4 ms·

“See how we look after folks who treat us well.”

notahacker 3y ago
You're missing the explanation of how the non-political celebs also charging fees in the >$100k bracket "looked after" anyone. If celebrity speakers aren't worth anywhere near that, what are banks and multinationals and industry events bribing ex-sports coaches and actors for? And of course even the politicians get paid by a lot of entities that aren't obvious beneficiaries. Boris Johnson might be as sleazy as former PMs get, but I'm really struggling to understand any quid pro quo with the Indian newspaper or Portuguese TV channel that both paid him north of $250k for a single keynote, and I don't think he ever had much influence on insurance brokers in Colorado either
- DANmode 3y ago
  You don't think there's quid pro quo in the entertainment industries?! Sheesh. Not even worth debating.
  - notahacker 3y ago
    Sure, loads of quid pro quo in the entertainment industry, ask any lady who ever auditioned for Harvey Weinstein. Never denied it. What does that have to do with banks and boring corporations paying six figure speaking fees to entertainers though? Sheesh.... almost like you don't have any arguments for what Colorado brokers have to thank a former British PM for, never mind what favours Goldman Sachs got from David Beckham or LL Cool J other than a clearly very expensive speech
    - sjfjsjdjwvwvc 3y ago
      [dead]
    - DANmode 3y ago
      Very fitting username. You're not thinking like a hacker at all if you can't concoct theoretical ways that rich and powerful people might find themselves unexpectedly interconnected, and able to non-obviously do each other favors - perhaps even in round-robin fashion at times.
- d1sxeyes 3y ago
  To be fair, a former PM lends a bit more credibility to an event than some random backbencher, and so you can expect that the market value of having a PM speaking at your event would be quite high. Regardless, on those examples you gave, I don't think it was a Portuguese TV channel, I think it was a global CNN summit which happened in Lisbon (but please correct me if I'm wrong). Also, The Hindustan Times (which is the Indian newspaper I think you're referring to) is also not exactly a small media outlet with a circulation more than double that of the Times of London (based on the most recent numbers for The Times in 2020). Additionally, a significant number of British citizens have family ties with India, and are likely to continue to follow English language news in India, so it's not simply 'some foreign newspaper'.
  - notahacker 3y ago
    I'm not disputing the fact Johnson can draw crowds to overseas media companies or that theyre big enough to afford to pay him, I'm disputing the insinuation of the exact opposite (i.e there's no reason to pay him the big bucks except bribery). From the point of view of there being no UK policy decisions the Hindustan Times' Indian media empire could feasibly have been trying to buy an ex-PM for, it's absolutely "some foreign newspaper". Its not that politicians are incorruptible, it's that people are absolutely willing to spend that much on them for non-corrupt reasons. Some random backbencher isn't getting Johnson or Clinton sized speaking fees.
    - d1sxeyes 3y ago
      Except it's well known that there's a 'revolving door' for politicians, especially with the press. Even if there's no reason to SPECIFICALLY overpay Johnson, inflated speaking fees for former politicians helps to keep the door well greased and spinning freely. Johnson himself started his career as a journalist.
      - notahacker 3y ago
        And it's well-known celebrity speakers like Becks and BoJo are compensated very highly for speaking at events organised by entities that have nothing to gain from bribing them. This doesn't help those entities pay off their local regulators in any way; it's simply the market price they're willing to pay for the actual speech. I'm well aware of Boris' journalistic career; I've even read some of his waffle. You share his flair for insinuation and missing the point so I wish you good luck with your own campaign to be PM ;-)

You're missing the explanation of how the non-political celebs also charging fees in the >$100k bracket "looked after" anyone. If celebrity speakers aren't worth anywhere near that, what are banks and multinationals and industry events bribing ex-sports coaches and actors for? And of course even the politicians get paid by a lot of entities that aren't obvious beneficiaries. Boris Johnson might be as sleazy as former PMs get, but I'm really struggling to understand any quid pro quo with the Indian newspaper or Portuguese TV channel that both paid him north of $250k for a single keynote, and I don't think he ever had much influence on insurance brokers in Colorado either

DANmode 3y ago
You don't think there's quid pro quo in the entertainment industries?! Sheesh. Not even worth debating.
- notahacker 3y ago
  Sure, loads of quid pro quo in the entertainment industry, ask any lady who ever auditioned for Harvey Weinstein. Never denied it. What does that have to do with banks and boring corporations paying six figure speaking fees to entertainers though? Sheesh.... almost like you don't have any arguments for what Colorado brokers have to thank a former British PM for, never mind what favours Goldman Sachs got from David Beckham or LL Cool J other than a clearly very expensive speech
  - sjfjsjdjwvwvc 3y ago
    [dead]
  - DANmode 3y ago
    Very fitting username. You're not thinking like a hacker at all if you can't concoct theoretical ways that rich and powerful people might find themselves unexpectedly interconnected, and able to non-obviously do each other favors - perhaps even in round-robin fashion at times.
d1sxeyes 3y ago
To be fair, a former PM lends a bit more credibility to an event than some random backbencher, and so you can expect that the market value of having a PM speaking at your event would be quite high. Regardless, on those examples you gave, I don't think it was a Portuguese TV channel, I think it was a global CNN summit which happened in Lisbon (but please correct me if I'm wrong). Also, The Hindustan Times (which is the Indian newspaper I think you're referring to) is also not exactly a small media outlet with a circulation more than double that of the Times of London (based on the most recent numbers for The Times in 2020). Additionally, a significant number of British citizens have family ties with India, and are likely to continue to follow English language news in India, so it's not simply 'some foreign newspaper'.
- notahacker 3y ago
  I'm not disputing the fact Johnson can draw crowds to overseas media companies or that theyre big enough to afford to pay him, I'm disputing the insinuation of the exact opposite (i.e there's no reason to pay him the big bucks except bribery). From the point of view of there being no UK policy decisions the Hindustan Times' Indian media empire could feasibly have been trying to buy an ex-PM for, it's absolutely "some foreign newspaper". Its not that politicians are incorruptible, it's that people are absolutely willing to spend that much on them for non-corrupt reasons. Some random backbencher isn't getting Johnson or Clinton sized speaking fees.
  - d1sxeyes 3y ago
    Except it's well known that there's a 'revolving door' for politicians, especially with the press. Even if there's no reason to SPECIFICALLY overpay Johnson, inflated speaking fees for former politicians helps to keep the door well greased and spinning freely. Johnson himself started his career as a journalist.
    - notahacker 3y ago
      And it's well-known celebrity speakers like Becks and BoJo are compensated very highly for speaking at events organised by entities that have nothing to gain from bribing them. This doesn't help those entities pay off their local regulators in any way; it's simply the market price they're willing to pay for the actual speech. I'm well aware of Boris' journalistic career; I've even read some of his waffle. You share his flair for insinuation and missing the point so I wish you good luck with your own campaign to be PM ;-)