It's 7:00 AM EDT as Trump's arrival in Israel plays in the background while inserting video clips and commentary from his speech yesterday in Saudi Arabia. Trump is hoping to seal the ultimate deal to bring stability, security and peace to the Middle East, and defeat terrorism. Not so easily done as his words change from moment to moment and that is not our programmed experience. I suppose in his heart he would love to be the one to achieve what those before him could not, but the world is simply not ready for compromise especially from such an unpopular American leader. As you known Trump is all about optics and the theater of politics.
Polite formalities continue ...
Trump's two-day visit in Israel will include separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Earlier, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that Trump feels like there's a moment in time here to advance peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. With unprecedented security for his massive entourage, Trump will also go to landmarks like the Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and be the first sitting president to visit the Western Wall.
After running a decidedly pro-Israel campaign and taping three Orthodox Jews to top positions, Trump's visit to Israel should have been one of the easiest stops on his first overseas trip. But as the new president is learning, nothing is easy and he doesn't really call the shots. From the White House choice of words over the location of the Western Wall to uncertainty over whether or not the U.S. will move its embassy, there are many diplomatic landmines Trump will have to navigate in the Holy Land.
Back at home ... dramas heat up as late night talk show hosts create story lines and monologues.
If you are holding onto personal information from your past that triggers negative emotional responses and blocks your clarity, remember that the brain is a computer and it's time to "clear your memory". The past, in streaming consciousness, is just another grid you observed and "jumped" into for experience.
Back story today from the New York Times
On this day in 1849, an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln was issued a patent for a flotation system to lift riverboats stuck on sandbars. According to the National Museum of American History, Lincoln started boating as a teenager, along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. His device was never built, but a model of it that he had made is now housed in the museum.
Lincoln remains the only U.S. patent holder to have occupied the presidency. That made us wonder: Which other presidents held unusual titles?
In an 1862 obituary, The Times called John Tyler "the most unpopular public man that had ever held any office" in the U.S. But the presidential historian Robert Dallek isn't sure Tyler could claim that distinction: "There are plenty of rivals," he said.
At least two presidents had Native American honors: Calvin Coolidge, or "Chief Leading Eagle," was made a member of the Sioux in 1927, and Barack Obama was 'adopted' by the Crow Nation.
Grover Cleveland acted as the hangman at an execution while serving as a county sheriff.
Herbert Hoover was a mining engineer.
Lyndon B. Johnson taught elementary school.
Donald Trump: You fill in what you think he'll be remembered for. Hey ... watch your language ... remember your "Mother" board is watching.
Today, I returned to the Gazebo in Cannonball Park, across the street, with a client/friend named Joe after we finished his reading. There, we discovered an interesting painted wooden object which looked liked chakras to Joe and balanced stones to me. We don't know were it came from, but interesting things are often left there. George and I once hung a clear quartz crystal from the top a few days before I did a crystal workshop in the park.
