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I really hope this man comes out of this alive. That's leadership

By the way, not that it needs to be said, but Putin is not a “genius”. Putin is not a “strong leader”. Putin is not “loved by his people”. He’s a murderer, a fucking animal, and a monster.

Wont someone please think of the gamblers?

Another "wow" moment here.... he's been a big Putin backer in the past

Isn't there an election this year? Can't nominate a Justice during an election year right? Seriously, I was nervous Biden would pick Michele Childs, who has a more concerning background on labor rights issues. I am very excited to see he picked Judge Brown Jackson instead. She seems like a terrific nomination to the Supreme Court. Also cool that the Repubs are forced to watch a black woman get nominated and go through with nothing they can do about it. She'll be a strong advocate for LGBTQIA rights and the marginalized, which you'd think Lindsey Graham would like.

Finally decided to engage Ukrainian neighbors in conversation. Talked to the woman and she speaks very good English. Moved to the US at a very young age. Husband was born and raised in Ukraine and moved to the US about 10 years ago. Most of her family is evacuating to Poland. She has not received confirmation yet they made it to Poland. A few of the men enlisted in the military. I didn't go down that rabbit hole but her tone made it seem like their fates are sealed. I lack social skills and in particular empathy so I didn't press on.

Arnold Palmer told a story once, this guy in the gallery following him around and, 5 or 6 times, saying "that's not the shot that Hogan would have played there". Eventually Palmer hit one into the long grass under a tree and, exasperated, turned to the guy and said "So? What would Hogan do now?". And the guy said "Well, he wouldn't be in there".

My favorite Comerica Park story...I was there with my young daughter probably back in the mid-2000s. The team was bad enough that the stadium was pretty empty. We walked behind the CF camera well and noticed the door was open a crack and no one was broadcasting that day. So, we stepped in and watched an inning and a half from the CF camera well. It was amazing how clearly you could see the pitches moving even from that distance. After an inning and a half some usher opened the door and asked what we were doing out there. I replied "Just leaving" as we hurried past and disappeared. 🙂

Yeah that was probably the most electric atmosphere I got to experience there. I don't remember much about it other than Sosa. At that time I paid no attention to our draft picks or prospects so I probably didn't even realize who Matt Anderson was. Another memorable game that came to mind that I went to there was a Sunday Night Baseball game against the White Sox. Nothing memorable about the actual game it self but a couple experiences I had there made it memorable to me. One was before the game my brothers and I were walking around that little concourse thing outside the stadium(can't remember what it was called) and outside a door which I assume must of been the visitors clubhouse was Ozzie Guillen in full uniform chilling on a folding chair smoking a cigarette. We went up to him and he gave us his autograph. Another memorable thing was Frank Thomas coming over and talking to us while he was in the on deck circle.

much different system. most of the clubs in europe survive by developing players and selling them bigger clubs. there is no trading of players for other players (very rarely) like there is here. players over there are developed and then sold on for profits. the equivalent would be getting one or two years of mize and then selling him to the dodgers for $80 million. then using that money to get a bunch of kids from venezuela for pennies in order to sell them on in a few years too. the money is much less for most teams in europe and there isnt the income guarantee that there is here because there is no salary cap. half the teams in europe are near broke! its a totally different ballgame.

no arg there. I was only taking up the specific supposition Rob noted that some have argued that Truman could not have made a different decision. Of course he could have, he could have directed them to drop it two miles offshore or on a non-urban area, or in the other direction on Tokyo instead of a secondary city - or held off longer on the 2nd bomb. For better or worse the specific history happened as it did because specific people decided to do it the way it was done, and I was expressing skepticism that you can argue the CIC out of that decision matrix. Even if Truman punted and followed along - that was still a choice he had to make as Pres.

We'd already been doing the firebombing of Tokyo, which killed at least as many civilians as either atomic bomb. The only difference is that it didn't happen all at once. So in that context, there would be no reason not to use the bomb. All you're doing different is saving time (radiation/fallout aside; not sure how well that part was really understood in 1945). That doesn't change the question of whether any of that was justifiable, but it does put the bomb in perspective a little bit.

Not saying it's not possible. In the fog of early war, especially, anything is possible, and I'm sure we'll hear more about this, at least until an even more horrific video pops up. But whether it was a Russian tank running over a Ukrainian civilian driver, or a Ukrainian tank heading off a Ukrainian quisling car bomb driver, we can both agree than had Russia not invaded Ukraine, this would not have happened.

Quickly.

That's why I do think it's important for the media to pronounce it the Ukrainian way. Pronouncing it the Russian gives legitimacy that it's a Russian city.

I bought UVXY (ETF on the Volatility Index) prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Yesterday, when Russia committed to the invasion and the market dropped, I sold it for a 35% gain and reinvested in a Nasdaq and a Microchip ETF which jumped after the market settled down from the initial invasion (I'm at a 15% initial gain but expect the market to be very frothy while this invasion is ongoing. But it's the Nasdaq, the only important thing to me is getting in near a low point and then just waiting for it to eventually rise again... it always does...). I hate market timing and generally keep it to a minimum because it's just too hard. But I think I got lucky/ did good in this instance.

Correct. The "Kiev" spelling is outdated too, having been replaced by "Kyiv". I don't think it's a big deal. If a news story originates in Paris I don't expect an English speaking newsreader to say Pa-ree.

in Ukranian, the first vowel is what we would call a short 'i'. the second syllable is close to "yeev" (but a pretty short 'ee'). stress goes on the first syllable. the Ukranian pronunciation is probably indistinguishable from "keev" to our English-speaking ears.

Yeah AC/DC is the classic band full of songs for this purpose! And they're also freaking awesome, Angus rules. One song I'd throw out to consider learning in lessons is Free Fallin by Tom Petty. What he does with the D-chord in that song has persisted in my playing for over 20 years esp when you notice you can move the D-chord around. My $.02!

Stalin once famously asked how many divisions did the Pope have Still, moral condemnation beats silence.

How long before the red hats become Ukraine invasion deniers?

I honestly think the trained people just roll up knowing they can almost always play a I-IV-V and if that doesn't work tweak it slightly and they're off to the races when they play rock.

Lots of them - I think we have five in current rotation. Many of them are multi-instrumentalists. Our MD, who charts out all those songs, at last count can play 18 instruments proficiently. I played with a cellist recently who said she doesn't even review the songs before playing; she just shows up, reads the charts and improvises where she needs to. I'm over here struggling to play a chromatic scale cleanly.

shit I just calculus'ed it out in my head that the first lesson happened yesterday? How did it go?

If you ever have a phillips head screw that is stripped, put a rubber band in the slots and try again. Viola!

Good

oh, that old trick.

I really freaking hate fascists.

An entire country mobilized against Putin's armies. We'll take it. If Putin actually gets his ass whupped, the humiliation will be world-shaking...

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories. (DOINK! DOINK!) The original Law & Order is back tonight

The U.S. was far more isolationist then, especially at the beginning of WWI and further extending right up until WWII. As such, the U.S. basically had no formal "allies" really until WWII and the aftermath. So there was no opportunity for the U.S. to fail to uphold their obligations there. It could be argued that the very existence of alliances like NATO have been enough to deter attacks on alliance members, thus serving their purpose.

Nice job!!!!!! Thanks! That juke box was part of my childhood and I hadn’t seen it in over 40 years. I always remembered the pictures.

Ding DIng!

Could it be Rare Earth?

And the CBT and revenue sharing have been in place, so your point?

70% of the Earth's surface is ocean water. Ocean water is uncarbonated. Ergo, the Earth is flat.

You've missed the point entirely. There would be a league of haves and have nots, who wants that? Having a shot at the playoffs would in no way address the resource disparity, it's a non sequitur.

There would never be anything even remotely competitive when a few teams can just grossly outspend their rivals, not just for the best players, but scouts, infrastructure, etc. Baseball is not like other sports, where most revenues are shared, there is a huge disparity in resources which is attempted to be addressed with revenue sharing, the draft and the CBT. As long as this disparity exists, there needs to be some mechanisms like this. Does it inhibit salaries, sure, but it keeps them at a level where every team has a chance to be competitive, not just a few.

It's true. And it is also only barely relevant to his job performance. Americans spend so much time watching actors that they have forgotten that what you do is more important than your elocution. In my book, only Clinton and Obama have been particularly gifted at a podium going all the way back to JFK. Even Reagan really wasn't all that great either when speaking off the cuff. The other thing is that it's time for a President to demand adulthood from the press. No shouting, one question - stated in 15 second or less with no attached essay. Make those the rules and stick to them.

Likely all he was able to give Putin about our defense abilities were limited to the logistics of putting a military parade together down Pennsylvania Ave.

Garry is right, the stakes are sky-high here.

Woke up this morning to see my Ukrainian neighbors now have the Ukrainian flag on the front of their house. I look at these neighbors flying their Ukrainian flag and these truckers in their F150's with a dozen American flags and can't help but think the ones flying the Ukrainian flag are more pro America than the yahoos flying the American flags.

I would say the most important thing you can do with the lessons is make sure you practice what you learned often/regularly before the next lesson. I tended to find reasons not to and it’s one of the reasons why I suck at guitar. 🙄

So here’s a peek behind the curtain: We have iPads on stage with our sheet music in pdf form. The people who read music have significantly less notes (or none at all) I always have a ton of notes because learning four or five new songs in a week is taxing to my adhd brain and it’s a way to keep from noticing moving boom cameras etc. Recently I’ve been putting my iPad close to the ground to alleviate the visual distraction of an iPad on a stand. This requires me to put the chords/notes in large font so my old eyes can read them. Sometimes I’ll write things like Metallica chords for inverted chords (which I first learned with the song Creeping Death), DL which stands for the Def Leppard chord I learned in their song “Let it Go”. Then there’s “Dream On” which means I have to pick a line up and down much in the manner that one would play the rhythm for that song.

I have my first in-person guitar lesson tomorrow. I'm a little concerned since I told him I don't read music and just use tabs, and he wants me to learn to read music. With the prevalence of tabs, that feels unnecessary but I'll try to have an open mind.

oh, that looks sweet. I'm almost completely on the opposite end, got a Tascam DP-03SD—two mono inputs, 8 tracks. it was fine when I just had a drum machine, software polysynth (recording direct to wav, and no sequencer), and guitar, but now that I'm getting into sequencer-driven synth hardware and synching the sequencers to my drum machine, which has stereo outputs, I think it might be time for an upgrade. not a 2488, though. maybe just a DP-24SD. I've never done the DAW thing, either. I don't mind all the mixing and mastering, but I'm cool doing it on my little Tascam. there's not much to my recordings to date anyway.

in other words, as usual, Dems are bad at "picking their battles".