The Old Way Is Breaking. Good.

Three stories today, and they all point to the same thing. The old architecture is cracking.First: the UAE just announced it is leaving OPEC, effective May 1st, after sixty years of membership. The trigger was Operation Epic Fury. The Strait of Hormuz has been under siege, OPEC production collapsed 27 percent in March alone, and the conflict wiped out 8 million barrels per day from the global supply. That is a larger shock than COVID. The UAE's energy minister said the war was the right moment to make the move. The war your tax dollars funded just fractured the global oil cartel that has shaped your gas prices since 1965.Second: Donald Trump is suing the federal government for ten billion dollars, and he controls both sides of the case. The IRS and Treasury are executive branch agencies under his direct authority. His private lawyers are already in settlement talks with his own government. Former officials are calling it exactly what it is: collusive litigation. Ten billion dollars is two thirds of the IRS's entire annual budget. A federal judge has until May 27th to decide whether the case can even legally proceed.Third, and this is the one that gave me real hope: Zohran Mamdani, 34 years old, democratic socialist, mayor of New York City, just passed 100 days. Over 102,000 potholes filled. City-owned grocery stores. Universal childcare expansion. A new tax on luxury second homes generating half a billion dollars a year. On the same day House Republicans voted 285 to 98 to condemn socialism, Trump was in the Oval Office praising Mamdani. The New York Times says he is succeeding despite his ideology. They have it exactly backwards.Among Americans under 30, socialism is now more popular than capitalism. DSA has grown from 5,000 members to over 100,000. The ideas are not as radical as we were told. More people are figuring that out every day.The empire is fracturing at the top. The people at the bottom are building something better. You can hold both of those things at once.