{"id":16498,"date":"2021-07-02T23:41:55","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T23:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/?p=16498"},"modified":"2021-07-02T23:43:27","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T23:43:27","slug":"the-rocket-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/?p=16498","title":{"rendered":"The Rocket Men&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-0 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/The-Phallic-Trio.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16502\" width=\"NaN\" height=\"NaN\" srcset=\"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/The-Phallic-Trio.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/The-Phallic-Trio-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/The-Phallic-Trio-768x494.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption>The Rocket Men clutch their phallic trophies after the awards show they sponsored!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It sounds like a dystopian science fiction novel \u2014 as climate change cooks oceans and forests , a pandemic endangers billions of people , and world hunger surges , a handful of mega-wealthy men are pumping billions of dollars into their own personal space travel companies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s happening right now and <strong>David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program,<\/strong> thinks that money could be put to better use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wfpchief\/status\/1408797477638115330?s=21\">tweet on June 26<\/a>, Beasley called on Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk to contribute the $6 billion needed to save41 million people in 43 countries who are at risk of starving this year. It might sound like a big ask, but for these billionaires it\u2019s an amount that\u2019s tantamount to pocket change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/3-phallics.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16501\" width=\"NaN\" height=\"NaN\" srcset=\"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/3-phallics.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/3-phallics-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/3-phallics-768x514.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption>You be the judge&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Bezos is worth $192.6 billion, Branson is worth $6.3 billion, and Musk is worth $165.9 billion. Together, that\u2019s $364.8 billion, which could prevent people from starving to death 60 times over, according to Beasley\u2019s estimation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Court-Painter-rocket-men.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16503\" width=\"1000\" height=\"714\" srcset=\"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Court-Painter-rocket-men.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Court-Painter-rocket-men-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Court-Painter-rocket-men-768x548.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption>Court Painter, with as much dignity as he can muster, displays his latest commission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It sounds like a dystopian science fiction novel \u2014 as climate change cooks oceans and forests , a pandemic endangers billions of people , and world hunger surges , a handful of mega-wealthy men are pumping billions of dollars into their own personal space travel companies.&nbsp; But it\u2019s happening right now and David Beasley, the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/?p=16498\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Rocket Men&#8230;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-images","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16498"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17112,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16498\/revisions\/17112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}