SEC OF EDUCATION BETSY DEVOS ASSAULTS SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS 29JAN19

MAYBE if Sec of Education betsy devos or someone in her family or among her friends and associates was a sexual assault victim she wouldn't be considering these rule changes that seem to be to protect and support the assaulter and not the assaulted. Just because she and her staff at the Dept of Education are so shallow they can not comprehend the harm these rule changes will do does not mean we have to allow them to take effect. Please click the link in this from UltraViolet to send your message to the government to reject these rule changes...

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced new rules that will let schools get away with ignoring sexual assault and intimidate sexual assault survivors out of reporting.

Specifically, the rules will radically change Title IX, the civil rights law that ensures all genders have equal access to education. DeVos will allow schools to ignore sexual violence that happens off campus, where many assaults happen–even an assault at a party, for example, just a block away from campus. Not only that, DeVos will force survivors to be cross-examined by advisors or representatives of their abusers—an intentionally intimidating process that will prevent many survivors from reporting altogether.¹ 

But we can stop these changes from becoming official. Before these proposed rules can go into effect, the Department of Education must make them available for public comment and then address the concerns raised in the comments. If they don’t, they will face legal challenges to the new rules, or Congress could even intervene. This has worked before–when the Trump Administration proposed a rule allowing employers to steal employees' tips, thousands of UltraViolet members and our allies opposed it through public comments—and stopped it.²

We need an outpouring of comments to fight this rule. Can you submit your comment today? 

Tell Betsy DeVos: "I oppose attempts to make schools more dangerous."

SUBMIT A COMMENT

One in five women is sexually assaulted while in college or university.³  Devos' rules further rig the system for abusers.

Here are a few of the most dangerous changes in the rules. They will:⁴

1. Allow sexual assault survivors to be cross examined, possibly leading to more trauma or the survivor avoiding reporting at all. 
2. Allow schools to ignore sexual assault or harassment that happens at off campus bars or parties, or harassment that occurs online, even though the survivor may still see or have to interact with their abuser on campus.
3. Allow schools to only address the worst cases of sexual harassment and abuse, which would make survivors suffer through increasingly worse abuse before they can seek help from the school.
4. Limit survivors’ ability to get help by drastically limiting who students can report their assaults to. This will allow schools and universities to ignore reports of sexual harassment and assault made to the majority of employees trusted by students, such as support staff or Resident Assistants (RAs).
5. Totally exempt religiously affiliated schools from complying with Title IX requirements if they cite a specific "religious tenet," without notifying the Department of Education, leaving students in the dark about their rights until it's too late.

All told, these changes will put more students at risk and make it extremely difficult for survivors to report their abuse. Students of color, students with disabilities, low-income students, undocumented students, and LGBTQ students will especially suffer since they already face increased barriers to justice because of systemic racism, homophobia, ableism, the negative impact that sexual trauma has on one's grades, and the financial blow that results from possible legal battles with their attacker.

The Trump Administration and its allies have learned nothing from the groundswell of opposition to putting a rapist like Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court or the incredible advocacy of the #MeToo movement. They continue to support, empower, and protect abusers and rape apologists over the needs and rights of survivors at a time when survivors need more protection to safely pursue their education, not less.

Submit a comment to tell DeVos and the Department of Education to protect survivors' rights!

Thanks for speaking out.

-- Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Holly, Kathy, Susan, Anathea, Audine, Emma, Pilar, Natalie, Melody, Pam, Lindsay, Ryan, and Sonja, the UltraViolet team

Sources:

1. Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance, Federal Register, accessed December 6, 2018

2. Tipped Workers Claim Victory Against “Tip-Stealing” Rule, The American Prospect, March 23, 2018

3. Statistics about Sexual Violence, National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2015

4. DeVos’ Proposed Changes to Title IX, Explained, National Women's Law Center, accessed December 7, 2018

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FOSSIL FREE NEWS: STRIKING FOR THEIR LIVES AND MORE...28JAN19

FOSSIL FREE NEWS from 350.org. Though this video and related story are included in this newsletter watch this deeply moving and powerful Dutch video first, it is amazing......

Writing on the Wall

Turns out we were right to start the year on a hopeful note. We've already seen some amazing steps forward in 2019: from a cancelled gas pipeline, to youth leading on-point actions, like this one outside of Germany's commission to sort out the end of coal in the country. But plenty of contrasts abound: from record inequality to record temperatures, we've got our work cut out for us. As blistering heatwaves took their toll in Australia these past weeks, tens of thousands of students were simultaneously marching in snow-dusted streets in Europe. One thing's clear – we have to keep making our movement heard. Can you please share Fossil Free News with a friend to spread the word?: Share with a friend Enjoy the news, Nicole P.S. Thanks to the 1,000+ of you who filled out the survey from the last edition. I'll be digging through all you feedback over the coming weeks! In Case You Missed It As the Davos World Economic Forum kicked off in Switzerland, Oxfam published a new reminder of the scale of inequality we must address: just 26 billionaires now control 50% of the world's wealth. Greta Thunberg and Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate commission chief, were there urging strong climate action from world leaders. But Greta's climate strike at Davos was outshone in Brussels, where an astounding 35,000 youth took to the streets Wednesday, and 70,000 came out Sunday. And in Berlin on Friday, as the German coal commission neared an agreement on how to phase out coal in the country, thousands more students held a strike outside the meeting demanding an end to fossil fuels. Germany's deal sets a 2038 end date for coal, but it's not ambitious enough. In Australia, ferocious heatwaves have driven home the urgency of the fight to keep global warming below 1.5˚C. Temperatures have neared 50˚C (122˚F) in some parts of the country, with bushfires tearing through more than 63,000 hectares of Tasmania's natural landscape. Australians have been urged to stay indoors and stay hydrated, with communities coming together to look after local wildlife and check in on elderly and vulnerable neighbors. People are vowing to take action now to avoid this becoming the new normal. If you haven’t seen it yet, this clip showing the dried outback that’s making farming nearly impossible has gone viral. In Spain and France, communities celebrated as a major gas pipeline through the eastern Pyrenees, MidCAT-STEP, was scrapped after years of grassroots resistance. Groups pressured local authorities along the pipeline route, among other tactics, until energy regulators finally rejected it. It's a big win for activists across Europe who are challenging the fossil fuel industry's notion that gas is a necessary 'transition fuel'. The decision has even motivated the European Investment Bank to reconsider its policy to fund other gas infrastructure 'projects of common interest' in Europe. They're right to do so. The region where the dud pipeline was planned is already a leader in community renewable energy projects; investment would be much better spent on projects like these than more fossil fuel infrastructure. Hopefully the win can inspire others resisting gas elsewhere right now, like the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline in Mexico or gas exploration in Zanzibar. In South Africa, a coalition of environmental justice groups is blocking plans for a new coal mine in a protected wetland area in Mpumalanga. The company behind the mine, which would have a 15-year life span and exacerbate the effects of climate change in one of the world's most sensitive regions, had their request to appeal the decision thrown out by a High Court and were ordered to pay the groups' legal costs. Further north, in Kenya, there've been positive reports of new solar projects on the way, following the president's announcement last month to move the country towards 100% renewable energy. They'll also have to tackle pollution from motorcycles in the capital Nairobi; solar-powered bikes can help fill the gap. The Inside Story A major aim of campaigns to go Fossil Free is to stop and ban all fossil fuel infrastructure. In King County, Washington, the county council just passed one of the strongest fossil fuel bans in the country. It works with a moratorium on all new development and then leverages a land use code to effectively ban infrastructure, like storage tanks or refineries. In this interview with 350 Seattle, learn more about how the community developed broad-based support for the ban and brought it to the local government (and check out the awesome video explainer too). Bans like this have also been passed in other communities in the region, and are helping secure a healthy climate future for all.   The One to Watch In the Netherlands, a local group of artists has been staging powerful performances at cultural institutions to pressure them to break their ties with fossil fuel companies, namely, Shell. And they've been winning – following an amazing campaign consisting of six performances throughout 2017 and 2018, culminating in an art storm, the Van Gogh Museum ended its 18-year sponsorship with Shell, and two other museums in The Hague quickly followed. The group has announced that its next target will be The Concertgebouw (Concert hall). The Concertgebouw is the last cultural institution on Amsterdam's main museum square, the Museumplein, with a fossil fuel sponsorship. Watch and share their performance for a Fossil Free Museumplein. Have Your Say  This week, consider forwarding this edition to a friend so we can get our message further. And remember, you can always browse old editions and direct people to sign up here. Forward to a friend And once again, I want to thank all the readers who filled out the survey with their thoughts on Fossil Free News. Your participation is what makes this movement so great. You can still give your feedback before the end of the month. That's all for now. I'll be back in your inbox in two weeks with more!

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ECONUNDRUMS: A Record-Breaking Number of Americans Are Worried About Climate Change, A Carbon Tax in Washington State Seemed Like a Sure Thing. What Went Wrong? Students From All Over the World Are Skipping School Over Climate Change Google, Facebook, and Microsoft Sponsored a Conference That Promoted Climate Change Denial 28JAN19

THIS WEEK'S ECONUNDRUM More Americans Than Ever Are Worried About Climate Change Take that, Trump. MORE ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH COVERAGE A Carbon Tax in Washington State Seemed Like a Sure Thing. What Went Wrong? Students From All Over the World Are Skipping School Over Climate Change Google, Facebook, and Microsoft Sponsored a Conference That Promoted Climate Change Denial MORE FROM MOJO

Here's Video of Beto O'Rourke Singing "Blitzkrieg Bop" in a Sheep Mask and Onesie

He Helped the FBI as an MS-13 Informant. The US Deported Him Anyway.

Here’s Video of Beto O’Rourke Singing “Blitzkrieg Bop” in a Sheep Mask and Onesie 23JAN19

😄😄😄😄😄😄

Here’s Video of Beto O’Rourke Singing “Blitzkrieg Bop” in a Sheep Mask and Onesie

You’re welcome, America.

TIM MURPHYJANUARY 23, 2019 1:34 PM

Onesie-wearing Beto O’Rourke sings The Ramones in newly unearthed video

By now, most people who follow national politics have probably heard that Beto O’Rourke, the former Democratic congressman from El Paso who is contemplating a run for president, once played bass in a punk rock band called Foss. The punk rock ethos seemed to infuse his 2018 Senate race against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, down to O’Rourke’s DIY-style of campaigning. During the campaign, O’Rourke performed on stage with Willie Nelson, brought a fog machine to his concession speech, and filmed himself playing air drums on the steering wheel during road trips. The state Republican Party, for its part, mocked him for appearing in a dress on the cover of Foss’ album, The El Paso Pussycats.

But Foss wasn’t O’Rourke’s only musical project. Nearly a decade after Foss split up in the mid-’90s—after he had returned to El Paso, started a web design company, and taken tentative steps toward a career in local politics—O’Rourke and a few friends (including other ex-members of Foss) formed two other bands. One was a rock group called Fragile Gang. The other was a cover band called The Sheeps, which performed punk rock classics. Band members wore a variety of disguises on stage—most notably, tight onesies and sheep masks.

“Our persona was that we were a very famous band from New Zealand and we didn’t want people to know our true identities—that’s why we wore masks,” Ailbhe Cormack, the band’s bassist, tells Mother Jones. “I think people followed along with the mystery of it, but they knew who we were.”

At a December 2003 show at El Paso’s now-closed Moontime Pizza, O’Rourke, the group’s rhythm guitarist, wore a white onesie and tried on a bad Kiwi accent for good measure:

Sheeps - Hearts of Darkness (+ special surprises) - Moontime Pizza - El Paso, TX - December 2003

The costumes varied. Aisling Cormack, on the audience’s left, dressed as a nun and played keyboard; Arlo Klahr, a former bandmate from Foss, played lead guitar; Joey Cazares, wearing a bunny mask rather than a sheep’s head, played drums. Ailbhe Cormack is on the far right. As of Wednesday, the video of this performance—which included a rendition of the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop”—had 53 views on YouTube.

The Sheeps had a short run. The band played three shows around El Paso between 2003 and 2004, “just for a lark,” according to Cormack. The group never toured. At its final show, in 2004, at a local club called the T-Lounge, band members wore brown paper bags over their heads—because some members had lost their sheep masks.

Sheeps - "Where Were You"(Mekons) + "Part Time Punks"(TV Personalities)-T-Lounge-El Paso-April 2004

Fragile Gang—which, conveniently, opened for The Sheeps at Moontime Pizza—still exists, though O’Rourke stopped performing with the band after two of its members, Klahr and Cormack, moved to Los Angeles. (He did appear on a 2007 album cover, looking pensive.) But not long after the T-Lounge show, The Sheeps went off to pasture.

COVINGTON CATHOLIC H.S.: It is a continuation of a long and disgusting pattern of toxicity and abuse that has been allowed and even encouraged at all levels of the school and, as far as I can tell, from the diocese. 28JAN19

PREFERRED SCHOOL UNIFORMS AT COVINGTON CATHOLIC H.S.?

GO to the facebook page of The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington and you will find many post from Catholics attacking the Church leadership for their condemnation of the unchristian actions of the covington Catholic high school chaperones and students in D.C. when they were there for the "march for life". The language only verifies what is written in 

Covington Catholic: It Could Have Been Me.I dared to post on their facebook page, check out the response 

Anthony Simonski reviewed Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington — 5 star

January 22 at 12:15 PM · 

I am so impressed that a school such as yours Created such a great young man. With an adult who was acting like a child inches from his face He stood there and didn't say anything smart, Didn't act like many of the children we see today. he stood there and took the abuse of these people like a man. you should be proud and so should his family

Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington

Religious Center

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  Denise Swain Why isn't the school and diocese coming to aid of these boys and their families??? The full videos and audios of that day and moment clearly show it was the boys who were targeted!!! Shame on the diocese and school for jumping so fast into the narrative of biased anti- Catholic media.

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  Kennedy McGovern Go out ye, and bravely defend the Catholic Faith! Be her knights, her warriors and her defenders! Stand bravely in defense of her values! If it costs thine life, waver not!
  
  BUT...…See More

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    Anthony Simonski They didn't stand up for the children who are raped by their priests. now they won't stand behind these kids that did the right thing. It's time someone nail a new message to the door of many churches that we are intolerant of this

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    Kennedy McGovern Anthony Simonski Amen, brother!

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    Karl Slatts Interesting you can't quote Christ in your defense of the neo-nazi fascist thugs of covington. Our Saviour blessed the peace makers who seem to not exist among the boys of covington or their "chaperones" who stood by, watching their lessons of hate, racism, bigotry and xenophobia applied. Read https://www.dailykos.com/.../-Covington-Catholic-It-Could...

    

    DAILYKOS.COM

    Covington Catholic: It Could Have Been Me

    Covington Catholic: It Could Have Been Me

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    Anthony Simonski Karl Slatts sorry Sparky we've all seen all the video and we know those kids didn't do nothing. So you can keep banging your drum like that fake veteran because no one's buying what you're selling

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    Karl Slatts Again you can't provide any Christian defense / justification for these boys actions.

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    Anthony Simonski Karl Slatts yep standing there will a crazy old man beats a drum in your face I guess the eleventh commandment said that he should run in fear and bow before him. No the boy did exactly what Christ did in front of Pontius Pilate. He smiled and let them make accusations. Maybe you need to learn your Bible

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    Kennedy McGovern You know, I wrote about guys like Karl yesterday. on my page. Hang on, I'll cut and paste from myself:
    
    "We are really no longer debating.
    
    They say ridiculous sh**.
    
    We dismantle said ridiculous sh**, point out the logical fallacy of the ridiculous sh**, intelligently, completely discredit the sources and debunk the proposed facts, and offer sound and logical alternatives to the ridiculous sh** that make sense.
    
    They...simply repeat the same ridiculous sh**. 
    
    Then they repeat it again...and again...and again...ignoring all evidence presented that contradicts it.
    
    This is not a national debate. This is more like an ongoing attempt to train retarded monkeys.
    
    When no intelligent debate can be had, no compromises can be reached. When compromises are not possible, diplomacy renders itself moot. It is at this time that matters must be settled with violence.
    
    In conclusion: I am glad all of you magnificent toxically masculine bastards are on my side. Just find one and beat the sh** out of him today. Let's get this over with."

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    Anthony Simonski Kennedy McGovern the real problem is going to cause they know so many things that just aren't true. That's paraphrasing Ronald Reagan

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    Karl Slatts Again, nobody is able to respond with a Christian based explanation justifying the actions of the chaperones and students from covington Catholic hs. The responses I have read do explain the do reinforce the perception that covington Catholic hs is a school in serious need of review and restructuring by the Diocese.

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      Anthony Simonski Karl Slatts again you try to explain why the victim of this should have done something different. You can keep swinging at the bleachers with your bull crap but that's exactly what it is. Now, I have some questions about the chaperones but none of it would have put those kids anywhere else. The kids had the right to be there to chaperone should have stepped between that kid in the Little Drummer Boy and told him to bug off. So keep talking about perception, the country doesn't care what liberals think anymore. We especially don't care what you think about pro-abortion forces, because that's what this is really about

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      Karl Slatts Your post with the name calling and attempt to change the subject of the post only prove my point, that there is no Christian justification for the actions of the covington Catholic hs chaperones and students

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