Trying to avoid sinking too far back in these memories, but you are very good at describing the American Family. I've been listening to David McCullough's "The Pioneers"..so, a chuckle. PTO indeed (and I don't mean "personal time off"). I'm a little older, so I have an even longer list.

Enjoyable(?) read, if a little too close to the heart. One thing bullies also have trouble with is the unpredictable. That's why they hate diversity, Nature and neurodivergence. Until the 70s, they successfully beat those things to death. Colonialism has always been the name for civilization-level bullying. Myriad reasons have historically been assigned to the collapse of any particular city-state, but they all fail precisely when the bullies get everything they want. That's why we are starting to see what we see now. Fooling ourselves into thinking bullies will abide by checks and balances is just failure to count their numbers because 'it's a democracy'.