[–] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Speaking of unique, there's a Mexican place (and food truck) in Denver (LoHi neighborhood) that has an unfortunate name: "removed's Tacos". Yes, removed's (you can certainly figure out what "removed" is)...it's a nickname for "Enrique". The name has been problematic enough (they were reported to the ADL, etc.) that the owner recently began using an accent: Kiké's. However, this is supposedly not grammatically correct in the Spanish language.

https://jeremyjojola.com/2022/01/23/the-taco-truck-some-people-think-has-a-racist-name-dont-worry-its-not/

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  • [–] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    "Students for Liberty"?! Yet another sugar-daddy-funded campus group debasing the 501c3 laws. Anyone remember the Chapo episode where they did a reading from "Leisa", one of the "writers" from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)? It had the same basic tone as this tweet: phoned-in, zero standards, etc. This is really embarrassing--can you imagine being a middle-aged chud at one of these "think" tanks, cranking out this kind of chronic, grinding mediocrity?

    found my "Leisa" post: https://hexbear.net/comment/5293491

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago*

    That's actually going on even in this country. The outsourcing trend started when the airlines contracted out their maintenance to anti-union states like OK (Tulsa is a big hub for this). Pretty soon, labor-intensive maintenance had left the US entirely for places like El Salvador and China. I'm pretty sure that Delta does most of their "D checks" (where the plane is pretty much disassembled) in El Salvador.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_maintenance_checks#Offshore_Maintenance_Facilities

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago*

    Except that Trump even got that wrong, as I recall. There was plenty of spray-on asbestos on the girders of WTC 1 and 2--except on the floors where it was blown off by widebody jets flying into the buildings at 500 mph! The spray-on fireproofing was never designed for that kind of impact, and I doubt that any fireproofing would survive such an event. People and service animals got very sick and died from the asbestos and other toxic materials that were released from the collapse of the towers. As usual, Trump has no idea what he's talking about.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Didn't that have something to do with the original World Trade Center buildings? As I recall, Trump also got it wrong (what a surprise)...the issue was the spray-on asbestos fireproofing that was applied to the girders and related support structures of WTC 1 and 2. I can't remember all the details anymore...maybe the fireproofing companies were mobbed up?

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago*

    IIRC, there were a couple additional issues with the Pinto. There was a problem with the filler tube that connected to the fuel tank (I think it was welded to the body or something), and this could cause a rupture and subsequent conflagration. The fuel tank was much too close to the bumper, and there wasn't enough of a buffer zone around it; there were lots of structural items nearby that could cause punctures. Ford actually had the option to license a self-sealing "fuel bladder", a design that came from the aviation industry, but the bean counters nixed that. The doors tended to bind and jam in a collision, trapping occupants in a burning vehicle. And finally, '70s-era Ford was really making some lousy cars, especially small ones. The Pinto is yet another case of "the hard way is the easiest to learn". (I think there was an episode of Engineering Disasters that covered the Pinto fiasco in great detail).

    The diagram you posted below shows what a defective design it really was. It's almost as if they shoehorned in the fuel tank wherever they could, like it was an afterthought.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    At least one of the charter schools in one of the smaller MN cities had to build an apartment complex next door to attract teachers. AFAIK, the apartments are reserved just for teachers and their immediate families. The charter school salary and benefits are crappy enough that without cheap (and good) housing, no one wants to move there to have a teaching career. I found out recently that this strategy has been given the rather euphemistic name "workforce housing". IOW, they have to build housing as a sort of charity project.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Another example of this, maybe less important but still notable, is the defiance of many states over Federal scheduling of cannabis (a C-I drug, therefore "totally illegal"). While the FDA claims jurisdiction over all drugs, probably using the Interstate Commerce Clause (be advised, IANAL), the states have looked at cannabis as a states rights issue. Right now, I think they are avoiding really big legal trouble by using a few loopholes (e.g. MN is deriving its delta-9-THC and other cannabis products from industrial hemp, a fairly inefficient process). Outside of Native American reservations, I'm not sure that any state is actually selling anything like cannabis flower. But it is real defiance on the part of many states, since delta-9-THC and other cannabinoids are the substances which are actually scheduled and regulated by the FDA, and they have really pissed off the Feds with their actions. I don't think you would have seen this at an earlier time in US history, and it's an interesting development.

    Then there's the Covid response, or lack of it, mostly thanks to the chuds turning it into another front in the culture war. That's also one for the history books.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Americans really love their signifiers of negative freedom ("freedom from") and negative identity, and they turn those into religions just as much as any religion they might actually practice. So the tradcath thing is partly a silly aesthetic pose (e.g. Dasha from Red Scare), but it also usually serves an actual need, even if it's something really neurotic. As the evangelical Protestants have become so perniciously anti-intellectual and backward, the tradcath option looks more appealing to those who value education and at least a minimal amount of intellectual content to their spirituality. It also has a big performative aspect (lots of costume dress-up for the clergy, Latin Mass zealotry, etc.) that allows one to differentiate from the evangelicals (negative identity). My guess is that's why you see so many high-profile converts lately among the power elite.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago

    Oh, yeah, back before YouTube or even the commercial internet, there were various crazy political groups that would send their videos to cable-access stations around the country. You would sometimes see their stuff played on late-night cable TV. I vaguely remember one that had to do with old rail yards being converted into FEMA detention camps or something. There was even an X-Files episode or two that riffed off of this stuff...it had quite an impact on '90s culture. The "FEMA camp" nonsense was even featured on Jesse Ventura's ridiculous TV show.

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