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UpperWestside

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by UpperWestside

  1. 3 minutes ago, DonkeyCigars said:

    If not subscribing to the cult of Trump and worshipping him and thinking he can do no wrong, and instead will say "your usefulness is up, now away with you and I didn't really like you anyways but you were one of the two figureheads remaining from the process we use to choose a champion for a set of ideas/goals/values for American people", then sure.

    So you are okay with the judge situation because personally that person aligns with your beliefs. Is that correct?

  2. 8 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

    Which has morphed into the lie that not only are we all in this alone, any notion that we live in a society/community where our actions impact others is treated as heresy to be cast out completely.  It's insanity.  The cult of the individual that has been created isn't just insane and anti-human, it's anti-American.

    Read De Tocqueville -- he captured the essence of America at its founding.  He LITERALLY wrote about what made America great and unique - and it was our ability and drive to form associations, to work together for a collective good.

    Balancing individual liberties with the obvious and human truth that we live in community, and that we all depend on each other and none of us are in this world alone, is how we can thrive as a nation.

    And no, not all individuals have a fair shot at "determining their own destiny."  As has been stated here eleventy billion times, some people start the race with great training, great shoes, a great diet, and a support team around them.  Others start the race malnourished, untrained, barefoot, and alone.  In that race.....who are you betting on to finish?  Come on, for fuck's sake.  Yeah, maybe one of those starving barefoot guys has the greatest human will in history, and ekes out a finish.  But the odds are WAY against him.  Just like they are WAY in favor of the guy with shoes, training, and a support team.

    The American Dream starts with what is actually the first word in our charter document -- WE.  I am very successful.  I would be an egotistical narcissist liar if I said that my achievements are mine, and mine alone.  I had supportive parents.  I had great educators.  I have had good mentors.  I had a public university of the first class educate me.  I benefit from a system of laws and rules that helps me succeed and prosper.  I have benefited from simple acts of kindness.  I have gotten lucky breaks.  I have a supportive spouse.  "I" have done only a part of what it takes for me to succeed -- "WE" have done a great deal to help me succeed.  America's toxic obsession with "me" at the expense of (and outright demonization of) "we" is killing us.  Literally, it's killing us.  We are dying from secondary effects of loneliness, isolation, and broken communities.  The worship of the individual to the exclusion of anything else is the worship of a false god.

    This is very well explained. Our national obsession with ourselves above the collective is because millions upon millions of us, Dotard and Biden voters alike, have a toxic shame within us that leads us into making the decisions that have been made as a collective. We solve that problem and then we are making some headway into being who we proclaim to be.

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  3. 5 minutes ago, slorch said:

    Meh.  Always fucking towing around that guilt, bro.

    The same system exists for way the fuck more people than you.   You put in the work.  You made the tough decisions.  You made things happen that other people might have been able to... but didn't.  You showed up...to work, as a dad, as a husband.  These are the decisions and actions that give us personal worth.

    There's not a gotdamn thing wrong with owning your results.  It's part of being human.  Of course you had the other influences, so did others.  Why aren't their results the same?   It's a rhetorical question, because you don't need to serve up another helping of your hatred for man.  Sitting here wishing everyone could have what you have when they aren't willing to put in the investment is just foolish...and impossible.  Those who choose to fuck off, harm others, or willing be shitstains own their results too.  I don't pity them...  I shouldn't have to unwillingly support their asses either.

    The Mack Brown philosophy on life everyone! I got mine so who cares about helping those who need it! 

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  4. 3 hours ago, DonkeyCigars said:

    Someone upthread said I sounded like a useful idiot. Maybe I am, I don't know, I'll leave y'all to judge that. But I think DJT is the useful idiot and he delivered the Supreme Court Justices, he's done his job, now out with him. 

    I won’t call you that, but you are useful to his administration. Your mindset with the judge comment is one that is not helpful to the country as a whole. It is strikingly selfish in tone. I am not certain you care about how that comes across though. Feel free to correct me if you would like to. 

  5. 1 hour ago, staboner said:

    while I won't talk like that almost ever here - because I find it gross - to vote for trump and say shit like "I wish he would leave" is great and all but shows just a remarkably out of touch fucking view. and that in and of itself is very dangerous. 

    I have to agree on that mindset. It is one that you would like to see completely gone from this country. To come right out and say what he did, despite a plethora of evidence that that vote ties you to a guy who quite literally would invalidate the election if he could, is not something any of us need to see right now.

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  6. 7 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:

    Notre Dame has a $14bn endowment, but let’s squeeze a few nickels out of our students and placate our alumni in a raging pandemic.

    And that goes for UT and 50+ other schools that are letting fans into the stands. 

    No matter how much money you have it is never enough. This is not personally my own viewpoint, but we need not look any further than the folks who profited the most during this pandemic to see how that is the case. Nobody should be in the stands at these games, but money motivates people (those running universities especially it seems) to do reckless and dangerous things.

  7. 2 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

    I grew up Catholic.  I know plenty about it.  Learned from the Jesuits (as did Fr. Jenkins).  Which actually makes this all the more shocking to me.  A guy who learned from the Jesuits shouldn't exhibit such egregious lapses of judgment.

    I don't just think or pre-suppose the answer to his amazing lack of rational judgment in the midst of a pandemic that has killed almost 250k Americans is because he is just making some bad decisions. He went all in with Trump over judges and he knows, as we all do, that the big-time FOOTBAW schools are hurting financially without the money that their programs generate. He also can see the writing on the wall of, as was mentioned upthread by Tuco, that people are not going to spend egregious amounts of money for distance learning from Notre Dame. That isn't how it works. I visited the campus once and it is beautiful. They needed students on-campus even though health-wise it is absolutely insane to have done so. Fr. Jenkins is no different than a CEO at this point. Notre Dame is his business and his business needs money. Jesus stopped being his savior a long time ago. Money took His place and that is not changing for Fr. Jenkins and by extension Notre Dame.

  8. 13 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

    Seriously, as a Latin American (Latin American-American?) please stop using Latinx. So, so dumb.

    I cannot say I have ever used it. I heard it said a bunch during the protests I attended in DC and NYC though. If I run across someone, like a guy who stopped me here in my neighborhood to welcome me to El Barrio about 30 minutes ago who is from Mexico, I would refer to him as Mexican (Especially since that is how he referred to himself.)

  9. Just left a small Brazilian church service in Queens. It’s amazing to me how kind and resilient the pastor of that church is. Even though we all despise who and what Trump represents he still prayed for him as well as Biden. I can admit I cannot bring myself to say a prayer for Trump. That is on me, but pastors like that man and the woman who is the pastor of my church in The Bronx that also prays for him despite her dislike of who he is shows a level of forgiveness I hope to reach one day. That day is not today though.

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  10. 17 minutes ago, Loch Ness Monster said:

    Never realized how much positivity made a difference. I'm proud to be an American today!

    Positivity can be such a driving force for a country. It is a choice we all are able to make, but it is nice to get reminders like tonight that those who occupy the two highest offices in the land will govern with that mindset. It makes such a big difference in how issues will be approached. 

  11. 1 minute ago, Constant said:

    Today was awesome and I am so proud to be an American again. These last four years have been dark and I am glad my 5 and 3 year old daughters don’t have to grow up under that weight anymore. They get to see what is possible instead of being told what isn’t.  It feels like a new day with fresh fall air blowing in the windows of a damp, dark house. 
     

    I will remember this day for a long time for several reasons, but mostly because Team Trump accidentally held a press conference outside a Philadelphia landscaping company. 

    Oh man today felt good! From waking up to the yelling and horn honking of the Puerto Ricans in my neighborhood in East Harlem when the election was called to seeing people dancing quite literally in the streets of Harlem was amazing. Just pure unadulterated joy from people who have not had much to celebrate this year. Then going from that to seeing the young folks partying at Washington Square made for a very enjoyable and blessed day. 
     

    I still cannot believe that press conference in Philly. That is easily the funniest thing to happen during this entire election! 

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  12. The two speeches tonight were so good to hear. They were breathing positivity back into the lungs of our nation. It was so nice to hear two adults get up and talk to us tonight and remind everyone that we are able to choose to be positive or negative in our outlook. For tonight at least I hope most of us decided to enjoy the return of decency and empathy to the White House.

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  13. 19 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

    I'm at E58th and 1st. That is looking across 1st Ave.

    There is going to be a dance party down in Washington Square Park tonight. I'm heading down.

    I will definitely stop by to watch that. Spent a good deal of time at protests there over the summer.  I am in East Harlem right now so you can imagine how festive it is here right now.

  14. 1 hour ago, Hank Scorpio said:

    No one understands and writes better stuff about Trump and Trumpism than David Roth. 

    Absolutely. He is the guy you want to read if it has to do with that. He’s just an extremely talented writer overall. I am glad all the old deadspin guys and gals got together to form Defector.

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