Main Street
The Current Presidential Race with Dr. Cullinane; Movies and News
"I've been listening to you show on the radio and you seem like a friend to me" You're listening to Prairie Public right now, so I bet you're a bit of a news junkie, right? But do you also like music? I bet you do. Prairie Public is the place for that too. Did you know that we have a guy named Mike Olson who spends adult album alternative music during the week? "There goes the last DJ who plays when he wants to play" He's got an endless library, limitless musical knowledge, and a clever way of handcrafting sets of songs. You can listen to Prairie Public's Ruth's rock and jazz stream on an app or a smart speaker pretty much anywhere, and on an HD radio anywhere in the region. Check out Mike Olson on Prairie Public weekdays from 9am to 10am and noon to 6pm. "The sound of the detail won't you frame yourself" Welcome to Main Street on this Thursday on Prairie Public. I'm Craig Bumenschine. In the second half of today's show, our resident movie critic, Matt Olien, will share his thoughts on Deadpool and Wolverine, a film that is breaking box office records. Plus Dave Thompson, our news director here at Prairie Public, joins me to review this week's news. But first with Vice President Kamala Harris now selecting Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, the Democratic ticket is now complete. So what will this mean for the 2024 presidential race? To discuss this, we're pleased to be joined again by our go-to Presidential scholar Dr. Michael Patrick Colanane. He is a celebrated historian of American politics, an award-winning author, and the Rob and Melanie Walton chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies at Dickinson State University. Welcome back to Main Street, Dr. Colanane. "It's always good to be here with you, Craig." Before we dive into this presidential race, I want to share a personal memory I have from exactly 50 years ago today. As a 12-year-old, I was on my Little League Baseball team, traveling to California for the Western Regional Little League Baseball tournament. And during our layover at what was then Denver Stapleton International Airport, I vividly remember seeing those carousels of TVs that used to be there in the concourse, surrounded by rows and rows of travelers. And then when we arrived in California, the headlines were everywhere, Nixon resigns. It's hard to believe it's been 50 years for me since that moment. But to begin our discussion today, Dr. Colanane, I'd like to ask, in our hyper-politicized world that we now live in, would have Nixon survived to complete his term? Wow, that's such a good question. And I'm going to put my cards on the table. I was not born when Nixon resigned, so I have a very different or no perspective perhaps. But what I can tell you is, and you know this already, Craig, but maybe listeners don't, was that it was the Republicans that actually forced Nixon out of office. It was the Republicans that were adamant that he had to go, or it would have caused an even bigger rift in the party. We've seen a little bit of that from the Republicans in the sense that they took out McCarthy from the speakership. I don't know would they have attacked Nixon in the same way, but Nixon was a funny political character. He straddled the left and the right within the Republican party. And so it was kind of a fence-sitter, and he wasn't extremely popular in the party as a result. I mean, obviously, he was the president and he was the leader of the party, but that doesn't mean that he carried the entirety of the party. So it's a tough question. It's a great hypothetical. And I think I would say, yes, it probably would have still happened back then. All right, on to the current presidential race. We now know that Vice President Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate. What will the impact of that be in your view? And specifically, does it mean anything to North Dakota? I think so. I mean, it's pretty close to home. Minnesota, the stuff that happens in Minnesota trickles across the border, and it's really impactful on the two major cities in North Dakota that are right there abutting Minnesota. So Walz has a Midwestern voice. He talks about being from the Midwest. He talks about being from a very small town. He talks about being part of the National Guard and a high school teacher. All of those things will resonate with North Dakotans. Do I think that that's going to change? I mean, is the state going to turn blue? I doubt that very much. Minnesota is a different state. It's a much bluer state than North Dakota. And I can't imagine for a second that Walz is going to have any impact on the race in North Dakota. Maybe a few voters might switch over, but not many, I wouldn't think. I've seen many describe this pick of walls to be the safe choice. I've seen that word often. But it also really doesn't do much to flip a swing state. What do you think about that? I think you're absolutely right. I think this is not a cautious choice. I think Walz's background in Minnesota is more controversial than we've yet to figure out. So I think particularly things like gender affirming care, which is not popular in red states and not popular among centrist voters. I read in the New York Times, it was one centrist voter that said, can someone please give us a moderate? I think that's still going to be the case. I think Walz is not a moderate. He's a progressive Democrat. And does that change Pennsylvania? I don't think so. I mean, does it change Arizona? I also don't think so. It's going to be a very close race and it's going to come down to, I think, energy and money. It does bring a little bit of those things. What happened to the old adage? You go left or right to win the primary and you come back to the middle to win that general election. So yeah, I think that's a great motto because that is what happens all the time. My thinking is that Kamala Harris is actually more centrist than Walz's. Actually, I think one of the reasons why she didn't be Biden in the primaries in 2020 was because she was far more centrist and Biden was running more left among Democrats. So Democrats didn't adopt Kamala in 2020 because she was too center. So we're going to see Kamala on the policy issues once the platform is released after or during the convention. I think we're going to see a pretty centrist platform. That's my bet anyway. So let's talk about the Democratic National Convention. It's scheduled to begin a week from Monday. That's August 19th. I think it lasts through about the 22nd and it'll be at the United Center in Chicago. What will the Republicans do first in your mind to stay relevant during that week? Well, I mean, it's hard to. The National Convention, regardless of what party is having their convention, it's like a vacuum. It just sucks up all the attention. And whether it's Hulk Hogan on the stage or you can think of Democratic inventions and all the flair, I mean, it just sucks all the air out of the room. So the Democrats are really going to have the stage for the next couple of weeks, I would think. But whatever comes out in terms of policy is going to be scrutinized very closely by the Republicans, especially on issues like immigration. What are the Democrats going to do to counter worries about immigration? What are the Democrats going to do about inflation? What are they going to say about that? What are they going to say about "culture wars" issues like identity, LGBTQ issues, gender affirming care? It's going to be interesting because they are going to have to claim that center if they're going to win those swing states. Being vice president is not an automatic ticket to the White House. I was just reviewing history here. I counted 14 VPs in history who have ascended to the White House. Not all of those vice presidents were elected. There have been several, I think, let's see, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9. Nine vice presidents who lost an effort to get to the White House. So vice presidents historically, I mean, before the 20th century did not do very well. Except the first two maybe, right? Well, the first two, yeah. Okay, so let me take that back. 19th century vice presidents did do very well. 20th century vice presidents have been a different thing. They've been far more successful. Of course Theodore Roosevelt was the first vice president in the 20th century to successfully re-run for election in 1904 and win. And there's been others, of course. I mean, we get to get George H.W. Bush who won handily after the Reagan years. Contemporary vice presidents have been a proving ground for the presidency. They've been more likely to run for the presidency. They've been seen as sort of successor in chief rather than someone who was there to balance the ticket, which was the case back in the 19th century. You were sort of getting someone from a swing state or a bellwether state to then join the ticket. That's not been the case recently. And there's been better success. I think in creating a succession plan for the parties with that in place. Let me ask you a question. And this I think has to do a little bit with the convention, but certainly with the honeymoon phase that vice president Harris and her new running mate are in, I've reflected on this a little bit. Some countries have snap elections and they don't have this mammoth amount of time between pretty much who we know who the candidates are going to be, then the conventions, and then we start to vote. This to me almost seems like an advantage to have this momentum so late in an election cycle. I think it's a huge advantage. I mean, being able to change your candidate 100 days before the election is an immense advantage for the Democrats. It's a positive. So Donald Trump for the last two years has been running against Joe Biden. And all he's talked about is Joe Biden. Now he's got to turn on his heels and immediately start talking about Kamala Harris, which to be fair, his team does not have as much on and doesn't have as much hasn't considered that she was going to run really until a few months ago. I mean, it's been a very, very quick turnaround, which is why I think the Trump campaign has been caught off guard with this. And as a result, what the Democrats have done is they've injected what walls calls joy back into the campaign. That's their vibe. And that vibe seems to be winning over a lot of people. So if Trump is going to turn the election around and try and win, he's going to have to try and pierce that bubble of joy that walls and Kamala Harris have manifested. So how will he do that? I believe the economy will be the most talked about in this election and may have the most impact with voters. We can debate on perhaps what also will have impact. My top list, we'll see if you agree with it, is the economy, health care, climate change, democracy and governance, and then immigration. At least I feel that here in North Dakota, that immigration may be farther down on the list than it may be for others. What do you think about that list? I think you're right. I think the broader, especially swing states, immigration is higher up. I mean, economy and immigration, I would think, are the two most important ones. If you look at states like Arizona, immigration is going to be incredibly important. Other swing states like not as much, but still important. I mean, the economy is going to be a major importance for the sort of what they call the blue wall states a few years back. That was Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Michigan's economy is flying. Pennsylvania's economy, not quite as much. And I think we're also going to have to see how much the likes of the democracy question comes into it for swing voters. Are people going to be turned off by Donald Trump? I mean, the rhetoric that Donald Trump has come out with in the last couple of weeks has been something more akin to the old Donald Trump. You know, whereas during the convention, we heard talk of unity. And it was kind of a safer, more kind of traditional politician. I don't know, do I believe anything that any politician says? But what I would say is that the perception is important and saying the right things are important, even if you don't believe them. You can convince people, I think. But you can't, if you don't say those things. And he's not talking about unity anymore. He's back to retribution. So whether I believe him or not is almost irrelevant, the perspective is changed because his tone is changed. With the Republicans with President Trump and then his vice president choice, JD Vance, they're going to be branded by the Democrats. The Republicans will brand Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. How much does the opposition party's branding, whether it's right or wrong, impact everything now going forward based on what the candidates do to try to brand themselves? I think that is the most important question that you can ask. And I am so glad that you asked that question because we've seen that now from the candidates. We've seen Kamala Harris and Tim Walz talk about the Republicans as quote unquote weird. We've heard JD Vance called Kamala Harris a childless cat lady, which has caused a firestorm amongst Democrats about, you know, they're entitled to vote too, a childless cat lady that is. So branding is everything in the election. You know, Donald Trump has been so effective as a campaigner because he brands candidates as, you know, go or write. I mean, so this has been a really effective thing. Now, what we're seeing is the Democrats basically taking his playbook and using it against him. So calling the Republicans weird is not the same as calling the Republicans deplorable, which was a mistake on Hillary Clinton's weird is a different kind of thing that has got people thinking about the Republicans in a different life. So that sort of branding has a huge impact on where the campaigns go. We are enjoying our conversation with Dr. Michael Patrick Colonnane. He's a celebrated historian and a professor at Dickinson State University debates. I asked you in our last conversation where we had them absolutely. And how I am just not so sure. Are you sure? No, I have no idea. I mean, like, I feel like I'm going to be in the loop the same way everyone else is they're going to get an alert on their phone that says Harris and Trump to debate. But until then, I have no idea. Trump has obviously pulled out of the debate that was planned for September. And as a result, he's trying to reorganize the debate with Fox News. And Harris's campaign has not agreed to that as of yet. But I think a debate is essential. I mean, I mean, we looked at the Biden debate. The Biden debate was essential to tell the American public whether Biden was fit to do this job or not. And the verdict was quite swift and severe for Biden. I mean, we're going to have to have the same thing to test Harris. I think Harris has not really done a debate since 2020. You know, I think the American people want to see that. The only line I remember from that debate was the line about her riding on the bus. I don't remember anything else about her from the debate. And then she dropped out of the race soon after that. She didn't, yeah, she didn't have a very long tenure in the campaign. I mean, her campaign really fell apart. I think the reason why she came across is quite centrist, which is what we were talking about before. And that just did not appeal to Democrats at that time, especially given the fact that Trump was the boogeyman in 2020, that the Democrats were using the sort of the brand for their campaign, can't vote for him, right? I mean, that was their entire campaign in 2020. So I think she's going to come out here. She's going to have to come out with policy in order to be coherent. I think age is going to be, you know, something here. I think if Trump was to stumble in a debate against Harris, that would be really bad for his campaign, just like it was for Biden. So I think keep that in mind. How about the vice presidential debate in the context of this race? Will it be more important, less important? Is it all about the top of the ticket? Well, Donald Trump said that the vice president pick doesn't really matter. Now, that's kind of a, that's a terrible thing to say after you've just picked the vice president, but I'm sure it didn't make JD Vance feel all that good. But I do think that debates between vice presidents matter, sometimes they do. I mean, Lloyd Benson talking about talking to Dan Quail in 19, what was that, 1992? Sorry, 1988, when he said you're no JFK, you know, I knew JFK, you're no JFK. Dan Quail was a real weight on the Bush campaign in '88. And in the end, it didn't really matter. But I think people are starting to see JD Vance as a bit of a weight. Now, the debate could turn that around, or he could be quite eloquent and quite, you know, quite well spoken. But on the other hand, he could come across, like he's come across in some of the rallies too recently, which is a little bit stiff and not as relatable as someone like Wall's, who has been, whether you like his politics or not, he's very relatable in terms of a personality. So what we'll see, but I mean, I don't know, does the vice presidential debates always matter? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. More often than not, they don't. Let's talk about swing states. In order, the most important swing states will be Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and then a little bit of less importance in my eyes. You may disagree, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada. About Pennsylvania, an energy state. And it seemed to me when we talked last time that Governor Shapiro was the choice, right, that he could have brought them more to the middle, but she chose not to do that. What do you think that each campaign will do to win first Pennsylvania? And then we'll talk about Michigan and Wisconsin. Okay, so for me, as swing states go, it's Pennsylvania all day long. I just think this is the most important state for both campaigns to win. If either campaign lose that state, I find it very hard to do the math to see how they win. You know, it's 19 electoral votes, and that is such a large number that you can't win without it, really, in my mind. I think Wisconsin and Michigan are closer to the blue column than the red, and that makes Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia just less important. So all eyes are on Pennsylvania. If you picked Josh Shapiro, you would think that Pennsylvania would have been Harris's. Now, why or why she didn't make that decision? I'm not entirely sure that'll all be coming out in the wash. But I think the main thing is about that state. Some people have called it Pittsburgh and Alabama in between. It's got two really big cities with a major rural interior with the exception of maybe Harrisburg and a few other spots. And those places are former coal towns. They are, you know, there's smoke, you know, a lot of gun owners. So you have to speak to people in Democrats will have to speak to people in Pennsylvania on topics that they're not comfortable with. Republicans, if they're going to win, they have to hope that Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh don't turn out because if those two cities turn out, there's no chance of the Republicans winning. There's just too many people in those cities. You could argue that the enthusiasm, the recent enthusiasm says that big city turn out now likely will be improved because of what's happening with the Democrats. So I think you're right about that. And I think that also means that Georgia is in play because Georgia has the same demographics. A couple of major cities that if they turn out, the state could turn blue like we saw back in 2020 and with Obama as well. And I think Obama won Georgia at one stage. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But either way, it's turned into a swing state now. I mean, we could argue the same as the case for Arizona. If you get Phoenix to turn out en masse and a couple of other smaller cities in Arizona, it could turn blue. So that's going to be the Democrat strategy. I think having this sort of exuberance right now around Kamala Harris means that turnout is likely going to be higher because people are excited about her campaign in a way they weren't with Biden. I've seen in a couple of op-eds that I've read that the white working class will decide this debate. In other words, cities are going to lean to the Democrats. Rule areas are going to lean to the right. The question is how far to the right and will the white working class make it leaning enough one way or the other? Yes, I think that's true. But I think there could be several things true here too in addition to that. So the white working class in the suburbs will be important. And I mean men and women, both of those groups, women were really important, women suburbanites in 2020 were hugely important to Biden's success. I think there's two other demographics that are really important. African Americans who are not going to turn out for Biden as enthusiastically as they might do for Kamala Harris. So we've seen in some polling that African Americans were voting for Biden, like 70% to 15% for Trump, right? Now that swing is now like 85, 90 to 15 or 10 to 15. So that's a big swing in the African American vote. And also Hispanic voters seem to be more attracted to Harris now, but not by anywhere near as large a margin as African Americans are. So it's those four groups I think that are critically important. Suburban women and men, middle class Americans, African Americans in Hispanics, that's what the campaigns need to focus on if they want to win. Most national polls call this as even right now. First, do you agree with that? And then second, where do you think the polls might go in the next couple or three weeks? I don't know. Do I believe polling anymore? Like my tolerance for polling in the stages is when it comes on the TV and it's like a new poll is out and Kamala Harris is two points ahead. I'm like, well, that means nothing to me now because the margin of error on these polls is four, maybe sometimes five percentage points. So a two percent for Harris or two percent for Trump is really meaningless. It's neck and neck. And it's particularly neck and neck in those states that are the swing states. So I just think we've been working on polling that was hypothetical before Harris came into the campaign. And now we're working on a couple, a couple of ones that are sort of now with the Harris exuberance behind it. The campaign just hasn't settled down. So it's so hard to tell. And I also think that pollsters just haven't figured out how to reach their cell phones, you know, text messages, polling on the internet. It's not the same as it used to be when you picked up a phone and you asked someone who they were going to vote for. So it's a different time. School's about to start. You're going to be in front of students again. What are you going to tell them to watch for in the last couple months of this presidential debate? I don't know because I've stopped making predictions since 2016, Craig. I have no idea what happens in American politics anymore. Really, I am just, I am as in the dark. Sometimes I feel like as everyone else, what happened in July in American politics was monumental. An assassination attempt president dropping out of the race with less, well, around 100 days to go. I'm going to tell my students to be watching the news very closely for any more first that might happen. And I think there's still more to come. Really? Possibly. Well, possibly the first African American, Indian American woman to be elected. I mean, that's something that people are thinking and talking about. So I think that's a first. The first time that a president since Grover Cleveland has won two consecutive terms of Trump wins. So there's still things to look out for from the history to the present day that are just remarkable. So our politics is the high drama of it to me is so exciting. And I think students, it's a great way to get them involved in our democracy. Are they excited in your view about this presidential race or have they been turned off as we conclude our discussion today? I think probably a little bit of both. I mean, there's going to be some people that are excited by this and there's going to be some people that have switched off. I think most young people are worried about jobs and housing. Probably less so jobs now employment is pretty good, but housing is a big concern. And the students that I teach are going to be worried whether their graduate degrees or their undergraduate degrees are going to be worth the paper they're written on. So I think those are their big concerns. I mean, I don't think they'll be able to miss the headlines though. They've been incredible deadlines this year. So politics still matters. I think people might feel a little bit more proximity to it if politicians could actually speak to the general public in a way that that makes sense to them. And I don't know if we've done that in a long time, but I'm still keeping hope that that's that's what the democratic process is all about. Dr. Michael Patrick Colinane joins us periodically. He's an award-winning author and the Robin Melanie Walton chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies at Dickinson State University. Our conversations are not over with my friend. We'll look forward to seeing you again. Look forward to it. Thanks, Craig. Thanks for joining us on Main Street. A quick update after Dr. Colinane and I spoke this morning, ABC News is now reporting that former President Donald Trump says he has agreed to an offer from ABC News to debate Vice President Kamala Harris. That'll be on September 10th and will be carried live right here on Prairie Public. Coming next, a movie review, Deadpool and Wolverine. Matt likes it. Stay tuned. And there's the music. That means it's time to welcome in our movie reviewer, Matt O'Lean. Matt, welcome back from vacation. Hi, Craig. Matt, we're going to talk about a movie that has already set records as the most watched, R-rated film for his debut. Unless you want to take a deep breath through your f*cked forehead, I suggest you reconsider. I'm about to lose everything that I've ever cared about. Now my f*cked problem. Is that what you said when your world went to sh*t? Come again. This Wolverine let down his entire world. Matt, of course, we're talking about Deadpool and Wolverine. It has opened to big audiences. 300 million already. Now, I would have reviewed this last week, but I was on vacation. I had seen it over a week ago. So 300 million already domestic for two weekends. That's amazing for an R-rated movie. It's approaching 1 billion worldwide. To say Marvel needed this hit is an understatement. Marvel, in my opinion, has struggled since Avengers Endgame, which kind of wrapped up the first cycle. And quite frankly, the more popular characters. Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor. And since then, we've had an introduction of new characters that maybe aren't quite as popular, I don't think. And we've had a lot of time jumping and alternate timelines and alternate universes. In fact, in this movie, which has a lot of inside jokes, inside the Beltway, inside Marvel, Fox, negotiations, there's kind of a criticism that there's too much alternate universes going on. It's hard for audiences to keep track of that. So the first iteration of Marvel stuff, which started with Iron Man, was much more successful. The box office since Endgame has been up and down. This is the hit that they needed. And they're hoping this will springboard them on to bigger things. So the box office has been amazing. I did like this movie for the most part. It's funny. It's got, of course, Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, this bromance between Deadpool and Wolverine. How does it next to comedy with the more serious Wolverine? Yeah. So let me talk about that. So there are moments in this movie I wanted the Ryan Reynolds stand up show to slow down. I mean, it is it is the first hour especially is constant one liners inside jokes about Marvel and Fox. There's even a Mad Max subplot going on that they kind of spoofed. There's jokes about Marvel having too much time jumping too much alternate universes too much alternate timelines. So it's almost like you're watching a movie within a movie. It's Ryan Reynolds's Deadpool commenting on Marvel movies. And you're like, how does that work? Well, it works pretty well because Reynolds is so funny as Deadpool. But I did want the nonstop rat a tat tat. In fact, Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. It's at several points tells him to be quiet. And as the audience, I wanted it to breathe a little bit more and stop the stand up routine. That being said, once the second act and the second half of the film get going, it does pick up for me because there's an alternate universe where past characters that we're familiar with come into play. These are the cameos that everyone is talking about. I don't want to give away too much on the cameos, even though this film has been out for almost two weeks. But that is where the film really picks up because it feels like an Avengers two where they're they got the gang back together. They have characters we haven't seen quite frankly in a long time on screen and some big actors grouping up with Wolverine and Deadpool to kind of defeat the evil Cassandra Nova played wonderfully by British actress Emma Corrin. She's a wonderful villain. She is she is terrifying in how she talks and the best villains are British villains, right? There's even a joke about British villains in this in this movie. So that's that's good as well. So it's a very funny movie. You might ask, how do they deal with Wolverine who died in Logan seven years ago? Again, gotta go see it. They do deal with it. All I can tell you is all the jokes about alternate universes and alternate timelines. That's the way to get around a lot of this. Let me just put that out there and maybe they've overdone that action really cool in this movie actions. Okay, I thought the CGI wasn't quite as good as some other Marvel films. I would say what sells the movie is Jackman and Reynolds. They are superstars. They get along well in real life. It's it's this off screen romance that people are talking about. Sean Levy is the director on this one. But the big thing is Marvel needed this hit and I think they got the hit because they got two big stars. They weren't just casting kind of nobodies in new Marvel characters, which which they've kind of been doing a little bit except for Doctor Strange, which is you know, Benedict Cumberbatch is a big star. But overall, I think it worked. And the audience reaction so far is is crazy that this R rated movie, which inherently limits who can come to a theater unless you go with a parent. So it is already it is already that it does it doesn't seem like I'm sure kids are going with their parents. I'm positive of that having taken my son to almost almost every Marvel movie when he was in his teen years. But those were PG, you know, that was Iron Man Avengers, those kind of things. So like I said, I wanted the Ryan Reynolds stand up show to breathe and stop eventually the film does breathe and gets more serious. And I liked it better at that point. So in a way, the setup kind of works for the more serious things when the cameos are revealed and they become kind of this enforcer group to go after Cassandra Nova and try to defeat her and try to set things right. You heard in the in the clip, Deadpool is trying to set things right with his life, you know, and that's really another subplot going on. And he needs Wolverine's help. Bottom line is he has to have Wolverine's help. There is a cameo. I was so glad that it came back and it's from Logan. If people saw Logan, they know there's a character that's very important Logan to Wolverine's characters, character and she comes back in this movie. And that was probably my favorite cameo and my favorite thing in this movie. I want to make one more comment about Marvel movies. So I like serious movies. I like dramas. I like downbeat serious dramatic movies. I always have all my life. I never got into Star Wars like some of my friends did. But I will say, I think the unnecessary criticism of Marvel movies has gotten over the top by some reviewers, some people I know, you know, Martin Scorsese are these really movies. Well, of course they are. So the people who follow these comic books are into it. And I think there's a there's a subtle undercurrent with some reviewers make of almost making fun of people that like comic book movies. I think that is it smacks of elitism. I don't like it. Are some Marvel movies better than others? Yes. But in this cinema that we're in, Marvel movies can exist and so can small independent movies. That's all I want to say about that. I think some of the over the top criticism is really almost picking on people that like comic book movies. And I think that's unfortunate. Before we move on, Matt, are there some storylines that are now set up for more? Yes. So if you go to this movie, you're going to see a trailer for the new Captain America movie, which starts in early 2025. Chris Evans is in it. The new guy is in it. And we will see if it has the same Harrison Ford's in it. Let me just put that out there. There are some huge people coming up in the new Captain America. It's hits in early 2025. Will it have the box office legs that Winter Soldier that Captain America Civil War had? I don't know. My initial suspicion is no, but we will see. All right, Matt, let's move on. I made an editing mistake last week and we wanted to talk about the movie Musica. It's a movie that you kind of liked. For as long as I can remember, every day regular sounds, I turn into rhythm. She's different. She's beautiful. She's smart. She's funny. But now Hayley, I think, wants to wants to get back together. Tell me less. Matt, this movie personally means something to you. Yeah. So I saw it on Amazon. It's on Amazon. It's an interesting film about a character played by Rudy Mancuso, who's the writer, director of the movie. He stars in it. His mother, Maria Mancuso, plays his overbearing mother, takes place in the Brazilian section of Newark, New Jersey, which I wasn't even familiar that there was this Brazilian section, but he suffers from something called synesthesia. He makes mention in the clip. He hears everyday sounds and it becomes a symphony in his head and he gets distracted. He's talking to his girlfriend in the opening scene and he's not listening to a word she's saying. And it's really a fun movie. It's a rom-com. Camilla Mendez from Riverdale fame is the love interest. She's gorgeous and always, always, always great in these movies. So I did like it. The music numbers are good. They're vibrant. The cinematography is good. He has puppets. His character has puppets as well that kind of look like him. So he's kind of this goofy guy who can't manage his messy personal life and his overbearing mother wants him to date a Brazilian girl with Brazilian ancestry. But yeah, I liked it too because my mind is always swirling. I've memorized Oscar nominees over the years, which is a ridiculous kind of rain man incredible rain man thing that I've done over the years. And I do weird things like if I see a word, I'll type it like like I would in a typewriter, which always is just cluttering up my mind. And it kind of distracts me sometimes and or I'll see a year and I'll say, what were the best actor nominees that year? So my mind is always working and racing a little bit like that. And I am prone to distraction sometimes, which I've apologized to friends for over the years in conversation. So I can see what he's going through. My mind is always working. It's blurry. And it's always at work. And that can be great. And it can be a distraction too. But this film was on Amazon. I want to I want to credit my friend Magda Sykes for putting me on to this and say you need to watch this movie because she has Amazon and I don't. But I was able to see it on Amazon Prime. And it is worth a look. So yeah, interesting movie that's on Amazon right now, it is a 2024 release. Rudy Mancuso is wonderful as the lead. Two for one reviews on Main Street today, Matt, there's a big movie that's back in town. Yeah, Lawrence of Arabia back in theaters. And I'm going to go see it Monday night at 7 p.m. And I'll be out of the theater at about 11 15. It's a long movie with an intermission. But there's no movie in history that looks like this movie. Spielberg described it as a dream of a film when he first saw it in high school. And he famously said he was depressed because David Lean had set the bar too high for him as a young filmmaker. But Spielberg did okay on his own, but it's a magnificent movie. It looks it's breathtaking to look at. And not only that the great performance of Peter O'Toole. So I'm going to see it on the big screen. I did see it on the big screen in 1989 way back when but this will be this will be fun to see. And it's at West Acre Cinema in Fargo Sunday at one Monday night at 7 p.m. If people are interested in seeing that. Matt today is the fifth anniversary of President Nixon's resignation. Yes, yes. What movie won the best picture in 1974. The godfather part two. And who were the other nominees? Chinatown, the conversation, Lenny and the Towering Infirm. Madeline joins us each and every week for a movie review here on Main Street. Matt, thanks for joining us. You bet. Dakota date books next. North Dakota Council on the Arts in partnership with the ND Main Street Summit will be hosting its free, bi-annual, statewide arts convening. August 27th through the 29th in Watford City. The convening will focus on place-making with topics and include the arts across the Prairie program. Attracting a workforce, asset mapping, creating vibrant communities, and strategic planning. Side trips, town walks, receptions, and many other activities are planned. Learn more about the statewide arts convening at arts.nd.gov. And there's our queuing music for our news director, Dave Thompson, who joins this weekly on Main Street to review North Dakota's news. Dave, how you doing? Doing fine, Craig, how are you? Dave, I'm doing well. There's the property tax measure now that we want to talk about first. It's going to be on the ballot in November. This is a big, big deal. It is a very big deal. There are lots of arguments for one con on this one. We'll see how the campaign rolls out as we get closer to Election Day, but I mean they validated 35,720 signatures, submitting over 41,000 and said, well, yeah, that's about normal that they will just qualify about 4,000, 5,000 signatures. So not a problem on that. So it's going to be a measure for on the general election ballot. We'll see if it fares better than the last one. There will be organized opposition to this property tax question. And there will also be voters saying, sounds like a good idea to me, click. Yeah, there's going to be some of that. But keep the locals saying, hey, in the measure, if you look at the measure, the measure is not say how you replace property taxes. It says, yeah, you're going to find out a baseline and you're going to get money from the state, but it doesn't say where. And that means that the legislature is going to have to look at it and see what's going to happen if this passes and where they're going to get the money to send to the local subdivision. Dave, my prediction is this is a presidential year when people will be asked to consider this issue. That means turnout likely will be higher. I think this has a chance to pass. What ratio does it need to pass by in order to move forward? It needs just over 50%. So this is a just a majority question. That is correct. Yes. You'll have more on this to come, and we'll all dissect this one for sure. Dave, there's a new tool for law enforcement to deal with behavioral health issues. It's becoming more and more front and center, I guess, mental health issues and police. What do we have? This is called the Apple e-crisis care system. And law enforcement agencies, you know, out in patrol cars often have to respond to calls concerning mental health. Well, police haven't had the wherewithal at this point to get people to treatment or keep people in their home and have treatment come to the home or anything like this. So what happens is that the officer responding will place a phone call to Apple e-crisis care, and they got an iPad next to them. So the iPad will have a person on the other end and can talk to the person who is suffering from the particular situation, and they can make a decision then where this person goes for treatment. So it'll get treatment to some person faster. And this will be in the field, Dave. Right in the field. And patrol cars, basically, the central North Dakota agencies have all been equipped with these iPads and cell phones, so they should be able to, you know, make it work pretty quickly. Dave, we're getting warned. Seems like almost every day about scams, and now the North Dakota Insurance Commissioner, John Gottfried, is warning consumers of contractor scams. What should we know? I know when they calls them storm chaser contractors, and they promise services that might be too good to be true for homeowners in need of repairs after severe weather damage. This spiked up a bit after you know the hail storm hit southern Bismarck and also the city of Lincoln, where they had pretty big hail storms. So there's been a lot of roof damage and some siding damage, and these contractors come in and say, "We'll do this and we'll even pay, you know, the fees along with this." They claim that they are approved by FEMA, but Gottfried says often homeowners don't check, and they really should check to see if these are legit organizations, and then shop around and seek out several quotes from several sources. There are a lot of contractors who are registered with Secretary of State, and he's saying those are the ones you're just going with. Dave at the North Dakota Department of Transportation is rolling out new STEM education programs, and that's really to promote interest in careers, and especially engineering. It would be an interesting rollout that North Dakota DOT is facing the same kind of workforce problem that all of North Dakota's face. They have job openings, not enough people to fill them, and they're expecting that this will be that way in the future. So if you get eighth, ninth, tenth graders involved in STEM things, and they learn what engineers do, they learn about mathematics, that they can probably entice some of these people to go into the engineering field. Dave, I have been waiting all day long to say the following. High yield core luminescent silicon carbide nanocrystals from mixed liquid precursors. All right. This is about a grant to NDSU. Right. Do you know what it means? I have no idea, Dave. I don't need to do it. I didn't either. So let me tell you about the genesis of this. I received a press release. You know, the congressional's rollout press releases when we get federal grants and things. I got a press release and it said, "High yield core luminescent silicon carbide nanocrystals from mixed liquid precursors." I had no idea, so I decided to place a call to NDSU. So I called NDSU and said, "Can I talk to a professor about this?" They gave me a person, talked to the professor about this, and he explained it pretty well. If you're thinking these things are used in QLED TVs, and they also use them for medical devices. That's what I was thinking about, Dave. It was interesting. Sometimes you get a story like this and you have to have a little fun with it. I did. The professor was fun because he explained it very well. The idea is that they're putting these things called pixels. They're pixel-like things. They're more like pixels. What they have is they react different to different light. But if you want to go to the stronger light spectrum, these things are manufactured normally with some pretty toxic chemicals. The idea of using this kind of research dollars is to see if you can produce these without using these toxic chemicals. That's why they're using these silicon carbide nanocrystals. This is about a half-million-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation. They think it's going to be very good for the development and NDSU could be at the forefront on that. Dave, anything new in North Dakota-centric campaigns, political campaigns for the upcoming election? Not a lot new yet. We're seeing some of the ads start to roll out, but I think after the Democratic Convention, and really after Labor Day, you're probably going to see a lot more ads rolling out. Now, Senator Kramer says he's going to start an ad buy very soon, and he's got a little over a million dollars in his bank already, so there'll be a lot of political spots that we'll see everywhere at this point. What's your team working on, Dave? What can we expect from the Prairie Public Newsroom? I have to tell you that I'm going to be in Madora on Wednesday of next week. The reason why is that they're going to have a little ceremony at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, and it could be kind of interesting because there's been progress made on the library in this. I guess they're calling it the last timber ceremony. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but there're going to be a lot of people there, and I'll be interested to talk to them. Prairie Public News Director Dave Thompson joins us each and every week right here on Main Street. Dave, great to visit with you. Thank you, Craig. Arts programming on Prairie Public is supported in part by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, a state agency developing, promoting, and supporting the arts in North Dakota. [birds chirping] This is Dakota Daybook for August 8th. The Badlands of Western North Dakota offer awe-inspiring views, but there's a reason for the name. The Badlands are difficult to cross, and that's putting it mildly. A military expedition and westbound immigrant train was led by General Alfred Sully in the summer of 1864. Sully's expedition continued the hostile campaign against the Lakota and Dakota people following the killings of white settlers in Minnesota in 1862. In late July of 1864, Sully's troops attacked a huge Sioux camp in what is known as the Battle of Kildir Mountain, an infamous event since many of the villages and habitats were not involved in the events of 1862. The soldiers fired on and drove off the native people and then destroyed their tepees, food, and supplies, killed their thousands of dogs, and burned the surrounding woods. The troops returned south to the immigrant train, then continued westward. Days later, they were at the edge of the Badlands. The route ahead, suggested by a young native guide, took the expedition through the rugged landscape near present-day Madora and Sentinel-Bute. The steep bluffs required a group of men to cut and dig and level the route ahead. Three days of clashes between Sully's troops and Sioux fighters unfolded. On this date, in 1864, corporal John Strong wrote that the Badlands were "the roughest country that ever a train of wagons was taken over." Sully, who was sick from rheumatism and dysentery, cut rations so the food would last until the expedition could be resupplied by steamboats at the Yellowstone River. The sun and dust were terrible. Heat and thirst took hold. Wagons were wrecked on the bluffs. Animals collapsed and were shot. Skirmishes continued, and the native scout was wounded and temporarily could not lead the way. It was a miserable march to the Yellowstone River. The Lakota called the landscape "makosika," which means "bad land." Sully supposedly described the Badlands as "hell with the fire out." He did write that the landscape was grand, dismal, and majestic. And when viewed in the distant sunset, it looked exactly like the ruins of an ancient city. He also wrote that in the broken Badlands, it's not only easy to lose a fleeing enemy, but even lose yourself. Today's Dakota Datebook written by Jack Dora. I'm Ann Alquist. Dakota Datebook is produced in cooperation with the State Historical Society of North Dakota, with funding by humanities North Dakota. North Dakota's largest lifelong learning community. When a white police officer killed Black teenager Michael Brown 10 years ago in Ferguson, Missouri, it sparked a ripple effect. It was a call to action. What made me think it could and would, and in fact, must change, was the people in the streets in Ferguson in 2014. That's what actually made clear to me that change was on the horizon and that it was our mandate. Here from the community, 10 years later, as they continue to seek reform on the next morning edition from NPR News. Weekdays beginning at 4 a.m. Central here on Prairie Public. And that's all for today's Main Street. We are deeply grateful that you've stopped by to listen. Tomorrow, in this time slot at 3 p.m. Central, we'll air the middle with host Jeremy Hopson. He picks one topic each week to discuss with his listeners, and this week's topic is the role Christianity plays in our politics. At 7 o'clock on Friday, at 7 p.m. Central, we'll air one of my favorite NPR shows that's Science Friday with Ira Flato. Main Street, we'll be right back here on Monday, and we hope you'll join us then.