Author | Lightnews

Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 3h

I wouldn't call it ass-kissing, more like "manipulating him with shiny objects".

Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 4h

He didn't say no one cares about it, he said it's still extremely important, but helping people who desperately need help today is more urgent and a more effective use of his philanthropic money. Again, I encourage everyone to read his "Gates Notes".

Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 4h

We can argue about Gates' idea that nuclear energy should be an important part of the energy transition, but that's irrelevant to the fact that he's decided to redirect his money toward direct aid to people and humanitarian organizations who need help right now.

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 4h

I think he's right. $8 billion can immediately improve the lives of millions of people afflicted by poverty, hunger and sickness today, but it's a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the investments needed for a global transition to clean energy.

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 4h

He's decided that his $8 billion per year can do the most good by helping poor people right now, while in the meantime he advocates for new technologies and improved agricultural and industrial systems that can reduce emissions in the coming years and decades.

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 4h

Quote from Gates' Notes: "Lower emissions will eventually lead to fewer devastating losses, but today’s farmers don’t have time to wait for the climate to stabilize. They need to raise their incomes and feed their families now."

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 4h

It's not zero sum, but even Bill Gates doesn't have anywhere near enough money to address everything all at once. He's arguing for a long-term strategy of aggressively lowering carbon dioxide emissions alongside a short-term strategy of helping poor people who desperately need help right now.

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 5h

He's sticking up for and helping millions of poor people all around the world whose lives and health are perpetually in grave danger because nobody else is bothering to help them. Other billionaires could do the same, but they don't. I reserve my enmity for them. Very straightforward.

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 5h

I encourage everyone to read what Gates wrote. He acknowledges that the climate crisis is very real and very serious, and explains why he decided that the most impactful use of his money is to help poor people who are suffering from the effects of climate change. www.gatesnotes.com/home/home-pa...

www.gatesnotes.com

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 5h

Spending $8,000,000,000 per year to help people in dire need is one really, really, really, really good thing. It's not his personal responsibility to solve a climate problem that the world's governments and businesses decline to address with their hundreds of trillions of dollars.

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 5h

These are good caricatures from Ramirez, which makes me wonder why he always drew Biden with a weird anvil-shaped head (despite Biden's most distinguishing feature being his tall narrow head).

Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 5h

I have a biologist colleague who has received many years of Gates Foundation funding to work on neglected tropical diseases (diseases that are preventable and treatable but nonetheless ravage people in Africa and South America due to a lack of government and private industry funding).

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 5h

I'll stand up for Bill Gates. I appreciate a billionaire who's spent decades pouring billions of philanthropic dollars per year into helping people afflicted with poverty, hunger and disease. Whatever his flaws, he's doing that. www.gatesfoundation.org/about

About | Gates Foundation

Our mission is to create a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life.

www.gatesfoundation.org

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 6h

Which was absurd. It was Clinton who addressed voters' economic anxieties, but voters didn't hear it because the press was too bored by her policy proposals to write about them. Instead they wrote endlessly about Trump's tirades against immigrants and other threats to "traditional" Americans.

Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 6h

Great to see a political scholar bring the data! This has driven me crazy since 2016, when Clinton ran hard on detailed policies tailored to bring economic help to working people and families, yet the pundits' post-mortem was "Trump won because he addressed voters' economic anxieties".

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 17h

What the heck does he do all day?

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 18h

No, don't tell him! We want to know every time he takes a cognitive test! If he's doing it monthly, maybe reporters will start asking questions.

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 21h

Trump has demonstrated that a criminal president can and will use the pardon power to protect the people who commit crimes on his orders or on his behalf, and will use the promise of pardons to recruit minions to commit crimes for him. It's a medieval relic of monarchy. It has to end.

Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 21h

Great, but it would be even better if the two of you declared that we should pass a constitutional amendment to end the presidential pardon power, and then spent the next three years pushing for it every time Trump pardons a corrupt crony, and used it as a campaign issue.

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 22h

Translation: I'm going to order you to commit war crimes, and I expect you to do it.

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Mark Brandriss @markbrandriss.bsky.social · 22h

He's a disgrace to the United States of America. A despotic imbecile.

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Reposted by Mark Brandriss

MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 1d

Mike Johnson describes Trump’s mental decline and unhinged behavior.

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Reposted by Mark Brandriss

Fred in BFE @traplife.bsky.social · 1d

Before the election, my MAGA focus group said their top priorities were releasing the Epstein files and getting the US out of foreign entanglements. Today, they say their priorities are stabilizing Argentina’s economy and funding the White House State Ballroom construction project.

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Reposted by Mark Brandriss

Bonnie Johnson @bonjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

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Reposted by Mark Brandriss

Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 1d

The decline isn’t subtle anymore.

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