Neo-feudalism

Watching a youtube clip today, I came across a term that perfectly describes what I fear many seemingly well-educated Americans now embrace subconsciously: Neo-feudalism.

Of course, they don't see it as being that.  Different terms describe aggrandized sacrifice of privacy, freedom of choice and Constitutional rights as "Saving the Planet" or some similar platitude.

Certainly, we're all in favor of saving and improving the planet.  Personally, I love taking hikes through forests, snorkeling with colorful tropical fish around coral reefs and skiing down snowy mountainsides.  

Breathing fresh air and drinking uncontaminated water have always been popular in my book.  

Obviously, we should try to preserve and protect what we have, making improvements along the way.

But that doesn't mean we have to accept doublespeak from politicians and activists at face value...or should I say two-faced value.

We should all ask ourselves, "What do these leaders really want?  Is it actually the best for humanity, our country, our families and us as individuals, or do they have other motivations?"

In a Wondrium course entitled "The High Middle Ages" that I've been taking recently, Professor Philip Daileader, from the College of William & Mary, broke down to the simplest terms the social order of the Middle Ages in a way that I think is applicable to most of history, with the exception of the United States of America and a few countries that followed in our footsteps, even if most of those countries including our own now seem to be veering off the straight and narrow.

As Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg about 159 years ago, the United States has a "government of the people, by the people and for the people," or in other words, self-government.

Yes, as we know from books and movies about Robin Hood, among other places, there were nobles, serfs and clergy in the Middle Ages, but Daileader uses even more obvious descriptions.

Let's see if you can guess who is who.

Those who work would be ________________.

Those who pray would be ________________.

Those who fight would be ________________.

Did you guess which was which?

Of course you did.

There always will be those who work.  Through most of history, those who worked devoted most of their efforts to not freezing or starving, living lives of quiet desperation until they died young.  You may remember an off-color way of summarizing this kind of life.  In any case, whether they were called serfs, peasants or slaves, the labels all meant pretty much the same thing for the majority of populations before the Age of Enlightenment.

We still have those who work, but in our generation, Americans who've worked hard could earn enough money to enjoy some of the finer things in life, including the great entertainment of television, movies, radio and the internet, meals to the point where we now worry about getting too fat rather than starving to death, and even some travel around this vast, beautiful nation and the rest of the world.

Most of our ancestors could never have imagined such luxuries in even their wildest imaginings.  

Those who pray were the educated class of the Middle Ages, pretty much the only ones who could read and write, so in today's increasingly secular world, we might expand that from the priesthood to include educators and researchers.

Those who fight, as in the Middle Ages, are the leaders in power, the ones who run things and somehow have elevated social status based on that.  Some slick-talking politicians may glibly talk about the public good, but mostly they just fight, and you can assume that they feel this fight will enrich themselves personally more than other lines of work.

They attain their power based on the fact that they are willing to lead a fight on behalf of those who work and those who pray/study in order to maintain the peace.  That is at the basis of the original reason for becoming sovereign cities and then states with kings and governments: mutual protection through organization.

It is that type of association that gave birth to our country, albeit sacrificing some of our better angels to compromise for the greater good of the politically possible at the time with the possibility of becoming what the best and brightest of the Age of Enlightenment imagined an ideal nation could be.

Certainly, the purpose of our military is to defend our nation so as to protect the individual freedoms we hold dear.  The police protect us from those who would do us harm within our own borders.  I dare say most take this type of work want to protect their nation and fellow citizens in true public service.

Those who serve in military and police fit best into the category of "those who work."  Some may have a need to physically fight as part of their nature and this work allows them to be self-actualized in positive roles, but most truly want to make a difference by protecting their fellow law-abiding citizens. 

We see that often political leaders bring their countries into fights not for defensive purposes but for personal enrichment or glory, like Russia's Putin, with soldiers carrying out the actual struggle and sacrifice as their work

In the Middle Ages, it obviously was the case that knights plundered other kingdoms for financial gain as much as for king and country.

But fighting isn't always physical.  Our leaders spend most of their time battling each other without armed combat, and frequently that seems more about fundraising and power by creating wedge issues than actually resolving problems.

We all can think of someone we personally revere as a true problem-solver who entered public service only to be destroyed by career politicians and bureaucrats whose fight seems to focus on avoiding resolution of real problems rationally.  Of course, one man's patriot is another man's pirate.

Without getting too far afield, my point is that while Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell may be in their own ways as far from chivalric knights as we can imagine, they are at the heart those who fight.  And they may not fight for the good of the people so much as their personal enrichment.

A heated political debate is essentially a joust without lances.  To the winner goes the prize and glory.

Before you eagerly embrace some slogan that requires your sacrifice that might lead to their aggrandizement, ask yourself if what they are saying even makes sense.

A brand new example of doublespeak is "The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022."

Politicians say most people support it, even though most people including pretty much the entire Congress have not actually read the bill.

I can say from what I do know about that Act is that it is sort of like a case of añejo Tequila being served at breakfast as a hangover cure.

We may already live in the dawning of the Age of Neo Feudalism, but we as individuals can wake up to not be merely sheep led to slaughter to serve our "betters," who in truth are nothing of the sort.

In the meantime, we must make the most of our freedoms, or we might as well be serfs.

13 Virtues and the Holidays

Writing about Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues began with taking a class on Benjamin Franklin in preparation for a family Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania, carried through Christmas in California and into the New Year in Montana.

For the record, Julie and I spent New Year's Eve quietly at home in Big Sky, watching The Spanish Princess and  Alias, puncutated by a Greg Gutfeld holiday special.  The highlight was a Skype call from Gina, Laszlo and Emma, whose smiling faces always make for a happy celebration.

I combined a lot of Ben Franklin's life story along with his Virtues linked below.  Perhaps of more interest, they also include personal photos and events as we went through the holiday season, and occasionally there's some connection between it all that's actually logical.

Humility

Temperance

Silence

Order

Resolution

Frugality

Industry

Sincerity

Justice

Moderation

Cleanliness

Tranquility

Chastity

As stated at the outset, Franklin's concept was to focus on each of them for one week at a time in hopes that it would become a habit carried forward and practiced without conscious effort.

While we might think looking back at his life that everyone who met him must have considered themselves fortunate to have had the privilege, not everyone loved him.  He could be quite persuasive, which left some feeling they had lost an argument, no matter how much Franklin may have been seeking the best possible solution.

I would have thought only 21st Century anti-American historical revisionists would dislike Benjamin Franklin.  Even so they would have to acknowledge he had been a great man of his time, but D.H. Lawrence basically trashed Ben Franklin's entire life story as creating an unrealistic expectation that any average American could accomplish anything.  Mark Twain joked that in living such a remarkable life, Frankliln made the average boy's life miserable because the lad's parents would inevitably hold Ben Franklin up as an example to be emulated when the boy would rather be having fun playing with his friends.

I skimmed quickly through Benjamin Franklin's truly remarkable life story in my blog, and I highly recommend The Great Courses class I took if you want to learn more.  His personal papers have also been preserved in 40 volumes and counting, which you can access on line at The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (franklinpapers.org), if you want to go to the original sources.

There's much more to know, including the final years of his life when his negotiations in Europe played such an integral part in our country's independence.

Winning American independence from England was not nearly as simple as Julie and I escaping Governor Newsom's ever more restrictive policies by driving to Montana for the New Year.  True, we didn't do more than take an evening stroll through town on New Year's Eve, but a few days later we were able to experience the simple pleasure of listening to singer-songwriter Josh Moore perform live while having a burger and PBR at Acre, a casual eatery in Big Sky.  The next evening, we celebrated our 35th Wedding Anniversary by enjoying delicious taco salads and Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling at Alberto's, just around the corner.

Anyway,  getting back to history, we may think of our break from Great Britain as something of an isolated incident, though we know the colonies required the military aid of France.  As such, we had a treaty with France which required that they also reach a peace agreement with England, and that's just one entanglement.

The American Revolution was in some ways part of a World War that Ben Franklin's brilliant statesmanship helped stop from becoming more widespread.

France and Spain saw the rebellion of British colonies in America as an opportunity to attack their long time nemesis Great Britain while her military was distracted.  They planned a sea invasion, which the wild waters around the British Isles foiled.  The failure revealed to both France and Spain how inept each other's military had become under centuries of aristocratic rule.

Worried France might become too strong if she defeated Great Britain, Catherine the Great of Russia,  offered to act as mediator in negotiations between Great Britain and the British American colonies that would become the United States.  At that time, England still held New York, but Empress Catherine II suggested ceding New York to a new country of New England in exchange for Great Britain keeping the southern colonies, which had agricultural resources of far greater value to the British Empire than the fledgling industries of the north with all their taverns fullof hot-headed rebels.

Stirring the pot, Great Britain suggested Russia expand its Empire across the Pacific to challenge Spain in California and South America.  What a different world that would have been, if Russia ruled the American west coast from Alaska all the way down to Tierra Del Fuego.

Remember, at that time, Spain still ruled Florida as well as most of North America west of Louisiana and western South America, while France owned the Louisiana territories that swept up through the midwest.  The Western Border for the newly created United States was also part of these negotiations, many years before our "Manifest Destiny" would play out with the continental United States ruling everything between the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, the son of the illustrious Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa, feared Russia, which was a potential military threat to Central Europe, wielding too much power on world affairs, so he also offered to mediate.

Benjamin Franklin's deft negotiations often put him at odds with not only the Brits and French but his American negotiating team members John Adams (who became the 2nd President of the United States), John Jay and Henry Laurens.  Ben ignored advice from the Continental Congress that he deemed countreproductive.

Franklin had an assistant who was revealed to be a spy for Great Britain.  Instead of firing him on the spot, Franklin rationalionlized that the man was competent at his job, and then Franklin used him to allow certain information to leak to Great Britain before he told France, in order to soften up negotiations.

We all know that the United States gained independence, which led to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where Ben Franklin was the senior member among many young men.  He and George Washington were the most revered members of that august body.

After five weeks of negotiations that seemed to be getting nowhere, the senior statesman Franklin stepped in to remind the representatives that the fact that they had gotten this far seemed to have been divine providence, and he suggested that they begin each day with a prayer to the Almighty in order to bless the proceedings.

It was from that point forward that some headway was made, as selfish interests softened.  Incredible as it seems, the Constitutional Convention did not leak any information about the negotiations.  At the end of the Convention, Franklin again stepped forward to suggest that everyone leave whatever objections they had to the Constitution in Philadelphia rather than point them out.  Without this statement, perhaps the agreement would have fallen apart before being ratified.  Our government leaders should seek to uphold this standard today.

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?

It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administered.

Will Cruises Be Shutdown Through February?

After months of shut down, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) finally came out in favor of phasing in travel beginning November 1, 2020, under strict protocols.

However, the CDC has other ideas.  The public health organization led by Dr. Robert Redfield advocates extending the lockdown of United States cruises until the end of February.

 

But Vice President Mike Pence and the COVID-19 Task Force said the freeze should not be pushed beyond October 31, 2020, which was what cruise lines had voluntarily accepted.

What will happen?

Well, things monumentally changed last night....again.

President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19!

President Trump has COVID-19 danger signs.  He's over age 70, which statistically puts his survival rate at 95% (versus 99% plus in other age groups), and he's overweight.

Plus he obviously has no self-control.

Just yesterday Trump responded to a 2018 claim that McDonald's fries helped mice regrow hair by tweeting, "No wonder I didn't lose my hair!"  This hearkens back to earlier crises of his adventures in the land of perilous fast food and whether that's his real hair.

DJIA futures had been slightly positive last night, but the market swooned immediately upon opening based on the news before recovrering on rumors of a new stimulus bill.

CBS speculated on how this will effect not only how our country will run, but how will foreign leaders think this will impact our country, and what will they do because of that?

Of course, the President's jam-packed campaign schedule must be put on hold.  Controversy about the most recent debate, and whether there should be another and under what rules, now pales in comparison to the immediate question of whether he could possibly attend the next scheduled slapdown on October 15.

What will happen next, now that he has Coronavirus?

It's just another cliffhanger in the Year of the Cliffhanger.

We started with the long-awaited impeachment, during which COVID-19 reared its ugly head even if Congress remained focused on a doomed investigation.

Then the Durham Investigation could begin in earnest to find out who really conspired with Russia and how high did the conspiracy go?

COVID-19 went from being dismissed by Nancy Pelosi as she encouraged others to crowd into San Francisco's Chinatown for a festival rather than be tricked by Trump's xenophobia in shutting down travel from China, which Speaker Pelosi claimed was an attack on Chinese Americans.

The two-week shutdown to flatten the curve was extended another two weeks when New York chose to assign COVID-19 victims to nursing homes, causing a spike in deaths.

Week after week, we kept thinking the crisis would end, as requests for ventilators and hospital beds were met by extraordinary actions of the federal government, but the lockdown continued, costing many working-class people their livelihoods, leading to peaceful protests in suburban communities like Huntington Beach.

Then peaceful protests about the video-taped death of a black man in Minneapolis --- which everyone condemned from the outset --- exploded into arson, looting and attacks on civilians by criminals using the protests as cover.

The Presidential Campaign rolled out, and claims on every issue outraged the opposing parties.

It's like a page-turning novel.  You feel compelled to keep reading another chapter long after bed time.  As to whether 2020 is a trajedy, comedy or hero's journey depends on how you personally feel about our President.

The fact that we have a President who understands how to use intentionally-crafted cliffhangers to build dramatic interest undoubtedly plays into it all, compounding the reality show-inspired fervor.

Getting back to the question at hand, will cruises be able to start on a limited basis on November 1 or be delayed another four months?

The largest cruise line in the world, Carnival, has announced that it will cruise only from Miami and Port Canaveral in November and December, cancelling all other cruises.

I would expect something similar from other cruise lines, though perhaps that approach for November will be enough of a test of protocols to allow all those much-anticipated Christmas cruises to go as planned.

But with the news about Trump, will Pence be as adamant in his opposition to the CDC?

Will Kamala Harris accuse Pence of being a mass-muderer for even contemplating such sacrilege?

Will manmade global warming burn California to the ground and destroy the Caribbean with hurricanes before we get to November, making that point moot?

Will Adam Schiff begin a new impeachment of Trump to stop Amy Coney Barrett from being confirmed to the Supreme Court?

Will Kim Jong-Un invade Tokyo?

Could Barney the Dinosaur emerge from the ashes to save the world by making us all feel special?

Will "Chicago P.D." be allowed to air re-runs, much less release new episodes?

Tune in next time!

In all seriousness, I pray that President Trump and all others afflicted with this disease have swift recoveries, and that the vaccine becomes available by the end of the year to remove at least the dark cloud of Coronavirus.  

Bicycles, Space Ships and Beyond

Having firmly established that yes, Viking River Cruises does a great job, why might you consider a different line?

That's a valid question, one that comes down to what is important to you personally.

For example, do you think you would enjoy riding a bicycle on your own around a quaint village after you had done your morning tour?



Then you might be more inclined to choose AmaWaterways, Uniworld or Avalon Waterways.

Want a larger room than the standard Viking, which tends to be efficient but tight?

You could step up to beyond River View and French Balcony to a Veranda or Suite without leaving the Viking line, or you might want to go to Avalon, AmaWaterways or the "Space-Ships" of Scenic, a more exclusive product demanding higher pricing than Viking.

Someone like me spends as much time in port as possible, but some really appreciate more luxurious accommodations as a primary reason for choosing a particular cruise.



There's also another factor that seems obvious but may not be quite so clear: itinerary.

You have general regions like the Rhine, Danube, Elbe, Moselle, Main Provence, Burgundy, Portugal, Russia, Italy, China, Southeast Asia, Egypt, African safari or even the USA, but within those regions the different cruise lines take different approaches, including ports they choose to complete their tapestry and adding pre- or post-packages designed to appeal to you.

Just as significantly, not all cruises embark at the same time. It frequently comes down to which cruise works best with your overall vacation schedule. The greater your flexibility, the more possibilities that may work.

The Green New Deal and Travel

My wife recently found herself embroiled in a debate about the Green New Deal proposed by rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.



As expected, young people jumped in to support the lofty goals of zero net carbon emissions inexplicably linked to a guaranteed livable income in a socialist utopia where every building in America is to be replaced to increase energy efficiency...although of course construction including building highly toxic batteries to store all that alternative energy would undoubtedly increase carbon gases.

It would seem to be in contrast to other policies considered sacrosanct by the same people, such as open borders, which regardless of how you may feel otherwise about the subject would undoubtedly balloon our population.  That population bomb in itself would increase gross greenhouse gases while at the same time diverting government funds to social services (especially if everyone is guaranteed high salaries and jobs for life as soon as they arrive) and require even more infrastructure to accommodate them.

And how about Russian collusion?  If we have open borders, then people from all over the world --- including people from Russia and 5 billion others who envy our current lifestyle --- would be welcome to come to our country and influence it, not to mention the fact that the entire socialism scam falls right in line with long dead Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Premier Nikita Kruschev's projection that socialism would bury our capitalist system.



But I digress.

The fact is that in America, the pendulum inevitably swings from side to side, usually without reaching extremes, and the fact that so many young people take this proposal as seriously as they do is a harbinger of things to come.

I know I certainly bought into the same kind of logic when as a student I would drive my Fiat 850 Spider to the West Coast Fox Theater for Saturday night concerts.  Often an opening act, my favorite local band Boone's Farm earnestly sang to that young crowd of fellow young believers, "Cool breeze, how long will it blow? Green trees, how tall will they grow? All men, you reap what you sow. Ten years, maybe then no more...Sunshine!!!"




Yeah, our gurus predicted global cooling that would starve the world by the 1990's.  But warming, cooling, apparently it all means the same thing these days: manmade climate change...which does conveniently let politicians off the hook for achieving climate goals.  I can say that Los Angeles air is cleaner now than in 1972, and I hear experts no longer say we're going to freeze, so I guess my long-haired generation saved the planet.

We currently have a President who has cut massive amounts of government regulations and taxes in order to encourage business including manufacturers to relocate into the USA and to have the flexibility to be able to give employees raises to make up for years of stagnant wages.

As to whether you attribute that to President Trump's policies or would agree with President Obama that he didn't build that economy is irrelevant.

The only factor that really matters is that at this moment, if you are like the average American, you probably have more disposable income than you have had in a long time, possibly more than you'll have in the future, given realities of socialism proven repeatedly since Karl Marx came up with his class warfare strategy.



If you've read this far, you are also most likely more physically vital than you will be ten years from now, although I know some people who improved physical fitness every year well into their sixties.

I know others who didn't live much longer than that or died prematurely early.

Tom Petty seemed to fall into both of those categories.

In any case, regardless of whether Ocasio-Cortez is right or wrong and whether the Green New Deal comes to pass or dies in ignominy like so many Soviet Five-Year Plans, you have a chance to enjoy world travel right now.

As an Economist --- and yes, according to my college degree, that's what I actually am --- I can categorically state that big government with high taxes inevitably stagnates an economy and concurrently decreases individual freedoms.



Airplanes don't currently need to be powered by windmills or be grounded at night to wait for the sun to come out.  You are not being scammed out of twice the cost of the flight to buy "carbon credits" sold by a dictator of some third world country where they burn elephant dung to keep warm or by their Chinese government overlords. China, incidentally, would feel no compunction to replicate our zero-emissions standards in a country with currently four times US population.

More importantly, cruise ships haven't been forced to use only sails, which could certainly be pleasant but would make staying on a seven-night itinerary more challenging for mega-ships.

We live in a unique time in history, in a country that gives us freedom to travel undreamt of by our ancestors.

Where do you want to go before you die...or the Green Deal leaves you without travel chips to play?

Our Lady of Fátima

Nothing like a glass of Port after being awake for most of 48 hours straight to help you get a good night's sleep.  We awoke refreshed, and soon enjoyed great cappuccino and diverse breakfast selections from the buffet at our hotel.  We then strolled down the tree-canopied sidewalk from Pombal Square to the Hard Rock Cafe to meet up with our Viator Private Tour.

On the long drive to our first stop in Fátima, our guide Nuno shared relevant information about Portugal today, its storied history and a bit of local color.  The fact that he looked like my cousin Dickie around the age when Dickie began to insist he be called Richard played to his benefit in my mind. More significantly, Nuno happened to be a very engaging speaker.

He spoke extensively about Portugal's economy, which had severely crashed in 2008 when the financial crisis hit Iberia twice as hard as it hit the United States.  Unemployment had soared to 30%, but now with renewed strength of tourism --- Portugal was Travel + Leisure's Destination of the Year in 2016 --- it is back, stronger than ever.

Portugal's biggest export is olive oil.  Nuno stressed that for the fullest flavor, you must always use fresh olive oil, so stop buying gallons at Sam's Club unless you bathe in it.  In fact, why not splurge a bit for a small bottle of carefully-havested, traditionally-crafted fresh olive oil? If nothing else, insist on cold-pressed olives.  Heat produces more oil, but it taints the delicate flavors.  Virgin and Extra Virgin Olive Oil are by definition cold-pressed and unrefined, so you know they haven't been treated by heat or chemicals.

The lower the level of oleic acid, the better the flavor. Virgin has less than 2% oleic acid, while Extra Virgin has less than 1%.  Keep in mind that Light Olive Oil is not low in calories, but rather is a euphemism for refined olive oil, which means it uses chemicals or heat to produce, even when some Virgin oil is mixed in.  By the way, if you've never dipped French bread in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, with or without vinegar, you definitely need to try it.

Delicious wine is another big product for Portugal, but they drink most of it themselves.  Their most famous export is the lush fortified wine called Port.  In most of the world, only Portuguese fortified wine can be called Port, but in the USA, you must check to be sure it is genuine Port from Portugal.

They also have produced those well-known Mediterranean ceramic roof tiles for decades, and in the countryside, tall chimneys identify older factories that have usually been abandoned and replaced by nearby modern facilities.

The most interesting product Nuno spoke about was cork, and he passed around a piece of cork bark, which for some reason I ended up holding for about an hour.  Portugal is the largest producer of cork in the world.  It's strange that it never occurred to me that this surprisingly durable, waterproof product might be a natural rather than synthetic product.  Cork grows on a special type of oak tree, the Quercus Suber, more commonly known as cork oak.  About every seven years, the cork is harvested.  We saw one such tree on the sprawling grounds of the Basilica in Fátima and could easily differentiate where the cork had been cut away.

We happened to arrive on September 13, exactly one month before the 101st Anniversary of the "Miracle of the Sun" in Fátima.

A large outdoor Mass was in progress at the Basilica.

On May 13, 1917, three shepherd children began having visions of the Virgin Mary, whom they described as being "more brilliant than the sun," calling her "Our Lady of the Rosary."  The Virgin Mary prophesied that prayer would bring an end to the war that Portugal, as a long-time ally of Great Britain, had recently entered (World War I).

The children had seen visions of angels prior to the appearance of Our Lady, beginning in spring of 1916.

On June 13, 1917, at Cova da Iria, the exact site of the May vision, the Virgin Mary again appeared to them.  Our Lady shared that the two younger children would soon go to heaven but that that Lúcia would live many more years to spread the message calling for devotion to the "Immaculate Heart of Mary."

On July 13, when the pattern continued, "Our Lady of Fátima" said she would appear on October 13 and reveal miracles so that the world may believe. Our Lady also shared three secret prophecies with the children.

When thousands of people arrived on August 13, the Mayor had the children jailed in hopes of putting an end to this madness, and probably felt he had succeeded when no visions occurred.

On August 19, however, Our Lady again appeared to the children, this time in Fátima's village of Valinhos, and told the children to continue to pray daily on their rosaries, especially for the sinners of the world.

There were a total of six visions between May 13 and October 13, with all but August occurring on the 13th of the month.

On October 13, 1917, a crowd estimated between 30,000 to 100,000 --- a considerable throng for an age before social media --- arrived to see the miracle despite it being a dark, rainy day.

According to witnesses, the clouds opened up to reveal the sun, but the sun was spinning with bright colors and continued to approach the earth.  The sun was reported to have danced around the sky before doing a zigzag in a rapid departure.  Others described the bright circular object not as the sun but rather a spinning disc.

If you're like me, your mind goes to a Spielberg-esque special effects climax as in "E.T." or "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."  Most witnesses came away believing they had seen a true miracle, one which the Catholic Church would eventually consecrate.

Other theories include a sort of mass hallucination due to the power of suggestion, a simple reaction to staring at the sun too long or some kind of natural cosmic event that just happened to take place at that time and place.  However, witnesses also said that when the event ended, their clothes which had been soaked in the rain were dry.  Some in attendance saw nothing unusual happen.

The two younger children died a short time later in an international flu pandemic.  Francisco Marta died on April 4, 1919, and Jacinta Marta died February 20, 1920.  Pope John Paul II beatified them on May 13, 2000, and Pope Francis made them saints on the 100 year anniversary, October 13, 2017.

The oldest child, Lúcia dos Santos, began training to become a nun at age 14 in Porto.  She eventually took the religious name of Sister Maria Lúcia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart, and she continued to have periodic visions of Mary and later Jesus.  Her Catholic order's vows required she speak as little as possible and not comment on the outside world at all, leading to conspiracy theories about the church concealing what had been revealed to her.

Lúcia of Fátima died on February 13, 2005, at the age of 97.  Sainthood would seem like a certainty in the future, but she has not been deceased long enough to receive that honor.

Are you curious about those three secrets Our Lady told the children in 1917? 

In 1941, Sister Lúcia revealed two of the secrets shared by Our Lady at the behest of a Bishop who wrote extensively about the Miracle of the Sun.

The first was a vision of hell, and needless to say, no one would want to go there.

The second said that the Great War (WWI) would end soon, but if people did not repent, there would be a bigger, more awful war.  She said there would be an illuminated night as a great sign that the world would be punished for not repenting.

On January 25, 1938, the largest aurora borealis since 1709 appeared in  the Northern Hemisphere skies from North Africa to at least as far west as California.  The next day, Sister Lúcia told her superior this was the awaited sign that the horrific second world war would soon begin.  On March 12, 1938, Hitler annexed Austria, and World War II officially began September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

In the second secret, Our Lady also called specifically to pray for "the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart."  If Russia did not turn to God, Russia would "spread their errors" around the world, causing wars and persecution of the church.  The Bolshevik Revolution was in full swing in the summer of 1917, even as World War I ground on.  The Communists won control of Russia but continued to send troops to fight alongside the Allies, who of course won the war. Our Lady of the Rosary promised that one day Russia would return to God, and there would be peace.

On July 7, 1952, Pope Pious XII wrote in his Apostolistic Letter, "Just as a few years ago, We consecrated the entire human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so today, We consecrate, and in a most special manner, We entrust all the peoples of Russia to this Immaculate Heart."  In 1984, Pope John Paul II consecrated the entire world to the Virgin Mary, and Sister Lúcia confirmed that this fulfilled the request of Our Lady of Fátima.

Sister Lúcia felt apprehension about public release of the third secret when asked to do so by a Bishop.  She said she was not sure God wanted it revealed yet, but when she became terribly sick with the flu, the same disease that had killed her younger cousins, she wrote it down and sealed it in an envelope with instructions that it not be released until 1960.

As you know, Sister Lúcia recovered.  When 1960 rolled around, the Vatican released a statement that most likely the third secret would never be divulged, but in 2000, it was disclosed by the church to be the apocalyptic vision of church leaders, including the Pope, being killed by soldiers.

Having read what was uncovered, I couldn't tell you what all the secrecy was about.  It seems about as specific and clear as the Book of Revelations.  That is why so many theories continue within the Catholic world around the possibility that the most significant page might have been eliminated.

What do you believe?

Tiananmen Square

By the late 1980's, freedom was emerging after years of oppression by authoritarian despots around the world.

Despite its bluster, the Soviet Union was crumbling, and satellite countries that had been dominated since World War II by the heavy hand of Moscow were rebelling in unique ways.

In Tallinn, Estonia, the Singing Revolution of 1988 turned Soviet tanks away, and within a few years, Estonia became an independent nation with a thriving capitalist democracy.

In 1989, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia eventually birthed two new free countries, Czech Republic and Slovakia, which is the country from which my son-in-law Laszlo immigrated with his parents in the 1980's, indirectly leading to our star granddaughter Emma.

Even Russia itself embraced greater liberty, although the deep roots of authoritarianism have proven harder to reform, with former KGB and Politburo elites using their influence and raw power to dominate an almost mobster-like crony capitalism that has emerged.  It's nonetheless still probably freer than it was before.

The successors to Mao were taking China in a new direction, with a shift from agriculture to manufacturing as they opened their economy to trade with the free world. Absolute power, however, remained as always in the grip of the Chinese Communist Party.

It has been theorized that the seeds of freedom were spread of rebellious rock n roll music and its American T-shirts and Levis lifestyle that had already changed the Western World.

Looking at how most people dress in Chinese big cities seems to confirm that theory.

As someone who believes words and music have power to change lives, I can appreciate that theory has merit, but others claim just as convincingly that it was strong political leadership by the United States that pried open the doors to freedom.

In my favorite novel of last year, The 14th Colony by Steve Berry, I read for the first time about a very real secret collaboration between President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, which was one of the factual premises upon which the fast-paced novel rests.  That makes more sense to me, as someone who lived through that era.

While China had been liberalizing their economy, government and education system since US President Nixon metaphorically opened the way for a new Silk Road, it was not enough for large numbers of Chinese students, who like young people everywhere included lots of idealists.

Tens of thousands of idealists began to gather in Tiananmen Square on April 22, following the funeral of popular political leader Hu Yaobang.

After rising to become General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 1980, Hu championed greater freedom and democratization.

By January of 1987, hardliners felt the pendulum had swung too far or at least too fast, and they pushed back against Hu's policies to force him from office.  When Hu died of a heart attack on April 15, he became a martyr of sorts for the people who yearned for greater freedom.

The death of Hu prompted fears that the freedom movement would die far short of its goals.

Hours stretched to days, and this spontaneous gathering of mourners in an age before social media became a movement.  Students refused to return to class, and more joined their numbers.

The government published propaganda branding the students as "Counter-Revolutionary," which in Communist China meant essentially everything evil.  This thinned their ranks, as I'm sure worried parents begged their children to come to their senses and not destroy their futures.

Then, a hunger strike was called, something unheard of in a country where only one generation earlier many of the parents or even the siblings of these very same students knew the feeling of empty stomachs due to deprivation caused by Mao's famines.

The hunger strike re-galvanized the movement.  Seeing bright young students voluntarily starving themselves to save their country had a much greater effect in China than it would have in well-fed America.

By May 4, demonstrations had spread to 51 cities, and the multitude of demonstrators at Tiananmen Square had swollen to a quarter of a million people.

On May 15, a previously scheduled state visit by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev brought journalists of the world to Beijing.

The naturally curious westerners found an even more interesting story in Tiananmen Square, shining the bright light of the world on what the Chinese Communist Party would have preferred kept hidden forever.

Humiliated to lose face in front of the whole world, the CCP knew they must do something.

Martial law was declared on May 19, with military troops sent into Tiananmen Square to "maintain order," but the marchers refused to disband, bringing to mind the 1971 Don McLean lyrics, "The players tried to take the field.  The marching band refused to yield.  Do you recall, what was the deal?  The day the music died."

 By June 3, the number of demonstrators approached a million, and when the military with tanks were sent by the CCP government to disburse the crowd, citizens from the surrounding area joined in the defense of the student demonstrators.

Our guide Yuan was there, not as a demonstrator but observing, concerned for the safety of students he knew.  He said his line of sight was on almost exactly the same line as the western journalist who shot the iconic "tank man" footage.

By the way, I should note that never in our travels did our guide Yuan say anything disparaging about the CCP.  Any negative connotations about anything within this blog are based on my own independent research.




Demonstrators seemed to essentially dare the ironically named People's Liberation Army to shoot, and eventually they did.

The soldiers had their orders, and the "massacre" unfolded over a few days, and not just in the Square.  It was more of a Beijing Massacre, with many killed in streets around Tiananmen Square as they tried to hinder the encroachment by the troops.

Initial government estimates of deaths were "23 counter-revolutionary hooligans" killed by the military, which was revised up gradually to 197 and then over the years to an acknowledged 300.

In a country where all media is controlled by the government, the only "facts" are those established by the government, but estimates by foreign journalists and eye witnesses reach into the thousands.

It was a far cry from what the Ming Dynasty probably imagined would unfold at the place they named "The Gateway to Heavenly Peace."

Constructed in 1415, Tiananmen did indeed serve primarily as the gateway to the Imperial City.

It remains a national symbol of China.

The Square at Tiananmen was designed under the Qing Dynasty in 1651.  It has been enlarged several times, including by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1958-9 who wanted it to be the largest and most spectacular square in the world.

Like Royal Caribbean Cruise ship generations, this square has been surpassed by six larger squares, including China's Xinghai Square that is about four times as large, but Tiananmen Square is still often called "the largest civic gathering place in the world."

While the Chinese Communist Party may wish to erase the Tiananmen Square Event from history, it turned out to be a seminal event in helping create the miracle still unfolding of an impoverished country that has already become the second largest economy in the world.

To avoid continued unrest, the Chinese Communist Party has adopted reforms and economic development patterned to some extent on the United States capitalist model, or at least to embrace a symbiotic relationship with the west, where they feed on our market system to undercut capitalists, even if they must do so at a loss in the near term, in order to create industrial and construction jobs for upwardly mobile Chinese masses who had formerly barely subsisted as share croppers.

"While We Weren't Watching Them, Like Russians Will..."

"Now we've got all this room, we've even got the moon

And I hear the U.S.S.R. will be open soon

As vacation land for lawyers in love."

---Jackson Browne

 Do you remember "Lawyers In Love" from August of 1983? 

I've always loved that song, which includes ironic lyrics that somehow have become more relevant today than when released by Jackson Browne. 

Keep in mind this was written during the heart of the Cold War, when fears ran rampant that President Ronald Reagan was going to blow up the world with his tough rhetoric, including the March of 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative speech. 

Reality didn't unfold as fearmongers foretold, and for most of us, it never come close to the true tension during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962.

In fact, less than eight years after Reagan threatened Star Wars, Mr. Gorbachev did indeed "Tear down this wall."  And by wall, I mean the entire Iron Curtain that had previously held satellite countries in bondage as the U.S.S.R. dissolved.  The Berlin Wall had been torn down a year and a half earlier in November of 1989 by the emboldened German people. 

Jackson Browne's joke soon became reality. 

Last year, Cuba became open for American tourists under the People-to-People program. 

 While as Americans we're used to traveling wherever we can afford to go, as long as we carry a passport, Russia and Cuba require visas. 

So does China. 

If you're thinking about getting a visa on your own rather than paying for cruise lines to take care of that significant detail, you might want to read my article about our experience getting a Chinese visa. 

It includes a video for Jackson Browne's classic song, plus some others that you might find interesting. 

When you're ready to go to a formerly taboo country, "Better service leads to better trips!"

Cheap Chinese Visa!

It's pretty rough being Americans in this unique historic era.

In the good old days, most of our ancestors toiled from before dawn until past dusk as serfs, servants or slaves, so they didn't have to worry about anything beyond scraping by on their meager earnings.

They only needed to worry about having enough food scraps for their family to make it through the week, assuming they didn't freeze to death or get randomly killed by savages before the sabbath day.



These days, we have the stress of far too many choices.

Should we go low carb or Supersize that fast food combo meal?

Then again, what are we, animals?  Maybe we should go to a sports bar for hot wings and beer or an upscale restaurant serving gourmet fare on china and crystal.

And that's just the paid lunch hour we stretch to an hour and a half!

Apple or HP?  Classic Vinyl or The Wave?  "Chicago PD" or Masterpiece Theater?  CNN or Fox News (and all that either choice entails!)?

We also have latitude to travel the world in almost any direction, unfettered by anything but our ability to obtain a passport and pay for a ticket.

But that means we have to keep going to that 8 to 5 job that pays for our comfortable lives and gives us two or three free weeks each year that we need to fill with vacations.

A handful of countries, however, require visas.  These tend to be historically despotic countries, either currently war-torn or at least until recently Communist with a Capital C.

China is one such place where American travel freedoms we take for granted are restricted.

Totally taboo when we were children, and so now a must-check box on our bucket lists.

We may visit the Forbidden City and other regions of the inscrutable land beyond the Great Wall of China, but first we must attain visas.

To get a visa, we must be hosted by a Chinese citizen, but a tour company or cruise line can take care of that requirement for us.  For a fee, they will refer us to a company that specializes in attaining visas for all of those less tourist-friendly and inevitably bureaucratic nations now open for tourists.



When we went to Russia with Princess Cruises, we avoided the hassles of attaining a visa by taking ship-sponsored shore excursions.

Cruises visiting the latest formerly-forbidden-and now-sizzling-hot-destination of Cuba simply charge guests $75 at the outset, avoiding any confusion, although passengers can choose to opt out and get their own visas.

In preparing for our upcoming trip to China, Julie and I decided to skip the easy way and instead take the do-it-yourself route, because our proximity to the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles would make that easy peasy.

The Chinese visas themselves run $140 per person, so they aren't cheap.  Adding another $119 to have the recommended passport/visa company handle it for us it seemed a little too expensive, especially if we added extra charges to rush them through with expedited shipping.

When we found $119 was the processing for both of us, a steep discount from the rate to process one at a time, that should have been good enough to sway me, especially because I had heard horror stories from two of our brilliant children about their struggles getting Chinese visas on their own.

Preparing to visit a college friend on his own, Jay had printed out his forms with dates as month/day/year instead of day/month/year, resulting in him being sent home the first time to re-do his application, but not before getting an expensive parking ticket in Los Angeles.  This led to inevitable chastising by his much wiser parents when he mistakenly mentioned the incident to us.




Preparing for a speaking engagement in China, Gina didn't have all of the precise itinerary information perfectly formatted.  She was sent to a Burger King down the street from the New York consulate office where some guy --- not Chinese himself --- had set up shop to help misguided Americans get their forms exactly right (for a modest fee).  She had to return another day with the info in the properly-typed format.  The consulate clerk told her to come back the next week to pick it up.  The scheduled returned day turned out to be a Chinese holiday, wasting all the time and effort of more cross-city subway rides.

Armed with knowledge of these challenges, we would be more prepared.  Our forms were perfect, triple checked before leaving home.

It would be a Yao Ming alley-oop slam dunk...only it wasn't.

We waited out the rush hour, because only a fool would get on a downtown L.A.-bound freeway between 7 and 9 AM, and we are not fools (as far as you know).

Mid-morning, the traffic still crawled along.  Where are all these people going all the time in Los Angeles?

Bumper-to-bumper traffic be damned, we still made it to Koreatown by 11 AM, and as an omen of good things to come, we found an open parking space with a two hour limit just a short walk from the Chinese Consulate, something of a miracle in itself.

At the door, we were searched, which of course required emptying our pockets and showing our passports, because we were essentially entering a foreign country.



"Take a number, and take a seat."

C197.

Seats were harder to come by.

There certainly weren't two together, and the handful of empty ones were being held for someone across the crowded room.

The monitor flashed that C110 was now being served...but also A84 and B322 and...

Over the next hour, I watched to see how long the average processing time was and estimated it to be about 3 to 5 minutes, but with multiple windows open.  At 12:30, we were at C142, and it no longer seemed likely we'd be able to meet Jay for lunch in Santa Monica.  It seemed increasingly less likely we would get through before their closing time of 2 PM.

2 PM?

I thought it was 5 O'Clock somewhere, but apparently that was just in Margaritaville.

We decided to shovel this first attempt under and come back the next day bright and early, salvaging a late lunch with Jay as consolation for the Consulate snafu.

As we came back to the car, we saw a meter maid sitting in her mini-car, and I told Julie, "It's lucky we left when we did, or we would have gotten a ticket."

When we reached our car, however, we found we already had a parking ticket on the windshield.

I went to the meter maid's car to ask about it, and she just rolled up her window, shook her head and pointed to the sign that we had read as allowing 2 Hours for our space, exactly the proof I intended to submit to her.

Looking at the confusing sign more carefully, however, there were some tiny arrows that made her point of that exact space being no parking at that exact time.  I thought about fighting the ticket in court, but that would involve returning through Los Angeles snarling traffic to go to traffic court where I would either pay for expensive parking for a day or risk getting another ticket.

Game, set and match to the city of Los Angeles.  $95 for the ticket plus another $10 for gas...not to mention the aggravation of the overall experience...and that $119 fee wasn't looking too bad.



However, we were now in it too deep to do it the easy way.

We went back on Monday by bus, on a course charted by Julie to take advantage of the commuter line and arrival at the Chinese Consulate as they opened in the morning to be sure we had time.

It worked.

After only a couple of hours in the crowded room, our number was called.  We went to the window with our thoughtfully and thoroughly completed forms, but they wanted some additional back-up information, plus photocopies of our passports.

Would we have to go back home?

No.  There was a Chinese travel agent down the hall that would make copies for 25 cents and print pages from a computer file for only $3 for the first page and a dollar a page thereafter.

This small office was even more crowded than the Consulate, because apparently everybody who went for their visas or to register their new babies --- I'm not exactly sure what was up with that --- had some problem with their paperwork that required them to print pages at this "travel agency."  I would guess that agency has no time to book travel, much less do any research on trips.

So, with a bit of pre-print editing, we were able to get everything we needed for another $12 and were even allowed to skip the line back at our original window where we would pay and wait for our passport...only they don't do same day service.  Communist efficiency.

Our bus ride home didn't go as smoothly as the ride up, because there wasn't a commuter bus at that time.  It took about four hours, including a couple of wrong stops in rough areas, but we made it home and lived to tell the tale.

A week later, we returned by commuter bus and found that it was not a Chinese holiday, as had been the case for Gina.

Arriving a couple of minutes after the Consulate opened,  we found about fifty people in the pick-up line.  It turned out that about every other customer was a visa servicing company that would do ten or twenty at a time, which slowed our progress considerably.

Still we made it through in a couple of hours, and our passports with newly added ten-year, multiple re-entry visa update, seemed perfect.

Add bus fares to the ticket and printing charges, and I'm pretty sure we paid a few dollars more than the "expensive" processing fee for the recommended visa company, but we had the fun of the experience.

And that was a good thirty hours of not having to worry what we would do with all our free time.