Plagued by poor infrastructure, climate denialism, and a patchwork of unregulated fracking wells and

[bemildred]

3. Yep, and it starts with all this "rule the world" bullshit after WWII.

Like because that war came out so well (for us), then war was the way to go.

After that war, WWII, we really did bestride the world like a colossus, and we had legitimacy out the wazoo. And we have pissed that all away, boatloads of treasure, rivers of blood, years of darkness, and all in pursuit of vainglorious fantasies of eternal dominance and delusions of permanent superiority.

And since then, it's been lots of little bitty wars with unfit adversaries, where you look like a bully even when you "win", and a few big "unconventional" wars that we just lost because we were on somebody elses turf, or the war was pursued without public support, or (often) in the face of public opposition.

And our "leaders" still can't seem to figure out why that doesn't work.

Not that we are alone in that sort of folly, but we could have learned from history. We still could. Maybe we should learn to rule ourselves first.