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Mel Buer

@melbuer.bsky.social
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Journalist. Host, Producer: Making Contact on KPFK Los Angeles - 90.7FM Unionist, organizer, labor nerd. I write about working for a living: wordsaboutwork.news Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/mel_buer

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Reposted by Mel Buer
Anne Helen Petersen @annehelen.bsky.social · 5h
This is *the* piece. Kate Manne, professor of philosophy at Cornell, speaks truth to the totality of failures at the university — and why students protesting the war in Gaza have faced far harsher consequences than any of the Cornell 7: www.thecut.com/article/what...
thecut.com
What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now
As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.
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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 4h
NEW: H-2A worker Carlos Vargas Moreno experienced a catastrophic heat stroke when his employer, Florida Orange Gold, subjected him to unsafe working conditions. The same company was cited two years prior for the heat-related death of H-2A worker Carmen Sebastian Hernandez Mosqueda.
prismreports.org
Despite farmworker death and another disabled by heat stroke, employer keeps sending people to fields
Florida Orange Gold has exposed workers on H-2A visas to extreme heat, but continues to bring hundreds of migrants to North Carolina
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 4h
Student journalists across this country have been churning out some of the best journalism these last couple years Thinking of the radio crew covering the encampments in New York, UCLA crew doing the same, not to mention groundbreaking investigation after investigation Brilliant, the best of us
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 11h
Lmaoooo
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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 29/09/2026
Buried lede: among those speaking out against this is Gregory Baylor, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, a major conservative Christian legal group: “The government shouldn’t punish people who pursue socially valuable callings just because in its judgment they don’t earn enough money.”
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In the US, the UK, Canada, everywhere, the political and class elites have decided that only the very very rich get to do this any more. Those of us who are not very very rich or very very elite are shit out of luck. And the sad thing is that academia has largely gone along with this notion.
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I would never have been able to get an advanced degree without student loans. The new aggregate loan limits already nuked my chances at switching careers through the MLIS—this new rule would be catastrophic for the working class At this point it wouldn’t be a waste to explore alt. higher ed design
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Working on my field bag to cover every day of this 96-mile interfaith pilgrimage from Adelanto ICE processing facility to LA— It’s not going to be an easy journey for any of those taking it—the route will take folks through the Cajon Pass and down into Los Angeles. Sorta the point tho, ain’t it?
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
100% chance this lady verbally abuses her private chef
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 28/09/2026
"Thiel’s destruction of Gawker, a publication that attacked virtually everyone, was the first shot fired in this era’s remarkably successful war against the free press. The war itself is not new. It’s just that today’s iteration of it is so very on the nose." www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-free-a...
hamiltonnolan.com
The Free and Unfree Press
Journalism, and its adversaries.
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The Pasadena parakeets are the worst flock of assholes to ever plague a neighborhood. They sit in the tree outside where I’m staying and squawk endlessly The best day of my life was coming back from a gig and seeing an absolute honker of a raven picking the eyes out of one of the sidewalk
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Wanting to really build out my self-study reading list for the winter; looking for great collections of creative nonfiction, essays, and memoir Any recs that immediately spring to mind?
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Revisited the neighborhoods I reported out of during the Eaton Fire today. First time back since the fires, which I’m pretty ashamed to admit. Last time I was there, half the houses were still smoldering Retraced my steps a bit; a lot is being rebuilt, but so many empty lots still.
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Working on expanding the scope of my newsletter because I am finding myself curious and wanting to write about things that don't fit neatly in the "labor" box, so therefore considering a small rebrand of sorts Turns out I suck at titles
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Asher Elbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Anyway, I get people not wanting to out themselves but I actually think people who are broadly in and around the kink and play scene have a genuine responsibility to say something about this sort of thing
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regular meghan 나영지 🇵🇸 @ruemcclammyhand.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“This is not a dark chapter in Cornell’s history, it’s a morbid pattern” Editorial Board at The Cornell Sun absolutely fucking your shit UP www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...
We refuse for this victim to be reduced to just another story.
Cornell has failed to protect its students. Cornell has failed to address the growing issue of sexual assault on campus with its pathetic task force. Cornell has failed the student allegedly raped by those seven men at Chi Phi in October 2024. Cornell has failed her. Cornell has failed us.

To Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar: We know who you are and we refuse to let you benefit from this University's concealment.
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Those wishywashy cowards
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Student journalists still believe that it’s more important to hold powerful people to account than it is to hold on to access to those powerful people. They haven’t become Savvy Insiders yet
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I want to make another point here, that I think Faine does an excellent job of highlighting: there isn't anything particularly wrong with putting on sex parties with consenting adults A big issue here is that women are being pressured to attend in order to network *professionally*
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is tangentially related, but I see the venn diagram of the AI crowd and Crypto bros as a circle, so—I attended a bitcoin conference on a lark in 2017 or so, and their biggest networking event took place at a 24-hour club in Miami. The behavior I witnessed there was frankly shocking
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I will be covering a good chunk of this march from its beginning at Adelanto— Am available for assignment, btw ;)
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Capital & Main @capitalandmain.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
NEWS: In interviews, dozens of farmworkers reported suffering from nausea, burning eyes or irritated throats due to chemical-laced fields. Most said they didn’t report the problems because they feared retaliation or lacked confidence in the regulatory system.
capitalandmain.com
Haphazard Pesticide Enforcement puts Farmworkers in California at risk
Serious health and safety violations are penalized differently across counties, and regulatory actions are enforced inconsistently.
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James Stout @jamesstout.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is a real fuckin problem with journalism. This piece seemed mean spirited, unkind, and not really the sort of thing I would dedicate thousands of words to when people are being snatched off our streets. But the industry will go towards this kind of shit because they want the money it brings
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Preparing this morning for an interview with @victorpickard.bsky.social for my next Making Contact episode, and re-reading his most recent writing on the state of the industry. Gotta say, this is an excellent ex. of what stories get told when hypercapitalist incentives are the order of the day
Within this hypercommercialized media structure, despite many individual journalists' courageous work to the contrary, profit imperatives too often trump democracy (bad pun intended). Capitalist logics undercut and skew democratic discourse by encouraging clickbait, excluding low-income communities, and degrading the quality of journalism.
Capitalist incentive structures also lead to pronounced deficits through sheer cost cutting, and by treating news and information as commodities, not public services, and audiences as passive consumers, not engaged citizens.
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Its so humid in LA tonight Freaking weird, man
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Really courting that GOP money for his upcoming presidential bid
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Lmao, that is kind of an own-goal of epic proportions Also why the fuck are Politico and other outlets allowing the freaking Vice President of the United States to speak on background lmao
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Meat heist, egg heist…Reminds me of the recent train heist of $28k in limited edition legos in the IE. The robbers got into a freaking gunfight with train police lmao Interesting to see how the black market is shaping up through news of these heists
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Spent my evening calling my friends Talked about life, organizing, romantic updates, learning to dance, what a “modern bohemian” life looks like, dreams we had last night, and what Gramsci’s Bluesky account would look like if he were alive today lol (among other things) Call ur friends. Is guud
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Hank & Townes’s Mom @katehascats.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I wrote about grief for Welcome to Hell World. Thanks to @lukeoneil47.bsky.social for holding space. www.welcometohellworld.com/there-is-onl...
welcometohellworld.com
There is only before and after he died
Losing Kaleb
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dan sinker @dansinker.com · 21/09/2026
The best way to fight back against the Paramount/Warner Brothers merger is to support independent artists, journalists, writers, filmmakers, musicians and everyone else who has been walking a very hard path to putting things out into the world.
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 21/09/2026
for your future voting knowledge, Gavin Newsom was central in pressuring the AGs to settle their antitrust lawsuit against Paramount:
deadline.com
Done! Paramount Settles Antitrust Suit, Set To Seal Deal For Warner Bros. Discovery
Paramount agreed to settle an antitrust suit by a dozen State Attorneys General led by California's Rob Bonta, the last obstacle to its merger with WBD.
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A few photos from my five weeks of trash work with DPW at Burning Man. Certainly a very singular experience. Eventually I’ll write about it lol Photos by Moon Mandel, IG: i_amthemoon
Black and white photo of six people sitting in a doorless Bronco with the name “Bubble Butt” emblazoned on the side. A sign attached near the front passenger wheel reads “DPW: As Seen on HBO”A black and white photo of Mel hugging a fellow DPW member outside of their camp.A black and white photo of Mel sitting with fellow crewmates on the tailgate of a flatbed parked outside of commissary. Large bags of sorted recycling sit behind them in the truckbed.A black and white photo of Mel smiling next to a fellow crewmember outside of their camp. Fleet vehicles are parked behind them in the background.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
it's good to see solidarity in the white house press pool but it's nuts that it had to come to this for it to happen.
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I am not “the plex guy” but I have access to an absolutely insane plex server and hoobuddy is it nice Also a bit hilarious to see which movies other folks are watching
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
They finally fucking did it, what a show of solidarity
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Shook out, wiped off, and (mostly) washed my shit from my desert work trip, which has been good for checking off the to-do list but done absolutely nothing for the depresso brainworms I’ve been battling lately
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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 19/09/2026
also. the thing people hate is not ‘the technology’ it is the tech industry. they hate move fast and break things. they hate having everything they say tracked and processed while companies do whatever they want. they hate every single ideological value that animates silicon valley
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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 19/09/2026
on some level, you have to accept that yes, people are reacting emotionally without doing detailed research but really you can’t blame them or stop them. this was some bullshit not a single one of us had to think about three years ago and now it’s making shit worse in like most daily interactions
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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 19/09/2026
people are always saying anti-AI arguments don’t understand the full nuances of the technology. which is correct. but only because it stole everyone’s work, exists solely to get you fired, has made the entire internet unusable and has been forced on everyone without consent
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Loser behavior
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
On this latest episode of “Our Modern Life is a Nightmare We Can’t Wake Up From,”
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Have you written a really rad book? Is it coming out soon? Do you wanna talk about it on the radio? HMU :D
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
My skin is rebelling against me now that I'm no longer living in the desert, lol. Suuuper annoyed by it
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Hemry, Local Bartender @bartenderhemry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This does not sound like an administration that has a credible plan to steal or overturn the midterms
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Horrific news out of LA tonight, absolutely horrendous loss for the news community
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Received an email from a new journalist asking for advice on how best to handle a few aspects of reporting, etc.,––was nice to be able to share my thoughts and feel less like a cynical old bastard Sent it off thinking, "hmm, maybe I actually like this craft and the industry is what I hate" lmao
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Corey Hutchins @coreyhutchins.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
More: www.chronicle.com/article/a-st...
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Corey Hutchins @coreyhutchins.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A student journalist's email to the campus spokesperson made the school administrator feel it is was harmful to her safety: capitolfax.com/2026/09/14/s...
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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
buddy you just described an alt-weekly
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