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The Rolling Stones became the greatest on the planet when they started softening and countrifying their sound in 1968-69 for Beggars' and Bleed. They took over that mantle from the Beatles and single-handedly changed the direction of rock music, leading to scads of country rock classic acts and songs in the following few years. You can basically thank the evolution they wrought for the Eagles. Led Zeppelin became the greatest band on the planet through the early to mid 1970s, leading to a bunch of chainsaw rock acts that were the most popular genre of rock through the end of the decade.

As much as I like Chick Corea—I actually paid money to see him in concert!—he would very much be the wrong answer here.

I've always thought there is a clear difference between "best" and "greatest". I take "greatest" to mean most impactful in size, scope and influence, whereas "best" is more a matter of personal preference, similar to "favorite". I made that point in the old political forum when I posted that the United States is inarguably the greatest country on Earth, but whether it's the best country on Earth could be fodder for a spirited debate. (Not here, of course ... 😏)

The Doors are perfectly execrable. The moment I hear even a single note of that Manzarek keyboard, I can't reach for the volume or tuner knobs fast enough. As for Dylan ... talk about someone whose celebrity eventually eclipsed his music ...

If you like that song, you might like this one. It was in a KIA commercial like ten or twelve years ago. It got completely by me when it first came out.

FWIW, I find the news to be neither bad nor good as I have literally no feelings toward him, the person. I will say that he is a man of 73 years, so whatever happens, that's not a bad run.

Looks more like a Kieran to me. 😏

How could your wife possibly be annoyed by your desire to spend your money as wisely as possible?

I’m with you on this. My wife is still way into it. I’m starting to run out of gas on it.

Jack Lopez would definitely be an out-of-nowhere make.

That can’t be a serious post.

Then it looks to me as though that puts us in a super difficult position, because Putin’s is slaughtering Ukrainian civilians, and we simply cannot respond in by doing the same with Russian civilians. And just about any military action we undertake would put civilians at mortal risk—otherwise we risk losing support from the rest of the world. And US don’t necessarily have a very good track record recently of avoiding civilian collateral damage. So it seems like there’s a very fine needle we have to thread here, and it’s gonna be a challenge to make Putin take notice and pause without our having to play in his particular sandbox.

The crux of the biscuit, right here. Let’s not pretend that corporations are zombies rising from a state of inanimacy to impose its self-directed political will on the process. A corporations’s political activities reflect the supercharged will of the most powerful person within it, usually the CEO. It’s a way for one person to cloak themselves and their personal intentions behind the imprimatur of an institution. It’s a way for such people to wield an inordinate amount of power far out of proportion to what the Founding Fathers intended for the individual citizens of the nation. Call it dark influence, maybe, although if you think about it for a few seconds, you can usually figure out who’s behind it in most cases.

Well, sure, as long as it’s being allowed, of course Democrats aren’t going to unilaterally lay down their arms and get rolled over in the dark funding game. And I grant there are Democrats who are just fine playing in that muck. My belief is that, funding aside, in strictly a marketplace of ideas, absent either dark funding or dramatic funding imbalances, and with a free and fair election landscape in play in which literally everyone who is eligible to vote can do so if only they wish to, today’s Republican Party would get slaughtered by todays’ Democratic Party. I would like to see dark money banned outright, for everyone, regardless.

Sure, I agree, and we always have to prepare for any contingency. I’m just wondering, what’s the red line step? Can you proceed up an educated guess?

Really? Didn't Correa just do a press conference welcoming him to the Twins yesterday? That wouldn't have been in Minneapolis, would it have been?

The main thing Willi has going for him over Harold is his age. Willi is not yet 25, so he (purportedly) has upside, and he had a great 60-game stretch a couple years ago. Harold is 28. If we have to have at least one Castro on the team, I don't think this has been decided yet. I understand the desire to have a guy who can play both in and out, but we'll probably already have five guys who can play outfield, so that might be enough to take Willi north if he has a surge in the last couple weeks.

Interesting qualification on the statement there. Do you think a Republican in office could successfully force a liberal Justice to resign over, let's pretend and say, their spouse being involved in a reform-the-police effort?

Really, dark money is the only way Republicans can win, given how morally, ethically and even intellectually bankrupt their platform has been of late.

I know you've seen enough and want to start the bombing now. I'm not there just yet. But if radiation starts seeping across Europe, I could be talked into it.

Too good for him. He should be forced to resign immediately.

That's because Josh Hawley Backs the Blue™! Well, not the Capitol Blue, of course ...

I think we may have discussed this before, but do we think once any biological, chemical, or radiological effect wafts over into a NATO country from this war, that would be the bright red line Russia crosses that gets us involved on a shooting basis?

If there is a ray of optimism I am taking from all of this, it's that the actions of Autocrat #1 might horrify those right-wingers whose red hats are less well-dyed and steer them back toward the middle, even if it's back to Bush-style adventurism or Reagan-style let-them-eat-cakeism. The crazies we will always have with us—it's just a matter of whether they make up 10% of the population, or 40% of the population. Hopefully the Ukraine misadventure will leave that number way closer to 10.