WEAK, INCOMPETENT, OIKOPHOBIC LEADERSHIP HAS CONSEQUENCES EVERYWHERE: Germany’s Trump-like problem: Right-wing, anti-foreigner movement poised for big election win. “Hasche said the AfD, which is polling between 10% in the rural western state of Rhineland-Palatinate — where a major U.S. air base and about 60,000 Americans are stationed — and 20% in the impoverished eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, has succeeded in tapping support from frustrated voters with low incomes and education the same way that Trump has attracted many such voters in the United States.”

UPDATE: Exit Polls: German state elections: Success for right-wing AfD, losses for Merkel’s CDU. “The so-called ‘Super Sunday’ is largely billed as a referendum on Merkel’s open door policy towards refugees, which saw more than a million people arrive in Germany last year. The policy has proven divisive, both among the German public and within Merkel’s CDU. The chancellor has rejected measures such as imposing a cap on new arrivals, favoring instead a plan to distribute refugees across the 28 European Union member states.”