REALITY 101 PART 2

YESTERDAY WE CALLED FOR REALITY ASSESSMENTS of warfare and the crypto meme scam. Today in Part 2, Mother Nature fact-checks Trump’s climate con, her weather cancels his ego games, and, lamentably, RFK Jr.’s anti-vac proclivities affect all of us. Oh, and we get a weather report from Thomas Jefferson. 

Climate Con vs Mother Nature. Awhile back, NPR reported “Trump Called Climate Change a ‘Con Job’ at the United Nations. Here are the Facts and Context.” It’s as timely today as it was back in 2025.

And, recently, here’s an irrefutable view from Mother Nature via Raymond Zhong: “Without Climate Change, U.S. Heat Wave Called ‘Virtually Impossible,’ ” The New York Times, July 6, 2026. Zhong describes, “Summer hot spells are nothing new, but because of the excess heat around the planet caused by global warming, they can produce higher temperatures today than they once did.”

The scientists, affiliated with World Weather Attribution, “found that the highest five-day average this week of wet bulb globe temperature over the northeastern United States and eastern Canada was still rare in today’s climate, with a roughly 0.5 percent chance of occurring in any given year. But it would have been so rare as to be effectively impossible in the cooler world before the Industrial Revolution, they found.” 

“Last month,” Zhong recounts, “the same group of researchers analyzed the recent searing heat in Western Europe and concluded that climate change had also fueled that hot spell.” 

Another Vote for the Necessity of Reality 101. Zhong quoted Theodore Keeping, a climate scientist at Imperial College London who worked on the analysis: “On America’s 250th birthday, our study gives a clear reality check. The climate the country has today is fundamentally different to the one it had when the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence.”

 

And Now, the Weather… Here’s Thomas Jefferson. Harmeet Kaur reports, “July 4, 1776: The Day Thomas Jefferson Went Shopping,” CNN, July 3, 2026: “As dawn broke in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, the weather was a pleasant 68 degrees. The temperature crept up to 72.25 degrees at 9 a.m., reaching a balmy 76 by 1 p.m. before dipping slightly to 73.5 at 9 p.m.”

Indeed, a reality check from no less than Thomas Jefferson.

July 4, 2026, Heat Cancellations. Mary Walrath-Holdridge reports “July 4, America 250 Events Cancelled Nationwide Amid Sizzling Heat Wave,” USA Today, July 3, 2026: “Many cancellations have already hit northeastern cities, like Philadelphia’s America 250 parade, which was canceled when floats were already lined up and ready to go, reported the Delaware News Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. Performers who were prepped for the parade made the best of it by putting their shows on in Independence Square anyway.”

The extensive list includes cancellations, modifications, and delays until later in the day.

Yet other examples of reality.

 RFK Jr. vs Measles. On a more tragic note, Caitlin Yilek reports “Former CDC Official Says RFK Jr.’s Response to Measles Outbreak ‘Not Based on Science or Reality,’ ” CBS News, July 2, 2026. She quotes former CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry, one of four senior CDC officials who resigned in protest last summer: “Houry said she was concerned because the spread of misinformation ‘impacts lives’ and could convince people not to get the measles vaccine during an active outbreak. Some 93% of people who contracted measles last year were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, according to CDC data.” 

Evidently other people in need of Reality 101. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026