1. It’s Wednesday, July 13, 2017.

2. It’s the 40th anniversary of the blackout in New York City that was triggered by a lightning strike on a really hot summer night. The city was in crisis back then, and the lack of power resulted in a horrific night of looting.

When the power went out, I was sitting in a movie theater in the Flushing section of Queens, watching the last 10 minutes of “Nasty Habits,” a Watergate satire set in a Philadelphia convent.

Because it was 1977, I didn’t think about waiting to see the end when the movie was on cable or video cassette – I went back, paid the $3, and saw the so-so comedy all over again.

I somehow made it to work in Manhattan that night, using a combination of a bus and a shared taxi. I was actually late for the first time ever – showing up at 12:30 a.m. for an AP Broadcast sports writing shift that began at midnight.

I remember lots of things about that night:

Working with minimal light because the emergency generators were needed just to power the world’s largest news service.

The grace under pressure of my supervisor, a fellow named Michael Blake, who kept everybody calm with his wit and his ability to work with the stressed-out technicians.

The guy who thought it was OK to wear yellow shorts to the office.

And the relentlessness of the people who worked at the AP to get their jobs done. From writing the news to getting the baseball statistics and the weather forecasts out.

3. One other thing I remember about that night.

Because the AP was based in New York, a lot of the member stations believed there was too much emphasis on what went on in the city. The nation’s biggest, by the way, and one of the world’s most important.

Because of sensitivity to that criticism, there was an effort to downplay the blackout in the hourly newscasts that were the bread-and-butter of our operation. It rotated as the lead story with the downing of a U.S. military helicopter that had strayed over the North Korean border.

As it turns out, it’s much easier to find stories online about that night in New York than about that day near the 38th parallel.

No one remembers the Korean incident, even though three Americans died and one was captured, although he was released three days later.

The image of the looting amid the darkness stayed with New York for a very long time.

History is interesting that way.

4. America’s experiment in political dysfunction continues. And while there’s not much new after yesterday’s bombshell involving Trump Junior, it did get me thinking about why this has happened.

In 2016, the latest Harris Poll on the subject ranked doctor as the most prestigious occupation, with 90% of those surveyed saying it’s noble work.

Fifth from the bottom was politician. Only 40% of those surveyed believe it’s a job to be proud of. And 34% of those polled say it’s not at all prestigious; no profession, not even the last-place public relations consultant, arouses as much outright contempt.

Unfortunately, it’s part of America’s DNA to trash politicians.

I was at a plant nursery in Stonington, Conn., this weekend. And amid the hydrangeas and the succulents, the owners tacked up clever, witty sayings – many of them belittling those who practice the science of politics. How that sells flora escapes me, but it’s their business and you assume they know it.

The problem is that for politicians, politics is their business, and they know it.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, politics became more about elections and less about what those elections are supposed to lead to – government.

Now government is just about as dirty a word as politics. You can hear Ronald Reagan, in 1986, saying the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” That isn’t just Reagan talking – he reflected the attitude of many people.

There are even people who find STOP signs and traffic lights as symbols of oppression.

As a result, elections cough up these people who see an opportunity to get a little power – after all, there is still a government. And they get that power by badmouthing politicians.

“Unlike his opponent, he’s not a professional politician,” the sonorous voice in the TV ads will say as a selling point.

“I’m a businessman, not a politician,” Trump told people every chance he could in the 17 months of his campaign.

But here’s the thing:

5. Governing is important.

I’d argue it’s just as important as being a doctor. Our ability to be safe in our homes and on the streets, to get to our jobs, to count on the water to flow and the garbage to be picked up, that the hospitals and schools are open and running.

That’s true even when government farms some of those tasks to the private sector. Ultimately, somebody has to take responsibility.

We should be grateful for politicians who are willing on the task of making things run.

And, conversely, we should be skeptical of those who look on the jobs that politicians do and say they can do it better.

Anti-government and anti-politics have put us in this mess. The idea that someone with no experience or understanding of how this stuff works can make things work better is preposterous.

You wouldn’t trust someone who doesn’t have medical experience to operate on your heart. You shouldn’t trust anyone who doesn’t understand how government works to run the government.

So when Republicans defend Trump Junior by saying he didn’t know what to do because he wasn’t a pro politician, it’s an empty argument. If he’s going to be in politics, he should know what the hell he’s doing.

Although I still don’t think it takes a brain surgeon to figure out that getting information from a foreign government to hurt a rival political campaign is collusion at best and treason at worst.

1. It’s Tuesday, July 11, 2017.

2. It’s Amazon Prime Day. I’m learning that that’s a thing.

3. It’s the 250th birthday of John Quincy Adams. He was the 6th President of the United States and, of course, the son of the 2nd.

Of the 44 presidents, John Quincy and George W. Bush are the two who are sons of presidential fathers; Benjamin Harrison, President No. 23, was the grandson of No. 9, the short-tenured William Henry Harrison.

Thus, it’s a depressing commentary on generational progression when John Quincy Adams, not widely regarded as among our best POTUSes, is considered the best of the offspring presidents. The most memorable things about Harrison are that he jacked up tariffs and married his wife’s niece soon after his wife died.

W. has been rising from pretty far down in the rankings immediately after his presidency ended. Iraq and the financial crisis will ensure he doesn’t rise too high.

Of course, right now, Quincy, W. and Harrison all look like Lincoln next to the incumbent.

4. And they look like a combination of Nathan Hale and Albert Einstein next to the incumbent’s eldest son.

This is how fast this freakin’ story is moving:

While I was writing this, The New York Times announced that it got a copy of Trump Junior’s e-mail setting up the meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

Then Trump Junior decided it might be better to release the e-mails himself, as if doing that would show how transparent he’s being on this whole thing.

Forget that he and his father and everyone involved in their seizure of the American government have spent the last year denying that there was any contact with anyone Russian.

What these e-mails reveal, basically, is that Trump Junior believed the Russians had incriminating information about Hillary Clinton and he was eager to see it.

A patriot would tell the FBI. A traitor would hide it until he got his payoff.

Guess which one Trump Junior is?

5. And here’s something else to ponder.

What do you think was going through Trump Jr.’s mind when he arranged that meeting with the Russian lawyer a year ago? Other than the fact that it was likely the only thing there, as usual.

Do you think that maybe he was trying to impress Pops by taking this meeting with someone he believed to be a Russian government lawyer? “I can handle this! I’m smart, too,” you can hear him saying, a la Fredo Corleone.

And did he do it not thinking about the implication – that he was willing to be used as an agent of a foreign government to influence the U.S. election? A dupe.

Or do you think he did it at the behest of his dad?

Here, Trump was, just a step away from the White House. The only obstacle was Hillary Clinton. Maybe, the Russians could help brush her aside.

But Trump can’t risk this meeting. Everyone’s watching him. And it’s beneath his level – he’s in the Trump Tower suite dreaming of ways he could profit off a stint in the White House.

So he sends his namesake son, his son-in-law and campaign manager. It’s a prominent bunch, but doesn’t involve him yet.

As long as no one found out before the election, it was OK.

From here on out, the questions are going to get thornier for Trump, père et fils. We’re going to find out how really devoted they are to each other – especially if the son has to take a fall for his father.

Or the father throws the son under the bus.

One thing seems certain.

John Quincy Adams’ place as the best president among namesake sons isn’t likely threatened by Donald Trump Junior.

1. It’s Friday, July 7, 2017.

2. It’s only the 89th anniversary of sliced bread. You would have thought it’s been around since before 1928. But no. 

It’s also the 36th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to the U.S. Supreme Court, the first woman to serve as an associate justice. I’m not a Reagan fan by any means, but this is a laudable accomplishment.

3. By the time I finish writing this, the meeting between Trump and Putin will have taken place. I’m sure it will be pitched as a triumph for both of these pillbugs.

Does it matter? Hardly. Putin won this meeting last Nov. 8. The disarray the Russian interference has sown into American democracy and the disheartening of those who believe in American ideals are triumph enough.

4. I’m not falling for the idea that the Republican health care proposal – or, rather, the Republican anti-Obamacare proposal – can’t pass because it’s so unpopular that they’ll face voters’ wrath in next year’s congressional elections.

Yes, the polling numbers are fairly dismal. And when people hear what the Republicans want to do, they cringe.

But this is a Republican dream – the idea of stripping the nation of this plan. Republicans, again, are not into governing – they’re into ruling.

Obamacare requires governing – the government has to help this program succeed in order to help people get health care coverage. Ruling means you end that – everybody’s on their own, and no one – especially no one in a high income bracket – has to help pay for someone else’s care..

5. And don’t underestimate the ability of the money behind the Republicans to sell this garbage.

I can almost see it. Flags waving in the breeze, children playing, a veteran saluting, an obligatory person of color. And then a baritone announcer saying:

“It’s happened. After four years of anguish. You are now free. Free to choose how to keep you and your loved ones healthy. Free from penalties. Free to pick your doctor. Free to pay for what you need – and not pay for what you don’t.”

“The Obamacare nightmare is over. Americans have stood up. They’ve chosen how they get their health care.”

“America is free again.”

And there will be sunny skies and patriotic-sounding music and a farmer on his tractor plowing a field and so on.

They won’t need to go into detail. How for millions of people, the only choice will be no health care coverage at all. How for millions more, the fact that they still have a plan – albeit reduced in scope – will keep them tethered to jobs from which they’re ready to move on.

Don’t think that the Republicans are worried about how they’re going to sell this bill once they pass it. They know how to do that.

6. The only course of action is to stop it. To keep fighting it. To not rest until it is a burden to Republicans every time they even mention the idea. Realizing that this is something that needs to be done to individual members – one by one.

Because each circumstance is different.

In Kansas, rock-ribbed conservative Jerry Moran is making noises that he’s opposed to his party’s proposal. At the very least, unlike many of his colleagues, he had the guts to hold a town meeting to hear opposition to the bill.

That opposition worries about how many people will lose coverage and will health care become more expensive.

There are those who are skeptical that Moran’s objections are serious – that, in the end, he’ll cave to the national party and vote for the measure.

But very public displays like the one in Palco can only help the cause of preserving a health care system that, with some small problems, works. Obamacare is a success, and that fact registers with people who benefit.

Keeping up the pressure now is the only hope. Because once a bill passes, the selling of it will take everyone’s breath away – in some cases, literally.

1. It’s Wednesday, July 5, 2017.

2. It’s the 80th anniversary of the introduction of Spam. The luncheon meat, not the email.

3. It seems as though the purveyors of Trumpian hate are angry that one of their own got skewered by CNN last night.

So many people – including the cetriolo who occupies the Oval Office – were set agog earlier this week by a video posted on Reddit. It showed Trump in his pro wrestling promotion days tackling someone whose head was replaced by a CNN logo.

How amusing! He’s really taking it to those fakers! And Trump loved it so much that he just passed it on.

But, of course, here’s the thing:

The people at CNN have names that they put behind what they do. And, as the creator of the video learned, they have lives as well – some of them, in fact, have religions that they’re proud enough to proclaim. One of his memes pointed out the folks at CNN who are Jewish, as if that was another reason to hate them.

Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper can be attacked at will. But “HanAssholeSolo” thought he could hide behind the anonymity he and others believe they have when they post bullshit online.

Oops.

When you post stuff like that, you’re fair game. CNN’s KFILE team worked at finding out who made the video and the Jewish meme. And it succeeded.

So much so that when it confronted the guy who did this, he asked that his name not be revealed. It turns out he really didn’t mean what he said, and he fears for himself and his family if he’s discovered to be that guy.

He couldn’t put his real name on what he created. Unlike Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper and everyone else at CNN.

So CNN agreed not to tell who it was. On condition that he not do it again. Otherwise, forget it.

4. The CNN haters are calling this blackmail. There’s a whole Twitter hashtag around that theme this morning.

And the reason they’re doing that is they’re terrified.

Terrified that they’re being manipulated. By people craving their attention. By people looking to exploit them, for political gain or personal fulfillment.

Trump has tried to label everything reported by legitimate news organizations as fake news. But maybe what the story behind the video shows is that when reporters like those at CNN do their jobs, they expose what’s really fake.

It must crush the hearts of the haters that the masterpiece of anti-CNN sentiment turned out just to be a stunt to get their approval. All of them, including Trump. The guy wasn’t a true believer – he was merely an attention grabber.

Because when it came time to stand behind what he did, the guy refused. Apologized and asked to maintain his anonymity.

(And, by the way, if the guy really was 15, as some of the idiots posting indicate, don’t you think CNN would have reported that, too? )

I’ve seen the e-mails some of the reporters at CNNMoney receive when they do a controversial story – it’s depressing how vile and ad hominem people can get over stories about oil prices and health care.

And here’s the thing. Most people don’t have the nerve to say the crap they say in anonymous posts to someone’s face. They would feel like idiots if they did so.

That’s not just my view.

“To people who troll on the Internet for fun, consider your words and actions conveyed in your message and who it might upset or anger,” says the guy who posted the video, writing on Reddit. “Put yourself in their shoes before you post it.

So to those posting with the #CNNBlackmail hashtag, a couple of things.

One, find out how blackmail laws work. The guy who made the video asked to remain anonymous. CNN was under no obligation to oblige, and didn’t demand money or any other form of remuneration to provide that anonymity.

Frankly, I would have loved to have seen his name all over the place. That might be a good way to tone things down in this country – seeing someone face the consequences. But I guess CNN saw it differently, and that’s fine.

Secondly, what the critics of CNN can’t prove today is that CNN got this wrong. They can’t prove this isn’t the guy who created that meme.

Which goes back to what John Adams said: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

That’s what CNN is about. You might ask if the guy you put your faith in to make America great feels the same way.

Because you people are getting played. Bigly.

1. It’s Friday, June 30, 2017.

2. Lena Horne was born 100 years ago today. Somehow, this video seems appropriate. 

3. This has been quite the week, this final week of the year’s first half.

It seems appropriate that we’re coming into what, for a lot of people, will be a long holiday weekend. The Fourth of July is Tuesday, and Monday will be one of those days when almost no one goes to work or, if you can, you work from home.

4. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency yesterday. Not because of a hurricane or tornado or flooding or even locusts.

He decided the New York subway system is falling apart so fast that it’s a dire situation for the people who ride it every day.

Sure, I think an infusion of money and some much-needed attention are important. Fix the tracks. Fix the trains. Fix the stations.

I can’t remember how many years it’s been since the first signs telling how long it is until the next 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 train arrives. I know it was at least 30 years after Washington did it. And that it would be nice if those signs finally made it to all of the lines.

But as I pointed out Wednesday, the subway system’s problem isn’t just that it’s old and falling apart.

Mass transit requires more than just giving some jobs to maintenance people.

It requires imagination. It requires the same level of innovation that has, in my lifetime, changed what people do in train cars from reading the newspaper to watching a news conference live on a handheld device.

That, Gov. Cuomo, should be on the agenda.

It’s the 21st century. Let’s ride like it.

5. I don’t want to belabor the points I made Tuesday about CNN.

Suffice to say, I still think it was wrong for the network to – and I’ll use CNN’s terminology – accept the resignations of three members of the investigative team over a less-than-thoroughly-vetted story about a Trump associate.

Trump and his sycophants have trumpeted what happened to these guys, one of whom is a friend and former boss.

And if you thought the Trumpistas had some sort of moral compass to acknowledge the sacrifice of these men and the network, fuggedaboutit. There are some who think it emboldened the cetriolo in the White House to tweet out his attack on MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough yesterday – particularly after Scarborough had the nerve to defend CNN’s people in a tweet the day before.

But there’s one other point I want to make.

When Trump screams about how CNN is fake news, is he referring to Arwa Damon? Who has risked her life in the Middle East so that Americans know what the hell is going on in the hell of places such as Cairo and Mosul?

When Trump’s White House touts supposed CNN-damaging video by a fraud such as James O’Keefe, does it realize O’Keefe would get spontaneous diarrhea if he were in anything like the situations Damon faces on a daily basis?

And Damon is just the latest in a long line of CNN journalists – on camera, running the camera or behind the scenes – who have put their lives at risk to show the world as it is.

When you walk through the doors of CNN – in New York, in Atlanta, in Washington, in London and everywhere else – you carry with you the knowledge that you’re on the same team as people with the guts of a Christiane Amanpour or a Nic Robertson.

You can certainly criticize CNN sometimes. In recent years, it seems a little too focused on the horse race of politics, and not enough on the issues. I go crazy when I see a lot of talking heads on the air, too.

But CNN has, since its inception in 1980, tried to be the network of record. And whether that record pertains to something easy, like a political speech, or something hard, like sending a reporter into an area where a nuclear power plant has failed, it has made an effort that other legitimate journalists admire.

Earlier this week, my daughter delivered on her Father’s Day gift, taking me to the Tony award-winning play “Oslo.”  It’s about the secret process in which Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization engaged that resulted in the 1994 peace agreement.

At one point, an Israeli official yells about how the world is watching CNN show the slaying of Palestinian children by security forces in Gaza. And how that makes Israel look like a demon in the eyes of the world.

That is CNN’s power. That is the pride of the people who work there.

To call it fake insults them all. Including me, and I’m not there anymore.

And it’s a key part of Trump’s strategy – discredit CNN, and people will believe what they want to believe. Which for Trump’s supporters means whatever he tells them.

But a phony from Queens won’t succeed at hurting CNN. Only CNN can do that to itself. Holding itself accountable is right. Cutting away the people who make it great as a matter of political expedience isn’t.

1. It’s Wednesday, June 28, 2017.

2. It’s the 20th anniversary of Mike Tyson biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear. It’s also the birthday of Richard Rodgers.

Being able to convey these facts through the magic of the Internet is one of my things.

3. I am really into “Twin Peaks: The Return.”

My understanding is that there aren’t a lot of us who are. The ratings are supposed to be dismal.

And I can understand why. It’s not a TV show for people who want resolutions. It’s more about looking at the world through someone else’s vision.

In that way, it’s more like watching video art. Some people are into Jackson Pollock. Some people are into Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. “Twin Peaks” is definitely more the former, but there are certainly elements of the latter.

I think I’m going to do what some of the critics suggest – stop trying to figure out the plot and go along for the ride. I can always figure out what David Lynch was trying to tell me when it’s all done in September.

4. New Yorkers brag about everything. That’s one way you know who we are (I’m including myself even though I’ve lived in the suburbs for 30 years).

Don’t get us started on pizza and bagels.

The subway system is one of our bragging points. Other cities have systems of comparable size and scope. I’ve been on trains in London, Paris and Seoul.

None of them – none – are as convenient and easy to use as New York. In Seoul, I felt as though there wasn’t a single station that it didn’t take me 5-10 minutes to either get to the street or make a connection.

That’s not New York.

One other important point. Unlike London and Seoul, you don’t have to hurry up at night. New York runs 24/7/365.

But here’s the thing: Construction on this system began around the turn of the century. The prior century, as in 1900.

Parts of it are more than 100 years old. And riding on some of these lines, you are very inclined to believe it.

Yes, there are new branches. I haven’t been on the new Second Avenue line, which consists of three whole stations. I have been to the new station near the Javits Center and the new Hudson Yards.

5. But this system is aging. Fast.

It’s been about three years since I rode the New York City subway system on a regular basis. I used to take a bus to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and then, like Billy Strayhorn, take the A train to my job in Columbus Circle.

But I’ve been on the trains three times in the past two weeks. And with a little distance, it’s easy to see how much the system has deteriorated. Not that it was so great in 2014.

There are the crowded trains and platforms. There are the service disruptions. There are the people who insist on dancing on a packed car as a way to make money.

And perhaps most important, there are the safety concerns.

Yesterday’s derailment at 125th Street was a scary but, fortunately, not fatal reminder about how things have declined. That doesn’t mean the next problem won’t be a catastrophe.

6. Waiting at Times Square last night for the shuttle to Grand Central got me thinking about the subway.

Did the people who designed those first lines in Lower Manhattan and the guys who dug up those tunnels under Eighth Avenue and Broadway and Lexington Avenue think about the future?

About me and my daughter and the young woman with the THERAPY SESSION t-shirt with the headphones and the guy speaking to the woman he was with in a language I thought was French and all the others?

That we’d be standing there on a June night in 2017 using the same damn tunnels they dug up when Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain and Thomas Edison were contemporaries.

They probably thought their creation would last. Maybe they even thought it would make it as long as the 21st century.

But I also believe they expected something else to come along. That our technology and our know-how would find a way to make some better way to transport people.

We found better ways to communicate. Just about everybody on that platform was holding a rectangular device telling them the Mets lost or what time they’re supposed to meet Billy at the bar or to leave the garage light on.

The shuttle cars were adorned with the same color scheme, a dark ad for a new TV series on a cable network – ideas that weren’t gleans in anyone’s eye when they drilled through the bedrock under 42nd Street.

But, for some strange reason, transportation is different. In cities, we’re still riding on early 20th century tracks. The newest thing is the cars on the street, and they’re not necessarily a blessing.

I’m not sure why we don’t ask the question – why are these things the way they are? Why do just try to rebuild something that’s far older than we are when we don’t do that for anything else?

Why is there no smarter, cleaner, faster, more efficient way to get people around a city, or even from place to place? Why do we rely on old stuff for this one thing?

We split atoms, put men on the moon and made it so I stand in New York and see my son live in Seoul on a 5-1/4”x 2-1/2” chunk of metal and plastic in my hand. Why can’t I get somewhere fast and safely without resorting to 19th and 20th century ideas?

As New York’s subway continues to decline, and the system gets older and more taxed, maybe it’s time for the visionaries to reimagine our transportation. Maybe it’s time to pull out the blank piece of paper and figure out how you move people without resorting to what already exists.

It’s often said you can’t reinvent the wheel. But the question should be, why not?

1. It’s Tuesday, June 27, 2017.

2. It’s the birthday of Bob Keeshan, aka Captain Kangaroo, and Vera Wang.

3. I left CNN nearly three years ago in a mass buyout of veteran employees – they made me a sweet financial offer that was pretty close to perfect. So I left on what was on my part – and I am confident on CNN’s – good terms.

The one person in our newsroom who had trouble believing that I was doing this purely in my personal interest was Lex Haris.

He was managing editor of CNNMoney, and he thought I was reacting to some argument we had over something that I don’t even remember.

Lex couldn’t believe that I – that anyone like him, me and most of the other people in the newsroom – would leave a job like ours on their own volition. For something as pedestrian as money. His thought was that we love it too much.

So when I saw the story last night that Lex and two others resigned because of a story that wasn’t up to CNN’s standards, I wasn’t especially convinced that this was – to use a term Lex would appreciate – according to Hoyle.

I don’t know what happened with the Scaramucci story. CNN doesn’t say it’s wrong – it’s just not up to its standards and wasn’t fully cleared by its legal team. Maybe what management says is what went down.

4. But I can’t believe – I’ll never believe – Lex messed up. This is a man whose standards as an editor were among the highest I’ve seen in 40 years as a professional journalist.

Of course, being Lex, he stood up the way a grownup does. He was the head of the investigative team that produced the story. It’s his team.

“I’ve been with CNN since 2001, and am sure about one thing: This is a news organization that prizes accuracy and fairness above all else,” he said in a statement released by CNN. “I am leaving, but will carry those principles wherever I go.”

So Lex took the hit, sullying his name and reputation because it was the right thing to do. It’s what any manager with a smidgen of integrity – much less the mass that Lex Haris possesses – would do.

Integrity like that is something completely lost on the trolls cheering his downfall, including the cetriolo in the Oval Office.

5. This is a terrible time. The effort to make people doubt institutions they’ve trusted and counted on is insidious and constant.

There’s an effort to sell the ideas that the poor are taking free stuff, young women thrill at the idea of having an abortion and the rich need tax breaks to boost economic growth.

CNN and other news organizations of integrity – no matter how their editorial line slants – can shed a light on whether those things are true or not. That’s a problem for selling a narrative that might not jive with reality.

Because that siege is so intense, CNN can’t misfire. Any mistake gives the assailants something to trumpet. Maybe that explains what happened in the case of this story.

I tell my news editing students that mistakes are awful, and they get an earful – or a page full of notes – when they miss the libelous stuff I plant in their midterms and finals.

But I also tell them that mistakes are part of the job. That if you do 1,999 things in a 10-hour day, it’s really hard to do all 1,999 right – especially the last 247 of them. Be thankful you’re not doing brain surgery.

Just own up to your mistakes. That’s been the most important thing to tell young journalists. There might be mistakes in the history of journalism that have been fatal to someone, but they’re very rare. If a mistake isn’t fatal, and you can make it right, do so.

In the case involving the Scaramucci story, making it right wasn’t enough. In fact, it’s not even clear that it was wrong in the first place, and that wasn’t enough.

For CNN, it gets to hear another round of “fake news” cries, orchestrated directly from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. It has to hear criticism from organizations that don’t have 0.00000001% of its credibility. Its people – and I’m biased because I love some of them as much as my own family – have to deal with slingshots from relative invertebrates.

That’s an awful message to send to my students. That you can’t ever, ever mess up without fearing the consequences to yourself or the people around you.

So I’ll change my lesson plan. If the best editor I know takes the rap for something like this, maybe any mistake really is like botching brain surgery.

The chill on this profession is becoming a freeze. My friend Lex Haris paid a high price for it.

I wish him well.

And to anyone looking for a good man to run a first-class newsroom, I can recommend someone really great.

1. It’s Monday, June 26, 2017.

It’s the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision that legalized same-sex marriage in the United States.

2. There’s a temptation to say that the ruling didn’t cause the country to fall apart, as its detractors feared.

But it did. It just played out differently than we might have thought.

Because we have Trump as president. And when you think about it, when you really think about it, how much did factors such as the same-sex marriage ruling influence that election?

This is something I started thinking about yesterday while doing two things. Seeing the coverage of gay pride parades across America and the world. And rereading something I wrote exactly a year before to the day.

My post on June 25, 2016 was entitled “For Those Who Think Young,” which was the tagline for Pepsi-Cola commercials in the early ‘60s.  It followed the Brexit vote in England and noted that there was a sharp generational divide over the issue – young people voting to stay and older people voting to leave.

What I said was that the American election had the same dynamic. Younger people welcome change and openness – heck, their motto is practically “bring it on.”

An older generation, starting maybe a little younger than my 63.2 years, doesn’t feel that way at all. Change is a problem. Things were better back when.

3. That manifests itself in lots of ways.

Which brings us to the pride parades. If you’re my age, I want you to think really hard about the scenes you saw yesterday in places such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco. 

Can you imagine them 40 years ago? 50 years ago? Seriously?

They would have been the subject of some Johnny Carson’s monologue jokes. Some snickers at the office or from the kids at school the next day.

And there are a lot of folks in my generation who would share that sentiment, having not moved past those ideas. In their eyes, when America was great, all this sexual stuff didn’t exist or, more likely, remained hidden.

But there are generations after mine for whom the idea of a gay pride parade is no BFD.

They have embraced the changes in society that have transpired over the past 50 years and they’re ready to move forward. They don’t give a damn that older people haven’t quite absorbed all this.

It’s not just the idea that who you love is who you love. It applies to religion – either you don’t have one or, if you have one that isn’t mainstream, that’s fine too. That’s why young people embrace eastern cultures and don’t seem as bothered seeing a women wearing hijab on the street.

It’s harder for us – us being 60 or so and older. It seems part of the nature of getting older that you get more set in your ways, and set in your views of the world. And you tend to be nostalgic – even when that nostalgia overlooks a lot of the flaws of the past.

That’s why older Americans will say that making this country great again, the keywords of the Trump campaign, isn’t about racism. It’s about bringing back manufacturing jobs and the feeling of American superiority in the world. Forget that the past also included segregation and other forms of discrimination. The old ways were the comfortable ways, and that’s what we need to feel again.

Young people don’t want comfort. They just want to see what’s next. And what’s after that.

4. What inspired the title of this is a line uttered in the 1970 congressional campaign. Richard Nixon’s vice president at the time was Spiro T. Agnew, and he was out stumping for Republican candidates.

Except one. Charles Goodell, the senator from New York who had been appointed by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to the seat left vacant by Robert Kennedy’s assassination in 1968.

To almost everyone’s shock, Goodell – the father of current NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell – decided to vote more like Kennedy than a Republican like Barry Goldwater. This pissed off the Nixon White House, and it campaigned for James Buckley, the Conservative Party candidate.

Agnew, in one speech, labeled Goodell the “Christine Jorgensen of the Republican Party.”

Now, Christine Jorgensen was the first really famous transgender person. Born George Jorgensen, she underwent medical procedures in Europe to become Christine. And she became a spokeswoman for transgender people.

So Agnew was trying to diminish Goodell with his line. It might have worked – Goodell finished third in the 1970 race that Buckley won.

But would that be as much as a diminutive in 2017?

With my generation, probably. Being called a Christine Jorgensen would imply a major change in stature. It would also call someone’s masculinity into question.

A younger generation would shrug off that comment. So what? They’re so used to seeing transgender people, or gay people, or whoever. It’s the subject of popular TV shows, the nightlife of the generation.

That’s no BFD. LOL.

5. There’s one other complication here.

Generational conflict isn’t new. You had it with your parents, and they had it with theirs, and so on.

But the problem with my generation is that it’s so freakin’ big. The post-World War II population boom was the largest in world history.

And because of medical advances, we’re not going to die off that fast. We routinely live into our 80s. Back when I was a teenager, 70 was thought to be pretty impressive. Forget that – that’s dying young in this era.

Because we can’t be pushed away that easily, the divide between us and the younger generation is going to grow. It’s going to get worse.

The Christine Jorgensen Line is the one that divides a generation that sees the Agnew line as an insult from one that sees it as just plain stupid. In 2016, there were just enough people on the former side of that line – especially in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – to get Trump into the White House.

So the trick for those who find Trump offensive – my hand is raised – is to move that line just enough to the point that he disappears.

The debate over this Republican health care bill could be that point. Or it could be a huge problem.

The idea behind it is to appeal to young people. They pay less than older people, mainly because most of them don’t need health care. They’re healthy. We’re not.

That’s the calculation. Older people will squawk at this plan. But they’re not big on change, and can be persuaded that Trump is going to bring back the good old days.

If the Republicans can sway younger people into thinking that this is good for their bottom line, they can skew the divide and hold on.

If they can’t, the Christine Jorgensen line might just hit them where it hurts.

That’s what’s at stake in the next days and weeks.

1. It’s Friday, June 23, 2017.

2. It’s the 50th anniversary of the Glassboro Summit between President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin – who really was a second fiddle to party leader Leonid Brezhnev, but I don’t think that was understood by the average American.

We thought this meeting at Glassboro State College in southern New Jersey was a big deal at the time. It is largely forgotten now.

3. If you want to understand the Senate health care bill, all you have to do is read Tami Luhby’s story on CNNMoney.  No one knows this issue better. There’s also this one written by Tami and Jeanne Sahadi – two of the smartest people I’ve ever worked with.

So I won’t burden this post with details about the bill. Read Tami’s story, and then see if you agree with the following:

4. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are betting on one thing – the selfish streak in a lot of Americans.

They’re betting on people who have enough money that health care isn’t a burden, although there are very few folks on that list. If you’re ill enough, the cost is astronomical. But that’s not catastrophic for people with worths of eight, nine, 10 or even 11 digits.

They’re also betting on healthy young people. And not just those who don’t get sick at this point in their life.

If you’re my 22-year-old son, you might wonder why you have to pay for maternity care coverage, as mandated by Obamacare. If you’re my 26-year-old daughter, you might wonder why you have to pay for wheelchairs and crutches when you’re a Crossfit fanatic.

The answer is that if everyone has to get coverage for ten categories of essential services, it makes it cheaper for all who have to use them. It’s the way insurance works.

And, at some point, we all have to use at least one of them. So maybe you’ll never need mental health care, but you might break your leg on a ski slope or get hit by a car. The essential benefits provision is there for you, too.

There’s no way to eliminate all the costs. But they can be limited, and that’s what the Affordable Care Act attempts to do.

So to say that people who don’t need certain benefits shouldn’t have to pay for them is positioned as an appeal to help Americans keep their hard-earned dollars. It’s not. It’s an appeal to selfishness – you should only spend on services that help you and not the community at large.

By allowing states to waive the essential benefits, the Republicans hope to whittle away at the good the Affordable Care Act has done. Americans generally like it now, after years of lamenting it, because – for the most part – it has delivered on its promise of getting more coverage for more people.

And for those who had employer-supported health care, it made sure they got the best possible coverage – no preconditions, no lifetime caps, kids covered until they’re 26, free annual checkups and more.

This is all before you consider what the cuts to Medicaid would do to those who rely on that program – mostly the elderly and the poor. Those cuts are just plain immoral.

5. What’s got me worried is that Democrats remain on their heels.

Yes, they’re defending Obamacare and mobilizing their constituents. They’re urging people to lobby those Republicans queasy about the Medicaid cuts – they need three to stop this from happening.

Forget Rand Paul and those conservative clowns like Ted Cruz. They’re interested in making this bill worse. They’ll fall in line like the tame seals they are.

It’s Republicans like Dean Heller of Nevada who’s got the pressure on him. He’s up for re-election next year in a state that Hillary Clinton won last year. The Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, supports the Medicaid expansion the McConnell bill ends.

Heller said today he can’t vote for this measure.

That’s too tentative.

What Democrats need to do is go after the moderate votes with a plan of their own. To work with some of them to address some of the concerns they have with Obamacare and find a way to make it better.

They have to lobby as hard as McConnell and the Republicans will lobby for their monstrosity.

In this fight, Democrats can’t just say no. They need to assert themselves as the party of ideas – this is true for issues besides health care. They need to get people to say that “Yeah, that makes sense” when coming up with ways to make health care more available and more affordable.

I’m not sure what those ideas are. But I’m sure smart Democrats in the Senate do.

Now’s as good a time as any to get going.

1. It’s Wednesday, June 21, 2017.

2. It’s summer! We slogged through the winter to get to this day and this time of year, and here it is.

3. There’s another reason today is one of my favorite days of the year. It’s my baby brother’s birthday, and he’s among the most fantastic people on this planet.

So we’ve got the summer solstice, my brother’s birthday.

And let’s throw in Rebecca Black – she’s 20 years old today, which – unfortunately for serendipity – is not a Friday.

Those are some good reasons to be happy.

4. Here’s one not to: The results in yesterday’s special election for Georgia’s 6th Congressional district.

Why did Jon Ossoff (thanks to my friends Charlie and Karen Reina for calling out yesterday’s typo) lose?

Well, for one thing, despite Trump’s 38% or so approval rating, it was still a Republican district. Tom Price won by about 24 points just seven months ago. Ossoff got Karen Handel’s margin down to less than four.

The second reason is the time between the initial balloting, in which Ossoff outpolled Handel by a 2-to-1 margin, and yesterday’s runoff. Two months is a long time – and, in this case, it gave the oodles of outside money that supported Handel a chance to reframe the election.

People in that district must be thrilled it’s over – it being the most expensive House election ever. And when fatigue replaces enthusiasm as the electorate’s prevalent feeling, it’s not good for the status quo challenger.

My guess is people in the district got tired of this race and the natural reluctance to make a change led them to the Republican.

5. The following are NOT reasons for Ossoff’s loss:

One is Ossoff’s campaign. There are some who believe he should have been more aggressive.

But if that’s not who you are, don’t do it. Ossoff believed a positive campaign would win – against the district’s history, he didn’t miss by much. A more negative campaign might not have come as close.

The other thing I reject is the idea that it’s the national Democrats – in particular, Nancy Pelosi – who’s toxic.

Now, I’m a Nancy Pelosi fan. I think she did a great job in the short time she was Speaker of the House. I wish that’s what she was now.

But the decade-long vilification of Pelosi by Republicans have more to do with her being the leader of the Democrats than in anything about her.

If Steny Hoyer or James Clyburn or some other veteran had been chosen to lead the party in the House, he would have been subject to the same mud-dragging. That Pelosi is a woman probably helps Republicans reach their target audience better.

As Democrats, we’re going to have get past this. We elected an African-American president. We have talent of all manner of person, because that’s a core belief of the party.

The way to do it is to make our case. To spell out what we’re for, rather than what we’re against.

We don’t need to talk too much about Trump any more. Everybody knows what he is.

We need to talk about what we’re going to do to make people’s lives better.

It’s why the Democrats should have developed their own Obamacare improvement plan long before the Republicans started their crusade to end it.

It’s why the Democrats should develop an infrastructure improvement plan that will help provide jobs in places where they’re needed.

It’s why Democrats should put forth their own homeland security plan that incorporates and empowers all races and religions, and rejects blanket bans that just radicalize the disaffected.

It’s why Democrats should develop an anti-crime program that gets police and communities working together to stop the lawless.

It’s developing a set of principles and programs to entice people.

It should not be about what we’re against. That will be self-evident. And with lowlifes like Trump, Ryan, McConnell and others, the contrast will be starker.

And there’s one other point. Something I said earlier this year

6. Democrats should compete everywhere. Everywhere. For every office.

Democrats didn’t put 1% of the effort into the race in South Carolina’s 5th district that they put into Georgia’s 6th. And the result was the same – in fact, Democrat Archie Parnell actually came closer to winning than Jon Ossoff did in Georgia.

Both districts were thought to be solid red. They turned out to be just a reddish shade of purple.

It’s a lesson.

Go for it. Every time. At the very least, make the Republicans sweat. Make them defend the seat. They have money. Make them spend it.

You can’t win if you don’t play. Don’t concede a single seat. Not in Alabama or Wyoming or Utah or Mississippi.

Don’t think any office is too small. Town highway supervisor. Village council.

They’re all important. Go after them. Make an effort. Put forth the party’s philosophy of inclusion and helping people.

This is the first day of summer. Show people some light when the other side is showing darkness.

That’s what Democrats are supposed to be about.