Two years ago, I shared a video about the Environmental Protection Agency’s brutal and thuggish tactics against an Idaho family.
That story had a very happy ending because the Supreme Court struck a blow for property rights and unanimously ruled against the EPA (too bad that similarly sound analysis was absent when the Justices decided the Kelo case).
Now we have a new example of the EPA running amok
Let’s look at a horrifying report about another family in the cross hairs of a rogue bureaucracy.
All Andy Johnson wanted to do was build a stock pond on his sprawling eight-acre Wyoming farm. He and his wife Katie spent hours constructing it, filling it with crystal-clear water, and bringing in brook and brown trout, ducks and geese. It was a place where his horses could drink and graze, and a private playground for his three children.
Sounds like the American dream, but also responsible stewardship since ponds usually have a positive role in limiting erosion.
Unfortunately, the EPA’s pinhead bureaucrats saw an opportunity for pointless and destructive intervention.
But instead of enjoying the fruits of his labor, the Wyoming welder says he was harangued by the federal government, stuck in what he calls a petty power play by the Environmental Protection Agency. He claims the agency is now threatening him with civil and criminal penalties – including the threat of a $75,000-a-day fine. …The government says he violated the Clean Water Act by building a dam on a creek without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. Further, the EPA claims that material from his pond is being discharged into other waterways. Johnson says he built a stock pond — a man-made pond meant to attract wildlife — which is exempt from Clean Water Act regulations. The property owner says he followed the state rules for a stock pond when he built it in 2012 and has an April 4-dated letter from the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office to prove it. …But the EPA isn’t backing down and argues they have final say over the issue. They also say Johnson needs to restore the land or face the fines.
As you can imagine, this was not exactly good news for the property owner.
Johnson says he was “bombarded by hopelessness” when he first received the administrative order from the EPA. …The EPA order on Jan. 30 gave Johnson 30 days to hire a consultant and have him or her assess the impact of the supposed unauthorized discharges. The report was also supposed to include a restoration proposal to be approved by the EPA as well as contain a schedule requiring all work be completed within 60 days of the plan’s approval. If Johnson doesn’t comply — and he hasn’t so far — he’s subject to $37,500 per day in civil penalties as well as another $37,500 per day in fines for statutory violations.
But kudos to Mr. Johnson. Unlike so many others, he’s not going to roll over and acquiesce to EPA brutishness.
Johnson plans to fight. “This goes a lot further than a pond,” he said. “It’s about a person’s rights. I have three little kids. I am not going to roll over and let [the government] tell me what I can do on my land. I followed the rules.” …Johnson says his legal fight with the government agency is a teachable moment for his kids. “This is showing them that they shouldn’t back down,” Johnson said. “If you need to stand up and fight, you do it.”
Needless to say, the EPA is not the only out-of-control bureaucracy in Washington.
Let’s now read about the thuggish actions against blueberry growers by the Department of Labor.
Bureaucrats from that entity decided to launch a legal jihad against some growers and they relied on bad numbers and grotesque strategy.
Another example of big government run amok.
In late July 2012, officials from the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division visited Pan-American Berry Growers, B&G Ditchen and E&S Farms for spot inspections. …the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour division district director, Jeff Genkos, accused the growers of minimum-wage violations and declared the blueberries “hot goods” under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. This charge is usually reserved for, say, T-shirts sewn by child laborers. The effect was to stop the fruit from being shipped to customers. He then ordered the growers to pay back wages and penalties and asked them to sign away any right to appeal the deal.
What was most shocking about the DOL’s actions is that they engaged in Mafia-type tactics and “made an offer they couldn’t refuse.”
This put the growers in an impossible spot. Either they could collectively pay $240,435 or let millions of dollars’ worth of berries rot. And they only had a day or two to make a decision. They did what any prudent employer would do: They paid the money, and the hot goods order was lifted.
And you won’t be surprised that the bureaucracy cooked the numbers in the first place.
It turns out that Labor’s bureaucrats had divined that the average worker could only pick around 60 pounds of blueberries an hour, some 30 pounds below what workers usually pick. They then counted the number of workers employed and concluded the growers must have had workers employed off the books. …In January, Oregon magistrate judge Thomas M. Coffin ruled for the growers. “In essence, to avoid the potential loss of millions of dollars worth of berries, defendants had to agree to the DOL’s allegations without an opportunity to present a defense or confront the DOL’s evidence in an administrative or court hearing,” he wrote.
I’m glad at least one court has ruled against the Department of Labor. Let’s hope that the final result is positive when all the appeals have been exhausted.
Both of these stories belong in my collection of “Government Thuggery in Action.”
Previous examples include:
- A story of vicious IRS persecution.
- A women jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside.
Cops legally stole $17,000 from a man who committed no crime.
- Threatening to send a woman to jail because someone whistled at a whale.
- Two stories of innocent people who were victimized by the idiotic Drug War.
- A story about the Justice Department’s discriminatory attack on a hapless homeowner.
- The government treating child molesters more leniently than people who accidentally omit irrelevant info from forms.
- Bureaucrats in Indiana conducting a spite-motivated legal attack against a family that saved a baby deer.
A local government in Virginia unfairly trying to destroy an organic farmer.
- Statists must dislike organic farms because Texas bureaucrats conducted a paramilitary raid on one of them
- Park Service bureaucrats threatening a business if it allowed tourists to use bathroom facilities.
- Last but not least, don’t forget all the nutty – and often thuggish – examples of anti-gun political correctness in schools.
If you peruse those examples without getting angry at big government, you probably need a lengthy bit of soul-searching.
If you’re a normal person, you’ll want this t-shirt (and don’t be a perv, just the t-shirt!).
Reblogged this on chazrothmsg and commented:
Pay attention to the expansion of Tyranny.
[…] “navigable waterways,” but now has metastasized to the extent that the government now tries to regulate ponds on private property and control the building of houses on dry […]
[…] “navigable waterways,” but now has metastasized to the extent that the government now tries to regulate ponds on private property and control the building of houses on dry […]
[…] Andy Johnson […]
[…] Andy Johnson […]
[…] Andy Johnson […]
[…] When I think of over-bearing governments with myopic enforcement of silly rules, I obviously think of the United States, especially the IRS, EEOC, FDA, and EPA. […]
[…] Andy Johnson […]
[…] sort of reminds me of the guy who was hassled by the feds for building a pond on his own property. Or the family persecuted for building a house on their own […]
[…] you don’t believe me, just ask Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ […]
[…] “navigable waterways,” but now has metastasized to the extent that the government now tries to regulate ponds on private property and control the building of houses on dry […]
[…] do Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, […]
[…] do Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, […]
[…] do Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, […]
[…] do Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, […]
[…] capricious and impossible-to-understand laws with capricious and vindictive bureaucrats, you get horrifying examples of government […]
[…] you don’t believe me, just ask people like Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, […]
[…] would also include people like Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques Wajsfelner, Jeff […]
[…] Some environmental policies lead to disgusting examples of government thuggery (some of which, fortunately, are not […]
[…] “corrupt.” As the bridge keeper was about to cast me to my death, I’d say “thuggish.” And my final choice as I fell into the gorge might be […]
[…] Some environmental policies lead to disgusting examples of government thuggery (some of which, fortunately, are not […]
[…] Some environmental policies lead to disgusting examples of government thuggery (some of which, fortunately, are not […]
[…] Keep in mind we already have the federal bagpipe police, the federal pond police, and the federal don’t-whistle-at-whales […]
[…] Keep in mind we already have the federal bagpipe police, the federal pond police, and the federal don’t-whistle-at-whales […]
[…] Hall of Fame (though I need to figure out a more concise title). Charter members would include Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques […]
[…] put this in tangible terms, consider the fact that the EPA has penalized people who build ponds on their own property. Yet the property owners obviously haven’t engaged in any behavior that’s wrong. Indeed, it […]
[…] put this in tangible terms, consider the fact that the EPA has penalized people who build ponds on their own property. Yet the property owners obviously haven’t engaged in any behavior that’s wrong. Indeed, it […]
[…] put this in tangible terms, consider the fact that the EPA has penalized people who build ponds on their own property. Yet the property owners obviously haven’t engaged in any behavior that’s wrong. […]
[…] The Obama Administration has decided a law giving the federal government authority over the “navigable waterways” of the United States also means the federal government can regulate ponds on private land. […]
[…] The Obama Administration has decided a law giving the federal government authority over the “navigable waterways” of the United States also means the federal government can regulate ponds on private land. […]
[…] The Obama Administration has decided a law giving the federal government authority over the “navigable waterways” of the United States also means the federal government can regulate ponds on private land. […]
[…] trust environmentalists to make policy. When they’re in charge, we get really dumb policies. Or grotesque examples of government thuggery. Or sleazy corruption and […]
[…] is exaggerating or that people are misguided for being hostile to government, just check out how Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques […]
What’s up, I check your new stuff like every week.
Your writing style is awesome, keep it up!
Mr. Dan, You should host a convention of some sort of your loyal readers and commenters – maybe in the form of a softball game. It would be interesting to meet some of these folks, particularly the good Zorba.
and I should give special thanks to Al Gore and Joe Biden for inventing the internet… they made an amazing contribution to the marketplace of ideas…
peace… love… and understanding…
what scares the hell out of me… is that [as a foreign policy amateur… in fly- over country…] that I know more about the situation on the ground in foreign hot spots… than the so-called professionals… never in my adult life have I had less confidence in the competence of my government than I do today…
the next two election cycles will tell the tale…
Bureaucrats have a direct interest in this type of thuggery. It increases their perceived value and raison d’etre. But they are not the main problem. The main problem is the remaining 51+% or Americans who agree with this thuggery. They are the ones that feed pitchfork style democracy. Those, we cannot get rid of. They are the ones who are willing to do great damage to a few individuals to address minor externalities, mixed with a little bit of envy that someone, somewhere, can fish in their own pond. They are the ones who get bothered by a couple of molecules of emissions from someone smoking 300 ft. away. They are the ones bothered by the simple sight of smoking, french fry eating, and big gulp drinking and get together with their friends at Starbucks, where loaded on caffeine pontificate new rules on nicotine. They are the 51% that will drag the hapless Mr. Johnson in front of Pontius Pilot.
Sure, everyone can be libertarian when there are truly zero externalities. But that is almost never the case. A Chinese person who flatulates in Beijing puts out enough gas molecules that when diluted into the entire earth’s atmosphere, each one of us will inevitably breathe in a couple of molecules in our lifetime. If we chose to label that an externality, we have the elements it takes to descend into dirigistic pitchfork democracy.
But what is the practical aspect of all this? The practical aspect is motivation, competitiveness or lack thereof and decline. Money and pecuniary rewards mean very little unless they can be translated into other goods and services. One could argue either way whether the remaining 299,999,996 Americans will be better off with one more house with a pond available for trading as part of the aggregate American wealth. But there is another aspect that is more important. If Mr. Johnson cannot build his pond then there is one less thing Mr. Johnson’s family has reason and motivation to work for; one less reason to produce goods and services for other people; his marginal motivation to work decreases. And in a Pitchfork democracy driven by redistributive dirigistic central planning, (eg. pan-planet environmentalism) many things are banned and marginal motivation to work takes a significant hit. You simply get surpassed by those societies that have fewer such impediments to exchanging work for gratification – and decline.
And what is the even more practical suggestion? Catch a ride along America’s conversion into a pitchfork style democracy, and buy one or several more houses that already have a pond. Years later, you will be able to rent or sell them to some hapless children who will willingly enslave themselves to you and pay you buku bucks because of the pond scarcity their parents, the greenies, created. With some luck they will be the same children of the very greenies who turned Mr. Johnson in at the EPA.
If a majority wants to commit suicide, get rich by selling the poison. That’s what Zorba does. And Zorba knows. He was born and lived in Europe. He has seen this movie.
When Romney-care came to MA, I was informed that I would have to pay health insurance, if I had more than 11 “full-time equivalent” employees. At the time I had 20 people working 1/2 time, so this was going to stop expansion of my business.
Rather than stop growing, I reorganized the business to cut down labor requirements. I also made provision to split the business into two separate businesses.
Since I pay an average of $16/hr, if I did have to pay healthcare, I would have deducted the cost from the salary rate, and the State would have received that much less in tax revenue.
Don’t they realize that businesses will find a way around these stupid laws or close shop?
Several years ago, I was running a dog walking service, with 12 part-time walkers. One day, I was informed by a federal agency [I forget which one] that those part-time workers had to become employees and I would be responsible for FICA, Withholding, Unemployment, and all the other taxes that related to being an employer.
This was going to be a major burden, since most of my competitors operated on a cash basis. I decided to comply, even though the cost of doing so would also require hiring a payroll service.
You can imagine my surprise that afternoon, when I received a “STOP WORK” order from a woman from the State of MA standing on my front porch, who said that I could not conduct business without Worker’s Comp insurance for my employees. When I asked her what I was supposed to do about dogs that needed to be walked that day, she said “Not my problem.”
Unfortunately, no court ruling or fines or penalties will dissuade bureaucrats from continuing their thuggish ways since they do not have to personally pay the price.