Tucker Carlson Labels Winston Churchill "Villain," Holocaust "Justified," UFC Star for...Irish President?!, Venezualan Gangs vs Chicago Gangs, Downfall of the NRA (The Five for 09/06/24)

Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.

It’s Friday and there’s a LOT to get to…so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.

[one]

The outrageously under-reported story of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua terrorizing Americans in Aurora Colorado is behind a new outbreak of violence…this time in Chicago.

From a 911 call to Chicago PD:

6124 S King: caller says 32 Venezuelans are trespassing in the building, they are showing guns in the courtyard and they have motorcycles in the courtyard as well, all stairwells are filled.

Chicago Police have denied the presence of the gang, which NBC Chicago is calling BS on:

While members of the criminal organization have been confirmed in Illinois and Chicago, U.S. officials have cautioned against reports that gang members are taking over residential buildings.

Chicago police did confirm they responded Monday evening to the 6100 block of South King Drive, the location of the viral call, for a "call of service."

There, they said officers declared the response a "miscellaneous incident code," or "coded out" the call. No report was generated, CPD's Department of News Affairs reported.

The code given indicated a noise disturbance with "no police service necessary."

The department stressed that it will "not confirm any individual's status."

Telemundo Chicago and NBC Chicago have been reporting on the gang's presence in the U.S. for months.

Tren de Aragua is the largest criminal organization in Venezuela with more than 5,000 members. The transnational criminal organization has managed to spread its terror very quickly throughout South America.

Members of the violent gang are believed to be linked to criminal cases in five states, including Illinois and Indiana, local law enforcement officials told NBC News in June.

Authorities confirmed to NBC News they’re investigating more than 100 criminal cases connected to suspected members of Tren de Aragua, and NBC Chicago confirmed at least two members have been arrested in Cook County for narcotics and weapons-related charges.

This is…maddening. But if Chicago PD will not do anything about this, it appears Chicago gangs will step in to fill the void.

But, this ain't Colorado, this ain't, this ain't Utah, this ain't none of them places. This is just like where you from. The only difference is, y'all use a lot of handgun, old revolvers and machetes and s***.

We got switches. We got switches. If you not familiar with what a switch is. We will show you. We don't really be it with all the telling and s***, but we will definitely show you what a switch is. So again, somebody translate. Yeah, make this known.

This ain't this ain't like this ain't like Colorado. I'm just saying.

The reference to “switches” are Glock Switches, which turn Glock pistols into fully automatic weapons (a felony that can result in a decade long prison sentence).

Keep in mind, I am NOT advocating for mob violence, but Chicago has seen this before. When a white power gang started to gain influence in Blue Island, IL (in Cook County) in the early 2000’s, the White Supremacist faction pulled out of the state after one of their members was crucified to a tree in a public park. I don’t have a news link I can find at the moment, but multiple, reputable people in the Chicago community who will vouch for this, because they lived in the area.

If Chicago gangs are claiming they will go to war with Tren de Aragua, I suggest we believe them, and avoid the city (or be very cautious) until further notice.

I suppose this is a bit self serving…but if you have not subscribed (for free) to my latest Substack, Stay Alive with Seth Tower Hurd…yeah, current events are pointing to that being a very good idea.

The next one drops on Sunday.

Five Days Ago, I Got Shot at By Muggers. I Now Realize The Errors That Could Have Gotten Me Killed.

[two]

Last night, alt-rock outfit Linkin Park set the internet ablaze after a week of band-sanctioned hype. Eight years ago, the LA based six-piece made no promises of ever re-forming after the suicide of Chester Bennington.

Outside of a three hour tribute show, with a who’s-who of rock music filling in for Bennington in tribute show, LP had not taken the stage, or announced much of anything, except for re-releases for the respective 20th anniversaries for their debut, Hybrid Theory (30 million copies sold) and Metamora (16 million copies sold). But those are moves a band makes to promote what they have done, not what they are doing.

After simply promoting “an announcement” on their website for last night, the band went live on YouTube and brought out new singer Emily Thompson, formerly of the hard rock group Dead Sara. LP didn’t even

Heavily inspired by Janis Joplin, Emily wasn’t even announced. Instead, the original four members of LP (and new drummer Colin Brittain) simpl walked out onto the stage and launched into the band’s new single “The Emptiness Machine.” The only words spoken were from co-vocalist/rapper/guitar/keyboard player Mike Shinoda simply stating “it’s good to see you again.” Emily took the stage on the second verse of the new single, and delivered a powerful rasp that both takes the band in a new direction and also slots in with Bennington’s vocal style enough to bring their back catalog to life.

You may (or may not) be a fan of LP, but there are a handful of reasons this is noteworthy:

A). Linkin Park is an example of how streaming tells the truth about the quality of an artist. After emerging as the biggest band in the world in the early aughts, LP was thrown under the bus by the corporate press (Rolling Stone, Spin) who were trying to push garbage garage acts (like The Hives, who the music industry propped up, only to see their fanbase dissipate without constant media hype.

But Linkin Park picked up an astounding 30 million first time listeners on streaming platforms when the band was completely dormant.

B). For the most part, Gen Z and Gen Alpha aren’t into rock music, with pop and country dominating the charts at the moment. The resurgence of Linkin Park might just inspire the next generation to head down to guitar center and pick out a six-string.

C. Heavy music has been rightly criticized for the lack of women contributing to the genre. As of last night, the most popular rock band in the world is a female fronted group.

D. This is clearly not a nostalgia play…like when Queen took American Idol alum Adam Lambert out to fill in for the late Freddie Mercury to “play the hits.” Nearly 30 years in, Linkin Park sounds…fresh.

E. The surprise reunion did the thing that pop culture, at it’s best, contributes to society—it built connections. I was looking up old friends from college on Facebook to discuss the new single.

In a divisive election year, let’s have a little more of that.

[three]

Well, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson went and ignored the advice from Tropic Thunder when he had on a guest that says…wait for it…Holocaust kinda justified…and Winston Churchill BAD.

From long form quotes published by Mediaite, guest Daryl Cooper defended the Holocaust on Tucker’s show as…a humane alternative to starvation?!

You know, Germany, look, they put themselves into a position in Adolf Hitler’s chiefly responsible for this, but his whole regime is responsible for it, that when they went into the east in 1941, they launched a war where they were completely unprepared to deal with the millions and millions of prisoners of war, of local political prisoners, and so forth that they were going to have to handle. They went in with no plan for that and they just threw these people into camps. And millions of people ended up dead there. You know, you have, you have like letters as early as July, August 1941 from commandants of these makeshift camps that they’re setting up for these millions of people who were surrendering or people they’re rounding up and they’re- so it’s two months after, a month or two after Barbarossa was launched, and they’re writing back to the high command in Berlin saying, “We can’t feed these people, we don’t have the food to feed these people.” And one of them actually says ‘Rather than wait for them all to slowly starve this winter, wouldn’t it be more humane to just finish them off quickly now?”

So…Nazis not bad. Because Holocaust “humane.”

But you know who VERY BAD?

Prime Minister who do big “ecological terrorism.”

And so Churchill, I mean, you have a guy who once he- Churchill wanted a war, he wanted to fight Germany. And the reason that I don’t begrudge him that, you know, people can, national leaders, you can fight whoever you want. If, you know, if you feel like your long-term, the long-term interests of the British Empire threatened by the rise of a powerful continental power like Germany, and you need to check that, those are great power games, and you play them the way you feel like you need to play them — that’s fine. The reason I resent Churchill so much for it is that he kept this war going when he had no way, he had no way to go back and fight this war. All he had were bombers. He was literally, by 1940, sending firebomb fleets, sending bomber fleets to go firebomb the Black Forest just to burn down sections of the Black Forest.

Wow, I haven’t seen that mix of Green New Deal meets Nazi talking points since…well, the insufferable Autistic Scandinavian who told the whole we had “stolen her dreams” slid in an Octopus toy into her social media.

The octopus symbol is pulled straight from Nazi propaganda from the 1920’s depicting the “international Jewry” that wraps it’s tentacles around the world.

So, Tucker Carlson (hard right) and Thunberg (hard left)…agree.

This is a fairly common occurrence—the far left and far right get so extreme that they horseshoe around and agree on the dumbest of all possible fringe conspiracies.

If you need me, I'll be down at Bass Pro Shop filling my cart with more ammo in case either of these factions decides to go full Venezuelan gang in my neighborhood and start searching for Jews, door to door.

Honestly, I could see either political extreme trying to run it back and go full Auschwitz…if they try to go full Tren de Aragua and kick down the door to our home, where my ethnically Jewish wife and daughters live, there’s a mandatory test to see if they’re allergic to intravenous 9mm.

[four]

Throughout the 90’s and early 00’s, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was the boogie man of the political left, and an organization I once belonged to. I canceled my membership after the group refused to support the investigation into the death of Philandro Castile, a black gun owner who was shot by police while legally carrying (with a Minnesota issued permit) over a busted taillight (be warned…the footage is extremely disturbing).

Founded after the Civil War due to the fact that Union General George Burnside said his troops fired “1,000 rounds for every Confederate hit,” the organization originally focused on marksmanship and shooting mechanics as well as shooting competitions.

In the 20th Century, as gun rights became more of a contentious political issue, the NRA focused on lobbying, as well as education around hunting and shooting.

But the organization got caught wasting a LOT of money (to the tune of $5.4 million being mis-spent by the CEO, much of that on extravagant travel, clothing and lifestyle purchases). This led to the NRA filing for bankruptcy in 2021, and re-incorporating in Texas. Since then, the organization has been mostly ignored by gun owners and the general public alike.

But nature abhors a vacuum, and the Secure our Freedom Alliance has popped up, focusing on speaking to first time gun buyers who purchased a firearm during the unrest of the COVID lockdowns and riots that followed.

Axios reports:

The big picture: The goal is to convince new gun owners, especially women and minorities, that their rights are under attack by the Biden administration and progressive politicians.

"Our purpose is to win the hearts and minds of the American public to protect the right to self-defense," said Chris Cox, a senior adviser to the new group and the NRA's former political director and chief lobbyist.. “Every American family has a right to protect themselves and their homes from violent criminals, and the right to choose the method of self-defense they deem best," he said.

The group’s ads are MUCH more relatable to the average Joe and Jane than the white-male-boomer vibes that killed off the NRA.

[five]

As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup…

• Conor McGregor, the biggest star in the history of MMA (who also holds the record for the 2nd most watched boxing event in history) is apparently scrapping his UFC comeback in order to run for President of Ireland.

• Joker: Folie A Deux may struggle to live up to the $1B box office of the original film, as it was not well received at the Venice Film Festival. The movie hits theaters 10/04, but maybe just wait for streaming.

• Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) released the trailer for Megalopolis, which is probably his final film (dude is 85 years old). Personally, I think it looks like an expensive Hunger Games ripoff, but maybe I’m wrong.

• Former MCU Director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) will release the first project as boss of the DC Universe with Creature Commandos, an animated project hitting HBO Max in December. Gunn previously struck gold with Peacemaker, so we’ll see if he can return the IP that owns Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman back to the top of the pop culture lexicon…

• There’s definitely confusion as whether Yellowstone can move forward without lead Kevin Costner, who went back-and-forth on returning to close out the show, before finally quitting in a spat with creator Taylor Sheridan…but now we have our first look at the new season, as well as a release date (November 10th).
  
  It’s also unclear as to whether this is truly the final season of the show, or the main storyline will continue in a spinoff, or whether Demi Moore (Ghost, G.I. Jane) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Murder on the Orient Express, Avengers: Endgame) will join the cast (if you believe the rumors) and the Bozeman Valley drama will keep on chugging, albeit without one of the Costner. Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club, Interstellar), is still TBD on entering the franchise via a spinoff that may (or may not) happen, titled The Madison.
  
  None of the Yellowstone spinoffs appear to be releasing in 2024, including 1923 (which will get season 2 at some point, and 1944, which delve deeper into past generations of the Dutton clan, and and 6666 (pronounced “The Four Sixes”), a spinoff based on the largest ranch in Texas (which appeared on season 4 of the main show).

• And speaking of Taylor Sheridan, his latest show, LANDMAN just dropped a barnburner of a first trailer. Billy Bob Thorton (Tombstone, Bad Santa), Jon Hamm (Mad Men, The Town), Ali Larter (Varsity Blues, House on Haunted Hill) and Demi Moore lead the cast. Out 11/17…

• “When one lavish wedding ends in disaster before it can even begin - with a body discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony - everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect.”
  
  If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie style mysteries, this Liev Schreiber (X-Men, Ray Donovan) and Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge, Big Little Lies) led series looks like a winner. On Netflix today. At the time of this writing, it’s sitting at 70/100 on Metacritic.

[new music]

Apple Music | YouTube Music

Well, it appears that Netflix released a Christian horror film without me noticing. The Deliverance (trailer) did a bit better with audiences (53%) than critics (39%) on Metacritic, so it’s possible Andra Day’s rendition of the classic hymn “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow” is the best part of the film. Day also plays the lead…the Grammy winning singer has dipped into acting before, in The United States vs. Billie Holiday).

Whether or not you ever watch the movie, it’s one of the best pop songs I’ve heard in 2024.

Apple Music | YouTube Music

British Neo-blues and soul singer Rag’n’Bone Man pulls in influences from both hip hop and electronic genres for a wholly unique sound. His new single slaps.

[read & learn]

• My only regret about Scott Galloway’s latest book, The Algebra of Wealth (Amazon) is that it wasn’t written 20 years ago, and the entrepreneur and NYU prof’s rock solid wisdom on building a career and an investment portfolio would have been invaluable in my post college life.
  
  In my 40’s? Still the best read of 2024 that I’ve found on on work and money. Highly recommended.

• Donald Trump apparently believes he can with under-30 males in November, a group that almost always votes Blue, and is embarking on a series of YouTube interviews designed to reach out to Gen Z. Trumps appearance on the Zoomer beloved channel of Lex Fridman made headlines over DJT’s interest in legalizing medical Cannabis at the national level and releasing the Epstein client list…but the whole thing is worth a listen, because Fridman, a computer scientist, is just so dang CALM and analytical, which is an interesting juxtaposition to Trump’s typically manic energy.

Until the next one,

-sth