BIDEN WATCH: 4.2.22 - US Credibility Plummets in The Arab World

US Credibility Plummets in The Arab World as Biden Looks to New Terrorist Allies – Khaled Abu Toameh - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5272 Unlike the Biden administration, many Arabs do not distinguish between one terrorist group and another. That is why news about the possibility that the Biden administrationis considering removing the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the terrorism blacklist has been received by many Arabs with disbelief and shock. The Arabs hold the mullahs and the IRGC responsible for various war crimes and atrocities against several countries and people around the world. Just last week, the IRGCclaimed credit for a missile attack on an alleged "Zionist base" in the city of Erbil in northern Iraq. Days later, the IRGC issued a threat to launch missiles at the Gulf states. The Gulf states, in particular Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are already under attack by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen. The Biden administrationremoved the Houthis from the list of foreign terrorist organizations and has since refused to reclassify it as a terrorist organization, despite the missile and drone attacks on Washington's Arab allies and friends as recently as this week. After the recent drone and missile attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen, Saudi Arabia statement that said: "The Kingdom stresses the importance of the international community realizing the gravity of Iran's continued behavior of equipping the terrorist Houthi militia with thetechnology of the ballistic missiles and advanced UAVs with which they target the Kingdom's production sites of oil, gas and refined products." When the Saudis and other Arabs in the Gulf talk about the international community, they are specifically referring to the US administration, which continues to ignore theirdemand to redesignate the Houthi militia as a terrorist organization. Instead of listening to its Arab allies, the Biden administration is now reportedly studying the possibility of removing Iran's IRGC -- an even more dangerous organization-- from the list of foreign terrorists. The news has come as a shock to the Arabs, especially those in the Gulf who say that the appeasement policies of the Biden administration towards Iran pose a real threatto security and stability in the Middle East. "Removing the Revolutionary Guard from the blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations would be tantamount to the shameful US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year," wroteSaudi journalist Tarik Al-Hamid, former editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. "We will remember two historical events that had -- and will have -- the biggest impact on destabilizing the security and stability of our region. First, when AyatollahKhomeini boarded a plane and flew from France to Tehran Airport; second, when the Biden administration removes the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from the list of foreign terrorist organizations." Al-Hamid warned that if the Biden administration removes the IRGC from the terrorism list, "we will be faced with a real American absurdity, not less than the absurdityof the invasion of Iraq and the absurdity of the withdrawal from Afghanistan." "It is true that the United States wants to withdraw from the region, but Washington will then have given China, Russia and Iran unprecedented strength. If this is not politicalabsurdity, what can it be called? By removing the Revolutionary Guards from the list of terrorist organizations, Washington will grant Iran the freedom to move and act in the region in the context of a Russian-Chinese-Iranian alliance." The prominent Saudi journalist warned that the policies of the Biden administration would "strengthen the axis of resistance to the US once again." "By lifting the sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards, the US administration will fulfill the aspirations of former President Barack Obama when he spoke in his famousinterview with The Atlantic magazine under the title 'Obama Doctrine' about sharing the region with Iran. At the time, Obama said: 'The Saudis need to share the Middle East with their Iranian opponents.'" Al-Hamid reminded the Biden administration that Saudi Arabia "is the exact opposite of Iran, as it does not want control, but rather the stability and independence of countries." "Therefore, removing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards from the sanctions list is nothing but a conspiracy against the region as a whole, especially after the RevolutionaryGuard took credit for the recent firing of 12 ballistic missiles on Iraq. Lifting the sanctions while Hezbollah revels in Lebanon and Syria, and Iranian militias wreak havoc in Iraq amid Iran's continued support for the Houthis in Yemen, is nothing but a crimeagainst our region." Abdullah bin Bejad Al-Otaibi, a Saudi political analyst and researcher of Islamic groups, wrote that the US during the Biden era "is very similar to Obama's America in termsof vision, policies, and directions." The Biden administration's appeasement of Iran and its plans to remove the IRGC from the list of foreign terrorist organizations represents political absurdity, Al-Otaibiargued. "The signing of the (2015) nuclear agreement with the Iranian regime took place during the Obama era without any consideration for the interests of the Gulf states and Arabcountries, and it was just a postponement, not a cancellation, of Iran's military nuclear project. The administration of President Biden has been eager to revive the ominous agreement. It has also been attacking the Arab countries not only with blatant statements,but also through its regional and international policies and positions. Arab and Gulf countries have not changed their stance toward America, but the opposite is what happened. America's positions have become more extreme and less concernedabout partnership and support for allies. The problem with this American change is that it came while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are leading internal and regional efforts to bring stability and moderation. Bahrain and the UAE have normalizedrelations with Israel. The Saudi crown prince stated that Saudi Arabia does not view Israel as an enemy, but rather as a potential ally." Al-Otaibi reminded the Biden administration that the IRGC and the mullahs are "the head of regional and international terrorism, from Al-Qaeda to ISIS, and from the LebaneseHezbollah to the Shiite terror militias all over the world." Referring to the possibility that the IRGC may be removed from the list of terrorism, the Saudi analyst said: "This would be a direct threat and danger not only to the Arab countries, but to the whole world, and an unprecedented support for terrorism and its groups and organizations.The Arab countries and Israel will be the first victims. There is an American and Western policy that cannot be condoned, which is the insistence on making Saudi Arabia and the UAE militarily exposed to the attacks of the Iranian Houthi militia in Yemen, ballisticmissiles and drones, and imposing illogical requirements on the export of arms to confront these serious threats. The hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, which enabled the Taliban to seize control of the country, removing the Houthi militia from the terrorism list, seeking to removethe Iranian Revolutionary Guard from the list of terrorism, silence about Iranian bombing of Iraqi Kurdistan -- these are very dangerous policies for the world and the Arab countries that support stability and peace... "A new approach is knocking on the doors of the world with force and an unprecedented need to close ranks, strengthen alliances and build partnerships, and any neutral observerwill find a blatant contradiction in the Biden administration's policies towards Iran and Saudi Arabia, as it courts Iran in an unprecedented way and does not behave in the same way with Saudi Arabia." Syrian writer Dr. Mahmoud Al-Shami expressed astonishment over the Biden administration's weak and hypocritical attitude towards Iran and its terrorist proxies: "America condemns the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and says they must stop, while it has since removed Houthis from the list of terrorism, and will also remove the IranianRevolutionary Guard from the terrorism list as well. [The condemnation came] while America was claiming that Saudi Arabia is its ally and that it will defend it if it is subjected to any aggression. Have you seen bigger liars?" Dr. Mohamed El-Sherif, an Egyptian, also took to social media to express disgust with the policies of the Biden administration towards the mullahs and their terrorist organizations. "What did the Revolutionary Guard offer America as a price for the reward of being removed from the list of terrorist organizations and making billions of dollars availableto it by lifting sanctions on Iran so that it could finance its terrorist activities at the expense of threatening the security of the Gulf and the stability of the Middle East?" Kuwaiti university lecturer Professor Abdullah Al-Shayji noted that the US was continuing to lose its credibility among the Arabs: "Will Biden re-designate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization after President Trump classified them as terrorists during his presidency?... Will Biden, in thenuclear negotiations with Iran, cancel the designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization in order to succeed with the nuclear deal?! We are witnessing a decline in trust in America." Saudi writer Abdul Hadi Al-Shehri warned the Biden administration that it would be making a grave mistake by removing the IRGC from the terrorism list: "I think that when you remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from the list of terrorist organizations, you will make a big mistake, and this will lead to the spread ofIranian terrorism and this will affect the region and allies, and America and Europe will be vulnerable to direct Iranian terrorism." Bahraini journalist and political analyst Abdul Majed Jalal accused the Biden administration of "betraying" its Arab allies. "The Biden administration is considering canceling the decision to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization as part of its efforts to revivethe nuclear deal with Iran. The mere idea is a clear American betrayal of its allies in the Gulf! The Gulf no longer has much trust in America." Dr. Fahad bin Jumah, former member of the Economy and Energy Committee in Saudi Arabia, commented: "Supporting Iran, returning to the nuclear agreement, and trying to remove the Revolutionary Guard from the list of terrorism, as he did previously with the Houthis, areamong the unforgivable mistakes of Mr. Biden." Masood A. R., an Iranian opponent of the mullahs, Addressing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, wrote: "Mr. Blinken, it will be a true holiday for Iranians when they get rid of the murderous [Iranian] regime to which you are making terrible concessions. Mr. Blinken, the Iranianpeople will not forgive the US if the Revolutionary Guard, the largest terrorist organization backed by an official government, is removed from the list of terrorism." Iraqi social media user Kirar Al-Atiyya added his voice to that of an increasing number of Arabs who were shocked by the news concerning the IRGC: "If this news is true about the Biden administration's intention to remove the Revolutionary Guard militia from the list of terrorism, this would be the mother of all disasters.The Revolutionary Guard gangs have committed many crimes. They also contributed to the recruitment of children into the ranks of the terrorist Houthi militia." Judging from the severe consternation in the Arab countries over Biden's mistaken and disastrous policies towards Iran and its terrorist proxies, it's safe to assume thatUS credibility has plummeted in the Arab world. From the Arab point of view, it seems as though the US has chosen to side with the world's largest terrorist organization -- the IRGC -- a move that poses an imminent threatto Arab security and the stability of the entire region. The question arises: If the Biden administration believes that the Houthi militia and the IRGC are not terrorist organizations, then why not also remove Al-Qaeda, ISIS,Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from the blacklist? Indeed, if the US administration believes that it can do business with these terrorists and their sponsors in Tehran, then why not own up to its policies and straightforwardlydeclare all these terrorist groups as America's newest allies? -------------------------- SCOTUS nominee evasive but telling - Bill Wilson � www.dailyjot.com Joe Biden�s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, is taking heat from Republicans for going soft on child pornographers and refusing to define the word �woman.� Her answers to some of these questions are very straightforward as if they were coached: �I�m not a biologist,� she replied to a question about whether the �viability standard� established in Roe v Wade is arbitrary. Asked to define the word �woman,� she responded, �I�m not a biologist.� In response to a question about whether schools should teach children that they can choose their gender, Jackson answered, �Senator, I�m not making comments about what schools can teach.� All answers are evasive, but telling. Throughout the Senate hearings on her confirmation to the Supreme Court, Jackson has answered questions claiming she doesn�t know the answer. For example, she said thatshe doesn�t agree that American society is irredeemably racist, but noted that she has not studied Critical Race Theory. These issues that involve children, and are likely to make their way to the Supreme Court, such as teaching Critical Race Theory and homosexualityand transgenderism to young children in government schools ought to be topics a SCOTUS nominee can discuss in depth. Jackson answered them as if she was unfamiliar with the issue. She tried repeatedly to separate her stated political beliefs from her dutiesas a judge. On the question of precedent (stare decisis), Jackson said that she would determine on an individual basis whether the law should be overturned, except in the case of abortion,which she said she would rely on the precedent already established by SCOTUS. When asked if it was her understanding that under the current SCOTUS precedent that a woman had the right to abort a child up to and including the time of delivery, she replied,she�s �not aware of the court having made a pronouncement about whether or not regulation can extend all the way up until birth. I�m just not aware of that.� Asked if she believed in Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg�s opinion that there are physical differencesbetween men and women, she said, �Respectfully, I am not familiar with that particular quote and case, so it is hard for me to comment.� A Supreme Court nominee is refusing to give direct answers to pertinent questions about issues of the day. It doesn�t meet the �straight face� test that she cannot provideanswers. We can see clearly from past speeches, writings and opinions that Jackson personally supports the pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, pro-transgender, pro-Critical Race Theory agenda of the extreme left. But she won�t admit to them under testimony. At facevalue, why would anyone accept someone to the highest court of the land that can�t define the word �woman,� won�t admit that there are physical differences between the sexes, and has no opinion on critical race theory (although she has supported it publicly)?Jeremiah 8:8 says, �How can you say, �We are wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us,� when in fact the lying pen of the scribes has produced a deception?� Indeed. ---------------------------- The Corruption In Washington D.C. Is Far Worse Than Most AmericansCan Possibly Imagine - by Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/the-corruption-in-washington-d-c-is-far-worse-than-most-americans-can-possibly-imagine/ Most Americans realize that there is corruption in Washington, but very few understand how deep it really goes. If the general population really did grasp how corrupt ourpoliticians have truly become, there would be endless protests in the streets of Washington starting tomorrow. Unfortunately, most of us are still convinced that one of the major political parties will ultimately vanquish the other party and restore integrityto our system. But what if both major political parties are rotten to the core? From a very early age, we are trained to think in terms of �good guys� and �bad guys�. Our stories, our movies, our television shows and even our video games feature �heroes� and �villains�, and we are taught to fully embrace those that are fighting for �good� and to passionately hate those that are doing �evil�. But the real world doesn�t work that way. Unfortunately, way too often there are no �good guys� in a real world scenario. I can think of a number of prominent examples that are in the news right now. Sometimes itis just �the bad guys� vs. �the bad guys�, and that is because evil has become extremely pervasive in our world in modern times. To illustrate what I am trying to say, let me dig into a concrete example. On Thursday, an interview that John Lovell recently conducted with Congressman Madison Cawthorn was posted on YouTube, and it immediately sent shockwaves all over the nation. In that interview, Cawthorn revealed that there is a tremendous amount of �sexual perversion� that goes on in Washington. In fact, he says that he was actually invited toattend an orgy� �The sexual perversion that goes on in Washington � being kind of a young guy in Washington where the average age is probably 60 or 70, I look at all these people � a lotof them who I�ve looked up to throughout my life � then all of a sudden you get invited to like, �well hey we�re going to have kind of a sexual get together at one of our homes. You should come,� like, what did you just ask me to come to? And then you realizethey�re asking you to come to an orgy.� For Republicans, it would come as no surprise at all to hear that Democrats are involved in this sort of activity. But Madison Cawthorn is a Republican. And even though he didn�t explicitly say it, the truth is that the individual that invited Cawthorn to the orgy was almost certainlyalso a Republican. Of course Republicans are supposed to be the party of �family values�, but that hasn�t been true in reality for a very long time. Cawthorn also says that he has personally witnessed cocaine use among the Washington elite� �There�s some of the people that are leading the movement to try and remove addiction in our country and then you watch them doing, you know, a key bump of cocaine in frontof you and it�s like wow, this is wild.� Yes, this sort of thing really does go on in Washington. Many go to Congress as idealistic young lawmakers, but it isn�t too long before many of them are corrupted. The elite will just keep probing until they find a weakness. For some it is sex, for some it is drugs, for some it is gambling, and for some it is extreme wealth. And once they identify a weakness that they can exploit, it is game over. This is something that Cawthorn also commented on during the interview� �So many people trade in secrets, and there�s a currency to secrets,� he continued. Most disturbingly, he claimed that members of the media deliberately go after these secretsin order to �keep nasty stories about you or other people on a shelf,� ready to use as blackmail. �If you�re about to speak out against something they don�t want you to, they�ll come out and say �we�re about to drop this story of when 17 years ago you did X, Y, and Z,and you don�t want us to drop that story do you, so we�re going to bully you back into this position.�� Cawthorn added. The elite want politicians that they can control, and blackmail is one of the easiest ways to do that. Most of the �secrets� in Washington never see the light of day, because politicians that get compromised tend to fall in line and do what they are told. Once in a while a member of Congress can get out of control, and that is when the hammer is brought down really hard. If you have not seen it yet, you can find the full interview with Cawthorn right here. Needless to say, Cawthorn is not supposed to talk about these things. There is anunwritten rule in Washington that you never talk about how Washington really works. Now that Cawthorn has broken that rule, he will be targeted. He may not realize it, but he is actually in great danger. Cawthorn was elected to Congress in 2020, and the elite are not likely to allow him to stick around for long. In fact, a long list of primary challengers is now coming afterhis seat. If you want a long political career in Washington, you should never talk about the evil that you see. And that goes double for all the sexual stuff that goes on. But these days, most voters won�t even care if a sexual scandal is revealed. Many politicians on both sides of the aisle are involved in activity that is extremely depraved,but they will just keep winning elections even if everyone learns what is going on. And that is because the general population of the country is in an advanced state of moral decay. Republicans like to accuse Democrats of all sorts of things, and many of them are true, but one survey found that Republicans are even more likely to use a prominent adulterywebsite than Democrats are� Republicans are apparently more prone to cheating on their spouses than Democrats are, according to survey conducted by a website that helps married people to have affairs. The website Ashley Madison found that 60 percent of its members are Republican, while less than 40 percent were Democrats, in a survey it released last month. The reason why so many members of Congress can openly cheat on their spouses and get away with it is because a large proportion of the general population no longer has anymoral values either. The truth is that Washington has become a perfect reflection of society as a whole. Once someone is able to get to Congress, it can be an endless good time filled with sex, drugs and parties. And don�t forget about the cash. Most members of Congress are millionaires, and that includes many that somehow become millionaires after they get elected� Congress is an exclusive club. It�s also a wealthy one. More than half of those in Congress are millionaires, data from lawmakers� most recent personal financial disclosures shows. The median net worth of members of Congresswho filed disclosures last year is just over $1 million. As a society, if we condone the cesspool that Washington has become, then there is no hope for us. Right now we steamrolling down a road that leads to national suicide, and most Americans don�t seem to care. The Democrats are not �the good guys�, and they are definitely not going to save the nation. And as Madison Cawthorn has revealed, the Republicans are not �the good guys� either. The system that our forefathers established has been completely corrupted, and the American people should be deeply ashamed for allowing this to happen. ---------------------------- Bidenocrisy - Bill Wilson � www.dailyjot.com President Joe Biden Monday resolutely defended his remarks that could have lead America into an unnecessary and deadly conflict with Russia. Biden told a Warsaw, Polandcrowd during a Saturday speech that Russian leader Vladimir Putin, �For God�s sake, this man cannot remain in power.� Since then, the White House has been in damage control mode to walk back his comments amid Kremlin reaction that �This is a statement thatis certainly alarming.� Biden�s remarks, off script and ad-libbed, created an international firestorm that could have resulted in World War III. And despite the White House scrambling to take back Biden�s words, Biden himself declared, �I�m not walking anythingback.� The corporate news media that has been defensively carrying Biden�s propaganda about the disputed election, border security, inflation and COVID was seemingly aghast atthe possibility that such a gaffe could get them nuked. They went after Biden, who was armed with a cheat sheet so he wouldn�t repeat his Bidenocrisy. First question from NBC�s Kelly O�Donnell: �Do you believe what you said�that Putin can�t remain in power? Ordo you now regret saying that? Because your government has been trying to walk that back. Did your words complicate matters?� Biden responded defensively: �Number one, I�m not walking anything back. The fact of the matter is I was expressing the moral outrageI felt toward the way Putin is dealing, and the actions of this man � just � just the brutality of it.� He continued, �I want to make it clear: I wasn�t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change. I was expressing the moral outrage that I feel, and I make no apologiesfor it.� Then Biden dug a deeper hole answering Reuter�s� Steve Holland�s questions. Here is the exchange: Q. �So, if saying he cannot remain in power does not mean regime change, what does it mean in your view?� THE PRESIDENT: �It means that I would hope�Ijust was expressing my outrage. He shouldn�t remain in power. Just like, you know, bad people shouldn�t continue to do bad things. But it doesn�t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way.� Q. �What made you add that? Becausethat wasn�t in your prepared remarks, we were told. So what made you add that at the end, Mr. President?� THE PRESIDENT: �Because I was talking about�I was talking to the Russian people. The last part of the speech was talking to the Russian people, telling them what we thought. AndI was communicating this to not only the Russian people, but the whole world.� So there you have it from the actual transcript. Biden said Putin shouldn�t be in power, but he didn�t actually mean Putin shouldn�t be in power. Biden says his remarks didn�t escalateanything, but the world is abuzz over them. And finally, this shouldn�t matter because he was speaking to the Russian people, telling them their leader shouldn�t be in power. As is said in James 1:8, �he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.� Andthat�s not good for any of us. ------------------------- The Ruble, The Dollar and The Price of Gold � Who Is ReallyWinning The Economic Chess Game? - by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/the-ruble-the-dollar-and-the-price-of-gold-who-is-really-winning-the-economic-chess-game/ Russia has just made some moves that are going to change the global financial system forever. When the conflict in Ukraine originally erupted, the U.S. immediately attemptedto crash the value of Russia�s currency. Those attempts were successful for a few days, but now the value of the ruble relative to the U.S. dollar is almost all the way back to where it was before the start of the war. This has absolutely stunned many of theexperts, because they thought that U.S. sanctions would absolutely cripple Russia. So what happened? Well, it turns out that the Russians have made some very savvy moves that have turned the tables on the Biden administration. For one thing, Russia has started to demand payment in rubles when it sells natural gas to non-friendly nations. A lot of countries in western Europe are quite upset aboutthis, but they really have no choice, because they are exceedingly dependent on Russian gas. So from this point forward, western powers are actually going to be forced to help prop up the value of the ruble� Russia wants �unfriendly countries� to pay for Russian natural gas in rubles. That�s a new directive from President Vladimir Putin as he attempts to leverage his country�sin-demand resources to counter a barrage of Western sanctions. �I have decided to implement � a series of measures to switch payments � we�ll start with that � for our natural gas supplies to so-called unfriendly countries into Russianrubles,� Putin said in a televised government meeting, adding that trust in the dollar and euro had been �compromised� by the West�s seizure of Russian assets. Secondly, the Russians have decided that U.S. dollars will no longer be accepted as payment for anything that they sell to other nations. Pavel Zavalny, the head of theRussian parliament, says that U.S. currency �has lost all interest for us�� Much more interesting was Zavalny�s main point, even though it has been mostly overlooked. If other countries want to buy oil, gas, other resources or anything else fromRussia, he said, �let them pay either in hard currency, and this is gold for us, or pay as it is convenient for us, this is the national currency.� In other words, Russia is happy to accept your national currency � yuan, lira, ringgits or whatever � or rubles, or �hard currency,� and for them that no longer means U.S.dollars, it means gold. �The dollar ceases to be a means of payment for us, it has lost all interest for us,� Zavalny added, calling the greenback no better than �candy wrappers.� This is huge, but it isn�t being discussed much by the corporate media in the United States. The Russians aren�t just saying that they do not recognize U.S. dollars as the reserve currency of the world any longer. That would be bad enough. At this point, they are actually saying that they will no longer accept U.S. dollars as a form of payment at all. Wow. Thirdly, the central bank in Russia has fixed the value of the ruble to the price of gold for at least the next three months� The Russian central bank will restart buying gold from banks and will pay a fixed price of 5000 roubles ($52) per gramme between March 28 and June 30, the bank said on Friday. But you won�t hear about this on CNN or MSNBC. This is a move that could potentially change everything. Once upon a time, the value of the U.S. dollar was tied to gold, and that helped the U.S. dollar become the dominant currency on the entire planet. But then Nixon took us off the gold standard in the early 1970s, and things have gone haywire ever since. Now Russia has linked the value of the ruble to the price of gold, and many believe that this is really going to shake things up� �I am reminded of what the U.S. did in the middle of the Great Depression. For the next 40 years, gold�s price was pegged to the U.S. dollar at $35. There is a precedentfor this. It leads me to believe that Russia�s intention would be for the value of the ruble to be linked directly to the value of gold,� Gainesville Coins precious metals expert Everett Millman told Kitco News. �Setting a fixed price for rubles per gram ofgold seems to be the intention. That�s pretty important when it comes to how Russia could seek funding and manage its central bank financing outside of the U.S. dollar system.� Others believe that this move will create great instability in the global financial system. For example, Tom Luongo is warning that the following could soon happen� 1: At $1550 per ounce the first order effect here is that is implies a RUB/USD rate of around 75. Incentivizing those holding RUB to continue and those needing them to bidup the price from current levels. 2: This creates a positive incentive loop to bring the ruble back to pre-war levels. Then after that market effects take over as ruble demand becomes structural, based onRussia�s trade balance. 3: Once that happens and the RUB/USD falls below 75, then the USD price of gold rises structurally draining the paper gold markets and collapsing the financial system basedon leveraged/hypothecated gold. Now we�re into the arb. phase @Lukegromen postulated w/ 1000bbls/oz. Time will tell if Luongo is right or if he is wrong. But without a doubt, things have not played out the way that Biden administration officials were hoping. They had hoped that U.S. sanctions would crush the ruble, the Russian financial system and the entire Russian economy. Instead, the Russians have been able to successfully prop up the value of the ruble and have made moves that directly threaten the dominance of the U.S. dollar. No matter what happens with the ceasefire talks, I expect the United States and Russia to continue this economic conflict for the foreseeable future. Ultimately, that will be bad for both of our nations. And as history has shown, economic conflicts have a way of becoming shooting wars way too often. Needless to say, we definitely do not want a shooting war with Russia. Leaders on both sides should be attempting to find ways to achieve peace and to fix the tremendous damage that has already been done. Unfortunately, everyone seems to want to continue to escalate matters, and that should deeply alarm all of us. ---------------------------- Food Insecurity � Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ Sometime last year I wrote an article about how we were facing a shortage of food. We had drought conditions in the US, China, and South America. Normally, things balanceout by having a surplus of food production in some other area of the world. If we have a bad year in North America, the next year is likely to be normal or above average. The one thing that has been saving the world from a global famine is the increase in the yield per acre. In the 1940s, the average farmers were only able to produce 40 bushelsof corn per acre. Today, a farmer is able to get 144 bushels of corn from an acre of land. In 2020 we had a massive derecho hit the state of Iowa. Millions of acres were damaged by the wild storm. The yield for the whole nation was still up because we had a recordharvest per acre that year. Going forward, we cannot rely on higher yields because we simply have reached the limits of turning sunlight into grain. We had about four years in a row where our luck was bad for food production. We are weeks away from the planting of the 2022 crop, and there are already indications thatthis year will see a shortfall in food production. The condition of China�s winter wheat crop could be the �worst in history,� the agriculture minister said, raising concerns about grain supplies in the world�s biggest wheatconsumer. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the country�s annual parliament meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian said that rare heavy rainfall last year delayed the planting of about one-third of the normal wheat acreage. A survey of the winter wheat crop taken before the start of winter found that the amount of first- and second-grade crop was down by more than 20 percentage points, Tangsaid. �Not long ago, we went to the grassroots to do a survey, and many farming experts and technicians told us that crop conditions this year could be the worst in history,� he said. �This year�s grain production indeed faces huge difficulties.� Argentina has long been one of the largest exporters of corn and soybeans. It has halted all exports of soy products. Russia�s invasion of Ukraine disrupted the global foodsupply chain as the prospect of dwindling stockpiles catapulted food prices to record highs. According to a memo signed by Javier Preciado Patino, the secretary for agriculture markets, Argentina made moves last week to increase control over local farm goods bysuspending soybean meal and oil for export. Following the news from Argentina, soy meal futures prices jumped more than 2.2%. Since late February, Argentina has intervened in food markets with a subsidy for the domestic wheat industry similar to earlier policies for vegetable oils to mitigate soaringcosts for consumers. The UN expects global food prices could increase another 8%-20% from here. �The government typically puts a block on the export register, known as DJVE, before increasing taxes on shipments in order to stop farmers from preempting the hike witha flood of selling,� Bloomberg said, adding there�s speculation on commodity desks that Argentina will increase taxes on soy meal and oil to 33% from 31%. Soy traders tell Reuters the sudden halt in Argentine supplies will steer importers toward the United States and Brazil for replacement supplies. �Buyers have no choice but to reduce consumption or go to alternative sources for supplies,� said one Singapore-based trader. �We expect higher demand for U.S. meal. InSoutheast Asia, buyers such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand were heavily reliant on the Argentine meal.� Indonesia, the world�s largest exporter of cooking oil, will reduce exports of edible oils as a domestic shortage sparks panic hoarding among households, a sign of risingprotectionism around the world as countries deal with record-high food prices. The nation of Ukraine is the largest exporter of sunflower oil. There will obviously be a shortfall of this product on the global market. Russia is one of the largest exporters of fertilizer in the world. With Western sanctions blocking the movement of potash, ammonia, urea, and other soil nutrients, the yieldsof corn, soy, rice, and wheat are going to be hurt. In agricultural powerhouse Brazil, some farmers are already applying less fertilizer to their crops, and some federal legislators are pushing to open protected indigenouslands for the mining of potash. In Zimbabwe and Kenya, small farmers are reverting to using manure to nourish their crops. In Canada, one canola farmer has already stockpiled fertilizer for the 2023 season in anticipation of even higher prices ahead. Another blow to food production has been the spread of a highly pathogenic Bird Flu. Egg prices have soared as millions of chickens have been wiped out by the virus. Spreadby migratory bird droppings, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is reporting cases in 30 states, totaling roughly 13 million birds that have had to be killed. To find out why we are having so many problems with food production, we need to turn to Bible prophecy. Jesus said that calamitous events would be the warning sign of thelast days. They would get worse over time, like birth pangs. This is what we are experiencing, so the rapture must be very near. �As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. �Tell us,� they said, �when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your comingand of the end of the age?� Jesus answered: �Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, �I am the Messiah,� and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such thingsmust happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains'� (Matthew 24:3-8, NIV). --------------------------- The Deadly Tax - By Hal Lindsey - https://www.hallindsey.com/ww-6-2-2021/ The third of the �Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse� is usually known as �Scarcity.� It might also be called �Inflation.� Revelation 6:6 describes a situation during the sevenyears of tribulation. �A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius.� A �denarius� represents a day�s pay. Imagine working all day for a quart of wheat or three quarts of barley. This denotes scarcity, but also inflation. Money won�t buy whatit used to. Americans experienced heavy inflation in the 1970s. But that is nothing compared to the hyperinflation experienced by Venezuelans over the last few years. From 2016 to 2019,the inflation rate in Venezuela rose to 53 million percent. That�s not a typo. The number comes from the Central Bank of Venezuela. Can you fathom what such inflation would do to a savings account or to anyone on a fixed income? We Americans remember �double-digit� inflation as a nightmare. They experienced �eight-digit� inflation! In the last few months, inflation has again become noticeable in the United States. Also, for the first time in a long time, Americans have seen shortages of important commodities.Both the shortages and the inflation seem to be getting worse. The question is, how bad will it get? The answer doesn�t look good. On Friday, May 28th, 2021 the Biden Administration submitted a new budget proposal to Congress. According to USA Today, �The budget projectsthe federal debt would increase, relative to the size of the economy, to a higher level than during World War II.� Venezuela and many other countries trace their hyperinflation to high government debt. High debt forces governments to create money to pay their debts. Vast amounts of moneyenter the economy, but that money loses value. The US Federal Reserve controls the money supply in the United States. But where does the Fed get its money? According to Investopedia, �The Fed creates money through openmarket operations, i.e. purchasing securities in the market using new money, or by creating bank reserves issued to commercial banks.� They �create money.� They are �creating bank reserves.� They make �new money� as needed. They still print cash, but that�s a small part of today�s money supply. Most moneytoday is digital. Partially in response to the Covid-induced economic slowdown, the Fed has been creating a lot of money. Meanwhile, the government has been spending money at staggering levels. This spending spree is not just happening in the United States. It is a worldwide phenomenon. That means the whole globe could be headed for a financial crisis of massiveproportions. According to Revelation 13, the Antichrist and False Prophet will come to control the global economy. It sounds like the world will be in such great financial desperation that they will give the planetary power of the purse to their new leader.We seem to be headed for such a crisis. And in Venezuela, they learned that it can happen fast. Is it time for despair? Not if you are a disciple of Jesus. He made certain promises to you. Those promises do not depend on the monetary policies of your country, or thevalue of the money in your savings account. In times like this, it�s important to lean into Him. Trust Him. Walk in His grace. Don�t let the signs of the times make you afraid. Instead, allow them to give you confidence that the God who promised to take care of you is still in charge. Things arehappening exactly as He said they would. ------------------------------------ Lies and Censorship - Bill Wilson � www.dailyjot.com The extreme left (translated Democratic Party) is batting zero percent on big ticket claims against those with whom it disagrees. In fact, on just about every issue of corruptionaccusations and misinformation assertions by the Democratic Party and their lapdog legacy media, they have been proven wrong. Not only are they wrong, in many cases members of the accusing class were doing exactly or worse than what they accused. Taking inventory�Russiancorruption charges against President Trump were found baseless, yet his opponent Hillary Clinton, her husband and her campaign chairman were milking millions from Russian pay to play schemes through their Clinton Foundation. There�s more. Joe Biden bragged about holding up Ukraine defense funds until an investigation of his son, Hunter, was dropped by the Ukraine government. Donald Trump was falsely broughtup on impeachment charges for asking for information on Hunter�s corruption in Ukraine. Then there is the tip of the iceberg of corruption being played out with Hunter�s laptop, which the news media claimed was a hoax, but now is proven to be true. At thetime the New York Post broke the story, every legacy media outlet of note condemned the story as a Russian misinformation campaign. As it turns out, it was a misinformation campaign conducted by the Democratic Party and corporate media to suppress the truth.These are the things that swayed the election in favor of Biden. But wait, the election. The legacy media and Democratic Party declared there was no election fraud and that the 2020 presidential election was not stolen. They backed up their claim by ridiculing,demonizing, and canceling anyone who begged to differ. Since then, election fraud has been uncovered in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Texas. A True the Vote investigation reveals that 137,500 2020 presidential ballots in Wisconsinwere unlawfully trafficked, bringing the total to 4.8 million nationwide. Biden �beat� Trump in Wisconsin by less than 21,000 votes. James Bopp, Jr., an elections attorney for 49 years, told the Wisconsin Assembly�s Committee on Campaigns and Elections thatDemocrats filed 425 lawsuits leading up to the 2020 election to insure ineligible people remained on the voter rolls and to stop anti-fraud protections. And how about the lies and censorship surrounding the COVID vaccine? Effective? It didn�t prevent the disease or the transmission of it. Safe? The Epoch Times has documentedover 400 SCIENTIFIC studies that refute the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, and effectiveness of the lockdowns, and treatments. Yet, those health professionals, doctors and scientists that dare questioned the government�s propaganda on COVID were censored,demonized and many lost their jobs. And hundreds of thousands lost their lives due to mandated government treatments and more are suffering side effects of the vaccine on a day to day basis. Proverbs 19:9 says, �A false witness shall not be unpunished, andhe that speaks lies shall perish.� There is a whole lot of justice that needs to take place. Meantime, it�s, say it with me�Stupidocrisy. ------------------------- Russia and Iran: The New Axis of Evil - Why Is the US Bankrolling Them?- by Con Coughlin - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18385/russia-iran-axis-of-evil Thanks to the Biden administration's ill-judged obsession with reviving the flawed nuclear deal with Iran, the world can soon look forward to the creation of a new "axisof evil" between Russia and Iran. In recent months, as negotiations over reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the deal's official title, have continued in Vienna, Western negotiatorshave expressed concern about the negative support Iran is receiving from Russia in the talks. Instead of concentrating on key issues, such as Iran's enrichment activities that Western intelligence officials believe are part of Tehran's attempts to develop nuclearweapons, the Russians have encouraged the Iranian negotiating team to focus on relatively minor issues, such as the location of monitoring cameras at key Iranian nuclear installations, which are vital for monitoring their enrichment facilities. Now Western security officials believe that Iran and Russia have struck a cooperation deal to work together to evade Western sanctions once a new nuclear deal has been agreedby the Biden administration. Iran is known to have established a clandestine banking and finance system to handle tens of billions of dollars in annual trade banned under U.S.-led sanctions. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Iranian system comprises accounts in foreign commercial banks, proxy companies registered outside the country, firms that coordinatethe banned trade, and a transaction clearinghouse within Iran. The Kremlin is desperate to find ways to circumvent Western sanctions that have been imposed in retaliation for Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to launch anunprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions have had a devastating impact on the Russian economy, with the rouble losing half its value since the start of the year. To mitigate the impact of the sanctions, which are likely to remain in place for as long as Mr Putin remains in power, the Kremlin is desperately looking for new sanctions-bustingopportunities. In secret negotiations conducted between Russian and Iranian officials in recent weeks, Iran, according to Western security officials, has offered to provide Russia with access to its illegal sanctions-busting network in return for Moscow'ssupport in getting a new nuclear deal in place. Iran is desperate to sign a new agreement in return for the Biden administration agreeing to lift the crippling economic sanctions against Iran which, despite its effortsto evade the measures, has still had a negative impact on the country's economy, prompting widespread anti-regime protests. Last month, EU officials involved in the talks said that an agreement was "essentially ready and on the table," but the talks stalled after Russia demanded that its existingtrading ties with Iran would not be affected as a result of the Western sanctions imposed against Moscow over Ukraine. Russia and Iran are in the process of negotiating a multi-billion dollar arms deal, including the purchase of Russian warplanes and submarines, and Moscow is keen that thedeal will not be scuppered as a result of Western sanctions. Consequently, Russia is looking to Iran for support in circumventing Western sanctions. Following a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Chinathis week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that Moscow would work with Tehran to take steps to evade Western sanctions, the RIA news agency reported. Western security officials believe the outline of a sanctions-busting deal between Moscow and Tehran is already in place, with Iran promising not to enforce Western sanctionsagainst Russia. As part of the deal, Iran has offered to use its existing evasion network to help Russia sell its oil on international markets once the nuclear deal is signed, and sanctions have been lifted against Tehran. Plans by Russia and Iran to cooperate on evading international sanctions certainly provide a strong argument in favour of the Biden administration ending its obsession withconcluding a new nuclear deal with Iran. The White House has already attracted bitter criticism following Iran's latest demand at the Vienna talks that the US agrees to remove Iran's Islamic Revolutionary GuardCorps (IRGC) from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). The prospects of Washington agreeing to that demand may have altered slightly, but not nearly enough, after the US this week imposed new sanctions against Iran and an IRGCunit in response to recent missile attacks launched against Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and Shia militias. The imposition of these measures is certainly a long overdue recognition by the Biden administration that Iran is simply exploiting the nuclear negotiations to further itsown regional ambitions. And the fact that Iran and Russia are now actively colluding to evade Western sanctions, thereby forming a new "axis of evil", should finally persuade the White House to end once and for all its involvement in this gross act of diplomaticfolly. -------------------------------------