Last Word

​Brexit: heck of a high note to hit

October 9th, 2019

ro-EU protests outside Parliament, August 2019 - photograph provided by William Southworth

By William Southworth
wsouthwo@cord.edu

The United Kingdom has a new boss. 

Considered to by some to be a British counterpart to Trump, Boris Johnson is riding a wave of political discontent with a can-do attitude and bubbly stage persona. He opened his inaugural speech with a powerful and politically charged promise. 

After ‘three long years of indecision’ this new Prime Minister´s government will deliver Brexit with or without a deal by the 31st of October. He will do this by simply…

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​Dr. Snyder’s 20 Step Defense for Real/Intended Victims of Trump’s Toy Hitlerism

October 2nd, 2019

Cartoon by Daily Trump

“In the middle of Europe in the middle of the twentieth century, the Nazi and Soviet regimes murdered some fourteen million people…This is a history of political mass murder. The fourteen million were all victims of a Soviet or Nazi killing policy, often of an interaction between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but never casualties of the war between them…The distinction between concentration camps and killing sites cannot be made perfectly: people were executed and people were…

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The arts are thriving in the Metro

September 25th, 2019

Award winning potter, Brad Bachmeier, pit firing his pottery at his studio - photograph by C.S. Hagen.

By Dayna Del Val
dayna@theartspartnership.net

Welcome to HPR’s big art issue! I was delighted at the invitation to write a guest column for this issue because, as you may know, the work we do at The Arts Partnership (TAP) is all in service to #supportlocalart and the artists who make it. And it’s fun to think about readers of HPR being immersed in a full issue of much of the art that makes our Metro community so great.

Whether you love music: rock, jazz, classical, instrumental or…

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How FAR You Can GO

September 25th, 2019

Andrew Maus

By Andy Maus
amaus@plainsart.org

When I started working at Plains Art Museum in 2000, I worked at the Museum’s visitor services desk – greeting visitors, answering phones, and selling items in the store. I was just getting started, so I didn’t have a lot of perspective, but one thing was certain – this museum did not fit my narrow understanding of what an art museum is. Isn’t an art museum just a place where old things go to die? I had never seen an art museum that did so much…

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In Intra-Elite Battle: Dems Preferred the ‘Stache to the Donald

September 18th, 2019

By Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

While actual leftists were elated by Bolton’s ouster, corporate Democrats were publicly circumspect and even critical, using terms like, abrupt, chaos in the White House, disarray in foreign policy, unstable situation and even “I’m legitimately shaken.”

In part, this response is because expressing unqualified relief would be giving Trump a boost. However, the motives behind these reactions are more disturbing and more sinister. None other than…

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​Trump’s Mirror to America: Our Insanity of Racism, Misogyny and Religious Bigotry

August 28th, 2019


“Tell me the company that you keep, and I will tell you who you are.”
Cervantes (Sancho Panza), 1605

“Rocinante (broken down horse; nag) is Don Quixote’s horse in the novel by Miguel de Cervantes. In many ways, Rocinante is not only Don Quixote's horse, but also his double: like Don Quixote, he is awkward, past his prime, and engaged in a task beyond his capacities.”
Wikipedia

“All Animals Are Equal – But Some Animals Are More…

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​Mitch McConnell’s Russian Interpreters: Jim Crow and Joseph Goebbels

June 26th, 2019

Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights…The purpose of any political association is the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of woman and man; these rights are liberty, property, security, and especially resistance to oppression.
 Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, 1791
Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.
– From the dissenting opinion of Justice John…

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The ten year reunion

June 19th, 2019

Ten year reunion - photograph provided by Zach Nerpel

By Zach Nerpel
zachnerpel@gmail.com

I was going by “Zach” on this particular evening. Not like I’d go by anything else in any other situation, but tonight it was determined I’d wear a nametag. I showed up to the Fargo Brewing Company shaky, not from any lack of booze (I don’t think), but out of sheer nervousness. Many of the people I was to engage in conversation with, I hadn’t seen in ten years. It was a reunion, after all.

I arrived alone and apprehensive, doubting that the…

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Of Politics and ‘Star Wars’

June 5th, 2019

By Zach Nerpel
zachnerpel@gmail.com

Sometimes there is no compromise to be made, especially when those who you presume to level with are those who would lock you up for even questioning their authority. There is no "middle ground" in what has been shown to be an inherently flawed system, completely derelict of moral well-being with regard to The People as a whole. And make no mistake, this is not a Democrat vs. Republican stance. It is not even a Liberal vs. Conservative stance. It is a…

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Meritocracy is a lie

May 8th, 2019

By Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

In 2017, Sociology Professor Rachel Sherman wrote “Uneasy Street: The Anxiety of Affluence,” a book which drew from 50 in-depth interviews with uber-wealthy New Yorkers in order to obtain a picture of just how they perceived their status.

Sherman found that her interviewees, all in the top 1-2 percent of income or wealth or both, had thoroughly imbibed the narrative of meritocracy to rationalize their affluence and immense privileges. That is, they…

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