I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!

cardplayer,

That is so disturbing! CA requires 2 years of post graduate work plus several standardized exams and two semesters of student teaching to get a preliminary teaching credential. I think you then have about 2-5 years to meet additional requirements to be granted your professional clear credential. We have one of the most demanding credentialing requirements of the all the states. I suppose I should not ask any new Florida teachers what the commutative property, phonemic awareness, code switching or the different genres of fiction are. Yup, those are some of the things a first grade teacher has to know. I'm only a year into retirement and still sub. I don't get angry easily but treating the teaching profession as something anyone can do is beyond upsetting to me. Pedagogy is apractice that needs to be studied and kept current.I hope CA never moves in the same direction of FL.

No, I absolutely do NOT miss the paperwork.....really the time I spent on the 'paperwork just to do paperwork' was what tipped me into retirement, not the kids. I always loved the kids, even the tough ones. In today's world, we need teachers with MORE training, not less. The poor, poor kids!!

What a surprise, UGH.

• "Rep. Matt Gaetz was among 20 Republicans to vote against the renewal of an anti-trafficking bill.
• The bill, renewed without fuss since 2000, offers protections against sex trafficking.
• Gaetz is under investigation for possible sex trafficking. He denies all wrongdoing."

https://news.yahoo.com/matt-gaetz-under-investigat...

https://www.businessinsider.com/matt-gaetz-20-gop-voting-against-anti-sex-trafficking-bill-2022-7

Here's some better news

Manchin and Schumer announce surprise deal on climate, health care and tax package

CBS/ July 28, 2022

Sen. Joe Manchin announced Wednesday that he had reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — which had eluded them for months — on health care costs, energy and climate issues.

The package will be paid for by closing tax loopholes on wealthy individuals and large corporations, Schumer and Manchin said in announcing the deal.

The health care, tax and energy package needs to be reviewed by the Senate parliamentarian to pass through the budget reconciliation process, which allows Democrats to approve the measure with 50 votes. In a joint statement, Schumer and Manchin said the "revised legislative text will be submitted to the Parliamentarian for review this evening and the full Senate will consider it next week."

President Joe Biden said in a statement Wednesday that he had spoken to Manchin and Schumer and he supports the deal.

"If enacted, this legislation will be historic, and I urge the Senate to move on this bill as soon as possible, and for the House to follow as well," Mr. Biden said.

Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia whose resistance had long derailed sweeping legislation on those issues, abruptly revealed the agreement in a press release, followed by a joint release with Schumer.

The announcement from Manchin came hours after the Senate passed the Chips and Science Act, a bill to subsidize investments in domestic semiconductor chip production. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had threatened to stymie the semiconductor bill if Democrats continued to pursue party-line reconciliation legislation.

"From here forward, the debate over a future reconciliation bill or any targeted legislation must focus on supporting the everyday hardworking Americans we have been elected to serve," Manchin said in a statement. "I support the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 because it provides a responsible path forward that is laser focused on solving our nation's major economic, energy and climate problems. The question for my colleagues is whether they are willing to put their election politics aside and embrace the commonsense approach that the overwhelming majority of the American people support and will best serve the future of this nation."

According to a one-page description of the legislation from Schumer and Manchin, the bill would invest $369 billion in energy security and climate change and extend the Affordable Care Act program for three years. In addition, the legislation would grant Medicare the ability to negotiate prescription drug prices.

Senator Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday noted the finality of the deal.

"The good news here is that it is Senator Manchin, who is announcing a deal, not that they're close to a deal or not that there are some parts to a deal," she said.

House progressives also seemed optimistic, tweeting, "We'll need to evaluate the details, but it's promising a deal to deliver on those issues might finally be in reach."

This is you'd better clean up your act while you still can.

As to the continued popularity of Gaetz, Drumpf, MTG, Boebert, et al? Bigots, religious nuts, and misogynists are willing to overlook all manner of horrible behavior (including stuff they concede to be sinful) from those whom they believe are giving them everything they want.

Lavern Spicer is a Republican running for Congress In Miami. She’s been in a twitter war about the use of pronouns it appears.

Some just rewards:

'Getting Rolled': McConnell Was Outfoxed With His Own Playbook

Thu, July 28, 2022

For years, Democrats have watched Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell deploy ultra-partisan legislative tactics to outmaneuver them on everything from fiscal cliff negotiations to filling a Supreme Court seat.

But this week, Senate Republicans may have gotten a taste of their own medicine—and it didn't go down smoothly.

On Wednesday, McConnell and 13 Republicans joined with all Democrats to pass a sweeping bill investing in U.S. high-tech manufacturing, a major bipartisan win.

Barely an hour later, after more than a year of halting negotiations, Sen. Joe Manchin announced he had reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on a package of climate investments, tax hikes for the rich, and prescription drug reforms.

McConnell said in June that Republicans would hold the manufacturing bill hostage if Democrats moved forward with their broader bill, which would pass through a party-line vote process called reconciliation. After that, Manchin threw cold water on the idea of passing a sweeping bill, and Republicans expected Democrats to pursue a pared-down package only containing drug pricing reforms.

Clearly, Manchin never left the table. And Republicans, along with the rest of the world, found out when the senator released a statement announcing his support for a party-line bill—minutes after the GOP relinquished its leverage.

"I think that could be something you call 'getting rolled,'" Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told The Daily Beast on Thursday. "There had to be a little bit of trust. I guess, someone, it looks like they either misunderstood or it didn't work out the way it should have."

"It's a sour taste," Braun continued, "for some of us."

The Senate GOP's Oxford-educated dispenser of folksy wisdom, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), was characteristically more blunt in an interview with Politico. "Looks to me like we got rinky-doo'd," he said. "That's a Louisiana word for 'screwed.'"

To Democrats, the GOP meltdown is befuddling. Schumer and his caucus never made an agreement to give up on their plans for a party-line package in order to pass the high-tech manufacturing bill.

Democratic lawmakers questioned how they could have rolled Republicans on a deal they never actually cut.

"I literally have no idea what they're talking about," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT). "Nobody in the Republican conference should be surprised that we want to pass legislation cutting drug prices and addressing climate change."

But the timeline of events has a distinctly Machiavellian twist. To some Democrats, it smacked of something their longtime GOP tormentor in the Senate might have gladly pulled off.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), who has alternately worked with and fought McConnell for years, said he was "certainly pessimistic" about ever seeing the day that Democrats would outflank McConnell.

"I was glad to see it, and I'm glad to see they are acting very pragmatically and intentionally," Yarmuth said. "You'd think after watching him for so many years they might pick up something."

McConnell's office declined to comment for this story. But asked by a reporter on Wednesday if he was duped, McConnell mostly ignored that question and instead attacked the deal that Manchin and Schumer had reached.

"What's happening here is that Manchin and Schumer have reached an agreement which is absolutely horrendous and totally unnecessary given the inflation the Democrats have already created," he said. "So that's the issue we're heading toward, and it's an unmitigated disaster for the country and we're going to fight it as hard as we can."

Intentional or not, the fallout of Wednesday's events will reverberate in a number of key ways for both parties.

In the span of 24 hours, Democrats went from mourning their agenda to touting a major bipartisan win on the economy and speeding toward the legislative landmark on climate and tax policy that has eluded them for over a year.

>>> Republicans, seemingly caught flat footed, decided to retaliate by opposing bills that many of them had previously supported. In June, for instance, nearly all Republicans voted to advance long-awaited legislation to expand health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances on the job.

After Manchin released his statement on Wednesday announcing a deal, the Senate held a vote on final passage of that bill—and 41 GOP senators revolted, blocking the legislation at its final hurdle.

Democrats, along with veterans and their advocates, were left flabbergasted that Republicans—many of whom had already supported the bill—would vote down health care for servicemembers seemingly as a response to Democrats' maneuvering. "Republicans now are basically holding the veterans hostage because they're mad," Manchin said on Thursday. <<<

Other bills may now be at risk: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told HuffPost on Thursday that the agreement on the climate and tax legislation might tank GOP support for a bill codifying same-sex marriage that was primed for a bipartisan vote in the Senate.

For McConnell, this week marks the second time in the last year that a characteristic hardball threat has seemingly backfired.

Last year, when Congress needed to raise the federal government's borrowing authority—and avoid a catastrophic default—McConnell told Democrats they'd need to do it on their own, with 50 votes, rather than the customary 60.

When Democrats called his bluff, McConnell agreed to a two-month extension of the debt limit and promised no Republican help on the next round. But in December, he provided enough GOP votes to agree to a one-time exception to the filibuster, allowing Democrats to raise the debt limit on their own.

Both Schumer and Manchin have downplayed the conspicuous timing of this week's events. When asked about it on Thursday, Schumer told reporters he and Manchin simply "wanted to move as quickly as possible" and that they went public only after the legislation was scored by a congressional committee.

Asked during a press conference if he had pulled a "fast one" on Republicans, Manchin said, "I sure hope they don't feel that way."

Manchin is well-known for his good relationships with Republican colleagues, but there is little love lost between him and McConnell, according to a Democratic aide.

Manchin began feuding with the GOP leader not long after he arrived in the Senate, when the two launched dueling lobbying campaigns in 2012 to get their home-state universities into the Big 12 conference for football. (Manchin won.)

When McConnell became majority leader, Manchin fumed publicly and privately at the scorched-earth, ultra-partisan way he ran the Senate. Most recently, Manchin sharply criticized McConnell for blocking an independent commission to investigate Jan. 6.

"When he struck the reconciliation deal, Manchin probably hadn't thought about knifing McConnell. It's not who he is," the Democratic aide said. "But in a private moment, he may sit back and smile and think he got one for WVU."

Blindsided veterans erupt in fury after Senate Republicans suddenly tank PACT Act

The widely supported bipartisan measure looked to expand medical coverage for millions of combatants exposed to toxic burn pits during their service.

July 28, 2022

Blindsided veterans erupted in anger and indignation Thursday after Senate Republicans suddenly tanked a widely supported bipartisan measure that would have expanded medical coverage for millions of combatants exposed to toxic burn pits during their service.

Supporters of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — or PACT Act — overwhelmingly expected the House-passed bill to sail through to the president's desk for signature.

But in a move that shocked and confused veteran groups Wednesday night, 41 Senate Republicans blocked the bill's passage, including 25 who had supported it a month ago.

"We really expected yesterday to be a procedural vote that would go with easy passage," said Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit veterans' organization. "That was the absolute expectation."

The PACT Act would have expanded VA health care eligibility to more than 3.5 million post-9/11 combat veterans who were exposed to toxins while serving in the military.

The Senate passed the original legislation 84-14 in June. It underwent minor changes when it moved to the House, where it passed 342-88. When the bill returned to the Senate, the bill had not changed much but the view — and vote — of 25 senators did.

While it's unclear what prompted the flip, veterans believe the move was political.

"We've seen partisanship and games within Congress for years," Butler said. "But what is shocking is that so many senators would literally be willing to play with veterans' lives so openly like this."

"They're manufacturing reasons to vote against legislation that they literally voted for just last month," Butler added. "And so it's really a new level of low."

Veterans who were exposed to toxins during deployments said the lives of sick and dying people who served the nation are on the line.

"It's angering. It's frustrating," said Tom Porter, 54, who developed asthma after spending a year in Afghanistan with the U.S. Navy Reserve from 2010 to 2011.

In the first week of his deployment, Porter said he suffered a serious reaction with his lungs and could not breathe.

Le Roy Torres, 49, who was diagnosed with a lung disease and a toxic brain injury after he was deployed to Iraq with the U.S. Army, said he was devastated about the failure of the bill and urged lawmakers to reconvene immediately.

"I know these senators are getting ready for a break. But I didn't get a break when I was deployed," he said. "They should not be allowed to go home until they figure this out."

"I was taught in the Army not to accept defeat and never quit," he added. "I'm going to keep pressing on this issue."

Torres' wife, Rosie, the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Burn Pits 360, said the 25 senators who flipped their votes "should be ashamed of themselves."

In protest, she and other advocates plan to camp on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Thursday night.

"These veterans fought for our freedom during the war," she said. "It's partisan tactics on the backs of veterans that are sick and dying."

The PACT Act was named after Heath Robinson, a sergeant with the Ohio National Guard who was deployed to Kosovo and Iraq. He died in 2020 from lung cancer, which he blamed on burn pit exposure.

Open-air burn pits were common at U.S. military bases during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dangerous materials, from electronics and vehicles to human waste, were regularly doused in jet fuel and set ablaze, spewing toxic fumes and carcinogens into the air.

Many others have developed cancers, respiratory illnesses and other serious conditions as a direct result of exposure to toxins, veteran groups say.

President Joe Biden, who has championed the PACT Act, said he believes his late son Beau Biden's brain cancer was linked to exposure to burn pits while he was deployed in Iraq in 2008.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., who voted against the legislation in June, has remained vocally critical of the bill. Yesterday, after the vote, he said that the bill included a "budget gimmick" that moved $400 billion over 10 years from "discretionary to the mandatory spending category," which he considered unreasonable. His view did not change in Wednesday's vote.

The views of Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., certainly did, however.

Johnson voted for the bill in June, but voted against it on Wednesday. He said in a statement that the bill "opens the door for more reckless government spending."

Why Republicans, like Johnson, changed their minds a month after passing the legislation remains unclear, and it was confounding and unclear to veterans and advocates who shared their ire in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

The comedian Jon Stewart, who has advocated for 9/11 first responders and military veterans for years, excoriated Republican lawmakers outside the Capitol Thursday, angrily describing their opposition to the bill as "an embarrassment to the Senate, to the country, to the Founders."

"Their constituents are dying and they're gonna get it done in recess," Stewart said in fiery and expletive-laden remarks. "You know, tell their cancer to take a recess, tell their cancer to stay home and go visit their families. This is disgrace. If this is America first, America is [expletive]."