Bill Gates met with Donald Trump and came away very impressed by Trump’s interest in innovation. He compared him to John F. Kennedy.
No doubt Gates is impressed by Trump’s choice of climate change deniers to run the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. And, as one of the leading funders of school privatization in the nation, he must be overwhelmed with admiration for Betsy DeVos. After this meeting, no one should ever put the words “Bill Gates” and “wisdom” in the same sentence unless it includes a negative.
It is pathetic to liken the ignorant narcissist Trump to the sophisticated, well-educated, well-read JFK. JFK had a self-deprecating sense of humor. He picked distinguished, experienced, and well-educated people for his cabinet. He did not seek out people who wanted to destroy the agency they were put in charge of. He was far from our greatest president, but he was no blundering bully who humiliated individuals who disagreed with him. Watching his press conferences was a joy. Watching Trump bluster and boast is not.
Trump likes Bill Gates because he is a billionaire. Trump wishes he had as many billions as Gates, and maybe after four years as president, he will.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Innovation has become one of the most abused words in the English language. A close second is disruption. Whenever you read the word “innovation” or “innovate” in any story related to health care, you can be sure that the story has been written and/or planted by the minions of big pharma. We’ve seen what it means in education.
As for the comparison, although JFK was not a friend of mine, Trump is no JFK (apologies to Sen. Bentsen).
LikeLike
According the actual report, Gates did not “compare Trump to JFK”, but said “he has an opportunity to be like JFK if …” Here is the quote. It is bad enough without exaggerating.
“President-elect Donald Trump has an opportunity to establish “American leadership through innovation,” Bill Gates told CNBC on Tuesday.” see the link.
LikeLike
Addendum…..the most dangerous statement Gates made, IMO, is to “get rid of regulation”….innovation comments are mere hyperbole.
LikeLike
There is no way in this world that Trump will ever be like JFK. Trump is a bully, he is crude, vulgar and narcissistic. He knows nothing about history.
JFK was intelligent, civil, cultured, sophisticated, everything that Trump is not and never will be.
LikeLike
Chris Hedges put’s Trump into an historical context by comparing his cruelty & hate to the likes of other dictators- Pinochet, Ceausescu, Milosevic, Gadhafi, etc.(Hedges forgot Pol Pot who murdered & imprisoned academics & teachers). We are in for a looong 4 years.
“Demagogues—insecure and crippled by an unbridled narcissism and seldom of high intelligence—play to the inverted values of a decayed society. They attack all who do not kneel before the idol of “the great leader.” “Saturday Night Live” can continue to go after Trump, but Trump, as president, will use every tool in his arsenal, no matter how devious, to banish such public ridicule. He will seek to domesticate the press and critics first through the awarding of special privileges, flattery, gifts and access. Those who cannot be bought off will be destroyed. His petulant, childish taunts, given authority by the machinery of the security and surveillance state, will be dangerous.”
Trump ‘s inner circle are made up of slime like Roger Stone & Steve Bannon. Ugh.
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/13/donald-trump-vetted-mitt-romney-in-order-to-torture-him-says-roger-stone/
LikeLike
Oops hit post too quickly. Gates, if he could be shamed ,should be ashamed of himself.
LikeLike
jcgrim
Read that this morning . Hedges was excellent. .
LikeLike
C’mon guys…no where did I say Trump compares to JFK…of course not. But I did quote the article as to what Gates actually said.
I have written here for many months about how contemptible Trump is…and now I suggest that we all watch more than DeVos as he pillages our nation.
LikeLike
JFK had the Bay of Pigs, and Trump is just a pig. That’s the similarity in a nutshell.
LikeLike
Everyone who associates with Trump is going to end up looking foolish.
LikeLike
More than foolish, S_M_T. They are going to look like they care nothing for anyone or anything else except their own self-interests.
Self-involved, extremely selfish narcissists.
LikeLike
more than that they are gonna look good in prison stripes
LikeLike
Right now the appointment of Tillerson as Sect. of State (which is the most important job in the Cabinet and can do the most damage) who is Putin’s longtime friend and in business with the Russian oligarchs (as is Trump), is number one on the horror list. BTW, Tillerson is at war with our SEC over his lack of reporting oil losses. I will try to find and post that link.
Number two is Trump’s total denial of using proven techniques like NEVER taking calls from enemies of our friends and/or trading partners, as he did with Taiwan. China can drop a nuke on Taiwan now a sthey are threatening, and blame it on Trump…as they spoke about this yesterday when sending their nuclear bombers over the China Sea. After all the work for many years that Kerry and Clinton (and former Ambassador (R) Jon Huntsman) have done to soften our relations with China, Trump destroyed it all in only a few minutes.
China also reportedly has missiles that can reach the US. Since we owe them so much money for loans (they own about 45% of US T-Bills) they would prefer to not nuke NY I would assume.
Gates and DeVos will not not cause the world to cease…but these two events can start WW 3.
Hope we can prioritize with level heads, and fight for the most important issues instead of vitiating our voices with hatred for Gates.
Trump played games with Romney, to get back at him, never intended to choose him for State Dept….so it is worthless to worry about everyone he focuses his demented dangerous mind on…but it is vital to contact all legislators about Tillerson and Trump’s ‘out of line as only Prez-elect’ phone calls.
it is only Congress which can control any of this…so it is incumbent upon us all the stay on top of our legislators (who need our votes to stay in office) every single day, and not only preach to the teacher’s choir.
LikeLike
Here is the article in The Nation today, written by David Dayen.
Potential Secretary of State Nominee Rex Tillerson Has an SEC Problem
Exxon Mobil has been under SEC investigation since August.
LikeLike
“China also reportedly has missiles that can reach the US. Since we owe them so much money for loans (they own about 45% of US T-Bills) they would prefer to not nuke NY I would assume.”
I believe they have unloaded a few of those t notes. However the economic weapon is probably more potent than the military weapon. It is a war that China would not win but a war that Trump will lose. Picture empty shelves at Walmart and skyrocketing inflation combined with the resultant unemployment. He may be able to shoot somebody and get away with it , till it costs the American consumer. At which point they will say screw those factory workers and skip impeachment choosing lynching instead.
LikeLike
Haven’t you heard that once American fast food arrives in a country, we never fight a wars with those countries again?
Do you have any idea how many McDonald’s, KFCs, Pizza Huts, and Starbucks there are in China? The Chinese think this is gourmet food. Well, maybe not all Chinese but a few hundred million.
Guess what car brand beats BMW and Mercedes for prestige in China? Buick!
China even has Walmart and Hooters.
LikeLike
Lloyd Lofthouse
And in a Centrally planed economy those corporations will be nationalized in a flash.
Quicker than you can say “cultural revolution”.
The Clown will come down to be replaced by the Panda Bear.
The Buicks will roll off the line with a Chairman Mao Ornament .
Those Buicks are built in China.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/09/autos/gm-chinese-built-car/
The Iphone will be selling in Europe and the world with a Kiwi replacing the Apple .
Those trade agreements have not been about tariffs for an awful long time. They have been about protecting the supply chain,patents and investments of American(Multi National) corporations overseas.,
We do not have a trade treaty with China . Trumps moves on an international level will place us in a he said she said position on any trade disputes. He will find out quickly that China and Russia who had a tense relationship through out the cold war have an interest in countering the new Global hegemon.
Our new presidential motto under Trump will be shoot your stupid mouth off and carry a little twig.
LikeLike
There will be no hood ornament on any car with Mao’s mug on it unless the owner of the car had it made and installed it himself. Mao’s movement died with him. The Chinese faction in the CCP, that has ruled China since Mao’s death, does not worship him. In fact, they were even persecuted by Mao’s Little Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution. Their leader, Deng Xiaoping’s son was tossed off a 3-story building to send Deng a message. The son survived the fall but was crippled for life. Deng got the message and fled south with his family for protection inside a PLA base where the general was an old friend of his from the Civil War era.
The Maoist movement in China ended with Mao and the arrest and conviction of the Gang of Four who wanted to take over China and continue the insanity of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.
After Mao died, the Deng Xiaoping faction that came to power even rewrote the Chinese Constitution so they could impeach anyone like Mao in the future. In addition, when they rewrote that Constitution, they put two, 5-year term limits on all political offices, even the President of China.
Mao ruled for 27 years, even when he wasn’t officially the Chairman/President, but no one has ruled longer than 10 years since his death. Every 5 or 10 years, China’s Electoral College (it has a different name and more votes) elects a new president after an exhaustive background check to make sure China doesn’t end up with a Donald Trump.
In China, honesty among party leaders is often found at the top in Beijing and the most corruption in the provinces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China#List_of_presidents
LikeLike
Great comment, Joel. U of California has given China a favored status for decades, and let them in on many taxpayer paid, university issued, innovations which then get produced in China, and as you say, with the Panda logo. No tariffs, nada. Guess this helps to keep America safe…or something.
LikeLike
I’ve seen this movie before. It was 2008. A Republican held the White House… Oil will go from 40 to 100 dollars a barrel overnight. Small businesses will be crushed by shipping costs. Labor unions will receive no support, and the high cost of doing Big Box business will be passed on to workers. Workers will stop spending. Risky bank loans will be exposed. The economy will freeze. Billionaires will somehow make a ton of money off everyone else’s austerity.
All of this has everything to do with the wellbeing of my students. Too many of them are living in shelters already. None of this has anything to do with innovation. … I have to wrap this up, though not done, and get to work. Let me just say that Bill Gates is creepy and I don’t believe a word he says about anything, ever.
LikeLike
Lloyd Lofthouse
You take things far too literally, You are correct about Mao the hood ornament was a figure of speech. . But it is still a centrally planned economy in which the controlling interest of every company is the central government. .
More importantly there are forces within this non democratic society (the military) that are not going to tolerate perceived or real aggression’s. So back to Mao yes the army was turned loose on the demonstrators at Tienanmen Square who were protesting against market reforms.
None the less the leadership needs the military to maintain support . Till Trump we needed the people . We shall see if that survives.
LikeLike
I’ve studied China for years and when China comes up, I tend to over reply.
Mao was dead when Tienanmen Square took place (the opposition under Deng that replaced Mao and his clique were in charge), and it is questionable that anyone actually died inside the square. Even the CCP admits that people died but in another part of the city several blocks away where the PLA came up against an angry mob.
The Tienanmen Square protests did not start as a democracy movement. That came later when college students were bused in. The original protests took off after a popular minister who fought for people’s rights and against corruption in the government died. The first protesters were workers protesting corruption in the govenrment and they made it clear in the signs they carried that they were not asking for or demanding democracy.
I think it is safe to say that any chance at the sort of democracy that the U.S. Founding Fathers didn’t trust will never see the light of day or darkness of night in China after Tienanmen Square.
I find it interesting how China is so similar to how the U.S. started out. The fact that Senators were appointed by the states in the U.S., not elected, and only white men, who weren’t Jews, who owned property, could vote. That was about 10 percent of the population back then. A lot has changed in more than 200 years.
At least in the CCP, women started out equal to men under the new laws. It took a long time for that to happen in the U.S.
And with the insanity that comes with Trump through our political process, a lot of countries that aren’t republics with elements of democracy are going to have second thoughts.
There’s actually a well documented book on the CCP that compares the structure of the Party to a capitalist corporation but the share holders are the more than 80 million members of the Party that run the country. If you want power and money, you apply to join the party and gamble that you will pass through the application process and be accepted.
LikeLike
LeftCoastTeacher
The quicker the your vision plays out the easier it will be to reverse the damage done and prevent long term pain for far more than your students .
LikeLike
I do not claim to be the China expert and yes that was poorly worded when I said back to Mao who yes I knew was dead.
“The Tienanmen Square protests did not start as a democracy movement. That came later when college students were bused in. The original protests took off after a popular minister who fought for people’s rights and against corruption in the government died. The first protesters were workers protesting corruption in the govenrment and they made it clear in the signs they carried that they were not asking for or demanding democracy.”
My understanding was that your statement was absolutely correct it was not a protest for democracy . My understanding those workers were complaining about the market based reforms and as you say the corruption of those reforms .
But that was a side point to my original argument which was that China would lose that trade war escalated by the diplomatic war over Taiwan. Which the Chinese military would not let stand. Meaning that at a minimum they would insist on an economic response .
But long before any collapse in China the American public would be looking to dump Trump due to the economic crises caused by a trade war.
Higher prices at Walmart…. …. . Unemployment caused by the disruption of the supply chain would occur long before China collapsed into revolt if it ever did. Long before new suppliers or new American factories were able to fill the gap.
Do you really think the Trump supporter gives a damn about those displaced workers in the Midwest. Perhaps those in the Midwest do .That shoot my neighbors cow story comes to mind again. They want to build it here as long as it doesn’t cost a nickel more. As they want their wages to rise but not a worker at the minimum wage .
I am an economic protectionist. Have been against every trade agreement . Supported Sanders, there are ways to do this and ways not to. The power of Government procurement is immense. From insisting on a higher % of all Public works material be made in USA . To energy rebates being only given to American wind and Solar products. Combined with infra structure spending .
Starting a trade with China is a lose lose. Especially when you attack what they view as vital interests involving Taiwan
LikeLike
No reason to worry that China will collapse into revolt. If a trade war causes too many jobs to be lost in private sector manufacturing China will do the same thing they did when 20 million Chinese lost their jobs because of the 2007-08 global financial crises caused by the reckless greed of the U.S. banking sector and Wall Street.
The CCP retired people early who were close to the mandatory retirement age and sent them home to their village with their monthly Social Security stipend where there is no rent or property tax to worry about, and it doesn’t take much money to survive in rural China. It’s almost impossible for a family in rural China to lose a home unless it is to development and the government took the land but then the governemnt provides a new home somewhere else and relocates the family.
The younger unemployed workers in the private sector that lost their jobs were hired into China’s public sector factories in addition to the fact that the CCP sped up the timeline for infrastructure expansion and updates to keep people working.
Have you heard about China’s brand new empty cities just sitting there waiting for millions of people to show up? Keeping the people busy and earning just enough to get buy helps keep them from revolting.
China is one-party hybrid capitalist/socialist economic system, and the legal system is the bare minimum required by the World Trade Organization.
LikeLike
Lloyd Lofthouse
Nothing to disagree with there .
So while China use our printed money ,T notes (LOL) or prints their own,in order to apply Keynesian style stimulus.
We can expect the republican right to come up with more tax cuts for the one percent to leave to their heirs. While the economy collapses around them .
Unfortunately this would be a welcomed outcome, because any stimulative policy that Trump engages in with or with out a trade war. Like his infrastructure plan, will provide the smoke and mirrors for him to gut the New Deal and Great Society .It will bring labor back to the 19th century . When the stimulus ends the pain will be immense . Reversing it would take decades. We still are living with the Reagan legacy .
Let me go puke or pray for the meteor strike .
LikeLike
A small meteor on Trump’s Penthouse while his entire family is having dinner there with dear old ruthless, greedy, cheating, groping, lying dad, but big enough to take out that entire floor. Oh, and they have guests that night, the VP and his family, and gave the servants the night off.
In fact, let’s include most of his cabinet without the Marine Corps generals.
This is where we all get down on our knees, well, at least those who can’t stand him, and we put our hands together, bow our heads, close our eyes and pray.
“Please, Lord, just the right sized meteor.”
LikeLike
What a toady.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
Oh, for crying out loud. How could Bill Gates have amassed such billions of dollars, since he seems to be totally naive? (I would say “idiot,” but I don’t think he’s an idiot, just hugely ill-informed and one of those billionaires who seem to think that, because he has made so much money, he is “golden” and the sun shines out of his @ss.)
LikeLike
So you can con a conner …
LikeLike
Wonder what Bill’s friend Warren Buffet think about this nonsense?? Buffet saw through Drumpf from the beginning, 50 years ago!
LikeLike
Buffet gives his philanthropic money to Gates to spend. IMO, Buffet’s empty words are an attempt to cover his a__, in recognition that, the days of the 0.1%, are numbered.
Buffet is fully aware that Gates is the 800 lb. gorilla in the state with the most regressive tax system in the nation. The poor pay up to 7 times the rate the rich do, in Washington.
LikeLike
Correct. The Buffet billions are destined to be rolled into the Gates Foundation where Warren is a visible player but treated by the media as if invisible.
LikeLike
I have,said mant times that I really do not think Bill Gates is one great person. He just throws his money around as a way to get his way, right or wrong.
LikeLike
Gates is a blowhard and an attention seeker, like Trump. His plot in education shows his lack of innovative insight. Cost-cutting, “schools-in-a-box”, is all that Gates brought to the table, which any 2 bit know- nothing could have inflicted.
LikeLike
Gates is somewhat like DeVos. They both use their wealth like a weapon of mass destruction.
LikeLike
Dear Teacher…I rarely disagree with you, but Gates is a far cry from DeVos who only got her billions from sleeping with the heir to his father’s ill gotten gains with the pyramid scheme business they call multi level marketing. She did nothing to earn that cash. And she exhibits little mental acumen but huge love of religious myth and a voracious desire to always get her own way…kinda like Trump.
Gates on the other hand, though born into a well educated and well financed family, is pretty much self made in that when he dropped out of Harvard he started, invented, what became Microsoft, one of the largest most successful tech firms in the world.
We may disagree with how he functions as to public ed, but he is enormously intelligent and was, over many decades, a talented innovator in his industry…but always raking in the biggest bucks. And bottom line it that he has far more business acumen that Trump, who is a more realistic comparison.
I do think that both Gates and his wife function somewhere in the autistic range…probably he is Aspergian.
I do have a hard time dealing with all the generalities and redundancies about DeVos being tossed out. We all agree she is a terrible choice to oversee ed…but even worse is Labor, State, SEC, and all other appointments which can finish us off as a nation.
LikeLike
Diane thank you. I don’t know what it was about this post but after all the terrible events and news of the past few weeks this was the thing that finally made me cry. Thank you for all you do to keep the fight going for fairness and decency.
LikeLike
In the upside down world: Ripping off business partners and marketing products equals innovation
Trump-Gates two sides of same villus o’us coin one the obvious repulsive bro the other faux benign evil geek mastermind
LikeLike
In the upside down world: Ripping off business partners and marketing products equals innovation
Trump-Gates two sides of same villianous coin one the obvious repulsive bro the other faux benign evil geek mastermind
LikeLike
Yes, I nearly choked when Gates said his whole career had been about innovation. I applaud you, Greg, for pointing out the kinship between the two. Gates really had to reach to compare Trump to Kennedy ( although I am not a fan), but I’m sure he knew that Trump would just eat it up.
LikeLike
Trump, Gates, me….we will all eventually kick the bucket. The real tragedy is what our children and grandchildren will inherit on this planet. This is a dark time…..
LikeLike
More proof that Gates’ smarts do not transfer outside the field of computers.
LikeLike
Sorry to interrupt this maudlin decrying of Gates…but this is from United Farm Workers who really will suffer from having Puzder as Labor Sect. He does not believe in the minimum wage.
Please follow up and sign their petition which is to be delivered to Diane’s friend and old boss, Lamar Alexander.
Ellen
“Sign the petition saying “NO” to CEO Andy Puzder as Labor Secretary”
“President-elect Trump’s nominees have had us shuddering. And he has done it again. His latest appointee for Labor Secretary is Andy Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which includes the Carl’s Jr. fast food chain. Sign our petition to Republican Chair Lamar Alexander today.
What does this rich guy who employs folks in the job of last resort know about protecting working people? Well, from the data out there, protecting the rights of the people who work at his company or its franchisees doesn’t seem to be his priority. Puzder has run a business model that has produced widespread labor abuses at the companies. According to data compiled by Bloomberg BNA, over the previous seven years, about 60 percent of all Labor Department investigations of Carl’s Jr. restaurants found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
It’s hard to imagine a worse choice for Labor Secretary than Andy Puzder. The Labor Secretary’s job is to look out for American workers. Trump’s Labor nominee has opposed increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour and efforts to expand eligibility for overtime pay. Farm workers are among the country’s lowest paid workers and do one of the most dangerous jobs. If anyone needs someone to look out for them, farm workers do.
Puzder is another rich guy whose past has shown he will not create the type of jobs that people voted for. There is no way he should be Labor Secretary. Because of rule changes, Senate Republicans need a simple majority when they vote to confirm a nominee. This means that we have to get some Republicans to vote against his nomination.
Sign the petition we will be handing in to Republican Chair Lamar Alexander and tell him the American people did not vote for low paying jobs. They did not vote for less protections. Republican Chair Lamar Alexander must do his job and make sure the Senate votes no on the appointment of Andy Puzder for Labor Secretary.
http://action.ufw.org/puzder
After you sign the petition, please ask your friends and family to sign too. You can send them an e-mail, post this campaign on your Facebook and/or Twitter page by clicking here or by going to http://action.ufw.org/page/share/puzder“
LikeLike
And the only way to get those republicans to break ranks is to convince them that there will be a tremendous price to pay. In 2 ,4 or 6 years. Some are in safe spots others are not.
You know what my choice is. Massive nonviolent demonstrations that shape a narrative. Take the Climate March add a Civil rights march, a Women’s march and a Labor march, add them together and you have an event on a scale never seen. You disrupt the first 100 days. And the possibly the first term of this turd, the plutocracy is trying to normalize. A man that should be in jail for the rape of a teenage girl. A lowlife liar, conman who should be in pinstripes. Not the White House
LikeLike
Signed
LikeLike
Bill Gates and his wife are glory hounds.
LikeLike
11/08/16
This date will live on in infamy.
The day we got bombed by stupid.
LikeLike
I would think that Trump the narcissist. egomaniac would not be able to be in the same room with someone else who is as dirty rich as he is? Trump can’t handle competition. Probably not much room with 2 stuffed shirts with big heads talking it out.
LikeLike
Gates is easily worth 6 – 10 times what Trump is. He is the richest man in the world…and his daddy did not give him those multi millions for his start up, and teach him to be a bigot. Has to make Trump envious and full of disdain for Gates whom he will try to embarrass as he has just done to Romney. Trump’s stock in trade is getting even.
LikeLike
Has someone hacked into your computer, Ellen? I never would have thought you would defend Billy the Gates.
LikeLike
Ellen Lubic
Daddy and Mommy gave him a pretty good start though . No it was not just Lakeside Academy with the first toy computer in an American school . That him and Paul could play with. (figurative my sarcasm is usually misinterpreted here) .
Mommy:
“She had been a regent at the University of Washington since 1975, the same year she became the first woman to serve as a director of First Interstate Bank and the first to serve as the president of the King County’s United Way. She was later appointed to the board of the United Way of America; in 1983, she became the first woman to lead it. Right Time, Right Place
Her tenure on the national board’s executive committee is believed to have helped Microsoft, based in Seattle, at a crucial time. In 1980, she discussed with John R. Opel, a fellow committee member who was the chairman of the International Business Machines Corporation, the business that I.B.M. was doing with Microsoft.
Mr. Opel, by some accounts, mentioned Mrs. Gates to other I.B.M. executives. A few weeks later, I.B.M. took a chance by hiring Microsoft, then a small software firm, to develop an operating system for its first personal computer. ”
Daddy:
http://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/kl-gates-loses-preferred-status-as-microsoft-law-firm/
Young Bill did not have to Complete his Harvard education with Mommy making introductions and Daddy writing those original agreements with IBM. Convenient for him the guy who invented that DIRTY OPERATING SYSTEM , had no connection to John R. Opel’ CEO of IBM
I would say that neither Bill nor F— FaceVonClownstick is a Horatio Alger story.
LikeLike
Lakeside Academy make that School
LikeLike
Ellen,
Trump may not be a billionaire. When he sold all his stocks, he had only $40 million. That’s not the portfolio of a billionaire. He probably has billions in debt.
LikeLike
Yes, Diane…it was a surprise, if true, that he only had $40M to sell off. The range of his assets seems to be about $4B to his claim of $10B which most economists say is a big fat lie, as you say, due to his vast debts. He turned to the Russian oligarch bankers when no other banks would loan him any more money to build his Russian ‘brand’ buildings, etc.. Hard to evaluate his hundreds of business interests…but he is NEVER giving them up. Cannot fathom why the Dems are not screaming 24/7 about this.
And Duane, I have no affection for Gates, as you well know, but he did have the smarts to build MS into the mega business that has dominated the tech field for decades…of course with greed as his driving force….but then, most genius innovators seem to succumb to greed.
LikeLike
We will never see Trump’s tax returns. A safe prediction.
LikeLike
dianeravitch
If he wasn’t a billionaire. . HE WILL BE .
LikeLike
Omg, HUH? Gates is no JFK.
LikeLike
Where is Lloyd Bensten when we really need him?
LikeLike
Our uber-capitalist society is rewarding and ogling the wrong people way, way, WAY out of proportion.
Sure, reward narrow-talent whizzes and showy workaholics with generally bad ideas that people may ogle overc or more appropriately laugh at; don’t give them serious credit, don’t really listen to them seriously, DON’T elect them president!
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
LikeLike
Which regulations, specifically, does Bill Gates want to get rid of to create “innovation”?
Health and safety? Finance? Consumer protections? Anti-trust? Labor laws?
I’m always shocked that these folks see themselves as educational leaders. They speak in slogans. It’s always so facile and shallow. It’s the opposite of “rigorous”.
They should all have to sit for the Common Core test. I want to see scores.
Also, I know this is a crazy idea, but what if the President met with an ordinary person? Are political leaders royalty? Do they ever mix with the commoners? Do Donald Trump or Bill Gates have a single friend or acquaintance with an ordinary job?
LikeLike
Well, JFK was a serial womanizer. “The Sex Life of JFK”, something Donald Trump must envy if he even knows who JFK was.
“According to Robert P. Watson, a historian who has researched the sexual indiscretions of U.S. Presidents, at least seven of them—ranging from Thomas Jefferson to Bill Clinton—have had affairs both before and during their terms of office. But John F. Kennedy, whose dalliances with scores of women, including movie goddess Marilyn Monroe, have become the stuff of legend.”
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/killing-kennedy/articles/the-sex-life-of-jfk/
LikeLike
Perhaps THETrumpster is salivating (and I’m being nice with that term) over the “perqs” of being in the Oval Office, eh!
LikeLike
Lloyd Lofthouse
Except for the rape and abuse that “Donnie Little Hands ” is guilty of, the sexual escapes of my Presidents are none of my business.
In fact that is exactly what the problem we are facing is. As I believe with all my heart that a woman has a right to chose and that ones sexual preferences are their own. As well as on a whole host of other SOCIAL issues . None of this belongs in Government . It is the Right that has put them there as a disguise for the plunder of the economy.
We are now left with two parties one center right economically and the other a subsidy of oligarchs. “It is not about God, Gays, Grass, or Guns.” “its the Economy stupid ” Bill Gates and the Walmart’s are the same regardless of how they feel on social issues .
The right made these the issues and the Democrats were more than happy to oblige and keep the money flowing..
“Move over honey this is your president speaking ” well that man delivered Medicare, Medicaid , freed the slaves with the Civil and Voting rights acts and had a vision for a Great Society, My condolences for Ladybird but his indiscretions are her business.
LikeLike
Subsidiary not subsidy
LikeLike
Thanks for that correction.
Typos are to be expected in my comments, because I refuse to edit and revise them to the degree I do with my books. With my books, after I go over the manuscripts repeatedly until I can’t stand it anymore, I pay a professional editor to do one final round. That is expensive.
I’m not going to hire an expensive editor to go over my comments in blog threads and other internet forums to find my typos. I usually proof them once and when I miss something, I leave it up to readers to correct what I meant through the context of the entire comment. I do the same thing when I’m reading someone else. If the errors are too many that they muddy the context, I’ll as a question to clarify what that person meant.
I’m not sorry for being an imperfect human. The only perfect human in this world, according to Donald Trump, is Donald Trump. When he makes an error, he forgets everything and when that error is pointed out, he just says you didn’t udnerstand what I really meant.
LikeLike
escapades
LikeLike
I agree. The sexual activity of a president should not be a factor in judging him/her. Instead judge them for what they do as president and not as a man who likes women. If we look at thousands of years of history, most powerful leaders were sexually active with more than one women but that didn’t effect their decisions as leaders unless those sexual escapades were turned into scandals by their enemies.
Only in the U.S. with help from the far right does this become an issue.
LikeLike
llyod
Those are my typos in every post I am correcting . I can’t handle my own no less yours.
Between the 5.5 finger typing (did not do well in that 8th grade class)
,the bouncing cursor and the cataracts . I am not throwing stones.
LikeLike
OK
Good to know I’m not the only one who creates typos that I don’t see until it is too late.
But just in case you were pointing out a few of mine, I wanted to say thank you and explain why.
:o)
LikeLike
This confirms what I suspected; Gates is an idiot.
LikeLike
Harsh. Could it be Bill was trying to expand the limited attention span of notoriously short focus of DJT? Perhaps Gates saw hope? @#&*? on those voting for new prez, but hopes/prayers to all who can help outcone.
LikeLike
Bill Gates is notorious for his short attention span. Birds of a feather.
LikeLike
Diane,
Today, I thought about how ridiculous some of the things Bill Gates said, like imagining the Donald as a JFK-like hero… small schools and chickens, and so forth. So I wrote a sonnet for you. Hope you like it.
To what fantastic worlds does Bill Gates go
On his rocket rigged with burning power lust,
His galling, goggling, green-hued face aglow,
Illumined by imagined pixel dust.
The treetops, down below, show in the moonlight;
Show blue, true: moonlight and the trees are there.
They are not numbered so, like stars in the night,
As numbers cannot count stars, trees, or air.
Data churning, space dementia burring
Into the rich tycoon’s brain as he floats,
Encoding concoctions of computing
Madness: the numb’ring to which he devotes.
There is Superman! There is J.F.K!
There’s a robot god! Sure to rule someday!
LikeLike