05/27/14 05/27/14 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! the first step, which all our team will take from the start of our presidency, will be focused on ending the war and disorder and bring peace to ukrainian land, to united an integral ukraine. >> as ukraine alexa new president, dozens of pro-russian rebels have died in heavy fighting with ukrainian forces for control of a crucial airport. could sunday's election help

resolve the conflict or is this just the beginning of a protracted crisis? then, massacre in santa barbara. >> why did chris die? chris died because of craven, responsible politicians and the nra. they talk about gun rights. what about chris's rights to live? when will this insanity stop? >> santa barbara is grieving after a 22-year-old man killed six college students, just after he posted a misogynistic video online bowing to take his revenge on women. the massacre prompted an unprecedented reaction online with tens of thousands of women joining together to tell their stories of sexual violence, harassment, and intimidation. yesallwomen had gone viral. we will speak with rebecca " men, author of

explain things to me." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a california man has killed seven people including himself after posting a video to youtube saying he was seeking retribution against all women for rejecting his sexual advances. elliot rodger's stabbed three people to death at his apartment friday before driving to her sorority house at the university of california santa barbara where he killed two women outside. he drove through town continuing to fire on pedestrians before dying of what authorities call a self-inflicted gunshot wound. the day before the attack, he posted a chilling video saying girls"ned to attack "you for what he called the crime of not being attracted to him. >> the day bridge abuse and, i'm going to enter the hottest sorority house of ucsd. and i will slaughter every

single spoiled him a stuck up blonde slut i see inside there. >> rodgers misogynist comments sparked a viral response on twitter with well over one million tweets. among those skilled in the massacre was 20-year-old christopher martinez whose father has reignited the call for gun control. >> why did chris die? chris died because of craven, are responsible politicians and the nra. they talk about gun rights, what about chris's right to live? stop?ill this insanity say,will enough people stop this madness, we don't have to live like this? too many have died. nothould say to ourselves,

one more. >> a top military official in nigeria has said officials have located the nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by boko haram, but will not risk going in with force to attempt a rescue. air marshal alex badeh reportedly made the remarks during a demonstration in the capital. military specialists have been participating in the search. over the weekend, nigeria was rocked by further violence including an attack by gunmen in the northeast that killed 20 people at a market. the news comes amidst reports u.s. special operations troops are creating elite commando units in four african countries as part of a secretive counterterrorism program. "the new york times" reports the obama ministration launched the program last year to train "homegrown african counterterrorism teams" in libya, niger, and molly. told "theon official

times" the pentagon is spending nearly $70 million to train and equip units in niger and maurita nia. on wednesday, obama is expected to give a speech at west point outlining a new foreign-policy direction that focuses more on training local forces. president obama made a surprise trip to afghanistan over memorial day weekend. speaking to troops at bagram air base, obama discussed plans to keep some u.s. troops in afghanistan beyond the 2014 pullout eight. >> and once afghanistan has sworn in its new president, i'm hopeful we will sign a bilateral security agreement that lets us move forward. and with that security agreement, assuming it is signed, we can plan for limited military presence in afghanistan beyond 2014. because after all of the

sacrifices we have made, we want to preserve the gains that you have helped to win. >> afghan president karzai has so far refused to sign a deal to keep u.s. troops, but both candidates on the ballot in next month's runoff in afghanistan have expressed support for the deal. the obama administration has blown the cover of its own top cia official in afghanistan. the official's name was included on a list e-mailed to reporters that was later included in a press pool report circulated to more than 6000 people. the white house bramhall to issue a list without the official's name and news outlets have agreed to withhold it over security fears. the administration faces pressure over its failure to release other secret information, including a senate report on the cia's torture program. mcclatchy has obtained a letter from two top senate committee obama ino wrote to january seeking help in declassifying information about the torture program. senators dianne feinstein and carl levin blamed the cia's

secrecy for stalling the prosecutions of 9/11 suspects and interfering with efforts to "publicly shine a light on the misguided cia program." the cia has indicated it could take months to review the report. a human agency says the world has reached a new milestone on carbon dioxide, which is thriving climate change. the world meteorological organization warned that in april, monthly concentrations of co2 in the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million throughout the northern hemisphere. arraudary-general michel j called for urgent action to cut emissions saying "time is running out." next week, president obama is expected to announce a new regulation to cut carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. the warning from the u.n. came just days after house lawmakers passed an amendment to a major military spending bill which bars the pentagon from using funds to address climate change

and its potential impact on national security. in western colorado, rescuers have been searching for three men missing after a four mile-long mudslide which followed days of drenching rain. in arizona, and alaska, crews have been battling massive wildfires which have forced residents to evacuate their homes. in thailand, the military junta has took power in a to that says it has received the endorsement of thinking and will remain in power indefinitely. the military dissolved the senate and arrested a former education minister who emerged from hiding to criticize thecoup. military exercises have been canceled and suspended $3.5 aboutn in military aid, one third of total u.s. assistance. egypt has declared a national today in an apparent bid

to boost voter turnout in the second and final day of the presidential election. former army chief an apparent bd to boost voter turnout in the second and final day of the presidential election. former army chief i'll cc is expected widely to when -- widely expected to win after leading the ouster of democratically elected president morsi last year. in europe, extreme right-wing ground have gained new and elections for the european parliament. and france, the front party won the eu election while britain saw victory by the u.k. independence party, which wants to withdraw from that european union. across europe, party skeptical of the eu on both sides of the spectrum urged to more than double the representation. in greece, opposition leader alexis tsipras announced a victory by the left-wing, anti-bailout cerise a party. historical day for our people. they made a clear and brave verdict that despite the unprecedted propaganda of fear, they condemned the government and the policies of the bailout. for the first time in history, it raised the left the first place and with a significant difference. >> at least 30 pro-russian

rebels have reportedly died in fierce fighting at the airport in the eastern ukrainian city of donetsk. the ukrainian government bombarded the airport with air strikes and paratroopers after rebels seized it on monday. the fighting began just hours after the pro-european billionaire candy tycoon petro for single one the first --sidential election poroshenko won the first presidential election in ukraine. in turkey, a court has ordered the arrest of four former israeli military commanders for the killings of turkish activists on board a gaza-bound aid flotilla in 2010. israeli commandos stormed the aid ship in international waters, killing nine activists, including one u.s. citizen. on friday, a turkish man injured the raid reportedly died

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron maté. dozens of pro-russian rebels have died in the fighting in ukraine and we're going to go electionsk about the on sunday. the newly elected president petro poroshenko said he was ready to negotiate with russian president vladimir putin, but

ruled out any talks with pro-russian rebels in eastern ukraine. they're just a killer. they're just a terrorist. if you expect i will find out the support of these people, no way. no chance. and no civilized country of the a negotiationhave with the terrorist. we are a civilized country. we will fight for the trust of the people of donetsk. we will propose the amnesty for disarmed can accept and are not directly involved in the crimes not only in the killing of the people, and we will defend and clean and bring the peace including the fighting against terror. this is one of the main function of the state, to defend the people. then saturday, ahead of

ukrainian election, russian president vladimir putin said russia would accept the outcome of the vote. >> we will unconditionally respect the choice of the ukrainian people. we will work with the authorities that are being formed based on this election. >> to talk more about ukraine, we're joined by jack matlock, served as u.s. ambassador to moscow from 1987 to 1991. welcome to [captioning made possible by democracy now!] democracy now! talk about the significance of these elections and the man who one, ambassador matlock, the billionaire chocolate manufacturer. extremelyns are important. the fact that so many people came out and most of the country, and that fact the decision was a clear-cut one. in the past, ukrainian elections

have been very closely balanced with a very slight majority taking all the power. stilluntry is obviously very divided and it is most unfortunate that those on the extreme east, particularly in donetsk, did not have a chance to vote. mr.president-elect poroshenko, is probably the best of the candidates in a position to begin to reify the country and to negotiate with the russians. i think he has to do two things before he can address the deeper problems that ukraine has. one thing he has to unify the country in the sense that the russian speaking population of the east feel that they are part of the same country on a and at

the same time, he has to satisfy russia that his government is not going to be the rapidly anti-russian and security challenge for them. i do think that he should be well positioned atop them. he has business interests in russia. of course, he has been in the government of the party that dominated in the east so that it would seem he is the best of the current leaders to lead them into or out of some of their current problems. >> let's hear more from president-elect petro poroshenko. after winning sunday's election, he said russia's involvement is crucial to resolving the crisis. >> russia is our biggest neighbor. and because of the fact that they're stopping the war and bringing the peace to ukraine

and bringing stability on the eastern part of ukraine, that would be impossible without dissipation of russian -- anticipation of russian representatives. most importantly, the meeting of russian leadership will certainly take place in the first half of june. >> ambassador matlock, what are the grievances of the rebels in the east and what can poroshenko due to address them? grievances of the russian speaking people in the east, i don't know about the rebels, i think they're a bunch of hoodlums, and are simply seeking power for the sake of it and to loot and so on. whole, ieople as a want to feel they can be loyal, first-class ukrainians and still live in the russian language

cultural world. russian is their first language. s comingl the government from the west have tried to force upon them ukrainian as a language, nonexclusive language, but one that has precedence over the others. this is a highly emotional issue. i think one of the big mistakes that the government made just after the overthrow of conoco bridge, there was a vote to make ukraine the only official language. that was reversed by the acting president, but still it sent through the russian speaking eastern regions. there are other issues as well. the economies are quite .ifferent the economy in the east is much more dependent upon russia for markets and much more vulnerable

to russian manipulation. basically, i think what the people in the east one, most of whom do feel they are loyal ukrainians, most of them don't want to be in the russian federation but they do want respect. i think the new government must lead them to a sense of nationality, a sense of national unity him and not based entirely on language but that includes russian and ukrainian as well. >> we're also joined by tom ,nyder in vienna, austria author of "bloodlands: europe between hitler and stalin." headlined,piece is "ukraine: the edge of democracy." us.k you for joining can you talk about who poroshenko is, his history?

>> poroshenko is a good example of where ukrainian politics stand now. what we saw in the early part of this year was a revolution which was essentially from the left, a revolution against not third tier and regime are done with basic rights to which was clipped aquatic and embody the main complaint that ukrainians east and west, north and south have, which is corruption. that revolution was essentially stopped halfway. it was stopped halfway as a result of the russian intervention and russian invasion and annexation of crimea. what you have now is a kind of compromise between new elites an old elites. poroshenko is in the middle. he is not new. he is not new. he has served in important functioning government in the course of the last decade. at the same time, he was on the maidan. he is somewhere in between. he has made an awful lot of money and yet he is someone who has stood by the people who were trying to change things for the

better. with regard to your previous question, it is interesting to note poroshenko, like the other nature presidential candidates for that matter, is a native speaker of russian. he is from near the southeast. like most ukrainian politicians, he's perfectly capable of using one that would or the other depending upon the circumstances -- one in which or the other depending upon the circumstances. is used in the east and the west as well as by president putin, professor snyder? >> look, the important thing about the election is that people went en masse to vote. i think people who voted for poroshenko, he was the best of the available alternative. poroshenko is not someone who is regarded as some kind of hotheaded patriot from the west and not considered as a radical. he seems like pretty much everybody for what he is, a centrist.

the crucial thing about poroshenko is that he was the only candidate who had the necessary to get elected in the first round. yet backing from all over the country, even in the southeast -- he had backing from all over the country, even in the southeast. he also had a reputation which crossed the divide betweenm pro-aidan and anti-maidan. putin he is spoken toputin in the past and there's no particular reason to think people will speak in the future. at the moment, what he represents above all is the outcome of a very successful presidential election in which more than 50% of the people cannot to vote. frankly, it was the voting itself more than poroshenko which was the crucial thing to most ukrainians. the voting itself is more of a success. now ukrainians and you and me will have to wait to see this man turns out to be the oligarch that he is been in the past or the person who cares about the rule of law as he is promised. >> professor snyder, we hear a

lot about nationalism. are there social and economic concerns, those that underpin the revolution at the get go to mccann those concerns help unite west and east? >> that is a great question. for the last several months we have been basically experiencing ukraine within a kind of alternative reality in which the only issues were cultural ones. the cultural issues, in my opinion, are not that important. the main issue in ukrainian politics -- and this is true of the people who are dissatisfied in kiev as well as the southeast and donetsk -- corruption and of rule of law.bsence there is a russian nationalist fringe in the southeast and those people numerically do not amount to much.

as we just saw on the presidential election, the two nationalist candidates came in dead last. they pulled around 1%. they were beaten by everybody else, but also beaten by the jewish candidate. forort for the far right the ukrainian nationalism in ukraine is close to zero, much lower than in pretty much any other european country. that is not the real issue. that is a distraction. that would be good to get out of our minds and relies the basic issue is how to install the rule of law in ukraine. that is the thing poroshenko will be tested on an yanukovych before him failed on. this is the issue which can go across from kiev to the southeast. if the government can persuade the people it is about bureaucracy and making the law work for them, then i think we might have a place to start. matlock, i want to get your response to russian president putin, aside from

saying he would support the election in ukraine, said friday moscow's biggest concern over the crisis in ukraine was that the former soviet republic would join nato. he said, tomorrow ukraine may join nato while the day after tomorrow parts of the u.s. antimissile system could be deployed there. he was speaking to an investment forum. talk about nato and putin in his concerns. >> i think that is and has been main concern. i think that is why he took crimea. one of the problems when we started expanding nato in the way we did, it is if we weren't prepared to stop at a certain point, which had to be ukraine and i would add georgia, this was going to create a very strong reaction from russia who

the leader of russia was. i think it was quite a responsible the talk we had around 2007, 2008, bringing ukraine into nato and the fact that the ukrainian governments were not willing to sort of pledge neutrality the way in effect, finland for example, has has lived as a neutral country. this has been a crucial issue. there have been others, of course. i think it is the crucial one theuse putin looks at demonstrations in ukraine inaccurately, but is simply as the creation of the united states, the cia, and the west europeans. this has been exaggerated in

ther propaganda so that whole so-called threat of nato putting its bases in crimea, of all places, was probably the most emotional of the issues that has been driving him. >> i want to go back to professor snyder. did you see this as a choice between russia on one side and the eu on the other? that was framed as the issue when this revolution began. why can't ukraine forge sides to both? >> because russia is no longer russia. russia is now also integration project. that is the big thing that changed. and it surprised elites and european union as well as in ukraine and we're certainly just now coming to terms with it. the traditional policy has been to balance between east and west . the west as far as you can, then go back east. that doesn't work out, go back west.

every ukrainian president has done that in one form or another. the reason that is no longer possible is that russia is no longer a state. russia is also integration process called eurasia. the reason why we have the revolution we have from november to march of last year and this year, is that russia became an exclusive alternative. what russia wanted was for ukraine to join his project, the eurasian union, rather than a trade deal with the european union. there we had a clear deal between the ukrainian president who decided in the end not to move toward europe and the people who started the protests in favor of moving toward europe. in ane is to longer traditional geopolitical situation where you have a state here and a state there. one wants ukraine to join, putin 's project, and one which many ukrainians wish to join, and that is the european union. obviously, some kind of happy

middle has to be found but that is the reason why you cannot longer play this game of going back and forth. but i would stress, this is not about fundamentally russia and the european union or russia and america. it is fundamentally about what the ukrainians themselves want to do with their own sovereign statehood and the choices their leaders make. >> professor malott -- i mean, ambassador matlock, the massive china-russia deal that was just made, can you talk about the significance of that and how that plays and, if it does come at all with russia and ukraine? >> i'm sorry, i missed the first question? deale china-russian energy that has just been sealed, the largest ever? >> the energy deal. i think that has no relevance at all except in the minds of some pundits. that is the deal that will take

place several years from now. it is probably a good thing. it is going to develop fields that have yet been developed, that extend the pipeline, the supply of natural gas to china. that will increase, you might say, the world supply of natural gas. i think if it makes economic sense and nobody knows precisely what the terms are, it is not a bad deal. i don't think it should be looked at as if it is suddenly a switch in alliances. >> professor snyder, that same issue. how the u.s. sees russia's alignments these days and the significance of russia-china together? ambassadorwith matlock that the deal itself doesn't have to be seen as a big theolic event one way or other. i do think there is a possibility of a russian

geopolitical realignment here because what has happened with ukraine in the last several months, is that russia has defined itself by way of its own propaganda domestically, first of all, but also internationally, as not a european state, as not bound by previous treaties involving european states, not bound by the general european sense of the rule of law, and not part of the european postwar order, in general, as being a different civilization. i personally take that change which we have seen very much in the last half year, very seriously. the outcome, of course, is things like the annexation of crimea of the open talk about changing the ukrainian border or other borders. but in defining russia as not european, putin has opened himself up to other models. china is attractive because china, unlike the united states or the european union, doesn't come with an enormous package.

it doesn't ask for liberalism or democracy. there does seem to be a certain temptation in the kremlin to tilt to the east. and that temptation can become a reality. likelypeans react, and they will, to boost latest disaster by getting her has together -- >> we have just lost timothy snyder speaking to us from vienna, austria. he is a professor of history at yell university. we will into the conversation there and continue to follow developments not only in ukraine, but with the eu as well as with russia and china. "bloodor snyder wrote lands." we will link to his peace called, "ukraine: the edge of democracy." and ambassador matlock, thank you for being with us, served as u.s. ambassador to moscow from 1987 to 1981. his latest book, "superpower illusions: how myhts and false

ideologies led america astray -- and how to return to reality." as, "autopsy on an empire: the american ambassador's account of the collapse of the soviet union," and "reagan and gorbachev: how the cold war ended." and that does it for our broadcast on ukraine. when we come back, we will talk about what happened in santa barbara this weekend, the massacre. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron maté. turn now to the massacre in santa barbara, california where a gunman killed six other people and wounded 13 others. elliot rodger, 22-year-old

college student, fatally stabbed three roommates. he then opened fire at a nearby sorority house, killing two women. he continued his rampage with a drive-by shooting on scores of pedestrians, killing one. the attack ended when he crashed his vehicle, found dead at the wheel of a police called self-inflicted gunshot wound. the rampage was part of a plot rodger outlined in videos and a manifesto posted online hours before. he described his anger is being sexually rejected by female classmates. he spoke of watching "war on women" for failing to see him as "the true alpha male." >> they've never been attracted to me. i don't know why you girls are attracted to me. but i will punish you all for it. it is an injustice, a crime because i don't know what you don't see in me. i take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you.

am will finally see that i alphaperior one, the true male. >> elliot rodger was armed with three semiautomatic handguns and multiple rounds of ammunition, all of which he purchased legally. in an emotional statement, richard martinez spoke out about the loss of his 20-year-old son christopher who was killed in the rampage. martinez denounced the national rifle association, the politicians who stand in the way of and control. >> why did chris die? chris die because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the nra. they talk about gun rights. what about chris is right to live? when will this insanity stop? when will enough people say, stop this madness, we don't have to live like this.

too many have died. we should say to ourselves, not one more. quick the massacre prompted a reaction online with tens of thousands of women joining together to tell their stories of sexual violence, harassment, and intimidation. #yesallwomen was the most used on twitter. there's been intense scrutiny of the mental illness and background of the shooter, far less are the backgrounds. book, "menr new explain things to me," writer, historian activist rebecca solnit tackles this issue and rights --

rebecca solnit joins us from the studios of san francisco, writer, historian and activist, has ran over a dozen books including her latest, 'men explain things to me." she's also contribute in editor at harper's magazine. your response to what happened in santa barbara over the weekend on friday? >> one of the things that was fascinating was the battle of the story. there was such a mainstream desire to say, oh, this was aberrant, he was mentally ill and has nothing to do with the system and raises no question. to see feminist and allies speak out and say, no, this is about misogyny, this is about entitlement, was really extraordinary. the term sexual entitlement, which i'd heard before but not widespread, suddenly began to be used everywhere. i feel like it changed the conversation because so many people insisted on it for so many people got it.

the sense that this guy was owed something by women and furious for not giving it to him, and yet the right to exact revenge and all kinds of what our government calls collateral damage on the people around him because his needs weren't being met. aboutt can we learn here the broader culture that enables people like this to do what he did? >> i absolutely agree with richard martinez that the availability of guns is a huge problem. i think it's part of the toxic boom in our country. that masculinity, violence and domination as entitlement, as control. and woman as worthless, disposable as things that men have the right to control, etc. as well as one of the sad things, you seem to have incredibly conventional ideas about what constituted happiness and well-being and his

entitlement to them, and seemed to have no resources, no models of alternative ways to meet your needs to be happy, to connect human beings. so all of that needs to be addressed. particularly, the violence against women, which is a huge epidemic in this country right now. >> journalist laurie penny wrote an article in the new " "let's callled the isla vista killings what they were: misogynist extremism." in it she writes -- rebecca solnit, i was wondering

if you can comment on this and the fact it is not just one video that elliot rodger had posted online. .e posted numerous videos the indications of his hatred of women before this and why he had not been dealt with? >> i think what is important is to look at the broader picture. he killed six people, but three women every day in the u.s. are killed by domestic orders, ex-husbands, ex boyfriends, etc. events not an isolated but part of an epidemic. you can look at others -- in his manifesto, biography, he talks about china push women off a ledge at a party because there were not paying attention to them, throwing coffee on girls who did not respond the way he wanted them to. you can see these micro-regressions just as you can see laurie penny being given rape and death threats, that there is a huge broader network

that we need to look at and not just this guy, but the fact that says he has all women face these things, not just the women who were shot in isla vista and the men who got caught in the crossfire. need to broaden the focus from this one guy who is no longer alive and his misery and rage and look at the broad picture of how well he fits into a culture of entitlement and how well he fits into a culture of rage, how well he fits into a culture that considers women tools and placings and property. then we need to start addressing that are maybe we just need to broaden and deepen the way some of us have been addressing a productive, including you, of course. >> rebecca solnit, in your book, you talk about the 2012 gang rape and murder of a woman in new delhi and you talk about how that sort of spawned and emmett till moment, where india had a reckoning with its rate culture.

with the proliferation or the #sallwomen, are using a similar moment here? >> i think we are. i feel like an early 2013, worldwide, very strong in india and the u.s. would change the way we talked about rape. we won the battle of the story to stop treating rape as an isolated incident and treat it as a widespread problem that arises not from anomalies in the culture, but the mainstream of the culture. and changing the language was part of that. the words rape culture, the phrase rate culture became very widespread last year. an important tool in addressing the epidemic of raids across the country and parts of the world. i feel we have made another breakthrough in discussing it,

the word sexual entitlement. to discuss the broad problems that underlie this particular incident. i feel like we shook things up this weekend, and that we won the battle of the story. yesallre half a million women tweets. a lot of very powerful women, laurie penny, jennifer klausner, amanda hess and so many others of the great feminist voices of our time, were there immediately to frame the story as a broad story, as a big story, as a story central to our culture that impacts all women, not just the women who were directly attacked in isla vista. i think it is remarkable. i feel like we saw a huge struggle this weekend and one which we made enormous gains. phrasecca, explain that

"yes all women." >> there's this incredibly annoying phrase "not all men" that comes up all the time. three women today are ordered by male partners. so often some guy will say, not all men. an angry feminist said to me yesterday, what do they want, a cookie for not raping, beating and murdering? we know it is not all men. we need to talk about the fact that it is all women. that is what yesallwomen is about. we know all men are not abusers and misogynist, but all women are impacted by the menu are. that is where the focus needs to be. it has such a huge impact. every woman every day when she leaves her house starts to think about safety. can i go here? should i go out there? do i need to take the main street? do i need to find a taxi? is the taxi driver going to rape me?

women are so him then by fear of , a profoundly limits our lives. of course it is not all men, but it is enough that it impacts all women and it is pretty nearly worldwide. the tweets were coming from all over the world to say that this usblem impacts me, impacts and we need to keep doing things about it. we need to escalate and address how deeply embedded it is and make visible what has been invisible, and we need to change it. i think this week and read really started to do that -- we really started to do that. >> rebecca, expand the title of your book, "men explain things to me." and also, the first three, and how it relates to what we saw this weekend in santa barbara. "men explain things to me" came about because all my life and have explain things to me that they did not necessarily know better than i did and sometimes i knew better than they did because there was this

dysfunction because of gender they were inherently knowledgeable in superior and in control him and i was inherently ignorant and in need of an injection of their knowledge, wisdom, insight, etc.. the story that inspired it came about in 2003 i was at a party when some guy said to me, so, i hear you have written a few books. i said, several, actually. he said, and what are they about? the most recent one was about the father of motion pictures called "river shadows." did not comment on that. he said, oh, have you heard about the very important one adjust came out? and he started doing what feminists after this defined as mensplaining.

he started telling me about this important book i should know about. and the woman i was with cap saying, that is her book. you literally did not hear her until she said it three or four times. this man was talking about this book i should know about, and it was a book i wrote. he was so full of himself, he literally could not hear me, could not hear her, did not ask questions first. that was incredibly funny. but it is part of a slippery slope where men assume the right to talk over you, to not listen to you, to tell you how it is going to be, to explain reality. what surprised me when i wrote that essay is that i started out with a pretty amusing incident, although one that is indicative of sexism and kind of conversational bullying, and ended up talking about rapes and murders. think it is important we look at all of this stuff together. it begins with these micro-aggressions and ends with rape and murder and what a

italian feminists call fr enecide. >> we've been talking about fighting back against sexual assault spoke the incident and the inability over the refusal of campuses to punish them. your take on the way schools in this country have handled rape on campus? >> it is been pretty damn pathetic and a whole lot of ways. they tend to worry a lot more and in many cases about the well-being of the perpetrators than the victims. another thing is a shift or sponsor billy preventing rate from men not to rape to women to do all kinds of things to not get raped. which we don't do any other crime. and then they have to pursue these things seriously. it is crazy. if there's petty vandalism on campus, maybe that is a campus issue. if there's a felony crime that involves a woman being strangled

or a woman being realized, why is that not turn into the legal system just there to deal with those things? the idea it is an in house incident? it has been is handled or overlooked or not handled at all for decades, forever. what is amazing because these young women rose up and said, this is not acceptable, this is not a legitimate way to deal with it, because they used social media, the mainstream media, they're organizing to say -- this has to stop, this has to change. there really radically changing how it is being treated and exposing universities from california to rhode island, from florida to alaska to say, this is going to change. and they are changing it. this is a very exciting time in feminism. i think we're shifting things profoundly. >> rebecca solnit, thank you for being with us. her new book is called, "men explain things to me." that does it for the show.

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