art – notes from a chair

Well, we made it to 250. Barely.

But why that is the case we’ll leave to you and how you chose to officially celebrate our Semi quincentennial weekend.

Fireworks?

CNN’s coverage of the D.C. MAGA rally?

Thats A Hard Pass GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY — TV off

Stars and explosive stripes against the backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge and the NYC skyline courtesy of NBC?

Getting s—t faced with your friends, family or strangers because you don’t want to think about anything related to this?

Can Relate GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY — We’re with you Z

Or watching The Twilight Zone marathon on the SyFy Channel expecting an episode set on July 4, 2026 because Rod Serling was the one guy who could have pulled that off?

If you chose to sleep or eat through it all, or ignore it all, no judgement here.

But…..

IF you’re still looking for a smart, patriotic and extremely funny sketch that pretty much summarizes Amercia250, get on HBO Max and immediately watch the last segment of the second episode (Note: It dropped Friday, July 3) of Larry David’s superb new limited series, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness.

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness | Rotten Tomatoes — My patriotic vibes this weekend

Find a friend who has HBO (or Max, Or HBO Max…whatever), subscribe for a month on a discount deal and then cancel it, or figure out some other “way” to “access” it.

Because if you want to see 2026 political satire at its absolute best, THIS is the must-see TV moment of the….what’s that word again…. Semi Quincentennial.

We are unable to post it here (Note: And who knows what happens if Paramount and WB actually merge, taking HBO Max into the Ellison camp? Will this kind of thing still even be available?).

We’re guessing yes but it’ll be a fight.

One of many to get ready for.

I mean, clearly Jon Ossoff has been going to the gym and doing a lot of thinking.

Have you????

To get everyone started, here is a link to an article in the Washington Post that explains the background to the aforementioned “bit” and the various coup guest stars in this episode.

That is, if you’re on the fence. If not, watch the sketch first and then read about it.

But…do it!!!!

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness': Rob Reiner's George Washington Sketch With Jimmy Kimmel Explained (Exclusive) — If only for Rob Reiner’s final role on our screens… a true legend

As for me, I’m going to pretend I’m in the last episode of Newhart and that Suzanne Pleshette will wake me up in Nov. 2028 from a bad dream.

#America250baby!!

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness – Barack Obama

The nationwide No Kings rally, a 50-state protest against the sitting president’s policies and, let’s face it, competency, demeanor and open disdain of freedom of speech and democracy, on Saturday became the single largest non-violent protest in AMERICAN HISTORY.

Yeah, that’s right.

Evah.

Good Job Team GIFs | Tenor — Good job everyone!

More than 8 million people lined the streets of big cities, suburbs and small town rural areas in solidarity in order to fight for a democracy they, nee I, believe is being chipped away by a dangerously clownish old guy in pancake makeup who publicly, and embarrassingly, drones on and on about golden tractors and the majesty of a marble ballroom while privately invading countries, assembling a personal oligarchy, replete with a Brown-shirtish enforcement squad, as he grifts his way through personally beneficial financial transactions the likes of which the White House has never seen.

Don’t believe me on the latter?

Here’s some oligarchical grifting data with an accompanying list you can download in a document.

Of course, none of these actions are particularly surprising for anyone who has been paying attention, like all of us.

Instead, it’s mortifying.

As are the official statements of this White House to that great American tradition of protest, and the No Kings rally in particular.

WH spokesperson Abigail Jackson chalked it/them up to leftist funding networks, with little support from real American citizens.

The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them.

While a chief spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Maureen O’Toole, proclaimed:

These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone.

Steam Community :: Guide :: that's not what they really said... — A real charmer

As someone who spent his pre-teen and early teen years living through the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s, this kind of talk sounds vaguely familiar.

It took a lot of deaths from an undeclared war and a lot of investigative reporting to expose the level of corruption that was really going on from the Oval Office on down, but eventually we got there.

And what led the way?

Peaceful, non-violent protests from protestors who were labeled un-American and deranged by the very people in power committing the corruption, along with the throngs of those enabling them.