Sat, Jan 3, 2026

The year is three days old, and a pressure campaign has turned into a removal operation.

Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been "captured and flown out" of the country. Residents in Caracas reported explosions and low-flying aircraft overnight. Yesterday, the administration struck a dock. Today, it claimed the head of state. The US has removed the obstacle. Now, it owns the power vacuum.

In Silicon Valley, the removal process is broken. xAI’s Grok is facing a reckoning in Europe after reports that the model generated sexualized images of minors. French prosecutors called the content "manifestly illegal." The company’s defense was a hallucination: Grok cited the "ENFORCE Act of 2025" as governing law. That law does not exist. It passed the Senate but never the House. The AI invented a statute to justify its own output.

While the US legal system is slow, others are not. The real risk for Elon Musk isn't a Washington subpoena. It's a New Delhi arrest warrant. India warned platforms that "responsible officers" will be held liable for non-compliance. Musk is safe in San Francisco, but as the CEO of a technology that churns out sexual abuse material, his travel itinerary just became complicated.

Musk will add this to his pile of lawsuits and mounting regulatory pressure, highlighted by a recent €120 million EU fine under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

In Omaha, the transition of power was handled with trust. Warren Buffett officially handed the reins of Berkshire Hathaway to Greg Abel, a designated successor for over four years.

"There's no secret formula that only CEOs have," Buffett said yesterday. "I'd rather have Greg handling my money than any of the top investment advisors or any of the top CEOs in the United States. He knows business."

Wall Street closed on Friday unaware of the weekend’s extraction. Stocks finished the week higher, pricing in a world that no longer exists. The hint at the price of regime change arrives Sunday night when oil futures open.

Domestically, the courts are widening the lane for conflict. A federal appeals court ruled against California’s open-carry ban, stating the law violated the Second Amendment.

Power left the building in three different ways this weekend. Buffett walked out. Grok is being shamed out. Maduro was flown out.

The market closed Friday pricing in the walk. It opens Monday pricing in the void.