First up, note the new post below on the Western Australian state election campaign. To the matter at hand: as talk proliferates of a federal election later this year, there has been a noticeable uptick on the volume of preselection news to report.
• A Liberal preselection for the eastern Melbourne seat of Menzies last weekend produced a boilover with the defeat of Kevin Andrews, who has held the seat since 1991. Andrews lost the local party ballot by a 181-111 margin to Keith Wolahan, a barrister and former army officer. Wolahan was reckoned to have enough support locally to have knocked over Andrews ahead of the 2019 election, but was thwarted when the state party organisation took charge of the entire federal election preselection process, much to the chagrin of the membership. Wolahan had support from factional moderates but took to Andrew Bolt’s program on Sky News to push back against the notion that he personally could be so described, and put it to Virginia Trioli of the ABC that he “never joined the Liberal Party to be called a moderate and very few people do in Victoria”.
• It appears increasingly likely that controversial Liberal MP Craig Kelly will be bumped aside for preselection in his Sydney seat of Hughes by Kent Johns, who had the numbers locally in both 2016 and 2019 but was saved on both occasions by prime ministerial intervention. The Australian reported on Friday that Nationals MPs, apparently including Queensland Senator Matt Canavan, wished to recruit Kelly to the party, apparently with a view to him seeking re-election in his entirely suburban electorate. However, a Nationals source was quoted saying this “wouldn’t happen while Michael McCormack is leader”.
• Nine News reports New South Wales Deputy Premier and state Nationals leader John Barilaro is considering a move to the Senate. The Coalition arrangement in New South Wales gives the Nationals second and third positions on the Senate ticket at alternating elections, with the next election being the party’s turn for the unloseable second spot. The party’s position is vacant because one of its two Senators elected at the 2016 double dissolution, Fiona Nash, lost her position amid the Section 44 fiasco in December 2017 and it was won on a countback by a Liberal, Jim Molan. Molan lost his seat after being reduced to fourth position at the 2019 election but returned to the Senate upon filling Arthur Sinodinos’s vacancy in November 2019. Since he is now 69, he is presumably set to retire. The Liberals’ first and third positions on the ticket will presumably remain with the incumbents, Marise Payne and Connie Fierravanti-Wells.
• With the retirement of Labor veteran Warren Snowdon, Sky News reports his regional Northern Territory electorate of Lingiari is set to be contested for Labor by the former Deputy Chief Minister, Marion Scrymgour.
• The Northern Territory News reports the Country Liberal Party’s Senator for the Northern Territory, Sam McMahon, may face preselection challenges from Damien Ryan, the mayor of Alice Springs, and Linda Fazldeen, a Darwin businesswoman. The report says the preselection is likely to be held in June or July.
Trump made no attempt’ to reach the National Guard to help overwhelmed Capitol Police, Rep. Castro says
In a wrenching second day at President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, hammered the former president over his initial response to the riot at the U.S. Capitol being carried out by his supporters.
After Democratic impeachment managers replayed video of a mob attack beleaguered Capitol police officers on Jan. 6, Castro accused Trump on Wednesday of refusing to call in the National Guard to assist them even hours after the riot played out.
“You heard from my colleagues that when planning this attack, the insurgents predicted that Donald Trump would command the National Guard to help them,” Castro said in his presentation on the Senate floor. “There’s a lot that we don’t know yet about what happened that day, but here’s what we do know: Donald Trump did not send help to these officers who were badly outnumbered, overwhelmed and being beaten down.”
Two hours into the insurrection, by 3 p.m., President Trump had not deployed the National Guard or any other law enforcement to help, despite multiple pleas to do so,” Castro said. “President Donald Trump was, at the time, our commander in chief of the United States of America. He took a solemn oath to preserve, protect and defend this country and he failed to uphold that oath. In fact, there’s no indication that President Trump ever made a call to have the Guard deployed or had anything to do with the Guard being deployed when it ultimately was.”
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-made-no-attempt-to-reach-the-national-guard-to-help-overwhelmed-capitol-police-rep-castro-says-020116069.html
Well, that’s good. I watch, read and listen to a lot of news – strange that it has had so little coverage.
Bucephalus @ #2851 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 3:51 pm
A man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest!
Greensborough Growler @ #601 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 3:42 pm
LvT doesn’t do sources, as their stupid assertions about Joe Biden’s Approval ratings proved conclusively. LvT only does gaslighting of the Democrats.
Pence took lead as Trump initially resisted sending National Guard to Capitol
Vice President Mike Pence, not President Donald Trump, helped facilitate the decision to mobilize members of the DC National Guard Wednesday when violence at the US Capitol building started to escalate, according to a source familiar with the move and public comments from top officials.
Trump, who has proven over the past year to be eager to deploy the National Guard when violence breaks out, initially resisted doing so on Capitol Hill Wednesday as a mob of his supporters breached the building, per a source familiar. Pence played a key role in coordinating with the Pentagon about deploying them, and urged them to move faster than they were.
The news raises questions about who was acting as commander in chief on one of America’s darkest days, which saw the country’s legislature overrun for the first time since the British attacked and burned the building in August 1814.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/pence-national-guard/index.html
C@tmomma @ #2853 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 3:54 pm
Does he?
Bucephalus @ #599 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 3:34 pm
You mean the people that had one hand tied behind their backs by Trump (proven with evidence) and who Trump sooled his rabid followers onto conscious of that fact?
You hit some pretty low lows, Buce, but that has to be one of the lowest.
Does he?
What do you mean, GG?
Mike Pence, NOT Trump, called in National Guard to Capitol, Internet praises him for being the ‘better man’
It was Pence, and not Trump, who played the key role in calling in the National Guard and urged them to move quickly to prevent any more damage at the Capitol
Vice President Mike Pence was the one who helped mobilize members of the DC National Guard to the Capitol building on Wednesday, January 6. Violence and chaos erupted at the US Capitol building and had started to escalate when Pence called in the National Guard, as per a source familiar with the move. Over the past year, Trump had been very keen on deploying the National Guard whenever violence broke out during protests, but he was reluctant to do so when a mob of Trump supporters broke into the building on Capitol Hill on January 6.
It was Pence who played the key role in calling in the National Guard and urged them to move quickly to prevent any more damage and control the situation. Pence has received a lot of praise for taking charge and doing what was needed.
The White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien issued a statement where he praised Pence and called him a “genuinely fine and decent man”.
https://meaww.com/mike-pence-praised-call-national-guard-capitol-riot-donald-trump-internet-reactions
License to Q (Drivers License Parody) | The Divided State of America with Heather Gardner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdw13ja8hio
America at it’s greatest 😛
You all been played like dummies.
Trump Refused To Call Off Rioters During Kevin McCarthy Phone Call On Jan. 6 | All In | MSNBC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nK4pFA0OnM
It’s terrible that Brett Sutton has to waste his precious time schooling DimTim on twitter.
I haven’t found a confirmation link, but I’m reading on Palmer Report that Pence is letting it be known that his boss (then POTUS) knew that Pence (then VPOTUS) was in danger, and did nothing. A lot of this was swirling about just after the attack, but it’s interesting it’s appearing again now, and attributed to Pence. If so, why and why now?
I also find it odd that the line “what did she know and when did she know it” was being used against Pelosi in the last few days. Was it to get in first, to blunt a likely attack?
Dems are having a blast in the senate trial splitting the GOP.
Hero Pence vs Tyrant Trump. 😆
phoenixRED @ #2858 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 1:01 pm
It’s pretty obvious that Trump watched the insurrectionists with delight while most everyone else looked on in horror. He should be convicted by the Senate and then barred from holding any further public offices.
Pence 2024. Hmm.
Late Riser @ #2863 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 4:22 pm
There seems to be a move for the Republican Senators not to turn up for the vote.
If 30 didn’t come to the Party then Trump could be Impeached on the Dem vote and the strident Republicans.
This Pence move may be grist for that mill.
Massachusetts undersecretary of Climate Change, David Ismay has resigned, after a video emerged of him explaining his intention to break the will of ordinary consumers, to make them stop emitting CO2.
Ismay heads out the door after a series of questionable comments about forcing homeowners, motorists and fishermen to prepare for hard times as the state pushes for net-zero emissions in the years to come.
Ismay landed on the hot seat after MassFiscal posted a video of the undersecretary saying the state needs to “break their will” and “turn the screws on” ordinary people to force changes in their consumption of heating fuels and gasoline. Ismay described the ordinary people as the “person across the street” and the “senior on fixed income.”
https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/02/11/embattled-massachusetts-climate-official-david-ismay-resigns-immediately/
We are not worthy.
Mounting evidence suggests Trump knew of danger to Pence when he attacked him as lacking ‘courage’ amid Capitol siege
Mounting evidence emerging as former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial unfolds in the Senate this week indicates Trump may have been personally informed that Vice President Mike Pence was in physical danger during the Jan. 6 Capitol siege, just moments before denigrating him on Twitter.
Trump’s decision to tweet that Pence lacked “courage” — a missive sent shortly after the vice president had been rushed off the Senate floor — underscores how he delayed taking action to stop his supporters as they ransacked the Capitol.
Many of them were intent on doing harm to Pence, whom Trump had singled out at a rally earlier in the day, falsely claiming the vice president had the power to stop Congress from formalizing Joe Biden’s electoral college victory.
Trump’s tweet came at 2:24 p.m. that day — only 11 minutes after live television coverage showed Pence being hustled from the Senate floor because rioters were streaming into the building one floor below. The Senate then abruptly went into recess.
See all the evidence presented in Trump’s impeachment trial
Trump was watching news coverage of the session after he returned from his rally at the Ellipse, according to a person familiar with the events of the day who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe what was happening behind the scenes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-tweet-pence-capitol/2021/02/11/cc7d9f7e-6c7f-11eb-9f80-3d7646ce1bc0_story.html
Barney @7:48
On the contrary Barney, we should have been vaccinating our border workers long ago. It does make a difference and I think it should be obvious why it does. Having herd immunity across our population is one thing. Not importing the bug is another.
Also, the sooner we start vaccinating, the sooner we reach herd immunity. We have no idea what may come. We are sitting ducks right now and you’d better hope that Victoria fizzles out.
Jacinda shows up SfM again, this time on vaccine supply.
poroti
One wonders when we’ll have comparable data for AZ..
New report reveals Mike Pence was in even greater danger during the Capitol siege than we knew
When a mob of far-right insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, their targets included not only Democrats but Vice President Mike Pence — who they believed had betrayed President Donald Trump by not preventing the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. And according to the Washington Post, the rioters “came perilously close” to finding Pence that day.
Some of the extremists made no secret of their desire to harm Pence if they got to him. Groups of them were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence” — and a hangman’s noose was set up near the Capitol Building.
“Secret Service officers eventually spirited Pence to a room off the Senate floor with his wife and daughter after rioters began to pour into the Capitol, many loudly denouncing the vice president as a traitor as they marched through the first floor below the Senate chamber,” the Post explains. “About one minute after Pence was hustled out of the chamber, a group charged up the stairs to a second-floor landing in the Senate, chasing a Capitol Police officer who drew them away from the Senate.”
https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/mike-pence-2649954349/
I think we need a federal Qld poll to see how Albo’s tour went down.
A good showing will see an interesting reaction from the Labor right boosters.
Such jealousy of me c@t. It’s so obvious.
RO
The thing that bothers me is not the precise day when we start vaccinations. Its the rate of delivery. 80,000 per week is a trickle. And surely we are not going to use the AZ vaccine on the elderly and high risk workers?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-13/hotel-quarantine-chief-nebuliser-team-not-told-victoria-cassar/13152276
“This Pence move may be grist for that mill.”
I guess we’ll see soon enough. I note that:
56/84 = 2/3
50/75 = 2/3
I stand with Taylormade in congratulating all down on the surfcoast for securing the Bells Beach Easter Pro for three years. 🙂
Herald Sun.
CQV Commissioner Emma Cassar has rejected claims that a hotel guest blamed for spreading COVID through a nebuliser had been given permission to use the device by health authorities.
________________
The fix is in.
Cud Chewer
80,000 BUT Scrott told us ‘for the first few weeks’ . Suspiciously he did not mention what happens after those ‘first few weeks’ . If the number went up up up we can be sure Flimflam Man would have told us all about it …………………many times.
LR
What is the Pence thing about?
Nebuliser dude is clearly a Lib.
Taylormade @ #2881 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 4:48 pm
Your evidence seems to be the facts don’t fit your QAnon fantasies.
I bet Neil Mitchell and his cult are thrilled about this UK variant breakout. Weeks of whinging and moaning out of this.
It is becoming more and more obvious that the state and territories cannot be expected to shoulder the full burden of quarantining returned travellers on their own. It can be argued that the Morrison government is being almost criminally negligent in refusing to take full or even partial responsibility in this matter.
He is right about the Libs being hopeless economic managers.
You just can’t trust them with taxpayers money.
Rampant corruption and rorting.
On what do you base this allegation of criminal negligence citizen ? The implication in your post is that the States are too hopeless (with the resources of their police and health departments) to manage up to what 500 people being in quarantine at any given time ?
Marjorie Taylor Greene is making the headlines in nath’s favourite journal of record, the Daily Mail –
‘Marjorie Taylor Greene had affairs with tantric sex guru Craig Ivey and fitness gym manager Justin Tway, DailyMail.com has learned.
The embattled Georgia congresswoman, 46, has been married to husband Perry Greene since 1995 and shares three kids with him . Neither man denied the affairs when approached by DailyMail.com, but both refused to comment on their past relationships with Taylor Greene. ‘I have no interest in talking about anything to do with that woman. Everything with her comes to no good,’ Tway, 42, said
Taylor Greene had met her two lovers while working at a gym in Alpharetta, Georgia in 2012.
Insiders say she was so brazen about her affairs they believed her marriage was on the rocks, but it appears the couple has put her infidelity behind them. Congress voted last week to remove Taylor Greene from her committee assignments due to her outrageous beliefs and controversial social media posts
In response to DailyMail.com’s request for comment, Taylor Greene said it was another attempt to smear my name because I’m the biggest threat to the Democrats’ Socialist agenda’.
Taylor Greene, 46, has become notorious since being elected to Congress. She calls herself a ‘strong conservative Christian,’ who planned to take her ‘family values’ to Washington.
(The article is worth checking out for the photos of the ‘tantric sex guru’)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9246917/Marjorie-Taylor-Green-openly-cheated-husband-men-gym.html
SkyFoxNews asked Kevin Rudd to participate in a documentary they are making about him and Turnbull. His response..
Sprockets again with the panty sniffing ….
I thought you had your fill of Gladys / Daryl
sprocket_ @ #2892 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 5:13 pm
Go Kevie!
sprocket_
Check the date?
sprocket_
I hope that Turnbull returns equal fire. 🙂
Cud Chewer @ #2883 Saturday, February 13th, 2021 – 3:49 pm
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/all-hell-has-broken-loose-tonight-with-donald-trump-mike-pence-and-kevin-mccarthy/36606/
L R
It can’t be Feb 2020, because that’s too early for the R.C. idea.
lizzie
Maybe Kevin needs a proof reader.