One of the things that most impressed me about the Tuesday Maine Supreme Court hearing for Dan Brown was the happenings outside the courtroom.
Before the hearing, Dan Brown supporters gathered on the steps of the Portland courthouse to hear not only from his customers and neighbors, but from several local politicians and political candidates who showed up on Browns behalf. There was Dave Marshall, a member of the Portland City Council. There was Brian Jones and Craig Hickman, a both members of the Maine House of Representatives and both members of its Agriculture Committee. And there was a candidate for the Maine House, Will Neals.
They spoke passionately on behalf of Brown and food rights. This is a deplorable situation for the state of Maine, council member Marshall said. We want to buy our food from the farmers who make it.
Not coincidentally, a gaggle of media representatives showed up for the festivities. They included reportersd from a local NPR station, the New York Times, the Associated Press, and a variety of local television stations. Politicians are drawn to the media like bears to honey .though Im not suggesting these pols were there entirely for the media. The fact is that the food rights movement has begun to attract media attention and at the same time has begun to attract food rights activists and farmers to run for office.
After the demonstration, I got to spend some time with Hickman, who has been perhaps the most passionately outspoken Maine politician on behalf of food rights. He told me about how his first-hand experience with the challenges of farming and running a bed-and-breakfast in Winthrop led him to appreciate the political challenges facing small farms. He won a House seat in 2012.
All this activity Tuesday came on the heels of news that Michigan farmer Mark Baker of feral pork fame is running for sheriff in his home county. The decision to run grew out of his own frustration in getting what he considered to be reasonable support and protection from the local sheriff in his conflict with Michigan regulators, who tried to shut down his farm and fine him $700,000 for selling pigs deemed genetically inappropriate under its invasive species order. What better way to let the power that be know you are dissatisfied than to go after his job, so local farmers get better protection from wild-eyed government enforcers.
If there is one thing politicians respect it is competition, as in competition for their jobs. Given the expanding and onerous regulations on food, there may be more farmers seeking out elective office.
I could not agree more. The ultimate engagement is get elected and change the whole damn thing to reflect what the people want!! and NEED to be healthy and happy.
Nothing like success or getting elected to change things!!
Show up, Stand up and Speak up and or Sign up and get elected!!
Be elected Sherrif…that is awesome. I think that Mark Baker would make a great Sherrif. He has the moral and ethical fabric to really serve the people well! Super cool under fire and never stopped thinking and acting under his true north.
Yes, Maine has become a real hotbed of activism on behalf of food rights. The activists there, like Craig Hickman and Heather Retberg, have succeeded in both involving local communities and attracting lots of media coverage. The forces against change– the FDA, the medical community, and the big food corporations–have been fighting like hell against the Maine uprising, and have barely succeeded in keeping the lid on by pressuring the governor and key legislators to oppose liberalization of key laws affecting raw milk and other food. You could tell from the questions raised by the Maine Supreme Court justices that they were well informed about food matters….thanks to all the debate and media coverage. The organization that has taken place in Maine will inevitably result in change there, and create a community -based model that other states can follow.
Request for Machine Guns:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/14/Dept-Of-Agriculture-Orders-Submachine-Guns-With-30-Round-Magazines
Request for Body Armour:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/15/Dept-of-Agriculture-Orders-Ballistic-Body-Armor
Things that make you go hmm, or more like….WTF(no offense intended)
Here’s a little 2 minute clip from a ND guy who thinks real people should be in high places, just as much as the elites. He got a good amount of applause for his words. I’d be willing to bet he wouldn’t approve of arming your local vet with a submachine gun when he makes a farm visit.
http://libertycrier.com/nd-libertarian-candidate-stuns-crowd-ndna-debate/
I was about to ask for help
West Australian Darts Council?,
Wright Air Development Center?,
Water Authority Of Dickson County?,
Watertown Arsenal Development Corporation?,
but then, AHA!, you mean WAshington D.C.
AHA = Amercians’ Helpful Acronyms
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
In effect…they have lost their cause and now must have the last amount of their power come out of the end of a gun that “we the people bought for them”. Truly a measure of their loss of power and loss of true ability to communicate with we the people.
It is critical that real people gain office and than means farmers becoming elected and becoming our Sherrifs to bring back common decentcy and humanity to our country.
Your sentence about needing somewhere to put all the folks who have retired from the military reminds me of a line from a song in the movie White Christmas where Bing is crooning away the words “what do you do with a General when he stops being a General?”. Damn good question. Most go into the military right out of high school and few leave, because it’s a JOB. Well, that’s what the recruiters lead them to believe on Career Day but they find out differently.
Shelly, the Economist had a lengthy analysis on just your point, that America’s local police have been encouraged via financing, equipment, and training to become ever more militaristic.
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599349-americas-police-have-become-too-militarised-cops-or-soldiers
Long before I was a nurse, I was an EMT/firefighter. We arrived on scene and a man was jumping up and down on the roof of a car. The woman inside was terrified. They guy was high on various drugs. He saw us and ran to our rig, my window was part way down and he grasped the open window threatening to kill us. His words were not always coherent,yet we did get the gist of what he wanted to do to us, his facial expressions appeared contorted. My partner who was at the wheel, took off, thinking the guy would let go, he did not. It was very traumatic. He eventually was shot and taken by another ambulance to the hospital. There was another call where a Vet thought he was still in Nam and was up a tree, sniper shooting. I was worried about the O2 on board, we stayed back until the cops disarmed him. This was all in the late 80s.
Back in 1997 in North Hollywood there was a shootout between two heavily armed bank robbers and LAPD. Both robbers were killed, eleven police officers and seven civilians were injured. I believe it is on you tube. The police were NOT armed nor protected adequately.
What is a cop supposed to do when the criminals are armed better than them? And I do acknowledge that there are bad cops, (and stupid ones) just as there are in any profession. I don’t see a decrease in violent crime.
Here’s a link to several of his articles – all are quite interesting, compelling reading.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/author/john-w-whitehead/
He is a Constitutional lawyer, President of the Rutherford Institute, and an author of a couple of good books. I think I’ve read every word he’s ever written.
“Depopulation is an important tool for controlling catastrophic animal diseases. NVS has acquired appropriate countermeasures to depopulate large commercial poultry facilities but lacks equipment to depopulate small holders of poultry existing outside of the integrated commercial poultry production system. The purpose of this requirement is to obtain equipment to efficiently and humanely depopulate backyard and hobbyist poultry flocks (equaling 50-100 birds per location) or small poultry production facilities (flocks ? 1000 birds). Ultimately, we wish to purchase 12 mobile trailers, manufactured in accordance with the attached draft statement of work (SOW), for this purpose.”
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https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=0fd91145684b26ea20a0f589380a34ba&tab=core&_cview=1
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The USDA is explicitly targeting the small backyard real food grower….they really do hate competition.
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Any by the way….where is there list of “catastrophic animal diseases”????
Who gets to decide what is on this “catastrophic animal diseases” list????
–bill
Changes comes slow when processors lose money!!!
fully-informed of their authority to protect their county borders
and refuse federal agents who act under color-of-law against
our farmers.
Any county sheriff can be encouraged and supported to attend
the annual conference that is put on by Sheriff Mack and the
Constitutional Sheriffs Organization CSPOA:
http://cspoa.org/
Also: “Sheriff Power: ‘To Serve The People & Protect Their
Rights’ – ‘Constitutional Duties of a Sheriff’ – ‘Local
sheriffs are last defense, former lawman Mack says’;
‘The Sheriff – More Power than the President’ and
‘Sheriff Brad Rogers: Uses Constitution To Protect Local
Farmer’ & More Sheriff Power plus ‘the most important
pages of law in the federal government’.:
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1891022
WUWM Milwaukee public radio 89.7 npr
The Bolsheviks kind of wanted to eradicate privacy. And private hearth, private stove becomes very politicized.
Stalin’s industrialization program included the industrialization of food. Completely new, mass-produced food appeared foods like canned and processed soup, fish, meat and mayonnaise.
“The whole of the Soviet Union, all 120 different ethnic groups were suddenly being served exactly the same stuff,” says Grisha Freidin. “Choices for this or that food, the tastings, took place at the politburo level. The kinds of candies that were being produced was decided in a special meeting with Stalin and [Vyacheslav] Molotov.”
http://wuwm.com/post/how-russias-shared-kitchens-helped-shape-soviet-politics
Case in Point…http://fox17online.com/2014/05/16/raw-milk-debate-stirred-up-by-e-coli-illnesses-in-west-mi/
“Cow Shares and Freedom” does not equate to safety or freedom from illnesses. If you are going to use a Cow Share to access raw milk…then use a RAMP plan and testing to assure that no one is going to get very sick. When coliforms are super low the odds of illness from a coliform based pathogen becomes very low as well. Coliforms are the target bacteria that when controlled also lower risk tremendously.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/1-8m-pounds-ground-beef-081831908.html
http://www.keepfoodlegal.org/content/keep-food-legal-statement-new-fed-documentary
I would never consider this “movie” to be a documentary. It’s not even close.
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2013/12/09/stuffed-part-1/
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2013/12/16/stuffed-part-2/