84 Comments
Sep 8Liked by Matt Welch

LA resident here to contribute to the “every city is a nightmare” point--I work in a research lab on the medical campus, and at any given time my building has 2-3 homeless people living in it. About 5 times since February we’ve come in to find remnants of a meal and cigarettes next to the computers, along with a several hour search history of seriously debased pornography. They eventually found the guy living in an empty lab two floors below me--he just likes to pop in after dark for some computer time. I finally spoke to a police officer about it last Monday (his most recent visit) and it’s just funny because we all know the guy’s name, what he looks like, another lab has video evidence of him wandering around naked in their space, but because trespassing is only a misdemeanor we basically just have to deal with it. I work long hours often into the night, often by myself, and I’m not looking forward to happening upon him when he’s at it!

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Spark the bowl -- it’s the 420 episode!

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A homeless man tried to grab my ass a few weeks ago. This occurred in broad daylight outside my office in downtown Chicago.

In 2021, a random dude slapped me in the face as I was walking down the street in Bushwick. So yeah, all cities suck now.

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It’s almost like Texas sent migrants to NY to intentionally create anti-immigration sentiment in the city. Of course, if people could legally cross the border to work they wouldn’t be fucking illegal and wouldn’t have to be bussed and flown around like props in a retarded stage play that everyone is pretending they don’t know is retarded.

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The Reason Roundtable had a great analysis of the judicial problems with the Proud Boys sentencings.

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Sep 9Liked by Matt Welch

As the last surviving New Yorker, Matt needs put on an eyepatch and embrace his inner Snake Plissken.

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I’m gluing myself to the podcast floor until Barry Bonds goes into the HOF.

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To answer Kmele’s question if audio is worth playing: always play audio. It’s helpful to get an understanding of what’s being discussed. Would love to hear more external tape in the show.

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Eric Adams naming countries and I lost it 🤣 I love that man. Don’t care what anyone says.

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Jesus. How drunk is Moynihan?

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founding

I don't believe the storming of the Bastille was planned either but because it was successful it served as the fulcrum point of a revolution which would see the complete annihilation of not just a state but a society and its way of life. The conditions were different, the French were starving and had the momentum behind them of having already successfully raided other royal armories, I am not trying to tie any substantial parallels between that and the Capitol Hill riot merely use it make a point.

Like it or not the intent was there on January 6th. Poorly directed and without orchestration, granted, but that isn't what is important. What is important is that for many of the individuals there rule of law was abandoned without reservation or regret in favor of embracing force to pursue their fancies. This sort of thing simply can not be tolerated.

To hell with all them as far as I am concerned.

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You guys are getting me really excited for my visit to New York this November.

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It's fantastic to hear the Really Good People far north of the border are getting such visceral feedback on their magical thinking.

Maybe we could satisfy both the city government _and_ local landlords by keeping the AirBnbs open, but only to intrepid travellers from Afghanistan or the Central African Republic?

New York schools, public and private, have been wastefully underused these last years: You see "Dalton cafeteria," I see "halfway house for drug-murder bandidos, fleeing Bukele's El Salvador" - an asset to the school's Spanish Immersion program!

Texas should be buying these New Americans memberships at Soul Cycle, spare keys to the summer homes of congresspeople, slingshots and crossbows for hunting game and unleashed dogs in Central Park!

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I cannot believe you guys missed the opportunity to give us the long awaited 420 episode.

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Loved the discussion comparing prosecutions of January 6th rioters to the BLM rioters. I distinctly remember getting into an argument (probably on January 7th 2021) with the girlfriend of my brother-in-law, who confidently asserted something to the effect of "These rioters won't get any jail time because they're white guys." An absolutely bonkers prognostication, but certainly of the zeitgeist among New York City progressives in January of 2021. My question: Has there been any good comparative accounting of prosecutions of BLM rioters vs. Jan 6th rioters? I'd love to see a breakdown to the effect of "X amount of protesters from Such-and-Such City were arrested and collectively sentenced to Z years, while X amount of protesters from January 6 were arrested and collectively sentenced to Z years".

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Moynihan’s post-Comedy Cellar story reminded me of an old Mike Birbiglia bit when he said that at any moment in NYC you could turn your head in one direction and see the most beautiful woman you’d ever seen; then you could turn your head the opposite direction and see the craziest, drunkest man you’d ever seen. This experiment replicates with a high degree of test/re-test reliability.

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