Staff & Contributors

Ed Raymond

Ed Raymond is a former Marine officer and school board superintendent, and resides in Detroit Lakes.

Content By This Contributor:

Living Paycheck To Paycheck

Ed Raymond

There is not a state in the country where a full-time individual Walmart or Amazon worker makes enough money to cover the basic costs of living in that state, let alone the costs of a family.

What Happens If Conspicuous Consumption Becomes Global?

Ed Raymond

Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, certainly not known for his altruism, expressed the views of the Republican Party, now the Trump Party, in this pithy-or pissy-statement: “The American way of life is nonnegotiable.” You better not bet your sweet bippy on that, Dick.

Empty Pews and Collection Plates

Ed Raymond

“Religious leaders spend their time talking about what happens at the end of the world when practically everyone sitting in the pews are probably worried about how they are going to survive to the end of the month.”

Will Knowledge Ever Win The Political Sweepstakes?

Ed Raymond

“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” “Conservative” Trump-Republicans continue to insist that health care is a privilege, not a right. Americans pay twice as much for health care as any other civilized nation on the planet

Is Life Just Keeping House On The Deck Of The Titanic?

Ed Raymond

“Trump is the first American president whose only religious impulses arise from the American prosperity gospel.” Remember when Trump said he never had to forgive anybody? We all know how religious he is. His only religion is himself and his precious bank account.

Free Speech Is Very Expensive

Ed Raymond

In a letter written to a friend Koch expressed his admiration for totalitarian governments: “I am of the opinion that the only sound countries in the world are Germany, Italy, and Japan, simply because they are all working and working hard.” He made these comments about The New Deal of FDR

Amazon’s Bezos Ain’t Hamlet

Ed Raymond

Sanders says: “In my view, a nation cannot survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little. Millions of people of people across this country struggle to put food on the table and are one paycheck away from economic devastation, and the wealthiest people have never had it so good.”

Angry Black Cattle On The White Ranch

Ed Raymond

” My God, didn’t this Hall of Fame tackle ever go to elementary, middle school, high school, and college history classes? Did he ever study the Constitution and the history of the labor movement and the power of strikes and walkouts? If he didn’t, he’s the perfect Trump voter.

A World of “Fake” Men

Ed Raymond

“Man is an animal whose chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which multiply with such rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada.”

What Is Democratic Socialism?

Ed Raymond

To elect an average senator today runs about $20 million, a house seat $1.5 million! That’s what the Republican Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision did to our politics. Open the money flood gates!

American Dream Bye-Bye

Ed Raymond

“Trump’s political movement meets the definition of a cult. Donald Trump fits the stereotypical profile of a cult leader. His followers fit the model as well. Many Trumpistas, especially the ones that say, ‘He could do anything and we would still believe him, we would still follow him,’ sound like people who have been indoctrinated into a totalistic mindset.”

American Paychecks

Ed Raymond

The big Republican tax cut? Higher wages have not appeared yet, but corporations such as Apple, Wells Fargo, and McDonald’s have spent $680 billion of those tax cuts buying back their own stock, thus enriching CEOs and shareholders.

American Exceptionalism

Ed Raymond

The number of suburban residents living in high poverty areas has tripled since 1990, primarily because earnings have stayed flat for the last forty years in most suburbs

American Coyotes and Fat Cats

Ed Raymond

“Despite our ridiculously hypocritical attitudes towards immigration, we demand that Mexicans cook a large percentage of the food we eat, grow the ingredients we need to make that food, clean our houses, mow our lawns, wash our dishes, and look after our children.

Armageddon and Rage

Ed Raymond

The rich don’t need public recreational facilities. They own theirs and have the luxury of privacy.

Ageless Jim Crows

Ed Raymond

If you owe money because of court fines, traffic fines, and other legal fees such as victim restitution, you cannot vote until such fees are all paid. Nine Republican states have passed that law.

Abortion and Gender

Ed Raymond

There truly is a huge cultural canyon between conservative Catholics clinging desperately to a bush keeping them from falling to the floor of Culture Canyon and those cherry-picking Catholics who take a pass on a lot of medieval Vatican teaching.

Africa: The Human Birthplace

Ed Raymond

So what’s the big deal about race? Religions, tribes, and isolation encourage differences in humans. Attitudes seem to melt away when we get to know people from other tribes. We are even beginning to recognize dozens of gender identities that have been around for thousands of years.

Random Death By Bullets

Ed Raymond

Perhaps at the request of the incoming NRA president Marine Colonel Oliver North Congress should approve grants to study the effect of Ritalin on firearm deaths. North said after the Santa Fe murders: “Young boys who have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten turn into school shooters.”

Armageddon and Rage

Ed Raymond

Because of income inequality several major cities have become too expensive for the lower middle-class and the poor to live in. California, Washington, and Oregon cities have major problems with the poor and homeless. Full-time workers have to commute hours to their jobs. Road rage incidents have become commonplace.

We Aren’t Out of The Trees Yet!

Ed Raymond

A Southern Baptist minister surprised church members by describing a “well-built” 16-year-old girl as “Biblical.” What proverb? What did he have on his mind? Many states governed by Republican governors and legislatures have been preaching abstinence for decades. It has always failed

A Swift Solution for Poverty

Ed Raymond

Southern states, generally led by Republican governors and legislatures, have increased poverty by refusing to expand Medicaid benefits to the poor under the Affordable Care Act and passing anti-union “right to work” legislation which ensures that workers have “the right to work for less.”

Are We Tickling The Dragon’s Tail?

Ed Raymond

Emperor Donald has assumed the mantle of a “religious” cult leader by persuading evangelical Christian leaders to follow him to the Oval Office and Mar-A-Lago. In repeating 3,000 lies in over 2,500 tweets since his crowning, he has proven, according to numerous scholars, to be historically, theologically, morally, and scientifically illiterate.

Maybe We Should Quote The Raven More

Ed Raymond

But incidents with ravens in Alaska indicate an intelligence that is “overmore.” When it really gets cold in Alaska, ravens during the day will fly to streetlights and cover the light sensors with their wings so the lights come on. The bulbs give off heat so the ravens warm themselves. Some of our politicians would never have figured that out.

What Is The Christian Thing To Do?

Ed Raymond

If one lacks knowledge and the intelligence to gain it, one remains ignorant. This includes political judgment. Dunning and Kruger add this shocker: “They’re not smart enough to realize they’re dumb.” Ouch.’

The NRA Gun Lobby And Republicans Pick Guns Over Kids

Ed Raymond

The American Psychiatric Association has estimated that 6% of Americans on average are mentally or emotionally disturbed during any one year. That means that 19.5 million of us require extensive therapy or hospitalization while we are bonkers.

The Beginning And End Of Two Similar Societies

Ed Raymond

Republican President Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “This country would not be a good place for any of us to live in if it is not a reasonably good place for all of us to live in.”

A Broken and Bewildered Country

Ed Raymond

“The public no longer believes that America’s major institutions are working for the many. Increasingly, they have become vessels for the few.”

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