MS Now treating the apocalyptic ramblings of Bill Nye — the so-called “Science Guy” — like serious scholarship is a criminal offense against its viewers’ intelligence.  MS Now Reports’ fill-in anchor Antonia Hylton brought on Nye July 2 to put the “climate change” whammy on the summer heat currently gripping the East Coast. In addition, she also teed him up to smack conservatives tearing into communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani playing nanny by instructing his denizens to keep thermostats at 78 degrees or people will die. “The Department of Energy has the same guidance. Is the science on Mamdani’s side here,” Hylton led with the leading question. “Of course,” screeched the make-believe climatologist with a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, “Everybody, if you don't run the air conditioning systems as strongly as powerfully, you will use less electricity. That's everybody. That's not rocket surgery. That's intuitive.” Rocket surgery? It’s “rocket science,” genius! Nye proceeded to regurgitate his typical spiel about how the “planet’s on f–ing fire” for the umpteenth time: What I think’s happening with these heat events is we're going to get used to them in the same way we used to be used to snow days where people just stay home, just don't go — and some people venture out in the snow, but people become less productive, less business gets done, and so on. I think the same thing is going to happen with these heat events. But it is — it is very, very serious because of public health and so on. And there's a problem we have now where we're using a tremendous amount of electricity to not only air condition our living spaces, but also to run these data centers. This is a serious biz. .@MSNOWNews actually treating @BillNye like he's a serious scientific authority on anything is a criminal offense against viewers' intelligence quotients. pic.twitter.com/Rcw8PNXl2d — Joe Vazquez (@JV3MRC) July 2, 2026 Did he forget that the North East and Mid-Atlantic just had their coldest winter in about 20 years last season?  But it got worse. Nye — who went viral for saying during a podcast that climate change meant the U.S. was experiencing a “Pearl Harbor” moment every week in 2019 — proceeded to try bolstering his word salad by comparing two straws of different sizes and arguing “more liquid” can go through “this big straw, than this little straw. I think intuitively we could all accept that.” No kidding, Captain Obvious! “Well, the same is true of power. The same is true of power lines.” It’s almost as if mechanical engineers are too dumb to realize that more power naturally necessitates building more efficient power lines through capacity scaling! Using Nye’s logic, adaptability all of a sudden became stagnant as humanity just hopelessly waits for its power grids to blow up. “Science Guy’s here,” boasted Nye. Great. Now when does he leave? As Climate Depot founder Marc Morano stated in comments to MRC Business, "Wow. It's been a while. I haven't seen Bill Nye paraded around by the media as a 'climate expert' in many years, but he's back! Nye is really into recycling -- recycling his old talking points." Morano noted that "EPA data has consistently shown the 1930s heatwaves in the U.S. were much more severe than any heatwaves since and NOAA data reveals that 76% of U.S. states recorded their high-temperature records before 1955." At the end of his segment, Nye suggested that the solution to the eco-Ragnarok was climate-conscious voting in the upcoming midterm elections. Morano mocked Nye's not-so-subtle political agenda: "Vote yourself better weather and fewer heatwaves! The power of the ballot box will alter the Earth's climate, according to Bill Nye. Yawn." It's also worth revisiting the flub Hylton made at the beginning of her segment by using a rhetorical sleight-of-hand by hitting conservative critics of Mamdani’s thermostat prescription with the Department of Energy. The DOE recommendations for 75-78 degrees in thermostat settings were about saving on energy costs for consumers, as USA Today pointed out June 30 — not because Americans turning their ACs on to full-blast meant the grid was at risk of overloading!

President Donald Trump just redecorated the Boeing jet gifted to him by the Qatari Emir, and the liberal media did what it always does - throw a tantrum about it. On Wednesday’s episode of MS NOW’s The Last Word, host Lawrence O’Donnell and his squinty eyes glared through the camera and proclaimed "Donald Trump flaunted the single biggest piece of corruption in American history. Donald Trump showed off the largest object to ever be corruptly sought and accepted by an American politician." “The saying, ‘When you’ve got it, flaunt it,’ was never meant as advice for politicians,” O’Donnell began his rant over Trump, who he’s so obsessed with that he probably dreams about him. Where was his outrage when Jill Biden received an 18-carat gold and diamond necklace, also from the Emir of Qatar? That's (D)ifferent.    “The country will never get to fly on that plane,” O’Donnell lamented, like he thinks that any American can just walk onto Air Force One and fly wherever they want. Then, he connected Trump and dictators again: “Donald Trump said today that he went to a foreign dictator and asked him for a plane.” In the clip of Trump that O’Donnell used as backup for these claims, Trump himself said that he asked to borrow the jet “for a period of time” while the other Boeing 747 planes were under construction. O'Donnell claimed the president "has two perfectly capable and functioning 747's," but they're over 35 years old and increasingly obsolete and expensive to maintain. But O’Donnell simply couldn’t entertain any rational claims for a new plane: Donald Trump wanted one [plane] that he could take home with him. And so the scheme that a Democratic Congress must find a way to prevent is for Donald Trump to take that 747 with him as part of his so-called Presidential Library, and then use it to fly wherever he wants to go after his time in office. It's an unprecedented arrangement, but it's not some national emergency that Democrats "must find a way to prevent" it. O'Donnell's rant President Trump used it for the first time this past week to fly to the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library dedication in North Dakota, which O’Donnell of course used as another avenue of attack: Teddy Roosevelt would be horrified by Donald Trump's mode of transportation today. Teddy Roosevelt would have immediately urged the impeachment of a president who solicited a gift from anyone, especially a foreign dictator. On the contrary, Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to fly on an airplane in October of 1910. He also received many gifts from people O’Donnell would probably classify as “foreign dictators,” including the warmongering Emperor of Ethiopia and the rulers of Russia and Japan. “'Offensive and contemptible.' That is exactly what Teddy Roosevelt surely would have said about the 'screaming vulgarity of the foolish, spread-eagled orator' flying on a counterfeit Air Force One today,” O’Donnell added. Either O’Donnell was being intentionally obtuse or intentionally obfuscating the facts; there’s nothing “counterfeit” about the plane. Any fixed-wing aircraft carrying the President of the United States IS Air Force One. The left hates Trump so much that they can’t stand to see anything good happening for him, even as he represents them and all other Americans on the world stage. Instead, they’ll drag him down and pray that his new plane crashes and burns, along with the country at large. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: MS NOW's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 7/1/26 10:01:53 LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: The saying, 'When you've got it, flaunt it' was never meant as advice for politicians.  But today, Donald Trump flaunted the single biggest piece of corruption in American history. Donald Trump showed off the largest object to ever be corruptly sought and accepted by an American politician. [Cut to video] DONALD TRUMP: The head of Boeing said this is considered the best 747 they've ever built.  And I went to Qatar. I said, 'I'd like to use it for a period of time because the other ones, as you know, are under construction.' They'll be here in two years. And because, you know, the plane is 35 years old. So I said I'd like to use it.  And the Emir, Tamim, who's a great gentleman, he said, 'No, no, I'd like to make a contribution to the country.' [Cut back to live] O'DONNELL: The country isn't going to use that 400 million dollar gift that the Emir gave to Donald Trump. The plan is for Donald Trump to be the only person who ever uses that plane. That is the corrupt plan for that plane.  The United States of America already has two perfectly capable and functioning 747's in service right now as Air Force One. And the federal government has ordered two more Boeing 747's to replace those two versions of Air Force One that are currently operating.  But Donald Trump wanted one that he could take home with him.  And so the scheme that a Democratic Congress must find a way to prevent is for Donald Trump to take that 747 with him as part of his so-called presidential library, and then use it to fly wherever he wants to go after his time in office. The country will never get to fly on that plane, but the country actually ended up having to pay for that plane, hundreds of millions of dollars, at least, to outfit it as a workable version of Air Force One.  (...) 10:05:10 p.m. O'DONNELL: And suddenly, for the first time in world history, a President of the United States was given an airplane from another country.  Donald Trump said today that he went to a foreign dictator and asked him for a plane. And he used that plane for the first time today to fly to a dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. Now, it might seem a little late to just now be dedicating a presidential library to someone who was president more than 100 years ago. But presidential libraries are actually a relatively new thing in presidential history, beginning with President Herbert Hoover, who left office on Inauguration day in 1933.  Teddy Roosevelt was a rich New York Republican like Donald Trump, who served as president from 1901 to 1909.  In a first for presidential library dedication speeches, Donald Trump today did not quote the President, who was being commemorated. Because the problem for Donald Trump today, in quoting Teddy Roosevelt, is Teddy Roosevelt saying things like 'No man can be a good citizen who is not a good husband and a good father who is not honest in his dealings with other men and women, faithful to his friends, and fearless in the presence of his foes who has not got a sound heart, a sound mind, and a sound body.' Teddy Roosevelt would be horrified by Donald Trump's mode of transportation today. Teddy Roosevelt would have immediately urged the impeachment of a president who solicited a gift from anyone, especially a foreign dictator. And Teddy Roosevelt would have despised the small-mindedness of Donald Trump because it was Teddy Roosevelt who said, 'The screaming vulgarity of the foolish spread-eagle orator who is continually yelling defiance at Europe, praising everything American, good and bad, and resenting the introduction of any reform because it has previously been tried successfully abroad, is offensive and contemptible to the last degree.' 'Offensive and contemptible.' That is exactly what Teddy Roosevelt surely would have said about the 'screaming vulgarity of the foolish, spread-eagled orator' flying on a counterfeit Air Force One today. 

On Friday's CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish discussed declining American pride and the nation's 250th birthday with CNN political historian Prof. Leah Wright, whose interests include "modern African American history, with an emphasis on race and political ideology," and Alexander Heffner, host of PBS's The Open Mind. Heffner critiqued Trump's alleged corruption, citing "a president who's flying on a plane, an Air Force One recently debuted, that is a gift from Qatar." Cornish let that proceed without objection. But then he tried broadening the lens beyond Trump, to be fair and balanced: "Let's just be honest about this. We have to be equal opportunity critics, and the golden rule of American political life ought to be intellectual honesty." The word "Pelosi" was barely out of Heffner's mouth when Cornish emphatically shut him down: "You're [getting into] modern politics, and I brought you guys on because it's been a time for historians." The ban on invoking "modern politics" was invisible during the Trump critique. But Cornish snapped it into place the moment self-enrichment talk shifted to the longtime Democratic leader. Cornish imagined group chats among historians were a "mess" -- as if there isn't a near-liberal monopoly on campus. She mentioned the controversy over "the 1619 Project" at The New York Times, which the Biden administration wanted imposed on the public schools. The 1619 Project labored to pin the founding of America to the arrival of the first slaves on American soil, while Morning Joe's Jon Meacham just pushed it forward to 1965 and the enactment of the Voting Rights Act and immigration legislation. Wright pointed not to 1776, but to Frederick Douglass's 1852 July 5 speech on the 76th anniversary of the Declaration. Douglass, she said, called out "this idea of the hypocrisy of liberty, a nation for liberty and justice for all, that is intimately, violently rejecting that premise for the bulk of the people. So that becomes the story of the nation. That's the one that we remember." To his credit, Heffner stuck with good old 1776. CNN's @AudieCornish Shuts Down Pelosi Self-Enrichment Talk — After Trump's Alleged Corruption Gets Full Hearing pic.twitter.com/tzHEc51nfs — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) July 3, 2026 Wright worked in another shot at American history: "Around America's anniversaries, there tends to be a push from administrations to whitewash American history, to focus simply on the great acts, but of very specific great acts by specific great people, predominantly white men." On CNN This Morning, intellectual honesty proved selective. Trump-era self-enrichment is an acceptable topic for complaint, while any Pelosi parallel draws an immediate history-only timeout. In a segment ostensibly about American pride on the eve of the 250th, Cornish and Wright delivered the very cynicism that helps explain the slumping Gallup numbers.

If you want to know why Politico risked the inevitable mockery that will ensue by whining absurdly about the supposed dangers posed to the environment by the America 250 fireworks the answer is easily supplied by simply reading the first word of the title of their Friday KvetchFest, "Trump plans record fireworks show, internal docs warn of smoky skies." Substitute the name of any Democrat president such as Clinton or Obama or Autopen and the silly story by the Politico troika of Alex Guillen, Miranda Willson, and Ariel Wittenberg would have been nonexistent. Yes, they just can't allow President Donald Trump to enjoy along with thousands of spectators what they consider to be a triumphal moment without raining on the parade. TDS is just that powerful, especially at Politico. Now let us watch the Politico team make an attempt at a thin veneer of concern over supposed fireworks pollution despite us (and them) knowing what this is really all about: Scientists have well documented the soot and heavy metal pollution that can spike severely in the wake of pyrotechnic displays, and the world-record-setting number of fireworks lined up for July 4 will mean an equally large jump in pollution, according to experts and internal NPS documents reviewed by POLITICO. There are no indications that the administration plans to suggest masking or other personal protection for revelers viewing the fireworks from the nation’s front lawn. And the Environmental Protection Agency said tracking the air quality impacts of the fireworks isn’t their jurisdiction. Any warnings by the government for people to mask up in the wake of the useless Covid mask warnings would be rightly ignored and/or laughed at. The good news is that the dirty air doesn’t linger too long. One study found that particulate matter from July Fourth fireworks remained elevated for about 24 hours across 315 different monitoring sites. On average, the fireworks displays increased pollution by 42 percent. But after a day, fireworks pollution dissipates and usually blows away or settles into water and soil within a day. Wow! So just wait for the wind to blow away whatever air pollution there is. It sounds much less than terrifying. The drought means that pollutants may linger longer in the Potomac than they would under normal conditions, said Tyler Frankel, an associate environmental science professor at the University of Mary Washington. Contaminants can easily get trapped in the river near Theodore Roosevelt Island due to “tidal slosh,” a phenomenon where the water flows both upstream and downstream, Frankel said. Amphibians and juvenile fish are particularly vulnerable to perchlorates, compounds used in fireworks to enable a rapid burn but that can also disrupt animals’ developmental processes. If as few as just ONE Delta Smelt dies due to the America 250 fireworks, Trump must be held to account! Impeachment? The Politico litany of dire America 250 fireworks threats to the environment and health continues on and on and on for our amusement.  Here are just a few more of the highlights spurred on by their derangement over You-Know-Who: Other animals at risk include ospreys, iconic fish-eating birds that are currently in the midst of breeding season and are easily spooked by loud noises. ...Fireworks also rain down small but potentially potent amounts of heavy metals that are used to create vibrant colors but also pose serious health risks. ...No one has yet done epidemiological studies to look at whether hospital admissions for asthma or other cardiovascular and respiratory ailments increase after fireworks events, the kind of research that has been performed on wildfire smoke and ambient pollution. ...Observing the show from a greater distance would reduce exposure. So would staying inside and keeping windows closed. An indoor air filter will scrub out particles. And all those N95 masks left lying around from the pandemic would be effective, too. ... An organizer with Moms Clean Air Force who also has asthma, Schmitz spent last July Fourth “inside with a mask on, leaning over my air purifier struggling to breathe and weighing if I needed to go to the hospital.” Will any of the Politico crew need to be mental health hospitalized (for TDS) if they spot anybody enjoying the terrific America 250 fireworks display?

On Tuesday's Morning Joe, as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, historian Jon Meacham delivered a revisionist riff on the founding of America.  He actually began well: "The Declaration and the Constitution codified the centrality and sanctity of the individual and the equality, not of outcome and not of success, but equality before God and before the bar of history and before the courts of every individual soul." So far, so good: a clear rejection of the "equity" mindset that demands equal results rather than equal opportunity under the law.  But Meacham quickly pivoted: "There's a very good case to be made, I think, that we were really founded in 1965. That's when a multiracial, multiethnic democracy came more fully into being with the Immigration and Nationality Act, with the Voting Rights Act. And so we're really about 60 years old." This is how many on the modern left approach American history. The New York Times’ 1619 Project sought to push the nation’s true founding backward to 1619, declaring the arrival of the first slaves as America’s real beginning. Now, Meacham effectively pushes the founding forward to 1965, to celebrate the Immigration and Nationality Act and Voting Rights Act.  The common thread is a desire to redefine America’s origins in the service of contemporary progressive priorities. In Meacham's telling, the real founding occurred in the Great Society era. The actual Declaration and Constitution get downgraded to a kind of rough draft, with 1965 supplying the corrected, expanded edition. This fits neatly with the narrative pushed by outlets like the New York Times. As Mara Gay of the Times editorial board suggested to Meacham, today's multiracial left is the true inheritor of the Founders' tradition.  Yet that same left aggressively champions DEI initiatives pushing "equity" — precisely the equality of outcome rather than opportunity that Meacham himself just said the Founders rejected. Meacham correctly identified the principle, but then, by situating the founding in 1965, seemed to hand the inheritance to the very movement working to dismantle it. @Morning_Joe Historian Meacham on 250th: America 'Was Really Founded In 1965' pic.twitter.com/iaGocOFlDR — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) July 1, 2026 As the country prepares to mark 250 years since 1776, expect more attempts to shift the focal point to the 1960s. The actual founding documents, and the generation that risked everything for self-government, deserve better than to be treated as a preliminary sketch awaiting the real work of 1965. Note: Meacham, an Episcopalian, offered a distinctly Protestant reading of history. He praised the Gutenberg press because “you didn’t have to depend on [Catholic] monks" to do illuminated manuscripts, celebrated the Protestant Reformation, in bringing scripture into the vernacular [from the Catholic Latin], as an important step toward democratization, and decried the old vertical order in which “Popes and princes” ruled over subjects.  In a discussion of America’s founding principles, many Catholics are apt to view Meacham's references as gratuitous critiques of their tradition. Here's the transcript. MS NOW Morning Joe 7/1/26 7:23 am EDT MIKE BARNICLE: Could you, in your, tell us what your definition today is of being an American?  JON MEACHAM: The American, right. We are blessed to be in a country that was part of an unfolding drama in the West from Magna Carta and Gutenberg forward.  You know, the invention of movable type, which democratizes information. You didn't have to depend on monks to do an illuminated manuscript. Anyone could go to a printer shop and print an idea and get it out there. It was the earliest form of the internet.  The Glorious Revolution in England, which created a balanced constitution between King and Parliament — a vital reminder of how we have to keep those things in balance. The Protestant Reformation, you know, the translation of scripture into the vernacular. This whole idea, this whole shift — that the Constitution and the Declaration were, I think, the clearest political embodiments of the world being organized vertically—where Popes and princes were at the top and we were subjects.  But the world was becoming more horizontal. We were born with the capacity to determine our own destinies. And what the Declaration and the Constitution did is, they codified the centrality and sanctity of the individual, and the equality—not of outcome and not of success— but equality before God, and before the bar of history, and before the courts, of every individual soul. MARA GAY: You know, John, we're in a moment where it feels sometimes as though there's a great battle that we're in the midst of, between a pro-democracy movement, of multiracial democracy, that claims to be the inheritor of what the Founding Fathers have given us of this great tradition. And then there are others, and you mentioned blood and soil, who want to limit what that means, and the definition of what it means to be American.  I guess, I wonder who you think actually is the inheritor of this American tradition, and how we should think about the radicalism of the Founding fathers in this moment? MEACHAM: You know, we talk about, directly to your point, we talk about this as the 250th anniversary, which it is, of the Second Continental Congress passing the Declaration of Independence, fully beginning the Revolutionary War, which ultimately leads, in 1787 through 1789, to the framing of the Constitution, the inauguration of George Washington, and the beginning of what we would see as a recognizable experiment in self-government.  Except, that a lot of people weren't included in that. And in that important sentence about all men being created equal, men had a very particular application in that era.  It is a very — there's a very good case to be made, I think, that we were really founded in 1965. That, that's when a multiracial, multiethnic democracy came more fully into being with the Immigration and Nationality Act, with the Voting Rights Act.  And so, we're really about 60 years old.