I don't know what irritates me more — the capitalization of one "word" but not the other, or the italics for "over." So he's not the Messiah but his excellent speech conquers... well, everything... or something.It's obviously laughable to pay Ezra Klein $40-70k to hear his vapid, DNC-donor-pleasing, liberal clichés.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 28, 2025
That said, I would pay him some substantial portion of that fee to come to a wedding or birthday party to perform a dramatic reading of this hilarious passage he wrote: https://t.co/q0fX4EL2S8 pic.twitter.com/isZtqbNkRs
ADDED: I think Klein deserves this fee. He's a well-known figure who embodies the idea of moderation and civility and he will have to set aside his regular work to travel to and from your event. That's going to cost you at least $40,000. There must be all these Democrats fretting about how to not look so awful and the calming stately presence of Ezra Klein might help them believe there will be an answer.
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like the hate hare, if you pay for him, you deserve what you get,
Stay with someone who talks about you the way Esra talks about Obama speeches…
I wouldn't say he deserves his fee, I would say he's occasionally able to parlay it successfully. He looks like the bland personification of a non-player character to me.
I think Klein deserves this fee
Yah sure. You’re not paying it…
As an acting President, Obama was a successful speaker.
When my wife was taking on new clients her first task after inheriting the financials would be to comb through the old returns, find all the errors and omissions, then file the amended returns. At the first face to face with the client, first thing she’d say is ‘I found $xxx,xxx (or $x,xxx,xxx) in your old tax returns!’
…THAT is someone who deserves their fee…
So, the Somali's have stolen ~$7B of government funds, so $40K doesn't seem so bad.
Also, I refuse to believe that the highlighted passage is real. It's not possible that someone could even think that much less say it.
oh there was plenty of that tripe in the first years of the obama era, then we discovered the journolist, that was one of tucker's first real finds, at the daily caller,
So, when will we read that Althouse of MAGA populism, and Glenn Greenwald, largely left-leaning, agree that Trump's improper capitalization, misspelling, and use of all-caps becomes more hilarious than Ezra Klein, the founder of Vox, writing about Obama using a capitalized keyword and an italicized adjective to emphasize an objective condition?
And we are supposed to believe that Klein doesn't make more than $ 70,000 for running his online magazine?
what does ezra know but to read press releases, like his doppleganger yglesias and a bunch of other hacks,
"Yah sure. You’re not paying it…"
I wouldn't do it for as little as $40,000.
I recall reading that way back when it entered the public consciousness. I remember thinking "He's got to be kidding. This is a joke, right?"
Then I heard Klein talk about "abundance" earlier this year. Then his interview with Kendi.
No he's not joking. He is truly converted.
I DO understand why he capitalized "Word," though.
gadflunkie - this is not about Trump.
He's Not The Messiah - He's a Very Naughty Boy!
Bloggers aren't going to oppose other bloggers making that kind of money, though they may question why those specific bloggers bag the big bucks.
Blasphemous or not, Klein's rhetoric does indicate just how empty the Hope of the Obama years was. Moods come and go and often don't leave much behind. Obama didn't get us beyond color (could anyone have?). Electing Joe Biden, we were told, would Save the Soul of America. What was the result? And then, of course, there's Camelot.
Screw that hack. I might pay that much to see EK publically hanged perhaps, but on if I happened to have that much money on hand to spare. Otherwise, FTP.
I saw him playing basketball,
Like Jesus.
He made me believe in life again.
A black man
Cigarette in hand
Lighting the way to a better world.
Ezra Klein deserves to get as much as someone will pay him. I've heard his podcast, he's a good listen if you can stand to listen to soothing Leftist explanations. I lasted about 10 minutes.
I'd like to announce that Wilbur is available for public speaking appearances, for a negotiable fee. I do insist on no brown M&Ms in my green room.
the light bringer meme of mark morford, was just one of many
we recall from a period when we should neuralize ourselves,
The Crease in his pants
The Darkness of his skin
The stately tone of his voice
What have we lost.
Russiagate, where is thy sting?
I wouldn't pay ezra to walk my dog.
now is klein as pungently hagiographic, as British mandarin,
Edward Luce, majic eightball may differ, wannabe mandarin,
his father was an ambassador his grandfather an admiral
Ann Althouse said...
I wouldn't do it for as little as $40,000.
Althouse morphed into Dr. Smith from Lost in Space so fast, I didn't even notice.
"Don't give it away, dear boy."
I know what Klein gets from the deal, but I can't see those paying getting anything of value. Does it include a buffet at least?
There is always a customer for snake oil, but you shouldn't pay his inflated price just because he had to drive that wagon all the way from Tombstone and feed his horses. I sure as hell wouldn't pay extra just because he feeds them caviar.
Do people really still admire a President who illegally spied on the leading opposition candidate and his successor, and who tried to overturn an election via fake intelligence and lawfare? That seems to lack principles beyond Machiavelli, but maybe that's it.
Ponder for a moment that people paid to listen to Kamala "speak".
"the calming stately presence of Ezra Klein might help them believe there will be an answer."
"I Know There's an Answer", originally titled "Hang On To Your Ego". There's a moral in there somewhere.
Race2Dinner was getting 5k a pop from self-loathing liberal white women to be harangued by racist black women. Makes Mr. Klein's 40k fee to fling mellifluous baloney at a room full of sanctimonious New York Times readers seem rather economical.
Good work if you can get it. Didn’t Chris Matthews get a thrill up his third leg when he heard Obama speak. Ezra seems to be having an orgasmic moment from Obama as well.
Ezra is such a paragon of civility and moderation that he created and curated the JournoList in order to secretly coordinate the Left's public messaging. He currently advocates a messaging strategy that tries to sound moderate while retaining all of the big government, anti-freedom, sub rosa corruption, and moral smugness that makes up the Democratic Party agenda. He wants to bait and switch the Overton Window. But hey, you have $70K lying around? Maybe you can find a mostly centrist retired con law prof to help you to understand the world.
Bagoh 3:03.
Not me.
Add to Obama's spying -> ++ ObamaCare. The crap sandwich that made our healthcare more expensive and less transparent.
Ampersand - brings it. yep.
I reframed the quote as sarcasm and gave it five stars.
Ezra Klein is cashing in the right way.
ADDED: I think Klein deserves this fee. He's a well-known figure who embodies the idea of moderation and civility and he will have to set aside his regular work to travel to and from your event. That's going to cost you at least $40,000. There must be all these Democrats fretting about how to not look so awful and the calming stately presence of Ezra Klein might help them believe there will be an answer.
A person who taught "constitutional law" at a university funded by tax payers would think that.
All of the people and places that pay Ezra Klein this money will be funded by taxpayers or someone who is bilking taxpayers for something stupid too.
Universities or other non profits
Peachy said...
I wouldn't pay ezra to walk my dog.
But you are paying him to say stupid shit at these tax payer funded speeches he gives.
Ezra Klein is part of the system that steal money from taxpayers and gives it to stupid mediocrities like himself. There are millions of people that feed off this system and they all vote for democrats including Ann whose retirement is currently being funded by taxpayers.
Of course people who benefit from the system are going to support it. That is what tribal spoils systems are about. Most NYTs readers are a part of this system that steals money from taxpayers via a variety of bullshit mechanisms like "student aid."
bagoh20 said...
Do people really still admire a President who illegally spied on the leading opposition candidate and his successor, and who tried to overturn an election via fake intelligence and lawfare? That seems to lack principles beyond Machiavelli, but maybe that's it.
The people who support Obama know he set up a fascist shadow government. They all know they were going to get a piece of the pie.
Now that the welfare fraud system is going to be outed all of this bullshit is going to see the light of day.
At some point "Republicans" are going to have to figure out who the real enemies are.
This is still a capitalist country, no thanks to Klein: he's entitled to charge what the traffic will bear. If that for some reason turns out to be $40,000, the fault lies with the traffic, not with Klein.
Paul Zrimsek said...
This is still a capitalist country, no thanks to Klein: he's entitled to charge what the traffic will bear. If that for some reason turns out to be $40,000, the fault lies with the traffic, not with Klein.
There is nothing capitalist about what Klein is doing.
The only people that would pay him $40000+ are part of the corruption laundering taxpayer money.
And the NY Times is concerned today about the sycophants surrounding Trump.
"I think Klein deserves this fee."
I think Klein deserves to be sitting on a plastic folding chair next to a freeway off-ramp, with a "Will Work For Food" sign around his neck. In the rain. Freezing rain.
So. Now we know what we think.
Klein insists that the Democrats can deliver more construction and more homes, cheaper energy and more invested in medical research. The reality is is that the Democrats deliver regulations that hamper economic mobility, deliver garbage public school education and create the conditions for violence and disorder in our communities. They suck.
Plus, $ 70,000 for Ezra Klein? For what exactly? You're not going to meet a star or a cool person or someone exciting and interesting. It's just a dull and pretentious liberal journalist with nothing interesting to say. Heck, I think Glenn Greenwald would be a better speaker. And I'm sure he has tons of cool stories. (He even got kidnapped by a cartel or something.)
Why so much for a speech?
Non-profits and Universites are just giving money (not their money) to a fellow leftist.
Private businesses are buying influence.
Mark Twain well described you, ann...
A sucker born every minute.
Or w
Or was that Barnum?
Never-ending, Just make up shit and smile pretty, eh?
Never MIND, even...
Pretty faces can get away with it. The country will be better when people with your values are long gone...
Apologies to John Lennon and John Sinclair…
It ain't fair, Ezra Klein
Now’s the time to show some spine
Won't you care for Ezra Klein?
On the hook for the Left’s decline
Let him be, listen free
Listen free like you and me
Just wipe him off your shoe
Deposit him in teh Loo
They gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta listen free
Kak is wack and on teh crack.
Kak is wack and on teh crack
Never seen such a sorry sack
I’d kick ‘im in the nutz
No sorry said… if ands or butz
Althouse, you must be aware that "the Word made flesh" is a reference to the Christian Messiah, whereas "word over flesh" is like "mind over matter" or "the pen is mightier than the sword" - a reference to the use of words - small "w" - to overcome physical facts or conditions.
Of course it's up to you to determine what irritates you, but this usage seems entirely correct to me: Ezra Klein is, in some minds, the savior of the Left and therefore "the Word made flesh" is apt, whereas Greenwald appears to believe that, instead, he's just plying words ("triumph of word") rather than ("over," in italics, for emphasis) plans or strategies ("flesh").
The problem isn't Klein charging $40-70K, he's welcome to charge whatever the market will bear. The problem is the saps willing to pay that much to hear what they can read for (almost) free.
Good Lord! What Klein really is an embodiment of, is profound dishonesty in service of partisan interests. Not worth a damn penny, not even for the salvage copper value in it
"Ezra Klein is cashing in the right way."
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Somethings are simply not worth what they cost, for example, child care in Minnesota, or a political hack hacking. You can get that for free all day on line, and you don't even need pants.
“I think Klein deserves this fee. He's a well-known figure who embodies the idea of moderation and civility and he will have to set aside his regular work to travel to and from your event. That's going to cost you at least $40,000.”
Nah, $40,000 buys a lot of pablum, and at least that has some nutritional value.
As other commenters have pointed out, the people who will hire Klein are university committees spending public money on behalf of the students who have no say in the matter.
Good work if you can get it.
Spiros - 5:01 - very true.
I'd add - starting with your words - "Klein insists that the Democrats can deliver more construction and more homes, cheaper energy and more invested in medical research. The reality is is that the Democrats" ... CAN ONLY DELIVER on any of their promises by raping, abusing and soaking the American tax payer.
Every Democrat promise is something the tax payer must pay for. EVERY single promise.
As all know - The word "Subsidize" is used by the left all the time. All it means is tax payer subsidized.
The median U.S. income is just under $62k. What wonderful, innovative thing does he say that is equal to someone's annual work output?
I think he, like anyone else, deserves whatever he can convince someone to pay him. The fact that he can command so much says more about the skewed values of the ones doing the paying than it does about whether he merits it. We all want someone who speaks well while they confirm our biases.
"I wouldn't do it for as little as $40,000."
It's been free since 2004.
bagoh20 said...
"Ezra Klein is cashing in the right way."
A fool and his money are soon parted.
The fools are US taxpayers.
Ezra Klein is, in some minds, the savior of the Left
That was Klein writing about BO, who certainly believed he was savior of the Left. Klein is Jewish, so is he allowed to capitalize Word in that sense?
""I wouldn't do it for as little as $40,000"/"It's been free since 2004."
Depends on what the meaning of "it" is.
It's basically impossible to convert the blog into a speech or even anything other than a blog and even if it were possible, the conversion would be distracting work. Since it's not possible, something wholly other would need to be composed. Plus the travel. Seriously, I couldn't give up my time for less than half a million.
To all those crushed by Althouse refusal to do a speech for you at 40K, give me a call. I'll do it for 1/2 the price. Anytime, any place. Really. I'll bring my own microphone and sign pictures.
And I can teach it round or I can teach it flat. If you love althouse, I'll praise her to the skies. If you hate her, I'm willing to go there. Really. I dont even need a limo.
The entire professional speakers' industry is little more than a money-grabbing racket.
Althouse's last paragraph ...
Deadly.
Steph Curry used to be called the Baby Faced Assassin. Gotta dream up a nick for our hostess.
The word made flesh, the triumph of the word over flesh, the triumph of the will, I heard it all when I was 10 years old down at the church. All same same.
One traveling evangelizer said that 10 seconds of sexual pleasure in the back seat was not worth your soul. Someone yelled, “then you’re not doing it right!”
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