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UpperWestside

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by UpperWestside

  1. 1 hour ago, Blotto said:

    whatever the future of the progressive left is, I hope it involves shunning people like this SJW loon. I'm convinced some people consider it a waste of a day if they cant get worked up into a lather about some trivial bullshit. 

    https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/S-F-high-school-students-get-a-lesson-in-subtle-15909700.php

     

     

    It was as though someone was channeling their inner Skip Bayless on a take like that. 

  2. John Chaney was a very driven human being. We all remember watching his teams play and how he built every team on playing defense. Some people found him to be abrasive, but I look at the totality of his life and always thought he was like that because he came from nothing and from the segregation era. Those two things formed who he was. Playing at Bethune-Cookman had a gigantic impact upon his life and it showed in how he mentored and became a father figure to so many of his players. Seeing Aaron McKie, one of the greatest players he ever coached, back leading the Owls is a pretty cool thing that Chaney made possible. 
     

    Everyone remembers the shouting match with Calipari, but how many people realize they became very good friends and Chaney was a mentor of sorts to him? Huge loss for his coaching accomplishments, but a bigger loss for the human being he was.

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  3. I am sitting here in Charlotte this morning waiting for a connecting flight to Austin. Tomorrow my family will bury my aunt. It still feels surreal that she is gone. I am posting this here because my aunt carried heavy emotional burdens and turned to heavy drinking to get through it. She was never mean to me not one time in my entire life and now she is gone at 53 years young. I could say she was a nurse for 33 years and that she knew the alcohol was destroying her body, but the depression for a myriad of reasons was too much. 
     

    I felt compelled to call her about a month and a half ago and we talked for over an hour. We had not gotten to speak for that long in maybe 15 years. She was the same sweet person I remembered as a young toddler that would stop by to play with my younger brother and I when she was in high school. I am glad she stopped drinking a couple of months before she passed. The alcohol may have taken her body, but not her mind in the end. 
     

    I say this to tell y’all who are struggling with the ills of life to please talk to someone. Seek out a good therapist and talk about life. Confide in close friends about your struggles. Do not be embarrassed to share how you are feeling or what you are going through. We are all just people trying to make it through one more unpromised day.

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  4. 2 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

    I'm not saying they need to get sucked into a running debate, but they need to call out crazy when it's there.  It's about making voters understand that these are not sane people.

    Nothing good comes of giving this woman one iota of attention from the president or his administration. We just spent four years witnessing the White House air grievances on an hourly basis. I do not want to see the office used to give attention right now to anything outside of the business of helping our country regain some sense of normalcy and that means a focus on COVID at the moment.

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  5. 4 hours ago, Lobo said:

    Agreed.  Fucking-A though, all the other ways I feel like I need to be a better dad for my little girls...now I gotta worry about them getting sucked up into whatever bullshit is around in 10-20 years.  

    I'm all for progressive inclusion in society, but I'm really craving a time right now where the marginalized stupid white kids with shitty parents knew their place.  They fell behind in school, did their time in detention, and unionized with Joint Fitters Local #137 after high school.  Raised their own mediocre kids, bought scratch-offs, and smoked themselves to death by 55 without much political engagement.  I know a 100 guys like that growing up in Chicago.  They hated and blamed everybody, but led honest lives, and it never occurred to them to worship a guy like Trump or Q.  

    The truly frightening part of all this Trump and Q worship to me is the people that buy into it the most never actually had the American Dream.  Nothing was actually taken from them by anybody or any government.  They were going to be undereducated, underemployed, underpaid, etc. no matter what.  Their lives were always destined for mediocrity.  It's one thing if you hate somebody for what you once had, that's now gone.  That's the mark of human history.  But many of these people are especially unstable to me because they're battling invented adversaries at the behest of people who don't care about them, to get back something they never had in the first place based on a constructed mass illusion built by people they can't even see.  How in the flying fuck do you combat something like that?  
     

    Hitler killed himself, Hirohito surrendered, Mussolini was executed.  All three peoples surrendered their arms, accepted their punishment, and rebuilt as decent societies.  I don't think that option is available to us any longer.  

    I think this world we are currently living in has changed everything. I think the biggest thing to prepare your daughters for down the road is how to spot this stuff and educate them on cults. That's a bit absurd to even have to contemplate, but I believe we are all going to have to educate children that we have and even family members on how to avoid getting caught up in this in the future. 

    I grew up in a small town, but I think what we are going to have to remember going forward is that we cannot afford to leave people behind anymore. For me this starts first in minority communities that have long been ignored and marginalized. We have to take care of these people. This is more my focus in life though with what I am doing as a career. However, those people who bought into Q and Trump did so (And this is just my opinion) because it sounded good and the overwhelming majority is disenfranchised white people. Imagine you're doing your union job and taking home your paycheck from a job you do because you have no other specialized talents to offer in any other sector of society. Now imagine that someone like Trump, (or the next one who actually has their act together), comes along and tells you that you're getting bilked by the system and that all these minorities are stealing your American Dream from you. You mentioned these people never lived the dream. I think that's key to this. You do not target the folks who are living the life they want to, you target the ones who feel downtrodden and are not happy with their lot in life. You tell those people a good lie and you do it by finding a targeted demographic. In most cases it's been immigrants with Trump and his cult. So you ostracize and harass this group of people and blame them for everything you have never been able to achieve and you have a guy on the TEE VEE giving you confirmation bias with every rally he holds. He calls them murderers and rapists. Now nevermind that you live in Nowhereville, Kansas and the entire town is nothing but people that look like you. These people are coming and they are going to steal your jobs!

    But don't worry because there is a solution! This guy running for president has got your back! He understands your problems because he talks like you and your friends talk! He says he can get you your fair share! The buy-in to a cult starts with the belief that what you are hearing is a fact-based reality that you will be living in. It is not, but mentally you have crossed the bridge and are all aboard the Trump Express. Every immigrant you meet now is someone trying to steal from you. Every black person is part of Antifa or will kill you if you ever go into a neighborhood that is all black. You have enemies that must be squashed so that you can get your share of a dream you never knew you wanted until Trump told you it was yours to take by force if necessary! Your mind at this point has bought into the alternate reality because it sounds a heckuva lot better than being a welder until you are 70 and dying broke. This guy is going to cure all your ills because he is going to change everything!

    Only he doesn't and four years later he's out of office and the promises you were made never came to fruition. He is still selling you the lies though and millions are not letting go of them because it means admitting they were duped and that they have to now look reality in the face and it isn't pretty. President Biden and the Democrats are not a cabal of pedophiles that you are trying to save America from. You are back to square one where you were before you bought into Trump in 2016 or earlier. This is where we are at as a country. We have millions of people in that position. It is an unbelievable spot to be in as a country. We can either step up to the plate and figure out how we can help or we can just write off everything and say to heck with them all. I think we have to engage how we can and when we can. Throwing money at an organization or some such is not the answer anymore. Active civic engagement is. Talk to your neighbors. If they have been in the cult listen to them. Slowly help bring them back to reality. 

    Or sit on the sidelines and gripe and complain and watch the country burn just so you can say I told you so. That last sentence isn't directed at you. I just wanted to make that clear. 

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  6. The ability to quickly organize had a big role in it. There is a site I read maybe every couple of months called Abovetopsecret, but I can only read it for maybe 10 minutes or so because the board format reminds me of early message boards that were a hard read due to that. The site has every conspiracy theory you can imagine. Now you take people who are reading that stuff everyday and you combine it with their place they consume news at  and you now have these awakened mobs of people who think they are a part of a movement to save kids and the world from pedophiles. They have an instant feedback loops thanks to sites like that that feed them the fuel that keeps the fire burning hot. That is one of so many differences now in how this stuff seems to spread like wildfire. 
     

    These people were damaged long before this and I would argue that we would have to find out about their childhood to know the full truth of what got them to the point they are at. We need an army of therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors out there with these folks giving them the care they need mentally. The challenge here, in my opinion, is how do you find an effective way to reach these folks in a timely manner? I mean you are going to have to re-wire some folks and completely change who they are. This is one of the greatest challenges facing society and we are showing that our preparation is sorely lacking for reintegration of these folks into society.

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  7. I take these cults for what they are. The overlapping Q and Trump cults both give the members of each a feeling that they are a part of something bigger than themselves and that each cult provides them with a cocoon from their own life. Each cult provides a sense of belonging to a fantasy existence that is an upgrade on their actual life.
     

    We have millions of broken people in our country. Many of them are mentally at a point where I am entirely uncertain they can be reached. There are many that still can be though and it is worth the effort to try and bring some folks back from the brink and to provide them a better actual reality so they will not be receptive to this craziness they are mentally entangled in ever again.

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  8. 20 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

    You know, I'm thinking this Lebron kid just might have a future in the NBA.

    Looks like the Cavs FAAFO tonight. It’s fairly incredible what he is still able to do at his age. Cap might be the only guy that took better care of himself than James has over his career. Hard to top his longevity and production right to the end, but James seems like he will do it.

  9. I do not care what exactly it is that Trump's people have on this guy. He just has to go. Every senator and every congresswoman or congressman that continues to push conspiracies at this point is not mentally fit to serve in a governmental position. There has to be some form of accountability when it comes to lying like this to the American people. Censure does nothing to slow down Paul or any of the rest of them. Quite frankly it is embarrassing to see that he is still out there spreading propaganda. Not shocking, but embarrassing all the same.

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  10. On 1/18/2021 at 12:31 AM, Hornius Emeritus said:


    On the other hand, if they aren't able to stop the apocalypse, it would mean that you are stuck in the mountains of Vermont.

    After getting there I was kinda rooting for the apocalypse because of how serene it was. It snowed the entire week which was something I enjoyed immensely. Not going to get that kind of weather nor that level of quiet here in the city.

    On a serious note I am glad to see we are on good footing early on in the new administration. Staying the course though is the challenge because people who are filled with the misery and hate that the members of the cult are will surely try to drag others down in the mud with them. 

  11. 12 minutes ago, Pancho said:

    Until that point, I was physically just numb about the COVID deaths and couldn’t really comprehend it.  After that moment by this new administration, it fully hit me and I started bawling.  And I know no one who has died from it personally, but it’s still 400,000 Americans.  Dead.  And the President during those deaths didn’t give two shits. 

     

    Now I’m angry. 

    The choir director from my church passed away April 22nd from COVID. We have still not been able to give him a memorial service. He was a good man with a big heart for people who loved life. Losing him was a gut punch for me because I sang my first church solo because he volunteered me for it. Makes me sad to think that he is not here to see today.

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  12. 19 minutes ago, Sandman said:

    My brother-in-law passed away yesterday. He had some kind of cardiac event a week ago and stopped breathing, my sister was working from home and was able to call 911 & start CPR. They had to put him into a medically induced coma, as he wasn't getting enough oxygen and was having seizures. Things started to look like they were improving over the last couple of days, then they said that was it, they couldn't do anything to save him. I still don't understand what happened. The worst part is that he was only 57, he had so much life left.

    He was a great man. Loved and cared for my sister for 17 years. Served his country in the Marine Corps for 22 years. Busted his ass to get a masters degree and took every education/training course his job would offer. But he was so humble, you'd never hear him talk about himself or make himself appear to be some kind of big shot, even though he was.

    My sister didn't expect to be a widow at 50. She's handling it as well as she can but it's so hard. My dad is just crushed, he loved my BIL so much. They shared that bond that retired military vets have. I'm struggling with the reality of this, I just can't believe it happened. It feels exactly the same as when my mother died. This is a bullshit carnival ride and I want to get off.

    I am so sorry for your incredibly big loss. I do not have much in the advice to offer other than we are here for you. Process the loss of your brother-in-law for however long it takes. Again I am really sorry and I hope you and your family find some comfort together right now.

  13. I am leaving in the morning for five days in the mountains in Vermont. It would be cool if the Secret Service, CIA and FBI can keep the cult from pulling off something crazy while I am gone. Hopefully the inauguration goes off without a hitch and the cleanup of the cult begins as well!

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  14. Endeavour is a fantastic show. I am in the middle of season two and really like the cast. Qyburn from Game of Thrones is the police chief of Oxford City and the show is built around DC Endeavour Morse. The season is four episodes and each is 90 minutes long. It’s a PBS Masterpiece Theatre show and what I appreciate about it is how the two main characters interact and relate almost as a father and son duo. I am really enjoying the British shows I have watched and the acting is just superb.

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  15. 6 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

    Here's the thing: I love her.  She plays their fucking game better, and smarter, than any of them are even capable of.

    She's highly intelligent with a great education and she uses those two things together for the betterment of society. We need more people exactly like her all across this country in every facet of our society.

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  16. It would be great to see a national plan for dealing with COVID and a way to get the vaccine to people before it goes to waste.

    The John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Push that one through and get everyone registered automatically. Felons who have done their time should be able to vote again in most circumstances. 
     

    Come up with an actual roadmap to weaning us off of fossil fuels and since BIG OIL will fight such a plan, have the government put together a comprehensive funding plan that will retrain workers in this industry so they have skills in place for their new jobs if they wish to do so. This needs to have been done yesterday. 
     

    The most important thing I want to see this administraton do though is making sure we are getting children in underserved neighborhoods a proper education. Just because you aren’t born on the high end of the socio-economic ladder does not mean your education should suffer. We can do so much better in this regard as a nation. We need to give teachers and students the tools they need to succeed all across the country. A child born in The Bronx, the West Dallas Projects or Compton deserves the same education that a child gets in Highland Park or an affluent area on Long Island. We should be ashamed of how we treat the youth of our country as a whole. We are absolutely preparing so many bright young minds to fail by how little we back them educationally as they grow up.

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  17. 4 hours ago, d2o said:

    Yeah I dont count Harden.

    I don't either. They have one elite superstar in Durant and that's it. Harden had an opportunity to develop into one, but he does not seem to enjoy the defensive end of the floor all that much. Irving has never been a superstar despite being paid like one.

  18. 6 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

    Schumer should go to McConnell privately and say if he gets 17 votes he won’t kill the filibuster this cycle

    I believe that there comes a point to where a politician that has lied as much as McConnell has to the American people should be pushed to the wayside in order to get things done. The continuance of showing him any decorum that makes him feel as though he has an importance in the legislative process that he torpedoed for the last six years is not good overall for the country. There are consequences to what he allowed to happen and one of them is being relegated to the sidelines while legislation actually gets considered in the senate and approved. McConnell abused the power he had and it was to the detriment of the vast majority of Americans, even those who supported him that did not even realize it because they were too engaged in the euphoria of the Liberal Tears Movement.

  19. 23 minutes ago, Grandioso said:

    It's not like it was an important or consequential vote though. Presidents are always getting impeached for inciting violent insurrection. This is like missing a vote to fund an overpass in West Virginia or creating a youth exemption from migratory bird stamp requirements. 

    Crenshaw has a real eye for what is important in his job and clearly this vote was not of any importance. He has a keen eye for spotting important legislation so we should trust his judgment here. We really shouldn't engage in any eye for an eye with this guy.

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  20. 2 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

    Seems like all this was orchestrated by Kyrie and Harden to force this to happen quicker.

    I have no idea how Harden, KD and Kyrie are going to exist on the court but it'll be entertaining to watch.

     

    1 minute ago, McCroskey said:

    Bunch of teams that thought they had a nice shot to win a title just said "oh shit."  Still, as just stated who is to say how well these three will play together but they certainly have the talent to go all the way, easily.

    I am going to guess that Giannis is not scared to play against them. The East now has three teams who have a realistic shot at playing the Lakers for the title. Good luck to whichever one gets to be victim #18.

  21. Cousins does not sound like a guy who ever wanted to suit up on the same team with Harden again and now he doesn’t have to. I do look forward to the end of season interview from Harden when having Durant again as a teammate also doesn’t get him any closer to winning a title.

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  22. I was walking up 6th Avenue with a friend on Thursday and a truck with Trump flags in the back of it goes rolling past. I just looked at the four flags and felt a bit sad for the driver. The mental damage and illness going on inside the mind of that person is real and there are thousands upon thousands of others just like them who need to get help. 
     

    I do not believe there will be a full scale insurrection that millions of people will take part in. That is just pure folly and makes for good doomsday stories for the corner preachers. I do believe the possibility is there for people like the person driving that truck to go off the rails and do something violent though. As a society we need to be getting to these people and stopping them before they ever have the opportunity to follow through with inflicting harm on those they have hatred for. Mental illness is right there in front of us all across this country and we should be learning to recognize it better so we can get people the help they need so we can avoid more senseless violence.

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  23. 14 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

    Brother Brisket - the actual death toll / injuries absolutely has not gotten worse than I thought.   And when it comes to rhetoric and bullshit - I actually was constantly arguing with Trump morons that the minute they lose they would riot and break shit the exact same way BLM/antifa did - guess what?  They handled losing exactly how I thought they would...lots of crying and breaking shit.  "Hey at least Trump supporters don't destroy our city durrrrr..."  Yeah, they only trash our nation's capital.  Fucking morons. 

    Going back years... I would constantly tell a shitload of acquaintances - many of who became trumptards - our country wasn't going to be attacked by a bunch of crazy muslims from within.  This was well after 9/11.  Yes we saw some isolated incidents.  But it never felt like there was something like a coordinated attack on the way.  Some crazies that went off and killed a few here and there (still sad) but I see these dipshits in the same light.  

    I never believed that these folks would go on a killing spree after the election either. 99.99999999 percent of the cult will never commit an act of killing because that means you are going to jail and you are not getting out of that charge. I would expect them to find a way to continue to communicate, but now the DOJ will coordinate again with the rest of the country and squash things before they get to the point they got to this week. Anyone expecting an all-out civil war is taking things several bridges too far.

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