BANNED IN RUSSIA!
I am not a paranoid person. I generally do not subscribe to conspiracy theories.
I am not a paranoid person. I generally do not subscribe to conspiracy theories.
Today brings reports that Newsweek magazine may have been hacked
to limit reader's access to a story detailing Donald Trump's financial involvement with Cuba in the 1990's that, if true, was in violation of the U.S. embargo of that island.*
* Today also brings reports of Russian attempts to interfere with voter registration systems in as many as 20 states.
But I find the Newsweek hacking report and a growing number of others, coupled with the following personal anecdote disconcerting.
I began posting to this blog in December, 2011. It is published through Google, which provides me with viewing statistics, including those from overseas. I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of those statistics.
Since I began posting, this blog has received an average of slightly more than 300 Russian page views a month. I have always assumed those and other foreign views were generated by random folks bouncing around the internet looking for benign diversions.
On July 31 2016, I posted a tongue in cheek comment about Donald Trump and his Russian financial entanglements. It included the tags "Donald Trump" and "Russia". Over the next 24 hours, that single post generated more than 600 Russian page views, double the previous monthly average of Russian views for everything else I have posted.
I attributed that surge to the use of the "Russia" tag. After that first day, however, and over the ensuing two months, there have been no Russian page views at all. Not one.
Within 48 hours, my computer began to lock up and I received multiple warnings that my firewall had been breached.
I don't know if that constitutes a "hack", but it certainly suggests that someone is messing with my computer and leads to the conclusion that I am now banned in Russia. Kind of cool, I suppose.
This blog is obscure and occupies a very small place in cyberspace. But if I am worthy of that level of scrutiny, you probably are too. And that's even creepier than whatever the hell is going on with Mr. Robot.
When coupled with the far more significant Newsweek hack, persistent reports of hacks of Democratic National Committee by Russians, and/or Wikileaks and the looming promise of an October surprise that will disqualify Hillary Clinton from the Presidency, the common link is Donald Trump.
If you care about preserving democracy as we know it in this country, it's something to think about when you are in the polling booth.
PS On a lighter note, looking into my crystal ball, I have to recognize the very real possibility that, if Drumpf really is in bed with the Russian oligarchs, (duh), and becomes our next President, (oy!) I could be headed for the Gulag! Oh well. I hear the climate there is better than whatever hell on earth the Wee Ding has planned for us.
HL October 1, 2016
*********
UPDATE: December 25, 2016
I've told the tale of how my blog was banned in Russia because I mocked the relationship between Thug Trump and Pukin' Putin.
To recap, over the course of several days late last July and early August, after posting comments about the love-in between the Autocrat and his Apprentice, my blog went from an average of 301 Russian views a month to nada, as in zero, while I received messages that my computer firewall had been breached.
That's how things remained through the campaign, the election and at least until November 19th. That day, I began a sabbatical from blog commenting on Trump Sludge that lasted until yesterday, December 24, a period of nearly five weeks.
Today, I took my first peek at the blog audience statistics while in abstentia and what do you know? With the election now safely in the Trump Cash Bag, I'm either back in the Kremlin's good graces or they've decided I'm one gnat they can tolerate in their version of a free and open society because within the past 30 days, I received 396 blog views from somewhere inside step-Mother Russia.
I would like to feel honored to have garnered such singular attention, but we all know that it wasn't only me being singled out. It was Hillary Clinton. It was Hillary's campaign. It was the Democratic National Committee. And so on down the line, all the way to l'il ol' me. Bet'cha a wad of Trump dough that if you made any kind of dissenting noise, there were Kremlin eyes spying on you, too.
It was cyber warfare and the Ruskies and Trumpets think they won.
But take heart. Between you, me, the rest of the true blues and 396 Russians,we will over overcome this shameful highjacking of our electoral process.
En Garde, you Oligarchs. En Garde, you Trump Trash. For US are coming to Unseat you for your very high crimes and misdemeanors.
December 25, 2016
******
Update on my experience with Russian interference in the election. This would be silly and even a little boring if it were not also true and such a darkly ominous threat to freedom of expression. After blocking my blog from viewing in Russia during the campaign, then unblocking it following the November election to permit Russian viewing again, last week I posted comments critical of trump. The immediate aftermath: No more Russian page views. Again. Conclusion: dissenting views of the individual the Russian government helped elect President of the United States will not be tolerated in Step-mother Russia. I doubt I am the only one who has been singled out in this manner and am searching for others who have had a similarly chilling experience.
This is not a story I enjoy repeating because it's become tedious and I do not care to be a pawn in someone else's game. But I am. I previously reported that last summer during the campaign, after posting criticisms of Trump, my blog was blocked from viewing in Russia. Further that, after the election, I was unblocked and then, immediately after posting another Trump critique, blocked again. That's where matters remained since mid-November; blog blocked and no Russian page views. Until last night between 10:00 p.m. and midnight, on the eve of Congress' first public hearings on the Trump/ Russian collusion, I received 91 Russian page views. I offer this purely as anecdotal evidence of continuing Russian surveillance of private US citizens - in this instance, me. I am not pleased and I blame a certain treasonous, amoral, criminal thug; namely, Donald J. Trump.
*********************
1 comment:
I am impressed. But also a valid concern.
Post a Comment