“Democracy is worth it. America is worth it. The world is worth it.”

June 7, 2024

President Biden attended the commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. A reader (John E.) who spends half his time in a small town in France and half his time in California sent an email describing President Biden’s speech, as viewed from France. Here is John’s commentary, which is as good as the major media outlets:

I wanted to tell you about the 80th anniversary D-Day remembrances here in France, where Channel 2 devoted its entire programing to celebrate the day. Both my wife and I are dual nationals, spending half our year in California and half in a tiny village in France.

To make this brief, I only want to comment on Biden's presentation, which came near the end of the remembrance ceremonies (by which time it was scarcely light in New York, not to mention the West coast, so I imagine few Americans would have seen it live as we did).  He gave what I can only say was a thoughtful, heartfelt presentation, putting all the praise and honor on the men (and women) who fought - and died - so bravely in the defense of liberty and justice.

Not once did he try to turn his words towards himself and I can only tell you how much prouder I was to be an American, both for what he had to say about our country and how we rose to the challenge Germany presented, than I would have been had there been a Convicted Felon standing there, whom I'm sure would have done all he could to have made himself the center of attention, rather than the brave, elderly survivors, eleven of whom received Legion d'Honneur medals from President Macron and kind words from President Biden, who never once tried to upstand the solemnity of the moment.   

Well said.

You can read President Biden’s remarks here: Remarks by President Biden Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of D-Day | Collevile-sur-Mer, France.

Among the many important statements in Biden’s speech, the following struck me as the most important:

Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it. America is worth it. The world is worth it — then, now, and always. 

We can never lose sight of that simple but powerful truth. And we must remember that only one candidate for president in the US embraces that truth.

---

President Biden will accept Hunter jury verdict and will not issue pardon if Hunter is convicted

President Biden’s son is currently standing trial in Delaware for federal felony charges relating to the purchase and possession of a handgun. President Biden could pardon his son—if he wanted to do so (if Hunter is convicted). But that would be wrong and undermine public confidence in the rule of law and impartiality of the justice system.

During an interview with David Muir of ABC News, the anchor asked President Biden if he would accept the jury’s verdict in his son’s trial and whether he would “rule out” a pardon of his son. Without hesitation, President Biden answered “Yes” to both questions. See ABC News, Exclusive: Biden tells Muir he wouldn't pardon son Hunter, says Trump got 'fair trial'. 

The link in the above paragraph includes the full “as-aired” ten-minute interview of Joe Biden by David Muir. If you are wrongly harboring doubts about Joe Biden’s command of complicated issues of foreign and domestic policy, watch the entire interview.

---

Joe Biden, Master Oil Trader

The Economist published a story praising Joe Biden’s masterful use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to cushion US consumers from shocks at the gas tank. As explained by the economist, President Biden sold reserve oil when prices were high and replenished the reserves when prices were low. “Treasury officials estimate that Mr Biden’s early sales knocked about $0.40 from the price of a gallon of petrol.” See The Economist, Joe Biden, master oil trader. (I tried to share this article, but it is behind a paywall.)

Per The Economist,

Like all good traders, Mr Biden has turned volatility into profit. In 2022, when he released 180m barrels of crude—or one-third of America’s stockpile—he sold at an average of $95 a barrel. In July last year, when the West Texas Intermediate (wti) benchmark was at $67 a barrel, he began to refill the reserve. The president has replaced about one-fifth of what he sold, posting a profit of $582m, and has managed to time the market to perfection.

As noted by the author of the article when interviewed by Chris Hayes on MSNBC, President Biden has been able to “move the oil market” to benefit US consumers by leveraging the massive US oil reserves and the ability of US Treasury to finance trades. No other oil trader has those advantages. Biden’s skillful management of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserves has eluded mention by major media to this point. Let’s try to spread the word about another Biden success story!

---

Gifts accepted by Supreme Court Justices

A Supreme Court watchdog organization has prepared a summary of gifts accepted by Supreme Court justices. See Fix the Court, A Staggering Tally: Supreme Court Justices Accepted Hundreds of Gifts Worth Millions of Dollars.

Per the analysis prepared by Fix the Court, Justice Thomas has received gifts valued at more than $4 million during his tenure on the Court. See chart below, prepared by Fix the Court:

John Roberts has abdicated his responsibility as the Chief Justice of the United States. Congress must act if Roberts won’t accept responsibility for fixing the scandals on the Court. For that to happen, we need to expand our margin of control in the Senate, flip the House, and re-elect Joe Biden. There is no other path forward.

---

Justice Alito’s excuse for flying the insurrectionist flag is false

Justice Alito refused to recuse himself from Trump-related cases after the NYTimes flew insurrectionist flags over his personal residence and beach house. His excuse was, “My wife did it; I have no input into what flags she flies over our joint property.”

Alito’s excuse was risible on its face and deserved no consideration, even if true. But it turns out that Alito’s irrelevant defense is a lie. And not just any lie. It is a lie that he told in a letter to two US Senators who asked for an explanation of his actions. See Newsweek, Samuel Alito's Neighbor Disputes Flag Story: 'Outright Lying'.

If you are keeping track of Alito’s lies, he originally claimed that his wife flew the insurrectionist flag in response to a neighborhood dispute. As explained by the neighbor involved in the dispute, the Alitos flew the insurrectionist flag several weeks before the neighborhood dispute took place. See the Newsweek story and embedded video, above.

Justice Roberts must open an investigation—at the very least. One of the participants in the dispute contradicted Alito's public explanation. Moreover, contemporaneous texts and a police report support the neighbor’s statement regarding the timing of the dispute.

John Roberts has abdicated his responsibility as the Chief Justice of the United States. Congress must act if Roberts won’t accept responsibility for fixing the scandals on the Court. For that to happen, we need to expand our margin of control in the Senate, flip the House, and re-elect Joe Biden. There is no other path forward.

---

You must watch / read this.

I hope you watched David Muir’s interview with President Biden, linked above. If you did, you know that Joe Biden is on top of complex issues and has a command of the facts. Now watch (or read) the following exchange (posted on Twitter by Decoding Fox News on X).

In the video clip, a Fox interviewer asks Trump, “What is your relationship with God like, and how do you pray?”

Here is Trump's answer (transcribed by me from the video; please excuse any errors in capturing Trump's word salad). Remember, the question is: What is your relationship with God like, and how do you pray?” Let’s see how well Trump answers that question:

Okay, so I think it’s good. I do very well with the evangelicals. And I have more people saying they pray for me. I can’t even believe it. And they are so committed, and they are so believing. They say, “Sir, You’re gonna be okay. I pray for you every night.” I mean everybody. Almost, I can’t say everybody, but almost everybody that sees me, they say, it’s such a beautiful thing. You know, what’s a beautiful thing too? When you look at all of this bad stuff going on, they have nothing to look up to, they have no God, they have no anything. They kill people, they beat people, they push people into subways. So, there’s just nothing there. Religion is such a great thing. It keeps you . . . you know, there’s something to be good about. You want to be good. You want to . . .it’s so important, and I don’t know if it’s explained right. I don’t know if I’m explaining it right. But when you have something like that you want to be good. You want to go to heaven. Okay? You want to go to heaven. If you don’t have heaven, you almost say, “What’s the reason? Why do I have to be good? What difference does it make?”

The question was, “What is your relationship with God like, and how do you pray?”

Did Trump answer the question? No. He doesn’t believe in God, much less pray to God. So he threw spaghetti against the wall in the hope that no one would notice that he has no inner spiritual life.

More importantly, Trump's syntax and thought process demonstrate a seriously disordered mind incapable of stringing together more than five or six words at a time before suddenly shifting to a new thought.

And this is the man to whom many evangelical Christians have tied their fate and that of their nation—not to mention their souls and salvation (within their belief framework).

---

Opportunity for Reader Engagement

For readers near Manhattan, NY, here is an interesting opportunity directed at getting out the youth vote. (The event is at a private residence; address will be emailed after registration.)

Support getting out the youth vote in key states through #iVoted! on Thursday, June 13th at 6pm ET in NYC. Come hear The Daily Show writer Matt Negrin interview activist & musical artist Lachi and the executive directors of #iVoted and Headcount as they share how they register and turnout voters via data-driven concerts and offer free entrance to election day concerts across the country to those who show selfies taken outside their polling place or with a blank ballot. 

Make a tax-deductible donation to register by clicking here . 

---

Concluding Thoughts

The news cycle is tough to take after the guilty verdict in the election interference trial. Why? As I tried to explain yesterday, the increase in insanity is a direct and panicked reaction by MAGA extremists to the fact that they have a convicted felon as their nominee.

My pep talk in yesterday’s newsletter didn’t convince everyone. The most “liked” Comment in response to yesterday’s newsletter compared our situation to that of the Titanic. And another reader who is actively engaged in the battle to defend democracy sent me an email that said, in part,

Good postcard writers are in tears, wondering how to get through this terrible movie.

Many have stopped watching or reading the news and are only reading you, HCR, Reich, Rosenberg and maybe watching O'Donnell.  We are geared up for Make June Matter but exhausted and feeling the assault of chaos.

Those feelings are understandable and unavoidable. Indeed, it wouldn’t be normal to be unaffected by the ugly threats emanating from MAGA extremists and the lawlessness infecting certain parts of our judicial system.

As always, perspective helps. We are stuck in a weird news cycle dominated by a Convicted Felon and his vice-presidential hopefuls, each of whom is trying to secure the second slot on the ticket by being more grotesquely provocative than the competition. Those handful of MAGA extremists are dominating the airwaves and occupying a disproportionate mindshare in an effort to blot out the fact of Defendant Trump's 34 guilty verdicts.

The point of their outrageous statements is to provoke outrage—so that we will forget about the 34 guilty verdicts and the yawning chasm that separates Biden and Trump on the substantive issues. If we focus on substance, the race isn’t close. Their only hope of winning is to provoke outrage by engaging in the bad-faith equivalent of the schtick, “Look, there goes Elvis.”

They want to mess with your mind. Don’t let them. Don’t give them permission. They are small, petty, frightened little men (and women) skittering about to please a master who will squash them on a whim. What a pathetic existence!

You, on the other hand, are joined with tens of millions of Americans who are continuing a noble battle that stretches back two centuries. You are acting with righteousness and purpose that transcends the moment. Do not evaluate our prospects or measure success in the middle of the night alone in your room. Measure it on election day, in the full sun, when we can see beyond today’s battle and see our struggle as part of an inevitable march toward greater tolerance, liberty, and justice.

We are going to win. It is only a matter of time. Don’t let anyone tell you differently—and certainly don’t believe them. That will only delay the day of our ultimate victory.

Stay strong! Talk to you tomorrow!