Nancy Pelosi calls rule-flouting salon visit a 'setup'

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54007103

"I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighbourhood salon," the top Democrat told reporters on Wednesday. "It turns out it was a setup."

Mrs Pelosi was pictured in the salon without a mask over her face.

The California lawmaker has often criticised President Donald Trump for refusing to wear a mask.

"I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighbourhood salon that I've been to over the years many times," Mrs Pelosi said in a testy press conference in San Francisco when asked about the incident.

She said eSalon SF had told her they could accommodate one guest at a time.

"I trusted that - as it turns out it was a setup," Mrs Pelosi said. "So I take responsibility for falling for a setup and that's all I'm going to say on that.

Fact-checking Trump on crime in Democratic-run cities

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53991722

 Mr Trump has also said that Democratic-run cities are "rampant with crime", but some of the fastest increases in murder rates are in Republican-run cities.

Data from local police departments does show stark increases in Democratic-run Chicago and New York. But that's also a trend seen in some Republican-run metropolitan areas.

Lexington in Kentucky, a city of over 300,000 people, has seen 84.6% increase in murders when compared with the same period in 2019, for example.

Mr Trump has not talked about these places.

Supreme Court rules Malka Leifer mentally fit for extradition to Australia

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/286500

 Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of Malka Leifer, paving the way for her extradition to Australia.

The ruling of the three-judge panel on Wednesday was unanimous in backing a lower court ruling that Leifer was fit for extradition proceedings. The Jerusalem District Court had ruled in May that those proceedings should be reopened.

On Sept. 21, the district court will rule whether Leifer can be extradited based on the facts of the case.

Nancy Pelosi just handed Trump a campaign gift

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/nancy-pelosi-donald-trump-hairdresser/index.html

 "Crazy Nancy Pelosi is being decimated for having a beauty parlor opened, when all others are closed, and for not wearing a Mask - despite constantly lecturing everyone else. We will almost certainly take back the House, and send Nancy packing!" -- President Donald Trump, Wednesday morning.

 Whether Pelosi thought she was following the rules in place is lost entirely in the Trump campaign's rush to use the incident as a symbol of the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do culture that they argue pervades the Democratic Party -- on Covid-19 (and everything else.) This tweet, from Trump's campaign, which the President also retweeted on Wednesday morning, gets at that point.

 Pelosi knows that the Trump campaign isn't going to give her the benefit of the doubt. Ever. And that they are always on the lookout for proof that liberal leaders actually have two standards: One for them and one for everybody else.

Given all of that, it's hard to imagine why she would make a mistake like this one. It's a totally unforced error -- and one that allows Trump -- for a day or two, at least -- to change the subject from his handling (or mishandling) of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic that has sicked more than 6 million Americans and killed almost 185,000.

Trump claims credit for bringing calm to Kenosha in visit criticized as politicizing unrest

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/09/01/trump-kenosha-president-praise-police-tour-damage-wisconsin/5679029002/

President Donald Trump claimed credit Tuesday for bringing calm to Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a visit to the city where the police shooting of an unarmed Black man touched off days of violent protests.

Although Trump suggested he helped quell the violence by sending the National Guard, it was Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers who activated the state’s National Guard and asked for help from Arizona, Michigan and Alabama, which sent Guard troops.

 

Students For Trump mocked over tweet supporting POTUS' Kenosha visit: Who are the people behind it?

 https://meaww.com/people-behind-studets-for-trump-youth-group-potus-kenosha-visit-ryan-fournier-john-lambert

From their official handle, the youth group posted, 'President @realDonaldTrump tours what Biden will do to America'

 

Israel's Top Court Clears Way to Extradite Accused Pedophile Malka Leifer to Australia

 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-top-court-clears-way-to-extradite-accused-pedophile-leifer-to-australia-1.9122368

 Judges reject Leifer's appeal and rule she is fit to stand trial on 74 counts of rape and sexual assault of her students in Australia

Supreme Court rejects Malka Leifer’s appeal, paving way for extradition

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-september-2-2020/

Dassi Erlich, one of Malka Leifer’s alleged sexual abuse victims, reacts to the Supreme Court’s decision that she is fit for extradition.

“[Six] years and 70 court hearings regarding Leifer’s mental fitness! We are exhilarated, finally an end in sight!” she tweets. “During this tumultuous journey there were moments that this did not seem possible!”

'Settlement leaders blocked sovereignty plan, hurt Trump'

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/286459

Veteran American-Israeli journalist Caroline Glick excoriated settlement leaders Wednesday, blaming them for the suspension of the plan to apply Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

Binyamin Regional Council chairman Yisrael Gantz pushed back, however, calling the map presented in the Trump plan for Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria ‘dangerous’.

“Netanyahu told us that the map was only conceptual, and that it would be changed. But from the moment that it became the actual map [for the sovereignty plan] we understood that this was dangerous to the settlement enterprise.”

Gantz added that Israel could still apply sovereignty, even after agreeing to suspend the sovereignty plan.

“Sovereignty is something that could be done today.”

Russia's military seemingly toeing the line with U.S. after armored vehicle 'deliberately rammed' American troops

 https://news.yahoo.com/russias-military-seemingly-toeing-line-191134700.html

 Russian warplanes are increasingly flying close to Alaskan airspace, forcing the U.S. to run interception efforts more often than it has in recent years. Russian fighter jets kept zooming within 100 feet of a U.S. Air Force bomber over the Black Sea, and a Russian helicopter recently hovered close to U.S. forces. And just last week, a Russian armored vehicle "deliberately rammed" into an American patrol in Syria, injuring seven U.S. troops, The New York Times notes.

But President Trump hasn't given much public attention to the threats — something both Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Trump's own former officials have called him out for. They say it's a continuation of Trump's lack of public confrontation with Russian President Vladimir Putin over reports that Russia placed bounties on U.S. troops' heads in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did tell the Times that "America will respond" to the armored vehicle situation.

Donald Trump goes maskless in Kenosha, and urges others to do so despite COVID-19 order

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/01/donald-trump-no-mask-kenosha-despite-covid-19-spread-wisconsin/5682906002/

 No masks in Kenosha for President Donald Trump.

Trump, who has expressed off-again, on-again support for mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic, was maskless again Tuesday as he surveyed businesses damaged during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

At the start of a roundtable meeting with law enforcement personnel, local officials, and business owners, Trump told them they could take off their face masks "if you feel more comfortable" doing so.

"Look how fast you took that off," he told one person.

None of the roundtable participants wound up wearing masks, a group that included Attorney General William Barr and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

Even Fox’s ‘Hard News’ Shows Don’t Want to Book Trump’s Favorite New COVID Adviser

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-foxs-hard-news-shows-dont-want-to-book-trumps-favorite-new-covid-adviser-scott-atlas

Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist and fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution, joined the White House in August as one of President Donald Trump’s top coronavirus advisers. He was tapped largely due to the president’s affinity for what the doctor said during Fox News appearances, in which he espoused views that made him—as one White House official characterized—the “anti-Fauci” in Trump’s eyes.

 Among the “hard-news” division shows at Fox, Atlas is viewed with skepticism by senior staff at many of the programs, as they view him as lacking credibility during the coronavirus crisis, and as someone who isn’t even a medical expert in the relevant field.

“Atlas has a background in radiology, not infectious diseases,” one of the sources said. “It makes no sense to have him on to discuss a contagious respiratory virus that continues to spread through parts of this country like wildfire.”

Pelosi used shuttered San Francisco hair salon for blow-out, owner calls it 'slap in the face'

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-san-francisco-hair-salon-owner-calls-it-slap-in-the-face

 Fox news obsessed with Democrat  "hypocrisy" but fails to be upset when Trump consistently and flagrantly violates his own  guidelines

 EXCLUSIVE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited a San Francisco hair salon on Monday afternoon for a wash and blow-out, despite local ordinances keeping salons closed amid the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News had learned.

 Asked for comment, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill maintained that the speaker was following the rules as presented to her.

“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,” he said.

Fatal police shooting of Black man sparks protests in Los Angeles

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/01/us/los-angeles-police-shooting/index.html

 Activist Najee Ali, who is representing the family as is attorney Ben Crump, denies that Kizzee was a threat at the time of the shooting. "Being in possession of a gun, but actually using a gun, having it in your hands are two different things," Ali said, adding "he did not point the gun" at officers.