of the government’s actions in the name of climate change.
I wonder if the Navajo can use this funding to secure fuel? I doubt it, considering that fuel is bad for the environment.
It’s also appears unlikely that this money will reach the tribal communities at all. It reads like another money laundering play. Next to war, intersectional climate narratives are the best cover.” Ashe in America
REPORT: Self-Proclaimed Hezbollah Terrorist Arrested at Border in Texas
A Lebanese migrant apprehended near El Paso, Texas, reportedly claims to be a Hezbollah terrorist. The Lebanese national claimed to be headed to New York and said he wanted to make a bomb.
Border Patrol agents arrested 22-year-old Basel Bassel Ebbadi, a Lebanese national, after he illegally entered the United States from Mexico near El Paso. “I’m going to try to make a bomb,” Ebbadi told Border Patrol agents when asked why he came to the U.S., according to an exclusive report by the New York Post.
Agents captured Ebbadi on March 9 after he crossed the border from Mexico into Texas. The agents transported the Lebanese man to the El Paso hardened facility for processing and investigation. Two days later, Ebbadi told the agents he was going to make a bomb. The agents moved the man to isolation and contacted the Tactical Terrorism Response Team to conduct an interview.
— Breitbart News
Our Take: “Elections have consequences. Stolen elections have even larger consequences. Not the least of which: Biden’s border policy, which is basically non-existent.
Believe it or not, America has a lot of enemies, and a lot of those enemies would probably froth at the mouth at the opportunity to stroll in across our Southern Border… Which is exactly what we see happening.
President Trump told us that terrorists and career criminals would use Biden’s weakness on the border as an opportunity to come into the country unabated, and that is exactly what we see here.
This was just one man. How many more have come across unseen? How many Hezbollah, Hamas, ISIS, etc. terrorists are within our borders because of Biden’s weakness?
This situation is very real. And again, it reeks of panic.” Paul Fleuret
BONUS ITEMS
When Peter Navarro goes to prison, he’ll hear the lions roar
Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro hopes to spend his next few months working in air conditioning and sleeping in a dormitory for “elderly” male inmates at a prison next to a zoo.
Navarro, 74, must report to prison on Tuesday after the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon rejected his request for a last-minute reprieve.
He is set to become the first former White House official ever jailed for contempt of Congress when he reports to a minimum-security federal Bureau of Prisons satellite camp in Miami.
“Not only can you hear the lions … you can hear the lions roar every morning,” said Sam Mangel, Navarro’s prison consultant.
[…]
Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison after a jury found him guilty of failing to respond to congressional subpoenas for documents and testimony in the House’s investigation of the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.
— CNN
Epstein Accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell Out of the ‘Snake Pit’, Into a Cushy Wing of Tallahassee FCI
Convicted of sex trafficking and multiple counts of conspiracy, disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is living the expectation of her bid on appeals court to overturn her 20-year sentence.
But even in case it is not successful, federal prisoner 02879-509 already has something to celebrate in Florida’s Tallahassee FCI.
While she wouldn’t be eligible for release until July 2037, at least she managed to get transferred out of the jail’s squalid B South unit where 120 inmates are crammed into tiny cubicles of four bunks, nicknamed the ‘snake pit’.
[…]
Maxwell’s defense argues that she should never have been tried for grooming Epstein’s victims because of a provision in the pedophile’s 2008 sweetheart plea deal.
FCI Tallahassee has often been portrayed as a ‘Club Fed,’ where inmates can learn new languages, enjoy yoga classes, and take part in softball tournaments.
— The Gateway Pundit
Putin Warns Of 'Full-Scale WW3' If West Sends Troops To Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin's election victory speech and Q&A with the press was full of familiar themes, but he used the occasion after capturing a record 87% of the vote to warn the US and Europe that a "full-scale World War III" is "possible" should any Western troops enter Ukraine.
The remarks came in response to a journalist's question on President Macron's recent statements saying he thinks sending troops to Ukraine should be a realistic possibility. Putin responded on Sunday: "I think anything is possible in today’s world and it’s clear to everyone that this would be one step from a full-scale World War III."
But the Russian leader also emphasized that NATO military personnel are already present in Ukraine, with Russian intelligence having observed English and French at times being spoken on the battlefield. "There is nothing good in this, first of all for them, because they are dying there and in large numbers," he said.
Putin said, "It seems that France could play a role. All is not lost yet." Over the weekend French President Macron floated the idea of a Ukraine ceasefire during the Paris Olympics…
[…]
"I’ve been saying it over and over again and I’ll say it again. We are for peace talks, but not just because the enemy is running out of bullets," Putin stated.
— Zero Hedge
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.
Editor’s Note: I’ll be taking a short break from the Info War (and other work) to enjoy some R&R (and I’m not talking about Righteous Russia, for once,) but our own Ashe in America is going to be handling the Brief in the interim. Thank you all for your continued support of this publication and this team. — Burning Bright
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.
There are a few very stupid Justices on the SC, Jackson and Kagan being two. When the government is allowed to dictate what the people can and cannot think and say, then that government is obviously going against the Constitution, and is tyrannical.
A government has ZERO right to determine what is so-called "dis-information", or use censorship against free speech. Do these Justices realize that this case is about government agencies colluding with big tech companies and social media giants to prevent access to information? The government should be smacked down, and hard.
You are exactly correct with this statement."It’s also appears unlikely that this money will reach the tribal communities at all. It reads like another money laundering play."
Take a trip to a reservation and see how well the tribal council members live compared to the average American Indian living in a FEMA trailer with no floor.