July 4, 2026

 July 4, 1976.  Fifty years ago.  

I was fifteen-years-old.  We lived in a subdivision west of town called Lake Charlotte.  That night, we watched the fireworks being shot off in town at the top of Lake Charlotte Court.  We sat on the street with our bikes over by the side of the road, impressed that we were witnessing the Bicentennial, the two hundreth birthday of our great nation.

Had we been asked if we'd be around for our semiquincentennial, we would have stared distantly, wondering what a semiquincentennial was.  Had we been told that it would be the two hundred and fiftieth birthday, we would have haughtily said yes, but we'd have wondered privately if we'd be around then.

Yet here we are, in 2026, celebrating the semiquincentennial.  It's July 4, 2026, and I'm sixty-five-years old, eligible for retirement.  In my six and a half decades of life, I've lived through many good and many bad times.  We buried our mother thirty years ago; had she lived to see the semiquincentennial, she'd have been approaching her ninety-fifth birthday.  Sadly, she didn't make it to sixty-five.  Fortunately, our country did, and then some.

Ours is the greatest country in the world.  That's both prideful and objective.  Our country has had glorious triumphs.  But it has also saved the world on several occasions from the scourge of fascism, communism and authoritarianism.  It has saved countless people from famine, disaster and plague.  It welcomes the world and shows it what true liberty is.  

No, it's not perfect.  Being the greatest does not equal perfection.  We, as a republic, have a long way to go in that department, but the important thing is that we never stop striving for perfection.  Every improvement we make short of that goal is still a benefit to humanity.

So I'll watch fireworks virtually (it's raining and ungodly hot tonight) and toast my country, thankful for God's grace to have allowed me to be born here.  I'll thank the men and women who have protected us and our republic and pray that we have the sense to keep it, as Benjamin Franklin warned us to do.

I've written a book about my time in Spain.  One of the best lines I've ever written is the last one of the book:  As a man loves his mother but is in love with his wife, I love my country but am in love with Spain.

I am and forever will love my country.  May God continue to bless the United States of America, the greatest country in the world.

(c) 2026 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Black Fatigue

 Growing up, if any of us had the temerity -- or more likely stupidity -- to use terms like nigger, kike or spic, we'd get our mouths washed out with fels naptha soap, which wasn't pleasant in the slightest.  Perhaps as a result of this, we were more accepting of other cultures.  I don't remember being scared of other races, or threatened or anything negative about them growing up.  They were just different than us, the same that Lutherans or Jews were different from us Catholics.  Not worse, just different.

As I matured into an adult, I started noticing differences that had nothing to do with color.  Again, these weren't negative differences, just differences.  

But then I went to college.  Admittedly, in high school the interactions with minorities were far more limited.  In college, the commingling of races, whether it was in classes or dorms, was far greater.  The differences that I'd started noticing as a young adult became more pronounced and, in some instances, more aggravating.  The biggest one had to do with sports, specifically basketball.  Sure, black kids tended to dominate.  It was just a fact of life.  I didn't like it much, but then again there were white kids who dominated me as well.  I just chalked it up to my poor genetics.

But as we got deeper into the decade of the 80s, the differences started to veer into unpleasant areas.  Not only were blacks  dominating in basketball, but they were making what was once a fun pastime very tiresome.  It seemed that every basketball game was a virility contest.  Respect was a word thrown around, but it was merely code for something deeper, more visceral.  Asserting one's manhood took precedence now.  Merit took a backseat.

Given my congenitally weak ankles and a burgeoning career as an attorney, I saw little reason to continue to subject myself to open gyms where it would have been much easier to just unzip, lay 'em out on the table and grab a ruler.  I didn't need to risk injury while not having any fun doing it.  Sure, losing wasn't any fun, but even worse was putting myself in an ad hoc gladiator match just to prove my manhood.  So I stopped playing basketball.

As a practicing attorney, I've had many interactions with black attorneys.  Almost all of them were pleasant.  In fact, of the more unpleasant interactions I have had, the majority of them were with white attorneys.  So the open gym experience didn't leave me jaded at all.

But when I'd go home and turn on the television, I'd see behavior within the black communities that was downright despicable.  Gangs of blacks beating the pulp out of a helpless white person.  Riots involving the destruction of property of innocent people.  Assertions that branded me and my country as racist, despite the obvious holes in the argument.

Lately, the phrase black fatigue has been bandied about, and not just by white folk.  Anytime there's a trial in a high profile case, the strident black voices sound loudest.  Reason goes out the window.   Black politicians feast on any perceived slight to yell about Jim Crow, lynching or slavery.  Talk of reparations will not go away.

I'm tired of this.  I don't deserve to be subjected to these insults.  I could list the number of things that would suggest that I'm not racist -- the black friends I have, the black women I've dated, the books I've read on African-American history -- but it's almost cliche to do so.  I have nothing to defend myself about.  

At the same time, I don't feel the need to subject myself to this abuse.  I step away from situations where such discussions could be had.  It's sad.  I don't mind engaging in debate, but the argument usually devolves into illogical assumptions and loud voices.  I'm too old to do this anymore.

I have black fatigue.

I am not a racist.  I respect people based on their conduct, not their skin color.

But I will also judge people based on their conduct as well.  Martin Luther King Jr. wouldn't have it any other way.

(c) 2026 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Things I Don't Understand

 I'd like to consider myself a reasonably aware and somewhat intelligent person.  Even so, there are some things I just don't understand.

For example, when a Christian marries a Jew and converts to Judaism, how is it that a Christian who, for most of his or her life, has believed the Jesus is the Son of God, now demotes him to a mere prophet?  I can understand how a Jew converting to Christianity now believes the Jesus is God, but a Christian relegating Jesus to a mere prophet confuses me.

When I worked on street crews for our village during summers to earn money for college, we sometimes worked with concrete trucks that brought concrete to the sites.  The truck would have a chute in the back that the revolving drum would then use to deliver the concrete.  After I'd graduated law school, I saw that the chute now delivered from the front of the trucks.  Why?  How is that better?

Volleyball when I played it in gym class had a rotation system.  It also had a scoring system that only allowed the team serving could score a point.  Now it has a libero and points are scored regardless of which team is serving.  When did this change?

I love music.  I will never understand how songwriters come up with the beautiful melodies they do.  James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer and others like them just mystify me.  What a wonderful gift they've been given.  

When we call a business and get an answering service that gives us multiple options for connecting to certain departments, there's usually a very saccharine, treacly woman's voice that is so sickeningly sweet I fear that I'll fall into a diabetic coma.  Where do these women learn to talk like this?  And do they turn it off when they go home?

(c) 2026 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

 

65

 Over the weekend I turned sixty-five.  I never pondered the age, but here we are.  I am officially eligible for social security and retirement, although I probably could have retired three years ago.  Funny thing is, I don't feel old at all.  I am the living embodiment of the adage that one can only be young once, but one can always be immature.  I am an eternal twelve-year-old.

But I got to thinking:  Even though the Greatest Generation gets the laurels -- rightly so -- in my humble existence I've seen a few things.  Here's a list of the things I've seen during my six decades on earth:

--  The Kennedy assassination (technically I was too young, but I was alive)

-- The Vietnam War

-- The MLK assassination

-- The RFK assassination

-- Man walking on the moon

-- The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

-- Two Arab invasions of Israel

-- The Munich Olympic massacre

-- Test tube babies

-- Personal computers

-- Cellphones

-- The Gulf War

-- 9/11

-- First female presidential candidates

-- Death of Elvis

-- Compact discs

-- 8 tracks, cassettes, Blu rays, streaming 

-- Cubs won a World Series

--  Non-politician POTUS

-- First female, African American and Latino SCOTUS justices

-- Creation of the European Union

-- Downfall of the Soviet Union

The list is not exhaustive, obviously.  But in my short time on earth, I've seen some things.

What makes this list even more poignant is that today I found out today that a fifty-eight-year-old colleague died.

QDEP Brian...

(c) 2026 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles 

The Muslim Menace

 Another day, another atrocity committed by Muslims.  This time, a shooting on Bondi Beach killing innocent Jews.  When will it stop?

The answer is never.  Despite what its adherents claim, Islam is not a religion of peace.  It is a religion of conquest.  I don't know whether it's the religion itself, or the twisted application that Muslims put to it, but no matter how peaceful some Muslims may be, a very troubling minority sees no problem with killing those of us it views as kafirs, or infidels, as part of their religious obligation.

The problem for us in the United States is that we can't limit immigration from Muslim countries because it would clearly be discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional.  The other side of that coin is that Muslims antagonistic to this country are using those laws to infiltrate our country to destroy us from within.  They don't even try to hide it.  Just look at what's happening in Dearborn, Michigan.  It's already happened in the UK.

Personally, I'm intrigued by the Arab world and Arabic as a language.  Were this not so dangerous I would study Arabic and its culture.  But now, it's a question of whether it would be worth it.  In order to learn a language, one needs to immerse himself in it.  There is no way I could do that now.  

What's really hard to swallow are the useful idiots who politic on behalf of Muslims and Islam.  Any criticism of either immediately brings charges of Islamophobia.  I think that's mistaken.  It's gone way beyond fear to hatred for many people.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Pendulum Swings

Right now, I'm mostly satisfied about the direction of the country.  President Trump has kept many if not all of his promises.  But it's not the political shift that I like the most.

Culturally, we're getting away from Wokeness, a scourge on this country unlike any other we've ever faced.  Trans people mass illegal immigration being accepted, criminal acts excused by sociology and the suppression of free speech are things that should never have existed.  The acceptance of these things, even to society's detriment, was unthinkable when I was growing up, but the Left, operating on what Karen calls the "feels," has perverted society almost to the point that this country was unrecognizable.

So while I support the return to more normal values, I do worry.

Much of the angst from the Left uses certain words:  Fascism, oligarchy, patriarchy, Nazi.  These terms are wildly misused, often to the point of being projection, but the drumbeat from the Left almost never excludes the terms or uses them correctly.

Still, I worry.  

The charge of fascism from the Left is wrong, as is the term Nazi.  But for anyone who has an iota of understanding of history, it's not impossible to see a future where the current trend in our society devolves into either.  Sure, the situation in 1933 Germany isn't exactly the same as what we have here.  The Versailles Treaty had brought Germany to its knees.  We aren't in the same situation by any means.

But if the young turks on the Right insist on expanding their power, it could happen that fascism could breed Nazis.  I could see it happening, unfortunately, although I don't think I'd see it in my lifetime.  And if it did happen, it would be every bit as bad, if not worse, as Antifa is now.

President Trump is more of a populist than he is a Republican.  I'm not sure where JD Vance is on the spectrum.  But President Trump is only in office for three more years.  Right now, no one seems interested in expanding MAGA beyond what it is.

But if history teaches us anything, the more we ignore history the likelier we are to repeat it.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

The Left's Desperation

 After two indictments, the Russia Hoax, the endless lies and two assassination attempts, the Left is unbowed.  It constantly invents new attacks on the President -- and half the country -- which only underscores the charge that it is not concerned about the country or its citizens, but about gaining and holding onto power.

Desperate to find its version of Joe Rogan, it's hitching its wagon to some shill named Jennifer Welch.  An uglier human would be hard to find.  Think of her as the female James Carville, only without functioning grey matter.  Engaging in unnecessary profanity as if to show how earnestly she believes in her cause, she makes unfounded declarations that are as provocative as they are libelous.  One of these days she's going to be taken to court and, even if she prevails because of bad SCOTUS precedent, she'll lose whatever credibility to which she lays claim.

There seems to be an adjustment of sorts happening at CNN, where the hosts push back against the more scurrilous comments from guests.  MSNOW, formerly MSNBC, holds course in its self-destructive past.

Meanwhile, on a state and local level, insanity prevails.  The governors of New York, Illinois and California continue to sound the alarm against non-existent fascism and oligarchy.  Mayors of larger cities, like whatever that is in Chicago, have lost their ever-loving minds.  The new communist mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, makes illogical pronouncements, putting at risk much-needed federal funding.  Even those who aren't even in office yet, with an opportunity to modify their political zeal, proceed unafraid of the consequences.  The governors-elect of New Jersey and Virginia crusade against Orange Man Bad, trying to bolster their liberal bona fides.

Of all the liberals, the man once thought to be out of his mind, Senator John Fetterman, seems to have retained a grasp on reality.  Hardly a convert to conservatism, he speaks with a more rational and measured tone than most of his liberal cohorts.  Sadly, he has few colleagues willing to join him.  

Civil war looms.  Whether it actually breaks out is anyone's guess.  

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Favorites

 Here is a list of my favorite things.  It's more of a repository for me than anything:

Favorite movie:  The Quiet Man

Favorite food:  Pizza

Favorite fruit:  Blueberries

Favorite ice cream flavor:  Chocolate chip

Favorite book:  The Count of Monte Cristo

Favorite foreign country:  Spain

Favorite vacation:  2019, the Pacific Northwest and the Canadian Rockies

Favorite boardgame:  Chess

Favorite drink:  Iced tea

Favorite beer:  Guinness

Favorite bird:  Loon

Favorite color:  Green

Favorite fashion:  Art deco

Favorite architect:  Frank Lloyd Wright

Favorite musical instrument:  Drums

Favorite phenomenon:  the Northern Lights

Favorite sport:  Baseball

(c) 2025  The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Free Speech and the Left...Again

 College campuses used to be centers of learning, where students were challenged to reason and analyze together with learn.  Nowadays, they're nothing more than expensive indoctrination centers where jaded professors inculcate them with nothing more than the ability to regurgitate anti-conservative tropes that are inherently flawed.

After Charlie Kirk's assassination Turning Point USA ("TPUSA") chapters have sprung up around the country, much to the consternation of the indoctrination centers.  Conservative students put up folding tables inviting people to join the organization.  These tables have brought in plenty of new recruits, but they also serve as a magnet for the opposition's ire.  At Illinois State, Oklahoma and other campuses, self-appointed defenders of the One True Faith approached these tables and upended them, claiming that it was their exercise of free speech under the First Amendment.  What these civics-challenged idiots don't understand is that although it is, in fact, an expression of their right to free speech, it is also a crime in many of these states.  No one suggests that they can't oppose TPUSA; quite the opposite.  It's the manner in which they express their opposition.  It's akin to murdering someone then claiming it was simply the exercise of their right to speak freely that the murdered the person to show how much they disliked him.

________________________________________

Although this may not encompass the Left, Moslem immigrants in this country are also embracing a warped interpretation of the First Amendment.  At a town hall meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, a fellow citizen spoke out against the call to prayer that is now being broadcast throughout the town.  He was told in no certain words by the City Council that there was no place for him in Dearborn and cut off from speaking further.

Moslems are enjoying the benefits of the First Amendment to tell the rest of us how they are going to take over the country, that Sharia law trumps the Constitution and how our way of life -- the one in which they inserted themselves when they moved here -- is wrong.  Again, they have a right to not only their opinion but also to express it, no matter how incongruous or vile it may be.  But native Americans should not only take heed of these incidents but also watch out.  I fear that Dearborn is tinderbox of insurrection.  Just last week the FBI arrested five people -- Moslems -- in connection with a planned massacre.  I pray that I'm wrong but don't think that I am.

I may be gone before anything happens regarding an insurrection, but the Useful Idiots on college campuses are paving the way for the Moslems to engage in their initiative.  Proof of that is abundantly available in the UK.

(c) 2025  The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Trump and the Nobel

 Today the warring factions, joined by several countries who brokered the deal, signed the peace accords ending the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.  Earlier this week the Nobel Prize for Peace was given to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Cochina Machado.  After she was notified of her award, Ms. Cochina dedicated the award to President Trump, whom she said deserved the award.

President Trump will never be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

It's not that he doesn't deserve it.  He does.  If nothing else, he deserves it more than President Obama did, who was awarded the prize for going on an apology tour.  He didn't assist warring factions settle their differences.  He ended no wars.  He simply went around the world and apologized for the United States' actions.

I hope I'm wrong.  For years now I've said that this country owes President Trump and his family an apology for all it's put him through.  But much like his opponents here who hate him more than they love their country, the woke voters of the Nobel committee would never dare risk their standing in the woke community by giving the prize to President Trump, no matter how deserving he is.

Those who oppose President Trump -- or those who simply hate him -- are like the mean girls in high school. They're more concerned with their own feelings and how they're perceived than doing the right thing.  In this regard, President Trump is a lot like Jose Canseco, the bash brother of MLB, who came out and admitted that he used PEDs but also named others who used PEDs.  The MLB establishment and the MSM pilloried Canseco, claiming he was lying to cover up his own misdeeds.  The fact of the matter is that Canseco was -- and still is -- brash and conceited, traits that many find in the President.  That Canseco was telling the truch was something they simply wouldn't accept, no matter how right Canseco was.  The same goes with President Trump.

Sure, he's brash.  That gold adornments he's put up throughout the White House is gaudy and, frankly, not my taste.  His use of augmentatives -- biggest, greatest, smartest -- is tiresome.  It's like listening to a used car salesman.  The trouble is he actually believes what he's saying, where the used car salesman is unconvincingly just using his schtick.

If people were honest, there would be no doubt that President Trump deserved the honor.  But people will rationalize how someone else who did comparatively less deserved the award more.  

It's a shame. 

And yet another thing for which people have to apologize to President Trump.

I hope I'm wrong.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

The Assassination of Charlie Kirk

 Charlie Kirk was killed today by an as yet unknown assassin.  He was shot for his beliefs.

The Left's hypocrisy is on full display in the aftermath.  Rather than mourn the death of a young father and husband, it is twisting itself in knots trying to explain away and, in some sick instances, justify the killing.  

Mr. Kirk was at another university event in Utah where a gunman shot him in the neck, hopefully killing him instantly if only to spare him pain.  Unfortunately, the shot did nothing to spare his widow and his now fatherless children years of pain that are to come.  Likewise, thousands if not millions of his young followers are bereft of the inspiration that guided their lives.  Hopefully, if sadly, his spirit will now inspire them to greater heights.

But what of the Left?  Early reports indicate that the macrocephalic idiots masquerading as journalists at MSNOW were basically saying he had it coming.  Leftists trolls are saying he had it coming due to his clothing.  Democratic congressmen booed the Speaker of the House when he asked for a moment of silence.  True colors come out in moments like this.

The hypocrisy is only going to get worse.  Recently, a lunatic stabbed to death a young Ukranian woman on mass transit for no apparent reason.  Brian Stelter, for some odd reason still employed as a pundit, called the reporting of the incident baldly racist due to the assailant's color and the victim's color.  Van Jones, slightly higher on the evolutionary scale compared to Stelter, blamed the action on the assailant's wounded psyche:  Hurt people hurt people.  Any suggestion that the assailant was a murderer was quickly dispatched.

So far -- and I haven't had a chance to listen to its rhetoric -- the Left has not called for gun control.  Why not?  Because a conservative was murdered?  When Kyle Rittenhouse rightly defended himself with an AR-15, the calls for gun control were loud and proud.  So far not a word, just as happened after the attempt on Donald Trump's life.  Ask a Leftist whether gun control is on the table now that a conservative has been murdered.

Think about all the politically-motivated shootings over the last twenty years.  Steve Scalise, Minneapolis, Nashville, Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump.  Every one of them was perpetrated by a Leftist.  Not a white supremacist, despite what the FBI would have you believe, but someone who leaned to the Left.  Moreover, trans people, who may very well have a mental illness, had a hand in a couple of these shootings -- and may have been involved in Kirk's assassination as well.  That, however, is conjecture.  But if it were to be true I wouldn't be surprised.

Once a suspect is apprehended and then charged, wait for the calls about that person being innocent until proven guilty.  And if this person is anything like the Charlotte train murderer, gird your loins for talk that we need more investment in mental health.  

But ask yourself:  Were this a conservative who had murdered a Leftist pundit, would there be calls for restraint?  Wouldn't calls for gun control be loud and endless?  

Ultimately, the assassin is responsible for this.  There is a class, however, that bears some responsibility for this.  Both the MSM as well as a segment of the Democratic Party is liable for creating the environment that encouraged the shooter to take this action.  Maxine Waters, Rashida Tlaib, Corey Brooks, Ilhan Omar -- any politician who recklessly encouraged people to assault conservatives bears the guilt and shame for this death.  They didn't pull the trigger, but they loaded the gun.  And the MSM egged them on, acting as their loudspeaker.

A good man died today, needlessly.  He didn't advocate violence.  He disagreed with people politically.

Shame on the Left.  

QDEP Charlie Kirk.  

You were a good man.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Let the Games Begin

 With the release of the so-called annex of the Durham report, including those documents found suspiciously in burn bags, Washington D.C. just became hotter than an active volcano.  No wonder the likes of Cankles, Obama, Comey and their minions are curiously quiet these days.

It may be that they know better than to talk.  It may be because they're unsure of what their useful idiots and co-conspirators the MSM would do were they to talk with them.  Or it may be because they're working with high-priced attorneys planning their defense strategy.

I doubt any of them plan to leave the country any time soon.

Oftentimes we measure scandals against the infamous Watergate burglary.  Without any chance of sounding hyperbolic, if these allegations are proven to be true, Watergate will look like child's play by comparison.

A sitting president, anxious to get his former challenger elected, allows the intelligence community to float a story that is known to be false -- not only false, but fabricated by the person who the sitting POTUS is trying to help replace him -- to a willing MSM to derail the opposition candidate's campaign.  When that fails, the loser continues to peddle the story with the assistance of the co-opted MSM -- one of whose mastheads reads Democracy Dies in Darkness, ironically -- and members of the intelligence community who declare that what is known to be the elected President's son's laptop is instead a Russian construct.  Such chaos is sown that the newly elected President is hardly able to govern.

Breaking into the Democratic Party's office is somehow not nearly as egregious.

As I said, right now the main culprits are pretty quiet.  The MSM, not surprisingly, is not covering the story.  A grand jury was just empaneled to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to move against any of the unnamed parties.  If and when charges are brought, all hell is going to break loose.

Comey should certainly be indicted on a number of different charges, as should Cankles.  Neither of them can claim immunity for any of their actions.  If anyone needs a refresher of what these miscreants did, a very thorough recitation can be found in Gregg Jarrett's book Witch Hunt:  The Plot to Destroy Trump and Undo His Election.  It's dense but it explains everything.

The interesting defendant would be Obama.  Given the SCOTUS ruling on presidential immunity, would his actions be protected?  Certainly, there would be court challenges.  How the SCOTUS would rule is anyone's guess; all we can know for certain is that he already has three votes to acquit.

Regardless, this mess will go on for years.  It will further drive a wedge between the parties and embitter millions of voters on both sides.

And all for what?

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Word Confusion

 In my profession, words matter.  I've always appreciated a clever turn of phrase, or a witty rejoinder or a pithy remark.  By no means do I consider myself a wordsmith, but as a spectator of language, of sorts, I'm unnecessarily critical of the misuse and abuse that goes on with the English language.  I can't help it:  I hear something that's amiss and it grates.  I have no right to be so critical; as I've said, I'm no wordsmith.  But I appreciate when the language is used beautifully, so I'm critical when it's misused.  

Every day, someone in the media or in entertainment misspeaks and says something to butcher the English language.  Here are but a few of the ones that irk me.

When singing the national anthem, the word perilous has various pronunciations.  Forget about the extraneous yodeling -- bothersome in and of itself -- but the word perilous can be pronounce as PAIR uh lis, as opposed to PAIR i lus.  Focus, people, focus.

Sad or tragic events are referred to as heart-wrenching.  Hearts are rent, not wrenched.  One wrenches a gut but rends a heart:  Heart-rending and gut-wrenching are the expressions.

For those wishing to sound sophisticated, from whence is uttered when someone wants to say from where.  The only trouble with this pseudo-sophistication is that whence already means from where, making from whence from from where.  It's a bit redundant.

On the mindless romantic shows (Love is Blind, The Bachelor, etc.) people speak of their journeys, their chemistry and their connections.  These have been beaten to death so much they're glue now.  Find better words.

In a similar vein, every year there seems to be a word previously in the shadows that becomes fashionable.  A few years back the word icon and its adjectival form iconic were in vogue.  They have been so overused that something or someone that is highly visible or successful is now an icon or iconic.  If that's the case, everything is so iconic that nothing is iconic any longer.  Recently, the word kinetic has gained traction.  I fear for its overuse.

The word none is abused daily.  None comes from no one.  That means it's singular, not plural.  Nevertheless, it's almost always used as a plural:  There are none in here...

...Similarly, there is and there are have morphed into there is.  There's at least fifty ways to do that....  We can do better.

In church, whenever a layman leads a prayer, the word just is overused.  For example:  Lord, we are just so happy to praise You and just ask that you protect us and guide us as we just try to honor You and live the life You want us to lead.  We're simply sinners who are just trying to live our lives according to Your dictates.  We just want to love You and honor You as you deserve....  Humbly could substitute for just a couple of times...just to mix it up.

This reminds me one time where I prepared a client for a deposition.  I advised the client that in the event he couldn't remember something exactly he should qualify it by saying as far as I recall, if I remember correctly, I'm not sure but, approximately, etc., but to alternate which phrase he was using.  In the deposition the client got so nervous that he got so nervous that he used approximately every time he tried to qualify an answer.  It didn't sound like he was programmed at all....

As a Spanish-speaker, it irks me when someone wants to sound sophisticated and throw a Spanish word into a speech.  I should be happy.  But in the current climate where bad men from foreign lands have invaded our country, talking heads like to talk about bad hombres, but mispronounce hombre as hambre.  So much for sophistication:  hambre means hunger, not man.

Who v. Whom.  The endless debate from people who don't know the difference.  They misuse whom to sound sophisticated.  Ugh.

Likewise, the use of you and I when it should be you and me is grating.  I is a subject pronoun; Me is a prepositional pronoun.  If the usage is uncertain, take away the you and and see how it sounds.

We all get tongue-tied, trip over our words, have senior moments.  But it's easy to discern when someone is simply making a mistake versus not knowing the correct usage in the first place.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Medicine v. the Law

 I'm an attorney.  I enjoy being an attorney on most days.  This doesn't mean that I'm enamored of  all coworkers who have law licenses.  Many of my brethren are cretins at best and snakes at worst.  There's a reason we have disbarment proceedings.  Still, for every bad attorney there are a hundred -- if not hundreds -- of fine, ethical practioners whom I proudly view as correligionists.

The same, I assume, holds true for medical doctors.  Our primary physician is a lovely man.  I've had many a good doctor treat me and bring me back from the brink of death...or at least guide me back to the path of healthiness.  I can't really complain too much about the care I've received from the medical profession.  

But when it comes to communication, the medical profession could learn a thing or two from us attorneys.

Back in November I was diagnosed first with atrial fibrillation, then with heart failure including a blood clot in the base of my heart.  Had the clot broken loose and traveled to my brain, I could have had a stroke -- and died.  Thankfully -- obviously -- that didn't happen.  But not because of the transparent communication involving the medical community.

I was originally scheduled for some test at the beginning of November before any of this was known.  Unfortunately, when I showed up on November 12 for the scheduled procedure, I was told it had been postponed to a later date and that I had been called regarding the postponement the weekend before.  But when I checked my phone messages, there was nary a call from the hospital  The reason for the delay was an anticipated work stoppage, which never occurred.

Then I had to have a nuclear stress test of the heart.  Because I had to be careful with my court schedule, I inquired as to how long the test would be.  I was told that it would only take an hour and a half; because it was scheduled for first thing in the morning, I would be able to attend the Zoom court hearing after the procedure ended.  But when I came in for the procedure and confirmed the timing of the procedure, I was told that the hour and a half was only the first half of the procedure, that to complete it would take another hour and a half.  Fortunately, I was able to come back the next day to complete the procedure.

Then there was the initial meeting with the cardiologist.  I was told to be there at 7.30 for an 8a consultation.  At 8.20a the cardiologist sauntered in.  When I told him I had to leave by 8.45a to make it back to my office in time for a 10a hearing, he said, "But this consultation lasts an hour!"  I left promptly at 8.45a leaving Karen to finish the consultation.

I was then scheduled for a heart catheterization in mid-February.  I was to be there over the weekend, including President's Day, to minimize time off from work.  I waited until 5p on Saturday to be admitted...and I had to call to find out I could come to the hospital.  Then, in the meeting with the cardiologist on Sunday, the scheduler answered the cardiologist that I wasn't scheduled for a catheterization!  Both the cardiologist and I nearly lost it.

Today, I was called about the procedure I was scheduled to have tomorrow.  The caller began reviewing the medicines I've been taking and when we got to one of them, I answered that I took my pill this morning as instructed.  Apparently, I should have ceased taking that pill -- and a shot I get weekly that I took Monday -- on Monday.  Because I didn't, my procedure has to be reschedule for next Friday.

I'm not a med-mal attorney, so I don't know if any of these lapses qualify as malpractice.  But had anything happened to me because of the miscommunication and attendant delays, Karen may well have hit the lottery.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

MSM Self-Flagellation...Sort Of

 Recently, the book Original Sin, by authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, has created a stir for wildly different reasons.

On the Left, many are angered that two journalists with strong liberal credentials would dare to suggest that Man of Dementia, Joe Biden ("MoD"), was in cognitive decline, that his administration and supporters would cover it up and that the media would dare report this.  On the Right, people are aghast that the Left couldn't see what millions of Americans saw and heard with their own eyes and ears.  

Tapper rudely rebuked Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of the President, for suggesting that MoD was in cognitive decline, sneering that she lacked the credentials to come to such a conclusion.  Thompson, in accepting some award from some journalists' society, claimed in accepting the award that the MSM missed the story.  Again, the Right was shocked that Thompson claimed that the MSM missed the story since people without journalism backgrounds saw it clear as day.

Since President Trump's mandate, elements of the Left have been engaged in various degrees of self-flagellation. These acts are designed not so much as introspection as they are performance art to show that the Left wasn't engaged in the cover-up, but was honestly and truly deceived by MoD and his administration.  These protests are hollow. A review of the language used by the Left together with the efforts to demonize the Right for complaining about MoD's ineptitude shows that any complaints now are disingenuous at best and deceitful at worst.  There is no way that people who were so highly educated who had no trouble lecturing the rest of us didn't see and hear what we saw and heard.  Despite Jonathan Gruber's declarations, the American people are not that stupid.

Some are saying that this scandal exceeds the scope of Watergate.  That's probably true, because the scope of this scandal is far broader than the one perpetrated in Watergate.  Combined with the pathetic campaign of the Harris-Walz team, the Democratic Party is crippled now for the foreseeable future.  Not only does this scandal damage their brand with the American people, there is no savior on their bench with which they can overcome it.  Worse still, the Republican bench is deep...so deep, in fact, that not even JD Vance is assured of succeeding Donald Trump.  

I have said this long ago:  The Fourth Estate has become a Fifth Column.  What I never considered was that this was an unintended insult to Fifth Columns everywhere.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

In Defense of Karen(s)

My wife's name is Karen.  She's a lovely person.  She has the patience of Job, which many would say is an understatement considering her husband.  She's social, personable, inclusive, kind, thoughtful and every other good thing a person should be.  

As most people are aware, the name Karen has fallen into disrepute.  My wife bemoans her name, claiming it is antiquated.  I've always thought it was beautiful, especially compared to some truly antiquated names like Beulah, Lorna, Myrtle and Maude.  But it is now bandied about as a term to denote a woman who is a nuisance or, worse yet, a racist.  As one columnist (Karen Kirk) put it:

"Karen" has become a label for racist white women who call the police on innocent Black men, point guns at protesters, refuse to wear masks and generally behave outrageously. It has become a misogynistic stereotype of all the things that I am not and all of the negative qualities that I don't possess (except perhaps occasionally asking for the manager).

So woman are now branded with this name if they don't measure up to another person's expectation of how a woman should behave in a given situation.  The trouble with this usage isn't that the women in given situations don't deserve some sort of criticism, because they do.  The trouble is that by using my wife's name, my wife indirectly is besmirched as possessing the name of a vile person.  That's unfair.

What also bothers me is that this use was coined by blacks for white women who did things that, according to the blacks, were racists to varying degrees.  Its usage has expanded to include misbehaviors that are not racist in the least bit.  Conduct that is rude, or stupid, or selfish, or loud, or obnoxious, or socially inept -- the woman exhibiting such behavior is labeled as Karen.

My wife, when giving her name, now says "My name is Karen -- one of the good ones."  Fifteen seconds after meeting my wife is enough to know she doesn't live down to the stereotype.  Yet the unfair taint that attaches to my wife by virtue of her name as applied to other women who misbehave is inescapable. 

One miscreant named Gary even thought it was funny.  The really ironic part of this is that this moron took a post off Karen's FB page that was critical of a Christian singer who was making fun of Karen's in a song.  Karen lamented that a Christian would choose to use this for comedy and not see the hurt it caused women carrying that name.  Gary, more interested in proving his comedic chops, took offense when Karen challenged him.  Had I been quicker, I would have proposed that we replace Dick with Gary, to give Dicks across the country a respite from hearing their names used as an epithet, hoping that Gary would gain traction so that he would know what it's like to be tarred by other people's misconduct.  The likelihood that my proposal would ever gain traction is miniscule, but I'd like to try it.

There are problems using this term.  What happens to black women named Karen?  Are they exempt from being similarly insulted?  Or what do we call black women who misbehave?  Shanequah?  Or is it racist to suggest that black women misbehave? (Given the number of videos showing black women getting violent in fast food restaurants, I would think any claims of racism are easily disproven).

It's time that use of Karen was given a rest.  There may very well be white women out there named Karen who are vile beings, but I'm sure there are just as many Marys, Sues, Kims and Brittanys that are at least as horrible.

Besides, I love my wife.   She doesn't deserve this.

(c) 2023  The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Reckoning for the MSM?

 For years, I've tried to determine how best the MSM would be forced to fess up and admit its bias.  It can't be sued, as there's no statute that would provide for a cause of action.  We can't shoot them, because then there would be no confession.  About the only thing that I could come up with was to use sodium thiopental, the so-called truth drug, and put them under oath to answer questions.  

As of now, however, there is no real way to get to the truth about the MSM and its Leftist leanings.

Over the course of the last few years, however, the MSM has been losing in the courts of law.  Of course, given the numerous settlements into which it's entered, it can claim that it didn't lose.  But if it were so confident of being vindicated at trial, especially given the standard of New York v. Sullivan, it would never have settled.

It began with Nicholas Sandman's settlement with the Washington Post of the defamation lawsuit he brought against the newspaper.  Although the terms of the settlement weren't disclosed, the fact that the paper chose not to go to trial is indicative of how it viewed the probable outcome.  On the heels of that settlement, Mr. Sandman then settled with CNN, again due to the likely outcome.  Even so, two titans of the MSM buckled when confronted by a teenager, because they defamed him.

After that, President Donald Trump took networks to task.  First, he humbled ABC to the tune of $15M, which will go toward his presidential library, along with an apology, for George Stephanopolous repeatedly referring to the verdict in favor of E. Jean Carroll for sexual harrassment.  Stephanopolous continually referred to Mr. Trump as having raped Carroll, when the jury specifically found he had not done that.

On the heels of that, Meta settled with Mr. Trump for $25M for suspending his account.  Not to be outdone, X settled with Mr. Trump for $10M for the same reason.

At almost the same time, NBC settled with Dr. Mahendra Amin for falsely reporting that he had performed dozens of unwanted and unnecessary hysterectomies on illegal aliens.  The trial court had all but decided the case on a motion for summary judgment and ruled that the reports were verifiably false.

One case that did go to trial involved the defamation lawsuit brought by veteran Zachary Young against CNN.  Discovery provided damning emails and correspondence, not to mention horrendous deposition testimony.  At trial, the CNN witnesses were unrepentant.  The jury found in favor of Mr. Young, awarding him $5M, but also advising the court that he was entitled to punitive damages.  Seeing the writing on the wall, CNN settled before the punitive damages phase began.  Experts have reckoned that punitive damages could have exceeded $100M.

Perhaps chastened by Mr. Young's victory, certain of these other lawsuits were settled in short order.

One would think that the MSM had gotten the message and would change its wiley ways, but if the behavior of the CNN witnesses in the Young case is any indication, that's hardly likely.  In fact, certain producers involved in that case were later promoted.  As long as advertisers are willing to spend money with these outlets, nothing is going to change.

But if nothing else, shots have been fired.

All that remains is for the Supreme Court to tweak the Sullivan standards.  If that happens, perhaps there will be real change.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Moments

 There are times when I reminisce and certain memories recur.  Mostly, these are good memories, happy memories, but sometimes they're just meaningful to me without happiness involved.  These are times that I'll remember for as long as I live because of their impact on my life.

--  Mom driving me to the airport when I was leaving for Spain.  We sang O' Danny Boy together.  Neither of us knew how my year in Spain would go.  It could end in disaster.  I may decide to stay in Spain.  But on the way to O'Hare, we sang that song.  I'll never forget it.

--  In eighth grade, our basketball team was very close.  At the time, the Doobie Brothers' son Black Water was popular.  I can't remember lyrics very well, but I remember the chorus from that song because it was very simple.  Our singing the song in the locker room after practice is etched in my memory.

-- Speaking of the Doobie Brothers, when Karen and I saw them live they played my favorite song, South City Midnight Lady.  For whatever reason, I felt as if they dialed up that song just for me.

--  Karen's uncle Frank didn't have much longer to live.  We'd just gotten in town to see him and the ladies went out to get pizza.  That left me and Frank alone, so we sat in the outdoor rocking chairs that he had made (by far the best rocking chairs I've ever had the privilege to sit in) and chatted.  Normally, that wouldn't be much of a memory, but because he'd been so close with Karen's ex-husband and because I never had much of a relationship with him, our chat -- banal as it may have been -- was all the more meaningful because it was just two guys chatting.  I'll long remember that chat and how we had to scamper inside when a deluge hit.

--  In the last quarter of my time in Spain, I found myself in the backwater town of Arriondas, known for its canoe culture.  I had just gotten off the train and bought myself Manchego cheese, a Coke, a pistola de pan and some strawberries.  I went down by the river and ate my meal in the serenity of the place.  It was a glorious day all around.

--  Being in Grayling, Michigan, watching the Cubs punch their ticket to the World Series for the first time in my life.  

--  Being with Custer on the day he died.  No death since my Mother's has hit me so hard.  His loss still pains me.

-- Driving with Karen in a blizzard to deliver donuts.  Were we wacky or what?

-- Cooking turkey for Christmas in Madrid.  Rounding up the ingredients was a chore, but cooking the meal and sharing it with a Colombian, a Mexican and a Jew from Boston was memorable.

-- The puente trip to Pedraza was a most bohemian experience.  Eating salad out of a large communal bowl was a first.

--  Carrying on a conversation in Spanish with a bus driver from Soria next to the walls of the city of Avila.

--  Seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time with Karen.

-- Watching John Wick 3 in Friday Harbor, Washington, in sunglasses.

-- Meeting Karen for the first time outside the restaurant that no longer existed.  It changed my life forever.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Liberal Hypocrites

 I have long contended that when it comes to politics, Republicans are arrogant, and Democrats are liberals.  Remember, I consider myself a Marxist, as in I would never join a club that would have me as a member.  Republicans like to pat the electorate on the head and patronizingly tell us that they know how to handle everything, that we should just shut up and vote for them because they'll handle everything.  Democrats, on the other hand, will look us in the eye, tell us one thing and then do whatever they want.  Nothing proved the latter more tellingly than the inauguration of Donald Trump for his second term.

This was a man who Democrats and their Leftist foot soldiers maligned, besmirched and pilloried for the last eight years at a nazi, a fascist, an idiot and a dictator, among other epithets.  He was the second coming of Hitler.  All manner of dirty tricks were employed to stop him from becoming president, then subvert his administration, then to defeat him in the second election, then to prevent him from every running again, then to defeat him at the ballot box.  Lawfare, a new tool, was employed at the state and federal level, which ultimately failed.  Not even the MSM could hide the shoddy attempts that all failed miserably.

But now, given the mandate that was the 2024 election, and considering how miserably the Left failed in all their attempts, there seems to be a change of heart among some on the Left.

Mark Zuckerberg, the feckless head of Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is making the rounds complaining how the Biden administration twisted his corporate arm to act as its surrogate to suppress stories that would have been injurious to it and its election hopes, beginning in 2020.  Funny, but when it was happening, Zuck didn't complain at all.  He bobbed and weaved, claiming that is brainchild was protecting the country from misinformation, when all along he knew that the stories were true.  Only now, once Biden can do him no more harm, is he coming clean -- after denying it for four years.  

Snoop Dog, who called fellow blacks Uncle Toms for supporting Trump in 2016 and threatened to roast the fuck out of people for similar support, performed at one of Trump's inauguration balls in 2024.  My how the worm has turned.

Then, to add insult to injury, at the actual inauguration, Zuck, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (who also owns the Washington Post) and Sundar Pichai, head of Google, appeared with Elon Musk.  Only the latter supported Trump when he faced the lawfare; the others acted like Francisco Franco did toward the end of World War II and supported Biden until it was evident that his administration was on the way out.

Cowards and liars all, save Musk.

The saying goes that if one doesn't stand for something one will fall for anything.  In this case, the move made by Zuck, Pichai, Bezos and Snoop wasn't the result of them falling for anything but trying to save their hides before they fell under the tidal wave that occurred in November's election.  Desperate to remain in power, not to mention relevant, they saw the writing on the wall and chose to eat crow as the price of keeping what mattered most to them, their principles be damned.

And what of President Trump?  I know that if I were in his position, I wouldn't let those jackasses withing one hundred miles of my inauguration, but he plays by different rules.  Keeping one's friends close but one's enemies closer, the President has now made them beholden to him.  Seeking federal backing for AI, these spineless Leftists chose to abandon their questionable politics so that their businesses could eat at the federal trough.  If all battle plans fall apart at the first sound of gunfire, so do Leftist principles founder at the first sound of Republican victories...and the sound of cash being dispensed.

I loathe the Left.  Not necessarily its policies, because some are worthwhile.  The lack of actual principle, however, is enervating.

In the next post we'll discuss family behavior in the wake of the election.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

The Effort to Defeat Trump

 There is no limit to which the Left will not go to defeat Donald Trump.

It has lied about him.

It has committed lawfare against him.

It has tried to assassinate him...twice.

And there are useful idiots throughout this country that accept all of this because their hatred of this man is greater than their love for their country.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are a comedy duo running for office.  If anyone made an honest assessment of these fools there is no way that they would be elected.  Nevermind their obvious character flaws (Trump has his own; more on them anon); their policies are borderline communist and their abilities are nonexistent.  Add to that that they are allergic to the truth and it's a wonder anyone would vote for either of them, let along them as a ticket.

Trump is flawed personally.  He was a philanderer, he's boastful, he's petty, he's a name caller and he misrepresents things just as much as Harris-Walz.  He's not someone who is going to be inducted to an honor society any time soon.

But when the policies of the candidates are compared, there is no comparison.  The policies of the Biden-Harris administration have been ruinous for the country.  The economy, the border, international relations, energy, DEI, the First Amendment, student loan forgiveness -- nothing has gone right.  Bidenomics, touted as the savior of the economy, is a chimera.  Literally nothing has benefited the country that this administration has attempted.

Trump's policies, on the other hand, did reasonably well for the country.  There were some misfires -- that usually happens -- but on average, the country benefited from his policies.  In exchange the country had to put up with his boorish behavior.  But which was worse for the country?

The MSM's assistance of the Left is treasonous.  For years, I've been trying to figure out a way for it to be put on trial.  There is no way to do it.  Finally, however, I've figured it out:  Drug them with sodium thiopental, or truth serum, and then ask them questions while they're being taped.  It's the only way for the public to see just how the Fourth Estate has been a Fifth Column.

I will vote for Trump and Vance.  For me the choice is clear:  Harris-Walz should be nowhere near the Oval Office.

Besides, if Trump is elected he can't run again.

But at least the country will see the wisdom of putting up with boorish behavior is the policies benefit the country.

(c) 2024 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles