It’s January 15, 2016 and time for a late afternoon edition of Friday Yes or No. I ask questions about things other people might be interested in. I give the shortest answer possible – for me.

Q1: Did you turn on last night’s Republican presidential debate?

A1: Yes

Q2: Did you watch the whole thing?

A2: No

Q3: Is that because it could shorten people’s lives to be that kind of angry for that sustained a period?

A3: Yes

Q4: Was anybody on that stage presidential material?

A4: No

Q5: Was anybody asking questions for Fox Business journalistic material?

A5: No

Q6: Is the two-week stock market tumble scary?

A6: Yes

Q7: Is this the beginning of a recession?

A7: No

Q8: Is that because the American economy is strong enough to withstand this onslaught of fear about China’s economy?

A8: Yes

Q9: And also because the drop in gasoline prices, while hurting companies in the oil industry, will help keep American consumers solvent in the months to come?

A9: Yes

Q10: Has there been ample coverage of the Flint water crisis?

A10: No

Q11: Is it a scandal that the city’s water supply has been found to be comparable to toxic waste?

A11: Yes

Q12: Has this winter been a hardship?

A12: No

Q13: But it’s not over yet, is it?

A13: No

1. It’s Wednesday, January 13, 2016. Winter is one-quarter over.

2. I don’t care who’s President, I love the State of the Union speech. It, or a text version of it, is a Constitutional requirement. The President has to tell the American people, through its Congress, how our country is doing.

Of course, those of us who are journalists do that all the time. And the President, no matter which party he and someday she represents, is going to put a shiny veneer on their accomplishments. So be it. We have all day today and probably a few days after to point out any flaws in the vision. It’s good for the country.

With that in mind, here are my thoughts after last night’s edition:

—We are going to be spoiled, I fear for decades, by Barack Obama’s ability to give a speech. He knows how to move his voice around, he can ad lib when he has to, and he brings a colloquial touch to even the most formal occasions.

Last night’s speech lasted about an hour. I never looked at my watch the entire time. I suspect most people didn’t, either. He keeps you involved, whether you like him or not.

—Obama also tends to be honest. Yes, there are times when he is tooting his own horn. But for the most part, he gave the nation a true picture of its strengths and vulnerabilities. He did what a chief executive is supposed to do for the people he represents.

The best example of that came in his discussion of the terrorism threat. Yes, nutcases who are willing to die for their cause can do terrible things. September 11 and Paris in November remind us of that.

But the United States is not weak. These people can’t attack us head on because they know they’d be annihilated. We spend more on defense than the next several nations ranked behind us combined.

I’m not sure his attempt at reassurance works in the face of the constant red-and-yellow danger graphics that people see on Fox News. But he tried.

— Kudos to both the President and, especially, the GOP responder, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Both criticized Trump and his divisive presidential campaign — and did so without giving him his erotic thrill of hearing his name.

Again, in a cable TV news world in which the squeaky wheel gets the grease, it’s hard to know what impact they’ll have. But at least they tried.

We can’t ignore this crap any longer. Trump — and, to a similar degree, Ted Cruz — are an embarrassment. That 47% of Iowa Republicans, according to the latest poll, think either of them has any business being President is sad.

— Which is bigger, the number of dollars in the Powerball jackpot or the number of places Paul Ryan would have rather been last night? It was painful to watch him not react — positively to negatively – to the President he’s sitting behind.

— CNN, I love you, but you’re part of what the President was getting at the end of his speech. While Obama was speaking, CNN was showing its pulse polling of how Democrats, Republicans and independents were reacting.

As if it matters. As if I, as a Democrat, should care that my fellow Democrats like a certain point, or that Republicans don’t like it. Am I supposed to change my view about what he’s saying because that’s what a Democrat or Republican touching some device believes?

The President’s point was that people should – every once in a while – just listen. Listen to what he says, think about it, and then decide if it’s what you believe or not. Listen to what his opponents say, think about it, and then decide if there’s any merit to the criticism.

We don’t do that, in part because we look at charts telling us what we’re supposed to think even as we’re listening to the point.

Fortunately, CNN didn’t show the pulse polling through the entire speech, otherwise I would have turned off the network for which I worked 16 years.

Let the President and his opponents finish making their cases. Then let’s discuss it. That’s how democracy is supposed to work.

1. It’s Tuesday, January 12, 2016.

2. What’s interesting when an accomplished entertainer passes is the level of unity generated by reflection upon his or her career.

So, the famous and the not-so-famous all commented fondly yesterday about the work done by David Bowie. Almost everyone, it seems, has a favorite song of his, and you could see people mentally humming “Changes” or “Modern Love” or any of the others.

When I think of Bowie, I think of his influence on how sexual orientation is viewed. His first persona was androgynous. Was he gay or wasn’t he? And then, after listening to the music, finding the question change to “Does it really matter?”

In the end, it didn’t. The work, over more than 40 years, spoke for itself. That people of all generations, of all nations, of all types feel at least a twinge of sadness for this man’s passing says more about his success than anything else possibly could. It speaks of a life well lived, and shorter than it should have been.

3. The White House hype for tonight’s State of the Union speech compares to that for last night’s national college football championship.

On my Twitter feed this morning is a black-and-white video of the President with an almost church-like organ playing in the background. Obama talks about what the administration has accomplished in seven years, but also hints that tonight’s speech will be more about his vision for the future, well beyond the 374 days left in his term.

And why not? Usually, the State of the Union is a long list of things the President wants Congress to accomplish in the next year. But you know and I know and he knows and they know that Obama is going to get next of nothing of what he wants from a Republican Congress in an election year.

So why bother asking for a lot of legislation that only get his supporters’ hopes up?

Instead, he can talk about what the nation faces as it moves toward the middle of the 21st century.

I don’t know exactly what he’s going to say. Here are my guesses:

— He’ll talk about how to keep the American economy dominant in a changing world, and yet provide people with a sense of security – the lack of which is spurring the success of a demagogue such as Trump.

— He’ll talk about how the nation needs to stay in front of the world in technology, and how it needs to be a little in combatting the ravages of climate change – even though he’s speaking in a roomful of people who still think it’s non-existent.

— And he’ll talk about to face down the threats of a world in which losers believe their second change at glory is to mow down people in a Paris concert hall, blow up a tourist center in Istanbul or seize a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon. (Actually, I wouldn’t bet a lot of money he’ll call out the jackasses in Oregon, but I would love to see it.)

No President in my lifetime – including JFK and Reagan – has the ability to hold an audience when speaking the way Barack Obama does. The hype for the State of the Union rivals last night’s college football championship – if it delivers nearly as well, it should be quite a night.

It’s January 8, 2016 and time for Friday Yes or No. I ask the questions. I give simple answers. I get a blog post. It was designed to give me an easy one. But for some reason, despite the one-word answers, these often require as much thought as the diatribes and hosannas normally seen on this page.

Anywhere, here goes.

Q1: Did you watch President Obama’s town hall on #GunsInAmerica?

A1: Yes

Q2: Were you impressed with the way CNN presented this issue?

A2: Yes

Q3: Were you impressed with the way the President handled the pointed questions from those opposed to his executive actions?

A3: Yes

Q4: Is today’s solid jobs report a sign of good things to come in 2016?

A4: No

Q5: Is that because the market turbulence of the past week is going to make would-be employees and shoppers nervous?

A5: Yes

Q6: Does it make any sense that a state as beautiful as Maine has a governor so intellectually ugly?

A6: No

Q7: Is North Korea’s attempt to expand its nuclear arsenal solely a problem for China to solve?

A7: No

Q8: But is China a key player is crafting a response to nutcase Kim Jong-Un?

A8: Yes

Q9: It’s going to be 57 degrees Sunday. Is that any reason to complain?

A9: No

Q10: Even though it’s going to rain?

A10: No

Q11: Because if it was 27 degrees, all that rain would be snow, right?

A11: Yes

1. It’s Thursday, January 7, 2015.

2. As a Met fan, I’m thrilled about Mike Piazza’s election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s especially rewarding because he was the first player my kids cheered for as I warped their minds into Met fandom.

But Piazza’s election resurrects the discussion about performance-enhancing drugs. He’s admitted to taking a steroid that was legal when he took it, but denies taking anything that was not legal. That hasn’t stopped some writers from speculating that he’s lying. They cite such things as his back acne and mood swings, which can be side effects of steroid use.

They could also be naturally occurring conditions for young men. If those kinds of things can be seen as evidence that he used steroids, the fact that he’s fathered two children since his playing days are equal evidence that he didn’t.

Piazza was denied enshrinement in Cooperstown for three years because of speculation about his PED use. But there was no evidence. There were no people talking about seeing him use steroids or providing them to him or even hearing him talk about it. It was unfair.

Piazza will go into the Hall as a Met. There is nothing clearcut or simple about being a Met or a Met fan. That’s part of the appeal, I suppose. But, until the Wilpons do something else to tick us off, we can be happy for a day.

3. In all my years as a financial journalist, I would hear about how worried retirees get when the stock market drops precipitously. Sort of the way it has so far in 2016.

I obviously was concerned about everyone in our audience, but I can’t say I worried about it.

Now, I do.

Being sort of retired means that I’ll soon be relying on my savings to pay for living. And like many other Americans, my savings are tied to the financial markets. So a 5% drop in stocks means 5% less to spend on the 4 p.m. special at Denny’s.

But as a long-time financial journalist, I also know that this is a terrible time to panic. If you believed enough in the markets to invest all that retirement money in them, you have to believe in them enough to know they’ll bounce back when there’s a setback. That happened even after the financial crisis of 2008.

What’s going on with China is hard for even the experts to grasp, so there’s no use trying to do it yourself. So just hang tight, and remember that stocks usually go up in presidential election years. Usually.

1. It’s Wednesday, January 6, 2016.

2. It’s the 12th day of Christmas. It’s the feast of the Epiphany, Three Kings Day, Dia de los Reyes. The holiday season officially ends today. For most people, it ended on New Year’s.

For the lazy ones (I’m in this camp), it won’t be over until the decorations are down, which hopefully – but not definitely – will happen sometime this month.

3. Maybe it’s a hydrogen bomb. Maybe it’s not. But anytime a crackpot government such as North Korea’s detonates a nuclear weapon, it’s a little scary. Who knows what that nut case Kim Jong Un will do?

It isn’t just the United States and South Korea who aren’t happy about this. China’s pissed. The test was conducted 50 miles from its border, and they apparently weren’t given a heads up. It appears the Russians dislike this, too.

What’s the world going to do about it? Probably not much that we’ll see. The North Koreans are probably looking for a few blackmail bucks.

But one of these days they’re going to push their limit too far. It can’t be that hard for everyone to gang up on a country that has virtually no economy and whose population doesn’t eat much.

4. President Obama is, of course, getting grief for the tears shed as he announced executive actions aimed at curbing gun violence. He was blasted in the usual quarters for overreaching, for punishing law-abiding citizens, for trampling on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

All the usual right-wing crap.

The President shed the tears at one particular moment – as he spoke about the first graders killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Twenty of them, along with six teachers and administrators.

First graders. Shot to death. In a classroom.

It’s not that I can’t believe that the President cried about killings that occurred three years ago. It’s that the rest of us don’t cry when we think about that as well.

Nothing that has happened in my lifetime is a darker mark on this country than the fact that we let 20 children die in a classroom and did nothing – absolutely nothing – to try to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Instead, we let the idiot who runs the National Rifle Association get on TV and say, to our faces, that the only reason those kids died is that there was no one in an elementary school as armed to the teeth as the nut case who started shooting. And we let the Congress of the United States listen to the NRA and do nothing to at least try to curb the spread of high-power weapons.

It was from that debacle that the NRA jackass uttered the rallying cry of the right wing: “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

The President’s executive actions can’t come nearly close to what really needs to be done to curb gun violence in this country. He can’t stop the sale of assault weapons or high-capacity magazines. He can’t require the kind of rigid licensing that’s needed for something so dangerous; it’s easier to get a gun than to get an automobile or start a business. He can’t go further in keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

But at least he’s trying. That’s more than you can say for those – I was about to say “those people,” but that gives them too much credit – on the other side of this issue. With thousands dying due to gun violence every year, their solution is to turn every place in America into a shooting range.

The President cried for those kids at Sandy Hook yesterday. He might have also cried for a country that lets Sandy Hook happen and feels powerless to change it.

1. It’s Tuesday, January 5, 2016.

2. Yes, this is the first Subjectism of 2016. Sorry for missing the past week.

3. I’m very nostalgic for last week, when it was in the 50s. It’s 16 degrees here this morning. Cold and dark. That’s how I view the whole of January. I’m not a fan.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m a little cranky this morning.

4. And nothing feeds my cranky side like right-wing nut cases. Which bring us to Burns, Oregon, and the terrorist occupation of a federal wildlife refuge. 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but nobody in Oregon or anywhere else in the United States elected these people to any position to speak for anybody. So, basically, they’re terrorist renegades who decided to seize territory they are in no justifiable position to hold.

What makes them different from the Islamic State, other than their racial makeup?

Of course, there will be a defense of these terrorists by people on the right. Fox News people have already said these people are just protesting government overreach. Here’s the thing: the wildlife refuge occupied has been federal property since 1908. More than a century. So now these cetriolo, both on the scene and in the rest of the country, have decided that the government is overreaching. 

These are worthless bastards. And terrorists. Call them exactly what they are. And deal with them in a way that does the least harm to innocent people – and the most harm to them.

5. Then there’s the Iranians and the Saudis.

As this New York Times article shows, unless you are Muslim, it’s hard to grasp why Sunnis and Shiites don’t get along. But get along, they don’t. Non-Muslim Americans tend to lump all Muslims into one, usually negative, bunch. But Sunnis, including the Saudis, dislike Iran as much as Americans with long memories of the 1979 embassy takeover. And Shiites, including the Iranians, hate the Islamic State as much as Americans with memories that don’t have to go much further back than the San Bernardino shootings.

The usual tensions boiled again when Saudi Arabia executed a cleric who advocated for Shiites’ rights. Then Iranians reverted to a nasty habit – they attacked the Saudi embassy. The Saudis and the states that rely on them for support – Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates – have withdrawn their diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Islamophobic Americans probably think this is great. Let these guys beat each other up and the world will be a better place for Christendom.

But that’s a stupid view, to say the least. We need Iran and Saudi Arabia to help us get rid of the threats posed by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Both terrorist organizations are Sunni in orientation, so the Saudis might be a little more reluctant to help – indeed, the Saudis are believed to be the primary funders of radical groups tied to al-Qaeda.

I’m sure the White House, 10 Downing Street and others are working overtime on keeping this situation from getting out of hand. The fact that we actually negotiated with Iran on the nuclear deal probably gives us a little more traction that we might have had otherwise.

1. It’s Tuesday, December 29, 2015.

2. Hope you had a merry Christmas, a happy Boxing Day (for the British, Canadian and Australians among you) and a good first few days of Kwanzaa. We’re only two days away from New Year’s Eve and less than three from 2016.

3. I was hoping we could go a whole winter without any white precipitation. Alas, here in New York’s northern suburbs, we’re looking as some grey-white slushy stuff on the ground this morning, and it’s still dripping something. The good news is it’s not ice – it’s still too warm for that, and will have a minimal impact on activities by this afternoon.

4. One thing we should be grateful for is that the first presidential votes are still a month away. It was 2008 that Iowa and New Hampshire decided to try to one up each other by having their contests right around New Year’s. The holidays should be downtime for everyone, including voters considering their presidential choice. Yes, Trump is belching away, but he probably has nothing else to do – can you imagine the warmth and loving that goes into a Trump family Christmas?

5. The New York Times is celebrating the apparent defeat of the Islamic State in Ramadi by Iraqi forces. And, to be fair, anytime the Daesh (a better term than ISIS or ISIL, since these people don’t like it) lose, it’s a victory for the human race.

But while an editorial cautiously trumpets the success of the American strategy in Ramadi, a news story on the NYT home page reminds us of how daunting this region of the world is. The story tells of the re-emergence of al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. It was, after all, al-Qaeda that attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001, with the protection of the Taliban.

Of course, the fact al-Qaeda isn’t finished off is a subsidiary outcome from the idiocy of the Iraq War. But if President Obama, who’s had to try to undo the damage done by that war, doesn’t dwell publicly on the frustration, neither should we. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that the administration’s policy in the region will continue to make progress, without the commitment of a massive U.S. military force, and that his successor won’t be one of these jump-up-and-down cowboys anxious to show how tough they are.

1. It’s Christmas Eve.

2. For some reason, Handel’s “Messiah” gets all the buzz at the holidays. And, don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful work.

But when it comes to Christmas choral masterpieces, I’m all in on Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio.” It proclaims the holiday with amazing flourishes. I feel as though it’s the official sound of Christmas.

Yes, I realize it’s in German. That detracts not one note from its brilliance.

I don’t understand why it’s almost never performed live in the United States. When I tried to find a live performance, the closest appeared to be in London.

3. Believe it or not, I was going to do a political rant tonight. I had a clever “Yes, Virginia, there is a war on Christmas” lead that would have said something about the fact that the war on the spirit of Christmas is being waged by people who say they’re offended when someone wishes them “Happy holidays!”

But Christmas is a powerful force. And when you get to the quiet of Christmas Eve, and the reflection on all that is good in your life and all that you wish for those you care about, the pettiness, the sniping, the rigidity all seem silly.

Instead, there is calm and joy. The fact that I’m with my wife and my children, who I re-realize are the best gifts I’ll ever receive. That I’ve seen all the lights again, and heard the great music, and eaten better than I should. That my friends are enjoying this holiday with their families around the world.

There’s also wistfulness. There are friends and family absent from this night, people who I would conjure if I could, to stand or sit here and talk and laugh and be part of my life for one more night. I try as hard as I can to make them reappear and I come so close.

4. I’m thinking about one person in particular tonight.

In 1976, I was trying to get a full-time job as a broadcast writer for the Associated Press, and was on a roster of part-time substitutes called the “variables.” Someone called in sick for the night shift on Dec. 24, and I was called. Accepting it would mean missing Christmas Eve, the greatest night in my family’s year. And yet, I did it. I thought – wisely, as it turned out – that it might turn into the job I wanted.

It was hard because I didn’t really know the staff that was working. But I slugged it out and it was just past 11.

That’s when the sports writer that night, an older guy – he was all of 46 then – was getting ready to catch the last bus to his home in the Jersey suburbs. But before he did, he walked around the room. He shook hands with everyone in it, asked how they and their families were celebrating the holiday, and wished them a Merry Christmas. That everyone included me, someone he had never met until that night, and who was amazed that someone would take the time to care about my holiday.

The man’s name was Marv Schneider. He died earlier this year. He was Jewish and, if asked, would say he didn’t celebrate Christmas.

But he did. He gave comfort and cheer to his colleagues on a special night. And his gifts, his kindness, his friendship and his wit, lasted longer that anything else I received that holiday. They live tonight in my heart, and I feel as though I came oh, so, close to bringing him back.

So tonight, as I get ready for a busy Christmas Day, I’m thinking of Marv and my grandfather and my Aunt Fran and lots of other people – living or otherwise. I’m seeing their smiles and enjoying the sounds of their voice and hoping at this moment, wherever they are, whatever they believe, with whomever else they’re spending this time, that they are happy and at peace. I miss the ones I can’t see again, smile at the prospect that I can see the others again sometime, and know that that’s what Christmas means to me.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. To all my friends and family, whether they celebrate tonight or not, peace, love, happiness and a kind handshake.

1. It’s Tuesday, December 22, 2015.

2. News organizations and weather people who talk about dashed hopes for a white Christmas are idiots.

Entranced by perhaps the most overrated holiday song, they see the glistening white of snow around Central Park or a community church as the symbol of a perfect Christmas Day. So they go on the air or write that there will be people in the eastern U.S. disappointed this year because of temperatures well above normal.

They’re not.

Here’s reality: Most people must travel somewhere to spend Christmas Day with the ones they love. It could be a couple of miles, it could be across the ocean. And with that many people traveling, there are already enough obstacles without roads being treacherous or flights being cancelled because it’s snowing.

Ask people who have been stranded in airports how wonderful a white Christmas is. Ask people standing on the side of a snowy road after skidding into the car ahead of them if they notice the treetops glisten.

Is a snowscape on Christmas morning prettier than looking at brownish ground and leafless trees? Perhaps. But you know what’s a lot prettier than a snowscape? Looking into the eyes of parents and children and siblings and friends and anyone else we care about on Christmas Day, realizing at that moment that you are safe together, and that nothing is better.

It will be 70 degrees here in New York on Christmas Eve. That’s a Christmas gift I’m not exchanging.

3. If Trump thinks Hillary Clinton going to a bathroom offstage is disgusting, does that mean he supports the idea of wearing a loaded diaper during the debates? Wonder if he knows first hand.