Bill Gates, Just Like The Koch Brothers, Only With Better P.R.

From Techrights:

THE Gates Foundation continues to swindle the world.

GMO (e.g. Monsanto) monopoly is still on the agenda based on reports from CNET (part of CBS) and other CBS sites that highlight more patents on bananas, with investments from Bill Gates. They are of course pretending it’s about feeding hungry Africans, which is a common PR strategy, but it is really about profit. A lot of Gates-bribed media companies and blogs (bribed for silencing Gates criticism, plus the occasional grooming) might be able to keep the lies going some of the time (watch the Gates-funded Guardian publishing a disgraceful puff piece and other whitewash from the plutocrats’ fan press, Forbes), but they can’t keep the world from knowing that’s rather obvious to more and more people over time.

Well, “for a modest profit,” note reports, Bill Gates has just sold shares in private thugs. So only after public pressure and some profit Bill Gates distances self from G4S [1, 2, 3, 4]. It’s a shame that this did not receive even more media attention. It highlights the way Gates continues to rapidly increase his wealth while pretending to be giving it all away. It should be easy to see that he does this everywhere, essentially bribing to profit where it’s more challenging a task. He would bribe officials who stand in the way of his corporate ambitions. A common mistake to be made is assuming that Bill Gates ‘screwed up’ only with education when the reality of the matter is that he’s hardly any different from the Koch brothers, he just has better PR.

Educators have awoken to the harm Gates is doing in education, but according to Techrights. people haven't awoken to the harm Gates is doing in other areas of his philanthropy:

The most important point we wish to highlight is that not only in education does Gates do this. Perhaps the fact that teachers are smart led to the quick realisation that Gates was selfishly doing harm and there was a triumph over Gates’ well-funded PR operation, which includes bribing politicians and newspapers. We hope that in the coming years it will become a regular thing in the press to cover Gates’ abuses in many other areas, not just obvious ones like investment in oil giants, ALEC, G4S, tobacco, and GMO. Gates is a sociopath just like the Kochs, and one with pockets so deep that he can bribe a lot of people to bamboozle the majority and ridicule (at times even suspend/fire) his opposition. █

I've noted this before - Gates supposedly wants to give all his money away before he dies and he has well-publicized these efforts at his "philanthropy."

And yet, the more money he "gives away" through philanthropy, the wealthier he gets.

I posted about this back in January 2013:

Didn't Bill Gates Say He Wanted To Give Away Half Of His Money?

I seem to recall that Bill Gates, malanthropist extraordinaire, wanted to give away half his wealth for "good causes"before he died.

That's what Gates' Giving Pledge is all about.

So how is Bill Gates doing in his initiative?

Not so well - he's getting richer by the year:

Despite giving away a staggering $28million dollars in 2012, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates increased his wealth by $7billion this year.

And with a new net worth around $62.7billion, the 57-year-old Seattle native was named the richest tech billionaire by Bloomberg’s annual Billionaire’s Index.

...

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Index, which was published yesterday, Mr Gates earned some of his $7billion this year from a spike in Microsoft stocks, which went up 2 percent this year.

In addition, Business Insider reports that the philanthropist, who has given a sizable endowment to the Bill and Melina Gates Foundation, has capitalized a company called Cascade Investments.

In a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was revealed that Mr Gates owns shares in companies like Coca-Cola and tractor company John Deere & Co.

So much for the Giving Pledge.

Gates may play philanthropist at TEDx and his wife may play that role when Nick Kristof is helping her disseminate propaganda via the NY Times.

But Gates is above all a ruthless oligarch looking to wield power and maintain his privilege even as he makes believe he's got other motivations for his actions.

It's not a mistake that he is the second wealthiest man in the world and he's increasing his fortune astronomically even as many of the rest of us are having to work longer and harder for less and less.

The Gates Foundation, like the Broad Foundation and the Walton group and Bloomberg Philanthropy, promote "giving" that seems to benefit their bottom lines as well as their tax bills.

When it comes to these wealthy corporate criminals, you have to watch what they're doing, not listen to what they're saying (or what their publicists are saying.)

When you watch Gates closely, what you see is a man increasing his wealth by promoting harmful initiatives all over the globe that help increase that wealth (like GMO in Africa that uses Monsanto products or technology in classrooms and teacher training that promotes Microsoft products over Linux and Apple), yet playing a "good guy" in corporate media reports.

Wouldn't it be nice if the media exposed this?

I think it would, but Gates bought off some of the media too (see here and here.) 

Sometimes I hear educators say that Gates is just misguided in his education philanthropy, that he means to do well, as he does in his under philanthropric efforts.

The truth is, Bill Gates is not a well-meaning, misguided do-gooder - he is a sociopath who is only in the philanthropy game to further his own interests and power, aggrandize his own ego and control as much of the world as he can.

Those intentions become clearer by the year.

Just look at where he invests his money.

Just look at what he does in his philanthropic efforts, particularly around education and GMO's.

And just look how much richer he gets even as he pursues his "Giving Pledge" agenda.