52 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. Jack, yes, interestingly strange but lovely in its way. here’s more about it from
    Late Beethoven Revelations: String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127 – The Listeners’ Club

    Completed in February of 1825, String Quartet No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 127 is the first of Beethoven’s late quartets. These are the strange, mysterious, and revelatory works which emerged in the final three years of the composer’s life, following the completion of the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony. They seem to leave behind all that came before, opening the door to music which transcends style and time period. These six works (including the cosmic Grosse Fuge) often feel as if they could have been written in the twentieth century. Their first performances left audience members perplexed. The composer Louis Spohr dismissed the sprawling scores as “indecipherable, uncorrected horrors.” One musician remarked, “we know there is something there, but we do not know what it is.”

    As we venture into the transcendental world of String Quartet No. 12, the personal worldly struggles of Beethoven become irrelevant. (These included lonely isolation, financial difficulties, a legal battle regarding his nephew Karl, declining health, and total deafness). The under-rehearsed debacle of the premiere by the Schuppanzigh Quartet seems like a mere footnote of history. This first performance led one Vienna critic to report that the Quartet was an “incomprehensible, incoherent, vague, over-extended series of fantasias—chaos, from which flashes of genius emerged from time to time like lightning bolts from a black thunder cloud.”

    [continues]


  2. Jesus Christ (Mikey Day) and his disciples (Kenan Thompson, Andrew Dismukes, Sarah Sherman, Ego Nwodim, Emil Wakim, Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow, Jane Wickline) get interrupted by President Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) during the cleansing of the Temple.


  3. Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like Trump pausing his chaotic tariffs for 90 days, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recommending to keep fluoride out of the water and Trump saying his doctor told him he had a “very good soul.”

  5. 3 strikes you’re out law enforcement?
    ‘It’s already in the cards’: Trump impeachment urged by WSJ editorial board member

    In a column published late Friday, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board claimed it would be “desirable” to subject Donald Trump to a third impeachment to make up for the damage he has done to the U.S. economy with his “ill-founded” trade war.

    According to longtime columnist Holman W. Jenkins Jr., Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff threats almost makes it appear he wants to be impeached, with Jenkins writing, “A future Trump impeachment seemed all but guaranteed by last Wednesday morning. It seems only slightly less likely now. It may even be desirable to restore America’s standing with creditors and trade partners.”

    As he sees it, the president’s last great achievement was being re-elected in 2024, and the damage he has been creating since then belies his promise of a “golden age,” so an impeachment is “already ion the cards.”

    “No consensus or even significant coalition exists for trying to force into existence a new American ‘golden age’ with tariffs, which anyway is like asking a chicken to give birth to a lioness. He invented this mission out of his own confused intuition,” he accused.

    Noting that conservative historian Niall Ferguson labeled Trump’s trade policy going “full retard,” he contributed, “I go with ‘neurotic’ for the word’s wider applicability to any leader who, lacking a clear bead on his times, fabricates a gratuitously ambitious mission to meet his misguided sense of importance.”

    “Nobody in Mr. Trump’s orbit actually shares his belief in the magical efficacy of tariffs because it makes sense only in a world that doesn’t exist, where other countries don’t retaliate,” he pointed out before concluding, “The founders never anticipated today’s instantly responsive trillion-dollar financial markets. And yet these markets neatly adumbrate the founders’ scheme of checks and balances, also known as feedback. Mr. Trump, still sane enough to appreciate what’s good for Mr. Trump, listened this week to their feedback.”

  8. That SNL open featured my favorite Jesus story going back to when I was a kid in bible school. To this day his rebelliousness against corrupt authority is overlooked.

  10. furthermore, he said

    Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
    But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: — or where mad king donald hits it with tariffs.

    [matt 6:19-20 sorta}

  11. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/12/camouflaged-invasion-panama-opposition-slams-security-pact-with-the-us

    Opposition politicians in Panama have accused the United States of launching a “camouflaged invasion” of the country after President Donald Trump confirmed the deployment of US soldiers days after the two countries signed a security pact.

    US troops would be deployed at three former military bases – Fort Sherman, Rodman Naval Base and Howard Air Force Base – as part of a deal signed with Panama’s Ministry of Public Security, raising concerns in Panama. The last US troops were pulled out from the country in 1999.

    The US also invaded Panama in 1989 as part of what it called “Operation Just Cause” to depose leader Manuel Noriega.

    US troops were accused of killing thousands of civilians and destroying homes and infrastructure during the operation, leaving a controversial legacy.
    That is partly why frustration has been growing in Panama over Trump’s declaration that he intends to “take back” the Panama Canal.

    *This may be how they invade Greenland, if paying off Greenlanders doesn’t work. Denmark said they are open to opening new bases on Greenland ;there were more at one time), but this is inviting the vampire into the house.

  12. The so called health exam of krasnov is released. The only question is I wonder which NFL player it is from? It is obviously not sfb’s as it does not even remotely match his obvious physical form and mental (sic) world. I am sure copies will be flooding the world in a few seconds. We can be sure it is from a 20 to 30 year old running back, maybe a defensive back. It is not that of an old delusional, demented, diseased, senile idiot, who cannot hold a glass in one hand, or walk on ramps, or remember that he is talking to his staff and not some nineteen fifties movie extra.

  13. Thank you, Jack
    Unusual chord construction particularly for strings. A little odd, but I like it.

  15. do i need to tell the writers at SNL that the right-wing American Christianity is just a front to dodge taxes and exclude people?

    These people follow none of the teachings, they don’t give a shit

  17. “Rightwing populists will keep winning until we grasp this truth about human nature
    Economic inequality breeds resentment and a desire to get even. That’s what fuels support for even incompetent regimes
    07:20 EDT Sunday, 13 April 2025”

    ugh that why bernie and i have been screaming about increasing income inequality and wealth disparity for literally a decade at least

  19. ugh RR, would love that normal times but we have to be less metaphorical i guess

    “We are all human beings and deserve dignity and opportunity”

    put that on tshirt!

  20. pardon me, i suppose a backwards-moving culture is going to inspire many “ugh i thought we were past this” moments

  21. Craig – Yep. Love that lesson. Most overlook that he was not a sacrificial lamb who died for their sins, but that Jesus was crucified because he stood up to empire. That message is suppressed because organized religion can be highly regimented and cultish. I was getting into trouble in elementary school for bringing a dead toad into the sanctuary for a funeral. I learned the word “sacrilegious” when I was nine. They didn’t realize I seriously felt bad for the critter, and I couldn’t understand why they didn’t care about the toad.

  22. no political agenda with this post but wow are them cybertrucks ugly from the back

    i understand the owners are fantasizing about being Star Wars characters, the illusion is so broken when some balding middle aged guy in shorts and a tshirt gets out of it 😆

  24. Anon – Lots of folks at Bernie/AOC rallies. That may be a work-around if protests are no longer allowed. A ticketed event, even if the ticket is free or you get in with a canned food donation.

    That’s the message Dems need to stick with: Income Inequality (maybe there’s a catchier way to say that).

    Changing your message to match every demographic doesn’t work. With less inequality in income, all groups will find some relief and there will be less division. The real division is economic disparity. Once that starts to be rectified, each groups other issues can start to be addressed; there’s an economic component to most things. A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say. Right now, we are on a sinking ship.

    If you haven’t listened to Jon Stewart interview Pete Buttigieg on the Daily Show podcast yet, I highly recommend it. It would be wonderful if the US evolved enough to elect him in 4 years.

  25. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/12/social-security-administration-6000-immigrants-as-dead/83059333007/

    Trump aides direct Social Security Administration to list more than 6,000 living immigrants as dead
    “If the data isn’t perfect, people here legally might be effectively declared dead,” he wrote. 

    Reps. Richard Neal, D-Mass., and John Larson, D-Conn., alleged in a joint statement on Thursday that “the residents being targeted aren’t being afforded due process.” They added, “If they cancel the Social Security number of one person, where do they stop?”

    ***

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/08/politics/irs-dhs-sign-data-deal-undocumented-immigrants/index.html

    IRS reaches data-sharing deal with DHS to help find undocumented immigrants for deportation

  26. Two types of cukes, butternut squash, more tomatoes in the ground. I bought a lavender plant, because those from seed three or four weeks ago sprouted this week & seem to be standing still in time.

  27. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avelo_Airlines

    Deportation contract
    edit
    In April 2025, Avelo Airlines signed an agreement to fly for ICE to “support the department’s deportation efforts,” the company told 12News. Avelo Airlines, headquartered in Houston, said the company signed an agreement for a long-term charter program flying for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.  [43] The company will be opening a new base out of Mesa Gateway Airport, and “removal” flights will commence on May 12.[44] The airline simultaneously announced it was ceasing service to and from Boise effective April 27 – the three Boeing 737-800 aircraft used for serving Boise will be repositioned to serve the domestic and international flights supporting the new removal contract.[45]
    The mayor of New Haven, Justin Elicker, signed a petition criticizing the agreement and contacted Avelo president Andrew Levy to urge him to reconsider.[46] The company is also facing calls for boycott.[47] Members of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors also criticized the airline, noting that it would shutter its operations base at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport and move employees for the contract, with chair Lynda Hopkins stating “They’ll never get another dime from me, what’s insane is that the Trump administration is making it more lucrative to participate in the deportation industrial complex than supporting the local tourist economy.”

    ***

    https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2025-04-11/fort-bliss-southern-border-migrants-detain-facility-17444095.html

    Hegseth approves migrant facility at Fort Bliss, Army engineers leveling desert land

    Army engineers have begun removing shrubs and leveling sand on a desolate 60-acre stretch of the base where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the building of a migrant detention facility.

    At Fort Bliss, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will establish and operate temporary soft-sided holding facilities, said Army Maj. Jennifer Staton, a Defense Department spokeswoman. The Pentagon also agreed the Army will manage the contracts for the future detention facilities, dubbed the Customs and Border Protection El Paso Central Processing Center. The location is near Montana Avenue and George Dieter Drive and already existing Department of Homeland Security facilities. The new site could hold up to 8,000 people.

    *Concentration camps housing humans being kidnapped and (if taken over state lines without fur process) human trafficked, then house in “soft-sided holding facilities” aka tents.

  28. butternut is fun, i get fungus on my melon and squash varieties, watch out for slugs also

  29. tell them trumpers to build you some cold frames and a greenhouse and you can argue politics after nuclear winter over preserved squash

  31. BID

    I thought you were in Nebraska. It is early for summer stuff, You can stiill have a frost Average last frost for Lincoln is April 30. I don’t doubt that you may be having slow sprouting and growth, your soil could be too cold.

    I go by signs my grandmother taught me, when oak leaves are the size of squire’s ears. In other words starting to leaf out and bloom
    My oak tree did that last week
    Jack

  32. save your pots and you run out there and put them over the plants in a frost warning 🏃‍♂️

    “cloches” are for that also

    if mother nature breaks your heart you just seed that cultivated ground

    (plastic bags, burlap, whatever, some people use fleece!)

    I’ll bet you over bought seeds because everyone over-buys seeds and they also come in our food, you’re good)

  34. Something so very different this year than all previous (I have been alive) is there has been zip about April 15 Income Tax Filing Day. Most years there are complaining, expressions of hate and so much more. This year nothing. So here I am – I hate taxes even more after retiring. There I said it, rage against the oligarchs who do not bother with paying taxes.

  37. Passing along from Mr. Ivy

    She Knocks the Cobwebs Off the Violin Repertory

    Patricia Kopatchinskaja, making her New York Philharmonic debut this week, has become one of music’s quirkiest stars by breathing new life into standards.

    The album begins with a scraping scrawl, the start of an arrangement of a folk song originally written for a Ukrainian-Russian variant of pan pipes. It’s not the kind of sound that typically opens a classical music album, and it’s emblematic of why Kopatchinskaja is not to all tastes. Someone in the field once asked me why The New York Times gave so much coverage to a violinist whose playing was so ugly.

    But I don’t think it’s ugly. It’s unforgettable.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/arts/music/patricia-kopatchinskaja-violin-new-york-philharmonic.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

  38. CNN — 

    A 38-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an arson fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s house as the governor and his family slept inside.

    Harrisburg Bureau of Fire responded to the fire around 2 a.m. and extinguished it, but the building was left with “a significant amount of damage,” according to Pennsylvania State Police. Gov. Josh Shapiro said that he, his wife, their four children, two dogs and another family were safely evacuated.

    Cody Balmer of Harrisburg was arrested Sunday, Col. Christopher Paris, state police commissioner, said at an afternoon news conference.

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/13/us/pennsylvania-governor-josh-shapiro-arson/index.html?

  39. https://www.newsweek.com/what-white-sharia-and-what-does-it-have-do-americas-sexual-harassment-problem-725163

    White supremacists want to take over everything — even the thing they hate the most: Islam’s Sharia Law.

    White Sharia—as coined by a former Marine blogger—is still anti-Muslim, but seizes on orthodox Islam’s ideal of obedient women and turns it into its own movement, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

    “They don’t like Muslims, but they don’t have a problem with what are regressive treatment of women,” Heidi Beirich, the director of Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, told Newsweek. “They have come to the position that Sharia law is turning women into baby factories and turning them back into the home, and they’re fine with that.”

    “The reason you’re seeing [white Sharia] a lot more recently is this social movement against sexual harassment,” Beirich said. “These are people who don’t believe the concept of sexual harassment exists.”

    “When I say we will have White Sharia in White Afghanistan [aka rural America] one day, it means that we will have an extreme tribal patriarchy in the ethnostate.”

    *From Adolf’s last term, but the chicken-fried taliban is still saying it, and now the MAGAt/Republicans are pushing this view.

  40. Craig, I’ve been trying to lazily poach the perfect egg for over a year! You nailed it and no electric appliance needed. Thank you!

  42. With Trump’s usual generosity, we sent three FEMA people to Mandalay instead of the usual 200+. They were fired while there but don’t have to stop working until they return home.

  44. Ivy, pass along my thanks to the Mr for the tip. Looking on youtube I have next weeks program.
    Meanwhile here she is doing a tiny desk concert 3 years ago.

    Jack

  45. Watched end of golf because it ran long. Interesting ending. The gallery looks mostly like tRUMPsky & company’s ideal version of society. White, male golfers with cash to spend.

  47. AOC & Bernie in SLC! Love that they’re doing this while we need an emotional shot in the arm.

  48. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/13/trump-to-meet-bukele-as-us-deports-more-immigrants-to-el-salvador

    US President Donald Trump will host El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele at the White House on Monday, as he seeks to deport more immigrants to a notorious maximum-security prison in the Central American country.

    *Bukele should bring Mr.Garcia with him.

    ***

    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-defies-supreme-court-deported-man-el-salvador-prison-1235316677/

    Days after the Supreme Court ordered Donald Trump to “facilitate” the return of a man his administration illegally shipped to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador — allegedly the result of an “administrative error” — Trump’s administration is saying it has no responsibility to actually bring him home.

    The administration further rejected any demands that it share copies or details of its agreements with El Salvador to hold the migrants the U.S. sent there — claiming that this information is either “classified,” subject to attorney-client privilege, or subject to the State Secrets privilege.

  49. https://people.com/donald-trump-s-annual-physical-exam-reveals-medications-weight-loss-11713601

    Donald Trump’s Annual Physical Exam Reveals What Medications He’s Taking — and If He’s Lost Weight Since His First TermThe president, whose vaccinations are all up to date, underwent the first official physical of his second term on April 11

    According to the health memo, Trump is on two medications for cholesterol control (Rosuvastatin and Ezetimibe), taking Aspirin for cardiac prevention and he also uses Mometasone cream as needed for a skin condition.

    As for his weight, the 6-foot-3 politician weighs 224 lbs.

    During his last physical as president in 2020, he weighed 244 lbs., per the Associated Press.

  51. Bid, if its acronym ain’t spelled KKK it doesn’t get whiter, richer and maler than Augusta National, except maybe Churchill Downs (the women and their hats ain’t driving that train), or Dumbass’ clubs.

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