Badlands News Brief

DeSimps Assemble, Committees Convene & Target Tantrums

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.

---

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 Wednesday, May 24 …

---

Ron DeSantis jumps into the 2024 presidential race

Ron DeSantis is in.

The two-term Florida governor officially filed the paperwork to run for president Wednesday, kicking off his much-anticipated showdown with Donald Trump — the man who helped make his political career but now wants to end it. 

DeSantis plans to publicly announce his bid Wednesday evening. He will take the unconventional step of launching his campaign on Twitter in a conversation with Elon Musk. The billionaire tech mogul has amassed an intense conservative following since buying Twitter and transforming it into a social media platform more welcoming to right-wing voices — including those who were once banned for spreading disinformation. 

The discussion will be moderated by David Sacks, a tech entrepreneur who is a Musk confidant and strong DeSantis supporter.

Musk’s involvement with DeSantis’ presidential launch was quietly negotiated for weeks by his inner circle of political advisers, and first reported by NBC News.

The DeSantis campaign hopes that the star power Musk offers will create a moment to alter trend lines that in recent months have seen Trump build an early advantage in key states across the country. — NBC News

Our Take: “It's official. Ron DeSantis is running for POTUS in 2024. The big question is, was this part of a coordinated plan, or is he merely pursuing his own agenda? I suspect that if it's the former, this faux spat between Trump and DeSantis will help bridge the gap between pro-Trump conservatives and pro-Rino conservatives—those conservatives who have unwittingly bought into the anti-freedom, anti-truth, anti-America agenda pushed by the globalists.

Con, Inc. still has a grip on the conservative mind with great effect. Trump's plans for the future won't succeed with this divided base, and both he and the globalists know it. The globalists engender false division by creating silo’d political groups, where it appears as though there’s a major divisive issue when in fact, the issue is only surface level. As long as the depth of the issue stays sequestered, the divide appears valid, and as such, the globalists can use that divide to further their agenda. The avoidance of necessary conflicts, debates, discussion, exploration, and review keeps the illusion going. Therefore, healthy and expressive conflict in the open, for all to see, destroys the illusion.

Ultimately, when you boil down everyone's personal tastes, sensibilities, and values, the same core is at work for everyone. We all want freedom, prosperity, and abundance—at least with those who haven’t totally embraced the false reality of the globalists. The debate is in the details, and these details keep us divided when we don't talk through them with conceptual courage and faith in a common interest. Therefore, Trump and the patriots are going to expose this false divide by allowing a battle to take place in the court of public opinion, on the venue of the public square. In doing so, the spectators, the target of this positive psyop, will begin to realize the divide between conservative values is illusory. And this will be sufficiently resolved in time for the 2024 election.

Lastly, the only real and valid divide exists between true and real values and ideals as they relate to false and toxic values and ideals. The propagandized left and RINOs, who value untruth, and anti-freedom and law values, are the real enemies who we cannot join with.

But even here, the people can change, and many will as Trump's campaign progresses toward 2024.” — Justin Deschamps

---

DeSantis’s Own Spokesman’s Daughter Just Endorsed Donald Trump, While Ron Was Launching His Campaign

The Washington, D.C. Young Republicans organization endorsed President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday, as Governor Ron DeSantis was kicking off his glitch-riddled campaign launch on Twitter. Kingsley Cortes, the daughter of DeSantis PAC spokesman Steve Cortes, is on the board which unanimously endorsed the 45th President.

Cortes defected to team DeSantis earlier in May, resulting in a war of words with MAGA stalwarts such as Steve Bannon, who accused Cortes of taking “thirty pieces of silver,” an allusion to Judas Iscariot. — The National Pulse

Our Take: “It's not a complex take, but I think that this headline is pretty indicative of how a Trump vs DeSantis primary will go.” — Ryan DeLarme

---

Jim Jordan: IRS, FBI Trying to ‘Crush’ Hunter Biden Probe Whistleblowers

Tuesday, during an appearance on FNC’s “Hannity,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) warned the FBI and IRS were trying to suppress the whistleblowers who had stepped forward about how the Hunter Biden investigation was handled.

“Congressman Jordan, let me start with you,” host Sean Hannity said. “All right. So, first, we have — I thought we had whistleblower protection laws in this country, and I also thought that Democrats love to even hearsay whistleblowers, but they only apparently like whistleblowers if they’re going after Donald Trump. We now have allegations by both FBI whistleblowers and IRS whistleblowers that they’re not being protected by the laws in this country and that the retaliation has taken place. What can you tell us about it?”

“No, they’re trying to cross him, and you’re exactly right, Sean. It was an anonymous whistleblower who was behind the whole impeachment of President Trump a few years ago,” Jordan replied. “So they’re trying to crush these guys because they’re coming forward and not only tell us about the double standard in the attack on President Trump but the attack on we the people. That’s the scariest part of all. But if you step back and think about this double standard for a second, Sean, think about this, seven years ago, it was Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok who went after President Trump and his campaign with no probable cause, no predicate, no evidence whatsoever. Mr. Durham told us that this past week.”

“Today, it’s Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis in Georgia, and of course, now, it looks like Jack Smith here in Washington, going after President Trump,” he continued. “And my guess is they don’t have any real probable cause, real predicate or real evidence to do that. It just shows the double standard. And if you come forward and talk about this stuff, that’s when they come after you. That’s when they try to crush you. We saw that from those whistleblowers last week in the hearing.” — Breitbart

Our Take: “A lot of folks want to yell about how nothing will happen to Wray or Garland or the Biden's regardless of whether these whistleblowers even testify or not. I agree that charges and sentencing will probably not happen, but I don't believe this is all for nothing, either; this is all happening for a very good reason.

While It is true that we're unlikely to see justice done as long as the Dems control the DOJ and the Senate is loaded with career politicians, I don't think that is the point here. I believe that this is a battle for hearts & minds.

Here's a theory: You might recall somebody saying, ‘The military is the only way’.

If the people start to demand en masse that the FBI be abolished, then the necessity of military intervention is greatly increased and thereby more likely to occur. The whole point of this, as with the Durham report, is primarily to brief the public on Deep State activity. Seeking wins in the Senate is a fool’s endeavor, as I don't think the votes are there, but with every big to-do that happens in Congress and every new bombshell that breaks regarding institutional corruption, more and more people are being activated.

These constant reminders that system will not fix itself is going to eventually cause the people to become more comfortable with possible military intervention.” — Ryan DeLarme

---

---

Meta fined record $1.3 billion and ordered to stop sending European user data to US

The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring users’ personal information across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears.

The penalty of 1.2 billion euros is the biggest since the EU’s strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing Amazon’s 746 million euro fine in 2021 for data protection violations.

Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold.

The company said “there is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe.” The decision applies to user data like names, email and IP addresses, messages, viewing history, geolocation data and other information that Meta — and other tech giants like Google — use for targeted online ads. — AP News

Our Take: “We need an Internet Bill of Rights and real Data Freedom legislation immediately. The EU passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, which went into effect in 2018 and immediately created headaches for US businesses.

Data has been the Wild West for American businesses since the dawn of the digital age. GDPR isn’t perfect, and corporations always just evolve in the name of compliance, but this new fine on Meta highlights how the US is trailing the world in protecting the rights of Americans online.

AP News is running cover for Meta in this piece, with this bit of disinformation: ‘The decision applies to user data like names, email and IP addresses, messages, viewing history, geolocation data and other information that Meta — and other tech giants like Google — use for targeted online ads.’

Translation: US technology companies leverage the personally identifiable information of Americans without restriction. Data freedom means informed consent, real privacy rights, and meaningful oversight — all things that no one in our political class is currently discussing.

Our data is an extension of ourselves. It’s time to demand that the US Congress take steps to keep our names, email and IP addresses, messages, viewing history, geolocation data, and the other aspects of our digital lives free from the misuse of big tech oligarchs.” — Ashe in America

---

"Terrified Of A Bud Light Situation": Target Pulls Pride Month Products In Certain Stores Amid Boycott Calls

One week after Target CEO Brian Cornell revealed that "woke" capitalism is "great" for their brand and "the right thing for society," the mega-retailer has been scrambling to avoid a disastrous "Bud Light moment" by forcing some stores to remove LGBTQ Pride merchandise as consumer boycott calls mount. 

A Target insider told Fox News that South and rural America stores are removing controversial LGBT-themed products ahead of June Pride month to avoid further backlash. Some products ranged from "tuck-friendly" swimsuits for transgender people to gender-fluid coffee mugs. The insider said the reasoning behind such an abrupt move is "to avoid the kind of backlash Bud Light has received in recent weeks." — ZeroHedge

Our Take: “Budlighted? The latest term referring to what happens to a company when it pushes woke garbage onto it's largely ambivalent LGBTQ+ ideology customer base.

The people have had enough. And while it's a step in the right direction, the degree to which our institutions and private enterprises have been corrupted to work as tools for globalism is far deeper than a few pride flags and breast binders. There is some backlash from the uninformed, thinking that the boycott is just another example of conservative prudishness. These half-cocked opinions are exactly what the propagandists want, as they help push the uninformed centrist toward sympathy for the ‘marginalized LGBTQ+ crowd.’

And in typical woke-company fashion, leadership is in a panic because a handful of limp-wristed activist employees are upset. Mind you, these same employees have about as much business sense as the woke execs that pushed this business destroying woke-agenda in the first place, which is undermining the entire business’s profit margin.

In light of that, should a company, which employs thousands, torpedo revenue for a few short-sighted business-illiterate progressives? It makes about as much sense as sorting chairs on the Titanic.” — Justin Deschamps

---

Celebration marks completion of $1.2 billion NBAF lab for studying animal-to-human pathogens

National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility researcher Lisa Hensley’s career took her from laboratory to laboratory and country to country to study the alphabet soup of ghastly pathogens such as SARs, monkeypox, MERs and Marburg.

But she said an Ebola outbreak in the West Africa country of Liberia brought home what it meant to be in a country with a health-care system overwhelmed by a disease carrying a high mortality rate, without readily available treatment and vaccination options, and complicated by distorted public attitudes about the threat.

“Their reactions were across the board,” Hensley said. “There were a lot of people who just didn’t even believe in Ebola. Thought it was something the government was doing. When I went to set up the lab, I remember the people didn’t ever want to take anything from my hands. There was this fear.”

She said the lone treatment facility in Liberia’s capitol couldn’t keep pace with the sick and dying. People driving the ill to a hospital or burying the dead became targets of infection. In other parts of the nation, treatment centers were attacked by skeptics who didn’t believe the virus was naturally occurring. — Kansas Reflector

Our Take: “‘The Wheat State,’ ‘The Heartland,’ ‘America’s Breadbasket.’

If you’ve just driven through Kansas, you probably remember it as flat and windy. But the Sunflower State plays a critical role in America’s — and the world’s — food supply. According to the state’s agriculture website, ‘Kansas is ranked first in grain sorghum production, growing almost 64% of the nation's crop. Kansas is ranked second in sorghum for silage production. Kansas leads the nation in winter wheat production, growing 24% of the nation's crop. Kansas is ranked third in cattle production and beef processing.’

Now, Kansas is also home to National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), a Level-4 biolab with maximum biocontainment. The completion of the facility was celebrated on Wednesday.

The new facility replaces the Plum Island biolab off the coast of NY, a location strategically chosen to ensure the lab’s highly dangerous research wouldn’t affect the homeland. Both Plum Island and NBAF are owned and operated by the US Department of Homeland Security. The decision to move the nation’s most dangerous research into the middle of the US food supply has puzzled Americans since it was first announced back in 2008. But government rarely listens to citizens’ concerns and here we are, awaiting the drop of the next deadly pandemic.

My money is on that mushroom zombie thing from The Last of Us.” — Ashe in America

---

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.