Smoke..

 

Sooner..

 

Stuck..

 

Rethink..

 

Bleak..

 

Biden seems to be the best thing ever happened to this country in a million year. Covid 800,000 death, Gas Prices $>$6, home heating cost up, Inflation eating poor people's lunch, wasting resources to inflame the fire, No Drilling, Sanctions on Russia that knowingly create food shortage in the world, Baby formula shortage, the stock market crash came and to continue, and Recession around the corner here, Europe and around the globe. Blaming everyone else, or Just Putin, and the supply chain. Never the advisor that don't know the difference between Transitory and Permanent.

However, look at the bright sight, we are spending money good after bad on his baby Ukraine's war where the European trying to mediate the conflict to save their energy and economies

God help us all from this bleak future.

Contracted..

 

Stache..

 

This optical illusion can determine if you’re one or the other by simply looking at it.

The image shows a turquoise circle with a face and two birds forming a luscious mustache against a black background.

At first glance, one may immediately see a round moon face and the two birds create the ‘stache.

For those who noticed the blue moon face first, it means they are an introvert, yet a sensitive and kind person. This person also avoids conflict and has marvelous intuition that allows them to stay out of tough issues.

These people also learn from their mistakes, and this type of personality brings both strengths and challenges.  These individuals are also good listeners and can hold their own in certain situations.

For those who saw a glimpse of the birds at first, it indicates that these types of people are warm and fun-loving extroverted fellows.

These characters are the ones who enjoy life to the fullest, are light-hearted and funny, spiritual and playful. Just a "playful" thought.

Loose..

 

 China’s defense minister accused the U.S. of “smearing” Beijing and said Washington is trying to “hijack” countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

Wei Fenghe, speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, said the burden of improving the troubled U.S.-China ties lies on Washington.

“We request the U.S. side to stop smearing and containing China. Stop interfering in China’s internal affairs. The bilateral relationship cannot improve unless the U.S. side can do that,” he told delegates at the dialogue, Asia’s top defense conference.

“However, if you want confrontation, we will fight to the end. The two militaries should make positive efforts for a positive relationship,” Wei added.

Wei said U.S. President Joe Biden’s new Indo-Pacific strategy leads to “conflict and confrontation.”

The U.S. announced its Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF, in May as part of its strategy for the region.  The IPEF involves 13 countries and excludes China.

Some talk out of both side of the mouth, or that could be ... 

 Just a "Loose Lips" thought

Rubbish..

 

There is a grow­ing body of evid­ence that sanc­tions can impose severe human­it­arian costs on inno­cent civil­ian popu­la­tions. Stud­ies show that sanc­tions have wreaked signi­fic­ant harm in Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and Syria, lead­ing to adverse health impacts like malnu­tri­tion and increased infant mortal­ity. 

Targeted sanc­tions, such as those imposed on human rights offend­ers under the Global Magnit­sky Act, more easily avoid such collat­eral damage. But compre­hens­ive sanc­tions program­s—those that target entire coun­tries or govern­ment­s—can be devast­at­ing; some have labeled them “finan­cial carpet bomb­ing.” By one estim­ate, there have been tens of thou­sands of deaths due to sanc­tions.

The U.S. govern­ment often grants licenses to enable the provi­sion of human­it­arian aid to areas affected by sanc­tions. But these licenses can be narrow in their concep­tion of human­it­arian assist­ance for instance, by not includ­ing civil­ian energy infra­struc­ture and delayed in imple­ment­a­tion. 

Moreover, because the penal­ties for viol­at­ing sanc­tions are so immense, the private sector routinely “over-complies” with sanc­tions and shies away from trans­act­ing with targets even when a license is gran­ted. 

A recent U.S. Govern­ment Account­ab­il­ity Office report on Venezuela sanc­tions found that all nine of the U.S. Agency for Inter­na­tional Devel­op­ment imple­ment­ing part­ners in that coun­try had banks close their accounts or reject trans­ac­tions, despite being permit­ted to deliver human­it­arian aid.

So we crush a country, and gave a little leftover to the few. Just a "famine" thought.

Haass..

 

Economic sanctions are increasingly being used to promote the full range of American foreign policy objectives.

Yet all too often sanctions turn out to be little more than expressions of U.S. preferences that hurt American economic interests without changing the target’s behavior for the better. 

As a rule, sanctions need to be less unilateral and more focused on the problem at hand. 

Congress and the executive branch need to institute far more rigorous oversight of sanctions, both prior to adopting them and regularly thereafter, to ensure that the expected benefits outweigh likely costs and that sanctions accomplish more than alternative foreign policy tools.

[Economic Sanctions: Too Much of a Bad Thing. Richard N. Haass Monday, June 1, 1998.]