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December 21, 2024

OK, one last one for the night. I think this is an important one...

I created a custom GPT with all 17,000 pages of the Weaponization of Government document that was just released.

You can use it yourself here: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-676718a7dd988191aff4125d419d1abd-weaponization-of-government-report-analyst

I asked it an interesting question. What do you think about the answer?

The Most Heinous Act: Suppression of the Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Among the numerous abuses outlined in the provided documents, the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story prior to the 2020 presidential election represents the most egregious example of government overreach. This event underscores a dangerous precedent where federal agencies colluded with private entities to manipulate public discourse, censor factual reporting, and interfere in a democratic election.

The Event: What Happened

On October 14, 2020, The New York Post published a detailed exposé revealing emails and documents from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. The materials uncovered significant evidence suggesting Hunter Biden leveraged his family name to facilitate foreign business deals, including connections with Ukrainian and Chinese officials, in exchange for access to his father. The laptop’s content implicated Joe Biden in discussions of these dealings, contradicting his repeated claims of ignorance.

The article provided tangible evidence, including photos, documents, and a subpoena showing the FBI had seized the laptop in late 2019. Neither Hunter Biden nor the Biden campaign denied the authenticity of the laptop, and subsequent forensic analysis confirmed its legitimacy. Despite this, the story was swiftly and comprehensively censored.

Social Media Platforms Respond: Censorship in Action

Within hours of the story’s release, Twitter and Facebook took unprecedented steps to suppress it:
1. Twitter:

  • Blocked users from sharing the article, labeling it as "hacked materials."
  • Temporarily locked the accounts of users who attempted to post or share the link, including The New York Post’s official account and prominent political figures.

2. Facebook:

  • Deprioritized the story in users' feeds to limit its reach while it underwent supposed "fact-checking."
  • Facebook’s actions were later acknowledged by company executives as having been influenced by direct warnings from federal agencies.

The story was effectively silenced across the largest digital platforms, preventing millions of Americans from accessing or discussing the revelations during the critical final weeks of the presidential campaign.

Government’s Role: The FBI’s Prebunking Campaign

A Year of Preparation:
The FBI had been in possession of Hunter Biden’s laptop since December 2019, and internal communications show the agency had authenticated its contents months before the story broke. Despite knowing the laptop was genuine, the FBI initiated a broad campaign to condition social media platforms to dismiss any story related to Hunter Biden as likely "Russian disinformation."

1. Warning Social Media:

  • Starting in early 2020, the FBI held more than 30 meetings with major social media companies, including Facebook and Twitter. In these meetings, federal agents consistently warned of an impending "hack-and-leak" operation targeting Hunter Biden, framing it as a Russian attempt to interfere with the election.
  • Specific references were made to disinformation campaigns involving Hunter Biden and Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company central to the Biden family's alleged influence-peddling scheme.

2. Control Through Prebunking:

  • The FBI’s strategy was not only to alert platforms to potential threats but to preemptively delegitimize any damaging information about Hunter Biden that might emerge. This approach ensured social media companies were primed to treat the New York Post story as suspect even before it was published.

Internal Communications Reveal Intent:

  • Internal messages from Facebook employees documented the FBI’s heavy influence. In one striking exchange, a staff member remarked, “When we get hauled up to [Capitol] hill to testify on why we influenced the 2020 elections, we can say we have been meeting for YEARS with USG [U.S. Government] to plan for it”.

The Impact: Consequences of Suppression

1. Voter Deception:

  • Polling conducted after the election showed that many Americans were unaware of the laptop story due to its suppression. Significant portions of voters indicated that had they known, it might have altered their vote. By burying the story, platforms and federal agencies prevented critical information from influencing the electorate, potentially changing the outcome of the election.

2. Violation of Free Speech:

  • The FBI’s collaboration with social media platforms represented a direct assault on the First Amendment. By outsourcing censorship to private companies, the government effectively sidestepped constitutional restrictions, creating a dangerous precedent for future control of information.

3. Manipulation of Platforms:

  • Twitter and Facebook became instruments of state-sponsored suppression. While ostensibly private entities, their actions were heavily influenced by the FBI’s warnings, demonstrating how government agencies can co-opt corporations to achieve unconstitutional goals.

Key Details: Timing and Strategy

  • The FBI’s Timeline:

    • The FBI authenticated Hunter Biden’s laptop in December 2019, almost a full year before the New York Post story. Despite knowing the truth, the agency crafted a disinformation narrative, ensuring any revelations would be dismissed.
  • The Platforms’ Actions:

    • Twitter and Facebook developed new content moderation policies in response to the FBI's warnings. Twitter expanded its “hacked materials” policy, applying it for the first time to suppress the New York Post article. Facebook similarly modified its algorithm to throttle content flagged as potential misinformation.

The Broader Implications

1. Weaponization of Federal Agencies:

  • The FBI’s actions reveal a dangerous blurring of lines between national security and political interference. By framing a true story as disinformation, the agency effectively interfered in the democratic process.

2. Normalization of Censorship:

  • This event set a precedent for government-led censorship through private proxies. It demonstrated how federal agencies can manipulate narratives and stifle dissent without direct government censorship.

3. Chilling Effect on Journalism:

  • The suppression of The New York Post, one of the country’s oldest newspapers, sent a chilling message to journalists: stories critical of those in power may not see the light of day.

4. Erosion of Trust:

  • Trust in both government and social media platforms has been deeply eroded. The public’s confidence in the integrity of elections, the free flow of information, and the independence of media has been severely damaged.

Conclusion

The suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story by federal agencies in collaboration with social media platforms represents an unparalleled abuse of power. This calculated effort to suppress verified information, distort public discourse, and manipulate the electorate is not only a direct attack on democratic principles but a harbinger of the potential for unchecked government influence over the flow of information.

This event should be regarded as the most heinous act detailed in the provided documents, with far-reaching implications for free speech, the integrity of elections, and the role of government in democratic societies. It serves as a stark warning of the dangers of weaponized federal authority and its ability to coerce private entities into undermining the public’s right to know.

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February 17, 2024
Appearance on Richard Syrette

I did a quick hit on Richard Syrette yesterday. Gotta keep Canadians apprised of the U.S. madness.

Appearance on Richard Syrette
The Barnes Brief, Podcast Format: Monday, July 17, 2023

Closing Argument: Birthright citizenship is deeply American, and wholly Constitutional.

The Barnes Brief, Podcast Format: Monday, July 17, 2023
Declaration of Independence

Audio podcast style.

Declaration of Independence
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The Barnes Brief: Week of December 12, 2025

I. INTRODUCTION

A.  Art of the Week

As the birds make their winter trip in synchronized form, they almost magically make the form of their species in live time in the air, captured in the moment by a photographer’s film, reminding us of the Creator’s noble design and winking at us in real time. 

B.  Recommendation of the Week

An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles Beard unmasked that many of the men at the Convention Hall in Philadelphia were not as enlightened and allied to the Founding generation as later history would tell the tale. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/187702.An_Economic_Interpretation_of_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States

C.  Wisdom of the Week

Affording politicians “a universal, unbounded permission” to take another’s liberty or property in the name of the public fisc will “when the expenses of the nation, by their ambition are grown enormous” inescapably “oppress and subject” the citizenry.” William Symmes. 

D.  Appearances

  • Dr. Bowden
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E.  Best of the Board

  1. Birthright citizenship. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7341595/is-the-nationality-act-of-1940-the-proper-starting-point-for-analyzing-the-scope-of-subject-to-th
  2. Viva done w/ Candace. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516832/update-about-a-month-ago-i-asked-for-prayers-for-my-mom-since-we-were-going-to-get-an-update-on
  3. Curated content from @CCandent https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516486/title
  4. Massie: let’s leave NATO. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516236/massie-introduces-bill-to-get-us-out-of-nato-by-paul-dragu-the-new-american-representative-thom
  5. Nice ruling in PA. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516323/robertbarnes-well-at-least-there-are-still-a-few-judges-in-pa-that-follow-the-constitution-good-r

*Bonus: Personal hope. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516832/update-about-a-month-ago-i-asked-for-prayers-for-my-mom-since-we-were-going-to-get-an-update-on

F.  Best Across the Internet

  • Disconnect from purpose.
    placeholder

II. THE EVIDENCE

A.   NEWS OF THE WEEK: The Library

  1. EU crosses Rubicon. https://x.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/1999358779763183953?s=20
  2. Vaccines & chronic disease. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/125
  3. Disney’s AI gamble. https://x.com/HedgieMarkets/status/1999170314580746623?s=20
  4. Lindell goes for Governor. https://x.com/realMikeLindell/status/1999191330829009327?s=20
  5. Honduran election dispute. https://x.com/SalvaPresidente/status/1998955182277722383?s=20

*Bonus: Foster kids helped. https://x.com/MAHA_Action/status/1999241337745670236?s=20

B.    DEEP DIVE: RUSSIA-US Reasons for Alliance

  1. Tucker: Russia-US natural allies. https://x.com/AFpost/status/1998968887724183834?s=20
  2. Russia: world’s richest resources. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-top-10-countries-by-value-of-all-their-natural-resources/
  3. Russia: world’s largest country. https://x.com/World_Insights1/status/1999029803458965765?s=20
  4. Russia: world’s largest nuclear arsenal. https://www.icanw.org/nuclear_arsenals
  5. Russia’s GDP replaced Europe. https://x.com/IslanderWORLD/status/1978510171589513504?s=20

*Bonus: Russia’s traditional culture. https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1998812811171082739?s=20

C.   HOMEWORK: Cases in Controversy

  1. SCOTUS: Trump authority over bureaucracy. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2025/25-332_7lhn.pdf
  2. SCOTUS: campaign spending limits. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2025/24-621_q86b.pdf
  3. SCOTUS: sentencing the disabled. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2025/24-872_b07d.pdf
  4. SCOTUS: Covid immunity limits. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-180_8m59.pdf
  5. SCOTUS: Bondi defends Whitmer Fednapping convictions. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-5249/387036/20251210183835177_Croft_Opp_12.10.pdf
  6. Courts extend special protection to Maryland Man. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/paula-xinis-grants-abrego-garcia-tro-block-rearrest.pdf
  7. Share Ryan v. Crenshaw. https://x.com/ShawnRyan762/status/1999554231842349564?s=20
  8. Pipe Bomber Patsy. https://x.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1999541341466866022?s=20
  9. Big Tech contempt. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/epic-games-vs-apple-ninth-circuit-opinion.pdf
  10. Pentagon wins trans ban. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/dc-circuit-trans-soldier-ban-opinion.pdf
  11. Russia Euroclear Arbitration possibilities. https://share.google/FdKIPKgvLfEeJXsUz & https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/international-investment-agreements/treaties/bit/3645/belgium-luxembourg---russian-federation-bit-1989-
  12. Doctor liability for patient’s drugs. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/oregon-supreme-court-cyclist-doctor-liability.pdf

*Bonus: Ferrari Tennessee tax case up in flames. https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a69556804/whistlindiesel-tennessee-allegations-ferrari-tax-evasion/

**Bonus: Class Action AI in Healthcare. https://www.fisherphillips.com/en/news-insights/new-class-action-targets-healthcare-ai-recordings.html

***Bonus: What does AI own? https://www.commonplace.org/p/matthew-b-crawford-ownership-of-the

III.  CLOSING ARGUMENT: Masterclass -- The Constitution Article I, The Power of the Purse

  • The first power of the purse the Constitution affords the legislative branch of government in Article I is the power to pay themselves, as section 6 of Article 1 provides: “The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.” 
  • The second power of the purse is Article I's most controversial and most consequential: the power to tax and the power to borrow, or, colloquially, the power to “raise Revenue” in section 7. The mechanism for “raising revenue” shall be by legislation that “shall originate in the House” and then be concurred with by the Senate. The power finds explicit enumeration in Section 8: lay taxes; collect taxes; lay duties; collect duties; lay imposts; collect imposts; law excises; collect excises; pay debts; borrow money on credit of the US; coin Money; regulate the value of Money; regulate the value of foreign Coin; fix weights and measures; appropriate money to support Armies (capped at 2 years); provide and maintain a Navy; provide for arming the Militia; and the broad “necessary and proper” catchall in Section 8. The power of the purse finds further enumerated restrictions within Section 1 itself, though subsequent Constitutional provisions could further constrain and restrain the power of the Purse: section 8’s requirement that all “duties, imposts and excises” must be “uniform”; section 9’s prohibiting a tax on importation of people capped at $10 per person; prohibiting any tax that constitutes a bill of attainder or ex post facto law; no direct tax unless apportioned amongst the states; no tax on exports; no port-preferential tax; and no money spent that is not “in consequence of appropriations made by law”. 
  • The Sixteenth Amendment clarified one key aspect of the power of the Purse: enumerating Congress “power to tax” including the power to “law and collect taxes on incomes” regardless of “whatever source derived” without requiring apportionment. This removal-of-the-source rule was later interpreted to be a Congressional reversal by Constitutional Amendment of the Pollock decision of 1896, and enshrining the dissenting opinion as the authoritative interpretation of the power of the Purse in the court’s Brushaber decision by the dissenting Pollock Judge turned Brushaber Chief Judge White. White would treat any tax on income as an indirect tax, and decided that’s all that the 16th Amendment authorized, codifying his 1896 dissent into the Constitution in 1913.  White used the 1794 Carriage Tax Act to claim a direct tax was a tax on an object whereas an indirect tax was a tax on use, effectively affording a broad power to tax “incomes” as long as the subject of the tax was the gain severed from the source rather than a tax on existing or ownership.  The absent clarity from the court enabled Congress to evade ever defining income itself subject to tax since 1916. 
  • This power of the purse exceeded that intended by many in the founding generation, as the Articles of Confederation did not authorize such centralized, federalized power to begin with, and the anti-federalists proved prescient in their warning against the bond-holding elite that packed the text-writing segments of the Constitutional Convention, as well detailed in Charles Beard’s Economic History of the Constitution. https://cdn.mises.org/11_1_6_0.pdf#:~:text=The%20Antifederalists'%20fundamental%20and%20most%20enduring%20objection,in%20nearly%20all%20of%20the%20Antifederalist%20writings.
  • As one of that generation, known only as Federal Farmer, forewarned: “The only semblance of a check is the negative power of not re-electing them. This, sir, is but a feeble barrier, when their personal interest, their ambition and avarice, come to be put in contrast with the happiness of the people. All checks founded on anything but self-love, will not avail.” 
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The Barnes Brief

I.  Schedule

      A.  Interview on World Apart RT https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7495641/interview-w-rt

      B.  Interview w/ Michael Malice https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7495633/michael-malice-interview

      C.   Interview on Duran https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7477013/live-w-duran 

II. The Evidence

 

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The Barnes Brief: Weekend of November 21, 2025

I.    INTRODUCTION

A. Art of the Day

We the People. It stands out above all in the scribed parchment inside the glass-encased shield inside the Rotunda of Congress with three words bigger than the rest: We The People. Penned on a single sheet of animal skin by Jacob Shallus, it stands out as the Great Charter of American liberty, the profound experiment in self-government, and still stands today as the oldest and shortest written constitution of any major government in the world today. Those words stand out above the rest, written in flowing letters outsized to the text, to remind the world upon what power our government sits: We the People.

B. Wisdom of the Day

“Monopoly is a great enemy” and a “wretched spirit” which poses a greater threat to the free market than as it prevents free enterprise from self-defense. Adam Smith.

C. Cultural Recommendation

Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution tells the tale of what the true founders – the generation that birthed freedom on this continent – thought as they argued the merits of this new document. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7841680-ratification

D. Appearances

II.                         THE EVIDENCE

 *Note: A reminder — links are NOT endorsements of the ideas contained therein. The Library is big, and it mostly consists of ideas I do not personally share.  

 

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