Gadfly

​All the World’s a Stage

August 20th, 2022

By Ed Raymond 

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Hell has Nine Stories—and We Will Have Politicians Getting Off at Every Level

American politicians are going to Hell today and the elevators are exceeding weight limits. When Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin was elected to his last two terms in 1976 and 1982, he spent less than $200 in campaign funds to win each election. The campaigns for just one of the Wisconsin U.S. Senate…

Read more...


​Destroying the Fourth Reich

August 20th, 2022

By Ed Raymond 

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Politics From Bill Fields: “I Never Vote for Anyone. I Always Vote Against.”

Every day, if possible, I have a martini on the rocks in tribute to a man who has enriched my life. At the age of twelve W.C. Fields was learning how to juggle while helping his poor father sell milk and oranges door-to-door from a horse-drawn cart in Philadelphia. At age 18 his ability to…

Read more...


​Rejection of Exceptionalism

August 17th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

What Kind of a United States Do You Want in 2022: Diverse Democracy or MAGA?

The 2022 elections will likely determine whether the American poor and middle class will be as powerful in 2023 as the wealthy fundamentalist Christion White Nationalists and Dominionists that currently use the courts and laws allowing a minority to rule a majority.

The conservative English magazine The Economist has an article called “The New Exceptionalism” with a rather…

Read more...


​Whimpering With Dried Voices

August 6th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Remembering Two Men Whimpering in the Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kingdom

In 1284, Hamelin, Germany hired a rat killer to rid the residents of the flea carrier bringing them the Black Plague. For some reason, the mayor refuses to pay him after he supposedly accomplishes the task. The rat killer, piping beautiful music, leads 130 of the town’s children out of a town—and the hypnotized children are never heard from again.

Today, a plaque on what is now…

Read more...


​Did the Devil Make Them Do It?

July 24th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

God’s Knitting of the Human Body Is Rapidly Unraveling

If you get a shiny new quarter as change in 2022, see whose image is on it. Astronaut Sally Ride rode the space shuttle Challenger in 1983 and 1984. She was the first American woman to do so. She retired from NASA in 1987, but later served on the Challenger disaster commission after it blew up entering space, killing seven astronauts aboard. Besides advising NASA when it suspended the shuttle…

Read more...


​Buy Stock in Cremation Ovens and Caskets

July 20th, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Hey! Hey! Supremes! How Many Men, Women, and Kids Did You Kill Today?

Life in a complex, advanced society can be very hazardous to your health. We generally kill more than 40,000 a year in traffic accidents, many when freedom-loving drivers and passengers fly through windshields and open doors because they are not wearing seatbelts. Bikers die because helmets keep the wind from hair before heads meet concrete. We lose about 50,000 people a year to drug…

Read more...


​Cult of the Ideoidiots

July 3rd, 2022

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Christianity Has Fallen Off the Cross

Corky and I have classified ourselves as faithful Christians for nearly ninety years, but we both have reached the point where a solid majority of “Christians” no longer seems to agree with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The good Christians who are left, wherever they are, aren’t trying to save their brothers and sisters from religious suicide or euthanasia. Consequently, Corky and I are withdrawing our…

Read more...


​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...


Tracker Pixel for Entry FPL1 Tracker Pixel for Entry Stave2 Tracker Pixel for Entry Blackbird Tracker Pixel for Entry Empire Tracker Pixel for Entry athena3 Tracker Pixel for Entry staveq1

Recently in:

By Bryce Vincent Haugen By his own account, Edwin Chinchilla is lucky to still be in the United States. As a 12-year-old Salvadoran, he and his brother were packed into a semi with a couple dozen other people and given fake…

By Michael M. Miller Rev. Salomon Joachim, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Beulah, North Dakota., delivered an address to the Western Conference of the Dakota District of the American Lutheran Church in 1939. His presentation was…

Wednesday, March 25, Group lesson 7 p.m., Dance 9 p.m.Sons of Norway, 722 2nd Avenue North, FargoCare to dance? If you don’t already know how to dance, the Northern Lights Dance Club can show you a thing or two about social…

By John StrandDisclaimer: This editorial is the work of someone who’s spent most of his adult life working in the media — most of those years co-owning this very entity, the High Plains Reader, since 1996. The notion that folks…

By Ed RaymondThe bells are ringing for everybody on the planet As ICE, the worst of the worst law enforcement agencies in the Divided States of America, continues to use unconstitutional procedures to find the worst of the worst…

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 Sabrina Hornung There’s a Bosnian saying that states simply, “It’s a sin to throw away bread,” which really resonates with me — especially growing up with grandparents who lived through the Second World War and the Great…

The Slow Death at The AquariumSaturday, March 21, doors at 7:30 p.m. The Aquarium above Dempsey’s, 226 N. Broadway, FargoThe Slow Death is a punk supergroup led by Jesse Thorson, with members and collaborators that include…

By Sabrina HornungJD Provorse is a horror movie enthusiast and Fargo-based podcast host. Both he and cohost Michelle Roller have a comedy background and started the wildly entertaining podcast “We Watch Shudder” in 2022 as an…

By Jacinta ZensGraffiti is something we all see routinely on trains as they pass through the metro. If you pay attention even a little bit, you will notice that some graffiti pieces on train cars look much better than others in…

Saturday, January 31, 6:30-9 p.m.Transfiguration Fitness, 764 34th St. N., Unit P, FargoAn enchanting evening celebrating movement and creativity in a staff-student showcase. This is a family-friendly event showcasing pole, aerial…

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 Liverani In November 2025, the FDA initiated the removal of the “black box” warning from Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). The “black box” warning is a FAD safety warning for healthcare providers and patients…

January 31, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.Viking Ship Park, 202 1st Ave. N., Moorhead2026 marks 10 years of frosty fun! Enjoy sauna sessions with Log the Sauna, try Snowga (yoga in the snow), take a guided snowshoe nature hike, listen to live…

By Jim FuglieI’m feeling a little mean right now. It doesn’t happen often, but I tend to pay attention to politics and politicians and I’m pretty disappointed in one of our politicians right now. So I’m going to be mean to…