Remember the days when nerds were not sexy? Well, they’re not, still. But for one thing, now they do dominate the world. Once relegated to the “weirdos” in movies and at your local school classes, now they rule. They dominate your world. Mr. Bill Gates, once the richest man on earth, has many titles at his disposal. He was once the top man at Microsoft and a fighter for intellectual property (what made him filthy rich). Now you can call him: health czar philanthropist at the moment, but… A woman’s guy? Never crossed my mind.
It seems that after saying ‘NO’ to opening the intellectual properties of Covid-19 vaccines to third world countries, all sorts of bad luck happened to Bill. First, there was the divorce, then allegations about an alleged relationship with a co-worker at Microsoft right before he left his position at the company. There were also talks about unappropriated advances to coworkers. Oh well, 2021, and that’s a new kind of nerd. Doesn’t help either that Mr. Gates had connections with Jeffrey Epstein. It seems his PR department is having a lot to deal with.
Anyhow, here is to the geek, the philanthropist (or vaccine elitist?), the ultimate nerd on a path (perhaps?) to redeem himself: Mr. Bill Gates.
Featured photo credit: Bill Gates faces allegations of questionable behavior. Photo Collage By Ted Talk & Bill Gates Book Launch Photoshoot.
Last modified December 10, 2021.
BIll Gates’ new challenges, scandals, and vaccine outrage
Table of Contents
Once the richest man on earth, Bill Gates now deals with more mundane, down-to-earth problems, such as how to navigate news of an alleged affair and ending a worldwide pandemic whilst keeping his monopolistic status through power.
He was the number one spot at Forbes, now Bill Gates has more to his plate: being the health czar of vaccines. You could not escape him in 2020, everywhere you looked there was him everywhere. Bill Gates was talking about how he intelligently warned the world in a Ted presentation. It was about how we’d get knocked out by a huge pandemic that would devastate everything.
I remember watching his interviews, I remember watching his Ted Talk, and the thinking that Mr. Gates was a God-sent to save us, a benevolent geek soul that once stopped his magnificent work at Microsoft to help spread knowledge about the vaccines and how not to do the same mistakes again. Such an incredible man. He that stood nothing at giving his money away to save everyone at the helm of this awful pandemic, right?
Doesn’t seem to help his case when we say that Mr. Gates has shares in vaccine companies. That his incredible power of intervention regards intellectual property is the same as when he worked at Microsoft. Nothing less than fierce. A resounding ‘NO’ was what Bill told the world about sharing the vaccine recipes with third-world countries. From now on, the deconstruction of Bill’s image was certain.
Ending his marriage and saving his image once more
Bill Gates’ long-term partnership with Melinda French Gates was set to end. The news was taken with a big “OK” because he seemed to be out to work a lot. Things got messy at home during the pandemic. Everybody hears now and then about relationships that ended because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The perks of being at home with your partner all the time are huge. But it seems to be more than just screams about food and towels; news surfaced about other relationships and women bothered by Mr. Gates at work, advances that might have helped to end the relationship.
Will the world watch as Bill Gates regain strength to his image once more? It reminds me of when Microsoft was the most powerful company in the world. Bill Gates was at the congress, testifying because his company was just too big, too powerful. Many called him arrogant during the testimony, it was showing. Then finally everything was settled, his slate cleaned. Then he left Microsoft to take care of his foundation, also leaving Berkshire Hathaway’s board, from his long-time friend Warren E. Buffet. Why? Many also thought about the true reason.
The Wall Street Journal Article
Ok, philanthropy… then the Wall Street Journal brings an explosive article about how in 2018, a Microsoft employee brought to the attention of the company, the fact both her and Mr. Gates initiated a sexual relationship that lasted for years. So, the real reason Bill might have stepped down from Microsoft was not simply philanthropy, but rather, a sexual relationship. That is new for a big nerd! He doesn’t seem to be a predator like Jeffrey Epstein, but rather your ‘usual’ (but extremely creepy) daddy asking girls out, bothering girls out for a dinner. That’s not ok.
Will the world accept this new Bill? A sort of woman-crazed, intellectual property protector? The fact is: all things considered; the vaccines’ big ‘NO’ seems to hurt his image way more. It raised outrage, and since, his Melinda Gates Foundation has adopted a rather thinner instance on the matter.
Who is Bill Gates
86-DOS from Tim Paterson and Windows rising
His story is as legendary as his company once was. Bill was born and raised in Seattle, and co-founded Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen, becoming the largest personal computer software company. IBM approached Gates about software for its upcoming PC, the industry-standard IBM PC. They did not have the software ready, nor did they build any, they simply proposed using the 86-DOS, made by Tim Paterson, and later adapted for the PC, delivering it for IBM as PC DOS for a $50,000 fee.
The prestige and the sales of DOS catapulted Microsoft to the position of a major player in the industry. Following in Apple’s footsteps, Microsoft then launched its first version of Windows in 1985, trying to push Apple’s competition away. DOS remained a part of windows until Windows XP.
Bill Gates and his bad temper
For people only trying to overly analyze Gates after the alleged women encounters, I bet they are trying to find glimpses of an overpowering persona or quirks that would announce a personality full of deviations, such as how he treated, or better, mistreated, his pears. Gates had a reputation for being distant and unreachable by phone. Also viewed as a combative person and berating people. He would also interrupt presentations with name callings and be sarcastic when finding people procrastinating at work.
The antitrust litigation in 1998 almost shattered his image; his deposition testimony was largely deemed as evasive and the truth of the matter is that Mr. Gates seemed to approve many decisions that lead to the business malpractices. Microsoft made him the world’s highest-earning billionaire in 2013. Bill Gates doesn’t hold the richest man title any longer, but it’s still talked about as such.
Meeting his ex-wife at Microsoft
If this was any other day, the part where I talk about Gates’ family would be just another matter, but after rounds of news, Melinda French Gates is most important. The couple married on a Hawaiian Island called Lanai on January 1, 1994. French was Gates’ co-worker, not directly, but enrolling as a Product Manager in 1987, so both could meet at the company. The couple didn’t mention reasons for the failing relationship, but many would point it due to Bill Gates’s alleged proposal to women and ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Vaccine debacle
He was largely criticized for being deemed anti-competitive, but after years at Microsoft he transitioned to a part-time role in 2008, so now he could work full-time at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Finally, Mr. Gates left his board positions at Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to focus solely on his philanthropic efforts, which has been reported as the world’s largest, culminating with his Covid-19 agenda and another image shattering event when he denied intellectuals property demands to countries the likes of India, position that the Melinda & Gates Foundation now has retracted partially.
The Microsoft Monopoly Scandal
Out to kill Java and Netscape
Bill’s story is Microsoft’s story, and so are its debacles. The company grew so much, and to such extent that it raised alarms with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), launching an investigation in the ‘90s on whether Microsoft was creating a monopoly. The DOJ picked it up, and then on May 18, 1998, attorneys generals of 20 different states filed antitrust charges against Microsoft, trying to determine if bundling additional programs into its operating system was a monopolistic act.
Microsoft was accused of making it hard for the consumer to install competing software on Windows PCs. It was most expressively claimed that Microsoft was using Windows and its bundled apps to kill out the Netscape browser, and Java. If this matter was to be true, the company practices would be deemed anti-competitive.
Microsoft, in turn, claimed that it was all about the jealousy of its competitors – it was argued that even with lots of options like Linux, and Macintosh, consumers demonstrated a preference for the operating system from Seattle, even if it wasn’t by any means, the most superior, yet, could run on any computers. The company also denied the allegations, claiming that the action represented intrusion brought up by companies that couldn’t compete on their merits alone, demonstrating contempt for antitrust law.
Baby Bills
The case was lost for Microsoft, and it was ruled that the company violated parts of the Sherman Antitrust Act, its position in the market constituted a monopoly that treated competition and innovation. The company should be divided into two, called “Baby Bills”, bringing Microsoft to appeal the decision, which was overturned; The case was rejected and the Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson was accused of unethical conduct after it was revealed he had private conversations with reporters about the trial while it was still ongoing.
Afterward, the company kept its assets all the same but had to share computing interfaces with other companies, making it easier for Microsoft competitors to get their software integrated with the Windows operating system. Even if invincible at the time, Microsoft lost ground to the competition, anyhow, the PC market is less important than ever, making it hard for Microsoft’s ability to use Windows power to make life hard for its peers.
The deposition tapes
The best in all of this was the antitrust trial, the videotaped deposition of Bill Gates. He had such contempt for the action. Microsoft said that it would make it impossible for his company to design products and conduct business as they saw fit. In the videos, it’s possible to see someone who never had to ask for a job or was ever mistreated, criticized or had to tolerate any challenges to his persona in any sort of way. This extreme out-of-touch with reality made the videos a portrayal of a leader not in control of his domain or a confident persona. It showed him weak. The Gates evasive strategy was evident throughout. You can check out a video below.
All of this speaks to someone who made fortune based solely on intellectual property. Surely BIll was not to leave its reign for anyone to rule over. I remember pretty well: The Windows system came full of “Microsoft stuff” and it was very difficult to opt-out. The most natural thing was just to leave it as is. Almost nothing has changed. Microsoft only lost its power because there were more options in the market it once ruled.
Bill Gates the health czar
The Covax program and Bill Gates influence
In 2020, you just could not escape Bill Gates. He was out to get you just as the Covid-19. That’s harsh. But every news organization wanted to chat with Bill Gates. They wanted to listen from him on how he predicted the pandemic. He resounded as someone so solid, smart, and helpful, giving out his money for charity. He was helping with the vaccine efforts. It’s interesting to point out, Jordan Schachtel, an independent journalist, said “In September of 2019, Bill Gates Spent $55MM on a pre-IPO equity investment into BioNTech, which later partnered with Pfizer to make its mRNA vaccine. That Gates investment is now worth over $550 million dollars.” What a … smart man, right?
Bill Gates was always a fan of intellectual property rights, pushing for a plan that would let companies hold exclusive rights to medicines. And yet, public money funded the vaccines. The Covax program, which depends on the charitable will of rich countries and pharma giants to provide vaccines to the world, has all of Gates’s vision intrinsic into its manners. Gates has such power and influence; it was a no-brainer that his vision would ultimately win. It’s tragic when you think about it: A philanthropist who was always in favor of IP rights at the helm of Microsoft, just couldn’t simply change that fast. Even if Bill moved his faith to help the global health crisis, he just could not help himself.
Pamphet handing at the WHO
The Gates foundation handed pamphlets at the WHO. They touted the benefits of monopoly patent rights and investing in approaches to the AIDS crisis that would preserve companies’ property rights. As before, Gates has repeatedly called for policies that help companies to exclude others from producing drugs. The same policies allowed his foundation to acquire substantial intellectual property, which continued during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“No” said Bill Gates to third-world country vaccine needs
Countries such as South Africa and India built a coalition to bring a patent waiver proposal to the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) council. Of course, Mr. Gates did continue to speak against this proposal, saying that waiving patent rights would not help poor countries scale up manufacturing, but instead, eliminate incentives for future research.
That’s no true: Vaccine companies have profited more than enough from their investments. Pfizer spent $ 3 billion in vaccine research and stand to make $ 26 billion in vaccine sales in 2021, not to include massive government subsidies, $ 12 billion from the US alone, seemingly covering the cost of the vaccine. Bill Gates seems to have taken on his bags from Microsoft to his new offices at Melinda & Gates Foundation, his commitment to monopolistic status.
The Multibillion-dollar man in charge of the world’s health decisions
It’s not enough to have huge companies deciding what we do with our cellphones. Now Multibillion-dollar Mogus also can decide what will be of our health. The pandemic has been good to Mr. Gates. Just in 2020, he added $ 18 billion to his fortune, standing at $131 billion. Bill Gates’ enormous power through his foundation means he has a say in how health policy is shaped. But despite Gates’ stated commitment to an equitable distribution of the vaccine, he remains refusing the calls for a waiver on patents. One wonders why…
The nerd and the women
Creeping out girls at work?
Nerd-turned-billionaire-turned-philanthropist now having his reputation scrutinized by the media after allegations of questionable behavior at work. Everybody knows it. The figure of the old man that always asks girls out, or is always trying to get to know better its peers at work. This was then, not any longer. Long were the days in which touching, and “going out requests” were normal. Now Mr. Gates faces a barrage of questions about his behavior at work both a Microsoft and at his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation offices.
The Microsoft affair
What is know is that Mr. Gates pursued women who worked for him at Microsoft and at his foundation. It was also noted that in 2019 Microsoft Board of directors, which Mr. Gates was part of, enrolled in an investigation to probe the veracity of one of those cases, after being notified that he had “sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000”, in the words of Frank X. Shaw, a Microsoft spokesman. The following year, Mr. Gates stepped down from Microsoft’s board.
Mr. Gates has met his ex-wife Melinda at the Microsoft parking lot, which should be noted. Many think that the ending of the relationship mounts to 2018. At this time. her husband handled a previously undisclosed harassment claim against his money manager. The matters were settled confidentially but Ms. French insisted on an outside investigation. Michael Larson remains on the job, though.
Connections with Jeffrey Epstein
Ms. French wasn’t as happy either with Gates’ friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. She had expressed discomfort with her husband spending time with him, but Mr. Gates continued doing so. After that, when the two men’s relationship burst into public view, she was unhappy enough to hire divorce lawyers, setting in motion a process that culminated with the May 2021 announcement that their marriage was ending.
See, folks, a pattern emerges. Melinda French Gates was always unhappy about her husband’s handling of matters, such as the harassment case, and the Jeffrey Epstein friendship. Unfortunately, Bill asking girls out at work, as ugly and deranged as it may sound, probably didn’t culminate with the relationship’s ending. He doesn’t seem to be a predator, but this sort of behavior is not welcome, nor should have been years past. What might have really killed the relationship was the pattern that emerged. The normalcy regarding the same themes: harassment, being friends with a sex offender, asking women out… It was just too much, even if it wasn’t a full-on affair.
Bill Gates’ shadow and the future
Will Bill Gates keep being influential in a post-Covid World?
Say as you may, but Bill Gates is a figure of our times. Billionaire, tech entrepreneur, philanthropist, all-seeing eye of the future? He shaped a company that, yes, drank from the waters of Xerox and Apple. Also using DOS from other folks to culminate on the IBM PC success. Many say the same tactics with Windows to bolster his immense fortune. But no one can deny that he may have helped to turn computing and the internet more assessable.
Even as time passes is unquestionable the reputable importance of Mr. Gates in the world, either through his charitable work or still from his Microsoft upbringing, he is important. He just doesn’t seem to think that poor countries should have the vaccine rights to vax all of their population. That’s a big problem. The affairs and the end of his relationship will also play a large role in how his image may be curated. What is true is that Mr. Gates was and is still is influential, for good or for bad.
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