Badlands Media

Badlands Book Club: The Creature From Jekyll Island - Chapter 3, Part 2

CannCon and Ashe in America close out Chapter 3 of G. Edward Griffin's The Creature from Jekyll Island and the hits keep coming. Continental Illinois triggers the world's first electronic bank run, and the FDIC quietly covers 96% of uninsured deposits while small banks down the street get shut down the same week. The chapter then jumps to 2008: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, TARP, the auto bailouts, and the Merrill Lynch forced merger. Henry Paulson engineers the demolition of his Goldman Sachs rivals while protecting his alma mater. Banks announce they "repaid" loans using other government money, and the whole thing gets called a success. By the end, the government quietly owns 56% of GMAC and 80% of AIG, but nobody calls it nationalization. CannCon and Ashe also compare the third and fifth editions of the book, finding key sections merged and updated. Griffin's second reason to abolish the Fed lands hard: it is not a protector of the public. It is a cartel operating against it.

The Daily Herold: 5/21/26 - Polis Censured, Monaco Referral & Bitcoin Reserve Act

Jon Herold comes in Thursday admittedly light on show prep and heavy on improvisation, which turns out to be a feature not a bug. Colorado Democrats just censured their own governor at a 90% vote for having the audacity to commute Tina Peters' sentence, and Jon asks whether this is a genuine internal party revolt or a coordinated effort to rehab Polis as a future national candidate. Former Biden deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco is now facing a DOJ referral alleging she shielded Microsoft from cybersecurity enforcement actions that her own office pursued against other, smaller contractors. Jon also picks up Joshua Bittle's thread on the $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund: the real story is not the political optics, it is whether Trump used the Judgment Fund to bypass standard congressional appropriations, and what that means for executive power going forward. The American Reserve Modernization Act would authorize the US Treasury to acquire up to one million Bitcoin over five years and codify Trump's strategic Bitcoin reserve into law. Jon is skeptical Congress will pass it and loves the idea anyway. Trump also appeared somewhere with a man whose belly button demanded and received the full attention of the show for approximately fifteen minutes. Jon has no regrets.

The Choice (S3 Recap): Sustenance

Ghost and Ashe in America wrap season three of The Chosen with a recap episode that finally ties up the storylines they ran out of room for. Shula and Barnaby and what their quiet, ardent faith says about the difference between believing without seeing and walking next to Jesus and still missing it. Little James and why his unhealed leg might be the most powerful testimony in the bunch. Eden and Simon's grief after the miscarriage, and the difference between doubting God and being resentful at him. And the moment Simon admits, out loud, that what he is really afraid of is Jesus choosing them.
Then the conversation turns to the tassels. The old man Matthew arrested, who bought up his family's debt before dying so they would be free. Mary explaining to Matthew that the tassels were never about cloth, they were about faith. The Hellenistic visitor Shmuel berates for fashion violations before stealing his witness. Atticus identifying a horse breed and a rider's status in one glance. And Chris Paul's idea of false decorum as the through line for what the Pharisees and the modern world keep getting wrong.

Badlands Daily: 5/21/26 - Spanberger Obstruction Order, Parliamentarian Exposed, Skid Row Update

CannCon and Alpha Warrior bring the Thursday show with election infrastructure and the machinery running underneath it front and center. Virginia Governor Spanberger announces an executive order on how state election workers should "deal with" federal agents at polling places, and Alpha immediately spots the legal trap she set for herself: by announcing a formal process to delay and obstruct, she documented intent to commit a federal crime. Chicago's city council passes the Jesse Jackson Fair Access to Democracy Ordinance 42-8 with a democracy zone framework and a taxpayer-funded get-out-the-vote panel after an alderman reportedly tells colleagues there will be "a knife to your throat" if they vote no. Trump drops a Truth Social post calling for the removal of Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough, appointed by Harry Reid in 2009, as the SAVE America Act stalls in reconciliation. Alpha and CannCon map out why Trump is using the parliamentarian story to build public awareness ahead of a much bigger move. James O'Keefe updates the Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong case, revealing she told him off camera she has names of people committing worse election crimes and appears to be cooperating with the DOJ. Spencer Pratt's AI-generated "I'm not MAGA or anything" campaign ad earns the highest praise of the episode.

Devolution Power Hour Ep. 459: Massey Gone, APAC Admits It, and the $1.776B Settlement

Jon Herold and Chris Paul open on the morning after Thomas Massie's primary loss with APAC already out celebrating publicly, naming Massie and MTG as the two "detractors" they replaced with pro-Israel voices. The guys break down what Trump's 37 and 0 endorsement record actually means in a fraudulent election system: not that Trump picks winners, but that endorsements are narrative disruption tools in a scripted storytelling war. John Podhoretz drops a stunning clip openly declaring that Jewish money will be deployed against antisemitic candidates as a matter of communal survival, and Chris Paul walks through why what he described, said by any other ethnic group, would end careers instantly. Trump's "He'll do whatever I want" Netanyahu quote drops alongside news of a tense call over a Qatar and Pakistan drafted Iran peace memo. Chris Paul reframes the Taliban, Houthis, Hezbollah, and Hamas as potentially legitimate people's governance authorities rather than terrorist groups, connecting it to Syria, Venezuela, and the Doha agreement pattern. Spencer Pratt's viral LA mayoral AI ads get a full breakdown. The show closes on Trump's DOJ anti-weaponization fund, a $1.776 billion settlement where the DOJ officially acknowledges the "unlawful raid of Mar-a-Lago."

The Shipwreck Show Ep. 55: What’s Really Happening in Rural America

Tonight we’re pulling apart a mix of everyday habits, cultural shifts, and the stories circulating online that shape how people see the world.We start in rural America, looking at how current political and economic pressures are impacting the next generation of farmers—and what that could mean for small towns long-term.Then we shift into something lighter but surprisingly deep: the psychology behind iced coffee culture. Why it’s everywhere, what it signals socially, and how small consumer trends reflect bigger emotional patterns.From there, we dig into public controversy and online claims surrounding Kenneth Copeland, focusing on the way rumors and allegations spread and why figures like him attract so much scrutiny.We also take a look at concerns and debates around the Cars for Kids campaigns, and how people try to separate marketing from transparency.And as always—more stories, more questions, and the threads connecting them.No easy answers tonight, just the patterns worth noticing.

Space Revolution Ep. 19: Time Travel, Outer Space, Inner Space

Cam Cooksey shows up with the question every kid secretly wants to ask. Is space real? And if it is, what even is it? Lt Gen (Ret.) Steven L. Kwast pulls out a scale-of-the-universe chart and walks Cam from the size of a sunflower out to Andromeda, then all the way down to quarks and quantum strings. The takeaway: you are connected to all of it, top to bottom.
From there the conversation gets philosophical in the best way. Kwast lays out the decision-making framework he teaches future leaders. Start with an opinion, hold it with humility, then test it against the facts. His own starting opinion is that there is one God who made an infinite universe so we could love, explore, and grow.
They tackle time travel (probably possible, probably unwise), the early 90s vertical takeoff rocket technology that will let you fly New York to Singapore in 37 minutes, and the deep state lie that the planet is too full. The closer, from Cam, is the line of the episode. Before you try to figure out outer space, focus on inner space first.

The Daily Herold: 5/20/26 - Trump's Endorsement Question, 2032 Signal & Crypto EO

Jon Herold comes in Wednesday with a show that starts where yesterday's interview left off. Massey lost in Kentucky, Gallerian won with $15 million in AIPAC money, and Trump's endorsement record stays spotless. Jon uses the moment to ask the question that actually matters: if the election system is fraudulent and the voters do not determine the winner, what does a Trump endorsement actually mean? Is he swaying voters or does he already know who the system is going to pick? He also replays the Burchett clip that has Ashe fired up, pushes back on the blame the voters framing, and asks a pointed question nobody wants to answer: name one grassroots-activated candidate who got into Congress and stayed solid. Trump's Coast Guard speech included a casual reference to being around in 2032, which Jon flags as another devolution-adjacent hint. Two new executive orders dropped: one targeting Chinese money laundering networks and a second that formally integrates digital assets into the US financial regulatory framework, which Jon thinks crypto holders should be paying close attention to. Trump also posted a lengthy Truth Social calling out Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough and warning that without killing the filibuster Republicans will never win another presidential election.

Badlands Daily: 5/20/26 - Raffensperger Out, Massey Falls, Ranked Choice Threat Rises

CannCon and Ashe in America open Wednesday with a show packed with Georgia and Kentucky primary fallout. Brad Raffensperger, Gabriel Sterling, and Chris Carr all fail to make the runoff in the Georgia governor's race, which Ashe frames as three people who are going to need the time back to prepare their criminal defense. Ed Galleran defeats Thomas Massey in Kentucky with $15 million from AIPAC and a victory party of roughly 30 people. CannCon reads Massey's full legislative record dating back to Trump's inauguration and challenges anyone to explain which bill on that list they disagree with. Ashe makes the principled point that emotional investment in any of these races is exactly how people get rug-pulled. Multiple primaries going to runoffs are already producing calls for ranked choice voting from both DSA and libertarian factions, and Ashe breaks down why it is the next layer of election opacity being added to an already unverifiable system. The Maritime Cybersecurity Act would bar Chinese components from ports and grid infrastructure, which CannCon and Ashe point out explicitly does not include voting machines despite election systems being defined as critical infrastructure. Trump endorses Ken Paxton for Texas Senate and primaries Cornyn. South Carolina passes a new 7-0 congressional map.

DEFCON ZERQ Ep. 044: Massie Loses, The Influencer Op Exposed & Trump's $1.7B Boomerang

Alpha Warrior and Josh Reid have a very good Tuesday. Thomas Massie just lost his primary to a Trump endorsed candidate, Bill Cassidy went down the day before, and Trump just yanked his Cornyn endorsement in Texas and pinned it on Ken Paxton, which sent John Thune into a televised meltdown. The duo argues this is the establishment quietly getting hauled out before November, and the so called America first dissenters are the visible piece of a much bigger infiltration operation.
Alpha then drops the receipt he has been sitting on for twenty six hours. A whistleblower contacted him alleging an October 2024 dinner meeting in the Hamilton County Ohio area, an attorney connected to a very famous homicide trial, and a roster of influencers many of you interact with daily on X. He reads the post verbatim for legal reasons.
From there the guys explain why Massie conceded without crying fraud, why the Save America Act is supposed to fail, and why August is the likely window for a national emergency on election integrity. Plus Harmeet Dhillon's voter roll lawsuit against twenty nine states, Joe DiGenova's Fort Pierce team for the Brennan grand jury, Alpha's $1,776,000,000 prediction coming true, and the six story military command center quietly being built under the East Wing.