Badlands News Brief
Rug Pulls and Riddles Abound as the Trump Victory Tour Continues
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 …
Matt Gaetz Says He's Not Returning To Congress Next Year
Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz on Friday responded to speculation that he could return to the U.S. House after he withdrew his name from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general.
Gaetz on Thursday said in a social media post that he would be withdrawing his name because he does not want to become “a distraction” for the Trump transition team’s work, although he had “excellent meetings” with senators, he said.
A day later, he told podcaster and conservative activist Charlie Kirk that he would not be going back to the House of Representatives. While Gaetz resigned from his current term in office, he won his reelection bid on Nov. 5, prompting speculation that he could still serve out his forthcoming term.
“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch,“ Gaetz said on Friday. ”I do not intend to join the 119th Congress; there are a number of fantastic Floridians who’ve stepped up to run for my seat, people who have inspired with their heroism, with their public service.”
“And I’m actually excited to see Northwest Florida go to new heights and have great representation,” he said, referring to Florida’s First Congressional District, which he had represented.
Based on historical data and trends, it appears unlikely that the First District will be flipped by a Democratic candidate. Gaetz won his reelection bid by more than 30 points, and a Democrat hasn’t represented the area since 1995. — The Epoch Times
Our Take: Shortly before the election at his Madison Square Garden rally in NYC, Trump made an aside to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that they had “a little secret.”
“I think with our little secret we’re going to do really well with the House, right? Our little secret is having a big impact.” He then returned his attention to the audience and said, “He and I have a secret. We’ll tell you what it is when the race is over."
Many speculated that 47 was talking to Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) during this exchange; maybe he was, although Johnson makes more sense in context. Regardless, Trump hasn’t yet told us what the secret is — and the race is now over. Perhaps the secret was this new perch from which Gaetz will be fighting.
It’s been difficult for me to muster excitement or outrage over the cabinet picks, especially when the DOGE is already out here making America great again. I maintain that the next 18 months will comprise an ambitious transformation program that re-limits the federal government under the constitution.
If true, then many of these candidates are being brought in to manage the shutdown of unconstitutional bureaucratic institutions over the course of the next 18 months. As far as I can tell, the picks are consistent with that mission.
Many are claiming Gaetz will be named as a special counsel. Others say he will take Rubio’s Senate seat. In one of the weirder predictions, DeSantis names himself Senator and Gaetz takes over as Governor. I don’t know what Gaetz’s role will actually be, but I’m quite certain it’s not that last one.
For now, Gaetz’s next role is “a little secret.” Damnit if the waiting isn’t the hardest part. —
Trump is about to become Gaza crisis "negotiator in chief"
Hostage families and deal-minded Israeli officials are now placing their hopes in President-elect Trump to succeed where President Biden has so far failed: Convincing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza in exchange for freeing the hostages held by Hamas.
The big picture: Less then two months before Trump's inauguration, a hostage-release and ceasefire deal looks unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Instead Trump will very likely inherit the crisis and the responsibility for the seven Americans held by Hamas, four of whom are believed to be alive.
Trump's incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios he will restore stricter sanctions against Iran, fight terrorism, and support Israel.
"President Trump will serve as America's Negotiator in Chief and work to get innocent civilians held hostage home," she said.
Behind the scenes: When Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Trump to congratulate him on his election win, he told the president-elect that securing the release of the 101 hostages is "an urgent issue," according to three people briefed on the call. — Axios
Our Take: Trump is about to cuck Netanyahu.
The only thing that Netanyahu has achieved since October 7th is succeeding in turning most of the world against Israel.
Over the past year, there has been a growing movement against Netanyahu among the Israeli public to bring the hostages home, which merged with the pre-October 7th movement against Netanyahu's proposed judicial reforms. It is interesting that President Trump doesn't seem to think that there are any hostages, at this point, because it means that Trump thinks that Netanyahu is lying about the intelligence he is broadcasting to the world.
What's interesting is that while the office of the President of Israel is largely ceremonial, it is the President who gets to decide which party to "invite" to form a coalition government after the elections. In fact, Israeli voters do not vote for politicians, they vote for parties, who then decide who to seat from the list of candidates who were presented to the public for consideration.
I don't think for one second that Isaac Herzog possesses more political power or clout than Netanyahu, as I think much of that power projection comes from Netanyahu's pedigree as the son of Ze'ev Jabotinsky's personal secretary, and the self-proclaimed heir of the legendary rabbi from the 18th century, Vilna Gaon. Perhaps this is why 34 years ago, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, met Netanyahu on camera and said, "he, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be Israel’s prime minister, who will pass the scepter to the Messiah.” (At the time, Netanyahu was Israel's Foreign Minister.)
The reason I have such strong feelings about Netanyahu is because the story behind him suggests that he is prepared to bring about great cataclysm in order to achieve his destiny—or the destiny that has been prophesied in his ear throughout his life. That makes him a very dangerous animal that is now being cornered before it can hurt more people.
But the point is, Trump isn't mincing words with Herzog. Certainly he knows that Herzog isn't calling any shots, and Trump doesn't even seem interested in indulging the false narratives that have been used to perpetuate this conflict indefinitely.
I'll maintain that I think the Mike Huckabee appointment—along with other pro-Israel cabinet members—is Trump playing a hand in a high-stakes game of poker. Netanyahu must know that Trump isn't really his friend, as they don't share the same ambitions, but can he afford to go against Trump, given the concessions that Trump has quite visibly made to accommodate Israel in every conceivable way?
If Trump tells him to stop the war, will he? If Trump brings the opposing sides to the table in an earnest exercise to achieve peace, will Netanyahu bend the knee? Especially knowing that the day after the fighting stops, his own legal troubles will begin, as the postponed corruption prosecution from 2019 will resume?
And if Trump comes in and delivers these hostages— assuming there are any to deliver— will the Israeli people maintain their appetite for Bibi's war(s)? —
Justin Trudeau Watches Taylor Swift While Riots Erupt in Montreal
Riots erupted overnight in parts of Montreal after pro-Palestinian, anti-NATO protesters clashed with police officers, smashed windows of businesses, and even set vehicles ablaze in the downtown area.
Canadian English-language daily newspaper The Gazette, also known as the Montreal Gazette, reported that the protests coincided with the 70th Annual Session of NATO in Montreal, which kicked off on Friday and lasts through Monday. About 300 delegates from NATO member states and partner countries are expected to attend the weekend high-level event.
Here's more from the local paper about the overnight chaos:
An initial group of protesters gathered at Émilie-Gamelin Parc downtown at around 4:30 p.m. before marching toward the Quartier des Spectacles, according to Manuel Couture, a spokesperson for the Montreal police. By 5:30 p.m., another group had converged at Place des Arts, and the two demonstrations merged.
The protesters then marched down St-Urbain St. At 6:10 p.m., tensions escalated as demonstrators set an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on fire in the middle of the crowd. As the march continued, objects — including small explosive devices and metal items — were hurled into the street, targeting police officers. By 6:40 p.m., protesters had smashed shop windows near St-Urbain and René-Lévesque Blvd., and set two vehicles ablaze.
Couture said police deployed chemical irritants and conducted crowd-dispersal manoeuvres to regain control. Three protesters were arrested for allegedly assaulting police officers and obstructing police work.
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was jamming out at a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto at the time of the incident. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: On Saturday, Pat King, one of the leaders of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” Trucker protests in 2023, was convicted on five charges for organizing the peaceful protests against Canadian COVID-19 policies.
"Mr. King was not merely engaging in political speech," Justice Charles Hackland said. "Rather, he was inciting the protesters to continue their ongoing blockade of downtown Ottawa."
As a reminder, this blockade was an entirely peaceful protest.
Meanwhile, also on Saturday, “Free Palestine” protesters turned violent at the NATO summit in Montreal, with rioters smashing windows, setting cars on fire, and assaulting Mounties. “Three protesters were arrested for allegedly assaulting police officers and obstructing police work,” according to a local news report cited by ZeroHedge.
This article focuses on Trudeau and his attendance at a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto at the time of the riot. While hilarious, it’s a bit of a cheap shot. I care less about Trudeau’s taste in music than I do about his government’s obviously asymmetrical treatment of protestors.
The trucker convoy participants caused no damage and did no harm other than frustrate Trudeau’s government. The NATO protestors chose violence, destroying property and assaulting police. Like here in the US, the difference in government treatment across the two protests has to do with the content of the protest — the idea behind their actions.
Unlike the US, Canada doesn’t have our same First Amendment protections. Here, content-based restrictions on the First Amendment are presumptively invalid and everyone is entitled to the equal treatment under the law. Inciting protestors to keep protesting — peacefully — is not a crime. It’s protected speech and assembly.
Here, you cannot excuse unlawful conduct because you agree with the protestors’ grievance. Politicized courts still do, of course, but you have an appellate path to remedy that will favor justice in the US. Not sure that is the case in Canada.
If history is our guide, the leftists will get, at most, a slap on the wrist. King is facing five years.
Trudeau faces a challenging reelection in October of next year, and Canadians would be wise to toss him for Pierre Poilievre if they value freedom, equal justice, and strong leadership.
Poilievre is Canada’s last chance to reject globalism and make Canada great again, and it can’t come soon enough. If Trudeau wins again, we may have no other choice but to invade. (Metaphorically, of course.) —
Insane $1.2 trillion detail in Donald Trump photo at UFC 309
Elon Musk got all the headlines when he sat with Donald Trump at UFC 309, but the real bombshell is the man sitting on the other side of the President-elect.
It emerged on Monday the 78-year-old “leader of the free world” was rubbing shoulders with two of the richest, most influential businessmen on the planet at the blockbuster fight night in New York.
Saudi sport goliath Yasir Al-Rumayyan was taking in the action alongside Trump as they watched Jon Jones put on a masterclass against Stipe Miocic inside the iconic Madison Square Garden.
Al-Rumayyan is the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) group, which holds $930 billion in total assets, making it one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world.
Al-Rumayyan and Musk control $1.2 trillion in assets across several companies, including Space X and oil giant Saudi Aramco, The Sun reports.
But with Trump included, the triumvirate’s combined net worth is around $1.8 trillion — the same price as the latest US Congress spending bill. — News.com.au
Our Take: We discussed this on Saturday night's edition of Devolution Power Hour, but there was some signal last week when President Trump attended the UFC fight with Elon Musk. Because the guy sitting on the other side of President Trump was Yasir Al-Rumayyan—the chairman of the Saudi national oil company, Aramco, and the head of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
According to the article, "A photo of the trio together has also been described as “the richest picture ever seen in world sport."
Al-Rumayyan is an important figure in the court of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Back in January 2015, when MBS's uncle (King Abdullah) passed away, and MBS's father (then-Crown Prince Salmon) became king, he immediately appointed MBS as the Defense Minister.
MBS wasted no time, seemingly already well aware that the Saudi PIF had been mismanaged—perhaps intentionally—and was hemmoraghing around $100B every year, which is a quarter of the entire annual government budget. On its current trajectory, the fund was set to become insolvent by the end of 2017, which would have bankrupted the government, and effectively been the end of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as we know it. (Rival families would have moved on the royal family, and seized power.)
So MBS took drastic action.
According to reports, he summoned his four closest advisors, locked himself in a room with them, and refused to let anybody leave until they had a plan to restructure the entire Saudi government from scratch. Twelve hours later, they had a plan, and ten days later, that plan had been completely executed, and the Saudi government was fully restructured, on paper. (This was the act that set the stage for the Saudi Royal Purge, which took place on the weekend of November 4, 2017, around the time that the PIF had been projected to go bankrupt.)
One of these four trusted advisors was Yassir Al-Rumayyan, and MBS then tasked him with fixing the Fund, and managing it moving forward. Since then, the world has watched in awe as the Saudis have divested their wealth out of oil, put up shares of Aramco for sale to the public for the first time in history, establish sports leagues and world class resorts, and invested heavily in every economic sector, namely hi-tech and video games.
The moves that Al-Rumayyan has been making over the past decade have worked in perfect concert to the charm offensive that MBS has been deploying during that same time, as well as the diplomacy that [Saudi Foreign Minister] Faisal bin Farhan has been orchestrating over the past five years.
Everywhere that MBS and FBF have gone, they have been greeted with even more enthusiasm than that which is typically poured on to Saudi princes—which is normally rather substantial, anyway. That is because everybody knows that MBS is very serious about fundamentally transforming his Kingdom, as he already demonstrated when he locked up all of his corrupt cousins and cast out the radical sheiks from his government.
Those world leaders know that MBS is seeking investment opportunity wherever he can find it, and a wise diplomat would see the value in allying with an emerging world power that will likely have the same leader for the next 50 years. (That is diplomatic consistency that no other country can come close to offering.)
And now President Trump is flexing by appearing very publicly with Al-Rumayyan. Do we think he is sending a message to anybody? —
Report: US and European Officials Discussed Giving Ukraine Nuclear Weapons
According to the New York Times, US and European officials have discussed a range of options they believe will deter Russia from taking more Ukrainian territory, including providing Kiev with nuclear weapons. The outlet reports that Western officials believe the Kremlin will not significantly escalate the war before Donald Trump is sworn in as President in January.
Following the election of Trump earlier this month, the US and its NATO allies began taking steps to rush weapons to Ukraine and give Kiev the ability to strike targets inside Russian territory with long-range weapons.
American officials who were briefed on the intelligence community’s assessments told the Times that weapons will not alter the challenging situation that Kiev is currently facing. “US spy agencies have assessed that speeding up the provisions of weapons, ammunition and matériel for Ukraine will do little to change the course of the war in the short term,” the Times reports.
Desperate to bolster Ukraine’s standing in the war before the transition of power on January 20, the Biden administration is looking at a range of serious escalations. “US and European officials are discussing deterrence as a possible security guarantee for Ukraine, such as stockpiling a conventional arsenal sufficient to strike a punishing blow if Russia violates a cease-fire.” The article continues, “Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union.”
According to some officials who spoke with the Times, the administration believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t significantly escalate the war until Trump returns to the Oval Office.
[…]
Much of the American political class has cast Trump and Gabbard as agents of Russia. However, extensive investigations into Trump’s ties to the Kremlin have come up empty. Additionally, the Times reported last week that there was no evidence Gabbard was in any way an asset of Putin. — AntiWar.com
Our Take: From where I'm sitting, the story of the Great Awakening, which has largely but not entirely been translated through the story of Donald Trump has been following something close to the Fichtean Curve plot structure.
As such, it's impossible to guess which peak along the chart we're currently approaching, but the mass psychological reckoning with the SEEMING inevitability of WW3 has always topped the prediction charts to me, ever since references to "necessary" scare events popped up in the infamous Q Drops.
Taken with this framing in mind, one might begin to see the strange paradox at the heart of many an Anon mind, as we simultaneously exult in the ratcheting tension while recognizing it as theater.
And yet, that doesn't mean we should breed complacency within our ranks, as the future we want to build can't be given, but must be taken.
THIS is why Trump has been talking about "mandate" so much lately. It's not just a mandate in the vote, but the mandate to rebuild our world.
And it can only be done by tearing the old one down.
The process doesn't have to be stressful. It can be exhilirating, and even unifying, with the right mindset. —
BONUS ITEMS
Trump selects Scott Bessent for Treasury secretary
President-elect Donald Trump is selecting hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent to be Treasury secretary, he announced Friday.
In a statement, Trump said he was "most pleased to nominate" Bessent, describing him as "widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic Strategists."
He said that that Scott "will support" policies that "drive U.S. competitiveness, and stop unfair trade imbalances."
The founder of Connecticut-based hedge fund Key Square Group, 62-year-old Bessent had been making a full-court press for the post to Trump, according to a source deeply involved in transition planning.
Trump has previously called Bessent a "nice-looking guy" and "one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street." Bessent joked on Fox News that he's in "violent agreement" with Trump on that. — CBS
Trump to nominate Marty Makary to lead FDA
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon who criticized the Biden administration’s Covid response, to lead the FDA.
“FDA has lost the trust of Americans, and has lost sight of its primary goal as a regulator,” Trump said in a statement late Friday, adding Makary would “course-correct” the agency if confirmed.
“He will work under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to, among other things, properly evaluate harmful chemicals poisoning our Nation’s food supply and drugs and biologics being given to our Nation’s youth, so that we can finally address the Childhood Chronic Disease Epidemic,” Trump said.
Makary emerged during the Covid pandemic as a critic of the FDA — first on how long it took the agency to review data leading up to its approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and then for not considering changes to recommendations for children in light of the risk of a rare heart condition in young males that’s been linked to the shot.
His suggestion that the agency slow-walked the first Covid vaccines to undermine then-President Trump prompted fierce pushback from agency leaders. Four years later, Makary, a Johns Hopkins gastrointestinal surgeon who advised the first Trump White House, stands to be recognized for his vociferous support of the president-elect’s pandemic response.
While Makary’s record may not endear him with all Senate Democrats, his selection could also quell fears of an anti-vaccine cloud hanging over the agency charged with evaluating those products for the American market. He advocated for federal authorities to develop nuanced recommendations for the Covid vaccines — like focusing on older individuals and those with high-risk health issues — and to consider changing the mRNA vaccine regimens for healthy children to one dose.
“I’m pro-vaccine. But the issue of the appropriate clinical indication of the [Covid] vaccine is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon, as we frequently see in American culture and politics,” he wrote in an August 2021 op-ed for U.S. News & World Report. — Politico
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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Biden's 'lawfare' DOJ couldn't find even a shred to use against Gaetz, so instead they've convinced people, even some on our side, to join a whisper campaign to undermine Gaetz by inuendo. This is the sort of crap that drives good people out of government or convinces them not to serve in the first place. I can't wait for these defeatists to see that Gaetz left congress not from fear, but to fight for us from a better vantage point.
If we have eyes to see…everything going on is coordinated. The EXPOSURE OPERATION is full steam ahead. Do not fear the tiny terrors that are deployed hourly as part of the victory campaign.