Best Of

Plenty of Christmas spirit on here this afternoon I see 😂

Bah, humbug.

I was quite ill a month ago, and have only just started running and swimming again. Then my father-in-law died a couple of weeks ago. He was an honest, humble and humorous man. Sadly, I did not know him too well. Mrs J is understandably devastated, though the turn-out to his funeral (and the people who turned out at the airport to see his body away) have warmed her. He was thrice the man I am.

It's not been a very good run-up to Christmas...

Oh, how awful! RIP to you FIL.

I've been sick with various bugs and thought I was having a bad pre-Christmas period, but your post puts things in perspective.

There's always someone having a worse time than you...

Hope you and Mrs J manage to have a peaceful Christmas, even if it's a sad one.

This horror in Germany.

Just imagine the kind of reaction on social media if that had happened in the U.K. I fear the usual suspects would be gobbing off peddling their agendas, raising tension and cleiming conspiracies if challenged.

I hope Germany is spared that.

We’ve already got the usual suspects here gobbing off peddling their agendas, raising tensions and claiming conspiracies if challenged. I’m absolutely sure there are German equivalents doing the same on German social media, sadly.

Yes, the convolutions have been remarkable. Last night the usual suspects assumed that the unhinged Saudi doctor carried out the atrocity in the name of jihad. But the narrative had to change slightly when it became reasonably clear that this was unlikely to be the case, and his apparent influences included AfD etc. Not to be defeated, it turns out that it was a double bluff, as he was obviously hiding his jidahism in other guises. Stunning.
Like everybody else, I've no idea what his motives were at the moment.

If you’ve got no idea what his motives are, how come you nonetheless KNOW he’s not anyway influenced by jihadism?

Rather than jumping to conclusions here and on twitter and where ever else, which can and does stimulate reactions, some of which can be quite serious eg riot, arson, murder, etc why not just wait for the facts to become clear and then one can be justifiably outraged at whatever is the cause, whether that be jihadi, fascist or whatever tenancies.

At the end of the day it was a failure of the state to protect its citizens from inter-ethnic violence. Attributing an ideological motivation to it is a fool's game.

You don't know that. You are also jumping to conclusions. He could be a jihadist, he could be a right wing zealot or as in many cases in the past it could simply be someone will mental problems. However rushing to conclusions of either the first two often starts riots, arson and even murder.

Yes I do know that, and so do you. You seem to be in denial.

In the very unlikely event I am ever tried for something I hope to god you are not on the jury. I like to rely on facts and not internet trolls.

My comment was that the state had failed to protect its citizens from inter-ethnic violence and that attributing an ideological motivation to it is a fool's game. It's a fact that an act of inter-ethnic violence occured and it's a fact that the state failed to prevent it.

Again you can't know that. It might well be so. It only happened yesterday and you are just reading posts from people you have no idea you can rely on. The guy clearly has a conflicting background and actions. How do you know he isn't schizophrenic or suffering from some other mental issues?

You just don't know, yet we tolerate people stirring up potential racist violence who don't have the facts. Why can't people wait for the facts.

The only way in which it could not be true is if they've apprehended the wrong man, which seems highly unlikely. For whatever reason, this person developed a murderous rage against Germans - whether this was islamism, anti-islamism or mental issues doesn't change this fact. It also doesn't change the fact that the authorities were aware of it and failed to act.

In particular Twitter did nothing about his postings, which were in plain sight, and indeed still are.

Take this one from August this year, which seems very much not Islamist:

https://x.com/DrTalebJawad/status/1821207118617203097

Indeed so far as I can understand his train of thought it is not that he wants to Islamise Germany, but that Germany is deporting Saudi asylum seekers, particularly women, back to Saudi to be imprisoned or killed.

It’s impossible to follow his train of thought. He’s made some comments in Arabic which directly contradict stuff he’s said in English. I think he might simply be a criminal nutter who PROBABLY faked apostasy to avoid extradition, and he has developed a bizarre, murderous grudge against Germany and Germans


If he was that anti-Islam or Saudi surely he would have attacked a mosque or an embassy

Instead he attacked a Christmas market?! He also did it on the anniversary - I think - of a known jihadi attack against a German Xmas market

Remember kids:

If a white Christian kills a bunch of people, it's because he's mentally ill.

If a brown Muslim does it, it's because he's motivated by Islam.

Plenty of Christmas spirit on here this afternoon I see 😂

Bah, humbug.

I was quite ill a month ago, and have only just started running and swimming again. Then my father-in-law died a couple of weeks ago. He was an honest, humble and humorous man. Sadly, I did not know him too well. Mrs J is understandably devastated, though the turn-out to his funeral (and the people who turned out at the airport to see his body away) have warmed her. He was thrice the man I am.

It's not been a very good run-up to Christmas...

OK, not fun.

Can we rally round to cheer this man up? Some proper Christmas spirit?

Does the original poster have a good snifter of Gin at proof 1138 that would help?

https://kyivindependent.com/for-first-time-ukraine-attacks-russian-positions-using-solely-ground-fpv-drones/

"Ukrainian forces successfully attacked Russian positions using only ground and first person view (FPV) drones instead of infantry, an army spokesperson claimed on Dec. 20."

If Russia is defeated in Ukraine they will be chased out by a veritable horde of drones. Britain won WWI with technological innovation, and Ukraine can still win this war the same way.

In addition to supporting Ukraine we should, and must, learn all we can about drone warfare in both offensive and defensive terms.

The MoD should probably rent a dvd of Terminator 2 ( I am assuming their technology would at least be up to that).

Did we win WW1 with technical innovation? I thought it was more that the US came in with lots of fresh troops and tipped the balance in our favour.

I think there were three main factors - the naval blockade, US entry into the war, British advances in using the new technologies of the tank and the warplane.

You can argue about the relative importance of each, but I think Germany would have been defeated without the Americans.

It's an interesting counterfactual to consider what the post-war world would have been like if the USA hadn't been at Versailles.

It was the French who really screwed up Versailles, so it might have been even worse ?

Arguably Versailles wasn't tough enough on Germany so it was perceived as a humilation rather than an honourable defeat.

No, that feeling was principally engendered because the war ended when the front line was still almost entirely in France and Belgium. So the Germans could feel that it was a political choice to lose the war, and not a military defeat.

This is why Pershing, in particular, was determined to advance as quickly as possible. Just like Boris Johnson with Russia in Ukraine, he thought that it was important for Germany to be seen to lose the war, as well as to actually lose it.

Arguably the armistice itself was the mistake, compared to WWII when the Allies insisted on an unconditional surrender by Germany.

Obviously the parallel with the Russo-Ukraine War is not exact, because Russia possesses nuclear weapons, and so no-one will be marching on Moscow. But I think that the principle that Russia has to lose the war, and be seen to lose the war, is still an important one in terms of deterring future aggression by Russia or any other authoritarian dictatorship.

Boris Johnson sometimes had a knack for seeing through to the essential nub of an issue in a way that few other British politicians in recent years have done. It's just such a shame he was such a lazy narcissist with a complete lack of moral judgement, and that he mostly made awful judgements about the advisors and allies he surrounded himself with in Number 10.

Louisiana forbids public health workers from promoting COVID, flu and mpox shots https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/12/20/nx-s1-5223440/louisiana-ban-public-health-promoting-covid-flu-mpox-vaccines-landry-rfk-jr-anti-vaccine

How many Americans are the Republican Party going to kill?

Interesting bit in that, showing the bias that calls the entire article into question:

The statement said that the flu vaccine can reduce illness severity and therefore may help high-risk patients — but falsely claimed "the flu vaccine does not prevent one from getting the influenza virus." According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the vaccine reduces the risk of getting the flu.

What on earth is the word "falsely" doing there? Something which reduces but does not eliminate the risk of X cannot fairly be said to prevent X.

Quite obviously vaccines cannot prevent you from getting infected. They work by creating an immune response to the virus, thereby greatly reducing clinical disease, often to the point of being asymptomatic and unaware. Also reducing to a variable degree the risk of transmission.

This horror in Germany.

Just imagine the kind of reaction on social media if that had happened in the U.K. I fear the usual suspects would be gobbing off peddling their agendas, raising tension and cleiming conspiracies if challenged.

I hope Germany is spared that.

We’ve already got the usual suspects here gobbing off peddling their agendas, raising tensions and claiming conspiracies if challenged. I’m absolutely sure there are German equivalents doing the same on German social media, sadly.

Yes, the convolutions have been remarkable. Last night the usual suspects assumed that the unhinged Saudi doctor carried out the atrocity in the name of jihad. But the narrative had to change slightly when it became reasonably clear that this was unlikely to be the case, and his apparent influences included AfD etc. Not to be defeated, it turns out that it was a double bluff, as he was obviously hiding his jidahism in other guises. Stunning.
Like everybody else, I've no idea what his motives were at the moment.

If you’ve got no idea what his motives are, how come you nonetheless KNOW he’s not anyway influenced by jihadism?

Rather than jumping to conclusions here and on twitter and where ever else, which can and does stimulate reactions, some of which can be quite serious eg riot, arson, murder, etc why not just wait for the facts to become clear and then one can be justifiably outraged at whatever is the cause, whether that be jihadi, fascist or whatever tenancies.

At the end of the day it was a failure of the state to protect its citizens from inter-ethnic violence. Attributing an ideological motivation to it is a fool's game.

You don't know that. You are also jumping to conclusions. He could be a jihadist, he could be a right wing zealot or as in many cases in the past it could simply be someone will mental problems. However rushing to conclusions of either the first two often starts riots, arson and even murder.

Yes I do know that, and so do you. You seem to be in denial.

In the very unlikely event I am ever tried for something I hope to god you are not on the jury. I like to rely on facts and not internet trolls.

My comment was that the state had failed to protect its citizens from inter-ethnic violence and that attributing an ideological motivation to it is a fool's game. It's a fact that an act of inter-ethnic violence occured and it's a fact that the state failed to prevent it.

Again you can't know that. It might well be so. It only happened yesterday and you are just reading posts from people you have no idea you can rely on. The guy clearly has a conflicting background and actions. How do you know he isn't schizophrenic or suffering from some other mental issues?

You just don't know, yet we tolerate people stirring up potential racist violence who don't have the facts. Why can't people wait for the facts.

The only way in which it could not be true is if they've apprehended the wrong man, which seems highly unlikely. For whatever reason, this person developed a murderous rage against Germans - whether this was islamism, anti-islamism or mental issues doesn't change this fact. It also doesn't change the fact that the authorities were aware of it and failed to act.

In particular Twitter did nothing about his postings, which were in plain sight, and indeed still are.

Take this one from August this year, which seems very much not Islamist:

https://x.com/DrTalebJawad/status/1821207118617203097

Indeed so far as I can understand his train of thought it is not that he wants to Islamise Germany, but that Germany is deporting Saudi asylum seekers, particularly women, back to Saudi to be imprisoned or killed.

It’s impossible to follow his train of thought. He’s made some comments in Arabic which directly contradict stuff he’s said in English. I think he might simply be a criminal nutter who PROBABLY faked apostasy to avoid extradition, and he has developed a bizarre, murderous grudge against Germany and Germans

If he was that anti-Islam or Saudi surely he would have attacked a mosque or an embassy

Instead he attacked a Christmas market?! He also did it on the anniversary - I think - of a known jihadi attack against a German Xmas market

As I said below: you are assuming there is just one motivation. It might be that he was just angry about a whole bunch of grievances. Very, very angry.

I think much will depend on how much planning went into this attack. Weeks of planning would indicate a certainty of purpose and motivation. Little or no planning would indicate uncertainty of purpose. "Sod it; I'm bloody annoyed. Let's ****ing do it!"

Fair point about planning. Who knows. However it is clear he’s had it in his mind to slaughter lots of Germans for many months. Some woman tried to warn the authorities a couple of years ago