In Case You Missed It (v18)

Too busy this week trying not to break your New Year's resolutions to read blog posts?  Not a problem - here's your week in review, starting with this week's Sunday School classroom visits.

I sat in with Senator Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg as they made the rounds. Among the topics discussed? The killing of Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani, and how the military should be used; impeachment; Warren's 'backtracking' on some key policies; and Buttigieg's alleged coziness with fatcat donors. Take a look, at Warren on Meet the Press and Mayor Pete on State of the Union.

On her support for the USMCA, what's called NAFTA 2.0, which she previously opposed, she said the "Democrats got in and negotiated a very different deal than we had a year ago" even as she said it wasn't a "great arrangement," noting that workers and farmers have been hurt by the Trump administration and need support.

 Again, staying with Warren's attacks, Tapper asked if Buttigieg would match her commitment to not appoint any high-dollar donors as ambassadors. Anyone he appoints "will be there on their merits, and will be neither qualified or disqualified based on the idea that they supported and believed in my campaign."

I gave Sunday School Extra Credit to anyone who put up with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who hit every classroom, and got almost the exact same questions in each. And, he made a distinct point to make reference to the previous administration on every show, too. Here's just one example.

Remember where we came in. In 2015, the Obama-Biden administration essentially handed power to the Iranian leadership and acted as a quasi-ally of theirs, by underwriting them -- underwriting the very malicious - that killed Americans.

He got better at making sure to mention Joe Biden, not just Barack Obama. Helluva guy, Pompeo is - in case the Ukraine nonsense doesn't stick, let's make sure the faithful think that Biden is comfy with terrorists... Gotta cover all the bases for the boss, right?  

In a Quick Takes entry, I looked at the influence of billionaire money in the Dem race, and learned that, on the one hand, the Bloomberg (and Steyer) bucks are having a significant impact on advertising rates, as reported by the NY Post.  

That's right - Bloomberg's spending has resulted in a 22% increase in a "typical TV market," the article says, pointing to an analysis by Advertising Analytics. As a for instance, 

Houston was among the markets that responded most actively to the new advertiser, it added. This is partially attributable to Bloomberg’s $1 [million] buy increasing the political spending in the market tenfold. This shock spending increase was matched by a 45% increase in rates, which is among the highest of any market. 

The flip side of the coin? How much influence in the primaries themselves is the money having? I look at that, too. 

The coveted Democratic Presidential candidate Email of the Week had a first-time winner - and one of the best opening lines of any email I've gotten in recent memory.  Can you guess who sent it?

Quite frankly, our criminalization of cannabis is stupid and racist. 

When it came to TGIF, among the list-makers was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has finally decided to move the impeachment along. Here are a few of the contributors to my assessment of her bad week.

• Some of her own flock were suggesting publicly it was time to get this moving;
• having no say, really, in what happens in the Senate, she was merely sitting on the sidelines as Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer fought about what the trial would look like; 
• Several senators threatened to change the Senate rules to declare this all a nothingburger if the Articles weren't sent over timely; and
• McConnell voted his support for just such a proposal.

There were some folks who had a good week, too.

And finally, I pulled out the Irony Board today, in which I looked a progressive star not having a whole lot of interest in paying her union dues... that just seems odd to me.

And speaking of a 'blanket rule', I always thought that everyone in the union was supposed to pay the dues - even people who disagreed with what the union was doing, right? That doesn't get you a pass - not according to politicians, anyway. Some courts have ruled in favor of the 'don't want to pay' crowd, but you won't find a lot of Democrat pols taking that position.

 Not only that, but

I wonder what would happen if all the folks who are in unions today, or who get all the union jobs proposed under the Green New Deal all the sudden decided that paying dues was for the birds? I'm pretty sure a certain congresswoman would have something to say about that...

So, there you have it -- the veritable pastiche for the week, in a nutshell.  Drop your email in the 'Instant Gratification' box at the top of the right sidebar to be sure you don't miss a post. 

See you next week!