Today is Thursday, June 6, 2024. It also marks the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing at Normandy, known as D-Day. It is for that occasion that President Joe Biden honored the few remaining veterans of the Second World War today in France, and he gave a powerful speech on the threats faced to democracy on this day in 2024. This solemn occasion is covered in an online CNN analysis by Stephen Collinson entitled “Biden’s D-Day visit may mark the end of an American era.”

It is Collinson’s contention that this year might mark the end of such a ceremony including the few surviving members of the greatest generation tasked with fighting in Wold War II. This is due to old age claiming the last surviving veterans who would be nearing 100 or even older as the year slips by.

Biden recognized that grim reality when he said, “We’re not far off when the last living voices of those who fought and bled on D-Day will no longer be with us, so we have a special obligation.” The not-so-young commander in chief himself said this after embracing and saluting members of the invasion force, above the beaches where thousands of Americans died.

“We cannot let what happened here be lost in the silence of the years to come,” Biden reminded the world.

Presidents, prime ministers, and monarchs from NATO nations gathered with Biden to pay their respects to those who served on that crucial day that turned the war in favor of the Allied forces and against Germany. “The alliance has a new mission, Collinson writes, in opposing another war started by a tyrant bent on territorial expansion – this time in Ukraine.”

Mincing no words as to what the new conflict looks like, Biden drew a direct line between the evil that U.S. soldiers were called up to fight in the 1940s and the current attempt by President Vladimir Putin’s Russia to wipe Ukraine off the map and extinguish its democracy.

“We cannot let that happen. To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable. Were we to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches. Make no mistake: We will not bow down, we will not forget,” Biden declared.

The president’s words were especially resonant here, given fears in Europe that the United States – the bulwark of democracy ever since World War II – may be about to turn its back on the West.

U.S. allies already rattled by presumptive Reputin presidential nominee Donald Duck’s constant attacks on NATO in his first term were further rocked by his recent comment that he’d let Russia do “whatever the hell they want” with allies that he regarded as failing to “pay their bills” on defense spending. The startling comment weakened the foundational NATO creed of mutual self-defense without which the alliance has no meaning. Some of Drumpf’s own ex-advisers have warned that he might try to exit the alliance if he wins a second term in November.

The United States is now in a tailspin with Dump’s “America First” philosophy that has taken deep root in a party that once prided itself on winning the Cold War. The ex-president tried to overturn U.S. democracy to stay in power four years ago. And many GOP figures led by Dump now appear to have more empathy for Putin than liberal European democracies that this country rebuilt after World War II.

In the midst of all of this unease attendant on an unthinkable second term of the Orange Turd, the sitting president walked among row upon row of white crosses and Stars of David shaded by pine trees and oaks overlooking Omaha Beach. This is where more than 9,000 fallen Americans from all 50 states and the District of Columbia lay at rest thousands of miles from the land they left to save foreigners they’d never met.

It’s hard to imagine that these fallen soldiers would not turn in their graves if they knew what former president Donald Dump thought of their sacrifice to the free world, as he called those who were killed in the war as “losers” and “suckers.”

As we struggle with why this country would vote this bastard back into office again this November, I share this lighter story in the wake of today’s commemoration of D-Day activities, which is this: Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star had a drain installed on it it because of people repeatedly urinating on it. On June 4, 2024, A Reddit user posted a screenshot of an X post which showed the drain that seems to be covered in a murky stain. Actually, when reading this piece in an online outlet called Snopes, it’s not even verifiable, so now, I can’t even verify if this story is true, but I would love to believe it. But one must wonder how people could urinate on the convicted felon’s Walk of Fame star in the open without being arrested for indecent exposure. Unless it’s done at night – surreptitiously.

Anyway, if this story were true, that’s a lot of angry folks who think Donald Duck is a douchebag who deserves to be urinated on.

By the way, I had as good a time as any when I attended my school’s End-of-Year party for my former supervisor, “Stanley Udder,” who was retiring after devoting 33 years to molding young minds. The venue was the Inn at New Hyde Park, on Jericho Turnpike, at 6, so I left the area at 5:15. Unfortunately, there was traffic on the Grand Central Parkway and even on the Cross Island Parkway, so I didn’t get to the venue until 6:04 which still wasn’t that late. People were still arriving. I was met by my former vice principal outside the reception destination who exclaimed how wonderful I looked which turned into the major theme for the night: that I appeared to defeat time by looking the same as when I retired – seven years ago. I just smiled and took in the compliment that was repeated throughout the night. Even the principal got into the age-defying action by exclaiming at one time that all of the alumni at the dinner all looked better than the people still working in the room. I wanted to cry out, “That’s because we’re not working.”

The major detriment to the evening’s festivities turned out to be the loud music that was played by the school’s DJ, “Darcey,” who always upped the volume of the music played at previous social events every chance she got. I was unable to hear my seat mates throughout the evening’s festivities. So it was not a good time to have a serious conversation with former colleagues at the table. This had to be done at another time, away from the site.

When it was finally time to honor Stanley, I was asked to get up and walk to the front of the room by my former ESL colleagues who held up signs with the letters of his last name, in the tradition of an ESL technique. I believe someone even had pompoms. Everyone talked briefly about how it was a pleasure to work with Stanley all these years. I was too shy to say anything; no one asked me to prepare anything, so I remained mute, holding my letter “R” on stage. That is when the principal and everyone in the audience discovered that Stanley had packed in 33 years working for the Department of Education. What an impressive tenure, one must say.

I did not have much of an opportunity to dance, unfortunately, since there were too many long-winded speeches and too many retirees: three. Stanley’s place in the sun, so to speak, came last, so I had to stay until after 9, which was close to the end anyway. The affair was scheduled to end at 10.

The evening then wasn’t as nerve-racking as I thought it might be. However, I did not enjoy driving home in the dark, which is something both Elliot and I try to avoid if we can.

To keep the ball rolling, I suggested to my former colleagues that we have lunch or dinner sometime over the summer, so let’s see if this ever comes to fruition. I know I won’t be the one coordinating this since I don’t have everyone’s telephone number.

Stay safe and be well.

Here is Atticus giving some sort of gesture with his paw.