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@RobertBarnes Re: talk of color revolution in Israel
The main article on the subject was Lee Smith's article "Biden Sets Israel on Fire"

"A similar operation is now underway in Israel, where the Biden administration has departed from diplomatic protocol by repeatedly advertising its meetings with the political faction seeking to undo Israel’s newly elected right-wing government. More significantly, Biden’s State Department is now directly funding local activists organizing the protests. By publicly putting its prestige and money behind the coalition that lost the latest Israeli election, Washington is openly advertising its desire to bring down Netanyahu...In Israel the judiciary fills the role of the national security establishment in the United States. As American elites revere domestic U.S. intelligence services for waging an unlawful and ongoing campaign to ruin Trump and his supporters in order to, in their words, “save our democracy,” the anti-Bibi rebels esteem the judiciary as the thumb tilting the scales of justice against those they detest.

For more than two decades, Israeli judges have imposed “ongoing investigations” on right-wing leaders to cripple their agendas. They developed the method with Ariel Sharon, then used it on Ehud Olmert (now, apparently converted by his experiences in prison, a hardline leftist) and repeatedly against Netanyahu. In 2019, he was indicted under charges so vague and elastic—including the assertion that a politician seeking better coverage from a media organization is a crime—that it is clear the judiciary molded them only for the purpose of asserting its authority over Israel’s longest serving prime minister.

Israel’s judiciary cornered Bibi the same way U.S. intelligence services framed Trump: Any attempt at self-defense against an element of the deep state is refashioned by the establishment media as evidence of guilt. Unable to get Bibi out of power at the ballot box, his enemies used the courts, until Bibi outmaneuvered them. With his November reelection, he won a mandate to reform the judiciary. And that’s why the opposition has gone to the streets in much the same way U.S. progressives rioted alongside Democrat-supported street gangs in the spring and summer of 2020. The point is to make the majority beg for an end to the chaos, a plea the motivated minority is glad to accommodate but only on its terms: Help us get rid of the man you elected.

The anti-Bibi coup looks and feels like the anti-Trump operation because it’s run by the same people—the Obama operatives who hunted Trump and now run the Biden White House. It was Obama’s spy chiefs who fabricated Russiagate, the politically funded smear campaign designed to destabilize the Trump presidency. And it’s Obama’s State Department that created the machinery to take down Netanyahu nearly a decade ago by funding anti-Bibi election campaigns with U.S. taxpayer dollars.

Obama’s button men have made the “Get Bibi” machinery a permanent part of the Israeli political landscape: It’s how they dress their never-ending Iran deal campaigns in the garb of domestic Israeli politics. After Obama’s second term ended, his ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, stayed in country to service the anti-Bibi infrastructure while warning Israelis that no matter how good Trump was for Israel—crashing the nuclear deal, moving the embassy to Jerusalem, etc.—they better not get too close to the Republican president, for there would be a price to pay once the Democrats returned to power. And now they have."

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/biden-sets-israel-on-fire

Nevertheless there are other articles on the subject. One of the main NGOs connected to the State Department in Israel is very anti-Bibi and very much behind the current protests against judicial reform. This NGO is the Movement for Quality Government in Israel. Enclosed are a few articles on the subject documenting its general anti-Netanyahu stance:

""The chair of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, Eliad Shraga, addresses the crowd during the major anti-government protest in Tel Aviv.
“Always remember that we prefer the cold and the rain of liberal democracy than the heat and hell of a fascist dictatorship,” he says. Shraga calls on President Isaac Herzog to declare Benjamin Netanyahu as unfit to serve as prime minister."

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/chair-of-movement-for-a-quality-government-in-israel-says-netanyahus-government-seeking-to-change-dna-of-israel/

"The Movement for Quality Government in Israel appealed to the High Court of Justice on Thursday to declare that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is incapacitated due to his conflicts of interest surrounding the government’s proposed judicial reforms...“Netanyahu has proven that he is unable to separate his legal affairs from the administration of the state, and is trying to collapse the democratic structure of the State of Israel even at the cost of the destruction of the Third Temple [Third Temple is a metaphor in this sentence for the State of Israel],” movement CEO lawyer Dr. Eliad Shraga said in a statement."

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-731144

MQG also took down a pro-Bibi minister in the government for similar reasons (they didn't like him) and history of anti-Bibi activity

"MQG began its current campaign of delegitimization, subversion and demonization immediately after the Netanyahu government was sworn into office on Dec. 29. The next day, MQG petitioned the Supreme Court to prevent Shas leader Aryeh Deri from serving as a minister in the government. There was no legal basis for the petition. But that didn’t bother the lawyers at MQG...The anti-democratic, hyperpolitical character of MQG came out strongly during the Lapid-Bennett government’s year and a half in office. Whereas MQG head Eliad Shraga and his comrades ran to the court against every initiative of the previous Netanyahu government, during the Lapid-Bennett government’s time in power, they went on an extended vacation...In 2017, MQG led another anti-Netanyahu campaign. Many of its supporters quit in disgust after Shraga gave a speech at another well-funded rally where he called Netanyahu and his supporters “traitors” and used racist language to attack Sephardic Likud lawmakers"
https://www.jns.org/opinion/how-biden-subverts-israeli-democracy/

MQG Funding and Material Used In Funding
"A look at MQG’s funding reports on the Government Registrar of Non-Profits website doesn’t reveal much. MQG’s private and institutional donors are unnamed. But under the law, all registered nonprofits are required to report funding they receive from foreign governments. So MQG’s only named donor on its annual reports is the U.S. State Department.
According to MQG’s annual reports, for the past three years the State Department has been funding its programs for “democracy education” in Israeli high schools. Since MQG’s primary activity is subverting democracy in Israel by waging lawfare and sowing chaos in a bid to block democratically elected right-wing governments from fulfilling their pledges to voters, it’s fairly clear that when MQG refers to “democracy education,” it doesn’t mean majority rule. While claiming to oppose religious coercion, the actual goal of the “democracy curricula” is twofold. First, it seeks to bar Jewish Israeli schoolchildren in nonreligious public schools from learning about the Bible, Jewish history, religious traditions and holidays. Second, it strives to replace Judaism with post-Zionist curricula. To the extent Judaism is taught, it is taught from a critical perspective."
https://www.jns.org/opinion/how-biden-subverts-israeli-democracy/

The Free Beacon recently caught on the US taxpayer funding being used to fuel protests too.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/how-taxpayer-funds-are-flowing-to-a-group-bankrolling-anti-netanyahu-protests/

Finally, there was a recent article published today on how the US Ambassador to Israel is involved in the protest movement.

"In the first weeks of February, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides was urging the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both publicly and privately, to slow down its plan to reform the judiciary. On Feb. 19, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli responded to Nides in a radio interview. “Mind your own business,” Chikli said. “You’re not the sovereign here. … We’d be happy to debate with you international or security affairs, but respect our democracy.”

Nine days later, Nides fired back. “Some Israeli official—I don’t know who he is, I don’t think I’ve met him—suggested that I should stay out of Israel’s business,” Nides said during an interview at a conference hosted by a think tank in Tel Aviv. “I really think that most Israelis do not want America to stay out of their business.”

Chikli may be a minister in Israel’s government, Nides implied, but so what? When the U.S. ambassador needs the opinion of the Israeli people, he turns to his friends among the Israeli elite, who are openly gleeful to see the United States support them against their domestic political foes. Nides’ intervention in domestic Israeli politics has become so open and self-assured that it is impossible to dismiss his behavior as the freelancing of an undisciplined envoy. His repeated public comments reflect the will of the president. In doing so, they also reveal, at best, a faulty reading of the American interest by Joe Biden.

Relations between the United States and Israel are now being shaped by the intersection of two very distinct crises. The first is the crisis in President Biden’s Iran policy. By any sane measure, the gambit to resurrect the Iran nuclear deal has failed. Two years of diplomatic outreach to Iran have given it breathing room to enrich uranium to 60%, if not higher (“weapons-grade” uranium is enriched up to 90%). Tehran is now estimated to be 12 days from producing a nuclear device. Meanwhile, it is openly pursuing plots to kill former American officials while murdering protesters on its own streets and working closely with Russia on the production of more advanced killer drones.

In reaction to the rising threat from Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is calling on Washington to develop a plan B, one based on compelling Iran to dismantle its nuclear weapons program by presenting Tehran with a credible military threat. The Biden team, however, refuses. Despite the fact that Tehran treats every American overture with undisguised contempt, the Biden team insists that a “diplomatic solution” remains the preferred way to solve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program—that phrase being a euphemism for continuing to avoid any serious effort to pressure Iran economically or militarily. Netanyahu, meanwhile, is developing capabilities that will allow Israel, if necessary, to remove the threat on its own, while, at the same time, ordering sabotage operations inside Iran. He and Biden, therefore, are set on a collision course.

The second crisis is over Israel’s judicial reform, which for nine weeks now has routinely flooded the streets with hundreds of thousands of protesters. The reform’s opponents depict it as nothing less than the end of democracy, and many of them welcome intervention by the Biden administration. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, for example, recently urged J Street, a progressive organization that lobbies for the Iran nuclear deal, to encourage “every member of Congress …, every member in the administration” to bring their influence to bear against the reform.

But the Biden administration needs no such prompting. Even before Olmert issued this call, Ambassador Nides was endorsing the anti-reform agenda. In remarks broadcast on Feb. 18, he urged Netanyahu to “pump the brakes” on the reforms, which he depicted as an impediment to U.S.-Israeli cooperation against Iran. “The prime minister … tells us he wants to do big things,” Nides observed, referring to Netanyahu’s twin goals of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia and thwarting Iran. “I said to … the prime minister, a hundred times, we can’t spend time with things we want to work on together if your backyard is on fire.”... In historical terms, what we are witnessing is nothing less than the second stage of the Mahapach, the election in 1977 that brought Menachem Begin’s Likud Party to power. Begin’s election broke the monopoly that the Labor Party had exercised over the Knesset since the founding of the state. Yet while the traditional elite—Ashkenazi, secular, and associated with the Labor Zionist movement—lost control of the government in 1977, its offspring have continued to exercise influence over national affairs through the state bureaucracies, the universities, the press, and, importantly, the judiciary. (It is perhaps no accident that the usurpation of power by the judiciary took place in the 1980s, on the heels of the Mahapach.)Mapped onto American politics, Netanyahu’s socio-political bloc would unite the “deplorables” of Donald Trump with the “people of color” on the progressive left. Imagine if Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump joined forces to advance legislation in Congress that would reduce the power complex that unites the government bureaucracies, the universities, and the press. Israel’s judicial reform will inevitably reduce the influence of the reigning elite, forcing it to become more responsive to a socio-political bloc that is both right-wing and religion-friendly. This bloc terrifies my friends in Tel Aviv, but it is not the “anti-democratic” or “authoritarian” behemoth that its opponents depict. It is exerting influence through electoral means and proposing reforms that fall within the bounds of established practice in parliamentary democracies...."
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/tom-nides-israels-arsonist-in-chief

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Robert Barnes@RobertBarnes
April 24, 2026
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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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