Riding Herd Saying things that need to be said. January 15, 2025 • www.aaalivestock.com
Volume 67 • No. 1
Don’t Let The Flies In I I LEE PITTS
can remember as if it was yesterday my mom yelling to me as I went out the back door to feed my conglomeration of animals, “Close the door and don’t let any flies in.” That should be the rallying cry of every cattleman in the country these days as a biological nightmare in the flying form of a parasitic fly that is the only fly in existence that must consume live flesh as its primary food source. And usually that flesh belongs to a real live bovine. Now that fly is as close as one of our nearest neighbors and knocking on our door.
A Biological Nightmare Although the Biden administration has done nothing to stop the flow of illegal aliens across our southern border there is one export from Mexico they stopped. As of November 26, 2024, the United States stopped the importation of live cattle from Mexico because just two days earlier, “The Chief Veterinary Officer of Mexico notified the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS) of a positive detection of New World screwworm (NWS) in Mexico. The NWS was found in a cow in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas, at an inspection checkpoint close to the border with Guatemala,” according to the USDA. “Given the severity of the threat from NWS, APHIS is restricting the importation of animal commodities originating from or transiting Mexico effective immediately and pend-
all over southern states are NOT expected to resume any time soon. This comes at a time when U.S. inventories of beef cattle are at all-time lows, and feedlots that have been full of Mexican cattle in the past will now have to bid more aggressively for domestically produced cattle, putting further upward pressure on prices for calves and yearlings. Although the USDA nonchalantly referred to screwworms as, “Fly larvae that infest living tissue of warm-blooded animals, causing infection,” ranchers who listened to horrifying stories about screwworms as they sat at their father’s feet know better. Just the mention of the word screwworm should strike fear in the hearts of American cattlemen. In the 1930’s and 1940’s screwworms put thousands of ranchers out
It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge. ing further information from Mexican veterinary authorities on the size and scope of the infestation.” According to one government official, imports of Mexican cattle that once grazed
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Chief Justice John Green Electricity Roberts Reiterates Costs a Bundle the Job of the U.S. s nations use more and more supposSupreme Court edly cheap solar and wind power, a BY BJORN LOMBORG / WALL STREET JOURNAL
SOURCE: RENEWED RIGHT
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he U.S. Supreme Court has been highly controversial ever since it was created. It is the very nature of its independent role in the American Constitutional Republic.
Justices aren’t supposed to make everyone happy
NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
of business and made large swaths of southern and southwestern cattle ranches in the United States off-limits for cattle ranching. According to the USDA, “By the early part of the 20th century the problem had become so acute that the raising of cattle in certain parts of the Southwest was practically impossible.” The USDA says, “Given the northward movement of NWS, APHIS has in recent months stepped up its efforts in Central America to partner with impacted countries to push this pest out of newly affected areas,” said Dr. Rosemary Sifford, Chief Veterinary Officer of the United States. “With this latest find in Mexico, we will further intensify this work to protect American agriculture and reestablish the barrier in Central America.” But the New World Screwworm has jumped a Mexican border that was crucial for stopping the northern flight of the screwworm and if Mexico does as bad a job with stopping the screwworm from Central and
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts recently issued a warning that the U.S. must maintain total “judicial independence” just weeks away from President-elect Trump’s inauguration. Roberts explained his growing concerns in his annual report on the state of the federal judiciary. “It is not in the nature of judicial work to make everyone happy. Most cases have a winner and a loser. Every Administration suffers defeats in the court system — sometimes in cases with major ramifications for executive or legislative power or other consequential topics,” Roberts wrote in the 15-page report. “Nevertheless, for the past several decades, the decisions of the courts, popular or not, have been followed, and the Nation has avoided the standoffs that plagued the 1950s and 1960s,” he continued. But then Roberts raised the alarm. “Within the past few years, however, electcontinued on page 5
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strange thing happens: Our power bills get more expensive. This exposes the environmentalist lie that renewables have already outmatched fossil fuels and that the “green transition” is irreversible even under a second Trump administration. The claim that green energy is cheaper relies on bogus math that measures the cost of electricity only when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. Modern societies need around-theclock power, requiring backup, often powered by fossil fuels. That means we’re paying for two power systems: renewables and backup. Moreover, as fossil fuels are used less, those power sources need to earn their capital costs back in fewer hours, leading to even more expensive power. This means the real energy costs of solar and wind are far higher than what green campaigners claim. One study shows that in China the real cost of solar power on average is twice as high as that of coal. Similarly, a peer-reviewed study of Germany and Texas shows that solar and wind are many times more expensive than fossil fuels. Germany, the U.K., Spain, and Denmark, all of which increasingly rely on solar and wind power, have some of the world’s most expensive electricity. The International Energy Agency’s latest data (from 2022) on solar and wind power generation costs and consumption across nearly 70 countries shows a clear correlation between more solar and wind and higher average housecontinued on page 3
by LEE PITTS
Hard Roads And Easy Streets
’ve always wondered, when does a town become a city? Is there a magic number like 10,000 or 100,000? I may not know when a town becomes a city but I darn sure know when I’m in one. I start getting the heebie-jeebies at anything over 30,000 people and I left San Diego one time at 3:00 a.m. because I couldn’t take it any longer. I don’t know if it’s the noise or the way that people like to congregate in crowds. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “A New York Minute?” That’s how long I can stand to be in the big bad apple. I was born in a “hospital” with three or four beds in the town I was raised in. The sign at the edge of town said we were the “Citrus Capital of the World” and that the population was 10,000, both of which were out and out lies. They must have been counting the influx of braceros who came to pick our fruit every year. We lived at the edge of town on one acre and the street in front of our house was the city limits. Speed one way going down the street and a policeman would give you a ticket and on the other side it would be a sheriff. We had a volunteer fire department where both my grandfather and great-grandfather were the chief. My great-grandfather was even Mayor but that was based solely on the fact that he gave out huge six-inch Milky Way bars to young kids on Halloween who grew up to become voters. The train went through our town but it didn’t stop unless it hit a car or a cow. We did have a motel but it had threadbare carpet, cardboard walls and the occasional mouse. For every year but a couple, I’ve lived in small towns and from that experience I’ve learned that there are many things you won’t find in a typical town. For instance, I’ve lived at my current residence for 40 years and in all that time we’ve never had parking meters, one-way streets, a metro area, a high school, neither a new or used car lot, a mortician, dermatologist, an Olive Garden nor any other chain restaurant. But we do have a great Mexican food joint that serves our needs quite nicely. We don’t
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