Badlands News Brief
Last Chance at WW3 as the MAGAvengers Assemble
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 …
Biden authorizes Ukraine to use US long-range missiles to strike inside Russia
President Biden has authorized Ukraine's military to use U.S.-provided long-range missiles on targets inside Russian territory, senior U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News on Sunday.
The senior U.S. official said the weapons will mostly focus on the Kursk region of Western Russia. The decision was first reported by The New York Times.
According to the official, Biden's decision was spurred by the Russian decision to invite 10,000 North Korean soldiers into the fight against Ukraine in Kursk. A second official told Fox that it is unclear if Biden plans to approve the use of the missiles outside the Kursk region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said the U.S.'s approval of such missile strikes would constitute an act of war. He has yet to react to Biden's announcement Sunday. — FOX News
Our Take: More seditious treason.
Less than two weeks ago, the American People gave a strong public mandate for a drastic change in leadership at the highest levels of our government. And in response, the ruling party is now deciding to do the one thing that Vladimir Putin has already vowed—on multiple occasions, and through multiple channels—will provoke all-out nuclear warfare?
Remember, this is the exact move that Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson previously asserted led to "certain officials" in the Department of Defense intervening to stop back in September.
Biden was visibly angry because he was told that he wasn't allowed to send these long-range missiles to Ukraine.
So why is this now being reported? Is this mere narrative escalation designed to provoke Moscow? If there is any truth to it, will those same DoD officials step in to stop it?
(Ghosts in the Machine?) —
Trump’s team skips FBI background checks for some Cabinet picks
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, people close to the transition planning say.
Trump and his allies believe the FBI system is slow and plagued with issues that could stymie the president-elect’s plan to quickly begin the work of implementing his agenda, people briefed on the plans said. Critics say the intrusive background checks sometimes turn up embarrassing information used to inflict political damage.
The discussions come as Trump has floated several controversial choices for high-level positions in the US government – including Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.
Ultimately, the president has the final authority on who he nominates and decides to share intelligence with, regardless of the established protocol set in the wake of World War II to make sure those selections don’t have unknown foreign ties or other issues that could raise national security concerns.
But circumventing background checks would be bucking a long-established norm in Washington. It also reflects Trump’s deep mistrust of the national security establishment, which he derides as the Deep State. Sources say he has privately questioned the need for law enforcement background checks.
Dan Meyer, a national security attorney in Washington, DC, said the incoming Trump administration “doesn’t want harmony.” They “don’t want the FBI to coordinate a norm; they want to hammer the norm,” he said. — CNN
Our Take: In the 1960s, John and Robert Kennedy formed an unofficial advisory council called EXComM (Executive Committee of the National Security Council,) which was put together to keep peacemaking efforts siloed from the Joint Chiefs and the Intel Agencies.
Unused to being kept in the dark, these administrative vultures colloquially referred to this cadre of Kennedys and childhood friends from the Boston area (including Kenneth O'Donnell,) as the 'Irish Mafia.'
By going around the Military Industrial Complex and the news media, these men established backchannels to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in order to avoid the war the 'invisible enemy' in both nations were salivating over.
As tensions rose, Robert famously said, "can the fu*king chiefs" as tempers flared over the war for peace.
Reconcile this with Trump's current appointments.
It may not be 'Irish,' but we've got a new American Mafia forming.
"We went around them like nobody's gone around them before."
Deep State most affected. —
Lawyer for Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth Says Sexual Assault Accuser ‘Was the Aggressor’
Trump Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth’s lawyer Tim Parlatore said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Saturday that sexual assault allegations from seven years ago — in 2017 — were “completely investigated” at the time and that he is “completely and totally innocent.”
“He is completely and totally innocent. It was completely investigated. She was the aggressor,” Parlatore said in a phone interview, referring to the woman who claimed she was assaulted.
Parlatore said that in 2017, Hegseth, the host of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, was invited to speak at an event hosted by the California Federation of Republican Women conference in Monterey. After the event, he and event organizers were at a bar, where he had “too many drinks.”
The accuser, who was allegedly sober at the time, took him back to his room, Parlatore said.
“She took advantage of him. She led him. She was, by all accounts, both video and eyewitness, she was sober. He was drunk. She grabbed him. She took him to his room. She’s like walking arm in arm with him. And really putting it on, and she gets him into his room. And then the police honestly, when they looked at it, even though she was the one that reported it, when they looked at the video, they considered charging her,” he said.
“But that didn’t go anywhere, because obviously Pete’s not gonna sit there and say, ‘I was raped,'” he said.
This incident happened at the height of the Me Too Movement when a number of high profile men in media became the focus of allegations of sexual assault and harassment. — Breitbart
Our Take: We are now in confirmation season, which means the most heinous allegations against Trump’s key cabinet picks will fly like confetti.
Pete Hegseth, 47’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, has already been attacked with three separate narrative deployments.
First, he was “that Fox News weekend anchor,” and MSM talking heads with zero self awareness claimed he lacked the requisite skills and experience. Hegseth’s service record is easily verifiable, and his recent appearance on Shawn Ryan’s podcast preempted the “just a Fox News guy” narrative. They then moved on to Hegseth’s Jerusalem Cross tattoo, with some even calling it a kind of swastika. That was laughable — and most of the public literally laughed at the stupidity of the suggestion — and now they’ve gone full #metoo.
Hegseth’s accuser is already on record, and not in a good way. There is a legal record of these allegations and, as Hegseth’s lawyer said, this woman may now be in violation of a prior legal agreement. If true, she should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The fact that they’re going #metoo so early in this process likely means they got nothing substantive to sink Hegseth’s confirmation. Hegseth will be confirmed. —
North Carolina Democrat floats 'shadow cabinet' to take on Trump administration
With President-elect Trump headed back to the White House and Republicans in the majority in Congress, Democrats have few options to push back against the GOP agenda.
But one enterprising North Carolina lawmaker thinks his minority party should look across the pond to the United Kingdom for the answer to "go toe to toe" with Trump. Rep. WIley Nickels, D-N.C., has proposed that Democrats create a "shadow cabinet" to organize the opposition and challenge each decision by the government.
"Across the Atlantic, the British have something we don’t: a team from the opposition that mirrors the government’s cabinet members. They watch the cabinet closely, publicly challenging, scrutinizing and offering new ideas. It’s another form of checks and balances — a quiet guardrail that keeps power accountable," Wiley argues in an op-ed for the Washington Post.
His proposal is to appoint 26 Democratic leaders in Congress to mirror Trump's Cabinet-level officials and challenge each initiative of the incoming administration. Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for instance, could be a shadow attorney general who would call out Trump's efforts to replace career Justice Department attorneys with those loyal to the president. Or Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, D-N.Y., might be a shadow Secretary of State who would loudly oppose potential action by the Trump administration that would decrease support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. — FOX News
Our Take: Oh wow. Tell me more about your seditious plans to subvert a duly elected President, prevent his government from functioning, and effectively overthrow it?
And here I was thinking we had this long road ahead of us of tedious investigations and lawfare in order to expose the traitors operating in DC on behalf of the transnational crime syndicate that obviously controls the US government.
But seriously, did Wiley Nickels eat paint chips as a kid? Or did he just sniff a lot of glue during his college years? I never thought we would see the day that Hank Johnson would lose his title as the dumbest person in Congress, but here we are. (At least Hank's gross misunderstanding of marine topography may make sense in the minds of very young children and the criminally insane.)
Wiley even goes so far as to explicitly state that they are borrowing this idea from their British friends. I would like to remind everybody that the Federalist Party—which wrote the Constitution and helped create America—had to be abolished at the end of the War of 1812 because it was accused of being a party of traitors who had completely sold out to British interests.
I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.
When do we formally declare war on the banks of London, and the matrix of NGO's—such as the World Economic Forum and Trilateral Commission—
that are in its orbit?
Wiley Nickels needs to be investigated for seditious treason. He looks like a squealer, he sounds like a squealer, and my guess is that he is, in fact, a squealer. So let's file some indictments, use that leverage, and find out what he knows. —
Trump’s MAGA prizefighters: Here’s who was with the President-elect at UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden
These are the MAGA prizefighters.
Donald Trump’s entourage during his visit to UFC 309 Saturday at Madison Square Garden offers some clues about who is in his inner circle as he works to assemble his administration.
With a little over two months before inauguration, the president-elect is spoiling for political fights over his nominees.
And as he watched a series of MMA fights ringside, Trump surrounded himself with some of his most loyal allies — nearly all of whom are outside the traditional power structures that have dominated Washington for decades.
“It really looks like ancient Rome. This is sort of a conquering, Republican Caesar, who is going into the Colosseum, and everyone’s cheering. And he’s got his political gladiators with him,” Bulwark reporter Marc Caputo mused on CNN Sunday.
“That appearance isn’t just about him enjoying the applause, he’s sending a message to the Senate. Like not only are you entertained, these are my people, are you willing to fight? Here’s who I am.”
Trump received a hero’s welcome and electrified the raucous crowd packed into the iconic NYC arena. He entered the alongside UFC CEO Dana White and the rest of his entourage.
Behind him during the big entrance were House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), billionaire Elon Musk, his eldest son Donald Trump Jr., Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and others. — NY Post
Our Take: The events of the last few days should have firmly laid to rest any doubt that what we're looking at during the advent of Trump 2.0 is a narrative translation layer of the Great Awakening and the transition to the Golden Age under the guise of a series of organic convergences.
For starters, when you've got a de facto MAGAvengers walking out to the modern day colosseum with Donald Trump (including Elon Musk, RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and Mike Johnson,) you're seeing the culmination of a public narrative arc, wherein several mass psychological pincers have closed around the central narrative.
Additionally, while the Department of Government Efficiency is one of the most encouraging announcements in modern American history, its memetic origins and the bombast of its leadership has 'story' written all over it.
None of this is to take away from any of said deployments.
Instead, we're seeing the public translation of one of the greatest stories ever told to all layers of the American Mind. —
Wasserman Schultz: Gabbard ‘Likely a Russian Asset’
On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard is “someone who is likely a Russian asset,” and “considered to be, essentially, by most assessments, a Russian asset.”
Wasserman Schultz said, “Tulsi Gabbard is someone who has met with war criminals, violated the Department of State’s guidance, and secretly, clandestinely, went to Syria and met with Assad, who gassed and attacked his own people with chemical weapons. She’s considered to be, essentially, by most assessments, a Russian asset. And would be the most dangerous –.”
Host José Díaz-Balart cut in to ask, “Is that how you consider her? Is that what you consider her?”
Wasserman Schultz answered, “Oh, yes. There’s no question, I consider her someone who is likely a Russian asset, who would be, as the DNI, responsible for managing our entire intelligence community, hold all of our most significant intelligence information and secrets, and, essentially, would be a direct line to our enemies.” — Breitbart
Our Take: Tulsi as a Russian asset is a narrative birthed by Hillary Clinton, and now ol’ Ramen Noodle Head is reviving the misogynistic, defamatory attack just in time for confirmation.
She can’t be a strong, capable, experienced veteran with the integrity required to root out systemic corruption. She must be a honey pot. She is hot, after all, and hot women can’t be intelligent and capable, right? At least that’s what women like DWS tell themselves (for obvious reasons).
Spoiler: If Tulsi was a Russian asset, she would have been prosecuted by the Biden DOJ to the fullest extent allowable by law and, also, any extent outside the law deemed necessary by Garland, Blinken, and their handlers.
If Russia! is all they got, then they got nothing. Tulsi will be confirmed. —
Ann Selzer to end election polling after 16-point miss in final Iowa survey
Famed pollster J. Ann Selzer will end her election polling operation after her final survey for The Des Moines Register failed to accurately capture former President Donald Trump’s strong support in the 2024 election, resulting in a 16-point miss.
Selzer’s announcement comes after the Register in its final poll before Election Day delivered a bombshell result showing Vice President Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump 47-44% among likely voters in the state, raising speculation that Harris could mount a stunning upset. While other surveys had found Trump comfortably ahead of Harris in the state, Selzer’s poll raised Democrats’ hopes in the final days of the race and was widely reported by other outlets.
Trump ultimately swept to victory over Harris in the state by a 13-point margin, winning the actual vote 56-43%. Selzer later acknowledged her poll was a “big miss” and suggested that her poll might have “actually energize[d] and activate[d] Republican voters who thought they would likely coast to victory.”
Kristin Roberts, chief content officer of Gannett Media, which owns the Des Moines Register, told CNN in a statement that the Iowa Poll will “evolve as we find new ways to accurately capture public sentiment and the pulse of Iowans on state and national issues.”
“Our mission is to provide trusted news and content to our readers and the public,” Roberts said. “We did not deliver on that promise when we shared results of the last Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, which did not accurately capture the outcome of the presidential election.” — CNN
Our Take: Oh, Ann. Obviously her suppression poll right before the election — which dominated headlines in the days before Election Day — was overt propaganda. Now she’s retiring. Good riddance.
The poll was once considered “the gold standard,” but was a 16-point miss in Iowa.
That made me think of Colorado elections, which have been considered “the gold standard” for ten years — but haven’t produced a verifiably accurate election result in a generation or longer.
“Gold standard” used to mean sound, solid, reliable, secure. Judging by modern usage, it doesn’t mean that anymore. —
Israeli strikes at Damascus suburb, Syrian state news agency says
Israel carried out attacks on the Mazzeh suburb of Damascus on Friday, Syrian state news agency SANA said, a day after a wave of deadly strikes on what Israel said were militant targets in the Syrian capital.
Explosions were reported earlier on Friday in the vicinity of Damascus.
"Israeli aggression targets Mazzeh area in Damascus," SANA said in a news flash. It gave no other details.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Commanders in Lebanon's Hezbollah armed group and Iran's Revolutionary Guards based in Syria have been known to reside in Mazzeh, according to residents who fled after recent strikes that killed some key figures in the groups.
Mazzeh's high-rise blocks have been used by the authorities in the past to house leaders of Palestinian factions including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Fifteen people were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes on residential buildings in Mazzeh and Qudsaya suburbs, state media reported. Israel said the attacks targeted military sites and the headquarters of Islamic Jihad.
Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel that sparked the Gaza war. — Reuters
And …
Ukraine in league with Al-Qaeda – Syria
Ukrainian agents have been working with Al-Qaeda in Syria, offering them drone warfare training and some of their US-supplied weapons in exchange for manpower, the government in Damascus has told RT.
The terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra, since rebranded as Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) has been reduced to parts of Idlib province in the northwest of the country, thanks in part to Russia helping the Syrian government defeat various rebel militants, including Islamic State (formerly ISIS).
RT’s Roman Kosarev has visited Syria and saw “undeniable evidence” that Kiev has made an alliance with HTS.
“We have real confirmation of the Ukrainian instructors’ presence in Syria,” a Russian soldier, identified only by the callsign ‘Gilza’, told RT. He said Kiev’s operatives have been teaching HTS militants how to fly suicide drones, as well as supplying them with such weapons.
Video footage filmed on a ship showed a US-made Switchblade 600 drone being delivered to the Syrian militants in crates labeled as humanitarian aid. Another video showed a man, wearing a black T-shirt with a Ukrainian trident symbol, chatting with a militant somewhere in Idlib. — RT
Our Take: It would appear that the final kinetic battle for the War of Sovereignty—World War Three—will take place in the Syrian Desert.
If true, then this brings our story full circle, as it was the Syrian Civil War that kicked off in 2012 (and involved intervention from both Russia and Hezbollah), and ran parallel to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, which was in response to the CIA-led Maiden Coup against the duly elected Ukrainian government.
Now we have reports that Ukrainian Special Operations Forces are on the ground in Syria training Al-Qaeda (ISIS) fighters, which would mirror reports from years back of the CIA transporting ISIS fighters from the Middle East to Ukraine to fight the Russians. (Are Americans prepared to learn that ISIS and Al-Qaeda have been US mercenaries all along?)
The parties now present in Syria include Iran/Hezbollah, Ukraine/ISIS, Russia/Wagner, US/NATO, The Kurds, Turkey (and their proxy militias), and the IDF. We also have the Chinese navy anchored to the east in the Persian Gulf, protecting their oil supply chain in Iran, and the US navy anchored to the west in the Mediterranean, protecting their interests in Israel and the surrounding region. (At this point, I'm waiting for Kim Jong Un's music to start playing and for the NorK's to come running down the ramp and into the ring.)
The stage is set for a battle of Biblical proportions, in a theater that is Biblical in its history.
And President Trump is about to return to the White House.
Do you believe in coincidences? —
BONUS ITEMS
Support For Germany's AfD Continues To Soar Amid Calls For Election Ban By Political Opponents
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has seen a significant increase in support, climbing to 19.5 percent, a rise of 1.5 percentage points since October, despite political opponents ramping up efforts to block its participation in future elections.
The latest polling, conducted by Insa-Consulere and published by the Bild newspaper, places the AfD firmly in second place, behind the center-right CDU/CSU at 32.5 percent.
The rise in AfD support comes at a critical juncture, with 112 Bundestag members from across the political spectrum pushing for the party’s exclusion from the Feb. 23 snap election. The motion to ban the AfD, citing its “anti-democratic” nature, has already been submitted to the Bundestag president, with the potential to escalate to Germany’s Constitutional Court. If successful, it could bar the party from standing in elections, effectively removing it from the democratic process.
Proponents of the ban, including figures from the ruling SPD, argue that it is necessary to protect the integrity of German democracy. However, many AfD supporters and their allies view this as an undemocratic effort to silence the party’s growing influence.
Despite these efforts, the AfD’s profile continues to rise. In the latest polling, party leader Alice Weidel emerges as one of the most popular potential chancellor candidates, receiving 17 percent of support — placing her ahead of both Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens).
The AfD’s growing popularity is particularly pronounced in eastern Germany, where Weidel leads with 27 percent support. — ReMix News
Trump transition team compiling list of current and former U.S. military officers for possible courts-martial
The Trump transition team is compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and exploring whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plan.
Officials working on the transition are considering creating a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, including gathering information about who was directly involved in the decision-making for the military, how it was carried out and whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason, the two sources said.
“They’re taking it very seriously,” the person with knowledge of the plan said.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Matt Flynn, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats, is helping lead the effort, the sources said. It is being framed as a review of how the U.S. first got into the war in Afghanistan and how it ultimately withdrew. — NBC News
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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Besides the obvious insanity of it all, the very notion that USA gives another country "permission" to commit murder against any other nation is peak arrogance. "Thou shalt not murder.... Unless thy government permits." Truly the whole idea is reprehensible.
Imagine if neighborhoods operated like this.
Pretty much everything we are against, as moral upright people, has been funded by our tax dollars. I say this in past-tense because I personally believe the stop-cock is fully engaged at this point. Even our “charitable” contributions have quite possibly been spent on efforts to which we are DIAMETRICALLY opposed. Our fake money is still being moved around in various ways to “fund” fake narratives that continue to drain the swamp of their assets (material and “reputational”) A good sound collection of currencies appears to be shaping up to take it’s place. The coming “feature attraction” should be worth the price of admission (one that we have all pre-paid)