Whenever I hear Winds of Change, by the Scorpions, I get a little misty-eyed. Not because it’s great music – although it’s definitely catchy and I do like it – but because, for a brief moment in 1989 and 1990, we actually believed that the world was getting smaller, and that there might be a day when “we could be so close, like brothers.”

Of course, when the moment wore off, it turns out that people are still people, and now in 2026 the US is actively working to undo what little progress has been made in the years since 1989.