[guest post by JVW]

Never thought I would live to see it:

Riding a wave of support from the Democratic party’s progressive wing – including the backing of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren — Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts on Tuesday survived a heated primary battle against challenger Rep. Joe Kennedy III.

Speaking to supporters, Kennedy conceded to Markey about 2 and a half hours after polls closed in Massachusetts – in a primary battle that grabbed national attention as it turned increasingly bitter this summer.

“A few moments ago I called Sen. Markey to congratulate him,” Kennedy said Tuesday night. “The senator is a good man. You have never heard me say otherwise.” He added, “Obviously these results were not the ones we were hoping for.”

With 44 percent of the vote reporting, Markey was leading Kennedy 54% to 48%.

It seems a bit premature to concede an election not yet half counted and within a mere six percentage points, but I suppose that the Kennedy campaign expected their man to perform a lot better in the towns and precincts that have already been counted and have decided not to wait out what is shaping up to be a long, glum night.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she of the newly-coiffed hair, endorsed Rep. Kennedy and he had no trouble raising money among his family’s well-heeled friends and progressive activist admirers, but in the end the echos of “Camelot” have apparently faded sufficiently such that they are but a distant echo or perhaps even merely a page in the history book to many Bay State voters.

I guess that calling for “a new generation of leadership” wasn’t such a winning campaign in a year when both major parties are putting up septuagenarians for President. This is the first ever loss for a Kennedy family member in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

– JVW

[guest post by Dana]

UPDATE: This is such a spectacular update, I’m adding it to the top of the post. Nancy Pelosi has weighed in on the kerfuffle surrounding her decision to visit a salon and have her hair done in defiance of COVID protocols. Instead of cleanly taking responsibility for her decision, she…blamed the salon and demanded an apology:

“I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I’ve been to…many times…It was a set up, and I take responsibility for falling for a setup.”
“I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up”

She says she’s been “inundated” with people in the hair service industry telling her, “Thank you for calling attention to this, we need to get back to work. … Many of them annoyed at the setup, that was there, for a purpose that has nothing to do with ending the crisis.”

As for the short clip showing her mask around her neck: “I just had my hair washed. I don’t wear a mask when I’m washing my hair. Do you wear a mask when you’re washing your hair? I always wear a mask … And that picture is when I just came out of the bowl.”

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Look, I realize that there are far more important stories happening around the world today, but I’m going to take the time to post this because Nancy Pelosi is playing dumb here, and in spite of her stylish blow-out, it’s very unbecoming of her to plead ignorance about COVID protocols. After all, she is a lawmaker who represents California’s 12th District, thus, she above all people should know the current Covid restrictions in her own district:

A trip to a San Francisco salon has turned into a controversy for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi whose office tells KTVU she didn’t think she did anything wrong by getting her hair done indoors on Monday .

Security footage, reported on FOX News, showed Pelosi with wet hair and without a mask inside of eSalon in apparent defiance of COVID-19 rules.

In San Francisco, face coverings are mandatory in most public settings. Salons may only cut hair outdoors under new rules that took effect today.

On Tuesday afternoon, eSalon appeared to be closed. KTVU has not yet reached the salon owner.

But according to FOX News, owner Erica Kious said that Pelosi had an appointment with a stylist who rents space in the Union Street salon.

“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” Kious reportedly said about Pelosi.

When you consider how frequently Pelosi has hectored the American people to follow COVID protocols, it’s stunning that her office opted to bullshit their way through this kerfuffle by pleading ignorance (on behalf of the boss):

“The Speaker always wears a mask and complies with local COVID requirements. This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business. The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment,” said Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff for Pelosi.

So now we have two Democratic women in power who have opted to break COVID protocol for vanity’s sake, in spite of pushing Americans to follow these very same measures. Remember Chicago’s Mayor Lightfoot’s attempts to defend herself:

The stylist was wearing a mask and gloves, the mayor said in defense of her haircut during a press conference earlier this week. “I’m the public face of this city. I’m on national media and I’m out in the public eye.”

So, I would remind Pelosi that knowledge is power, but why? After all, rules are for the little people.

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

President Trump flew to Kenosha today in spite of Gov. Evers and the mayor requesting that he not come. He made these comments when he landed in Illinois en route to Wisconsin:

Trump told reporters he was traveling to Wisconsin to meet members of law enforcement and the National Guard who “put out the flame immediately.”

“It’s just been a great state — great people and we’re going to get it straightened out,” Trump told reporters after deplaning Air Force One in Waukegan, Illinois, before traveling to nearby Kenosha.

“Violence has stopped since the time the National Guard came — literally when they set their foot on this location it stopped,” Trump said. National Guard troops were in Kenosha starting last Monday, the day before Tuesday’s deadly shooting of two protesters.

It looks like Trump will have company in Kenosha:

Trump’s visit comes as the family of Blake, faith leaders from 50 organizations, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, are scheduled to hold their own event at the site where Blake was shot…

Oh, and a good thing Trump still has people willing to save him from himself :

While discussing the shooting of Jacob Blake with Fox News ahead of his visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, President Donald Trump said some police officers who shoot unarmed suspects “choke,” as if missing a 3-foot putt in golf, a comment that drew social media criticism and mockery.

…

While discussing the situation in Kenosha during a White House news briefing on Monday, Trump said sometimes an officer “makes a mistake” or “chokes” under pressure.

Trump elaborated on that point later Monday during an interview on “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News, during which he said police are “under siege.”

“They can do 10,000 great acts, which is what they do, and one bad apple – or a choker, you know, a choker, they choke – shooting the guy in the back many times,” Trump told host Laura Ingraham.

“I mean, couldn’t you have done something different? Couldn’t you have wrestled him?” Trump asked, wondering how the tragedy could have been avoided. “You know, I mean, in the meantime he might have been going for a weapon and, you know, there’s a whole big thing there.”

“But they choke, just like in a golf tournament, they miss a 3-foot putt,” Trump said as Ingraham, one his staunchest supporters in the news media, cut him off.

“You’re not comparing it to golf, because that’s what the media would say,” Ingraham said.

–Dana