Saturday, March 24, 2012

The Subversion of America by Corporate Rule: Microsoft's Bill Gates

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CGI: The Subversion of America by Corporate Rule: Microsoft's Bill Gates
Posted By: Susoni [Send E-Mail]
Date: Saturday, 24-Mar-2012 14:15:58

CGI's Billsbest:
Like many of the world's richest businessmen [1], Bill Gates believes in a special form of democracy, otherwise known as plutocracy; that is, socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. Following in the footsteps of John D. Rockefeller's and Andrew Carnegie's charitable foundations, Gates, like most capitalists, relies upon the government to protect his business interests from competition, but is less keen on the idea of a government that acts to redistribute wealth to the wider populous.
For powerful capitalists such as Gates, the State is merely a tool to be harnessed for profit maximization, and they themselves, having acquired their wealth by exploiting and manipulating the economic system, then take it upon their own shoulders to help relieve global inequality and escalating poverty. As one might expect, their definitions of the appropriate solutions to inequality neglect to seriously challenge the primary driver of global poverty, capitalism. For the most part, the incompatibility of democracy and capitalism remains anathema. Instead, those capitalist philanthropists fund all manner of ‘solutions’ that help provide a much needed safety valve for rising resistance and dissent, while still enabling business-as-usual, albeit with a band-aid stuck over some of the more glaring inequities.
With huge, government-aided financial empires resting in the hands of a small power elite, the ability of the richest individual philanthropists to shape global society is increasing all the time, while the power of society to influence governments is being continuously undermined by many of these powerful philanthropists. This situation is problematic on a number of levels. Democratic governments rely on taxes to stabilise existing structures of governance. Yet, profiting from specifically designed legislation, billionaire capitalists are able to create massive tax-free endowments to satisfy their own particular interests. This process in effect means that vast amounts of money are regularly ‘stolen’ from the democratic citizenry, whereupon they are redistributed by unaccountable elites, who then cynically use this display of generosity to win over more supporters to the free-market principles that they themselves do their utmost to protect themselves from. Bill Gates’ Microsoft Corporation and its associated liberal foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (the largest of its kind in the world), is only one of the more visible displays of capitalism’s hypocrisy.
I – Capitalists cum philanthropists: The roots of Gates’ philanthropy
At this present historical juncture, neoclassical free-market economic doctrines are the favored means of promoting capitalism by business and political elites. In many respects, this neoliberal dogma has been adopted by a sizable proportion of the citizenry of the world's most powerful countries, arguably against the citizenry's own best interests. This widespread internalisation, but not necessarily acceptance, by the broader populous of the economic theories that consolidate capitalist hegemony over the global market did not happen naturally, but actually required a massive ongoing propaganda campaign to embed itself in the minds of the masses. The contours of this propaganda offensive have been well described by Alex Carey who fittingly observed that: “The twentieth century has been characterised by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.” [2]
There are many reasons why corporate giants engage in liberal philanthropic endeavors: one is to have a direct influence on political decisions through what has been termed political philanthropy [3], but another important reason is that such charitable efforts help cultivate a positive image in the public’s mind that serves to deflect criticism while also helping expand their market share. However, although liberal foundations like the Gates Foundation may engage in ostensibly ‘progressive’ activities, this does not mean that the capitalist enterprises from which their endowments arise (e.g. Microsoft) refrain from engaging in common antidemocratic business practices. So while the Gates Foundation directs some of its resources to progressive grassroots initiatives, its corporate benefactor actually works to create fake grassroots organisations (otherwise known as astroturf groups) to actively lobby through covert means to protect corporate power.
For instance, in 1999 Microsoft helped found a group called Americans for Technology Leadership – a group which describes its role as being “dedicated to limiting government regulation of technology and fostering competitive market solutions to public policy issues affecting the technology industry.” [4] In 2001, Joseph Menn and Edmund Sanders alleged that Americans for Technology Leadership orchestrated a “nationwide campaign to create the impression of a surging grass-roots movement” [5] to help defend Microsoft from monopoly charges. The founder of this front group, Jonathan Zuck, also created another libertarian group in 1998 called the Association for Competitive Technology, a group which was part-sponsored by Microsoft to fight against the anti-trust actions being pursued against Microsoft in the United States. Such antidemocratic campaigns waged via front groups and astroturf organisations, however, were just one part of Microsoft's democracy-manipulation. This is because, as Greg Miller and Leslie Helm demonstrated (in 1998), this was just one part of a programmme that Microsoft and PR giant Edelman had been planning as part of a “massive media campaign designed to influence state investigators by creating the appearance of a groundswell of public support for the company.” [6] None of this should be surprising as, in 1995, it was also revealed how Microsoft were using “consultants to generate computer analyses of reporters’ articles, enlist industry sources to critique writers they know and – less frequently – provide investigative peeks into journalists private lives.” [7] In the rare spate of critical articles surfacing in the late 1990s, it was also shown that Microsoft had made a $380,000 contribution to the conservative corporate-funded astroturf group Citizens for a Sound Economy (now known as FreedomWorks). [8] Unfortunately, these examples only represent the tip of the iceberg of Microsoft's democracy-manipulating activities.
II – The Gates Foundation: Microsoft's 'charity'
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has its roots in two of Gates’ earlier philanthropic projects: the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Library Foundation. Understanding the complete backgrounds of the Gates foundations is critical to comprehending the political nature of their work.
Formed in 1994 by Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, the William H. Gates Foundation was managed by Bill Gates’ father, William H. Gates Sr. [9] Presently acting as the co-chairman of the Gates Foundation, Gates Sr. has had a successful career establishing one of Seattle’s leading law firms, Preston Gates and Ellis, which became K&L Gates in 2007. Its work is closely tied to Bill Gates’ corporate/philanthropic network. Gates Sr. is also a director of the food giant Costco, where he sits on their board of directors alongside Charles Munger, the former vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. In 2003, Gates Sr. co-founded the Initiative for Global Development, which is a national network of business leaders that ostensibly champion “effective solutions to global poverty.” The dubious level of commitment this group has to truly solving global poverty can perhaps be best ascertained by the fact that the two co-chairs of the Initiative’s leadership council are the two former Secretaries of State, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell. Albright, Powell and Gates Sr. also serve as honorary chairs of another misnamed ‘democracy’-promoting project called the World Justice Project, which happens to obtain financial backing from two key weapons manufacturers, Boeing and General Electric. This project also receives support from Microsoft and the Gates Foundation, amongst others.
In 1995, Gates Sr. invited the longstanding birth control activist Suzanne Cluett to help him distribute his foundation’s resources. She then remained with the Gates’ philanthropies as associate director of global health strategies until her death in 2006. Prior to joining the Gates’ philanthropies, Cluett had obtained much experience in population control-related programming as she had spent 16 years as administrative vice president for the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH). The Gates Foundation’s focus here places it in a direct line with that of the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, which have a long history of promoting population control research around the world in line with US imperial interests.
Describing itself as an “international, nonprofit organization that creates sustainable, culturally relevant solutions, enabling communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health,” PATH had, in 2006, a total income of just over $130 million, of which 65% was derived from foundations, most of which it obtained from its major funding partner, the Gates Foundation. In 1995, PATH’s president, Gordon Perkin, was first approached by Gates Sr. for his advice on family planning issues. This relationship then blossomed over the years and eventually, in late 1999, Perkin stepped down as PATH’s president and became the head of the Gates Foundation’s new Global Health Program. This was not the first time that Perkin had directly worked on population control issues for liberal foundations. In 1964, he joined, as an associate medical director, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a group that was well supported by Ford and Rockefeller monies. Two years later, he moved to the Ford Foundation to work on population issues in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Mexico and Brazil, where he stayed until he created PATH in 1977.
Read more: http://chasvoice.blogspot.com/2012/03/subversion-of-america-by-corporate-rule.html#ixzz1q3kQCrrD 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

...part1/5.....Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness - Part III: The Corruptibility of Ideology. SupremeBoundlessWay.Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:45 CDT. After having read Part I and Part II of this three part series, the reader may be under the impression that I am somehow suggesting that in order to get things back on track for the world economy, politics, society, and the environment, etc., that we must return to good-old-fashioned values, like those that our forefathers so eloquently proclaimed and sacrificed to achieve. If you've come to that conclu-sion, I'd say that is to be expected. After all, we are all looking for the answer to the riddle of the times, and we are all turning to what we've been conditioned by societal life, to admire: namely those good-old-fashioned ideals - or at least good "new" ideals that reflect our societally established values. For instance: the ideals propounded in the US Declaration of Independence, were no less than glorious! And most Americans naturally feel great pride, when reminded of them. Indeed, it's a marvelous document, complete with some of the greatest and most attractive ideals ever put to parchment. The problem isn't the beautiful Truth expressed; the problem is that it was a lie! That's right! You've been tricked, we all have, for well more than two centuries now! We were spoon-fed a fantastic truism whose exemplifica-
tion was found only in the illustrious patrio-tism of folklore.The myth of the American Dream, was predicated foremost on the promise of hu-mankind's natural, unalienable equality and freedom. It was a Truth never delivered, pa-ralleled in deceit only by its utter impudence.
"America began with the invasion of a populated continent, and the genocide of its people. Once entrenched, it embraced enslavement of another race. With those pillars of State in place, it declared itself an independent nation in a testament that proclaimed the equality of all mankind. In that monumental act of hypocrisy, America's myth had its genesis." ~Paul F.Edwards & LannyCotler,ClassWarFilms.// But this series of essays, isn't really about the failure of the US to uphold it's founding ideals, nor is it an attempt to expound the problems caused as a result, or the solutions to those problems. I know it may seem that way, with just a quick read through Part I and Part II, and what you have read here so far,... but if I may rouse the reader to take a closer look, to contemplate the hard ground of what I'm getting at, you will see that what I am really saying, is that our problems (not just the big ones; not just the impending global nightmare we face) essentially stem from our inability to distinguish Truth from our ideas - even our very best ideas. This series is about our deeply embedded attachments to the ideas and ideals that provide comfort and solace in an otherwise uncertain, unfamiliar, and thereby, disagreeable reality - enabling us to ignore the most obvious, underlying con-structs of our Reality (including, but certainly not limited to, our unalienable Right to Li-berty, Equality and Happiness). It's about pee-ling back the felicitous yet fundamentally untrue veil disguising who we really are.

Anonymous said...

.....part2.....As such, I am not here to present you with "new" or "better" ideas to worship and identify with; I am here to burst your bubble, to show you why the ideas are unreliable to begin with - always have been, always will be.
What do I mean? Well, observe that all we have to do to have peace and harmony on Earth, is to agree with each other. If we can only agree, we'll be just fine! Now I've got you laughing good and hard, right? You see? We can't agree with one another, because we all have different ideas of how things should be - irrespective of how they actually are. The world is what it is; Truth IS what it IS; it's just our ideas about the world and about Truth, that are different. Unless we all have exactly the same idea, we can't seem to coincide in thought. ....(...) Moreover, it's nothing short of pervasive, the degradative power of this attachment to ideas. .... Observe that every single war ever fought in known history was spawned foremost in dis-continuity of perspective resultant from the idea that one People are in some way superior to another. We all have different ideas because we - as a greater society - do not Know Truth! It is hidden from us on purpose via various means, the greatest of which being ideology, and society at large has become so complacent, that it simply no longer cares - readily satisfied with the grand spectacle of it all. Most people, in fact, can't seem to distinguish between an idea and Reality. This is rather bizarre actually; it's like someone with an inability to distinguish between night and day! Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, it's no less ridiculous to me that someone can't tell the difference between Reality and their ideas about "reality", and yet - by hook or by crook - our human world is entirely idea based! ...... Most people rea-dily prefer political correctness, to objecti-vity; blind patriotism to Love for Humanity; superstition to sound scientific evidence; pre-suppositions to actuality; ideology to the de-mands of a situation; popular trends to prac-tical necessity; or simply just a deficient personal opinion, to what a little awareness could offer. Even when faced with a circumstance or prospect that does not fit the scope of so-meone's ideas, yet another very strange idea seeps in to "regain control" over the situation: the idea that it is somehow acceptable to ignore the reality that is staring you in the face.
And so, we remain trapped in a pervasive, ar-chetypical control system promulgated most principally on our collective willingness, to buy into it. Lack of Truth has never been the problem; it's the lies we believe in, that promote and sustain our plight. (This control system is hyper-dimensional in nature; existing through time, space, culture, consciousness, and what we can most aptly refer to as "unknown participants". Identification with and belief in complex, orchestrated ideologies - without Knowledge - binds us to a prison for the mind.) We are conditioned by our own unbeknownst accord to identify with myths, all the while believing with fervent conviction, that the myth is true.

Anonymous said...

....part3.... Thus we don't Know who we truly are, because we worship a false set of ideas which are neither objective nor in any way a functional approach to life in accord with Universal Law. ..... and that's why we ignore the obvious injustices in our world and the pathological corruption in our governments and economic systems - because we can't accept that we are a part of, or have put our trust in, something so morbid and dejected. We - as a society - have died to Truth, desensitizing ourselves enough to accept a brazenly fake societal order, that supplants objective Reality on almost every level possible. And we need this death just to cope, because if we face the fact that we have identified ourselves with something that isn't true, and yet that identity is all we know, then what we are left with - according to this unauthentic self - is the most terrifying prospect of all: you don't know who you are!
.... your identity is little more than a reflection of an addiction to artificial meaning. This is simply because it is much easier to deny Truth and objectivity in pre-
ference of the myth that "I am proud to be an American"; that "I am proud to be a republican"; ....etc.....We - as a society - want to be whatever "everyone else" is because that's what's easy; that's what allows us to "fit in". But it is very easy to control a people who think so narrowly, who believe that what they are is limited to an ideological status-quo - especially when that status-quo insists that you can be anything you want, regardless of who you are or where you come from - and if you can't, it's only your own fault; you were given an "equal" opportunity to succeed and to be an individual! ...(...)
This very cleverly crafted and manipulated ideological control system, insists that you may be free; that you may enjoy the American Dream of equality and happiness, so long as you make a lot of money. That idea may well have been quite reassuring and appealing a couple hundred years ago, for the droves of immigrants poring into the US to enjoy the fruit of their labors without having to bow before a class system or monarchy - never mind that 99% of them ended up as cheap labor and factory fodder for the industrial revolution (which just so happened to coincide thereabouts the same time as the dawning of the new "free and equal" society, with wide-open boarders and a sure-fire "American Dream" to boot... interesting that). And however much that amazing yet aggrandizing idea may have emboldened the backbone of a hard-working and commendable workforce, and roused a spirit of ingenuity that would change the face of the world, that idea is now, more obviously than ever, as obsolete as it is fantastical. And it has left us with a system of gluttonously shameless consumerism, with an inevitable and ever-increasing rate of inflation. ...... Is it not plain to see that within such a maladjusted paradigm the root of all evil - the love of money - promotes and even necessitates every kind of lying and cheating imaginable. "It's only business", we tell ourselves so callously. "It's just the price of success" - and that's presuming, of course, that "financial success" equates to "happiness".

Anonymous said...

..part4.....Did you read between the lines? It was only ever the "pursuit of happiness" that was promised, not the obtainment of it. It seems the "American Dream" and it's predication as that of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" .... has never really been held in any way separate from a staunch, capitalist motivation. In 1776 (again, interestingly, the exact year that the US Declaration of Inde-pendence was signed) the legendary political economist, Adam Smith - known as "the father of capitalism" - published his notorious work "The Wealth of Nations". Therein he encouraged the highly self-serving idea, that America and the modern world would come to embrace as the prime motivator and perpetuator of our socio-economic order: "[...the individual in society] intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other eases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. [...] By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it." ~Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations", 1776. So there it is: what's best for me is what's best for everyone! Really? That's very convenient for driving an ideology that is not only implicitly self-serving, but also sure to nurture and justify conformity to a highly warped social "norm". After all, if all I have to do is look out for myself (that being what is best for all) then I ought to just mimic the greedy, indulgent masses, and keep acquiring and consuming whatever and however, so to ensure my rightful place as a dutiful citizen - "it's my Right." ....... They mean, what is best for you according to the status-quo - that is, a highjacked, ideological control sys-tem, wherein your so-called freedom and liberty, are limited strictly to how much money you make and what you're willing to sacrifice in order to make it. Indeed that "invisible hand" that Smith based his entire model upon (purportedly, by ma-ny, an allusion to "God", or at least some unseen and greater force) seemed quite an enlightened concept - if only that concept had been applied to a culture, not imprisoned by fake ideas. There's an "invisible hand", alright, but it's not God's! ....(....) Our governments are so rampant with corruption, and have been for so long now, that it takes a legion of specialized attorneys, just to distinguish legal from illegal activities. Wall Street profiteers own everything and have fused with the government in an autocratic corporatism, the likes of which could only be classified as the work of evil genius. The People are bent over a barrel by the modern banking system that has become more akin to thuggish loan sharks - who take blood for money, and souls for prosperity. And the Powers That Be will do anything their pathological minds can think of, to maintain the control they incessantly and maniacally crave - all in the name of more for them and less for everyone else (and always under the guise of what's best for everyone).

Anonymous said...

....part5......Nowhere nor in anything can it be observed that capitalism is working, or that the founding ideals of liberty and equality are preserved, in any meaningful way whatsoever. And yet, many still buy into the myth; many still will not recognize the now overt oligarchy that rules them; and strangest of all, many still elect to defend this ideological nightmare to the last dying breath. Such people are deeply afflicted; this society-wide affliction is called "ponerogenesis". .....(....) http://www.sott.net/articles/show/243727-Life-Liberty-and-the-Pursuit-of-Happiness-Part-III-The-Corruptibility-of-Ideology *****
http://supremeboundlessway.com/2012/01/28/the-pursuit-of-happiness1/ ***
http://supremeboundlessway.com/2012/02/17/the-pursuit-of-happiness2/***
http://supremeboundlessway.com/2012/03/28/the-pursuit-of-happiness3/***
http://supremeboundlessway.com/about/ ...by Dr. Lincoln Bickford ... //SupremeBoundlessWay.com is a medium for the expression of Universal Truth — in so far as it may be expressed. The blog title is the English translation of an ancient esoteric practice which developed in China over centuries, and which today is known as Taichi Tao (“Supreme Boundless Way”).
http://supremeboundlessway.com/about-this-site/**********************************
The Power of Equanimity demonstrated by Bodhisattva Thích Quảng Đức, during his self-immolation in 1963, protesting the violent persecution of the Buddhist community, by the Roman Catholic government of Vietnam. Although engulfed in flames, Thích Quảng Đức was able to remain inspiringly composed in Meditation, until his body could no longer support it's life. Through Equanimity, he was able to Transcend the mortal body and Live on, an event symbolized in the remarkable fact that — while his entire body was destroyed by the flames — the monk's physical heart, remained completely intact and undamaged by the fire. The Heart is the Gate of Equanimous Resolve. http://supremeboundlessway.com/2011/12/28/in-the-eye-of-the-beholder-right-relationship-objective-judgement/ *************
Master Gregory James - Seven Suns Tai Chi - Everything about Seven Suns and Temple Style Tai Chi classes, locations and Master Gregory.
www.sevensunstaichi.org/master-gregory-james.html ***************
http://supremeboundlessway.com/ ...for more.....

Anonymous said...

http://chasvoice.blogspot.ca/2012/03/subversion-of-america-by-corporate-rule.html
source is: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=234614*******************
Bill Gates, philanthropy and social engineering.Posted on Sat, 15/01/2011 - 18:25. Author: Michael Barker.
Like many of the world's richest businessmen [1], Bill Gates believes in a special form of democracy, otherwise known as plutocracy....(....) Originally published in Variant, issue 35, July 2009, www.variant.org.uk/35texts/Philanthropy.html****The original version of the article was pre-sented as a refereed paper at the 2008 Aus-tralasian Political Science Association con-ference. It can be accessed in full, with more details on the connections and roles of individuals, corporations and philanthropic organisations, on Zmag: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18198******
*** Michael Barker is an independent researcher and writer who has written extensively on the subject of corporate philanthropy. His work and articles can be found at http://michaeljamesbarker.wordpress.com.
Case studies on corporate philanthropy Bill Gates Microsoft.
http://corporate-rule.co.uk/drupal/node/74