Do I Look Worried, Who Me, Never Me: Overwhelmed But Not Worried

First Meeting in the White House

(Post-election)

What, Me Worry?

Let's real and up to date, shall we?

So while Republicans (headed up with Senators like John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and a few in the House are busily probing Russian hacking, etc., Donald Trump plans to be investing in a new relationship with Putin and Russia.

(I note: This will the show in Washington to watch especially if Trump can’t get his way with the all-GOP in charge Congress… he can’t fire them – so, maybe a Rick Perry “oops” will suffice for now)?

Trump, in recent days, told associates that he sees little upside to what he considers needless fights with Russia with all that forthcoming probing as it were.

(I note: Trump had no problems with the GOP constant probing of Hillary Clinton over Benghazi, her e-mails, or his suggestion about the Clinton Foundation).

Trump has long said he sees potential in maintaining a working relationship with Putin and he says he sees benefits in cooperating with Russia in fighting ISIS – despite the fact that Russian firepower has directed little of its firepower against ISIS, instead focusing on rebel groups fighting that civil war against al-Assad to remove him from office.

Putin seems to be counting the days until Trump is in the Oval Office. Despite a failing Russian economy, Putin has been pursuing for the past four years what most Western analysts see as a plan to reassert Russian power throughout the region, cite:

1.  First came the annexation of Crimea.

2.  That came along with his “shadow war” in Eastern Ukraine.

3.  Then came the deployment of nuclear-capable forces to the border of NATO countries.

4.  Then just as Moscow was working to fracture the power structures in Germany and France and promote right-wing parties, Putin sent a reinvigorated military force on patrol of the coasts of the Baltic and Western European nations.

5.  Then course there is the horrible war they are conducting in Syria to prop up and help keep al-Assad in power thus in return Putin gets a nice port in the Mediterranean Sea area.

6.  Then this biggie: Get a trade deal and relaxation of tensions in return for an easing of the sanctions that Obama and allies imposed, like the $500 billion oil deal with ExxonMobil and Rex Tillerson, Trump nominee for Secretary of State.

Trump seems to be open to backing away from those sanctions in an interview with The New York Times in 2016, the time he questioned whether anyone, other than the Obama administration, saw much use in them. Tillerson also has been critical of them, which is not surprising because they put a huge crimp in Exxon Mobil’s hopes for oil and gas exploration and maybe a nice backdated check for Tillerson from his time at Exxon?

(I note: Hey, who knows).

Syria could be the first area of cooperation. If a shaky cease-fire agreement just announced holds, it could focus Russian military action for the first time exclusively on ISIS and Jabhat Fatel al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front.

But, experts on that area say it comes with a number of important caveats:

First, the cease-fire needs to hold so that a more enduring political solution to the Syria crisis can be pursued. That will require restraint on the part of al-Assad, the Syrian opposition, the Iranians, and of course Putin and the Russians.

Second, unless a political settlement is achieved that eventually eases al-Assad out of power (which is very unlikely – Putin would not allow that – his investment is too large in Syria, then Syria would continue to be a magnet for extremists and insurgency, perpetuating the very problem that Putin and Trump say they are trying to solve.

While the Obama administration was not included in the cease-fire discussions, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, extended a hand to Trump, who has never objected to Moscow’s growing influence in the Middle East, with Lavrov saying at one point to Putin at their meeting:

“I would like to express my hope that after the administration of Donald Trump assumes its duties, it will also join the efforts in order to channel this work into one direction basing on friendly and collective cooperation.”

Now consider all that in relationship to this fine article from Alternet (June 2016) with this headline:

How Donald Trump's Doublespeak Really Works and is Highly Calculated 

Let’s put all the Trump gibberish aside and just call it what it is: “Trump-speak.”

Now it is not precisely like George Orwell’s but it sure comes darn close – to wit: 

In his novel “1984” that Orwell published in 1949, he introduced us to these two new words: doublethink and newspeak. 

A great rundown on 1984 is here from “Sparknotes.” 

A word Orwell did not use, which combines the two clearly and is more commonly used today is: Doublespeak. 

Doublespeak means to say one thing and mean totally another, usually the opposite. 

In 1984, when BIG BROTHER is in charge, when the Party says PEACE they mean WAR; when they say LOVE they mean HATE; and, when they say FREEDOM they mean SLAVERY.

Since that publication, many of its concepts have entered modern day parlance. Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, and Room 101 are all part of Orwell’s world, and as a result of the book, Orwellian is now a term used to describe official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of the past by a totalitarian or authoritarian state.

Orwell hoped that by writing “1984” he’d help stop such a state ever coming to pass – now here we are about to enter 2017 with the Presidency of one Donald John Trump – foretelling was Orwell for sure.

Wow, or a modern OMG might suffice more so.

Other gems from Orwell can be read here… check it out.

So, does that sound like Donald Trump or not?