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Another Captive Agency Weaponized Against White House Critics
NOAA launches investigation of 30-year-old carcass while allowing offshore wind titans to harm whales, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.
by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

On September 4, I received a letter from Mr. Todd J. Smith, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the National Marine Fisheries Service, United States Department of Commerce. In the letter, the agency states that they are investigating the alleged claim that I collected a specimen from a rotting carcass found on a Massachusetts beach in 1994. It claims that I may have violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The agency sent its letter just 12 days after I endorsed President Trump on August 23, raising the concern that this investigation is yet another instance of the systematic weaponization of federal enforcement agencies against White House critics.

Here’s my response to his letter, which I sent to Mr. Smith on Oct. 8:

October 8, 2024

RE: Alleged Violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act

Mr. Smith:

This is my response to your inquiry about the unsubstantiated allegation that my collection, in 1994 on a Massachusetts beach, of a specimen from a rotting carcass may have violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act. I never collected a whale specimen in Massachusetts or transported marine mammal specimens across state lines, nor do I have such a specimen in my collection.

While I am impressed with the alacrity with which the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) launched its investigation of the fate of a 30-year-old specimen, the rapid reaction contrasts sharply with your stubborn intransigeance in addressing the apparent massacre of marine mammals by the offshore wind industry. Recently approved offshore wind farms appear to be putting several protected dolphin and whale species, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, in dire crisis.

Your agency has idly watched the approval of 30 offshore wind leases from Maine to North Carolina effectively privatizing 2.3 million acres of ocean bottom, mostly on extremely productive fishing grounds and critical habitat for migratory whales and other marine mammals, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Many Americans suspect that your agency’s anemic response to this serious emergency may be rooted in its reluctance to obstruct the profit ambitions of a politically powerful cabal of energy titans including Dominion, Shell, and General Electric, and U.S. financial houses Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Wells Fargo, Citibank, J.P. Morgan, and Blackstone. These firms either directly own or are funding projects by foreign energy behemoths including Equinor (Norwegian government), Ørsted (Danish state majority-owned), Iberdrola (Spain), and TotalEnergies (France). The backing by those U.S.-based financial houses allows foreign governments and foreign-owned wind developers to collect tens of billions of dollars in U.S. subsidies and tax credits. These subsidies are provided for by the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden’s signature “environmental” legislation. In the U.S., offshore wind is an environmentally destructive boondoggle. No financial institution will fund these projects in the absence of obscene government subsidies. Offshore wind farms produce energy 300% more expensive than cheap and abundant onshore wind, which I strongly support.

These companies, based on present offshore wind construction plans that have been approved or are in the process of being approved, will pile-drive 2,200 offshore wind turbines into the ocean floor at intervals of one mile or less across 5,816 square miles. Each turbine with blades will be approximately 1,000 feet tall, on par with the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The advent of the first wind project on Block Island and the arrival of seismic survey boats in 2016 and 2017 were coterminous with an alarming uptick in unexplained whale deaths so unusual that the NOAA Office of Protected Resources declared three Unusual Mortality Events (UMEs): one for humpbacks, one for minke, and one for North Atlantic right whales. The North Atlantic right whale has a total population of fewer than 360 individuals, so every stranding poses a threat to its total extinction.

Prior to the inception of increased seismic survey and construction activity for the wind industry, ship strikes killed 1.4 humpbacks annually from Maine to Virginia. In 2016, as the offshore wind gold rush gathered steam, 26 humpbacks stranded from Maine to North Carolina. Fifteen more stranded from January to April of 2017. Of the 20 humpback whales that were necropsied from that time period, 10 of them were ship strikes. There was no increase in shipping during this period. The only thing that changed was a flurry of offshore wind survey boats, from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

Mass deaths have increased in lockstep with expanding exploration and construction activities. In the 13 months beginning in December of 2022, there were 85 large whale strandings on the East Coast with zero entanglements. A total of 109 large whale deaths occurred from December 1, 2022, through June 6, 2024, mostly within range of offshore wind survey and construction vessels. This amounts to an average of 5.7 dead whales a month for 19 months — a record number of dead whales the likes of which have not occurred in a lifetime. Hundreds of dolphins and porpoises have also died. Only last month, a dead humpback washed ashore on Block Island in the vicinity of the Revolution Wind wind farm, and a dead fin whale landed on Cupsogue Beach on Long Island after being seen the day before floating 12 miles south of Shinnecock, while a young minke whale was found alive struggling in the surf in Montauk, only to die and then to float out to sea.

In September of 2020, 17 environmental groups conveyed to NMFS their “profound concerns” about NMFS’s systematic coddling of the offshore wind farm industry. In that letter, they discussed the 12 previous comment letters they submitted to NMFS since 2018 identifying your agency’s multiple failures in enforcing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). They repeatedly urged your agency to “require even stronger protections … for marine site characterization surveys required for offshore wind development” in compliance with the MMPA. Despite their urgings, NMFS has taken no meaningful steps to mitigate the massacre.

Instead of calling an immediate moratorium on offshore wind development, government regulators continued to permit lethally deficient Incidental Harassment Authorizations (IHAs) that allow the wind farm industry to “take” Atlantic whales by the drove. Your reckless dereliction of your statutory obligations to protect these magnificent creatures has resulted in up to 108 vessels conducting geophysical survey activities over more than 10,000 survey days from 2017 to 2022. Independent analysis of your own data suggests that these activities have already resulted in more than 113,000 instances of “taking” of marine mammals, including 402 North Atlantic right whales, 647 endangered fin whales, 53 endangered sei whales, 93 endangered sperm whales, 494 humpback whales, 329 minke whales, and 12,493 harbor porpoises. These are all noise-vulnerable marine mammal species.

Newer analysis conducted in 2023 predicted that when NOAA’s currently authorized offshore wind activities were combined with then-proposed and yet-to-be-authorized offshore wind activities, the impacted number of marine mammals would rise astronomically to over 630,000 animals. Industry proposals included up to 996 requests for Level B harassment takes of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. That number is now almost triple the population size of the species, suggesting that the species may go extinct as a result of your hand-sitting. NOAA has approved just one project off the coast of New England that, on its own, will “take” 126 North Atlantic right whales.

On January 9, 2023, after six large whales had stranded on New Jersey and New York beaches in as many weeks, five grassroots environmental groups demanded a federal investigation into the whale deaths.

They also submitted a letter to President Biden demanding:

“an immediate investigation into the marine mammal mortalities from Cape May, NJ, to Montauk Point, NY, and/or beyond, be conducted by qualified scientists including those of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and a halt to all current lessees’ offshore wind energy development activity within the Atlantic Ocean from Cape May, NJ, to Montauk Point, NY, including assessment, characterization, and construction-related activities until an investigation has been conducted.”

Instead of vigorously investigating these mortalities and taking steps to end this massacre, your agency has bent over backwards to enable the slaughter to continue. NOAA has protected the offshore wind industry — with its strong connections to the Democratic Party — by refusing to conduct basic science that might link the slaughter to industry activities. This strategic lethargy in conducting vital and obvious studies allows your agency, and by extension, the wind industry, to conveniently claim, as Benjamin Laws did on January of 2023, “There is no information supporting that any of the equipment that’s being used in support of wind development for these site characterization surveys could directly lead to the death of a whale.”

I offer just one of many examples of this species of agency sandbagging: The fin, humpback, minke, sei, and right whales that are now dying in droves are all part of the Mysticetes family of whales that all hear in low frequency. Yet your agency has stubbornly refused to collect direct hearing data from large whales to determine whether offshore wind survey boats and seismic survey machinery are emitting sounds within this hearing profile.

Here is another example: In the Gulf of Mexico, NOAA requires immediate survey shutdowns in the event of live mammal strandings or millings within 50 km of oil and gas survey activity. In deference to powerhouse offshore wind titans, NOAA has ignored those long-standing IHA rules for offshore wind in the Atlantic, despite the fact that the Gulf of Mexico surveys use the same equipment as the Atlantic surveys and NOAA permits the same levels of marine mammal impacts for both.

Furthermore, only Atlantic offshore wind surveys are expected to impact multiple endangered whale populations, and only in the Atlantic have energy development activities coincided in time and space with unprecedented whale deaths. This suggests that federal agencies should be providing more protections for impacted marine mammals in the Atlantic, not less. Yet NOAA continues to turn a blind eye, inexplicably applying weaker Marine Mammal Protection Act standards for Atlantic wind farms than for identical High-Resolution Geophysical (HRG) surveys in the Gulf of Mexico. The Marine Mammal Protection Act does not allow for differential application to the same activity; it is designed to protect mammals, not foreign energy companies and their Wall Street financiers.

Your agency has also stonewalled the issuance of uniform necropsy protocols that might point a finger at offshore wind. It’s obvious that the standardized protocol should include early examination of ear damage in dead whales. Despite the pleadings of the environmental community, you have refused to recommend this procedure. This step is so fundamental that it suggests a deliberate dereliction. In fact, your agency actually allows what partial or full necropsies of dead whales do occur to be conducted by Marine Mammal Stranding Network partners that have been funded by offshore wind companies and even maintain offshore wind executives, lobbyists, and third-party contractors on their board, ensuring that no “investigation” taken by such NOAA partners is objective.

In addition, commercial fishermen complain that the areas around the turbines — the Atlantic cod’s critical spawning grounds — have been emptied of fish. This outcome is consistent with your agency’s early warning that the turbines may cause the collapse of the cod fishery.

You sent the investigatory letter to me on September 4, just 12 days after my August 23 endorsement of President Trump, raising the issue that this investigation is yet another salient in the systematic weaponization of federal enforcement agencies against White House critics.

You acknowledge that you launched your investigation publicly on August 26, at the urging of the Center for Biological Diversity, a formerly effective NGO that now functions as a subsidiary of the DNC.

Your enthusiasm in launching an investigation based upon an unsubstantiated anecdote of a specimen collected from a rotting corpse three decades ago compares unfavorably with your abject failure to stop, much less investigate, the ongoing slaughter of whales by politically connected energy companies and financial houses that number among the Democratic Party’s biggest patrons. Your agency’s systematic insouciance is likely to result in the permanent extinction of the very species you are charged with protecting. Please let me know the steps that you plan to take to avert this agency-sanctioned calamity to Atlantic whale populations.

https://robertfkennedyjr.substack.com/p/rfk-jr-kennedy-whale-investigation

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Barnes Brief: Friday, April 24, 2026

I. INTRODUCTION 

A. Art of the Week

  • Love the look & feel of old books (antiquarian in the colloquial parlance), as I collected them for years, but also feel more comfortable in their physical presence, enveloping you as you think, in the home libraries of yesteryear, connecting you to the thoughts and ideas of your ancestors, shared  just through the smell, look and feel of the leather-bound texts from the handmade book publishers of old, an initiating to retreat into the past and explore it like the recesses of one’s own mind for the thoughts that race across the page and whisper from the old ink stained pages. 

B. Recommendation of the Week

C. Wisdom of the Week

  • "Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today, I wish, I wish he’d go away. When I came home last night at three, The man was waiting there for me. But when I looked around the hall, I couldn’t see him there at all! Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more! Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door... Last night I saw upon the stair, A little man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today, Oh, how I wish he’d go away..."  William Hughes Mearns. 

D. Appearances

II. THE EVIDENCE

*NOTE: A reminder: links are NOT always endorsements of the authors or their interpretation of events, but intended to expand our library of understanding as well as expose ideas of distinct perspective to our own. 

A. Barnes Library: Curated Weekly Articles

  1. Tankers skip blockade. https://www.ft.com/content/21dff2c7-1e27-4f74-81d8-31dcdbe9188e
  2. Doubts about madman strategies. https://substack.com/home/post/p-192512883
  3. Consumer sentiment new lows. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/consumer-confidence
  4. Job market worries spike. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/703280/worker-thriving-declines-job-market-pessimism-grows.aspx
  5. MAHA status. https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/maha-check-up-united-states-getting-healthier

 *Bonus: Old school medical remedies. https://substack.com/@varianavolk/note/c-244056215

B. Best of the Board: Five Fun Posts of the Week

  1. Too true. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7876337/title
  2. Beauty in the backyard. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7878608/1st-goldfinches-were-at-the-feeder-today-they-left-before-i-got-my-camera-a-sparrow-did-pose-for-a
  3. Wisdom. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7877990/so-if-the-splc-paid-regular-people-to-pretend-they-were-nazis-in-charlottesville-there-really-was
  4. Recipes. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7877606/cooking-time-tonites-recipe-is-a-cheese-and-onion-quic
  5. Congratulations! https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7876028/just-found-out-that-i-passed-the-pe-practices-and-principles-of-engineering-exam-this-will-allo

*Bonus: Sarcasm. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7878157/title

C. Homework: Cases of the Week for Sunday

  1. SPLC Indictment. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7877843/professor-jonathan-turley-the-indictment-of-the-southern-poverty-law-center-on-federal-fraud-charg
  2. Insider trading indictment for soldier. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-soldier-charged-using-classified-information-profit-prediction-market-bets
  3. Ten Commandments. https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/25/25-50695-CV0.pdf
  4. Ghost guns. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/national-association-for-gun-rights-jared-polis-opinion.pdf
  5. Surveillance Accountability Act. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7878502/surveillance-accountability-act-this-is-new-legislation-put-forth-by-thomas-massey-and-lauren-boeber
  6. Loomer loses. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7878370/federal-judge-dismisses-laura-loomers-defamation-suit-against-bill-maher-of-course-it-was-a
  7. J6 CIA suit. https://Vvivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7874216/shauni-kerkhoff-sued
  8. Kash sues. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7876578/kash-patel-sues
  9. Powell case dropped. https://courthousenews.com/justice-department-drops-criminal-probe-into-fed-chair-jerome-powell/
  10. AI embarrassment. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7878598/https-x-com-smb-attorney-status-2046600985254977878
  11. AI invasion. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7878135/it-sounds-like-the-just-us-system-is-nullifying-the-4th-amendment-when-it-comes-down-to-using-ai-ie
  12. VA redistricting challenge. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7877770/hot-air-beege-welborn-virginia-judge-rules-va-gerrymandering-vote-unconstitutional-https-hota

*Bonus: GA 2020 election dispute. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7876741/https-www-courtlistener-com-docket-72267501-pitts-v-united-states-filed-after-filed-before-entr

** Bonus: Amazon caught. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7876825/https-x-com-ric-rtp-status-2046578708035604945

***Bonus: AI fakes. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7877192/robertbarnes-vivafrei-and-all-president-trump-posted-this-on-truth-today-april-22-2026

D. Deep Dive: Iran War Oil Price Impact

  1. Supply offline. https://substack.com/@hfir/note/c-248155408
  2. Supply shock risks. https://www.commoditycontext.com/p/sanguine-strait-stoppage
  3. Electricity price spikes. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7875883/us-electricity-bills-are-surging-average-us-residential-electricity-prices-rose-5-yoy-to-a-reco
  4. China energy resilience re: Iran War. https://substack.com/home/post/p-195176243
  5. Doomberg: war effects. https://newsletter.doomberg.com/p/backwards-looking

*Bonus: Chris Martenson.

III. CLOSING ARGUMENT: Iran War -- Exit, Don't Escalate

Trump's stated objectives of the Iran War cannot be won militarily without too high a price for Americans to pay, primarily in economic casulaties, but also in military casualties and domestic political casualties. Let's weight the risks and the realities of the means to obtain the potential reward. 

Rewards: a peaceful, democratic, pro-American, pro-Israel regime in Iran without a nuclear enrichment program, a long-range ballistic missle program, a long-range drone program, underwater drones, or minsubs, fast armed boats, to further secure an open-and-free (or US controlled) Strait of Hormuz for expeditious transport of essential goods, including energy, fertilizer, and supply chain critical supplies like helium, aluminium, and the like. 

Risks: Military casualties, in the injuries, disabilities or deaths of American soldiers, as well as diminished interest in service in the military from distrusted use of the military by military prospects, plus loss munitions, armaments, drones, weapons, jets, ships, radars, and military base infrastructure. Related thereto, the loss of perception of power in the projection of power, especially to the global south. Finally, militarily the undermining of our alliances in the middle east and Asia especially. Economic cacualties in the lost transit, and lost long-term control, of critical energy supplies, fertiliziers, and other essential and critical goods for the global supply chain, from helium to aluminum and more. Political casualties at home in fractured domestic political support, diminished capital for legislative actions, and risks of major midterm losses that could stalemate government and produce impeachment. 

How does a blockade of the blockade achieve the rewards? The theory is that Iran's inability to export through the Strait will cause them such economic difficulty that they will capitulate to give up their soveriegnty, forfeit nuclear enrichment entirely to the US, drop the missle and drone programs, and turn over power to another regime entirely. I see the chances of that as less than 1%. Iranian nationalism, Persian pride, and Shia sacrifical spirituality make surrender worse than death for this regime and many of the people. 

How does a bombing campaign achieve the rewards? If 40 days of 10K plus bombing targets didn't work, why would bombing a few more targets for a few more weeks achieve anything consequential? The no-bridges-and-power-plants war crime full Sherman approach only backfires by destroying all the oil infrastructure of the GCC countries triggering an economic apocalypse for America and the west, a retaliatory risk too great for any rational American leader to consider.

How does an exit achieve the rewards? It doesn't. But it does avoid the risks. And that's why exit rather than escalation is the rational America-First choice. 

 

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Robert Barnes@RobertBarnes
April 17, 2026
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The Barnes Brief: Friday, August 17, 2026

I. INTRODUCTION

*Tickets now for sale. Limited availability. https://www.1776lawcenter.com/

A. Art of the Week

  • The earth, shaded by the moon, from the photos by Artemis, by Musk’s SpaceX to explore the universe. Shades within shades, as the earth looks like a quarter-Moon from earth, but just in reverse. All is often just a matter of perspective. 

B. Recommendation of the Week

C. Wisdom of the Week

  • “But the wisdom that is from above is indeed first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” James 3:17. 

D. Appearances

  • LIVE w/ Ed Dowd.
    placeholder
  • LIVE w/ Baris & Massie.
    placeholder
  • LIVE w/ Larry Johnson

II. THE EVIDENCE

*NOTE: A reminder: links are NOT endorsements of the authors or their interpretation of events, but intended to expand our library of understanding as well as expose ideas of distinct perspective to our own. 

A. Barnes Library: Curated Weekly Articles

  1. Iran deal possibility. https://substack.com/home/post/p-194261430
  2. Studying the Blob. https://www.blobstudies.com
  3. Israel support collapses amongst non-Boomer evangelicals. https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-786545
  4. Oil economy understood.
  5. Ukraine-Russian war.

 *Bonus: Artemis imagery. https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii-multimedia/

B. Best of the Board: Five Fun Posts of the Week

  1. Comedic relief. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7862387/title
  2. Appetizing images. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7862324/title
  3. Economic realities. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7862450/figured-i-d-share-a-very-local-economy-anecdote-from-my-area-i-m-a-homebuilder-in-the-ny-area
  4. Law school lessons. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7862399/i-am-sick-again-so-i-havent-been-hugely-functional-but-yesterday-in-a-criminal-law-class-we-ran-th
  5. Oil breakdown. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7862095/title

*Bonus: Meme magic. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7861462/title

C. Homework: Cases of the Week for Sunday

  1. SCOTUS: removal. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-813_3e04.pdf
  2. FISA fails. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/17/spy-powers-expiration-closes-in-as-house-procedural-vote-fails-00878317
  3. Surveillance state controls. https://conservativeladiesofamerica.substack.com/p/the-parents-decide-act-doesnt-let
  4. Trump admin sued w/ rare Quo Warranto petition. https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/BROWNvDeLeeuwDocketNo126cv01249DDCApr142026CourtDocket?doc_id=X5I57TSSSN08PDAPHKTHG7DTO30
  5. Eastman disbarred. https://www.calbar.ca.gov/news/attorney-john-eastman-disbarred-california-supreme-court
  6. Livenation verdict. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/live-nation-verdict-faceplant-trump-132338276.html
  7. Ukrainegate. https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-2026/4154-pr-06-26
  8. Popular vote compact. https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview/vol2012/iss5/3/
  9. Boasberg shut down.  https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/docs/2026/04/25-5452.pdf
  10. Savannah Hernandez. https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/3-arrested-turning-point-usa-reporter-video-assault/
  11. ICE officer arrest. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ice-agent-charged-assault-minnesota-metro-surge-immigration-rcna332210
  12. 1A & licensure. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/25-2991-shamrock-hills-v-Iowa-appelant-brief.pdf

*Bonus: Media censorship limited. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/04/ftc-takes-action-restore-competition-digital-advertising-ecosystem

**Bonus Cop case in Chicago. https://abc7chicago.com/post/ex-new-york-city-police-sgt-erik-duran-sentenced-throwing-cooler-fleeing-suspect-eric-duprey-killing/18861401/

***Bonus Gallego scandal. https://ktar.com/arizona-news/ruben-gallego-misconduct-allegations/5848619/

D. Deep Dive: Iran War Prospects

  1. The strategic surprise. https://global21.substack.com/p/america-has-never-faced-an-adversary
  2. Iran as new power. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/opinion/iran-war-strait-hormuz.html
  3. A grand bargain. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-us-ceasefire-deal/
  4. The Israel aspect. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/israel-ceasefire/#:~:text=In%20order%20to%20do%20that,to%20further%20Israeli%20regional%20ambition.
  5. The Emirati angle. https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-united-arab-emirates-america-and-israels-frankenstein-monster/

*Bonus: The lego AI war. https://rumble.com/user/ExplosiveMediaa?e9s=src_v1_cbl

III. CLOSING ARGUMENT: The Power to Tax

  • The Preamble provides the purpose of the federal government to “insure domestic tranquility”, “provide for the common defense”, “promote the general welfare” and “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” These balanced interests find manifestation in the enumerated powers articulated within the rest of the Constitution. 
  • Article I, Section 7 provides for “bills for raising revenue” including the enumerated power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposes and excises.” Article I, Section 8 imposes two restraints on the power to tax beyond the purposive restraint “to raise revenue.” All “duties, imposts and excises” must be “uniform throughout the United States.” Article I Section 9 prohibits any tax or duty on exports from any state and no capitation or direct tax can be imposed “unless in proportion to the census.” 
  • The Ninth Amendment further limits those enumerated rights to tax to a taxing power that does not “deny or disparate others retained by the people.” 
  • The Sixteenth Amendment expands Congress power to tax “without apportionment” and “without regard to any census” if imposed “on incomes” regardless of the source of those incomes. Effectively, it removed a federal tax on “incomes” from the apportionment requirement of direct taxes even if those incomes derived from sources that would otherwise require apportionment under Article I. 
  • This leaves open the big question: what is “incomes” under the Sixteenth Amendment? Congress abdicates the issue by using a self-referential and circular definition of income, which under English common law tradition, would negate any income tax since no tax be imposed without unambiguous specificity as to what is being taxed. 
  • The twin decisions that govern this are a dissent and a majority authored by the same Justice a near quarter-century apart — the dissent by Justice White in Pollock and his majority opinion in Brushaber. White considered incomes limited to its original understanding by the voters when ratifying the Sixteenth Amendment, and thus focused not on incomes, but the source rule. He felt a tax on anything other than land and people (capitation) did not require apportionment for its Constitutional imposition. The closest we get is “gain severed from the source” when that source is property or the person. 
  • Hence, a critical term to freedom from imposition by the state remains ambiguous and unanswered — what exactly is “incomes” within the meaning of the Constitution? 
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Robert Barnes@RobertBarnes
April 03, 2026
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The Barnes Brief: Easter Weekend, 2026

**Alert: Amos Miller Special Dinner Fundraiser: https://www.1776lawcenter.com

I. INTRODUCTION 

A. Art of the Week

  • Simple, delicate art by our own board member, honoring the Amish and their deeply American way of life. A return to our roots, a remembrance of our past, the connection to nature, the celebration of life, the spiritual grounding of all. The light of the Creator shines through the archives of nature, and especially in the lives, lifestyles, and unbeatable smiles of the Amish. Many thanks to Janelle! 

B. Recommendation of the Week

C. Wisdom of the Week

  • "What these neoconservatives seek is to conscript American blood to make the world safe for Israel.” Pat Buchanan. 

D. Appearances

  • LIVE w/ Massie, etc on Massie Money Bomb. Starts about the 9 hour mark.
  • LIVE w/ Joe Kent
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  • LIVE w/ Daniel Davis

II. THE EVIDENCE

*NOTE: A reminder: links are NOT endorsements of the authors or their interpretation of events, but intended to expand our library of understanding as well as expose ideas of distinct perspective to our own. 

A. Barnes Library: Curated Weekly Articles

  1. Nuke the petrodollar? https://substack.com/home/post/p-193046193
  2. Hersh: ground war incoming. https://substack.com/home/post/p-192971172
  3. Shifting means of war. https://substack.com/@notesongeopolitics/note/c-227238425
  4. Oil market troubles. https://substack.com/home/post/p-192157738
  5. China dependency. https://substack.com/home/post/p-183818706

 *Bonus: Disruption over dominance. https://chandragupta.substack.com/p/adaptation-asymmetry-why-disruption

B. Best of the Board: Five Fun Posts of the Week

  1. Good, Good Friday. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7825982/robertbarnes-robertgouveia-vivafrei-amen
  2. Massie is the goat. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7823804/massie-is-the-goat
  3. Meme magic. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7824054/title
  4. Familial art. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7823418/hobby-time-so-i-took-a-picture-of-my-grandson-troy-and
  5. Biblical hope.https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7816973/as-i-awoke-this-morning-god-brought-a-verse-to-my-mind-im-watching-nearly-everyone-losing-hope-an

*Bonus: Board poll & discussion. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7826542/board-poll-iran-war

C. Homework: Cases of the Week for Sunday

  1. Pay-for-Play Pam fired. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7817841/well-well-well-our-robertbarnes-was-just-a-couple-days-off-edit-sorry-robert-your-date-was-ap
  2. SCOTUS: Birthright Citizenship. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2025/25-5146_6468.pdf
  3. Generals sacked. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7823954/title
  4. Chaz death verdict. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7823874/judge-denies-seattles-demand-for-new-trial-over-30-5-million-verdict-in-2020-chaz-shooting-death-o
  5. J6 pipe bomber exposed. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7815188/this-is-a-bombshell
  6. Tine Peters appeal outcome. https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Tina_Opinion-1.pdf
  7. OKeefe 2A threatened. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7825133/https-youtube-com-watch-v-rzgl9wihqrs-si-kzhahe-xmdlxm00v-technically-he-doesnt-have-to-show-up
  8. Vance fraud czar. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7826391/i-feel-like-we-ve-seen-this-script-before-hopefully-it-has-a-different-ending-https-x-com-the
  9. Dalaiden dismissed. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7819571/finally-all-charges-dismissed-against-david-daleiden-evidence-baby-parts-for-sale-after-11-years
  10. Nutty Colorado rules. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7823702/https-x-com-ianspeir-status-2039724650150994362
  11. Bulls players dismissed for his religious views. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7826147/professor-jonathan-turley-below-is-my-column-in-the-new-york-post-on-the-termination-of-chicago-bu
  12. Time for enforcement. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7823424/https-x-com-afpost-status-2039789171112345664-the-mass-deportation-coalition

*A Board question. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7817093/could-any-of-the-illustrious-attorneys-on-the-board-please-explain-this-to-me-how-is-it-legal-to-ad

**Self-defense? https://courthousenews.com/maui-doctor-claims-self-defense-in-trial-over-wifes-cliffside-attack/

***Sony settlement for gamers. https://courthousenews.com/gamers-near-7-million-settlement-in-playstation-credits-with-sony/

D. Deep Dive: The Gulf 

  1. The genetic gulf between the Arabs & Iranians.
  2. The gulf within the Gulf.
  3. MBS: the Call of Duty fan in charge of the Saudis.
  4. Dubai mirage.
  5. The peculiar history of the Gulf.

*Doomberg: China doesn’t need the Gulf or Iran.

III. CLOSING ARGUMENT: The Constitutional Constrictions on Holding Office

  • Article I, Section 3 conditions holding office as a Senator to those at least 30 years old, a citizen for at least 9 years, and an inhabitant of the state they represent at the time of election. 
  • Article I, Section 2 conditions holding office in the House of Representatives to those at least 25 years of age, a citizen for at least 7 years, and an inhabitant of the state they represent at the time of election. 
  • Article II, Section 1 requires anyone holding the office of the Presidency by a natural born Citizen, at least 35 years of age, and 14 years a resident within the country. 
  • Amendment XIV requires anyone holding the office of Senator or Representative to not have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States, not “given aid or comfort to the enemies” of the United States, the latter being defined to times of war. 
  • Amendment XXII further restricts Presidential office to those not elected more than twice and to ten years of Presidential service. 
  • Amendment XXV provides the protocol for a President “unable to discharge the power and duties of his office” permitting his removal on stricter grounds provided for by Impeachment and Removal clauses within the Constitution. 
  • The question thus beckons: if a minimum age be required for holding office, what about a maximum age? Should there be a mandatory retirement age for holding office? Why? Because their elder leaders were George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, not Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden. Time to reconsider. 
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