Badlands News Brief
Biden Wanders, Putin Ponders & Ukraine Launders
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.
Now, onto the news from the Weekend that Was …
"ATF Exceeded Its Statutory Authority": Supreme Court Rules Bump Stock Ban Is Unconstitutional
On Friday, the Supreme Court invalidated the Trump administration's bump-stock rule, which the Biden administration defended, in a 6-3 vote authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.
"ATF exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a Rule that classifies a bump stock as a "machinegun" under §5845(b)," the Supreme Court said in the Garland v. Cargill case, otherwise known as the bump stock case.
Justice Thomas wrote the opinion:
Congress has long restricted access to "'machinegun[s],'" a category of firearms defined by the ability to "shoot, automatically more than one shot . . . by a single function of the trigger." 26 U. S. C. §5845(b); see also 18 U. S. C. §922(o). Semiautomatic firearms, which require shooters to reengage the trigger for every shot, are not machineguns. This case asks whether a bump stock—an accessory for a semiautomatic rifle that allows the shooter to rapidly reengage the trigger (and therefore achieve a high rate of fire)—converts the rifle into a "machinegun." We hold that it does not and therefore affirm.
Meanwhile, Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a fiery dissent:
The majority’s reading flies in the face of this Court’s standard tools of statutory interpretation. By casting aside the statute’s ordinary meaning both at the time of its enactment and today, the majority eviscerates Congress’s regulation of machineguns and enables gun users and manufacturers to circumvent federal law.
The Garland v. Cargill lawsuit was filed by Texas gun dealer Michael Cargill, who owned several bump stocks before the ban took effect and later handed them over to the government. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: An unconstitutional gun law put in place in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting was dealt a blow Friday, with the Supreme Court decision in Garland v. Cargill.
From the opinion:
For many years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) consistently took the position that semiautomatic rifles equipped with bump stocks were not machineguns under §5845(b). ATF abruptly changed course when a gunman using semiautomatic rifles equipped with bump stocks fired hundreds of rounds into a crowd in Las Vegas, Nevada, killing 58 people and wounding over 500 more. ATF subsequently proposed a rule that would repudiate its previous guidance and amend its regulations to “clarify” that bump stocks are machine guns. 83 Fed. Reg. 13442. ATF’s Rule ordered owners of bump stocks either to destroy or surrender them to ATF to avoid criminal prosecution.’
The justices held that ATF exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a Rule that classifies a bump stock as a ‘machinegun.’
Michael Cargill posted on X Friday: ‘I won.’
Because shall not be infringed.
Congratulations, Mr. Cargill! —
‘One hand tied around the back’: Europe presses US to lift Ukraine weapons limits
European allies are ramping up pressure on the Biden administration to further loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, arguing that the limits still in place hurt Kyiv’s ability to defend itself.
Publicly, the U.S. administration says it has not changed its policy, which currently restricts the use of U.S.-provided weapons to Ukrainian soil and the immediate region across the border from the besieged city of Kharkiv. But U.S. officials acknowledge that at multiple points in the conflict, Washington has been reluctant to give Ukraine something it wants — only to give in at the last minute.
“If you look back over the course of the conflict, you can find a number of areas where we were reluctant to do something and then we did it,” said one senior Defense Department official, who was granted anonymity to speak about sensitive conversations. “So never say never.”
The discussions are taking place in Brussels this week, where defense chiefs from around the world gathered for a Thursday meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and Friday’s NATO defense ministerial. They come weeks after the Biden administration quietly gave Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia — but only across the border near the Kharkiv area, where Moscow has been launching attacks on the northern city. — Politico
And …
Biden Wanders Off On His Own At G7 Meeting Like A Dementia Patient
Joe Biden’s cognitive decline was on show for the entire world at the G7 summit in an Italy Thursday as he randomly wandered off from the other dignitaries during a sky diving demo.
While everyone else concentrated on the military personnel doing a live show right in front of them, Biden looked around, turned his back on it and began to wander away looking lost.
Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni had to play the role of Dr Jill by grabbing a Biden and bringing him back.
He looked utterly bamboozed by what was happening around him. — Modernity News
Our Take: When I read something like, “Washington has been reluctant to give Ukraine something it wants — only to give in at the last minute,” my mind goes beyond the feckless ineptitude on full display, to consider the more pertinent question:
Why?
To me, the why is becoming more and more obvious. This isn’t about expanding NATO, or even defeating Russia— though I acknowledge that those two goals are very high on the Empire’s wish list.
This is about a cover-up of one of the most sadistic and evil criminal enterprises in existence.
A few weeks back, I reported on Putin’s award ceremony, where Steven Seagal— after being honored by Putin— gave a speech where he stated that Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine was about shutting down child trafficking and organ trafficking rings, as well as ending Nazism. (Meaning this conflict is a continuation of WWII, in some respects.)
One year ago, in June 2023, deputy speaker of Russia’s Federal Council, Galina Karelova, publicly stated that Russia had shut down child-trafficking rings running through Kherson and Mariupol, claiming that Kiev was using Ukrainian orphanages to traffic children to Europe.
Considering the considerable control that the CIA and State Department have over Ukraine, that report implicates a lot of people in DC.
Last September, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, reported that Ukraine had passed legislation that expanded the black market for organ transplants by eliminating requirements of written consent for organ extraction from living and deceased donors, which had long been in place. Nebenzya specifically said that organs were being extracted from children.
Another Russian politician has said that Putin’s ceasefire proposal is the last chance to preserve the Ukrainian state, emphasizing the existential nature of this conflict.
I firmly believe that within the underbelly of Ukraine is a heart of darkness that, when exposed, will fundamentally change the world forever; Because it will legitimize, in the mind of the general public, the assertions that the political elite are involved in occult practices, such as child trafficking, pedophilia, and ritual sacrifice.
I believe that very soon the idea that many of the DC elite are satanic pedophiles will no longer be considered “fringe conspiracy theory.” —
Another Take: “While I agree with Ghost up above, when I first saw this headline, I chuckled for an entirely different reason:
While Joe Biden was wandering around like a dementia patient at the G-7 meeting, his supposed allies in the Globalist Regime were attempting to wring more out of him than the typical meandering sound bites reserved for his corporate media handlers, specifically regarding commitments to Ukraine funding and overall support for the NATO bloc.
That in encouraging in and of itself, as it’s further evidence of the Deep State Archipelago concept I’ve been talking about for some time, in which it’s becoming apparent that formerly-connected nodes within the Deep State’s matrix have been cut off from their former communications and control structures.
What’s more … it’s a MAJOR Devolution proof.
The fact that EU ‘Allies’ are taking Biden to task for not holding up his end of the bargain implies that the net effects of a regime candidate ‘winning’ the 2020 election have not come to pass.
Now why would that be?
We’ve been told we’re watching a movie. Anons have believed it for some time, but each and every day, with each and every POTATUS deployment, I’d like to think another swamp creature starts to believe it, too.
We’ve been told we’re going to like how this movie ends. I’m not so sure I’d say the same about the other guys. —
House Republicans launch investigation into news rating group NewsGuard
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) launched an investigation into misinformation tracking company NewsGuard on Thursday, citing concerns about "protected First Amendment speech" and "censorship campaigns."
The big picture: NewsGuard is a web extension that uses trained journalists to monitor and rate news and information sites' trustworthiness and it has highlighted issues with both conservative- and progressive-leaning websites.
Sites are assessed for basic practices of credibility and transparency, rating publishers with a score of 0-100 for each of the nine criterion, per a statement on NewsGuard's website.
Driving the news: "Questions now surround the influence of NewsGuard's business relationships and other influences on its ratings process," Comer said in a statement announcing the probe on Thursday. — Axios
Our Take: This development underscores why there cannot be a government-run ‘disinformation governance board.’ NewsGuard cites itself as a ‘misinformation tracking’ company… but who decides what is misinformation?
Certainly information that is false, but pushed as true qualifies… but who decides what is true?
After years of debunked government narratives, it simply can’t be the government. They’re wholly untrustworthy.
Also, who is the government?
In the age of public-private-partnerships, private and nongovernmental entities act as arms of the government all the time — especially when it comes to misinformation.
No serious person thinks this is anything other than political. As for the House investigators opening an inquiry, I can’t help but think there’s gotta be a better way. If we’re individually going after every entity involved in the RICO Regime, we’re going to be here a long time.
Finally, the DOJ refused to action the Congressional contempt referral on Merrick Garland late Friday. So the value exchange of this entire endeavor begs consideration. —
Russia makes another real peace proposal to Kiev — Putin
Russia today makes another true peace proposal to Kiev, which envisages the recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as Russian territories, the consolidation of Ukraine's non-aligned and nuclear-free status, its demilitarization and denazification, and the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with senior diplomats.
"Today we are making another concrete, real peace proposal [to Kiev]," he said.
Putin went on to list Russia’s terms for a settlement. "As soon as Kiev agrees to these conditions, agrees to completely withdraw its troops from the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions and actually launches this process, we are ready to start negotiations without delay. I repeat, our principled position is as follows: the neutral, non-aligned, non-nuclear status of Ukraine, its demilitarization and denazification. What’s more, these parameters were generally agreed upon by everyone back during the Istanbul talks in 2022. Everything was clear regarding demilitarization, everything was spelled out, including the number of tanks, and everything was agreed upon. Of course, the rights and freedoms of Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine must be fully ensured, the new territorial realities and the status of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as Russian constituencies must be recognized. In the future, all these basic, principled provisions should be recorded in terms of fundamental international agreements," he said. — TASS
Our Take: Here we have some supporting evidence of my assertion that the Sovereign Alliance has shifted from a covert, information-driven strategy to an overt, disclosure-driven strategy.
Those of you who have been watching Devolution Power Hour for the past year have likely heard those guys speculate that 2024 would be “the year of disclosure,” and I think Putin just made a significant move to support that idea.
Up until now, diplomacy—especially in the context of warring nations— has been disclosed to the public in an indirect manner, often after the deliberations between the various sides have been held. Meaning we (the public) are kept out of the room, while the “adults” conduct geopolitical affairs. What Putin has done is bring us to the table— just like President Trump did with the American People, as Steve Bannon always says— by not just announcing the ceasefire proposal prior to deliberations, but reading it, line by line, live on camera.
Now the public knows the exact terms of Putin’s offer, before the media or western governments can frame those terms in a light that is favorable to them. Public discourse is already well underway, and public sentiment has begun forming before the corporate media even received their talking points from their CIA handlers.
Simply put, Putin has subverted the MSM in a brilliant move that may change the way “dissident” nations engage with audiences, moving forward. This style of transparency is something we have been demanding, and finally, it seems somebody is actually listening and delivering. —
Putin On G7 Seized Assets Plan: "Despite All The Trickery, Theft Is Still Theft"
After on Thursday Group of Seven leaders agreed at a summit in Italy to give Ukraine $50 billion utilizing interest from frozen Russian Central Bank assets, President Putin has addressed the move during a speech before his Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He once again denounced this as brazen 'threft' and described that Western leaders are trying to come up with "some kind of legal basis" for the asset freezes, "but despite all the trickery, theft is still theft and will not go unpunished."
European Council President Charles Michel had announced the day prior, "Russia has to pay."
And President Biden had said, "I’m very pleased to share that this week the G7 signed a plan to finalize and unlock $50 billion from the proceeds of those frozen [Russian] assets, to put that money to work for Ukraine, [in] another reminder to Putin that we’re not backing down.'
Putin also warned that if the West steals Russia's sovereign assets, then anyone it is proof that "anyone" could be next. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: "Despite All The Trickery, Theft Is Still Theft."
This statement was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin this weekend to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Putin may have been talking about western nations selling seized Russian assets in his own context of "theft," but you can easily repurpose the phrase to just about anything any government seizes for its own budgetary reasons, including vast portions of its electorates' wages.
I also find the timing of it to be delicious, since it comes directly on the heels of Donald Trump suggesting an end to US income tax by offloading that budget onto foreign trade, a price most countries will happily pay in order to retain access to the most robust middle class in the history of the world.
At a separate meeting this weekend, Alexander Bespalov, co-chair of the Investment Russia public organization, said, "only a person who is extremely detached from life and reality" would still support Ukraine.
The Based Era is nearly upon us. —
Swiss right-wing leader calls Ukraine summit an 'embarrassment'
A leading Swiss right-wing nationalist panned a summit his country was hosting in a bid to pressure Russia to end its war on Ukraine as an "embarrassment", reflecting the view that the talks are damaging for Switzerland's traditional neutrality.
The right-wing Swiss Peoples' Party (SVP), the biggest group in the lower house of parliament, says neutrality is an integral part of Switzerland's prosperity, and it has initiated a referendum to embed the principle in the constitution.
Leading figures in the party have argued Switzerland should not have hosted this weekend's summit without Russia, and Nils Fiechter, chief of the SVP's youth wing, delivered a damning verdict on the talks to Russian broadcaster RT.
"The conference will achieve nothing," Fiechter told RT on the eve of the talks, in comments picked up by Swiss media on Sunday. "The whole thing is an absolute farce and an embarrassment for our country."
The summit being held at the Buergenstock luxury resort has sparked heated debate over whether Switzerland should abandon its neutrality, a position deeply rooted in the Swiss psyche. — Reuters
Our Take: It would seem that World War III has ostensibly shifted from a covert, information-driven conflict rooted in 5th Generation Warfare, to an overt, disclosure-driven conflict rooted in foreign policy.
Last week’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) somewhat served as the Sovereign Alliance’s “coming out” party, where they reported the on-going success of their operation to defect from the “unipolar world order,” and reaffirmed their intent to establish the “multipolar world order” that we have been hearing about for years.
The biggest news to come out of SPIEF was the consensus of attending nations to “de-dollarize” their national economies, referring to the Federal Reserve’s fiat US Dollar. The event culminated with the 50-year anniversary of the signing of the 1974 agreement between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Saudi King Faisal that established the petrodollar. It has been widely speculated (and “reported”) that this agreement was allowed to expire on June 9 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. (I have not found the supporting documentation, though it seems to be universally accepted as fact.)
The continent of Africa was also in attendance, and stated that the establishment of a multipolar world served their interests.
This weekend’s Swiss peace conference seems to have been the first major “battle” in the geopolitical war between these two factions: the [ruling] Unipolar Globalist Empire and the [rebelling] Multipolar Sovereign Alliance.
While we have been reporting on the various activities of these two competing factions for a while now, those events have been somewhat isolated moments where a few nations from the Alliance teamed up to “strike” the Empire in an asymmetric fashion. This Swiss conference has provided a world stage, intended to include 160 countries, where a binary choice would be presented that would firmly draw the battle lines in this worldwide uprising. The 78 countries that signed are likely still under the control of the Empire, meaning over a hundred countries are now in rebellion against the Unipolar Hegemony.
The UN formerly recognizes 193 member nations, plus the Vatican and the [disputed] State of Palestine. Of the 160 countries invited to the event, only 78 formerly accepted. Zelensky spent last week scrambling to convince 22 of the declining nations to send an emissary— the most notable being Saudi Arabia, which we covered on Friday’s Brief.
None of those 22 nations chose to sign the “declaration” issued by the summit’s organizers. None of the BRICS countries signed it, and many declined to even show up. None of the [purported] Sovereign Alliance nations signed it, except for the United States— who actually didn’t technically attend the event, as Biden opted to go to George Clooney’s pathetic DNC pep rally.
That’s why Zelensky went to Riyadh and begged MBS to send Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, because without Saudi Arabia, or the Sovereign Alliance, the summit would have lacked any real power broker.
I have to assume that it was Saudi Arabia who convinced Jordan and Iraq to retroactively remove their signature from the declaration. (I’m sure Zelensky is so happy he begged them to come.) —
BONUS ITEMS
US attack sub, Canada navy patrol ship arrive in Cuba on heels of Russian warships
A Canadian navy patrol ship sailed into Havana early on Friday, just hours after the United States announced a fast-attack submarine had docked at its Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, both vessels on the heels of Russian warships that arrived on the island earlier this week.
The confluence of Russian, Canadian and U.S. vessels in Cuba - a Communist-run island nation just 145 km (90 miles) south of Florida - was a reminder of old Cold War tensions and fraught ties between Russia and Western nations over the Ukraine war.
However, both the U.S. and Cuba have said the Russian warships pose no threat to the region. Russia has also characterized the arrival of its warships in allied Cuba as routine.
The Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, half submerged with its crew on deck, sailed into Havana harbor on Wednesday after conducting "high-precision missile weapons" training in the Atlantic Ocean, Russia's defence ministry said.
Canada`s Margaret Brooke patrol vessel began maneuvers early on Friday to enter Havana harbor, part of what the Canadian Joint Operations Command called "a port visit ... in recognition of the long-standing bilateral relationship between Canada and Cuba."
Hours earlier, the U.S. Southern Command said the fast-attack submarine Helena had arrived on a routine port visit to Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. naval base on the tip of the island around 850 km (530 miles) southeast of Havana. — Reuters
Alex Jones' personal assets will be liquidated to pay Sandy Hook families, judge rules
Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' personal assets will be liquidated to help repay the $1.5 billion he owes to the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, a Texas bankruptcy judge ruled on Friday, AP reports.
The big picture: The judge later ruled against liquidating Jones' Infowars media platform and its parent company Free Speech Systems.
Jones has tried to use bankruptcy to protect his personal assets and his extremist media platform in an effort to limit the defamation damages after repeatedly spreading lies that one of the deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. was a hoax.
State of play: In recent days, Jones told viewers and radio listeners that his media company was on the verge of being shut down. He directed them to a new website owned by his father to continue buying his supplements, according to AP. — 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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If Sandy Hook wasn’t a hoax, why would they come after Alex Jones so hard? They could have just proved it and he would have been made a liar. Alex Jones is getting punished for telling the truth. Just like the J6rs, just like Trump, Bannon, Navarro, Rudy, etc.
I had no idea Alex Jones owed 1.5 billion related to Sandy Hook? How on Earth was that calculated? Even if everything he said was utterly false (it wasn't) was the argument that he damaged the families? I'm no fan of Jones really, but there was plenty wrong with the official narrative about Sandy Hook. And, to this day it's rotten like 9/11...