Hunter Biden’s Trial, Authoritarianism v. Democracy

Hunter Biden’s trial for allegedly lying on an application to purchase a gun started a week ago; one week later, the jurors began to deliberate. The prosecutors have not presented evidence that he was on drugs during the time of the purchase when he checked the box in October 2018 denying this or that he took drugs in the 11 days that he possessed the gun. In September, he is scheduled for federal court in California for failing to file and pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes from 2016 through 2019. He filed taxes a year later and paid them in full with late fees and penalties.

European Union Elections:

Prognosticators for a huge right-wing win in Sunday’s European Union parliament members weren’t entirely successful although centrists stumbled as the far-right picked up seats. With an approximate 51 percent turnout, the 373 million potential voters speaking 24 languages in 27 countries determine the continent’s politics for five years by shaping laws, setting the EU budget, and approving the chief. Observing a surge to the far right in the country, French President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election for the nation’s parliament, and Marine Le Pen’s far-right party took 30 percent of the vote for EU members, over double Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.  The UK PM Rishi Sunak scheduled a snap election for himself on July 4.

Italy’s far-right party solidified the right-wing’s prime minister’s position, and Austria’s far-right party finished first. Poland’s and Hungary’s nationalist parties won but lost seats. Germany’s center-left party finished third after the far-right party picked up an extra 15 seats. Some Scandinavian also lost voters for left parties. The Green parties lost about 20 of 720 seats.

Hungary had the worst performance in an EU election in 20 years since it joined the bloc. A new political force, Péter Magyar, has broken with his former party to defeat Viktor Orbán and his autocratic system by winning 30 percent and seven delegates of Sunday’s vote. The next vote against Orbán, who has campaigned on an anti-EU platform, is in 2026. Far-right parties underperformed in Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Romania, and Sweden with Greece, Netherlands, and Spain not remarkably supporting the far-right.

Al Jazeera’s summary:

“The center right held ground, but a surge for the far right could impact policymaking in Brussels.”

Policies will be “less environmentally friendly, more fragmented, and increasingly unwelcoming towards migrants.”

• The center-right European People’s Party (EPP) added eight more seats to the former 182 seats.
• The far-right party led by Le Pen won an additional nine seats, totaling 58.
• Non-aligned parties from both left and right won 99 seats, 37 more than in 2019.
• Conservatives and Reformists dominated by Italy earned an additional four seats.
• The center-left progressive parties lost four seats but remains the second strongest bloc with 135 seats.
• The liberal Renew Europe lost 22 votes, and the Greens lost 19 seats.

Israel’s War against Gaza:

The UN Security Council voted on a U.S.-proposed resolution asking for a hostage and prisoner swap in a six-week ceasefire building to a wider deal, the three-phase proposal President Joe Biden had earlier described. Only Russia abstained among the 15 members. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the plan. The Palestinian Authority agrees with any resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza if it preserves Palestinian territorial integrity. A deal has been made more difficult with Netanyahu’s rescue of four hostages at the cost of 274 dead Palestinians and another 698 injured—at the cost of over 241 Palestinians per hostage. Hamas stated the operation killed three other hostages including a U.S. citizen.

Benny Gantz dropped his membership in Israel’s War Cabinet although he will stay in the government. He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of mismanaging the war effort and putting his own “political survival” over the country’s security needs. Gantz called for Israel to hold elections in the fall and encouraged the War Cabinet’s third member, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, to resign. Gallant hasn’t quit although he said he would if Israel chose to reoccupy Gaza and encouraged the government to make plans for a Palestinian administration. Netanyahu will be increasingly reliant on extremist rightwing members led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Ben-Gvir, known for making genocidal statements, demanded a seat on the War Cabinet. The Times of Israel reported that his vision is to “conquer Gaza and [go to] war with Hezbollah,” adding that if Netanyahu agrees to a “reckless” hostage deal, “I’m not there.” He also welcomed Gantz’s resignation and offered him a “good riddance.” Ben-Gvir said Gantz came to the government “to create chaos and promote his political agenda.”

India’s New Government:

 Narendra Modi’s loss of conservative seats, although causing the stock market to briefly drop, may have improved the political climate of India. Several opposition parties coalesced to select one common candidate, resulting in 63 fewer seats in parliament. At least 20 Modi ministers lost their elections, and his own victory was narrow, 116^th out of 240 victories in his party, the lowest for any sitting prime minister. He even lost in in the town where he built a huge new temple months before the election. Other Modi campaign strategies:

• Expenditures were so high on his side that even India’s usually accepting court shut it down.
• A government agency promoting government policies spent millions on ads with Modi’s faces on them.
• Modi provided vaccine cards, bags of grain, and other benefits with his smile on the wrappings as if they were his personal gifts to them.
• Tax authorities investigated opposition politicians, the opposition leader was removed from his parliamentary seat, two chief ministers (equivalent to U.S. governors) were jailed, and opposition party funds were frozen to block them from traveling or operating.

Under Modi, all three independent and respected nongovernmental organizations assessing countries’ democratic levels dramatically downgraded India, documenting abuses of authority, decline in independent media, and politicized judiciary and independent agencies.

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) Aiming for Controlling Strongman:

DDT, who admires all strongmen like Modi and Orbán, gave an extraordinary rally in Nevada on Sunday at high noon in 100+ degrees.  Another enemy of democracy, he told his audience:

“We need every voter. I don’t care about you, I just want your vote. I don’t care.”

Nevada voted for Biden in the last election, and DDT wants to take that state, as well as blue Minnesota.

DDT made the false claim that “virtually 100 percent of the new jobs under Biden have also gone to illegal aliens.” About a little over half the new jobs have gone to non-native-born people, but data doesn’t show they went to undocumented migrants. Of the almost 16 million jobs created since Biden’s inauguration, about nine million have replaced those that DDT lost during the pandemic. All new jobs going to undocumented migrants is statistically impossible because only 2.5 million migrants came into the U.S. during the Biden administration. Another 1.6 million may have circumvented the authorities, totaling 4 million, and not all of them may not have these jobs.

Another false DDT claim is that “real wages of African Americans and the workers of all over the world that came here legally – they’re down six percent.” Adjusted for inflation, real wages among low-income workers were 12 percent higher in 2023 than they were in 2019. A report states:

“Black men, young workers, and working mothers experienced particularly fast wage growth over the last four years.”

The conservative Economist concluded that “median earnings for Black workers were about 84 percent of those of white Americans at the end of 2023, … a sharp rise from the 79% average of the preceding two decades.”

DDT also tried to deny the report, verified by several credible witnesses, that he referred to the deceased Marines in a World War I cemetery. The original report about DDT’s denigrating the Marines was in the Atlantic, but later reporting in the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and even Fox News verified it. His defense in Nevada was that only “a psycho or a crazy person or a very stupid person” would say that. It’s not a denial.  

The bribery for voters at the performance was a promise to personally remove taxes from tips. A leading labor advocate dismissed the claim because it doesn’t give a living base wage. An economist pointed out that removing taxes from tips will “encourage more employers to expect workers to get more of their pay in tips” instead of from “a regular paycheck.” A major problem for DDT in his speech was that his teleprompter didn’t work. Early in his first campaign he criticized his opponents for using the device; now he apparently can’t survive without one.