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Bill Gates Shares His Memories of Donald Trump (cnn.com)
MSNBC recently published a video of Bill Gates telling his staff at the Gates Foundation that he had two meetings with Donald Trump since the president was elected. In the video, Gates says Trump doesn't know the difference between two sexually transmitted diseases -- human papillomavirus (HPV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) -- and that it was "scary" how much Trump knew about Gates' daughter's appearance. Gates also said he urged Trump to support innovation and technology during those meetings. CNN reports: Taking audience questions about his interactions with Trump at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation meeting, the former Microsoft honcho said he first met Trump in December 2016. He told the audience that Trump had previously come across his daughter, Jennifer, at a horse show in Florida. "And then about 20 minutes later he flew in on a helicopter to the same place," Gates said, according to video of the event broadcast by MSNBC late Thursday. "So clearly he had been driven away but he wanted to make a grand entrance in a helicopter. "Anyway, so when I first talked to him, it was actually kind of scary how much he knew about my daughter's appearance. Melinda (Gates' wife) didn't like that too well."
Gates also said he discussed science with Trump on two separate occasions, where he says the President questioned him on the difference between HIV and HPV. "In both of those two meetings, he asked me if vaccines weren't a bad thing because he was considering a commission to look into ill-effects of vaccines and somebody -- I think it was Robert Kennedy Jr. -- was advising him that vaccines were causing bad things. And I said no, that's a dead end, that would be a bad thing, don't do that. "Both times he wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV so I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other," Gates said.
Gates also said he discussed science with Trump on two separate occasions, where he says the President questioned him on the difference between HIV and HPV. "In both of those two meetings, he asked me if vaccines weren't a bad thing because he was considering a commission to look into ill-effects of vaccines and somebody -- I think it was Robert Kennedy Jr. -- was advising him that vaccines were causing bad things. And I said no, that's a dead end, that would be a bad thing, don't do that. "Both times he wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV so I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other," Gates said.
Sorry, just because something makes Trump look stupid doesn't mean it's biased against him. That he lacks basic knowledge on a wide range of issues is simply a fact, and a very big problem considering his job. Surprised you didn't go with "fake news"... is it because Trump himself admitted that what he calls 'fake news' is simply anything that portrays him in a negative light?
There's still people out there that believe Trump is making himself look foolish as some sort of 4d chess instead of the much better explanation that he is genuinely ignorant? Sad!
Bill Gates has kind of a cult of personality among working class Americans who see him as somebody who came up from nothing to become the richest man on earth. For some reason He's not lumped into the "elites" category like Jobs or Bezos. Not sure why, since he grew up wealthy and used his mom's connections to get an in with IBM and his dad's advice to take advantage of it, but go figure.
Anyway, him saying Trump is a bit of a buffoon is going to resonate with Trump voters. It'll be a significant hit to Trump's reputation with his base.
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Sorry, just because something makes Trump look stupid doesn't mean it's biased against him. That he lacks basic knowledge on a wide range of issues is simply a fact, and a very big problem considering his job
To me, the biggest condemnation of Trump is not that he's ill-informed - Lots of people are ill-informed on lots of things - It's that he has little interest in actually becoming informed. Obama read for hours each night - Briefing papers, books - You name it. Trump reads nothing.
Trying to figure out what aspect of this story actually merits coverage on Slashdot.
It's the ignorance, stupid!
Kind of hard to tell in Trump's case since he is also quite stupid and has been sheltered and protected from the normal consequences of his stupidity. His father was only the first person to pump in money to cover the losses from Trump's bad decisions.
However I think it is much more significant that Trump doesn't care about what he doesn't know. I insist that Trump regards Bill Gates as admirable, for the money, if nothing else, but Trump still doesn't care enough to listen to him. Any moderately educated person should know the difference between HIV and HPV, but Trump doesn't know and doesn't care. Actually, given Trump's sexual peccadilloes (or perhaps you prefer to describe it as "raging libido"), it would even be normal self-protection to know a LOT about sexually transmitted diseases, but "Trump don't know and Trump don't care."
Not sure of the exact numbers, but there are a lot of proudly ignorant fools in America, and many of them voted for Trump precisely because they felt that Trump's disdainful attitude towards knowing things made him a true representative of their views, the kind of "leader" they wanted to follow. Scare quotes on "leader" because if you're ignorant you can't actually lead since you have no idea where you're going. Normal peasants like you and I would merely fail hard when we stumble blindly into holes, but Trump has always gotten more money to pull him out and hide his failures.
There's another option: Learning from mistakes. I actually think there is a tiny bit of evidence that Trump has learned two things along the way. That's why he doesn't gamble with his own money now. His bankruptcies didn't teach him how to be a better businessman, but they did teach him to take his own cut up front and to make sure the contracts allow him to walk away when projects fail.
Trump has never learned that truth matters.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Interesting comment, but I never have the mod points to give. I used to get them from time to time, but that was many years ago. I think I pissed off Taco and and he put me on some kind of no-mod-points-for-you list...
Anyway, I think that's a confusing sense of "joy". My General Theory of Relatively Funny Stuff is that we laugh to learn. Normal people actually enjoy learning new things, and it's deeply linked to humor. So far I haven't been able to find a form of humor that is not linked in some way to learning stuff.
A few examples: Slapstick is funny because you are not the person getting hurt--but you are learning not to do those things by seeing the bad results. Children are always laughing because they are little learning machines, easily amused as they acquire new knowledge. Political humor depends upon knowing the political realities, which also explains why extremist right-wing humorists so often fail. Without reality they can't find the jokes. Since political humor is based on a contrast between the joke and the underlying reality, without the contrast the right-wing humorists can't make anyone laugh (though it is possible for honest conservatives to be funny).
Have you ever seen a video of Trump laughing? I haven't.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Sorry, just because something makes Trump look stupid doesn't mean it's biased against him. That he lacks basic knowledge on a wide range of issues is simply a fact, and a very big problem considering his job. Surprised you didn't go with "fake news"... is it because Trump himself admitted that what he calls 'fake news' is simply anything that portrays him in a negative light?
Scott Adams has an interesting insight on the two views of Donald Trump: one view has him as stupid and incompetent, and the other one has him as brilliant and capable.
His point being: each of these is a model of reality, so which is the better predictor?
Look at the predictions made about Trump using the "stupid incompetent" model:
Trump will never win the presidency
The economy will tank if Trump wins
Trump will get us into a nuclear war
Trump will start WWIII
End of the world
Numerous Hitler-like situations
There are even specific things that people have said about Trump:
"Every taunt back and forth between Trump and Kim Jong Un maked deescalation and diplomacy less possible" -- Ben Rhodes, via twitter
"Poll: What one thing will work with North Korea? a) Military strike (9%), b) Embargo or blockade (1%) c) A grand bargain w/China (4%) d) Trump has no idea (86%)" -- Bill Kristol, via twitter
So we're scientists here, we know that science works by making models and predicting outcomes, and when we have two models we throw one out and keep the one with the better predictions.
Which model is the better predictor for Trump?
If you still believe in the "stupid and incompetent" model, what future predictions can you make based on that model? And what specific criteria can we agree on to determine when those predictions have failed or succeeded?
That's right. I'd rather have a well-read, informed and intellectual President with whom I can have a good conversation than an anti-intellectual womanizing loudmouth who brings the country to peace and prosperity by however incomprehensible means. ... is what I believe most educated liberals think these days. Their biggest fear seems to be Trump ending up being right about things because how he gets there does not seem to make sense.
It's not OK for anyone in a position of authority to be that stupid. I want to agree with you, but it's just too much.
I voted for Obama and used to think that was a good thing. But what has it gotten us? Executive overreach,
That one is arguable. He saw the problems of the world and so how impossible it was to work with congress and just did the best he could. Did he overreach a few areas? Probably, but of course nothing compared to the Trump crime family.
"deteriorating race relations"
I think you are confusing cause and effect. Race relations didn't deteriorate, if they did really deteriorate, because of Obama. They deteriorated because of Obama's political opponents used race as a vile weapon to go after him with.
", increasing inequality,"
Been happening for ages. It is not new. Obama did the single most important thing to address it, by taking a stab at health care, and his approach while hardly perfect was "better". It was also all he could get done in that environment.
Yes, there are many other reasons. The absolutely fucking insane tax cut we just put in is going to make income inequality worse, since most of the money goes to those who already make a lot of money. Its also completely irresponsible, but that is another topic. Of course republicans would argue that income inequality in itself isn't bad. I tend to disagree. Past a certain point it distorts things too much and the markets basically fail.
" a stuttering recovery,"
Seems similar to the last one really from what I vaguely recall. There is no magic. People someone expect because something happened in the past under a vastly different set of circumstances that you can expect the same outcomes. Either way, the president doesn't have that much control there. The economy did well under Obama and I see no particularly sign that it will be magical under Trump. We are just feeling the effects of the heroin he pumped in (tax cuts), but the crash and burn will come eventually. The bills must be paid.
" a missed opportunity on health care reform"
Now here is where you are flat out lying. I watched the entire process. They got done what they could get done. It was amazingly close to failing. You think you can do better, maybe you should run for office?
", political polarization,"
Again, your confusing cause and effect here. Obama isn't a particularly polarizing guy. He is actually pretty much a centrist. the hate and polarization was ginned up by the right, including Fox news and all the rest. The polarization came because the right decided, one way and another to do anything to get rid of him. They stirred up the primary forces of hatred and bigotry and out came Trump out of their unholy cauldron of crap.
"and foreign policy disasters."
The biggest one I saw was making a promise on a reprisal that he decided not to do. Yah, wasn't a fan of that one, since the world must believe us, but then you bring in Mr. lying sack of shit with his 3000 plus lies and i'm like, really, we are still comparing that? I hate to break it to you, but the rest of the world, with the exception of I think Isreal and Russia saw us far better pre Trump.
"And the problem was exactly that Obama was really smart, wanted to do everything himself, and ended up micromanaging."
He did probably control more militarily than was a good idea, but Trump is the opposite, and seems to not do much at all. Neither are great solutions. Thankfully Trump isn't trying to control much since he is so ill informed and not interested in being informed that if he were to attempt it it would be an unmitigated disaster.
"Obama represents the hubris of technocrats, progressives, and intellectuals."
There is nothing wrong with being intelligent or educated, no matter how much the right pushes this drivel. I also never saw arrogance in his being.
"And it's Obama's miserable performance as president that paved the way for Trump." And yet histor
He'd need to do something positive first.
This is precisely the kind of partisan selective amnesia and bias that will guarantee a Trump 2020 reelection victory.
ISIS - No longer a major threat.
US economy - Heading back in the right direction.
N. Korea - Coming to the negotiating table.
That's just off the top of my head.
If you're incapable of giving credit where credit is due don't expect your criticisms to carry any weight with anybody outside your echo chamber. Even many life-long Democrats I know are disgusted with the Left at this point.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
CohibaVancouver opined:
To me, the biggest condemnation of Trump is not that he's ill-informed - Lots of people are ill-informed on lots of things - It's that he has little interest in actually becoming informed. Obama read for hours each night - Briefing papers, books - You name it. Trump reads nothing.
Sadly, it's actually worse than that.
It is quite clear that not only does Trump have, as you put it, "little interest" in becoming informed, but, instead, that he actively resists any attempt to provide him with information on subjects that trigger him.
It's also why he labells as "fake news" anything that displeases him. It's not that those things are factually inaccurate. It's that he just doesn't want to hear them ...
Check out my novel.
I'd agree, except Trump is a disaster for peace and prosperity. China and South Korea are primarily responsible for NK, not because Trump made threats and insults on Twitter, and his actions with Iran and Israel are extremely terrible for peace. Prosperity? Sure, if you're the 1%. His massive giveaway to them gave some crumbs to the middle class, at the expense of massive debt. I could list a bunch of policies from healthcare to education that are appallingly awful for the prosperity of the poor.
Trump supporters live in a fantasy world thinking his propaganda about things improving for everyone is true.
That is one of the most naive and fallacious things I have ever read. Gates isn't that smart, just wealthy, and he got that way by stealing and then abusing the resulting monopoly. There is no one to praise in this piece.
Your comments come down to saying "if Obama had only been totalitarian ruler of the country without opposition, then he could have done all these wonderful things for the country that he promised during his campaign".
Well, sorry, that's not the way the US works. When Obama promised something (improved race relations, more privacy, lower health care costs, etc.), he needed to take into account what opposition he would face and moderate his promises accordingly. He didn't do that, and that is exactly the kind of hubris that intellectuals often suffer from.
As for harnessing "disgusting and loathsome forces", that's how I and many others have come to view the Democratic party.
Yes. The universe owed it to Obama to behave ideally. Whenever anything in the universe fell short, it was the universe's fault, never Obama's. With the universe constantly failing him, there was no way he could accomplish his goals. It's very sad. Don't you feel sad?
There's no such expectation of Trump. Trump will have to succeed or fail with the actual, non-ideal universe, based on his own actions.
At least we won't have to feel sad.
Oh Please! A mummifed turd from Richard Nixon could have won against Shillary, as she was arrogant as fuck ("Its her turn"? Really? I didn't know POTUS was a birthright, I guess Shillary thought so), was caught on camera waaaaaaaayyy too many times flipping flopping and just plain old saying truly nasty shit (say what you want about Trump but I don't remembr him ever saying one race's young folks were "apex predators") and then of course there was her obvious brain damage (the woman was falling more than Gerald Ford, constantly choking, hacking, and looked like shit) and then Wikileaks came out and told us what most of us already figured out that she bought the DNC to fuck Bernie out of the running and was selling favors and outright lying to our faces as she told the pople one thing and told the bankers and foreign interests the other...oh and lets not forget taking a hammer to her cell phone, destroying evidence and having servers wiped...yup not suspicious behavior at all, nope. And having the media rush to tell us that none of that matters, just be good sheeple and vote for her or "you be an IST!"? Yeah all that did was make the media about as believable as Pravda.
Trump had no issue beating her because ANYBODY could beat Hillary Clinton, hell you could have propped up the rotting corpse of Ronnie Raygun and he would have beat her by 20 points! the Democrats could NOT have found a worse possible candidate if they had tried, but she was so fucking arrogant and had so much pull with the power brokers (still would like to see a full investigation in the Clinton Foundation, lots of skeletons there I bet) that she was able to buy her way onto the ticket...and everybody knew it. Trump could have came out the day before the election in a Borat mankini and did the "I'm too sexy" dance would have STILL won easily because THAT is how unlikeable Shillary was. Seriously look up her approval ratings before and after the election, even with the media prostrating themselves trying to kiss her ass even all that positive spin couldn't save her, she is Bill with NONE of the personality or charisma.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
It's completely irrational to support the spread of nuclear weapons. It's much better for all concerned if Japan never needs a nuclear program.
Play Command HQ online
While I smile about the joke, I disagree with the statement.
There is an obscene amount of H1-B visa abuse. But for any country to develop, it absolutely has to have open doors to skilled foreigners. Patriotism and all that crap is great for people who have nothing else to make them special. But for people who define themselves as engineers or scientists for example, the world needs to be globalist.
I moved to Norway from America 20 years ago... and I took on of their jobs. I took one of their women. I spread my seed in the country. I have worked 6 years as an IT instructor to make some extra money and have heavily influenced society and culture here. I often during breaks or to lighten the mood share more than just IT knowledge, but also things like what a Turducken is or what Bacon Explosion is. Many of my students have tried both. I work longer hours than the locals, I work harder than they do (almost universally), I produce more and I take more. In 20 years, while I'm fully functional in their language and by American standards am fluent at this point, I never speak their language to them except in rare cases. I work purely in English... though I leave them the option as to what language to speak to me in or send me e-mails in.
The only thing which differentiates me from what you see as an H1-B worker is my skin color. There are cultural differences, I directly "corrupt society" here. I change peoples habits, behavior, etc... but they also change mine and over time I've become much more like them. And because my skin is almost light enough to be Norwegian, I am welcomed and embraced. When I choose to change jobs, I insight bidding and package battles between companies... though to be fair, I rarely choose the best package in lieu of the best coworkers.
Understand than in 99% of all cases, immigrants imported in the spirit of the H1-B as opposed to the abuse of the H1-B are almost always the best and highest performing workers. They are the people most interested in being part of your society as well. They will hopefully bring the best parts of their culture and improve yours in the same way that a new spice will help your pasta sauce recipe.
H1-B is a really really really good thing if it can ever be brought under control.
I was just at Microsoft Build to update my knowledge "of the enemy" and learned a great deal and looking at the people I spoke with, I think America would be a much poorer place if the H1-Bs working at MS weren't there.
You mean the long history of peace between Iran and Israel is over?
Moving the embassy to Jerusalem was a major setback in that conflict, and pulling out of the Iran deal is a risk for our peace with them, not to mention destroying our credibility for other such arrangements. Then there's the little matter of appointing a notorious extreme warmonger named John Bolton.
Keep telling middle class people that the extra money in their paycheck is "crumbs".
Since the average amount they'll see is $20, I absolutely will.
Maybe not everyone, but individuals know whether things are improving for them or not. Unemployed people see the help wanted signs. Middle class people see the extra money in their paycheck. Investors see their 401k balance.
Plenty of people recognize things are not actually improving for them. Aside from the question of how much credit Trump deserves for unemployment, which is a whole debate in itself, of the other two things you've mentioned one is propaganda unless you think $20 is significant. The other is mostly a benefit for the wealthy; and if you really want to claim the gains the part of middle class with 401k holdings have seen is worth everything Trump has done, especially looking at the net after accelerated health insurance cost increases due to repealing the mandate without implementing any other cost control measures, that's kind of a weak argument for all the harm he's done to the poor, to our credibility, to our reputation, to our environment, to minorities, to immigrants including some legal ones, to civil rights in his Sessions appointment... and on and on.
You misspelled Trump.
sudo ergo sum
He doesn't want to be informed you say but he asked Gates for clarification on HPV vs HIV and you're mocking him. Makes no sense. Plus he's a 70+ year old repeatedly married man to whom HPV would be "noise" at best. It isn't relevant to his lifestyle and when he was reaching adulthood there was some awareness of "VD" and not a lot of differentiation like this is today in education. As your friends, see how high is awareness of HPV. I'm aware of the cancer links for certain strains, Gardasil, etc. but I'm a geek who has sex with other men so there's more pressure to have awareness of these things in that community.
. And it's Obama's miserable performance
Miserable performance in what? By all accounts and looking at it from a different country's perspective (i.e. I don't have skin in the game of your silly politics), he seemed to leave the country better in every way than he found it despite being mostly hamstrung in many key areas where he wanted to make a difference.
Your "missed opportunity on healthcare" is especially interesting on this given what he initially proposed and what the republicans who's support it needed eventually watered it down to.
Obama represents the hubris of technocrats, progressives, and intellectuals.
Reminds me of the Farage comments "people are sick of experts". That's Anti-intellectualism at its finest. A great way to run politics if your idea of politics is people bashing each other with sticks, and the muscliest man gets to impregnate all the women.
Exactly, the last Presidential election if the DNC and RNC had swapped rules on candidate nominations we would not have had Clinton and Trump. The super delegates directly and indirectly led to the nomination of Clinton, and if the RNC had the super delegate system would have led to the nomination of someone other than Trump. This doesn't mean either party needs to change its system, just that they aren't perfect systems.
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