1. It’s still Wednesday, June 29, 2016.

2. It’s 85 degrees right now, late in a summer afternoon.

3. So, yes, it’s an odd time to bring up the holiday season song “Sleigh Ride.”

Actually, it’s not. On this date 108 years ago, the composer of the song, Leroy Anderson, was born.

“Sleigh Ride” is Anderson’s best-known work. It’s far from his only one.

In fact, the piece I associate him with most is “The Syncopated Clock.”

4. If you’re from the New York area and are my age or a little older, you’ve heard “The Syncopated Clock.” You just might not know its name.

You know it because it was the theme of “The Late Show,” the movie that WCBS-TV, Channel 2, aired right after the 11 p.m. news. It’s what the station put up against “The Tonight Show” with either Steve Allen, Jack Paar or Johnny Carson.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video showing the opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3cl6QoZSDw

“The Late Show,” of course, is now the name of CBS’ talk show that follows the local news at 11 or 10, depending on your time zone. First, it was David Letterman’s show and now it’s Stephen Colbert’s.

It’s strange that I encountered the Leroy Anderson birthday. Because I’ve been thinking a lot about what has changed in my life in 62-1/4 years (minus 3 days).

The first thing you always think of is the technology. I’m writing this not at my desk at home, but in beautiful Rockland Lake State Park.

I’m using a 5-1/2-year-old iPad – Apple calls it “vintage” but in the late 1960s or early 70s I would have called it a miracle. I would have been able to sell tickets so that people could watch me use it.

I’m also listening to a playlist of 70 songs on my iPhone – back then, I would have need a giant turntable, speakers, some kind of receiver, six or seven vinyl LPs and a place to plug all this in. It would have taken me about four trips to the car just to get the stuff to listen to.

You get the idea.

And yet, a lot of the radical changes in our life are tangental to the technology. You can’t say they’re divorced from it, because tech influences everything.

Here’s a case in point:

Look at your neighborhood or the town where you live. In the 60s and 70s, you could avoid shopping malls, which were a relatively new phenomenon, by buying stuff around the corner. Shoes. Clothes. Toys. Records. A baseball glove.

Now, the only communities where those types of stores exist are crafts communities, places aimed at attracting tourists or day trippers. Now, the only commerce conducted in villages is usually take-out food, convenience stores, beauty salons and places to work out.

That change, the decline of the local merchant, is partly due to the efficiency of the mall, the big-box stores and the warehouse clubs, and partly to the full blossoming of online shopping. A world of Amazon boxes on doorsteps.

We used to need phone books and the Yellow Pages. When was the last time you used one?

We used to deposit mail in corner mailboxes. About the only place to drop off mail now is the local post office.

So here’s how “The Syncopated Clock” and “The Late Show” come in.

It might come as a shock to those of you in your 40s or younger, but when I graduated from high school 44 years ago this week, TV stations went off the air in the middle of the night. And, of course, all stations were local – there was no cable.

Most of them broadcast until 1 a.m. or so. Then after whatever they played last was done, there would be a booth announcer – a guy who read stuff on the air live – who would first read that the station followed the broadcasting standards of good practices. Whatever they were. I assume now that they meant that people weren’t going to curse on TV, but who knows.

That was followed by some sort of sermon, usually – but not always – delivered by a Christian minister (I could swear that I saw a rabbi once). Then the announcer would say that the station had concluded another broadcast day, and that programming would resume at 6 a.m.

Then there was a film of an American flag with “The Star-Spangled Banner” playing in the background. Sometimes, the film got creative and included places such as the Capitol, Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty before ending with the fluttering flag.

Then there was silence and a gray fuzzy screen.

And then came the test pattern. For most of my childhood, it was in black and white, since my family got its first color TV set in 1968. The test pattern showed the name of the station and was accompanied by a high-pitched tone.

And it would run for the next several hours.

When I was little, and would wake up early. I would scamper to the TV and turn it on just before the station came back on the air. Somewhere around 6 a.m., there would be that wonderful moment when the test pattern all-of-a-sudden ended.

Just like that. It wasn’t that hard to make me happy back then.

First, there was the gray fuzzy screen. Then a different announcer would tell you it was the start of the station’s broadcast day. Then there would be that “Star-Spangled Banner” film, the reminder about the mysterious good practices, another sermon and then the early morning programming – I seem to remember a lot of education films for the farmers, of which there were few even back then in metropolitan New York.

“The Syncopated Clock” symbolizes the end of that world to me.

Channel 2 used it to introduce “The Late Show” at 11:30. My Mom, from whom I get my abysmal sleeping habits, would stay up to watch it.

When I was a teenager, and could stay up with her, I remember being introduced to some classic films by “The Late Show.”

One was called “The Big Carnival,” a movie about a shady reporter that was released in theaters as “Ace in the Hole.” It starred Kirk Douglas and, if you haven’t seen it, it is in many ways one of the darkest films ever made.

Another was “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Watching it on “The Late Show” in the weeks around Christmastime was how most people were introduced to it. The intimacy of the small screen probably helps its impact on an audience.

At some point, though, WCBS started showing a movie after “The Late Show.” It was “The Late Late Show” and it also used “The Syncopated Clock” as its theme. And then, sometime in the early 70s, it ran another “The Late Late Show” around 3 a.m., again with “The Syncopated Clock.” And then it added another around 4:30, again with the song.

And finally, it reached the next day. TV was on 24 hours a day. Other stations followed suit. Local stations left movies mostly for the cable channels. The test pattern and fuzzy gray screen and sermons and national anthem all disappeared. 

Or maybe they didn’t. I don’t watch TV much, and especially at 3:30 a.m. If I did, I’d watch live news on CNN or a movie on HBO or the prior evening’s Mets game. I wouldn’t watch infomercials or old sitcoms, but they’re around, too. Maybe there’s a test pattern I haven’t come across yet.

So “The Syncopated Clock” is kind of a Rosebud for me. It reminds me of a different time when I was younger and things were different.

Notice I don’t say better. I can’t say better. Somebody must want to watch TV at 3:30 if all these channels are on the air at that time.

For those people, all today is is the 108th birthday of Leroy Anderson, who wrote “Sleigh Ride.”

And they’re ticked off that I’m putting a holiday song in their head six months ahead of Christmas.

1. It’s Wednesday, June 29, 2016.

2. Yesterday’s attack that killed 41 people at Istanbul’s airport was horrific, but hardly unique. It is similar to the attacks that have killed dozens in Brussels and Paris in the past year, and all are odious to anyone with even a trace of humanity.

But what the Turks seem to be noticing today is that while there have been condemnations of the attack from around the world, there doesn’t seem to be the outpouring of sympathy and rage that follows attacks in western Europe.

And yet, what happened in Istanbul is much more representative of the evil confronting the civilized world, and why it’s really important that politicians in the West follow President Obama’s example and not equate the attackers with Islam.

Right now, there’s an assumption that the vermin who committed this atrocity were backed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State. ISIS – or Daesh, the name the group itself hates, which makes me wonder why we don’t use it more often – hasn’t claimed responsibility for the attack. That’s unusual, because it took credit for the Orlando nightclub shooting even though evidence points to Omar Mateen being a sick jackass acting alone.

But whoever did this, for whatever reason, wasn’t striking a blow for Islam and against infidels. Because most of the victims in Istanbul were Muslims, traveling during the start of the final week of Ramadan.

In fact, despite the wailing of the Trumps and others who see a war against Christianity, most terrorism committed by people claiming to be Muslims is against other Muslims. It’s not even close. 

4. Whoever did this didn’t give a damn whether or not the people in the airport were Sunni or Shiite. They didn’t give a damn, period.

They’re nihilist thugs. Giving them any kind of credence by calling them rebels or radical Islamists gains them more credit than they ever deserve.

They have no legitimate grievances. They have no noble or religious purpose. They’re evil because they can be. They’re losers in life who have hidden behind some gang colors and want some sort of domination. When they can’t have that, they want to show that they can disrupt the peace of people who are not nearly as miserable as they are.

So yes, I feel as bad today as I did in November when Paris was devastated and in March when it happened in Brussels. That it happened in Istanbul, with mostly Muslims involved, doesn’t make it less heinous. It just shows this kind of thing for what it is – unadulterated murder.

And I hope that after the bastards blew themselves up, they were condemned to the hell they so justly deserve. 

1. It’s Tuesday, June 28, 2016.

2. I don’t get the sense that Pat Summitt was warm and cuddly. And she most assuredly could have cared less what I thought.

But you have to be an idiot not to recognize her great accomplishments. Elevating women’s basketball. Winning eight NCAA championships. And the standard I set for excellence in college athletics: Seeing to it that all her players left Tennessee with a diploma to go with those on-the-court memories.

As someone with family members afflicted with dementia, I sympathize with the coach’s family, and imagine that her death this morning brings not only sadness but relief. I hope they find solace at this awful time.

3. Now that the House Benghazi Report has issued its report, revealing virtually nothing that we didn’t already know about the September 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya, what is Fox News going to obsess about now?

Yes, there were mistakes made. But none of them bordered on the kind of malfeasance that might have justified a 2-year, $7 million investigation whose purpose, as one of its proponents indicated, was to hurt Hillary Clinton’s chances to become president.

I’m sure Trump will tweet about it once someone explains to him where Benghazi is.

As for the folks at Fox News, Benghazi has been the dog whistle for stoking Obama and Clinton hatred the past four years. It’s their equivalent of Norma Rae holding up the union sign. Every time you think you can have a logical discussion about the nation’s direction with these folks, they cough up “Benghazi” and that’s the end of it.

I’m guessing the calls for a deeper investigation will emanate from Fox any day now. Gotta fill that airtime with something.

5. If I were a European Union member, I’d want a response to the British vote to leave like the one given by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

She’s basically saying that she’ll do what she can to keep the EU together. And she’s telling the British, who want a sweetheart trade deal, that they can’t have the privileges of EU membership without the obligations.

I mean, I don’t know what the Brexiters were expecting. In fact, I don’t think they knew what to expect. They seem to believe that the EU will take the decision to bail with a stiff upper lip and they’ll all be mates after all.

But if I’m not mistaken, there are Italians in the EU. So I’m guessing that live-and-let-live thing is a non-starter with those folks.

1. It’s Monday, June 27, 2016.

2. A new poll out this morning shows Trump with an 8-percentage-point lead over Hillary Clinton.

In Texas.

That’s a state where you’d expect Trump to be double digits ahead. It seems to be the perfect Petri dish for the racist, isolationist germs he’s been spreading for the past year.

But Texas is also Austin and good-sized Latino and African-American populations. It’s a bellwether for the changes in our population that we expect to see over the next half-century.

There’s been lots of talk that Texas, which turned solid red after native-son Lyndon Johnson pushed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, could become purple in the next few years as the population changes.

I’ve been hoping that would happen in 2016. That Trump could actually lose Texas. It’s still a bit of a dream. But eight points in four months isn’t impossible. 

3. But here’s why today is a tough day for the white yahoos who give Texas its bad reputation: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-3 to strike down the ridiculous law imposing onerous restrictions  on places where abortions are performed.

Among the things the law did was require buildings where abortions are performed meet the standards of a hospital emergency room, with ultrawide hallways so that two surgical gurneys could pass each other. This, despite the fact that most abortions are not surgical procedures.

The proponents of this law, and others like it around the country, all parroted the same line – that  they were only looking out for the health of women.

Which is crap. By limiting the places where women can deal with their health issues – these places aren’t just for abortions – they put women at far greater risk.

The High Court ruled wisely in striking down the law, calling the provisions a violation of the Constitution.

Advocates for women’s health and safety cheered the ruling, of course. But it’s a costly victory – in the three years since Texas passed the law, many of the places where abortions have been performed shut down because of their inability to meet the regulations.

4. And it’s a reminder that the abortion issue has been a pain ever since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.

The opponents of Roe v. Wade cloak themselves in the term pro-life so as to present those who favor unlimited access to abortion as pro-death. But they don’t seem so pro-life as to care much about the women affected by them. These same people tend to be opposed to making contraception and prenatal care readily available, to making sure women who go through with a pregnancy get adequate time to care for a new child before returning to work.

Making abortion nearly impossible to get won’t end abortions. Hardly. Women, especially those who’ve become pregnant due to rape, are going to find ways to end that pregnancy if they don’t want to be sentenced to forced motherhood. They’ll put their lives at risk to do – and that’s hardly pro-life under any reasonable standard.

Those who cheer today’s ruling need to remain vigilant. Don’t think for a second that the people who came up with these cockamamie building restrictions and hospital residency rules aren’t plotting some other stupid thing. Don’t think they’ve given up on demonizing Planned Parenthood, an organization that helps women and men deal with health and family planning.

1. It’s Saturday, June 25, 2016.

2. Not excited about the expected return of Jose Reyes to the Mets.

For one thing, he’s not the same physically as he was in those glory years of the mid to late ‘00s. There are not going to be a lot of triples, even in a ballpark originally built for him to hit them.

But more important, I’m not comfortable with rewarding a guy with a homecoming after a domestic violence arrest. The Oct. 31 incident, in which Reyes was accused of grabbing his wife by the throat and pushing her into a sliding glass door, resulted in no conviction because his wife declined to cooperate with authorities.

I understand that Reyes that, whatever the circumstances, hasn’t been convicted of a crime. He has the right to pursue his career.

Just don’t expect me to give him a warm welcome. Let’s see how serious he is about remorse for the incident before fans start singing the “Jose” version of “Ole, Ole, Ole” again.

3. The postmortems about the Brexit vote continue. My favorite, by the way, is the one in which people who voted “Leave” were just registering a protest and weren’t serious about it.

Surprise!

4. One interesting fact that’s emerged is that older Britons overwhelmingly supported leaving the European Union while younger ones and those who live in London turned out en masse to vote “Remain.”

The breakdown is stunning, and yet not surprising.

Older people don’t generally react well to change. I’m not sure why that is. Maybe it’s because the changes in their lives are generally negative. Their health is worse. Their kids have left the house. They can’t work the new-fangled technology. Their idea of what’s good in a movie, TV show or song is now out of style, relegated to oldies channels.

So there’s a projection, perhaps, that this change isn’t good, and maybe they should do something about it.

Their problem is that they think static is good and reverting is better. The key word in “Make America great again” isn’t “great.” It’s “again,” as if some utopia has been lost in all the change. Whatever happened to flip phones? Why are there all these replays in baseball? Why are those people speaking Spanish?

But if you’re young, it looks different. This is OK. But it’ll be even better when. When Apple works out the bugs. When you can be exactly who you want. When you create more energy than you use. When this Peruvian dish is available everywhere. When you can pick up a few Korean words.

What the British vote on exiting the European Union was about, and the U.S. election is shaping up to be about, is whether or not we as a nation are up to the idea of handling rapid change. Not just in technology – that’s been changing constantly forever. Can we change how we think about our neighbors, about the makeup of our population? Can we change how we think about the way people live and make it sustainable in a world that isn’t going to stand still?

Young people aren’t threatened by the idea that the world is changing. They embrace it and adapt.

The Brexit vote infuriates young people because they were doing just fine, thank you, taking on the challenges. In fact, they were loving it. If anything, they want things to be better.

It’s the same in the U.S. This country, one forged in a revolution that embraced all the new ideas of its time, fails if it stops embracing the challenge of the future.

Young people are ready to do that. And, even though I’m fast being an old guy, I’m on their side.

It’s Friday, June 24, 2016.

Well, the cranky old man on the train in “A Hard Day’s Night” won after all.

I didn’t think Brexit would happen. I didn’t think the English people – let’s distinguish who actually did this from the Scots and the Irish – wanted to play down to the stereotype of being closed-minded, stuck-in-the-past bigots.

But they did.

I have some quick thoughts:

1. Just 13-1/2 months ago, David Cameron won big time. The Conservatives romped over divided opposition and formed a government completely without the Liberal Democrats they need five years earlier.

Now, he’s headed out of 10 Downing Street. He received an unusual “no confidence” vote – from the people, not his fellow members of Parliament. And, as happens when your power relies on people agreeing with you all the time, you lose the authority to lead.

Hard cheese, as they say over there, because tough luck is too obvious.

2. As everyone predicted, world financial markets took a body blow from the British vote. The Dow fell more than 600 points. Stocks tumbled more than 3% in London, nearly 7% in Frankfurt and 8% in Paris.

Paul Krugman in The Times isn’t worried about the impact of the financial markets as much as he’s worried about the economic effect on the U.K., which will now have outsider status in its trade dealings with its biggest partner.

But here’s the thing about the impact on financial markets:

Yes, they’re resilient. The money that dropped from everyone’s 401(k)s during the 2008 crisis came back and then some. So, even though I’m a retiree who’s counting on my savings for food and medicine at some point, I’m not calling my broker and screaming at him to save me.

But, days like today do nothing to inspire confidence in financial markets. People remember the big hits, and – even though they’re likely to get the money back – they don’t like the nausea they get watching their portfolio’s value diminish.

It’ll be another grievance that feeds the kind of dissatisfaction that led to yesterday’s vote.

3. Here’s a message to Trump supporters: Today is a mere annoyance next to what will happen to markets if you commit political suicide and elect that maroon.

One of the things that’s happen in today’s market is that investors are fleeing to the safety of U.S. currency and government debt.

That’s the blessing of the world’s most stable economy. That’s what’s meant by the full faith and credit.

That’s what Trump doesn’t understand.

He sees debt as something you negotiate, or just get out of all together. He has said that it doesn’t matter, because the government prints money.

So if that debt isn’t worth what we say it is, people will flee from rather than to it. A world that already has few safe havens would lose what everybody thinks is the safest.

It’s a bad day when investors think China, with a government that always seems to be guessing what to do, is more stable than the United States. And that bad day would be Nov. 9 if the election goes the wrong way.

1. It’s Tuesday, June 21, 2016.

2. It’s summer. The days are long. The weather is warm. It’s the best.

But my glass-half-empty side reminds me that, starting tomorrow, the days get shorter. The darkness is coming back. So savor the light, the 5:15 am sunrises and bright spots in the sky after 9 pm (Or even 10 in some places). Alas, they go away.

3. I’m afraid I knew the Senate would choke on the idea of even a micromeasure of gun control. Proposals that would have required background checks on all sales and prevented sales to anyone on a no-fly list died in the votes sought by their Democratic sponsors.

But here’s what I think: It’s better to have these votes than to sit and wring hands every time there’s a horrific massacre. “Thoughts and prayers” has become a punchline. Democrats should keep voting – put the idiots on the other side on record as being in favor of mass murder.

It’s should be a badge of honor that you’ve voted three times, five times, 10 times, as many times as it takes to get sensibility in our gun laws. Make the bastards at the National Rifle Association spend themselves into insolvency.

The tendency after these votes fail is to slink away and shrug. Don’t do it. Because, and it gives me incredible sadness to say it, there’s another shooting incident days away. There always is, and always will be as long as this country does nothing about this sickness.

4. “Remain” has taken the lead over “Leave” in polls ahead of Thursday’s vote on whether the U.K. should leave the European Union.

That might be because of the determined effort of Remain supporters.

I follow J.K. Rowling on Twitter and her passion on the Brexit vote rivals Harry Potter’s determination against Lord Voldemort.

Today, soccer star David Beckham weighed in on why Britain should stay. “We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong,” the world’s best-known soccer star said on Instagram. “For our children and their children we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone.”

And who’s on the other side? Some cranky politicians who sound like the disagreeable man on the train in “A Hard Day’s Night.” And a guy who gave his name in court as “Britain First, Death to Traitors” when charged with killing lawmaker Jo Cox last week in Birstall.

You might be angry about certain things going on in the U.K. But when you see that the others on your side are crabs and murderers, you might have a second thought: If those dregs on my side, am I on the right side?

We’ll find out in two days whether this reassessment of who’s on your side leads to sanity in Britain and support for Remain.

5. This same sort of reassessment might happen in the U.S. presidential campaign.

White supremacists, anti-Semitic scum, gun violence worshippers and other lowlifes have shown their sympathies to Trump in this campaign.

Now, I understand that there are few people who are persuadable at this point – one new poll says only 22% of voters believe they could change their mind.

But, if you’re backing Trump, you might at some point check who’s with you on this.

It’s not pretty. Anyone who’s a lock to get a big thumbs-down at the pearly gates. No one who appreciates a summer sunrise, Lebron James’ shot block in the NBA Finals or a good potato knish.

That day of consideration is still 4-1/2 months away, and there are Americans so filled with bile that these people actually look OK to them.

But eventually, people who say they want to make America great again will have to decide if folks who’ve done everything they can to betray the country will be their teammates. Like their counterparts in Britain, they might have second thoughts.

1. It’s Friday, June 17, 2016.

2. Earlier this week, former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe tweeted out the following: It is not enough to simply beat Trump. He must be destroyed thoroughly. His kind must not rise again.

I don’t know Mr. Plouffe, so I can’t say which Trump outrage sparked that particular reaction. Was it patting himself on the back for “predicting” the Orlando nightclub massacre? Was it reiterating the proposed restrictions on Muslims? Was it the implication that his former boss – you know, the guy who had the guts to get bin Laden when the evidence wasn’t overwhelming – was implicit in this terrorism?

Or was it all of the above, and maybe even more?

There are times when I ask myself why this makes as angry as it does. I’ve been following presidential politics since I was 6 years old and rooted for JFK. I’ve lived through Nixon, Agnew, George Wallace, Reagan, George W. Bush, Cheney and other miscreants.

But I think I’m coming to understand.

We live in a nation that elected an African-American President and Indian-American governors in Louisiana and South Carolina, and saw an Italian-American woman become Speaker of the House. Its heroes include Oprah Winfrey and Muhammad Ali and Lin-Manuel Miranda. It celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision a year ago that marriage is a right guaranteed by the Constitution to anyone regardless of the gender of their partner.

But there are those who aren’t crazy about all that. Because none of the above could have happened when I was born 62.2 years ago. The 1950s America that was so great it needs to be made that way again was exclusive and available to a few.

Here in the suburbs, I live around those people. They’re angry about losing privilege, and can’t brook the idea that they need to share the bounty of this country who don’t look or sound like them. They’ve refused to see change as good and necessary for a nation to flourish.

Trump taps into their anger. Big time. He gives it license. The horrific reports of the behavior of people at his rallies, with their misogyny, racism and out-and-out hatred – behavior he stokes rather than quells. 

Trump’s fan club might have some legitimate beefs about the impact of trade on their jobs. Their opinions on real issues, while I agree with not a single one – have the right to be heard.

But the rise of this jackass has brought out the latent hatred in our country. It’s been dormant, not dead, after all we think we’ve been able to celebrate.

It’s pathetic. And it needs to be shown that it’s irrelevant to 21st century America – a country that whose majority with an amalgam of what we now call minorities. Being white will become one of them.

Change is coming. These folks can either learn to adapt and make peace with it, or get stomped with it.

So I more than second David Plouffe’s sentiment. I take it further.

I don’t merely want Trump to lose. I want his defeat to be historic.

I don’t want to see Trump win a single state. In fact, I would love if we could admit 10 more states that he could also lose. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, at least temporarily. East Dakota. Old Jersey. We could borrow New Brunswick from Canada and Chihuahua from Mexico.

I’m willing to have Hillary Clinton only take enough electoral votes to be elected President for sure. I’d give states to Gary Johnson of the Libertarians and Jill Stein of the Greens and even some write-ins.

As long as Trump and his ilk get nothing. Nothing but the scorn of the majority of the American people, and consignment to the sections of history books where this country’s worst enemies reside in infamy.

3. I’ll try to go back to talking about real issues next week.

1. It’s Thursday, June 16, 2016.

2. David Wright has been the face of the Mets since pretty much the day he stepped into the uniform in 2004.

Alas, his long string of injuries – including his attempt to play through spinal stenosis that might cripple other people – seems cruel to both Wright and fans who root for him and the team.

The announcement that he is undergoing surgery to repair a herniated neck disc is one more blow to a man who has represented the Mets with strength, pride and class.

I would love nothing better than to see David Wright back on the field for my favorite team, and I’m sure he’ll give it his best. He always does.

3. A British member of Parliament was killed today while meeting with constituents in Birstall, about 200 miles northwest of London.

A 52-year-old man is under arrest, the BBC reports.

The incident involving the Labour MP, Jo Cox, comes amid the heated referendum campaign over whether or not Britain will withdraw from the European Union. Cox, who was 41, supported Britain remaining in the EU.

The campaign is an echo of what we’re seeing here with the Trump phenomenon – it’s surprising that the supporters of Brexit don’t wear red baseball caps reading “Make Britain Great Again.” In this case, the ease in which people can immigrate between EU nations is making Britons – especially the English – anxious.

The Brexit vote is a week away. Much as it would be a tragedy if the United States disengaged with the world by following Trump, it would be bad for Europe and the World if the United Kingdom acts out of fear and does the same.

4. As a liberal Democrat, the idea of filibustering in the U.S. Senate is unsettling. The filibuster has most famously been used by racist Southern senators to kill civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s.

But then there was yesterday. And while it might seem hypocritical to some, there certainly were differences to the talkfest staged by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and other Democrats – and, yes, one Republican.

For one thing, yesterday’s filibuster was aimed at advancing, not stopping, legislation. In this case, it was an effort to get a vote on two measures that would at least try to stem some of the mass shootings we’ve seen in this country.

For another, instead of holding the floor by reading recipes or “A Tale of Two Cities,” the Democrats actually spoke to what they believe about the epidemic of gun violence. 

5. Murphy and a lot of other people are revolted by the notion that “thoughts and prayers” are the only thing Congress can offer after an atrocity such as occurred Sunday in Orlando.

Congress can actually try to do something. It can pass legislation to try to keep weapons out of the hands of people who would commit such acts. And while I don’t think it seems like too much to ask, it can also limit the type of weaponry available to that which you wouldn’t use in a war zone.

The two measures Murphy and the Democrats want a vote on would restrict sales of weapons to people on terror watch list and would expand background checks for buying a gun. They’re pretty weak compared to what’s needed, but, hey, you gotta start somewhere.

The Times’ story on the filibuster took a very skeptical tone. Murphy ended his filibuster after nearly 15 hours when he said there was an agreement for a vote on the proposals. But the Times says there probably would have been votes anyway, since it’s impossible for the Republicans leading the Senate to vote on anything without Democratic complicity.

But while the filibuster went on, it was a sight to behold. Murphy and most of his colleagues offering the arguments for why something needs to be done. Why it’s unacceptable that this country hasn’t acted to curb these mass killings.

Orlando is the biggest so far, with 49 victims. Because it took place at a gay nightclub, it reeks of homophobia. Because the shooter’s ancestry was Afghan and he claimed allegiance to ISIL, it hints at terrorism.

But what it really is is some warped mind who got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon and killed people because he couldn’t think of anything else worth doing.

6. The filibuster was great. But I’m still skeptical.

We talk a lot about doing something when these killings occur. Yet, if the nation didn’t do anything after the killing of elementary school kids in Connecticut in 2012, it won’t do anything when the victims are at church, a holiday party, a college or a nightclub.

I’m hoping to be proven wrong.

1. It’s Wednesday, June 15, 2016.

2. I was just in a dentist’s chair, undergoing a procedure requiring 20 shots of Novocain.

I’d still rather endure that than sit on a bus stuck outside the Lincoln Tunnel for over an hour, as apparently happened this morning when a truck overturned on the helix entering the tunnel.

3. Every time I’ve been to Disney World, I’ve heard hotel workers, golf course workers, lifeguards, pool attendants and boat operators warn about the possibility of alligators. In particular, they advise not wading into ponds, lagoons or lakes. There are even signs posted warning not to go into the water.

But not everyone gets the word. Last night, a 2-year-old from Nebraska got dragged into a lagoon near the Grand Floridian, one of the most lavish of the hotels around the Magic Kingdom.

It seems unlikely that this story will end happily. I feel for the family.

4. I didn’t know that anyone harbored the idea that soldiers – American or Iraqi – got rich taking U.S. money earmarked for the effort to topple Saddam Hussein.

It doesn’t matter if Trump meant that American soldiers took the money, as it first sounded to those reporting it. Or that he meant Iraqi soldiers – our presumed allies – as he later had his mouthpiece try to explain.

He’s basically maligned people who put their lives on the line in support of the United States. If he really meant Americans, I wonder how that plays with those who believe he’s an advocate for veterans. And with so many real issues in this country, why would anyone sane raise this now?

It used to be that casting aspersions on our people in uniform, even accidentally, was a death blow to someone running for office. Welcome to the bizarre world of 2016.

5. Many years from now, I hope American history classes watch President Obama’s comments on terrorism yesterday to see how a real leader acted in the early 21st century.

The President took his critics to task in so thorough a way that, in the 24 hours since, their only whine can be that he seems more angry at them than the guy who murdered 49 people in an Orlando bar Sunday morning.

In particular, the President went off on the ridiculous notion that he doesn’t understand the terrorism problem because he refuses to use the term “radical Islam.” As if, as he pointed out, just saying those words will make the problem go away, or the forces combatting terrorism stronger.

“There has not been a moment in my seven and a half years as President where we have not able to pursue a strategy because we didn’t use the label “radical Islam,” Obama said, according to a transcript from The Washington Post. “Not once has an adviser of mine said, “Man, if we really use that phrase, we’re going to turn this whole thing around.” Not once.”

He said the implication that not saying “radical Islam” is hampering the fight against ISIL, as the President calls it, or al-Qaeda, would surprise those who’ve been involving during his administration – including the guys who nailed Osama bin Laden five years ago.

6. And why won’t the President use the phrase? Maybe because the phrase itself implies that the nation’s 3.3 million Muslims and the world’s 1.6 billion are complicit with the action of people who hide behind the mantle of the religion to commit murder, rape and other despicable acts.

“That’s their propaganda, that’s how they recruit,” Obama said of terrorists. “And if we fall into the trap of painting all Muslims with a broad brush, and imply that we are at war with an entire religion, then we are doing the terrorists’ work for them.”

7. There was so much more to his comments – his blasting of Trump for proposing a ban on Muslims entering the country, the idea that some Republicans have proposed putting Muslims under special surveillance. And his pointing out that such ideas are completely counter to both our values as a nation and the fight against real terrorists.

His anger showed in his expression and voice. It was a masterful putdown of people who have been trying – and failing – since 2009 to delegitimize this president.

Obama’s bet is that his critics will be consigned to the ignominy that others similarly short-sighted and foolish endure in our history. The silliness of his critics will be their shame to bear throughout time.

Hopefully starting on Nov. 8, when the Republican presidential nominee gets his ass kicked.