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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?
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.
>"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."
Maybe, maybe not. I don't believe being "smart" was high on the list of his base's wishes this time- it was mostly that he:
1) Wasn't Hillary
2) Was purporting to be conservative
3) Wasn't an "establishment" politician
I think the vast majority of voters already knew he was a bit of a loud-mouth, bully, buffoon long before the election.... but I believe they very much wanted a shake up and not an Obama sequel. In my mind, there is no question that mission was accomplished. Being smart, charismatic, or well spoken don't necessarily mean having positions that voters will agree with, nor do they necessarily mean the candidate would have a better chance of getting anything accomplished.
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
I can collapse all your reasons down to one: Trump told his voters what they wanted to hear, regardless of the truth.
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.