Sunday Serendipity

It is the middle of spring, the grass is growing, flowers are blooming and I had my first salad from my garden. Life is good.

So put on your dancing shoes, go out in the yard, crank up the music and dance. The first of May is just a few days away and it is time to celebrate life and what better way than today’s selection. So, dance with someone or by yourself. Dance in the sunshine or in the rain. Just dance.

Jack

Rondo alla Mambo, which combines the music of W.A.Mozart and Cuban Mambo, was featured in this flashmob on the streets of Havana, Cuba and was the grand finale of the Mozart y Mambo project. Inspired by W.A.Mozart and written by Joshua Davis and Yuniet Lombida Prieto, it is performed by Sarah Willis and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra,

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50 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. Jack, what a fun find! wonderful, wish I were there with them.

    BTW, hope you and BiD made it through the big winds that came y’alls way.

  2. BiD, thanks to you too for the Joe jokes teaser last thread.  here’s the whole deal:

    Watch President Biden’s full speech at the 2024 White House correspondents’ dinner.

  3. and here’s colin

    From C-SPAN coverage, Colin Jost remarks at the 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

  5. jamie, thanks for the post chart.

    even though post position 17 has never won the derby and is considered bad luck, I’m betting on Fierceness to win.

    Just a Touch to place and Encino to show.  all KY bred.  however, very tempted to go with forever young from japan.

    Image

  6. jamie, for the Oaks (and they predict a rainy day, muddy track so it’s a toss-up no matter the post position) my choices are Tarifa, Just FYI and Leslie’s Rose

  8. Biden’s best lines last night, and his comic delivery was spot on:

    • “The 2024 election is in full swing. And yes, age is an issue. I’m a grown man running against a six year old.”
    • “Did you hear what Donald just said about a major civil war battle? Quote, ‘Gettysburg. Wow.’ Trump’s speech was so embarrassing, the statue of Robert E. Lee surrendered again.”
    • “Age is the only thing we have in common. My vice president actually endorses me.”
    • “Trump is so desperate he started reading those Bibles he’s selling. And he got to the first commandment: You shall have no other god before me. That’s when he put it down and said this book is not for me.”
    • “The New York Times issued a statement blasting me for, quote, ‘actively and effectively avoiding independent journalists.’ Hey, if that’s what it takes to get the New York Times to say I’m active and effective, I’m all for it.

  10. Biden calls on journalists to defend Democracy in the 2024 election:

    “On the third anniversary of January 6, I went to Valley Forge and I said the most urgent question of our time is whether democracy is still — is still the sacred cause of America. That is the question the American people must answer this year and you, the free press, play  a critical role in making sure the American people have the information they need to make an informed decision. The defeated former President has made no secret of his attack on our democracy he said he wants to be a dictator on day one and so much more. He tells supporters he is the revenge and retribution. When in God’s name ever heard of another president say something like that? And he promised a bloodbath when he loses again. We have to take this seriously. Eight years ago, it could have written off as just Trump talk but no longer, not after January 6. I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides, but asking a rise up to the seriousness of the moment.”

  12. The “race” is not tied.   Where the hell is it tied at? It’s not tied in America.    

    And, holy mackerel, it’s not a race, it’s an election.

  15. Jamie, have to go on Dornoch, named for the Scottish golf course of which Mr. Ivy has fond playing memories. 
    Thanks for the round up. 

  16. Jack – I do believe that is my fave Sunday music post if all time.  Hope you got enough rain and maybe some sleep.   Storms are still trailing up, but it’s mostly to the east of DFW now. I guess mosquito season has started. 

    patD – Thanks for posting Joe & Jost.  
    I guess Adolf hasn’t seen it yet, or the caps lock would be caps locking.  

    jamie – I don’t do the race, but I do like the name Catching Freedom. I always wonder where Chef Shiela is around this time of year; she liked the ponies.

  17. https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/28/us/evangelical-christianity-false-white-gospel-wallis-cec/index.html
     
    “Some may already be tired of the debate over White Christian nationalism, whose followers blend sexism, racism and hostility to non-White immigrants in a quest to create a White Christian America. But Wallis has been warning people about the dangers of White Christian nationalist beliefs long before the term became popular.”
     

    “You have the most inclusive and inviting, welcoming vision in the history of the world for all people and it becomes White. You’ve got “Christian,” but it doesn’t mean service, sacrifice and love. It means control and domination. And then it’s nationalist. In the Great Commission, Jesus tells his followers to go into all the nations, making disciples and teaching them to observe whatever I have commanded you. [White] nationalists just don’t fit into that.”
     

    “To love your country and love so many things about your country is a good and healthy thing. Pete Seeger’s “This Land Is Your Land” is a lovely patriotic song. However, American exceptionalism is wrong. It’s not biblical.”
     

    “When you have “God bless the USA” on a Bible cover, that’s idolatrous, that’s a worship of a nation. Idolatry is just false worship. People talk about White evangelicals and White Christianity. The problem with those phrases is the word that dominates the phrase is not evangelical or Christianity, it’s White. So whiteness is idolatry.”
     
     
    What happens to the US if White Christian nationalists gain control of the federal and state governments, and the courts?
    “What they’re doing in Hungary and Turkey and elsewhere is that they win elections, and then they slowly change things. They become virtual dictatorships. That’s what we’re facing.”
     
     
    “Mark Twain reminded us that history doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme.”

  21. Ivy,
    I’m home and half way through “Horse”.  It’s a timely tale.  It’s about racism…  and it starts in the mid 1800s with horse racing.  The horse is who is considered to be the father of modern American racing…   Lexington. 12 of the 13 Triple Crown winners can trace their lineage back to him.
    He raced before the Civil War.  Back then… horse racing was about stamina… not speed.  The best horses had to go 4 miles.  They did it in 2 2-mile stints with a 20 minute rest in-between. Most of the grooms, trainers, and jockeys back then were black.
     
    I first read the non fiction book about the horse entitled “Lexington” by Kim Wickens.  Now reading Brooks historical fiction about the same subject… I’m better able to tell the fictional characters from the historical characters.     I highly recommend. both books.

  25. The room full of correspondents seemed uncomfortable as the jokes were flying. Some of the jokes are funnier on their second hearing. I wonder how they will age and once Plumpty blows up about them? 

  27. renee, you and jamie take the reins. I’ll straddle the rump and hold on to the tail so I can watch all the slow pokes coming up behind.

    "Tribute to Jay Ward Cartoons: Dudley Do-Right Riding Horse Backwards ...

    back in february the louisville paper ran this story about the jockeys and the updating of the history museum at the Downs:

    Black jockeys dominated the Kentucky Derby in in the 19th century (courier-journal.com)

    Of the 15 jockeys who thundered across the finish line in the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, 13 of them were Black.

    In the 19th century, Black jockeys dominated the horse racing industry, but later, because of the Jim Crow era which enforced racial segregation, they all but disappeared from the sport for decades.

    Like so many aspects of this country, the thoroughbred racing industry was built on the legacy of enslaved or formerly enslaved people. Churchill Downs, the iconic racetrack in Louisville where the Kentucky Derby runs each year, opened a decade after the Civil War when Black workers were key players at horse stables and Southern farms. The Kentucky Derby Museum, 704 Central Ave., launched a permanent exhibit in 1993 to honor African Americans’ deeply rooted legacy in the sport.

    [continues]

  28. The original lyrics by Stephen Foster show the racism of that era in history:

    The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home
    ‘Tis summer, the darkies are gay
    The corn top’s ripe and the meadow’s in the bloom
    While the birds make music all the day
    The young folks roll on the little cabin floor
    All merry, all happy, and bright
    By ‘n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door
    Then my old Kentucky home, good night

    [Chorus]
    Weep no more my lady, oh! weep no more today!
    We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home
    For the old Kentucky home far away

    [Verse 2]
    They hunt no more for the ‘possum and the coon
    On the meadow, the hill and the shore
    They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon
    On the bench by the old cabin door
    The day goes by like a shadow o’er the heart
    With sorrow where all was delight
    The time has come when the darkies have to part
    Then my old Kentucky home, good night!

    [Chorus]
    Weep no more my lady, oh! weep no more today!
    We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home
    For the old Kentucky home far away

  30. https://newrepublic.com/post/180736/mississippi-confederate-heritage-month-still-thing

    “Continuing a decades-old annual tradition, Governor Tate Reeves declared April as “Confederate Heritage Month,” the Beauvoir museum in Biloxi announced on FacebookFriday. The site is the historic home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.”

    “The tradition dates back to 1993 but isn’t publicized by any Mississippi state official or government agency. The only organization that regularly does so is the Sons of Confederate Veterans, or SCV, who first requested the proclamation 31 years ago.”

    “The SCV owns and operates the Beauvoir museum, promoting the “Lost Cause” myth of the Civil War that downplays the role of slavery and white supremacy in causing the war.”

    “Mississippi is the only state that has dedicated a month to honoring the Confederacy in the last three years, although six other Southern states have done so historically. Mississippi will also recognize Confederate Memorial Day on April 27, as state law requires. But those seeking to protest against these policies will have a tough time: The Supreme Court just effectively abolished protests in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.”

     
    *Limiting rights to protest in TX? That slipped right by.
     
    https://newrepublic.com/post/180705/supreme-court-massive-blow-right-protest
     
    “The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Massive Blow to the Right to Protest
    The Supreme Court’s inaction has effectively abolished the right to mass protest across three states, allowing a lower court’s ruling to seemingly infringe upon the Constitution’s First Amendment.”

    “The nation’s highest court decided Monday not to hear Mckesson v. Doe, leaving in place a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that punishes protest organizers with extreme financial consequences if even one participant commits an illegal act.”

    “The decision, which now stands as law in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, makes it dangerous and practically impossible to organize mass protests.”
     
     

  32. George Stephanopoulos nails it

    His show opening today:

    “Until now, no American president had ever faced a criminal trial. No American president had ever faced a criminal indictment for retaining and concealing classified documents.

    No American president has ever faced a federal indictment or a state indictment for trying to overturn an election, or been named an unindicted co-conspirator in two other states for the same crime.

    No American president has faced hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for business fraud, defamation, and sexual abuse. Until now, no American presidential race had been more defined by what’s happening in courtrooms than by what’s happening on the campaign trail.

    The scale of the abnormality is so staggering that it can actually become numbing.

    It’s all too easy to fall into reflexive habits, to treat this as a normal campaign, where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power.

    But, that is not what’s happening this election year. Those bedrock tenants of Democracy are being tested in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens.”

  33. I think I’m up to date on everyone.  Anyone else in, just let me know.

    Pat d – Fiercenesss, Just a Touch, Encino (Oaks, Tarifa & Leslie’s Rose)

    IvyGreen – Dornoch

    BiD – Catching Freedom

    Jamie – Fierceness, Forever Young, Just a Touch

    Renee – Fierceness

    Pogo – Sierra Leone, Fierceness, Catching Freedom

    Craig – Catching Freedom

     

     

  35. If on Day 3 you’re still explaining why you shot your dog, you’re probably losing..

    Kristi Noem just issued another statement justifying the murder of her puppy: “The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did…As I explained in the book, it wasn’t easy. But often the easy way isn’t the right way.”

  37. Craig – She then went home and shot their goat (who was just asking for it), and also wrote about later shooting three horses per the Rolling Stone article reviewing her book posted yesterday.

    She needs to prove she’s tough for the MAGAts to be OK with a woman VP pick.  She’s only shown that she has the bloodlust of a burgeoning serial killer; they start with animals, too.

    What does South Dakota law say about humans who kill livestock?
     
    ps – Just found another batch of C’Bob’s Hopi blue corn.  I’ll plant it this spring, but it’s probably past its expiration date.  Did anyone every get it to grow?

    Jamie – You can take me off of the race list. I just liked the name.

  44. hmm, a not-so-cryptically-racist, violence inciting, election denier with a cute little pug named “Sushi” OR an incompetent, corrupt, racist, unapologetically puppy-murdering aspirational Barbie hmm
     
    what a deep field of charming candidates

    Hey, they had that one that liked to shoot wolves from helicopters, too!

  45. i’m not sure of her animal cruelty bona fides, or lack thereof, but i feel like Gabbard wins between the 3 of them 🤷‍♂️ 
     
    ok ✌️ 🤐 
     
     

  46. Oh…..now I get it…..they need AR-15’s because they might have to shoot a puppy….or a goat……or something.  

  47. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/rncs-election-integrity-lawyer-charged-election-crimes-rcna149309
     
    “Christina Bobb is the lawyer overseeing the RNC’s “election integrity” efforts.
    She was also just indicted by a grand jury for election-related crimes.
    Specifically, the indictment includes charges of conspiracy, fraud and forgery.”
     
    “She has a robust pedigree, at least as far as Trump is concerned. Soon after the 2020 election, she began working with Giuliani and others to elevate baseless or later-debunked claims about the results in various states having been tainted by fraud. She was involved in the “audit” of votes in Arizona, working with Trump campaign official (and Georgia co-defendant) Mike Roman. She wrote a book, published in January 2023, cataloguing familiar (and baseless or debunked) criticisms of the results. It’s all there, from Antrim County to State Farm Arena to True the Vote. (The book’s forward was written by Stephen K. Bannon; Jim Hoft of the conspiracy-promoting site Gateway Pundit wrote a blurb.)”
     
    ~Integrity~ right
     
     

  48. Mitt strapped his dog (in a carrier) to the roof of the car. 

    LBJ picked his dogs up by their ears to hear them yelp. 

    So far, Kari Lake seems like a peach in this weird race.

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