1. It’s Saturday, October 8, 2016. It’s 31 days until the election – unless we beg Barack Obama to stick around for a third term.

2. What amazes me is that there are people in this country who are surprised by the Trump tape.

If you didn’t think this, or worse, was (or is) out there, you have not been paying attention to this creep’s campaign.

What about the Miss Universe tweets, the Rosie O’Donnell comments, the Megyn Kelly comments, the leering comments about a 12-year-old Paris Hilton and his own daughter, and a slew of other crap didn’t predict that something like that tape was out there?

The revulsion among Republicans about this tape is almost laughable. They finally found the line that Trump crossed.

It talks to the sensibility of these people that it took blatant bragging about sexual assault and harassment to make them say, hey, maybe we should trust the world’s most powerful military and biggest economy to this 70-year-old with the mindset of a troubled adolescent.

A guy who says he can shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose supporters appears to be putting that idea to the test. Because it’s a safe bet that there’s at least one something else out there ready to add to the curriculum vitae of Donald J. Trump.

3. And yet, there’s a part of me that believes that the people who support Trump, the people with the “Deplorables for Trump” yard signs and the “Make America Great Again” hats and the “Hillary for Prison” bumper stickers, aren’t going to budge.

He’s been saying that we need to end political correctness in this country. (Now do you know why?) They agree. Let’s see how long they stick with him.

If those yard signs start coming down today, we’ll know he’s done for sure.

How will the Trump tape and, perhaps to a lesser extent, any of the revelations in the Podesta e-mails about Hillary Clinton’s speeches to Wall Street, affect tomorrow night’s debate?

Will there be a debate?

And how sorry should Democrats be that Tim Kaine didn’t go harder after Mike Pence in the vice presidential debate? Or is it enough that Pence’s denial of all the things Trump said adds to the other disqualifications he has to be president?

It’s October 7, 2016, 32 days before the election.

And, being Friday, it’s time for 20 Questions Friday. It’s my version of leaving something hanging  – actually, leaving 20 things hanging.

Obviously, the biggest things on my mind are Hurricane Matthew and Sunday’s town hall presidential debate. But they’re not the only things.

Here goes. Enjoy your weekend!

— Does anyone remember a hurricane that circled back to hit the places it hit the first time, the way Matthew might with Florida?

— Do hurricanes really need to have names?

— Are they any dolts who saw Matt Drudge’s tweet expressing skepticism about the storm and said, hey, this guy knows more about hurricanes than the National Weather Service, I’m staying put?

— Doesn’t the idea that it seems to get a lot of hurricanes make Florida a little less attractive for older folks trying to escape the winter weather of the north?

— Is Hillary Clinton peaking too soon?

— Will Trump turn on a questioner at the town hall meeting?

— Or will Trump make a spectacular effort at self-control after failing miserably at Hofstra?

— How freakin’ stupid do you have to be to keep insinuating that people – and the Central Park Five, despite Trump’s effort to make them otherwise, are people – who have been scientifically exonerated of a crime are guilty of it anyway?

— Can you believe that the Times story about Trump’s $916 billion tax loss in 1995 was published less than a week ago?

— When Trump talks about ending political correctness, do you think he means something like that racist piece of crap that Fox News put on the air about New York’s Chinatown?

— Do you avoid commercial establishments, such as barber shops and pizza places, that show Fox News?

— Which would Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos rather have, the Nobel Peace Prize he won today or popular approval of the peace accord with FARC rebels that he lost this week?

— Do you see anything good in what Christopher Columbus accomplished? (editor’s note: I do)

— Is it too early to buy calcium chloride to melt ice on a driveway?

— If you could pick a language you don’t speak already, what would it be?

— Is there anything the United States can do to help Aleppo and the rest of Syria without committing troops to a hellish fight?

— Doesn’t a national day of atonement, similar to Yom Kippur, seem like a good idea for a country with a lot of angry people?

— Who let the dogs out? (sixth in a series of song-title questions)

— How long will it take me and my fellow Mets fans to recover from Wednesday’s soul-crushing National League Wild Card loss?

— If your team has been eliminated from postseason contention, which of the remaining eight teams do you want to win the World Series?

1. It’s Thursday, October 6, 2016. The election is 33 days away.

2. Hopefully, Floridians are heeding all the warnings and getting as far away from the danger of Hurricane Matthew as they can.

These storms are not a lark – you can always repair the damage as long as you’re alive to do it.

3. Twelve hours ago, I loved baseball.

At that time, about 10 p.m. as I write this, I was in the middle of all the things I love about the game.

Two great pitchers dominating in completely different ways. One with guile, getting hitters to pop out lamely without working up a sweat. The other with force, routinely overpowering his opponents with 99 mile-an-hour sinkers.

Good defense, including a center fielder holding onto a baseball after banging menacingly into the wall.

A passionate crowd standing anytime the home pitcher had two strikes. High-fiving each other when he got the third one. Chanting his nickname.

And it wouldn’t have been love without having my daughter there. I love baseball because it runs so deep in my family, a bond that connects my grandfather and both my parents to both my children. They’re all in the ballpark with us – you can feel it in the way the two of us jump up and scream and hug at the good moments.

Finally, the game was scoreless. 0-0. No sign of give, but with it the knowledge that the stalemate could shatter with one combination of a mislaid pitch and well-positioned swing.

Of course, that’s what happened. Unfortunately, the pitch was mislaid by my team’s ace closer, and the swing was well-positioned by the other team’s batter.

And so the Mets lost the National League Wild Card game, 3-0 – there were a couple of runners on when 40,000 fans couldn’t will the ball from jumping the fence, but that was trivial.

Crushed hardly describes the feeling. I can’t say I’ve experienced too many punches in the gut in my life. But when you’ve invested so much of yourself into the game before you, there’s almost physical pain that accompanies a massive disappointment.

All the things you love go into that pain. It’s not that you’re disappointed so much as you feel sad for your family, and the thousands of fans with whom you’ve spent three hours, and the players with whom you feel so familiar that, if you met them, you wouldn’t understand why they don’t know that you like mayonnaise on your sandwiches.

So, 12 hours ago, I loved baseball.

And, now, when it’s easy to be bitter and dismissive, I still do. It still entertains. It still inspires. It still impresses. It still instills memories and reminds me of those I love. A great game like last night’s is a reminder.

I still love it. But, right this moment, I don’t like it very much.

I suspect that will change by spring training.

1. It’s Wednesday, October 5, 2016.

2. The election is 34 days away. The Mets are going to beat the Giants tonight in the National League Wild Card Game.

3. Mike Pence is a despicable man.

As governor of Indiana, he’s approved punitive measures for women who choose not to go through with a pregnancy.

He’s approved measures that legalize discrimination against people who love other people of the same sex.

He’s refused to address the state’s opioid epidemic in ways that would actually help solve it.

And he once denied that smoking causes death.

None of that – none – came up in last night’s vice presidential debate.

Instead, he’s getting credit for deflecting Tim Kaine’s admittedly overcaffinated attacks and getting zinged for not actually defending his creepy running mate.

But Mike Pence is running for Vice President of the United States. That would put him one choking-on-a-KFC-chicken-bone away from the Oval Office.

And he has no business being there.

I understand Kaine’s mission was to defend Hillary Clinton. He did that.

But to me, that was short-sighted. He let Pence emerge as a calm presence on the stage, when everything he’s done in politics screams overbearing imposer of his own morality.

It was a lost opportunity. It might not matter in the 2016 election, but it matters in the discourse of the nation – especially if this election helps Pence emerge as the front runner in 2020 or 2024.

1. It’s Tuesday, October 4, 2016. The election is 35 days away.

2. As helpfully reminded by Google, today is the 434th anniversary of the introduction of the Gregorian calendar by Pope Gregory XIII. Why Google chose to focus on the 434th anniversary and not, say, the 433rd last year is curious but not essential to this tale.

The purpose of adopting the Gregorian calendar, with its leap years and weird month lengths, was to align the seasons with what people think the date should be. They had gotten out of whack – think about how, in the Islamic calendar, Ramadan keeps shifting earlier into each year, and you have an idea what was happening to spring before Gregory’s advisers came along.

By the time Great Britain and its American colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, they had to make up 11 days. One day, it was September 2, 1752 in London. The next day, it was September 13. Talk about losing track of time!

And then think of the poor people born before 1752 who had to recalibrate their birthdays. One of them was George Washington. When he was born, the calendar in the Virginia house said February 11, 1732. And for 20 years, as he was growing up, he celebrated his birthday on the 11th.

Then came the calendar change. And now, February 22 became George’s birthday. A whole childhood of anticipating February 11 wiped away by forces beyond his control. Imagine how your kids would feel.

Anyway, let’s hear it for Pope Gregory and his calendar, 484 years old today – give or take a day.

3. Here’s why I’m sweating out tonight’s vice presidential debate:

Mike Pence is a heinous human being. His position on a woman’s right to control her body is out of the Middle Ages. His position on same-sex families is equally awful. And, of course, he subscribes to the Republican orthodoxy that rich people paying taxes is a scourge.

But unlike his running mate, he doesn’t look or sound like a buffoon. He speaks in complete sentences. His hair, while certainly something in which he appears to take great pride, isn’t freakish.

And if, as he’s more than capable of doing, the Indiana governor puts a respectable face on incredibly not respectable positions, he could stop the momentum of a GOP slide that has seen most polls tilt toward Clinton and Kaine. The fact that there’s still 35 days to go is enough time to wreak havoc.

4. So what does Tim Kaine have to do tonight?

He has to remind people that Pence is a jackass, too. That same-sex marriage hasn’t harmed anyone and allowed people in love to affirm their commitment. That women should not feel the scorn of the government when they make difficult choices regarding their bodies. That Pence once argued that cigarettes haven’t been proven to be a health hazard.

And he has to remind people that Pence had the godawful judgment to be Trump’s running mate. To be on a ticket with the least qualified person ever to run for president.

Is Kaine up to the task? I sure hope so. I think he’s a pretty smart guy.

But I am nervous.

It’s September 30, 2016, the end of the year’s third quarter and 39 days before the 2016 election.

And it’s time for 20 Questions Friday – just some random questions that popped into my head this week and in the hour or so it takes to write this.

Enjoy your weekend.

— Is Trump’s hissy fit over Alicia Machado a way to distract people from the fact that he admitted in the debate that he’s “smart” not to pay taxes?

— Is Trump’s hissy fit over Alicia Machado just a way to promote the Miss Universe pageant he owns?

— Did you know that the vice presidential debate is on Tuesday at Longwood University in Farmville, Va.?

— Do you know who’s in the vice presidential debate?

— Who likes the idea of Lady Gaga performing the Super Bowl halftime show?

— Has Trump talked at all this week about any issue that actually concerns the American people?

— Do we think of Al Capone as “smart” for not having paid taxes?

— I think it’s a good thing, but does it seem as though people who are into Halloween are delaying their decorating this year?

— Are you scratching your head when you hear Republicans in Congress blame President Obama because they override his veto of the bill allowing families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia?

— Are you as curious as I am as to what caused that horrible train wreck in Hoboken yesterday?

— Should the nation spare any expense to make our transportation systems safe?

— Am I wrong to think most of the country wants the Chicago Cubs to win the World Series?

— Have you ever been to New York’s Carnegie Deli? (It’s closing!)

— Are you registered to vote? Are you sure?

— Did you know that Richard Trentlage, who died this month, is the, um, composer of “The Oscar Mayer Weiner Song”? 

— Isn’t it cool that a spacecraft landed on a comet? 

— Can you imagine that Syria’s civil war is like one of Dante’s circles of hell?

— When was the last time you saw head cheese at a deli?

— Isn’t it a pity? (Fifth in a series of song-title questions)

— Can it possibly be that there are sane people in the United States of America who think Trump’s reaction to the Alicia Machado bait is the way they want a President of this country to conduct himself?

1. It’s Tuesday, September 27, 2016. The election is 42 days away.

2. I wanted Hillary Clinton to act like a President of the United States. Someone who someday will fit nicely on one of those diner placemats with pictures of the 43 guys who preceded her.

She delivered. Big.

Or, as her opponent would say, “bigly.”

Clinton needed to have a command of facts. Check.

Clinton needed to respond to Trump’s attacks. Check.

Clinton needed to look calm and unruffled. She needed to seem as though she was listening to what Trump was saying. Check.

Are there things she could have done better? Sure. Contrary to what post-debate analysts said, I wanted a stronger response to the birther question. I thought there were times when she was calculating whether or not she should cut off Trump’s long-winded rants or just let him draw enough rope to hang himself.

But she was great. She proved she is ready to lead. She did her preparation – which Trump tried to make sound like a bad thing, for some stupid reason. She seemed healthy after her bout with pneumonia – Trump, on the other hand, kept sniffling as if he had a cold.

If that woman can’t be seen as a commander-in-chief, this country deserves the reckoning it will reap.

3. On the other hand:

If you don’t believe the leader of free world should speak in coherent, complete sentences.

If you think a guy who keeps sniping at his opponent when she’s an answering a question is showing some sort of leadership.

If you think a guy who just about bragged about not paying taxes should be able to do that.

If you think the hacker who got into the DNC files was a 400-pound kid on his bed and not the Russians, and that the information he got should be exploited.

If you think Rosie O’Donnell is someone more worthy of badmouthing than Vladimir Putin.

If you think a father shouldn’t be more concerned about monitoring his 10-year-old son’s computer activity.

If you think it’s doing a kindness of some kind to not bring up your opponent’s husband’s infidelities.

If you think a guy can question his opponent’s stamina while sniffling his way through a 98-minute debate.

If you think a guy should be able to scream that his temperament is better than his opponent’s.

You’re looking for Trump. You are beyond hope. You’ll get the hell you deserve.

The CNN poll thought Clinton won the debate by a 62-27 margin.

You know what scares me? That 27% of the people in this country who watched that debate have seeing and hearing problems.

1. It’s Monday, September 26, 2016. The election is 43 days away.

2. OK. The debate is tonight. The polls are as tight as possible, and tighter than they should possibly be.

The fate of the nation rides on the shoulders of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I’m sure she doesn’t need my advice. This is an amazingly accomplished person. She is brilliant. She is a leader.

And that’s the point.

That’s what she needs to be. If she conducts herself like a President of the United States, she will be President of the United States. If she shows her smarts, if she has her facts straight, if she stands tall and unafraid, she will win this.

It’s not about the other guy, despite the bluster and the insults and the lies.

It’s about her. It’s about showing that she is the leader this nation and the world need.

She is the giant in this race, and her opponent is the pretender.

She has been waiting for this moment her entire life. It is time to seize it.

It’s September 23, 2016, just 46 days until the election.

And it’s time for 20 Questions Friday. I’ll ask questions of varying degrees of answerability You can do the answering. You can imagine what I would answer. You can scroll to the next tweet. It’s your choice.

— What Trump persona will show up at the debate Monday night?

— Will Hillary Clinton try to goad Trump into a stupidity eruption, or will she be smart and stick to telling people what she would do as President?

— Are you like me and checking fivethirtyeight.com’s election forecast every five minutes to see if Clinton’s position has improved?

— Is there a lot of pressure on Lester Holt or what?

— The back alley is a Midwestern thing, isn’t it?

— Was Chris Christie de facto convicted of obstruction of justice, since both the prosecution and defense in the George Washington Bridge lane closing trial say he knew about it in advance?

— Why would Democrats want to impeach Christie when they can have him be a punching bag as governor of New Jersey for another year plus?

— What do you think Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf did after getting a verbal spanking from Sen. Elizabeth Warren at a hearing on the bank’s cross-selling scandal?

— Will the Charlotte police ever release the video of the shooting of Keith Scott?

— While questioning an African-American man, do police officers ever think about the previous incidents that resulted in the person they’re questioning being dead?

— Has there been a day cool enough this September that inspired you to eat soup and drink warm beverages?

— Do other baseball teams put their fans go through the extreme highs and lows that the New York Mets do?

— Whoever thought eating Skittles would be a political statement?

— Is it just me, or is it still pretty amazing that it only took a day and a-half for the New York police and federal agents to find the guy they suspected of the Chelsea bombing?

— Does everybody remember that the guy is still just accused of the Chelsea bombing, and can’t be called the Chelsea bomber until the legal process is complete?

— How confident are you in anything Yahoo does if it didn’t know for two years that 500 million of its accounts had been hacked?

— Have you read any of David Fahrenthold’s reporting on the Trump “Foundation” for The Washington Post? If not, why not?

— On John Coltrane’s 90th birthday, what is your piece of his? Or favorite album?

— Do you want to know a secret? (Fourth in a series of song-title questions.)

— Did you get a patronus at pottermore.com? (Mine is a white mare)

1. It’s Tuesday, September 20, 2016. The election is 49 days away.

2. Hey Wrigley Co., the Skittles PR spokeswoman, Denise Young, deserves a raise.

Last night, Trump’s idiot similarly named offspring put out a tweet that showed a picture of a bowl of Skittles. It asked the question that if “I” said three of the candies were lethal, would you take a handful?

And then he said that’s our Syrian refugee problem.

Of course, social media is agog as such idiocy. Among stupid things, it probably makes certain that no one at Wrigley, the maker of Skittles, will vote for this gagootz’s father.

Clearly, Wrigley was going to have to weigh in. Ms. Young did so with a soberness that shows she’s far more ready to President of the United States than either Trump père or fils.

She wrote: “Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don’t feel it’s an appropriate analogy. We will respectfully refrain from further commentary as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing.”

Just as “deplorables” might have fired up the Trump backers, Skittles might get the Clinton voters up in arms.

3. David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post has taken on the task of reporting about The Trump Foundation. So he’s already got a reserved spot in heaven.

What he’s found so far is pretty amazing.

That almost none of the charities the foundation claims to have supported say they’ve received any money from it. That Trump stopped donating money to the foundation several years ago, and has instead been donating money with a Trump imprimatur that was actually given by other people. That some of the money the foundation spent money on was used for objects – including a 6-foot portrait of Trump – for Trump’s personal use.

In today’s revelation, Fahrenthold says the foundation paid $258,000 to settle legal problems involving his for-profit businesses. That is a violation of law and pretty much goes against the whole moral purpose of foundations. 

It might be that the Skittles flap will do more damage to Trump’s campaign than Fahrenthold’s dogged reporting. That’s not the way it should be. Yes, the Skittles thing shows how clueless Trumptopia is.

But the corruption of the idea of charity that Trump has perpetrated for years is more insidious and disqualifying.

4. Here’s a reminder to would-be terrorists from wherever:

New Yorkers are descendants of the Jets and the Sharks of “West Side Story.” We don’t go crazy when something bad happens.

We play it cool.

New York didn’t shut down after Saturday’s explosion in Chelsea. The subways ran – except, perhaps, in the area around the blast site. The Mets played. Broadway shows were performed. There was a line at Shake Shack.

We just roll with it.

Because, in truth, that is strength. The bastards want us to be scared and roll up our lives.

The hell with them. By being New Yorkers in the same way Monday as we were Saturday, we give them the middle finger. All the work that went into putting together those bombs couldn’t stop us from being us.

And that, America, is why New Yorkers are about to reject a native son running for President in the most definitive way ever. Because he might have born here, but he has no idea how to be a New Yorker.