Friends,
Recent events and my last post, “Embrace the Complexity,” addressing five decades of prejudice I faced from the Liberal Left (despite prejudice from the Right often being worse), underscores why I was not surprised to see Trump’s monkey post of Barrack and Michelle Obama.
Back when Trump was a Liberal Democrat buddying up to the Biden’s and Clinton’s while they created racist crime bills and Conservative Righties accused them of being soft, this was exactly the kind of additional divide and conquer move he would make. Sure, Trump always has friends, Don King, Herchel Walker, Nicki Manaj. But he also does racist things, slum lord, Central Park Five, mock and delay apologizing to a former President and First Lady. One of the most frustrating things about his latest antics is how many people’s jaws dropped over his predictably sad behavior.
While there is more than enough Circus to go around, it is important to stay focused. Which brings me to best practices for debate, particularly with the POTUS threatening war against allies we have had since WWII (partly because he was not given the Nobel Peace Prize?!). From recent Presidential debates to most talk shows and podcasts like The View and Joe Rogan, the only difference is whether the audience prefers estrogen or testosterone. And they are virtually identical in being largely unproductive whims of hormones and irony. Such displays may be enjoyable, but to be productive we must stay on topic and answer tough questions. Written exchanges with responses ranging from a sentence to a paragraph or two have the greatest chance of being effective in clarity and accountability.
This exchange demonstrates the importance of focus and patience. Not only because people come from different historic perspectives, because even those well read and rehearsed in the same perspectives can come to different conclusions.
In that spirit, I would first like to clarify a boast Trump often makes and which makes me cringe. He likes to announce that Europe would not have won WWII without the US, while implying we are unique and owed something. I do not understand why the media, congress, and countless others in power do not clarify this ego filled rant. Start with how it is true that the US was essential for victory, then continue with how that only tells half the story. Without millions of Russians on the eastern front, Germany would have had more resources, and our soldiers would not have touched sand on D-Day. So, it is equally true Europe would not have won without Russia. The whole story is Germany was defeated because Allies were strong on many fronts. Taking sole credit for an entire team’s effort and sacrifice is the work of a con.
European Magazine Depicts Trump With Oil-Bleeding Hitler Mustache On Its Latest Cover
Europeans “know a thing or two about Hitler,” one social media user noted. By Pocharapon Neammanee, HuffPost Jan 9, 2026
Reader 1: How ironic considering that’s the same continent that allowed Hitler to take over 1/3rd of the world, they just sat back and watched.
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Curtis: Hmm … should we not learn from their shame, especially because some did not just sit back? Yes, silence was a problem, not only because of ill will or callousness, but many were just trying to survive. Still, there was always a resistance and always reasons to dismiss them, similar to how you are dismissing this warning now.
Curtis: Researching events that led up to “Kristallnacht” (1938) might help one see the hate Hitler spent a decade building, and how paramilitary forces like the Brown Shirts and Gestapo (similar to ICE), were not respected by all and faced resistance in ghettos and more. A lot to learn.
Reader 1: I’m talking about the years leading up to ww2, there was nothing being done against hitlers taking of countries and yes they all sat back and watched, SO DONT TELL ME THAT I DONT KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT BECAUSE I AM WELL EDUCATED ON WWII
Reader 1: ICE is meant to stop criminals, the gestapo was something else.
Curtis: Brown Shirts and Gestapo were supposed “peacekeepers” assuring things remain “legal,” but they mostly silenced resistance to make it look like no one cared when illegal things happened. ICE is similar. It is like being caught in a pot of water being slowly brought to boil. How many times before the election did Trump promise to go to war to steal Venezuela’s oil and resources from Greenland?
Reader 1: Venezuela is and always has been a corrupt nation and there nothing at all important about Greenland so I don’t see why we can’t just have it.
Cutis: Thinking so little of Venezuela and Greenland says a lot. In respects to the Natives, critical minerals for technology and fossil fuel reserves. Minimizing others is also essential in empirical games.
Reader 1: Does ICE round up people and make them work to death in camps? how about people of jewish origin? don’t think so.
Cutis: Hmm … most things do not happen overnight. Right now, ICE is more like Brown Shirts rounding folks up into a ghetto (except we deport to likely death or certain lower quality of life). If one is unwilling to look at what happened between 1929–1939 one should just say so.
Reader 1: I do know about Kristallnacht, I once had a project for antisemitism and i filled it out from the years 1855 to 1945, so I think i am quite educated in hate
Curtis: Obviously not. Why would one say people just sat back before 1939? Those who did not were heroes in the face of tyranny. Much more happened, many more villains and heroes, which I suppose one also knows about but also chooses to ignore?! I am done with this thread … good luck.
