Obama Starts to Cash In

Gee, what a surprise.

From wiki, “Bribery is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other person in charge of a public or legal duty.” This is illegal. So the powers that be simply reverse the order of the actions. Instead of I give you something, and you do something, now we have you do something, and I give you something. Now it’s all legal and nice and tidy.

No one really cares what Bill and Hillary Clinton have to say about anything, and certainly not at the prices they’ve been paid. But every future President and spouse see what they have gotten, and they go damn! that’s me too. And it influences their conduct. The people and groups that can pay these prices have your ear, and why not, they are your kind of people. And even if they don’t start as your kind of people, they become your kind of people. Or rather, you may not start out as their kind of people, but you achieve enough power and you become and are treated like their kind of people.

So does anyone think that Penguin-Random House is going to make any money off this deal? Of course not. Yet isn’t that what American corporations are all about? Not just to make a profit but maximize it. So where is the pay off for them? Well, as Ian notes, they already got it.

And as Ian says in his link, this works for those in Congress, their senior staff, and high level bureaucrats. The revolving door isn’t just about gaining special access. It is how modern “legal” bribery is done nowadays.

Every so often, there is some kabuki moves to curb the more blatant of these practises, but they are usually laughable. Like lobbying bans. Trump, for example, is promoting a 5 year lobbying ban. But the last time, the Congress did one of these A) they had a lot of rats “retire” before the deadline and B) those who remained simply became “consultants” when they left. They got paid more and worked even less.

And here too it works the opposite way. Anyone remember how Obama wasn’t going to hire any lobbyists? Anyone remember how long that lasted or how many “exceptions” were made? Short answer: not long and lots. The argument is that bans “limit” the candidate pool. Or look at Trump’s ban again, or rather how he gets around it. He doesn’t hire the lobbyists. He hires their bosses. The umpteen appointees from Goldman Sachs and the billionaire Cabinet picks. When these guys leave, they won’t become lobbyists. They’ll go back to hiring them.

A final note: How much of these books do you think that Barack and Michelle are actually going to write? Can you see them huddled over their laptops for at least 4-5 hours a day for the next six months to year? Me either.

This person called it.

https://catcherinthelie.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/deferred-emoluments/

The problem with persuading the typical liberal lemming to a more accurate point of view, is that the Obama family was historically black, there’s the historic precedent of POTUS books and speeches, his final approvals were at 60% or so, and publishers are known to fight over such business opportunities.

The second problem is many don’t even know what a neoliberal is. They’re still stuck in the place where neoconservatives are the mortal enemy, and they’re oblivious that their mindless occupation bickering with such is probably by kleptocratic design.

I wonder when Michelle for President will happen.

I always love it when I pass a bargain bin for books about a year or so after these pieces of propaganda garbage are published and see 50 hardback copies being sold for $4.98. The difference between presidential memoirs and Mein Kampf is that while nobody read any of them after they were published, the Germans actually paid to have Hitler’s book on their coffee tables.

Michelle will have to wait until Oprah’s out of office.

That list you cited of best-selling biographies is for UK sales only. For proof, they list Obama’s “Dreams of My Father” at only 700,000 sales, when the book has actually sold 4.6 million copies:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2010/11/07/political-authors.html

So if the new book sold 8 times as many copies, that would be somewhere around 36 million copies. Easily enough to justify a $30 million dollar advance (remember, the $60 million is for two books).

Will it sell that much? I don’t know. But the publisher is betting it will.

Having googled a bit, I find that the only people who have semi-reliable counts of books sold are book publishers who generally don’t release actual numbers to the public and an expensive subscription only service called Bookscan.

Re Dreams From My Father, a hardcover edition was published in 1995 and a paperback in 1996. It initially sold less than 10,000 hardcover copies and went out of print. It was reprinted again as a hardcover in 2004, audio CD in 2005, hardcover and ebook in 2007, and paperback in 2008. Various translated editions appeared in 2008 and 2009. So even if we accept a 4.6 million number, we are looking at numerous editions, publishers, and platforms with very different costs and profit margins, not to mention remaindering.

All this brings us around to the fact that it is extremely unlikely that Penguin will make much if any profit from this book deal, which brings up the question of why they would expend so much of their time, resources, and money on it.

Hugh, Don’t forget marketing costs, which on a book they’re shelling out this kind of advance, will be a hefty payout. Advertising, buying placement on front tables in bookstores, etc. They also heavily discount print editions these days as part of their strategy to undercut ebooks marketshare. And then there’s remainders, which aren’t as big a cost suck as they used to be thanks to Amazon, but that only means we’re talking about 20% of print runs instead of 40%. I highly doubt they’ll make their money back. Anything’s possible, I suppose, but these would have to be record setting Harry Potter/50 Shades sales numbers for these types of books to even get close. Pulling that on a pair of memoirs from a former president and first lady? Good luck.

They also do this before they’re in office as well. HRC reportedly got a $14 million advance for Hard Choices, her manifesto leading into this presidential run. That one was even more insanely out of line if it were actually about making money. Lo and behold, they didn’t even come close to earning that back and very likely lost millions.

Wouldn’t they increase the percentage choom by having it printed in China?

Obama was a very good enabler of abuse, talking people into believing they weren’t getting raped by the rich. A good acquaintance was an OFA volunteer and she simply would not have it, even after years of evidence to the contrary, that Obama didn’t give a hoot about her, and moreover well knew he assisted knowingly, willingly and deeply in her daily misery. He earned his thirty pieces well.

Nice try to tarnish our beloved 0bama, but it doesnt stand to the tiniest scrutiny.

0bama saved the top 10%. By saving the banks, he saved the assets of all of them. Some benefited more than others, but they all owe him. By the corruption model, they should all pay him something. But in reality, he will only receive something from a handful of people. Penguin/Random House are ponying up big time. Maybe he’ll get a gig or two from Goldman. But what about the majority of the 10%? Are they gonna reimburse Penguin or Goldman? Are they freeloaders? Are freeloaders tolerated among the 10%? God knows freeloaders arent tolerated among the 99%, especially the perceived freeloaders of the sun-tanned kind. What’s happening? Are the 0.01% happy to pay for the 10%? How socialist of them! Come on, we all know they’re just as divided and envious of each other as we are. We all know this aint how things work.

The truth is that Penguin/Random got themselves the deal of the century. And it’s a double deal, a husband/wife thing. Everybody will want to buy both books to compare the 2 different points of view on the same events. You can already imagine a fascinating Rashomon kinda movie. And Penguin/Random has announced that a large part of the profits will go the charities. What’s not lo like?

Isn’t this the greatest thing since sliced bread, it keeps happening and get a load of all the people thinking this is legit, christ o mighty, is anyone ever going to wake up to this shit !!! Dems call themselves the thinking party, huh !!!!

@Lisa

How is this relevant to the topic at hand ?

Lisa;

I used to read/consider your posts and often comment upon them, now I ignore all of them. Why? Same subject only the segue differs.

I want all to live safely, peacefully and with respect for their similarly peaceful neighbor. I think people with non-conformal gender id, who are otherwise well socialized, should be able to seek employment & housing without discrimination.

Having said that, I do not think non-conformal gender id is the only subject worthy of discussion. Similarly, I do not believe b was wise to make it a topic of discussion at MOA…and I said as much…why bring it here? I really wish you’d go back to posting relevant comments.

After the Revolution comes, we should make it a rule that after their term of office, high government officials should go immediately to jail or to a nunnery/monastery under a strict vow of silence, poverty and charity so that they cannot in any way, ever, profit from their time in office.

The very idea.