Ahead of this week's EU elections, the popular German Youtuber Rezo published a 55-minute video explaining the missteps of the ruling CDU party and other establishment parties in addressing climate change, inequality, rising militarism, and internet freedom (notably, the German support for the wildly unpopular Copyright Directive), a statement he backed up with hundreds of references. Read the rest

On May 26th, Europeans will vote for the next EU Parliament, and the region's far-right, "nationalist/anti-establishment" parties (AfD Germany, UKIP/Brexit UK, PiS/Poland, etc) are expected make large gains, possibly prompting a realignment of power in the EU; the far-right parties have campaigned as "anti-establishment," tapping into frustration with elites and their corruption. Read the rest

Hans from the Dutch activist group Bits of Freedom writes, "Wednesday May 15, 2019, Facebook’s Head of Public Policy for the Netherlands spoke at a round table in the House of Representatives about data and democracy. The Facebook employee reassured members of parliament that Facebook has implemented measures to prevent election manipulation. He stated: 'You can now only advertise political messages in a country, if you’re a resident of that country.' Bits of Freedom then went on to show how easy it was to buy political ads targeting people in Germany from the Netherlands and vice versa." Read the rest

Germany's Alternative For Germany (AfD) party (previously) are an insurgent neofascist movement with ties to senior mainstream politicians and the country's super-wealthy would-be oligarchs; the party put on a hard push in the the 2018 Bavarian elections and their meme warfare was full of familiar voter-suppression tactics, from garden-variety disinformation to exhortations to stay home on election day. Read the rest

In many ways, Richard Grenell was the perfect pick for Trump's ambassador to Germany: a longtime Fox News pundit and John Bolton protege whose vanity and narcissism cause him to lash out constantly (and undiplomatically) at the nation he's meant to be charming, and whose thin-skinned insecurity sends him into spirals of misery and approval-seeking a the first hint of criticism. Read the rest

High ranking German government officials were outed this year for secretly supplying advice and assistance to the xenophobic, violent, far-right extremist Alternative For Germany (AfD) party. Read the rest

Sheryl Sandberg asked Facebook staff to research George Soros because he gave a speech boldly critical of the social media giant as a “menace,” reports the New York Times tonight. Read the rest

After a poor showing in regional elections this weekend, Angela Merkel says she plans to step down as chancellor of Germany in 2021. She's giving three years notice.

She also said she would not seek re-election as leader of the centre-right CDU party in December. She has held the post since 2000. The CDU was severely weakened in Sunday's poll in the state of Hesse, the latest in a series of setbacks. Both the CDU and its coalition partners, the Social Democrats, were 10 percentage points down on the previous poll there - even though they remain in power in Hesse.

Merkel's conservatives still won, but no longer dominates, while the center-left Social Democrats appear to have been severely punished for joining her government. Voters peeled off to the left and right: greens and fascists shared the votes her centrist coalition lost.

On the left, the Greens’ share of the vote rose to around 20 percent, from 8 percent previously. The right-wing Alternative for Germany, or AfD, had a 12 percent share, a little below the 15 percent it has nationally.

With Sunday’s results, the anti-immigrant AfD easily passed the threshold for entering the regional legislature for the first time, giving it representation now in all 16 of Germany’s state parliaments.

Hans-Georg Maaßen was Germany's top spy, in charge of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (a domestic surveillance agency with 3,100 employees and an annual budget of €350m), and he was widely understood to have used his position to aid crypt-fascist, far-right groups like the notorious Alternative For Germany (AfD). Read the rest

The Alternative For Germany (AfD) is a xenophobic far-right party whose ranks include neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers; in a new tell-all book by "AfD dropout" Franziska Schreiber (once the head of the AfD's youth wing), we learn that party leader Frauke Petry worked closely with Hans-Georg Maaßen, the president of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (a domestic surveillance agency with 3,100 employees and an annual budget of €350m). Read the rest

Twenty suicidal congresscritters are calling for the speedy adoption of a broadcast flag, trying to unmake the work that the courts did this past May when they killed the initiative. The broadcast flag says that all digital TV technology has to be approved by Hollywood's bought-and-paid-for regulators, and the rubric for it is that if we don't give Hollywood this unprecedented veto, they'll stop making stuff available for digital TV. Note that no one in Hollywood has ever promised that they will produce DTV high-def content if they get this dumb rule -- this isn't even very convincing blackmail.

Is your congressjerk on the list below? Give her or him a call, and let it be known that elected lawmakers who break their constituents' televisions don't get re-elected.

Find out if your rep is on the list here.

John Shadegg, R-AZ, (202) 225-3361 Mary Bono, R-CA, (202) 225-5330 George Radanovich, R-CA, (202) 225-4540 John Shimkus, R-IL (202) 225-5271 Bobby Rush, D-IL, (202) 225-4372 Ed Whitfield, R-KY, (202) 225-3115 Albert Wynn, D-MD, (202) 225-8699 Charles Pickering, R-MS, (202) 225-5031 Lee Terry, R-NE, (202) 225-4155 Charles Bass, R-NH, (202) 225-5206 Mike Ferguson, R-NJ, (202) 225-5361 Frank Pallone, D-NJ, (202) 225-4671 Eliot Engel, D-NY, (202) 225-2464 Vito Fossella, R-NY, (202) 225-3371 Edolphus Towns, D-NY, (202) 225-5936 John Sullivan, R-OK, (202) 225-2211 Michael Doyle, D-PA, (202) 225-2135 Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, (202) 225-2811 Bart Gordon, D-TN, (202) 225-4231 Charles Gonzalez, D-TX, (202) 225-3236

I know, I know. Read the rest