MAYBE MOROCCO COULD BUILD CALIFORNIA’S HIGH-SPEED RAIL: Issues & Insights notes that a mere seven years after it was launched, the first section of Morocco’s 200-mph bullet train became operational in 2018.

California’s “safe, convenient, affordable” high-speed rail project was first approved by voters in 2008. Here we are almost two decades later and “California’s high-speed rail has not been safe nor convenient nor affordable nor a reliable alternative — because it doesn’t exist. It is probably a couple of decades behind schedule, the first usable track has yet to be laid. The cost has risen sharply since voters fell for the lies and might reach as high as an inconceivable $231 billion.”

What’s wrong with this picture?

IS SOCIALISM A FAD OR FULL-ON THREAT? Are the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) just a passing fad or a real, long-term threat to the Democratic Party and ultimately America? That’s the question discussed on the latest edition of the Outstanding podcast by host Casey Harper, The Washington Stand’s Managing Editor for Broadcast, Matt Carpener, chief of Family Research Council (FRC) Action, and yours truly.

ISRAELI DEATHS THEY DIDN’T TELL YOU ABOUT: Few Americans have any idea of what it means to live in a place where the possibility of violent death is a daily reality. But that’s what it’s like living in Israel. Consider this graf from Richard Pollock’s latest column, “the ignored history of Palestinian terrorist attacks against unarmed Israelis” just during the present year:

“The sadness among Israeli families has been deep and ongoing. In 2026 alone, there were 59,583 bereaved Israeli family members: 8,420 bereaved parents, 4,872 widows, 14,430 orphans, and 31,814 siblings, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.”

REAGAN BACKSTORY ON TRUMP ANTI-FRAUD PUSH: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says his department is now computer-matching proposed expenditures with the Death Master File (DMF) to ensure tax dollars stop going to dead people. But one of President Ronald Reagan’s “junkyard dogs” did the same thing beginning in 1981, so why did it take 45 years for Treasury to catch up?

AND WE WONDER WHY SO MUCH FRAUD: New GAO report examines 20 of the biggest federal benefit programs that rely on state administration and finds only five have solid anti-theft procedures in place.

CONFUSED BY TRUMP’S IRAN MOVES? Richard Pollock reminds us of the best guide to the Trump mind, his book “The Art of the Deal,” by marshaling multiple passages that just might explain his on/off approach on military action and negotiations.

RESTORE CURSIVE INSTRUCTION: Yes, I am a Boomer and “back in the good ole days” we all learned cursive writing skills in elementary school. Even as late as 2010, every state in the union either required or strongly encouraged teaching cursive writing skills.

But then during the Obama administration, that changed in the Common Core Standards and by 2016, only 14 states maintained the cursive element. Thankfully, and for whatever reasons, sanity is returning and today 27 states recognize that cursive writing skills improve cognitive and other key skills in youngsters. Here’s why I think we need to get all 50 states back in the cursive arena.

REALITY BITES AGAIN: Here she goes again! Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) claims Trump domestic and foreign policies explain the Affordability Crisis. Check out my latest PJMedia column with the necessary corrective from Just Facts Daily.

UKRAINE DRONES ARE KILLING PUTIN: Rod Martin documents how Ukraine is giving the world a brutal demonstration of the power of drones to turn Russia’s greatest defensive asset — its vastness — into the Bear’s worst handicap. Question: Why didn’t the U.S. military/industrial complex figure this out before Ukraine?

GOLIATH’S WEAPONS, ARMOR FOUND? Frank Turek of cross-examined.org talks on HillFaith about the recent finds in Israel of spear tips, swords and armor that are so big they clearly were intended for use by giants like Goliath, the Philistine champion killed by the young shepherd boy David with a sling and one smooth stone. Or maybe the finds were nothing more than ancient ceremonial or decorative items? What do you think?

NO, SPACE COMMERCIALIZATION ISN’T TULIP MANIA: If the tulip mania reference escapes you, then you really need to read Issues & Insights’ (I&I) explanation for why the recent dips in stock value for VIP space commercialization ventures is NOT a sign of a bubble. And if the tulip reference is familiar to you, the I&I suggestion of the significance of space commercialization will make perfect sense to you.

DID CHINA BUY US JOURNOS? President Donald Trump made the allegation official, saying in his July 16 speech that China paid U.S. journalists who were writing negative stories about him during his first term. Trump didn’t, however, name names or specify how much was paid to any specific journalist.

Given the constitutionally protected nature of journalism, the American people have a right to know the facts on this allegation from Trump. If there were indeed payments made and accepted, then on what basis would/could there be prosecutions? Conversely, if there weren’t actually Chinese bribes to U.S. journalists, then he will have handed defenders of the Mainstream Media a huge gift that could cripple responsible critics of biased reporting.

VANCE OUT ON IRAN: Richard Pollock points to multiple signs Vice-President JD Vance is no longer President Donald Trump’s man on foreign affairs, and in particular on Iran. But that doesn’t mean Vance will never return to a foreign policy role, and if he does, that could be bad news for Israel.

WHERE’S OUR MONEY: Open the Books says at least $400 billion in COVID Pandemic relief funds has been stolen by fraudsters, but the federal government has recovered less than 1 percent of it. The actual total lost to fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and other Pandemic relief programs is almost certainly much higher than $400 billion.

BOUGHT AND PAID FOR: That’s the Mainstream Media (MSM), key members of which were paid handsomely by the Chinese Communist Party  (CCP) to report incessantly negative “news” about Donald Trump, and which had it’s responses to the President’s Thursday night national address in the can before he spoke.

So why did none of the major MSM outlets even mention Trump’s accusation of CCP bribes to members of the MSM? Issues & Insights contributor Bob Maistros explains.

RIGHT OF ACTION FOR TRANSGENDER SUITS: That bill known as the Chloe Cole Act of 2026 is moving up in the House of Representatives. The measure establishes the right for individuals who as minors underwent transgender surgery and treatment to sue for damages. Next question: Will House GOP leaders bring the proposal to the full House for a vote?

WHAT IF: The laws of nature actually aren’t able in and of themselves to create life as we know it? Systems Engineer Steve Laufman, ably teamed with Dr. Howard Glicksman, examine the significance of the problem of increasing complexity in the search for solutions.

GRAHAM’S BODY WASN’T EVEN COLD: When the sad news of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s passing became public, the Left’s Culture Warriors lost no time trashing the man, Richard Pollock reports.

NO, TRUMP NOT BACKING OFF: On a proposed rule, that is, from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that would ban Medicaid funding for hospitals doing transgender surgery on minors. And tomorrow, the House Judiciary Committee marks up a bill to clear the legal path, namely, a right to action to sue providers of such medical “services.”

IMAGINE NEW YORK AS THE BRITISH EMPIRE’S CAPITAL: That might have become a reality had there been more common sense and foresight among the ministers in King George III’s cabinet in the decade leading up to 1776, according to Brit historian Andrew Roberts

DO AMERICANS KNOW WHO WE ARE? Lots of survey results in recent days prompted by the 250th July 4 celebration and, based on typical media reporting, it’s easy to conclude Americans, especially those in younger age brackets, have lost faith in the nation’s founding principles. Well, I say hold on there because that’s not the whole story. Check it out on The Washington Stand.

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.