The Warren Zevon song where the title of this post comes from says that “the cattle all have brucellosis” — we call it “bangs” where I come from. It causes cows to abort, but there’s a vaccine for it. I don’t know how MAHA feels about eating beef from vaccinated cattle. Maybe this will be the next big MAHA trend: bangs unvaccinated beef. Speaking of cattle:
Idaho health officials are investigating how nearly 60 people got sick after drinking raw milk in the past two weeks.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced in a news release on Wednesday that most of the people reported being sick after drinking raw milk from two different milking operations in North Idaho and southern Idaho. The infections were reported starting May 19.
The state health agency didn’t disclose the names of the dairies, but said they are collaborating with health officials “to identify and fix any potential sources of contamination.”
In a statement, Department of Health and Welfare spokesperson AJ McWhorter said the agency didn’t name the milking operations “because this is a potential risk for any raw milk producer.”
I like McWhorter’s subltle dig on this. It must be a hard life for someone working for the Department of Health and Welfare in Idaho, one of the most batshit crazy states in our beloved US of A. Speaking of shit, if you watch this YouTube video from Sarah Taber, she explains how some farmer-influencers (Ballerina Farms) did everything wrong when they built their raw milk dairy confinement operation. It left open the option for cows to lay down in their own shit, which forces it into their udders, which means that shit gets in the milk. The rise of MAHA has led to demand for raw milk, and the producers who are trying to meet that demand don’t know how to keep their cows clean. So, I guess more people will get the shits from cowshit in their milk. Unfortunately, some of these morons feed that shitty milk to their kids.
Moving on to other cattle issues, let’s take a minute to look at screwworm. The way to eradicate screwworm, which we did for years in this country until Trump, was to release sterilized male flies into areas where the female flies were trying to mate. The females mate once, so we’re lucky that we don’t need a ton of pesticides to eradicate this scourge. However:
The return of screwworm comes after the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, launched by the Trump administration, last year cut funding for a project dedicated to monitoring and containing New World screwworm in Central America.
The funding was axed days before the U.S. ended a temporary suspension of cattle imports from Mexico, meaning livestock was allowed to cross the border without any of the monitoring previously funded by the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID).
Here’s Sarah Taber on YouTube predicting this a year ago.
Like oil, beef is going to be extra expensive for the next few months or even the next few years, because Trump decided to let DOGE gut USAID, and he also was trying to lower beef prices by importing beef from Mexico.
Perhaps, if they have time to spare from their fundraisers with AI and cryptocurrency supporters, establishment Democrats might want to point out that Democrats had this one under control prior to Trump wrecking everything.
Here’s a cherished memory: my kid asked me for an idea for a high school essay about artists responding to each other’s work. I recommended looking at Neil Young’s “Alabama” and “Southern Man”, and comparing that to Lynard Skynard’s “Sweet Home Alabama”. I did not recommend this song, which in hindsight, I should have:
