November 12th, 2025
By Ed Raymond
Who will write “The Rise and Fall of the Third Trumpidiotocracy?”
Chicago-born William L. Shirer was 30 when he covered a major Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg, Germany in 1934 for theNew York Herald Tribune. By 1938, he had become one of Edward R. Murrow’s “Murrow’s Boys” of CBS Radio and was covering Hitler’s annexation of Austria in March of 1938. By 1940, he had become so well-known in Germany that the Nazis kept feeding him propaganda…
November 3rd, 2025
By Ed Raymond
A Supreme Court umpire should call for replays on every act
For more than 20 years I have been wondering what makes Chief Justice John Roberts tick. During a Senate confirmation hearing he slid and slud around this rather mysterious comparison of two jobs, the umpire in softball or baseball games or judge in traffic or war crimes court. He dazzled senators with this statement: “Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules, they apply them.…
October 28th, 2025
By Ed Raymond
Another public health crisis besides guns: lack of empathy
The Sisters of Charity have finally had enough of their Trumper boss, Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. One of the most prominent congregations of nuns in the United States founded to celebrate the naming of the first American Catholic saint, it has been around since 1846, operating orphanages, nursing homes, hospitals and spent Civil War time nursing wounded veterans. Dolan had…
October 20th, 2025
By Ed Raymond
That old time religion, filled with love, is no longer good enough
In the first “Inherit the Wind” movie about religion and evolution starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and Gene Kelly, the theme hymn “Give me that old time religion” had these lines: “Give me that old time religion/It’s good enough for me/It was good for my mother/It was good for my father/ It was good for the Hebrew children/It will do when we are dying/It’s good…
October 6th, 2025
By Ed Raymond
Will we be banging or whimpering at the end of the American empire?
T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men” accurately portrays the end of most empires in his first lines:
“We are the hollow men/ We are the stuffed men/ Leaning together/ Headpiece filled with straw/ Alas! Our dried voices, when we whisper together/ Are quiet and meaningless/ As wind in dry grass or rat’s feet over broken glass in our dry cellar/ Shape without form, shade without…
September 29th, 2025
By Ed Raymond
John Roberts: what will you do about the monster you’ve created?
Like Dr. Frankenstein, you and your Trumplican cohorts in the operating room of the United States Supreme Court created a monster with “beautiful” hair, a lying mouth, and a malignant narcissistic brain who claims he is a genius and promises the world “I alone can do it, I am president of the United States — and I can do anything I want.”
A New Yorker cartoon reminds us of how…
September 16th, 2025
By Ed Raymond
What are the four freedoms of Donald John Trump?
Nearly a century ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said every citizen in the United States of America should have four freedoms: Freedom from want and fear, freedom of speech and freedom of worship. In 2025, President Donald John Trump has demonstrated his four freedoms: Freedom from truth, constitutional law, empathy and freedom of Christian Nationalism, cruelty and torture.
On August 26, the CEO…
September 8th, 2025
By Ed Raymond
If a child is drowning in a ditch, will you get your shoes muddy?
“Big Moma” Leah Drumwright was a Black slave in the 19th century who had one of her numerous babies and was nursing an infant. At the same time, her white owner had a baby. Leah was assigned the task of also nursing that child. She was ordered to always nurse the white child on her left breast. Rationale? The left breast furnished healthier milk because it was closer to the heart, so…
August 25th, 2025
By Ed Raymond
Trump: the new man for all seasons
Five hundred years ago, Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More of England refused to write a letter to Pope Clement VII of the Roman Catholic Church asking that he annul the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon because she had failed to give him a son to succeed him to the throne. He wanted to marry the beautiful young Anne Boleyn so she could provide him with sons and fun. More also refused to take an oath declaring…
August 19th, 2025
By Ed Raymond
Will the disappeared ever be able to appear again? Not likely!
In dictionaries more than a decade old, the word “disappear” appears all alone. The definition: “to pass out of sight either suddenly or gradually vanish. To die out, to become extinct.” In the Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary’s recent edition, the word “disappeared’ appears just below “disappear” with this definition: “People who have been arrested by a regime that…
By Bryce Vincent Haugen By all accounts, Democratic-Farmer-Labor U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar — first elected in 2006 — is the most popular active politician in Minnesota, whether she’s judged by polling or by her four electoral…
Saturday, June 13, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.Paradox Comics-N-Cards, 814 Main Ave., FargoCalling all nerds: it’s time to get down and nerdy with vendors aplenty, who are selling comics, toys, video games, board games, various collectibles…
June 6-7StatewideYou grab a line and I’ll grab a pole — and if you’re a North Dakota resident, you can head on down to your favorite fishing hole, no license needed (for this weekend, anyway). All other rules still apply…
By John Strand It took us over 30 years for us to reach out and ask for your help. The High Plains Reader has always been subscription free and paywall free. Our content has — and always will be — free to access for all of our…
By Ed RaymondWere women created to do the work of God?One of the first requests made by new Pope Leo XIV was to invite an expert on the alt-right conservative Catholic organization known as Opus Dei to brief him about its…
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 GionThe scarfing of canned fish and seafood products by online food influencer types is hard to miss on social media these days. Some of the consumed morsels range from exquisite to downright nasty. However, there are many…
By Bryce Vincent Haugen The curtain has come down on Jade Presents. Fargo-Moorhead’s largest event promoter has brought thousands of shows — more than 150 per year — and hundreds of artists to the area over the past 36 years. On…
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By Greg Carlson Steven Spielberg, who will turn 80 this December, returns to the subject of aliens among us in “Disclosure Day,” his first feature since “The Fabelmans” in 2022. Now closer to the end than the beginning of…
By Jacinta Zens I recently sat down for a chat with ceramicist Louie Albertson, Clay and Studio Program Manager at the Plains Art Museum. Before the interview, I had the pleasure of getting to know him a bit as a colleague when I…
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 Eli Liverani Cholesterol is probably one of the first molecules I have ever heard of in my childhood. Most of the relatives on my mother's side had high cholesterol in their blood, and apparently, levels above a certain range…
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…
Chris M. Stoner I was recently dismissed from my role as drag show director and emcee for Dakota OutRight, a role I had been fulfilling for more than two decades. The reason given? My political commentary during shows, while…
