If Ever There Was An Empty Word It Would Be "Sanctions"

We continue talking about more sanctions while people are still dying.  What's wrong with this picture?  Janet Yellen even stated we'd apply sanctions on China should they invade Taiwan!

Well, we all know how well that works! And now we're sanctioning Putin's daughters and the wife of his foreign minister.  What does that mean?  They can't run off to Paris to do their shopping? Please!

Financially, the Ruble is almost as strong as it was prior to the beginning of the sanctions.  Why? Because the world is still buying Russian oil.  Why?  Because we can't supply it because we're so obsessed with going green we won't lift the sanctions on our own production to make up the slack. Please!

Okay, I understand the politics of it - to an extent.  Biden is afraid of the far left and they are the green weenies. Therefore he won't lift the sanctions on domestic production. He's apparently also afraid of Putin.  I've asked before, why?  Putin's military is severely weakened and he really doesn't want a nuclear confrontation any more than anyone else because he, too, will be destroyed.  I've harped on this before, I know.

Yesterday I watched with a mix of sadness and horror at a lost old man wandering around a reception room at the White House after remarks by himself and former President Obama. He was totally ignored while the attendees swarmed around Obama.  Even he ignored Biden. This old man, lost and alone, is our President. Talk about sadness and horror. 

It just irritates me that all these suits, his minions, sit around talking while people are dying. From my perspective, and it's a pessimistic one to be sure, there will be no World War 3 because the suits will just roll over. They wouldn't want to make Putin mad.  Putin is one man! How can the whole world be so afraid of him that no one will stand up to him? 

Let's face it.  What wins wars? Superior weaponry or at least an even playing field and the will to win. And maybe, just maybe, being on the right side of the fight.  In the case of Ukraine, which side are we on?

Hapless Measures - Are We Really Expected to be Proud?

 I don't know how much of the State of the Union I will be able to bear this evening. I do not like Joe Biden.  Not as a man nor as a politician.

He and his administration has done more to undo this country in one year than anyone I can remember - he even beats Jimmy Carter. 

Funny.  I didn't dislike Jimmy Carter. He was and is a good and decent man - though brother Billy didn't quite live up to the standard. He just wasn't a strong president.

I'm getting off-topic. What I'm hearing in advance of the big speech is a lot of mixed messaging. We cannot support a no-fly zone for Ukraine because Putin is a nuclear power.  This really bothers me.  I don't have an answer other than to give the Ukrainians some of our excess aircraft that are sitting mothballed in the middle of the desert.  They are perfectly capable of flying them. At least it would help even the odds.

What worries me more is that we're allowing independent countries to be destroyed because we're afraid of one mad man with nukes. That's a legitimate fear but should it be the case? I think not. Surely he must know if he'd use such weaponry he'd be on the receiving end of exactly what he's using as a threat to alliances around the world.  He'd be the one being annihilated. It would be horrible for the Russian people, just as what he is doing, even without nukes, to the Ukrainian people.

I hate war.  I have no respect for those who wage it.  I have even less respect for those who take half measures in full throat defending a hapless effort to thwart aggression. Save the banks that process the funding of the oil we're still buying from Russia. Sanction the others. Keep your back turned on our own abilities to produce not only the energy we need but enough for a large part of the world, especially our allies.  Such as they are. At least they're not wringing their hands waiting for us to re-emerge as a leader. I applaud them.

Hapless does not make for strong alliances.  No matter who is involved. We'll see what shakes out after tonight.  In the meantime, Ukraine, stay strong.

With Friends Like Us...

Some times the news is so incredible I have to pause to make sure I'm not reading some fictional thriller.  Such was my reaction when I read that the Obama administration has had meetings to consider sanctions against Israel.  Israel!  The only friend we have in the Middle East which doesn't have Muslim underpinnings.

They've been as staunch an ally to us as we've been to them before this administration. What could they have done to make us think sanctions could be justified?

Bombing innocents in Gaza?  No. Building houses in East Jerusalem.  It was captured in the seven year war.  However, it has been designated to be the capital of Palenstine when and if it becomes a state. Some would say by having declared themselves one is enough.  But the Israelis continue to build, not helping the situation at all but then since the Hamas driven Palestinians are determined to drive Israel into the sea I can understand why they continue to poke them. Halting the building would give them the high ground.

Why don't they take it?  I don't know. And that's the point. It would help if it were explained.   I do know, however, how we would react if our former allies would move to place sanctions on the United States for our handling of racial discord.  We'd scream and shout it's none of their business.  Butt out!

I don't understand middle eastern mind sets.  There is so much hatred and violence it seems to me to be hell on earth.  But isn't it an issue to be settled and perhaps even negotiated among themselves without U.S. threats if they don't do things our way?

It's cockeyed to be looking at sanctions against Israel for building settlements while looking to lessen or even eliminate them against Iran who is building toward a nuclear bomb!

They say we have no foreign policy, whoever "they" are.  In some ways they are wrong.  We do.  It's to micromanage everything according to the will of Obama regardless if it makes sense or not.  We promise military aid and send meals ready to eat.  We draw red lines and kick sand over them.  We negotiate with an enemy regime while they build their bomb. We take 4 days to mount a rescue attempt by which time the captive has been moved.

And we wonder why we have no credibility among our enemies nor our one time friends in the world. We have a bunch of rank amateurs running the show and bolstering one another while the professionals stew, quit or are fired should they dare speak out.

Is there anything worse than having no friends?  I think so.  I think it's having no convictions.