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Top 100 Dakota Free Press Blog Posts of 2018: Viewers’ Choice!

103 Dakota Free Press posts got a thousand views or more in 2018. Interestingly, three of those most frequently viewed posts were from 2017:

Post Date Views in 2018
Sheriff Fires Deputy One Minute After Polls Close; Deputy Beats Sheriff in Primary 2018/06/06 11,262
Maria Butina Connects Russians, NRA, Trump, Sibby, and Mathew Wollmann 2017/03/27 10,067
Noem Votes to Take Medicaid Services Away from Special Education Students 2017/05/05 6,731
Kennedy Noem Lands $40K+/Year on Mom’s Transition Team 2018/11/25 5,881
DOJ Charges Dusty’s TAR Camp Speaker Maria Butina with Conspiracy to Act as Russian Agent 2018/07/16 5,591
Trump Begs the Question: “The News Is Fake Because So Much of the News Is Fake.” 2017/02/17 4,960
Noem’s Attack Video Fails to Show Sutton Not “Independent,” Lies About Benefits of Medicaid Expansion 2018/09/19 4,631
Dakota Free Press Continues Madville Times Tradition of South Dakota Blogging 2015/03/03 3,799
Trump to Campaign for Noem/Rhoden in Sioux Falls September 7 2018/08/30 3,349
Noem Blocks Reauthorization of Violence Against Women Act, Punts Final Action to December 2018/09/30 2,994
Sutton Launches Hard Attack on Noem: “She Doesn’t Work for Us” 2018/10/04 2,672
Butina Communicated with Russian Spy Agency, Faked Romance with Erickson, Prepped to Flee 2018/07/18 2,624
No Indians Allowed? Rep. Clark Says Racial Discrimination OK 2018/06/05 2,363
Anything Kristi Does, Billie Does Better 2018/06/06 2,336
Tobacco Vendors Push NO on IM 25 2018/09/01 2,275
Cavort with Noem and Sioux Falls Elites—$500 2018/08/04 2,206
Family Heritage Alliance Endorses TenHaken for SF Mayor 2018/04/20 2,120
Agropur Plans Wastewater Pipeline to Dump 2 Million Gallons a Day into Big Sioux 2018/04/12 1,997
Noem’s “Neighbors” Ad Fails to Land Punches on Sutton 2018/10/28 1,894
Cory’s Advice on Ballot Measures: YES on W, NO on the Rest 2018/10/11 1,894
Noem Poses with Guns and Critters to Extend Political Career to 16 Years 2018/02/20 1,870
Guest Column: McIntyre Calls Noem SF Fundraiser “Sad” Waste of Trump’s Time 2018/09/08 1,807
Sutton Asks Dems to Nominate Lavallee; Only Political Experience Is Donations to Daschle, Johnson, Thune, Herseth, Bush, and Krebs 2018/06/14 1,755
Graham Incorrectly Compares Sotomayor and Kagan to Kavanaugh 2018/09/28 1,734
Cops Bust Campbell for Protest at Kavanaugh Hearing 2018/09/05 1,714
Noem Misses Big FAA Reauthorization Bill Vote… and 23 Other Votes in April 2018/04/30 1,677
Hubers Not Guilty; Jury Helps State Pin GEAR UP Scandal Entirely on Westerhuis? 2018/06/30 1,628
Four Directions Organizing Native Voter ID Assistance in North Dakota 2018/10/09 1,624
Olson Swings and Misses in Challenging Foster and Pourier Residency; Gutzler Precedent Overrules 2018/12/19 1,601
Trump Offers Farm Welfare to Fix Election 2018/07/24 1,597
Jackley Hotter on Horse Than Noem 2018/04/29 1,586
Lawyer Invites Legislature to Deceitful Hate Rally in Aberdeen 2018/04/04 1,578
Three GOP Convention Delegates and Big Ass Liquor Owner Endorse Noem 2018/11/01 1,574
Noem Confirms: Sutton Is Ahead 2018/10/09 1,548
Nelson Drafts Bill to Force Docs to Provide Medically Unnecessary Fetal Images and Audio 2018/12/09 1,542
Al Novstrup Insults My Family 2018/10/28 1,543
Neal Tapio Tells Lori Walsh How to Be a Mom 2018/04/24 1,543
Noem Closes Eyes to Trump’s Demeaning of Women 2018/08/20 1,538
Lederman, Rhoden, Team Noem Appeal to Thug Tactics 2018/11/06 1,511
Burke vs. Pierre: Sutton Scores with Anti-Corruption Ad 2018/09/18 1,507
Paul Register, SDDC Whistleblower, Challenging Brock Greenfield for District 2 Senate 2018/01/08 1,485
South Dakota to Surrender Public Land for Keystone XL 2018/11/23 1,470
Butina, Russia, EB-5… Dot, Dot, Dot… 2018/07/23 1,465
Video Judo: Real Neighbors Speak up for Billie Sutton 2018/11/03 1,454
Militia to Occupy Mt. Rushmore April 15, Promote Family Values with Singer Accused of Adultery 2018/03/20 1,446
TenHaken, Powers, Other Rounds Cronies Revealed in 2013 Plot to Unmask Twitter Critic 2018/03/22 1,446
If South Dakota Isn’t a Dump, Why Didn’t Tomi Lahren Stay Here? 2018/01/13 1,418
Thune in Russia to Establish Rapport with Putin 2018/07/04 1,417
Democrats and Republicans Reject IM 25 Tobacco Tax 2018/06/26 1,402
Predictions as South Dakota Slides Deeper into Corruption and Sharia for Jesus 2018/11/07 1,388
Tatewin Means Seeks Democratic Nomination for Attorney General 2018/04/20 1,375
Noem Ducks Education Debate with Sutton 2018/08/09 1,366
Noem Exploits Churches, Ft. Pierre Non-Profit for Campaign 2018/11/02 1,344
Noem, Sutton Use Tricky Sorting to Fog Their Donor Lists 2018/04/22 1,319
State Revokes Lake Norden Police Chief’s Cop Papers 2018/07/19 1,318
Kristi Noem at Work in the Capitol 2018/12/21 1,287
Sutton Internal Poll: Sutton Leads Noem 45–42 2018/09/27 1,283
Jury Awards Zylstra Kaiser $1.2M for DCI Retaliation, Throws Sexual Harassment Bomb at Jackley, Milbrandt, and Lunzman 2018/09/27 1,279
Jackley Concludes Scott Westerhuis Killed Family in Beds, Torched House, Shot Self 2015/11/03 1,266
Lesbian Mom Asks TenHaken to Renounce Family Heritage Alliance Endorsement 2018/04/26 1,259
Ravnsborg Proves South Dakota Republicans’ Faith in Crony Kakistocracy 2018/06/24 1,258
Noem Ad Mostly Baloney 2018/09/12 1,243
Mickelson Threatens SOS Office with Legal Liability for Successfully Challenged Petitions 2018/02/02 1,216
Schoenbeck: Non-Residency Argument Against Pourier & Foster “Stupid”; Challengers’ Own Documents Agree 2018/12/29 1,179
Thune, Rounds, Noem Say Trump Tariffs Cost SD Agriculture “Hundreds of Millions” 2018/07/12 1,188
South Dakota Suicide Rate Double New York’s 2018/05/03 1,187
Second Truck Dumps TransCanada’s Oily Dirt Along Road… This Time Intentionally 2018/01/14 1,182
Poet’s Table in Perspective; None of Us Were There Originally 2018/05/31 1,181
Maria Butina Enjoyed Hunting Pheasant Near Elk Point 2018/07/19 1,173
Texas School Shooting Arises from Lethal Trumpist Combo of Male Entitlement and Gun Worship 2018/05/21 1,137
Noem Family Priorities: Ban Abortion, Attack Gay Marriage, Deregulate Daycares 2018/05/15 1,125
Rep. Clark Still Making Excuses for His Racism 2018/06/21 1,117
Trump Tanking Agriculture, Squandering Economic Momentum Inherited from Obama 2018/06/28 1,114
Mickelson’s Partner on Marsy’s Fix Busted for Trafficking Drugs 2018/08/13 1,114
Nelson’s Forced Sonogram/Fake Heartbeat Proposal Hits Hopper as Senate Bill 6 2018/12/17 1,106
Dusty Called Russian Agent “Incredible” Speaker for Teenage Republicans 2018/07/17 1,105
Republicans Lose One House Seat, Gain Billie Sutton’s Senate Seat 2018/11/07 1,101
NJ Firm’s Mismanagement of SD Nursing Homes Prompts State Takeover 2018/05/02 1,100
Uppity Women: Male Republican Calls Sutton Supporters “Elitist” 2018/10/10 1,098
Sutton Expects Noem/McCaulley Performance to Be “Drastically Different” from Daugaard’s “Good Job” 2018/12/05 1,094
After Busy Election, Novstrup All Out of Ideas 2018/11/08 1,090
TenHaken Interrupts Father’s Day Weekend Getaway to Endorse Noem 2018/06/17 1,088
Noem Voters: White, Male, Older, Richer, Dumber 2018/11/21 1,085
Krebs Says Mitchell Taco John’s Gave Her Food Poisoning 2018/03/09 1,085
Obama Takes to Facebook to Rebut Trump Iran Renege 2018/05/09 1,083
Sutton Plays for the Unconstitutional Theocratic Vote 2018/09/26 1,069
Watertowners Neighbors Say No to Noem 2018/10/31 1,067
Noem Picks Rhoden for Running Mate, Ignores Conservative Kaiser Draft 2018/06/20 1,065
Jackley Withholding Endorsement, Signals Sutton on Verge of Beating Noem? 2018/10/20 1,061
KELO-TV Uses Suicide Victim as Branding Opportunity 2018/07/30 1,061
Area Deprivation Index Shows Much of South Dakota Hard to Live In 2018/07/06 1,061
Suicide Rates in South Dakota, Plus Stats by Race and County 2018/07/26 1,044
Maher Repays Sutton by Hosting Eagle Butte Fundraiser; Any Dems Hosting for Noem? 2018/08/03 1,040
ACLU Launches Billboards Calling for Less Incarceration 2018/08/08 1,039
Fast, Easy, Flexible: Kristi Noem? 2018/09/29 1,037
Trump/Noem Tariffs Hurt SD Farmers, Disrupt Markets 2018/09/07 1,030
Blogging on the Radio: Maria Butina, Paul Erickson, and the Kremlin Connection in South Dakota 2018/07/17 1,025
Sutton Improves from No Chance to Small Chance Against Trump-Saddled Noem 2018/09/14 1,024
Mayor-Elect TenHaken Allows Republicans to Celebrate “Red Wave” 2018/05/02 1,018
Peters Quits House Before She Starts, Sets Precedent for Foolishness of Circulator Residency Pledge 2018/12/03 1,014
Tapio Whines to State Bar About Schoenbeck Picking on Him and His (Rented?) Lake House 2018/01/23 1,004
We Kill a Man Today—South Dakota Not Fully Pro-Life 2018/10/29 1,002
I’m Dreaming of a Walmart Christmas… in Madison! 2018/12/24 1,000

My blog post from March 2017 on the alluring Russian gun-rights promoter Maria Butina and her connections with and appearances in South Dakota became hot reading again in July when the feds arrested Butina for acting as a secret Russian agent. My May 2017 post on Congresswoman Kristi Noem’s heartless vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act got a boost when Noem featured the post in a campaign message. And somehow, out of all the posts I’ve put up about Trump’s idiocy, one little February 2017 post about Trump’s circular logic kept drawing eyeballs in 2018. (Everybody reads about Donald Trump’s unfitness for public service; now let’s see Congress do something about it!)

DFP’s 2018 viewing stats suggest that the only women you readers find more interesting than Maria Butina is Kristi Noem, whose campaign for governor against primary challenger Marty Jackley and general election challengers Billie Sutton and Kurt Evans made up just about a third of the 2018 blog posts that drew a thousand or more views. Folks do like elections, and we can at least thank Billie Sutton for making it interesting. (I know, Kurt, you added interest, too, and I hope you will again in 2020, but none of my Evans or Libertarian headlines made the top 100 by viewership for 2018.)

15 Comments

  1. Debbo 2019-01-01 20:56

    “DFP’s 2018 viewing stats suggest that the only women you readers find more interesting than Maria Butina is Kristi Noem.”

    That has me wondering what the gender breakdown of your blog topics was. The Minnesota Women’s Press does an annual breakdown that shows how greatly coverage of males dominates Minnesota newspapers.

    Hmmmmm. 🤔🤔🤔

  2. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-01-01 21:57

    That, Debbo, is an interesting question. One of the problems I face as a political blogger is that, as long as men make up a majority of the elected decision-makers, a majority of my blogging will likely be about male decision-makers… unless the female decision-makers raise a whole lot of heck and drive the agenda.

    Dudes appear to constitute a majority of the players in the Butina story. Her Russian handler, the billionaire patron, her South Dakota boyfriend, the South Dakota Congressman-Elect who praised let her propagandize his teenage Republican campers… dudes. The only other major female player I can think of in the Butina story is Svetlana Nikolaeva, the billionaire’s wife, shootist and gun manufacturer.

    The lead players in EB-5 were men. Like a bad movie, the only ladies in EB-5 who jump to mind were the go-go dancers at the Havana Club in Manila and the Filipinas Benda and Bollen dated, side characters who didn’t get really juicy lines or character development in the reporting.

    GEAR UP had some female leads. Secretary Melody Schopp inherited Rick Melmer’s monkeyshines and thus had to manage the cover-up. Nicole Westerhuis was a partner in her husband Scott’s crime in GEAR UP. Stephanie Hubers went to trial but was found not guilty, and the other ladies at Mid-Central appear to have kept themselves out of the spotlight.

    Kristi Noem got lots of attention from me during the election, and she’ll get even more now.

    I do what I can to talk about women’s issues, particularly reproductive rights and equality, but I always speak from a male perspective. We could use a few more female voices joining us in the comment section to keep us guys on the right track.

  3. Debbo 2019-01-01 23:04

    “I do what I can to talk about women’s issues, particularly reproductive rights and equality, but I always speak from a male perspective.”

    I know you do. And I understand what you’re saying about males in seats of power, with a few exceptions, and thus getting the ink.

    I don’t think SD knows how desperately they need more women in Pierre for balance and new perspectives and thinking. Of course that’s precisely why the SDGOP doesn’t want more women.

  4. mike from iowa 2019-01-02 06:28

    There was one Chinese woman, if memory serves, in the EB-5 case who also rented or bought an apartment in Drumpf Dump North, New York.

    Then, of course, there was Benda’s minor daughter whom Jackley claimed made the decision not to release her Dad’s autopsy- again if memory serves.

  5. mike from iowa 2019-01-02 07:36

    What the Debbo could a woman know that white wingnut men don’t already know?

  6. Debbo 2019-01-02 11:42

    Of course Mike, what was I thinking?! My pretty little brain must be addled from all this manly stuff. I think I’ll retire to my fainting couch. 🤯🤯😵

  7. mike from iowa 2019-01-02 12:13

    Yer mail is in the mail. As of this morning.

  8. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-01-02 12:37

    We could definitely use more women in the blogosphere. I miss the Dakota Women blog!

  9. Donald Pay 2019-01-02 13:31

    Female leadership has really gone down the Fallopian tube in South Dakota. I’m not sure why that is. Democrats generated a lot of energy from female legislators in the 1990s, and Republican women actually led the in the Legislature for a few years. I think a more equal balance in party numbers tends to elevate women of both parties.

    Part of it is women don’t let themselves be put into the cipher role as easily as men. They don’t play it safe, so they become a target, and have more opposition at election time. They have real issues to bring forward, as opposed to, say, Al Novstrap, who can’t seem to find an issue (or his member) with both hands. In essence and putting it in a sexist way, the women are more of a man than Al. Women tend to do something when they are in the legislature, rather than take orders, like submissive little Al, who tends to hide behind his “making friends” with the elite approach to leadership.

  10. Debbo 2019-01-02 15:24

    I think you’re right about women Don. That’s part of why some men won’t vote for a woman too. They like the status quo.

    Mike, yay!

  11. mike from iowa 2019-01-02 15:39

    And, as women like to none too gently remind us pigs, can balance a checkbook.

    Ms Debbo, words alone cannot express my utter amazement and astonishment at what arrived in my mail this very day. The hard candy was yummy as well. I know a couple of young ladys who will be thrilled to death, just as I am. And I will tell the whole phreaking world!

  12. Debbo 2019-01-02 16:05

    ☺☺☺☺☺☺

  13. happy camper 2019-01-02 16:13

    Why is it ok for there to be a Dakota Women’s blog when a Dakota Men’s blog would get hammered as sexist, misogynist …, oh yeah that thing called double standard.

  14. Daniel Buresh 2019-01-02 16:38

    Yeah, the public outrage over Men’s Health magazine being sexist and misogynist is deafening…./s

    Happy, put the pipe down and quit trying to play a victim.

  15. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-01-02 17:59

    No more double standard there, Hap, than in the plain fact that “Black Power!” is an acceptable rallying cry for an oppressed minority while “White Power!” is the racist chant of a snowflake majority that fears losing its unwarranted privilege.

    But hey, Hap, you’re fully connected and Web savvy. Start on up, lead that conversation.

Comments are closed.