Didn’t Chelsea Clinton end up writing a book or two? I imagine those are books publishers wouldn’t have picked up without the Clinton name recognition.
Yes, and so much more:
In 2003, Clinton joined the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York City,[24] and she went to work for Avenue Capital Group in late 2006. She served as co-chair for a fund-raising week for the Clinton Foundation, and subsequently became Vice Chair for the foundation.[38] She serves on the board of the School of American Ballet[24] and on IAC’s board of directors.[47][48] In March 2017, Clinton was named to the board of directors of Expedia Group.[49]
In November 2011, NBC hired Clinton as a special correspondent.[50] One of her roles was reporting stories about “Making a Difference” for NBC Nightly News and Rock Center with Brian Williams . It was a three-month contract and allowed her to concurrently continue working for the Clinton Foundation and pursue her education.[50][51] Clinton’s first appearance was on the December 12, 2011, episode of Rock Center .[52] Although she received some critical reviews for her work, Clinton’s contract with NBC was renewed in February 2012.[53][54] Rock Center ended in May 2013, and she left the network in August 2014.[55][56] Clinton reportedly earned an annual salary of $600,000 for her work at NBC.[57]
Clinton is the author of five children’s picture books, two of which were best sellers, and she co-authored a scholarly book about global health policy. She also has written numerous articles and opinion pieces, published in major media outlets, such as CNN.com, Time magazine, Huffington Post , Refinery 29 and others.
Timex
4517
I think that people were likely genuinely interested in what she had to say. Certainly the fact she had been daughter to Bill and Hilary contributed to that.
And those books sold for… Normal book prices.
Do people here think that anyone is buying hunter Biden’s paintings based on their artistic merit?
I feel like Chelsea Clinton is likely actually a qualified person for doing things. I’m not sure she’s being hired to do stuff entirely based on her family name.
magnet
4518
People want to buy his art probably because they think it will go up in value (especially if Biden is successful). Same is true of a lot of other art buyers.
Does anyone pay a lot of money for baseball cards based on their artistic merit?
Sharpe
4519
Timex I am truly puzzled as to why you are prioritizing this issue. I can (marginally) see bringing it up in the first place but the priority of this type of issue compared to the major issues before us is tiny. Then, you keep defending and digging in and pushing back. Just let it go man. You made a point that you find it unethical and sleazy. Fine. If you felt the need to express that, it’s a free country.
But honestly, why keep at it? It’s a lesson I’ve tried to learn on the boards; letting things go when they are just not that important.
Menzo
4520
All Timex is saying is that he thinks Hunter Biden is scummy. I don’t think that’s too out there. As far as I’m aware, Timex doesn’t write laws about what the President’s kids can or can’t do, so him wishing Hunter wouldn’t sell his paintings isn’t hurting anyone.
Timex
4521
This started as me posting about the ethical problems of hunter Biden’s actions. It became a major topic of conversation because anything that gets posted in this thread gets defended.
Sharpe
4522
It’s not the initial post I’m objecting to, but rather the dogged dug-in defense. You made your point. Others made their points.
And here’s the real thing that is causing ME to notice: by pointing out Hunter’s wrongdoing, you are furthering the BS manipulative and exploitative narrative that the right wing media has been heaping on Hunter for years. Keep in mind, the GOP has used attacks on Hunter to try to sway elections, to attack the President, to call for (and in some cases, conduct) expensive and wasteful hearings, to demand production of documents and other investigations, AND also Trump has used that to try to extort a foreign country to attack his political opponents. Do you really want to be affiliated with that that, albeit unintentionally? (For the record, I don’t feel Timex is part of the right wing sleaze attack but he IS [inadvertently] signal boosting it). Why do that?
Context matters.
Timex
4523
But not the defense of the guy who is exploiting his father’s political office for personal profit?
While exposing his father to ethical problems when people buy his paintings to try and gain influence on his father? Or create the perception that it happened?
To me, defending THAT is the weird thing.
No man, that’s bullshit.
The reality is, hunter Biden fucking deserves criticism. He’s an unethical clusterfuck.
The fact that crazy conspiracy theories about hunter Biden’s laptop were totally made up, doesn’t mean that the crap he has pulled, repeatedly, is actually ok.
When you look at crap like Burisma, I don’t believe that there’s any indication that they were able to exert influence by paying Hunter millions of dollars… But that’s very clearly what their goal was. There’s no other rational reason for them to have paid him so much money, right? And basically EVERYONE around him told him this at the time, saying that even if there was no unethical influence being exerted, the appearance was terrible.
If we pretend like none of this crap is bad, then we open ourselves up to criticism for being hypocrites. Or criticism for ignoring the reality of the situation.
The way you address bullshit mixed with truth isn’t to ignore the truth. You acknowledge the truth head on, because then you actually have credibility to attack the false parts.
For *actual * liberals saying stupid shit, look at all the idiots dogpiling on Branson and Bezos for going to Space.
“They should spend that money on food, the homeless, whatever…”
When what will actually happen is that they just buy more Islands and Yachts…
Menzo
4525
Yeah, given our current laws it’s silly to admonish them, but I think these same people would suggest that a wealth tax would help a lot of people and also give these ultra rich people a little less money to spend on going to space, more yachts, islands, etc.
I guess I’m missing the stupid part of what those liberals are saying…?
That it will never happen.
I think the theory was that it’s a bit silly to complain about how billionaires spend their money when we should be objecting to a system that let them obtain that much in the first place. I can sympathize with that view to a certain degree, but at the end of the day change to a society comes from irrational and emotional arguments more than it comes from cold logical arguments. Stirring up outrage at how our aristocrats are frittering away fortunes on quick jaunts to orbit while the rest of us eat cake isn’t a bad idea.
Timex
4529
I think folks are a bit narrow minded if they view the blue origin flight as nothing more than a joyride into space.
The replies to this. 🤦♀️ I mean, why wouldn’t this be a good thing?
Ehhh, taken at face value it is a completely dumb statement from Bezos, since what he is describing is economically and technologically impossible*. It’s like saying that house elves should do all of our manufacturing.
More realistically he said that in order to help drum up business for his space ship company.
*Impossible since it currently costs $20M to send a ton of goods to orbit, and that number isn’t going to significantly change so long as we’re using chemical rockets to move stuff into and out of a gravity well.
JD
4532
This. It’s remarkably dumb, and he deserves to get shit for this. Climate change is a problem we have right now, and there are things we could and should do right now to address it. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be thinking about how we may solve things in the far future, but if Bezos’s main approach is to focus on magic technology we may or may not have decades from now, he clearly (and literally) did not read the temperature in the room.
Indeed, even with his ‘accomplishment’, we seem further away from that economically and technologically than we were in 1970, and him spending 5% of NASA’s annual budget of that era to try to recreate their achievements is just a kind of billionaire masturbation.
Matt_W
4534
Also, too, I’m not sure we want “heavy industry” dropping the 2 billion tons of steel we globally manufacture every year onto our heads from high orbit. The statement was idiotic. We might as well farm unicorn meat to solve global hunger.
