During my flying years I had the opportunity to meet, work / fly with people from around the world. (Next year, 2025) – 10 years out
of the flying gig is when I plan to share some of the cool experiences from the 16
year airline pilot career you may be interested in hearing. One experience, which I think of often,
has some immediacy in timing to what is going on presently concerning "mafia" style government actions toward a smaller REAL food farm / distributor.
Sometime around 2008-2010 I had the
opportunity to fly with Igor. Igor, if you couldn’t tell already, is Russian. In fact, he was a former Mig fighter pilot in the Russian Air Force.
Igor, was a typical Russian chauvinist man (demeaning statements about women,
bragged how he could get (laid) with (any) women) with the cockiness of a
fighter pilot, intelligent, brash, full of bullshit in one hand and unabashedly honest and direct in the other, to give you a picture of who I was working with this particular
trip. (We had flown together several times prior).
Two stories that stick out in my mind from flying with Igor.
The first is when I told Igor about how I was in the raw milk business, raw
milk being illegal to sell in (most) of the USA. Igor exclaimed “you mean to
tell me that in the United States of America – THE “leader of the free
world” it is illegal to sell raw milk?! Heck, it is legal to sell raw milk in
Russia! My grandma used to buy it from a local farmer.” I don’t know for sure if raw milk technically is or isn’t legal to sell in Russia, but a farmer in Russia is not going to have their farm raided for selling raw milk to locals,
that is for darn sure, according to Igor. He said this more or less tongue in
cheek, knowing that the USA is not the bastion of freedom it portends to be on
the world stage / in the news.
A couple months later I'm crewed with Igor once again. Up at
cruise altitude we got to talking as we usually did, this time about the (Russian) mafia. Being curious about it, I asked Igor, “so what is
the mafia in Russia?” Igor wasted no time eagerly explaining to me what it is, how it works. The best I
can recall he explained the mafia is a (thug) outfit an entity (business) pays for
protection (mostly from competition). Usually that meant physical, deadly
threats, and sometimes financial threats levied toward competitors – that
helped alleviate said entity (a grocery store, a bar, car dealership, etc.) from competition
in their vicinity. (He mentioned also that in Russian owned clubs / bars in USA
there will usually always be a mafia guy in there, and it isn’t terribly
difficult to pick out who they are. I’ve been in such venues and do recall
seeing these fellers.)
What’s interesting is what Igor went on to say. Igor stated,
“though Russia has the mafia don’t think that you don’t have same sort of mafia shenanigans going on in the USA. It is your EPA, FDA, CDC acting as the mafia - protecting the interests of big business. He failed to mention the
USDA, but I can safely assume they are also part of the mafia protecting “Big
Ag”. Igor further stated “the difference between Russians and Americans is,
Russians KNOW the mafia exists and their government is corrupt while Americans are ignorant of how corrupt
their government is.” Keep in mind, he said this 10-15 years ago. I believe
most Americans today have at least some awareness that things with our
government are not on the “up and up” as many once believed it to be. And if you, reading this, do
genuinely believe the USA government can be trusted to be working in
the best interest of the citizens of the United States, please explain to me
how you believe this – tell me about our sources of information, what you read,
listen to – I am genuinely curious and interested in knowing how any person alive and supposedly thinking coherently in
today’s America can place blind faith in the government of the United States. Please fill me in on what I may be missing / unaware of.
The following story about the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) going after the Amos Miller farm cooperative (Bird In Hand,
Pennsylvania) is a great example of the political mafia protecting Big
Ag interests.
YouTube video:
While I’m not terribly intimate with all the details and
particulars of the Miller Organic Farm situation (I encourage you to do your own
homework), what I am gathering is Amos Miller does his own meat processing. USDA
regulations mandate spraying carcasses with some kind of chemical (citric acid
/ lactoferrin) to prohibit bacterial growth while in the cooler. Amos Miller
has his reasons why he doesn’t think that requirement is necessary and/or a
good idea, for processing / providing his customers a safe product. (don’t ask
me, I don’t know). Here’s the thing, no one is forcing anyone to purchase meat
from Millers Organic Farm. If people place their trust in the USDA’s practices /
standards, that is their prerogative. Furthermore, people were opting into a
private membership cooperative (not unlike a golf club membership that many of
these Government mafia, and BIG Ag executive types belong to). Members of this
Private Food Cooperative know the “rules” that meat they purchase through this
cooperative does not conform to USDA oversight and regulations – particularly those
that involve spraying meat with chemicals.
A couple additional takeaways from the video. Dual system of justice. Do you
believe if Tyson, Cargil, JBS, or National Beef had a similar (portended)
infraction that they would be shut down? Inventory seized? Or even not be
allowed to conduct their own independent testing?
One of the assumptions that regulators use to justify
themselves and their actions is food from unregulated sources is deemed
automatically dangerous, failing to recognize the cognitive dissonance of the many
food recalls from regulated operations and the relatively infrequent issues
involving unregulated sources.
As a taxpayer, given all the pressing issues afflicting our
nation – one of the most notable being the vulnerability of the power grid to
EMP, solar flare, cyber warfare., do you believe it is wise for USDA to spending precious
financial resources going after an Amish Farmer whose food has gotten no one sick
– and even if it did, the market place would take care of business by doing
business elsewhere if his products were to have actually sickened people? Meanwhile many
families, paying taxes, after being sickened through our food system (sources,
lifestyle – getting away from gardens and fresh food), have to choose between
buying Type 1 diabetes medication, and putting food on the table for their kids
– and the USDA is worried about an Amish farmer? The gall of the USDA mafia! The
USDA mafia is funded and enabled to get away with this un-American treachery so
long as WE THE PEOPLE continue to enable the present day corrupt government of
the United States to work against the ideals of that our country was founded
upon. United WE Stand. United WE fall.
Let me know what you think!