Slashdot Mirror
Think Tanks: How a Bill [Gates Agenda] Becomes a Law
theodp writes: The NY Times' Eric Lipton was just awarded a 2015 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting that shed light on how foreign powers buy influence at think tanks. So, it probably bears mentioning that Microsoft's 'two-pronged' National Talent Strategy (PDF) to increase K-12 CS education and the number of H-1B visas — which is on the verge of being codified into laws — was hatched at an influential Microsoft and Gates Foundation-backed think tank mentioned in Lipton's reporting, the Brookings Institution. In 2012, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a forum on STEM education and immigration reforms, where fabricating a crisis was discussed as a strategy to succeed with Microsoft's agenda after earlier lobbying attempts by Bill Gates and Microsoft had failed. "So, Brad [Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith]," asked the Brookings Institution's Darrell West at the event, "you're the only [one] who mentioned this topic of making the problem bigger. So, we galvanize action by really producing a crisis, I take it?" "Yeah," Smith replied (video). And, with the help of nonprofit organizations like Code.org and FWD.us that were founded shortly thereafter, a national K-12 CS and tech immigration crisis was indeed created.
with More Money than God.
Funny how little thinking goes on at think tanks.
This is a completely transparent attack by right-wingers on the left-wing Brookings Institute.
He's giving 90% of his wealth away before he dies[1], feeds the hungry in Africa[2], vaccinates populations at risk who don't have access to vaccines[3][4]. How can you say anything bad about the man? He only wants the best for the next generation of Americans.
[1] .. to buy products from the very companies he owns which increases their value and dividends .. with GMO produce that sterilizes rats after a few generations, gives cows and pigs organ problems, etc. .. using live polio virus (unlike what we get here), causing almost 50,000 children to be paralysed leaving the population worse off than before brushing it off as a statistic, part of keeping our society safe from disease. .. giving only one half of the vaccine for free, requiring the governments to buy the other half from his company
[2]
[3]
[4]
It'd be one thing if there was some recognition of even the more recent history in the country, but it seems like this posting can't even do that much.
And if you could read Latin or Ancient Greek, you'd find it is really old in nature. Vprobably
There isn't an US IT shortage, there is a shortage of US IT that will work for less then they are worth. Companies game H-1Bs and treat them more poorly than they could get away with. If one pushes laws to support this corruption don't be surprised when IT unions form to fight it.
We need a system less easily manipulated by people with money or hordes of mindless cultists.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
"bring awareness"? Yeah right, you mean "bring cheap student loans into university coffers"?
While I think there's a lot of valuing in pointing out how these types of situations evolve, are moved into policy, but I'm not sure this is the place to use the word fabricating.
The problem of not having enough talented engineers isn't a new one and has been echoed for years by many people. There may not have been enough people saying it loud enough, but the same is true of nearly every crisis that isn't a natural disaster. It takes someone with power of some sort to help raise awareness to those with power. There's always some tipping point. Someone who doesn't stop until everyone else pays attention. This seems pretty normal as far as I've seen in these situations.
MR. SMITH: "One of the things I've learned from all of the various anti-trust and intellectual property negotiations I've handled over the years is this, sometimes when a small problem proves intractable you have to make it bigger. You have to make the problem big enough so that the solution is exciting enough to galvanize people's attention..."
FUD.us.
These are similar in style and lack of ethics or engineering rigor to the manufactured "compatibility" that got an ISO standard published despite the shrieking of every sensible, competent, non-Microsoft funded voter at the conference. Numerous attendees and members of the IFC committees resigned in protest, and even Microsoft is incapable of following the actual spec. The result is that Microsoft continues to violate the spec they sponsored even in their own software, but bureaucrat without technical awareness or who were already buying Microsoft products can check off "standards compliant" on their checklist of software requirements.
They fight dirty. Take a good look at what happened in Massachusetts to the CIO who demanded software have actual API's so that people would be able to read documents in the future. They did a political hatchet job on him.
http://www.infoworld.com/artic...
Sorry about the abrubt ending and the misspelling.
Submitted a bit sooner than I intended.
Also this...
That alone just sounds bad.
And from the linked-to Code.org PowerPoint slide: "We CAN make this an issue like climate change." Btw, in a Reddit AMA at the time of Microsoft-backed Code.org's launch, CEO and Founder Hadi Partovi noted that his next-door-neighbor is Microsoft General Counsel and Code.org Board member Brad Smith, whose FWD.us bio notes is also responsible for Microsoft's philanthropic work.
Somebody has to manufacture a crisis to promote their agenda? Okay then...
Great, people in Washington decide to focus America's schools in yet, another issue, that is of minor importance. Just like No Child Left Behind pushed teaching to the test, or California requires teaching history of LGBT people in California, or minorities like George Washington Carver. The average student does not need to know about agriculture researchers. Students allocate a fixed and limited amount of attention to school, and taxpayers allocate only a limited amount of cash, for a limited number of classes. Already, complex topics have to be turned into sound bites. "The South declared independence because of slavery." "The Nazis killed millions of Jews, and undesirable races. That is why they are evil." "The American Revolution was caused by taxes without representation"
I hope John Oliver makes a segment out of this.
and then hire a bunch of Tata Indians to do the work for half price, leaving all these students with new diplomas no way to pay their student loans?
damn stupid program he's pushing. jump one way or jump the other way, but get off the barbed wire fence. that's electrified, too.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
He has to pay lip service to the 'lack of skilled US workers', even though the H1B workers will undercut the demand that is supposed to drive people into those careers
If you believe in free markets. then you have to let there be a vacuum in workers to create a demand for people to want to work those jobs because they will be worth more money
Supplementing the supply with H1B workers reduces the demand, which would drive US workers to seek those jobs
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Classic sock puppertry, a staple of Microsoft and now Gates techniques.
If the people of Kansas voted against a measure, create a pro-measure group "Kansas voters for change", that campaigns to stop outside interference and pretend the people of Kansas really want the measure.
Since politicians are susceptible to smoke and mirrors too, an d since they judge their success by campaign contributions, lob a few donations and a lot of noise the politicians way and they sign on like puppies.
Now is a good time to remind people that SourceWatch is a good site for learning about each new Corp$$$ front group:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/FWD.us
Capitalism has an outsized influence here. Primary education has always stressed "the three R's" (reading-writing-'rithmetic). Why? Because industry needs educated workers.
If you don't like it, I hear it's not that way in France and several other Western European countries.
....oh, you thought the point of education was to allow students to find a job? Ha ha, that went out of fashion sometime during the 1980s.
The main purpose of "education" is to transfer government money to universities via student's signatures.
After the university, a business before everything, has its money, you're on your own. University is about learning to learn, right? Well, you're in for some real-world learning!
MR. SMITH: "One of the things I've learned from all of the various anti-trust and intellectual property negotiations I've handled over the years is this, sometimes when a small problem proves intractable you have to make it bigger. You have to make the problem big enough so that the solution is exciting enough to galvanize people's attention..."
That actually makes my point. The summary states that they fabricated a crisis, but what you just posted shows that they thought it was a smaller problem that just needed to be made bigger to find a solution.
I don't think the powers behind Code.org and the B&M Gates Foundation care about bringing more students into unviersities. They are trying to bring more CS students into universities. Those students would probably be going to college anyway so it would be revenue-neutral for the schools.
If this is a real demand and supply problem. If it is a real damand problem, just make it more expensive to hiring foreign workers. For example, the companies who claims that they can't find Americans for the job should pay a special tax like say $50,000 every year to hiring each foreign worker. This will go a long way to address America deficit problems.
Lots of thinking goes on at think tanks. It's just not the sort any decent person wants going on. You shouldn't underestimate your enemy. They are well organized, highly motivated and well funded. They're fighting the best kind of war: one where the other side doesn't know there's a war on.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
our Constitution was written to keep these guys in power. That's why we have a senate & house instead of a parliament. But good luck changing that. Lots of people will agree with you until you suggest scraping the Constitution. They've had it pounded into them while they were young and defenseless that it's a sacred document and if only we just followed it none of this would happen. Nobody questions whether the deck was stacked from the get go...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Now that sounds familiar. Where else have we heard of a group of people doing that to effect social change?
The way to drive down wages and benefits is to increase the supply. The education and H1B both do that.
If Fabricating a Crisis is the rule of the game, why are we letting them having all the fun?
Lemme start with
1. Slashdot Beta
Your turn ...
There are plenty of qualified American engineers in all fields. The public has been lied to about this, but doesn't care because there is plenty of entertainment to distract us. Gates may not be a different man from the early days of Microsoft when he was quite a cutthroat. He may be continuing an agenda that has been in play for decades. I don't know the man. I know he has no qualms about lying with a smile, as he did to Congress about H-1B wages almost a decade ago. He is still out for corporate interests, while he helps cure malaria in Africa. He is a complex person. He is simultaneously selfish and generous. I don't trust Bill Gates.
What episode of Lost in Space was that?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Yep, it's standard operating procedure. Ordo ab chaos. The hand that offers help first is likely the one who had created the mess.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Microsoft is evil.
[That actually makes my point.]
No, quite the opposite.
[The summary states that they fabricated a crisis...]
Yes. And notably by:
turning [a smaller problem that just needed to be made bigger] into a crisis.
Yet, in a complete contradiction, you seem to imply that creating a crisis in this way (from a smaller problem) is actually NOT fabricating a crisis.
Now, although smaller problems can develop (or be deliberately fabricated) into crises, every problem we encounter in life is not necessarily a crisis (or become one).
In this instance, however, they specifically did FABRICATING. To claim they did not is willful disregard of the facts right in front of you.
Your "logic" is decidedly strange...
I guess they didn't sell very well.
Can't imagine why.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Am I the only one who read this and was searching their memory of the Matrix trilogy to figure out where Mr. Smith said that?
He has to pay lip service to the 'lack of skilled US workers', even though the H1B workers will undercut the demand that is supposed to drive people into those careers
Have you ever noticed only Indians seem to have all the required decades of skills and experience despite the fact those Indians are under 25 years of age?
"bring awareness"? Yeah right, you mean "bring cheap student loans into university coffers"?
College and university should be free for students with the expectation that upon graduation these people will have well-paying employment and contribute through taxation. Instead we have students graduating with significant debt and little in the way of career prospects.
That's because status quo was set up by the banks, who profit from these loans. They don't give a fuck about your career prospects, or anything else besides that which will line their pockets. Ever notice that when education is too expensive and enrollment drops (therefore meaning fewer loans), the government comes to the rescue with.... more loans. Which then increases the cost of education again, needing more loans to fix, lather rinse repeat.
That the public hasn't caught onto this scam and keeps falling for it is mindboggling. How many times do you have to get fooled before you won't get fooled again?
First, how are those dicks coming? Did they get cold because you left them too long? There's plenty more if you need additional helpings.
As to my emotional state... I'm not really offended at all. You just said something that was inaccurate and I went to the trouble to see if there were any validity to your position.
There wasn't. So I informed you that dicks were to be consumed in hearty quantities.
Eat up. :)
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
. . . only really works in the labor market we are told, since it is completely inoperative everywhere else!!!!!
And taken a bit further, with a bit more modern historical research, NAFTA was about the same thing: new regs allowing for foreign ownership of Mexican banks (within one year of the passage of NAFTA, or signing by Mexico, 90% of their banks became foreign owned), when then favor Big Agra, which speedily moves in to take over the agriculture industry, while payouts go to Mexican politicians favoring the privatizing of those farmlands occupied by Mexican subsistance farmers, who are then forced off their lands, and thus journey north to America, to continue the downward trend on wages at the lower levels, etc., etc., etc.
No, that was you.
If you can prove that the means and the ends are the same thing - your original claim - then provide a reliable citation.
My dictionary says the opposite.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
So the link in the summary: https://farm4.staticflickr.com... has a line that says "Jobs-students gap = $500b over 10 years". What exactly do they mean by this? That the increased wages over 10 years will cost them $500b unless they find a way to suppress them? Or are they claiming it is some sort of lost productivity cost?
Now you're changing your argument. You said everything I said was a bumper sticker. You did not say anything I said was inaccurate.
Case closed. Enjoy your bucket of dicks. ;)
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/f...
Casteism
Corporates are giant ponzi/pyramid scams in globlaization;
http://www.change.org/p/indepe...
Casteism
Hiring software engineers in the US, UK and Australia (3 countries I have worked) is very very difficult. And retaining skilled engineers is even harder. Engineers have one of the highest voluntary turnover rate of any profession because the opportunities elsewhere are immense.
And before I hear you claim that it is because companies just aren't paying enough, lets consider this: STEM jobs account for 7 out of 10 jobs of the highest paying jobs in the country according to this survey on glassdoor: http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/.... The other three are lawyer, finance manager, and tax manager.
So if the plan sounds insanely stupid... perhaps it's not the plan?
Perhaps it's time to stop hating on BillG just because he's not *nix-ey enough? Perhaps it's time to stop feeding the conspiracy theorists? Perhaps?
Naw, what am I thinking. This is /., home of the terminally insane.
The foundation is one of the biggest owners of Microsoft stock.
So when Billy G. lays off people, M$ stock rises and the foundation gets richer.
Laid off people pay the price, and Billy G gets the credit.
....for something that was common knowledge? Laws come to be based on which special interest group pays the most and which position will secure reelection. If you do not like this then advocate for term limits and only public lobbying. Anyone getting caught taking kickbacks gets fired from Congress. I know...won't happen.