1. It’s Wednesday, December 9, 2015.

2. Angela Merkel is a pretty good choice for Time’s Person of the Year.

Americans are self-absorbed, and tend to think it should be one of our own. But, as we should be aware, there’s a rest of the world, and Chancellor Merkel is dealing with its problems head on. The European economic crisis. The Syrian refugee crisis. Russia.

That she’s done it by making Germany not look like the bad guy is a feat of political savvy that’s underestimated.

She deserves the distinction – it’s not an honor – for being an important figure in the world this year.

3. Trump was a runner up. Damn.

He would have taken it as an honor and, in fact, is pissed it wasn’t him.

Trump needs to be reminded that Stalin, one of his kindred spirits, was Person of the Year. But I don’t know how that would play with someone who probably has had a Time Person of the Year cover with his picture on it made up for years.

1. It’s Tuesday, December 8, 2015.

2. I’ve been wrestling all morning with how to respond to the latest Donald Trump obscenity – the idea that we shouldn’t let any Muslims into this country because they’re Muslims. That’s a partner with his notion that if internment camps were good enough for the Japanese, they’re plenty good enough for Muslims.

Which brings me to a question. With all the media attention on Muslim communities, did anybody notice anyone cheering the San Bernardino massacre? The way Trump says Muslims in New Jersey cheered 9/11?

I didn’t think so.

That’s because Muslim-Americans were as sickened by what happened as anyone else. Probably more so, because the slaughter was done by nut cases who conflated their gripe against the people around them with support for the thugs at ISIS, and Muslims knew they were going to be blamed for something they didn’t do.

3. But there were people cheering the San Bernardino massacre.

One was the “cult of death,” as President Obama called it, of ISIS or ISIL or Daesh or whatever those people don’t like. That’s what I want to call them.

The other was Trump. He laps this stuff up. He could care less about any of the 14 people killed that day, the 14 families whose lives are in shambles because of this murder.

It’s an opportunity, and he’s taking it. Any chance he gets. His name is in the papers. He’s on all the TV shows. They’re talking about Trump.

And they – Trump and ISIS – feed off each other. He rouses crowds by implying all Muslims are terrorists. And ISIS recruits members by saying look at how this presidential candidate diminishes Muslims.

As I’ve said, if ISIS wins, it should give Trump the golf course contract for Raqqa as a reward.

4. We can’t do nothing. We can’t ignore him and make him go away. Because part of the problem is that there are swaths of this nation addicted to anger, and he is their pusher.

They’ve been conditioned by years of resenting people who don’t look like them occasionally win the battle for jobs that they lost. Or by years of being told government is evil, and everything it does diminishes freedom – conveniently forgetting that government in a democracy is what people contribute to it.

We need to keep pushing back. We need to console our friends who have been hurt by Trump that we’re there for them.

We need to educate people about things they don’t understand – that, for instance, Jesus is revered in Islam. That as Christianity is divided by sects, many of whom can’t get along with each other (see Northern Ireland), so is Islam (see the whole damn Middle East).

That as there are Christians with warped minds who would shoot up a Planned Parenthood office, there are Muslims with warped minds who would shoot up an office holiday party.

And that none of the killers is any match for the millions of faithful – as well as those of other religions and no religion – who contribute to the nation and help their neighbors in need.

5. On a day when he dominates the media, Trump seems like a winner. He’s on the front page and the first name heard at the top of the hour. People are talking about him.

But Trump’s a loser. One of the biggest losers in the whole history of this country. And anyone who sees eye to eye with him is a loser, too. We are stronger than he is and they are. There are more people of goodwill than there are people of indecency and moral bankruptcy.

Both Trump and the ISIS thugs will lose. All of us together will make sure of it.

1. It’s Monday, December 7, 2015.

2. It’s the 74th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the air forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy. There are plenty of Americans who remember the day and the shock — it was the 9/11 of their generation — and it galvanized the people of this country to action.

With only an insignificant number of exceptions, people of all races, religions, ethnicities and political leanings united to defeat the common enemies — first Japan and then, a few days later, Germany and Italy. 

Even with that strength of unity, it took nearly four years to win the war. President Franklin Roosevelt might have made some errors in judgment prior to Dec. 7 (and, yes, he made a big mistake afterward by interring Japanese-Americans). But, mercifully, there was no Twitter in 1941. Instead of sniping at each other, the nation came together and FDR was able to lead this country to victory. We established ourselves as a superpower, vanquishing the imperialists.

3. Contrast that to 2015. While there is no threat nearly as massive as that posed by the Axis powers, there is the insidious danger posed by terrorists. They are not nearly as powerful as the forces that sent a whole fleet of planes to bomb Hawaii.

But they don’t need to be. They can get a couple of nut cases willing to blow themselves up to attack people enjoying life in a Paris cafe or concert hall. And they offer inspiration to other warped minds, perhaps with a grievance against co-workers, to shoot up a holiday party in California.

President Obama tried to assure Americans last night that we’re the same nation that rebounded from a body blow at Pearl Harbor and from the devastation of September 11. He said this threat posed by “thugs and killers” is, in the end, no match for the strength that we draw from our diversity.

His problem is the America of 2015. It’s a country caught up in its own turmoil, a majority becoming a minority and not happy about it. It’s about demagogues preaching hate of people who are different and believing that tolerance isn’t strength.

People are angry about something, and the more that anger is stoked the better it is for political figures willing to give people their anger fix.

No one would take ISIS and the points if they were betting on a war between the thugs and imperial Japan. But that doesn’t mean we need any less of a unified effort in our battle against this “cult of death,” and the help of all Americans.

We especially need to be supportive of our fellow Americans who are Muslims, whose kin are dying at the hands of the terrorists at a much faster rate than non-Muslims, as they battle to keep the warped ideology of the jerks from poisoning their own.

4. As I said, Americans are anger-addicted right now. What stoked that anger was the financial crisis. Despite all they had been told about the safety of the financial system, Americans saw their banks fail, their or their friends’ homes foreclosed and their jobs disappear.

It was an attack on the fabric of this country, led to the same sort of insecurity that the generation growing up in the Depression experienced, and doesn’t go away easily.

Hillary Clinton understands the not-going-away part. She wrote an op-ed piece for today’s New York Times explaining what she’d do to get tough with Wall Street. Among her proposals is to get the authority to break up big banks if they pose a risk to the financial system and to increase the statute of limitations on financial executives who play a role in damaging the economy.

There are good reasons why Clinton feels the need to address this issue. She represented New York in the U.S. Senate for eight years, and was perceived to be a friend of the big financial institutions based here. And while it might seem unfair to blame her, the fact that her husband was President during the period of deregulation – particularly the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act that separated banks and brokerages – is seen as a strike against her.

Here’s what’s most important: Hillary Clinton rates about the same as Donny Trump in terms of honesty and truthfulness, according to a recent CNN poll. That’s almost unfathomable. Trump is a compulsive liar and demagogue.

For all her sins, and I’m sure there are some, Hillary Clinton is not either of those. She has to get the idea that she’s somehow a duplicitous bitch (I’m sure her being a her is a factor in all this!) out of people’s minds.

The good news is that she understands that. Whether she can overcome it – by saying that she’ll be as tough on Wall Street as angry Americans still are – is what we’ll know a year from now.

It’s December 4, 2015 and time for Friday Yes or No. I ask myself questions that I answer with one of two one-word answers. This week, I have a lot of questions swirling through my head. I imagine you do, too.

Q1: Has the week just ended been about the worst week ever?

A1: No

Q2: But is it pretty damn close?

A2: Yes

Q3: Can you imagine how it must feel to be the loved one of someone who died at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs or the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino?

A3: No

Q4: Or Umpqua Community College in Roseburg or Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston or Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown?

A4: No

Q5: Should I go on with the listings?

A5: No

Q6: But I could, couldn’t I?

A6: Yes

Q7: As the details of the San Bernardino incident come out, does it seem plausible that one motive of the terrorists in this case was to exacerbate the already rampant anti-Moslem sentiment stinking up the U.S.?

A7: Yes

Q8: If that’s the case, mission accomplished?

A8: Yes

Q9: Is there a possibility the United States Senate, with the bubbly Mitch McConnell as ringmaster, is completely oblivious to reality?

A9: Yes

Q10: Were yesterday’s votes against increased background checks to purchase weapons and defunding Planned Parenthood akin to a giant middle finger to the majority of people in this country?

A10: Yes

Q11: Are the words “thoughts and prayers” – as in, “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragedy” – on the verge of making some perfectly sane people want to vomit?

A11: Yes

Q12: Is there any goddamn reason why anyone who isn’t a police officer or soldier should have a weapon that fires bullets in rapid succession?

A12: No

Q13: Is there any goddamn reason why anyone needs thousands of rounds of ammunition in their home?

A13: No

Q14: Should your and my right to live supersede someone’s right to have a massive weapon arsenal?

A14: Yes

Q15: Is that the case in the United States at this moment?

A15: No

Q16: Does the National Rifle Association support terrorism?

A16: Yes

Q17: Is there blood on the hands of the people who sold the weapons to the murderers in San Bernardino, Colorado Springs, Roseburg, Charleston, Aurora, Newtown and the hundreds of places in between?

A17: Yes

Q18: Is this an embarrassing time to be an American?

A18: Yes

Q19: Are we better than this?

A19:

1. It’s Wednesday, December 2, 2015.

2. Max Zuckerberg is only a few days old. But she might already be rolling her eyes at her parents.

Sure, there’s something noble about the fact that Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are giving 99% of their $45 billion in Facebook stock to causes that better the world (although some of my financial reporter friends are more than a little skeptical).

But a 2,200-word letter seems a bit much. (My former colleague, Emily Jane Fox, has a terrific – and much shorter – letter to Max on vf.com)

I’m betting this girl gets a lot of long-winded lectures — from a guy in a hoodie! — over the next 18 years. After that letter, I’m thinking Max will help the world by becoming an editor.

3. Frank Bruni’s New York Times column on Ted Cruz is impressive. Bruni is not nearly as liberal as fellow columnist Paul Krugman. His columns are usually even tempered and often see both sides of an issue.

Not this one. He doesn’t pull punches about he feels about Cruz. “…it’s the fruit of a combative style and consuming solipsism that would make him an insufferable, unendurable president. And if there’s any sense left in this election and mercy in this world, it will undo him soon enough.”

I can’t gauge how much of a chance this 21st century Joe McCarthy has of being the GOP nominee. Like Bruni, I don’t want to find out.

4. Because of the shock factor in the Republican campaign, the Democrats are getting vastly overshadowed. That’s in large part because Democrats are reacting to the shock factor in the Republican campaign.

I’m not sure 60% of Democrats, as measured by this morning’s Quinnipiac poll, love Hillary Clinton; many of her supporters sympathize more with the views expressed by Bernie Sanders.

I think that percentage reaches 60% because Democrats believe the fate of the nation sorely depends on someone other than what the Republicans are throwing up (meant any way you want to think about it) succeeding President Obama in 2017.

Practicality is guiding the Democrats. Practicality says Clinton has the best chance to win.

That is the biggest factor in the race, and will remain so long as we see the names Trump, Carson and Cruz at the top of the GOP polls.

5. It’s my father’s 85th birthday. He’s afflicted with dementia, so there’s no way he knows that it’s his birthday or that I’m sending him love. But it is, and I am. A lot of it. I’ll see him tomorrow.

.

1. It’s Tuesday, December 1, 2015. How strange is that to see?

2. It’s going to be a few years until President Obama writes his memoir about this eight-year job he’s been elected twice to do. If he does, in fact, write about it.

One of the things I would love to know is what exactly transpires when he meets Vladimir Putin. I do not get the sense that the Obamas, Putin and whoever he’s shacking up with at the moment will ever get together to watch the White Sox on the South Side or go for rainbow ice on Oahu.

The two met yesterday at the Climate Change summit in Paris. But the topic appears to have been the messes in Syria and Ukraine, some of which are messier thanks to Putin. It’s hard to imagine that they exchanged pleasantries, but you do have to wonder how icy things are in the room when the two of them are together.

You always get the sense Putin is jealous of Obama. People around the world look up to Obama. Who the hell looks up to Putin except maybe other Russians afraid not to? I think he needs to get over his Obama envy and realize that the U.S. is his best hope for the security Russia historically craves.

The President, before leaving Paris this morning, said he told Putin that the Russians really don’t want another debacle like Afghanistan in the 1980s. That invasion was a disaster for everyone involved except, perhaps, the terrorist groups it spawned.

Syria and the Iraq mess Putin’s old soulmate, George W. Bush, created are spawning their fair share of deranged killers. It would be nice if these guys could get together and solve something. Syria. Iraq. Ukraine. Bad vodka. Anything.

I’m hoping to read Obama’s memoirs in a world they finally got together and helped fix.

1. It’s Monday, November 30, 2015.

2. It’s supposed to be Cyber Monday, a big online shopping day for those who either didn’t get what they wanted on Black Friday or didn’t even bother. Happy shopping, and thanks for doing your part to boost the global economy.

3. Hopefully your Thanksgiving was a good one. I enjoyed it, in large part because my wife and I have two adult children who are our biggest reasons to be thankful, and we spent the holiday with them.  I hope you were able to spend time with the people you care about, either in person or via the magic of our connected age,

It’s hard to get back to the grind after the four days, but Christmas and New Year’s aren’t so far away.

4. The problem for the rational among us is how to focus your anger in the wake of the Colorado Springs tragedy.

Is it on the fact that a guy whose sanity has been questioned for a long time can easily get his hands on weapons whose only purpose is killing lots of people?

Or is it the fact that he was all riled up to shoot at women who he perceived, through tricked-up videos, as monsters because they were tending to their bodies as they saw fit?

It’s hard to sort out which makes me angrier this morning.

We should be infuriated by both. We should be ashamed that we have allowed the proliferation of weapons and the demonization of women seeking the best for themselves.

But I’m skeptical, even after a day like Friday, even after hearing about the worthwhile lives wasted in a barrage of bullets, even after recognizing that there is no real difference between the terrorist who did this and the terrorists who attacked Paris and a Nairobi mall and a Connecticut elementary school, that any goddamn thing will move this country toward sanity. On controlling guns or on allowing women to make their own decisions about their bodies.

That’s what makes the most angry.

5. The collective head of cauliflower known as the Republican presidential candidates are going to have a field day with President Obama’s speech at the Climate Change conference in Paris. The President said the United States bears some responsibility for the problem, but also relishes the opportunity to take a lead role in solving it.

Oh my God! He’s apologizing for America again! You can hear them on the stump from now until there’s some other thing that makes them chase their collective tails.

In fact, Donny Trump didn’t need to wait until the president actually gave his speech. He said that the President calling climate change the world’s biggest problem is one of the dumbest things ever said. What about terrorism, wails Donny, failing to see the connection that a thinking person – that would be President Obama in this case – already understands.

Of course, President Obama is not apologizing for America. Recognizing that this country’s reliance on fossil fuels contributed to a global problem is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of our strength. Our willingness to see a problem and face it, using the talent and ingenuity that makes us great.

Climate change will, despite attempts by conservatives to ignore or deny it, be a determining factor in the security of ourselves and our heirs. The President understands that. Let’s see if he and the rest of the world can come together to offer hope for the future.

It’s November 27, 2015 and time for the Black Friday edition of Friday Yes or No. I’ve had a fine Thanksgiving meal, what time stores open is no longer my professional concern and I’ve started my month-long non-stop holiday music listenthon. I’m psyched.

Q1: Is it any surprise that the retail industry is worried about this holiday season?

A1: No

Q2: Is it because the way people shop has changed dramatically in the last 15 years, with more people going online and more buying things when they want them, no matter what time of year?

A2: Yes

Q3: Is Adele the best new singer of this century?

A3: Yes

Q4: Would an Adele holiday album be awesome?

A4: Yes

Q5: So everyone who thought Donny Trump’s presidential circus would fold up its tent by Thanksgiving is wrong?

A5: Yes

Q6: Is there much chance Trump will get bored or self-immolate by Christmas?

A6: No

Q7: Was there anyone who thought the Middle East situation would get better if there was a new conflict between Russia and Turkey?

A7: No

Q8: Is anyone really convinced that France is about to become a more pushy player in the Syria/ISIS/Iraq mess?

A8: No

Q9: Is the 8.1% rise in traffic deaths in the first half of this year due in large part to distractions such as smartphones?

A9: Yes

Q10: But is it also a reflection of the angry times we live in, as also manifest by the success so far of Donny Trump?

A10: Yes

Q11: So the message to drivers for the rest of this holiday weekend is get off the phone and slow the hell down?

A11: Yes

1. It’s Wednesday, November 25, 2015.

2. It’s a day early, but I’m thankful for the fact that I don’t have to drive anywhere the day before Thanksgiving.

3. The release of the video of the Laquan McDonald shooting in Chicago is a reminder of something I’ve been saying: The quality of day-to-day police work is declining and leading to these horrible abuses of power.

There is no professionalism, much less regard for human life, on display in that video. The extraneous gunshots after McDonald was already paralyzed by bullets show a callous disregard for life and an inability to do what a policeman is supposed to do – keep the peace.

There certainly is a racial component to all this, and that unfortunately is going to play out in the days and weeks ahead. We should all be thankful that protests, while tense, have been peaceful so far. The protesters have a case, and I’m certain they’ll be watching closely as prosecutors make theirs against the officer under arrest.

The nation’s police departments really need to rethink what they’re doing in academies. Why are these incidents occurring with such frequency? Communities and peace officers should all be on the same page. In a lot of places, they’re not. That needs to be fixed. Fast.

4. The best hour I’ve spent watching TV this month came yesterday afternoon when President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 deserving Americans.

My interest in this was heightened by the fact that I was one of the more than 100,000 people who signed one of the White House’s We the People petitions to get the medal for Yogi Berra.  I’m not sure who started the campaign, but it ultimately succeeded – Yogi’s son accepted the medal for the Hall of Fame catcher, who passed away in September.

Seeing Yogi honored with so many other great Americans of varied backgrounds was a reminder of how great this country can be. These people are its very best, and that really has to make you smile.

1. It’s Tuesday, November 24, 2015.

2. I used to call this National Clothespin Day. It really isn’t. One year, there was a drug store calendar distributed by Plough Inc. that was selling a cold remedy, and there was a picture of someone with a clothespin on their nose (they’re congested, get it) on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I was seven at the time and thought it was hysterical. So I celebrated Clothespin Day until my mid-20s.

3. The reason I would want to put a clothespin on my nose on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, 2015 is to block the stench from the Republican presidential candidates.

It is, frankly, becoming a little too much to stand. Particularly from the mass of odor known as Donny Trump. It seems as though he’s doing a social experiment to see how outrageous he can be before people start boiling tar and plucking feathers.

Alas, he continues to find new lows for some of our populace. His comments that there were American Muslims cheering as the World Trade Center collapsed are despicable. They reek of a man so enamored with the sound of his own voice and a sense that there are people who would actually vote for him that he will say or do anything.

It’s not unlike what kids do when they’re three and first discover that when they say something adults will laugh. So they’ll say something more and more silly until Mom or Dad says “OK, let’s stop now.”

Apparently, the Trump parents were too busy for that.

4. I, and a lot of other people, thought Trump was a joke last summer. He’s not a joke any more.

Here’s what he really is: ISIS’ top recruiter.

Teenagers are caught in the awful social whirl of those stupid years. Added to the mix for teens in Muslim families is, on occasion, the trauma of being the outsider. Many communities are good about not exacerbating those problems by trying to be inclusive. But some aren’t, and being picked on — having your looks or your clothing or your hijab get derided by the ignorant — leads to alienation.

Now you have this billionaire buffoon who people actually believe should run the country railing. He’s going to put you on some register because someone he thinks you must sympathize with struck terror in Paris, or hallucinates that you and everyone in your family and faith clapped when the planes hit the Trade Center. He’s signaling that it’s OK for the other 300 million Americans to hold you in contempt.

And then the other meatballs running for president with him chime in. One says you have no business even thinking about being president because of your faith. Others want to block anyone fleeing the oppression in Syria from entering the country — unless, of course, they can prove they’re not Muslims like you.

God, why wouldn’t you be interested in hearing out some screaming imam? A guy who’ll say that while you’re loathed in America, you’re cherished on the training grounds of Mesopotamia, that learning to use AK-47s and detonating bombs strapped to your body is nobler than being picked on by some bully in Texas or New Jersey.

Sure as I’m sitting here, Trump and this anti-Islamic crusade launched by the right is luring Muslim kids to ISIS. They’ll go because with all the pressures that teenagers face, this added pressure of being on society’s outs will push some of them over the edge. The ability to resist will be a powerful test for the Muslim parents I know, men and women strong in their faith, in their family and in their love of this country — despite Trump and the other jackasses.

If ISIS somehow wins a state of its own in the Middle East, I wonder if Trump is going to get a condo or golf course contract. He would have earned it.

5. One more thought. I was looking for news stories from sources outside the mainstream and went to the Amsterdam News Web site. For those outside New York, Amsterdam News is the city’s best-known African-American newspaper. This story, about a new New York City firefighter, caught my attention. 

The young man’s family and his mosque celebrated his graduation from the Fire Academy. Here’s a young man willing to put his life on the line for eight million New Yorkers. He’s not exclusive – he had 294 classmates equally as brave. But the fact that he’s willing to go out and protect a city with a prominent resident ready to put him in some alien database makes me hopeful and sad at the same time.

“I could never thank Allah (God) enough for all that he has done for my family,” the new firefighter’s mom said. We can’t thank her enough for raising a son whose bravery and dedication make America proud.