Summary: People are angered not only by the fact that companies are allowed to subvert politics as much as they wish thanks to new legislation but also by the fact that the Huffington Post helps the whitewashing of criminal activities

Readers of ours are rightly concerned about the role of the media in politics, the role of corporations in the media, and the role of corporations in the government. The skepticism seems justified as lobbying is becoming a way of life and Microsoft's influence in the United States government keep growing, which in turn gives Microsoft government contracts and other policies that benefit Microsoft and exclude/illegitimise Microsoft's competitors. This is very relevant to Free software.

Those who do not mind the role of corporations (man-made, artificial entities that are nowadays treated like organisms with feelings and rights) should read "We The People". This state of affairs led to great backlash in the United States about a century ago when it was made a controversial norm and if the recent financial meltdown (paralleling the Great Depression) did not teach anyone a lesson, then hope (or Hope۩) has its clear boundaries.

One reader has told us anonymously:

US Corporations can now spend all of their money buying US politicians and laws. There are no longer limitations on how much money any group can spend on political advertising.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...

/*************** the money shot **************

We find no basis for the proposition that, in the context of political speech, the government may impose restrictions on certain disfavored speakers," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. "The court has recognized that First Amendment protection extends to corporations.

************* end money shot ***********/

It is incredible that constitutional rights are now extended to non persons while the same are treated cynically when applied to citizens. Public corporations, established for business purposes, should not be allowed to spend any money on politics. This imposes no burden on their members who are as free as the rest of us to say anything they like.

Expect very bad things to come from this.

Since NPR is cited above, it is worth reminding readers that NPR is given money from the Gates Foundation (which in turn receives good coverage from the NPR reporters, as we showed a few times before). To cite a trusted source about the news, here is Democracy Now (direct link, alternatives to Flash available), which previously helped expose the evil side of the Gates Foundation.



Influence on the elected government through bribes is a deplorable issue which must not stand. We previously showed how the Gates Foundation intervenes in education and makes Bill Gates a de facto education minister that no-one can elect or impeach. Posts on the subject include:

1. Bill Gates Puts in a Million to Ratify His Role as Education Minister
2. How the Gates Foundation is Used to Ensure Children Become Microsoft Clients
3. More Dubious Practices from the Gates Foundation
4. Microsoft Builds Coalitions of NGOs, Makes Political and Educational Changes
5. Microsoft's EDGI in India: Fighting GNU/Linux in Education
6. Microsoft's Gates Seeks More Monopolies
7. Gates Foundation Funds Blogs to Promote Its Party Line
8. Microsoft Bribes to Make Education Microsoft-based
9. Lobbyists Dodge the Law; Bill Gates Lobbies the US Education System with Another $10 Million
10. Gates Investments in Education Criticised; Monsanto (Gates-Backed) Corruption Revisited
11. Latest Vista 7 Failures and Microsoft Dumping

WhatWillWeUse, a GNU/Linux advocacy Web site, has just published this:

She proudly told me that her home has been Microsoft-free for years. When I showed her this blog, she asked me what I thought of the Bill and Melinda Foundation’s recent contribution to Pittsburgh Public Schools. I thought about it and replied that IF this is an attempt to get more Microsoft in front of children, then $40 million in 2010 is too little too late.

The word "contribution", as opposed to "donation", is probably right to use here; it is "contribution" is the same sense that money is given from companies to government officials and their campaigns, later to pay off when they make concessions and return favours. A better word to use here is "investment" or maybe just "bribe" (there are strings attached); the latter is too crass, even if it's practically true most of the time, only to be perfumed and replaced by euphemisms.

“Gates is laundering his reputation with the help of papers, many of which he owns or gives a lot of money to.”As many readers are probably aware, Microsoft employs external PR agencies that work around Twitter to incentivise pro-Microsoft tweets, suppress criticism, and report activity based on a sort of profiling of people (Microsoft McCarthyism).

Well, guess who joins this 'PR orgy'? This week there is a new and highly-hyped addition, as Bill Gates appears in Twitter, reappears in Facebook, and creates a new personal site, which he obviously does not run. It's just what Gates repeatedly calls "evangelization" in his internal memos (see Comes vs Microsoft exhibits). Gates is laundering his reputation with the help of papers, many of which he owns or gives a lot of money to. One of those papers that help the Gates family whitewash its crimes is the Huffington Post, which last year gave a platform to Bill Gates' dad. He used this as an opportunity to whitewash himself and his son. A few days ago it happened again, but this time it was Gates Junior who got a special spot at the Huffington Post. Our reader TheMadHatter was annoyed by this. He hastily wrote to us (the conversation starts around here):

FYI, Gill Bates has damned good connections with Arianna Huffington. She posts his wife's stuff. She posts his Dad's stuff. She posts Steve Ballmer's stuff. Now she's posting Billg's stuff. Bill Gates: Why We Need Innovation, Not Insulation Which is pretty disgusting. No, it's totally disgusting. I used to think Arianna was pretty smart, but this makes me think that she's totally out to lunch, and that you cannot trust anything from the Huffington post anymore. I mean, why, would anyone, allow a businessman who ran an organization that operated in a criminal manner, to use their publication that way? A person with conscience wouldn't, and it looks like Arianna doesn't have a conscience. Oh, and Bill is totally wrong. The article is about greenhouse gas reductions, and Bill is arguing that we need 80% by 2050. Unfortunately he's totally out to lunch as us as usual, and we really need 80% by 2030. What he is arguing is that he should be allowed to pollute for 20 years more. Which is probably good for Microsoft's bottom line, but is going to kill increasing numbers of their customers are storms caused by Climate Change do more damage. Of course that isn't Bills concern. Only his profits are. Sorry for the rant. I used to work in the emissions control industry. Whenever I see someone lying through their teeth about the consequences of not cutting emissions, I rant. Someday, someone might even listen. Good Night.

Note that Gates is spreading the "innovation" meme. A few days ago we gave another new example where the Huffington Post gave Steve Ballmer a platform to spread the "innovation" propaganda for patents (Ballmer was co-author).

The part about Gates' attitude towards the environment is not too shocking because Gates does not care about Global Warming. We already knew that. Is it acceptable to let these people educate the public and influence education?

The response above was actually not quite so crude. Another reader of ours, who goes by the name FurnaceBoy, tweeted about this more angrily:

● "@0r3z re HuffPost. Dead to me now that @AriannaHuff is allowing @BillGates to disseminate his criminal tripe there"

● "And finally even @AriannaHuff bought his bullshit."

● "@joanwalsh What's yr reaction to HuffPost giving a platform to übercriminal Gates? Gonna try & outdo them by syndicating Thomas Friedman?"

● "Imagine the ecological footprint of being @BillGates. All the planes, boats, cars, houses, staff. Probably equivalent to a small city."

● "Imagine that: @BillGates, lifelong advocate of waste and embodiment of greed, wants us to "innovate" to preserve his obscene lifestyle."

● "The best thing @BillGates can do for the planet right now is crash his plane into a mountain. He has nothing to tell us about sustainability"

● "Paying attention to @BillGates on energy and climate change is like waiting for the Kray twins to produce a cure for cancer."

● "I should give @BillGates more credit. He *did* innovate effectively in scale & efficiency of organised crime, not to mention getting away it"

● "His company has served its purpose and will implode in a few yrs. Their business model is buried and the mastermind quit at the right moment"

"I tend to agree," wrote Cubezzz in IRC, "it's just that if you are the richest person on the planet people give more credence to your ideas... generally people want more of everything... Gates is merely an extreme example... what makes people happy? A lot of the time they will say "more money"."

FurnaceBoy responds to Cubezzz by saying that "it's worse than that. there's nothing innocent about Gates' trajectory. At some point you stop caring what his motivations are and start looking for ways to limit the damage he does. I couldn't give a frack whether he likes money or 12 year old Russian hookers, but he's one of the most destructive, cynical forces alive today (along with most of his peers)."

And on it goes:

cubezzz	I'd still rather know what he's up to	Jan 22 15:10
cubezzz	not sure what I can do to limit his influence except talk up GNU/Linux and Wikipedia	Jan 22 15:10
FurnaceBoy	right, i'm not sure either, but we need to find ways	Jan 22 15:10
FurnaceBoy	i'm still stunned that HuffPo would give him a platform. it beggars belief	Jan 22 15:11
FurnaceBoy	it's as if they accept the whole package - Foundation, reputation laundering, everything.	Jan 22 15:11
FurnaceBoy	ignoring that he's on the wrong side of almost every issue, that his whole career has been about waste, theft and crippling innovation, etc	Jan 22 15:11
FurnaceBoy	that his Foundation is doing far more harm than good	Jan 22 15:12
FurnaceBoy	(deliberately)	Jan 22 15:12
FurnaceBoy	cubezzz: I think he's as afraid as anybody else of what happens when oil runs out. But he will always be part of the problem, not any solution. He could have started working on that 30 years ago instead of building a criminal organization	Jan 22 15:13
FurnaceBoy	it's not like nobody saw it coming	Jan 22 15:13
FurnaceBoy	he never lifted a finger to improve the world, only exploit it	Jan 22 15:14
cubezzz	there was that shortage in the 70's actually	Jan 22 15:14
FurnaceBoy	certainly there was.	Jan 22 15:14
FurnaceBoy	but even without that, it's just simple common sense.	Jan 22 15:14
cubezzz	well Samsung is going something big in Ontario soon	Jan 22 15:14
FurnaceBoy	i am not sure which part of "finite and non-renewable ppl don't get'	Jan 22 15:14
FurnaceBoy	same as COAL	Jan 22 15:14
cubezzz	with wind power	Jan 22 15:14
FurnaceBoy	Gates has better information about how screwed we are.	Jan 22 15:15
FurnaceBoy	that's the subtext	Jan 22 15:15
FurnaceBoy	and he's scared	Jan 22 15:15
FurnaceBoy	because, like everyone else, he stands to lose "everything"	Jan 22 15:15
cubezzz	he probably has his own private oil distillery or something	Jan 22 15:15
FurnaceBoy	his "everything" is just more than yours or mine	Jan 22 15:15
*rofrol () has joined #boycottnovell		Jan 22 15:15
FurnaceBoy	cubezzz: no doubt he bought a pile of cheap oil.	Jan 22 15:15
FurnaceBoy	cubezzz: but it won't save him from total systemic failure	Jan 22 15:16
FurnaceBoy	cubezzz: well he'll reap what he sowed.	Jan 22 15:16
FurnaceBoy	cubezzz: he did his best to break it	Jan 22 15:16
FurnaceBoy	cubezzz: imagine how much fuel gates and entourage use. back of the envelope says as much as a small city	Jan 22 15:17
FurnaceBoy	cubezzz: not to mention energy	Jan 22 15:17
cubezzz	well since he's so smart, wouldn't he have done something with wind or solar power?	Jan 22 15:18
cubezzz	not that I've heard anything	Jan 22 15:19

A lot more of this conversation can be seen in the full log. ⬆