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In 1912, a young man named Max Eastman got a letter: You are elected editor of The Masses. No pay. Eastman had no idea when, how, or why hed been granted this post as head of a small New York socialist newspaper.

But as Jeremy McCarter tells it in his new book, Young Radicals, Eastman followed up, visiting the offices of The Masses. An aspiring poet and socialist with no journalistic ambitions, he immediately took to the business when he saw how to lay out a page, or paste up a dummy. Soon, he was running the paper, then reinventing it. He filled it with funny drawings and new, vibrant voices. He moved the offices to Greenwich Village.

This made Eastman neighbors with John Reed, a young bohemian journalist and another one of the principles of Young Radicals. Reed got help in his early writing from his former Harvard classmate Walter Lippmann, a third key player in the book. Lippmann went on to help found New Republic, where he helped invent a new kind of progressive liberalism. One of his writers was Randolph Bourne, whose sharp, singular essays forged an uncompromising vision of what America could be.

Meanwhile, suffragist Alice Paul was leading the charge to gain women the right to vote, and doing so on a national level, upping the ante from the state-by-state strategy the movement had been employing. Pauls influence was big enough that she faced off with President Wilson himself in the White House.

Soon, all the radicals of McCarters book would have to define themselves in relation to Wilson and the coming war. Their prewar commitment to idealism and a vision for democratic socialism would become somewhat rearranged and reprioritized as they grappled with the reality of the war and their ideological responsibility to take a position on it and the 1916 election.

Bournes adamant opposition to American entry into the war got him fired. The other young radicals made arguments on behalf of Woodrow Wilson as a rational, pragmatic, and reachable president, even though there was a socialist candidate, Allan Benson, in the race. Lippmann, formerly critical of Wilson, was won over by his first term and backed him publicly. Reed voted for Wilson the first time he ever voted for a president, he said because he felt him to be sensible and reachable.

Eastman used his post at The Masses to endorse Wilsons reelection, and caught fire from fellow socialists, including his own staff. How could the editor of a socialist paper endorse a Democrat when their party had a man in the race in Benson? But Eastman held firm, writing that in the face of the war in Europe and the possibility of U.S. involvement, Wilson was the responsible choice.

But just for the record, when Eastman went into the voting booth, he voted socialist.

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Young Radicals: A Story of Socialism, Suffragists, and Journalism - Signature Reads

Taylor Budowich, Opinion contributor Published 10:56 a.m. ET June 22, 2017 | Updated 3 hours ago

A protest in Philadelphia on Jan. 26, 2017.(Photo: Suchat Pederson, USA TODAY Network)

After failing in dramatic fashion at the ballot box last year, Democrats have clung to the hope that the vague anti-Trump resistance may be their saving grace a supposed organic political movement that would do for them what the Tea Party did for the Republicans. However, afterfour straight special-election defeats capped off this week in Georgia when Democrats directed tens of millions of dollars only to lose its clear the resistance is just another political paper tiger, not the partys salvation.

Since the Womens March following President Trumps inauguration, the mainstream media has attempted to draw parallels between the resistance and the Tea Party. Unsurprisingly, the comparison revolved around tactics. The Tea Party and the resistanceboth protested their respective Administrations, they both brought energy, and they both raised concerns at town halls.

However, what the media, Democratsand even some of the GOPs old guard fail to appreciate is that itwasnt tactics that created the Tea Partys historic and lasting success. There were no novel campaign strategies, patented micro-targeting, or complex data analytics. Instead, the Tea Partys rise was defined by its powerfully simple message of limited government and less spending. It was a message and pursuit that, at the time, was largely abandoned by both political parties, yet resonated with many American voters.

Additionally, the Tea Party movement understood that to change the policies, they had to change the players and we did. Democrats and their resistance have been losing election after election, a stark contrast to the Tea Partys ability to rackup victory after victory at the ballot box.

From Trump to Sen.Rand Paul of Kentucky,from Rep. Mark Meadowsof North Carolina toGov.Rick Scottof Florida,the most prominent faces of todays Republican Party found electoral success with campaign messagesthat aligned with Tea Party values.

It was never about the label Tea Party, but instead the ideas that inspired a truly organic and peaceful political revolution. And though the Tea Party was often disparaged by the media, it flourishes in the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and in state houses across the country.

Republicans now have control of 33 governors mansions, while Democrats have lost over 900 state legislative seats, putting the GOP in control either partially or entirely of 45 states.

Conservatism flourishing under Trump

Why rich liberals won't fund a Tea Party: Jason Sattler

In contrast, the resistance has only succeeded at turning out the same Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton and her failed campaign, and it has fallen far short of redefining the vanishing Democratic Party in part because the resistance and Democratic Party are indistinguishable from each other. Same rhetoric, same out-of-touch agenda, same result.

This has been true from the beginning. Statistician Nate Silver, editor-in-chief of ESPN's FiveThirtyEight and a Special Correspondent for ABC News, published an in-depth analysis of the anti-Trump Womens March in January. In his report, Silver found that 80 percent of march attendance came in states that Clinton won. By comparison, more thanhalf of the Tea Party protests were in states that President Obama won in 2008.

That reality hasn't changed. Jon Ossoff, the Democrat in the Georgia special election this week, had ninetimes more donations come from California than from the state where he ran. And even though he was the anointed candidate out of the gate, he didn't even live in the district. It's hard to win when neither the moneynor the candidate came from the district.

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Now that the dust has settled, here's what we know: The Democratic resistance poured a record-breaking $31millioninto Georgia to oppose Tea Party-backed Karen Handel , only to lose. If that wasn't bad enough, Ossoff lost by more than doubleClinton's losing margin in the district last fall.

This race, coupled with other special-election lossesin Kansas, Montana, and South Carolina, have become expensive reminders of 2016, when Democrats wasted hundreds of millions of dollars propping up candidates handpicked by the party leaders, only to be rejected at the ballot box by the voters. More consequentially though, it proves the Democrats' hopes for their own Tea Party revolution are dead.

The difference between the two movements is simple: the Tea Party's message captured voters the Republican Party failed to reach. The resistance merely re-organized those Clinton voters who have yet the accept Trumps victory and cling to the Not My President hashtag. Thats not the formula for a political revolution, its just sour grapes.

Going forward, the Democratic Party has two paths. It can continue under the failed, top-down leadership of Nancy Pelosi and anout-of-touch agenda, ensuring a continuing journeytowards irrelevance. Orit can finally recognize that it has a message problem, compounded by priorities that favor big cities and ignore the rest of America.

an agenda that prioritizes the interests of big cities, while ignoring the rest of America.

Taylor Budowich is executive director of Tea Party Express, the nation's largest Tea Party political action committee. Follow him on Twitter: @TaylorBudowich

You can readdiverse opinions from ourBoard of Contributorsand other writers ontheOpinion front page,on Twitter@USATOpinionand in our dailyOpinion newsletter.To submit a letter, comment or column, check oursubmission guidelines.

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Trump resistance will never be a Tea Party for Democrats - USA TODAY

Added on June 21, 2017 Special Contributor Movie Reviews

Jason Momoa and Suki Waterhouse in The Bad Batch. Courtesy of NEON

by Morgan Rojas/www.cinemacy.com

Bringing Bad back to the big screen for her highly anticipated sophomore film is Ana Lily Amirpour, the visionary who made black and white Vampire Spaghetti Westerns a thing. Amirpour trades the streets of Bad City for the barren desert of Texas in The Bad Batch, a meditative and highly audaciouscannibal film that makes Burning Man look like your grandmas tea party (For our exclusive interview with Amirpour and actress Suki Waterhouse, visit http://www.cinemacy.com).

Our heroine isArlen(Suki Waterhouse), a young woman who has been dumped in the desert after spending an undisclosed amount of time in a detention facility. Disorientedand penniless, her stamina is no match for unrelenting sun as she decides to let her guard down for a quick nap in a convenientlyabandoned car. Its not long until a group of ragtag cannibal misfits find Arlen and take her to their base camp. Arlens desperation to escape literally costs her an arm and a leg as she quickly learns that its every man, or in this case, woman, for herself in the Bad Batch.

Elements of what made Amirpours first film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, so successful are replicated here strong female protagonist, gritty skate culture, a trendy soundtrack including songs from Die Antwoord and Culture Club, and all-around cool vibes. Perhaps too cool at times, but how can it not be coming from distributors like Vice, NEON, and Annapurna Pictures?

Arlen encounters many characters as she wanders through the barren landscape, including the big and burly Miami Man (Jason Momoa), his quiet yetindependent daughter, Honey (Jayda Fink) and The Dream (Keanu Reeves), the idolized patriarch of the desert camp called Comfort. The subsidiary cast ofkooks like Hermit (Jim Carrey) and The Screamer (Giovanni Ribisi) are unexpected but welcomed additions that further round out Arlens reality. Like a bad ass Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz, Arlen just wants to go home and usesthese characters she meets along the way to help her get there.

The audience isnt given the luxury of knowing Arlens backstory, or how she wound up in the Bad Batch in the first place, but character development clearly wasnt the focus here. We are dropped into a dystopian desert without knowing how we got there or where were going, but we blindly buckle up for the ride. By default, we root for Arlens success because the odds are against her, plus she is fighting to survive with a missing left arm and leg. Id venture to guess, however, that a backstory would have made the audience further emotionally invested.

Ana Lily Amirpours moody, high-style horror flick is an unconventional watch, but for as tough and tireless as the premise is, the cinematic style of the film itself is quite idyllic. Minimal dialogue and long, sweeping shots of the vast wasteland makes for a meditative watch despite the blood, guts, and gore. Lingering shots of barren desert-living mixed with the effortlessly cool and all-around badass Suki Waterhouse makes The Bad Batch an artistic vision, or dare I saydream?

The Bad Batch is rated R for violence, language, some drug content, and brief nudity. 118 minutes. Opening this Friday at ArcLight Hollywood andOn Demand, Amazon and iTunes.

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The Bad Batch makes Burning Man look like your grandma's tea party [MOVIE REVIEW] - Easy Reader

Poroshenko -- who is viewed as an enemy to Russian leaders in Moscow -- was scheduled to "drop by" a meeting with President Donald Trump and national security adviser H.R. McMaster during his previously scheduled visit with Vice President Mike Pence, according to the White House schedule.

Trump told reporters, briefly allowed into the room, that "a lot of progress has been made" in relations between the United States and Ukraine. The White House also put out a short, direct official read out of the meeting, noting that the two spoke about a "peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and President Poroshenko's reform agenda and anti-corruption efforts."

Arriving at the West Wing on Tuesday morning, Poroshenko wasn't greeted by Trump -- as the President has been known to do with other leaders -- and walked into the West Wing quietly and without fanfare. Poroshenko will primarily meet with Pence, who advisers say has a close relationship with the Ukrainian leader.

In a nod to Poroshenko, the Trump administration announced more sanctions against separatists, including some Russians, involved in the conflict in Ukraine as the president arrived at the White House.

Poroshenko's treatment is noteworthy given Trump's tendency to roll out the red carpet for almost all foreign leaders who visit the White House -- even those from small countries with few pressing issues in the United States.

Other foreign leaders have been given muted welcomes when meeting with Pence, not Trump. King Abdullah II of Jordan met with Pence at his residence earlier this year and did not officially meet with Trump, while Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernndez met with the vice president in March without much fanfare.

But the subdued meetings are more rare.

Despite the less-than-warm welcome, Trump and Poroshenko -- on paper -- would seem to have a lot in common. The duo are both new to politics and built sizable empires in business. Poroshenko, a billionaire, owns Roshen, a large candy company, and 5 kanal, a Ukrainian broadcast company and Trump regularly touts his business acumen, his wealth and the fact he is new to politics.

Multiple senior Trump administration officials pushed back against the idea that Poroshenko was snubbed by the White House, saying he got more face-time with top Trump officials than other world leaders.

"Not all visits are the same," the official said, arguing that Poroshenko saw "all the senior most people in the building," including one-on-one time with Trump, Pence and McMaster.

The official said visits are "different every time" and this sort of visit is not a "uniquely Trump thing."

Most notably, the muted welcome is striking given the Ukrainian leader's reputation a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose meddling in the 2016 election and subsequent investigations into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia have largely overshadowed the first few months of the Trump presidency.

Close ties between Trump and a Ukrainian leader like Poroshenko would likely anger leaders in Russia, who have blamed the United States for conflict in Eastern Ukraine, where fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian backed groups continues.

Biden even made Poroshenko part of his swansong foreign trip, visiting Ukraine days before Trump was inaugurated.

In addition to meeting with Trump, Poroshenko will meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Tuesday.

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Ukraine leader gets low-key welcome at White House ...

It was all quite quick and comfortable, Timofey Matskevich, a small-business owner, said of transiting with his wife, Daria, through an airport serving Barcelona.

They asked no questions, they stamped our passports and said, Welcome to Spain, Mr. Matskevich said in an online chat from the apartment where he was staying, which he said had a marvelous view of the beach and the Mediterranean beyond.

Its a change in mentality, he said. You have more freedom to go somewhere, to see things. For the mentality of the country to change, to get rid of the Soviet legacy, you need to see other parts of the world.

While the visa waiver for Ukrainians is the largest shift of the kind for former Soviet countries, most of Ukraines 45 million people cannot afford to go on vacation abroad. Citizens of Georgia and Moldova already qualified for short-term visa-free travel to most of Western Europe, and those of the Baltic countries, which are members of the European Union, can come and go as they please.

Mr. Poroshenko celebrated the change by opening a symbolic door to Europe that had been set up on a stage at a border crossing with Slovakia. To help illustrate what lay to the west, the door was surrounded by walls depicting the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum in Rome, Dutch windmills and other European tourist sights.

Mr. Poroshenko called the visa waiver a final exit of our country from the Russian Empire, and he joked that the words Back in the U.S.S.R. would be heard only listening to The Beatles.

Three years ago, tens of thousands of Ukrainians, including Mr. Matskevich, took to the streets of Kiev to reject the pro-Russian government of the time, and to show support for a trade pact between Ukraine and the European Union called the Association Agreement.

Russia responded with a military intervention, annexing Crimea and deploying forces in two provinces of eastern Ukraine, in a war that has since killed more than 10,000 people. Amid this grinding crisis, the Ukrainian story line shifted to keeping Russia out, not to getting into Western Europe.

The European Union has kept pressing the government in Kiev to adhere to European norms, not only on technical matters such as agricultural standards but also by curbing corruption, to little effect.

In newspapers, disheartened Ukrainians read daily about members of Parliament or finance officials lining their pockets with public money.

The visa-rule change allowed Mr. Poroshenko to claim credit for one popular achievement of Ukraines shift toward the West, in the hopes more substantive measures will follow, said Kadri Liik, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

It greatly empowers the forces in society that push reforms, she said.

Visa-free travel is the first thing people received from the Association Agreement, Mr. Matskevich said. Its a step by our country into the normal world, into normal society.

The opening went smoothly, with a few exceptions. A woman who had no passport for her 8-year-old son tried to smuggle him over a land border with Poland in a suitcase. They were discovered, fined and deported.

Mostly, though, the change led to excited Ukrainians posting about their European vacations on Facebook.

Hurray! It works! one Ukrainian traveler, Ivetta Delikatnaya, wrote after sliding through passport control in Toulouse, France.

With the easing of travel restrictions, low-cost airlines are increasingly looking to Ukraine. Wizz Air recently began operating flights between Lviv and Berlin for as little as $22 each way. Ryanair is introducing flights to Kiev and Lviv.

Andriy Homanchuk, a veteran of the war in eastern Ukraine, posted on Facebook that he was, somehow, able to eke out a weekend in Brussels for less than $100, his first trip to Western Europe.

The visa-free regime works, he wrote excitedly from Belgium. You dont need documents, or even knowledge of any language. You can go for a weekend.

Iuliia Mendel contributed reporting from Kiev, Ukraine.

Originally posted here:
Europe Dismantles Ukraine's 'Paper Curtain' - New York Times