"I am the Good Shepherd"

 

‘I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep.  So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.  Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that are not of this fold.  I must bring them also.  They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.'

John 10:11-16

“Woe to the shepherds, who have been feeding only themselves.  You eat the fat, you take the wool, and you slaughter the fattest animal, but you do not feed the flock.  You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bandaged the injured or brought back the strays or looked for the lost; rather, you have ruled them with harshness and tyranny."

Ezekiel 34:1-4

"With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty.   Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today among us human creatures."

Abraham Lincoln, Baltimore Maryland, April 18, 1864d

"See what love
the Father has bestowed on us,
enabling us to be called the children of God,
and that is what we are.
If the world does not recognize us,
that is because it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now.
What we shall be has not yet been revealed.
However, we do know that when he appears
we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he really is."

1 John 3:1-2

"What is a proper disposition towards life? It is to accept God as a loving father, who is full of tenderness and forgiveness for us, despite our willful blunders and hardened hearts. He yearns for us, as a father and mother yearn for the return of their most beloved child.   It is to accept that we are not lost, we are not abandoned. We are wandering like a wayward child, full of our own headstrong delusions. And our father waits expectantly, calling out for us through the darkness. He sends the spirit out to find us, a light to find our way home to him out of the gloom of the night."

Jesse, Acceptance and Forgiveness, 2 January 2018

"They sing to the sound of the tambourine and the harp and rejoice at their playing of the flute.  They spend their days in prosperity and go down quietly into the abyss.  They say to God, 'Leave us alone!   We do not want to learn your ways.  Who is the Almighty that we should serve him?   And what would we gain by praying to him?  Is not the prosperity of the wicked the result of their own efforts, since they have never sought God’s help?'"

Job 21:12-16

And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”’

Revelation 7:13-17

“The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is all about."

Fulton J. Sheen

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - They Annihilate Truth, and Prophesy Illusions

 

"Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
      inscribe it on a scroll,
so that in the days to come
      it may be a witness to them, for ever and ever.
For these are a rebellious people, deceitful children,
      unwilling to listen to the instructions of the Lord.
They say to their seers,
      ‘Do not see!’
and to the prophets,
      ‘Say nothing of what is right!
Tell us only things that please us,
      prophesy illusions."

Isaiah 30:8-10

"The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals.  The whole culture is geared to this.  The result is that the average individual does not experience the separateness and isolation that the fully schizophrenic person feels.  In fact, it is the fully sane person who feels isolated in the insane society.   

Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality; they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into a sadist or a destroyer."

Erich Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, 1973

“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda.  It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”

Garry Kasparov


Stocks once again shook off geopolitical and economic risks, and rallied into the green. 

But as we have seen several times this week, those who bought the dip found themselves holding positions as stocks gradually sank deeper into the red as the day wore on.

Gold and silver finished higher, after having given back all of their 'flight to safety' gains from the night before.

VIX is elevated.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

Illusions can become a powerful addiction.

They allow a people increasingly consumed by madness to blind themselves, as they slide quietly into the abyss.

His children have been freed of the illusions of the world, and instructed to stand in the light, to be a light to his people, as the darkness spreads over the land.

And the world will hate them for it.  For the madness serves none but itself.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Currency War, What Is It Good For? - Crimea River

 

"Another amusing incident arose from the fact that the Reichsbank maintained a not inconsiderable gold deposit in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Strong was proud to be able to show us the vaults which were situated in the deepest cellar of the building and remarked:

'Now, Herr Schacht, you shall see where the Reichsbank gold is kept.'

While the staff looked for the hiding place of the Reichsbank gold we went through the vaults.We waited several minutes: at length we were told:

'Mr. Strong, we can't find the Reichsbank gold.'

Strong was flabbergasted but I comforted him. 'Never mind: I believe you when you say the gold is there. Even if it weren't you are good for its replacement.'"

Hjalmar Schacht, Autobiography: Confessions of 'The Old Wizard', 1956, p.245

“Currency warfare is the most destructive form of economic warfare."

Harry Dexter White, US Representative to Bretton Woods, 1944

"This is a story based on a report out of the Ukraine.  Obviously I do not know yet if it is accurate.  The information coming out of the Ukraine and Crimea should be sifted carefully, no matter what the source. I find this one hard to believe.  I am informed by highly reliable people that no one cares about gold anymore.  And very important analysts claim that transporting many tonnes of gold is very difficult, and so unwieldy and fraught with peril that it must be a multiyear project... Just ask Germany."

Jesse, Ukraine Gold Reserves Said To Be Put On Plane For Safekeeping in the US, 9 March 2014

"Like quite a few people I found myself asking, 'Why the Ukraine?  Why the sudden push there, risking conflict with Russia on their own doorstep?  Why are we suddenly risking all to support what was clearly an extra-legal coup d'état?

It is telling perhaps that one of the first things that happened after the coup d'état is that the Ukraine's gold was on a flight to New York.

Follow the money.

Jesse, Ukraine: The Global Corporate Annexation, 21 April 2014

"As per the report of a source from the Ukrainian Government, the Ukrainian gold reserves were confirmed to be moved on an aircraft from the Bristol Airport at Kiev to the United States. The report says that about 40 tons of gold was flown from Ukraine to US. However, according to the World Gold Council, Ukraine has in store 36 tons of gold reserves."

Ploumis, Ukraine Gold Reserves Reported To Be Hastily Aircrafted To U.S, Shanghai Metals Market, 12 Mar 2014

YIV, July 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine's central bank has sold $12.4 billion of gold reserves since the beginning of Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, the bank's deputy head said on Sunday. "We are selling (this gold) so that our importers are able to buy necessary goods for the country," Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova told national television. She said the gold was not being sold to shore up Ukraine's hryvnia currency."

Reuters, Ukraine central bank has sold over $12 billion of its gold reserves, July 17,2022

"Gold Reserves in Ukraine remained unchanged at 27.06 tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2023 from 27.06 tonnes in the third quarter of 2023.  Gold Reserves in Ukraine averaged 25.29 tonnes from 2000 until 2023, reaching an all time high of 42.61 tonnes in the first quarter of 2014 and a record low of 13.40 Tonnes in the first quarter of 2000."  source: World Gold Council

Trading Economics, Ukraine Gold Reserves, 2024

 

I have not been able lately to find out exactly where the gold of the Ukraine is, and any encumbrances and claims there may be placed on it.  Although there does seem to be less of it, and the Ukraine minister knows what it was not used for.  

The World Bank and the World Gold Council have been reporting that nation's reserves including FX and gold, but the details seem to be a bit hard for me to find in the fog of war.  But I am sure it is safe somewhere, and being put to good use on behalf of the people. 

But I seem to recall when the people of Germany asked for the return of their gold in 2012, that request presented a mountain of practical difficulties.  

I am sure this will all be sorted out in time, as Herr Schacht had said, so many years ago.

Stocks slid down to their next support levels again today.  

There seems to be a disturbance in the force.

Stock option expiration tomorrow.

Gold bounced, while silver lost a bit more of its recent gains.

The Dollar bounced back up to the 106 handle.

The VIX is waffling around at a slightly highest level.

The geopolitical environment is simmering on several fronts of proximate interest to the US.

Uncle Joe the peacemaker.

Have a pleasant evening.