America's 250th birthday is now nearly upon us. The semi-quincentennial, whatever else one might say about it, has been a decidedly muted affair compared with the last big national anniversary, 50 years ago. The bicentennial was a major event, and not just on July 4, 1976, but for a long period leading up to it. It was such a big deal, in fact, that it wound up drawing into its orbit no less than four American presidents or future presidents.

Gerald Ford occupied the White House in 1976, and he presided over a series of patriotic events that many boomers and Gen Xers still view today with nostalgia. But his experience is only part of the bicentennial story.

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Fans of Tom Clancy's bestselling thriller novels will unfortunately find little of Jack Ryan's moral clarity in the latest film inspired by the series. "Jack Ryan: Ghost War," one of the Top Five movies on Amazon Prime, follows CIA agent Jack Ryan as he tries to stop an MI6/CIA team created to fight Islamist terrorists. A pro-America version would make the team fighting the terrorists the heroes, but that isn't the case in "Ghost War." Instead, the villain appears to be the head of the post-9/11 antiterror task force, while the protagonists (led by Ryan) are people who want to shut the task force down.

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UFC Freedom 250—the fight lineup planned for the White House's South Lawn on Sunday, President Trump's 80th birthday—is getting a lot of criticism. Sen. Adam Schiff called it "out of touch," White House historian Edward Lengel said it "transcends the bounds of tastelessness." Joe Rogan, a former UFC commentator, has said, "I don't like it."

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Unknown to most people alive today, Bennett Cerf was at one point one of the most famous people in America. Cerf, who co-founded the publishing firm Random House, was a columnist, best-selling author, and regular participant on CBS's What's My Line? He was also, despite his WASPy name, a Jew.

Many of the major publishing houses were founded by Jews. Besides Random House, there were also Simon & Schuster, Knopf, and Viking, among others. Cerf named his company Random House in part to avoid a Jewish-sounding name but also because he planned to publish Modern Library classics and other books "at random."

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With the departure of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, we've now reached what can be called an actual Cabinet shakeup. Over the past six weeks, we've seen the resignation of Kristi Noemfrom the Department of Homeland Security, Pam Bondi from the Department of Justice, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer from the Department of Labor. When we include the departure of Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary and Secretary of the Navy (once a Cabinet-level position) John Phelan, it is clear the Trump administration is in the midst of an appointee overhaul.

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