Assassination central

Monday 10th August 2020

Everything that is written on the internet by anyone is searched by algorithms for keywords. Even blogs like this get searched. It shouldn't be a surprise. 

As the publisher of this blog I can look at the usage statistics and see who has looked at the blog, at least by nationality. In this way I can see that my blog has been read very little by very few people in very few places. My friends in Korea had a nibble, my friends in France ditto, my friends in England most regularly nibble and my friends in Canada have a little nibble once in a while. 

But several weeks ago I used a word in a blog entry that clearly triggered off readership in an unusual place. I speculated that with world changes putting conservative forces within the Vatican under a lot of pressure, the reactionary Catholic right wing, fearful and desparing as they are, might produce some looney who would try to assassinate the Pope. He, after all, is viewed by that reactionary cadre as the very spawn of Beelzebub.

The next day I noticed I had a reader in America. Never, before or since, has that happened. Just that once. Now why would that happen? What does the word 'assassinate' mean to Americans? Oh, I get it! It seemed pretty clear to me that my use of the word 'assassinate' had caused this sudden interest in Rog. It had triggered a signal in an algorthmic search, and some poor bloke, or blokette in a no-windows concrete bunker in Boise, Idaho, (or Poughkeepsie, New York) will have had to read my drivel to assess whether I needed to have my doors blown off by a SWAT team.

It will be interesting to see if tomorrow there is a similar result. After all, I have used 'assassinate' four times in just the above stuff. And then there's the headline. If it's not picked up I will be disappointed. May I at this stage say hello to the guys delegated to reading this? You are welcome. And I hope you have time to smile and wave as your finger hestitates over the big red alarm button.

But there is more. If this level of paranoia is behind the powerful snooping mechanisms that, we are told, are there to keep us all safe, how does Portugal come into it?

My most faithful reader is in Portugal. Perhaps this is a CIA operative delegated to look at European stuff, who has to trawl through suspicious material and pass it up the chain of command. Actually I don't think that about this reader since he or she has been there from the start, or very near it. Nobody in Portugal is triggering alarms after reading my stuff. Or if they are please ask the SWAT team to drop off some milk and a packet of digestives when they arrive.

What's odd is that I don't know anyone from Portugal, well I do, but she's not the sort of person who would bother reading anything I wrote. She's far too busy keeping her family alive and healthy. And rightly so. So, who else could it be? Do I know anyone else who lives there? No. I don't. Or do I? The likeliest explanation would seem to be that someone, quite by accident, came upon my blog and, lacking any other decent stimulation in their lives during lockdown, stayed to read each posting. 

In which case I should say, bem-vinda. Please search around for reader comments and confirm or deny your involvement in covert (not Covid) affairs. Either way, you are welcome.


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