this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2026
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The divorce cost Billy at least $8 billion. When it was announced after it was revealed that Bill was on THE plane, I thought it was probably that--the reason they got divorced. But, there was always some doubt, maybe it was coincidence, maybe it was just the straw on the camel's back, and it's more that Bill is generally a shitty person, just like every other billionaire. The more that comes out, the more it's obvious this was more than a single straw. She didn't know how far he went, she was blind-sided. I can only imagine what that argument and following negotiation was like, and what she knows, that she signed an NDA to never reveal in exchange for the money.
In the end, all billionaires are bad, even Melinda. She took the payout to shut up. She's "using it for good", but that's as much bullshit as it was when she was with Bill.
NDAs to hide crimes are illegal and unenforceable.
They're literally extortion.
Would you gamble legality over the power these people have, though? Laws don’t really work for these people. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if her life had been threatened if she revealed anything. Maybe not by Bill directly, but by one from their in-crowd at least.
These people have “fixers”. They’re probably on the books as something like “security consultant.” Possibly at Microsoft itself. I’ve seen people at other companies who have had to deal with this kind of thing for speaking up. These people are literally paid bully threatening assholes with a company’s tech backing for cyberstalking and the lawyers on retainer to back them up. Wouldn’t surprise me if Bill would sick such a person on his wife.
Microsoft contracts with the Pinkertons for private security.
Yes - those Pinkersons.
The Pinkertons of MtG fame? deep shock
Like the ones in the weezer album?
No one should ever buy into the "billionaire using their wealth for good" propaganda.
By nature of them hoarding their immense wealth, they are stealing necessary resources and money from the working class they exploit, that would render their charity work completely unnecessary.
It is the essence of the breadcrumbs example in action. They eat a colossal buffet, give breadcrumbs to the starving masses, and demand to be treated like heroes for it.
Stealing from the poor to give to the poor.
She took the payout to shut up. She’s “using it for good”, but that’s as much bullshit as it was when she was with Bill.
I feel like I'm a moral person, but also that $8 billion is a lot of money
Also, the choice probably isn’t “be poor or rich,” but rather ”be dead or rich.”
I mean, it's really more like he paid someone that figured it out and had a moral compass once it affected her, instead of a public, fuck-everyone-up lawsuit. Small price to pay, really.
Bill Gates is fucking irrelevant
We are being fed an edited/redacted/delayed version of the MILLIONS of documents that provide enough red meat and celebrity sacrifice to distract us.
And we are falling for it...
I think it's having the opposite effect. The trickling out of information is good to keep the public engaged with the Epstein documents for a long time. Will it ultimately get us any sort of justice? Not with this fucking joke of a federal administration, but it does shine a consistent spotlight on the evils all these billionaires are doing. Compared to the Panama Papers where everything came out at once, the outrage died down pretty quickly once the next news cycle revved up. This is a smoldering fire that keeps being fed the longer the little bombshells periodically come out.
Yes, this may be a smoke screen, BUT I do think not letting go of the idea that Epstein and Trump had customers is also pretty important.
Sadly, oue focus is such that we as a culture are incapable of maintaining attention past a few news cycles. Why the distract/delay tactic they are employing is so effective.
Of the two Johns,
We can either focus our attention/outrage on the current POTUS who is doing everything in his considerable power to destroy the rule of law and our ability to hold the others accountable
Or
A guy who was last relevant when we frosted our tips, used 56K dial-up, and when the movie Office Space was having its initial theatrical run.
Ya but these guys are still very very powerful and will doubtfully go down as a scapegoat.
Ah, come on! Who hasn't slipped antibiotics to their wife to cure the STD you gave her after shagging Russian hookers? Can happen to anyone!
It's hookers only if they come from the Hook part of the New Zealand.
.
.
And also when they are 18.
hookers
You mean sex slaves...
*Russian children
FTFY
Yeah, filthy rich people aren’t allowed to have a little fun anymore?
Uh... Context, please?
More Epstein stuff. A document mentioned he was going to get his wife to start taking antibiotics because of an STI he picked up. The joke is that he wouldn’t want to tell her it was an STI, so he’d have to find some other way to justify the antibiotics.
I believe it came out of the Epstein files that he was intending to (?or did) provide antibiotics to his wife because he had obtained a STI.
The weirdest part for me is that he’s incapable of slipping his wife antibiotics. I get that you’re rich enough to never need to, but do you really never make her a cup of tea or anything?
Most meds would taste awful in a beverage or sprinkled on food.
"Honey, let me make you a cup of tea 3 times a day on those exact hours for 2 weeks"...
There are better antibiotics, which work with less frequent doses, but they’re only given out when medically necessary. I assume having bill gates’ wealth (and control of a whole bunch of anti malaria initiatives) means you have access to the kind of antibiotic you choose, you can even justify it by saying that you’re bill gates and you have a sixty hour workweek with the foundation, even in retirement, and you simply cannot take more than two days off, but antibiotics make you feel too weird to work, if you want.
I read that he "surreptitiously" gave them to her, which tonme implied some kind of sneaking. On the other hand, I'm confident she was clearly aware of everything but never went public because then they lose all that money.
Yeah I cannot really say that the things in the files are true, but it does seem very likely he did bad illegal things. What exactly? We may never know.