Captain Richard's Musings and Other Things

On the 14th I turned 80 and on the 21st we had one hell of a great party here at Burnt Store Colony.  My friends Bob and Mary Ann MacPhail brought their band and all his equipment and Francis and KC Chillcoat came down from West Virgina and we had a bash like we used to have in Indianapolis only this was a little larger venue.  Geralyn and I cooked Sloppy Joes and Mac and Cheese and people brought dishes.  Fortunately we had just enough food to go around.  Tim and Angie were also here and Angie video taped most of the music which can be foiund on this link on YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1ltyvF5I_PvUPbpm1ceaS9HRWNZwgJkz  

Recapping a Year of Covid19 in 2021  I haven't written much in the last few years but maybe its time to start again.  For the past year and a half the world has had to deal with Covid19 or Corona Virus.  Millions of people have died, economies have been devastated, families have been decimated.  In this country the initial Government response, under the Trump administration was simply to deny it.  It started with cruise ships being held off shore and not allowed to discharge passengers.  Then it hit large metropolitan cities like New York and Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago.  We went into a national lockdown and hundreds died.  Hospitals were overwhelmed, bodies were being stored in refrigerated trucks. We didn't have enough ventilators or masks for the nurses and doctors and believe it or not, people started hoarding toilet paper which disappeared from all the grocery shelves. Geralyn and I were in Key West at the time, spending the winter on CallieB.  In March 2020 we decided

 Regressive vs. Progressive Taxation.  From the NYT, September 17, 2020.   IDEA OF THE DAY: THE ‘FAIR TAX’ Many states have tax systems that are regressive: They take a greater share of income from the poor than the rich. And because a disproportionate share of the richest taxpayers are white, these state tax systems also widen racial wealth gaps. In Illinois, for example, the lowest-earning fifth of the population pays 14.4 percent of its income in state and local taxes, according to  a new study  by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The middle-earning fifth pays 12.6. The highest-earning 1 percent of residents pays 7.4 percent. This year, Illinoisans will vote on whether to change this system, through a constitutional amendment to authorize a more progressive tax, called the Fair Tax. It would cut taxes for the 97 percent of residents who make less than $250,000 in taxable income — and raise taxes for the remaining 3 percent, according to the study. If the Fair Tax had b

 Listening to Bob Woodward discussing his book RAGE as regards General Mattis and Dan Coats and why he thinks they really haven't come forward yet to verify elements of his book.  

I’m a product of the South. I grew up a southern white boy in the 50’s.  I went to all white schools and lived in all white neighborhoods.  I had all white friends and dated all white girls.  I read books about the civil war exploits of confederate soldiers.  I watched movies dramatizing the antebellum south. I watched TV shows like “The Gray Ghost” glorifying the exploits of John Singleton Mosby (Mosby’s Raiders).  I listened to my grandmother talking about her father, my great grandfather, who fought under Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville.  Yes, I’m a true “son of the confederacy”.  To me the Confederate flag was  a sign of a proud heritage and second only to the American flag.   The problem was I never thought about the other side of the meaning of that flag.   We in the south, and when I say that, I mean we white people in the south grew up glorifying the confederacy. We lived, we breathed it, it was just part of us.  I never thought about the real meaning of the flag and the