THE tax-exempt Gates Foundation is a lot more sinister than PR would have people believe. It operates just like a business and it has a business-like agenda. Watch this new video which helps explain the effect of rich people paying too little tax (or no tax in Gates' case) on the US economy. That is what happens in a system which is influenced heavily by lobbyists, who get hired by those most able to afford them (Microsoft and Gates still lobby a lot to change tax laws).
“It gives Bill enormous lobbying power, which in turn he uses to benefit companies he invests in.”To put it in simplified terms, the foundation (just a name for Bill's bank account, which gives it tax exemptions) is building a brand, the "Bill Gates" brand. It gives Bill enormous lobbying power, which in turn he uses to benefit companies he invests in. In a future post we will give more new examples of this.
One area that Microsoft relies on to keep its monopoly going is the school system. As noted this morning, Microsoft indoctrinates children at taxpayers' expense, using children to sway an office's choice of software and using teachers as a training workforce for Windowsâ⢠and Officeââ¢, among other proprietary software products from Microsoft€®.
In order to keep schools under strict control by the likes of Gates (schools become increasingly digital over time), there is an intense lobbying campaign which children's parents and to a certain extent teachers too are protesting against. Arne Duncan is now named as part of the problem.
The first article in this week's New Yorker questions the 'gold standards' and personality cults that have been built up around education reform. The Gates Foundation is not specifically mentioned ...
And then Arne Duncan was profiled in the weekend magazine. It doesn't say what school Arne sends his "little guys" to. Private or public?
Education movie points the wrong way for change
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The film suggests public education is failing and points in the wrong directions for change. The filmmakers have not done their homework. They universalize a very specific U.S. experience and engage in simplistic and divisive finger-pointing at teachers, at a time when education needs collaboration and respect for teaching as a profession. An opportunity lost.
Dora Taylor is a parent of a high school student at a public school in Seattle, Washington, and is an architect and teacher. In response to school closures in the Seattle Public School system, Dora and her co-editor, Sue Peters, started the blog Seattle Education 2010 to report on and analyze education issues, and to protect the Seattle public school system from the corporate model and privatization efforts of the Gates Foundation, headquartered in Seattle.
That's why spending some of that money on marketing makes sense. The effort to upgrade teaching in the district could be enhanced by the school board's decision to spend $310,000 this year and perhaps more in the future to develop ways to help Memphians understand where the $90 million Gates grant is going.
“Education Week is sponsored by Gates to glorify him as it so often does.”A lot of people are still not realising that Gates now owns/contributes to a lot of the education press and thus he can better control what people think. It's not just Education Week as we have given many other examples. It's not just about education press, either. The popular progressive British newspaper (Guardian), for example, was recently 'bought' by the Gates Foundation to promote its agenda in the under-developed world. No wonder Gates is now advertised in all the relevant articles (see top banner), which also promote his agenda, e.g. in this new example. According to this disclosure (The Guardian at least does not hide the fact that Gates pays it), it is revealed that it's a 5-year 'bribe'. "Gates Foundation to contribute to site funding until 2015," says this update and "[i]t is envisaged that the Gates Foundation will contribute financially to the new site up to 2015 as part of its commitment to the millennium development goals." Watch/listen to what the Gates-funded NPR is saying about Gates right now [1, 2]. NPR lost all credibility because of the money on its table. More NPR propaganda is being used to promote the Gates agenda under the guise of "national" radio (national but privatised). This includes help to abusive companies like Monsanto. We have already given many other examples where NPR promoted Gates and companies he invested in after Gates had 'donated' millions to NPR.
It is too easy to get distracted by puff pieces like this one ("I will not leave $53B fortune to kids, says Bill Gates"). It's just one pointless article amongst others of its kind [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] which tell no news (been heard many times since almost a decade ago, thus it's just PR about his children, reiterated).
“Gates is getting richer while being portrayed as a giver and the middle class still vanishes (widening gap between rich and poor).”To put things in perspective, Gates has been saying this and spreading such a fairy tale for ages, all of it while not paying taxes. He is still getting richer based on Forbes' list (so much for retirement or giveaways), so how is that promise of not leaving a fortune to his kids being fulfilled since he first made it about a decade ago? Gates is getting richer while being portrayed as a giver and the middle class still vanishes (widening gap between rich and poor). Well, maybe this newly-updated list is the reason for repeating old news and getting people off his back. Microsoft Nick and many others have spread the news about Bill Gates being #1 in Forbes' rich list [1, 2, 3], so there couldn't be better timing to say that this fortune will be given away (even though it continues to expand). In a world where being most rich also means being most "generous" (at least when greased up by a PR machine), why not exploit people's ignorance or gullibility?
There is propaganda in printed newspapers to build an icon of someone who robbed society and now runs it. People are supposed to love those who hurt them the most. Using euphemisms like "reform", "education", and "health", there is an increase in suggestion that only the super-rich can save the world. Here is some health-flavoured PR about Bill Gates and Seattle growth and here is a new press release about Microsoft "health". More about this whole "health" agenda will be the main discussion of tomorrow's post. In health too there are monopolies and vast profits. ⬆