In a somewhat mindboggling development, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach’s approving retweet of a Piers Morgan interview with Douglas Murray from the Israel-Gaza border has caused a stir in Germany and even given rise to scattered calls for the minister to resign. The since-deleted tweet can be seen below with a Google translation.
Murray is one of the journalists to have been shown footage of the October 7th Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians. The supposedly incriminating passage in the interview is the following one and it refers to this footage.
The thing that struck me about seeing the October 7th footage was that even the Nazis were actually ashamed of what they did. You know, SS battalions who spent their days shooting Jews in the back of the head and pushing them into trenches had to get very, very drunk in the evening to forget what they had done… I tell you one very big difference. If you look at the footage, the raw footage… If [people] see it, they will see something that is at least as barbaric as what the Nazis did. But here’s the difference. They did it with glee. They were deeply proud. You see people taking the head off a young Israeli man with a shovel and then calling their parents back in Gaza and telling them: “Father, Father, I’ve killed 10 Jews of my own hands. Get Mother on the phone, I want to tell her.” … The Nazis… also were a genocidal anti-Semitic organisation. But they tried to cover their crimes up. Hamas are actually proud of them.
Note that in his post, Lauterbach already in fact took his distance from precisely these remarks, writing “The trivialisation of the Nazis vis-à-vis Hamas is wrong. Such crimes should not and cannot be compared.” But apparently it was not enough for Lauterbach to flag this and, in effect, accuse Murray of such “trivialisation”. Per his critics, he ought not to have reposted the video at all.
But, in any case, it is difficult to understand in what mental universe Murray’s remarks could be construed as trivialisation of Nazi crimes. Indeed, Murray explicitly says that Hamas’s actions were “at least as barbaric as what the Nazis did”, which means, needless to say, that he regards the latter as barbaric. It should be recalled, moreover, that the footage to which he refers is reported to document civilians being shot at point-blank range, families being burned alive in their homes, and even, as touched upon by Murray, decapitations. How is comparing Nazi crimes to such atrocities trivialising anything at all?
The word that Lauterbach uses in fact literally means “to make harmless” (verharmlosen). In what world are point-blank shootings, burning people alive and beheadings “harmless”?
Murray merely added that the Hamas perpetrators in the videos appeared to be proud and happy about their crimes, whereas, on his understanding, the German perpetrators of Nazi crimes felt bad about them.
Now, that is indeed a contestable claim. As the German historian Jürgen Zimmerer notes in a tweet, “There are 100s of photos of SS men and soldiers posing in front of corpses”, and even in the English-language discussion, at least since the publication of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners, it is well-known that many ordinary Germans took part in the Holocaust with gusto. The grinning faces of the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 in the below photo do not reflect remorse.
But what does this prove other than that the German historian knows somewhat more about Nazi crimes than the British journalist? And, in any case, how does observing the depravity of Hamas’s crimes make Murray an “Islamophobic Right-wing radical”, as Zimmerer accuses him of being? Zimmerer is not alone, moreover. Numerous of the disapproving German tweets describe Murray as “far-Right”, “racist” and the like.
The real, underlying message of the German critics of Lauterbach and indeed of Lauterbach himself, in light of his own remarks on “trivialisation”, appears to be that Nazi crimes can never be compared to contemporary acts, no matter how depraved. But what then of the famous dictum ‘never again’? Is not the whole point of the latter that it could happen again and that we have thus to be vigilant? Or are we supposed to wait for the German Minister of Health or other self-appointed German experts to tell us when the appropriate threshold has been reached and we are thus permitted to make the comparison?
For both Lauterbach and his ostensible critics, it would seem that “merely” burning Jews alive or beheading them is not sufficient. The fact of the matter is that by accusing Murray of trivialising Nazi crimes, it is they who are trivialising the crimes of Hamas.
Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.
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“Southport killer was under NHS mental health care for years, hospital reveals”
How convincing do you find this ‘scientific’ article denying any causal link between “school shooters and psychotropic medications”?
“There has been an assertion in certain parts of the media, especially social media, that the majority of individuals who have engaged in a school shooting were prescribed psychotropic medications prior to the event…
…From the information obtained, it appears that most school shooters were not previously treated with psychotropic medications – and even when they were, no direct or causal association was found.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31513302/
It’s okay, it has been fact check and there is no causal link:
Our rating: False
Researchers have not found any link between antidepressants and school shootings. Available studies suggest a minority of school shooters were prescribed medication prior to committing their crimes.
Experts found no causal link between shooters and medication
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/04/10/fact-check-no-link-found-between-antidepressants-and-school-shootings/11601960002/
So that’s alright then.
Whatever any “fact check” organisation concludes the truth will be the exact opposite of their findings.
It’s well known that when young people first take antidepressants (specifically SSRIs I believe) there is a short period of increased risk of suicide and other severe mental health issues. I’m sure other mental health medications are similar, it’s all tinkering with your brain chemistry after all.
I remember an article a few years ago (It may have been the excellent Peter Hitchens), in which he “suggested” a link between the perpetrators of “school killings” in America, cannabis use at a young age,leading to anti depressants being prescribed.
One report I have seen says that Rudakubana had been on medication, but had stopped taken it. He is also said to have claimed in court to be ill. So the question is – is this summary from a Substack blog relevant here? If so, it suggests a rather different perspective on this case,
“Psychiatry’s denial of SSRI-related issues often leads to misinterpretation of side effects as signs of pre-existing mental illness, resulting in more medication and potentially catastrophic consequences.
SSRIs, like other stimulant drugs (e.g., cocaine), can create aggressive behaviors and are highly addictive so many SSRI [patients] enter severe withdrawals once they stop them. Unfortunately, few resources exist for these situations.”
The greatest danger of adverse effects of antidepressants can be when they are stopped.
Trump and the madman theory of international negotiations
President Trump is quite simply saying to Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, UAE and Uncle Tom Cobley that the invasion of Ukraine, the threat to The Baltic States, the mooted invasion of Taiwan and militarisation of the South China Sea, militaristic, imperialist expansionism, has consequences: a world in turmoil.
BRICS expansionism will be met with U.S. expansionism
The alternative is no expansionism by anyone.
Now who feels lucky?
“The United States has this unique and fearsome weapon of secondary sanctions,” he said, referring to measures imposed not on Russia itself but aimed to dissuade other countries and entities from conducting transactions that could help Moscow fight the war. Washington and the West could also step up sanctions on Russia’s “shadow fleet,” the often old and uninsured vessels used to bypass sanctions and keep oil revenues flowing in.
Rachel Ziemba, a sanctions expert at the Center for a New American Security, said enforcement of existing economic penalties and imposing secondary sanctions would be the most significant steps the Trump administration could take.
Russia has been able to mitigate the impact of sweeping U.S. sanctions and technology bans with the help of intermediates in third countries such as China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Ziemba said those countries would be vulnerable to secondary sanctions.
China has played a particularly important role in supporting Russia through the facilitation of dual-use technology shipments and purchase of oil.
“The question mark would be, would the Trump administration be more willing than the Biden administration to sanction Chinese banks for supporting Russia’s military supply chains or buying Russian oil,”
if all these players other than China were stopped it would help a lot. Such shipments have to be arranged by individuals as intermediaries and businesses as sellers.
If they were to be interdicted the trade would be only China-Russia. I doubt China would want to be closely associated with the coming Russian disaster.
Trump just gave Putin a wake-up call
In fact President Trump just gave Putin a way out that he desperately needs.
The Russian Army is engaged in doing the same thing over and over again, with exactly the same result every time; hundreds of thousands of casualties in return for scorched earth, some of it Russian scorched earth around Kursk.
The Russian economy is in a doom loop of ever higher interest rates and an inflationary spiral of prices for essential goods. Everyone knows how that ends, particularly in Russia.
Trump has established the principle; the Russian invasion of Ukraine is ‘ridiculous’
Now it is all about negotiating the price…..
From the Wall Street Journal
‘Putin believes key war goals have already been met, including control of land that connects mainland Russia to Crimea, and weakening Ukraine’s military, said one of the sources familiar with thinking in the Kremlin.
The Russian president also recognizes the strain the war is putting on the economy, the source said, citing “really big problems” such as the impact of the high interest rate on non-military businesses and industry.’
An unidentified source claims he knows what is in Putin’s mind. Very convincing.
After Russia breached the earlier agreements and the West under Obama did nothing, what Ukrainian in their right mind would surrender the occupied territory.
Russia would be back for more later and Ukrainian shipping would be subject to Russian whim.
They already have surrendered the occupied territory and no-one apart from BigZ thinks it will be returned.
Which earlier agreements were breached by Russia? What about the agreements (e.g. NATO expansion) breached by the West?
‘Russia, of course, is economically interested in negotiating a diplomatic end to the conflict,” Oleg Vyugin, former deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia said in an interview, citing the risk of growing economic distortions as Russia turbo-charges military and defence spending.
Vyugin was not one of the five sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation in Russia. The extent of Putin’s concerns about the economy, described by the sources, and the influence of that on views within the Kremlin about the war, are documented….’
I believe you have said this before. It was just opinions (mainly anonymous) then and nothing has changed.
‘There are issues in the Russian economy now….
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov 23 Jan 2025
From Reuters.com two days ago:
Reuters has previously reported that Putin is ready to discuss ceasefire options with Trump but that Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine must be accepted and that Ukraine must drop its bid to join the U.S-led NATO military alliance.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the Reuters reporting, acknowledged “problematic factors” in the economy, but said it was developing at a high rate and was able to meet “all military requirements incrementally” as well as all welfare and social needs.
“There are problems, but unfortunately, problems are now the companions of almost all countries of the world,” he said. “The situation is assessed as stable, and there is a margin of safety.”
Is the UK’s economy meeting all welfare and social needs?
It is always superficially handy to engage in selective quoting, as our friend from Kiev is apt to do.
“Labour MP: is hair colour a ‘protected characteristic’?”
I thought blue or pink hair already were protected characteristics.
‘Ere! What about green or purple hair?
Or no hair? We demand government subsidised hats! When do we want them? In time for winter! (OK, that’s going to need a bit of work on the scansion)
And no more jokes about baldies.
The whole idea is ridiculous which is why I am not surprised it came from an MP
All hair colour will be protected except that owned by white middle class people I expect.
Sorry, I mean white middle class non-LGBTQ+++ people of course.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/stonewall-diversity-scheme-government-rf8n3xbxc
The very fact that Civil Service departments are giving money to outside agencies, of dubious worth at best, is an absolute disgrace. This is taxpayers money and the practice has to stop. Either it stops or staff are dispensed with equivalent to the sum given to the outside agency.
One way of reducing this would be proper line by line budgeting and financial control.
Too often departments and Governments spend on unbudgeted costs, Chagos being a good example.
And yet the same people cry about outsourcing costs in other areas – NHS etc, surely it’s similar? Outsourcing ‘services’ to Stonewall (who knows why above looking for gold stars)
Indeed.
This is the same story as the Telegraph above but without the paywall. But there seems to be more being posted online about attempted abductions of kids and schools warning of men hanging around outside school premises. Also people are commenting about their own personal experiences. One lady commented that her 11yr old daughter was approached by two men in a car dressed as police officers giving her some story about her mam being in trouble and she needs to come with them, but the car wasn’t a police car so the girl was bright enough to be suspicious and she ran away;
”Police have been forced to intervene in a sleepy Northamptonshire village after migrants were “seen hanging around” a primary school during pick-up and drop-off times.
Officers in Deanshanger have told “asylum seekers” lodged in a nearby hotel to stick to “cultural expectations” – and have vowed to “deliver some work” around “appropriate behaviours”.
https://www.gbnews.com/news/migrant-crisis-police-asylum-seekers-primary-school-northamptonshire
”Following the alarming reports of school heads warning about young men attempting to abduct children, it seems fear is silencing many educators. But not all.
A teacher from a College has contacted me with inside information of what’s happening. For their safety, they’ve asked to remain anonymous. With their help, I’ll be piecing these stories together to uncover the truth.
What’s more disturbing is another source close to an Immigrant Hotel funded by Yvette Cooper and the Home Office, has revealed that schools near these hotels are now undergoing LOCKDOWN TRAINING.
At first, we thought this was for mass vaccination drills, but it’s clear these are preparations for a different kind of attack, one enabled by our own government’s policies.
If your school is experiencing these threats, DM me now. If enough reports come from one area, I’ll be there to expose everything.
Our children’s safety is not negotiable. It’s time to fight back.”
https://x.com/DANNYUNFILTERED/status/1880614428573331587
If you’re able to read the comments below this post you’ll see many more examples being posted by parents. More schools warning parents of strangers approaching kids or loitering nearby the premises. And it’s not always the ‘usual suspects’ as one mentioned Eastern European accents;
”I just received a deeply concerning letter about ATTEMPTED ABDUCTIONS OF CHILDREN FROM SCHOOLS in a specific area. The letter even includes safety guidance for parents.
Naturally, my first instinct was to investigate. I visited http://howfarfrommydoorstep.co.uk to check if there were IMMIGRATION HOTELS nearby, hoping to rule out the possibility that these incidents might involve undocumented, unvetted men.
But here’s the chilling truth: this area sits right in an Immigrant Triangle with hotels full of men of fighting age who haven’t been properly vetted or documented.
Ask yourself: Why are our children being put at risk? Why are communities being left vulnerable while those in power turn a blind eye?”
https://x.com/DANNYUNFILTERED/status/1880307227807932815
Terrifying. Makes me very angry.
Indeed. But it’s important to remember that the ‘far right’ are the real threat. Don’t let the evils of social media tell you otherwise;
”One of my followers is a teacher who went through the Prevent Programme training, it made little mention of the Islamic threat.
“Hi David, please keep this anonymous- the usual employment issues. I’m a teacher who had to do the mandatory Prevent training plus teach some of it to year 9, five years ago.
“It is totally unfit for purpose as the focus is on the EDL & far right as the most likely source of radicalisation. It is delivered by a Muslim lecturer & mentions the EDL & laughably the IRA but barely touches on radical Islam.
“As you can well imagine no one in teaching ever questions it, not because they agree with it but because they are frightened of being labelled a racist.
“It would be worth you finding some of those resources to analyse.”
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1883080041677893899
No @international law” can restrain us unless Parliamentarians want it to be so. Just watch President Trump to see how it is done.
Also relevant, I recently learned that the Edict of Nantes was explicitly intended to endure for all time. Within 80 years or so it was revoked so Protestants were again tortured and killed in France.
So much for claims we can’t do this or that because treaties say do.
I have commented on here more than once that International Law is a complete fiction. And as we know, when circumstances require our “leaders” duly ignore it.
“Amazon delivered Southport killer’s £1.70 knife ‘to one of his parents”
It’s the knife what did it gov!
Why didn’t he just go into the kitchen drawers and get one?
But since when can anyone buy a knife that cheaply, especially on Amazon? Poundland or Home Bargains maybe, but online retailers? What was it, a flipping paring knife?? It’d cost more for postage and packaging. Like you say, you’d get a bigger, sharper ( and consequently more lethal ) knife in your parent’s kitchen. Unless, due to his dad finding what he was intending a week earlier and intercepting him, the parents locked up all the sharp knives…
I also wasn’t aware that the mass child-killer had a brother;
”Are the UK public paying disability benefits for Axel Rudakubana’s family?
British taxpayers are already paying for the family to be housed under police protection.
Axel’s brother, Dion, received a new wheelchair when five Southport Rotary clubs (Southport Club, Southport Links, Southport Meols, Southport Sunrise, and Formby Club) combined forces to fund it.
This act of charity by the Rotary Clubs isn’t a problem.
However, if his father, Alphonse Rudakubana, had to turn to charities to pay for his son’s new wheelchair, why does he have two new-looking cars in their driveway?
According to Daily Mail, Alphonse is a taxi driver who started a company called Redknapp Ltd in December 2018. He listed his job as ‘trader’ and nationality as British.
The screenshot below is from doorbell camera footage, on the day Alphonse stopped Axel from taking a taxi to his former school a week before the Southport murders.”
https://x.com/Con_Tomlinson/status/1882793332583305373
Crikey.
The benefit bill for the brother will be in the region of £200 pw. Housing adaptations paid for. Supplementary carers?
“Trump’s election signals “resurgent fascism”.
Good! Bring it on, let’s have a shake up
“Trump revokes security protection for Covid adviser Fauci”
Pardon or not! Let true justice prevail
“Come and get him”
Just when you think President Trump has finished, he comes up with another great idea.
Hats (or baseball caps) off to The president
Sadly, this simply means that Fraudci will have to pay for his own protection. Still him and his wife have screwed US taxpayers for millions so hardly a problem. Probably even tax deductible.