Good morning and welcome to Monday, June 13, 2026. My calendar says it's National French Fry Day, National Beans 'N' Franks Day, Beef Tallow Day, Barbershop Music Appreciation Day, National Delaware Day, International Rock Day, Embrace Your Geekness Day, Fool's Paradise Day, and Gruntled Workers Day — proving once again that whoever runs this calendar has never once considered a theme. Fries, franks, and rendered fat go up against rocks, geeks, and barbershop quartets, with a bonus round of "Gruntled" for anyone who forgot that's a real word and not just the missing half of "disgruntled." So find a satisfied coworker, fry something in beef tallow, hum a little four-part harmony, and call it a day well wasted.

Today In History:

1787: The Northwest Ordinance is enacted, establishing governance rules for the Northwest Territory and setting the framework for admitting new states.

1793: Jean-Paul Marat, a leading voice of the French Revolution's radical faction, is stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday.

1863: The New York City draft riots begin, three days of violence that remain among the worst civil unrest in the nation's history.

1878: The Treaty of Berlin redraws the map of the Balkans, granting full independence to Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania.

1919: The airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first return airship crossing of the Atlantic.

1930: The inaugural FIFA World Cup kicks off in Montevideo, Uruguay.

1938: The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing is founded, the root of today's Barbershop Music Appreciation Day.

1955: Nightclub owner Ruth Ellis is hanged for murder, the last woman executed in Britain.

1960: Sen. John F. Kennedy is nominated for the presidency at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

1966: Richard Speck murders eight student nurses at their group residence in Chicago.

1977: A lightning strike triggers a massive blackout across New York City, sparking a night of widespread looting and arson.

1985: Live Aid, organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, draws an estimated 1.5 billion viewers across simultaneous concerts in London and Philadelphia, raising funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.

2016: David Cameron resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeded by Theresa May.

2024: A gunman opens fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., wounding Donald Trump and killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore

Birthdays Today Include: Patrick Stewart, actor in films (Logan, X-Men: Days of Future Past) and TV shows (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard); Harrison Ford, actor (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner); Cheech Marin, actor and comedian (Up in Smoke, Born in East L.A., Tin Cup); Ken Jeong, actor and comedian (The Hangover, Crazy Rich Asians); Wole Soyinka, playwright and Nobel Prize-winning author works (Death and the King's Horseman); Jack Kemp, politician and former professional football quarterback who represented western New York in Congress before running for vice president; Tom Kenny, voice actor (SpongeBob SquarePants, Adventure Time, The Powerpuff Girls); Didi Conn, actress in films (Grease) and TV shows (Benson, Shining Time Station); Colton Haynes, actor (Teen Wolf, Arrow); and Guillermo Ochoa, Mexican soccer goalkeeper.

If today's your birthday too, happy birthday — you're in good company, even if they are fictional starship captains and stoner comedians.

* * *

Let's start with something I've hammered on before, because it's the philosophical spine of this column every single day.

On my desk here at Casa de Florack sits a 1956 Barnhart Dictionary — a relic, sure, but a useful one. It defines "newsman" (and separately, "reporter") as "someone who reports the news." "Journalist," on the other hand, gets a different treatment: "someone who writes what he thinks."

I've never called myself a newsman or a reporter. For 26-plus years now — first at BitsBlog, now here at PJ Media — I've worn "Journalist" on my name sticker attached to my shirt, Barnhart-style, on purpose. I've always seen it as my task, not as reporting news items, but passing along my thoughts on them, and casting them into what Paul Harvey called "shirt sleeve English." And as I put it once many months ago, now, putting YOUR thoughts into MY words.

Sure, I pass along someone else's reporting when it's useful. But I almost always use it as a springboard for one of my extended "thinking aloud" sessions, like the one I filed yesterday. That fairly unique stance has forced me to explain myself more times than I can count. Now that you understand me clearly, let's proceed.

So one more column on the rumor mill. Why? Because the stories you and I have been chewing on for the last couple of days didn't play out the way some folks insisted they would. There's a lesson in that — and yes, even I need to sit with it for a minute. And now's the time because the whole thing is still fresh in our minds. 

Two stories are in play here: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C).

Let's take the Graham story first, since it's the shorter one. Our Matt Margolis passed along yesterday the information we'd been waiting for.

The D.C. Medical Examiner's Office has determined that Graham died of an aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. In plain terms, the senator suffered a tear in his aorta caused by hardening and narrowing of the arteries from underlying heart disease.

I'm glad someone performed an autopsy and published the findings immediately, because it killed the increasingly wild speculation before the echo died out. In the comment section of yesterday's column,  I'd said I hoped they would do one. I then — rather lamely, in retrospect — predicted "they wouldn't find anything", meaning I doubted they'd turn up something like an assassination by poison. I probably should have phrased that more clearly, but I think the message landed anyway.

Graham's passing, while certainly tragic, was nothing like what some of the speculation made it out to be — the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps did it theory, the Democrats-did-it theory, both of which I dismissed out of hand, and for the same reason. I skipped the Ukraine angle entirely, because my gut said that wasn't it either, and I figured it was better left alone.

These kinds of things, of themselves, lead to a lot of evil in the world. Does the name Archduke Franz Ferdinand ring any bells? Today's social media environment can lead to evil events based on unsubstantiated rumors much faster than in those days.

Then there was the timing — Graham's death landing close to McConnell's hospitalization only poured gasoline on the speculation about both stories.

Shortly after the Graham news broke, this showed up in my web crawlers:

I can't help but wonder whether the Graham story, and the rumors surrounding it,  spooked McConnell into finally sticking his head up above the noise level. Remember, yesterday, even I doubted the man was still with us. He may still be nearing the end of his senatorial career, as I suggested then, but surviving this ordeal counts as welcome news — and, oddly, for the same reason Graham's cause of death does. In both cases, reality turned out far less sinister than the speculation, mine included.

One point from yesterday's piece bears repeating today: The rumor mill can be, and usually is, more destructive than what little facts it feeds on. And what did it feed on? Both the silence and his wife's visit to China while the guy was still on his back in the ICU. 

The fact that Elaine Chao did the trip anyway, and let a spokesperson handle the explaining — that's the kind of detail that wouldn't raise an eyebrow on its own, but combined with everything else here (the silence, the vagueness, the conflicting accounts of how he sounded on the phone), it starts to look less like an unfortunate scheduling coincidence and more like a pattern. The rumors that are fed are a PR person's nightmare. As I think I said elsewhere, when the people closest to the story keep answering direct questions with statements that answer nothing, don't be surprised when the rest of us start doing the math ourselves.

That's a lesson everyone should heed — including the people at the center of the story. I argued yesterday that in this scenario, a Republican wins national office a lot less easily "if voters conclude McConnell's health/life/death has been managed for political convenience rather than reported honestly." I'm glad McConnell reached that same conclusion on his own, or possibly with the help of his staff, who were doubtless tired of swimming through the constant pressure from the press and the Democrats. (And yes, that's a bit of repetition there.)

Yesterday's column still holds. When rumors like these two flare up, speculate — run with it, think it through, don't hold back. Speculation is the tool for filling in logical holes in a scenario. Just don't mistake any single scenario you cook up for the final answer without those missing facts. The filter that matters, nearly every time, comes down to two questions: who could have pulled this off, and — more importantly — who benefits from each version of the story. Run the analysis. Chase each scenario to its most logical end. That's what I intended yesterday, and why I ran each scenario I offered through the same logic tree right out there, for everyone to see.

That lesson applies to public figures too, McConnell included. His silence fed the rumor mill and fed the growing anger right along with it. It cost him credibility — and I suspect it'll cost his would-be successor votes come the next election. The line between a sour taste in voters' mouths and which lever they pull in the booth doesn't have to be a straight one. I think the problem was mostly eliminated by this press release I've shared with you, but anyone doing any kind of PR would have never let the silence grow in the first place. 

Thought for the day: The rumor mill doesn't run on facts — it runs on the silence left behind when nobody bothers to supply them. Fill the silence yourself, or somebody worse will fill it for you.

VIP members: Let's hear your thoughts in the comments. Hit that heart, too. Your involvement makes a difference.

Take care today, gang. Bring a friend when you come back tomorrow, will you? You can do that with the buttons just below, which will send today's column to the various social media sites. See ya!

Editor's Note: Do you enjoy PJ Media's conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.

Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.

Recommended

Trending on PJ Media Videos

DEMS IN CRISIS: Maine Senate Shake-Up Fuels Midterm Battle for America's Future