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Screwworm Parasite 'No Longer Contained in Texas' as Trump USDA Doubles Down on Efforts to Blame Biden
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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As a farmer, dairyman, and rancher with way too many cattle in Texas. I have this to say:
I was on the front lines of the bird flu cross species fiasco. Literally ground zero. Me and my cohorts were the boots on the ground and knew what was going on weeks before the state and fed acknowledged it. The acknowledgement of the problem was purely political and self serving. The government as a whole (state and fed) were refusing to test and confirm what we already knew. I have evidence and correspondence with officials and veterinarians to back it up.
My take away: it's a god damn miracle we survived Covid as well as we did. That should have been so much worse.
When it comes to the screwfly situation: I had little faith under previous administrations this would be handled properly. In Texas, sid miller was talking about woke agendas and playing partisan hack instead of prioritizing resources. We've had almost two god damn years! They all figured the people they were firing and defunding would handle it properly. With what resources?. Systematically dismantling our safety nets caused this.
This problem is one hundred percent political incompetence. Any IT professional that has been laid off because " your department doesn't do anything" will tell you that a successful job done is literally twiddling your thumbs because you did it right. Y2k was a victory lap that the general public and politicians laugh at because it wasn't a problem. It wasn't a problem because we fixed it before the world ended. This screw fly trainwreck is what happens when you don't listen to IT and fire them all for being lazy.
Detection in mexico was non existent. The screw fly hits the states and what is left of our protection finds it. Great job. Too late.
Tldr, your hamburger and steak prices will continue to be more expensive, but not from this. But the suffering of both domestic animals and wildlife will be greatly increased because these dipshits wanted to play politics instead of giving a shit about the bigger picture.
This is something people should well remember about IT for certain and while I don't have much authority outside of that field, I bet it extrapolates.
In IT, though, the people that get rewarded and noticed the most are often the people that metaphorically set their own fires and then play the superhero in putting them out. All because they tend not to listen to others or take the initiative themselves to prepare. People that are not running around like their hair on fire are seen as "lazy".
You'll get noticed as well if you come into a shit show and can properly address it over time.
You know, this is so true that I'm a bit ashamed to admit that my best moments at my current job have been when I correct mistakes I made. Example: I gave someone the wrong laptop when they started. I handled the comms like an expert. I made sure the exchange was smooth. The masterful handling of the mistake came from years of experience smoothing over things that weren't my fault. It was a real opportunity to shine and it wouldn't have happened if I didn't fail to set a calendar reminder.
When I do everything right, there's no need for customer service skills.
I remember reading a book years ago that was probably self-published, or maybe needed an editor? Anyway, I seem to recall him making some rather good points about how IT needs to do a better job of self-marketing what they do, because when they do it well, they are often punished for not being noticed, and boy did that ring true.
He was also taking aim at M$ use at the time but was definitely swimming upstream at the time. IT definitely has hivemind/groupthink problems and at the time it was "no one gets fired for buying Microsoft".
It was the The Unix Guide to Defenestration
And yeah, on a personal level, I've noticed the same and have to admit that I've often was noticed for something that was probably something I could have planned for/spotted earlier.
pfff nah, overpaid leadership needs to actually do it’s job
COVID likely killed over 1,000,000 Americans.
Not sure I'd say we did well.
But… it could have been worse. Losing only 0.25% of a population during a world wide pandemic is, by all accounts in the scientific/medical field, considered a success.
Well, we were lucky in that the virus had a relatively low fatality rate for a vast majority of Americans.