UN Promises Bankruptcy by July Unless Trump Gives Lots of Cash

RedState 

Deep in mid-winter blues and suffering through never-ending images of shrieking Karens, their soy-boys and the judges and elected officials obstructing the deportation of rapists, fraudsters, and run-of-the-mill 75 IQ illegals, I thought we could use a pick-me-up, a bit of cheerful news. Well, I've got it. The UN is facing bankruptcy. UN operations may cease by the end of February, and the last flabby, underworked UN bureaucrat could receive a final check, assuming it doesn't bounce, in July.

The United Nations said on Friday that it was facing imminent financial collapse and would run out of money by July if countries, namely the United States, did not pay their annual dues that amount to billions of dollars.

Senior U.N. officials said that if the cash ran out, the agency would be forced to shut down its landmark headquarters in New York by August. The U.N. Security Council, a 15-member body responsible for maintaining international peace and stability, convenes its meetings at U.N. headquarters.

It would also have to cancel the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders held in September and shut the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which responds to global emergencies like conflicts and natural disasters, it said.

How did we get to this state of near nirvana? Part of the story seems to be utter nonsense.

The United States is responsible for about 95 percent of the money owed to the United Nations, about $2.2 billion, according to a senior U.N. official who briefed reporters on the agency’s budget crisis. That amount is a combination of the U.S. annual dues for 2025, which has not been paid, and for 2026, the U.N. official said.

The U.S. paid $1.3 billion to the UN in FY 2025; our dues were $820 million for regular budgeted activities, and the remainder went to all manner of silly and counterproductive silliness. We have not paid the 2026 assessment, but the entire amount has been appropriated. The real problem seems to be one of the UN shooting itself in the foot and then complaining of the pain.

The United Nations’ financial woes are largely rooted in two problems: a liquidity crisis driven by member states who either are not paying their dues or are paying late, and a financial rule, dating to 1945, that says if the organization fails to fully spend the budget, even if it’s because of lack of payment from member states, it must return the money to the states.

Think about that for a moment. The UN makes a budget; a particular program is not executed, so the entire program's budget must be rebated, even though the money was never collected.

Guterres said a rule that the UN must return unspent money on particular programmes to members if it could not implement a budget created a "double blow" in which it was "expected to give back cash that does not exist".

I'm open to correction on this issue, but I've read at least eight sources, and they all "seem" to say the same thing. The implication is that nations could be rebated even without paying dues.

I think the real bone of contention, and the real reason that virtually all articles harp on the U.S. not paying up when we have only failed to pay for the current fiscal year because those funds have yet to be appropriated by Congress, it because President Trump has decided to cease paying to the worst UN programs and actively killed a UN carbon tax scheme that would have given UN bureaucrats a giant slush fund.

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BACKGROUND:

Trump Pulling US Out of UNESCO Over 'Pro-China, Pro-Palestine' Slant

UN’s Shipping Emissions Scheme: A Case of Taxation Without Representation

Trump and Rubio Yank Financial Support From 66 International Organizations That 'No Longer Serve American Interests'

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Our exit from the World Health Organization, which served as a Chinese Fifth Column aimed at Western economies and societies during the COVID "pandemic" (see Thanks for the Memories — Trump Officially Kicks World Health Organization to the Curb – RedState), and from the climate change religion (see Report: Trump Admin to Mostly Pass on UN Climate Summit – RedState) weakened the ability of a faceless international bureaucracy with communist economic philosophy and fascistic methods to further encroach on our sovereignty.

Personally, I'd prefer that Congress just pull the plug on the whole mess. I see no reason why we should contribute about a quarter of all funds used by the UN when it is relentlessly hostile to the West and to freedom.

I think smaller ad hoc groups of nations with the same motives and intentions, working in concert, offer a greater chance for success than any UN program. I think President Trump's "Board of Peace," with an exclusive, inviation-only membership (see THE ESSEX FILES: Trump’s Board of Peace Is a Bet on American Leadership – RedState) working under one leader has a greater chance for success than a mob of Third World kleptocracies grifting off UN money while reviling the West—that would be the people donating money—as "colonialists" and hurling invective at Israel for everything from boils on the ass to crop failure.

Head of Seattle Police Officers Guild Has the Perfect Response to Mayor's Effort to Have Cops Track ICE

RedState 

While Minneapolis has been grabbing a lot of the headlines when it comes to anti-ICE insanity, it's not the only place where leftists have a twisted approach.  

In Seattle, they now have a new socialist mayor, Katie Wilson. She's already off to the races this week on the unhinged actions.

Seattle's progressive Mayor Katie Wilson announced a series of moves Thursday that ban federal agents from using city property to conduct immigration enforcement operations and requiring the police department to investigate, verify, and document reports of enforcement activities, citing the "unpredictable, chaotic, and violent behavior" of the federal government. 

Here's more of what she's saying. 

She wants the police not only to track ICE, but she's mandating that they "share" and cooperate with community organizations to make sure they have the "latest and most accurate information about ICE activities." 

I don't know about you, but that says to me that she's tasking them to be ICE trackers and turn it over to the "community partners." You mean the ICE Watch/response groups? Are those partners of which you speak? Are you kidding?  

Not only aren't you going to help the feds take criminal illegal aliens off the street to protect your people or call out your local crazies involved in the anti-ICE effort, but now she wants to delegate the police away from what they should be doing to track ICE. Unless you're delegating them to be cooperative when needed - which is not what she's doing - that's crazy. 

Sounds like the local law enforcement union thinks it is as well. Check out this perfect response to this from the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, Mike Solan. 

"Toothless virtue signaling rhetoric like this has already cost two people their lives. The concept of pitting two armed law enforcement agencies against each other is ludicrous, and will not happen. I will not allow SPOG members to be used as political pawns."

Thankfully, some in the police have sense and are willing to call out this nonsense. That's the right answer. 

The police also already have enough to do. It's so wrong to put them in that position, and the mayor should be focused on helping them do the job they're supposed to do. 

We saw another situation like this in Los Angeles, when LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that he would not have his men enforce the "no mask ban" on federal agents that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law. 

The reality of one armed agency approaching another armed agency to create conflict over something that would be a misdemeanor at best, or an infraction. It doesn't make any sense.

It's not a good public policy decision, and it wasn't well thought out in my opinion.

Meanwhile, Newsom should be concerned that the LAPD and federal agents were getting assaulted by the anti-ICE agitators on Friday night. Democrats should be condemning these actions and taking a stand against all of this. 

But they're not. 

Folks like Newsom and Wilson don't care about the consequences of their bad policies, which is why they are always leaving everything they touch a mess. 

FBI Director Kash Patel Outlines “Probable Cause” in Georgia Election Data Warrant

FBI Director Kash Patel appears on Fox News to discuss the ongoing efforts of the FBI amid national headlines.  The first topic is the DOJ and FBI executing a search warrant in Fulton County, Georgia.

Director Patel then moves on to discussing the FBI operations in the Minnesota fraud schemes, drawing attention to the arrests in Minneapolis last summer for the rampant fraud identified within HHS programs.  Director Patel notes the expanded use of surveillance both in the govt and private sector is helping to drive down the crime rates in various states. WATCH:

Arc de Trump: Massive, 250-Foot Monument Planned for America's 250th Birthday

RedState 

We are the United States of America. We go big. In World War 2, we were the arsenal. We beat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan (I think Italy was involved in there somewhere too) by drowning them in guns and tanks, and guns and airplanes, and guns and artillery... and guns and guns - not always the best, but the most. We are the king-size, globe-spanning superpower; when others go big, we go bigger.

So, when President Donald John Trump was presented with three plans for a triumphal arch to be put up in the District of Columbia for the nation's upcoming 250th birthday, it's no surprise that he picked the big one. 

The White House stands about 70 feet tall. The Lincoln Memorial, roughly 100 feet. The triumphal arch President Donald Trump wants to build would eclipse both if he gets his wish.

Trump has grown attached to the idea of a 250-foot-tall structure overlooking the Potomac River, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his comments, a scale that has alarmed some architectural experts who initially supported the idea of an arch but expected a far smaller one.

The planned Independence Arch is intended to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary. Built to Trump’s specifications, it would transform a small plot of land between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery into a dominant new monument, reshaping the relationship between the two memorials and obstructing pedestrians’ views.

The president doesn't seem interested in the smaller plans, which were still substantial.

Trump has considered smaller versions of the arch, including 165-foot-high and 123-foot-high designs he shared at a dinner last year. But he has favored the largest option, arguing that its sheer size would impress visitors to Washington, and that ‘250 for 250’ makes the most sense, the people said.

Here's what that arch may look like:

Because America.

For the record, the French Arc de Triomphe stands about 164 feet tall. Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, a similar triumphal arch, is about 85 feet tall. These measures are approximate because France and Germany use Euro-weenie metric measurements, not good, honest American feet and inches, to measure their monuments.

When it comes to triumphal arches, we can hardly let France and Germany show us up. We have to note only to match them, but beat them, decisively so. 

There are those, of course, who are not enamored of the plan.

“I would be very concerned about the scale,” said Calder Loth, a retired Senior Architectural Historian for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, warning that a 250-foot-high arch could alter pedestrians’ views as they approach Arlington National Cemetery from Washington. “It would make Arlington House just look like a dollhouse — or you couldn’t see it all, with the arch blocking the view.”

These are legitimate concerns, but I think there's a larger purpose being served here. It's the 250th anniversary of our nation's independence. It's a big deal. We won't see a similar landmark date for another half a century. I was a kid, 14 years old, on the day of our Bicentennial, and I'm a pretty gray-haired old coot now. I won't be around for the nation's tricentennial, although my grandkids will be. 

I'd like to see this quarter-millennia of America recognized and celebrated in American style. Go big or go home. Go with the 250-foot arch to commemorate 250 years of the best country, the greatest country in the history of humankind. It should be commemorated on the appropriate scale.