Charlie Rose

wyr  03/04/2013 04:07 AM Report

Gates is a professional liar, crook and a thief trained by professional liars, crooks and thieves. These people speak, as they always have spoken, to their own and their cadres of lawyers. Gates is not an American businessman. He is not a World health authority. Gates is a monopoly administrator, a planner of planned obsolescence and, like Wallstreet; a student of who you have to buy and for what paltry amount.

Gelles  03/02/2013 07:01 AM Report

Post below was posted by error to the wrong discussion by Gates. It is way off the discussion at the end of January, and is repeated where it belongs at beginning of March on the polio deal, etc.

Gelles  03/02/2013 06:39 AM Report

These two icons of wealth and purpose of life (we here learn) would save as many lives as possible: that is certainly a good beginning.

Having saved the lives of babies and others, the icons want them to be educated better and keep as trim and healthy as possible: certainly a good next step.

Now come two REAL PROBLEMS:

..... a. GOVERNANCE.

..... b. EARNING A LIVING.

Associated with these two block busters, is an item they touched:

..... c. DEBT

Not much of their largesse is going to focus on solutions in these three areas of dysfunction that all these saved lives will find waiting for them, if they survive to keep the human race on planet earth in the future.

Of course, philanthropy supports our academic and political institutions whose job is to solve problems in governance, supply, demand and debt (as both debt and money). So we may say this interview had the bases covered. But did it amount to anything?

Paul Krugman is coming up to show us what needs doing NOW. Philanthropy is not an immediate thing -- business is that. And politics is its partner.

Some previous comment in this discussion by others does nothing to straighten out the fundamental questions that the richest smartest men in town have not touched with their heads or money. It leaves the audience no further ahead than if they had never bee born or never met.

finalfantasytown  03/01/2013 04:54 AM Report

Then I think I fully understand what James Cameron and the director were thinking when making Avatar. On certain level, I understand his experience on family. But I don't care about the hallucinatory evolutionary marriage. I mean life is for free.

winter  02/05/2013 11:19 PM Report

I wonder why Gates, when he infused 190 million dollars into Apple, during a time when Apple was on the ropes, he didn't require that Apple operating system use whatever operating system Microsoft was using at that time ...windows, dos? That would have boosted Microsoft and imagine in the future even a merger. Just speculating.

NeilMacCallister  02/05/2013 02:01 AM Report

Will Bill Gates ever nominate Barack Obama to be the Chief Executive Officer of MicroSoft Incorporated???

Why would he, ..or why would he not???

ShalomFreedman  02/03/2013 04:52 AM Report

Jim Grant who I had never heard of before clearly deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.

I would say that Bill and Melinda Gates do also.

I wonder however why his foundation spends only three billion dollars a year when the wealth of Gates and Buffett alone, not to mention the other major donors is so much greater than this.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/03/2013 04:16 AM Report

Bill tells us that the reputation for vaccines is very fragile.

In Nigeria someone running for office created a rumor that the polio vaccine sterilized women. They kill vaccinators in Pakistan and he says it is hard to know why.

Polio is still in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria with the majority in Nigeria. Working on 2018 to get it off the planet.

This might help Bill. When you watch "Zero Dark Thirty" and you see what the CIA does with the polio vaccine then perhaps you will see why they kill vaccinators in Pakistan.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/03/2013 02:30 AM Report

BIG STORY--Cutting childhood death in half—-BIG STORY.

12M child deaths under 5 in 1990 down to 6M by 2015.

Ethiopia is a star by cutting its childhood death rate by two-thirds. They did this by making primary health care CHEAP.

Hello, Ethiopia.

Ethiopia please send your plan to us where we spend 17% of our GDP on healthcare.

We need cheap primary health care as prevention.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/03/2013 02:17 AM Report

Yes, let us raise a glass and toast Jim Grant:

Nicholas D. Kristof wrote in 2008 that Grant, "a little-known American aid worker," had "probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Mao, and Stalin combined" through his promotion of vaccinations and diarrhea treatments.[2]

As UNICEF executive director he served in that position from January 1980 to January 1995. As Marcos Cueto mentioned in article, "Under Grant's dynamic leadership, UNICEF began to back away from a holistic approach to primary health care.

Grant believed that international agencies had to do their best with finite resources and short-lived local political opportunities. This meant translating general goals into time-bound specific actions.

A few years later, Grant organized a UNICEF book that proposed a “children’s revolution” and explained the 4 inexpensive interventions contained in GOBI. (GOBI stands for Growth monitoring of young children, Oral rehydration therapy, promotion of Breast feeding, and Immunization.)" [1]

On August 8, 1994, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President William Clinton.

Thank you Jim Grant who I had never heard before this interview.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/02/2013 02:58 AM Report

He tells us that test scores do not capture the entire picture, they don’t tell you where the teacher needs to improve, where the teacher uses time well, where they engage the class.

He says teachers should be observed via other trained teachers and principals and trained evaluators and even students. This will move students from the average to the top quartile.

Bill wants the schools to get the measurement working and fund the measurement with 2% of the salary budget. He says this can be a phenomenal tool to get education to achieve the goals we have in mind.

Yes Bill, it will help but fundamentally it is the Parents, the Parents, the Parents.

Frontline is all over it:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dropout-nation/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/education-of-michelle-rhee/

Bill, if you would have finished your degree we are sure that even at Harvard you would have had terrible teachers who did not engage the class nor who could speak English well enough to be understood. Perhaps you would have still done well because of what and how your parents taught you either directly or indirectly.

Measure the parents.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/02/2013 02:42 AM Report

Yes Bill--GET MEASUREMENT WORKING!!!

Thought you might be interested in this chart. I found it on Yahoo! Finance today. You can access the chart at the following link:

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=msft+Interactive#symbol=msft;range=my;compare=;indicator=volume;ch arttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;

We have the measurement so let's get it working!

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/02/2013 02:26 AM Report

He tells us philanthropy and government have no clear goals, no training and no measurement.

Yes, with that $130B worldwide then measurement is even more important than vaccinations and education.

First make the money count so good does not turn to bad.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/02/2013 02:21 AM Report

He tells us $130B worldwide in aid a year and $30B of this is from the US and if the US cuts 10% that is $3B and that is all his group does.

So yes measurement would be key when you look at these numbers.

We don't want to fill up some port or warehouse with food and have a warlord take the food and sell it for weapons nor have some stupid government leave the food in the port unless bribes are paid to get the food off the ships.

Yes, measure, measure, measure. Make that $3B count!!!

tabs  02/01/2013 04:35 PM Report

NOW COMES TABS:

It was ineviatable that Mr Gates would wake up one morning and understand that having climbed to the pinacle of success in the world, that it would be pointless to keep on adding to his mountain of wealth for wealths sake. The question was, to what USE could Mr Gates put all that wealth to work on. It was a no brainer that a self directed philantrophy was the answer for two reasons. First the money would not be frittered away and second it would give Mr Gate a noble enterprise to devote his time, energy and intellect on.

Mr Gates ARROGANCE is that he thinks that he can achieve the same level of success with philantrophy as he did in business. Further Mr Gates is a QUANTIFER, a measurer, the fallacy of that thinking is that if it is not measurable it really is speculative at best. This is to deny or to not take seriously the qualitative as existing in reality. It is only what is measurable(science) that can be proved as a reality.

The most important and revealing thing that Mr Gates said during the interview was that his IQ suffers if he does not get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. The second most important comment was that it was "a mistake" for Micro Soft to have not entered into a paticular market, which means that he made a mistake. This reveals a self evaluative quality to Mr Gates. The question then becomes to what extent and to what depth does this introspective quality go to? It is one thing to have an epiphany of light and quite another to wrestle with it in the night to understand how it really works in practice. Any Reasearcher would tell you that it takes 10 years to become a master of shall we say being a practioner of the art...(here one can define a scientist as being an artist).

As an aside Henry Ford I was quite enamoured with all things mechanical including early Steam Engines of the 18th century. There are several large industrial Steam engines that were used in English mines to pump the water out of them in the Dearborn museum.

finalfantasytown  02/01/2013 04:55 AM Report

I forgot mentioning how deep the Bo Xilai scandal is. I guess very long time ago, people of Shanxi and Henan and people of Northeast of China was neighbor with each other. But at that period, both of them didn't live in the mainland of China. They were seperated after immigrating into the mainland of China. The guess is not accurate but close.

finalfantasytown  01/31/2013 11:41 PM Report

I am not thinking the unchained Prometheus. I am thinking the chain.

finalfantasytown  01/31/2013 11:40 PM Report

Prometheus guile and another reason of lost second world war. In Greek myth, Prometheus was chained and tortured in Caucasus because of his particularly harsh betrayl. How to understand this and the disastrous consequence of lost war? Do you want to find connection? I try my best to help. Generally understand butterfly phenomenon; cooperation of Chinese communist party and Kuomin party during the war; tumbling in this world after war. China is the most important place in this world. I am very happy to make it clear by the end of Chinese dragon year.

Some of Gods, even Olympian Gods, lamented the punishment of Prometheus before.

In the coming Chinese snake year, Medusa, one of the most powerful human female, will be found out. I try to find out the word to describe the moment when turning human into stone.

Gelles  01/31/2013 09:30 PM Report

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12755#comment_94320

Comment # added to link below to this post

Gelles  01/31/2013 09:25 PM Report

Before I posted this comment I had to compose it on an Amazon forum because this forum has inadequate software.

..... Bill Gates mentioned that the information sciences revolution, which in practical terms involves the general public, consists of (a) the digitization of all language and stored information, (b) software and (c) the user interface.

..... In these three realms, his company, Microsoft, is a leader. Be this as it may, the fact is (for many this audience,) that Charlie Rose owes us the favor to ask his friend Jeff Bezos to help this forum allow infinite editing--something we need that Amazon forums shine at.

.

As usual, this CR Show was GREAT public TV. It allowed the full hour it took for CR to make an interviewee cough up matters that count.

Bill Gates' philanthropy is good, his firm MS is possibly tremendous.

..... At the end of the show, CR forced him to divulge the objectives of MS to compete in the cloud to enable the global public to better organize (a) what they KNOW, (b) what they DO, and (c) what COUNTS (IF civilization is to progress--and not die soon of ancient competitive drives that allowed evolution to create us--but also to arm-up for war that may momentarily end all life in a matter of minutes.)

..... If you're looking for these comments in the CR Show archives, they will be at: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12755

..... They will also be here at:

http://www.amazon.com/forum/money/ref=cm_cd_et_md_pl?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2Z4QLM0TFM7BS&cdMsgID=M xESQON49L9IJU&cdMsgNo=1&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx1GM507IB442VR#MxESQON49L9IJU

========== ========== ========== ==========

The Bill Gates interview began with Gates' idea that a book to read if you like is:

The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention

Bill Gates, concurred with the author William Rosen that--The Most Powerful Idea in the World --might be--THAT:

..... IF there is a MEASURE of progress ( relating to an objective) and you compare progress toward the objective with a plan, (using a "feedback" technique AND making sure you're doing this honestly), THEN progress will become more likely than it was before MEASURE was possible or sufficiently emphasized.

Then Gates and Rose discussed measures used in the realm of public health--such as infant mortality. Measures may reveal and highlight how corruption in government and business can possibly be minimized.

..... If you're on my wavelength, (not theirs,) you think the realms in most need of super-help are Political science, Law, and Economics.

..... Public health in giant nations is fair. In Scandinavia and the like, elite nations' public health is even better.

But Politics, Law and Economics in giant nations needs giant-size help--and a kick in the pants.

In elite nations, their examples are what the giants need--helped by philanthropy, maybe.

In these comments, but not on TV, (courtesy Max83) is a rational appeal to philanthropists to help giant nations (who will then help all nations) attack large structural problems with the way nations function, or don't function.

..... Quoting Bill Moyers and Arnold Hiatt, some in this audience (including me) think such problems "offer philanthropists a shot at a different kind of legacy--one that would make Jefferson and Lincoln proud."

Also in these comments and not on TV, REMant mentions: "we have our ordinary inflation and wealth distribution problems ...".

..... REMant's solutions to re-inflate a belief in Adam Smith's self-correcting laissez faire advice (which Smith, himself, never followed,) would make these problems ten-times worse. But at least he wants us all, including Gates ad Rose, to ponder such solutions--along with curing malaria and similar goals.

========== ========== ========== ==========

After Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley interviewed Ping Fu, a female Bill Gates, who has a great book to inspire us (as William Rosen's may):-

Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds

..... Her story may also be read at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_Fu

The Amazon marketing comments on the book are fascinating.

The Wikipedia entry on the book is somewhat disgusting to me: it repeats factual controversy over a remembrance of hell. I trust they will clean it up some day.

charliesheep  01/31/2013 08:32 PM Report

BILL GATES; SHOULD KNOW THIS- AS A 66 YEAR OLD-[MY TAKE] THE WORLD -I.E. AMERICA; IS A MIRROR FOR WHAT IS BOTH SAID AND DONE TO WIT;IN 50 YEARS AMERICA, HAS OVER SPENT ON DEFENSE,UNDER SPENT ON INFRASTRUCTURE,ROADS,SEWERS,PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY,I.E. DID ZERO; ON HIGH SPEED RAIL,LET "BIG"OIL RUN THE E.P.A.'S DEPT SINCE 1973,NO CAR IN AMERICA GETS 60 MILE TO GALLON[ BIG OIL'S HAND] BUT IN 1982 THE HONDA"CITY"

DID!,THERE'S NO "CLEAN" COAL[LIKE SAFE SEX] IN THE WORLD![CHINA],WIND AND SOLAR; DO POWER SMALL COUNTRIES TO ENERGY INDEPENDENCE[NOT US],SINCE 1970'S EDUCATION-EMPLOYMENT ARE "STAGED LIFETIME HANGINGS" FOR A DEBT BOUND[AMERICAN] SOCIETY THAT LIVES ON "BORROWED INCOME",THE A&M COLLEGES - SELL; R&D SLOTS;TO THOSE THAT FILL[THEIR] NEEDS[CAPITAL] OF[THEIR PEOPLE YOU KNOW]AS CORPORATIONS, WHO DON'T PAY FOR THE "REAL" [NEEDED] VOCATIONS THAT THEY "SHOULD" VEND OUT TO AMERICA, FOREVER!,SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR ; NOTICED,CIVICS AND ECONOMICS AREN'T TAUGHT IN SCHOOL[WHY; CORPORATE LAW IS ALL WE NEED]-ADDS TO THE DROP OUT RATE,WATER ISN'T, A GOVT RIGHT -OR A "PUBLIC HOLD" EITHER! -[BOONE PICKENS SAYS; "ITS A COMMODITY "SOLD TO HIGHEST BIDDER],CONGRESS; IS THE ATIGENT ARM OF; ROVIANS, KOCH BROS, A.L.E.C. "BIG" MONEY! [SEE, GORE'S BOOK]AMERICA'S THEME SONG; "ITS THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNEW IT"!,SO REALLY 'BILL"; IN THE REAL WORLD; MONEY,THE RICH ,THE LIARS,DRIVE THE BUS!--AND FEAST ON THE BONES ALL OTHERS AND YOUR CALCULATIONS HAVEN'T MADE A DENT, NOR HAVE YOU FOCUSED ON USING TALENTS TO FIX, ALL OF THE ABOVE; NOR WROUGHT DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY ON THESE!

turtlegirl  01/31/2013 07:35 PM Report

First, why can't we bring the video forward? I move the silver button and it moves but the video does not. Not great then to show just a portion to a class.

Next, loved when Mr. Gates talked about his sleep patterns...mine are the same.

Loved observing how genuinely happy he was. Did everyone notice that. And you could tell..it is not because he is rich but that he has meaning an purpose and that it is helping others. Sure money allows you to do that more, but he did not have to spend it doing that. He understands what really makes one happy!

As an educator I was not real happy with what he discussed on evaluating teachers or education. I am trained in evaluation and agree on his first points, but when he thinks you can ask students if teachers spend their time wisely, sorry they first do not understand all the dynamic and heck mine would say No exams etc. They do not understand everything they should to be able to answer that question properly. Age will make a huge difference also on their answers. Please do not misunderstand me, I think if we do change how we measure we can get some very useful information which can lead to wonderful changes but that paraticular example is not a great one and will not help convince teachers that is for sure. I did like what he said about tests not being able to measure everything and when he discussed observation, that to many times has problems. You can't have people who do not understand the discipline observing and judging. It is like having an air force pilot observing and judging a hair dresser...or vice versa. We need to have a serious conversation on what is needed in education today FIRST before we even get to the observation and evaluation part.

Please have him on again & go into more depth. I loved listening to his ideas and what he is doing. Maybe even a panel with President Clinton, Bill Gates, Al Gore, Warren Buffet and others. That would be awesome!

cpholgate  01/31/2013 03:58 PM Report

Why do the ultra rich always want to give away our public funds to foreign countries, sure they need help but let's spend OUR money here in the US. We should have a treasury that is overflowing considering the amount of tax that is collected. If he wants to give away his money that's his choice. Don't assume everyone else wants to do the same.

Max83  01/31/2013 03:55 PM Report

Thank you very much for this great interview and thank you for talking about American domestic politics, the most important topic of the day in my believe at the moment.

I need at least 9 hours of sleep to be on task :-) Most days it is actually 10 hours :-) , but I do a lot of dream work :-) I am a very active dreamer. Thomas Edison was too, so it makes sense that an inventive person like you needs a lot of sleep and stays late up into the night. There are less distractions at night and one can be more focused and work more effectively.

You probably know Kurt Kelty of Tesla Motors, he is one of my father's friends and an expert on battery technology:

Panasonic CES 2011 Kurt Kelty

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kmP4STUnC0

'' Uploaded on Jan 7, 2011

Kurt Kelty, Director of Battery Technology at Tesla Motors, talks at CES 2011 about the partnership with Panasonic and Tesla. Panasonic's Lithium-Ion Cell Technology powers Tesla's Electric Vehicles.''

I know that you are a close friend of Mr. Buffett Mr. Gates and I know that he really likes to drink his soft drinks every day, but unfortunately this might be what caused his recent health problems, especially around the prostate and cancer. I just wanted you to be aware of this, you probably already are, just so you can stay healthy and do your good work:

What's more dangerous - Pepsi or Coke?

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I6iDuUutho

'' Published on Jan 24, 2013

Scott Thill, Morphizm.com Wired Magazine joins Thom Hartmann. Even though it rots your teeth and helps to promote obesity and diabetes - millions of Americans drink soda every day. But - startling new research is out - and it should really sound the alarm bells for soda drinkers - especially men.''

I shared this letter to patriotic philanthropists by Billy Moyers several times already here on the comment sections, and I am sharing it again because I feel you could do a lot of good with very little. If you just matched the 45 million dollars annually that Bill Moyers and his friends already spent on political philanthropy, you could have a very positive impact on the American political and societal process in my opinion and 45 million Dollars would just be a little more than 1% of your annual budget at the foundation. Think about it or better dream about it :-)

Also I am very concerned that Mark Zuckerberg is supporting Gov. Christie politically and financially.

Betsy and Dick DeVos also admire Gov. Christie's work, which is not a good sign. See here: Gov. Chris Christie - AFC 2012 National Policy Summit Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2GsMlULhdY

The DeVos and Prince families from Michigan are some of the major donors to the right-wing think tank Council for National Policy: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_for_National_Policy

Betsy DeVos is the sister of Erik Prince of Blackwater infamy and is married to Dick DeVos heir to the Amway fortune. They are definitely Necons in my opinion and they are religious fundamentalists and their foundations support all kinds of shady think tanks, more information here at the Bridge Project: http://www.bridgeproject.com/ .

This is not good company Mr. Zuckerberg is keeping in my opinion.

I know politics these days is a very dirty business, but if we do not have good people get involved in the process America is really at risk.

Thanks again for everything you do.

Link: http://www.democracyjournal.org/27/an-open-letter-to-patriotic-philanthropists.php

''

Issue #27, Winter 2013

An Open Letter to Patriotic Philanthropists

Bill Moyers & Arnold Hiatt

Dear Fellow Citizen,

Shortly before the election last fall, The New York Times ran an editorial about the flood of independent money in the campaign. The editors noted, “The business interests behind those hundreds of millions are not going to give up the influence and the power that spending has given them. That’s the reason this unlimited money is so corrupting: win or lose, it binds lawmakers, corporations and special interests ever closer.”

If the Times’s readers could tolerate it, such editorials could run every day—and not just during elections.

Because others in this issue of Democracy are writing about the many dimensions of the problem, we won’t pile on. But we do want to point out that both of us have, for eight decades now, been witnesses to—and proud products of—the American experiment. And in that time we have never seen our democracy so utterly subjugated by the power of well-heeled special interests.

So, what can be done? A lot, is the answer. But here’s one simple idea: Help fund the groups that fight for political reform.

Both of us have been doing so for a long time—one as the president of a small family foundation whose benefactors were devoted to the renewal of democracy, one as an individual citizen concerned for his country. Over the years, we’ve collectively helped reform groups raise millions of dollars. But that’s only a thimble-sized sum compared to the need.

It’s been rewarding to see the many groups we’ve supported do so much with so few resources. But it’s also been painful to see them toil away in a long and losing battle, seriously outgunned on Capitol Hill by the lobbyists who profit from the current system, and outmaneuvered in the courts by the lawyers and justices who deem money the equal of speech.

How much do these reformers spend annually? An estimated $45 million. Only about .01 percent of total charitable giving in America (which was roughly $300 billion in 2011). It’s about one-fourth of what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spends annually (roughly $200 million in 2010), and roughly one-tenth of what Koch-related groups committed to spending in the 2012 elections to promote their agendas ($400 million, according to Politico).

The two of us could list most of the funders of reform on the back of a napkin. Like their grantees, they’re very capable and dedicated people who strive to accomplish much with few resources. Like us, many of them are frustrated that the pool of philanthropists has remained so consistently small over the years. And, also like us, many can’t keep investing in this cause much longer, not for lack of interest but for lack of resources.

Over the years, we’ve encountered various reasons why there is so little investment in reducing the power of Big Money over politics and policy-making: Good-government groups don’t do a good enough job of selling themselves and are too fractured along policy lines; money in politics is seen as a wonky issue that only liberals care about; philanthropy is increasingly focused on short-term “deliverables” and “quantifiable outcomes” and reform is too hard to measure in those terms; foundations are risk averse when it comes to supporting efforts that might be perceived as political. And the list goes on.

All of these are understandable concerns. But none of us can any longer afford to allow such arguments to stifle the flow of money into the struggle to save our democracy. Citizens United and super PACs have brought America to a historic juncture—one path leads toward oligarchy, the other toward representative government. Abraham Lincoln defined the latter as the American ideal. It was the cause of Thomas Paine, the Revolution, and the Constitutional Convention. Today it is the inspiration for good health care and a good education, for fair and competitive markets, for honest government, for a sustainable environment, and for a decent job and livelihood for everyone. For these promises to be kept, the deep pockets of the moneyed class must be countered, because to travel upstream of any major issue facing our country—from Too Big To Fail banks to climate change—is to encounter a small, extremely powerful group of well-connected and well-heeled interests controlling the flow of the stream.

That’s why it’s about time for others who are well connected and well heeled to provide a counterweight. When some people think about philanthropy, they think of building libraries and wings of hospitals, of endowing university chairs and curing diseases, of providing comfort to the afflicted, and preserving pristine lands. All noble goals. But beneath them lies a larger structural problem with the way our country functions, or doesn’t function. Helping solve that problem offers philanthropists a shot at a different kind of legacy—one that would make Jefferson and Lincoln proud.

Now is the time to invest in such a legacy. The tinder of public opinion is dry. In a recent Gallup poll, 87 percent of respondents said that ending government corruption should be a “very important” or an “extremely important” priority for the President. The only priority that ranked higher was job creation.

There are more than two dozen groups working mightily to ignite the popular movement necessary for rekindling the American Dream of justice for all. If patriotic philanthropists fail to meet the challenge, future editorials in The New York Times on money in politics will read less like urgent calls for change and more like obituaries.

Sincerely,

Bill Moyers & Arnold Hiatt''

anne4444  01/31/2013 02:25 PM Report

Thank you for sharing. Maybe he will help us to understand the software for telepathic communication. Hopefully we can unlock the secrecy of the universe.

REMant  01/31/2013 01:23 PM Report

Well, it's funny social statistics are so rare when they are as old as waves of reforms themselves, often preceding them, if not always anymore believable than those gun control advocates are slinging around today. We are told 30 are murdered with guns per day in this country (the FBI says 23.5), however less than one is with a rifle, and fewer still with an assault rifle, which is what they want to ban, and less than half that total per year in anything like a mass murder situation, and of that number, many fewer still are children. The president himself said that those making all this noise are going to have confront the fact that the situation is far different in rural areas than in their cities.

Ethiopia, BTW, is second only to China in the number of its children adopted by US parents, so I would not suppose them making all that much progress. But I don't mean to belittle Bill's efforts, just point out that it is also easily possible to lie, or at least fib, with statistics, as Ms Giffords did yesterday in an episode that could have just as well come out of the 1830's, and that plain old famine, conflict and sanitation are much more important issues than scarcity of vaccines and so forth. But vaccines, he said the last time he was on, are something they can do.

I would wish, however, that his foundation put as much effort in combating the central banks, which I'm certain greatly aggravates these things, and not only by diverting through their policies so much effort into military operations. Without them forcibly removing money from ppl's pockets it would not be possible for the govt to remain involved in these adventures.

Observations regarding our govt'l budget process such as his have also been made seemingly forever, without success. But rising health care costs, once more, reflect little more than our ordinary inflation and wealth distribution problems, and the fault of printing and spending money no one's earned, which is an highly regressive tax, despite favoring debtors, and with hazardous moral consequences as well.

Perversely the reason why the rest of the world looks to us for answers and police is similar to why rural populations move to cities: because they are being beggared by them. Population grows in such situations, as he noted. Those societies and families which can least afford them have more children and vice versa. In this country, too.

I agree that industrial productivity depends in the first instance on agricultural productivity.

But while I agree with desirability of moving to renewable energy sources and limiting CO2 emissions, it is still very much unproven that our current climate problems are related to it. It should be mentioned re natural gas that methane leaks are potentially worse than CO2. Geothermal has always struck me as the most practical and effective, along with ordinary things like better insulation, more efficient use, etc. As I've mentioned a few times, I would like to see electric vehicle batteries standardized and exchange terminals set up perhaps at gas stations so they wouldn't have to be bought, nor every place equipped to charge them. I expect one of these days pretty soon, we all be leasing and renting cars and trucks anyway.

Google it seems to me may still have a better database, but in every other respect Bing is IMHO much better, particularly in the area of relevant returns. A lot of ppl it appears want very badly to go back to exclusive buyer and seller relationships, which I think the search engines are the primary means of preventing. It took very little smarts to realize the Web would be meaningless if no one could find anything, and the development of apps that aim to stifle information and hence competition is certainly a step backwards. Privacy, I'd say, is now the big problem in moving computing forward, even more serious than security. And all the more so because it now increasingly involves govt, not just the private sector.