In Case You Missed It (v21)

Another long week in the books - and a not-as-productive-as usual week, at that.

Here's all the stuff I could dump out of my head, and it wasn't much, I admit. I spent too much time starting (and not finishing) posts - a big ADD week, for sure.

Anyway - we had both Amy Klobuchar and Andrew Yang in the Sunday School classrooms. Here's a snippet from each of them, starting with Klobuchar's take on That Guy from Vermont and which of them should be the nominee.

I think Senator Sanders' idea of kicking 149 million Americans off their current health insurance in four years is wrong. That's why I don't think he should be leading the ticket. I think I should be leading the ticket because my ideas are much more in sync with bold ways of getting things done... and the experience of getting things done. 

And here's Andrew Yang countering an argument that his freedom dividend (universal basic income) won't go far enough.

Americans know instinctively that if you put a thousand dollars a month into our hands, it would find its way right back into our main street economies, make our families stronger, healthier, mentally healthier. It would create hundreds of thousands of jobs. It would improve the buying power, increase the buying power of over 90% of Americans.

I'm glad they're both still in the race. I don't agree with everything they propose, but it's still a good time to have some policy disagreements.

I got my head out of DC for a bit on Tuesday with this Meanwhile Back in Albany entry, taking a look at what New York's Sonofa Gov had on his mind during his 10th State of the State address. Among other things, he's concerned about the disheartening hate crimes that have hit us not just here in NY, but across the country. And he's planning on us taking the lead.

He said hate crimes would be subject to the "first-in-the-nation domestic terrorism law" and there'd be funding to expand the capacity of the Hate Crimes Task Force and for security grants to schools and places of worship. And, he wants schools to teach civic values and our history on diversity, as well as how immigration was driven by religious freedom. 

For Wondering on Wednesday, it was back to DC for much head shaking, including this bit about a suggestion from the Republicans that they hunker in a bunker of their own and read the transcript of John Bolton's book.

Remember, whatever he said in the book is a lie, the president told us - and there's nothing better than putting a person on the stand and making them lie under oath, or to try and prove that they're not. Well, nothing better than that - except hiding in a secure bunker, out of sight from the press and from your constituents...

These are the same Republicans, natch, who have been up in arms about the Democrats deposing various government officials in the SCIF.... sigh.

Our Email of the Week brought us to an unexpected place. While there were a number of noteworthy things in my inbox, including the ones mentioned below. 

• Sanders threw three of the Squad members at us in one email, and he's already focused on NY's April primary;   

• Mayor Pete went on Fox News for a town hall, the only one to do so, I guess;

• Deval Patrick got an endorsement from a NH State Senator; and

• Andrew Yang qualified for the February debate, after missing the January one - maybe the best news of the week.

But the winner was not in that mix - in fact, even I was surprised with who landed on top.

So there you have it -- four posts, to go along with the ten I have in draft right now, that are alternately fighting with me or taunting me. I'll get to work on those, I promise. 

Remember, you can always drop your email in the Instant Gratification box on the right sidebar to catch all the posts when they're fresh.

See you tomorrow for Sunday School.