Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 1d

I wish Legally Blonde came out during the era of making Black versions of movies (The Wiz, the Black Pollyanna, Cindy, etc) it would be Very Good.

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 1d

Don’t give that man another yacht (or another presidential bribe, or 60 million dollar wedding, etc etc) for any reason. Starve the motherfucker.

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 1d

Just picturing Jeff smiling at all the Primed-frogs getting shipped, calling up the Devil “yup, still record profits here keep going.”

1

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 1d

Ppl dressing as frogs to protest: excellent work, fantastic PR, well done; but please if at all possible

Don’t buy your costumes on Bezos’ website. Stop linking there at least. Jesus Christ. Walk and chew gum.

1

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 2d

Gotta put your own air mask on first ☝️

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 2d

shit, the amount of women who are surprised every month when their own period starts. good luck lmao

1

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

Actual names @actualnames.bsky.social · 2d

Middie Cunty

United States, Census, 1940

6 10 59

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 3d

www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-als...
Thought I’d misremembered the link between brain injury and ALS but no

Can ALS be caused by traumatic brain injury? - Harvard Health

Though decades of research have suggested risk factors for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a specific cause remains unknown. New research studied professional football players and found that ...

www.health.harvard.edu

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

Vagina-Stegosaurus Lookalike Contest Winner ☭ @bigbrownareolalola.bsky.social · 6d

The best band you’ll ever see 🥰🥰

6 19

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 4d

teakettle scream.

Specifically, the Department says that 42 percent of all agricultural workers “lacked authorization to work” in the U.S. in 2021 and 2022. Moreover, the remaining workforce is aging, relatively “immobile” (meaning they don’t follow crops throughout the season), and looking to get out of the industry; only 20 percent of crop workers plan to be in the job for the next five years, according to a survey cited in the filing.

As a result, employers are facing significant economic harms, the filing claims. And incredibly, given the administration’s unceasing rhetoric to the contrary, the Labor Department definitively rejects the idea of Americans replacing the missing workers. “The Department does not believe American workers currently unemployed or marginally employed will make themselves readily available in sufficient numbers to replace large numbers of aliens,” the filing states, adding that agricultural work involves “a distinct set of skills and is among the most physically demanding and hazardous occupations in the U.S. labor market.” (For what it’s worth, nearly half of all agricultural workers are native-born, and significantly more than half are U.S. citizens, according to Department of Agriculture data.)

The Labor Department even claims that broadly advertising agricultural jobs, which is required under the H2-A rules, has not led to a boost in applications from U.S. workers. This is a bit of a fiction; workers who apply often do not receive jobs, and nobody is really checking to see if applications are coming in. “The system isn’t set up to prove that there’s a labor shortage of U.S. workers,” said Costa, of EPI.

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 4d

.....Oh. right

“They’re sort of, I guess refreshingly, explicit about how this is going to go down,” said Daniel Costa, an attorney with the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) who tracks the H-2A program. But this claim of mass carnage from immigration has a very particular intent: the only way out of the crisis, the Labor Department states, is to hire many more foreign workers to pick U.S. crops at lower wages, a direct transfer of income from workers in the fields to their agribusiness employers.

Only one of two things can be true: Either Trump’s Labor Department actually believes that Trump’s immigration enforcement is destroying the agricultural sector and threatening food security, or they are pretending this threat is real in order to crush wages for both foreign and domestic agricultural workers. Neither look particularly good.

An email to the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, which filed the new rule, could not be answered because of the ongoing government shutdown, according to the office’s media contacts. The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment.

THE RULE IN QUESTION CONCERNS WHAT IS KNOWN as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), which is set for H-2A agricultural workers. H-2A gives one-year visas to foreign nationals to work in agriculture. They must work for the grower who sponsors the visa, and they lack basic worker protections that domestic workers have, like the ability to get overtime pay. The program has been called a form of slavery by critics in the past.

H-2A, which was established in the 1980s, has evolved from an occasional program to fill gaps in the workforce to one increasingly relied on by employers. About one in five agricultural workers is on an H-2A visa, nearly a ten-fold increase from 20 years ago. While employers are supposed to advertise for U.S. workers to fill jobs first, this expansion of H-2A has continued virtually unabated. There is no cap on the program, so agribusiness can bring in an unlimited number of foreign workers.

Because H-2A workers don’t have bargaining rights, federal guidelines effectively set their wages. The AEWR is essentially a minimum wage for these foreign workers, which is supposed to be at a level that doesn’t create an “adverse effect” for U.S. workers in the industry. It is published every year (with different rates for each state) using a methodology that previously was derived by the Farm Labor Survey, an initiative of the Department of Agriculture that was discontinued by the Trump administration in August.

data used to determine wages. As Costa points out, this survey does not actually talk to farm employers but farm labor contractors, who offer wages at lower levels than direct farm hiring does. “It naturally means the wages are lower,” Costa said.

In addition, the new rule allows farm employers to charge H-2A workers for their housing, which was not allowed before. “It’s a way for employers to continue to house workers and also charge them, and bring down effective wages,” said Marcos Lopez of the Labor and Community Center at the University of California, Davis.

1

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

Marwella Zhang @marwellaspaceart.bsky.social · 5d

The 99.5% waning gibbous at midnight.

1 8 65

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

Heartland Signal @heartlandsignal.bsky.social · 6d

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson:

"Private establishments can partner with us to make it clear that private property is private property and ICE cannot enter establishments without a valid warrant ... If Congress will not check this administration, then Chicago will."

330 5.4K 19K

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

Kayla B @queenofthesouth.bsky.social · 6d

S/O the Black mayors doing everything they can to defend their residents from ICE and national guard invasions

5 40 210

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

iwburg.bsky.social @iwburg.bsky.social · 5d

@maiambic.bsky.social Do you know about the Thirty Plants app shared by @kendrawrites.com? It is delightful: www.thirtyplants.app

1 2

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

Mel @thegatesofmel.blacksky.app · 7d

Banning Link is wild AF.

1 16 69

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 7d

If you’ve read this far, I would really like you to support the great people who have a resource table at Broadview ICE with information, first aid, supplies, food, and water. They are doing great work and are there 24 7 for protesters. A QR code for the stuff they need is in this image.

A flyer that says we are the heroes we have been waiting for, the resistance requires angels, please scan for the wish list. And then there is a QR code below.

4 95 250

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 8d

Retweet every time!!! ❤️🖖🏾

blakestacey.myatproto.social @blakestacey.myatproto.social · 8d

1 1

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 9d

Yikes 🫣 if I wanted to make sure my viable organs went to people who need organs, and that they didn’t sell off the rest, is there a way that ISNT’t the organ donor thing on my license

Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 9d

I try not to be too overt about my personal views, but what I learned turned me off from being an organ donor, let alone "donating my body to science."

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

I'm Big Poe!! @tydyethefly.blacksky.app · 10d

Jingles get stuck in your head.

I remember jingles I learned as a kid. And especially companies that used to use jingles to remember the company phone number. I need all that shit back

2 4 22

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 9d

“Oh oh, it’s magic
You know
Never believe it’s not so”

Got there, took a day and a half 👴🏽

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 10d

Ozempic does not deserve that song 👴🏽

Mel @thegatesofmel.blacksky.app · 10d

Just using popular songs is so lazy.

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 10d

topical wikipedia OTD from a 2024 quarter: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ed...

Mary Edwards Walker - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 10d

The good news is when I just tried to think of the song I was thinking of, my brain instead coughed up “Oh oh oh O’Reillyyyyyy Auto Parts” a REAL jingle. Nice work, brain

2

Municipal Solid Waste @maiambic.bsky.social · 10d

Ozempic does not deserve that song 👴🏽

Mel @thegatesofmel.blacksky.app · 10d

Just using popular songs is so lazy.

I'm Big Poe!! @tydyethefly.blacksky.app · 10d

A "boomer" complaint of mine is that they need to bring back jingles for proper marketing

1

Reposted by Municipal Solid Waste

Mel @thegatesofmel.blacksky.app · 10d

Just using popular songs is so lazy.

I'm Big Poe!! @tydyethefly.blacksky.app · 10d

A "boomer" complaint of mine is that they need to bring back jingles for proper marketing

5 21 49