Happy Birthday America!

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. 

Funny Angry GIFs | Tenor
Come at me!

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

Holiday Confidence

It would be so nice just to talk about movies.  

We’ll get to that and a lot more next week.  

But okay, if you must know, I’ve seen about two thirds of the most highly touted films of 2023 and so far my top two are Maestro and Oppenheimer. 

I do not care about the nose (and neither should you)

This leaves out a bunch of non-English language films I hear are great but are not yet available, or I couldn’t get to in the maybe one theatre they are playing in.

What is playing 24/7 in my house via TV, newspapers and way too much scrolling, is the potential end of democracy in a year or so if The King of Queens becomes POTUS again.

Yeah, he can have that title.  

The former, not the latter.

I think Kevin James might have an issue with that

As I’ve written previously, I’m convinced the one whose name few Republican presidential candidates dare to speak out loud, will get nowhere near the Oval Office again. 

Still, it’s become more than a part-time job convincing many of my worrywart friends who keep checking in and asking me if I am still sure.

Sing it, sister

Yes, I’m sure as I can be about anything.  Though if you’d asked me last year at this time if we’d need a new roof on our house in less than 12 months I would’ve bet against it.  

And lost.

Ouch.

(Note:  Oh relax and don’t take that as anything more than the snide remark I intended it to be).

We know what to expect from you Chairy

The point is The King of Queens lost to Pres. Biden by well over 7 million votes in 2020 and will lose by even more next year if his party is dumb enough to give Mr. Too-Many-Multiple-Indictments-To-Count another shot as its nominee.  

Three years after he LOST and Joe Biden WON the economy is defying all expectations – unemployment is low and prices are down at the gas pump and at the supermarket. (Note: Check the cost of fuel and eggs compared to all the doomsayer logic six months ago). 

I promise we are not in the Twilight Zone

Then look at the stock market in the last few weeks and compare it to when Kingy (Note: Or Queeny) left office.  And then remember where we were in the COVID pandemic late in 2020, thanks to Multi-Indict-y’s head-in-the-sand illogic of hiding the real truth from us, vs. where we are now.

And then, most importantly, remember this —

If you think the overwhelming number of women in this country are going to sit still and once again let us elect the understudy lead in next year’s summer stock touring production of Mein Kampf: The Musical as POTUS you are dead wrong.

Tina and Amy know

The vast majority of American women don’t want to check in with a bunch of old white men who don’t have medical degrees, especially that one, on whether or not to have a child. 

Nor should they.

My feeling on this is simple:  Possession is nine-tenths of the law.

Or, as we used to say  back in the late sixties and early seventies:

My Body, My Choice.

Amen!

By the way, we men, and those who identify as non-binary or anything else, should be right by their side.  Yet I’ve had enough of a cross-section of female friends over the decades to state without hesitation that even if enough of us don’t join them they are still — 

NOT.  HAVING.  IT. 

You can count on that, and not two honest Black female poll workers, as the reason for every single seemingly missing vote for a Republican running for election in 2024.  

Including Les King of Queens.

Sure is.

Is the middle east war, the Ukraine war and the fight over American immigration a mess?  Sure.  

But do you believe the bulk of us, an Electoral College majority, think it would be better to go backwards in time to Adolph Drumpf?

Nein.

Americans historically DO NOT like to go backwards and re-elect people they threw out in the first place. 

But, um, isn’t this different?  I mean, we’re letting in vermin and our American bloodline is being poisoned, right?

Hanks said it, not me

It sounds like an argument the dirty, old, unbathed men playing checkers in the public park in Queens near where I grew up used to make.

Just because you scream louder than everyone else as you feed a few appreciative dumb birds junk food doesn’t mean the rest of the flock won’t shit on your head for being an obnoxious human ass hat.  

Well ok then

And just because you cheat at checkers when your opponent’s back is turned and announce you’re the winner doesn’t mean you will be awarded the big trophy.

People, not to mention birds, are watching.

It’s survival of the fittest AND the smartest in our animal kingdom – that is unless the majority of us animals are too scared, frozen or busy to fight one tired, old and very bloated bird one last time.

Demi Lovato – “Confident”