1. It’s Tuesday, August 18, 2015.

2. It’s the 180th birthday of Marshall Field, whose department store was a Chicago institution until Macy’s glommed it.

Apparently, Mr. Field was long dead – he caught pneumonia while playing golf in New York on New Year’s Day 1906 – when his stores’ greatest contribution to society, Frango Mints, were introduced to Chicago and points east. (What I learned today: Frango Mints were invented in Seattle.) Macy’s Frango Mints are just not the same. 

3. Carly Fiorina’s slight rise in the Republican polls – although, hey, she’s still in the single digits – comes as a result of her performance in the not-primetime debate earlier this month.

But Andrew Ross Sorkin takes apart her claim of being a successful businesswoman in The New York Times this morning, pointing out what those of us who followed her career remember: She was a key player is the diminution of two major tech companies, Lucent and Hewlett-Packard.

That, and advancing the ignorance of allowing parents to opt out of vaccines, disqualify her for high office, or even for dog catcher. 

4. John Oliver’s take on televangelism might be the best thing he’s done on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight.”

In lambasting the fact that it’s ridiculously easy to be declared a tax-exempt religion and profit handily from that, Oliver is also doing a kind of journalism that is sadly lacking in TV news.

By the way, the good news is that if you donate to Oliver’s Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, the money will eventually go to Doctors Without Borders, an organization doing real good in the world. 

1. It’s Monday, August 17, 2015.

2. You can’t slip much past Fabulous Donny Trump. He’s wise to those diabolical immigrants, the ones taking those jobs real Americans want like mowing lawns and frying burgers. Then, after they’ve committed their evil deeds, they produce children — and thanks to the Constitution, those kids are automatically U.S. citizens.

It’s time, if you follow Fabulous Donny’s logic, to protect the Constitution from the Constitution by ending that automatic birthright crap and sending the whole lot back to wherever they came from.

What a jackass! 

2. Jeff Bezos says he would never work for the company described in a much-talked-about New York Times story this weekend. Of course, that company is Amazon, the company he created.

But Bezos says the article — in which more than 100 past and present employees described pretty draconian working conditions — doesn’t really reflect the atmosphere at Amazon.

Bezos’ response might have had more credence if he had answered Times reporters’ questions as they working on the piece. What he and his lieutenants at Amazon didn’t anticipate was how godawful they and the company comes off in the story reported by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld.

At lot of the people who read it are just going to be revolted by what the employees of Amazon go through, and there will be a turn-off factor among people who shop at what’s now the world’s largest retailer. And there will be talented people who see what the price is for working at Amazon and decide, the hell with that. 

4. When I was attended religious instruction classes as a child, I was told that Adam and Eve’s sin is the reason we all have to work, since people were cast out of paradise.

But I can’t imagine a benevolent higher being thinks sacrificing family and health for the glory of a corporate entity isn’t a far more heinous sin that biting the wrong apple.

I had one question going through my mind as I read the Times’ Amazon story: Why would anyone work there? There are three good reasons to have a job. One is to make money and provide for yourself and those who depend on you. The second is to do something that benefits the world in some way. And the third is to share the experience with good people – to make friends out of colleagues and possibly, if you’ve been as lucky as I’ve been, get to spend a lifetime sharing a laugh.

Amazon meets the first criterion by paying you – although in some cases, you’re getting paid in stock whose value could zero out. But you would also get paid by every other job you could do, and you wouldn’t be required to answer e-mails at midnight or miss a kid’s trombone performance.

The second criterion is whether or not what you do benefits the world. Getting someone an Elsa doll 23 minutes after they don’t see it at the Toys ‘R’ Us in Times Square doesn’t quite measure up to teaching learning-disabled kids, or serving meals to the elderly at a nursing home, or fighting a two-alarm blaze, or any number of other jobs that actually make people’s lives better.

And then there’s the third criterion. If you read this on a regular basis, you know that I left CNNMoney almost a year ago in a voluntary buyout. And what I miss most is not the job itself — which surprises me, because I always liked the idea of telling people something they needed to know. What I miss the most is the people I worked with. It is part of the fulfillment of a job to have colleagues who share your experiences, inside and outside the workplace.

I can’t imagine Amazon is like that. With the competition, the constant culling of those who aren’t meeting whatever freaking standard someone is setting, the in-house criticism that sounds like a Communist Party meeting during China’s Cultural Revolution, the idea that I would trust anybody I worked with is ludicrous.

There are people who aren’t bothered by the Amazon atmosphere described in the Times. I would imagine they’re in their 20s and 30s, and willing to do whatever it takes to advance their careers. If the career is their satisfaction in life, their purpose in living, then I wish them the best.

But I think life is more than that. It includes such concepts as love and health, and the joy that comes in a child’s discovery or watching a baseball game with friends.

I don’t envy Amazonians. Not one bit. 

It’s August 14, 2015 and time for Friday Yes or No, in which I answer 10 questions with the most succinct answer possible:

Q1: Should Japan, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, be finished apologizing for the atrocities it committed before and during World War II?

A1: No

Q2: Will an Amtrak train sprout wings and fly from Washington to Wilmington before Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee for President?

A2: Yes

Q3: Isn’t the “Sesame Street”-HBO deal, mercenary as it is, better than letting the show die after 46 years?

A3: Yes

Q4: Isn’t it strange that Carly Fiorina, claiming to be a savvy businesswoman, would endorse the incredibly dopey idea of parental choice in vaccinations?

A4: Yes

Q5: Should we just shrug off the latest declines in China’s stock markets as a market problem that just affects investors on the other side of the world?

A5: No

Q6: Will the world go to hell in a handbasket now that the United States flag is flying over this nation’s embassy in Havana?

A6: No

Q7: Will the world go to hell in a handbasket if Congress stops the Iran nuclear limitation deal?

A7: Yes

Q8: Are those the last two times I intend to use the expression “hell in a handbasket”?

A8: Yes

Q9: The Mets are now 4-1/2 games ahead of the Washington Nationals in the National League East. So should I be confident that the Mets will make the postseason for the first time since 2006?

A9: No

Q10: Would it have been a lot easier to write this Friday Yes or No if there had been a Republican presidential debate the night before, like last week?

A10: Yes

1. It’s Wednesday, August 12, 2015.

2. I was standing at the New City, N.Y., bus stop at 5:15 a.m. one morning in 2010 when there was a discussion among the regulars. It was a bunch of folks griping about President Obama.

But the topic surprised me: They groused that he had promised to bring all the troops home from Iraq, and some were still there.

Here’s what Jeb Bush and the neocons who believe Obama squandered his predecessor’s (and Jeb’s brother’s), um, victory in Iraq don’t get. The American people were sick of Iraq well before Obama was elected. If anything, even conservatives believe troops were there too long.

And there were two reasons. One is that it wasn’t our job to build a nation. The second is that the cost contributed to the economic crisis of the late ‘00s.

In his speech last night, Jeb Bush revisited the Iraq problem that originated with his big brother. If the Republican Party wants to replay that battle, it can pretty much guarantee Hillary Clinton’s victory.

1. It’s Monday, August 10, 2015.

2. It’s four days after the fact, and the Republican presidential debate still ranks among the top news items. That seems silly. The Iowa caucus isn’t until February. Election Day is 15 months away. Lots of serious issues are going to come to the fore, some we might not be able to imagine.

3. I emphasize serious, because the reason we’re still talking about a debate six months before the first significant vote is cast is Fabulous Donny Trump. His performance – let’s emphasize that word, please – had to leave anyone with a mind who watched that debate baffled.

Yes, the Fox News interrogators went after Donny with gusto. But he leaned into their punches every single time. When I was watching him answer questions about his ill-mannered remarks toward women, his position on immigration, whether he’d run as an independent and why he gave money to Hillary Clinton, my mouth was agape. I imagined I looked like the audience in Mel Brooks’ classic “The Producers” when it’s first exposed to the opening number of “Springtime for Hitler.”

4. Of course, Trump has kept the momentum rolling with his tasteless follow-up comments about Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. That has been the talk all weekend. Every other candidate who appeared on Sunday talk shows had to answer Donny-Megyn questions before getting to the reason they appeared on the show in the first place. Trump’s been called a misogynist, among other things, and has been forced to defend his attitudes toward women. 

5. And yet if you watched that debate, you have to wonder whether Donny Trump really is any meaner to women than some of the others on that stage.

In that debate, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida corrected Ms. Kelly when she asked whether he opposed a woman’s right to an abortion except in instances of rape or incest. No, Rubio said, even in instances of rape and incest. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who showed his political cowardice early in the campaign, reaffirmed his position when asked by Ms. Kelly if he opposed the right to abortion even if carrying the fetus jeopardized a woman’s life.

And former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a worthless sack of dust and feathers, said he supports the idea that the instant sperm and egg mix is when that mixture has its Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In the case of the Fourteenth Amendment, Huckabee is granting rights to random cells that he’s taking away from the woman whose body they’re mixing.

In addition, the Republicans in the debate tripped over themselves demonizing Planned Parenthood, which is one of the nation’s leading advocates for women’s health — on which former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said beforehand this nation spends too much money.

6. All this raised some thoughts:

      a) I wonder if Huckabee is going to lose NRA support for his stance. Because while granting Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, he didn’t grant the just-fertilized egg what the gun morons see as the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

     b) Why would that constitutional protection be limited to the combination of sperm and egg? As the forces needed to create that combination, should sperm and egg also be granted the rights of U.S. citizenship?

     c) Shouldn’t any woman carrying a sperm-egg combination against her will be allowed to claim a tax deduction? If this is just as important as her actual kids, they should have the same status in the eyes of the tax laws.

     d) Do these people celebrate their birthday? Why? Isn’t the date of conception far, far more important to them? Shouldn’t they commemorate when their parents got together in the bedroom of their home, or a hotel room, or the back seat of their Rambler and did what they did to bring about their arrival?

     e) These are the same people who complain when there aren’t two parents of different sexes. (Again, God forbid the parents are the same sex! Government is never too big to stop that as far as these folks are concerned). So, if the mother dies as a result of being forced to give birth, isn’t that both shameful and holy at the same time? And shouldn’t the child, or fetus, or just completed sperm-egg combination be prosecuted because of its role in having just one parent. Or do it just have the rights of citizenship without any responsibility?

    f) Given the arguments these people give, should an accused rapist be exonerated if that act of violence results in a fetus? If it’s illegal to mitigate his violence, wouldn’t he have done the nation a service?

    g) If the sperm-egg combination, at any stage in the nine months before being delivered as a child, requires care, wouldn’t it violate the constitutional rights granted it by Huckabee not to provide that care? Wouldn’t that mean that the woman carrying it has to see a doctor or else it’s violating those rights? And wouldn’t that mean that the woman needs some sort of health coverage or else she’s violating the Constitution? Thus, Obamacare seems like a necessity in your machinations. Am I right, guys?

7.  I’m still not sure why anyone else in the world believes they have the right to tell a woman what she should be able to do with her body. Each step down that path is a step toward hypocrisy, cruelty and inequality. And ludicrous.

It’s August 7, 2015 and time for Friday Yes or No, when I answer the burning questions of the day with unusual (for me) brevity:

Q1: Does Fox News really, really, really want Fabulous Donny Trump out of the Republican race?

A1: Yes

Q2: Despite having all the money he needs to spend on advisers, did Fabulous Donny Trump do any more than 2 seconds of preparation for last night’s debate in Cleveland?

A2: No

Q3: Did Fox News overcompensate for years of shilling for the GOP by asking a lot of gotcha questions, the plurality of which were directed at Fabulous Donny Trump?

A3: Yes

Q4: Was Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s debate performance more suitable for the fall 2016 debates with the Democratic nominee than for a debate for the Republican faithful?

A4: Yes

Q5: Was it a good idea for Jeb Bush to associate himself proudly with Michael Bloomberg in a debate targeted at an audience that hates gun control and loves the right to drink 40 ounces of Mountain Dew?

A5: No

Q6: Are there too many questions in this post about an intraparty debate that’s half a year before the Iowa caucus and 15 months before Election Day?

A6: Yes

Q7: Was Jon Stewart’s last “Daily Show” as much fun to watch as Stephen Colbert’s last “Colbert Report” or David Letterman’s last “Late Show.”?

A7: No

Q8: Should President Obama tone down his campaign for Congressional support of the Iran nuclear deal after saying that Republican opponents are acting in concert with Iranian radicals?

A8: No

Q9: One year after the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer, has life for African-Americans in Ferguson, Mo., improved significantly?

A9: No

Q10: Are the Amazin Mets for real?

A10: YES

1. It’s Thursday, August 6, 2015.

2. It’s a big night for television.

At 9 p.m. ET is, according to the TV listings for Fox News Channel, “Republican Presidential Candidates Debate.”

But let’s face it. The program is really “Fabulous Donny Trump in the Republican Presidential Candidates Debate (also  featuring nine other guys).

People will interrupt their vacations or whatever else they might have done on a summer Thursday night to see exactly what Fabulous Donny will say. It’s the night we’ll find out exactly how serious Fabulous Donny is about this presidential race, and give us some insight of how much longer we’ll have him around.

3. Also on the agenda tonight, at 11 p.m. ET, is Jon Stewart’s last go-round as host of “The Daily Show.”

You wonder what the big gotcha will be, like Stephen Colbert’s rendition of “We’ll Meet Again” with about half the people who ever showed up on his program.

Warning to DVRers: It’s supposed to run 52 minutes, but there’s a real good chance it could run long. Set the DVR at two hours, and you really can’t wrong.

4. Today is the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act by President Lyndon Johnson.

As if to remind us why this act is necessary, a federal court yesterday struck down a Texas (of course) law that required some sort of government-issued photo ID in order to vote. The law meant that while a voter registration card is invalid in Texas, a concealed-weapon license is.

Again, this is Texas. The state will probably appeal the ruling, since it’s more interested in making sure there are as many obstacles to minority citizen voting as they can possibly throw out there.

5. There are critics who say President Obama’s speech yesterday in support of the nuclear limitation deal with Iran was not presidential.

In it, he stated the obvious: the only alternative to the agreement is war, and that those who blast the agreement are pretty much in cahoots with radicals in Iran.

It’s funny — there are so many people about how political figures use obfuscatory language to state what’s on their mind. The president didn’t bother. He said what he meant, and meant what he said.

And he’s absolutely right.

The Republicans who oppose this agreement need to say to the American people that they are willing to send their sons and daughters to the Persian deserts to stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons. It would be bloody and awful, and make the Iraq debacle seem like a preliminary event. And saying that there some be more negotiations with Iran is equally ridiculous. Our negotiating partners have sacrificed more than we have, and their patience would be tested if we turn away from the deal.

President Obama is serious about keeping Iran from getting nuclear weapons in the near future. His opponents need to say what they would do if they scuttle this agreement.

1. It’s Wednesday, August 5, 2015.

2. Christmas is 142 days away. I say this because I just ordered my first Christmas gift online. Can’t say what I bought, since one of you readers might be a recipient. 

3. The 2016 U.S. presidential election is 461 days away. But the campaign started months ago, and tomorrow is an early pivotal moment, the first Republican debate.

Because this is a society that plays a lot of games, there has to be some kind of scenario for this debate. In this case, Fox has decided that only the ten leading candidates can participate in the primetime show. The other seven candidates will try to break through in a preliminary debate, or what boxing calls the undercard.

I’m sure Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal and George Pataki — guys who have been elected governor of their states multiple times — are thrilled with that. 

4. Of course the main attraction of tomorrow’s main debate is Fabulous Donny Trump. He leads the polls; does that mean he gets to stand in the best position on the stage?

This debate will determine how long the Fabulous Donny phenomenon will last. He’s running a campaign that focuses on his spit-out-something-and-see-if-it-sticks style, thinking that those kinds of pronouncements take the place of thought-out policy. His campaign is what he senses from his success in reality TV is how America works.

Over the weekend, friends wondered when he would get bored with this and go back to making New Yorkers crazy with his bad taste. This debate will say a lot about when or even whether that happens.

If Fabulous Donny has a good time tomorrow night, he might very well be in this for the long haul. And the people who would actually vote for him (instilling the scary thought that those people are among us) are looking for reaffirmation in their belief that this is the guy who’s the answer to whatever problem they’re trying to solve.

If they come away happy, and Donny comes away happy, it’s going to be a long campaign.

5. I don’t want to jump the gun on everything. For one thing, it’s still summer! Nothing better than that. Enjoy the day.