A woman walked around NYC for ten hours, and videotaped all the catcalls she received.  Some of it I would just blow off, like “have a nice evening”– but perhaps that  is to my own demise?  Because it seems that you give a man any response at all, and he takes that as an invitation to invade your space and that you want to go to bed with him.  This is serious because what you see in the video is, again, representative of our culture’s view of women — objects to do stuff to instead of human beings that require respect and recognition of their autonomy.

The guy walking beside her was intimidating.  Men don’t see it that way, but it is indeed a nonverbal way of telling her that he is in charge and he can do what he wants.

Note that she is wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans.  The common theme to blame women is to say that she dressed provocatively, and therefore, she “deserved it”.  What say you now?

I found a video by buzzfeed that turns the tables.  I burst out laughing at  “Um, baby, I bet you have a job with some health insurance!”

PRWatch also has a piece on the other pipeline – Enbridge’s line 61.  Enbridge is especially troubling because of the Kalamazoo spill and its line crosses into Indiana – right alongside Lake Michigan (which BP is already polluting with two pounds of mercury discharge every freaking year) – talk about a perfect storm — mercury that permanently makes water undrinkable and toxic oil sludge.

**edited to add:  Enbrdige suing them also ties in with the previous post on TPP — this is exactly what they were talking about with corporations suing over someone interfering with their profits – regardless of how they impact the publics’ health or the health of the Earth, water, and wildlife.

PRWatch has this up on the funny accounting practices of the Koch brothers.

Dave Johnson has this report on the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP and what is really behind the Obama curtain.

Allowing corporations to sue if someone interferes with profits is just insanity.  As the report states, the tobacco companies have sued when they were advocating for people’s health.  The same can be said for Monsanto, Dow, Big Pharma, Big Oil, and on.

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In other words, he is saying that the U.S. has been an absolute and complete patsy on trade. And obviously we have been paying the price. Our government hasn’t enforced trade balance and hasn’t protected American interests, which has cost us wages, jobs, factories and entire industries. We have an enormous, humongous trade deficit and that has lowered our standard of living, and driven inequality. Trade agreements haven’t fixed this — recent trade agreements like NAFTA and South Korea have worsened this problem, with more job loss and even larger trade deficits.

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And I don’t get the secrecy.  I have never seen anything good come out of someone hiding something behind their back.  It’s funny how the government feels quite comfortable prying into innocent people’s private lives…saying if we have done nothing wrong, then we shouldn’t be protesting…but whoa, when we ask the same of our government – suddenly it’s none of our business what our public officials are doing.

Here in the Midwest, we’re still waiting to see all the great promises of NAFTA.

What we’ve seen instead are factories closing and going overseas, or to Canada, or to Mexico.

We’ve seen our wages stagnate, and even worse, be lowered than ten years ago.

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They’re again saying “trade is good” to divert us from seeing that only five of the 29 chapters of TPP are even about trade at all. The rest is about getting democratic government off the backs of the giant multinational corporations and protecting them from competition.

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…and there’s the gist of it all.  Allowing corporations to pollute, pay poverty wages, destroy free speech, deny civil rights, deny autonomy through destroying local control with local governments, and on…

And I don’t buy the argument that 97 percent of exporters are small businesses.  I just don’t.  I question that because small businesses don’t have the financial nor political influence that big corporations do.

…while apologizing to Henry Kissinger.  You seriously can’t make this stuff up.

McCain, who will go to war to kill people he doesn’t know for any reason any time, has an issue with people peacefully protesting someone whom is responsible for killing innocent people.

And that picture of handcuffs dangling in front of Kissinger? Priceless.  A picture says a thousand words, but this is surely ten thousand words.

…and I’m right there behind them.  The bankers and the greedy creditors who make their living off of others’ misery (Mitt Romney’s crowd, for sure) are demanding respect.  Seriously?

Yes, I know that one has to live within one’s means, but if the cards are stacked against one, and the other receives more than their fair share, where is the respect in that?

…were the words of Mike Ellis, a representative from Wisconsin.  He’s a conservative, but apparently not conservative enough for the Scott Walker crowd.  And being an independent thinker is also not welcome by Scott Walker and the Koch brothers, whom are apparently behind Walker’s power.

Ellis has been the target of James O’Keefe.  You might remember O’Keefe for bringing down ACORN, an organization that registered black and poor folks to vote.  O’Keefe also broke into Mary Landrieu’s office in an attempt to tamper with her phones.

The politics thing of winning at all costs will be the end of this country.  It’s not about making America better, but gaining power and having everything your own way, disregarding others’ needs and wants.  Yes, sociopathy crosses my mind.

Tom Cruise is reported to have wiretapped Nicole Kidman’s phone during their marriage due to influence from the people in Scientology (I refuse to call it a church, as it is not by any definition part of spirituality and a Higher Power).

I wish I could say that I am surprised, but after hearing so many reports not only on Cruise, but Scientology itself, I am not surprised at all.  It no longer surprises me the extent to which a man will go to get custody of the children.  And it’s not about the kids as it is about power, control, and vengeance.  And money.

Cindra Ladd, a wife of a movie producer, has her own story with Bill Cosby.  It’s clear that these women have received tremendous pushback and doubt about their stories’ validity.  She has nothing to gain by speaking out and a lot to lose, so I applaud her for that.  And her story just lends more credibility to the others.