There may be trouble ahead.
If the US forces the EU to block cheap green tech from China, there will be no green transition any time soon. Western government policies are beggaring their citizens - people who needed to be comfortably off to do stuff like buy an expensive EV or solar panels. You can have a green transition or you can tribalise the planet, But not both. Time to stock up on high factor sunblock.
President Trump 2.0 will be a fun ride. Ukraine becomes a mechanism for hammering those annoying European competitors. Taiwan becomes an Oriental Ukraine and hammers the SE Asian competitors. The US can then become Top Nation by some distance in the West. But don't worry. If your cities get trashed, the USG will put you in debt for generations as vassal states of Uncle Sam with a new Marshall Plan.
If history teaches us anything, it is that it repeats itself. Because humanity never learns from its past mistakes. If you are too old to be conscripted (that is, recycled as heroic canon fodder), just move to the countryside. Otherwise get to Canada before they close the borders. Which I think NZ have just done.
Post WWII, with millions dead, people decided to trade with and visit each other - globalisation and tourism - as an alternative to killing thy neighbours, and being killed by them. It worked well. But people forget how bad war is. Politicians exploit prejudice and xenophobia. As they slowly kill the economy with incompetent, tribalised policies, they cover it up by scapegoating others. Then they sell war as a beautiful solution rather than cataclysmic disaster. Then they sit in their parliaments, sending people out to die as everything gets trashed. They always say this war will be different. Maybe it will be - the effect on climate change and any nuclear reactors that go pop may well push the climate over the edge. 50 degree summers etc. Perhaps they will agree to stop the wars for a bit whenever it gets too hot to wear khaki.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
