🇩🇪 German elections (federal & EU level)

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Michael Roth and Christina Kampmann announced that they will jointly fight for leadership of SPD.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

By the way, how are the elections in the SPD going? Do media even care?

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

By the way, how are the elections in the SPD going? Do media even care?

Oh, yes. Every time a new chair hopeful chimes in, the media report about it.
But the CDU, AfD and the Greens are in their main focus, of course. (And currently also the CSU, whose chairman recently presses for a constitutional amendment concerning environment protection.)

So as for now who is the main contender?

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Former SPD leader and vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel will resign his parliamentary seat on November 1, officially ending his career in politics. Very sad and actually disgusting how the SPD has treated him since the 2017. He's a very smart and down-to-earth guy and straightshoter who should have kept the position of foreign minister instead of Heiko Maas. I had the opportunity to meet him personally three times.

And a Russian gas companies lobbyist so good that he will have no longer any influence on German politics. The less Russlandversteher in Germany, the better for the EU.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Former SPD leader and vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel will resign his parliamentary seat on November 1, officially ending his career in politics. Very sad and actually disgusting how the SPD has treated him since the 2017. He's a very smart and down-to-earth guy and straightshoter who should have kept the position of foreign minister instead of Heiko Maas. I had the opportunity to meet him personally three times.

And a Russian gas companies lobbyist so good that he will have no longer any influence on German politics. The less Russlandversteher in Germany, the better for the EU.

Siggi is engaged the Atlantik Brücke, he's not a Russian asset.

As for now yes, but even the Americans were kind of shocked with that assignment. US ambasador even wanted to stop Gabriel becoming new chief of Atlantik-Brucke. And Gabriel himself have a history of lobbying for NS2, so even if he is not "Russian asset" he is clearly supportive of Russian economic and geopolitical interests.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Former SPD leader and vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel will resign his parliamentary seat on November 1, officially ending his career in politics. Very sad and actually disgusting how the SPD has treated him since the 2017. He's a very smart and down-to-earth guy and straightshoter who should have kept the position of foreign minister instead of Heiko Maas. I had the opportunity to meet him personally three times.

And a Russian gas companies lobbyist so good that he will have no longer any influence on German politics. The less Russlandversteher in Germany, the better for the EU.

Siggi is engaged the Atlantik Brücke, he's not a Russian asset.

As for now yes, but even the Americans were kind of shocked with that assignment. US ambasador even wanted to stop Gabriel becoming new chief of Atlantik-Brucke. And Gabriel himself have a history of lobbying for NS2, so even if he is not "Russian asset" he is clearly supportive of Russian economic and geopolitical interests.

NS2 is political consensus except among the Greens who dont like it due to environmental concerns. 73% of Germans support it. I would hardly argue that 3/4 of the Population and Merkel are in Putins pocket. Aside from the Trade Unions who support it due to the Jobs created (Probably the main reason for Gabriels support), it is quite clearly in Germanys economic interest as well.

Even 100% support for NS2 among Germans would not change the fact that even if Germany might become gas hub, still main beneficiary of that whole affair is Russia, and supporting NS2 for real means supporting Russian interests - even if not consciously. Same with the TurkStream.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Even 100% support for NS2 among Germans would not change the fact that even if Germany might become gas hub, still main beneficiary of that whole affair is Russia, and supporting NS2 for real means supporting Russian interests - even if not consciously. Same with the TurkStream.

Thats quite a zero-sum view of the World. Most people support things if is good for them - even if it may be good for someone else too. I have a Chinese Smartphone: Not because I support Chinese interests, Huawei or the CCP at all, but because it was the Phone with the Best Value for me - even if they happened to profit from it too. Same goes with National Governments. I dont think that Canada signed that Free Trade Agreement with the US because they supported US interests - rather because they stood to profit too.

You might do not have such intentions but purchasing Chinese mobile phone supports economic interests of PRC. You maybe would have multi-functional, advanced phone but still your individual consumer choice supported economy of China. Your comfort in global scale is much less important than further strengthening of their market position. Similarly, potential profits from selling natural gas surpluses by Germany are in scale less important than potential geopolitical and economic benefits which Russia might acquire. But in this case we are talking not about individuals but states, which one is generally threatening like one third of EU states and any supporting of that state economic interests should be considered in the EU as at least not welcome. 

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Even 100% support for NS2 among Germans would not change the fact that even if Germany might become gas hub, still main beneficiary of that whole affair is Russia, and supporting NS2 for real means supporting Russian interests - even if not consciously. Same with the TurkStream.

Thats quite a zero-sum view of the World. Most people support things if is good for them - even if it may be good for someone else too. I have a Chinese Smartphone: Not because I support Chinese interests, Huawei or the CCP at all, but because it was the Phone with the Best Value for me - even if they happened to profit from it too. Same goes with National Governments. I dont think that Canada signed that Free Trade Agreement with the US because they supported US interests - rather because they stood to profit too.

You might do not have such intentions but purchasing Chinese mobile phone supports economic interests of PRC. You maybe would have multi-functional, advanced phone but still your individual consumer choice supported economy of China. Your comfort in global scale is much less important than further strengthening of their market position. Similarly, potential profits from selling natural gas surpluses by Germany are in scale less important than potential geopolitical and economic benefits which Russia might acquire. But in this case we are talking not about individuals but states, which one is generally threatening like one third of EU states and any supporting of that state economic interests should be considered in the EU as at least not welcome.  

And buying LNG from America that's 2x more expensive and needs to be brought on a tanker halfway across the world is worse for the environment.

The more Gas we use, the better it is for the environment, and it just happens that Russia has a reliable, cheap source, that can be transported with minimal impact on the environment (compared to other sources).

Something you should take into account if you support any sort of Green party.

He hasn't raised any environmental concerns in his argument. This is about not being dependent on tinpot authoritarian adversaries that systematically try to undermine our democracies. I get that that's a difficult concept for so called patriots 3 feet up Putin's arse on the right of the spectrum and so called communists on the far left happily suckling on China's FDI, but I actually don't want to be co-dependent on these crooks and cheats of the international system, even if it means paying more.

Not even mentioning that natural gas is still a fossil fuel and producing electrical energy from that still cause emitting carbon dioxide. Additionally is mainly methane which is also dangerous for environment. Natural gas is an alternative only in the short run.


And in Poland prices of LNG from the US and Russia are comparable.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

I was just answering your arguments about miraculous fuel which natural gas according to you is, never mentioned that gas from USA is somehow better.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

I was just answering your arguments about miraculous fuel which natural gas according to you is, never mentioned that gas from USA is somehow better.

It is miraculous fuel, at least until we can get something else which is 100% sustainable (wind and solar do not work all the time), or we can just build more nuclear.



And yes, it is even more miraculous when it comes from Russia because it does not need a big ass ship to bring it half way across the world.

Air pollution is one thing, greenhouse gases are other thing. And obviously air pollution is important problem, CO2 emissions are much more complex and more important issue. As I said methane is still a very dangerous greenhouse gas, and producing electrical energy from natural gas still cause carbon dioxide emissions. When you look on data on CO2 emissions per kWh by energy source you can see that natural gas is still generating a lot of CO2, not on the coal level but still outperforming any renewables or nuclear energy.



So no, natural gas is not a miraculous fuel. Any implementation of gas fueled power plants as replacement for coal power plants might work only in the short term. Not even mentioning the fact that would require building new power plants, are gas powered power plants in Europe are not that numerous. 

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Why is Annalena Baerbock so popular? The Greens increased when she was confirmed as Spitzenkandidat

1) Baerbock is a largely unknown quantity in federal politics. She never held any government office and embodies a genuinely new kind of politics (anti-populist; pragmatic; progressive; consensus-oriented). Voters like that. The fact that she's an energetic and relatively young woman among boring and much older men also helps. Both Scholz and Laschet appear dull and uncharismatic in comparison.

2) The way how the Grünen selected their Spitzenkandidatin was widely praised as exemplary. No drama or badmouthing but a great show of unity. As German voters tend to regard unity as a proxy for reliability and competence, this also helps.

3) Baerbock is entirely uncontroversial. No scandals. No dubious corporate past. Nothing.

4) Obviously, she benefited greatly from Laschet's unpopularity and Söder's immature power games.

5) Baerbock is one of the party's most prolific climate policy experts. And once the pandemic is over, climate change will be the No 1 issue again. There is great enthusiasm from Fridays for Future for her candidacy.

6) Did I already say that she benefited greatly from Laschet's unpopularity and Söder's... uh, I did.

So, according to this description, she is similar to Emmanuel Macron in 2017, except the gender

Or sort of like Ardern for females and also for males you have Justin Trudeau as well.  All four young and a change from the status quo.

Annalena BearRam would be slightly more to the left though than Emmanuel Macron or Justin Biebertrudeau.

How an adult person can be so cringy? Like, seriously what the hell with those "funny" surnames spelling? Are we in primary school?

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Do we have any data on how many people already have voted (via postal voting)?

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Maybe stupid question but: generally with Scholz as a candidate for chancellor can we consider this as a victory for the right-wing of the SPD? Currently what for even the right of the party stands? Are there any major differences between leadership of the party or JuSos and more centre-leaning members of the party?