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Barnes Brief: Valentine's Day, 2023
February 14, 2023
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Barnes Brief

Schedule This Week

Tuesday: Early Bourbon w/ Barnes at 6 pm eastern

Wednesday: Sidebar w/ Duran at 1 p.m eastern; Bourbon at 9 p.m. eastern

Thursday: Bourbon w/ Barnes at 9 pm eastern

 

The Introduction: News in Brief

  • Neocon Nikki Haley announced her candidacy for the Presidency, as fellow South Carolinian Tim Scott plans his own Presidential bid.
  • CPI “falls” to 6.5%
  • Biden forms new UFO task force, as this increasingly looks like a mass distraction campaign.
  • Trump’s new nickname for DeSantis is “Meatball Ron”, which is kinda funny.
  • Feinstein retiring finally.
  • House committee to investigate Fauci.
  • USA Today now admits the obvious: Russia winning in Ukraine.
  • Smart legislation in Arkansas: expand ability to sue for misguided gender transition treatment.
  • England ends boosters for under 50.
  • T-Mobile outage hits across the country.
  • Georgia Trump grand jury report to be partially released.

Wisdom of the Day: “Agents and informers do not merely spy. Their main purpose is to discredit, disrupt and negatively redirect action.” COINTELPRO.

 

The Evidence: Barnes Daily Curated Library

  1. Media complicity in Covid polices precludes real accountability. https://www.eugyppius.com/p/dont-be-fooled-by-dumb-talkshows
  2. Did the response to Covid cause the early deaths attributed to Covid? https://substack.com/inbox/rec/102633007
  3. Forgetting lessons from past foreign wars. https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/14/republicans-who-want-war-to-the-hilt-against-russia-forget-the-lessons-of-iraq/
  4. Everybody thinks they can be President. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/02/13/anti-woke-ramaswamy-2024-election-00082414
  5. Backlash on economic war on Russia. https://asiatimes.com/2023/02/breaking-russia-more-like-breaking-ourselves/
  6. Battery problems set back Ford’s electric truck. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ford-sinks-after-halting-production-shipments-electric-f-150-battery-issues
  7. The bull in b.s. https://gainspainscapital.com
  8. Basham’s take on 2022. https://chroniclesmagazine.org/recent-features/an-underwhelming-haul/
  9. Ukraine history. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/02/_since_when_did_ukrainians_become_entitled_to_a_giant_state_.html
  10. One example of interesting story covered by new news aggregator. https://ground.news/article/nyc-schools-sent-fbi-fingerprints-of-teachers-who-refused-covid-vax_34c0b8

*Bonus: Curious George’s Valentine.

 

 

The Argument: A Reasoned Rant

  • An argument (I suspect originated from allies of Pfizer) recently emerged in the public discourse that the Covid vaccines are really “bioweapons” which required no clinical testing for safety or efficacy, because Pfizer was merely an agent and instrumentality of the Defense Department. This basically blames Trump for starting a bioweapon program “intended to kill and disable” people under the guise of a vaccine, while also immunizing Pfizer from any suit (including Brook Jackson’s whistleblower claim) as a mere “agent” of the government. To get to this conclusion, various authors misconstrued the procedural manner Operation Warp Speed functioned.
  • I see some substack authors pushing a theory that would immunize Pfizer and shift blame to the DOD. These authors often mis-cite the pleadings in the Brook Jackson case I am co-counsel on. They are mistaken. The DOD is definitely in bed with Big Pharma, but legally speaking, Pfizer was not a mere agent of the DOD in this context, and their lies to the government material to Pfizer's funding. Indeed, the contract required the vaccines not be administered if the FDA ever withheld authorization or withdrew authorization. 
  • The quickest way to fund an expedited vaccine project was through the Defense Department using its legal authority to develop “prototype” projects. In this case, the prototype was not the vaccine, but the method used to create it – a wide scale, sped-up process of producing medical countermeasures in a pandemic for national security and future military use. The prototype was the process, not the product. This has been misconstrued to make the vaccine a “prototype weapon” because the prototype legislation primarily presumed purchases for weapons, but this confuses the most common use of the law with the purpose of the project here. 
  • The second, separate item they misconstrued was the legal pleadings in the Brook Jackson case I am co-counsel on. According to these same authors, Pfizer argued they were immune because it was a bioweapon project they were performing as an agent of the government, and the clinical trials were never required to measure for safety or efficacy. According to these same authors, the Government filed paperwork “admitting” to this. This claim is false. 
  • Pfizer’s DOD contract focused on logistics solely because FDA compliance was a precondition of payment for the contract all the way through. Pfizer tried to play off of this by claiming the absence of all the FDA rules from their DOD contract meant the FDA rules were not preconditions of payment. We rightly satirized Pfizer’s claim as absurd. The reason is the plain language of the contracts Pfizer themselves admitted into the record, contracts these same authors oddly fail to discuss in detail while spinning their seductive Dominion-like conspiracy tale that the Covid vaccines were bioweapons (which, if true, did something they managed to forget to talk about – completely immunize and inoculate Pfizer under sovereign immunity and eviscerate Brook Jackson’s case.) 
  • In order to procedurally facilitate Operation Warp Speed, the Department of Defense utilized its prototype funding program to accelerate the development of the vaccine. That has been misconstrued to mean the vaccine was a Government "bioweapon", that clinical trials were neither necessary nor welcome for its production and distribution, and that Pfizer was merely acting as an agent/instrumentality of the federal government. Part of this stems from people accepting Pfizer's defense at face value that clinical trial regulatory compliance was not a precondition of the award of a $2B DOD contract. This is flatly erroneous. Indeed, the only reason no separate regulation was required by the Defense Department was, as the agreements explicitly and expressly state, because "these clinical trials are regulated by the FDA and HHS."
  • The OTA Base Agreement cited by Pfizer didn't discard FDA rules, but actually reinstated, reinforced and reincorporated them. 
  • Section 21.06 of the Base Agreement
  • "Deployment and production of medical products and processes fall under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and research on these products involving animal or human studies is regulated by other laws, directives and regulations....Efforts conducted under this OTA shall be done ethically and in accordance with all applicable laws, directives, and regulations." So much so that Pfizer had to share all FDA information with the DOD, including listening to conferences, sharing all documents , exchanging all communications, allowing government attendance at all visits and audits. 
  • Section 21.12 of the Base Agreement
  • Pfizer had to comply "with current Good Manufacturing Processes as defined by FDA guidance", including "clinical trials", and any "failure to comply" that had any "material adverse effect on the safety" of the product would be a "material failure." 
  • The Statement of Work (SOW) – the second binding agreement Pfizer admitted and filed into the public record -- incorporated the terms of the Base Agreement, as 1.1 of the SOW states the agreement is entered into "pursuant to" it. 
  • The SOW further stated the agreement is Pfizer’s "provision to the Government, a state of the art candidate vaccine...providing protection against the SARS-Cov-2 threat and related coronaviruses” but only after “subject to technical, clinical and regulatory success." Pfizer led the government to believe Pfizer could do "unprecedented phase" clinical trial design and its mRna technologies would "abolish the risk of anti-vector immunity." Indeed, Pfizer promised they could scale fast "while preserving high quality and safety standards." Pfizer promised its product would be "for the prevention of Covid-19." The agreement required "regulatory approval" after "conducting clinical trials." The agreement only provided for funding "if clinical trials are successful and the FDA grants" EUA and BLA licensure. 
  • Just in case this wasn't clear enough, the Statement of Work is crystal clear: "Pfizer will meet the necessary FDA requirements for conducting ongoing and planned clinical trials." Pfizer can only seek FDA approval or authorization if "the clinical data supports such application for approval or authorization." Indeed, the only reason no separate regulation was required by the Army was because "these clinical trials are regulated by the FDA and HHS." 
  • The SOW even goes into detail on the kind of study necessary to "evaluating the safety" of the vaccine -- "a randomized, placebo-controlled, observer-blind, dose-finding, and vaccine candidate-selection study in healthy adults." The SOW describes the clinical trials as "pivotal efficacy study design." Only upon "adequate safety and efficacy data" could it be approved. The words "FDA approval or authorization" repeat throughout. The SOW even expressly incorporated the EUA preconditions for approval with express EUA process document incorporation. Pfizer's promise was that "doses shall establish the effectiveness of a technology capable of potentially providing immediate and long-term solutions to coronavirus infections." 
  • The SOW repeated throughout that Pfizer must comply "in a manner compliant with applicable laws and regulations" and expressly referenced the Good Manufacturing Practices regulation (21 CFR 210 & 21 CFR 211). The payment was only for "safe and effective doses required for vaccination" and Pfizer was being paid to "deliver those doses" at scale and speed. Any additional production required "particularly favorable" results. Over and over again, the SOW required Pfizer's drug be a "FDA-approved or authorized vaccine." Again and again, the DOD required any approval was "subject to FDA-approval or authorization" and "subject to FDA-approval or authorization." There would be no approval if "clinical" or "regulatory" failure occurred. 
  • In fact, to further enforce this, Pfizer had to provide the DOD all "data updates from clinical studies." Additionally, Pfizer had to "notify the Government of any event, risk, formal or informal FDA communication, or other issue" that could impact the project. All payments were "subject to change" based on "clinical trials and the validation of the product." Just as no payment could be made until successful clinical trials and FDA authorization or approval, the Government could stop payment whenever the FDA withdrew approval or authorization. That is why Pfizer had to provide all the "data updates" from the clinical trials as well as "any and all inspection and compliance notices, observations and responses" of those clinical trials. 
  • Every great crime needs a great patsy. Pfizer found theirs – the Defense Department. But Pfizer’s still the criminal. Eternal Truth #3.
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Ask in replies and answering Live at 9ish eastern tonight.

1 minute ago

They make some very interesting observations. But the greed of insurance companies will never be quelled unless they do something about it. They ate profiting off the illnesses of Americans. The other MAJOR issue is getting illegals OUT of our health insurance and pur country. It's their boots that are on our necks.

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Thus confirms everything I suspected. EVERYTHING is rigged. Right down to ballot measures. 😡

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The Barnes Brief: Weekend of November 14, 2025

I.   INTRODUCTION

A. Art of the Day

Working away in the hidden office, devouring intel and discovering information, to share with the world. My office looks like this, but replaced with digital feeds over the physical ones of yesteryear, processing the running feeds into recognizable patterns that can both explicate and forecast alike. To all the hidden offices uncovering what his hidden for the world.

B. Wisdom of the Day

“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that, for bureaucrats, procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.” Thomas Sowell.

C. Cultural Recommendation

The Dark Side of H1B Visa exposed by a recipient, Raj Kuppa. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25843858-the-dark-side-of-h1b-visa

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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The Barnes Brief: Wednesday, November 12, 2025

I.   INTRODUCTION

 A. Art of the Day

Icarus, who sought to escape through wings that could him fly like a bird, but came to believe he alone was the source of his greatness, and flew too close to the sun, to fall and collapse from the sky. The great warning of Hubris.

B. Wisdom of the Day

“As soon as you believe you are God is precisely when God will remind you that you are not.” Robert Barnes.  

C. Cultural Recommendation

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by my old Yale freshman mentor, Paul Kennedy. A sign of great danger is when the leaders get infected with Hubris. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/840043.The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Great_Powers

D. Appearances

  • LIVE w/ Baris: Debriefing elections 2025.
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  • LIVE w/ Duran: Hubris infects the west.
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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.  

A.  Daily News of Interest

  1. Lauren Southern discloses governmental effort to entrap her.
  2. Ed Dowd: economic troubles & market bubbles.
  3. Californication collapse. https://chroniclesmagazine.org/reviews/the-nightmare-of-californication/
  4. Trans fad fades. https://www.skeptic.com/article/transgenderism-is-in-rapid-decline-among-young-americans/
  5. Big Tech manipulation of elections. https://dailycaller.com/2025/11/07/2026-midterms-robert-epstein-google-big-tech-trump-admin/

*Bonus:  YouTube revenue falling for content creators.

B. Daily Deep Dive: AI –More Artificial, than Intelligence?

  1. The bubble to end all bubbles. https://www.wired.com/story/ai-bubble-will-burst/
  2. Circular self-dealing. https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/this-is-how-the-ai-bubble-bursts
  3. The infrastructure problem. https://www.derekthompson.org/p/this-is-how-the-ai-bubble-will-pop
  4. Could blow up credit & equity markets. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-10/podcast-yes-it-s-an-artificial-intelligence-bubble-here-s-why
  5. The hallucination problem. https://drainpipe.io/the-reality-of-ai-hallucinations-in-2025/

*Bonus: AI not creating a productivity boom. https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/23/developers_genai_little_productivity_gains/

C. Cases of Consequence

  1. Bear lawsuit. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/boardofgame-alaska-bear-killings-complaint.pdf
  2. Discovery petition over Texas flood deaths. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/naylor-v-camp-mystic-lawsuit.pdf
  3. State control over interest rates. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/national-association-bankers-phil-weiser-opinion.pdf
  4. Election Day to SCOTUS. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-1260/364840/20250710101559188_Amicus%20Brief.pdf
  5. As forecast, no gay marriage to Scotus. https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/11/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-case-on-constitutionality-of-same-sex-marriage/

*Bonus: Courts usurp power. https://tonyseruga.substack.com/p/when-the-courts-become-congress-the

III.                       Best of the Board

From the commentary on policies to improve affordable housing.

 

From @Ryanpd911

  • 1 - no corporation or entity can own more than 3 single family residence and no corporation can own more that 2 other corporations who own more then 2 single family homes.
    2 - cut regulations on the timber industry
    3 - give tax breaks on concrete construction (less need to rebuild after fires or natural disasters
    4 - deport all illegals make it unlawful for them to own any property in the US
    5 - mandate that all public schools offer shop and each shop class must build one stick and frame house and one concrete house per year and offer trades apprenticeships senior year.
    6 - ban all foreign countries and corporations and citizens from owning land or critical infrastructure or food production in the US
    7 - make a law that 1st time homebuyers first loan is 1/2 the going mortgage rate.
    8 - End corporate farming and put limits on how big farms can be and limits on the number of animals, get back to family farms. All family farms get mortgages at 1/2 the going rate.

From @ashman454

  • evoke/cancel all the stupid green energy rules that applied to everything from appliances, hvacs, vehicles and housing.
    also limitation on corps buying up huge housing section to rent...rent apartments fine, but limitations on condos and single family homes being bought up and owned. y big corporations

From ltdpilot

  • allow buyers the option of continuing the interest rate of the seller

From srgravesfamily

  • 1/ Make it easier to buy a "contact for deed" or "rent to own"
    2. Property taxes and home insurance is a big part of the problem (not to mention HOA fees)>
    3. Lower interest rates for first time home buyers or make mortgage assumptions easier again like they used to be.
    4. Starter Homes!!
    5. It would also help if young people didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for health insurance and high interest student loans. This eats up a big part of the income they could use for a home.
    6. The builder who said that the supply problems need fixed it absolutely right. My brother-in-law is a builder as was my father. This is a big part of the problem.

 

From @EdBiagini

 

  • Robert I have many ideas on this because I am a small home builder in Orange County NY, I’d be willing to send you something via email if you would prefer. First, my biggest obstacle is zoning regulations. NY is a home rule state, so I have to deal with a zoning board, planning board, and town board in each individual town. The average lot size around here is 1-2 acres, some towns it is as high as 5 acres. My father was a builder and in the 70s lot sizes were significantly smaller. So if I subdivide a property I am getting much less bang for my buck because I get less lots per subdivision. Second, the building materials market is highly consolidated. There are a small number of manufacturers for drywall, shingles, lumber, insulation, siding, etc. Even the building supply houses have consolidated with Builders First Source being the dominant player. There is almost no competition and, in my opinion, there is price collusion. The administration needs to investigate this (they just did this for meat packers) and bust up these huge players. If home prices decline much further I won’t be able to build because my margins are already tight, I need input costs to come down. Third, mass migration, both legal and illegal has increased housing demand. H1-B visa holders are allowed to get FHA loans, which is insane to me. The administration has to get serious about mass deportations. Fourth, large investment firms own a significant share of single family homes. A young family can’t compete with Black Rock when they buy up entire subdivisions. Fifth, homeowners insurance has gone through the roof. I don’t have a solution for this aside from getting input costs down to lower repair costs. 50 year mortgages would for me because it will keep prices elevated, so long as it increases demand. But I’m skeptical, gen z already feels screwed and telling them they need 50 year mortgages is just kicking them while they’re down. I would prefer prices and inputs come down so gen z and millenials can own homes and start families.

IV.    Closing Argument: The Hades of Hubris

  • The Greeks warned of it. History repeats with lessons of its own. Scholars and literary authors list it like the heel of Achilles and the wings of Icarus – how the great and mighty fall. The Bible identifies it as the great calamitous sin – from Lucifer’s fall to the Tower of Babel’s collapse, from Goliath’s loss to Nebuchadnezzar’s judgment. Hubris, the “haughty spirit” that beckons a deep fall, now infects the leaders of the west, even the President himself, and now its consequences threaten us all.
  • The clinical definition of hubris typically develops in individuals who hold significant power. Its characteristics encompass:  a magnified, embellished view of one's own capabilities;  obsession with personal image; contempt for criticism; loss of contact with reality; a reckless, uncalculated disregard of risk; a denial of dissent. An infection of the soul, an illness of the mind, rather than a permanent trait of a stable personality.
  • The tell-tale signs of Hubris include – recent overwhelming success or power; dis-sociality disregarding others from one’s own traditional community; disinhibition into impulsiveness without calculated regard for risk; condescension, and even contempt, for others and any form of criticism; a belief in oneself above others beyond reason or wisdom.
  • The decaying, declining empires frequently feature hubris, as Professor Paul Kennedy first penned in his Rise and Fall of Great Powers. The empire’s hubris -- overconfidence in their “specialness” tends to overextend themselves in risky expressions – manifest in multiple manners, such as imperial overreach; mismatch between resources & risks; overestimation of their own capabilities; military operations globally as a nation’s global military deployment exceeds its resource capacity; persistent debt and deficits, in public and private sectors, including in balance-of-trade and budgets, as dependency on foreign adversaries rise; diverting resources to overseas adventurism diminishes the public infrastructure, human and physical; a declining industrial sector, replaced with financialization and services, often shifting its dependence on real goods and labor, it’s true capital, to foreign nations; deepening internal divisiveness, as competing interests vie for diminishing resources; bureaucratic infighting as the parasitic state replaces the functioning private economy for material wealth and moral purpose; a moral decay in the institutions of society, religious, social and communal, as the material foundation for that moral prosperity fades and fractures.
  • What happens when you survive two impeachments, four indictments, and near assassination? Could the seductress of Hubris distract your soul and deceive your mind? Does this not well capture much of the modern west, and even Trump’s six-month flirtation with Hubris as his north star?
  • The cure remains the same as the Scripture teaches and the Greek myths proclaim – a needed nemesis to teach us humility as the answer to hubris. Avoid the fall; abandon the arrogance, and listen again, to the people who truly were his wall against wrongdoers.

 

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The Barnes Brief: Friday, November 7, 2025

I.   INTRODUCTION

A. Art of the Day

America in black-and-white, from another time and place, with the wooden shacks, old-time automobiles, along a stretch of highway looking like Route 66, hugged by small gas stations, old diners, and convenient motels, where Americans go about their day, underneath the open skies, along the open road, inviting and welcoming to a time past we spiritually seek to return.

B. Wisdom of the Day

"The Russians are slow to saddle up but ride fast once they do." Otto Von Bismark.

C. Cultural Recommendation

Kevin Phillips reminder that past can be prologue. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/565270.Arrogant_Capital

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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