Russia shut down four McDonalds outlets in Moscow. on Wednesday. The stated reason, according to The Wall Street Journal report? Food safety violations.
What a laugh. And no, it wasnt the hassling given to one of America’s largest food corporations per se that tickled my funny bone.
It was the reaction of an American foreign policy expert quoted in the WSJ article. Food inspectors have been instruments of Russian foreign policy for years, said Stephen Sestanovich, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He cited earlier bans on Moldovan wine and U.S. chicken.
Imagine that. Another countrys oligarchs playing the food safety card to shut down enemies of the state. Isnt that the exclusive province of Americas food oligarchs? They have been pushing regulators to use the excuse of food safety to harass and shut down small farms and food producers for years now. Maybe the foreign policy experts havent gotten onto it because we dont use the food safety excuse to go after foreign food producerswe prefer to punish our own people.
We just have this curious way of thinking that when other countries use heavy-handed tactics, its because they are being repressive. When the same approaches are used in the U.S., its for pure, honest, and truthful reasons. So if the Russians shut down McDonalds for food safety violations, well, we know the Russians are a bunch of thugs and are using food safety as an excuse for bullying the Ukraine.
But if American federal and state regulators raid a food co-operative and casually dispose of thousands of dollars of good food to protect people from unsafe food, well, golly, that must be whats happening. It cant be that our food oligopoly, which controls the dairy, meat, snack, cereal, and other food industries is pushing the regulators to rid the marketplace of competition. No way. It’s all about protecting us.
Weve viewed our law enforcement establishment the same way. Other countries throw people into jail and throw away the key. The victims cant get out because they dont have our precious rights, we’re told. It rarely comes up that the U.S. has the largest prison population in the world. We have in recent years transformed our local police into paramilitary forces. It cant be because our rulers are looking for new ways to intimidate and control. Our police randomly kill people via choke holds, or even shoot unarmed teenagers, because they are resisting arrest.
When I was on a tour of Beijing with a busload of Americans last year, the Chinese tour guide, who spoke nearly perfect English, was saying in answer to a question that he had never been to the U.S. Why not, someone asked. He said that for various family and political reasons, he doubted he could get permission to leave.
The Americans shook their heads nearly in unison. Were so lucky we live in a free country, one said.
Yeah, and we dont arbitrarily deny visas to foreigners who seek to visit our country? We dont keep people locked up for years for entering our country illegally? We dont confiscate the passports of the accused so they cant leave? We dont have hundreds of terrorists locked up indefinitely in Guantanamo?
Its only when things explode, as they did over the last week in Ferguson, MO, that there is some open discussion of some of these matters. Perhaps those events will be a wake-up call. Not just about the militarization of our police. Not just about nearly casual police brutality that is carried out on a regular basis by cops who know that, without the existence of a full video and audio recording of the events, judges will back the cops up one hundred per cent.
But perhaps it will be a wake-up call to the reality that many Americans are overseen by enforcers who not only have no understanding of their subjects’ daily struggles, but are so far removed economically and culturally that the enforcers actually take delight in lording it over their subjects.
The reality is that it isnt that difficult to come at regulation in a positive way. The people who run the Massachusetts Department of Transportation have been proving that over the last few months. Beginning last May, they began adding some humor to their reminders about traffic laws, posting the sign pictured above up and down the length of the often clogged Massachusetts Turnpike. Everyone had a chuckle about the play on the Boston accent, no matter how difficult the ride, and it usually is pretty difficult.
As an American, I watched in horror as I heard two CHP officers lie through their front teeth to cover each others brutality…I then watched the jury believe them and their lies even though the truth and evidence against them was compelling. It was the jury that found them innocent and sent them back to the streets to commit more brutality. It was the jury.
In the years since this case….I have received three calls from public defenders wanting me to testify against these same officers as they had committed more horrendous crimes of brutality against others and the public. Again these officers continued to brutalize. All charges were dropped against the defendants after I gladly accepted the invitation to go testify!! These two officers are now unable to bring charges against most of their arrestees because their files have a bad story in them. A bad story that revisits them. Why…because all officers stand together and refuse to give up their bad!!! And the bad keep their jobs! And juries are so stupid, timid and scared that they can not send a message to the police. Stop brutalizing or be fired, fined or jailed. It is the American citizen in the end that perpetuates bad police activity.
Police brutality would stop literally in months, if all juries started to send million dollar messages in police brutality cases. Police departments would change shooting policies so quick…you would see kind concerned cops giving up the bad cops overnight. No more blue line protecting the bad cops. You would see cities and counties meeting with their liability insurance companies and change would be forced upon police commanders. ….it is we the people that sit in the jury box that are the origin of the problem.
Until change happens….just smile at cops and stay long distances from them. You do not know which ones are brutal killers and haters. The 1% of bad cops are supported by the 99% of great cops. I saw this as a paramedic for many years. Cops can not be trusted….they can lie….they can do all kinds of horrendous things. Trust me….if you see a cop…just find a way to stay far away. It can save your life. You have no idea who is good or who is bad…and the good stand up for the bad…that makes them all very bad in my book of survival. There is something in some cops minds…they are in love with their guns and guns give them power. Power they do not have as a healthy secure person. Guns give them a rush, power, distinction and a god complex. This is all said by someone who owns and respects guns and has many close friends that are police officers. This is not about guns…it is about the psychology of those that are attracted to power provided by guns and a badge and the rush they get from gaining power over others by policy policy reinforced by we the people….look in the mirror the next time you see or hear about police killing some person or beating or brutalizing. Look in the mirror.
Tyranocaster, thank you very much. You are correct, us bloggers can use all the positive reinforcement we can get. I’m glad, as well, that you appreciate the role raw milk plays as the canary in the U.S. coal mine…on food fronts and non-food fronts. Watching the raw milk issue play out has been highly instructive for many of us on this blog…..and I sense there is much more to come, some good things, despite all the negativity we are seeing at this point in time.
Raw milk to the rescue? This from a Minnesota list serve: A mom is worried because she and her family consumed that Arrowhead organic peanut butter under recall for salmonella.
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/08/peanut-almond-butters-recalled-salmonella-contamination/#.U_ieo0uFrG4
Her solution? Lots of raw milk kefir, to try to propagate enough good bacteria to kill off lurking salmonella. Makes sense.
Sounds like good old raw milk with your peanut butter sandwich is the right combo!!
Boy… If I did not know better, I would think that “food safety news” was an official FDA newsletter!! Instead we all know that it is the official private food bashing and ambulance chasing tool of non other than the Marler Clark Legal team.
Suggest that we all stop eating…. it is not guaranteed safe enough!! I have never even seen Marler mention building immunity as a basis to assure individual health or protect for food safety!! What a one sided alarmist crock.
As a very important note on Salmonella and raw milk… The 1987 legal case that the FDA used to bar interstate shipment of raw milk was based on Salmonella and raw milk. Since that time prior to 1990 or so…. There has been literally no salmonella found in any raw milk in CA. If that case was held today, the evidence would be missing!! And interstate commerce of raw milk would be flowing !!
How does this effect Raw Milk?? Under the Federal Milk Pool system raw milk for human consumption is exempt along with all so called Producer – Distributors that own their own source of milk!! AB 2730 takes some elements from the Federal Milk Pool system but ignores the PD exemption. An alliance of small PD producers here in the San Joaquin Valley proposed an amendment ten days ago. The answer…..there is no bill number yet…there is no bill sponsor yet….the Task Force literally kept the bill and sponsor secret so no one could call them or read the bill language.
We are notified on a weekend, just five days before the drop dead date for passage. The secretary of agriculture is bragging that AB2730 is a consensus bill and every one supports it!!! This is a bold faced misrepresentation. When I presented “a PD exemption proposal” at the last Task Force meeting, producers all apposed the bill. The only support came from big Cheese processors. No vote was taken at the meeting. This is a political sneak attack!! There have been no hearings, there have been no discussions or open debate!! Just like AB1735 back in 2007. All quiet…no hearings…no debate! Big Cheese wins! This is not about OPDC raw milk, this is about due process, fairness, the opportunity for time to have debate and open discussion !! When something is rushed….that means slow it down. Something is wrong.
Tomorrow “game on”….assemblyman Galgiani, assemblyman Eggman will be buried in calls. Dairymen, consumers, and hopefully all of you that love democracy will call and give them a piece of your mind.
Demand these things:
1. Open debate and a committee hearing before Friday because there is NO consensus on AB2730.
2. Inclusion of a PD exemption amendment so that raw milk prices to the consumers can come down!! Just like all the rest of the USA under the Federal Milk Pool orders.
3. If a change is made to the CA Milk Pool ( it needs fair change badly )it should be a mirror image of the Federal Milk Pool system with equal pay for CA producers and an exclusion for Producer – Dustributors ( dairies that have their own bottling or processing plants an brands ).
If you are sick and tired of retail raw milk being high priced in CA stores…blame the Milk Pool system. Now is the time to CALL and make change happen!!! When OPDC has paid more than $1,000,000 dollars into the milk pool just in the last few years…..that was your money. No other dairy was subject to the class one fluid milk assessments like OPDC. I am fighting for our customers right now…time to join forces and call Galgiani and Eggmans offices in Sacramento. Demand due process….demand a hearing. Processors are praying that this bill will pass quickly and quietly!!! Time to act!! Please call!!! This is going out to all of the social net works.
A major move to eliminate the CA Milk Pool entirely and have CA dairies join the rest of America under the Federal Milk Pool is well undeway. This would be a huge win for Raw Milk…no more $30,000 per month assessments paid by OPDC. That’s your money given to big cheese processors through the Milk Pool system that robs from organic and raw milk and pays big Cheese processors. Truly a sick system that rewards the politically connected and oppresses the pioneers and raw milk producers.
This is the tip of the iceberg. There is even more corruption involved in this. Call and complain about AB2730….this is essential for your raw milk and also to support all CA dairies and give the federal milk pool system a chance. Everyone wins under the Federal System which requires processors to pay for milk fairly and raw milk is excluded as it should be.
Galgiani. 916-651-4005
Eggman 916-319-2013. Fax 916-319-2113
And off the looter went, her loot in her arms.
So the word from God (I am that I am) to Moses to mankind, You shall not steal, didnt get to that looter.
Who else hasnt got the word? Who else is a thief?
From Warren Meyer at coyoteblog.com (Penny-Ante Police Harassment and the Poor August 21, 2014, 9:34 am) :
Alex Tabarrok highlights some numbers from Arch City Defenders-
A new report from Arch City Defenders, a non-profit legal defense organization, shows that the Ferguson municipal courts are a stunning example of these problems:
Ferguson is a city located . . . Despite Fergusons relative poverty, fines and court fees comprise the second largest source of revenue for the city, a total of $2,635,400. In 2013, the Ferguson Municipal Court disposed of 24,532 warrants and 12,018 cases, or about 3 warrants and 1.5 cases per household.
You dont get $321 in fines and fees and 3 warrants per household from an about-average crime rate. You get numbers like this from bullshit arrests for jaywalking and constant low level harassment involving traffic stops, court appearances, high fines, and the threat of jail for failure to pay.
If you have money, for example, you can easily get a speeding ticket converted to a non-moving violation. But if you dont have money its often the start of a downward spiral that is hard to pull out of
I can testify to that last point. I worked in the Emerson Electric headquarters for a couple of years, which ironically is located in one corner of Ferguson. One of the unwritten bennies of working there was the in house legal staff. It was important to make a friend there early. In Missouri they had some bizarre law where one could convert a moving violation to a non-moving violation. A fee still has to be paid, but you avoid points on your license that raises insurance costs (and life insurance costs, I found out recently). All of us were constantly hitting up the in-house legal staff to do this magic for us. I am pretty sure most of the residents of Ferguson do not have this same opportunity.
Comments on Warren’s post are worth reading. Some topics touched on are contrasting Mexico with Phoenix, and Mexico with Pennsylvania, and the average size per capita of Police Departments, and municipal revenue sources.
There is an American who was trained in the Soviet Union (V. Putin et al) in techniques to create civil chaos. When he realized he was being pawned, he quit. Later, when the 1965 Watts riots occurred he watched unfold all that he had been trained to do. Ditto for the U.S. riots in following years. This man has written about this.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
I agree that too often people will throw away perfectly good food because that take that date as being absolute gospel but as the article states, “Use the smell test, because it can work. If it smells funny, trust your instincts.”