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Murica: US throws pennies at massive UN debt


Sat, 21 Feb 2026 , https://www.sott.net/article/504763-Murica-US-throws-pennies-at-massive-UN-debt

Washington still reportedly owes the intergovernmental organization billions of dollars in mandatory funding

The US has paid $160 million towards the more than $4 billion it owes the UN in the first payment since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The UN faces a mounting financial crisis, while the US president positions his Gaza Board of Peace to “oversee” the global body. Some experts have already warned that the initiative could undermine the UN.

Washington’s latest contribution is a “partial payment of its past dues,” Reuters cited a UN spokesperson as saying on Thursday.

The money is a small fraction of the $2.19 billion the US reportedly owes for the UN regular budget and $2.4 it owes for current and past peacekeeping missions. The US is responsible for around 95% of the overdue payments to the UN’s regular budget, Reuters quoted the organization’s spokesperson as saying.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the UN is facing a looming crisis which could end in “imminent financial collapse,” unless member states started making mandatory payments or the organization overhauled its financial rules.

The US, the organization’s biggest contributor, cut voluntary funding to multiple UN programs and cut aid spending last year, as part of Trump’s ‘America First’ policy pivot. In December, Washington pledged $2 billion for the UN’s humanitarian programs, warning it to “adapt or die.” By comparison, the US had contributed $14.1 billion in 2024.

In a speech on Thursday, Trump again criticized the UN as ineffective.

“The United Nations… is going to be much stronger and the ‘Board of Peace’ is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly,” he said at the inaugural Board of Peace event in Washington.

The board would help the struggling UN “money-wise” and make sure it’s “viable,” he said.

The Board of Peace was established to guide the stabilization of Gaza following the Israel-Hamas war. UN experts, however, have argued that oversight by such a body is “reminiscent of colonial practices,” due to it being chaired by Trump, rather than being under transparent multilateral or UN control.

Comment: The US behaves like a customer who goes into a restaurant, orders the most expensive meal and after gorging itself, complains about the food while commanding the staff around and growling at the other guests in the restaurant. When presented with the bill it throws a $5 dollar note to the waiter while leaving the restaurant in a huff without paying the main bill while yelling loudly how ungrateful the restaurant was for the honor to have their visit.

February 24, 2026 Posted by | politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Massive military convoy carrying ‘nuclear weapons’ passes through Glasgow.

Footage captured on Thursday shows the convoy headed along the M74 motorway towards Kinning Park

Jordan Shepherd Reporter, 20 Feb 2026, https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/massive-military-convoy-carrying-nuclear-33464341

A massive military convoy believed to be carrying nuclear weapons has been spotted passing through Glasgow..

Footage captured on Thursday shows the convoy headed along the M74 motorway towards Kinning Park. The clip shows MOD police vehicles and Police Scotland escorting the military vehicles through the city.

The convoys usually travel between Atomic Weapons Establishment Burghfield near Reading and RNAD Coulport on Loch Long, right through Glasgow on the M74 and M8, passing within 1.5 miles of George Square in the process.

It is understood that the convoys make the journey around six times per year to refurbish the warheads, then transport them back up again.

The convoys include huge lead-lined lorries carrying the nuclear warheads, along with a fire engine in case a blaze breaks out, a moving workshop, a decontamination unit, tow truck and scores of MOD police vehicles.

February 24, 2026 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

DoJ Released Much More on Epstein’s Israel Ties—But Media Still Aren’t Much Interested.

The sparse US corporate media coverage of the Epstein/Israel angle sharply contrasts with the extensive reporting of Epstein’s alleged ties to Russia.

It is possible that Epstein was a Russian intelligence asset. However, there is no good reason for the US corporate media to frame these allegations as a real possibility, while ignoring the Epstein/Israel ties, or continuing to paint them as a far-fetched conspiracy theory.

Drew Favakeh, February 20, 2026, https://fair.org/home/doj-released-much-more-on-epsteins-israel-ties-but-media-still-arent-much-interested/

Late last month, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) published 3.5 million pages about convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

On top of the grotesque and horrifying photos and emails that appear to offer more evidence of systemic and widespread child abuse, the Epstein files revealed further allegations of his ties to Israel and its intelligence agency Mossad.

The Epstein/Israel revelations have been covered at length by independent and overseas media outlets:

  • “The Israeli government installed security equipment and controlled access to a Manhattan apartment building” that Epstein managed (Drop Site News, 2/18/26). Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli spy Yoni Koren were frequent guests at the apartment, and Rafi Shlomo, then–director of protective service at the Israeli mission to the United Nations, “controlled access to the apartment for guests, and even conducted background checks on cleaners and Epstein’s employees.”
  • An informant told the FBI he “became convinced that Epstein was a co-opted Mossad agent” (Middle East Monitor, 2/8/26).
  • Epstein emailed Barak in December 2018: “You should make clear that I don’t work for Mossad :)” (Dissident, 2/2/26). Barak responded, “You or I?” Epstein replied, “That I don’t :).”
  • Epstein emailed Barak twice in November 2017 (London Times, 2/8/26): “Did Boies ask you to help obtain former Mossad agents to do dirty investigations?” and “Boies said he got to the Mossad guys through you? True? This is getting a lot of press.” Barak responded, “Call me. [Redacted] in Paris.” (Epstein was likely referring to attorney David Boies, who was facing scrutiny at the time for hiring a private firm, run largely by former Mossad officers, to investigate women who accused his client Harvey Weinstein of rape, and journalists trying to expose the allegations—New Yorker, 11/6/17.)
  • Epstein’s foundation backed pro-Israel projects like Friends of Israel Defense Forces and the Jewish National Fund, which buys land in Palestine to build settlements (Middle East Eye, 2/7/26).
  • Adding to existing evidence

It is important to note that the Epstein emails contain allegations and intimations, and don’t prove that Epstein was an Israeli agent, formally or informally. However, they do add to the existing evidence that Epstein used his considerable connections and wealth to assist the Israeli state.

The Epstein/Israel ties were reported before the latest DoJ release by various independent media outlets, particularly Drop Site News. Drop Site’s reporting received scant coverage by US corporate media, as I documented at the time (FAIR.org. 11/14/25).

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February 24, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Democrats Aren’t Resisting Trump’s Iran War Because They Secretly Support It.

Caitlin Johnston, Feb 20, 2026, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/democrats-arent-resisting-trumps?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=188566363&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US has been gathering the most air power seen in the middle east since the Iraq invasion in 2003.

CNN says the US military is prepared to strike Iran as early as this weekend.

A Trump advisor has reportedly told Axios that “The boss is getting fed up. Some people around him warn him against going to war with Iran, but I think there is 90% chance we see kinetic action in the next few weeks.”

The US is by every indication headed straight toward war with Iran, and Trump’s ostensible opposition has conspicuously little to say about it. We’re seeing some pushback from House Democrats like Ro Khanna, but party leaders like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are completely missing from the scene on this issue of unparalleled urgency.

Democratic Party leaders are doing nothing to oppose Trump’s war plans for Iran because they support those plans. They just don’t want to be the ones pulling the trigger.

When the attack begins they’ll do the same thing they did with Venezuela: publicly finger-wag about rules and protocol while providing no meaningful resistance and privately being glad the empire took out another unauthorized leader.

Democratic Party empire managers love Trump. They love having a bad cop who’s willing to get his hands dirty and slit the throats that need slitting while they sit back looking pretty and fundraise off his depravity.

Democrats hate having to be the bad guy. They hated trying to come up with excuses for why it was fine for Biden to aggressively back a live-streamed genocide in Gaza, and they were relieved to finally hand off that PR nightmare to Trump. They wanted to lose in 2024, and they were glad when they did.

Now they get to just coast along and let Trump take the blame for all the imperial depravity.

On Wednesday, Democratic Senator Mark Warner told MS NOW’s Katy Tur that “I think it’s appropriate that the president has all the options on the table” with regard to war with Iran, complaining only that Trump was too incompetent to strike last month when Iranian domestic turmoil was at its peak.

Warner said that “seeing regime change in Iran would make sense” and made it clear that he would like to see the Iranian government removed, with his only criticism being that Trump was going about obtaining it in a clumsy and impolite way.

“First of all, remember the president said in our previous bombing that we had obliterated Iran’s nuclear program,” Warner said. “While clearly our military did an exquisite job, we did not obliterate Iran’s nuclear program, number one. Number two, if the president is calling for regime change in Iran — and Iran is an awful regime — but he should make the case to the American public and to the world of how we’re going to go about doing that.”


This is such a perfect example of the Democratic Party’s relationship with all of Trump’s most depraved agendas. Here’s this monstrous warmonger, poised to unleash violence in the middle east of potentially devastating consequence, and all Warner can do is hem and haw about proper war etiquette and criticize the president for failing to drop enough bombs on Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure.

The United States has two right wing war parties: the polite one and the rude one. No party or faction which advances peace and human interests is allowed to flourish at the heart of the empire.

Trump is responsible for the war crimes of his administration, and he belongs in a cell in The Hague. But these Republican swamp monsters wouldn’t be able to do the damage they do without the assistance of the Democratic Party.

February 24, 2026 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

A Dangerous Equation: Trump’s Iran Plans and the Democrats Who Expect to Benefit

 SCHEERPOST, February 22, 2026 , by Joshua Scheer

Recent reporting suggests that President Donald Trump privately envisions a bold “regime change” in Iran, seeing it as a historical legacy project. Sources indicate he has pressed military planners for contingency strategies that could allow major attacks while keeping potential chaos politically manageable for the midterms.

At the same time, some Democratic leaders appear less focused on preventing war than on the political calculus of who would bear the consequences. Internal discussions reveal a tension: a portion of the party sees a potential conflict as both strategically and politically advantageous if Trump ends up owning the fallout. Meanwhile, a few members of Congress, including Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, have pushed for a War Powers resolution to require public accountability.

This coverage raises pressing questions about political expediency versus ethical responsibility in decisions that could imperil thousands of lives abroad and American service members. The stakes are high, and the calculation of winners and losers in Washington may come at a catastrophic human cost………………………………………………………… https://scheerpost.com/2026/02/22/a-dangerous-equation-trumps-iran-plans-and-the-democrats-who-expect-to-benefit/

February 24, 2026 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment