A Message From the Queen!

[Divernan]

(From an email making the rounds. Oh, those damn social network posters!)
As you know, my dear people, the last year for me has been an annus horribilus. The Royal House of Clinton has been tormented by questions about our handling of finances and subjected to tiresome questions about the tragic events in Benghazi - in the furthest regions of our empire. And, sadly, also questions about my Royal e-mails.

Nevertheless, I will not be daunted in my desire and commitment to serve you, the people. For the next seventeen months I will be traveling among you as one of you, to listen to your deepest longings and needs. I will be with you in your Wal-Marts and beside you in your Burger Kings. I will drive with you down the busy interstate highways of our land, sharing your poverty and needs.

How well I remember the days when the Duke of Arkansas and I were impoverished. After we were expelled from our Washington Palace we hardly had two mansions to rub together. We were so poor that we removed thousands of dollars of china, flatware, carpets and gifts from the Washington Palace just to survive. Shockingly, unscrupulous and ungrateful officials later forced us to return many of these treasures. Now, happily, benefactors from around our empire have given me just enough for us to scrape by.

During these difficult times, we had to cut back. When our daughter was married, we only had three million dollars to spend on her wedding. And, I remember our hopes, as she moved into her $10 million Manhattan apartment, that one day she would be able to move on from that humble abode to something more fitting. After working for MSNBC for a starting salary of a mere $600,000 per year, what else could she do? So I now pay her $3,000,000 a year to run the 'Foundation'.

So, as I travel across our kingdom to meet you all, I will be listening and sharing with you. Then, when the time for the royal election (Coronation) comes, I know I can count on you to crown me as your rightful monarch, with my assurance that I will continue King Obama’s policies, and we can all live happily ever after.

Your Queen-in-Waiting,
Hilarity Rodham Clinton

[JackBeck]

1. This is something that my right-wing cousin would post on Facebook, which is why I hide her posts.

I hope other supporters of Sanders will denounce this piece of garbage.

[Divernan]

2. I am not your right wing cousin, bucko.

Wanna dispute it? Be my guest.

Actually, I doubt your right wing cousin would post this until after the primary, because from everything I hear and read, the right wing is jonesing to get out the vote against Hillary Clinton, not Bernie Sanders.

Being an anglophile, it made me laugh out loud.

[Cynical Sam]

10. Pssst, Diverman...

...look up "sarcasm" in the dictionary. Mmmm-K?

[burfman]

5. Where are you getting the 3 million figure?

600,000 / yr from MSNBC,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/06/13/what-did-nbc-newss-chelsea-clinton-do-for-her-600000-salary/

But if I'm reading this right, 0 income for 2014 from the Clinton Foundation:

Look on page 7:

https://www.clintonfoundation.org/sites/default/files/clinton_foundation_report_public_2014.pdf


Please quote your source and vanity fair or fox news don't count.

[Divernan]

8. I think you're correct. Congrats on a credible response.

I just re-posted the piece in its' entirety as I saw it on a progressive Dem, not right wing website. I was familiar with everything in it except the $3 million figure. Perhaps the writer just chose to end with one sarcastic exaggeration.

I did look at your report, including p. 7 and you are correct. According to the Clinton Foundation report, Chelsea is not collecting one red cent as direct compensation. (Depends on what the meaning of "direct" is.) Which is amazing, since she's no longer getting $600,000 a year from NBC and her husband's hedge fund operated in the red its first 2 years, how is this young couple surviving? Especially since Ms. Clinton said she was giving most of her NBC salary to charities:

Ms. Clinton had said she intended to donate most of the money she earned from NBC to the Clinton Foundation and the George Washington University Hospital in the name of her grandmother, who died this month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/business/media/chelsea-clinton-hired-by-nbc-news.html?_r=1

When asked if she’d indeed made such contributions, Kamyl Bazbaz, a spokesperson for Chelsea Clinton, responded, “With regards to your question, Chelsea has given generously to causes and organizations she cares about (including The George Washington University Hospital and the Clinton Foundation).”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/06/13/what-did-nbc-newss-chelsea-clinton-do-for-her-600000-salary/

From your Wa-Po link:

If that name hadn’t been connected to American royalty, she could have expected to rake in between $100,000 and $200,000 as a first-year network correspondent, a job that people from less-high-profile families snare only through years and years of tireless work covering the news. That salary range is confirmed by several people familiar with the compensation levels at major network news outlets. “I’m sure that that salary figure is going to make other NBC correspondents’ heads spin right off their shoulders,” says one of those sources.

The article does a devastating comparison of the work of a serious network reporter versus the handful of puff pieces by Chelsea:

A Nexis byline search for “Tom Costello” on NBC News transcripts in the period since Chelsea Clinton started at NBC News fetches 413 hits. A Nexis byline search for Chelsea Clinton herself over that same time period fetches 20 hits.

Here’s a look at some of the stuff she has done.

". . . . veteran who “supplies service dogs to wounded soldiers” (January 2012); a “woman who realized horses have the power to heal and bring hope to people who struggle” (July 2012); a woman who rescues young elephants orphaned by poaching (August 2012); a man who hands out hearing aids to the needy (October 2012); the Foster Grandparent Program (October 2012); folk music traditions in the Ozarks (December 2012); a man who opened a boxing gym in Detroit (March 2013).

She interviewed the Geico gecko, asking the little creature, “Now gecko, do people recognize you on the street?” And, “Is there a downside to all this fame?”

Hunter Walker of Business Insider did some arithmetic to save us time, and it turns out that Chelsea Clinton's pay from NBC "News" works out to $26,724 a minute of airtime, or $445 a second. Based purely on journalistic merit, of course. To paraphrase the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, we might not be able to define obscenity, but we know it when we see it. http://www.businessinsider.com/it-looks-like-chelsea-clinton-made-26724-for-each-minute-she-appeared-on-nbc-2014-6

[burfman]

11. Thanks for the response Divernan - just want to keep it real.....

Yeah, there's so much money floating around in the circles that the Clinton's travel in that it's easy to get carried away. But there are serious questions to be asked about who's trying to buy influence and what they are getting in return for it. Just have a look at some of the donor's for the Clinton Foundation - some are just really rich people maybe looking to do good - or perhaps be able to pick up the phone and talk directly to Hillary. Others are a couple of governments/corporations perhaps trying to get on the good side of a senator/ secretary of state/ future president. If you or someone else could convince me that my fears of perhaps improper influence are groundless - that would be most appreciated.

You can look for yourself here: https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors/

I could rant on some more about how I'm envious of Chelsa's ability to get a starting job at 600K/yr to write puff-pieces or the ability of her parents to generate un-believable amounts of money - both for the charity and her campaign, but I won't.

Another question that pops into my mind is why were these Universities in this country around 2014 paying Hillary $300K for a speech, when the cost for four years of college is pretty dramatic - people go into major debt for decades these days over it.

Oh yeah, they were not all private universities and the money didn't always come from private groups:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/behind-the-scenes-of-hillary-clintons-300000-speech-at-ucla/

Some great quotes from the above article from cbs news:

And of course, there was the matter of Clinton's $300,000 speaking fee. When officials asked for a price reduction on behalf of the public university, Clinton's representatives didn't budge, saying $300,000 was already the "special university rate."

This summer, students at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas protested a $225,000 speech planned for October, citing the rising cost of tuition and asking Clinton to return the money to the school. The speech, which focused in part on the rising cost of higher education, ultimately went forward as planned.



Burfman......

[Proserpina]

6. Good luck, Divernan!

There are such purists on this site that are enraged by anything coming from "the right", that they persecute people who post the information, opinion, or the art, as I would classify sarcasm and parody.

I think without even trying I could do a much better job of it...and be banned like my mother.

I was particularly taken by the mention of "your Burger Kings", the traitorous corporation that exiled itself to avoid paying taxes...

[emulatorloo]

9. Sorry, sources matter. I have no use for right-wing extremist 'parody' or 'art'

As these same lying fucking 'artists' are going after Bernie as well.

[Scuba]

7. May the swarm not be with you.

[SoapBox]

12. LOL

Funny!

[SoapBox]

13. Hilarious!

"...expelled from our Washington Palace..."

Remember, they were "flat broke"!