1. It’s Wednesday, July 15, 2015

2. Now, the New Horizons fly-by of Pluto is something that should make Americans beat their chest a little bit. We got something built, admittedly with help from other great minds around the world, that flew 3 billion miles in nine and a-half years. It got within 7,800 miles of the dwarf planet and sent back photos that are pretty amazing.

For whatever reason — more focus on human problems such as Iran and Greece, it’s midsummer — this achievement isn’t resonating with people. It should. It’s a moment to be proud. 

3. “Death to America” trended on Twitter yesterday. It was a phrase contained in a lot of tweets written by opponents to the new nuclear limitation accord with Iran. Of course, “Death to America” is what Iranians have been known to chant in public demonstrations, some as recent as last week. And this was what the opponents wanted to say: How could you possibly make a deal with people who seek our demise? The more foaming tweets spoke of how President Obama was selling out America and its allies for a place in history or even to be true to his real faith — which, of course, they have decided, is Islam.

So, once again, it’s time to check reality.

Yes, there’s a lot of animosity toward the U.S. in Iran. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we thwarted Iranians’ attempt at democracy in the 1950s and forced the brutal Shah on them for another 20 years. Some of it has to do with the voices in this country that are looking to bring back the Crusades and Christianize the Middle East.

But here’s the thing. That animosity is more tolerable when it doesn’t have nuclear weapons it can play with. And the agreement is the best we can get, given the fact that Iran already has nuclear technology and the rest of the world is patiently helping us stop them from weaponizing that technology.

If the “Death to America” tweeters believe that war is another way to stop them, here is what they have to do.

They have to agree that if the United States went to war to Iran, they, or their children, or their grandchildren, have to be among the forces we send. They would go there, to the Persian desert, where the average high this time of year is 114 degrees.

They would go there pretty much alone. Israel, with its saber-rattling prime minister, is kind of busy fending off threats closer to home. The Europeans, including the British, aren’t interested in a war with Iran. Neither are allies in Japan and South Korea that have abided by the sanctions imposed on Iran at a cost — the oil that would lower prices in their countries — with the idea that they would lead to an agreement such as this one.

And Russia and China, which helped us get this agreement, would probably aid Tehran, creating an axis that might be stronger than the one we fought in World War II. So, while we’re slogging through the desert, Russia is taking the opportunity to step up its mischief against Ukraine and other Eastern European nations that were once part of the Soviet Union or its bloc. China is ratcheting pressure on Japan over territory in the western Pacific.

Through all this, Iran has the liberty to develop nuclear weapons, since there’s no agreement like the one we have.

That’s the world you have to accept if you support the idea of bombing Tehran back to the stone age or using our boots on the ground to put Iran in what you perceive to be its place. So you’d damn well better be prepared to put your own life or your kids’ lives on the line. Because you can’t have mine.

The “Death to America” chanters in Iran only get their wish if we shun diplomacy and try to fight them in a war. An agreement that works, which this has a good chance of doing, is death to “Death to America.”

1. It’s Monday, July 13, 2015.

2. Thirty-eight years ago tonight, I was watching a comedy called “Nasty Habits” at what was then the UA Quartet movie house in the Flushing section of Queens. About 10 minutes before the end of the movie, the power went out. The dozen or so of us in the theater initially thought the outage was temporary.

Nope. The lights were out all over New York City. It was a hot summer night, and there was no power.

To this day, I’m proud that my 23-year-old self, five months into my first full-time job, made it into work in Rockefeller Center. In fact, I apologized for being 30 minutes late for my midnight-8 a.m. shift.

That was the second systemic power outage of my life — there was a famous one in November 1965. A third would occur in August 2003.

This probably little-noted anniversary should serve as a reminder to government and power company officials that maybe it’s a good time to check to make sure the grid is in good working order. Whether you’re working from home or commuting to a job, it’s never a good thing for the power to be out.

By the way, I couldn’t get a rain check for the movie. All I wanted to see was the end of “Nasty Habits,” a spoof of Watergate with Glenda Jackson and Anne Meara. So, about a week later, I spent another $3 to see the movie all over again, including the ending. It was cute, but not really worth it.

3. Is someone doing a pool on when the next Greek crisis will surface? The solution that European creditors have pretty much imposed on the Greeks doesn’t seem like much of a solution at all. But here’s hoping for the best for the Greek people, whose ample bravery will get yet another test.

4. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is running for president. The man has tried to gut the Badger State’s schools from pre-k to the University of Wisconsin, has little respect for the jobs done by first responders and doesn’t have the guts to stand up to people who insinuate that President Obama isn’t American.

The Republicans have a lot of dolts seeking their nomination — it will be between Walker and Fabulous Donny Trump to see which one will be the biggest horse’s ass.

1. It’s Friday, July 10, 2015.

2. Greece looks as though it is going to capitulate to European creditors’ demands for more austerity. That, despite Sunday’s overwhelming vote to tell the creditors to shove their demands.

Which makes you wonder why they bothered to vote in the first place.

What hasn’t changed since Sunday is what will get Greece out of this mess — a real restructuring of its debt and programs aimed at getting people back to work and spending money.

So if the reports of the agreement are accurate, expect us to be back at this nonsense at some point in the next year or two.

3. There’s a ticker-tape parade in New York today for the U.S. Women’s Soccer team that won the World Cup. The weather is great, and lots of folks — especially a lot of girls looking for heroes — are excited. So despite my feelings toward the sport, I’m happy for everyone and hope it’s a day of great memories.

4. Twenty-three days ago, nine members of a Charleston church group were murdered in cold blood, allegedly by a guy who was looking to start a racial war. Today, the Confederate flag came down from a South Carolina capitol flagpole for the first time in more than a half-century.

As I said yesterday, I really hope the murder suspect has to watch the flag lowering over and over again, for the rest of his miserable life.

5. I normally don’t care about the All-Star Game final vote, in which fans pick the final player for the two league teams. It’s a gimmick aimed at drumming up interest for a game that is normally pretty uninteresting.

But as a Mets fan who has followed the team more closely in my retirement, I can’t help but feel as though reliever Jeurys Familia, the team’s closer, deserves the recognition. This young man stepped into the crucial job when another player was suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. And he’s done brilliantly.

So I’ve spent this final day of voting doing my best imitation of a Chicago ward boss in the Daley pere days. If you tweet the hashtag #VoteFamilia, you can vote and put an emoji in your tweet at the same time.

QUICK HITS

1. It’s Thursday, July 9, 2015

2. The Confederate flag removal in South Carolina is about to become real. I’m glad that the state legislature saw the light after years of rubbish about history and so-called honor. I’m still sad that it took last month’s horrible murders in a church to bring it about. 

3. If I had something to say about it, I’d make the guy who committed the crime have to watch the flag come down. And then tell him how he made it all possible. Over and over again. I’d even make him watch replays in his cell.

4. Also real today is London’s tube strike. The whole system is shut, causing a commuter nightmare. When I vacationed in London last year, the unions only shut down part of the system, a job action I don’t quite understand. All that is to me is annoying, and essentially ineffective. My thoughts go to friends in London who are dealing with the hassle today and tomorrow. 

1. It’s Wednesday, July 8, 2015.

2. Today is mathematically correct.

3. I’m one of the 2,858 people who contributed to this campaign to help complete Orson Welles’ last film. I’m happy to see that despite missing their goals by a lot, the people behind this express confidence that they’ll get the movie done. I’m not expecting another “Citizen Kane,” but who knows?

4. One year ago, if you said “Bill Cosby” in a word association game, I would have said “hero.” I, like most other Americans, was unaware of any accusations involving improper behavior with women — other than when he admitted an affair with a woman who surfaced right after his son was murdered on a California highway.

There’s been some hand-wringing about the fact that this week’s revelation — that Cosby testified 10 years ago that he had purchased Quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex — was necessary to convince remaining skeptics about his behavior. The fact that so many women made the accusations were, according to critics, not enough to convince Cosby’s fans that he was a serial rapist.

I just don’t think it’s fair to say that this is another example of how women aren’t believed when they alleged that someone — especially someone of prominence — has raped them. Yes, that’s an issue that deserves serious discussion, and there should be respect for any woman who makes an accusation and any man to defend himself when an accusation is unjust.

But this incident seems more like testimony about how good at being “Bill Cosby” this man was.

A year ago, I would have put him near the head of a league of civil rights pioneers among artists and athletes — people such as Jackie Robinson or Marian Anderson. In some ways, Cosby was more influential. Starting with his comedy records in the 1960s, when he was able to show all of America that African-Americans (the current term; back then, saying Negro would have been more acceptable) were no different in their dreams, their foibles and their experiences.

In a golden era of comedy, he was genuinely funny. That career would stretch for more than a half-century of TV sitcoms, dramas, movies and amazing stand-up shows.

My wife and I saw him in Morristown, N.J., four years ago, and it was a two-hour tour de force. That any comedian can hold a stage by him or herself for two hours is an incredible feat, as Jerry Seinfeld points out in his terrific film “Comedian.”

We were conned. Big time. We were conned into thinking that his high-minded stances on education, behavior and race relations were those of a man of integrity. We were conned into thinking that this man was his TV alter ego, Dr. Cliff Huxstable, the family man any would-be father of any race would aspire to be.

Instead, it was a sham. This would-be American hero appears to be among the lowest forms of life. A man who felt compelled to get women to use drugs as a prelude to sex is not what a man of integrity, a man who offers advice to others on public morality, would do.

So yes, I believe Bill Cosby did what these two dozen or so women accuse him of doing. I probably have believed it since he refused to address the accusations directly as they piled up late last year. What I realize now is that it’s easy to be conned because you want to believe what seems really good about people is really true.

I feel stupid and terrible, and a little empty. And right now, I’m not in the market for any more heroes.

1. It’s Tuesday, July 7, 2015.

2. At about 8:15 p.m., the light in the sky will be fading on another warm day.

Take a mental picture of the moment. Save it. Because in six months, it will be January 7, 2016. It will be dark and most likely cold, and there’s even a chance there’s a pile of snow on the ground. And the moment you’re saving tonight will seem enchanted. (Unless you’re in a place where it’s rainy and raw. In that case, try again tomorrow)

3. You really can’t put anything over some of those people in Texas. They saw right through the Jade Helm military exercise planned for later this month.  

“Training.” Ha! You can fool the people around Bostrop or, for that matter, the governor and a U.S. senator.

As someone supportive of the mission, here’s what is really intended

— Changing the name of several cities in the state. The capital will become Barackia. Houston is Michelleville. Dallas is Ciudad Obama and Spanish will become its official language. Lubbock is Obamacareland. 2

— No, FEMA will not establish concentration camps. But we think everyone will rejoice if there’s someplace in that state to put Donald Trump and 50 miles between him and anything else.

— Football will be played on Wednesday nights, just for spite.

— There will be a border fence around the perimeter. It will run keep Texans out of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

— Except that Willie Nelson can go wherever he wants.

— Instead of martial law, we’ll impose Marshalls Law, which requires that everything be sold at the cheapest price possible.

— If we were going to take away your guns, we would have tried it first in a more receptive state, like Vermont. So that ain’t happening. But if you want to prevent President Sanders from staging another invasion, you might want to give them up voluntarily.

1. It’s Monday, July 6, 2015.

2. Today is the 69th birthday of both George W. Bush and Sylvester Stallone. I leave the rest to your imagination.

3. The United States is celebrating the belated Independence Day gift of the Women’s World Cup in soccer.

That the celebration is a big deal is a credit to the people who have tried to promote soccer in this country for decades. All those kids’ leagues for all these years have led to a devoted following and an appreciation of the sport.

While I’m not jumping on that bandwagon (I still find soccer hard to sit through), I’m happy the U.S. is No. 1.

4. One of the things soccer has going for it is the focus on international play, and for both men and women. A whole country can unite behind a team, even if — as in the case of the United States — people in the country rarely watch it and don’t understand all the rules. By giving so much emphasis to the World Cup, soccer gets a big stage to perform on two out of every four years.

Baseball, my favorite sport, is trying to catch up with this. Which is why I’m a big fan of the World Baseball Classic, next scheduled for the spring of 2017.

The problem is that, especially given the big money player contracts of this era, baseball is not going to go all out to promote itself internationally. Which would mean stopping the baseball season one June or July every four years and allowing the world’s best players to play for their country for a month. That’s not going to happen.

But baseball isn’t even making its best effort to promote the existing tournament. The World Baseball Classic Web site hasn’t been updated with a news item since the Dominican Republic shut out Puerto Rico to win in 2013. Even if there was interest in the 2017 event, there’s no place to get information, and clearly no planning has been done.

By not even making an effort, baseball is making sure it can’t have a day when it, like women’s soccer today, can dominate the world’s sports pages.

5. If you’re fortunate, you know a lot of Americans of Greek ancestry. If so, you know they have three very prominent attributes. They are somewhat stubborn. They are intensely proud. And, foremost, they are brave.

That aspect of Greece’s national character came ringing through yesterday. Told by European creditors that a “No” vote in yesterday’s referendum would cause their economy to cave, three in five Greeks put down four of their five fingers.

Of course, a Greek collapse is not preordained. It only happens if the creditors are so offended by the Greeks that they won’t do what’s best for all parties concerned.

And what’s best (as noted economist Thomas Piketty says in an interview with Germany’s Die Welt) is a renegotiation of the debt situation, one that allows the Greek people to bust out of the five-year depression that austerity has ensured.

Whether bankers, who appear to live in their own world, will see that light is what we’ll find out in the coming days. But the fact that European markets, while lower, did not sink more dramatically Monday is a sign that there are reasonable people out there who think there’s a respectable way out.

For that, we can thank the bravery of the Greeks, who decided that it’s better to resolve the issue than let it linger and fester.

1. It’s Thursday, July 2, 2015.

2. The year reaches the halfway point today, when 182 days and 12 hours of the year’s 365 days have passed.

At what time that happens depends on where you are. If you are in most of the United States or Europe, where we set the clocks ahead in March, the midpoint is at 1 p.m. If you’re in Arizona or Hawaii or anyplace where Daylight Time doesn’t exist, it’s noon.

Does this matter? Only if it hits you that time keeps rushing by, and 2016 is closer to us than 2014.

3.   I get public displays of fireworks, when your town or the fire department or Disney World launches these missiles that triggered explosion of different colored lights. It’s not my favorite form of entertainment — most of these tend to get a little monotonous, with organizers not understanding that more is not necessarily better.

What I don’t get is when people feel compelled to buy stuff that explodes, simply for the thrill of making a loud noise.

The Fourth of July is, of course, the touchstone of this compulsion. Supposedly, people who make loud booms with firecrackers at two in the morning are doing so to celebrate the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It can’t be because they’re celebrating peace and everyone’s good night sleep.

Up until now, I have been fortunate to live in a state where the sale and possession of fireworks has been banned. It hasn’t stopped the easily amused from schlepping 75 or so miles to Pennsylvania, where such sales are legal.

In fact, what set me off is a mailing I got last week. It was from a chain of stores conveniently located right across the borders with New York and New Jersey — states with fireworks banned. This mailing is actually pretty terrifying — in addition to being a horrible example of design. It offers users such delights as aerial repeaters and mortar kits with names such as “Molotov Cocktail,” “Core Reactor” and “Lock and Load,” which, conveniently, is described as “barely legal.”

It’s a nightmarish array. And there’s no goddamn point. This stuff will make a lot of noise and occasional sparks — and do nothing else for its users or the poor souls who have to listen to this stuff. Not to mention the potential for physical harm to the people who set this stuff off or people who happen to be standing in the wrong place.

Unfortunately, as a well-written New York Times piece by my former colleague Stacy Cowley points out, New York is caving on this. New laws allow for individual counties to sell fireworks at temporary stands around the Fourth of July and New Year’s. The reasoning makes economic sense — why should Pennsylvania benefit from the idiocy of firecracker sales when that money could stay here? It’s just that it’s just plain stupid.

4. BTW, here’s the ironic part of this fireworks mailing. The company that sent it is headquartered in Youngstown, Ohio — on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

1. It’s Monday, June 29, 2015.

2. Eight years ago today, Apple introduced the iPhone. Also known as my second brain.

3. Steven Matz. It’s a good day to be a Met fan. For a change. 

4. I’m elated about the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. But since the decision, I’ve asked myself how it came to pass that I think this is a really good thing — when I know there was a time in my adult life when I would have felt otherwise. What was the process that convinced me that every adult has the right to marry another adult who they love?

I’m not the only one who’s “evolved” on this issue — “evolved” being the word President Obama used to describe his own position on the matter. I think there are three revelations that got me to this point.

The first is the most important. It’s love. It’s my good fortune to love the woman to whom I’ve been married for 29 years and almost two months. When I think about the quality and depth of that love, it would be selfish to think that I’m the only one entitled to it.

And when I think about how much I dislike dogs, asparagus and fireworks, I realize that everyone has different ideas on liking and loving. So the first revelation is the idea that you’re entitled to like what you like and love who you love.

But there are opponents of same-sex marriage who share that viewpoint of love. So the second revelation has to do with the so-called “sanctity” of marriage.

Several years back, there was a story about a celebrity who went on a weekend bender and married an acquaintance of the opposite sex. And a few days, after the hangover, the couple divorced. It generated the usual gossip column wink and public attention.

But it hit me differently. This happened about the time that same-sex couples were beginning to pursue court cases and seek legislation allowing them to wed. The couples that were challenging the status quo were often people who had been together in loving relationships for decades. They had celebrated triumphs and endured hardships, the same way my wife and I have.

So how is the relationship such as that of the celebrity couple, formulated in bourbon or cocaine, more legitimate in the eyes of the law than one forged in love and tested by the complexities of two people’s lives? I couldn’t answer that question other than to say that I saw more of what I believe marriage is about in the same-sex couple.

The third revelation is the embarrassment of being on the other side of this issue. Who are you with when you oppose same-sex marriage? The Westboro Baptist Church. Ted Cruz. Ann Coulter. And that citadel of matrimonial sanctity, Donald Trump. When those are the people expressing themselves in strong opposition to something, you almost automatically know the other side of the argument is the right one. You’re obligated by God or, if you don’t believe in God, whatever moral force drives your universe to believe the opposite.

Marriage is great. The bond to someone you love more than anyone or anything else makes joy more joyful and pain more bearable. And the conclusion you reach when you think about it — really, seriously think about it — isn’t to ask why should people of the same sex be allowed to marry. It’s why shouldn’t they.