Tariffs, Trolling, and the Theater of Power: Dispatches from the Fractured Front

From Dallas housing reform to Musk’s digital demolition, Trump’s crypto circus, and Canada’s quiet rebellion, one morning’s tour through absurdity, resistance, and the last box on the supply chain.

Good morning! It’s April 29th, and if you're looking for peace, prosperity, or plain old common sense, you’ll have to settle for a rose, a shrimp, and a broken supply chain. Yes, it's National Peace Rose Day, National Shrimp Scampi Day, and National Supply Chain Day, and nothing could better sum up the state of the world than a trio of holidays that sound like items on the Mar-a-Lago tasting menu.

Let’s start where there’s still a glimmer of hope: Dallas, where city officials have done something almost heretical in 2025, they passed a zoning reform that makes sense. In a move that could increase the number of places human beings can afford to live, the city approved a new “one-to-eight family” building code, cutting red tape for small apartment buildings under 7,500 square feet. Developer Philip Kingston, who helped craft the plan, discovered that building three or four units required jumping through flaming commercial-building hoops designed for skyscrapers. At the same time, luxury duplexes faced almost no barriers at all. Dallas, unlike much of the country, has decided it prefers housing to hypocrisy. It’s not a revolution, but common sense feels like a coup in this climate.

Meanwhile in Washington, common sense packed its boxes and left weeks ago. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has reportedly lost more than 100 career attorneys, professionals tasked with defending voting rights, policing abuses, and enforcing anti-discrimination law. They didn’t leave because they got bored; they left because, under Trump’s second coming, the department has become allergic to its own mission. Harmeet Dhillon, now helming the division, says the administration simply has “different priorities.” Translation: fewer civil rights cases, more gaslighting.

But if you're looking for a proper allegory of dystopian governance, look no further than DOGE, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which now operates more like a tech-themed personality cult than a public institution. Former federal official Maurici Vinton, who helped launch Direct File and other taxpayer-friendly digital tools, has blown the whistle on what actually went down when DOGE was born. There were no briefings, no transparency, just sudden loyalty tests, shadow interviews, and the eventual evisceration of beloved programs like the IRS’s free tax filing system. Musk’s acolytes reportedly opened meetings with IRS officials by urging them to "imagine a world without laws," which is the kind of phrase you expect from a Bond villain, not a civil servant.

And as institutions crumble, Trump is cashing in. The memecoin he gleefully launched while still in office, initially dismissed as just another grift, has now netted him hundreds of millions in commissions. This isn't campaign finance fraud or a backroom deal, it’s much simpler: he turned the presidency into a branding opportunity and used taxpayer trust as seed capital. Trump, in his own words, "hasn’t checked" how much he’s made from the coin. “Several billion dollars,” he shrugged. “Peanuts.” Of course.

Just across the northern border, Canada has decided it's had enough of this circus. Prime Minister Mark Carney, former central banker turned accidental revolutionary, won reelection in a stunning upset this week. His platform? Protect Canada from Trump. Carney spent the campaign reminding Canadians that Trump’s tariffs weren’t just policy, they were economic warfare. From threats to annex Canada as “the 51st state” to actual tariffs on steel, lumber, and pharmaceuticals, Trump’s America has treated its neighbor like a hostile acquisition. Carney’s message was clear: Canada may be friendly, but it is not for sale.

And speaking of invasions, Vladimir Putin wants a ceasefire, just long enough for his May 9th parade. The Kremlin, in a masterclass of weaponized theater, has offered a three-day pause in its war on Ukraine so that Victory Day celebrations can go off without a hitch. Zelensky, in response, proposed a 30-day ceasefire that would, you know, actually save lives. The Kremlin, true to form, claimed it “hadn’t heard a response,” despite receiving one immediately. This is choreographed hostage-taking.

Back in Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is once again proving that a single autocrat can stall an entire continent. While Moldova sails smoothly through its EU accession process, Ukraine, besieged, exhausted, and still reforming, is being held back by Orban’s opposition. He claims Ukraine discriminates against ethnic Hungarians, though the EU and most Hungarians themselves aren’t buying it. Instead, Orban plans to hold a “national consultation”, a vague, non-binding poll that serves mostly as political cover for obstruction. If performative nationalism were an Olympic sport, Budapest would be on the podium.

And just when the day couldn’t get more absurd, Amazon decided to troll the White House with truth. The company is reportedly planning to display the cost of Trump’s tariffs directly next to product prices on its site. This act of retail transparency has infuriated the Trump administration, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling it a “hostile and political act.” Imagine that showing consumers the price of government decisions is now treason. Somewhere, a stock photo of Reagan just shed a single, pixelated tear.

So, on this National Peace Rose Day, amid shrimp, scampi, and shipping delays, consider the state of our union. A city council in Texas is leading on housing. A Canadian technocrat is standing between Trump and economic annexation. A whistleblower is exposing Musk's federal fever dream. A coin grifter is still printing money. And a Russian dictator wants silence for his parade more than peace for his neighbor.

And yet, against all odds, somewhere in this messy mosaic, people are still trying to fix things. Still trying to tell the truth. Still trying to get the IRS to answer the damn phone.

Happy Supply Chain Day, America. Try not to drop the last box.