News & Articles

Would you buy a used car from this man? Trump's crackpot "spiritual adviser" Kenneth Copeland.

Will we ever beat the heat because it goes on and on?
 I seem to have thousands of songs in my head, because, when something major happens, a line always seems to jump out at me. A week before the 2024 election, I saved a Guardian news story, “Collapse by 2100, Warn Scientists.” The opening sentence: “A group of 44 climate scientists from 15 countries warn there is a ‘serious risk’ that soaring global temperatures will trigger the ‘catastrophic’ collapse of a crucial system of ocean currents — and possibly sooner than established estimates considered likely. Their warning is based on what happens to the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation), a current that moves warm water from the Tropical Zone to the cold water of the North Atlantic. If it collapsed, it could lower temperatures in parts of Europe and increase temperatures in other parts of the world, creating “devastating” and “irreversible” impacts for Nordic countries and Planet Earth. The meltwater from the Greenland ice cap and the Antarctica and Arctic zones continues to make the oceans less salty. Less salty water is lighter, so it does not sink into saltier water, thus changing AMOC directly.

 These scientists state that more research has to be done because fossil fuel emissions and deforestation of the Amazon and other strategic areas must be stopped. They insist: “We must stick to the Paris Agreement and limit global heating as close to 1.5C as possible. The COP29 meeting in Azerbaijan on climate change will be interesting. 

  The Whispers popularized the song “And the Beat Goes On.” The second section of the song covers Trump’s election rather well:
“Do you ever wonder/ That to win, someone’s got to lose
I might as well get over the blues, just like fishing in the ocean
 There’ll always be someone new.”

How many billionaires flew private jets to Azerbaijan to COP29?
A Guardian article about how much the flying of private jets by the world’s 3,270 billionaires increases climate-heating emissions displayed a long line of private jets lined up on an airfield in Stockdale, Arizona. 

Stockdale is known for two things: the number of wealthy people living in such a small city and the fact that Ted Williams’s head is in a freezer waiting for a time in the near future when it will be “welded” on to a suitable but left-handed body. 

The Divided States of America has 800 billionaires, 17 million millionaires, and 38 million poor at last count. Many are superrich while many are superpoor. In the end, if we are not careful and conserving, both rich and poor will eventually die from climate change.

Professor Stefan Gossling of Linnaeus University in Sweden led the research that examined 19 million private jet flights made by 25,000 private jets between 2019 and 2023, with half the flights less than 500km and 900,000 were by private jet planes used like “taxis” for less than 50km.

The research indicated that private flights by 0.003% of the world’s population are the most polluting form of transport and that passengers in larger private jets caused more CO2 emissions in an hour than the average person did in a year. 

The U.S. led all private jet travel, representing 69% of the flights. In 2023 the emissions from private jet flights were greater than emissions from 60 million people in the country of Tanzania. 

The private jet industry has estimated it will sell 8,500 business jets in the next decade. The leader summarized the research: “The wealthy are a very small share of the population but are increasing their emissions very quickly and by very large levels of magnitude. The growth in global emissions that we are experiencing at this point in time is coming from the top.”

Do any of our billionaires care whether we – or the world – survives?
During the COVID-19 pandemic some of our billionaires boarded their superyachts with their own medical departments and spent their time on the oceans and in the ghettos of Monaco, France and Spain. 

During the few remaining days of the 2024 election period, some of the richest billionaires increased their campaign contributions to the Trumplican Party and its self-possessed billionaire Great Leader Donald J. Trump because they wanted him to increase their wealth by cutting taxes, regulations, Social Security, Obamacare and character.

Elon Musk contributed more than $100 million while Jeff Bezos, usually the second richest, refused to endorse Kamala Harris for president in fear and trembling, because Trump might win and call him “vermin” and loser.

I wonder if the often third-richest billionaire in the world, Bill Gates, voted for Trump. I’m sure his ex-wife Melinda, still pissed that her ex-husband was a “friend” of Jeff Epstein and had spent time on a certain sexy island without her, voted for Harris. 

Bill has spent a lot of time on TV and radio shows discussing issues such as climate change and the various diseases in Africa. But now he is trying to sell a superyacht and its tender ship he ordered long before the divorce.

Gates ordered a 390 Ft. superyacht weighing 7,249 tons (slightly smaller than a new U.S. Navy destroyer) from a Dutch firm called Feadship in Amsterdam, It is designed to carry 40 crew and entertain 30 guests in 30 staterooms. 

At the same time he ordered a superyacht tender ship about 200 ft. long called the Wayfinder, which carries extra “stuff,” has a crew of 18, additional staff (cooks, waiters, cleaners, maids, maintenance staff, etc) and can handle 14 additional guests. It also has a landing pad and hangar for a helicopter, jet skis, small boats and a bigger rescue boat. 

The superyacht has a hydrogen propulsion system, so it features an energy-efficient system, advanced waste management (no dumping of crap in the ocean), and is made of eco-friendly materials. 
Gates chose the hydrogen system so that other billionaires with an itch to buy the longest. biggest, most expensive, class-winning superyacht (there is a big contest going on among billionaires) would also not use fossil fuels except for other boats and entertainment vehicles.

The yacht, named Project 821 by the builder, has several keynote features: a semi-submerged ‘Neptune’ viewing lounge to watch underwater “stuff”),  a library, a movie theater, medical office and facilities, and a large swimming pool on the main deck. The living space for the owner includes two bedrooms, dressing rooms, twin bathrooms, a living room and a private dining room on a lower deck. 

For guests there is a coffee corner, a large game room, a library on the main deck, a jacuzzi, steam room, massage parlor and a yoga studio. 

Gates often talks about global warming – now called climate change
It would have been interesting to know how many tons of emissions would go into the sky from the two yachts, the guests and all of the playthings, but since he ordered the two yachts, he and Melinda have split. It is no longer a superyacht family. ‘Tis rumored Bill has put a price of $675 million on the big one. 

He may have escaped the charge of being the top personal “emitter” among all the billionaires in the world. You see, the Gates built a huge estate on the shores of a lake in Washington called Medina Mansion Zanadu 2.0 years ago. Gates bought a beach home for $2 million, spent $63 million remodeling the mansion at first, and later spent $14 million buying adjoining houses and property so he and Melinda would have some privacy. The estate was valued at $154 million three years ago. 

The main house has 66,000 sq. ft., 24 bathrooms, and took 300 workers more than seven years to build. The house took lumber from 500 big Douglas fir trees and has seven kinds of stones decorating the property. 

Gates has lots of interests and lots of money. On prominent display in his home is Leonardo DaVinci’s Codex Leicester which he purchased in 1994 for $30.8 million! It is a 16th century collection of scientific writings and illustrations. 

Whatever happened in their marriage is their business, but it would be interesting to discover why Melinda made a the statement after the divorce that she would be happy to live in a 1,500 sq. ft. ranch house. Gates also owns two Gulfstream G650 passenger jet planes that run about $70 million each new—and two Porsche autos. And here’s a billionaire who believes man is changing the climate!

The Climate Action Tracker which keeps track of global warming has reported that very little progress was made in limiting climate change since 2021. Last month a study revealed that half of the 68,000 deaths in Europe caused by heating in 2022 were the result of an increase of 1.3C (about 2.4F). 

The earth has been warming lately, setting records every month since June 2023 to October 0f 2024. That is hotter than a majority of climate scientists suspected, and way above any goals set at the Paris Agreement. Many countries have set records involving sea level rise, rainfall, and strength of hurricanes and other storms. The Middle West in the Divided States of America has experienced days when more than 100 tornados were formed.

The climate seems to be changing faster than we can adapt and we have several worst-case possibilities. What happens if the West Antarctic ice sheet collapses at the same time the Amazon Basin dries up?

Is God assisting billionaires in building superarks to save us?
Some theologians sermonize that God will continue to save Planet Earth. If this is true, why are millions of Christians deserting the pews? 

Is it because Christian ministers and priests no longer follow the teachings of Jesus Christ? 
Here are a couple of examples. Kenneth Copeland, an 87-year-old televangelist “Christian” twice-divorced minister from Florida and a spiritual adviser to newly-elected President Donald Trump who sells personalized Bibles for $55 or $1,000, lives in a $6.3 million temple paid for by his church. He uses a $20 million private jet to motor to different vacation hotspots each year. He gained national recognition in 2021 when former adult film star Madyson Marquette accused him and several other “Christian” ministers of sexually abusing her in the past. That has a familiar ring to it. 

In his latest sermon he has said: “Trump’s election will unleash a spiritual awakening (not woke!) because the atmosphere has been cleansed. No more rainbow flags. And the spirit of Margaret Sanger is gone.” (Sanger was the first major birth control activist and sex educator who opened the first birth control clinic which evolved to Planned Parenthood and several other pro-choice organizations.)

After years of study involving the role of women in the Catholic Church regarding priesthood and marriage and the issue s surrounding homosexuality, Pope Francis and the Vatican decided that the issues needed “further study.” 

It seems a number of tornados are blowing people out of the pews since that decision.