Badlands News Brief

Trump Surges While Biden Baffles

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 Thursday, June 29 …

---

Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action in College Admissions

The Supreme Court found it unconstitutional to consider race in university admissions, eliminating the principal tool the nation’s most exclusive schools have used to diversify their campuses.

Thursday’s 6-3 decision will force a reworking of admissions criteria throughout American higher education, where for decades the pursuit of diversity has been an article of faith. University officials have insisted no substitute for racial preferences exists that can ensure that a representative share of minority applicants—particularly Black students—gains admission to selective institutions.

No longer able to give such applicants an automatic boost, admissions offices now must decide where racial diversity ranks among priorities that can include academic performance, achievement in extracurricular activities such as athletics, and preferences for alumni and donors.

Before the court were admissions practices at two pillars of American higher education: Harvard College, the Ivy League titan whose name has symbolized achievement and power for centuries, and the University of North Carolina, a public flagship which, like other land-grant institutions, provides an elite education subsidized by taxpayers for state residents. Both schools said that, consistent with decades of Supreme Court precedent, a minority applicant’s race could serve as an unenumerated plus factor that raised chances of admission. 

Lower courts agreed, rejecting lawsuits organized by Edward Blum, a former stockbroker who has brought a number of cases against laws and policies that make distinctions based on race or ethnicity in areas such as voting and education. — The Wall Street Journal

Our Take: “The Affirmative Action ruling is a big one, and while it makes sense on the surface level for the Supreme Court to issue the ruling before their summer recess, I also can't help but wrap this into the War of Stories framing.

Last June, the MAGA movement was weary and worn, and then Roe v. Wade came down right before Independence Day, giving the American people a needed boost.

After two Trump indictments and a WHOLE lot more, we get another big win right before the 4th.

Teasers for Agenda 47?

Trump said we’re going to win so much in the future we’ll get tired of it. We’re not there yet, but occasionally, we get some hints at what it might feel like.” — Burning Bright

---

Biden Picks Up After Journalist Calls Secret Burner Phone Revealed In Hunter Scandal

On Sunday, investigative journalist and Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer revealed that Hunter Biden had been paying for a secret global phone from AT&T to the tune of $300 per month.

"We know from the laptop that Hunter Biden's business paid for a private phone line that Joe Biden used while he was vice president," Schweizer told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo. "It was from AT&T, it was $300 a month, it was a global phone where you could access somebody anywhere around the world."

[…]

Now get this - journalist John Solomon called the phone, and President Joe Biden picked up!

"One of those documents got leaked to me and it had a cell phone number that Hunter Biden was paying for, so I figured this was my chance. I’ve been trying to get fair comment from Hunter Biden, so I’m gonna call the cell phone!" Solomon told Real America's Voice. "So I called the cell phone, and guess who picked up the phone? Joe Biden!"

"Joe Biden! Boy was he shocked when he got – when he picked up the phone and found out it was me," Solomon continued, adding "He hung up pretty quickly!" — ZeroHedge

Our Take: “Joe Biden never talked to his son Hunter about his overseas business dealings. Also, Hunter’s so-called business paid for an AT&T global phone for The Big Guy for $300 a month.

It must have been packed with features, because that’s a lot of money for a single phone line. I mean, it’s a lot of money for us plebs. $300 a month is nothing when you’re soliciting bribes from countries that hate America at $5M per shakedown. We know the phone belongs to Joe because John Solomon called it, and Joe Biden answered.

Solomon found the number from documents on the Biden Laptop, and this is your friendly reminder that the FBI and DOJ had access to this information — the Laptop and its smoking gun evidence of 459 business crimes, sex crimes, influence-peddling, and more by the Biden Crime Family — for more than a year before Biden was inaugurated. So did all the prosecutors with jurisdiction where the crimes took place. And regular Americans have sent the Marco Polo Biden Laptop Report to every single member of Congress, many times over.

What’s the hold-up on justice?

For the Bidens, selling out your country is a family affair, and the evidence is piling up like boxes of classified documents in Chinatown. Add ‘Phone records from Joe Biden’s secret global phone that Hunter paid for’ to the top of the pile.

Who did scrotus talk to on the phone, besides John Solomon?” — Ashe in America

---

---

Report: Trump Considering Alternate Programming to First RNC Debate

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly considering offering an alternate event to the first Republican National Committee (RNC) debate, which is scheduled to take place August 23, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, according to reports.

Trump has yet to say if he will participate in the RNC-sanctioned debates, expressing disappointment back in April as possible details of the RNC’s future plans began to surface. At the time, Trump expressed disappointment that nobody obtained the approval of the Trump campaign before announcing possible details of the future debates.

“When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the ‘questions,’ why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?” Trump asked in an April 25 Truth Social post.

“Also, the Second Debate is being held at the Reagan Library, the Chairman of which is, amazingly, Fred Ryan, Publisher of The Washington Post. NO!” he added.

Months later in June, the RNC formally announced the details of the first debate, which will be moderated by Fox News’s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. And according to NBC News, which spoke to several advisers, it sounds as if Trump is leaning toward skipping out on the debate altogether. He may also be toying with the possibility of a dueling event.

“Trump is also exploring options for counterprogramming during the first debate, according to people familiar with his deliberations,” NBC News reported.

It is no secret that Trump has been unhappy with Fox News. He made that even clearer in a June 26 Truth Social post, essentially blasting the outlet for allegedly showing bias in favor of Gov. Ron DeSantis, covering the governor’s border news conference “from beginning to end” while failing to cover Trump’s big speeches over the weekend. — Breitbart

Our Take: “No one is going to tune into a debate that doesn't feature Donald Trump.

The MAGA crowd, for the most part, is distrusting of Fox News and the RNC. Cycle after cycle, the GOP debate committee keeps falling for the same old slipshod, rigged forum, with the sellout corporate media and its hyper-partisan, slimy moderators not only putting a finger on the scale, but a clenched fist.

Let's not forget the absolute sh*tshow put on by Chris Wallace. Trump's opponent wasn't Biden during that debate; it was Wallace and the voices in his earpiece.

Debates featuring Donald Trump are solid gold moments in television history; it's like watching a pay-per-view fight; everyone is glued to the tube (or computer) eagerly waiting the next savage rebuttal or hilarious quip. Recall how he deftly squashed the confidence of Jeb Bush on live television, or how he broke Megyn Kelly. Donald Trump is a force, and without him present, you can expect Fox's numbers to plummet like a Starlink satellite.

An alternative to the way debates are currently handled is desperately needed. It should be conducted more at the discretion of the candidates and their bases than by a series of captured institutions like Fox and the RNC. Imagine a truly unbiased debate, moderated by somebody who has also been slighted by the system of systems—somebody like Tucker Carlson for the Republican primaries and maybe Glenn Greenwald, or even Joe Rogan for the generals.

It's not a perfect plan, but it's already infinitely better than an RNC/Fox News collaborative production.” — Ryan DeLarme

---

Trump’s Poll Numbers Are a Cry for Justice

The harder Democrats hit Donald J. Trump, the higher his poll numbers go.

On June 8, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal indictment against Trump for allegedly mishandling classified records. But rather than sandbag Trump, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 37 charges pumped helium into the reelection odds of America’s 45th president.

Ten days later, ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl was astonished to see Trump rising in public opinion after becoming the first former president to face federal prosecution.

“A poll from Quinnipiac on a possible Biden/Trump matchup puts Biden at 48 percent, Trump at 44 percent,” Karl said on the June 18 edition of ABC’s This Week. “This is a poll, again, taken largely after the indictment. I mean, that’s going to make you — that’s within the margin of error. That’s a statistical tie. What does that say about Biden if he’s barely beating [Trump] or in some polls actually losing?”

Trump’s showing is even more impressive when compared to that of his rivals for the GOP nomination. — The American Spectator

Our Take: “Of course President Trump’s poll numbers continue to climb.

The more the corrupted federal government persecutes him, the more people wake up to the weaponization of government. It’s never been clearer that they’re actually coming for us — for our children, our way of life, our liberty, our sovereignty. President Trump remains in their way — which is why they continue to escalate.

Once people wake up to the weaponization of government, the past several years make a hell of a lot more sense — and it becomes crystal clear that there is no choice but Trump in 2024.” — Ashe in America

---

Candace Owens Jumps the DeShip, Returns to Trump

Our Take: “As first brought to my attention by our own Chris Paul, this is massive.

We've been discussing the Wolves in Sheep's Clothing represented by Con Inc. and the DeSimps for months.

Losing Candace might as well be the death blow for even the public facade of the DeSantis run.

It as over before it began, which makes Trump's baiting of the deployment that much more satisfying in hindsight.

And in light of Candace jumping off the sinking DeShip, and Donald Trump lending signal to the noise, I'll remind folks that it wasn't Ron DeSantis who fell into the Trump Quicksand.

It was his paid influencer network, the wolves in sheep's clothing represented by Con Inc. and the Blue Check Brigade.

Cultural house-cleaning en route to a 2024 Presidential Campaign that will make the MAGA rhetoric of 2016 look like child's play.” — Burning Bright

---

We hope you enjoyed this brief look back at the major news items you might have missed in this ever-escalating and ever-accelerating news cycle as the Information War continues to rage on around us.

The Badlands Media team will continue to combine our cognitive powers in order to slow things down and find the signal amidst the noise as this series expands.

As always, if you have any thoughts on these news items or the MANY others swirling in the digital ether, drop into the comments below to share them with your fellow Badlanders.