btw, you're not gonna get much warning when this starts. it's going to be suddenly and all at once. and it's not gonna be like flipping a switch to get it back going, either. x.com/StatisticUrb...
![[screenshots of tweets] Hunter📈🌈📊 @StatisticUrban If US institutions ever start to truly fail, en masse, collapse of the republic-style, we'll get many more headlines like this. There are countless hidden systems, ones few notice until they break, like “guys irradiate fly larvae and drop them on Panama to keep out screwworm.” Quote *Walter Bloomberg @DeItaone · 20h FIRST HUMAN CASE OF NEW WORLD SCREWWORM DETECTED IN US, SOURCES SAY 8:39 PM · Aug 24, 2025 · 349.8K Views Hunter📈🌈📊 @StatisticUrban · 13h To be clear, the obvious ones, like the Fed, would also fail.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j2kmiyhld5btzozgzwy3lc2m/bafkreiaxl42u4wwr7t3fr54wfxutprug6qowfirskryhy4wopt6b62nfgq@jpeg)
Replies
It also happens slower and goes unnoticed—like the rat problem that much progress had been made on until Reagan cut the budget. They wanted cities to have a rat problem.
aug 25, 2025, 10:37 pm • 1 0 • view
It is quite likely Trump will destroy so much of the federal administrative state that there will literally be nothing holding the union together other than the threat of violence.
aug 25, 2025, 7:16 pm • 6 0 • view
That would seem to be the plan bsky.app/profile/equa...
aug 26, 2025, 7:20 am • 1 0 • view
@statisticurban.bsky.social
aug 25, 2025, 9:04 pm • 1 0 • view
I think it’s probably even worse in that lots of important things will slip that the media won’t cover/won’t adequately get reported and so it will feel even more sudden.
aug 25, 2025, 7:00 pm • 6 0 • view
This impacts enough rich Republicans that they seem to be taking it seriously, one of the few places where spending is increasing.
aug 25, 2025, 7:21 pm • 7 0 • view
Here in Costa Rica we can't fight them, because there isn't enough esterile larvae, because, as Americans always do, they prioritized send them to Mexico to stop them to spreading to the US, fucking all the Central Americans countries in the meantime.
aug 25, 2025, 8:38 pm • 3 0 • view
The Michael Lewis book The Fifth Risk was suppose to be a warning, but the Trump admin is treating it like a manual.
aug 25, 2025, 10:03 pm • 5 1 • view
Are they remembering to pay the engineers who keep the Mississippi River from changing course?
aug 26, 2025, 8:43 pm • 1 0 • view
They're going to fire some guy named Gary no one knows about because he keeps to himself that literally keeps the entire system held together and everything just explodes.
aug 26, 2025, 7:26 pm • 1 0 • view
American critical infrastructure institutions are durable enough, even in the current circumstances, that any one of them collapsing implies COLLAPSE collapse imo yeah
aug 25, 2025, 7:04 pm • 13 0 • view
I work for the federal government and was just thinking today about how our hallowed institutions are basically an IRL version of the school project where you made a bridge out of toothpicks and wood glue. They never hold as much weight as you thought/hoped they would.
aug 25, 2025, 8:44 pm • 27 1 • view
Did they stop airdropping the genetically modified bugs?
aug 25, 2025, 7:01 pm • 12 0 • view
I can't believe how the Republicans just drank *all* of their own Kool-Ade. They convinced themselves and built a whole legal scholarship enterprise around this false idea that small government is even desirable in the first place. It absolutely isn't. Modern life is enabled by big government.
aug 25, 2025, 8:14 pm • 17 0 • view
They are also nuts. Yes, most of what they do is for their own interests, and they lie when they know the truth—but they are really and truly batshit in all sorts of ways. Even ones who are more ‘educated and normal seeming.’ They are ignorant, emotionally reactive, poorly psychologically ordered.
aug 25, 2025, 10:40 pm • 7 0 • view
"you have no understanding. of the consequences. of what you do. oh and one more thing. you aren't going to like. what comes after. America." --leonard cohen
aug 25, 2025, 6:40 pm • 316 25 • view
so, re the questions about Why, the screwworm had actually broken containment at the end of 2024 and an emergency plan was in place to halt spread (www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-...) but then the agency, APHIS, running it got DOGE'd (www.npr.org/2025/05/03/n...)
aug 25, 2025, 7:41 pm • 199 65 • view
aug 25, 2025, 7:55 pm • 2 0 • view
the plan, of course, then failed as a result of the DOGE chaos and the screwworm jumped ~350mi by July, and so, here we are. will take a 1960s style program to eradicate it again, and lol you know this admin ain't gonna be effective at that. www.usda.gov/about-usda/n...
aug 25, 2025, 7:41 pm • 178 34 • view
Oh shit. I just saw a you tube about that... Not comforting... youtu.be/zxq60I5RSW8?...
aug 25, 2025, 8:45 pm • 4 0 • view
My brain: “Wow, none of that sounds good.” Also my brain: “🎵Screwfly, don’t bother me. Screwfly, don’t bother me.🎵”
aug 25, 2025, 7:45 pm • 42 2 • view
USDA had always stated the old Moore, TX fly irradiation facility was being maintained after the 1993 closure, but the RFP for reactivation went out in 2023 and it’s… still not ready. Not sure Abbott & current head of the USDA know that press conferences don’t speed up lab development.
aug 25, 2025, 7:59 pm • 22 3 • view
i mean, "maintained" basically means "the roof isn't leaking"
aug 25, 2025, 8:39 pm • 4 0 • view
That poem hits so fucking hard
aug 25, 2025, 7:22 pm • 5 0 • view
You saw this during Obama admin also, they got whapped with all the food safety related disease outbreaks after Bush II took the regulators out back behind the barn (to inspect it!)
aug 25, 2025, 9:09 pm • 4 0 • view
It’s already starting if you’re poor. A LOT of support is limited or gone right now and the effects are starting to trickle in on a personal level for a lot of people. Not collective yet. Sad as it is, but we need it all to happen rapidly and shockingly. A slow march means it’ll never stop.
aug 25, 2025, 7:50 pm • 3 0 • view
Like kidneys, you don’t notice State’s failure until everything hurts.
aug 26, 2025, 4:05 am • 2 0 • view
isn’t this one climate change mostly?
aug 25, 2025, 7:02 pm • 31 1 • view
It feels like a lot of these things are "just" climate change but before there was a whole staff in a large bureaucracy to mitigate and prevent the worst of it.
aug 25, 2025, 7:06 pm • 10 0 • view
Incorrect. Screw worm used to be endemic to the United States but we successfully eradicated it here and only held it at bay through an absolutely incredible and science fiction sounding program using irradiated flies youtu.be/zxq60I5RSW8?...
aug 25, 2025, 7:48 pm • 18 1 • view
Nobody listens when #well-researched #Women come with fucking receipts Nobody listened: I’ve been howling about this since #ilDouchey started threatening #Panama… bsky.app/profile/shew...
aug 29, 2025, 11:30 am • 1 0 • view
related, “The Screwfly Solution” is an absolutely devastating piece of sci fi
aug 25, 2025, 7:53 pm • 12 1 • view
I’ve often wondered if something similar isn’t at work within the right wing.
aug 25, 2025, 7:56 pm • 6 0 • view
Not really. Screwworm is naturally found in the US but had been eradicated. My understanding is this is more of a deforestation in the Darien Gap issue.
aug 25, 2025, 7:20 pm • 4 0 • view
Not even that, it's an import case (infection somewhere else, dx after travel back to the US): U.S. confirms its first human case of New World screwworm : NPR share.google/XWhvzOvoC0tW...
aug 25, 2025, 7:06 pm • 6 0 • view
Climate change has made it more likely for screwworm to spread to the US, but it wouldn't be the first time we've had to deal with it: Introduction · STOP Screwworms: Selections from the Screwworm Eradication Collection · www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/spe...
aug 25, 2025, 7:09 pm • 9 0 • view
All this is to say, this particular human case is more or less a non-issue. If we start seeing domestic transmission and infection among, say, cattle ranchers in Texas, it'd be a bigger deal. But we do have the tools to stop it - much like we did in the 70's-90's.
aug 25, 2025, 7:11 pm • 4 0 • view
Yeah, there are a lot of things like screwworms & rinderpest that were already handled long ago, & the greater danger of the Trump Administration is the potential that those capacities won't even be anemic when the next thing happens, they'll just be gone. Even COVID response wasn't post-DOGE bad.
aug 25, 2025, 7:22 pm • 9 0 • view
Oh, totally agree there. However, at least for the moment, USDA is spinning up another sterile fly factory in Texas: USDA announces more steps to combat screwworm in Texas | The Texas Tribune share.google/xbOxujxQg9EA...
aug 25, 2025, 7:24 pm • 4 0 • view
Somewhat climate change, but screwworm mitigation program falls under USDA, and the Secretary of Agriculture is a random hack with no relevant experience whose career is nothing but bouncing around conservative slush funds. Good odds Trump admin once again breaks things they don't understand.
aug 25, 2025, 7:09 pm • 142 10 • view
wouldn't be surprised if the grants for breeding sterile males tripped the DEI keyword filter and got tied up.
aug 25, 2025, 7:17 pm • 56 0 • view
Or possibly a porn filter.
aug 25, 2025, 7:55 pm • 2 0 • view
I thought I saw something about how there was a big recent expansion of the program in TX but maybe I misremember
aug 25, 2025, 7:18 pm • 17 0 • view
I literally never thought I'd post a sentence that reads "actually the screwworm story isn't as bad as you think" but here I am arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
aug 25, 2025, 7:51 pm • 6 0 • view
I remember thinking “oh good at least we’re still doing something about those”
aug 25, 2025, 7:19 pm • 17 0 • view
Also important to note this is not a case contracted in the United States, this is someone who traveled to Central America and contracted it there. Like that doesn’t make it *good* but as of yet the screwworm has not regained a natural hold in the US.
aug 25, 2025, 7:22 pm • 7 0 • view
no, you're probably right. my presumption is not based on any evidence. Just the heuristic "It's 2025, and things can indeed be that stupid"
aug 25, 2025, 7:20 pm • 16 0 • view
I was reading press coverage with an eye to that, and I think this hurts enough rich Republicans that it's one of the few things that's expanding. Now, will, say, Homeland Security find a way to wreck it? Quite possibly, but for now, we are good.
aug 25, 2025, 7:23 pm • 3 0 • view
I mean, this was a big problem into the 1970s I think, so still living memory for people.
aug 25, 2025, 7:29 pm • 1 0 • view
"it'd be shooting their own base squarely in the dick" has not been a very good heuristic for what the admin will/won't do. The death drive has overtaken self-interest in the Republican party.
aug 25, 2025, 7:27 pm • 12 0 • view
Very true. But this directly shoots the local rich people in the dick, with cause and effect so simple even they can understand.
aug 25, 2025, 7:30 pm • 2 0 • view
And yet you'd think the same thing about FEMA and gulf coast property values.
aug 25, 2025, 7:33 pm • 4 0 • view
The primary issue in USDA is that some of their program areas already had ~80% of staff qualified for retirement and then the fork email came.
aug 25, 2025, 7:42 pm • 21 3 • view
There's an expansion, but, just off the cuff, look at point 5 about inspections. "USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service," eh? The same one Trump / DOGE hacked to pieces? Yep, that's the one.
aug 25, 2025, 7:26 pm • 10 3 • view
Yeah, there was (the incident in the OP was a travel-related case) www.avma.org/news/usda-un...
aug 25, 2025, 7:22 pm • 3 0 • view
so glad my senator @schiff.senate.gov voted to confirm the Secretary of Agriculture who "is a random hack with no relevant experience whose career is nothing but bouncing around conservative slush funds"
aug 25, 2025, 7:19 pm • 20 0 • view
Below is an article from a few weeks ago. Not sure of your point of reference. 👇Follow the link gov.texas.gov/news/post/go...
aug 25, 2025, 7:23 pm • 4 1 • view
Found - Rollins, Zeldin and McMahon on the America First Works members and Rollins on AFPI AFW proudly believes in American exceptionalism and promotes an America First agenda through the promotion of policy. www.americafirstpolicy.com/team/brooker... americafirstworks.com/leadership/
aug 25, 2025, 7:40 pm • 1 0 • view
Just gonna keep tapping this sign until this is all over. bsky.app/profile/clay...
aug 25, 2025, 7:52 pm • 7 1 • view
Things were fine, they could have just let everything be.
aug 26, 2025, 8:32 pm • 2 0 • view
Yeah every now and then I see something where I think "maybe I should be moving to China now to get a head start instead of doing it when I have to"
aug 25, 2025, 6:42 pm • 79 1 • view
Need a functional English speaking country that likes immigrants since I'm too dumb and old to live in a non English speaking country lol
aug 25, 2025, 6:44 pm • 13 0 • view
By God, that's Canada's music
aug 25, 2025, 6:54 pm • 3 0 • view
Every Canadian I see says they're super full, have no housing, and they don't want any Americans anyway (turns out we're the bad guys now)
aug 25, 2025, 7:13 pm • 3 0 • view
Canada does NOT have a system that's open to easy immigration.
aug 25, 2025, 6:59 pm • 18 0 • view
Unless you're a doctor or in some other in-demand profession, the point system is a high bar.
aug 25, 2025, 7:06 pm • 5 0 • view
I just wish they could be normal about trans people
aug 25, 2025, 7:12 pm • 8 0 • view
This is me about IL
aug 25, 2025, 7:25 pm • 5 0 • view
China does not want you, they're very clear on that. Our place is here, to fight for the future.
aug 25, 2025, 7:54 pm • 2 0 • view
Like, China's not ideal but I think it's more likely the Great Line goes up there than here in the long run
aug 25, 2025, 6:44 pm • 56 0 • view
是的，我也是
aug 25, 2025, 7:00 pm • 1 0 • view
i went to japan last year and i'd be lying if i said that WASN'T something i was thinking about at the time...
aug 25, 2025, 6:59 pm • 8 0 • view
In your particular situation I’d already be over there, hanging out in a massive public park
aug 25, 2025, 7:04 pm • 3 0 • view
Ouch. Voting with my feet for Europe for now and hoping the EU figures it out before we all get to repeat history class.
aug 25, 2025, 7:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Honestly I'm rooting for the screwworm, the American agriculture industry is killing the Earth, time to force Americans who are used to eating 10kcal in burgers a minute to go on a diet.
aug 26, 2025, 8:14 am • 0 0 • view
it's already begun
aug 25, 2025, 7:18 pm • 3 0 • view
It's a simple complex system.
aug 26, 2025, 11:05 am • 1 0 • view