BC POLITICS
Saved by @SteveeRogerr

Thanks Stewart! Election day at CDU's conference is just beginning. Speeches by candidates Laschet, Merz, Röttgen start at 9:45 (Berlin time, so in 10 mins), then the 1,001 delegates begin voting at 11:10.

 First up is Armin Laschet, the continuity candidate. Key messages: US example of dangers of polarisation; CDU can't take "Merkel voters" for granted; change requires experience, trust and teamwork rather than just big ideas; namecheck for his more-popular running mate Jens Spahn.
Verdict: not a bad speech tbh, nicely organised around theme of trust and teamwork that marked his father's work as a miner; the warning about the dangers of polarisation captured Laschet's own strengths and the risk of electing Merz
Next up is Friedrich Merz, the right-wing veteran. Climate change, digitisation, ideas blah-blah [aka I'm not a blast from the past]; don't fear the future; "consensus and compromise" require more contest; CDU must return to the "real centre"; no left-wing majority in Germany.
Verdict: weak, weak, weak. No organising theme, no coherence, just buzzwords over substance. And coming from Merz, the (genuinely valid) case for more robust political debate in Germany just comes across as cynical and reactionary.
Last up is Norbert Röttgen, the moderniser. Key messages: Merkel good but party must turn to future; younger, greener, more female, more digital; beware risks of hate & populism; CDU can revive transatlantic relations (only one to nod to Biden); I can integrate CDU's tendencies
Verdict: lacked Laschet's folksy charm and narrative but easily the most convincing about the realities facing CDU and Germany
Now Q&A session, which is not entirely going according to plan... Painfully prolonged technical problems with one questioner (did someone mention digitisation?). And health minister Jens Spahn uses his question slot to deliver a political ad for his running mate Laschet.
Spahn's stunt is a risky move. He is popular and an asset to the Laschet ticket, and sought to remind CDU delegates of that, but some may take badly to his breaking with the supposed neutrality of the party conference.
Now for the voting...
We'll see if the delegates see it this way but the CDU's leadership conference - too male, too pale, digitally incompetent - is itself a ringing endorsement of Röttgen's argument about the party's need to move faster towards future.
Voting is over. Result of 1st round imminent...
Laschet: 380
Merz: 385
Röttgen: 224

992 delegates voted
Better than expected for Laschet, worst than expected for Merz. The two now go through to runoff round.
Röttgen's votes are expected to break towards Laschet, so this is now Laschet's to lose. 2nd round runoff voting has started.
Quick recap of who Armin Laschet is: folksy state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany's most populous); continuity candidate who supported Merkel's refugee policies; backed by much of CDU establishment; economically centrist; dovish on Russia and China
...but some questions as to whether he is really fit to be chancellor candidate. The alternatives are health minister Jens Spahn (Laschet's running mate, he of the Q&A stunt) and Bavarian state premier Markus Söder. Selection expected in spring.
2nd runoff round of voting over. Final result imminent...
Final CDU leadership result:

Laschet 521
Merz 466

Armin Laschet, state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, is new CDU leader and thus frontrunner to be the party's candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor at September general election.
Question now is whether he takes the CDU/CSU chancellor candidacy when that's decided in the spring. Focus on party's polling and particularly its performance at two key state elections in March. The alternatives are health minister Jens Spahn and Bavarian premier Markus Söder.
But notable and welcome that Merz, the worst of the possible candidates for 🇩🇪 and 🇪🇺, has been ruled out.
More on Laschet's win, and what comes next, on @NewStatesman shortly...
Armin Laschet: the personification of Rhineland joviality and Christian democratic consensus politics. But can he, should he, be the next chancellor of Germany?

My @NewStatesman piece on the new leader of the CDU:

https://t.co/yXgwygvfVi

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The Irish Border
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@BorderIrish
- Jim
- Yes, Border
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- Just standing here
- I see that. And I don’t mind, but it’s just that you said you were Leaving
- I am
- ... two years ago. And you’ve been standing there since then
- Doing nothing
- Doing, as you say, nothing
- I’m Leaving
- Ok, Jim

- Still here so, Jim?
- I am, Border
- But you’re still ...
- Leaving. 100%. Leaving.
- Do you not feel like a bit a prick, Jim, you know saying you’re Leaving but then
- Standing here for two years in the open air doing absolutely zilch?
- That’s it, Jim
- I’m Leaving
- Ok, Jim

- Jim
- Yes, Border
- Have you thought about how to Leave?
- In what way?
- Moving is not really my area of expertise, but just off the top of my head, you could go that way👉, or that way👈. You could 🚶‍♂️or🏃🏼‍♂️or even✈️
- You’re being difficult now. I’m Leaving
- Ok, Jim

- Border
- Jim
- This is quite boring, isn’t it?
- It is that
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- Oh aye. Went to school round here. Quiet lad
- ...
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- Still Leaving, Border
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- Looking forward to Leaving, Jim?
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- The weather?
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Christina Warren
@film_girl
A brief thread on Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, the crazy con man who is now claiming to have hacked into the Georgia voting machines in Fulton County. 90s kids and tech aficionados might remember Jovan as the inventor of the CueCat, the dumbest gadget of all time.

Also, for anyone who wants to claim that Jovan Hutton Pulitzer (not his given name, but one he changed legally after the CueCat debacle) invented QR Codes: he did not. Like that other right-wing crazy man who claimed to have invented email, Jovan didn’t invent QR Codes.

He did invent the CueCat, a product that somehow raised $185 million dollars for a tethered barcode scanner for magazines and newspapers, so you could get ads from your ads. As I said, the dumbest product of all time. Good backup barcode scanners after they were hacked, however

Oh, that’s another thing. When CueCat was a thing, its systems were hacked. I guess that’s what makes Jovan a security expert. His bankrupt company from 20 years ago was hacked and widely mocked. He’s a genius.

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@djrothkopf
Trump on climate: I don't believe it. Trump on Khashoggi: I don't believe it. Trump on Russia: I don't believe it. Idiocy? A canny game? Doesn't really matter as much as the underlying intellectual autocracy. In this administration only one opinion matters.

It's an assault on facts and reason. It's an assault on good governance. It's an assault on the bureaucracies that are being discounted. It's an assault on science and history. But it is also an assault on one of the underpinnings of democracy.

We live in a system that is grounded on the idea of collaborative government. Leaders may have a final word but even then, there are typically checks and balances. Hopefully, in this case, such checks and balances may work. But they also are being tested.

The president's position that he is smarter than all the world's scientists, than the entire intelligence community, than experts who have studied any issue all their lives, is, of course, asinine. But his belief that government turns solely on his opinion, is monarchic.

Louis XIV reportedly said, "L'etat est moi." That he was the state. Trump asserting that he knows better than all, discounts all advice, that his brain is enough to chart the course for America alone, is essentially saying the same thing.
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Robert Saunders
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@redhistorian
"3 million people are estimated not to have official photo ID, with ethnic minorities more at risk". They will "have to contact their council to confirm their ID if they want to vote"

This is shameful legislation, that does nothing to tackle the problems with UK elections.THREAD


There is no evidence in-person voter fraud is a problem, and it wd be near-impossible to organise on an effective scale. Campaign finance violations, digital disinformation & manipulation of postal voting are bigger issues, but these are crimes of the powerful, not the powerless.

In a democracy, anything that makes it harder to vote - in particular, anything that disadvantages one group of voters - should face an extremely high bar. Compulsory voter ID takes a hammer to 3 million legitimate voters (disproportionately poor & BAME) to crack an imaginary nut

If the government is concerned about the purity of elections, it should reflect on its own conduct. In 2019 it circulated doctored news footage of an opponent, disguised its twitter feed as a fake fact-checking site, and ran adverts so dishonest that even Facebook took them down.

Britain's electoral law largely predates the internet. There is little serious regulation of online campaigning or the cash that pays for it. That allows unscrupulous campaigners to ignore much of the legal framework erected since the C19th to guard against electoral misconduct.
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Jeff Cortese
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@jeffreycortese
1/9 Impeachment fun fact: sitting Congressman #AlceeHastings, participating in current #impeachment, was himself impeached. He was fed judge convicted on 8 articles related to bribery/lying under oath. 4-years later, he was in #Congress. Following is from

2/9 “In 1981, a fed grand jury indicted Judge Hastings along with his friend William Borders, a D.C. lawyer. Hastings was charged with conspiracy/obstruction of justice for soliciting a $150,000 bribe in return for reducing the sentences of two mob-connected felons.” #corruption

3/9 “A year after Borders was convicted, the result of an FBI sting, Hastings's case came before the criminal court. Despite Borders’ conviction, and the fact that Hastings had indeed reduced the sentences of the two felons, he was acquitted...and returned to his judicial post.”

4/9 “Subsequently, suspicions arose that Hastings had lied and falsified evidence during the trial in order to obtain an acquittal. A special committee of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals began a new probe into the Hastings case.”

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