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The court clerk called me this afternoon shortly after I had left the courthouse to tell me that I my time as a potential juror was completed, and that I no longer had to return to the jury pool. So I will be back at the office tomorrow after just 3 days of jury duty.
In other news...
President Obama went to Saudi Arabia today and was greeted at the airport in Riyadh by the local governor. King Salman showed his displeasure with Obama by skipping his arrival, after greeting other Mideast leaders at the airport. This is how diplomats snub one another politely.
The king did meet the president later, where Obama "cleared the air," and the BBC reported "frank and open discussions." That is media language for "they had a big argument that resolved nothing."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/20/politics/obama-saudi-arabia-tensions/
The diplomats are now comparing US-Saudi relations to a bad marriage, where the two are "stuck with each other," even though they strongly dislike each other. Remember the early days of Obama when he was welcomed as a hero in Saudi Arabia and Egypt as the first American Muslim president? What a difference seven years makes!
Since Saudi Arabia has been on my watch list since the early 1990's as a potential candidate to fulfill Jeremiah 19:11 (destroying Jerusalem), this stormy relationship may have great prophetic significance in the time ahead.
The BBC news also made mention that the Saudi war against Yemen was being paid for (at least in part) by the US government. Did I miss that report earlier? The Saudi's indiscriminate bombing campaign against civilians is being called a war crime around the world. The US is reported to be unhappy that the Saudi's refuse to bomb al-quaida in Yemen, while eagerly bombing civilians.
Meanwhile, the Saudis are unhappy that the US is telling them to get along with the other kids in the neighborhood (i.e., Iran). It appears that the US "coalition" fighting the Assad regime in Syria is fraying at the seams. And the low, low price of oil is making everyone (who owns oil wells) angry and impatient as well.
A few weeks ago oil prices began to rise a bit on the news that the OPEC countries (plus Russia) would be meeting in order to limit production and thus raise oil prices. The meeting took place, but they still could not agree. A commentator on the BBC was astounded that they would meet without some sort of agreement already worked out behind the scenes. To meet without a viable plan has only drawn attention to the problem and made things worse for the oil producers.
I smell some chaos going on in the heart of Babylon. Did God just confound their languages? Again?
This chaos came just as the Shanghai Gold Exchange opened for business on April 19, and it seems that some big buyers pushed up gold/silver prices considerably. Especially silver, which rose about 75 cents to about $17/oz. That's $3/oz higher than it was just a few weeks ago. With the big banks on the ropes over getting caught rigging the markets, perhaps they no longer dare to slam down gold/silver prices as they have done in past years.
Now that the Shanghai Exchange is up and running in a small way, all that remains now is for it to begin to expand to other nations. The first goal appears to be to link Shanghai with Moscow and thus control prices in two of the three largest gold-buying sprees in the world today. (The third big buyer is India, which will probably join this Exchange soon as well, since they are already aligned as BRICS nations and are founding members of the AIIB.
https://www.rt.com/business/340189-russia-china-gold-trading/
The Bank of Russia and the People's Bank of China want to create a joint platform that would unite gold trading by the world's two biggest gold buying countries.
“BRICS countries are large economies with large reserves of gold and an impressive volume of production and consumption of this precious metal. In China, the gold trade is conducted in Shanghai, in Russia it is in Moscow. Our idea is to create a link between the two cities in order to increase trade between the two markets," First Deputy Governor of the Russian Central Bank Sergey Shvetsov told TASS.
China is the world's largest gold producer. Last year it produced 490 tons. Russia is third after Australia with about 295 tons produced last year. Overall, the countries make up 25 percent of the world gold production.
At the same time, the central banks of Russia and China are the world’s biggest gold buyers. Since the end of 2008 the gold reserves of China have nearly tripled - from 600 to 1,762 tons.
More than 200 years ago, the New World Order was conceived and established as a US motto: Novus ordeo seclorum. Rather, it was the Illuminati motto setting forth their plan for this nation. Of course, the motto meant one thing for the people and quite another for those who proposed it.
But today things are shifting once again. The Babylonian oligarchs are still trying to fulfill their plan, but the kings of the east are hijacking it. You see, the real issue is WHO WILL CONTROL IT? So the Illuminati plan from 200 years ago is slipping from their grasp as the western banking system continues its slow-motion train wreck. They know the current system is doomed, so they are feverishly trying to use this collapse to their advantage, so that they can somehow come out on top.
However, the definition of the New World Order is now shifting to mean a change from fiat to asset-backed currencies, all under new management. A shift in empire is going on behind the scenes. But what neither side in this battle truly understands is that the real winner will be Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Just as God used King Cyrus as a "messiah" (Isaiah 45:1) to do His will in the overthrow of Babylon, so also is this being repeated in our time. We know this because it was prophesied in Revelation 16:12 that the original overthrow of Babylon had set the pattern for the overthrow of a future "Mystery Babylon."
Toward the end of 2014 I wrote how we ought to watch 2014-2017, and we are now midway into this time frame. The divine plan is moving along nicely, and fortunately for us, the bad guys don't believe it, yet at the same time they are doing what God said they would do. God has a way of using vessels of dishonor as easily as He uses vessels of honor. He does this to prove His sovereignty, as Isaiah 45 and Romans 9 tell us. So as Jesus said, "when you see these things come to pass, LOOK UP, for your redemption is drawing near.
Remember: an optimist looks at your eyes; a pessimist looks at your feet.