A few years ago, I was eating breakfast in a DC hotel listening to two men talk about their schedule for the day. Their business was decorating homes for Christmas, and they were discussing their heavy workload.
As I listened quietly the men were describing premium rates for DC families who wanted their decorating services completed fastest. The average rate was $15,000 per residence for 30-day interior holiday decorating, and the rates went up from there. They were overwhelmed with business calls.
I sat there stunned doing spit-takes with my coffee while thinking, “holy cow, who has that kind of money to blow, just renting Holiday decorations?” One of the client names was familiar, Kellyanne Conway. “Jumpin’ ju-ju bones, this is an actual thing they do up here,” I thought. My mind was blown, but this put context to the economic bubble that isolated DC from the rest of ‘real’ America.
Yesterday, I read a New York Times column describing how the professional political employees and their families have been impacted by President Trump and the downsizing of the federal workforce.
Amid the tear-filled typeset meant to generate sympathy this part jumped out at me: “The District of Columbia currently has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, at 6.7 percent, in large part because of major reductions in the federal work force, including U.S.A.I.D., and cuts to government grants and contracts.” {CITATION}
Almost all of the $35 billion spent by USAID in 2024 went to Washington-based contractors, not to people in need overseas. Eliminating USAID has now created an unemployment problem for all of those DC-based federal contractors, NGOs and USAID employees. The NYT article gives examples of the terrible state of affairs. This is one:
[…] Sheryl Cowan, 57, was making $272,000 a year as a senior vice president at a U.S.A.I.D.-funded nonprofit when she was let go at the end of March 2025. Last month she had an online interview for a $19-an-hour job managing a Penzeys Spices store near her home in Falls Church, Va.
Her take-home pay would not cover her mortgage but said she was eager to do something other than spending down her savings and has applied for 60 jobs. She has since been called back for an in-person interview. “Aside from the salary, it would be fun,” she said. “I could do it for a little while.” (more)
Ms. Cowan (pictured above) was making $23,000/month working for a nonprofit funded by USAID. $23,000 a month!
I also saw one of the best responses to this situation outlined by a user on the Twitter:
[…] “The framing wants you to feel outrage at the cruelty of the cuts.
But the actual data point buried in the story is devastating to the narrative it’s trying to build.
272k for a senior VP at a USAID-funded nonprofit is not a real salary. It’s a subsidy. That job existed inside a closed loop: taxpayer money flows to USAID, USAID funds NGOs, NGOs hire professionals at inflated rates, those professionals build lives around compensation that was never stress-tested against the open market.
The entire salary was a function of proximity to the spigot. Not output. Not value creation. Not demand for her specific skills.
The $19/hour number isn’t the system being cruel. It’s the system being honest for the first time. The market is saying: without the government funding stream, your skills at 57 command 39k. That’s the real price. The 272k was the fiction.
And here’s what nobody in that thread will say: there are tens of thousands of people in the DC metro area alone sitting in exactly this position right now. Government-adjacent professionals whose entire compensation structure was built on a funding model that is being unwound. Not by AI, not by automation, but by simple political reallocation. And the market is going to reprice every single one of them.
The deeper pattern is that an entire class of professional jobs in America were never real market jobs. They were artifacts of institutional spending that created its own employment ecosystem. Government, corporate middle management, DEI departments, compliance layers, consulting firms that exist to service other consulting firms. The whole structure was a series of jobs that existed because the money existed, not because the work needed doing at that price.
That structure is now being compressed from multiple directions simultaneously. AI from one side. Spending cuts from another. Corporate efficiency mandates from a third.
And the professional class that built its identity, its mortgages, its kids’ tuitions, its retirement plans around those salaries is about to discover what the open market actually thinks they’re worth.
That’s the repricing.” {source}
I think the Christmas decoration business model now has context.
Perhaps it is a business model that no longer exists, thanks to President Trump.
It sounds like this system would knock it out of the park in Minneapolis.
Stand by for an article crying about out-of-work Learing Centre staff across Minnesota, amid the downsizing of childcare facilities.
And other places I did not expect, I think. I am suddenly noticing white unmarked vans with women drivers in black sheets covered but for eyes or men with black bushy beards. Saw them each loading a patient on wheelchairs. My tiny town doesn’t even have a stoplight, and I could not identify these people. Three vans in two days.
License plate IDs could be a helpful research tool.
When I walked into an OKC Costco, last week, there were a number of Muslim families shopping together. All of the women were wearing the long robes and headcoverings, while there were only a few full-Burkqa /everything-but-the-eyes-covered. Prolly 10-12 groups of people.
Usually, I might see someone with normal clothing and a head-scarf. It was otherworldly seeing the long drapes and a little eye-window.
My thought was that there is an operation underway. CAIR prolly moved these families in and they were there to get the groceries for their new place. Just my opinion.
when you counterfeit 2+ trillion per year, all kinds of perverse incentives emerge. this is unsurprising. the only surprise is how long the voting dupes put up with it.
Huzzah, Huzzah! We Americans have the enemy right in our own backyards. Don’t miss.
“The entire salary was a function of proximity to the spigot. Not output. Not value creation. Not demand for her specific skills. The $19/hour number isn’t the system being cruel. It’s the system being honest for the first time. The market is saying: without the government funding stream, your skills at 57 command 39k. That’s the real price. The 272k was the fiction. The deeper pattern is that an entire class of professional jobs in America were never real market jobs. They were artifacts of institutional spending that created its own employment ecosystem. Government, corporate middle management, DEI departments, compliance layers, consulting firms that exist to service other consulting firms. The whole structure was a series of jobs that existed because the money existed, not because the work needed doing at that price.” Brilliant analysis!
Coming out of college in 1970 there were two basic job avenues profit or nonprofit. The profit avenue paid higher salaries but there was less job security, the nonprofit avenue paid less but there was more job security. During my career I got laid off several times or the company I worked for got bought out and I was let go. That was the job insecurity part taking effect. Over the years the nonprofits flipped it to where nonprofit entities paid equal to or more that the public sector. One nonprofit example is the President of the Red Cross (which I never donate to) is making in excess of $800,000 + dollars per year. Here are some other Red Cross salaries:
The 15 most highly compensated employees in 2022 were reported to be:
$832,241: Gail McGovern, President and CEO$732,793: Clifford Holtz, Chief Operating Officer$717,023: Chris Hrouda, President, Biomedical Services$679,502: Shaun Gilmore, Chief Transformation Officer$594,976: Brian Rhoa, CFO$515,707: Paul Sullivan, SVP, Donor Services$476,166: Phyllis Harris, General Counsel$462,762: Melissa Hurst, Chief HR Officer$445,723: Don Herring, Chief Development Officer$437,875: Jack McMaster, President, Training Services$430,148: Peter Giamalva, SVP, Biomedical Sales and Marketing$413,683: Harvey Johnson, President, Humanitarian Services$410,055: Rosemary McGillian, Chief Marketing /Communications Officer$319,600: Trevor Riggen, President, Humanitarian Services$307,093: Jennifer Hawkins, Corp Secretary and Chief of Staff
I never got close proximity to the spigot! As a result I’m now living on Social Security! Godspeed Sundance!!!
We’re probably close to the same age. I noticed an explosion of non-profits several years ago. They were always touted on our local news station. Always there to help one or another under served community. My suspicious cat antenna went up then and now my suspicions are real. I live in the real world. I was blessed with a long career with a pension, but my children and grandchildren are struggling trying to make ends meet thru no fault of their own. They’re angry along with millions of other average Americans. This will not end well unless it is stopped cold.
Remember all those TV ads about the starving children in Africa with flies on their faces. Remember the millions $$ raised, Sally Strothers et al, but nobody got fed. They are still in the same situation today.
I remember that well. All part of the same, decades-long scam.
“United Way”…..I remember many times during a number of my careers (I am 70-something) that I was ostracized for NOT donating to the United Way. Those were the years I was barely making a living but was still expected to “give” to United Way each month out of my paycheck. At first I gave what I could, but after awhile I quit. Good to know now what a rip-off these outfits are, especially the Red Cross. Disgusting.
In my younger, more naive days, I wore off some shoe leather collecting from corporate sponsors of United Fund. In return I was invited to their annual dinner/banquet. Eventually it occurred to me that ALL of the funds I had personally collected were being expended on the banquets and that the banquets were nothing more than self congratulatory soirées. There was more to be learned later on, but suffice it to say, I have not given to United Fund/Way in a very long time.
I had a similar experience but fortunately I was in the finance field where a lot of people were cynical.
But, but, how could that happen??
My local Ham Radio club meets in a Red Cross building. There is no fee, but once a year, we have to endure the begathon because Red Cross does so much good for so many people, and looking to expand their services. Like all administrative entities, they look for additional ways to “serve”, and spend.
I too never give to Red Cross, and I’ve ruined the 100% donation record at major companies I’ve worked for by refusing to give to United Way.
Did/do you know that the Red Cross printed maps of “safe routes” for illegal aliens crossing the border?!
No I didn’t know that! Thanks! I do know that the United Way gives a good portion of their fund raising to the abortion factory misnamed Planned Parenthood!!!
Are these the same folks that set up their bell-ringing collection pots outside of busy retail outlets during the Christmas season? If so, they will no longer receive the change in my pockets – or anything for that matter.
“Safe routes” for illegals. I’ve heard enough. F**k ’em.
I stopped donating to Red Cross a few years ago when I read the head of it had a salary of $600,000.00. I figured they didn’t need my paltry sum.
When we moved to our current small southern town 20 years ago, we decided to only financially support all those local entities that drew us here in the first place…Symphony, community band, playhouse, etc, plus local charities that had strict criteria to help those in need. In many cases there’s some “sweat labor” involved in exchange for things given to them. We see our dollars in action, not going to outrageous salaries, “training trips” to Hawaii, etc.
You know, this comment brings me back to when government employees were paid far less than I the private sector. Then, when the Lightbringer graced us with his presence, I remember him going on a spending spree to increase government salaries. And what did we get for that? Overpaid underworked bureaucrats lording it over us, spending $15k on holiday decorations!
If “Lightbringer” means Obozo:
He froze federal base pay increases effective Jan 2011. That was the start of a decade of lagging base pay increases ranging from zero increase to significantly less than CPI increases, for a cumulative real base pay decrease of about 10% over that period. With “Sequestration” in 2013 which imposed furloughs reducing 2013 pay by several thousand more.
After a brief respite, then leading into the biden term, with its sky high inflation outstripping base pay for an additional net 15% reduction in real base pay.
Federal real base pay stands at about -25% compared to 2011, thanks to Obozo and biden.
Federal employees are not the ones spending $15k on holiday decorations. Nor people like the woman standing on her desk who were paid $272k as head of “nonprofits” funded by the fiat money overspending but spending every dime on sky-high housing costs etc. in the greater DC region, mostly outside DC in MD and northern VA.
Its the “beltway bandits” making huge money off the fiat overspending who are flush with big money to blow on frivolities like $15k holiday decorations – owners and top stakeholders in the many corporate entities in a feeding frenzy on the fiat flood. (They are also the ones spending big on maintaining opulent homes for “entertaining” as part of their insider lucre game.)
The fiat overspending drives several results including:
1. Contributing to the decline of America economically:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/debt-spiral-ends-dollar-destruction-6-hard-truths-america-can-no-longer-ignore
2. Contributing to the decline of America by creating a faux middle class bubble which then pops (e.g. the woman on the desk).
#2 is apparent everywhere. It hasn’t really started disintegrating substantially yet. That is coming.
Note that Trump promised to restore fiscal prudence, but is actually promoting acceleration of the overspending. DOGE was a ruse using a false pretext (cutting overspending), its results were less than 3% spending reduction overall while increasing dysfunction affecting everything government is involved with (everything) – especially DoD (DoW now).
If outcomes hint at real Plans, we should be informed by what is happening vs. what we are told.
All trends point in the same direction: Managed decline.
Converging on the same endpoint: NOT “great again”.
The “managed decline” includes multiple great machinations exploiting existing paradigms in the US.
One is apparently attrition by biowarfare democide, exploiting the med-pharma-biotech industry with gargantuan fiat money infusions driving engineered pathogens with forced “rescue” by insidiously harmful genetic manipulation biologic agents.
The “plandemic” model.
Covid was the warm-up. Next comes:
https://jonfleetwood.substack.com/p/194-billion-federal-influenza-pandemic
Dangle $19B and they will make it happen to collect. Incentivized biowarfare democide.
On top of $5.5B already getting it started:
https://jonfleetwood.substack.com/p/trump-finances-the-next-pandemic
The “self-amplifying” modRNA injections are a de facto synthetic virus, get ready for democide by attrition that makes the covid shots look harmless by comparison:
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-uk-approves-experimental
Yep. Multiple great machinations to sink the US. Including all the manipulated people like the woman on the desk.
Prayers are needed. But the Bible tells us that God has destroyed abominations many times, e.g. Sodom and Gomorrah. The US has become far more corrupt than those, maybe we are on the cusp of the same again.
Most of the federal gov and contractors live outside D.C., in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.
So glad I’m not subsidizing those USAID and other do-nothing agencies with my tax dollars.
On the other hand, I was a fed contractor for 18 years for U.S. Customs & Border Protection, doing REAL WORK architecting networks, engineering solutions, and designing and monitoring the tools that the field CBP agents use 24×7.
Did you know that US Customs is the 2nd highest revenue provider to the US Treasury, second only to the IRS? It’s due to the collection of duties and tariffs.
Curious as to who is paying the duties and tariffs. Items coming into our country from other countries? Visitors from other countries? Sorry if this is a dumb question.
Good question! With a brief exception after the Civil War, the federal government was funded mostly by duties and tariffs up until 1913 with the ratification of the 16th Amendment. Early 20th century conservatives pushed for the Amendment, thinking it would never be ratified, but they were wrong.
Passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, the 16th amendment established Congress’s right to impose a Federal income tax.
Far-reaching in its social as well as its economic impact, the income tax amendment became part of the Constitution by a curious series of events culminating in a bit of political maneuvering that went awry.
The financial requirements of the Civil War prompted the first American income tax in 1861. At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800 and later modified this principle to include a graduated tax. Congress repealed the income tax in 1872, but the concept did not disappear.
After the Civil War, the growing industrial and financial markets of the eastern United States generally prospered. But the farmers of the south and west suffered from low prices for their farm products, while they were forced to pay high prices for manufactured goods. Throughout the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s, farmers formed such political organizations as the Grange, the Greenback Party, the National Farmers’ Alliance, and the People’s (Populist) Party. All of these groups advocated many reforms (see the Interstate Commerce Act) considered radical for the times, including a graduated income tax.
In 1894, as part of a high tariff bill, Congress enacted a 2-percent tax on income over $4,000. The tax was almost immediately struck down by a five-to-four decision of the Supreme Court, even though the Court had upheld the constitutionality of the Civil War tax as recently as 1881. Although farm organizations denounced the Court’s decision as a prime example of the alliance of government and business against the farmer, a general return of prosperity around the turn of the century softened the demand for reform. Democratic Party Platforms under the leadership of three-time Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, however, consistently included an income tax plank, and the progressive wing of the Republican Party also espoused the concept.
In 1909, progressives in Congress again attached a provision for an income tax to a tariff bill. Conservatives, hoping to kill the idea for good, proposed a constitutional amendment enacting such a tax; they believed an amendment would never receive ratification by three-fourths of the states. Much to their surprise, the amendment was ratified by one state legislature after another, and on February 25, 1913, with the certification by Secretary of State Philander C. Knox, the 16th amendment took effect. Yet in 1913, due to generous exemptions and deductions, less than 1 percent of the population paid income taxes at the rate of only 1 percent of net income.
Passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, the 16th amendment established Congress’s right to impose a Federal income tax.
Far-reaching in its social as well as its economic impact, the income tax amendment became part of the Constitution by a curious series of events culminating in a bit of political maneuvering that went awry.
The financial requirements of the Civil War prompted the first American income tax in 1861. At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800 and later modified this principle to include a graduated tax. Congress repealed the income tax in 1872, but the concept did not disappear.
After the Civil War, the growing industrial and financial markets of the eastern United States generally prospered. But the farmers of the south and west suffered from low prices for their farm products, while they were forced to pay high prices for manufactured goods. Throughout the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s, farmers formed such political organizations as the Grange, the Greenback Party, the National Farmers’ Alliance, and the People’s (Populist) Party. All of these groups advocated many reforms (see the Interstate Commerce Act) considered radical for the times, including a graduated income tax.
In 1894, as part of a high tariff bill, Congress enacted a 2-percent tax on income over $4,000. The tax was almost immediately struck down by a five-to-four decision of the Supreme Court, even though the Court had upheld the constitutionality of the Civil War tax as recently as 1881. Although farm organizations denounced the Court’s decision as a prime example of the alliance of government and business against the farmer, a general return of prosperity around the turn of the century softened the demand for reform. Democratic Party Platforms under the leadership of three-time Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, however, consistently included an income tax plank, and the progressive wing of the Republican Party also espoused the concept.
In 1909, progressives in Congress again attached a provision for an income tax to a tariff bill. Conservatives, hoping to kill the idea for good, proposed a constitutional amendment enacting such a tax; they believed an amendment would never receive ratification by three-fourths of the states. Much to their surprise, the amendment was ratified by one state legislature after another, and on February 25, 1913, with the certification by Secretary of State Philander C. Knox, the 16th amendment took effect. Yet in 1913, due to generous exemptions and deductions, less than 1 percent of the population paid income taxes at the rate of only 1 percent of net income.
Did not know that! Thanks for mentioning it.
While reading this,,I found myself wanting to file my nails,totally indifferent.
As a house painter I make around average 52000 a year on a good year. Some years it’s way lower. Depending on the work I can find in my area. At times I’m so desperate I drive hours just to look at a job.
The first year of the fake pandemic my pay for the year was 32000 dollars. It almost destroyed my family.
I didn’t qualify for their stupid PPP loan they had. The feds said I didn’t make 32000 that year.
This scummy woman made five years of me busting my hump in one year.
I ask God to please forgive me for hating these people.
“The Fake Pandemic”
Well said.
whenever im talking to someone, and its necessary to refer to that event, I always refer to it as the Fake pandemic. Which it was. I have to admit I do get satisfaction from watching the facial expressions in response from those who prefer to pretend not to notice things.
From day one, I never called it a pandemic. I called it as it really was….a scamdemic. To this day, I will only refer to it as that.
I variously use shamdemic and plandemic with aplomb!
I call it the Covid Hoax.
Plandemic was my word.
In my part of the country we still refer to it is the PLANDEMIC! Still waiting for the arrest that will never come!
We’re in this together. I certainly cannot speak for God; but I for one can forgive you, and also await God’s judgement.
May I suggest you/we don’t hate these people enough.
Forgive me, God. I know you understand.
God does indeed understand CC.
A false balance is an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight. Proverbs 11:1
The key word there? “Abomination!”
I don’t have time to look it up right now, but there is a translation that makes it sound like your friend Patrick’s view; It says, “God hates dishonest weights and measures.” Proverbs 11:1
As most people here know, our whole economic system that began in 1913, is built on dishonest weights and measures.
It’s OK to hate the things our God hates. In fact, if we don’t, that’s when we are in sin.
Our God is slow to anger, but when His anger is kindled but a little, they will receive their due. Psalm 2
Love to see a man who knows the good book God Bless.
Thank you for these passages.
The bible really puts life into perspective.
God bless.
I will 2nd that emotion….(all the way from cental Wi., btw 😉)
“hating these people.”
Probably referring to government officials (?) who created the system enabling this grift. Hard to blame the woman. Who wouldn’t want a $200k+ job?
Maybe a more constructive avenue for one’s energy is to work to shrink government. Write your representatives. Everything the government does is rife with waste, fraud and abuse. Everything that can be done by the private sector should be. The government’s responsibilities should be limited as the constitution intends.
Time to end the income tax and seriously whittle back the funds given to Congress along with a balanced budget amendment.
“write your representatives“…That’s a good one!
Your “representatives” don’t work for you–they work for the lobbyists and corporations who donate campaign money.
Mine works for the successors to Klaus Schwab at the World Economic Forum and a well-known Ivy League University.
Every so-called Representative has 750,000 constituents so one voice is a drop in the bucket. We have a better shot getting through to our State Legislatures.
It’s a good exercise for ordering your arguments and often comic relief when getting their canned response.
Nonetheless, important to state.
Yeah, but we can vote their sorry asses out of office and send them packing.
Not with mail in voting and machine voting.
We The Taxpayers need to demand to Defund the Fraud! Repeal the Federal Income tax and dismantle the entire system of redistribution of our coerced tax payments. Let the States tax their citizens and fund their own social programs. Reduce the Federal government back to its Constitutionally-mandated size, scope and cost.
I was so excited when DOGE was going strong and things were supposedly happening. Now I don’t see or hear anything about it and just recently read some NGO’s are still putting illegals in hotels, etc. etc. and etc. So it all hasn’t stopped. We are surrounded by grift, graft and dishonesty. I wonder how many millionaires have been made off the government since Obama’s first term and continuing on thru Biden’s.
DOGE was a ruse.
It only reduced government spending by about 3% of one year’s budget.
The DOGE architects surely knew beforehand that this would be the fiscal result. Heck, the federal payroll was only 4% of overall budget, cutting payroll 20% reduces the budget by less than 1%, an insignificant reduction. DOGE, Musk, and Trump certainly knew all this before starting it.
So the real purpose was apparently degrading and increasing dysfunction, along with a large injection of fear and anxiety.
There was even a coordinated intimidation campaign aimed at federal employees to create a hostile work environment undermining trust and amplifying anxiety, including the weekly “Five Bullet Points” demand.
All serving managed decline.
You’ve been played. (And are still being played.)
as long as the USA has an unconstitutional national bank known as The Fed, it will ever be thus. there can never be a fair and natural human ecology when psychpaths can counterfeit at will.
Where in ththe country do you work?
Alabama. Sometimes Massachusetts and North Carolina.
I go where my family lives so I travel a lot.
I’m retired now, but I spent 45 years in the trade. Find customers who don’t mind paying for a good job.
With AI replacing many jobs, your job is probably safe. I think it is a good time to have your own business.
Don’t be afraid to charge more for quality work. Hang in there and keep brushing, rolling and spraying.
All of this NGO waste and outright fraud has been a sore spot for me for years now. As the true depth of it comes more apparent it sickens me. I have been struggling for 3 months to try and raise $30,000 for our Volunteer Fire Department to buy a nearly 30 year old Tanker. To think what useful purpose this money stolen from tax payers was just thrown away on would have eased the financial woes of thousands of Volunteer Fire Departments across this country. And it would have actually served the People of those communities.
Yes, and if you were in the same situation in Liberia, supposedly served by some money-laundering NGO, it is doubtful that you would have you tanker either.
We all suspected what USAID stood for, and now all of the curtains and camouflage are ripped away. May the enormous gang of scumbags responsible for this rape of taxpayer dollars languish in prison forever. I do not have even one salty tear for them.
I actually would go further than prison time. Total and complete reimbursement including garnishment of any and all income from any source, leins against their Estates, Confiscate any and every thing acquired through the fraud. Including assets in anyone else’s names.
If not prison, then bankruptcy.
Both is good.
You think some have gone to prison? I’m still waiting for the jerks who did J6 to have some kind of punishment.
Lived in very close proximity to the spigot oversaw many renovation projects the waste was something I still can’t wrap my head around. Guess when it’s not your $ anything goes these are not good people
short of violence, the only way I can see to end the corrupt system is to first control it by being the beneficiary of the grift in oversize proportions. get big, then self immolate. the problem is once you attain personal success in the corrupt system, the desìre to detroy or reform the corruption fades away.
Milton Friedman said that the worst outcome is when other people’s money is being spent on yet other people, and the spender knows none of them.
That’s the gummint.
Which is why the reflecting pool refurbishment had a $300 million quote on it, because it’s someone else’s money. President Trump is the only president I’ve seen who treats every project like he’s spending his own money, so he ensures the taxpayers gets good value out of it.
Of course, in many projects, President Trump is paying for these projects himself or with donors.
Gotta love that man.
This describes the anatomy of grift.
Good. Now do this with the healthcare industry. Doctors and technical staff work for their pay, but the administrators? Parasites. Stop handing out federal taxpayer money to these hospitals! No more non-profit status for every hospital in the country!
Careful. It’s this sort of demonizing that led to the cold blooded murder of the United Healthcare CEO, and now the murderer is being idolized by the left.
The argument about federal dollars vis a vis the healthcare insurance industry needs to be separate from the angst over the administration’s compensation.
Nonsense. Get out of here with that “careful” business. We see you. 🔭
What happened to that man was tragic, but that does not mean that the rest of us can’t notice the graft and monopoly that is the American healthcare and insurance system.
Yes, THIS!!
–is why Trump is loathed, denigrated and most of all FEARED by the administrative/professional/regulatory class/apparatchiks (swamp) and their adjuncts in the media and academia.
cesspool dc.
Sundance hitting on all cylinders.
May the repricing continue at scale.
Yes, the irony is intentional.
I don’t begrudge people a good living wage. However, this makes me smile. Reality just bit a bunch of people in the arse. You’ve taken my money since I was 15 years old, that’d be 63 years, and wasted it. I don’t care if you have to sell your McMansion in NOVA. Welcome to the real world. Maybe some of those dang condos lining the NC coast that ruined my hometown will have to be torn down. I always wondered how so many people had that much money. Sometimes life sucks and then you die. I’m usually not in this frame of mind, but this has to end.
The Pope’s True Loyalty Is To Globalism, Not Christianity
The crusaders were right, the globalist Pope is wrong…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/popes-true-loyalty-globalism-not-christianity
“Washington DC Now Has the Highest Unemployment Rate in the Country at 6.9 Percent”
Well, as the old saying goes: “If they’re looking for sympathy….they’ll find it between sh!t and syphilis in the dictionary”
That sound you barely hear is the Washington DC Philharmonic playing the world’s smallest violins…….
Sympathy for the devil.
IRGC Seizes Ship With Witkoff-Kushner Team En Route To Pakistan; US Sanctions Chinese Refinery, Iran Shadow Fleet
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/flurry-reports-signal-breakthrough-us-iran-getting-back-table-pakistan-third-us
Thank you Sundance.
Loved the apt body language photo of President Trump. Pissed beyond words! Think I saw it some time before but today I saved it. Thank you;-)
So it appears a large portion of our national debt is due to fraud and corruption.
Can anyone name a service they have missed due to these cuts? Didn’t think so.
I voted for this.
It was either Dr. Oz or RFK Jr. who reported that after cutting off funding to some 450 “hospices” in California, not one called back to ask for reinstatement of funds.
Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh
🚨 President Trump DROPS this video exposing Hussein, Hillary and John Brennan in a conspiracy to overthrow the republic
Remember: all roads lead to Hussein Obama.
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/2047664572497072471
This post gives me the most personal satisfaction of all time. F, all these f-ing little ingrates that never saw a ladder or 40 years of incremental raises. F- YOU.
Where I retired to, a lifelong marriage plan. Of which Pa and I scraped, saved and invested our pennies wisely for, while sacrificing and striving to raise our children, by giving them a decent honest life (not perfect).
We finally get here and it is saturated with EXACTLY the NGO or GOVT employee freeloading younger crowd in this post, to the T, who have ZERO experience or SKILL but are bathing in taxpayer MONEY, while demanding the respect and success status of past generations, taking so much pride in their clever fast tracking but which is a complete mirage.
CUT THEM THE F OFF.
They have flooded the towns of CC with junkies, Muslims, Islanders, Homeless, Gangs and life long freeloaders, plus the newbies. While they stay hidden from any of the wreckage. Driving the cost of housing and everything else in Massachusetts sky high to feed their elitism of superiority over anybody born before them.
Obviously, I am incensed by this type of grifter because we all know for complete sure, that the reason we don’t have more is because of every single politician in DC and the whole Cabal, both sides for 50 years while systematically perpetuating the grand theft larceny of the American taxpayer.
Good luck to those who assume their place in heaven.
Let’s pray harder for our children and grandchildren.
Wonder what they charge the likes of John Thune?
Ma K., was not aware that you’re in blueMA.
Tomorrow I am a delegate to the state R convention where I will be voting for Mike Minogue.
He claims (seems credible so far) to be the only outsider in the 3-way Governor race. But the other two are clearly entrenched RINOs.
Please wish us luck…
Prayers you will make a difference.
You GO girl…..you are CHANNELING!!
When I read this article yesterday I was SOOOOO pissed….all I could do was forward to friends without a rant…I couln’t think straight….but SD & YOU have helped me to my feet…..😝🙏🏻👍🏻🤬.
That is remarkable. Made me sit back & think “Holy Sh*t! All this time, just a bunch a self-deluded grifters.
Their elitist snob membership cards are probably clogging up the DC street drains.
Very illuminating article.
Microcosm of government. I work for a local government. The community pounds the table for more of_________(job classification) – but what the executive uses the funding for are jobs that don’t do anything tangible for the people who are voting. Now it’s time for potential budget cuts, or a bill being put to the voters for more taxes because they want _________(the thing our elected head won’t use the money for). These jobs within our organization are exactly like the picture above – adult daycare for people who are borderline useless or would be paid half as much doing something else outside government. It is a patronage system, and I’ve been telling people for years the reason money goes in but results don’t follow is because of our patronage jobs.
i read abt the “bitch and moan” sessions and chuckled. My son has added to his DC / Dubai company workforce not laid off because he hires based on actual qualifications, pays healthy living salaries and lots of perks. In return he expects an impeccable work ethic and mutual respect throughout. His managers have interviewed plenty of the laid off DC left progressive entitlement crowd and the consensus is always the same: they are arrogant, narcissistic, lazy work ethic and yet they expect obscene salaries. They are so far from reality they can’t conceive how insufferable they would be to work with…
LET THEM EAT CAKE
A few years ago before I retired for the last time, the small firm that I was working for was trying to hire 5-6 new technical employees, preferably with 5-6 years relevant experience. We ended up interviewing maybe 4-5 and every one of these arrogant snots wanted outrageous salaries and perks, flexible work schedules and to work remotely. Some jobs are suitable for remote work but most are not. They acted like they were doing us a big favor by giving us a few minutes of their time. Needless to say, we didn’t hire any of them. LET ThEM EAT SARDINES AND STALE BREAD.
Washington DC home values are down only 2.9% year-to-year.
Need to fire a lot more parasites.
Gotta get the number up to 80-90%. Those are rookie numbers lol.
“Perhaps it is a business model that no longer exists, thanks to President Trump.”
I pray that it is so.
Every little thing/can kicked down the road for the last 8 presidents. Thank you Jesus for giving us a president and leader who cares about this country.
Thank you President Trump for letting that Public money teet dry up. Long may it remain dry.
In both terms, Trump has worked to stop these tax money transfers to fund Democrat causes. The DOJ was misdirecting fines and penalties. Warren’s CFPB’s sole purpose was to levy fines to fund Democrat programs and be out of reach of elected officials.
And when we first learned about USAID funds to be cut, it was clear that it was first and foremost a jobs program for politically connected families and second a wealth transfer to Democrat activists.
Luckily, the job program was hiring incompetents, or else Democrats would be unbeatable.
But there are many more such frauds that need taking down. Minnesota, California, all using federal tax money to fund fraud and in return get political donors and activists.
Basically, all across the board, the Democrats are funding themselves with taxpayer money, and Republicans are looking the other way to get their friends and family some of those jobs the Democrats hand out.
How long ago did we hear that D.C. was growing while the country was in recession? After the housing bubble definitely. I think it was true after the tech bubble too.
“The whole structure was a series of jobs that existed because the money existed, not because the work needed doing at that price.“
True, but I think that overlooks a key point. The whole structure EXISTS – not to serve the needy – but to launder tax dollars and donations from well meaning people.
It’s a big grift of back scratching and kickbacks that exist solely to rake in free money and distribute it to where they want it to go. Oh, and they will throw in a back pack and an annual job fair to make it look legit.
Non profits that actually help people use volunteers, pay slightly less than their profit counterparts and squeak by every year.
Like restaurants that serve awesome food for beyond amazing prices are often money laundering to hide ill gotten gains, in the case of USAID, clearly the ill gotten gains they are laundering are our tax dollars.
It’s a self licking ice cream cone.
MAGA, Baby! Pass the Cheetos and Winnamins!!
Really, who would employ somebody who stands with one foot on the bench and the other on the armrest of a swivel chair. You go girl.
If her coat rack was taller, she’d be pole dancing with it.
I guess they better learn to code.
Oh wait, those jobs were replaced by H1-B
Isn’t the minimum wage in CA and WA higher than $19 an hour? She might consider relocating across country.
After she sells her personal stuff on eBay, as I’ve been doing, to make ends meet.
For additional context, Penzeys Spices here in Richmond is not just woke, they put up a big sign that says they “actively fight fascism.” Don’t shop there. You can have the same quality spices from a lot of other stores that aren’t taking your money to spend on leftist causes.
I bought spices from the Penzey’s catalog for years until I read the little ditty inside the front cover one time by one of the owners that told me what they had become. There is another spice catalog out there that is run (I think) by their sister. Long time ago and I could be wrong.
The Penzey sister runs an apolitical competitor called Spice House, I think. After the brother went off the rails.
I had a brief interaction with with a USAID Vice President of something media, press, from France. He rode in the cockpit of my Air Force plane, wearing non descript jungle safari clothes. Well fitted, to match his manicure. We were enroute to Zaire, where there was a little war going on, with communist invaders from the west and south. He was also on staff with Newsweek magazine, and those were the credentials he was traveling under. His USAID status got him access to the cockpit of the Air Force transport carrying French Foreign Legion troops and equipment. We all suspected (strongly) he was CIA, as were a lot of USAID guys had been in Laos and Vietnam. He was triple dipping.
This was 1978
There are still thousands of gov employees who should be let go.
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
I do not recall the Enemedia going out of their way to contact or profile me when my corporate career was ended by the jab mandate.
In hindsight, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me professionally.
My favorite Sowell quote.
Good now have fedgov take back the portion of Virginia that is rightly part of the District of Columbia and move every federal government job possible the heck out of DC. (Like they moved parts of the Department of Interior to Utah right in the heart of most of their concerns which are federal lands management!)
If Those two goals were accomplished multitudes of worthless liberal idiots would mass exodus Virginia and find the real world instead of a liberal echo chamber they inhabit in NoVa. Virgina would likely go back to a red state and possibly even Maryland would go closer to red. At least their malignant influence would be diluted spread throughout the country.
DC is the hog trough and the hogs need to be sent packing.
I’ve always said that any president who can achieve the lowest possible approval ratings in the counties immediately surrounding DC is how I would judge an excellent performance.
I read yesterday about some Sr VP of a non-profit operating on USAID money who got laid off (sad trombone noises) and now can’t find a job paying more than $19/hr (more sad trombone noises.)
This could not make me happier.
Thank you, PDJT. Thank you, Elon Musk, Big Balls and DOGE. News such as this makes my heart go pitty-pat.
If she was earning that much every year, at 57 she should be debt free and set up to retire. Just shows that she never thought the spigot would end. She never thought she would have to financially prepare herself for the future. She carelessly spent money, living beyond her quite substantial means. No doubt she had her house “professionally” decorated every Christmas and now is in panic that she may have to do it herself this year.
I live in the Maryland suburbs of DC and I have never heard of anyone getting their house professionally decorated for Christmas.
I live in Ohio and never heard that there was such a thing. The light shows on houses at Christmas I thought were all done by the owners but maybe not…It’s a colossal waste of money in my book.
$272K for a chair-warmer at a USAID-funded nonprofit is not a real salary, or a subsidy. It’s a heist. It is a blatant theft of taxpayer money.
Such “non governmental organizations” (NGOs) are nothing but parasites sucking money out of the US treasury.
Now she has more time to fluff up a LinkedIn profile and spam others with daily affirmations.
I appreciate what Trump has done and is doing.
It is breathtaking how much money has been “stolen” from Americans, not to help people around the world, but to enrich the money handlers. You know, like Jesus turning over the tables and using a whip on the money changers in the temple. That should be our model. When I give, it is to vetted, local, organizations whose work I can witness. I remember trying to eek out enough to give to Breast Cancer Awareness, you know the whole pink ribbon thing, until I learned that the organization is a large contributor to Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. The only large organization I would give to is Samaritan’s Purse.
From Don Surber’s News Highlights this morning:
ITEM 15: Alec MacGillis tweeted a quote from a New York Times story, “Sheryl Cowan, 57, was making $272,000 a year as a senior VP at a U.S.A.I.D.-funded nonprofit when she was let go at the end of March 2025. Last month she had an online interview for a $19-an-hour job managing a Penzeys Spices store in Falls Church, Va.”
Shows she was overpaid.
ITEM 16: Well, it is not like Cowan killed anyone.
And now you know the rest of the story.
Wow. Just wow.
Would love to see it hit double digits for d C area. Especially northern V A that votes so far left of the rest of VA
Holy Cats!! This is the best news headline I have read in the past decade!
To be fair, she was making 23,000 a month but likely bringing home 1/2 that after taxes. Even so 11, 500 a month for busy work inside the NGO loop, which got their money from subsidies from the government which gets their money from the plumbers, electricians, HVAC service people, small business owners, waitresses and waiters, teachers, secretaries, etc. just doesn’t seem very fair does it.
Great analysis. Thank you.