A Mystery Wrapped in an Enigma Smothered in Lies

March 3, 2017, when I first noticed the Russians were coming,
the Russians were coming to The Nobby Works
It was America’s old boom companion Winston Churchill who once observed that, “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Curiously enough I’ve been dealing with my own Russian mystery here at the Nob for much of the year, as illustrated in the graphic above. That is a screen grab for the readership of The Nobby Works. I’ve always taken mild satisfaction that The Nob draws readers from around the world, regardless of how minimal. The notion that a kangaroo wrangler in Australia or an urban sophisticate in Kraków is reading something I wrote in Vista, California, makes me tingle to be a tangible part of the global village. But the sudden burst of numbers from Russia turns my tingle into a bit of chill. Why the sudden appearance of Russians in such inordinate numbers? Italy I could understand given how much time the blog dotes on my ancestral land, but the most attention I ever paid to Russia was here, for fictional purposes a very long time ago.   


The occurrence of this odd data caused me to undertake some actual journalism. I began with the not so crazy theory that this was some kind of fallout from the elusive Trump/Russia connection. Since I came back on the grid after my post-election shutdown, I have been writing pretty much nonstop about Trump…avoidance of which was why I wanted off the grid in the first place. I knew that public reality was going to be dominated by this King of Fools, making it impossible to write about most anything without constant, painful reference to he who started the joke that set the whole world crying. On a cursory review of the Google analytics, the out-of-nowhere Russian interest in The Nob seemed to correspond to the blog's references to Trump. So, like a good scientist or competent journalist (though ever so rare blogger), I decided to test my theory. I would write totally Trump-free blog posts interspersed with Trump-centric ones. Thus, if you look over the history of The Nob for the past few months, you’ll see a post on House Hunters International followed by two on Trump’s taxes followed by one on UCONN Women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma. Below are readership data over that time period.  
Two days after this post about the shock of Trump's electoral win:
March 10 March 11
























After the House Hunters International post:



March 22

The day of the Geno Auriemma post, but just days after this post on Trump's taxes:

April 6



After the Geno's Smile post:
April 10
Now, am I going to claim that this is part of Russia's hacking of the US election, and that The Nobby Works, as a pro-Hillary site, is in Putin's crosshairs as he goes about cleaning up unfinished business? Well, not exactly. Though my science on this is not as thorough and complete as I would like, I think there are a few safe assumptions we can make. One is that Russia, like the US (China, Great Britain and Jamaica for all we know) has an intense, irresistible interest in what's going on in other countries and will employ every cyber means at its disposal  to satisfy that interest. Two is that Russia--like the US, etc.--probably has a long list of hot button words and phrases that through global scanning instantly attract various hackers, spooks, and national security drones...chief among those words is Trump. Three is that most of the visitations to myriad worldwide websites have all the diligence and endurance of a hummingbird flitting through a flower garden. Google analytics tells me, for instance, that many of these pageviews last no more than 3 seconds, hardly enough time to build an incriminating dossier against me or anyone else. 
All this contextualizing, however, does not diminish the distinct and disturbing possibility that the Russians played a significant role in deciding the election of 2016 in Donald Trump's favor. His most recent refusal to cooperate with Congress in its investigation into his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's Russian connections is only one more sign (along with his hidden tax returns, praise of Putin, and shady past Russian deals) that he is pulling something over on most of the American people. 
Whether those in Congress charged with protecting the American people from having their democracy hijacked by a hostile foreign power remains--unbelievably--to be seen. Part of this is due to the partisan cord Congress has tied around its neck in a bizarre act of Constitutional autoerotic asphyxiation. Part is due to Trump's loyal (if lunatic) legions, ready, as he predicted, to stand with him whether he shoots someone in broad daylight on 5th Avenue or sells the country out to its enemies. This is perhaps the severest...and probably the last...test we'll face as a nation of whether we move fitfully forward as a free people or succumb to the corrupt, ignorant, narcissistic charm of a two-bit authoritarian. 
Did you get that, Russia?