The news cycle is impossible to fully track these days. That’s where we come in. The Badlands News Brief is a uniquely curated selection of the stories dominating the info war — with context and commentary from Badlands hosts.
The “Nick Shirley Effect” has begun, with Muckraker founder Anthony Rubin on the ground in Columbus, Ohio, home to the second-largest Somali community in the U.S., investigating daycare centers. This development comes less than a day after Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke said federal investigators are examining allegations that elements within Ohio’s Somali community defrauded millions of dollars from the state’s Medicaid system.
“The first Somali-affiliated daycare facility that we knocked on after landing in Columbus, Ohio, today did not answer,” Rubin wrote on X, alongside a video showing the daycare center, Great Minds Learning Academy.
Rubin continued, “A neighbor across the street told us, ‘I’ve never seen anybody come out of the building or go into the building.’”
On Sunday, Breitbart News published an interview with Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke, who alleges that members of the Somali community in Ohio have defrauded millions of dollars from the state’s Medicaid program. She said that authorities at the highest levels are investigating “what is happening in Ohio.” — ZeroHedge
Another Take: The Take Care Clause and Constitutional Duty
“The president must take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
“Their duty is to the Constitution first and foremost.”
“It’s not to all of the laws that have been passed at some point by a Congress, legitimate or not.”
“If those laws are in direct conflict with the president’s understanding of the original Constitution, that is a full explanation for why the president would not go ahead and execute those laws.”
One More Take: Re: Minnesota Somalis: “Trump and team will look at the American battlespace, and they will wait for an opportunity to rapidly cultivate the very public mandate that they need to solidify an actual.”
Mandate Cultivation is at the heart of patriot plans.
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The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday froze hundreds of millions of dollars in child care funding for Minnesota, the latest in a series of moves against Gov. Tim Walz’s administration as it attempts to manage allegations of fraud.
The funding freeze comes as Minnesota faces probes by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security over allegations that the state’s Democratic leaders were complicit in exploiting federal funds for nutrition and child care.
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 90 people with defrauding the federal government as part of an investigation that dates back to 2021, and two leaders of the Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future were convicted of stealing federal nutrition funds in May. The allegations also triggered a state audit that concluded the Walz administration “did not effectively exercise its authority” to prevent the fraud. — Politico
When I first saw this video and HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, I was encouraged for completely superficial and, it turns out, entirely unwarranted reasons:
He looks like an auditor. That might not seem encouraging, and he may not appear scary, but guys that look like this are terrifying to powerful people engaging in financial crime. They turn up looking all nerdy, and your golden parachute is in jeopardy. At least in theory. In practice, those parachutes appear indestructible.
Anyway, I was curious so I looked him up. Turns out, he’s not an auditor.
He’s a Co-Founder…
LOL.
O’Neill got his Bachelors at Yale in 1990, and a Masters at University of Chicago in 1997. There are gaps in his LinkedIn from 1990-1996 and 1997-2001. His professional experience began as a speech writer for the US Department of Education in 2001. Then he moved into HHS in 2002 where, in just under six years, he went from Director of Speech and Editorial to Principal Associate Deputy Secretary.
In 2008, O’Neill made a career shift and found himself at the intersection of the health industries, emerging technology, and high finance:
2008 to 2012: Managing Director, Clarium Capital (Thiel’s Hedge Fund)
2008–2012: CEO, Thiel Foundation & Co-Founder of the Thiel Fellowship
2012–2019: Managing Director, Mithril Capital Management (Thiel Venture Capital)
Then he headed an anti-aging nonprofit and served as a board member and/or paid advisor for multiple health-tech and biotech companies… Now he’s Deputy Secretary of the HHS and Acting Director of the CDC.
Quite the career path! I wonder how he met Peter Thiel, and if he and JD Vance do the Yale tailgate parties together. Do they do shots with Handsome Dan before or after the dungeon ceremony?
Anyway, O’Neill is not an auditor. He’s a speech writer turned bureaucrat turned hedge fund manager turned venture capitalist turned bureaucrat again; and, if there’s a binary, he’s either going to release the MedBeds or chip the children.
Long term.
In the short term, he’s totally going to stop the corruption and money laundering flowing through that government department he helped build (right before becoming wildly wealthy.) — Ashe in America
The Ukrainian drone attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence earlier this week may have been staged by elements of the government in Kiev to undermine Vladimir Zelensky, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson has told RT.
Moscow said the attempt to strike the state residence in Novgorod Region occurred overnight from Sunday to Monday, coinciding with Zelensky’s US visit to negotiate with President Donald Trump. Johnson called the timing suspicious.
“I don’t think he [Zelensky] is that stupid to launch that kind of attack while meeting with Trump,” he argued in an interview on Tuesday. Johnson said he would not be surprised if Ukrainian intelligence personnel, possibly acting on orders from Kirill Budanov, head of the military espionage agency HUR, were involved. — RT
Our Take: This is an interesting take. One that certainly aligns with @Burning Bright’s theory of #OurBoyZ.
I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to assume that Zelensky is not the one calling the shots in Kiev. Whether that role belongs to this Kirill Budanov character, or the CIA/MI6, it’s more likely than not that Zelensky is merely a figure head — a television character acting as a stand-in for a MASSIVE criminal enterprise which can be succinctly summarized as a con-job to launder US taxpayer funds to paramilitary (”terrorist”) organizations strategically located around the world which have been tasked with overthrowing select governments and/or reclaiming coveted territory — all under the guise of fighting Putin and those dastardly Russians.
Think about it: the Sahel region — the zone separating the Sahara Desert from Africa’s lush jungles — is rich in resources that include oil, gas, gold, and uranium.
The Congo — formally canonized as Africa’s “heart of darkness” by Joseph Conrad — is the single most resource-rich region in the world, with an estimated $24 trillion worth of various rare earth minerals, specifically the kind needed in high-tech manufacturing. (And the Congo serving as one of the few known sources.)
Thailand/Cambodia/Malaysia: We learned from President Trump’s recent visit to southeast Asia that this (along with the Congo) is the other major source of the coveted rare earth minerals needed for high-tech manufacturing. Malaysia and Indonesia form the Straits of Malacca, which is one of the three major chokepoints for maritime trade.
Armenia/Azerbaijan: The capital of Azerbaijan (Baku) has become the critical node in the emerging North-South Transportation Corridor, which is being established by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in order to challenge the hegemony of the Suez Company, which constructed the Suez Canal in the 1860s, creating on of the other three major chokepoints for maritime trade.
The other major node in the North-South Transportation Corridor? Iran.
Venezuela/Colombia: While I do think that much of the hostility directed at Nicolas Maduro and Gustavo Petro is based on their vocal contempt for the state of Israel, Venezuela is resource rich in both oil and rare earth, while Colombia offers one of the most lucrative commodities in human history: cocaine. There’s also the added caveat that Colombia and Venezuela straddle the third major chokepoint in maritime trade: the Panama Canal.
What do all of these places have in common? They happen to be the sites of the conflicts that President Trump has been forced to resolve during the first year of his “second” term as President. The Sahel would be the exception, though President Trump has now made it known that he is interested in addressing the violence against Christians in Nigeria, which is directly connected. We also happen to know, for certain, that the money Congress has sent to Ukraine has been rerouted to terrorist groups operating in the Sahel against the Sovereign Alliance.
What if we could determine that this money is also flowing to these other conflict zones? — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
Latin America’s biggest country had a tumultuous 2025. Brazil jailed an ex-president, Jair Bolsonaro, for plotting a coup. President Donald Trump claimed, falsely, that this was a stitch-up, and slapped hefty punitive tariffs on Brazilian goods. Brazil’s left-wing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, stood up to Mr Trump, and persuaded him largely to back down. Lula, as he is known, is now in a strong position to win re-election in October. […]
It would be his fourth term, making him easily the most successful politician in Brazil’s modern democratic era, which began after military rule ended in 1985, and which Mr Bolsonaro sought to curtail. Brazilians have cause to celebrate the survival of their democracy. But they deserve better choices.
Lula is 80. For all his political talent, it is simply too risky for Brazil to have someone so old serve another four years at the top… He is also burdened by the corruption scandals that unfolded during his first two terms in office, for which many Brazilians cannot forgive him. […]
Despite all these problems—and despite a campaign promise in 2022 that he would not seek a fourth term—Lula has no serious challengers from the centre or the left. — The Economist
When New York City Mayor Eric Adams was elected four years ago, he cast himself as the future of the Democratic Party. Now, as he prepares to leave office as the first one-term mayor since David Dinkins, it’s clear just how wrong he was.
Adams — perhaps the most eccentric executive to ever sleep at Gracie Mansion, to the extent he actually slept there — is more welcome in the folds of the GOP than in national Democratic circles. His job approval ratings require sonar to locate. He was indicted in a five-count federal bribery case only to be rescued by President Donald Trump. And much of his inner circle has been forced from office by scandal and law enforcement investigations.
Ironically, through all that, the cop-turned-mayor did help chart a path for national Democrats hoping to win back the House: New York City voters turned so thoroughly against him that the traditional benefits of incumbency vanished, leaving behind the ideal conditions for a previously unknown state legislator named Zohran Mamdani to triumph in November on a platform of affordability Democrats used to great effect this year. — Politico
Our Take: Joke’s on you, Politico. Bureaucracy is always tragedy.
“Not only will some of his very real wins be forever entangled with the chaos of his tenure, but in leaving City Hall after just four years, he will be taking with him Black political power — long sought and now, after Dinkins, twice preempted — that could be increasingly difficult to win back in the years to come.”
I guess brown is the new black in New York this season. The Dawn of Mam!
Also, re: black political power, elections are fake so Politico’s assertion is nonsensical. Somewhere in the multiverse, black political power comes back to save Gotham. But in that reality, that power is legitimate. In this one, at least right now, none of it is legitimate.
That’s important, and everyone should make a New Year’s resolution to not allow “The Midterms” and its multimedia immersive theatrical experience to sweep you away.
Democracy is a rug pull. Elections are fake.
I had this argument with two different people yesterday — both of whom know that elections are fake.
“You can’t say fake.”
Yeah, I can.
In the user journey of “the vote” — from the drawing of districts, to the registering of voters, to the mailing of ballots and their casting, to their counting and tallying and reporting, to the risk limiting audits, to the judiciary’s treatment of election challenges, and even questions, at all levels, to the silencing of dissent up to and including the removal of rights — at no point does the “election” process and its fruit involve, let alone rely upon, the “will of the people.”
That very idea — that things are the way they are because “the people” “voted” for them — forms the foundation of our society. And it’s fake. We believe we are providing consent to be governed, and that we can withdraw that consent if government gets too uppity. How’s that going? Not well?
Right. Because it’s fake.
We have to deal with that, and we should probably do it soon.
It’s not just that the polls are as fake as the elections.
It’s that the polls are beta tests for election narratives.
Whenever you see ‘polling,’ even if it’s one that makes you feel good, remember that all polls ultimately serve to prop up a system masquerading as sovereign. — Burning Bright
The United Arab Emirates has said it will withdraw its remaining forces from Yemen after a Saudi-led airstrike targeted a shipment at a southern Yemeni port. Riyadh said the shipment included weapons intended for a separatist group, a claim the UAE denied.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Emirati Ministry of Defense said, citing concerns for the safety of personnel, that it was voluntarily terminating its counterterrorism units in Yemen. These are the UAE’s only forces remaining there since it completed a wider military withdrawal in 2019. Abu Dhabi was part of the Saudi-led coalition formed four years earlier to fight Houthi rebels at the request of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
The announcement followed an airstrike earlier in the day by the coalition on Yemen’s key southern port of Mukalla. The coalition said the strike targeted weapons and combat vehicles unloaded from ships arriving from the UAE, allegedly bound for the Southern Transitional Council (STC). The STC is a separatist group in southern Yemen that initially fought within the coalition but later pivoted toward seeking self-rule in the south. The UAE has rejected claims that the shipment contained weapons. — RT
Our Take: This is a storyline that has been unfolding for quite some time, and it’s still a little unclear the truth of the matter. The MSM has tried to paint it — along with the conflict in Sudan — as evidence of a growing rift between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), but that is highly unlikely as it was MBZ who lobbied the Saudi royal family extensively to name MBS their Crown Prince (and, in time, their King).
The basic story here is that the Saudis and Emiratis were both backing individual tribes in Yemen that were fighting together against the Houthis as part of a coalition, and now the tribe that the UAE has backed has splintered off and decided to seek its own claim to govern.
This is a tale as old as time in the Middle East, and one of the great frustrations that the western powers have faced in their never-ending effort to externally control Middle Eastern politics. Because Middle Eastern culture is derived from the tribal system — which is based on the family unit and then the clan — political identity forms at the local level, not the national level. (Something that the American Patriot should find relatable, in some sense.)
It is interesting seeing the Arab monarchies now dealing with the same issues that were once British/French/American problems, but it is a sign of multipolarity — the “regions of responsibility.” To put it another way: the Arabs are solving their own problems.
But the real story here is the Saudi military beginning to establish itself as a regional authority. And this is just with the $12 billion dollar equipment deal that President Trump signed during his first term with MBS. It doesn’t even include equipment in the $142 billion dollar deal they signed during their visit last month.
The multipolar world is emerging, and there are sure to be some growing pains. But this is a sign of the new age. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
The CIA carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, marking the first known US attack on a target inside that country.
The drone strike, the details of which have not been previously reported, targeted a remote dock on the Venezuelan coast that the US government believed was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats for shipping, the sources said. No one was present at the facility at the time it was struck, so there were no casualties, according to the sources.
Two sources said US Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support to the operation, underscoring their continued involvement in the region. But Col. Allie Weiskopf, a spokesperson for US Special Operations Command, denied that, saying, “Special Operations did not support this operation to include intel support.” — CNN
Our Take: Oh, thank goodness they’ve finally figured out what happened. It was a “CIA drone strike.”
They say the details had not yet been reported. But the details still are not reported. This is just “we’re told something happened.” — Chris Paul
South Africa’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mathu Joyini, has criticized Israel’s recent recognition of Somaliland as “ironic and cynical,” citing West Jerusalem’s refusal to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Speaking at an emergency session of the UN Security Council in New York on Monday, Joyini highlighted the contrast between Israel’s stance and international consensus.
”It is ironic and cynical that Israel wishes to be the only state to recognize Somaliland while at the same time rejecting recognition of the State of Palestine, which the overwhelming majority of UN member states have recognized as being legal in terms of international law,” she told the council.
The meeting was convened at Somalia’s request following Israel’s announcement on December 26 that it had become the first UN member state to formally recognize the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as an independent sovereign nation. — RT
Our Take: Israel’s decision to formally recognize “Somaliland” does seem both random and strange. Here is a map of what that looks like:
My initial reaction was to assume that this is a military strategy to combat the Houthis in western Yemen, but then I stumbled upon this letter from 1944 where the President of Ethiopia was responding to a request to relinquish land (along with Somaliland— which at the time was under British control) in order to form a Jewish State for the Zionist political movement.
This seems to bring the whole situation into focus. Even back in 1944 they had assessed that with proper irrigation the region could be quickly transformed into rich farmland, which could be used to sustain a growing population.
Israel cannot grow its own food. It lacks the necessary soil and space. But Somaliland presents an opportunity for Israeli independence, if they can strike the right deal. The problem is that everybody in the region is up in arms about the move, so we’ll see how this plays out. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
Democratic strategist David Axelrod says President Trump’s focus on lavish renovations at the White House and Kennedy Center could hurt Republicans on the ballot in the 2026 midterms.
In an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront,” the former Obama administration official compared Trump to Marie Antoinette, the 18th-century French queen who became known for royal excess and being out of touch with her struggling people.
“I think this is a huge political problem for him,” Axelrod said Monday. “It’s a symbol of his distraction. It’s the Marie Antoinette thing that he’s got going. That is a big political problem.”
“And not for him,” Axelrod continued. “He’s not on the ballot in next November, but Republicans should be really concerned about what they’re seeing.” — The Hill
Our Take: David Axelrod was the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s Senate and presidential campaigns (2004, 2008, 2012), and Senior Advisor to the President during Obama’s first term.
Remember that Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns were the primitive Smurfing pilots. We’ve talked about that here for months.
Axelrod wasn’t a staffer. He was the strategist. He shouldn’t be giving interviews about the midterms.
Protests and strikes in Iran over inflation and currency devaluation have spread from the capital, Tehran, to several other cities on a third day of unrest.
The protests began on Sunday after shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar staged a strike when the Iranian rial hit a record low against the US dollar on the open market.
Since then, videos verified by BBC Persian have shown demonstrations in the cities of Karaj, Hamedan, Qeshm, Malard, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Shiraz and Yazd. Police were also seen using tear gas in an attempt to disperse demonstrators.
The Iranian government said it “recognises the protests” and would listen “with patience, even if it is confronted with harsh voices”. — BBC
Our Take: “As an Israeli, I’m officially calling on my government, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, to immediately authorize practical, technical, logistical and even kinetic support for the Iranian protesters who are currently risking their lives to take to the streets of Iran.”“
Alex Jones escalated his battle against fellow conspiracy theorist and MAGA influencer Candace Owens this week, telling her, “I want your war,” and accusing her followers of threatening and doxxing him.
Jones publicly broke with Owens earlier in the month and accused her of making easily refutable accusations related to the murder of Charlie Kirk. Jones promised last week to continue his battle against Owens, saying, “Everything she says and does, I’m gonna rip it to pieces.”
Over the weekend, Jones ramped up his rhetoric, raging, “I remember saying to them, I said, I got to investigate her now, I’ve got a bad feeling. I didn’t have a bad feeling. God gave me a good brain, I already knew, I dropped the ball, I apologize, she’s a globalist agent.” — Mediaite
Jill Biden’s first husband, Bill Stevenson, called cops about a domestic dispute at his Delaware home and was there when authorities pronounced his wife dead ... TMZ has learned.
Law enforcement in Delaware tells us Bill is the one who picked up the phone and dialed 911 on Sunday night and was waiting at his Oak Hill home when responding officers arrived.
As we reported ... cops found Bill’s wife, 64-year-old Linda Stevenson, unresponsive in the living room and tried life-saving measures before pronouncing her dead at the scene. Dispatch audio from the incident mentions “cardiac arrest.”— TMZ
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Proverbs tells us: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life." This is a sacred idea in the original language; this is one of four references in the Proverbs - also included as reflecting that tree are wisdom, the results of righteousness, and words of encouragement.
As we end this year it is obvious that there are reasons to struggle with at least some of the hopes that we held when we entered the year. For me this reality has helped me to remember to stay focused on a Hope that will not, by its very nature cannot, disappoint!
I am praying for the BNB Team and for each of you (though mostly by handle vs. name)!
Proverbs tells us: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life." This is a sacred idea in the original language; this is one of four references in the Proverbs - also included as reflecting that tree are wisdom, the results of righteousness, and words of encouragement.
As we end this year it is obvious that there are reasons to struggle with at least some of the hopes that we held when we entered the year. For me this reality has helped me to remember to stay focused on a Hope that will not, by its very nature cannot, disappoint!
I am praying for the BNB Team and for each of you (though mostly by handle vs. name)!
PS - for those interested, I did a deep dive into Hope in a post a few weeks back...(it can be found at https://hisgloriousvictory.substack.com/p/hope?r=q0fod ).
PPS - citation above is from Prov.13:12.
joseph conrad.