* If you’re looking for some compelling context for today’s geopolitical world and this American presidency, check out Showtime’s (2012) production of Oliver Stone’s “The Untold History of the United States” that is streaming on Netflix. It’s a 12-part primer on how the stage was set for the U.S. to become a global power–from William McKinley to Barack Obama. Of course Stone can get preachy, but he reins most of it in. He’s still not Michael Moore.
Among the reflective postscripts: Suppose Henry Wallace had stayed on the Roosevelt ticket–and there were no Truman presidency. Intriguing. And haunting.
* Wouldn’t it be a lot less awkward to work with North Korea and Iran if the U.S. were not the only country in history to have actually used a nuclear weapon?