Bill Nye: Skip the Trump-Bridenstine State of the Union

President Donald Trump is a bigoted climate denier. So is Congressman Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), Trump's embattled nominee for NASA Administrator. So why is Bill Nye "very pleased" to be Bridenstine's guest at Trump's first State of the Union address?

These are Bridenstine's own words on climate: "Mr. Speaker, global temperatures stopped rising 10 years ago. Global temperature changes, when they exist, correlate with Sun output and ocean cycles. During the Medieval Warm Period from 800 to 1300 A.D.—long before cars, power plants, or the Industrial Revolution—temperatures were warmer than today. During the Little Ice Age from 1300 to 1900 A.D., temperatures were cooler. Neither of these periods were caused by any human activity."

Here's Donald Trump: "In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!" (Also: "Global warming is based on faulty science and manipulated data which is proven by the emails that were leaked" and "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive" and dozens more.)

Jim Bridenstine's vision for NASA—articulated in his own legislation—is one of militarization, privatization, and killing off science research.

NASA’s 19,000 employees and the many thousands of additional contracted workforce come in all creeds, colors, ages, sizes, genders, sexual orientations, religious belief systems, and political parties.

But Bridenstine has said that same-sex marriage is "contrary to millennia of human experience" and that bathroom protections for transgender people are "lawless federal bullying."

Like Trump, Bridenstine is a misogynist. He voted against the Violence Against Women Act, saying it "misallocates scarce federal resources," and dismissed Trump's braggadocio about sexual assault as "locker room talk."

Like Trump, Bridenstine is an Islamophobe, championing Trump's Muslim travel ban and regularly working with anti-Muslim hate groups such as Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy and the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Jim Bridenstine is an extremist partisan who has taken $173,350 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry and $89,000 from the military aerospace industry, but has no STEM-related education or experience. He has no experience leading an agency or organization of this size or caliber.

And then there's Trump, who Nye will be implicitly endorsing with his presence, even while Trump increases his attacks on scientists, the media, immigrants, women, the American people.

Bill Nye is planning to be Bridenstine's guest in his role as the president of the Planetary Society, founded in 1980 by esteemed scientist and humanist Carl Sagan to "introduce people to the wonders of the cosmos, bridging the gap between the scientific community and the general public to inspire and educate people from all walks of life."

Now, as Sagan's successor, Bill Nye plans to embrace those whose clear mission is to suppress scientists, demean knowledge, and foment bigotry, hatred, and oppression.

The Planetary Society says Bill isn't "endorsing" Bridenstine's nomination by going as his guest, and his appearance will "educate and inform members of Congress and the Administration, including the President’s Cabinet." The Bridenstine team has already used Bill Nye's embrace to promote the nomination. It's hard to expect that a handshake from Bill Nye will be more convincing than the Koch brothers's billions.

Bill, please be the Science Guy, not the Bigoted Climate Denial Guy. Cancel your plans to attend Trump's State of the Union as Rep. Bridenstine's guest.