Mastodawn

Loafer

@leean00@discuss.systems

163 Followers

507 Following

5.7K Posts

System Analyst - Hereassburgh, PA

Swallowing the "Little Book of Calm" often requires a career change.

#lifelessonsfromsitcoms
#HashtagGames

Schadenfreude 3h ago

Continuity schmontinuity.

Also: It's totally ok to troll the fanbase by hinting at and not resolving how tf they survived.

#LifeLessonsFromSitcoms
#HashTagGames
#HashtagGame

You can still enjoy Pee Wee's Playhouse many years after wondering why they took it off in the first place, growing older and realizing why (we won't go into that here), and also realizing how strange it is for a character in the show to call out to the main character to quote "sit on me!", which I dunno, may qualify it as a sit-com.

#lifelessonsfromsitcoms
#HashtagGames

Also you can watch any number of spinoffs that does not include said character.

Actors actually do recover and find better roles after, for instance, playing Cowboy Curtis on Pee Wee's Playhouse.

(Sidenote: Was that a sitcom?)

#lifelessonsfromsitcoms
#HashtagGames

It occurs to me that maybe not everyone can do this

DVDs of shows where the lead actor and shows namesake, end up in bad sex scandals go on sale for really cheap later, and you can still enjoy them; if you just don't think of the actor and the character as the same person.

#lifelessonsfromsitcoms
#HashtagGames

Real life bars aren't actually as fun as Cheers.
Actually, they're kinda depressing.

#lifelessonsfromsitcoms
#HashtagGames

Just because Alex Keaton is out numbered on a Liberal show, doesn't mean he can't influence the stupid voting practices of adults in the United States for the next 43 years.

#lifelessonsfromsitcoms
#HashtagGames

Mr Kotter was never going to release the Epstein files.
What were the sweathogs involved in after the cameras were turned off?
Why does John Travolta remain silent?

#LifeLessonsFromSitcoms
#HashtagGames

×

Sarah Taber 5d ago

So. I've been on field manual labor crews where most of my coworkers were convicts.

I've also worked with a lot of tech companies on automating farms.

And this press conference is incredible. Rollins hasn't the foggiest clue what she's on about.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

I did a short video on this. For anyone who might need to hear, like, *logistical* reasons for why drafting people into farm work is bad.

https://youtu.be/jyVIqq4VBy4

Thread format to follow shortly.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

Every farm job that CAN be automated, already is. Let's start there.

She thinks... nobody's ever tried to automate picking fruit? Really?

And then we'll talk about the "tehe we'll just make the Medicaid people work the farms" part.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

Produce that's hard, OR destined for processing, can be picked by machine.

So carrots, nuts, sour cherries for pie filling, berries & grapes that will be dried, tomatoes for sauce- those are picked by machine already.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ojqPSMYWEvo

Picking Sour Cherries with Modern Machinery

YouTube

Sarah Taber 5d ago

But berries, fruit, tomatoes, etc that are eaten fresh can't be automated w current technology.

I know because I worked for a lot of the startups that tried!

There's no way to pick fast enough by machine to be commercially viable, without bruising so they rot before they get to the store.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

Having a USDA Secretary who doesn't know or care about any of this is wild!

Sarah Taber 5d ago

Now let's talk this whole "We'll just have the Medicaid people pick the crops!" thing.

And let's just ignore the whole "forced labor is morally bad" issue. Let's focus strictly on logistics.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

A thing that kept happening to me, as a white American who worked manual labor field jobs (we are in fact out here, sorry)

is finding out I was the only fool on the crew who was there voluntarily & getting paid. Everyone else was convicts with a sentence.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

So they were completely new to farm labor & didn't really want to be there. Part of the job is I was supposed to "mentor" them.

News flash: inexperienced people who don't want to be there DON'T DO GOOD WORK. Even if they want to, they don't know how.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

Farmers would hire these crews bc they "didn't want to hire migrants" but also "didn't want to pay real wages."

And they were ALWAYS disappointed w the results. Slow. Sloppy. Kept breaking stuff bc they were clumsy.

No real cost savings compared to just hiring real workers.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

This one Florida crew I was on had a rotating cast of 19yo weed & Xbox kids who'd been caught on minor drug charges.

They were harmless. And also, clumsy af. Big kids who had no idea where their feet were. They kept stepping on the blueberry transplants we'd just planted.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

Another crew was a bunch of minors who were working as "community service" for juvie.

They all smoked, bc juvie. Tobacco is packed with plant viruses that are super contagious; can be spread just by touch. So "don't smoke in the fields" is a key farm rule.

Sarah Taber 5d ago

Not only did the juvie crew not know or care. The FOREMEN didn't know or care. That's how janky this outfit was.

Hope those fields turned out ok 🙃

Sarah Taber 5d ago

Ag is a real job.

It takes real skills, knowledge, & people who gaf about what they're doing.

Stop treating agriculture like society's dumping ground.

(Is this where we go watch some @ufwupdates videos of some skilled ag workers ripping through harvesting fields?)

@alienghic @sarahtaber @ufwupdates

I think we just watch videos of ice raids in crop fields until mobile bands of rebels make chains of linked arms around entire picking operations

Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐5d ago

@alienghic @sarahtaber @ufwupdates The part of this that you are missing is that there is no such thing as "able-bodied people on Medicaid" who aren't employed.

That's federal law, since the Clinton Administration, over 30 years ago. ABAWDs (able-bodied adults aged 18-64 without dependents) do *not* qualify for Medicaid, at all, unless they are employed, period.

Only children, disabled people, people with dependents who are full-time caregivers, and the elderly get a free pass.

Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐5d ago

@alienghic This doesn't even begin to address the fact that even if these putative 34 million people existed, most of them almost certainly do not exist in places where they can be employed as farm labor, because they are mostly not in locations that are suitable for modern agriculture.

We can dispense with the notion that this fascist regime is suddenly going to start providing public housing in farming communities for farm laborers.

Everything she's saying is an obviously blatant lie.

Warren Currie 🦠🦐5d ago

@gcvsa @alienghic to me this clearly states that the administration wants to gather up people on Medicaid into on-site forced work camps (not that would be able to do this physically taxing and skilled work). Sounds familiar somehow...

Dwight Williams (💉 x9)+😷🇨🇦5d ago

@DrPlanktonguy @gcvsa @alienghic All too familiar.

John Robinson 4d ago

@DrPlanktonguy @gcvsa @alienghic It’s the logical extension from where they are.

GhostOnTheHalfShell 4d ago

@DrPlanktonguy @gcvsa @alienghic

Oh, please call them health camps like RFK jr talks of, where people will work off their deficiencies of depression and other forms of mental illness or gender dysphoria.

Of course, this has nothing to do with eugenicist ideas

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @DrPlanktonguy @gcvsa

Ah yes depression is treason. I will not forgot to drink my Bouncy Bubble Beverage ration Mr happiness officer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_happiness_officer

Chief happiness officer - Wikipedia

Star12Mt 5d ago

@gcvsa @alienghic @sarahtaber @ufwupdates Thank you! I did say this in another thread about this topic. My stepbrother is 50+ years old, has cerebral palsy, can't speak well and is blind. Yes his care requires Medicaid. But sure they can have him out there harvesting crops 🙄

Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐5d ago

@Star12Mt @alienghic @sarahtaber @ufwupdates I know all this, because I have been an ABAWD on Medicaid, and the restrictions only get lifted under particular economic downturn conditions, and even then, only when the Governor of a state requests the waiver, which they don't always do.

ABAWDs do not get public assistance without employment. Period.

Most recently, waivers were granted during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, but all those have since expired.

Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐5d ago

@Star12Mt Furthermore, the *only* forms of public assistance for which ABAWDs can qualify *at all* are:

Medicaid

SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, "food stamps")

and LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, for heating fuel costs)

except that in 12 states only, ABAWDs can receive General Assistance (cash welfare payments, and it's not a lot).

No one is getting rich, fat, and lazy on welfare in the US. The benefits provided aren't even subsistence level.

Jonathan 5d ago

@gcvsa this is pretty much the same everywhere. It's just a feel good and/or rage bait trope that welfare recipients are out there making bank on the couch

secretsloth 5d ago

@gcvsa I remember being in my teens and learning someone I knew was on Medicaid, disability, and also worked odd jobs (which they very bluntly told me was less pay than a normal job, but a normal job would report their pay and then they would lose their benefits, and they needed medicaid). I was amazed, because I didn't realize how little disability paid - that people are basically forced to game the system just to make rent, basically. Even back then, $300/mo total wasn't enough.

thepoliticalcat 5d ago

@Star12Mt @gcvsa @alienghic @sarahtaber @ufwupdates I'm pretty damn disabled and in almost CONSTANT pain, and I'm not disabled enough to be on Medicaid! TRUST that it is damn difficult to get on it! I just got tired of appealing and said to the spouse, I have savings, I can pay the cost. People who don't have any money at all need this a damn sight more than I do. Sending best wishes for your stepbrother, may he remain safe from these vicious vultures.

Star12Mt 5d ago

@thepoliticalcat @gcvsa @alienghic @sarahtaber @ufwupdates i'm so sorry about the pain, I really empathize with that. We've been lucky enough to save a fair amount, but for how long? And now we have two parents diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This country is going to have to come to a big healthcare reckoning

thepoliticalcat 5d ago

@Star12Mt @gcvsa @alienghic @sarahtaber @ufwupdates Times like these, I'm really grateful our parents are gone. I could never manage this with two sets of aging parents in frail health.

Star12Mt 5d ago

@thepoliticalcat @gcvsa @alienghic @sarahtaber @ufwupdates yes unfortunately I agree. At least two of them don't understand what's happening. But watching my mother watch the country turn into this has been heartbreaking

prom™️5d ago

@sarahtaber There are many capitalist wank-heads in German ag, and some far-right groups. But the opposite also exists.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦5d ago

@sarahtaber thank you for this thread!

Yet another example that there is no such thing as "unskilled labor" in general.

@rysiek @sarahtaber

Yes, thank you for this thread & for kicking off such a great discussion on the basics of what it takes to do agricultural work well. 🙂

Points to a wider issue: complete divorce & chasm between real world & wherever it is Thump & his billionaire backers live. Similar to the growing gap between real value (things in the real world) & share market 'value'. 😐

@sarahtaber A few years ago there was a story about vineyard owners who couldn't find workers, because there was no affordable housing near the fields and people in nearby cities couldn't afford cars to commute to the vinyards on the wages offered.
But yeah, people just don't want to work these days 🤦🏽‍♀️

Steve Hersey 5d ago

@rejinl @sarahtaber
This week I heard a piece on our local NPR station where a potato farmer was interviewed; he said he can't get local workers at $17/hr.

Of course, that's just a seasonal job doing heavy physical labor outdoors in the heat, and the housing and transportation issues are real barriers. And I think his is a small farm, so not necessarily representative of the big ag operations.

Indeed, "people don't want to work" doesn't seem like a satisfactory explanation.

@n1xnx @sarahtaber There are so many examples like this. If they do follow through and deport lots of skilled farm workers, the consequences will be widespread.

Steve Hersey 5d ago

@rejinl @sarahtaber
Yes. "Horrific" is not an exaggeration.

@n1xnx @rejinl @sarahtaber No billionaires are going to starve. Thus, the elites don’t give a single god damn about it.

@rejinl @n1xnx @sarahtaber they tried this already about 15 years ago in GA and AL. Millions of dollars worth of crops rotted in the fields. You'd think that this is still within living memory but I guess not everyone has long term memory.

sidereal 5d ago

@n1xnx @rejinl @sarahtaber Folks around here pay $35/hr for the exact same job, and still can’t get enough workers. No wonder he can’t find people.

Steve Hersey 5d ago

@sidereal @rejinl @sarahtaber
I really don't think wage levels alone are the core of that problem.

sidereal 5d ago

@n1xnx @rejinl @sarahtaber Yup. I won’t do it, I live in the city and the reverse commute would be crazy.

GhostOnTheHalfShell 4d ago

@n1xnx @rejinl @sarahtaber

I’ve seen other farmers interviewed where they hired Americans. Even where you might consider the wage is pretty decent like in the $20 range. Harvesting crops, particularly fruit is a skilled occupation, as noted in the original post for this thread.

It’s so tempting to make government officials actually try the kind of work they dismiss as unskilled

rk: it’s hyphen-minus actually 5d ago

@rejinl @sarahtaber

I can’t remember who said it but “no one who works in Aspen can afford to live in Aspen.”

(Aspen, Colorado is home to many famous and expensive ski resorts, for those who might not know.)

@rk @sarahtaber And I think there was a town in California that had to build special housing for their teachers. But what a terrible position to be in, locked into a job or lose your home.

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE 5d ago

@rejinl @rk @sarahtaber We once tried to define "key worker" so that we could use the definition in housing policy.

We decided that "key worker" was someone who couldn't afford to buy the house they were living in.

We excluded the 20% who were living in social housing. A further 20% *could* afford to buy the house they were living in at today's prices.

Leaving 60% of the population who would meet that definition of "key worker", which was clearly not useful for policy development. So we gave up trying to concoct a useful definition.

Jestbill 5d ago

@rejinl Yearly stories on the news in Colorado. Tourist towns in the mountains have empty, expensive, 'second' homes but nowhere for a teacher to live.

lonely extrovert 5d ago

@Jestbill @rejinl see also "airbnb"

A Flock of Beagles 5d ago

@rejinl @rk @sarahtaber geez, did they pay the teachers in scrip too?

@burnitdown @rk @sarahtaber Probably deducted the cost of housing from their salaries ☹️

@rejinl @burnitdown @rk @sarahtaber this is commonly what they do with ag workers in Australia, often they are charged exorbitant rates for very overcrowded and often illegal accommodation.

Joseph Meyer 5d ago

@rejinl Of course, practically everyone here on the Fediverse agrees with your point. But the Truth Social folks need to see and understand this.

@JosephMeyer Unfortunately I think there are plenty of people who will see footage of food rotting in the fields and say it's because the poors are lazy & only want handouts.

cognitively accessible math 5d ago

@rejinl @JosephMeyer and they'll say it with clear enunciation on media that should be shut down.

It'll be their excuse to take all the farm workers they kidnapped and force them back to the farms as a slavery chain gang
@rejinl @JosephMeyer

@JessTheUnstill @JosephMeyer Can't help but think that's the ultimate goal. Especially since I read yesterday that ICE (or DHS?) claim no responsibility for the prisoners in Florida's new death camp, & I imagine Desantis doesn't (yet) have authorization to deport people. So what is the plan for those detainees?

A new permanent slavery caste.

Which is also why they want to get rid of birthright citizenship.

Then it's just chattel slavery with extra steps.
@rejinl @JosephMeyer