One of the best ways to get elected county sheriff these days is to campaign against the encroachments by the federal government on basic rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. And then, to act on your campaign agenda…well, that could win you an award.
A good number of the 125 or so sheriffs attending the first convention of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) in Las Vegas over the last couple of days (together with another approximately 100 other enforcement personnel), appear to have been elected in just the last year or two. One of the most heartwarming stories by a recently elected official came from Sheriff Brad Rogers of Elkhart County in Indiana. If you’ll recall, he was featured on this blog in December standing up for one of his farmer constituents, raw dairy farmer David Hochstetler, who was being subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury exploring felony charges in connection with his distribution of raw milk.
Sheriff Brad Rogers of Elkhart County, Indiana, holds his award for “Meritorious Valor”. Rogers was one of about a dozen speakers at the Sheriffs Convention, and he was interrupted several times by enthusiastic applause from the approximately 225 law enforcement personnel as he recounted the story of how he stood up against the feds on behalf of Hochstetler. He explained that he was elected sheriff of Elkhart County in 2010 “by a wide margin…I ran on the basis of protecting the Constitution.”
He recalled, “On December 1, I received a call from an Amish farmer in my county. He said, ‘I’m having a problem with the federal government.’ He told me how the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) had been to his farm several times in 2011 alone. I went to see him. I could see it was a clean operation. The problem for the federal government was that he was selling raw milk to cooperatives in Illinois and Michigan. After the third or fourth time the FDA was there, he was subpoenaed before a federal grand jury in Detroit.”
As Rogers recalled it, “I told Mr. Hochstetler, ‘I will protect you in Elkhart County. I can’t protect you in Detroit.’ I asked him, ‘Are you ready for some sparks to fly?’ He said he was.”
Next, said Rogers, “I sent an email to the Justice Department trial attorney…I said, ‘If you come back to this farm without a search warrant signed by a trial judge, I will have you removed for trespassing.’”
The audience interrupted Roger with wild applause. “Well, he didn’t take to that too well. He said the federal government has precedence based on the Supremacy Clause. I told him the federal government is supreme if it has to do with the Constitution.”
All that happened on a Friday, Rogers told his audience. “On Tuesday, Mr. Hochstetler received a certified letter that the Department of Justice had withdrawn the subpoena.”
The crowd interrupted Rogers again, with even louder applause. “I want to protect citizens like Hochstetler,” said Rogers. “That stuff is not going to happen in my county.”
Another burst of applause as Rogers concluded his talk. Afterwards, he told me he had received about 1,000 emails after my blog post of early December. All except one of the emails congratulated him or otherwise encouraged him to continue helping Hochstetler. “We’ll never know if it was my letters that led to the withdrawal of the subpoena.” Surely they didn’t hurt.
The “Interposer” award presented to Sheriff Brad Rogers.Later Monday evening, Rogers was one of about 50 sheriffs who dropped in on “A Complimentary Tasting of Fresh Farm Foods” hosted by the Farm Food Freedom Coalition, the organization that has spawned the Raw Milk Freedom Riders, and was a sponsor of the sheriffs convention. The foods included fresh cheeses and sausages sent in by Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger, along with raw milk ice cream painstakingly made by Sea J Jones, a former Rawesome Food Club volunteer (using out-of-state cream).
In walked Rogers, proudly holding an award he had received at the convention banquet that had just ended. The inscribed laminate under his name read: “CSPOA Interposer: For Meritorious Valor for Interposing Himself on Behalf of His Citizens”. He had received the award because of his efforts to protect Hochstetler.
The award was in keeping with the entire tone of the convention. According to Richard Mack, the former Arizona sheriff who organized the event, “This is about America. It is about whether we are going to preserve our Constitution.” In describing the inaugural sheriffs convention, he added, “It is not a call to arms, or violence, or insurrection. There is nothing subversive here. Quite the opposite.”
He noted that the sheriffs in attendance “swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights…They are untouchables. You cannot violate the Bill of Rights.” Sheriffs, he said, “are sworn Constitutional guards. We are the executors of the law. The supreme law is the Constitution. We interpose on behalf of people.”
The subject of raw milk came up a number of times. Michael Badnarik, the 2004 Libertarian candidate for president, gave an hour-long overview of the Bill of Rights. In describing the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, which provide latitude in reserving powers to states over the federal government, he noted, “The government is trying to put Amish farmers out of business for producing raw milk…I own my body” and decide what to feed it.
Memories of Las VegasA preview clip of Kristin Canty’s, “Farmageddon”, was shown to the attendees, and each one took home a DVD of the full documentary.
A sheriff from California told me he has been asked for help from herdshare operators in his county, who have received cease-and-desist orders from the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “I am in the process of drafting a letter to the CDFA that they are not to come into my county and interfere with herdshares.”
Of course, interference in raw dairy wasn’t the only federal-local thorn the sheriffs complained about. They described federal efforts to close off roads in public lands. An Oregon sheriff said he has seen an increasing number of complaints from people using the public lands. “They say Forest Service people are pointing guns at them.” The U.S. Forest Service “has been told the road closures are illegal…there is a huge mistrust of our federal government.”
Other complaints concerned over-aggressiveness on the part of the U.S. Immigration Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. One sheriff told the audience that in addition to the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches of government, “We have a fourth branch of government, the bureaucratic branch.”
What impressed me about the conference was the positive energy and spirit. The sheriffs are obviously concerned about the erosions of our rights, but they also generally feel it is not too late to restore a semblance of balance.
After the full day of talks and discussions on Monday, nearly all the sheriffs I spoke with not only felt the gathering had been worthwhile, but want to see a repeat next year. My prediction: It will be much bigger next year. This year, it drew about 3% of the nation’s more than 3,300 sheriffs; I wouldn’t be surprised if, after the sheriffs who attended get home and talk it up, perhaps 6% or more of the nation’s sheriffs will be at next year’s event.
***
Thanks to Michael Schmidt for helping put things in proper perspective in his comment following my previous post.
I envy the fact that sheriffs in your country have the authority to exercise such discretion in defense of the constitution. This is certainly not the case in Canada, where law enforcement officials at all levels are exclusively hired or appointed by the state.
Ken
America's founding fathers were very sensitive to the dangers of centralized power, and built in all kinds of "checks and balances." It is out of that concern that the sheriff was mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, and designated in nearly all the states as the top county law enforcement official. Moreover, in all states but Rhode Island, sheriffs are elected.
But like much of the rest of the U.S., sheriffs have been tantalized, and neutralized, by the lure of federal programs and funding, and have looked the other way as the federal government has trampled the Constitution. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is trying to wake up the nation's sheriffs to familiarize themselves with the Constitution they pledge to uphold when they take their oaths of office. It remains to be seen whether the pendulum has swung so far that the CSPOA can't begin restoring a focus on the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The conference just ended was an encouraging step in the right direction, though.
David
FYI, the water at the Luxor in Vegas is/was contaminated with Legionnaires' bacteria…
Pattie said the quote is from Wendell Berry not her, it is on her web site. Know your farmer! If you dont have one, Find one! If you cant find one, Become one!
Many small dairy farmers and the communities are standing up to the oppressors. As Pattie says; "The food industry pays no attention to health. The health industry pays no attention to food. The more people learn, the more they will speak out, if not with words, then their money….
Inspiring news! Reading this, I could sense the empowerment at that event. I'm going to email this to my county sheriff.
Sylvia, again I praise your comments and the excellent articles you post.
I too was grateful for Michael's last post.
Go Pattie Chelseth, Go!!!
-Blair
Thank you for investing your time and talent into the Las Vegas convention. This is huge and represents the Armed Division of the Mother Lions of Raw Milk. The peoples will is elected into the local sherrif…elected fire power behind the raw milk moms!!!
I just spent 1.5 hours in Sacramento today meeting with top regulators. We were discussing a broad range of raw milk subjects including a wonderful offer by CDFA and DHS to assist OPDC in ecoli research and manure testing during the high risk seasons of August to October when ecoli 0157H7 seem to rear their ugly heads. Hopefully we can discover what conditions or variables ( with our calves etc…cows….etc… tend to create an environment for ecoli 0157H7.
Many other very productive comments were shared. Nothing like sitting down and having a good long heart to heart talk. We all learned something and we all definitely contributed….it was great. Engagement and not secrecy will advance Raw Milk. Please attend the Cow Share Working Group meeting at Monterey CA Eco Farm conference this Friday. It is at 11:00. All interested people are welcome.
Mark
Is there a teleconference option? I'd like to listen in on this discussion.
Also, would like to know more about wise sourcing of "replacement" cows. I understand there is a shortage of quality heritage breeds, especially here out west.
In CO we're seeing a 40% RISE in feed prices, and I've heard several dairies saying they have to raise prices, or quit. We need regulatory relief, fast.
-Blair
The USDA is banning whole pasteurized milk in US schools. The only choice will be low fat milk, fat free milk and fat free flavored milk.
Another historic move by our government to dumb down the masses. Thank you Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for the new standards for school meals.
Soon to be homeschooling from the Land of Whole Unprocessed Milk and Honey,
P.S. Bravo Michael Schmidt for keeping us all on the same path!
Is there anything we can do in California to support Vernon Hershberger?
That is supposed to improve kids nutrition? What about the GMOs, herbicides/pesticides and processed crap? If my kids were young, I'd be home schooling too.
Firstly, on a purely practical level, the FDA has access to Federal Marshalls. In a standdown of sheer force the Marshalls, I'm guessing, could easily overwhelm most local sheriff departments.
Secondly, on a more philosophical level, I am inherently distrustful of the police. Perhaps there are instances of social struggle where they can be a force for good, but by and large, I think the police exist to protect the status-quo and serve the interests of the privileged and powerful. A good review of a book on this subject:
http://www.kristianwilliams.com/reviews/
Anonymous collective reveals Ron Paul's secret alliance with White Supremacist and neo-Nazi groups:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/291000/20120201/anonymous-ron-paul-neo-nazi-bnp-a3p.htm
The unholy alliance between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-paul-and-romney-a-strategic-alliance-between-outsider-and-establishment/2012/01/20/gIQAf8foiQ_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
David,
Wasn't there some recent fundraising to help fund these Sheriffs to attend? And, how can we get behind these fundraising efforts locally, and get the attendance not only doubled but quadrupled or who knows maybe we can help turn it into a must-attend event, drawing 80-90% of all American Sheriffs? I'm all for it.
That book does look pretty good, though.
Of course, those of us who are old enough to remember the '60's will know that the small-town sheriffs in the South were the villains, and the feds were the heroes. The feds were the ones who helped bust local corruption that prevented African-American folks from voting — among other things.
We are family cow owners, or were. About 4 months ago we sold our milk cow (a separate, sad story).
Before we were milking, I would typically suffer with a significant upper respiratory infection about once every season. (I blame that partly on poor immunocompetence related to childhood tonsillectomy.) When the cow came, the throat illnesses literally disappeared. For the 8 years or so that we milked, I had not a single sore throat. Now the cow is gone, and although I continue to drink fresh, unprocessed, Jersey-cow raw milk (from a cow fed and handled essentially as I did our own) and manage our remaining cattle daily, I am once again having sore throats.
Why? My explanation: Cows continually sample their bacterial environment, and respond to it by developing appropriate antibodies in their milk. I believe that when I was in proximity to my cow, I was somehow part of her sample, via soil, air, touch, and perhaps other means I cant identify. The symbiosis was protective. Now my milk comes from 20 miles away. It is good milk, and helpful, but it is from a cow that has no relationship with me personally, and that means less than optimal health.
I cant prove all this, but taking a sensible, epidemiological approach, the loss of the cow is the significant identifiable factor. Proximity to my cow was a key element in my health.
Bill,
Who enforces socialism? Swedens answer to homeschooling and other parental rights has included the removal of a homeschooled child from his family because he had not been given vaccinations mandated by the government, and, according one news report, because social workers were alarmed that the lad displayed deviant behavior in school, including laughing and hugging other children in class and kissing them on the cheek and that he liked to play with younger children.
(For a brief summary go to the Home School Legal Defense Association website and search Johannson.)
Socialism frees one from the effects of non-traditional capitalism at the expense of liberty. America was and is an attempt to find safe, dry ground between their devil and your deep blue sea. It was successful in that we were given a Constitution (however battered by special interests promoting this or that ism) establishing basic liberties. Lord knows it's not a perfect solution, but that document can and should be used to regain lost rights and redress wrongs when things go a kilter, as the CSPOA well demonstrates.
Important point about police. No doubt the feds could blow away the sheriffs in a showdown–the U.S. Justice Dept lawyer essentially threatened Sheriff Rogers with that reality in his email exchange in December–but believe me, that's the last thing the feds want to do. This country went through that once before. And came close once again in the 1950s (Little Rock) and 1960s, as Diana points out. But remember, that was over race, now it's over food.
From where I sit, the food rights movement is in great need of allies with influence. The sheriffs can be viewed as important stakeholders in this struggle over access to the foods of our choice. They are close to the people, know that people are ever more troubled by federal overreach. They seem not to be as corrupted as most politicians by the crazy donation system that allows pols to buy their way into political office (though certainly, by virtue of the fact that they are in an elective office, they are politicians as well). But definitely they can't be our only stakeholders. In our situation, we need to seek out friends with commonality of interests, and we certainly have this potentially in the Constitutional sheriffs. We both are committed to working toward a restoration of Constitutional rights. .
David
I told you-all that the Campaign for REAL MILK is race-related … but oh, no, in Eric Holder's "post-racial society", some people still aren't able to handle such a big idea, let alone, 2 concepts at once
if you're cheering-on Vernon Hershberger's local sheriff, get ready for a replay of the same 60s scenario as you glorify with the likes of communist stooge MLKing … and make sure you have your flak-jacket on = the SWAT meatheads are spoiling for a shootout with a bunch of "wackos" ( their term) holding the Constitution in one hand and a jar of milk in the other.
I do not support home schooled children being forcibly removed from their family or forcibly vaccinated, but I do worry that home schooling is sometimes (though not often) used as a ploy to conceal domestic abuse. Is there a good way to navigate that issue, while respecting individual rights? You would probably know better than me.
It is also worth noting that in Scandinavian countries, police often patrol the streets without guns, and crime is rare.
The vet on the RawMI board is from Sweden, and she has expressed appallment at the American approach to raw milk.
Its easy to get caught up in the constitutional ideology, but as I've pointed out many times, the constitution has numerous problems, and in fact represented a major consolidation of centralized government power by early American financial elites and slaveholders, when it was drafted in 1787. After all, it was a farmer rebellion (Shay's rebellion) which prompted those early American elites to gather the constitutional convention in order to tame the "excesses of democracy", because it was becoming clear that the articles of confederation were no longer sufficient to contain the class struggle. And the constitution was used shortly afterwards to crush another farmer rebellion (the Whiskey rebellion). When the constitution was written, only property owning white males could vote, and slaves were considered 3/5ths of a person.
For people to romanticize the constitution and the "founding fathers" is an exercise in blind nationalism, and ignores the complexities of that historical moment and the contradictions within American society. Many of the most radical and militant elements of the American revolution were actually opposed to the constitution — most famously Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry (you know, the guy who gave the "give me liberty or give me death" speech).
IMO, the redeeming features of the US constitution are the Bill of Rights and some of the amendements that were made after the bill of rights (i.e. abolishing slavery, women's suffrage, etc…). However, I think it is long past time for a new constitution, which should enshrine such principles as food sovereignty, labor rights, abolish corporate personhood, and bring the banks and oil & mining companies under direct public control.
No system is perfect, but all in all, the experience of the last 50 years has shown that "Scandinavian socialism" is a much freer system than American ultra-corporate-capitalism, for an advanced industrialized liberal democracy. Scandinavian nations consistently rate higher for civil liberties and democratic rights than any other nation on earth (though there are no doubt areas that could still use improvement)
As a small business person, please also consider the following article from INC magazine about Entrepreneurship in Scandinavia:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/in-norway-start-ups-say-ja-to-socialism.html
I learned a bunch from the Marshalls. They were quite embarrassed by Ruby Ridge and Waco….the knew that the public does not support American on American and Government on American public CNN news and blood shed. It is not good and they lose much when this happens.
You will find the marshals doing everything they can to preserve the public confidence and use their considerable "behind the scenes' political knowledge and connections to defuse any confrontations with some local sherrif. When there is a sherrif and a confrontation…this creates a news media frenzy….that means attention and press and leading news lines. The last thing in the world that the feds want is leading head lines about a local sherrif protecting raw milk and moms that want raw milk. This would be an FDA dooms day media disaster and would expose the PMO and the FDA to the likes of Liz Reitzig and the Raw Milk Freedom Riders etc….a big no no.
So…I think it is fair to say that Sherrifs will do very well protecting raw milk and food freedoms at a local level, but somewhat superficial level. You will not see a Sherrif SWAT team matched against some federal Marshals. Just will not happen for many reasons. COPS do not stand against COPS in America. So the local sherrif will win the day and the marshal will be a no show….but the FDA may get to the judge and the regulators and deal with the issues behind the scene. Quietly and effectively with grand jury indictiments and seizures of bank accounts and other very cold blooded methods.
The show down at the Raw Milk OK Corral is the last place you will find the Marshals showing their power. The feds are devious snakes…they crawl out from under different rocks. I would be very concerned with the power of the Marshals service and their intellegence gathering methods and efforts. That is something that they showed me. The gather intellegence like crazy and know everything going on….everything. The have GPS units on cars, they know your conversations, they know your email….they know your bacteria counts from your bulk tank.
Do not get me wrong…the local elected sherrif is a great advocate and it is awesome to have them on our side…but do not classify the Marshals service so simply.
http://foodfreedom(dot)wordpress.com/2012/02/02/harvard-food-law-society-to-host-raw-milk-debate-feb-16/
Hope it's ok to post this here, as David will be one of the featured speakers.
See you there…
David
Bill,
This is taken from a publication by the Home School Legal Defense Association (dated February, 2010):
In what is becoming an increasingly tragic situation, Christer and Annie Johansson are still separated from their 7-year-old son, Dominic, who remains in the custody of Swedish social services, where he has been since June [2009]. Nearly eight months ago Swedish authorities approached the Johanssons as the family was on a plane ready to relocate to India. Police officers took Dominic into custody, per the instruction of Swedish social workers.
Throughout the latter half of 2009, the couple fought to regain custody of their only child as the Swedish courts continually ruled that social services was right to take the boy. The Johanssons appeal of this decision was rejected by the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden this past December.
HSLDA and the Alliance Defense Fund are jointly advising the family and exploring all available avenues to help reunite Dominic with his family. Swedish social workers have recently visited Christer and Annie and inquired about their current ability to take care of Dominic. According to a Swedish lawyer who spoke with HSLDA anonymously, these visits do not necessarily indicate the possible return of Dominic to his parents. Rather, this attorney said, Swedish social services intends to force the parents into complete subjugation and compliance with the system.
Visits between parents and children in custody are tightly regulated. Christer and Annie are only allowed one-hour visits with Dominic, every fifth week.
At times referred to as a 'social utopia,' Sweden is completely antagonistic toward homeschoolers and, in reality, anyone who deviates from what the Swedish government defines as normal.
____________________________
Bill, what we are seeing in Sweden is the logical end point of the desire to navigate an issue: a solution far worse than the problem it is attempting to fix.
You are quite right that America has similar problems, but you are comparing a little to a lot, and you are ignoring context. The sort of police action that stole this 7-year old from his parents (and even now keeps him in custody) is anathema to the American ethos just as it is the natural expression of the Swedish system. (Is it necessary to point out that there is far more home schooling in America than in Sweden, and far less bureaucratic and police interference here, as well as far more responsiveness here when bureaucrats do overreach? Imperfect? Yes, but good and positive to whatever extent Americans resist the temptation to trade their freedoms for the empty promises of systemic, utopian solutions to potential bad outcomes.)
Your speech is full of weaselly words; they emanate from your desire to control. Who is to define domestic abuse in your utopia? Social workers? Medical doctors? A righteous majority? You? Navigate is another weaselly word. It does not guarantee the respecting (yet another weaselly word—protecting is what is necessary) of human rights, but rather opens the door to bureaucrats who would steal them away.
Lastly, suggesting that I would know better than you how to control someone else's life is classic temptation. Know this: Had I the power to bow to that conceit at the time that Ken Conrad was raising his babies without their mother, I would have caused the removal of them from his home for what he was doing. I am forever grateful for the circumstances that drew me away from all that, and thankful now that people like Ken continue to help me understand the value not only of biological symbiosis with God's world, but social symbiosis as well.
The Swedes pay exorbitant income taxes (50% or more) to satisfy the interest on their national debt, just as we in the U.S. do.
The same elites control Sweden and the U.S.
The only difference, and why Sweden is seen as such a "utopia", is that the Swedes get more scraps (financial benefits and "freedoms") from their masters than we in the U.S. do. But make no mistake, they are just as enslaved as we are. And if they are blind to it, maybe more so.
At any rate, the topic is this, Sheriff's have the duty to uphold the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of the citizens of their county. These Sheriff's are interested in actually doing their job, and it is a terrifically positive thing for freedom over all, and food freedom most certainly. As a group of people, who for the most part, advocate that we have the right to eat foods of our choice, we should support the freedoms secured by our system of government and understand the power structure.
One person CAN make a difference, and the Sheriff of your county might just be that person. And you might be the person that makes the difference for your Sheriff. Or he might be a miscreant, and the only difference that can be made is to get him out and bring in a Constitutionally minded Sheriff. So find out where your Sheriff is on the issue of protecting your rights. I know where ours is, and we need a new Sheriff here.
I want to bring attention to the sad fact that a Sheriff in Arkansas thought that the HSUS was a federal agency and let them take a woman's horses because of his thinking. She was finally exonerated and her property restored, but it cost her a lot of money and heart ache.
The point is that it is time to do something, and this is a positive peaceful action that we can all take in our own counties and begin to get accountability back into the system that has been strangling our freedom. While you must be careful, this is indeed something we can do. So let's do it! Get into contact with your Sheriff and give him a copy of Mack's book. Then contact him again and find out which side he falls on, oppression or freedom. It's a simple choice, but very important.
Its my opinion that the current state of affairs in this country is at a crossroads. The Constitution is a unique document that came about as a result of the crucible of human freedom. Nothing like it has ever existed in the world and it is by no means a finished product. The understanding of how a dollar is earned and how a circulating medium of exchange is created has never been properly addressed, but the time for it has come due.
Raw materials are imported by large corporations to suppress domestic price levels. The United States during the 1800s was not a big trading nation, but prices and markets were manipulated, without a doubt. For those who are familiar with the history of our monetary system, the introduction of the Federal Reserve and the income tax was a coup by the financial elite. However, they could not get the traction they wanted until they collapsed our price structure in order for there to be a demand for the bankers line of credit. Right after World War I, Proctor and Gamble spent an enormous amount of money lobbying Congress to lower tariffs so that vegetable oil (palm oil) could be imported for the making of soap (Ivory). P & G had developed the artificial hydrogenation process for converting vegetable oil into a product that could be used to make soap in place of lard and tallow. This made domestic animal fat appear to be in surplus when, in fact, it was not. At that time animal fat was worth more than red meat. So the farmer lost that market and even red meat was discounted because animal fat became a nuisance in trying to dispose of it. And, of course, all of this was lucrative (i.e. filthy) profit for the manufacturers at the expense of the countryside. So with a faltered price level the American farmer found himself shorted and the banker had a place for his line of credit.
Production x price is how a dollar is earned, and when price is not sufficient and production is short, there is not enough of an earned dollar created at the beginning of the exchange cycle that culminates in a national income necessary to consume all of the production. And so the nagging surplus keeps prices knocked down and the farmer with his legs cut off at the knees, begging at the bankers desk.
Today, 40% (40 cents of every retail dollar) goes to service interest on debt. There is a mountain of debt incalculable – and a national scandal – that is not serviced whatsoever and is rolled over with new debt ad infinitum. This financial destruction of the United States is no accident and was put in motion with the Federal Reserve system and the manipulated scaling back of farm prices.
The people who put the Federal Reserve in place knew that what we are dealing with today was inevitable. The solutions to this problem that are being offered are not viable.
You use ONE example of bureaucratic abuse of power from Sweden to try and condemn the entire system? As if the US doesn't have these problems as well? That is pure intellectual dishonesty. No system is perfect. I am talking here about which system, in the final analysis, grants more freedom. All in all, Swedes have more civil liberties and democratic rights than we do as Americans. This fact is well documented by human rights watchdog groups, if you care to do the research.
For the record, the US was the first country on the planet to undertake a program of compulsory sterilization — a result of the puritanical Anglo-protestant heritage of our ruling class — and most of its victims were poor people of color. Talk about racist right-wing social engineering!!! Gordon Watson and his ilk would be proud.
Lola,
Why do you focus so exclusively on the Rothschild family? They are by no means the only major banking family. It seems to me that your understanding of the history of monetary systems is niave, and you are being duped by right-wing conspiracy theorists with an anti-Semitic agenda.
Here's a book for you to read:
http://www.amazon.com/Debt-First-5-000-Years/dp/1933633867
In case you weren't aware, the American Populist movement, led by farmers, fought AGAINST the gold standard for over 30 years, during the late 19th-century, precisely because the gold standard enslaved farmers to debt. For debtors, inflation is actually a good thing, because it erodes the relative value of their debt and thus make it easier to pay off. The populist movement, while starting with independent candidates and a radical left-wing agenda in the 1870's, culminated in the campaign of conservative Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan in 1896, which lost and so the movement was largely forgotten to history.
However, some of the populist's central demands — especially the demand of easy credit for small farmers — were resurrected in the 1924 presidential campaign of Bob LaFollette — Wisconsin's famous progressive Republican Senator, who ran the most successful independent presidential campaign in American History, and laid the foundation for the New Deal.
You really need to read that book on the history of Debt and currency, Lola, before you go making ridiculous claims about the Rothschild family. Fiat money is the original form of money. Bullion-based currency came much later in history.
Also on the question of Sweden's banking system, here's a great article on how the Swedes stemmed their debt crises in the early 1990's (which was the result of a shift towards neo-liberal free-market policies in the early 1980's) — they "extracted a pound of flesh" from the bankers who profited from the crises, and brought the banks under direct public control.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/worldbusiness/23krona.html
We'd do well to learn from the Swedes. And by the way… raw milk is legal in Sweden.
The sheriffs don't want to investigate food-borne illness. They want to make sure the FDA and other investigators have the proper warrants, for example, when they come to farms to do searches. Sheriff Rogers said he wants a warrant signed by a trial judge. All the sheriffs will tell you that once the federal or state officials have the right judicial documentation, then the sheriffs must help them along. The sheriffs are upholding the Bill of Rights, which prohibit illegal search and seizure, among other things.
David