Category: US Politics

Via the Free Beacon, which notes that Joe and Mika received Wolff very warmly indeed last month to promote the book from which the Trump/Haley rumor sprang. I defy you to watch this clip and keep a straight face when she says, “You’re on the set of ‘Morning Joe,’ we don’t BS here.”

As is usually the case in this benighted social-media age, most of the best fireworks are happening on Twitter. Here’s Wolff after this morning’s purging:

My bad, the President is right about Mika.

— Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) February 1, 2018

To be invited on a show with the purpose of being thrown off…is the new television.

— Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) February 1, 2018

The last time I was on Morning Joe off camera Joe and Mika eager to gossip about who Trump might be sleeping with.

— Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) February 1, 2018

It really would be hard to gossip more eagerly off camera than Mika and Joe gossip.

— Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) February 1, 2018

In another tweet he continued to push the idiotic point that Haley has somehow incriminated herself by addressing the rumor of an affair after he hinted darkly about it on Bill Maher’s show but never mentioned her by name. If she’s not cheating with the president, how did she know I was talking about her, hmmmmm? Well, because all sorts of people followed the clue he gave about a passage towards the end of the book that suggested an affair and found the bit where he claimed that Trump and Haley were spending an unusual amount of time alone. What was Haley supposed to do with chatter suddenly proliferating online about her and POTUS doing the deed? Coyly ignore it and let gossipmongers wonder? For cripes sake.

In fairness, I don’t think it’s a total contradiction that “Morning Joe” embraced Wolff last month only to turn on him now. Last month, when “Fire and Fury” made its initial splash, the prime target was Trump himself, a man whom Joe and Mika now despise and who, let’s face it, is borderline libel-proof. No allegation about him is too thin for MSNBC; the more damaging it is, in fact, the thinner it can be. But within the last few weeks, thanks to his fatal attraction to innuendo, Wolff’s prime target has been Haley, a much more highly regarded person and politician. Maybe he didn’t want it to be that way. Maybe he goosed Bill Maher’s audience with a hint about an affair because he’s Michael Wolff and salacious dirt is what his fans expect from him. We are where we are, though, with right-wingers and liberal feminists briefly united in disgust at him for smearing one of the few younger women in Trump’s administration in a position of real authority. If you want to knock Mika for taking exception to his attack on Haley but not his attacks on Trump, I think it’s fair to say that she should have expected that he wouldn’t be discriminating in the sort of dirt he’s willing to peddle. But I don’t think it’s strange to react differently to an attack on Haley than to an attack on POTUS.

Pretty weird to see these media Trumphumpers-turned-assassins suddenly take the knives out for each other, though, huh? By all accounts, they followed more or less the same route to where they are now. Joe and Mika infamously promoted Trump during the GOP primaries (certainly the earlier stages) before deciding that, come to think of it, he was a terrible person *and* a terrible potential president. As late as New Year’s Eve 2016, two months after he’d won the election, they were swinging by Mar-a-Lago to exchange well wishes. Now they spend most of their airtime kicking around theories about whether he’s evil or just mentally ill. Wolff followed the same arc although he seems to have done so deliberately, to gain access, rather than naively. He kissed Trump’s ass a bit in print, phoned in some TV appearances about the injustice of media bias against the president, and before he knew it he was wandering the West Wing, gathering quotes for his forthcoming book. Both parties have profited from their Trump dalliance. Wolff was simply more methodical about it, it seems.

Can’t lie: Despite him being a sleaze, I’m psyched to read his now inevitable gossipy hit piece on “Morning Joe” in The New Yorker or wherever in a few months.

The Girl Scouts may soon be put on the endangered species list, at least in the northern part of California. (No word yet from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as to their current status.) After providing education and service opportunities for girls over the past 106 years, local reports indicate that young girls “by the hundreds” are rushing to sign up for the Boy Scouts. Not only that, but some of the existing Girl Scout troops are applying to make their units both Girl and Boy scout groups. I’m sure that won’t be confusing at all. (CBS Sacramento)

Girls are signing up by the hundreds to become Boy Scouts in Northern California.

Northern California’s Golden Empire Council of the Boy Scouts is expecting 1,600 girls to become Boy Scouts by the end of 2019. CBS13 spoke to one Girl Scout troop in Davis that will be co-registering as a Boy Scout Troop too — becoming the new faces of a new era in scouting.

“I’m just really excited to learn more,” 6th grader Melissa Meux said.

“We’re both created equal,” 3rd grader Nicole Garcia said.

“I think its pretty cool,” 6th grader Amara O’Brien said.

I suppose it’s understandable how some of the girls might be excited about the idea if they don’t feel that they’re getting the same opportunities and recognition in the Girls Scouts as are afforded the Boy Scouts. But this is still a very sad development. Not only does it play into the entire trend of erasing gender definitions and boundaries, but it really robs young women of a local community where they can feel safe, expand their horizons and observe adult women in leadership roles.

This isn’t a change that is just “common sense” for a lot of people. Former leaders from both organizations have been saying this needs more consideration before rushing into it. Also, public polling clearly doesn’t indicate any national preference for the plan. Among other issues which should go without mentioning, the idea of packing up a bunch of younger boys, including teens who are going through the early stages of “maturing” (for lack of a better word), and sending them off camping with young girls is, shall we say, a bit problematic.

If there are problems with the Girl Scouts and some disparity between the two organizations, then what say we slow down here a bit and try to fix the girl scouts. Identify the areas where the Boy Scouts are attracting better resources or rewards and help the Girl Scouts catch up. This mix-and-match theory is going to cause problems downstream and further bog down society in rampant political correctness.