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Posted by Derrick Broze
\nThe Last American Vagabond<\/p>\n
In the first few months of 2020, business tycoon and billionaire Bill Gates saw his popularity soar through the roof. According to YouGov<\/span><\/a>, 58 percent of Americans polled about Gates had a positive opinion of him, he is equally liked by men and women, and both Boomers and Millennials adore him. Gates\u2019 popularity might have increased due to a viral Netflix documentary about his life being released in late 2019. Combine that positive press with a wave of media interviews seeking the guidance of the man who \u201cpredicted<\/span><\/a>\u201d the next major pandemic, and voila \u2013 <\/span>Bill Gates is a superhero here to save the planet from impending doom. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Of course, this rather cartoonish view ignores several incontrovertible facts, and a few strong theories regarding Gates\u2019 true intentions. First, the facts. Bill Gates has used his immense wealth to garner influence and media time, spreading his message of fixing global health issues while he continues to make billions. Using the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to dole out grants and donations, Gates has created a web of organizations who owe their budget to the foundation or answer directly to Gates. By tracing the Foundation\u2019s investments and Gates\u2019 relationships we can see that nearly every person involved in the fight against COVID-19 is tied to Gates or his foundation by two degrees or less<\/span><\/a>. This gives Bill Gates and his foundation an unchallenged influence over the response to the pandemic. Equally worrisome is Gates\u2019 call for global lock down until the entire world has been vaccinated and given a digital certificate to prove immunity.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, the theories: when taking a careful listen to several speeches and statements made by Gates, it becomes clear that he has a penchant for discussing reducing population growth. Despite \u201cfact checkers\u201d claiming Gates\u2019 words have been taken out of context, his words speak for themselves. He believes the population should be reduced or prevented from growing, and he believes this can be done with vaccines and healthcare.<\/p>\n As we attempt to peel back the layers of PR stunts and puff pieces<\/span><\/a> fawning over Bill Gates, we hope to illustrate that the man being propped up on the global stage and sold to the people as their savior, is anything but. Despite the apparent growth in support for Bill Gates, there is also evidence on social media that people are beginning to question him and challenge the savior narrative. This is the first step in unraveling Bill Gates\u2019 Web of Dark Money and Manipulation. <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n In 1994, the story goes, Bill Gates asked his father, William Gates Sr., to help him \u201cimprove reproductive and child health\u201d by founding and leading the William H. Gates Foundation. Gates Sr. agreed and by 2000, the Foundation was merged with the Gates Learning Foundation to become the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to the Foundation, Bill Gates has donated $36 billion<\/span><\/a> of his personal wealth to the foundation. The Foundation is estimated to be valued at $46.8 billion.<\/p>\n For the last two decades the Foundation has invested in a range of controversial companies and projects while pursuing their goal of improving global health and access to vaccines and reproductive care. This has all been done as part of Gates\u2019 plan to reshape his public image as that of a friendly and kind billionaire whose only aim is to help the world. The reality is much more suspect. <\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s take, for example, the Netflix documentary mentioned above, <\/i>Inside Bill\u2019s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates<\/i>. Rather than being a genuine look at the life and personality of Gates, the documentary failed to acknowledge conflicts of interest which might portray the film \u2013 and Bill Gates \u2013 in a different light. In a recent explosive investigation examining the reach of Gates\u2019 money, The Nation<\/i> noted that, \u201cin the first episode, director Davis Guggenheim underlines Gates\u2019s expansive intellect by interviewing Bernie Noe, described as a friend of Gates.\u201d<\/i> Noe goes on to tell of Gates reading 150 pages an hour with 90 percent retention. However, The Nation<\/i> reported, \u201cGuggenheim doesn\u2019t tell audiences that Noe is the principal of Lakeside School, a private institution to which the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given $80 million.\u201d<\/i> Coincidentally, this is the same school that the Gates\u2019 children attend<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, using the foundations wealth to influence media coverage is not new for Bill Gates. Although The Guardian claims editorial independence, their Global Development section is funded in part by The Gates Foundation<\/span><\/a>. The foundation has also given more than $9 million<\/span><\/a> to The Guardian, over $3 million<\/span><\/a> to NBC Universal, over $4 million<\/span><\/a> to French newspaper Le Monde, over $4.5 million<\/span><\/a> to NPR, $1 million<\/span><\/a> to Al-Jazeera, and $49 million<\/span><\/a> to the BBC\u2019s Media Action program. In light of these investments it\u2019s easy to understand how Gates could quickly organize a speaking tour of his favorite media outlets.<\/span><\/p>\n Corporate media outlets are not the only beneficiaries of the Gates foundation. They have also invested in controversial technologies and companies, including Monsanto, geoengineering, 5G technology, and vaccines.<\/span><\/p>\n MintPress News<\/i> recently reported<\/span><\/a> on how the Gates Foundation helped highly controversial<\/span><\/a> pharmaceutical and chemical giant Monsanto Corporation \u201c<\/i>gain a stronger foothold<\/i><\/span><\/a> in Africa.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0MPN also notes that the foundation funded a, \u201c<\/span>flawed clinical trial<\/i><\/span><\/a> of the HPV vaccine in India in 2009, where 23,000 impoverished girls aged 9-15 were exposed to potentially lethal drugs without even their parents\u2019 consent, leading to seven deaths.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n In 2010, it was also reported<\/span><\/a> that since 2007, Gates had given $4.5 million to study geoengineering methods for altering the stratosphere to reflect solar energy, techniques to filter carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, and brightening ocean clouds. Geoengineering is the deliberate mass scale manipulation of the weather for the stated purpose of reducing heating on the planet. The Guardian<\/i> previously noted<\/span><\/a> that Gates gives \u201c<\/span>an undisclosed sum\u201d to geoengineering proponent and Harvard professor David Keith. Gates also owns majority stake in Keith\u2019s geoengineering company, Carbon Engineering<\/span><\/a>. Prominent geoengineering researcher Ken Caldeira says he receives $375,000 a year from Gates and works for Intellectual Ventures<\/span><\/a>, a private geoengineering research company part-owned by Gates and run by Nathan Myhrvold, former head of technology at Microsoft. <\/span><\/p>\n The Foundation has also invested $10 million<\/span><\/a> towards developing antennas which will accelerate the roll out of controversial 5th generation cellular technology, otherwise known as 5G. <\/span><\/p>\n The concerns around Bill Gates fortune and his use of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to influence pet projects is not the only worry expressed by critics of the foundation. The larger \u2013 and more immediate \u2013 is that unelected billionaires like Gates are using their fortunes to shape public policy using their philanthropic foundations. This method of investing billions of dollars in the form of tax-deductible charity donations to private companies is allowing Gates to shape policy and profit by holding stock in the same companies supported by the Gates Foundation. <\/span><\/p>\n A recent <\/span>investigation by The Nation<\/i><\/span> uncovered more than 19,000 charitable grants from the Gates Foundation in the last two decades. They also found $2 billion in these tax-deductible charitable donations to private companies. Companies receiving these donations include GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, IBM, and NBC Universal Media. The Nation noted that the Gates Foundation has given $250 million to media companies and \u201cother groups to influence the news.\u201d The Nation<\/i> found close to $250 million in charitable grants from the Gates Foundation to companies in which the foundation holds corporate stocks and bonds: Merck, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Vodafone, Sanofi, Ericsson, LG, Medtronic, Teva, and numerous start-ups.<\/span><\/p>\n You might see the previous statement and ask, \u201chow can this be legal? Is it not a conflict of interest to hold stock in a company which you also give tax-free donations?\u201d<\/i> The simple fact is there are not rules or laws against doing exactly what the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are doing. While some might argue that Bill Gates\u2019 scheme is brilliant \u2013 donate your fortune by forming a foundation which can give tax-deductible donations to companies you partly own and reap profits while avoiding taxes \u2013 it is allowing him to hide his money in a myriad of ways. It has almost become impossible to track every donation, investment, or other partnership. <\/span><\/p>\n The Nation concluded, \u201cit is difficult to ignore the occasions where their charitable activities seem to serve mainly private interests, including theirs\u2014supporting the schools their children attend, the companies their foundation partly owns, and the special interest groups that defend wealthy Americans\u2014while generating billions of dollars in tax savings.\u201d<\/i> Other notable facts from the investigation include that the Gates Foundation\u2019s \u201c$50 billion endowment has generated $28.5 billion in investment income over the last five years\u201d while only giving away $23.5 billion in charitable grants. Additionally, a 2007 LA Times investigation<\/span><\/a> found that the organization was involved in subprime mortgage loans and for-profit hospitals which reportedly performed unneeded surgeries. The Gates Foundation is also reportedly invested in chocolate companies that use child labor. It would be a mistake to see the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as merely a vessel for a rich man to hide his money and reap immeasurable profits. No, the Foundation is \u201cmore than a collection of grants and projects\u201d says Dr David McCoy, a public health doctor and researcher at University College London and an advisor to the People\u2019s Health Movement. McCoy says the Foundation \u201coperates through an interconnected network of organizations and individuals across academia and the NGO and business sectors\u201d which allows Bill Gates to \u201cleverage\u201d influence\u201d in a kind of \u201cgroup think.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In part 2 of this investigation we will sift through the myriad of connections between Bill Gates, his foundation, and the many players involved in the COVID-19 response. We will also attempt to answer the essential question: Is Bill Gates a force for good or a force for harm?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nThe Global Influence of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation <\/span><\/h3>\n
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