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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.
Some 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 the Weekend that Was …
QAnon and ‘Sound of Freedom’ Both Rely on Tired Hollywood Tropes
Donald Trump plans to screen the film Sound of Freedom at his New Jersey golf club next week. The film, about agents fighting a child sex trafficking ring, has been embraced by the far right and Christians, who have helped boost it to more than $50 million in receipts at the box office.
Many critics have linked Sound of Freedom to the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy cult. They've also been startled by its mainstream success. But the truth is that the conspiratorial right and the Hollywood default aren't that different — which is why, perhaps, our polity has had such difficulty rejecting QAnon, Trump and fascism.
The film is controversial because the man the movie is about, former Homeland Security operative Tim Ballard, and the actor who plays him, Jim Caviezel, both have links to QAnon. Ballard has promoted the baseless claim that furniture retailer Wayfair was involved in child trafficking. Caviezel has spoken at multiple QAnon events. In an interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, he promoted one of the cult's most outrageous conspiracy theories, claiming that child traffickers drain their victim's blood to create a serum to prevent aging. — Bloomberg
Our Take: “Streisand Effect.
The weaponization against Q was partially successful, in terms of making the Op somewhat radioactive to normies.
That said, the current weaponization against Sound of Freedom/Child Trafficking Exposure is resulting in the sort of Convergence between SOF and Q that's causing many to reevaluate what those kooky Anons were going on about these last 7 years.
Funny how that works.” — Burning Bright
'Reduce Population': Kamala Harris Verbal Slip-Up Corrected By White House
Vice President Kamala Harris mistakenly (?) suggested that one of the goals of investing in clean energy is population reduction.
"When President [Joe] Biden and I took office, we set an ambitious goal … to cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050," Harris told an audience at Coppin State University in Baltimore on Friday.
"When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water," she continued.
According to the official transcript, the 58-year-old Vice President meant to say 'pollution,' not 'population.' — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “In the Biden Administration, corrections to the official White House transcript is a common occurrence. The so called ruler of the United States and his cackling understudy are constantly ‘misspeaking’ during their public appearances.
Often, they aren’t actually misspeaking. They’re slipping and telling the truth. ESG / Wokeism / Globalism is a religion, and we can get a look at their commandments by examining the messages on the Georgia Guidestones — the granite monument in Georgia that was blown up last year.
‘Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.’
When you worship the earth and believe that humans are a cancer that is killing your deity, there is nothing true believers won’t do to save her. In our dystopia, the people that rule the world all believe that Mother Earth is dying because of overpopulation and its impact on the planet. The so called smartest people in the world all claim that humans are the primary course of our changing climate. But they don’t really believe it. It’s just been very effective at centralizing their power and control, dismissing individual liberty, and establishing the global corporate communist machine.
Very effective.
For those at the top — the people whose faces you never see and whose names you wouldn’t recognize — climate alarmism is pragmatic in the pursuit of global domination. But for middle management — say, the Biden Administration — climate is a religion. And the religion requires human sacrifice. And the sacrifice is you.
Many globalists have slipped and admitted the population reduction objective, and every single time we are called conspiracy theorists for pointing it out. The climate religion is on full display, but their priests and town criers tell you not to trust your own senses.
She didn’t mean pollution. She meant population. They all mean population. You are the carbon they want to reduce.” — Ashe in America
Meta Threads engagement has dropped off since red-hot debut, tracking firms say
What comes up must come down — at least in the case of user engagement on Threads, Meta’s new Twitter competitor.
Last week, the text-based social media platform reported a record 100 million sign-ups in just five days, but according to data from Sensor Tower and Similarweb, the service has seen some dropoff in growth and engagement.
“The Threads launch really did ‘break the internet,’ or at least the Sensor Tower models,” Anthony Bartolacci, managing director at Sensor Tower, a marketing intelligence firm, told CNBC. “In the 10-plus years Sensor Tower has been estimating app installs, the first 72 hours of Threads was truly in a class by itself.”
But, he added, Sensor Tower data suggests a significant pullback in user engagement since Threads’ launch: On Tuesday and Wednesday, the platform’s number of daily active users were down about 20% from Saturday, and the time spent for user was down 50%, from 20 minutes to 10 minutes.
“These early returns signal that despite the hoopla during its launch, it will still be an uphill climb for Threads to carve out space in most users’ social network routine,” Bartolacci said. “The backing of Meta and the integration with Instagram likely gives Threads a much higher flood than other services, but it will need a more compelling value proposition than simply ‘Twitter, but without Elon Musk.’” — CNBC
Our Take: “I'd say, ‘I hate to say I told you so.’
But saying, ‘I told you so’ is one of my favorite pasttimes.
Threads was never going to work, because Twitter is ubiquitous with the concept, has better infrastructure, and because Threads' selling point was antithetical to even the normie consumer.
You can't sell a new thing as an old thing, but with LESS stuff.
Selling a speech platform with less functionality and LESS speech is ... not a great plan. And the market is acting accordingly.” — Burning Bright
Tucker Carlson Is Creating a New Media Company
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former White House adviser Neil Patel are seeking to raise funds to start a new media company that would potentially use Twitter as its backbone, according to people familiar with the matter.
The new company would be anchored by longer versions of the free videos that Carlson has been posting regularly on Twitter since shortly after his departure from Fox News, but would ultimately be driven by subscriptions, some of the people said.
Carlson and Patel are looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the company, the people said.
Users of Twitter and other platforms would still be able to watch free, shorter versions of his show, interviews and documentaries, but would need to subscribe to watch them in their entirety, the people said. The company would eventually add shows from additional hosts, they said. — The Wall Street Journal
Our Take: “If one were to look at who funded the early advances of the mega-media machine that we now call mainstream media, no doubt one would find the same type of people—wealthy movers and shakers that have the power to fund technologies and advance social initiatives that ensure their way of life remains in intact. This way of life is, ultimately, parasitic. As such, the media machine has worked to undermine freedom and prosperity for all those except the globalists who created it.
William Randolph Hearst and Andrew Carnegie, to name a couple, were incredibly successful in developing media networks that blanketed the United States and beyond with pervasive and effective information weaponry. The news and information, media, that people consume directly influences their worldview and political leanings—which was the reason it was likely developed in the first place.
The unlikely story that the global elite decided, in their infinite wisdom and generosity, to create a media empire for the uplifting of humanity, is about as believable as Joe Biden winning the 2020 race with the most votes in history—81 million votes, my ass.
Even the story of Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press, despite the lack of detail, seems to indicate that he was supported by early globalist movers and shakers. Gutenberg allegedly came from middle-teir merchants in what we now call Germany. We know for certain that the merchant classes tend to be hotbeds where international banking- and globalist-types congregate.
Today, the longstanding and extremely effective use of mass media has all but crippled WE THE PEOPLE in our ability to govern ourselves and mitigate against parasitic ideologies pushed by globalists.
So when someone like Tucker Carlson, despite his contract with FOX, decides to use Twitter to spread his freedom-centric news media, the cabal takes notice.
Twitter, which was once the tip of the spear in mass media weaponry, was taken out by Elon Musk. Twitter was profoundly influential for the globalists in the political arena from it’s inception all the way up to the time Musk purchased it. Now, the sword has been turned back on the malice-prone elite themselves, and they aren’t happy about it.
Threads, the Meta replacement for Twitter, was a total flop. And now Tucker plans on taking his initial volley of assaults against the globalist to the next level.
No doubt, we will see increased attacks on Tucker, Musk and anyone who supports any initiatives designed to deleverage the media machine of the globalists.
The globalists need media for everything—it’s the ultimate vehicle for their mind-control social engineering that is critical to the successful implantation of their plans.
This battle, on Twitter and elsewhere, is as critical to the freedom effort as the Beaches of Normandy were to the allies in WWII. Whoever wins the media war, the narrative war, the information war, will win the prize—the control of planet earth and its people.” — Justin Deschamps
Young Ukrainians Scared To Leave Their Homes As More And More Videos Emerge Of Forced Conscription
As Ukraine’s manpower on its frontlines starts to dwindle, military leaders are becoming increasingly desperate to locate new recruits to propel its counteroffensive against Russia forward; however, the number of young people volunteering for such a challenge has plummeted.
Recent videos of young Ukrainian men being conscripted across the country have circulated in popular encrypted messaging apps in Ukraine, and those fearful of being sent to the front are actively engaging in evasive and, in some instances, illegal tactics to avoid such a fate.
The brutal mobilization by Ukrainian military recruitment officers of young men has been occurring for a year and a half now, Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet reports.
“Many conscripted men are taken straight off the street by uniformed men,” it states. “Most recently in Subcarpathia, a surveillance camera recorded the overreach of the authorities as a man trying to go to a store was kidnapped from his bicycle in broad daylight.”
The man was abducted right on a street during the day by police and conscription officers in a small village in the Municipal District of Munkács, with his bicycle left in the road. — Remix News
Our Take: “The pieces are being moved into place for the Scare Event.
To wit, the War of Stories is currently seeing:
Zelensky/Ukraine humiliated on the world stage in memetic fashion.
NATO support drying up.
The US beginning to make moves toward 'mobilization,' which is all posturing (controlled, at that,) in order to provoke a response in the Collective Mind, which Trump is coaxing along and Directing.
All against the backdrop of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer releasing.
Peacemaker. Movie.” — Burning Bright
Russia's FSB Says It Thwarted Ukraine-Linked Plot To Assassinate RT Editor-In-Chief
Russian media is widely reporting that RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan was targeted in an assassination plot, uncovered and thwarted by the country's Federal Security Service (FSB).
According to RIA Novosti, the FSB announced Saturday that members of a neo-Nazi group which goes by the name 'Paragraph 88' had been arrested in connection with the alleged plot, which apparently was busted before any attempt.
Authorities said that the group was also preparing to target prominent Russian journalist and former presidential candidate, Ksenia Sobchyak.
The neo-Nazi members were alleged to have "carried out intelligence at the addresses of work and residence of Simonyan and Sobchak" - or were allegedly casing their residences in preparation for some kind of attack.
A report in TASS cited that six people have been detained in connection with the plot, and are expected to appear in a Moscow court. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “All war is deception, and Russian Media should be consumed with the caveat that Russia is engaged in a war, and wartime propaganda is a given. Caveat in place, let’s look at the claim here in the context of its likelihood and possibility.
First, ‘The past year has proven that indeed there have been assassination plots targeting high profile Russians, with the deaths of Darya Dugina and war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky being foremost examples.’
The murder of Dugina was covered, then memory-holed. But the targeting of journalists telling the truth about their government is nothing new. In this wag-the-dog war, controlling the narrative is a primary objective, and journalists who threaten that objective are viewed as enemy combatants. There is no reason to question the possibility of forces on one side of the war assassinating journalists whose reporting supports the other side. It’s real. It happens. Truth is the enemy of propaganda.
Second, neo-nazis working on behalf of the Ukrainian cause is also well documented. The Azov Battalion is a neo-Nazi paramilitary organization and, before this war, everyone agreed Azov was a neo-Nazi paramilitary organization — even the failing NY Times. In March of 2019, the Times wrote: ‘On his flak jacket was a symbol commonly used by the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi paramilitary organization.’
Then the war happened, and now the Times says neo-Nazis fighting on behalf of Ukraine is Russian propaganda and a far right conspiracy theory.
‘Multiple experts on the region said the claim that Ukraine is corrupted by Nazis is false. President Volodymyr Zelensky, who received 73 percent of the vote when he was elected in 2019, is Jewish, and all far-right parties combined received only about 2 percent of parliamentary votes in 2019 — short of the 5 percent threshold for representation…The common Russian understanding of Nazism hinges on the notion of Nazi Germany as the antithesis of the Soviet Union rather than on the persecution of Jews …’
Consider that statement for a moment. The Times is essentially saying, ‘These Nazis aren’t really Nazis because these Nazis don’t openly hate Jews.’ Nazis are actually good guys, according to the Times.
Those WW2 Nazis weren’t real Nazis, and real Nazis are heroes of WW3. The ‘paper of record’ actually says this. People actually believe this. The information war is real.
Our considerations give us two established truths to keep in mind while consuming both Russian and Western war propaganda: (1) Journalists that threaten the narrative will be murdered in a war, and (2) Nazi paramilitary organizations are working on behalf of Ukraine.
Motive: Narrative control .
Means: Nation State Resources.
Opportunity: Plans thwarted by FSB.
All war is deception. But it’s still war, with cruel puppet masters and real human casualties. Assassination attempts on journalists dissuades journalists from reporting truth. Accepting that we are in a war is the first step to winning the war, and this story serves as a reminder of the stakes.” — Ashe in America
Tucker Carlson aggressively questions Pence over Jan. 6, 2021
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson aggressively pressed former Vice President Mike Pence Friday about how he’d characterize the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob invaded the Capitol, forced the evacuation of lawmakers and interrupted the counting of electoral votes in the 2020 election.
The questioning by Carlson, who described the events of Jan. 6 as “mostly peaceful chaos” while at Fox News, underscored how Pence’s break with former President Trump that day will be a defining feature of his campaign.
Many of Trump’s supporters have never forgiven Pence, who was hanged in effigy that day, for his actions on Jan. 6, and it is a major problem in his quest for the presidency.
Carlson opened his questioning of Pence by asking if the former vice president thought the attack on the Capitol was an “insurrection.”
“All I know for sure having lived through it at the Capitol is that it was a tragic day,” Pence said at a Family Leader event in Des Moines, Iowa. “I’ve never used the word insurrection, Tucker, over the past two years, but it was a riot that took place at the Capitol that day.” — The Hill
Our Take: “Whether you're talking about Pence, DeSantis, Pompeo or any number of actual or false Trump allies, it's important to recognize that we're in a Fifth-Gen Info War, according to those who wrote the book on it.
Thus, when someone says they think something could be MILDEC (military deception,) and your response is to post a clip of that person saying something mean ... it does literally nothing to further the argument in either direction, which is why we should focus on the Net Effects of their Narrative Deployments.
The story of Trump's first term was to expose the DNC & more openly corrupt political establishment. He wore the Republican Party as a skin suit to accomplish this, knowing GOP voters and disillusioned independents were ripe for the MAGA message picking.
The second term, also known as the ‘Biden Admin’ for those who haven't figured anything out, is largely about finishing the destruction of the Old Guard & exposing the UniParty Establishment in the lead-up to 2024, and the third Unification Term.
Whether they mean to or not, figures like Pence are helping us along that Exposure & Disclosure path, either sacrificing their reputations out of service to this nation, or because they have no other choice.” — Burning Bright
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.
“Whoever wins the media war, the narrative war, the information war, will win the prize—the control of planet earth and its people.” — Justin Deschamps
Thanks to the fact that God has gifted the truth tellers with amazing talent, insights and courage, we the people are awake. The time for mass action is now. Local matters.
God bless all of these truthers!🙏
Tucker's exposing of DS UniParty posing as Republican POTUS candidates in Iowa marks potential seismic shift back to Truth Journalism. What chance is there that any of these frauds (or are they Patriots posing as Frauds?) will give Tucker a 2nd opportunity to further peel back the curtain? If we the ppl see Truth in political discourse again, it's definitely a White Hat Psy Op w/ actors playing their roles in the movie. Personally I delighted in Tucker's playful repartee in skillfully stripping away their rhetorical veneer masks to reveal the ugly faces of DS Tyranny.
Tucker & Badlands Media .... keep on keeping on!