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So when Bill Gates decides through the Gates Foundation to invest some $30 million of their hard earned money in a project, it is worth looking at.
No project is more interesting at the moment than a curious project in one of the world%u2019s most remote spots, Svalbard. Bill Gates is investing millions in a seed bank on the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean, some 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole. Svalbard is a barren piece of rock claimed by Norway and ceded in 1925 by international treaty (see map).
On this God-forsaken island Bill Gates is investing tens of his millions along with the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation and the Government of Norway, among others, in what is called the %u2018doomsday seed bank.%u2019 Officially the project is named the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard island group.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7529 - Reply to this comment
- I''''m bragging about how much the rich give to charities? Bragging? Uh, no. But they do give a lot. Ask Oprah, Bono, and every other billionaire how much they give.
Posted by standlee5 at 01:46 AM : Jan 25, 2008
Some wealthy folks are very generous and sincere I do agree with you to a certain extent - Reply to this comment
- New Emblem
The government announced today that it is changing its emblem from an eagle to a condom. This will more accurately reflect the governments'' political stance.
A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you are actually being screwed.
Damnn, it just doesn''t get more accurate than that! - Reply to this comment
- Or ask Bill Gates how about his foundation. Or the joining forces with Warren Buffet. Efficiency the govt. could never duplicate.
- Reply to this comment
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7529
Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic
Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don%u2019t
by F. William Engdahl
Global Research, December 4, 2007
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One thing Microsoft founder Bill Gates can%u2019t be accused of is sloth. He was already programming at 14, founded Microsoft at age 20 while still a student at Harvard. By 1995 he had been listed by Forbes as the world%u2019s richest man from being the largest shareholder in his Microsoft, a company which his relentless drive built into a de facto monopoly in software systems for personal computers.
In 2006 when most people in such a situation might think of retiring to a quiet Pacific island, Bill Gates decided to devote his energies to his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world%u2019s largest %u2018transparent%u2019 private foundation as it says, with a whopping $34.6 billion endowment and a legal necessity to spend $1.5 billion a year on charitable projects around the world to maintain its tax free charitable status. A gift from friend and business associate, mega-investor Warren Buffett in 2006, of some $30 billion worth of shares in Buffet%u2019s Berkshire Hathaway put the Gates%u2019 foundation into the league where it spends almost the amount of the entire annual budget of the United Nations%u2019 World Health Organization.
- Reply to this comment
- I''m bragging about how much the rich give to charities? Bragging? Uh, no. But they do give a lot. Ask Oprah, Bono, and every other billionaire how much they give.
- Reply to this comment
- And let''''''''s not forget how much money the "rich" donate to charities. They subsidize the poor with high taxes and with charitable foundations.
Posted by standlee5 at 01:15 AM : Jan 25, 2008
The richest nation on the planet and your bragging about what wealthy people give to charity it%u2019s not as though the rich don%u2019t take advantage of subsides.
Here%u2019s a good read for you
Free lunch
by David Cay Johnston - Reply to this comment
- mrconservative, yeah, you got me there. There''s nothing more repulsive than unbridled greed. I''m pretty sure if not our generation or the one after us will tax that inherited wealth. Which by the way I have no problem with. Just don''t call 5million estate wealthy. It''s not. Especially if it''s a family business. But billions and hundreds of billions. Yeah it''ll have to go to the govt or charities.
- Reply to this comment
- And let''''s not forget how much money the "rich" donate to charities. They subsidize the poor with high taxes and with charitable foundations.
Posted by standlee5 at 01:15 AM : Jan 25, 2008
BILL MOYERS: Donald Trump.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Donald Trump benefits from a tax specifically levied by the State of New Jersey for the poor. Part of the casino winnings tax in New Jersey is dedicated to help the poor. But $89 million of it is being diverted to subsidize Donald Trump''s casino''s building retail space.
BILL MOYERS: How does that happen?
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Political connection, the news media not paying enough attention,
BILL MOYERS: The New York Yankees.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: George Steinbrenner, like almost every owner of a major sports franchise, gets enormous public subsidies. And Steinbrenner is getting more than $600 million for the new Yankee Stadium on-
BILL MOYERS: From the public?
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: From the public But, you know, the major sports franchises which are, first of all, exempted from the laws of economic competition. So-
BILL MOYERS: Yeah, a monopoly.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: That''s right. Irony is not dead. They derive, I show in Free Lunch, 100 percent of their profits from subsidies. - Reply to this comment
Posted by standlee5 at 01:15 AM : Jan 25, 2008
BILL MOYERS: Yeah, the theme of the book as I read it is that not that the rich are getting richer but that they''''ve got the government rigging the rules to help them do it.
BILL MOYERS: George W. Bush.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Well, this is one-- this is a great irony. George Bush owes almost his entire fortune to a tax increase that was funneled into his pocket and into the use of eminent domain laws to essentially legally cheat other people out of their land for less than it was worth to enrich him and his fellow investors.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: One of the key sources I quote is a prominent Republican lawyer married to a United States senator who is the expert in Texas on municipal finance. The subsidy, he says, is $202.5 million. And Bush and his partners captured about 168 million of it.
BILL MOYERS: Bush, you say, used eminent domain to claim the land on which the stadium was built, right?
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Right.
BILL MOYERS: And Bush advised his investors, his co-investors this is a sweet deal %u2026
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Oh, yeah. He said that I mean, here''s this money losing team. It''s got this little stadium. It can''t make money. But if we can get a stadium built, it''ll be worth a lot of money. And that''s going on all over the country. All you have to do is get the stadium built and we''ll-- you''ll be rich.- Reply to this comment
- And let''''s not forget how much money the "rich" donate to charities. They subsidize the poor with high taxes and with charitable foundations.
Posted by standlee5 at 01:15 AM : Jan 25, 2008
BILL MOYERS: Yeah, the theme of the book as I read it is that not that the rich are getting richer but that they''ve got the government rigging the rules to help them do it.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: That''s exactly right. And they''re doing it in a way that I think is very crucial for people to understand. They''re doing it by taking from those with less to give to those with more. So the other moral authority I cite in the book is the Bible, both the Old Testament and the new. And all the way through those two books you can read condemnation after condemnation of taking from the poor to benefit the rich. You will come to ruin, it says in the Old Testament, if you give to the rich and yet that''s what we''re doing. We gave $100 million dollars to Warren Buffett''s company last year, a gift from the taxpayers. We make gifts all over the place to rich people. And yet the way the news media write about it, people are often very unaware of this because we use complicated terms and meaningless language to the average reader so they don''t understand what''s happened. - Reply to this comment
- Yep standlee5 "Let them eat cake" right?
"are there NO WORKHOUSES?"
"Please, May I have more porridge?"
YOU must be familiar with and taking advantage of all those programs I''m NOT.
The ones I''ve looked at ALWAYS have a disqualifying catch that makes me ineligible.
SELFISH Pathetic excuses for human beings haughtily DEFENDING GREED.
Who said it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven?
Oh, I forgot ..YOU WORSHIP the MONEY GOD.
At least Warren Buffet was SO embarrassed by the inequities that he PUBLICLY POINTED THEM OUT. - Reply to this comment
- The working poor pay a hidden tax. It''s called getting up every day to do the grunt work in this country for sh*t wages. Sorry, we all can''t work in high paying jobs that require an advanced degree. Someone has to scrub the toilets and work the thankless customer service jobs in this country.
The working poor have no bargaining power. They are not unionized. The wages on the lower end are artificially low in this wealthy country we live in. $7 an hour, take it or go homeless. Sure they could rob a bank instead, but unlike the rich, they are too honest. Wal-mart became the largest company in the world by exploiting the poor - its workers and customers. A nickel here, a dime there. Soon it adds up to billions. - Reply to this comment
- And let''s not forget how much money the "rich" donate to charities. They subsidize the poor with high taxes and with charitable foundations.
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- dakotaclark You Found the "catch".
I predict that before this "negotiation" is over it''s going to be just like when George got in.
LOTS of fancy "promises and LIES about fairness and prosperity.
Then a HUGE GIVEAWAY to those lobbyist buddies who LEAST NEED IT and a LOT of BADMOUTHING of the people who GOT NOTHING to shut them up, embarrass and intimidate them.
It''s ALREADY STARTED on this board with numerous NECONARTISTS mouthing off LIES about the "ungrateful greedy poor that "pay nothing".
They DEMAND the messed over should shut up rather than point out that what''s going on is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT THE FED RECOMMENDED to help slow down the coming DEPRESSION!!!
The Robber Baron Apologists and Wannabees don''t give a rats behind about anything or any one but themselves. - Reply to this comment
The Do-Nothing Congressional War-****** are at it again...- Reply to this comment
- I think many of the "poor" have never been taught anything different. The people I''ve come to know have no concept of saving. It''s they can''t but the reality is they can. If they are taught and they start young anybody and I mean ANYBODY can get ahead and even become wealthy. THat is what the "poor" are missing and I blame that squarely on the school system.
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- Homespun lady - it was all so much clearer when there were only two classes: slaves and slaveowners. All I know is, when I work overtime I''m taxed at the rate of 40%. When Warren Buffet makes a billion, he''s taxed at 15% because it''s not income, it''s capital gains. That is obscenity folks. Oh, but the poor got a break with capital gains - their rate is only 5%. Only trouble is the poor are too poor to even contemplate having income from capital gains. If Buffet is taxed at the same 40% I''m taxed at, he''ll still be making capital gains - he''ll just get to keep less of them. The 40% tax rate doesn''t stop me from working overtime and it won''t stop the rich from getting rich. They''ll just won''t be as rich.
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- homespunlady, I doubt if the poor in Marie Antoinette''s days were given large sums of EITC "tax refunds". Free housing, food, preschool, windfall EITC tax refunds, free medical. We have more programs for the poor than anyone can even keep track of. It''s those of us who work and OWN property that pay the bulk of taxes.
- Reply to this comment
- BTW
The total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly equal to that of the the bottom 166 million, analysis of the report showed.
Translation:
Top 3 million (1 percent of the population) income (NOT ASSETS which is by FAR greater) is roughly equal to the bottom 166 million (55 to 56 percent of the population).
Top 1 percent in the US received IN 2005 (it''s by far WORSE NOW) about the SAME total INCOME as the Bottom half to 2/3 of the ENTIRE American population.
When is ENOUGH going to be ENOUGH for the PROFITEERS?
When the TOP 1 percent has MORE than 90 PERCENT of all the Rest put together in America?
Or will they KEEP trying to take MORE AND MORE until they HAVE EVERYTHING and America is DEAD.
Freaking maggot BANANA REPUBLIC Wannabees! - Reply to this comment
How gold pays for 
