Otto von Bismarck allegedly once said, “God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America,” which is funny but of course not true.

You could fill several libraries with the names of all the fools and drunkards who came to bad ends, and luck even seems to be running out for the US of A — though in at least one key way it was fortunate this year, despite some deeply foolish policy. It seems bound to test that luck again in 2026.

For the first time in a decade, the US dodged landfall by a hurricane this year, with several Category 5 monsters wreaking havoc just offshore in the Caribbean or spinning harmlessly out to sea. The nation thus avoided a Hurricane Katrina-like catastrophe at a time when the Federal Emergency Management Agency was basically on autop

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