The defeat of Donald Trump, the January 6 Trump inspired insurrection at the Capitol, and the Republican response to Trump's defeat and his effort to overturn the 2020 election drew the largest responses from readers of Not Fake News during 2021.
That is hardly surprising, given the lasting impact of those developments during a difficult year that also was dominated by the Covid 19 pandemic with more than 386,000 deaths during the year despite the wide availability of vaccines. But it was our blogs about Trump and the Republican-led attack on democracy that dominated the Not Fake News top 10 list as determined by the number of individual views for each story.
Here's our top 10 list:
Jan. 17 -- A Trump Double-cross? -- Some of the most extreme of the "extremists" who stormed the Capitol Jan. 6 after Donald Trump urged them to go there and "fight" are turning on him, calling him a traitor, even saying he should be executed. 1,030 Views.
Feb. 13 -- McConnell Blew It -- If Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell believes his post impeachment acquittal vote rhetoric that Donald Trump was responsible for the January 6 mob attack on Congress, he may have made a significant miscalculation by failing to influence a conviction of the disgraced former president. 468 Views.
Aug. 18 -- A Special Kind of Evil -- As the Delta variant surges and the unvaccinated swamp ICU units, especially in southern red states, Donald Trump is at it again. Instead of urging his followers to stop the nonsense and get their vaccinations, he now is casting doubt as to the motives behind the Biden administration's decision to offer booster shots to those who have received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. 419 Views.
July 20 -- The Corruption of the Quest for Power -- To Donald Trump, being President of the United States was never about serving the people. He was attracted to the glitz, the fame and yes, the power associated with the title. Being referred to as “the most powerful person in the world” held, and continues to hold, tremendous sway for him and his followers. It was this loss of power that was the impetus for the January 6th insurrection and the current upheaval in our political landscape. 364 Views.
Jan. 21 -- Hey, Hey, Goodbye -- Here's a little Trump farewell from Jimmy Kimmel. Watch the video. 362 Views.
Aug. 7 -- The GOP's BS about Gas Prices -- You know, the Republicans have been trying to blame President Biden for the recent surge in gasoline prices, so I figured we needed to see if that was really true. Could the president and his policies actually be to blame? Or is that just so much fake news coming out of the increasingly desperate folks in the GOP? 341 Views.
Jan. 15 -- Was the U.S. Capitol Attack an Inside Job? -- Could it possibly be that some Republican members of Congress are so demented that they conspired with the domestic terrorists who attacked the Capitol Jan. 6, threatening the lives of their colleagues and Vice President Mike Pence? 297 Views.
Jan. 24 -- Will Republicans Abandon Trump? -- Powerful Republican forces are advocating Donald Trump's conviction by the Senate so the party can be freed from the defeated bully of a president who spent four years terrorizing anyone who failed to support him, according to published reports. -- 292 Views.
Jan. 18 -- Defunding the Insurrectionists -- Politicians like Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who fed Donald Trump the lie that somehow he could overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, need to be defunded by their major contributors. Nothing gets a politician's attention like a nice fat check -- or the absence of same. 286 Views.
Mar. 14 -- Sexual Harassment: Trump vs. Cuomo -- When it comes to sexual harassment, Republicans and Democrats hold their representatives to very different standards. One side takes the issue seriously and demands accountability, while the other sticks with the “boys will be boys” standard that has been used to excuse such behavior in the past. It continues to be used to defend inappropriate behavior, while holding the opposition party to a much higher set of rules. The current situation involving N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a case in point. -- 281 Views.
Altogether, Not Fake News published about 300 blogs during 2021, written by myself and contributing writers CJ Waldron, Mark M. Bello, Stacy Fitzgerald, Jeremy Holland, Yvener Duroseau, V. Susan Hutchinson, and Seth Mendelson. We covered major developments in the news, offered insight and analysis -- and, yes, opinion.
Also, during the year, we launched the Lean to the Left podcast, presenting narrations of most of our blogs and interviews with experts, opinion leaders, and simply people with interesting stories to tell. We also launched, with author/attorney Mark M. Bello, the Justice Counts podcast, with interviews and discussion focused on issues of social justice. If you haven't checked out our podcasts, please do so.
Meanwhile, from all of us at Not Fake News, here's a big wish for a great year in 2022.
Let's hope for more GOOD news in the year ahead than the year just ended.
Happy New Year!!!!