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Prediction Markets Move Into Real Estate With Polymarket–Parcl Deal

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Prediction Markets Move Into Real Estate With Polymarket–Parcl Deal

Authored by Nate Kostar via CoinTelegraph.com,

Parcl and Polymarket have partnered to launch real estate prediction markets that will settle against Parcl’s daily housing price indexes, bringing housing price data into prediction markets for the first time.

Under the partnership announced Monday, Polymarket will list and operate markets tied to movements in housing price indices, while Parcl will supply the index data used to determine market outcomes and settlement values.

Each market will link to a Parcl resolution page showing the final settlement value, historical index data and the methodology used to calculate the index, providing a standardized reference for verifying outcomes once markets close.

The initial rollout will focus on major US housing markets, with contracts structured around whether local home price indexes rise or fall over set periods, as well as threshold-based outcomes tied to published index levels.

The companies said the rollout will occur in phases, beginning with a limited set of high-liquidity US cities and expanding to additional markets and contract types over time.

Parcl, a platform founded during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic when housing markets became volatile, publishes real-time housing price indexes and analytics and operates onchain products tied to residential real estate prices, using Solana for settlement.

Parcl’s native token, PRCL, was up about 120% over the past 24 hours at time of writing, according to CoinGecko data.

Source: CoinGecko

Polymarket is a prediction market platform where users trade on real-world events, ranging from sports and politics to forecasts for Bitcoin’s price on a given date.

Prediction markets expand in 2025-2026

After a surge in user activity during the 2024 US presidential election, prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket became a mainstream narrative in crypto in 2025.

Polymarket bets. Source: Polymarket

Both platforms secured high-profile partnerships during the year, including Kalshi’s deal with CNBC and Polymarket’s partnerships with DraftKings, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and PrizePicks.

In September, Polymarket was reported to be weighing a US launch while seeking new funding at a valuation of up to $10 billion. The discussions followed a reported $200 million raise in June led by Founders Fund, the investment company co-founded by Peter Thiel.

In November, Kalshi was reported to have raised $1 billion, valuing the company at roughly $11 billion, with Sequoia Capital and CapitalG leading the round. The raise followed a $300 million funding round in October.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 20:05

Trump Flips, Has More Info: Ukraine Didn’t Target Putin Residence With Drones

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Trump Flips, Has More Info: Ukraine Didn’t Target Putin Residence With Drones

President Trump has now made clear that he has reversed his position on the alleged Ukrainian massive drone attack on Russian President Putin’s residence last week.

Trump explained to reporters that he’s now been given a chance to be presented with more information, based on intelligence briefings and other undisclosed data which has come to light. He says Ukraine was not responsible, after previously seeming to agree with Kremlin allegations, which Trump had earlier called “deeply concerning”.

The US President explained American officials had determined that Ukraine did not do it. According to his newest remarks:

Trump said that “something happened nearby” Putin’s residence but that Americans officials didn’t find the Russian president’s residence was targeted.

“I don’t believe that strike happened,” Trump told reporters as he traveled back to Washington on Sunday after spending two weeks at his home in Florida. “We don’t believe that happened, now that we’ve been able to check.”

via Reuters

On December 29 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ukraine launched multiple drones toward Putin’s official residence in the northwestern Novgorod region, describing that the drone wave was in the dozens, but that Russian air defenses intercepted all them.

The timing was further interesting given that just the day prior Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Florida to meet Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate to take up the issue of the stalled 20-point peace plan.

As for this week, the whole world is talking about Trump’s removal of Venezuelan President Maduro by military force, which likely also had elements of a coup from within, based on Venezuelan officials cooperating with the CIA and US military.

This Latin American intervention against a Putin ally is likely to further complicate talks to achieve Ukraine peace. 

The Kremlin has already blasted the blatant ‘double standard’ – given Washington has spent years berating Moscow for the Ukraine ‘special military operation – yet now effortlessly invades a country in its own backyard.

Now, after the US intervention against Venezuela, Putin will see less incentive in making any kind of peace deal which falls anything short of Russia’s complete and maximalist demands.

China could also get more aggressive in its anti-Washington rhetoric, as its citizens have been loudly highlighting American hypocrisy on the Taiwan issue.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 19:40

Pictures Of The “Democratic” Socialist Future

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Pictures Of The “Democratic” Socialist Future

Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

This is Happening, This is Really Happening

On New Year’s Day, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of the financial capital of the world, with his hand on a copy of the Koran, and in his inauguration speech, he proclaimed:

“I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist.”

As a guy who normally tunes out political speeches (to this day, I haven’t a single speech by Trump, Trudeau, let alone Carney or Biden), this one got my attention to the point where I downloaded the transcript and read the entire thing.

It gave me some serious Pol Pot “This is Year Zero” vibes…

“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously… to those who say the era of Big Government is over, hear me when I say this: no longer will city hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorker’s lives.”

Most people don’t know who that was. Except maybe the odd Cambodian.

The banger pull quote was this:

“We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

…and the crowds, no doubt cheered.

A few years ago, before the pandemic, I re-released a version of the public domain work: Pictures of The Socialistic Future, from my foreword:

This remarkable little novella posits a fictional socialist sweep into power in Germany towards the end of the 19th century, anticipating the Bolshevik and Marxist revolutions of the subsequent decades. It follows the arc of a family as narrated by its patriarch as he initially enthuses over the socialist ascension to the seat of government.

Quickly, however, he progresses through various stages of disenfranchisement that inevitably ensue: first tempering his expectations, then ratcheting them downward, followed by grappling with cognitive dissonance brought about by the internal contradictions of the new system. When those conflicts are inescapable,  he finally spirals into angst and despair as he comes to fully comprehend the horrors of socialism.

I released that around the same time we did the audiobook version of Dr. Kristian Niemietz’s “Socialism, The Failed Idea That Never Dies“, which has obviously not been read by many New Yorkers.

The historical pattern with all collectivist experiments is: honeymoon, underperformance, disenfranchisement, collapse.

NYC has entered the honeymoon phase, Mandami will be celebrated by Western, liberal intellectuals as a trailblazer and and bulwark against “Trumpism”, he plans to release inmates from jails, freeze rents, launch government run grocery stores and eliminate fares for public transit.

It remains to be seen what kind of radical reforms a mayor can make in one American city – where property rights could (theoretically) still be upheld at higher levels, and where those with much to lose have the ability to flee.

Over the weekend, a useful contrast emerged: Venezuela already ran this experiment. After their honeymoon came repeated hyperinflations, food shortages so extreme people were eating zoo animals, and Chávez’s successor turned the place into a dictatorial narco-state.

The nightmare finally ended when Maduro was removed by the U.S. military in a one-shot operation on January 3rd.

“Collectivism” means: the end of economic reality

In Eugen Richter’s parable – which invariably replays in every collectivist adventure, the first order of business is not “compassion.” It’s confiscation.

Mamdani’s platform specifies a new flat 2% income tax on all New Yorkers earning more than a million annually and boosts the corporate tax rate from 7.5% to 11.5%. My prediction is that after six to twelve months of policy failure, he’ll follow that up with a wealth tax. Bet on it.

Mamdani frames collectivism as “warmth,” but the actual content of his program is an expanding universe of guarantee: universal child care, rent freezes, “fast and free” buses, baby baskets. etc.

As a Canadian who’s lived my whole life under the yoke of “free health care,” I know how it actually collectivism works: anything the government gives everyone “for free” comes at a cost. And when it’s imposed through a state monopoly, that cost tends to exceed the returns, by a wide margin. (Which is why Canadians routinely die on waiting lists, or while sitting in the ER waiting for treatment.)

I’m frequently saying “Incentives are everything“, this is what collectivists don’t get…

The economic reality is that when you turn City Hall (or any government) into the allocation engine for entitlements, you turn erstwhile productive citizens into a doom loop of dependancy. Nobody in a collectivist paradise wants use their excess productive capacity only to have it redistributed to everybody else, so they simply won’t produce at anything above subsistence levels. There’s no point in doing so.

At the municipal level what we can expect then, this:

Rent freezes = housing shortages

Saving for an investment property is one of the more accessible avenues for improving one’s lot in life. When governments freeze rents, it squeezes out the small “mom-and-pop” landlord from being able to hold a cashflowing property, they get squeezed out. Developers won’t build or invest, because there’s no point if they can’t sell any units, and there’s no point investing in new units if you can’t at least break even operating them.

The result: fewer homes get built.

City run grocery stores = food shortages

We don’t need to look at Venezuela to see what happens here, this is already being tried in America and it’s a shit-show: empty shelves, rotting food, it’s almost as if when you try to force goods and services to price below their market clearing rates, the system simply breaks down as producers withhold their remaining labour and capital from a money-losing exercise.

Taxing the “wealthy” = capital flight

We’re already seeing the wealthy pull up stakes and leave – the highest earners did so even before the election, and after Mamdani secured victory, the next level: middle and higher-income earners, headed for the exits (most popular destination: Florida).

There is now an influx among low income earners – (defined as “under $200K annually!) headed to NYC, perhaps lured by the promise of free stuff, streets paved with gold, and a collectivist utopia.

We’ll see how long New York’s honeymoon phase with collectivism lasts.

What we’ll inevitably see play out instead is not theory, it’s been borne out in every collectivist experiment over the 20th and 21st centuries.

Sign up for the Bombthrower mailing list and get a free copy of Pictures of the Socialistic Future. Follow me on X here.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 19:15

Hilton Hotel Plunges Into PR Crisis Mode After “Coordinated Campaign” To Cancel ICE Agent Bookings

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Hilton Hotel Plunges Into PR Crisis Mode After “Coordinated Campaign” To Cancel ICE Agent Bookings

Hilton Hotels is in damage-control mode after Homeland Security posted on X an email showing that a Hilton property in the Minneapolis area canceled a reservation for federal agents amid a large-scale operation to identify, arrest, and remove illegal alien criminals from Tim Walz’s state.

“NO ROOM AT THE INN!” DHS wrote on X, alleging that the hotel chain “launched a coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law enforcement.”

The agency continued, “When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations.”

“This is UNACCEPTABLE. Why is Hilton Hotels siding with murderers and rapists to deliberately undermine and impede DHS law enforcement from their mission to enforce our nation’s immigration laws?” DHS concluded in the post.

The hotel in question is the Hampton Inn by Hilton Lakeville, located just off Interstate 35 in the southern Twin Cities suburbs, about 30 minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Hampton Inn is owned by Hilton.

DHS’ post went viral by early Monday afternoon, sparking outrage among America First supporters and prompting calls to cancel Hilton-branded credit cards and even future reservations.

Hilton executives, facing what can easily be described as a potential “Bud Light moment,” were quick to clarify that the cancellation involved not the company as a whole but an “independently owned and operated” hotel.

“Hilton hotels serve as welcoming places for all. This hotel is independently owned and operated, and the actions referenced are not reflective of Hilton values. We are investigating this matter with the individual hotel, and can confirm that Hilton works with governments, law enforcement, and community leaders around the world to ensure our properties are open and inviting to everyone,” Hilton told Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.

Hilton shares in New York were down about 1.5% by late afternoon trading. The swift response from Hilton underscores growing concern about boycott calls circulating on X.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 18:50

CDC Narrows Vaccine Recommendations In Response To Trump Order

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CDC Narrows Vaccine Recommendations In Response To Trump Order

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Health officials announced on Jan. 5 that they’re narrowing the number of vaccines recommended broadly for children in response to a recent order from President Donald Trump.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is moving forward with only broad recommendations for eight vaccines for children, down from 14.

Trump, in December 2025, directed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill to review vaccine schedules in the United States and peer countries and determine if the U.S. schedule should be updated.

He named three countries, including Denmark, that recommend fewer vaccines and fewer vaccine doses.

“President Trump directed us to examine how other developed nations protect their children and to take action if they are doing better,” Kennedy said in a statement.

“After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health.”

Moving forward, the CDC will stop broadly recommending vaccines against influenza, rotavirus, hepatitis A, and meningococcal disease. The CDC in 2025 already narrowed recommendations for hepatitis B and COVID-19 vaccination based on advice from advisers selected by Kennedy. The agency is maintaining its recommendation that children whose mothers did not receive a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine receive an antibody, or passive immunization, against the virus.

The old schedule can be viewed here, and the new schedule can be viewed here.

The changes were recommended by Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, acting director of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, who, during a recent presentation, commented favorably on Denmark’s vaccine schedule, and Martin Kulldorff, whom Kennedy appointed a senior adviser in 2025. Hoeg and Kulldorff said in a 34-page assessment that an update was needed because of falling trust in public health, decreases in vaccination rates, and evidence that some recommended vaccines had limited benefits.

A CDC official told reporters on a call on Jan. 5 that the agency consulted with officials in Denmark, Germany, and Japan, as well as vaccine scientists at the CDC and FDA.

Vaccine manufacturers were not consulted, another official said.

The administration says the update does not prevent children from accessing vaccines and that insurers will continue to cover them without cost-sharing under the Affordable Care Act.

The CDC still recommends some of those vaccines for certain populations, such as hepatitis B vaccination for children born to women who test positive for the virus. For others, it is focused on shared clinical decision-making or recommending that people consult doctors and consider factors such as the risk of illness when deciding whether to have their children vaccinated.

The CDC is keeping in place broad recommendations for vaccines against diphtheria; tetanus; acellular pertussis, or whooping cough; haemophilus influenzae type b; pneumococcal disease; polio; measles; mumps; rubella; varicella, also known as chickenpox; and human papillomavirus (HPV).

The new schedule lowers the number of recommended HPV doses from two to one, after some recent research indicated that one dose is as effective.

“Important vaccines … will be continued to be recommended for our children,” a Department of Health and Human Services official said on the call.

“This change is going to spark major pushback, but that reaction was inevitable,” Dr. Joel Warsh, a pediatrician based in California, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Reducing universal recommendations doesn’t mean vaccines are being banned or declared unsafe—it means the CDC is finally acknowledging that not every vaccine has the same risk-benefit profile for every child.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics said it opposed the changes.

“At a time when parents, pediatricians, and the public are looking for clear guidance and accurate information, this ill-considered decision will sow further chaos and confusion and erode confidence in immunizations,” Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the group, which partners with vaccine companies, said in a statement.

“This is no way to make our country healthier.”

President Trump took his social media account to explain…

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 18:25

Centrus Energy Soars After DOE Awards $2.7 Billion For Uranium Enrichment

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Centrus Energy Soars After DOE Awards $2.7 Billion For Uranium Enrichment

The Department of Energy (DOE) has finally awarded the billions of dollars for uranium enrichment announced back in 2024. The contracts span the full range of uranium enrichment from low-enriched uranium (LEU) used by the current global reactor fleet, through high-assay LEU (HALEU) which is planned to be used by multiple advanced reactor designs. Yet while three companies were chosen for huge awards, peaking at almost 900 million each, a few were notably left out.

Centers Energy was awarded $900 million to support the expansion of their currently-operating 900 kg/yr HALEU production capacity and toward the development of next-generation reactor fuel. We covered their recent announcement about finally starting the production of new centrifuge units for LEU production. Centrus now has US government supply on the HALEU side and Korean government support on the LEU side.

Centrus shares rose as much as 9.2% in New York, and closed up almost 25% in the past two days, one of its biggest gains in the past year.

“President Trump is catalyzing a resurgence in the nation’s nuclear energy sector to strengthen American security and prosperity,” said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “Today’s awards show that this Administration is committed to restoring a secure domestic nuclear fuel supply chain capable of producing the nuclear fuels needed to power the reactors of today and the advanced reactors of tomorrow.”

General Matter, started by Founders Fund’s Scott Nolan, was awarded $900 million for HALEU capacity development at their future facility in Kentucky. General Matter has been tight-lipped about the enrichment technology they plan to utilize at their new facility, but will submit an application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the facility planned at Paducah this calendar year.

Orano, a French enrichment company majority owned by the French government, was awarded $900 million for developing and constructing their planned LEU enrichment facility in Tennessee. They have vaguely discussed their intended plant size, but have remarked it will have a capacity in the “millions of SWU”. Separate Work Unit (SWU) is the measurement of uranium enrichment production capacity, with Russian imports currently clocking in at roughly 3-4 million SWU/yr.

Senator Tom Cotton last month argued that companies, such as Orano, which coordinate with China’s nuclear program should be barred from receiving US taxpayer dollars.

Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), a company co-owned by Silex and Cameco, was awarded $28 million to continue the advancement of their novel laser enrichment technology. They currently have an enrichment facility application under review with the NRC for their Kentucky facility, and are currently producing hundreds of kg of LEU at their North Carolina test center.

Notably left out of the list of award recipients was Nano Nuclear’s partner LIS Technologies, a company also developing a novel uranium laser enrichment method. While they have been busy pounding the table for months that their laser technology is the only US-origin technology, so far the US government seems to be uninterested.

Also left off the list is the only enrichment company producing commercial quantities of product in the US, Urenco. Their facility in New Mexico has been operating for years, and recently received permission from the NRC to increase their enrichment levels. Owned by a combination of UK, Dutch, and German government and private entities, the company failed to secure an award for this round.

This is likely only the first of many awards and contracts to come with companies in the domestic nuclear fuel chain, as we discussed at length last week. Many more such announcements are likely over the coming weeks. 

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 18:00

California Promises ‘Swift Consequences’ For Drivers Who Exceed 100 MPH

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California Promises ‘Swift Consequences’ For Drivers Who Exceed 100 MPH

Authored by Cynthia Cai via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

California is cracking down on extreme speeding in a move that could lead to faster license revocation for drivers exceeding 100 mph on highways, according to the California State Transportation Agency.

A speed limit sign in Huntington Beach, Calif., on March 21, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Drivers cited by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) for the crime “will have their citation automatically forwarded to the DMV’s Driver Safety Branch—no matter their prior record” under the new joint pilot program between CHP and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the agency stated in a press release.

The DMV will review each case and the person’s driving history to determine the penalty, which may include “suspension or revocation of driving privileges,” before the person is even scheduled for court.

“We believe that early intervention is the key to saving lives,” said DMV Director Steve Gordon in a press release. “We want to take immediate action against dangerous drivers before their carelessness leads to a deadly crash.”

CHP cites roughly 1,600 individuals each month for driving 100 mph or faster. In 2024, the CHP issued a total of more than 18,000 citations for extreme speeding, the DMV stated.

In May 2025, the CHP adopted a fleet of 100 low-profile patrol cars, allowing officers to blend in with traffic better and spot reckless behavior. During the following six months, CHP officers driving these cars issued close to 33,000 speeding tickets across the state, according to the DMV.

“Driving over 100 miles per hour is not a mistake; it is a reckless choice that endangers everyone on the road,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee in the DMV press release. “This new program delivers swift consequences to keep dangerous drivers off California’s roadways before their actions cause irreversible harm.”

The DMV stated that the process of penalizing drivers through the legal system is often lengthy. Once a driver is cited for extreme speeding, the citation is sent to the courts for processing.

Under the current California vehicle code, driving over 100 mph will result in a maximum fine of $500 and potentially a license suspension of up to 30 days for the first offense. Subsequent violations result in higher fines and a license suspension.

Drivers who are cited for speeding can also receive additional citations for other violations that may result in jail time, including reckless driving or causing bodily injury to others on the road.

The new DMV–CHP pilot program is “designed to act more quickly” than the court system, according to the DMV.

The state reported speeding as a “major factor in traffic deaths statewide,” as it contributes to about a third of traffic fatalities, according to the transportation agency.

In October 2025, the state launched a Southern California-focused initiative to address speeding-related traffic fatalities.

The state allocated $7 million to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to help fund safety upgrades along Avalon Boulevard, and invested over $191 million for safety improvements along State Route 91, the state transportation agency stated on its website.

The improvements may include automated speeding detection cameras, high-visibility traffic markings, redesigning intersections to reduce conflicts, and upgrading infrastructure for safe walking and biking, in addition to promoting community engagement and law enforcement partnerships.

At that time, the agency said it set an “interim goal to cut deadly and serious injury crashes” by 30 percent by 2035.

The agency said the DMV will compare citation and outcome data to evaluate the effectiveness of the CHP–DMV pilot program in reducing car crashes.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 17:40

The Mamdani Symptom: How The Radical Left Is Making Its Stand In The Heart Of American Capital

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The Mamdani Symptom: How The Radical Left Is Making Its Stand In The Heart Of American Capital

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

That the radical Left worldwide would celebrate the inauguration of communist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City was entirely predictable. What is striking, however, is the ostentatious triumphalism displayed at a time when the Trump administration is systematically exposing illegal extraction mechanisms and financial flows step by step.

It is a moment of celebration for the radical Left in the United States. After the defeat in the 2024 presidential election, the inauguration of Zohran Kwame Mamdani—the first Muslim mayor of New York City—marked the resurgence of socialist forces within the Democratic Party.

Naturally, the ever-shrill Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was present, as was leftist know-it-all Bernie Sanders, who administered Mamdani’s oath on the Quran.

Socialism is a recurring social disease, and Zohran Mamdani is one of its visible symptoms. His political program is well known in Germany as well, particularly to the German Left. Public transportation is to be made free of charge. A millionaire tax is to be introduced. Childcare is to become a free public service. Affordable housing is to be created through large-scale public construction.

We know all of this: massive market interventions—and all of it has failed repeatedly.

And yet New Yorkers granted Mamdani a mandate, giving him a lead of more than nine percentage points over his competitors.

The Familiar Promise

“I will not hold back when it comes to improving the lives of New Yorkers,” Mamdani declared. “I am Muslim, I am a democratic socialist, and I refuse to apologize for that,” he said during the campaign.

He may yet be forced to apologize when projects such as the targeted over-taxation of predominantly white neighborhoods or his harebrained idea of municipally run grocery stores collapse—either due to the U.S. Constitution or the basic logic of free-rider effects in public goods.

But Mamdani is not really about this grotesque socialist program, which only appeals to prosperity-spoiled young activists and moralizing NGO operatives.

Mamdani was positioned by the radical Left to defend structures that have been built up over decades with the explicit goal of transforming society into a socialist control state—one we can already observe taking shape in Brussels.

The Counterrevolution Is Underway

Donald Trump’s hardline deregulation agenda and demonstrative return to classical American capitalism have unleashed a dynamic that extends far beyond his presidency. The political Left in the U.S.—especially its radical wing—has been forced into a kind of ideological molting. This reaction can now be studied in real time: in New York as well as in California, where left-wing radicalism has been entrenched for years.

That a self-professed communist has taken control in the global capital of capitalism carries particular political weight. New York is no ordinary city. Capital is concentrated here; the core infrastructure of the American financial system is located here. Leftist access to these levers marks a qualitative escalation.

Seizing Power At The Heart Of Capital

It is reasonable to expect capital flight—both from large investors and from segments of the middle class. A gradual relocation of stock market activities away from Wall Street is also conceivable. But such processes take time. And during that time, Mamdani and his communist allies will create facts on the ground.

This is where the looting begins: the American upper class, and increasingly the middle class, will be bled fiscally to finance expanded protest infrastructures, NGOs, and the political machinery that President Trump was able to dry up by dismantling USAID and related funding mechanisms.

At the same time, the conflict in California is accelerating. The socialist state government under Governor Gavin Newsom is attempting to immobilize residents through aggressive exit taxes—keeping them fiscally exploitable for ideologically driven policies. Republican-led red states, meanwhile, are benefiting from a massive influx of middle-class families fleeing these left-radical disaster zones.

For Europeans in the EU, this ideological clash in the United States is of immense importance. It offers a preview of how Brussels might react in the event of secession, resistance, or a loss of power.

The instruments are already in place: exit taxes, increased capital levies, the digital euro to control capital flows, CO₂ trading schemes, and cross-border certificate regimes. These are soft or hard capital barriers, depending on how deeply they are applied. Brussels and the Frankfurt-based central banking apparatus are prepared for the moment when Europe’s fragile power construct is seriously threatened by a rising conservative Right.

The Institutionalized Extraction Economy

Over decades, the United States has allowed an extraction economy to develop that costs the country hundreds of billions of dollars annually. This includes entire networks of Somali communities established under administrations such as Barack Obama’s, whose primary purpose was to extract taxpayer funds via social infrastructure—such as daycare centers without actual childcare services—redirecting those funds into private channels and financing the democratic-socialist movement.

These structures are now being dismantled.

President Trump must confront them just as decisively as he does the fentanyl attacks deliberately directed at the American population from abroad. Germany is experiencing a similar, albeit far more amateurish version of this phenomenon through its asylum industry—less efficient, but no less catastrophic for taxpayers.

This entire complex operates on a different scale than the green crony economy worth hundreds of billions of euros. In the United States, the Trump administration has already inflicted such damage on this green apparatus that capital is once again moving freely in markets, with renewed investments in nuclear power and pipeline infrastructure.

In short: the American economy is poised for a significant surge this year—driven by the systematic dematerialization of the green complex.

The radical Left has spent years constructing institutional frameworks to legally safeguard its activities. It has embedded itself in municipal structures and continues to shape the agenda in Europe through political hubs such as the World Economic Forum and Brussels.

That the United States has managed—through the effective shutdown of USAID and the drying up of cheap dollar credit routed through London and the LIBOR mechanism—to cripple large parts of this financial architecture will one day be regarded as a major historical achievement.

Today, however, this transformation is obscured by media noise—particularly the fixation on Donald Trump’s erratic public appearances. The real story being written runs far deeper.

Brussels, London—Vectors Of Confrontation

Again and again, the vectors of the Trump administration’s strategy point toward Brussels and London. The hardline stance in the trade conflict with the EU Commission—and especially with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer—has not only generated a flood of unfavorable headlines and memes for Europeans; it has tangible economic consequences.

The United States is pushing back against euro-protectionism. It is resisting the manipulation of trade via climate policy. And it refuses to be intimidated by the expanding censorship regime and rent-seeking industry spawned by the Digital Services Act.

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made the message unmistakably clear. With the release of the new security strategy, EU Europe has been presented with a choice: return to the consensus of Western values—respect for the individual, free speech, and fair trade—or face not only harsher rhetoric, but problems beyond what it has so far been able to imagine.

Consider Europe’s dependence on LNG imports. Consider the reality that, at the push of a button in Washington, Europeans could be left alone in the Ukraine conflict—a conflict they have knowingly refused to de-escalate. A giant with feet of clay. And increasingly, a giant acting emotionally out of panic over its waning power, intellectually overwhelmed.

America’s Self-Assertion

The coming months will be decisive. At the latest since the United States’ forceful intervention in Venezuela, it has been made clear that Washington will not tolerate the influence of China, Russia—or Europe—on its doorstep.

The fentanyl attack originating in China is now being openly confronted, and intelligence operations funded by drug money within the United States are being shut down. For the first time, America has a genuinely sovereign, patriotic government.

If this administration succeeds in saving potentially hundreds of billions of dollars per year by draining the Somali swamp and other extraction vehicles—and consolidating the federal budget through these measures alone—voters will reward it in the midterm elections this fall. And the Mamdani episode in New York will be remembered with little more than a knowing smile.

* * *

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, born in 1978 in Neuss/ Germany, is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 17:00

Zelensky Names Canada’s Chrystia Freeland, Notable Anti-Russia Hawk As Top Advisor

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Zelensky Names Canada’s Chrystia Freeland, Notable Anti-Russia Hawk As Top Advisor

Apparently Zelensky is simply skipping his own people and going straight to appointing officials within foreign governments to top advisory positions. 

Ukraine has named former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland as an economic advisor amid a broader reshuffle of senior government positions, also coming on the heels of the massive energy ministry related corruption scandal which has unleashed chaos within his administration. 

Chrystia Freeland, former deputy prime minister and finance minister, and notable anti-Russia hawk. Source: The Canadian Press

It should also be noted that Canada is a founding member of NATO – so handing Freeland a position in the Ukrainian presidential office won’t go down well at the Kremlin, which will see this as yet more justification for its vehement condemnation of NATO expansion.

“Chrystia is a professional… and has significant experience in attracting investments and conducting economic transformations,” President Zelensky announced on Telegram Monday.

Freeland was Canada’s deputy prime minister from 2019 to 2024 under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and was appointed Canada’s special representative for Ukraine’s reconstruction in 2025.

But she might better be remembered for leading the legal crackdown on Canada’s trucker ‘Freedom Convoy’ movement, the large anti-vaccine mandate and Covid lockdown protest that had gripped Ottawa for several weeks in 2022.

Freeland sought to legally prosecute (and later some of these cases ended in convictions on “mischief”) innocent truckers who were merely exercising their rights to politically organize and protest.

So we doubt she’s going to ‘help’ Ukraine’s situation, amid the grinding war at a moment Kiev is at a crossroads: reach a peace agreement with Moscow, or the war drags on with no end in sight.

“Ukraine needs to increase its internal resilience — for the sake of Ukraine’s recovery, if diplomacy works as quickly as possible, and for the sake of strengthening our defense, if we have to work longer to end the war due to our partners’ delays,” Zelensky recently wrote on Telegram, looking ahead to 2026.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 16:40

Iran Believes Trump Readying To Attack Again, Admits Precarious ‘Survival Mode’

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Iran Believes Trump Readying To Attack Again, Admits Precarious ‘Survival Mode’

Three Iranian officials have told Reuters that Tehran leadership believes the United States or Israel may take military action against the Islamic Republic soon, coming off the heels of the US intervention to remove Venezuela’s Maduro.

There are reports of Iranian ’emergency meetings’ of top leadership to examining options for self-defense, and the country overnight engaged in fresh ballistic missile drills to signal its preparedness. 

Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters

The NY Times has separately cited Iranian officials who view the country as being in “survival mode” – amid a week of economic protests driven largely by the impact of US sanctions: currency collapse and soaring prices.

The past two years has seen Hezbollah leadership decimated, Assad removed in Syria, and now Iran-ally Maduro taken out – he’s now facing federal charges in a New York court. 

Islamic Republic leadership is fully aware that it remains in a very delicate position:

Ali Gholhaki, a hard-line pundit in Iran, said in a phone interview that the dire state of the economy had played a central role in the downfall of the leaders in both Venezuela and Syria, creating a maelstrom of public discontent and dispirited security forces. “The lesson for Iran is that we must be extremely careful that the same scenario does not happen here,” Mr. Gholhaki said. “When the anti-riot police, security forces and the military are struggling for their livelihood, the defense lines collapse.”

The large-scale internal protests come at the worst possible time, the NY Times continues:

The three officials said that as the protests raged, senior officials in private meetings and conversations had acknowledged that the Islamic Republic had been thrust into survival mode. Officials appear to have few tools at their disposal to deal with either the pressing challenges of a tanking economy fueling unrest or the threat of further conflict with Israel and the United States. President Masoud Pezeshkian has repeatedly said as much publicly in recent weeks, at one point announcing that he had “no ideas” for solving Iran’s many problems.

“Any policy in the society that is unjust is doomed to fail,” Mr. Pezeshkian said in a speech on Thursday, his first public address since the protests began. “Accept that we must listen to the people.”

While at least a dozen people have died amid clashes with police (including at least one security forces member), the ongoing protests still aren’t as big as the 2022 wave.

But Iran also has to always be on the lookout for subversion from the outside, as even Israeli media has increasingly acknowledged…

Mossad has long acknowledged that it has many assets inside Iran, and already Israeli officials have expressed that they ‘stand with’ the Iranian people. Of course, even the protesters themselves are wary of being coopted by outside intelligence. And then there’s the professional activists and subversives of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) – which is believed to frequently coordinate action with the Israelis and Americans.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/05/2026 – 15:45