An 80-Year-Old & a Samurai Defend Ukraine, Americans Write Bad Poems & Blame Each Other for European War, The View Complains Mass Casualties Interrupt Vacation (The Five for 02/25/22)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
This is a very heavy week…let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
Note that because of the heavy use of photos (which I believe are vital to tell the stories presented this week), if you’re on Gmail you’ll have to finish reading in a browser.
[one]
The last 24 hours have revealed the stark contrast between the courage of the Ukrainian people and the weakness and divisiveness of modern day America, a nation which apparently can no longer recognize reality.
First, let’s look in at a few snapshots of Ukraine.
Their President refuses to evacuate himself or his family, and is on the front lines in a bulletproof vest and helmet.
The Ukrainians refuse to back down.
When a Russian warship approached the Ukrainian military installation on Snake Island, the thirteen soldiers had every reason to surrender.
Thirteen vs. an entire warship…are impossible odds.
Instead, the soldiers got on the loudspeaker and issues this decree to the enemy:
“Russian warship, go f–k yourself.”
The 13 fell to the last man, in a very, very brief battle…taking their place in history alongside the last stand at the Alamo, and King Leonidas’ famed personal guard of 300 Spartans who battled an overwhelming Persian force at a choke point in a Greek canyon.
The “elites” of Ukraine refuse to flee.
Retired heavyweight boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko are undoubtably rich, as two of the highest paid athletes of the last 30 years. They could have hopped a private jet to Western Europe, or anywhere else, by now.
Instead, the famous brothers, both in their 50’s, have taken up arms against Russia.
But compared to some of their brothers and sisters in arms, the boxers are…young.
That warrior spirit is even alive and well in foreigners who are staying to defend Ukraine.
Meanwhile back in the United States…
[two]
The View’s Joy Behar complained about her vacation planned being canceled in light of a possible third world war.
I’m scared of what’s going to happen in Western Europe too. You plan a trip, you want to go there. I’ve wanted to go to Italy for four years, and I haven’t been able to make it because of the pandemic.
On the same show, Behar took time to blame the real villains for the invasion of a sovereign nation…Re-pub-li-cans.
“Martha, I’m disgusted by some on the response by some on the right who have embraced Putin over America’s own interest. To me, they’re aiding and abetting and giving comfort to the enemy.
Tens of thousands of projected combat deaths, millions of projected new refugees…and Behar’s chief concern is that somehow her political opponents somehow caused the very nice Mr. Putin to wake up one day and turn into a warmonger?
Considering Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and part of Ukraine in 2014, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say the former KGB agent trying to rebuild the Soviet empire wasn’t caused by right wing social media comments.
However, Behar isn’t totally wrong. Two voices on the right have expressed support for Putin.
Just three days ago Steve Bannon said this:
Putin aint woke. He is anti-woke. There are two genders in Russia. They don’t have gay pride flags. This whole thing is a scam.
I guess you could say that there is a second voice on the right supporting Putin, former Delaware GOP congressional candidate Lauren Witzke, who said this…in 2020.
Russia is a Christian nationalist natation. I’m Russian Orthodox, and I support Putin’s right to protect his people and always put his people first, but also protect their Christian values.
I identify more with Putin’s Christian values than with Joe Biden.
This is an idiotic, indefensible statement…it’s also one that was uttered two years ago without the context of an invasion, but went viral on Twitter from an account posting it without context.
It’s also questionable how a failed candidate in a blue state speaks for an entire political party.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson said the following just weeks ago:
”I’m totally opposed to these sanctions. I don’t think we should be at war with Russia. And if we have to choose, we should take the side of Russia if we have to choose between Russia and Ukraine, that is my view.
Meanwhile, Occupy Democrats suddenly believe in self defense:
Which is a pretty different stance than the group has ever taken before.
As I’ve stated multiple times…I don’t think Rittenhouse is a hero. He shouldn’t have been there. But the three white men he shot were A). trying to take his gun after threating to kill him B). beating him in the head with a blunt object and C). raising a pistol to shoot him.
So, it’s odd to hate AR-15’s but also love free pizza for anyone carrying a full on machine gun.
Meanwhile, some actress I’ve never heard of went viral for an idiotic poem about how she would have loved baby Vladimir and prevented this war.
There’s a similar argument about saving baby Hitler or some such nonsense…but this is an obvious attempt to use the deaths in Ukraine as a grab for attention by an actress no longer getting auditions.
To quote 90’s punk rocker’s The Offspring, “the kids aren’t alright.”
And by “the kids,” I mean…my nation.
Who act like children.
[three]
However, the Ukraine situation has produced on point of light…we’re learning that unlike traditional media companies, independent news sources are more than willing to point out their own mistakes.
Part of news and even commentary is admitting mistakes, and though I always made sure when discussing the subject to note Vladimir Putin could still invade Ukraine, I have to admit, I didn’t see this happening. Some old colleagues I trust, including some Putin-critical Russians, didn’t see it, either, but in many cases they just didn’t want to believe it, for reasons that are more understandable from their perspective. My mistake was more like reverse chauvinism, being so fixated on Western misbehavior that I didn’t bother to take this possibility seriously enough. To readers who trust me not to make those misjudgments, I’m sorry. Obviously, Putin’s invasion will have horrific consequences for years to come and massively destabilize the world.
I fear there will be more to say soon, but I’ll leave it at that for today. When you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and I was wrong about this.
Saagar Enjeti, of the uber-popular Breaking Points YouTube channel took a similar tone of contrition.
In the last round of conflicts…outlets like The New York Times barely apologized for their screwups…like when it finally came out that the Grey Lady had published an errant report on Iraq having weapons of mass destruction…that helped promote the war in Iraq.
Years later, the NYT was like “we’re sorry or whatever.”
When news outlets get smaller…they get more accountable.
And we’re all better for it.
[four]
One bit of non-Ukraine news that shouldn’t be overlooked.
A New England Journal of Medicine study found a strong correlation between COVID vaccination in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy…and miscarriage.
The June 2021 study called “Preliminary Findings of mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons” purports to study the effects that the Covid vaccine has on pregnancies, including miscarriages, stillbirths, anomalies, and live births.
One particular finding – that related to miscarriages – has been seemingly overlooked (and perhaps even intentionally hidden, as some claim, since corrections were made to the report). But first, it’s important to keep in mind that miscarriages are defined as “the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week.” The general rate of miscarriages in the U.S. ranges from as low as 10% to as high as 26%, depending on the medical publication.
The study tracked 3,958 women who received the vaccine before and during pregnancy (the group was a mix of Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna recipients). Among the women, 92 participants (2.3%) had received the vaccine before conception, 1132 (28.6%) received the vaccine in the first trimester, 1714 (43.3%) in the second trimester, and 1019 (25.7%) in the third trimester.
[five]
This is a very heavy week for the whole world…but I remember when the first U.S. troops entered Iraq…I heard a wise person say to avoid trying to monitor a war 24/7.
In the spirit of trying to find some rest this weekend…here’s the pop culture roundup:
If you’ve made a crack about Adam Sandler’s acting abilities lately, prepare to eat your words. Sure, the SNL alums comedies can be terrible…but his dramatic roles are unforgettable.
From the look of the first trailer, Sandler just turned in the next great sports drama, starring as a washed up basketball scout working with a would-be NBA prospect.
The film is also deeply integrated with it’s setting, the most “Philadelphia-centric” movie since Creed (aka Rocky VII).
Streaming on Netflix June 10th.
Netflix pushed the once-great video rental chain Blockbuster into bankruptcy in 2014, before the last of the stores closed down in 2014.
Now, Netflix is rubbing salt in the wound with a workplace comedy about…the last days of a fading Blockbuster retail location.
Hopefully the show itself is as hilarious as the idea of a streaming platform creating an entire sitcom to mock their former rivals.
By the way, there is still one Blockbuster left…it’s a former retail location turned into a nostalgic airbnb in Oregon.
Peaky Blinders returns for it’s sixth and final season via BBC One if you want to pay for it (or, wait for a Netflix debut later this year). The British gangster show was envisioned to “begin as the soldiers returned from WWI and end as the first bombs fall on London during WWII.”
However, this doesn’t look like the end of the road for the Shelby clan, as a movie and at least one spinoff are in the works.
One very sad note about the final season is that Helen McCrory, Aunt Polly on the show, died during filming of cancer at the age of 52. Her death was a major reason the show will end after six seasons.
Amazon Prime Video is handing the keys to the TV adaptation of the massively popular Fallout video game series to Jonathan Nolan, who collaborated with his brother Chris on Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy, and created Westworld during his first solo outing into TV.
The announcement came this week that Nolan has cast Walton Goggins (Justified, Sons of Anarchy) in the lead.
From Collider:
The Fallout video games series takes place in a post-nuclear apocalyptic America. The series’ aesthetic, both visually and with the in-game music, is heavily inspired by post-WWII America. In the world of Fallout, America was a “perfect” utopia that was destroyed by a nuclear war in 2077. Typically, the games take place hundreds of years after the nuclear war as the player character exits an underground vault and enters the nuclear wasteland. It is currently unknown what story the series will follow but with four games in the main series alone, there is a lot of source material to be inspired by.
And speaking of video game shows…a month before the general public has seen an episode of HALO the TV series, Paramount+ has announced season 2.
Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World) takes the lead in The Terminal List, the story of a double-crossed Navy Seal out for revenge for the deaths of his unit and family.
Written by real life former SEAL Jack Carr, The Terminal List is easily my favorite military novel of all time…and worth a read ahead of the film’s July 1st streaming date on Amazon Prime Video if you get a chance.
AMC may have the next great legal thriller on their hands with 61st Street, the tale of a public defender taking on the corrupt city of Chicago (maybe a stretch, but for the sake of fiction lets’ try to imagine a world where Chicago has corruption!) when a standout high school athlete is wrongfully accused.
On AMC and AMC+ April 10th.Thankfully, this is a two-seasons-and-done project, which should avoid the silliness many shows get into when they go too long.
NEW MUSIC: Highlighting three excellent releases today.
The first is the new album from emo veterans Dashboard Confessional, which I’ve already listened through once…really strong songwriting here.
The second is a new single from independent country artist phenom Zach Bryan.
And finally, a new track from independent Tennessee based rapper nobigyl.
Enjoy the weekend.
Enjoy your family and friends.
Enjoy a pizza or a thick burger.
Enjoy music and a great movie.
There are countless people walking to Poland right now who would give anything for these simple pleasures.
Until the next one,
-sth