GA, AZ, PA to remove Biden from Ballot? NY Times Attack's Disney's Bluey for...This Absurd Reason, Can The X-Files Reboot Work? (The Five for 12/22/23)
Plus, Amazon's Reacher hits a major milestone, and wolves are released into Colorado.
Hey, welcome to The Five.
One one…there will be just one issue next week, The Best of 2023 issue, which will drop a week from today (12/29).
I don’t think anybody will be looking for breaking news the day after Christmas, so we’re gonna skip it.
Then, a short break and The Five will return on 01/09 for the New Year!
Now, let’s dive into Culture & Commentary!
[one]
Normally, I don’t include hard news into Fridays, but this has major cultural implications.
Three Republican state lawmakers are drafting legislation to remove President Joe Biden from ballots in Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, Breitbart News exclusively learned Friday.
If Biden is removed from the ballots, the president will have difficulty winning the Democrat primary and presidential election. Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania are vital swing states.
The three state representatives who are drafting the three bills are:
-Pennsylvania Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R)
-Georgia Rep. Charlice Byrd (R)
-Arizona Rep. Cory Mcgarr (R)
The state representatives’ aim is to fight back against the Democrats’ so-called “lawfare” used to attack former President Donald Trump. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a 4-3 opinion that the United States Constitution’s “Insurrection Clause” blocks Trump from appearing on the state’s presidential ballot.
At this point, I’m assuming you saw that Trump is being removed from the Colorado ballet, and don’t need me to catch you up on that.
This is the first moment in my life where I can see the U.S. headed towards a second Civil War. It’s something that many fuel their political anger into, finally seeing the other side (whichever side that is) “getting what’s coming” to them.
If you must imagine what a civil war is like, imagine the churches and schools in your neighborhoods burned, your home destroyed or looted and your children dead.
The courts and politicians should not be interfering with elections, period. The Republican’s revenge play is just as bad as the Democrats’ initial removal of Trump from the ballot.
Pray for peace.
[two]
One of the most beloved 90’s properties looks to be getting a reboot.
According to a recent report from Bloomberg, details have been shared on several upcoming television shows that are in the works for Netflix, HBO, and Disney. The report noted that Disney is currently developing a reboot of The X-Files that is produced by Ryan Coogler, who directed Creed and the Black Panther movies. There was no information shared about the plot, such as if the new show will be a complete reimagining or if it will connect to the previous series, perhaps with some original characters making appearances.
This report comes several months after original X-Files creator Chris Carter teased the potential reboot. In March, Carter said that Coogler was planning to "remount" The X-Files. Similarly, it wasn't specified if the new show will be a continuation that follows different characters but is set in the same world. Carter did reveal, however, that the plan was to feature a much more diverse cast this time around.
“I just spoke to a young man…Ryan Coogler…who is going to remount The X-Files with a diverse cast," Coogler said on the On the Coast with Gloria Macarenko podcast. "So he’s got his work cut out for him, because we covered so much territory.”
It’s difficult to overstate how important The X-Files was to the invention of “modern” TV, where series are essentially 10-hour movies, not a collection of one-off stories with the same characters.
In 1993, the sci-fi/horror show took advantage of the early days of internet message boards, getting fans hooked through multi-episodic arcs and dropping plenty of content into episodes to lead to online chatter. Of course, that’s all par-for-the-course in 2023, but 30 years ago…no one had dared approach TV with such an ambitious approach to storytelling. TV was a medium that gave you the same familiar characters and plot so you could be half-entertained while folding laundry with your favorite show on in the background.
The downside of such a rich legacy is that The X-Files is STILL the 16th most streamed show owned by Fox, and that’s for a show that hasn’t put out a new episode in 21 years.
There’s no telling what such a rabid fan base of the original will think of a new version.
[three]
This week, the New York Times took shots at children’s shows Bluey (Disney) and Chip Chilla (Bent Key) for…having nuclear families and engaged fathers?
I’m not rewarding the NYT for being terrible (see story #1), so here are some pulled quotes via Newsbusters about the ideals that are shown:
I don’t know how he keeps house, works as an archaeologist and serves as a full-time prop artist to his daughters, but he does it all while only feigning complaint. He is not only a good father — he is a fantasy, one crafted to appeal to adults as much as to children.
I mean…fair enough, I guess? I try to be as present with my daughters as possible, but that doesn’t mean I perfectly balance a new company, domestic chores and imaginative play.
Then, the author’s real motivations come out.
After all, when I turn on “Bluey,” I am being very un-Bandit — I am not engaged in focused play that follows my child’s imagination wherever it leads. I am cleaning. My son is staring at a screen.
So, homie, you’re a loser who just doesn’t want to try, huh?
The Times writer then turns his wrath to Chip Chilla:
With “Chip Chilla,” conservative parents can fulfill a fantasy of their own, combating the perceived indoctrination of public school by screening home-school-themed content afterward, featuring lessons about dead white people and classic texts. In “Bluey,” the puppies lead the games, but in “Chip Chilla,” it is the dad who is in charge, directing his compliant kids to role-play “Moby-Dick” and the fall of the Roman Empire. I suspect that Bentkey made Chum Chum the schoolteacher not because it’s a modern choice, but because it puts male authority at the center of the show.
I long ago separated from the idea that you need even a room temperature IQ to work at the once-great Grey Lady, so I’m not surprised that the journalist has no idea that Roman art depicts the citizens of the Roman Empire as…not being white, for the most part.
[four]
Colorado re-introduced grey wolves into the wild this week.
This will have serious implications for the state’s tourism, including the hunting, backpacking, mountain biking and skiing industries, where a mix of habitat and game loss, and the concern of personal safety, may keep people from coming to the Centennial State and opening their wallets.
This is a bit nuanced, but I’m not against re-wilding, as I fully support Missouri’s move to re-introduce the bear and elk populations, and fully acknowledge that wolves have had a positive impact on Yellowstone, particularly on the rivers. But the thing about Wyoming and Montana is that they have a LOT less population density, and a lot more open land.
But Colorado doesn’t lack an apex predator. The bear population is growing exponentially. The difference between re-introducing bears (a solitary predator) and wolves (which run in packs) is that bears don’t eat ALL the horses and cattle in a field, and wolves are known to do that.
Wolves also waste meat, so they’ll kill more livestock (or pets, or people) than they actually eat.
But hey, the voters of Colorado passed this law via direct vote on Pop 114 in 2020, so I’m glad they can enjoy the fruits of their stupidity.
[five]
Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind), Milo Ventimiglia (This is Us, Gilmore Girls) Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games, Poker Face) and his brother Chris (Thor, Extraction), team up for what’s essentially the same movie as Black Hawk Down, only updated for 2024, to include drones.
This is one of the few that I’m going to move heaven and earth to see in theaters.
Reacher season 2 just became the most-watched series for Amazon Prime Video of 2023…with only three episodes released.
If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon of the Military-investigator-turned-murder-solver yet, I highly recommend this one over the break.
Until the next one,
-sth