Gadfly

Zombies on 5th Avenue

January 15th, 2020

Our Great Leader of the Zombies Is Tilting at Windmills Again
A few days after he was impeached by the House, King Donald admitted to a group of young conservatives attending a Turning Point USA annual summit in Florida he never has understood wind, but “You know, I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it better than anybody I know (His genius streak revealed again!).” But then our national nutcase went off the rails again. Scientific research (which the Trump administration…

Read more...


A Covey of Vultures

December 23rd, 2019

There Are Old Bold Pirates and New Bold Pirates

I’m transposing a phrase by E. Hamilton Lee and General Chuck Yeager, both pilots of renown, who used the phrase: “There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots” in the old business of flying airplanes to the new business of swindling money out of healthcare consumers. The first Golden Age of Piracy in history lasted between 1650 and 1730 was led by a back-alley list of glamorous despicable pirates by the…

Read more...


Can This Eagle Be Saved?

December 18th, 2019

Where Are The Best Capitalistic Countries?

A worker and his family in (_______) is automatically covered by a taxpayer-funded universal healthcare program equal in quality to any on Planet Earth. Twenty percent of the costs of their healthcare does not go to paperwork, insurance companies, doctors out of network, agents haggling and denying exorbitant bills, and fancy boutique buildings. The young children in the family attend a highly professional and ethnically diverse public daycare…

Read more...


American Dream—or Nightmare?

December 11th, 2019

It’s Time For Pitchforks
I have been told my French ancestors lived in Normandy in the last half of the 18th Century and some of them used pitchforks for a living. I often wonder if any of them took part in the storming of the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789, an act which started the French Revolution. The Bastille was a medieval stone fortress turned into a prison by the French monarchy to hold political opponents and assorted criminals. The fortress represented royal power and…

Read more...


In The Country Of The Blind….

December 4th, 2019

88,633 Reasons Not To Build A Wall
Our Great Leader (a title used by North Koreans for Kim) is demanding that Congress include $5 billion in the 2020 federal budget for the border wall which he promised his rabid constituents Mexico would pay for. If there is something more stupid than building a wall on the Texas border, please let me know. Geographers utilizing the Ground Positioning System (GPS) have determined that the United States has 88,633 miles of tidal shorelines and 12,383…

Read more...


Genocide In The U.S.

November 27th, 2019


Race In the 399th Year of Our Civil War
The first black slaves in the U.S. were brought to Virginia shores in 1620. In 399 years we still have not accepted all humans in the “United” States as equal citizens. No doubt we will “celebrate” the 400th year of our Civil War in 2020. We often hear the term “genocide” used in describing the cause of wars in other parts of the world such as Nazi Germany, Rwanda, Bosnia, and the current discussions about votes concerning an old war in…

Read more...


A Murder On 5th Avenue

November 20th, 2019

Daily Trump cartoon

King Donald: The Most Dangerous Human In The World
I will never forget a summation about President Donald Trump by a frequent visitor to Mar-a-Lago: “Even his friends don’t like him.” After observing Melania and him for years, I believe his third trophy wife doesn’t like him either. But--that’s life in the New York fast lane. A book called “A Warning” by someone serving in the Trump administration who wishes to remain anonymous, is quite revealing about the character--and…

Read more...


Sex-From Asexual To Zygote

November 13th, 2019

Catching Up With The Realities Of Sex
There should be no question that our world has changed when we now have had National Coming Out Days for our gay sons, daughters, relatives, friends, and strangers who are members of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer (LGBTQ) community that now has over a hundred gender identities. And it’s happening all over the world. In May of 2019 Taiwan legalized same-sex marriages, becoming the first Asian country to do so. Over 170,000 people…

Read more...


A Colon Rules The Country

November 6th, 2019

President Donald J. Trump: ‘A Picasso of Pettiness, A Shakespeare of Shit’
I am a fan of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, an immigrant from India. He is one of the many reasons I don’t bother going to “Christian” churches on Sunday anymore. His program “GPS” usually contains one of the best sermons about the world situation. On Sunday, October 20 he tore a new orifice in Trump in his first few sentences: “The hallmark of Trump’s foreign policy is a disdain for professionals and…

Read more...


​When Republicans Are Very Liberal

October 30th, 2019

Trumpers Are Not Conservatives
According to most dictionaries a conservative is a conservationist who practices or advocates preservation of natural resources. A conservancy is an organization of conservatives whose main drive is to conserve land, fisheries, forests, water, minerals, wildlife, energy, other “natural resources” –--and lots of money. A conservative is a person who tends to favor the preservation of the existing order—and to regard proposals to change with distrust. …

Read more...


Tracker Pixel for Entry NewSalem2B Tracker Pixel for Entry Cottonwood Tracker Pixel for Entry bahai Tracker Pixel for Entry hjemkomst Tracker Pixel for Entry Nicoles Tracker Pixel for Entry NewSalem1

Recently in:

By Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.comNorth Dakota communities will join a “nationwide day of defiance” against authoritarianism and President Donald Trump’s policies on Saturday, June 14. A range of "No Kings" events…

Back-to-school season is on the horizon, but there's still plenty of summer left. Check out our favorite August attractions and events in North Dakota and western Minnesota. And if if you missed them, here are a few excellent May…

June 21, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.Fargo Theatre, 314 Broadway N., Fargo“We Watch Shudder,” Fargo’s favorite horror podcasters, bring on the darkness during the longest day of the year. The Darkest Day of Horror Film Festival features…

Fighting the good fightBy Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Over two thousand rallies took place nationwide June 14 as part of the “No Kings" protest. Ten of those protests were held in North Dakota, with thousands in attendance.…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comWe need Paul Revere on a Harley: “ants and autocrats are coming!”The Asian needle ant has been nesting in the American South since at least 1932. It probably hitched a ride on a freighter 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 The weather warmed up quickly here in the upper Midwest this spring, sparking prime eating season. This means burger battles, food trucks and lake-season food travel. The 2025 Downtown Fargo Burger…

By Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.comThe Moorhead Public Library will offer three free, all-ages outdoor concerts featuring regional bands this summer. The series begins on June 12 with the Meat Rabbits, a group that blends…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com The June 9 death of musician Sylvester Stewart, known much better by stage name Sly Stone, saw an outpouring of tributes, memorials and appreciations from some who knew him personally and many…

By Deb Wallworkdwallwork@icloud.comI first met Catherine Mulligan at a party at her house. It was a small gathering, spontaneous, just a few people over for dinner. Directed toward a stack of plates and bowls and a big pot warming…

By Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.comAct Up Theatre, in partnership with Minnesota State University Moorhead, will present “The Sound of Music” on June 10-14. All shows are at 7:30 p.m. at the Minnesota State Moorhead’s…

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…

The drug that keeps re-purposing itselfBy Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com There is a drug that is getting a lot of attention nowadays all over the world. It has various commercial names (Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus), but…

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@rocketmail.com Working in the Bakken oil fields of the Williston Basin is so different from my home in Fargo. I'm not judging, because the people working and living in western North Dakota are very…