Update: Mark Baker still under scrutiny

In his satirical novel, Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

George Orwell was right – some animals are more equal than others.

Take Mark Baker's Mangalitsa Hogs, for instance; raised on their family farm in Marion called Bakers Green Acres. The Baker hogs are definitely more equal than their pink, cookie-cutter consistent counterparts who are raised just as equal as one another; sometimes in dreary, Orwellian quarters known on some commercial farms as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO). That's an example of a CAFO above. Total animal equality. No pig first among his peers.

But Baker's Heritage Hogs, raised from birth to slaughter on the farm, enjoy the pasture life as "dirt pigs."

According to the description on the Bakers Green Acres web site, they are finished with special diets including grains and even acorns, which makes their meat desirable to foodies and chefs. In fact, some of them rely on the pasture raised, carefully fed end product to make specialty foods like sausage or prosciutto.

It was at one of these establishments that serves up Baker's specialty pork
recently that the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) questioned a packaging issue with one of Baker’s products.

That led to the issuing of a search warrant, signed on Dec. 17 by Missaukee County District Judge Audrey Van Alst. Around 9:30 a.m., Baker said representatives from MDARD, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Michigan State Police Troopers arrived at his property to execute the search warrant.

Baker said that the warrant gave them the authority to take photos and copy records; size food in violation of the food law; and take any other action as is deemed necessary to follow the food law.

The reason given on the warrant was that, because of the alleged problem that MDARD had with packaging, they were searching for food “found to be suspected to be adulterated, misbranded, a nuisance, or a risk to the public.”

But let’s be honest here: The problem isn’t in the packaging; the problem is with Mark Baker.

Mark, who is retired from the United States Air Force, has been farming Bakers Green Acres for more than a decade now, with the help of his wife, Jill, and their eight children. It is truly a family operation. It's their livelihood - for now.

But sadly, a few years ago, the jackhammer of bureaucratic skullduggery began to chink away at the Bakers' way of life, thanks to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

In 2010, the DNR issued an Invasive Species Order prohibiting "feral swine."

It went into effect on April 1, 2012. The section which the DNR contends applies to the Bakers' pigs specifically prohibits the possession of any of the following live species:

"Wild boar, wild hog, wild swine, feral pig, feral hog, feral swine, Old world swine, razorback, eurasian wild boar, Russian wild boar (sus scrofa Linnaeus). This subsection does not and is not intended to affect sus domestica involved in domestic hog production."

We had a state department (DNR) that appears to be breaching the levy of its authority in the name of "public safety"; and agricultural special interests appear to be supporting that same overreach that exerts certain force over farm animals on private land (while being careful not to affect "hog production" - for some producers, of course).

That’s how Mark Baker ended up fighting that department over his farm animals, even being fined $10,000 per each pig (to the tune of $700,000).

But why?

Why should Mark Baker have been made to give up his property - his livelihood, his Heritage pigs - by order of a rogue band of bureaucrats who wrote their own definitions of feral and domestic based on so-called "scientific" data?

His land was certainly not public domain. His animals are quite healthy, very marketable, and live under the husbandry of humans; and unlike these beasts off the leash from the DNR, seem largely uninterested in busting through fences into territory where they aren't meant to go.

He shouldn't. And as The People, we should be deeply offended and gravely concerned when our rights are so blatantly disregarded.

The DNR, using their own authority to add or delete species as restricted or prohibited, through the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of 1994 [324.410302(1)], somehow used the prohibition of feral pigs to cross that bridge from forest to farm; from wildlife to livestock.

But since these bureaucrats are unelected and unaccountable to The People, what do we do when they breach the levies of their authority?

The DNR should have no jurisdiction over private property at any time. They should have no jurisdiction over any animals other than those that are wild and live on state land at any time. Livestock is off limits. However, because they defined "feral" and "domesticated" for the purpose of enforcing their order, they have found a way to exert control over private property and what might better be defined as "livestock."

Several years after Mark’s lengthy legal battle, the Attorney General’s office dropped the case against them, saying that their hogs were “compliant.”

(Nothing changed, by the way.)

So here we are again, with the Baker family again under scrutiny by some alphabet soup quasi-governmental agencies – and make no mistake my friends, Baker’s scrutiny is no coincidence. Many people believe it’s because Mark Baker chose to do what others did not: Fight.

Following discussion outside Baker’s home, the representatives from MDARD and USDA left without a search. There’s still time, of course – according to the warrant, Mark says, officials have from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for three days from the date that the warrant was signed to execute that search.

According to Mark, it’s important to point out that although he’s faced issues with these state agencies over the years, there’s one group that’s remained professional and courteous: The Michigan State Police.

“The policemen that came – they were nice,” he said. “I have appreciated their professionalism through this thing. Every single one of them has been good to me.”

So what happens next? Will the warrant be executed? We’ll keep you updated as we know more details.

Here’s a link to Mark’s latest video describing the Dec. 17 incident: Mark's Dec. 17 Video

Judge Rules Administrative Court System Illegal After 81 Years

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Martin Armstrong

Well, it has been a long time coming, but all along there have been discussions behind closed doors (never in public) that the Administrative Law Courts established with the New Deal were totally unfounded and unconstitutional. With the anniversary of Magna Carta and the right to a jury trial coming up on June 15 after 800 years, the era of Roosevelt’s big government is quietly unraveling.

A federal judge’s ruling against the Securities and Exchange Commission for using its own Administrative Law judges in an insider trading case is perhaps the beginning of the end of an alternative system of justice that took root in the New Deal. Constitutionally, the socialists tore everything about the idea of a Democracy apart. It was more than taxing one party to the cheers of another in denial of equal protection. It was about creating administrative agencies (1) delegating them to create rules with the force of law as if passed by Congress sanctioned by the people; (2) the creation of administrative courts that defeated the Tripartite government structure usurping all power into the hand of the executive branch, as if this were a dictatorship run by the great hoard of unelected officials.

Not discussed in the coverage of this story is that the Administrative Law Courts are a fiefdom, to put it mildly. They have long been corrupt and traditionally rule in favor of their agencies, making it very costly for anyone to even try to defend themselves. If someone were to attempt this feat, first they have to wear the costs of an Administration proceeding and appeal to an Article III court judge, then they must appeal to the Court of Appeals, and finally plea to the Supreme Court. The cost of such adventures is well into the millions, and good luck on actually getting justice.

Furthermore, Administrative Law Courts cannot sentence you to prison, but they can fine you into bankruptcy. So the lack of a criminal prosecution meant the judges did not have to be lawyers. They could be anyone’s brother-in-law looking for a job where he just rules in favor of the agency not to be bothered with law. Unless the victim has a pile of money, there is no real chance that he or she can afford to defend themselves. This is why the agencies cut deals with the big houses and prosecute the small upstarts who lack the funds to defend themselves.

In a 45-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May in Atlanta issued an injunction halting Administrative Law proceedings against Charles Hill, a businessman who the SEC accused of reaping an illegal $744,000 profit trading in Radian Systems stock. This is typical. The legal fees involved will exceed the amount of money he is alleged to have made, the typical result is to just pay the fine and they go away, it is cheaper.

The judge ruled that the SEC agency violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution by subjecting Hill to proceedings before an Administrative Law judge, who isn’t directly accountable to the president, officials in charge of the SEC, or the courts under Article III. The ruling is 81 years overdue. The entire structure of administrative agencies blackmailing people has been outrageous. Then you take the banks who just entered a plea of CRIMINALLY guilty to manipulating markets. They are now formally FELONS who engaged in violating SEC rules and thus under the SEC rules, they are no longer eligible for a banking license. The banks are “too big to jail” and the SEC has waived their own rules, of course, to exempt the banks. So they can engage in fraud and manipulation, get caught, pay billions in fines, and the SEC exempts them from losing their licenses. This is how corrupt the administrative agencies really are.

This new decision calling the Administrative Law Courts what they really are is reminiscent of the notorious extrajudicial proceedings of the Star Chamber operated by King James I. The court of Chancery set up outside of the King’s Bench, so there were no trials by jury. It had the same purpose, to circumvent the law. This is where our Fifth Amendment privilege came into being. That came about following the trial of John Lilburne (1615-1657) for handing out a pamphlet the government did not like.

The Miranda v Arizona 384 U.S. 436 (1966) decision of the Supreme Court came only after decades of abuse by American police against citizens, not unlike what we are watching today. The Miranda decision is hated by police, prosecutors, right-wing judges, politicians, and citizens. The decision is based upon the history of the right not to be coerced that began with the famous trial of John Lilburn before the English court of the Star Chamber in 1637 where he stood tall and objected to the King’s torture. Lilburn’s crime was handing out pamphlets against the king. John Lilburne (1615–1657) was a leader in the Leveller Movement of the 1640s and was a prolific pamphleteer who defended religious and individual liberty of the people. He was imprisoned many times for his views and was active in the army of the New Parliament rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In October 1649, he was arrested and tried for High Treason for printing and circulating books and pamphlets critical of the government but was acquitted of all charges by a jury of his peers.

This entry was posted in America's Current Economy, America's Economic History, Current Events and tagged Administrative Law Courts, John Lilburne, King James I, Mary Jo White, Miranda Law, SEC, U.S. Constitution by Martin Armstrong. Bookmark the permalink.