Badlands News Brief
Escalation Abroad, Subversion at Home ...
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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.
Items feature original commentary from members of our growing team of citizen journalists, whose stated opinions are their own. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see their other work.
Now, onto the news from Monday, October 9 …
Over 100 Bodies Found In Israeli Kibbutz; Biden Confirms 11 Americans Killed & "Likely" More In Captivity
The numbers of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas has been revised upward to an estimated 150. By Monday's end at least 900 Israelis have been reported killed and nearly 2,400 wounded since the Saturday surprise assault from Gaza. Palestinian emergency sources report 560 dead and over 2,700 wounded in Gaza has heavy Israeli bombardment of the strip has continued.
In one single kibbutz near the border, at least 108 bodies have been discovered amid the ongoing Israeli search, rescue and recovery efforts:
Israeli volunteer rescue organization ZAKA said Monday night that it had discovered more than 100 bodies in Kibbutz Be'eri near the Gaza border.
“Large teams cleared bodies all day from kibbutz Be'eri," the organization said. "There were weapons everywhere, grenades, and RPGs. We cleared 108 bodies and we are not done yet."
The New York Times has also begun to piece together eyewitness accounts of the Saturday invasion into southern Israel, as more identifies of the kidnapped have come to light:
The hostages were seized from homes in towns along Israel’s border with Gaza — including the Kalderons’ small village of Kibbutz Nahal Oz — as well as from military bases and an enormous outdoor dance party.
They include civilians, soldiers, people with disabilities, children, grandparents and even a 9-month-old baby. The hostages are also believed to include at least one Palestinian resident of Israel, a bus driver who spent the night near the outdoor party after driving Israelis there, his family said.
The capture of so many Israelis by Palestinian militants has taken the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into uncharted territory — not only in the sheer number of hostages, but also in the dire threats Hamas is making against them.
And The Washington Post has verified some of the horrifying footage to have emerged, including summary executions of Israeli hostages in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas/PIJ incursion:
At least four Israelis taken hostage by Hamas during their unprecedented incursion into Israel on Saturday were killed soon after being taken captive, according to videos reviewed by The Washington Post. Graphic video shared on Telegram on Oct. 8, and verified by The Post, shows multiple bodies in the street in Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel, just yards from where Hamas militants were filmed walking with several civilians who appear to be those same hostages.
Huge swathes of Gaza are under rubble... — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “All real wars are the result of lost Info Wars.
We're winning this one.
Perhaps the most positive trend I'm seeing in the Anon world and the Truth Community is this decentralized collective's refusal to be provoked into mindless warmongering.
That's progress, and it's why the Narratives are often more important than the unverifiable Actuals.
There's a lot of reaction to the news of the last few days, and while understandable, it's important to recognize that emotionally-charged rhetoric isn't a bug of the War of Stories, but a feature, and it's one that's deployed by ALL sides on the game board, including patriots.
In the end, it's up to each of us whether or not we allow such Narratives to provoke emotional reaction within us, or whether we attempt to fly above and burrow below the surface and see the board from different vantage points that might render it all more clear ... even affirming.
We're in a war for the Collective Mind, of which YOUR Mind is a part.
Act accordingly.” —
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces independent run for president, ending Democratic primary challenge to Biden
Environmental lawyer and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Monday his independent candidacy for president, officially ending his effort to defeat President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary in favor of a long-shot general election bid.
“I’m here to declare myself an independent candidate for president of the United States,” Kennedy said in remarks in Philadelphia.
Kennedy’s announcement comes after several weeks of speculation about his future in the 2024 field. CNN previously reported Kennedy met with the chair of the Libertarian Party earlier this year to discuss their common beliefs. And last week, a super PAC supporting Kennedy’s presidential campaign released the results of a poll they conducted testing Kennedy’s strength in a hypothetical three-way race between Biden and former President Donald Trump.
The campaign will host a series of events in Texas, Florida and Georgia later this month, a campaign official told CNN, pledging to travel “everywhere” in the lead-up to next year’s general election. The official said the campaign is confident they’ll gain ballot access in every state ahead of November 2024.
Independent and third-party candidates have struggled in the past to garner substantial support in presidential elections. In 1992, Texas businessman Ross Perot mounted one of the most successful independent presidential candidacies in recent history, which ended with him receiving 8% of the vote in the general election that was ultimately won by Bill Clinton. — CNN
Our Take: “RFK, Jr. is wrong on guns, climate, foreign policy, the size of government, and probably a whole basket of other positions, and I don't vote for Democrats because that wing of the uniparty is fully communist.
Trump 2024. Nothing less.
Still, Kennedy going Independent is useful, and it changes the electoral math. Kennedy claims that he will take a greater number of votes from Trump than from Biden. I don't see it, but I am interested in seeing how the pollsters capture public sentiment. I don't trust polls, but I do find them to be important data points.
Leaving the party also means that, if Kennedy is allowed to poll at his actual levels of support, the media will be forced to cover his candidacy. And he may finally be awarded Secret Service protections.
This move also puts Biden in the unfortunate position of having to politically persecute two opponents instead of one. I am bummed that we aren't going to see the democrats steal a primary again, but the third party play elevates Kennedy's position and extends him to the general.
Biden having to take on both Kennedy and Trump — while already deep in a hole from his record on the economy, starting WW3, and too many scandals to recount here — is going to be fun to watch. I really hope they have debates.
Buckle up, it's gonna get weird.” —
Another Take: “I agree with Ashe; I don't see Trump supporters suddenly jumping on the Kennedy train. Trump's base is solid; it isn't going anywhere. I've seen comments across the internet claiming that this is going to lose the election for Trump. I tend to disagree.
Consider that Trump has continued to poll higher and higher ever since RFK joined the race. Additionally, this move is essentially RFK Jr.'s way of forcing himself onto the debate stage, which the DNC was denying him, as well as Secret Service detail and inclusion on Harvard polls.
Did you see the Trump camp fretting about RFK? Because, as far as I can tell, the only one who seems to be panicking about RFK is the Democratic establishment.
I doubt it will be allowed to happen (tempering my excitement,) but the prospect of RFK JR. and Donald Trump on a debate stage 2 v 1’ing Joe Biden has the potential to be the pay-per-view fight of the century.” —
Another Take: “We can learn quite a bit about what the enemy fears simply by observing the tenor of their lies.
When it comes to RFK Jr.'s much-discussed Independent bid for the presidency, the Media Industrial Complex is framing it as a retreat or submission to the Establishment, when it actually represents the exact opposite.
RFK Jr. is not going to take votes from Trump, but he IS going to siphon significant support from Joe Biden.
More importantly, he's continuing the trend @realDonaldTrump began by making the parties themselves the enemy of focus rather than a specific candidate.
The Establishment of both parties likely has an inkling of the pincer move Trump and Kennedy have them in ahead of 2024, but they don't understand every move that's coming.
‘This is a world you’ll never understand. And you always fear what you don’t understand.’ - Mobster Falcone to Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins.
Fear goes both ways. I don't think it's turning in [their] direction; I think it turned some time ago.” —
Christian baker faces new lawsuit over gender-transition cake after Supreme Court
The Colorado Supreme Court agreed to hear the case against Christian cake baker Jack Phillips, which he says is the "light at the end of the tunnel" after more than 11 years in court.
Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, declined to create a custom cake for a same-sex wedding in a move that sparked a 2012 lawsuit that ultimately landed him at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2018, the nine justices ruled that the state of Colorado was hostile to Phillip’s religious beliefs and that the government can’t force anyone to create custom works of art that communicate a message.
But in 2018, Phillips faced a second lawsuit, this time from a transgender lawyer who requested a cake celebrating a gender transition. When Phillips declined, he was back in court on grounds that he discriminated against the lawyer. The Colorado Supreme Court just agreed to hear his case.
"I hope it is the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m pretty excited about it," Phillips told Fox News Digital in an interview. "The state court turned us down in our first case, but I think they realize now that I serve everybody." — FOX News
Our Take: “Even with all eyes on the other side of the world, the domestic culture wars continue.
Jack Phillips is one of the most persecuted Christians in Colorado, as his religious beliefs have made him the repeated target of the Marxists in our state government who can't seem to find another cake shop. Even after his victory at the US Supreme Court in 2018, the angry blue-haired commies filed another suit about a trans-themed cake. Throughout his 11 year legal battles, Phillips has remained resolved in his religious convictions.
The cases against Phillips prove that the rainbow cult is not interested in tolerance, equality, or even equity. They are, somewhat effectively, using the US court system in an attempt to make Christians deny —denounce really — explicit Biblical law.
It's not about cake. It's about the audacity that, in 2023, Christians are still permitted to believe homosexuality is a sin because God says it is. Phillips is a sacrifice, and the courts are being pressured to rule on the book of Leviticus. Insane times in which we live.
The fact that courts are hearing these cases at all proves that we are dangerously close to losing the First Amendment's religious protections. The next cake I buy will be from Masterpiece.” —
EU Digital Identity Wallet Pilots Roll Out Under The Radar
As 2023 continues, the European Commission appears busy developing and running pilots for its EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI), which it intends to make available to all EU citizens in the near future. But while the European Commission (EC) boasts the prospective EUDI’s convenience, security, and wide range of prospective use cases in daily life, what’s less discussed is the tool’s potential for a bevy of ethical and surveillance-related issues.
The EU Digital Wallet, often referred to as the EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI), is slated to be offered to the European public in the years ahead. According to the European Commission, “EU Digital Identity Wallets are personal digital wallets allowing citizens to digitally identify themselves, store and manage identity data and official documents in electronic format. These may include a driving licence, medical prescriptions or education qualifications.”
As legislation streamlining their slated use across Europe is finalized, the European Commission is advancing its efforts to roll out EUDIs amongst the general European public, where over 250 private corporations and public authorities are participating in four large-scale pilot projects. At the time of writing, the EU has invested €46 million into these pilots.
Indeed, a wide range of use cases are already being tested in the EUDI pilot projects. These include using the wallets to access government services, register, and activate SIM cards for mobile network services, sign contracts, facilitate travel, and present educational credentials. All together, these use cases suggest the Digital Identity Wallets’ prospective utilization across a wide range of services essential to daily life. — The Brownstone Institute
Our Take: “So, while our attention is focused on wars and rumors of wars across the globe, the increasingly dismal state of affairs continues here in the US, and the never-ending culture war, the globalists are steadily moving their plans forward.
We know that our friends in the WEF have been gaming these kinds of technology out, determining how best to facilitate their various agendas all the while selling us on all the perceived positives. The real purpose of this kind of tech lies in what they don’t say.
For example, they say that this Digital ID will ‘open up the digital world’ for individuals who use it, the deeper implication here is that there is the possibility to close off the digital world as well.
The unspoken part is the most critical:
They want the 2030s to be the ‘Digital Decade’, meaning that a lot of these critical aspects of the technocracy have to have been already rolled out for awhile by the time this decade arrives. Chances are that they will continue to fast track all the tech you'd associate with a post great-reset world over the next several years.
Fortunately you can fight back against the emerging technocracy by doing two things: spreading awareness and becoming as self sufficient as possible. The less you have to rely on daddy government, the less you will be affected by their systems.” —
BONUS ITEMS
Suspicion surrounds ex-Iran envoy Rob Malley after Israel attack: ‘Worst State Department scandal’
The Biden administration’s former special envoy to Iran, who was placed on leave earlier this year for allegedly mishandling classified material, should face “extensive scrutiny” for his “permissive” stance toward the Tehran regime after it aided Hamas and Hezbollah in carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel, critics said Monday.
“Rob Malley deserves extensive scrutiny — yesterday, today and tomorrow,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told The Post after the Wall Street Journal reported officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps planned and signed off on this weekend’s atrocity that killed at least 900.
“These reports could not be more concerning, and they hint at what could be the worst State Department scandal since Alger Hiss,” Issa added.
“Malley and others created an incredibly permissive environment for Hamas, for Iran, to do all these things,” added Gabriel Noronha, a former special adviser on Iran at the State Department. — The New York Post
Mainstream Senate Republicans Favor Scalise Over Jordan For House Speaker
As the race for the Speaker of the House unfolds, Senate Republicans are split between a mainstream candidate and a populist.
The mainstream faction has largely thrown their support behind Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) - who they see as a stabilizing force that can best collaborate with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in guiding must-pass bills through legislative intricacies. To these Senate Republicans, a rapid transition to Scalise’s leadership is deemed imperative to appease voter apprehensions regarding the GOP’s governing capabilities.
On Wednesday, McConnell expressed disappointment over the ouster of Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
"The Speaker and I worked closely throughout his tenure, but I was particularly struck by his persistence. He literally willed the President of the United States to the negotiating table and kept coming back again and again until he had helped secure the nation’s full faith and credit," he said on the Senate floor, praising McCarthy as "a partner I could trust to be honest and candid."
Conversely, MAGA-aligned populists are rallying behind Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who enjoys the robust endorsement of former President Trump. Jordan, championed as a “fighter” by his proponents, is praised for his unyielding stance against opposition and dedication to disrupting Washington’s established order. His leadership symbolizes an assertive, defiant GOP, unafraid to engage in unbridled confrontations. — ZeroHedge
Biden Considering Huge $100 Billion Ukraine Spending Package: Telegraph
President Biden is considering asking Congress for a massive $100 billion spending package for the Ukraine war, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.
The idea of the huge spending package would be to fund the proxy war through the 2024 election without having to worry about the growing opposition to the policy in Congress, as the majority of the House and the Senate currently still support arming Ukraine.
"The ‘big package’ idea is firmly supported by many throughout the administration," a source familiar with discussions on the matter told The Telegraph. "
Supporters of Ukraine want this to be a one-and-done big bill, and then not have to deal with it until after the next election."
Defense News recently reported that multiple senators have also proposed passing a massive Ukraine aid package to get through a whole year. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) put the price tag at $70 billion.
An unnamed Biden administration official told The Telegraph that the White House is "not making any decisions about whether to do one big package or about how much it would be" until after a new House speaker is elected to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), which is expected to happen on Wednesday.
While the majority of Congress supports more spending on the Ukraine war, it could be difficult to bring a massive aid package to the floor of the House for a vote due to the sway GOP opponents of the policy have over the speaker. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) launched the effort to oust McCarthy after accusing him of cutting a secret deal with the Democrats on Ukraine aid.
If a $100 billion aid package is authorized by Congress, it would bring total US spending on the proxy war to about $213 billion. — AntiWar.com
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.
I've lived through Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden, all have been destructive to America and left us poorer. Disarmemed us, failed to protect and defend from foreign and domestic terrorists and criminals. Many RINOS ARE NO BETTER. My grandparents warned me about how to democrats treated the poor, created shortages, and raised prices. They lived through FDR. RFK JR may run as an Independent, but he is Still A DEMOCRAT. Biden left our border open to let more 9/11 terrorists in. LOCK AND LOAD. VOTE THE MOST CONSERVATIVE YOU CAN. MY CHOICE IS TRUMP.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces independent run for president, ending Democratic primary challenge to Biden" As a lifelong citizen of MA, just remember that Kennedy is a Democratic through and through. He can run as an Independent but his politics are strictly old Massachusetts Kennedys, it's in his genes!! Ashe is absolutely correct when she says..“RFK, Jr. is wrong on guns, climate, foreign policy, the size of government, and probably a whole basket of other positions, and I don't vote for Democrats because that wing of the uniparty is fully communist". TRUMP2024