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Showing posts with label Joe Biden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Biden. Show all posts
Anthony McIntyre ☠ The US Presidential election is over and the 'Fanta Fascist' as he has been termed is set to preside over four more years of dysfunction, having trounced Kamala Harris in Tuesday's election. 

My wife, a US citizen, had stayed up to wait on the results coming in. She had been hoping for a Harris victory. I came down shortly after midnight, took a quick look at the screen, pronounced Trump the winner and went back to bed. 

The result was something of a surprise insofar as it was only in the final days that I had come to believe that Harris could win. That was more down to the lack of confidence coming out from the Trump camp. As far back as Biden still being in the race as the Democrat nominee I was of the view that there was no chance of a Democrat victory. In his debate with Trump he achieved the impossible - making Trump look like an intellectual as he fumbled and stumbled through his lines. Harris replacing him when she had been virtually invisible for four years seemed an incredibly risky gamble. Yet, as the finishing line approached, I wavered in my belief that she was a lost cause. 

I was disappointed to see Trump emerge victorious. In an election where my preferred choice was not possible - that both of the candidates would lose - I found it hard to be enthusiastic for Kamala Harris. I figure I was wanting Trump to lose more than I was wanting Harris to win. Her not winning did not greatly dismay me. Him not losing did.

As far as US presidents go - my memory takes me back to JFK, or at least to the night he died - there has only been one president I loathed more than Trump. That is Joe Biden. The reason for that is his role in the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Israel in Gaza. There is no mitigation - Biden is simply a loathsome bastard. Anybody associated with the Democrat Party that accuses Trump of being a Nazi is cruising on hi-octane chutzpah. Trump cannot be condemned for what he might do. Biden can be condemned for what he has done. He has been up to his neck in Nazi Israel's extermination policies, and lying on a Trumpian scale to cover for the horrendous crimes committed.

Not for a second do I feel that Trump will improve the lot of the Palestinians. In fact I believe he will worsen their plight. But until he does he cannot be accused of mass murder on the scale that Biden has made possible.

Kamala Harris was second in command in Genocide Joe's murderous regime. She has never yet distanced herself from Biden's genocidal urges, preferring instead to hold the line. I have not the slightest sympathy for her. 

Yet I wanted her to lose less than I wanted Trump to lose. Authoritarian populism with its likely drift to “exceptional forms” has never served the interests of any societal sector more than the rich dominant bloc. Trump is a billionaire with zero interest in improving the lot of those billionaires prey on for profit. The rights of women and people of a different skin colour from himself will in all probability be diminished. The sick will be left to die, unable to afford the high prices demanded by pharmaceutical companies for their products. The whackjobs of the religious right will be emboldened and empowered, even though Trump no more believes in a god than I do. And at the end of his four years in the Oval Office . . . January 6 does not augur well for that.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

First Reflections

Anthony McIntyre ☠ In the end he went, with no great alacrity. 

Speed wasn't his style, unless it was the haste with which he got bombs to Israel. Weeks after his disastrous performance against White House challenger Donald Trump he was still clinging on, insisting he secured the party endorsement for his candidacy and was in it to win. The writing was on the wall and while it spelt Trump presidency, it is hard to believe that Biden had the mental acuity to see it coming. Others did, leaving him with no option but to walk or stumble the plank.

How did they persuade him? Conceivably, they didn't. Perhaps it took no more than the construction of a replica Oval Office in his Delaware home and carry on addressing him as 'Mr President', hand him a few mock briefing papers on how both Konrad Adenauer and François Mitterrand were fully behind arming Ukraine, and perk up his spirits up by telling him how many new colonies Israel had set up in Gaza as part of its lebensraum project. We might never know. Once the knives have taken the plunge they are returned to their sheaths and out of view. 

For Deviant Don to be halted in his tracks, for the Democrats, the sooner Biden was dropped from the ticket the better. If he was a Mafia boss he would be known as Joe ''Joey Gaffes'' Biden. Putin being the president of Ukraine and Trump being his own vice president, two of the more recent that would have earned him that particular moniker. It has been reported that in his first social media announcement of the decision to quit he failed to mention Kamala Harris. He probably forgot who she was.  

Valuable time has been lost already building up the head of steam needed to propel the heave-ho. One positive for the Democrats is that the old Zionist was sent packing before he had the opportunity to emulate the Boris Johnson fiasco that not only forced him to stand down as British Prime Minister but destroyed the Tory Party in the process. To boot, Kamala Harris - if the contender - is no Liz Truss. Plus, the narrative changes. While Tump supporters had good cause to believe in miracles - Biden made Trump look youthful despite his 78 years - Trump is now said to be the oldest ever candidate to bid for the White House. It now looks like old senile Donald versus young sharp Kamala.

It would be misplaced to use the words reportedly issued by Stalin when informed of the death of Hitler, so that's the end of the bastard. That battle of the vanities in their ego fuelled conflict led to the physical death of Hitler. In the case of this particular bastard, his is a political death.

At the heel of the hunt Biden was a man who used the genial Joe image to mask the Genocidal Joe reality. He stood down for what he said were the best interests of the party and he country. He didn't stand down in the best interests of Palestinians, the mass murder of whom he has been so assiduously enabling over the past nine months while proudly brandishing his own Zionist credentials.

For that alone, his place in cultural memory should see him placed alongside that winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Henry Kissinger.  

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Go Slow Joe


Dworkin Report ✒ No ordinary moment. Written by Scott Dworkin. Recommended by Christy Walsh. 

"The state of our union is strong, and getting stronger.”

Progress, possibilities and resilience were key features of President Biden’s State of the Union address. It was filled with great moments that we should all take pride in and, of course, some embarrassing moments from MAGA Republicans which were just beyond deplorable.

After 20 minutes of thunderous applause and magnanimous cheers from both parties, in his typical disarming fashion, Biden kicked it off with a joke: “If I were smart, I’d go home now.”

This quote really captured the theme of his speech: 

My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America: honesty, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Now some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.

No, it’s not. And we couldn’t be happier about it.

The State of the Union is strong and progressing, because we have Biden in the White House and a smart team of patriotic, law-abiding Americans in his administration.

Continue reading @ Dworkin Report.

President Biden’s State Of The Union Crushes Expectations

Frankie McKillen ✍ Who do you think 'The Donald' will choose as his VP if elected....? 

I've seen reports saying it is going to be Tucker Carlson, Vivek Ramaswamy (I've heard Vivek saying he won't take it----I wouldn't rule it out for Vivek to become President by 2032), Niki Haley has no chance, Tulsi Gabbard has been mentioned (she'd be an excellent VP), Ron Desantis - doubt it, although I wouldn't rule him out of the race just yet. 

The only thing that will stop 'The Donald' from being the Republican nominee is death--natural or otherwise. If he becomes President and ends up in jail, who's to say he won't run the USA from behind bars like a real 'Mafia Don '? (If 'The Donald' gets elected, I hope he gives a 'nod' to Jacob Chansley--even if he doesn't get elected in Arizona later in the year. Who is Jacob Chansley? Jacob is the The QAnon Shamam. And everything you thought you knew about him is wrong.) It seems the DOJ is treating 'The Donald' as if he was the 'capo de tutti capo' of an Italian crime family at times. Although It appears 'The Donald' seems to have had more Teflon than John Gotti, no matter what they try to throw at him, 'The Donald' seems to keep turning up 'Trump'---at least in the polls. 

As recently as December 2023 in Nevada 'The Donald' compared himself to Al Capone because of tax evasion charges against him. Trump asked the crowd if they knew him:

Did anybody ever hear of the great Alphonse Capone, Al Capone, great, great head of the mafia, right? Mean, Scarface. He had a scar that went from here to here, and he didn't mind at all. But he was a rough guy, 

They have even used the RICO Law against 'The Donald' and as fate would have it, it was Rudy Giuliani who first used RICO to bring down the American Mafia, who is now having RICO used against him. Rudy Giuliani figured out how to properly use the RICO law to bring down the American Mafia in The Mafia Commission Case, after reading A man of honor. 

And What Is Rico? (Reuters) "------U.S. lawmakers passed the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in 1970 to battle organized crime, notably the mafia. Most states enacted similar laws with various twists. Criminal charges filed against, former U.S. President Donald Trump in Georgia state court include allegations that he violated an anti-organized crime law known as RICO that is more expansive than its federal counterpart. RICO cases are inherently more complex because prosecutors must first prove the existence of a criminal enterprise. The Trump indictment names an additional 18 co-defendants, including Trump's onetime lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer John Eastman." Another Mafia coincidence although on a 'darker side. Similar to 'The Donald', Paul 'big Paulie' Vario, and Christopher 'Christie Tick' Furnari became 'Capos' of their industries. Vario was at one time acting Consigliere to the Lucchese Crime Family during the late '60s--early '70s, Furnari was Consigliere to the Lucchese Crime Family until he was charged under RICO in 'The Commission Trial'----both Vario and Furnari severed time for rape as this excellent short American Mafia documentary by OC SHORTZ explains... Paul Vario the inspiration for the character Paulie Cicero in Goodfellas, and former mentor to Henry Hill, was once convicted for a horrendous sordid violent crime. He wasn't the only member of Cosa Nostra to be found guilty of one the worst criminal acts around. A crime that is often thought of as against the rules of the American Mafia. Christopher Furnari reached the higher echelons of the mob despite previously being convicted of his heinous crime. 

Now 'The Donald' who became the captain of his industry recently faced E. Jean Carrol the second time about allegations of sexual assault. And in April 2023, a News Week article shared some of the Graphic details of alleged Trump Rape. I am not saying she wasn't sexually assaulted by Donald Trump, we've heard the 'locker room' story when 'The Donald' said "he loves to grab pussy". But some things about E. Jean Carroll make me question her story of claims to have been sexually assaulted by 'The Donald'. Most rape victims generally know when they were raped, what day, week, month....year. And yet Carroll who alleges she was raped by Trump, can't remember when it happened. She gives a vague 16/18 week time period when it 'happened'. Surely she must at least know if her rape was before or after Christmas '95. 'From Wiki......."On June 21, 2019, E. Jean Carroll published an article in New York magazine which stated that Donald Trump had sexually assaulted her in late 1995 or early 1996 in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City." She also has a strange view of rape. I have never heard any rape victim say they think rape is sexy or most people have a sexual fantasy about being raped, E. Jean Carroll thinks both (CNN clip---am I the only person who thinks Carroll looks 'weird' at the end of the clip?). 

In May 2023 Trump said in his deposition and public statements after Carroll accused him of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store that he wouldn't have done so because she was "not my type." Carrol later went on to CNN’s Anderson Cooper Show and said she was glad Trump didn’t consider her his type. “I love that,” she said. “I’m so glad I am not his type.” Although Roberta Kaplan, Jean Carrol's attorney has a very different point of view. In court she said Carroll was "exactly" Donald Trump's type, and the former president didn't show up at her civil trial accusing him of rape because "he knows what he did" to her, her attorney alleged in closing arguments Monday in Manhattan federal court. 

In an October 2023 deposition Carroll testified no one else was paying her legal fees. However, it was later found that Carroll's case was funded by Reid Hoffman who founded the networking site LinkedIn, is a former US Representative to the United Nations, and donates millions to the Democratic party while at the same time is funding Nikki Haley's campaign to become the next Republican President. He was also a 'Friend' of Jeffery Epstein, and is alleged to a have visited 'Pedo' Island. I think E Jean Carroll is being very economical with the truth and is 'in it' more for fame and money than to help 'real' victims of rape. 

During the 2016 Presidential Debate with Hilary Clinton, 'The Donald' when asked about his grabbing pussy remark apologized and then exposed the sex crimes of the Clinton Crime Family, that even today the Democratic Party don't like to talk about? Another Crime Family within the Democratic Party is The Biden Crime Family, headed by Don Joseph 'Creepy Joe' Biden. And that Biden crime family has its very own allegations of serious sexual abuse, rape, and money laundering. The Guardian reported that Tara Reade saying in an interview to Megan Kelly:

she was excited when she was hired as a staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office in 1992. Almost immediately, she said, Biden made her uncomfortable with behavior she said included putting his hand on her neck in a meeting. 

Not long after this conversation, Reade told Kelly, she was asked to deliver a bag to Biden in the Russell Senate office building. It was then, she said, that Biden pinned her against a wall in a hallway and penetrated her with his fingers, against her will. “He had his hands underneath my clothes and it happened all at once,” Reade continued. She said Biden asked if she wanted to “go somewhere else” and told her “I want to fuck you”, a detail she has not previously shared. The report goes to say:

On Thursday, the San Luis Obispo Tribune unearthed a court document which stated that Reade told her ex-husband she had been subject to sexual harassment while working in Biden’s office. It is the first contemporaneous record to emerge. According to the document filed in the California superior court on 25 March 1996, Theodore Dronen said Reade told him about “a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in US senator Joe Biden’s office.

When Don Joseph 'Creepy Joe' Biden told MSNBC in his first public comment after the allegation emerged he said: "It is not true, I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened.” He again denied the allegation on a news channel in Tampa on Thursday, after Kelly published excerpts of her interview. That almost sounds like what Don William 'Billy Boy' Clinton said when he denied having sexual relations with his intern in the Oval Office. 

Why should E Jean Carroll who thinks rape is 'sexy', can't remember what year never mind what month or day she was raped by Trump be believed, and Tara Reade who can remember where, when Creepy Joe raped her not be believed.....? Both women claim to have been sexually assaulted in the same way, Carrol by a former President and Reade by the current President. 

Within The Biden Crime Family, there is someone who has to be a bigger embarrassment to Don Joseph 'Creepy Joe' Biden than Fredo Corleone ever was to Don Vito. The name of the bungling Caporegime is Hunter 'The Laptop' Biden---sometimes known as 'Happy Hunter' due to the amount of crack cocaine he takes. When NBC carried out an investigation into the bungling Caporegime of The Biden Crime Family they found:

From 2013 through 2018 Hunter Biden and his company brought in about $11 million via his roles as an attorney and a board member with a Ukrainian firm accused of bribery and his work with a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud, according to an NBC News analysis of a copy of Biden’s hard drive.

USA News reported on Jan 16th, 2024, that apart from Happy Hunter 'The Laptop' Biden throwing an illegal gun into a rubbish bin.... "In addition to “incriminating statements” Hunter Biden made about his drug use in his 2021 memoir, investigators found a white powdery substance on the brown leather pouch he used to store the gun after pulling it from the state police vault last year, prosecutors wrote. An FBI chemist determined it was cocaine, they said.........“To be clear, investigators literally found drugs on the pouch where the defendant had kept his gun,” prosecutors said.

And I'll leave people with this thought Michael Franzese, a former Caporegime in The Colombo Crime Family in an interview explained why the Mafia always chose to buy off Democrats instead of Republicans . . . 

🕮 Frankie McKillen is a Belfast Rockabilly

American Crime Familes

John Meehan ☭ writes in the Tomás Ó Flatharta blog that Irish podcast host and former Gaelic Footballer Joe Brolly slams President Joe Biden over USA support of Israel : “a rogue state completely out of control.”

We thank Joan McKiernan for drawing our attention to Joe Brolly’s blistering attack on Joe Biden’s support of Israel.

Irish podcast host and former Gaelic Footballer Joe Brolly has criticized President Joe Biden over America’s support of Israel. The American President has requested a package worth $105 billion to be used towards humanitarian and military assistance for both Israel and Ukraine.
Joe Brolly is married to Joe Biden’s third cousin,
Laurita Blewitt (Image: Twitter/@joebrolly1993)

The $ 14.3 billion earmarked for Israel includes $10.6 billion – via the Defence Department – including provision for air and missile defense. There is also $3.7 billion from the State Department to be used to bolster the Israeli military and strengthen the US Embassy’s security.

In a social media video from his Free State Podcast, Brolly describes Israel as a “rogue state, completely out of control” and criticized Biden – who is a third cousin of his wife, Laurita Blewitt – for his support of the country. Brolly, who won an All-Ireland Senior Football title with Derry in 1993, visited the President in the White House on St Patrick’s Day in 2022.

The podcaster also condemned the fact that Biden, who sent Brolly a wedding gift earlier in the year, failed to meet with the bereaved Palestinians who lost family members during the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The President visited the region last week.

Brolly said in the clip online:

We’ve been here before brothers and sisters. In May 2018 after Israeli snipers had casually murdered over 60 Palestinians in Gaza the leading Jewish academic, Norman Finkelstein, whose parents both survived the horrors of the Holocaust and the Warsaw Ghetto, he wrote Gaza is a concentration camp, that Israel are committing war crimes and that the only way to avoid being murdered for Palestinians was to quote ‘meekly accept imprisonment inside the concentration camp of Gaza. Ursula von der Leyen announced in the past week that they’re increasing their aid to Gaza, presumably so the people there can eat and drink while the Israelis bomb them to oblivion. A whole 20 trucks. 20 f***ing trucks wouldn’t stock a decent-sized Tesco. President Biden has pledged 14 billion in state of the art weapons of war for Israel to continue to pummel this defenceless population. And 20 trucks of humanitarian aid for Gaza. I cannot think of anything sicker or more obscene bombing churches, hospitals, indiscriminate slaughter. Israel is a rogue state, completely out of control, as described by many leading Jewish academics and thinkers, acting beyond all norms of morality and anything that we could conceive of as decency and humanity. And when Joe Biden goes to Israel and hugs, quite rightly, the parents of those slaughtered children and human beings who lost their lives on 7th October, he doesn’t f***ing go to Palestine and do it and hug the children there and hug the mothers and fathers and tell them that he loves them. That alone would bring about a ceasefire. I stand with humanity he should be saying.

Source, 

Joe Brolly (born 25 June 1969),[1] born Padraig Joseph Brolly,[2] is an Irish Gaelic football analyst, former player and barrister who played at senior level for the Derry county team.

Brolly played for Derry in the 1990s and early 2000s and was part of the county’s only All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winning side in 1993. He also won two Ulster Senior Football Championships and four National League titles. Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Brolly

⏩John Meehan is a veteran Left wing activist. 

Joe Brolly Slams Biden Over Support For Rogue State

Tommy McKearney ☭ We could waste a lot of time speculating on the real purpose behind the Biden visit. 


Nevertheless it is worth reflecting on the nature and impact of his trip to Ireland and especially how the Irish establishment reacted to it. Ostensibly the US president was coming here to celebrate the so-called achievements of the Good Friday Agreement. However and in spite of the fact that that particular accord related directly to conflict resolution in the six counties, Big Joe spent only a few hours in the North before rapidly heading south.

Admittedly the Stormont Assembly is not up and running. It is not obvious though, why that should have prevented him from spending equal time north and south. The narrative that the USA had played a huge role in what has been described by his friend Senator George Mitchell as a model with international significance should surely merit more than a whistle-stop tour.

Why not a quick visit-cum-photo opportunity to the Giant’s Causeway or a boat on Lough Erne or some other equally frivolous but good-natured gesture? A veteran politician must surely have recognised the value of that type of simple exercise. By raising the region’s profile and ingratiating himself with the northerners, his influence could have been so much more significant.

In contrast to his almost dismissive treatment of the North, Biden spent his time across the border in relaxed and convivial mode. Of course he delivered a formal address to the joint houses of the Oireachtas but apart from that, it was almost as if he was on holiday. Particularly so since he was accompanied by several members of his family. There was a pleasant journey to Carlingford to meet distant relatives followed by a dander through Dundalk. Later there was a moving pilgrimage to Knock and a poignant meeting with a priest who had anointed his late son. Then there was the “take me home to Mayo” outing in front of Ballina Cathedral. All so endearing to an uncritical media and public.

Adding to the overall merriment was a charming little gaffe when somehow he got confused between the New Zealand rugby team and the thankfully now disbanded RIC Special Reserve, a.k.a. the Black & Tans. An easy enough mistake to make for an 80-year-old Yank. Especially so for someone who clearly must, you might be led to believe, have some acquaintance with Irish history causing such a slip of the tongue. No wonder the British media was so scathing. Fortunately for him though, annoying the Brits still pleases a certain section of Irish society.

Once in the Republic, he received a royal welcome despite the protests of a gallant few. Lost among all the “Welcome home Joe” tomfoolery was the stark fact that here was the man who presides over the world’s largest imperialist power being treated as if he was a favourite uncle returning from a lengthy exile. Not that Biden completely neglected his duty to the empire he leads as he reminded audiences of the US contribution to war in Ukraine.

Nevertheless and notwithstanding criticism of US foreign policy made by a handful of left-wing TDs and a small number of protesters on the streets, President Biden returned to Washington having created an Irish government approved feel-good factor. Ireland can now bask in the knowledge that it has earned a pass grade from the White House.

The smug feeling of self satisfaction was captured nicely in an interview former Taoiseach Enda Kenny did with RTÉ. The presidential visit, he said, had solidified our relationship with the United States, helping maintain the favourable opinion multi-national corporations have of this country. A situation summed up, according to Enda, by president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen. The lady recently commended Ireland as a shining example of how a small country can prosper within a larger union. Ursula didn’t mention, by the way, our housing and homeless crisis, wretched health service or gross inequality.

However, let’s face, this small island has a cosier relationship with the world’s largest power bloc than another small island, that one over in the Caribbean.The country that has caused its enormous neighbour such annoyance, it has been blockaded for the past 60 years.

Joe’s visit has assuaged, one would imagine, some nagging doubts the White House may have had about a similar threat emerging in Ireland. The Yanks have long admired Ireland’s legislative commitment to free-market neoliberalism. There was some concern, however, that the worsening of the aforementioned housing crisis, two-tier health service and systemic inequality all exacerbated by inflation, could undermine Irish people’s belief in the American way of doing business.

While the coalition parties greeted the visitor with slavish devotion, a question mark surrounded the attitude of the Republic’s largest opposition party. A series of opinion polls over the past year have consistently shown significant approval for the allegedly left-leaning Sinn Féin. Might that party, if in office, prove difficult for a US administration to deal with?

Well, there is no longer much room for worry. Mary Lou and Michelle seemingly have no intention of rocking the boat. When offered the option to follow a lead set by People Before Profit and boycott Biden’s Oireachtas address in protest at his foreign policy, Sinn Féin refused and sat obediently throughout his speech.

In light of the party’s abject refusal to censure the US administration, the Pentagon can rest easier. It seems clear that if in office, Sinn Féin will not deny US troops landing-rights at Shannon. By thus tolerating one flagrant violation of Irish neutrality they might well be persuaded to concede on other areas.

Away from the Dáil, the response to the presidential visit was equally uncritical. On the contrary, it was bordering on the cringeworthy. The Irish media reported Biden’s every move with RTÉ providing wall-to-wall coverage. Unsurprisingly as a result of such intense publicity, large and enthusiastic crowds gathered in Ballina to welcome Joe back home.

As mentioned at the outset, it is pointless attempting to guess the rationale underlying the Biden visit. What is obvious, however, is that it has been used by the Irish ruling class to polish its subservient relationship to US-led imperialism. This is dangerous because it facilitates bringing an end to what is left of our neutrality. If not so, then why did Tánaiste Mícheál Martin appoint Louise Richardson, Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, to chair the government’s Consultative Forum on International Security Policy?

Consequently, there is cause for concern but no reason for despair. The Irish bourgeoisie is not as confident as it appears. There is a simmering discontent with conditions in this country that will not be satisfied with royal or presidential visits. It is, nevertheless, imperative that we continue to articulate the only viable alternative to capitalist and imperialistic barbarism: a socialist society.

Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist. 
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney 

On The Visit Of Joe Biden

Dr John Coulter ✍ Joe Biden may be back in the United States and on the campaign trail to win a second term in the Oval Office, but the long-term consequences of his four-day unofficial Presidential election launch in Ireland, north and south, are still reverberating through the political establishment.

Unionism and Loyalism should conveniently dismiss all the ‘Vote Joe Again’ spin in many of the speeches, especially Biden’s desperate appeal to the Ulster Scots lobby in the United States by suggesting he had an English heritage.

Any Unionist or Loyalist who concludes these remarks represent a softening of Joe Biden’s staunchly pro-Irish nationalist stance is living in political cloud-cuckoo land. Biden is a committed constitutional Irish republican and the most pro-nationalist President to occupy the Oval Office since John F Kennedy in the 1960s.

Unionism and Loyalism should be genuinely fearful of one key line from his speech in the Dail: “The United Kingdom should be working closer with Ireland.”

Taken in conjunction with all the hype about the Biden billions in terms of American investment if the Stormont institutions are restored, this Biden remark was not a political gaffe or ‘off piste’ remark.

It was an assuredly deliberate broadside at the British Government that if the DUP does not agree to restoring the Executive and the Assembly, then Westminster and Dublin should work together to implement joint authority.

But the DUP is a politically ‘thrawn’ Ulster Scots movement. The party needs to be led by the hand back into Stormont, not shoved physically through Parliament Buildings’ revolving doors.

Realistically, no matter how cutting the Armageddon Budget proves to be, there will be no moves by the DUP on restoring power-sharing until all the votes are counted following the 18 May local council elections. Electorally, it will prove to be a ‘feast or a famine’ poll for the DUP.

If the DUP increases or even holds its tally of councillors, its Stormont boycott over the Protocol and the Windsor Framework will have proven to have been a big hit with the pro-Union community. Project Fear will have notched up another victory! That’s the feast result.

The famine result will be the opposite - losing seats to the hardline TUV, protest votes going to Alliance and the UUP, and even voter apathy among the pro-Union community as Unionists and Loyalists register their opposition to the boycott policy by staying at home - a tactic which could see nationalist and republican candidates win seats in traditionally pro-Union District Electoral Areas (DEAs).

Likewise, there will be no going back into Stormont until at after Black Saturday - the last Saturday in August hosted by the senior Loyal Order, the Royal Black Institution, which traditionally marks the end of the Marching Season.

Ironically, this post-election ‘time of reflection’ by the DUP is really about who controls the party - the Westminster contingent run by the original Paisleyite faction, or the modernising devolutionists, run by the UUP blow-ins.

Whichever faction comes out on top after the sashes, bowler hats, gloves, banners and bannerettes are neatly put away for another Marching Season will dictate if devolution in the form of the current Stormont Assembly will be restored, or mothballed for at least another generation - or maybe even resurrected to mark the half-century anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in another 25 years.

In reality, I’d say the DUP has until the start of the new academic year in September - no matter what the outcome of May’s local council elections - to at least privately within the party decide whether to walk back into Stormont, or admit to Westminster that Parliament Buildings needs to be locked up permanently in terms of a fully functioning, power-sharing devolved administration.

Like the Protestants who endured the Siege of Londonderry in 1688/89, the DUP must calculate how much the pro-Union community - indeed, the entire Northern Ireland community - is prepared to suffer as many families (not just working class, or those on the poverty line, but also many middle class families) face the hard financial choices in the current cost of living crisis.

What many in the DUP’s pro-boycott camp have yet to explain is what their workable alternative is if Stormont cannot be restored. Taking Biden’s Dail remarks as a benchmark, there’s no guarantee for Unionists and Loyalists that Stormont will be replaced by old-style Direct Rule from London only.

Likewise, even if it is called ‘Direct Rule’, it may not be a form which existed for decades after the original Stormont Parliament was prorogued in 1972, with MPs from the Westminster parties taking over the various portfolios at the Northern Ireland Office.

The best the DUP could hope for is an NIO staffed by Northern Ireland-elected MPs, the so-called Molyneaux Solution, as favoured by the late Jim Molyneaux, the former UUP leader and staunch integrationist.

In the Eighties and Nineties, the Northern Ireland Conservatives lobbied successfully to have their constituency associations formally recognised nationally by the party - but that was in the hope that the pro-Union community would elect Tory MPs to many of Northern Ireland’s Unionist-held constituencies.

That ideal crashed and burned along with the equally disastrous Ulster Conservative and Unionist - New Force General Election pact.

Anyway, with Sinn Fein MPs continuing to operate their outdated abstentionist policy from 1905 by refusing to take their Commons seats, there’s little chance of Westminster allowing an NIO ministerial team made up of only those parties who formally take their Commons seats.

This would be especially true with Sinn Fein currently being the largest party in the Assembly, and if it comes out top again after May 18 as the party with the most councillors in Northern Ireland, as well as win a significant number of TDs in the Dail and becomes a leading player in a Southern coalition government.

So enter Biden with his joint authority push, presumably supported with his billions. Biden will push - dangling the inward investment carrot - for a system of government in Northern Ireland which gives Dublin a far greater influence than any cross-border bodies, the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference, or indeed the Maryfield Secretariat of the mid 1980s.

Biden will effectively be prepared to bankroll joint authority with all of nationalism, republicanism, liberal and civic Unionism backed up by ecumenical Protestantism signing up to this ‘Irish Unity by the backdoor’ deal. Unionism will again have been outmanoeuvred by a lack of constructive ideas.

Then the elephant in the room becomes whether the British and Irish intelligence communities can outwit sections of Loyalism who will attempt to reciprocate the atrocities of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan no-warning bombs which murdered over 30 innocent people, leaving hundreds more wounded.
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online. 

Will Biden Back Brits Over Joint Rule If Stormont Scrapped?

Dr John Coulter ✍ Reflecting on Biden’s billions speech during his four-day electioneering trip to the island of Ireland, could the unthinkable become a reality - that President Joe Biden could save Stormont by ‘buying out’ the peace process?

We Unionists need to be cynical about all the ‘who-ha’ surrounding his recent Irish extravaganza.

Unionism, please dismiss the Biden bumph, Belfast sound bites and Ballina spin; see this four-day visit for what it really is - the start of Biden’s Presidential re-election campaign for 2024.

As I concluded in a recent Pensive Quill analysis. 

In terms of Anglo-American relations, if American-Ireland relations are at the peak of Everest, then many of his speeches have placed Anglo-American and especially Unionist-American relations at the bottom of the Atlantic along with the Titanic.


Overall, this specific Presidential visit to Ireland, north and south, was political Brit-bashing on a scale not seen since the early days of the Second World War and the American administration’s dogged refusal to enter the European conflict against Hitler.

Again, it cannot be overstated following the supposed bilateral talks in private between Biden and Tory PM Rishi Sunak that in spite of the coffee-cup smiles, it was very noticeable the absence of Sunak from Biden’s keynote speech in Belfast.

But did Sunak get his knuckles rapped in private and was told - no US/UK trade deal until he puts the Unionists in their place over their opposition to the Windsor Framework. Biden referred to that Framework as an “essential step”

Indeed, when Biden used the words ’Your future is America’s future’ - was this a massive warning that all these billions of dollars will only come if power-sharing is restored at Stormont.

Unionism will have to box clever in the coming weeks, not months, if they are to successfully milk the American cow.

Unionism may be able to ‘string out’ the protocol/framework logjam until after May’s council elections, but if there is no sign of significant progress by May 29 Spring Bank Holiday, expect Dublin and Westminster to move sharply with a solution which implements the Windsor Framework with the backing of Biden’s billions.

As for Biden’s speech in Leinster House to the joint sitting of the two houses, it was a recognition that opinion polls suggest the Provisional IRA’s political wing will be a major Southern government player after the next Dail General Election and the Irish Republic could have either a Sinn Fein Taoiseach or Tanaiste.

The strongly pro-nationalist nature of that Dail speech could see the President’s nickname of Sleepy Joe being replace by Shinner Joe.

Biden especially needs to clear up his ‘de Valera comment’ made at the end of his Dail speech. Quoting the words of his grandfather Finnegan, who was an Irish American, the President said:

Joey, I worry about you. I said - Pop, what are you worried about? He said you’re too much like the guy who led the revolution instead of the guy who was the prime minister. He said you’ve got to be less like the military guy; they shot him; be more like de Valera.


Is Unionism to assume Biden was talking about Eamon de Valera, one of the key men who organised the 1916 Easter Rising when the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizens Army waited until thousands of their fellow Irishmen were out of the island fighting and dying together in the trenches of Europe during the Great War to stab the United Kingdom in the back with their revolt?

Eamon de Valera only escaped the firing squad even though he was a Rising ringleader because of his American links.

Later, after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, de Valera split the republican movement by rejecting the Treaty, and teaming up with the anti-Treaty IRA, thereby sparking the bloody Irish Civil War.

Was this the same de Valera who during the Second World War when Southern Ireland was supposedly ‘neutral’ supported the turning on of lights to guide Nazi bombers to blitz Belfast, and later sent message of condolence to the German Embassy on the death of Hitler, the tyrant who implemented the Holocaust? Not exactly a shining example for Biden to follow!

And as for Biden’s grandfather telling the youthful Biden he was too much like ‘the military guy’ who was shot, was this a reference either to communist James Connolly, the founder of the extreme Left Irish Socialist Republican Party, and Rising leader who was executed by British firing squad in 1916, or Michael Collins, the pro-Treaty Free State military commander, who was assassinated during the Irish Civil War on the orders of de Valera?

Biden needs to clarify for Unionism who his heroes are in terms of Irish history as any confusion or misunderstanding over Connolly, Collins and de Valera will only heighten Unionist suspicions that Biden - in terms of a future second-term American administration in Washington - will model himself politically as yet another ‘Sinn Fein President’.

Biden faces a huge uphill task to retain the Oval Office and virtually every part of this trip was a tick box exercise to placate a key section of the American voter base as unlike Kennedy, Clinton and Obama, Biden cannot fully guarantee the three key voter bases of Irish America, Ulster Scots America and Catholic America will automatically swing behind him in vast numbers.

Biden is facing a ‘squeaky bum’ election as in 2020, not a Ronnie Reagan-style landslide. In the battle to retain the White House, Biden has turned Ireland into an unofficial 51st American state.

Biden may not have the financial political war chest to win in 2024, but as the current President, he potentially possesses the billions to buy the peace process.

When it comes to a cost of living crisis, money talks. So the dilemmas become; how soon can Biden get all his billions in terms of investment and jobs into Northern Ireland, and how long can Unionism hold out to get a favourable resolution to the Protocol? Which will come first?

The bitter reality for Unionism is, time is not on its side; Biden holds the ace cards in the meantime.

Could Unionism, therefore, hold out like a modern day Siege of Londonderry in the hope that a Trump-style American Republican takes back the Oval Office? Or, has Stormont become the New Alamo - and we all know how that one ended!

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online. 

Could Biden Really Buy The Peace Process?

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