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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 picks news items of interest from the previous days to give you an overview of the biggest goings-on relevant to the Truth Community.
Items feature original commentary from members of our growing team of citizen journalists. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see their other work.
Now, onto the news from Wednesday, August 23 …
Tucker Ep. 19 — Debate Night with Donald J Trump
(CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH ON ‘X’)
Our Take: “In an evening when the GOP Establishment trotted out a clown car of cartoonish MAGA pretenders ... Donald Trump was AUTHENTIC.
We are undoubtedly entering a period of rapid Narrative escalation and acceleration, with everything from the US financial system to the Western Hegemony, World War III to the 2024 election, the unprecedented legal campaign against the 'former' President, and the continuance of a culture war that shows no signs of abating afflicting the Collective Mind simultaneously.
What the American people want right now is exactly what Donald Trump showed them: a problem-solver.
In fact, his demeanor recalled 1980s Trump. Trump the poised. Trump the careful. Trump the visionary, rather than 'The Donald' we've come to know and love, and that others have come to loathe.
'The Donald' has served a valuable purpose, from exposing the Fake News media to provoking the full coordination of the Deep State's Administrative System of Systems, and I don't think we've seen the last of him, but I think we're going to see Trump the Problem-Solver more often moving forward.
I think that's a Trump the American people want right now, and, as
and posited, Trump projects exactly the image he wants to, when he wants to.So, then.
What's the biggest possible problem Trump could solve in order to win the hearts and minds of the most calcified sleepers among the American (perhaps the world) population?
When does Trump the Peacemaker enter the stage?
The more dramatic and 'bad' the story gets, the closer we are to its cathartic, and lasting ending.” —
Republican debate highlights and analysis: Fiery faceoff on Trump, Ukraine and more
The first Republican debate of the 2024 presidential primary was held in Milwaukee on Wednesday night.
Eight candidates qualified for a spot on the stage: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
Missing from the event was the primary's early front-runner: former President Donald Trump, who declined to participate and instead released a pre-recorded interview with Tucker Carlson. — ABC News
Our Take: “A fiery GOP debate took place Wednesday night, though most of MAGA opted for the Tucker Carlson interview.
Overall, Vivek Ramaswamy was the runaway winner, setting a vision for a younger and more reasoned GOP. He toed the MAGA line for the most part and supported President Trump at multiple points during the two-hour debate.
Ramaswamy was helped along by Pence continuously antagonizing him throughout the night. Pence came off as the agitated grandpa whose hearing aids aren’t working properly, and he claimed that ‘The President asked me to put him over the Constitution’ on January 6, to unanimous booing. ‘We don’t need on the job training’ and ‘we don’t need a younger president’ are among his top hits.
Chris Christie had a strong debate showing, but he reminded voters of his cemented position as a neocon. He too attacked Ramaswamy, helping the young outsider elevate his stature among the field.
DeSantis had a much better than expected showing, but in his attempts to command authority, he came off as over rehearsed and a little whiney at times. He didn’t freeze up or gaffe; but he’s still plastic Ron.
Pence was the night’s biggest loser, followed by Nikki Haley and Asa, while Burgum and Scott were utterly forgettable. Asa had the best gaffe of the evening: ‘Abortion, er excuse me, adoption services.’
Trump was less present than expected, as the audience took in this vision of a Trumpless GOP. It was underwhelming and, aside from Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s absence reminded us of the pre-Trump GOP. Not good for the RNC, and it was a stark contrast between Vivek and the rest of the contenders. Just 20 minutes in, Vivek declared war on the ‘federal administrative state,’ and called for revolution. The other candidates were more focused on ‘controlling the growth of government,’ a totally out of touch position when two-thirds of Americans want radical change.
While a compelling post Trump GOP failed to materialize during the debate, the post Fox media landscape is a massive revelation. The moderators lost control multiple times, and the audience was overwhelmingly pro-Trump. If I have one overall takeaway, it’s that the establishment must be terrified.” —
Wagner Decries 'Murder' Of Prigozhin Amid Reports Anti-Air Missile Struck Plane
At this point it's looking like the entire top command of Russian mercenary outfit Wagner Group was aboard the private plane that was downed northwest of Moscow hours ago. Wagner itself is confirming Yvgeny Prigozhin’s death, with Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel Grey Zone calling it a "murder".
"The murder/assassination of Prigozhin will have catastrophic consequences. The people who gave the order do not understand the mood in the army and morale at all. Let this be a lesson to all. You always have to go to the end," the Wagner channel statement reads.
The bodies of Prigozhin and his second-in-command Dmitry Utkin, have reportedly been identified, according to statements which have been quick to come out of Russian media. Russian news agency TASS has also made it official: "Evgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin were on board the crashed Embraer plane, the Federal Air Transport Agency reported." — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “Russia-Ukraine Narrative Progression of late:
Prigozhin spotted at Africa Peace Summit w/ Putin, revealing truth that 'Russian Coup' was a Narrative Op, as many of us called in real time.
NATO Security Chief warns counter-offensive has 'failed,' signals concessions may need to be made by Ukraine before being forced to backtrack by West.
Belarusian President Lukashenko claims 'most leaders acknowledge' that 'Putin has accomplished his goals' in Ukraine, and that it was only a matter of time before the rest of the world accepted.
Wagner Group & Putin support nationalist 'coup' in Niger, with the full support of the Niger population. Niger rejects visitation by US (Deep) State Department, openly mocking them.
BRICS Summit kicks off in South Africa. Vladimir Putin does not attend due to threats of arrest from Western-aligned 'groups.' (CIA?)
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin signal an open declaration of financial war on the G-7 nations, including the US, Germany and the EU at large, while claiming that the devaluation of the US petrodollar is 'inevitable.'
Independent, Pulitzer-winning leftist Seymour Hersh claims intel agency sources confirm attacks on NordStream 2 pipeline, Kakhovka Dam and Crimean Bridge either the direct work of, or directly coordinated BY the CIA.
Biden (Deep) State Department heads, including Antony Blinken & Victoria Nuland (both of whom have been implicated in the intel agency Russia Collusion plot against Donald Trump,) say peace in Ukraine not an option, and that escalation will continue, 'to the end.'
Prigozhin presumed dead (supposedly) in suspected shoot-down of private jet.
Other than that, I can't figure out why anyone thinks we're heading for some kind of precipice point that might require a certain Western leader to steer the world away from the brink of WWIII.
Still, if we SHOULD have learned anything over the course of the last few months, it's that, where it concerns Prigozhin, nothing is usually as it seems.
Focus on the Story being told, and who's telling it.
The Story of the Peacemakers marches on.
And it will have a happy (or at least, a cathartic) ending.” —
Secret Letter To CDC: Top Epidemiologist Suggests Agency Misrepresented Scientific Data To Support Mask Narrative
Documents recently obtained from the National Institutes of Health suggest public health officials used inaccurate information and misrepresented medical research to advance their policy objective that masks prevent severe COVID-19 and virus transmission—despite opposing scientific evidence received from experts.
In a recently obtained letter (pdf) sent in November 2021 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), top epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and seven colleagues informed the agency it was promoting flawed data and excluding data that did not reinforce their narrative.
The letter warned the agency that misrepresenting data on trusted websites such as the CDC and the COVID-19 Real-Time Learning Network—jointly created by the CDC and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)—would “damage the credibility of science,” endanger public trust by “misrepresenting the evidence,” and give the public “false expectations” masking would protect them from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
“We believe the information and recommendations as provided may actually put an individual at increased risk of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 and for them to experience a serious or even life-threatening infection,” Mr. Osterhom wrote.
The authors urged the IDSA to remove the suggestion that masking prevents severe disease from its website and asked the CDC to reconsider its statements about the “efficacy of masks and face coverings for preventing transmission of SARS-CoV-2.”
Osterholm also noted a pattern of selectively choosing data that supported the desired narrative that masks prevent severe COVID-19 disease and transmission—claims he said are unsupported by the scientific evidence provided by the CDC and IDSA on their websites. — The Epoch Times
Our Take: “Covid-19 reruns are up next, with a ‘newly discovered’ letter that shows the covid criminals knew ‘the science’ was deadly unscientific. This comes just a couple days after we got the Biden Crime Family and Ukraine rerun when Just the News senior state department officials released new memos that prove a whole list of crimes, detailed in yesterday’s Badlands News Brief.
That said, this story is so dumb. Masks don’t work, and it’s common sense that they don’t work. There was ample evidence at the time that they didn’t work. And there is no way scientists didn’t know that they didn’t work. Go back in your photo library to 2020 and, if you’re anything like me, you have loads of mask-related screen shots from memes to science to videos of Fauci saying masks don’t work.
Now they want you to believe they were misled by the science. No way. No amnesty. No more lies.
The fact that the reruns of covid and Biden Crime — both of which are inextricably linked to 2020 election fraud — are playing intermingled with each other this week is epic given the heavy news cycle and last night’s debates along with the highly promoted arrest of president Trump in Georgia. This really is the greatest show.
Finally, let’s have a round of applause to
for developing ‘reruns’ as a device for explaining our dystopian reality. I find it incredibly helpful in navigating 2023’s mashup of ‘Westworld’ and ‘Idiocracy.’For the first time in a while, I feel, as
would say, ‘Cozy.’” —Brics leaders agree to expand membership at summit
BRICS leaders have agreed to expand the club of major emerging economies and adopted conditions for entry, South Africa said on Wednesday (Aug 23), as the bloc pursues greater clout to shape the world order.
Calls to enlarge the Brics – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – has dominated the agenda at its three-day summit in Johannesburg and exposed rifts between members.
China is seeking to rapidly grow the Brics amid rising competition with the United States but the group’s other major power, India, is wary of the intentions of its geopolitical rival.
South African officials say nearly two dozen countries have formally applied to join the Brics, which accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s population and a quarter of the global economy.
On Wednesday, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said Brics leaders had “agreed on the matter of expansion” and a detailed announcement would be made before the summit’s close on Thursday.
“We have a document that we have adopted that sets out guidelines and principles, processes, for considering countries that wish to become members of Brics,” Pandor told state-run Ubuntu Radio. — The Business Times
Our Take: “Rumors of the announcement of a gold-backed currency have abounded for months heading into the BRICS summit in South Africa, which kicked off on Tuesday.
While that announcement has yet to materialize (and probably will not, at this particular summit,) don’t miss the forest for the trees:
BRICS has officially thrown the gauntlet down against the Western Hegemon, represented most clearly by the US Petrodollar, which Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin led the charge in denouncing, and decoupling from, with Saudi Arabia on deck.
The process of untangling generations of fiat illusion, corruption and rot from the worldwide ledger won’t be a quick or painless one, but as BRICS expands, so, too does the idea of a sovereign, multi-polar world order … one Donald Trump is poised not just to join, but to help lead upon his (public) return to power.
Starting to see why the (Deep) State Department is so on edge these days?
The Great Awakening is worldwide. And it happens very slowly ... and then all at once.” —
Top emergency officials were on another island learning how to respond to disasters when Maui wildfires started
As the deadliest US wildfires in a century razed Maui, the emergency officials responsible for responding to them were all on another island — learning how to deal with exactly such a disaster, it emerged Wednesday.
The heads of the Maui and Hawaii emergency management agencies were at an annual conference on Oahu on Aug. 8, the day the fires started leveling Lahaina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed to HawaiiNewsNow (HNN).
Key federal officials were also at FEMA’s annual disaster meeting when one of the worst disasters in recent US history started raging on the other island, the outlet said.
The officials gathering in Waikiki became part of a “coordinating call about 11 a.m.,” a state emergency management spokesperson told the local outlet of what would have been nearly five hours after the blazes started.
“There were consultations about the fires among local, state and FEMA participants,” FEMA spokesman John Mills said. — The NY Post
Our Take: “There are still so many unanswered questions from the tragedy in Lahaina, and whenever new information is released, the official narrative appears to get faker.
This story defies belief. It’s highly mockable. It’s a further slap in the face to the people of Lahaina from the authorities.
But, fake as it appears, the story provides convenient narrative cover for why the emergency response was so devastating. The top officials weren’t there. It’s rotten luck. It’s so unfortunate. But it’s not really their fault because they weren’t there. We have plausible deniability, along with an effective patsy in former Maui County Emergency Management Agency director Herman Andaya. I expect that government accountability on Lahaina is coming to an end.
I’m sure mistakes were made on all sides, and that they have strong learnings to apply when the community rebuilds back better. And next year’s annual conference of the Maui and Hawaii Emergency Management Agencies is gonna be lit.” —
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.
The Badlands Media team will continue to combine our cognitive powers in order to slow things down and find the signal amidst the noise as this series expands.
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.
"As the deadliest US wildfires in a century razed Maui, the emergency officials responsible for responding to them were all on another island — learning how to deal with exactly such a disaster..."
Remember the day of 9-11 when all the fighter jets were out on an exercise...?
"What's the biggest possible problem Trump could solve?" Why, winning the battle between Good and Evil, of course! Bringing the Bad Guys to Justice (via Military Tribunals) and ridding the country of their poisonous Satanism. Returning this great God-birthed country to the People and to God. But I don't think we will see Trump as the author, but rather as the servant of Almighty God. I believe and hope we will all recognize it was GOD that started this fight and GOD that finished it. Obviously, there is more to come, once that is done, but wow, what a time to be alive! And awake! Thanks be to GOD:)