Friday Thoughts (Semiquincentennial Edition)

July 03, 2026

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July. The country’s 250th anniversary.

I’m old. Well, I’m pretty old. I’m old enough to remember the last big birthday party. Sort of. I was 5 in 1976. The things you hold in your head from that time are random and shifting. I remember a lot of red, white, and blue that year. I remember that’s when I first started noticing political cartoons because there was a gentleman from Georgia running for president. I didn’t know what any of them meant from a social satire point of view…but he was a peanut farmer and they drew him really funny with big teeth. Sometimes as a peanut. But the main thing I remember about the presidential election and the anniversary in general is who else was running for president.

Howard the Duck.

My most vivid memory is seeing ads for Howard the Duck running for president in Marvel comic books that I got my hands on. Even as a five year old, I thought that was very funny. (I knew the peanut farmer from Georgia was the ACTUAL candidate and not the creation of comics writer Steve Gerber.) But Howard and the political cartoons that I liked looking at were my introduction to politics. I regret nothing.

Over the next 50 years though, I started to realize a few things. There is a LOT that we need to face…regardless of Republicans trying to mandate that ugly history away. I thought we were the ones with sensitive feelings? Theft of land and genocide of Native Americans, theft of actual human beings in regards to slavery, racism against literally EVERYONE who showed up after the Mayflower…the knowledge that the saccharine crusted image of “Merica” that is served up is very much not the truth.

And then we get to today. We have the most corrupt and cruel administration ever put in charge of this country. Every day you wake up to news of a new grift, a new con, a blatant new theft of public funds. The latest is that tomorrow he is going to give out 250 PARDONS…to celebrate the country’s birthday? The popular scuttlebutt is that donors are lining up around the block to give das Pumpkin-Fuehrer bribes to get their people on that list. Between all of that and just the sheer magnitude of incompetence that IS this administration…you realize that unless people who give a damn take the reins and quickly…we’re all screwed. The oligarchs running things do not care one little bit about our safety or well being. They only want control and all the money and privilege that comes with holding everyone else down to suffocate in the gutter.

There will be articles and podcasts and memes about the state of things all weekend and beyond. People smarter than me will explain their feelings better than I can. (Thank god for Heather Cox Richardson and the realistic hope she gives.) Myself? I hope one day Howard and I can sit in the grass enjoying a picnic and watching fireworks and relax in the knowledge that we made it through the absolute worst piece of crap this country had to offer (much less actually put his dumb ass into power TWICE).

Please have a safe weekend. Watch out for each other. And save your fireworks for THE celebration that is inevitably coming. Get down America, indeed.

-The Paintmonkey

A quick surprise for everybody that I found researching for this. One of my absolute artistic idols, Bernie Wrightson did the pin above that I covet to this day. But he also did THIS amazing piece and I wanted to share it! Miss you, Bernie!