Latest news with #20thCentury
Fox News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump delivers on campaign promises while liberal media cries he's 'destroying democracy'
Donald Trump stands accused of trying to repeal the 20th century. That's how the New York Times puts it, and there is ample reporting to back that up. But I would add this bit of perspective. When Joe Biden came into office, he was widely portrayed as making important, progressive, reforms. He was depicted as undoing the damage of Trump's first term. He was one of the good guys. (Biden was also derided as too old for the job and mentally declining, and shielded from the press, and botching the border, but his heart was seen as being in the right place.) When Trump won a second term, he was immediately viewed as a human wrecking ball. He's been absolutely aggressive, taking on elite law firms, Ivy League universities and the media, winning big settlements from two of the three broadcast networks, ABC and CBS. He's sealed the border, backed stronger tactics by ICE agents, and slapped even longtime allies with sky-high tariffs–all of which he had promised during the campaign. But most in the media have portrayed this as moving backwards, undoing important reforms and damaging the country. They have slid back into the familiar role of the Resistance. The framing is that Trump is destroying democracy, ruining the economy, yadda yadda yadda. He is one of the bad guys. Never mind that he won the popular vote. Trump is undoing what Biden did, as Biden did after Trump's first term, and that is a catastrophe. The president also successfully bombed Iran's nuclear sites, and despite the debate over how much of a setback that was, most Democrats and media people refused to credit him, or did so grudgingly. (At the same time, Trump and his Justice Department also bungled the Jeffrey Epstein case, refusing–after a big buildup–to release anything, on grounds that there was no client list and that the convicted pedophile did commit suicide in prison.) On Sunday's Mediabuzz, Sarah Bedford, investigations editor of the right-leaning Washington Examiner, called it "a huge PR disaster for the Trump administration. There's no way for them to spin their way out of this." I've been trying to figure out why this is striking such a deep chord among MAGA loyalists, rather than being a two-day story, and this is my take. The no-need-to-release-anything about this "creep," as Trump calls him, is a proxy for a broader sentiment that the rich and powerful always get away with things. They protect each other. They're never held accountable for actions that would sink the rest of us. I've been trying to figure out why this is striking such a deep chord among MAGA loyalists, rather than being a two-day story, and this is my take. The no-need-to-release-anything about this "creep," as Trump calls him, is a proxy for a broader sentiment that the rich and powerful always get away with things. They protect each other. They're never held accountable for actions that would sink the rest of us. From the New York Times: "On matters big and small, Mr. Trump has hit the rewind button. At the broadest level, he has endeavored to reverse the globalization and internationalism that have defined U.S. leadership around the globe since World War II, under presidents of both parties. But even at a more prosaic level, it has become evident that Mr. Trump, 79, the oldest president ever inaugurated, simply prefers things the way he remembers them from his youth, or even before that." In the well-reported piece, Peter Baker says Trump wants has called into question fluoride in water, flu vaccine and car safety standards. "He has made clear that he wants to return to an era when 'Cats' was the big hit on Broadway, not 'Hamilton;' when military facilities were named after Confederate generals, not gay rights leaders; when coal was king and there were no windmills; when straws were plastic, not paper; when toilets flushed more powerfully; when there weren't so many immigrants; when police officers weren't discouraged from being rough on suspects; when diversity was not a goal in hiring or college admissions or much of anything else–all to save America from "radical left lunatics." You may or may not agree with this analysis, but there's little question that Donald Trump wants to hit the time machine and return the country to a time when he was growing up, or even decades before that. That, after all, is why we have elections. Footnote: President Trump posted this, seemingly out of the blue: "Because of the fact that Rosie O'Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!" I don't think he has the power to do this to a natural-born American citizen. And I don't think he will. But even if he did, wouldn't it have to be tied to some kind of national security threat? Rosie, with whom he's been feuding for years? She has hit back, probably thankful for the publicity: "The president of the usa has always hated the fact that i see him for who he is – a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself – this is why i moved to ireland – he is a dangerous old soulless man with dementia who lacks empathy compassion and basic humanity." Zero evidence that he has dementia, of course. But why go there?
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
2 Girls Were Buried in 'Dollhouse Graves' More than 100 Years Ago. A Paranormal Investigator Recently Visited Both (Exclusive)
Two little girls who lived at the turn of the 20th century were memorialized in similar, special ways Courtney Eastman, a paranormal investigator and travel blogger, tells PEOPLE why their "dollhouse graves" hold such significance to their communities, more than 100 years later The locations, just 25 miles apart, tell similar heartbreaking stories about a parent's loveTwo little girls' families memorialized them in a way that's stood the test of time. Courtney Eastman is a travel blogger and paranormal investigator who travels the United States, checking out different haunted sites. In November, her travels brought her to the Indiana dollhouse graves, two unique memorials to little girls who didn't get to experience life for long. The graves, 25 miles apart, tell the similar, heartbreaking stories of Vivian May Allison and Lova Cline. "I was out there for an investigation weekend. Whenever I try to go out for investigations, I look for things along the way," Eastman tells PEOPLE. "A few friends of mine have posted about Lova's dollhouse, so she's on my radar. When I started researching other things around the Indiana State Sanatorium, which is what I was there to see, it led me to Vivian's story." Vivian was born May 5, 1894, and died at just 5 years old in October 1899. Vivian was the only child of Horace Dean and Carrie Young Allison at the time she was born, though they'd have a second daughter after her death. Vivian was the average little girl when she fell ill. But in days, she succumbed to a cerebral-spinal fever. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. At the time of the girl's death, Vivian's dad, Horace, was working on building a dollhouse he wanted to give her for Christmas. He continued with the project even after she died. Carrie also got involved, decorating the interior of the dollhouse. They brought it to Vivian's grave when it was completed and began filling it with all the things she loved. Just 25 miles away is Lova Cline's final resting place. Lova was born Sept. 5, 1902, and died in October 1908, after battling a severe neurological disorder her entire life. One of the few things in life that Lova could enjoy was the oversized dollhouse her father built her. Like Vivian's family, Lova's parents moved the dollhouse to her resting place after her death. "A lot of people didn't know about Vivian. They just knew about Lova, so it's been really cool to share her story," Eastman says. "Some people had the opposite experience, or didn't know the two were close together." "What really stood out about these graves is that they aren't what you typically see in a cemetery. They're very eye-catching, very unique. They will pull you in even when you're just driving by," Eastman says. "They both also have these heartbreaking stories that are not only about children losing their lives at such a young age but also the grief a parent goes through. It felt nice to be able to share that with the world," she adds. Eastman is a lifelong lover of all things paranormal. Growing up in Buffalo, N.Y., she was always checking out local haunts. "I was always the girl at the sleepover trying to get my friends to play Bloody Mary in the mirror. When I was in high school, the paranormal shows started coming out and I really took to it but it was more or less still taboo," she shares. "When lockdown happened, I just used the cemeteries around my home. Buffalo, N.Y., is blessed with a lot of haunted locations and abandoned places. During lockdown, I just started going around there to get outside." Eastman took her enthusiasm for deep-diving into the unusual and combined it with her love of storytelling to create her platform, The Ghoul Guide. "By that summer I had this idea in mind that wouldn't go away, to put together telling stories I love about all these haunted locations. I gave myself a deadline of Oct. 1, a post on Instagram and then everything has grown from there. It's been a weird, whirlwind adventure. Eastman's work takes her throughout the East Coast and the Midwest, where she not only blogs about and investigates paranormal locations, but also hosts ghost hunts for others to join in on. "I travel all around the East Coast and the Midwest. I helped my friends out with a paranormal event company, so we put on ghost hunts for people and they can come hang out with us, investigate with us. We have all the equipment if they want to free roam, they can do that too." Sharing her finds with her community on social media and beyond has been a joy for her to experience. "When I first became interested in these things as a child, it was really taboo. Now that it's out in the open and people are talking about it, all I want is to share these stories," she says. "There's so many stories from history that get lost and they shouldn't. I just love being able to continue people's stories and legacies." "I absolutely love seeing comments from people who have been sharing their stories about going there. People have shared that there are other graves like this throughout the United States, in Alaska, Alabama and Tennessee," Eastman continues. "It adds not just to what I hope to accomplish in my work but also in bringing people together in appreciating what's been here before us," she shares. Eastman is grateful to this community for giving her "a safe place for me to discover who I am. Having the chance to build community, especially around this, it just means a lot." She's also hopeful that if people do any investigating or exploring of paranormal sites on their own, they "remember to be very respectful." "The dollhouses getting vandalized and broken into has happened over the years," she shares. "They've been around for so long and we want to keep them." Read the original article on People
New York Times
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Novelist Who Tried to Make It Look Cool to Be Fascist
MALAPARTE: A Biography, by Maurizio Serra; translated by Stephen Twilley 'Fascism' is notoriously difficult to define. It insisted on conformism while attracting bohemians and subversives, fused manic idealism with brutal cynicism and combined elements of modernism and pastoral nostalgia. The critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin once wrote that 'fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political life.' In 'Malaparte,' Maurizio Serra's outstanding biography of the Italian dandy, journalist, playwright, would-be diplomat and filmmaker Curzio Malaparte, the author makes clear that Benjamin was correct. Whatever else it was, 20th-century fascism was a project more of imagination than reason; it was driven by aspiring European elites who presented themselves as populists in their pursuit of grandeur and greatness. Malaparte showed the first glimmers of his prodigious writerly talent as a young man in the early 1920s, and although he was once an ardent champion of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, his literary reputation has hardly been confined to the fringes of the far right. The admirers of his enduring novels 'Kaputt' (1944) and 'The Skin' (1949) include Milan Kundera, Edmund White and Gary Indiana. The Premio Malaparte, an Italian prize bearing his name, has been proudly accepted by novelists like Rachel Cusk and Karl Ove Knausgaard. The sociologist Michael Mann once wrote, 'Fascism was a movement of the lesser intelligentsia,' but Malaparte was a first-rate talent as both journalist and fiction writer. Still, he struggled to put his creative energy to constructive use: He looked down on losers, but, in his misbegotten schemes and futile projects, he found himself among their ranks. There is a pathetic aspect to Serra's account of Malaparte's life, a solipsism that despaired of finding anything worthwhile in life other than movement and adventure. The anti-intellectual intellectual, the macho man who wore makeup and sported perfectly coifed hair; physically courageous as a soldier and war correspondent but in politics and his personal life a moral coward; the militant anti-communist fascinated with Lenin's Russia and, eventually, Mao's China; the bourgeois snob who hated the bourgeoise and idealized both proletarians and aristocrats: Malaparte embodied, almost perfectly, the contradictory impulses of the fascist generation. Malaparte was not among fascism's top ranks. He was not one of the chief ideologues, like his fellow writer Giuseppe Bottai. But, as his literary fame spread during the interwar period, he showed fascism's seductive side and cultivated a fraught relationship with Mussolini that continued into the 1930s. 'Malaparte' demonstrates that fascism was not only a collective enterprise and cult of the leader, but an individual one: a narcissistic worship of the self and a chance for ambitious young men from the provinces, dissatisfied with their place in liberal society, to embark upon a career. The most important client of Malaparte's propaganda was always himself, and, in later years, he worked to make it seem that he had been an antifascist dissident the whole time. Serra tells us not to buy it: Malaparte's apparent political transformations were opportunistic or driven by whim. And if he abandoned the Fascist Party when he had to, he remained a fascist at heart. 'From beginning to end, one finds in him a fascistic strain that he never belied under any regime,' Serra explains, 'in particular a taste for force, the only real ideology of a man who disdained all ideologies.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Wall Street Journal
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
What Would Hayek Think of AI?
It keeps happening—some shiny new idea or technology promises to solve all our problems. Give power to experts to arrange affairs 'scientifically,' and poverty, oppression, disease, war and all human ills will disappear. Today, we are asked to trust artificial intelligence. The International Monetary Fund promises that 'AI can enhance democratic institutions by ensuring citizens' voices are truly heard.' Power wielded by a few experts can enhance democracy? Isn't that what the early 20th-century Progressive movement promised? For that matter, isn't that the thinking behind Soviet 'scientific socialism'?
New Indian Express
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Jon Bernthal joins Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New Day as the Punisher
The casting reunites Bernthal and Holland, who were filming the 2017 drama Pilgrimage when they helped each other prepare for their respective Marvel auditions. Both would go on to claim iconic roles in the MCU. Outside of the superhero world, Bernthal's recent work includes starring opposite Ben Affleck in Amazon's The Accountant 2 and appearing alongside Rami Malek in 20th Century's The Amateur.
