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Friday (Ironic) Humor: White House Gift Shop Declares Bankruptcy
Filed under "you can't make this shit up," in perhaps the most ironic thing to come out of DC, the Washington Times reports that the White House Gift Shop has gone broke. Long run by a nonprofit group that helps uniformed Secret Service officers and their families the official White House Gift Shop, lists more than $600,000 in liabilities in a pending bankruptcy petition in Washington. The bankruptcy petition, filed in June in a case that remains active, doesn’t explain why the fund went bankrupt in the first place, but court records reveal a recent history of tax troubles and litigation.
Via The Washington Times,
In another sign of the tough times in Washington these days, the White House Gift Shop, long run by a nonprofit group that helps uniformed Secret Service officers and their families, has gone broke.
The Secret Service Uniformed Division Benefit Fund, which traces its roots to the 1940s and for years did business as the official White House Gift Shop, lists more than $600,000 in liabilities in a pending bankruptcy petition in Washington.
...
The fund — which operated independently of the White House and Secret Service, and was not a part of the government — disclosed tens of thousands of dollars in assets consisting mostly of Christmas decorations, as well as such trinkets as magnets, puzzles and paperweights, many valued at just a few dollars each.
...
The bankruptcy petition, filed in June in a case that remains active, doesn’t explain why the fund went bankrupt in the first place, but court records reveal a recent history of tax troubles and litigation.
...
The fund’s most recently available annual report to the Internal Revenue Service lists $10,550 in expenses in 2011 for golf, soccer and hockey tournaments for employees
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...recently disclosed plans to sell off more than 7,000 holiday ornaments first in the fund’s bankruptcy petition, records show.
Although the fund placed the value of ornaments at more than $50,000, the trustee said the decorations ultimately could fetch a best offer price of a little more than $5,600.
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So tired of this bukkake theater.
Do they accept BitCoin?
It wasn't a union shop. Hence, no bailout.....
No surprise. The revenues from the Obama inaugural balls for things such as photos, etc, were much lower than the prior inaugurations going back to before Reagan.
When one votes for a living, the disposable income doesn't allow for presidential boble heads.
I don't think they had lenses with a wide enough field of view to get both ears in then.
I thought these would have been hot items.
All chia have been furloughed, so instead enjoy Chrome Dome Obama!
With the "gift shppe" going under, does this mean that there's no more crap for the free shit army?
Since Obama cancelled all White House tours last year, traffic through the gift shop kind of slacked off a bit.
now we gotta do our shoping online for
cufflinks and ornaments
You got to love accounting.
"But the BOOKS say the ornaments are worth $50,000! Why won't anyone give us $50,000!"
Well, it appears that "Mark to Unicorn" has just experienced its first brush with reality.
Meanwhile, those trinkets are likely still worth far more than all of the MBSes on the Fed's books...
With the right seeds, the Choom-a-Pet would have been a winner!
"I thought these would have been hot items."
As were the combo BBC dildo and butt plug. Sometimes a successful formula just isn't enough.
Excellent skeet targets.
Moochy had too many IOU's at that shop. Can't collect from a {someone} with no current address.
I can solve the budget problem in a heartbeat.
Just install pay toilets in the Dark House, Capitol building and Supreme Court..
Even at a lousy quarter a pop (poop?).. they are all so full of crap that the debt will be paid off in a year.
SSUDBFUCKED.......
"Do they accept BitCoin?"
I'm not sure about BitCoin, but I'll bet they've been accepting EBT since January 20, 2009.
What about SDR?
junky worthless trinkets and baubles for a worthless admin/gov. at least this recoupled with reality, 'marketz' not so much...
But where else can I buy a Washington monument thermometer and pewter shotglasses?
Perhaps we meant to say "kabuki" theater.
Nah, you had it right the first time.
Old news. EVERYBODY knows that the White House Gift Shop has always BEEN the American Taxpayer. We've been gifting the White House since 1913. And yes.....WE'RE BROKE!!!!
Dammit! That was the only place to buy a Revell® 1:16 scale model kit of The Choomwagon.
Where can you buy the Obama puppet ?
Jamie Dimon already bought it.
:-)
Jamie Dimon already bought it.
And he has his hand up in it VERY far.
He first had to get it past the MSM's puckered smooching lips!
What's even funnier is, it's for secret service members and their families????
WTF, that's a charity group now, that needs a non profit raising funds for it???
How far down the rabbit hole are they out there in DC???? Unreal sad and pathetic from top to bottom!
Starting salary for secret service is 52k.
Sadly, they can't even afford to pay Columbian hookers for services rendered.
That was my first take from my first skim....WTF is a non-profit gift shop in the White House doing raising money (or not raising money, however you want to look at it) for Secret Service members & their families? Seriously, the corruption and sheer absence of common sense in our nation's capital is mind-boggling & I struggle to imagine how things like this just go unnoticed until after it all falls apart....or goes bankrupt.
Any solution short of tearing the whole system down and starting from scratch is not enough. It's too far gone to be "fixed" - far better to shut it ALL down, let it rot on the vine and start anew.
DC is America's Versailles.
Let them eat cake.
I actually don't have any problem with that. Charities are welcome to fund raise by selling whatever they want, and if they bid the highest for the gift-shop concession, then let them have a go at it. Obviously it didnt work out as they'd hoped.
The knesset
Takeaway: The Executive Branch can't even run its own gift shop.
any government which doesn't raise enough revenue to pay for its expenses is by definition a gift shop.
The politicians for sale are chintzier than the ornaments.
Cheezier; not chintzier.
Yep, they're pretty good at "cutting cheese."
Remember, they can't even handle stamps without cheating.
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-house-post-office-scandal-1991-1995
although pretty effective at murdering unarmed, rampaging neurotic mothers
will this stuff be on sale at your nearest 99 cent store?
Probably ebay.
I wonder how much of it was made in China?
All forecasted $5,600 of it.
Congress figured out those "male enhancement" products don't work. Sales fell down.
They seem to work for Nancy P.
never let a politician run a tab
No one wants hammer and sickle Xmas tree ornaments....duh.
The one with the pic of Obie on one side and the saying "How Now Brown Mao" on the other sold well on tthe Piven Cloward tour.
LOLOLOLOL
They need different kinds of visitors. How many Obama bobble head dolls did they think Sarah Ingram was going to buy in 155 visits?
not for profit is like saying i"m not a good enough business to make a profit so i'll just call self not for profit to save face.
And get their money from those who do make a profit. Ayn Rand has been vindicated.
The US of A with debt and unfunded liabilities of $460,000 per citizen has been bankrupt for years. But the Noble prize winner will drone you if you speak the truth.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
you certainly can't make THIS up "The Secret Service Uniformed Division"
What?
Maybe they meant 'uninformed'? I dunno.
Can I get a firesale Obama face to sit on?
Suggestion : Go to a dollar store, buy a woopee-cushion, glue a picture of "the Commander-in-Chief" on it, and enjoy.
For more fun, invite a Democrat over for tea, sneak it under their seat and watch their face when they discover where the rude noise came from.
"Long run by a nonprofit group that helps uniformed Secret Service officers and their families"..... yeah, cause thats exactly what a bunch of do-nothing rent-a-cops who can retire after 20 years need. The Secret Service police are the ones that intiated the conflict with the woman who "rammed" her fiberglass Infinti into the gates of the WH. They're a despicable group who should be fired immediately.
Trained to shoot first, ask questions later, isn't it obvious?
They were doing it for the children ... oh wait.
In my opinion, it is absolutely fitting that the white house gift shop declares bankruptcy. The white house has been bankrupt morally for a long time, and the country has been bankrupt for a while too.
"...long run by a non-profit..."
well there you go: in the long run, non-profit leads to bankruptcy...
let's see...who should be paying attention here?...
So we have the officially reported story. What is the real story? Drug front? Money laundering operation? Embezzelment? We need some real reporters to crack this. The world cannot rely on my cyncism for every detail that will eventually be exposed.
Too many donations to Planned Parenthood.
The 2013 WH Official Christmas Ornament costs $37.95. I doubt too many EBT card holders with be purchasing one of these for their tree this year.
BTW
"The 2013 White House Christmas ornament honors Woodrow Wilson (a Democrat...not that there is anything wrong with that..), the twenty-eighth president of the United States.
"...after public pressure convinced him that to oppose women's suffrage was politically unwise. Although Wilson promised African Americans "fair dealing...in advancing the interests of their race in the United States", the Wilson administration implemented a policy of racial segregation for federal employees. Although considered a modern liberal visionary giant as President, in terms of implementing domestic race relations, however, Wilson was "deeply racist in his thoughts and politics, and apparently was comfortable being so."
Doh!
LOL one embarrassment after another for the U.S.; although I think this was done symbolically to demonstrate to the unwashed masses how even the WH is tightening its belt.
The men in charge when I grew up would have found this unthinkable. This is truly the worst admin ever.
Run for benefit of SS Officers.
South American Hookers have been charging more?
Yes, they have. The mighty dollah doesn't buy as much baby food as it used to.
Everything the government touches turns into a steaming pile of shit.
Are those ornaments value "marked to market?"
when is the going out of business 75% off sale?
I think we need to support the organization that let JFK bite it. With a gift shop. Selling beads.
To Indians?
What's with the hero worship of JFK?
Some Japanese tourist bought a WhiteHouse snow globe and it malfunctioned. The resulting lawsuit win has caused a BK.
This is almost as good as B of A's office building in Atlanta getting foreclosed on last year.
Since when do federal employees need anymore subsidies than they already have? They make more than half the country as it is, in pay plus benefits. Besides, if the WH Gift Shop would sell more items than 20" wheel spinners, Fubu clothing and Jet magazines, maybe they wouldn't have gone bust in the first place.
Non profit for secret service members? How about starving orphans or something worthy?
I think it is very unfair that we don't have a shop for uninformed secret service folks too.
Bammo, see to it.
All unsold crap will be returned to China....
They should try to get Kwame Kilpatrick out on a work-release program. He'd turn things around.
Well, if they'd had a barber shop there, they could have gotten a subsidy.
moral or fiscal?
BUT BUT BUT...They had Anthony Giannini from Haaaaaarvard running it! Smart Smart Smart people! And growth growth growth! Just look at this from their over the top rhetoric laden web page:
What. the. F*ck. Is. That. All. About.
Clean house, get a decent human in there to run the place and enough of the ivy league contamination. Walk the plank, Anthony.
Kind of hard for the White House gift shop to make money when Obama locks the doors of the White House to tour groups and individuals. The only 'shoppers' who can get into the gift shop ARE the Secret Service agents.
Been going downhill since Reagan left huh? I told them putting Mooshelle's picture on everthing was a bad idea.