Badlands Media

The Daily Herold: 5/5/26 - Fulton County Subpoena, UAE Exits OPEC & Fitness Test

Jon Herold is doing his best to stay optimistic today and the DOJ is making it easier than usual. A federal grand jury subpoena dated April 17 demands the names, addresses, and personal phone numbers of every single person who worked in Fulton County during the 2020 election, and Jon thinks that is a very good sign. Trump also reinstated the Presidential Fitness Test that Obama killed in 2013, Jon reads the benchmarks out loud, and immediately commits to earning the award on camera. The UAE just withdrew from OPEC after 58 years, and Jon breaks down what that means for oil prices post-Iran war, including the possibility of $2 gasoline if the cartel collapses entirely. Trump went on record saying Democrats have to cheat because their policies are too unpopular to win any other way, and Jon asks the logical follow-up question nobody wants to answer: so what does it mean if the midterms happen without fixing the cheating? Also: Elon Musk paid a $1.7 million SEC settlement that is genuinely peanuts to him, the DOJ is going after the ABA's law school accreditation monopoly, and a Michigan judge dismissed felony charges against a 2020 election clerk in a case that mirrors Tina Peters almost exactly.

Badlands Daily: 5/5/26 - SCOTUS Forces Redistricting, Judge Apologizes to WHCD Shooter

CannCon and Ghost open Tuesday with a show that moves fast and hits hard. The Supreme Court waives its standard thirty-two day hold and immediately remands the Louisiana redistricting case back to the lower courts, clearing the path for maps to be redrawn before the midterms while the ACLU files an emergency motion using arguments that directly contradict what their own attorneys argued in Virginia. Georgia's Brian Kemp continues to refuse compliance, and Ghost unpacks exactly what that signals about his ambitions. The Democrat Party's structural collapse is mapped out in detail: funding drying up, 24-plus House seats in redistricting jeopardy, and Maine's incumbent governor dropping out for lack of money. A federal magistrate judge apologizes on the record to Cole Allen, the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooter, while comparing his conditions favorably to J6 defendants. CannCon and Ghost dismantle the double standard in real time and ask why Jocelyn Ballantyne, who prosecuted Flynn and the Proud Boys, is still at DOJ. Plus, the DOJ indicts 10 current and former Mexican government officials for Sinaloa cartel ties, Mexico's president refuses extradition, and Ghost explains the UAE's OPEC exit and why oil prices are about to drop.

Baseless Conspiracies Ep. 183: Cheesy Bay, Comet Ping Pong and the Obama EPA Connection

Jon Herold and Zak Paine open Episode 183 by debunking a viral fake Obama housekeeper death story making the rounds on X, using it as a springboard to talk about clickbait disinfo accounts and the broken incentive structures that make them profitable.
Then Jon takes the show deep into one of the stranger corners of the Pizzagate universe: Cheesy Bay. It starts with a 2016 Reddit post from a thong-sandal-wearing Hawaiian distillery worker who discovered 30 constantly rotating Wi-Fi signals coming from an underground concrete pad, strange heat sources, and buckets of dissolved organic matter on his employer's farm in Oahu. That employer, a man named Dave Flintstone, was linked to an eBay account called "Cheesy Bay" selling broken hard drives, and to hacked emails connecting him directly to the Comet Ping Pong booker and Obama's EPA Director Lisa P. Jackson, who was operating under a fake government alias. Jackson also sat on the Clinton Foundation board. The episode closes with the bombshell that in 2025, a man named David Flintstone was arrested in Medellin for sexual exploitation of a minor and later escaped from prison.

Culture of Change Ep. 147: Trial by Jury vs. Trial by Government

What if the single most important check on government power was quietly dismantled in the 1830s, and nobody told you? Ashe sits down with Jonathan Drake of the No Treason podcast to break down Lysander Spooner's case for trial by jury, what it actually meant at the founding, and how it became the hollow shell we have today. From jury nullification to the legal priestly class to why getting jury duty might be the most powerful civic act you can take, this is the kind of conversation that rewires how you think about justice, liberty, and who is actually in charge. Spoiler: it is not you. Yet.

Breaking Free of Psyops Ep. 5: Who is really causing our Drug epidemic?

Spoiler: it's not China. Matt Ehret traces North America's drug crisis from the British Empire's original opium wars through the CIA's Air America heroin pipeline, Afghan poppy fields guarded by Western troops, and the Sackler family's OxyContin empire. He shows how Afghan opium production exploded the moment US forces arrived in 2001 and collapsed again the moment the Taliban returned in 2023, a fact the Pentagon's trillion-dollar budget apparently could not replicate. He also names the actual players fueling today's fentanyl crisis: Khalistani organized crime networks in British Columbia, money-laundering banks including TD Bank and a bank belonging to the British Royal Family, and a pharmaceutical company that paid a fine smaller than its profits. If China were really running a reverse opium war, they're doing a terrible job. Everyone else in this story seems far more competent.

Alphas Make Sandwiches Ep. 68: Weird Week in History, Blue Moons & Intentional Dressing

The ladies kick things off with $5,000 sterling silver mint juleps, a full jar of fucks, and a pet photo challenge featuring a baby bird whose mother is auditioning for grounded mom of the year. Ashe takes us through a weird week in history covering the Kontiki voyage, the liberation of Dachau, the fall of Saigon, George Washington begging not to be president, Thomas Jefferson rationalizing the Louisiana Purchase, CERN releasing the worldwide web (and the eternal reminder that if it's free, you're the product), the Empire State Building, Bush's mission accomplished disaster, the King James Bible, Gone With The Wind, Kent State, and the Haymarket Affair. Christy explains why a blue moon used to mean something absurd or impossible centuries before astronomers got involved, and somehow that means Ashe owes everyone dinner on May 31. Then Michelle takes the wheel for a whole segment on intentional dressing, why we hide behind clothes, finding your three power pieces, dressing for your body shape, and the radical idea that anxiety lives in the waiting and confidence shows up after you take the step. Plus: Brian rage quitting over the spelling of Grogu, and a wiener dog t-shirt origin story.

Y-Chromes Ep. 79: He's Back, Buckshot, and the Black Panther Debate

Alpha Warrior is back after a month and a half away, and he brought news: it's twins, one boy and one girl. The full crew is finally reunited on May the 4th, and the show wastes no time. CannCon walks through a real world emergency preparedness story from the 2024 RNC cyber outage, where he was stranded in Denver and had to prep Christine for a potential grid down scenario. That kicks off a serious conversation about home defense shotgun loads, buckshot versus slugs, and the eternal Glock versus Sig debate. Then the wheels come off in the best possible way as the crew debates the Black Panther movie, JB drops some pointed takes on Hollywood's portrayal of African American men, and everyone ends up arguing about LeBron versus Kobe versus Jordan. Savannah Bananas highlights, NHL playoff updates, and a Star Wars Day clip round things out. Welcome home, Alpha.

The Daily Herold: 5/4/26 - Midterm Cancellation Signal, Iran Ceasefire & Meat Cartel

Jon Herold comes into Monday a little roughed up from the Wild giving up nine goals, but he has receipts. Trump's latest Truth Social post says elections conducted unconstitutionally simply cannot stand, and Jon thinks that combined with praising Louisiana for suspending primaries, that is as close to a midterm cancellation signal as anyone has put on the record. Project Freedom kicked off over the weekend with the US Navy escorting stranded ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran fired on vessels anyway, and the ceasefire Jon was told was over is apparently still being tested. Jon also plays back his own April 24 prediction that the Jerome Powell probe would reopen the moment Kevin Warsh is confirmed, because Jeanine Pirro just said the exact same thing on Fox. The DOJ announced an antitrust settlement with the Big Four meat packers controlling 85% of US beef processing, with more protein pricing settlements coming this week. Rudy Giuliani is in critical condition in the hospital, Ukraine is still being funded despite what social media is saying, the Tucker for president op is in full swing, and Jon explains in about thirty seconds why it is the same playbook as DeSantis 2023.

Badlands Daily: 5/4/26 - Giuliani Down, USCIS Goes Offensive, Redistricting Dominoes Fall

CannCon and Zak Paine open the week with prayers for three warriors: Rudy Giuliani hospitalized in critical condition, and both Hoff brothers from Gateway Pundit hospitalized simultaneously, with CannCon making the case that lawfare is as lethal as any weapon. A cruise ship off Cape Verde loses three passengers to a suspected Hantavirus outbreak with possible human-to-human transmission, and the Stanford biosecurity expert who caught an AI chatbot designing a bioweapon and maximizing casualties stays silent under NDA. Spirit Airlines collapses overnight, stranding hundreds of thousands, with the irony being that Elizabeth Warren's antitrust block of the JetBlue merger is the direct reason there is now zero competition. USCIS launches a denaturalization strike force with no statute of limitations on immigration fraud, and a UC Berkeley law professor lays out why Minnesota state officials who knew fraud money went to Somalia could face material support to terrorism charges. Tampa arrests a thousand child sex offenders in four months, mostly foreign nationals who should have been deported years ago. ATF rolls back 30-plus regulations and moves toward removing suppressors and SBRs from the NFA. Louisiana redistricting chaos: Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina call special sessions while ACLU argues the opposite of what its lawyers argued in Virginia.

RattlerGator Report: 5/4/26 - China's Yuan Bluff, Trump's Great Game, and Badlands' Groupthink Problem

JB White had a rough show day technically, but not intellectually. He opens with a milestone salute to Clarence Thomas before getting to the real business: James Thorne's sharp analysis of why China's tough talk on sanctions is all swagger and no structure. Beijing refuses to float the yuan or open its capital account, which means it is building a walled-off subsystem, not a dollar replacement. JB adds his own commentary framing Trump as the architect of a new monetary order where America is no longer a junior partner to British and European systems. He then takes direct aim at Emmanuel Macron's claim that the US, Russia, and China are aligned against Europe, and at Tom Luongo's agreement with that framing, calling it proof that Trump has successfully fooled people who should know better. JB also names the groupthink problem inside Badlands Media plainly and without apology.