THE BOB PACKWOOD YOU DIDN’T KNOW: Sen. Robert Packwood (R-ORE) passed away recently. The prototypical Senate GOP RINO, Packwood is probably most remembered these days, if he is recalled at all, for sleeping with certain female staffers. But there was much more to the man.

Former Reagan White House official Chuck Donovan, writing in The Washington Stand, tells about Packwood’s devotion to advancing the cause of population control (remember Erhlich’s “The Population Bomb”?). and the closely related issue of legalizing abortion. Packwood played a huge role in blocking Reagan’s major pro-life initiative:

Packwood “was a key force within the GOP in blocking progress on life. In 1982, the Reagan administration endorsed a measure called the Human Life Bill, which, less than a decade after Roe v. Wade, would have made clear that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution applied to all human beings from conception, freeing the states and, by implication, the federal government to protect human life from abortion. Packwood joined fellow Republican Millicent Fenwick of New Jersey and many Democrats in opposing the HLB, as it was dubbed. The Senate failed to break a filibuster against the bill, and it was ultimately tabled,” Donovan writes. There is much more like this, courtesy of Donovan’s careful re-telling.

TRUMP’S TURKEY MOVE: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not a good guy, regardless of the fact our President has known and liked him for a long time. Richard Pollock lays out the multiple aspects of Erdogan’s vision for a new strategic alliance of radical Sunni powers in the Middle East to replace the rapidly fading Iranian influence. Making even 1, much less 100, U.S. F-35As available to Turkey is thus a huge mistake.

THE DECLARATION AS THE SIGNERS UNDERSTOOD IT: I’ve read more analyses  than I care to remember of the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence, and I have to say Rod Martin’s “The Christian Worldview of ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness'” does a fine job of explicating key phrases as all but a couple of the signers — Jefferson and Franklin — likely understood them. And even TJ and Ben had to speak in the language of the rest of the signers. And all of them understood those inalienable rights to be characteristic of every man, not just Christians,

RIGHT JOURNOS DECLARE INDEPENDENCE: It was seven years ago when Investors’ Business Daily (IBD) closed its opinion section, taking with it one of the finest editorial page sections in the country. But members of the team writing the editorials and columns refused to wave a white flag.

So they started “Issues & Insight” (I&I) web site, which in the years since has consistently turned out superb free market/pro limited government-guided commentary on the issues of the day.

But being an independent editorial site on the Internet is no easy task and after trying all the ad partnerships (think Google’s AdSense), the team had enough of the censorship that came along with Big Tech. So they are now going 100% reader-supported.

Very much inspired by Mr. Jefferson’s original work, the I&I crew have now issued their own Declaration of Journalism Independence, and it is well-worth your time in giving it a good read.

GHOST RIDERS IN THE (MASSACHUSETTS) SKY: Deep-dive data analysis by Open the Books of Medicaid-funded transportation of beneficiaries to medical services finds thousands of such rides took nobody anywhere, except taxpayers to the cleaners.

FOOD STAMP FOLLY: One of every 10 Food Stamp payments by the federal government is incorrect, usually more than it should be and occasionally a little less. Trump’s Ag Sec, Brooke Rollins, is implementing needed reforms.

ONE HANDY CHART: Matthew Dickerson over at Baseline Policyput together a fascinating chart showing all revenues and expenditures by the federal government since 1776.

HERE’S WHY: American history is one of progress and hope, not the oppression and hypocrisy we are constantly told by the Left.

FISCAL LAB ON CAPITOL HILL: This new economic research and analysis team founded by former Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Director Bill Beach is up and running, cranking out hard-hitting, data-driven examinations of key issues facing the nation. The latest is from the Lab’s Matthew Dickerson, Senior Fellow in Budgetary Analysis, who examines the economic impacts of the Trump administration’s working families tax cuts.

UPDATE ON DEMS, GOP LIES ON SPENDING, DEFICITS, DEBT: Two new charts added to yesterday’s Substack column — “Democrats and Republicans MUST Stop Lying About Their Deficit Spending and Debt, Beginning July 5, 2026, if America is to Survive” — illustrate in cold, hard data the reality of this crisis. Even if you read the column yesterday, it’s worth re-reading now in light of these charts. And Happy 4th of July, may the Republic go on another 250 years of liberty and prosperity.

HAVE YOU READ THE DECLARATION BEFORE THE DECLARATION? More than a year before our Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on July 4, 1776, there was another independence proclamation known as the Mecklenburg Declaration. It is more than well-worth reading today and you can do so in my latest PJMedia column.

TIME FOR REHAB FOR BOTH DEMS, GOP: Tomorrow is a great day, the 250th commemoration of the proclamation on July 4, 1776, of America’s Declaration of Independence. But on July 5, 2026, we better get honest with each other and our leaders about the approaching fiscal calamity. Read all about it here with my latest Substack column.

10 ERRORS OF TUCKER’S DELUDER: J. Michael Waller lays out in detail 10 of the major errors, misrepresentations and falsehoods of Alexandr Dugin, Vladimir Putin’s favoriate “philosopher” and apparently a major influence on Tucker Carlson.

UPDATE (From Ed): The Paranoid Prophet of Loserdom: Why high-level members of the American right are drawn to Alexander Dugin.

And if you missed it yesterday: Tucker Carlson Is Building a New Political Party After Ditching the Republicans.

Tucker has no intention of winning anything. That’s not the point for him. He’s not sincere in his desires. https://t.co/B3by2VsITC

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) July 2, 2026

THANK YOU, SCOTLAND: The independence we declared 250 years ago on July 4 was very much a product of the influence of Scots, especially those who were hard-core Presbyterian ministers, and Scots professors who tutored people like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and James Wilson.

EVOLUTION WITHIN EVOLUTION ABOUT EVOLUTION: Things are getting really interesting in the long-running Intelligent Design/Neo Darwinian Materialism debate on the origins and development of life.

There are recent discussions among some advocates of the latter perspective on whether it’s time to concede the conventional evolutionary wisdom is in need of a tune-up. It’s on HillFaith where you can check out conservative media voice Michael Knowles interviewing Dr. Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute and “Return of the God Hypothesis.”

VANCE-RUBIO SPLIT ON IRAN: Richard Pollock, writing on Substack, sees substantial evidence that Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are pursuing widely different paths in the unfolding Iran drama. Could be a significant prelude to the 2028 GOP presidential nomination battle?

BELIEVE THE DSA WHEN THEY TELL YOU WHO THEY REALLY ARE: And what they really are becomes more obvious with every word from their multiple mouths. Plus, they have a new platform, Issues & Insights (I&I, quoting City Journal, tells us:

“As the City Journal’s Stu Smith reported, the DSA has adopted a new platform that is, incredibly enough, even more radical than its previous one. Although it still hasn’t been published on its website, an advance version, which Smith obtained,  is straight-up Marxism, declaring “the entire global system of capital” as its enemy and promising to “build a new society from the ground up.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa), who is among the last sane voices in the Democratic Party, says his party is “drifting firmly into communism.” The smart guys at I&I have it more precisely – the party is “rushing into communism.”

The reality is Marxists always promise they will build “a new society from the ground up.” What they actually and always build are Gulags, the genocidal destruction of millions of people in classes they view as irreparably part of the old society, deeply impoverished cities, towns and neighborhoods that once were not, healthcare for “all” – all of the ruling class, that is, and the complete centralization of all power in members of that same ruling class.

That is the result of every Marxist regime that has ever taken power. Orwell had it exactly right when he wrote in “1984” “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.” And that is what every American must realize: To treat “Democratic Socialists/Marxist” as anything but enemies of truth, freedom and prosperity is to commit societal suicide.

WHEN REALITY BITES … NEWSOM: He mocked Justice Alito’s majority opinion in the Supreme Court’s Hawaii decision on individuals carrying firearms in public. The Chief Executive of the state with the highest poverty rate and the most tax-paying citizens fleeing to Texas, Florida, Arizona, etc. etc. ought to know better.

HOW TO FIND THE MISSING MIDDLE IN HOUSING: Those aging suburbs around your town are likely not changing from an aging generation whose children have grown up because nobody is selling, even if there were young couples trying to buy. There are reasons for that, especially public tax policies that discourage empty nesters to put up For Sale signs according to the Institute for Family Studies (IFS):

“When seniors are locked into homes their children have long since left, those homes never reach the next generation of parents, and the neighborhoods where today’s adults grew up are closed to their own kids,” according to a deep-dive data analysis from IFS.

Why should anybody care?

“Unlocking those homes would do more than house young families. Aging owners freed to downsize could also move closer to their children and grandchildren, easing the hands-on caregiving that flows in both directions across generations—grandparents minding grandchildren, adult children looking after aging parents—and lessening the public cost of institutional care,” IFS reports.

FAUCI DAY OF RECKONING: Anthony Fauci has a presidential pardon in his pocket that protects him from prosecutions from 2014 through the end of the Biden administration, but not when he is compelled to testify before a congressional committee next month.

And Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who chairs the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, has issued just such a subpoena. Dr. Robert Moffit of the Heritage Foundation lays out the abundant damning evidence Fauci could be asked about.

COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE AWAKEN THE SENATE: That SAVE America Act that President Donald Trump and a bunch of House conservatives must become law before Congress does anything else has remarkable support from 79 percent of the public, including majorities of all three major voter groups.

But, as I report today in The Washington Stand, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), while insisting there aren’t enough votes to meet the 60-vote threshold presently required to approve the measure, sent the upper chamber lawmakers home for two weeks. Because only a simple majority is required to change Senate rules, skepticism is growing rapidly that Thune and the usual Senate RINOs are hiding behind the 60-vote barrier.

The July 4th fireworks around the corner may pale by comparison with the explosions when the Senate returns.

OTAS GETTING SUNLIGHT: Federal law requires federal spending to be publicly available on the USASpending.gov, but not there is at least $99.7 billion in Department of War research and development spending using Other Transactions Agreements (OTA) over the past six years.

Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala) offers an amendment in the House Rules Committee (one of 1,200+!) that makes it clear OTA contracts must be disclosed on USASpending.gov. May not seem like a big deal in a $7 trillion federal budget but that’s how bureaucracies typically get around the law, finding (or creating) loopholes like OTA. And loopholes tend to breed like Jack Rabbits.

WHAT IF VIOLATING FOIA MEANT JAIL TIME? The landmark Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) became law on July 4, 1966, and in the six decades since, not one federal employee has ever gone to jail for violating the statute. Maybe that has something to do with the routine way the FOIA is ignored, abused and outright trashed by federal workers. I don’t know, I’m from out of town and all, but maybe it’s time to amend the law to make jail the consequence of serious infractions?

DEMS BACK TO FUTURE CIRCA 1911: They just think they’re peddling something new. Actually, as Issues & Insights points out, we’ve seen this act before and it was short-lived, for very good reasons.

LOOK WHO’S SILENT ON TRUMP’S IRAN MOU: Did you notice that when Secretary if War Pete Hegseth spoke last week at a NATO gathering in Brussels he said not one word about the Trump deal with Iran? Richard Pollock did. Is a major split in the Trump cabinet about to become public?