Q:

Quick print i++ (for debugging purposes)

I'm used to do cout << i++ in C++.  How do I get the same effect (print and increment) in Python? 
It seems there is no ++ operator. 

A:

You could use count from itertools to achieve this effect:
c = itertools.count(0, 1)
print(next(c))
0
print(next(c))
1
print(next(c))
2

This is as close as you can get without using a statement i += 1 since ++ is, of course, not supported. 
The previous was increment then print; if you want a print then increment approach, use a custom generator:
def inc(i):
    while True:
        yield i
        i += 1

accordingly:
x = inc(1)

print(next(x))
1

print(next(x))
2

Note: these are infinite generators, don't do silly things with them.