It’s July 8, 2016 and this is the first edition of 20 Questions Friday, my second attempt at a regular Friday post that requires a little less effort to form a long coherent thought. This after the Yes or No thing kind of petered out.

Instead, I’m going to try to semi-form 20 short coherent thoughts into everyone’s favorite sentence type, the question.

Here goes:

1. Who could have imagined a week that began with the celebration of American independence would end as badly as this one is?

2. Five Dallas police officers died because a bunch of thugs were armed to the teeth, but does anybody seriously believe that will get reasonable gun control laws any more than killing elementary school kids in Connecticut?

3.   Did you know that gun stocks often rise sharply immediately after mass shootings because sales skyrocket to people who think there’ll be gun control laws THIS TIME ?

4.   Does the attack on the Dallas police sufficiently debunk the asinine thought that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun?

5.   Are there people who believe it’s impossible for there to be respect for law enforcement officers and respect for all people who interact with them?

6.   Does this country’s penchant for violence scare away tourists from other countries?

7.  Is there any state in the union that Trump carries if he picks Newt Gingrich as his running mate? Or Chris Christie, for that matter?

8.  In fact, isn’t it possible that Trump will lose New Jersey by a bigger margin if he picks its wildly unpopular governor?

9. Wouldn’t a true Republican who was being vetted for Vice President not publicly decline to be considered so as not to give the appearance that nobody wants to run with Trump?

10.  Do you seriously believe Trump wouldn’t serve as President if he were elected President?

11.  Is it also possible that Trump would be President for about three days and then say, “This is harder than I thought” and hand it off to the running mate he’ll name next week?

12.  Shouldn’t House Republicans give me back 1/365th of my federal taxes for wasting yesterday with hearings about the non-indictment of Hillary Clinton?

13.  Do you agree with me that Bernie Sanders’ convention speech exhorting voters for Hillary Clinton is going to be one of the great political moments of the 21st century?

14  Just wondering: Did anyone see the Republican convention speaking schedule Trump promised to release yesterday – that was delayed from Wednesday?

15.  Is it because a speaking gig at the convention in Cleveland isn’t seen as a career opportunity?

16.  Why is there nothing about Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment suit against Fox News kingpin Roger Ailes that surprises me?

17.  Why do I think that men who work in many of the big newsrooms were on their best behavior the day after that suit was announced?

18.  Did it really take seven years for Lord Chilcot and his buddies to figure out that it was a dumb idea for Britain to join the Bush-Cheney war in Iraq?

19. I know the U.S. airlines got routes awarded, but can any American just say “I’m not doing anything this weekend, maybe I’ll go to Havana?”

20. Are the odds pretty good that next week will be better? If not, why not?