Readership Lost (a personal observation)

They’ve stopped following me in Ukraine.

Not that it’s a big loss, but the two people from there who once followed me are no longer listed in the statistics column that bloggers can look at to see where the people who click on their site come from.

Now, to be fair, I still have followers in Canada, Morocco, Peru and the Phillippines, but I have to admit the loss of the Ukraine does leave a sort of dark cloud over a small part of my ego.

Not a single bot or algorithm from that international hot spot seems to think I am worth targeting, at least enough to see what I have said and to put it in some kind of file to follow public opinion in the USA. And, they are designed to do just that. It’s the reason they were created.

 To be even fairer, I don’t seem to have any followers in Russia or Israel either, although the people in those countries are probably smart enough to disguise their searches and run them through servers located in some other nation, like - for example - Morocco, Peru or the Phillipines. I am giving Canada a break because of that nation’s obvious interest with its largest trading partner and because I once blogged about Maple syrup.

Now I could probably overlook that loss of the Ukraine completely if I didn’t have the kind of  mind that loves to puzzle over things that I don’t really understand. It’s why I took science courses in college that I didn’t have to, and why I had so much fun in a Chaucer course. You really have to understand English society in the 1300’s to see how remarkable a collection of tales it is, and why the Wife of Bath holds a good claim to being the first major independent female character in all of English literature.

But, I digress.

What the loss of Ukraine really means to me is that somehow, somewhere, something has changed that I do not understand. Why, if I was once worth following, am  I followed no longer. Could it be the iron hand of Vladimir Putin clamping down on free speech and communication in that nation? Could it be that my opinions are no longer of interest there, or that the geopolitical conditions have changed so much they are no longer relevant?

I could ask Marie Yovanovitch, who you will all no doubt recognize as the U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine. A few days ago, she urged that nation to move forward in establishing an anti-corruption court. It seems that corruption in Ukraine has been recognized as a major problem there. The irony just drips.

But, back to my problem. When something happens, I try to understand it. Which means understanding what led up to it. 

 It’s the same process that made me change my mind about Hillary Clinton. Before the election, I thought she was a great candidate and would make a great president. Then she lost, and I justified my opinion by saying she got three million more votes than Trump did. Then I realized that she and the Republicans could look at the same numbers, count the same electoral votes, and campaign in enough places and buy advertising in enough markets to become president. Which they didn’t.

After a few months, I realized that made her a bad candidate.

Which, of course, brings us to the Republicans in Congress. For years, lots of them pointed out what they thought was wrong with government, and - like their Democratic colleagues - promised everything to everybody. They would spend more, lower taxes, help out the poor and free people of government restrictions.

Well, now that they are in power, the footnotes are coming. They did lower taxes for everyone, and at the same time raised taxes on lots of people. And, those tax cuts are just temporary, while the tax cuts on businesses will never expire.

They said local governments should be free of unnecessary federal restrictions, but now that they are in power the definition of what regulations are necessary seems to have expanded. If a city in California wants to tell its police not to look into the immigration status of everyone who crosses paths with them, will that signal the downfall of our republic? I don’t think so.

I could go on and on, but the arguments here are already getting old. No less true, but old.

I just wish I could stop thinking of the Congressional GOP majority as reprogrammed bots, and wondering just who reprogrammed them.  And when their hardcore supporters will start wondering the same thing.

Well, I suppose we could just follow the tax cut money.