THE TRUMP IS ABOUT TO TRUMPET

OF COURSE!!!  GET READY!!  TRUMP IS ABOUT ROCK THE WORLD . . . THE TRUMP IS ABOUT TO TRUMPET.

           《《《《《《《  MARK MY WORDS  》》》》》》》

On Thursday last week Trump announced his first foreign trip as President of the United States. He is going to Saudi Arabia, then Israel, and finally Rome. Dates were not specified, but it has been reported that the trip will take place during the week of May 21.

Trump singled out the first visit to Saudi Arabia, where he will begin his trip, as especially significant. The president noted it was the custodian of the two holiest Islamic sites. His next stop is sure to be Jerusalem. That is where the Trump will Trumpet!

The symbolism of the stops is in itself significant.  They represent spiritual centers of three major Middle East religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  I believe Trump chose to focus on Saudi Arabia first in order to emphasize Islam's two most holy sites: the Masjib al-Haram mosque in Mecca, and the al-Masjib an-Nabawi "Mosque of the Prophet" located in Medina.

Trump's attempt to show respect to Saudi Arabia may play well with Sunni Muslims.  But it won't do the trick for Shia Muslims when Trump's next leg on his journey stops in Jerusalem where the al Aqsa, "the Farthest Mosque" is located in the Old City of Jerusalem. Keep in mind that the Old City was united with East Jerusalem as a result of the Six-Day War!

Trump's final stop in Rome and the Vatican is playing to his personal beliefs, and Catholics around the world. His ridiculous comment during the announcement last week about "his Cardinals" was a poorly worded phrase, but it was still an obvious reference to Catholicism. Of course, Jerusalem has more significance to Christianity at large than the Vatican, and so I think Trump's decision to visit Rome as his final stop is as important to Trump personally as it is to Catholics as a major sub-group of Christians.

The BIGGEST SYMBOLIC FEATURE of his trip that is built into President Trump's announcement last Thursday, WITHOUT EVEN A MERE MENTION, will be what ROCKS THE WORLD!

Yom Yerushalayim begins at sundown on Tue, 23 May 2017. Jerusalem Day (Hebrew: יום ירושלים, Yom Yerushalayim). It is an Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City in June 1967. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel declared Jerusalem Day a minor religious holiday to thank God for victory in the Six-Day War and for answering the 2,000-year-old prayer of "Next Year in Jerusalem".

This is what I expect Trump to Trumpet.  On Yom Yerushalayim, or perhaps the day before, President Trump will announce that he is NOT signing the NECESSARY waiver to keep the USA Embassy from moving back to Jerusalem through an act of Congress in 1995!! By not signing the "waiver" the President is defacto moving the USA Embassy back to Jerusalem, where it was prior to the Six-Day War.  THAT IS THE DAY WHEN THE BATTLE BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL BEGINS.

The President's FUTURE EMBASSY RELOCATION announcement will cause all ALL HELL TO BREAKOUT AT THE DOME OF THE ROCK, the place that most of the Muslim world regards as the third most holy sight, built on top of the Israelite Temple ruins in the Old City section of Jerusalem. Predictably, violent protests will erupt on the Temple Mount and in the West Bank. In all likelihood crazy attacks on Israel will be launched from Gaza by Hamas and Lebanon by Hezbollah.

Trump HOPES his diplomacy in Saudi Arabia will keep them out of the fray. It very well may.  With the aid of his son-in-law Jared Kushner even before Rex Tillerson's confirmation, Trump has been making major efforts to neutralize Saudi Arabia since taking office. Most recently in April with the Royal family's visit and private talks at the Whitehouse.  What's in it for the Saudis, one might wonder. I think the answer is what the President's trip will mean for Iran!!

The price to Iran will be delivered by ISRAEL'S Defense Forces when they use Yom Yerushalyim as a great rallying call to put down the massive Shia uprising which I expect will result from President Trump's announcement. It is quite possible that Israel will also make a strike on Iran's ballistic missile sites and other key targets that are a threat to Israel at this time too. This may happen even if Iran does not provoke Israel, but will almost surely happen if Iran lends any support, even verbal, to the Shia attackers/protesters. It is hard to imagine that Iran will stay out of it.  Inevitable verbal threats against Israel, as well as calls for worldwide Jihad are to bound to be preached by the Ayatollahs and Clerics.

Unlike the Six-Day War that Yom Yerushalayim marks, during which Israel overcame attacks from all sides and multiple Arab nations, this time I pray, the conflict will isolate Iran, and it's proxy Lebanon, and more specifically Hezbollah!

Rhetoric coming out of leaders in Israel indicate that in the next conflict, Israel is going to be taking off the gloves with Hezbollah as well as Hamas in Gaza and the West back. Israeli police and military could be far more aggressive than we have seen in several decades.  I can imagine Bibi saying "this is for you Yonatan" in his prayers.  (My Jewish friends should recognize the double meaning of my remark.)

Trump and Israel have laid a lot diplomatic track down the last "100 Days" in order to provide Israel the ability to focus it's defense forces and plan it's strategies & tactics.  I even think that North Korea, along with other prominent stories in media, have helped to draw attention away from what is being planned behind the scenes -- the heavy diplomatic and military maneuvering that is going on to set the stage for what is about to happen.  For example, Israel has been equipped and trained to fly the USA's newest F35 strike fighter. They even battle tested them (during Purim) in preemptive raids on Syrian weapons depots and the supply chain for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel also tested their new Iron Dome missile defense system

Syria posses little threat at this time. Several pre-emptive military strikes by Israel over the last two months have gone unanswered. Plus, years of civil war leave Syria in no position to take military action against Israel. In fact, many of those wounded in Syria are being treated in Israeli hospitals.

Even before the Election, Trump has been signaling Putin that Russia's relations with the USA need to improve.  Once in office and as soon Trump could his top diplomat confirmed, active diplomacy began with Secretary of State Tillerson taking a major trip to Russia, which he just wrapped up. Israel is on excellent terms with Putin and Russia. The two countries have very strong diplomatic and economic ties.  Russia has no desire to pick a fight with Israel.  And I don't see it helping it's ally Iran.

With respect to Jordan, I have to believe Trump sought and received assurances to "Stand Down" from Jordan's King last month, during his trip to the White House.

Egypt probably has the best diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, so do not expect them to get involved. They will be dealing with their own internal anti-Israel anti-Sunni protesters when all this happens! And, probably taking the opportunity to use events as a distraction for some brutal force against Shia Iran supporters.

Like during the Six-Day War, the United States has Israel's back. Recent military actions and displays send a strong signal to anyone needing it, that the arm of the US Military reaches around the world.  Examples include 59 Tomahawk cruise missile attack on the Syrian airbase, the MOAB dropped on ISIS caves in Afghanistan, and the two successful long-range Minute-Man Ballistic missile tests.

Yes, I think the Trump is about to Trumpet, THIS YEAR IN JERUSALEM!

----------------------------------------------------
This is a topic I have said much about previously.  Here are some of my previous related blog posts:

Time for the Gallows

This May Make the Arab Spring Look Like Nothing

Countdown to Purim

Trump Has Gone Radio Silent

Radical Departure From Radical Islam

The Far Sides Increasing the Divide

Great move by President Trump not to be at the White House Correspondents Dinner. What a terrific juxtaposition in images.

In one image you have the President with middle class Americans and middle America blue collar workers celebrating his actions and plans for making America greater, safer and more prosperous. And in the OTHER image you have smug jokesters and vengeful biased media, dressed in tuxedos and jewels at a highbrow dinner in the heart of the D.C. swamp with an agenda to discredit and mock that very effort.  Sadly, those two images tell you everything you need to know about Washington today.

In America there is the majority Party sent to Washington, as well as the vast majority of State Capitals, to lead.  And, then there is the other Party that is determined to undermine that leadership.

It is incumbent on both of parties to seek some basis for compromise.  On the other hand, if the party in leadership continues to be treated the way that the minority party and the media are acting, then Leadership must act to fulfill it's promise to those who put them in power. That is just the way it works, for better or worse.

It is not in the LONG term interests for a country to be unable to address large problems that require LONG term vision and policies, to be changing course again and again.

Such is the damaging effects of partisanship, which George Washington warned us of. That is what is happening, and so we will continue to get this whipsaw pendulum political atmosphere in which the far sides of policy and politics increases the divide in America.

People continue to move to the far side of their respective parties.  It is becoming harder and harder to move to the middle, especially with the media and celebrities being so predominately far left and continuing to fan the flames as they did at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Also, there is nearly fascist treatment by far left faculty on college campuses that continue to block free speech from the right and in turn are motivating the rise of young Republican and conservative student audiences.  With such fascist like behavior, one can be shocked but should not surprised by the rise in violence.

The Democrats would do well to recall George Washington's advice to Alexander Hamilton who found himself in the minority in Congress. Essentially, Washington told Hamilton to work it out - to compromise.  And so should the Republicans the next time they find themselves in a minority.

Or, have we become so philosophically divided that we are unable recognize shared underlying values?  That truly would threaten the great American experiment our Founding Fathers started.

I am an optimist.  But I have evidence that America can withstand this test, because we withstood an even greater test, under a Republican President no less, named Abraham.  If America will remember the Judea-Christian values we were founded under we will survive.  If we forget, then we truly are lost!

First 100 Days

In ONLY 100 days ...

- Moscow is ready to cooperate with the United States on settling the Syrian crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported.

- China is cooperating and putting the screws on North Korea.

- The UN Secretary and Euro countries are getting UN Ambassador Haley and Trumps message loud and clear about unfair treatment of Israel. And relations with Israel have never been better!

- The glory days of Hamas, Hezbollah, and ISIS are OVER!  And Israel and USA security are much better for it.  Europe has gotten the message on the costs of radical Islam in their midst - and the world has started to realize that the only way to solve the refugee crisis is for the refugees to be able to go home to start rebuilding their countries!

- NATO countries have agreed they need to step up to their fair share on defense.

- Unfair trade deals and treaties are being renegotiated. And American manufacturing is coming back.

- Our absurd tax rates and structure is being overhauled. We will go from being one of the least competitive countries to one of the more.

- The unsustainable giant entitlement ACA is near repeal, while better designs for lowering health care costs are being re imagined.

- Plans to raise our failing infrastructure are around the corner.

- The gigantic volume of over regulation which was put in place over the last eight years is being evaluated and unraveled, causing historic leaps in business and consumer confidence and markets.  Big increases in business investment and GDP are inevitable.

- Rather than damaging our energy self-sufficiency options and potential, America is on it's way toward greater energy self-sufficiency and massive export revenues, and the benefits of national security that comes with greater energy independence!

- Trump has welcomed many international leaders to the Whitehouse with positive results.

- We are starting to see wage growth and less UNDER employment.

- We are going to stop forcing people who have a moral or religious belief against abortion to contribute their Federal tax dollars to fund them.

More is to come, and I could go on with the progress in the first 100 day, but it won't matter TO THE LEFT!  Because to the haters, Trump has done nothing or worse, and no matter what he does they will hate him for it. Fortunately, both Houses and the majority of governors know why they were elected, and it surely was not the agenda of the past 8 years!

Obama promised hope and change. Trump is delivering on his promises, and as a result we are getting LONG overdue changes to be hopeful about.

The Left answers with Russian conspiracy theories, obsession with Trump's tax return even after one year's illegally leaked release showed Trump paid more than most Presidents, and violent efforts to restrain free speech and united obstruction in Congress.

While Trump IS making America greater, the Left is looking for him to fail.  The Left would rather for America to be in a disastrous situation than for Trump to succeed. Their mantra is as UN-American as it can get -> "Not My President."

The Real Inconvenient Truth

What if Obama and the scientists got it wrong? Is it possible that the best thing that could have happened for CO2 emissions and handling climate change is for Trump to have replaced Obama?

In his presidential nomination victory speech, Obama said:

"I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow ..." 

Based on the facts, Obama's prediction did not work out. I give him credit for trying - but only because it certainly proved to be an effective campaign strategy.  Unfortunately, if anything, according to the data, sea levels are rising faster in this past decade.

Science was right about CO2 emissions, they are definitely on the rise, accelerating rapidly during President Obama's term:

How could it be that we are better off with Trump?  Here are a few possibilities:

1.  During Obama, regulations have inhibited the construction of pipelines.  Oil and gas has to be distributed, so a greater percentage is going by truck and rails. That is despite the fact the pipelines are proven to be safer and more efficient.

In addition, building new natural gas pipelines will help electric plants and manufacturers convert away from less clean fossil fuels. Plus, as America begins to export more of our plentiful natural gas, other countries can rely less on dirty coal, and America will yield giant financial benefits to boot!

2. Nuclear power is 8000 times more efficient than oil.

Nuclear power can be produced more safely and efficiently than ever. Yet, as the chart below shows, our usage has dramatically flattened off because it is nearly impossible to bring newer and safer nuclear plants into production. So we continue to rely on less safe plants built 40+ years ago. If we want to see a dramatic reduction in fossil fuel use we might want to be more open to the benefits of more modern nuclear plants.  Unlike Obama who picked winners and losers, with Trump, all energy options are on the table.

3. The problem is consumption. Americans are energy pigs!  We drive more, shower more, live in bigger houses, and consume more than other countries. We are voracious users of electricity.

We need to conserve!  Everyone can do their part. I have changed all my lights to LED, installed a solar system, and replaced my older less efficient oil furnace to the highest efficiency German made unit on the market. I keep my house cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer. I recycle my entire garbage stream. And I carpool 3 days a week. (Even though Mary wishes she could drive alone so she didn't have to listen to my politics.)

The problem is that no matter how much America conserves, we can not solve the problem of CO2 alone.

America is a big part of the CO2 problem. But, as we have lost manufacturing jobs to other countries like China, because of their cheaper labor and more lax regulations, those countries are becoming bigger producers of CO2.  Bringing manufacturing back to the USA, as Trump seeks to do, is better for American jobs and better for the planet, because America is a cleaner producer.

4. America will use less fossil fuels if we improve our infrastructure. Sitting in traffic and on runways costs Americans billions of dollars in lost productivity and wastes enormous amounts of energy, and produces more CO2!  President Trump seeks to cut through the regulations that make building new roads, wider and safer bridges, better airports, and faster rail possible. Coupled with Trump's proposal to invest a trillion dollars on such infrastructure, Trump wants to be the best thing to happen to USA infrastructure, using USA steel!

One of the best things America can to do is overhaul our energy grid to make it safer from terrorist and hacker threats and more efficient.  A better grid can save America 10% or much more in energy.  Expect biggly announcements regarding our electricity distribution network during the Trump term.

5. Remember "Peak Oil?" Yeah, that prevalent miscalculation was undone by innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, and free markets. These forces have a long history of solving big problems. LED bulbs versus incandescent. Advances in solar, wind, and wave energy efficiency, Smart grids, Carbon capture, and other rapidly emerging technologies can change the equation. Countries like Israel and Japan have tapped the greatest source of energy - the human mind.  The best potential for dealing with climate challenges is to unleash human innovation.

The real "Inconvenient Truth" is not what most people are talking about!  Here is the larger issue and why I believe the critical problem we are going to need to deal with is NOT the one we are focused on today.

Emerging countries such as India and China are going to grow and increase CO2 production FAR FAR more than any amount America can save!  Plus, deforestation is the second largest cause of CO2.

Trump haters would rather talk about his tax returns, a fake Russian conspiracy, or Federal funding for abortion than either of these two realities.

The real inconvenient truth is that we are not going to be able to reverse climate change and the rise of our oceans in time!  The multitude of reasons that are causing warming and rising oceans are so complex and outside America's control that humans are not going to solve them in time to save large population centers from the ravages of flooding without ginormous investment in sea walls, levies, dikes, drainage, elevation, and some cases relocation. Coastal erosion and flooding is going to increase dramatically over the coming decades whether we like it or not. To deal with droughts we need to invest in desalinization.

There are many other highly costly infrastructure measures countries will have to take in order to cope with a planet that is changing, perhaps because of man, perhaps in spite of man, or even perhaps to spite man.

What happened in New Orleans and with Hurricane Sandy in the Mid-Atlantic that devastated the East, is only a foreshadowing of what is to come.  And not just here!  Vast population centers on the world's coasts are in peril.

So unless we start to solve our infrastructure problems, a lot of cities and towns in America and elsewhere are fucked.  So maybe science is wrong about Trump.  He may be the best chance America has for dealing with climate change, man made or otherwise.

Faith is a Funny Bunny Thing

My thoughts this early Easter morning, at the tail-end of Passover.

In a great sense, people are slaves to their sins - controlled by addictions, behaviors, and attitudes. We have free will, and too often we fail to choose wisely.  As humans, we can easily become slaves to our ways, our poor choices. It is said that we have Pharaoh's in our life.

Help to overcome the sins, and Pharaoh, in our personal life can come faith.  The two holidays, Easter and Passover which are profoundly and eternally linked to one another, are also deeply rooted in the same meaning, both offer us an the opportunity for freedom.

Both Moses and Jesus lead people out of bondage and to Freedom, be that freedom in the Promised Land or freedom from sin. A Higher Power freed us from Pharaoh thousands of years ago, and gave us the Torah at Mount Sinai. The same Power freed us from our sins and gave us the Gospel as a result of what happened on Calvary.

G-d works through Man.  In one case Moses and in the other Jesus.  Jews wait for our Messiah, putting out a cup of wine for Elijah and opening the door on Passover as a symbolic invitation. Jesus lifted a cup at Passover as symbolic expression that he was offering himself as the Messiah. 

From both Passover and Easter we can take away that there is a code of conduct for how to live our life in service to a higher spiritual purpose.  

Of course this requires FAITH. And some of you reading my post may be thinking you do not have faith.  So let me say this one thing about faith ...

Faith is a funny thing.  To explain it I will tell you a story about how I became "Toastmaster of the Year" in 1983 for the Poughkeepsie Area Chapter of Toastmasters International. True story.  An old friend from High School, Jim Brady, suggested I join this club to become a confident speaker because he told me it would help me with my career.  I was afraid to go.  But as I considered it further, and how right he was, the following paradigm shift became clear.  "You don't get confidence to speak, you speak to get confidence." So it is with Faith. You might say you "fake it till you make it."

Happy Easter and Chag Semeach Peseach friends and family!

Here is another thing the spring holiday's have in common.  The Secret Jewish History of Peeps.

This May Make the Arab Spring Look Like Nothing

In a resolution being put forward by Arab states before UNESCO for vote in May would contest Israeli sovereignty over ALL of Jerusalem. It would declare that "any action taken by Israel, the Occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the City of Jerusalem, are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever."
This resolution is the first time the Arab states have asked a UNESCO board to reject Israeli sovereignty over Western Jerusalem. It plunges the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural body (UNESCO) even further into the highly emotional and contested Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The resolution was submitted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan. It was drafted just as President Trump is going to make a decision on the move of the USA Embassy back to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. (Refer to the following excerpts from a recent article in The Atlantic on this.)
It is as though the nation's that make up UNESCO are trying to create even greater conflict, even promote war. A military conflict is imminent. Between Israel's Iron Dome, and Arrow system, and it's the newly received and tested F35, and other modern systems that the Israeli possess, Israel should be able to deal with air threats. I just wonder how it handles the insurgency uprising we can expect in the West Bank, and whether Hamas forces would attempt a suicidal crossing out of Gaza. Attacks would be mounted out of Lebanon, but will they be limited to rockets and missiles? Iran is sure to be involved through it's proxies, but direct military action is not out of the question. Jordan's King is wild card too, though much of their population hates Israel with a passion and would love nothing more than to raise arms.
For a long time I have said that when the USA moves our Embassy, the shit will hit the fan. I say Trump will NOT renew the waiver which keeps our embassy in Tel Aviv. Israel and the USA are choosing a site and will have an announcement soon.
In 1995, when Bill Clinton was President, Congress passed a bill requiring that the USA move it's embassy back to Jerusalem. The only exception is an option for the President to sign a 6 month waiver, which needs to be signed every 6 months by the President, otherwise the embassy must be moved. Every President has done so since then. Obama signed in 8 times, the last time being in Dec 2016. President Trump campaigned on the promise to NOT SIGN the waiver! Other Presidents BROKE THEIR CAMPAIGN PLEDGE. I say Trump WILL KEEP HIS PROMISE. And i believe members of UNESCO KNOW IT. And, UNESCO motion seems to me to be a preparation for Trump's decision to relocate the embassy.
Moving our Embassy to Jerusalem will be treated as a declaration of war by a VERY large segment of the Muslim/Arab world! And the impact will not be limited to Israel. Let us keep in mind that under NATO, an attack, or declaration of war on one country is a declaration on all the NATO allies. Violent uprisings and Jihad can be expected in France, the UK, and Germany. Not to sound apocalyptic, but this waiver issue is much larger than most people are aware of.
One thing is for sure, the potential effects of the US embassy move to Jerusalem are NOT priced in to the stock market or the bond and gold markets either. Although the increased volume of gold trading activity since January is pretty incredible, the question is whether that is sign of a fear of inflation or a fear of Trump, or a fear of what? Gold has stayed in a range of around 1200 to 1250 for 4 months, which could well go on for longer. But my guess is that it when it breaks out of that range one way or the other, we will have the answer to that question. And we may have that answer, like it or not, when Trump keeps his campaign promise. The last Embassy Waiver expires in June!

Out of the Ashes of Health Care

How ironic, that Republicans had successfully voted numerous times to repeal Obamacare, only to have the President veto the bill to do so.  And YET NOW that Republicans are more in charge and have the Presidency, they fail to pass a repeal.  WHY?  Democrats didn't hand Trump a defeat, CONSERVATIVES did because Trumpcare was in some ways as flawed as Obamacare.  A straight repeal would have made conservatives happy.

The Democrats may have been right about the merits of Obamacare, and the havoc that would have been wrought by “Trumpcare”.

Bob Shrum, a Democratic consultant and politics professor at the University of Southern California, said: “The truth is it might have been worse for him had it passed because he would have faced a potentially devastating midterm election."  It is being said that Friday’s debacle may yet be a blessing in disguise for the president. I still contend that Trump "walked away from the deal" and gained an advantage down the road.

Now the question I haven't answered for myself is how WE AS A NATION move forward with health care, since it surely appears that Obamacare will continue to fall apart without congress to rescue it.  We are likely to see many areas in USA where there is NO coverage.   So you will have people and businesses paying mandates and penalties and getting NO health care to show for it!  How much does that suck?

Maybe their won't be a comprehensive plan, such the ACA.  Perhaps health care is too complicated, controversial, and politically charged to be fixed in a big ACT of legislation.

Maybe we just get a series of new smaller bills and more minor legislation and regulatory changes, each of which addresses some issue with health care.  It is not as grand and conspicuous as some large bill, but maybe a new approach will emerge.  Perhaps it makes better sense to fix one piece at a time?  I am open to that for a variety of reasons.  Especially if it allows for greater bipartisan cooperation.

We might not like the fact that we need two systems.  One that is like Japan's non-profit system which regulates prices and limits coverage but costs 1/10 of the USA, AND covers 100% of their population. PLUS a second free market system that allows people to purchase added coverage if they can afford it.

And nothing will work if we don't drive down costs, speed up drug and device approval, change how we deal with end of life care,  reduce liabilities that raise insurance rates that are passed onto consumers, provide for new delivery systems such as pharmacy testing and vaccines, AND hold citizens to greater accountability for their own health!!

We need to recognize how external factors and trends such as marriage failures, poor wage growth and poverty, opioid usage, alcohol, cigarettes, etc effect health care costs.  Fixing our economy and robust wage growth will help!  Legalizing marijuana as an alternative to alcohol for recreational relaxation will help too.  Promoting a healthy life style and educating children on better health practices will help.  Many of the nations with lower mortality rates than America also have lower obesity rates!

Fair to say that Obamacare and the American Health Care Act are both going to be ashes by the time Congress is through. The question is whether a phoenix will rise from the mess that is American Health Care today.