1. It’s Monday, August 22, 2016. The election is 78 days away.

2. I’m going to miss the Rio Olympics. And I’m not.

It was fun to watch these sports that you don’t see all the time. I saw more water polo and table tennis in the last two weeks than I saw in the 62.3 years prior.

But then, there’s a reason you only watch these sports every four years. They’re not so compelling as to make you wonder where the nearest water polo match will be taking place.

Then again, if the Olympics whetted (or wetted) your appetite for water polo, the NCAA men’s season is about to get underway. The women – who, from their gold medal in Rio, appear to be better at the sport – play in the spring.

3. President Obama goes to Louisiana tomorrow to see the aftermath of the recent flooding first hand.

I don’t think he’s going there in order to placate his critics who say he cravenly ignored the flooding while on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. While he might have not been there in person, his administration is working hard to get aid to people, with FEMA expanding its relief effort again today. 

I think Obama’s going to Baton Rouge tomorrow because this is the right time to do it. Because his visit might actually comfort, rather than inconvenience people, which is the goal.

4. Strangely though, last week might have been the right time for Trump’s visit, even though it might seem to some as though he was there to make political hay.

Because here’s the thing: Trump’s obsession with being at the top of the news every single day has obscured important stories that are out there languishing for attention.

The flooding in Louisiana is just the biggest of several. The wildfires in California, the unrest in Milwaukee, the economic crisis in Venezuela, the turmoil in the Philippines and the ongoing battle against the Zika virus are also stories lost in the fog of Trumpmania – and, to be fair, the Olympics.

But the Olympics are now over, so that distraction is gone. And maybe as part of his reset, under new campaign management, Trump might be trying to get people to focus on real issues instead of what stupid thing he did. Going to Louisiana to spotlight the crisis there might be a way to do that.

Then again, this morning, Trump acted like a neighborhood biddy in gossiping about two morning news show hosts. So maybe that reset isn’t going so well.

5. By the way, in case you need a reminder about what’s at stake in Louisiana, here’s a terrific piece from Saturday’s “All Things Considered” on NPR.  

It features a woman who is dealing with the devastation of flooding in her life for a second time. She was a victim of Hurricane Katrina 11 years ago.

It is heartbreaking to hear. But it’s important to hear. Because when we see the news, sometimes we forget that it involves real people and real problems.

The flooding in Baton Rouge is a reminder. Not a welcome one, but a reminder nonetheless.

1. It’s Wednesday, August 17, 2016.

2. Is this guy who’s taking over the Trump campaign, Stephen Bannon, quitting his job as Breitbart’s executive chairman?

Why bother? Just formally annex Breitbart, um, News to the campaign. Or vice versa.

3. Apparently, this shake-up is happening because Trump’s poll numbers remain low. 

And, of course, Trump sees it this way: He’s not putting enough Trumpness into the race, going easy on anyone who says “No” to his predestined march to the White House.

It’s time for Trump to take off the gloves and be a man. Stop playing patty-cake with Mexicans, Muslims and Hillary Clinton.

That’s what Putin would say. That’s what Roger Ailes says. That’s what Rudy Giuliani says. And Trump probably can’t get three better examples of real men.

Let it ride, Trumpy. Let it ride.

4. One of the casualties of Trump’s dominance in the news is the fact that real stories getting short shrift.

One of them is the flooding in Louisiana, following 20 inches of rain in two days.

The numbers are staggering: 40,000 homes destroyed. 30,000 people rescued. At least 11 people have died so far.

To describe the flooding as some of the worst in the state’s history underscores how bad this is. This is the state that suffered through Katrina more than a decade ago.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune’s Web site has links to charities that are taking donations to help the people of this region. 

Louisiana’s floods. California’s wildfires. Venezuela’s economic collapse.  

All important stories that are ongoing. All lost in the Trumpian fog.

Yes, news organizations bear a lot of the blame. They could try to focus on these stories.

It just doesn’t seem to last. Trumpmania’s sustenance is the daily train wreck – today, it’s the campaign shakeup, last week had President Obama founding ISIS. Newsrooms find it hard to turn away.

5. The cancellation of Larry Wilmore’s “Nightly Show” isn’t a shock, but it’s a disappointment.

The biggest problem from the outset has been the format. Despite Wilmore, who’s a genuinely funny guy, the show always feels like Bill Maher’s “Real Time” on HBO or even one of those stupid point-counterpoint panels that make up way too much of cable news.

You never see “Nightly Show” bits trending on social media the way other late-night comics do. Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and James Corden are masters of this. Even working from the less popular TBS, Samantha Bee and Conan O’Brien occasionally score online. Trevor Noah’s getting better.

But Wilmore and the “Nightly Show” were just too in the weeds to get the kind of traction that makes people watch clips over and over again.

Certainly, you can give it credit for being high-minded. But high-minded might not be what people are looking for at 11:30 p.m.

It hoped that there’s something out there for Wilmore’s outsized talent. And the complaint that there isn’t enough diversity on late-night television is valid.

So maybe, Comedy Central, it’s time to think about something involving women.

6. I’m not planning to write the rest of the week, although there’s an outside chance of a 20 Questions Friday. Enjoy the remainder of the Rio Olympics, and go USA!

1. It’s Tuesday, August 16, 2016. It’s 84 days until the election.

2. Northwestern’s Jordan Wilimovsky finished fifth this morning in the Olympic event the fewest people would want to take part in: the 10-kilometer men’s open water swim off Copacabana Beach in Rio.

The finish of this race was crazy. About 10 guys finished seconds apart after 6.2 miles in the water. So, while I’m sure Wilimovsky is disappointed about not getting a medal, we Wildcats are proud of this young man.

3. Expecting the Affordable Care Act to work perfectly in its first decade seems unreasonable.

There have been great successes in the two years since implementation: a sharp reduction in the number of uninsured Americans, the end of disqualifying preconditions, free physicals, among other things.

But there are still a few bugs in the system. Today’s decision by Aetna to pull out of hundreds of healthcare exchanges is one. The company says the markets it’s leaving are a drag on its earnings.

Aetna becomes the third company to pull back from the exchanges. Humana, whose acquisition by Aetna is opposed by the Justice Department on antitrust grounds, and United Healthcare have also withdrawn significantly from this key aspect of Obamacare.

Since the enactment of the law, these companies have seen a significant increase in revenue, and their stock prices have surged. There’s something in Obamacare for them. And they need to figure it out, because their actions will just increase the clamor for a single-payer system – which could leave them on the outside looking in.

The Aetna announcement might just be a negotiating ploy with the administration. But with the 2017 sign-up not that far away, playing around with Americans’ health care isn’t a great way to endear yourself to them.

1. It’s Monday, August 15, 2016. It’s 85 days until the election.

2. I always root for the Americans in the Olympics. Except last night.

It’s hard to root against Usain Bolt. It’s not bragging if you can do it. And last night, fighting age and eight other guys out to stop him, he proved he’s the fastest man in the world again.

That he does it with the flair he does it makes it just that much more entertaining.

He’s the pride of his homeland (although, and this is for you, Bob Costas, he’s still no Bob Marley!) and it’s easy to understand why. Good for Jamaica. Good for Bolt.

3. Trump is unveiling his anti-terrorism plan today.

Supposedly, the plan includes a longer questionnaire that asks a potential immigrant’s intentions, including their views on “tolerance” and “pluralism,” according to The New York Times.

Which means the only people who will get past the questionnaire are the ones who will be trained by terrorist groups to get past the questionnaire. Real refugees, people looking for a better life after fleeing the horrors of Syria and Iraq, aren’t going to be particularly good as nuances of democracy.

Let’s see if Trump finds a way to turn the unveiling of his plan into yet another campaign blunder. That’s what he’s good at.

4. In a normal presidential campaign, the revelation that Trump’s campaign manager might have taken money from people accused of subverting the government of Ukraine would be a devastating blow.

But what the Times reports today about Paul Manafort probably doesn’t make Trump’s top 25 blunders.

Maybe Trump should make Manafort take his questionnaire, asking about “honesty.”

It’s August 12, 2016, 88 days before the election, and time once again for 20 Questions Friday.

This edition will have more than its share of Olympic and Olympic-watching queries. Because, besides coping with an August heat wave, that’s what I’ve been doing.

Answer these if you choose:

— Wasn’t the “just kidding” thing that Trump’s trying to pull off about claiming President Obama founded ISIS a routine he stole from Steve Martin? Should Steve Martin sue him for plagiarism?

— Isn’t it more surprising that it took Hostess this long to come up with the home version of Deep Fried Twinkies?

— This one is inspired by my daughter: If these Olympic archers are the best in the world, why do they make so few bull’s-eyes?

— Will Trump show up at the debates?

— Why does NBC Olympics’ coverage use so many announcers with British accents?

— Is there any chance that, after tonight’s Yankee game, we never have to hear about A-Rod ever again?

— What is your favorite thing to drink in really hot weather?

— Is there something wrong with people who drink hot beverages on 105° heat index days?

— Will Simone Manuel’s thrilling Olympic win in the 100-meter freestyle encourage other African-American girls to hit the pool?

— Do female and male beach volleyball players’ skimpy outfits obscure the fact that these people are tremendous athletes in a tough sport?

— Isn’t it curious that countries with strict gun control laws, such as Germany and South Korea, are doing better in the Olympic shooting events than the United States?

— How come there’s no Olympic shooting event involving that renowned sporting weapon, the AR-15?

— Does anyone else have trouble with newer quarters not being accepted in vending machines?

— I agree that I’d rather see original movie projects over reworked remakes. But doesn’t an “Ocean’s Eight” with such terrific actors as Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham-Carter and Sandra Bullock, among others, make you a little curious?

— Speaking of movies, are you looking forward to “Southside With You,” the movie about Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date?

— Does anybody buy the Halloween stuff that’s already in stores on a 100-degree heat index day in August?

— Do you really want your kids to have Halloween candy that someone bought today?

— What are the odds that Trump will see that Hillary Clinton isn’t taking any flak from releasing her latest tax return and say, hey, that’s not so awful. I can do that?

— Is there a campaign somewhere in the Citi Field vicinity to make the Mets great again?

— Is it me, or is there something incestuous about the McDonald’s commercial with the girl who gets the Chicken McNuggets from a wide-eyed boy that turns out to be her father?

1. It’s Thursday, August 11, 2016. It’s 89 days until the election.

2. I’m not feeling guilty about watching so much of the Olympics because 10 days from now they’ll be over.

All right, a little guilty.

3. She must be soul crushing to other nations. So I’m glad Katie Ledecky is on our side. Imagine if she were a force for evil. Or Russia.

4. When the U.S. men’s basketball team started using NBA pros in 1992, creating the Dream Team, some complained that it was like using a nuclear weapon on the rest of the sport.

But just 12 years later in Athens, the U.S. men couldn’t even make it to the finals, settling for the bronze.

The team hasn’t lost since then, and maybe with Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and other all-stars, it shouldn’t. But yesterday, the men got a severe test from the Australians, holding them off in the final minutes. The 10-point win belied how close the U.S. came to losing.

And that’s great.

I’ve always believed the point of the Dream Team wasn’t to exercise American dominance. It was to make the rest of the world aspire to play better. Before the Olympics let NBA pros in, the U.S. was sending teams of college players, and they were mostly good enough.

But starting with Jordan, Bird and Magic Johnson and now to the current incarnation, the rest of the world knows it needs to play its best to compete. Some countries can’t. But Australia proved yesterday that it could stay with the Americans, putting out a bunch of current and former NBAers on their own.

The two countries might meet again in the finals. I wouldn’t write the Australians off.

5. Macy’s announced this morning that it will close 100 of its 675 full-line stores early next year. It also said it’s looking into doing something with four big downtown flagship store.

There was no specificity about which stores are involved, with the people who work in these stores getting the cold comfort that they’ll know before everyone else does.

I would think the safest Macy’s location would be the one in New York’s Herald Square. It’s what gives the company its identity – the focal point of the Thanksgiving Day parade and the plot of “Miracle on 34th Street.”

But when was the last time you wanted to buy something and thought, “Hey, I’ll go to Macy’s for that?”

The experience of shopping in a full-line department store in 2016 doesn’t, with precious few exceptions, engender warm feelings. The merchandise isn’t better than that of a chain store elsewhere in a mall. And if you think you know what you want, and are dealing with insomnia, you can order online at 2:27 a.m. and ship the stuff back if it’s not just right.

And these stores are getting squeezed at both ends of the human timeline.

On the one hand, do young people ever talk about going to Macy’s to shop when there’s something trendier and friendlier elsewhere in the mall?

On the other hand, older people begin to ask how much of their remaining life do they want to waste waiting for an overmatched sales person to either show up at the register or figure out how the byzantine formula for this week’s discounts work.

There’s one other problem as I see it.

Department stores used to be special places. Almost magical.

One that comes to mind is Marshall Field’s at the dead center of Chicago, State and Washington. The famous clock at the corner. One of the coolest parts was the working candy factory that produced the store’s signature Frango mints. The store was, like Macy’s in Herald Square, a symbol of the city it served.

Alas, Macy’s took over Marshall Field’s in the mid-2000s and made the dumb decision to rename all of the Field’s stores, including the iconic flagship, Macy’s. It reeked of big-footing from New York – or Cincinnati, both of which are headquarters for the company’s corporate parent.

Doing that in Chicago, in Washington and in other cities took away the special sensation of going to the Big Store in Town. If there’s nothing particularly special inside the store, and nothing particularly special about the store, why should anyone go to the store?

Maybe Macy’s will figure it out. Maybe closing these 100 stores and repurposing those unspecified four locations will make shopping there an experience again.

I wouldn’t count on it. Retailers, and not just Macy’s, need to start using their imaginations to figure out how to make themselves relevant in a digital world. Just closing stores won’t cut it.

1. It’s Wednesday, August 10, 2016.

2. Neither Katie Ledecky nor Michael Phelps are old enough to be elected President.

Phelps can run in 2020, but Ledecky has to wait until 2032.

It’s too bad. Because, if people could vote in 2016, either one would win in the watery equivalent of a landslide.

Over the past few nights in Rio, both swimmers have thrilled their fellow Americans with gritty performances. Both have done it with the pressure that comes with outsized expectations.

Ledecky has demonstrated the demeanor you would expect from a President of the United States. Calm. Determined. Measured.

About the only unpresidential thing she’s said was admitting that she was trying so hard in last night’s 200-meter freestyle that she almost threw up in the pool. For which those of us with high def TVs are grateful.

Phelps had a different course to the 200-meter butterfly gold. But his stare down of South African Chad le Clos, who seemed to be taunting him in the wait until the race’s semifinal, is part of a being a president too. All that mattered was beating le Clos, which he did, avenging the 2012 defeat in London.

Both Ledecky and Phelps have other races to swim. But they’ll come back from OIympics as heroes – as will Simone Biles and the other female gymnasts.

The Constitution says you have to be 35 to be President. Given the nature of the 2016 campaign, don’t be surprised if some of these Olympians get write-in votes in November.

3. OK, there’s no getting around Trump and yesterday’s comments.

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” Trump said. “Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”

That’s what he said. Watch the tape. That’s what he said.

Was it a joke, as House Speaker Paul Ryan suggests? Was it innocuous, as Trump’s sycophants claim, or an ineloquent way of mobilizing voters?

Or was Trump hinting that his friends who believe America should be armed to the teeth might do something about Hillary Clinton’s judicial selections using their beloved tools?

It’s rich that a guy who said at a rally last December “I know words. I have the best words” now needs people to explain the words he uses.

It makes you wonder how he got through Penn, an Ivy League school. Every other Quaker I’ve met or worked with was pretty articulate. Did they not have classes in which the student had to speak and make a point when Trump was waltzing through Wharton?

And then, keep in mind, this is a guy who has been a reality TV show star. So he knows that when he opens his mouth he needs to make what he says clear to the listener.

If he doesn’t, if a good percentage of the people who heard what you said believe you said X, and you think you said Y, there’s a good chance you really said X.

Now Trump could try to walk it back. He seemed to be doing that last night, with his tame Fox puppy Sean Hannity leading the way.

But an awful lot of people think Trump was advocating or condoning the assassination of Hillary Clinton. Given all the other crap spewed from his mouth since last summer, it just seems like the next step in a progression – unless he offers a full-throated apology to Clinton and the American people.

I would not bet money on that happening.

What’s next? Advocating insurrection? If “Second Amendment people” kill enough Clinton supporters, can they win the election for Trump?

We have 90 days to go. It’s hard for Trump to sink much lower. But, using the best words, it looks like he’ll give it a try.

1. It’s Tuesday, August 9, 2016. It’s 91 days until the election.

2. The Olympics offer a change of pace in the dog days of summer.

Your baseball team isn’t performing up to snuff. It’s too hot to think about football. The thrashing of Trump is a long 13 weeks away.

So you get to watch these crazy – and some not-so-crazy – sports with 200-plus different countries participating. It’s in Rio, so there’s going to be some Brazilian flair, and a great soundtrack.

But tell the truth: Before this week, you hadn’t watched anyone swim a race in four years. And after this week, you won’t watch anyone swim a race again until 2020.

Swimming. Gymnastics. Volleyball. Water polo. Even table tennis. All of this stuff is a novelty to watch in a summer of reruns and Trump-induced fear.

But I guarantee that about 10 days from now, you and all the viewers will have had their fill of these sports. All the stuff you’ve learned about it might or might not be forgotten by the time they open the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo.

3. I spent a disproportionate amount of yesterday watching women’s rugby.

My 83-year-old mother, who I was visiting, wondered why we were watching this. I told her that it was for the same reason you watch a car wreck – you can’t take your eyes off it.

I’m sure there’s someone in a rugby-playing nation who understands everything that happens in a rugby match. Who will tell me that it’s not roller derby on grass. That the young women who have parts of their faces rearranged can have them restored.

The Australian women won the gold medal. They clearly beat New Zealand in the final. I wondered, however, if there had been a tie whether the medal would be decided by which team had the most broken bones.

1. It’s Monday, August 8, 2016. It’s 92 days until the election.

2. This is the first Olympics since 1996 when I’ve been able to watch without having to worry about getting up for work the next morning. Nice!

What has been cool about these games is the availability of events live online. It allows people to not only watch what they know in real time, but to watch events they never see. I’ve watched more table tennis in the last 48 hours than I’ve played in the last 48 years.

It’s also been great to watch the swimming events live the past two nights, whether or not the Americans have won.

That’s due largely to the fact that Rio is only an hour ahead of Eastern Time; if these games had taken place in Europe or Asia, NBC would have subjected its primetime viewers to taped packages. As it was, all the women’s gymnastics aired last night was taped and repackaged.

3. One of the better things about the Olympics is that it offers the possibility, for its two weeks, of distracting Americans from the presidential election.

Now, I’m not an advocate for disengagement. I think this election is the most consequential in my lifetime, and I definitely have a strong stance on who (Hillary Clinton!) should win.

But we’ve been going at this election for more than a year; my Facebook feed reminded me that Saturday was the anniversary of that first Fox GOP debate. It’s been relentless – has Trump taken more than a day away from tweeting stupidity yet?

So a little break wouldn’t hurt. Not sure that Trump can let that much time slide without saying something totally ridiculous. But we’ll see.

4. Does the Olympics impact the election? I’m not sure.

I don’t think any American consciously says “Hey, the U.S. did great, I’m voting for the incumbent party” or “Hey, we didn’t win as many medals as we thought we would, it’s time for a change.”

But I do think the U.S. showing contributes to the nation’s psychology as it approaches Election Day, three months from today.

Would Ronald Reagan have swept to re-election in 1984 without the Los Angeles Olympics that summer? Of course. But having a great American showing, aided by the Soviet boycott and the fact that it was on his home turf, can put folks in a positive frame of mind.

By contrast, we boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics. So there were no American heroes that summer. That negative was in the air as Jimmy Carter sought re-election against Reagan. Did it hurt?

Again, I don’t think it’s one of those measurable things. No one is going to answer a poll question saying I didn’t vote for Carter because the U.S. didn’t win any gold medals this year.

But seeing young Americans standing at the top of the medals platform for the national anthem makes normal people happy.

Now happy isn’t part of the Trump game plan. Remember that he wants to make American great again. How can it be great again when there are American flags celebrating Olympic victories in Rio already?

How can he say we don’t win at anything anymore if there’s someone standing there with a gold medal draped around his or her neck after, um, winning.

I’m not saying Trump doesn’t want U.S. athletes to win. It would be Trumpian of me to do so.

But I can’t help but think that American Olympic victories can affect people who are undecided about the direction the country is headed. Yet one more reason to shout “Go U.S.A.”

It’s August 5, 2016, 95 days until the election, and time for 20 Questions Friday.

I’m just going to lay these out there. Some might be gold. Some might be silver. Some might be bronze. Some might not finish.

Here goes:

— Who would replace Trump if he drops out of the race?

— If Trump dropped out, wouldn’t that render the year-plus of the Republican presidential campaign a complete waste of time and money?

— Can Hillary Clinton really win Georgia?

— Will the Rio Olympics distract Americans from the presidential campaign?

— If Democrats were really cooking the books, wouldn’t the jobs numbers that came out today seemed a lot better if they came out Nov. 4?

— Does anyone eat Maypo anymore?

— If you’re a lifelong Republican and old enough, which period was worse: the Watergate scandal years or Trump as your party’s standard bearer?

— Is it me, or is there just not the interest in the Olympics that there used to be?

— Can you imagine how different this summer would have been if Chicago had hosted the Olympics instead of Rio?

— I’m a big fan, but doesn’t it seem a little early for President Obama to be doing a lot of valedictory interviews, since he still has five and a-half months to go?

— Or does it seem like he’s doing a lot of valedictory stuff because we don’t want him to leave?

— What percentage of American offices observe summer Fridays?

— Does it make Mets fans wary that 43-year-old Bartolo Colon, signed to hold down the fort while we waited for Zach Wheeler, looks like our team’s 2016 ace?

— Are you, like me, on the Pokemon Go bench until your cellphone data plan resets?

— Are you old enough to be incredulous at the thought that $2-a-gallon gas is considered cheap?

— Do you think the best way to deal with the sports doping problem is to legalize sports doping?

— What’s your favorite song on “Revolver,” the Beatles’ album released 50 years ago? (For me, it’s no contest: “Got to Get You Into My Life.”)

— Have you had a perfect ear of corn this season?

— Have you started buying back-to-school stuff for your kids?

— If you were a third-time Olympian who won a gold and silver previously, would you want another gold or would you want a bronze to complete the set?