As usual the American president made his way to Normandy to celebrate the invasion and what has been called ‘the beginning of the end’……

An as usual the president stepped up to the sound system to make his speech.

President Biden marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday by saying “we will not walk away” from the defense of Ukraine and allow Russia to threaten more of Europe. “To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable,” he said during a ceremony at the American cemetery in Normandy. “If we were to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.” D-Day was the largest amphibious assault in history, and Biden called it a “powerful illustration of how alliances, real alliances make us stronger,” the AP reports. He said that was “a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget.”

• “The autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine,” Biden said, per the BBC. Ukraine, he said, “has been invaded by a tyrant,” he added, per CBS News.
• Speaking about the American troops that stormed Normandy’s beaches on June 6, 1944, Biden said “let us be worthy of their sacrifice,” adding, per the AP: “We must remember that the fact that they were heroes here that day does not absolve us of what we have to do today. Democracy is never guaranteed. Every generation must preserve it, defend it, and fight for it. That’s the test of the ages.”
• Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky and his wife were applauded when they arrived at the event, the Guardian reports.
• Before Biden’s remarks, French President Emmanuel Macron told US veterans that “you came here because the free world needed each and every one of you, and you answered the call,” per the AP. Macron awarded the Legion of Honor to several of them, and he kissed them on each cheek as he pinned on their medals. Biden followed with handshakes and embraces.
• Earlier, Biden and first lady Jill Biden met with more than two dozen American veterans near Omaha Beach, where the fiercest D-Day fighting took place.
• Biden told a veteran that “you saved the world.” The president led the audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to another. Steve Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the Hollywood heavyweights behind movies and television shows about World War II, were nearby. When Army veteran Robert Gibson approached, the first lady clutched his arm to help him stand next to the president as they shook hands. “Don’t get old,” the 100-year-old man from New Jersey joked to the 81-year-old president, who was a toddler on D-Day. The BBC notes that Biden “will likely be” the last US president to have been alive during the operation.
• In an interview with the AP a few days ago, Gibson said he was “living on borrowed time” but wanted to see the beach again. He was in the second wave of troops that landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. “Terrible. Some of the young fellows never ever made it to the beach,” he said. “It was so bad that we had to run over [them] to get on the beach. That’s how bad it was.”

His words were excellent to the vets that made the long trip…but I have a problem with using comparisons….the day was about the men that stormed the beaches of Normandy….the speech should have been totally about that and the sacrifices made….I bet the vets could care less about Ukraine on this day.

The surrender thing was dumb…the US surrenders to bullies and autocrats….i e Saudi Arabia, Israel….the US surrenders to their cash and influence.

I am sorry but this speech should been about the day of the invasion….make your brownie points later.

So far I have not seen any mention to the vet that died on his way to Normandy…..so I shall do it….

An American veteran of World War II died after traveling to Europe to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion by Allied troops, reports the New York Times. Robert Persichitti, 102, suffered a medical emergency on Friday while aboard a ship headed for Normandy, France, and died later at a hospital in Germany, reports WHEC 10, a TV station in his hometown of Rochester, New York. “He died peacefully, and he did not die alone,” said Richard Stewart, president of the vets’ group Honor Flight Rochester.

A friend traveling with him, Al DeCarlo, tells 13WHAM that the doctor treating him played Frank Sinatra, Persichitti’s favorite singer, on her phone for him as he died. Persichitti served in the Navy during the war, and he witnessed the iconic raising of the flag at Iwo Jima from the deck of his ship, the USS Eldorado. He served as a radioman on the ship in Okinawa and Guam as well as Iwo Jima, according to Stars and Stripes. Persichitti’s medical emergency was not specified, but he had a history of heart trouble.

May he now Rest In Peace and thank you for all you did for this country and the world.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”