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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, July 6 …
Meta Launches Data-Harvesting Twitter Clone, Immediately Starts Censoring
Meta claims that over 10 million people had signed up for its Twitter competitor, Threads, in what CEO Mark Zuckerberg framed as a "friendly" alternative to the little blue bird.
"Let's do this. Welcome to Threads," wrote Zuckerberg in his first post on the app, which is a "text-based conversation app" where users can publish posts up to 500 characters long, and allows people to post links, photos and videos.
Threads is directly linked to Meta-owned Instagram, which has over 2 billion users. The Twitter competitor is being rolled out in over 100 countries for iOS and Android.
"The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success," wrote Zuckerberg in a Wednesday post, casting the service as a more wholesome substitute to Twitter. "That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently."
Meanwhile, data privacy and censorship concerns have emerged, with former Twitter owner Jack Dorsey highlighting the vast amount of data collected by Threads. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “Free speech is critical to a truly free society, because, ultimately, the agreements that make up that society have to meet the ‘meeting of the minds’ principle in order to be honorable and truly reflective of the interests and values of the citizens in that society.
A meeting of the minds is the standard in law that says all parties to an agreement must be on the same page, they must share all their interests, desires, ideals, thoughts, opinions, and critically important information with each other, this way, they can agree to whatever is proposed knowing all the relevant factors that go into an agreement, so all parties have equal standing and opportunity.
In a country, if the society is to be truly rule of law based, citizens must be fully informed about all the factors that go into a political descision that affects their lives, directly or indirectly. Absent this, the citizen can’t truly defend and protect their rights—which is the primary purpose of all government.
If the government, politicians, or other parities withhold relevant information, this is a form of coercion, bad faith, which destroys the presumption of trust that is critical to form any lawful and honorable agreement.
We are living in civilizations on earth where this sacred principle has been violated on an industrial scale, for nearly all of human history. It got a little better with the USA, but only just. The dream of the founding fathers has never been truly realized.
Big tech has hijacked free speech under the guise of stopping hate speech, slowing misinformation, and other dubious justifications.
Meta and other social media companies that act as agents for the globalists, use their private platforms to censor and otherwise abrogate the sacred right of freedom of speech.
The fact WE THE PEOPLE let this happen without any major unification of the populous so as to mobilize a defense is itself proof that
a) the people are lawfully incompetent and
b) the proper citizen-based systems needed to act as a defense against hijacked government, of all sorts, do not exist.
The constitution provided for the protection of various rights, such as free speech, but it did not spell out how these rights were to be defended. This was not an accident on the part of the founders, for in order to create a document that could stand the test of time, the spirit of the principles within the document had to be general enough to not create an oppressive orthodoxy.
An oppressive orthodoxy concretizes or rigidifies a dynamic high truth into overly simplistic and ineffectual slogans, creeds, edicts, and regulations. It twists and distorts the truth contained within any high principle, such as the golden rule, and reduces it to a weapon for social control. The globalists have systematically undermined the high principiles in the US constitution for over 200 years. They did it slowly, without many people noticing. They did it so well that a good portion of the citizenry now confuses the distortions with the original ideas enshrined in the Constitution.
For instance, the idea that crime should not go unpunished has morphed into a justice system where process crimes that harm no one must be punished with fines or jail that actually harms right holders; this is a clear example of anti-rule of law corruption. Examples of process crimes are minor traffic violations where a red light was blown but no damage resulted therefrom or a president being prosecuted for document mishandling when no actual mishandling events can be identified, only breaches in bureaucratic process.
If we are to restore the true rule of law to this country, we must instill within future generations the zeal for knowledge of how civilization works. If we do not, then the parasitic shadow men of this world will, in their patience, wait out the freedom fighters of today’s generation, focusing their propaganda and corruption efforts on the children of this same generation.” —
‘Smallville’ Actor Allison Mack Released From Prison After Serving Two Years In NXIVM Cult Case
Allison Mack, the former Smallville actor convicted and sentenced in 2021 to three years in federal prison for her participation in the notorious NXIVM cult, was released Monday after serving two years of the sentence.
Mack had been handed a 36-month sentence by a federal judge on racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges relating to her role in the cult, which prosecutors had described as recruiting and grooming women to be used a sexual partners by NXIVM leader Keith Raniere.
The former Smallville actor pleaded guilty in 2019 to the racketeering and conspiracy charges, receiving a relatively short prison sentence for assisting prosecutors in the case against Raniere, who in 2020 was sentenced to 120 years in prison on charges related to sex trafficking. — Deadline
Our Take: “The Allison Mack and NXIVM Narrative has resurfaced this week, recalling the Shark Fin template I've laid out regarding the Darkest Path that makes up the foundation of the System of Systems.
The Shark Fin template simply posits that some of the most important stories underlying the Information War—stories that will end up playing a massive part in the flood phase of the Great Awakening—glide just beneath the surface, but pop up from time to time, slicing through the Narrative noise in order to remind the Collective Mind of its presence, and its inevitability..
Anons were shown a glimpse of the truth years ago, and the Epstein Deployment (whomever's it was,) was the biggest Narrative Seed of all time.
In the end, it all comes back around to the children. And the War of Stories gives us periodic reminders.” —
State Dept. cancels Facebook meetings after judge’s ‘censorship’ ruling
One day after a Louisiana federal judge set limits on the Biden administration’s communications with tech firms, the State Department canceled its regular meeting Wednesday with Facebook officials to discuss 2024 election preparations and hacking threats, according to a person at the company. The move came hours before Biden’s Department of Justice filed a notice that it will appeal the ruling.
State Department officials told Facebook that all future meetings, which had been held monthly, have been “canceled pending further guidance,” said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve working relationships. “Waiting to see if CISA cancels tomorrow,” the person added, referring to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The person at Facebook said they presumed similar meetings the State Department had scheduled with other tech companies also were canceled, but that could not be confirmed immediately. Representatives for the State Department did not respond to a request for comment. CISA declined to comment, referring questions to the Justice Department. A Justice Department official declined to comment on the cancellations, but said the agency expects to request a stay of the District Court’s decision “expeditiously.”
Representatives for Google, which owns YouTube, and other social media companies did not immediately respond. — The Washington Post
Our Take: “The Washington Post is setting up the narrative here that Judge Terry Doughty’s July 4th ruling that granted a temporary restraining order against the federal government is an urgent matter of national security. In doing this, however, they are also admitting the massive censorship operation that, only months ago, was a dangerous right wing conspiracy theory. Now the State Department has canceled their meetings with social media companies, which reportedly were monthly. Monthly!
In narrative land, WaPo paints the decision as a ‘Trump appointed judge’ threatening national security: ‘… it stands to sideline federal government officials and agencies that had become key contributors to those [content moderation] efforts. In the past, meetings between the State Department and Facebook in particular have flagged suspected foreign influence operations for the companies to investigate.’
In reality, Judge Doughty called the well-documented actions of the Federal Government a massive attack on the first amendment, possibly the most extensive in our nation’s history, and that the attorneys general (the plaintiffs) ‘have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.’
In other words, the Post is affirming that the Federal Government has been violating the first amendment online, but that it’s necessary to keep us safe. Democracy dies in darkness, or something. Democracy dies under classified markings and parcel tongues.
‘Trust the experts.’ Don’t ask questions, plebe!
Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.’
There is no more essential liberty than freedom of speech. Those who would willingly destroy that liberty — especially after swearing an oath to protect it with their lives — are far greater threats to our national security than a free flowing exchange of ideas. In fact, the greatest threat to our national security is the weaponized federal government, their debts to our foreign enemies, and their long train of abuses against We the People.” —
Pope Francis hosts Bill Clinton, foundation head Alex Soros
Pope Francis met with former U.S. President Bill Clinton in a private audience at the Casa Santa Marta papal residence on Wednesday. Clinton’s delegation included several prominent Americans, including Alex Soros of the Open Society Foundations.
Clinton, who now focuses his efforts on philanthropy and public affairs, had visited Albania July 3-4 and received from the Albanian prime minister a public gratitude medal for his support of Albania and for NATO's intervention in the Kosovo War, the news site Euractiv reports.
Soros, son of the billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros, accompanied Clinton in both Albania and at the Vatican. Soros is the new chairman of the Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic giant which his father founded. — Catholic News Agency
Our Take: “In the words of Chris Paul:
‘It’s crazy that they didn’t all spontaneously burst into flames.’
But we all know that this meeting of the minds was selectively edited, as flames are bad for PR.
I can't say that this gaggle of godless self-philanthropists convening is really that surprising. What I did find interesting was the bit about the artist who submerged a crucifix in a glass vat of urine being welcomed to the Vatican by Pope Francis.
A philistine like me probably can't appreciate the high art of flagrant blaspheme (which is beyond played-out at this point, highly uncreative), but personally, I'd rather see this cadre of greasy vampires submerged in piss.” —
Comer 'hopeful' more findings in Biden family investigation will be announced next week
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said he is "hopeful" more of the House Oversight and Reform Committee's "disturbing findings" in its investigation of the Biden family's alleged criminal scheme will be revealed next week.
Comer, chairman of the committee, said on Wednesday night in an interview with Fox News that six of 12 banks pursued by the House GOP have provided records that Republicans believe prove that President Joe Biden and his family received millions of dollars from foreign agents.
"Bank records don't lie. People make a big issue out of taxes, people cheat on their taxes all the time. But it's hard to cheat on bank records," Comer said.
The Kentucky Republican said last week that he believes the Biden family took in over $20 million from foreign sources in a scheme of "creating policy for money." — The Washington Examiner
Our Take: “While I enjoy seeing House Republicans shine a light on the Biden Crime Family, we have passed the point of asking, ‘so what?’
Remember that Bill Clinton was allegedly impeached for lying to the American People. Donald Trump was impeached for … honestly I’m still not entirely sure.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, has repeatedly lied to the American people and, worse, accepted bribes in exchange for favorable foreign policy. Republicans have physical and digital evidence that Biden and at least eight members of the Biden Crime Family engaged in at least 459 documented sex crimes, business crimes, influence peddling, and more.
Now House Oversight Chair James Comer says we might have more evidence next week, and I have to ask, so what?
The Biden Laptop Report has been published for over a year, and it has been delivered to every law enforcement and justice system official that has jurisdiction where the crimes took place, many times over. We don’t need more evidence. We need for something to actually happen that proves the justice in America is anything other than theater.
During the Trump Administration, the bar for impeachment was lowered such that Joe Biden should be impeached every day for the rest of his life. After what the DOJ has done to Trump, the contrast — the stark comparison of differing standards of justice based on political ideology — cannot be ignored. Perhaps that contrast is the entire point. I’m inclined to believe that, but I’m not going to pretend to have any remaining patience for this ridiculous movie.” —
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.
“ There is no more essential liberty than freedom of speech. Those who would willingly destroy that liberty — especially after swearing an oath to protect it with their lives — are far greater threats to our national security than a free flowing exchange of ideas. In fact, the greatest threat to our national security is the weaponized federal government, their debts to our foreign enemies, and their long train of abuses against We the People.” — Ashe in America 👍❤️🇺🇸
BB…love your paragraph:
“ The Shark Fin template simply posits that some of the most important stories underlying the Information War—stories that will end up playing a massive part in the flood phase of the Great Awakening—glide just beneath the surface, but pop up from time to time, slicing through the Narrative noise in order to remind the Collective Mind of its presence, and its inevitability..”. Great analogy!
Thank you, Badlands contributors for keeping us sane in this Theater of the Absurd climate of the latest absurdities and downright mind boggling attacks against our First Amendment, against our common sense understanding of Justice!
❤️🇺🇸
So, Slick Bill Clinton introduced Alex Soros to another Communist, the POPE. All the money is at
the Vatican. How appropriate. After the Plandemic and the Catholic Charities aiding and abetting
illegal aliens, I am done with the Catholic Church. They even had a lesbian come and talk about her
experiences of becoming one. When I called the organization promoting the event, they told me
it was about her journey. I asked, if she became straight again. The answer was we don't know
that exactly. RIGHT.....just trying in anyway to recruit more to the LGBTQ HOMO group.
I even called the Bishop's office. They did nothing.