Sunday Serendipity

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Here is the one song that expresses this holiday for me; a time of family, food and conversation. Simple gifts we share from one to another.

Enjoy, Jack

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.

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51 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. coming home thanksgiving 2025

    Attribution: Trump Driving While Being Asked Are We Great Yet by Monte Wolverton, Battle Ground, WA

  2. anonduh, this one’s for you in light of your comment last thread on the press.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/29/

    White House launches website to excoriate media for ‘biased’ stories
    Trump administration lists reporting it objects to in latest escalation of attacks on US journalism

    The White House rolled out a new section of its official website on Friday that publicly criticizes and catalogs media organizations and journalists it claims have distorted coverage.
    At the top of the page, the text reads: “Misleading. Biased. Exposed.” The feature names the Boston Globe, CBS News and the Independent as “media offenders of the week”, accusing them of inaccurately portraying Trump’s remarks about six Democratic lawmakers who released of video encouraging military members to not follow illegal orders.
    […]
    The online page also features an “Offender Hall of Shame”, which includes the Washington Post, CBS News, CNN and MSNBC (now known as MS Now). Visitors can browse a searchable database of articles, along with the names of the journalists who wrote them. Each story is categorized under labels such as “bias”, “malpractice” or “left wing lunacy”.
    A leaderboard currently ranks the Washington Post as the top offender, with MSNBC and CBS News taking the second and third slots.
    […]
    Beyond those singled out as weekly offenders, the White House page also lists the Associated Press, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Politico and Axios among the long list of outlets it accuses of bias or misinformation.
    The launch of the webpage is the latest escalation in Trump’s long-running attacks on the media. It follows lawsuits against the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, legal settlements with ABC and CBS, and his repeated references to major news outlets as the “enemy of the people”.
    [continues]

    bet The Guardian feels really really bad they didn’t make the list

  3. speaking of a prez’ “enemies list”
    https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/nixon-enemies-list-consequences

    What were the consequences for those who were on Nixon’s enemies list?
    Checked on November 20, 2025
    […]
    1. The list’s intent: weaponize federal power
    The original memo, drafted by George T. Bell for Charles Colson and sent to White House Counsel John Dean in 1971, explicitly described tactics to “maximize the fact of our incumbency” and to “use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies,” which framed the project as an administrative effort to exploit government agencies against critics [1] [5]. John Dean later echoed that language in testimony and memos that elevated the program from note to policy impulse within the White House [5].

    2. What actually happened to people named—audits and harassment attempts
    Nixon aides repeatedly discussed using the Internal Revenue Service and other federal levers to intimidate or punish opponents; the administration did attempt to prompt audits and other inquiries [2] [5]. However, key officials resisted. IRS Commissioner Donald C. Alexander refused to launch audits based solely on the list, and historians note that while several McGovern donors were audited in 1973, “none on the list were audited” as a direct, proven consequence [1]. Independent reporting and curated archives likewise document episodes of harassment of some journalists (e.g., Dan Schorr) and other opponents, but the existence of a single uniform federal crackdown on everyone named is not supported by the record provided [6] [5].

    3. Legal and political consequences for Nixon’s team, not just the targets
    Exposure mattered more for the perpetrators than for most targets: revelation of the list during congressional hearings intensified public and bipartisan condemnation and fed into the larger Watergate investigations that ultimately led to impeachment proceedings and Nixon’s resignation in 1974 [3] [4]. The political liability created by the enemies project weakened Nixon’s standing; conservative allies such as William F. Buckley Jr. condemned it as “proto‑fascism,” illustrating the cross‑partisan revulsion that followed [4].
    […]
    5. Institutional pushback mattered—limits to presidential reach
    A decisive reason the list did not translate into wholesale federal repression was institutional resistance. Treasury and IRS officials, most visibly Donald Alexander, balked at political misuse of audits; accounts credit figures like Treasury Secretary George Shultz for refusing illegal or politically motivated orders, which constrained what the White House could carry out [1] [8]. This pushback underscores how bureaucratic norms and individual officials mitigated the plan’s worst potential outcomes [8] [9].
    [continues]

  4. WIKI on how some responded to Nixon’s could inspire current president listees to further glory:

    Reception
    Newsman Daniel Schorr and actor Paul Newman stated, separately, that inclusion on the list was their greatest accomplishment. When this list was released, Schorr read it live on television, not realizing that he was on the list until he came to his own name.[10] Author Hunter S. Thompson remarked he was disappointed he was not on it.[11]

    In popular culture
    In the United States, the term “enemies list” has come to be used in contexts not associated with Richard Nixon. For example, satirist P. J. O’Rourke’s 1989 “A Call for a New McCarthyism” in The American Spectator has a hybrid blacklist and enemies list, suggesting that, contrary to the spirits of these lists, the subjects there should be overexposed, not suppressed, “so that a surfeited public rebels in disgust.”

    In Philip Roth’s Our Gang, which was published in 1971, two years before the list was first mentioned in public, the Nixon parody character Trick E. Dixon begins to compile a rudimentary list of five political enemies. It includes Jane Fonda and the Black Panthers who were on the real-life expanded master list, The Berrigans (who were not) and Curt Flood.

    In “Homer’s Enemy” (1997), an 8th-season episode of The Simpsons, Moe Szyslak shows off his own enemies list, which Barney Gumble quickly appraises as Nixon’s list, with the latter’s name crossed out and replaced with Moe’s. Moe promptly adds Barney to the list for his insolence. An earlier episode was also a likely reference to the enemies’ list when Homer falls to the floor as a result of a shoddy chair. In anger, Homer remarks that the manufacturer “just made the list!”.

    In Futurama’s first episode, “Space Pilot 3000” (1999), Fry and Bender walk through a room of live preserved heads of famous people. When Fry knocks over Nixon’s jar, Nixon says “That’s it, you just made my list!”

    In a BoJack Horseman second-season episode called “The Shot” (2015), the title character and Todd visit the Nixon Presidential Library with the intent of stealing a scaled-down replica of the library. Mounted on the walls are Nixon’s Enemy and “Frenemy” Lists. Walt Disney is included on the Enemy List.

  5. jack, simple gifts should be the official thanksgiving theme song. thanks for the yo-yo ma. here’s another rendition back at ya:

  6. and another — with the human instrument this time


    Sometimes the simplest of melodies can be the most telling. This #ThrowbackThursday takes us back to the 2006 broadcast of ‘Simple Gifts’ by NYCOS National Boys Choir, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Christopher Bell, performed as part of the BBC Songs of Praise ‘ Big Sing’.

  7. Christmas Day brings the premiere of The Testament of Ann Lee a 2025 historical musical drama film directed by Mona Fastvold, who co-wrote the script with Brady Corbet. The film stars Amanda Seyfried as Ann Lee, the founding leader of the Shakers religious sect in the 18th century.

  8. a place well-worth the visit, especially if you stay overnight in one of the original houses communing with the ghosts therein… https://shakervillageky.org/

    Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is a landmark destination that shares 3,000 acres of discovery in the spirit of the Kentucky Shakers. Home to the third largest Shaker community in the United States between 1805 and 1910, the vibrant site offers experiences designed to ignite curiosity, expand imaginations and inspire generations.

    This is where discovery starts—but it doesn’t end until your hands are dirty and you’ve tried something new…..
    […]
    Enjoy a variety of activities and programs throughout the Village that change seasonally. Learn new skills at hands-on workshops in The Historic Centre, work the livestock and tend the garden on The Farm, and hike (or ride) through The Preserve. And more!

  9. https://www.rawstory.com/hegseth-2674355877/

    ‘Rare split with Trump admin’: GOP-led panels expand probe of Pete Hegseth killing moves

    In an article called “Congressional committees to scrutinize U.S. killing of boat strike survivors,” the Washington Post reported, “In a rare split with the Trump administration, GOP-led panels in the House and Senate say they want a full accounting in the September military attack.”

    “Republican-led committees in the Senate and the House say they will amplify their scrutiny of the Pentagon after a Washington Post report revealing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken order to kill all crew members aboard a vessel suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea several weeks ago,” according to the report.

    “A live drone feed showed two survivors from the original crew of 11 clinging to the wreckage of their boat after the initial missile attack Sept. 2, The Post reported Friday afternoon. The Special Operations commander overseeing the operation then ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation, killing both survivors. Those people, along with five others in the original report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.”

    *Rubio, You’re up next. Can the CIC get wrapped up in this, too?

  10. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/2025/11/30/trump-stupid-person-reporter-quiet-piggy/87511756007/

    “Your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S., so why do you blame the Biden administration?” CBS News’ Nancy Cordes asked Trump in Florida, saying the suspect had been vetted and “came up clean.”

    “Because they let him in, are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” Trump responded. “Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here and you’re just asking questions ’cause you’re a stupid person.”

    *Wow

  11. nothoodlum.bsky.social‬

    Columbo speaks to the Muppet President:

    “Ah, just one more thing, sir. You’re blowing up those boats, saying they’re filled with drugs headed for the US. But then you go and pardon the guy who brought in 400 tons of cocaine. That’s billions of doses. Help me understand that.”

  12. How can these idiots be so stupid that they’re unable to figure out that the only reason they have their jobs (SecDef, AG, Homeland Security, etc.) is that they’ve been appointed by a total madman?

    You gotta be really really colossally weapons-grade stupid to think you actually “have a job to do” .
    I’m no Brainiac, I got some serious stupids going on; I just know, and thank all the gods on earth AND Jupiter that it would be impossible for me to be THAT stupid.

  13. just posted next short from Friday…
    🚨 SHE SAID WHAT?
    While we were standing outside the ICE facility in Burlington, MA, we reacted to a clip that you rarely hear from the MAGA side. Marjorie Taylor Greene admitted that the American construction industry is “built on illegal labor” and that rounding everyone up isn’t a realistic plan.
    👇 Click below to watch the shorts and our full protest stream:

  14. Hegseth proves it is a long, long way from network loudmouth to national leader. The man has absolutely no business being in charge of the Armed forces and the jerk who appointed him is mentally hazardous to the world’s well-being.

    Craig, housekeeping note: If you check “Save my name, email and website, it save name and email but not website.

  16. My new word for the day: neo-royalism

    which we label neo-royalism. The neo-royalist order centers on an international system structured by a small group of hyper elites, which we term cliques. Such cliques seek to legitimize their authority through appeals to their exceptionalism in order to generate durable material and status hierarchies based on the extraction of financial and cultural tributes.

    It’s a brave new world

  18. Hey Jack….you’re retired like I am ( well maybe not like I am, but still…) how do you go about remembering that it’s Sunday?
    lol

  22. Sturge
    I don’t have to remember, I just have to have a post ready that says Sunday Serendipity then the magic elves, that go by the name Pat or Craig make sure it get posted at the right time.
    Being a procrastinator, there have been a number of times when at 11:30 Saturday evening, I go “Oh Shit”
    But my life now days revolves around 2 constant things Sunday Serendipity and trash day. But I’ve been known to forget both at times.
    Jack

  23. WSJ Bombshell: Trump Chiefs Met With Putin Honcho On Peace Plan To Access Billions Frozen In Europe

    President Donald Trump’s top envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Putin negotiator Kirill Dmitriev to hammer out a peace deal that would unlock hundreds of billions in funds frozen in Europe, according to a bombshell Wall Street Journal report.

    In remarks to reporters, Trump later distanced himself from the plan, saying “Well, that was just a map, all that was is a map. That was not a plan, it was a concept.”

    The report goes into great depth about the secret meetings and machinations that would result in windfalls for U.S. businesses in Russia and Ukraine.

  25. I did Thanksgiving at my sister’s house.
    This is my sister who took in 2 boys, grandsons of a neighbor, when they were in need of a place to stay, their mother being a homeless meth addict. My sister is close to being a Christian saint , imo. She did have her limits and when the older boy hit 17 and started causing problems, then ran off. She let him go. He ended up first living in a tent with his mother for the summer, then as school year approached moved in with his older sister. He is currently in school and will graduate this semester and has already sign up for the marines. I suspect it will be a culture shock for him, not the marines, they are used to his type.

    I’m telling you all this to give a little background for the rest of the story. She invited the boys family to thanksgiving and that included not only the 2 boys, sister and husband but some extended family of some sort. The boys’ mother was a no show. We had 16 people around my sisters large antique family heirloom table only half of them were family yet we all shared food and conversation. Politics never came up once.
    A fun Thanksgiving
    Jack

  27. It is folks like Trump who give capitalist a bad name.
    From a paywalled article at the Wall Street Journal entitled “make money not war”.

    Dmitriev was pushing a plan for U.S. companies to tap the roughly $300 billion of Russian central bank assets, frozen in Europe, for U.S.-Russian investment projects and a U.S.-led reconstruction of Ukraine. U.S. and Russian companies could join to exploit the vast mineral wealth in the Arctic. There were no limits to what two longtime adversaries could achieve, Dmitriev had argued for months: Their rival space industries, which raced one another during the Cold War, could even pursue a joint mission to Mars with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

    For the Kremlin, the Miami talks were the culmination of a strategy, hatched before Trump’s inauguration, to bypass the traditional U.S. national security apparatus and convince the administration to view Russia not as a military threat but as a land of bountiful opportunity, according to Western security officials. By dangling multibillion-dollar rare-earth and energy deals, Moscow could reshape the economic map of Europe—while driving a wedge between America and its traditional allies.

    Dmitriev, a Goldman Sachs alumnus, had found receptive partners in Witkoff—Trump’s longtime golfing partner—and Kushner, whose investment fund, Affinity Partners, drew billion-dollar investments from the Arab monarchies whose conflict with Israel he had helped mediate.

    The two businessmen shared President Trump’s long-held approach to geopolitics. If generations of diplomats viewed the post-Soviet challenges of Eastern Europe as a Gordian knot to be painstakingly unraveled, the president envisioned an easy fix: The borders matter less than the business. In the 1980s, he had offered to personally negotiate a swift end to the Cold War while building what he told Soviet diplomats would be a Trump Tower across the street from the Kremlin, with their Communist regime as a business partner.

  28. wow, I am listening to FM radio and they are still playing the same shit they were playing 20 years ago

    It’s like a time warp

  29. yeah, the consequence of electing Trump to a second term was having our entire government compromised by Putinists for at least a generation if not forever

    We blew it

  30. I am a realist so I understand that no trumpco members or associates will ever face justice, but they all deserve to rot in prison for the rest of their lives

    they won’t

    But they deserve to

  31. I recommend channeling all your anger towards your closest friends and family members

    that support Trump

    And or ate all the pie

  32. Something that has been a question since the first time I learned of sfb, honestly did not know much other than he was a con man before 2015, is who is in charge of keeping him from overdosing? The guy is so far gone he probably does not know if and when he ate breakfast while eating it. So he could easily OD if nobody is doing the pharmacy window guard.

  33. Blue Bronc, thank you for letting us know your connection to our late state legislator Faith Winter. I am not in her district but it is nearby. She has been receiving overwhelming tributes in her memory similar to what you shared. I’m sorry for your loss and grieve the loss of her influence in our state.

    Friends and colleagues remember Colorado state Sen. Faith Winter

    https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/friends-colleagues-remember-colorado-state-senator-faith-winter/

  34. Whomever was in charge of using that pic of tRUMPutin from Alaska made the accusation of pinko, whether they meant to or not. It was intentional…or maybe they’re really into Glinda.

  36. https://cryptonews.com/news/uk-crime-agency-exposes-cash-for-crypto-money-laundering-ring-33m-seized-in-britain-alone/

    The UK National Crime Agency (NCA) has exposed a billion-dollar money laundering network that collects criminal cash and converts it to crypto to evade sanctions and support the Russian war against Ukraine.

    Dubbed “Operation Destabilise”, the crackdown resulted in the seizure of over £25 million ($33 million) in cash and cryptocurrency in Britain alone, the report noted.

    ***

    https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago-crypto-money-laundering-scheme

    Founder of Chicago crypto company indicted in $10M money laundering scheme.

    The company ran cash-to-cryptocurrency exchanges and a network of crypto ATMs nationwide, allowing users to convert cash into digital currency.

    According to the indictment unsealed in the Northern District of Illinois, people sent more than $10 million to Crypto Dispensers, Isa or a co-conspirator. Prosecutors alleged Isa converted the money into cryptocurrency and transferred it to virtual wallets to disguise the source of the funds while knowing the proceeds came from illegal activity.

    ***

    https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2025/11/the-stop-ballroom-bribery-act-exposes-pay-to-play-corruption-at-the-highest-level-pennlive-letters.html

    The ‘Stop Ballroom Bribery Act’ exposes pay-to-play corruption at the highest level

    The “Stop Ballroom Bribery Act” would prevent donations from businesses or individuals with business before the government, including those facing federal litigation or enforcement actions.

    It would also ban the display of donor names, bar the donor from remaining anonymous and introduce a two-year “cooling off” period where donors would be prohibited from lobbying the government.

    Our president appears more concerned about White House restoration, his own $400 million airplane, making over $800 million from crypto ventures tied to foreign investors and policy influence, pardons, stablecoins, and a $2 billion Bitcoin bet reshaped U.S. crypto power, raising new ethical alarms and his sons collecting international projects for his future.

  39. Ivy – thank you. Reading the personal notes from her fellow politicians is most enlightening for the general public. I put myself in that category because I was an almost declared candidate at the time. Admiration for her work is universal. She was a wonderful person and loved politics. She looked like the typical suburban housewife with children and a job. But, her job was going to the office at a city and then the state house.
    Faith was a good person, as are most politicians. She had a way of making you feel like you are sitting around the table relaxing with a cup of coffee anytime you were talking about anything. And, it was honest.

    The hardest hit from her death is she was so young, forty-five, with children and a partner. She was a future Congressional candidate, House or Senate. On the New’s Eve or New Year’s Day I might right about something I said in my first post.

  40. Blue Bronc, that is my sense of Faith from those speaking out, and I’m sure there will be more tributes and more grief in the coming days as she is laid to rest. Governor Polis has also spoken out. As a newcomer to the state, I’m sad it took her death for me to learn of her achievements.

  41. Selling indulgences (aka spiritual pardons) is what brought Martin Luther to the Church’s door. No sense of history or irony among evangelical so-called christians.

  42. College Student Is Deported During Trip Home for Thanksgiving

    Any Lucia López Belloza, 19, was detained by immigration agents at the Boston airport before a flight to surprise her family in Texas for Thanksgiving. She is now in Honduras.

    A 19-year-old college student was about to board a flight to surprise her family for Thanksgiving when she was detained at Boston Logan International Airport and deported to Honduras two days later, her father and lawyer said on Sunday.

    The student, Any Lucia López Belloza, was brought by her parents from Honduras to the United States when she was 7. Her father, Francis López, said in a telephone interview on Sunday that neither Ms. López nor her mother knew there was an order for her deportation.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/us/politics/college-student-deported-thanksgiving-texas.html

  44. Burlington protestors got Sen. Markey to sign this copy of the law allowing surprise congressional visits and he promised to do it. ICE has been requiring advance notice.

  46. Deport Violent Criminals
    Keep Families Together
    No Mass Roundups.
    — That’s the immigration policy most Americans really want

    In this clip from the Black Friday protest at the Burlington MA ICE facility Craig and Jamie look at what polls show most Americans want for immigration policy.

  47. The daughter of some family friends is scared to leave the house because their last name is Spanish, and it’s not an irrational fear she has

    …rather shameful, America

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