As we celebrate America’s anniversary we also celebrate the anniversary of each of our connections to America. So this date is a date of remembrance, of reflection and, hopefully, a date that serves as a call to that action that will enhance America and make it the place we want it to be.

The Pledge we take since we have been kids is to an “indivisible” nation “with liberty and justice for all,” “con liberated y justicia para todos.”

But our nation is not indivisible and there is neither liberty nor justice for all. Instead, there is division and an arrogant denial of the liberty that only comes when poverty is left behind and the justice that is experienced only when politics plays no role, Lady Justice is blind and only the scales make a difference.

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What are some of the weird, often profane, and sometimes inspired things we see as the political parade passes by? Here are some of mine.

A total absence of humor. I know that running for office is a serious business and is not supposed to induce yocks.  But give me a break. In all the four hours of gab in the Democratic “debates,” did anybody say anything that produced even a smile? I’m not talking about prepped “a funny thing happened on the way to the studio” material.

You can be super aggressive in your save-America-and-the-world plan, but do you have to be that dreary?  Nobody in that crowd was even inadvertently funny. Tied for the “eat your spinach!” figurative and actual admonitory tone are Senators Warren and Sanders. With those two it’s like getting laughs at a murder trial. Sanders and his hollering got a great put down from John Podhoretz when John called Bernie “the Pavarotti of Commies.” (JWH called this a defamation of Pavarotti.)

Even the mean and obnoxious Eric Swalwell (yes, him, you know, HIM) didn’t get an inadvertent giggle out of the audience when he made his “when I was six years old” dig at Biden. President Swalwell? As they say in Hollywood of iffy projects, “don’t dress.”

Trump’s shtick is tiresome. His firecracker, lighting bolt utterances, often polished off with a feigned insouciance, make me want to take a nap.

Think about it. If the “resistance” was made of millions of snoring resisters who don’t give Trump the time of day, maybe that could work. July 4’s dumb Trump parade, if it falls on its ass, might start that trend.

The contra to my somnolence is that I should be wide awake because Trump is ruining the country. Point well taken, but I still need a nap when I look at him.

Marianne Williamson needs therapy. I don’t care if she gurus the shit out of Oprah. She can play a crazy aunt in anything and it would work. Wait! She figures if Trump can be President so can she. Hmm.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is dumped on by the Chief Justice. How must it feel for the old fellow to be told by the Chief Justice that his sole stated reason for the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census questionnaire was “contrived?” It wasn’t to enforce the Voting Rights Act after all!

“Contrived” is judicial-speak for “lied.” To bang in the coffin nails, the  Chief Justice added that if the Administration can come up with a good reason in time for the 2020 Census, the Court will consider it. And the 4:08 to East Hampton from Penn Station will arrive there at 4:30!

The shock of this kind of drubbing may get Ross’s facial features and lips to move when he speaks. Don’t dress!

Rachel Maddow is in perpetual mourning. Either that or she is dressed by a costumer at a mortuary. She only wears black. This is disconcerting because she’s quite lively in the way she reads transcripts of court hearings, even in her Juilliard-style interpretation of judicial little nothings. “The Judge. Sit DOWN counselor. I’ve HEARD your argument!!” Hey, it’s a one hour show; how much of it can she use to dump on Ivanka?

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That’s all folks. Happy Fourth!