Gadfly

​Democrats Can Win

June 28th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Remember: Eighty-Five Million Eligible Voters Did Not Vote in 2020

There’s only one person in Washington who can convince young voters of every color to go to the polls in 2020 en masse and vote for Democrats at every level of government—and he’s not even a Democrat. He is the most popular active politician in America. While Joe Biden falls off bikes at a Delaware beach, this leader constantly does the work necessary to win many votes.

Vermont…

Read more...


​Crossing the Autocrat’s Crevasse

June 19th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

A Most Important Question: How Do You Deprogram 52 Million Cult Members?

In a recent poll, 52 million Trumplicans of the gun cult said they were willing to sacrifice several thousand U.S. children each year in order to keep the Second Amendment on the books.

On top of this alarming declaration, our last two presidents have serious problems with reality. In a complex world going through climate change, autocracy, economic inequality, racial…

Read more...


​Empathy or Sociopathy?

June 19th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Congress: Why Does Australia Have Only One-Tenth the COVID Death Rate?

The opening sentence about the COVID virus in “The Last Word” in THE WEEK magazine is shocking: “If the United States had the same death-rate as Australia, about 900,000 lives would have been saved.”

Other countries such as Japan, Kenya, and Norway had lower death rates than us, but Australia is the better comparison. We speak English, have similar demographic profiles, and…

Read more...


​Choice: Military Rifles or Democracy

June 4th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

First, because of the intractability of the gun culture for forty years, and a Supreme Court that bases its firearm opinions on the flintlock musket, I propose that public K-12 and college and university professors in the country tell Congress: pass all necessary and reasonable gun safety and control laws to eliminate the gun culture that has flooded the entire country with firearms, or we will call a national strike on September 1, 2022, that will…

Read more...


​Going Ape and Crowing About It

May 28th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Taking a Break From Politics While Watching Bird Brains

As a farm boy I always enjoyed feeding our animals and birds after helping to prepare the foods they all enjoyed, whether it was corn on the cob for pigs or silage chopped up for the cows for their winter buffet. Sometimes the horses got dessert in the form of a nosebag of oats. The geese, ducks, and chickens ate every seed and grain known to man before laying eggs and being eaten. Being French we…

Read more...


Killing Off the Middle Class

May 22nd, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

If You Want a Free University Education, Why Not Go to Europe?

Why are President Joe Biden and the White House in some kind of sleep mode? Very little is getting done! We can’t afford to go back to “normal,” Joe! Why does Bernie have to get on national news programs every Sunday and declare what our real problems are? Paying off student debt was a big deal during your campaign, along with other progressive goals to bring back a strong middle…

Read more...


​Abortion: Political, Moral, or Religious?

May 18th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@mail.com

Basic Question: Do We Kill the Mother or the Fetus?

Abortion, in the simplest text, involves and confounds sex, love, hate, poverty and wealth.

Billions of dollars are exchanged by various genders as they seek sex around the world. Bangkok is aptly named. People pay thousands of dollars in airfare just to boast they had sex at high altitudes. We don’t know what happens on the International Space Station, but James Bond knows.

Some spend thousands on…

Read more...


​What Is Democracy?

May 8th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

How Can We Know Democracy When We Have Never Experienced It?

Some Americans have said we had democracy when one rich man wrote that all men were “created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” Evidently he didn’t mean women at all—or slaves who were only three-fifths of a man. A century and a half ago we killed 750,000 in a civil war and didn’t get an answer about democracy then—and we are still killing each other…

Read more...


​Hatred in the World

April 30th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Man Was Made by Shock and Agony

The printing presses and all those tiny chips fill our eyes and ears every second with words and images of war, destruction, and the slaughter of human beings in Ukraine and other spots on the planet. Vladimir Putin is just one man blamed for creating most of those images. One of my favorite poets, Robinson Jeffers, has captured the scenes and sounds of the moment and given reasons better than most for why some people…

Read more...


Women as Leaders

April 23rd, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

What Do Republican and Democratic Women Stand For?

Have we lost our way? What are the values of a democracy?

In February of 1994, after many years of Russian subjugation, the president of Estonia listed the following values in a speech in Hamburg, Germany: ”(The values are) Freedom of every individual, the freedom of the economy and trade, the freedom of the mind, of culture and science, are inseparably connected.” In broad terms, with the two…

Read more...


Tracker Pixel for Entry MidwestRoadTripAdventures Tracker Pixel for Entry P&P Tracker Pixel for Entry Bismarck1 Tracker Pixel for Entry Hjemkomst Tracker Pixel for Entry NewSalem2B Tracker Pixel for Entry Gruff2

Recently in:

By Alicia Underlee NelsonMore than 1,000 pro-worker events are planned for Thursday, May 1 across the country, including rallies in Fargo-Moorhead, Grand Forks, Minot and Jamestown. East Grand Forks and Bismarck will host protests…

By Prairie Rose Seminolems.prairierose@gmail.com I was a child who walked behind my parents into classrooms and kitchens, spaces of song and prayer, where teachings lived in the air and settled on my shoulders. I didn’t yet have…

Saturday, May 3, 7 p.m.-MidnightPlains Art Museum, 704 1st Ave. N., FargoDon’t miss the art party of the year! What goes on at the gala? There’s a silent art auction with music by Low Standards and DJ Star IV, hors d’oeuvres…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comIt’s no secret that there are folks among us who make our communities a more vibrant place through both their actions and means of creative expression. Heck, you could be one of them yourself.…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comWhat age has been determined to be the worst in world history?Historians have estimated about one third of the population of Europe died of the bubonic plague, also known as the black plague, from…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com After a very inspiring conversation with Kayla Houchin of Sonder Bakehouse a few weeks ago, I decided that it’s an appropriate time to write a column about some of the sweet people who are involved…

Mooncats and Pert Near Sandstone play Empire TheatreBy Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comThe MoonCats describe themselves as “Americonscious Campfire Folk.” They have a clear acoustic folk sound with a sense of whimsy — think…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Anchored by the dependable Florence Pugh, “Thunderbolts*” easily tops “Captain America: Brave New World” to make it the most satisfying MCU movie of 2025 — so far. The asterisk alludes…

By Raul Gomez Modern Man was a gentle soul. If you were down or just wanted a friend, he’d be there for you. I remember the first day I met Modern Man. It was Jeremiah Fuglseth and me. He wanted to write about this legendary…

By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comHigh Plains Reader had the opportunity to interview two mysterious new game show hosts named Milt and Bradley Barker about an upcoming event they will be putting on at Brewhalla. What…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

By Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com I remember when I was young, probably 11 years ago. One morning I was not feeling well because of my period. After I got ready to go to school, I went back to bed and it was hard to get up…

By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…

By Vern Thompsonvern.thompson.nd7@gmail.com Our trucking business has me driving almost daily from gas plants in western North Dakota's oil patch to Canada. I haul natural gas liquids (NGLs) products we used to see flared off at…