Back to Bernie Sanders.
Buffet
I’m going to go with Mark Kelly this round. Sure, it’s cool that he was both an astronaut and a Senator, but he doesn’t seem to have been super distinguished in either capacity.
I actually forgot about Mark Kelly - I like him, but he has my vote as well.
Mark kelly
Bill “we have an active Pit thread titled ’ Fuck Microsoft 4 ways’, what more do you need?” Gates
Stephen King. He’s a good writer and could even be considered the face of the horror genre, but others on that list have more far-reaching and momentous achievements.
Stephen King
He can’t possibly be GLA, so I’ll get 'im eventually. 
Mark Kelly. Impressive resume, but not impressive enough to be the greatest.
We have two living former US Presidents on the list … time to whittle it down to one.
Of the two, I think POTUS #44 has better qualifications than POTUS #46 so…
bye-bye, Joe Biden.
-“BB”-
After a quick (not exhaustive) trawl through the posts, clearly the most 'dissed but showing admirable persistence amongst the survivors are Andres and Lovins.
The ne’er besmirched group is down to Fauci, Jackson, Obama, Parton & Warren
Lovins was eliminated on July 16.
Obliged … and making Andres even more remarkable!
Mark Kelly
I hope this is allowed, I would like to make a case for Dolly as the GLA. This is not to denigrate anyone else on the list and I should note that I’m not a huge fan of her music, I just think she’s an amazing person.
In 1988, Parton launched the Dollywood Foundation in Sevier County Tennessee, one of its first programs is to pay $500 to every 7th and 8th grader who graduates from high school, drop out rates went from 35% to 6%.
She also gave every student in the county $500 to go to college or trade school
1995, she establishes the Imagination Library, which sends one book per month to each child in Sevier County. The program is expanded to several countries. 1 in 7 children in America has received a book from the program. Its 100 millionth book was delivered in 2018. Her father could not read, which is what inspired her to open the library.
2000, she starts a scholarship program first for her home county and then expands it.
She has held many, many relief concerts including for the construction of a new hospital, flood relief and wildfires. She also donated her own money to a number of causes dear to her.
In 2020, she was having dinner with her long time friend Naji Abumrad, MD, from VUMC and he was talking about the possibility of creating a COVID vaccine. She immediately gave VUMC $1million to start research. This seed money helped create the Moderna vaccine. She then waited her turn to get the vaccine like everyone else.
Her employees at Dollywood have excellent benefits including 100% coverage of tuition, fees and books for any employee who is furthering their education.
In 2022, she gave VUMC another $1million for pediatric disease research.
In the 2020s, there was a move to replace a statue in the Tennessee statehouse of Confederate General and founding father of the KKK Nathan Bedford Forrest, with a statue of Dolly. The legislature declined to remove Forrest’s statue, but voted to put up a statue of Dolly in hopes of getting people to drop the push to remove Forrest. Under those conditions, Dolly declined the honor (twice).
Dolly on black lives matter: “I understand people having to make themselves known and felt and seen,” she told the magazine. “And of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No!”
Dolly on removing the word Dixie from an attraction at Dollywood: she was guilty of “innocent ignorance” and "would never dream of hurting anybody on purpose. As soon as you realize that [something] is a problem, you should fix it. Don’t be a dumbass. That’s where my heart is.”
She used some of the proceeds from Whitney Houston’s cover of “I will always love you” to fund a community center in a black community in Nashville and called it the “House that Whitney Built.”
And it should be remembered that she came from abject poverty.
I whole-heartedly agree that Dolly should at the very least be in the final 3. Another thing that sounds a bit trivial, but Dollywood offers free water to everyone. Not a huge deal, but when some parks charge a lot for a bottle of water, it’s nice to see it isn’t all about profits. Especially in a Tennessee summer.
I just scratched the surface of the good works she has done. She really is an person.
I agree about Dolly. She’s going to be one of the last to get my vote. If I believed in angels, she’d be one of those that walk among us. Either she’s incredibly pure of heart, or she’s incredibly good at fooling people. I believe the former.
Well, to echo everyone - there’s no one on that list that I’d put above her.
I think Jose Andres is close. Nobody else on this list has risked their lives to help others, but seven of Andres’ volunteers were killed by Israeli airstrikes while they were trying to feed starving people. WCK regularly goes to dangerous places to keep people from starving to death. Just because you may never have heard of him doesn’t mean he’s not doing great things and worthy of attention and acclaim.