Badlands News Brief
The Syrian Powder Keg Ignites as Russia Speaks Out
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.
Before we get into the meat of today’s Brief, we want to take a moment to thank our sponsor, and to let our Badlands readers know about a fantastic deal they’re offering.
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Now, onto the news from Thursday, December 5 …
NYPD Releases Maskless Photos of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Killer
The NYPD released new photos Thursday of the suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer that show him without a mask over his face.
Breitbart News reported 50-year-old Thompson was shot and killed outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan just after 6:45 a.m. on Wednesday.
A manhunt for the shooting suspect was immediately underway and continues now.
NYPD released photos of the suspect on Wednesday showing him with a black mask over his face but the photos released Thursday show him maskless/ — Breitbart
And …
UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassination: Bullet Casings Inscribed With "Deny, Defend, Depose"
The plot thickens in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, as New York Police Department investigators have discovered shell casings at the shooting area engraved with the words "deny," "defend," and "depose."
The shooter, still at large, appeared to have targeted Thompson, waiting for him early Wednesday morning outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel, firing multiple shots from a suppressed 9mm handgun, killing the high-level insurance executive.
Officials familiar with the investigation told the New York Times that the words "deny," "defend," and "depose" were found on 9mm bullet casings at the scene. They also noted that ballistic tests are currently underway. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: The “professional assassin” conducted his hit on UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on camera, left shell casings at the scene, and reportedly dropped a cell phone while fleeing.
Now we learn that he is also captured on camera, smiling and completely identifiable. To say I’m skeptical about everything this story has to offer is a gross understatement.
There is power in capturing a public assassination on camera, in midtown Manhattan, an hour before morning rush hour. For people that believe the news, it’s enough to terrorize them into changing their behavior. Even for those who don’t believe the news, it’s enough to distract from stories that matter.
We don’t have to know the intended outcome of a narrative deployment to call it a narrative deployment. The default standard for all legacy media stories — especially the most traumatizing ones — must be disbelief.
They betrayed our trust. Now they have zero credibility. —
West backing terrorists in Syria – Russia
Russia has reports that the US and the UK might be implicated in supporting the al-Qaeda-affiliated militants currently on the offensive in Syria, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra, launched a surprise attack from Idlib last week and has since taken Aleppo and Hama. US journalist Tucker Carlson asked Lavrov who was supporting the terrorists in Syria, during the interview that aired on Thursday.
”Well, we have some information,” Lavrov said. “The information which is being floated and it’s in the public domain, mentions, among others, the Americans, the Brits. Some people say that Israel is interested in making this situation aggravated so that Gaza is not under very close scrutiny.”
“It’s a complicated game. Many actors are involved,” the Russian diplomat added.
Lavrov explained to Carlson that Russia, Iran, and Türkiye brokered a ceasefire in Syria in 2017 and again in 2020, calling this Astana Format “a useful combination of players.”
“The rules of the game are to help Syrians to come to terms with each other and to prevent separatist threats from getting strong,” the diplomat said. “That’s what the Americans are doing in the east of Syria when they groom some Kurdish separatists using the profits from oil and grain sold, the resources which they occupy.”
“We would like to discuss with all our partners in this process the way to cut the channels of financing and arming” the terrorists, he added. — RT
Our Take:
So, according to Sergei Lavrov—who is considered by many to be among the most respected and capable diplomats in the world—the entities backing ISIS in Syria include the United State, Britain, and Israel, among others.
We have already reported on the Ukraine special forces that are training these terrorists, as well as Turkey, who has otherwise been posturing that they will pivot away from Europe and toward Russia. Though Lavrov has now told Tucker that Erdogan is working with Russia and Iran to stabilize the country.
The way I see it, the resurgence of ISIS spells the end of both Neoconservatism and Zionism, because it will soon become clear that both of these political movements—which have used radical Islamic terrorism for decades as a rallying cry to justify their hawkish dispositions—are responsible for funding it.
Simply put, we just watched the Democrat Party get effectively destroyed (discredited beyond repair) during the recent election cycle, and now it is the GOP's turn.
I mean, honestly, how in the world is Lindsay Graham going to explain this? Meeting with Abdelhaqim Belhadj in Libya in 2011? The leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group? The Al-Qaeda affiliate in Libya?
That guy in the picture with John McCain and Lindsay Graham later became the leader of ISIS in Libya.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren’t ISIS the bad guys? Aren't those who affiliate with them also bad guys?
It was Belhadj who led the assault against Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, ultimately murdering him, and the primary consequence of this murder was that hordes of African migrants were unleashed to cross the Mediterranean and invade Europe. (Gaddafi had been holding them back for years.) The secondary consequence was that Gaddafi's legendary armory was raided and the weapons were distributed to CIA-trained "rebels" in Syria through Turkey.
What's insane is that, back then, Lindsay Graham was openly calling for Al Qaeda and the US military to murder Gaddafi.
This is a war crime, especially when you consider that the entire NATO-led operation into Libya was predicated on an Al-Jazeera report that Gaddafi had given Viagra to his soldiers and instructed them to rape women and children in the villages that were harboring terrorists. (This report was later proven to have been entirely fabricated. Whoops.)
Lady Lindsay could get away with this crap 15 years ago, because most of America (and the world) was completely apathetic to this situation in Syria, not to mention ignorant. But things have changed. We have changed. And now, we know what we are talking about when it comes to this theater.
Lindsay Graham should be arrested, and a tribunal should be empaneled to determine whether he did, in fact, commit any war crimes, and if so, whether those war crimes would be tantamount to treason against the United States government.
If we fail to pursue this justice, then we are not a moral society, and do not deserve redemption. That is why I think this story is being recycled, so that this justice can be pursued, and America can be redeemed for the horrifying crimes the State Department has committed around the world.
You are watching the systematic destruction of the Old Guard. —
Full Lavrov-Tucker Interview: US & Russia Need To Cooperate 'For The Sake Of The Universe'
Tucker Carlson first unveiled Wednesday that he had traveled to Moscow to interview Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and the full interview has subsequently been published Thursday night.
Among the most important messages conveyed was directed by Lavrov toward Washington and its allies, which "must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call strategic defeat of Russia."
And referencing Russia's recent use of its Oreshnik hypersonic missile, Lavrov expressed hope that Kiev's backers took "seriously" the new weapon, for which Russia says there is no defense, as Moscow remains ready to use "any means" to defend itself. "We are sending signals and we hope that the last one, a couple of weeks ago, the signal with the new weapons system called Oreshnik... was taken seriously," Lavrov emphasized. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: Sergey Lavrov occupies an interesting space in the Russian story, often able to cut through noise in a way Putin's position doesn't allow him to.
His opening response to Tucker is Bicameral signal.
Lavrov is telling westerners that, while Russia effectively IS at war with the US, describing it as a hybrid war, he draws a subtle distinction between that and the America that has Russia's respect and admiration.
While anti-Russia propaganda entered the mainstream narrative circa 2016 with the advent of the Russia Collusion hoax against Trump, and while it no doubt accelerated during the 2022 panic pattern as Putin moved in to liberate the Donbas by Denazifying the Prussian Proxy state on his borders, Russia-US tensions have been seeded going back a century as the ultimate backdrop in what the Deep State has long seen as the ultimate prize in terms of a Great Reset trigger.
They wanted the last war to be Actual. The one we're getting is Narrative, and peace is going to be the winner. —
Concerns mount over Musk’s taste for revenge
Elon Musk’s growing criticism of President-elect Trump’s opponents and industry competitors is raising concerns he may use his increasing influence to intimidate adversaries.
These fears are compounded by Trump’s repeated vows for revenge against his perceived enemies, with experts warning Musk could echo and carry out the same rhetoric on his social media platform, X, in the coming months.
“Musk is a good fit for Trump, because Musk clearly enjoys … vengeance and gets off on retribution,” said Matt Dallek, a political historian and professor at George Washington University.
“This is partly, at least, what animates him, maybe even more so at this point than his business enterprises.”
Neither X nor a spokesperson for the Trump transition team responded to The Hill’s request for comment.
Concerns were amplified last week after Musk went after retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who became an outspoken critic of President-elect Trump after testifying in his first impeachment trial. — The Hill
Our Take: The folks at The Hill sound scared. Elon Musk is a vocal critic of the status quo, mirroring the positions of the majority of Americans and saying things that need to be said.
That’s specifically what these writers at The Hill are missing: Musk “owns” X, the de facto public square, and he wields data and analytics capabilities that rival nation states. Musk can analyze the public discourse at the speed of AI. If he wasn’t promoting popular positions, he would know instantly. The people would tell him, and his technology portfolio would ensure he got the message quickly.
While Statists have relished their team centralizing power and building the surveillance state, you should never wish for powers you don’t want your enemies to one day wield. But that’s where we are and, as a result, Democrats like Vindman should be concerned.
We should all be a bit concerned by the capabilities in play, to be honest.
At this moment, the people want accountability. Trump and his team, including Musk, are their voice and chosen fighters on the matter of accountability. They have a growing mandate, and they have the ability to measure their agenda and actions against the will of the people in real time.
Ready or not, it’s a brave new world. Careful what you wish for. —
Hezbollah offers help to Syria
Hezbollah will help the Syrian government fight jihadists and is calling on Arab countries to support Damascus in its battle, the acting leader of the Lebanon-based militant group, said in a speech on Thursday.
“Aggression on Syria is sponsored by America and Israel,” Naim Qassem claimed, adding that Islamists “have always been their tools since 2011, when the problem began in Syria.”
The country was plunged into a protracted war in 2011, as various anti-government groups sought to topple the government of President Bashar Assad. Jihadist forces, particularly those employing foreign fighters assisted militarily from abroad, emerged as dominant players among the opposition.
The US and other Western nations, which demanded that “Assad must go,” claimed that “moderate rebels” could ultimately prevail in the conflict.
Russia intervened in the hostilities in 2015, providing its airpower to Damascus. Assad’s forces restored control over most of the country, but some places, including Idlib province near the Turkish border, remain outside of its reach.
The situation deteriorated last week when the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group (formerly known as Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra) and its allies launched a large-scale surprise attack in the northwestern part of the country. — RT
Our Take: Back in August, the former Prime Minister of Qatar came forward and did an interview where he explained that in 2011 a coalition of bad actors from Sunni Arab nations—including himself—conspired with Turkey and the West to overthrow Assad and the Syrian government. The reason he came forward was out of concern that the other Arab nations (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE) would blame it solely on Qatar.
To accomplish this mission, he claims that a budget of $2 Trillion was put forth. (The Qatari says that the Saudis took over the file in 2013, when they became frustrated with the lack of results. That all ended in January 2015, when King Salmon ascended the throne and appointed his young son, Mohammed (MBS), to be Saudi Defense Minister.) It seems that it was an act of God that the Syrian government was able to withstand these powerful geopolitical forces until Russia finally mobilized and came to their aid in 2013.
But the truth is that it was Hezbollah who immediately came to Assad's defense, and kept his government in place while fighting off the Frankenstein terrorist network that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had created with the help of Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain (among others).
Now Hezbollah has returned to once again defend the legitimate government of Syria, and protect President Assad from these same CIA mercenaries. And they are calling on all the earnest actors in the Arab world to step up and join them to defend Assad from these sociopaths. (Considering that MBS brought Assad/Syria back to the Arab League last year, the likelihood of Hezbollah finding strong allies seems pretty good.) Just like with South Korea/North Korea, and Israel/Iran, we are seeing a narrative redemption for another entity that we have long been told is an existential evil.
Why is it, exactly, that the State Department wants so desperately to see the Syrian government destroyed? Because Tel Aviv wants Damascus? The Greater Israel Project? Or is it because Assad is buddies with Putin and Victoria Nuland's ilk are desperate to hurt Putin in any way imaginable?
Is it because the Israeli lobby (AIPAC) controls our government? If not, then what is our national security interest in Syria?
I will remind you all that back in 2019, after President Trump withdrew US troops from northeast Syria (Kurdistan), Lindsay Graham attacked him for doing so, then ran to Turkey as fast as he could to do... something.
What were you doing in Turkey, Lindsay? —
Russia-Syria special-op frees captured troops from jihadists – Damascus
Syrian Army cadets and officers have been rescued in a joint Syrian-Russian counter-terrorism operation carried out to break through a siege by Islamist militants in the northwestern city of Aleppo, the country’s Defense Ministry has said.
According to a statement published on Facebook on Wednesday, cadets from the Assad Military Engineering Academy near Aleppo fought off the terrorists before being aided by “joint Syrian-Russian military-political coordination.”
Jihadists had stormed the academy with various types of medium- and heavy-caliber weapons and advanced drones, the ministry said.
The students were later encircled again by groups of terrorists armed with heavy vehicles, including tanks, artillery, machine guns, and drones, the statement added. As a result, some of the cadets and officers were killed and others injured, although the ministry did not provide figures. — RT
And …
Syrian insurgents capture central city of Hama in severe setback to the Syrian president
Syrian insurgents swept into the central city of Hama on Thursday and government forces withdrew, dealing another major blow to Syrian President Bashar Assad days after insurgents captured much of Aleppo, the country’s largest city.
The stunning weeklong offensive appeared likely to continue, with insurgents setting their sights on Homs, the country’s third-largest city. Homs, which is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Hama, is the gate to the capital, Damascus, Assad’s seat of power and the coastal region that is a base of support for him.
The offensive is being led by the jihadi group HTS and an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. Their sudden capture of Aleppo, an ancient business hub in the north, was a stunning prize for Assad’s opponents and reignited the Syrian civil war that had been largely a stalemate for the past few years.
Hama is one of the few cities that has remained mostly under government control in the conflict, which broke out in March 2011 following a popular uprising.
By sunset, dozens of jubilant fighters were seen shooting in the air in celebration in live footage from Hama’s Assi Square. The square was the scene of massive anti-government protests in the early days of the uprising in 2011, before security forces stormed it and got the city under control. — AP News
Our Take: It's a tale of two cities.
Hama is roughly halfway between Aleppo to the north and Damascus in the south. (See map below for reference.)
Damascus is obviously the political capital of Syria and has long been considered one of the prized cities of the Middle East, going back to ancient times. But there is a reason that Aleppo—the second-largest city in Syria—is also prized, as detailed by my co-host
on Breaking History.Back in 2004, President Assad first revealed what he called the "Five Seas Vision," which was a proposal for the establishment of a regional trade and energy transportation corridor that would connect the five seas in the are. At the heart of the plan was a massive railroad network, and the natural geographic "center" of this proposed railway is Aleppo.
In 2015, Assad revived his call for the proposal, and that call was answered in 2022, when Syria officially joined China's Belt and Road initiative.
So now we have CIA mercenaries (ISIS) taking the city between Aleppo and Damascus (Hama), and we have Russian special forces securing Damascus from the clutches of the IDF and CIA mercenaries.
Things are certainly getting interesting. I wonder when we will see Russian boots on the ground in Israel? —
Jeff Bezos ‘actually very optimistic’ about Trump 2.0: ‘Too many regulations in this country’
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said Wednesday that he is “optimistic” about President-elect Donald Trump’s second term and expressed some excitement about potential regulatory cutbacks in the coming years.
“I’m actually very optimistic this time around,” Bezos said on stage during a wide-ranging interview at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York. “He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I’m going to help him.”
“We do have too many regulations in this country,” Bezos added.
The comments follow an October decision by Bezos to prohibit The Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing a presidential candidate, a move that led to tens of thousands of people canceling their subscriptions and protests from journalists with a deep history at the newspaper. — The NY Post
Our Take: Before the Inflection Election, I had referred to a Narrative pattern I felt I had seen in the offing from some of the more savvy figures in the establishment media zeitgeist. I called it Hibernation Theory.
In short, it posits that, just like the Deep State largely survived the first public facing Trump admin, so too do they believe they can survive another.
Of course, I would suggest that the screeching panic pattern you see from some of the more ... plugged in? ... nodes of the cabal on the back of the Kash Patel nomination suggests there is not a unified front in the Deep State core these days.
To wit, figures like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, far from being long-time sleepers in my estimation (like Elon Musk, for example,) seem to be going even further than Hibernation Theory and are in the midst of wholesale Narrative capitulation ahead of Trump 2.0.
Perhaps their strings were cut. Perhaps they're simply saving face.
Either way, the pattern bears watching by all players. —
Hulk Hogan suggests Trump may nominate him for position in administration
Hulk Hogan suggested that President-elect Trump might give him a role in his upcoming administration during an interview with Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade on Saturday.
Hogan during the interview recounted a conversation that he had with Trump at the president-elect’s Madison Square Garden rally in October in which Trump, as told by the former professional wrestler, seemed open to the idea of having Hogan serve in Trump’s second term.
“My president said, ‘You know something, you’d be great to run the President’s Council on Physical Fitness,'” Hogan said of their conversation at the New York rally.
The President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition is a federal advisory panel that encourages healthy eating and physical activity, according to its website. President Biden renewed the council until Sept. 30, 2025.
The Hill has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
Hogan said that after the rally, he and Trump were discussing nutrition and physical fitness, which led to the suggestion.
“At the end of the day, when I was in the back at Madison Square Garden after the whole rally, we were talking about Robert Kennedy, I was talking about nutrition, and how many foreign countries won’t even let their people eat the food that we eat here in America. It’s so bad, and it’s poisoned a generation of kids. And at the end of the day, we start talking about physical fitness,” Hogan said. — The Hill
Our Take:
Somehow I missed this story last week during the Thanksgiving holiday shuffle.
The Badlands News Brief willed this into existence. We have usurped the MSM.
The TrumpaManiacs are running wild, brother. All of your psyops now belong to us. —
BONUS ITEMS
Former WaPo reporter says 'we want these executives dead' after murder of health insurance CEO
Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz wrote several social media posts appearing to celebrate UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder while suggesting other executives should also be targeted.
Thompson was shot and killed at close range in midtown Manhattan Wednesday morning, outside the Hilton Hotel. The suspect remains at large.
"And people wonder why we want these executives dead," Lorenz wrote hours later, referencing Thompson’s death in a Bluesky post with a report about Blue Cross Blue Shield no longer covering anesthesia for the full length of some surgeries.
Lorenz also posted an image of Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Kim Keck with a similar article on both Bluesky and X.
She reposted another user who wrote, "[H}ypothetically, would it be considered an actionable threat to start emailing other insurance CEOs a simple ‘you're next’? Completely unrelated to current events btw."
She later seemed to defend the harsh posts, claiming there’s "very justified hatred" against CEOs for the "amount of death and suffering" for which they allegedly bear responsibility.
"People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering. As someone against death and suffering, I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the ppl in power who enable it," Lorenz wrote. — FOX News
Mexico and Canada Scrambling to Impress Trump
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for his return to the White House, Canada and Mexico have already begun taking shots at each other in the fight for a seat at his table.
The U.S.'s two closest and largest trading partners are bracing themselves for a drastic change in American trade policy after Trump warned that he would place a 25 percent tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico to curb the influx of migrants and drugs across U.S. borders.
As a result, both countries have heightened rhetoric towards each other in a bid to position themselves as the stronger trading partner in North America. Officials in Canada and Mexico have also been highly critical of Trump's proposed tariffs, with threats being made to raise taxes on U.S. goods in return.
Newsweek contacted representatives for the Mexican and Canadian governments for a response to the developments via email.
Canadian President Justin Trudeau visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, becoming one of the first world leaders to meet him in person after his victory in November. While no garuantees on trade were met, Trump described the meeting as "productive", and when the Canadian ambassador to the U.S. commented on the meeting, they highlighted talks on border policy explicitly in comparison to Mexico.
"The message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood," Ambassador Kirsten Hillman told reporters on Sunday, framing the discussion in relation to Trump's stance on immigration and drug trade along the southern border. — Newsweek
Blackburn unveils ‘DOGE Acts’ to cut spending, freeze federal hiring and salaries
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has unveiled her “DOGE Acts” to cut spending and freeze federal hiring, as well as salaries.
“Senator Blackburn is planning to introduce a package of bills – known as the DOGE Acts – aimed at holding the federal government more accountable for managing taxpayer dollars next week,” Blackburn’s spokesperson said in a statement. “The DOGE Acts coincides with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s plan to make the federal government more efficient.”
The legislation “would cut discretionary spending, move federal agencies out of the swamp, freeze federal hiring and salaries for one year, begin the process of a merit-based compensation structure for federal employees, and require agencies to get employees back in the office,” according to the statement.
The bills in the package would create a commission centered on the relocation away from D.C. of some federal agencies; cause a yearlong pause in federal hiring and salaries; and make the federal government have a pilot program in which civilian employees would be compensated in relation to their merit.
Last month, President-elect Trump said tech billionaire Elon Musk and former GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would serve as the heads of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), which aims to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures” and restructure federal agencies. — The Hill
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.
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.
Well said Ashe: "They betrayed our trust. Now they have zero credibility. — Ashe in America". Speaks to the entire DS Rat Bastard Cabal.
Man I love me some Trumpamania! Thanks GBPH for today's biggest smile: "The TrumpaManiacs are running wild, brother. All of your psyops now belong to us. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry"
God Wins!
God Bless!!!
Excellent timing Rainbow 🌈 Team !
👏🏻👏🏻
Over 100 Navy SEALS Set to Descend on Washington D.C. in Explosive Show of Support for Army Veteran Pete Hegseth
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/12/100-navy-seals-set-storm-washington-d-c/
🕊️🇺🇲🕊️